SciShow Tangents - Bonus Backlog Bonanza - Ep. 18

Episode Date: June 24, 2025

This bonus episode was originally posted on Patreon on September 7, 2022 titled "Get to know the Tangents Team!"Original Patreon description: Think you know our hosts well? Listen as our lovely hosts dive in and answer some of the internet's best get-to-know-you questions.SciShow Tangents is on YouTube! Go to www.youtube.com/scishowtangents!And go to https://complexly.store/collections/scishow-tangents to buy some great Tangents merch!While you're at it, check out the Tangents crew on socials:Ceri: @ceriley.bsky.social@rhinoceri on InstagramSam: @im-sam-schultz.bsky.social@im_sam_schultz on InstagramHank: @hankgreen on X

🎵Music🎵 Hello and welcome to SciShow Samgents! It's the, it's the, it's the I have no idea what's about to happen episode of SciShow tangents That's just for the patreon patrons. It's also called. What do we have? What else? I think we called this I forget our Bepedia yeah, we'll keep Bepedia Ibaka Piedis I show Sam just style or Sam is gonna do something and I don't know what it is. I have no

Obligations except last time you burned my brain to a crisp with anagrams. We're doing that again No, gosh. No, even if we, I would have deleted all of them by now. So as a producer of SciShow Tangents, I'm something of a team leader and you can't lead a team if you don't know them. So I thought I'd get to know you guys a little better and get some free content out of it. So I went to knowyourteam.com and found the 25 best icebreaker questions

from team building. Oh no. I thought you like Googled us and tried to, came up with a quiz, they stopped at that. I was looking forward to Hank and Sari figure out which one of you tweeted this 10 years ago. Yeah. Okay, well that's the next one I do.

That's a really good idea. Yeah, does it sound like an 18 year old girl? Sometimes I think sometimes Hank can sound like an 18 year old girl. Did you see my tweet this morning? No, what was it? It's definitely like a 14 year old boy tweet because I want a device that can smell my farts and tell me what's wrong Good like can you tell what's wrong with you by fart? Even the best device in the universe? Not currently, but there is research headed in that direction, as was reported to me by somebody who was like,

I just saw a paper about this. Well, somebody's got to do that. Like, the process of making that device involves a lot of farts, right? Yeah, I guess so. I bet they have, have like artificial farts that they create in the lab. And then they like composition of. You gotta do field testing eventually.

Eventually you do have to collect some real farts. And I for one, I'm excited for the citizen science where people just fart in bags and ship it. Send them, mail them in. And send it. Put it in a box and ship it to the scientists. All right, I'm in. As long as I get like a dime for every fart that I send in,

is that the thing I can do? You're just gonna be a professional farter, the first one in the world. Like recycling. No, second, after Lepidomaine. Yeah. Yeah. There's that one.

And then there's some other people who have sold their farts in jars. Oh no, you're right so Yeah, your farts are cheap compared to the the library farts bargain bin farts. I'm giving them away Yeah, all right. So question number one. We won't go through all 25 because we don't simply don't have time question number one What was your first job? Let's hear from Hank first. I think my first job was Walmart's Stuck Boy, which had very little to do with actually stocking.

There were people who did stocking. I mostly got carts out of the parking lot and cleaned the bathrooms and swept and stuff. How was that? It was not great. It was forward, it was very hot outside, and sometimes things that were very bad would happen in the bathrooms.

Oh, I used to clean the bathrooms at Starbucks and oh mama, people do some things in the bathroom that I'm just like, how? How did you poop there? I don't understand. I had like a boss who had had the job for a long time and we once had been called back to the bathroom for a cleaning and I will never forget his voice as he said that is a lot of shit and blood Oh no! No! And I was like you've been at this for a while if you think that's a lot like probably a lot I also think it's a lot, but like it's nice to have your perspective Probably a lot. I also think it's a lot, but like, it's nice to have your perspective. All right, Sarah, what was your first job?

I didn't get paid, but that, I still consider it a job, I think. I worked as a summer camp counselor for the Pacific Science Center in Seattle. So it was kids from like, first grade through like sixth grade. And they had week long camps and they had overnight camps. So it also involved cleaning up a bunch of puke from the floor, but also standing. Why do they puke so much? I don't know. We gave them nacho cheese and then they ran around very fast. I think kids just puke a lot.

Yeah. If you get enough kids together, it's going to be puke. A lot of large numbers. Yeah. Yeah, if you get enough kids together, it's gonna be puke. Mm-hmm. A lot of large numbers. Yeah. And yeah, there were fun parts too. Like I got to teach kids about water molecules or I'd sing songs. I don't know, normal camp stuff. Kids sing songs?

But then also... Science songs? Yeah. No, not even science songs, just camp songs. had to come bring bring as many as I could it was in high school so I was still young and spry and we the kids brought it got to sleep on like the softer floors, but all the Adults and teenagers that worked there had to sleep in the offices where there were concrete floors They just put you on the floor. Wow. Yeah, okay.'s not really, that's not really a camp. That's just like, uh,

come and I don't know call from the colonizer science center. Yeah, it's like sit in it's like a sit in It's a bit of a sit in a bit of a sort of like after the apocalypse. This is the only place we're safe I think it was called a sleep in or something like that. I forget what it was called, but yeah, that was very cute. All right. Question two. Have you ever met anyone famous? Hank. Yeah, I think I think probably the most famous person I've met

is Barack Obama. That's going gonna followed by Anna Kendrick. I think you've met Ryan Reynolds. He might be more In like the same physical spaces. Oh, yeah I have I've hung I've virtually hung out with Ryan but if you saw him in person you'd be like hey Slapped me on the back. Yeah, and I'd be like, oh you slap me on the back part. Maybe, yeah. And I'd be like, oh, you're that height. Whereas Anna Kendrick, I know what height she is. She's tiny. Tiny, very small. I saw her at VicCon, I think, tiny.

Yeah. Yeah, Sari? I saw... You've met Hank before? I have met Hank before, but I think I've been in the same physical space as Alec Baldwin when I was walking through the doors of WNYC, because he has a WNYC podcast.

He was like coming through the revolving door, the other way is me. I sat in front of Adam Sandler at Hadestown when I was also in New York, the same trip. He was still dressed in like basketball shorts and sandals and socks. So really just an every man guy Sitting in the audience and Felicia day is like nerd famous. Yeah, I've met her but Hank has also met her so I don't think that's

Exclusive to this. I don't know it felt it was significant to me. I Was freaked out the first time I met her. She's very cool. Yeah, I was very nervous the most famous person I've ever met I'm pretty sure is probably John. No offense. Is he more famous than you? He's got more Twitter followers. That's the only way I judge it. So I'm actually not sure.

You might be pulling ahead with your TikTok though, you know? It all, look, it's all in the eye of the beholder. I need to be more famous people You should be introducing me to more famous people. I want to meet That guy I was just talking about who's Deadpool Anyway question for yeah Mark Ruffalo has more Twitter followers than Anna Kendrick by about a million But they both have way more than me. You're a better follow. I'd say I'd definitely tweet better stuff Yeah, I bet I get more likes on my tweets. No, I don't.

If you could pick up a new skill in an instant, what would it be? I am a bad drummer and I want to be a good drummer. a bad drummer, and I want to be a good drummer. Oh, it's so much fun to be good at drumming. And I know that just from being a little bit good, like being not quite terrible. And if I was like really good, I'd just be like, that was so that'd be so much fun. So I'd love I'd want that. I think it would be really fun. Yeah. Terry.

My practical answer is that I would like to learn no Mandarin Chinese and just like blink and know a language. Yeah, I feel like that's more than a skill because otherwise I would have said Spanish. Yeah. Yeah. The skill that I would like to learn, so then ignoring that,

so I would like to be able to do the splits because I've never been able to, even at my most flexible. And it just seems like a fun thing to do yeah yeah and everybody's always like oh very impressed yes yes gosh I have a practical one too which is I wish I could cook like like just like whip something together but I can't I gotta use a cookbook yeah you wish you had it is how to yeah like plan a meal and be like, yes, this this like season it. Yeah. But an instrument would be I think I wish I could play piano, probably.

I think that'd be really fun. And then you'd be like ratatouille. That's a peasant's dish. No, it will take you back to your childhood. You cranky critic. Oh, if I was cooking, not playing the piano. No, playing the piano. What movie did you see?

It's like Billy Joel's got Ratatouille on his head, making him go. All right. Seen any good movies lately you'd recommend? Yeah, I watched the first movies of my last five years while I had COVID. Oh yeah, right. Really, I doubled the number of movies I've seen in the last five years in a week. And I think the best movie I saw was probably Everything Everywhere all at once. But a movie that it wasn't really a movie

that I really enjoyed was Derek DelGaudio's In and of Itself. Which I haven't heard a lot about, but I would heartily recommend as a truly bizarre piece of media, but really touching and weird and beautiful. Is it like a comedy special or what? It's a touching and weird and beautiful. Is it like a comedy special or what? It's a magic show. One man show, storytelling time,

but also a sort of exploration of identity. Zari? I don't think I've watched a movie. Have you ever watched a movie? I don't think I've watched a movie before in my entire life. I don't think this year. So pass. You haven't watched a movie this year? I don't think so. I would have been there with her if I hadn't gotten COVID.

I think we say and I got got like a lot of interests. Movies can be an interest. I know. That's true. I'm sorry. I apologize to all the people with can be an interest. I know. That's true. I'm sorry. I apologize to all the people with movies as an interest. We have a lot of interests that do not include movies. Yeah.

I have a list of movies that I want. I want to see the Batman with Robert Pattinson. I want to see everything all at once. I want to see... That's it really, those two. Okay. Okay, okay. Now I feel like I'm a bigger TV watcher in short bursts because that's what Sylvia and I can squeeze in during a meal. That makes sense.

I just watched Rumble in the Bronx. Very good Jackie Chan movie. RRR. He heard of that one. People keep telling me to see it and then I looked at it when I was sick. I was like, ah, people are, and it was like 85 hours long. It's three hours long. Come on. And it's very good. It will like re, that and everything everywhere all at once will be like, will make you be

like, why is any other movie the way it is? Why can't all movies be this way? Very, I would recommend that one. It's very fun. I don't, do be this way? Very, I would recommend that one's very funny. I don't do I have do I have three hours ever? I recently had somebody ask me if I could give a give four hours to record a podcast with them because it takes four hours to record their podcast and I was like, no Consecutively

That's crazy. I watched it in two. It has an intermission That's crazy. I watched it in two. It has an intermission So you actually can watch it in like one hour and a half another hour and a half chunk And it's a perfectly like the ending of the intermission. You'll be like wow like cheering Yeah, and then you'll but then you can sit with it for a few days and be like it's time to find out what happened So those crazy kids. All right, so it's like two long episodes of TV. Maybe I will do it Yeah, yes, isn't a movie just an extra long episode of TV in a way, if you think about it? It's all, the lines are blurring. Yeah. The lines are blurring and I got, I eat fast, so I usually get like an eight to ten minute chunk of an episode. I know what you go do. You just like watch half of an episode of Parks and Rec.

Yeah, that's it. And then we pause it and move on. So what do you do when you're not watching TV? I wash dishes. I do, I work a lot is what I do. I do my job, job or freelance work or go walk to my garden or water my plants. Yeah, last night Catherine was like, what are you doing? I was like, I'm writing about galaxies.

She's like, it's midnight. And I was like, but like, this is what I like to do. Do you find it hard to do things? Like, this is too personal a question. Does it, doesn't your wife ever get mad that like, she doesn't, she wants you to spend time with her? Yeah, no, literally last night. Yes.

Cause I had this, I also had this like long email I needed to write. And it was and like we watched an episode of TV together, but you could tell that I was kind of like not engaged. And yeah, she was like, I'm going to bed. And I was like, I'm going to stay here and write about galaxies. Yeah. Yeah, no, for sure. It's really important to invest in all of the parts of your life. You must. But it's so hard.

There's so many demands. It'd be so easy to just go in the mountains and be like, I'll draw every day and never talk to anybody. Maybe I'd be happy. You probably get bored pretty quick. More sad. I was once talking to my uncle who never speaks in paragraphs, he speaks in extremely short sentences. And I was like, this is like the longest conversation

I ever had with my uncle, I said. He was like, how are you doing, Hank? And I was like, well, you know, there's a lot of great stuff going on, but it's very hard to sort of balance the part of my life where I'm really enthralled with work and the part of my life where I love and wanna be with my family.

And he said the most number of words he'd ever said to me in a row. And it was, that is one of the hardest parts of a man's life. Wow. That's true, of anyone's life. Well, it was a man's life. It was a man's life, of me a man, yes.

And my wife tying me down. Yeah, when you're 70 years old and from Birmingham, Alabama. Oh, okay. Okay. Yes, yeah. That's difficult. I'm not allowed to have my laptop in bed anymore because otherwise I'll just tip-tap.

Yeah, tip-tap. Keep going. It's hard for creative geniuses like us, isn't it? What was your favorite band 10 years ago? What was 10 years ago? 2012? I mean, the thing is, 10 years ago, I probably listen to less music than I do now. But it may be that my favorite band 2012, 10 years ago was like Harry and the Potters.

Hmm. Interesting. Which I was listening to because like I was like the scene I was in. And you know, still love. So I'm going to go with Harry and the Potters. Very complicated question for you, I would imagine. Really complicated. Let me... One second. I'm going into the archives of my YouTube. So I only listened to music when I did math homework because I had to focus on writing,

but I would listen to music when I did math homework. And there was a lot of musical theater and so I'm trying to figure out what... It. Realistically, it was not a band. It was Aaron to Vate singing anything. I added it to the little dumb little playlist and Aaron to Vate, he played. He's in a lot of musical theater and he was a next to normal. He was in catch me if you can. He was just like a generic handsome dude who sings good. Gotcha. And I had the biggest crush.

High school, Sarri was like, a guy who can sing? Whoa. I've never heard of such a thing. Never, ever. Oh, 2012. What was I doing in 2012? I mean, my favorite bands, my same favorite bands forever. Yeah.

Built to Spill, Pavement, all those sad white guy bands, Radiohead, and just a miserable and listening to music all the time. And it's that kind of music. So probably in 2012, I tried to listen to a lot of Foxygen back then. I think that was like my peak Foxogen time. Been anywhere recently for the first time?

Has anyone really? I have, I risked COVID for it. Where was that? Where'd you go? Las Vegas, the most COVID central. I went to Vegas, baby. It was very overwhelming. It was like the opposite of situations

that I try to put myself in at most times. But I'm glad I went because it was an experience and a bunch of my friends were also there. So it tempered the overwhelming club party, et cetera scene of it all to be near other nerds who would rather go sleep or will take a nap and then venture back out. Yeah. You got to take a nap sometimes, though. I love a nap.

Hank, anywhere you've been for the first time recently? I recently went to several rides at California Adventure that I've ever been in. Because I suppose that counts. Yeah. I because I had the five year old. So there was a bunch of stuff that I normally wouldn't do. But I did like Ariel's indoor ride, which is great because it's air conditioned. Did like the jellyfish lifters. Yeah The lesser California adventure, yes exactly I

Don't think I've really been anywhere recently for the first time Oh Huntington Beach, California. Oh, yeah. Also, I had never been there. What was the first thing you bought with your own money? I believe It was a vinyl record I had never been there. What was the first thing you bought with your own money? I believe It was a vinyl record It to to disc package called Supergirls, which was a like a compilation of like 50s

girl music Like like pop like like it's my party and like leader. No, that's why party is a fucking good song Yeah, leader in the pack also is a good song. Yeah stuff like that. It was and I think I got it was like out of a magazine Like I I had to like cut it out and put things And like I had to have my dad help me And we had we didn't have very many vinyls because we were right on the edge of when cassette tapes were starting to happen. But we had that and we had Thriller

and we had a few vinyls. Realistically, one of those sticky hands from a capsule machine. Like I had my very own quarter and I was like, I gotta choose what to spend this on. I want a sticky hand. But probably a video game, I'm trying to think of one

that I wouldn't have got for as a present, but probably like the area, the era of DS maybe. So like 2006, 2007, Touch Detective was one that I remember playing. I liked a lot of like mystery puzzle games that I would save up for and like look on forums for what the good ones were and then and then get them for myself. I have great news for everyone. If you go on Spotify, there is of course a Supergirls playlist where you can listen to all

the songs except for a couple of them that are for some reason not available. I blame record labels that are for some reason not available. I blame record labels, including my boyfriend's back, which is a great one. Yeah. I'm wondering why that album. Why did I get that? Yeah. I don't know, man. You I've lost that information. It's no longer accessible to me. I think that I was I think I was captured by the marketing. OK.

I do like girls. I genuinely can't remember what, when I started earning my own money or whatever. I bet the first thing I bought with my own money was like a Wendy's bacon cheeseburger or something. I didn't have a job for a long time and I didn't make like an allowance. I just was like, got toys whenever I got them

and stuff like that. But I don't know, I don't remember. I don't remember when that started. But I don't know. I don't remember. I don't remember when that when that started. So I don't have a I don't have a good answer. We'll have to leave it with my bad answer. My my allowance didn't didn't allow for that much. Like you had to save up for a while for it to become a useful amount of money. All right. Well, I feel like I know you guys so much better now

and I can be your leader more effectively. Ah, in the name of love. Sorry, I found the advertisement from 1986, which is probably the advertisement I saw. Oh, do you remember the Pure Moods advertisements? Hiya! Hiya! Oh, we lost Sari. Bye, Sari.

Well, that's the end of the show You had to get a little bit of Enya and then they just ended Sarri you can't stand yeah You exercised her from the group chat All right, well, thank you Sam and Tuna. Um, I keep expecting her to come back, but maybe she won't. And thanks everybody for your Patreon patronage, being a part of the work that we do. It means a great deal and I'm so happy that we can continue to make Sideshow Tangents because of it. We have a blast and thanks for having a blast with us.

Thanks everybody.