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1:15

Cold open! Oh my gosh, it's happening.

1:17

Hello everyone. It's kind of not happening,

1:19

but it also is, but kind of not. But

1:22

you'll see. So here's the situation. I

1:24

am currently on

1:26

a show, a show that is on

1:29

the internet called Dimension 20. The

1:31

season is called Mintopolis. It's a lot of

1:33

fun. It's a tabletop role-playing game show.

1:36

And this season is me and

1:39

a bunch of cool people being inside

1:42

of a man's mind and trying

1:44

to solve mysteries. It's like a, it's like

1:46

inside out, but noir detective thriller.

1:49

And it's very fun. And you can watch the first episode for

1:51

free on YouTube. And then the rest of them are behind a paywall at

1:54

dropout.tv, which is a subscription

1:56

service that I quite like. And I'm a big Dimension 20

1:58

fan, and I was really excited to be on this.

1:59

show and I am and when I was like,

2:02

okay, what this show is going to come out, what we should do

2:04

is we should record a bunch of podcasts with

2:07

all the other people who are on the show with me. And

2:10

then I got diagnosed with cancer and I

2:12

got very busy with that and

2:14

I had only recorded one of them. And so

2:17

we were going to release them during the release

2:19

of Mentopolis, which is now going on.

2:23

So we're going to release the one that

2:25

I recorded, which was, which is with Mike

2:27

Trapp. And you

2:29

can get that and it was recorded

2:31

back before I had a diagnosis

2:34

of any guy. I did not know there was anything wrong with me. And

2:37

you can watch the first episode of Mentopolis on

2:39

YouTube by searching Mentopolis on YouTube.

2:42

So this is kind of not the thing.

2:44

It's got working kind of not coming back. But

2:47

news is we also are coming

2:49

back. We're going to start recording Dear Hank

2:51

and John again and they will start

2:53

coming out in October. I believe

2:56

that's

2:56

the plan.

2:58

They might come out a little bit sooner than that, but

3:00

we'll see. We're still in

3:02

sort of a transitional phase. Somebody

3:04

used the phrase healing season. You're

3:06

in a healing season with me the other day. And I'm like,

3:08

yes, I am in a healing season and I'm

3:11

going to try and take care of me as much

3:14

as I can. So thank you. We're

3:16

sorry that we went away for so long and then we are

3:18

very excited to come back. But in

3:20

the meantime, I hope that you will enjoy this

3:22

episode of Dear Hank and John, except it is not

3:25

Dear Hank and John. It's Dear Hank and John. It's

3:27

a podcast where

3:31

two brothers and sometimes a brother and a friend

3:33

answer your questions, give

3:41

you to be surprised and bring you all the week's news from both Mars

3:44

and if you want to do that, probably not that this week. Hello.

3:47

We're got we're joined by a special guest today.

3:49

This is Mike Trapp of actually

3:52

and various other cool

3:54

things that have happened in the world college humor

3:57

stuff and sometimes

3:59

Dungeons and Dragons. Things hello. Hello.

4:01

Thanks for having me. Do you know why do

4:04

you know why you're on my on dear Hank and John? I

4:07

I mean, I think it has something to do with the fact

4:09

that we we have recorded

4:13

and Hopefully by the time this comes out

4:15

put out Yeah season of

4:17

dimension 20 called mental police and

4:19

we had a great time Playing we did

4:21

playing I was gonna say D&D together. I guess it was kids

4:23

on bikes But we we we tabletop

4:25

together and we had a great time and now

4:28

we're just we're keeping the party going It's

4:30

been so hard to not

4:33

talk about this. I don't know how people

4:35

do that I am a YouTube boy

4:37

and I live a YouTube life and

4:40

to have made a piece

4:42

of content I like I don't even know

4:45

like months almost a half

4:47

a year Between when it was recorded

4:49

and when it comes out is very uncomfortable

4:52

for me Especially when I may have been

4:54

as excited about it as I am about this. Yeah,

4:56

you don't get that instant gratification I mean

4:59

I've been I've been writing for animated

5:01

shows since 2020 and One

5:05

of your credits. Well, that's what I was just about to say

5:07

I can't talk about any of my credits because

5:10

they haven't come out yet You know, what have you been doing

5:12

for the past like three years and it's

5:14

like well One of the show

5:16

that hasn't come out yet. I don't think I'm even allowed to talk

5:18

about it Well, I

5:21

think I can say that I'm writing on big city greens

5:23

right now But the stuff I'm writing it won't

5:26

come out for another two years or so So like people

5:28

like I want to check out your things. It's like you can't I either

5:30

can't talk about it Or you gotta wait. I'm

5:33

writing things that are going to come out of the

5:35

mouths of Animated characters

5:38

in three years time. Yeah, great. It's

5:40

a fun job If

5:43

you've ever wonder why there's not a lot of topical content

5:45

on an animated show I will say though I

5:48

kind of love that After after writing

5:50

for the internet for years and like you have

5:52

to be like on top of everything and like have

5:55

a take It's really actually kind of refreshing

5:57

to to write stories that are like your

5:59

cut you kind of just one

8:00

session to like clear out the

8:02

anxiety about the people at the table and be like, we're

8:04

all friends here. Here's one less thing to

8:07

worry about. Like we'll get comfortable and then we'll

8:09

worry about entertaining all the people

8:11

out there. Yeah. And

8:13

I was like, aren't we going to make this like a Patreon exclusive

8:15

or something? And they were like, literally no. The

8:17

point is that there's no audience. Yes.

8:20

You have to accept it, which was hard

8:22

for me. Yeah. Because

8:25

you can monetize this. You're telling me that I'm

8:27

not supposed to talk right now, that

8:30

I'm not currently making content. I don't

8:32

know what that's like. Me walking

8:34

through the forest and filming things, being

8:36

like, I bet I should make a video about lichen. That's

8:39

my life. So

8:41

you want to answer some questions

8:42

from our listeners, Trav? Let's answer

8:44

some questions. Yeah. I

8:46

miss y'all so much. We've filmed

8:49

for like five days and I'm like, my

8:51

summer camp friends. That is what it

8:53

feels like. It's like a series of brief,

8:55

intense, and you

8:58

go through a big adventure together and then

9:00

it just all kind of fades away. Yeah.

9:03

And somebody cooks the food for you. Yeah. Just

9:05

like somebody. All right. This

9:09

first question comes from Hannah who asks, Dear

9:11

Hank and Trav, why is it called Eastern

9:14

and Pacific time? Why not Eastern

9:16

and Western or Pacific and Atlantic?

9:19

Ever been to Montana, Hannah? For clarity,

9:22

and I've said this before in the podcast, Hannah

9:24

Montana is not from Montana. Her

9:26

last name is Montana. She is from Texas.

9:29

I don't know why her last name is Montana, I

9:31

guess just because it sounds good. It

9:34

is a constructed identity after all. It does

9:36

feel like time zones are sort of named a

9:38

little willy-nilly, especially when you cram mountain

9:41

time in there where it's like, Hey, we're

9:44

the mountains dark. We're cramming it. Well,

9:47

I do think like, I don't know the answer to this. I'm

9:50

going to venture a guess here. I'm going to

9:52

venture a guess that it is,

9:54

that everything is coming from like an

9:57

Eastern centric point of view because that does

9:59

be how things go where it's like clearly

10:02

this is Eastern time and then for them everything

10:05

everything after that is Western so like well

10:07

you have to be more specific than Western because the

10:09

rest of the country that's just that's all West

10:12

and like they needed to like define it more

10:14

that's kind of my guess but that you

10:17

we don't I don't know that there was like an oral

10:19

history of how this happened but that is definitely

10:21

part of it but the West what we consider

10:24

to be West is so big that you can't have

10:26

a Western time because I

10:28

am in Montana which is definitely the

10:31

West like it's you know really you think

10:33

of Montana is more Western than you'd

10:35

think of California or

10:37

Oregon but and

10:39

so you so it's like can you really can

10:41

you say Western but

10:44

also importantly there is an

10:47

Atlantic time zone oh it

10:49

is the one that is east of eastern so

10:51

Puerto Rico is in it the Virgin Islands are

10:53

in it and so the

10:56

that was taken or I don't I don't know somebody

10:58

had to name these things so it was so

11:01

there there is an Atlantic and a Pacific time

11:03

it's just that if those are not

11:05

referring to the the

11:08

parts of the US that are Atlantic and Pacific

11:10

interesting though there's a lot of

11:13

Pacific out there that also

11:15

is in different time zones yeah that's

11:18

true because you get the other end of the Pacific yeah

11:21

there's a there's so much Pacific that it seems

11:23

it's a little bit nuts that

11:25

America's like this is Pacific time part

11:28

that it's the part that contains a very

11:31

narrow slice of the Pacific Ocean yeah

11:33

what about the biggest of the ocean what about like

11:35

a lot of Asia and and what

11:37

about parts of Russia and Hawaii

11:40

and that's all Pacific

11:43

yeah I mean the part that's put the Pacific time zone

11:45

should be the one that has the least stuff in it and

11:48

I have no idea what that the bad time zone

11:50

is called but yeah

11:52

I was a little bit surprised to find that there was an Atlantic

11:55

time zone yeah even though obviously

11:58

lots of people isn't it yeah it feels like that But

12:00

like just thinking about how this sort

12:02

of like Eastern centric view of like so

12:04

much west It's like I still sort of feel like sometimes

12:06

when people like the Midwest It's like, you

12:09

know, it's like a lot more east

12:11

than it is Well, like you could call it the Midwest

12:13

but like I don't I don't know like where you

12:15

it's all like It's just pure historical reasons

12:18

why it's like yeah. Yeah, it's because

12:20

the people on the East Coast as and

12:22

as a person in Montana I'm

12:25

I accept your Lack

12:28

of interest in what's going

12:30

on And that's fine.

12:32

It's fine. It's fine. But also If

12:36

just a tip if you ever if

12:38

you ever say to me oh Montana,

12:41

I go there sometimes and Because

12:44

what I'm gonna hear is I go skiing

12:47

or fishing there Like I go to whitefish or

12:49

I go to big sky. I was

12:51

the ski resort

12:53

I know what you mean. I know

12:54

what you mean You don't go to Montana

12:57

you like fly in on your private jet and

12:59

you do a thing and you leave again. I remember

13:03

when I I grew up a military

13:05

brat, so I moved around a lot and When

13:09

I moved from from California

13:11

to Maine I remember

13:13

I talked with a lot of people and they

13:15

were like, oh what you know What part of California just come

13:18

from and I was like, oh, you know around around around

13:20

San Francisco around the Bay Area And the number

13:22

of times people would say something like I said, oh, that's

13:24

cool. Cool. You know, I just visited San Diego

13:32

California geography you have to understand that would be like me

13:34

being like, oh, I'm so glad to be here in Maine. I

13:36

went to North Carolina It's

13:40

really it's pretty far apart Yeah,

13:43

I got confused by San Diego for a while. I

13:46

don't I don't know it particularly I

13:48

was like, I don't know could be anywhere Yeah, it'd be

13:50

really anywhere between LA and San Francisco and

13:52

I don't think it even is no. No, it's it's

13:59

I've figured that out now I've gotten there. I

14:01

actually am going to San Diego shortly. We'll

14:03

have already gone when this podcast comes out And I was

14:06

like I can take the train from San Diego to Los

14:08

Angeles and I did I booked the train ticket on Amtrak

14:10

And they're like here's your train ticket. It's going to be amazing

14:12

like you could go three times Uh

14:15

on this day. I picked my time. I'm gonna be up there and

14:17

then they sent me an email and they're like that train

14:19

line doesn't exist anymore and uh,

14:21

but we can get you on a train take you to

14:23

a bus stop you could take a bus to another train station

14:25

and then take a train to Los Angeles and I was like Oh,

14:30

I will drive like that's fine.

14:32

That's no thanks for that I

14:34

remember I was so excited about my train trip

14:37

and it's just canceled It's also it was

14:39

like supposed to be like one of the most beautiful train trips you

14:41

can take because it just like goes along The beach in southern

14:44

california. Oh look at the waves. I

14:46

still I remember hearing about this. I wasn't clear whether

14:48

it was a permanent closure or

14:50

whether because I think it was somehow related to like, um The

14:54

like rains washing away some important

14:56

part of the tracks or something So I wasn't sure whether it was like oh

14:58

we have to rebuild some things or whether it's like no

15:00

We're permanently closing this whether they were like well

15:02

the train broke. So Uh, it's

15:05

america and we're not gonna fix that I

15:07

mean there was there was a period a year

15:09

or two ago where there was a portion of of

15:11

the Amtrak line in big sur

15:13

that like there's a big old mudslide and

15:16

wash it away and it was the same thing It's like we'll take you

15:18

halfway to san francisco and you can get on a bus

15:20

and go to the mountains And we'll unload

15:23

you on the other side. They keep going like this is none

15:25

of this is Is efficient

15:27

or logical at all? Yeah, we'll

15:30

figure out trains, uh right around

15:32

the time when we like

15:34

right before we invent transporters from star trek

15:37

And don't need them anymore I'm

15:39

glad that we figured out the answer to your question

15:41

by which I mean we definitely did not this next

15:43

question comes from leah Who asks steer hanken

15:45

also trap? What would happen if I blended

15:48

my smoothie for a whole year? I assume

15:50

the smoothie would be blended so hard that it would just

15:52

disintegrate into nothingness But uh,

15:54

feel free to prove me wrong. Have a blended

15:56

day leah

15:58

Yeah Uh,

16:01

so so

16:02

we're talking about a single smoothie one

16:05

in a blender One and you turn it

16:07

on and you just let it go for the whole year one

16:09

year. I so I assume

16:13

That there is a point at which you hit like

16:16

terminal smoothness Like

16:19

a sort of terminal velocity. Yeah, like

16:21

this is a huh? This is smoothies gonna get

16:24

new to cut Yeah, everything that can get

16:26

cut got cut Yeah, correct.

16:29

Then I sort of start but what I kind of started

16:31

wondering with this was What

16:34

happens to like does the movement

16:36

does the motion? Keep like

16:39

bacteria from developing on this Certainly

16:42

not right. Yeah, I think we

16:44

got a couple of problems Drink

16:50

this movie at the end of this. Yeah. Yeah.

16:52

I mean I actually I do wonder because I you

16:55

know mold does

16:59

Most I think that mold actually Not

17:02

all funguses but mold specifically do

17:04

require for the fungus

17:06

to be able to build a structure With

17:09

all of its stuff sort of tied together and sort of

17:11

hyphy like these like root structures That

17:14

would also be getting blended. So like

17:16

they wouldn't be able to form a mold Bacteria

17:20

don't care. They're like, ooh fun Like

17:23

it's a it's a roller coaster and food Not

17:29

it's like it'd be like a waterslide

17:31

made of smoothie for a better area It's

17:33

like you have a great time and and

17:36

it's kale and carrots and

17:38

apple juice for a lot So

17:41

I think that it would you know Like

17:44

there's my question here something kind of

17:46

antibacterial in there. Is that gonna help at all?

17:49

Well, there is a way to

17:51

put enough something in there that that so

17:53

this is what this is correct This is the correct course

17:56

of action. I like it great. We'll put something

17:58

in the smoothie that makes it so the bacteria don't

18:00

grow, or we dose

18:02

it with a bacteria that's cool.

18:05

Like that's the- That'll out-keep. Like

18:07

a lactobacillus or something like

18:09

that. Or a yeast. Yeah, something good.

18:12

That actually maybe makes it into booze. And

18:15

then you got a booze smoothie at the end of the year, and

18:18

that's... Surprise! You

18:20

thought you were going to get the smoothest smoothie of your whole life,

18:22

but actually you're drunk. And

18:27

it's like a chill kombucha

18:29

vibe. I

18:31

think there's also a reality

18:34

that your smoothie smoother is

18:36

going to be adding energy to the system the whole time.

18:39

I'm worried about the heat that

18:41

your smoothie might get up to. Yeah,

18:44

I was wondering too, but we should talk

18:46

about the heat for sure, but also just the pure mechanical

18:50

problems of this engine running for... I

18:52

feel like I get nervous running my blender

18:55

for like 60 seconds. I'm

18:57

like, this is too long. This is crazy.

19:02

It's making a lot of noise. I

19:05

feel like I'm actively breaking something

19:07

just by having this running. To have it running for a full

19:09

year, it's like, I feel like that... We'll

19:12

talk about the heat first. So

19:16

I think that if we took a blender from the 60s,

19:19

that thing would just keep going. Don't

19:21

make them like they used to. Exactly.

19:24

So we have to get an old one. Because

19:27

nowadays, I think you're right. I think they'll just shake themselves

19:29

apart in 25 minutes. But

19:32

those 60s blenders, they were

19:34

made by people who were making airplane engines.

19:36

Like the same man, not the same

19:39

company, the same man made

19:41

both the smoothie and the airplane engine.

19:44

And it's just going to go for... On the same wonderful

19:46

day where he actually chucked a banana into

19:48

the jet engine. It's like, holy moly, this

19:50

goop's delicious. We're

19:54

really going to change things around here, Jeff. I

20:00

don't like I think the heat in the system the

20:02

main like I think that you might actually

20:04

get some Well,

20:07

also you're gonna there's gonna be oxygen in there

20:09

and it's just gonna be oxidized

20:11

like you know, like a Banana

20:14

in a room. It's

20:16

not gonna be a real brown it's even if there's

20:18

no bacteria around it just it will break

20:20

down and So I

20:22

think that what you're gonna end up with is

20:24

a very smooth And if you dosed

20:27

it if you got a good blender that's

20:30

from the 60s Mm-hmm and

20:33

And you key and maybe maybe you have like a

20:35

like a thing in there to keep the temperature good You're

20:38

gonna have a very and some antibacterials.

20:41

You have a very smooth smoothie. It's

20:43

gonna taste not good But

20:47

how smooth is it does the smoothness make it worse It's

20:51

gonna be a textural experience if it's like a

20:53

level of soothe it's like I am Transcending

20:55

to another plane of I have my move

20:57

this is this might be how life happened, you

21:00

know, it's like you take a bunch of non

21:03

living Chemicals

21:06

mix them around add some heat Maybe

21:09

you maybe you invent life again

21:12

That would be I mean, yeah, this is this is like a

21:14

new like Frankenstein thing where it's like, oh, yeah

21:17

I think I just wanted to have a very smooth smoothie and

21:19

somehow I've I've become God Yeah,

21:22

I created life and I don't know what to do with my own

21:25

creation Yeah, okay

21:27

has thoughts now in feelings and it doesn't

21:29

want to die Jamba juice sells it for eight bucks

21:33

But not as a smoothie more as a friend And

21:38

if I get if I get if I get ten of these the next ones

21:40

are free, okay You Can't

21:45

keep making these things They

21:47

have thoughts they are feeling this is an ethical

21:49

problem. They're normal men Just

21:52

innocent men Okay,

21:54

here's another one. It's from Andrew who says

21:56

hello blank and blank. It's almost

21:59

like they knew Hello,

22:01

Hank and Trapp. I'm a high school teacher and

22:04

I get to overhear some of the greatest sentences

22:06

ever. Recently I had two students walk

22:08

into class arguing and one of them said, you're

22:10

hallucinating. Potatoes are infinitely

22:13

more versatile than cheese. Oh,

22:16

wow. To which a third student

22:18

across the room yelled, I've been

22:20

preaching this for years. What

22:23

is objectively and or subjectively

22:25

the most versatile food, slightly

22:28

more versatile than Gouda and Drew. I

22:30

have strong and definite

22:32

opinions on this subject. I

22:34

have thoughts on this too. So

22:37

my immediate thought was just an

22:39

answer to the debate that

22:41

was going on that was overheard, which is that I

22:44

think cheese is easily more versatile

22:46

than potatoes. I think cheese is easily more

22:48

versatile than potatoes. Potatoes are very

22:50

versatile. I'm not taking away a mash, chips,

22:53

fries. I come here not to bake.

22:55

You smurched the good name of potatoes. Absolutely.

22:58

One of the very best things that ever happened.

23:03

But I do think that, you know, you look

23:05

at the cheese can go on almost anything.

23:08

It can be a dessert. It can be

23:10

a whole meal. I

23:12

think there's no question even here.

23:15

Like I don't know how much we even need to get into this because it's like

23:17

so clearly like knocking on the car. I feel

23:19

like these children do not understand.

23:22

They haven't experienced anything like

23:24

the true versatility of cheese. Once

23:28

I was shopping, I was going to go shopping for my roommates

23:31

in college

23:34

and someone had written

23:36

cheese on their list. And

23:38

I said, blank, is what's his name. I

23:42

don't think that was his name when he was born. But

23:44

I said, blank, what kind of cheese do you want? And he said, regular.

23:48

This is an opinion of a person who

23:51

that that that potato is more versatile than

23:53

cheese. That's an opinion of a person who thinks

23:56

there's a regular cheese. Yeah, there's by

23:58

which he met everything else with a spin. Oh,

24:00

by which he meant craft American singles. Oh,

24:03

okay. Okay. That's

24:05

regular cheese, which I get. Okay. If

24:07

there's a regular cheese out there, that's it. At

24:11

least for an American college student.

24:14

But oh my God, so much cheese. But cheese.

24:17

Yes. Cheese is a kind

24:19

of another food. That was

24:21

exactly my thought process too. Look at us. Look

24:24

at us. The potato is a food in of itself, but cheese

24:27

is a processed food. So if

24:29

you're going to say that cheese is more versatile, you then

24:31

also have to say, well, milk is more versatile

24:33

than cheese because milk includes

24:36

the subset cheese, but also everything

24:38

else that milk does. But then I also

24:40

had the question. Does it also include all of the

24:42

milks?

24:44

Sure.

24:45

Wait. So not just, we're not just saying cow milk,

24:48

all of the milks. Milk

24:50

as a general category. Anything a mammal creates.

24:53

Walrus milk, platty milk.

24:56

Yeah. Yeah. And polar bears.

25:00

I also was wondering, and I'm curious what you think about

25:02

this. Is salt

25:05

a food? No,

25:08

actually. I think that this has come up on this podcast.

25:10

Oh no. Salt's

25:12

in everything. No, salt's not... And

25:17

you don't turn salt into other stuff. You turn

25:20

stuff into other stuff with salt.

25:22

But salt is a rock. Salt is a mineral. That's

25:24

like, if that were the case, water

25:26

would be the most versatile food. I mean,

25:29

I'm just going to have a very quick

25:31

question. Yeah.

25:34

Because, yeah, milk is made of

25:36

water and stuff. So in

25:38

that case, cheese is made of water and stuff.

25:41

Meat is made of water and stuff. But... We

25:43

just go down to the atomic level. We're finally saying, I think carbon. I

25:45

think carbon is the versatile food. Carbon. Carbon.

25:48

Carbon. Yeah. Definitely.

25:52

It can be each of the things. It

25:56

can be salt. It can be carbs. It can be alcohol.

26:00

other ones that I forgot. I also think

26:02

there's potentially an argument to be made

26:04

for, I was just thinking of like, what do we like,

26:07

what do we grow a lot of? What do we eat a lot of? And

26:09

there might be an argument to be

26:11

made for soy being an extremely versatile

26:13

food. Yeah, soy and corn. Yeah.

26:16

Because those, I mean, just in terms of pure

26:18

industrial uses,

26:21

those go into just about everything. And like, you

26:23

can have a you can have a meal that is like miso

26:26

glazed soy with some edamame

26:29

on the side. And it's like, this is like soy three

26:31

ways. But yeah, you would kind of look

26:33

at that and be like, yeah, that's a meal. Whereas

26:37

you can't really have like butter

26:39

on cheese with a glass

26:41

of milk. Nobody's

26:44

having that dinner. Not

26:46

without severe regrets at the end of the night. I

26:49

could do it. I could pull this

26:52

off. I don't know that you can make like a bread

26:56

out of cheese. But you can,

26:59

well, I can't really make a soy bread. But

27:01

I bet you can. I bet somebody has made soy bread. Yeah.

27:04

And they make soy milk. And

27:07

you can like turn almost anything into a flower.

27:10

It feels like you dry it out and grind it up. And like

27:12

these days. Yeah. Yeah. It's not gonna be super

27:14

effective all the time. But it's like, yeah, it's your soy

27:17

flour. You can do something with that. It's a

27:19

it's a wild world that we live in now where

27:21

we've decided to flour everything. Everything

27:24

gets floured and milk. And also milk everything. Yeah. It's

27:27

like what milks are next? I

27:30

mean, I'm totally in favor of getting animals

27:32

out of the process. It seems like a lot to

27:34

ask of another organism

27:36

to be like, hey, I know that that's for your

27:38

baby, but I'm a 42 year old

27:41

man and I want to put it on a cracker. So

27:44

get on into this machine. So I'm

27:46

totally in favor of figuring out other solutions to

27:48

this problem. But I do wonder

27:51

what we're gonna milk next. Because

27:53

I didn't see cashews coming. Yeah.

27:56

It feels like we've hit a lot of nuts. With

27:59

plenty, plenty more nuts left. Uh,

28:01

there's a lot of nuts left. There's a

28:03

lot of Like

28:07

I want to say just because also like cauliflower

28:10

has been big in the like I'm pretending to be sure I'm

28:12

a cauliflower milk sound that sounds

28:14

disgusting sounds like maybe someone's gonna try

28:16

it Yeah,

28:21

I see here's how I feel I think that

28:23

we've been at cheese and milk products

28:25

for longer like we've got ice cream and we've

28:28

got yeah Yeah, got the just the regular

28:30

milk and we've got all the different cheeses

28:32

and we've got curds and whey and I

28:34

don't know What else we do with that

28:36

seems like we're doing a lot But I think that we've been

28:38

working at some of these other problems for

28:41

less time where we could actually like turn Like

28:44

I think in my opinion fungus is

28:46

the future. I think that we're gonna figure out how

28:48

to make anything out of fungus Well,

28:50

there's what? Mushroom milk

28:52

and mushroom cheese and mushroom meat

28:55

and mushroom everything. There's been a lot of dairy

28:57

substitutes in my house lately because my

29:00

daughter has my young

29:02

infant daughter has a Insensitivity

29:05

to cow milk protein, which

29:07

means that my wife cannot consume

29:10

any dairy or eat any beef Otherwise

29:12

my daughter will have health problems when that protein

29:14

passes through the breast milk and so we've been just

29:17

trying like what's

29:17

this is this any good is this and

29:21

My wife is particularly fond of a of

29:24

a fungus based cream cheese Substitute

29:27

she's like

29:27

this is actually pretty close. It's

29:29

like it's oh you're fine.

29:31

Yes.

29:32

I love that. It's so good It's like

29:34

we did sponsors for them on such show.

29:37

We did a whole And

29:39

like they sent us and now we're not

29:42

good. Yeah. I mean their cream cheese

29:44

is better than cream cheese It's so good And

29:47

it's like yeah based on the space on the fungus

29:50

good grows in the hydrothermal vents at

29:52

Yellowstone National Park or something I

29:54

love that I like I got a

29:57

true if we can harness fungus to make me any

29:59

food. I But what a dream what

30:01

a horrifying dream Yeah

30:06

Like people sometimes wrinkle their nose like like meat groaning

30:08

that and groaning that something like that I'm kind of like

30:11

no, let's do that. That sounds incredible. Yeah.

30:13

Yeah, absolutely I'm

30:16

trying to figure out what time zones are in the

30:18

middle of the Pacific Ocean, but they don't have names on this

30:20

map. Oh There's

30:23

gotta be somebody who's maybe do do

30:25

the time zones not all have names sure they do

30:28

they must I mean, I guess

30:30

it's well, I

30:32

who named them and now I'm

30:34

wondering now I'm like going back and think about this because

30:36

like

30:38

Because it's you're covering full

30:40

vertical swaps of you know of

30:42

the world you're cutting across many countries every

30:45

time You're like, this is the time zone. Do they have the same name

30:47

in other countries? Yeah, did everyone agree? Like

30:49

yeah, yeah, like this is this is what

30:51

this time zone is Right,

30:54

right Or is it like it's got to be like

30:56

like any other place name where I like the people in the

30:58

place call it something and Then everybody else calls

31:00

us there like whatever they felt like that day like

31:04

Lawrence is most like the other

31:06

time zone in like Western

31:09

South America, right because Because

31:12

that aligns like that right? I'm not looking at a map.

31:14

So maybe if so, yeah Yeah, yeah, the Eastern time zone is Western

31:17

South America. So do they call it the Eastern

31:19

time zone in South America?

31:20

That's a great point Call

31:23

it if you're from Peru

31:28

If you call it

31:30

Eastern time that must be so annoying

31:32

you must be so mad that some that's

31:35

some deeply annoying colonial

31:37

stuff Like

31:40

we decided Eastern United States

31:42

everything here is to the east yep You

31:47

Forget how far to the east South

31:50

America is yeah all over there Isn't

31:52

China all in one time zone to like

31:54

they did put all of China in one time

31:57

zone China was like here's what here's what we're gonna

31:59

do. I know it sounds well But you're gonna go over a border

32:01

and skip times gonna change by eight hours Trivia

32:07

trivia boys here. Trivia boys Speaking

32:10

of which what do you call a potato wearing glasses? While

32:13

it's watching a football game What

32:16

do you call it potato wearing glasses? Well, it's a spectator.

32:18

Oh, I Kind

32:22

of like that. Yeah. Thanks. You're welcome

32:30

Okay, let's do a question here. It's from mark

32:32

who asks dear hank and Trump I was surfing

32:34

Google Maps wait last night go

32:37

to sleep mark And I came across a

32:39

town in rural Georgia with nearly completely

32:42

circular a nearly completely

32:44

circular boundary Homer Georgia

32:46

zooming out and scrolling around I began

32:48

to notice that in fact There were dozens

32:50

of towns in Georgia and South Carolina

32:52

with circular borders Most have

32:55

slight deviations from the circle to include this

32:57

or that neighborhood or a plot of land But

32:59

many retain a puzzling circularity

33:02

in my experience. This is not how we create municipal

33:04

borders in Ontario, Canada What

33:07

is what are these towns centered on

33:09

as a former residents of the US

33:12

Southeast? Do you guys have any idea? I don't

33:14

know. Did you ever live in the southeast? I

33:17

did not ever live in the southeast actually all the place

33:20

Yeah, but but I bet you can guess distinct

33:23

boundaries and dogwood trees mark. What do

33:25

you have it? Do you have a guess? I have a guess. I

33:27

have a guess that That

33:30

if if you have a circular border You

33:32

have to be not close to

33:35

other things for those circles to run into them to

33:37

other towns. That is yes, correct So I would

33:39

I would guess that they're probably

33:41

centered on either a church

33:44

or Like crossroads

33:46

that is like these are the two roads that go

33:48

to our town the you know the town

33:50

founding was here and that will probably

33:53

be like a church or a crossroads

33:55

or Some kind of point

33:57

of commerce and be like yes, that's way higher around

34:00

to this point. Yeah, where two rivers come

34:02

together. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And they

34:05

just said everything within a certain distance

34:07

from this point and mathematically defined

34:09

the town. Yeah. Which I kind of love.

34:12

Indianapolis is actually like this, except instead

34:15

of it being a circle, it's a square. And now

34:18

it's like added like little bits onto the side,

34:20

just like, you know, they incorporate new area. But if you

34:22

look up Indianapolis, I

34:24

do this because my brother was there and I'm

34:27

like, this is not

34:30

what I would have imagined

34:32

things to look like. But yeah, it's

34:34

just a perfect little square.

34:37

It's beautiful. There's

34:39

a nice simplicity to having like

34:42

a perfect square or a perfect circle as like

34:44

your borders. And certainly if you're trying

34:46

to be like, here are the borders of our town, it

34:48

seems very simple on paper to be

34:50

like 12 miles out from this point

34:53

or whatever it is and just sort of like,

34:55

the northern point is this and the sun is this. But it

34:57

does feel like you're going to run into like rivers,

35:00

mountains, other municipalities, things

35:02

that are like traditionally borders of

35:05

towns and that like probably you have to make

35:07

adjustments for that. I've

35:10

just, I've just zoomed in on the

35:12

very precise center of Homer, Georgia.

35:15

And I was like, well, is it the crossroads?

35:18

And there is indeed a crossroads. You are correct.

35:21

Very clear crossroads. And the,

35:23

as far as I can tell, the exact center

35:25

of Homer, Georgia is about 300 feet

35:28

north of the crossroads. Do either

35:31

Google maps just mess with me or

35:33

the people who created Homer, Georgia were a little

35:35

confused that day. Like it's not like

35:37

they had perfect surveying equipment. So

35:40

they like decided and drew the

35:42

line and then they were like, I guess we're

35:44

stuck with what we got. I'm guessing that most

35:46

of these towns, these circular towns, I'm going

35:48

to guess that a lot of them are are maybe

35:51

on the smaller side. I don't know. Yeah,

35:53

Homer has 1300 people.

35:56

Okay. I'm willing to bet

35:58

that almost of these towns has

36:01

like a field trip for third graders

36:03

to go visit the center of town. And it's

36:06

like, you know, or it's like,

36:08

there's probably some plaque there and all of these

36:10

or something to sort of be like, this is it. Pretty

36:13

cool, huh? I

36:18

want to see if all of them are like this. Carnsville

36:20

is kind of like that. Oh, he's right. They're

36:22

all like this. It just

36:24

became the way to do it. Let's

36:26

see where the center of Carnsville is. Oh,

36:29

no, it doesn't like that at all. Never

36:31

mind. It's not going to let me do it. You're getting too close to the truth, Hank. You

36:33

have to go back. Google

36:36

Maps just stops you. It'd be like, you're digging

36:38

too deep. Stop looking at the center of

36:40

Carnsville. I really love the idea

36:43

that if you figure out that there's like some

36:45

hidden code, that if you

36:47

figure out the like how far from the

36:49

center of each town or something,

36:52

the circle, the center of the circle actually is. This

36:54

is always one. Some like Dan Brown

36:57

treasure thing. Yeah. So you find the

36:59

Declaration of Independence at the end of it or

37:01

something. The deck, yeah. Yeah. It's

37:05

like the bones of George

37:07

Washington. What will be like the fourth installment

37:09

of National Treasure or something? Yeah. Yeah. It's like

37:11

there's a code hidden in small

37:13

towns in rural Georgia. Oh, yeah. God.

37:16

Yeah, you just have to like, yeah. You got

37:18

to get a whole new outfit so you fit in. Get

37:20

a pickup truck with a gun rack on it and go around

37:23

and be like, look, I'm just a guy who likes

37:25

history. No big deal. And then at the

37:27

end of it, you're like, golden teeth. I

37:30

found George Washington's golden teeth.

37:32

I'm a millionaire. They say they can bite

37:34

through anything. The

37:38

only thing, stop something

37:40

bad. If

37:43

you put them in your mouth, you become George Washington.

37:45

10 feet tall. We've all heard the legend, right?

37:48

We've heard that legend. You put in your truck and

37:50

see if you become George Washington. Which

37:53

reminds me of this podcast is brought to

37:56

you by, weirdly enough, George Washington's

37:58

teeth. George Washington. The

38:00

good ones, though. This podcast is also

38:03

brought to you by the smoothie of

38:05

Jamba Juice. It's so smooth, it's

38:07

sentient. This podcast,

38:10

additionally, is brought to you by the Eastern

38:12

Time Zone in Western South America. That's

38:15

some BS! This

38:18

time zone is also brought to you by a lamp grown

38:20

out of fungus. You can grow anything out of fungus if you

38:22

try hard enough. Why not a lamp? That's where

38:25

the future is going. Dear

38:27

Hank and John is sponsored by GiveWell.

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40:44

This next question comes from Daphne, who asks, Dear Hank

40:46

and Trapp, I recently saw this artistic post

40:48

with the caption, Get under the shower, you

40:50

dirty b----, and I was really caught off guard

40:53

by the use of under rather than in. Should

40:56

it be under? I understand that we get in

40:58

the bath because we're literally in the water,

41:01

but we aren't in the water

41:03

in a shower, we're under it. When

41:05

we talk about showers, do we mean the glass box

41:07

that we stand in or the stream of water coming

41:10

out of the shower head? Starting to think John

41:12

might be right about baths, Daphne. First

41:15

of all, John's, I mean,

41:17

I guess it's fine. You can bathe whatever way

41:19

you like. I'm sorry.

41:23

Are you a bather? I am not.

41:25

And the place I live now has

41:27

no bath. It just has a shower. So

41:30

even if I was a bather, I

41:33

would have no choice. I wouldn't be able to do it. I

41:36

like this question because my initial

41:38

response to hearing like, get under the shower

41:40

is like, that's so wrong. Don't say that.

41:43

That's not the right preposition for that.

41:44

But then it is like, well, I

41:46

can't. I do think that like a shower

41:48

by definition has to be above you,

41:51

right? Like you can't have a shower coming from

41:53

any other direction. But I think

41:55

I can get in a shower and not get wet. Okay.

41:59

So you're you're saying the shower. Is because I don't because

42:01

I think that you're getting in the shower. Okay, it's

42:03

the it's the room It's the small little room

42:05

that is created for the water to be

42:07

in showers of things that are not the shower

42:10

right because you can have rain showers or showers

42:12

of light and like that right will apply

42:14

to And those I go outside

42:16

and yes, and it's raining like

42:19

it's a shower. It's a shower. It's a language

42:23

I'm now having a really hard time with with the calling

42:25

of a rainstorm a shower, which is a thing that we

42:27

do But now I don't like it anymore.

42:30

I'm I'm protesting and I don't want to I

42:32

don't want to like one particularly dirty man Who's

42:35

like a shower outside? It's like that's not what

42:37

that is. That's a rain. We know what rain is I

42:45

don't have an umbrella. I don't need to do

42:47

that What is it

42:49

they feel like light showers, I

42:52

hate this now, why do I not like this? I know

42:55

now it feels like it's designed

42:57

to clean you but I do think

43:00

but also like if you If

43:04

you if you had a shower stall and

43:07

there was a shower Nozzle

43:10

that was coming from any direction, but above

43:12

you Uh-huh, if you if you went if

43:15

you got a hotel and you went to the bathroom

43:17

and there was sides I don't like here's about here's the shower

43:19

and it just like blasts from the sides I

43:22

feel like I would be like that's not a shower. That's

43:24

something else By

43:26

far the best option here is it

43:28

comes right up from the bottom, right? Like

43:30

it's just the giantest bidet.

43:33

It's of all time and it's just like we

43:35

know where the problem is Is that you get this

43:37

is where most of the self it's

43:40

like it's like those things bartenders use to clean glasses,

43:42

you know Put the glass

43:45

on top of this glass water You're

43:47

just in a container compartment it doesn't turn

43:50

on until your feet hit it Yeah, it's

43:52

like it comes it comes so strong

43:54

and so hard. You really wanted this stuff I

43:57

hate this shower Well,

44:01

is it a shower? I

44:03

think it's a shower if it's in the shower.

44:06

Also, you don't get, you don't want to just

44:08

get in a shower. If I'm telling you

44:10

that I'm about to be showered

44:13

and I'm going to clean myself, I don't say I'm going

44:15

to get in the shower,

44:16

do I?

44:17

I say I'm going to take a shower, which

44:19

makes me think that just a great

44:22

deal of empathy for people who have

44:24

to learn how to speak English. What? You're

44:28

not taking it anywhere. Where are you taking

44:30

it? It's not yours. You're not, you're

44:33

not, you're not like what, what

44:35

is the shower that is being taken? Is

44:37

it, is it, is it the concept?

44:39

Is it the action? Well, to loop things

44:42

back around to taking to rain, too.

44:44

Like I didn't think about this until

44:47

I took Russian

44:49

in college. I retained almost none of it. But

44:51

one of the one of the things I did retain was like

44:54

really taking in how strange the construction.

44:57

It's raining is. It's

44:59

like, well, what is raining? It

45:01

is raining. And it's like, what is it referred

45:03

to? It's like just the general state of

45:05

being like the

45:08

outside is raining right now. That's

45:10

not like it is raining. And

45:13

that construction doesn't exist in Russia.

45:15

In Russian, it's just if you want to say

45:17

it's raining, you say like the rain goes

45:19

or something similar to

45:21

that. The rain is going right now. It's like,

45:23

well, that feels a little bit more sense.

45:27

More sense than it. Yeah. It's

45:30

like, is it God? Like what is it? It is raining.

45:32

It's like, oh, no. I like this

45:35

less than there are showers. Yeah.

45:38

Yeah. Yeah. And I'm going

45:41

to take one. And then I guess

45:43

I'll have it, but I won't have it anymore.

45:45

I will have had it. Right. I

45:48

took it. I took a shower. I

45:50

took a shower and then it and then

45:52

it stopped existing. But

45:54

to go back for a second now. Okay. You

45:57

said you said something about like getting

45:59

into. the shower like that defines

46:02

the shower or something like that. I can get into

46:04

this. I can get into the shower and not get

46:06

wet. I cannot take a shower and stay dry,

46:08

but I can get into the shower and not be wet. I

46:11

can be in there just like, I don't know,

46:14

looking at, watching a movie. So

46:16

you're saying that that is a

46:19

more precise way because if you say get

46:21

under the shower, that means you are under the water.

46:23

If you're saying get into the shower, you can be within

46:26

the stall of the shower, but not under

46:28

the shower of water. Yeah.

46:31

But I also think that in this particular construction,

46:33

whereas whatever the joke was that you got to

46:37

take a shower, you dirty ****, you can't. In that situation,

46:39

you got to say get under the shower or

46:41

get, like it's, it's abstracting

46:44

from the normal speech

46:47

so that we can like enjoy

46:49

the phrase more. If you just

46:51

said, take a shower, you dirty ****, that's

46:55

not, that's not, that's not fun. And

46:57

if you say get in the shower, you dirty ****, that's a little more

46:59

fun than take a shower because it's

47:01

like you get in there, I'm telling you to get in. But

47:03

if it's get under, that's more fun. I don't

47:05

agree. I don't agree with that. I agree

47:08

with that. Yeah. It's like, you know, when

47:10

writing advice, like they always sort of, you know, avoid

47:12

cliches and, and, but so much

47:14

because you just like, once you hear a phrase enough times,

47:17

like it no longer makes an impact anymore. Right.

47:19

I think it's that. It's like you just like tweak the words

47:22

enough to be like, like you really have to think about a shower now that

47:24

I've like changed these, the

47:26

structure of this just a tiny bit. Yeah.

47:29

Yeah. It's like, it's like creating some kind of

47:31

structure that's pointing out the sort of

47:34

ridiculousness of the phrase, take

47:36

a shower or eats raining.

47:39

Give me, give me something that pulls me out of

47:41

the, out of the sort of, you know, tropes

47:44

of, of English speech. And, and

47:46

I'll be like, well, that actually is more like what

47:49

I'm doing. I'm more getting under the shower

47:51

than I am taking one. Or over

47:53

the shower. If you decide to install one of our crazy

47:55

bartender glass. Okay,

48:01

well, I think I learned way more about both

48:03

the English language and water being

48:05

sprayed on people than I expected to today.

48:09

This next question comes from Sabrina who asks,

48:11

Dear Hankentrap, why

48:13

is surprise such a large source

48:15

of joy? People go out of their way to buy

48:18

a surprise, surprise toys, mystery

48:20

boxes, and bags. And there are even places

48:22

on Etsy where they will send you a surprise

48:25

outfit. Now I have to admit, I am also a victim

48:27

to the marketing scheme of a surprise.

48:30

For some reason, the joy of opening a box with a mystery

48:32

in it is so much more satisfying than picking

48:34

something out for myself.

48:35

Why are we so much more willing to

48:37

spend money on a mystery rather than

48:39

a sure thing? A teenager but not

48:41

a witch? Sabrina. That's a

48:43

great question. I hadn't really thought about that

48:46

despite the fact that I run

48:48

a surprise sock company. Never

48:52

question why people would want to purchase your product.

48:55

Well, I don't know. I have always maybe

48:58

thought that that's kind of a bit of a drawback that you don't

49:00

get to know what the socks are going to look like before they arrive.

49:02

But now I'm thinking, yeah, it's kind of

49:04

a little surprise that I get to have.

49:07

I like it. I'm fully with

49:09

Sabrina here. But

49:11

this is coming from someone who I'm

49:14

a very indecisive person. And

49:16

I feel like

49:18

it only gets harder for things that

49:21

don't really matter. Like if it's a choice that really

49:23

matters, it's like you can do a pretty good weighing of

49:26

pros and cons and stuff like that. But if it's

49:28

something like, here's 80 different patterns

49:30

of sock you can have. And

49:34

it's like, I have to make a choice

49:36

if I'm going to buy a pair of socks. But

49:39

I don't want to. It doesn't really matter,

49:41

but I still have to make a choice. And

49:44

that can be kind of paralyzing. So

49:46

having someone else just be like, I'm going to

49:48

take care of this for you, I think is very comforting.

49:52

But I also don't think so that's comforting. But

49:54

there is,

49:55

I think, a second. There's

49:56

like a separate joy that comes from actually

49:58

like the discovery. Right of like actually

50:00

opening it and seeing like what is this thing?

50:03

What did I get and that's it? I think a separate thing

50:06

from just like avoiding a decision Yeah,

50:09

yeah. Well, I think There's

50:11

there's a piece of that's like can someone curate

50:13

this for me? Like I need a person who's

50:15

better at socks than me and

50:17

I'd like you to choose that I actually

50:19

have I have there's a there's a local

50:22

business in town that will give you a a

50:24

thrifted item every month gift

50:27

but you buy if like you pay a monthly thing and they'll

50:29

just like give you what is it one of the things

50:31

that they thought was really cool and I

50:33

love it. I like I love it. I wore one

50:36

of them on our series and

50:38

everybody complimented me on that shirt So

50:41

that when the fuzzy red one with the with

50:44

the collar that when that one's

50:46

there every single person I walked

50:48

by on that day was like,

50:50

oh my well, I love that

50:52

one And so I was like what's wrong with all my other

50:54

clothes? No one has said anything for the other five out there

50:57

Oh, we deeply hate those Does

50:59

you know we really really hate those? So

51:03

I do love the curation aspect of some

51:05

person I trust making a decision for

51:07

me But I also think that there is

51:09

something to like I don't know

51:11

what it's gonna be and then I find out what it is I

51:14

love that. I think it's a I think it's a value that's that

51:16

is delivered And I like a blind

51:19

bag from from like the Disney store

51:21

with a Mickey that's painted like Boba Fett

51:23

maybe I'm into that. I don't know

51:25

why it's the experience. Yeah,

51:28

I think there is neurotransmitters What

51:30

yeah, I'm what I'm running into is to sort of like I'm

51:33

like running into like that that endless chain of why Right

51:35

or it's because like I do think there's something uh-huh inherently

51:39

Joyful about discovery like the

51:41

chance to experience something new for

51:43

the chance for novelty the chain Like

51:46

that is I think inherently Joyful

51:48

and going like getting a box and being like I don't know

51:51

what's inside this but for that moment

51:53

It has the potentiality to be something that could be

51:56

incredible something you've never seen before that would really make

51:58

you happy There's like oh, there's like Maximum

52:00

potential in there and I think there's almost like

52:02

anxiousness as well Like there's worry

52:05

in that moment. That's the worry is

52:07

part of the excitement

52:08

Like I don't know what it's gonna be and

52:11

and I'm worried that I'm like sometimes

52:13

like maybe I don't know Maybe I'm not gonna like it

52:16

Yeah and but and I think that there is

52:18

something that is like that is just like deep within

52:20

us like I think about surprise a lot because

52:23

Because I I write Comedy

52:26

scripts and like so much a comedy is about

52:28

surprising people but in a way that like also

52:31

makes sense and it's logical And so it's like, okay How

52:33

do you like blend those two together and like how do you set

52:35

up expectations in just the right way? so that

52:37

you can come in from the other side and and surprise

52:39

someone and It spends so much time

52:42

like trying to like arrange the conditions for maximum

52:44

surprise But not a lot of time asking

52:46

like but why do we like to be surprised?

52:49

Yeah, why is the surprise in and

52:51

of itself like something that that is

52:53

is a joy And I don't I don't know

52:56

but it does feel like something like deep and biological. It's

52:58

yeah I bet it is a evolved

53:01

trait that conferred advantage

53:03

to our ancestors, you know sure where it's

53:05

like and and I

53:08

think that humor is one of It's

53:11

hard to see it in other species I

53:13

like I'm not gonna say that it's definitely not there, but

53:16

it's it's very there for people

53:18

It's a really big deal and it's

53:20

so weird Like I bet if if and

53:23

when we meet some other intelligent

53:26

species a thousand years in the future They

53:28

won't have humor Like we

53:30

do they won't have laughter like they do it like

53:33

that I don't like it seems weird

53:35

enough that it's probably like it's probably

53:37

something that wouldn't happen every

53:40

time an intelligent Living

53:43

system evolved and like that makes

53:45

it really special I feel like whereas music is

53:47

all around like lots of different organisms

53:49

make music Which I think is another really lovely thing that

53:51

people do but jokes feel pretty

53:54

just human. Yeah, we're so

53:56

goofy Maybe

53:59

and maybe a little like Well, something you said

54:01

made me think about maybe it was in sapiens.

54:03

I don't know if you read that book.

54:05

Yeah. Yeah. But there's something

54:07

I read that was talking about like how much human evolution

54:09

has been sort of like supportive

54:12

of risk takers or like from

54:14

a sort of broad point of view of like

54:18

humans have been rewarded for taking kind

54:20

of insane risks. Whether that is

54:22

like canoeing across the Pacific or

54:25

spreading across like continents

54:27

and being like just like a little bit crazy,

54:30

like just crazy enough to like do

54:33

take these like these big risky moves

54:35

that a lot of times fail but sometimes

54:37

pay off and then they pay off things. And

54:39

I wonder if this is all tied together of like

54:41

sort of like you're being rewarded for taking

54:44

risks. You're being rewarded for unknown,

54:46

for like looking at the unknown and going like, oh, that's

54:49

cool, right? And

54:52

if you're being like sort of if you're getting like

54:54

these, this like, you know, dopamine rush

54:56

from like, wow, the unknown, that's

54:58

cool. And then to tie it back to your like, do

55:00

aliens have humor? Like that, does that

55:02

mean that we just look totally insane? Like we're

55:04

just laughing and giggling and taking

55:07

insane risks and it's like a little bit crazy. Like

55:09

we're like the crazy old prospector that

55:11

you come into that is he was just like giggling

55:13

and laughing and like, man, that species

55:15

is just off its rocker. Well, I mean, please

55:17

let me know if you know about this

55:20

out there listening because so there's

55:22

a lot of, there are

55:25

traits, evolution does this, where

55:27

you have a visible trait that's representative

55:30

of something else, but

55:32

it's actually a good representation. Like antlers

55:34

growing out of the head of an elk are going

55:37

to be bigger if that elk is better

55:39

at finding resources and fighting off

55:42

people competing for those elk, competing

55:44

for those resources. So like it's an actual

55:47

sign of that elk's ability

55:49

to thrive is how big the antlers

55:51

are. You know, it's older, it's

55:54

been able to eat a lot of food, it's big, it's strong.

55:57

And so it's not like, it's not like

55:59

something you can. fake. You can't grow big antlers

56:01

if you didn't actually succeed. And

56:04

so maybe this is like humor

56:07

and like the feeling of joy at

56:10

surprise might be or

56:12

like not necessarily being able to make a joke, but being able to

56:15

enjoy one might be like

56:17

antlers, but for like

56:19

risk taking, like safe risk taking

56:22

and like social success.

56:25

Where if you're good at like enjoying

56:27

and laughing at a joke, it's a surrogate

56:30

signal that you are also good at

56:32

being curious and taking

56:34

a risk intelligently.

56:37

Interesting. And so that's

56:40

like humor evolved as a way to

56:43

signal our ability to do those things. Seems

56:46

like something that a researcher

56:49

might have looked into. And if you know about

56:51

that, please send me the paper because I would love

56:53

to see that. I could also see, but now we're

56:56

just talking about humor instead of surprise.

56:58

They're kind of like they're, they're

57:00

being something to this developing

57:03

as just a way of dealing with the

57:05

sort of like the cosmic horror

57:07

of consciousness. Maybe

57:10

every conscious organism out is really

57:12

goofy because you can't do it

57:14

otherwise. You can't, it would just try. It's like

57:17

it's that you have to be a little goofy or you have to go totally

57:19

insane. You have to like look at the world around you and be like,

57:22

this is so crazy. None of this

57:24

makes any sense. It's

57:26

to be conscious right now on this earth is so

57:29

much so unlikely and so stupid

57:31

that I have to laugh at it. Otherwise

57:34

I will just crumple the ball at

57:36

the like a normal need someone

57:38

to do a big fart right now or

57:41

else. Yeah, it's not going to work. Like

57:43

we can't be humans without like nice

57:46

big fart sounds that we can have

57:48

a good time with.

57:51

I like that farts are loud. I think

57:53

I talked about this on Twitter a while

57:55

back where I was, I said the fact

57:57

that farts are loud kind of indicates that

58:00

loud farts didn't hinder

58:02

our ancestors' ability to procreate,

58:05

and I love that for them. Yeah.

58:08

It's interesting, like, something...

58:14

Let me pause this question to you, and

58:16

then I'll back up and explain where this is coming from. Do

58:19

you think humans have the loudest farts?

58:21

And now I'm going to back up and say, because

58:24

humans, I know, have a pretty large butt

58:27

ratio, but to the rest of your body ratio,

58:29

because we are bipedal and we

58:31

need those strong gluteal muscles

58:34

to move us around. Yeah, they do different kind of work. And

58:36

a lot of the sound is going to come from air moving

58:39

between those big old cheeks. It actually maybe

58:42

doesn't. Okay. So I

58:44

actually... I've looked into how fart noise

58:46

happens, and it mostly does not... So,

58:49

the cheeks matter. Oh, of course the cheeks

58:51

matter. The actual

58:53

sound, though, isn't the... It's

58:56

not the cheeks hitting each other. The

58:58

sound is actually the anus itself slapping.

59:01

So it's the anus snacking

59:04

together as pressure builds

59:06

behind, and then the

59:08

pressure is released. And then when the pressure

59:10

releases, the anus slaps together again,

59:13

the pressure builds, the anus opens, it

59:15

slaps together after it releases, the pressure builds again

59:17

over and over and over again. It's just like you can do it with

59:19

a balloon. It's the same... Like, mechanistically the same

59:21

thing is happening. But it's... But

59:24

most of the sound is from the anus and not the... Yeah,

59:26

the cheeks can control what the anus

59:28

is doing. So if you lift the

59:31

cheek, you can fart more quietly because the

59:33

cheek isn't causing the anus

59:35

to... It's not putting that pressure to slap

59:37

it back together again, but the noise is actually...

59:40

And also, I think that it matters, the loudness

59:42

of the fart matters that the rectum

59:44

is full of gas, and so it's kind of

59:46

a sound

59:49

resonant chamber. I can tell you're

59:51

a professional radio

59:53

man because as soon as you... When

59:56

you start to scream, the cheeks clap together, you clap too,

59:58

so the audience could be... fully transported

1:00:01

to the visual of

1:00:03

two cheeks apart. So they're not

1:00:05

the chicks. It's the anus. It's

1:00:07

an informing beep. Actually,

1:00:14

Sabrina, does this answer your question about why you

1:00:16

like your mystery dress? But

1:00:20

seriously, another thing

1:00:22

I really desperately want to know is what

1:00:24

species has the loudest fart. And if

1:00:27

it is humans, I

1:00:29

think that without a doubt, that

1:00:31

means that

1:00:33

farts,

1:00:34

we evolved intentionally loud

1:00:37

farts. Like we can start

1:00:39

like it didn't hinder us. It helped us. I

1:00:41

really think there's a good chance that it could

1:00:43

be humans. Because I think we do

1:00:45

have loud farts, loud farts. And

1:00:48

I think there's probably like so many,

1:00:50

I try to imagine something like

1:00:52

predator-prey relationships where it's like, hey, it

1:00:54

is really evolutionarily,

1:00:56

just have that day just for you to have a loud fart right

1:00:59

now. That jaguar is going

1:01:01

to eat you if you let one rip right now. Which

1:01:04

is like true for humans too, like with things prey

1:01:07

on humans. But I wonder if sort

1:01:09

of like, I don't know, being

1:01:12

sort of top of the food chain for a while or whatever

1:01:14

sort of allowed loud

1:01:17

farts to exist. So

1:01:19

then you would think that the thing with the loudest

1:01:22

farts are going to be either the top of the food

1:01:24

chain or the really big animals that don't have to worry

1:01:26

so much. Yes. I was just

1:01:28

reading that hippos, because

1:01:30

I was like, maybe hippos have loud farts. They

1:01:33

don't though. They have quiet farts. They have long

1:01:36

farts and they have disgusting farts. But they

1:01:38

don't. They're silent

1:01:40

but deadly. But they're not loud. So

1:01:42

like great white sharks can't possibly have

1:01:44

a loud fart. They're sharks. They

1:01:47

fart at all? I don't know. I don't have the note

1:01:49

to answer that question. Well,

1:01:51

that seems like something I should know.

1:01:53

Elephants. You didn't catch that seed

1:01:56

in jars. You've

1:01:59

got a great white.

1:01:59

The loudest farters on the planet. I

1:02:02

like the, I do like the idea that they're there on the SS Indianapolis.

1:02:04

There's like a mouse hiding from a fox

1:02:06

and it's just like, be very quiet and it's a little

1:02:08

hard to do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, and

1:02:10

it's sitting there next to its like, you know, what

1:02:13

like mouse wife and she's like,

1:02:15

quiet Henry, quiet. And then,

1:02:18

and then he's like, oh no, Susan, Susan.

1:02:21

And she's like, what's wrong, Henry? And he's like, and he's like,

1:02:25

Tiny mouse fart and then the fox is

1:02:27

like, how long?

1:02:29

That's the, but we don't have to worry. We're,

1:02:32

we're humans.

1:02:33

We can fart in front of a great white

1:02:35

shark and actually probably that would be a

1:02:37

bad idea. We are on, on a, on

1:02:39

a, on a species level, the

1:02:42

rude, the like rude husband

1:02:44

from a 90s sitcom. He's like,

1:02:46

we're just letting it go. Like, what are you going to do,

1:02:48

eat us? You can't. You

1:02:52

could work with your time zone, South America. I,

1:02:56

I have so many questions and

1:02:58

I feel like we're about to get to

1:03:01

a really deep and true truth

1:03:03

about humans. So we need to stop

1:03:05

the podcast. Cause if, if we get to

1:03:07

it through farts, then we're going to, then, then like,

1:03:09

I don't know anybody who's going to take us seriously.

1:03:12

And also it might, it might be a problem for the eventual

1:03:14

white paper that we publish in, in nature. So,

1:03:17

but I'm looking forward to doing that. Everybody

1:03:20

go check out Mentopolis on Dropout

1:03:22

TV. It was one of the best

1:03:26

things I have ever done

1:03:28

in my life creatively. It was so

1:03:30

good. So yeah,

1:03:33

I, I, I've extraordinarily privileged

1:03:35

to have been able to be a part of that cast. So thanks

1:03:38

for doing it with me, Trapp. And thanks for coming on. Oh,

1:03:41

I felt privileged to be able to play, play with

1:03:43

you. Of course. It was, it was a great time.

1:03:45

And there's also lots of other really amazing stuff on, on

1:03:47

dropout.tv. If you haven't heard

1:03:50

of that or seen it, what's happening? Come on

1:03:52

game changer. Come on. It's the,

1:03:54

it should get Emmys. It's

1:03:57

the best. I hope, I

1:03:59

hope it gets a tune. for Christ's sake.

1:04:01

I don't know how, but I feel like it could. How did they

1:04:03

do this? Someone put

1:04:06

an iPhone on stage and they just let it play, auto play

1:04:08

for a couple of seasons of Game Changer. That's

1:04:12

how it works. That's how it works these days. If

1:04:15

you want to send us questions for the podcast, you can do that at HankandJonatatgmail.com.

1:04:19

We don't have a podcast without you, so thank you to everybody

1:04:21

who does that. This podcast is

1:04:24

edited by Joseph Tounamedish. It's produced by Rosianna

1:04:26

Hals-Rojas. Our communications coordinator is Brooke Shotwell.

1:04:29

Our editorial assistant is Devoki Chakravarti. The

1:04:31

music you're hearing now and at the beginning of the podcast is

1:04:33

by the great Gunnarolla. And as they say

1:04:35

in our hometown, don't forget to be awesome.