Lateral with Tom Scott - 203: Looking for a hot rod

Episode Date: August 28, 2026

Charlotte Yeung, Iszi Lawrence and Ólafur Waage face questions about Chinese cuisine, Transylvanian turrets and long-term logistics. 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: Inbaayini, Andy H., Aaron, Luciano, Tom van der Zanden, Michael, Punn Siwabutr. 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

Which New England state has a dead animal on one of its vehicle registration plates? The answer to that at the end of the show, my name's Tom Scott, and this is Lateral. We bring you now to another thrilling installment of The Mystery Minds of Lateral. When we last left our intrepid thinkers, they'd been cornered by a fiendish plot twist, armed with nothing but pluck, grit, and a suspiciously convenient clue. But tonight, dear listeners, three new brave adventurers, step into the studio, ready to battle logic, challenge reason, and make leaps of deduction without any safety net. Don't touch that dial. Anything could happen in the next 40 minutes.

First, we have Charlotte Young. Welcome back to the show. Hello, thank you very much for having me again. What have you been up to lately? I feel like I always ask this, but you have so much interesting stuff going on. How's the PhD? The PhD is going well, as well as it can be when I'm taking constantly. as well. I hope my supervisor is not watching this. I mean, it is a stereotypical question to ask someone, how are you juggling everything? But how are you juggling everything? I think I just have a really good support system. So honestly, big love to my supervisor. He always encourages me to do anything and everything that I want to do. And yeah, and you can't really have enough of those people in your life. So I owe it to all the people around me. Well, best of luck to you with all the projects you

working on, and for the show today. You are joined by another returning player. Again, how are you balancing everything that is going on? Because you did say you had a book deadline on Monday, Izzy Lawrence. How's things? I mean, it's great. That's absolutely no problem. It's definitely going to get finished. And when I say it's a deadline. It's actually a month after the last deadline that I missed. So it's great. Everything's great. And I'm busy at the moment recording podcasts as well. I'm recording the third series of Talk Like an Egyptian, which is all about ancient Egypt. And the book I'm writing isn't about ancient Egypt, but it has got pyramids in it. So, yeah, things are a bit messed up in my mind, which is why this show is perfect.

Just random free association. One of them will be the answer. Well, good luck finding that. Olaf Avorge, the last of our trio here today, please tell me you have some spare time in your life. No. Why would you? You're going to have to fill it up with useless hobby projects inside. Yeah, I totally don't have eight little programming projects on the site. No, absolutely not. And how is the digital work going?

How are the, what you described, I feel perhaps unfairly as little videos about the Nordics. I kind of moved over to trying to do stand-up as well, because I had so many video ideas, but like, this is never going to work as a video. But it might work as like just as a joke. Stand-up I've learned because I've been doing it now, like every week since the beginning of the year. It is really hard. And this is like now, anytime I see like a stand-up clip on like TikTok or whatever, I'm like, no, this person is doing a really great job because now I kind of understand what they're going through.

The trick to stand-up is not to care. That's the thing. If you don't care, the audience loves it. If the moment you want to please them, they go, no, don't want that. Particularly British audiences. The Nordic ones are a little bit more like, okay, yeah. This was funny. Thank you. Boothby Grafer, a comedian in the UK.

Well, he's got a brilliant tip for speaking in places like Denmark and Oslo and all of these Nordic places, which is you talk very quickly because everybody in the audience wants to know, everybody else to know that they speak fluent English well. So you go as fast as you can and you pause and go like that, waiting for them to laugh and they don't understand that they just laugh really loudly to show that they understood. Oh, I'm so going to use that next time.

Exactly. It's a little sneak. Good luck to all. all three of you with the many other projects and also for the next 40 minutes of show. It is now time for the dramatic twist nobody saw coming. Question one. Thank you to Tom van der Zandhan for this question. Francois went to a Chinese restaurant with his visiting friends. When he made a request to the waiter, why did his friends incorrectly assume he wanted some bread?

I'll say that again. Francois went to a Chinese restaurant with his visiting friends. When he made a request to the waiter, why did his friends correctly assume he wanted some bread. Did he tell the Vader that he's in pain? That's indigenous. Oh! There's a good French pun.

Just so quick, so quick. I'm guessing it's not that simple, so I had to come up with that one. I mean, it's not that complicated either. Is there a Chinese food called pa? I mean, pah. Because it's not pain, is it? To be fair, if you're spelling it out to them, that would work. But let's face it, orally, it's bha.

Du Boin? No? You're all staring at me like a newsreader who's auto-cues broken down. I thought that was it. I'm going to be honest. Yeah, exactly. So if you want some bread, I'd like du ban. So du pan may be a dipping sauce. That's dippin.

Is it like chili dip? You've got through most of this question in the first minute. you have worked out that Francois is a clue, it is a French name, and that he's not asking for more food. The pun is not pan. This is not a pan pan pan pan pan, it's really hard to say pan pun. You've got to land a French N and an English end next to each other. Is it, is a bow pun? Because Chinese bread is bow. Bow bun. Bow bun. It could be solicit with bow, can it? Um, I bow to but what do you what do you say to waiters you say oh it's lovely thanks very much no please leave me alone i think only if we're british we would say what do they say the ticket or the billet what do they

say for for um the receipt i don't know receipt what do they ask for the they can ask for the special as well special no yeah these are all good kind of things to think of here. This is a Chinese restaurant. It is a Chinese restaurant, so he wants noodle. I don't know. The French for noodles. I really want to hear the word noodle in French. You didn't. Um, it's just, I'm getting, I'm going to say something so bad. I wanted to say maybe who was asking for a knife and fork. Well, that would make sense. Oh, now, now, no, but again, close. Okay. A serviette. A glass of water. What else might you ask for? Well, it would be a bit of a faux-a-farl to ask for a knife and fork. It would be, but

chopsticks. Cheapsticks, Izzy. Le chopstick. Oh, stick is a baguette. Le baguette is a mean stick. So if you ask for as baguettes is chopsticks, because... Yes, it is, specifically baguette chinoise, Chinese baguettes, are chopsticks in French. I hate to say the reason why I know that is because I happen to pick up a Harry Potter book in French. And the word wand is baguette. So it's just hilarious that they're waving baguettes around. It puts completely the wrong image in your head. Yes, the word baguette comes from the shape and not from... It's just stick.

It just means stick. But it's so much sexier than stick. So yes, this is Francois, who was eating at a Chinese restaurant in France. He politely asked the server for the baguettes. And to his foreign visitors, this sounded like he was asking. for French bread to go with the noodles. Trey bien. It also, that whole bit is giving me,

I've got to do the Deemstay Cows is as an audiobook. And I'm not an actor, right? And I've written the Deamstay Cows because it's Anglo-Saxons versus Normans. I've written the Normans speaking to each other in French, in English, but in a different font, which basically means... You've got to do a silly voice.

I've got to be like, it's going to be really bad. and I, yeah, I'm already dreading. But, you know, that's going to be a couple of days of my life, but I'm not getting back. But please, download is not audible when it's free. Oliver, we will head over to you for your question, please. This question has been sent in by Luciano.

How has 40% of Argentina's population been affected by the arrival of a Swedish ship in Buenos Aires in 1907? I'll say that again How has 40% of Argentina's population been affected by the arrival of a Swedish ship in Buenos Aires in 1907? Okay. Now, Swedish men are good looking. Correct.

But I don't know if they're 40% of the population good looking. So... Oh, totally. They absolutely are. Oh, they probably are. They probably are, yeah. But I don't think that's the answer. I'm also not convinced that would take effect in 120 years.

I don't know. If it's a good enough looking swede, it could take place in one generation. You don't know. And it's a bootload of them, so... Exactly. It's going places. Quite literally. Oh, that's good.

That was a good one. Okay. So what do we know about Buenos Aires, Argentina? I'm trying to think... It is where the course for the British version of... of wipeout or total wipeout was, but I don't think that's a 1907 thing. I mean, they have some amazing titanium, but I think so it's 1907, none of them are about. We have very different ranges of obscure knowledge, isn't it?

Meanwhile, I'm thinking 40%, maybe it's like 40% is their ageing population. Like, it's all about the old people. Maybe they had wheelchairs on board. I don't know. I don't think 40% of the Argentinian population needs a wheelchair. That would be too many. No, that is the kind of demographic you're looking for, particularly in countries with an ageing population. You're starting to look at high percentages that are in that demographic.

The only other thing I know really about Argentin is they eat a lot of beef. They've got a huge amount of beef and cattle, and they eat a lot of it. Yeah, and that's my... answer. Is it to do with cows? Plugging the book. Is it to do? It's nothing to do with cattle. Okay. It's from Sweden. This is pre-Ikea, isn't it? Correct.

Okay. What else could it be? So it wasn't the Billy Book Shelf that inspired the art of TV? No, I know. It's going to say. It's the introduction of the Allen key. Okay, 1907, turn of the 20th century. You initially mentioned, like, oh, is it old people or young people? This affects most people. Most people? Men and women, young and old.

But 40%, and it's not a demographic distinction there? I would also, like, it says 40%, like, yeah, it's not very hard on that percentage. It could be 39, 41. It could be the number of drivers, you know, roughly 40% of the population drives, maybe. I mean, that would be, including kids as well. well, that kind of makes sense. So it could be, or 40% maybe in work, but that seems a bit low, but then maybe not. It's not Abba, it's before Abba.

Oh, so before Abba, yeah. Oh, yeah, well, the abbreviation for before Abba is, of course, B-A. Nice. Which. Oh, Tom, no. B-B-B-A. No. Yeah, you see where I'm going with that.

Like that. You said something about work. I would inverse that. So pleasure. Leisure, not pleasure. That sounded wrong. With the good-looking Swedish men. With the good-looking Swedish men, there we go. Okay, so it's to do with a leisure activity that 40% of the Argentinians do that was introduced by the Swedes in 1907.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We've solved it. That sounds right. We have. We just need to identify. Okay, okay, I'm thinking Argentinian stereotypes here. Soccer.

Is this the ship that introduced soccer? to Argentina. I don't know why that's 40% though. That's 40% of the population's Buenos Aires fans. I would actually have more fun in the soccer area. Yeah. You're on the right pitch, I would say so. Hey. Yeah, no, I was thinking, I mean, it has to be something physical that you can put on the board, right? On board.

There probably had to be a lot of them as well, so it can't be too big. And what are the Swedes known for? I'll say that it does not matter what kind of ship it was. It does not matter what was on the ship. Like the cargo on the ship. Oh. So it was... Huh.

Is it the ship itself? No. Is it the Swedish people themselves? In a way. The culture that they can bring. In a way. Is it meatballs? It's not cows, not meatballs.

You're still stuck on cows. We've established it's not cows. I don't know why, Tom. know why. It matters that it's Sweden. It matters that it's Sweden. Okay. The flag is blue and yellow and they brought... Because isn't Buenos Aires's flag like blue and white? So, or like the flag of Argentina blue and white? Am I thinking that right? You're a couple of pixels away. A couple of pixels. You're very close, I'm saying, basically. Is this making their costumes for the football team? There we go. There you go. Yeah. Blue and yellow are the colors

of the team Boka Junior. That's where they got the colors from. The Swedish flag. Wow. Wait, why 40%? Having lost a match with arrival, the founders of the football team Boko Junior that decided to use the flag colors of the first ship that would come into port.

It was a Swedish vessel, so blue and yellow have been the Boka Junior's colors ever since, and various surveys say that around 40% of the Argentinian population support the Boka Junior team. Thank you to Michael for this question. Every March, Michael drives to Shell's Bockfest in New Ulm, Minnesota.

Several times during the day, why does he look for a hot rod? Say that again. Every March, Michael drives to Shell's Bockfest in New Ulm, Minnesota. Several times during the day, why does he look for a hot rod? Because they're cool and make cool sounds. Seems kind of obvious, right? I don't think I know what a hot rod is. I was thinking it's like, it's literally an iron that is...

The big noisy car. Okay. Okay. And is that definitely what we, it's not a pun on something else, so we're not looking for, it's definitely the car he's looking at. Whoa. Honestly. Or is it an actual rod that's hot?

Exactly. I was hoping no one would clock onto this this early, but Charlotte, it is an actual rod that's hot. That's great. That's great. When you don't know things, you're good for lateral. I even pronounce it as hot rod rather than hot rod. Okay, so the only hot rods I can think of are uranium

because they obviously cooled, you know, uranium rods and obviously cooled into... And is Minnesotas, there are lots of nuclear activity going on? I have no idea. I'm not sure what a Bockfest is, but if I'm thinking of a hot rod, I'm thinking of like blacksmiths trying to like make a sword or something. And like I know that there's loads of these like fairy festivals

that people go to and it could be some sort of like... cosper event. Buck is a type of deer, you know, a breed of deer that, you know, not a breed of deer. It's a male deer that you can shoot at certain times of year. So Buckfest implies that they're going to this particular place to shoot them at this time of year because they're in season is what I would have thought, but I'm wrong. This is Bockfest with an O. Ooh, but not Bookfest.

Not Bookfest. Okay. B-O-C-K. But you mentioned that it was shells, Bookfest. Because that's why... It could be Skel. I don't actually have a pronunciation guide here, but...

Oh, okay. Because initially, that's why I went to initial for the car. He's like, oh, it's Shell, it's hot rod, car stuff. No, S-C-H-E-L. If we're doing the spelling out here, that's what we've got. Okay. So it's people who can't spell school book festival. Okay. So is it... So I'm thinking the word fest is going to be some sort of celebration with the

of people there doing stuff, but actually, is this just the name of a place? Because I know it's in New Elm, or Ulm, whatever you said, but is this an actual sort of like party time happening? Yeah, fest, spot on. Good. Okay. The word, I've understood the word fest. If you can figure out what Bock is, there's any references you had, that will help a lot. Okay, so burgers or kangaroo, badgers, oranges, koala. Are you just naming nouns here?

Yeah. I'm just basically these things that start with B-O-K is what. A B-O-K, it's a B-O-K festival. Are you okay? Is that? Color, shape. Be okay. Don't be good, be okay. Don't be bad, be okay. Is there a C? Is there a C in B-O-K? Or is it B-O-C-K? There is. B-O-C-K. Okay, sorry. So, B-O-C.

And he looks for a hot rod multiple times during the day. I'm guessing like is this like it is a let's say like a shooting festival maybe it's not that like and they have to fire something out and it becomes hot because it was just fired out of a cannon or something and then he has to go and find it

it's going to be hot then he has to look for it Izzy you did say party time I did say party time I'm gonna pull that back to the forefront of your mind okay what do we do at parties ooh glow sticks so that's why I'm thinking now

they're not hot though glow sticks What about cooking food? Okay A poker. A poker bockfest, maybe. Yeah, this is a metal poker. Okay. Heated until it's glowing red.

Nice. Are they actually branding things? That's the things that I associate with the south of America, like Texas and branding cattle with a hot rod. Now, this is Minnesota in March. I don't know how much American geography you've got. Not enough. Minnesota March, that's snow.

That is snow, yes. It is cold in Minnesota in March. So it's going to be before, obviously, cattle. I don't know why I have cattle in the brain so much. But it's before you'd like, you know, brand cattle because the calves are coming and that sort of thing. So it's nothing to do with that. But that's the sort of heat we're talking about here. Is it like fishing?

Are they going fishing and having to make holes in the ice with really hot rods in order to not scare away the fish? because you can't hit the ice, because that'll do that, but you're making holes in ice? That is close in a way that will only make sense when you have the answer. Great. But surprisingly close. Okay. What might happen when you're doing something like that?

Picture the scene for me. You might as well just drop it, because you're finding the thickness of the ice. And so you need to, like, poke through it or cut through it, or maybe a hot thing to cut through the ice to measure the thickness. It's not ice, but that's not ice, but that's, That's a gesture we're sort of going for here. Are you basically just using the steam to cook with? Is this a weird cooking technique?

Very close now. Very close again. Okay. I'm basically like, I'm circling, I'm like a marble circling a drain. Is this a way to cook fish? You just impale it on a hot spike and then you cook it from the inside? Ooh, that sounds delicious. You have the consumable thing wrong.

And I'm phrasing that so carefully. The consumable thing is wrong, so it's not food? Charlotte, you're right. It's not food. And if I tell you that Minnesota has quite a big German immigrant culture as well? Okay. So hang on, it's not food and it's consumable, it's drink. It is. Mould wine? Close. German, remember. Beer.

Hot beer? Beer. Yes. This is hot beer. Bok. I was hoping someone would have this. Bok is a traditional. German lager. Okay.

That has a lot of caramel and a lot of... It's a winter and a spring beer. And if you get a cup of that and plunge a red hot poker into it, as is tradition at Bachfest, it will caramelise a load of the sugars in there. It will create this thick foam. And you end up with this centuries-old tradition from German blacksmiths of hot beer. Theatrical, old school at the March Bockfest. That sounds lovely.

so good, so yummy. I don't think it does, to be honest. I think... Caramelized. Maybe get rid of the alcohol, but like caramelised. I mean, yeah, but there's nicer ways of eating caramel. Than like, you know, risking your lips on a hot beer. Izzy, we will take your question, please.

This question has been sent in by Aaron. According to a Transylvanian legend, people were sometimes sent to a tower with a table, small bed, plate and a set of cutlery. They stayed there for several weeks, although they could leave earlier. What was this for? According to a Transylvanian legend, people were sometimes sent to a tower with a table, small bed, plate and a set of cutlery. They stayed there for several weeks, though they could leave earlier. What was it for? Well, I have to get it out there to see if they've gotten eaten by a vampire. Just to throw it up there, just so we're done with that. Yeah, we're all thinking

it. You mentioned Transylvania specifically. Indeed. I don't know if it's in Sigiswara though, so I don't know if it's precisely where the Lathby Impaler was. But the location itself isn't actually that's important for this. I figured. I figured. So they get sent to the tower.

Is that from their own kind of free will or they're being forced like some people have been chosen and have been forced to do that. They could leave of their own free will? I'm guessing like it's it could be a monk that has been sent there to, like, they have to finish a manuscript or finish some work,

and like, oh, like, you have to get some focus time. Let's... Well, we all need, we could all use a tower with a table and a bit of food and a bed, just isolated from the world to get us to go. Old school 80-D-D focus. Let's finish the book, please. It's just away from where the Wi-Fi is. Exactly. There is an element of focus there, but we're not talking a Julian of Norwich situation. They're not doing it for religious purposes, specifically. Would you say that they enjoyed their time there?

It may be an open question. I would say probably not, but I might be wrong. I think they would have appreciated it, but maybe not enjoyed it. Enjoyed is the wrong. Okay. Other modern reasons you would be sent off for something like this. Well, it sounds like a rehab centre or a detox clinic, just old and Transylvanian. Like, you must go here until you have broken your terrible.

what's the, what's the, I don't know what century this is, 14th century Transylvanian equivalent of a cocaine habit. I don't know, but that'd be a way to beat it. It's a, it's a, it's a, you're thinking a sort of a lot, you're doing the circling the answer thing, Tom. It's, you're quite far out, but you're getting, the gist is there. The gist is there. I'm caught in the gravitational attractor of the answer, okay.

So they're all going there for a healing journey, and when they feel like they've healed, they could leave, but they choose to stay long. Pretty much. You're very, very close. I'm thinking this is like a parental punishment. Like their kid needs to do something. So they sent them out there on a journey on to do something because they don't behave at home.

Maybe they behave in a tiny room. You're so close, but you've got the wrong people. You're talking about families here, but you've got the wrong. It's not for the kids. Then for the old people. You send grandma there. Grandma has to focus. Work on her book.

No. Grandma is sick of the kids. Grandma just need to go and spend some time on her own away from the kids. Oh, is it for like couples going like through like couples like, like, uh, couples like trying to reconcile, um, and they get kind of like locked up. You just spend one on one time with each other. There's literally nothing else to do except talk it out and fix your problems like grown adults.

Charlotte's, you are correct. This is exactly what it is. Wow. I mean, specifically, there was a table, small bed, plate and set of cutlery. So they were forced to share these objects with somebody that they wanted a divorce. And so they had to get along. It was kind of part of the whole way it worked, really.

So in the village of Beartan in Transylvania, now Romania, it said that local authorities once used a reconciliation room to settle marital disputes. couples who wanted to divorce were confined inside a small chamber in the church's fortified complex, typically for several weeks. Inside were deliberately sparse furnishings, meaning everything had to be shared. This practice was introduced after the Protestant bishopric moved to Beartan in the 16th century. Legend claims that over roughly 300 years, only one divorce was recorded. So this is a thing that works, apparently. It works.

Seven murders, but only one divorce. Exactly. And that is better in the eyes of religion. No. Thank you to Pun Siwa-Woot for this next question. During World War II, why was it important for German tiger tank crews to give each other a brief piggyback ride occasionally? I'll say that again. During World War II, why was it important for German tiger tank crews to give each other a brief piggyback ride occasionally? I would imagine not for entertainment, because those can be really fun. Right?

Get morale up a bit. It wasn't going well for them towards the end. Maybe it helps with their flexibility and disparity if they've been sitting in a tank for so long and it can really, I don't know, you can stretch out on top of the other person. I know that in the First World War, the tanks had their exhaust to actually empty out into the tank

because it was a weak point in the structure of the tank. And so therefore when you're in a tank, you were there with the fumes. So having a piggyback ride, you might be able to get above the fumes inside the tank itself. But I think by the Second World War, they'd solved this problem. I'm also thinking like these tanks, like I've seen videos of like inside of these tanks and they are tiny. Like you are really cramped in. So doing a piggyback ride inside would, I think, either just poke your head out.

But I wouldn't imagine that would be useful at all. So this, like I can't imagine this is. It kind of defeats the purpose of the tank, really. Yeah. Okay. Okay, this is a weird one, right? But I know it was a panza, not a tiger tank, but I know there was a guy. Now, who was it?

It's something like Walton DeWart or something. He had a really cool name, but he was a British guy, and he killed a German in a panzer tank by getting an umbrella and pushing it through the eyehole. So I'm thinking maybe, he's called something, Anton DeWartz. He was a crazy guy. He brought an umbrella into battle. Why not? but I believe if it is a case that you don't want to look out

of the little eye holes where you're aiming your guns you might need to end up and you would actually have to carry somebody to sort of get out the top and look out the top, maybe. Thank you to producer David. Digby, Tatham Water. Digby Taten Water, sorry, not Anton DeWort, but there we go. So was it...

I'm pretty sure that's a horrible transporter accident that's combined him with Anton DeBec. There's loose words in my brain that occasionally makes sense. But thank you, producer David, for proving that I'm not mad that he did exist. Lateral, loose words in my brain that occasionally makes sense. I think that's how the human brain works, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. Could it be that, like, yeah, because it's going to be, like, if you do the piggyback to

peek-up the top hole, that is, of course, dangerous. So then I'm thinking there's not a person you're doing a piggyback. It is some sort of potato sack or some sort of, I don't know, maybe not a cardboard cut-out thing. It's like a fake, like, oh, we're looking now. So you'd get shot and there they are and we can now proceed. Maybe there's two tiers within the tank and you can operate both parts at the same time simultaneously,

but only if... Is this... Are we thinking we're in the tank and we're actually outside the tank and we're cleaning it? You are outside the tank for this piggyback. But we're not cleaning it and we need to reach it, so we need... But you're not cleaning it.

But that is a key insight there. Okay. You are outside the tank doing this piggyback. Okay. But I've really like... the image of like some German soldiers giving each other piggyback ride so they can clean the windows of the tank. That'd be lovely. Just ended here. Let's not learn more.

Yeah, that's what they did. That's what they did. That's what they did. Yeah. Yeah, it makes sense. All right, we're done. Next question. Okay. So piggyback ride. So there's two reasons to give somebody a piggyback right. One, they can't walk for some reason.

Two, they're trying to reach something, which they can't get. Three, you don't want to have, for whatever reason, four sets of boots on the ground. you just want the one set of boots. You know, I'm thinking of Jesus walking along the beach and, you know, you have to carry him or something when you're down. I'd never know how that works. More than that, Izzy, you'd only have one boot on the ground. Are they hopping while they're doing a piggyback?

Yeah. That's a strong soldier. Some strong guys. They wouldn't need to do full hop here, but yeah, they're on one leg, giving a piggyback. That's just, is this Cirque de Soleil origins that we don't know of? Okay, so is it anything to do with mines? Because you want to have a few feet on the ground as possible

when there are mines around as a rule. Which is a good rule. That is a good rule. I like that rule. What about to cover tracks if they were going to leave? Well, the tank is going to make the main tracks, so. Exactly. And also it's just a case...

They'll leave that behind, too. It's also a case that, you know, is that... Oh, hang on. Hang on. Hang on. Is it, are these tanks designed with a certain tread where you just don't know which direction they're going? And therefore when you get out of it, in order to do something to the tank, you don't want to indicate which way you're going. So you get on your mates back and he hops around like a kangaroo. The look on your face and the way you said that, the first few words, I was like, Izzy has got it. Izzy has not got it. But keep thinking about the tracks.

and the things that are left behind in the ground. Okay. Because the tank tracks are angled because that's how they get the grip when they're moving. Is it just a way of avoiding the enemy knowing how many men you've got in your tank? And therefore not giving them bad information about if they're trying to follow you?

No, no. Definitely not. Okay. There are other problems that tanks might have with those tracks and with the ground. You're trying to avoid sinking the mud as much as possible around the tank so that when it moves it has a fresh set of ground

to go through. First half of that, absolutely right, Charlotte. They are trying to avoid the tank's sinking. So why does giving someone a piggyback and standing on one leg help with that? Are they in water when they're doing this? Not, well, not quite, hopefully not. Okay.

So the tank then seems to be stuck in some way Could it be that they're like going up a hill And the back half of the tank is stuck And they have to like Because you then you give a piggyback Then you can reach up Like change the configuration Not the track or something

It's the one leg that's really doing it for me Because why would you need to be on one leg What does that change? Right What does that change? It changes the pressure on the ground It increases it So you're trying to push the ground down Are you trying to combat the ground

So that the tank can roll over the top. But that's what you would do a piggyback because you're heavier. So you could hop on the ground. So you're trying to hop on one leg. But you're going to do your knee in like that. That's really silly. They are, you've identified the pressure on the ground. That's the reason they're doing it. Okay. I think Charlotte, you talked about getting stuck in the mud, right? Yeah. Keep thinking about that. Presumably, is this a way to measure how stuck in the mud it is? Because it's to do with the, like, the pressure of the boots? Because it gives you an idea of like, How far you're sinking is how much pressure there is,

and so you get an idea. Yes, absolutely right. The German commanders did the maths, and in the manual for the Tiger Tank, translated it says, explore the terrain on foot. Give a man a piggyback ride and stand on one leg. If the ground supports the weight,

it will support the tank. Oh. I want to say thank you to Mr. Gentry, my physics teacher, for putting the image of an elephant in stiletto in my head. Yep. It is exactly that sort of thing. If you take the weight of the tank and you divide it by the area of the treads, that is roughly equivalent to the weight of two men divided by one foot. Well, one, one area, the area of a shoe, let's say, rather than one foot. Where we messed up

is not exploring the German mindsets and the need for maths. That is where we messed up on that one. Charlotte, it is over to you, please. This question has been sent in by Andy H. While on holiday in Japan, Andy's father pointed at a soft toy and exclaimed, It's only 777 yen. What was being advertised and why wasn't it actually that cheap? And again, while on holiday in Japan, Andy's father pointed at a soft toy and exclaimed, It's only 77 yen.

What was being advertised and why wasn't it actually that cheap? Itchy, ni, sanshi, Roku, I don't remember. Oh, no. What's seven in Japanese guys? No clue. I don't know. Is this divide by 10 or what's the...

That's roughly about £3, $4 in current exchange rates? Okay, it's that low, okay. Okay. And it's a soft toy. Soft toy. 777 makes me think of a slot machine, like an old-school traditional, like pull-the-leaver, one-arm bandit slot machine

because you had the fruits on the reel and you had the symbol, and then you had the seven symbol. I'm wondering if this is like, if the reels line up and you get 7-777, you win the soft toy. Or yeah, this is just an advertisement for a gambling area and what they do is use the jackpot icons for the thing. if you get this, you win the toy, but it says 777, which is the symbols you need to get

to win the toy. I'm not sure, now I've said that, slot machines are legal in Japan, because they have the Pachinko parlors and the, I don't think a prize where you get money out is actually legal there. So I'm going to, I'm going to backtrack, but not before asking Charlotte if it's anything to do with slot machines. It's sadly not anything to do with slot machines. It is a sign that on the toy.

It is a sign on the toy Yes So I mean The obvious thing is it's some sort of lucky symbol So like you know obviously sevens are quite lucky in this country Is the toy itself I know you said as a soft toy Is it a plushy of a particular type of like Boeing plane

Because they've got a 7777 so it could just be the label It's not but it's a very specific soft toy That has been very popular recently Oh, La Bubu A boobo I love how you just whip that out. That is so good. That, yes, it's a Laboo.

Please carry on. Do those make noises? Because I'm thinking that there's a lot of Japanese, is it Katakana characters, the ones that represent individual sounds? Like, does one of those look like a seven? And so the toy makes this noise, and it's just showing you the noise it makes.

That's a bit like I was told by a French person that in the olden days when music was sold in shops, that you could guess it on a cassette, but they never wrote the word cassette. They wrote the letter K and the number seven. Cassette. Oh, that's good. Camset. Tom, that was actually so, so, so, so, so close. It's not the sound that it makes that would look like 777, but if you mix that with what Oliver was saying.

Is it just how you write Labu-Bou in? Like Japanese text? It is. It's the catacana for Labubo. It is. Nice. Oh, that's so good. So the soft toy was a Labubu and the popular designer character.

And in certain blocky and angular display fonts, those catacana characters can resemble the number seven. So Andy's father mistook the label for 777 yen, which is about $5, and thought he'd spotted an incredible bargain. because Labibos are actually being upsold for like a lot. This was not in the note, sorry. But in reality, the sign wasn't showing a price at all. It was simply showing the product's name.

I have a similar story, which is embarrassing that I'm going to tell this publicly. The first time I ever went to the US, I went to New York. And my family asked us, so where should we eat? And I point and I say, let's go to subway. Oh, no. And that was the, yes, that was the actual subway. Yeah, not the, you're like going, let's go and eat the tube. We can brush your teeth here.

Yes. We have unlocked the shiny bonus question, so good luck with this, folks. Thank you to Anonymous. The 2012 experimental film Logistics is 857 hours long. What are viewers most likely to see if they watch a section from the middle of the film? I'll say that again.

The 2012 experimental film Logistics is 857 hours long. What are viewers most likely to see if they watch a section from the middle of the film? of the film. I know this one. Pitch black darkness. Bright white, light. Oh, complete opposites there. Exactly, I thought I just...

Okay, so it's called logistics. I don't know this film. 857 hours, is that roughly a week? No, I can't do long division. Sorry, I fail. I think it's two weeks. It's two weeks. Okay.

So it's two weeks long. So we're looking at, if we start on Monday, we're looking at another Monday. So does it start again in the middle? Is that what it does as a sort of... Frankly, any section. Any section. From around the middle.

Yeah, you'll see mostly the same thing. I guess this would be really easy if we knew what the film was. Yes. Yes, but the name is a very big clue. So when I think of logistics, I think of trying to get to different things. places and working out to the order of that you do things in order for it to work.

So I presume, are they planning the movie in real time of what they'll do? And so they just have no idea, unfortunately. It's 2012. So it could be about the Olympics. Because there was definitely an Olympics event that year, in which case, and it's roughly last two weeks. So it's actually 36 days, having done the maths. Oh, 36 days.

Okay, then that's over a month, so I was... And it would be a very boring film to watch. I feel like logistics is like something wrapping up boxes and taping things and following like something mechanical. Yeah. So it may be inside a warehouse and they're just filming...

Warehouses are... Getting a lot closer now. Yeah, that's the thing. There's less going on for a lot of this film than you might... from a warehouse or something like that. So they've just plopped the camera on a conveyor belt and they just let it do its thing.

Apart from conveyor belt, you're getting very close, yes. Is it a case that they put like the slowest post or something and they put a camera on the package and they send it and sees how long it takes to get to somewhere and it spends most of its time in a black sack? Oh, okay, so yes to all of that, apart from black sack. Shelf. Think bigger logistics than this.

All that you've made me do is just think of like a truck. So, bigger than a truck. Bigger. A plane. Bigger. A ship. A cargo ship. Yes.

So for most of this film, what can you see? You can see the sea in the cargo ship, just the distant sea. Nice. Yes. This is the experimental film logistics, which, Oliver, presumably you've heard of. Oh, yeah, yeah, because I went down to the rapid hole of, like, what are the longest movies ever? And this is a Swedish movie from 2012. It is the manufacturing of a step counter in reverse order.

I think it's from the shop back to the factory or the other way around. It's China to Sweden, from manufacturer to the actual delivery. Most of the film, which is in real time, takes place on cargo ships in the open seas. Now, me being a massive nerd, I had looked at this film. The whole thing is on YouTube, and it is not one continuous shot because they have to move the camera around to each location. And more than that, because you skim through, don't you? You look through, like, on the YouTube link, because it's all on YouTube,

and you go, okay, nothing's changed, nothing changed, nothing change. And there is a jump cut to a train that is already in motion. Ooh, that's annoying. It's annoying. You were like 12 hours into it, you've already... I think the project would be moving back. Like, no, you have to do this in one goal. We've got to go back and do this again.

Sorry, folks. I can't. Or at least I would, you guys are very honest filmmakers and documentary makers. I would just fake it. So I'd just go back and film that little bit. You know, get somebody to just do that bit so we can have a smooth transition. Thanks, guys. A funny nerdy fact about the Nordics, because it's a Swedish movie.

The second longest movie ever is from, I think, a couple of years before, and it's Danish. So I feel like the Danes got the longest movie. And the Swedes like, oh, no, no, we're going to one up them. The Danes cannot have the longest movie. Which just leaves us with the question from the start of the show. Thank you to Inbayini for this question. Which New England State has a dead animal on one of its vehicle registration plates? Anyone want to take a guess?

Is this Massachusetts? Why would you think that? Beavers? Sorry, I said that in the manner of so. Why would you think that? How dare you think that? How dare you think of Massachusetts? I mean, you're thinking beavers.

I'm thinking turkey. Because obviously, that's... That seems to be the obvious... Because then you can show a roast turkey, and that's a dead animal. So that's fine. Is that Thanksgiving, then it counts as the... Where's the Plymouth Rock? Is that Plymouth?

I don't know where... It's in Plymouth. Yeah. You're right that it's food. Excellent. Okay. And a chef could tell at a glance that this thing was dead. A salmon fillet.

A deer. A cow for Izzy. Oh, it's an open clam. Or an open sea... It's open shellfish of some sort. That's close, Izzy. Very close. It's like shrimp a lobster? Yep, it's a lobster.

So what's on the licence plate? Lobsters? Depicted on the shore, as if it's just there, just been pulled out of the ocean, just come up to say hi. What is the giveaway of this lobster? It's red. It's red. Therefore it's dead.

Because, or therefore, well, sorry. Therefore, more than that. It's cooked. It's cooked, yes. Lobsters in the wild. a dark green. If this is a genuine, freshly fished lobster, it would be dark green, dark ground, blue, black. But once they have been cooked, they turn red and are therefore quite dead. Unfortunately, the question was which New England state? Which one's famous for the lobster?

No clue. Like literally, a New England state? I mean, New Hampshire. It is Maine. It is main lobster. But I think you've got the important parts of that. Where can people find you? What's gone on your lives? We'll start with Charlotte. You'll find me hard at work on my PhD and also at Miki Shah on Instagram. Oliver.

You can find me at Oliver W on all the social medias. And Izzy. You can find me on Izzy.com. And if you like dinosaurs, you might want to listen to Terrible Lizards, a podcast all about paleontology. And if you want to know more about this show or send in your own ideas for a question

or join the Lateral Producers Club, you can do that at Lateralcast.com. And we are at Lateralcast, basically everywhere. And there are full video episodes every week on Spotify. Thank you very much to Izzy Lawrence. Goodbye. Oliverge. Goodbye. Charlotte Young.

Bye-bye. I've been Tom Scott and that's been Latrim.