Toggle Menu

141 – Competitive Eating

Published by

Sometime during the 20th century, hot dogs became forever linked with an American pastime—Competitive eating—and with the most American holiday, the Fourth of July. One could argue that the business of “major league eating” is everything wrong with consumer capitalism. Because it is. However, today we’ll be taking time to celebrate the absurdity of it all by discovering how Nathan’s Fourth of July hot dog contest began and why it persists.

Keep The Nonsense Bazaar ad-free and away from debasement on a Coney Island boardwalk by joining our Patreon! You’ll get access to our bonus series The Corkboard Bizarre and our Patron Discord server for just $5 a month. 

 

https://patreon.com/thenonsensebazaar

Categorised in:

140 – The Nag Hammadi Codices

Published by

These days you can’t shake a stick without running into some version of Gnostic Christianity. Why is that?  Gnosticism is absolutely wild and psychedelic, that plays a part. But did counterculture collectively decide one day that Gnosticism was pretty groovy? Well, apart from fragments of texts, writings about Gnosticism from the Catholic church’s perspective (heresy!), and underground currents of mystic knowledge, mainstream culture didn’t really know anything about what the Gnostics believed until the discovery of the Nag Hammadi Codices, a jar of 13 papyrus scrolls containing 52 books from Gnosticism, Hermeticism, and other mystic traditions. The collection was discovered in Egypt, 1946 by a pair of probable graverobbers, and wouldn’t be fully translated and published until the 1970s. This week we’re going to look at some core texts and definitely get some stuff wrong as we explore Gnosticism and the Nag Hammadi Codices. 

Help us get a JSTOR subscription and get less stuff wrong by joining our Patreon, where you’ll get access to bonus episodes and our patron Discord server, all for just 5 shmucks a month. 

 

https://patreon.com/thenonsensebazaar

Categorised in:

[Patreon Unlock] The Corkboard Bizarre – Tulpas!

Published by

Sequoyah had to deal with some rough stuff this week so in lieu of chaining him to his keyboard and squeezing an episode out of him like an old citrus, we’re unlocking an episode of our bonus series where we dive into the weird, disturbing, and hilarious world of internet tulpamancy. What’s a tulpa? Well a tulpa (aka “tupper,” apparently) is a thoughtform entity created by the power of belief that gains external agency and sentience. It’s a concept from esoteric Tibetan Buddhism by way of Theosophy. But we’re not talking about that side of it. We’re talking about kids on 4chan learning how to break their brains in the pursuit of fun and profit. It’s usually neither, in the end.   

Categorised in:

139 – Wait…I Thought You Died (Death Fraud)

Published by

Who among us can honestly say we’ve never been tempted to fake our own deaths? You know, get away from it all, start over as fresh as a newborn babe. Today we’ll be looking at individuals who were pronounced dead only to miraculously come back or, in the case of Kaycee Nicole Swenson, who never existed in the first place. From England’s ‘Canoe Man’ to the ridiculously dressed Violet Charlesworth to Lil Tay, you’ll learn why faking a death is not a very smart thing to do.

Pay us so we don’t have to commit fraud and you’ll also get access to our bonus series The Corkboard Bizarreas well as access to our patron Discord server all for just $5 a month!

https://patreon.com/thenonsensebazaar 

Categorised in:

The State of The Union 2024

Published by

We had a weird day. So this week we’re talking about some of the things we’ve been thinking about recently: nature, defiant optimism, Catholic UFO propaganda, how Willow thought Sequoyah went missing but he was actually just napping, and much more. The state of the union is strong… and ridiculous. 

Support The Nonsense Bazaar on Patreon and get access to our bonus series The Corkboard Bizarre and our patron Discord server starting at just $5 a month!

https://patreon.com/thenonsensebazaar

Categorised in: