June 30, 2026 • 42 mins
Today, everyone knows the potential dangers of both illegal and legal drugs. Some are more popular and more widely-accepted than others (shoutout to coffee!), but across time and cultures, it's an open secret that pretty much every civilization was doing one drug or another. Sometimes for ritualistic purposes, sometimes for purported medicinal properties -- and, sometimes, just to party. In the first part of this continuing series, Ben, Noel and Max explore some of the strangest things people of ages past used to get high, including nutmeg, belladonna, henbane and more.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
(00:27):
the show, fellow Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so
much for tuning in. Before we introduce everybody, here are
cast of players. We want to begin today's series with
the following announcement, don't do illegal drugs.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Dare to dream. Wait, that's not how the campaign went.
Dare to dream of a world without illegal.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Drugs, dare to keep a kid off drugs. Dare to
give super producer Max Williams a hands.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Some would have been a good rhyming opportunity. There what
a DARE stand for? At the end of the day.
I always forget drug.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Abuse resistance education something close to that.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Let's see.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Let's see drug abuse resistance education.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Sure, and man speaking of the Mandela effect, which nobody
was but I always am. I had this memory of
a video game, a console cabinet, I'm sorry, a cabinet,
not a console video game called Nark from back in
the day, where you were like a dude killing drug dealers.
It was like pre Grand Theft Auto And in my
mind I always thought that it was like somehow sponsored
(01:38):
by DARE and that it was meant to be an
anti drug cautionary video game.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
That is not true.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
But back in the day, you will recall a lot
of video games had sort of an anti drug message
at the beginning of them, like like almost like the
FBI warning at the top of VHS's when you rent them.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. So narc and dare unconnected. So
that's Noel Brown, it's I've been bullying too. Is not
a real game. It is a real game.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
You're like a dude in a trench coat with a
shotgun blasting away like streets gum.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
You know. It's a total side scroller.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
It was pretty gory, pretty controversial, But in my mind
I was convinced of this notion that it was somehow
a like an actual in league with the government in a.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Way to like make you like scared of drug dealers.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
I think that part is true. Uh, they probably just
couldn't afford McGruff the crime dog.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Maybe maybe dude also really was giving flasher vibes because
he's a side scroller and he's got like.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
A trench coat with a shotgun coming out of it.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
But anyway, back into trench coats when it's not summer here,
I mean, I guess trench coat's cool again? Are we
allowed to wear trench coats again? Hasn't? I didn't. It's
weather dependent, it's weather depending.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
But I just know there was a period after you know, Columbine,
where trench coats were highly foreboding.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
That's colorism trench coats.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
You know that's true.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
We all also know that, just like trench goats, not
all drugs are created equally. Some can save your life,
some are way more dangerous to the human organism than others.
Maybe our best way to start this is to say
that a drug is any substance consumed by an organism
(03:19):
for a specific, predetermined effect, like the coffee. We're big
fans of coffee. It's our co producer for all of
our shows. And you know you're going to be You
and I both are going to be traveling internationally. Our
pal Max is actually recording this from a beach. We
(03:40):
are well aware that different cultures and countries treat different
drugs in very different ways. Well, for sure, I mean
coffee is a drug.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
But if we want to quote the ever wise words
of television Superhands, it's not a drug.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
It's a drink.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
There we go, Superhands, and again it is a Maya
Kulpa on my on my behalf, I watched the entirety
of peep Show, and I didn't figure out until the
very end that it's Hans as a German name and
not super Hands.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Well, I loved it either way, and I was with
you for quite a while as well, until I maybe
saw it in subtitle form. But I really loved the
idea for a while, thinking that he just had these
mega hands.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
And they just called him super hands.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Superhands.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Yeah, but you know, we're talking about dare a little
bit ben And it did in fact fail and was
canceled because a lot of studies showed that when they
brought that suitcase full of drugs, like fake food, diner
style around the schools, maybe people were more inclined to like, oh,
what's that one. It's like a box of chocolates, let's
sample them all. It turns out that the studies showed
(04:53):
that not only was it ineffective, it actually potentially caused
more kids to want exp here a man with drugs.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Not everybody gathered around here. What you're going to see
in this vile is cocaine. Pass that around, Donaka, and
pass around this next file that's crack cocaine. Now, let
me explain to you.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Here is a crack pipe, and this here is one
of these tiny McDonald's coffee spoons.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Now, which of you has a cigarette lighter? I see
you in the back to the back end.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
This is called free basin. Well, you know what the
a lot of times the real issue was access, you know.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
But like the guy who played gruff mcgruffy got uh
mcgruffy crime dog did ultimately get arrested one forsion the
grenade launchers and a bunch of cannabis. What we're saying is,
(05:52):
just like dare approved time and time again, prohibition policies
do not really work. They score some political points, but
they also massively empower crime. Like you owe NASCAR.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
To moonshine from well and there's nothing one hundred percent
check out that recent episode that was a doozy.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
But ben to your point about prohibition, if people.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Want to get high, they're gonna get high, whether they
have access to the hard stuff or not. There's plenty
of places and plenty of examples throughout history of weird
stuff just laying around for one to get high with.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Absolutely, Yeah, even before the rise of civilization, and recorded history.
Before people figured out out or write, they were figuring
out very complex ways to ingest interesting substances. You know,
it's weird because other animals were doing this before the
rise of human beings like dolphins are still getting high
(06:54):
on weak poison from sea creatures. Oh yeah, yeah, like
passing around fish.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Well for sure, and there are of course increasingly complex
ways of achieving a sort of buzz. But from the
beginning of time, it really was about the most basic
way imaginable.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
It's just was that, let me eat it and see
what happens.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Oh yeah, because oftentimes they didn't know, and oftentimes they'd
kill them dead and that'd be the experiment failed, and
hopefully someone else would notice and be like, Okay, don't
eat that mushroom, eat the one next to it that
made the guy's eyes go all bug eyed, exactly.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Yeah, And they were doing this out of not necessarily recreation.
In the beginning. They were doing it because they were
starving and they had to figure out what they could eat,
and it's hard.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Shout out to Widow's Bay.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
There's an excellent plot line involving some castaway types who
are trapped in the snow if that can be considered
a castaway and eat some very scary looking mushrooms out
of a need to survive, and then find out that
it did quite a bit more than that, and then
it results of one of the coolest drug dealers in
all of twenty twenty six Fixtion, who, by the way,
(08:05):
is I don't know if you know this. Ben is
really good friends with friend of the show Jordan Runtog.
He went to high school with that guy, Chris Fleming.
They went to high school together and they are like,
really really good buds.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
To this day. Just phenomenal job there, Christopher. We know
that humanity's most popular drugs of choice are alcohol, nicotine, caffeine,
and cannabis, and no particular order defend well a rank?
Shall we rank them? Shall we give our personal ranks?
Our personal rankings may differ. I think they may. They
may well just late.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
We'll leave that up to the imaginations of ridiculous historians
in the audience.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
It's weird, though, right, that's beautiful. It's weird that these substances,
for so long, for most of history, were limited to
certain regions of the world. It's not till the emergence
of a global trade network that everybody else could you know,
get their coffee shakes, and like you said, nol, let's
(09:00):
get into it this way. People have been getting high
on something or other force so long like BCE. Yeah, right,
with a little help from their friends potentially. Yeah, we
know that if you look back into the pre classical
and classical periods that's two thousand BCE to one thousand
(09:21):
BCE and then up to five hundred CE, respectively, you'll
see that people were definitely using opium, cannabis, alcohol, tobacco,
and to your earlier point, various forms of fun guys
for religious, medicinal, and occasionally recreational purpose.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Sung guy makes us fun guys or kills us dead immediately,
depending on which one you pick. Choose wisely, definitely don't
choose any if you don't know what you're doing. Yeah,
and that includes just mushrooms that you're going to forage
or eat, like mushrooms are a sticky wicket. You really
we got to know what you're doing to make sure
you're getting the chantrells and not the deadly night shades
(10:05):
or whatever they might be called.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Oh yeah, please be super careful. That's a great point there.
We also know that you may have a little bit
of skepticism. In the first part of this series, folks
fell a ridiculous historiage. You might be asking yourself, Hold up,
if people weren't writing stuff down, then how can we
(10:26):
know they were actually doing drugs? How can we prove it?
There's nobody who's like, oh, it's me made up name
in a lottio and I'm in a lottio and I'm
writing down how I use opium or mushrooms. We don't
have that, but we do have some very smart scientists
(10:48):
for sure looking through the historical record.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
And then of course as we get later in the game,
we do start seeing folks writing about it, of course,
but we are talking about antiquity. We are talking about
the earliest days of like cave dwelling even right.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Yeah, yeah, We've.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Got some pretty smart folks like professor. Oh, don't get
mad at me here, Miss Elisa Guiera Deutch, professor of
archaeology and prehistory at the University of Vaio, daid.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
In very classically done. Ben, Oh, thank you wise.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Oh gosh, you're too kind. In twenty thirteen, this doc
published a really interesting paper called the Origins of a
nebriation archaeological evidence of consumption of fermented beverages and drugs
in prehistoric Eurasia.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Well, I mean, jeez, man, Fermentation just kind of happens
when you let stuff sit for a long time. So
I can imagine that there were plenty of examples in
the earliest days of this where people just kind of
let something go bad and drank it and realized that
it made him feel kind of funny.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Absolutely, dude. And animals do it too, Elephants, bears, even
bees are and squirrels are.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
I keep wanting to change, I keep wanting to transpose
that into the song Let's do it, Let's fall in love.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
It's like the.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Dogs do it, bees do it, even ordinary mease do it.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Let's do it. Let's do some drugs.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
That's beautiful.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
There's some poetry to that. We know that there are
four primary things the scientists are going to look at.
One fossilized plants and seeds found alongside human remains. And
then the second, as we're saying, residue of alcoholic beverages.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
It implements even like you know, vessels and various pipes
and stuff that we'll get into a little further down
the line.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Yeah, yeah, psychoactive alkaloids and human skeletal remains, which means, yes,
you do have a permanent record, and if people dig
up your body, they are going to be able to
tell if you like to party. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
I mean aren't there even ways of using like bone
samples and things like that? I mean, I know that
certain drugs stay in your hair for a really long time,
followed those seven to ten years.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Okay, so maybe not with ancient remains? Yeah, how do
you keep it there? There were ways?
Speaker 2 (13:10):
So, Ben, as you point out in this wonderful research
brief that you put together for beer, wine, weed opium,
it seems that the ancient inhabitants, this is from the
book you reference of the Near East had a rock
and roll lifestyle.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
How do they afford it? You may ask, Actually, it
was quite the contrary.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
The consumption of psychoactive substances in the ancient Near East
differed dramatically from that image.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
Why is that?
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Yeah? Yeah. Professor Guierro Dece says that our predecessors made
their use drug use beneficial to society by integrating them
into social, religious, and medicinal practices. That leads to our
fourth point the artistic renderings, right, the bas reliefs and
(13:54):
the carvings you see of people drinking weird stuff from
a chalice, things like that.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Okay, so they weren't just willy nilly going off the rails.
It was kind of all like much more of a
hyahuasca session rather than just like a raucous Saturday night, right,
that's what a vision quest or some sort of religious ceremony.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, like how knights maybe took a bath
once a year and it was really rocked in their world.
But it's like this, this issue that Gera Deutcha is saying,
places the idea of consuming intoxicating substances entirely in the
(14:36):
realm of religious or spiritual experience, like how wine has
a significant role in Judaism and then later comes to
symbolize the blood of Jesus Christ for Christians for sure.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Not to mention the fact that so many ancient people
would drink fermented beverages because the water was befouled and
it would, you know, cause them to be sickened.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
So the beer, the ale, the mead, the wine.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Was a lot safer, absolutely, and we always have to
make that point. And the thing is, with great respect
to the experts, we don't really buy it. Drug use
is more common among the upper echelons of any society.
But it does beggar credulity to imagine that everybody else
(15:25):
in those given societies didn't know what the one percenters
were up to. It's just beyond bizarre to imagine that
out of all those non wealthy people, not one ever
tried to lift the pot, you know, or light a
pipe or chase the dragons of their own I think
people were getting high all the time.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
I think it's fair to make that assumption. So let's
just start from there. Throughout human history, during all of
the horror and triumph and you know, up highs and lows,
strikes and gutters, it was always beneficial for an individual
to be able to kind of, you know, change their
head a little bit.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
Yeah, yeah, like the hippies.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Right right, tune in, drop out. I mean it could
be for religious purposes, like you were saying, no greater
insight into the world around you.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Or just entertainment purposes, just likement a brief diversion from
the hellish existence on planet Earth.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Yeah, someone in fourteen hundred CE is saying there's nothing
on TV. Let's smoke opium and somebody else is smoking
opium with them and they say, what's TV? And they're like,
I forgot For something more practical, they could be using
substances to stay awake and alert for longer periods of time,
(16:49):
like caffeine, like the betel nut way. Before things like there,
people were getting high as kites and they were doing
that before kites were invented. I mean it kind of
sounds like, dude, I wanted to ask you this on air.
Doesn't a kite sound like an invention someone would come
(17:10):
up with while they were high on something. Yeah, it's
sort of like I mean, like when you see that
plastic bag just blowing in the breeze and you think
it's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. You know
that's American beauty, right, Yeah it is. But it also
requires being on weed.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Man. Oh yeah, that guy sold weed.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
So And it's the funniest thing too, because I swear
it's one of the earliest memories I have of seeing
like weed depicted in a movie, Like I think it
was before I even know it's does this holds true
in Half Baked as well?
Speaker 3 (17:37):
But in American beauty Ricky, I believe is a character's name.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
He shows the you know, Kevin Spacey father character his
stash that he's gonna sell on some weed and says,
it's like this G thirteen man government, you know, like
you know, genetically engineered, and it just looks.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Like a brick of like you know, gray material.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
It doesn't look anything like what we think of marijuana
looks like today. And I guess they could get away
with it back then because people just weren't as hip
to what it looked like.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
Maybe I don't know, it looked like a slab of
liver pudding.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Yeah. It reminds me of that phenomenal Mitch Hedberg observation
where he was working on a film and he had
a smoke weed with Willie Nelson, famous pothead and beautiful guy.
But because it was filmed in the US, he had
to smoke something that was not weed with the real
(18:31):
Willie Nelson, and he said it was way better than
his usual experience, which is smoking real weed with people
who look like Willie Nelson.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Oh, that's fun.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
I would think Willy Nelson wouldn't have abided by that.
The trailer was refused. I will walk off of this
set if you don't give me my real Mary Jane.
What a redheaded stranger. It turns out that aside from
the big drugs you've heard about today in twenty twenty six, folk,
there are a lot more substances that people used to
(19:05):
get blotto off of. Let's get to some specific examples
with a big shout out to the infamous anarchist cookbook
Nutmeg Nol. Do you have nutmeg in your spice rack?
Speaker 2 (19:24):
It's funny you should ask that, Ben. I had a
couple of people over for some food and drinks the
other night I'm working with on a podcast, and I
got the stuff to make painkillers the tiki drink, which
is dark rum light rum orange juice, cream of coconut
pineapple juice and garnished with some nutmeg.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
So I did.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
I thought was pretty sure I had some, And I
sure did because, unlike maybe the people were about to
talk about, I have not tried.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
To use my nutmeg to get high with, so I
had plenty left. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Nutmeg also known as meristic of fragrance if you're fancy,
it is a cooking spice that's very common here in
the United States and abroad because it has this war
you know, I always think of it. I always associate
it with autumn, autumnal holiday meals, and it's like vaga adjacent,
(20:18):
you know what I mean. But it's got it's a
secret third thing. It has a warmth to it like that,
and it's a nostalgia.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
I don't know what it is, man, I mean, you're right, man,
that's very accurate autumnal cozy.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
It doesn't really taste sweet. It just has this this
thing I don't know how to do. It's like I
have a warm hug from a relative U see once
a year.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
Just so, but just don't ingest too much, because then
that warm hug could turn, uh turn dark.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Nutmeg used to be a way bigger deal, especially during
the age of the global spice trade. Sailors would go
absolutely bonkers for this stuff. And these guys weren't using
it to make puddings or to make tea drinks. And
I have questions for you off air about the teaki drinks.
It comes from Indonesia. The humble nutmeg tree grows a
(21:10):
fruit that holds the nutmeg seed. After you get the
nutmeg fruit, which a lot of us don't eat here
in the States. You can dry that seed and you
can you know, grind it up.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Yeah, the fancy boys making cocktails or whatever will actually
just grate the fresh the seed. The dried seed look
like a microplane greater. I'm not that handsil, but it is.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Yeah. It definitely gives it an extra little kick.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
It's it's all going back to Okay, So the real
thing is you read the Anarchist Cookbook and they'll say, hey,
kids who want to be bad, go down to your parents'
spice rack, right, or go up to your parents spice
rack or wherever it is, and then get a tablespoon
of nutmeg and just snarf it and try not to vomit,
(22:01):
and you'll get high because nutmeg contains something called maristicin.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
And much like the viral cinnamon challenge, nutmeg is kind
of like eating grated wood. And if you put a
whole spoonful of that in your mouth and try to
swallow it, you will vomit.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Yeah, so you might.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
I don't know what they recommend in the Anarchist cookbook.
It definitely does have psychoactic properties, but how one goes
about ingesting it is another thing altogether.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Agreed, agreed, similar to ayahuasca, which also that's a really
good point due because it it maybe helps us explain
the ritualized use of these substances that don't have nutritional value.
So you're hanging with the shaman, you get the little
orange mushroom or whatever, and they pound it to a
(22:50):
paste and the whole time somebody's chanting in the background,
and they look at you and say, Okay, you are
going to throw up, but I promise it's going to
be worth.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
It for sure. And that's more like throwing up because
it makes you tell me all weird. But like you know,
I'm thinking more in terms of like it will.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
Make a joke. Yeah, it will make you physically choke.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
But it does turn out that if you are able to,
you could probably put it in capsules.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Don't listen to me, what am I talking about?
Speaker 2 (23:17):
But there you know, if you were able to ingest
a large enough dose, you would absolutely, I believe ben
experience some form of psychoactive kind of what's the word
looking for after effects?
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Yeah, This maristicin stuff is found in the essential oils
of all sorts of plants, parsley, dill, nutmeg. It is
it's huge nutmeg itself. So maybe again we're not saying
anything one way or the other, but maybe nutmeg oil
to get past that dry mouth. The thing you have
(23:54):
to know is one, don't take drugs here responsibly. And two,
when this mariein breaks down in the human body, it
affects the sympathetic nervous system. And people knew about this
in the western world all the way back in the
fifteen hundreds.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
For sure, And like you know, that's the kicker of
the whole deal, right, I mean, if you eat around
ten nutmeg nuts, that will potentially, you know, gets you
to trip, so to speak. But it can also be
enough that would actually really do a number on your
liver because it would become toxic inside your body.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Yeah, yeah, we know that there was a pregnant woman
who had, as you said, eat more than ten nutmeg nuts,
not grated straight up, and things did not go well
for her. We believe she survived. If we fast forward
to the eighteen hundreds, we see an eighteen year old
(24:49):
who complains of nausea, dizziness, heart palpitations, and of course,
like you said earlier, noel dry mouth. She didn't say
she had halluc nations, but she said she felt like
she was disoriented in a trance like state. It looks
like she actually, this unfortunate victim consumed a little less
(25:12):
than fifty grams of nutmeg in a milkshake, and then
thirty minutes later she was probably like, this milkshake isn't bunk,
you know, just like eating a cannabis edible. It kicked in.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
I could see how I adding some a little bit
of nutmeg to a nice chocolate milkshake might be delicious.
Little perhaps a pumpkin spice situation. Yeah, yeah, just just
to taste, not just yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Cinnamon adjacent, right, And so people would get high off nutmeg.
And it was also a flex when nutmeg was a
very big deal during the spice trade, right, and much
more rare in global markets. So for the sailors, it's
kind of like their burning money, you know, it's a
(26:00):
big flex for lighting cigars with one hundred dollar bills.
Just so, yes, sir, uh, now we've got to get
to something that is, uh, maybe not appropriate for all
the ridiculous historians in the audience. So this is your warning.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Uh this as if we've been particularly appropriate up to now.
But I do appreciate the warning.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Ben Oh, yes, I hope we all do. We've got
to talk all about something called Hio simanus niger.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
And the Vivich.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Yes, yes, otherwise known as henbane. What do we need
to know about this one?
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Well, I said, if you want to see a pretty
crazy and psychedelically terrifying portrayal of this, do watch Robert
Egger's film The Witch, affectionately referred to as the Vivich.
He's also got this new werewolf movie coming out soon
that looks incredible. Yes, Vervo, Vervo and the Vivich. You
(26:55):
can do a double feature once it comes out. But
in that film, there is a of the Woods type
character who is seen mixing a poultice is kind of
a gooey's substance that I think spoiler alert.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
In the movie is involves.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
The remains of a baby, but it would appear that
she is mixing up quite the potent brew of something
referred to as flying ointments, which would be a mix
of what you were describing. There been the Hio Seimus niger,
a hallucinogen which grows in certain parts of Europe as
(27:32):
well as Western Asia as well as parts of England
and Ireland. That has been used as far back as
potentially those berserkers we were talking about of the Viking fame,
Viking fame to give them trippy visions, potentially during rituals
or potentially as a way of making them go absolutely
bonkers in the battlefield.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
Yeah. The thing is the historical records from mostly from
southern Europe and a little bit of the Scandinavian countries
say these people would put hinbane in things that they drank,
their various beverages, and they would lead to unseemly and
demodest axe gestures and expressions. So if you drink too
(28:16):
much of this hinbane laced stuff, which people did on purpose,
you would get stomach cramps, you'd start convulsing, you would
have the sensation that various parts of your body were burning,
and then if you drank too too much, you would die.
But most people didn't get to that point, they just
got giddy and stupefhoric.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
Well, and it is again implied in the movie The
Witch that this witch is making this stuff, putting it
on her broomstick, and then it giving her the power
of flight. Hence the legendary idea of flying ointment, but
(29:00):
more likely did was make her hallucinate or give the
sense of being disconnected from the ground, almost like in
a disassociative kind of allucinogenic way, and have the sensation
of flight.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
Yeah, exactly, feeling like you can fly. And this was
often depending on which his story and you ask, This
was often head and bane or hemlock and deadly nightshade combined.
It was best absorbed through bucus membranes, so we don't
(29:38):
have to walk through the rest of.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Wait a minute, yeah, broomstick. Yeah, no, okay, y'all can
use context.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
We're here, families.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
Know we've got to talked about.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Well, Ben, I will say too, though in the Witch
and in a lot of the mythology around this, you
do usually see which is writing those broomsticks backwards? Oh man, Yeah,
that's the implication being that perhaps it's inserted.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
While oh boy, how are we going to get out
of this one?
Speaker 3 (30:09):
I think we've already gotten there.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
We have to just leave it. Okay, Well, we'll go
to ancient Greece that and we'll talk about something I
also like to insert things, right they We're going to
talk briefly about something called k y Ka release Okay,
(30:36):
So there are a lot of mystery religions in ancient Greece,
especially things like the Illucidian mysteries. They had this big
ceremony we don't know much about, but historians, Again, some
historians are going to argue that it involved the consumption
(30:56):
of a special brew that was made with water barley,
an herb called penny Royal and psyche is have you
tried Penny Royal?
Speaker 2 (31:06):
No? I just know it was an early abortion remedy
that's right, remedy the wrong word, I'm sorry, and a
way of of of terminating a pregnancy, let's just say.
And there is a Nirvana song called Penny Royalty that
they play.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
I think it's only in the Unplugged.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
The boffins now believe that the psychoactive or drug element
of this of this drink was ergot. And I know
you and I have been fascinated by this for a while.
Remember the creepy way the corn looked in the bitch,
Oh yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
That was another implication there, this ergot poisoning of crops
that were kind of had turned. There was some sort
of I guess a blight that would affect certain crops
specifically corn and wheat, I want to say, and it
was a fungus called ergot that when consumed, could potentially
cause hallucinations. And this was not blame and necessarily on
the witches themselves, but it was blamed on the hallucinations
(32:06):
of the townsfolk who maybe saw others and believed them
to be witches. Right, yeah, yeah, because of the hysteria
kind of. But I believe that's been largely debunked in
many ways.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
A lot of it has, a lot of it has
and Salem witch trial wise, right, yeah, we do know
that ergot consumption probably led to some shenanigans in the
European sphere. We do know that various historians have proposed
(32:37):
it as part of the moral panic of the Salem
witch trials and other related witch trials. Here in the
United States, Kaikian is not super available. Now, You're not
going to find it at your local Trader Joe's, but
keep an eye out and don't do it. But if
you do do it, let us know how it works
out for you.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
Well, Ben, I am heading to Trader Joe's right at
this courting, so I'll take a look and see if
they've they've added it to the to this week's drops.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
You're the best man, keep us updated. Okay, Uh, we've
got to.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
Be good on like a like a like a pizza chip.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Everything's pretty good on a pedah.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
Are you a hummus guy, It's just got a good crunch,
you know.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
I I want to be and I am sometimes, but
I will often buy aspirational hummus and then forget to
eat it.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, you've got to go for We've
got to find. You have to find your hummus.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
And I think the thing with hummus for me is
I feel like there's a window past which I'm a
little iffy about eating it anymore, you know, irrespective of
like sell by dates, there's just something about the consistency
of it that if I don't eat it like right away,
the more it sits, the more I'm kind of like,
is this so good?
Speaker 1 (33:44):
I'm a jerk about hummus too, and I try to
I try to keep my my dogs in line and
in control. But man, when I get a hummus that
has like a good pine nut or pineut garlic, you
know they only put it at the very top of it.
If I eat that stuff immediately, unlike the kto only
eats the corner brownie.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
I'm the same way, Ben.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
That little circle of pine nuttery and olive oil in
the middle, very very good.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
That's the good part. We have time maybe to talk
about just one more and.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
If it wasn't clear, we're going to make this another
one of our occasional series. And I think there's a
lot more where this came from. But I'm excited about
this one. Ben, You're okay, okay, maybe.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
The wrong word. I'm interested. I'm intrigued. I was. I
was intrigued too when you said that.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
I did say Deadly knight Shade earlier, referring to a mushroom,
and all my heart was in the right place. Ain't
no mushroom called deadly night shade. There's something else entirely that,
there's that very creepy name.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
I was so excited because I was going to ask you,
have you ever tried Bella Donna? I don't know how
you would say that casually if you're hanging out with
people who participate in this stuff and someone's like, oh man,
have you tried you know, insert drug here, and then
trying to be cool and not look like a cop
(35:03):
I would be like, I don't know, have you tried
Bella Donna?
Speaker 3 (35:06):
There you go. I like that, Ben, that's a good method.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
Bella donnas as Yeah, we're talking historical drugs here. This
is not one that you would necessarily be rocking to today.
It is also known as Deadly night shade. You might
recall it being one of the doctor in Nightmare before Christmas,
the materials that he uses to make.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
Oh that's right, yeah, Deadly night Shade.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
I think that's what actually Sally puts in his soup
to make him go to sleep.
Speaker 3 (35:35):
Maybe I'm wrong. It is incredibly potent.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
Only one or two berries is all it takes to
cause you to feel some hallucingenic effects. And if you
can imagine, getting upwards of three to maybe even ten
would really start to cause you to loutinate and then
potentially pass.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
That would would start to cause your liver to shut down.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Yeah, it can kill you. It's so potent to your point, Noel,
that even the honey made by Bees with Belladonna nectar
will contain doses of the drug, so you can get
high off Belladonna. Honey, Belladonna, honey, excuse me. And this
was this was a huge poison in the ancient world,
(36:17):
for right.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
I think that's where I mainly hear about it is
in like, you know, stories of intrigue and murder most foul.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We know that both Emperor Augustus and
Cloudius were allegedly poisoned by their wives. Yeah, using belladonna
and a woman's weapon, they would say, right, yeah, of
course of history here.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
Are you watching the new House of Dragons House of
the Dragon.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
You know, I thought that first episode utterly slapped. Yeah,
I felt like they've stopped real short at the end
of the last season where this should have been the
last episode of the previous season, and it was fantastic,
fully on board.
Speaker 3 (36:59):
Nice.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
We know that also belladonna was used in eye drops
during the Renaissance in Europe. I didn't know we had
eye drops in the Renaissance.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
Is this sort of like Jimmy Hendrix like putting lsd
in his eyes or like behind his instead band And it.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
Was weird cosmetic thing because again these are apocryphal reports,
but the idea was that if you are trying to
really pop in a room in the cork, jeez, you
put a little bella dotta in your eyes because it
makes your eyes like your pupils dilate. Oh and you
(37:36):
look at you know, like anime station. Yeah yeah, yeah,
you get the big anime eyes. People still use bella
dotta and chemical derivatives today.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
Hey, so it is around, But though, can we at
least agree that maybe it's a little bit more a niche?
Speaker 1 (37:52):
I think so not in that top four list that
we mentioned at the beginning of the show. Sir, if
you and I and Max you're here too, and if
we're hanging out, uh on Max's beachfront property and some
guy walks up and tries to sell us cannabis, sure, fine,
do what you will. But if that guy also tried
to sell us belladonna, I think we need a signal
(38:16):
so we all know to get away.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
I would also only really take him seriously if he
was wearing like a rough you know, a round collar
and some some some maybe pantaloons perhaps, you know, and
had like bells on the end of excuse me, sir,
could I interest you in some fine belladonna for your
beach front lounging.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
And he's like, if you buy over a certain amount,
you get a broomstick too, and I'd be like, no, Max,
why is this guy winking at us and one Hen
and one Hen with the bane? Uh, this is just
as you said the beginning of the story. This is
part of we have to keep it. We have to,
(38:58):
we have to, we must. We shall tune in for
our next installment of weird things that people used to
get high off of. To be clear, it won't be
the next thing, but it will be next. It will
come when it comes. Yes, Yeah, and that's not because
we're experimenting at all. We've just got more research to do.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
In the meantime, folks, thank you for tuning in. Please
check out our upcoming what I think is going to
be a two part series minimum Ridiculous History of Saturday
Morning Cartoons.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
Yeah, we would talk about that kind of off air.
We maybe even came up in an episode. But just
this idea of like how Saturday Morning cartoons.
Speaker 3 (39:38):
Sort of were a way of getting around.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
Laws in order to advertise more stuff for kids to
guilt their parents into buying them.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
One hundred percent. Shout out to g I Joe, Shout
out to mask thunder Cat. Well, we'll get into all
of it.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
Shout out to the Masters of the universe bearing the
lead in theatos now not a sponsor.
Speaker 1 (39:58):
You said it was pretty good. I did well.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
I meant sure for it, tame I had, I had
the action figures. I was a big he man guy
before you know what replaced he man for me.
Speaker 3 (40:08):
Ben.
Speaker 2 (40:08):
We'll get into this in the episode. I think this
is true of a lot of kids of a certain
age and kids anymore. I mean Ninja turtles. That was
my trajectory. You went from he man to Ninja turtles
kind of replacing he man entirely.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
Turtle Time. Big shout out to our super producer, mister
Max Beachhead Williams. Big thanks to our composer Alex Williams,
who created this slap and bop for us, and we
should hang out with them soon.
Speaker 3 (40:34):
Oh yeah, we got to.
Speaker 2 (40:35):
Man. Ben, I'm just gonna go ahead and call you
out on you said turtle time. I think you meant
turtle power. Baby, You're right, I meant turtle power. Now
is the turtle time to say turtle power?
Speaker 1 (40:45):
Did you know? Ben? We'll talk about this again.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
It turns out the idea of power was really appealing
to kids, and that's why you hear it so often,
Like a he man power and teenage me Ninja turtles.
It was all about that turtle power because kids inherently
feel a little power less, so when you offer them
the power, they're really into.
Speaker 1 (41:04):
It big Thanks to the most power hungry guy we know,
Jonathan Strickland ak the quist. Oh my gosh, yes, indeed
we cuss his name, but also he's kind of a
cool guy and we miss you. But what the rude
dude's a ridiculous crime who will be dropping by sooner
rather than later, I think, of course, and Christopher Osiotis
(41:25):
and Eve Jef Coats here in spirit. Eve's Jeff Coat
here in spirit.
Speaker 2 (41:29):
Along with if we're gonna mention the quizt, we got
to mention the puzzler aj Bahamas Jacobs.
Speaker 1 (41:37):
Oh my gosh, can you imagine us quizzing old Bahamas
about some of this stuff. We didn't even get to
smoking banana pitts.
Speaker 3 (41:44):
I think, oh, that'll be fun. That'll be a pune
coming up.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
And I think, honestly, we should pit the quizt and
the Puzzler against each other in a quiz puzzle off.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
I love it. This is a great idea. We should
end the episode now and get to work on it.
Speaker 3 (41:59):
We'll see you next time, folks.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
(00:27):
the show, fellow Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so
much for tuning in. Before we introduce everybody, here are
cast of players. We want to begin today's series with
the following announcement, don't do illegal drugs.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Dare to dream. Wait, that's not how the campaign went.
Dare to dream of a world without illegal.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Drugs, dare to keep a kid off drugs. Dare to
give super producer Max Williams a hands.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Some would have been a good rhyming opportunity. There what
a DARE stand for? At the end of the day.
I always forget drug.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Abuse resistance education something close to that.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Let's see.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Let's see drug abuse resistance education.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Sure, and man speaking of the Mandela effect, which nobody
was but I always am. I had this memory of
a video game, a console cabinet, I'm sorry, a cabinet,
not a console video game called Nark from back in
the day, where you were like a dude killing drug dealers.
It was like pre Grand Theft Auto And in my
mind I always thought that it was like somehow sponsored
(01:38):
by DARE and that it was meant to be an
anti drug cautionary video game.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
That is not true.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
But back in the day, you will recall a lot
of video games had sort of an anti drug message
at the beginning of them, like like almost like the
FBI warning at the top of VHS's when you rent them.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. So narc and dare unconnected. So
that's Noel Brown, it's I've been bullying too. Is not
a real game. It is a real game.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
You're like a dude in a trench coat with a
shotgun blasting away like streets gum.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
You know. It's a total side scroller.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
It was pretty gory, pretty controversial, But in my mind
I was convinced of this notion that it was somehow
a like an actual in league with the government in a.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Way to like make you like scared of drug dealers.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
I think that part is true. Uh, they probably just
couldn't afford McGruff the crime dog.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Maybe maybe dude also really was giving flasher vibes because
he's a side scroller and he's got like.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
A trench coat with a shotgun coming out of it.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
But anyway, back into trench coats when it's not summer here,
I mean, I guess trench coat's cool again? Are we
allowed to wear trench coats again? Hasn't? I didn't. It's
weather dependent, it's weather depending.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
But I just know there was a period after you know, Columbine,
where trench coats were highly foreboding.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
That's colorism trench coats.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
You know that's true.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
We all also know that, just like trench goats, not
all drugs are created equally. Some can save your life,
some are way more dangerous to the human organism than others.
Maybe our best way to start this is to say
that a drug is any substance consumed by an organism
(03:19):
for a specific, predetermined effect, like the coffee. We're big
fans of coffee. It's our co producer for all of
our shows. And you know you're going to be You
and I both are going to be traveling internationally. Our
pal Max is actually recording this from a beach. We
(03:40):
are well aware that different cultures and countries treat different
drugs in very different ways. Well, for sure, I mean
coffee is a drug.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
But if we want to quote the ever wise words
of television Superhands, it's not a drug.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
It's a drink.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
There we go, Superhands, and again it is a Maya
Kulpa on my on my behalf, I watched the entirety
of peep Show, and I didn't figure out until the
very end that it's Hans as a German name and
not super Hands.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Well, I loved it either way, and I was with
you for quite a while as well, until I maybe
saw it in subtitle form. But I really loved the
idea for a while, thinking that he just had these
mega hands.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
And they just called him super hands.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Superhands.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Yeah, but you know, we're talking about dare a little
bit ben And it did in fact fail and was
canceled because a lot of studies showed that when they
brought that suitcase full of drugs, like fake food, diner
style around the schools, maybe people were more inclined to like, oh,
what's that one. It's like a box of chocolates, let's
sample them all. It turns out that the studies showed
(04:53):
that not only was it ineffective, it actually potentially caused
more kids to want exp here a man with drugs.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Not everybody gathered around here. What you're going to see
in this vile is cocaine. Pass that around, Donaka, and
pass around this next file that's crack cocaine. Now, let
me explain to you.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Here is a crack pipe, and this here is one
of these tiny McDonald's coffee spoons.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Now, which of you has a cigarette lighter? I see
you in the back to the back end.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
This is called free basin. Well, you know what the
a lot of times the real issue was access, you know.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
But like the guy who played gruff mcgruffy got uh
mcgruffy crime dog did ultimately get arrested one forsion the
grenade launchers and a bunch of cannabis. What we're saying is,
(05:52):
just like dare approved time and time again, prohibition policies
do not really work. They score some political points, but
they also massively empower crime. Like you owe NASCAR.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
To moonshine from well and there's nothing one hundred percent
check out that recent episode that was a doozy.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
But ben to your point about prohibition, if people.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Want to get high, they're gonna get high, whether they
have access to the hard stuff or not. There's plenty
of places and plenty of examples throughout history of weird
stuff just laying around for one to get high with.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Absolutely, Yeah, even before the rise of civilization, and recorded history.
Before people figured out out or write, they were figuring
out very complex ways to ingest interesting substances. You know,
it's weird because other animals were doing this before the
rise of human beings like dolphins are still getting high
(06:54):
on weak poison from sea creatures. Oh yeah, yeah, like
passing around fish.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Well for sure, and there are of course increasingly complex
ways of achieving a sort of buzz. But from the
beginning of time, it really was about the most basic
way imaginable.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
It's just was that, let me eat it and see
what happens.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Oh yeah, because oftentimes they didn't know, and oftentimes they'd
kill them dead and that'd be the experiment failed, and
hopefully someone else would notice and be like, Okay, don't
eat that mushroom, eat the one next to it that
made the guy's eyes go all bug eyed, exactly.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Yeah, And they were doing this out of not necessarily recreation.
In the beginning. They were doing it because they were
starving and they had to figure out what they could eat,
and it's hard.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Shout out to Widow's Bay.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
There's an excellent plot line involving some castaway types who
are trapped in the snow if that can be considered
a castaway and eat some very scary looking mushrooms out
of a need to survive, and then find out that
it did quite a bit more than that, and then
it results of one of the coolest drug dealers in
all of twenty twenty six Fixtion, who, by the way,
(08:05):
is I don't know if you know this. Ben is
really good friends with friend of the show Jordan Runtog.
He went to high school with that guy, Chris Fleming.
They went to high school together and they are like,
really really good buds.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
To this day. Just phenomenal job there, Christopher. We know
that humanity's most popular drugs of choice are alcohol, nicotine, caffeine,
and cannabis, and no particular order defend well a rank?
Shall we rank them? Shall we give our personal ranks?
Our personal rankings may differ. I think they may. They
may well just late.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
We'll leave that up to the imaginations of ridiculous historians
in the audience.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
It's weird, though, right, that's beautiful. It's weird that these substances,
for so long, for most of history, were limited to
certain regions of the world. It's not till the emergence
of a global trade network that everybody else could you know,
get their coffee shakes, and like you said, nol, let's
(09:00):
get into it this way. People have been getting high
on something or other force so long like BCE. Yeah, right,
with a little help from their friends potentially. Yeah, we
know that if you look back into the pre classical
and classical periods that's two thousand BCE to one thousand
(09:21):
BCE and then up to five hundred CE, respectively, you'll
see that people were definitely using opium, cannabis, alcohol, tobacco,
and to your earlier point, various forms of fun guys
for religious, medicinal, and occasionally recreational purpose.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Sung guy makes us fun guys or kills us dead immediately,
depending on which one you pick. Choose wisely, definitely don't
choose any if you don't know what you're doing. Yeah,
and that includes just mushrooms that you're going to forage
or eat, like mushrooms are a sticky wicket. You really
we got to know what you're doing to make sure
you're getting the chantrells and not the deadly night shades
(10:05):
or whatever they might be called.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Oh yeah, please be super careful. That's a great point there.
We also know that you may have a little bit
of skepticism. In the first part of this series, folks
fell a ridiculous historiage. You might be asking yourself, Hold up,
if people weren't writing stuff down, then how can we
(10:26):
know they were actually doing drugs? How can we prove it?
There's nobody who's like, oh, it's me made up name
in a lottio and I'm in a lottio and I'm
writing down how I use opium or mushrooms. We don't
have that, but we do have some very smart scientists
(10:48):
for sure looking through the historical record.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
And then of course as we get later in the game,
we do start seeing folks writing about it, of course,
but we are talking about antiquity. We are talking about
the earliest days of like cave dwelling even right.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Yeah, yeah, We've.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Got some pretty smart folks like professor. Oh, don't get
mad at me here, Miss Elisa Guiera Deutch, professor of
archaeology and prehistory at the University of Vaio, daid.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
In very classically done. Ben, Oh, thank you wise.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Oh gosh, you're too kind. In twenty thirteen, this doc
published a really interesting paper called the Origins of a
nebriation archaeological evidence of consumption of fermented beverages and drugs
in prehistoric Eurasia.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Well, I mean, jeez, man, Fermentation just kind of happens
when you let stuff sit for a long time. So
I can imagine that there were plenty of examples in
the earliest days of this where people just kind of
let something go bad and drank it and realized that
it made him feel kind of funny.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Absolutely, dude. And animals do it too, Elephants, bears, even
bees are and squirrels are.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
I keep wanting to change, I keep wanting to transpose
that into the song Let's do it, Let's fall in love.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
It's like the.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Dogs do it, bees do it, even ordinary mease do it.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Let's do it. Let's do some drugs.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
That's beautiful.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
There's some poetry to that. We know that there are
four primary things the scientists are going to look at.
One fossilized plants and seeds found alongside human remains. And
then the second, as we're saying, residue of alcoholic beverages.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
It implements even like you know, vessels and various pipes
and stuff that we'll get into a little further down
the line.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Yeah, yeah, psychoactive alkaloids and human skeletal remains, which means, yes,
you do have a permanent record, and if people dig
up your body, they are going to be able to
tell if you like to party. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
I mean aren't there even ways of using like bone
samples and things like that? I mean, I know that
certain drugs stay in your hair for a really long time,
followed those seven to ten years.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Okay, so maybe not with ancient remains? Yeah, how do
you keep it there? There were ways?
Speaker 2 (13:10):
So, Ben, as you point out in this wonderful research
brief that you put together for beer, wine, weed opium,
it seems that the ancient inhabitants, this is from the
book you reference of the Near East had a rock
and roll lifestyle.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
How do they afford it? You may ask, Actually, it
was quite the contrary.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
The consumption of psychoactive substances in the ancient Near East
differed dramatically from that image.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
Why is that?
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Yeah? Yeah. Professor Guierro Dece says that our predecessors made
their use drug use beneficial to society by integrating them
into social, religious, and medicinal practices. That leads to our
fourth point the artistic renderings, right, the bas reliefs and
(13:54):
the carvings you see of people drinking weird stuff from
a chalice, things like that.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Okay, so they weren't just willy nilly going off the rails.
It was kind of all like much more of a
hyahuasca session rather than just like a raucous Saturday night, right,
that's what a vision quest or some sort of religious ceremony.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, like how knights maybe took a bath
once a year and it was really rocked in their world.
But it's like this, this issue that Gera Deutcha is saying,
places the idea of consuming intoxicating substances entirely in the
(14:36):
realm of religious or spiritual experience, like how wine has
a significant role in Judaism and then later comes to
symbolize the blood of Jesus Christ for Christians for sure.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Not to mention the fact that so many ancient people
would drink fermented beverages because the water was befouled and
it would, you know, cause them to be sickened.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
So the beer, the ale, the mead, the wine.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Was a lot safer, absolutely, and we always have to
make that point. And the thing is, with great respect
to the experts, we don't really buy it. Drug use
is more common among the upper echelons of any society.
But it does beggar credulity to imagine that everybody else
(15:25):
in those given societies didn't know what the one percenters
were up to. It's just beyond bizarre to imagine that
out of all those non wealthy people, not one ever
tried to lift the pot, you know, or light a
pipe or chase the dragons of their own I think
people were getting high all the time.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
I think it's fair to make that assumption. So let's
just start from there. Throughout human history, during all of
the horror and triumph and you know, up highs and lows,
strikes and gutters, it was always beneficial for an individual
to be able to kind of, you know, change their
head a little bit.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
Yeah, yeah, like the hippies.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Right right, tune in, drop out. I mean it could
be for religious purposes, like you were saying, no greater
insight into the world around you.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Or just entertainment purposes, just likement a brief diversion from
the hellish existence on planet Earth.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Yeah, someone in fourteen hundred CE is saying there's nothing
on TV. Let's smoke opium and somebody else is smoking
opium with them and they say, what's TV? And they're like,
I forgot For something more practical, they could be using
substances to stay awake and alert for longer periods of time,
(16:49):
like caffeine, like the betel nut way. Before things like there,
people were getting high as kites and they were doing
that before kites were invented. I mean it kind of
sounds like, dude, I wanted to ask you this on air.
Doesn't a kite sound like an invention someone would come
(17:10):
up with while they were high on something. Yeah, it's
sort of like I mean, like when you see that
plastic bag just blowing in the breeze and you think
it's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. You know
that's American beauty, right, Yeah it is. But it also
requires being on weed.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Man. Oh yeah, that guy sold weed.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
So And it's the funniest thing too, because I swear
it's one of the earliest memories I have of seeing
like weed depicted in a movie, Like I think it
was before I even know it's does this holds true
in Half Baked as well?
Speaker 3 (17:37):
But in American beauty Ricky, I believe is a character's name.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
He shows the you know, Kevin Spacey father character his
stash that he's gonna sell on some weed and says,
it's like this G thirteen man government, you know, like
you know, genetically engineered, and it just looks.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Like a brick of like you know, gray material.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
It doesn't look anything like what we think of marijuana
looks like today. And I guess they could get away
with it back then because people just weren't as hip
to what it looked like.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
Maybe I don't know, it looked like a slab of
liver pudding.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Yeah. It reminds me of that phenomenal Mitch Hedberg observation
where he was working on a film and he had
a smoke weed with Willie Nelson, famous pothead and beautiful guy.
But because it was filmed in the US, he had
to smoke something that was not weed with the real
(18:31):
Willie Nelson, and he said it was way better than
his usual experience, which is smoking real weed with people
who look like Willie Nelson.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Oh, that's fun.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
I would think Willy Nelson wouldn't have abided by that.
The trailer was refused. I will walk off of this
set if you don't give me my real Mary Jane.
What a redheaded stranger. It turns out that aside from
the big drugs you've heard about today in twenty twenty six, folk,
there are a lot more substances that people used to
(19:05):
get blotto off of. Let's get to some specific examples
with a big shout out to the infamous anarchist cookbook
Nutmeg Nol. Do you have nutmeg in your spice rack?
Speaker 2 (19:24):
It's funny you should ask that, Ben. I had a
couple of people over for some food and drinks the
other night I'm working with on a podcast, and I
got the stuff to make painkillers the tiki drink, which
is dark rum light rum orange juice, cream of coconut
pineapple juice and garnished with some nutmeg.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
So I did.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
I thought was pretty sure I had some, And I
sure did because, unlike maybe the people were about to
talk about, I have not tried.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
To use my nutmeg to get high with, so I
had plenty left. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Nutmeg also known as meristic of fragrance if you're fancy,
it is a cooking spice that's very common here in
the United States and abroad because it has this war
you know, I always think of it. I always associate
it with autumn, autumnal holiday meals, and it's like vaga adjacent,
(20:18):
you know what I mean. But it's got it's a
secret third thing. It has a warmth to it like that,
and it's a nostalgia.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
I don't know what it is, man, I mean, you're right, man,
that's very accurate autumnal cozy.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
It doesn't really taste sweet. It just has this this
thing I don't know how to do. It's like I
have a warm hug from a relative U see once
a year.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
Just so, but just don't ingest too much, because then
that warm hug could turn, uh turn dark.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Nutmeg used to be a way bigger deal, especially during
the age of the global spice trade. Sailors would go
absolutely bonkers for this stuff. And these guys weren't using
it to make puddings or to make tea drinks. And
I have questions for you off air about the teaki drinks.
It comes from Indonesia. The humble nutmeg tree grows a
(21:10):
fruit that holds the nutmeg seed. After you get the
nutmeg fruit, which a lot of us don't eat here
in the States. You can dry that seed and you
can you know, grind it up.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Yeah, the fancy boys making cocktails or whatever will actually
just grate the fresh the seed. The dried seed look
like a microplane greater. I'm not that handsil, but it is.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Yeah. It definitely gives it an extra little kick.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
It's it's all going back to Okay, So the real
thing is you read the Anarchist Cookbook and they'll say, hey,
kids who want to be bad, go down to your parents'
spice rack, right, or go up to your parents spice
rack or wherever it is, and then get a tablespoon
of nutmeg and just snarf it and try not to vomit,
(22:01):
and you'll get high because nutmeg contains something called maristicin.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
And much like the viral cinnamon challenge, nutmeg is kind
of like eating grated wood. And if you put a
whole spoonful of that in your mouth and try to
swallow it, you will vomit.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Yeah, so you might.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
I don't know what they recommend in the Anarchist cookbook.
It definitely does have psychoactic properties, but how one goes
about ingesting it is another thing altogether.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Agreed, agreed, similar to ayahuasca, which also that's a really
good point due because it it maybe helps us explain
the ritualized use of these substances that don't have nutritional value.
So you're hanging with the shaman, you get the little
orange mushroom or whatever, and they pound it to a
(22:50):
paste and the whole time somebody's chanting in the background,
and they look at you and say, Okay, you are
going to throw up, but I promise it's going to
be worth.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
It for sure. And that's more like throwing up because
it makes you tell me all weird. But like you know,
I'm thinking more in terms of like it will.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
Make a joke. Yeah, it will make you physically choke.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
But it does turn out that if you are able to,
you could probably put it in capsules.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Don't listen to me, what am I talking about?
Speaker 2 (23:17):
But there you know, if you were able to ingest
a large enough dose, you would absolutely, I believe ben
experience some form of psychoactive kind of what's the word
looking for after effects?
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Yeah, This maristicin stuff is found in the essential oils
of all sorts of plants, parsley, dill, nutmeg. It is
it's huge nutmeg itself. So maybe again we're not saying
anything one way or the other, but maybe nutmeg oil
to get past that dry mouth. The thing you have
(23:54):
to know is one, don't take drugs here responsibly. And two,
when this mariein breaks down in the human body, it
affects the sympathetic nervous system. And people knew about this
in the western world all the way back in the
fifteen hundreds.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
For sure, And like you know, that's the kicker of
the whole deal, right, I mean, if you eat around
ten nutmeg nuts, that will potentially, you know, gets you
to trip, so to speak. But it can also be
enough that would actually really do a number on your
liver because it would become toxic inside your body.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Yeah, yeah, we know that there was a pregnant woman
who had, as you said, eat more than ten nutmeg nuts,
not grated straight up, and things did not go well
for her. We believe she survived. If we fast forward
to the eighteen hundreds, we see an eighteen year old
(24:49):
who complains of nausea, dizziness, heart palpitations, and of course,
like you said earlier, noel dry mouth. She didn't say
she had halluc nations, but she said she felt like
she was disoriented in a trance like state. It looks
like she actually, this unfortunate victim consumed a little less
(25:12):
than fifty grams of nutmeg in a milkshake, and then
thirty minutes later she was probably like, this milkshake isn't bunk,
you know, just like eating a cannabis edible. It kicked in.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
I could see how I adding some a little bit
of nutmeg to a nice chocolate milkshake might be delicious.
Little perhaps a pumpkin spice situation. Yeah, yeah, just just
to taste, not just yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Cinnamon adjacent, right, And so people would get high off nutmeg.
And it was also a flex when nutmeg was a
very big deal during the spice trade, right, and much
more rare in global markets. So for the sailors, it's
kind of like their burning money, you know, it's a
(26:00):
big flex for lighting cigars with one hundred dollar bills.
Just so, yes, sir, uh, now we've got to get
to something that is, uh, maybe not appropriate for all
the ridiculous historians in the audience. So this is your warning.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Uh this as if we've been particularly appropriate up to now.
But I do appreciate the warning.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Ben Oh, yes, I hope we all do. We've got
to talk all about something called Hio simanus niger.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
And the Vivich.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Yes, yes, otherwise known as henbane. What do we need
to know about this one?
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Well, I said, if you want to see a pretty
crazy and psychedelically terrifying portrayal of this, do watch Robert
Egger's film The Witch, affectionately referred to as the Vivich.
He's also got this new werewolf movie coming out soon
that looks incredible. Yes, Vervo, Vervo and the Vivich. You
(26:55):
can do a double feature once it comes out. But
in that film, there is a of the Woods type
character who is seen mixing a poultice is kind of
a gooey's substance that I think spoiler alert.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
In the movie is involves.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
The remains of a baby, but it would appear that
she is mixing up quite the potent brew of something
referred to as flying ointments, which would be a mix
of what you were describing. There been the Hio Seimus niger,
a hallucinogen which grows in certain parts of Europe as
(27:32):
well as Western Asia as well as parts of England
and Ireland. That has been used as far back as
potentially those berserkers we were talking about of the Viking fame,
Viking fame to give them trippy visions, potentially during rituals
or potentially as a way of making them go absolutely
bonkers in the battlefield.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
Yeah. The thing is the historical records from mostly from
southern Europe and a little bit of the Scandinavian countries
say these people would put hinbane in things that they drank,
their various beverages, and they would lead to unseemly and
demodest axe gestures and expressions. So if you drink too
(28:16):
much of this hinbane laced stuff, which people did on purpose,
you would get stomach cramps, you'd start convulsing, you would
have the sensation that various parts of your body were burning,
and then if you drank too too much, you would die.
But most people didn't get to that point, they just
got giddy and stupefhoric.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
Well, and it is again implied in the movie The
Witch that this witch is making this stuff, putting it
on her broomstick, and then it giving her the power
of flight. Hence the legendary idea of flying ointment, but
(29:00):
more likely did was make her hallucinate or give the
sense of being disconnected from the ground, almost like in
a disassociative kind of allucinogenic way, and have the sensation
of flight.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
Yeah, exactly, feeling like you can fly. And this was
often depending on which his story and you ask, This
was often head and bane or hemlock and deadly nightshade combined.
It was best absorbed through bucus membranes, so we don't
(29:38):
have to walk through the rest of.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Wait a minute, yeah, broomstick. Yeah, no, okay, y'all can
use context.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
We're here, families.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
Know we've got to talked about.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Well, Ben, I will say too, though in the Witch
and in a lot of the mythology around this, you
do usually see which is writing those broomsticks backwards? Oh man, Yeah,
that's the implication being that perhaps it's inserted.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
While oh boy, how are we going to get out
of this one?
Speaker 3 (30:09):
I think we've already gotten there.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
We have to just leave it. Okay, Well, we'll go
to ancient Greece that and we'll talk about something I
also like to insert things, right they We're going to
talk briefly about something called k y Ka release Okay,
(30:36):
So there are a lot of mystery religions in ancient Greece,
especially things like the Illucidian mysteries. They had this big
ceremony we don't know much about, but historians, Again, some
historians are going to argue that it involved the consumption
(30:56):
of a special brew that was made with water barley,
an herb called penny Royal and psyche is have you
tried Penny Royal?
Speaker 2 (31:06):
No? I just know it was an early abortion remedy
that's right, remedy the wrong word, I'm sorry, and a
way of of of terminating a pregnancy, let's just say.
And there is a Nirvana song called Penny Royalty that
they play.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
I think it's only in the Unplugged.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
The boffins now believe that the psychoactive or drug element
of this of this drink was ergot. And I know
you and I have been fascinated by this for a while.
Remember the creepy way the corn looked in the bitch,
Oh yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
That was another implication there, this ergot poisoning of crops
that were kind of had turned. There was some sort
of I guess a blight that would affect certain crops
specifically corn and wheat, I want to say, and it
was a fungus called ergot that when consumed, could potentially
cause hallucinations. And this was not blame and necessarily on
the witches themselves, but it was blamed on the hallucinations
(32:06):
of the townsfolk who maybe saw others and believed them
to be witches. Right, yeah, yeah, because of the hysteria
kind of. But I believe that's been largely debunked in
many ways.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
A lot of it has, a lot of it has
and Salem witch trial wise, right, yeah, we do know
that ergot consumption probably led to some shenanigans in the
European sphere. We do know that various historians have proposed
(32:37):
it as part of the moral panic of the Salem
witch trials and other related witch trials. Here in the
United States, Kaikian is not super available. Now, You're not
going to find it at your local Trader Joe's, but
keep an eye out and don't do it. But if
you do do it, let us know how it works
out for you.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
Well, Ben, I am heading to Trader Joe's right at
this courting, so I'll take a look and see if
they've they've added it to the to this week's drops.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
You're the best man, keep us updated. Okay, Uh, we've
got to.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
Be good on like a like a like a pizza chip.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Everything's pretty good on a pedah.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
Are you a hummus guy, It's just got a good crunch,
you know.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
I I want to be and I am sometimes, but
I will often buy aspirational hummus and then forget to
eat it.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, you've got to go for We've
got to find. You have to find your hummus.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
And I think the thing with hummus for me is
I feel like there's a window past which I'm a
little iffy about eating it anymore, you know, irrespective of
like sell by dates, there's just something about the consistency
of it that if I don't eat it like right away,
the more it sits, the more I'm kind of like,
is this so good?
Speaker 1 (33:44):
I'm a jerk about hummus too, and I try to
I try to keep my my dogs in line and
in control. But man, when I get a hummus that
has like a good pine nut or pineut garlic, you
know they only put it at the very top of it.
If I eat that stuff immediately, unlike the kto only
eats the corner brownie.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
I'm the same way, Ben.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
That little circle of pine nuttery and olive oil in
the middle, very very good.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
That's the good part. We have time maybe to talk
about just one more and.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
If it wasn't clear, we're going to make this another
one of our occasional series. And I think there's a
lot more where this came from. But I'm excited about
this one. Ben, You're okay, okay, maybe.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
The wrong word. I'm interested. I'm intrigued. I was. I
was intrigued too when you said that.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
I did say Deadly knight Shade earlier, referring to a mushroom,
and all my heart was in the right place. Ain't
no mushroom called deadly night shade. There's something else entirely that,
there's that very creepy name.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
I was so excited because I was going to ask you,
have you ever tried Bella Donna? I don't know how
you would say that casually if you're hanging out with
people who participate in this stuff and someone's like, oh man,
have you tried you know, insert drug here, and then
trying to be cool and not look like a cop
(35:03):
I would be like, I don't know, have you tried
Bella Donna?
Speaker 3 (35:06):
There you go. I like that, Ben, that's a good method.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
Bella donnas as Yeah, we're talking historical drugs here. This
is not one that you would necessarily be rocking to today.
It is also known as Deadly night shade. You might
recall it being one of the doctor in Nightmare before Christmas,
the materials that he uses to make.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
Oh that's right, yeah, Deadly night Shade.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
I think that's what actually Sally puts in his soup
to make him go to sleep.
Speaker 3 (35:35):
Maybe I'm wrong. It is incredibly potent.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
Only one or two berries is all it takes to
cause you to feel some hallucingenic effects. And if you
can imagine, getting upwards of three to maybe even ten
would really start to cause you to loutinate and then
potentially pass.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
That would would start to cause your liver to shut down.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Yeah, it can kill you. It's so potent to your point, Noel,
that even the honey made by Bees with Belladonna nectar
will contain doses of the drug, so you can get
high off Belladonna. Honey, Belladonna, honey, excuse me. And this
was this was a huge poison in the ancient world,
(36:17):
for right.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
I think that's where I mainly hear about it is
in like, you know, stories of intrigue and murder most foul.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We know that both Emperor Augustus and
Cloudius were allegedly poisoned by their wives. Yeah, using belladonna
and a woman's weapon, they would say, right, yeah, of
course of history here.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
Are you watching the new House of Dragons House of
the Dragon.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
You know, I thought that first episode utterly slapped. Yeah,
I felt like they've stopped real short at the end
of the last season where this should have been the
last episode of the previous season, and it was fantastic,
fully on board.
Speaker 3 (36:59):
Nice.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
We know that also belladonna was used in eye drops
during the Renaissance in Europe. I didn't know we had
eye drops in the Renaissance.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
Is this sort of like Jimmy Hendrix like putting lsd
in his eyes or like behind his instead band And it.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
Was weird cosmetic thing because again these are apocryphal reports,
but the idea was that if you are trying to
really pop in a room in the cork, jeez, you
put a little bella dotta in your eyes because it
makes your eyes like your pupils dilate. Oh and you
(37:36):
look at you know, like anime station. Yeah yeah, yeah,
you get the big anime eyes. People still use bella
dotta and chemical derivatives today.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
Hey, so it is around, But though, can we at
least agree that maybe it's a little bit more a niche?
Speaker 1 (37:52):
I think so not in that top four list that
we mentioned at the beginning of the show. Sir, if
you and I and Max you're here too, and if
we're hanging out, uh on Max's beachfront property and some
guy walks up and tries to sell us cannabis, sure, fine,
do what you will. But if that guy also tried
to sell us belladonna, I think we need a signal
(38:16):
so we all know to get away.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
I would also only really take him seriously if he
was wearing like a rough you know, a round collar
and some some some maybe pantaloons perhaps, you know, and
had like bells on the end of excuse me, sir,
could I interest you in some fine belladonna for your
beach front lounging.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
And he's like, if you buy over a certain amount,
you get a broomstick too, and I'd be like, no, Max,
why is this guy winking at us and one Hen
and one Hen with the bane? Uh, this is just
as you said the beginning of the story. This is
part of we have to keep it. We have to,
(38:58):
we have to, we must. We shall tune in for
our next installment of weird things that people used to
get high off of. To be clear, it won't be
the next thing, but it will be next. It will
come when it comes. Yes, Yeah, and that's not because
we're experimenting at all. We've just got more research to do.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
In the meantime, folks, thank you for tuning in. Please
check out our upcoming what I think is going to
be a two part series minimum Ridiculous History of Saturday
Morning Cartoons.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
Yeah, we would talk about that kind of off air.
We maybe even came up in an episode. But just
this idea of like how Saturday Morning cartoons.
Speaker 3 (39:38):
Sort of were a way of getting around.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
Laws in order to advertise more stuff for kids to
guilt their parents into buying them.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
One hundred percent. Shout out to g I Joe, Shout
out to mask thunder Cat. Well, we'll get into all
of it.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
Shout out to the Masters of the universe bearing the
lead in theatos now not a sponsor.
Speaker 1 (39:58):
You said it was pretty good. I did well.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
I meant sure for it, tame I had, I had
the action figures. I was a big he man guy
before you know what replaced he man for me.
Speaker 3 (40:08):
Ben.
Speaker 2 (40:08):
We'll get into this in the episode. I think this
is true of a lot of kids of a certain
age and kids anymore. I mean Ninja turtles. That was
my trajectory. You went from he man to Ninja turtles
kind of replacing he man entirely.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
Turtle Time. Big shout out to our super producer, mister
Max Beachhead Williams. Big thanks to our composer Alex Williams,
who created this slap and bop for us, and we
should hang out with them soon.
Speaker 3 (40:34):
Oh yeah, we got to.
Speaker 2 (40:35):
Man. Ben, I'm just gonna go ahead and call you
out on you said turtle time. I think you meant
turtle power. Baby, You're right, I meant turtle power. Now
is the turtle time to say turtle power?
Speaker 1 (40:45):
Did you know? Ben? We'll talk about this again.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
It turns out the idea of power was really appealing
to kids, and that's why you hear it so often,
Like a he man power and teenage me Ninja turtles.
It was all about that turtle power because kids inherently
feel a little power less, so when you offer them
the power, they're really into.
Speaker 1 (41:04):
It big Thanks to the most power hungry guy we know,
Jonathan Strickland ak the quist. Oh my gosh, yes, indeed
we cuss his name, but also he's kind of a
cool guy and we miss you. But what the rude
dude's a ridiculous crime who will be dropping by sooner
rather than later, I think, of course, and Christopher Osiotis
(41:25):
and Eve Jef Coats here in spirit. Eve's Jeff Coat
here in spirit.
Speaker 2 (41:29):
Along with if we're gonna mention the quizt, we got
to mention the puzzler aj Bahamas Jacobs.
Speaker 1 (41:37):
Oh my gosh, can you imagine us quizzing old Bahamas
about some of this stuff. We didn't even get to
smoking banana pitts.
Speaker 3 (41:44):
I think, oh, that'll be fun. That'll be a pune
coming up.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
And I think, honestly, we should pit the quizt and
the Puzzler against each other in a quiz puzzle off.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
I love it. This is a great idea. We should
end the episode now and get to work on it.
Speaker 3 (41:59):
We'll see you next time, folks.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History News
Hosts And Creators
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
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