May 8, 2025 • 10 mins
On Thursdays, we bring you a handful of odd science stories for our segment called #StrangeScience. – The science behind the smoke that signals selection of new pope
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
That I don't know.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Yeah, it's time for strange science. God needs a break,
rang sience.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
It's like weird science but strange.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Well, let's start with the just make it popey the science,
but make it religious, right the papal pyrotechnics that we
have seen.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Of course, conclave lasted just a little more than twenty
four hours as the cardinals elected a successor to take
over for Pope Francis. We know, of course, that it
is going to be Pope Leo, the fourteenth cardinal, born
and raised in Chicago, of all places, spent a lot
of time in Peru, but he was announced this morning
(00:45):
right as the show started.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Bro, that's white smoke.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I can believe I said that.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Actually, I think, to be clear, I think it was
that's white smoke. Bro, we'll have to go back in take.
You said it was black smoke or you couldn't tell.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
I couldn't tell because.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
I and I clearly saw it white. And that's when
I had to emphatically say, that's white smoke. Bro.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
The sun was behind the chimney, so I didn't have
a good It's okay, bad lighting.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
That's bad lighting.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Sorry. When you're closer to God like this one right here,
you'll see the right.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Colors has already removed the scales from your eyes. Is
that what you're saying?
Speaker 2 (01:24):
So?
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Anyway, Pope Leo the fourteenth announced when the white smoke
came out of the chimney at the Sistine Chapel today,
but that was after at least three rounds of black smoke.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Black smoke it is the easiest to make. According to scientists.
It is a mix of potassium percolate, an anthracine, and sulfur.
In this reaction, the potassium percolate is the oxygen oxygen
rich oxidizer. That's a fun thing to say, a role
(01:56):
it frequently serves in fireworks. Actually, it's very safe. It
gives easily up to oxygen, and so it's a it's
a quick thing. Now, the white smoke more challenging. There's
a reason why they wait till the end.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Well, and think about what we've talked before about fires,
wildfires and you see black smoke, that usually is an
indication that it's active fire.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
I thought the symbolism was interesting because if.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
You get early on a fire, the smoke tends to
be black, as it's more active when it gets sprayed
down when it's less active.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
That's when the smoke turns gray and often white.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Black involves fuel, right exactly. So there you go. So
now you know the chemistry, you can wow all your
friends at cocktail hour. Hey, did you guys know how
they make that black smoke?
Speaker 3 (02:43):
The zinc chloride, the immuni ammonium chloride, of the reasons
why you see the the white smoke. They now have
a recipe that calls for potassium chlorate, lactose, just common sugar,
and a type a type of pine rosin sometimes known
as as Greek pitch, and then they throw that in
there and that's why the white comes out. This is
(03:06):
a fun story though, this one about there used to
be a show on TV. I think it was a
History channel that used to do this program called I
believe it's called After People or After Human Yeah, and
it was let's assume that something happened and humanity was
wiped out, not animals, not all animal life, but just humans.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
And it was a.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Show that would basically describe what would happen a month
after life on Earth without humans a year and ten
years and describe what how plants and animals would overtake
you know, major cities and things like that.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Where are we on that Soviet spacecraft that's hurtling towards
Earth and we don't know where it's going to land
and it weighs eleven pounds three two inches.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
I believe its Saturday is still the day there.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Saturday is the day.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Look up Cosmos two eighty four, I think is the
name of the spacecraft.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
They may have narrowed it down a little bit.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
As we get closer to it, they'll have a better uh,
because I haven't.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
They've been very quiet about it today, haven't they.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
You know what today? They have been quiet about it.
Maybe they know something that they're not telling us.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Maybe this we wouldn't get a new pope and then boom,
it's all over? Would we maybe may.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Be listen, it's not our design.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
It is not.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
One of the other big stories today came out of Washington,
d C. President Trump announced a trade agreement, a huge
trade deal with the United Kingdom. He wrote today on
Truth Social the agreement with the UK is a full
and comprehensive one that will cement the relationship between the
United States and the United Kingdom for many years to come.
They held a held a news conference there in the
Oval Office to make the announcement. He was flanked by
(04:52):
some British representatives but also the economic team that he's
been working with.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Somebody has put the pope speech as dubbed over the
Pope's speech like bad lip reading. Still can't believe the
Pope said this during his first speech. God bless you all,
except those for who live in Green Bay, Wisconsin. You
may have more Super Bowls, but f the packers so good.
(05:19):
I caught him so easily amused by NFL memes awful.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Organizers of the Golden Globes have came out with a
huge announcement. They're going to introduce a best Podcast category
starting next year for the eighty third Golden Globe Awards
Best Podcast.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
There's already podcast awards. To Keana's point that she made
on The Conway Show yesterday when they spoke about this.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Top twenty five podcasts is what they're going to choose
from and then make six nominations out of those twenty
five cool.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Uh. What you'd eat after the apocalypse if a global
catastrophe disrupted international trade and fuel supplies, what would our
survive hinge on? Get ready for this list? Are you
sitting down and are you on a toilet? The diet
(06:08):
would be of peas.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
Let me point out that they will not be using
toilets after the apocalypse.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Holes in the ground if you're lucky, water, if you've
dug it. If you've dug it, Yeah, peas, sugar beets, spinach,
and potatoes. Wow, my husband picks peas out of chow man.
That's how much he likes peas.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Well. He may be one of the first to go.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Then he will be. He will be one of the
first to go. They said of the crops that they studied.
Peas would require the least land area to provide the
protein and food energy needs of one person.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Peas would I love peas?
Speaker 2 (06:51):
I could eat peas all the time. I'm a big
peas fan.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
They're also talking about different kinds of apocalypse. Sees would
produce different results to this question, because, for example, a
pee would survive a catastrophe where the climate is similar
to today's.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
But not nuclear winter.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Not nuclear winter, no, that scenario.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Nuclear winter would be soot that's caused from these large
scale nuclear explosions to block sunlight and cool the planet.
Would shorten the growing season, lower the average temperature. And
in that case, they said, sugar beets and spinach would
take the lead, both of those hardy spinach.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
I gotta pay my spinach, you know what I mean.
I can't just eat raw spinach like a Popeye. I
gotta have some garlic, some olive oil, all the stuff
that the apocalypse has gotten rid of.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
And even Popeye's spinach most of the time was canned.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Might it be so pissed if the apocalypse comes and
I don't get wiped out?
Speaker 1 (07:47):
If you're stuck, Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Could you imagine just sitting there alone like the guy
in Twilight Zone with no glasses, all those books and peas,
But you wouldn't have the books.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Just outside the city, they say, they're talking about that
being the peas and the beat root. Sorry, the peas,
the beats and the spinach would be inner city stuff
where you've got like garden building, top gardens and rooftop
gardens and stuff like that. But they said, outside the city,
you could still use some of the industrial farming methods
(08:20):
that we have developed over the years if there's enough land,
et cetera, and you could probably get by with a
bunch of potatoes.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
That's the last time you saw a rooftop garden in
the city, Any city, Name a city, city, name a city,
any city. I saw him in Nashville, or did you? Yeah,
in people's homes.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Tops of apartment buildings and things like that. Wow, potatoes
can feed people using minimal land. They said they can
be sensitive to frost, but obviously that would be bad
if there was a nuclear winter.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
But did you ever see that?
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Did you ever see that documentary about Matt Damon When
he went to Mars, he was able to live on
potatoes for a long time before they rescue him and
brought him back so that he could make another born movie,
The Martian I think that's what they called it.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Yeah, because he was there for a while. He was
there for a year or two.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
But he grew potatoes and lived on potatoes for quite
a while until they caused him gastrointestay, did he talk.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
To the potatoes like Tom Hanks did in that documentary
about him and the volleyball?
Speaker 3 (09:20):
I believe so, Yeah, because Tom Hanks almost died in
that plane crash.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Tom Hanks almost died in several times. He almost got AIDS.
Remember when he almost got aids? Did he get the aids.
You think so, well, I don't know. He saw the
movie right, but he didn't die from the aids. He
was also a cowboy at one point. Remember when Jenny
(09:45):
left him and came back with AIDS and a child?
Speaker 1 (09:47):
I do? Do you remember that? Thanks for the spoiler alert.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
They also say researchers said that their methodology about food
after the apocalypse could help cities worldwide assess their food
security and try to develop land and land use policies
that will boost resilience in the event.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
At the end, Meg Ryan never tried to kill Tom Hanks.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
M Oh, that was Billy Crystal. She tried to what
I saw that movie with the orgasm? Is that what
she was doing?
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Okay? John Cobalt Show coming up next.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
You miss any part of our show, go back out
check out the podcast.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
You don't want to miss any part of this.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
You want to miss the part where Shannon goes, oh,
that's white smoke bro. That's white smoke bro.
That I don't know.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Yeah, it's time for strange science. God needs a break,
rang sience.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
It's like weird science but strange.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Well, let's start with the just make it popey the science,
but make it religious, right the papal pyrotechnics that we
have seen.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Of course, conclave lasted just a little more than twenty
four hours as the cardinals elected a successor to take
over for Pope Francis. We know, of course, that it
is going to be Pope Leo, the fourteenth cardinal, born
and raised in Chicago, of all places, spent a lot
of time in Peru, but he was announced this morning
(00:45):
right as the show started.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Bro, that's white smoke.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I can believe I said that.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Actually, I think, to be clear, I think it was
that's white smoke. Bro, we'll have to go back in take.
You said it was black smoke or you couldn't tell.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
I couldn't tell because.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
I and I clearly saw it white. And that's when
I had to emphatically say, that's white smoke. Bro.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
The sun was behind the chimney, so I didn't have
a good It's okay, bad lighting.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
That's bad lighting.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Sorry. When you're closer to God like this one right here,
you'll see the right.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Colors has already removed the scales from your eyes. Is
that what you're saying?
Speaker 2 (01:24):
So?
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Anyway, Pope Leo the fourteenth announced when the white smoke
came out of the chimney at the Sistine Chapel today,
but that was after at least three rounds of black smoke.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Black smoke it is the easiest to make. According to scientists.
It is a mix of potassium percolate, an anthracine, and sulfur.
In this reaction, the potassium percolate is the oxygen oxygen
rich oxidizer. That's a fun thing to say, a role
(01:56):
it frequently serves in fireworks. Actually, it's very safe. It
gives easily up to oxygen, and so it's a it's
a quick thing. Now, the white smoke more challenging. There's
a reason why they wait till the end.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Well, and think about what we've talked before about fires,
wildfires and you see black smoke, that usually is an
indication that it's active fire.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
I thought the symbolism was interesting because if.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
You get early on a fire, the smoke tends to
be black, as it's more active when it gets sprayed
down when it's less active.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
That's when the smoke turns gray and often white.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Black involves fuel, right exactly. So there you go. So
now you know the chemistry, you can wow all your
friends at cocktail hour. Hey, did you guys know how
they make that black smoke?
Speaker 3 (02:43):
The zinc chloride, the immuni ammonium chloride, of the reasons
why you see the the white smoke. They now have
a recipe that calls for potassium chlorate, lactose, just common sugar,
and a type a type of pine rosin sometimes known
as as Greek pitch, and then they throw that in
there and that's why the white comes out. This is
(03:06):
a fun story though, this one about there used to
be a show on TV. I think it was a
History channel that used to do this program called I
believe it's called After People or After Human Yeah, and
it was let's assume that something happened and humanity was
wiped out, not animals, not all animal life, but just humans.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
And it was a.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Show that would basically describe what would happen a month
after life on Earth without humans a year and ten
years and describe what how plants and animals would overtake
you know, major cities and things like that.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Where are we on that Soviet spacecraft that's hurtling towards
Earth and we don't know where it's going to land
and it weighs eleven pounds three two inches.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
I believe its Saturday is still the day there.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Saturday is the day.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Look up Cosmos two eighty four, I think is the
name of the spacecraft.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
They may have narrowed it down a little bit.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
As we get closer to it, they'll have a better uh,
because I haven't.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
They've been very quiet about it today, haven't they.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
You know what today? They have been quiet about it.
Maybe they know something that they're not telling us.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Maybe this we wouldn't get a new pope and then boom,
it's all over? Would we maybe may.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Be listen, it's not our design.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
It is not.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
One of the other big stories today came out of Washington,
d C. President Trump announced a trade agreement, a huge
trade deal with the United Kingdom. He wrote today on
Truth Social the agreement with the UK is a full
and comprehensive one that will cement the relationship between the
United States and the United Kingdom for many years to come.
They held a held a news conference there in the
Oval Office to make the announcement. He was flanked by
(04:52):
some British representatives but also the economic team that he's
been working with.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Somebody has put the pope speech as dubbed over the
Pope's speech like bad lip reading. Still can't believe the
Pope said this during his first speech. God bless you all,
except those for who live in Green Bay, Wisconsin. You
may have more Super Bowls, but f the packers so good.
(05:19):
I caught him so easily amused by NFL memes awful.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Organizers of the Golden Globes have came out with a
huge announcement. They're going to introduce a best Podcast category
starting next year for the eighty third Golden Globe Awards
Best Podcast.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
There's already podcast awards. To Keana's point that she made
on The Conway Show yesterday when they spoke about this.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Top twenty five podcasts is what they're going to choose
from and then make six nominations out of those twenty
five cool.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Uh. What you'd eat after the apocalypse if a global
catastrophe disrupted international trade and fuel supplies, what would our
survive hinge on? Get ready for this list? Are you
sitting down and are you on a toilet? The diet
(06:08):
would be of peas.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
Let me point out that they will not be using
toilets after the apocalypse.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Holes in the ground if you're lucky, water, if you've
dug it. If you've dug it, Yeah, peas, sugar beets, spinach,
and potatoes. Wow, my husband picks peas out of chow man.
That's how much he likes peas.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Well. He may be one of the first to go.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Then he will be. He will be one of the
first to go. They said of the crops that they studied.
Peas would require the least land area to provide the
protein and food energy needs of one person.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Peas would I love peas?
Speaker 2 (06:51):
I could eat peas all the time. I'm a big
peas fan.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
They're also talking about different kinds of apocalypse. Sees would
produce different results to this question, because, for example, a
pee would survive a catastrophe where the climate is similar
to today's.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
But not nuclear winter.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Not nuclear winter, no, that scenario.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Nuclear winter would be soot that's caused from these large
scale nuclear explosions to block sunlight and cool the planet.
Would shorten the growing season, lower the average temperature. And
in that case, they said, sugar beets and spinach would
take the lead, both of those hardy spinach.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
I gotta pay my spinach, you know what I mean.
I can't just eat raw spinach like a Popeye. I
gotta have some garlic, some olive oil, all the stuff
that the apocalypse has gotten rid of.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
And even Popeye's spinach most of the time was canned.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Might it be so pissed if the apocalypse comes and
I don't get wiped out?
Speaker 1 (07:47):
If you're stuck, Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Could you imagine just sitting there alone like the guy
in Twilight Zone with no glasses, all those books and peas,
But you wouldn't have the books.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Just outside the city, they say, they're talking about that
being the peas and the beat root. Sorry, the peas,
the beats and the spinach would be inner city stuff
where you've got like garden building, top gardens and rooftop
gardens and stuff like that. But they said, outside the city,
you could still use some of the industrial farming methods
(08:20):
that we have developed over the years if there's enough land,
et cetera, and you could probably get by with a
bunch of potatoes.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
That's the last time you saw a rooftop garden in
the city, Any city, Name a city, city, name a city,
any city. I saw him in Nashville, or did you? Yeah,
in people's homes.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Tops of apartment buildings and things like that. Wow, potatoes
can feed people using minimal land. They said they can
be sensitive to frost, but obviously that would be bad
if there was a nuclear winter.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
But did you ever see that?
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Did you ever see that documentary about Matt Damon When
he went to Mars, he was able to live on
potatoes for a long time before they rescue him and
brought him back so that he could make another born movie,
The Martian I think that's what they called it.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Yeah, because he was there for a while. He was
there for a year or two.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
But he grew potatoes and lived on potatoes for quite
a while until they caused him gastrointestay, did he talk.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
To the potatoes like Tom Hanks did in that documentary
about him and the volleyball?
Speaker 3 (09:20):
I believe so, Yeah, because Tom Hanks almost died in
that plane crash.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Tom Hanks almost died in several times. He almost got AIDS.
Remember when he almost got aids? Did he get the aids.
You think so, well, I don't know. He saw the
movie right, but he didn't die from the aids. He
was also a cowboy at one point. Remember when Jenny
(09:45):
left him and came back with AIDS and a child?
Speaker 1 (09:47):
I do? Do you remember that? Thanks for the spoiler alert.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
They also say researchers said that their methodology about food
after the apocalypse could help cities worldwide assess their food
security and try to develop land and land use policies
that will boost resilience in the event.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
At the end, Meg Ryan never tried to kill Tom Hanks.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
M Oh, that was Billy Crystal. She tried to what
I saw that movie with the orgasm? Is that what
she was doing?
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Okay? John Cobalt Show coming up next.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
You miss any part of our show, go back out
check out the podcast.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
You don't want to miss any part of this.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
You want to miss the part where Shannon goes, oh,
that's white smoke bro. That's white smoke bro.
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