Dear Hank & John - 309: The Modern Pacifier

Episode Date: November 1, 2021

Do subatomic particles have color? How do I be less dependent on my phone? What happens if you eat the scoby? How do you help a parent when they lose their job? Where did museums come from?  Hank Green and John Green have answers!If you're in need of dubious advice, email us at [e-mail] 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 and John. Gorgeous, I prefer to think of it dear John and Hank. It's a podcast where two brothers answer your questions, give you to be a advice and bring you all the weeks news from both Mars and AFC Wimbledon. John, do you know why Tesla's cost so much? Why Hank? Because they charge a lot. Hmm, they do.

That's a great observation. Thank you. I'm shocked genuinely that you didn't tell a sock based dad joke. I was, there was a time crunch. Just days from now is it's the most important holiday, third most important holiday in all of third-futuria. The Awesome Sox Club, Hank. Yeah. I want to talk a little bit about

the Awesome Sox Club before we answer questions from our listeners, because I'm just going to tell you the truth. When you told me that you were starting a Sox subscription, where 100% of the proceeds would go to charity, I said, I believe I can quote myself directly. I said, that sounds like a good niche product. A pair of socks is emailed to you every month. The socks have a wonderful design.

Oh, I don't email them. That would be amazing if we emailed you the socks. But you three different them at home. No, a pair of socks is mailed to you directly to your house every month. And all of the proceeds, not some, not like we said a pair of socks to people who need a hundred percent of the proceeds go to charity. When you told me this idea, I was like, so good idea. It's not a great idea. In fact, I believe that I literally said, it's not a million dollar idea, but it's a good idea.

It's so close to being a million dollar idea now, John. It is close. It's close. And it's close that we've raised. I think we've donated $700,000. We have donated $700,000 to help reduce maternal and child mortality in Sierra Leone and strengthen the healthcare system in Sierra Leone through the Awesome Sox Club. It is incredible. I was wrong. I love being wrong about your ideas. And in three days, AwesomeSox.club will begin taking subscriptions again, but only for a

10 day period. So just while you're while you're thinking about it, just go to awesomesocks.club right now and sign up for to get the email alert when the subscription's open because they're only open for 10 days. And I really want Hank's million dollar idea to actually be a million dollar idea. So go sign up. All the proceeds go to charity. It's incredible what Hank and the team at DFTBA have accomplished through the awesome socks club. And by the way, Hank, I have a broken foot right now. I have really talked about this.

Oh my God, I have no idea. What? Yeah, I've really talked about it. We don't have to get into the details, but I'm wearing a boot. And you know, usually that would mean that my fashion levels are reduced. It's natural state of things when you're wearing a boot except you're booted. My fashion levels are actually improved because I get to wear my awesome socks, but socks every day and people are like, dang, forget about the boot.

Where'd you get those socks? I do get a lot of compliments on the socks. Oh, yeah. No, I'm like, I'm sorry. The club is only open like for like 10 days a year. It's an unusual club. We do this to minimize the amount of returns that we have. Inventory risk is what they call it. Yes.

Inventory risk. So sign up for awesome socks dot club. Now you go, you go there. There's a banner at the top. You click on the banner and then you click on the email when available link, and we'll let you know when it's available. You could be the first person to get this year's Awesome Sox Club. I'm so excited about getting my more awesome socks. It really is. I know. It's a little monthly joy in my life. It's such a, it's a little delight. Yeah. I was

totally surprised by him. I was so wrong. I, I would say I've never been that wrong, but actually I'm that wrong often. This was not just a hankering idea. There was, there was a lot of different inputs to this idea at DFTBA. And we did once have like a nerdfighter sock subscription. Yeah, I remember that. Yeah. And, and that went away. And when it, and like we just decided we just decided to change the vibe a lot when we launched Awesome Socks. We're a lot of input from a lot of great people at DFTBI. So thank you to all of them.

And I love it. So, and thank you to everybody who's a member now. The biggest compliment though that you have given me about these socks, John. And I know we're talking about socks that no one can get right now. Is that like you're really, you're like picky about stuff, like maybe a little bit too picky sometimes where I'm like, all right, Mr. Everything, like it has to be just John Green's way.

And you got the socks and you're like, you know, like, I like these socks a lot. And I like, that made me feel very good that we got my favorite socks now. I will say that was the most back-handed compliment in response to a compliment I have ever received. You're a very picky guy. I Like I'll tell you what I like the socks less than I did 12 seconds ago. That's for sure But I do like the socks a lot. They're my favorite socks. They're my go-to number one socks in my drawer I also like that because they're they're they're different patterns, but they're the same sock. I can mix them at. Yeah, and it's a little less weird. That's a bridge too far for me. Hank, I do want to answer questions from our listeners. Once again, that's awesompsocks.club. But before we answer questions from our listeners, there's been a big development in the field of,

could John beat X in hand-to-hand combat? All right, which is that TJ wrote in to say, dear John and Hank, John, I love you very much. It's a little too much, TJ, but thank you. But a 20 pound you could never win a fight with a house cat. There is no possibility. I'm not convinced that current you could win a fight with a house cat. Imagine fighting at your current size against a cougar that's 125 pounds.

That's a pretty close approximation to a scaled house cat of 10 pounds. Cougars can easily grab an adult sheep and leap over a six foot fence with the sheep in its mouth. Do you seriously mean to tell me that you could defeat that kind of cat? Have you even fought your own house cat? Sure, if you had a baseball bat, you could win, but if you're just walking around the yard and it decides to surprise you, you are going to have some serious issues and you outweigh it by 190 pounds. I love cats, but I know my place, TJ. Wow.

I still think you could beat up a cat, John. I'm on team John. I think 20 pound me could beat up a 10 pound cat, but again, as we've talked about before, I don't think I'd have to use my fists. I think I could use could beat up a 10 pound cat, but again, as we've talked about before, I don't think I'd have to use my fists. I think I could use my powers of persuasion. I do, you do have very strong powers of persuasion, John. I can say this as a person who has been persuaded

by you a number of times. However, you have been unable to persuade me to get off Twitter, which is where you are spending most of your powers of persuasion these days. Not really, I mean, I, I, I'm not telling you not to tweet. I'm telling you to reduce the number of tweets that you send by 60%. And by the way, so's Catherine, so's everybody.

I gotta say, John, half your replies are people saying, oh, what if you tweeted a little less? What if I only tweet when I'm drunk? What if that's a new rule? Mm, I mean, I feel like, because it feels like those ones are better. I feel like then you might start drinking more and I don't want that.

I love that you're like a classic moderate drinker. You're one to two units and that's it. Oh gosh, at a time, certainly not per day, just for clarity. No, no, no, like you max out at two units, her occurrence. Yeah, yeah. Unless it's a very special occasion. I've seen you have three units only once or twice and you were flying under a table with Vi,

from Vi, you know, I remember your situation. Now, I remember your bachelor party. Oh, no, that was, that is the strongest I've ever been. You probably had four units at your bachelor party, and I thought you were gonna bar for like the last four hours of the party. I think I had more than that. I wasn't counting well.

You know, that's the, that's the, this is a legit deer ink and John tip. Always know how many drinks you've had. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, keep track of your units. I'm a big believer in that. I know exactly how many units I had that evening and believe you me, it was more than four.

That evening ended for me at like 3 30 in the morning in a VFW bar at the very back of it. And I was just playing a slot machine. I was playing like a nickel slot machine for like two hours. And I looked at my watch and I was like, oh, I'm tired because it's six in the morning. Yeah. I've been playing the slots since four. It turns out this gambling stuff is pretty addictive. You can really, I think I'm really hooky in.

It was like $60. Yeah, I was in the basement of the double front chicken one time and I decided to play like a nickel poker on a video machine and I sat down and I, on my first nickel, $120. And you know, my first thought was, if I had bet a dollar, on my first nickel, won $20. And you know, my first thought was, if I had bet a dollar, that would have won. That's how they get 1,000. 4,000, I'm so bad at this.

Whatever, a big number. That's how they get you. That's how they get you. That's how they get you. It is truly. That's programs to make me, like, feel like you're programmed to make me win when I, when I like sit down and spend one nickel. So that I start playing for a dollar.

Well, one of the observations that my best friend, Chris made to me that I think is just so deeply true is that it is much better to lose it a casino than it is to win because if you win, you start to think that you're always going to win. Yes. How many people have been saved by losing? I mean, I've never won money to casino. So that's one of my, I have no data points. As far as the anecdotal data goes, you cannot win at a casino.

Yeah, I'm 0 for 400 so far, but I look forward to trying again. I will say like I, as you know, Hank, like one of my great character weaknesses is how much I enjoy going to a casino and pretending to be someone who I'm not losing $100. Yeah, like, and I, I wear clothes that I would never wear in real life. And I talk to strangers which I never do in real life. And I, um, I sometimes affect accents and I often pretend like when people ask me about my backstory, I'm always like, what's it going to be tonight? Well, this is amazing. And then they're like, because you look so much like John Green. And you're like, that's, that's all, no, no, no, no, I get that's all the time.

My name is Pierre Green, Pierre Veld. It's like how you say, from a valley. That's you sitting there and you're like, no, no. I am an engineer. I know lots about that. I am an engineer. I know that's about guters. I worked on the space station. Yeah.

No, I mean, it's actually. For the French space agency. It's actually worse than that, to be honest with you. I'm off it. I'm off it with Sarah. And Sarah will be like sitting next to me. It just like glancing at me like wait what? That's not true.

Wait, we're from Oregon. Look, here's the situation. I'm not here to make a long-lasting friend. I'm here to have them and me have an experience and that experience doesn't have to be based in reality. We're in a casino. This is like if it be based in reality. We're in a casino. This is like if it was based in reality, no one would be here. Yeah, yeah. No, I'm in a miniature version of Venice. Like nobody, nothing inside here is real or rational. Yeah. But yeah, on the other hand, I'm so committed to the idea of winning. That the first time I ever went up in a casino,

I walked out. I was like, I was there. I beat the casino. That helps. Has nothing on me. Hank played the game in the casino with the worst odds and he won a $20 bet. He won $20 and then he was like, I'm good.

Yeah. Why would I keep doing this? I haven't even settled in yet. Like, it was like right by the elevators too. It was like the first thing you hit when you come off the elevator. Yeah. Because of course, it has very bad odds

so they want you to play that game. But it was when I understood. Yeah. And so I played that. It was casino war. Like the game that you put. Still the what it was. It's just a game war.

Hank turns over a card, the dealer turns over a card. He never's card is higher wins, but if it's a tie, the dealer wins. Like it's the dumbest. It's very bad odds. Yeah, but not only that, it's dumb. Like, there's no, there's nothing to it. Like it made me believe that there's nothing to any of them. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I remember like Hank turned over a king, Dio turned over a nine, Hank got a $20 chip and he just walked away. And I was like, well, that is a different approach. I was like, what else do people do here in Vegas? Why did you have your bachelor party in Las Vegas? That seems very atypical. Oh God, yeah, I mean, we had a good time,

but only because I was with my friends and you, not because. Could have been anywhere. We had a couple good dinners, I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. It's not. I'll tell you what, it's not. We didn't do a lot of Vegas-y stuff.

I don't think I've been back in the interview. I know. I was back for like a conference for work or something, but yeah. No, when I go to a casino, it's always the one in French lick Indiana. Oh, I was back for like a conference for work or something, but yeah, no, when I go to a casino It's always the one in French lick Indiana. Oh, no, which is just oh, I love they call it There's a place called French lick. What's what's the lick and what's French French lick Indiana is where Larry Bird is from one of the greatest basketball players of all time and

Yes, is he French? I don't think so I used to be like a hot springs kind of healing capital, like Franklin Delano Roosevelt used to go there sometimes and it sort of had that reputation. Sure. And then it fell on hard times like all places like that and became a gambling mecca, but only for a very, only for people in Indiana. So, so it's, I love French lick, man. I'm, that's why I had my 40th birthday party. Sarah's like, where do you want to go?

Anywhere on earth. And I was like, I think I want to go to French lick. Boy, Sarah's like, okay, well close. We can have a, we can have a nice time. If you ever want to meet John Green's alter ego, Pierre Vaird, get on over to French lick Indiana. I mean, after coded. I'm not going to French lick right now.

I'm going to be honest with you. The area has rich mineral sources, John. Yeah, I know. Rich mineral sources, and those are the lick, and it was first settled by French people. There you go. Yeah. Pierre is on hiatus until. Yeah, I know. Rich mineral sources and those are the lick and it was first settled by French people. There you go. Yeah, Pierre is on hiatus until, uh, yeah, until this whole global pandemic thing is, is well and truly over. Can't wait to meet him. This first question. What, was there a question? No, I don't know how we got there. This question comes from Oglise who writes, dear John and Hank, do subatomic particles have color? Depends on what you mean.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I, I wanted to ask this question because I don't know the answer. Do they? They don't, right? So they do not, so they don't have color in the, in the traditional, like in, in order to have a color, um, certain, uh, photons, wavelengths of photons have to be absorbed and certain photons have to be absorbed, and certain photons have to be reflected, that requires a molecular structure. There were an atomic structure. So you can't, it cannot

happen with subatomic particles, because the actual thing that makes the color happens at a atomic, not subatomic level. However, however, there is such thing as color charge, which is nothing to do with color. So in that way, they do have color, they have color charge. What? What, what do you mean it has nothing to do with color? I would like to read you what Richard Feynman

had to say about color charge. He said, the idiot physicists unable to come up with any wonderful Greek words anymore, call this type of polarization by the unfortunate name of color, which has nothing to do with color in the normal sense. He was not pulling any punches. He, I completely agree with him. We just couldn't come up with another word. Because we found out all these different properties of subatomic particles. And we had to name them based on something.

And so subatomic particles have spin, which is a thing that has a momentum similar to what spin would have, but is not really spinning. And we have color, which is a property that exists, I don't know, maybe on a spectrum, I don't understand it well enough. But there's several different colors. But maybe it's like how somebody might say that something is like colored by violence

or colored by love. Not really, it's like there were three different things. So instead of being like a one or two thing, there were three and so the artist was like, well, it's red, green, and blue them. Oh, I see. So they really just created color where none exists. Yes.

Yes, and Feynman was like, you idiot physicists, literally, you called them idiot physicists. Yeah, that seems a little aggressive to me. Like, they could have been, they could have been, they could have been something. It's confusing. Yeah. Well, what would you have picked?

Um, I don't know. I think I probably would have had a consult with my friend who works on the French space station Pierre. Um, I feel like he'd be more qualified than me. I'm gonna use A, B and C. Yeah, like that, like exactly, that kind of thing. Yeah, like letter charge. Letter.

Yeah, something that be said. Because then we at least know that it's not actually a thing. Right. Yeah, you get the idea that it's not what we're saying. It is. That reminds me a little bit of the first time that I ever encountered Algebra when I was I think in seventh or sixth grade and the teacher like wrote on the board like x plus 6 equals 9 what is x?

And I was like a letter. X is a letter. Why are we introducing English into our math? Yeah, yeah, you got there eventually. You figured it out. I still wish it had been something a little more abstract than a letter because it still bothers me.

Like when I see an X and a Y axis, I always think like, no, they aren't. They're not X and Y axes. They're up and down and left and right axes. Yeah. All right. That's my that's my criticism of the idiot mathematicians even though my suggestion Literally came from their idea. All right, but I was the what what question did we answer? Have we answered a question? Yeah, we answered the question about whether subatomic particles have color now, no, before that was there was no question before that. I don't know. We got no idea how we got to casinos.

None. We were talking about the awesome socks club. I tried to transition into talking about something else. I don't remember. There was something about drinks. Yeah, we were talking about the awesome socks club. Was that not a conversation? Was that not a question?

No, we were talking about, no, it was. It wasn't. It was because we were telling somebody not to drink. No, I was telling you, not to use Twitter so much, which you brought up out of nowhere in the middle of a conversation. So it really didn't, okay. It's just a fun conversation.

So just to recap, we have answered one question. Let's try to answer the second one. Okay. Just a fun conversation. So just to recap, I think we have answered one question. Uh huh. Let's try to answer the second one. Okay, this one's from, we can do it. I believe in us. This one's from Madison who writes, to your John and Hank, I realized I used my phone

like a pacifier. Oh, God. No, that's gonna, that's definitely gotta put it in rice. That's a problem. Oh, no, no. I'm not concerned about that although now that you mentioned it It is not a good pacifier Madison. I feel like a pacifier would be a much better pacifier

I said oh god because I just realized that I use my phone like a pacifier. What does that mean? All the times that like when my kids were little and I would be like I don't know how to solve your problems. All right, here's a pacifier. Oh, I use my phone like that. For you're on yourself or on your children? For myself. When I am upset. Yeah, I probably do that too.

When I need distraction. When I am seeking oblivion. To not feel the kind of background anguish that seems to accompany a lot of human life. I'm like, oh, I think I'll look at TikTok. Yeah. I recently did an update on my phone, and I was really upset because it was taking so long,

and I couldn't use it. I literally could have thrown a temper tantrum. How do I lessen my dependency on my phone? Madison, you have come to the wrong place. I can tell you what I would do if I had the self-control to do it. Which is, which is you have to increase your dependency on other things. Like, you have to have the, like, you have to develop all of the subroutines for, like, what to do when there isn't that subroutine, which is such an easy one, right?

You know, put, pick up and look at the pretty thing. It's shiny and pretty and beautiful and it has contains all the world's information. So it's pretty enticing. It also contains all of the world's misinformation for the record, not all of it, but most of the world's misinformation. Yeah, yeah.

So like, I mean, that's like saying like, yeah, yeah, no, it's, yeah, it contains infinite content. It does. And it's so, uh, alluring. Yeah. It's easy to forget that, yeah, yeah. And it's just so alluring. Yeah. But the, but the most alluring thing about it is that once you do a lot, it's just like this habit routine that runs in your brain and it's like, ah, I'm not doing anything right now, might as well check on Instagram. And that is a difficult thing to interrupt and to replace with something else. But I think it's really good to have diverse routines if we can develop them. It's hard. But and, and, you know, another one would be like,

oh, I'm, I don't have anything to do right now, so I will eat, which is a thing that I, I can have a problem with sometimes where I just like, oh, I'm like snacking, but only because I didn't have something to do right now. And I didn't want to like be staring at my phone. So a better one would be like a book that I might want to be reading. A better one would be a drawing that I'm working on or a journal that I'm journaling in or something like that. What drawing are you working on? Well, Catherine draws. I was drawing from her experience, not mine. Okay. Yeah, I think that's good advice. Madison, what I love about your question is that it acknowledges the size of the problem

and I think a lot of us are minimizing the problem. A lot of us are saying, well, I can stop using my phone any time I want. I don't have to be on Twitter or TikTok. And like, I've experienced my own life that it is actually very, very hard to resist, for me at least, to resist those temptations in any kind of long-term or systematic way. And really for me to do it, I have to make it impossible. Yeah, I have to make it impossible to use.

Because if it is possible to use, even if it is difficult, I will use it. Like, for a while, I had this block on my computer where I had to like solve an algebra problem in order to get on Twitter and all it did was make me good at algebra again. Well, that's not nothing. Yeah, no, I mean, it's not without a benefit. But like the point is that like I was willing to do math. The thing I hate most in the world, in order to access these, you know, private companies that will give me little dopamine rushes in a semi-randomized

way. John, this next question comes from Anna Luisa who asks, Steerhank and John, I want to start making my own kombucha. So I've been watching a lot of YouTube videos on how to do that. But one thing has kept me awake. So many things could be, what would happen if I just took a big bite out of the scoby, the microbial culture? I've yet to acquire mine. And I'm worrying that if I won't have the self-control to not eat it, thank you. Analuise. Johnny, you know what? Scoby, what a scoby is? Johnny, you know what Scoby, what a Scoby is?

Yes. Do you know what it stands for? Cause I was, sometimes I think people don't realize it's an acronym, it stands for symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast, Scoby. Oh God, I'm sorry, I can't get over the question. I, you have folded it. I know, I can, I know, I remember it. I just had forgotten it and now I'm now I'm like seeing only in tunnel vision. I want I will say this for myself.

I may not have a lot of self control, but I 100% have the self control not to be a bunch of booches scoby. Yeah, I mean call me Mr. Will Power because no problem. So so Deboki research this and it is it is apparently perfectly edible, which makes sense because it's in your kombucha. So it should be it better be because it's it's touching it. Um, I do remember the first time you ever heard about kombucha, John? Yeah, I mean, it's something that Sarah drinks and I can't, I understand that I drink and

eat things that are slathered in microbes all day and I understand that kombucha is delicious and has lots of nutrition and whatever. It's just that I can't, it's not for me, I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it. And there's some things you can do and some things you can't do, and that's one of the things I can't do. So I was in my friend's apartment in maybe 2004.

So before like kombucha was a thing you could get in grocery stores. And like I was in an environmental studies master's program. So it was pretty, you know, crunchy. Fans of the earth kinds of vibes. Sure. And of nature and naturalness and that kind of thing. And my friend like busted out of her closet, a jar

with like a big like two gallon jar with one of those big lids, you know, I can barely get your hand around the whole thing. So like it wasn't like a, it felt very industrial. It wasn't like a, like, some, like a setup where I felt like there was a lot of thought had gone into it. But it was just like, you know, you open it and like, my perspective is, if it hisses when you open it, you throw it away.

Like, because there's something growing in there. It hissed because it's carbonated and the microbes are producing gases. Then it's just poured in a cup in the past the cup around. That's how people drank kombucha back then. I had some and I was like, I did not like that. Like it wasn't cold, it was in a jar, in a closet. And I don't know if like now there may be a little more sweetened or more flavored, but it just tasted like bubbly vinegar water to me.

And I don't like vinegar, especially a lot anyway. And so I didn't have another kombucha for a long, long time. And then I had one that like is a bottled kind and I was like, oh, I see. They've made this more palatable experience. But my experience from watching my friend make kombucha is, it seems like it's a fine hobby. But I, as a chemist, and that seems dangerous.

It seems dangerous because you don't know what, like my grobe might get introduced there and it's going to spoil your kombucha. Like you'll probably notice if your kombucha is spoiled, but still like that that gives me the wrong vibes. And then also like anytime you have a big glass thing with a lot of pressure building up inside of it, that that's physically potentially problematic. I get out, I'm just be careful. Follow all the proper precautions. Don't explode a jar in your closet. The answer to your question is yes, by the way. It is, it is edible.

Yes, it is edible. And contains many of the same health benefits of kombucha itself. And I know that because I just read it on the internet, which is the most trustworthy, just Google things, and the first answer is always correct. Why, why, why, why, I just, I just Googled, can kombucha explode, and the answer is yes, it can.

Yeah, I mean, you gotta, you gotta be careful with anything, though, Hank, any, any, Harvey, because there's always risks. It's true, there are people who jump off mountains. And I'd, I think probably the healthier option would be making a delicious microbial brew at home, which reminds me that today's podcast is brought to you by eating the scoby. Just taking a big ol' bite out of it. I just, just wanted to say that phrase one more time.

Just sink your teeth on in. This podcast is also brought to you by the French space station. Is well, very, very little known space station that's up there doing its great work. Thanks to Pierre for all his hard work on the French space station. I was going to try to do a French accent where I say it wasn't easy, but I can't because the actual accent I do at a casino is my natural southern accent. But anyway, today's podcast is also brought to you by Casino War, Casino War, number one, and only Casino game Hank Green has ever played.

And this podcast is also brought to you, of course, by the Awesome Sox Club, AwesomeSox.club. Again, that's AwesomeSox.club. It opens on November 5th, and it's only open for 10 days. So sign up as fast as you can. We also have a project for Awesome Message from I'm Move from New Jersey to Davina. Well, I told you that if you wouldn't help me write this Dear Hank and John Personal Message by the Deadline that I would just use it to publicly declare my love for you.

So, Davina, the deadline is coming gone and now the whole world knows how much I love you. Love, love, love, there. Take that. That's great. It's a high number of emails lately along these lines. And this one is from a young person who wrote us to say, dear John and Hank, what do people do when you learn that your parent might lose their job? How do I make this point in their life better for them? Pumpkins and penguins anonymous. So when we were kids, our dad anonymous. So when we were kids, our dad did switch careers. And it was it was a little bit of a I remember it as scary. I don't know how you remember it Hank, but I remember it as oh yeah. Definitely being yeah it was like one of the it was the first time when I when I was like aware that my parents were people

and had problems and like and that they might need me, and it was really scary for me to like see Mom and Dad be upset. Right, and I, and also like, not know, you know, like that uncertainty. Yeah, and I think that's what this question is, right? Because like a lot of like when we're really young, our parents sort of insulate us from uncertainty, you know, if we're lucky, I think, and insulate us from instability and insecurity. And then at some point, you realize, like, oh, they're people too.

And they're going through hard times, scary times. And you're not fully insulated from it. I think the most important thing, like, I come with this question now from the perspective of a parent and the most important thing that any parent wants is to know that their kid is okay. And you know, that's all I want. Yeah. And I want to have a job so that my kids are okay.

Right. And so like the, there are, in times of uncertainty, there are like, you know, there are things that change. And I think that that's the main thing is to know that like everyone's on board to get through the problem in what, in the way, like to solve the problem or to move through it in whatever ways it are gonna be necessary. And that that's not like the hope is to not

introduce too much shame or a feeling of like that your parent is letting you down, like that you understand that this isn't them letting you down. That's probably what they need to feel the most. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, look, ultimately, when you're a kid, your job is to be a kid, like your job isn't to take care of your parents, your job is to be a kid. And, and that's, you're doing what you're supposed to be doing. But I think if you can, if, if you feel like you're in a position to say, I love you and my love for you is not contingent upon your work. And we, I want to do anything I can to support you through this.

That's a great thing to hear and it's nice to have that reassurance. Yeah. I'm sorry you're going through such a hard time, though. And I'm sorry so many people are. This is really quite a tough time. Yeah, it is super weird. And I hope that it gets better soon. John, this next question comes from Tina who asks, Dear Hank and John, when did museums become a thing? Like, did people whose houses are now museums once go to museums themselves? That would be pretty meta. Pumpkins in penguins, Tina. But John, let me know if this is true. Okay. Because it feels like something you would know. I imagine what happened is some rich person was like, I cannot feel the whole of worth. And so I'm

going to acquire as many weird things as I can that feel valuable. And I'm going to put them in my home and then people are going to come over to my home and they're going to be like, look at all this cool stuff you have acquired and I'm going to feel good about that. And then I'm going to die and then I'm going to be like, somebody should have this and so I'm going to give it and my money to a place that will then house it and show it off in perpetuity. That sounds to me like how a museum got started. That is part of how museums got started. There were also these things called cabinets of curiosities that people would pay to go see. You know, so like you would pay to go see a

cabinet of curiosities and it was halfway between a sort of carnival and a contemporary museum. So you'd sort of have a quasi-historical thing, but you'd also be looking at dragon bones. And so that's kind of the other strain that went into the creation of the contemporary museum. But it is very, like when we were kids, Hank, we grew up very near this botanical garden and museum called Lou Gardens. And

Lou, the house that you could like walk through and that they were guided tours of. And you would, it was just a guy's house. It was just, it was a rich person's house. There was nothing else to it. It was just a rich person who'd left their house to a charity that, then you walk through this rich person's house and you're like, this is where this rich person ate dinner and this is where this rich person wrote their memos and like, this is where this rich person slept. And like, I remember like doing tours to the house and just being like, huh, it's, it's kind of cool. It's a person's house. It's kind of cool to see how people lived in the 1880s

in Florida. Oh, it wasn't an easy place even to be very rich. Well, but why is this here? Like I understand why the gardens are there. You know, like I understand why, why they're botanical gardens and everything, but I was always a little confused about the house part. And there is definitely an aspect.

I mean, I think this is something that people who work in museums and people who are interested in museum studies are really grappling with right now, which is that there is a big aspect of the museum in general that is troubling by contemporary standards, both in terms of like how objects and artifacts get acquired, which artifacts are treated as art,

which artifacts are treated as sort of like exotic and therefore aren't even if they aren't art in their original context. Right. And not only that, there's also the element of like these semi-private museums. Museums that as you say Hank are basically a rich person who collected a bunch of art and then got a huge tax break by giving that art quote unquote away

while still getting to like walk through the museum of their own construction every time they want to. It's complicated and like the relationship between It's complicated. And like the relationship between extractive capitalism and museums and kind of the quote unquote art world in general is, I think, difficult for a lot of people to navigate including me. I hear that, John. Do you know where the word museum comes from? I don't.

It was a school. Oh, it was the big university in Alexandria. It was called the Museo. Oh. And so it's like, I love. Yeah, that's nice. I still look. Yes, it's from the muses.

So I can get the, you know, the inspiration, all kind. I still like, I still love going to museums. I love going, and I especially love free museums that are available to everyone. And I love going to see art. And I love that there are these places that preserve art for us. But I also think we got a grapple with the complicated parts. Oh, for sure. Yeah. And because Sarah's line of work, you're pretty aware of that. And also, I think that the conversation start out small and then they get bigger and

bigger until we actually really do as a society change the way that we think and act. Yep. That is how it tends to happen. Yeah. You know. And so I think there are encouraging changes happening in the world of museums, but I also think there's a ways to go. Hank, speaking of beautiful objects, let's turn our attention to football. Specifically, America's favorite third-tier Inglissocrates team, AFC Wimbledon,

which lost their most recent game, but it was like a game that we were expected to lose. We lost it. I watched the highlights that came up on my YouTube page and I was like, oh, I was like, oh, that was not a game where I felt like we were there was a chance of victory. No, we weren't in that one. I think that's safe to say. We were, we were not meaningfully involved in that. I was impressed that we didn't give up a goal in

the first half. But before that, we played Lincoln City and we won one nil, a game memorable for a couple reasons. First off, because it was our first week game this season, where we did not give up a goal out of 14 games. So that's, that's good. That's really encouraging. And secondly, because we want a game without first coming from behind, which I don't think we've previously done all season. Nice. So we're still in 14th place. Now almost a quarter of the way into the League One season. And 14th place would be an amazing result. Unfortunately, our injury woes continue. And especially in central defense, things are getting a little, a little thin. So who knows what the next few games will bring? Will Nightingale are long time, long serving central defender who's been with the club since he was a weapon years old is out for at

least three more months. And so it's going to be a tough run of games here in the next few weeks. And we'll just have to see how we do. We do have our first round FA Cup game coming up. And this is one of the knockout competitions, the biggest knockout competition. And we will be playing a team from, I think the seventh tier of English football, and they have a great name. It's Geysley, or possibly G-Gewsley?

I don't have great French, just playing. You never know. So funny. Pierre's French is so good, minus so bad. So, you're absolutely g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g 1500 people were there, which is awesome. And they won seven to one. So they are moving on to the second round of the FA Cup where they will play Millwall, which is a much stiffer challenge than we had in the first round. But our women's team looks great this year. And I think they have every opportunity to win. And I'm really excited. Well, good. I'm looking forward to some good goals from all the Wombles, John, in Mars news. So finally, we get to know more of what it sounds like on Mars, which isn't like a super high scientific priority.

But so NASA has created a resource. If you go to Mars.nasa.gov slash Mars 2020, you can listen to some of the sounds that have been recorded by the microphones. Now they have helped scientists learn some things about Mars and learn about like changes in the atmosphere and stuff. But mostly it's like, we could put a microphone on this

and why wouldn't we? But also they have, you know what I like on Mars? Gravity is different. And so like, you can type in like how much you weigh and then find out like how much you would weigh on Mars. Well, that's also true of sound. So, a thing on Mars would sound different than if it were on Earth.

So, you can take stuff like birds or trucks backing up or at the noise of a city, and you can put them through a system that makes it as sound as if it was happening on Mars. And you can use this like interactive tool there where you can listen to what it would sound like different things would sound like if they were on Mars. And that the sound changes based on mostly the pressure. So there's just less air molecules to bounce into each other, so that makes it quieter, but also cuts out certain wavelengths of sound.

And then, and also it's colder, so that can also affect how sound travels. So if you want to find out about that, you can go to marz.nasa.gov slash marz 2020. One more time, please. Give me that, give me that you are a one more time. Oh, it's Mars dot NASA dot gov slash Mars 2020. Thank you. I'm going now. I'm excited to find out. I'm excited to find out I'm going to sound on Mars. I'm going to show I know that the kids will love that. That'll be so cool to share with them. kids will love that. That'll be so cool to share with them. Well, Hank, thank you for potting with me. Thanks to everybody for listening. We're off to record our Patreon only podcast at patreon.com slash deer, Hank, and John.

It's called This Weekend Stuff. It's short and not very good. You should check it out. patreon.com slash deer, Hank, and John. This podcast is edited by Joseph Tuna Mettish. It's produced by Rosy Anaheus Rojas and our communication coordinator is Julia Bloom. Our editorial assistant is Devoki Trockervardi,

the musicie hearing now, and at the beginning of the podcast, it's by The Great Gun of Rola, and as they say, in our hometown. Don't forget to be awesome.