October 22, 2025 • 57 mins
On today's show I subject my guest to a gauntlet of strange oddities, and he (and you) must guess whether these are animals, minerals, vegetables, or something else entirely...
Guest: DJ Danl
Footnotes: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rRUT2Ywx6B9XF-1SyNJ8lxVyLX94eY2n06FjiE4x-O8/edit?usp=sharing
Mystery animal sound credit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMwAgft_kZ8
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to Creature feature production of iHeartRadio. I'm your host
of Many Parasites, Katie Golden. I studied psychology and evolutionary biology,
and today on the show, we are playing a little game.
This is a fun, fresh and funky new format for
the show. We're gonna play a game of whether it's
(00:27):
an animal, a mineral plant, or fun guy. I am
giving my guests a bunch of pictures and he will
describe them to you in detail, in disgusting, porous detail,
and you can play along too. I will have links
to all these images in the show notes, or you
(00:47):
can just form a mental picture from our words, from
our word paintings that we paint, and we will go
through this and my guest will have to try to
guess is it an animal, a mineral plant, a fungi
or something else. Entirely Joining me today is friend of
(01:07):
the show producer at iHeart Radio. He does so many things.
I don't really even know where to start, uh, DJ Danel.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Welcome, Katie, happy to be back. Thank you so much
for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
I'm just gonna have you plug everything at the end
because I can't. I don't even know how. There's so
many things. You you have your hands and so many pies.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
There's lots of pies. My fingers are sticky and disgusting
at this point.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Very sticky.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yeah, I've over the years touched many pies, and I am
therefore again very sticky.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
If you've listened to a podcast or eaten a pie,
chances are there's germs from Danel on it.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
I do love pie.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Yeah, pie is good.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
I love pie. Pie is good, savory or something great both.
If I had to pick one, actually, damn, I was
about to just pop off an answer, but now that
I'm think about it, it's really hard to say. I
was very lucky enough to travel to Australia a couple
of times, and eating savory meat pies in Australia is
just on another level. They just hit so differently.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
There used to be an Australian pie savory pie shop
in Los Angeles. I think they may have moved, which
is really sad because it was incredible, absolutely incredible, just fantastically.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Are I love They're delicious.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
I think I like a savory pie. I think I'm
sort of a you know, fifteenth century noble. I like
a savory pie. So today we are talking about some
things that may look like maybe they belong in a
savory pie. Hard to tell. These are images, and it
(02:54):
is up to you, Daniel, to try to guess what
it is. It could be an animal, a mineral, a plant,
fung guy, something else.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
I'm already confused, or rather not confused, but like I'm
looking at these pictures and I'm just I know that
I'm going to be surprised. I know I'm going to
be enchanted, and i know I'm going to have a
new fear at some point.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
I'd also like you to answer the question of whether
you would eat this thing gladly?
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Oh man, glad.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
So let's get right into it. Let's start with the
very first image the candidate number one. Great, First, I
want you to describe this image to the audience.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Sure, okay, audience. I want you to imagine, you know,
you've ever seen a huge strawberry that looks really amorphous. Now,
just like double the amount of amorphousness of that weird strawberry.
Make that strawberry white, and you've got kind of what
we're looking at here. You know, it's just like kind
(03:56):
of like a it looks like a globule but also
has a pretty defined shape. It looks like it has
tiny seeds on it and it's currently sitting or the
image has it sitting on a bit of wet sand.
So a white, ghastly kind of looking giant globule strawberry
little dots of look like seeds and all sitting on
(04:16):
some sand.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Okay, that was beautiful. That was like you you're like
Monet with your words. You know, when strawberries like are
weird and they're like a double strawberry or even a
triple strawberry. That's actually something called fasciation. It happens in
plants when they have basically sort of a situation where
(04:40):
there is this like extra growth where like this basically
the plant like stem cells are telling it like grow
that thing. But again over here it's really interesting. Yeah,
so yeah, this does kind of look like a white
mutant strawberry totally, but it is amorphous. It's blobule and
(05:04):
it has these sort of like light tan speckles on it. Yeah,
kind of like strawberry skin. It's it's interesting. Would you
eat this danile?
Speaker 2 (05:14):
First of all, absolutely, Okay, I'm looking at this thing.
It looks like a laffy taffy that washed up on
the shore. I might look around, dunk it in the
water real quick and then chow down. Looks like it
would be delish. And if I had to guess, I
had to is it time to guess or is there more
time to do it? Okay? Cool? Cool, cool cool? If
(05:36):
I had to guess, And I'm trying to use some
context clues here. Looking at like that, it looks like
it's something that washed up on the shore. So I'm like,
it could be a plant, it could be an animal.
I think I'm gonna go I'm gonna go animal.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
You are absolutely correct, Congratulations, Yes, this is an animal.
It wow, certainly is a strange looking one. Yes, this
is something called a tunicate, also known as a sea squirt,
or when it's washed up on the beach like this,
it is called sea pork just because people. Yeah, they
(06:20):
like to have a name that I don't know. To me,
this doesn't look like pork. I guess it could kind
of look like pork fat. Ye, it's kind of a disgusting, sure, yeah,
very it makes it more gross. I think it's it's
a name that that makes it much more gross.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
So under the ocean there they look like these strange,
beautiful or sometimes kind of creepy like flowers or even
like coral, but they are not coral, and they are
not flowers. There's a few images that I've also shared
with you that are various examples of tunicate. Some of
them are solitary where they look sort of like this
(06:58):
weird almost like a like a flower or like a
bulbous thing with this kind of like purply coloration. But
sometimes they are in colonies, so like sometimes they form
like chains. So you'll see this thing that looks like
this giant chain, and it's all these tunicits that are
linked together. And sometimes they form like a blobby colony
(07:23):
like that initial image. Also like what that's when it's
kind of discolored. Sometimes when they're fresher, they're like pink
or red. And yeah, so they are. There's many different
species of tunicate, from those who live as individuals to
those who live as colonies. And they all start out
(07:43):
in this like free swimming stage. This larva that kind
of looks like a tadpole sperm, like a sperm that's
the size of a tadpole, and right they will latched.
For the ones that are sessile, they will latch onto sessile,
meaning that they stay fixed in one location. They no
(08:07):
longer move around. They will latch themselves onto a substrate
and go through a metamorphosis where they sort of lose
their ability to move and then form this like siphon system,
so they turn into kind of like just this almost
like bagpipe looking thing some of them. Others will form
(08:28):
colonies so they look like that weird like mutant strawberry
lumpy thing, and so they they will essentially act as
filter feeders. And unless they are part of this like
chain like organism, like some of them form this like
long chain where they're floating around as a chain. They
will mostly stay motionless or at least like stuck fixed
(08:52):
in one place for the rest of their lives while
filter feeding. They're called sea scores because a lot of
them will do this like siphoning of water, like sucking
it in one tube and pushing it out the other. Uh,
it's a it's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Really quickly. I want to jump back just two seconds
to make sure I understood some terminology you said. They
attached to a substrate.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Is like that, Yes, that is like sand or rock
or any it's basically floor it's a science word.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
For floor, A science word for floor. I like that cool.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
But it's a floor that could be made out of
rocks or sand or gravel.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
I had a feeling it was at a feeling it
was the hard surface.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
But I just wanted to be sure are specialized surface
of some kind. Yeah. So, despite sometimes being called sea pork,
most species of tunicits aren't edible. But notice how I
said most, there are some species that are edible, Okay,
(10:02):
and people actually have them in various cuisines.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
And you really, yeah, is there a particular regional cuisine
that eats these the most?
Speaker 1 (10:11):
I mean, I have, I think, because there are so many.
There are various countries where they are featured in cuisine
from anywhere from Korea to Chile. So yes, So let's
go on to the next image here, great, Yes it is.
(10:35):
This is gray looking thing with sort of red splotches
on it, Danield.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Do you think it's a it's a looking thing? All right?
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Yeah? I mean, first of all, describe it to the audience.
Use use the art of poetry to paint a picture.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
How to describe a summer's day? Well, this thing we're
looking at here, I would say it's dominating colors are
I would say, imagine something that is an eighty percent
kind of muddy gray with twenty percent of a very
vibrant orangey red and these little tiny splotches all over
(11:16):
it. It would appear that there are these very small dots
of red around this object. Now, this object is kind
of like this thing creature. I don't even know. This
thing is almost like the shape of an avocado maybe,
but it almost looks like it has a protrusion, like
a protrusion that has lesions on it. So imagine like
a avocado shaped thing that almost looks like it's covered
(11:40):
in little like calcified ringworms or something like. It looks
like these like tiny little wormes on it that are
hard like petrified worms, tiny little and then specks of
red and then these open lesions that look like small
pools of lava on this weird avocado shaped rock looking thing.
(12:03):
It looks both hard and rough and also sticky and
gross at the same time, Like parts of it look
like you could sharpen a knife on it, and then
other parts of it looked like they could give you
a disease if you touched it. So yeah, it's very strange.
It also looks like it's looking at me, like a
hundred times, like it looks like several parts of it
(12:24):
are looking at me because the red dots are placed
in such a way or are in such a place
that they look like little eyes. It's like a pair
of red dots in several places around this thing. No idea,
but it is definitely again we're seeing it on top
of what looks like very wet sand, maybe wet mud,
but it is out in nature. It looks wet and
(12:49):
it looks gross. But also I don't want to, you know,
shame the thing. Yeah, body show no share, certainly not
certainly not. But it is something I don't know if
I would want to touch.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Right so that I would assume you wouldn't eat it.
Then if you don't want to touch.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
It, well, okay, hold on. You know there's there's there's
some things I don't want to touch. Then necessarily I
throw on the grill and then you know I'm touching
them with my mouth. You know, I will say off, rip, no,
I don't want to eat this, but I am curious.
I don't know. It feels so violent to say I
want to see what's on the inside. But at the
(13:28):
same time, these these lesions of of you know, bright
red and orange color, are like, what's going on in there?
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Yeah? Is that violence or just curiosity?
Speaker 2 (13:39):
There we go. I appreciate that there's some aliens that
are going to probust and say it's not violence, it's curiosity.
I'm gonna be like, well, my arm's off now, so
I don't.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Know scientific amen to that.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
All right, I'm going to I'm going to take a guess, yes,
go for it. I'm going to go with my gut
and say that this is a mineral.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Interesting, Well, no, it is in fact an animal. And
I'm seeing kind of a jerk here because this is
yet another tunicit What you I got youa? Yeah, So
this like leprous looking gray avocado, is a tunic kit
called pyra chilinasis uh what wait wait sorry I pronounced
(14:27):
that totally wrong. Pya chill and sis uh. And it
looks like a gray rock with weird tubules that has
flesh inside. And that's essentially what it is. It's a
flesh rock.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Yeah, Okay, I just need to be very clear with
the audience. So Katie has provided you know, like we
were talking about with the first tunicit is the name
of the creature, right, yes, tunicit. So so so Katie
provided four different images of the first tunicit and they
all look pretty different then, but but there are some
similar qualities. This picture, this second picture, or rather fifth
(15:05):
picture at this point, could not look more different than
the prior four pictures. There's nothing about this picture that says, well,
that's the same creature. Yeah at all.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Well, to be fair, it's a different species for sure.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
But being like, you know, look, you show me two birds.
One could be big, one could be small. They both
look like birds, right, this does not even this is
this doesn't even look like a globule of strawberry.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Yeah, no, it kind of looks moldy. But yeah, it's
so that gray rock like exterior is the exoskeletal structure
of a colony of tunicates. Inside that red flesh is
you know, they're flesh, the flesh of these kits. So
this is a colony of tunicits. And yeah, just like
(15:52):
other tunicates, they siphon in water and filter feed and
essentially just hang out and seem like a rock until
they are dragged out by fishermen. And I know you
said you were on the fence about eating this. But
these are an example of an edible tunicate, and indeed
they are featured in Chilean cuisine. Yes what.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
So because it does look like a flesh rock from hell,
it's not a particularly popular food in Chile. And this
is not like some kind of like common cuisine, but
in areas where like there's a lot of fishing, it
can be eaten in fishermen. Well, what they do essentially
(16:37):
is they take out the inside. You don't eat out
the exoskeleton, just like you wouldn't eat like the exoskeleton
of a clam. And then they take these like basically
like globules of meat from inside, dry them out, and
it's used in soups. So you know, I would, I
(16:58):
I would try it.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
I would. I mean now that I mean, now that
we're having this conversation, I'm like, yeah, I mean, throwing
on a plate, let me see what, let me see
what we're rocking with. But like, wow, I'm shook. I'm shook.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
I mean, you know, that's when it's like, when you're
essentially giving me the option of eating a living rock
made out of flesh, it does sound a little appealing.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Actually that sounds like some Pokemon stuff. It's like, do
I want to eat a geo dude? Hell yeah, Katie.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Those traps they've got delts that look you know, delectible,
delectable though there's meat there. All right, So do you
want to move on to the next image.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Let's do it.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
All right, this is candidate number three. I want you
to describe this image.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
For the audience. Okay, gladly, Well, I'm going to avoid
the rather explicit connotation that these things have and say
that they are They do look like blue wieners. They
look like they look like uh, doctor Manhattan wieners sticking
out of the ground. They look like the thing is
(18:19):
so again, this is a scale thing where I'm like,
I don't know how big these are, but they I'm
going to guess small. They look like small stalagmites, translucent
bluish stalagmites. They look like, you know, you can see
there there may be gooey blue center. It's almost it's
almost like a It looks like one single piece that
(18:41):
is like attached to a rock with a lot with
a lot of little like you know, blue wieners sticking
out of it. But it is.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
A meadow of blueis.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
A meadow of blue wieners is a great way to
say it. There is also as part of the Yeah,
it almost looks like you're looking into like a cave,
a cave of blue wieners that are being exposed to
light for the first time. I'm also going to guess
this is guessing this is also I'm guessing this is underwater,
(19:18):
but there's no evidence of that. You know what, Actually,
I take that back. There's no water evidence in this picture.
So I'm gonna say it's not water. I'm going to
go and I'm trying to think there's any other physical
descriptors that are worth mentioning here. I mean, like, you know,
uh no, I think I think we I think we
kind of nailed it all.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Yeah, that was good.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
I'm going to thank you. I'm going to go I'm
gonna go with a fungus hm.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
But also, would you eat it? You gotta answer that one.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Too, Oh right, of course, Yes, they look like they
they look like they explode in your mouth like gushers.
So yes, absolutely, due.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
They look gummy. They look like delicious gummies. They do
look gummy, you know, like how you're at a bachelor
party and you get some weiener gummies. They look like that.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Well, I wouldn't know personally, have been very familiar with those. Yes,
I've seen those images and whatnot.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
I've been to a lot of bachelorette parties. There's always
some kind of weier thing, and it's just like, come on,
aren't we adults here, Let's grow up. Let's just grow up.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Let's grow up.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Anyways, So that is a fantastic guess that this is
a fun guy. Sadly it is incorrect. This is actually
a mineral. So yeah, I gotta I gotta throw in
a mineral there. I gotta switch up a curveball a
little bit of curve.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
These are things, definitely aren't These things definitely aren't squishy that.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
No, no, it looks There are so many minerals that
I would put in my mouth and chomp down and
break every tooth because they like candy and I want
to eat them.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Yes, these absolutely look like candy. One.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
These are chrysocola. They are this blue color. They're actually
quite beautiful. I think it's actually due to the copper
hydroxide content of the mineral. Obviously, copper is typically copper colored,
but when it is oxidized it's blue. Like have you
(21:19):
ever seen a gross old penny that's like kind of
wet I have, Yeah, turns blue and sometimes it turns
your pocket blue too, and so yeah it will. That
is where this blue color comes.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
From, and that where blue jeans come from.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
People just have penny penny washed jeans.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Penny washed.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
So I think, I mean it's possible though, that oxidized
copper was used in paints. I'm not I'm not a
paint expert or mineral mineralist, but yeah, I mean that's
that's very possible. It's used as like coloration in things.
But that bulb that sort of bulbous valley of penises
(22:08):
type thing that's going on that they can look like
little tentacles. Sometimes it looks like little bubbles like it's
it's literally sort of bubbling up. It's called a boeroidal formation.
It is when there are many seeds from which the
crystal forms. So when I talk about seed, it's essentially
like maybe it's a piece of sand or a small
(22:29):
particle of mineral from which a crystal sort of starts growing.
So again, I'm not a mineral oid. I'm not a
professor of mineralogy.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
But what was my favorite aliens from Star Trek.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Mineral Oid just a bunch of rocks. It's just a
geodude rebranded. So it's essentially like the way I learned
it eons ago is that you'll have sort of a
structure of a crystal, and then once you have like
if you have like things that it's stuff that kind
of knocks things into place or like it forms this thing,
(23:07):
and then you start to get this formation and everything
sort of settles in this this structure form because you
have a seed structure that enables this type of formation,
and so the crystal continues to form sort of like
a domino effect. And so if you have a multiple
number of these like seeds that will grow these crystals,
(23:28):
then you have this like bubbling form or forest of weenas.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Most certainly it's beautiful. I have a question go for
it now now that we now that we know that
it is a mineral, can we get what is the
scale of the image that we're looking at? Here? Are
these tiny? Are they large? Are they kind of like
in between? Like what size are we looking at?
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Sometimes they can and it depends. Some of them are
like bigger, some of them are like small, like sort
of like smaller than a pencil. These I think are
about pencil size.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Pencil said, that's still pretty I mean, gang, if you
were to look at these like saying that their pencil
size means they're probably like the thickness of like a
water bottle. So these are pretty substantial minerals right here.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Yeah, Okay, maybe pencil is a little big, but they're
certainly like like uh yeah, like a thin sort of
the head of a pencil maybe. Oh like like the
like the like you know, the like the not like
the lead points, but like the conical part of the pencil,
like each one of those is kind of like I
(24:32):
would think sort of like that. But I've seen ones
that are also really small.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Gotcha, Okay, wow, okay, but they but they are small
in range. We're not going to go into a cave
and see two foot three foot tall ones of these
bodmns right here, not.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
That I am aware of.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
No, Okay, cool.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
And sometimes they don't I mean, sometimes they don't form
like those sort of like wiener shapes or bubble shapes.
Sometimes they're like different shape, like it's just it kind
of depends on how they form, uh, this form I
thought looked really organic and weird and possibly would throw
you off, which it did.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
And I'm proud you nailed it, proud of lying to you,
you know, an appropriate situation to be and I'm proud
of you too.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
So let's move on to the next image.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
If you're ready, I'm super ready.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
All right, let's do it. So first describe this to
the audience again. Let's let's let's be adults here.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Yeah, let's be let's be adults here, all right. So, gang,
imagine that you were looking at a top down brain
that was like flattened like it looks like a flat
cross section of a brain with a a very suggestive
slit down the middle.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Looks like a brain vagina.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
It is a brain virgin. It looks like there are
a couple surrounding it. It looks like a little bundle
maybe maybe a three pack of brain vaginas. They're sitting
by the honest and.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Get those big old tops of brain vaginas you do.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Uh, they look like they're sitting in a pot filled
with pebbles. So maybe this is like some sort of
I mean, the pot looks I'll say this, Okay, this
could be one of those things where like the geological
formation was just so perfect and this is like underwater.
But something tells me this is more of like a
succulent and is actually a plant. But the last thing
(26:43):
I'll say is in terms of so again, remember we're
talking like a flat brain looking thing here. It's like
a It's like a cross section of a brain if
you were to cut it in half, all the wrinkles
and stuff like that same coloring as a brain, with
the with all the folds and all the wrinkles being
kind of like a the sulk ego being like a
reddish hue. It's got kind of a pink look to it.
(27:05):
There's kind of like an outline of yellowy orange all around,
and I feel like I can see the root below it.
I think I'm pretty confident that that is a succulent plant.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
And say, hell yeah, well you are absolutely correct that
this is a punk fantastic. I would not eat it.
I don't think it'll kill you, but I think it
would taste garbou and possibly give you a tummy age.
(27:37):
But yeah, it is a plantat it is called a lithops,
which means easy to kill in Greek. That's not true.
I'm kidding, No, it actually means stone face in Greek.
It is a very for me personally, maybe for other
people too. It is a difficult succulent to keep alive.
I have owned about three of them and killed every
(28:00):
single one. I but they're so cool that the next
time I see one being sold by a plant person,
I will buy it again and probably kill it.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Probably kill it. Yeah, So what what was so difficult
about the care that made them made it easy to kill? So?
Speaker 1 (28:17):
These are These are succulents that are found in Africa,
and they tend to do really well in very dry conditions,
and so you really need very good drainage and to
water it just enough but not too much, because if
you water it too much and the drainage is not adequate,
(28:39):
it will actually make the plant explode kind of because
it absorbs too much water or the roots rot. So
you water it like I've I've heard some advice where
you water it like once a year, but I tried
doing that and it die.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
Once a year.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
So I tried watering it more than that, but it
also died. So I don't know what I'm exactly doing wrong.
Probably I should stop buying these, so but yeah, they
they are actually flowering succulents. So when they are in
(29:19):
sort of the flowering season, a flower will emerge from
betwixt the clefts of this.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Really, yes, I'm.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Probably I mean it is very labial. I'll probably get
some obgi and mad at me for calling it a vaginants.
Obviously that's not the vagiants, the labia. But yeah, so
you'll have a flower that sprouts from it, and their
appearance is thought to be camouflaged, so looking so much
like a rock, meaning that it is less likely to
(29:52):
be eaten. They're beautifuls.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
I mean, they are, you know, honestly. Okay, another another,
another crass example for our listeners at home who are
trying to picture this. Imagine you're very old and you
put your naked butt cheeks on the xerox.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
Old pancaked butt cheeks.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
That's right, old pancakes butt cheeks on the xerox machine.
You got what we're looking at right here.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
That's exactly it. That is exactly it, and it's beautiful.
I think that. I think that's the thing is like
when you say old, wrinkly pancaked butt, it makes it
sound you know, unappealing. But when you think about you
when you think about all the different shapes and folds
(30:40):
that happen in nature. Look, we're just we're just nature baby,
and we're just nature baby. We're just like succulent. Well,
let's let's move on to the next to the next one. Danly,
you're you're you're doing amazing at this game.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Oh, thank you, thank you. This is amazing.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
This is fun. I'm having fun me too. This is
candidate number five. Describe candidate number five if you will.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
So, this honestly looks like a haunted oil leak. We
have a green slime that looks like it is coming
out of something. The image is on what looks like concrete,
and it looks like the green slime. There's there's a
couple different like trails of you know when you like
(31:35):
splash water or there's a liquid on concrete, and you
can see the kind of residue. This definitely looks like
it has been leaving a residue or something has been
leaving a residue around it. Maybe this, whatever it is,
has been moving. I'm honestly now looking at it, my
first thought was fungus. Now I'm thinking creature. But also
(31:56):
it might be a plant. It is very shiny. It
is it is a it is a bright It.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
Is Nickelodeon slime green.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
It is ghak green firs. Sure green? Uh oh no, no, no, no,
you're right, No, no slime, it's slime green. Gak is
something different. But no, it's definitely what. I can't remember, Man,
I need to google this whole. I'm googling gagk.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Wasn't gak Jak was a toy, right? But was it all?
Speaker 2 (32:22):
But it was made by Nickelodeon. It was multiple colors. Yeah,
but Nickelodeon slime is what we're talking about. Nickel You're
one hundred percent right, Gang, it is Nickelodeon slime. Uh.
This this, this floor is looking like Katy Perry's face
after she accidentally opened that box. Uh, it's it's gross.
(32:42):
It's long. There is something next to it for scale
that almost looks like maybe a fishing line.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
So you're, oh, God, you're sure locking the hell out
of this. I can tell by the angle of the
shadows that this was taken into approximately fifteen.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
I'm gonna say I'm gonna go with animal. I think
this is a creature that is very interesting.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
Would you eat it? Your face says no, but your
face says.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
No, but your voice my face says no, but my
body says me. I don't know. It looks like a
It looks like one of those. Honestly, it looks like
a whole pack of gummy bears melted down the side
of the street. And you look around and you're like,
I was going to see this pop them all in
your mouth at once.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
The story time, when I was in high school, a
classmate was doing this thing where there we had like
a yeah, I don't know how he came into possession
of this many mint mints, but he had a bunch
of peppermints, the green kind, the green and white striped peppermints,
and so we were all bored, and uh, he decided
(34:02):
to try to fit as many as possible in his mouth,
and so of course we all egged him on. It
was a massive choking hazard. He could have died, but
we didn't think about that. He ended up fine, But uh,
I think what happened is he is trying. Uh, he
(34:24):
was trying to keep going, and I said, come on,
just one more, man, you can do it, just a
little one. And that's for some reason that made him laugh,
and he started laughing, and he spewed out this long
tendril of green spit melted mint candy. It smelled very minty.
(34:45):
It went everywhere. It was hilarious, and we got in trouble.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
You got in trouble with him.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
No, I mean just like the teacher was like, guys, oh, yeah,
don't do that. We didn't get like detention or anything
like that. I was just like, guys, come on, because
she spit like a massive glob of semi mouth digested
mint everywhere. The poor teacher, leaguered chemistry teacher. This is
(35:16):
what that looks like to me.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
I totally see that. Yeah, and that is horrifying.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
Yeah, but your guess is that it is an animal.
You are correct. Let's see. I want to see if
you like, let's go, like, where do you think this
animal lives. Let's see if we can get even more
specific bonus round.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Okay, So I may be reading too much into the
quote unquote fishing line that's next to it, which I
still think is a fishing line, And I'm going to
say this thing lives in the ocean. I'm going to
say it's some sort of like sea slug type joint that.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
Is very good. Guess. Yes, it does live in the ocean.
It is not a sea slug, but it is is
a ribbon worm. It is a green ribbon worm found
in the ocean off the coast of Taiwan, Japan, and
the Philippines. It is a bright green, mean clam eating machine.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
It like a lot of ribbon worms. It's kind of
horrifying looking. It's actually not like super closely related to say,
like earthworms or anything. They're just similarly shaped, but you know,
they're not not very closely related. But yeah, it is
a ribbon worm. And ribbon worms have this thing called
(36:39):
a preboscis, which is a great word, and it is
this long, sticky tongue like a organ, yes exactly, that
they can evert meaning sort of turn inside out and
spit out through their mouth. And this can both ensnare
their prey and also it contains venom to further incapacitate
(37:03):
their victims, which can be be yes like clams, other
aquatic worms, snails, basically anything small enough and unlucky enough
to find itself tangled up in its lethal proboscus. But
as you can see from this picture, they're not tiny.
They can be very long.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
Actually, no, this thing, this thing looks frighteningly Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
I think this one's like over a foot long and
like thicker than a pencil. It's yeah, interesting. So uh.
They then, once they have entangled their prey and their
venomous proboscis, they pull it in and basically like slurp
up their own proboscis like spaghetti, and then engulf their poohole. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
Yeah, wow, that's so kind of it's kind of snake
like in the assumption of it.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
But even though snakes are not you know, but.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
They have no job yea or face. Really, they're just
a evil spaghetti.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
Not the way I'm trying to go. Sure it gets
swallowed by evil spaghetti. Yeah, yeah, Well I want to look.
I want to look my killer in the eyes if
they're going to eat me.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
Yeah, which is hard to do with this thing. It's
like where is it you which it's hard to even know.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
Which end is the butt where it's exactly yes, exactly. Well,
it sounds like we won't know until much much too late.
Speaker 1 (38:27):
Gross.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
Gross.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
Well let's move on, all right. Ultimate mystery image Candidate
number six. Describe what you're seeing here, Daniel all.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
Right, so this looks like, okay, this this looks like
what you would tell chat gpt to draw if you were, like,
can you draw lollipops growing out.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
Of the grounds? It looks like an AI art thing,
doesn't it.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
It really does. The orbs are so perfect, or rather
the the it's almost like the reflection on them is
so perfect it almost looks not real. So imagine, let's
see here, just say like many, let's say like at
least ten like stubby hairs sticking out of the ground.
(39:17):
And at the end of each stubby hair is like
a shiny, perfect orb and either a red orange or
a flesh color. Now, not all of these things are
perfect orbs, but it's just these like rounded shapes that
are like perfectly glossy shiny on top of what looks
like a gangly beard hair sticking out of the dirt.
(39:39):
I believe it's dirt. It could be it could be
wood perchance, perhaps to dream, but yeah, this definitely looks
like it looks like like stubbly beard hair on a
piece of wood, with like lollipops or balloons at the
end of it that are just these shiny, glossy globules globules.
(40:00):
Love a globule, Love a globule, big fan big globbers.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
Would you would you eat it?
Speaker 2 (40:08):
I'm super duper tempted. I know. Doesn't they look like
each one of us crunch?
Speaker 1 (40:13):
Don't they look like little chupa chuops?
Speaker 2 (40:16):
Yeah? They do. One hundred.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
I would eat them.
Speaker 2 (40:21):
Do you have a Do you have a favorite chupa
chue flavor? No?
Speaker 1 (40:23):
I don't even pay attention to the flavors.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
Honestly, I respect that, you know.
Speaker 1 (40:28):
I look at it, it's like, wow, that's chop chop,
and I stick it in my mouth.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
Yeah, there you go, Okay, totally fair. The only reason
I have a favorite flap yes, just because just because
it's one of those candies that has this flavor, and
that flavor is root beer. Oh yeah, I love love
a root beer flavored candys to have like.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
Those little root beer candies that were shaped like root
beer barrels that would have my lame jumper or other sort.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
Of you know, one hundred her yeah scent.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
Yeah, those were good. Those were so good. Sometimes they'd
sort of split in like form sharp edges and like
cut my mouth. Worth it, absolutely worth it, absolutely yeah,
this one I think is like, this is the one.
I'm like, second to the one that was actually a mineral.
I'm it's like very tempting to like want to eat it.
(41:22):
Sorry you didn't. You didn't guess what it is yet, right,
Oh you're right, I.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
Did not guess what. Oh my goodness, what do you
think this is? I think this is a fungus. Interesting,
I think this is a fungus I see growing out
of the wood, and something tells me that this is
like some sort of fun guy that has killed some
curious creatures out in the forest, being like, looks y
on me. But then again, the colors would have earthed them.
(41:45):
I don't know. I mean, look, look, I'd fall for it.
I'm kind of a goof so I would be oh,
yummers and then be dry heaving twenty minutes later.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
I mean, I'd do it even if I knew that
it was bad. For hell, yeah, they just look a
tiny If you gave me like something, You're like, this
is a poisonous miniature tuba tube, I'm like, I mean.
Speaker 2 (42:03):
It exact well, you said minature.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
We'll pay the price later, so you are so close.
Oh this is I mean one of the things I'm
most impressed was that you guess that this is wood
because this is decaying wood, and this is not a fungus.
This is a little unfair because it is very close
to a fungus in terms of like the way it's
(42:29):
actually not that closely related to fungus, but it is
something that is like sometimes seems similar to fungus. It
is a slime mold. So are actually not in the
fungus kingdom. There are the creatures, aren't they They are different,
so they are there. They are eukaryots, just like humans, plants, fungus,
(42:53):
but they are a variety of eukaryotic organisms who typically
will have like a single held individual stage and then
glom together with other individuals to form a slug and
then a fruiting body. So uh so, slime molds are
kind of it's sort of an et cetera category in
(43:15):
biology where it's like it is, it is just a
bunch of unrelated, single celled eukaryots who come together form
these group organisms and often tend to have sort of
a similar thing going on, even though they're not really
that related. But they are. They are all eukaryots, and
(43:36):
they are not fungi. They're not. They are not in
the fungus kingdom, and they are not to be confused
with mold because like mold is typically like what we
would say, say like on a on an orange or something,
that mold is like a fungus and so it is
not a mold really in that sense. It's a slime mold,
(43:59):
which is sort of it's own thing. It's like a
kind of miscellaneous category of totally of eukaryotic organisms that
I'll do a similar.
Speaker 2 (44:07):
Thing there you go, yeah, wow, gorgeous.
Speaker 1 (44:11):
So uh they find Yeah, so they are. They're basically
when you see it like this right, like where you
can actually visibly see it, this is a colony organism
of like many individual organisms. So uh, this one specifically
the image that we have is Comatrica nigra, which feeds
(44:31):
on rotting wood in forests, So very good identification of
the substrate, which we have learned means floor. So they
feed on rotting wood in forest. They're found all over
the world. It's interesting, right because it's like they have
(44:52):
these stalks and then this like a balloon at the top.
Speaker 2 (44:55):
Right.
Speaker 1 (44:55):
They look like they kind of look like tiny balloons
with this like black stu on the bottom. What if
this is so like preceding this, they would form like
something that's kind of like a slug that can move.
It's not a slug because it is actually this like
colony of many, many different individuals. And in order to
(45:18):
reproduce the they release spores. But in order to release
the spore, they need to get off of the surface
of the substrate and go upwards, like build a skyscraper upwards,
so that they can release the spore and it can
go up and be distributed. Because if they're just trying
to release spores, well they're stuck on the ground. Then
(45:43):
they it just like plops really close to them, competes
for food with other it's not a good situation. And
so they'll form this slug. And then after they form
the slug, they all try to basically get on top
of each other. They're trying to go up. And so
what happens in terms of both their behavior and just
like physics, is they form a stock and then a
(46:06):
body on top of the stock, like a bulb on
top of the stock. And while this kind of seems
so the ones in the stock are kind of screwed.
They just die and they're unable to distribute their spores,
and that seems like that's altruism, but it's not. It's
just they're unlucky. They are all trying to do the
same thing and they lost out, whereas the other ones
(46:29):
won out in terms of getting to be on the
top of the stock and they'll be able to release
their spores. But yeah, it is. It is a fascinating
it's a highly sort of studied, fascinating thing where you
have this group behavior resulting like of like individual competing
unicellular organisms coming together to do a thing that they
(46:51):
could not accomplish on their own. But they're still competing
with each other and trying to behave it's behaved sort
of selfishly. And it's interesting because it's a way in
which we can see how in our own bodies, like
we are basically an extremely well developed colony of individual cells, right,
(47:12):
and sometimes our cells actually will compete like are you know,
like we've all learned about like when you have a
fertilization of an egg, all these sperm or racing to
the finish line, you have like competition between sex cells
and so like. But then somehow our bodies are able
(47:33):
to come together and function well as a unified organism.
And so this is an interesting sort of like precursor
to a functional multicellular animal. It's very interesting.
Speaker 2 (47:45):
That's wild, very very cool, and.
Speaker 1 (47:47):
You shouldn't eat it. Don't eat it. Even though it
does look like tiny tube chubes.
Speaker 2 (47:53):
You would look at these gang. I'm telling you you
will look at this picture and be like, I mean, okay,
cases not to eat it, but I'm gonna eat it.
Speaker 1 (48:00):
I don't do it.
Speaker 2 (48:01):
I okay out it's sick.
Speaker 1 (48:03):
Probably I don't actually know how sick.
Speaker 2 (48:06):
I'm gonna say, face some of you from the hospital
being the kadium. Sure get it, just get it.
Speaker 1 (48:12):
This episode was brought to you by cheepa Choops. I
wish like if I could get some free cheep choops
for talking about it. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (48:22):
What I'm saying, I gotta imagine. Let me let me
just say this. I haven't heard them sponsor a single podcast.
This is a market that they have not attacking enough.
Speaker 1 (48:30):
Frankly, you want one now right now that I've compared.
Speaker 2 (48:33):
It, absolutely I am serious about like, okay, no joke.
I did just google chupa choops to make sure that
A they had the root beer flavor and B where
can I get this rupeer flavor?
Speaker 1 (48:47):
So you think I can get them in Italy? Which
is great?
Speaker 2 (48:51):
Ooh, talk about to go up.
Speaker 1 (48:54):
There's a Cheep Choop website in Italian. So I'm set.
Speaker 2 (48:58):
Really, you're good, You're good.
Speaker 1 (49:00):
I want to get some squab we got it looks
so good? Anyways, that yes, so slime mold. Uh, fantastic job, Daniel.
But you know what, actually we actually have another game
because every week, even though this is a special episode
where the whole episode was a game, every week we
(49:21):
also play a game called Guests Who Squawkings the Mystery
Animal Sound Game.
Speaker 2 (49:25):
Yes, yes, so I love this game.
Speaker 1 (49:27):
We are going to play and uh, last week's mystery
animal sound hint was this. This animal sounds feerce but
the most you have to fear from him is plamidia.
Speaker 2 (49:43):
Oh I know what it is?
Speaker 1 (49:45):
You do already? Can do you want to listen to
the sound?
Speaker 2 (49:47):
I do? Yes, I do?
Speaker 1 (49:49):
Okay was the clamdia the tell?
Speaker 2 (49:58):
It was? Well, I mean maybe it if I'm thinking
of the right animal then yes.
Speaker 1 (50:12):
All right, so you've said you already had a good
idea of what this is what do you think this is? Daniel?
Speaker 2 (50:18):
Okay, So my experience with chlamydia and the animal kingdom
is that it is a particularly big problem for koalas.
And I think I just heard someone in the background
maybe say something with it with an Australian accent. I
could have been wrong, But also after listening to that,
that did not sound like a koala. So my knowledge
(50:39):
of chlamydia being a big deal for kuala's might be
in vain, but I'm still going to go with my
guests that the answer is koala's.
Speaker 1 (50:45):
You gotta go with your gut because you are correct.
Is a koala which sounds very much not like a koala,
But that is the mating call of a male koala,
the maiding call. Yes, isn't it sexy?
Speaker 2 (51:01):
Yes, I can't even do it deep in guttural. That
was way more guttural than horrifying than I thought it
would come out of a koala. Those things are so
small and cute, and I will say, I know that
you know they got the fangs like they will throw
down and it's simply that they're just constantly eating eucalyptus
and or highest that they're chill, but like.
Speaker 1 (51:20):
Wow, that digest like the worst plant and so they're
tired all the time.
Speaker 2 (51:28):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (51:29):
But yeah, so koalas do have a problem with chlamydia,
which is a sexually transmitted disease in koalas, just as
it is in humans caused by a bacteria. Researchers are
trying out vaccines to protect the quala from chlamydia, which
is important as it is very bad for the kualas
and can kill them. And the antibiotic treatment that is
(51:52):
so effective in humans is actually not great for koalas
because it impairs their ability to digest eucalyptus because eucalypse
this is not an easily digested plan. It's got all
these like uh slightly toxic compounds in it that it's
very very hard to digest, and so like when you
give them antibiotics, it actually makes it harder for them
(52:15):
to digest. And so, uh, the key thing here is
we gotta we gotta get a vaccine for these koalas
because they're not even common.
Speaker 2 (52:25):
Certainly are not nothing about.
Speaker 1 (52:27):
That we tried that and all these like you know,
like look this is you know, just you gotta pack
it before you you go go down onto and they
didn't listen. Sex said for koalas did not work.
Speaker 2 (52:41):
No, they were not paying attention.
Speaker 1 (52:44):
That's funny, fantastic job, Daniel. But uh one more sound
this week, christ sound and uh here it is. Oh wait,
I didn't give a hint, did I. When you hear this,
you know to pack your bags. Hey guys, Katie here
with a bit of a warning. This sound is like
(53:06):
Satan screaming into your ear after inhaling a bunch of helium.
So if you have your headphones turned all the way up,
I turn them down a bit. I tried my best
to make the sound as quiet while still audible as possible.
But you know, if you're sensitive to like high pitched
sounds straight from hell, I yeah, just to you know,
(53:30):
take a minute to maybe turn down your volume just
a bit. Or if you have a dog who will
start barking if they hear this, you know, maybe have
your dog not listen to this. And anyways, enjoy this
terrible sound that I'm going to play now. But are
(53:56):
you hearing it?
Speaker 2 (53:58):
Yes? It is very loud.
Speaker 1 (54:00):
My not hearing it. I'm sorry about the sorry about
the noise.
Speaker 2 (54:07):
You're like, wait are you hearing it? But it was
so I can't that one is aggressive?
Speaker 1 (54:12):
I do I make a guess, now, I guess, make
a guess.
Speaker 2 (54:15):
Okay, the hit was to pack your bags. That sounded
like I mean, it sounded like a bird. It could
also be like a primate of some kind. I'm going
to go with some sort of I'm going to go
with some sort of primate. I think it was some
sort of like. Yeah, I unfortunately cannot get more specific,
but I will say yowler tough to some sort of
(54:36):
tofted yowler.
Speaker 1 (54:37):
Sure yet not a real thing made that up?
Speaker 2 (54:39):
Right? Right? Right, right right? Yeah, that's all I got.
I want to say, a small primate, a small ish primate.
Speaker 1 (54:46):
Well, we will find out next time on Creature Keeping
you on tinter hooks. Damn well, thank you so much
for playing my little games with me.
Speaker 2 (54:57):
It was such a fun game. I look forward to
many renditions of this game for everyone else who guests
on the.
Speaker 1 (55:03):
Show and let me know, guys, if you really enjoyed
this game, you can write to me at Creature Future
pod at gmail dot com. You can also write to
me your guess is for the Mystery Animal sound game.
You can also leave me a rating and review in
your review. You can tell me whether or not you
liked this game format where we play a little guessing game,
and I will know then whether to do it again.
Speaker 2 (55:25):
Darl thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (55:27):
Got anything to plug, anything to promote my pleasure?
Speaker 2 (55:31):
Sure? I mean I would say, please listen to all
the shows on the network. You already listen to all
that at once. You already listen to Creature Future, So
good job. I work on these scrubs, Rewatch podcast, Take
Doctor's Real Friends. I'm the editor of Behind the Bastards
and the Cool Zone Media Network, and also the editor
of Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff with Margaret Kiljoy,
another podcast on cool Zone. I am also the producer
(55:54):
of the New Tosh Show podcast, which is really funny,
starting Daniel Tosh. If if you were Tosh point Oh
fans back in the dizay, He's back on the airwaves
via podcasting and on YouTube. It's definitely worth a listen.
You can find me on Twitch at twitch dot tv,
slash dj Underscore Daniel da n L. You can no
(56:15):
longer find me on Twitter, I don't do that anymore.
You can find me on Instagram, even though I'm also
divorcing myself from that social media. I'm not doing social
media anymore, Katie. I'm off. I'm over it.
Speaker 1 (56:24):
I was gonna ask you how you have time to like,
eat or use the bathroom given how much you are doing.
Speaker 2 (56:33):
Well, that's very sweet of you. I don't.
Speaker 1 (56:38):
Your calf.
Speaker 2 (56:39):
No, I just yeah, I've just capped up that. That is.
That's the other thing, you know what I did. So
instead of being into social media, you know what I did,
I got really into making espresso and so now I
have an expresso machine and to make myself a lotta
every morning.
Speaker 1 (56:51):
And it's nice.
Speaker 2 (56:52):
The bomb. I love it.
Speaker 1 (56:53):
I also got into espresso recently. I don't make it myself,
but I drink it and I like it.
Speaker 2 (56:59):
Hell yeah, it's good. It's good. Espress so good.
Speaker 1 (57:02):
It keeps me a weak.
Speaker 2 (57:06):
Feel that ye, but yeah, that's it. And support your
local podcast, support your community, wear sunscreen, drink water. I
don't know, those are the things.
Speaker 1 (57:15):
And if you see a tiny chube of chup on
the ground, it's a little lick.
Speaker 2 (57:20):
One little get a.
Speaker 1 (57:22):
Little Thank you guys so much for listening. Creat your
future to the production of iHeart Radio for more podcasts
like the one you just heard, visit the iHeartRadio ap
Apple podcasts. So here is where have you listened to
favorite shows? I don't judge you. I'm not your mother,
and I can't tell you what to do. You gotta
you gotta drive your own ship. Baby. You just be
(57:43):
captain of your own destiny. Take that wheel and turn it.
That's my advice to you. See you next Wednesday.
Welcome to Creature feature production of iHeartRadio. I'm your host
of Many Parasites, Katie Golden. I studied psychology and evolutionary biology,
and today on the show, we are playing a little game.
This is a fun, fresh and funky new format for
the show. We're gonna play a game of whether it's
(00:27):
an animal, a mineral plant, or fun guy. I am
giving my guests a bunch of pictures and he will
describe them to you in detail, in disgusting, porous detail,
and you can play along too. I will have links
to all these images in the show notes, or you
(00:47):
can just form a mental picture from our words, from
our word paintings that we paint, and we will go
through this and my guest will have to try to
guess is it an animal, a mineral plant, a fungi
or something else. Entirely Joining me today is friend of
(01:07):
the show producer at iHeart Radio. He does so many things.
I don't really even know where to start, uh, DJ Danel.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Welcome, Katie, happy to be back. Thank you so much
for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
I'm just gonna have you plug everything at the end
because I can't. I don't even know how. There's so
many things. You you have your hands and so many pies.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
There's lots of pies. My fingers are sticky and disgusting
at this point.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Very sticky.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yeah, I've over the years touched many pies, and I am
therefore again very sticky.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
If you've listened to a podcast or eaten a pie,
chances are there's germs from Danel on it.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
I do love pie.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Yeah, pie is good.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
I love pie. Pie is good, savory or something great both.
If I had to pick one, actually, damn, I was
about to just pop off an answer, but now that
I'm think about it, it's really hard to say. I
was very lucky enough to travel to Australia a couple
of times, and eating savory meat pies in Australia is
just on another level. They just hit so differently.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
There used to be an Australian pie savory pie shop
in Los Angeles. I think they may have moved, which
is really sad because it was incredible, absolutely incredible, just fantastically.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Are I love They're delicious.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
I think I like a savory pie. I think I'm
sort of a you know, fifteenth century noble. I like
a savory pie. So today we are talking about some
things that may look like maybe they belong in a
savory pie. Hard to tell. These are images, and it
(02:54):
is up to you, Daniel, to try to guess what
it is. It could be an animal, a mineral, a plant,
fung guy, something else.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
I'm already confused, or rather not confused, but like I'm
looking at these pictures and I'm just I know that
I'm going to be surprised. I know I'm going to
be enchanted, and i know I'm going to have a
new fear at some point.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
I'd also like you to answer the question of whether
you would eat this thing gladly?
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Oh man, glad.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
So let's get right into it. Let's start with the
very first image the candidate number one. Great, First, I
want you to describe this image to the audience.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Sure, okay, audience. I want you to imagine, you know,
you've ever seen a huge strawberry that looks really amorphous. Now,
just like double the amount of amorphousness of that weird strawberry.
Make that strawberry white, and you've got kind of what
we're looking at here. You know, it's just like kind
(03:56):
of like a it looks like a globule but also
has a pretty defined shape. It looks like it has
tiny seeds on it and it's currently sitting or the
image has it sitting on a bit of wet sand.
So a white, ghastly kind of looking giant globule strawberry
little dots of look like seeds and all sitting on
(04:16):
some sand.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Okay, that was beautiful. That was like you you're like
Monet with your words. You know, when strawberries like are
weird and they're like a double strawberry or even a
triple strawberry. That's actually something called fasciation. It happens in
plants when they have basically sort of a situation where
(04:40):
there is this like extra growth where like this basically
the plant like stem cells are telling it like grow
that thing. But again over here it's really interesting. Yeah,
so yeah, this does kind of look like a white
mutant strawberry totally, but it is amorphous. It's blobule and
(05:04):
it has these sort of like light tan speckles on it. Yeah,
kind of like strawberry skin. It's it's interesting. Would you
eat this danile?
Speaker 2 (05:14):
First of all, absolutely, Okay, I'm looking at this thing.
It looks like a laffy taffy that washed up on
the shore. I might look around, dunk it in the
water real quick and then chow down. Looks like it
would be delish. And if I had to guess, I
had to is it time to guess or is there more
time to do it? Okay? Cool? Cool, cool cool? If
(05:36):
I had to guess, And I'm trying to use some
context clues here. Looking at like that, it looks like
it's something that washed up on the shore. So I'm like,
it could be a plant, it could be an animal.
I think I'm gonna go I'm gonna go animal.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
You are absolutely correct, Congratulations, Yes, this is an animal.
It wow, certainly is a strange looking one. Yes, this
is something called a tunicate, also known as a sea squirt,
or when it's washed up on the beach like this,
it is called sea pork just because people. Yeah, they
(06:20):
like to have a name that I don't know. To me,
this doesn't look like pork. I guess it could kind
of look like pork fat. Ye, it's kind of a disgusting, sure, yeah,
very it makes it more gross. I think it's it's
a name that that makes it much more gross.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
So under the ocean there they look like these strange,
beautiful or sometimes kind of creepy like flowers or even
like coral, but they are not coral, and they are
not flowers. There's a few images that I've also shared
with you that are various examples of tunicate. Some of
them are solitary where they look sort of like this
(06:58):
weird almost like a like a flower or like a
bulbous thing with this kind of like purply coloration. But
sometimes they are in colonies, so like sometimes they form
like chains. So you'll see this thing that looks like
this giant chain, and it's all these tunicits that are
linked together. And sometimes they form like a blobby colony
(07:23):
like that initial image. Also like what that's when it's
kind of discolored. Sometimes when they're fresher, they're like pink
or red. And yeah, so they are. There's many different
species of tunicate, from those who live as individuals to
those who live as colonies. And they all start out
(07:43):
in this like free swimming stage. This larva that kind
of looks like a tadpole sperm, like a sperm that's
the size of a tadpole, and right they will latched.
For the ones that are sessile, they will latch onto sessile,
meaning that they stay fixed in one location. They no
(08:07):
longer move around. They will latch themselves onto a substrate
and go through a metamorphosis where they sort of lose
their ability to move and then form this like siphon system,
so they turn into kind of like just this almost
like bagpipe looking thing some of them. Others will form
(08:28):
colonies so they look like that weird like mutant strawberry
lumpy thing, and so they they will essentially act as
filter feeders. And unless they are part of this like
chain like organism, like some of them form this like
long chain where they're floating around as a chain. They
will mostly stay motionless or at least like stuck fixed
(08:52):
in one place for the rest of their lives while
filter feeding. They're called sea scores because a lot of
them will do this like siphoning of water, like sucking
it in one tube and pushing it out the other. Uh,
it's a it's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Really quickly. I want to jump back just two seconds
to make sure I understood some terminology you said. They
attached to a substrate.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Is like that, Yes, that is like sand or rock
or any it's basically floor it's a science word.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
For floor, A science word for floor. I like that cool.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
But it's a floor that could be made out of
rocks or sand or gravel.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
I had a feeling it was at a feeling it
was the hard surface.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
But I just wanted to be sure are specialized surface
of some kind. Yeah. So, despite sometimes being called sea pork,
most species of tunicits aren't edible. But notice how I
said most, there are some species that are edible, Okay,
(10:02):
and people actually have them in various cuisines.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
And you really, yeah, is there a particular regional cuisine
that eats these the most?
Speaker 1 (10:11):
I mean, I have, I think, because there are so many.
There are various countries where they are featured in cuisine
from anywhere from Korea to Chile. So yes, So let's
go on to the next image here, great, Yes it is.
(10:35):
This is gray looking thing with sort of red splotches
on it, Danield.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Do you think it's a it's a looking thing? All right?
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Yeah? I mean, first of all, describe it to the audience.
Use use the art of poetry to paint a picture.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
How to describe a summer's day? Well, this thing we're
looking at here, I would say it's dominating colors are
I would say, imagine something that is an eighty percent
kind of muddy gray with twenty percent of a very
vibrant orangey red and these little tiny splotches all over
(11:16):
it. It would appear that there are these very small dots
of red around this object. Now, this object is kind
of like this thing creature. I don't even know. This
thing is almost like the shape of an avocado maybe,
but it almost looks like it has a protrusion, like
a protrusion that has lesions on it. So imagine like
a avocado shaped thing that almost looks like it's covered
(11:40):
in little like calcified ringworms or something like. It looks
like these like tiny little wormes on it that are
hard like petrified worms, tiny little and then specks of
red and then these open lesions that look like small
pools of lava on this weird avocado shaped rock looking thing.
(12:03):
It looks both hard and rough and also sticky and
gross at the same time, Like parts of it look
like you could sharpen a knife on it, and then
other parts of it looked like they could give you
a disease if you touched it. So yeah, it's very strange.
It also looks like it's looking at me, like a
hundred times, like it looks like several parts of it
(12:24):
are looking at me because the red dots are placed
in such a way or are in such a place
that they look like little eyes. It's like a pair
of red dots in several places around this thing. No idea,
but it is definitely again we're seeing it on top
of what looks like very wet sand, maybe wet mud,
but it is out in nature. It looks wet and
(12:49):
it looks gross. But also I don't want to, you know,
shame the thing. Yeah, body show no share, certainly not
certainly not. But it is something I don't know if
I would want to touch.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Right so that I would assume you wouldn't eat it.
Then if you don't want to touch.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
It, well, okay, hold on. You know there's there's there's
some things I don't want to touch. Then necessarily I
throw on the grill and then you know I'm touching
them with my mouth. You know, I will say off, rip, no,
I don't want to eat this, but I am curious.
I don't know. It feels so violent to say I
want to see what's on the inside. But at the
(13:28):
same time, these these lesions of of you know, bright
red and orange color, are like, what's going on in there?
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Yeah? Is that violence or just curiosity?
Speaker 2 (13:39):
There we go. I appreciate that there's some aliens that
are going to probust and say it's not violence, it's curiosity.
I'm gonna be like, well, my arm's off now, so
I don't.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Know scientific amen to that.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
All right, I'm going to I'm going to take a guess, yes,
go for it. I'm going to go with my gut
and say that this is a mineral.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Interesting, Well, no, it is in fact an animal. And
I'm seeing kind of a jerk here because this is
yet another tunicit What you I got youa? Yeah, So
this like leprous looking gray avocado, is a tunic kit
called pyra chilinasis uh what wait wait sorry I pronounced
(14:27):
that totally wrong. Pya chill and sis uh. And it
looks like a gray rock with weird tubules that has
flesh inside. And that's essentially what it is. It's a
flesh rock.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Yeah, Okay, I just need to be very clear with
the audience. So Katie has provided you know, like we
were talking about with the first tunicit is the name
of the creature, right, yes, tunicit. So so so Katie
provided four different images of the first tunicit and they
all look pretty different then, but but there are some
similar qualities. This picture, this second picture, or rather fifth
(15:05):
picture at this point, could not look more different than
the prior four pictures. There's nothing about this picture that says, well,
that's the same creature. Yeah at all.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Well, to be fair, it's a different species for sure.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
But being like, you know, look, you show me two birds.
One could be big, one could be small. They both
look like birds, right, this does not even this is
this doesn't even look like a globule of strawberry.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Yeah, no, it kind of looks moldy. But yeah, it's
so that gray rock like exterior is the exoskeletal structure
of a colony of tunicates. Inside that red flesh is
you know, they're flesh, the flesh of these kits. So
this is a colony of tunicits. And yeah, just like
(15:52):
other tunicates, they siphon in water and filter feed and
essentially just hang out and seem like a rock until
they are dragged out by fishermen. And I know you
said you were on the fence about eating this. But
these are an example of an edible tunicate, and indeed
they are featured in Chilean cuisine. Yes what.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
So because it does look like a flesh rock from hell,
it's not a particularly popular food in Chile. And this
is not like some kind of like common cuisine, but
in areas where like there's a lot of fishing, it
can be eaten in fishermen. Well, what they do essentially
(16:37):
is they take out the inside. You don't eat out
the exoskeleton, just like you wouldn't eat like the exoskeleton
of a clam. And then they take these like basically
like globules of meat from inside, dry them out, and
it's used in soups. So you know, I would, I
(16:58):
I would try it.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
I would. I mean now that I mean, now that
we're having this conversation, I'm like, yeah, I mean, throwing
on a plate, let me see what, let me see
what we're rocking with. But like, wow, I'm shook. I'm shook.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
I mean, you know, that's when it's like, when you're
essentially giving me the option of eating a living rock
made out of flesh, it does sound a little appealing.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Actually that sounds like some Pokemon stuff. It's like, do
I want to eat a geo dude? Hell yeah, Katie.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Those traps they've got delts that look you know, delectible,
delectable though there's meat there. All right, So do you
want to move on to the next image.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Let's do it.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
All right, this is candidate number three. I want you
to describe this image.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
For the audience. Okay, gladly, Well, I'm going to avoid
the rather explicit connotation that these things have and say
that they are They do look like blue wieners. They
look like they look like uh, doctor Manhattan wieners sticking
out of the ground. They look like the thing is
(18:19):
so again, this is a scale thing where I'm like,
I don't know how big these are, but they I'm
going to guess small. They look like small stalagmites, translucent
bluish stalagmites. They look like, you know, you can see
there there may be gooey blue center. It's almost it's
almost like a It looks like one single piece that
(18:41):
is like attached to a rock with a lot with
a lot of little like you know, blue wieners sticking
out of it. But it is.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
A meadow of blueis.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
A meadow of blue wieners is a great way to
say it. There is also as part of the Yeah,
it almost looks like you're looking into like a cave,
a cave of blue wieners that are being exposed to
light for the first time. I'm also going to guess
this is guessing this is also I'm guessing this is underwater,
(19:18):
but there's no evidence of that. You know what, Actually,
I take that back. There's no water evidence in this picture.
So I'm gonna say it's not water. I'm going to
go and I'm trying to think there's any other physical
descriptors that are worth mentioning here. I mean, like, you know,
uh no, I think I think we I think we
kind of nailed it all.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Yeah, that was good.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
I'm going to thank you. I'm going to go I'm
gonna go with a fungus hm.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
But also, would you eat it? You gotta answer that one.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Too, Oh right, of course, Yes, they look like they
they look like they explode in your mouth like gushers.
So yes, absolutely, due.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
They look gummy. They look like delicious gummies. They do
look gummy, you know, like how you're at a bachelor
party and you get some weiener gummies. They look like that.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Well, I wouldn't know personally, have been very familiar with those. Yes,
I've seen those images and whatnot.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
I've been to a lot of bachelorette parties. There's always
some kind of weier thing, and it's just like, come on,
aren't we adults here, Let's grow up. Let's just grow up.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Let's grow up.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Anyways, So that is a fantastic guess that this is
a fun guy. Sadly it is incorrect. This is actually
a mineral. So yeah, I gotta I gotta throw in
a mineral there. I gotta switch up a curveball a
little bit of curve.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
These are things, definitely aren't These things definitely aren't squishy that.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
No, no, it looks There are so many minerals that
I would put in my mouth and chomp down and
break every tooth because they like candy and I want
to eat them.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Yes, these absolutely look like candy. One.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
These are chrysocola. They are this blue color. They're actually
quite beautiful. I think it's actually due to the copper
hydroxide content of the mineral. Obviously, copper is typically copper colored,
but when it is oxidized it's blue. Like have you
(21:19):
ever seen a gross old penny that's like kind of
wet I have, Yeah, turns blue and sometimes it turns
your pocket blue too, and so yeah it will. That
is where this blue color comes.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
From, and that where blue jeans come from.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
People just have penny penny washed jeans.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Penny washed.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
So I think, I mean it's possible though, that oxidized
copper was used in paints. I'm not I'm not a
paint expert or mineral mineralist, but yeah, I mean that's
that's very possible. It's used as like coloration in things.
But that bulb that sort of bulbous valley of penises
(22:08):
type thing that's going on that they can look like
little tentacles. Sometimes it looks like little bubbles like it's
it's literally sort of bubbling up. It's called a boeroidal formation.
It is when there are many seeds from which the
crystal forms. So when I talk about seed, it's essentially
like maybe it's a piece of sand or a small
(22:29):
particle of mineral from which a crystal sort of starts growing.
So again, I'm not a mineral oid. I'm not a
professor of mineralogy.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
But what was my favorite aliens from Star Trek.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Mineral Oid just a bunch of rocks. It's just a
geodude rebranded. So it's essentially like the way I learned
it eons ago is that you'll have sort of a
structure of a crystal, and then once you have like
if you have like things that it's stuff that kind
of knocks things into place or like it forms this thing,
(23:07):
and then you start to get this formation and everything
sort of settles in this this structure form because you
have a seed structure that enables this type of formation,
and so the crystal continues to form sort of like
a domino effect. And so if you have a multiple
number of these like seeds that will grow these crystals,
(23:28):
then you have this like bubbling form or forest of weenas.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Most certainly it's beautiful. I have a question go for
it now now that we now that we know that
it is a mineral, can we get what is the
scale of the image that we're looking at? Here? Are
these tiny? Are they large? Are they kind of like
in between? Like what size are we looking at?
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Sometimes they can and it depends. Some of them are
like bigger, some of them are like small, like sort
of like smaller than a pencil. These I think are
about pencil size.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Pencil said, that's still pretty I mean, gang, if you
were to look at these like saying that their pencil
size means they're probably like the thickness of like a
water bottle. So these are pretty substantial minerals right here.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Yeah, Okay, maybe pencil is a little big, but they're
certainly like like uh yeah, like a thin sort of
the head of a pencil maybe. Oh like like the
like the like you know, the like the not like
the lead points, but like the conical part of the pencil,
like each one of those is kind of like I
(24:32):
would think sort of like that. But I've seen ones
that are also really small.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Gotcha, Okay, wow, okay, but they but they are small
in range. We're not going to go into a cave
and see two foot three foot tall ones of these
bodmns right here, not.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
That I am aware of.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
No, Okay, cool.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
And sometimes they don't I mean, sometimes they don't form
like those sort of like wiener shapes or bubble shapes.
Sometimes they're like different shape, like it's just it kind
of depends on how they form, uh, this form I
thought looked really organic and weird and possibly would throw
you off, which it did.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
And I'm proud you nailed it, proud of lying to you,
you know, an appropriate situation to be and I'm proud
of you too.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
So let's move on to the next image.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
If you're ready, I'm super ready.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
All right, let's do it. So first describe this to
the audience again. Let's let's let's be adults here.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Yeah, let's be let's be adults here, all right. So, gang,
imagine that you were looking at a top down brain
that was like flattened like it looks like a flat
cross section of a brain with a a very suggestive
slit down the middle.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Looks like a brain vagina.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
It is a brain virgin. It looks like there are
a couple surrounding it. It looks like a little bundle
maybe maybe a three pack of brain vaginas. They're sitting
by the honest and.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Get those big old tops of brain vaginas you do.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Uh, they look like they're sitting in a pot filled
with pebbles. So maybe this is like some sort of
I mean, the pot looks I'll say this, Okay, this
could be one of those things where like the geological
formation was just so perfect and this is like underwater.
But something tells me this is more of like a
succulent and is actually a plant. But the last thing
(26:43):
I'll say is in terms of so again, remember we're
talking like a flat brain looking thing here. It's like
a It's like a cross section of a brain if
you were to cut it in half, all the wrinkles
and stuff like that same coloring as a brain, with
the with all the folds and all the wrinkles being
kind of like a the sulk ego being like a
reddish hue. It's got kind of a pink look to it.
(27:05):
There's kind of like an outline of yellowy orange all around,
and I feel like I can see the root below it.
I think I'm pretty confident that that is a succulent plant.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
And say, hell yeah, well you are absolutely correct that
this is a punk fantastic. I would not eat it.
I don't think it'll kill you, but I think it
would taste garbou and possibly give you a tummy age.
(27:37):
But yeah, it is a plantat it is called a lithops,
which means easy to kill in Greek. That's not true.
I'm kidding, No, it actually means stone face in Greek.
It is a very for me personally, maybe for other
people too. It is a difficult succulent to keep alive.
I have owned about three of them and killed every
(28:00):
single one. I but they're so cool that the next
time I see one being sold by a plant person,
I will buy it again and probably kill it.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Probably kill it. Yeah, So what what was so difficult
about the care that made them made it easy to kill? So?
Speaker 1 (28:17):
These are These are succulents that are found in Africa,
and they tend to do really well in very dry conditions,
and so you really need very good drainage and to
water it just enough but not too much, because if
you water it too much and the drainage is not adequate,
(28:39):
it will actually make the plant explode kind of because
it absorbs too much water or the roots rot. So
you water it like I've I've heard some advice where
you water it like once a year, but I tried
doing that and it die.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
Once a year.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
So I tried watering it more than that, but it
also died. So I don't know what I'm exactly doing wrong.
Probably I should stop buying these, so but yeah, they
they are actually flowering succulents. So when they are in
(29:19):
sort of the flowering season, a flower will emerge from
betwixt the clefts of this.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Really, yes, I'm.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Probably I mean it is very labial. I'll probably get
some obgi and mad at me for calling it a vaginants.
Obviously that's not the vagiants, the labia. But yeah, so
you'll have a flower that sprouts from it, and their
appearance is thought to be camouflaged, so looking so much
like a rock, meaning that it is less likely to
(29:52):
be eaten. They're beautifuls.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
I mean, they are, you know, honestly. Okay, another another,
another crass example for our listeners at home who are
trying to picture this. Imagine you're very old and you
put your naked butt cheeks on the xerox.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
Old pancaked butt cheeks.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
That's right, old pancakes butt cheeks on the xerox machine.
You got what we're looking at right here.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
That's exactly it. That is exactly it, and it's beautiful.
I think that. I think that's the thing is like
when you say old, wrinkly pancaked butt, it makes it
sound you know, unappealing. But when you think about you
when you think about all the different shapes and folds
(30:40):
that happen in nature. Look, we're just we're just nature baby,
and we're just nature baby. We're just like succulent. Well,
let's let's move on to the next to the next one. Danly,
you're you're you're doing amazing at this game.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Oh, thank you, thank you. This is amazing.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
This is fun. I'm having fun me too. This is
candidate number five. Describe candidate number five if you will.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
So, this honestly looks like a haunted oil leak. We
have a green slime that looks like it is coming
out of something. The image is on what looks like concrete,
and it looks like the green slime. There's there's a
couple different like trails of you know when you like
(31:35):
splash water or there's a liquid on concrete, and you
can see the kind of residue. This definitely looks like
it has been leaving a residue or something has been
leaving a residue around it. Maybe this, whatever it is,
has been moving. I'm honestly now looking at it, my
first thought was fungus. Now I'm thinking creature. But also
(31:56):
it might be a plant. It is very shiny. It
is it is a it is a bright It.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
Is Nickelodeon slime green.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
It is ghak green firs. Sure green? Uh oh no, no, no, no,
you're right, No, no slime, it's slime green. Gak is
something different. But no, it's definitely what. I can't remember, Man,
I need to google this whole. I'm googling gagk.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Wasn't gak Jak was a toy, right? But was it all?
Speaker 2 (32:22):
But it was made by Nickelodeon. It was multiple colors. Yeah,
but Nickelodeon slime is what we're talking about. Nickel You're
one hundred percent right, Gang, it is Nickelodeon slime. Uh.
This this, this floor is looking like Katy Perry's face
after she accidentally opened that box. Uh, it's it's gross.
(32:42):
It's long. There is something next to it for scale
that almost looks like maybe a fishing line.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
So you're, oh, God, you're sure locking the hell out
of this. I can tell by the angle of the
shadows that this was taken into approximately fifteen.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
I'm gonna say I'm gonna go with animal. I think
this is a creature that is very interesting.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
Would you eat it? Your face says no, but your
face says.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
No, but your voice my face says no, but my
body says me. I don't know. It looks like a
It looks like one of those. Honestly, it looks like
a whole pack of gummy bears melted down the side
of the street. And you look around and you're like,
I was going to see this pop them all in
your mouth at once.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
The story time, when I was in high school, a
classmate was doing this thing where there we had like
a yeah, I don't know how he came into possession
of this many mint mints, but he had a bunch
of peppermints, the green kind, the green and white striped peppermints,
and so we were all bored, and uh, he decided
(34:02):
to try to fit as many as possible in his mouth,
and so of course we all egged him on. It
was a massive choking hazard. He could have died, but
we didn't think about that. He ended up fine, But uh,
I think what happened is he is trying. Uh, he
(34:24):
was trying to keep going, and I said, come on,
just one more, man, you can do it, just a
little one. And that's for some reason that made him laugh,
and he started laughing, and he spewed out this long
tendril of green spit melted mint candy. It smelled very minty.
(34:45):
It went everywhere. It was hilarious, and we got in trouble.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
You got in trouble with him.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
No, I mean just like the teacher was like, guys, oh, yeah,
don't do that. We didn't get like detention or anything
like that. I was just like, guys, come on, because
she spit like a massive glob of semi mouth digested
mint everywhere. The poor teacher, leaguered chemistry teacher. This is
(35:16):
what that looks like to me.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
I totally see that. Yeah, and that is horrifying.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
Yeah, but your guess is that it is an animal.
You are correct. Let's see. I want to see if
you like, let's go, like, where do you think this
animal lives. Let's see if we can get even more
specific bonus round.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Okay, So I may be reading too much into the
quote unquote fishing line that's next to it, which I
still think is a fishing line, And I'm going to
say this thing lives in the ocean. I'm going to
say it's some sort of like sea slug type joint that.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
Is very good. Guess. Yes, it does live in the ocean.
It is not a sea slug, but it is is
a ribbon worm. It is a green ribbon worm found
in the ocean off the coast of Taiwan, Japan, and
the Philippines. It is a bright green, mean clam eating machine.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
It like a lot of ribbon worms. It's kind of
horrifying looking. It's actually not like super closely related to say,
like earthworms or anything. They're just similarly shaped, but you know,
they're not not very closely related. But yeah, it is
a ribbon worm. And ribbon worms have this thing called
(36:39):
a preboscis, which is a great word, and it is
this long, sticky tongue like a organ, yes exactly, that
they can evert meaning sort of turn inside out and
spit out through their mouth. And this can both ensnare
their prey and also it contains venom to further incapacitate
(37:03):
their victims, which can be be yes like clams, other
aquatic worms, snails, basically anything small enough and unlucky enough
to find itself tangled up in its lethal proboscus. But
as you can see from this picture, they're not tiny.
They can be very long.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
Actually, no, this thing, this thing looks frighteningly Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
I think this one's like over a foot long and
like thicker than a pencil. It's yeah, interesting. So uh.
They then, once they have entangled their prey and their
venomous proboscis, they pull it in and basically like slurp
up their own proboscis like spaghetti, and then engulf their poohole. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
Yeah, wow, that's so kind of it's kind of snake
like in the assumption of it.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
But even though snakes are not you know, but.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
They have no job yea or face. Really, they're just
a evil spaghetti.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
Not the way I'm trying to go. Sure it gets
swallowed by evil spaghetti. Yeah, yeah, Well I want to look.
I want to look my killer in the eyes if
they're going to eat me.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
Yeah, which is hard to do with this thing. It's
like where is it you which it's hard to even know.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
Which end is the butt where it's exactly yes, exactly. Well,
it sounds like we won't know until much much too late.
Speaker 1 (38:27):
Gross.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
Gross.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
Well let's move on, all right. Ultimate mystery image Candidate
number six. Describe what you're seeing here, Daniel all.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
Right, so this looks like, okay, this this looks like
what you would tell chat gpt to draw if you were, like,
can you draw lollipops growing out.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
Of the grounds? It looks like an AI art thing,
doesn't it.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
It really does. The orbs are so perfect, or rather
the the it's almost like the reflection on them is
so perfect it almost looks not real. So imagine, let's
see here, just say like many, let's say like at
least ten like stubby hairs sticking out of the ground.
(39:17):
And at the end of each stubby hair is like
a shiny, perfect orb and either a red orange or
a flesh color. Now, not all of these things are
perfect orbs, but it's just these like rounded shapes that
are like perfectly glossy shiny on top of what looks
like a gangly beard hair sticking out of the dirt.
(39:39):
I believe it's dirt. It could be it could be
wood perchance, perhaps to dream, but yeah, this definitely looks
like it looks like like stubbly beard hair on a
piece of wood, with like lollipops or balloons at the
end of it that are just these shiny, glossy globules globules.
(40:00):
Love a globule, Love a globule, big fan big globbers.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
Would you would you eat it?
Speaker 2 (40:08):
I'm super duper tempted. I know. Doesn't they look like
each one of us crunch?
Speaker 1 (40:13):
Don't they look like little chupa chuops?
Speaker 2 (40:16):
Yeah? They do. One hundred.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
I would eat them.
Speaker 2 (40:21):
Do you have a Do you have a favorite chupa
chue flavor? No?
Speaker 1 (40:23):
I don't even pay attention to the flavors.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
Honestly, I respect that, you know.
Speaker 1 (40:28):
I look at it, it's like, wow, that's chop chop,
and I stick it in my mouth.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
Yeah, there you go, Okay, totally fair. The only reason
I have a favorite flap yes, just because just because
it's one of those candies that has this flavor, and
that flavor is root beer. Oh yeah, I love love
a root beer flavored candys to have like.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
Those little root beer candies that were shaped like root
beer barrels that would have my lame jumper or other sort.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
Of you know, one hundred her yeah scent.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
Yeah, those were good. Those were so good. Sometimes they'd
sort of split in like form sharp edges and like
cut my mouth. Worth it, absolutely worth it, absolutely yeah,
this one I think is like, this is the one.
I'm like, second to the one that was actually a mineral.
I'm it's like very tempting to like want to eat it.
(41:22):
Sorry you didn't. You didn't guess what it is yet, right,
Oh you're right, I.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
Did not guess what. Oh my goodness, what do you
think this is? I think this is a fungus. Interesting,
I think this is a fungus I see growing out
of the wood, and something tells me that this is
like some sort of fun guy that has killed some
curious creatures out in the forest, being like, looks y
on me. But then again, the colors would have earthed them.
(41:45):
I don't know. I mean, look, look, I'd fall for it.
I'm kind of a goof so I would be oh,
yummers and then be dry heaving twenty minutes later.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
I mean, I'd do it even if I knew that
it was bad. For hell, yeah, they just look a
tiny If you gave me like something, You're like, this
is a poisonous miniature tuba tube, I'm like, I mean.
Speaker 2 (42:03):
It exact well, you said minature.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
We'll pay the price later, so you are so close.
Oh this is I mean one of the things I'm
most impressed was that you guess that this is wood
because this is decaying wood, and this is not a fungus.
This is a little unfair because it is very close
to a fungus in terms of like the way it's
(42:29):
actually not that closely related to fungus, but it is
something that is like sometimes seems similar to fungus. It
is a slime mold. So are actually not in the
fungus kingdom. There are the creatures, aren't they They are different,
so they are there. They are eukaryots, just like humans, plants, fungus,
(42:53):
but they are a variety of eukaryotic organisms who typically
will have like a single held individual stage and then
glom together with other individuals to form a slug and
then a fruiting body. So uh so, slime molds are
kind of it's sort of an et cetera category in
(43:15):
biology where it's like it is, it is just a
bunch of unrelated, single celled eukaryots who come together form
these group organisms and often tend to have sort of
a similar thing going on, even though they're not really
that related. But they are. They are all eukaryots, and
(43:36):
they are not fungi. They're not. They are not in
the fungus kingdom, and they are not to be confused
with mold because like mold is typically like what we
would say, say like on a on an orange or something,
that mold is like a fungus and so it is
not a mold really in that sense. It's a slime mold,
(43:59):
which is sort of it's own thing. It's like a
kind of miscellaneous category of totally of eukaryotic organisms that
I'll do a similar.
Speaker 2 (44:07):
Thing there you go, yeah, wow, gorgeous.
Speaker 1 (44:11):
So uh they find Yeah, so they are. They're basically
when you see it like this right, like where you
can actually visibly see it, this is a colony organism
of like many individual organisms. So uh, this one specifically
the image that we have is Comatrica nigra, which feeds
(44:31):
on rotting wood in forests, So very good identification of
the substrate, which we have learned means floor. So they
feed on rotting wood in forest. They're found all over
the world. It's interesting, right because it's like they have
(44:52):
these stalks and then this like a balloon at the top.
Speaker 2 (44:55):
Right.
Speaker 1 (44:55):
They look like they kind of look like tiny balloons
with this like black stu on the bottom. What if
this is so like preceding this, they would form like
something that's kind of like a slug that can move.
It's not a slug because it is actually this like
colony of many, many different individuals. And in order to
(45:18):
reproduce the they release spores. But in order to release
the spore, they need to get off of the surface
of the substrate and go upwards, like build a skyscraper upwards,
so that they can release the spore and it can
go up and be distributed. Because if they're just trying
to release spores, well they're stuck on the ground. Then
(45:43):
they it just like plops really close to them, competes
for food with other it's not a good situation. And
so they'll form this slug. And then after they form
the slug, they all try to basically get on top
of each other. They're trying to go up. And so
what happens in terms of both their behavior and just
like physics, is they form a stock and then a
(46:06):
body on top of the stock, like a bulb on
top of the stock. And while this kind of seems
so the ones in the stock are kind of screwed.
They just die and they're unable to distribute their spores,
and that seems like that's altruism, but it's not. It's
just they're unlucky. They are all trying to do the
same thing and they lost out, whereas the other ones
(46:29):
won out in terms of getting to be on the
top of the stock and they'll be able to release
their spores. But yeah, it is. It is a fascinating
it's a highly sort of studied, fascinating thing where you
have this group behavior resulting like of like individual competing
unicellular organisms coming together to do a thing that they
(46:51):
could not accomplish on their own. But they're still competing
with each other and trying to behave it's behaved sort
of selfishly. And it's interesting because it's a way in
which we can see how in our own bodies, like
we are basically an extremely well developed colony of individual cells, right,
(47:12):
and sometimes our cells actually will compete like are you know,
like we've all learned about like when you have a
fertilization of an egg, all these sperm or racing to
the finish line, you have like competition between sex cells
and so like. But then somehow our bodies are able
(47:33):
to come together and function well as a unified organism.
And so this is an interesting sort of like precursor
to a functional multicellular animal. It's very interesting.
Speaker 2 (47:45):
That's wild, very very cool, and.
Speaker 1 (47:47):
You shouldn't eat it. Don't eat it. Even though it
does look like tiny tube chubes.
Speaker 2 (47:53):
You would look at these gang. I'm telling you you
will look at this picture and be like, I mean, okay,
cases not to eat it, but I'm gonna eat it.
Speaker 1 (48:00):
I don't do it.
Speaker 2 (48:01):
I okay out it's sick.
Speaker 1 (48:03):
Probably I don't actually know how sick.
Speaker 2 (48:06):
I'm gonna say, face some of you from the hospital
being the kadium. Sure get it, just get it.
Speaker 1 (48:12):
This episode was brought to you by cheepa Choops. I
wish like if I could get some free cheep choops
for talking about it. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (48:22):
What I'm saying, I gotta imagine. Let me let me
just say this. I haven't heard them sponsor a single podcast.
This is a market that they have not attacking enough.
Speaker 1 (48:30):
Frankly, you want one now right now that I've compared.
Speaker 2 (48:33):
It, absolutely I am serious about like, okay, no joke.
I did just google chupa choops to make sure that
A they had the root beer flavor and B where
can I get this rupeer flavor?
Speaker 1 (48:47):
So you think I can get them in Italy? Which
is great?
Speaker 2 (48:51):
Ooh, talk about to go up.
Speaker 1 (48:54):
There's a Cheep Choop website in Italian. So I'm set.
Speaker 2 (48:58):
Really, you're good, You're good.
Speaker 1 (49:00):
I want to get some squab we got it looks
so good? Anyways, that yes, so slime mold. Uh, fantastic job, Daniel.
But you know what, actually we actually have another game
because every week, even though this is a special episode
where the whole episode was a game, every week we
(49:21):
also play a game called Guests Who Squawkings the Mystery
Animal Sound Game.
Speaker 2 (49:25):
Yes, yes, so I love this game.
Speaker 1 (49:27):
We are going to play and uh, last week's mystery
animal sound hint was this. This animal sounds feerce but
the most you have to fear from him is plamidia.
Speaker 2 (49:43):
Oh I know what it is?
Speaker 1 (49:45):
You do already? Can do you want to listen to
the sound?
Speaker 2 (49:47):
I do? Yes, I do?
Speaker 1 (49:49):
Okay was the clamdia the tell?
Speaker 2 (49:58):
It was? Well, I mean maybe it if I'm thinking
of the right animal then yes.
Speaker 1 (50:12):
All right, so you've said you already had a good
idea of what this is what do you think this is? Daniel?
Speaker 2 (50:18):
Okay, So my experience with chlamydia and the animal kingdom
is that it is a particularly big problem for koalas.
And I think I just heard someone in the background
maybe say something with it with an Australian accent. I
could have been wrong, But also after listening to that,
that did not sound like a koala. So my knowledge
(50:39):
of chlamydia being a big deal for kuala's might be
in vain, but I'm still going to go with my
guests that the answer is koala's.
Speaker 1 (50:45):
You gotta go with your gut because you are correct.
Is a koala which sounds very much not like a koala,
But that is the mating call of a male koala,
the maiding call. Yes, isn't it sexy?
Speaker 2 (51:01):
Yes, I can't even do it deep in guttural. That
was way more guttural than horrifying than I thought it
would come out of a koala. Those things are so
small and cute, and I will say, I know that
you know they got the fangs like they will throw
down and it's simply that they're just constantly eating eucalyptus
and or highest that they're chill, but like.
Speaker 1 (51:20):
Wow, that digest like the worst plant and so they're
tired all the time.
Speaker 2 (51:28):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (51:29):
But yeah, so koalas do have a problem with chlamydia,
which is a sexually transmitted disease in koalas, just as
it is in humans caused by a bacteria. Researchers are
trying out vaccines to protect the quala from chlamydia, which
is important as it is very bad for the kualas
and can kill them. And the antibiotic treatment that is
(51:52):
so effective in humans is actually not great for koalas
because it impairs their ability to digest eucalyptus because eucalypse
this is not an easily digested plan. It's got all
these like uh slightly toxic compounds in it that it's
very very hard to digest, and so like when you
give them antibiotics, it actually makes it harder for them
(52:15):
to digest. And so, uh, the key thing here is
we gotta we gotta get a vaccine for these koalas
because they're not even common.
Speaker 2 (52:25):
Certainly are not nothing about.
Speaker 1 (52:27):
That we tried that and all these like you know,
like look this is you know, just you gotta pack
it before you you go go down onto and they
didn't listen. Sex said for koalas did not work.
Speaker 2 (52:41):
No, they were not paying attention.
Speaker 1 (52:44):
That's funny, fantastic job, Daniel. But uh one more sound
this week, christ sound and uh here it is. Oh wait,
I didn't give a hint, did I. When you hear this,
you know to pack your bags. Hey guys, Katie here
with a bit of a warning. This sound is like
(53:06):
Satan screaming into your ear after inhaling a bunch of helium.
So if you have your headphones turned all the way up,
I turn them down a bit. I tried my best
to make the sound as quiet while still audible as possible.
But you know, if you're sensitive to like high pitched
sounds straight from hell, I yeah, just to you know,
(53:30):
take a minute to maybe turn down your volume just
a bit. Or if you have a dog who will
start barking if they hear this, you know, maybe have
your dog not listen to this. And anyways, enjoy this
terrible sound that I'm going to play now. But are
(53:56):
you hearing it?
Speaker 2 (53:58):
Yes? It is very loud.
Speaker 1 (54:00):
My not hearing it. I'm sorry about the sorry about
the noise.
Speaker 2 (54:07):
You're like, wait are you hearing it? But it was
so I can't that one is aggressive?
Speaker 1 (54:12):
I do I make a guess, now, I guess, make
a guess.
Speaker 2 (54:15):
Okay, the hit was to pack your bags. That sounded
like I mean, it sounded like a bird. It could
also be like a primate of some kind. I'm going
to go with some sort of I'm going to go
with some sort of primate. I think it was some
sort of like. Yeah, I unfortunately cannot get more specific,
but I will say yowler tough to some sort of
(54:36):
tofted yowler.
Speaker 1 (54:37):
Sure yet not a real thing made that up?
Speaker 2 (54:39):
Right? Right? Right, right right? Yeah, that's all I got.
I want to say, a small primate, a small ish primate.
Speaker 1 (54:46):
Well, we will find out next time on Creature Keeping
you on tinter hooks. Damn well, thank you so much
for playing my little games with me.
Speaker 2 (54:57):
It was such a fun game. I look forward to
many renditions of this game for everyone else who guests
on the.
Speaker 1 (55:03):
Show and let me know, guys, if you really enjoyed
this game, you can write to me at Creature Future
pod at gmail dot com. You can also write to
me your guess is for the Mystery Animal sound game.
You can also leave me a rating and review in
your review. You can tell me whether or not you
liked this game format where we play a little guessing game,
and I will know then whether to do it again.
Speaker 2 (55:25):
Darl thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (55:27):
Got anything to plug, anything to promote my pleasure?
Speaker 2 (55:31):
Sure? I mean I would say, please listen to all
the shows on the network. You already listen to all
that at once. You already listen to Creature Future, So
good job. I work on these scrubs, Rewatch podcast, Take
Doctor's Real Friends. I'm the editor of Behind the Bastards
and the Cool Zone Media Network, and also the editor
of Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff with Margaret Kiljoy,
another podcast on cool Zone. I am also the producer
(55:54):
of the New Tosh Show podcast, which is really funny,
starting Daniel Tosh. If if you were Tosh point Oh
fans back in the dizay, He's back on the airwaves
via podcasting and on YouTube. It's definitely worth a listen.
You can find me on Twitch at twitch dot tv,
slash dj Underscore Daniel da n L. You can no
(56:15):
longer find me on Twitter, I don't do that anymore.
You can find me on Instagram, even though I'm also
divorcing myself from that social media. I'm not doing social
media anymore, Katie. I'm off. I'm over it.
Speaker 1 (56:24):
I was gonna ask you how you have time to like,
eat or use the bathroom given how much you are doing.
Speaker 2 (56:33):
Well, that's very sweet of you. I don't.
Speaker 1 (56:38):
Your calf.
Speaker 2 (56:39):
No, I just yeah, I've just capped up that. That is.
That's the other thing, you know what I did. So
instead of being into social media, you know what I did,
I got really into making espresso and so now I
have an expresso machine and to make myself a lotta
every morning.
Speaker 1 (56:51):
And it's nice.
Speaker 2 (56:52):
The bomb. I love it.
Speaker 1 (56:53):
I also got into espresso recently. I don't make it myself,
but I drink it and I like it.
Speaker 2 (56:59):
Hell yeah, it's good. It's good. Espress so good.
Speaker 1 (57:02):
It keeps me a weak.
Speaker 2 (57:06):
Feel that ye, but yeah, that's it. And support your
local podcast, support your community, wear sunscreen, drink water. I
don't know, those are the things.
Speaker 1 (57:15):
And if you see a tiny chube of chup on
the ground, it's a little lick.
Speaker 2 (57:20):
One little get a.
Speaker 1 (57:22):
Little Thank you guys so much for listening. Creat your
future to the production of iHeart Radio for more podcasts
like the one you just heard, visit the iHeartRadio ap
Apple podcasts. So here is where have you listened to
favorite shows? I don't judge you. I'm not your mother,
and I can't tell you what to do. You gotta
you gotta drive your own ship. Baby. You just be
(57:43):
captain of your own destiny. Take that wheel and turn it.
That's my advice to you. See you next Wednesday.
Creature Feature News
Host
Katie Goldin
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On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Ruthie's Table 4
For more than 30 years The River Cafe in London, has been the home-from-home of artists, architects, designers, actors, collectors, writers, activists, and politicians. Michael Caine, Glenn Close, JJ Abrams, Steve McQueen, Victoria and David Beckham, and Lily Allen, are just some of the people who love to call The River Cafe home. On River Cafe Table 4, Rogers sits down with her customers—who have become friends—to talk about food memories. Table 4 explores how food impacts every aspect of our lives. “Foods is politics, food is cultural, food is how you express love, food is about your heritage, it defines who you and who you want to be,” says Rogers. Each week, Rogers invites her guest to reminisce about family suppers and first dates, what they cook, how they eat when performing, the restaurants they choose, and what food they seek when they need comfort. And to punctuate each episode of Table 4, guests such as Ralph Fiennes, Emily Blunt, and Alfonso Cuarón, read their favourite recipe from one of the best-selling River Cafe cookbooks. Table 4 itself, is situated near The River Cafe’s open kitchen, close to the bright pink wood-fired oven and next to the glossy yellow pass, where Ruthie oversees the restaurant. You are invited to take a seat at this intimate table and join the conversation. For more information, recipes, and ingredients, go to https://shoptherivercafe.co.uk/ Web: https://rivercafe.co.uk/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/therivercafelondon/ Facebook: https://en-gb.facebook.com/therivercafelondon/ For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iheartradio app, apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.