Lateral with Tom Scott - 194: Cockpit balls

Episode Date: June 26, 2026

Charlotte Yeung, Iszi Lawrence and Ólafur Waage face questions about Latin lingo, legal leniency and gaming grass. 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: DooRon, Kacie Minifield, Lydia, Victor, Sam E., Bjørnar. 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

What are you doing if you are committing monolithic bi-avicide? The answer to that, at the end of the show. My name's Tom Scott, and this is Lateral. Lateral is incredibly excited to unveil our latest release, Questions 2026, now with enhanced ambiguity, deeper misdirection, and a completely redesigned interface for guessing. Built from the ground up, Questions 2026 features faster assumptions, smarter distractions, and a revolutionary new system that makes confident

wrong answers feel even better. We've also introduced three human beta testers who will be stress testing our logic in real time. They haven't seen the documentation, they skipped onboarding, and they've already agreed to the terms and conditions without reading them. Let's meet our early adopters. They are all returning players. We start with Izzy Lawrence. Welcome back.

Thank you very much. Lovely to be here again. Again, again. I appreciate the roller banner that has been placed behind you with the new books on it. Indeed. I mean, I was doing stuff earlier and it was up. And if you've ever tried to, you know, take a roll of Barrona down, it's almost lethal. So it's staying there. It's like a tape measure, but vertical and so much bigger. And it snaps back in exactly the way the tape measure does, the way you think it might actually still bite you. So it's staying there. Is it for a particular book? Because I think you've got a new book out since we last saw you. I do have a new book. It's this book here. It's just called the Doomsday Cows. And I've read it.

it quite cynically because it's for 9 to 12 year olds and what do 9 to 12 year olds like more than cattle? And the answer to that is medieval surveys. So this is, it's set in 1086 up in Chester and it follows a girl called Nora and it's good fun and involves hiding cattle, which is difficult because it's before they invented sofas. Just to be clear, are you talking about leather sofas there or just a sofa to hide a cow behind? To be fair, I realised when I said that and I was saying that off the cuff, I imagine Romans had sofas or some sort of sitting implement. So I'm not going to, I withdraw my factual statement there. But if they did, those sofas will be appearing in an Izzy Lawrence book at some point soon. Indeed, definitely. Well, good luck to you on the show today.

Also returning, Oliver Vorge, welcome back. Hi. What have you been up to lately? Because I've been seeing clips of you doing English stand-up in the Nordics. I'm not sure where in the Nordics. I was going to say a country and I'm like, I'm probably going to be wrong. No, I've been doing it in Norway. So in Oslo, it's called English Stand-Up Oslo. Yeah, I thought, like, I've been doing the silly videos about the Nordic for about five years. I thought, let's just try something different. Let's call it, I don't know, a middle-aged kind of thing.

Let's just go for it. Let's just try different things. Are you getting mostly folks who have English of the first language, or are you getting Oslo locals who, To be fair, almost everyone in Oslo speaks English anyway. Yeah, yeah, their English is perfect and it's fine and there's no problems. We do a little survey in the beginning of every show. It's like, who here's international?

And it's about half and half. It's usually like a Nordic partner dragging their non-Nordic other partner to a comedy show. So like, here, I need to educate you about the culture. Come join us. So yeah. Well, good luck with the show today. Also returning to Lateral, we have Miss London, Charlotte Young.

Hello. So excited to be back. How is the Miss London journey going for you? It's really good. I actually just came back from an international pageant in the Philippines. And that was for people of Chinese descent but bought up in different countries. And I met people from all around the world. And it was the most wonderful experience. And I learned a lot about the culture as well. And yeah, just I'm having like holiday blues right now.

Well, hopefully we'll be able to cheer you up a little bit. out of those blues. I also feel, for those who haven't heard your previous episodes, we should clarify what a modern pageant like that is about. Oh, yes. So I know that there's some underlying misunderstandings about pageantry as a whole, and people seem to think it's like, flaunting your body around or how pretty you look on camera. But I think, like, over the past few years, things have really changed and really, I believe that the best pageants are ones based upon purpose. So for example, the advocacy of the current pageant that I just participated in was raising gastric cancer awareness because the CEO recently had his wife pass away from gastric cancer. And then we went around the hospitals and also learned a lot about the importance of testing early.

And also it relates somewhat closely to my PhD supervisor's academic area because he does colonic cancer drug delivery. And so it was a really good, like, mix, and I really felt that. And that's why I think I had such a good time there as well. Also, casually dropping the PhD in there. Well done. Yes, yeah, I just had to. For all three of you, then, let's hope this is a show to keep any holiday blues away. The scripts have already been compiled. It's time to clear the error messages and open the file labeled Question 1.

Thank you to Victor for this question. In 2024, several roadside billboards in Texas, featuring a smartly dressed man were installed upside down. What were they advertising? And one more time, in 2024, several roadside billboards in Texas featuring a smartly dressed man

were installed upside down. What were they advertising? Well, I would think it would be some sort of like Australian tourist board, but the smartly dressed man just doesn't really chime with Australia. So it can't be that. Anytime I think about roadside billboards in the US, I think about like, oh, were you injured?

Here's a lawyer that needs to help you out. So is there some sort of like anti-lawyer where they turn the sign upside down and like the lawyers in the car and he can't help you or we can't help you. I don't know. That is the right type of lawyer, Oliver. So I'm going to tweak the question slightly. In 2024, several roadside billboards in Texas for an injury lawyer were installed upside. down. Why? Is it like a turn your life upside down kind of vibe will help deal with all your injury issues and claims? I can also imagine like if it is an injury lawyer, maybe they're

working with a car company to show you how good these belts are. So he is upside down in a car and it just won't fall out. He's being held very firmly. I'm trying to like think of all the puns I can involve being upside down because it has to be a pun-based image. Surely there's going to be you know, like you said, Charlotte, turn your life upside down or dangle in with me. I don't know. You don't dangle in court, do you? That's not a thing. Or like shake your pockets, like, for all your money.

Give me all your money. Oh, that's good. Or is it something weird? Like, there's a sort of trademark on a particular person. So there's a, what's the name of the spin-off from Breaking Bad, that guy who was like a sleazy? Better Call Saul. Better Cool Saul. So it could be, for example, that they've trademarked better call Saul,

but not if he's upside down, the actor who plays him. So it could be a way of getting past sort of like trademark rules where you have somebody's faces upside down doesn't count as using their face. And so therefore you could have put a Hollywood actor up there advertising your brand. The entire billboard is upside down. The text, the numbers, everything. One thing about these billboards is there are frequently so many of them and drivers get so used to them that after a few iterations of the cycle of the names being up,

they will start just putting their faces and something like, you know who I am. Or just the drivers are expected to be familiar with this anyway. So is this, well, you didn't just give us the answer there, did you, Tom? It's not just a case of, you know, it stands out because it's weird. That's part of it, if you like. That's how people are going to talk about this lawyer's billboard, as opposed to the other hundred lawyers billboards.

Okay. Oliver, you said he's kind of belted in. He's not, but you're a little bit close there. He's not. Oh, but others are. I can imagine that you said that something about, like, there's many of these signs or there's like, this sign is, because if the whole sign stops down,

that means the phone number or the website, everything is upside down, which means you can't go and see it unless you do your thing. Yeah, maybe there's some sort of, like, maybe it's in an area where, oh, this is so silly, but like, you know how on a roller coaster you're upside down and you would be able to spot it from like a far, but like maybe belted in not roller coaster, but some other kind of contraption where you're upside down? Is there an actual car upside down next to the billboards?

There's a sort of like, you know, these people need, me, because they can read what I'm doing. His budget didn't stretch that far, Izzy, but you're right, that is the joke. If you get into an accident and flip over, then the board will be the right way up. This is a personal injury attorney, Hattie Law, Hussein Hattie, in Texas, and if you get into an accident and flip over near his billboard, you will be able to read it. His company claims over a quarter of a billion dollars in trial settlements, which is probably why he can afford that many billboards.

That's a lot. Yeah. Izzy, let's go for your question, please. Okay, here we go. John puts on a stethoscope, enters a sparsely furnished room, and talks to an injured man he's never met before.

After a few minutes, John leaves without issuing any advice and never sees the man again. What's John doing? And again, John puts on a stethoscope, enters a sparsely furnished room and talks to an injured man

he's never met before. After a few minutes, John leaves without issuing any advice and never sees the man again. What is John doing? Well, if he's a doctor, he's doing a bad job, but I'm guessing he's not a doctor.

And if he's not a doctor, he is in fact just pretending to be a doctor. Ooh. He's actually advertising for the billboard. this one. The injured man is the guy upside down and it's all... Both a doctor and a lawyer, it turns out. Qualified in both? Well, I will say that unlike the lawyer from Texas, who I assume is American, John is in fact British. Oh, okay. But, and here's a little clue, he often works abroad.

I'm trying to work out sparsely furnished room. A medical ward is not sparsely furnished. There's a lot of stuff around there to keep the patient going. Famously furnished. Indeed. Although when I went in for an op, I was very upset because I went in for an op and it's a proper go under op, but my room beforehand, they put a chair in and it gets to lie down on a bed until they cut me open, which I thought was mean, just because I could walk. I remember the last time I had something like that, which is a long while ago now, like, nice room beforehand, put you on the trolley, the wheel you through, but the

where they give you the anaesthetic was in the basement and there's no natural light and it's not really like a patient-focused area. So all of a sudden, like, the vibes changed a lot and not in a way that made you confident. It's amazing when you turn from human to meat parcel. However, it's not, I will say now,

the sparsely furnished room is not in a hospital. I wonder if the injury of the man actually matters or is serious or like it just happens that they are, okay, they're injured or something happened before and this whole thing is kind of a, I don't know, misdirect. Maybe he's just the wrong kind of doctor for this injured man and he goes in, he's like, yeah, this is not working. No advice to give. Let me just leave and can't help you, so I'm not going to go see you again. I love that answer, but unfortunately that is incorrect. He is. That would be in May. I like that. I'm sorry, I'm a paediatrician. I'm too old. I'm too old. I'm actually a vet and you're not a dog, so I'm very sorry.

But I can prescribe you some great tranquilizers. Just really, really good. So I will underline, John is not giving out medical advice. I'm just going to underline that. So maybe the stethoscope isn't for the patient? Technically, you're correct. Technically. I don't like being technically correct on lateral. That's not helpful. That is correct, but I don't know if it's going to help you, but it might. Somehow that has increased the possibilities. All right, then.

I will give you another clue. John works for the UK government. I wonder if this is, like, they just happened to have met. It wasn't a thing that they have to meet or this was an appointment. It just happens to have created that scenario of he has this statuscope and the person he is an injured person on the way to a hospital at some point. Don't worry, we will get to that. It just happens at that this was the situation.

It's kind of the opposite of that. This is an interrogation room. Ooh. And I'm going to whack him with my status game until he gives me the answers that I want. I want you to carry on with that thought, but less of the whacking. Sparsely furnished could be a cell or a holding cell.

could be the custody suite. It's where they keep someone after their arrest for the 24 hours are legally allowed to question them. Like, that's a sparsely furnished room. I don't know, I don't know why you would go in with a stethoscope. I have a weird question. Do you know how long he was in that room?

What had hours? I don't imagine, well, I don't. no is the answer to that question. The impression that I would give to help you with the answer is he's probably been there for a short amount of time and has come in injured and then they send in John. Okay, because in old, like, I've read some books about interrogation techniques that were used in the past where a way to gain trust is just to be with a person, just to, like, one way to get a spy to tell you something. It's just to have a chair right next to you and just read the paper for eight hours a day and then you leave. And you do that every day. And eventually the person will be like,

oh yeah, here's my paper person. I'm going to, I will open up to them. So that is one interrogation technique. What is another? Waterboarding. Yes, that is. I don't know if that's, I don't think, remember, John works for the UK government and the UK government is a signatory of various UN conventions. So I don't know if that's suggestion said in the calmest voice. I know. So how would a stethoscope and going in to see an injured man and not giving him any medical advice help with an interrogation? Make them feel like they are terminal or everything's okay or like give them fake medical advice, bad medical advice. Make them worried about like, oh no, this is... You are so closer with your older answer.

You can trust me, I'm a doctor. You're not saying you're a doctor. You just happen to be wearing a stethoscope and that makes you trustworthy. Pretty much. I think you guys have got it. So in the early 2000s, an unnamed man appeared on a BBC chat show hosted by Johnny Vaughn. As a former British interrogator, he revealed that this was one of the tricks that was used to obtain information from captured soldiers. He would dress up as a doctor and ask seemingly innocuous questions like, where does it hurt? What were you doing at the time? Where did this happen? Et cetera. And as I said, the UK is a signatory to various UN and European conventions that prevent the use of torture, Charlotte.

During interrogation. Evidence obtained this way is also inadmissible in British courts. So this is a way that you can kind of massage the truth out of someone but just going, oh, where were you at the time? And then later you can send in a real interrogate who says, well, that's not what you told the doctor, was it? Staple's Preferred Business Membership, built for busy business owners,

because you've got bigger things to think about. With Staples Preferred, get free delivery, no minimums. Staples Preferred unlocks up to 3% back, plus 10% savings on print and exclusive wireless offers. One less thing on your plate. Actually, a lot less. Visit staples.ca. That was easy.

This question has been sent in by both Björna and Bernard. Before flying an Airbus A320, both pilots check three small plastic balls mounted on the centre window pillar. They aren't sensors, lights or controls. What are they for? I'll say that again. Before flying an Airbus A320, both pilots check three small plastic balls mounted on the centre window pillar. They aren't sensors, lights or controls. What are they for? So, like, I'm thinking literally like ping pong balls

stuck to the middle of the windscreen. Is that kind of what I'm... Yeah, maybe a little smaller, but yeah. Okay. I imagine, okay, this has got something to do because the only thing that really goes wrong with aircraft is either they go too slow or they basically, there's something wrong with air pressure.

So there's something to do with air pressure? Yeah, because initially, because when you said ping pong balls and Tom said they were smaller. Because initially I thought like, oh, they're traveling a lot. So this is Pokemon Go. You can buy the ball version of Pokemon Go. And then, because they're flying all over the place,

and they want to catch the were Pokemon's that are at that airport. So they would just have a bunch of the Pokemon balls up front. But they're bigger than ping pong balls. So that wouldn't work. I was thinking maybe it's something like not quite religious, but like an event that they do every time, like superstitious, that they need to check that it's all aligned and the right way before they both fly off.

I was thinking, is that something like a signalling? So I know like banks and stuff will occasionally put like playing cards outside the windows and you don't go into the bank if it's the wrong type of playing cards and you know that little code because somebody's like, you know, in the bank waiting to kill you

if they put the wrong playing card up. So is it like that? So it's three balls done and they've got like markers on them in a certain more specific way. And you know that code because somebody could have, I don't know, you can't really,

There's not really the same sort of like problem with that. Where do you bank, Izzy? High Street banks, look out for them. Occasion you get little cards on the High Street banks. If they've got a lot of money in, they'll do a security thing where they will say don't enter. It's a true thing. I've seen it. I'm not, I'm not lying.

I have seen them. But like, it's not always playing cards. There's usually, there's some sort of thing in the shop where unless you know, like, people know what card is and they'll get texted it that morning. Don't go in unless it's this card. That sort of thing. Huh. Yeah. That would be a great lateral question, wouldn't it?

It would. It's gone now. It's gone now. Of all those suggestions, Charlotte, it's not religious or superstitious, but you're right. They go in, they check these immediately. And alignment is an important word there. I'm just curious about how these balls are stuck there, because logically, you know, the windscreen tilts backwards towards the cabin.

So is this a static electricity thing? Is this something to do with like, you know, you know how you get like balloons and you can rub them on your head and stick them to the side? Well, maybe these are really static and there's something about, oh yeah, cabin pressure has to be a certain way and electricity has to be a certain way or it'll get, I don't know, it doesn't really matter if a plane's hit by lightning and it's unlikely to. I don't know. Or that they're painted, we have the three of them and they're painted,

you have like a line on them and you're checking if the lines have like twisted so because they should have a straight line on them. We're getting a lot closer now. I think if you put that together with Charlotte's ideas about alignment and checking them very early on, that's... Is it to do with like, if there's like wind in the cabin to check any wind, there's the leakage of the windows, because that's what you don't want. You don't want a slight crack in the window.

Oh, you definitely don't want a window open in an 8-3-20. Exactly. They go quite high up. They do. But if there's any sort of like, you know, like a breeze happening, and if the balls are moving because they're lightly stuck there with what? Blue TAC. What's going on?

They're in a triangular formation. I don't know how they're attached, but they are in a triangular formation. A triangular formation. Is it to know like the starting position of the plane before they lift off? And I don't know why you would want to know. Not of the plane, but that's very good, Charlotte.

That's very close. Starting position of the pilot's seat. Yes, spot on. How does it work? You've got three balls in a triangular position there, in the middle. You would want to be exactly, well, I don't know this is bad. You want to be exactly like X centimeter away on the left side and X centimeter away on the right side to be symmetrical.

Yeah, it's just the X, Y, and Z of the... Because I am very particular about my chair, about how it should be set. So it's like, if I set it this way and line the balls up, then the chair would be correct. Yes. Why don't... Okay. Because I was just going to say, why wouldn't it be like just getting in a car

and having a feel and looking out the windows and everything else? Why do they need like a specific ball thing to... Because in an Airbus A320, the eyeline needs to be in the right position. To see all the instruments at the right location for everything to line up as you come in to land or take off, everything like that, you need to have your eyes in the right place.

And Charlotte, you're absolutely right. If you line up two of these balls, the one in the middle and the one on the other side, you know your eye line is in the right position if they're both in the exact same place covering each other. And for the co-pilot, centre ball and the other ball. So not only as a pilot, do you need like perfect vision? You also need perfect posture. Yes. You're saying. Yeah. You can't slouch. Yeah. That's a nightmare job, isn't it? So yes, on the Airbus A320, three small plastic spheres are mounted in a triangular arrangement on the central cockpit window strut, and they are a seat position guide. Each pilot adjust their seat

until the middle ball visually lines up with the outer ball on the opposite side, which means they're sitting at the precise design eye point. To make sure they're not straining to see the instrument panel or the view outside. It's weird, though, because I wrote a book, guys, which involved doing a lot of research about, you know, the different types of playing, particularly during the Second World War, and how different, you know, how different the seats were. So you had pilots trying to sit in seats. And like the female pilots who were delivering the planes around for the ATA in Britain, they had to like use their parachutes just like jam behind their back so they could reach the controls. And there was an amazing craft. There's a lady called

Diana Bonato Walker. And she was flying a, as an American plane out of the American Air Base down in Southampton, which is currently Southampton Airport. And it was a twin engine. And twin engines, you have two, what were they, like, accelerates? Trottles. There you go. Thrustleaders. There you go. Right. And the thing is, you check before you sort of go on that the thrust levers are, you know, their in linements and everything else. She was in a rush because there was a war on. Anyway, and she took off, and as she took off, the acceleration of the plane, she should have asked for a cushion, but apparently the Americans are a bit sort of poop-y of female pilots and she didn't want to do that. And when she took off, the acceleration,

pushed her right back in there. And one of the throttles started to inch backwards. So she had one engine going full speed and the other one going really slowly. And she didn't know, she was just like, and she was trying to reach for the throttle, but she was being pushed back by the acceleration so much she couldn't. And the entire plane started to tip and turn into the ground. And the only way she got out of it was she got her foot and kicked it. Forward as possible. And the whole thing righted itself and went up.

And then, yeah, that's, so there is, you know, there is a danger of not fitting in your seat as a pilot that is beyond eye line. If that's a movie scene, I don't know what. Oliver, whenever you're ready, it's your question, please. This question has been sent in by Lydia. Why did many sports such as cricket, soccer, and tennis, saw rapid growth, standardization and development during the 1830s? I'll say it again. Why did many sports such as cricket, soccer and tennis,

see rapid growth, standardization and development during the 1830s? I'd like to say this has got something to do with like nations and nationalisation because this is mid-19th century, everybody's starting to become like very national cities. When you get the, you know, Brothers Grimm getting all the fairy tales and saying this is like, you know, what we're all about. So is it something to do with nations? I was thinking more telegraph, like technology. There's something coming along and all of a sudden there is, all of a sudden, teens in different areas.

are competing under the same rules because now they can send the rules to each other. But they could send the rules to each other before. It just wouldn't be as instantaneous. Why does it matter that it's instantaneous? True. I was thinking maybe something to do with increasing teamwork or trying to boost morale because cricket and soccer are team sports and tennis can board so technically P2V2. Tom went on a tangent about technology.

Okay. I would play with that idea. It was a time of rapid industrialisation, the 1830s. So is it something to do with canal building? No. So why in the 1830s, why, because it is also a time. Is this the first time we're getting actual national? Because it's a bit early for the Olympics being reintroduced, but it's getting there.

But is this kind of the first time as well that we're getting sort of like an England team and a French team. I've gone really into the national thing because that's kind of all I know about the early 19th century. And we've all assumed that this is like England here. This could be international. This could be a thing coming out of the US.

This could be empire. It could just be. We love standardisation. And we're getting really like, we've done it. We've basically, we've got all the species lined up now. We're starting to get into dinosaurs. Let's just do it with the sport. Let's get that. down, right?

It could be something like that. I'll give you an annoying hint. Yeah, because it is technology related, but that technology has nothing to do with the sport itself directly. Okay. So it comes from outside of the sport. What about like automatic rolling of the ball or the item? All balls, actually, like the soccer ball, the cricket ball, the tennis ball.

You have those machines that like wear them out, right? Oh, yeah. And then it would just make it easier for people to pick up the sport? It might be that the ball standard is actually made a standard size because they've got the machinery to make it a standard size. Hold on. Oliver, you said it wasn't to do with the sport itself. Correct. How about the equipment?

And the only equipment I can think that all those sports use is going to be the uniforms. Is there some technology in like 1830 that means we can suddenly, dye clothes differently or put clothes together differently, and suddenly we get teams having matching colours and matching uniforms and big gambling companies sponsoring them despite the fact that shouldn't be legal. He says, suddenly shoehorning a personal opinion into his answer.

What were the sports? Think of the sports. So you said cricket, soccer and tennis. There's something in common here. Bulls. They all use balls. What else? They're all team sports They all originated

Well cricket certainly was a women's sports Tennis wasn't It was an inside sport Soccer is just whatever I mean soccer is different in every country Until it isn't They require running Where are they played?

Currently all over the world But England was definitely I think England was cricket On a pitch like AstroTuff They're all on grass Uh-huh. Okay. They could make fake grass

and standardise that across the countries. They could standardise turf across countries? You're getting pretty close there. Getting pretty close. It's the size of the court. So they're just standardizing the actual lines and how long they should be.

Is it, you know, are we moving from... Did someone invent the lawnmower? They invented the lawnmower. Hey! What's wrong with geese? Oh, I love that aha moment. That was so good. That was great.

It was like Astro-Turf or standardised the grass? No, they standardise the height of the grass blades. Well, they standardise the grass by using a lawnmower. Before the 19th century, maintaining smooth grass surfaces required teams of laborers using size and grazing animals, which produce uneven results, which made consistent pitches difficult. Edwin Budding patented the first mechanical lawnmower in 1830. This question comes from Sam E.

Thank you very much, Sam. A 2018 study found that juvenile judges in Louisiana handed down noticeably harsher sentences during certain weeks. At first, the patent seemed random, but researchers eventually identified a specific cause. What was it? And one more time, a 2018... study found that juvenile judges in Louisiana handed down noticeably harsher sentences during

certain weeks. At first, the pattern seemed random, but researchers eventually identified a specific cause. What was it? I think I know this one. I'm not 100% I'm like in the 80% percent percentile. I think I know this. Now. I might jump in if I hear something. Well, I'm going to ask, Oliver, because the first time I read this question, I was like, oh, I know the answer to this. It did say, certain weeks, not certain hours? Then, yeah, then I might not know this.

What were you thinking? Because I was thinking before lunchtime, they just want to go to lunch. So they were just, yeah, guilty, guilty, not guilty. I'm going to go to lunch now. So then, yeah. There was a research paper about that, which has since potentially been debunked.

Good to know. Well, it's one of those things that's going to be very confusing, whatever. But they found there may be a confounding factor. in that the court schedulers tended to put simple cases immediately before lunch, so things wouldn't go into lunch. And that might have confounded things slightly. But in this case, no, it is not that. This is certain weeks.

Thank you to producer David. That was the hungry judge effect, which is now somewhat debunked. But these are specifically juvenile judges. Yes. Rather than, and which is such a, why do you have a juvenile judge? judge. So is it a judge? It's not a kids doing it, it's a judge. Okay. This is for juvenile court. Yes. Okay. So when are children most annoying? What time of year? Because that would be when you're going to really crack down on them. So probably, I mean, not going up to Christmas because they'll be like, oh, it's going up to Christmas. It's got to be nice to the kids for that. So there must be times of year when people are just like, I'll get the kids out of the way. I don't, I'm trying to think.

It's summer holiday and they're raising all the prices for like going abroad to the Bahamas or something. We joke, but the juvenile prison industrial complex in America is awful. Just to be clear here. Okay. Well, I would suggest it's therefore going to be something to do with how obnoxious the kid is. It could be that. It could not just be that the judge is thinking, children are annoying and there have been so many crimes

and I'm going to really get to them because it's the time of year like spring break where they're just smashing stuff up and so I'm definitely increasing the harsh pun nilty because I'm just getting so many in. It could literally be that there are times of year where children are more annoying than not and it could be an actual, you know,

they are worse behaviour at these times of years. It's going to be one or the other. It's going to be the judge is getting more annoyed with the children at this time of year or it's going to be the children are definitely worse. It is neither of those. Ooh, okay.

I'm thinking wrong. Okay. This was a statewide effect, not just one courtroom. I wonder if it's the case of, like, okay, they are kids. We do want them to be in school. So let's give them sentences

if the thing is happening over summer. So get them to work over the summer because we don't want them to cut out in school time. I think it's worse. I think this might be to do because they've got a private. prison system, this might be we've got a certain amount of budget to spend. And therefore, we will put them, we'll be really harsh at this time because we can afford it and we've got

to renew the budget next year. And if we don't lock up enough children, we're not going to get the same budget next year. Oh, end of quarter. That would be absolutely terrible. It would. That does not feel like a lateral question. I'm going to roll that out. No, he doesn't. That's not fun. Get it off the way. What if the kids had like... a certain period in time where they had all collated that they were going to go and do something bad, and it would be easier to sentence all of them simultaneously with the same kind of harsh punishment. This is nothing to do with the kids or the crime.

Why did you say juvenile? That's... Okay. And look, the hungry judge effect may have been at least partly debunked, and it may not have been the answer to this. But certainly there's a... parallel here. The Christmas time effect.

We want all, we want our whole docker unloaded before we go into Christmas. Let me clarify certain weeks. This would be one week on, one week up, just seemingly at random, week by week. So then it's not the case of like, ah, just before Thanksgiving, just before Christmas. It's just, if you'd look at it on a map, you'd be like, that's a weird pattern. Mm-hmm. Yeah, absolutely. You'd need to correlate it with something.

There is something to colorate it with. Yes. Absolutely. It's hard to say. It is. It's a colerate. Particularly because it's correlate. Correlate.

Yeah. It's not correlate. That's why it's weird. That's why it's not sitting right in my tongue. Okay. Okay. So I... And this is America.

And now I've got that song in my head. Maybe that's a question. If this would have been other countries, would we see similarly weird patterns? Like, is it an America thing? Or is this? Is there something like they're getting, like the juvenile judges are having feedback or like KPAIs, like saying they're not hitting their KPI's, some sort of, they're not getting like a raise or something and they're taking it out. I'd say that that's not a lateral question. But I think Charlotte's right in that taking it out feels right. There is certainly a good mood or a bad mood thing going on here.

And while this doesn't have to be Louisiana, if you know. any stereotypes about Louisiana, and where all those judges may have gone, that would help. Is this Mardi Gras? Oh, no, that will be a certain week, as opposed to seemingly random certain weeks. Is it like, you know, I've just got the word the bayou, is it something to do with like rainfall patterns? So people get really annoyed when it rains a lot. And if it's a really wet week, they lock people up, and if it's dry, they don't. So not the weather, but it is something as disconnected as that should be from sentencing.

Traffic, it's America? Food. Jazz music. The judges are doing something else. Are they going to a horse racing betting thing or like a sports event that's happening and their team is losing and then they give harsh sentences?

Is he? That'll be it. I was going to say that is definitely it. I don't know. The Louisiana Bullsharks or something will have lost. The Louisiana State University Tigers at LSU, judges imposed harsher sentences in the days after the LSU team lost.

And if you have been to Louisiana, the LSU Tigers are a very, very big thing. Because college football is bizarrely this massive thing in the US, and the effect was strongest among judges who had attended LSU themselves. I am one of Motenui. On July 10th. Maui, you aboard my boat and restore my boat. the heart of Tefeiti. And here we go.

The journey begins. See her light up the night. The ocean chose you. Let's go save the world. I got you back, chosen one. Disney's Moana. Boots Nick. His name is Hay Hey Hey.

His name is Yum. When he goes in my tum-tum. In theaters July 10th. Hey y'all. It's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. Ever order furniture online and wonder what if? Like, what if it doesn't hold up? That sofa was four days old.

You should have ordered from Wayfair. With Wayfair, there's no what if. Just style you love and quality you can trust. Visit Wayfair.ca. Wayfair, every style, every home. Charlotte, we will go to your question, please. This question has been sent in by Casey Minifield. At certain times of year,

K-pop idols will suddenly start counting on their fingers while posing for the camera. If they don't do it, they risk backlash. Why? And one more time, At certain times of year, K-pop idols will suddenly start counting on their fingers, while posing for the camera.

If they don't do it, they risk backlash. Why? I know one K-pop thing, which is, I think, only going to be for the video audience, but it could be like, which is the heart? Oh, yeah, doing the heart differently to how you would expect it in the UK or the US. Yeah, instead of doing the, the, the old two-handy heart.

It's not the two-hand gesture, it is like thumb and index finger crossing, I think? Yeah. And I don't know if it's true, but I learned that you do this because then you can take a, selfie while doing a heart because he can do this one-handed. Oh, I see, because it's like the shape. I don't know if that's true, but it feels correct.

Oh, that's, sorry, I've only just realized that the top of those fingers kind of makes a heart shape. That's how long it's take right. Okay. I'm in my 40s, okay. I've only just figured that out. No same in that. I, I, like, guys, I don't mean to show off right, but I go into schools.

Oh, yes. And obviously the teachers and stuff, for the kids who are allowed to have their purchase taken. the kids will line up with me and hold my books and that sort of thing. But the amount of times a kid will hold up fingers and they're like, we can't have anything weird going on with the hands because we don't know what is a gang signal. And this is like, you know, in like Burgess Hill. It's not like, you know, in like Compton.

This is just like, you know, but any fingers is banned. So the most cockney pronunciation of Compton there has ever been there. Thank you very much. I mean, you can drive past Compton. It's up on the M40. You go past Compton quite a lot But I don't think it's the same I don't think it's the same, no

Yeah, no, not the same place Speaking of the younger generation And I don't know, counting, Is 6-7 still a thing? I don't know if it's still a thing. Yeah, it is. It is. I was doing this just the other week. Six-seven is still a thing.

I was going to say no one's going to know, but Izzy is going into schools, you know it's still a thing. Yeah, it's my favourite thing to do. I often get kids to shout out a page that they want me to read from and when they don't say 6-7, I sort of say, oh, you didn't want 67, weird.

And then I just do this, and they go insane, and the teachers hate me. I want to go back to what you said, Izzy, about kind of trying to neutralise, like, doing a gang sign. I would say that that is something along the lines of what we're looking for, but it's not about gang signs. Okay. Are there K-pop territorial rivalries that are... It's like East 17, like Postcodes. Can I know Gangam is a... The difference between postcode gang wars

and lovable boy band East 17, I feel like it's quite a long distance there. I'm also in my 40s time, it's fine. Counting down, okay, so I'm thinking alongside finger gesture of the heart, it's like putting two fingers up and a V sign and a peace sign. So one if there's some time when that's inappropriate and they're instead counting four, three, two, one, something like that.

Is it just counting down to like a really important concert that their fans are going to be at? And they just want to show that when the photo is being taken so they know that it's like, oh, it's in four days, oh, it's in three days, or it's in two days, it's in one day. Oh, it's the day. In something like a communication method. Isn't it also like people count differently? Like some people start with their little finger and go that way. and are they then showing by the way the order they do it in

they're like, ah, we are from this neighbourhood that's why we count this way. But also like just to say the best finger counting ever is the Sumerian cuneiform writing people's one where it's counting to 12 on one hand using your thumb as things. It's one for the first digit,

two for the middle digit, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve. And it's so easy to keep count and then you can use the other hands to keep count to the bigger numbers as well. And if you're ever doing something with one hand and you need to keep count, it is the easiest thing and they're geniuses. Particularly sit-ups, actually. They're very good for sit-ups.

Well, out of everything that was said there, Izzy's was the most interesting. But Tom's was actually probably more correct. I love the buildup. Out of everything, Izzy was the most interesting. It was Tom actually. Sadly, Tom was closer. So yes, as you said, like two, well, one, people put up peace signs. It's more for like the gesture, but also it looks like the number two.

So in this case, numbers actually matter more than the gesture. So the number is symbolic of a meaning. So it's not related to gangs, but it could be some other sort of meaning. Not gangs or post codes. We've also said postcodes. So, okay. So are certain numbers linked to? to actual, like, celebrities there.

So, like, you know, one Pablo Montoya, I don't know. But could it be, like, another reference to a name? Like, how Prince Andrew is now, or that Andrew formerly known as, is now known as number two. So I wouldn't consider them celebrities, but what might you get backlash for? What would you get backlash for? I mean, I mean, you get a lot of backlash

in our cultures for like racial stigmatization or bullying or something like that so it's holding up a certain number seen as somehow ostracizing a certain group of people. So close. It's like close, but like not close, you know? It's interesting. In other cultures, different cultures, there are like unlucky numbers and lucky numbers. Yeah.

Like Western is seven lucky, maybe. in Korea, some other number is lucky, unlucky. 13 unlucky. Don't have 13 fingers though, so you're safe. I will say this behaviour only appears during important times of the year. I just don't understand why they're holding up

any fingers. Just put your fingers away. They're just trying to be cute. Like, you know, if you did a peace sign They're beautiful boys, a lot of them. They don't need to hold up anything. They could just go, look at my face. They don't need to be cute. I'm thinking...

They're already cute. I'm thinking it was mentioned that it's celebrities, not celebrities, but it is famous people. If it is like politicians, or is it around like when it is voting or vote party number three? Are the parties actually called numbers? So like we've got colours.

So if they're held up red for labour or, you know, blue for Democrat or whatever, you're going to, you know, affecting, like showing your political alignment. And so therefore you can't hold up for, because that's the fourth person down and that's the person you should vote for. Yes, that is actually exactly it,

both Oliver and Izzy, like, bang on. Definitely. Yes. So in South Korea, ballot candidates are assigned numbers. Hand gestures that resemble one or two, such as thumb signs or V signs, can be interpreted as implicit political endorsements. This becomes especially sensitive

during election season when public figures are expected to remain strictly neutral. When idols realize they flashed a pose that could be read as a candidate number, they often start counting all their fingers or switch to neutral gestures like clenched fists and this makes it clear that they weren't deliberately signalling support and during those same periods,

idols may also avoid wearing certain colours associated with parties. Which is why again the heart is the best. Just stick to the heart guys. One last order of business then. At the start of the show, we had this question sent in by Durham, thank you very much. What are you doing if you're committing monolithic bi-avicide? Izzy already has a hand up

and I think you might be able to get this one. Want to take that before I give it to the audience? Well, I'm afraid, guys, monolithic one stone. Yep. By aviacide, two, avia, bird, side, killing. Killing two birds with one stone. Yes, absolutely right. Izzy, where can people find you?

What's going on your life? Plug the books. Indeed, I write books for shorts, people, children mostly, but everybody seems to enjoy them. The Doomsday House is my latest one for 9 to 12 year olds. You can find out all about me and my various podcasts, including talk like an Egyptian, where we talk about ancient history, and terrible lizards where we talk about dinosaurs, all on izzie.com, isaidi.com. Charlotte, what's going on with you? I blend pageantry and games and PhD life, and you can find me at Miki Char on Instagram if you want to keep up with my life.

Oliver. You can find me at Oliver W on the internet wherever, and please hear let me. People find it fun, apparently. And if you want to know more about this show, or send in your own idea for a question, or join the 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 Oliver Forge. Bye-bye. Charlotte Young. Bye-bye. Izzy Lawrence. Peace out. I've been Tom Scott, and that's been Lateral.

Are you one of those media strategies? people, clicking through slides, scrolling spreadsheets. Yes? Good. This is for you. Because on Spotify, there's an audience that's different. Locked in. Loyal, invested. They're called fans. Fans don't just listen to music. They feel seen by it, like it belongs to them. So when your brand shows up on Spotify, that's who you're talking to. And you're right next to artists like me, Lizzo. So, are you ready to talk to fans? Spotify Advertising. You're among fans.