1
00:00:01,160 --> 00:00:04,840
Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of

2
00:00:04,880 --> 00:00:13,920
Speaker 1: I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, welcome to Stuff

3
00:00:13,920 --> 00:00:15,960
Speaker 1: to Blow Your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb and

4
00:00:16,040 --> 00:00:19,400
Speaker 1: I'm Joe McCormick. And today we're we're looking back at

5
00:00:20,079 --> 00:00:23,840
Speaker 1: ten years of this show, and so we decided we

6
00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:26,080
Speaker 1: should have a special guest come on the show. So

7
00:00:26,120 --> 00:00:30,920
Speaker 1: we invited Allison louder Milk. Allison, say hi to everybody. Hello,

8
00:00:31,320 --> 00:00:34,360
Speaker 1: it's a pleasure to be here. Congratulations on ten years.

9
00:00:34,560 --> 00:00:38,720
Speaker 1: Oh thank you. Alison, by the way, hasn't been on

10
00:00:38,760 --> 00:00:40,880
Speaker 1: the podcast in a while, but she is the editor

11
00:00:40,880 --> 00:00:43,519
Speaker 1: in chief of how Stuff Works dot com, which of

12
00:00:43,520 --> 00:00:47,199
Speaker 1: course is the website that this show was born out of.

13
00:00:47,479 --> 00:00:50,479
Speaker 1: Really that that all of the core uh stuff shows

14
00:00:51,040 --> 00:00:55,160
Speaker 1: emerged from right right on. Yeah, So I guess if

15
00:00:55,160 --> 00:00:56,960
Speaker 1: you're if you're new to Stuff to Blow your Mind,

16
00:00:57,440 --> 00:01:00,360
Speaker 1: you probably don't know anything about this, you'd be you

17
00:01:00,400 --> 00:01:03,040
Speaker 1: may not have ever heard one of the earlier episodes

18
00:01:03,400 --> 00:01:06,280
Speaker 1: that has the title Stuff from the Science Lab, But

19
00:01:06,440 --> 00:01:09,600
Speaker 1: that's where it all began. Um, you and I co

20
00:01:09,760 --> 00:01:13,800
Speaker 1: hosted that show. It began on January four, two thousand

21
00:01:13,800 --> 00:01:17,119
Speaker 1: and ten, with two episodes were published on that day.

22
00:01:17,760 --> 00:01:20,679
Speaker 1: One of them titled Amazing Infestations, in the other one

23
00:01:20,760 --> 00:01:23,920
Speaker 1: titled How Fighting Asteroids Work. And that was the beginning.

24
00:01:23,959 --> 00:01:27,200
Speaker 1: And it's been what two episodes a week ever since.

25
00:01:27,600 --> 00:01:29,840
Speaker 1: Did you go back and listen to either of these

26
00:01:29,840 --> 00:01:33,480
Speaker 1: two podcasts and prepping for this episode? No, I didn't,

27
00:01:33,959 --> 00:01:36,600
Speaker 1: but I thought back on them, I reflected back on

28
00:01:36,680 --> 00:01:39,760
Speaker 1: the thing is one of the things I was definitely

29
00:01:39,800 --> 00:01:42,560
Speaker 1: remembering about it is that, first of all, we had

30
00:01:42,600 --> 00:01:44,800
Speaker 1: no idea what we were doing. For the most part,

31
00:01:44,920 --> 00:01:47,400
Speaker 1: that is entirely true. I was a science writer for

32
00:01:47,480 --> 00:01:50,880
Speaker 1: the website and you were my editor, and so are

33
00:01:51,640 --> 00:01:54,800
Speaker 1: what was his title at the time, Our boss, Connald

34
00:01:54,840 --> 00:01:57,200
Speaker 1: Burne came to us and said, you guys should do

35
00:01:57,240 --> 00:02:00,040
Speaker 1: a science podcast. What do you want to call it?

36
00:02:00,600 --> 00:02:02,960
Speaker 1: And I believe we said, how about stuff that could

37
00:02:03,040 --> 00:02:04,800
Speaker 1: kill you? Or stuff that can kill you or something

38
00:02:04,800 --> 00:02:07,960
Speaker 1: to that effect, right, Yes, yes, it was. And so

39
00:02:08,120 --> 00:02:10,360
Speaker 1: because it was how stuff works, everything had to be stuff.

40
00:02:10,440 --> 00:02:12,480
Speaker 1: You had to stuff in the title. That was the mandate.

41
00:02:12,560 --> 00:02:15,760
Speaker 1: That was that was absolutely required. And we were like, well,

42
00:02:15,800 --> 00:02:17,760
Speaker 1: let's make maybe we make it a little edgy, you know,

43
00:02:17,800 --> 00:02:22,440
Speaker 1: it's about you know, explosions and supernova black holes, earthquakes.

44
00:02:22,720 --> 00:02:24,040
Speaker 1: You know, we forgot we could get a lot of

45
00:02:24,040 --> 00:02:27,840
Speaker 1: mileage out of that. But then that was rejected and

46
00:02:27,840 --> 00:02:30,000
Speaker 1: he said, no, it's it's going to be called stuff

47
00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:31,959
Speaker 1: from the Science Lab. And so that's why we launched

48
00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:36,720
Speaker 1: with did you reject that? That that that goes very

49
00:02:36,800 --> 00:02:40,040
Speaker 1: counter to the naming conventions of podcasts today. Today, you

50
00:02:40,120 --> 00:02:42,440
Speaker 1: might propose stuff from the Science Lab and they would

51
00:02:42,480 --> 00:02:44,519
Speaker 1: be like, that sounds boring. You need to do stuff

52
00:02:44,520 --> 00:02:46,880
Speaker 1: that will kill you right. Well, one thing that we

53
00:02:46,880 --> 00:02:50,600
Speaker 1: we came across pretty quickly is that the name it

54
00:02:50,840 --> 00:02:54,560
Speaker 1: didn't really fit what we were producing because it some

55
00:02:54,600 --> 00:02:56,720
Speaker 1: people thought that it meant that it was going to

56
00:02:56,800 --> 00:02:59,360
Speaker 1: be very technical, that it was going to be very

57
00:02:59,600 --> 00:03:02,240
Speaker 1: science and slab, and so they came in and they

58
00:03:02,240 --> 00:03:05,400
Speaker 1: were disappointed by that because it wasn't uh you know,

59
00:03:05,440 --> 00:03:08,240
Speaker 1: it wasn't like it didn't have that that level of

60
00:03:08,280 --> 00:03:10,919
Speaker 1: depth to it. It was a much shorter show at

61
00:03:10,919 --> 00:03:13,840
Speaker 1: the time too. I think we were generally taking individual

62
00:03:14,480 --> 00:03:17,200
Speaker 1: articles that we've worked on together and spinning them off

63
00:03:17,240 --> 00:03:21,240
Speaker 1: into like sometimes like twenty minute episodes. I think, so

64
00:03:21,320 --> 00:03:24,120
Speaker 1: it was it was a much shorter show. It was

65
00:03:24,200 --> 00:03:27,519
Speaker 1: a in I also remember again coming back to the

66
00:03:27,560 --> 00:03:30,560
Speaker 1: fact that we were totally new to this audio recording thing.

67
00:03:30,720 --> 00:03:33,079
Speaker 1: I remember we would go through and do a complete

68
00:03:33,200 --> 00:03:36,400
Speaker 1: run through of the episode first and then attempt to

69
00:03:36,400 --> 00:03:39,040
Speaker 1: come back and do it again, which seemed like a

70
00:03:39,040 --> 00:03:41,360
Speaker 1: great idea at the time when we we we did

71
00:03:41,360 --> 00:03:43,640
Speaker 1: it that way, and we quickly realized that was that

72
00:03:43,760 --> 00:03:45,880
Speaker 1: was not the way to approach the show. Like it.

73
00:03:45,880 --> 00:03:49,200
Speaker 1: It kind of boiled out all the organic conversation. I

74
00:03:49,240 --> 00:03:51,440
Speaker 1: think I remember doing the same thing when we first

75
00:03:51,480 --> 00:03:54,720
Speaker 1: started podcasting. Yeah, when I was when I very first

76
00:03:54,720 --> 00:03:58,840
Speaker 1: started with UH with UM with Lauren Vogelbaum and Jonathan

77
00:03:58,880 --> 00:04:04,000
Speaker 1: Strickland on forward. Thing we would do like rehearsals, horrible idea,

78
00:04:04,280 --> 00:04:07,600
Speaker 1: absolutely brutal. Yeah, and then it makes you just even

79
00:04:07,680 --> 00:04:10,360
Speaker 1: more sick of the content when you get around it. Uh,

80
00:04:10,880 --> 00:04:14,680
Speaker 1: it removes any authentic enthusiasm you have for it. I

81
00:04:14,680 --> 00:04:16,840
Speaker 1: don't know what else am I am I'm missing about

82
00:04:16,839 --> 00:04:19,719
Speaker 1: the early days of the show. Well, we did throw

83
00:04:19,720 --> 00:04:22,640
Speaker 1: in a couple of science jokes which are ever so humorous.

84
00:04:22,640 --> 00:04:26,080
Speaker 1: Oh yes, like like straight up jokes, like almost we did.

85
00:04:26,279 --> 00:04:27,840
Speaker 1: I think that was a bit that we're like, well,

86
00:04:27,880 --> 00:04:30,240
Speaker 1: maybe we should have a joke in there. Yeah. I

87
00:04:30,240 --> 00:04:33,080
Speaker 1: think we were also asking listeners who to submit their

88
00:04:33,120 --> 00:04:37,560
Speaker 1: science based jokes. It was a bit of a clunker.

89
00:04:38,200 --> 00:04:40,479
Speaker 1: Um yeah, you know, looking back, I would say Stuff

90
00:04:40,480 --> 00:04:44,680
Speaker 1: from the Science Lab not the most inventive name ever. No, no,

91
00:04:44,839 --> 00:04:47,480
Speaker 1: And that's that's probably one of They eventually came back

92
00:04:47,480 --> 00:04:49,600
Speaker 1: and said, all right, stuff to Blow your Mind instead,

93
00:04:49,960 --> 00:04:54,120
Speaker 1: which is a good title but also has continually produced.

94
00:04:54,279 --> 00:04:59,680
Speaker 1: Um it has provided uh, you know, ready material for

95
00:04:59,720 --> 00:05:01,800
Speaker 1: any when he wants to say, well, that episode didn't

96
00:05:01,839 --> 00:05:04,600
Speaker 1: blow my mind, and so it's I have to say,

97
00:05:04,640 --> 00:05:07,240
Speaker 1: I don't think it's a great title either, because it's

98
00:05:07,640 --> 00:05:10,760
Speaker 1: not every topic is going to blow the mind whatever

99
00:05:10,800 --> 00:05:14,840
Speaker 1: that exactly is. I like the idea of an expansion

100
00:05:14,839 --> 00:05:16,880
Speaker 1: of the mind more, you know, and we might not

101
00:05:16,920 --> 00:05:19,160
Speaker 1: be expanding it by much, but maybe just a little bit.

102
00:05:19,440 --> 00:05:21,520
Speaker 1: And I think that's what we were trying to do

103
00:05:22,120 --> 00:05:25,120
Speaker 1: with Stuff from the Science Lab as well. Agree I

104
00:05:25,160 --> 00:05:27,720
Speaker 1: think that. I mean, there are a couple of things

105
00:05:27,760 --> 00:05:30,200
Speaker 1: and play their podcasts were just starting to break and

106
00:05:30,320 --> 00:05:33,080
Speaker 1: Kardle wanted to get in there, and I mean science

107
00:05:33,120 --> 00:05:35,680
Speaker 1: was a strong suit of how staff works. He was.

108
00:05:35,800 --> 00:05:37,600
Speaker 1: I mean, we were also looking at the business model,

109
00:05:37,680 --> 00:05:40,080
Speaker 1: just straight up double dipping, right. I mean you'd already

110
00:05:40,160 --> 00:05:42,880
Speaker 1: been immersed in this stuff like writing these articles, and

111
00:05:42,920 --> 00:05:46,680
Speaker 1: I had, of course spent a long time carefully editing,

112
00:05:47,160 --> 00:05:49,640
Speaker 1: so we were trying to, you know, make something else

113
00:05:49,680 --> 00:05:51,919
Speaker 1: to reach folks who maybe weren't going to read it,

114
00:05:51,960 --> 00:05:54,279
Speaker 1: but maybe they would listen to it. And then thirdly,

115
00:05:54,360 --> 00:05:56,440
Speaker 1: I mean we were just kind of in line with

116
00:05:56,480 --> 00:05:59,120
Speaker 1: the mission of the site, which is always, always, always

117
00:05:59,200 --> 00:06:02,240
Speaker 1: to just be explaining the world as much as we

118
00:06:02,320 --> 00:06:05,680
Speaker 1: can in an accessible and direct, incredible way. Yeah, the

119
00:06:06,279 --> 00:06:09,839
Speaker 1: mission to demystify the world. Um, those sometimes you have

120
00:06:09,880 --> 00:06:11,479
Speaker 1: to mystify it a little bit too, to make the

121
00:06:11,520 --> 00:06:15,600
Speaker 1: things that are normal and mundane seem you know, awesome

122
00:06:15,600 --> 00:06:18,920
Speaker 1: and inspiring again. But but yeah, I agree. And in

123
00:06:19,279 --> 00:06:21,600
Speaker 1: terms of double dipping, I mean that was another thing too,

124
00:06:21,640 --> 00:06:23,919
Speaker 1: Like this was very much a oh, by the way,

125
00:06:24,120 --> 00:06:27,240
Speaker 1: once you've done all this work, um on the written

126
00:06:27,480 --> 00:06:29,400
Speaker 1: version of this and the edited version of this, and

127
00:06:29,440 --> 00:06:31,600
Speaker 1: it's been published, and you picked out art for it,

128
00:06:32,120 --> 00:06:34,680
Speaker 1: and the arts been edited at the end of the day,

129
00:06:34,920 --> 00:06:37,520
Speaker 1: go ahead and squeeze out a twenty thirty minute podcast

130
00:06:37,560 --> 00:06:41,640
Speaker 1: episode about that topic. It was not the priority, uh

131
00:06:42,040 --> 00:06:46,159
Speaker 1: mission for the company. Man, Quadruple dipping was like the

132
00:06:46,240 --> 00:06:48,040
Speaker 1: rule of the day. When I was hired I think

133
00:06:48,080 --> 00:06:50,279
Speaker 1: in summer of two thousand ten to be an editor

134
00:06:50,320 --> 00:06:52,839
Speaker 1: at How Stuff Works. It was like the research that

135
00:06:52,880 --> 00:06:55,320
Speaker 1: went into writing an article would not just be an article,

136
00:06:55,360 --> 00:06:58,480
Speaker 1: but it would also become a quiz uh maybe an

137
00:06:58,520 --> 00:07:03,200
Speaker 1: image gallery like list or you know what I mean. Oh, Joe,

138
00:07:03,240 --> 00:07:04,800
Speaker 1: you were on the air, and Robert both of you.

139
00:07:05,000 --> 00:07:06,720
Speaker 1: Both of you all were on the air. So I mean,

140
00:07:06,760 --> 00:07:09,320
Speaker 1: why not, like, let's make a video script to yes

141
00:07:09,440 --> 00:07:12,320
Speaker 1: the video era. Let's yes that. That was also a

142
00:07:12,360 --> 00:07:16,040
Speaker 1: big one. Um. That has gone away for now. Well,

143
00:07:16,360 --> 00:07:18,920
Speaker 1: the pivot to video will return. It's part of the

144
00:07:18,960 --> 00:07:22,600
Speaker 1: ever changing cycle of media platforms. It's a well played pivot.

145
00:07:22,640 --> 00:07:26,280
Speaker 1: By the way, Hey, I have a question for y'all.

146
00:07:26,320 --> 00:07:27,760
Speaker 1: How do you think the show has evolved in the

147
00:07:27,840 --> 00:07:31,160
Speaker 1: years it's been on the air. Oh, well, that's a

148
00:07:31,160 --> 00:07:34,720
Speaker 1: good question. Um, I think the mission statement has always

149
00:07:34,760 --> 00:07:38,200
Speaker 1: been the same. Um. Also, I think a big part

150
00:07:38,200 --> 00:07:40,320
Speaker 1: of it is that everybody that's worked on the show

151
00:07:40,880 --> 00:07:44,520
Speaker 1: has contributed to the voice of it, not not only

152
00:07:44,600 --> 00:07:46,840
Speaker 1: like the individual episodes, but just sort of like the

153
00:07:47,240 --> 00:07:49,760
Speaker 1: shape of the show. So you played a vital role

154
00:07:50,400 --> 00:07:52,440
Speaker 1: when it was Stuff from the Science Lab, and then

155
00:07:52,480 --> 00:07:55,280
Speaker 1: when they changed the name, Julie Douglas came on board.

156
00:07:55,360 --> 00:07:57,800
Speaker 1: Julie Douglas was a vital, uh you know, part of

157
00:07:57,800 --> 00:08:00,480
Speaker 1: the show for for many years. When Christian was a

158
00:08:00,520 --> 00:08:02,400
Speaker 1: part of the show, he too. You know. Everybody brings

159
00:08:02,440 --> 00:08:07,440
Speaker 1: their own sort of pyramid of interests, their own favorite topics,

160
00:08:07,640 --> 00:08:10,920
Speaker 1: and I think a big part of it has always been,

161
00:08:11,040 --> 00:08:13,960
Speaker 1: you know, to to say yes to to whatever your

162
00:08:14,000 --> 00:08:17,320
Speaker 1: your podcast partner brings to the table, because inevitably, like

163
00:08:17,360 --> 00:08:19,920
Speaker 1: even today, like Joe will be excited about a topic

164
00:08:20,480 --> 00:08:23,680
Speaker 1: and I don't necessarily get it at first. Sometimes I

165
00:08:23,720 --> 00:08:26,400
Speaker 1: might even think this sounds kind of dry. I don't know,

166
00:08:26,720 --> 00:08:28,920
Speaker 1: but but I but I trust him on it, and

167
00:08:28,960 --> 00:08:31,640
Speaker 1: I follow him down the path and and it always

168
00:08:31,720 --> 00:08:35,080
Speaker 1: leads to something amazing. So I think that's been the

169
00:08:35,080 --> 00:08:37,960
Speaker 1: case with with everybody though, and and and so each

170
00:08:38,080 --> 00:08:40,880
Speaker 1: each person that has been involved has sort of broaden

171
00:08:41,000 --> 00:08:42,960
Speaker 1: the scope of the show. And you guys also have

172
00:08:43,040 --> 00:08:45,880
Speaker 1: magic between you, right, Yes, well there's the magic too.

173
00:08:46,400 --> 00:08:52,000
Speaker 1: Um no, just science. We have technology. We're like Batman

174
00:08:52,360 --> 00:08:55,839
Speaker 1: more so than Superman. Yes, and that brings in the

175
00:08:56,120 --> 00:08:58,400
Speaker 1: various editors who've worked on the show over the years,

176
00:08:58,800 --> 00:09:01,440
Speaker 1: which is a long live of audio editors, and I

177
00:09:01,440 --> 00:09:04,240
Speaker 1: don't even know that I was able to include everybody

178
00:09:04,240 --> 00:09:07,560
Speaker 1: as far as I know. Uh, the list of editors

179
00:09:07,559 --> 00:09:10,680
Speaker 1: for Stuff from the Science Lamp Slash Stuff to Blow

180
00:09:10,720 --> 00:09:15,560
Speaker 1: your Mind are Jerry Rowland, uh, Tyler Clang, Matt Frederick,

181
00:09:16,080 --> 00:09:20,800
Speaker 1: Noel Brown who also composed the current theme music, Alexander Williams,

182
00:09:20,920 --> 00:09:24,880
Speaker 1: Tary Harrison, Maya Cole, and then currently Seth Nicholas Johnson.

183
00:09:25,200 --> 00:09:28,240
Speaker 1: I don't know if I forgot anybody. I'm terrified that

184
00:09:28,280 --> 00:09:32,080
Speaker 1: we have, but yeah, definitely our producers helped bring the

185
00:09:32,120 --> 00:09:34,120
Speaker 1: magic because I mean, you would not want to hear

186
00:09:34,160 --> 00:09:39,120
Speaker 1: the unedited form of the show. But that's like stopping,

187
00:09:39,160 --> 00:09:42,080
Speaker 1: oh wait a minute, do we already talk about this, well,

188
00:09:42,080 --> 00:09:44,800
Speaker 1: that I'm just not saying words right and then to

189
00:09:44,880 --> 00:09:47,600
Speaker 1: back up yeah, or or having to double check something

190
00:09:47,640 --> 00:09:50,200
Speaker 1: after you've said it. I think that's that's something that

191
00:09:50,440 --> 00:09:54,240
Speaker 1: a lot of people don't necessarily understand about the way

192
00:09:54,240 --> 00:09:55,719
Speaker 1: we do the show or how some of the other

193
00:09:55,720 --> 00:09:58,040
Speaker 1: shows are done here, is that they'll see something like

194
00:09:58,360 --> 00:10:00,800
Speaker 1: the Joe Rogan experience where they they listen to the

195
00:10:00,800 --> 00:10:04,040
Speaker 1: podcast and they watch a video of the podcast taking

196
00:10:04,040 --> 00:10:06,920
Speaker 1: place before their eyes. And then you might easily think

197
00:10:06,960 --> 00:10:09,120
Speaker 1: that we're doing that as well, and hopefully that's the

198
00:10:09,160 --> 00:10:12,880
Speaker 1: illusion via the editing. But no, we're gonna have starts

199
00:10:12,880 --> 00:10:17,600
Speaker 1: and stops. Uh, it's it's an edited product. It's finally edited.

200
00:10:17,640 --> 00:10:20,920
Speaker 1: I will say, because I was listening to the Santa

201
00:10:20,960 --> 00:10:24,320
Speaker 1: God episodes that you put out right here for the holidays,

202
00:10:24,360 --> 00:10:26,599
Speaker 1: which I I'm just gonna be a fan girl, and

203
00:10:26,640 --> 00:10:30,559
Speaker 1: I really liked them. I thought it was super representative

204
00:10:30,640 --> 00:10:33,360
Speaker 1: of the podcast brand, and like the way you brought

205
00:10:33,400 --> 00:10:37,000
Speaker 1: your lens to it, like just this very specific stuff

206
00:10:37,040 --> 00:10:42,120
Speaker 1: to blow your mind, like academic curious, you know, playfully intellectual.

207
00:10:42,280 --> 00:10:45,440
Speaker 1: It was just they're really good. Totally dug them, thank

208
00:10:45,480 --> 00:10:48,360
Speaker 1: you um. And then of course you went back and

209
00:10:48,360 --> 00:10:51,480
Speaker 1: listen to the the original episodes as well. So really

210
00:10:51,520 --> 00:10:53,839
Speaker 1: you're the one who has more room too well to

211
00:10:53,880 --> 00:10:57,840
Speaker 1: critique me anyway, to say to what degree I've improved

212
00:10:57,960 --> 00:11:01,120
Speaker 1: or not improved over the past. Deck Robert, you're super

213
00:11:01,120 --> 00:11:03,839
Speaker 1: solid and you sound exactly the same. Okay, well that's

214
00:11:03,880 --> 00:11:08,000
Speaker 1: good or bad depending on how you look at it No, No,

215
00:11:08,120 --> 00:11:11,120
Speaker 1: I think good. Okay. So I remember what it felt

216
00:11:11,120 --> 00:11:13,839
Speaker 1: like when I first tried to get on Mike for

217
00:11:13,840 --> 00:11:19,000
Speaker 1: for the first podcast I was recording, and it was terrifying, paralyzing.

218
00:11:19,240 --> 00:11:21,400
Speaker 1: I had no idea what to say, I had no

219
00:11:21,480 --> 00:11:23,640
Speaker 1: idea how to talk. As soon as the you know,

220
00:11:23,960 --> 00:11:27,520
Speaker 1: light went on. Do you all remember feeling like that, Like,

221
00:11:27,559 --> 00:11:31,560
Speaker 1: did you have the same kind of uh fear and

222
00:11:31,840 --> 00:11:35,000
Speaker 1: inability to act or I don't know. Did you take

223
00:11:35,040 --> 00:11:37,160
Speaker 1: to it better than I did? I remember getting the

224
00:11:37,200 --> 00:11:40,840
Speaker 1: fear sweats, yeah, and it really took a long time

225
00:11:40,880 --> 00:11:43,200
Speaker 1: for that to go away. Always I think I'll even

226
00:11:43,200 --> 00:11:46,760
Speaker 1: occasionally get them uh where I'll feel like I'm I'm

227
00:11:46,800 --> 00:11:51,400
Speaker 1: sweating like a fearful animal. Um. But not so much anymore.

228
00:11:51,880 --> 00:11:54,679
Speaker 1: But back in the day, for sure, Yeah, absolutely I did.

229
00:11:54,760 --> 00:11:57,040
Speaker 1: I always felt like there was more prep that could

230
00:11:57,040 --> 00:11:59,600
Speaker 1: be done, that it could be tighter, you know that

231
00:11:59,679 --> 00:12:04,520
Speaker 1: I did articulated concept as finally as I could have. Um. Absolutely,

232
00:12:04,520 --> 00:12:08,239
Speaker 1: I was totally nervous and pretty in the dark. Yeah,

233
00:12:08,280 --> 00:12:10,319
Speaker 1: I mean all we had to go on, I mean

234
00:12:10,320 --> 00:12:12,400
Speaker 1: we had editor feedback, and certainly when we started out

235
00:12:12,440 --> 00:12:15,760
Speaker 1: we were working with Jerry and so she she was

236
00:12:15,840 --> 00:12:19,000
Speaker 1: the the in house expert on what a podcast was

237
00:12:19,080 --> 00:12:21,160
Speaker 1: and what it should be, so we had that to

238
00:12:21,160 --> 00:12:23,959
Speaker 1: go on, and then we had listener feedback, which could

239
00:12:24,080 --> 00:12:28,240
Speaker 1: range from very helpful to not helpful or or you'd

240
00:12:28,280 --> 00:12:31,199
Speaker 1: end up fixing. I remember fixating sometimes if someone would

241
00:12:31,640 --> 00:12:34,280
Speaker 1: right in and say, oh, you're saying um too many

242
00:12:34,320 --> 00:12:38,160
Speaker 1: times or or whatever the particular you know, the annoying

243
00:12:38,200 --> 00:12:40,480
Speaker 1: thing is you're doing, and then you become hyper aware

244
00:12:40,480 --> 00:12:42,480
Speaker 1: of it for a while, and you try and curb yourself,

245
00:12:42,800 --> 00:12:45,360
Speaker 1: and then eventually you kind of give up and you realize, well,

246
00:12:45,400 --> 00:12:47,880
Speaker 1: I'm just going to largely just be myself and I'm

247
00:12:47,880 --> 00:12:49,720
Speaker 1: just going to try and be comfortable in that second

248
00:12:49,720 --> 00:12:53,120
Speaker 1: guess everything I'm saying. But but at the same time

249
00:12:53,200 --> 00:12:55,120
Speaker 1: coming back to you know, always feeling like there's something

250
00:12:55,120 --> 00:12:57,880
Speaker 1: where you could have added, I think with stuff from

251
00:12:57,880 --> 00:13:01,600
Speaker 1: the science Lab especially. That was the case because we

252
00:13:01,600 --> 00:13:05,480
Speaker 1: were putting so much time into this written product, uh

253
00:13:05,480 --> 00:13:07,800
Speaker 1: and as a writer and editor, you know, at the

254
00:13:07,880 --> 00:13:09,320
Speaker 1: end of the day, we were hoping to have this

255
00:13:09,520 --> 00:13:12,360
Speaker 1: the best possible version of this thing to put on

256
00:13:12,480 --> 00:13:17,040
Speaker 1: the website, the best possible article, and then we were

257
00:13:17,120 --> 00:13:18,720
Speaker 1: sort of trying to do the same thing with the

258
00:13:18,760 --> 00:13:23,200
Speaker 1: audio version, which was a big ask, especially considering you

259
00:13:23,240 --> 00:13:25,240
Speaker 1: know that it was, like you said, a triple dip

260
00:13:25,920 --> 00:13:30,199
Speaker 1: piece of content, and ultimately, podcast as they've been put

261
00:13:30,200 --> 00:13:32,599
Speaker 1: together at at how stuff works were put together to

262
00:13:32,600 --> 00:13:35,319
Speaker 1: how stuff works, they ended up taking on a more

263
00:13:35,400 --> 00:13:37,880
Speaker 1: organic feel for the most part. They weren't this tightly

264
00:13:37,920 --> 00:13:43,640
Speaker 1: produced thing. Um, at the time, we're your early podcasts conversational, like,

265
00:13:43,720 --> 00:13:45,720
Speaker 1: did you feel like you were having a talk with

266
00:13:45,760 --> 00:13:49,560
Speaker 1: each other that in any way was genuine or was

267
00:13:49,640 --> 00:13:53,000
Speaker 1: it more just kind of like an information delivery system

268
00:13:53,080 --> 00:13:56,240
Speaker 1: in audio form, which is still have some people think

269
00:13:56,280 --> 00:14:00,199
Speaker 1: of podcasts today. I mean, occasionally we'll get the criticism

270
00:14:00,240 --> 00:14:02,280
Speaker 1: that says, like, you guys don't need to talk about

271
00:14:02,320 --> 00:14:05,040
Speaker 1: these things, you know, just give us the information. Yeah,

272
00:14:05,080 --> 00:14:07,679
Speaker 1: stop having a conversation and just tell us who invented

273
00:14:07,679 --> 00:14:10,680
Speaker 1: the telephone. Um. I don't hear that very often, but

274
00:14:10,720 --> 00:14:12,880
Speaker 1: every now and then I'm gonna say that. Yeah. I

275
00:14:12,920 --> 00:14:15,920
Speaker 1: think in the beginning we were a little awkward and

276
00:14:15,960 --> 00:14:19,760
Speaker 1: it was a little bit like an information delivery system

277
00:14:19,800 --> 00:14:21,360
Speaker 1: because we want to make sure we got our points

278
00:14:21,400 --> 00:14:24,200
Speaker 1: out there. We wanted to make sure they're accurate and

279
00:14:24,560 --> 00:14:26,760
Speaker 1: you know, like Robert was saying, we wanted to make

280
00:14:26,760 --> 00:14:29,160
Speaker 1: sure that it was it was a good listen, you know,

281
00:14:29,200 --> 00:14:33,200
Speaker 1: a tightly produced asset. Um. So yeah, Joe, I think

282
00:14:33,400 --> 00:14:36,800
Speaker 1: it sometimes aired on that side. Um. And then I

283
00:14:36,800 --> 00:14:39,200
Speaker 1: think as we got more comfortable with it, we recorded

284
00:14:39,360 --> 00:14:45,240
Speaker 1: maybe eighty episodes, probably because we we basically went till

285
00:14:45,320 --> 00:14:48,920
Speaker 1: fall of that year, and that was when they rebranded

286
00:14:48,920 --> 00:14:52,400
Speaker 1: the show. And the weird thing was I definitely remember

287
00:14:52,440 --> 00:14:55,920
Speaker 1: that by the end we were I feel like that

288
00:14:55,960 --> 00:14:58,400
Speaker 1: was when we'd actually really found our groove. Part of

289
00:14:58,440 --> 00:15:00,840
Speaker 1: it being that we like some of the usher was off,

290
00:15:00,920 --> 00:15:02,560
Speaker 1: you know, they were like, oh, we're going to rebrand

291
00:15:02,600 --> 00:15:04,280
Speaker 1: the show anyway, and so we're like, okay, we can

292
00:15:04,320 --> 00:15:08,240
Speaker 1: just sort of have some fun with it. Um, which

293
00:15:08,640 --> 00:15:11,240
Speaker 1: in a ways, I mean kind of tragic because like

294
00:15:11,280 --> 00:15:13,720
Speaker 1: we were the show. If they've given it a little longer,

295
00:15:13,760 --> 00:15:16,080
Speaker 1: you know, it's like we were on the right track

296
00:15:16,160 --> 00:15:18,320
Speaker 1: with it. You know. It's funny. I'm not sure that

297
00:15:18,360 --> 00:15:21,520
Speaker 1: we would have gotten as long of a runway now

298
00:15:21,920 --> 00:15:24,440
Speaker 1: if we were to try to launch such a show, right,

299
00:15:24,480 --> 00:15:27,000
Speaker 1: I mean, we would have been killed within you know,

300
00:15:27,160 --> 00:15:32,280
Speaker 1: a couple episodes. Maybe we'd have been wildly successful, or

301
00:15:32,360 --> 00:15:34,680
Speaker 1: we would have been a sponsored podcast and therefore there

302
00:15:34,680 --> 00:15:37,640
Speaker 1: have been like a mandated number of episodes where it

303
00:15:37,680 --> 00:15:40,480
Speaker 1: would have been seasoned. I mean, there's so many there's

304
00:15:40,480 --> 00:15:43,080
Speaker 1: so many different versions of what a podcast is now

305
00:15:44,040 --> 00:15:46,920
Speaker 1: compared to what at least we thought of in house

306
00:15:46,960 --> 00:15:49,840
Speaker 1: at the time. Like I remember the weird things when

307
00:15:50,000 --> 00:15:52,480
Speaker 1: when everyone's talking about podcast I was thinking, Oh, yeah,

308
00:15:52,840 --> 00:15:55,920
Speaker 1: podcasts are these music shows that I listened to, Like

309
00:15:55,960 --> 00:15:59,280
Speaker 1: I was thinking to primarily DJ Mix podcast that was

310
00:15:59,560 --> 00:16:02,000
Speaker 1: pretty mu the only podcast I listened to. And then

311
00:16:02,040 --> 00:16:06,320
Speaker 1: also some MPR shows that were repurposed as podcasts or

312
00:16:06,400 --> 00:16:09,200
Speaker 1: sometimes like just Pira did as podcast. I remember being

313
00:16:09,240 --> 00:16:13,200
Speaker 1: given a CD filled with this American Life episodes and

314
00:16:13,240 --> 00:16:15,480
Speaker 1: like that was that was essentially podcast, but it was

315
00:16:15,520 --> 00:16:18,480
Speaker 1: like the piraated pre podcast version of that. Did you

316
00:16:18,520 --> 00:16:20,520
Speaker 1: all have a sense at the beginning that you were

317
00:16:20,560 --> 00:16:24,120
Speaker 1: in any way competing with that kind of thing? Were

318
00:16:24,160 --> 00:16:28,800
Speaker 1: you like competing with these highly produced NPR shows that, uh,

319
00:16:28,840 --> 00:16:31,680
Speaker 1: you know, I have all these like resources and editing

320
00:16:31,760 --> 00:16:34,360
Speaker 1: and all that, or or did you just think, oh,

321
00:16:34,360 --> 00:16:36,920
Speaker 1: we're just out here doing our thing. Um, I'm gonna

322
00:16:36,960 --> 00:16:39,000
Speaker 1: answer for myself. So Robert I'd love to hear what

323
00:16:39,080 --> 00:16:43,960
Speaker 1: your thoughts are. Um. I think that we sort of

324
00:16:44,160 --> 00:16:45,640
Speaker 1: or I sort of felt like I was operating in

325
00:16:45,640 --> 00:16:49,640
Speaker 1: a vacuum. You know. It's sort of, um still interesting

326
00:16:49,680 --> 00:16:52,840
Speaker 1: to me to hear my voice out there on some

327
00:16:53,040 --> 00:16:57,320
Speaker 1: you know, episode or something. Uh So, no, I don't.

328
00:16:57,360 --> 00:16:59,880
Speaker 1: I didn't think of myself as competition. I didn't think

329
00:16:59,880 --> 00:17:04,320
Speaker 1: of us as competition. That said, I think I think

330
00:17:04,359 --> 00:17:07,440
Speaker 1: it is competition, right, I mean, I'm stating obvious here.

331
00:17:07,560 --> 00:17:10,280
Speaker 1: What about you, Robert, Um, I mean I still kind

332
00:17:10,280 --> 00:17:12,359
Speaker 1: of to this day, I look at a show like

333
00:17:12,440 --> 00:17:15,560
Speaker 1: Radio Lab and I think, Okay, Radio Lab is Star Wars,

334
00:17:15,680 --> 00:17:19,719
Speaker 1: you know, and in the best, you know version of that,

335
00:17:19,800 --> 00:17:24,360
Speaker 1: you know, like it is it is. Yeah, and and

336
00:17:24,440 --> 00:17:28,200
Speaker 1: just also wonderful content. I love I love that show. Um.

337
00:17:29,200 --> 00:17:33,120
Speaker 1: And But then our version of the podcast was not

338
00:17:33,280 --> 00:17:36,800
Speaker 1: a feature motion picture. It was maybe like a TV show,

339
00:17:36,960 --> 00:17:39,000
Speaker 1: you know. So it's like we were operating like that.

340
00:17:39,080 --> 00:17:43,080
Speaker 1: It was a different product. Were they in the same genre?

341
00:17:43,480 --> 00:17:46,720
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, it was there some crossover from from the

342
00:17:46,720 --> 00:17:50,040
Speaker 1: content from time to time, certainly, But but yeah, it

343
00:17:50,080 --> 00:17:53,520
Speaker 1: never really felt like like we were actually competing with them,

344
00:17:53,560 --> 00:17:55,640
Speaker 1: because it was just a different product. It's like we

345
00:17:55,640 --> 00:17:58,680
Speaker 1: we made socks, they made underwear, or vice versa, depending

346
00:17:58,680 --> 00:18:00,840
Speaker 1: on where you stand on socks versus underwear. I guess

347
00:18:01,359 --> 00:18:04,879
Speaker 1: you made socks. They made suits of armor. Yeah, we

348
00:18:04,920 --> 00:18:08,080
Speaker 1: made socks. Yeah, they made um like samurai swords or something.

349
00:18:08,119 --> 00:18:09,719
Speaker 1: But but still, like when you were in a good

350
00:18:09,720 --> 00:18:13,280
Speaker 1: pair of socks, nothing else samurai sword will not cut

351
00:18:13,280 --> 00:18:15,879
Speaker 1: it when you want to pair of good socks. Um,

352
00:18:15,920 --> 00:18:18,159
Speaker 1: And people are super loyal to their brands of socks.

353
00:18:18,440 --> 00:18:20,960
Speaker 1: But but another thing you you were asking about was like, how,

354
00:18:21,800 --> 00:18:26,199
Speaker 1: um about organic conversation in the early episodes, Um, I

355
00:18:26,240 --> 00:18:28,439
Speaker 1: think like that was something we kind of had to

356
00:18:28,520 --> 00:18:32,800
Speaker 1: learn because the weird thing about the kind of conversations

357
00:18:33,200 --> 00:18:35,160
Speaker 1: we had then and we have to to this day

358
00:18:35,200 --> 00:18:37,280
Speaker 1: on stuff to put your mind, is that you're not

359
00:18:37,600 --> 00:18:43,480
Speaker 1: really having what is an organic conversation, You're having a

360
00:18:43,640 --> 00:18:46,360
Speaker 1: version of it that someone's gonna eavesdrop on. It's kind

361
00:18:46,359 --> 00:18:49,639
Speaker 1: of like having a very intentional conversation at a party

362
00:18:49,920 --> 00:18:53,199
Speaker 1: because you know a particular person or some stranger that

363
00:18:53,240 --> 00:18:56,080
Speaker 1: you've just eyeballed is listening to you like it's a

364
00:18:56,119 --> 00:18:59,199
Speaker 1: weird beast. Well, yeah, I don't know how exactly to

365
00:18:59,280 --> 00:19:01,880
Speaker 1: explain what we do. I mean, it's not normal. It's

366
00:19:01,920 --> 00:19:05,439
Speaker 1: not like something that people would normally find themselves doing.

367
00:19:05,480 --> 00:19:09,120
Speaker 1: But it's not fake. When we have a conversation, it's

368
00:19:09,119 --> 00:19:12,359
Speaker 1: not a performance, but it's also but it is a performance.

369
00:19:12,960 --> 00:19:17,080
Speaker 1: It's like an organic conversation that is also a performance

370
00:19:17,760 --> 00:19:20,840
Speaker 1: but also has a bullet point, you know, a bulleted

371
00:19:20,880 --> 00:19:23,320
Speaker 1: list of facts that need to be uh, you know,

372
00:19:23,400 --> 00:19:26,040
Speaker 1: administered to the audience, right. I mean that's something that

373
00:19:26,080 --> 00:19:28,400
Speaker 1: comes up in the tension, Alison, you were mentioning earlier,

374
00:19:28,480 --> 00:19:31,000
Speaker 1: like you know, you wanted in the early episodes, you

375
00:19:31,040 --> 00:19:32,719
Speaker 1: were saying you wanted to put together a good product

376
00:19:32,840 --> 00:19:35,359
Speaker 1: that like what was the real value of how stuff

377
00:19:35,400 --> 00:19:38,400
Speaker 1: works At the time, it was like factual, well vetted

378
00:19:38,520 --> 00:19:41,800
Speaker 1: sourced information, you know, stuff that you could factually rely

379
00:19:41,920 --> 00:19:46,360
Speaker 1: on to whatever extent possible. And and I think that

380
00:19:46,440 --> 00:19:50,000
Speaker 1: can definitely tend like when you have that as a

381
00:19:50,040 --> 00:19:52,199
Speaker 1: goal in mind, that contend to make you want to

382
00:19:52,200 --> 00:19:56,080
Speaker 1: produce something that is a more kind of tightly controlled

383
00:19:56,119 --> 00:20:00,920
Speaker 1: product like that that tends naturally against organic conversation. Uh So,

384
00:20:01,240 --> 00:20:04,040
Speaker 1: I know it's like this has always been part of

385
00:20:04,040 --> 00:20:06,919
Speaker 1: the difficulty, you know, in in my experience and podcasting

386
00:20:07,000 --> 00:20:11,080
Speaker 1: is balancing that, like, you know, real off the cuff,

387
00:20:11,600 --> 00:20:14,480
Speaker 1: approachable kind of feeling with making sure you get everything

388
00:20:14,560 --> 00:20:18,040
Speaker 1: right as best you can. Right. I think that particularly

389
00:20:18,080 --> 00:20:21,080
Speaker 1: in the subject areas of science and of course history.

390
00:20:21,400 --> 00:20:23,560
Speaker 1: The history host who have had to do this, you know,

391
00:20:23,560 --> 00:20:26,560
Speaker 1: and very just on the mark. I mean they have

392
00:20:26,680 --> 00:20:29,000
Speaker 1: to do umteen hours of research. I don't know what

393
00:20:29,080 --> 00:20:32,720
Speaker 1: their research count is now, but obtain and a half.

394
00:20:32,760 --> 00:20:37,280
Speaker 1: I think the day alright, time to take a quick break,

395
00:20:37,320 --> 00:20:40,040
Speaker 1: but we'll be right back. Okay, folks. So we all

396
00:20:40,040 --> 00:20:43,600
Speaker 1: know how a VPN protects your privacy and security online, right,

397
00:20:43,920 --> 00:20:46,400
Speaker 1: But here's a new cool fact. It can take your

398
00:20:46,440 --> 00:20:49,199
Speaker 1: TV watching game to the next level. You can use

399
00:20:49,240 --> 00:20:52,600
Speaker 1: a VPN to unlock movies and shows that are technically

400
00:20:52,640 --> 00:20:56,359
Speaker 1: only available in other countries. Yeah. Like, for instance, I

401
00:20:56,400 --> 00:20:59,080
Speaker 1: was watching a little Doctor Who over the weekend. What

402
00:20:59,200 --> 00:21:02,600
Speaker 1: better place to watch Doctor Who? Then UK Netflix? Don't

403
00:21:02,600 --> 00:21:04,880
Speaker 1: live in the UK, doesn't matter because with Express VPN,

404
00:21:05,119 --> 00:21:06,640
Speaker 1: all you have to do is fire up the app,

405
00:21:06,840 --> 00:21:10,000
Speaker 1: change your location of the UK, refresh Netflix, and bam

406
00:21:10,040 --> 00:21:11,879
Speaker 1: you're good to go. So the way it works is

407
00:21:11,960 --> 00:21:15,320
Speaker 1: Express VPN hides your IP address and lets you control

408
00:21:15,600 --> 00:21:18,719
Speaker 1: where you want sites to think you're located. You can

409
00:21:18,800 --> 00:21:21,320
Speaker 1: choose from almost a hundred different countries. So just think

410
00:21:21,359 --> 00:21:24,040
Speaker 1: about all the Netflix libraries you can go through. Yeah, Like,

411
00:21:24,080 --> 00:21:26,440
Speaker 1: if you love anime, for instance, you can use Express

412
00:21:26,560 --> 00:21:30,720
Speaker 1: VPN to access Japanese Netflix and be spirited away. But

413
00:21:30,760 --> 00:21:34,919
Speaker 1: it's not just Netflix. Express VPN works with any streaming service, Hulu, BBC,

414
00:21:35,040 --> 00:21:38,359
Speaker 1: I Player, YouTube, you name it. There are hundreds of

415
00:21:38,440 --> 00:21:41,120
Speaker 1: VPNs out there, but the great reason to use Express

416
00:21:41,200 --> 00:21:44,720
Speaker 1: vpn is that it is ridiculously fast. There's never any

417
00:21:44,760 --> 00:21:47,159
Speaker 1: buffering or lag, and you can stream an HD with

418
00:21:47,200 --> 00:21:50,320
Speaker 1: no problem. Express vpn is also compatible with all your devices,

419
00:21:50,359 --> 00:21:53,400
Speaker 1: your phone, your media console, your smart TVs and more,

420
00:21:53,800 --> 00:21:55,760
Speaker 1: so you can watch what you want on the go

421
00:21:55,960 --> 00:21:58,040
Speaker 1: or on the big screen wherever you are. If you

422
00:21:58,160 --> 00:22:01,960
Speaker 1: visit our special link right now Express vpn dot com

423
00:22:02,040 --> 00:22:05,480
Speaker 1: slash mind blown, you can get an extra three months

424
00:22:05,480 --> 00:22:08,719
Speaker 1: of Express vpn for free. Support our show, watch what

425
00:22:08,800 --> 00:22:12,440
Speaker 1: you want and protect yourself at Express vpn dot com

426
00:22:12,520 --> 00:22:18,320
Speaker 1: slash mind blown. Than All right, we're back. I'd love

427
00:22:18,359 --> 00:22:21,159
Speaker 1: to hear Joe and Robert where you think the podcast

428
00:22:21,240 --> 00:22:23,520
Speaker 1: will go and where you want to take it specifically.

429
00:22:23,560 --> 00:22:26,520
Speaker 1: I mean, could we depend on this conversation happening in

430
00:22:26,520 --> 00:22:29,320
Speaker 1: another ten years. What are your thoughts about the future. Well,

431
00:22:29,880 --> 00:22:31,760
Speaker 1: I hope so, because that also means that all of

432
00:22:31,840 --> 00:22:34,080
Speaker 1: us are still alive, which is a good thing that

433
00:22:34,240 --> 00:22:37,480
Speaker 1: podcasts still exist. This is also a good thing civilization

434
00:22:37,600 --> 00:22:41,120
Speaker 1: is still around. Will we survived the podcast wars? Great

435
00:22:41,160 --> 00:22:47,479
Speaker 1: podcast wars of Yeah? Um, I don't know. That's I've

436
00:22:47,520 --> 00:22:50,680
Speaker 1: always always am terrible at those where do you see

437
00:22:50,680 --> 00:22:55,040
Speaker 1: yourself in like ten years, three years, two weeks kind

438
00:22:55,040 --> 00:23:00,600
Speaker 1: of questions? But um, I mean there's certainly. One of

439
00:23:00,600 --> 00:23:02,159
Speaker 1: the things about the show is that there's we're never

440
00:23:02,200 --> 00:23:06,440
Speaker 1: going to run out of content as long as scientists

441
00:23:06,480 --> 00:23:10,040
Speaker 1: are out there doing their work, as long as archaeologists

442
00:23:10,400 --> 00:23:14,000
Speaker 1: are out there, you know, exploring the past, historians are

443
00:23:14,040 --> 00:23:16,160
Speaker 1: taking apart the past. As long as there are their

444
00:23:16,200 --> 00:23:19,840
Speaker 1: experts working in all these fields, Like, we have material

445
00:23:19,960 --> 00:23:23,639
Speaker 1: to pour through and dissect and at our own spin

446
00:23:23,720 --> 00:23:26,720
Speaker 1: and interpretation on. I feel like even if all research

447
00:23:26,840 --> 00:23:29,639
Speaker 1: stopped today, we could keep doing this show for the

448
00:23:29,680 --> 00:23:32,359
Speaker 1: rest of our natural lives. I mean. One of the

449
00:23:32,359 --> 00:23:35,280
Speaker 1: things that's been shocking to me about the show, or

450
00:23:35,280 --> 00:23:37,080
Speaker 1: maybe not shocking. I don't know. Maybe something that I

451
00:23:37,119 --> 00:23:39,800
Speaker 1: always had a kind of unnatural faith in is the

452
00:23:39,840 --> 00:23:43,199
Speaker 1: idea that almost every subject, if you look at it

453
00:23:43,240 --> 00:23:47,400
Speaker 1: deep enough, becomes weird and becomes interesting stuff that might

454
00:23:47,440 --> 00:23:49,719
Speaker 1: not seem that way at first glance, if you just

455
00:23:49,880 --> 00:23:53,560
Speaker 1: keep going deeper in, it gets there. And then if

456
00:23:53,560 --> 00:23:55,719
Speaker 1: you if you look around its sources enough, Like how

457
00:23:55,720 --> 00:23:58,200
Speaker 1: many times have we found something where it's like, oh

458
00:23:58,240 --> 00:24:01,720
Speaker 1: my god, this idea from the V and D's is wonderful.

459
00:24:01,920 --> 00:24:04,639
Speaker 1: Or who I found all this great stuff about tridents,

460
00:24:04,640 --> 00:24:07,000
Speaker 1: but it's from a book in the nineteen thirties, you know,

461
00:24:07,480 --> 00:24:13,000
Speaker 1: Like to your point, like, if no additional writings were composed,

462
00:24:13,480 --> 00:24:15,520
Speaker 1: we're not saying we want that, by the way, No,

463
00:24:15,840 --> 00:24:17,639
Speaker 1: I mean it would be easier to catch up, obviously,

464
00:24:17,680 --> 00:24:20,600
Speaker 1: but but but no, if it's if everything stopped, there's

465
00:24:20,600 --> 00:24:24,560
Speaker 1: still so many wonderful nuggets buried in, uh, in the material,

466
00:24:24,640 --> 00:24:27,200
Speaker 1: and so much of it that has only become really

467
00:24:27,240 --> 00:24:31,520
Speaker 1: readily available. Uh, you know since the show began, I mean,

468
00:24:31,560 --> 00:24:34,879
Speaker 1: the the online resources have really changed the way we

469
00:24:35,040 --> 00:24:37,840
Speaker 1: do our job. I would say that is absolutely true.

470
00:24:37,920 --> 00:24:41,439
Speaker 1: One thing that has changed big time since I started

471
00:24:41,440 --> 00:24:46,160
Speaker 1: doing podcasts is through various means. It is much easier

472
00:24:46,240 --> 00:24:50,000
Speaker 1: to get your hands on primary research now than it

473
00:24:50,080 --> 00:24:53,040
Speaker 1: was like ten years ago. That so huge, I mean,

474
00:24:53,040 --> 00:24:56,040
Speaker 1: sourcing is so huge, and I really really enjoy how

475
00:24:56,119 --> 00:24:59,439
Speaker 1: you guys do that in every single episode with the

476
00:24:59,480 --> 00:25:02,280
Speaker 1: Steady than just a quick reference, but it's there. Did

477
00:25:02,160 --> 00:25:05,680
Speaker 1: you show notes as well? We know, we just didn't.

478
00:25:05,720 --> 00:25:07,840
Speaker 1: We We we used to sort of do them and

479
00:25:07,880 --> 00:25:10,560
Speaker 1: then they got kind of dinner depending on how much

480
00:25:10,600 --> 00:25:13,280
Speaker 1: time we had our owners, that's the case. And now

481
00:25:13,280 --> 00:25:15,960
Speaker 1: we don't really have a website anymore, so we don't

482
00:25:15,960 --> 00:25:18,000
Speaker 1: really have a place to put them. So that wasn't

483
00:25:18,040 --> 00:25:21,639
Speaker 1: really our call, but they kind of solved the question

484
00:25:21,680 --> 00:25:24,119
Speaker 1: for us, Like it's not even an option right now.

485
00:25:24,280 --> 00:25:26,560
Speaker 1: But I mean we we do try whenever possible. I mean,

486
00:25:26,600 --> 00:25:29,040
Speaker 1: depending on the subject, you can't always like do full

487
00:25:29,080 --> 00:25:31,520
Speaker 1: references on everything, but we do try pretty often to

488
00:25:31,680 --> 00:25:34,560
Speaker 1: like give the kinds of citations that if you wanted

489
00:25:34,560 --> 00:25:36,080
Speaker 1: to sit down and write it down, you could look

490
00:25:36,080 --> 00:25:38,359
Speaker 1: it up and find it. Yeah. The problem being is

491
00:25:38,400 --> 00:25:40,360
Speaker 1: that a lot of times we're dealing with names that

492
00:25:40,400 --> 00:25:44,000
Speaker 1: either either we're butchering the pronunciation has the individual's name,

493
00:25:44,160 --> 00:25:47,480
Speaker 1: or well it's just a hard thing to look up. Famously,

494
00:25:47,760 --> 00:25:50,159
Speaker 1: we are bad at pronouncing names. But maybe that's a

495
00:25:50,200 --> 00:25:53,720
Speaker 1: case with all podcasters, because I hear other podcast hosts

496
00:25:54,080 --> 00:25:57,520
Speaker 1: say that they get dinged about pronouncing names wrong. Yeah. Well,

497
00:25:57,800 --> 00:26:00,840
Speaker 1: certainly if you are ever listening to the show, uh,

498
00:26:01,080 --> 00:26:03,080
Speaker 1: at least a recent show or even an older show,

499
00:26:03,359 --> 00:26:05,440
Speaker 1: and there is a source you're curious about you want

500
00:26:05,440 --> 00:26:07,240
Speaker 1: to check out for yourself, and you you you aren't

501
00:26:07,280 --> 00:26:09,400
Speaker 1: able to find it, well, you know, drop us a line,

502
00:26:09,480 --> 00:26:12,919
Speaker 1: email us and we'll see if we can't send you

503
00:26:12,960 --> 00:26:14,960
Speaker 1: a better link or at least you know the the

504
00:26:15,000 --> 00:26:18,200
Speaker 1: official author and title so that you can look it

505
00:26:18,280 --> 00:26:20,159
Speaker 1: up on your own time. We get those sources, and

506
00:26:20,200 --> 00:26:22,240
Speaker 1: we get these types of questions a lot on the website,

507
00:26:22,280 --> 00:26:25,480
Speaker 1: to which I find encouraging, and I will usually, you know,

508
00:26:25,480 --> 00:26:27,879
Speaker 1: see what I can dig up. Or are somebody's referencing

509
00:26:27,920 --> 00:26:29,919
Speaker 1: a source like, oh, I think this might be the

510
00:26:30,040 --> 00:26:32,880
Speaker 1: right way to go to research my wife's medical treatment,

511
00:26:32,920 --> 00:26:35,280
Speaker 1: And I'm thinking, hey, why don't you try to say

512
00:26:35,440 --> 00:26:39,879
Speaker 1: Cochrane dot org instead for this, you know, comprehensive review

513
00:26:40,000 --> 00:26:43,240
Speaker 1: of breast cancer research. Um, but I do. I have

514
00:26:43,400 --> 00:26:46,680
Speaker 1: noticed that more people are sort of coming and asking

515
00:26:46,760 --> 00:26:48,840
Speaker 1: like where did this come from? Can I get the

516
00:26:48,920 --> 00:26:52,040
Speaker 1: primary resource? Uh, you know where this originated? And I

517
00:26:52,119 --> 00:26:56,440
Speaker 1: really like that. Yeah. I think that the Internet might

518
00:26:56,520 --> 00:26:59,000
Speaker 1: be in some ways now a little bit better and

519
00:26:59,000 --> 00:27:01,240
Speaker 1: in some ways a little bit worse in terms of

520
00:27:01,680 --> 00:27:06,840
Speaker 1: source uh source consciousness. I think people are more skeptical

521
00:27:07,080 --> 00:27:10,280
Speaker 1: of web pages and just like what somebody says on

522
00:27:10,320 --> 00:27:13,840
Speaker 1: the Internet than they used to be. Um. The downside

523
00:27:13,840 --> 00:27:15,960
Speaker 1: to that, I think is that also sometimes comes with

524
00:27:16,000 --> 00:27:20,840
Speaker 1: a kind of um unquenchable like conspiracy denialism that just

525
00:27:21,200 --> 00:27:24,240
Speaker 1: like you know, where you can't really accept anything. Yeah,

526
00:27:24,320 --> 00:27:27,400
Speaker 1: that can be a little bit scabilitating. Did you get

527
00:27:27,440 --> 00:27:30,720
Speaker 1: that too? We do, we do, of course. I mean yeah,

528
00:27:30,760 --> 00:27:32,920
Speaker 1: I mean people are very quick to call fake news

529
00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:36,040
Speaker 1: on you. Yeah, for sure. You know, at this point

530
00:27:36,040 --> 00:27:38,840
Speaker 1: I think we should we should probably just talk about

531
00:27:38,880 --> 00:27:42,479
Speaker 1: like the current state of the stuff shows and how

532
00:27:42,520 --> 00:27:45,439
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com because not everybody is familiar with this.

533
00:27:45,560 --> 00:27:48,200
Speaker 1: Not everybody is going to like have how stuff works

534
00:27:48,240 --> 00:27:51,639
Speaker 1: in their their their news browser, you know, so that

535
00:27:51,920 --> 00:27:54,639
Speaker 1: they get updates about it. So basically one of the

536
00:27:54,640 --> 00:27:57,119
Speaker 1: things that occurred over the past what several years now

537
00:27:57,800 --> 00:28:01,639
Speaker 1: was the again, all these stuff show those stuff to

538
00:28:01,640 --> 00:28:04,399
Speaker 1: about your mind slash stuff in the science lab, stuff

539
00:28:04,440 --> 00:28:07,160
Speaker 1: you should know, stuff you missed in history class, stuff

540
00:28:07,200 --> 00:28:10,360
Speaker 1: they don't want you to know, etcetera. They all started

541
00:28:10,400 --> 00:28:14,480
Speaker 1: as part of how Stuff Works dot com, but then uh,

542
00:28:14,560 --> 00:28:17,959
Speaker 1: these two properties were then split into two separate divisions,

543
00:28:18,520 --> 00:28:22,320
Speaker 1: the podcast division and the website division, and then the

544
00:28:22,400 --> 00:28:28,479
Speaker 1: podcast division was purchased uh apart from the website, and

545
00:28:28,560 --> 00:28:33,000
Speaker 1: so currently this show and the other stuff podcasts are

546
00:28:33,119 --> 00:28:37,440
Speaker 1: part of the I Heart Media I Heart Podcast division,

547
00:28:37,640 --> 00:28:40,240
Speaker 1: but they're still sort of considered how Stuff Works podcasts,

548
00:28:40,600 --> 00:28:44,000
Speaker 1: which can be confusing to people. Right, I totally totally

549
00:28:44,120 --> 00:28:46,440
Speaker 1: get that. I've looked at our wiki, you know, our

550
00:28:46,440 --> 00:28:52,920
Speaker 1: Wikipedia page multiple times and that says, you know, I

551
00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:55,800
Speaker 1: have to give some props to the hard working editors

552
00:28:55,800 --> 00:28:58,480
Speaker 1: of Wikipedia. They've got it right there, and I think

553
00:28:58,480 --> 00:29:02,080
Speaker 1: they actually got a lot of things right these days. Yeah,

554
00:29:02,200 --> 00:29:05,000
Speaker 1: I just said that. Oh no, this is a funny

555
00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:06,880
Speaker 1: thing I think I've talked about on the show before.

556
00:29:07,680 --> 00:29:11,600
Speaker 1: I would never use Wikipedia as a final source of information.

557
00:29:11,880 --> 00:29:15,520
Speaker 1: Great jumping off point, but I think Wikipedia is a

558
00:29:16,360 --> 00:29:21,000
Speaker 1: is about as reliable as lots of editorially controlled sites.

559
00:29:21,080 --> 00:29:24,520
Speaker 1: If not better. Uh, and I'm not including you there, Alison,

560
00:29:24,920 --> 00:29:27,560
Speaker 1: but like I mean, like you, you will go to

561
00:29:27,640 --> 00:29:31,040
Speaker 1: sites that would appear to have editorial control that I

562
00:29:31,080 --> 00:29:34,640
Speaker 1: think are more likely to have errors and and you know,

563
00:29:34,680 --> 00:29:38,360
Speaker 1: incorrect citations and stuff than your average Wikipedia article. Yeah,

564
00:29:38,480 --> 00:29:41,200
Speaker 1: I just wanted to give Wikipedia props. I feel like

565
00:29:41,280 --> 00:29:43,040
Speaker 1: there are a lot of people who are working pretty

566
00:29:43,040 --> 00:29:47,760
Speaker 1: hard on it to produce an improved product, for sure. Anyway,

567
00:29:47,800 --> 00:29:50,160
Speaker 1: I only that was a tangent there of Wikipedia tangent

568
00:29:50,200 --> 00:29:53,080
Speaker 1: if you will, um, but they do get it right currently,

569
00:29:53,160 --> 00:29:56,400
Speaker 1: and so System one being the website. So System one

570
00:29:56,440 --> 00:29:59,920
Speaker 1: is a website's parent. They're out of Venice Beach, California,

571
00:30:00,120 --> 00:30:06,360
Speaker 1: and they do user acquisition, whereas you all are owned.

572
00:30:06,560 --> 00:30:09,160
Speaker 1: The podcasts are owned by iHeart. As you were just saying,

573
00:30:09,440 --> 00:30:10,920
Speaker 1: But we're all still friendly, and we all still work

574
00:30:10,960 --> 00:30:12,280
Speaker 1: in the same building. Yes, so we're all still in

575
00:30:12,320 --> 00:30:15,560
Speaker 1: the same building. So so all friendly, But got callers

576
00:30:15,600 --> 00:30:18,120
Speaker 1: on that prevent us from talking to each other. If

577
00:30:18,120 --> 00:30:20,720
Speaker 1: we do, the buzzer goes off. But no, but but

578
00:30:20,720 --> 00:30:23,240
Speaker 1: but certainly inviting you on the show involved asking you

579
00:30:23,280 --> 00:30:25,560
Speaker 1: to come down from the eighth floor. Yeah, it was

580
00:30:25,560 --> 00:30:28,240
Speaker 1: a heck of an elevator right coming down that fourth floors.

581
00:30:28,640 --> 00:30:31,880
Speaker 1: But also a lot of the folks on staff at

582
00:30:31,880 --> 00:30:34,560
Speaker 1: I Heeart no big surprise are wildly talented and our

583
00:30:34,600 --> 00:30:36,960
Speaker 1: writers and I don't know, we just find occasions to

584
00:30:37,040 --> 00:30:40,760
Speaker 1: still interact and be a curious crew together. Yeah. So,

585
00:30:40,760 --> 00:30:43,640
Speaker 1: so talk a little bit about what's going on with

586
00:30:43,640 --> 00:30:46,960
Speaker 1: with with how stuffworks dot com and uh and what

587
00:30:46,960 --> 00:30:51,160
Speaker 1: what your your role is as editor in chief. I

588
00:30:51,200 --> 00:30:54,000
Speaker 1: have a good job, y'all, I really do. I feel

589
00:30:54,160 --> 00:30:56,840
Speaker 1: very fortunate. Um. I have a small team. We have

590
00:30:56,880 --> 00:31:00,720
Speaker 1: a small team and editorial team based here in Atlanta. Uh,

591
00:31:00,760 --> 00:31:05,680
Speaker 1: and we are well, first of all, we're searched driven, right,

592
00:31:05,760 --> 00:31:08,840
Speaker 1: So to step back a little bit, how stuff works

593
00:31:08,960 --> 00:31:11,200
Speaker 1: comes up a lot when you search, right, like whatever

594
00:31:11,240 --> 00:31:15,400
Speaker 1: you're searching, whether it's for particle accelerators or on um,

595
00:31:15,720 --> 00:31:18,120
Speaker 1: Savannah Cat. We've been doing a lot of cat contently,

596
00:31:18,200 --> 00:31:25,160
Speaker 1: like good figure Savannah Cat, Savannah Cat. Oh man, they're crazy, Okay, UM, yeah,

597
00:31:25,200 --> 00:31:29,280
Speaker 1: I recommend that one. There's some really interesting cats. You

598
00:31:29,320 --> 00:31:32,400
Speaker 1: like cats too? Um Yeah, I'm I'm coming on the

599
00:31:32,440 --> 00:31:36,280
Speaker 1: fence with well, I mean, I one of the things

600
00:31:36,280 --> 00:31:38,600
Speaker 1: about Robert that we all kind of know is he's

601
00:31:38,600 --> 00:31:41,160
Speaker 1: not like a huge fan of dogs, but like the cats.

602
00:31:41,560 --> 00:31:43,680
Speaker 1: That's true, It's true. Yeah, that was the thing. Like

603
00:31:43,680 --> 00:31:45,480
Speaker 1: you were a dog person, I was a cat person.

604
00:31:45,720 --> 00:31:49,240
Speaker 1: And it's the same dynamic today. Yeah. Yeah, my cat

605
00:31:49,320 --> 00:31:53,000
Speaker 1: keeps exploding these days, so I'm a little uh, I'm

606
00:31:53,040 --> 00:31:57,280
Speaker 1: beginning to question my, uh my, my funness for cats

607
00:31:57,360 --> 00:32:00,600
Speaker 1: versus dogs. I'm sorry. Do you know that in one

608
00:32:00,640 --> 00:32:03,600
Speaker 1: of our first early episodes of stuff from the Science Lab,

609
00:32:04,320 --> 00:32:09,920
Speaker 1: I believe it was on Komodo Dragons, Crazy Komodo Dragons,

610
00:32:11,280 --> 00:32:16,240
Speaker 1: there's a sequence in in which you imitate your cat wretching. Oh, well,

611
00:32:16,240 --> 00:32:21,400
Speaker 1: that's wonderful. I should go listen to that. That goes

612
00:32:21,440 --> 00:32:23,640
Speaker 1: in the sound bank for the people who make music

613
00:32:23,720 --> 00:32:27,600
Speaker 1: out of our mouth noises. The I do remember the

614
00:32:27,640 --> 00:32:30,360
Speaker 1: Komodo dragon episode having a lot of like really gross

615
00:32:30,360 --> 00:32:33,280
Speaker 1: stuff in it, Like there was stuff about Komodo dragons

616
00:32:33,320 --> 00:32:37,360
Speaker 1: like slinging intestines around to like remove the fecal matter

617
00:32:37,440 --> 00:32:40,280
Speaker 1: from them so they could eat the intestines, and babies

618
00:32:40,320 --> 00:32:43,960
Speaker 1: hiding from the parents so they wouldn't be consumed as well. Yeah,

619
00:32:43,960 --> 00:32:46,360
Speaker 1: and we were, we were doing that episode in tandem

620
00:32:46,400 --> 00:32:48,840
Speaker 1: with a Discovery Show because we were at that point

621
00:32:48,840 --> 00:32:50,800
Speaker 1: owned by Discovery and it was I think it was

622
00:32:50,920 --> 00:32:55,200
Speaker 1: Life in which there is a good feature about Komodo dragons,

623
00:32:55,240 --> 00:32:58,120
Speaker 1: so we're kind of looking into them at that point

624
00:32:58,200 --> 00:33:02,440
Speaker 1: and learning all sorts of crazy x. The Komodo Dragon

625
00:33:02,440 --> 00:33:04,239
Speaker 1: well has not run dry. I think it was just

626
00:33:04,400 --> 00:33:07,280
Speaker 1: last year that Robert and I did an episode about

627
00:33:07,640 --> 00:33:10,200
Speaker 1: parthen of Genesis in the Animal Kingdom and we talked

628
00:33:10,200 --> 00:33:13,680
Speaker 1: about Komodo dragons, Virgin Birth and the Komodo dragon world.

629
00:33:14,560 --> 00:33:16,320
Speaker 1: And they're still one of my favorite things to see

630
00:33:16,400 --> 00:33:18,640
Speaker 1: at at a zoo. Whenever I visit a zoo, I

631
00:33:18,640 --> 00:33:21,440
Speaker 1: will definitely check out the Komodo dragons. Even though they're

632
00:33:21,480 --> 00:33:23,440
Speaker 1: probably not going to be moving much, they're probably gonna

633
00:33:23,440 --> 00:33:27,440
Speaker 1: be pretty stationary, they're still pretty awe inspiring. Yeah, they're oh,

634
00:33:27,480 --> 00:33:29,640
Speaker 1: which reminds me. You're asking what we're up to at

635
00:33:29,720 --> 00:33:31,960
Speaker 1: houss dot com. I'm gonna put in a quick plug

636
00:33:32,040 --> 00:33:35,120
Speaker 1: with somebody who has been on your show before. We

637
00:33:35,200 --> 00:33:37,400
Speaker 1: are going to be doing an event at the Atlanta

638
00:33:37,400 --> 00:33:40,200
Speaker 1: Science Festival, So if anybody who's listening is based in

639
00:33:40,200 --> 00:33:42,160
Speaker 1: the Atlanta area, he's come on out. We're gonna do

640
00:33:42,280 --> 00:33:48,240
Speaker 1: how snakes work, and that's with Mark Foundation. I'm really

641
00:33:48,240 --> 00:33:53,000
Speaker 1: excited about it. It's going to be in March. Yeah.

642
00:33:53,040 --> 00:33:57,280
Speaker 1: The Atlanta Science Festival is is pretty great because it's

643
00:33:57,480 --> 00:33:59,800
Speaker 1: it's pretty varied. I find each year there there's so

644
00:33:59,840 --> 00:34:02,440
Speaker 1: many different types of things to go to. A lot

645
00:34:02,480 --> 00:34:06,200
Speaker 1: of it very very family friendly. Um I think I've

646
00:34:06,240 --> 00:34:08,080
Speaker 1: been to. Um, let's see some of the things I've

647
00:34:08,080 --> 00:34:10,439
Speaker 1: been to include like amphibian walks, like where you're going

648
00:34:10,480 --> 00:34:13,000
Speaker 1: out into the into a park to look under rocks

649
00:34:13,000 --> 00:34:17,560
Speaker 1: and find amphibians with Mark and his crew. But also salamanders,

650
00:34:17,680 --> 00:34:21,400
Speaker 1: right yeah, yeah, yes, salamanders. Yeah. Uh so that was

651
00:34:21,440 --> 00:34:22,840
Speaker 1: a lot of fun. But then there's also stuff with

652
00:34:22,880 --> 00:34:26,600
Speaker 1: like robot competitions put on by different schools in the area,

653
00:34:27,239 --> 00:34:29,439
Speaker 1: a ton of great content. They really blow me away

654
00:34:29,520 --> 00:34:32,120
Speaker 1: with with their offerings every year because it's like almost

655
00:34:32,160 --> 00:34:36,000
Speaker 1: a full month of of material, right, Yes, yes it is.

656
00:34:36,200 --> 00:34:38,440
Speaker 1: There's some hard working folks behind it. I really appreciate

657
00:34:38,480 --> 00:34:41,240
Speaker 1: what they've done for just kind of greater science knowledge

658
00:34:41,239 --> 00:34:45,680
Speaker 1: in the area, along with yourselves of course. But getting

659
00:34:45,680 --> 00:34:47,320
Speaker 1: back to it, yeah, so I mean it has to

660
00:34:47,520 --> 00:34:50,400
Speaker 1: works to say we really are still we haven't changed

661
00:34:50,440 --> 00:34:52,520
Speaker 1: that much in the twenty plus years we've been on

662
00:34:52,680 --> 00:34:55,920
Speaker 1: and that is our mission is pretty much still the same.

663
00:34:56,800 --> 00:34:59,840
Speaker 1: We want to satisfy your curiosity. We want to answer

664
00:34:59,840 --> 00:35:03,200
Speaker 1: your questions about the world, whatever it is, whether it's

665
00:35:03,239 --> 00:35:09,160
Speaker 1: about Bob sledding or impeachment or particle accelerators, or what

666
00:35:09,320 --> 00:35:12,080
Speaker 1: the differences between you know, a road and avenue and

667
00:35:12,080 --> 00:35:14,080
Speaker 1: a boulevard. Do you guys know? I didn't know, but

668
00:35:14,120 --> 00:35:16,839
Speaker 1: we just do not know. Can you spoil it for us?

669
00:35:17,400 --> 00:35:21,400
Speaker 1: You're gonna have to go look at it. We also,

670
00:35:21,520 --> 00:35:24,239
Speaker 1: I mean we also, I mean, so we write on

671
00:35:24,440 --> 00:35:26,160
Speaker 1: the big and we write on the small. I mean,

672
00:35:26,200 --> 00:35:27,799
Speaker 1: that's just the nature of the site. I mean, we

673
00:35:27,920 --> 00:35:30,240
Speaker 1: just put out an article on you know, our pringles

674
00:35:30,280 --> 00:35:33,600
Speaker 1: really potato chips. They're not right. Well wait, they're made

675
00:35:33,640 --> 00:35:40,239
Speaker 1: of potatoes, aren't they. But they're not. There's some there's

676
00:35:40,239 --> 00:35:42,680
Speaker 1: some court action involved in this, fright, and to ask,

677
00:35:43,000 --> 00:35:49,640
Speaker 1: huh yeah, uh so we I'm guessing the other quick

678
00:35:49,680 --> 00:35:52,000
Speaker 1: do the math for me. That's moon dust is the

679
00:35:52,040 --> 00:35:54,359
Speaker 1: rest of it. I was gonna say, salt, it's like

680
00:35:54,480 --> 00:36:00,920
Speaker 1: throat shredding regularly makes your pringles. I can, but if

681
00:36:01,040 --> 00:36:03,680
Speaker 1: there were pringles. Now, I would probably eat several of

682
00:36:03,719 --> 00:36:06,040
Speaker 1: them there, man, I would eat like a whole can

683
00:36:06,120 --> 00:36:08,640
Speaker 1: a whole sleeve. Is it a is a sleeve of pringles?

684
00:36:08,640 --> 00:36:11,200
Speaker 1: Do we know the correct terminology there? It may be

685
00:36:11,320 --> 00:36:15,320
Speaker 1: a sleep tube. Yeah. They do come into the tube,

686
00:36:15,600 --> 00:36:17,160
Speaker 1: but you want to like dump them out into your

687
00:36:17,160 --> 00:36:18,719
Speaker 1: palm so you don't have to reach your hand and

688
00:36:18,760 --> 00:36:21,560
Speaker 1: get it. Like the Pringles arm band. I feel like

689
00:36:21,600 --> 00:36:23,839
Speaker 1: one of the real appeals of pringles is that when

690
00:36:23,840 --> 00:36:25,680
Speaker 1: you're done with the with the tube, you can stick

691
00:36:25,719 --> 00:36:30,480
Speaker 1: your arm in the tube and have tub bands. They

692
00:36:30,480 --> 00:36:32,880
Speaker 1: had pringles here at the office a while back, and um,

693
00:36:32,920 --> 00:36:34,560
Speaker 1: I happen to be a day when I was in

694
00:36:34,560 --> 00:36:36,880
Speaker 1: here with my son and he's like, all Pringles, that

695
00:36:36,960 --> 00:36:39,000
Speaker 1: can I have some Pringles? Not sure? You can grab

696
00:36:39,160 --> 00:36:41,400
Speaker 1: a canister of pringles. Got the canister and we got

697
00:36:41,480 --> 00:36:43,440
Speaker 1: into the car and we're leaving the office and he

698
00:36:43,480 --> 00:36:46,920
Speaker 1: opened it up and it was one pringle somebody for

699
00:36:47,080 --> 00:36:50,560
Speaker 1: their tears. Um no, it's just confusion. And I'm like, okay,

700
00:36:50,760 --> 00:36:53,040
Speaker 1: I'll buy some Pringles. So yeah, we were going to

701
00:36:53,040 --> 00:36:58,200
Speaker 1: a store anyway. So anyway, yeah, so I mean city

702
00:36:58,239 --> 00:37:01,880
Speaker 1: for prinkles. So oh, I mean we're also interested, I

703
00:37:01,880 --> 00:37:04,640
Speaker 1: mean in two thousand twenty, just like you all just

704
00:37:05,040 --> 00:37:08,400
Speaker 1: in being like they need to be as transparent as possible.

705
00:37:08,840 --> 00:37:11,520
Speaker 1: You know, that means sourcing, That means attribution. That means

706
00:37:11,560 --> 00:37:13,640
Speaker 1: you should know when the article is published. That means

707
00:37:13,680 --> 00:37:15,560
Speaker 1: if something, if a lot of people are looking at something,

708
00:37:15,560 --> 00:37:17,279
Speaker 1: we need to have eyes on it and make sure

709
00:37:17,320 --> 00:37:19,719
Speaker 1: that that are that information is up to date. Uh.

710
00:37:20,239 --> 00:37:23,400
Speaker 1: A key example there would be our US draft, how

711
00:37:23,400 --> 00:37:27,719
Speaker 1: the US Draft works articles trending because government website went

712
00:37:27,760 --> 00:37:30,000
Speaker 1: down and here comes ours like on the rise. What

713
00:37:30,040 --> 00:37:33,040
Speaker 1: do you know? Our information is good, it's factual, The

714
00:37:33,160 --> 00:37:36,120
Speaker 1: draft processes not changed. It trends like mad and we

715
00:37:36,160 --> 00:37:38,120
Speaker 1: need to make sure, like when I see people are

716
00:37:38,160 --> 00:37:40,600
Speaker 1: looking at that, it is my responsibility as editor in

717
00:37:40,640 --> 00:37:42,960
Speaker 1: chief of How Stuff Works to get you the best

718
00:37:42,960 --> 00:37:45,719
Speaker 1: information you can have. So I mean that is we're

719
00:37:45,880 --> 00:37:48,799
Speaker 1: laser laser focused on that in two thousand twenty because

720
00:37:48,800 --> 00:37:51,400
Speaker 1: it is so important to think about your sources and

721
00:37:51,440 --> 00:37:54,680
Speaker 1: credibility is very important. And we are a small publisher

722
00:37:54,760 --> 00:37:57,279
Speaker 1: competing with a lot of other folks out there, so

723
00:37:58,400 --> 00:38:03,160
Speaker 1: come see us. Yeah, that's great, Yeah, deep respect And

724
00:38:03,320 --> 00:38:05,560
Speaker 1: just I want to say sometimes I wish we had

725
00:38:05,600 --> 00:38:08,080
Speaker 1: an editor on the podcast and had more didn't like,

726
00:38:08,200 --> 00:38:10,640
Speaker 1: had more eyes and more process. We have a wonderful

727
00:38:10,640 --> 00:38:12,279
Speaker 1: audio editor, but you know what I mean, like a

728
00:38:12,680 --> 00:38:15,640
Speaker 1: like a content editor. In some ways I miss that

729
00:38:15,760 --> 00:38:19,719
Speaker 1: approach because it gives you more confidence going out, you know,

730
00:38:19,760 --> 00:38:21,960
Speaker 1: and like and we work really hard to make sure

731
00:38:22,040 --> 00:38:24,440
Speaker 1: that we're on top of everything. But it's you know,

732
00:38:24,440 --> 00:38:26,600
Speaker 1: it's just Robert and me, you know, in our research,

733
00:38:26,640 --> 00:38:29,240
Speaker 1: and we're just like blazing through everything at the pace

734
00:38:29,280 --> 00:38:32,080
Speaker 1: we do and and and trying to get it all right.

735
00:38:32,120 --> 00:38:33,960
Speaker 1: I mean, and I hope we usually do a good

736
00:38:34,040 --> 00:38:36,239
Speaker 1: job on that, but man, it would be great to

737
00:38:36,239 --> 00:38:38,400
Speaker 1: have an editor to like have another layer to go

738
00:38:38,440 --> 00:38:41,319
Speaker 1: through on everything. Yeah, I mean, this was what I

739
00:38:41,440 --> 00:38:43,600
Speaker 1: was enjoyed about working with you, And still when I

740
00:38:43,640 --> 00:38:47,400
Speaker 1: when I occasionally freelance an article for how Stuff Works,

741
00:38:47,880 --> 00:38:49,320
Speaker 1: if I get to work with you on that particular

742
00:38:49,400 --> 00:38:51,400
Speaker 1: article or or any of the editors there, it's like

743
00:38:51,480 --> 00:38:55,959
Speaker 1: somebody to uh tell me when I'm doing something wrong, uh,

744
00:38:55,960 --> 00:38:58,960
Speaker 1: in to to correct sort of the nagging mistakes that

745
00:38:59,040 --> 00:39:01,760
Speaker 1: I will keep make and if left in my own devices,

746
00:39:01,800 --> 00:39:07,239
Speaker 1: will never fix. Uh. It's I mean that's that's one

747
00:39:07,280 --> 00:39:09,319
Speaker 1: of the essential roles of of of having an editor.

748
00:39:09,360 --> 00:39:11,239
Speaker 1: Like an editor makes you better at the thing you do.

749
00:39:11,800 --> 00:39:14,839
Speaker 1: For the record listeners, Robert and Joe are both very

750
00:39:14,840 --> 00:39:17,200
Speaker 1: good writers, and if you haven't read any of their stuff,

751
00:39:17,239 --> 00:39:19,719
Speaker 1: you should. Yeah, I was fortunate enough back in the

752
00:39:19,760 --> 00:39:22,200
Speaker 1: day to get to write some of the some of these,

753
00:39:22,320 --> 00:39:24,880
Speaker 1: uh you know, a big multi page articles about a

754
00:39:24,880 --> 00:39:28,319
Speaker 1: given topic on how stuff works and uh and it's

755
00:39:28,600 --> 00:39:31,160
Speaker 1: there the sort of article that you hear people referring

756
00:39:31,200 --> 00:39:34,160
Speaker 1: back to later on, you know, being something where you

757
00:39:34,160 --> 00:39:36,920
Speaker 1: know someone wanted to know about, say steam technology or

758
00:39:37,120 --> 00:39:39,960
Speaker 1: nuclear power plants, and and being able to like go

759
00:39:40,080 --> 00:39:42,640
Speaker 1: there as a you know, an initial source as a

760
00:39:42,680 --> 00:39:46,640
Speaker 1: way of a sort of figuring out how this technology works.

761
00:39:46,640 --> 00:39:49,359
Speaker 1: It's being discussed in the news, you know, and um

762
00:39:49,880 --> 00:39:51,719
Speaker 1: and and and I love that how stuff works is

763
00:39:51,719 --> 00:39:54,520
Speaker 1: is still a part of that conversation. Is still uh

764
00:39:54,600 --> 00:39:57,200
Speaker 1: still out there creating content like that and updating the

765
00:39:57,200 --> 00:40:01,040
Speaker 1: old content as our understanding changes. It's trum endlessly valuable,

766
00:40:01,080 --> 00:40:05,240
Speaker 1: in depth, comprehensive, deeply sourced. Those kind of articles are amazing.

767
00:40:05,719 --> 00:40:07,799
Speaker 1: So look out for us in two thousands twenty, we're

768
00:40:07,800 --> 00:40:09,640
Speaker 1: gonna be writing lots of new ones, and we're also

769
00:40:09,719 --> 00:40:12,600
Speaker 1: going to be um taking kind of a pruning project

770
00:40:12,640 --> 00:40:14,960
Speaker 1: on because we, along with lots of other sites, have

771
00:40:15,120 --> 00:40:17,799
Speaker 1: inherited content that maybe isn't as good of a fit. So,

772
00:40:17,960 --> 00:40:20,040
Speaker 1: I mean, we are going to take stuffs. As painful

773
00:40:20,120 --> 00:40:21,879
Speaker 1: as it is for me as an editor to take

774
00:40:21,920 --> 00:40:24,200
Speaker 1: things off of a website, we'll probably be doing some

775
00:40:24,280 --> 00:40:27,720
Speaker 1: of that too. Um, but we are here, We're around,

776
00:40:27,719 --> 00:40:30,520
Speaker 1: and we need you readers. Go to how staff works

777
00:40:30,560 --> 00:40:34,520
Speaker 1: dot com. Make it find out what an avenue is,

778
00:40:35,040 --> 00:40:37,960
Speaker 1: learn about these Savannah cats, Um, learn about the draft

779
00:40:38,400 --> 00:40:40,120
Speaker 1: you know the truth. I looked it up while y'all

780
00:40:40,120 --> 00:40:42,680
Speaker 1: were talking. So it turns out roads don't actually exist.

781
00:40:43,360 --> 00:40:48,040
Speaker 1: Uh uh, streets are only in Russia and everything else

782
00:40:48,120 --> 00:40:51,120
Speaker 1: is a boulevard. I don't think that's true. That's misinformation.

783
00:40:51,160 --> 00:40:55,839
Speaker 1: Show Alright, time to take a quick break, but we'll

784
00:40:55,840 --> 00:41:01,400
Speaker 1: be right back. Thank right, we're back. So what stories

785
00:41:01,400 --> 00:41:04,200
Speaker 1: are you looking forward to covering next year? Looking forward

786
00:41:04,239 --> 00:41:06,680
Speaker 1: to covering? I don't know. I haven't thought or prepared

787
00:41:06,719 --> 00:41:10,600
Speaker 1: about this well. I mean, on one hand, like to

788
00:41:11,160 --> 00:41:14,680
Speaker 1: two topics we covered very recently, there were kind of updates. First,

789
00:41:14,680 --> 00:41:18,239
Speaker 1: of all, hopefully we'll get to see some more interstellar

790
00:41:18,320 --> 00:41:21,400
Speaker 1: visitors to our solar system. It seems like there's a

791
00:41:21,480 --> 00:41:25,359
Speaker 1: very good chance that will happen, since the hubbub about

792
00:41:25,360 --> 00:41:28,799
Speaker 1: a mum right sort of was partially quashed by us

793
00:41:28,840 --> 00:41:31,680
Speaker 1: finding another one much sooner than people expected to write.

794
00:41:31,800 --> 00:41:33,879
Speaker 1: So I'm very curious to see if we we see

795
00:41:33,920 --> 00:41:38,320
Speaker 1: more of that. In Likewise, there's the whole issue of

796
00:41:38,360 --> 00:41:43,520
Speaker 1: the Solowessi hunting scene that was discovered. Uh that that

797
00:41:43,640 --> 00:41:48,279
Speaker 1: seems to date back at least forty hundred years, which

798
00:41:48,320 --> 00:41:52,400
Speaker 1: is twenty thousand years older than some of the oldest

799
00:41:52,440 --> 00:41:55,279
Speaker 1: hunted the oldest hunting scene that we've seen previously, and

800
00:41:55,440 --> 00:41:59,520
Speaker 1: four thousand years before the Loan minch, which was this

801
00:41:59,840 --> 00:42:02,759
Speaker 1: the what was previously thought to be the oldest depiction

802
00:42:02,920 --> 00:42:06,880
Speaker 1: of a human animal hybrid um. So, you know, if

803
00:42:07,320 --> 00:42:09,759
Speaker 1: if the research holds true on that, and it looks

804
00:42:09,760 --> 00:42:12,200
Speaker 1: like it probably will, like that changes the way we

805
00:42:12,280 --> 00:42:16,239
Speaker 1: understand the the evolution of human thought, you know. And

806
00:42:16,400 --> 00:42:18,600
Speaker 1: uh So, on one hand, it's gonna be cool to

807
00:42:18,600 --> 00:42:21,600
Speaker 1: see more research into that particular find, but it also

808
00:42:21,760 --> 00:42:26,000
Speaker 1: highlights just how much more there is to potentially discovery

809
00:42:26,040 --> 00:42:29,840
Speaker 1: you know what new findings will will emerge that will

810
00:42:29,960 --> 00:42:33,000
Speaker 1: force us to rethink, you know, what we are and

811
00:42:33,400 --> 00:42:37,480
Speaker 1: how the how the world works. I'm excited about upcoming

812
00:42:37,480 --> 00:42:40,839
Speaker 1: black hole stuff. So of course nine was a great

813
00:42:40,880 --> 00:42:42,840
Speaker 1: year for black holes. I think it was in April

814
00:42:43,000 --> 00:42:46,560
Speaker 1: that the first image ever of a direct image of

815
00:42:46,600 --> 00:42:48,239
Speaker 1: a black hole, to whatever extent you can have a

816
00:42:48,280 --> 00:42:50,920
Speaker 1: direct image of a black hole was released. It was

817
00:42:51,360 --> 00:42:55,160
Speaker 1: the MD seven galaxy, which is like fifty five million

818
00:42:55,320 --> 00:42:58,200
Speaker 1: light years away from US uh. And that was done

819
00:42:58,239 --> 00:43:00,640
Speaker 1: by the event Horizon Telescope, which is a you know,

820
00:43:00,719 --> 00:43:04,439
Speaker 1: telescope array of different radio telescopes on different continents around

821
00:43:04,480 --> 00:43:08,799
Speaker 1: the world. They pooled the resources, synchronized combined data and

822
00:43:08,960 --> 00:43:12,160
Speaker 1: produced this amazing image which I'm not so it wasn't

823
00:43:12,200 --> 00:43:13,759
Speaker 1: made out of visible light. It was made out of

824
00:43:13,840 --> 00:43:15,640
Speaker 1: radio signal, so I assume they had to make some

825
00:43:15,680 --> 00:43:18,880
Speaker 1: decisions about how the data would be represented as a

826
00:43:18,920 --> 00:43:21,800
Speaker 1: color scheme when the image was released, and their choice

827
00:43:21,800 --> 00:43:24,960
Speaker 1: of that gold to orange spectrum has a very haunting

828
00:43:25,040 --> 00:43:28,160
Speaker 1: primordial quality that I really like against the you know,

829
00:43:28,200 --> 00:43:30,719
Speaker 1: the black background. It's kind of out of more door

830
00:43:30,800 --> 00:43:34,160
Speaker 1: and I think big thumbs up to that. Um it's

831
00:43:34,239 --> 00:43:36,800
Speaker 1: it's one great example of why the aesthetics of science

832
00:43:36,840 --> 00:43:39,960
Speaker 1: matter a lot too. Also, just a sheer level of collaboration.

833
00:43:40,280 --> 00:43:44,160
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm so encouraged by like the dozens and

834
00:43:44,239 --> 00:43:46,920
Speaker 1: dozens of scientists that are working on these like huge

835
00:43:47,080 --> 00:43:49,759
Speaker 1: you know, like Lego or something like that, Like just

836
00:43:50,400 --> 00:43:54,160
Speaker 1: people working together towards you know, science. It's amazing. Yeah. Yeah,

837
00:43:54,239 --> 00:43:57,359
Speaker 1: the the collaboration is as phenomenal because again, this is like,

838
00:43:57,760 --> 00:44:00,799
Speaker 1: this is not something that one telescope was able to do.

839
00:44:00,880 --> 00:44:04,400
Speaker 1: This was a collaboration across at least three or I

840
00:44:04,400 --> 00:44:08,160
Speaker 1: think four different continents at least both the America's and

841
00:44:08,200 --> 00:44:10,840
Speaker 1: Europe and Antarctica. There might have been one in Africa.

842
00:44:11,239 --> 00:44:14,000
Speaker 1: Like they're all over the place that had to collaborate

843
00:44:14,040 --> 00:44:17,839
Speaker 1: to put together this picture that we got. Um And yeah,

844
00:44:17,960 --> 00:44:19,919
Speaker 1: and so of course we love black holes on the show.

845
00:44:19,960 --> 00:44:22,360
Speaker 1: We we've come back to the topic several times in

846
00:44:22,480 --> 00:44:25,000
Speaker 1: some multipart episodes. There was one thing I was just

847
00:44:25,040 --> 00:44:27,840
Speaker 1: reading earlier today that makes me think that there's probably

848
00:44:28,400 --> 00:44:32,719
Speaker 1: more black hole news on coming next year, which was

849
00:44:33,360 --> 00:44:37,240
Speaker 1: I think there's some new research about how solving problems

850
00:44:37,280 --> 00:44:40,120
Speaker 1: about how supermassive black holes are formed, because there's this

851
00:44:40,239 --> 00:44:43,920
Speaker 1: mystery where, you know, we can see supermassive black holes

852
00:44:44,040 --> 00:44:47,160
Speaker 1: way out there that are so far away that we

853
00:44:47,239 --> 00:44:49,719
Speaker 1: know that they must have been formed very early in

854
00:44:49,719 --> 00:44:52,520
Speaker 1: the universe. So where did all the super mass come from?

855
00:44:52,719 --> 00:44:56,320
Speaker 1: They had to be gobbling up matter, we would presume

856
00:44:56,400 --> 00:44:59,200
Speaker 1: for like billions of years to get to get as

857
00:44:59,280 --> 00:45:01,960
Speaker 1: massive as they are, but obviously they haven't been doing

858
00:45:02,040 --> 00:45:04,480
Speaker 1: that because there you know that they were formed very

859
00:45:04,520 --> 00:45:07,040
Speaker 1: early in the universe. So what's going on with that?

860
00:45:07,160 --> 00:45:09,200
Speaker 1: I think there's a new answer to that, but I

861
00:45:09,239 --> 00:45:12,800
Speaker 1: can't recall what the answer is, so maybe we'll revisit

862
00:45:12,880 --> 00:45:16,000
Speaker 1: that in an upcoming episode. Yeah, I'm for scherre looking

863
00:45:16,040 --> 00:45:19,360
Speaker 1: to a lot more exo planet discoveries. Yeah, this past

864
00:45:19,400 --> 00:45:22,279
Speaker 1: decade was kind of like the exo planet decade, wasn't it?

865
00:45:22,360 --> 00:45:25,879
Speaker 1: Like from beginning to end there is an amazing arc

866
00:45:25,920 --> 00:45:29,399
Speaker 1: of exoplanet research to where uh, and and and don't

867
00:45:29,440 --> 00:45:31,640
Speaker 1: take this too seriously, but to the point where exo

868
00:45:31,680 --> 00:45:35,799
Speaker 1: planets have almost become mundane news. Yeah, it does feel

869
00:45:35,840 --> 00:45:38,959
Speaker 1: like that a little bit. I agree. Now, now here's

870
00:45:39,000 --> 00:45:41,920
Speaker 1: something that comes to mind too and talking about it

871
00:45:41,960 --> 00:45:45,279
Speaker 1: anticipating topics they're going to be discussed scientific topics, and

872
00:45:45,440 --> 00:45:48,560
Speaker 1: otherwise it will be discussed. Is that. Of course, it's

873
00:45:48,600 --> 00:45:52,200
Speaker 1: not just the scientific discoveries that that command what sort

874
00:45:52,239 --> 00:45:54,640
Speaker 1: of science articles you're gonna see online. Sometimes it does

875
00:45:54,719 --> 00:46:00,040
Speaker 1: come from what's popular with motion pictures. For instance, a

876
00:46:00,160 --> 00:46:02,600
Speaker 1: Man came out. I guess we've had two of them now,

877
00:46:02,640 --> 00:46:04,879
Speaker 1: always saw the first one. But when when aunt Man

878
00:46:04,920 --> 00:46:07,160
Speaker 1: came out, like suddenly, people were like, yeah, tell me

879
00:46:07,239 --> 00:46:10,680
Speaker 1: more about how physics work at a smaller scale, tell

880
00:46:10,680 --> 00:46:14,320
Speaker 1: me more about quantum physics, and you know whatever, whatever,

881
00:46:14,640 --> 00:46:16,759
Speaker 1: you know, any kind of like science that is dealt with,

882
00:46:16,840 --> 00:46:19,719
Speaker 1: even just you know slightly in a movie like that,

883
00:46:19,880 --> 00:46:22,439
Speaker 1: does Paul Red squirt formic acid? Did they get into

884
00:46:22,480 --> 00:46:25,600
Speaker 1: that at all? Maybe that's in the sequel. But but

885
00:46:25,600 --> 00:46:28,360
Speaker 1: but seriously, though, like that's that's one thing to think about.

886
00:46:28,560 --> 00:46:31,839
Speaker 1: For instance, in we're gonna get the first half of

887
00:46:31,960 --> 00:46:36,800
Speaker 1: the new adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune, so we're probably

888
00:46:36,800 --> 00:46:40,919
Speaker 1: gonna see a lot of science articles coming out about, um,

889
00:46:41,000 --> 00:46:43,120
Speaker 1: you know, how a still suit could potentially work but

890
00:46:43,200 --> 00:46:47,279
Speaker 1: based uh, you know on modern meta materials. Things like that.

891
00:46:47,400 --> 00:46:49,560
Speaker 1: I always look forward to. We were there first we

892
00:46:49,640 --> 00:46:52,920
Speaker 1: did Science of Doune episodes years ago when it wasn't cool,

893
00:46:53,280 --> 00:46:57,879
Speaker 1: when we just sounded like total nerds for doing it. Well,

894
00:46:57,920 --> 00:47:00,440
Speaker 1: I'm sure we'll talk about done at some point this

895
00:47:00,520 --> 00:47:04,200
Speaker 1: year as well. But yeah, I'm I'm not even sure offhand,

896
00:47:04,200 --> 00:47:06,520
Speaker 1: like what ore they're like science fiction films are coming

897
00:47:06,560 --> 00:47:08,800
Speaker 1: out that they are going to be prime candidates for

898
00:47:08,840 --> 00:47:10,960
Speaker 1: that sort of thing, or what Marvel films will be

899
00:47:10,960 --> 00:47:15,080
Speaker 1: coming out that uh will force us to um reconsider

900
00:47:15,160 --> 00:47:17,560
Speaker 1: scientific topics. You got to pull the weight on that

901
00:47:17,600 --> 00:47:20,040
Speaker 1: one because I don't see these Marvel movies. I am

902
00:47:20,120 --> 00:47:23,480
Speaker 1: not hip with it. I don't know what's happening. I'm

903
00:47:23,480 --> 00:47:26,000
Speaker 1: not as good about keeping up with them as as

904
00:47:26,040 --> 00:47:28,000
Speaker 1: I was. But i mean, really, how do you ignore

905
00:47:28,040 --> 00:47:30,239
Speaker 1: them when they come out? They're they're huge, They're kind

906
00:47:30,239 --> 00:47:32,640
Speaker 1: of you're gonna watch them on an airplane at some point.

907
00:47:32,760 --> 00:47:34,879
Speaker 1: I saw a Black Panther and it was good. And

908
00:47:35,080 --> 00:47:37,880
Speaker 1: I watched like The X Men with Sansa in it,

909
00:47:37,960 --> 00:47:41,319
Speaker 1: and then that was not good. That's about it. Well,

910
00:47:41,320 --> 00:47:43,279
Speaker 1: that wasn't an m c U film. That was that

911
00:47:43,360 --> 00:47:47,480
Speaker 1: was difficult. I'm looking forward to Black Widow. Oh yeah,

912
00:47:47,640 --> 00:47:50,640
Speaker 1: that's right. I forgot that it's gonna be like a

913
00:47:50,680 --> 00:47:54,200
Speaker 1: spy action thing, right, I believe. So, Yeah, well, maybe

914
00:47:54,200 --> 00:47:56,359
Speaker 1: there'll be some cool gadgets in there that will be

915
00:47:56,440 --> 00:48:00,160
Speaker 1: worth exploring. It would be very good. I mean, really,

916
00:48:00,160 --> 00:48:02,880
Speaker 1: it would be essential to do something on climate change

917
00:48:03,520 --> 00:48:07,640
Speaker 1: on stuff table your mind in the near future. Yeah,

918
00:48:07,640 --> 00:48:10,520
Speaker 1: I think especially because many of these uh you know

919
00:48:11,920 --> 00:48:16,520
Speaker 1: pretty confidently climate change linked linked weather patterns and disasters

920
00:48:16,520 --> 00:48:20,480
Speaker 1: have been becoming increasingly hard to ignore in the past

921
00:48:20,480 --> 00:48:23,719
Speaker 1: few years. And when we think about the wildfire problems

922
00:48:23,760 --> 00:48:29,880
Speaker 1: this year and uh, uh god, I mean the Amazon Yeah,

923
00:48:30,160 --> 00:48:32,360
Speaker 1: that's a downer, isn't it. But I mean something you

924
00:48:32,440 --> 00:48:34,480
Speaker 1: got to talk about it. We'll be covering. I mean,

925
00:48:34,680 --> 00:48:37,600
Speaker 1: we all have an obligation to uh to run those stories,

926
00:48:37,719 --> 00:48:40,080
Speaker 1: right Yeah, and then how stuff works. Dot Com already

927
00:48:40,080 --> 00:48:43,279
Speaker 1: has some fabulous resources on that count. I mean your

928
00:48:43,640 --> 00:48:49,000
Speaker 1: article on climate change. We've been doing all this year.

929
00:48:49,040 --> 00:48:51,840
Speaker 1: We did, we participated in covering climate Now we're hundreds

930
00:48:51,840 --> 00:48:55,319
Speaker 1: of media outlets just strove to generally bring climate change

931
00:48:55,320 --> 00:48:59,759
Speaker 1: and climate change stories um to the public and publish them.

932
00:48:59,840 --> 00:49:03,080
Speaker 1: It's cool. I feel like this is something that you know,

933
00:49:03,120 --> 00:49:05,960
Speaker 1: I guess we all work as science communicators. So there,

934
00:49:05,960 --> 00:49:09,719
Speaker 1: this is something that's worth pooling our our our intellectual

935
00:49:09,800 --> 00:49:13,920
Speaker 1: resources about. Um, how do you how do you get

936
00:49:14,360 --> 00:49:18,920
Speaker 1: attention for stories that are not inherently fun like the

937
00:49:19,040 --> 00:49:21,560
Speaker 1: climate change is that It's like, if there is a

938
00:49:21,640 --> 00:49:24,560
Speaker 1: single subject in science that people need to be aware

939
00:49:24,560 --> 00:49:26,440
Speaker 1: of and you need to have stories brought to their

940
00:49:26,440 --> 00:49:30,080
Speaker 1: attention about, right now, it's probably climate change. But like

941
00:49:30,200 --> 00:49:33,360
Speaker 1: the climate change stories are not very enjoyable usually to

942
00:49:33,440 --> 00:49:36,680
Speaker 1: read about or to listen to. They can be kind

943
00:49:36,680 --> 00:49:42,160
Speaker 1: of depressing or you know, it's so like what, Um,

944
00:49:42,239 --> 00:49:44,239
Speaker 1: I don't know. I didn't mean to just trail off there,

945
00:49:44,280 --> 00:49:46,920
Speaker 1: but like, yeah, what what kind of resources can we

946
00:49:47,040 --> 00:49:51,920
Speaker 1: bring from our storytelling capabilities to get people on the

947
00:49:51,960 --> 00:49:53,880
Speaker 1: hook for these stories the same way they would be

948
00:49:53,920 --> 00:49:56,800
Speaker 1: for things that are naturally more fun, that are easier

949
00:49:56,840 --> 00:49:59,880
Speaker 1: to understand, that are easier to get excited about and

950
00:50:00,040 --> 00:50:03,000
Speaker 1: have a reading or listening appetite for. They're not all

951
00:50:03,080 --> 00:50:05,239
Speaker 1: going to be rosy stories. But I think that we

952
00:50:05,320 --> 00:50:09,080
Speaker 1: are having some success with like the collective human consciousness

953
00:50:09,160 --> 00:50:12,600
Speaker 1: being applied to this mega problem. UM, And I think

954
00:50:12,640 --> 00:50:16,640
Speaker 1: it's important to note those successes. People are making changes,

955
00:50:16,800 --> 00:50:20,680
Speaker 1: like there are a lot more electric cars on the road. Um,

956
00:50:20,719 --> 00:50:23,400
Speaker 1: you know, we have gotten a lot more creative about

957
00:50:23,400 --> 00:50:26,399
Speaker 1: our usage of energy and we're thinking a lot more

958
00:50:26,520 --> 00:50:30,279
Speaker 1: about it. So I think, Joe, that you do have

959
00:50:30,320 --> 00:50:31,840
Speaker 1: to kind of be positive and I think you have

960
00:50:31,920 --> 00:50:34,520
Speaker 1: to break it down. People don't like being powerless, and

961
00:50:34,560 --> 00:50:38,160
Speaker 1: so you have to make sure it's accessible and doable. Okay,

962
00:50:38,640 --> 00:50:41,040
Speaker 1: we know we don't necessarily live in Australia. We can't

963
00:50:41,040 --> 00:50:43,160
Speaker 1: control these fires, but are there other things that we

964
00:50:43,200 --> 00:50:46,000
Speaker 1: can be mindful about? Is there a talking point I

965
00:50:46,000 --> 00:50:48,960
Speaker 1: can have with my child when you know we're talking about,

966
00:50:49,040 --> 00:50:52,120
Speaker 1: you know, being out in nature or something like that.

967
00:50:52,239 --> 00:50:55,120
Speaker 1: Like there you have to relate it on a local level,

968
00:50:55,120 --> 00:50:57,600
Speaker 1: and I think you have to incorporate some positive points.

969
00:50:58,120 --> 00:51:00,799
Speaker 1: YEA like one, like a couple of positive spins that

970
00:51:01,520 --> 00:51:04,120
Speaker 1: I've come across. So, first of all, we ended up

971
00:51:04,120 --> 00:51:07,680
Speaker 1: talking about the ozone layer in one of our episodes.

972
00:51:07,960 --> 00:51:10,239
Speaker 1: It was an episode on Highlander two, but we still

973
00:51:10,280 --> 00:51:12,160
Speaker 1: talked about the ozone layer in the science of the

974
00:51:12,160 --> 00:51:15,319
Speaker 1: ozone layer and the story of of scientists saying hey,

975
00:51:15,360 --> 00:51:18,840
Speaker 1: we need to do something about this, this growing problem,

976
00:51:19,200 --> 00:51:22,799
Speaker 1: and then everyone being able to work together for the

977
00:51:22,840 --> 00:51:26,080
Speaker 1: most part to then address that problem, uh, and and

978
00:51:26,120 --> 00:51:29,239
Speaker 1: get us on the right track with that issue. Like

979
00:51:29,320 --> 00:51:32,759
Speaker 1: that's an inspiring story to me because it shows that, yes,

980
00:51:32,840 --> 00:51:35,080
Speaker 1: there are cases where we can do that, where we

981
00:51:35,080 --> 00:51:38,880
Speaker 1: can get the enough collective will to actually address the

982
00:51:38,880 --> 00:51:43,040
Speaker 1: problem and work towards the solution. And and we can

983
00:51:43,080 --> 00:51:46,960
Speaker 1: take that to the climate change situation. Another another aspect

984
00:51:46,960 --> 00:51:49,160
Speaker 1: to that, and this is not my thought, I've I've

985
00:51:49,160 --> 00:51:52,839
Speaker 1: seen this echoed elsewhere, is that when you look at

986
00:51:53,480 --> 00:51:58,759
Speaker 1: the ravages of climate change, they are things that that

987
00:51:58,960 --> 00:52:03,080
Speaker 1: human civilization has has done. And that is on one level,

988
00:52:03,120 --> 00:52:05,160
Speaker 1: that is that is the depressing part of it. But

989
00:52:05,160 --> 00:52:07,680
Speaker 1: on the other part, that's that shows you, like the

990
00:52:07,880 --> 00:52:12,040
Speaker 1: power that human civilization has and if we can if

991
00:52:12,080 --> 00:52:16,680
Speaker 1: we can do that much harm without meaning to, then

992
00:52:17,360 --> 00:52:20,960
Speaker 1: what happens when we we actually turn our collective attention

993
00:52:21,040 --> 00:52:23,960
Speaker 1: to solving the problem, Like it's it's solvable, we can

994
00:52:24,040 --> 00:52:27,719
Speaker 1: do it because we did the damage, you know. Yeah.

995
00:52:27,760 --> 00:52:30,640
Speaker 1: But I mean, I again not to to be a downer,

996
00:52:30,680 --> 00:52:33,360
Speaker 1: but it's also a double edged sword because another danger

997
00:52:33,480 --> 00:52:36,680
Speaker 1: I think with talking about climate changes, if you're you're

998
00:52:36,680 --> 00:52:39,640
Speaker 1: trying to emphasize positive ways of framing the issue, what

999
00:52:39,719 --> 00:52:42,560
Speaker 1: could be done. You also run the risk, I think

1000
00:52:42,560 --> 00:52:46,560
Speaker 1: of encouraging a kind of passive optimism where people will

1001
00:52:46,600 --> 00:52:50,759
Speaker 1: just be like, oh, yeah, it'll solve this, And you

1002
00:52:50,800 --> 00:52:52,960
Speaker 1: can't think like that. You know, this is not the

1003
00:52:53,000 --> 00:52:56,319
Speaker 1: kind of problem that will just solve itself. You make

1004
00:52:56,360 --> 00:52:58,520
Speaker 1: a good point, Joe. I also I am curious to

1005
00:52:58,560 --> 00:53:01,160
Speaker 1: see where human creative e Gooes. I think we are

1006
00:53:01,680 --> 00:53:04,439
Speaker 1: like wildly creative, and I'm just so curious to see

1007
00:53:04,440 --> 00:53:08,680
Speaker 1: how humans approached this problem on a continuing basis as

1008
00:53:08,719 --> 00:53:11,360
Speaker 1: we're going to have to do. Yeah, are you saying

1009
00:53:11,360 --> 00:53:14,600
Speaker 1: we need artificial intelligence to tell us what? Are you

1010
00:53:14,640 --> 00:53:16,800
Speaker 1: one of those people who wants to build an AI

1011
00:53:16,880 --> 00:53:24,040
Speaker 1: god and worship it? I mean, I will tell I'm

1012
00:53:24,080 --> 00:53:27,759
Speaker 1: I'm not opposed to that. I hear these have some

1013
00:53:27,800 --> 00:53:34,359
Speaker 1: great ideas, you know, they can really idate. I think

1014
00:53:34,360 --> 00:53:37,719
Speaker 1: Allison's kidding, I am. I So, I just wanted to

1015
00:53:37,760 --> 00:53:40,160
Speaker 1: say thanks for having me on today, you guys. I

1016
00:53:40,200 --> 00:53:42,279
Speaker 1: really have a lot of respect for both of you

1017
00:53:42,360 --> 00:53:45,279
Speaker 1: as science communicators. As you were pointing out earlier, that's

1018
00:53:45,280 --> 00:53:49,759
Speaker 1: what we all are show. Thanks. Um. And I think

1019
00:53:49,880 --> 00:53:53,120
Speaker 1: that you know, people like to consume content in different

1020
00:53:53,120 --> 00:53:56,360
Speaker 1: ways and that you both are fulfilling a really vital

1021
00:53:56,480 --> 00:53:59,640
Speaker 1: role in uh, you know, being stuff to blow your mind. Host.

1022
00:53:59,680 --> 00:54:01,720
Speaker 1: I know it's not easy. I know that the grind

1023
00:54:01,800 --> 00:54:04,839
Speaker 1: of getting episodes out every single week and you know,

1024
00:54:04,880 --> 00:54:08,280
Speaker 1: striving to come up with new episodes and new topics

1025
00:54:08,280 --> 00:54:11,520
Speaker 1: and things like that, it's it's hard. And I really

1026
00:54:11,600 --> 00:54:13,719
Speaker 1: respect what you all are trying to do and the

1027
00:54:14,080 --> 00:54:17,560
Speaker 1: unique way that you do it. Well, thank you so much,

1028
00:54:17,560 --> 00:54:20,279
Speaker 1: Elison that that is too nice of you to say, yeah,

1029
00:54:20,480 --> 00:54:23,520
Speaker 1: thank you. Um. I mean a lot of it ultimately

1030
00:54:23,520 --> 00:54:26,920
Speaker 1: does come down to like the listeners and the listeners curiosity,

1031
00:54:27,040 --> 00:54:30,440
Speaker 1: you know, I mean we we we didn't create their curiosity.

1032
00:54:30,560 --> 00:54:33,160
Speaker 1: All we can hope to do is um is sort

1033
00:54:33,200 --> 00:54:36,480
Speaker 1: of is feed it to the extent that we can.

1034
00:54:37,200 --> 00:54:39,840
Speaker 1: Uh and uh. And so really a lot of it

1035
00:54:39,880 --> 00:54:41,520
Speaker 1: does come back to the listener. Not to suck up

1036
00:54:41,520 --> 00:54:45,640
Speaker 1: to the listeners though they're great, but like it's even know,

1037
00:54:45,760 --> 00:54:48,280
Speaker 1: really it's their their willingness and their desire to listen

1038
00:54:48,400 --> 00:54:51,560
Speaker 1: to us ramble about these topics and share these uh

1039
00:54:51,920 --> 00:54:54,680
Speaker 1: you know, various curios and explanations with them. Um. And

1040
00:54:54,960 --> 00:54:57,719
Speaker 1: ultimately I think that's that's what inspires me at the

1041
00:54:57,800 --> 00:55:00,960
Speaker 1: end of the day, is that we have this audience

1042
00:55:01,000 --> 00:55:03,920
Speaker 1: that is that is hungry for more, that wants to

1043
00:55:04,000 --> 00:55:06,600
Speaker 1: have their mind expanded, They want to understand the world

1044
00:55:06,640 --> 00:55:09,440
Speaker 1: a little better, to understand themselves a little better, and

1045
00:55:09,520 --> 00:55:13,920
Speaker 1: to you know, continue on this path of consistent improvement

1046
00:55:13,960 --> 00:55:18,000
Speaker 1: and consistent betterment and uh, you know, and and endless learning.

1047
00:55:18,560 --> 00:55:21,080
Speaker 1: That is that is life, you know. And at this point,

1048
00:55:21,280 --> 00:55:23,960
Speaker 1: after ten years, you know, we we heard just recently

1049
00:55:24,040 --> 00:55:26,239
Speaker 1: from a listener talking about how they started listening to

1050
00:55:26,239 --> 00:55:29,759
Speaker 1: the show ten years ago when they were kids, you know,

1051
00:55:29,840 --> 00:55:33,000
Speaker 1: and now they're what they're in a master's program working

1052
00:55:33,040 --> 00:55:36,279
Speaker 1: on an engineering degree. Engineering degree, yes, uh so, you know,

1053
00:55:36,360 --> 00:55:38,399
Speaker 1: stuff like that is just it just brings it brings

1054
00:55:38,440 --> 00:55:41,319
Speaker 1: tears to your eyes to hear it that that that

1055
00:55:41,440 --> 00:55:46,360
Speaker 1: is probably the single greatest non monetary compensation for for

1056
00:55:46,440 --> 00:55:50,360
Speaker 1: doing this job is hearing from from kids who were encouraged,

1057
00:55:50,920 --> 00:55:53,400
Speaker 1: you know, to to think about the world more deeply,

1058
00:55:53,520 --> 00:55:56,120
Speaker 1: or to go into a scientific or technical subject or

1059
00:55:56,120 --> 00:55:58,920
Speaker 1: whatever because of something they heard on the show, or

1060
00:55:58,960 --> 00:56:01,439
Speaker 1: because of an attitude they heard modeled on the show,

1061
00:56:01,440 --> 00:56:03,640
Speaker 1: which I think it our best. That's what I hope

1062
00:56:03,680 --> 00:56:06,240
Speaker 1: we can do I don't know if we're the best

1063
00:56:06,320 --> 00:56:10,200
Speaker 1: science communicators in the world in in the term in

1064
00:56:10,320 --> 00:56:14,160
Speaker 1: like the sense of like being technical experts on things.

1065
00:56:14,160 --> 00:56:16,880
Speaker 1: But what I do hope we can model is h

1066
00:56:17,160 --> 00:56:21,520
Speaker 1: is genuine enthusiasm and an approachable attitude and uh and

1067
00:56:21,600 --> 00:56:24,480
Speaker 1: a skeptical mindset. Yeah, and and just you know, share

1068
00:56:24,480 --> 00:56:28,120
Speaker 1: our curiosity with your curiosity and hopefully we can all

1069
00:56:28,280 --> 00:56:30,440
Speaker 1: go on this journey together. Well, thanks for having me

1070
00:56:30,480 --> 00:56:32,879
Speaker 1: on this journey. Thanks for yeah, thanks for dropping in

1071
00:56:32,960 --> 00:56:35,319
Speaker 1: and chatting with us about the the early days of

1072
00:56:35,360 --> 00:56:37,040
Speaker 1: the show, and thanks for being a part of the

1073
00:56:37,080 --> 00:56:40,239
Speaker 1: earth days of the show. I mean again, everybody that's

1074
00:56:40,320 --> 00:56:43,080
Speaker 1: that's been a part of this show on any level

1075
00:56:43,120 --> 00:56:45,399
Speaker 1: has helped make it what it is and the show

1076
00:56:45,400 --> 00:56:48,440
Speaker 1: wouldn't be what it is today without you. Alison. Well,

1077
00:56:48,960 --> 00:56:54,359
Speaker 1: that's really sweet. Thanks again, everybody. All hug All right,

1078
00:56:54,400 --> 00:56:56,160
Speaker 1: So there you have it. If you want to check

1079
00:56:56,200 --> 00:56:58,680
Speaker 1: out more Stuff to Blow your Mind, heading over to

1080
00:56:58,680 --> 00:57:00,720
Speaker 1: stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. That will redirect

1081
00:57:00,719 --> 00:57:03,399
Speaker 1: you to some of the latest episodes of the show.

1082
00:57:03,440 --> 00:57:06,040
Speaker 1: But you can find the podcast wherever you get podcasts

1083
00:57:06,040 --> 00:57:10,640
Speaker 1: these days, um, whatever the services, We're out there wherever

1084
00:57:10,680 --> 00:57:12,920
Speaker 1: it happens to be, though, just make sure you've subscribed

1085
00:57:13,400 --> 00:57:16,240
Speaker 1: and give us a little rating interview if you have

1086
00:57:16,280 --> 00:57:18,040
Speaker 1: the ability to do so, because that helps the show

1087
00:57:18,080 --> 00:57:21,280
Speaker 1: out as well. Huge thanks to Alison louder Milk for

1088
00:57:21,360 --> 00:57:23,560
Speaker 1: joining us today. Remember to check out how Stuff Works

1089
00:57:23,560 --> 00:57:26,360
Speaker 1: dot com and make it your new browser homepage. Huge

1090
00:57:26,400 --> 00:57:30,440
Speaker 1: thanks as well to Seth Nicholas Johnson are excellent audio producer.

1091
00:57:30,720 --> 00:57:32,280
Speaker 1: If you'd like to get in touch with us with

1092
00:57:32,360 --> 00:57:34,920
Speaker 1: feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest a

1093
00:57:34,960 --> 00:57:36,840
Speaker 1: topic for the future, or just to say hi, you

1094
00:57:36,880 --> 00:57:39,720
Speaker 1: can email us at contact at stuff to Blow your

1095
00:57:39,720 --> 00:57:49,360
Speaker 1: Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind is a

1096
00:57:49,360 --> 00:57:52,120
Speaker 1: production of iHeart Radio's How Stuff Works. For more podcasts

1097
00:57:52,120 --> 00:57:54,080
Speaker 1: from my heart Radio is at the iHeart Radio app,

1098
00:57:54,240 --> 00:58:08,520
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

1099
00:58:00,000 --> 00:58:09,480
Speaker 1: The Four Foo