Deep Dive: The magical powers of batteries!

Today is a deep dive episode all about the mystery of batteries! Special guests include THE Energizer Bunny, and a talking electric truck! Topics include: lithium ion, electric vehicles, what the future looks like, and more! 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous News is a production of our Heart Radio and
Cool Cool Cool Audio. Hey, amazing Ridiculous News listeners. We
wanted to put this special note for y'all at the
top of this episode that after the season, we're gone
on highest. We have had such a blast creating this
show for y'all and it has been one of the
coolest creative experiences of our careers. And so of course
we want to stay in touch with you all. So

(00:22):
for updates follow us on social media. I'm on Instagram
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that's w R L E Y, and of course follow
Ridiculous News podcasts as well for updates. We would love
to hear from you all. Okay, so without further ado,
let's get to this amazing episode. Yeah yeah, yea with

(00:45):
amazing and crazy topics to tagin to choose you would
now do the anti Ridiculous News with interesting views on waking,
the rules of broadcasts then and all sorts, awhile reports
to keep us all front up, the journalism, the strange
and the usual stories and well we get but when
it's all about ridiculous newswere we told about Ridiculous. Hey everyone,

(01:06):
welcome to Ridiculous News, not your average news show. We
cover stuff you didn't realize was news, from the wild
and funny, to the deep and hidden, to the absolutely ridiculous.
I'm Bill Worley and Atlanta based filmmaker and comedian. And
if I haven't seen that show that's your absolute favorite.
The reason is simple, there's just too many damn shows
to watch. I'm doing my best out here. I'm Atlanta

(01:26):
comedian Mark Kendall and Bill. I gotta say, look, I
know there's too much out there, but if you're gonna
pick one new show to watch, I'd recommend Abbott Elementary.
It's fantastic, you know what. I've heard really good things
about that, and damn it, Mark, I'm gonna give it
a try. Thank you. Bill. All Right, So today is
a deep dive episode all about batteries. Batteries through the years,

(01:47):
weird facts, and yes, the positives and negatives. It's gonna
be a fun one. Well, now for some ridiculous news nibbles.
To start things off, I'll be talking about a couple
of quick ridiculous stories about your favorite topic, batteries. So, uh,
the first story, The first headline up bill is. A
survey shows that one in eight people suffer anxiety from

(02:08):
low phone battery. That is me hands up as me too,
And honestly, I'm surprised at us that low. Yeah, that's
so true. One in eight? What what? Who are they surveying?
I don't know, but I'll read through the summary. So,
according to a recent survey of two thousand smartphone users,
six out of ten people said they couldn't cope with

(02:30):
being separated from their phones for a day. Per study finds. Additionally,
one out of eight people so that that a dying
phone battery gives them anxiety. Uh, smartphones offer so much,
it's unsurprising that we're dependent, making the common complaints around
battery life a real issue. Petrie H. Hannan of HMD

(02:50):
Global said in a statement, Yeah, I think we are
super dependent on him. We have a whole episode on
phone addiction, and I think, you know, low phone battery
is definitely an l element of phone addiction, and I
think they go hand in hand. Uh. Someone recently got
an iPhone thirteen, but before that, I had an iPhone
tin for a while and that one, um, you know,
the batteries started to go out, and I would it

(03:12):
would get frustrating at the end of the day. Luckily,
knock on wood. This is not an ad for Apple,
but so far this one seems to be lasted all day. Yeah.
I'm definitely one of those people, uh that will always
have my phone plugged in. And I realized that I
only found out recently that you're not supposed to do that, right, Yeah,
I didn't realize that. But to me, I've always just like,

(03:32):
I love having a fully charged phone. I love that
green bar in the top right of the screen. So
for a long time I'd always have it filled. But
I learned recently it's just like, no, you charged it up,
Let it live its life. You know. I think they've
gotten better at that too. I think batteries have gotten
better at being able to be plugged in a little
you know. Um, But I still to your point, the

(03:55):
best practices I think to let it, let it go,
and and just write a set tag this news at
my heart media dot com if if you have a
different opinion. Yeah, Well, one last quote from the story,
so the person that conducted the study said, there are
other ways we can preserve our phone battery and offset
that angst from using network connections selectively to muting unnecessary

(04:19):
sounds and stopping apps from running in the background. These
all helped the cause and keep you switched on for longer. Right. Yeah,
So that way, you know, you can try and get
rid of some of that low phone anxiety. Or hopefully,
as these batteries get better and better, as we'll learn
the continuously are, maybe you can phone can make it
the whole day without needing some CPR. Yeah. Um, here's

(04:40):
another story, mark. Uh. There was a drone that actually
carried a defibrillator to save the first cardiac race patient
in Sweden. And by that I don't think it was
the first cardiac arrest patient ever in Sweden. Was the
first time a drone carried a defibrillator to help save
that person? Um, a man in Sweden hears from the
story A man in swed and is alive today thanks

(05:01):
to in part a drone. The seventy one year old
experience to cardiac arrest while shoveling snow in December and
was resuscitated by a nearby doctor after a drone flew
in at defibrillator. Um, which is just wild. I mean,
take that Amazon, The defibrillator is much. I mean, we
need our our Amazon products, but come on, uh, someone

(05:23):
experiencing cardiac arrest actually needs help within ten minutes in
order to survive, which kind of highlights you know why
this is so important. Um, and there's ever drones. Emergency
Medical Aerial Delivery e MADE is a funny acronym and
services the designed to deliver help as quickly as possible.
It allows emergency dispatchers to send a drone carrying the

(05:45):
device to a caller's home, kick starting the lifesaving process
before the aim that's arrives at their home. UM. In
this particular patient's case, it took three minutes for the
services to deliver the defibrillator to his home, which is wild.
A bystander who happened to be a doctor on the
way to his job used the defibrillator on the patient
after providing CPR. So you know, I guess that's a

(06:06):
little twofold. So one you're having a hard attack, you call,
they send the DRAW on your way and if you can,
I hope that a doctor is walking by on the
way to his job. Absolutely, and you know it's kind
of interesting about this story. This is not the first
time I've heard about a story where a doctor just
happened to be near someone that was able to spot

(06:26):
the signs or was able to react quickly. I don't
know a lot about cardiac arrest or anything like that,
but when the article mentioned how quickly you have to
respond that that's been a recurring theme in the stories
that I've heard about that. Do you think it's because
the people where there aren't doctors just die and then
we just don't hear these stories unfortunately. Yeah, yeah, I

(06:47):
think that is what it is. Yeah, it's a little dark,
but you know, I mean I think that's I mean,
that's probably what's happening. We should always always have a
doctor around, you know, I need more doctors in my life. Um.
No work on that mark, Um, but yeah, what a
what a cool technology, and I hope that that continues because,
you know, anything you can do to help help save
people's lives, I'm for it, even using drones, because let's

(07:10):
face it, drones aren't always known for saving right. Uh. Well,
one final quick news in it before your bill. Um,
we'll be talking about electric vehicles later in the episode.
So I feel like this headline relates to this somewhat so.
The headline is STEM High school and college students in
Connecticut build electric cars for kids with disabilities for free

(07:32):
as part of the Go Baby Go organization for children's wheelchairs.
Yeah so uh. The story is, UH, these students, they
came together and they built these fully functioning electric carts
that were built to make to look like many cars
UH for families who may not be able to afford
adaptive wheelchairs. STEM students from New Britain High School and

(07:55):
technology education students from Central Connecticut State University built the
carts from scratch together. UM. They are part of the
local Go Baby Go chapter UH, an organization that helps
kids with disabilities receive access to independent mobility. The organization
was started at the University of Delaware and now has
chapters across the US UH and the article goes on

(08:18):
to say when each child got into their brand new cart,
their faces lit up. It's the single moment the builders
look forward to the most UM and there was a
particular child, Messiah, and the quote was Massiah's face with
smiles the entire time. Central Connecticut State student Connor Spencer
said it's a price's reaction to see the parent and

(08:38):
child reacting to um, uh, the whole idea of I'm
moving doing it by myself, anyone's pushing me. Uh. It's
really great and that story is from a couple of
years ago, but because it's pretty heartwarming, decided to share. Yeah.
I mean, anytime you can help peel, and it's so cool.
I was always um jealous of kids grown up the
head like those electric cars. You know, I had my

(08:59):
big wheel which I love to write around, but folks
with the little cars you could drive around and so
essentially for our listeners, it's that it's like one of
those cars. But you know, the kid is driving around
a school um hallway, and they do look cool. I mean,
they legit look cool. I'm sure they feel cool, and
I'm sure you know it sounds like the students felt

(09:20):
like they have a lot of more freedom of mobility,
which is so cool. I mean, I think more kids
should just have little cars, you know, if they need
that type of transportation get around. It definitely makes you
feel cooler, absolutely, and it was just cool hearing in
that story about how it was different people collaborating together,
like high school students and college students helping kids who
must have been like an elementary or preschool. I love that,

(09:43):
you know, cross section of people coming together. Yeah, and
it's science, technology, engineering and math is such a big
thing STEM that they pushed. Now. I like STEAM, um,
which is science, technology, engineering, arts and math. As as
someone who's a creative as I'm sure you appreciate market,
I always think arts are big part of it. Yeah,
I've actually no joke. I've actually never heard of steam before.

(10:04):
I've only heard of steam. I've never heard of steam. Yeah,
that's awesome. Yeah, it's it's I think it's they're trying
to expand that programing and it's not as popular. Um.
I you know, I know that arts aren't always the
most funded things at school. But I guess when you
think about it, and you know, thinking about you know,
Robin Williams and uh channeling himself as like, you know, yes, doctors, scientists, lawyers,

(10:28):
who we need all thiss but art, poetry, you know,
that's what life is all about. Um, So come on,
let's let's keep let's keep making those poets out there. Steam.
I like it. Uh. Well, Bill, as we mentioned earlier today,
you know this episode is about batteries. So just at
the top we kind of just wanted to give a

(10:49):
quick little summary of what a battery is and a
little bit about its history. Right, Uh so thanks as always,
the Casey our researcher. Um. So, yeah, yeah, So, battery
is essentially a device that stores chemical energy that has
converted into electricity. Basically, batteries are small chemical reactors with

(11:09):
the reaction producing energetic electrons ready to flow through the
external device. Batteries have been with us for a long time.
In ninety eight, in fact, the director of the Baghdad
Museum found what is now referred to as the Baghdad
Battery in the basement of the museum. Analysis dated it
at around to b C and of Mesopotamian origin. Wid Yeah,

(11:33):
we we we looked up some more information about it,
but it was so technical and kind of weird that
we didn't want to overwhelm you all with it. But
it was interesting that that was the first you know,
to BC was the first time people are trying to
kind of utilize it. And also I gotta say, like,
how is this stuff just like chilling in a basement?
You know what I'm saying, Like, I guess it makes sense.

(11:54):
There's probably like I've never worked in a museum. So
I'm sure there's just like an overwhelming amount of stuff everywhere,
but even so it's just like wow. Yeah, like that
that last scene the Raiders of the Lost Ark where
they're in that giant warehouse, that's just what I picture
where this was. There's some you know, person with way
too thick glasses going through things and discovering that. You

(12:17):
come on, museums do a better job, so you know,
you got the Bagdad. Battery goes back to two F
t BC. But you know, like as far as like
current battery technology, first one of those was invented by
Italian physicist Alessandro Volta. In Volta stacked discs of copper

(12:37):
and zinc separated by cloth soaked in salty water, wires
connected to either end of the stack, producing a continuous
stable current. Amazing. Yeah, that the science is so mind
blowing to me. Um and you know, thank you Volta
very very appropriately. Uh named. One other fact that I

(12:58):
thought was interesting about this particular invention of the voltaic
pile or the Volta battery is his invention disproved the
common theory that electricity could only be created by living beings.
I didn't know that was the thing. Yeah, that's wild.
I mean, you know, the matrix kind of rests on
that idea. But that is crazy, uh, because I guess

(13:20):
you know, when you when you get built up a
static charge, I can shock somebody. I would do it
right now on this carpet mark, but let's face it,
there's too much electronics. Static shock is something you know,
you know, did you ever do this? I mean sure
you did as kids, when you go around shocking each other.
That was one of my least favorite. I didn't enjoy it,
you know it was. It wasn't my favorite, to be honest,

(13:40):
I did have. Um this isn't like a battery, but
just speaking of electricity and being a kid, you know
those balls of like I don't know what they're called.
In my mind, they're called like an electricity ball. It's
just like yeah, and it's just like for those that
maybe I don't know what I'm talking about, just imagine
like a glass orb that's sold in like different store
is and there's just like uh zapps and uh, I

(14:06):
don't know, you put your hands on it and you
can kind of control the flow of the energy. Correct. Yeah,
I had one of these, Like I think when I
was like twelve or thirteen. I thought it was the
coolest thing ever. So that's actually mark called a plasma
globe or a plasma lamp. Okay, all right, makes sense.
This whole time in my mind I was like electricity ball.

(14:27):
Well you know what that's probably if someone came up
to me and said, do you have a plasmic globe
but kind of look at them weird? If they said
electricity ball, I'd be like, hell, yeah, that is very common,
especially in middle school. Um yeah, well, you know, I
think there's lots of different kinds of batteries. UM. I

(14:48):
think some of the ones we probably are most from
other ones, like the alkaline battery, which is popularized you
know by Dori cell Energizer, remember the bunny um and
are used in a lot of regular house devices, from
remote controls, so flashlights, you know, all the things that
you get frustrated when they go out. Um. And they
are inexpensive and typically typically non rechargeable. Um though they

(15:12):
can be made rechargeable by using a specifically designed cell.
And I do recommend getting charge with trouble ones because
it just makes you feel better about, you know, saving
the environment one step at a time. UM. The modern
alkaline batteries invented by a Canadian engineer, Thank you Canada
America's had Lewis Urry in the nineteen fifties. UM. He
used zinc and magnesium oxide in the electrodes, and the

(15:34):
battery type gets its name from the alkaline electricte electrolyte
used potassium hydroxide. UM over blank, alkaline batteries have been
made in the world. Any guests, Mark, are you looking
at this? I I I I'm sorry because you said
I wanted to guess. But just as you said I was,

(15:56):
I saw the number ten billion. I never would top. Yeah,
that's a lot of I mean those get kind of
thrown away. I think they're working on likely, but yeah,
it's a lot of batteries. And I probably from my
childhood to now, UM, I've probably gone through at least
one billion of those. So I take credit for that. Yeah. Yeah,

(16:17):
and then build another type of battery. And this is
kind of the battery that's gonna revolve around. Some of
the technology will continue to talk about is the lithium
ion battery. So Sony released the first commercial lithium ion battery,
and lithium ion batteries have high energy density and they
have a number of specific cathode formulations for different applications.

(16:39):
I don't fully know all of what that means other
than that I assume that that just means it's an improvement.
Yeah right, yeah, big improvement. Um, they're using laptops, smartphones, Um,
you know a lot of rechargeable devices. And let's face it,
I don't know about you y'all, but nowadays, when I'm
buying a product, if it runs on double as, I'm

(17:01):
a little disappointed. I want something I can just recharge,
plug it into a micro USB, USBC, whatever it is. Um,
because I feel like, you know, and you know, I'm
going to get big big battery is gonna come after
me at dr Cell and Energizer. Uh, they got me
in the sights. But I think we're at the point

(17:21):
where why don't we just use rechargeable stuff. It's a
good question. Uh yeah, I mean having something were chargeables fantastic,
And I mean I uh, I have things that do
take batteries and it makes things very inconvenient. For example.
You know this is just random, you know, but I'm
pitching it out to the chargeable industry out there. So

(17:43):
here's the here's the product. So you know, I have
a blow up t rex uh suit. So it's like
anytime I want to be a Gyrannosaurus Rex. You've seen
them around, I got him. It's it's fun for doing
stand up, it's fun for doing improv if you want
to be a t Rex, right, yes, So here's the thing. Bill.
They take like four double A batteries. I didn't realize

(18:06):
that it's either like four double or four triple A batteries.
It's one of the few things that I like consistently
need a battery four and I lend it out to friends,
and when I do that, I also have to be like,
here's some other batteries. The point is if it was rechargeable, man,
it would be so much better, right, would be so
much better. I'd use it way more. But instead I'm
not a t Rex as much. Why because of the batteries.

(18:27):
That's makes me sad, because you as a t Rex
is one of my favorite. There's lots of things to
do Mark that are I will say, my favorite, but
obviously that one is so great. H Yeah. If you
haven't seen Mark Kendall do stand up as a Tarranno
source Rex you're missing out. We're gonna take a slick break.

(18:49):
To hear a word from our sponsor would amazing, and
to choose you wouldn't ridiculous news hot take? Mark, Um,
I'd love to hear a hot take. And and maybe
it's not as controversial, but you know, for anyone who's

(19:12):
plays video games out there, and for anyone who doesn't,
they probably still understand. Uh, there's different systems PlayStation, s Box,
Nintendo Switch, UM, Xbox controllers use double A batteries. Whereas
Nintendo Switch is rechargeable, Uh, you can plug it into SBC.
PlayStation is rechargeable, and you can't get rechargeable packs for Xbox,

(19:33):
but defaults to double A. It turns out there's like
a deal between door cell and double A. UM, and
I just I disagree. I think we should let's let's
eliminate some of that battery waste. Let's just use rechargeables.
And that doesn't just go of course for video game
controllers nowadays, if something US is double A batteries, it's
a little frustrating to me. How about you and Mark? Yeah,

(19:56):
you know, well, you know, uh, I want to rechargeable
t Like I said, Yeah, So let's let's uh if
for Dorstell folks, let us know. I mean, the one
argument that I've heard them says, it's it's you know,
if you're playing for forty hours straight, I guess you
could just quickly swap out the batteries. But I hope
that most of us aren't doing that. That said Bill.

(20:18):
Beyond you know, the t Rex costumes and the video
and patrollers, there's a bunch of different types of batteries
that are have really great benefits UH to the environment.
So I just wanted to share some of those benefits
with you. So, when connected to a renewable energy source
such as photophalax solar panels, batteries can take in the

(20:38):
clean energy produced when the skies are clear and sunny,
store it, and then send it back to the electricity
a grid at night, on cloudy days, or whenever needed. UH,
and batteries can potentially reduce electricity bills for customers who
use them to send power back to the grid when
demand is at its peak and energy prices are at
their highest. Also, Richard Dorrible batteries or powering the Rise

(21:01):
and plug in electric vehicles more than three hundred sixty
electric vehicles were sold in the United States, an increase
of over two thousand seventeen, With transportation contributing to of
US carbon emissions. Electric vehicles have the potential to significantly

(21:21):
lower those emissions, provided the electricity grid that supports them
is powered by low carbon energy, right. And I know
we're trying to get more low carbon power in our
grid here in Georgia. We get a decent mix, but
I think, you know, we're still pretty heavily relying on coal,
So trying to get that a little bit better. Yeah, absolutely, Bill,

(21:42):
And you know, uh, and even with this technology, you know,
there can still be an uptick in fossil fuel energy
or higher carbon emissions. Uh, if you're not responsible with
how this energy is stored. I'm not a scientist, you know,
so I can't really like break down the specifics of how.
But what our research continues to say is, if deployed strategically,

(22:08):
energy storage can do all the things the boosters say,
making the grid more flexible, unlocking renewable energy, and reducing admissions.
So what I hear from that is it's like there's
a responsible way to deal with energy versus you know,
less responsible. So energy storage is neither like clean or
dirty or anything. Is neutral um as likely to boost
the revenue of fossil fuel plants as it is to

(22:29):
help clean energy. So if policymakers want to use it
as a tool to enable clean energy, they need to
be conscious of its characteristics and smarter about his deployment. Yeah.
I think we all could be a little bit smarter
about a lot of things. Maybe we were working a
little bit on the living batteries. Yeah, yeah. Kind of
what I take away from that research is just like,
you know, is this great technology. We just have to

(22:51):
be aware of what it is and how we are
using it. Absolutely. Um, who's that there? Go? Oh there's
a Is that the energizer bunny? Because this is me?
It's me? Oh sorry, you probably hear some drums in
the background, you hear that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, this's me.
I'm the Energize bunny. All you seemed really chilled out,

(23:13):
energizer Bunny. I'm so chilled out, Bill, I'm so chilled out. Mark.
You know, for years I was the energy bunny. I
Energize the Bunny. I was like, go go, go go go.
You were I mean, because of me, you could say
that I had a lot to do with those ten
billion alkaline batteries that were made you d did. Yeah,
you were always you were always running, You're always chying, man, Yeah, man,

(23:36):
it was a lot. But during the pandemic, I had
a chance to. I was one of the fortunate food
that had a chance to kind of like really stop, pause, stay,
take stock of what I was really doing out there.
And you know what I realized, Billy, You know what
I realized? Mark? What what you realize? Sometimes you gotta
slow down. I was going and going and going and going,

(23:57):
but I never asked where. It sounds like you got
burned out. That's exactly it, Bill. So now what I do.
I'm trying to fight burnout culture, right, I'm trying to
fight grinding just to grind, and instead I just want
to move with purpose. Drummond is great, pushing yourself is great,

(24:17):
but just to make sure that you know where you
want to go, right, just make sure that you are
investing your energy, yes, into the right places. Well yeah,
that's so, that's that's deep energizer, Bunny. And what what
made that? What brought on this change? Was there a
specific moment? Well? Sorry, I still get emotional here. Thank you?

(24:45):
One day I ran out of batteries. Oh no, yeah,
I was stuck. I was still and I couldn't move
because I'm empowered by but I was still conscious. If
you ever had like h when you're awake but you
can't really move your body because the rest of your
body hasn't woken up just yet, it's so scary. It's
a scary feeling. But it was a gift because I

(25:08):
got to ask myself, like, what's this all about? I
expended all this energy, but do I put nothing back
in myself? I gotta recharge. Yeah, I noticed you're you're
you're reading more. It seems like I'm reading the book
I've learned how to read. Now listen the way I'm built.
I'm gonna take double A batteries until I'm no longer around.

(25:30):
But I found that there's other ways to recharge himself.
Like you mentioned, Bill, I'm reading these books. Uh this
right here, I'm reading uh the Winds of Winter. Wow.
Yeah that's the Game of Thrones book is not out yet.
How did you get that? That's amazing? Oh my gosh.
Energizing has a deal with George R. Martin now one Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,

(25:51):
we're coming out with a George our Martin battery instead
of a double A, it's called a double R. It's
a very good It's gonna be a great battery. It's
gonna be very violent. I feel like it's going to
kill all the other batteries. It's going to kill all
the batteries. Have a very strange ending. Um. But anyway,
got the manuscript for Wins of Winner right here. Uh.
This other book is uh, Bunny rabbits Um the Year

(26:15):
and you. That's my autobiography. That's great. Yeah, I would
like can I get a signed copy? Really would love.
Oh my gosh, peace be with you now and all.
It's always take time to recharge your heart. I write
really fast. That's beautiful. Yeah, that's really sweet. And you've
got a yoga mate, you know what. I energized, Bunny.

(26:39):
I hope you just kind of if you want to
just hang out for a bit that yeah, absolutely, Oh
my goodness, I would love that. Normally, growing up, your
presence was a little intense with the drumming, but it
feels you're you're having such a vibe. Oh, thank you
so much. I'm I'm just gonna be back here. I'm
gonna I'm gonna stop playing my drums for a little bit,
if that's okay, of course. All right, yeah, well I
gotta say I'm a family podcast. Thanks so much, Funny,

(27:02):
appreciate you. You know. Part of the reason I think,
Mr Bunny you can chill out as you know when
you're just always chilled out, which is so great, uh,
is that batteries have come a long way in the
last thirty years. When you just think about lithium iron
battery costs have fallen by nine eight per cent, so
we're not getting rid of as many of those double a's.

(27:24):
And the early nineties of storage capacity needed to power
a house for a day would have cost about seventy
five grand, which is a lot. The cells themselves would
have weighed two fifty pounds and taken up as much
space as a beer keg. Today, the same amount of
power can be delivered at a cost of less than
two thousand dollars from a forty package UM, roughly the

(27:49):
size of a small backpack. So it's come a long way, UM,
And the development of lithium and about disgressed rapidly, of course,
and we can expect more discoveries to come in the
battery technology. UM. This is according to the Royal Swedish
Academy of Sciences. They said, these future brake falls will

(28:10):
undoubtedly lead to further improvements in our lives, and only
for convenience, but also with suspect to global and local
environments and ultimately the sustainability of our entire planet. Thank god,
that's great. Obviously, with the double A batteries and the
ten billion wats that we talked about, recycling electric batteries
is tough, um, but it has to be done. You know,

(28:33):
with at least a hundred forty five million evs, that's
electric vehicles hitting the road by twenty thirty, which is
over a thousand percent increase UM compared to UH. This
boom can be a little bit of double edged sword
because like the exponential increase in solar panel waste, people
are just starting to realize there's some problems surrounding dead

(28:53):
or faulty EV batteries. For example, in Australia recently they
pulled a bunch because there were concerns they may over
or catch fire. And I know if there's been some
recalls on some electric cars that could overheat and catch fire. Uh,
you know, so it's still a work in progress. One
estimate points that to more than twelve million tons of
anthium ion batteries being retired between now and lot and

(29:15):
dumping all that waste into landfills is just I mean,
it's not a great option, right. You've got some corrosive materials,
um heavy metals that will leach out from the cells
and it's terrible news for living things. So you know,
it's it's stuff that we need to work on. Thus,
keeping all those materials that are in discarded batteries and
circulation through recycling is the only sensible way to deal

(29:38):
with the wastes. It also reduces the reliance on mining
those resources. Um. But even recycling is a hazardous business.
You simply can't dig into a dead battery as you wish.
One wrong cut could lead to a short circuit and
you could get end up with a quote spectacular explosion.
I really enjoy the points that you're making about the
need to recycle batteries in our responsible way, um because uh, again,

(30:04):
going back to our research, there's a quote from Pamela
Cooke Hamilton's where she says most consumers are only aware
of the clean aspects of electric vehicles and again, UH,
this is from the director of UH International Trade for
U n C T A D. And she goes on
to say that the dirty aspects of the production process
are out of sight and so by that what they're

(30:24):
alluding to is that while most of the consumers UH
of these batteries live in more industrialized nations, UH, the
lion's share of the raw materials is concentrated and if
you're developing countries, and they also stand to bear the
brunt of the more negative environmental impacts of that. So

(30:44):
as you know, this demand for batteries is only going
to continue to grow. You know, we just need to
make sure that we are responsible in terms of like
who was taking on that responsibility because the effects of
that sometimes we might just be um, not not able
to see, right, Yeah, definitely, And I think that's that's

(31:06):
the tough part of about being so removed from that stuff.
You know, guys, will I'm just bunny, but I do
appreciate how y'all at least trying to take on. But
what a view of things. Thanks, thanks Synergizer Bunny, thanks
so much. You know, again, I don't think you can
smoke that in here. Believe me. I can smoke this anywhere. Okay, okay, whoa,

(31:30):
I'm on cloud nine. Yeah. We will be right back
with more ridiculous news after this short break. Yeah yeah, yeah.
Don't get to confuse you nat ridiculous news. All right,

(31:51):
let's talk about the pros and cons of electric cars. So, Mark,
you know, I have a p h e V that's
a plug in hybrid electric vehicle at Chevrolet Vault. Um.
I got it because it was one of the cheapest
cars I could get that was running off electrinck. I
got it used, but I love it. Um, it's such
a great car. And basically, for y'all that don't know

(32:12):
how a plug in hybrid works as opposed to like
a normal Prius where the gas engine kind of recharges
the battery and it goes back and forth. The plug
in hybrid, do you charge up the battery? Uh? It
uses almost all of that battery and then it'll kick
into a generator UH to recharge that battery and so

(32:32):
you can keep going for longer distances. And with my vote,
I get around thirty five to forty miles per charge.
And while that doesn't sound like a whole lot, or
it didn't to me when I first looked into these cars. Um,
that's enough for me to do everything I need to
do in a day in a city. Now, if you
live out in the country, you're driving further, it might
not be as good. But if you just you know,

(32:53):
going through your daily routine, just hite your odometer eater
and see how many miles you drive in a day.
If you're not going on a road trip, I think
you be surprised about, um, how far even a plug
in hybrid would go on one charge for you. First
of the built I can confirm that vault. I've been
in it before. It's a great ride. Uh. But also

(33:13):
i'd say, you know, I would imagine that with that
there comes a certain level of I don't know, I guess,
like stability, because you know, for example, this particular week,
you know, gas is higher than it usually is, and
so with that, like I changed my behavior, you know
what I mean, and like as I'm sure a lot
of people do. As like gas prices fluctuate like that,

(33:35):
and I would imagine that, you know, another benefit to
being able to charge up is that it seems like
you're a little less beholden to those fluctuations. Absolutely, and
you know, I probably feel that car. If I'm just
driving the city, I might put gas in it once
every four months, because that's the how little I ever
use it. And you're right, I don't have to think
about the fluctuations at the gas pump most of the time,

(33:59):
unless I'm going on the road trip, you know, which
has been more rare, especially as this pandemic because ended
all that, and I hoped it picks up more. Um.
But that is nice. You have that consistency. You know.
There's also something to be said about not having to
go to a gas station. You have to just drive
into gas stations and all the time, and you kind of,
you know, feel a little bit guilty, I think, or

(34:19):
not not to put shame on our audience, but sometimes
it's like, man, I'm just pumping this thing full of
this this oil. Um. But you know the other thing
about electric cars is you save money because the average
American spends about two to four k on gas every year. Um.
Even though electricity obviously isn't free, uh, it does eliminate

(34:39):
a large portion of your gas bill in terms of
the cost you spend on gasoline, your budget for gasoline
and kind of helps pay for itself a little bit.
Hey Bill, I'm sorry, someone's like banging on the door.
Oh no, yeah, I can't really tell who it is. Yeah, yeah, everybody,

(35:03):
it's me. I'm Derred the electric pickup drug baby. Whoa,
Derek the electric pickup Trump. Thank you so much for
hopping in here. Uh this is incredible. Yeah, it's intertectiontter.
You can just scooch over a little bit. Um. Wow,
you're huge, um grganic. I'm one hundred percent muscle baby.

(35:24):
Muscles and tires is all I am. And electricity whoa wow?
Yeah you look super tough. Um looks super bold, and
I guess I normally think of tough with a with
like a diesel. Oh no, baby, I'm electric. I love America,
I love football, I love red meat, and I love electricity.

(35:51):
Well thanks so much for coming in for this batteries episode. Uh, Derek,
Oh yeah, oh yeah, I just had to come on.
I have a message. I have a message for the
Ford if one fifty I'm charged up, and I gotta
say I will last as long as you are. I'm
just as tough as you are. And anyone this out

(36:12):
there and it's like, oh, I don't want to get
an electric car because it's not tough enough. Look at me, baby,
you can put anything you want me. I could be
in one of those commercials with the beer and the
horses galloping through the fields and as someone randomly kicks
the football, that's me, baby, whoa America? Well? Thank yeah?

(36:33):
I noticed you got red, white and blue on uh
they you have this one to eighteen American flags. I
got eighteen American flags on me. I got red, white
and blue on me. I'm an electric car, but I
run on Budweiser. But that's not I don't think you
run on Budweiser. That's not how electric cards are supposed

(36:53):
to work. Basically, what you do, what you do? What
you do. You charge me up, and charge me up overnight.
But then if you really want to get me going,
you just you just you just open my window just
a little bit. You take a thing, You take a thing,
a Budwizer. You just sipping in that window. You're not
go go go, go, go, go go go. Yeah. I
noticed there's a stitch in here. You've been drinking. That's

(37:15):
blood Wizer. Baby. I think while we I love your enthusiasm,
I do. I'm sure you should drink and be driving
out there. Feel you don't understand. When the founding Fathers
decided to found America, it was halftime during the Super Bowl,
and everyone's like, we need more bud Wizer. And then
someone was like, I know what I'll do. I'll find

(37:38):
the United States of America. Okay, yeah, you're spelling. You're
spilling a little bit in here. Look out, look out.
Oh my god, oh no, this Oh oh no, you
Mr Andres has a bunny. Are you right here, you guys?

(37:58):
Looks like I'm bleeding a little bit. Yeah, I think
your legs are off. Looks like I won't be um
hopping around anytime soon. I'm so sorry. Energize your bunny.
I think at the electric truck, he just got a
little excited, and I understand. Yeah, listen, um hey, I've

(38:19):
been going and going and going for a while and
this may be my last, the last thing I ever
get to say. And um, you know, batteries, electric cars,
all of it, lifium I on. It's exciting, the technology

(38:40):
unimagined to be great, but there's a responsibility that can
come with that, and if you're not careful, people can
get hurt and not and oh Mr bunny, and people
can get hurt. Oh yes, so if you're not careful,
then other people will hurt. That didn't do anything. Oh no,

(39:05):
they didn't do anything. Oh gosh, and so wow, I
think he's gone. Oh r, I p Mr Endertiser Bunny.
I'm so sorry missed the bunny. It wasn't my intent

(39:27):
to end of life today. You know, I'm gonna keep
myself in check. I won't drink and drive so much anymore,
thank god. Yeah, that's a good I'm I'm glad because
you just killed a nikon. Yah, I'm switching the hard
Oh no, get out of here, Get out of here.

(39:48):
That truck was dangerous, Yeah, that was I don't I
hope not all electric trucks are as aggressively alcoholic or
uh just boisterous as that particular one. Yeah, for sure. Still,
I mean, of all the trucks, that is absolutely the smartest,
most conversational truck I've ever had a conversations, a really

(40:09):
good point. Yeah, and I think, yeah, like a Dodge
Ram couldn't have kept that up at all. And you know,
as fast as this technology is going, I'm sure next
time we talked, we talked to that truck they'll be
you know, far more mature. I hope so exactly as
the as the technology progresses, I think it will get
more uh smart, more intelligent, and then you know, hopefully

(40:29):
less um. I don't want to say road kill because
that seems like it's it's a little tough. He's still
he's still in the room with us. That Yeah, Bill,
this may be a little bit morbid, so we don't
have to keep this in the podcast, but it's rabbit's
feet did come off, and rabbit's feet are not to
be not to be offensive, but I think so. Thank

(40:51):
you so much. You want to put that on my
key chain as well? Okay, the way we always keep
a little piece of that energizer with us. All right,
thanks so much for tuning in you all. We know
you have a lot of choices when it comes to entertainment,
so we appreciate you could spend your time with us. Yeah,
we really appreciate you all. We hope you have a
great rest of your day, morning, evening, whatever time it is,

(41:13):
uh and you know, feel free to drop us a
note as well. You can email us at Ridiculous News
at I heart media dot com. To Ridiculous News is

(41:37):
hosted by Mark Kendall and Bill Warley. Executive producers are
Ben Bolland and Noel Brown. Produced and edited by Terry Harrison,
Research provided by Casey Willis and theme music by Four
Eyes and Dr Delight. Four more podcasts from my Heart Radio.
Visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.