They say you are what you eat.

In which case, some people are toxic pufferfish liver. Others are a turkey head sewn onto a pig's butt.

Food is everything to us: life, culture, and community. For millennia we've put all kinds of things in our mouths, some of them deadly, some which seem - to modern eyes and ears - uh, questionable?

Today, as we dig, Jolts & Zing ask:

• What celebrity fad diet did Lord Byron introduce?
• What disgusting meal do George Washington and Warner Herzog have in common?
• Why did Fidel Castro breed a super cow?

Open wide! Here comes the plane! Full of wild weird food. Let's Get Shocked!

REFERENCES

• Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle
• Historic Kitchens at Hampton Palace - Recipes Reference
• Survivor, Season 10 Episode 8: Neanderthal Man, in which they eat Balut.

Created, researched and performed by Daniel Berger-Jones and John J King.

Produced and edited by Kenneth Fuentes, Daniel Berger-Jones, and John J King.

Victorians ate mummies.

Let me say it again: Victorians. Ate Mummies. For Medicine.

Many kept it around like aspirin.

Today, as we dig up a long-buried secret from our past, Jolts & Zing ask:

• Which King not only took mummy ashes for his health, but patented his very own medicine including the substance?
• Which canonical painter(s) used a special pigment - dubbed 'Mummy Brown' - mixed with actual mummified remains.
• Why, god, why, did Europeans start grinding thousand-year-old mummies to eat, snort, mix as a plaster, for their health?

Lay back, relax your mind, and let's explore all your Mummy Issues. Let's Get Shocked!

Created, researched and performed by Daniel Berger-Jones and John J King.

Produced and edited by Kenneth Fuentes.

The gods give us life. And we must give them life in return.

Specifically in the form of blood, tears, and hearts carved from willing donors.

Ah, the circle of life.

Nearly every ancient culture has their local version of the blood sacrifice to their gods. But the Aztecs created a ritual of passion, spectacle, and gore that goes unmatched.

Today, as we cut to the heart of MesoAmerican Blood Sacrifice, Jolts and Zing learn:

• How the Aztecs mastered the art of removing a heart - while it still beat.
• What Spanish invaders thought about the local blood sacrifices (and the style of blood sacrifice European Catholics preferred).
• What noble martyrs tasted like...to the gods who drank their blood.

Created, researched and performed by Daniel Berger-Jones and John J King.

Produced and edited by Kenneth Fuentes.