heretics.

Popular science writer, journalist and Yale University Professor of molecular biophysics and biochemistry Carl Zimmer is joining me to finally answer the late Beatle George Harrison's question: what is life.  Sign up on Apple Podcasts or http://patreon.com/andrewgold for the bonus bits. Prof. Carl Zimmer links: http://carlzimmer.com https://twitter.com/carlzimmer Life's Edge book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08QJM2CJY/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1 Andrew Gold links: http://youtube.com/andrewgold1 http://instagram.com/andrewgold_ok http://twitter.com/andrewgold_ok http://andrewgoldpodcast.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you ever wondered if your furry friend might be partial to a beer or two? Did you know that koalas smoked pipes and dolphins get high on pufferfish? Here to tell us all about the weird and wonderful world of intoxicated animals and humans too is Oné Pagan, a university professor and researcher with a PHD in Pharmacology with an emphasis on Neurobiology from Cornell University. Sign up on Apple Podcasts or http://patreon.com/andrewgold for the half-hour bonus chat. Like how the episode sounded? Get an MV7 just like mine here: https://shu.re/ontheedge-mv7. Receive 20% off anything from their website with the code ONTHEEDGE20. Oné Pagán links: https://twitter.com/Baldscientist http://baldscientist.com/ (official website) https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg25233610-500-what-intoxicated-animals-can-teach-us-about-our-vices/ (New Scientist Article) https://www.amazon.com/Drunk-Flies-Stoned-Dolphins-Intoxication/dp/1950665372 (Drunk Flies and Stoned Dolphins book!) Andrew Gold links: http://youtube.com/andrewgold1 http://instagram.com/andrewgold_ok http://twitter.com/andrewgold_ok http://andrewgoldpodcast.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

William Costello is a writer and an academic in the field of Evolutionary Psychology who has specialised in incel culture and things like beauty and attraction. He's also a lovely, charming man, a great laugh and really informative. Sign up on Apple Podcasts or http://patreon.com/andrewgold for the half-hour bonus chat. Like how the episode sounded? Get an MV7 just like mine here: https://shu.re/ontheedge-mv7. Receive 20% off anything from their website with the code ONTHEEDGE20. William Costello links: https://twitter.com/CostelloWilliam https://william05227.wixsite.com/website (official website) https://twitter.com/costellowilliam/status/1463139125935198215? (do his survey on how to be attractive!) Andrew Gold links: http://youtube.com/andrewgold1 http://instagram.com/andrewgold_ok http://twitter.com/andrewgold_ok http://andrewgoldpodcast.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nafees Hamid talks about what makes people into terrorists and other forms of extremists…and how we might be able to persuade them or talk them down. He is a research fellow at ARTIS International, an associate fellow at the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism – The Hague, and a Frederick Bonnart-Braunthal Trust scholar in the University College London's Department of Security and Crime Science. Watch my follow-up interview later that night as host of the Shaun Attwood show: https://youtu.be/LqFj9ig657Q. Nafees Hamid Socials: Twitter: @NafeesHamid Instagram: nafees_hamid_ Videos: NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/02/opinion/domestic-terrorism-jihadists.html Netflix (S2E6): https://www.netflix.com/title/81098586 Articles: The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/the-neuroscience-of-terrorism-how-we-convinced-a-group-of-radicals-to-let-us-scan-their-brains-114855 NYRB: https://www.nybooks.com/contributors/nafees-hamid/ Andrew Gold links: http://youtube.com/andrewgold1 http://instagram.com/andrewgold_ok http://twitter.com/andrewgold_ok http://andrewgoldpodcast.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kelly Thiel was once a member of the notorious NXIVM cult. For those of you who – like me – don’t or didn’t know much about this sect, you’re in for a bit of a shock – not least in how that bunch of capital letters are supposed to be pronounced. But I’ll let Kelly explain that part. The cult was on the surface a multi-level marketing group that had various levels of memberships. Its members would learn a lot about self-help stuff, such as how to find purpose and be happy. Its methods were said to have been somewhere between those of Tony Robbins and the cult of Scientology, and there was even some stuff about going back to your childhood or past lives. Sign up on Apple VIP or http://patreon.com/andrewgold for the half-hour bonus chat. Kelly Thiel links: https://www.instagram.com/thekellythiel/ https://kellythiel.com  Andrew Gold links: http://youtube.com/andrewgold1 http://instagram.com/andrewgold_ok http://twitter.com/andrewgold_ok http://andrewgoldpodcast.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s guest is Hassan al-Kontar, an absolute gem of a person who found himself in one of the most unique and unusual positions imaginable: living in an airport for seven months. As a Syrian refugee, Hassan had been working in the United Arab Emirates, when civil war broke out in Syria. Refusing to return there to join the Syrian military (knowing he might be arrested upon arrival), he stayed abroad, and Hassan’s passport renewal was later denied, leaving him stranded in Kuala Lumpar International Airport in Malaysia. Sign up on Apple VIP or http://patreon.com/andrewgold for the half-hour bonus chat. Hassan Al Kontar links: https://www.instagram.com/kontar_81 https://twitter.com/Kontar81 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Man-Airport-Social-Life-One-Syrians-ebook/dp/B094YLT5FF Andrew Gold links: http://youtube.com/andrewgold1 http://instagram.com/andrewgold_ok http://twitter.com/andrewgold_ok http://andrewgoldpodcast.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why do we like to suffer? Canadian-American Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science Paul Bloom believes he has the answer. Or at least, some of the answers to what is a profound and complex question. In his book The Sweet Spot: The Pleasures of Suffering and the Search for Meaning, he explores exactly that – that Goldilocks point just between too much suffering – such as with last week’s guest, Guantanamo’s most tortured prisoner Mohamedou Ould Salahi – and a life without enough self-imposed suffering. Sign up on Apple VIP or http://patreon.com/andrewgold for the half-hour bonus chat. Prof Paul Bloom links: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sweet-Spot-Pleasures-Suffering-Meaning/dp/0062910566 https://twitter.com/paulbloomatyale https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Bloom_(psychologist) https://paulbloom.net Andrew Gold links: http://youtube.com/andrewgold1 http://instagram.com/andrewgold_ok http://twitter.com/andrewgold_ok http://andrewgoldpodcast.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, we’ve got a classic On the Edge interviewee, in the form of Mohamedou Ould Salahi, who was detained in Guantanamo Bay for 14 years and is considered by some to be Guantanamo’s most tortured prisoner. Raised in the African country of Mauritania, before moving to Germany, Mohamedou was suspected of having links to terrorism after 9/11. Sign up on Apple VIP or http://patreon.com/andrewgold for the half-hour bonus chat. Mohamedou Ould Salahi links: https://twitter.com/MohamedouOuld https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohamedou_Ould_Salahi http://guantanamodiary.com/ Andrew Gold links: http://youtube.com/andrewgold1 http://instagram.com/andrewgold_ok http://twitter.com/andrewgold_ok http://andrewgoldpodcast.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In our final installment of the three Halloween Specials, Dr. Sohom Das takes us into the mind of the Broadmoor Cannibal, Peter Bryan. Dr. Sohom Das links: A Psych for Sore Minds YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CU2T2mo13y0&ab_channel=APsychForSoreMinds http://www.drdas.co.uk https://twitter.com/Dr_S_Das Andrew Gold links: http://youtube.com/andrewgold1 http://instagram.com/andrewgold_ok http://twitter.com/andrewgold_ok http://andrewgoldpodcast.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the second episode of our Halloween trilogy, Dr. Sohom Das explains what really went on in the minds of  Swedish twin sisters Ursula and Sabina Eriksson, who terrified motorists, before one of them killed a man. Dr. Sohom Das links: A Psych for Sore Minds YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CU2T2mo13y0&ab_channel=APsychForSoreMinds http://www.drdas.co.uk https://twitter.com/Dr_S_Das Andrew Gold links: http://youtube.com/andrewgold1 http://instagram.com/andrewgold_ok http://twitter.com/andrewgold_ok http://andrewgoldpodcast.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices