Dear Hank & John - 153: Perfectly Normal Art Projects (w/ Sarah Urist Green!)

Episode Date: September 3, 2018

Can I use being an artist as an excuse for being weird? How do museum benches work? What is the best advice a parent can give their child? And more! Email us: [e-mail] patreon.com/dearhankandjohn Thank you to Audible for sponsoring this episode! Audible is offering listeners a free audiobook with a 30-day trial membership. Go to audible.com/dearhank or audible.com/dearjohn, or text “dearhank" or "dearjohn” to 500-500 to get started today.

Hello and welcome to Dear Hank and John. Or as I like to call it Dear Sarah and John. It's a podcast where we answer your questions, provide you with dubious advice and bring you all the week's news from both Mars and AFC Wimbledon Hank is currently in Australia so I am joined today by my lovely co-host, Sarah Uris Green. Co-host in life. Yes, co-host in life and in podcasts. Sarah, do you have a dad joke for us?

I sure do. Uh, John, what did the ducks say when he walked into a pharmacy? Did he say quack? He said, give me some chapstick and put it on my bill. Oh, God. That's good. In our family, you really are the person who delivers the most puns. I do, I do, but not regularly. I grew up with too many puns, so I try to avoid them.

Well Sarah, my opening bit is to share a piece of good news of some kind. I do listen to the podcast every once in a while. No, it's fine. I'm willing to introduce you to each of the bits as needed. I came up with a joke, man. I was ready. You were super prepared and I appreciate it. This week in Good News, Liverpool Football Club, the non-third tier English soccer team that I follow, has not given up a single goal all season long.

Sarah, nine points from three games, a plus seven goal differential, and for the first time in living memory, a stout defense. That is good news, but I feel like it's not really universally good news for all of mankind. You know it's even better. Human kind. You know it's even better universally good news. Manchester United only have three points after three games.

All right, let's move on to some questions from our listeners. Okay, I will bring us the first question. Dear Hank and John, this question is actually not for either of you, but instead for John's wife Sarah, because I believe she's a museum orchestrator or something like that. Anyhow, I have a question about benches in museums. How did they work? Do they just put them where there's an empty spot? Or are they placed near in the direction of artworks that people will spend more time around?

We might be fictive, Viv. This is a great question, and I have been in my life a museum curator. Although I prefer the term orchestrator. It feels like I would have more control, though, as an orchestrator. A curator is charged with managing and arranging and presenting the collection. And you know, you think that there'd be a lot of thought put into where the benches are, but I don't think it's that strategic actually. There are a lot of places you can't put a bench because people run into them. And you also don't want to put a bench in a gallery where there's a lot of sculptures sitting on the ground because people can get confused about what you can sit on and what you can't. So that's another part of it. But yeah, you might put a bench in front

of a painting that rewards longer periods of looking that people might not stop and take a while with. But if you put a bench there, maybe they'll stay in the look by accident just because they want somewhere to sit. They generally in a museum, if there's a master piece, they will put a bench in front of it because people want to sit and stay and look at it for a long time.

One of my all-time favorite art projects, this artist named Yeppahine made benches that went into art museums, but they sensed when a person was approaching and ran away. No, well, that's actually not quite accurate, but he did make moving benches that sensed when they were sad upon and then they'd very slowly start moving.

So you might not notice it, but you're sort of shifting of foot or two to one direction over the course of a minute. In that case, Sarah, I have a great idea for an art project for someone else, which is to make a bench that runs away from the people who want to sit on it. He also made a bench in a park or actually he made a proposal for a bench in a park that was near a lake and when somebody would sit on the bench, a fountain would arise from the lake. So your act of sitting activated the fountain? What have been great, huh? Yeah, no, it's good. All, Sarah, we've got another question.

This one comes from Katie, who writes, Dear John and Hank, in May, I graduated from college where I had two majors, one of which was art. I had to do many strange things during my time as an art student, but I found that if I ever got stopped by campus security for stealing ivy from the side of the building or got weird looks from the building staff as I carried a life-size alligator sculpture down the hallway, I could always tell them that I am an artist, and all my strangeness

would be forgiven. I wanted to know, can I still use this excuse to get away with being weird and non-art-related circumstances? If not, some dubious alternative excuses would be appreciated. You want me to start? Ideally. Making art and being an artist is such a wonderful excuse for getting away with weird stuff. And I fully think that if you've ever been an artist or consider yourself an art maker in any way, you can use that excuse confidently,

not that you're making art. I'm an artist. Just that statement can excuse you from myriad odd behaviors. Yeah, yeah, I've actually used this excuse. One time I was in a building that I technically shouldn't have been in and a security guard approached and told me in rather terse language that I didn't belong there. And I was like, oh, no, no, no, I'm doing an art project. And the security guard was like, what's the project? And then I was in a pickle.

So I said, um, I draw circles in dust, and then I take pictures of it over a long period of time to see when the circle becomes dust again. See, I think that's great. You've got to be prepared, though. If you're going to go out there and say it's for an art project, you have to anticipate that question, whether or not it comes, so that you can answer it confidently.

This happens all the time when people are responding to the art assignments that we issue through my PBS web series, The Art Assignment. Someone responded to this challenge to become someone else by changing one thing about you and then going on to the world that way. this one person took off their shoes and just walked down the street barefoot, just a city sidewalk filled with people. And you know, it's got to be really uncomfortable, but the whole time that person was fully prepared to say, this is for an art project. So yes, being an artist is totally an excuse for eccentric behavior, but don't harm other people.

And actually don't trespass, even though I was trespassing. Do as I say not as I do. This next question comes from Sarah, not my wife, a different one who writes, dear John and Hank, when do I tell someone they've already told me a certain story before? Actually, maybe this is for my wife. One of my good friends, aka my spouse, is sometimes completely frustrating to talk to because he tells me the same stories over and over again. Even if I mention politely with a small laugh, oh yeah no you've told me that one before.

He just keeps going and tells it again. Should I just let him tell it even though I'm sick of the story? Should I try and change the topic when I see the story starting? Should I just not talk to this person anymore? There's two parts to this answer. Really, first, you must know that John retails stories all the time. And as his life partner, when we're in social situations, I know when it's happening, we'll be, we got together with some neighbors,

and you started telling a story, one of your classics, and I knew, I knew they'd heard it before. But what did you interrupt me? I didn't in that scenario, but sometimes you can do it. Usually I'll be like, oh, he's probably told you that one before. And then you'll respond by maybe making it brief

so that they don't have to be embarrassed and say that, oh yes, we remember. But for this thing, this person sounds pretty odd to not get the hint. Like if you're telling a story and someone goes, oh yeah, I remember, most people stop. Yeah, but I mean, once you're starting to tell a story, Sarah, you've got this momentum. And it's hard to stop the momentum all at once just because, once you're starting to tell a story, Sarah, you've got this momentum

and it's hard to stop the momentum all at once just because the person you're telling the story to happens to have heard it 500 times before. I can kind of get where this person's coming from, but the thing is, ostensibly, you started telling the story because you are in a conversation and that conversation ostensibly has two equal partners or more if you're in a larger group. And so you told the story to make a point. So when you start telling the story and someone says, yeah, no, we've heard that one before, you just skip straight to the point.

Right. You say, I bring it up because, but I have a proposal. What if the next time it happens, you jump in and say, let me try to tell it this time. Oh, that's good. I think in short, you cannot let this person get away with it. They must know, this is not appropriate behavior. Yeah, it's probably one of those things that you need to tell them and kind of teach them.

I know that when I was younger, I had friends who actively taught me how to engage socially with other people people and I found it super helpful. And I'm sure they felt awkward being like, John, you're standing way too close, but it was actually really helpful for me to understand that I was standing too close to people. So I wouldn't be afraid to bring it up, although obviously be generous in doing so. That said, Sarah, can I tell you the story of how I became the boxing reviewer at Booklist magazine? Okay, our next question comes from Rebecca. Hey, pals, I eat eggs every morning for breakfast and I've been saving the of how I became the boxing reviewer at Booklist Magazine. Okay, our next question comes from Rebecca.

Hey, pals, I eat eggs every morning for breakfast, and I've been saving the cartons for a long time. What should I do with them? They're currently stacked on top of my fridge, as shown in the picture below. Okay, so you can't see this picture, but I can describe it to you. It's a refrigerator, pretty standard,

and there's a lot of magnets on front. And then on top, as a very large almost to the ceiling stack of, I believe, there's styrofoam egg carton containers. I would estimate that there are 1200 egg carton containers on top of this person's refrigerator. I think that's inaccurate. However, it is impressive. So here's my recommendation. I think you already have a pretty good thing happening there. I think you have a curiosity in your kitchen.

If you entertain, I'm sure people ask you about it. What I would do is kind of use the refrigerator more as a pedestal appropriate to an artwork by clearing away the other business around it. Not sure what that is, but I think if you cleaned up around it and treated it like it's already an artwork, that would do the trick. John, what do you think? I think this is at minimum 600 styrofoam egg containers. I just did a quick count of what 10 of them look like. I'm zoomed way in. And I think it's at least 400, it could be 600,

it could be 1200. This person has a lot of egg cartons on top of their fridge. I love the idea of turning it into a sculpture. I think it already is a sculpture. It's just not yet properly displayed. Well, you could move it. I would keep it as it is. I think it was formed naturally. It's somewhere convenient for you to continue to add to and you need to keep adding to it, obviously. So you could move it to an adjacent room, maybe to the living room if you have a spot on a table.

But I think it needs to be here. You just need to clean up around it. Eventually, Rebecca, you may find yourself in a situation where you need a, you know, a kind of whole room to devote to this sculpture, or at that point, it stops being a sculpture, it really becomes a project. Like, I've kept every egg garden from every egg I've ever eaten. I think it becomes less a project and more a problem. Okay, so we have a question from 14-year-old Mia who writes, Dear John and Hank, I enjoy being out of the house and doing things. However, most of the things I like to do, such as swimming at the lake

or visiting my local deli or going to the park are only enjoyable when I do them with friends. Otherwise, I feel depressed and almost pathetic. The problem with this, as I'm sure you've already figured out, is that my friends cannot always be there. What are some things I can do by myself while I'm out of the house? I really like this question and it takes me back to a different period in my life where I had some lonely times because I'm never alone now when you have children, any work, you're never alone anymore, which has its positives and negatives, but I vividly remember as a younger person spending much more time by myself. And I had a lot of social anxiety when I would go out and do things and be sort of acutely aware of everything I was doing

as if everyone was watching me. So like part of it is just trying to become more comfortable being by yourself, I think. Like you can still go to the park and sit on a blanket and read and bring some snacks and enjoy yourself. So part of it I think is just enjoying what you're already trying to do or what you want to do. Obviously you can't like play ping pong by yourself for something like that.

You can actually stand as. Oh really? Yeah, he has a little machine that distributes the ping pong balls to him in a randomized fashion. Stand has gotten so good at ping pong. We got a ping pong table at the office and everybody was about as good as everybody else, which is what made ping pong fun, and then stand started taking classes. Stand in Mark started taking classes from a professional instructor, and now it's not fun at all. They just slam it every time. They shot way far out ahead of all of us.

But I think the other approach to this is to go do an activity where you're with other people, but it's not like a blind date kind of situation where maybe you join a co-ed ping pong league. Yeah, I'm going to make a slightly different recommendation than joining a co-ed ping pong league. Yeah, I'm gonna make a slightly different recommendation than joining a co-ed ping pong league, although I'm sure there are great ones out there, which is to go to YouTube and search how to be alone

and watch one of my all time favorite YouTube videos. And it really is a beautiful introduction into how to be alone. It's such an important skill in life. I think that it takes some time. You don't start out being good at being alone, but you can get good at it, and it really dramatically increases your sense of self-sufficiency and your awareness that in any given moment you can be okay. So I would really go, we'll actually post it to the Patreon at patreon.com slash to your hangar-john.

You don't have to donate or anything to see the Patreon. Also we'll post the refrigerator and the egg carton sculpture. One other thing that you can very easily do by yourself is go see art. Actually you can go to museums. That's something where I prefer to be alone. You can go your own pace. I mean I do like going to museums with you, John. John, listen, they looked very offended. No, it's fine. I like going to museums alone too, actually.

There is something really wonderful about it because you are your own boss when you're in a museum by yourself. When you're with a person, you always have to be conscious of where they are in relationship to you. Right. You look at they like, really fast and I really slow? Or are they reading all the labels? You can do whatever you want. Okay, this next one comes from Kate, dear Hank and John, what do you think is the most important advice a parent can ever give their kids for future parents, of course?

Is it not to lick their knives? Because I still do that and have never cut my tongue. Any dubious advice for little kids is what I ask for. Is it fate? No, it's Kate. No, that's a good name, specific sign off Kate. I think the most important piece of advice I have given my children is eat your food. Your parents have worked hard to provide you with this food eat it.

Does that work for you, John? No, it is not effective. But, who do I like pizza? Like, who, who do you, how do you put pizza in front of a person? And they think like, pizza, I don't know. There's a lot of sauce. Sorry, what was the question? Okay, the first thing that I thought of was wipe from front to back.

Great advice and tremendously important. Kate, we are at a point in our lives with our children where most of the advice is fairly straightforward. Yeah, but what you need to focus on, I think, is telling them things that aren't obvious. Like most things they need to figure out for themselves. Like, like, looking at you, for example, you learn that on your own. So I think the wipe from front to back

because of its involving bacteria and invisible forces that is relevant. But for the most part, I think they got to figure it out for themselves. Yeah, I mean, in the end all you can give your kids is a set of values, hopefully, and a fairly stable childhood, hopefully. Alright, Sarah, we got another parenting question. This one is much harder though. Dear John and Hank, I did a 21-day Nulls course in the Wind River Range in Wyoming this summer. My boyfriend sent me letters to be received at the end of my trip, and they were very sweet and had personal

information in them. I've been home for a while and found out that my parents read these letters. I'm questioning a lot now. Have my parents been going through other stuff of mine? I'm wondering what you would do in this situation. Thanks, Maya. Maya, you got to be more careful with your letters. I mean, I remember I used to hide things. I would hide them in like a jacket pocket in the back of my closet. I had a lock box. It was a little

extreme, but I don't think you can trust anyone you live with to not look at juicy materials such as letters from boyfriends. I do not plan on reading our kids personal mail. However, you just, you've got to, you've got to protect yourself here. I do not agree. I think that, with Maya, it seems to me there are two possibilities. One possibility is that your parents did something they really, really should not have done. Because it is not my as fault that she was in the wilderness for 21 days while her boyfriend was sending her mail There's no way that she can lock it up when it's coming into a mailbox. Oh I'm I see it now. Yes. This is a gross violation. Okay. Thank you. I'm glad that we came to the same place The other possibility is that your parents have serious concerns about your welfare, that they feel are justified and that justify this violation of your privacy, that you might

hurt someone else, that you might hurt yourself. If that's the case, then that's why they did it. It's still not great, in my opinion. Right, my, I apologize for my earlier advice. I did not. No, do lock up your letters. Do lock up your letters if you have already received them. But in this scenario, I think you have to talk to your parents

about it. Hopefully you already have beyond just your blind fury upon discovering that they had already read them. I think you can ask them why they read them and say that you feel disrespected and that you would hope that they don't do that again. Yeah, it's a tough one. And luck, luck them up. You got to lock it up.

I also hid letters as well as cigarettes in a jacket pocket in the back of my closet when I was in high school. Maybe it's not such a secret spot after all. Well, in my case, it certainly wasn't because one time my mom came downstairs after being in my room and she said, just so you know, you're out of cigarettes.

Ha ha ha ha. Great, Sydney're out of cigarettes. Great Sydney. Brutal. Nice work. And I was just like what huh what do you I don't smoke. I really don't know. I quit many years ago. Actually when Sara and I first started dating I was still using the Nicaret. Yes and he's probably gonna bring up a story that you've already heard before about said Nicaret. You know, I quit sm- I'm sure. Sarah, do you know I quit you in Nicaret?

I do. So my boss hit book was trying to- No, no, no, no, no, no, no. All right. No. Alright. And that's how you stop. A story you've already heard before from happening. That's right. That's what you just need to be like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Okay, our next question comes from Carrie. I am a Sunday school teacher in Texas, and many parents want their kids to show respect by using titles with names. I don't want to be Miss Carrie. It sounds too much like Miss Carrie. The substitution of Miss C does not work for me because it sounds like Missy. Going by my last name is too formal, and Miss doesn't really make any of that better. Do you have thoughts on how to handle this?

I really wish this wasn't a thing. I'm fine with kids calling me Carrie. It is my name, but I want to respect their parents' wishes. Carrie on? Carrie off. This is actually a tough one. I cannot think of a solution. Yeah, the only solution I thought, well, I had to. The first one is to have them call you by complete first and last name, which is admittedly very weird, but it is an option like Carrie McGillicuddy, who is Jesus? I don't like that solution at all. The other solution in my mind is just to have them call you carry. And I know you want to respect their parents' wishes, but I think this is your classroom and you make that call. Have you considered Madam Wasill? I'm not sure that works, but good luck to you, Cari.

The other thing that you could do, of course, is just start going by misses. And when people say, like, where's your spouse? You can be like, oh, no, it's not like that. Okay, Sarah, we couldn't find our way through that one, but maybe we can find our way through this one. This question comes from Anders, who writes, dear John and Hank, recently I was writing a sentence

as one occasionally does, and it contained the phrase a once over. This is an issue because O is a vowel, unless I've been lied to my entire life, and that should mean that a once over should be an once over, right? I'm desperately in need of your highly academic and articulate explanations, alive until I'm not...anders. Okay, so I feel like this question would be better directed toward a linguist of some

sort than us. However... Sarah, if we only answered questions that we were qualified to answer, this podcast would have ended years ago. Oh, I forgot. I forgot, sorry. I am admittedly not a ago. Oh, I forgot. I forgot. Sorry. I am admittedly not a linguist, but I do think I know the answer to this question, which is that once, while it begins with an O in the alphabet, actually begins with the sound

WAH, which is a consonant sound, so we say, uh, once over. Just as ubiquitous begins with a U, but actually begins with a YAH, which is more of a consonant sound. So we say, A ubiquitous, I can't use words and sentences. Which reminds me that today's podcast is brought to you by ubiquity. Ubiquity. I think it means like, uh, real common. This podcast is also brought to you by a life-size alligator sculpture you're carrying down the hallway under the guise of being an artist. What? I'm an artist.

And today's podcast is additionally brought to you by at least 400 egg cartons, at least 400 egg cartons. That's thousands of eggs. And lastly, this podcast is brought to you by your local co-ed ping pong league. Okay, our next question comes from Cassie. Dear John and Hank, I am a generally shy and quiet person and haven't lived in my city very long. My birthday is coming up and something I would like to do is have a coffee and chat with a person who is a new friend of mine but who I don't know very well.

I feel this would be a nice birthday activity for me. The difficulty is I don't want my new friend to feel weird that I'm asking to spend birthday time with them. They might feel that this overst my new friend to feel weird that I'm asking to spend birthday time with them. They might feel that this overstates the friendship or feel bad that I don't have other better friends to hang out with. I don't think my friend is aware of my birthday, but they could find out through Facebook. Can I ask my friend for coffee and chats on my birthday, or should I stay quietly indoors and wait for another day?

Manors and planners, Cassie. Oh, I think you should totally ask this person out for coffee on your birthday. For sure, 100%. And I think you can even say, look, you know, I'm new in this city. I don't have a lot of friends. I don't want this to be weird. It doesn't have to be an over-the-top birthday extravaganza. But really all I'd like is to go out for coffee. Yeah. Everybody has friends they like more than they see. Cassie, and I think that this is a friend you like more than you see, and I bet that you are a friend that they like more than they see.

So, they'll probably be psyched and kind of honored. At least, that would be the hope. And if they're not, forget them. Yeah, exactly. I think you can even, if you want to sort of mitigate the awkwardness at all, you could say, look, it's my birthday coming up. And I've got a whole bunch of things I want to do. I want to go see this movie. I'm going to go buy this bakery and get a fat slice of cake for myself. And I'd also love to have coffee with you. Are you available?

Mm. I think you're over complicating it. Just say I want to have coffee. John's probably right. All right, all right, Sarah. Before we get to the all-important news from Mars and AFC Wimbledon, I do hope you have prepared some Mars news. I have. Oh, that's exciting. Did they find that rover?

Wait, don't spoil it. First let's answer this question from Randy, who writes, dear John and Hank, how can I tell if I'm chewing my snack too loudly? I work in a relatively quiet office, and every time I'm munching on my 1.30pm snack, it feels like my chewing is the loudest thing in the room. I try to chew slowly, but somehow it feels like that just draws out the sound. Should I chew rapidly at a higher decibel level, or slowly and more quietly, but for a longer

period of time? Do I need to invest in quiet or snacks that I just come up with Hank's new business venture? I'd rather eat Randy. So Randy, could you perhaps go outside to have your snack if you're feeling a little self-conscious about your noise level? I think that's one option.

Yeah, if you've got the kind of workplace where they let you outside for 15 minutes to enjoy a snack, I was picturing some kind of like high-stress work environment where everybody's going hard all the time and Randy's just like trying to get a Cheeto when he has a chance. No, it sounds like a very quiet work environment where somebody is really gonna notice eating Cheetos at 130. So what I would do in this situation probably is right before I open the bag of Cheetos, I would just announce Hey guys, it's me Randy. It's 1.30 p.m. I think we all know what time it is. I don't have a very good Cheeto chew egg noise This does remind me of one of my favorite children's books that our children have called Violet and Winston Oh, such a good book. There is a story within it called the noisy eater and Violet and Winston. Oh, such a good talk.

There is a story within it called the noisy eater, and Violet and Winston are having a picnic, and he's eating his food extremely loudly, and Violet can't take it anymore, and says, please save me. You can't eat that peanut brittle so loudly. And he says, sure, I was almost done anyway. You should have told me.

And then he falls asleep and starts snoring very loudly. Violet in Winston is an adorable book. Randy, I think that you're probably worrying about this too much. I think this is probably not a big issue. I think probably most people in the office never think about you and your snacking. Sarah is shaking her head now.

I don't think that's the case. Randy, I think they can hear you're crunching. If you can hear you're crunching that loudly and I think you should either invest in quieter snacks or you could ask them. Randy, I think that you are probably concerned about something that is not a concern and that you are worrying about something that none of your co-workers ever think about and that you never hear the sound of them chewing their snacks because you're not living inside of their bodies. So I think you're okay. If somebody comes up to you and they're like,

hey, Randy, quick question, Violet and Winston-style, and they're like, hey, Randy, is there any way you could chew those Cheetos louder? Then you've got an issue. But until then, I think you're good. Or if you really want some dubious advice, you can leave an anonymous questionnaire for everyone in your office. Right. Is there a whiteboard somewhere where there's like a lot of physics problems and you can

just circle the question, can you hear Randy's cheetahs? No, I don't think it should be handwritten because that would probably out Randy. Great point. I was the question asker. Send out a survey monkey. Yes, exactly. All right, Sarah. It is time for the all-important news from Mars and AFC Wimbledon.

I will go first because I have terrible news. Oh, no. It's very... The thing about AFC Wimbbleton this season, Sarah, and you know this because I've talked to you repeatedly about it, despite the fact that I think four games into the season, you've probably heard enough AFC Wimbleton talk for the entire season. The thing about Wimbleton this season is that they're playing great. The passing is so crisp and clean. There is a little bit lacking in the final third, but they're playing really well. It's just that lately they are not getting the results that they deserve. It's been so frustrating.

AFC Wimbledon played West Ham in the Carrebow Comp West Ham is a premier league side. Wimbledon scored in the first minute a Joe Piguet beautiful header on a corner kick, and it looked like maybe they were gonna find a way, but then they got a red card, which I think was from a dive, but that's neither here nor there. They ended up losing 3-1. Also, Wimbledon lost to Sunderland 2-1, even though the referee missed an obvious penalty and red card.

Absolutely no ambiguity about it. And Wimbledon lost three-one to Walsall as I talked about last week. So three losses on the trot, but three games where we played really well. So just frustrating. I'm sorry to hear that, John. That sounded as sincere as you usually sound when I talk about AFC Wimbledon. I do believe in AFC Wimbledon. I do like them. Yes, I will say that.

You believe in them. I don't know that you need to follow the week-to-week results with the level of passion that I have. I think you have enough passion for the family. It's awesome. I love it. What's the news from Mars? OK, so today I bring you news from the Mars Corporation.

I think you might do it you want to do that again? No, keep going, it's amazing. Okay, so you know them as the $35 billion global business empire. They're based in McLean, Virginia. Their products include, of course, candies like Snickers and Skittles and of course Mars bars. But also Altoids. I didn't know that. And Uncle Ben's Rice and Tasty Bite, the big thing I discovered was they are in the veterinary care business. Also, they own VCA animal clinics. And also 20% of the US market for pet food with brands like Iams, Yukonuba, and Wiskas. Really? They do. And there's usually very little news

from Mars Corporation because they've long been silent and private about their inner goings on. But recently they've opened up a little bit and they're still run by a member of the Mars family, Steven Badger, great grandson of founder Frank Mars and he's currently the chairman of the board. Anyway, so now that they're being more open, they're sharing their goals for the corporation, and they have pledged to reduce sodium by an average of 20% in their product lines by 2021,

and they want to ensure all new US products meet added sugar guidelines and are appropriately labeled. And also the biggest news from the Mars Corporation is that they have cut carbon emissions from their 150 factories worldwide by 67%. And you'll also like to hear that all of its M&M production is powered by renewable energy. So I learned a lot about the Mars Corporation today, and I don't know that I'm better for knowing it, but it is some new knowledge that I have that I am now sharing. The biggest surprise for me, I have to say, is that the Mars Corporation is named for a person who had the last name Mars, not for the planet.

Indeed. Well, congratulations to Frank Mars and his great grandson, Mr. Badger. Is that correct? Steven Badger. As in the animal? Yes. B-A-D-G-E-R. Well, that's wonderful.

I am, as you know, Sarah, a long time fan of their brands, mostly the human food brands. Sarah, thank you so much for potting with me. It was really fun. Thank you for having me. I loved it. And thanks to everybody for listening. Hank will be back next week, although I have to say, Sarah, that was such a joy. I would love to make stuff with you more regularly.

This podcast is edited by the ubiquitous Nick Jenkins, our head of community and communications as Victoria Bonzorno. The podcast is produced by Rosiana Halsey-Rosan-Charredin, gives in the music that you're listening to right now, and at the beginning of the pod is by the great Gunerola. Thanks again for listening, and as they say in our hometown, don't forget to be awesome. you