Coltan Scrivner (on morbid curiosities)
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What is the significance of morbid curiosity?
Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Armchair Expert early and ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Or you can listen for free wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome, welcome, welcome to Armchair Expert, experts on expert. I'm Dan Shepard and I'm joined by Lily Padman. Dax just farted. Shut up. You don't know anything about farts. And no, I didn't. And nor did our guest, Colton Scribner. Colton is an author and a psychologist. He is an internationally recognized expert on morbid curiosity and the psychology of horror and true crime. He has a very fascinating book called Morbidly Curious. A scientist explains why we can't look away. This is great. Why do guys like MMA?
Why do women like true crime? We get all the answers. It's Pretty interesting. All of it's interesting. Humans draw to morbid stuff. Yes. So that we can protect ourselves ultimately. It has a good, there's a good reason. We're just so fragile. We're so scared. Please enjoy Colton Scrivener. Thank you to our presenting sponsor, Audible, for supporting this episode. Armcherry's Audible's Best of 2025 collection is here. The year's top audiobooks, podcasts, and originals across every genre. Their editors spent countless hours listening and debating to handpick this year's must-listens. If you want to finish the year with something you know is going to hit, check out Audible's Best of 2025 and discover why there's more to imagine when you listen.
Go to audible.com slash best of 2025. Colton, how are you? Are you on a big, long press tour?
Kind of, yeah. So I'm in L.A. until Thursday. I got in yesterday. I had a talk at Orange County Library down in Foothill Ranch. Okay. And then I had NPR this morning. Who? Larry Mantle? It was All Things Considered. Oh, All Things Considered. Great.
How do humans engage with fear and danger?
Caché.
A lot of caché.
Elevated.
Had you been on NPR before?
Yeah, yeah, several times, but not in studio, because I live in the Ozark Mountains. There's not really a good NPR studio over there. Yeah, how close to the lakes? I have Beaver Lake and Table Rock surrounding where I live. So I live in a little Victorian town, and the Ozark's like a little travel destination town. And you're hosting a zombie festival there? I did last Saturday. It was fantastic. Tell me, how many zombies showed up? I have to ask the police. They give me these, like, magical estimates. Last year, I said, how many people do you think came? And they're like, oh, probably 20,000. What? Wow, that's awesome, though. It probably is $15,000, though. Really? Yeah. Do they all buy tickets? No, it's a free event.
It's a free event? You could be getting filthy rich off this. $10 a pop. Sell merch. You sell merch. What kind of merch, Julia?
Yeah, what does it look like?
We have a shirt this year that has a big, we have a brain buffet. It's a gelatin brain-eating competition. You have to dress as a zombie, eat a big, anatomically-sized gelatin brain, which is a lot harder than you think it is. Wow, yeah. As fast as you can. That's a lot of jello. That's a lot of jello.
Because the brain weighs like two pounds or something. Is that a couple pounds of jello? We should know from Jared McBride. I used to think it was more, and then you corrected me in a fact check. I thought it was like five pounds. I think it is like five, right? I think that's your whole head. What does he say? The human brain weighs... Let's find out. I'm going to bet it's six pounds. Six pounds. I'm going to guess six. I think it's... You're going to say three because it's safe. It's between us. I think it's eight pounds.
If anything, I think I'm under it. I would say six or more.
We're going to get a real answer here. This is not a dried out brain. This is like a fully wet. Yeah. How much does a human brain weigh? Three pounds.
What are the four domains of morbid curiosity?
Oh, no. Maybe whoever wrote that, their brain weighs- A newborn is 0.8 to 0.9 pounds. Okay. An adult male is 1,350 to 1,400 grams. Adult females, sorry girls, 1,200 to 1,300. No wonder they're so stupid. I've been looking for a reason. It's right here in Black and White. Wow, that's an incredible turnout.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the significance of morbid curiosity?
0:00–2:18
2
How do humans engage with fear and danger?
2:18–3:56
3
What are the four domains of morbid curiosity?
3:56–5:28
4
How does Coltan's research relate to horror and true crime?
5:28–1:14:04
5
What reflections are made about Thanksgiving traditions?
1:14:04–1:14:34
6
How does the discussion shift to the topic of violence?
1:14:34–1:14:56
7
What insights are shared about the nature of curiosity?
1:14:56–1:15:23
8
How do the hosts discuss the impact of societal norms on behavior?
1:15:23–2:16:24