Dear Hank & John - 227: One-Star Statue Reviews

Episode Date: February 17, 2020

Where do I start with Star Trek? Where does water go when I turn the faucet off? Why does my nose produce more snot when I cry? Should I ask permission before I sharpen my roommate's knives? How do I become less emotionally attached to a statue I don't own? Is it okay to wear white to a bride-less wedding reception? Is there a way to use social media without getting drawn into arguments? John Green and Hank Green have answers! 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 Subscribe to the Nerdfighteria newsletter! https://nerdfighteria.com/nerdfighteria-newsletter

Hello and welcome to Dear Hank and John. Thor's I prefer to think of it Dear John and Hank. It's a podcast where two brothers answer your questions, give you to me his advice and bring them all the week's news from both Mars and AFC Wimbledon. John, a friend of mine, just got fired because he took a day off just one day. It turns out people were really disappointed

when they got those calendars. He worked at the calendar factory. He took a day off of the calendar. Of the calendar? Yeah. I mean, I couldn't groan because I didn't get it and I still don't really get it. He got fired because he took a day off of the calendar.

Let me get you with another one. How about this one? My friend, my friend works at a furniture factory and he fell into the upholstery machine now, but now he's fully recovered. I see that. That is funny. Okay. All right. It's funny because it's invariably fatal. I've been listening. That is a surprising outcome to falling into an upholstery machine. You know, Rhett and Link, the, the guys who have been on YouTube as long as we have. A little bar, I think. Yeah. Even a little longer. Anyway, their podcast is great. It's way better than our podcast.

And they're in the middle of a series right now about their faith journeys, specifically their journey away from religious faith. It's been really profoundly interesting. And I don't have a point to this anecdote, except that I have really enjoyed listening to Ear Biscuits, and I've been thinking about it a lot. Do you, do you, is this like a call for, for like me to interrogate you on your faith journey more? Maybe we should both do an episode where we interrogate our

faith journey. You've been on a faith journey too, you know. It's just not resulted in any faith at any point. There were moments. I would say more than that, you've been on a journey in changing the way that you think about meaning. Yes. And that's most of what we're talking about when we talk

about religious faith. We're talking about when we talk about religious faith. We're talking about like how we orient ourselves in the world, what our values are, where we find community and meaning that's bigger than ourselves. And you've definitely been on a journey on that front. Yeah, I have. And I also have like changed how I feel about religion a lot and, you know, the course of my life. And coming to a place where like I even like to go to church sometimes now, even though I don't sort of, like the community aspect of it is very good. It's not often that you are called to get together in a room full of people who you don't know but who are from your community. And I think that we try to replicate that experience in a lot of different ways in our society, but who are from your community. And I think that we try to replicate that experience

in a lot of different ways in our society, but that's an old, good way. Yeah, it's good to be clear though. It's good when it's inclusive. Yeah, no, I mean, I got a certain churchist. Right, and it isn't always. And even like my church is extremely inclusive and deferming and everything.

But even so occasionally, some authority from within my church will release like a paper and I'll be like, oh my God, that's so embarrassing. I mean, this is the thing with all communities. It's never going to be entirely representative of what you believe. And you know, the individualism of today sort of calls on us to never group with people who we disagree with on important stuff, but there is different levels of important stuff. And we have to group with people who we disagree with on things, because otherwise we will be entirely isolated. And one thing that we have learned a lot

in the past 10, 20, 30 years is that increasing isolation is bad for individuals and for society. Yeah, loneliness is really troubling, a troubling part of contemporary life. I'm reading an amazing book by Casper Terkyle, who is the... Oh, I just got that. I just read the first like three pages of it, yeah. The book is called The Power of Ritual. Casper is of course, who is the... Oh, I just got that. I just read the first like three pages of it, yeah. The book is called The Power of Ritual. Casper is of course the co-host of another great podcast, Harry Potter, and The Sacred Text.

And it's great. It's a really, it's one of those books where like every two pages you're like, oh, I hadn't thought of that that way. Uh-huh. And it's super helpful to think of it in that context. No. Anyway, well, maybe this is something that we'll return to Hank, if there is any interest. But in the meantime, we should probably just do what we're bad at, which is answer questions from

our listeners. I don't think that that book is out yet. I think that we got a lot of copies of it. So don't go to try and buy it right now. I'm also really bad at recommending books, but it's really good. So remember this on the 23rd of June, 2020. Remember just put it in your calendar. That book's coming out. It's really good. I think you can pre-order it now. You can. Absolutely. Ah, yes. That's how you should do it. Pre-order it now. Yeah. You can also get a beautifully foolish endeavor, which is available and will be out June 7th. I just set my Millennium Clock to countdown to the release of my book, John.

Cool. That's very cool. I'm very excited. I have a Millennium Countdown Clock that was initially supposed to count, or it did countdown to the year 2000 and you can reset it. But I can only reset it until 2050,

at which point it will no longer take new dates, which I find hilarious, the year 2000 and you can reset it. But I can only reset it until 2050, at which point it will no longer take new dates, which I find hilarious, that a thing that was counting down to Y2K does not allow you to use it after a certain point. I mean, I have good news and bad news. Yeah. I'll be alive in 2050.

What are you? Probably. All right, John, our first question comes from Marvin, who asks, dear Hank and John, you've come to the right place, my friend. I have never seen Star Trek, where do I start? Pumpkins and Picard?

Marvin. John, do you have strong opinions about this or should I just talk for the next half hour? I have a brief opinion, which is that you should start with Star Trek, the next generation. It's got Wuppie Goldberg and it's great. That's the end of my observations about Star Trek. Yeah, I really, I think that it's worthwhile to watch a couple of classic original series episodes, just to sort of get the sense of what's up with it. I cannot enjoy watching through them in order. I just, I can't. And that makes me worry that it's possible that that is also

going to be true for other people of the next generation, because it is very different from what TV is like now. But having said that, what I will say is probably don't watch it all the way through from the beginning and think that it's just going to be a blast. Because it is different from how it is now, and also it's worse in the beginning than it is in the end. I have a friend whose name is Max Tempkin, and he put together a guide called Star Trek, the Next Generation, in 40 hours. And it allows you to skip very many episodes without losing out on character development and story and important plot points that will be carried through.

That is what I would suggest is to go look at Max's guide. If you really love it, then you can start watching all of them. But I think that you should catch up before you start watching Picard because while I think it's totally enjoyable without a deep knowledge or any sort of like character understanding of the next generation. I think it's much more enjoyable with that understanding.

I thought that was quite a succinct answer. Well, thank you. I have more thoughts than that, but luckily Max is with a lot of them into this 10 minute read on medium. I wish someone had done that for me with Battlestar Galactica because I feel like I could have gotten through the important parts of Battlestar Galactica in about two days, but instead I devoted like four months of my life to it. Yeah. Oh, God. I need to watch TNG again. It's so good. All right. This next question comes from Mulea who writes, dear John and Hank, when you turn off

the faucet, does the water inside the faucet deplete emptying the rest of its contents into the sink? Or does it sit in the faucet until the next time it is called upon like the mountain ghosts in word of the rings? I wanted to ask this question because of the quality of that simile. Yeah, yes, your pipes are filled with mountain ghosts and they are always there ready to come at a moment's notice. Yeah, okay, but I actually don't know the answer to this question. Like when you turn off the water, no, that's the answer. Where it, no, it's not the answer. When you turn off the water, like to what point is the pipe clear?

Right up to the nose, boy. Right up to the nose of the faucet, I think. But maybe. So I'm going to get, like, so that first little bunch of water is going to be old water for lack of a better term. I have news about all of the water. Don't tell me that all the water is old and it goes back to the very beginning of Earth and before that and we're all made of star dust and et cetera.

Thank you Carl Sagan. I know that all water is old water. I'm asking you if the water that I drink is nasty water that's been sitting in my faucet for four days or if it's good, clean, American, new water. Well, the bad news is that all water has been sitting in pipes for a while because it doesn't like get made at the water purification plant and then like instantly transported to your faucet.

Like there's a pipe that it goes through. It's so gross. And then there's pressure that's put on that pipe so that if the hole is just open, water goes through it. So it's like a water gun that's always pumped. Yeah, super-soakers were fun. Our fun. Oh, I wouldn't know.

I haven't gotten back into super-soaking yet, though I imagine it will happen soon. It's coming. That in Nerf guns. Yeah. Good God. So it in nerf guns. Yeah. God. So it genuinely is like the mountain ghosts. Yeah.

No, they're just waiting for you to call on them, all the molecules hanging out there and asking to be needed. Please, please, I hope that I get drunk and not used for poop. You know, what that reminds me of, which I don't think about enough, and this is getting a little Carl Saganie, but like all life is chemistry, like we're just molecules that are consuming other molecules. Yeah.

This next question comes from Brittany who asks, dear Hank John, why does my nose produce so much more stnot when I cry? My name has three syllables, oh, I'm sorry, Brittany. Brittany. Oh, I kinda like that. Brittany Brittany. Oh, I kind of like that. Brittany. Why do you? I don't know. I didn't know either. So I looked it up and I have news. Is it just tears coming out of my nose? Is it really? Yes, so your eyes produce all these tears

and some of them come out your cheeks, but some of them get sucked back in to your duct work that's back there. And they end up going down your throat, out your nose into your mouth, they go all over the place. And the doctor who was studying this notice that, and this is like one of the ways that it was confirmed,, Snot of women who had makeup on had makeup in it. So there was like eye shadow and stuff in the Snot, little specks of color.

And so you don't have more Snot, you just have more water, so your Snot gets watered down. So all your mucus, you don't produce more mucus, your mucus just gets watery. And so that flows more easily and it all comes out. So you don't produce more mucus, your mucus just gets watery, and so that flows more easily, and it all comes out. So, you cry out your nose. Wow. You cry out your nose. Why did I know that? Thank you so much for asking this question.

I'm so happy to have that information in my head. That is a great fact. I mean, I always feel like I'm crying out my nose and down my throat, like in my whole body, when I'm crying, when I'm really my throat and in my whole body when I'm crying, when I'm really producing some solid, snotty tears. Big ones.

Yeah. I can't, yeah, I cry a lot, but I almost always cry. I would say like 10 tears. Right, little bit, you know, during the movie. Or like listening to an episode of Heavyweight, emotional stress, you know, like you're listening to Heavyweight and everything's fine, you little bit, you know, during the movie. Or like listening to an episode of Heavyweight, emotional stress, you know, like you're listening to Heavyweight and everything's fine, you're fine,

and then you get that, like, it's so sudden, you're like in the middle of an inhale, and then you're like, whoo! To age, it's like a cry for... It's podcasting, it's John advertising other podcasts. That's the third one. Yeah, it's the podcast recommendation, spectacled.

Yeah. I listen to a lot of podcasts. I really, I, it, it has become in, in many ways, my favorite art form. I listen to a lot of podcasts too. I just think it's so interesting. There's so much going on in the world of podcasts. It's how I felt about radio when I was 22 years old and all I wanted in the world was to be on NPR. I have loved the audio only medium since I was like 11 years old listening to NPR shows at night on the weekends, which shows. Yeah. Ian Sholes, God. I just thought Ian Sholes was so funny. I mean, really, you can directly trace the way that Hank and I make videos and do everything else to 1980s public radio.

Yeah, I've been listening to a lot of, you all keep finding new stuff too, and there's so much really, like, fantastic podcast out there. There's like a thousand podcasts that are a 10 out of 10. Yeah, too much. I never get mad. I never get mad at people when they tell me that they don't listen to the Anthropocene Review or that they just started listening

to the Anthropocene Review and they feel really guilty for not having listened to it earlier. Yeah. And I just want to tell them like, nah, there's so many good, like I don't labor under the delusion that we make the best podcasts.

Yeah, though I think that there should be a label if I might ugly cry in an airplane because that's happened. Well, don't listen to the Anthropocene review. It's made for those tears that come right out your nose. Yeah. All right, Hank, we got another question. This one comes from Kelsey who writes, dear John and Hank, I recently moved in with a friend who's allowed me to use their kitchen thing so I didn't have to move mine yet.

The problem is their knives are kind of dull. Is it weird to sharpen my roommates knives? Pumpkins and penguins, Kelsey. So there's two ways to imagine sharpening the knife. One is that it is a necessary chore that somebody's going to have to do. And another is acting upon irrevocably acting upon another person's property. And I think it's a chore. I think that like knife sharpening is just a thing that has to be done to knives. And so it doesn't matter who does it. It's basically like doing my laundry for me. No, it's nothing like doing

the laundry. First off, don't do someone else's laundry. I got actually, I thought I'd think about it. I've never thought that was going to do someone else's laundry, but if someone did mind for me, I wouldn't complain. I'm like, shuffling my walk then. No, if I came back from work and my roommate was like, hey, I did all your laundry and I folded all your underwear. I would be like, well, now we have a problem.

Now I have to leave. Now our relationship is over. Okay, but there's nothing personal about a knife. Okay, Hank, there are seven problems with your proposal. But the biggest one is that if you are used to your own knives being dull and then Kelsey sharpens them, Like you're going to lose a finger.

Yeah. Suddenly, you got a different thing. What Kelsey has to do is say to the roommate, hey, I love living here and I'm wondering if it would be okay for me to sharpen your knives as a thank you. Because I love sharpening knives. Right, because I can't cut an avocado. I can't see even the dullest knife having an avocado problem. I was like, that's like the worst example

you could have come up with. I do, I feel the difference when I'm cutting an avocado. I'm just like, geez, I need to sharpen these knives. I can feel the difference when I'm cutting an avocado. I'm just like, jeez, I need to sharpen these knives. I can feel the avocado. I can it exists to the knife. I need my knives to like not think an avocado exists. Do you remember when we were kids, there was that thing cut co where high school students

would come to people's houses and sell them knives after a series of knife demonstrations? No. It's like it's knives to children. It was so weird. I just realized how weird it was. Yeah, that's weird. Yeah, and like all of your friends' moms

would be like, all right, I'll order a couple knives. Should we do this? Should we create the cut co-off today but instead of something deadly, like giving children a knife demonstration task, we just sort of like send people around. First off, it turns out the cut-coe of today is cut-coe. It's still around.

They still doing it. Secondly. Do it again, I still, I will a child come and do a knife demonstration for me at my house, because if not, I'm not interested in. That brings me to my million dollar idea. Oh, it's time for Jon's that brings me to my million dollar idea. What's time for John's million dollar idea? Another million dollar idea. It's time for my million dollar idea, Hank. Are you ready?

I can't wait. I'm so excited. This is your first one. This is my first million dollar idea and I don't want to. So here's two things we know. Yeah. We know that subscription services are growing. People love a good subscription, like Life's Library, Direct a consumer subscription, a way to get a pre curated book and have a community to read that book with LifeSlibraryBookClub.com.

Hasn't turned into a million dollar idea yet, but I'm not giving up. Yeah, okay. So we know people love a subscription service. Now we have to think about, well, what do people love using and would love using more if they knew how good it could be? I love that you're treating this like an investor pitch.

Like, I'm so hyped. Are you ready? I'm ready. You gonna tell me? Give me a second. So Hank, what is something that you love, that you didn't know that you loved, that you use and consume, and that isn't associated with any single use plastics?

Are you definitely trying to give me to say my soda stream or not? I'm not trying to get me to say my soda stream? Or not? I'm not trying to get you to say your soda stream. Because that was, that really, really hit home. I had a soda stream. No, that is a bad billion dollar idea. We are not getting into the soda syrup business.

I refuse. Okay. What else? I don't know. T. Oh T, sure, sure, sure. I do love T. You don't know how T. Oh T, sure, sure, sure, I do love T. You don't know how much you love T yet,

because you are an American, right? And you don't know how good T can be, because T isn't sent to your house for $17 a month, the exact right amount of T. John, I think this is million dollar ideas too good. You're giving it away. You're giving away your best ideas here. Somebody already tweeted it means asking if they could do plant wars. Well, if you think that's good, just wait a little year

my idea for next week. All right, I'm in. So a tea subscription service, this must exist, but also, it's okay for there to be more than one company. For example, simple loose leaf and sips B and plum deluxe and David's T all were the top results when I searched for this with their own Google ads. Dang it. I didn't invent this idea. But hey, John, well, I'm just wording how to pitch million dollar ideas, Hank. So that's a helpful feedback.

Thank you. And I'll be back next week with a better one. I can't wait. I can't wait. All right. We haven't answered any questions in this episode of Dear Hank and John. It's been amazing. We've answered some. We have an important one that we have to get to. Okay. This one comes from Abby, who asks, Dear Hank and John. A few months ago, I somehow became the owner of the King Kamehameha statue in hallelujah, Hawaii, on Google businesses.

Wait, what? I don't know how this, so the, Gabby does not own the statue, but has been assigned ownership of the Google business somehow. I don't know how this happened. I've never been to Hawaii. I get quite a few emails a day letting me know that people have rated my statue. At first, it's not your statue.

It's a statue of King Kamehameha, it's his statue. At first, it was a pain because it crowds out my inbox, but after a while, I started to get really emotionally invested in the point, where I'm checking my email all the time to see if I've gotten a new five star review, but I also get my feelings hurt when people leave bad reviews. Who leaves a bad review on a statue,

especially one as lovely as this. Also, I get really upset when people leave bad reviews. Who leaves a bad review on a statue, especially one as lovely as this. Also, I get really upset when people leave four star reviews, but then they don't leave a comment. How could I possibly improve without any feedback? Anyway, I'm wondering what I should do about this. Sincerely, add this. Boy, nothing. Yeah, by the way, Hank, this statue has 1,456 reviews on Google.

Uh-huh. I just left one. Man, the five-star rating is just, it's really out of control. Johnny, want to read me some, some one-star reviews of this statue? Yeah, sure. Gilbert reports four months ago, just not interested, frowny face. Uh, Sherwin said, uh, I wish someday I'll go that place Hawaii to find work. So I don't know that that one was necessarily based on the statute.

So this one says, cheap Chinese food. Okay. Starting to think that some of these are not 100% legit, John. There's one that was translated by Google and Google did a great job translating it. The translation reads, it is enough from the trolley window. By the way, that is such a good summary of so many statues. Yeah. It is enough from the trolley window.

So I'm now looking at a picture of the statue and it's actually very cool. Like I would, just based on the pictures, I would give it five stars. It's covered in flowers. It's really awesome. That sounds great. I love to review of it, John.

Oh no. An hour ago, it says, hello, this is Hank. I'm just checking to see if you get this. Great statue, top notch. For better or worse, this is it. I mean, this is what you're doing with the rest of your life. You, this is, this is you now. Yeah. So Hank, the version of this in my own life is that there is someone who has shared their location with me. And I don't know why. And I know you have a bunch

of people who share their locations with you. And so this is, I got one in Hawaii. I'm looking at them right now. Ryan. Right. This is a thing that people do where they share their location with you. I don't understand why, but the person who has shared their location with me lives in Mozambique. And first off, I don't know how to unshare the location. Like I don't know how to not know a lot

about this person's life if you catch my drift. It's weird. I also just lifted up and Ryan, I think this is okay to say, has the Twitter handle at Hawaii? Wait, what? Spelled correctly. He is at Hawaii on Twitter. But that is wild. He works for Hawaii information.

He's got 24,000 followers. But the weird thing about this person in Mozambique, who shares their location with me, I mean, everything about it is weird, right? Right. The weird thing is, this is Mozambique could share his location with me. I mean, everything about it is weird, right? Right. The weird thing is, this is my, like, fairly private email that I don't even really use for correspondence. I only use for Google Maps in a vain attempt

to preserve some speck of my privacy. Okay, yeah. It's just weird. How'd you find it to share with me? How'd this person find my email address. Yeah. Also, this is like a really bad episode of Heavyweight. Ah!

Ha! Ha! Well, I can't wait to go to Hawaii and hang out with Ryan. He looks like a cool guy. And also, I want to go to Hawaii. Which reminds me that this podcast is brought to you by Ryan at Hawaii. This podcast is also brought to you by crying out your nose. Crying out your nose is why you can't stop.

It's not non-stuff. And additionally, this podcast is brought to you by all of the podcasts that John has recommended during this episode of the podcast. And finally, this podcast is brought to you by the Mountain Ghosts from Lord of the Rings, currently waiting in your faucet for you to need them. John, this next question comes from Audrey who asks,

dear Frank and Don, I don't know how I feel about that. Nope. That good. My cousin and his boyfriend are aloped to Paris to get married. Now several months later, they're holding a reception for friends and family at home in California. The only nice thing I have to wear is a white dress.

So I'm wondering what the rules are about wearing white to a wedding where there is no bride and the wedding is actually just a severely delayed reception. Neither of them wore white in Paris, but what if they decide to both wear a white tux and then I look like a fool? Should I just throw the dress in the wash with a red shirt and pink it up?

It would be okay to wear it or we'll be okay to wear it. A fair lady with a funny face Audrey. Delayed references also. I looked it. A fair lady with a funny face Audrey, delayed references also. I looked it up and Martha Stewart had a suggestion. So, a bell. Oh, great. What'd you say? Martha Stewart said, Audrey, ask. Which is probably where we would have ended up as well.

I love when Martha Stewart's advice is communicate. Just as, which is, you know, when we're giving our best advice, that's what it usually is. It's like, oh, you should probably have a conversation. So you can do that or you could just wear a white, because like, ultimately, if you only have one nice dress, then you don't wanna double the number of nice dresses you have.

That's just, that seems like a very big step. I would argue that you do want to double it. What you don't want to do is buy a 17th, right? It's the Rules of Marginal Utility, which I learned about from the podcast Planet Money. Okay, good. John likes that one too. I do love Planet Money, good. John likes that one too. I do love playing it money though. So maybe by a new dress, they can be acquired somewhat inexpensively, but ultimately, as you

could probably, you could probably just ask them, they'll probably say, no problem, odd. Is that what they call you? You call me Frank, so I'm going to call you odd. That's a great, actually, that's a great nickname. Whatever someone's name is, I like to shorten it to the first syllable. If we're extremely close, just to be clear, I don't do this with, you know.

I find it very obnoxious when people do that when they are not well acquainted with someone. Yeah, I've witnessed that interaction, but have never stepped in that pot myself, having a wife named Catherine, who is not a fan of Kathy. She doesn't have Kathy. She doesn't mind Kathy.

There's a very strange, Catherine doesn't mind people calling her Kathy as long as she's Canadian, because she thinks that it's a cultural difference. But I don't think it is. I don't think that's a Canadian thing, but she is because it's happened several times with Canadians, she's convinced herself that it's a cultural difference. But I don't think it is. I don't think that's a Canadian thing, but she is because it's happened several times with Canadians, she's convinced herself that it's,

oh, that's just a cultural thing. Well, you'll do live very close to Canada, so it doesn't surprise me that you have a lot of interactions. They're around with Canadian culture. And actually, now that I think about it, I feel like, and I don't want to overgeneralize here, but I feel like it is a Canadian thing. I feel like I I don't want to over generalize here, but I feel like it is a Canadian thing I feel like I saw that a lot in kids in the hall, which was my introduction to Canada

Hank, I really enjoyed this question from Mallory. She writes, dear John and Hank I recently joined Twitter in a bid to get a character named after me in the adventure zone Which is a podcast great podcast I tried to stay out of the outrage cycle, but the last week or so, it's getting to me. I'm not on any other social media right now, but I really want to engage with fans of things that I'm also a fan of online without getting sucked

into debates about who precisely is undermining our democracy. Should I give up and go back to a Twitter with existence or is there a way to deal with this best Mallory? Mallory, you're gonna get two different answers from two different brothers on this one. Yeah. You go first. As a thought experiment, I recently asked myself, could I join Twitter, not as myself,

but just as an anonymous person, as a Wheel of Fortune superfan? Somebody who wakes up in the morning in the first thing I think about is the television program Wheel of Fortune and Only follow other Wheel of Fortune super fans, which there are a number of on Twitter and only follow the hashtag hashtag Wheel of Fortune or hashtag W-O-F Could I have a really positive Twitter experience as a Wheel of Fortune super fan? And I think the answer is no. Yeah, you think that it would leak in? I think it leaks in because we naturally react to it

and respond to it. Like Twitter literally knows when you stop scrolling. So it knows like what you're reading carefully and inevitably a lot of what you read carefully is the stuff that outrages you or shocks you or surprises you. Yes, also the things that are funny, but it's the things that nudge you toward confirming your belief that other people are just monsters that inevitably makes my scrolling finger stop

scrolling. Yeah. I mean, maybe Mallory is different from me, but that is my experience. I cannot do it. I have tried many, many times. I can't. Hank can. So I look forward to him explaining to you how.

I don't know that I can. And so like my advice will ring a little hollow as someone who cannot. But in part, because like I'm not trying to, really, I'm still looking for it some and don't need it all the time. But sorry, I opened Twitter and I got distracted by a graph.

Oh my God. It was a graph of... Please include that. I'm gonna... Please include this. Tuna include all of this. I opened Twitter because I wanted to see some stuff, but boy, it does, it does grab your brain.

So basically, I think that you can do it if you choose the right people to follow. If you really want a specific Twitter, you can choose the right people to follow and you can block the things that you see coming up as negative experiences. But I also think that ultimately, we indulge in this in the outrage,

not because we are fragile frail people being manipulated by a giant social media algorithm, of course, in part, yes, but also because it works and we like it. And that's what we're kind of therefore. So the thing to actually ask yourself is like, am I to some extent there for this stuff? And if that's what we're kind of there for. So the thing to actually ask yourself is like, am I to some extent there for this stuff? And if that's the case,

then there's no way to do it without being there for that stuff. So I just have to like recognize that to some extent, I'm there for that. That's why I follow the people who I follow. It's why I haven't blocked, you know, certain keywords that I could block. But even, I feel like even if you do block that stuff,

it's still like on the sidebar, like anything that blocks the trending topics because that's like the easiest path into the outrage cycle. And I think that those trends should not exist anymore. I think that like they are used in like almost always manipulative ways. And not just like stuff about politics to be clear.

Like I think that sometimes this gets so wrapped up in politics that that's the only way that we look at this. And that is part of the problem. But like if you're into sports Twitter, for instance, which I was, the exact same thing, there is a sports version of the exact same thing, where the tweets that are infuriating, disgusting, horrifying, that put people into two distinct camps inevitably get a lot of attention. And then you also don't get the like most reliable information, right? Like you get the newest, freshest, hottest information, but a lot of times it turns out to be misleading. And that's true. Oh, yeah. Whether it's AFC Wimbledon Twitter or whether

it's political polls Twitter, you get the freshest or coronavirus Twitter. You get the freshest info that is the least vetted. Yeah. Okay, that's enough Twitter. Before we get to the all important news from Mars and AFC Wimbledon, I have to give you some wonderful, amazing, amazing news, Hank. You will recall in a past episode, somebody wrote in to say, where should we put our potatoes? Our new house doesn't have a potato box,

and we made so much fun of them. We had a great time making fun of Nick and his family and their potato box. Well, Nick wrote back, dear John and Hank, a few months ago, you answered my question about where adults are supposed to keep their potatoes, as I had only ever experienced my family keeping them in an antique handmade wooden potato bin. I played the episode of the pod for my parents over the holidays and they thought it was hilarious. Not so much your responses, just the idea that any respectable adult would ever intermix their potatoes, onions, and fruits on the counter.

You gotta have a box! So I went over to my folks today and my dad presented me with my very own hand-made wooden potato bin that he had made for our new house. It's not an antique yet, but I'm sure someday my children will ask the same questions I did only to be presented with a hand made wooden potato bin of their own thoroughly roasted Nick. The these potato bins, we're going to put them on the Patreon at patreon.com slash to your hangin' john.

You don't have to give any money to see them. These potato bins are amazing. They are beautiful. They're very nice. It's both the original antique potato bin and the one that Nick's dad made for Nick. And it is truly a work of art. But the best thing about it, Hank, is that it's a bin for potatoes. But then underneath is a little drawer for onions. Yeah, but the difference in size between those two things, like you can fit like 50 pounds of potatoes and like four onions. Yeah, but the difference in size between those two things, like you can fit like 50 pounds

of potatoes and like four onions. And like, is this the ideal? I'm imagining that Nick likely lives in potato country, you know? Yeah, you got a lot of potatoes. They're around. You're very lucky to have any onions at all. I think that we don't, we don't have like a banana for scale to know exactly how big this bin is, but it's sitting on a chair, John.

I know, but I don't know how there's a chair. Is that a tool next to that one? It's like, yeah, I don't know how big that stool is. For all I know, this could be some kind of fun house, but the point is that I think the drawer is big enough that most onions will fit into it, hence it being an onion drawer. Yeah. You could fit some onions in there. Like you could also fit some potatoes in there.

Looking at this, my first thought was, I need to get a potato bin. Yeah, also apparently like you that goes underneath the counter, it looks like is where it is stored. Yeah. The other thing I really like about the potato bin is that required Nick, absolutely required, is that there's potatoes in the onion drawer.

I need any guest that comes over, and it's like, do you have any onions? And you're like, yeah, check the onion drawer in the potato bin, and they pull it out, and it's just potatoes, and they're like, God dang it! I'm sorry, turns out we don't have any onions, just more potatoes.

That's the kind of house this is. I love it, Nick. Thank you so much for sharing that update, and we are really excited about your potato bins. So excited that I might get myself one. Maybe that's the new million dollar idea, John. We're gonna sell potato bins. Boom, we gotta get in the potato bin business. Nick, what's the margin on those?

How many can your dad make in like a two year period? John, you have news about AFC Wimbledon because I do. How many can your dad make in like a two year period? John, yeah, you have news about AFC Wimbledon because I do you have AFC Wimbledon news? I do and I don't even know that you know it because you're not on Twitter great What's your what's your AFC Wimbledon news? Mumford and sons tweets you don't Unbelievable effort so far from supporters of AFC Wimbledon to bring the don's home. TheplowlaneBond.com is what fan-owned football clubs are all about and epitomizes the spirit of our small and mighty community, Marcus. Hashtag Bring the Don's Home. Hashtag Marcus Mondays.

I don't know what a Marcus Mondays is, but Marcus is excited. And he posted a video. I'm going to listen to it. Well, that's great. So the Plow Lane Bond Hank is a bond that AFC Wimbledon supporters have put together where it's just like any other bond, you know, assuming that everything goes well, you get your capital paid back in addition to an interest payment, but it's all from the fans by the fans to avoid having to deal with banks and the relatively high interest rates that banks were offering.

And it's raised over 3.2 million pounds so far, which is just amazing. Yeah. So it's been really successful. You choose your interest rates. I love that. Yeah, you can choose your interest rate, 0% up to I think three or four percent annually.

And yeah, it's a really cool thing. You can go to platelainbond.com to learn more. AFC Wimbledon also did play a game over the weekend, but the less said about that, the better. We lost to Fleetwood Town. It was very annoying. We should not have lost the game, but we did. And that's how football works sometimes.

It was super frustrating. I felt like we played better. We had 18 shots to their eight shots, but only one shot on target. And you can't have that kind of clinical finishing and expect to be higher than 20th and week one, which coincidentally is precisely where we find ourselves. I will be nervous for you forever, apparently. That's how I'm starting to feel.

Hank, what's the news from Mars? So, the news from Mars is that the ionosphere of Mars has layers, which it basically is good, because it's like an onion or a parfait or an ogre, it has layers. And this is a Shrek reference. And the main thing is that it shows us that other planets besides Earth can have a layered ionosphere. But also Mars' atmosphere is thinner than Earth, which means that spacecraft can travel at lower altitudes to study the plasma layers with the long-term goal of understanding

how they form so we can have a more reliable radio communication, not just on Mars, but also on Earth. So because the ionosphere affects how radio transmissions work on Earth, but we can't study them easily because they're inside of our atmosphere, we can study them more easily on Mars for the atmosphere as thinner. So that was information thanks to the Mave and Spacecraft that NASA has been using, and has helping us troubleshoot problems here on Earth as well as on Mars, which is really cool.

That is cool. In some ways, we are already a two-planet species. Yeah, I mean, robots are kind of people too. No, not really. But we are using tools on Mars and around Mars, which is pretty mind-blowing. It is. Yeah, absolutely. And we're just molecules eating molecules, John. We're just molecules eating molecules and studying Mars, which is itself just molecules. Yeah, well, Hank, thank you for potting with me. It has been a great pleasure.

This podcast is a co-production of Complexly and WNYC Studios, although I'm not sure that either company is particularly proud to identify such at the moment. It's edited by Joseph Dune-Metish, our head of community and communications. Still for just a bit longer. This Victoria von Jurenau podcast is produced by Rosie on a House of Real House in Cherish in Gibson and the music that you're listening to right now and at the beginning of the pod is from the great gunerola. As they say in our hometown, don't forget to be awesome.