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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 29: Urban Safety, Pessimistic Pets, and Combatting Plastic Pollution
Ever wondered how micromobility devices like e-scooters and e-bikes are shaking up our urban landscapes?
Join us as we unravel a Columbia University study that reports an alarming surge in injuries from these devices.
With personal anecdotes, like our son Duncan's harrowing scooter crash, we dissect the need for smarter urban planning and heightened safety measures. From defining micromobility to discussing enhanced injury surveillance, this segment offers a comprehensive look into the future of eco-friendly transportation and the urgent need for better safety protocols.
Have you ever felt that your dog just knows when you're feeling down or stressed? We dive into the emotional bond between humans and dogs, sharing my own experience with a severe headache and how Bunsen, our Bernese Mountain Dog, seemed to sense my distress. We explore a captivating study that examines dogs' emotional reactions to human stress and relaxation odors through a clever optimism and pessimism test. Alongside whimsical personal stories about dolphins and sound machines, we connect the dots between various stimuli and their effects on both human and animal emotions.
Plastic pollution is more than just an environmental issue; it's a looming health crisis for both humans and pets. We're joined by Aidan Charron from the End Plastics Initiative, who illuminates the dangers of microplastics, including their ability to breach the blood-brain barrier and accumulate in major organs. From discussing eco-friendly pet care alternatives to sharing dramatic tales like Larry the farm cat’s first bath and Bunsen's recovery from a tapeworm cyst, we provide actionable steps to reduce plastic exposure. This episode is a call to action for a healthier planet, enriched with heartwarming pet stories and valuable insights.
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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 29 of season 6. We didn't have an episode last week because we lived a month in one week and we might talk a little bit about that in the family section. I covered it in our newsletter. A long story short. Bunsen's cyst came back with what it was and it was unbelievable. We should probably do a whole episode about what it was, but the positive part of it is he's going to be okay and that huge weight was lifted off our shoulders. The big guy should live a normal life for a Bernice mountain dog and we're just thrilled. I'm getting all teary eyed, all right. Well, thanks for waiting for us to get a show out.
Speaker 1:What's on the science podcast this week? In science news, chris and I are going to break down a new study that highlighted the increase in accidents from those e-scooters and e-bikes. Oh, and, in pet science we break down a study about how our emotions can affect dogs maybe negatively and you'll have to stick around for that section, because I found out something shocking about what happened to Chris in grade one. Our guest in Ask an Expert is Aidan Sheeran from the End Plastics Initiative, who's going to talk to us about some of the dangers of plastic with pets, and it's not something we've covered before, but I'm glad that the folks who are looking at decreasing our reliance on plastic or the dangers of microplastic are also doing research with our four-legged pals within our homes.
Speaker 1:Within our homes All right, bad joke. Homes All right, bad joke. I don't like paper puns because they're absolutely terrible. Okay, all right, on with the show, because there's no time like science time. This week in science news, chris and I are going to talk about the rising incident of injuries related to e-scooters. Chris, have you seen the e-scooters out and about?
Speaker 2:I sure have. I've never been on one, but I've seen them in town and I've seen people using them and they look like they're having a great time.
Speaker 1:They're everywhere and when I was in Calgary presenting there was an army of them everywhere. It seemed like they were a pretty popular way to get around and I know at our gym, josh trainer, josh, he has an electric scooter that he uses.
Speaker 2:Okay Now does he rent it from the city or does he have his own purchased e-scooter?
Speaker 1:No, he bought his e-scooter but I guess it just books it. And that's perhaps related to the story and the study that we're going to be talking about Our son Duncan, who's quite a bit older than Adam, who's been moved out for a while, he had was it two years ago Two years ago in the summer a pretty significant crash on his scooter.
Speaker 2:Yes, Thank goodness he was wearing a helmet. I believe he was wearing a helmet, but we're not sure of the circumstances surrounding his accident. But I think he was booking it very quickly because the doctor said that the fracture of his eye socket occurred due to a significant impact on his scooter.
Speaker 1:So this study comes from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and it looked at e-bikes and powered scooters between 2019 and 2022. Now the stats are shocking, but it makes sense when you think these weren't really used en masse before this point. But the short and long of it is the e-bike injuries increased by almost 300% 293% and powered scooter injuries increased by 88% in those three short years. All of this research is published in the American Journal of Public Health and it's basically filling the gaps on understanding what happened to society as we had more and more use of these things called micromobility devices. And Chris, you're going to talk about micromobility. And Chris, you're going to talk about micromobility Right.
Speaker 2:I'd first like to define micromobility, and they include small, low-speed human or electric-powered vehicles, such as e-bikes powered scooters, bicycles and also hoverboards. Don't call Marty McFly Great Scott, Great Scott. And interestingly, e-bikes sales surged by 269% between 2019 and 2022. So that surpassed electric car and truck sales. So people were interested in these vehicles, these small vehicles to get around small vehicles to get around.
Speaker 1:So I guess it comes, as, like I said, no surprise that probably if we had a whole bunch of more folks using these devices, that more people might be injured using these devices. There is a call because of this crazy increase in injury for improved safety measures. For example, dr Catherine Burford, who is one of the authors and an expert in epidemiology, stressed the need for better micromobility injury surveillance. This improves safety strategies in making micromobility a secure, sustainable and equitable mode of transportation, and that's critical because e-bikes aren't cheap but they're way less than a car and they go so fast and require less pedaling power than a bike that they compete with cars for how fast you can get around cities. So they're a way you can have your freedom and not maybe be jammed on a bus or a light rail transit, like LRT in Calgary, edmonton. Studying these more could also influence emergency department resource allocations and change the urban planning to promote safer micromobility use.
Speaker 2:That's right and I remember our city of Red Deer spent a lot of time discussing even having the e-scooters available here in our community. They definitely were looking at the trends and initially it was a pilot project for the summer where they thought let's open this up. And that study that we cited said out of 48.9 million total injuries leading to an emergency department visit, 1.9 million were associated with micromobility devices.
Speaker 1:So almost 2 million of the 49 million people who went to emergency were a result of micromobility devices.
Speaker 2:Wow, and the majority involved bicycles, with 33.2 injuries per a thousand emergency department visits, and that was followed by powered scooters and hoverboards and then e-bikes. So e-bikes were 1.2 per thousand and hoverboards were 1.8 per thousand and powered scooters were 3.4 per thousand, and I think I think people have more access to a typical bicycle, just like you did, and you definitely were hit by cars when you were living in Edmonton and in Red Deer too.
Speaker 1:I did not go to the emergency room so I would not be part of this statistic, though I probably should have. For the first time I got hit. I think I got a concussion from that and I got my leg all scraped up. My bike got totaled because somebody T-boned me and then drove away. But there was no powered scooters back when I was in university, I just had powered Jason bicycle university I just had powered jason bicycle.
Speaker 2:Your legs did the powering and that might lead to a demographic pattern that the study noticed. So 76 percent of hoverboard injuries involved individuals under 18 years of age, so the young ones are using the hoverboards oh, I would never get on a hoverboard ever like we had a couple at the school.
Speaker 1:Oh, pre COVID the school bought a bunch of hoverboards for the student leadership and they were zipping around the school on the hoverboards and then they gave it to a teacher to try and he went butt over tea kettle Like the second he got. It went flying backwards on his head. No, he wasn't injured. But after that I was like there's no way I'm getting on this stupid thing, I'll just walk.
Speaker 2:Thank you, thank you Next up the e-bikes and power scooters. Those injuries were more common in individuals aged 18 to 44, with 57% of powered scooter injuries and 49 of e-bike injuries in that age group.
Speaker 1:That means you're a little older.
Speaker 2:You're a little older, maybe you don't want to use your human-powered legs to get around. That's right, because otherwise if you had a scooter I had a scooter when I was a kid, but it definitely was one that you scooted with your leg- there was a rage of scooters when Melissa was young, right?
Speaker 1:Do you remember that yeah?
Speaker 2:yes, melissa had to have a scooter, for sure.
Speaker 1:Melissa is our niece, who has Ellie and Rafi who maybe people recognize the names Ellie and Rafi.
Speaker 2:Anyways, sorry, oh that's okay.
Speaker 1:I was going to talk about older adults.
Speaker 2:So we're not quite that old, we're not quite that old. So 65 to 84, 84. And they had the highest injury rates were that were bicycle related, which was closely followed by e-bike injuries.
Speaker 1:So they're still riding bikes, but they're getting on the e-bikes that's because, if I'm thinking of my dad, he like he'd be like you whippersnappers and your electronic powered bikes, shaking his fist at clouds. I'm not going to ride them contraptions.
Speaker 2:Jason, your dad can't ride a bike because his hip is destroyed.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's true.
Speaker 2:That's true. So I think his bike riding days are over.
Speaker 1:Okay, so there are risk factors. Obviously Alcohol use increases the association with injuries. It's the highest association with all of the injuries is alcohol use. Make sure you're wearing a helmet. The people who wound up in the emergency room only 20% of the cases had helmets. So that could be improved. And straight up, they suggest hoverboards don't use. Those were often diagnosed as concussions and had the lowest rate of helmet use and I believe in the original study it was less than 1%. They're a death trap. Don't get on a hoverboard.
Speaker 1:The good thing is that over time, hoverboard related injuries have declined. That may be because there's been a bunch of warnings about it and people have watched TikTok videos of people just absolutely wrecking themselves on. Injuries have declined. That may be because there's been a bunch of warnings about it and people have watched TikTok videos of people just absolutely wrecking themselves on hoverboards. I believe there's a famous one of Mike Tyson getting on one and him flipping over his couch. So maybe people got the message that just don't go on a hoverboard. I don't see them anymore. I don't think they're popular, chris. Have you seen anybody on a hoverboard lately? I don't think they're popular, chris have you seen anybody on a hoverboard lately?
Speaker 2:No, the only person I've seen on a hoverboard is Marty McFly. In Back to the Future, michael J Fox.
Speaker 1:I think, though, as we go forward, chris, there's still a bunch of challenges with looking at the data from all of this micromobility e-tech stuff.
Speaker 2:The data on helmet and substance abuse, along with other risk factors, remains incomplete, and legislation regulating micro-mobility usage, including riding under the influence of alcohol or drugs, is inconsistent and difficult to pass. And as well, I really do think the e-scooters that we have from the city have toggled their max speed, whereas if you purchase one, there is not a throttle on the speed, so they can go much more quickly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that doesn't even get into road conditions, because maybe, if I don't know, you're in California where it doesn't really get snowy. I know there's places in California that snow. I'm just picking on California right now. You can just ride your e-scooter around the clock, but I don't think it'd be safe to ride an e-scooter or e-bike and be booking it in January. It'd be icy and snowy.
Speaker 2:It's super cold and the moose and deer are out.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, that's right. I did read a story of somebody a moose did chase somebody who was on an e-scooter and it caught up to them because the e-scooter couldn't go faster than the moose.
Speaker 2:That would be terrifying, that would be so terrifying, you just kind of go as fast as you can.
Speaker 1:The thing's like governed at 40 kilometers an hour. Moose can run 60.
Speaker 2:Oh my god, that's. That would be terrifying, exactly. Damn you, throttler city employee yeah anyways.
Speaker 1:So I guess the moral of the story is don't go on a hoverboard straight up, just throw those into the sun and wear a helmet and don't drink and scoot. That's science news for this week. This week in pet science, Chris and I are going to break down a study from the University of Bristol that looked at how dogs experience emotional cognition from the smell of human stress. Now, do our dogs know when we're stressed? Do you think?
Speaker 2:Jason, you told me a really wonderful story today about Bunsen and you had woken up with a migraine and you were laying down and Bunsen came over and spent some time with you this morning and that's not typical for him to do.
Speaker 1:No, he, yeah. So it's stupid. Sometimes I get these headaches and they have been occurring more often when I'm like in the middle of the night and I wake up with them, which really sucks and yeah. So I woke up and I put on, took some Tylenol and you bought me this like eye cover thing that I kept in the fridge that like cools my head. That really helped, but I was like I was in a lot of pain. It was awful. I didn't know if I'd be able to teach today. Yeah, and Bunsen came over and he wanted he gave me a hug, like he he wasn't like wanting a pet, he wanted. He put his head on my chest and he let me hug him and he just did that quietly for like a long time I don't know how long. So maybe he was sensing my stress or my pain.
Speaker 2:So previous research in humans suggests that the smell of a stressed person subconsciously influences the emotions and decisions of those around them, and I can definitely attest to that.
Speaker 1:I am an emotional empath and so when there's energy around, I definitely pick up on that energy, whether it's positive or negative I've remarked on this so many times when I used to do security at the wessoner there start starts to get like this thick, icky feeling in the air before a brawl and I don't know why people want to go to the fair to have a giant fight. But every Saturday there's a fight and maybe because it's happened before on a Saturday, I was gearing up for it, but it's. You could feel the gross energy of like people waiting in the line and they're not really waiting in the line to go on the ride, they're waiting in the line to see what's going to happen and they want to be part of the problem. So, yeah, I hear you, chris.
Speaker 2:Exactly, exactly. It's sometimes hard to put your finger on it, but you can definitely sense it when it's happening. And the researchers investigated whether dogs also experience emotional changes in response to human stress and relaxation odors.
Speaker 1:So the way they designed the study was pretty clever. The research team used a test of optimism and pessimism in animals. They didn't put a glass in front of the dogs and say, is it half full or half empty? Because knowing Bernoulli, he would just drink it all or spill it 100% Ginger would spill it A hundred percent.
Speaker 2:Ginger would spill it. Ginger has spilt the water.
Speaker 1:That's right. Okay, I got. Maybe it's ginger spilling the water and blaming it on Bernoulli.
Speaker 2:I think so.
Speaker 1:Anyways, these traits are commonly associated with positive or negative emotional states and that's what they use to test pessimism and optimism in animals. There was 18 dog owner pairs participating in trials where the dogs were exposed to different human odors, including stress and relaxation smells. Now I tried to figure out in the study how they got a stress smell, but in a previous dog study they stress people out by making them do math. They did like math minutes and forced people to do math minutes and half the time they should have got, and then they wipe the sweat off of people because it made everybody super stressed out. So I know you're a math teacher, Chris. I don't know how that makes you feel. I'm not sure if they use that in this study.
Speaker 2:I'm not sure, but I tell you, math stress is a is math anxiety and stress is a definite thing.
Speaker 1:Oh, it is Okay. So the dogs were trained to recognize two bowl locations One had a treat and another was empty and they learned to differentiate between the bowls. After learning to differentiate between the bowls, the dogs were tested on how quickly they approached a new ambiguous bowl, and that location was placed between the original two. Now maybe you know where the study is going with that and, chris, I'll let you finish it.
Speaker 2:So that's how they measured the optimistic and pessimistic response. So a fast approach to an ambiguous bowl indicated optimism, meaning the dog expected to find food, which is a sign of a positive emotional state, whereas a slower approach indicated pessimism, suggesting the dog did not expect to find food and reflected a negative emotional state. So the trials were repeated under three conditions One, no odor. Two, the odor of a stressed human. And three, the odor of a relaxed human. Oh, and actually Jason, at this point in the study, and actually Jason at this point in the study they talked about how they got the human stress, which was induced by an arithmetic test.
Speaker 1:It was it's the same as the last one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is. And then relaxation came from listening to soundscapes. So, like dolphins, I don't know if it was dolphins.
Speaker 1:But listening to to the dolphins makes me relaxed. It doesn't make me relaxed. Relaxed, I like listening to ocean waves.
Speaker 2:That's on my sound machine but there's no dolphins, I'm gonna put dolphins in there, I'm gonna I'm gonna hack your sound machine chris has this, I don't know where it is.
Speaker 1:It's like a is it a pen or a globe? And it's a dolphin and when you tip it it went like it made a dolphin sound. And I have it was like nails on a chalkboard, this thing. When we first started dating, I think it was one of your prize possessions and you're like look at this and then you twist Anyways, I don't know, and you'd twist anyways. I like dolphins, they're very cute, but no, the sounds are not just not relaxing to me at all.
Speaker 2:Jason, I put those sounds into HyperCard. So remember when we had to program HyperCard and it took up so much space and I said to the professor this was at college I said to the professor I need more space, like it's not fitting on a floppy disk, and he just looked at me. He's like do you really need to put in that sound? Yes, yes, I do.
Speaker 1:That's funny. That single sound broke your project back in the day because you couldn't do it Like a sound today is nothing with the amount of memory we have.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's terrible.
Speaker 1:That's funny Anyways. So here's some of the findings, which are fun Dogs who were exposed to the stress odor were slower to approach ambiguous bowls located near the trained empty bowl. That indicates that the stress smell made them pessimistic, and the relaxed human odor did not cause the same effect, suggesting that stress odors specifically influence a dog's expectations about rewards. So, in short, relaxing odor didn't seem to affect the dog. Stress odor made the dog like this is not great and more you know less likely to approach a new situation with glee.
Speaker 2:They want to prevent disappointment.
Speaker 1:What does that mean, Chris? If it smells like disappointment around them, the dogs just want to conserve energy.
Speaker 2:And prevent that disappointment? Yeah, and I don't blame them. So this study reminds me of Bernoulli and when we were training him to find treats underneath the yogurt containers, I really loved that and he was so happy when he found the treat and he was such a quick learner after he got the treat. We're really only positive with Bernoulli, so I hope he's not getting pessimistic smells off of us, not getting pessimistic smells off of us. But despite in the study, the pessimistic responses, dogs continue to improve their learning about which bowls contain food, which is interesting because dogs learned faster about the presence or absence of food in the trained locations when the stress smell was present.
Speaker 1:Oh, interesting.
Speaker 2:That reminds me of learning math facts my friend from grade one. We used to do math facts in pairs, a war game when you have the cards and then you go quickly and you flip them over and then the highest card wins and you get the cards quick. That was a quick game, but no, it was math facts and you had to say the math fact and then give the answer. And if I didn't give the answer she beat me up. What it's true?
Speaker 1:why didn't the teacher stop this? I don't know oh, this was the the 80s and 90s, where bullying was everywhere and it had just happened yeah, anyway. So I really learned my math facts under high stress and so you're thinking I could teach the periodic table this way with my high school students no, you would be fired.
Speaker 2:That's true, pb.
Speaker 1:PB. What is it? Peanut butter Whack? No, it's lead and I'm fired.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that's not a recommend Not do not recommend.
Speaker 1:Very bad. Very bad for your career, but good for learning math facts.
Speaker 2:I got faster at answering because I didn't want to get punched.
Speaker 1:It's terrible, it's a horror.
Speaker 2:It's a horrible story of my childhood.
Speaker 1:I don't know if we're going to keep this one, but anyways, I guess, to wrap up, dogs obviously can smell. When we're stressed, dogs can be trained to smell pretty much anything better than any machine we have, and our stress hormones and stress sweat has a particular order to dogs and it's just interesting that when a dog smells our stress, it might cause them to be a little pessimistic and that makes me sad. I don't want dogs to be pessimistic. I don't know. I don't know what to take away from this study. It's not like you can go through life and never be stressed, because no, stress is not good for you and some stress is good for you. Right, you get things done, you're more motivated. I don't know how to end this, chris, I just don't beat up your friend when you're doing math facts.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then I guess recognizing that dog's well-being is important and recognizing how human stress affects that is vital, and that's especially for dogs who are in kennels or who are trained for working roles like assistance dogs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're going to be affected by the stress around them. Dogs are just awesome, Chris. They're just good creatures.
Speaker 2:They're just good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 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'm delighted to have guest Aidan Sheeran, the director of End Plastics Initiative, with me today. Aidan, how are you doing?
Speaker 4:I'm doing great. How are you doing?
Speaker 1:I'm great. I'm great, very cool, to talk to somebody about plastics because it's on everybody's radar nowadays. But before we get to the meat of the interview, where are you in the world? Where are you calling into the show from?
Speaker 4:Yeah, so I'm based in Washington DC in the US, so the nation's capital.
Speaker 1:You're based there. Have you lived there or have you, like, ping ponged around a bit?
Speaker 4:No, originally I grew up on the outer banks of North Carolina in a small town called Manteo, north Carolina, so it's right on the coast of MC, and then, for college or university I shot down to Wilmington, north Carolina, which is also on the coast, and then back up towards my hometown to an even smaller town called Stumpy Point, north Carolina. Population of, I think, 200 on the day.
Speaker 1:That's similar to the very small town I grew up in. It might have been even smaller, so you got me there, aiden.
Speaker 4:And then shot up to DC back in January of 2022 with my now wife and two dogs.
Speaker 1:Oh, nice, okay, Gotcha, did you have to dodge a hurricane into the Carolinas?
Speaker 4:All the time, unfortunately, all the time. Yeah, I grew up on the coast there so I was pretty used to them when I came down to college but when we got hit a couple of times we were out for about six weeks for hurricane Florence, from school, from from our college studies. So it was fun at first and then it was like, oh, this is really bad and this is going to take a while to get back into the groove of things, but yeah, the kids around, the kids around here.
Speaker 1:If it's a really bad day for snow, they might close down school for snow, but we don't have anything on those hurricanes that can just shut things down for a while yeah you mentioned. You went to uh college. What's your training in science?
Speaker 4:yeah, so I have a bachelor's of science in biology with a concentration of tertiary and freshwater studies basically a fancy way to say wetlands and then a minor in geographic information systems a fancy way to say mapping and cartography.
Speaker 1:Okay, what's your origin story? Were you a science kid growing up?
Speaker 4:I was a science kid. I was a nature kid growing up. So I grew up on the Outer Banks. It was a lot of doing things outside. I got my scuba certificate pretty early in age, just constantly surfing, trying to student, yeah. And then I became the president of our environmental club in high school and just did a bunch of cleanups through them, got a chance to speak at some stop drilling conferences with some other organizations and then fell in love with the environmental field before moving up, moving to college. But originally I wanted to be a veterinarian but realized I didn't want to be in school for 12 years. So I chose the path of biology.
Speaker 4:And then throughout school I worked as an intern at the North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores, which is a couple hours north of where I went to school, and I was their volunteer scuba dive intern. So basically I was the one hopping into the shark tank with a couple other volunteers to do presentations on plastic in the oceans. That was a pretty, pretty fun job, pretty great job. Didn't pay too well but it was really fun. And then in college I also volunteered briefly at a seagrass lab studying just different seagrasses. High school I worked for a vet's office and then briefly worked at the Marine Science Institute on the coast of North Carolina, once again just working with students younger students than myself and just arranging day-to-day volunteer activities with them, before jumping into after college work as a GIS consultant and a construction inspector for wetland reclamation, before shooting up to DC where I briefly taught science and math at a small private school before joining the Earth Day team.
Speaker 1:Okay, so it sounds like you've been all in on ecology for most of your life.
Speaker 4:Yes, yeah, I've made a big focus on ecology. I read a rainforest book growing up about all the rainforests falling down and decided to pursue that as my passion, much to my restaurant owner parents' chagrin.
Speaker 1:They were hoping that you'd follow in the family business line.
Speaker 4:They were hoping one of the three boys would pick it up and so far none of us have.
Speaker 1:It's like that around here with farm families.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's like that around here with farm families. Yeah, I worked at my parents' restaurant all my life and we're hoping one of us will take it over. But my older brother's an engineer. I work for Earth Day. My younger brother's currently working for my parents' brewery, but he's looking at branching out and moving away from it soon. I expect you have to pursue your passion.
Speaker 1:I'm a high school teacher in my day job so that's what I always tell kids Very cool that you have a lot of your background in sciences and wetlands. I don't know much about the Bunsen and Beaker social media accounts that my wife and I run, but they're very popular. And we have a new critter that moved on to our farm that's started to make some amazing constructions in the creek and that's a beaver.
Speaker 1:So we've yeah, we've learned so much about beaver from having this critter there and, like the whole internet wants to know what the beaver's up to, and I've got three different trail cam footage, three different trail cameras down there trying to get video and pictures of the beaver and the whole that one beaver or beavers, we're not sure if it's a family yet totally revitalized the creek into this ecological paradise for all the animals of central Alberta, canada. Yeah, so yeah, wetlands and that's very cool.
Speaker 4:Yeah, beavers are incredible. I was in Ontario, where was I?
Speaker 3:I was in.
Speaker 4:Ottawa, canada, a couple months ago for a conference, and one of the keepsakes I brought home is actually a little sculpture of a beaver. I'm in Canada, I've got to bring one home.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah. They're definitely beloved by many Canadians. Just like we love the beaver and the moose, the canada geese can just go. They're just, we're just all done with them. They are evil and we hate them. So could you talk to us a little bit about what you're doing currently, like, for example, edo and earth day?
Speaker 4:yeah, so I worked for earthdayorg as the end what was it? The director of end plastic. So I work mostly on policies focused on plastic and plastic pollution, as well as legislative policies focusing on that. What is Earth Day?
Speaker 4:Earth Day is a basically set up back in 1970 by Dennis Hayes and Gaylord Nelson in the United States to bring attention to environmental disparities, environmental justice and recognize hey, we've been on this industrialization path for about 100 years now and our rivers are literally on fire.
Speaker 4:We have to do something, we have to move away from that. So in 1970, they established Earth Day as teach-ins originally, and then it expanded to 10% of the US population, so about 20 million people coming out to protest about the environment, protest for the environment on behalf of the environment, and from there the ball got rolling. The EPA and the Clean Air and Clean Water Act were put into place following Earth Day. A lot of the credit goes to those original founders of Earth Day for that. And then currently our focus is on Plastic for this year's theme. My job is to attend a whole bunch of conferences and to attend a bunch of webinars and just stay up to date on all the Plastic's news, including the Global Plastic Treaty or the UN Plastic Treaty, depending on if you're a lawyer or not. I've been scolded for calling it a Global Plastic treaty by lawyers, but everybody else seems pretty cool with it calling me that.
Speaker 4:And then also focusing on some legislation here in the United States. And then we've actually partnered with Oceana Canada and a couple other organizations on some Canadian policies and trying to get more involved internationally as well.
Speaker 1:So your EPA came about from Earth Day initiatives? Am I hearing that correct, like it's one of the impetuses or the inciting moments?
Speaker 4:Yeah, it was one of the inciting moments, along with Rachel Carson's Silent Spring book, which was released in the 1960s and pointed out that we're dumping all these things in the environment. The environment is not just there because it's pretty, it's there because it's a support system that we're a part of. If we're just dumping DDT into the environment, look, it's killing everything, not just the targeted insects, hearted insects, it's weakening eggshells on birds, it's causing massive fallouts in local insect populations that are required to pollinate trees and everything. And then from there we had fires in our Cleveland River that kind of woke people up a little bit, as well as some oil spills that were just.
Speaker 4:People realize this is not the path we need to go down. There needs to be some accountability and the government needs to step in. Actually, under a conservative president which is wild to think about now founded the epa underneath himself and just brought the environmental movement to the united states public generally speaking, when industries try to self-regulate things don't go great yeah, yeah, there is actually a webinar recently that talked about how the policies that industry regulates and they, when they try to self-regulate like that, they typically don't self-regulate them.
Speaker 4:They set milestones and they set goals that are never met and there's no accountability for it the accountability piece.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:So it's hey, we're going to promise to use 50% less of this product and if they don't meet that goal, they will just push it back. Be like oh, we're going to meet it by 2025. They don't meet it by 2025. Oh, we'll meet it by 2030. And it just keeps going down the line like that and it just never ends it's interesting you mentioned the 60s when there's parts of what I teach.
Speaker 1:I'm a chemistry guy so I teach like intrabaccalaureate chemistry, but part of that is the whole biomagnification of different chemicals. And it's wild because I I try and tell my students, like the number one way, that previous generations and really through no fault of their own, because they didn't have long-range studies it was just that what was done was they just dumped everything, because the saying in the post-world war ii was the solution to pollution is dilution and if you, they just assumed I have that, if you diluted something enough, it went away that is wild, yeah, that from.
Speaker 4:we've come out with a couple reports now and one of the most startling things that I saw was the increase of the amount of plastic use in the united states and around the world following World War II. And we went from this kind of general culture, society of reuse, use it up until it's on its last bones, and then we got this material, plastic, which is a bunch of chemicals and a bunch of random crap that's basically thrown together, also fossil fuels, and then that's created, this single use waste culture and this waste thinking that we all do now up until this day. And I'm staring at my desk right now and I have a plastic bottle for eyeglass cleaner, I have a plastic dog treat bag and there's no way for me to work around a lot of this that's true.
Speaker 1:true, plastics are as much as and this becomes very not necessarily something we have time to talk about, but it's a complicated conversation of what, how a single person can take plastics out of their life. But I think that brings us to the main thing that you're looking at. The theme this year, if I'm getting it right, is planets versus plastics for Earth Day. Is that correct?
Speaker 4:Yeah, planet versus plastic. So just bringing to light mostly the health effects on humans of plastic, but with it also recognizing that in order for us to move away from plastic, we need to start calling for some accountability from both industry members, the industry being the bottle industry, the petrochemical industry, the petroleum industry, the oil and gas people trying to recognize like hey, you guys have been pumping this stuff out into the world, you're not paying for the cleanups of it, you're not paying for the health like detriments of it. It's time for us to stand up and do something about it. Earth Dayorg is calling for a 60% reduction in production by 2040. We're hopeful that we'll hit a higher mark than that. But we're really all in on the plastic stuff this year, especially with the Global Plastics Treaty on doing negotiations.
Speaker 1:What are some highlights? What are some of the highlights you could tell us about the effect of plastics on human health? In a general sense, we probably could all come to a consensus that it's not great. Microplastics are bad, but from somebody who's going to be communicating this, I'd love to pick your brain about it.
Speaker 4:Yeah. So, first off, there's evidence that microplastics bioaccumulate into our major organs, including the brain. Unfortunately, microplastics have been found to jump or nanoplastic or microplastics, it's just more of a term to decide how small you're getting. They breach the blood-brain barrier, yeah, and they build up there. They've been found in human placentas. They've been linked to higher rates of both miscarriages and male infertility as well, as they're being found in breast milk, dairy milk, all over the place.
Speaker 4:And one of the biggest issues we see is something called endocrine disruption. The endocrine system, while not talked about a lot, unless you're going deeper into biology, is the hormone system, and while most high school students, middle school students and frankly, people think of our hormones as just something we have to worry about during puberty, they're a huge part of our life. They're what keeps our whole system running. They're what they're the communication channel across our whole body, and when you have that endocrine disruption, it can lead to an increase in these cancer rates, as well as some other neurological disorders. But the bigger issue is all of this is such new research that there's no accountability currently.
Speaker 1:So that's our biggest worry. Like plastics, have been causing XYZ since the 60s. We're just now figuring out that they are causing it and the accountability hasn't come into place for the cause of it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, for example, plastics, and it's plastic and it's additive chemicals. So there's 16,000 different chemicals that go into the production of plastic. 4,200 have been classified as toxic to humans, and I say that because 12,000 of them haven't been tested. Only 4,200 have been tested. All have been found to be toxic to humans. All are put into the production of plastic at varying stages. It's what gives it its rigidity or its flexibility, depending. It's what gives it its different properties when added to petroleum and then from there those chemicals, when leached into our bodies, have been associated with up to a 20% higher rate of childhood cancer overall, and that is alarming to me. And then also these areas that are around the plastic production and the oil production facilities tend to have much higher rates of cancer compared to those living within 10 miles outside of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, pancreatic cancer, if I'm remembering the research.
Speaker 4:Yeah, pancreatic cancer as well as prostate cancer. Prostate, yeah, so it's, and it's hard to avoid plastic. It's intimidating, but it's microplastics. Plastic in general doesn't truly break down and doesn't biodegrade the same way that other materials do. So wood, it's going to break down into its base materials eventually, over time. There's natural processes, that kind of get rid of it and recycle it in its own natural way.
Speaker 4:Plastic, on the other hand, we don't think it ever truly breaks back down to those base chemicals unless a highly invasive, highly reactive reaction takes place, such as using really high heat, lots of fossil fuels which are then producing other chemicals and just emitting them directly into the air. But if those processes aren't taking place, it slowly just gets smaller and smaller, and that's what makes plastic so pervasive, that's what allows it to enter into your bloodstream, that's what allows it to just travel all over the place. We're finding microplastics at the bottom of the Marianas Trench. We're finding them at the top of Mount Everest, which you may think. Oh, those places are somewhat visited by humans. But we're also finding them in remote places in the Swiss Alps and the French Alps that have never been visited by humans, at least for the last 200 years. We're finding microplastics that were able to float through the air on clouds and then be deposited into lakes and rivers that way.
Speaker 1:That's unbelievable. You know that I've heard that that it gets small enough that it floats in the air and it can blow across the ocean from whence it came. Yeah, unfortunately, Like a kiss on the breeze of toxic goo.
Speaker 4:The start of a hurricane from the Sahara Desert almost.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've talked to kids about that before. Abs, for example, amazing product, right, abs plastic. It's built to be last forever. But isn't that the problem, that it lasts forever? Yes, yeah, so I try, like I try and tell the kids that we've there's this fable. I'm sure you're familiar with the Midas touch, right, king Midas, yeah, everything you turn it to gold. Well, we have the plastic touch now and we've just turned everything to plastic and it's made in many ways our life easier. But we're now having to deal with the consequences of those decisions over the last 50, 60 years, because this stuff doesn't break down, at least not in the conventional sense. Uh, yeah, it doesn't break down, at least not in the conventional sense.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it doesn't break down and it's also not truly recyclable. It can be labeled as recyclable, but the term recycling when it comes to Placid is a misnomer, because Placid, if it can be recycled, can only do it once, so it goes through the cycle and then it's a much worse product. Yeah, it's a much more degraded product. It's one that's releasing more chemicals. It's one that just isn't serving the same function it originally served, unlike certain other materials. Like you have. Aluminum, that's highly recyclable. Glass is highly recyclable and reusable, but plastic, on the other hand, just doesn't react the same way. It just doesn't have the same properties. And then, with all the chemicals that are used in its production, it's impossible for waste facilities to keep up with it all. Like my pen is a different type of plastic than my, than a ziploc bag is, so if I threw those into the same bin, they're not to be able to be recycled together. Therefore, they're just going to end up into a landfill where it will never break down and, unfortunately, never dilute yeah, it's a rough.
Speaker 1:It's a rough conversation. I'd like to pick your brain in a second about, like, some of the the hopes and suggestions, yeah, that your organization has. But before we get to there, there's another part of this that is really applicable to the science podcast, and that's the part of pets and plastic. I love your take on some of the science and the findings behind this. It's a report, right? You guys have released a report, yes.
Speaker 4:Yes, we released a report I think we released it on Monday actually outlining the dangers of plastic for your pets, not to alarm people and I can be known as the bummer in the office because I seem to only bring up bad, terrible, sad information to everybody.
Speaker 4:There is some science behind all the pets versus placid report. One of the main things that was shocking, to me at least, was when these placids are entering into our dogs' bodies or into our pets' bodies, a lot of the chemicals start to phase out and start to degrade oddly, and then it causes a blockage further down the track. So it's reacting with your stomach acids, it's releasing the phthalates, it's releasing the bpas, it's or the bisphenols, and then eventually it just becomes a completely different product that's lost that flexibility, that's lost those certain properties that would have allowed it to pass through an intestinal track and it's just sitting there and blocking it and that's that was the most shocking thing for myself. And then the the world. 50% of people own pets and I guarantee the majority of them have some sort of plastic toy or plastic thing they're giving to their pet.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 4:And a vet recently put it to me this way that our pets I shouldn't say dogs, I say dogs because I have two of my own they add to sentinels for us and we add to sentinels for them. So if any health effects are occurring to us, it's likely that's also happening to them, but at a much higher macro level, because they're smaller, their longevity isn't as long as ours and they're also more on the ground. They're eating more things from the ground, they're closer to that dust blowing up, they're chewing on these plastic toys and there's also just so much microplastic in our in the pets food due to just so little regulation so it's good to.
Speaker 1:The whole point of this is to raise awareness that it's not just us that's affected by plastic.
Speaker 4:It's our pets yeah, and the other thing we've seen is there is a study by I think it was the university of rhode island um, I don't want to mess up her name, but that a study out of the university of rhode island found a similar reaction to plastics in rats. So they were had rats consume a certain amount of microplastic and they realized that these rats were reacting adversely to it and exhibiting symptoms similar to if humans had alzheimer's or dementia, and so they became antisocial, they became confused, they became dazed, and that was from just a few days of microplastic exposure. So if you take that and amplify it to us and humans who are consuming plastic at these huge levels, we're just getting to the nitty-gritty of the science of it all, and I guarantee in 10, 15 years we're going to be like why did we let this material just invade our lives? Why are we using it so often?
Speaker 1:I love it. Not that it's not the conclusion, just that the awareness piece?
Speaker 4:right? Yeah, we people just have to be aware of it.
Speaker 1:It's um, my job is to educate and take the true scientists, the people that are coming out with these studies, and condensing that information to be more accessible to everybody I seem to remember I've been doing this podcast for a while now there was an anecdote or years ago that there was additives put into furniture upholstery actually and it affected pets first. That sentinel thing that you mentioned was the reason. Why is that? Because the pets were on the couch far more than a human, because, I don't know, our golden loves the couch. She just sleeps on the couch all day, right that all these dogs were developing weird symptoms and they found out it was some additive that was put into the upholstery that was going into furniture and then it was regulated out like you can't use this anymore. So that's very interesting that you brought that up.
Speaker 4:It just twigs something in my mind there yeah, it's a canarian of the coal mine like we have animals like they're a pretty similar biological system in a lot of ways to us, like we should really look at them as oh, that's a big issue for them. What is it doing to us? How is it affecting us on a day-to-day basis?
Speaker 1:I'd hazard a guess that not as many people chew on plastic, but I do teach high school kids and there's a lot of chewing on plastic pens yes, yes, I imagine. Yeah probably not as much as bernoulli or a little puppy. No, hopefully not doom and gloom. Not so good news. Not so good news.
Speaker 4:Yes, sorry.
Speaker 1:No, that's okay. What are some of the what's, some of the suggestions or things or paths forward to do better for our planet, ourselves and our pets? What are what's? What does earth day got for us? I guess that's what I'm saying Tough spot, but you win.
Speaker 4:Yeah, some of the easy things you can do for your pets is just move away from those plastic toys. So if it looks like plastic, it definitely is plastic. But also those soft, velvety things that aren't truly velvet that are polyester, Polyester anything with poly in the name is typically going to have some sort of plastic in it.
Speaker 1:It's an ester group with a carboxylic acid and an alcohol on either end. Any of my chemistry students listening will know that's an esterification polymerization reaction.
Speaker 4:Okay, sorry no, that was good. I didn't know that and I many of my chemistry lessons have been slowly leaking out of my head and I took six years of it. Um, but just move away from those plastic toys is the best thing you can do, as well as moving away from plastic food wear for your pets. So switch to stainless steel, switch to ceramic bowls um, ceramic, watch out. If there are any cracks in it, you do want to replace it, just because you don't want them ingesting glass shards. But also just be aware that any blanket you have, that is these fake fabrics.
Speaker 4:Essentially, try to move away from those, because those are putting a lot of microfibers into the air that your pet is inhaling. Also, there's some brands of food that are better than others. I can't name any specific ones due to we don't want to endorse any certain companies, but there are some brands that are better on plastic than others. Um, there's some fresh pet foods that are a little bit better, and then you can also get a basically a doggy or pet cookbook and cook all your meals for your pets. So, basically, you're cooking them sweet potatoes, you're cooking them chicken, you're cooking them just what you would think about if you were going to eat something, but do make sure you consult your vet before switching to those diets.
Speaker 1:Right the raw food switch.
Speaker 4:The raw food switch or just even the moving away from the bad food in general, because the bad food is typically going to have a plastic bag excuse me, a plastic bag that is shedding those fibers directly into your pet's food excuse me a plastic bag that is shedding those fibers directly into your pet's food.
Speaker 1:Okay, good suggestions. I'm thinking of a lot of the toys we have. That's an easy switch. It's an easy switch to move from plastic to a rope.
Speaker 4:You have to double check that the rope isn't a polyester rope or something like that cotton t-shirts that have been just worn down from working in restaurants and working outside for my whole life and that we've just been slowly cutting up and turning them into ropes for our dogs and using them for enrichment and things like that also. Natural rubber is good. There's some companies that only use natural rubber. Natural rubber doesn't have the same amount of chemicals that the plastic rubbers do.
Speaker 1:That's really good information. I never thought of that and I know for a fact that we have. There's some things that we have. I'm just struggling to think of a different alternative. They're like the lick mats or the kongs yeah, yeah but maybe there's some pure rubber alternatives, who knows?
Speaker 4:there's gotta be a pure one out there. I don't know the brands off the top of my head. There's also if you want to get your house a little bit messy, just bring a stick into there. Let your dog chew on a stick. Make sure you're supervising them while they're chewing on those sticks, as well as some other natural products that come straight from the animal. You're going to have your tracheas your beef tracheas that they can chew on, but those can get pretty smelly, so maybe not do it inside. And also there's some other things. There's certain hooves from animals that dogs and other animals cats can chew on, as well as deer antlers. Just make sure you talk to your vet when you're making the switch to these things. I'm not a vet, so I just want to make sure that everybody's pet is covered.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you bet We've got these great big blocks of they're like some kind of Australian wood thing from some tree and that, like I've had, we got one got it when our Berniceice mountain dog, who's now seven, when he was like two and it's still the same size and all of our dogs like gnaw on this thing. I appreciate you being an advocate for our pets. With plastic you don't know what you can do without knowing why you should do it yeah and I think this is a good conversation for the why.
Speaker 1:This is why potentially, or no, not potentially this is why plastics are harming us, right? Why plastics are harming our pets. And now that you have that information, it's up to you to choose to do something differently or not, or adapt where you can I should also know that the world is waking up to the issues with plastic like we.
Speaker 4:We have the un plastics treaty or the global plastics treaty. A bunch of countries have agreed to come together to start addressing the problem. We're on going on to the fifth set of negotiations for it and we're hoping to have a treaty signed by the end of 2024 for it to then be implemented following that. And then we're doing a similar process that other parties or other treaties go into, like the Paris Climate Accords or the Montreal Protocols. The one we're hoping is going to be the model for this global plastic treaty, but it is.
Speaker 4:People are realizing that plastic is an issue, Like the United States just released a statement from our White House saying like we need to start addressing the plastic issue. Here's what the federal government is planning on doing. It may not be what environmental advocates may not go far enough, or an environmental advocate like myself, but I'm going to keep pushing them as best I can to move away from plastic and keep just making progress on it. It's going to be a slow thing, but all these things are. We've cut down on mercury. We've cut down on the CFCs in the air. We can cut down on plastic everywhere else.
Speaker 1:We just need to keep moving forward. I like that. Okay, thanks, aiden. We love when our guests share a pet story from their life. Do you have one for us, aiden?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I have a pet story. I have two dogs. I have a roughly seven-year-old just mutt of a dog that my wife and I picked up while we were still in college. He's considered the golden child. And then I have another small hound dog I got while I was working in Stumpy Point, north Carolina, and was really lonely because I was out there by myself most days, and was really lonely because I was out there by myself most days.
Speaker 4:But here's the story I have is, buzz, my mutt of a dog came to visit me and my wife came to stay with me in Stumpy Point. We walked outside. I didn't at the time have him on a leash. We walked outside and then, standing about 15 feet in front of me, was a about 350 pound black bear climbing into the dumpster outside of my, where I was living at the time, and I've never seen my dog jump in front of me so quickly but also with such confusion on what to do and where to go, and I just looked at him and was like please go inside, and I've never seen him move faster than that, though he just darted right inside. I just love standing there. Oh, that's a big bear, let me just yell and then got myself inside.
Speaker 1:So the first instinct was to protect you. The second was now what?
Speaker 4:yeah, and then I guess to add on to that a little bit, it's Stubby Point's a remote area and my wife was staying out there with me and she heard what she thought was a pack of dogs howling. She was like oh, the Nets neighborhood over there's dogs howling. It sounds like a bunch of them had to explain Nope, those are not dogs. The nearest neighborhood is about 30 miles down the road. What that is is a pack of coyotes that are coming over the bridge soon, so we need to go inside right now.
Speaker 1:that was our living arrangement for about a year, so are those the bigger east coast coyotes, like the coyotes that are like 50 to 60 pounds they're not too big and they're okay, so they're still small, I know maybe it's the northeast has the bigger coyotes there's an area of the United States that has the freaky big coyotes.
Speaker 4:But I think people have been reporting that where I was is where the Red Wolf Refuge is. The Alligator River Refuge is the actual name of it, but that's where a population of red wolves still live. There have been some reports of interbreeding between coyotes and red wolves. I'm sure there's a couple larger ones out there.
Speaker 1:There you go. Yeah, I'm glad it turned out okay. Sometimes in our neck of the world people, it was unexpected. When you're walking through the Rockies, the Rocky Mountains, you're generally supposed to have your pet on a leash and there's been some incidences where that didn't happen. The dog has led the very grouchy bear back to its owners. It's bit off more than it can chew realize. It got over its head and has come back for backup only to just get everybody in trouble. So yeah, I'm glad. I'm glad it went well for you.
Speaker 4:Yeah yeah, it worked out. Buzz is my fierce but loving protector, who's only fierce when he really feels like he needs to be.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's great. So Buzz is your older dog. What's the younger's name?
Speaker 4:Sally. So I have Buzz Lightyear and then Sally Ride.
Speaker 4:Oh, Sally Ride, the first female American in space the first um female american in space, she gets into trouble. We, for the first time, we let my parents or we're having my parents watch my two dogs, um sally, broke into their cabinet, grabbed a jar of peanut butter and then hid behind a couch cushion and ended up eating half the jar of peanut butter without anybody realizing it, and then managed to crack open a photo album and pull out creepily enough photos of myself and scattered them all around the house. So we're very confused by this daughter of ours.
Speaker 1:But trying to tell you something yeah aiden. Thanks for sharing your pet story. I appreciate that and, as we come to the end of our chat, I challenge all of our guests to share a super fact with us. It's something that they know that kind of blows our mind a bit, and I was wondering if you could share a super fact with us.
Speaker 4:Sure See, I do this one a lot. It's giraffes are about 30 times more likely to be hit by lightning than people are. I have to imagine it's because of their height and where they live, but I always think that's a fun fact they may.
Speaker 1:They are most likely the tallest thing around them.
Speaker 4:Yes, yeah, I think the other one. I might be misremembering this, but it's like the Stegosaurus was closer to the construction of the Egyptian pyramids, closer to living to the construction of the Egyptian pyramids than living to near the T-Rex in terms of years. There's such a year separation. I may have that backwards, but I'll go with my first fun fact, because I know that one's true Okay.
Speaker 1:Sounds good, I like that one's true. Okay, sounds good, I like that, all right. Well, thank you very much for your super fact, aidan.
Speaker 4:Thank you so much.
Speaker 1:So, as we wrap up here, how can people find out more about Earth Day and these initiatives? Are there places people can go online?
Speaker 4:Yeah, if you just type up earthdayorg, that will take you directly to our website, where you can check out all of our resources on plastic, as well as our resources on climate education, and then the other work we do, including the Great Global Cleanup, our volunteer cleanup program, as well as our canopy project, which is our tree planting project.
Speaker 1:And are you yourself Aiden on social media anywhere?
Speaker 4:I am on. I'm active on LinkedIn. I'm pseudo active on Instagram. I'm really bad at social media. We have a whole comms team, but we do have an Earth Day Earth Day Instagram, earth Day LinkedIn. I think we have a Twitch now, which I'm not exactly sure I'm sure your high school students know more about Twitch than I do as well as a YouTube channel with a bunch of webinars we've done in the past. We recently did a webinar with a vet last week and then talked to another industry expert about the kind of regulations around pet foods, and then we've dove into whole sorts of topics, ranging from solar energy all the way to where plastic is going to end up in the next 10 years.
Speaker 1:Okay, we'll make sure. In our show notes there's some links to those organizations and websites.
Speaker 4:Awesome.
Speaker 1:All right, aiden, thanks for being a guest today. I wish you well and I'm excited to have more information to share on our own, like our own social medias about pets and plastic.
Speaker 3:Okay, it's time for story time with me, adam. If you don't know what story time is, story time is when we talk about stories that have happened within the past one or two weeks. I'll start. I have a story about the cats at the farm, or more specifically, one cat at the farm, or more specifically, one cat at the farm. His name is Larry.
Speaker 3:He's a funny guy. He's the not to pick favorites, but he's like the favorite because he's funny and he's cuddly and he's nice and he's very chill. You pick him up and then you hang out with him and you can pretty much do whatever you want and he'll be cool with it, as long as you're not hurting him. But you can pick him up and hold them like a baby or pick them up and put them on your on your shoulder, and it's really cool. But Larry was a little gross and smelly. So we gave, we gave Larry a bath. We gave him a bath and he he was pretty, he was for a cat, he was very chill, like he's never had a bath before. He's never, because there's a, it's a, it's the farmhouse, so there's a farm sink there, so it's got like a little tub, um. So we washed him in that and for for a first time, uh, cat wash yeah, for a first time wash very good.
Speaker 3:He only tried to escape uh like a few times, but that's just because he's wet and he doesn't like getting wet. Cats don't like getting wet anyway, yeah, and then he was. I couldn't dry him off all the way, so he was a little cold and I felt so bad because he was shivering, but we just put him in a blanket. We dried him off with a towel first and then put him in a blanket, but he still likes us, which is a little surprising, because a lot of the cats over there hold grudges, like, uh, willow and and Finn and mouse, they'll hold grudges. So if you, if you make them a little mad, or if you don't do something that they like, uh, they they'll hold it, they will hold it against you. They will, uh, they will refrain from from contact for a bit. They'll go away. But yeah, mom, do you have a story?
Speaker 2:I sure do so. Today I picked up Bernoulli from Doggy Daycare, where he's been doing doggy daycare and training, so it was his first day of level two and after I picked him up we did a debrief in the classroom where he showed me all of his tricks that he's been learning. And he did so well, amazingly well. And I said, boy, you know, jason, and I think Bernoulli is so smart, and the trainer she said back to me she's like yes, but he's also so eager to learn and he looks so happy and his face was so cute and it just made me very proud that he is so eager to learn and just loves life and loves being at Waggles and being with all his friends. It was just awesome, it was a great day. And that's my story, dad do you have a story?
Speaker 1:I think I'll share a little bit about Bunsen's cyst. So if you've been following us on social media and I know a lot of people do, but also some people just listen to the podcast and that's where they get their news about Bunsen, beaker and Bernoulli. I'll try to keep this as short as possible Because we only did one episode in the last two weeks. We did hear back about the biopsy of what Bunsen cyst is and incredibly it was a tapeworm cyst and what makes it so incredible is like Bunsen may be the only case in Western Canada of this happening. The way the life cycle of a tapeworm works is that a mouse gets infected and they grow the cysts, which is like a little proto tapeworm inside a fleshy cocoon that the host makes to protect the tapeworm. The mouse gets eaten by a coyote or wolf and that matures into the full tapeworm within their digestive track. Then that full tapeworm, the adult tapeworm, lays eggs, which gets pooped out and the mice eat the eggs and the life cycle of terror completes itself with the mouse regrowing cysts. Somehow Bunsen found himself in the wrong life cycle.
Speaker 1:Part of the tapeworm and the cyst grew and grew and as Bunsen wasn't eaten by a wolf or a coyote. The cyst continued to grow and it grew to an abnormally large size almost 10 pounds. To an abnormally large size almost 10 pounds. Can you believe that? Almost 10 pounds? And there's all of these unbelievable things about this. One of them is that this can happen in humans. It's very, very rare, but for a cyst to grow that size in humans, it's like five to 12 years. So this is not something that Bunsen got a month ago. This is something that Bunsen probably got years ago and it just grew until it became a problem.
Speaker 1:And he's recovered from his surgery. Obviously, we've been talking about that. He's back to running and being free and doing off leash walks and we couldn't be. It's just, it's a miracle. We just get more time with our big guy Um, and seeing him run with Bernoulli and Beaker in the field that first day we did that, if you saw it on social media with the sun setting, I had some tears. It was pretty powerful. Well, sorry to bring everybody down, but it's a pretty amazing thing what happened to Bunsen. That's my story, okay.
Speaker 3:I think that's it for story time. I'm a little sick this week, but that's okay. Yeah, I hope to see you on next week's podcast episode and thank you for sticking around to my section. See you next week.
Speaker 1:That's it for this week's show. Thanks for coming back week after week to listen to us. Thanks to our guest Aidan, who talked to us about plastic, and also the folks that support us and make the Science Podcast free for everybody. The perk of becoming part of the Paw Pack at the top tiers is you get your name said out loud, so take it away.
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