Ridiculous History – "CLASSIC: Creature Feature: The Dark Tetrad"

Podcast: Ridiculous History (iHeartPodcasts)
Release Date: October 23, 2025
Guests: Katie Golden (Creature Feature host), Ben Bowlin & Noel Brown (Ridiculous History hosts)

Episode Overview

This episode is a "podcast crossover," featuring Ridiculous History's Ben Bowlin & Noel Brown as guests on Katie Golden's Creature Feature. The focus: exploring the “Dark Tetrad”—the four notorious personality traits (narcissism, sadism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism)—and their remarkable (and sometimes chilling) analogues in the animal kingdom, with a mix of surprising science, morbid curiosity, and dry wit.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Introduction to the Dark Tetrad

[06:26 – 09:13]

• The Dark Tetrad: Narcissism, Sadism, Psychopathy, Machiavellianism.
• These traits are infamous in humans and often linked to "evil."
• The hosts examine if and how we can spot such traits in animals.

Quote:

"There's not really an entry for evil in the DSM, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual used by psychologists. General attempts to categorize evil has resulted in the creation of the dark tetrad..." – Katie Golden [06:31]

Assigning Human Traits to Animals

[09:13 – 11:02]

• Narcissism: Can animals display it if they lack self-awareness?
• Cats and dogs are discussed humorously, with the group joking about pets’ selfish behaviors.

Quote:

"So can she really be a narcissist? This is the problem with trying to assign human traits to animals." – Katie Golden [08:20]

Sadism in Nature: The Tarantula Hawk Wasp

[11:02 – 25:22]

• Dolphins seem sadistic but have evolutionary reasons for violent behavior (e.g., beating octopi so they don’t choke).
• The tarantula hawk wasp: a case study in “evolutionary sadism.”
  • Paralyzes tarantulas, drags them to a burrow, lays an egg, and the larva eats its prey alive for up to a month.
  • Only female wasps do this, and they select the larva’s sex based on the size of the captured tarantula.
  • The cruelty is a necessity—live prey stays “fresh,” ensuring survival.

Memorable Quotes:

"If you're the tarantula... if you can't move and you see someone lay an egg on top of you, this is the point where you're going like, well, this is not going to be cool." – Katie Golden [16:17]
"That's like the Buffalo Bill of the animal kingdom right there." – Noel Brown [16:54]

Scientific Tangent:

• Entomologist Justin Schmidt ranked the tarantula hawk sting as the most painful of all stinging insects. He determined this by stinging himself.
• Tarantula hawks are worldwide, including in the US, but don’t attack humans unless threatened.

"He created a sting pain index...and says the tarantula hawk sting is, 'unsurpassed in intensity by any other stinging insect. The pain is beyond imagination.'" – Katie Golden [23:16]

Is Animal Sadism Really Evil?

[25:28 – 30:31]

• Is this wasp “evil” or just following a mindless evolutionary drive?
• The discussion veers into whether empathy and conscious intent are necessary for “evil,” and how morality might emerge as a survival mechanism.

"Maybe just like evil doesn't need to be intentionally evil, it's just a force that doesn't have empathy and then causes harm." – Katie Golden [27:51]
"We would be defining evil as not the addition of something nefarious or insidious, but the absence of an alternative long-term evil evolutionary strategy, because that's what empathy ultimately functions as." – Ben Bowlin [28:50]

The Human, Animal, and Sexual Side of Sadism

[30:31 – 32:34]

• In humans, linking sadism to sexuality can be dangerous (i.e. sexual sadism disorder vs. healthy BDSM).
• The true danger arises when sadistic urges combine with a lack of empathy.

"The explosive combination is having both a sadistic paraphilia and a clinical lack of empathy. Those are the ingredients to make most types of serial killers." – Katie Golden [31:17]

Psychopathy: The Serial Killer Brain and the World’s Most Prolific Feline Murderer

[36:19 – 47:47]

Identifying Psychopathy

[36:19 – 38:29]

• The story of neuroscientist James Fallon, who discovered his own “psychopathic brain” but attributes his nonviolent life to a loving upbringing.
• Psychopathy in humans and animals: “risk-taking, lack of fear, and lack of empathy” can actually be beneficial in survival terms.

Animal Kingdom’s Top Serial Killer: The Black-Footed Cat

[38:29 – 46:44]

• Surprisingly, the black-footed cat, not big cats like lions or tigers, is the most efficient killer—catching up to 15 animals a night.
• High metabolism drives their hunting; not “sport.” Their cuteness belies violence.
• Discussion of how domestic cats retain hints of these instincts.

"They have a 60% kill success rate, which if you've ever seen a nature documentary… 60% is incredible." – Katie Golden [39:53] "...they weigh in about two to four pounds...like two pounds of pure murderous rage." – Katie Golden [40:53]

Nature vs. Nurture and Psychopathy in People

[47:47 – 51:20]

• Is psychopathy nature or nurture? Both matter, as demonstrated by James Fallon and the daughter of a serial killer.
• Sometimes, psychopathy traits (risk-taking, novelty seeking) can provide evolutionary advantages—if the risk-taker survives to reproduce.

"Animals that are psychopaths will...go places that other animals won't and they will actually breed more successfully." – Noel Brown [48:35]

Human Case Study: The Real Serial Killer

[51:20 – 53:26]

• The story of Harold Shipman, a British doctor and history’s most prolific serial killer (218 victims), illustrates the chilling possibility of psychopathy hiding behind a harmless facade.
• Motives are murky—possibly a need for control or emotional relief.

Machiavellianism in the Animal Kingdom: Parasitic Mind Controllers

[57:12 – 66:08]

Spider-Paralyzing Wasps: Nature’s Machiavellians

[57:12 – 63:22]

• Some wasps lay eggs on orb weaver spiders, then the larva mind-controls the spider into weaving a special, reinforced cocoon before eating it alive.
• The manipulation is so precise it hijacks the spider’s molting hormone to create an ideal protective nest for the parasite.

"It's so crazy to me that you can have such a precise method of mind control, that the larva not only gets to eat its victim, but makes it spin a little cradle for it as it develops." – Katie Golden [60:59]

Other Parasites and Human Parallels

[66:08 – 69:10]

• Cordyceps fungus and Toxoplasma gondii: examples of real-life mind control in insects and possibly people.
• Spider flies are cute but horrifying: they live inside a spider for years before chewing their way out, like a chest-burster.

"It's a chest-burster situation but with like a cute, Elmo-esque muppet character." – Katie Golden [68:54]

Human Machiavellianism: The Denver Spider Man

[69:43 – 71:54]

• The tale of Theodore Edward Coneys, who lived undetected in a tiny attic, murdered the homeowner, and continued living there for months—a real-life parasitic squatter.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• "I have one question. When we talk about this attack of paralysis, right? Do the animal victims of this sort of attack, do they experience fear as we would understand it?" – Ben Bowlin [13:49]
• "Just for a safety check here, there are no wasps that do this to people, right?" – Ben Bowlin [65:00]
• "In defense of my cats, they have, at the very least, never paralyzed someone, buried them alive, and put a kitten inside of their bodies to eat them for a month." – Ben Bowlin [47:47]
• "You can find us on those shows... We’re pretty approachable, unlike some of the animals that we met in today’s episode. We don't bite." – Ben Bowlin [72:35]

Segment Timestamps

| Segment | Timestamps | |--------------------------------------------------------------|------------------| | Introduction to Dark Tetrad | 06:26 – 09:13 | | Narcissism and Animal Selves | 09:13 – 11:02 | | Sadism in Nature: The Tarantula Hawk | 11:02 – 25:22 | | Is Animal Sadism Evil? | 25:28 – 30:31 | | Human vs. Animal Sadism / Sexual Sadism | 30:31 – 32:34 | | Psychopathy and the Serial Killer Brain | 36:19 – 38:29 | | Black-Footed Cat: Nature’s Top Serial Killer | 38:29 – 46:44 | | Nature vs. Nurture, Psychopathy | 47:47 – 51:20 | | Human Serial Killer: Shipman | 51:20 – 53:26 | | Machiavellianism & Parasites | 57:12 – 66:08 | | Parasitic Mind Control: Cordyceps, Toxoplasma, Spider Flies | 66:08 – 69:10 | | Human Example: The Denver Spider Man | 69:43 – 71:54 | | Plugs and Outro | 71:54 – 73:50 |

Tone & Style

The episode blends science, unsettling facts, philosophical musings, and lively humor. The hosts never lose their sense of wonder or wit, even as they wade into the darkest corners of biology and psychology.

Key Takeaways

• The Dark Tetrad traits, while sinister in humans, often have evolutionary logic in animals.
• Nature often achieves what would qualify as "evil" behavior—sadism, manipulation, psychopathy—by blind evolutionary mechanisms, not malice or intent.
• Surprising animals—tiny cats, wasps, fungi—may be the natural world's most ruthless operators, not the big predators we usually fear.
• Human morality and empathy may likewise be products of evolutionary strategies, not just conscious choice.
• Stories from nature highlight the complexity (and sometimes the ridiculousness) of assigning human motives to non-human animal behaviors.

For those interested in the most chilling and fascinating parallels between human and animal behavior—and in thinking way too much about what your house cat is really plotting—this classic crossover episode is essential listening.