WEBVTT - Listener Mail: The Serpent's Golden Apple 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:05.360 Welcome to stot to Blow your Mind production of My 0:00:05.480 --> 0:00:14.480 Heart radiobum. Hey, welcome is stuck to Blow your Mind. 0:00:14.760 --> 0:00:17.720 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and 0:00:17.800 --> 0:00:20.720 today we're bringing you some listener mail. Now, our trusty 0:00:20.880 --> 0:00:24.720 mail bot Carney has gone through a brilliant transformation where 0:00:24.760 --> 0:00:28.840 he has become a naggle bot, a nail faring bot, 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:32.479 or wait no, not nail faring a a office floor 0:00:32.600 --> 0:00:36.800 faring bot made of the nails of the dead. Yeah, 0:00:36.840 --> 0:00:39.440 at least the exo skeleton anyway, I think everything underneath 0:00:39.760 --> 0:00:41.680 is you know, it still has to be made of 0:00:41.720 --> 0:00:45.200 the same material. But on the outside he is now 0:00:45.400 --> 0:00:50.199 a finger and toe nail based uh automaton and he 0:00:50.320 --> 0:00:53.840 belongs to mu spell. Uh should we jump right in 0:00:53.960 --> 0:00:58.440 with emails about our episodes on the Tomato? Yeah? Why not? Uh, 0:00:58.640 --> 0:01:03.120 let's go right from from nails to tomatoes here. Um, 0:01:03.960 --> 0:01:07.240 as always, Carney is delivering the listener mail that you, 0:01:07.360 --> 0:01:13.040 the listener, have lovingly um sent in to us. Do 0:01:13.080 --> 0:01:15.119 you want to start with this one? From Ian? Here? 0:01:15.120 --> 0:01:18.120 Are you okay? If I read this one? Go for it? Okay? 0:01:18.160 --> 0:01:22.320 Ian says hi, Robert and Joe, still in partial lockdown 0:01:22.360 --> 0:01:24.759 here in the UK and eternally grateful for your rich 0:01:24.800 --> 0:01:28.320 back catalog of rabbit holes to keep me occupied. I 0:01:28.360 --> 0:01:32.000 think I can offer some insight into the tomacco plant. 0:01:32.360 --> 0:01:36.600 Grafting tomatoes isn't that uncommon and used to be more popular. 0:01:36.840 --> 0:01:39.880 The usual reason to do it is improved hardiness and 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:43.679 soil type tolerance. The one I've read most about is 0:01:43.800 --> 0:01:46.720 dat toura as a root stock, which is supposed to 0:01:46.760 --> 0:01:50.320 make the tomato much more cold resistant and tolerant of 0:01:50.320 --> 0:01:54.960 alkaline soil, but has been known to lead to toxic tomatoes. 0:01:55.320 --> 0:01:58.400 I read some speculation that it depends on exactly how 0:01:58.480 --> 0:02:02.160 much of the datura above of ground parts remain, and 0:02:02.200 --> 0:02:05.400 it's probably better to just not go there. And in fact, 0:02:05.480 --> 0:02:07.760 we're gonna have another email about this in just a moment, 0:02:08.280 --> 0:02:13.160 but Ian continues. One I've tried to do myself and failed, 0:02:13.520 --> 0:02:16.040 but is available as a novelty plant in the UK 0:02:16.639 --> 0:02:20.960 is the tomtato with potato roots on the bottom. I 0:02:21.000 --> 0:02:24.160 know a horticulturist who's played around with this. You don't 0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:27.040 get a great yield of either crop, but if you 0:02:27.080 --> 0:02:30.519 don't have much space. He also tried it the other 0:02:30.560 --> 0:02:34.359 way around, which led to potato stems growing small green 0:02:34.480 --> 0:02:39.320 tubers at the bottom leaf nodes. Interesting but pointless. Uh. 0:02:39.360 --> 0:02:43.239 And then Ian shares a link. I've tried wild tomatoes. 0:02:43.520 --> 0:02:47.239 I got seeds from a botanist colleague. The plants were leggy, 0:02:47.440 --> 0:02:52.120 sprawling vines that made small, orange ish berries. The flesh 0:02:52.200 --> 0:02:56.240 was meally vaguely sweet and sharp. Not great, but if 0:02:56.280 --> 0:02:58.760 you were foraging, I could see them being an important 0:02:58.800 --> 0:03:02.840 food source. They for the amazing content. Ian. Wow, I 0:03:02.880 --> 0:03:05.239 am jealous Ian that you've gotten to try like a 0:03:05.600 --> 0:03:09.480 traditional ancestral wild tomato plant. I have no idea what 0:03:09.520 --> 0:03:13.240 that would be like. Uh, it's it's crazy. He reminds 0:03:13.280 --> 0:03:15.800 me of something that I should have thought of in 0:03:15.919 --> 0:03:19.560 the episode as we were recording it. But if you play, 0:03:19.680 --> 0:03:22.360 if you've played any of the Fallout games, I'm not 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:26.120 sure at what point this first shows up, but certainly 0:03:26.120 --> 0:03:29.239 in Fallout four, and definitely in Fallout seventy six, which 0:03:29.280 --> 0:03:33.400 I I played from time to time still to this day. Um, 0:03:33.480 --> 0:03:35.600 you can you can raise a garden? You you know 0:03:35.640 --> 0:03:39.920 you're crafting instead. A lot of survival of mechanics bound 0:03:39.960 --> 0:03:41.800 up in the game, but one of the plants you 0:03:41.880 --> 0:03:45.800 grow is something called a potato and um, you know 0:03:45.840 --> 0:03:47.960 it looks like a like a tomato on a vine, 0:03:48.360 --> 0:03:51.120 but it is supposed to be a mutated hybrid of 0:03:51.160 --> 0:03:56.520 the tomato and the potato plant. Yeah, so basically, I 0:03:56.520 --> 0:03:58.480 mean it's or at least very similar to what we're 0:03:58.480 --> 0:04:01.880 talking about here. Uh, with the novelty plant one can 0:04:01.880 --> 0:04:04.800 obtain in the UK. Very interesting. Yeah, I would like 0:04:04.800 --> 0:04:07.360 to see one of those plants. Yeah, well, come come 0:04:07.400 --> 0:04:10.120 to my camp and fall Out seventy six, Joe, and 0:04:10.280 --> 0:04:13.600 you will find several of them growing. Okay, you're doing 0:04:13.600 --> 0:04:16.000 a lot of agriculture there, well, you know, just enough 0:04:16.880 --> 0:04:20.800 for crafting purposes. Yes, I recall some funny dynamics in 0:04:20.800 --> 0:04:23.840 in the followed games where you could you could essentially, 0:04:23.880 --> 0:04:25.880 you know, you'd have a problem where you weren't generating 0:04:26.000 --> 0:04:28.760 enough food for your settlement and you could solve that 0:04:28.880 --> 0:04:33.360 just by just by growing watermelons exclusively. So you know, well, 0:04:33.400 --> 0:04:36.440 ye know its supposed to apocalyptic days, so you know, 0:04:36.520 --> 0:04:38.800 you get what you get and you don't pitch a fit, right, 0:04:39.560 --> 0:04:44.640 I guess. So. Our next message comes from long time 0:04:44.640 --> 0:04:47.800 correspondent Jim in New Jersey, who has something to add 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:51.120 on basically the same topic that that ian raised here, 0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:55.640 but goes into more mysterious detail. Yeah, so, Jim rights. 0:04:55.760 --> 0:04:59.560 Your tomato podcast reminded me of something a little unusual 0:04:59.640 --> 0:05:02.120 from The Medical Detectives, which is an anthology of true 0:05:02.120 --> 0:05:05.800 medical mystery articles originally published in The New Yorker. Spoiler alert, 0:05:05.800 --> 0:05:08.279 I'm going to reveal the main details of the story, 0:05:08.560 --> 0:05:10.880 but since the article was published fifty five years ago, 0:05:11.040 --> 0:05:14.200 I think it's okay to root. The article tells the 0:05:14.200 --> 0:05:16.240 story of a family living on a tobacco farm in 0:05:16.240 --> 0:05:19.200 Tennessee who became extremely ill after a meal in late 0:05:19.200 --> 0:05:24.200 October nineteen. The meal consisted of split peace soup, spaghetti 0:05:24.240 --> 0:05:27.760 with meat sauce, sliced tomatoes, sweetbread, and corn bread. Their 0:05:27.800 --> 0:05:31.200 symptoms were so bad that they sought medical help. They 0:05:31.200 --> 0:05:34.599 were flailing their limbs and hallucinating the e er. Doctors 0:05:34.680 --> 0:05:37.880 ruled out tobacco voicing just from handling it in the barns. 0:05:37.960 --> 0:05:41.599 They suspected batchel um, but their symptoms were more severe 0:05:41.640 --> 0:05:45.120 than bacheli is um. Toxicology reports were normal. The article 0:05:45.200 --> 0:05:48.280 then spends a pator to describing Jimson weed, which is 0:05:48.360 --> 0:05:51.640 also in the nightshade family. Along the tomatoes and tobacco. 0:05:52.080 --> 0:05:55.120 Jimson weed causes the symptoms they were experiencing, but they 0:05:55.120 --> 0:05:59.039 didn't eat any gimpson weed. The mystery continues. Jimson weed 0:05:59.160 --> 0:06:01.760 is hardy, and it and withstand the first several frosts 0:06:01.760 --> 0:06:05.360 of fall. The husband had grafted a tomato plant onto 0:06:05.400 --> 0:06:09.160 a jimson weed to extend his tomato season. They had 0:06:09.200 --> 0:06:11.800 eaten the first tomato of that graft in late October. 0:06:12.000 --> 0:06:13.800 When asked how he came up with the idea, he 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:16.640 said a neighbor had been doing it for years. The neighbor, 0:06:16.680 --> 0:06:19.600 who had not gotten nil grafted his tomato plants on 0:06:19.640 --> 0:06:21.920 the base of the jimson lead. The man who had 0:06:21.960 --> 0:06:25.040 gotten sick grafted his on the branches of the jimson weed. 0:06:25.480 --> 0:06:28.120 The article isn't definitive, but it suggests that the graft 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:33.040 with more jimson weed produced more toxins that found their 0:06:33.040 --> 0:06:36.000 way into the tomatoes than the graft with less jimson weed. 0:06:36.240 --> 0:06:39.440 The other farmer could have been more tolerant to the toxins, too, 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:42.440 so this is interesting. Oh. One thing that's worth noting, 0:06:42.480 --> 0:06:44.839 I guess we didn't say this is that Jimson weed 0:06:45.120 --> 0:06:47.880 is an example of or I guess it's the same 0:06:47.920 --> 0:06:50.880 thing as to toura, the plant mentioned by Ian in 0:06:50.920 --> 0:06:53.640 the last article, and that so that you can graft 0:06:53.720 --> 0:06:57.320 them together and grow tomatoes that are edible. But it 0:06:57.360 --> 0:07:00.640 apparently depends on like where you grafted how much of 0:07:00.680 --> 0:07:02.960 the gymsum plant you use, so that could be the 0:07:02.960 --> 0:07:05.840 case with the tobacco tomato graft as well, but I 0:07:05.880 --> 0:07:07.960 guess we don't know for sure. By the way, I 0:07:08.720 --> 0:07:10.960 don't think we heard any heard from anybody about this, 0:07:11.000 --> 0:07:13.040 but just doing a quick search around, it looks like 0:07:13.200 --> 0:07:16.360 you could. Of course makes sense given the night shade family, 0:07:16.440 --> 0:07:19.440 but it looks like grafting can also take place between 0:07:19.480 --> 0:07:25.280 eggplants and tomatoes. O okay, eggmatoes or if you go 0:07:25.320 --> 0:07:32.440 with their more elegant name, all burmatoes either want to work. Yeah, alright, 0:07:32.440 --> 0:07:34.360 but that one all we we heard from a lot 0:07:34.400 --> 0:07:37.400 of people about tomatoes. Yeah, we also got a short 0:07:37.440 --> 0:07:40.640 message from June. June says, Hi, Robert and Joe, just 0:07:40.760 --> 0:07:43.200 listen to your Tomato part one episode. I love your 0:07:43.200 --> 0:07:45.960 show and completely agree with you about the superiority of 0:07:46.000 --> 0:07:49.440 fresh tomatoes over store bought tomatoes. But I had to 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:52.800 write in in defense of the tomato horn worm. I 0:07:52.840 --> 0:07:55.960 know it's a crop pest, but it's also just a cute, 0:07:56.000 --> 0:07:59.720 chunky caterpillar and doesn't deserve its historic reputation as some 0:07:59.760 --> 0:08:03.840 kind grosser, poisonous worm. I still remember finding one on 0:08:03.840 --> 0:08:07.040 our tomato plants as a kid and being fascinated by 0:08:07.080 --> 0:08:10.760 seeing a caterpillar that big. Maybe this is my biologist 0:08:10.920 --> 0:08:14.400 side outweighing my gardener side, but I think they're pretty cool. 0:08:14.640 --> 0:08:17.480 Looking forward to part two, best June, Well, June, I 0:08:17.480 --> 0:08:20.200 hope you liked part two. I don't recall us really 0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:24.200 slandering the tobacco hornworm, except to note that what was 0:08:24.280 --> 0:08:27.720 historically said about it, right right, right? Um? I think 0:08:27.840 --> 0:08:29.440 we just said that to look kind of interesting and 0:08:29.480 --> 0:08:31.800 had kind of a gnarly looking horn. But yeah, it 0:08:31.880 --> 0:08:35.280 was the historical accounts that really there was one in particular, 0:08:35.320 --> 0:08:37.760 and I believe that was outlined in that that main 0:08:37.840 --> 0:08:41.400 tomato book that we were referring to, that that people 0:08:41.480 --> 0:08:44.080 were just so horrified by it that they considered just 0:08:44.160 --> 0:08:47.679 never eating tomatoes again, just abandoning their tomato garden and 0:08:47.720 --> 0:08:51.480 just surrendering it to these, uh, the these hordes, of 0:08:51.600 --> 0:08:55.040 weird creatures. I mean, it was enough to kind of 0:08:55.080 --> 0:08:58.120 make you wonder are they talking about the same organism 0:08:58.240 --> 0:09:02.000 or or perhaps they were dealing with just an excessive 0:09:02.040 --> 0:09:05.600 amount of them, because certainly one can see how one 0:09:06.040 --> 0:09:10.040 of these caterpillars might be interesting, whereas a whole writhing 0:09:10.080 --> 0:09:12.880 swarm of them might be enough to to to turn 0:09:12.920 --> 0:09:17.520 one's stomach. I don't know, all right. Here's another bit 0:09:17.520 --> 0:09:20.160 of a Tomato listener mail. This one comes to us 0:09:20.240 --> 0:09:23.000 from Kegan, Hi, Robert and Joe. It's been a bit 0:09:23.040 --> 0:09:25.600 since I've sent in some fan mail, but after hearing 0:09:25.640 --> 0:09:28.559 you two talk about how most kitchen knowledge is strange, hearsay, 0:09:28.600 --> 0:09:31.239 I simply had to write in, you may be interested 0:09:31.400 --> 0:09:33.319 in a cookbook that a friend of mine got for 0:09:33.440 --> 0:09:36.079 me recently. They may provide some illumination on the myths 0:09:36.080 --> 0:09:39.640 and misinformation that pervade typical kitchen knowledge. You actually mentioned 0:09:39.640 --> 0:09:43.440 the author In part two of the Tomato Tomato Episodes two, 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:47.680 The Food Lab by j kim Ji Lopez alt Uh. 0:09:47.720 --> 0:09:50.240 He goes into full detail of how to prepare a 0:09:50.240 --> 0:09:52.920 lot of different meals, how to store food, and how 0:09:52.960 --> 0:09:56.319 to do basic kitchen tests, all enhanced by science He's 0:09:56.360 --> 0:09:59.079 done hundreds of tests on dozens of recipes and goes 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:02.880 through a full explanation of the how and why as 0:10:02.920 --> 0:10:05.400 someone who wanted to learn cooking but also wanted to 0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:07.880 understand why I was doing the things I was doing 0:10:07.960 --> 0:10:10.600 so I could apply it to more than recipe. It's 0:10:10.600 --> 0:10:13.199 a lovely cookbook. Hope y'all are doing well, and I'm 0:10:13.240 --> 0:10:15.800 glad to hear Joe has jumped onto the D and 0:10:15.880 --> 0:10:20.320 D train recently. Sincerely, Kegan, Well, Keegan, I've got some 0:10:20.360 --> 0:10:22.920 news that may not be surprising. I actually owned this book, 0:10:22.960 --> 0:10:25.439 The Food Lab by j Ken g Lopez Alt. I've 0:10:25.480 --> 0:10:30.200 actually been following Kinji's recipes and and writing for years. 0:10:30.200 --> 0:10:32.240 He used to do a lot of writing for the 0:10:32.240 --> 0:10:35.360 website Serious Eats, and I love his approach. But yeah, 0:10:35.760 --> 0:10:38.840 because he does exactly what you're talking about. He doesn't 0:10:38.840 --> 0:10:41.640 just give you a recipe or tell you a technique 0:10:41.640 --> 0:10:44.920 to use. He explains why you do it, and and 0:10:44.960 --> 0:10:48.240 the why is actually informed by empirical testing, not just 0:10:48.320 --> 0:10:51.600 by you know, sort of received knowledge passed down from 0:10:51.640 --> 0:10:54.280 from cook to cook or chef to chef over the years. Because, 0:10:54.320 --> 0:10:56.360 as we said in the episode, that kind of received 0:10:56.440 --> 0:10:59.560 knowledge in fact, contains a lot of misinformation and stuff 0:10:59.600 --> 0:11:02.920 that isn't actually based on on anything empirical. It's just 0:11:03.200 --> 0:11:07.400 something somebody said at some point and now it's uh, now, 0:11:07.400 --> 0:11:09.640 it's just how you do it. A lot of a 0:11:09.679 --> 0:11:11.440 lot of times you don't have to do it that way. 0:11:11.920 --> 0:11:15.160 H Well, my approach is more, uh, mine is not 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:18.160 to question Martha why mine is about to do and die. 0:11:18.200 --> 0:11:21.480 I just I just do what Martha says, and it 0:11:21.760 --> 0:11:24.040 tends to work out pretty well. Well. I think he 0:11:24.160 --> 0:11:26.600 can points out a very important reason though, to learn why, 0:11:26.679 --> 0:11:30.120 which is that learning the why of of things you 0:11:30.160 --> 0:11:32.520 do in the kitchen makes you a more versatile cooks. 0:11:32.559 --> 0:11:36.319 It makes you less shackled to individual recipes because once 0:11:36.360 --> 0:11:40.360 you understand the reason for doing something, you understand now, 0:11:40.440 --> 0:11:43.040 oh okay, this technique can be applied to this other 0:11:43.240 --> 0:11:45.760 type of dish or this other type of preparation, or 0:11:45.800 --> 0:11:48.640 that it can't and why. Yeah, this is true. And 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:52.280 I I kid, I do. I do love some robust 0:11:52.320 --> 0:11:55.199 instructions that I can follow to the letter. But I 0:11:55.600 --> 0:11:57.439 I have gotten to the point where, yeah, I I 0:11:57.840 --> 0:12:00.000 understand some of the things enough to where I can 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:01.960 I can be a little bit flexible, Like if I 0:12:02.000 --> 0:12:04.160 want to cut a little time off, I can realize, oh, 0:12:04.280 --> 0:12:06.760 I could do this instead, or I can bust out, 0:12:07.000 --> 0:12:08.600 you know, I can bust out the insta pot here 0:12:08.600 --> 0:12:11.440 because I'm doing the same thing that that she's asking 0:12:11.480 --> 0:12:14.600 me to do, et cetera. Now you've inspired a question 0:12:14.600 --> 0:12:16.320 that has nothing to do with any of what we 0:12:16.320 --> 0:12:18.760 were just talking about. But it's that you call it 0:12:18.800 --> 0:12:21.800 an insta pot. I call it an insta pot. Everybody 0:12:21.840 --> 0:12:23.720 I know calls it an insta pot. But it's not 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:27.520 called an insta pot. It's an instant pot. And nobody 0:12:27.559 --> 0:12:29.800 says the T at the end of the first word, 0:12:30.160 --> 0:12:32.680 why is that? Is it Instagram or something like? That? 0:12:32.760 --> 0:12:35.280 Is just like causing us to leap over that letter. 0:12:35.800 --> 0:12:38.199 Oh really is it not called it is? Cause, yeah, 0:12:38.240 --> 0:12:40.400 you're right, it's an instant pot, not an insta pot. 0:12:40.559 --> 0:12:43.760 I don't know who the heck says instant pot. Nobody 0:12:43.800 --> 0:12:48.840 says that it's the Instagram of pots the world cross huh, 0:12:49.240 --> 0:12:52.800 surely they've they've copyrighted insta pot as well. Just realizing 0:12:52.880 --> 0:12:55.400 that's what everybody calls it is. It's a strange case 0:12:55.440 --> 0:12:58.320 because a lot of times you see people using the 0:12:58.640 --> 0:13:02.960 specific brand name for something as the generic name. But 0:13:03.000 --> 0:13:05.559 in this case, everybody's referring to it as a thing 0:13:05.559 --> 0:13:09.840 that as if this is the the specific product name. 0:13:10.040 --> 0:13:12.720 But it's not, like I don't think I've realized it. 0:13:12.760 --> 0:13:15.800 They'll just now. It's as if the generic term for 0:13:16.000 --> 0:13:21.440 bandages had become band aid or the generic term for 0:13:21.480 --> 0:13:25.200 tissues had become clear X. Yeah, I can't think of 0:13:25.240 --> 0:13:30.520 another case exactly like this. This is interesting. All right, Well, 0:13:30.559 --> 0:13:33.520 I guess we're gonna jump onto email that we got 0:13:33.559 --> 0:13:37.040 in response to the horned helm episodes. Now, the context 0:13:37.240 --> 0:13:39.719 that this email I think is responding to specifically was 0:13:39.760 --> 0:13:42.840 a biological portion where we were looking for examples of 0:13:42.960 --> 0:13:46.880 animals that build some form of helmet or horned helmet. 0:13:47.160 --> 0:13:50.400 One was a type of caterpillar that would stack old 0:13:50.440 --> 0:13:54.079 parts of its exoskeleton on top of its head and 0:13:54.360 --> 0:13:56.960 so form a little hat there. But we also talked 0:13:56.960 --> 0:14:01.400 about catas flies. Catasflies aren't or is fly larvae to 0:14:01.440 --> 0:14:05.040 be specific. Uh, the cats fly isn't a perfect example 0:14:05.080 --> 0:14:06.880 because it doesn't really seem to be a helmet that 0:14:06.920 --> 0:14:09.360 goes on its head, but it does create a hard 0:14:10.000 --> 0:14:12.360 surface that it lives inside. It's really more of a 0:14:12.480 --> 0:14:15.960 kind of a rock diaper than a helmet. I guess 0:14:16.000 --> 0:14:19.360 not even necessarily rock, just materials from its environment reinforced 0:14:19.360 --> 0:14:23.280 with silk. But anyway, Taylor writes in and says, hey, 0:14:23.360 --> 0:14:27.560 Robert and Joe Taylor again, longtime fan and now frequent correspondent. 0:14:28.080 --> 0:14:30.640 I was listening to part one of your horned Helm 0:14:30.720 --> 0:14:33.600 duo today and took a fence on behalf of Catis 0:14:33.600 --> 0:14:37.240 fly larvae everywhere when Robert expressed that they look a 0:14:37.320 --> 0:14:41.600 little trashy. Robert, I usually respect your instincts, but after 0:14:41.640 --> 0:14:45.440 spending several months last year netting cats fly larvae out 0:14:45.440 --> 0:14:48.800 of local creeks for entomological study, I have to see 0:14:48.800 --> 0:14:52.520 if I can change your mind. Cats Flies aren't picky architects. 0:14:52.760 --> 0:14:55.400 They work with the materials available to them, and it's 0:14:55.400 --> 0:14:58.040 true that the cases they make out of mud sticks 0:14:58.040 --> 0:15:01.320 and plant awful aren't much to look at. But if 0:15:01.320 --> 0:15:05.000 provided with the proper materials, the catisfly larva is an 0:15:05.040 --> 0:15:08.880 absolute artist. When catisflies spawn in clear rivers with a 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:11.960 lot of minuscule rocks, the cases they make look like 0:15:12.080 --> 0:15:15.680 mosaics carried on their backs, and with the right patron 0:15:15.880 --> 0:15:19.880 the catisfly can really shine. There are artisans who rear 0:15:20.000 --> 0:15:24.080 catisfly larvae in pools they've littered with gyms, pearls, and 0:15:24.200 --> 0:15:28.280 gold shavings to make jewelry. The catisflies do as their 0:15:28.320 --> 0:15:32.440 want to do and spin beautiful cases from their sponsors materials. 0:15:32.800 --> 0:15:36.560 When the catisflyes mature, they abandoned these bejeweled cases for 0:15:36.560 --> 0:15:40.440 the artist to collect. The abandoned catosfly cases are then 0:15:40.480 --> 0:15:44.040 sealed with resin and sold as ear rings or necklace pendants. 0:15:44.600 --> 0:15:47.560 Depending on the materials used. This jewelry can sell for 0:15:47.680 --> 0:15:51.240 hundreds or even thousands of dollars. I've included a few 0:15:51.280 --> 0:15:53.480 images here for you to check out and describe to 0:15:53.480 --> 0:15:56.040 your listeners if you'd like. The first is of a 0:15:56.080 --> 0:15:59.320 catasfly collected from the wild, and the second of one 0:15:59.440 --> 0:16:03.480 reared by jeweler. If you search for cattisfly jewelry online, 0:16:03.520 --> 0:16:06.440 you can find hundreds of designs people have collaborated on 0:16:06.560 --> 0:16:10.320 with these tiny trichopterans. As always, I love your show 0:16:10.320 --> 0:16:13.000 and I'm immensely grateful for the weird and wonderful content 0:16:13.040 --> 0:16:15.880 you continue to entertain and educate me with. I've been 0:16:15.920 --> 0:16:18.600 pretty isolated during this pandemic, and it's nice to have 0:16:18.640 --> 0:16:21.200 your voices in my ears as I'm painting or doing 0:16:21.280 --> 0:16:24.680 any number of more monotonous things throughout the day. Thanks again, 0:16:24.840 --> 0:16:28.480 and I hope I've changed your minds about the catasifly well, 0:16:28.480 --> 0:16:31.320 thank you, Taylor. Yeah, I would say my mind is 0:16:31.520 --> 0:16:35.120 is definitely changed on these guys. I'm looking I looked 0:16:35.120 --> 0:16:37.960 at the images that that they sent in. I'm also 0:16:38.040 --> 0:16:41.960 looking at an article on this is Colossal dot com 0:16:42.080 --> 0:16:46.760 um from two thousand fourteen titled artist Hubert Dupratt collaborates 0:16:46.760 --> 0:16:49.600 with Cattis fly larvae as they build aquatic cocoons from 0:16:49.640 --> 0:16:52.680 golden pearls. And this is a really cool article. Is 0:16:52.720 --> 0:16:56.440 some nice high quality images and even um an animated 0:16:56.800 --> 0:17:00.920 jeff of of the catisified building the cocoon of bits 0:17:00.920 --> 0:17:04.200 of gold leaf. And yeah, the results are really impressive. 0:17:04.200 --> 0:17:06.639 It's a it's a it's an fascinating idea for a 0:17:06.640 --> 0:17:11.600 collaboration between larva and artist. And the results do have 0:17:11.720 --> 0:17:17.960 this weird, yeah, this is very weird organic quality to 0:17:18.080 --> 0:17:20.879 them while still being made out of these um you know, 0:17:20.920 --> 0:17:24.480 these materials that humans consider precious. I can just imagine 0:17:24.520 --> 0:17:27.680 some high society function where you're admiring someone's ear rings 0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:29.800 and they're like, ah, yes, this was a butt sack 0:17:29.920 --> 0:17:32.399 made by the larvae of an insect. You know what 0:17:32.480 --> 0:17:36.919 it reminds me of as well is the the the 0:17:36.960 --> 0:17:41.679 golden scales of small the dragon from the Hobbit. You know, 0:17:42.040 --> 0:17:44.879 he's supposed to have all the gold that's become embedded 0:17:45.400 --> 0:17:50.000 uh in his otherwise vulnerable belly. Uh. This this kind 0:17:50.000 --> 0:17:51.960 of has that kind of feel to it right here. 0:17:52.359 --> 0:17:55.960 All right, now, let's get to the nail based content. 0:17:56.359 --> 0:17:59.440 Man Carney is shaking with delight. There are just nails 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:04.760 pouring off of him onto the floor. All right. This 0:18:04.840 --> 0:18:08.080 one comes to us from Ryan. Hello. I was compelled 0:18:08.160 --> 0:18:10.880 to write to you after listening to your podcast about fingernails, 0:18:10.880 --> 0:18:13.800 specifically about how to stop biting them. I'm in my 0:18:13.880 --> 0:18:16.880 late twenties and I have always bitten my nails, sometimes 0:18:16.880 --> 0:18:19.959 to the point where I get hangnails or have ingrown 0:18:20.240 --> 0:18:22.680 nails as well. Last year I got married and wanted 0:18:22.720 --> 0:18:25.239 to make sure my fingernails looked nice in case there 0:18:25.280 --> 0:18:27.880 were close up photos of my hands for the ring. 0:18:28.320 --> 0:18:30.480 This may not work for everyone, but it worked for me. 0:18:30.680 --> 0:18:32.359 I did a bit of research and I think I 0:18:32.440 --> 0:18:35.919 ended up using something similar to CBT. The nail biting 0:18:36.080 --> 0:18:38.760 was a habit, something I did without thinking, so I 0:18:38.800 --> 0:18:41.280 had to make myself think about it. What worked for 0:18:41.320 --> 0:18:44.560 me was apologizing to my nails every time I caught 0:18:44.600 --> 0:18:48.359 myself chewing them. This trained me to interrupt the automatic action, 0:18:48.680 --> 0:18:52.119 and it was surprisingly effective. Of course, as stress was 0:18:52.200 --> 0:18:54.320 one of my triggers. The end of the world as 0:18:54.320 --> 0:18:57.800 we know it in has caused me to relapse, But 0:18:57.960 --> 0:19:00.359 at least I know that when I have the mental 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:02.960 energy to conquer this habit again, I know it's doable. 0:19:03.320 --> 0:19:05.840 As a side note, I was also intrigued about the 0:19:05.880 --> 0:19:08.760 notion that usage of a finger makes the nail grow faster. 0:19:08.880 --> 0:19:12.080 I noticed that once I stopped chewing and started trimming 0:19:12.080 --> 0:19:15.360 my nails, I seem to need to trim them fairly frequently, 0:19:15.440 --> 0:19:17.720 more so than my partner did. I wonder if the 0:19:17.760 --> 0:19:21.560 additional war of decades of chewing encourage faster than average 0:19:21.640 --> 0:19:24.920 nail growth. In any case, thank you for the many 0:19:24.960 --> 0:19:28.000 episodes of thoughtful and insightful discussion. I always enjoy seeing 0:19:28.000 --> 0:19:30.840 this podcast pop up in my feed with thanks Ryan 0:19:31.119 --> 0:19:33.959 M Well, thanks for getting in touch Ryan. I actually 0:19:34.000 --> 0:19:38.760 I don't know if the terminal trauma explanation for the 0:19:38.880 --> 0:19:41.760 rate of finger nail growth would have lingering effects, like 0:19:41.800 --> 0:19:45.439 after the terminal trauma has stopped, even if you know, 0:19:45.720 --> 0:19:47.800 even if you've been doing it for years. The stuff 0:19:47.840 --> 0:19:50.919 I was reading was about, like, what's happening to your 0:19:50.960 --> 0:19:54.520 fingers while the nail is growing so concurrent with the growth. 0:19:54.560 --> 0:20:00.840 But uh, it's possible. I don't know. That's an interesting question. Okay, 0:20:00.920 --> 0:20:03.280 question should we read this one from Brittany or will 0:20:03.320 --> 0:20:05.680 this make people stop listening to the episode? And maybe 0:20:05.680 --> 0:20:09.720 we we will give a quick warning, give us, give 0:20:09.800 --> 0:20:12.480 us a minute to read this and discuss it. But 0:20:12.600 --> 0:20:15.720 if you don't want to hear anything about nail trauma um, 0:20:15.880 --> 0:20:18.000 then you can just have just skip over this next 0:20:18.080 --> 0:20:20.280 bit of listener mail and come back in on the 0:20:20.320 --> 0:20:23.920 next topic. Okay, this is from Brittany. Brittany says, Dear 0:20:24.040 --> 0:20:26.240 Robert and Joe. When I was twelve, I managed to 0:20:26.280 --> 0:20:28.600 get a fairly big piece of wood stuck under the 0:20:28.680 --> 0:20:31.360 nail of my left middle finger. I remember it being 0:20:31.560 --> 0:20:35.080 very painful, it felt like my entire heart was beating 0:20:35.200 --> 0:20:38.760 in that one spot, but also very interesting to look at. 0:20:39.280 --> 0:20:42.080 The school nurse didn't have tweezers, so she used nail 0:20:42.119 --> 0:20:45.000 clippers to fish it out. It took a good while 0:20:45.040 --> 0:20:47.840 to heal, and whenever any kind of torture involving something 0:20:47.920 --> 0:20:50.760 being shoved under the nail is mentioned, I can only 0:20:50.800 --> 0:20:54.000 feel the greatest sympathy having experienced a small taste of 0:20:54.040 --> 0:20:57.760 it myself. Thanks for the great show, Brittany. Uh. The 0:20:57.840 --> 0:20:59.760 thing that really stuck out to me about this was 0:20:59.840 --> 0:21:02.960 the sensation of having your entire heart beating in that 0:21:03.000 --> 0:21:06.679 one spot. It's like a throbbing that becomes a whole 0:21:06.720 --> 0:21:11.440 body sensation. That's oh man, that's powerful. No that um, 0:21:11.480 --> 0:21:15.280 I can definitely relate to that from not identical nail trauma, 0:21:15.359 --> 0:21:19.320 but some nail issues I had, you know, a decade 0:21:19.400 --> 0:21:22.520 or so ago, where like you, the the the amount 0:21:22.560 --> 0:21:26.080 of sensation that you feel like um in an ingrown 0:21:26.119 --> 0:21:30.640 toenail can be such that it does feel like all 0:21:30.720 --> 0:21:33.679 of your nerves are centered on that one spot. You 0:21:33.720 --> 0:21:36.680 know that this is the epicenter of all nervous activity 0:21:36.720 --> 0:21:38.280 in your body, and I guess to a certain extent 0:21:38.320 --> 0:21:40.200 it is at that point. Okay, should we put the 0:21:40.240 --> 0:21:43.520 nail nightmares behind us? Yes? We should, and as a 0:21:43.520 --> 0:21:46.000 as a kind of palate cleanser. We're gonna take a 0:21:46.040 --> 0:21:47.880 quick break, but when we come back, we have all 0:21:47.960 --> 0:21:50.320 new listener mail to listen to on a variety of 0:21:50.320 --> 0:21:57.000 different topics. Alright, we're back. Oh. It seems during the 0:21:57.040 --> 0:22:01.080 break Carney has undergone a transformation. What is happening here? 0:22:01.640 --> 0:22:03.719 It appears, And I'm no expert on this sort of thing. 0:22:03.720 --> 0:22:05.760 I didn't follow him around, but I think he fell 0:22:06.040 --> 0:22:10.000 into a pit of snakes and has emerged with us, 0:22:10.200 --> 0:22:15.200