June 23, 2025 • 34 mins
This week on Whyte Noise, Michael and Ryan are joined by special guest (and Michael’s sister!) Alyson Berry for a surprisingly hilarious deep dive into kelp—from its climate impact and slimy defenses to its role in ice cream, fire retardants, and even SpongeBob: The Musical.
They unpack childhood seaweed trauma, Tony Award drama, and squeeze in a little Chernobyl, a kelp slime debate, and a grandma shoutout along the way.
Come for the mucilage, stay for the musical theatre and marine biology.
Subscribe and Watch on YouTube
Connect with Us: Michael Judson Berry | Ryan Wilder
Theme: “Happy Dance” by Mr. Smith is licensed under Attribution 4.0 International License. “Running Fanfare” by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under Attribution 3.0 Unported.
They unpack childhood seaweed trauma, Tony Award drama, and squeeze in a little Chernobyl, a kelp slime debate, and a grandma shoutout along the way.
Come for the mucilage, stay for the musical theatre and marine biology.
Subscribe and Watch on YouTube
Connect with Us: Michael Judson Berry | Ryan Wilder
Theme: “Happy Dance” by Mr. Smith is licensed under Attribution 4.0 International License. “Running Fanfare” by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under Attribution 3.0 Unported.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hello, are we back Oho?
Speaker 2 (00:10):
It is recording now, Okay, technical difficulties overcame.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
It's me okay, but we made it.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
We made it to white noise. It's our guest Alison,
who just you know, technical difficulties ironic since you're an engineer.
This is my sister, Alison Barry Alison, thank you for
being here.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Oh I've been waiting to be here, so finally gotcha.
Finally got me.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Everyone gets to meet the connective tissue that makes.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
It all work right, right, Some people think we look
like twins, and some people are like, you don't look
like you're related at all.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Yeah, you know, I'm like really studying it right now.
And I would say, I think you've I think you
guys look alike. I mean you have different hair tones, like,
very similar nose, very similar like face. Yeah, no, I'm down.
You are definitely related.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yeah okay. And our other special guest, Bogar, is there too.
He has really strong opinions about these. Apparently he loves Kelp. Yes,
our topic today is Kelp, which this is. This is
gonna be an interesting one because both Right and I
were like, we had so much time to prepare for this.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Actually we really did. We took a little bit of
a breather, a little bit of a break, little, let's
call it a spring break, really.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
A spring break. Well, you've been busy renovating your home
and building decks and doing a lot of things. You've
been at it too, and I wrapped up my show,
but I'm done now, so now it's like summer break.
We had a wrap party this week on my show
The Night Agent, and so summer break started on Thursday.
It was a great party.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Was the Night Agent there?
Speaker 2 (01:47):
No, he wasn't there. He's probably off saving the world.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Yeah, and he's hot Puerto.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Rico Gabriel Bosso. I'll let him know when I see
him next.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Really, Yeah, have you ever met do you? Are you
familiar with Ryan Wilder? Yes?
Speaker 2 (02:01):
He has notes for you. So, Alison, you you are
an engineer who works on electrical things. You do not
work well things under the sea, but you read many
books about literally every topic under the sun. So I
feel like you're qualified for literally anything we could potentially
talk about.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
I'm gonna try I know a couple of things about KELP.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
I was gonna say, do you have feelings about KELP?
Do you have?
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Does it I do.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
I don't like slimy undersea aquatic plant you know stuff.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Yeah, I was opening with an opposition.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
I am a strong No, I'm not opposed to kelp.
I am strongly opposed to kelp touching me whilst I
am in the water.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
So no, no kelp wraps for you.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
No, it's too slimy, you know, it's it's gross. Our
friend Grace, also friend of your podcast, has a house
up one Thousand Islands and there's it's not kelp, it's
some other kind of sea grass, but it's slimy and
it's gross and so you have to die.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
It's really gross.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
That's I think that's the origin of the fatty dipping
because it keeps your feet up fatty dipp.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Oh yeah, we did talk about the fatty yah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Where you'd call it skinny dipping, but her mom would
call it fatty dipping.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Yeah, And you could in diaper dipping because you put
the life vest through your legs so you were sitting
up and then that's how you didn't have the icky
sea grass in your feet.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
So which, especially when I was younger, when we'd go
swimming there, like ooh, I didn't even want to get
in if the water level was too low and it
was like you're just kicking through seagrass o.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
It felt so.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Gross because it also made me think of a story
which I will talk about during my ten minutes.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Should we get to your ten minutes since we.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Don't have to play get to know you as much.
Since I've known Elson literally my whole life and you've
known Elison for quite some time our audiences, I have
learned a lot about you just from me telling Alix stories.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Yeah, so, I.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Mean this is actually how Alison is, how we all
know each other is reality. So Alison and my husband
work together, and I would say it was a work
wife husband sort of sitch. I think that's a fair summary,
and I feel like it still kind of transcends even
not working together. It's worth noting. It's worth it for
everyone that my husband and Alison get together and just
(04:26):
go down this dark, scary rabbit hole of engineering things
where I just tune out and go to another place.
Usually or I will tune in and then just start
asking random questions about whatever the crap is that they're
throwing around. Biggest error in my life was watching the
movie Chernobyl.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
I knew you were going to say that.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
I don't know why. I think we were very informative
as we wash.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Series, and yet every I was going to say, every
part was torn apart six ways.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Yeah, because it wasn't accurate.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Wait and remind me, did you guys approve of the
movie Chernobyl or the miniseries or did you not like Trenobyl?
Speaker 3 (05:12):
It was fine, I'll say it was fine.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
It was fine. Ryan.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
How was your experience?
Speaker 3 (05:19):
We ruined it for him?
Speaker 1 (05:20):
I remember we went to the beach after watching it,
and all you two did the entire time at the
beach was just talk about all the things that you
thought were bullshit. And I just remember being like, I'd like,
I'm going back home.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Yeah he did. He got up and walked away from us.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
And was the issue just how the movie or how
the show portrayed what happened at Trenobyl, or just about
what actually did happen at Trenobyl?
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Yeah, they just they dramatized it, so they just made
it like things that wouldn't happen, you know, like it
was just more like it was dramatized. That's all, Like
that kind of stuff doesn't happen like you're not your
skin would be it will. I feel like Ryan's gonna
have flashbacks. I'll stop talking now.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
About to run off and take a xanax. Damn it.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
But we're not talking.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
About we're talking about KELP.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Right, we're talking about KELP.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
All right?
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Now you know the drill? Who would you like to go?
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Ryan, She'll go first, because then we'll learn a little
bit about it and then we'll close. Do you want
Michael to go first?
Speaker 1 (06:35):
I want to go first.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Okay, Then Michael's going first, go first first? That yeah, okay, right.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
I didn't know it could work like that. I've never
had that before.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Luckily, our guest is a very close friend of yours.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Go for it, Michael. Let's hear what you got to
say about KELP.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
All right?
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Ready, set, yes, go? Okay. So for them who don't
know what KELP is, I did begin to watch a
YouTube video. Also, I'm currently at Ryan's house and asbray well,
Ryan is at his other house in Woodstock, and he
has a beautiful front porch and it's a gorgeous day.
(07:15):
And I was sitting on the front porch starting to
research KELP when his neighbor came over who's a lovely,
lovely man. And we just started chatting for forty five minutes,
and so he didn't get nearly is I didn't. I
barely finished one YouTube video on kelp. But what I
did learn from said five minute YouTube video, kelp is
essentially seaweed. For people who might not know, it's an algae.
(07:36):
It's an algae. It can It's not an algae. Okay,
it's not an algae, Alison, you're incorrect.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
Thought it was a brown algae.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
It is brown, but it's seweed.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Its protus.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Oh, okay, that makes more sense.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
I don't even know what a protus is.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Well, we'll talk about it more when Ryan.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Goes when Ryan does his Yeah, so us seaweed for
general terms, and it like they can grow to be
absolutely massive, they said, like one hundred and fifty feet,
you know, depending on their space. I guess it's like
a goldfish, like they grow to fit their space. And
they are kelp forests that are great for the environment
and great for the local like fish and all the
things that live in them. They're also really great for
(08:20):
climate like trying to avoid climate change because they are
better at creating like what is taking carbon what's that term,
or like creating oxygenbide clusters, carbons and clusters then forests
on land, so I guess like one kelp forest can
(08:43):
There was a fact it was like one kelp forest
can reverse all the carbon dioxide emitted by like the
state of New York. So they're like much better than
even a regular forest. I'm not quite sure why, because
I didn't get that far. They're very, very good for
the environment, and the problem is we are actively destroying them.
(09:05):
Not to be like on a bummer note, but like
we are super destroying help for us by like everything
like fishing nets to pollution to everything. It's really really bad.
So that's you know, seaweed. So my personal feelings about
sewee generally is I think it's super ick. As we
were saying with the Thousand Eyelands, I just I respect
them because we need them to literally stay alive so
(09:27):
that our planet doesn't become you know, baking rock, and
we need them to like, you know, so other creatures
that are essential can live in them. So my first
why elson when I was young and I was like
originally super iked out. Not only does it feel gross,
but when I still love mysteries. But when I was little,
like I got really into mysteries, as you know, especially audiobooks.
(09:50):
And one of the first audiobook little collections I had
was short stories by you know, great writers, but Agatha
Christie specifically, and Agatha Christie wrote one standalone like novella
about a woman who murders her twin sister. And I
actually don't think this is physically possible, so don't think
(10:11):
Aga Christie fully knew how seaweed works. But she takes
her out on like a lock somewhere in Scotland where
there's really thick seaweed, and she pushes her sister off
the boat and she gets tangled in the seaweed and drowns.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Ah and like that remember that one, that's how.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
She dies, because it's like it's an obscure one. And
I remember listening to it when I was really little.
It was one of those ones where I think Mom
went to Barnes and Noble and just got me like
a little collection of like great mystery writer stories and this.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Was one of the forehand Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Good job, Yeah, probably not. And it's like really dark
because it's like there were kids in the boat, Like
it's about a like a like twin sisters and one
became like really rich and one really didn't do well
and they were separated, and then the one who didn't
do well killed her sister and stole her life and
sort of like stepped in.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
I feel like now it's coming back to me.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
And there's been like versions of that since, but that
was one. And the way she killed her was that
like they never they couldn't find the body forever, and
she was actually she They say she was a good swimmer,
but the twin sister who took her place couldn't swim,
and that's how they figured out it was her because
one of the kids like fell in the lake and
she couldn't go save him, but they were like, that's
how she drowned. Apparently she killed the sister by getting
(11:22):
her tangled in seaweed. So when we went to the
river as kids, I was like, no, only is this
stuff slimy and gross, but apparently you can die in it,
which I don't think really works because it's not super
strong like you could kick through. See we did, it
breaks the part pretty easily. So I really just think
act that Christie didn't really know unless Scottish Kelp is
like especially strong.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
The Scots tend to be pretty strong.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
So yeah, so maybe maybe it's possible if you get
really tangled in it. But yeah, so it really freaked
me out. The other thing Kelp takes me down is,
which Ryan we had talked about before, is SpongeBob SquarePants
the musical.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Oh yeah, so good, so good.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Okay, so that's really where we're going. I saw SpongeBob
three times on Broadway. Anyone can watch it now because
Nickelodeon filmed it during COVID and so it's streaming. You
can watch it. I think it bounces, you know. It's
one of those it's like wherever Nickelodeon chooses to license it,
whether it's Netflix or Hulu. Now. I was not a
massive fan of the TV show SpongeBob. I was thought
(12:21):
the character was fun, but just like a hair annoying
which fun fact Gracie. Speaking of Gracie, her mother went
to high school with the guy who's the voice of
SpongeBob and he asked her out and she turned him
down because she thought he was just like a weird,
nerdy theater kid and she was one of the popular girls.
And now she's like, damn it, I should have married
him because he's super rich now because he's the voice
of SpongeBob.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
I mean, Pete's still awesome, so we'll give it to
be a fair very cool. He's a cool dude.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
But yeah, but SpongeBob the musical, it's so good. And
I was working at tkt yes at the time, so
they gave us free tickets. I didn't want to go
because I was like, this is going to be stupid
and annoying and for kids. Yeah, I ended up taking
els it, like I made it our family Christmas show.
I dragged our parents to see it, who ended up
loving it, and James and Ryan took you guys, and like,
it is so good. And I was reading about it
(13:12):
again today about the Platinos, like this is so relevant
and they should revive it. So the basic story of
this version of SpongeBob is it's Bikini Bottom and there's
a volcano that is going to erupt. They're having all
these rumblings, and the politicians don't want to acknowledge it
because it's upsetting the town and it's going to upset
real estate and local businesses, and so they want to
(13:32):
just ignore it. And then of course Sandy the squirrel
who's the scientist, is like, no, this volcano is going
to erupt, but don't worry. I created a thing that
will stop it from erupting. It's science, but no one
wants to believe in science because it's inconvenient. And then
the land animal, and she's a land animal, so they
(13:53):
don't believe her, and she's played by a black woman,
and so they really like and I love that that
was the undertone where they where like they don't believe
her because she's a woman of color in science, woman
of color in stem and so for many reasons, they
just want to disregard her, and they do. They totally.
They go after her for being different because she's a
land animal. So then the bad guy, the plankton guy,
(14:16):
who just wants to get everybody to come to his restaurant,
creates a pod that will just like quick fix take
them somewhere else. But really the pod is just going
to hypnotize them into only eating at his restaurant. But weirdly,
the town sides with that, and they decide to like
fundraise to build this fake pod that will just like
move them away from the volcano rather than addressing the
(14:37):
real problem. So it comes down to SpongeBob and Sandy
and Patrick the lazy Starfish to save the day, which
of course they do, even though no one in the
town supports them. And when they come back, like while
they're climbing the volcano, the town erupts into utter chaos
because the pod doesn't work, they can't raise the money,
(14:58):
everything's a mess because the politicians are horrible leaders. And
then of course Bongebob saves the day and then they
come back and everything ends happily. But it's like the
main themes are not believing in science, lying politicians who
don't know what they're doing, and like distraction and chaos,
and it's just like this feels so relevant for right now. Yeah,
(15:19):
but the world is potentially going to be on fire.
And that's why I thought this show was so brilliant,
because how they did it was it could just be
like a light fun show, and this is what I
told people. It could be just a light fund show
about SpongeBob and his friends and for children and light
and silly and funny, or it could be a show
that has an underlying thing about like racism and misogyny,
(15:42):
and you know, and political attacking, anciety, political stupidity, and
then another layer of like conservation about believing in science.
Like it was such a beautifully layered show that depending
on what you wanted to get out of it, you
got it. And then the product itself was just incredible.
How it was all made out of found material, so
(16:03):
they didn't look like cartoon characters that they wanted to
use recycled pieces, so like fins that were made out
of rubber dish gloves, and like a giant sunset made
out of old surfboards, and like when they did a
rock tumble, it was recovered old rubber balls that were
just all different sizes. That the volcano that he had
to climb through was made out of netting and ropes,
(16:26):
that it was essentially just a giant rope course on
the stage. Like it was such a cool really, it
was such a cool Yeah, I mean, and I could
get into how it was robbed at the Tony Awards
because of dumb politics. Rubbed Actually what.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Were the politics? I want to hear them.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
So the thing is it was the most nominated show
of the year. It was nominated for it won everything
leading up to the Tonys and then it lost every
Tony Award except for Scenic Designed to this other show,
The Band's Visit, which Elson and I both also saw,
which was a lovely little show about an Egyptian band
in nineteen ninety six who goes to this little town
in Israel. They get on the wrong bus, end up
(17:05):
in the wrong town in Israel, in the middle of
the desert, and they spend the night and over. It's
one of the shows. Over the course of the night
they stay, they meet the locals and somehow they all
change each other's lives, and then they get on the
bus the next day and go to the next town.
And it's a very sweet little show about like together
and Tony Shaloub, and it swept the Tonys. Even Tony
(17:27):
Shaloub won Best Actor over the guy who played SpongeBob.
Even Tony Shaloub was confused that he beat because the
Ethan Slater who played SpongeBob, who's now in the Wicked movies,
who plays box Mister. Yes, yeah, so good, his performances
SpongeBob is insane. He went every ward leading up to
it and then somehow lost. Even Tony Shaloub and his
Tony speech was like, well, I don't know why I'm
(17:49):
up here, but okay. And the director for a Band's
Visit was the same thing the woman who won for
SpongeBob because SpongeBob was so brilliantly directed and it was
so innovative and different, and she lost, and even the
director for Band's visit was like, okay, thanks, like the
winning show was as confused. So the big thing Tony
voters didn't vote for it because they didn't go see it.
(18:11):
Tony voters wouldn't go see SpongeBob because they wrote it
off as just a dumb Nickelodeon children's show because Nickelodeon
produced it, and so they were like Tony snobby. Tony
voters refused to even see SpongeBob, and therefore they just
didn't vote for it. They voted for Band's Visit because
it was sort of the prestigious show of the season,
like Mean Girls was the other big musical that year,
(18:33):
and they weren't going to vote for Mean Girls because
also mean Girls was fine, it was okay, But Band's
Visit was like the cool show to vote for if
you were like a critic, because it was written by
a prestigious writer that everyone on it were like fancy people.
It started at this very fancy off Broadway company called
the Atlantic Theater Company. It was like the critical darling.
Even though critics loved SpongeBob, it got like across the
(18:55):
board a brilliant reviews. That was the big thing. Tony
voters just didn't see it.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
I went in with a very critical mindset. I kind
of went in and I'm like, I'm gonna think this
is stupid, and then walked out and I was like,
I loved I bought the T shirt. That's how much
I loved it, Like, and I don't just like, I mean,
I know that sounds silly, but like I was like,
I like this so much, I want a T shirt
from it. And I bought a T shirt.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
It was so good. So I'm glad they at least
filmed it and then people can you can watch it
so because it was great, all right. That's my rant
about SpongeBob and Kelp was a character.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
By the way Michael Funny moment, I literally like, you
just pulled up the coffee mug to have a sip,
and my thought was like I was like, oh my god,
I have the same coffee mug you do.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
Because it's your coffee mug.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
All right, are you ready, Ryan? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (20:00):
I think so.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Welcome to my world. You're about as prepared as good
as it's going to.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Be right now. Although I feel like you like the Griffer,
so pull some things together. Here. I was, I'm not
gonna lie. I was multitasking.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
I saw you as looking down at your phone.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Yeah. I was doing a couple of different things because well,
you gave me a direction to go, Allison, and I
was like, how much can I dig up quickly on
the on the topic, And I.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Went, tell a Granny story. You've got this?
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Yeah, oh my god.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
I really, you know, we haven't had an opportunity to
tell the Grandma stories. And like, by the way, she
is not apparently not doing too well these days. I
need to get done and see her. So Granny, I know,
But I mean, if she's ninety six, ninety seven years old, she's.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
Won the game already. If she's in over.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
Shears to her, Oh, Grandma, is Grandma's done it?
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Right? Yeah? So all right, teach me Ryan.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
All right, I'm gonna do my best and go oh hey,
so we'll go back to the just the protuce thing,
so protus for those or that grouping is basically like
the junk drawer of living things on the planet. And
they tend to be unicellular, but in the case of help, multicellular,
(21:19):
and it's because they just don't carry common characteristics to
other things. So for example, kelp isn't a plant, so
it's blades, not leaves. Stipes, Oh, I forget what stipes
are supposed to be instead of but hold fast instead
of roots, So the roots like in other words, it
just has those things to hold on to things, not
necessarily to you know, bring nutrition up from the ground.
(21:44):
But yeah, just an.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Airbag, right, Sorry, don't think. Yeah, they little air balloons.
Maybe that's what the stipes are and that's what makes
them grow towards the surface because they have little bulbs
with air that are like little built in balloons. Sorry,
that's the one thing I learned about them that I
thought was cute.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Yeah, it's well and apparently like they manage those bladders
to kind of help them float in various situations. They're
like pretty interesting and they're mostly oxygen, but they're nuitrogen
and carbon dioxide from what I recall reading. But since
Alison doesn't like the slimy part, I decided I would
just go ahead and dive quickly into the slimy part
(22:22):
and storyline.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Dive into the slimy part. It just slide right through,
just scuba dive into it.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
So it's the slime is actually called mucilage, So it's
like a like a mucus, like a mucus, and it's
a poly it's polysaccharides, which means it's just really a
complex sugar. Yeah, that coats the It's the basically exterior
cell walls of the kelp.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
So are you saying we should all go out and
lick kelp because they're sweet?
Speaker 1 (22:54):
You know? I don't know. I can't. I'm not gonna
lie alson. I was thinking the same thing. I was
kind of like, I wonder that means like just from
like if you were like, hmm, oh, that's sweet, although
I wonder if they're too complex for your for your taste,
but to actually.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
Taste the sweetness because it's ellim hmm.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Yeah exactly. I don't know. Do you like seaweed salad
like at like a sushi joint?
Speaker 3 (23:18):
Now either? I don't like seaweed.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
I think it's delicious, but it does not taste sweet
at all.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
No, so kind of bitter.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
But the purpose is.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
To keep it from drying out like in low tide.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
Makes sense.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
It actually is uv protection as well as protects from pollution.
So like the seaweed can sit in nasty water and
still be okay because it's got that mucus to protect it.
It's anti sticks. So when you think about these giant
kelp forests and all these long blades, I wanted to
get the terminology right, the blades rising up through the water.
They don't stick to each other. They all kind of
(23:54):
manage to stay independent regardless of tide and movement. And
apparently it has pretty significant and wound healing properties to it,
So if the kelp is damaged, the mucus can reconnect
itself to itself and then like help heal up whatever
damage was taken place. But it turns out that slime
has a really important role and we interact with it
(24:18):
a ton because it's a product that we use all
over the place. So I'll just kind of start with,
like how is it harvested? So seaweed and specifically this
stuff is called sodium alginate, which is when they process
(24:39):
the muselage. This is the product that you get. And
basically what happens is wild harvesting workers cut up the
giant kelp and other brown algae and they like dry
it out and once it's dried out, they clean it,
they chop it, they boil it. Oh my bad, they
actually don't dry it out. I made that up. I'm
like chat GPT. I'm a mad things there, right right,
(25:02):
get your facts right.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
They use it as in a multifier mostly right, it's
in a mulsifier.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Yeah, exactly right.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
So the other fact I knew about kelp is that
it's in like everything.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
Yeah, so it's it's when you add calcium to it,
it becomes a gel and that's how you get these
like these fancy caviar pearls that you see in various
gastronomical dishes. It's a thickener, so it's present in salad dressing,
ice cream, and yogurt. And then it's also it's not toxic,
(25:35):
can buy a degradable so in other words, the use
of it in the getting rid of it, it just
breaks down and the world consumes it without any real cost.
But it also is used to do encapsulations of like
the little it's made. It's like pill capsules as the
other big big use for it.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
Yeah, those like squishy pill like the you know, like
the tail and all squishy ones. That's like that's the
algel tap from the Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Oh whoa, I didn't know that, but it's I think
the cool part is is that it to actually get
the sodiumalgenate. I was like, I looked it up and
I was like, oh, is this just something we now
like synthetically produce. And by synthetically I don't mean with
a non natural material like another We figured out how
to like chemically create it. And it's not true. We
(26:24):
actually do harvest the kelp or the brown algae or
grow the brown algae for the purposes of boiling it
down and creating this precipitate or powder, which is then
reconstituted in various places. It's also used in like clothing
as a fire retardant so it will not burn.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
Instead of asbestos. Instead of asbestos, it's probably healthier for everyone.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Yeah, right, have you ever.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
Actually run into asbestos in the wild?
Speaker 3 (26:52):
Oh yeah, my apartment in the Bronx had asbestos. When
we pulled the carpet up. It had asbestos tile.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Oh, I meant like literally in the wild, Like, have
you ever dug up rocks and found it on a rock?
Speaker 3 (27:05):
No? No, I have. That would be scary and I
would run away.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
How did you know what it was?
Speaker 1 (27:12):
So? Oddly enough, this was on we were I'm trying
to gamble how old I was. I was probably in
like seventh or eighth grade, and it was on a
boy scout hiking outing and one of the dads looked
down and there was this rock and we flipped it
over and it had this like kind of crystalline structure
on it, and sure shit. He was like, yeah, that's asbestos,
(27:35):
one hundred percent naturally naturally occurring asbestos. You know, it's
not dangerous unless you crush.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
It and aerosolize it, breathe it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
So yeah, he just he's like, actually, I'm going to
take this home and keep it as or have it
as an example. And I think he worked in some
sort of field where it was relevant, so to go
take it at work and be able to show people
with naturally you know what, they'd naturally occur asbestos actually
kind of like looks like but yeah, obviously sodium. Imagine
it is far better than asbestos because you can put
(28:08):
it in your body and it breaks down.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
We'll give you a mess with thelioma.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Mesotheliomia those commercials I.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Was gonna say, or moderate to severe surplesoriasis, although I
don't think, I don't think.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
I don't think asbestos does that help.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
It's fire retarding because you have a minute, a little
over a minute actually, So those are all my fun facts.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Like I've kind of I've kind of gone through it
the other things. I mean, I think the other thing
that's kind of interesting is that giant kelp, which is
the one that they harvest most frequently because well, first
of all, it grows at two feet a day or better,
which is kind of insane, right to have something. It's
the grower of the world, if you will, and can
(28:55):
grow up to about one hundred and fifty feet in length.
So that means in some of these giant help forests,
the kelp strands actually extend longer than the height of
the Statue of Liberty. So there, because I believe the
Statue of Liberty is around one hundred and fifty one feet,
it's actually pretty impressive and it's that's I think another
(29:15):
reason that it goes heavily into that sustainability category. So
bamboo fits into that category because bamboo will grow virtually
anywhere and grows. Yeah, it's a weed, grows like a weed,
doesn't need much to grow, and kelp kind of falls
into that overall, that overall category. I think. The other
cool thing is that it it does hold on to
(29:38):
a fair amount of carbon dioxide, and when it dies,
it takes that carbon dioxide or a chunk of it
with it back to the bottom of the ocean. So
it actually Yeah, and there's a lot of research going
on right now, like if we had larger help forests,
would it help draw more carbon dioxide from the air
and return it back into the earth from which you know,
(29:59):
we mind it, mind it, burnt it and distributed it
into the Yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
Thank so.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
You know what's funny is I didn't think I was
gonna be able to finish that minute, but I found
some shit.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
You.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
I had so much faith in you, Bye, why job
all right? Had a sin? You know the trio?
Speaker 3 (30:23):
I do, I do? And I'm so torn because honestly,
the one fact that I knew about KELP was what
Ryan talked about, and I don't want to be accused
of playing favorites because like you are my brother, but
I have to go with SpongeBob because I love SpongeBob.
So Michael's the winner, even though Ryan, you're also a winner.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
In my heart, I feel like you had better stories.
I just starlight expressed this again, you do it because
it's like it's like I will win if I just
talk about Starlight Express.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
Really, I wanted to give it to you both. I
wanted to give it to you both.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Well, thank you, and I agree. SpongeBob is like the best.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
It is the best.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
It's great.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
I was so sad with the whole political bullshit on it,
like more people should have seen it, like it was
just a genuinely enjoyable experience.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
Which is why they should bring it back, because now
people know.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
Maybe this podcast will be the launching, Maybe this will
be maybe we did it.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
I'll call up later. I met recently. He was lovely.
All right, now, what is our topic for next week?
Speaker 3 (31:33):
Next week? Well, okay, so I was doing this this
morning because I need to buy some things, so it's
going to be online shopping. I feel like there's a
lot of ways you can go with this, like the
psychology of why we're so obsessed with online shopping right now,
or just like your problems with online shopping like me,
(31:54):
and like the instant gratification of it. And yeah, there's
a lot of things you can talk about. Who started
online shopping. I think it was Amazon.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
Oh yeah, I've never who stopping.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
It might have been Amazon boo Bezos. But yeah, and
like even how you can get like I mean, you
can get anything. I'm pretty sure you can like online
shop a house. I know you can online shop a car.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Like yeah, Unfortunately, you can online chop a person. Just
ask Matt Gates.
Speaker 3 (32:31):
I was gonna say a dog, but okay, watch.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
It's just gonna be like here are the things I
bought recently.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
I was drunk at two am, and this is all
the stuff that just arrived.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
What's funny is I actually thought with stop. Actually I
do do it less since I stopped drinking. Yes, like
random purchases late at night, but I still have those
moments where like I don't know why, but like late
at night when I wake up up and I'm like, ah,
fuck it, and I I just buy it, like I know.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
That's or like when I'm having a bad day, you're like,
I deserve this, and then it chows up and you're like,
what was I thinking?
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Yeah, okay, this will be fun. Yeah all right, thank you,
thank you so.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
Much, love you, good luck. Send us photos of your decks.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Please, gotta be careful of your of your big decks.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
Yes, and your help, and we'll.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
Be back next week with online shopping. Online shopping
Hello, are we back Oho?
Speaker 2 (00:10):
It is recording now, Okay, technical difficulties overcame.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
It's me okay, but we made it.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
We made it to white noise. It's our guest Alison,
who just you know, technical difficulties ironic since you're an engineer.
This is my sister, Alison Barry Alison, thank you for
being here.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Oh I've been waiting to be here, so finally gotcha.
Finally got me.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Everyone gets to meet the connective tissue that makes.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
It all work right, right, Some people think we look
like twins, and some people are like, you don't look
like you're related at all.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Yeah, you know, I'm like really studying it right now.
And I would say, I think you've I think you
guys look alike. I mean you have different hair tones, like,
very similar nose, very similar like face. Yeah, no, I'm down.
You are definitely related.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yeah okay. And our other special guest, Bogar, is there too.
He has really strong opinions about these. Apparently he loves Kelp. Yes,
our topic today is Kelp, which this is. This is
gonna be an interesting one because both Right and I
were like, we had so much time to prepare for this.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Actually we really did. We took a little bit of
a breather, a little bit of a break, little, let's
call it a spring break, really.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
A spring break. Well, you've been busy renovating your home
and building decks and doing a lot of things. You've
been at it too, and I wrapped up my show,
but I'm done now, so now it's like summer break.
We had a wrap party this week on my show
The Night Agent, and so summer break started on Thursday.
It was a great party.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Was the Night Agent there?
Speaker 2 (01:47):
No, he wasn't there. He's probably off saving the world.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Yeah, and he's hot Puerto.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Rico Gabriel Bosso. I'll let him know when I see
him next.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Really, Yeah, have you ever met do you? Are you
familiar with Ryan Wilder? Yes?
Speaker 2 (02:01):
He has notes for you. So, Alison, you you are
an engineer who works on electrical things. You do not
work well things under the sea, but you read many
books about literally every topic under the sun. So I
feel like you're qualified for literally anything we could potentially
talk about.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
I'm gonna try I know a couple of things about KELP.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
I was gonna say, do you have feelings about KELP?
Do you have?
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Does it I do.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
I don't like slimy undersea aquatic plant you know stuff.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Yeah, I was opening with an opposition.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
I am a strong No, I'm not opposed to kelp.
I am strongly opposed to kelp touching me whilst I
am in the water.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
So no, no kelp wraps for you.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
No, it's too slimy, you know, it's it's gross. Our
friend Grace, also friend of your podcast, has a house
up one Thousand Islands and there's it's not kelp, it's
some other kind of sea grass, but it's slimy and
it's gross and so you have to die.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
It's really gross.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
That's I think that's the origin of the fatty dipping
because it keeps your feet up fatty dipp.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Oh yeah, we did talk about the fatty yah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Where you'd call it skinny dipping, but her mom would
call it fatty dipping.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Yeah, And you could in diaper dipping because you put
the life vest through your legs so you were sitting
up and then that's how you didn't have the icky
sea grass in your feet.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
So which, especially when I was younger, when we'd go
swimming there, like ooh, I didn't even want to get
in if the water level was too low and it
was like you're just kicking through seagrass o.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
It felt so.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Gross because it also made me think of a story
which I will talk about during my ten minutes.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Should we get to your ten minutes since we.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Don't have to play get to know you as much.
Since I've known Elson literally my whole life and you've
known Elison for quite some time our audiences, I have
learned a lot about you just from me telling Alix stories.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Yeah, so, I.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Mean this is actually how Alison is, how we all
know each other is reality. So Alison and my husband
work together, and I would say it was a work
wife husband sort of sitch. I think that's a fair summary,
and I feel like it still kind of transcends even
not working together. It's worth noting. It's worth it for
everyone that my husband and Alison get together and just
(04:26):
go down this dark, scary rabbit hole of engineering things
where I just tune out and go to another place.
Usually or I will tune in and then just start
asking random questions about whatever the crap is that they're
throwing around. Biggest error in my life was watching the
movie Chernobyl.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
I knew you were going to say that.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
I don't know why. I think we were very informative
as we wash.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Series, and yet every I was going to say, every
part was torn apart six ways.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Yeah, because it wasn't accurate.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Wait and remind me, did you guys approve of the
movie Chernobyl or the miniseries or did you not like Trenobyl?
Speaker 3 (05:12):
It was fine, I'll say it was fine.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
It was fine. Ryan.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
How was your experience?
Speaker 3 (05:19):
We ruined it for him?
Speaker 1 (05:20):
I remember we went to the beach after watching it,
and all you two did the entire time at the
beach was just talk about all the things that you
thought were bullshit. And I just remember being like, I'd like,
I'm going back home.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Yeah he did. He got up and walked away from us.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
And was the issue just how the movie or how
the show portrayed what happened at Trenobyl, or just about
what actually did happen at Trenobyl?
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Yeah, they just they dramatized it, so they just made
it like things that wouldn't happen, you know, like it
was just more like it was dramatized. That's all, Like
that kind of stuff doesn't happen like you're not your
skin would be it will. I feel like Ryan's gonna
have flashbacks. I'll stop talking now.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
About to run off and take a xanax. Damn it.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
But we're not talking.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
About we're talking about KELP.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Right, we're talking about KELP.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
All right?
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Now you know the drill? Who would you like to go?
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Ryan, She'll go first, because then we'll learn a little
bit about it and then we'll close. Do you want
Michael to go first?
Speaker 1 (06:35):
I want to go first.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Okay, Then Michael's going first, go first first? That yeah, okay, right.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
I didn't know it could work like that. I've never
had that before.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Luckily, our guest is a very close friend of yours.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Go for it, Michael. Let's hear what you got to
say about KELP.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
All right?
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Ready, set, yes, go? Okay. So for them who don't
know what KELP is, I did begin to watch a
YouTube video. Also, I'm currently at Ryan's house and asbray well,
Ryan is at his other house in Woodstock, and he
has a beautiful front porch and it's a gorgeous day.
(07:15):
And I was sitting on the front porch starting to
research KELP when his neighbor came over who's a lovely,
lovely man. And we just started chatting for forty five minutes,
and so he didn't get nearly is I didn't. I
barely finished one YouTube video on kelp. But what I
did learn from said five minute YouTube video, kelp is
essentially seaweed. For people who might not know, it's an algae.
(07:36):
It's an algae. It can It's not an algae. Okay,
it's not an algae, Alison, you're incorrect.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
Thought it was a brown algae.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
It is brown, but it's seweed.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Its protus.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Oh, okay, that makes more sense.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
I don't even know what a protus is.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Well, we'll talk about it more when Ryan.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Goes when Ryan does his Yeah, so us seaweed for
general terms, and it like they can grow to be
absolutely massive, they said, like one hundred and fifty feet,
you know, depending on their space. I guess it's like
a goldfish, like they grow to fit their space. And
they are kelp forests that are great for the environment
and great for the local like fish and all the
things that live in them. They're also really great for
(08:20):
climate like trying to avoid climate change because they are
better at creating like what is taking carbon what's that term,
or like creating oxygenbide clusters, carbons and clusters then forests
on land, so I guess like one kelp forest can
(08:43):
There was a fact it was like one kelp forest
can reverse all the carbon dioxide emitted by like the
state of New York. So they're like much better than
even a regular forest. I'm not quite sure why, because
I didn't get that far. They're very, very good for
the environment, and the problem is we are actively destroying them.
(09:05):
Not to be like on a bummer note, but like
we are super destroying help for us by like everything
like fishing nets to pollution to everything. It's really really bad.
So that's you know, seaweed. So my personal feelings about
sewee generally is I think it's super ick. As we
were saying with the Thousand Eyelands, I just I respect
them because we need them to literally stay alive so
(09:27):
that our planet doesn't become you know, baking rock, and
we need them to like, you know, so other creatures
that are essential can live in them. So my first
why elson when I was young and I was like
originally super iked out. Not only does it feel gross,
but when I still love mysteries. But when I was little,
like I got really into mysteries, as you know, especially audiobooks.
(09:50):
And one of the first audiobook little collections I had
was short stories by you know, great writers, but Agatha
Christie specifically, and Agatha Christie wrote one standalone like novella
about a woman who murders her twin sister. And I
actually don't think this is physically possible, so don't think
(10:11):
Aga Christie fully knew how seaweed works. But she takes
her out on like a lock somewhere in Scotland where
there's really thick seaweed, and she pushes her sister off
the boat and she gets tangled in the seaweed and drowns.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Ah and like that remember that one, that's how.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
She dies, because it's like it's an obscure one. And
I remember listening to it when I was really little.
It was one of those ones where I think Mom
went to Barnes and Noble and just got me like
a little collection of like great mystery writer stories and this.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Was one of the forehand Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Good job, Yeah, probably not. And it's like really dark
because it's like there were kids in the boat, Like
it's about a like a like twin sisters and one
became like really rich and one really didn't do well
and they were separated, and then the one who didn't
do well killed her sister and stole her life and
sort of like stepped in.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
I feel like now it's coming back to me.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
And there's been like versions of that since, but that
was one. And the way she killed her was that
like they never they couldn't find the body forever, and
she was actually she They say she was a good swimmer,
but the twin sister who took her place couldn't swim,
and that's how they figured out it was her because
one of the kids like fell in the lake and
she couldn't go save him, but they were like, that's
how she drowned. Apparently she killed the sister by getting
(11:22):
her tangled in seaweed. So when we went to the
river as kids, I was like, no, only is this
stuff slimy and gross, but apparently you can die in it,
which I don't think really works because it's not super
strong like you could kick through. See we did, it
breaks the part pretty easily. So I really just think
act that Christie didn't really know unless Scottish Kelp is
like especially strong.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
The Scots tend to be pretty strong.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
So yeah, so maybe maybe it's possible if you get
really tangled in it. But yeah, so it really freaked
me out. The other thing Kelp takes me down is,
which Ryan we had talked about before, is SpongeBob SquarePants
the musical.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Oh yeah, so good, so good.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Okay, so that's really where we're going. I saw SpongeBob
three times on Broadway. Anyone can watch it now because
Nickelodeon filmed it during COVID and so it's streaming. You
can watch it. I think it bounces, you know. It's
one of those it's like wherever Nickelodeon chooses to license it,
whether it's Netflix or Hulu. Now. I was not a
massive fan of the TV show SpongeBob. I was thought
(12:21):
the character was fun, but just like a hair annoying
which fun fact Gracie. Speaking of Gracie, her mother went
to high school with the guy who's the voice of
SpongeBob and he asked her out and she turned him
down because she thought he was just like a weird,
nerdy theater kid and she was one of the popular girls.
And now she's like, damn it, I should have married
him because he's super rich now because he's the voice
of SpongeBob.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
I mean, Pete's still awesome, so we'll give it to
be a fair very cool. He's a cool dude.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
But yeah, but SpongeBob the musical, it's so good. And
I was working at tkt yes at the time, so
they gave us free tickets. I didn't want to go
because I was like, this is going to be stupid
and annoying and for kids. Yeah, I ended up taking
els it, like I made it our family Christmas show.
I dragged our parents to see it, who ended up
loving it, and James and Ryan took you guys, and like,
it is so good. And I was reading about it
(13:12):
again today about the Platinos, like this is so relevant
and they should revive it. So the basic story of
this version of SpongeBob is it's Bikini Bottom and there's
a volcano that is going to erupt. They're having all
these rumblings, and the politicians don't want to acknowledge it
because it's upsetting the town and it's going to upset
real estate and local businesses, and so they want to
(13:32):
just ignore it. And then of course Sandy the squirrel
who's the scientist, is like, no, this volcano is going
to erupt, but don't worry. I created a thing that
will stop it from erupting. It's science, but no one
wants to believe in science because it's inconvenient. And then
the land animal, and she's a land animal, so they
(13:53):
don't believe her, and she's played by a black woman,
and so they really like and I love that that
was the undertone where they where like they don't believe
her because she's a woman of color in science, woman
of color in stem and so for many reasons, they
just want to disregard her, and they do. They totally.
They go after her for being different because she's a
land animal. So then the bad guy, the plankton guy,
(14:16):
who just wants to get everybody to come to his restaurant,
creates a pod that will just like quick fix take
them somewhere else. But really the pod is just going
to hypnotize them into only eating at his restaurant. But weirdly,
the town sides with that, and they decide to like
fundraise to build this fake pod that will just like
move them away from the volcano rather than addressing the
(14:37):
real problem. So it comes down to SpongeBob and Sandy
and Patrick the lazy Starfish to save the day, which
of course they do, even though no one in the
town supports them. And when they come back, like while
they're climbing the volcano, the town erupts into utter chaos
because the pod doesn't work, they can't raise the money,
(14:58):
everything's a mess because the politicians are horrible leaders. And
then of course Bongebob saves the day and then they
come back and everything ends happily. But it's like the
main themes are not believing in science, lying politicians who
don't know what they're doing, and like distraction and chaos,
and it's just like this feels so relevant for right now. Yeah,
(15:19):
but the world is potentially going to be on fire.
And that's why I thought this show was so brilliant,
because how they did it was it could just be
like a light fun show, and this is what I
told people. It could be just a light fund show
about SpongeBob and his friends and for children and light
and silly and funny, or it could be a show
that has an underlying thing about like racism and misogyny,
(15:42):
and you know, and political attacking, anciety, political stupidity, and
then another layer of like conservation about believing in science.
Like it was such a beautifully layered show that depending
on what you wanted to get out of it, you
got it. And then the product itself was just incredible.
How it was all made out of found material, so
(16:03):
they didn't look like cartoon characters that they wanted to
use recycled pieces, so like fins that were made out
of rubber dish gloves, and like a giant sunset made
out of old surfboards, and like when they did a
rock tumble, it was recovered old rubber balls that were
just all different sizes. That the volcano that he had
to climb through was made out of netting and ropes,
(16:26):
that it was essentially just a giant rope course on
the stage. Like it was such a cool really, it
was such a cool Yeah, I mean, and I could
get into how it was robbed at the Tony Awards
because of dumb politics. Rubbed Actually what.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Were the politics? I want to hear them.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
So the thing is it was the most nominated show
of the year. It was nominated for it won everything
leading up to the Tonys and then it lost every
Tony Award except for Scenic Designed to this other show,
The Band's Visit, which Elson and I both also saw,
which was a lovely little show about an Egyptian band
in nineteen ninety six who goes to this little town
in Israel. They get on the wrong bus, end up
(17:05):
in the wrong town in Israel, in the middle of
the desert, and they spend the night and over. It's
one of the shows. Over the course of the night
they stay, they meet the locals and somehow they all
change each other's lives, and then they get on the
bus the next day and go to the next town.
And it's a very sweet little show about like together
and Tony Shaloub, and it swept the Tonys. Even Tony
(17:27):
Shaloub won Best Actor over the guy who played SpongeBob.
Even Tony Shaloub was confused that he beat because the
Ethan Slater who played SpongeBob, who's now in the Wicked movies,
who plays box Mister. Yes, yeah, so good, his performances
SpongeBob is insane. He went every ward leading up to
it and then somehow lost. Even Tony Shaloub and his
Tony speech was like, well, I don't know why I'm
(17:49):
up here, but okay. And the director for a Band's
Visit was the same thing the woman who won for
SpongeBob because SpongeBob was so brilliantly directed and it was
so innovative and different, and she lost, and even the
director for Band's visit was like, okay, thanks, like the
winning show was as confused. So the big thing Tony
voters didn't vote for it because they didn't go see it.
(18:11):
Tony voters wouldn't go see SpongeBob because they wrote it
off as just a dumb Nickelodeon children's show because Nickelodeon
produced it, and so they were like Tony snobby. Tony
voters refused to even see SpongeBob, and therefore they just
didn't vote for it. They voted for Band's Visit because
it was sort of the prestigious show of the season,
like Mean Girls was the other big musical that year,
(18:33):
and they weren't going to vote for Mean Girls because
also mean Girls was fine, it was okay, But Band's
Visit was like the cool show to vote for if
you were like a critic, because it was written by
a prestigious writer that everyone on it were like fancy people.
It started at this very fancy off Broadway company called
the Atlantic Theater Company. It was like the critical darling.
Even though critics loved SpongeBob, it got like across the
(18:55):
board a brilliant reviews. That was the big thing. Tony
voters just didn't see it.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
I went in with a very critical mindset. I kind
of went in and I'm like, I'm gonna think this
is stupid, and then walked out and I was like,
I loved I bought the T shirt. That's how much
I loved it, Like, and I don't just like, I mean,
I know that sounds silly, but like I was like,
I like this so much, I want a T shirt
from it. And I bought a T shirt.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
It was so good. So I'm glad they at least
filmed it and then people can you can watch it
so because it was great, all right. That's my rant
about SpongeBob and Kelp was a character.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
By the way Michael Funny moment, I literally like, you
just pulled up the coffee mug to have a sip,
and my thought was like I was like, oh my god,
I have the same coffee mug you do.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
Because it's your coffee mug.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
All right, are you ready, Ryan? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (20:00):
I think so.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Welcome to my world. You're about as prepared as good
as it's going to.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Be right now. Although I feel like you like the Griffer,
so pull some things together. Here. I was, I'm not
gonna lie. I was multitasking.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
I saw you as looking down at your phone.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Yeah. I was doing a couple of different things because well,
you gave me a direction to go, Allison, and I
was like, how much can I dig up quickly on
the on the topic, And I.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Went, tell a Granny story. You've got this?
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Yeah, oh my god.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
I really, you know, we haven't had an opportunity to
tell the Grandma stories. And like, by the way, she
is not apparently not doing too well these days. I
need to get done and see her. So Granny, I know,
But I mean, if she's ninety six, ninety seven years old, she's.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
Won the game already. If she's in over.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
Shears to her, Oh, Grandma, is Grandma's done it?
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Right? Yeah? So all right, teach me Ryan.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
All right, I'm gonna do my best and go oh hey,
so we'll go back to the just the protuce thing,
so protus for those or that grouping is basically like
the junk drawer of living things on the planet. And
they tend to be unicellular, but in the case of help, multicellular,
(21:19):
and it's because they just don't carry common characteristics to
other things. So for example, kelp isn't a plant, so
it's blades, not leaves. Stipes, Oh, I forget what stipes
are supposed to be instead of but hold fast instead
of roots, So the roots like in other words, it
just has those things to hold on to things, not
necessarily to you know, bring nutrition up from the ground.
(21:44):
But yeah, just an.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Airbag, right, Sorry, don't think. Yeah, they little air balloons.
Maybe that's what the stipes are and that's what makes
them grow towards the surface because they have little bulbs
with air that are like little built in balloons. Sorry,
that's the one thing I learned about them that I
thought was cute.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Yeah, it's well and apparently like they manage those bladders
to kind of help them float in various situations. They're
like pretty interesting and they're mostly oxygen, but they're nuitrogen
and carbon dioxide from what I recall reading. But since
Alison doesn't like the slimy part, I decided I would
just go ahead and dive quickly into the slimy part
(22:22):
and storyline.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Dive into the slimy part. It just slide right through,
just scuba dive into it.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
So it's the slime is actually called mucilage, So it's
like a like a mucus, like a mucus, and it's
a poly it's polysaccharides, which means it's just really a
complex sugar. Yeah, that coats the It's the basically exterior
cell walls of the kelp.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
So are you saying we should all go out and
lick kelp because they're sweet?
Speaker 1 (22:54):
You know? I don't know. I can't. I'm not gonna
lie alson. I was thinking the same thing. I was
kind of like, I wonder that means like just from
like if you were like, hmm, oh, that's sweet, although
I wonder if they're too complex for your for your taste,
but to actually.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
Taste the sweetness because it's ellim hmm.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Yeah exactly. I don't know. Do you like seaweed salad
like at like a sushi joint?
Speaker 3 (23:18):
Now either? I don't like seaweed.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
I think it's delicious, but it does not taste sweet
at all.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
No, so kind of bitter.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
But the purpose is.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
To keep it from drying out like in low tide.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
Makes sense.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
It actually is uv protection as well as protects from pollution.
So like the seaweed can sit in nasty water and
still be okay because it's got that mucus to protect it.
It's anti sticks. So when you think about these giant
kelp forests and all these long blades, I wanted to
get the terminology right, the blades rising up through the water.
They don't stick to each other. They all kind of
(23:54):
manage to stay independent regardless of tide and movement. And
apparently it has pretty significant and wound healing properties to it,
So if the kelp is damaged, the mucus can reconnect
itself to itself and then like help heal up whatever
damage was taken place. But it turns out that slime
has a really important role and we interact with it
(24:18):
a ton because it's a product that we use all
over the place. So I'll just kind of start with,
like how is it harvested? So seaweed and specifically this
stuff is called sodium alginate, which is when they process
(24:39):
the muselage. This is the product that you get. And
basically what happens is wild harvesting workers cut up the
giant kelp and other brown algae and they like dry
it out and once it's dried out, they clean it,
they chop it, they boil it. Oh my bad, they
actually don't dry it out. I made that up. I'm
like chat GPT. I'm a mad things there, right right,
(25:02):
get your facts right.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
They use it as in a multifier mostly right, it's
in a mulsifier.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Yeah, exactly right.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
So the other fact I knew about kelp is that
it's in like everything.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
Yeah, so it's it's when you add calcium to it,
it becomes a gel and that's how you get these
like these fancy caviar pearls that you see in various
gastronomical dishes. It's a thickener, so it's present in salad dressing,
ice cream, and yogurt. And then it's also it's not toxic,
(25:35):
can buy a degradable so in other words, the use
of it in the getting rid of it, it just
breaks down and the world consumes it without any real cost.
But it also is used to do encapsulations of like
the little it's made. It's like pill capsules as the
other big big use for it.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
Yeah, those like squishy pill like the you know, like
the tail and all squishy ones. That's like that's the
algel tap from the Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Oh whoa, I didn't know that, but it's I think
the cool part is is that it to actually get
the sodiumalgenate. I was like, I looked it up and
I was like, oh, is this just something we now
like synthetically produce. And by synthetically I don't mean with
a non natural material like another We figured out how
to like chemically create it. And it's not true. We
(26:24):
actually do harvest the kelp or the brown algae or
grow the brown algae for the purposes of boiling it
down and creating this precipitate or powder, which is then
reconstituted in various places. It's also used in like clothing
as a fire retardant so it will not burn.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
Instead of asbestos. Instead of asbestos, it's probably healthier for everyone.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Yeah, right, have you ever.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
Actually run into asbestos in the wild?
Speaker 3 (26:52):
Oh yeah, my apartment in the Bronx had asbestos. When
we pulled the carpet up. It had asbestos tile.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Oh, I meant like literally in the wild, Like, have
you ever dug up rocks and found it on a rock?
Speaker 3 (27:05):
No? No, I have. That would be scary and I
would run away.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
How did you know what it was?
Speaker 1 (27:12):
So? Oddly enough, this was on we were I'm trying
to gamble how old I was. I was probably in
like seventh or eighth grade, and it was on a
boy scout hiking outing and one of the dads looked
down and there was this rock and we flipped it
over and it had this like kind of crystalline structure
on it, and sure shit. He was like, yeah, that's asbestos,
(27:35):
one hundred percent naturally naturally occurring asbestos. You know, it's
not dangerous unless you crush.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
It and aerosolize it, breathe it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
So yeah, he just he's like, actually, I'm going to
take this home and keep it as or have it
as an example. And I think he worked in some
sort of field where it was relevant, so to go
take it at work and be able to show people
with naturally you know what, they'd naturally occur asbestos actually
kind of like looks like but yeah, obviously sodium. Imagine
it is far better than asbestos because you can put
(28:08):
it in your body and it breaks down.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
We'll give you a mess with thelioma.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Mesotheliomia those commercials I.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Was gonna say, or moderate to severe surplesoriasis, although I
don't think, I don't think.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
I don't think asbestos does that help.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
It's fire retarding because you have a minute, a little
over a minute actually, So those are all my fun facts.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Like I've kind of I've kind of gone through it
the other things. I mean, I think the other thing
that's kind of interesting is that giant kelp, which is
the one that they harvest most frequently because well, first
of all, it grows at two feet a day or better,
which is kind of insane, right to have something. It's
the grower of the world, if you will, and can
(28:55):
grow up to about one hundred and fifty feet in length.
So that means in some of these giant help forests,
the kelp strands actually extend longer than the height of
the Statue of Liberty. So there, because I believe the
Statue of Liberty is around one hundred and fifty one feet,
it's actually pretty impressive and it's that's I think another
(29:15):
reason that it goes heavily into that sustainability category. So
bamboo fits into that category because bamboo will grow virtually
anywhere and grows. Yeah, it's a weed, grows like a weed,
doesn't need much to grow, and kelp kind of falls
into that overall, that overall category. I think. The other
cool thing is that it it does hold on to
(29:38):
a fair amount of carbon dioxide, and when it dies,
it takes that carbon dioxide or a chunk of it
with it back to the bottom of the ocean. So
it actually Yeah, and there's a lot of research going
on right now, like if we had larger help forests,
would it help draw more carbon dioxide from the air
and return it back into the earth from which you know,
(29:59):
we mind it, mind it, burnt it and distributed it
into the Yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
Thank so.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
You know what's funny is I didn't think I was
gonna be able to finish that minute, but I found
some shit.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
You.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
I had so much faith in you, Bye, why job
all right? Had a sin? You know the trio?
Speaker 3 (30:23):
I do, I do? And I'm so torn because honestly,
the one fact that I knew about KELP was what
Ryan talked about, and I don't want to be accused
of playing favorites because like you are my brother, but
I have to go with SpongeBob because I love SpongeBob.
So Michael's the winner, even though Ryan, you're also a winner.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
In my heart, I feel like you had better stories.
I just starlight expressed this again, you do it because
it's like it's like I will win if I just
talk about Starlight Express.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
Really, I wanted to give it to you both. I
wanted to give it to you both.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Well, thank you, and I agree. SpongeBob is like the best.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
It is the best.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
It's great.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
I was so sad with the whole political bullshit on it,
like more people should have seen it, like it was
just a genuinely enjoyable experience.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
Which is why they should bring it back, because now
people know.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
Maybe this podcast will be the launching, Maybe this will
be maybe we did it.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
I'll call up later. I met recently. He was lovely.
All right, now, what is our topic for next week?
Speaker 3 (31:33):
Next week? Well, okay, so I was doing this this
morning because I need to buy some things, so it's
going to be online shopping. I feel like there's a
lot of ways you can go with this, like the
psychology of why we're so obsessed with online shopping right now,
or just like your problems with online shopping like me,
(31:54):
and like the instant gratification of it. And yeah, there's
a lot of things you can talk about. Who started
online shopping. I think it was Amazon.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
Oh yeah, I've never who stopping.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
It might have been Amazon boo Bezos. But yeah, and
like even how you can get like I mean, you
can get anything. I'm pretty sure you can like online
shop a house. I know you can online shop a car.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Like yeah, Unfortunately, you can online chop a person. Just
ask Matt Gates.
Speaker 3 (32:31):
I was gonna say a dog, but okay, watch.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
It's just gonna be like here are the things I
bought recently.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
I was drunk at two am, and this is all
the stuff that just arrived.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
What's funny is I actually thought with stop. Actually I
do do it less since I stopped drinking. Yes, like
random purchases late at night, but I still have those
moments where like I don't know why, but like late
at night when I wake up up and I'm like, ah,
fuck it, and I I just buy it, like I know.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
That's or like when I'm having a bad day, you're like,
I deserve this, and then it chows up and you're like,
what was I thinking?
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Yeah, okay, this will be fun. Yeah all right, thank you,
thank you so.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
Much, love you, good luck. Send us photos of your decks.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Please, gotta be careful of your of your big decks.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
Yes, and your help, and we'll.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
Be back next week with online shopping. Online shopping
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