Have you ever thought much about time travel, like on your own, beyond what's in movies, TV, or books?

For me, I've often daydreamed about going back in time. Of course I have. I'm a history guy.

But also, wouldn't it be amazing to become some worship celebrity genius

just because you brought back with you some ordinary modern idea like germ theory, the concept of

zero. Even double-entry bookkeeping would have been transformative. But then there's the trouble of,

A, avoiding being burned at the stake for witchcraft, and B, actually communicating

the idea. These concepts seem pretty basic to us, but they often rely on enormous amounts

of surrounding contexts that would be missing. And if you go far enough back, you're going to have

real trouble with the language, too. Not only will it be foreign, but the entire mode of thinking might be different. It'd be like

talking to aliens. Same thing for traveling forward in time. Set your time machine to the year 10,026,

and do you really think you'd be able to have a conversation with whatever human hybrid AI

cyborg creatures living in? But this is a real problem that real people are trying to solve

because there are some things we need to tell these human hybrid AI cyborg creatures

like, hey, this whole area here?

Yeah, it's a radioactive waste dump.

Stay away.

That's the conundrum being investigated on today's Saturday matinee in an episode from the podcast, American Hysteria.

And I hope you enjoy.

While you're listening, be sure to search for and follow American Hysteria.

We put a link in the show notes to make it easy for you.

On this podcast, we explore fantastical thinking, moral panics, urban legends, conspiracy theories, hoaxes, and crazes, examine the forces that shape our culture, and tell the stories that create the realities we share, and sometimes the realities we don't. I'm your host, Chelsea Weber-Smith,

and this is American hysteria. We are accustomed in this country to act only in times of crisis, but with nuclear waste,

...