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Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to

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Speaker 1: the show, fellow Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so

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Speaker 1: much for tuning in. That's our super producer. Mister Max Williams.

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Speaker 2: Is here and I am soft and I'm served Max.

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Speaker 2: Mister Softy Williams.

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Speaker 3: There, it is there.

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Speaker 1: It is known around the world as a delicious lothario.

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Speaker 3: Is Max.

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Speaker 1: They call me Ben Bull and you were Noel Brown.

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Speaker 1: Oh and no, we were talking off air. We get

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Speaker 1: a lot of our ideas for future episodes during our

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Speaker 1: explorations of other talk.

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Speaker 3: Oh and the world actually in the United States, right,

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Speaker 3: You and.

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Speaker 1: I thought, uh, some time ago, what better way to

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Speaker 1: celebrate summer than to talk a little bit about cool treats?

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Speaker 3: Cool treats.

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Speaker 2: Do you remember what Dairy Queen's logo used to be

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Speaker 2: or they're not logo their their tagline used to be?

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Speaker 3: Oh, what was it? It was hot eats, cool.

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Speaker 1: Treat That's right, that's right. Also, shout out to Dairy

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Speaker 1: Queen for teaching a lot of young kids the word brazier.

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Speaker 3: Well that's what I was gonna say, Ben. It used

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Speaker 3: to be did it was stuckies?

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Speaker 2: Related to dairy Queen, because I swear I would always

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Speaker 2: see like combination Stuckies and dairy Queen, but then they

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Speaker 2: would also a deal.

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Speaker 3: They must have been a deal, but it was a

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Speaker 3: long time ago.

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Speaker 2: And then that word Brazier referred to the fact that

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Speaker 2: they made burgers that they they would will meets. But

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Speaker 2: that seems very antiquated now and I don't think they

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Speaker 2: have that anymore, except maybe like some of the legacy

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Speaker 2: rbs that still have the neon hat, there may well

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Speaker 2: be some Dairy Queen Braziers still out there in the world.

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Speaker 1: The franchisees who didn't want to pay extra to update

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Speaker 1: the signage or you know, want.

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Speaker 3: To preserve history. Max. I know you got something to say.

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Speaker 3: Not really too much about this.

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Speaker 4: I mean, it does sound like it could be like

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Speaker 4: a was it Rallies and Checkers you Gotta Eat, but

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Speaker 4: like they're regionally named, it could be something.

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Speaker 3: Like Carls Junior and Harty's.

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Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, Well, shout out to Brazier and shout out

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Speaker 1: to our research associate for today's episode, which is none

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Speaker 1: other than you, mister Brown. You've had something on your

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Speaker 1: mind for a minute. I've got to ask Noel Max

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Speaker 1: or you guys, would you call yourselves ice cream fans? Max,

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Speaker 1: just pretend the condition isn't real for a second.

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Speaker 3: Well, I mean, oh gosh, yeah, ah, the condition. Yeah.

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Speaker 4: I mean I do enjoy ice cream. Back when I

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Speaker 4: could eat the back when I could eat ice cream,

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Speaker 4: I did thoroughly enjoy ice cream.

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Speaker 3: It was just like your flavor, what's your go to?

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Speaker 3: Oh my god, I don't know.

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Speaker 4: I'm not too bad, Hickey. I kind of liked it,

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Speaker 4: going like, I don't like anything that's like two intensible flavor.

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Speaker 4: You know, you have those ones like like the quadruple chocolate,

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Speaker 4: or like the blue one or the one that tastes

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Speaker 4: like blue and stuff like that.

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Speaker 3: Well, the one like blue, Yeah, like the very frank

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Speaker 3: Rid Olds Dandy de Vito I liked. Uh. I was

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Speaker 3: looking this up me.

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Speaker 1: We'll talk about it in a different episode. But if

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Speaker 1: you guys remember a place called the Spaghetti Factory. They

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Speaker 1: were to themselves famous. They were self confirmed famous for

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Speaker 1: an ice cream flavor they I called Spamoni.

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Speaker 2: Spamoni is a is a very famous just Italian flavor

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Speaker 2: and that you'll see in a lot of like Italian

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Speaker 2: Restaurantsre's actually a place in New York and I'm playing.

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Speaker 2: It's Queen's called or maybe it's the Bronx called Spamoni Gardens,

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Speaker 2: and it's a very well loved, local, kind of Italian

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Speaker 2: joint that does Semoni's. I had Spamoni for the very

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Speaker 2: first time recently, and it's got kind of mixed fruit

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Speaker 2: in it, like cheriots and pistaschio nuts and.

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Speaker 3: Strawberry very good.

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Speaker 2: Those are my favorite nuts, by the way, pistashio and

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Speaker 2: hazel nut, those two favorite nuts.

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Speaker 3: Put them together. You got yourself a flavor party. Ben.

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Speaker 2: By the way, Stuckey's and Dairy Queen did share a

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Speaker 2: deep corporate background, and we'll get to that a little

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Speaker 2: bit later in today's episode about the history of soft store.

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Speaker 3: Ben.

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Speaker 2: I like weird flavors, unlike Max. I love a blue

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Speaker 2: I love a double double chocolate trouble. I really, really, though,

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Speaker 2: quite especially in the summer, love soft serve ice cream.

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Speaker 2: There's something about the texture and the things you can

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Speaker 2: do with it. I love a dipped cone, be it

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Speaker 2: a Dairy Queen one, or even be it I think

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Speaker 2: McDonald's does a dip cone.

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Speaker 3: Maybe they did used to, but they don't anymore.

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Speaker 2: And I do love a dipped cone that comes from

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Speaker 2: a truck something about that.

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Speaker 1: It's different, right, Yeah, I think it's because it's an

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Speaker 1: off the book's business so often, but also folks to

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Speaker 1: get in front of the opprobrium in the outcry, we

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Speaker 1: are going to be using the phrase soft serve ice

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Speaker 1: cream pretty often in this episode.

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Speaker 3: We are aware that.

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Speaker 1: There are some litigious people out there, perhaps pedants, who

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Speaker 1: might object to that phrase, as we'll see. But look

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Speaker 1: legal uh, legal specs and requirements aside. We're not going

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Speaker 1: to be the fun police here just yet. We got

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Speaker 1: to admit whether you consider yourself a person with a

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Speaker 1: sweet tooth or not, Like I don't particularly have a

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Speaker 1: sweet tooth.

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Speaker 3: On my own. You got it? Thank you?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I was gonna I was gonna rip off that

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Speaker 1: Guy Ritchie line as well.

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Speaker 3: What is it?

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Speaker 1: It's a bricktop right who to his pigs right, bricktop

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Speaker 1: London gangster in one of the Guy Ritchie films, is

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Speaker 1: midway through threatening a group of would be thugs and

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Speaker 1: then he gets he gets some tea and they ask

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Speaker 1: him if you want sugar, and he's like, that's ike

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Speaker 1: techish on sweet enough, and then he proceeds as you said,

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Speaker 1: almost feed people to pigs.

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Speaker 3: But what we're.

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Speaker 1: Saying is, even if you yourself personally don't feel the

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Speaker 1: call of chilled sweetness, with the ice cream truck and

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Speaker 1: that that song that programs us all you gotta admit

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Speaker 1: ice cream and later soft surf, these are amazing inventions

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Speaker 1: and they're kind of symbol right.

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Speaker 2: The food science and just the engineering aspect. And this

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Speaker 2: is the kind of like a I don't know, a

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Speaker 2: stroke of genius that led to this becoming such a

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Speaker 2: booming industry is worth the price of admission alone, and

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Speaker 2: ben to get ahead of the legal beagles. That to

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Speaker 2: your point, I'm just going to refer to it as

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Speaker 2: soft serf because it's fun to say so. Soft serve

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Speaker 2: does seem like a simple invention. It's a cold, creamy

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Speaker 2: ice cream treat that comes from that swirls into a

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Speaker 2: little cone. But the history is actually, like we were saying,

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Speaker 2: a threefold story, fourfold, fivefold.

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Speaker 3: Even we've got through science.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we've got refrigeration, which is of course a huge

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Speaker 2: part of the history of being able to like move

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Speaker 2: things from parts of the country or the world where

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Speaker 2: they grow to other places without having them spoil.

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Speaker 3: Huge part of the history of the world.

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Speaker 2: Roadside attractions and entrepreneurship, the idea of franchises, and of

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Speaker 2: course marketing. And one thing I think we both find

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Speaker 2: a little interesting about the story of soft serve, and

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Speaker 2: this comes into play with a lot of inventions. Is

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Speaker 2: that parallel thinking factor that you know I love to mention.

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Speaker 2: We're not quite sure. We can't really point to a

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Speaker 2: single inventor that led to the creation of the soft

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Speaker 2: serve industry as we know it today, but we're going

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Speaker 2: to at least discuss some of the prime candidates.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely, and folks, just to set the bar here, we

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Speaker 1: have to make sure everybody knows ice cream itself, the

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Speaker 1: iced creams, as Nola once called them a few years back,

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Speaker 1: that concept is a lot older than this thing called

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Speaker 1: soft serve, because even before modern refrigeration, which was a

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Speaker 1: game changer, frozen desserts of some kind existed in various forms.

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Speaker 1: I'm thinking, of course, of things like the Inuit whale

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Speaker 1: ice cream. But that's because they lived in an environment

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Speaker 1: that was naturally refrigerated.

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Speaker 2: Sure, okay, I didn't think about that, And folks, you

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Speaker 2: may want to go back and visit an episode we

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Speaker 2: did not two distant past on the history of ice cream.

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Speaker 3: Trucks, right, yeah, yeah, So there might.

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Speaker 2: Be some redundant stuff in this, but we are focusing

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Speaker 2: primarily on soft serve specifically, which is a big part

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Speaker 2: of that's going to be the Carvel Company, which we'll

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Speaker 2: get to in just a bit. So to your point, Ben,

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Speaker 2: we're talking kind of hard serve, right, like hard scooped

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Speaker 2: ice cream that in order to you know, you churn

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Speaker 2: it then harden it at very low temperatures, often involving

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Speaker 2: like salt rock salt, and it does require a scoop

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Speaker 2: or a spoon to.

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Speaker 3: Get it out.

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Speaker 2: And you know, as we all know, anyone that pulls

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Speaker 2: a kind of Ben and Jerry's out of the freezer,

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Speaker 2: you kind of want to let it sit for a second,

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Speaker 2: or even put it in the microwave for ten seconds

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Speaker 2: or so. Otherwise it's like, you know, digging into the

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Speaker 2: frozen tundra.

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Speaker 3: It's hard to get purchase.

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Speaker 2: So this kind of created a bit of a practical

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Speaker 2: problem for the folks that were trying to sling this stuff.

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Speaker 2: The product had to be stored it's such temperatures, such

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Speaker 2: cold temperatures, in order to keep it firm and serving

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Speaker 2: it required a bit of effort because you had to

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Speaker 2: scoop it out. So the development of mechanical refrigeration and

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Speaker 2: these special ed freezers opened the door to something a

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Speaker 2: little bit different, a frozen dessert that could be frozen,

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Speaker 2: air rated and then served right away. Like it's like

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Speaker 2: all in one stop shop. You're basically making it to order.

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Speaker 1: And by the way, folks, I want to shout out

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Speaker 1: everybody who grew up with one of those homemade ice

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Speaker 1: cream creation kits. Cranks, yeah, because you have to crank

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Speaker 1: it in the circular fashion. It's a it's a bonding

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Speaker 1: experience with your kids, but it does take a while,

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Speaker 1: and if you are a parent in these very hurried days,

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Speaker 1: you may have a moment where you think we should

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Speaker 1: just go to the grocery store.

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Speaker 3: But it's fun. It's the experience.

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Speaker 1: And also, to be clear, Alaskan ice cream or the

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Speaker 1: stuff made by traditional First Nations people up north, that

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Speaker 1: is not what you think of when you think of

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Speaker 1: ice cream. It does have sweet stuff sometimes like raspberries

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Speaker 1: and blueberries, but it is made from seal oil, caribou, moose,

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Speaker 1: or walrus tallow.

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Speaker 3: So yeah, meat cream a meat cream.

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Speaker 2: I love that you know what, I try it. I'm

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Speaker 2: not a verse to trying some meat cream. So this

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Speaker 2: guy named Charles Taylor is an important figure who in

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Speaker 2: nineteen twenty six came up with this idea to have

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Speaker 2: an ice cream machine that used prepared ingredients, whipped them

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Speaker 2: into a smooth consistency, and then dispensed them. Essentially, it

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Speaker 2: wasn't exactly a soft serve machine, but it was very

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Speaker 2: very much the predecessor to what we think of as

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Speaker 2: the you know, the lever you pull and then the

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Speaker 2: little swirl that comes out. I'm having a hard time

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Speaker 2: picturing this, and because it is definitely older technology that

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Speaker 2: isn't his viable anymore. I had a hard time finding

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Speaker 2: an actual image of one. But I think my understanding

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Speaker 2: is that is it is more of a mechanized version

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Speaker 2: of that hand crank machine that you're talking about.

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Speaker 1: Ben Ah, Yeah, that absolutely makes sense.

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Speaker 3: He did. Taylor.

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Speaker 1: Taylor's a fascinating character, folks, and he did as we said,

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Speaker 1: He did appear to be the first to the market

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Speaker 1: filing a patent for that ice cream machine. And I

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Speaker 1: think I want to say maybe it was stuff of genius.

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Speaker 1: Where we talked a little bit about him, but as

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Speaker 1: you said, we have many other inventors and entrepreneurs in

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Speaker 1: the fold here. One of the classic ridiculous history stories

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Speaker 1: involves another guy, a guy named Tom Carvell. That's a

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Speaker 1: surname a lot of our ice cream fans will recognize

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Speaker 1: because he founded the Carvel ice Cream Company, and he's

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Speaker 1: got a weird he's got a weird story about it

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Speaker 1: that happens Memorial Day weekend way back in nineteen thirty four.

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Speaker 3: For sure, Ben and Carvell.

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Speaker 2: To folks living in our neck of the woods in

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Speaker 2: the southern part of the US, it's not necessarily going

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Speaker 2: to be something that you grew up with. I think

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Speaker 2: maybe maybe Ben, You of course remember things like Baskin

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Speaker 2: Robbins to a lesser degree. Cold Stone was came along

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Speaker 2: a little bit later, But we didn't really hoggin did

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Speaker 2: We didn't really grow up around Carvell. That was more

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Speaker 2: than North Northeast kind of thing. And that you will

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Speaker 2: find them. There are some around in Atlanta, as we

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Speaker 2: will discuss later. Their their stock has fallen considerably and

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Speaker 2: there are far fewer locations there ever were were. But

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Speaker 2: in their heyday they were pretty ubiquitous, and they definitely

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Speaker 2: were much more concentrated in.

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Speaker 3: The northeast of the US.

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Speaker 2: So what happened was Tom Carvell, during Memorial Day weekend,

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Speaker 2: as he said been in nineteen thirty four, had an

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Speaker 2: ice cream truck, and the truck had, you know the

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Speaker 2: misfortune of suffering a flat tire while roaming around the

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Speaker 2: streets of Hartsdale, New York, and you know, basically disabled

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Speaker 2: out in the field like that, he wasn't able to

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Speaker 2: keep his ice cream properly frozen. But he needed to

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Speaker 2: sell this stuff, so he started to sell the partially

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Speaker 2: melted product to folks that were happening by. And the

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Speaker 2: thing that was surprising to him was that they actually

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Speaker 2: seemed to like it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, because think about it, folks, it's easier to eat.

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Speaker 1: You don't have to have a high endurance spoon or

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Speaker 1: scooping mechanism. You can walk around the block of Heartsdale

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Speaker 1: and just liquor bite to your heart's content until you

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Speaker 1: get the brain freeze. And Carvell recognized this opportunity. He's

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Speaker 1: a lot like Percy Spencer, the guy who figured out

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Speaker 1: microwave ovens when a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.

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Speaker 1: So Carvell, obviously nobody wants a flat tire.

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Speaker 3: But Carvell sees.

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Speaker 1: The creamy silver lining here and says, I've got an opportunity.

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Speaker 1: Folks actually liked this ice cream at his temperature softer

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Speaker 1: it's easier to eat. And what if I made a

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Speaker 1: business where I just sold this softer ice cream?

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Speaker 2: Pretty smart, quite an aha moment, and Carvel said about

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Speaker 2: figuring out a way to do this at scale. He

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Speaker 2: went on to develop specialized freezing equipment and a formula

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Speaker 2: for soft served ice cream. By the late thirties and

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Speaker 2: early forties, he had turned the idea into just that,

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Speaker 2: a scalable business. Smithsonian does a great job of describing

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Speaker 2: the equipment.

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Speaker 3: That he created.

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Speaker 2: It was essentially a batch freezer that later he patented

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Speaker 2: and converted into a sellable equipment, you know, mass marketed

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Speaker 2: equipment that he sold to other operations, which helped spread

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Speaker 2: the technology beyond his own stores. And for a while

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Speaker 2: that was kind of his main thing, was selling these

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Speaker 2: machines to other companies. And then I believe he even

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Speaker 2: had like master classes where he would tea them how

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Speaker 2: to use it. He was also like the voice of

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Speaker 2: the company because he was driving around. I think he

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Speaker 2: heard like a radio ad that was created for his company.

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Speaker 2: He didn't like it, so he went to the radio

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Speaker 2: station and asked to redo the ad in his own voice.

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Speaker 2: So he kind of set the standard for like the

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Speaker 2: Colonel Sanders's and you know Tom Bowdetts of the world,

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Speaker 2: Dave Thomas's of the world in being not only the

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Speaker 2: CEO and the creator behind the brand, but also the

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Speaker 2: face of the brand. And Fudgi the whale you may know,

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Speaker 2: again not really something that I grew up with, but

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Speaker 2: it is like an ice cream cake, and Carvel was

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Speaker 2: also very important in the mass marketing and you know

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Speaker 2: proliferation of the ice cream cake. It's literally this like

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Speaker 2: chocolate whale shaped cake with like whipped cream and ice

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Speaker 2: cream layers and really really popular for birthdays and Father's days.

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Speaker 3: And stuff like that.

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Speaker 1: And there's one spoiler I've got to put in here, fellow, fellow,

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Speaker 1: ridiculous history. You'll enjoy this, and you'll see where we're

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Speaker 1: going with it. You could say the difference between soft

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Speaker 1: serve and ice cream is the same as the difference

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Speaker 1: between a potato chip and a puffed crisp.

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Speaker 3: Aha. That's a very good point, Ben.

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Speaker 2: Is it to do with how like whether it kind

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Speaker 2: of comes from like real ingredients or like some sort

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Speaker 2: of is it like a dairy treat, dairy dessert rather

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Speaker 2: than like a cream you know what I mean? Like

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Speaker 2: what is it cheese product versus like actual whole milk cheese.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, let's get into it.

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Speaker 1: As we're we're planting that seed there, that soft served

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Speaker 1: tree is going to grow here momentarily. Nolan, the research

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Speaker 1: you point out, thanks to soft Serveperth dot com dot

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Speaker 1: au that there was a there was a growing industry

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Speaker 1: popping up in different parts of the US. We mentioned

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Speaker 1: Dairy Queen. We have to let you know, folks that

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Speaker 1: around the same time that carvel was becoming a legend,

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Speaker 1: there was another completely unrelated group of folks looking into

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Speaker 1: what we call soft serve out in the Midwest.

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Speaker 3: Yep. It's that parallel thinking, man.

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Speaker 2: I mean, it's like, you know, people can have an

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Speaker 2: idea at the same time and not necessarily be stealing

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Speaker 2: at almost the exact same time. To your point, Ben,

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Speaker 2: the McCullough family, headed up by John Fremont JF. McCullough,

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Speaker 2: along with his son Alex, had developed a soft serve

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Speaker 2: formula of their own. In nineteen thirty eight, they tested

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Speaker 2: the product at the ice cream shop belonging to a

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Speaker 2: friend of theirs with a fabulous named Sherb Noble. Is

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Speaker 2: that nominal determinism there, Ben Sherb, Sherbert Sherberts, how do

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Speaker 2: you say it?

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Speaker 3: I love the concept of nominative determinism. I've been winging about.

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Speaker 1: It for years, and I like the idea that maybe

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Speaker 1: he had some very specific opinions about Sherbert, but Sherbert

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Speaker 1: might be a little bit outside the scope of softser

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Speaker 1: is Nola's soft served?

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Speaker 3: Is Sherbert soft serve?

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Speaker 2: I don't think so. Sherbet does a hard pack ice

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Speaker 2: cream as well. I think it just has to do

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Speaker 2: with the cream content once again, right, there are some

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Speaker 2: then diagrams.

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Speaker 1: Oh, Sherbert has like one to two percent milk fat,

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Speaker 1: so way less than.

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Speaker 2: Ice cream, right, and it tends to be more you know,

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Speaker 2: fruity flavors. But that's all I really know about Sherbet.

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Speaker 2: It's never been my go to, although I will say,

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Speaker 2: when it is presented to me, a nice orange Sherbert

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Speaker 2: is pretty refreshing and tasty.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's I'm not so much on the orange orange flavors,

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Speaker 1: but I'll.

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Speaker 3: Tell you it's fine, sure, Sherbert is. Yeah, it's one

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Speaker 3: of those things.

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Speaker 1: I love the fruity flavors, most of them. Sherbert's one

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Speaker 1: of those things where, like you, if I I'm in

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Speaker 1: an area and somebody offers it, I'm not going to

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Speaker 1: get mad at him. But I don't stay up late

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Speaker 1: at night wondering if I'll ever eat Sherbert again.

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Speaker 2: Well, it seems to be the general consensus, because I

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Speaker 2: don't know that I see Sir Sherb Butt. It just

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Speaker 2: doesn't seem to be nearly as popular as it maybe

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Speaker 2: once was. But that is just a conjecture on my part.

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Speaker 2: The test at Sherberdery and ken Kaki, Illinois, was a

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Speaker 2: smashing success, as you might have imagined, Ben. According to

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Speaker 2: the Dairy Queen Historian, the customers consumed more than sixteen

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Speaker 2: hundred servings in just a couple of hours during the

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Speaker 2: first sales experiment, very day, very first day. Man, this

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Speaker 2: is a good sign. The McCullough's joined forces with Noble

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Speaker 2: to subsequently open the very first Dairy Queen brick and

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Speaker 2: mortar store in Joliette, Illinois. I'm just a year or

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Speaker 2: just a couple of years later, nineteen forty was open

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Speaker 2: for business. That's when the company started rapidly expanding through franchising.

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Speaker 2: And this is all before Ray Kroc and McDonald's. If

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Speaker 2: I'm not mistaken, Yeah, I believe that's correct.

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Speaker 1: And this is also why our question about who invented

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Speaker 1: soft serve is similar to the story of so many

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Speaker 1: other inventions. There isn't a simple answer that everyone agrees on. Instead,

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Speaker 1: there are multiple contenders saying, hey, we were first to

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Speaker 1: the post. Carvel and dairy Queen for a while are

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Speaker 1: like our coke and pepsi. You know, they have both

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00:21:33,040 --> 00:21:39,280
Speaker 1: credible claims to pioneering the commercial soft served business and

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00:21:39,320 --> 00:21:44,680
Speaker 1: the machinery and freezing technologies involved. So maybe it's best

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Speaker 1: for us ridiculous historians to think of soft serve as

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00:21:49,520 --> 00:21:56,440
Speaker 1: an as a techno model that emerged through multiple innovations

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Speaker 1: starting in the nineteen twenties and thirties and just got

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Speaker 1: more delicious as we go along.

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Speaker 3: But you've got to.

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Speaker 1: Riddle me this here. And we keep saying the phrase

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00:22:07,200 --> 00:22:10,040
Speaker 1: soft serve, and we talked about the temperature, but what

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00:22:10,240 --> 00:22:11,639
Speaker 1: actually makes soft serve?

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Speaker 3: You know, soft?

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00:22:13,560 --> 00:22:15,159
Speaker 2: That's right, I mean, if you think about it, is

398
00:22:15,320 --> 00:22:21,720
Speaker 2: kind of bordering on milkshake consistency. Like maybe think about

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Speaker 2: if you have a milkshake that's a little too hard

400
00:22:24,080 --> 00:22:26,760
Speaker 2: to drink through a straw. That's kind of the consistency

401
00:22:26,760 --> 00:22:30,160
Speaker 2: of a soft serve, like a Wendy's frosty, for example.

402
00:22:30,200 --> 00:22:32,280
Speaker 2: You could drink that with a straw if it melted

403
00:22:32,320 --> 00:22:34,280
Speaker 2: a little bit, but when it comes right out, it's

404
00:22:34,280 --> 00:22:35,879
Speaker 2: a little tricky. You gotta eat it with a spoon.

405
00:22:35,960 --> 00:22:40,520
Speaker 2: And that is because the soft served machine simultaneously freezes

406
00:22:40,600 --> 00:22:45,480
Speaker 2: part of the water in that mixture, whips air into it,

407
00:22:45,480 --> 00:22:48,360
Speaker 2: aerrates it, which makes it nice and fluffy and creamy,

408
00:22:48,600 --> 00:22:52,040
Speaker 2: and then it keeps the product at a precise temperature

409
00:22:52,320 --> 00:22:56,160
Speaker 2: that is warmer than fully hardened ice cream. And the

410
00:22:56,160 --> 00:22:59,840
Speaker 2: most important part is that it dispenses it directly into

411
00:22:59,880 --> 00:23:02,119
Speaker 2: the cone that has then passed directly off the customer.

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Speaker 2: And I mean you will notice if you're I was

413
00:23:04,200 --> 00:23:07,160
Speaker 2: just hanging out at a park in Queens and got

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00:23:07,200 --> 00:23:11,000
Speaker 2: a soft served cone from a delightful truck and got

415
00:23:11,040 --> 00:23:14,240
Speaker 2: it dipped and everything. It starts melting and dripping real

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00:23:14,320 --> 00:23:16,639
Speaker 2: quick if it's a hot day, so you got to

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00:23:16,680 --> 00:23:19,280
Speaker 2: really get right on that. Whereas a hard. You know,

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00:23:19,480 --> 00:23:22,520
Speaker 2: packed ice cream scoop will eventually start melting, but you

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00:23:22,560 --> 00:23:24,560
Speaker 2: got a little time is on your side a little

420
00:23:24,600 --> 00:23:26,280
Speaker 2: more when it comes to the melting of that.

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00:23:27,560 --> 00:23:30,159
Speaker 1: And that's this is why I'm making that earlier. In

422
00:23:30,240 --> 00:23:35,520
Speaker 1: comparison to potato chips versus you know, potato puffs or crisp.

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00:23:36,080 --> 00:23:39,560
Speaker 1: The air that goes into your soft serve is called

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00:23:39,760 --> 00:23:44,320
Speaker 1: overrun in the industry, and that creates this light, smooth,

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00:23:44,880 --> 00:23:48,400
Speaker 1: shod a esque texture that makes soft serve different from

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00:23:48,480 --> 00:23:51,879
Speaker 1: those denser scoops. And because it's at a higher temperature,

427
00:23:52,840 --> 00:23:56,080
Speaker 1: it it is going to be a different tasting or

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00:23:56,160 --> 00:24:01,159
Speaker 1: consumption experience. But to be clear, soft surf is not

429
00:24:01,280 --> 00:24:04,119
Speaker 1: a completely different food. It's a kissing cousin of ice

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00:24:04,160 --> 00:24:08,920
Speaker 1: cream and it uses most of the same basic ingredients

431
00:24:09,280 --> 00:24:12,520
Speaker 1: from ice cream. So, like you were saying, Noel, think

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00:24:12,560 --> 00:24:16,760
Speaker 1: of it more as like you know how bell peppers

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00:24:16,800 --> 00:24:19,480
Speaker 1: would be another example. You know how bell peppers in

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00:24:19,520 --> 00:24:22,800
Speaker 1: the US you'll typically get them in like yellow, orange,

435
00:24:22,880 --> 00:24:27,480
Speaker 1: and red or green. Those are just different stages of

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00:24:27,520 --> 00:24:30,960
Speaker 1: the peppers development. So we could say that soft serve

437
00:24:31,520 --> 00:24:35,000
Speaker 1: in a similar way, is a different stage of development of.

438
00:24:34,960 --> 00:24:36,760
Speaker 3: Ice Funny it's funny say that. Not to zero.

439
00:24:36,920 --> 00:24:39,640
Speaker 2: We're talking about food, and I didn't quite know that

440
00:24:39,680 --> 00:24:41,800
Speaker 2: thing about peppers. But it does make sense because you'll

441
00:24:41,840 --> 00:24:45,160
Speaker 2: even notice, Ben, if you keep a certain pepper long

442
00:24:45,280 --> 00:24:46,920
Speaker 2: enough and it doesn't go bad, it will start to

443
00:24:47,000 --> 00:24:51,119
Speaker 2: change color. Yep, yep, it's a little darker, but not

444
00:24:51,200 --> 00:24:53,800
Speaker 2: like in a bad way. It's like it's literally transitioning

445
00:24:54,000 --> 00:24:55,400
Speaker 2: into another phase.

446
00:24:56,200 --> 00:24:56,480
Speaker 3: Yeah.

447
00:24:56,720 --> 00:25:00,000
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a natural ripening process. I want to be

448
00:25:00,119 --> 00:25:04,200
Speaker 1: clear there since I derailed us. Peppers have an unripe

449
00:25:04,280 --> 00:25:08,240
Speaker 1: green state and then they get to a final vibrant

450
00:25:08,359 --> 00:25:11,520
Speaker 1: hue that that depends on the genetics and then break

451
00:25:11,560 --> 00:25:13,840
Speaker 1: down a chlorophyll. And that's not what we're here to

452
00:25:13,880 --> 00:25:16,879
Speaker 1: talk about. We're here to talk about soft serve, oh.

453
00:25:16,760 --> 00:25:17,320
Speaker 3: For sure, Ben.

454
00:25:17,320 --> 00:25:19,760
Speaker 2: But I appreciate the pepper talk because I have been

455
00:25:20,480 --> 00:25:23,840
Speaker 2: really enjoying some of those little sweet peppers lately that

456
00:25:23,960 --> 00:25:25,600
Speaker 2: you get at the store and like a bag they

457
00:25:25,640 --> 00:25:29,840
Speaker 2: got like red, green and yellow, and you can snack

458
00:25:29,880 --> 00:25:31,840
Speaker 2: on them, slice them up, put in a salad, just

459
00:25:31,960 --> 00:25:32,479
Speaker 2: you know, eat them.

460
00:25:32,520 --> 00:25:34,680
Speaker 3: I grilled some the other day, very very good.

461
00:25:35,359 --> 00:25:38,840
Speaker 2: Back to soft serve and back to the nineteen forties

462
00:25:38,880 --> 00:25:43,280
Speaker 2: where technology is really turning this into a scalable business,

463
00:25:43,280 --> 00:25:43,879
Speaker 2: and a lot of.

464
00:25:43,880 --> 00:25:45,120
Speaker 3: People are jumping on the train.

465
00:25:45,680 --> 00:25:47,880
Speaker 2: It was a crucial time because soft Serve became more

466
00:25:47,920 --> 00:25:50,240
Speaker 2: than just an interesting kind of like you know, wave

467
00:25:50,280 --> 00:25:51,320
Speaker 2: of the future product.

468
00:25:51,480 --> 00:25:54,400
Speaker 3: It became a repeatable retail system.

469
00:25:54,720 --> 00:25:59,040
Speaker 2: Carvel helped popularize those machines and eventually developed the franchise model.

470
00:25:59,600 --> 00:26:04,159
Speaker 2: These Sonian's archival history of Carvel says that Carvel sold

471
00:26:04,160 --> 00:26:07,520
Speaker 2: these freezers to other operators and later became deeply involved

472
00:26:07,520 --> 00:26:11,320
Speaker 2: into franchising themselves. Dairy Queen, as we mentioned, did follow

473
00:26:11,320 --> 00:26:15,800
Speaker 2: a similar path expanding through franchising. That model was particularly

474
00:26:15,840 --> 00:26:18,919
Speaker 2: well suited to Soft Serve because the product could be

475
00:26:19,080 --> 00:26:23,520
Speaker 2: made using standardized mixes and specialized machines. So if your

476
00:26:24,119 --> 00:26:27,919
Speaker 2: franchisee has the machine and then you send them the

477
00:26:28,000 --> 00:26:35,560
Speaker 2: proprietary mixture, you got yourself a repeatable, you know, predictable products, right,

478
00:26:36,840 --> 00:26:37,640
Speaker 2: you sure do.

479
00:26:38,160 --> 00:26:42,560
Speaker 1: And you also see the kind of timing that people

480
00:26:42,760 --> 00:26:46,280
Speaker 1: cannot predict but can make or break a new invention.

481
00:26:46,880 --> 00:26:52,240
Speaker 1: Soft Serve is riding the wave of post World War

482
00:26:52,280 --> 00:26:58,159
Speaker 1: two American transformation. These are the halcyon days of you know,

483
00:26:58,240 --> 00:27:02,000
Speaker 1: the nuclear family. A car in every garage. Everybody can

484
00:27:02,040 --> 00:27:05,320
Speaker 1: afford a home, two point five kids, et cetera, et cetera.

485
00:27:05,400 --> 00:27:07,880
Speaker 1: That's a big part of the American myth and obviously

486
00:27:07,920 --> 00:27:12,120
Speaker 1: didn't apply to everybody, but it brings in this idea

487
00:27:12,680 --> 00:27:15,640
Speaker 1: of a bold new future.

488
00:27:15,960 --> 00:27:16,160
Speaker 3: Right.

489
00:27:16,240 --> 00:27:19,040
Speaker 1: And along with this bold due future doesn't just come

490
00:27:19,119 --> 00:27:22,600
Speaker 1: the ubiquity of the automobile. We also see the bold

491
00:27:22,680 --> 00:27:25,879
Speaker 1: future of ice cream, the soft serve. And when you're

492
00:27:26,160 --> 00:27:29,040
Speaker 1: when you're traveling by car, you're taking your kids on

493
00:27:29,200 --> 00:27:32,360
Speaker 1: the summer vacation, you know, to the beach or out

494
00:27:32,400 --> 00:27:35,800
Speaker 1: to the Grand Canyon. Uh, you are going to see

495
00:27:35,840 --> 00:27:39,160
Speaker 1: all these tourist spots. What do they sell soft serve?

496
00:27:39,359 --> 00:27:41,600
Speaker 1: You also see it at drive ins, at diners, at

497
00:27:41,640 --> 00:27:45,520
Speaker 1: shopping centers because to your point, Noal, once you as

498
00:27:45,560 --> 00:27:49,920
Speaker 1: a business get that machine, you're printing money.

499
00:27:50,080 --> 00:27:50,800
Speaker 3: One hundred percent.

500
00:27:50,880 --> 00:27:53,320
Speaker 2: Ben, And I love your point about not only the

501
00:27:53,359 --> 00:27:56,959
Speaker 2: nuclear family, but like nuclear power and like the nuclear bomb,

502
00:27:57,119 --> 00:28:00,119
Speaker 2: and this idea of the age of atom and the

503
00:28:00,200 --> 00:28:03,560
Speaker 2: future like automats. You know, even just getting food or

504
00:28:03,600 --> 00:28:09,000
Speaker 2: frozen things dispensed from trucks felt vaguely like futuristic, right,

505
00:28:09,080 --> 00:28:12,000
Speaker 2: because of refrigeration technology and all of this stuff.

506
00:28:12,040 --> 00:28:13,080
Speaker 3: So soft serve.

507
00:28:13,040 --> 00:28:15,680
Speaker 2: Definitely was kind of world's fair material, you know what

508
00:28:15,760 --> 00:28:19,080
Speaker 2: I mean. It was like definitely seen as a novelty, right, Yeah,

509
00:28:19,119 --> 00:28:21,880
Speaker 2: like Dippin' Dots back in the nineteen nineties one hundred

510
00:28:21,880 --> 00:28:24,080
Speaker 2: percent and Dippin' dot you know, it's funny Dippin' dots did.

511
00:28:24,119 --> 00:28:26,119
Speaker 2: I wouldn't say it took off like soft serve, but

512
00:28:26,320 --> 00:28:28,639
Speaker 2: it's still around, and there are other companies that do

513
00:28:28,720 --> 00:28:31,520
Speaker 2: a Dippin' dots type thing, so I'm glad to see

514
00:28:31,520 --> 00:28:35,439
Speaker 2: them hanging on, but definitely never reached the same heights

515
00:28:35,520 --> 00:28:38,600
Speaker 2: that Soft Serve did. So by the nineteen fifties, soft

516
00:28:38,600 --> 00:28:42,400
Speaker 2: serve was becoming a little bit less of that novelty

517
00:28:42,840 --> 00:28:46,560
Speaker 2: and it had become mainstreamed into American food culture. Smithsonian

518
00:28:46,600 --> 00:28:49,200
Speaker 2: said that by nineteen fifty six, we had around twelve

519
00:28:49,400 --> 00:28:53,440
Speaker 2: thousand places in the United States that were offering soft

520
00:28:53,480 --> 00:28:54,360
Speaker 2: serve ice cream.

521
00:28:54,640 --> 00:28:56,800
Speaker 1: Yeah, And one important point we have to make here,

522
00:28:56,880 --> 00:29:02,200
Speaker 1: fellow ridiculous historians, is that off serve became mainstreamed in

523
00:29:02,280 --> 00:29:09,760
Speaker 1: this world of emergent franchises because it was a predictable treat, right,

524
00:29:09,920 --> 00:29:14,800
Speaker 1: because the machines even from competing inventors and manufacturers because

525
00:29:14,840 --> 00:29:18,600
Speaker 1: they all used a very similar process. If you were

526
00:29:18,680 --> 00:29:22,560
Speaker 1: taking your kiddos out to you know, your dairy queen

527
00:29:22,880 --> 00:29:25,959
Speaker 1: or out to another place, you wouldn't have to worry

528
00:29:26,000 --> 00:29:29,840
Speaker 1: that mom and pop made the soft serve a different way.

529
00:29:29,920 --> 00:29:32,920
Speaker 1: It be predictable for your kids, so they'd always get

530
00:29:32,960 --> 00:29:35,560
Speaker 1: the same treat. It's a huge part of the success.

531
00:29:35,680 --> 00:29:41,360
Speaker 1: And we're talking about repeatability and predictability. We got to

532
00:29:41,440 --> 00:29:42,400
Speaker 1: talk McDonald's.

533
00:29:42,440 --> 00:29:44,400
Speaker 2: We do they kind of crack the code on that.

534
00:29:44,480 --> 00:29:47,040
Speaker 2: The afore I mentioned Ray Kroc, who did to be

535
00:29:47,120 --> 00:29:51,680
Speaker 2: fair steel bull thing from writers. Check out that film

536
00:29:51,720 --> 00:29:55,320
Speaker 2: What's the Founder? I think that's called Yeah, so Michael

537
00:29:55,400 --> 00:29:58,080
Speaker 2: Keaton plays Croc. You know, definitely a bit of a

538
00:29:58,120 --> 00:30:02,280
Speaker 2: snake in the grass. But oftentimes big, big thinking business

539
00:30:02,320 --> 00:30:04,600
Speaker 2: people are I mean, look at Elon Musk. He really

540
00:30:04,720 --> 00:30:06,680
Speaker 2: he never met an idea that he didn't want to steal.

541
00:30:07,200 --> 00:30:11,720
Speaker 2: That's sort of his whole vibe. And that's true. He

542
00:30:11,760 --> 00:30:14,840
Speaker 2: really is excited about making an AI version of the Odyssey.

543
00:30:14,880 --> 00:30:17,000
Speaker 2: He's very upset about that. I don't quite get it.

544
00:30:17,480 --> 00:30:19,640
Speaker 3: But you know, what's a heck of a drug. Yeah,

545
00:30:19,640 --> 00:30:21,440
Speaker 3: I do hope he's doing well.

546
00:30:22,240 --> 00:30:26,400
Speaker 2: This is important though, Ben McDonald's did usher in the

547
00:30:26,560 --> 00:30:31,560
Speaker 2: fast food revolution. McDonald's began offering soft serve in nineteen

548
00:30:31,560 --> 00:30:34,560
Speaker 2: fifty six as a compliment to their burgers as a

549
00:30:34,560 --> 00:30:37,680
Speaker 2: way of getting dessert, getting everything in one place, right,

550
00:30:37,720 --> 00:30:42,240
Speaker 2: You got your meal, your your drink, and then your dessert.

551
00:30:42,280 --> 00:30:46,920
Speaker 2: Of course, this was all thanks to machines manufactured by

552
00:30:46,920 --> 00:30:49,480
Speaker 2: the first guy we mentioned that, Charles Taylor, who did

553
00:30:49,560 --> 00:30:55,240
Speaker 2: go on to develop further evolutions of his original design

554
00:30:55,440 --> 00:30:59,360
Speaker 2: that did end up including soft serve machines. So this

555
00:30:59,640 --> 00:31:03,000
Speaker 2: really started to mainstream soft serve even further. Fast food

556
00:31:03,040 --> 00:31:05,560
Speaker 2: restaurants were that perfect match because they could finish their

557
00:31:05,600 --> 00:31:08,040
Speaker 2: burger and their fries and then get themselves a coliner,

558
00:31:08,080 --> 00:31:10,880
Speaker 2: a Sunday or a shake all from the same counter.

559
00:31:10,880 --> 00:31:13,600
Speaker 2: Because you can make a shake out a softcer, you know,

560
00:31:13,640 --> 00:31:16,040
Speaker 2: like all of this stuff. It's like a one stop

561
00:31:16,120 --> 00:31:18,240
Speaker 2: for the ingredients that then can be combined with other

562
00:31:18,400 --> 00:31:22,320
Speaker 2: ingredients to make different menu items.

563
00:31:22,480 --> 00:31:25,400
Speaker 1: And hang with a creepy clown everybody. Check out our

564
00:31:25,440 --> 00:31:28,840
Speaker 1: two part series on McDonald's mascots and check out that

565
00:31:28,960 --> 00:31:35,000
Speaker 1: those original versions of Ronald McDonald even like at some locations.

566
00:31:35,360 --> 00:31:36,440
Speaker 3: I haven't seen them in a long time.

567
00:31:36,440 --> 00:31:38,840
Speaker 2: But there used to be like a bench outside where

568
00:31:38,840 --> 00:31:41,240
Speaker 2: it was wrong McDonald's statue on it and his arm

569
00:31:41,280 --> 00:31:44,920
Speaker 2: and he could put his arm, put his arm around you.

570
00:31:44,960 --> 00:31:48,160
Speaker 1: Nothing weird, but it is a It is a brilliant

571
00:31:48,240 --> 00:31:54,160
Speaker 1: idea because again it goes back to consistency and predictability. Uh.

572
00:31:54,200 --> 00:31:56,920
Speaker 1: We did solve the question, by the way, about why

573
00:31:57,000 --> 00:31:59,840
Speaker 1: the McDonald's ice cream machine is always broken in the

574
00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:02,560
Speaker 1: modern day check out stuff. They don't want you to

575
00:32:02,640 --> 00:32:04,520
Speaker 1: know for that one. But this this.

576
00:32:04,520 --> 00:32:06,640
Speaker 2: So you could blame the tailor company. They still are there.

577
00:32:06,680 --> 00:32:09,040
Speaker 2: They're still the company that provides the machine. And I

578
00:32:09,080 --> 00:32:11,160
Speaker 2: believe to hint at that a little bit. It had

579
00:32:11,200 --> 00:32:14,000
Speaker 2: to do with the fact that right to repair stuff.

580
00:32:14,080 --> 00:32:16,160
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, they have a monopoly on it.

581
00:32:16,200 --> 00:32:18,440
Speaker 1: It's been very good for the tailor company, not that

582
00:32:18,480 --> 00:32:19,560
Speaker 1: great for the consumer.

583
00:32:19,680 --> 00:32:22,200
Speaker 2: But I'll point out real quick something that's not in

584
00:32:22,240 --> 00:32:24,920
Speaker 2: the doc here, Ben, I was watching a video on

585
00:32:24,920 --> 00:32:29,520
Speaker 2: the history of Carvel. Apparently McDonald's came to Carvel first,

586
00:32:29,800 --> 00:32:31,840
Speaker 2: and Carvell said he didn't see it.

587
00:32:33,240 --> 00:32:35,360
Speaker 3: I don't see it. I don't see the vision. I

588
00:32:35,400 --> 00:32:35,960
Speaker 3: don't see Uh.

589
00:32:36,240 --> 00:32:38,760
Speaker 2: People wanting ice cream after a burger. It just doesn't

590
00:32:38,800 --> 00:32:39,440
Speaker 2: make sense to me.

591
00:32:39,720 --> 00:32:43,600
Speaker 1: And Sean Connery almost got to play Dumbledore and Gandolf

592
00:32:43,800 --> 00:32:48,040
Speaker 1: and didn't understand the scripts. So everybody has their big

593
00:32:48,080 --> 00:32:53,440
Speaker 1: accidental wins and their big accidental misses. McDonald's is amazing

594
00:32:53,680 --> 00:32:59,000
Speaker 1: for the consumer because it is inexpensive, it is consistent,

595
00:32:59,560 --> 00:33:04,160
Speaker 1: it is reliable. You know what you are going to get,

596
00:33:04,400 --> 00:33:08,840
Speaker 1: and part of this results in soft serve and as

597
00:33:08,880 --> 00:33:13,160
Speaker 1: you said, the milkshake becoming the kind of the part

598
00:33:13,240 --> 00:33:15,160
Speaker 1: of the triumvirent of the meal.

599
00:33:15,320 --> 00:33:15,480
Speaker 3: Right.

600
00:33:15,520 --> 00:33:18,000
Speaker 1: You get a sandwich, you get some fries, you get

601
00:33:18,040 --> 00:33:22,680
Speaker 1: a drink or a dessert, and this propels soft serve

602
00:33:23,200 --> 00:33:37,560
Speaker 1: past the point of mainstream novelty into international ubiquity. That's why,

603
00:33:37,600 --> 00:33:41,640
Speaker 1: by the nineteen sixties and the nineteen seventies you see

604
00:33:41,680 --> 00:33:46,040
Speaker 1: soft serve or somebody chilling soft serve at pretty much

605
00:33:46,080 --> 00:33:50,480
Speaker 1: any public gathering, right like your fares, your malls, your

606
00:33:50,520 --> 00:33:51,440
Speaker 1: amusement parks.

607
00:33:52,160 --> 00:33:53,960
Speaker 2: For sure, I mean, and there is you know, there

608
00:33:54,000 --> 00:33:56,200
Speaker 2: is a barrier to entry. Anyone can't get in on

609
00:33:56,240 --> 00:33:58,600
Speaker 2: the game. You got to have some pretty pricey equipment,

610
00:33:59,080 --> 00:34:01,560
Speaker 2: whereas with hard pack ice cream you could make it

611
00:34:01,600 --> 00:34:03,560
Speaker 2: yourself at home and then bring it in a cooler

612
00:34:03,640 --> 00:34:06,560
Speaker 2: or something like that. But that's absolutely right, Ben, ice

613
00:34:06,560 --> 00:34:10,200
Speaker 2: cream parlors, malls, all that stuff, fast food restaurants, schools,

614
00:34:10,880 --> 00:34:13,439
Speaker 2: the mobile ice cream trucks that we've also been talking

615
00:34:13,440 --> 00:34:15,399
Speaker 2: about that we're going to talk about a little bit more.

616
00:34:15,760 --> 00:34:18,520
Speaker 2: The ice cream truck in particular was a really iconic

617
00:34:18,600 --> 00:34:21,480
Speaker 2: part of childhoods for generations. I mean ours to a

618
00:34:21,560 --> 00:34:23,680
Speaker 2: lesser degree. There's still around, but I think you know,

619
00:34:23,800 --> 00:34:26,640
Speaker 2: kids growing up in certain parts of the country at

620
00:34:26,680 --> 00:34:30,120
Speaker 2: certain times in history particularly just it was you know,

621
00:34:30,440 --> 00:34:33,480
Speaker 2: magical to hear the sound of the ice cream truck

622
00:34:33,560 --> 00:34:36,920
Speaker 2: coming down the street. Sauce served was also increasingly beginning

623
00:34:36,920 --> 00:34:38,840
Speaker 2: to be paired with other desserts, so instead of just

624
00:34:38,840 --> 00:34:42,440
Speaker 2: getting like a cone, they started to offer banana split Sundays,

625
00:34:42,480 --> 00:34:46,399
Speaker 2: the dipped cones, and elaborate specialty desserts where you might

626
00:34:46,440 --> 00:34:48,959
Speaker 2: mix it with say Italian ice.

627
00:34:49,120 --> 00:34:50,359
Speaker 3: We'll get to that in a minute, but.

628
00:34:50,960 --> 00:34:53,080
Speaker 2: Just to give a little bit of history about kind

629
00:34:53,080 --> 00:34:56,800
Speaker 2: of the scaling of the ice cream truck model, mister

630
00:34:56,920 --> 00:34:59,520
Speaker 2: Softy is something that anyone who spent any time in

631
00:34:59,560 --> 00:35:04,280
Speaker 2: the North would would recognize. James Conway started the company.

632
00:35:04,400 --> 00:35:07,560
Speaker 2: William and James Conway, the brothers, UH started the company

633
00:35:07,560 --> 00:35:08,400
Speaker 2: in Philadelphia.

634
00:35:08,840 --> 00:35:09,040
Speaker 1: Uh.

635
00:35:09,200 --> 00:35:12,200
Speaker 2: The idea was bring soft serve ice cream directly to

636
00:35:12,200 --> 00:35:16,200
Speaker 2: neighborhoods in a colorful truck. Along with that that little

637
00:35:16,320 --> 00:35:20,200
Speaker 2: jingle that let everybody know that a treat was just

638
00:35:20,320 --> 00:35:21,200
Speaker 2: around the corner.

639
00:35:21,480 --> 00:35:23,600
Speaker 1: And we all recognized the song, right.

640
00:35:23,840 --> 00:35:27,160
Speaker 2: Move kids, get out the way, get out the way,

641
00:35:27,560 --> 00:35:27,960
Speaker 2: get out.

642
00:35:28,520 --> 00:35:33,000
Speaker 1: Uh, we're doing that because we legally buy that little issues,

643
00:35:33,040 --> 00:35:37,600
Speaker 1: that little John song that is ludicrous famous.

644
00:35:37,680 --> 00:35:39,919
Speaker 3: You know, there are three big names in soft Serve.

645
00:35:40,080 --> 00:35:43,520
Speaker 1: It's Carvel, Taylor and obviously Ludicrous Luta.

646
00:35:43,960 --> 00:35:46,440
Speaker 3: Indeed, you know it's funny, man.

647
00:35:46,640 --> 00:35:49,320
Speaker 2: I associate the ice cream truck song with a couple

648
00:35:49,320 --> 00:35:52,240
Speaker 2: of things. There's bicycle built for two, you know, Dang

649
00:35:52,360 --> 00:35:55,640
Speaker 2: Dang Dang Dan, Dana and dang ding. Then there's also

650
00:35:56,120 --> 00:35:58,759
Speaker 2: like Dana leaning da ding dy Ding ding ding ding.

651
00:35:58,920 --> 00:36:01,640
Speaker 2: So none of them are copy There are all such

652
00:36:01,680 --> 00:36:06,720
Speaker 2: public domain old kind of nursery rhymes songs, but they're different,

653
00:36:06,960 --> 00:36:08,880
Speaker 2: and I think depending on where you grew up, you

654
00:36:08,960 --> 00:36:11,279
Speaker 2: might remember a different one, or it might be that

655
00:36:11,400 --> 00:36:14,719
Speaker 2: Mandela effect. Because I couldn't tell you what the mister

656
00:36:14,800 --> 00:36:17,719
Speaker 2: Softy jingle was, and maybe there's one that it's always been,

657
00:36:17,800 --> 00:36:19,960
Speaker 2: and maybe it's changed over time. But what we do

658
00:36:20,080 --> 00:36:22,960
Speaker 2: know is the business grew super fast. Mister Softy became

659
00:36:23,000 --> 00:36:26,080
Speaker 2: incredibly popular along the East Coast, where generations of families

660
00:36:26,200 --> 00:36:30,680
Speaker 2: began to associate that sound with the feelings of summer

661
00:36:30,760 --> 00:36:32,680
Speaker 2: and childhood nostalgic memories.

662
00:36:32,760 --> 00:36:37,840
Speaker 1: It's Pavlovian, it's behavioral programming, and we know that mister

663
00:36:37,960 --> 00:36:44,240
Speaker 1: Softy encountered carvel level success. It's become a part of Americana,

664
00:36:44,440 --> 00:36:47,799
Speaker 1: part of the zeitgeist and pop culture. They, like other

665
00:36:47,880 --> 00:36:52,120
Speaker 1: companies before them, expanded through a franchise model, meaning that

666
00:36:52,440 --> 00:36:56,239
Speaker 1: you can be an independent operator, kind of a contractor,

667
00:36:56,480 --> 00:37:00,560
Speaker 1: and you can run mister Softy trucks in communities all

668
00:37:00,600 --> 00:37:05,120
Speaker 1: across the United States. It's still the basic process we

669
00:37:05,239 --> 00:37:08,520
Speaker 1: described even as we record in twenty twenty six. You

670
00:37:08,600 --> 00:37:11,319
Speaker 1: hear the jingle, all the kids get excited, and the

671
00:37:11,360 --> 00:37:14,160
Speaker 1: adults run out to meet the truck, and you've got

672
00:37:14,200 --> 00:37:19,239
Speaker 1: a You've got multiple items you can order, but it's

673
00:37:19,280 --> 00:37:22,200
Speaker 1: still gonna be a relatively small menu because they are

674
00:37:22,280 --> 00:37:26,239
Speaker 1: on a truck. It's just nostalgia it's the kind of

675
00:37:26,400 --> 00:37:32,040
Speaker 1: it's the kind of thing that advertisers love but cannot

676
00:37:32,400 --> 00:37:36,360
Speaker 1: create themselves. It's almost lightning in a bottle for sure.

677
00:37:36,800 --> 00:37:40,720
Speaker 2: And speaking of marketing and advertising and lightning in a bottle,

678
00:37:41,080 --> 00:37:43,920
Speaker 2: anyone grew who grew up around this, mister Softy stuff

679
00:37:44,040 --> 00:37:46,520
Speaker 2: is probably screaming at their podcast device when I said

680
00:37:46,520 --> 00:37:48,759
Speaker 2: that the song may have changed over the years, and

681
00:37:48,800 --> 00:37:50,080
Speaker 2: then I don't know which one it was.

682
00:37:50,120 --> 00:37:53,319
Speaker 3: It might have been bicycle bill for two, etc. Absolutely not.

683
00:37:53,680 --> 00:37:54,799
Speaker 3: Just look this up.

684
00:37:55,080 --> 00:37:58,680
Speaker 2: They have an iconic song that is a registered sound

685
00:37:58,840 --> 00:38:02,480
Speaker 2: trademark and it's efficial titled Jingles and Chimes that was

686
00:38:02,520 --> 00:38:07,280
Speaker 2: adapted around nineteen sixty by an ad man from Philly

687
00:38:07,440 --> 00:38:12,080
Speaker 2: named Les Wahs, who based the melody on a public

688
00:38:12,120 --> 00:38:15,920
Speaker 2: domain piece of music, Arthur Pryor's The Whistler and his Dog.

689
00:38:17,480 --> 00:38:20,640
Speaker 2: It is heavily linked to the brand, and it is

690
00:38:20,640 --> 00:38:23,560
Speaker 2: a federally registered trademark, and it does have lyrics. Apparently

691
00:38:23,560 --> 00:38:26,839
Speaker 2: it's the creamiest, dreamiest soft ice cream you get from

692
00:38:26,880 --> 00:38:31,120
Speaker 2: mister Softy. For a freshing, delight supreme look for mister Softy.

693
00:38:31,480 --> 00:38:34,680
Speaker 2: My milkshakes and my Sundays and my cones are such

694
00:38:34,680 --> 00:38:37,759
Speaker 2: a treat. Listen for my store on wheels, ding a

695
00:38:37,800 --> 00:38:43,120
Speaker 2: ling down the street, soft double e, mister softy, And.

696
00:38:43,040 --> 00:38:46,319
Speaker 1: So, of course, you know, mister softy is referring to

697
00:38:46,360 --> 00:38:49,560
Speaker 1: the fact that there's soft serve and your ice cream

698
00:38:49,600 --> 00:38:53,600
Speaker 1: is not super hard. And over, over the over the

699
00:38:53,640 --> 00:38:58,239
Speaker 1: intervening years from then to now, your basic or what

700
00:38:58,280 --> 00:39:05,160
Speaker 1: they sometimes call the soft serve cone starts becoming more

701
00:39:05,239 --> 00:39:08,480
Speaker 1: than a novelty on its own. It becomes a staple

702
00:39:08,760 --> 00:39:14,680
Speaker 1: or a base for these increasingly opulent and delectable creations.

703
00:39:14,680 --> 00:39:18,680
Speaker 1: So everybody in the market and consumers at home are

704
00:39:18,719 --> 00:39:23,200
Speaker 1: figuring out what other stuff they can add to the

705
00:39:23,239 --> 00:39:26,840
Speaker 1: basic soft serve cone. We talked about chocolate dipped cones.

706
00:39:26,920 --> 00:39:31,520
Speaker 1: The science behind the the high fat content of the

707
00:39:31,560 --> 00:39:35,439
Speaker 1: freezing syrup is fascinating. You get the hard shell right.

708
00:39:36,120 --> 00:39:41,440
Speaker 1: But they also it reminds me of how people started

709
00:39:41,480 --> 00:39:45,920
Speaker 1: getting really weird with bloody Mary's and putting all sorts

710
00:39:45,920 --> 00:39:50,719
Speaker 1: of showing yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm not you.

711
00:39:50,640 --> 00:39:54,480
Speaker 3: Know, juice and mustard to those celery.

712
00:39:59,760 --> 00:40:03,680
Speaker 1: For for a while, there was a time where this

713
00:40:03,960 --> 00:40:06,719
Speaker 1: definitely I'm sure still happens. Max would know better than us,

714
00:40:06,800 --> 00:40:09,319
Speaker 1: but for a long time. I remember there would be

715
00:40:09,440 --> 00:40:13,080
Speaker 1: places that had the touted bloody Mary buffets.

716
00:40:13,760 --> 00:40:15,600
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's very much the thing.

717
00:40:15,640 --> 00:40:17,920
Speaker 4: You go up there, you make your bloody Marry get,

718
00:40:17,960 --> 00:40:19,120
Speaker 4: you get your count of stuff like that.

719
00:40:19,520 --> 00:40:22,520
Speaker 3: Uh yeah, is it an all you can eat bloody

720
00:40:22,520 --> 00:40:25,600
Speaker 3: Mary buffet? That seems dangerous. I don't think so.

721
00:40:25,760 --> 00:40:28,000
Speaker 4: I think all it intends to state by state, but like

722
00:40:28,040 --> 00:40:29,640
Speaker 4: I know, state of Georgia, like, and all you can

723
00:40:29,719 --> 00:40:32,600
Speaker 4: Drink is a special is very much illegal?

724
00:40:33,239 --> 00:40:36,719
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's also it's probably a thing where you

725
00:40:36,800 --> 00:40:41,400
Speaker 1: can pick any of the accoutrament to your heart's content

726
00:40:41,640 --> 00:40:44,200
Speaker 1: in the bloody Mary buffet, but when it comes to

727
00:40:44,239 --> 00:40:46,040
Speaker 1: the actual drink, it's different.

728
00:40:46,360 --> 00:40:46,680
Speaker 3: Yeah.

729
00:40:46,719 --> 00:40:49,719
Speaker 4: And to make this even lamer, the reason why it's

730
00:40:49,760 --> 00:40:51,360
Speaker 4: illegal to have an all you can drink in Georgia

731
00:40:51,440 --> 00:40:53,120
Speaker 4: is not because they're like, oh, we're so worried that

732
00:40:53,160 --> 00:40:55,440
Speaker 4: people are gonna get too drunk. No, No, it's a tax reason.

733
00:40:55,800 --> 00:40:57,640
Speaker 3: It's taxes. It's only taxes.

734
00:40:58,040 --> 00:41:02,840
Speaker 1: Well, luckily, the uh, our bloody Marry comparison I was

735
00:41:02,880 --> 00:41:07,279
Speaker 1: making is leading us to maybe a different episode in

736
00:41:07,320 --> 00:41:10,719
Speaker 1: the future. But no, you see the comparison I'm making here,

737
00:41:10,800 --> 00:41:13,759
Speaker 1: Like people had the basic saft serve, and they said,

738
00:41:13,920 --> 00:41:18,440
Speaker 1: what other what other sweet or savory things can we

739
00:41:18,560 --> 00:41:21,239
Speaker 1: put a top it. The only real rule is that

740
00:41:21,280 --> 00:41:24,120
Speaker 1: they don't want a bunch of hot stuff for sure.

741
00:41:24,280 --> 00:41:27,120
Speaker 2: They do sometimes do hot fudge, which requires a specialty

742
00:41:27,239 --> 00:41:28,880
Speaker 2: piece of dispensing equipment.

743
00:41:29,719 --> 00:41:29,920
Speaker 3: You know.

744
00:41:29,960 --> 00:41:32,799
Speaker 2: The one that's been most top of mind for me

745
00:41:33,200 --> 00:41:36,400
Speaker 2: is a company called Menchies that I believe, you know,

746
00:41:36,520 --> 00:41:39,080
Speaker 2: kind of entered the game and gave folks like Carvell

747
00:41:39,160 --> 00:41:41,879
Speaker 2: and Dairy Queen a run for their money. They do

748
00:41:41,960 --> 00:41:44,520
Speaker 2: all these different rotating sauce surve flavors and sometimes they're

749
00:41:44,560 --> 00:41:48,560
Speaker 2: really fun ones like ube and taro and stuff like that.

750
00:41:49,239 --> 00:41:51,480
Speaker 2: And you get your sauce served, and then there's like

751
00:41:51,520 --> 00:41:54,200
Speaker 2: a little bar with a sneeze guard on it that's

752
00:41:54,200 --> 00:41:59,000
Speaker 2: got like you know, boba and cookie dough bites and

753
00:41:59,160 --> 00:42:01,480
Speaker 2: you know, fresh straw berries and all kinds of stuff,

754
00:42:01,520 --> 00:42:04,959
Speaker 2: and then various cold syrups and compots, and then there's

755
00:42:05,000 --> 00:42:09,880
Speaker 2: hot fudge or hot marshmallow fluff or whatever, a lot

756
00:42:09,920 --> 00:42:12,680
Speaker 2: of fun. And then they weigh it, which is really smart.

757
00:42:12,880 --> 00:42:13,120
Speaker 3: You know.

758
00:42:13,239 --> 00:42:15,399
Speaker 2: They depending on how much topic you put on it,

759
00:42:15,440 --> 00:42:18,320
Speaker 2: they weigh it. So that's sort of the more modern

760
00:42:18,400 --> 00:42:20,960
Speaker 2: version of what we're talking about here. But yeah, it

761
00:42:21,000 --> 00:42:26,760
Speaker 2: really did blow the doors wide open in terms of nuts, sprinkles, cookies, candy,

762
00:42:26,840 --> 00:42:30,760
Speaker 2: fruit brownies, bits of cake. And that paved the way

763
00:42:31,080 --> 00:42:35,480
Speaker 2: to the dairy queen blizzard, the McDonald's mcflurry where you

764
00:42:35,560 --> 00:42:39,520
Speaker 2: actually mixed the things into a cup kind of version.

765
00:42:40,840 --> 00:42:48,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we also see here a continuing expansion. Now

766
00:42:49,040 --> 00:42:52,759
Speaker 1: soft serve is treated increasingly like as always say, in

767
00:42:52,800 --> 00:42:56,120
Speaker 1: a base or an ingredient, a top which other things

768
00:42:56,160 --> 00:43:01,600
Speaker 1: are added. The concept spreads as we met across the globe.

769
00:43:01,760 --> 00:43:06,520
Speaker 1: In the United Kingdom, in Britain in particular, you'll hear

770
00:43:06,600 --> 00:43:11,840
Speaker 1: the name mister Whippi. In other countries, we see regional

771
00:43:11,880 --> 00:43:16,759
Speaker 1: identities and serving traditions. It's like the expansion, i would

772
00:43:16,840 --> 00:43:20,840
Speaker 1: argue of so many ethnic cuisines. People take it and

773
00:43:20,880 --> 00:43:23,759
Speaker 1: they adapt it to what is available to them or

774
00:43:23,840 --> 00:43:27,200
Speaker 1: their pre existing cultural taste.

775
00:43:27,600 --> 00:43:27,839
Speaker 3: Right.

776
00:43:27,880 --> 00:43:30,360
Speaker 2: And then you know, maybe because of this branding, like

777
00:43:30,440 --> 00:43:32,319
Speaker 2: in the UK, they don't call it soft serve at all,

778
00:43:32,360 --> 00:43:33,240
Speaker 2: they call it a whippie.

779
00:43:34,160 --> 00:43:37,640
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it became an epononymous trademark for sure.

780
00:43:37,680 --> 00:43:40,600
Speaker 2: And you know, as you know, I'm sure in Japan,

781
00:43:41,280 --> 00:43:46,399
Speaker 2: specifically in Hokkaido. They have their own very specialized kind

782
00:43:46,440 --> 00:43:50,640
Speaker 2: of regional takes on soft serve. The Hokkaido when in

783
00:43:50,680 --> 00:43:53,120
Speaker 2: particular is starting to make its way over here. Now

784
00:43:53,239 --> 00:43:56,040
Speaker 2: you're starting to see that in like places like Hipstery, Brooklyn,

785
00:43:56,200 --> 00:44:00,200
Speaker 2: and it's like a very high milk fat content Mega

786
00:44:00,280 --> 00:44:01,240
Speaker 2: Mega Mega creaming.

787
00:44:01,840 --> 00:44:02,320
Speaker 3: Yeah.

788
00:44:02,440 --> 00:44:06,320
Speaker 1: Yeah, the butterfat content is the real difference between soft

789
00:44:06,360 --> 00:44:10,879
Speaker 1: served gelato and ice cream flavoring. Aside, and I've been

790
00:44:10,920 --> 00:44:14,080
Speaker 1: to as you know now, I've been to Hokkaido in winter,

791
00:44:14,239 --> 00:44:17,880
Speaker 1: which was not my smartest decision because it's so far north.

792
00:44:18,600 --> 00:44:22,200
Speaker 1: The ice cream was awesome. But we also see soft

793
00:44:22,200 --> 00:44:27,680
Speaker 1: serve being incredibly famous throughout Japan. And you know how

794
00:44:27,920 --> 00:44:31,960
Speaker 1: Japan is really great at doing at making each little

795
00:44:32,000 --> 00:44:37,000
Speaker 1: town or community unique. Everybody's got a Yokai based mascot

796
00:44:37,200 --> 00:44:40,880
Speaker 1: or a mascot based on you know, their local agriculture,

797
00:44:40,960 --> 00:44:43,640
Speaker 1: their turnips or what have you. Their soft serve is

798
00:44:43,719 --> 00:44:47,120
Speaker 1: like that too. Every local area is known for its unique,

799
00:44:47,440 --> 00:44:51,440
Speaker 1: hard to get flavors that you can't find everywhere else.

800
00:44:51,760 --> 00:44:53,799
Speaker 1: You know, you'll see this when we go. I'm sorry

801
00:44:53,840 --> 00:44:55,719
Speaker 1: that we're just ships in the night.

802
00:44:55,880 --> 00:44:58,239
Speaker 3: This year, but you'll see it when you go.

803
00:44:59,160 --> 00:45:03,680
Speaker 1: You can fid and this stuff served in shrines and temples.

804
00:45:03,840 --> 00:45:05,280
Speaker 3: It's very it's very.

805
00:45:06,680 --> 00:45:09,200
Speaker 1: Not off putting, but it's a very unusual thing, I

806
00:45:09,239 --> 00:45:12,120
Speaker 1: think for a lot of us from the West, because

807
00:45:12,640 --> 00:45:15,680
Speaker 1: we think of shrines and temples as holy sites, which

808
00:45:15,719 --> 00:45:18,480
Speaker 1: they are, and it feels kind of like going to

809
00:45:18,920 --> 00:45:23,320
Speaker 1: a Catholic church and buying ice cream inside.

810
00:45:23,160 --> 00:45:25,920
Speaker 3: For sure. But it's my understanding too that they do.

811
00:45:26,120 --> 00:45:30,200
Speaker 2: I mean, this is not the meaning that they're implying

812
00:45:30,560 --> 00:45:34,319
Speaker 2: dismissiveness or like, you know, not on they don't let

813
00:45:34,360 --> 00:45:37,320
Speaker 2: you take pictures. They're very, very very there are a

814
00:45:37,360 --> 00:45:41,920
Speaker 2: lot of social kind of more surrounding visiting a shrine

815
00:45:41,960 --> 00:45:44,960
Speaker 2: and like you're not supposed to approach monks, and do

816
00:45:45,040 --> 00:45:46,520
Speaker 2: you know, there's just like a lot of like kind

817
00:45:46,560 --> 00:45:49,560
Speaker 2: of a social contract stuff that they do expect people

818
00:45:49,600 --> 00:45:50,640
Speaker 2: to abide by.

819
00:45:50,960 --> 00:45:51,720
Speaker 3: Absolutely.

820
00:45:51,800 --> 00:45:57,200
Speaker 1: We also know that you can combine soft serve or

821
00:45:58,120 --> 00:46:03,160
Speaker 1: another cousin frozen customs and Italian ice. This leads us

822
00:46:03,200 --> 00:46:08,320
Speaker 1: to what we mentioned earlier, gelato or jilatti. This comes

823
00:46:08,320 --> 00:46:12,120
Speaker 1: from Philadelphia and South Jersey in the mid nineteen eighties,

824
00:46:12,160 --> 00:46:14,520
Speaker 1: which makes it younger than a lot of people may

825
00:46:14,520 --> 00:46:19,640
Speaker 1: have assumed. I think we realized that there's still so

826
00:46:19,920 --> 00:46:24,400
Speaker 1: much more on the horizon for soft serve, for ice cream,

827
00:46:24,520 --> 00:46:29,719
Speaker 1: for all associated frozen treats. So you, fellow ridiculous historians,

828
00:46:30,040 --> 00:46:33,160
Speaker 1: might be the next people to add to the story.

829
00:46:33,200 --> 00:46:35,680
Speaker 3: Exactly. Yeah, Jelatti is our favorite.

830
00:46:35,760 --> 00:46:38,279
Speaker 2: Me and the kiddo and their sister their order from

831
00:46:38,320 --> 00:46:42,279
Speaker 2: a place in town called Jeremiah's.

832
00:46:42,840 --> 00:46:44,160
Speaker 3: WHOA, my God, it's so good.

833
00:46:44,800 --> 00:46:48,359
Speaker 2: The concept, I believe, was originally popularized in Philly yet

834
00:46:48,400 --> 00:46:51,319
Speaker 2: again in the eighties by a Philadelphia firefighter, but it's

835
00:46:51,320 --> 00:46:53,960
Speaker 2: made its way here to Georgia, and it's a combination

836
00:46:54,040 --> 00:46:59,520
Speaker 2: of delicious, creamy saft serve and different flavors of Italian ice,

837
00:46:59,560 --> 00:47:01,000
Speaker 2: and it's aired.

838
00:47:00,560 --> 00:47:03,399
Speaker 3: In such a cool way. I just we love it.

839
00:47:03,719 --> 00:47:05,840
Speaker 2: And yeah, this one's run a little long, but not

840
00:47:05,920 --> 00:47:08,440
Speaker 2: quite two part material, so we're gonna end with a

841
00:47:08,440 --> 00:47:11,719
Speaker 2: little bit of tangents and trivia. The first one involving

842
00:47:12,320 --> 00:47:17,440
Speaker 2: the Iron Lady Margaret Maggie to her friends Thatcher. You

843
00:47:17,520 --> 00:47:22,680
Speaker 2: might occasionally hear a claim that miss Thatcher, who later,

844
00:47:22,719 --> 00:47:27,040
Speaker 2: of course became Britain's Prime Minister, helped to invent soft serve.

845
00:47:28,200 --> 00:47:31,000
Speaker 2: Like many urban legends, there is a kernel of truth

846
00:47:31,040 --> 00:47:33,560
Speaker 2: behind the story, but the version that gets kind of

847
00:47:33,560 --> 00:47:37,080
Speaker 2: spread around is a bit misleading. I didn't know this, Ben,

848
00:47:37,160 --> 00:47:40,840
Speaker 2: but Margaret Thatcher, before her career in politics, was quite

849
00:47:40,880 --> 00:47:44,160
Speaker 2: a high level chemist working in food science.

850
00:47:44,840 --> 00:47:46,520
Speaker 3: M Yeah. Yeah.

851
00:47:46,560 --> 00:47:50,279
Speaker 1: And one of the versions of this story you will

852
00:47:50,320 --> 00:47:54,160
Speaker 1: hear says that during her time in the food science

853
00:47:54,280 --> 00:47:59,560
Speaker 1: labs she researched frozen desserts and the science of in

854
00:47:59,680 --> 00:48:03,880
Speaker 1: corporate rating air into ice cream or air rating ice cream.

855
00:48:04,000 --> 00:48:08,080
Speaker 1: And this often gets transformed or embellished the way good

856
00:48:08,120 --> 00:48:11,960
Speaker 1: stories do. And even now, depending on who you talked

857
00:48:11,960 --> 00:48:14,000
Speaker 1: to or whom you talk to in the United Kingdom,

858
00:48:14,360 --> 00:48:18,120
Speaker 1: you might hear people of a certain age tell you

859
00:48:18,719 --> 00:48:24,160
Speaker 1: with full sincerity and conviction that Margaret Thatcher invented self serve.

860
00:48:24,320 --> 00:48:27,680
Speaker 1: That's as misleading you say Al Gore invented the Internet.

861
00:48:27,840 --> 00:48:31,840
Speaker 3: Yeah, as he would have you believe. Yeah, definitely a

862
00:48:31,880 --> 00:48:32,799
Speaker 3: bit of a mythnomer.

863
00:48:33,080 --> 00:48:36,920
Speaker 2: Thought serve already had multiple commercial pioneers and applications in

864
00:48:36,960 --> 00:48:40,000
Speaker 2: the US. By that point, Carvell and Dairy Queen had

865
00:48:40,040 --> 00:48:44,120
Speaker 2: already entered the chat Smithsonian does, however, identify the Thatcher

866
00:48:44,120 --> 00:48:47,319
Speaker 2: connection as one of several competing origin stories rather than

867
00:48:47,360 --> 00:48:50,800
Speaker 2: an established fact of the invention itself. So while Thatcher's

868
00:48:50,880 --> 00:48:55,320
Speaker 2: scientific career is fascinating in and of itself and something

869
00:48:55,320 --> 00:48:58,440
Speaker 2: that I didn't know about may have intersected with food science,

870
00:48:58,719 --> 00:49:02,319
Speaker 2: she definitely should not be considered the sole inventor of

871
00:49:02,640 --> 00:49:04,960
Speaker 2: soft sur And we got one more bit of trivia

872
00:49:04,960 --> 00:49:07,200
Speaker 2: here that I'm gonna leave out for one of our

873
00:49:07,760 --> 00:49:10,160
Speaker 2: listical episodes where we take all the bits that didn't

874
00:49:10,200 --> 00:49:12,919
Speaker 2: make it into the episodes and do a whole one

875
00:49:13,040 --> 00:49:13,480
Speaker 2: on that.

876
00:49:13,640 --> 00:49:13,879
Speaker 3: Ben.

877
00:49:14,239 --> 00:49:17,080
Speaker 2: What a fun conversation, man, I'm definitely craving a little

878
00:49:17,080 --> 00:49:19,600
Speaker 2: bit of iceed cream at this point.

879
00:49:19,800 --> 00:49:23,880
Speaker 1: Tis this season? Yeah, and I'll report back. I'll report

880
00:49:23,920 --> 00:49:27,000
Speaker 1: back in advance of our mutual trips to Japan what

881
00:49:27,120 --> 00:49:30,719
Speaker 1: the best soft serve we find in our travels. Thank

882
00:49:30,760 --> 00:49:32,960
Speaker 1: you for the research here, Noel Big, big thanks to

883
00:49:33,000 --> 00:49:37,000
Speaker 1: our super producer Max the Free Train, Williams Big thanks

884
00:49:37,040 --> 00:49:42,560
Speaker 1: to aj Bahamas Jacobs, and of course Jonathan Strickland aka

885
00:49:42,880 --> 00:49:46,520
Speaker 1: the Quizter, a known ice cream fiend.

886
00:49:47,080 --> 00:49:48,240
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, exactly.

887
00:49:48,719 --> 00:49:52,400
Speaker 2: He's sort of like the thenoid for pizza or the

888
00:49:52,440 --> 00:49:54,600
Speaker 2: Hamburglar for Burgers only.

889
00:49:54,680 --> 00:49:57,360
Speaker 3: He will come for your soft serve. He will in

890
00:49:57,440 --> 00:49:57,719
Speaker 3: the night.

891
00:49:58,440 --> 00:50:02,479
Speaker 1: He gets upset realizing that other people have soft server

892
00:50:03,640 --> 00:50:06,000
Speaker 1: like he. He will text me sometimes and say, Ben,

893
00:50:06,040 --> 00:50:07,560
Speaker 1: you better not be eating soft served.

894
00:50:08,560 --> 00:50:13,439
Speaker 3: No, no, no no. If he ever listens to these credits, yeah,

895
00:50:13,840 --> 00:50:14,840
Speaker 3: we do, we do. We do.

896
00:50:14,920 --> 00:50:16,840
Speaker 2: Always remind him that we mentioned him every episode and

897
00:50:16,880 --> 00:50:19,160
Speaker 2: I think it warms is a black heart.

898
00:50:19,760 --> 00:50:20,840
Speaker 3: We'll see you next time. Focus.

899
00:50:27,840 --> 00:50:31,640
Speaker 2: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

900
00:50:31,760 --> 00:50:33,880
Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.