95: 🎂 Superheavy Elements 2, Craftivism 2, and Tom’s List

23rd October 2025

It’s the podcast’s birthday!! So Tom has a few ideas he wants to pitch to Caroline and Ella… but first! Ella and Caroline finally revisit the topics they promised! What are the WILD stories behind the race to discover new elements, and what are the real nuancy nuances of craftivism? Images we Talk About: William […]

Episode notes

It’s the podcast’s birthday!! So Tom has a few ideas he wants to pitch to Caroline and Ella… but first! Ella and Caroline finally revisit the topics they promised! What are the WILD stories behind the race to discover new elements, and what are the real nuancy nuances of craftivism?

Images we Talk About:
William Morris’ Print
Terrero’s Hankie
Hankie Given to Terrero
Madres de Plaza de Mayo
Pussyhat
Tom’s Gifts

Timestamps:
(00:00:00) Intro
(00:06:43) Superheavy Elements 2
(01:17:58) Craftivism 2
(02:01:28) Tom’s List

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We also learn about: How do we prove this is real, we pinky promise, a refresher in the form of a pop quiz, we didn’t make the elements – except for some we did make, is the gift plutonium? we never thought we’d have another element heavier – and then you happened! the quizkids element reveal, the increasing specificity of Stan’s Apartmentium, just keep adding and smashing its just math – really expensive math, the long island ice tea of nuclear materials is in the bomb, scraping new elements off the filters of flying through a mushroom cloud, the edge of the periodic table was a cold war battle field, the feuds of the transfermium wars, perhaps sodium seaborgate, while they were bickering over naming Germany discovered 5 new elements, it’s like a railgun you nerd, linear vs circular accelerators, it’s like hotwheels tracks, we could’ve designed this! “how can we differently smash this stuff?”, I’m hype about a filter, only Victor Ninov could run GOOSY, “the most audacious fraud in scientific history”, lying about discovering an element and then discovering it before people catch on to the lie, 3 elements wasn’t enough, Oganessian co discovered 14 elements – the most of anyone, I mean really we all co-discovered this topic, “we hit this wall of super heavy elements being bastards”, Goosy 2 Electric Goosyloo, you’re smashing billions of particles per second over months to hopefully get 1 atom, calcium beam of milk, the theoretical island of stability, superstable superheavy elements, disappointment on the horizon, domestic arts for political and social change, I sure wish someone had done research into this nuance, oh fuck that was supposed to be me! the arts and crafts movement was activism for crafts not crafts for activism, fucking up golf courses for women’s suffrage, some suffragettes didn’t want to include working class women, imprisoned women were given sewing needles to reform but they just made incredible protest art, Madres de Plaza de Mayo, a sense of solidarity through craft, lets tonally tokyo drift this episode baby, comparing and contrasting with the pussy hat, craft ins and yarn bombing, craftivism defies expectations and engages community, “appealing” activism, craftivism is a piece of the puzzle not the whole solution, it’s a useful tool in the toolkit, Hoisin Duck Wrap – Irn Bru – Yogurt, Tom gets a tattoo and regrets it, stopping by Tom Scott’s spinoff podcast show, Tom’s gifts, putting it to the test who’s the strongest cohost, the podcast can officially hop!

Sources:

Kit Chapman’s “Super Heavy: Making and Breaking the Periodic Table”
Ella’s Superheavy Documentary

Britannica: Arts and Crafts Movement
Textile Society of America: The benefits and pitfalls of craftivism
Museum of English Rural lift: Suffrage and the Sewing Machine
American Golfer 1912: The British Suffragettes Attack Golf Courses
Textile Society of America: The Political Stitch: Voicing Resistance in a Suffrage Textile
The Thread Blog: Historical Craftivism: From Suffragettes to Gandhi to Argentina
The Association of the Madres de Plaza de Mayo
Learning for Justice: Madres de Plaza de Mayo
V&A: The Pussyhat
The Morning Crafter Blog: Craftivism: Empowerment, Resistance, and Activism Through History
Book: How To Be A Craftivist by Sarah Corbett
2022 Paper: Negotiating the Art of Protest through Craftivism
2017 Paper: KNIT + RESIST: placing the Pussyhat Project in the context of craft activism
2018 Paper: Knitting Activism, Knitting Gender, Knitting Race
J. Feliz: An Open Letter to the Craftivism Movement
BBC: Police to get broader powers to restrict repeated protests

In this episode...

About the show

Science communicators Ella Hubber, Tom Lum, and Caroline Roper share anything and everything interesting! Each episode they teach each other about a science topic, answer a question, and learn about a miscellaneous topic. Whether it’s temporal illusions, animals in space, or the history of fanfiction, there’s so much out there, so let’s learn everything! Join us on Discord, email us, and follow us everywhere at LetsLearnEverythingPod.com.

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