Dear Hank & John - 192: Raised on a Yacht (w/ Vanessa Hill of BrainCraft!)

Episode Date: June 3, 2019

Vanessa Hill of BrainCraft joins Hank to answer your questions! Has it ever not been raining? Can I change my major if I have a scholarship? Should there be compulsory voting? How do I learn to ride a bike? What is tipping etiquette in the US? When is it my turn to watch TV? Can I take a blanket covered with pictures of me to college? Will the US claim Mars as a state? How does boxed mac and cheese work? For more Vanessa, check out youtube.com/braincraft! If you're in need of dubious advice, email us at [e-mail]. Join us for monthly livestreams and an exclusive weekly podcast at patreon.com/dearhankandjohn. Follow us on Twitter! twitter.com/dearhankandjohn

Hello and welcome to Dear Hank at John. Oh, dear Vanessa and Hank is how I'd like to think about it. That's very good. It's a comedy podcast where two brothers and sometimes one brother and a guest answer your questions, give you a new advice, bring you all the week's news from both Mars and AFC Wimbledon, Vanessa. It was recently at the DFTBA warehouse and it kept howling at the moon

and it was so distracting. And then I realized that it's a warehouse. Oh no. I was like, where is he going with this? I'm glad that I sold it well enough for you to understand that the, I'm sure that like 10% of people out there were like, I still don't know. What is DFTBA? It's our merchandise company. Do we sell your products?

Some things, yeah, very nice hat. Oh good. Well go to dftba.com and find a braincraft hat. Then what do you do for a living? I like yourself and the YouTuber. I have a channel called Braincraft. It's all about psychology and the science of you. I have made a little pivot this year into scientific personal development, let's say. So things like how you can stop overthinking when you shouldn't say, sorry, how to construct the perfect apology

or kinds of fun things like that. It sounds like you might be good at giving advice. You know what? We'll see. I don't wanna to over sell myself. That's a very Australian thing is just to keep quiet about one's own abilities. But it is one thing to read through scientific papers

in the right video scripts and another thing to dish out advice to real people. I'll tell you what. The thing that I have learned about giving advice to real people is that if I actually think about like what would be the best advice for this person, I'm completely unable to speak at all because of course I don't know the details of your situation. You have more questions from their questions. Yes, we need to do a session, them and me, because I'm perfectly, you know, trained and certified to do that kind of work.

Well, in one way that's the beauty of this kind of advice is that you can give advice and you just have no idea what happens after that. That's true. So you can just assume. We occasionally get follow ups. Having an optimism bias, you can just assume that everything went great.

I'm sure that we've never led anyone astray. Do you want to answer some questions? I'm ready. From our listeners. This first one is from Lauren who asks, Dear Hank and Vanessa, has there ever been a time when it isn't raining? This isn't really advice, I'm sorry.

It gave you false information when I told you was an advice podcast. Is there any time when it isn't raining or precipitating in some form in any part of the world or is it constantly raining at least a little bit somewhere? Now that I've known this a zero area of expertise. I, you, you're aware that I'm a paleoclimatologist. Are you?

Is that a word I just kind of made that up? I'm pretty sure that- It's like it's a thing. I think that is somebody who studies the climate of the past. Yes. Because, did it range during the ice age? It's just a follow- up question that I have. Well, yes.

Lauren says or precipitate in some form. Right, right. But was it icy enough that it didn't rain anywhere? I think there was still probably rain parts. There was a period of time in the distant past called the snowball Earth. That was like not just an ice age. This was like way, way, way long ago, like more than a billion years. But how much more?

Don't ask me. I haven't Googled it when the entire earth was covered in ice. And it was like a big deal. It was a problem for the life at the time, which I think there was some of. Was it hard? I saw was it soft powdery snow? I'm just wondering what kind of snowball we're dealing with. Well, I think that soft powdery snow eventually turns into hard ice.

If you give it enough time. Right. If you... Under the right condition. You're being from Australia, you wouldn't know. It's not as though the Zulem antenna. It's not as if you place it. It's snow sometimes in the midi-ally melts.

When it snows and then stays, you've noticed that snow, like, is so beautiful on day one, and then a week later, you just live in sharp land where everything is pokey and softwares. Snobal Earth just turns into sharp land for a while. Yeah, it becomes, well that's how glaciers get made. It snows and then over time the snow just sort of sticks to itself and then becomes a giant big ice rock. That's blue.

Beautiful ice rock, gorgeous ice rocks. It's definitely raining at some point on the Earth at all times. There's probably a very, very small probability that it's not. If you like, go to first principles, I don't know if there's a reason why it must be raining at all times. I think it's just that the chance is so small. It's like the odds that all of the air in this room would collect in one corner and we'd die. Right now. Yeah. Well, it's something that my chemistry professor told me was possible. But again, I haven't Googled it. It would have been warmer around the equator, right? Right. So it probably still would have had some kind of rain around the equator. Yeah. And there is also a place where it

rains. There's like a thunderstorm that like never ends in South America. There's this very weird geographical feature and it's this giant lagoon where like warm winds from the Caribbean blow in all the time and like hit this V-shaped mountain and there's just a thunderstorm that never stops. It does sometimes stop during the winter or something, but like just that one place.

So that quiet forcefully, a've found a storm that never stops. Except for like a hundred days a year. Just quite a few days. That's a lot. Yeah, it's like a third of the year. Yeah. But it's good, and you can hear about it on my podcast, Earthbones,

where I just, That's not a real podcast. That's not. For a moment, I was like, Well, Hank does like 30 things. So perhaps the eons have all a podcast called Earthboats. Yeah, Earthboats is my podcast where I just look at Google Earth and I'm like, wow, that's cool.

But it's really boring to listen to because you can't see what I'm looking at. Some people listening here might disagree. I feel like we handled Lauren's question with a plum. And so we're going to move on to this one, which is from Emily and is actually advice. I'm ready. Dear Hank and Vanessa, I will be attending

a very expensive private university in the fall. So, yes. Congratulations, Emily. Congratulations, this sounds terrible. Thankfully, I received a lot of scholarships and got all of my tuition covered, but my scholarships are dependent on my major. What do I do if I decide to change my major?

The idea of being stuck with one major seems like too big of a life choice when I'm so young. What if I now like music, but in a month, I fall in love with juggling and decide to be a clown, or psychology, a future clown psychologist, Emily. Emily, it sounds like you're a music major. It sounds like you've worked hard to get good at a music thing of some instrument. Yes. Well, possibly. Yes. You could just be very thoughtful about music, I guess. Music theory?

Yeah. I've never played an instrument, but I think about it a great deal. I love writing sheet music. Yeah. Just write it down. I don't want to hear it, though. So Emily, I'm going to go ahead and say that you need to stick with your music, but you can also do some psychology on the side. So university interests me a lot because it's a bit different in Australia where I'm from compared to the US. Yeah, it's this probably. Is it better?

Am? Is it cheaper? Yes, but I think it's just different because it's cheaper like a lot of the degrees are shorter here They all go for four years, but there you can do a bachelor's degree in three or three and a half For depending on on what it is But you have to pick your major before you even start So when you're 17 and you can't switch you can but sometimes it's disadvantageous because you have to take the you can, but sometimes it's disadvantageous because you have to take the 100 level courses over. I switched, but it was within sciences, so I was able to retain what I have done.

Yeah, but I think the lesson from that for me is that a lot of my friends who took random majors aren't working in those fields at all. Yeah. And you get a pretty cheap education in Australia. And I think if Emily's also in this position and she has all these scholarships and things, just do it. And then maybe you can take general education subjects.

You can take a minor in whatever it may be, or you can do another very expensive degree after. That one you'll pay for. Sure, definitely get the free education you can get. Exactly. Especially if you get to go to a very expensive private university, which now does sound like a little bit of a brag. When I first read it, it sounded mostly like, I have made a terrible decision, but now

that I know she's not paying for it. So the other thing I'll say is that like, get those psychology courses because like, ultimately, most people who major in psychology don't end up working in psychology. They end up using their education in various other ways, whether that's in writing or in public relations or just in being a human being. And so, you know, you get those general education things,

but you also come out of it, I would think, you know, having a skill in this ability to play this musical instrument that will be with you for your whole life. Possibly it will be your job, and so people won't be surprised, but usually it will be something that is a skill that you just bust out one day,

and people are like, holy moly, you can fiddle, girl! So there could be a lot of busking in Emily's future. It's busking. She'll never be down and out because she can always busking. There's always busking. There's some wedding performances, which have a real high premium. Right. Well, at the very least, you can do it for your friends,

exactly. Which is what all of my music made your friends have done. It's like nice to have them in the friend group, so they can play piano with your wedding. This next question comes from Anonymous, who is just very ashamed of a thing they shouldn't be ashamed of. Deer and conjonum 17 years old

and they can't write a bike. Whenever I tell people this, they are understandably surprised. There's no cool story behind this. I just never learned how. I have no idea what I'm doing. I get the basic idea, but no one has ever explained to me

how to go about this. How do I learn to write a bike any advice appreciated? Anonymous. So what is a possible cool story about nothing? I built a ride a bike. There's no cool story behind it. I was raised on a yacht sailing around the world. I lived on a boat my whole childhood. I was on a weird commune where we have all the normal stuff, but bikes aren't allowed. Exactly. No wheels. We got cars, but we're no bikes. Human powered wheels are no-no. Unicycles are okay. So I have some advice. Are you a bike rider? I have been in the past. Capable of riding.

You know, when I was a kid, I did competitive cycling. So what did you... What does that mean? What did you... Like racing, like I was 10 years old and I had a brightly colored shorts and the bike vest and everything like that. Unlike roads.

In a, like a circuit. Oh, a circuit. It was outdoors. It wasn't like a velodrome, is that what is called a velodrome? It wasn't like a velodrome. I have no idea what a velodrome is. A velodrome? That sounds like a speed house. A velodrome is that what is called a velodrome? It wasn't like a velodrome I have no idea what a velodrome a velodrome sounds like a speed house a velodrome is in the Olympics the indoor place But I ride bikes, but also in French. Velo means bikes anyway. I was terrible at competitive Psycho okay always came last

But but you are you are better at cycling than anonymous Yes, I suppose and I do have a bike that I ride around the city. I can't just swim necessarily. Yeah, my advice has nothing to do with my apparent proficiency in cycling, because when I started high school, which in Australia is when you're like 12 years old, there was a swimming pool at the high school. Yeah, you can't bike in swimming pools, Vanessa. I

Everyone knows that you know there are some gym classes like underwater cycling. Oh never mind. Yeah, I didn't want to be that well Actually person, but I've seen And I thought wow they're really weird. Yeah, who wants to bike underwater? Okay, so there was a swimming pool at your high school. And we had to dive into the pool. And I was 12 years old, I didn't know how to dive. Oh, okay. So the first week I made up some excuse where I could get out of it. And then I went home and I practiced diving

like so many hours a day for the whole week. And I was terrible at it at first. I mean, diving seems kind of easy, but there is some kind of skill to like getting your hands there and wiggling your body under the water rather than just doing a belly flow Uh-huh, so I did a lot of belly flops, but eventually I forget it out I asked my mom this question last night because she was over at my house and she was like, well that sounds like something You can Google and she did and there's this whole like guide to how to write a bike as an adult because there's this thing about being an adult

Writing a bike is that you're far off the ground. When you're a kid, you fall over, it's like a foot, you know? When you're an adult, you're like, way up there, you're like six feet up. That's a long way for your head to go from the top to the bottom. And so the advice was take the pedals off a bike and sit on it with like the seat low

and you like scoot with your feet. And so you do that for like a couple of days. It does seem to indicate that it would be nice to have a friend to help you though. And so anonymous, read this article at whatever the thing that my mom found was. I think also don't be like so ashamed of this because it's totally normal to not have some skills

that other people have. We all have some gaps in our abilities that are, you know, don't have any good stories to go along with them. It's just how it is. And there's no reason to be ashamed of that. And it, you know, might be something to like reach out to a close friend or a family member to say like, hey, can you help me with this thing?

And it will bring you closer. See, I feel like this was good advice. My advice was just practice for a few hours every day until you can do it. Just jump into a pool over and over again until you can fight. You know who anonymous needs as a coach is Justin Sandland? Oh yeah, you can learn to ride a bike with your backwards handlebars. That sounds awful.

This next question comes from Nier who asks, dear Hank and John, I mean, here Hank and Vanessa. Thank you. My wife and I are traveling in the US on our honeymoon. We came across a weird situation when ordering and paying for food at a counter. When you pay with a credit card, the cashier turns the screen around to choose

so you can improve the transaction. But then another message comes up asking you to choose the amount of tip you want to add. And this happens before any food is prepared or any other services rendered. So you kind of feel like you have to tip, even though nothing has happened yet, please clarify what you're supposed to do in America.

I'm never too far near. That was the best part of the question. So you're not from America. Correct. How do you feel about this situation? So I think that other cultures, like perhaps European cultures, Australia, New Zealand, whatever,

tip when the service or food is exceptional. But in America, I think one thing that people don't understand is that the tip actually constitutes an essential part of that person's wage. Right. So you kind of have to tip no matter what. Yeah. This is like a coffee shop situation oftentimes. And coffee shop is not obligate tipping in my head.

I always tip at a coffee shop. Yeah, I don't know. My policy is like a dollar a person at a coffee shop situation. And I don't really know. No matter what you get. Well, no, if I get like... Because if you just get a coffee,

I will give like a quarter or two quarters Okay, yeah If I get like a drip coffee and you're just like pushing a button if there's like barista in happening It's a buck for me. Yeah, which is weird because it's like a two dollar coffee and I'm paying a dollar for Where are you getting a espresso based drink for two dollars and mizzula Montana my friends? At the coffee shop I go to Nearly every day because partially because the coffee shop, I go to nearly every day because partially because the coffee is inexpensive. I feel like in this situation,

you should give them a minimum tip. Right. Yeah, minimum tip depending on the situation, if it's a coffee house situation, maybe like 10%, I would say, as a guide. If it's something a bit fancy, I have 15 minimum. It's weird to read this question because I'm like, well, of course, that's what you do.

But the transition from when tips work for exceptional service in the US until now has been slow and long, and so the cultural norm of, there's a bucket there to put the money in, and you're not gonna have another interaction with that person. I'm not gonna get up from my seat after I finish my coffee and go back to the tip jar to give a dollar.

If that's what you want to do, you can totally do that. There's probably a jar there as well. So you can say no tip and then give the tip later. I have done that. Usually it's to give an extra tip. If something happened, my child made a mess. I'll go and be like, I don't have time to clean this mess up right now.

Here's two dollars in the extra tip. Lily, I'm sorry that I've left you with this, but we're having a tantrum situation. You know, I really feel the near because I find tipping in America kind of stressful. Yeah. Like the way that I have reduced my stress is just by tipping probably too much over tipping.

Yeah. Because I'm like, look, I'm just going to do this all the time. I never think about it again because the first few years I was here, I'm just gonna do this all the time. I never think about it again because the first few years I was here I was just thinking about it all the time and when you get your hair cut when you get Manacua like in all these situations when I get my dog groomed and it costs a hundred bucks And I also have to give a tip. I'm like, oh my god. Wow again. I feel like we're killing it today Thank you for doing this Vanessa has a cold so she's what can you tell? No, I feel like we're killing it today. Thank you for doing this. Vanessa has a cold, so she's,

What can you tell? No, I don't know if people can tell. This next question comes from Hillary who asks, Dear Hank and Vanessa, My roommate is apparently enjoying the strategy of watching TV to a commercial and then doing some things around the house during the commercial break.

It's a great strategy, but I just came into the room and I've been sitting in front of the TV for 10 minutes in silence. At what point does she forfeit the TV? Squash and squid Hillary. So I have this vision of Hillary writing this question over email while she's still sitting on the couch.

Right, that's probably what happened because they're like, I'm having a thing and I feel like I should be waiting to not take over the TV watching. So there's one thing I'm confused about. Is Hillary sitting through the commercials or has she put it on mute? Well, it says in silence. I assume what has happened is that the commercial has ended and the TV show has restarted and Hillary is watching the TV show. Gotta get that remote. What I have to say to Hillary is, have you noticed that it's 2019 who watches TV?

It watches commercials. Yeah, yeah. Where are you? What's happening? Just take out your phone and open Netflix with your parents' account. And watch on that with no commercials. I don't know if this advice is going gonna make Hillary feel better about his situation. I think that minimizing roommate conflict

is an important part of like Hillary's life and will be for as long as Hillary has a roommate. And one great way to do that is to just watch TV on your own personal device, get your headphones out. The screen on my phone is better than the screen on my TV anyway. My iPad is killer. My phone was more expensive than my TV. Yeah. That's a wild truth. So Hillary needs to be just consuming more personal entertainment. Right. That's why we're going with this advice. Unless this is about a

live sporting event. There's the only reason I can think this would be an actual concern. Or if Hillary doesn't have a phone, or as like a flip phone. I think maybe Hillary can kindly ask the roommate just to leave the remote by the TV. Right. Because then she could just turn mute off and then she wouldn't be sitting there in silence. Problems also. And if the roommate comes back in, you can switch back.

Yeah. Or not. Yeah. I don't know. It's been a long time since I've had a roommate. So I'll say that. So ultimately, you know your relationship better than I do, but it just busts out your computer and watching Netflix.

Yeah. I just had a lot of good TV. I don't know. I just got a TV about two years ago. Was your first one? It's my first one. Yeah. Of your life?

Yeah. Were you raised on a yacht? I'm pretty funny story. I was raised on a yacht, but it had a velodrome. So I was able to learn from very slightly. It was a very long yacht. I mean, I had a TV in my parents' house, but I meant since I moved out.

I mean, who has time for this? My parents were telling me about all these great shows. They were like, you haven't seen Dairy Girls? Dairy girls? Dairy. Is that like a reality TV show with milk mates? I initially assumed that that's what it was. And then they were like, no, it's set in Northern Ireland.

So I was like, so Northern Irish dairy, but no, it's D-E-R-Y. Dairy, this is the place. Yep. And my parents were like, we've watched it through twice. Wow. So I don't know that I'm gonna get to catch up on dairy girls But it sounds from their synopsis very good. I actually got a 4k TV to watch YouTube

You're like I'm tired of not being able to watch all these great 4k and YouTube shows exactly the future that we live in yeah There's four different Ks or maybe they're the same K We got another question. This one's from Leah who asks, Steer Henken Vanessa. My ballet school recently gave me a lovely blanket as a graduation gift. Sure. Why not? It's soft and fuzzy and warm, but there's just one problem. It's covered in pictures of me. Oh, I'd love to take it to college, but I can't help but think that my roommate will get the wrong impression. Yeah, that seems likely. I don't want to look any weirder than I already am.

Leah, woof! Why? Does anybody think that's a good idea? I think a blanket is an easy thing to leave behind. But it's nice to have a fuzzy blanket. Oh, yeah, I suppose. I love a fuzzy blanket, and like, you know, sometimes in your dorm, you don't get to control the climate, or your roommate roommate has different preferences than I've never lived in a dorm Because that Australian education of yours

You just live at home Yeah, so can you flip the blanket? What the underneath the blanket? Can you pretend that the pictures are of your twin sister and you just want to be close to her? Or a famous ballerina. Some other... Also named Leigh.

That's not me. That's some other ballerina. We just look very similar. Are they ballet photos where you can't quite make out the face? You know, like a... A steadford photo. That's far away else. I assume that a fuzzy blanket has like low...

That's not for kids. ...you know I assume that a fuzzy blanket has like low view pixels per inch, you know? It's a fuzzy blanket. It's got to be a little bit like you're not wearing your glasses. So at home, I have some potholders that my Nana made for me, which are quilted. She hand quilted them, but on the material, she printed out pictures of my face. Okay. So you're familiar with this problem. I am familiar with this problem. Textiles with your face on them in your home.

What do people think when they see them? The thing is, I feel odd using them as pot holders because they're my school photos from when I'm like seven or eight years old. Oh, they're like little you. Little me, yeah. That's right. Yeah, so. like little you. Little me. Yeah. Yeah.

And you just like burn them. Like hold them to the side of the hottest thing in your own. It's just such an odd thing to make out of some of someone's material. When did you receive these thought holders? When I was 18. I want a gift from my Nana.

No, it's lovely. Yeah, yeah, so I have really just had them in a container ever since I got them. I have never used them as potholders because I just didn't understand why I would. So you don't even know if they would work? Like my concern is that whatever was printed on this would melt. I doesn't seem like your Nana necessarily has. It's fresh like it's cotton. So I don't. But it's printed somehow. It is printed.

Whatever that ink is. I'm worried that it's just going to like hit that pot and immediately vaporize. And I'm just saying, I don't know that you're Nana had actual use in mind. And this was created. What I did recently, I actually found them a few weeks ago. So this is really top of mind for me. And my partner, did you fly them out to the United States of America with them? They were with a box of my things that I already had. You know, actually my mum brought them. Oh wow.

She had them with some of her things and was like, for NASA, time for you to take ownership of your pot holders. But my partner has an iPad stand on his bedside table and I took the iPad out and just put the pot holder there. And he really moaned when he saw it, except he hasn't moved it. So exactly to this day, just on his bedside table, this potholder that has a quilted phone of me, was only seven years old. Yeah, sure, why not? I can see

that. So you think she should just tack it up in her room, just display it proudly. I think she should use it. I mean, as you said, it's warm and functional. You can make up a twin sister. Yeah. Yeah. I think she should just take it. It's better than holding it against the hottest thing in your home, which reminds me

that this podcast is brought to you by holding Vanessa's own face against a hot, boiling hot cam of whatever, which is what your Nana wanted you to do and you haven't done it. It's actually a special line of Tupperware. What you just mentioned. The boiling hot cam. The podcast is brought to you by Adville, called Insinus, which if you have any time after lunch, you will not sleep at all. Oh, okay.

At all. You're a champion for doing this. Thank you. The podcast is also brought to you by the Snowball Earth, a period of time, some time in the past, when the Earth was icy, and that's all I remember. This podcast is brought to you by the Velodrome, an exciting place of bicycles cheering and floor wax.

Oh, floor wax? They wax the floors, so the wheels go faster. Have you never watched the Olympics? Did they have a floor wax in competition? Is that part of the thing? I think they have whatever a zembony for flow- Oh, oh. They have some machines. Right, okay. It was around and polishes. Maybe it's just polish. Got a question that is specific to our Australian friends

from Tom, who asks, do you're Hank and Vanessa, what do you think of compulsory voting? And Australia, all citizens are required to vote. And while there are clearly upsides to this, I feel like having the right to do something, IE voting also means you should have the right not to do it. Not shirt for Thomas, Tom. It's just Tom, it's written tight, Tom, on the birth certificate.

We all know that about Tom now. What do you think of your compulsory voting? Are you still in Australia? To learn not to sound like I'm Australian? No, I'm just a random faux English woman with a cow. Are you still required to vote? Yeah, I have to. So I work in the US, but I have working visas. I don't have a green card or anything like that. So I have to be a permanent resident somewhere.

So I'm still a resident in Australia. So Australia had a federal election maybe two weeks ago now, and the thing that really annoys me about compulsory voting is that you get fined if you don't vote otherwise it wouldn't be compulsory. So I've gotten fined in the past, and it's so annoying because you have to send in like a copy of your last boarding pass or whatever like to prove that you weren't there and you couldn't vote. Can you do it by absentee? Like you can everywhere else in the world? So I live in New York so I went to the consulate in New York to vote and there's a three-week period that it's open for people to come and I saved it right up until the last half an hour. And it was open. You would go go to every other Australian in New York.

There was a line that was like curving out the door and you were like, yes, it was so busy and I was, and then I really hated compulsory voting. Yeah, at that moment. Yeah. It does seem like you were a little bit created that problem for yourself. Wow, hang on. I wasn't asking for advice in this moment. But I mean my problems aside, perhaps I could have been a little more organized. It does create a new set of problems where

people donkey vote. Have you heard of donkey voting? Or you just vote for donkeys. You just write in donkey in every single slot. You're like Donkey, Donkey, Donkey, Donkey, Donkey. And then you throw it up in the air and you say, I did it! Whoever your Prime Minister is, I couldn't come up with any Australian Prime Minister. I mean, I don't know if you want to get into politics in this hour, but I wasn't thrilled with alcohol. I've heard that it didn't go great. Yeah, yeah. Anyway, a Donkey vote is when you just tick anything. So you barely even look at the paper. It's like you're a throw away. So there's a lot of donkey voting. So could you put a little check at the top and just say donkey? And then you can check the donkey check and then you're basically saying like, I choose not to vote. But you're doing it. So I suppose that would be fine because the

thing about voting is you need to get your name marked off on the electoral roll. And that's how you have said you turned up, you don't get fined or the... I exist. Yeah, so I suppose you could do that because no one actually looks at your paper after you submit it. So if you wanted to create your own party, the donkey party. Ooh, I like it.

I'm on board. You good, yeah donkey party. Ooh, I like it. I'm on board. Good, yeah. There's a lot of odd parties. I don't know about that here, but because we have a party system, where you go and vote, there's the science party and the legalization of weed party

and the fishing and hunting party and the automobile party and there's all of these random parties. It sounds like a bunch of fun parties to go through. People just create. I mean, if it's a big, it's available. And fun fact, last election, there was this guy from, I think it was the automobile party in Victoria that won a seat in the Senate or something because everyone donkey voted him.

Oh! He got donkey voted so hard he won and he's like, I have to do stuff now! Exactly! Do I get paid for this? Exactly. Do I at least get healthcare? You get healthcare, I get it. I get like, I have to do stuff now. Exactly. Do I get paid for this? Exactly.

Do I at least get healthcare? You get healthcare, I guess. I don't know if it really came to a good conclusion there. I think there's a no perfect system, right? But generally, I think compulsory voting is better because you have more people voting. And even though some of them are legitimate votes, overall you have like a turnout

and more people having a say. And feeling enfranchised, which is really like the big thing in democracy, is like feeling like you are part of the system. If you don't feel like you're part of the system, then the system stops working. Yeah. Donkey, Donkey, Donkey, Donkey.

Good chat. All right, this next question is sent in by Brian. Oh, no, it's his brain. I'm sorry. Well, that's so funny because I often call my channel Brian Kraft by accident when I'm typing other than brain Kraft. Right, right, right. Yeah, and then I imagine what that would be like.

And I just imagine some old dude in his basement just cutting things out of his face. Yeah. And that is Brian Kraft. Yeah. Brian craft. Is it not a channel that very well could be? I wish someone would do a parody of me. Yeah. And call it Brian craft. So brain says, dear Hank and Vanessa, when SpaceX finally sends humanity to Mars after 2028, this is a weird insight joke on the podcast. And we reach the point that we're colonizing it. Well, we create a new country in Mars or since SpaceX is US-based.

I don't know why SpaceX is the only way that we're going to do this, but the US government will claim the Mars and make it their new state. We have a 51st state, Mars, pinky and the brain. It says brain. It's really hard not to say Brian. Aren't there 52 states already? No. Really? Only 50. Oh gosh, only 50. That's a lot. It is a lot. The studio, you're going to hurt my feelings.

Just like we don't have a lot of states. I thought there were more than 50. There's some talk about 51, but... Puerto Rico. That's a subset. There are US citizens. it's very strange. It's very strange. But it's obviously a very contentious thing

for a lot of reasons that don't have that much to do with anything except for elections and like political parties, wanting to win or not lose elections. Anyway, Mars feels like what would it be? It would be, it would be something like the European Union, I feel. But like at the beginning, I don't think it would be.

At the beginning, I think we'd say like, that's a colony. That's just a bunch of Americans and other people from other countries like living, like the space station almost. Like the space station is in a country or McMurdo. Like it's just like that, I guess McMurdo would be the best example. I think Antarctic is a good example for it, because you have all these different territories, so different countries there,

and they have outposts there and everything like that. So maybe that. Right, and it's just sort of an outpost. But then eventually, if you get self-sustaining, those people are gonna claim independence. You know they are. The Martians. Yeah, those Martians are gonna be Martians.

They're not gonna wanna be subject to all of our wins. They're not gonna wanna vote in Australia. Vote in Australia. Well, they're on Mars. I met a nurse. Yeah, you got to go to the Australian consulate on Mars. How much is the fine? It's about 50. Oh, that's rough. Well, you know, I'm sure that they use it for something good. Free health care for everybody. You can also vote online. I voted on the I know Hank's face was just bewildered. Right?

Why don't you vote on the council the, well not in the federal election, but there was a state election maybe a month ago and you could just vote online and it was so easy. So I'd like to think that they put the fines into creating better systems. That's such a boring thought. This is what I think of when I'm in bed at night. People creating better systems.

Yeah, take my $50 and make better systems. I'll be happy to give it. We'll probably will deal with this with the moon first. The thing is, I think the moon is close enough that it will be harder for them to be independent. But the Mars is so far away. I don't think there's going to be cooperation. Because when you think about it, it's not Australia

and the UK and Canada and the US who are all colonizing Mars It's going to be the US and China and Russia basically Probably the US and China would be my guess. Yeah, that's kind of it. Yeah And they can't even agree on trading things across the Pacific Ocean So how are we gonna to agree on mushroom law? The other thing that may happen is it probably won't be SpaceX, but it might be sort of corporate colonies, like company towns. So Elon Musk is going to base some kind of monarch?

Are we already kind of in that situation? Yes. With the internet. Because you and I have our businesses based on YouTube, and we sort of like live in that social space It's important to us. It's like economically important to it socially important to us But like if that's a town we live in it's not a democracy Then I was just blinked a long blink at me

It's called staying awake He said he said the wet democracy and I just started to Do you think we answered Brian's question? He said he said the wet democracy and I just started to die. Right on. Do you think we answered Brian's question? I don't think that we can answer Brian's question, but I think there is a great deal of excellent science fiction about this topic that you can explore. Yes. Who owns the potatoes?

I would not be surprised if the future colonies of other worlds in our solar system end up being deeply different in terms of how they are governed than the institutions that we have right now. Like if you built it from scratch, things would be different if you did it now. Okay, Vanessa, we're gonna do some responses to things that have happened on previous podcasts.

This one's from Chris who says, hi, green brothers and also Vanessa. Thank you. I'm sure you've gotten a bunch of emails about this already, but in case you haven't, I wanted a nice one. Thank you. I'm sure you've gotten a bunch of emails about this already, but in case you haven't, I wanted to write you to let you know that in Korea, you do actually gift ducks when people get married.

These are wooden ducks, so less of a burden, but the duckly sentiment is still there, dumplings and ducks, Chris. The duckly sentiment. I mean, why not have wedding ducks? So I had some follow-up questions about the ducks. I listened to the duck episode,. I mean, why not have wedding ducks? So I had some follow up questions about the ducks. I listened to the duck episode and I wondered, can you eat the duck?

Like, do you need your engagement duck? Yeah. Can you eat your engagement duck? I mean, do you have to keep the duck as a pet or could it be a peaking duck? Oh. The accent got me a little confused on that one for a second. I can say it.

A peaking. Peaking? Peaking is like if it was coming around from the corner. There is like, it could absolutely be a peaking duck. I don't know. Is it a warrior? Like, what's happening with this duck? But do you have to keep the duck alive for a long period of time? Because they seem to think that it was a burden,

but my view was that perhaps it could be meal. It was just food. I know that this might be a popular view with a lot of listeners, but it was just a question. There are definitely people who have pet ducks in America. It's not uncommon in certain parts of the US. So I think it was meant to be a pet duck. OK.

But I don't know. If my mother-in-law gives me a duck, like, I'm not going to kill it. Also, if it's an engagement duck and we've replaced rings with ducks, I would feel a little weird about meardering the duck. I think in that sense, you should keep the duck. We were not aware of all of these scenarios for this. Or maybe you just set the duck free.

Like the duck is there for the moment. Exactly. It's about this moment in time. Like, nothing is permanent. Yes. Eventually, we will all die. And so, like, diamond isn't forever, and neither is a duck. A duck is for this moment where I want to know

if you want to spend the rest of your life with me. And so does the duck. And then, once we all have agreed, the duck should be free. The duck should be free. Let it go. Did you get any wooden ducks when you were married, Hank? No, I got like a mixer.

Oh, like a stand mixer? Yeah, for like baking. Oh, that's handy. Silverware plates, that kind of thing. Okay. And this final response is from Francesca, who asks, dear Hank and Vanessa, I was listening to your weird statistics episode

and you answered a question about making boxed mac and cheese. I'm from the UK and I'm very confused. Do you make the cheese sauce from a powder? Is there pasta in the box? Is the pasta also powder? Is nothing normal in America? Confused about pasta in Francesca. Do you have craft macaroni and cheese in Australia?

I think we do, but I must say that I'm not confused about boxed mac and cheese because I watch South Park and anyone who was a fan of Terence and Phillip would be familiar with craft dinner. Yeah, okay. Yeah, so that's where most of my knowledge comes from. It's wild to me that someone could like reach the age of adulthood without having consumed millions of calories of vox macaroni and cheese. Some people just choose differently. Or like apparently they have the choice made for them by the place where they live on the planet. Yeah.

If the cheese is a powder and you mix it with milk and butter. Yeah. Or just water. If you're my wild brother. Is he lactose intolerant? No, he's just very strange. Interest. He eats his cereal with milk venessa.

I mean, with... I was thinking, that's pretty normal, actually. He eats his cereal with water. He eats his cereal. We've all done that when we run out of milk, let's be honest. Have we? I have. I have not.

Just occasionally, if you have a little drop of milk left, you can put that on and then top it up with water, so it's like a milky water. I don't know why this sounds so unappealing. Better than nothing. I disagree. I like to eat frost of mini-weets dry. Like I'm into it. And then you can just drink a glass of water when you're done. Takes a while. Like I'm a dry cereal guy myself. I can't begin to understand. Like Francesco, I can't begin to understand the pasta. So the pasta is actual macaroni pasta in the box, and it's just surrounded by cheese dust. No, no, no, there's a packet of cheese.

There's a packet of cheese dust? Yeah, inside the box, there's a bunch of macaroni and a cheese powder packet. Okay. First, you boil the pasta. This, I can't believe I'm explaining this. You boil the pasta, you strain it, and then you put it back in the pot, and then you put the cheese dust with some milk in, and then you mix it up. People could also play this section of the podcast for like their seven-year-old.

He's just learning how to do this. I like the thought that you just put the whole thing in, and it's just like cheese soup macaroni. And you're done with it, you just drink all the cheesy water that's left in there, like ramen noodles. Yeah, I can't say I've ever made it. I don't think I've done it. No, clearly you have not. But I have had it before.

I think they have it in Australia. I also lived in Canada for years. So we definitely had it then. This is making me wildly hungry. Should we go get lunch? Yes. But first we have to get to the all important news from Mars and AMC, Wimbledon, Vanessa.

Can you tell us what's happening in Wimbledon United Kingdom Earth? Okay, coming in hot is your AFC Wimbledon News. Nesta Guinness Walker. Guinness is a wonderful middle name. 19 year old left back who grew up in Wimbledon news. Nesta Guinness Walker. Guinness is a wonderful middle name. 19-year-old left back who grew up in Wimbledon signed this week, which is great, I guess, he seems very nice.

I did that not sound sincere. Yeah, I wrote this not John, just for clarity. Nesta is a non-traditional player who was signed without an agent while after playing in non-leg teams. This is unusual. Apparently. Nesta came to the attention of scouts after switching to the left back row from midfield while playing for the Metropolitan Police. That sounds like a band, like a song by the village people, from that policy police, which confusingly is a soccer team

and not a police department. I'm a local boy, he says, I only live down the road. Everyone who is a football fan knows about AFC Mumbleton and the story of this club. The sky is the limit with the talent of the squad and the experience of Wally Downs. What is Wally Downs?

Man, who is a human experience of Wolly Downs. What is Wolly Downs? Man, he is a human being. Wolly Downs. Sounds like a ranch in a cartoon. Wolly Downs. Where all the children live. There is no limit to what conveys you achieved here. And that concludes your update. It's the best day of the level the news we've ever had. I'm excited. He seems like a stand-up kid, 19 years old, and he's probably good at soccer. He's a disruptor. He's a audit-sounds.

Yeah. Non-traditional background was playing for the police. Switched roles. I mean, it's a great story. I'm so confused. It's a great story. The subhead line said, Nester Guinness switching from Metropolitan Police after trial.

And I was like, was he, was he, what was he accused of? But it was like a trial like you go onto the pitch and you kick the ball around and they decide whether they like you. Yeah, he does. Sounds like a lovely guy. Yeah. In news from Mars, we're always looking for ways to make oxygen in general, but also on Mars specifically because you need it in order to exist there. There is plenty of oxygen atoms on Mars.

There is just no molecular oxygen, which is a pretty unstable molecule. It reacts really easily with stuff. For example, the iron on Mars reacted with molecular oxygen to produce the iron oxide, which makes it its beautiful rusty color. And there's also carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Most of Mars' atmosphere is carbon dioxide. There's also giant hunks of solid carbon dioxide at the poles. And so we are interested on Mars, but also on Earth and how you can turn carbon dioxide into oxygen and get the carbon out on Earth. This would be useful because we don't want carbon dioxide in the atmosphere

as much as we currently do because its concentration is increasing rapidly and heating up the planet. But a team of researchers from the California Institute of Technology, Caltech, took a long time to get to that piece of news. Was it creating long-legged? A lot of context. In Caltech has created a new system to use kinetic energy to turn carbon dioxide into oxygen. So basically, you speed up the carbon dioxide, you make it go really fast, and then you hit it onto a piece of gold foil, and like one out of every 20 molecules that does that

loses its carbon and becomes molecular oxygen. Are we doing this in the Ludge Hadron collider? No, not that fast. We need not that fast. Fast, like, not like, speed of light fast, more like multiple times the speed of sound fast. But it's another way to potentially create oxygen for people to breathe on the red planet,

and also potentially take it rid of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere, though probably not as efficient as some of the ways that we already know. So, that's a thing that exists, and that's all I got. Cool. Thanks. Yeah. You know what we could produce more of his helium. There's a helium shortage. But you how do you produce more helium? It's not really sure. But there is a helium shortage.

If you go to party city, they have signs up. Oh, does it say that? That's a, yeah, that's a, um, the helium is a lot more expensive for your balloons. Oh, there's a helium shortage. You know where they get most helium? Tell me. It comes out with the natural gas. Oh. So that's where that's where... Did I capture it?

Yeah. Yeah, they've separated out. It's pretty easy to separate, because it's very light. Yeah. And so there is a finite amount of it on Earth. Yeah. Because it escapes. Like, it's just, it's very light, so it goes to the top of the atmosphere and it gets

blown away. This makes more sense, because I was really aghast, let's say, when I was at party city, and I thought, second most abundant element in the universe, and there's a shortage. Yeah. Well, if you could go to the sun and pick some up, or like Jupiter's got a ton of it, maybe we should be working on that as well as the carbon dioxide. There's a bit of a distance problem there, but it's also because it's used in MRI machines. It is. It's used in some other science.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's getting, or anything you time you need to like cool stuff way down. Like the biggest helium tanks in the world are at the Large Hadron Collider, I believe. And that's where we come full circle. So, do you mean just the fact that the collider is a circle? Yeah, but we mentioned it earlier. Oh, okay, that's it.

Okay. I mean, just the fact that the collider is a circle. Yeah, but we mentioned it earlier. Oh, okay, that's it. That's it. Well, what a great podcast that's different than what you usually get. I'm so happy that you guys get a refreshing point. It sounds like you're reading that off your computer. What a great podcast. I am so happy. This is different. Thank you, Vanessa, for joining me and giving John a week off.

And thanks for coming to Missoula Montana. I'm going to take you out for a $2 Americ John a week off and thanks for coming to Missoula Montana. I'm going to take you out for a $2 Americano now. I can't wait! Thanks for having me! This podcast is edited by Joseph Tuna Mettich. It's produced by Rosiana Halzro-Hasson, Sheridan Gibson. Our head of community and communications is Victoria Bonjorno.

The music you're listening to now and at the beginning of the podcast is by the great Gunnarola and as they say in our hometown. Don't forget to be awesome.