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The Science Pawdcast
The Science Pawdcast breaks down the latest science happening in the human world AND the pet world.
Each episode will also bring you a guest to enthral you with their area of knowledge.
You'll learn, be captivated, and laugh along with host Jason Zackowski.
Pets and Science, it's the pawfect mix.
You'll also get episodes of SciChat and PetChat which are the live shows from social audio.
SciChat has an interview and Q+A with a scientist, while PetChat is a live community gathering for games and stories about pets!
For Science, Empathy, and Cuteness!
The Science Pawdcast
Season 6 Episode 23: Element 120, Neutering News, and Pop Culture with Dr. Kyle Stanley
Prepare yourself for an emotional rollercoaster as we kick off this riveting episode with a deeply moving update on the recent Jasper, Alberta forest fire and the unfortunate loss of the beloved Jasper Veterinary Clinic.
We transition into the fascinating realm of chemistry, unveiling a revolutionary technique that might just add a super heavy element to the periodic table. Chris and I reveal our favorite elements, sparking a lively conversation about Mendeleev's enduring legacy and the relentless evolution of chemical science.
Dog owners, this one's for you. We break down groundbreaking research from the University of California Davis on the health impacts of neutering dogs, revealing how breed-specific timing can be crucial. Larger breeds like Golden Retrievers and German Shepherds face increased risks of joint disorders and cancers, while smaller breeds like Shih Tzus fare differently. We provide detailed insights into how these findings affect popular breeds and emphasize the need for tailored recommendations rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.
Our conversation with media expert Dr. Kyle Stanley takes us through the transformative power of social media and internet culture. From the rise of memes as a cultural touchstone to the influence of social media influencers, we explore how digital platforms shape societal norms and consumer behaviors. Don't miss our light-hearted adventure stories from Quebec and a charming pet tale about a quirky miniature Schnauzer named Duke. This episode offers a unique blend of scientific knowledge, heartfelt stories, and entertaining anecdotes that you won't want to miss.
Link to the Neutering Article
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Hello science enthusiasts. My name is Jason Zukoski. I'm a high school chemistry teacher and a science communicator, but I'm also the dog dad of Bunsen and Beaker, the science dogs on social media. If you love science and you love pets, you've come to the right place. Put on your lab coat, put on your safety glasses and hold on to your tail. This is the Science Podcast. Hello everybody, and welcome back to the Science Podcast. We hope you're happy and healthy out there.
Speaker 1:This is episode 23 of season six. This episode's out a bit um. I got, uh, one of my migraines earlier this week. I'm okay now, but it definitely took me out for about a day and a half.
Speaker 1:Quite tragically, this week there was a massive forest fire near the town of jasper, which is this. There's two or three extremely picturesque tourist attractions in alberta, not just a tourist attraction for people from around the world, but places that Albertans and Canadians go to just experience the joy and the majesty of nature. It's right in the Rocky Mountains and Jasper is quite a drive from us, but we've been there many times. I've got so many wonderful memories of Jasper with my family growing up and with my my current family, you know, like my wife and my kids and this massive forest fire encroached on the city. It's all evacuated. The reports coming in is that not quite half the town, but a good 30 to 40 percent of the town is completely wiped out. So our hearts go out to the people of Jasper. We'll put a link in the show notes. The best place if you're wanting to help Red Cross in Canada is the best place. Right now there's individual GoFundMes popping up for folks that have been affected. It's quite emotional, but one of the buildings that was destroyed was the Jasper Veterinary Clinic. That was destroyed was the Jasper Veterinary Clinic, a place where dogs, cats and small animals could go for help in that area. It is quite remote, so that is one of the buildings that was lost. So I thought I would just recognize that it's something that happened in our area of the world and maybe made news where you live if you're not from Alberta. But yeah, we're just so heartbroken over it.
Speaker 1:All right, switching gears a bit, let's chat about what's on the show. This week, chris and I in Science News are going to be breaking down a possible technique to make a super heavy element that's not yet on the periodic table. Chemistry is right up my alley, so I was so excited to cover this story In Pet Science. Thanks to Chris's sleuthing, she found a really good study that was referenced by her vet about the suggested changing timelines to spay or neuter your pet based on dog breed. So if you've got a dog, this is a good one to listen to.
Speaker 1:And our guest and ask an expert is media expert Dr Kyle Stanley, who's going to be talking to us about the science of social media and pop culture. So a really cool interview. All right, it's my time to shine the bad joke. But about chemistry. Hey, did you hear? Oxygen went on a date with potassium. It went okay, because oxygen symbol is O and potassium symbol is K. All right, never mind. Anyone know any jokes about sodium. Nah, because NA is All right, let's get on with the show. There's no time like science time. This week in science news, chris and I are going to be talking about chemistry, but not the chemistry that Chris and I have on the science podcast, new elements or a new element on the horizon why can't we talk about our chemistry?
Speaker 1:our chemistry, I think, is pretty good, but I think we need to talk about a possible super heavy element that may be coming to a periodic table near you now. Chris, do you have a favorite element on the periodic table?
Speaker 2:I've never really thought about it. But you know what I like. I like gold, but then I also like carbon, because carbon turns into diamonds.
Speaker 1:Oh, my goodness, I bet you Adam would say the same thing, because he's a little crow, he loves shiny things.
Speaker 2:He does, so he might like the coinage elements.
Speaker 1:That's right. He and Annalise are in Quebec right now and they spent half the day looking for a ring and I'm like, oh my God, no, thank you. So carbon or gold. Gold is a very neat element, super conductive. Mine is bismuth. Why I love element Bismuth is element 83. I have a chunk of it on my desk that I got from the, the museum in new york when we were there. I don't know if you remember I picked up a chunk of bismuth when we were at the natural history museum no, I was mining my bismuth they got very good.
Speaker 1:they got us in the gift shop as we're coming out. Anyways, it's iridescent. It's a very cool element. It is used in Pepto-Bismol, it has a whole bunch of other medicine applications and it's really stable and very low radioactivity. So it's just a really neat element and if you were to have a chunk of it in your hand, you would marvel at how pretty it is, the crystals that it forms.
Speaker 2:And it's safe to touch. So that's interesting because we named our new Bernese Mountain Dog puppy Bernoulli, but Bismuth was in the running.
Speaker 1:Bismuth was in the running, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and now I'm like why?
Speaker 1:Maybe that's why Bernoulli is a much, much better name actually, so I like Bernoulli. Chris, what's going on with this study? Give us a start of it.
Speaker 2:The objective was to expand the periodic table and I thought that was pretty much done right With Mendeleev and playing cards and putting out the elements based on their properties.
Speaker 2:And it made sense. It goes up by the number of protons, and we have them all. However, researchers are exploring the possibility of expanding the periodic table by creating new elements, and they are focusing on element 120, using electrically charged titanium atoms or ions to bombard an element called californium. Now, the potential discovery of element 120 would introduce a new row to the periodic table. What featuring an atomic nucleus with you guessed it 120 protons that's right, a little bit of chemistry.
Speaker 1:The element number is equal to the number of protons in the nucleus of that atom and other super heavy elements have already been discovered and they're on the newest periodic table I think the periodic tables we have in school they made, I don't know. You have the same one, I have these giant ones. They don't have the newest elements, it's blank down there. But, like element 116 is Livermorium, it's named after Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, california. So it honors many of the elements. The newest elements honor the famous scientists or the places it was discovered. And the last I believe the last element is element 118, agonisin or OG. It's the OG element and it's named after Yuri Agonisin, and again that's named after somebody.
Speaker 2:So they're counting up by twos. Why not 117, 119? Where are they? No, they don't necessarily go up by twos. Why not 117, 119? Where are they?
Speaker 1:No, they don't necessarily go up by twos. We filled in the bottom of the periodic table. It's like where the non-metals begin on the I guess you'd call it the P block on the periodic table. So that's Florivium, muscovian, livermorium, tennessean and Agonisin. And to answer your question why they're going to 120, it probably has to do with the protons that they're bombarding Californian with. Is that? You would just get 120 when you add up the different protons from the different nucleuses that you're colliding. 119 is not in the cards.
Speaker 2:It's not in Mendeleev's cards. I love that, see, I call back.
Speaker 1:It's not in Mendeleev's cards. I love that, see, I call back.
Speaker 2:I know Thank you, but the creation of element 120 is considered feasible, with predictions suggesting it would require approximately 10 times longer than the Livermorium experiment, and I know so. 10 times longer, but then you'll get element 120. This new approach represents a shift from the previously used technique, which involved a beam of calcium 48, a calcium isotope with 28 neutrons. They used calcium 48 to produce the five heaviest known elements by varying the target element, so that's how they found those other ones that you spoke of.
Speaker 1:Yeah, calcium 48 was a pretty good building block to build those heavier elements. One of the big challenges of the super heavy elements is I try and tell my students they're like really, some of the kids will get right into chemistry and they see the periodic table for the first time with those elements on it. They're very curious and they're asking me about that and I'm like guys, these elements exist for a split second and they go away and the traditional method of using radioactive and short-lived target elements is becoming impractical. So the target of that calcium-48 just goes away. And to make something heavier, it just doesn't work.
Speaker 1:The scientists behind this nuclear scientist, jacqueline Gates from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, when they presented these findings of the possible creation of element 20, this was an innovative method and the switch to titanium 50 is practical because it allows for a target instead of a target that disappears, because it allows for a target instead of a target that disappears. It'd be like an archer, like Legolas from Lord of the Rings, shooting his arrow, and when that arrow hits an orc they become like a super heavy element. But the problem with the orc in this example is it phases out of existence and the arrow goes right through it and to answer your question.
Speaker 2:Thanos does a snap.
Speaker 1:Okay, true, yeah, so you're trying, I guess. Yeah, you're trying to hit somebody and thanos snap them away very good another good, yeah, another nerd, another nerdy reference there, and you mentioned why they're not going for element 119, and it's because of the protons. They just add up to 120. So the question you might be asking is why is this a thing? And I think you and I can probably answer a few reasons why this might be important to do.
Speaker 2:Studying the periodic table helps scientists explore the limits of atomic structure and nuclear stability, and it also provides insights into the behavior of matter under extreme conditions, the more you know, isn't that, with the rainbow and the star shoots across the screen? Are you thinking GI Joe, science, the videos you made.
Speaker 1:No, I don't know. And the other thing that I've told students before is that there is a postulated theoretical model called the island of stability, meaning that at some point it is thought that if we keep making these really heavy elements, instead of them existing for a split second and decaying, they will become stable and they'll live long enough to do extra tests on. Or and this is science fiction they just hold together and become a whole new element altogether that doesn't decay. Who knows what kind of wild properties that will have.
Speaker 2:Feel a supervillain coming on.
Speaker 1:You look at quantum chemistry, which is you know, you put quantum in front of anything. It's very spooky. It just means very small. There are these extremely bizarre effects that electrons have on each other. They're called relativistic effects. So yeah, that's Einstein. Super heavy elements exhibit very unusual chemical properties than lighter elements. These bizarro chemical properties, if they remain stable or maybe element 120 does something even weirder they can lead to new materials or technologies or just breakthroughs in the understanding of the quantum realm the formation and decay of super heavy elements.
Speaker 2:that contributes to our knowledge of nucleosynthesis in stars, particularly in supernovae and neutron star collisions.
Speaker 1:Ooh, I love that. One of my favorite things to think about is neutron star collisions, because when cosmologists study the elements that exist on the periodic table, there is a huge swath of them that cannot be created from the supernova of a star. They can only be created from two neutron stars colliding together, and who knows what kind of gooey goo is in the middle of that collision. Maybe we've never come across element and it exists out there, stable, floating, but it's extremely rare.
Speaker 2:What I love is it sparks scientific curiosity. So the pursuit of knowledge and this quest to discover new elements, I think, is a fundamental aspect of scientific inquiry. We are pushing the boundaries of our understanding of the natural world, and that often leads to unexpected discoveries and technological advancements.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's the knowledge that's just hidden around the river bend. You don't know what's there till you get there. Maybe it's nothing, who knows, maybe it's something very cool. That's science news for this week. This week in pet science, chris and I are going to be talking about neutering or spaying. Or spaying Neuterings may be a little bit more uncomfortable for me to think about, but I guess it's a much more invasive procedure to spay a dog. Of course, that is the removing of the testicles and removing of the uterus in dogs.
Speaker 2:So recently at a pet visit with Bernoulli like we said earlier, we do have a new puppy the vet said recent research shows that Berni's mountain dog should not be neutered until after 24 months. And we were thinking, wow, that's interesting.
Speaker 1:I was shocked. Actually, I was shocked 24 months. Yeah, because, like the common, you neuter a dog at eight to 10 months, right A year.
Speaker 2:We with Bunsen. We waited as long as possible, but then, because of people's lifestyles, dogs they start. I don't know how to say it eloquently, but they exhibit certain behaviors when they're intact that may be imposed.
Speaker 1:They get a little humpy, they get a little amorous.
Speaker 2:They get a little amorous and that definitely can put a wrench in your day-to-day life. So that's why I understand that they definitely neuter pets and as well, if you are rescuing a pet or a puppy, before they leave the rescuing facility they do spay and or neuter the pet just to have population control.
Speaker 1:So it is very common practice in North America and Europe to neuter male and female dogs within the first year after birth, so under a year or around a year. Now, as we went to the vet and the vet said there's some new research you hunted down an article and it was probably the one she was looking at because a bunch of recent studies show that neutering may increase risks of joint disorders and cancers in some breeds. So to give everybody a picture, Chris, like this was a fairly large study.
Speaker 2:Now this study built upon another study which looked at three dog breeds, but now this study utilized hospital records from the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital in California at the University of California Davis, and this data was collected for 35 breeds, including the three varieties that I spoke of before. This data was collected for 35 breeds, including three varieties of poodles, which covered a range of body sizes and popular breeds. The data they were looking at included information on neutering status, age of neutering and occurrence of specific joint disorders and cancers.
Speaker 1:Within the study there were dogs that were considered intact and neutered, and they are of both sexes, so I guess when we're using the word neutered it is both male and female. Neutering ages were categorized as under six months, six to 11 months, a year, or two to eight years, and diseases were tracked until the dogs were last seen at the hospital or through the 11 years of age. They looked at three different diseases or three different types of diseases. There were joint disorders that might include hip dysplasia, which many people are familiar with, or cruciate ligament tears, which we are familiar with, or elbow dysplasia tears, which we are familiar with, or elbow dysplasia. Different types of cancer, lymphoma, mast cell tumors, osteosarcoma so different cancers of the lymph system or bones. And then, for female dogs, they looked at mammary cancer and uterine incontinence, which can happen with neutered females.
Speaker 2:One interesting thing I wanted to add to the data that they analyzed is they examined the intervertebral disc disorders, idds, in breeds known to be at risk, such as the little dash, hounds and corgis.
Speaker 1:Oh, they hurt their back. So let's talk about some breed specific findings. I'll go first. So the golden retriever, because we had Callan and we have Beaker. The study found increased risk of joint disorders when neutered before six months and female golden retrievers showed a two to four times higher risk of cancers with spaying at any age. So versus non-neutered and neutered, there was higher cancer among the neutered females.
Speaker 2:Unneutered and neutered. There was higher cancer among the neutered females and the Labrador Retriever was a dog breed that was in the first study of the three and it showed a similar increase in joint disorders when the dogs were neutered before six months, but no significant increase in cancer risk with neutering.
Speaker 1:Another favorite dog breed is the German Shepherd. I know my brother Cam. His family had Radek who was this huge German Shepherd and there was increased risk of joint disorders with early neutering before a year and a slight increase in cancer risks, but less pronounced than the Golden Retrievers. Let's do a couple little ones.
Speaker 2:Sure, the Boston Terrier? Yeah, it had no increased risk of joint disorders, but a significant increase in cancer risk when neutered before one year, especially in males. And that's the same for the Shih Tzu, except there was a significant increase in cancer risk with spaying before one year.
Speaker 1:And then we get to Bunsen and Bernoulli, the Bernice Mountain Dog, and this is probably what the vet was referencing. There was a significant increase in joint disorders when neutered before two years and there was an increased risk of cancers, particularly in females, when spayed before six months. So that gave us pause, thinking like Bunsen was neutered at one, and now the vet is saying there's good evidence that we should wait until Bernoulli's two, which might be a bit of a long haul.
Speaker 2:We'll see, We'll see. I found a border that takes intact dogs. If we wanted to go on a holiday then we could take our little Bernoulli there.
Speaker 1:Another bigger dog breed that we should mention because people who listen to this might know Kuno and Chesney, the service Rottweilers. There's a high risk of joint disorders, especially with neutering before a year, and a high baseline risk of cancers, but not increased with neutering. Now there's too many different dog breeds to name. There was Shetland sheepdogs, st Bernard's all of this we can probably we will link the full study in the show notes so those of you who want to check out your dog breed, if it was in the study, you can do it. But there were some general recommendations from all of this data.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the general recommendation is small dog breeds generally show no increased risk of joint disorders with neutering, maybe because they're small and there's not as much pressure put onto their joints. I know in bunts and steps on me allow the avoidance of those increased risks of joint disorders and cancers.
Speaker 1:I think it's a good idea that there are different breed recommendations for this instead of a general blanket one, because there's huge differences in the breeds, even with Darwin dogs. That was that massive study that found that there's a lot of personality similarities between dog to dog, but there are specific breed personality differences and of course, there's a big difference in physical structure between, say, a golden retriever and a Bernice Mountain dog and a Shih Tzu. They're just completely different dogs when you look at their bone structure, even a dog like the border collie it's able to like, crouch and move sideways like a ninja, based on how its skeletal structure is. Having a look at when your pet should be neutered based on the breed, it is pretty significant and of course, it may be difficult for mixed breeds because this study was not really looking at mixed breeds, it was looking at purebred.
Speaker 2:Committing to owning a pet is a very big decision and there's lots of factors that go into pet ownership, and spaying and neutering is one of those factors. Spaying and neutering is not necessarily a negative thing. Think of Bob Barker and all the pets that he prevented with his spay and neuter your pet campaign as well.
Speaker 1:And of course, you mentioned, chris, that dogs become more amorous without being spayed or neutered on average and every pet parent has to weigh this dog is. It's humping everything it's. You know this dog is humping everything it sees. I don't know if we can wait that long. It's actually damaging the bond we have with the animal and for people who have unspayed dogs, it just takes one oopsies when you're out walking and you've got puppies.
Speaker 2:That's how Bernoulli came to be.
Speaker 1:That's how we got Bernoulli.
Speaker 2:That is how Bernoulli came to be.
Speaker 1:And that's a story for another time.
Speaker 2:That is a story for another time.
Speaker 1:That is a story for another time. All right, good talk, chris. Thanks, that's Pet Science for this week. Hello everybody, here's some ways you can keep the science podcast free. Number one in our show notes sign up to be a member of our Paw Pack Plus community. It's an amazing community of folks who love pets and folks who love science. We have tons of bonus Bunsen and Beaker content there and we have live streams every Sunday with our community. It's tons of fun. Also, think about checking out our merch store. We've got the Bunsen Stuffy, the Beaker Stuffy and now the Ginger Stuffy. That's right, ginger the Science Cat has a little replica. It's adorable. It's so soft, with the giant fluffy tail, safety glasses and a lab coat. And number three if you're listening to the podcast on any place that rates podcasts, give us a great rating and tell your family and friends to listen too. Okay, on with the show. Back to the interviews. It's time for Ask an Expert on the Science Podcast, and I have Dr Kyle Stanley, independent media researcher, with me today. Doc, how are you doing?
Speaker 3:I'm doing great. How about yourself?
Speaker 1:Great, I'm really excited to talk to you. We'll get to what you study in a hot second here. But speaking of how hot things are, are you in a place in the world where this heat wave is just oppressive?
Speaker 3:Absolutely. It is like ridiculous. It's like 100 degrees straight for a couple days.
Speaker 1:I am man, when are you? Where are you Kyle? Where are you in the world?
Speaker 3:So I live in Nashville, tennessee, but I am currently home visiting Louisiana, and it is so hot. I walked outside earlier today to just check the mail and I started sweating and I was only outside for I don't know like 35 seconds, so that it is hot. It is so hot I can't even put words to it how hot it is. But I like it, I'm accustomed to it. I've lived in Louisiana my whole life and I still live in the South. It's all good, but it is hot.
Speaker 1:It is a hot one out there Right. So for the audience listening, I'm talking to Dr Stanley right now and it's like the start of June or July. Sorry, it's the start of July and we've we have a heat wave here in Alberta, canada, where it's almost that temperature for us, if you can believe it. It's unbearably hot for us Canadians outside right now.
Speaker 3:Oh my goodness, bless your soul. I don't know how you're doing it, but goodness.
Speaker 1:We are staying inside our house. Luckily we have air conditioning.
Speaker 3:Could be way worse. Yeah, that's what I say. It always could be worse. I am thankful that I live in a timeframe in the history of human civilization that air conditioning exists. We could be living in the times where you just had to sit in the heat and deal with it. One of those hand fans and just sweat it out, absolutely, absolutely. I'm glad to. I'm glad to live in this time, but glad to be here. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1:So, doc, I introduced you as you have a doctorate. What's going on with your education there? What's your training in?
Speaker 3:So yeah, I do. I have a PhD in media and public affairs in Louisiana State University. I'm really excited about that. But I also have two master's degrees. I have one in strategic communication and one in mass communication, and then I have a BA in political science.
Speaker 3:But I just got to this field through a mix of ways. I was doing quite a few things before I got to working in graduate education and working my PhD. I was a communication, I worked in communication, worked in advertising, I worked as a high school teacher, I worked on profits and then I landed in mass comm and in media and school media and journalism and all the sorts, through just my love of media and media culture. There was one thing that I was in all of my times, in every position and every job I've ever had I've always been someone who has loved the internet and loved internet culture and someone who has invested in the world of entertainment, media and popular cultures. I was like man, how can I like make this my life, like I knew I was? I love that way to go.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's what I wanted. I wanted to. Just I wanted it to be my life. I know that's something that I loved and I loved looking at. One of the things that I did was I said how can I make this my my, my life? How can I become an expert in this so people can look at me as a sense of authority on all these things? Cause I already was an expert, then took a few years to do a couple other things and then found my way back to working in grad school for my master's degrees and then next thing, you know, here I am getting my PhD. And then I finished my PhD now and I love what I do. I get to study the things that I love in media, and then also I'm what we call a pracademic, so I am a practitioner and an academic at the same time, so I am also working in the field.
Speaker 1:I love that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's who I am. So I'm also working in the field right now in social media, in social media management, social media marketing and also continuing to do research on all the things that I love. So I'm just happy to be in this field. I'm in right now and, with the world ever so changing, I think media has a way of really being a window and a guide and a projection for what we want the world to look like. So that's why I'm here.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. What a cool origin story. Now you don't have to date yourself. I'm a Gen Xer and I grew up in a time where there was no internet. Did you grow up in a time where there was no internet? Did you grow up in?
Speaker 3:a time when there always was internet Is that a difference maybe?
Speaker 3:I'm really happy to say that I am at the cusp of Gen Z and millennial, so actually in my late 20s. So it's really exciting to be one of those people that lives in a world that I can say that I remember having dial up internet, but I also have never lived in a world where out without connection to other people or a conscious world where I've not had connection to other people. I got my first cell phone when I was, I want to say, like in second or third grade, and I just remember always being able to be connected to people out there in the world, calling your friends on the phone and having an email address. I remember I got my first email address when I was in first grade. What did I need an email address for in first grade? I didn't, but I just remember it was just so cool that I could just use an email address. I could send email to my aunt and it would just be like chain emails or just emails in general, just like all these different shoes and I'll look at this weird thing that they found in China and it was just like forwarded emails, but those were so cool because I was connected to a world outside of my own.
Speaker 3:I was growing up in rural Louisiana, so it wasn't much that I got to see I was. We didn't travel very much when I was younger, so it was really cool to just see what was going on in the world and just to get to chat with people. And then, like AOL on all these different chat rooms, like that was really cool to just get to chat with different people. And then, as the world evolved like now we have things like Reddit, and just hearing other people's stories and seeing other people's lives I remember like the first days of YouTube and watching like Charlie my finger and yeah, yeah, I just remember that and then like Sophia, grayson, rosie, and watching all the videos in the early, like 2010s and the early 2000s to the early 2010s, and then when I was coming of age and then in high school and then going to college and everything, it was just really cool just to live in a world that I've always been able to be connected to other people.
Speaker 3:And that's why I think I love media so much, because media is just a window into us understanding experiences other than our own and I think a lot of times we're not exposed to as much diversity in our lives, and media is the first place, and often the only place sometimes, that we can see a lot of diversity out if we don't, if we're not exposed to it in our daily life. So that's why I just love it. It's just I eat it up Like I watched my first Bollywood movie on YouTube and I think that was like, oh my gosh, that is just so cool. I don't know, it was just a cool thing for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my origin story. I grew up in a very tiny town in the middle of Alberta, canada, so I was not exposed to much diversity at all. It was like where you could drive to, kind of thing. Yeah, so that's a good point. I never thought of that. You would see people that didn't look like you, people that didn't talk different than you. With a quick search on the internet, yeah, that's something maybe my other, the younger generations, have always had the ability to experience. That's a really profound point actually.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's really cool I would be like thinking of that right now, so I appreciate that it's what I do.
Speaker 3:It's like I said.
Speaker 3:That's's like I said, that's why I love the media, that's why I love learning about media and learning about pop culture as a whole, just because it's just so cool. We get to be exposed to different things because of media and because of the internet and because of movies and television, and our favorite celebrities in the world are always introducing us to something new that we didn't experience from beforehand. That's why I like love like musicians and like artists Like, for instance, like Taylor Swift, the biggest musician in the world right now. She's American and she's exposing American culture and she's selling out stadiums in Zurich and in Sweden and in Amsterdam. And like all over the world, she's sold out like a stadium in Singapore six times in a row. That's American culture being expressed all over the world. And the same thing with them. Like we have BTS and Blackpink and all these Korean pop. K-pop is so big In coming to the Americas and selling out stadiums and the thing is most people don't speak Korean.
Speaker 3:You just know. Like you're just getting exposed to Korean culture and Asian culture through music and I think that how cool is that? Like before the internet. When would that have ever happened? Like the Beatles, of course, exposing the British culture. When will you ever get exposed to that in your life? That's why I just love it. I don't know, it's just so cool.
Speaker 1:I watched the documentary the Last Dance and they made that case that Michael Jordan was that ambassador for American culture because he was so popular and that's why we need those people.
Speaker 3:I think that's so cool. We just have ambassadors for different cultural relations and Michael Jordan being a black man in America. You're seeing a prominent black figure in America go through and talk about the experiences of black men, but he's also exposing the world to like opulence, that is, he's exposing the world to what it means to be a black man. That isn't just like the poverty story or the slave story in America. He was a great athlete who was also wealthy. That's so cool. Like he's like the LeBron James, like he's a wealthy black man in America and that's just. I don't know. It's just so cool.
Speaker 1:Oh man, I that I would. I would travel to my grandparents' house because they had cable to watch the Bulls play. Just I was so enamored with that team, just as a side note there. So cool. That is so cool, I do have to give a shout out to a Canadian who's selling out theaters in Europe Shania Twain, actually.
Speaker 3:Yes, the Canadian pop princess, country pop princess it is.
Speaker 1:Shania Twain. I feel like a woman. Very popular song back in the day.
Speaker 3:Also giving a shout out to the Canadian queen that is, celine Dion, her heart. We gotta love Celine Dion.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my wife and I just watched the documentary on Amazon it was hard to watch in places very powerful.
Speaker 3:No, and I say, take all of her pain away and give it to all the terrible people in the world. Oh, my gosh, she was, I think, Celine Dion. She defined a generation with my heart will go on and then just exposing her exposure and just the beauty of her voice and like what it meant, and that was my first step into Canadian culture. And then I remember I went to Canada a couple of years ago for the first time and I listened.
Speaker 3:The first thing that I wanted to do when I went to Canada I wanted to get all dressed chips, or fully dressed chips, however you call it. I had to get full dress chips, ketchup chips. And then I had to experience. I had to listen to Shania Twain in downtown Toronto. I just had to. I just that was just something I had to do and I feel like I got that great experience. And then get real maple syrup, because we do not sell maple syrup in the South, we only sell pancake syrup. So I needed to try real maple syrup and that was. I felt like I was in Canada when I had all of those things.
Speaker 1:So there you go. You if you, if anybody, if you follow the Bunsen and Beaker account. We are so stereotypical Canadian with everything that we do. We're all the stereotypes even though we don't and I love every part of it.
Speaker 3:I love it. We need more Canadians out there, very vocal and doing their thing. So I love it. I love every part of it. I loved when I went to Canada for the first time. I'm going back to Canada in October, so I'm really excited. So Canadian culture has my heart. Justin Bieber you guys have all the good ones. I'm like, yeah, Justin Bieber, Shania Twain, Celine Dion just down goes the list. It's incredible, I'm really excited.
Speaker 1:I love it. Thanks for shouting out some Canadian culture there. Absolutely, we will always do so. I have a couple questions specific to the stuff that you're an expert in. I would. I've been looking forward to this question because I also love like internet culture and like all that kind of stuff. I, I was, I do. I'm a high school teacher. That's my day job. I teach high school and I challenge my kids some days to name any of the original like video memes, and if they get a couple of them they get a sticker. Right, charlie bit my fingers like one of the original ones, but yeah, they generally can't get any of them. So my question to you is like what are some of your favorite stories so far that have happened in media, like things that you love to talk about that pique your interest the most? I would just love your take on them.
Speaker 3:So in media as a whole there are so many stories that I could get into that I really love. But I really love how meme culture is a way of spreading culture in general, like the meme ability of something, and how memes have become so instantaneous. It's crazy, like I remember like here in the US we had a very interesting presidential debate a couple weeks of something, and how memes have become so instantaneous. It's crazy. I remember here in the US we had a very interesting presidential debate a couple of weeks ago and it was almost instantaneously. You saw people taking screenshots and screen grabs of the debate and using them as different ways of communicating actual experiences that they're going through. And I think one thing that I really love especially about like American black culture, is that we use humor as a coping mechanism, as a way of dealing with pain and dealing with the harsh realities that is pain in America. So we'll use humor. Like during COVID, we had a lot of. A lot of the ways in which we spoke about COVID was through humor. Even though it was one of the most traumatic events to hit the black community in the United States, we still used memes and humor and jokes. And the internet was a space, was the vehicle that allowed those things to happen, and I think that is why I love the internet so much, because it is a way in which you can connect with people from all over the world who may be going through a similar experience as you, but you may not have that in your everyday life, but the internet allows for you to have those communal experiences throughout the world, and so some of the research I do actually talks about just actually just ask people what is it that the internet has done for you? And so it's one of the first research projects I ever did was asking African American individuals how they were coping with the twin pandemics of COVID-19 and the racial uprising and racial injustice that happened in the year 2020 and the racial reckoning that the US was going through, and just how people were using the internet to cope. And one of the ways people were using the internet was to just be in community with one another, because we were physically distant because of COVID, obviously, but we were also dealing with this immense pain that was the world around us. So the world, so the internet, allowed for us to be a community with one another, and that's just not something you can get at any other in any other period of time, in any other period of time, unless you are physically in the same space. Granted, there are big movements that go on, like I'm thinking of the civil rights era in the United States or when we had slave rebellions in the US. Those were all happening simultaneously without the spread of media, but media has allowed for people to be, to cope and to heal and to be together with everything, and that just makes me so excited about what can be done with media.
Speaker 3:Another thing that I really love about media is just the way in which we can use media to tell stories that are often unheard and that traditional media so television, news, television, news, radio, actual film, traditional media may not be able to cover or talk about these stories, but you hear stories of people through scrolling on TikTok, through going on Instagram. There are stories that you would never have been able to hear on traditional mediums, because when you're on a traditional medium, you have a time limit. You have we have a 30 minute show and we have to like only so much time we can dedicate to each segment, and so these are stories that are unfiltered, these are raw, they're coming from their firsthand accounts and reports of what's happening in certain areas of the world or in certain parts of the country, or what's going on, I think, a good example. It's like during natural disasters or during times of war or famine, like you can hear these stories and it just really increases humanity in a way that I think is just so incredible, and we wouldn't have had this at any other period of time rather than right now, and that's why I just think there's so much there.
Speaker 3:The internet is such a chaotic good in the world, so I think that's just some of my favorite. And then, of course, there's just the funny nature of the internet. Like kate middleton when she was out of public eye for a few, like a few months, people were like where is kate middleton?
Speaker 3:all the conspiracy theories coming together yeah, that's right, that's right it was so she had passed away like all of these, and it was so crazy because if there's all this, it all of this is shrouded in mystery about where is Kate Middleton that they were forced to have a response because of all the chaotic nature that was the internet all the speculation. Had the internet have not existed, we probably would not even know Kate Middleton had cancer. I guess that's something the rules probably wanted to kept secret, but it was. I don't want to say cool, because I really hate that for the Kate Middleton and her family, but I think it's so interesting that the internet was able to force the palace's hand on that, and just how humor was a way in which we were able to figure out things in the world.
Speaker 1:I just think that's just so cool. My wife actually was obsessed with that. This is my co-host during the science and pet sections on the podcast, so she's probably listening to this, but she was obsessed with it. She's like do you think this is Kate Middleton or is this a body double? That was another one, wasn't that another thing that was going around?
Speaker 3:Yeah, everyone was assuming she was a body double.
Speaker 1:The person who may or may not be Kate Middleton.
Speaker 3:Or looking at different mannerisms. It's like her hair is a little bit shorter here. Her hand is out of place here. This is not the same. You can tell she has a scar on this side of her face, but you can't see it in this photo. Like all the conspiracy theories and how that worked, that was so chaotic. Didn't the palace screw up with some like weirdly edited photo? Wasn't that the precipitating thing.
Speaker 1:Yes, everybody's like. Well, if that's edited, who knows, though?
Speaker 3:Yeah, that was the straw that broke the camel's back. Is that like they had to rescind, like all of the major news sources had to come back and rescind, saying that this photo has clearly been doctored. So, because it's been doctored, we have to. We can't say that this is actually true or we don't know.
Speaker 3:So that's what forced the palace's hand in terms of actually because they had messed up and they provided or pushed out a clearly doctored photo which, since it was clearly doctored, everyone had to go back and it just further led to more conspiracies. And that's why the palace eventually put out the video of Kate Middleton saying that she was dealing with cancer treatments. And I think that's just the craziest part of it. If we wouldn't have had the internet, we wouldn't have had internet sleuths to figure out that this is a doctored photo. It was that again, just the chaotic nature and the beauty of the internet.
Speaker 1:That's so interesting, do you I? Just one more question before we move on Absolutely. Do you have a current the picture memes like distracted boyfriend? Those memes, yeah, absolutely. Do you have one that's a favorite of yours?
Speaker 3:is there one that you like the best, or all with the times, like a new one comes up and that's your new favorite and the other ones go by the wayside I think it's really funny to just see how quickly screen grabs from like movies and television become memes on the internet or like my favorite meme series are like spongebob memes people using spongebob as a way like there's always a reaction meme that spongebob can use it's. I just think that's so crazy, like that is so funny to me. So I really like spongebob memes, but I also just I like to run with my role with the times. There are a couple that are always going to be tried and true. For me. You're always going to have a good meme just to react to. I have a in my phone and this is actually one of the things that I really love about the current nature is that reaction GIFs or GIFs were like the big thing in the early 2010s. You had to have a GIF reaction to any posts, like a post. If someone said something in a group chat, if someone said something in online, you needed to have a GIF ready to roll. That was a reaction to the phrase.
Speaker 3:And I think Gen Z when Gen Z became the focal point of the internet much like when early 2010s and the late 2000s it was millennials were the cool young people and since millennials were the cool young people. All they did was reaction gifs and it was like talking about doggos and puppers and Harry Potter and the Office and that was much of internet culture. And wearing the big combat boots and having the mustaches and that was much of internet culture. And wearing the like big combat boots and having the mustaches like that was much of internet culture for the early 2010s, and one of the things was having reaction gifs. And now that Gen Z has taken priority on the internet, or taken is the drivers of culture of the internet.
Speaker 3:You're seeing that they do not really use reaction gifs. They use just just reaction memes and it's just a simple reaction photo and sometimes it doesn't even have words to accompany it. You just have to be so chronically online to understand it, and I think that's a part of it. It's because it's really hard to not be on the internet nowadays, and I think that is why I think, then, gen Z has become the focal point of the internet, because they're so.
Speaker 3:It's such chronically online like almost everyone in this generation is online and they don't make it a big deal to say that they're not online, like much as there's a lot of millennials who say I don't use social media and they're proud of that. They wear that as a badge of honor. Most of gen z is uses social media and knows how to use it to an extent, and so I think I'm really curious and excited to see how the internet continues to transform with Gen Alpha and what happens with them. We're already starting to see some changes in language and phraseology amongst Gen Alpha, so where that goes forward. I'm really excited to see how the internet continues to transcend and roll.
Speaker 1:I'm not looking forward for those Gen Alphas getting to my chem class. If somebody says skippity toilet, I'm failing them.
Speaker 3:I just learned what this meant today. I thought I was pretty up with the time, but I learned skippity, toilet, and then I like look what a look a maxer is. Or a max looker, a look maxer and a marker, skippity, ohio, riz, a Sigma. I learned what all these words were, just like when in the past, like week, I didn't know what max lit was. Or a phantom tax and what are all of these things? These words have no meaning. I think they just make them up Like it's just crazy.
Speaker 1:We'll see. Yeah, we'll have to. I'll have to DM you in three or four years, because that's about when the first of the gen alpha will be reaching high school.
Speaker 3:So let's cross our fingers that the internet is still a place that we are allowed on, because I think they're trying to kick us off so quickly because we're so cringe, as they say, which is crazy. I hope the internet doesn't become one large Facebook account. I hope we're not all like Facebookers in the way that, like Gen Z, thinks about Facebook it's like the old people's app. I hope that our platforms don't become the old people apps. I think I just want us to stay relevant. That is the hope.
Speaker 1:There you go, yeah, and you make a good point. When I talk to my younger kids, we our biggest account is on twitter, like the bunsen and beaker account, and a couple of my students will make twitter accounts to see what the bunsen and beaker stuff are doing, because I'm their teacher and I bring my dogs in and the kids love the dogs right, absolutely. But they're like why would use Twitter, like they're just think it's the most disgusting thing in the entire world, so yeah, and I think that's what's happening.
Speaker 3:I thought Twitter was like Twitter was the cool app when I was like in high school and because everyone was on like all of our parents had gotten on Facebook, so Facebook wasn't cool anymore. And then it was like we were trying to find a new place to go. And then it became Instagram and then Instagram started becoming oversaturated. So we were trying to find a new place and Twitter was the cool place to go. And now it's Twitter is disgusting. And then it was like we all transitioned to Tik TOK and now Tik TOK is becoming a cringe worthy app. So we got to stay on top of it. Like I have to remain relevant, like I want to stay.
Speaker 1:You got to stay one step ahead of becoming the dinosaur, hey yes, have to like.
Speaker 3:That's the only way to do. I think that's the case oh so this is.
Speaker 1:This conversation has been joyful for me because I love my. My part-time gig is on social media with the bunsen and beaker stuff. But I have a harder question for you and I would love your opinion on it the rise of social media and social media with the Bunsen and Beaker stuff. But I have a harder question for you and I would love your opinion on it the rise of social media and social media influencers. Do you see that on society or whatever way you feel? Do you see that as a net positive or a net?
Speaker 3:negative. So I'm always someone who practices just the idea of radical optimism and just thinking that we are largely in a good place because of the internet. I think the internet has done us some disservices, but mostly we are in a good place because of the internet. Influencers can be like influencers have been around forever, like one of the most tried and true media theories that exists is called the two-step flow model of communication, and the two-step flow model argues, is that we have, there is the primary level of like there are a primary level of people who need to be influenced, so that's the masses, and then they go to what is called opinion leaders.
Speaker 3:So in the back in the olden days, like olden days like the early 1900s or like up until the 40s and 50s, these were just like you would go to the news, like you would go to CBS or NBC or ABC and you would go and see what they were talking about and how they were broadcasting stories and what products were being advertised to you. And we were going and if people were talking about them, then that is something that you would take on. Or you would go and watch old movies and if they're all driving this one type of car in this movie, then that influences us to go and buy that car. It's the same thing is still true, like you think. That's why product placement still exists in movies. I watched the Mean Girls movie, the new Broadway, the Broadway, like the movie adaptation of the Broadway musical, and it was just a huge makeup ad in my opinion, but that was Morphe makeup products and all these different makeup products and iPhone characters and all of this was a huge product placement because the idea was for you to be influenced by that, because they want you to see these products being used by people you want to associate with. So I don't think that it's going to it's necessarily a bad thing. We've always been influenced. We have always had product placement. We've always had these things.
Speaker 3:The change now is that there are people who are making careers and monetizing and this is becoming their life. Their whole life is to be someone who influences you to buy products, or the idea is that the way in which I live my life is that you should aspire to be like me and use these things, because if you want to be like me, I use these products and you'll become more like me. It builds up the idea of parasocial ideation. There was this baseball cap, and it was a very nonchalant, very small baseball cap that Taylor Swift had worn and it said I can't remember what exactly it was like it was. Like it said still here in New York that baseball cap sold out within 15 minutes of it being online, within 15 minutes of people finding out where it was online. It sold out within 15 minutes and that's simply because Taylor Swift wore it. The same thing is true when you see Beyonce wearing these big Christian Dior pieces or you're seeing your favorite influencer wearing these red shoes or using this water bottle. It's because they the idea is that it is supposed to influence you, and I think sometimes that's a good thing.
Speaker 3:Chaotically, we are not people who like to make a lot of decisions for ourselves. It's just not something that we want to do. In our brains, we use these mental shortcuts to make decisions about people in situations, and these are called heuristics. So, like we are, we receive so much information every single day that it's impossible for our brain to categorize and store all of it. So one of the things that our brains do is that they just bank it in one big idea and we use these mental shortcuts or these heuristics to make decisions about different aspects of our life. So if I see, for instance, in voting, like in US, if we see a D or an R, we generally know what each of those people represent or what they believe or what they stand for. We do the same thing when we see a product. If we see Alex Earl wear a piece, or she is endorsing this makeup product, we generally know what kind of makeup products it's going to be because she's doing so. Or if we see our favorite gym influencer, a gym fluencer, using this kind of creatine, this creatine is going to make us more likely to look like him, because we want to be like him or her or whomever they may be, and so that's one of the ways in which we use those mental shortcuts and these little mental tricks in order to understand how we consume all of this information.
Speaker 3:So I think it's a good thing that we are being influenced, because we do not like to make a lot of decisions. I think I would like for us to be critical and to make all the decisions and to be critical consumers of media or critical consumers of television and all the things. But sometimes it's good to have our opinions be influenced, because sometimes it can lead to less stress if we know this is what it is. If I see a bunch of people endorsing this product, if I see my favorite opinion leader or my favorite influencer endorsing this product and I buy it, I'm more likely to buy it, and then I can tell my friend about it and my friend's going to buy it because I'm an opinion leader for my friend, and so on and so forth, to where that product is now at the forefront.
Speaker 3:I like to think that I'm someone who's immune to influencing, but I have caught myself buying products off the internet that I never thought I would need. Like I bought a stone bath mat because I saw on a TikTok video that a stone bath mat they don't mold and they dry very quickly. And next thing I have a stone bath mat in my bathroom or I I I there's this new candy that I'm obsessed with that I didn't and I would never have bought it if I didn't see it on the internet. So it's just. I think that it's a good thing. I'm like led to, I don't have to think as deeply or as hard about something because there are people who make those decisions for me, and even if I didn't want to, I still can. So it's just, it's crazy. I like it. I think it's like it is a good thing that influencing exists, and I think it's a net positive that the internet has become a place to where we can have all of these experiences at the same time.
Speaker 1:That. What an interesting response, I feel. Wasn't there a really popular TV show that won a ton of awards about influencing people, but from an early era, called Mad Men? Wasn't? Mad Men, just all about making advertisements to make people buy stuff.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and that's the thing. Advertising has always worked. Advertising works in that way, and there's a fact that I will tell you. It's 75% of all products bought in the United States are bought by women, and I think that is don't quote me on that, I believe I, but I'm pretty sure it's a percent of all products in the United States are bought by women. So that a lot of the ways in which we can market towards women and women like in femininity I think that's a cooler way that we, that we can get more products sold. That's why so many women are into beauty influencing, that's why so many women, or that's why so many of our favorite products are marketed towards women, because women make a lot of the financial decisions in the United States, and I think that's what's most important.
Speaker 3:We had this big trend of like girlhood in the past year or so and we saw a lot of like Barbie and like the heiress tour and Beyonce, and we like a lot of girl power and we had that was a big trend in the United States last year and we saw women talking about hot girl walks and girl dinners and because girlhood is marketable, we can sell things to women because women want to have a collective experience and if girls are doing this, if quote unquote girlhood is something that exists for all of us, or something that exists for just men and women or for just women, then more women are likely to buy products around girlhood.
Speaker 3:That's why things are marketed towards the quote unquote girls. If we want the girls to do this thing, we want women to go and see this. If we market a movie towards women, more women are going, are more likely to go and see it. I think that's just. That's the cool thing about the internet. I just think that's the cool thing about the world is that we can use those experiences and use those products and use all of those things as ways in which we can come together and understand the world around us. It's just again. I think the Internet is such a chaotic good. It's chaotic, yes, but it is such a good and net positive for us that we can't take away from it.
Speaker 1:I do resonate with what you said about how you thought you were not influenced, like you were non-influencible. I thought it was yeah, yeah, and I don't have a lot of free time, but when I do one of my, one of my things I love to do is I play video games occasionally and I was like this game, people are talking about it. And then I saw this person that I really respected was talking about this video game called Baldur's Gate three.
Speaker 1:And I was like oh, I should probably pick that up and it was amazing. So great game and I got a couple of books for the summer and I was influenced by a thing on Tik TOK this person was talking about. It was like book talk. There's this whole thing on TikTok called book talk and I was totally influenced about getting this book and it's an amazing book. It is exactly the kind of book I would like to see Good job, good job algorithm yeah, the algorithms.
Speaker 3:They know what we want. They know what we want, they know what we like. And I thought again I was immune from it. And I think all of my book recommendations in the past three years have come from TikTok. I think every book that I have read maybe with the exception of three, with the exception of the ones that I'm reading for grad school what I read for grad school and for my job and education but most of them were books that I just picked up from the TikTok. I would go on BookTok and they would show me all these different books and I'm like, oh my gosh, this is something that I love. I didn't think I would like this. I thought I was someone who only read nonfiction, educational books, and then I realized I like reading like historical fiction and I like reading like fantasy and I like reading all of these things because of book talks, those were never have known where to start.
Speaker 1:You go into a bookstore and you're like I don't know. So at least, it gave me a place to start.
Speaker 3:And I think that's yeah, and I think that's cool. Imagine, like just even 20 years ago, that wasn't a possibility for you. You had to get suggestions from people who work at the bookstore. You had to get suggestions from friends. And if and I think what's really cool is if you can go on the internet and say I like books or I like learning about X Y Z, say you're an aviary and you need someone who really loves birds, you can find a bunch of books about birds and like bird romances and bird watchers united, like you can just find all of those things through the internet and you can find books about those things and you can find like novels about birds, and I think that's and the algorithms will help. The algorithm will help get you to that place. You search it one time. The algorithm now knows that's what you're interested in and next thing, you're getting a bunch of videos about books about birds and I think that isn't that just so cool. Like I think in the algorithms yeah go ahead, go ahead, sorry.
Speaker 3:No, just saying that the other algorithms are places that, granted, we don't know how algorithms work all the time, we don't know what's the best way to like, how can we advance on this and that and the third, but it's a cool thing that the internet becomes a place for us all because of the algorithm. Like, we can all go on the internet and we are starting to see and be fed and consume this different type of this, all of this information because of the algorithm, because it knows what we like and it learns what we like and it introduces us to things that we may not even have known that we liked, and I think that's why I'm just such a huge fan of the internet and internet culture.
Speaker 1:Just quickly, fun aside, two things. I've tried to explain that to my students because I grew up in a time I was in middle school until I think we got internet in grade 10, when I was in grade 10. I don't know what that is in an American, so your sophomore year of high school.
Speaker 1:Right, okay, yeah, because it's different down there. Anyways, yeah, I try to explain to my students. I'm like when you didn't know something, unless you could find somebody who knew to say, hey, dude, what's do you know the answer to this question. They're like what are you talking about? No, or you went to the library and poked around for an hour, if you're desperate, you just didn't know the thing, you just didn't know the thing, you just didn't know the answer. So I'm like, guys, you go on a Chromebook, you can know anything, yeah, and it's at your fingertips, you can just learn any information you want.
Speaker 3:It's really crazy how even our younger students can become experts on something in a matter of like hours. If you just tell them I want to know everything about D-Day, they can go and watch a bunch of videos about D-Day. They can watch a bunch of TikTok videos, a bunch of YouTube videos, read a bunch of like little articles about it on the internet, and they can come to you and tell you things that you would have never known about D-Day, or pick a historical topic of World War II, and then that's why it became like an internet meme the Roman Empire. Do all men think about the Roman Empire?
Speaker 1:Because for me, I, my wife, got my wife and I talked about that and it was true I do think about the roman empire like every week.
Speaker 3:I I don't know if I was every week, but I definitely thought about like the rise of rome and like roman culture in greek mythology. I definitely think about, I definitely think about the world in which the, the romans, existed. I I think that. So my roman empire wasn't necessarily greek culture, but it was early American history. And I think about early American history all the time and like what the founders and like how we got to this place and what the founders would have thought of for X, y, zs. I think about early American history all the time. Personally, why I'm such a big nerd? Because I love I just love learning. I like I love learning and doing, knowing something new.
Speaker 1:That is just the coolest thing for me, my, my true Roman empire is space. Yeah, I think about any. I think about space.
Speaker 3:Space scares me so I try not to think too much about it. I just I think that there's I don't know what it's called Just like at any given moment there can be a black hole that can open up in the in space at any time, and we don't know when it can happen or where, but it's, it's always, it's the possibility is rare but not zero, and that scares me. So I try not to think too much about space, because it's like, wow, it's so scary and it's it's so much of it is still unexplored. We like, we don't, I don't know if we can ever, we'll ever be able to explore all the space. That's just so scary to me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're called quantum mechanical black holes, I believe.
Speaker 3:Yeah, see and see, you knew that. Yeah, that's your Roman empire, cause you knew that right off the top of your head. I it would have taken me all day to figure that out Like random black holes just opening in the world.
Speaker 1:So, doc, we have a couple of standard questions we ask our guests on the show. One is for a pet story we love. When are the experts we have on talk about their pets? I was wondering if you could share a pet story with us.
Speaker 3:Yes, I used to have this dog. His name was Duke. He was my favorite dog in the entire world. So fun fact about me is I love miniature Schnauzers. They are my favorite dog.
Speaker 3:They are my favorite. I love grandpa looking dogs. I don't know what it is about a miniature Schnauzer. My first dog ever in the world was a miniature Schnauzer and his name was Smokey. He was all black. And then my last dog that I had, his name was Duke. I called him Duke Skywalker because he was just the coolest thing ever and I was really obsessed with Star Wars at the time. But he used to pee a lot and I really don't understand why. We can never figure out what his thing was, but he used to pee all the time and he was our family dog. And then I had gone off to college and so I didn't get to see him as often, but my family had come down, for I don't know if it was like graduation or a ceremony or something, but they had come down and Duke got to stay with me at my student house at the time.
Speaker 3:And Duke, I feel like dogs are good judges of character. I just think that they are. I think if your dog doesn't like someone, that should tell you like be a big red flag. And this friend I don't know, I won't call him a friend this person that I was hanging out with the time he I don't know, and call him a friend, this person that I was hanging out with the time. My dog peed on him and I think it was the funniest thing ever at the time. He peed on him and he would growl at him this whole time and I later learned that this friend went to jail because he was a stealer. And so I think, yeah, this friend went to jail because he would steal.
Speaker 3:And I now say, if a dog does not like someone, it is because it is for good reason, because dogs are good judges of character. And so this dog, my dog, peed on this guy that I was hanging out with at the time. He peed all over him but he would growl at him. And then now I'm looking back on it and I'm like, ah, my dog was right, he was not a good person, but yeah, I think that was my favorite. Like Duke story, he would pee all the time on different people and he also would just, he used to come up to me all the time and I felt like he had the most human personality and he would just rub his, like nudges my hand, like he would put his hand head under my head, under my hand, and nudge me so I would pet him and he was just like the cutest thing ever, so I love that dog to death.
Speaker 1:And I'm so sad he's no longer with us. But he is my pride and joy and I love that dog with all of my heart. I love that story. Kyle dogs generally do like people with sticky fingers, but maybe not the kind yeah, no, probably not.
Speaker 3:Nah, he was again a good judge of character, because that friend is now in jail because he broke into someone's house and I think that is a smart. I think I made the right decision and then listening to my dog, that's true Dogs can sense things that we can't.
Speaker 1:Yes, absolutely I don't know if there's a lot of science to back that up, but they're pretty good judge of character.
Speaker 3:I will die on that hill. I think that's so cool.
Speaker 1:Thanks for sharing Thanks for sharing, no problem. And to close, we challenge all of our guests to share a super fact with us. It's something that you know, that you tell people in conversation, that kind of blows their mind. Do you have a super fact for us?
Speaker 3:I have a super fact that is a fun fact. In the late nineties the US government there was like this huge shipment of like yellow rubber ducks and the shipment of yellow rubber ducks is a lost. So there are about like 30,000 yellow rubber ducks in the middle of yellow rubber ducks is a lost. So there are about like 30,000 yellow rubber ducks in the middle of the ocean, like floating out in the ocean, and we have no clue where they are.
Speaker 1:So yes, crate or something.
Speaker 3:They're not in a crate.
Speaker 3:The crate busted open the crate.
Speaker 3:But the thing is, most of the ocean is largely unexplored.
Speaker 3:So at some point in human history there is going to be someone out in the middle of the ocean. They're going to come up on 30,000 rubber ducks and I like to think that this is going to happen after, like, the death of like human civilization and like the next like alien people are going to come and they're going to think that we had, we worshiped, rubber ducks, and so that is my super fact. But, like I said, my favorite super fact is the kind of one that I revealed earlier that 75% of all products bought in the United States are bought by women and that people of color make are the largest consumers of Mexican Americans and African Americans are the largest consumers of cinema in the in the world. Rather, african Americans and Mexican Americans consume more movies, go to movies more than any other group of people in the entire world, and I think that says a lot about the future of the movie and media industry and like who we should be marketing movies towards and telling more stories of people of color.
Speaker 1:Wow, I didn't. That is mind blowing. I didn't know that. That's very cool.
Speaker 3:That is very cool. That is one of my favorite things to say is that Mexican Americans and African Americans we so I think we should start making more movies of better, authentic to African American and Mexican American heritages and stories that don't necessarily aren't from a point of pain, but rather a point of just the authentic nature of African and Mexican American culture. So I think of Black Panther, too, that told the story of African Americans and the Mesoamericans and what that did for cinema, the future of media, think about that, because those are the largest, those are the people that are going to see those movies. So I think that's cool.
Speaker 1:We do have some Hollywood types that listen to the show, so I'm excited.
Speaker 3:Hey, I'm always available. So let me know. I'm available for consultation. Just hit me up, I'm there.
Speaker 1:There, hit me up, I'm there. There you go, hey, and that's a great lead in Kyle. Are you on social media? Can people connect with you or follow?
Speaker 3:you? Yes, absolutely. If you would like to follow me, you can follow me on Twitter at Kyle T, as in tall K, as in kite Stanley, so Kyle TK Stanley my Tik TOK is of the same name at Kyle TK Stanley, and you can follow me on Instagram at Kyle Stanley. So just no T, just at Kyle Stanley, and I'm available. Shoot me a DM, let me know if you'd like to chat and I'm always available. Super excited.
Speaker 1:That's awesome For folks who are listening. As always, we will have some of those hyperlinked in the show notes, so you're one click away from following the doc here. Very cool, thank you. We're at the end of our chat chat. Honestly, I could talk to you for hours and hours about this is fascinating. You're so engaging. Thank you so much for being a guest on our show today, kyle.
Speaker 3:I so appreciate it thank you, and thank you for having me. We'll have to do it again sometime no family section this week.
Speaker 1:Adam is in quebec, uh, having a good old time. Uh, chris and I eagerly wait his calls every night to tell us the adventures he's up to ziplining speaking French, because you know, of course, he was in French immersion, so it's good to hear that he and Annalise are having a great trip. All right, that's the end of today's episode. Thanks for coming back week after week to listen to the Science Podcast. Thanks to our guests this week, and also a big shout out to our top tier supporters on the Paw Pack. If you want to join us to help out what we do, content wise, there's going to be a link to become part of the Paw Pack, chris. Let's hear the names.
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