It's Monday, August 7th, 2017, and you're listening to Inquiring Minds. I'm Indravis Gantus.

And I'm Kishore Hari. Each week, we bring you a new, in-depth exploration of the space where science, politics, and society collide.

We endeavor to find out what's true, what's left to discover, and why it all matters.

You can find us online at inquiring. show on Twitter at Inquiring Show and on Facebook.

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That music means only one thing.

It's Game of Thrones season.

Oh my God, where's my popcorn and big glass of red wine?

So for a warning to our listeners, we're going to be talking a lot about Game of Thrones during this episode.

So if you haven't watched the past few seasons, we're going to definitely touch on

topics that you might consider a spoiler or two. Indra, have you caught up on your Game of Thrones?

No, I like to wait for the entire season to be finished so that I can binge watch, because waiting a

week is just like total torture. But are you a fan of this, you know, incredibly dynamic medieval

catastrophe? So I don't know if you can have a bigger fan of Game of Thrones than me. I reread the

books before each season, all of them before each season comes out. Oh my goodness. So have you

thought about Game of Thrones in a science context before?

I have. In fact, I did an interview with Sam Keen in 2014 right at the beginning of the show,

and I wrote an article from Mother Jones talking about the neuroscience of Hodor, whom, you know,

...