The Captain’s Log entry: Week of 17 August, the year of our Lord 2025
I spy a cat! Espionage, covert operations and general sneaking around!
Hello beautiful cat-loving and cat-curious people!
New subscribers, it’s so nice to meet you. We promise this is “all killer, no filler”, as the kids say.
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We are over halfway through season 3 - how did that happen?!
Thus far -
We’ve talked about the art and science of naps
We’ve leveraged the cute / baby schema in the cats vs babies debate
We’ve investigated the cat eye - the make-up and the magic
and…SPIES!
Alrighty. Let’s get into it!
AT OUR LAST PORT OF DISEMBARKATION
In which the editorial director of this newsletter, Captain Kitty reports on our past destinations.
So.
- what do you think? Are cats both clairvoyant AND covert ops agents? (And did you follow the Japanese 101 lesson courtesy our expert Japan language and culture translator Zack Davisson?)
In last week’s episode, we gained more in-depth intel on feline anatomy from Dr. Gabriela “Gaby” Canales, co-medical director of NYC’s West Chelsea Animal Veterinary. Gaby helped round out some of cool feline physics facts that physicist and author of “Falling Felines and Fundamental Physics” (Yale University Press), Dr. Greg Gbur from season 1’s Curiosity Didn’t Kill the Cat (Part 1) episode shared, such as the righting reflex - among other traits that make cats the purr-fect stealthy steppers. In addition to Dr. Steve Hanes’ cat ophthalmology insights in our Cat Eyes episode, I think the case on the super powers of cats is ironclad.
As my most loyal listeners know, yours truly lived and worked in Japan awhile back and while the whole “Japan is an island of cat people” hypothesis remains under discussion (listen to our Cat People episode for some commentary on that) it was very enlightening to receive award-winning Japanese language translator and history writer Zack Davisson’s evidence-informed insights on the (self?)-mythologized ninja - er, shinobi. Mythology factors heavily into this podcast, and it’s getting to the point where it’s hard to determine where history stops and mythology starts…and vice versa. While sole reliance on the written word has led to many cross-cultural misunderstandings, there is something to be said about anchoring knowledge in context that is collectively evaluated with concrete documentation among the artifacts under consideration. That is to say - just because the sole existing SOP for ninja skills didn’t mention cats doesn’t mean they weren’t part of it. JUST SAYIN’. (Half kidding. We are very discerning of the evidence we use to inform our takes here at Casa Kitten.) (On a side note, in our research we surfaced a really cool Japanese culture blog written by a peer of Zack’s called Hiroko Yoda that we recommend - check it out here.)
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One advantage of reporting on post-modern and contemporary happenings is that a lot of paper trails are easily accessible - albeit perhaps more biased. A perfect example of this is the world of espionage which is all about mis-, dis- and mal-information. We were fortunate to have had the former curator and host of the International Spy Museum podcast, historian Dr. Andrew Hammond on board to break down what kind of “intelligence” is being collected and the various ways agencies in government and tech harvest it. Which, of course, is how cats got dragged into the story, courtesy one Project Acoustic Kitty. Sounds cute, but sadly, at the expense of many kitties’ lives, the project yielded zero successes and ultimately resulted in what former CIA operative Vincent Marchetti described as “a monstrosity”. While many reports on this have lighthearted jokes and puns, we at 6 Degrees of Cats hope for a world in which the human power and energy that goes into harming humans in the name of [land / power / resources / wealth] are redirected to preserve the beauty of nature and the potential of the human spirit for kindness, compassion and pro-social creativity.
Anyway, this podcast was one of the most challenging to edit because of the sheer depth and breadth of the topics we covered with each expert, and paid subscribers will be treated to some outtakes in the off-season! Trust us, there sure are. In the meantime…
NEWS FROM THE CREW!
Here is where my team will share their updates.
We are hard at work over here, polishing up the next episode out next Tuesday, August 26 in which we’ll train another eye on cats 🎥 Well, even more than we already do. This camera roll is getting FULL.
We have enjoyed our ongoing collaboration with community partners including The Cat Museum of NYC which included a super fun coloring event featuring artwork from a very talented illustrator. It took us back to our Cat Art episode. Behold our masterpiece:
Oh - and!
On October 31 we also will be back at Catbaret, hosted by Gemma Smith (also of Tails & Tassels!) for Meow-loween! Captain Kitty will represent the crew as a stage kitten for the purr-lesque dancers. Get $15 discounted tickets here for a limited time with the code MEOWVIP and invite your clowder coven.
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Keep a close eye on your kitties, y’all - what are they seeing, and what are they up to?! Oh, and try to find all their hiding spots because if there’s an emergency, you’ll want to make sure you can collect your cats and get to safety! Still scratching our heads on where Peanut goes in the office…
🛟 Stay whole, spread love, donate to the IRC or the Red Cross to help starving people under siege if you can - because everything is connected. 🛟
Captain Kitty, Binky, Snuggles and Peanut