Lateral with Tom Scott - 102: A greengrocer's book

Episode Date: September 20, 2024

Hank Green, Ceri Riley and Daniel Peake face questions about fake facts, ridiculous roads and wrongful words. PRE-ORDER THE BOOK: https://www.lateralcast.com/book LATERAL is a comedy panel game podcast about weird questions with wonderful answers, hosted by Tom Scott. For business enquiries, contestant appearances or question submissions, visit https://lateralcast.com. HOST: Tom Scott. QUESTION PRODUCER: David Bodycombe. EDITED BY: Julie Hassett at The Podcast Studios, Dublin. MUSIC: Karl-Ola Kjellholm ('Private Detective'/'Agrumes', courtesy of epidemicsound.com). ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS: Cherimoya, Alex, Chris Schulz. FORMAT: Pad 26 Limited/Labyrinth Games Ltd. EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: David Bodycombe and Tom Scott. © Pad 26 Limited (https://www.pad26.com) / Labyrinth Games Ltd. 2024. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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What are the two most common words that aren't listed in a Scrabble dictionary? The answer to that at the end of the show. My name's Tom Scott and this is Lateral. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Whoever coined that phrase clearly hasn't understood the second law of thermodynamics. Actually, maybe that's a bit harsh, but then maybe I'm just lacking enthalpy. So here's the thing. The producer has sometimes put instructions in these script reads for me.

Sometimes it just says, take a beat. Sometimes it's got a reading instruction. And this, just about, just in bold, in square brackets, this is a good pun. Oh, it's a great pun. That doesn't mean we laugh at it. I thought it was going to be, make a tsss noise, gotta get that heat joke, really rub it in. Yep. Joining us today, and having already revealed themselves,

thank you very much, we have three players returning to the game. We start with question writer and researcher Dan Peake. Hello, good day to you, sir. It is always a little bit scary as a host having people who write quiz questions and who do this sort of trivia research for a living. I mean, we've got three of you on here today. How do you find the questions? How do you find things to talk about? Reading. Reading. Read the internet. Read all of it. Don't, don't... well, maybe not all of it. There's some bits you. Read all of it. Don't, don't, well maybe not all

of it. There's some bits you don't want to read. Don't do that. Essentially to make, you can make a question interesting by putting a fact into the question. I love one of the questions that I wrote recently. You could ask, for example, who voiced Bugs Bunny? The answer to which, does anyone of you know? Mel Blanc? Correct. Yes. Among others.

It's a dodgy question to ask. Sorry, ah yes, always pin your question. This is a good lesson as well. He's the main person who we know. Which actor born in this year? Yeah. Well, all you can pin it like asking who after a car accident was in a coma for a couple of weeks, two three weeks and was then brought about by a doctor?

Asking so how are you today Bugs Bunny and then them answering in character and not fine. How are you doc? He Character so I had a tip for question writers You can ask who voiced Bugs Bunny not a great question if you've got multiple answers But try and make your questions interesting by putting a fact in them. But that's way more work, Daniel! Yeah, laziness is lovely. Well, speaking of someone who does way more work than anyone would really expect,

since his comedy special about his cancer and his recovery from it is currently streaming on Dropout. Welcome back to the show, Hank Green. Hello, you can check it out at Dropout TV. I hope that you like it. It is all about cancer. It feels a little bit like a loaded question to ask how you're doing, but how are you doing, Hank? I'm doing good. I'm doing good. I probably won't die in the next five years. What are you working on at the minute? probably won't die in the next five years. What are you working on at the minute?

I actually am working on a book about cancer right now, which is full of fascinating and sometimes horrifying facts. I don't know, here's a weird one. Did you know that more men die of breast cancer than testicular cancer? Wow. That's a big surprise. But it is because testicular cancer is tremendously curable now, which is fantastic.

And also, men get young, and so men who get breast cancer tend to be much older, and so can handle less treatment. Which is a very interesting fact, but not a funny one. Yeah, I don't know how to follow that. In hindsight, probably shouldn't have asked the question. In hindsight, probably shouldn't have asked the question. Man! Also joining us today, also from the SciShow Tangents podcast, along with Hank and a small crew of others, we have Sari Reilly. Welcome back to the show.

Hello, thanks for having me again. I didn't embarrass myself out of the first time. No, you killed it the first episode. I was very impressed. But again, like, professional science communicator, someone who deals with facts for a living, terrifying as a host. Like, thank you for coming back on the show, you really did well last time. Yeah. It's a lot of fun. I love the moment...

When you see the moment when people get something, when you're explaining something scientifically, or you're teaching something, like that light in their eyes, it is fun. I think there are fewer opportunities to be on that side of the equation as an adult. Especially when you get into this educator role. And so it is very fun to have that moment of discovery. Even when you're wrong. When you're confidently wrong. That's fun too, when you've got a little crash pad of friends to only laugh at you a little bit. I think you've just summed up this entire show, Sari.

Thank you so much. Yeah, you can put that in your little trailer. I can do a clean take for your producer. Well, good luck to you all. We're about to segue into question one. However, we have had some complaints. I do know that we did technically have a first question at the start of the show that I asked the audience.

So if this bothers you, please refer to question X as question X plus one. Or if you're a programmer, please re-index, so the first question is question zero. Either way, it's time to increment your question counter by one. Let me start with a question sent in by Chris Schulz. In 2007, how did one moment of bad behavior from one-year-old Charlie Davis Carr cause his family to move to a new house? I'll say that again. from one-year-old Charlie Davis Carr caused his family to move to a new house? I'll say that again.

In 2007, how did one moment of bad behaviour from one-year-old Charlie Davis Carr cause his family to move to a new house? Was it a big dookie? Just... LAUGHTER Do I know it? Sari, if you think you know this,

you want to take a step back, and we'll see if you're right towards the end. Maybe, yeah. I'm going to embarrass myself if this is not true, but... If you realise you're wrong, step back in, but you take a back seat. This one is for Dan and Hank. Sounds good.

Or, as they're known together, Dank. Don't know why I did that. Don't know why I did that. Sorry. I regret everything I said just then. That's what with our new podcast that we're making together is the Dank Boys. That was a very Alex Horne in Taskmaster joke. I'm really sorry. No, it's great. I love it.

Was the old house okay? Like, was it available to sell or not? Yes, did they burn it? Sorry, sorry, sorry, I just, the producer just got through saying, thank God Dan's name isn't Wes, so, um... LAUGHTER That is the first time that David, the producer, has ever knocked me out with a one-liner just coming through on the messages there, so thank you. Sorry, Hank, you had a question.

Yeah, my question was, is the house, was the house okay? Like, did they have to move house because there wasn't another, because the first house had a significant enough problem that, like, they couldn't even... Did the baby somehow set it on light, a light and cause it to burn down or something? It can't be that, but like that you gotta ask. You do have to ask. This is not the sort of question we ask on the podcast there. There is definitely a more lateral twist to this. Was it Kevin McCannister? Did they want to go on holiday?

They left him at home alone. Come back, there's just two dead people there because movies don't work like real life. Indeed, indeed. They've done studies on all the different ways that people would have been injured. They died so many times or would have died so many times in that movie. But movies are known for being hyper-realistic, so we'll give you a pass. Yes. It's a one-year-old. What can a one-year-old do? Not a lot. Do you have, have you had a child?

No. Yeah, so I had a one-year-old. He's now seven. I still have a child, but I had a one-year-old. And they can move, like, they're mobile, which is, before that, the potted plant phase, they call it, is kind of wonderful, it's just like, they scream all the time, but they can't get up to any business, they don't know how to turn over. Plants don't scream? What? No, but they do, if you put them down in one place, they do stay there.

Oh, I see, okay, yes. I don't know. What? No, but they do, if you put them down in one place, they do stay there. And that's- Oh, I see. Okay, yes. I don't know what plants you have, Dan, but- Do you keep your babies in soil or- Oh, no, that doesn't sound right. Yeah, I mean, it's good for the microbiome. The-

Yeah, but they can certainly move. Are they teething at one? When do teeth sort of come through? Yeah, there's probably some chewing on stuff happening. So they might be crying. That's all they could be making out. Oh, they're definitely crying. There's definitely some chewing on stuff happening, Hank.

Oh, there is chewing! That will either confirm or absolutely rule out Sari's guess. Yes, I think I do know this. Based on some chewing. Ooh, no. Was there something dangerous about the house? Was there like, I mean, lead paint, that's not gonna be it, but like, is there something that you definitely don't want a child to chew on in this particular house?

No, the house was absolutely fine. What if they moved house for like a good reason? Oh. Was he just, did he go viral and they made a lot of money? And they were like, let's move to Brighton. It's exactly that. I tried to name like a fancier English town and I said Brighton. Is that close?

Brighton's not bad, you could have gone a lot worse. Okay. I now know where this is taking place. Where is it taking place? It's in a car. It is in a car. We now know where this is taking place. Oh! Where is it taking place? It's in a car. It is in a car. So you look like you're the only one baffled here still.

I'm surprised you don't know. This feels like a very, would be in Hank brain question to me. Oh! Was this, was it, well, I mean, David after dentist was not one years old. Are we talking about Charlie batting the finger? We are talking about Charlie. Yep, tap it home, Sari. Which video was this?

This is Charlie bit my finger. Charlie bit his little finger and then went viral. Ouch, Charlie! Yeah, and then they got money. Yep, one of the first YouTube viral videos. The ad revenue generated over £100,000 for his family, which let them purchase a new home. So that is the causal relationship there.

They were able to move into a new house because of one second. Chewing! We got chewing early on for that one. Yes! Fantastic. The dentist is good for you in surprising ways. This is a very confusing two different viral videos. Oh no, yes, that's what I'm doing. They didn't go to the dentist, sorry, ignore that.

No, that's David. That was David, not Charlie. I know the names of these children. Oh wait, so am I. I'm confusing that now. I personally don't know where Charlie bit my finger is and we might have to edit that. He's just in a chair. He's in a chair in a home. I got my video was confused. So, I don't know where this is. This is not in a car. That's true. There have been two viral kids things to do with dentists and teeth. I love a good anesthesia video, man.

They really knock me out. Each of our guests has brought a question along with them. We will start today with Sari. In a 2010 study, two sets of biology facts were given to a randomized student study group. One set was significantly easier to remember than the other, even though it ought to have been more difficult. Why? I'll read it again. In a 2010 study, two sets of biology facts were given to a randomized student study group. One set was significantly easier to remember than the other, even though it ought to have

been more difficult. Why? I unfortunately have read this study. Well, read is at some point the abstract of this study skimmed across my feed and it stuck in my head. So I'm going to stay out of this one. Over to Dank. Over to Dank. Over to Dank. Back to Dank. Was it just a really catchy, they accidentally wrote the song of the summer,

but it was about mitochondria. Well, okay. I know, biology was never my thing at school. I was a physics and chemistry guy. I didn't like biology. Biology didn't really like me either. Yeah, I mean, as you get older, it likes you less and less. Sorry, I've got people on this show who are my age. Like, frequently when we have a couple of, two folks from a podcast or three folks from a podcast, they all tend to be like really young Gen Z, and they just keep going about it and like, it's fine, these are my people.

Our bodies are starting to fall apart. Yeah. I just turned 30, so I'm over the hill now. We got the steep decline. Real middle aged there. A 30 year old recently 29. Fresh, faced and young in my 20s. Any more jokes?

What sets of biology facts are there? I mean, I assume that this is some kind of study that's designed to test how easy things are to remember in different circumstances. It's like either a psycho, like a brain, like a neuroscience test, or it's a, you know, pedagogy test where you're trying to help figure out how to teach people better. My job is to try and get complicated biology

back into people's heads, so I should know this. And you know, the ways that I do it are classic ways, where it's like rhymes help and stories help. It helps to contextualize somehow. Was it maybe contextualized in something that was exciting, like sex? Was there like a sex component? No, he's laughing at me like there's not a sex component. I'm not laughing at him. I'm just laughing at the idea that that was meant to be more difficult to remember. Well, but like maybe there was an unintentionality to it. Like it, you know, like it actually

accidentally spelled the word penis or something. Proton-enhanced nuclear induction spectroscopy. Nice. Which is a real thing. Sari, was there a mnemonic of something to do with a penis? Sari Sarkissian There were no mnemonics or penises were involved, but you're correct. You're on the right path that the biology facts are kind of a red herring. In fact, the biology facts were fictional to begin with. It is about the thing to focus on is the memory aspect of this. The way to remember. I know that when they say with passwords, you could generate just

a horrible string. And yeah, technically that's secure. But also you can just string some words together. That's also a really long string. But also you can just string some words together. And that's also a really long string if you put like four or five words together to be your password. And that's easier for you to remember. For sure. So I'm wondering if it's got some element of that in it. So, but was there like a, so, so like, just to set this up, the study was the study done

to like in order to have, here are the two groups of people we're going to give these people these facts and these people these facts, these facts are harder, and they had intended for those facts to be harder, but then it turned out that they remembered them better? They remembered the harder facts better? They remembered the facts that ought to have been more difficult to remember. But was it on purpose? Did they know that they were...

Were they succeeding in their study design? Or was it a surprise? I think anyone who would read these study results would say, that seems counterintuitive. If you read the headline, it's like, that seems counterintuitive. And then if you dig deeper into the reasoning why, then you're like, oh, that kind of makes sense, actually, why the more difficult fact, the more difficult scenario test case is easier to remember, if you think about the rationale. Is it the same set of facts just presented differently? Or is it two different sets of

facts? S. I think there are just two, I think maybe for the sake of the study, there are two sets of information and there is a difference between the way those two sets of information were presented to the study participants. N. Visual versus audio versus... Oh, I was about... S. It is a visual difference. All versus audio versus... Oh, I'm so sorry. It is a visual difference. It's a visual difference. Bigger font.

Bigger font. Different font. Is it going to be one was written in Comic Sans? Is it going to be that? Wingdings. The minute that Sarah started this question, I wrote the words Comic Sans in big letters at the top.

I don't think it's actually Comic Sans, but I think it's to do with fonts. If it's not, then I'm in completely the wrong place. No, you're right. And Comic Sans is in the answer. No! Oh, wow. A harder-to-read font improved their recall, improved their memory of the fact. So this was a Princeton University study led by Daniel Oppenheimer, which provided facts about fictional biological

species to a pool of students. 87% of the facts were retained when printed in grey, 12-point comic sans or Bodoni. And retention fell to 73% when a standard black 16-point aerial was used. And so that's going to be, you had to concentrate more to read it so it went in deeper into your brain. Oh, that's so clever. And also maybe just like that it's different, like that like you're having a less, a less normal experience. And so you're being brought out of the, you know, your everyday experience of reading something and put into a different spot. That's Comic Sans, I'm not reading that.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, this aligns with a lot of what I've learned about teaching, which is that oftentimes the thing that makes students better at remembering is the thing that students like less. So students also performed better when tutors used slides and handouts that had less legible typefaces. And like Dan was saying, like you both were saying, it is thought that the inconvenient

presentation causes the brain to slow down and prevent skim reading. So you're not glazing over your aerial textbook notes or whatever. And in 2018, Australian researchers actually developed Sans for Getica, a font with missing letter sections, which led to a 7% retention improvement over aerial, which is not as much as the Comic Sans bump, actually. So they did all this work for a font. sounds cool but is less effective. Looking for a path to accelerate your career? Clear direction for next level success? In a place that is innovative and practical? A path to stay current and connected to industry? A place where you can be yourself? You will find it at York University School of Continuing Studies, where we offer career programs purpose-built for you. Visit continue.yorku.ca.

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Copyright 2024, Mondelez International Group. Here's the next one. The Stala Saddle is a road connecting southern Austria to northern Italy. A typical driver is regularly forbidden from entering this section of road for up to 45 minutes every hour, even if the road ahead is traversable.

Why? And one more time. The Stala Saddle is a road connecting southern Austria to northern Italy. A typical driver is regularly forbidden from entering this section of road for up to 45 minutes every hour, even if the road ahead is traversable. Why? My first thought is that situation where they have to close the road in different directions.

So they close, like, the whole road so that everybody can go south. And then they close the whole road to the southbound so that everybody can go north. Which happens all the time in Montana during particularly bad weather times. Your first thought, Hank, is completely correct. Oh no! You're absolutely right. This one comes from living in a cold place with big mountains. Yeah, we did ask a question about roads in a cold place with big mountains to someone

who lives in a cold place with big mountains. Yeah, it's a mountain pass that narrows down to a single lane, so you can drive from Austria to Italy on the hour to 15 minutes past, the return journey is open from half past to 45 minutes past the hour. Oh, interesting. And there is a traffic light system with a warning sign that says you may be waiting for up to 45 minutes. Wow. Hell yeah.

This feels like a thing I should have filmed at some point. Like, I've been to mountain passes in that part of the world. I've done several videos on weird traffic signs and symbols. I feel like I should have known about that, but absolutely nothing. I feel, I'm sorry I ruined it. I feel like I maybe could have stepped out. I thought, I thought Sarah and I did really well in that question. Yeah, I think some great teamwork. I think we all contributed equally. I think we can all take some shared credit and pride in that answer. Do they actually schedule it so you can like know that if I get there by like 12.30,

I'll be able to just drive straight through? Yes, there is a sign with a clock there. Yeah, okay. Hank, the next question is all yours. This question was sent in by CherryMoya. A child lies down in a room alone. They hold the end of a multicolored piece of string. This helps them feel better in both the short term and the long term. How? A child lies down in a room alone. They hold the end of the multicolored piece of string and this helps them

feel better both in the short and long term. How? Is it that the road is closed for half the time going northbound? Hank, you've read that in the style of the Voight-Kampff test from Blade Runner? Why are you not helping the child? No, um... First of all, the child is alone in the room. Health and safety, services, are we sure that the child, no. First of all, the child is alone. Health and safety, services, are we sure that the child is okay? Let's just check that the child is okay. The child is okay.

I mean, the child is, the child, I mean, is not, it does have problems. There's a reason why the child, I just, that's enough. A child line in a room alone, it either seems like it would be as a punishment of you've done something, now you are sent to this room, you're in timeout, hold this multicolored string until you've thought about what you've done. Or it's like a over stimulation, you need to decompress kind of situation, where for some reason the multicoloured string is calming. I bet the word multicoloured is important here. I have a horrible feeling.

Yes, I notice we haven't been told which colours it is. It's green and yellow, and they are holding the Earth lead. No, that's a terrible feeling? Your plug system may be different. I just went with... My first thought, weirdly, was quarantine? The child is in a room alone, away from anything else? Yeah, you guys are zeroing in on a vibe where it's like, this is to help a child when they have to be alone. Oh, okay.

So, definitely not a punishment thing, definitely a calming thing. Why might a piece of string calm you? I mean, sort of, it's well known that if you've got a pet stroking it, it releases sort of endorphins or something like that and calms you. And the pet enjoys it as well, but it benefits you as well. So is it a sensory thing? That's my current thought. I mean, my thought is, what's the other end of the string connected to? It could be their

parent holding it, so there's a definite, like, physical connection between the two. I've got a red balloon in my head and Pennywise the clown. Uh-oh. That's unrelated to the question, that's just standing there. That's just me, yes. Yeah. In fact, Tom, that is exactly right. The parent is holding the other piece of the string. Okay.

The only thing I can imagine is you either tug to know that your parent is there, maybe you can see them on the other side of the glass, or it's like a cup phone situation where somehow you can transmit a message, you can talk to them through the multicol— and the multicolor has nothing to do with the purpose of the wire or the string. It just is communication. Oh! Could they be in a CT scanner or an MRI scanner? Very very close. Because you can't take anything metal into there.

And so I once had to have an MRI scan where I had to listen to instructions, and you can't take headphones in or anything like that. So there is a air tube that goes into special-light headphones that just... It's basically just a tube with a really big speaker on the other end of it, and it just relays stuff with just plastic into your ears. So, if this is a multicoloured string, is this to keep them calm while they're having a scan or a test or something where they have to be alone? A hundred percent.

But the only thing that you're missing is that in an MRI situation, and even with a CT scanner, a parent could be in the room with the child. Oh yeah. And also they can't move. Is this going to be a decompression chamber or something? Yeah, it's closer to that where you actually, like the child has to be for safety, like no one else can be in the room. So there's something dangerous about the room.

X-rays? X-rays, but not in the way that we usually think about x-rays. Wow, okay. The child emits the x-rays instead? No, I mean that'd be cool. That's a superhero Genesis story right there. Yeah, so why couldn't anybody else be in the room with the child? Some form of like radiation therapy where you're in?

It was 100% radiation therapy. Oh! So the kid, this kid has cancer, needs to get radiation therapy. When you go get radiation therapy, I can speak from experience, you walk in through a thing called the labyrinth, where the room is actually structured so the photons cannot escape from the room. Oh. And anybody else who is in there is going to get some marginal

additional dose of radiation that would be dangerous. And so the child is in there by themselves. And the parent should not be in there because they don't want to get dose of radiation. So but in order to make the child I should probably just read the notes here. And that and that could take 20 to 60 minutes, and they'll also lie down while wearing a special mask, which is screwed down to keep their head still. So if this is radiation therapy that's going to their head in some way, they have to keep their head extremely still. They've got this mask on, it's just like really intense. So to allay their fears, they are given the magic string to hold. And if they tug on the string, their parent in the next room will tug back to provide reassurance. In a play, specialists at the Leeds Children's

Hospital describe the string as one of the best pieces of equipment we own." In addition, the masks can be painted with the favorite characters so that the children are more likely to enjoy wearing them. You have to be Spider-Man, right? Bitten by regular Spider. So, you know. Next question's for me, folks. Here we go. Publishers of Jean-Paul Sartre's 1943 philosophy book Being and Nothingness were surprised by how well the 722-page tome was selling.

It turned out that many of the purchases were Parisian greengrocers. Why? I'll say that again. Publishers of Jean-Paul Sartre's 1943 philosophy book, Being and Nothingness, were surprised by how well the 722-page tome was selling. It turned out that many of the purchases

were Parisian greengrocers. Why? Was there like a spicy scene? Was there a mnemonic that had to do with the letters P-E-N-I-S if you flipped through the pages a little fast enough? And greengrocers are just super into it. I'm not convinced there would be a spicy scene in a satra philosophy book, but I would love to read it if there was. In the original French, of course. I would not be able to read the original French.

Are green grocers just grocery store clerks? Do they only sell vegetables? I guess that is my... What's a green grocer? Fruits and veg, yeah. Fruits and veg. Yeah, that sort of thing. Okay. Right, right.

I mean, my first thought is that, and this isn't very kind to the grocers, but you rip out the pages and you wrap up an apple and you say, here's your apple, sir. The packing material. Yeah, I use them as packing. It's like the cheapest paper available. Mm, like 722 pages. Not only is that not kind to the greengrocers, it's really not kind to Sartre. No?

Yeah. It's like the best book source of paper. No. Is that not it? Because that seems like it. I thought we were onto a winner there. No you weren't. Because you said 722 pages. That's a lot of pages.

That is a lot of pages. Sounds like a big book. That is a lot of pages. Did it have a very specific mass? Oh, greengrocers would need to probably weigh things, and because that's how you'll have a pound of tomatoes, I'll have a kilogram of bananas, something like that. So if...

I'll have one philosophy textbook of lettuce, please. Yes. That feels plausible. It's very plausible. You've basically got it, but I'm going to ask a little bit more about the why. Why. It must have made... So not only did it have a known weight, did it have a very specific known weight. Is that where we're going? Yep.

It turned out to weigh exactly one kilo. One kilo, yes. I had my finger up! I had my finger up! And then I had one for one kilo. But that still doesn't quite answer the why. Well because other one kilogram weights would have been made of iron and they needed all the iron to make nails in the colonies.

Uh, 1943. Oh, 1943. All the metal was being used for the war. Oh, of course. They needed a weight in the war, all the metal would have been used for other purposes than use it. Yep, bombs and stuff. French shopkeepers had surrendered basically all the portable metal objects, they had all

their weights and measures, and someone realised that Jean-Paul Sartre's book weighed exactly one kilo, and so they all ordered it as a new base weight until the war was over. I feel like it'd be better if it weighed just like a little more than one kilo and they knew that if you just tore the first six pages out, then it was exactly one kilo. I really hope that... Is it the official kilogram is in a museum in Paris? I really hope that one of their books is next to it. One of that one is next to it. One of that books is next to it.

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It's having the spend to power your scale with no preset spending limit. Redefine possible with Business Platinum. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Terms and conditions apply. Visit amex.ca slash business platinum. Dan, it's over to you for the next one. Over six years, Gareth did his weekly grocery shopping at the local Sainsbury's in Bromley, London. How did his fastidious nature cause him to be featured in news outlets worldwide? Over six years, Gareth did his weekly grocery shopping at the local Sainsbury's in Bromley, London. How did his fastidious nature cause him to be featured in

news outlets worldwide. Was he a penny pincher? Was he just like a good coupon boy? Was he just great? Nothing wrong with using coupons. There's not much of a coupon culture in the UK. That's true. It's always an American thing I hear that, where you get the big coupon book in the mail and obsessively track them. Yeah and then people end up like getting paid for their groceries.

Yes. Did he insist on bringing a tome of being-in-nothingness with him to weigh all his groceries? Yeah, and then people end up like getting paid for their groceries. Yes. Yeah. Did he insist on bringing a tome of being a nothingness with him to weigh all his groceries? And they were like, what is this man up to? And then six years in, someone googled it and was like, oh, actually, he's a history buff. Checking the scales at Sane 3. Oh, no, that says that's 1.1 kids.

I think you'll find. No, nothing to do with Sartre, I'm afraid. Oh, I mean, checking the scales is amazing, though. I love that. That's true. You have to take their word for it, don't you? I want to check them now. Oh, I've literally, I've gone down that rabbit hole of research. Like, every so often, they have to have their scales tested. Or, rather, the place they bought the scales from has to have the scales tested.

And then there is some scales to test those scales, and some scales to test those scales, all the way down, until you get back to the National Physical Laboratory or NIST in the US. Like, someone has the source of it. Where they've got the book. Yep. Where they have a copy of the 1943. Mmm. My first thought was that he had kept all his receipts for six years.

And that there was some sort of inflation thing. Where he's like, I have tracked and graphed all these purchases over six years. This is how the store has been... This is how inflation has not been tracked properly. But there's literal government agencies that do that. Right. I know exactly what blueberries have cost every week for the last six years, which would be useful. That is such a good answer, Tom. And not at all correct. It was his fastidious nature, though. It was something about his fastidiousness.

He was fastidious. This word means particular and careful. Like, a careful particularness. Okay, so he's not graphing the prices. He is instead opening the packet of peanuts or the packet of sweets that he's bought every week, tracking how many are in it, and it's going down over time. Shrinkflation. Yeah, shrinkflation. He's not doing that, but I will say this is his main shopping trip of the week. Sure.

And it's not related to a specific product. Is it related to the employees? Does he... is he keeping track of them? He's keeping track of the steps and the store is becoming less and less efficient as they keep moving things around. Oh, don't you just hate it when they rearrange where everything is. I do. It's such a clever ploy though, it works every time.

The jelly should be by the peanut butter! I will say, he needed to go to Sainsbury's over 200 times for this. Wow. He needed to? Would 198 not have worked? Would not have worked for this? No. For this particular Sainsbury's anyway. Would have been a different number for different Sainsbury's. Interesting. Is it something to do with being like a, this is probably off base, but like a loyal shopper? So my partner's aunt received a cake from Wegmans in upstate New York, a Wegmans is a grocery store, for being the

biggest shopper there in a given year and so they have a pretty big family and so she would go get a bunch of groceries and then after the year was up they were like you've purchased, you're in like the top five spenders at this grocery store here's a cake thank you for spending so much money. One of the UK supermarkets did like a Spotify wrapped but for your groceries. Yes. Because they have the loyalty card system and they track everything. Oh no.

You are in the top 1% of this chocolate bar purchases in your town. Oh no, I would totally be in the top 1% of the fried chicken. I don't want people to know that. I got that I was the number one purchaser of drain unblocker in Redhill. I had just moved in, there were problems with the drains. Anyway, it's not to do with a particular product, in fact, it's not necessarily even to do with being inside Sainsbury's. So, how do you when you do your weekly shop, if it's a big shop, tell me about your shopping trips. My shopping trip, I go to the shop, I go to the grocery store

and then I go in and I turn right and I go to the fried chicken with a sandwich. go in and I turn right and I go to the fried chicken with a sandwich. Could he take every possible route there? Oh, okay, we're getting close. You said it would work for this Sainsbury's, right? It's for this particular Sainsbury's, yes. Is it his traveling to the Sainsbury's? Travel's interesting. Does he have a jetpack?

Is he using? Is it means of transportation? Are there 200 unique ways, like bus routes that he could take and then he has helped? It's a good thought, but he always took the same method of transport. Was it a jet ski? It was not a jet ski. But the method of transport is key. The hire bikes. He took, he took, no, because there's like thousands and thousands of those hire bikes around London. He could have got every serial number. Not a bike, keep naming...

Although I do know someone who hunted through those bikes for ages before he found number one, two, three, four, five. They all had five different numbers, they all started with one, and he just for months was obsessively looking at every bike before he found it somewhere. That's wild. It's not bikes? Taxis? Nope. Skateboard?

Nope. Scooter? Nope. Is it the, what do you call the train? Nope. How did most people get to the supermarket? The car? Yeah. Car. It's just a car. It's just a car.

It's every parking space. Yes it is. Oh no. Yes it is. Oh no. Oh no. Yes it is. Oh no. To make his weekly shop more fun, he came up with the idea of parking in every single space. Excluding the disabled and motorbike bays, of course. You don't want to do that.

Unless you have a motorbike. Yeah, but that's going to be infuriating at the end, when you've only got like three, three or two or one left, because someone will have taken that space every time. Yes. Oh, yeah. He logged his visits on the spreadsheet and took him six years to visit all 211 spaces. And when he tweeted about his achievement, media organizations, including the New York Times ran the story. And he worked it out initially that there were 211 by going on maps and zooming in via satellite.

And then he got a motorbike, and then he got in an accident and it hurt his ankle. And then he got to be in all of this. Oh yes, that's the next level. One final thing then. At the start of the show, I asked a question that was sent in by Alex. What are the two most common words that aren't listed in a Scrabble dictionary? Anyone want to take a quick shot of that? Gotta be a f***ing... Hahahaha!

Here's the thing, Hank. They're in the Scrabble dictionary. There is actually a bit of a dispute about whether profanities and slurs, in particular, can be played in Scrabble and you will find different leagues have different rules on it. But those are in the Scrabble dictionary. Which two profanities did Hank choose? We'll never know. I think they've got to be names. I think they've got to be brand names or something. Because if it's a word, it's a word.

In the Scrabble dictionary they're quite wide. In their word list. Yeah, is it like a proper noun situation? Uh, no, these are valid English words that... they're just words. I don't know how else to phrase it, they're words. And is there a good reason, though? Oh, an excellent reason. Ah, help us. Scrabble sucks.

No Scrabble's a valid word in Scrabble sucks. No, Scrabble's a valuable word to Scrabble. Scrabble a valid Scrabble word? What does Scrabble mean? Scrabbling. As in a creature scrabbling for dirt. Oh yeah, you Scrabble. You Scrabble up a hillside. Is it going to be COVID? New words. Yeah, new words. Or words that don't have enough letter tiles. I don't know enough about a Scrabble set, but like, there's only one K or something like that.

Three Zs. Yeah. Four Zs, actually. Pizzazz! Pizzazz? Yeah, that's really good. Those words are generally listed in the dictionary because you could make them with blanks or something like that.

There is a point where they get ridiculously long and and yeah, they're not in the dictionary. Uncopyrightable 15 letters. But you're basically there, Ceri. You're really, really close when you said, not enough letter tiles. So 16-letter words, because you can only fit a 15-letter word on the board. Those aren't common. So we're looking for a common 16-letter word. Not quite. In fact, exactly the opposite.

There are definitely enough letter tiles in Scrabble to do this, and that's kind of the problem. Oh. A and I? A and I. Spot on, Hank. Oh. Yep. Because they are not valid Scrabble words. You can't get extra points for saying, oh, I've put this down, and I've also got three other A's and I's in here that I also get points for. I hate you, Tom.

They are definitely words! and I've also got three other A's and I's in here that I also get points for. I hate you, Tom. Yeah. They are definitely words! That one goes to Alex. Thank you very much for sending that question in, and thank you also to all of our players for joining us again. What's going on in your lives? Where can people find your stuff? We will start today with Hank.

You can watch my comedy special on Dropout TV. It's like a 60-minute special special and I think it's good. What's it called? It's called Pissing Out Cancer. All right. Sari, how about you? Yeah, if you want to listen to me and you can't get enough of Hank, then go to youtube.com slash SciShow Tangents or wherever you get your podcasts and listen to SciShow Tangents. It's a comedy science game show and we have a good time

doing science trivia. And Dan, where can people find you? You can find me on Twitch and YouTube. I'm Quizzy Dan, I stream various quizzes, games and puzzles but not Scrabble. Never Scrabble. And if you want to find out more about this show, there's some anger there. And if you want to find out more about this show, you can do that at lateralcast.com, where you can also send in your own idea for a question. There are regular video highlights at youtube.com slash lateralcast,

and we are at lateralcast basically everywhere. With that, thank you. And to Hank Green. Thank you Tom. I've been Tom Scott and that's been Lateral.