July 11, 2025 • 15 mins
Can grapefruit ice cream cure your hangovers? Have Japanese scientists really cracked the code on ice creams that won't melt? And why does seafood ice cream make patriots' mouths water? Gabe and Mango are serving up a big dish of our favorite summertime treat, with extra facts sprinkled on top!
This episode originally aired on May 31, 2018.
Photo by Zach Camp via Unsplash. Thanks, Zach!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Guess what gave? What's that mango? So have you ever
noticed that Ben and Jerry's flavors are really chunky, Like
they always have big pieces of banana or pretzels or
chocolate in them.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Yeah, I mean they do make chunky monkey, right, so
at least that'd better be pretty chunky.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
So when I was younger, I was always kind of
thrown off by that style of ice cream, and I
was kind of curious how they developed it. And apparently
it's all because of Ben from Ben and Jerry's. According
to their site, he has anosma, meaning he doesn't have
a great sense of smell and he barely has a
sense of taste too, So for him, like his love
of ice cream is mostly textural, like he loves the
(00:40):
creamy mouthfeel. He likes those like big, delicious, crunchy treats
that are mixed in And so that's how they came
up with it, and over the years fans fell in
love with that consistency too. But that's just the first
of nine facts were dishing out today about ice cream.
Let's dive in hey their podcast listeners, I'm Monga's particular
(01:18):
and my co host Will Pearson is out today sunning
himself at the beach. But don't worry, I've got our
research superstar Gabe Luesy a with us on the line.
Hey Gabe, Hey, thanks for having me on. Yeah, of course.
And we also have sitting behind that soundproof glass wearing
his mister Softy T shirt, or as they call it
in China, mister soft heart. Apparently there's no word for
(01:39):
softie in China. That's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. So, Gabe,
I know we're doing an episode on ice cream today.
Are you an ice cream guy?
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Like?
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Do you have a go to flavor?
Speaker 2 (01:51):
I am definitely an ice cream guy, like all good
hearted people.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
And American people.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Yeah, I like all good hearted American Now, yeah, my
favorite flavor is probably cookies and cream. I could go
for just about anything except chocolate. Not a chocolate guy.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Really, I wouldn't have guessed that. I am mostly a
mint chocolate chip guy, though I'll eat most flavors. And
I'm actually not sure if I've told you this, but
my grandfather actually had an ice cream factory in India. U. Yeah,
he had to drop out of college because his parents
passed away, and then he did this correspondence course on
(02:30):
electricity by mail, like from the States, and it was
like a text school from America or something. And he
taught himself to wire things and he ended up building
like a little ice factory, and then he branched out
into ice cream too, and it was called Tamalia ice cream.
But that's awesome, I know. I mean, my cousins got
to enjoy it, but it was all gone by the
time I was a kid. But the most amazing thing
(02:52):
to me was that when he used to come to
the States, he was confused by the way Americans eat
ice cream, because we eat it all year round, and
how in India they only have it during the summer.
Is that during the monsoons when it's super cold, they
won't eat ice cream. It's just cultural or something. But
I kicked this off with a Ben and Jerry's fact.
So what do you have for us?
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Well, I just read about this amazing ice cream from
Spain called Chameleon.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
So I'm already in drinued. What flavor is Chameleon?
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Well, thankfully it's not chameleon, but it's basically this Willy
Wonka style ice cream, where like the color changes as
you lick it and that also changes the flavor too.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
That's crazy. So it sounds amazing and like something for
my dreams. But how come I haven't heard of this? Like,
is it a new flavor?
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Yeah, well, it's actually been around since twenty fourteen. It
was created by this former physicist named Manuel Lenaris who
was pursuing a degree in quote creating artists in ice cream.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
That's what the La Time says.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
At least, I guess it's a major at this Spanish
culinary institute.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Huh. But anyway, I've only seen.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Pictures of the ice cream, but it's really beautiful, like
at least one of the shades is. It's this gorgeous
shimmery purple and pink color. And it has a bunch
of flavors that come through too. There's a strawberry, cocoa, almonds, banana, pistachio, vanilla,
and even caramel. What But the reason you haven't heard
(04:25):
about it is that the inventor is still waiting for
the patent to come through. Before you know it goes
wide scale. And also, Kahlion isn't his only flavor. He
has this other one he's working on. It's just for
adults though it has all these Peruvian and African herbs
in it, and it's supposed to be an aphrodisiac.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
So I always think it's funny when people try to
mix medicine into ice cream. Like I actually pulled a
fact about this. I saw this thing on life hacker
where someone had made this peptobismal ice cream to deal
with hangovers, which I know, to me, it just makes
me nauseous think about it. But there's also a Korean
version that sounds way better. Apparently, like hard drinking is
(05:06):
such a common thing in South Korea that hangover cures
are actually like one hundred and twenty five million dollar industry.
It's it's just insane to me. Yeah, But in that
mix of like drugstore cures, there's actually an ice cream
bar that's called Yandio Bar. I don't know how it's
actually pronounced, but the name translates to hang in there,
which is so positive. But it's it's a grapefruit flavored
(05:29):
ice cream bar with some special raisin juice in there too.
It supposedly works wonders, And I mean for me, like
what with or without a hangover? I'd be down to
try like a grapefruit and vanilla ice cream. But what
what do you have next?
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Well, how about a fact about astronauts. And this isn't
about astronaut ice cream. You know that that freeze dried
monstrosity that they try to trick you into eating of planetariums. No,
this is this is about the real ice cream than
astronauts occasionally to try on mission.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
That's really funny.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
You know.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
I wanted to start this thing where we would serve
astronauts Sundays where it's just there's astronaut ice creams crumpled
up with some chocolate sauce on top of it and
whipped cream built time. I felt like that would do
really well on Instagram. But so I thought astronauts used
to complain about like missing ice cream in space, Like
I didn't realize it was actually a thing that they
(06:24):
get to eat. Yeah, they do.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
And I mean for years, NASA had this list of
the top three foods that their astronauts missed the most
in space, and you know, it was fizzy drinks, pizza,
and ice cream. But Atlas Obscura did this story and
apparently every once in a while is a special treat.
Astronauts now get real ice cream and it's sent to
them at the International Space Station, and I was curious,
(06:49):
you know, why is it such a big deal? And
and you know the reason to have ice cream in space,
like why isn't it allowed? And actually the reason is
you need freezer space to store the ice cream. And
you know, because astronauts are using this limited freezer space
on board, they you know, they have to make room
for blood and urine samples and I don't know other
experimental stuff and it's just hard to you know, save
(07:12):
room for ice cream. But now now there's a workaround.
And that's because when shipments and supplies are sent up
to the space station, people will now you know, often
sneak a few pints of ice cream into those containers
for the astronauts. But here's the catch. You know, because
there is no freezer space, they have to eat the
ice cream pretty quickly upon delivery. So you know what
(07:34):
ends up happening is, you know, they throw these little
zero gravity ice cream parties whenever the ice cream comes up.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Oh that's amazing. I kind of love that. So here's
something that's a little less joyous but still funny to
be So I was looking at this book The Victorian City,
which is about everyday life in Dekenzie in London, and
in the eighteen fifties, ice cream was obviously like a
big luxury and could buy a little taste of ice
(08:01):
cream and these Neapolitan ices from street vendors. But what's
funny is that apparently some of these folks started selling
fraudulent ice cream to kids. Instead of a serving of
ice cream, it was common for people to serve you
like scoops of mashed turnips instead. Oh, it'd be so disappointing.
(08:22):
You just took a spoonful.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Of ice cream on a hot day and it just
turned out to be mashed up.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
I know. It almost feels like some parents' idea to
like trick kids into eating veggies. But the strange thing
is that people still use that trick today, like mashed
potatoes are often used as a stand in for ice
cream on film sets because ice cream is so melty.
Oh yeah, that's funny.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
I love those food hacks, Like you know how people,
you know, you use glue as a stand in for
cereal milk on sets, and you know it's because it
looks better on film, and you know you can position
the cereal wherever you want it without worrying about it,
you know, floating away.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Huh.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
But speaking of dripping ice cream, that's actually another thing
scientists have now fixed.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
So I love that there are so many problems in
the world, but the one where fixed on focusing is
like melty ice cream.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Yeah, it really shows you where our priority slot. But
apparently this has been in the works for a while now.
A few years ago, British scientists figured out a way
to slow down the melting process a little bit by
adding this special protein that binds the air and fat
and water together. And then Japanese scientists took it and
(09:33):
they figured out a different way of doing this. They
actually used a liquid extract from strawberries that stopped the
water and oils from separating. So you know what you
got were these ice cream and popsicle treats that could
last three hours at a time and eighty degree heat
and all while still retaining their shape.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Yeah, it's pretty amazing. And the ice cream isn't that
expensive either. That's probably the most amazing part. It's actually
only about four dollars a pop.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
That's really incredible. I am curious what the texture of
it is like though.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Yeah, food and Wine reported that the Japanese weren't the
only ones making these advances. Like there's a grocery store
in Australia that has their own technique. They haven't revealed
what it is, but they turn out ice cream sandwiches
they won't melt in the Australian sun.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
That's pretty crazy. So I guess we'll have a whole
variety of different non melty ice creams to try in
the future. But it is kind of weird to think that,
like kids in the future might not get ice cream
headaches because they can eat a cone as slowly as
they want, or like they'll never have sticky hands from
ice cream dripping all over them. And you know, you
and I will be telling our grand is these stories
(10:41):
like they're war stories. So I knew Clint Eastwood was
mayor of this beautiful town of Carmel in California, but
I didn't know that ice cream was actually one of
the first measures he brought up at his first city
council meeting. And at the time there had been some
sort of water shortage and so the city refused to
(11:02):
give an ice cream parlor a license on their main strip,
and Clint Eastwood's campaign was actually on getting rid of
this kill joy mentality and bringing back these street corners
where kids could happily eat ice cream again. I mean,
this is what you remembered from his youth and what
he wanted to bring back. But he also reinstituted the
pledge of allegiance before every meeting, which feels very Clint Eastwood.
(11:25):
And the article also pointed out, though, that he voted
to ban beachfront fireworks on July fourth, which sounds a
little antithetical to those other two things.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Yeah, so much for getting rid of the kill joy mentality. Wow,
I know, well, I know, We've got two more ice
cream facts to share, but before we do, let's take
a quick break.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Welcome back to part time genius. Abe. Do you know
what the grossest ice cream flavor served as a state
dinner has to be? No, what's that oyster? It was
oyster flavored ice cream. So Jake Cross and A Metal
Flaws did the story on the history of ice cream
in America. And Dolly Madison, who was you know, by
all accounts, the greatest host or hostess in Washington, d C,
(12:22):
used to serve oyster ice cream to guests who were
totally wowed by it.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Wow, I'm kind of surprised people kept coming to these
parties after that.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Yeah, I know. But actually, the other thing I learned
from the piece was that George Washington was really the
person who made serving ice cream at state dinners a
thing like he had a three hundred piece machine to
make and serve ice cream in his kitchen, and it
sort of became the ultimate sign of luxury if you
could serve ice cream at your dinners, because it was
just such an effort to make, and that's kind of
(12:51):
what kicked off America's obsession with it. So I don't know,
I think that's my last fact. But how do you
want to end this? Well, how about with a really
quick fact.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
So you know Rupert Grint, right, m.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
H Yeah, he played Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter movies.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Oh yeah, exactly. And you know, he grew up making
those movies. So when he passed his driving exam, he
was already worth a lot of money by then. And
you know, so one day people on set were talking about,
you know what sorts of fancy cars they were thinking
about buying with all their HP money, And for some reason,
Rupert's dream was to own an ice cream truck, and so,
(13:27):
you know, he got one and the first time he
took it out for a spin, he actually he went
to a pub and when he was leaving, all these
kids came up to him trying to buy ice cream.
And the problem was he hadn't bothered to stock any
in the truck, which is just like the world's biggest
tease right now. Totaling around in an ice cream truck
with zero ice cream on board, what did you think
(13:48):
would happen? But anyway, he sort of learned his lesson
after that, and now he keeps the van stocked with
you know, tons of popsicles, and there's even a working
soft serve machine on board, and so sometimes he just
drives around to villages and gives out free ice cream
to kids.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
It's pretty awesome, right, Yeah, I mean that's great. I
mean it is funny. I told a story about people
tricking kids with mash turnips instead of ice cream, and
you told a story about Ron Weasley magically delivering ice
cream to village kids in his spare time. So I
do think you have to take home the trophy today?
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Well, thank you so much. I think I know just
how I'll be celebrating.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Well, that's it for today's nine Things. Moving back with
the full length episode tomorrow, but thank you so much
for listening. Thanks again for listening.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
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Guess what gave? What's that mango? So have you ever
noticed that Ben and Jerry's flavors are really chunky, Like
they always have big pieces of banana or pretzels or
chocolate in them.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Yeah, I mean they do make chunky monkey, right, so
at least that'd better be pretty chunky.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
So when I was younger, I was always kind of
thrown off by that style of ice cream, and I
was kind of curious how they developed it. And apparently
it's all because of Ben from Ben and Jerry's. According
to their site, he has anosma, meaning he doesn't have
a great sense of smell and he barely has a
sense of taste too, So for him, like his love
of ice cream is mostly textural, like he loves the
(00:40):
creamy mouthfeel. He likes those like big, delicious, crunchy treats
that are mixed in And so that's how they came
up with it, and over the years fans fell in
love with that consistency too. But that's just the first
of nine facts were dishing out today about ice cream.
Let's dive in hey their podcast listeners, I'm Monga's particular
(01:18):
and my co host Will Pearson is out today sunning
himself at the beach. But don't worry, I've got our
research superstar Gabe Luesy a with us on the line.
Hey Gabe, Hey, thanks for having me on. Yeah, of course.
And we also have sitting behind that soundproof glass wearing
his mister Softy T shirt, or as they call it
in China, mister soft heart. Apparently there's no word for
(01:39):
softie in China. That's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. So, Gabe,
I know we're doing an episode on ice cream today.
Are you an ice cream guy?
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Like?
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Do you have a go to flavor?
Speaker 2 (01:51):
I am definitely an ice cream guy, like all good
hearted people.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
And American people.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Yeah, I like all good hearted American Now, yeah, my
favorite flavor is probably cookies and cream. I could go
for just about anything except chocolate. Not a chocolate guy.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Really, I wouldn't have guessed that. I am mostly a
mint chocolate chip guy, though I'll eat most flavors. And
I'm actually not sure if I've told you this, but
my grandfather actually had an ice cream factory in India. U. Yeah,
he had to drop out of college because his parents
passed away, and then he did this correspondence course on
(02:30):
electricity by mail, like from the States, and it was
like a text school from America or something. And he
taught himself to wire things and he ended up building
like a little ice factory, and then he branched out
into ice cream too, and it was called Tamalia ice cream.
But that's awesome, I know. I mean, my cousins got
to enjoy it, but it was all gone by the
time I was a kid. But the most amazing thing
(02:52):
to me was that when he used to come to
the States, he was confused by the way Americans eat
ice cream, because we eat it all year round, and
how in India they only have it during the summer.
Is that during the monsoons when it's super cold, they
won't eat ice cream. It's just cultural or something. But
I kicked this off with a Ben and Jerry's fact.
So what do you have for us?
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Well, I just read about this amazing ice cream from
Spain called Chameleon.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
So I'm already in drinued. What flavor is Chameleon?
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Well, thankfully it's not chameleon, but it's basically this Willy
Wonka style ice cream, where like the color changes as
you lick it and that also changes the flavor too.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
That's crazy. So it sounds amazing and like something for
my dreams. But how come I haven't heard of this? Like,
is it a new flavor?
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Yeah, well, it's actually been around since twenty fourteen. It
was created by this former physicist named Manuel Lenaris who
was pursuing a degree in quote creating artists in ice cream.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
That's what the La Time says.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
At least, I guess it's a major at this Spanish
culinary institute.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Huh. But anyway, I've only seen.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Pictures of the ice cream, but it's really beautiful, like
at least one of the shades is. It's this gorgeous
shimmery purple and pink color. And it has a bunch
of flavors that come through too. There's a strawberry, cocoa, almonds, banana, pistachio, vanilla,
and even caramel. What But the reason you haven't heard
(04:25):
about it is that the inventor is still waiting for
the patent to come through. Before you know it goes
wide scale. And also, Kahlion isn't his only flavor. He
has this other one he's working on. It's just for
adults though it has all these Peruvian and African herbs
in it, and it's supposed to be an aphrodisiac.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
So I always think it's funny when people try to
mix medicine into ice cream. Like I actually pulled a
fact about this. I saw this thing on life hacker
where someone had made this peptobismal ice cream to deal
with hangovers, which I know, to me, it just makes
me nauseous think about it. But there's also a Korean
version that sounds way better. Apparently, like hard drinking is
(05:06):
such a common thing in South Korea that hangover cures
are actually like one hundred and twenty five million dollar industry.
It's it's just insane to me. Yeah, But in that
mix of like drugstore cures, there's actually an ice cream
bar that's called Yandio Bar. I don't know how it's
actually pronounced, but the name translates to hang in there,
which is so positive. But it's it's a grapefruit flavored
(05:29):
ice cream bar with some special raisin juice in there too.
It supposedly works wonders, And I mean for me, like
what with or without a hangover? I'd be down to
try like a grapefruit and vanilla ice cream. But what
what do you have next?
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Well, how about a fact about astronauts. And this isn't
about astronaut ice cream. You know that that freeze dried
monstrosity that they try to trick you into eating of planetariums. No,
this is this is about the real ice cream than
astronauts occasionally to try on mission.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
That's really funny.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
You know.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
I wanted to start this thing where we would serve
astronauts Sundays where it's just there's astronaut ice creams crumpled
up with some chocolate sauce on top of it and
whipped cream built time. I felt like that would do
really well on Instagram. But so I thought astronauts used
to complain about like missing ice cream in space, Like
I didn't realize it was actually a thing that they
(06:24):
get to eat. Yeah, they do.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
And I mean for years, NASA had this list of
the top three foods that their astronauts missed the most
in space, and you know, it was fizzy drinks, pizza,
and ice cream. But Atlas Obscura did this story and
apparently every once in a while is a special treat.
Astronauts now get real ice cream and it's sent to
them at the International Space Station, and I was curious,
(06:49):
you know, why is it such a big deal? And
and you know the reason to have ice cream in space,
like why isn't it allowed? And actually the reason is
you need freezer space to store the ice cream. And
you know, because astronauts are using this limited freezer space
on board, they you know, they have to make room
for blood and urine samples and I don't know other
experimental stuff and it's just hard to you know, save
(07:12):
room for ice cream. But now now there's a workaround.
And that's because when shipments and supplies are sent up
to the space station, people will now you know, often
sneak a few pints of ice cream into those containers
for the astronauts. But here's the catch. You know, because
there is no freezer space, they have to eat the
ice cream pretty quickly upon delivery. So you know what
(07:34):
ends up happening is, you know, they throw these little
zero gravity ice cream parties whenever the ice cream comes up.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Oh that's amazing. I kind of love that. So here's
something that's a little less joyous but still funny to
be So I was looking at this book The Victorian City,
which is about everyday life in Dekenzie in London, and
in the eighteen fifties, ice cream was obviously like a
big luxury and could buy a little taste of ice
(08:01):
cream and these Neapolitan ices from street vendors. But what's
funny is that apparently some of these folks started selling
fraudulent ice cream to kids. Instead of a serving of
ice cream, it was common for people to serve you
like scoops of mashed turnips instead. Oh, it'd be so disappointing.
(08:22):
You just took a spoonful.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Of ice cream on a hot day and it just
turned out to be mashed up.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
I know. It almost feels like some parents' idea to
like trick kids into eating veggies. But the strange thing
is that people still use that trick today, like mashed
potatoes are often used as a stand in for ice
cream on film sets because ice cream is so melty.
Oh yeah, that's funny.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
I love those food hacks, Like you know how people,
you know, you use glue as a stand in for
cereal milk on sets, and you know it's because it
looks better on film, and you know you can position
the cereal wherever you want it without worrying about it,
you know, floating away.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Huh.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
But speaking of dripping ice cream, that's actually another thing
scientists have now fixed.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
So I love that there are so many problems in
the world, but the one where fixed on focusing is
like melty ice cream.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Yeah, it really shows you where our priority slot. But
apparently this has been in the works for a while now.
A few years ago, British scientists figured out a way
to slow down the melting process a little bit by
adding this special protein that binds the air and fat
and water together. And then Japanese scientists took it and
(09:33):
they figured out a different way of doing this. They
actually used a liquid extract from strawberries that stopped the
water and oils from separating. So you know what you
got were these ice cream and popsicle treats that could
last three hours at a time and eighty degree heat
and all while still retaining their shape.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Yeah, it's pretty amazing. And the ice cream isn't that
expensive either. That's probably the most amazing part. It's actually
only about four dollars a pop.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
That's really incredible. I am curious what the texture of
it is like though.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Yeah, food and Wine reported that the Japanese weren't the
only ones making these advances. Like there's a grocery store
in Australia that has their own technique. They haven't revealed
what it is, but they turn out ice cream sandwiches
they won't melt in the Australian sun.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
That's pretty crazy. So I guess we'll have a whole
variety of different non melty ice creams to try in
the future. But it is kind of weird to think that,
like kids in the future might not get ice cream
headaches because they can eat a cone as slowly as
they want, or like they'll never have sticky hands from
ice cream dripping all over them. And you know, you
and I will be telling our grand is these stories
(10:41):
like they're war stories. So I knew Clint Eastwood was
mayor of this beautiful town of Carmel in California, but
I didn't know that ice cream was actually one of
the first measures he brought up at his first city
council meeting. And at the time there had been some
sort of water shortage and so the city refused to
(11:02):
give an ice cream parlor a license on their main strip,
and Clint Eastwood's campaign was actually on getting rid of
this kill joy mentality and bringing back these street corners
where kids could happily eat ice cream again. I mean,
this is what you remembered from his youth and what
he wanted to bring back. But he also reinstituted the
pledge of allegiance before every meeting, which feels very Clint Eastwood.
(11:25):
And the article also pointed out, though, that he voted
to ban beachfront fireworks on July fourth, which sounds a
little antithetical to those other two things.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Yeah, so much for getting rid of the kill joy mentality. Wow,
I know, well, I know, We've got two more ice
cream facts to share, but before we do, let's take
a quick break.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Welcome back to part time genius. Abe. Do you know
what the grossest ice cream flavor served as a state
dinner has to be? No, what's that oyster? It was
oyster flavored ice cream. So Jake Cross and A Metal
Flaws did the story on the history of ice cream
in America. And Dolly Madison, who was you know, by
all accounts, the greatest host or hostess in Washington, d C,
(12:22):
used to serve oyster ice cream to guests who were
totally wowed by it.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Wow, I'm kind of surprised people kept coming to these
parties after that.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Yeah, I know. But actually, the other thing I learned
from the piece was that George Washington was really the
person who made serving ice cream at state dinners a
thing like he had a three hundred piece machine to
make and serve ice cream in his kitchen, and it
sort of became the ultimate sign of luxury if you
could serve ice cream at your dinners, because it was
just such an effort to make, and that's kind of
(12:51):
what kicked off America's obsession with it. So I don't know,
I think that's my last fact. But how do you
want to end this? Well, how about with a really
quick fact.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
So you know Rupert Grint, right, m.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
H Yeah, he played Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter movies.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Oh yeah, exactly. And you know, he grew up making
those movies. So when he passed his driving exam, he
was already worth a lot of money by then. And
you know, so one day people on set were talking about,
you know what sorts of fancy cars they were thinking
about buying with all their HP money, And for some reason,
Rupert's dream was to own an ice cream truck, and so,
(13:27):
you know, he got one and the first time he
took it out for a spin, he actually he went
to a pub and when he was leaving, all these
kids came up to him trying to buy ice cream.
And the problem was he hadn't bothered to stock any
in the truck, which is just like the world's biggest
tease right now. Totaling around in an ice cream truck
with zero ice cream on board, what did you think
(13:48):
would happen? But anyway, he sort of learned his lesson
after that, and now he keeps the van stocked with
you know, tons of popsicles, and there's even a working
soft serve machine on board, and so sometimes he just
drives around to villages and gives out free ice cream
to kids.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
It's pretty awesome, right, Yeah, I mean that's great. I
mean it is funny. I told a story about people
tricking kids with mash turnips instead of ice cream, and
you told a story about Ron Weasley magically delivering ice
cream to village kids in his spare time. So I
do think you have to take home the trophy today?
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Well, thank you so much. I think I know just
how I'll be celebrating.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Well, that's it for today's nine Things. Moving back with
the full length episode tomorrow, but thank you so much
for listening. Thanks again for listening.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
Part Time Genius is a production of how stuff works
and wouldn't be possible without several brilliant people who do
the important things we couldn't even begin to understand.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Christan McNeil does the editing thing.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
Noel Brown made the theme song and does the mixy
mixy sound thing.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Roland does the exec producer thing.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Gabeluesier is our lead researcher, with support from the Research
Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and Lucas Adams.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
And Eves Jeffcote gets the show to your ears. Good job, Eves.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
If you like what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe,
And if you really really like what you've heard, maybe
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Speaker 1 (15:15):
A good review for us. Do we forget Jason Jason
who
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