Why Generations Panic: From Quicksand To AI - Part One

What if the scariest things aren’t the most dangerous, just the most invisible? We dive into the strange life cycle of collective fears—how each decade crowns a new monster, from quicksand and acid rain to terrorism, aliens, and AI—and why those worries feel all‑consuming before fading into nostalgia. Our throughline is control: when threats can’t be seen or easily predicted, our brains lean into catastrophising, and the media (plus a tidal wave of social clips) turns rare risks into daily dread.

We dig into the psychology that drives this, from loss of agency to the way story frequency beats statistics in our minds. A single plane crash dominates memory while countless safe flights vanish; sharks feel deadly while cows, which kill more people, stay loveable. Culture plays its part too. Think Jaws: the less you saw, the more you feared. That same grammar powers today’s viral rumours, auditors with drones, and conspiracy content that rewards outrage over nuance. It’s easier than ever to look like an expert—and harder than ever to separate signal from noise.

Still, fear isn’t only corrosive; it can unite. Humans are tribal, stacking identities from club to country, but a shared threat can bring us together fast. We touch on Ulrich Beck’s “risk society,” where modern anxieties stem from systems we’ve built—pollution, nuclear waste, pandemics, microplastics, AI—and how to respond without spiralling. Our take: name the mechanism, check the base rates, choose better stories, and keep a sense of humour. Some panics become punchlines; others need policy, not panic.

If this conversation made you think—or laugh—share it with a friend, hit follow, and leave a quick review so more people can find the show. What fear from your childhood seems absurd now, and which modern worry do you think we’re underestimating?

Transcript

Welcome And Topic Setup

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Hello and welcome to Bonus Dad.

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Bonus Daughter, a special father-daughter podcast with me, Hannah.

SPEAKER_02 0:05

And me, Davy, where we discuss our differences, similarities, share a few laughs and stories. Within our ever-changing and complex world.

What Collective Fears Mean

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Each week we will discuss a topic from our own point of view and influences throughout the decades. Or you could choose one by contacting us via email, Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok. Links in bio. Hello and welcome to a very special podcast episode by Bonus Dad, Bonus Daughter. Here we are today to talk about collective fears. Father explained, because I have no idea.

Tech, Self‑Checkouts And Social Anxiety

SPEAKER_02 0:34

We're going to be talking about basically, yeah, when when an entire generation or a group of people have a collective fear about something. Now, what I mean by that is because every decade there seems to be a certain fear that everybody seems to have. I'll give you an example. Okay. It's like when I was growing up, I thought quicksand was going to be a much bigger problem than what it actually was. Okay. Okay. Okay? Because in Batman, he got stuck in quicksand. You know, so many different films and series that I saw. Quicksand was a problem. A real problem that no one was fixing. But we genuinely thought we were going to die from quicksand. And so things like, you know, like the Cold War, acid rain, we're going to discuss all of those, like, but where they seem to be a big problem for a little while, and then suddenly they just kind of disappear. And they're not really a problem at all.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

I think with the introduction of ordering on a on a screen as opposed to talking to a human, has and same with like when you do your shop, you can do scan and go or you can do self-checkout. I I I now fear that human interaction.

SPEAKER_02 1:38

Well, lack of human interaction.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

No, I fear human interaction.

SPEAKER_02 1:41

Well, this yeah, this is it. This is the problem that yep.

SPEAKER_00 1:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:43

Because it's like your sorry button, but it's it's like your fear of talking to me on the phone.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

I don't have a fear of talking to you on the phone. I just hate talking to you on the phone because it could literally be a text that I can answer in one word. It does not require an entire call for that one message. That's what annoys me. But now I find myself, when I'm in somewhere like the range where they don't have self-checkouts, and I have to talk to that woman behind the till. I know she's just doing her job and she's doing it great. I just don't want to chat about my day. I just want to get in and get out. Is that have I got to that age now where I just don't give a shit?

SPEAKER_02 2:20

Yeah, well, I'm I'm not a fan of people. I don't like peopling. You don't like peopling? I don't like peopling. Did you ask that the other day, actually? I don't want to be asked about my day. I can't believe I actually Googled this and thought it was a viable option. I I genuinely put in there like, can you be a warden of an island? As in, like I thought, you know, where can you ruler of an island? Yeah. So basically, you move to an island. Right. Live in a house where you are the only house on that island, right? Yeah. And you just look after the island. That's your job. You become the island's warden. How would you you know just make sure that the the forest is okay and the birds are okay and nature's okay, and just look after the island.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 3:04

And away from everyone. Right. Away from people. I genuinely and you can do it. That's my retirement plan.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

I see. I see. Am I allowed to visit?

SPEAKER_02 3:18

Occasionally.

SPEAKER_00 3:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 3:22

With with warning.

SPEAKER_00 3:24

How are we going to do this podcast?

SPEAKER_02 3:26

We'll have to do it over Zoom. Oh no, you can come every couple of weeks and do the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 3:30

I can visit fairly regularly, a couple of weeks. Can I fly there?

SPEAKER_02 3:34

Yeah, you'd have to.

SPEAKER_00 3:35

Or boat.

SPEAKER_02 3:36

You'd have to. Fly or boat? Fly.

SPEAKER_00 3:39

Fly.

SPEAKER_02 3:39

Fly, yeah. What plane have you got? I'll split up. Is it a seaplane? Yeah. We'll sort something.

SPEAKER_00 3:45

How far?

SPEAKER_02 3:46

Well, off the coast of Cornwall or the coast of Scotland.

SPEAKER_00 3:48

Oh, okay, not far then.

SPEAKER_02 3:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:50

Off the coast of Scotland.

SPEAKER_02 3:51

Well to be fair, I'll be cold. Could have one of those islands where you know you do have a walkway to it, but then it gets closed off.

SPEAKER_00 3:56

So you only have Oh, like Holy Island. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:59

So you have like a three-hour window where you can come and join. Drive. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:03

It's a long way for me to go, though, I feel.

SPEAKER_02 4:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

Every other Sunday.

SPEAKER_02 4:07

See if there's one off the coast of Norfolk. Little island. Scrooby Sands.

SPEAKER_00 4:11

Scrooby Sands. I'll be underwater soon.

Isolation Fantasies And Island Wardens

SPEAKER_02 4:14

Yeah, it will be, yeah. Yeah. Oh, I've just thought of something.

SPEAKER_00 4:18

Oh no.

SPEAKER_02 4:19

You know we just done the video or the just done the episode on viral videos? Yeah. Lonely Island. The Lonely Island guys.

SPEAKER_00 4:26

Uh you're talking about uh Jake Peralta. Yes. But I can't remember.

SPEAKER_02 4:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:30

His real name. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:31

In the song Jeez in My Pants.

SPEAKER_00 4:32

Yeah, Jeez in My Pants. What is um what's his real name?

SPEAKER_02 4:36

Uh Adam Sandberg. Adam Sandberg. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, back to this particular episode.

SPEAKER_00 4:43

Collective fears.

SPEAKER_02 4:44

So yes, why do we keep having these collective fears? So even though that specific worries do change, such as quicksand in the 90s, terrorism in the 2000s, AI now is a collective fear.

SPEAKER_00 4:56

I feel like it is.

SPEAKER_02 4:57

Yeah, AI is a collective fear. Yeah, it you could argue though that fear is all about control. That's what it is. Because people do fear things most when they feel powerless, don't they? Yep. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:09

Agreed.

SPEAKER_02 5:10

Yeah, things like, as I said, quicksand viruses, nuclear war, climate change, they all share that one theme. And that theme is you can't easily fight them or predict them. And that's the problem. Right. That's why we're scared of them a lot of the time.

SPEAKER_00 5:26

Do you think it's just fear-mongering from the media?

SPEAKER_02 5:29

Quite possibly. But also it's a psychological thing from our side as well. Because we looked, we we like to, we always look to well, say don't always, but look at that worst case scenario all the time.

SPEAKER_00 5:39

I think it's probably more of a primitive response that we're we have to prepare ourselves for the worst case. It's called catastrophizing. You know, we're we're we're preparing ourselves for the worst case scenario. I think we'll always do that as a human evolutionary kind of trait that we've probably carried on through millennia.

SPEAKER_02 5:58

So when I came in this morning, uh we were talking about what's happening, what's just happened in the past 24 hours. Yeah. What was the first question you asked me? You asked me, you said, Is this duh? And you asked me a question.

SPEAKER_00 6:11

Is this World War II?

SPEAKER_02 6:12

Yeah. That's what you asked me this month. So then immediately you went to the worst case.

SPEAKER_00 6:19

Are we going to war?

SPEAKER_02 6:20

Yeah, you said well, you actually said, Is this World War III, father?

SPEAKER_00 6:23

This is your exact well, I think for me the worry is that it's likely even at your age you would be drafted. Mitchell would be drafted.

SPEAKER_02 6:30

I sent you that thing the other day, didn't I? I'm alright.

SPEAKER_00 6:34

Oh yeah, you're I'm in a loophole. You are, because you're in between ages.

From Quicksand To AI And Control

SPEAKER_02 6:38

I'm in yeah, in that sort of age between 45 and 60, it said that you know that there there was a gap in there. So I'll I'll I'll be I'll be at the men and women's having a pint.

SPEAKER_00 6:47

Wasn't it childless women, so I'd be drafted too.

SPEAKER_02 6:49

You'd be drafted too, yeah. Yeah, there you go.

SPEAKER_00 6:51

I guess that is the only pro on my pro and con list of having a baby. I won't get drafted to war if I squish one out, but so that you know that Wish I worded it that way, sorry. That was a really grim image, I apologise. Squish one out.

SPEAKER_02 7:08

So that terminology, as that you can't easily fight it or predict it, it is something in psychology called a loss of agency. That's what it's called.

SPEAKER_00 7:16

Yeah, we like to be in control, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:18

Because when control drops, our anxiety rises. It's like when we're not in control of something. Yeah, which is why, like, for example, in the 80s, and we're gonna go through the decades later on, uh, acid rain was scary because it felt like the the sky itself was gonna poison us. Acid rain.

SPEAKER_00 7:35

Why why was acid rain a threat? Why what was what what was pollution? But we're still polluted now, so why is the threat not gone?

SPEAKER_02 7:44

Exactly. It was and it was like CFCs in the ozone layer, you know, that we we would burn a hole in the ozone layer and the sun was gonna cook us. It was a real big thing, and then suddenly everyone stopped talking about it. And like, well, are we still not gonna do that?

SPEAKER_00 7:55

Yeah, we got the threat still there because I feel like acid rain will still burn through our houses and tiles and shit.

SPEAKER_02 8:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:00

No?

SPEAKER_02 8:02

I remember a t-shirt, um it was a t-shirt in the 80s, and it it was a picture of um basically ravers on the t-shirt all looking up with their tongues out for acid rain. I get it, I get it, I get it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:16

Um, knife hands.

SPEAKER_01 8:27

Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_00 8:33

Do you feel like have you seen those videos where it's like, oh, when you and your best friend hang out too much and you start having the same mannerisms? I feel like when we sigh like that, when we do things like that and we do the exact same thing, like when we done that Kate Bush, running up that road, we run it up that road, be running up that building, and we both went, building like this, and then we both laughed at each other.

SPEAKER_02 8:54

We did something the other day at ours, didn't we, again as well.

SPEAKER_00 8:57

Did we sink?

SPEAKER_02 8:57

Well, we synced, we both said something exactly the same time. We both our minds went exactly to that same place.

SPEAKER_00 9:03

Uh we hang out far too much.

SPEAKER_02 9:05

We do, and much to your mother's annoyance.

Catastrophising And Worst‑Case Thinking

SPEAKER_00 9:07

Yeah, she's actually requested a third mic so she can come on the podcast. And she also said to me, she went, You you spend no, I never get to see you. You see father every other Sunday, and I never get to see you. Which is true. I have not spent some time with her in a while, and that is that is on me as well.

SPEAKER_02 9:24

Should we just talk about the other day as well when you went to get your haircut?

SPEAKER_00 9:27

I did, yes.

SPEAKER_02 9:27

When you went and I was banished.

SPEAKER_00 9:29

He got banished from the salon.

SPEAKER_02 9:31

Yeah, because Sharon wanted to spend time with you alone.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

She actually felt I might I might I was gonna say to you in private, but you brought it up now, is that she actually felt quite um uh bad about telling you to f off she said, Oh, well, I just never get to see you. And I did I did pre-explain to him that I didn't want him around so that I could spend some time with you.

SPEAKER_02 9:51

Do you know what?

SPEAKER_00 9:52

Right, I will confess- She did feel genuinely quite bad about it.

SPEAKER_02 9:54

I will confess something now as well. So when so you you were in the salon having your hair done with your mum, yeah, you're in there. I walked in, you literally both of you went fright to me. I left, I went and sat in the living room, and then I heard the front door open, right? I heard Mitchell walk in, and I thought to myself, ah, someone to talk to. That's nice. Mitchell walks through the kitchen into the salon, and I'm listening. I'm listening. Nope. Mitchell, Sharon, and Hannah are all having a conversation. Great. So I'll just sit here watching telly by myself.

SPEAKER_00 10:36

Mitchell did actually say because mum said, Oh, I've banished Davy from here. And Mitchell actually immediately got up and was like, Well, if you want time with your door, I can find it either. He was just like, Yeah, that's cool. He didn't he wasn't aware of the pre-arrangement of you being banished from the salon. Yeah. Um, and then uh he made me die because um you were standing in the doorway, and he in his head, because I asked him about it afterwards, he's in his head, he was like, guy looks like a vampire there. He's in the doorway. And then he was like, Can I be let in? And then he let you in. He was like, I knew he was a vampire. Just like under his breath, like, I knew it. His mind is so funny.

SPEAKER_02 11:11

Well, it was nice because then he did eventually come and sit with me and we started watching Brian Cox stuff. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:17

Yeah. Mitchell really likes space.

SPEAKER_02 11:19

I know.

SPEAKER_00 11:21

It's always a winner, that one. Yeah, Brian Cox is cool.

SPEAKER_02 11:24

Yeah. Yeah, so we've got that. Uh, to go back to the episode, a little segue out there. Um yeah, sorry, what were we talking about?

SPEAKER_01 11:31

Collective fears.

SPEAKER_02 11:33

Collective fears. So it is that invisible threat. It's like threats are scarier when you can't see them. Things such as radiation, viruses, aliens, chemicals, microplastics, shapeshifters. Yeah, ozone depletion. Actually, talking about aliens, all right.

SPEAKER_00 11:52

We're not alone.

SPEAKER_02 11:53

So, Obama.

unknown 11:54

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 11:55

Barack Obama.

SPEAKER_00 11:56

Oh, I love Barack Obama.

Media Amplification And Viral Myths

SPEAKER_02 11:57

Did you see that um interview the other day when they asked him the questions? They said, Are aliens real? And he said, Yep. Said, yeah, they're real. And then he kind of backtracked a little bit and went, but there's no area 51, we're not hoarding them somewhere and duh da da da. But of course, that clip then went absolutely viral. Now, Trump that was then asked the same question on the uh on the plane, and his press secretary behind him was laughing, right? Oh Caroline Levitt or whatever her name is. She was laughing, and he said, which didn't help matters, he then turned around and went, Well, he shouldn't be giving away classified information. Oh basically, it was almost like, hang on a minute, have they actually just confirmed it? So who BG Dubs, Area 51 is a thing. Yeah, but then but then I also then saw on TikTok because of this, there was um a TikToker who then turned around and started saying about the Miami uh shopping malls, yeah, because yes, because because because I I sent that to you.

SPEAKER_00 13:02

Yeah, I saw that happen and I was like, oh father's gonna love this. Send this across, alien conspiracy. And then I sent it across to you, and I was like, Do you know about anything like this? And you're like, no. And that just went.

SPEAKER_02 13:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:16

No one talks about it.

SPEAKER_02 13:17

But apparently loads of videos got taken down, but now they're starting to re-emerge again. Yeah, the humanoid.

SPEAKER_00 13:23

I think someone described it as a large humanoid creature.

SPEAKER_02 13:26

Yeah, so again, no one's seen it. No one's seen it. It's so strange a thing, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 13:32

It's so strange a thing.

SPEAKER_02 13:33

Yeah, demagorgan. It's happening. The demagorgan.

SPEAKER_00 13:36

I don't know why I'm excited. Yeah. Why am I excited?

SPEAKER_02 13:39

It's like films as well, isn't it? So, okay, look at Jaws. Oh, I'm familiar with the killer shark. So originally, I don't know if you knew this, but in the original film, Jaws, they were going to show a lot more of Bruce. Bruce is the shark.

SPEAKER_00 13:55

Is that why they called it called him Bruce in Finding Nemo?

SPEAKER_02 13:58

Yeah, they called the shark Bruce in Jaws.

SPEAKER_00 14:00

Fish our friends, not food.

SPEAKER_02 14:02

But because it wasn't working properly, and they couldn't show it because it wasn't they only showed it then at the end of the film, you never actually saw the shark until pretty much near the end. But it made the film scarier because you couldn't see it. It was an invisible form.

SPEAKER_00 14:16

Yeah, the f the fear of unknown.

SPEAKER_02 14:17

And that's exactly what it is. Because how many times do you watch a film which is scary, but then when the monster tips up at the end, you're like, oh, that's insidious. Insidious.

SPEAKER_00 14:25

Absolutely ruined it for me. That was really scary. I loved how they put random ghosty children in the corners of the rooms, and you uh and if you noticed it, you were like, huh, that's kind of weird. A bit like Haunted of Hill House, where they the uh uh film they didn't reveal that.

SPEAKER_01 14:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:40

The ne the bent neck leg bent neck lady till the end. That's really difficult to say, bent neck lady. Bent neck lady. Um, until the end. And yeah, the like the the that style of horror where they just kind of input scary things into the background without even really drawing attention to them is just so good. It's that fear of the unknown.

SPEAKER_02 14:59

It is, and that's much more scarier. Yeah. It does, it's is that you don't actually see him, which is why I'm the insidious demon was just shit.

SPEAKER_00 15:05

He looked like Darth Moore.

SPEAKER_02 15:07

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:08

Didn't he?

SPEAKER_02 15:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:08

It's black and is that am I getting it? It was right, yeah, it was right.

SPEAKER_02 15:11

So I was trying not to belts then. That's why I had that pained look on my face.

SPEAKER_00 15:15

I I thought it was pain that I got it wrong because it's a Star Wars thing.

SPEAKER_02 15:18

I was trying I was trying not to like let out the huge belts as the McDonald's coming back up. Tasty. But also the media does amplify those dangers, which what we're saying earlier. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's the the media does it a lot.

SPEAKER_00 15:30

Uh I think now as well, maybe dissimilar to how it was in the 80s, but we also have fear-mongering of conspiracy theorists who now have a platform like TikTok and Facebook and Instagram as well. So we've got e we've got the media, and then we've got social media, which is the the scraping of the barrel, uneducated, not to be disrespectful, but I'm saying like people that are easily influenced, perhaps vulnerable people, then they put these videos on there and then people believe them. Yeah, they do on the internet.

SPEAKER_02 16:04

I do. Because everybody everybody's now an independent journalist.

SPEAKER_00 16:07

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 16:08

The other thing that I've seen a lot of lately is well, is this thing called auditors. Have you seen those?

SPEAKER_00 16:12

Auditors.

SPEAKER_02 16:13

Yeah, auditors.

SPEAKER_00 16:14

An auditor is like someone that that audits like like financers.

SPEAKER_02 16:17

I know, but they they call themselves auditors, and what they do, I mean, like for instance, this one guy, what he does is he's got a drone, so he'll go to a place that's quite secure and he'll try and fly his drone over the top. The security or police will come out and they'll tell him you can't, and then he starts trying to quote the law and see if they know the law.

SPEAKER_00 16:35

Oh dickheads. Yes, I have seen that guy. Um I think it might even be the same guy gets pulled over.

SPEAKER_02 16:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:44

And he just tries to pick a fight with a cop. That's it. And the cop is always really good. Like they're always like, Yeah. I I they'll be like, Mmm, I don't, you know, I I s I hear what you're quoting to me, but like, you know, you've still broken the rules or whatever. I I remember what it was. He was trying to pay for something with a$20 coin. Oh. Maybe it's in the UK actually. It was a 20 20 pound coin. Okay. Which is apparently is sterling. Is is it is, but the shop was saying, no, I'm not going to accept it. So the shop called the police because he's like, he's not paying for it. He's he's he's saying, but I am paying for it. I'm trying to pay with my£20 coin. And they're like, no, we don't accept that. Like, and then the police uh police officer was saying, look, shops are allowed to accept and what you know, allowed to dictate what they accept and what they don't. And here is and they have a sign that said this is the accepted currency because they also accepted um Scottish sterling as well. She was like, Yeah, if you gave that to me in a note, I can take it from you. Like she was the poor like checkout lady was just just doing her job. I know, it needs to be a good one. She had to call the police, and it was just like, oh my god, just just oh, just leave your shopping there and go to somewhere else.

SPEAKER_02 17:51

Yeah, just like they're trying to prove a point.

SPEAKER_00 17:53

Yeah, like, oh, I can use this, it's a 20-pound coin. It's like, shut up. Yeah, no one's ever seen a 20-pound coin.

SPEAKER_02 18:01

Anyway, anyway, so so we're going back to the media.

SPEAKER_00 18:04

Yeah, the media auditors annoy me too.

SPEAKER_02 18:06

Yeah, they they are really, really annoying. So we as humans, we don't we we don't actually judge risk sometimes by the statistics. So take uh but we do we do r judge it by story frequency. I would like to take plane crashes, for example. Yes, okay, right. So if a plane goes down, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:27

So immediately in your head, you're like, Planes are dangerous. Planes are dangerous, but m thousands of planes fly every day.

SPEAKER_00 18:34

Yeah. And there are thousands upon millions of car crashes every day, but you never hear of them unless it's really bad or local one that's like really horrific. Oh well I've been in three in my life.

Every Era Needs A Monster

SPEAKER_02 18:45

Okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna say two animals now. You tell me which one you're more scared of.

SPEAKER_00 18:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:50

Cows.

SPEAKER_00 18:51

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 18:52

Sharks. Well, sharks. Yeah. Cows kill more people than sharks.

SPEAKER_00 18:56

Moo. I love cows as well.

SPEAKER_02 18:59

Yeah. Well when I was at school, uh back in the house. You hated sharks. I didn't when you were a surfer. Yeah, yeah. I saw one.

SPEAKER_00 19:06

Saw one, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:07

I shat myself. It was a it was just a basking shark. It wasn't well.

SPEAKER_00 19:11

Yeah, they don't even have teeth.

SPEAKER_02 19:12

But all I saw was a fin.

SPEAKER_00 19:13

I reckon he could have swallowed you though.

SPEAKER_02 19:15

Oh yeah. Yeah. I was absolutely terrified.

SPEAKER_00 19:18

They're not carnivores though, are they?

SPEAKER_02 19:20

No, no, no, they weren't they weren't.

SPEAKER_00 19:21

They're like plankton eaters, aren't they?

SPEAKER_02 19:23

Do you know what I've I've now had a fear of as well? This is a weird one because I saw a video. Did you see the video of the kayaker that gets swallowed by the whale?

SPEAKER_01 19:31

No.

SPEAKER_02 19:32

You've not seen that. No. Humpback whale, right? So he's kayaker, isn't it? Humpback whale comes because it comes out of the way. And it comes, it spits him out. Oh. It spits it it's realised. It's like the f this. Yeah. But but it was like, that's a new fear that's now unlocked.

SPEAKER_00 19:49

Fun.

SPEAKER_02 19:49

Yeah. Yeah. But no, that was off the coast of Cornwall when I was paddling. Yeah. And I just saw a fin. That's all it was. But then obviously realised it was just about, but that second of I'm gonna die. I'm gonna get eaten like Jaws.

SPEAKER_00 20:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:04

Yeah, but it was funny. So yeah, so it is that we judge that risk by story frequency rather than by what the actual risk really is.

SPEAKER_00 20:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:11

Because it it sense sensationalises it, doesn't it? Got it. Doesn't it? Yes. And every era as well needs a monster.

SPEAKER_00 20:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:19

Every era needs a monster.

SPEAKER_00 20:20

We had Godzilla.

SPEAKER_02 20:21

Yes, we did. So we'll do in part two, we'll run through the decades and we'll actually go through all of all of the myths that we've got. Because we have been gabbling a little bit. Oh we've been gabbling a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 20:32

It's because we got really excited about viral videos.

SPEAKER_02 20:35

It is, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:36

And now I can't stop quoting them.

SPEAKER_02 20:37

Yeah. Leroy Jenkins!

SPEAKER_00 20:40

That's just Oh, I've just got the Bed Intruder songs. Do you know my head?

Fear Of The Unseen: Jaws To Insidious

SPEAKER_02 20:43

Do you know who showed me that video? It was Callum at work. Oh yeah, cool Callum. Yeah, Callum showed me at work the first time.

SPEAKER_00 20:49

So yeah, so we'll Callum and Cool Ben.

SPEAKER_02 20:51

We'll we will run through the decades from we'll start from the 80s in part two and run through some of the things that we were scared of in the 80s, the 90s, the 2000s, the 2010s, and do you say 2000s or is it the naughys? I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 21:03

I think I tend to say the naughs, but 2000s is acceptable, you're fine. Yeah. Carry on. Is that okay? Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:09

So then you've got the so yeah, so every era needs that monster. I mean, like I say in the 80s, quicksand was the monster. Now we're looking at AI. Yeah. It's that collective feel. There's also the moral panic theory as well.

SPEAKER_00 21:23

Moral panic. Moral panic. Sedin. Terra fever. Do you know that song?

SPEAKER_02 21:29

No.

SPEAKER_00 21:30

Nothing but thieves. What song's that? Moral panic. It's called Moral Panic.

SPEAKER_02 21:34

No, I don't know that one. I'm gonna play it to you after this episode. Okay, okay. It's a great song. So, and what moral panic is, it's where society fears something because it represents a loss of values or order.

SPEAKER_00 21:46

Oh my.

SPEAKER_02 21:47

So it's like we have this kind of society norm, and something threatens that, we go into panic mode.

SPEAKER_00 21:55

Yark.

SPEAKER_02 21:56

And that's kind of what that is. Yeah? Ignore it. Nop nop yup. And quite often those fears spike when generations feel that the world is shifting too fast. AI.

SPEAKER_00 22:09

AI.

SPEAKER_02 22:10

AI is a is a is a prime example there.

SPEAKER_00 22:13

Let's go back to flip phones.

SPEAKER_02 22:15

Go back did you ever have a flip phone?

SPEAKER_00 22:18

Yes. Did you? I had a motorized eraser, it was mum's. Yes, you did. I also had a motor of the bullet as well. Yeah, they were good. They were really thin. They were good. I can't I don't know if I could get on board with texting again with the numbers.

SPEAKER_02 22:31

Well you text me and I'd rather ring.

SPEAKER_00 22:33

Yeah, exactly. But I have a quirty keyboard now.

SPEAKER_02 22:37

Actually, that's interesting. You we still we still say texting. Is texting still a word? Because text messages aren't really a thing anymore, are they? It's more WhatsApp or there's other Is texting still still a term?

SPEAKER_00 22:50

It's it's a really good question, but when I mean texting, I do mean WhatsApping. So I think it's just one of those words that will remain universal to DMing.

SPEAKER_02 22:58

Yeah. I don't text anyone.

SPEAKER_00 23:02

Yeah, I don't iMessage anyone.

SPEAKER_02 23:04

Literally, like I'm I'm looking at my text messages and they're like 2025.

SPEAKER_00 23:09

But if if you were talking about it on Instagram, you'd say he slid into my DMs.

SPEAKER_02 23:12

You slid into my DMs.

SPEAKER_00 23:14

So you'd say DM. Yeah. DMing.

SPEAKER_02 23:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:16

But WhatsApp I still class as text.

SPEAKER_02 23:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:20

Is that weird? Should I not be? I don't know why you're using the wrong language? I don't know. If I was like, uh if I said to Mitchell, oh um, say he he wanted a Chinese order, like the other day, I'd say, Oh, can he text it to me? I would expect him to WhatsApp it to me. But I wouldn't say WhatsApp it to me, I'd just say text it because it's quicker to send.

SPEAKER_02 23:37

Send it, send it to me. Uh-uh. But the thing is with WhatsApp, you can do voice notes, can't you? Because my sister is the queen of voice notes.

SPEAKER_00 23:44

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 23:45

Yeah, me and my brother have to literally put her on times two to get to the show. Yeah, it's like a podcast. Yeah. Every time my sister sends us a message, bless her.

SPEAKER_01 23:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:54

Uh so but but then you've got as well fear, those collective fears can bring people together.

SPEAKER_00 24:02

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 24:03

As a community.

SPEAKER_00 24:04

There is positives to fear.

SPEAKER_02 24:05

Yeah. So yeah, but fear gives you that sense of, you know, we are all we're all in this together.

SPEAKER_00 24:10

If we got invaded by by intelligent life outside of the earth, do you think that would bring us all together? Do you think that would actually end all the wars?

SPEAKER_02 24:20

Well, when you look at the film Independence Day, it does.

SPEAKER_00 24:24

Yeah.

Social Media, Auditors And Outrage

SPEAKER_02 24:25

Everybody kind of collectively. Yeah, because you've got you've got a common enemy. The thing is, this is it. The thing is, humans by nature are tribal.

SPEAKER_00 24:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:33

We are tribal. And you know, when you look at, and it would be like country versus country, religion versus religion. Um then you go in even within the country Belief versus belief. Belief versus belief. But even then when you go into the countries in self, let's take okay, let's take Scotland, Ireland, Wales, England, right? There's there's arguments between those countries. And even when you go like the North-South divide, yeah, then let's go Norfolk-Suffolk.

SPEAKER_00 25:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:06

And then let's go football terms, Norwich versus Ipswich, Man United versus Man City.

SPEAKER_00 25:11

NR1 versus NR2.

SPEAKER_02 25:13

And then you've got the post, yeah, exactly. So we've we've got our own, we've got our big tribe and then smaller tribes. So in this set, in essence, if we all had that common common enemy of an extraterrestrial life coming in, yeah, we probably all would come together to fight that enemy because we've got a common enemy.

SPEAKER_00 25:30

Football's actually a really good good one for this because yeah, you've got the local local derbies. Yeah. And then if we play as England, everyone, everyone who supports Manchester, Chelsea, Liverpool, all the top ones.

SPEAKER_02 25:42

You all come together to be.

SPEAKER_00 25:43

We come together because we're all English. When it comes to the Olympics, we're all UK.

SPEAKER_01 25:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:46

When it comes to wars, we're the allies. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:50

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:50

Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Like, uh I'm talking like World War One now. Yeah. Like, you know, we're all we're all allies together.

SPEAKER_01 25:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:57

Although Brits will constantly say they hate the French for no apparent reason, to be honest. Then then we're very happy to make Nazi jokes about Germany. Yeah. Like it's just, it's just so it's it's it's mad, really, how how yeah, that common enemy can just bring everyone together. Bring everyone together.

SPEAKER_02 26:16

And but also is because we we fear as well, we need that someone to blame.

SPEAKER_00 26:20

Yeah. Yeah, it's a b-s blame culture, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 26:22

It's us against you lot.

SPEAKER_00 26:25

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:25

And that kind of splits up.

SPEAKER_00 26:28

And then we we encourage that as well because we we have uh when we go to school, we have houses and we compete against each other at sports day, we compete each other for academic powers. You know, uh I I don't know how far that stems, but I certainly remember that even in primary school.

SPEAKER_02 26:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:43

We were the Victorians, we were green, and we were team green and we want to win.

SPEAKER_02 26:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:48

And they encourage it so early on.

SPEAKER_02 26:49

That competitiveness. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:51

Bullshit.

Stories Versus Statistics

SPEAKER_02 26:52

Yeah, I know. Um so it does, so it becomes part well, it becomes part of our identity. It means we're identify with this group or this these people. So yeah. But then you've got you've got a thing called the risk society theory. Now this is more society. This is more of a modern life anxiety. So there is a sociologist by the name of Ulrich Beck, and he argued that we create our own threats. So when you think of I think I've studied Beck. Yeah. Carry on. Yeah. So when you think of when we what we used to be scared of, it would be scared of, okay, what we're gonna eat.

SPEAKER_00 27:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:27

Are we gonna get eaten by wolves? Are we gonna get attacked? You know, are we gonna get attacked by a mammoth?

SPEAKER_00 27:32

I don't even read wolves. Yeah, don't we? Sorry. The wolves.

SPEAKER_02 27:36

Are we gonna it's wolves or famines? But what we're more it nowadays it's more we're surviving our own systems.

SPEAKER_00 27:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:44

Yeah. We we're scared of the things that we have built ourselves.

SPEAKER_00 27:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:48

Like we're the ones affecting change because we've done it to ourselves. We've done it to ourselves. Going going back to the that quote from The Matrix.

SPEAKER_00 27:56

Yes. Okay.

Tribes, Common Enemies And Unity

SPEAKER_02 27:58

When um Agent Smith is talking to Morpheus, and he's there, and he says, you know, he tried, he studied humanity, but he couldn't, he couldn't kind of put humanity into a box until he realized that humans are a virus. They're a virus of the planet. They use up all this natural resource and then they move on and they spread and they spread. And there's the only thing, other thing that does that is a virus. So we created our own through using up resources and doing it, we've created our own risks and our own fears, things such as pollution, nuclear power, pandemics, global pandemics. And yeah, so it's more about COVID, boy. Exactly. It's less about survival in nature, but more about surviving the systems that we have built. Got it. Yeah, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 28:44

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 28:45

Yeah, you agree with that?

SPEAKER_00 28:46

I do. Did you study Beck? I think so. He rings a bell. Yeah. Probably only touched on it because we I didn't do sociology, but he would have come up in psychology at some point, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_02 28:55

Yeah, sociology and psychology. Mr. Beck.

SPEAKER_00 28:58

Unless there's another Beck that I'm thinking of, but yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:00

Yeah, there's a singer Beck.

unknown 29:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 29:05

So there is also the nostalgia bias in that we forget the fear, and that one reason old fears seem funny now, you know, when we look back and we think we laugh about those fears, like I said about quicksand earlier on, is that when we look back, we just realise how ridiculous it was.

SPEAKER_00 29:24

Yeah. I mean quicksand does seem ridiculous to me.

SPEAKER_02 29:26

Absolutely ridiculous.

SPEAKER_00 29:28

I have never come across any quicksand. The only quicksand that I can even remotely think about is when the beach has that muddy stuff and you do sink into it, but you sink like maybe four inches.

SPEAKER_02 29:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:40

Maybe maybe to your ankle.

SPEAKER_02 29:42

Maybe to your ankle, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:43

Maybe.

SPEAKER_02 29:44

But this is one thing that we've said before on other episodes about memory.

SPEAKER_00 29:49

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 29:50

So when you have that fear response at the time and you're genuinely scared, you tend to forget that as you go, you look back at the time and think that was actually ridiculous. That was silly.

SPEAKER_00 30:03

Why did I why was I scared of that?

SPEAKER_02 30:04

But in the moment, it's terrifying.

SPEAKER_00 30:06

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:07

It's terrifying. Yeah. So we will end this episode.

SPEAKER_00 30:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 30:14

Before we go on to the the last one of things we did actually worry about, and we'll list them and we'll have a good laugh about them now. Part two then. Uh so across the decades, so fears did shift from the mythic dangers. Yeah. Things like Bermuda Triangle as well.

SPEAKER_00 30:31

Yeah, that scares the shit out of me today to this day.

SPEAKER_02 30:34

That was a thing, wasn't it? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:37

No, it scares me. It still scares you. I'm scared of the Bermuda Triangle.

SPEAKER_02 30:41

But we've kind of moved from those to more of a Some of us have. Yeah. I have not. To more of a Black Mirror-esque type fear. Yeah. Technology and things like that. It's the unknown in that aspect. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:57

I fear for what the world will become. Do you know what scares me?

SPEAKER_02 31:00

What? Physics.

SPEAKER_00 31:02

To be honest, yeah, physics also scares me as well.

SPEAKER_02 31:05

Physics scares me because we keep finding all this other shit that we've got to do.

SPEAKER_00 31:07

And then they keep disproving themselves, and I'm like, ah, what we know is what we know.

SPEAKER_02 31:12

Actual, you know, life and identity and things like that. Even like watching the Brian Cox thing the other night. Yeah. That was fascinating. Because he was it was him watching.

SPEAKER_00 31:22

I worry about my purpose on this earth, which is probably nothing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:26

Well, yeah, when you said about that, you know, when you actually realise how small we actually really are. But the the episode with Brian Cox the other night was really interesting because it was him watching old old series that he's done, and he was and he was watching them and he's going, Well, I got that wrong.

SPEAKER_01 31:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:41

You know, we now found this, like we was that was true at the time, but now we found this and we discovered this.

SPEAKER_00 31:46

So that was Yeah, it's ever changing.

SPEAKER_02 31:49

It is which is why I love science.

SPEAKER_00 31:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:51

Because science will actually put his hand up and go, Yeah, all right, we were wrong. We've got it wrong. We were all wrong. It's like the the Voyager that's gone out, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 that's gone. I mean, that went out in 1977.

SPEAKER_00 32:02

Yeah. And it's still that's got 1977 technology on it.

SPEAKER_02 32:06

And we're still talking to it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:08

It's still sending us information. Madame.

SPEAKER_02 32:10

There you go.

SPEAKER_00 32:11

Mad things.

SPEAKER_02 32:11

There you go.

SPEAKER_00 32:12

Okay, so we'll stop the episode there and we'll carry it on next time. So this was part one of Collective.

SPEAKER_02 32:18

Sorry, started gabbing, didn't I?

SPEAKER_00 32:19

Yeah, you did. Yeah, you did. Join us for part two next week, and we hope you have a lovely day and cue the outro. Thanks for joining us on Bonus Dad, Bonus Daughter. Don't forget to follow us on all our socials and share the podcast with someone who'd love it. We are available on all streaming platforms. See you next time. Bye-bye.