In this episode, Steve and Mal ruminate about threats and a panoply of possible human responses. Whether it’s a bear or too many emails you’re facing down, isn’t it nice to know you have options?
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Show notes:
Fight, flight, freeze or fawn: a nice article (of many articles) on these types of responses to stress or trauma can be found at https://www.health.com/fight-flight-freeze-fawn-8348342.
An audio recording of a 1966 interview of Jiddu Krishnamurti by Dusty Sklar (Steve’s mom and Mal’s grandma) can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3DPXumv7Ao&list=PLnswto8tEmsIAi1czIgexMH7Nki5U9kPk&index=1.
Gods and Beasts: The Nazis and the Occult, a book of nonfiction (not a novel) by Dusty Sklar, was first published by Thomas Y. Crowell in 1977. It chronicles the role played by occultism in the development of the Nazi Party, and towards the end of the book draws some parallels between occult Nazi beliefs and the postulates of modern-day cult groups. One of those groups took the comparison amiss and sued Dusty and her publisher for millions of dollars. The court deciding the case threw out the suit, dismissing the complaint on summary judgement.
A really nice ahticle (and recawding) on Rhode Island accents can be found at https://www.providencejournal.com/story/news/local/2025/05/22/what-is-the-rhode-island-accent-how-does-it-compare-with-boston-or-new-york-city/82541973007/.
“Stay gold(en), Ponyboy.” At the end of Francis Ford Coppola’s 1983 film The Outsiders (based on the S.E. Hinton novel of the same name), the character Jonny Cade (played by Ralph Macchio), as he is dying, says to the character Ponyboy Curtis (played by C. Thomas Howell), “Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold.” As it happens, and not merely on account of Mal’s frankly hilarious invocation of the phrase in this Ep. and the emotionality of that iconic scene itself, Steve feels a connection to this cinematic moment. That’s because C. Thomas Howell is the son of Chuck Howell, whom Steve remembers as the macho, strutting stunt coordinator on none other than Amityville 3-D, a film on which, as listeners by now hardly need to be reminded, Steve worked as Production Assistant.
Small world, Ponyboy. Small world.
And speaking of discomfort tolerance, a workbook on developing distress tolerance, provided by the Western Australia Centre for Clinical Interventions, can be found at https://www.cci.health.wa.gov.au/resources/looking-after-yourself/tolerating-distress#MainContent for those in the market for more than the, let’s face it, considerable amount of help on that subject that is provided in this episode.