Lateral with Tom Scott - 184: Popcorn in the sea

Episode Date: April 17, 2026

Dani Siller, Bill Sunderland and Sarah Renae Clark face questions about funny flops, curious cubes and rolling races. 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: Dr Simon Scarle, Martin Aitken, Liam Davis, Taleweaver, David, Chris B., Jesse Sefton. 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

Don't miss the Devil Wears Prada 2 in theaters. Merrill Street, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, and Stanley Tucci are back. In light of the recent scandal, I'm here to restore your credibility. I did not hire you, and all I need to do is bide my time until you fail. On May 1st, I'm going to make something of this job. Rain. Be the bridges. I burn. Night my way. Forever.

I just love my job. Get tickets now. The Devil Wears Prada 2 in theaters May 1st, directed by David Frankel. Since 1964, people have copied something Richard tried in Tokyo, even though it was a flop. What is it? The answer to that at the end of the show. My name's Tom Scott, and this is Lateral. Before we begin, I need to warn you, if you hear any unexplained tapping, eerie whispers, or a cold chill down your spine. You're listening to this podcast correctly. We've discovered that the studio is haunted by a ghost who died tragically young, after reading the comments section.

But don't worry, the ghost mostly flickers the lights, rearranges the snacks, and occasionally corrects our spelling. And I am delighted to report that three guests have bravely agreed to join us in the spectral realm. First, we have from Escape This Podcast, and many other things besides, Bill Sunderland, welcome back to the show. I'm happy to be back. Let me just reveal some behind-the-scenes stuff here

for anybody listening at home. Yeah, yeah. We've recorded an episode with Tom saying, Oh, I've got a hurt throat. I'm a little bit sick. And then, I'm assuming on the spot, the producer has gone, all right, I'm going to write a bit to be done in a harsh whisper. That'll get him.

But the thing is, my notes actually say, stage whisper or ASMR. Now, I'm not doing ASMR for people. And if I do a stage whisper with the voice I've got, that's what comes out. So my apologies to anyone who is slightly off-puted by the throaty whisper there. That's the best I can manage. No, it was great. It was lovely. I just think it put you through a lot, and I hope you're doing all right.

This show's put me through a lot, Bill. How are you doing? I'm doing well, I'm doing great. I'm looking forward to another episode. This should be a lot of fun. This was a good group, and I'm enjoying it. Well, we are also joined by the other half of Escape This Podcast and many other things besides. Danny Siller, welcome back to the show. Thank you. Your intro made me want to give a creepy, we're here, or something like that. But I've only read the script of Poultergeist. I haven't actually seen it, so I have no idea how the little girl says that. You've only read the script of Paltagost?

When I'm scared of movies, and I think that they'll be too scary or too sad for me, I read the script instead. It's so good. Not like the Wikipedia description of it. Okay, yeah. No, no, full script. Okay. Great.

Do you want to plug what you do at any point here? Do I think we just want to roll into the next guest? Well, it turns out, Silence of the Lamb's, great script. recommend that one to everybody. Well, good luck to both of you on the show today. We are joined by the guest with one of the best backgrounds it is possible to have on a video call. Sarah Renee Clark, welcome back to the show.

Do you want to explain, and you're going to have to do this both in video and audio description, what is behind you? So behind me is the embodiment of a colouring book on a wall. It's actually not drawn. It's actually hundreds of vinyl stickers that I spent hours designing and then cutting but you could only cut 12 by 12 inches at a time. So then it was a giant jigsaw puzzle

which I intend to never do again and it brings a lot of comments on my YouTube channel saying when are you going to colour in the wall and the answer is never. Because that is what you do. You do art and colouring and colour. Yes. I started out as colouring books.

Now I like to just explore all kinds of art and do crazy big projects that take hundreds of hours and drive my team a little crazy and break all our deadlines, but they're a lot of fun. Well, good luck to you and all our players on the show today. Let us open a portal, ideally a metaphorical one, as we summon the spirit of question one. Thank you to Jesse Sefton for this question.

During the filming of Black Swan, an actress regularly sustained injuries while playing her character. This happened so often that the crew coined a highly-appointed, appropriate word for it. What was that word? I'll say that again. During the filming of Black Swan, an actress regularly sustained injuries

while playing her character. This happened so often that the crew coined a highly appropriate word for it. What was that word? I've seen Black Swan. You haven't just read the script. This was before I found that out, and I've since found out that everyone

does list Black Swan as a horror movie. That was news to me at the time. I believe I may have read the script. and not watched it actually. I've done neither. But here I am with the correct answer. The phrase was no toley portman and she had no toes.

And that's what they said about her. Look, it's not impossible that you're basically her. She had to stand on point in her ballet shoes and her toes fell off. So they called her no toley Portman. You're joking. I don't know how you were so confident to be able to say that out loud this quickly

because you could be right. It's no toly Portman. You could be right. It is Natalie Portman, lead actress in Black Swan. It is her toe, which was repeatedly injured. It is not no toly Portman. I was... So close, you have all the ingredients,

but there is an even more appropriate joke than that. Okay. Now, I was going to say, I thought, there's a lot of body horror and sorts of things. in that movie, pretty light compared to something like the substance. But I did wonder, is she toenaily Portman? Does her toenails fall off? Ooh.

I mean, is that something that would happen? Like, I'm assuming that would probably trim her toenals if she's going to be on point. But definitely like breaking a toe or black, black swan, black bruises. Black toe. Is there anything we can do with Portman? We've focused very heavily on Natalie here. Hurtman. Port.

Natalie Port. Porto. Natalie Porto, man. Sorry, I'm keeping my mouth shut, because at some point, you're going to put the syllables in the right order. Natalimportman. Natalimp Orkman. This just feels mean at this point. It does, but you are so close.

I mean, Sarah, you could just say some words and you will stumble across it. I need to, I need to, like, I need to, like, map this out on post-it notes. That's what I'm going to do. Please do. I'm going to write out all the letters and do it scrambled. But you said syllables. We're going to keep them in syllables. Poor Naley Tertman.

Natalie Bunyan's. No, no, there are no new words required here. You have literally all the syllables. And at some point, something is going to clunk in someone's head and you're going to yell a really appropriate word. How rearranged it is this? Man, poor turrets. Nearly not rearranged at all.

Okay, are we going port or are we going poor? Port, port, port, okay. Port, all right, what have we got here? We got port, we got, Lee, lie. She's lying down. I'm just putting these in her... Oh my God, Tom's face. Portly.

You've missed a syllable there. You've missed a key syllable. You've got Nat, a, Lee, Port. No, of course. And you... Man? Yeah, and also... We need the toe part.

You don't need all those syllables. You need another one. You need toe on that list you've got. Okay, so A is not Nat Ali. It's Nattoly. Poor toe-natly man. Oh my God! Poor toe.

Poor toe. Oh my God, you're so close. Poor toe. Port-man to. Portman to. Poor man to. Why is that so appropriate? Because in Black Swan, they take Natalie Portman and Milacudits and they stick her together.

Like a portmanteau of a dancer. Her toes got stuck together. The portmanteau is when you put two words together, right? And what have they done? Put her two names together. They've put two words together. It is a portmanteau. It was right here.

It was right there. It was all that you have the number of times. You said, you said, Toe Portman. You said Port-Toman. You said every possible arrangement of those syllables other than Portman Toe. It's her fault for having the word Toe in her name. I'm still going to call her Toanaly Portman from now. It's Toon Aley Portman, we all know it.

The history, just, just I'll give you, I'll give you the details. This was Natalie Portman in Black Swan, which is yes, about a ballet dancer. She injured herself so regularly that the downtime became known as, the Natalie Portman's left toe delay. That was shortened to Portman Toe, which is a portmanteau of Portman and Toe. Well, when you say it like that, it makes perfect sense. Like, we're laughing about this.

She also had a dislocated rib. Oh, yeah, I knew that it was terrible. The production didn't have the money to hire a medic, so she gave up her trailer so they could afford to hire a medic. Like, we're laughing about this. She had a terrible time. Wow, that's horrible. Sarah, what did you give us the next question, please?

Sure. This question has been sent in by Martin Aitken. So built in 1857, the Britannia Panopticon in Glasgow is the world's oldest surviving musical. How did failing to upgrade the building with modern conveniences help keep the building standing today? Built in 1857, the Britannia Panopticon in Glasgow is the world's oldest surviving musical. How did failing to upgrade the building with modern conveniences help keep the building standing today? All right, what modern conveniences do we think of first? I mean, my brain got thrown off completely by Panopticon, because I'm used to Panopticon

being a sort of dystopian prison design in which all the cells can be seen from the central watchtower, so everyone feels like they're watched all the time. Um, that, Maybe it just meant everyone has a good view. Yeah, everybody can see. It's a Panopticon. Anybody can see the music at this music hall. Like, there's the lead city varieties. There's the hippodrome in Great Yom.

There's lots of names like that for that sort of building that sort of time. They'd pick a fancy name. Yeah, and a Panopticon. So, yeah, I'm thinking of, like, oh, they didn't install sliding doors. and somehow when a big Glasgow earthquake happened, this was very good for the building. I'm not sure there's ever been a big Glasgow earthquake. That's definitely a substantial problem with the theory.

But also, the big Glasgow earthquake is someone you meet on a night out in Kelvin's side. Conveniences in British English can mean toilets. If you want, particularly in that kind of era, if you don't want to be crass enough to say like public toilets, There could be a sign up that says public conveniences. Yeah, that definitely sounds like a good place to go. So I'm guessing they didn't upgrade the toilets? Was there a horrible sewage backup in Glasgow in 1858 or something?

That's also someone you meet in Kelvin's side. Yeah. It's not specifically a sewage problem, but I think you are on the right track in thinking of toilets as conveniences. Could it be, is it something that like everywhere else needed to have all their toilets replaced? because every toilet built in the 1800s was made out of poison and they were like, oh, we can't have these poison toilets. Oh, the lead toilet phase, that's fair.

We can't have all these poison toilets here. We've got to rim up and that would have been bad for the building. But they're like, we never even put toilets in. We just dug holes in the ground. Part of, I guess, what you need to think about is when were toilets invented? If anyone knows the answer to that. Ooh, interesting. Pull that one out of the back of your brain, you know.

In the way that we think of them now, not a clue. I remember reading somewhere that public toilets used to be very, very uncommon, and I can't remember what era that was, but it was a whole thing about women's mobility, because if there weren't public toilets, most men will just be able to, you know, go somewhere discreet. Women can't. Like, for the most part, that kept women at home.

Yeah. Now, I don't think that's to do with this. I'm just thinking, like, 1857 may not have been the era, of public toilets yet. I think that my following on from that made me think, hey, most places had toilets, but they only had men's toilets until sometime later when having men's and women's toilets

became mandatory and a whole bunch of people had to spend a lot of money to change their toilet set up. But this place had no toilets at all, so it didn't have to at this point. Or it just had one big trough for everyone and that was much easier to replace. I'm going to just remind you of something from the original question, where the failing to upgrade to modern conveniences, and I'm happy

to lead you on with the toilets there, helped keep the building standing today. Oh yeah, standing. Yeah, why would putting in toilets make your building fall over? That's my question. That is a good question. And maybe not the right question. You have to think a little bit laterally, but it's a question in the right direction. On this show? How dare you? Okay, so I've got a building that presumably doesn't have toilets And then they go, hey, we've got this cool new thing, it's called toilets

Why don't you put them in? And they went, no, no, no, don't worry about it. But if they'd said, yeah, yeah, yeah, worry about it, the building would have collapsed in some fashion Because the building work would have knocked down the building. Maybe the building wasn't built well. It's definitely making it sound like something about shoddy construction. was happening. Or just like the wrong type of construction.

All right. I'm going to not let you get too carried away on that. Okay, this is less about what this building, it's less about why this building would have fallen with toilets. It actually may not have, but maybe why it survived because of the lack of toilets. The Great Fire of Glasgow. Is this a flammable gases situation?

And they didn't have toilets. Okay, so they didn't have modern toilets. What did they have instead? Well, apparently, just a bunch of dudes who would be ready to pee on the fire. I mean, it's actually not a bad trade of thought, even though it's maybe not directly the right way to go. They just, they didn't have proper plumbing, so they just had their own, like, big water tanks somewhere at the top of the building.

caught fire, they could just pour water over everything. Yes, because that's how, rather than having an individual tank for each toilet, each urinal, each whatever, they just had a big water tank at the top of the building. So when the fire came along, they could douse it? Moving a little bit away. Unfortunately, this maybe comes down to a little bit of the problem with some of humanity, because we are talking about in this situation, a lot of drunk, people who are enjoying their show.

So it may be less about what they have proactively done to prevent something. It may be more about what they did out of... Oh, is it just because there were no toilets, as Tom said, all the men discreetly went outside, peed on the side of the building constantly, so it was too inundated with drunk patron pee that it couldn't catch fire because it was all wet. It was all wet from the people peeing on it, so it couldn't catch fire.

What? Got it. What? You are so close. I think that's a pea-drenched building. It is a pea-drenched building, but way worse than you think. Oh, wait, do they not have a sewer outlet? So you're assuming that people still made an effort to find somewhere to go.

No. In fact, the audience were enjoying the show so much, and they were rowdy, they were drunk, they were often reluctant to make their way out to, anywhere else appropriate. So they just did what they needed to do right where they were. And this happened so much. And the timber floors and the Joyce absorbed extraordinary amounts of moisture and ammonia.

Lovely. So the timber structure became too damp to catch fire. And the ammonia helped to preserve the wood. Wow. Wow. That's a choice. You got to pee on your public building. everybody. That's the messaging that Lateral

would like to put out into the world. Soccer fans, your chance to witness history is here. You can win tickets to the FIFA World Cup 2026 final thanks to Visa. All it takes is a BMO Visa credit card to winner. Sign up and enter at BMO.com

slash contest. Contest rules apply. This episode is brought to you by Tell us Online Security. Oh, tax season is the worst. You mean a hack season? Sorry, what? Yeah, cybercriminals love tax forms, but I've got Tellus Online Security. It helps protect against identity theft and financial fraud, so I can stress less during tax season, or any season.

Plans start at just $12 a month. Learn more at tellus.com slash online security. No one can prevent all cybercrime or identity theft. Conditions apply. This episode is brought to you by FedEx. These days, the power move isn't having a big metallic credit card to drop on the check at a corporate. launch. The real power move is leveling up your business with FedEx intelligence and accessing one of the biggest data networks powered by one of the biggest delivery networks. Level up your business with FedEx, the new power move. Thank you to David for this next question. In the

1940s and 50s, John Stapp rode on a sled when there was no snow but lots of water. After each short journey, he would go home in one of two vehicles. What were they, and why did he often dress in the dark? So one more time, in the 1940s and 50s, John Stapp rode on a sled when there was no snow, but lots of water. After each short journey, he would go home in one of two vehicles. What were they, and why did he often dress in the dark? You can't just... And how many toes did he have?

And what was his cat's name? Every single question in this question. in this question makes sense. I promise you. I weirdly had heard of John Stapp. Everything in here makes sense, I promise. Okay. All right, so dressing in the dark,

do we think that he is making a deliberate choice for this, or is it just really late at night slash really early morning? Where are we vibing? Oh, is it like he races the sun on a sled, and so he has to be dressed in the dark? Because he's got to be wearing clothes when he races the sun. I think he is otherwise known as Helios, and he's carrying the sun.

Oh, he's. Is this Helios and he's carrying the sun? Yeah. Let's list out our facts outside of the question. I know it's early, but I feel like I just need to... That would be great. Is a man named John... John.

John. John... 1940s. And it's in the 40s and he rides a sled but there's no snow, the normal media. There's lots of water. There is lots of water, so it's some kind of water sled. He rides a water sled, but then he goes. goes home in one of two different vehicles.

Either an ambulance or glory. Yes, correct. Is ambulance or glory for John? Well, an ambulance or his own car. I don't know what the car was called. It might have been called glory, but yes, you're right that it was either an ambulance or his own car. Very strong.

So I've answered a question. He goes on his water sled and he either gets it terribly wrong or it works really, really well and he gets in his car and he drives home in glory. I note that there is a lot of water. Do we think we're talking like flood levels, middle of the Amazon levels? What about Canada-America border levels? Oh, goodness. He's going over Niagara.

He's a water-falling sled man. You know, water-falling sled man? Or is he a rescue worker? Like, is the ambulance not for him, but he's with someone in the ambulance that He's rescued on a sled. That'd be clever. It would be him leaving in the ambulance, and he would be the patient.

He is in uniform, though. You're right about that. Ooh. Oh, he's in uniform. I'm not a stuntman, although he said he wasn't known in any way. Stump man is close. Not the right word, but close.

Is he otherwise known as Evil Caneval? I'm not sure Evil Caneval would have been brave enough to do this. Well, actually, no. Evil Knievel would have been brave enough to do this absolutely. We're calling out evil Knievel on lateral this episode. No, that was unjust slanded on evil Knievel. I think evil Knievel would have loved to have done this. Interesting.

Okay, well, now I am thinking that something about waterfalls or massive rivers and things is along the right lines. This is got to be something intense. And why a sled? What are you sledding with all this water around? And we still haven't even touched on this getting dressed in, at night situation. Was it like testing something before other people in the day would then go and like whitewater rafting, but like in the 40s?

Testing. Definitely a key word. Testing. Okay. And so are we thinking, we could have put this out there. I don't know if we're on the same page here. Are we thinking it's like literally he dressed at night because whatever this job is, it is imperative that it starts before sunrise or with sunrise or something?

Yeah. It was in the dark rather than specifically. at night, but at night definitely feels like it makes sense. It's not a secret identity type of situation. No, no, no, no. Nobody could know the water sled man. I mean, you keep saying water sled. Was he testing water slides?

That doesn't feel that crazy. No, not, not, remember he's in uniform. Oh, yes. He's in, so is it a military operation? Yes. Is it about like a safety thing of like water versus ice and checking if the ice has melted. Safety. Again, you're picking up on some good keywords here, Sarah. Safety, definitely.

Is he, like, simulating something? Yeah. You know, he's like, this is how we're going to land on the beach of Normandy. I was thinking, was he ejecting from things or something? Oh, Danny, you're very close with that. Is this space race stuff instead of military? We're going to, we're into the 50s. It's not space race, but again, it's that sort of thing. Certainly, you're Sort of in the wrong direction. He's on a sled, remember? He's on a sled. He was making sure that different locations are safe for Santa.

It's Santa testing. Submarines. Oh. Submarine ejections, boats. You get in all the right words here. It's not ejection, but it's that kind of force that's happening here. I was thinking submarines at one point, but I don't know anything about submarines and how they work.

Not that much water. Okay, river submarines. And you said short trips. Very short trips. Hovercrafts. Hovercrafts are big. They got big 50s energy. And with space race, like, absolutely, you're thinking space race, things like that.

What did the space race have a... Oh, landing. When they land after the missions, they land in water. Wrong axis. Oh, okay, so... Left and right. We're going horizontal across the world. We're going horizontal.

He's just learning to surf. Okay, but also we were talking about space race. It's just rockets? Rockets, yes. Is a rocket tested, they're firing rockets out? This is a rocket sled. Oh, sweet. No, that feels horrifying.

Does he come out of a rocket and we're just for fun? It's just attached rockets as propulsion. He's just testing propulsion? Yep. Rocket technology? Yep. Why on a sled? Why on a sled?

What's being tested here? Coefficient of friction. Kind of. What are they using the water for? Slowing him down at the end. Yes. So I'm going to picture the scene for you here. This is a US military rocket sled, which is what they use to test rockets, things like that. It is a sled with rockets on the back, on a track. And you like the rocket, and it speeds off at anything up to 632 miles an hour, which is the record.

That's a lot. and then it comes to a stop in the water in 1.4 seconds. Oh, it's always the ambulance, never the car. New Red Bull competition. Yep, you've got pretty much everything here. You've got rocket sled, you've got what he's doing, you've got all the details there. Why does he dress at night?

Why does he often dress in the dark? I assume that he needs to wear a million layers of everything, and maybe the head has to be covered up first before the other clothes can get on. Yep, this is major doctor John Paul Stapp. He was a US Air Force physician. Is this like, okay, nighttime pirates with their patch where they adjust, they use one patch to stay adjusted to the dark on that side.

Does he just live in the dark and not come out to the sun? I don't know. Was it just like his face protection had to be so hefty that you normally couldn't see through it, but if he acclimatized himself to it, he could? He's thinking a bit more longer term than that. Oh, all right, so he was thinking long term about this. That just makes me think, I don't know,

he wanted to be able to practice it in case he couldn't see later. Yes. Oh, did he think it was going to make him blind? Yes, he did. Oh, he had no idea how fast you could rocket. Yep, he was worried about eye damage. And he might have to go home in an hour. ambulance a lot of times after breaking at 46G.

So he was getting dressed in the dark in case he had to do that in future. I was happier thinking he was Superman. That was a happier ending. He is famous in the aviation community. His findings led to modern safety standards and the calibration of today's crash test dummies. Danny, we're ready for your question whenever you want. Excellent. This question has been sent in by Dr. Simon Skarl from Cardiff Met University.

Thank you so much. I hope I pronounced your name right. Oh, specific. Oh, yes. We'll find out why very soon. When he arrives at work, Simon always solves one face of a Rubik's cube that has the letters A, C, E, O, he, and you in the six centres. It also has a sun, 13 digits, and various other letters. Why? I'll read back one more time. I'll take notes. Gonna have to write this one down.

Oh yeah. Yeah. When he arrives at work, Simon always solves one face of a Rubik's cube that has the letters A, C, E, O, P, and U in the six centres. It also has a sun, 13 digits, and various other letters. Why? So I've been trying to amogram those letters, but there's four vowels there. And it doesn't look amogramable.

They're also not together. They're in the centres. So they're around the cube. I want, where's a cube? I have a Rubik's cube. I can see like 10 cubes behind you. I do have actually here. Two Rubik's cubes, neither of which are solvable because they are all the same.

I don't have colours on them. This one is glow in the dark and this one is chrome that is slowly rubbing off and unfortunately is quite sticky. But they do still turn. Those all work fine. So there's an A side, there's a C side, there's an E side, there's an O's. side, there's a P side, there's a U side, and never the Twain shall meet. I was trying to work out if they could be directions like centre up, but EO, P and A,

I can't find anything for. No, not quite. A son and 13 digits. I'm here to provide the visual aids today, everyone. Oh, so good. So good for us. Because, I mean, and then also just a bunch of other letters, right? That was also included.

A son, 13 digits, a bunch of other. Yeah, 13 digits, a son and various other letters. Because there's still quite a lot left, right? There's still 48 more cubes that are not those faces. Eight more on each side. There's six sides. We don't know how many suns and stuff, but the suns could be weather. Like each day, maybe it's about picking one of the letters.

If we're only solving one side, we have to pick one side based on whatever these letters are. And then we match up the things on the other side like the sun, maybe as like a weather. maybe it's just a fun diary. You are rolling your way right in there. Okay. This is good stuff. At kids' schools, they have, like if he was a teacher, they have like boards where it's like they put up the sun today,

they put up the temperature, they put up the date, which could be digits. You have virtually got this. You only need 13 digits for all the possible days in a month. You need zero through nine, and then you need an extra one, two, and three. That's 13 digits. Excellent. Yeah, you've basically got this. Now there's just a little bit more to how does this construction work. Like, what are these, what's the ACE, O.P and you?

Are they things that you could usually make like days of the week out of, but, or something like or months or something, but these are just the unique letters or something? That's the center of all the months. Tell me more. J-A-N for January, that's an A, but that also works for M-A-R, which is March, F-E-B, that's the middle letter. April uses the P, May use the A, June uses the U, July uses the U. You've absolutely nailed it. It's a calendar.

It's a calendar. It's a calendar. It's a nerds calendar. Every day you have to go in and rearrange the Rubik's Cube. Yep, exactly right. Can I get one? I obviously like Rubik's cubes. Quite possible.

Apparently Rubik's officially released one of these, and there are some unofficial sticker sets online. So maybe for your blank Rubik's Cube, this will be great. You could totally do this. It's not blank. It's actually holographic. And we know that you love stickers. Oh, okay, yeah, that's too pretty to cover.

Yeah, it doesn't need a read. The one other thing that I will mention, we talked about this sun. It's actually not a picture of a sun. It's, it's, S-U-N. It's the days of the week. Yeah, exactly right. There's perhaps another one that just says day on it and you can switch out all of those every time you need to as well.

That wouldn't be an easy puzzle to solve, by the way. Or design. Yeah, this is just a bragging question. This is just a look how cool I am. This next question was sent in by Chris B. Thank you very much. In 2004, the town of Molder, Norway, dumped 150 kilos of popcorn into the sea.

How could this protect the marine environment in the future. I'll say this again. In 2004, the town of Molda, Norway, dumped 150 kilos of popcorn into the sea. How could this protect the marine environment in the future? How do you have popcorn ready, Sarah? How is that immediately? You reached off-screen and magically from Hammerspace produced popcorn?

I'm just that good. Wow. I got Rubik's cubes. I got popcorn. All right. Well, my first joke answer was that the marine life needs more fibre. I did wonder, like, my first, you're dumping this popcorn into the ocean to help the marine situation in the future. One of the things that did occur to me was the idea of like you're feeding something. You're like trying to feed and sustain a thing in the water that is good for the environment.

It's good for the water. It's good for people. where my thought was, do oysters eat popcorn? Because people love to make oyster reefs. It's like a big thing. I suppose one thing we haven't considered, I feel like we immediately all went to airy fluffy popcorn. Could it have just been the kernels of popcorn?

And the aim was to have them sink. Would they sink? I don't know if a kernel would sink. I've never put popcorn kernels in salt water before. I would try and work that out. There is some popcorn in front of Sarah. Sarah. There is some water.

Yeah, but this is already popped. This is pre-popped. This was pre-popped popcorn. It had to be pre-popped. I don't want to waste my popcorn. This is like premium salt. I'm vending a popcorn. Do we want to find out?

If it sank to the bottom, do they have like underwater volcanoes there? And they were checking. And if popcorn suddenly started rising to the surface, they could flee. They're thrown in. Hi, everybody. Welcome. This is the science portion.

We're doing an experiment. Sarah is going to get some popcorn. Okay, we want to see what happens? Yeah, you're acting right now as Scully. I'm Molder, I'm the object lesson person today. Okay. It floats. The salt is dropping.

Now, I could have told you that because it's on here on my notes that popcorn floats in water, but I'm really glad that you have actually physically demonstrated that. I'm not going to be able to drink this water now, though. Skullet, skull, skull, chug, chug. Chub, chug. Let's do it, come on. A little bit salty, not too bad. The salt is leaving the popcorn, though.

I don't know if that's notable. Well, is it like, are you studying, is it using it as then a reference to study, like, where there are currents and things because the popcorn is now floating around? You'd be like, there's a rip over there because the popcorn is floating out to sea. Definitely something like that.

You are thinking along the right lines. Okay, now I'm thinking of popcorn. I was going to go the angle of, like, if popcorn can absorb things, putting popcorn out, would it like help pull things out of the water and then it's easy to scoop up because it's on the top? Like safe styrofoam. Yeah.

Okay. Take all the three things you just said. Studying the currents, pulling stuff out the water, safe styrofoam, all that. All of these circle around the answer. Is it because popcorn in this case is biodegradable and not that bad, but it is mimicking how things like styrofoam would move in the ocean? so they can track it to go find their various garbage islands out in the ocean. Oh, this is finding the garbage patch.

Nearly. Oh, I keep being so close. Very, very nearly. You're right. You're right. It's standing in for something bad. But it's not long-term tracking. Because that popcorn's not going to stick around for long.

So you're looking for... Bill, what you said was it was so close. It was so... There's like changing a couple words in there. We'll be enough. Besides garbage, do some character work here. Like, here's 150 kilos of popcorn.

We're throwing it in the ocean. Okay. Why? What happens next? All right. So, I'm Molder throwing popcorn in the ocean. Danny, you can be scully. We'll do it.

Wait, what does that mean? Sarah, you're the smoking man? You're the smoking man. These are characters from the X-Files. And I believe that the popcorn is aliens. But Danny thinks there's a more rational explanation. It's government... Look, you've already covered garbage and it wasn't garbage.

The only other big ocean problem I can see is poop, dead bodies and oil. Oil, Danny. Keep thinking about oil. Hey! But it's not to clean up the oil. There isn't any oil. This isn't for the cleanup. Are they planning on eating this popcorn? Don't think about how the marine environment

reacting. Think about how the people are reacting. They are going out to get free popcorn. No, they're going... They're going out to get the popcorn. Oh, is it training them on clean-up duty? Yes, it is, Danny. Spot on. This is emergency training. Yes. In 2004, the town of Molder dumped around 150 kilos of popcorn into the harbour as part of a large-scale emergency rehearsal. So they can deploy containment booms. They can skim it. They can do all the cleanup techniques.

And if they miss a bit of it, it's fine. It's popcorn. It's popcorn. Bill, can we have your question, please? Yes. All right. This question has been sent in by Liam Davis. Thank you, Liam.

Sarah enters a running race to push herself to her limits. It is essential that she helps to train her closest competitor Meg as well as motivate her during the race. Why? One more time, Sarah enters a running race to push herself to the limit. It is essential that she helps to train her closest competitor Meg

as well as motivate her during the race. Why? Oddly descriptive sort of colourful language for one of these questions. What are you talking about? Push yourself to the limit, eh? What limits could we be talking? about. What kind of race is it too? Well, it said running. This actually reminds me

Michelle Coray just did the seven marathons in seven days, I believe, was in seven different countries, seven continents. Yeah. It was insane. And in that kind of competition, you obviously need people around you that can somewhat keep up. I don't know if that gives us any clue, but also Michelle's awesome. I will say it does put you in the right world, if anything. Mariphanes. The seven continents. Wait, seven, the continents of us.

It's extreme running races. Yes. Well, because if you're running like up a mountain that's like a very dangerous mountain, there may not be other people except for the competitors that can actually do the race and therefore the competitors actually also then become the life support for each other. Oh, right? Yes. particularly in like ultramarathons, whether running 50K, 100K, even like 500K sometimes.

I don't know why you'd need to train your closest competitor, though. I will say if Meg did have to drop out, Sarah would be disappointed but not endangered. Okay, so it's not like she's the guide for a blind runner or something like that. She's going to be fine. Are they just like, they have body cams or something? So they're each other's only proof that things got done properly. No. Competitors.

Like in running races, I don't know, how much does using someone's windstream matter in these sorts of races? Oh, boy. And do we think we're talking horizontal or vertical? I mean, I can imagine in most races, like running against someone versus running against yourself, if they're keeping up with you, it's going to motivate you to do further, to go forward. further. So maybe she's not actually interested in beating the competitor as much as they're both trying to hit like a world record. And so it's actually important that they both do well because that's the only way she's going to be able to motivate herself enough to break the record.

You are very, very close, except for the fundamental difference that it has nothing to do with motivation. But thinking about breaking records and wanting to break a record is key. Ah, is this a ridiculous world record? Is this one of those things in the Guinness Book of It's like longest race performed while being slapped in the face by your closest competitor. I don't know where it's a ridiculous record. It is ridiculous only in so far as it is as it is an extreme human feat of of that I could never do. But it's not ridiculous in concept like doing the whole thing followed by how how far can you run while followed by Meg? It's not the three-legged marathon.

You've got two of them have to run together. You have hit my very first clue. It is not a three-legged race. Oh. The first clue is that you're on the wrong track. Oh, I thought I was smart. To quote verbatim, it does say, it is not a three-legged race, comma, Tom.

Okay, okay. I mean, you did say that if Meg pulled out, she would be disappointed. But I insinuated that that would. She could still do it by herself technically. No. She wouldn't be endangered, but she would be disappointed because she wouldn't be able to set the record. Hmm. So she needs Meg to set the record?

Up until a point, yes. Has there never been an ultra marathon end in a tie before and she really wanted that one for some reason? No, no. She wants to win. She wants to win and she wants to do the best anyone's ever done. But she needs Meg there to make sure that happens. Is a part of this a two-person part? No. It is not about there being two. There's a lot of people.

They're all running independently. The question is, I suppose, you're saying it's an ultra-marathon. How long is an ultramarathon? 50, 100, 500 kilometres. Any distance longer than 26 miles, a 26-in-a-bit, is an ultra-marathon. That's fair. This can be very ultra. It could be incredibly ultra this marathon.

This can be like 1,000 kilometres. Oh, it could be a big one, yeah. Would they, like, am I, I always go back to The Simpsons. Is this like Homer climbing the murder horn where he only did some of the climb and then his Sherpers carried him while he slept the rest of the way? No, no. Sarah is going to do the whole thing. She just wants to be able to get the record.

I'm just, the concept of me running is really throwing me off. I will say, this marathon is not decisive. The victory is not decided in the usual way. Does the victory have anything to do with the distance between you and second place? No. Well, actually, sort not the distance between you, but it is based on who comes second, I suppose. It's last one standing. It is last one running.

Oh. So why does she care about Meg? Why doesn't she just win last one running? Well, because she still wants to set the record. and if Meg stops, the time stops. Yes. As soon as she becomes the last one standing, she wins the race is over.

You win. Good day, sir. That's it. But Sarah wanted to set the record, so she needed Meg to push her to get far enough that she crosses the record distance in a last woman standing race.

I'm so afraid to ask, does it say how long? these people last? Thank you for asking. So let me give you some race details. So this is the backyard ultra and it is a unique format where they do the, they need to complete a loop, which is 4.167 miles every hour, which means they have to keep going at a rate of 100 miles every 24 hours. There is no set distance. It is however, it is whoever is the last remaining, whoever does the most laps. Specifically, they keep going until only one person can do a complete loop within the allotted hour. It's the most brutal beep test. Yes, yes, exactly,

like a beep test. And the record, Sarah's record, which Sarah did set, and they often refer to the person who's keeping up with you, staying in second, as the assist. So Meg Eckert was Sarah Perry's assist, and Sarah Perry set the record with 95 laps, making that 395 miles. Oh. It's a big race. Brutal. Which means there's only one question left. Thank you to Tailweaver for sending this one in.

Since 1964, people have copied something Richard first tried in Tokyo, even though it was a flop. What is it? Any guesses? You thought you could get us, Tom, because this is a sport question, didn't you? It is. It's a sport question. I know my Olympic years.

You know your flops. I know my... You do. Anyone want to kick that one home? This is the Fosbury flop. It is. The high jump technique that works pretty dang well. This is Richard or Dick Fosbury.

He experimented with a new technique. in the 1964 Olympics, and it became known as the Fosbury Flop, because he turns on the approach and goes back first. And a newspaper ran the caption, Fosbury Flops Over Bar. Thank you very much to all our players. Where can people find you? What's going on your lives? We'll start with Sarah.

So this is the colour cube. It helps you to pick colours that work well together for pretty much anything that you use colours for. You can find that on my website at sarinaclark.com. And we'll see how I use it and watch my other crazy art adventures on YouTube under Sarah and A Clark. Danny. You can find us if you're in the mood for escape rooms, murder mysteries, escape this podcast, solve this murder, you'll find plenty of them.

And Bill. Sorry, that's where you'd find me too. I'm just, I just hang on to Danny's Coatails and I ride it to success. Yeah, that's how it works. And if you want to know more about this show or send in your own ideas for questions or join Producer David's Lateral Producers Club, you can. do that at lateralcast.com. We are at lateralcast basically everywhere and there are full video episodes every week on Spotify. Thank you very much to Bill Sunderland. Thank you. It was lovely.

Danny Siller. Always happy to be here. Sarah Renee Clark. Thank you so much. I've been Tom Scott and that's been lateral.