The Full Moon: Is It Messing With Us?
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Hi, I'm Wendy Zuckerman and you're listening to Science Versus. This is the show that pits facts against the full moon. Does it change who we are? This episode about the full moon has been one of our most requested episodes this past year. You asked for it, so here it is. And to start our journey, we sent senior producer Meryl Horne out to brave the streets of New York City. Picture it. There's a chill in the air. Out in the east, the full moon was on the rise. And she ventured into a park to hear firsthand what people experience when there's a full moon.
Makes people wild. It makes them carnal. There's a carnal thing happening. Everyone does not act right. It's terrible. I think people are just wilding out. Claws out, you know. I'm blaming the moon.
That damn moon. Some people said that the full moon stirred up all this drama in their lives. One guy said that sometimes he doesn't even go out when there's a full moon. I'm going to stay in that night. I'm going to play it safe. Just like because I know I could feel weird or do crazy stuff. Folks said you just knew it was going to be a full moon that night because people at work would be going bonkers. And this is in the research too. It shows that some healthcare workers think the full moon makes their patients behave stranger. One survey even showed that some doctors and nurses think they should get full moon hazard pay. Meryl heard about this as well at the park.
My mom was a nurse at the state hospital, and she had a lot of, like, psychiatric patients. And she was like, oh, man, the full moon is the worst. It's the absolute worst. Because people do act crazy. I worked in retail. I worked there for, like, a full year. Every single time, on the full moon, we had the craziest customers. And I would tell everyone, I'd be like, it's the full moon. Watch out. And they'd be like, it's not going to be that bad of a day. It was. It was the worst days. Every single day.
You still work there?
No, I quit. Quit on the full moon, actually. Like, fully quit on the full moon.
And perhaps the creepiest thing of all, people said that the full moon could make blood come out of your vagina. I mean, they didn't put it quite like that.
It definitely affects me from, like, the feminine cycle, the monthly cycle.
Yeah.
Do you think you sync up with the full moon? Yeah, for sure. My period will probably be coming because it's usually cycled with the moon. Literally, I go to beauty school. I go to cosmetology school. It's mostly women. All their cycles synced up to this week, basically. So up to the full moon. So like they're in the middle of their periods. Literally today.
So could the moon be affecting our body and our behaviour in these strange ways? While this idea might sound like it belongs in the world of horoscopes, perhaps even fairy tales, some scientists have been taking it very seriously. And in the past few years in particular, there's been a slew of peer-reviewed scientific papers coming out and claiming that the moon really can affect our bodies. in very surprising ways. So in today's episode, we are going to look at this cutting-edge science. And by the end of the ep, you might just be feeling a little carnal yourself. For hundreds of years, we've blamed all sorts of stuff on the... That damn moon. But then, there's science. Science vs. the Full Moon is coming up after the break.
Welcome back. Today on the show, we're looking at the full moon. There's one coming up on Monday. And so we're asking... Can it really influence us, change our behavior? And fellow lunar explorer Meryl Horne is here. Hi, Wendy. Okay, so first up, can we just get a bit of a lay of the land? And could you just explain why do you see a full moon or a half moon or whatever? Why does it change?
Yes, I can explain this. I actually brought a prop. Oh, great. Okay, so I have like a model of the sun, the earth, and the moon for you. My God, you've really gone all out, Meryl. Okay, so we are right now on the surface of the Earth, right? Yeah, that I know.
Yes.
So imagine you're spinning around and around.
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