Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff
Speaker 1: Works dot com. Hey, welcome to stuff to Blow your Mind.
Speaker 1: My name is Robert Lamp and I'm Julie Techlass. Julie,
Speaker 1: When you were a kid, did you ever make mud pies? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Do you remember any of your recipes? Um? I just
Speaker 1: remember an ordinate amount of them because it was rural Michigan, right,
Speaker 1: so there wasn't a lot to do um at that time,
Speaker 1: and so I just remember making them by the side
Speaker 1: of the house and I used my hands mostly to
Speaker 1: shape them though. Cool. Yeah, yeah, we we did as well,
Speaker 1: me and my sister's we there was a faucet behind
Speaker 1: the house. There's like a concrete slab back there for
Speaker 1: some reason, and then just dirt, so we would, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, we'd add some water to the to the dirt,
Speaker 1: create mud, pack that mud into pie tins and also
Speaker 1: many pie tins, and then you you leave them out
Speaker 1: there on the slab, they bake, they dry, they become
Speaker 1: delicious pies, and that's when you cut a slice and
Speaker 1: you eat it, right, you know. I don't know if
Speaker 1: I ever did, but I was the older of the kids,
Speaker 1: and it's entirely possible that the my younger siblings ate
Speaker 1: some of the mud pies. And you know what, that's
Speaker 1: not probably a surprise to any parent, because all parents
Speaker 1: know that at some point their kid is going to
Speaker 1: be chomping on something, some sort of non food item
Speaker 1: that they shouldn't be. But it turns out that dirt eating,
Speaker 1: which is called pikea, which is actually a lot more
Speaker 1: than dirt eating, is so much more common than anybody
Speaker 1: has ever really realized, also known as geophagy. If you
Speaker 1: want to get fancier, that's pretty fancy. So we've talked
Speaker 1: about the benefits of premastication and regurgitation and other podcasts,
Speaker 1: so we thought, we know what, why not talk about
Speaker 1: dirt eating because it's kind of fascinating stuff. Yeah, Now,
Speaker 1: from a very broad viewpoint, there's nothing really that weird
Speaker 1: about it. I mean, there are organisms that eat minerals.
Speaker 1: The mineral crunching bacteria for instance, um exists. And then
Speaker 1: just in any diet, I mean, what do you think
Speaker 1: you're doing when you put salt on something. You're adding
Speaker 1: a little mineral to your diet. It's it's not crazy. Um. Likewise,
Speaker 1: the various medications that we take have some sort of
Speaker 1: mineral component too, So there's nothing just off the wall
Speaker 1: nuts about eating dirt, eating minerals, eating essentially rocks. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you've probably even witnessed your dog or cat eating
Speaker 1: something that's a non food item, especially dogs, especially dogs.
Speaker 1: In fact, you might have even witness phyto chopping down
Speaker 1: on a chunk of poo before, right, Yeah, especially cat,
Speaker 1: this happens. It's called corpor fagia, and it actually means
Speaker 1: that your dog could have a vitamin deficiency or even
Speaker 1: a touch of O C D. And this is something
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about more in humans later. Um,
Speaker 1: But before we really kind of get into the meat
Speaker 1: of this or the dirt of it, let's talk a
Speaker 1: bit about what it is. UM. How it's characterized picka
Speaker 1: is actually comes from the Latin word for magpie, since
Speaker 1: the magpie bird will eat just about anything, and it's
Speaker 1: been thought of as a physiological eating disorder. And as
Speaker 1: you have noted, it's also called geo foggia or earth eating.
Speaker 1: And in humans it's mainly pregnant women and pre adolescent
Speaker 1: children who exhibit pica eating behavior. And again, when we
Speaker 1: talk about pica, it's most associated with dirt, but it
Speaker 1: can be a lot of different things. It can be clay,
Speaker 1: it can be starch. Yeah, I mean I was looking
Speaker 1: at some some reports. We're talking about ice. Uh, pregnant
Speaker 1: women that experiencing pica, and half of them are eating ice,
Speaker 1: which is pago foggia, which is different. I mean eating
Speaker 1: a bunch of ices. You're just drinking a lot of water,
Speaker 1: except with more crunch, right. Yeah. And some people say
Speaker 1: that it's a texture thing and it can be a
Speaker 1: stress thing when it comes time soothing on the tongue
Speaker 1: and all that. Now with with children, obviously, children, very
Speaker 1: young children will try and eat just about anything. That's
Speaker 1: why you don't give them micro machine to play with.
Speaker 1: That's why you you limit things in their environment. They
Speaker 1: can go down their mouth throughout their nose, because it's
Speaker 1: just part of the testing out their environment. What can
Speaker 1: I eat, what can I not? What goes fits up
Speaker 1: my nose, what doesn't quite fit up my nose? Yeah.
Speaker 1: But then there's this other little section um that kind
Speaker 1: of veers off into other territory, and it's more about
Speaker 1: compulsive eating, and that's where you see very unusual non
Speaker 1: food items. So we're talking about cigarette ashes, toothpicks, athletic socks,
Speaker 1: dust balloons, paint chips, hair, and burnt matches. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: the heroines big you do see that. Yeah, And depending
Speaker 1: on the item that's being eaten pick it could lead
Speaker 1: to health problems like lead poisoning from the paint chips
Speaker 1: or constipation from starch or clay in take because everything
Speaker 1: in moderation. Don't go out and eat just a whole
Speaker 1: lot of pizza, don't go out and drink in a
Speaker 1: xominant amount of water. And if you're going to eat
Speaker 1: gym socks, keep it down there like one or two
Speaker 1: pairs tops. All right, let's see that's the problem, right,
Speaker 1: If you're eating gym socks is probably because you have
Speaker 1: compulsion to do so something. Yeah, there's it's a psychological
Speaker 1: disorder at that point. Yeah. So this podcast is really
Speaker 1: going to talk about two different aspects of pick A.
Speaker 1: One is more sort of the cultural aspects and the
Speaker 1: nutritive aspects, and the other is going to be more
Speaker 1: of the psychological and sort of the compulsion aspect of it.
Speaker 1: But I did want to mention that pica has been
Speaker 1: around for a long time. The first written account of
Speaker 1: human geophagey comes from Hippocrates more than two thousand years ago,
Speaker 1: so we've been eating dirt for quite some time. And
Speaker 1: I've also read accounts, um, and I don't know to
Speaker 1: what degree they were accurate now that I think about them,
Speaker 1: but you at least find stories in which individuals are
Speaker 1: so hungry that to set to satisfy their hunger on
Speaker 1: some level, they will eat non food items. And certainly
Speaker 1: there have been plenty of times where food items have
Speaker 1: been panned out, like during the Second World War, there
Speaker 1: were times when they would add uh, say wood shavings, um,
Speaker 1: sawdust to uh to say flower or something, you know,
Speaker 1: and it's not really food item, but you can sort
Speaker 1: of try and make your food stretched a little a
Speaker 1: little farther. By doing that, you're right in filling up
Speaker 1: your belly. Right, So if you eat a bunch of clay,
Speaker 1: then maybe that can stem off your your hunger for
Speaker 1: a little while. Um. So let's talk about the cultural
Speaker 1: aspect of this, because in some cultures, both inside and
Speaker 1: outside the United States, it really is not uncommon for say,
Speaker 1: women to consume clay or dirt during pregnancy, and that's
Speaker 1: where we most associate pica. And it's interesting, I didn't
Speaker 1: find any sources that really went into this. But by
Speaker 1: the mere fact that you see pregnant women engaging in it,
Speaker 1: I feel like there's a huge amount of sexism in
Speaker 1: our cultural history with pica because women are the ones
Speaker 1: that are are eating it, and they're doing so on
Speaker 1: they're pregnant, and so in many cultures, I mean, you
Speaker 1: you can easily imagine it being explained away as oh,
Speaker 1: it's crazy pregnant ladies. Of course they're going to do
Speaker 1: crazy things. Um, Whereas as as we're discussing, there are
Speaker 1: a number of other possibilities at work here beyond just
Speaker 1: mere madness. Yeah, I mean, sometimes it is an aspect
Speaker 1: of cultural bonding that that women, pregnant women will eat
Speaker 1: clay or some other substance because it's what's done in
Speaker 1: that community, and there's this idea that it could save
Speaker 1: off symptoms of pregnancy like nausea. And then sometimes it
Speaker 1: has to do with vitamin deficiencies, which we'll talk about
Speaker 1: a little bit more. Uh. Yeah, but certainly you have
Speaker 1: a culture aspect. It's just one huge part there. If
Speaker 1: you're if you're in an environment in a culture where
Speaker 1: it is accepted that the consuming clay or some sort
Speaker 1: of mineral during this time is beneficial and okay, then
Speaker 1: obviously you're gonna go for it, whereas in other areas
Speaker 1: it's going to be basically a taboo. It's just gonna
Speaker 1: be you know, it's who eats dirt? Yeah, it's kind
Speaker 1: of like, what what is that cultural norm there? Right? So,
Speaker 1: if you're in ken, you are you gonda? Dirt eating
Speaker 1: is not going to be so weird because it could
Speaker 1: be used in ceremonial or religious practices. But then half
Speaker 1: a world away, somebody else is bringing their own cultural
Speaker 1: bias to it and they're saying, whoa, look at these
Speaker 1: backwards people in this backwards country eating dirt like moron.
Speaker 1: But they're just because they have their cultural blinders on,
Speaker 1: they don't realize that it is essentially a normal act. Yeah,
Speaker 1: let me share this historical tidbit with you because I
Speaker 1: think it's really interesting. Um. In Psychology Today's Brain Sense column,
Speaker 1: it's pointed out that clay eating and soil eating were
Speaker 1: common in the eight hundreds, especially among slaves in the
Speaker 1: American South, and then in the fifties and sixties, the
Speaker 1: practice was so popular that clay filled lunch bags were
Speaker 1: sold at Alabama bus stops for snacks as travelers and
Speaker 1: Southerners would male bags of hometown clay to their friends
Speaker 1: and relatives who moved north, and in some reports estimate
Speaker 1: that clay eating is a daily practice in over two
Speaker 1: hundred cultures worldwide. Well, you know, there's something perhaps in
Speaker 1: a psychological and almost magical thinking level, where like the
Speaker 1: the earth that you were from, you would want to
Speaker 1: engage with it like it I mean also reminds me
Speaker 1: of a Dracula. When Dracula moved um to London from Transylvania,
Speaker 1: he had his native dirt shipped with him because he
Speaker 1: needed that dirt to really to be I mean, that
Speaker 1: was his home. He had to bring a chunk of
Speaker 1: his home with And of course we all do that
Speaker 1: when we travel. We want to bring a piece not
Speaker 1: the dirt necessarily the grave dirt, but we bring a
Speaker 1: piece of the place we were with us, you know.
Speaker 1: Well yeah, and and depending on the area that you're in,
Speaker 1: you're going to have a different content in terms of
Speaker 1: minerals and other things that could potentially be helpful to someone.
Speaker 1: We'll talk more about that later. Oh yeah, it kind
Speaker 1: of comes right back around into some of the discussions
Speaker 1: you hear involving, say, the consumption of local honey to
Speaker 1: deal with local pathoges. You know, the the idea that
Speaker 1: that you were essentially a local being and the more
Speaker 1: you consume locally, the more in tune within with the
Speaker 1: local ecosystem you're going to be. So this is a
Speaker 1: story really about how widespread and common it is. In fact, um,
Speaker 1: you know, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
Speaker 1: decided that pica couldn't be considered abnormal because it was
Speaker 1: so widespread and because it was associated with cultural practice
Speaker 1: practices as opposed to uh, you know, some sort of
Speaker 1: O C D behavior. Now the question becomes, well, what's
Speaker 1: the deal with eating things that are non nutritive or
Speaker 1: outside of the cultural norm that don't have anything to
Speaker 1: do with cultural practices or religious practices? For instance, like
Speaker 1: what's the deal with eating something like toilet paper? Um?
Speaker 1: Where does where does that all fit into this? Because
Speaker 1: this is under the heading of pica, right, and that
Speaker 1: the Japanese diet, the Jinnameroni was on. She could eat
Speaker 1: all these she could eat all the the tissue paper
Speaker 1: or just paper I think she wanted. But you can
Speaker 1: only eat paper. That's right, that's right. Um. So other
Speaker 1: than in pregnant women, chronic pica or this kind of um,
Speaker 1: you know, outside of again the cultural norm, pica is
Speaker 1: most common in people with developmental disabilities, including including autism.
Speaker 1: This in children, UM and typically the children are between
Speaker 1: the ages of two and three when this begins to surface.
Speaker 1: Pica also may surface in children who have had a
Speaker 1: brain injury affecting their development. And according to Kids Health,
Speaker 1: between ten and thirty percent of kids ages one to
Speaker 1: six years have the eating disorder of pica. And again,
Speaker 1: this is characterized by persistent and compulsive cravings that last
Speaker 1: for one month or longer to eat these non food items.
Speaker 1: So naturally, if you have this compulsion to eat things
Speaker 1: that are not food, it can reak havoc on your
Speaker 1: digestive system. And there's there's actually been an uptick in this,
Speaker 1: Yeah's a huge one that's studied by the Agency for
Speaker 1: Healthcare Research and Quality found that hospitalizations for pica in
Speaker 1: a ten year span jumped n That is huge. So
Speaker 1: what happens that people are hospitalized for a laundry list
Speaker 1: of problems, including obstruction of the bowel or airways from
Speaker 1: consuming or choking on stuff like hair, high blood pressure,
Speaker 1: high levels of sodium salts in the blood, and abnormal
Speaker 1: liver functions because of consuming huge quantities of something like
Speaker 1: baking powder. So again, the list of Pika items is.
Speaker 1: You know, you'll get some lists than their twenty items
Speaker 1: long thirty items long, and they range anywhere from like
Speaker 1: you know, chalk again, hair, you know, chumping, chomping on
Speaker 1: match sticks or yeah, or people trying to get into
Speaker 1: the Guinness Book. There. You have a certain subset of
Speaker 1: people who are always trying to do things like can
Speaker 1: I pass an entire toy train through my digestive system
Speaker 1: piece by piece? So they'll take something big, take it up.
Speaker 1: I think people have done this with cars before, their ideas.
Speaker 1: Can I consume a car piece by piece and pass
Speaker 1: it through my body? Does it come out altogether on
Speaker 1: the other end, Yeah, it just naturally comes out whole.
Speaker 1: I don't know how they do it, but I mean
Speaker 1: maybe it's sort of a sense of power in that.
Speaker 1: It's like, like you're not so tough, Folkswagen. I can
Speaker 1: eat you in small pieces, but I can still eat you.
Speaker 1: I don't know. When I hear at things like that.
Speaker 1: I always think that that's one of those things where
Speaker 1: you feel like you have a measure of control over
Speaker 1: your life, right, So everything else could be spiling, spiraling
Speaker 1: out of control, and then you begin to obsess on
Speaker 1: this one thing that you can control. So it's sort
Speaker 1: of interesting and that if you look at um pica
Speaker 1: and you look at it in the O C D spectrum,
Speaker 1: very well maybe related to that, especially because they've taken
Speaker 1: studies of people with pica and they've given them they've
Speaker 1: given them the S s R eyes the serotonin uptake inhibitors, right,
Speaker 1: that helps you balance out the serotonin in your brain.
Speaker 1: These are largely a class of antidepressants, and they have
Speaker 1: found that that is really effective for people with pica,
Speaker 1: helps to curb their behaviors or their compulsions to do this.
Speaker 1: So there's this idea that it is existing on that
Speaker 1: that spectrum. All right, we're gonna take a quick break
Speaker 1: and when we come back, we're going to press on
Speaker 1: with with dirt eating, with mineral eating and uh and
Speaker 1: some of the the the vitamin deficiency elements of this.
Speaker 1: All right, we're back, and uh, you know, as we
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier, eating dirt eating things that are essentially the earth.
Speaker 1: Are not that crazy when you think about the fact
Speaker 1: that we put salt in our food. We use various
Speaker 1: minerals in our cooking and in our medication, So we're
Speaker 1: doing it. Everyone is doing some of this anyway, perhaps
Speaker 1: just in a more elegant fashion. Well, I think about
Speaker 1: stomach upset, right. Are you familiar with kaopect tape? Yes? Okay, Well,
Speaker 1: that has something called kalin in it, and kalin is
Speaker 1: really helpful. It's in clay and it can combat diarrhea
Speaker 1: because it forms a protective coating in the lining of
Speaker 1: the intestine and binds bacteria there. So in some parts
Speaker 1: of Nigeria you see people eating this kaleon night as
Speaker 1: kind of clay. Yeah, the idea that you're eating this
Speaker 1: to ramp up the protection in your gut against something
Speaker 1: that you just state. You see various animals that do
Speaker 1: this after they have consumed um a toxic plant or
Speaker 1: a semi toxic plant, something that if they just ate
Speaker 1: it by itself, it would just become an increasingly more
Speaker 1: of a problem with cause diarrhea, etcetera. And uh, I've
Speaker 1: read some explanations of this where they essentially say that
Speaker 1: it's it's us refusing to be bossed around by plants,
Speaker 1: because plants are ultimately have it figured out. I mean,
Speaker 1: there are plants that have that grow everywhere now because
Speaker 1: they have and I hate to personify evolution too much,
Speaker 1: but or personify plants, but they've essentially figured it out. It's,
Speaker 1: you know, they know people need potatoes, they know people
Speaker 1: need uh um, you know, illicit substances that they produce,
Speaker 1: and it's they kind of they gained the system to
Speaker 1: their advantage. So vegetation that has a fruit that is
Speaker 1: toxic or slightly toxic, toxic uh, they're telling us where
Speaker 1: we can eat them, when we can eat them, how
Speaker 1: much we can eat them, and who can eat them.
Speaker 1: And so the the ability to consume clay um or
Speaker 1: some other substance uh is essentially our way of saying, actually,
Speaker 1: I'm going to decide when I'm going to eat you
Speaker 1: and how much of you I am going to eat,
Speaker 1: right because I figured out a way you're gaming me,
Speaker 1: and I've figured out a way to game you so
Speaker 1: that I can still get some sort of food resource. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's the whole, the whole evolutionary battle in essence. Now,
Speaker 1: um Pica is thought to be associated with low levels
Speaker 1: of iron in some people, um calcium, zinc, and vitamin C,
Speaker 1: and pica may appear in as many as half of
Speaker 1: those with iron deficiency and has been reported in about
Speaker 1: twenty of pregnant women, and a study in France found
Speaker 1: that among seventy nine patients with iron deficiency anema excuse
Speaker 1: me anemia reported the regular ingestion of non food items,
Speaker 1: while only nine percent of the non amnemic subjects in
Speaker 1: the control report of this behavior. So already you're seeing
Speaker 1: here that there's there's a pretty good amount of data
Speaker 1: that is saying that people are sometimes seeking it out
Speaker 1: and sometimes not even uh you know, unbenounced themselves right now,
Speaker 1: because the body is saying we need this, right, we
Speaker 1: need an intake of this substance or this substance. We
Speaker 1: need more iron, Go find it and instinctively we know
Speaker 1: where iron occurs. Right, And that's when when you think
Speaker 1: about pica, you tend to think again back to pregnant
Speaker 1: women or children who there there are cities that show
Speaker 1: that they do have a low level of these vitamins
Speaker 1: are and are perhaps seeking it out. Yeah, children are growing,
Speaker 1: they need some they need more vitamins to to grow.
Speaker 1: You see that in the animal kingdom as well. For instance,
Speaker 1: dear during antler growth period, there's a lot of tissue
Speaker 1: growth going on pretty rapidly, so you'll see them eat
Speaker 1: calcium and magnesium rich soils during that time. Yeah. And
Speaker 1: if you think that that the pregnant women and the
Speaker 1: children are just sort of, you know, an anomaly or
Speaker 1: went off, this is really interesting. There's a study that
Speaker 1: was published in the Quarterly Review for Biology, and again
Speaker 1: it looked at pica and pregnant women in pre adolescent
Speaker 1: children and it found that they are also the most
Speaker 1: sensitive to parasites and pathogens. So Cornell University researcher Sarah Young,
Speaker 1: who is also the studies lead author, she put together
Speaker 1: a database of more than four hundred and eighty cultural
Speaker 1: accounts of geofagi and the database includes as many details
Speaker 1: as possible about the circumstance, circumstances under which the dirt
Speaker 1: was consumed and by whom. And then they found again
Speaker 1: that not only was it pregnant women and kids who
Speaker 1: engaged in the dirt eating, it was far more prevalent
Speaker 1: in tropical climates because this is where you have many
Speaker 1: more food born microbes that are that are very abundant
Speaker 1: and uh, and they find that these two groups of
Speaker 1: people tended to eat the dirt during a gastro intestinal distress.
Speaker 1: So the story that's painted here is that this dirt
Speaker 1: eating is helping to keep those pathogens and those parasites
Speaker 1: at bay in those different cultures and protecting against these
Speaker 1: two groups that are so sensitive to them. And I
Speaker 1: thought this was interesting young who said in her study,
Speaker 1: we hope readers agree that it's time to stop regarding
Speaker 1: Geoflagi as a bizarre, non adaptive gustatory mistake. So in
Speaker 1: this realm, you see it not as you know, something
Speaker 1: that's a compulsion or perhaps part of the O C
Speaker 1: D spectrum, but more again lining up with what the
Speaker 1: body is needing or trying to guard it stuff against,
Speaker 1: or as you say, gaming what's around you, right, gaming
Speaker 1: those parasites or pathogens. And as we discussed before, I
Speaker 1: mean it also comes back to understanding the mind body connection,
Speaker 1: realizing that our that there's more going on in our bodies,
Speaker 1: that our bodies not just a magic throne that our
Speaker 1: brain rides in, but it is part and partial to
Speaker 1: who we are, and the more we understand about its
Speaker 1: cravings and its needs and its desires, uh, in terms
Speaker 1: of in this case in terms of minerals um and
Speaker 1: and Clay's and whatnot. The more we understand how we work,
Speaker 1: and then we know that that this kind of behavior
Speaker 1: is not something that stands outside of ourselves, but it
Speaker 1: is a part of the experience. Yeah, and I like
Speaker 1: this topic too, because you do start to look at
Speaker 1: it in these very different ways, the cultural aspect way
Speaker 1: the body and just what it can do in game
Speaker 1: for itself and how nature can game you as well.
Speaker 1: And then of course the psychological element to it um
Speaker 1: where you see it with kids in autism and so
Speaker 1: on and so forth. Yeah, now we'd be remiss if
Speaker 1: we did not mention um some of the dirt aficionados
Speaker 1: out there, is, particularly in the wine tasting world, that's right. Yes,
Speaker 1: Now this is a French term, and your French is
Speaker 1: better than than mine. It is. Actually, I always think
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if I know that the t E
Speaker 1: R R O I R, which of course means earth. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and this is the idea that someone who really knows
Speaker 1: their wine, they get a sense of the earth in
Speaker 1: which the grapes were grown. So it's kind of that
Speaker 1: Dracula thing. Again, this the earth that the grapes came
Speaker 1: from that were transformed into this this elegant wine. And
Speaker 1: there's a sense of that and and certainly, I mean
Speaker 1: it makes sense to a large point because the the
Speaker 1: actual components of earth vary from one from one location
Speaker 1: to the next. Anyone who's ever engaged in some serious
Speaker 1: planting of trees, like we're my wife and I are
Speaker 1: currently having a few fruit trees put in our backyard.
Speaker 1: Um did a trade with somebody and uh, and when
Speaker 1: you know, we're learning that, you know, there are certain
Speaker 1: trees that grow in Georgian soil. And then you have
Speaker 1: to also think about you know, city levels and whatnot.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's a lot that goes into dirt. Not
Speaker 1: all dirt is just dirt. There are many different types.
Speaker 1: So so it makes sense. I've also heard merroir mentioned
Speaker 1: and this is uh the idea that the ocean uh
Speaker 1: the body of water from which of saltwater from which
Speaker 1: something is uh is harvested um seafood, that that also
Speaker 1: plays into its taste, and that it's the it's part
Speaker 1: of the reason that people are so into different sea
Speaker 1: salts that you have, you don't just have you can
Speaker 1: you know, you can go to the grocery store and
Speaker 1: you can buy just straight up sea salt, but you
Speaker 1: can also buy a wide variety of sea salts from
Speaker 1: various parts of the world. The idea being that the
Speaker 1: salt the of of that ocean, of that particular corner
Speaker 1: of the ocean, has a distinctive impact on taste. So
Speaker 1: the next time you're at a dinner party, I dare you,
Speaker 1: as you are quaffing your wine to say that the
Speaker 1: you think the soil came from a low acidity grape
Speaker 1: grown under the tendrils of the sun, you can say
Speaker 1: tendrils of the sun. Tendrils of the sun. Yeah, and uh,
Speaker 1: perhaps even note that the meat was salted with something
Speaker 1: from the Pacific Northwest when the winds of the Pacific Northwest.
Speaker 1: I like it, you do, all right? All right? Well,
Speaker 1: you know we're kind of pressed for time today, so
Speaker 1: I'm gonna skip calling the robot over here with its uh,
Speaker 1: with its listener mail. We will get back to that,
Speaker 1: because I know we have a lot of disgusting snail mail,
Speaker 1: like not not snail mail in the terms that it
Speaker 1: came in um through the post office, but rather snail mail,
Speaker 1: and then it's about slugs and snails and gastropods being disgusting. Uh.
Speaker 1: And I know you want to hear me read it
Speaker 1: and and gag, So we will get to that. I
Speaker 1: will real quick mention to address a couple of things
Speaker 1: that my wife, who is a who's a regular listener,
Speaker 1: brought up. Uh. First of all, in a previous episode,
Speaker 1: I may have sometimes I make these obviously I'm really
Speaker 1: into certain TV shows. In this episode, I made a
Speaker 1: thirty Rock reference earlier, and I at least explained it.
Speaker 1: In a previous episode, I used the term reagan Ing,
Speaker 1: and I just think I did need to remind everyone
Speaker 1: that that that I'm not trying. I'm not dragging any
Speaker 1: kind of politics into the the episode. But in a
Speaker 1: particular episode of of thirty rocky conservative character um Jack
Speaker 1: Donneghie us his reagan ing to describe a day in
Speaker 1: which everything is going right and he's nailing every task
Speaker 1: before him. So, in case anybody were wondering what in
Speaker 1: the heck I was talking about, I did owe you
Speaker 1: an explanation, and that is the explanation. And then likewise,
Speaker 1: multitasking Uh. A classic example of multitasking that I did
Speaker 1: not bring up is the use of an electric toothbrush. UM.
Speaker 1: I regularly fight this, uh, this particular temptation, and so
Speaker 1: does my wife to grab the electric toothbrush, start using
Speaker 1: it and then do other things like go check email
Speaker 1: or do some other morning task while brushing. And if
Speaker 1: you do that, of course, you end up not really
Speaker 1: brushing all that well, you're just kind of holding the
Speaker 1: brush in your mouth, and it's just kind of a
Speaker 1: an in feed procedure, and likewise you're probably not doing
Speaker 1: a great job of the other thing either, so and
Speaker 1: you're gonna get cavities exactly. So it's the cautionary tale
Speaker 1: for everyone out there. So if you have some insight
Speaker 1: on any of these topics, but particularly uh dirt, the
Speaker 1: consumption of dirt, the tasting of of a of a
Speaker 1: foreign soil in a in the wine, or perhaps you're
Speaker 1: a vampire and you'd like to have your your native
Speaker 1: soil shipped in so you may sleep in it. Everything's
Speaker 1: open for conversations, so let us know. You can find
Speaker 1: us on Facebook, you can find us on tumblo. We're
Speaker 1: stuff to blow your mind on both of those, and
Speaker 1: on Twitter we go by the handle blow the mind,
Speaker 1: and you can always drop us a line and blew
Speaker 1: the mind at discovery dot com For more on this
Speaker 1: and thousands of other topics. Is It How Stuff Works
Speaker 1: dot com