Speaker 1: Take off your safety goggles, put down your lab coats,
Speaker 1: throw caution to the wind, because it's just me and
Speaker 1: TT for this episode.
Speaker 2: Are y'all ready for that?
Speaker 3: I don't know if y'all are ready for that. We
Speaker 3: did this one time before and it seemed like y'all
Speaker 3: wasn't ready, But we're jumping right back into it, so
Speaker 3: I hope you are prepared. Hold on to your seats.
Speaker 3: We're talking about the science behind the latest news and
Speaker 3: what we're seeing on our feed. So from torrential downpours
Speaker 3: to raging fires, suspicious bruising and swelling, and why food
Speaker 3: is both political and scientific. We're covering it all.
Speaker 1: Yeah, buckle up because today's Lab is a triple maybe
Speaker 1: quadruple feature.
Speaker 2: Got a lot of stuff talk about.
Speaker 3: I'm TT and I'm Zukiah and this is Dope Labs.
Speaker 3: Welcome to Dope Labs, a weekly podcast that mixes hardcore
Speaker 3: science with pop culture and a healthy dose of friendship.
Speaker 3: All Right, this week is a which is always fun
Speaker 3: to meet t T because I love to hear you
Speaker 3: explain things and we get a little bit more time
Speaker 3: that just you know, laid back and have a little fun. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's a lot more casual, you know than our typical
Speaker 3: labs setups. But we go through a lot and it's
Speaker 3: a lot of topics that we are really interested in,
Speaker 3: but just you know, either it's not enough to fill
Speaker 3: a whole episode or we want to talk about it
Speaker 3: like right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, very impatient, you know.
Speaker 1: And also I don't know if it's just me, but
Speaker 1: I feel like the news cycle is going so fast,
Speaker 1: like every day, something else, something else, something else, and
Speaker 1: so it's like, how do you pick what you're gonna
Speaker 1: talk about if we're going to do a full episode.
Speaker 3: But that's why we have these grab bags, because we
Speaker 3: can put a little bit of everything in there.
Speaker 1: You always have like then appetizer sampler, you know, you
Speaker 1: want to try all the different things.
Speaker 3: Yes, I'm like a few a mood boosh, Yes, a
Speaker 3: mood boosh from the.
Speaker 1: Shift here at the end of July. So, like the
Speaker 1: twenty eighth through the thirtieth, we've seen Detroit grappling with
Speaker 1: flash floods that have led to washed out roads, delayed flights,
Speaker 1: and really left thousands of people without power. It's clear
Speaker 1: that severe weather isn't just local to Detroit, though, it's
Speaker 1: a national concern. In fact, those recent events in Detroit
Speaker 1: echo an even more devastating situation that we saw unfolding
Speaker 1: over the fourth of July weekend when a storm dumped
Speaker 1: a ton of rain on Caerra County in Texas. There
Speaker 1: was over like sixteen inches, so that's more than a
Speaker 1: foot over sixteen inches of rain in two hours, so
Speaker 1: a flash flood. There was loss of property and really sadly,
Speaker 1: the loss of lives. I think one of the big
Speaker 1: stories I saw was about campers and staff, so kids
Speaker 1: and staff members at this camp, and I think they
Speaker 1: claimed like twenty seven people's lives, and then for the
Speaker 1: entire region, so I think that area is called like
Speaker 1: Hill Country. The official death toll rose to one hundred
Speaker 1: and thirty eight people. It's really off, it is. And
Speaker 1: when I think of Texas, I don't typically think about floods,
Speaker 1: but I've been thinking about that more and more ever
Speaker 1: since I watched this short from Toppy Story. So we
Speaker 1: know the filmmakers who run Toppy Story. So Samuel and
Speaker 1: I they did a short called Floodplaines from the Texas
Speaker 1: Water Federation. We'll have to drop the link in the
Speaker 1: show notes because it's so good. It talks about this
Speaker 1: event that happened many years ago. And I think floods
Speaker 1: are scary, but flash floods are even scarier.
Speaker 3: Because one thing about flash floods is that they happen
Speaker 3: so fast in like a localized area, so there's almost
Speaker 3: no time to react. At first, everything's completely dry and
Speaker 3: it might be raining, but then next thing you know,
Speaker 3: the water is up to your knees just a few
Speaker 3: minutes later. So it's really really hard to have a
Speaker 3: plan and to act, and it can take only a
Speaker 3: few minutes to hours, And it's really like in the
Speaker 3: name flash flood.
Speaker 1: You know, like always you have this sideline commentators. I
Speaker 1: saw a lot of people on the internet like I
Speaker 1: would have done this, and I would have done that. Baby,
Speaker 1: you don't know what you would do. You don't know,
Speaker 1: you know, you don't know. So there's been a lot
Speaker 1: of controversy about the emergency notification system in Kerr County,
Speaker 1: and family said that the warnings came way too late,
Speaker 1: so they didn't have time to react. And now we
Speaker 1: know from some recent hearings that the county's own emergency
Speaker 1: management director admitted that he was home, sick and asleep
Speaker 1: while the flash flood waters were rising, so by the
Speaker 1: time he got the call and then woke up, the
Speaker 1: worst of it had already happened. Now, I think that's
Speaker 1: a tragedy, and it's also got people asking some really
Speaker 1: tough questions about accountability and backup plans and if we're honest,
Speaker 1: this thing isn't just a Texas problem. Flash floods and
Speaker 1: gaps and emergency responses have hit communities all over the country,
Speaker 1: and it's a reminder that disasters are not waiting for
Speaker 1: you to be ready.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean right where I live in the DMV area,
Speaker 3: we just had flooding here in mid July, and different
Speaker 3: areas were underwater.
Speaker 1: It was very, very scary, and it happened very quickly,
Speaker 1: and so it feels like it's more frequent. And that's
Speaker 1: not just my fields, because the National Weather Service backs
Speaker 1: this up too, and they say they've issued more than
Speaker 1: three thousand flash flood warnings so far this year, and
Speaker 1: so that's the highest number on records since they've been tracking,
Speaker 1: and they started tracking back in nineteen eighty six.
Speaker 2: F rand wow.
Speaker 1: And so it's high in twenty twenty five, but it
Speaker 1: was also high in twenty twenty four. Too, and so
Speaker 1: this is all part of a bigger trend.
Speaker 3: Yes, and the trend it's shifting with the client our
Speaker 3: climate change issue. So part of climate change is that
Speaker 3: it's warmer. So with the warmer climate, you have warmer air,
Speaker 3: and with every extra degree celsius, the air holds seven
Speaker 3: percent more water. What makes this soul mind bending for
Speaker 3: me is that we're talking about climate change and that's
Speaker 3: what's driving like that heat engine. Not only is it
Speaker 3: causing flooding in places like Texas, but it's also drying
Speaker 3: up other places that don't get rained. So Texas is underwater,
Speaker 3: but California is getting baked.
Speaker 2: And you know, you know.
Speaker 1: What happens when it's a drought, right you stretching that
Speaker 1: WaterCycle at both ends. It's bucket loads of water on
Speaker 1: one side, bone dry in other places. I'm like, how
Speaker 1: do you make sense of that?
Speaker 3: Canada is in its fourth worst fire season one record.
Speaker 3: They've had thirteen point eight million acres scorched so far,
Speaker 3: and the smoke keeps drifting south. We have the same
Speaker 3: thing I remember I was in when was that That
Speaker 3: was probably twenty twenty three, where the smoke from Canada
Speaker 3: made its way down here and everything was orange.
Speaker 2: Do you remember those pictures from like New York?
Speaker 1: I do remember the DC. Oh my gosh, it was
Speaker 1: wild and on the heels of those Canadian fires. Minneapolis
Speaker 1: then clocked in as the fourth most polluted major city
Speaker 1: on Earth, and then Michigan and wiscon and also lit
Speaker 1: up as unhealthy on the air Quality Index maps, and
Speaker 1: even New York. The State of New York issued advisories
Speaker 1: as a result. They're right up there border in Canada.
Speaker 3: So even though fires are happening in another country, the
Speaker 3: wind pushes that smoke straight into the US's lungs.
Speaker 2: And we are feeling it.
Speaker 3: And that's because borders are social constructs. But I'm gonna
Speaker 3: say I'm gonna step off my soapbox because we're talking
Speaker 3: about that in another episode.
Speaker 1: I think it's important to let people know what they
Speaker 1: should be doing. If you think you're in a flood zone,
Speaker 1: sign up for the NAA text alerts. You know, make
Speaker 1: sure you have little I like these things. Ntt you
Speaker 1: got me one digelt pill cases? Right? If you have
Speaker 1: Mason that you take stock up a backup one, because
Speaker 1: when it floods, you also don't have power. You can't
Speaker 1: find things, have stuff that you need readily available, especially
Speaker 1: as we move into hurricane season. Just be ready with
Speaker 1: these kind of things.
Speaker 3: Yeah, having a go back, I mean, that's the key
Speaker 3: to that was something you put me on too. When
Speaker 3: the pandemic can have a go bag if you live
Speaker 3: in a flood area, I think is really really wise,
Speaker 3: having you know, some cash if you need it, having
Speaker 3: a portable charger for your phone that's already charged up,
Speaker 3: and other necessities that if something terrible were to happen,
Speaker 3: that you would be able to just reach for that
Speaker 3: bag and have some resources.
Speaker 1: And I think similarly, if you are in smoke zones,
Speaker 1: particularly our border states, downloading apps like air now or
Speaker 1: iq air before outdoor plans like so knowing even just
Speaker 1: knowing the smoke exposure or the air quality so you
Speaker 1: can wear a mask or avoid being outside right for
Speaker 1: your own health.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And also I think you know, we got into the
Speaker 3: habit of wearing mask back at twenty twenty twenty twenty one,
Speaker 3: and now we're kind of laying off the mask. But
Speaker 3: I think that when it comes to air quality, break
Speaker 3: out that mask because it will be very very good
Speaker 3: in the long run. Also, having an air purifier, or
Speaker 3: you can do a DIY box fan afire and someone
Speaker 3: who has asthma and struggles when the air quality is bad,
Speaker 3: having an air per of fire really just saves me.
Speaker 1: I like the ones that have an app where you
Speaker 1: can monitor, and like, even when you're cooking, you can
Speaker 1: see right quality changes. And we should know this because
Speaker 1: we have a friend who did some work on this
Speaker 1: in grad school or maybe in his post doc. But
Speaker 1: I'm like, cooking is bad for you. Well, I don't
Speaker 1: want to say bad for you.
Speaker 3: My cooking is bad for you. Godspeed to everyone in
Speaker 3: my household. There was a picture that showed up on
Speaker 3: my timeline and I was like, I don't know whose
Speaker 3: legs those are, but that is not correct. And it
Speaker 3: turns out that it was actually Trump's feet and they
Speaker 3: were very puffy and swollen. And I was like, I
Speaker 3: don't know what's going on with him. But it turns
Speaker 3: out he was diagnosed with chronic venus insufficiency.
Speaker 1: Yes, let me tell you something that speaks to all
Speaker 1: of my fears. I will get on that now. I'll
Speaker 1: save that for later.
Speaker 2: But I was leaning in. I was like, let me
Speaker 2: hear you know how I.
Speaker 1: Feel about compression socks and all that stuff. First of all,
Speaker 1: the human body is just miraculous. Thinking about like valves
Speaker 1: that push blood, like our circulatory system, our vasculatory, Like,
Speaker 1: that's a closed system, which is why although I give
Speaker 1: blood to the Red Cross, I always feel very nervous.
Speaker 1: I'm like, that's a closed system. Don't be putting stuff
Speaker 1: in there. Don't puncture these veins. Right, we have valves
Speaker 1: that push blood to different places, and they're supposed to
Speaker 1: snap shut and not let blood pool in our lower extremities.
Speaker 1: But over time those doors don't make a firm they
Speaker 1: start becoming loose, like a saloon door to start swinging
Speaker 1: back and forth, and then that gravity is going to
Speaker 1: do his thing, you know, and so you get blood pooling,
Speaker 1: and that's what leads to that type of swelling in
Speaker 1: the legs and ankles like we saw.
Speaker 3: So is this an inevitable thing for folks or is
Speaker 3: it like lifestyle?
Speaker 1: Well, I think some of it is a little bit
Speaker 1: of both. Part of it is aging, but that has
Speaker 1: to do with how we age, you know, So if
Speaker 1: you're walking more, if you're having more water, if you're
Speaker 1: wearing compression socks, like so even when you travel. You
Speaker 1: know you've been on long trip with me. You know
Speaker 1: I'm putting those compression socks on the same and I
Speaker 1: think there are different more I would say, more invasive
Speaker 1: or more complex treatments, but this is something that's happening often.
Speaker 1: This is no different than what your cardiologists would give
Speaker 1: your grandma, like the information they would give your grandma
Speaker 1: or appearance, you know, just about aging. So I think
Speaker 1: it is important. And so some of y'all might be thinking,
Speaker 1: you know, why is this news? Why do we care
Speaker 1: that his legs are well? Transparency? You know, we act
Speaker 1: candidates for their tax returns, so vascular ultrasounds should not
Speaker 1: be off limits. But we saw that physical. Now the
Speaker 1: physical was off limits.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he tells us that he like lives off McDonald's.
Speaker 3: I'm just like, listen, I'm partial to a mc chicken, yes,
Speaker 3: and I can't live and a coke coke no ice large,
Speaker 3: thank you. But the ultrasounds aren't off limits, just like
Speaker 3: we know, you know, when any president or former president,
Speaker 3: when they get sick and we know what's going on
Speaker 3: with their health. A lot of us sit at desks
Speaker 3: for our work, and this should be a lesson to us. All,
Speaker 3: get up, stand up, stand up for your rights and
Speaker 3: get that bod bump so that you know that blood
Speaker 3: doesn't start pulling and exercising those veins.
Speaker 1: And so if you're listening to this, stand up right now,
Speaker 1: walk the rest of this episode, okay, because also this
Speaker 1: is something because T T and I, you know, we
Speaker 1: work sitting down. We are at our unless we're out,
Speaker 1: you know, for a special event or something. And that's
Speaker 1: been our recent I think just last week we committed.
Speaker 1: We said we were going to do two fifteen minute
Speaker 1: sessions a day to just break up that seated position.
Speaker 2: Hold us accountable.
Speaker 3: If you're listening to this right now, put a comment
Speaker 3: on Instagram and say, hey, have y'all done?
Speaker 2: Y'all fifteen minute walk?
Speaker 3: Because one thing about me and my friend, we can
Speaker 3: come up with an excuse to not.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go ahead and be really transparent. Now I'm
Speaker 1: not the president, so they don't need full transparency for me.
Speaker 1: But just tonight I told T t U huh, I said, hey, tomorrow,
Speaker 1: I don't know about our walk because I'm getting my
Speaker 1: hair done.
Speaker 2: I know that's not right.
Speaker 1: I know because Cecily, doctor Schulinferd told us what to
Speaker 1: do to keep that hair intact. I have no reason,
Speaker 1: but the.
Speaker 2: Thing is, y'all.
Speaker 3: When she said that to me, you know what, my
Speaker 3: response was good because I just washed my hair today.
Speaker 3: Birds of a feather Yup. We're gonna get it together.
Speaker 3: No check in on us, hold us account.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, And I think while our media has been
Speaker 1: looking at ankles and looking at bruises on hands, the
Speaker 1: rest of the world has their eyes on something else.
Speaker 1: The United Nations twenty twenty five Global Report on Food
Speaker 1: Crises landed with a thud. It said two hundred and
Speaker 1: ninety five million people are at crisis hunger levels. And
Speaker 1: I know that there are a lot of people who
Speaker 1: make up that number that are in Gaza right now,
Speaker 1: experiencing absolutely horrible circumstances. And my heart just breaks every
Speaker 1: time I see any updates on the news. It's something
Speaker 1: we really need to draw attention to and need to
Speaker 1: be talking about more absolutely. The UN report specifically highlights Gaza,
Speaker 1: South Sudan, Haiti and Molly Right. Yes, we have extreme
Speaker 1: weather events like droughts and floods, but conflict and economic shocks,
Speaker 1: those are the primary factors. Those three things for the
Speaker 1: rising hoss for the rising hunger levels, Oh my god.
Speaker 1: And this is the sixth consecutive year of increasing food insecurity.
Speaker 3: We're gonna put some links in the show notes if
Speaker 3: you're looking for something that you can do to help
Speaker 3: with this hunger crisis.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, we have a global lens. And then I think
Speaker 1: here in the US, what we're also seeing is legislation
Speaker 1: that's being proposed to cut our Supplemental Nutrition Access Program
Speaker 1: or SNAP by roughly thirty dollars a month per in
Speaker 1: roly So, groceries are only going up. And now we're saying, Okay,
Speaker 1: if you need assistance, we're gonna give you less assistance.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: Think that thirty dollars, that's four gallons of milk or
Speaker 3: a week's worth of school lunches just disappearing from a
Speaker 3: family's budget.
Speaker 1: And I think, you know, I don't know about you,
Speaker 1: but I am very fortunate to be in the position
Speaker 1: that I have not been hungry in a very long time, Okay,
Speaker 1: And I think it's easy to forget about what happens.
Speaker 1: Let's say you go a day you haven't eaten and
Speaker 1: you're like, oh, I feel lightheaded. That's because your blood
Speaker 1: sugar is tanking, right, your adrenaline is spiking. But when
Speaker 1: you get past that, we start talking about three days
Speaker 1: in your body is already pulling from muscle, okay, pulling
Speaker 1: from muscle for protein for its regular function. Then we
Speaker 1: start talking about weeks, your gut lining things, and that
Speaker 1: leads you to infection, stuff like that, immune cell production,
Speaker 1: things that keep you healthy, fighting against other things. And
Speaker 1: when you have severe hunger like that, we know that
Speaker 1: doesn't happen in isolation. You are properly exposed to the elements.
Speaker 1: You're exposed to more things that can cause infection, and
Speaker 1: now your system is weaker. And so when we move
Speaker 1: into a month, we're talking about all the way down
Speaker 1: to your bones, bone marrow. The fat in your bone
Speaker 1: marrow begins to drain, your red blood cells are not
Speaker 1: being produced, or those factory stall, and there are MRI
Speaker 1: studies that show you start to lose brain volume. Wow.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: The other thing is like you can't just say, Okay,
Speaker 1: somebody's been starving or they're hungry and been so hungry
Speaker 1: for a really long time. Now we're just gonna give
Speaker 1: them all the calories, because if you give feed them
Speaker 1: too fast, that can be fatal.
Speaker 3: And kids feel it the fastest. It leads to stunted growth,
Speaker 3: delayed cognition, and in the long term you find that
Speaker 3: kids that struggle with food security make less money. Pregnant
Speaker 3: folks higher calorie demand plus nutrient deficits means that you
Speaker 3: will have smaller, less healthy babies. Hunger is an inter
Speaker 3: generational science experiment no one consented to. I mean, it
Speaker 3: just puts everyone in a tough predicament and it has
Speaker 3: ripple effects. It's not, like you said, happening in a vacuum,
Speaker 3: and is not just happening to that one generation because
Speaker 3: there's epigenetics. We know that from old famine studies that
Speaker 3: we're done. And then you have to think that these
Speaker 3: people not just sitting in a room being hungry. They
Speaker 3: a lot of them still have to work and go
Speaker 3: to school and juggle a lot of other things. So
Speaker 3: there's a lot of stress that's also wrapped up in that.
Speaker 3: It just all of us is just crippling. It feels
Speaker 3: really terrible, particularly at a time where we think about
Speaker 3: organizations like USAID being slashed, you know, or completely done
Speaker 3: away with, because what we know is that conflict blocks
Speaker 3: the regular transit paths for food and grain you know,
Speaker 3: and there were USAID programs that were specifically meant to
Speaker 3: feed hungry populations or people who are living in food
Speaker 3: crisis areas, and with the dismantling of USAID, all of
Speaker 3: those programs were immediately stopped, and so millions of children,
Speaker 3: millions and millions of children, millions of people are dying
Speaker 3: because of it.
Speaker 1: I think the key thing, you know, I feel like
Speaker 1: this can feel really overwhelming, and it can be like, oh,
Speaker 1: I don't want to look at that, but we have to.
Speaker 1: There's no way you can solve a thing until you
Speaker 1: look at it or even begin to address it. I
Speaker 1: think something that's been really interesting and nice for me
Speaker 1: to know is that just donating a few dollars. Right.
Speaker 1: I may say like, okay, I have five dollars, and
Speaker 1: if you have five dollars, what are you going to
Speaker 1: do with that at the grocery store. But at your
Speaker 1: local food bank, because of different deals and wholesale buying,
Speaker 1: five dollars can be stretched to twenty or twenty five
Speaker 1: dollars at your food bank. Monetary donations are the way
Speaker 1: to go.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: There is some uplifting or some positive science on the way.
Speaker 1: There has been a lot of genetic engineering to create
Speaker 1: food that can survive different conditions. Lately, there's been a
Speaker 1: push to kind of tweak the basic machine of plants,
Speaker 1: so editing the enzymes that are responsible for photosynthesis in wheat, maize,
Speaker 1: and soybeans so they can keep growing even as we
Speaker 1: continue to see you heat waves becoming more and more common.
Speaker 1: I know we don't have time to talk about it today,
Speaker 1: but at some point, please y'all google course with so
Speaker 1: we're not just thinking about genetic engineering being meat grown
Speaker 1: in a petri dish. Sometimes food innovation is just a
Speaker 1: hearty or resistant plant, something that can resist what climate
Speaker 1: change is throwing at it.
Speaker 3: And guess what. All of them are chemicals. The stuff
Speaker 3: you get out the ground, everything is a chemical. So
Speaker 3: chill chill, chill, chill. So sometimes it takes a whole
Speaker 3: community to solve a problem, and we need to think
Speaker 3: of ourselves. We say this all the time on this show.
Speaker 3: We need to think of ourselves as a global community
Speaker 3: and do our part to make sure that everybody has
Speaker 3: a life that they can love and that they are
Speaker 3: thriving here on this planet Earth. It is so so
Speaker 3: important we are all here together. We all share this
Speaker 3: Earth and I want it to be good for me,
Speaker 3: good for you, good for everybody.
Speaker 2: Amen.
Speaker 3: You can find us on X and Instagram at Dope
Speaker 3: Labs podcast.
Speaker 1: Tt is on X and Instagram at d R Underscore
Speaker 1: T s.
Speaker 3: H O, and you can find Zakiya at Z said So.
Speaker 1: Dope Labs is a production of Lamanada Media.
Speaker 3: Our senior supervising producer is Kristin Lapour and our associate
Speaker 3: producer is Issara Sives.
Speaker 1: Dope Labs is sound design, edited and mixed by James Farber.
Speaker 1: Lamanada Media is Vice President of Partnerships and Production is
Speaker 1: Jackie Danziger. Executive producer from iHeart Podcast is Katrina Norville.
Speaker 1: Marketing lead is Alison Canter.
Speaker 3: Original music composed and produced by Taka Yatsuzawa and Alex
Speaker 3: sudi Ura, with additional music by Elijah Harvey. Dope Lab
Speaker 3: is executive produced by US T T Show Dia and
Speaker 3: Kia Wattley.