We have a fun episode to start the new year, where we explores the psychology, history, and science behind the internet's (and Nicola’s) obsession with feline content. We were lucky to have a guest in studio with us for this episode, Dr Grace Carroll, an expert in animal psychology, with a particular interest in cats!

We trace the evolution of cat memes from the 2007 launch of "I Can Has Cheezburger?" through to today's weird and viral AI cat Chubby.

We unpack how baby features in animals activate our caregiving instincts, why cats might be like cuckoos, how domestication works, what the "cute aggression" phenomenon is (that urge to squeeze adorable things), and how cat videos genuinely improve mood, reduce anxiety, and combat loneliness!

Cats conquered the internet because they're perfectly engineered for it—cute, funny, and capable of triggering real emotional connections across all cultures.

And for once we need no content warning! And check our instagram for pictures of the cats we talked about in the episode!

Special thanks to Joel Veitch of the band Rathergood.com who kindly allowed us to use the viral song The internet is made of cats in this episode: https://open.spotify.com/track/1VoLR7BNTIODmwvVWLnobX

Links to stories/media

The history of I Can Has Cheezburger https://www.cnet.com/culture/the-history-of-i-can-has-cheezburger/ https://icanhas.cheezburger.com/

BBC - How cats won the internet - Maria Bustillos 2015 https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20150918-how-did-cats-win-the-internet

Maru's Youtube https://www.youtube.com/mugumogu

The unstoppable rise of Chubby: Why TikTok's AI-generated cat could be the future of the internet https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240819-why-these-ai-cat-videos-may-be-the-internets-future

Studies

Shiri Lieber-Milo (2025). Cuteness and Its Emotional Responses https://www.mdpi.com/2673-8392/5/3/146

Stavropoulos & Alba. (2018). “It’s so Cute I Could Crush It!”: Understanding Neural Mechanisms of Cute Aggression https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/behavioral-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnbeh.2018.00300/full

Zhang et al. (2025). Animal Video Lovers Always Have Company: The Role of Cyber-Mediated Animal Attachment in Loneliness, https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/15/17/2593

Li et al. (2025). Psychological Benefits of Companion Animals: Exploring the Distinction Between Ownership and Online Animal Watching https://brill.com/view/journals/soan/aop/article-10.1163-15685306-bja10244/article-10.1163-15685306-bja10244.xml

Kogan et al (2018). Use of Short Animal-Themed Videos to Enhance Veterinary Students’ Mood, Attention, and Understanding of Pharmacology Lectures https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28960127/

Jessica Gall Myrick. (2015). Emotion regulation, procrastination, and watching cat videos online: Who watches Internet cats, why, and to what effect? https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.06.001

Christmas has gone digital—we shop online, video call the family abroad, and scroll through everyone's seemingly perfect holiday posts. But what's all this screen time actually doing to us?

In this special Christmas episode, we get into the psychology behind our online Christmas habits. Why do we post photos of our Christmas trees and do we compare them to more perfect ones (like Liams)? Why does Spotify Wrapped feel so personal and what do we get out of sharing it? Can video calls with family make us feel both connected and lonely at the same time?

We also cover the messier bits: how Instagram's algorithm shows you everyone's highlight reel (minus the family rows), why Christmas music is fine when you choose it but torture when it's blasted at you in the shops, and the rise in some more negative aspects of the online world over the Christmas break.

The takeaway? You don't need to reject your phone at Christmas—just be more thoughtful about how you're using it.

Research

Lonely Algorithms on TikTok - Taylor & Chen (2024)

Music Management in workplaces - Keeler et al. (2025)

Combating Loneliness with Nostalgia - Abeyta et al. (2020)

Resources

HSE Combating Loneliness and isolation

Alone.ie

Avoiding Online Scams

We were planning to take a break over Christmas, but Liam surprised us all (including Nicola) with a Christmas special! It drops Friday the 12th, then we'll be on hiatus until January 6th to rest and recharge for 2026. And no, we're not making any predictions about how that year will go—we're not jinxing it!