Join Collin and Kit for episode 2 of HYPERfixate as they discuss Blackbeard and The Gentleman Pirate, how many guns a Spanish Man O'War had, and why most pirates were in their late teens or early twenties (seventeen-year-old Izzy Hands, anyone?), as well as Blackbeard's Top Ten Cures for Syphilis (hint: they're all mercury). Then, mosey into conversation about Edgar Allan Poe and the racial discourse surrounding his work "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" -- specifically, the infamous orangutan. Why is the orangutan conversation banned at some conferences? Come find out.

This week's music is "Rigatoni + Revolver" from AmpleTunes.

On the maiden voyage of HYPERfixate, Kit and Collin talk about the Organized Crime Syndicate, Lucky Luciano, and Bugsy Siegel, and how those things relate to Benito Mussolini, Hollywood, and the raising of Las Vegas. They then dive into the history of Dungeons & Dragons and how it made its way from an expansion of Chainmail to the wildly popular and widely-known tabletop RPG that we know and love today, and how everything is really just D&D 3.5e. Everything. EVERYTHING.