Dolphins, Aliens, and Lost Time

In this mind-bending episode of The Box of Oddities, Kat and Jethro dive into two stories that push the boundaries of communication, perception, and the very nature of time itself. First, Jethro unpacks the extraordinary modern effort to build the world’s first dolphin chatbot—a real AI project inspired by a quirky 1960s SETI club called The Order of the Dolphin. From Carl Sagan and Frank Drake’s early theories to Google DeepMind’s modern neural networks decoding dolphin whistles, this segment explores how scientists hope communication with dolphins may become the training wheels for future alien contact. With signature humor and scientific wonder, we explore dolphin intelligence, their complex acoustic “language,” and what the first dolphin-to-human conversation might actually sound like. Then Kat takes us into the freezing darkness of the Scarassin Abyss, where French speleologist Michel Siffre spent 63 days isolated from all clocks, sunlight, and human contact to study how humans perceive time. As his internal world unraveled, Siffre made discoveries that reshaped chronobiology—and revealed how fragile our sense of reality truly is. From hallucinations to distorted time cycles to the stunning moment he emerged believing he still had a month left underground, Kat tells the story in vivid detail with plenty of Oddity-level dread and fascination. Plus: bizarre YouTube ads, Thanksgiving confusion, and a rapid-fire tour of wild historical events—from Einstein’s famous paper to a meteor that turned night into day. It’s science, strangeness, humor, and existential questions—all in one episode.Keep flying that freak flag, you beautiful freak. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices