The Days Grimm Podcast
The Days Grimm, "arguably Indiana's most comical, thrilling, and controversial podcast", This three-pronged mandate acts as a primary filter for their guest selection. The "comical" aspect is reflected in its official genre of "COMEDY INTERVIEWS" and its history of hosting local stand-up comedians. The "thrilling" component is evident in interviews with individuals who have extraordinary life stories, such as people who survived shootings, rare medical conditions, and combat. Finally, the "controversial" element is demonstrated by Brian & Thomas’ willingness to engage in difficult or unfiltered conversations, touching on topics like homelessness, artificial intelligence, and religious hypotheticals.
A crucial element of the show's tone is its tagline, "Brought to you by Sadness & ADHD (non-medicated)". This self-aware and raw positioning signals a modern comedic sensibility that embraces vulnerability and finds humor in personal struggle. The podcast's brand is not built on polished narratives but on the authentic, often messy, intersection of hardship and humor. The most compelling guests are those who have navigated a "Grimm" reality and emerged with a story to tell, and ideally, a sense of humor about it. This dynamic is the core of the show's appeal and the primary filter for identifying a story worth telling.
The Days Grimm Podcast
Ep. 267 The Animal That Went Extinct Twice: The Dark Truth About Cloning & Genetic Modification
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If you enjoyed this deep dive on cloning and genetic modification, hit subscribe, drop a comment with your take — should we bring back the woolly mammoth? — and share the episode with the friend who still thinks Walt Disney's head is in a freezer.
Cloning and genetic modification get blended together constantly in pop culture, so this episode breaks down what's actually real, what's a myth, and how we got from a frog tadpole in 1952 to dire wolf pups in 2025.
Brian, Thomas, and producer Corey (it's Corey's birthday) walk through the full history and science of cloning — admitting up front they're not scientists, just three guys following a rabbit hole that started with a family cloning their dog, CRISPR edits, and the Lone Star tick. From there it turns into a surprisingly thorough tour of how copying and editing life actually works.
The episode untangles the four ideas people constantly confuse: cloning (a genetic copy, same DNA), genetic modification / gene editing (changing genes, like CRISPR), de-extinction (reviving a lost species), and chimeras (mixing cells from two species). With that foundation set, the crew traces the timeline from Yves Delage's 1895 nuclear transplantation concept and Hans Spemann's 1938 "fantastical experiment," through the first nuclear transfer in 1952, John Gurdon's Nobel Prize work, and Dolly the sheep — the first mammal cloned from an adult cell, born July 5, 1996.
If you've ever wondered whether you can really clone your pet, this one answers it: it's real, it's commercial, and it's expensive. They cover the actual companies and price tags, why a clone is not a resurrection, and why the Humane Society pushes back on the practice. The conversation also gets into man-animal hybrids — the bizarre real story of Soviet scientist Ilya Ivanov — and busts the myth that Stalin wanted an army of ape-man super soldiers.
This is for anyone curious about CRISPR, stem cell medicine, de-extinction headlines, and the ethics underneath all of it: human-animal chimeras grown for transplant organs, the 100,000+ Americans on the organ waiting list, and whether reproductive human cloning should stay banned. Expect the science (telomeres, Large Offspring Syndrome, the brutal 1–5% survival rate) alongside the kind of unfiltered, off-the-rails commentary the show is known for.
By the end you'll understand why the 2025 "dire wolf" isn't really a dire wolf, what the Bucardo's grim record actually was, and why mules — and ligers — can't be bred the way you'd think. It's a fast, funny, fact-checked crash course in one of the wildest fields in modern science.
New episodes of The Days Grimm Podcast drop regularly — history, science, true crime, and whatever rabbit hole Tom drags everyone into next.
TIMELINE:
00:00 — Cold open & welcome (Corey's birthday)
01:58 — Today's deep dive: cloning and genetic modification
02:07 — "We're not scientists" disclaimer
03:04 — Why Tom picked this: CRISPR, the Lone Star tick & a cloned dog
04:34 — 1895: the first nuclear transplantation concept
06:21 — The 4 things people confuse: cloning, gene editing, de-extinction & chimeras
07:07 — Why the 2025 "dire wolf" is really edited gray wolf
11:16 — 1952 leopard frogs & John Gurdon's Nobel work
12:30 — Dolly the sheep and why she mattered
14:00 — Why mules (and ligers) can't reproduce
16:46 — How cloning actually works (somatic cell nuclear transfer)
20:26 — What we've cloned so far + first primate clones (2018)
21:54 — Can you clone your pet? The real companies and prices
23:51 — A clone is not a resurrection + welfare concerns
25:01 — Man-animal hybrids & the Soviet Ivanov story
27:00 — Chimeras for medicine and pig organ transplants
32:00 — De-extinction & the Bucardo: "extinct twice"
33:47 — The black-footed ferret success story
34:30 — 2025 dire wolf pups & the woolly mouse
37:00 — Telomeres, Large Offspring Syndrome & failure rates
39:30 — Ethics: mammoths, pets, chimeras & human cloning
41:00 — Busting the Walt Disney frozen-head myth
42:30 — Wrap-up
[The Days Grimm Podcast Links]
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheDaysGrimm
- Our link tree: linktr.ee/Thedaysgrimm
- GoFundMe account for The Days Grimm: https://gofund.me/02527e7c
[The Days Grimm is brought to you by]
Sadness & ADHD (non-medicated)