Lateral with Tom Scott - 176: Journaling paradise

Episode Date: February 20, 2026

Dani Siller, Bill Sunderland and Sarah Renae Clark face questions about remote rails, dual disagreements and conked out cars. 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: Steven, Matt, Jeff Green, Zach, Jack Swansey, Sam Toogood. FORMAT: Pad 26 Limited/Labyrinth Games Ltd. EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: David Bodycombe and Tom Scott. © Pad 26 Limited (https://www.pad26.com) / Labyrinth Games Ltd. 2026. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

No one has ever ridden the inaccessible island rail. Why? The answer to that at the end of the show, my name's Tom Scott, and this is Lateral. Welcome to Lateral. Module 4. Effective question handling. In today's session, we'll demonstrate best practice using real volunteer case studies, also known as our guests.

Please note that engagement is compulsory, enthusiasm is optional, and any attempt to click skip will be logged for disciplinary action. At the end of the session, you should be able to identify a question, respond to a question, and pretend to understand the host's jokes. Hoping they're on course for a good showing. Welcome to our players. Today we start with from her own YouTube channel about Art and design, Sarah Renee Clark.

Welcome back. Thanks for having me. I've been hanging out to come back again. Is art and design the right descriptor there? I've riffed that off the top of my head, but I'm not sure. What are you concentrating on at the minute? Yeah, I mean, that's the question I ask myself. I love to just tackle all kinds of art.

I'm actually doing something that's a little bit different at the moment, and learning Blender, which is a 3D software, and I've just spent 100 hours going from beginner to hopefully something worth showing on my channel. What have you made? Lots of really silly things, lots of physics things that didn't work so well. And then I also replicated my entire studio in three days well. So that was kind of fun. Oh, did you got photos for that?

Only of the actual art on the wall. Most of it are modelling. I hand modelled it. Like I made the clock and moulded it. Well, I think none of those skills will actually be relevant to the questions today. But you never know. It's lateral. These things could come up.

Also joining us today, returning players and some of our most regular guests, they were here on our first show, and we will start with, From Escape This Podcast, from Solve This Murder, from so many other things, Danny Seller, welcome back. I don't know how you keep getting into our house. Yeah, I have to fly to Australia just to set up the studio, just to do the special Australian episodes of this that are not at all to do with time zones being convenient.

Every time. Hi. Hi, it's slightly too early for me and slightly. too late for you. How are you doing? Ah, I'm doing great, actually. It's also slightly too hot for us right now, but, you know, what can we do? I'm also feeling extremely jealous of Sarah's background. So I just got to tell you, we have a white wall in our recording studio. I'm currently painting it to look like a really colourful goosebumps cover. Just something for us to bond over. Yeah, absolutely. Well, you wouldn't be jealous if you watch the video of me trying to do it.

Also, please welcome the other half of Escape This Podcast, Sol This Motor, and so many other things. Bill Sunderland, welcome back. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be back. My special project is when Danny's not looking, I slowly erase progress on that door so that it's less painted every time.

Yeah, let's go with that excuse for why it's got so little done. And just a little bit each time, and then when Danny says, someone erase this, I say, no, I don't know what you're talking about. You're going crazy. What are you working on at the minute? What's the big thing you're plugging? For us, it's business as usual.

There should be, by the time this comes out, an entire new murder mystery on Solve This Murder, a fun transit-themed murder mystery that is a lot of fun. But as of right now... That's going to appeal to so many people on this show, right? As of right now, it's only partially recorded. So maybe if it's not up yet, it went terribly. Well, good luck to all three of you on the show today.

This concludes the induction portion of your training, please proceed to the comprehensive assessment, conveniently labelled question one. Thank you to Zach for this question. When it's safe to do so, Gerald will often reply equals six to his employees and co-workers. What is his job and why that reply? One more time, when it's safe to do so, Gerald will often reply equals six to his employees and co-workers. What is his job and why that reply? It's really hard for my brain not to just go six, seven.

based on my kids. By the time this episode comes out, that'll be long gone, right? I know, they'll be like six what? I found a thing while researching, and this for a video that'll come out a long time from now, things like that, weird expressions that are basically meaningless have been going on for so long. I found an old reference,

and I've got to explain a reference from like 1888 in a video to just a song title that became the equivalent of six, for like the 1880s. That's beautiful. It's so much context. It's so much context. We've done some special bonus episodes reading a joke book from the 1700s. And a lot of those jokes, you just get to the punchline, you're like, I've got nothing.

This is clearly something cultural that was really important at the time. But for me, I got nothing. Just like this question, why would you ever need to say equal six? I've got nothing. This is nonsense. Good segue. Do you think we should focus more on the when it's safe to do so? Like what sort of boss is giving some safety instructions?

Yeah. Yeah. When is it not safe to say equals six? Yeah. Is it saying it that's not safe or is it that there's other things going on and six is like the signal that it's safe? And why six and not seven? Like when I say equals six, everybody's going to run across the road.

But if there's traffic, it's like, oh, I got to wait. And then I'll say equals six. and all my employees can run across the road. Yeah. Like, equal six is the answer to something, right? Like, that's like they've posed a question. Hey, boss, I got a real tough problem. Two times three.

What's going on? And then when it's safe, equal six. Is there some sort of situation where people might be saying something that sounds like a math, a simple maths problem? Like 24 over four? Yes. Oh, really? Mm-hmm.

Oh, could it be like a sport? What was exactly his title? Did he get a title to? We didn't get a title, no. Okay, could it be like a, I'm wondering if it was one of those, you know how like, when American football players are playing American football, the coach is always like, we're going to run this play. We're going to run this, because everything's very mathematically laid out. And I wonder it was like a code sort of thing of like, we're going to do, we're going to do play two three times. So I'm going to tell my team, equals six.

And that way, the other people don't know that that's what we're going to. going to do. My team gets the code and I only do it and it's safe to do so because if we did it at a different place, we'd lose the game. So code is a good keyword in there. Perhaps not in the way that you're describing it though. Damn. This wouldn't work for a phone call or a radio message. Intriging. It wouldn't work for a phone. So is there some kind of like thinking back to different types of code like you've got Morse code and stuff like that? Is there one that's based around only six different sort of variables maybe. I'm now just moving my mouth, hoping that one of you will look at my face and think that it looks

like. And go, yes, that's exactly. Microphone's not working when you've come up with the perfect answer. What about like earthquakes? There's like category of different earthquakes and that would involve a bit of like not being safe. But then the equals throws me off with that. Equals is an odd thing. Like six is a very clear message.

equals six is a weird guy. This guy's got something strange going on. If it's not a phone call or radio message, what might it be? I pictured him just rolling a window down and shouting verbally to some people. Just like leaning out of his office. I don't think that picture's right at all. Ah, okay. He writes it down.

It's a visual message. It's not about the sound. He goes, equals six. And everyone looks and they go... Is he doing it with his head? hands somehow? I can't even make that. You've all missed a pretty obvious way of communication here. Sign language.

He texts it. He texts it. Yeah, this is a text message. That's writing it down. Okay, so... Well, he needs, but not by putting a pen unless you have a palm pilot from the 90s. Generally, you're not handwriting this. I briefly thought about could it be some sort of text speak, and then I went, no, equal 6 is only going to be rude in text speak, whatever it is. Equal 6 is, it's like a, it's like a colon P.

A little bit. You know, it's like a, I'm your crazy boss. Not quite. I think, Danny, I drill down on that simple math problem. Okay. What else can there be besides just... Back to the numbers that make up 6. 3 plus 3.

That's a pretty good one. 2 plus 4, 1 plus 5. We're nailing it. 3 factorial. 3. They text three exclamation mark. They text three exclamation mark. It's like, that equals six. Remember, this is a text message, and it's only when it's safe to do so. When, what situations are there when people use texting in safe versus potentially unsafe moments?

When is this important in someone's job? And then, I suppose the other thing we need to consider is if it's not safe to do so, does he not send them anything? Or does he send them something else? It doesn't send them anything. What about when someone says 10 4? That would be like 10 minus 4, right? 10 4. Yes, it would damage.

Ooh. Yes. Okay. Now, why do people say that? 104 is like message received. It is. It's like, I got it, man. Yep.

And when written down, it is 10-4, 10 minus 4. So what's his job and why that reply? Yeah, who does this? Because right now I feel like we've got a text conversation of people saying, yep, yep, yep, yep, to each other. Is it like military based in some way? Who else might use that? Medical, like hospital codes. And has a job where it's unsafe to text while you're doing it.

Oh, truck drivers? Yes. Oh. So you've got the first part. Truck driver. He is a truck driver and he replies equals six to say 10-4, but... 10-4 means affirmative in 10 codes.

So, yeah, that's truck drivers, law enforcement, others. It has its roots in CB radio. But if you are in that community, you might still text 10-4 just as a, instead of saying, okay, or anything like that. So why might you text back equals six to that? Because it sounds fun. Because it sounds fun. That's the whole thing.

It's just him being, it's just him. adding a joke. I didn't know that truck drivers would communicate with that sort of thing with each other. It really, it wasn't that deep. It's just him being annoying. It's just him. Be it a cool guy. Yeah, I really think that we were fine.

I was totally fine with him having fun, but just going, eh, truck drivers talking to each other. Each of our guests has brought a question along with them. We will start today with Danny whenever you're ready. All right. This question has been sent in by Stephen. Thank you so much. The people of Salzburg, Austria, earned the nickname Bullwashers,

thanks to a deception that saved the city in 1525. How? And one more time, the people of Salzburg, Austria, earned the nickname Bullwashes, thanks to a deception that saved the city in 1525. How? 1525. That's pretty early.

Can I confirm for Australian accent reasons the spelling of, is that bull, B-U-L-L-L-L and washers? Yep. W-A-S-H-E-R-S. I briefly heard ball washers. I'm like, that's a very different thing. Fair enough. All right. Salzburg reminds me of cheese.

Really? I think there is a brand of cheese, maybe maybe. there. Oh, probably. It's in Europe. They're always making cheese. That's all they do. Bulls, dairy, cows.

I don't know. This, to me, has the, like, vibe, and probably because the question really heavily gave this vibe and nothing to do with me. It's like, do you say it saved them from war? A deception that saved the city, I think,

was the phrasing. Yeah, to me, it's got big, like, someone's coming in to be like, I've got an invading army. And they're just like, oh, this isn't the town hall. It's the bull washing tent. The town hall is down that way. We're just washing a boy.

You know, oh, these soldiers? No, no, no. Those aren't rifles. What, you are we 50? Yeah, those aren't rifles. Those are ball washings. This weren't water on the bulls. Don't even worry about them.

We have no troops here. Got them. And that seems to be the vibe it gives off, you know? You know what? Vibes based. You're not a million miles away. There are a couple of things in there that I would go explicitly no. But you should definitely keep circling around this area.

There was a war going on. It's Europe in the 1500s. There was probably a war going on. All they're doing is going to war and making cheese. That's all they've got. This was a very pretty short-lived war as far as they go. It was only a couple of years. I don't suppose any of you were 15-20s European history experts?

No, no, strangely enough. Okay, so if I was going to, Tom, if I was going to invade your home and you wanted to stop me, how would you make bull watching involved in this story? That's a really specific question, Bill. I knock on the door, I've got a gun, and I say, Tom, I'm going to kill you, unless you're washing a bull. I feel like this requires a bit more preparation. Salzburg didn't have time to prepare, Tom.

They were taken aback by war. They may have had a bull already. It's just a thought. Is it a bull though? Is it a literal bull? Or is it a metaphor? Like, is it a word for something else? Like, because you're talking deception.

Central of a dark board, something like that. Well, I was thinking bull like, it's, maybe that's an Australian term. But like, that's bull. That's bull. That's bull. There was definitely some bull going on here. But in this case, we are talking about a literal bull. A literal bull.

Now, when you say there were, what, did they wash it or did they put little metal rings all over its legs and they were the bull washers. There was, they definitely washed it. It was not the only thing they did to it. They, they, okay, I've got a bull. This is like a Trojan horse situation, is it? Not quite. I paint the bull.

That is definitely significant part of this. I paint the bull to look like a horse and now they're worried I've got cavalry. Again, not, the Simpsons version is not quite the right answer, but with every step you are edging closer to what was going on. I paint the bull with the flag of the people who are trying to attack. So they go, oh, we already took the city. All the bulls are painted with our flag. Is that it?

That's a steering a little bit further away. They paint the bull and they say Salzburg 50 miles that way on the side of the bull. Sarah, what would you use to paint a bull? I don't know if it's relevant, but I'm trying to see if they're painted it with some weird paint or something. Well, I mean, what are they wanting the bull to be? Are they wanting them to know it's a bull, or are they wanting it to look like a statue or something? Like, are they painting it in chrome or gold or something to look like a harmless statue that when they touch it, it attacks them? I don't know, how well these bull are trained.

What have you just painted a bull so that you could put it like sideways on some battlements, and it looked like five guys standing in a row? Just like, we've got so many troops up on these walls. Oh, bulls can't go upstairs. You'd never get them up there. Take it back. Oh, no, no, you can absolutely get a bull upstairs. You just can't get it down again.

Yeah. This bull, the way that I've been picturing this, this bull definitely went upstairs because it was certainly being shown off to the enemies. Were they dropping the bull? Thankfully, no. But again, the way that they painted it, I don't know how, I know there are some incredible painters out there,

Sarah, but they were not painting this bull to look like anything other than a bull. Rabies is not a particular thing by the, like, could it look diseased or something like like the diseased bull? I'm going to say quite the opposite. This bull was like in not too bad shape and they wanted that to be the case. Were they painting it to look like it was worth more for like trading or something? No, it wasn't quite that. Maybe just to add a hint of context for what this war is. This was the German peasants war. If peasants, okay Tom, if a hundred peasants went to attack you in your home

and you had to paint a bull, there's so many peasants knocking on the door of your, I'm assuming, large countryside estate. And they're trying to overthrow the bourgeoisie that is Tom Scott. I don't like why this is going. How do you paint your bull? I have a question that, again, might prompt you in some directions. Sure. Why were they only painting and deceiving with one bull? Was it a million bulls? No, there was definitely only one bull.

But why only one ball? Why wouldn't a million? It just feels like some kind of high school vendetta where you take the other high school's mascot and you take their mascot and then you do pranks on the mascot. Was this like the ancient version of that? No, they painted a three on the side of the ball and then they had to look for them out of four. Yes. Equals six. The peasants had, you know, certain things, like they were pretty, you know, if they were on the poorer side, they weren't the best when it came to, you know, having masses of weaponry and stuff like that, but they did have one power that they held a bit more control over than the rich people. What might that have been? Food production. The farming.

So you paint the bull. The attackers were maybe not actively attacking, maybe trying to wait them out. Do you just like right on the side just like, I don't know, like we, it's an indication of like we can produce our own food in here. You're going to have to actually storm the castle, idiots. Wait, it's a siege. This is a siege.

Yeah. So they're waiting out. Are they changing the patterns on the bull? So it looks like it. got a million bulls. And they're just occasionally walking that bull past the entrance to the city. These freaks have a hundred bulls. We're never going to wait them out. They have so many bulls to kill. That is exactly what happened. Salzburg had some good fortifications. So at direct attack wasn't working. So the people attacking just went, well, that's okay. Let them starve.

It's the home alone version of the silhouettes in the window dancing. So they would take this beautiful Prize bull. They had the last bull that they had available to them because they were absolutely running out of food and they'd just paint it black one day and paraded around looking great and healthy, wash it off and then paint it white the next day and keep doing that over and over again. And then enjoyed all the food poisoning later when they finally ate it and it was covered in lead from all the ancient paints. Thank you to Jack Swansea for this question. One day, Ginger was surprised when her 94 Subaru legacy failed to start, due to a part wearing out completely.

Once a mechanic told her to try the spare, the car started right up. Why did Subaru feature this failure in a 2010 advert? I'll say that again. One day, Ginger was surprised when her 94 Subaru legacy failed to start due to a part wearing out completely. Once a mechanic told her to try the spare, the car started right up. Why did Subaru feature this failure in a 2010 advert? Sarah, are you a car person?

Do you know a lot about Subaru's? Or 1994. A third of Subaru? I couldn't pick one in the street, so I'm the best person to answer this question. All right. When you think of a spare, you go straight to the tyres, right? Do cars have spare anything else? Did they used to have spare or anything else?

Batteries? Maybe you swap a spare battery in. Wow, that'd be sweet. Well, I mean, is the spare something that's not usually in a car, and therefore that spare is a feature? and that's why they would advertise it because most cars are battery if the battery died then...

You've got to get a battery guy to come out or you've got to go buy a battery and go bring it back and swap your app for a new battery. You've got to get jumper cables and jumpstart your car until you can charge the battery. Or yeah, maybe

there's some of like Subaru, that's right, we have spare batteries. 2010. Following, yeah, break-ins for Subaru's increased 200%. Could be spare key. Spare key. Oh, you can't start the car because your key has broke, has worn out. That's, I've experienced that. Oh, wow.

Key snaps in half and it's stuck in the car, but you would have a spare key. That makes sense. That's something you definitely cannot start the car without. You would still need someone else to help you get it out and then you could use the spare key. I use the spare key. Let's say that's what it is. In which case... I'm nodding. I'm nodding. Then why Subaru like 2010? That's right. Some people use this car so much

they wear their keys out. Yes. Bill, you're right. It's a 94 Subaru legacy and a 2010 advert. So you've got most of the bits. Just piece it together here. Ah, it's the first time it's ever broken down for her.

I think you have the idea that the key snapped off? Not the case. It just wore away from constant use. It just wore away. She was using the car for 16 years and it was still going.

Yes. And this was the first time the car had broken down, and it had broken down because the key had been worn smooth. That's a good ad. That's wild. I think you've got to take some time to get one pithy sentence out of that concept, but it is a good idea to advertise. Well, the pithy sentence I have is the key wore out before the car. That's pretty pithy. That's a pithy observation.

It was 200,000 miles on the clock. Ginger was surprised when the car didn't start for the first time ever. The mechanic told us to try the spare key. It started fine, and there was an advertising campaign where Subaru owners told the manufacturer about their car stories, and they printed those. And so simply, the key wore out before the car. Sarah, whenever you're ready, we'll have your question, please.

Casper Kelly was the creator of the viral comedy short film Too Many Cooks. For what specific reason did he name a pie? after Danish film director Lars von Trier. I'll read it again for you. So Casper Kelly was the creator of the viral comedy short film Too Many Cooks. For what specific reason did he name a pie after the Danish film director Lars von Trier? Okay, do we know as a group, do we know too many cooks? I feel like I should.

So it went around a few years ago and I got a few, like a minute into it, It is a parody of like 80s American sitcom opening titles. Yeah, it's all a parody of opening credits effectively. Yeah, it's joke after joke with so many characters increasingly surreal being introduced. And once I realized that they were doing the gag where we're just repeating this music over and over and over again and it's catchy, I don't need this in my head. I'm going to stop here. I don't need this in there. I don't, because so many people were complaining it was going round their head for weeks. I'm like, I'm good. I don't need, I remember there being a lot of characters being introduced and going,

I, you know what, I'm going to, I'm going to leave that back. I guess I mustn't have seen this because it's not coming into my head right now. I think I'm in a similar situation where I've seen the start of a quite long thing of like, oh, I think I think I get the idea. It's like 12 minutes of opening titles with the same music all the time. Right. And it's just saying there's too many cooks, which it's great. It's very cool thing. I didn't watch the whole of it. So presumably at some point, there's a pie called Lars or thereabouts. Okay, so should we go into what we know about Lars von Tria

outside of makes movies? Makes movies. I can't even say which movies. No, neither can I. Yeah, I can't help you on that either. I'm sorry. Not because it will help you because I don't know the answer. I have Lars von Trier in my head as like a controversial filmmaker.

But beyond that, I have very little knowledge. Like there's a flag in my head. Like, that's a, that's a guy who does weird stuff. Yeah. Controversial is in the films he makes as opposed to baking, like, very normal films and being a weird guy. All right. So what could have been controversial about this pie? I feel like we don't need to know that for this question. If we need to know that, there'd be names of films in the question. Yes, there's no, there's no information here, so I'm guessing it's not relevant what films he made.

So Lars von Trier, who is not, I would like to correct my own. brain constantly, Vern Troia, a very different person. He's also not Gus Van Sant. Also not Gus Van Sant. Tonight on who is Lars von Trier not. He's not Lars Ulrich. He's not Lars Ulrich. But he is a pie.

But also this could be a pun and like working around things like that might be, might be the way to go. Okay. I mean, I'm now trying to anagram the name on the assumption I've spelled it right. That's a great idea. On Tria, rearrangeers 2. I, okay, so I would get less caught up on the name and just be aware that it is a director. And Casper Kelly, who is the creator of Too Many Cooks, was a fan.

Okay. So in the opening credits for this fake sitcom, the director of this fake sitcom was listed as Lars von Trier. But also, there was a pie. So he wasn't listed as the director. He was listed as the name of the pie. There's just a shot of a pie with Lars von Trier below it as a character. I look at it exactly that as a picture reference on my question. Question.

What type of pie? Is there a type of pie? I wonder how important it could be. I mean, I can assess the type of pie, but I don't think it's relevant. Well, I'm saying like pumpkin pie, like American-style one. or like Australian-style meat pie. There's multiple types of pie. A sweet pie.

Again, I don't think it's going to help you in the clue to worry about the type of pie. But it does look more... Are we just looking at pastry puns as movies crusty? It is absolutely wild to me that we are sitting here being told, okay, there's a pie named after Lars von Trier, but you don't even know anything about the pie or Lars von Trier.

It's not the type of pie and it's not the type of movies. Is the answer? Casper's a weird person. Is that the answer? Just based on too many cooks, almost certainly. It could be an answer that some people assume. I don't want to put words in anyone's mouth here,

but, you know, that could be assumed. If you name a pie after a director, how is that like a tribute to the director? How is that a compliment? I do think you're on the right track with thinking about attribution. So thinking about attribution in general, like when someone's name is attached to a film or something like that,

how do most people come across that? Or how does that help them in their career when their name is attached in a credits or anything like that? It's on IMDB. So on IMDB, Lars von Trier has one acting credit now. Oh, no. And that is as pie in too many cooks. So he can add to his own Dube page, give him his first ever acting credit.

Oh. So on that train of thought, Lars von Trier isn't the one who made this decision. So why would Casper Kelly have made this decision? It can say he made a movie with Lars Vantria. And Lars Vantria will check his IMDB page at some point and go, why am I listed as a cast member here? What is this film? I have to go see it. So, yes.

I don't know if it was necessarily to get the attention of Lars Vantria. but Casper Kelly wanted to be associated with Lars von Trier. So by casting the pie under that name, it means that it is on his I and D-B listing. I love that you said casting the pie. The pie is cast. Hey! So in the 11 minute long, surreal comedy horror sketch,

which sounds like how you've all described this, the name Lars von Trier is given to pie, and it is an actual pie. And in an Ask Me Anything, creative consultant, Paul Painter said, we are both huge, huge fans of Vontria, but it was all Casper's idea. We greedily wanted to be connected to him on our IMDB pages. Didn't really think anyone would ever see this.

So they actually were originally going to choose David Lynch, but thought that would be too obvious. You don't need AI agents, which may sound weird coming from service now, the leader in AI agents. The truth is, AI agents need you. Sure, they'll process. predict, even get work done autonomously. But they don't dream, read a room, rally a team,

and they certainly don't have shower thoughts, pivotal hallway chats, or big ideas. People do. And people, when given the best AI platform, they're freed up to do the fulfilling work they want to do. To see how ServiceNow puts AI to work for people, visit servicenow.com. This next question comes from Sam Too Good. Thank you, Sam. Gabriel and Anders were alive at the same time and are remembered for the same achievement.

Yet they never met. If they had, they would have disagreed unless they met in the winter. Why might they have agreed on one thing? There's a lot in that question, so I'll give you it one more time. Gabriel and Anders were alive at the same time and are remembered for the same achievement. Yet they never met. If they had, they would have disagreed unless they met in the winter. Why might they have agreed on one thing?

Look, people simultaneously inventing things. That happens. This is like the calculus or a second example. If you can come up with a second example, Bill. If it happens to be the right example, you're definitely along the right lines. Various evolutions, but... Not the same time, but Pythagorean theorem was also, it was independently much earlier developed in China or India.

Is this Gabriel Pythagoras? It's not, but again, closer than you might think. If you knew their surnames, you'd know it. Erdosh. And, no, I don't, I don't. Sarah's quickly start naming some scientists. Or some Anders's, but not that one. What were the light bulb?

There was a bit of argument over who invented the light bulb, wasn't there? There were loads of different stages of light bulb development. That's true. Too many light bulbs. The other thing is the winter aspect. So why is it that they would have green winter, but not otherwise? and I wonder if it has something to do with ice or... Are they, yeah, are they like, I don't know their name?

Are they Gabriel Celsius and Anders... It's not Anders Fahrenheit, but they have... There are more temperature names. Yes, it is, damning. They're coming together. It's Gabriel Fahrenheit and Anders Celsius. And they live in brutally cold places where they would only agree at negative 40. Negative 40!

Yes! Wow. Good fact. Excellent. So I'm going to run through the question again. Gabriel and Anders were alive at the same time. I remember for the same achievement. They have a temperature scale named after them, yet they never met.

If they had, they would have disagreed unless they met in the winter. So why might they have agreed on one thing? Because so far, you've just shouted a number at me. I have. And I've gone yes. So we should probably explain why. That makes sense. The ways that you can relate the two temperature scales of cells.

and Fahrenheit, where Fahrenheit is 9 over 5 Celsius plus 32. I think I'm getting that right. Oh, my God. You remember the formula. If you make those two, the C and the F, equal each other. The only way that that works out is at negative 40 degrees. Yes. Negative 40 Celsius, negative 40 Fahrenheit to the same temperature.

So in a harsh Siberian winter, in theory, they would have agreed on what minus 40 feels like. I had no idea they were alive at the same time. No, I didn't either. Kind of assumed there was something more gradual. No, they overlap by about 35 years. Wow. Yeah, wow.

Fahrenheit improved thermometer accuracy, and so he introduced a mercury thermometer with his own scale that he came up with. Celsius, who was an astronomer, he proposed the centigrade scale in 1742. That put freezing at 100 and boiling at zero. So it was later inverted. It was called Celsius.

That's nice. Yeah, there are different zero points, different degree signs. So the only time they would agree is minus 40. But we can all agree which one is correct, right? We can all agree. Yeah, we all know. We're all Kelvin fans here. Bill, it is over to you, please.

This question has been sent in by Matt. Due to previous visitors, Market Basket in Worcester, Massachusetts, began to be highly recommended online as a place to do journaling. Why? One more time. Due to previous visitors, market basket in Worcester, Massachusetts, began to be highly recommended online as a place to do journaling.

Why? Market basket sounds so much better in an Australian accent, where there's the assonance in there. Market basket. Yeah. I mean, in Massachusetts, what would it be? Market basket? I don't think so.

Oh, I'm not going to do that again. They would say basket? Massachusetts accent. can be the wonkiest. All I know about Worcester, Massachusetts is that it's where Paulette moves at the end of the Legally Blonde musical. Oh.

That's all I got. I mean, that feels like a very specific sort of reference that might help. That feels like the sort of previous visitor this place has. I mean, it is set at Harvard, so I assume that moving to Worcester isn't that remarkable.

Don't worry too much about Legally Blonde the Musical. Oh. Okay, yeah, it just sounds like I don't know, a nice, peaceful place. What makes people want to journal in one area more than another area? Oh, that's not what I interpreted as. I thought this was a supermarket. Market basket sounds like a supermarket with baskets to get food.

I just assumed it was a grocery store. Oh, interesting. I hadn't thought too heavily about it, but I was definitely thinking like, oh, fancy outdoors flower market sort of thing. I mean, it could be both things. It could be the supermarket-y thing. a nice place to journal? What would you be journaling? Because there are a lot of like, like, I don't know the time frame for this unless I missed it, but like TikTok and that,

there's a lot of clubs of like, go to here, do this. This is a great place for this. Although it's the kind of thing that as soon as you tell everyone all the tourists come and it ruins it. So being a nice, quiet place, maybe that's not the answer. Look, I will say spot on with this sounding like a supermarket or a grocery store, it is, which, I mean, in my personal opinion, wouldn't be a good place to journal. As you said, it's full of people shopping for things and being loud. Who else?

What other cool visitors would go there? They have to be human visitors. Are there any cool animals in Worcester, Massachusetts? Not that I know of. I'm stuck on the journaling. Why journaling? Like, what do you journal? You journal experiences, thoughts, memories,

a dream journal. Is it a shopping list but fancy somehow? And why would previous visitors have made that seem, ooh, hey, that's an idea? Yeah, that is true. Where would you get previous visitors adding to this idea that this is a good place to journal if it's not? Are they bringing a journal with them?

Or is they like a communal journal that everyone adds to? No, hold on, hold on. I assumed it was a good place to journal. that question is phrased very carefully. Maybe it isn't, and people were mistaken because of like online reviews or something like that, where someone has, someone's typed a thing that can be interpreted two ways, and suddenly, oh yeah, I want to go journaling, I'll do it here. Follow that. That's a good idea.

Okay, so someone just made a mistake and left some reviews somewhere or something that said, great journaling spot, guys. You're getting around it, but that doesn't make any sense as it is. I'll say. What could a supermarket sell or be reviewed about that can be misinterpreted as? As journaling. Journaling is good here. That is the question.

Oh, okay. What sounds or looks like journaling, especially if you're typing quickly? That's a perfect question. Oh, okay, then it might be an autocorrect thing or a typo or something like that. I'm trying to type badly in my imagination. You are stuck on this idea of journaling, which is great, a fantastic idea to be stuck on, but not necessarily a good specific wording to be stuck on. Oh, did they say, so they might have said writing or something of that, or diary, diary, it has a good diary section.

Oh, yes. Diary, dairy. That is exactly it. Classic mistake. AI search started to confuse dairy and diary because of typos in reviews such as, wow, this grocery store has an exceptionally well-arranged produce and diary section. Amazing. Incredible. And terrible. Absolutely terrible.

Come on, guys. I like they at least started selling diaries after that. I mean, you'd hope so. So all it remains is the question at the start of the show. Thank you to Jeff Green for sending this in. no one has ever ridden the inaccessible island rail. Why? Any guesses about that?

Yeah, it's inaccessible, Tom. This is a silly question. Is it a model railway? Very easily, it is, is there a place called accessible that is ironically very inaccessible? There's too many layers. Person called no one. Place inaccessible.

It is technically accessible. You could reach it. You could reach it, but you wouldn't. Then I'm agreeing model railway. What's going to be funny about this, guys? There's a band in excess. It's, it's, the railway was sued by in excess for stealing for their IP. I don't know.

It's just an accessible railway. It's an accessible, inaccessible railway that hasn't been ridden. Did you say accessible or inaccessible? I said inaccessible island rail. Oh, right. Rail. It's just a rail. It's not a railway at all.

There's no train. It's just a rail. Is there no station? You can get to the rail, but you can't ride it. There's no train. You can technically get to the rail, but it's not a railway. You're right there. It's a skate rail to grind down.

You can definitely ride that. If you did ride it, something bad would happen. Is a rail a type of animal? Yes, it is, Bill. There we go. It is in fact a small flightless bird native to inaccessible island which is in Tristan the Cooner

in the South Atlantic. It is about the size of a sparrow. And it is flightless. You can't ride that. You can't ride the inaccessible island rail. It won't go anywhere. Thank you very much to all our players. Where can people find you?

What are you up to? We will start with Sarah. Yes, you can find me at serenaclark.com or Serenay Clark on pretty much any social media, YouTube. And I'm actually working on a website at the moment where I'm building a whole bunch of colour resources for people called The Colour Companion, coming soon.

Bill. If you want to check out the things we do, you can go to consume thismedia.com for our Escape Room Show, Escape This Podcast, or our murder mystery show, solve this murder. Danny, specifically excluding everything Bill just said. Or our Twitch content at play this game. Nice, well done.

And if you want to know more about this show, you can do that at lateralcast.com. We can also send in your own ideas for questions. We are at Lateralcast, basically, everywhere, and there are full video episodes up on Spotify. Thank you very much to Danny Siller. Thank you. Bill Sunderland.

Thank you for having me. Sarah Renee Clark. Thank you. I've been Tom Scott, and that's been Lateral.