Lucy & Sam's Perfect Brains - Ep 13: The Yin and of course The Yang

Episode Date: June 21, 2024

Lucy and Sam get mesmerised by one of ancient philosophy’s most chilled-out symbols. Don’t believe us? See for yourself at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yin_and_yang#/media/File:Yin_and_Yang_symbol.svg Recorded and edited by Ben Williams for Plosive.  Artwork by Sam Campbell. Theme music by Paul Williams and Sam Campbell. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ACAS powers the world's best podcasts. Here's a show that we recommend. Nature. I've got a gay rooster named Francois. Is so gay. These rams are gay. I'm studying gay animals. Does that mean I'm gay? So why don't more people know this? I'm Owen Ever. I'm Layne Kaplan-Levinson. And this is a Field Guide to Gay Animals. A podcast about queerness in the natural world. The animal kingdom is queer and we are a part. Find a Field Guide to Gay Animals on Spotify, Apple, and monetize their podcasts everywhere. Acast.com.

Warning. On this episode of Lucy and Sam's Perfect Brains, they speak at length about the yin-yang symbol. Yes, this is a very powerful symbol. We advise that you print out a copy of the yin-yang symbol and stare closely at it while you listen to their discussion. Do not print A4, please. It has to be A3, it has to be.

If you accidentally look away or blink, you must start over the episode again from the beginning. Thank you, and remember to keep studying the symbols that mankind has created. He was on a cross, the Holy Spirit is the name of the game, is Lucy and Sam's perfect brains. One, two, three, four, five, six. Oh, I've got nothing but love for the boys from above. Hello. Oh, hi Sam. We're gonna get, fix our posture.

Yeah, I cannot stand to see any more of those videos of us. Hunched over. I've never looked so horrific as I have on those, some of the angles. Although I will say this, what about some people and their posture is too good? I see some people walking around, it's like, we get it. You've got an amazing spine. Yeah, no, you are right. But some people can't slouch.

Really? They're unable to slouch. They wish they could. Yeah, no one talks about these people that wish they're craving a slouch. Yeah, I used to not slouch, but I've had to teach myself to do it. And why did you teach yourself to slouch?

Just because everyone else did, I didn't want to be left out. I didn't really like pot noodles, but I've made myself like them. You forced, and how did you do that? Was it sort of one noodle a day or how did you slowly introduce pot noodles into your life? No, I just told myself that they are nice. Oh wow. Who are these people who are forcing you to eat pot noodles and slouch? Northern England. It's to do with your car. It's not really to do with your spine. If your core is weak, you won't sit up straight.

I'm so ignorant. I didn't even know. Where's the core? The core is your stomach, in your stomach. So is the belly button the core's window? Where is the core? The core is all of your torso. Oh, so it's quite big, the core. Yeah. And it's your inner core muscles that would, because they support your spine. My spine needs support, my spine needs to join a men's shed. So if you tent your stomach muscles in, like push your belly button into your spine, did you see you naturally sit up straight?

Is that good? I feel like that's strange. Yeah he's straight, you don't look very approachable. No. You were more approach very approachable. No. You were more approachable when you were slouching. It's just, you're not likable. No one's likable when they're doing the right thing, are they? I don't think people with good posture are likable, wandering around, strutting about. No. And they look weird when they run as well.

When they run and they're up straight. You get some, I've only ever seen, I don't know. I've never seen anyone run who's got like other just got a normal running style. You only ever see people in public that run bizarrely. Yeah. People do have strange styles. Like they're not moving their arms or they're moving them a hell of a lot too much. Yeah.

Weird. And I like people who have got the headphones in while they're running, like they're listening to whatever, you know, some pump up music, but we can't hear that. So they run past going, I don't, I don't really think you should be allowed to exercise in public. Yeah, we don't want to see it. And you know what upsets me more than anything that maybe upsets me

more than cruelty to animals is gyms like where the windows where they've faced all the running machines and bikes out to windows. So they're looking out on like a motorway and then the people like they're running but they're not getting anywhere and they've been put on display. And I find that really weird. Yeah. I just don't get it. What's that? What are the rules? What's the rules with that?

Cause I sometimes will walk past a building like that where they're, and are you allowed to look at the people running on the machines? I find them quite mesmerizing. Oh, do you? It's cause they're still like their head is still but their body is in motion. I find them like quiet.

I can't really tear myself away. And they shoo me. They go, go, go. Stop. And I just can't stop. I can't really tear myself away. And they shoo me, they go, go, go, stop. And I just can't stop. I'm just there sort of. Not licking the windows, but certainly touching them, certainly making shapes with my hands. Today we have chosen to discuss sort of in depth one of the most popular symbols. Should I say the first part of it and you finish it off? Would that sort of make sense?

That's a good idea. Okay. Ying. Yang. That's right. I wouldn't say people have been crying out for it, but we will be discussing the... What about our favorites? Well, I don't know, I can only speak for myself.

One of my favorite symbols, the yin yang symbol. Is it the most famous symbol in the world? That's my question to you, Sam. I think the three big ones are the love symbol, love heart, peace, the symbol of peace, and yeah yin yang. This is a fascinating symbol. And when I was a child, because I grew up in the 90s, I was born in 83, that yin-yang was everywhere. You couldn't escape it. It was in every shop. There were some shops,

just yin-yang shops. Really? Yeah. Yeah. Everyone went big for yin-yang and poppers. And it was just a very different time. Kids, they weren't vaping, they were glue sniffing. Sniffing glue and looking at the yin yang symbol. So you'd sort of, you know, sneak out of school and just go and, yeah, sniff a big bucket of glue and just stare at the yin yang symbol.

No, I was too young for glue. I didn't. Oh, that's a shame. It was dying out. It was just everywhere. If you went past a park bench, there was a lad sniffing glue. And there weren't even heavy drug users.

It was just seen as the way kids will vape now, that's how people sniff glue. It was just something to do. It sounds worse than it was because it was so popular. Do you know what I mean? Like I hope like vaping in the future, they'll be like, oh my God, they vape, they vape. But it started with glue, I think.

I mean, they're trying to sort of ban vapes, aren't they? Rishi Sunak. But I think it's because he's quite a little guy and he's worried someone will think he's a vape and pick him up and suck on his head. But like, what's with all the like fruit flavors? Yeah, the flavors, I think that's just, oh, I mean, it's a real shame because I think people are not buying actual fruit.

They're sort of smoking their five a day. Wait, how many fruit are you supposed to have? Five vegetables. And hey, whoa, are there any vegetable vapes? No, this is, I went in a vape shop with a friend and I said to him, why are they all fruity? Like, why isn't there a meat pie one? Or like a chicken korma?

Why are they all savory? And it, do you know, it really took him back. And he was like, you're right. I don't know. And I was like, why don't you make some? To the guy in the vape shop. I was like, why don't you set up a business where you make some? To the guy in the vape shop. I was like, why don't you set up a business where you make savory? And he was like, oh, do you want to go into business with me? And I said, no,

God, no. You just see the idea and then you go on to sort of the next. Yeah, pass it on. What sort of flavor would, yeah, that's not a bad idea. Cheese and onion, roast beef. What do you think about the idea of all the vape users gathering somewhere to create a huge cloud, a huge plume? Oh wow, what like in a warehouse or something? Yeah, would you walk through the plume? Oh I would, yeah. You know like Maurice Stanson, that would go really well in a plume.

And with all the different flavours going on, it would sort of like, what, it would be like going to a buffet? I wanted to bring over hobby horse as an Olympic sport, but I like the idea of creating a plume. So is a hobby horse a stick with a horse's head on it? Yeah. And you pretend it's a real horse and you make it run and jump. I really think it should be part of the Olympics because there's nothing,

there's no creative sport in the Olympics. And I think it would really help some children. So you think that children should be in the Olympics? Like a wooden horse alive and making it go brrr and things like that. Do you have a hobby horse? Yes. Oh wow. Don't you?

I didn't know that. Don't you? I was really one, I got in touch with Deborah Meaden to ask her if she wanted to help me like bring like a hobby horse championship to this country. Yeah, it is the horse here and the animal that is depicted in the hobby family. Oh God, it is, but you've really got me thinking there. Because you're right, because it's not real. It doesn't have to be a horse.

It could be a pig or a chicken. We could have a hobby lizard. Oh my God. What's your feelings about the yin-yan symbol? I think they represent good and evil. But if you look very closely, if we really study this symbol, you will see small pools within each of the shapes. So if you're looking at the yin, you will notice, it's not, you might notice this, just look carefully. There

it is. There it is. There it is. There it is. Okay. Oh, there he is. There's a pool, a sort of, there is a splodge of yang within the yin. Look at the yang. There's a bit of yin in there. Yeah. So clever. That is such a nice touch because I think the symbol would still have grown in popularity if it didn't include elements of each other. Oh, I think it would still have done pretty well, but including those small puddles, those sort of remnants of each other within. I mean, that just that is why it has, I mean, I can see why it was sort of huge in the 90s and is still really quite a strong symbol. But why did it wait till the 90s to become fashionable? Because hasn't it been around like thousands of years? Yeah, I think so, but in the 90s is when we really needed it. Oh, why? I think before that good and evil were quite clear cut. Okay.

Do you know what I mean? Like you could just be like, well, that's good. Or you'd be like, well, that's really sinister. That is definitely an example of evil. But when we entered the 1990s and a lot of stuff that was going on at that time, we sort of needed reminders that good can be within evil and evil can be within good.

Yeah, to like appreciate everybody. Like, yeah, it's just such a good symbol. It's so clever. It's an incredible symbol. And I think it calms me because, well, if we could use maybe an example, have you ever dipped maybe some carrot sticks in a dip? So like, and if you've had a couple of dips on the go, so maybe if you've got like, I don't know, maybe a beetroot and dill dip, and you've also maybe got some

babaghanoush and suddenly you've like, you're going between the two and then you notice, oh, a bit of the sort of a bit of that beetroot dip has sort of contaminated the babaghanoush. Like, do you know when, do you know what I'm talking about here? Like, oh, I've got a bit of that dip in this dip and you can really panic. And then you remember, no, no, there is a tendency for things to invade each other. And that's okay. Do you know? That's just dips as an example. Are you someone who doesn't mind like bits and dips?

I don't have a problem with like crumbs in butter, like breadsticks in like cream cheese. Like I don't have a problem with it. I had a jar of honey and my daughter put, you know, Paw Patrol, the cartoon, she had this little plastic Paw Patrol figure and she put it in the honey and I just left it in there and never took it out. And every time I went to use the honey, I always thought you need to take that toy out of, you need to take the toy out of the honey. But I didn't, I just left it and kept putting the honey back. Almost like it's patrolling the honey, like a junkyard dog. In Chinese cosmology, the universe creates itself out of a primary chaos of material energy,

organized into the cycles of yin and yang and formed into objects. Yin is retractive, passive and receptive, while yang is active, repelling and expansive. The original meaning of the words being the north-facing shade and the south-facing brightness of a hill. Wow, that's beautiful.

What does that mean then? I like your dip theory. Also once sort of had damaged a wall of a property that I'd lived in and was hoping that the landlord maybe wouldn't notice that, but they sent through a bunch of sort of photos of the damage, but they'd also accidentally included a photo of them with a fish that they'd caught. Like I think they just sort of gathered a few files and, and, and, and thrown that in the, uh, in the email and somehow this one had also been included. Yeah.

I didn't get my bond back, but there was a huge fish. Acast powers the world's best podcasts. Here's a show that we recommend. Nature. I've got a gay rooster named Francois. Is so gay. These rams are gay. I'm studying gay animals. Does that mean I'm gay? So why don't more people know this? I'm Owen Ever. I'm Layne Kaplan-Levinson, and this is a Field Guide to Gay Animals. A podcast about queerness in the natural world. The animal kingdom is queer, and we are a part. Find a Field Guide to Gay Animals on Spotify, Apple,

or wherever you get your podcasts. A cast helps creators launch, grow and monetize their podcasts everywhere. Acast.com Do you remember the first time you saw a Yin-yang symbol and what it did to you? There was a big one when I learned karate for just for a spell. I remember there was a massive yin-yang symbol on the wall. Did you ever learn any martial arts? Just I went to one session and it was a thing called staff. And I've tried to describe this to people. And no one believes me, but I went with quite an unusual friend of my mum's and he said,

there's this like, um, shaman that's visiting Hull and he's teaching this one-off lesson of this ancient martial arts that they've tried to keep secret and it's used by some sort of like ancient cult and only so many people know the secrets and the positions, so it's a stick, you get given a stick and you basically learn how to kill a man with a stick, but in just a few moves and these moves that you use, like a based on ancient

rune stones and in five moves you've killed somebody. Wow, five moves with the stick. Yeah. Wow. So like some of it is to get them over your shoulder onto the floor. And so he said to me, you can kill any man. It doesn't matter that you're small.

And he showed me how to get a man over my back on the floor and snap his neck. Oh, right on. And do you still have it? So then do you just have to carry the stick around everywhere? They were his sticks. You had to give the sticks back. Have I ever told you about this guy I used to work for? No. I used to work for this guy in Australia and he ran a business. So do you know the game called Host a Murder?

Like a board game? No. It was a board game you could buy, I think it's from the 80s. It had Vincent Price on the front being like, play my little game. And it was a really complicated game that would take maybe four hours and with lots of booklets, it's all reading. So you'd be reading this out. But he had decided that this would make a good sort of business.

So he would sort of travel around for corporate events. So like for your end of year Christmas party, people would be like, oh, we'll do a host a murder night and we'll dress up. It'll be like the great Gatsby. It'll be a lot of fun. Little do they know it's this insane guy called who was obsessed with Fiji and he doesn't want to be running host to murder anymore. He wants to be selling ice cream in Fiji.

So he would turn up and make you play this board game for four hours and people just want to drink and hang it. It's your Christmas party, but he'd like play the game. And he lost heaps of the booklets. So people would be trying to play this game and he's like lost bits of it. And there was another one called barbecue with the vampires. That was like the kids version of the game. And sometimes some of those booklets would have got in the box.

So people would be playing the wrong game. And I used to accompany him, you know, like on these jobs. And yet it never ended well, not a single time. It always, no one ever finished the game. He'd have like a tantrum and would get out of there. Yeah. You're like, give me that back. Wow.

Yeah. And then he would sometimes go to Fiji. He wanted to start an ice cream. He was like, I'm bringing ice cream to Fiji. They must have ice cream in Fiji. Maybe they do. They surely do. But he wanted to make, yeah, he was obsessed with Fiji and you could win holidays. If you did well in the host of murder game, you could win a holiday to Fiji.

But that was bullshit. No one ever won or could even come close to winning. He said he nearly got married in Madagascar. He was so close to tying the knot, but then the father of the bride-to-be demanded a dowry of two cows and he just like didn't have any. Have you got a nice umbrella? No, there's a statistic that I think it's only something like 7% of the population own

an umbrella. It's just absolutely outrageous. Is that true? Yeah, it's like really low amount, but I just think you shouldn't be allowed to vote if you don't have an umbrella. Really? I was down, you know that really, like Bond Street, I think it was. No, Regent Street with all those really designer shops and that it was like torrential rain. I had an umbrella and I went into one of these and I was in Gucci

and I looked around and I was like, oh my God, I'm in the most expensive shop in the world. And there was a assistant following me around and I thought, oh, it's so mean because she just thinks you don't look like you shop in Gucci and she thinks I'm shoplifting. And she kept following me and going, excuse me like that. I thought, no, no, I'm going to, am I going to ignore it? So I kept moving away from her and she was like me and going, excuse me like that. I thought, no, no, I'm going to, am I going to ignore it? So I kept moving away from her and she was like almost like running after me. And she said, your umbrella's still up. You still got your umbrella up.

I had my umbrella still above my head. And that's the only thing she wanted to say. And I was so angry with her. I was fuming. I was like, what do you want? You thought you were going to have to come back in with Richard Gere. I thought it was a total, it was a total one of them moments. Which side of the Yi Gang symbol do you most relate to? Do you think you're a 90% angel, 10% devil or what?

I'm more drawn to the black side with the white circle. Really? What about you? I think I'm the opposite. I think I am mostly pure and mostly innocent, but there is a darkness in there. No, I'm definitely the other way around. Yeah. But I'm in that white circle.

Do you know what I mean? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're inside the, yeah. You've got to just jump in between them. I'm living in a very enclosed circle within a very dark atmosphere. Where is you, are you in the white bit or are you in the black bit?

I think I am mostly swimming around in that white bit, but then I certainly, every now and again, will be pushed by circumstances out of my control into the black swamp. But that feels healthy, doesn't it? Am I not in the good? I don't think I'm in the good. Am I in the bit where bad people go? No, no, no. That's the thing about the yin-yang symbol. It's so non-judgmental. Oh, is it? It sort of shows that it's like no one is purely evil and no one is purely good.

Apart from, you know, purely evil people. Oh, yeah, yeah. The purely evil people, they're awful. But they will have done, they will have wrote Christmas cards or something. They will have done something, won't they? Yeah. Oh, I bought HDMI cables from Jeff Bezos. I found that they have helped me out because they came so quickly. I wonder what he thinks of Ying. Do you think we could get him on the podcast?

No, no, we couldn't. Jeff Bezos? We'd get blowback if we had Jeff Bezos on. Yeah, but like we're close to booking Richard Osment. What if, so if we got Jeff Bezos on, hear me out, what if we got him on but we didn't let him talk? We just spoke to him. I think that could be good.

And if he doesn't speak, does anyone even need to know if it's Jeff Bezos or not? Oh, we could just get any bald man. We'll get my granddad. Yeah. Okay, any final words on the yin yang symbol? I don't think it's used enough anymore and I don't think we've really explored its power and intrigue and I think it needs to be back. I think it needs to be everywhere, especially on napkins.

I certainly agree and I think, I mean, we've got all these road signs with just numbers and stop and all this. What about the yin yang symbol, side of the road? Yeah, what does that mean? Like you can speed or you don't have to speed and some people who speed don't always speed. Is that what it would mean? I really like this. So we have another highway that's just got the yin yang symbol and you are allowed to do whatever you want. And I reckon people on that highway would sort it out. They'd be like the yin yang symbol. Yeah. And it's just all along there and it reminds you, you're like, you know, speed, but also let's be careful. Yeah, like turn right or don't turn right or turn

a little bit right. Turn right, but then turn left immediately. Like it'd be lovely. Like, and you all just have to get in sync with each other. Are there any adjustments or sort of improvements you think that could be made to the yin yang symbol? It's a bit black and white. I personally would put maybe like a frog or I don't know, like just something just to like make you go, whoa, because you look at it and you go, oh, but it'd be nice to like, oh, oh. Yeah, I totally agree. A splash of colour. A splash of colour and something, a picture inside. I don't know. Do you know what I mean? I just think it's a little bit, it's a bit dull.

And it's like yin yang. It's a bit like trying to include everybody. It is a bit up itself. Oh, the yin and the yang. And it's just trying to be everything to everyone, this symbol. Yeah, it doesn't offend anybody. itself. Oh, the yin and the yang. And it's just trying to be everything to everyone, this symbol. Yeah. It doesn't offend anybody. And I just think, well, most symbols do. Yeah. So I really like this. So we could use those portals that are in each, that are within the shapes, the two round moments. Maybe they could be side windows. So a frog in one.

Yeah. Maybe like one frog alone alone trying to feel happy with itself. And then another one with a gun. Yeah, that'll do it. Or maybe just like a flower. Maybe can it just have like petals? Petals around it? Yeah, the surrounding. Or we could have some really nice stuff.

There could be extensions. So I think it could have a nice body, like a beautiful like... Wow. Almost like the yin-yang symbol is the head and then it's got like a silver muscular body. Oh, that sounds lovely. I like that. Yeah. You know, Leica Mobile, have you ever seen their mascot? It's like a world and it's got, but he's got like a little green,

his head's the world and he's got like a green suit. Yeah, I have. I mean, I don't even know what Leica Mobile is. Maybe SIM cards? What do you think of the Compare the Meerkat ads, the wombat that sort of made his way in there? Does he piss you off? But why? Why would you change a good thing? Have people seen this? The Compare the Meerkats ad, they've added this wombat and he is a disgrace. He's just an oath. I know the guy who does the voice of the wombat and he's a good guy,

but next time I see him, I'm going to make an attempt on his life. Have you seen meerkats then? Yeah. I don't understand why they don't just stay inside. They're out there looking for predators constantly. They're like the easy, yeah, that's what they're like. They're constantly on the lookout and you're like, why don't you just stay inside? Well, if you're that anxious about getting, yeah, you're right. Yeah. It's like if you left the house every day, like, got to go find, got to see if anyone wants to murder me, got to track down the murderers. Just stay still.