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PODCAST

The Brain Candy Podcast

Susie Meister PhD & Sarah Rice AMFT

Laugh and learn with Susie Meister PhD & Sarah Rice MFT from MTV"s The Challenge as they cover psychology, pop culture, human interest, and science, and make everything from The Kardashians to quantum physics accessible to all.

society & culture

All Episodes

01:04:04

910: Flow State, Sperm Racing, & Balloon Boy

The Brain Candy Podcast ·

2025/05/08

Susie is sharing a tragic tale of why her dancing at the gay wedding was cut short. They also had a peek at each other's sacral dimples and will update you about their size, scope, and scale. Is bigger better? Find out. Susie watched a documentary about songwriting and they discuss the mystery and wonder of the "flow state," what we think causes inspiration, and why it's so curious. We learn about an unhoused person who won the California lottery, and while we're happy for him, Susie is a little

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00:57:58

909: Fair Play, Space Lies, & NFT Nonsense

The Brain Candy Podcast ·

2025/05/05

We are still riding the high of officiating a gay wedding because it was EPIC! We'll never top it. Congrats to Tyler and Timmi! Sarah is super into Crypto all of a sudden, well, not really, but she is understanding why artists saw potential in the NFT trend. We discuss the new Academy Award rule that mandates people watch the movies before voting, which, uh duh, but also Susie gets crabby about how actors think they're doing way more important work than they are, and we go off on one about how

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00:56:18

908: Animal Sounds, Ladies in Space, & Alien Abduction

The Brain Candy Podcast ·

2025/04/28

We hear why Sarah is starting to get messages from people from "beyond the grave." We discuss animal sounds and how people around the world imitate animals through onomatopoeia, and why they're all different. We're mad about the ladies that went to space and acted like morons. We debate whether a man who got stolen casino chips should be able to cash them out. We get an update on the family who accidentally ended up with 52 octopuses, and it offers insight about the dangers of virality. We think

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01:01:39

907: Pop the Balloon, Greed & Gold, & Sock Sniffer

The Brain Candy Podcast ·

2025/04/24

Johnny Bananas is up to his old tricks (and we do mean OLD) on the Netflix *live* dating game, Pop the Balloon, where he may or may not have been accused of racism, but either way he was giving extreme creepy uncle cringe vibes. We follow-up on our discussion on the Gold & Greed documentary on the treasure hunt that cost some people their lives and caused many controversies over a decade. Sarah describes the Bad Influence docuseries about a group of child influencers, the parent who exploited

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01:08:20

906: Treasure Hunt, Lucky Lady, & the Tyranny of...

The Brain Candy Podcast ·

2025/04/21

Susie is pumped about a new documentary about a treasure hunt, and we realize we've been on the air so long that we've covered this hunt's beginning, its controversies, the treasure's discovery (???), and now the doc. We learn why it tells us a lot about human psychology, passion, addiction, celebrity, risk-taking, and more. We discuss scholarship on luck, and why sociologists tend to ignore it. We debate whether there even is "luck," why Sarah thinks she's lucky, and how a lot of it is perspective

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01:06:44

905: Sarah on the Spectrum, Cancelling Einstein, &...

The Brain Candy Podcast ·

2025/04/17

Nobody ever tells you that aging is mostly just getting weird things on your body that you may or may not have to worry about. And this is officially an old lady podcast. Sarah is obsessed with Love on the Spectrum and she explains why the people on the show are so adorable and why we wish neurotypical dating was this good. Susie thinks Sarah might be on the spectrum, so we're considering whether she fits the bill. We think we might want to cancel Einstein, which is a real bummer because he was one

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01:03:25

904: Bed Monster, Hooters Hypocrisy, & Paddington...

The Brain Candy Podcast ·

2025/04/14

Susie shares a horrifying story about a babysitter who had to fight off a real monster. We talk about why kids should never be the butt of any joke and we want anyone who is mean to a kid to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Susie is mourning the death of Hooters, but Sarah is not sad one bit. We discuss the history of the franchise, why they ended up failing despite the ironclad business model (boobs), and where we think their employees should work instead. We discuss the Gilgo Beach

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01:03:07

903: Walk of Fame, Dance Psychology, & Ikea Furniture

The Brain Candy Podcast ·

2025/04/10

We recorded on April Fool's Day, so we had to complain about pranks and prankers who commit them. But Susie thinks Sarah is a prank enabler. We discuss a large cluster of people in a small town who contracted ALS, and we learn what might be causing it. Sarah explains how a person gets a star on the Walk of Fame and why it's not on merit alone. But we are enraged about one particular star, and how it desecrates the whole Walk. We learn why women are always marrying "down" these days at least on one

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00:59:42

902: OCD Miracle, Hot Old People, & Box Demon

The Brain Candy Podcast ·

2025/04/07

Susie had a crazy celebrity encounter in LA, and it made her year. We learn how one man's OCD was cured through a violent act, and what it can teach us about the disorder. We find out whether old people find other old people attractive, and Susie thinks it says something about self-esteem. We talk about how language is changing because of the internet, why we all speak more similarly now, but the changes happen more rapidly. We discuss a man who was "terrorizing" a town, but really it was probably

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01:01:56

901: Goose Poop Discovery, Gorilla Food Dance, &...

The Brain Candy Podcast ·

2025/04/03

We have a very special guest with us today! We brought in our old pal, Tiffany who was Kathy Griffin's assistant and star of "My Life on the D List!" We were psyched! We found out if she's a saccral sister too. We learn how a little girl completed a science project and made a wild discovery about goose poop. We find out why an art gallery got raided recently, and we're annoyed. Sarah explains why the more we access a memory the older the memory seems. We learn why some people like to do a little

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01:07:46

900: Cheeto Charizard, Gene Hackman, Munchausen by...

The Brain Candy Podcast ·

2025/03/27

Sarah's under the weather, but we can't let it get in the way of our 900th episode celebration! Susie tells us that a rare Charizard hit the market, and it's a Cheeto. We're pretty psyched about it, but not as psyched as whatever fool paid $90K for it. There's still time to bid on the Cheeto that looks like the Air Jordan logo though, so don't sleep on that. Susie is obsessed with the Gene Hackman death mystery and how it had the wildest ending imaginable--perfect for a movie...just saying. Sarah is

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01:04:33

899: Body Braille, Parasitic Twin, & Eyeball Teeth

The Brain Candy Podcast ·

2025/03/24

Episode 899 is wild! And we think it bodes well for the 900s coming up. We start with a crazy thread online about whether one could hypothetically read braille with their clitoris (shoutout to the Vagina Museum), and we learn the insane reason doctors miscounted the number of nerve-endings in them. Susie discusses the latest shocking death penalty execution because the prisoner chose death by firing squad, and we learn the protocol for the process (it's so disturbing!). A teen in India had a

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00:52:32

898: Challenge Insecurity, Pathological Liars, &...

The Brain Candy Podcast ·

2025/03/20

Sarah roped Susie into watching Love is Blind and now they have to talk about it (even though Susie is mad about it). We discuss the particular hellscape that is a reality tv reunion and the trauma it provides. We discuss why bangs are never the answer and you should never get a tattoo when you're in the throes of life's worst moments. Sarah talks about Belle Gibson who became a successful influencer, cookbook author, and lifestyle blogger based on a lie that she had terminal cancer she was treating

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01:02:08

897: Air Travel Trauma, Reality TV Inflation, &...

The Brain Candy Podcast ·

2025/03/17

We hear why Susie is working overtime as a mom, but she has faith for a better boy. We discuss the woman who died on an airplane and the flight crew strapped her into a seat next to (living) passengers, and Sarah explains why it was traumatic. Susie talks about how scientists are tracking the age of birds' nests and how they found one that is lasting the test of time, thanks to garbage. We get annoyed about clickbait articles that reported the latest "science" on black kitchen tools, but didn't

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01:02:23

896: Testosterone, Nellie Bly, & Gays Gaze

The Brain Candy Podcast ·

2025/03/13

Sarah got her meds adjusted and she is riding the high of that sweet testosterone that is making her feel some kind of way. All of the sudden she isn't so judgy towards men. What's up with that??? We hear about the amazing investigative journalist that blew the lid of off of mistreatment for mentally ill patients and people unfairly placed into mental hospitals in the 1800s. Pittsburgh's own Nellie Bly is our badass bitch of the week with her moxie, courage, and fortitude, and we are hoping for more

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01:06:59

895: Girth Growth, Strippers in Heat, & Therapy Clothes

The Brain Candy Podcast ·

2025/03/10

Welp, dudes are getting fillers now, but it's in a different area than women. They're getting their packages pumped up, and we have some questions for the fellas who are shelling out thousands of dollars for more girth, bigger scrotums, and larger resting packages. Susie talks about the Luther Vandross documentary and the tragedy of being famous for romance when your own love life isn't working out. We revisit a study on strippers that claims our menstrual cycles demonstrate a period of "heat" and

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00:59:41

894: Love is Blind, Jack the Ripper, & Busy Beavers

The Brain Candy Podcast ·

2025/03/06

It's Sarah's birthday party, and we are happy to celebrate this amazing woman! She is talking about her reality tv obsession, Love is Blind, and why the show feels ethical while also shocking enough to make great tv. We hear how the Jack the Ripper serial murder case has finally been solved over 100 years after it happened, and why the detectives got so close, but never finished the job until now. We discuss a dilemma in the Czech Republic that required a dam being built to handle a waterway issue,

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01:06:28

893: Gen Z Lower Case, Brain Break, & Black Genius

The Brain Candy Podcast ·

2025/03/03

Sarah is having another medical situation, and this time Susie is blaming all of her wild outlaw habits lately. Susie explains why Gen Z insists on using all lower case letters, and we're wondering if the kids are alright. We discuss the Surviving Black Hawk Down documentary, and the ways the government, society, and media paint a picture of the United States as the "good guy," but often it's just a matter of perspective. We talk about a brain surgeon who describes the ways our brains lie to us

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00:56:12

892: Telepathy Tapes, Monopoly Theft, & Purple Lies

The Brain Candy Podcast ·

2025/02/27

Today we're preparing for Sarah's 40th birthday even though she just turned 39. We're going to give ourselves the gift of affordable healthcare for her milestone birthday (and maybe a head to toe spa situation). Susie thinks she is slowly morphing into that annoying tech bro who is trying to live forever. We discuss our fantasies of doing roller derby despite Susie's questionable roller skating training and Sarah's inability to do anything but rollerblade. We revisit the origin story of Monopoly,

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00:58:54

891: Barkley's Marathon, Monkey Business, &...

The Brain Candy Podcast ·

2025/02/24

Susie's mad at people for how they talk about a common ailment, so we're debating the origins of this odd phrase. We learn about the hardest ultramarathon in the world, the crazy rules around it, and how a woman finally completed it after a 37 year run of only male finishers. A monkey turned off the power in all of Sri Lanka, and it made us realize how tenuous everything really is. We're debating shoes on or off in the house again, and Susie is not budging. We learn why handedness is so mysterious

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952 results

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