SciShow Tangents - Bonus Backlog Bonanza - Ep. 19

Episode Date: June 27, 2025

This bonus episode was originally posted on Patreon on September 30, 2022 titled "Silly Little Bonus Pod."Original Patreon description: The Tangents team is back in know your team mode. Listen along to more great icebreakers and send us your answers in the discord!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

Hello and welcome to the SciShow Tangents Patreon patron bonus podcast. I'm always worried I'm going to say bonus because everything else doesn't. You don't say bonus. That's definitely off the list. I can't tell you why, but it's definitely off the list. And we got to be a reason we haven't invented the word bonus yet. It just sounds not allowed by our own minds. So thank you for joining us here on the PONUS podcast with Hank Green,

Sam Schultz and Sari Reilly. We are so grateful for your support on Patreon that we like to make silly extra podcasts for you. But I don't know what we're going to be doing today. And I don't know that Sam really does either. Hey, I do. You're lying, first of all, because I told you right before we started. You told me something vague. What was it? You said we were going to be answering personal questions.

What's your mother's maiden name? Yeah, what's your social security number? What street did you grow up on? Yeah, what was the name of your first pet, et cetera? Well, last time that we did a Patreon podcast, we answered some questions about ourselves, and people liked them, and people on the Discord got on and answered the same questions too, which I thought was really fun. That's nice.

It is. I thought we'd do a few more of these icebreaker questions I got from KnowYourTeam.com. Get to know your team! Okay, so the first question is, what's your favorite family tradition? Does anybody have a favorite family tradition? So in my family, this is really weird. And we sort of broke this one. We, with all the children who were born that with penises, you cut part of the penis off.

Hank, I'm going to have to ask you to take this icebreaker seriously. That was good. I needed that laugh today. Because you're like, where's he going? And then you're like, oh, right. That is a thing, I guess. Family tradition, I guess. Yeah. Collective societal. Yeah.

I suppose that could apply to anything. Oh, we cut pumpkins up and put them on our front porch. Oh, we chop a tree down. Oh, sorry. And we put it on our front porch. My family really loves chopping things. We have a chopping thing for every season. We just carve things up.

Easter. Carving trees. Carving turkey. Pitas. Yeah. Sari, that's mine. What's yours? I'll try and figure it. Yeah, I'm trying to think of something. My family isn't very, uh, tradition heavy.

My family also isn't very big. I would say one that I like that is not unique to my family is, uh, Chinese New Year. Even the non-Chinese part of my family gives me a little red packet with some money for good luck. And that was always very thrilling as a child to get fresh, crisp bills because you need money for good luck. And my grandpa started doing, instead of like a couple dollars or a $5 bill, he would do $20 in sequential $ dollar bills and across the years

would add to the sequence of it. And so I eventually deposited in a bank because I needed money to buy food. But I had at one point in my life, like a huge stack of like a hundred dollars of sequential two dollar bills. What? And I was just like, my grandpa, he just, he just withdrew a lot at one time and was like, here they are freshly from the mint. The thing about twos is they're very rarely from circulation. They're mostly from the mint because people don't spend them. Yeah. Because they're like, oh, a two dollar bill. And they keep them even though there are actually a lot of two dollar bills in circulation. I looked this up once because I myself took a lot of $2 bills in circulation. I looked

this up once because I myself took a bunch of $2 bills out of the bank to give them away because it was part of a promotion where we had an $18 product but you had to pay $20 and then we'd send you a two. I feel like the $2 bills time is back though because of inflation you know know? We got to get it back. Well, I think, yeah, basically, they're $1 bills. Yeah. Candy bar, you need a $2 bill now. Absolutely. When I worked at Starbucks, a guy would come in and give me a $2 bill as a tip. And the first time I was like, wow, great. And then he did it like every freaking day. And eventually, I was kind of like, this is a little weird. Why are you giving me so many $2 bills?

Yeah, there's some people who like to be the $2 guy. Yeah. Who drove all the way to Butte or Chicago. I don't know when you were in Chicago. Chicago. Yeah. Yeah. Is he an elderly, elderly white fellow who lives in Chicago? He doesn't live in Chicago, unfortunately, but he is elderly and white.

OK. I don't know. I feel bad, but I can't think of any like family traditions I was raised with aside from like very normal holiday ones. And I'm sure that there are some and now I'm just I'm feeling like a bad son. And probably a bad husband because I bet Katherine would say that you had some that are nice too. Just among our family, but that, I mean. That's a family, that's your family. There's only three of us. That's fine.

And there were only two of us for most of the time. Oh yeah, that's fine too, I guess, but. Yeah, it's not really a family tradition. It's just two people going to a movie. Well, okay. And we gotta establish some. We gotta establish some traditions with this child. You know your dub smashes.

You gotta start dub smashing with Lauren. It's true, thank you. That's a great one, Sarah. On New Year's Eve, my wife and I get drunk and we do dub smashes. With my parasocial relationship coming in clutch. Okay, you ready for another one? Sam, what's your family tradition?

You gotta answer too. I have so many. My family is a bunch of basic bees and we do all the holidays big time. But my favorite one is, is the shrimp boil that my dad does every year for the 4th of July, the 3rd of July in Butte. Butte has a huge fireworks display and we live right under the hill where it happens. So every year they have a huge party and everybody gets completely obliterated and we eat a bunch of shrimp. That's my favorite one.

That's awesome. I would love I would love to go to that someday. Well, I've invited you before, Hank. I know. That's why I said I'd love to go someday. All right. Here's the next icebreaker question. What's your favorite place you've ever visited? My favorite place I've ever visited? My favorite place I've ever visited ever. Yeah, there's so many places that have so much to recommend them.

Uhm, but like it might just be Yellowstone, not to say that Yellowstone isn't amazing. It's just that we live quite close to it. Sam and Tuna and I and once, Sari and so I've been a bunch of times, but it is really remarkable. And, you know, I'd like, there are places I'd like to visit more than Yellowstone, but like as far as the places

I have visited and to go back to regularly, it's really great. I also feel very good about Pacific Redwood forests whenever I get to go to them. The Pacific Northwest is great. I agree, it's great. I hear you're from there. Yeah, not born.

I was about to say born and bred, no, transplant when I was young, but I love it. I can't afford to live there anymore, but I love it. Tough. I was also gonna go naturey. I don't have a specific one though, but any botanical garden. I love it. I love seeing the little plant labels and then I can walk around and learn new names

of plants. There are so many packed into one dense space. Little animals walking around. Sometimes there are art installations to go alongside the botanical gardens. We went to one in Providence a couple months ago and there was an artist who makes acorn sculptures called beacorns and he just sets them in his backyard and sits and waits with a camera and for like a bird or a frog or something to interact with his little acorn sculpture and takes pictures. And so he like

scattered those around the plot. He scattered those around the plants in the garden. They're really cute and so weird. Yeah, that sounds very weird and cool. Yeah, that's really cool. What about you, Sam? I, we recently went, well, recently, right before the pandemic started, we went to New York City, my family.

That was really fun. I had never been there before. And it was just like, good. I like to go places where there's lots of good food. And that was definitely true of New York. That was good. And then when we went to Seattle for a pod con, the second pod con, I think it was, I had so much fun in Seattle that time. I'd been there before, but I like to, I don't think I'd ever really visited because I lived there, but visiting Seattle, I had a hell of a time.

Next question. How do you like your eggs? This is a fast one. I like them in so many ways. It's not a fast one. I like, I like, there's not, one time I ordered eggs, I was in Portland, Oregon and I ordered my eggs over hard, which is one of the ways I like my eggs. It's not the only way.

And the waitress said, disgusting. Oh, no, she can't say that. I feel like that's not allowed. No. That's so mean. And I've never ordered my eggs over hard in a restaurant ever again. But I often order over hard because I don't like them over easy. And I often when I like, but that's sort of like I want a fried egg, but I don't want them over easy. And I often when I like, like, but that's sort of like I want

a fried egg, but I don't want them super, super runny. And so I'm like, I'll just play a safe here. But as I've gotten older, I've started to be like, totally down with a runny egg. So but I like a poached egg on like, like with hollandaise and anedict situation a lot. But I also love like, oh, like my one. Somebody once said to me that I don't want my eggs to run. I want them to walk. And I'm like, yes, that's great. That's how I want. That's how I want my like is over medium an option or is that? It is. Yeah. But it's like tricky to get to over medium. So like that's what I go for when I'm cooking at home.

You just like eggs, huh? I love eggs. I eat a lot of eggs. I would say I'm going to be ed. I was going to say poached egg because that's usually my go-to restaurant order. It feels fancy. Like I can't make this egg at home. I've tried. It's true. Mine swirls apart. It's best when you drop it into hot water that's spinning around. Yeah, just a little like egg present.

Yeah. Gooey and waiting for you. Right. But I really love a tea egg, which is like a hard or soft boiled egg. And then you put it in a, like a solution of like soy sauce or tea and you sit it in the fridge overnight and then it soaks up the flavors. And then you cut it in half and put it in ramen or like noodles or something like that. When I have the motivation to make them because it's a multi-step process, then I'm so grateful

for past me because it's like I have this treat, I have this delicious treat that will elevate anything that I put in my mouth, which was important in college when I ate noodles and frozen vegetables a lot. Sometimes with a tea egg, ooh, five star restaurant. I love over easy eggs. I love a fried egg with hash browns and toast and bacon, but I think just a basic fried over easy egg. But I also love eggs.

So I eat any kind of egg you throw at me all day long. Yeah. Tony, you looked very excited this whole time. What's your favorite kind of egg? I mean, I usually order over easy cause I think go with all the foods I like. Hash browns and like corned beef hash. You mix it all together. Yeah.

Oh yeah. Get that little toast that you dip into it. Yep. But I do, I really like poached eggs. I just I'm always afraid to order them because I don't know enough about them to know if they're done correctly. It's fancy to. Yeah. These guys were not fancy. Yeah. Yeah. It's like our eggs over easy.

Yeah. Even scramble on them is too fancy. Oh, yeah. The thing is, scrambling is the least fancy egg because like you can scramble like a thousand eggs at once and just ladle them onto the grill as people come in. Yeah. Well, and I always made scrambled eggs when I was trying to make the others and I'd fail halfway through. And I'm like, now they're scrambled.

Yeah. Scrambled egg is the backup egg. Yeah. Here's another one. Do you collect anything? I collect things. I don't collect any particular thing. Well, that's not true. But mostly I collect any old thing.

I obviously have a lot of books, which is definitely a kind of collection. But my real collection is conference badges. Oh, that's a good one. I have like badges from the very first conferences I ever went to and then I started a conference. That's how much I liked conference badges. That's the only reason you started it.

Yeah. And then you saved, I've definitely thrown conference badges away. I have every one of them. I think I did too. It's a mess. Yeah. I have a bag full. the lanyards, too,

with the lanyards, which I might like. At one point I was like, I should get rid of the lanyards. But then I started throwing them when I was like, but I like. They bring you joy, so you got to keep them. Yeah, that's my problem with that Marie Kondo stuff is like everything I touch. I'm like, I love this thing so much. I never kiss it. condo stuff is like everything I touch. I'm like, I love this thing so much. Sarah, do you collect anything?

I have so many collections too. I've had to, I've had to pare down on my collections. I think I've texted you with like, do you want this collection? Oh yeah. I have your Richie Rich collection. Yeah. Where'd Hank go? Oh, bye Hank. He doesn't care about my collection.

He's bringing his conference badges. Ah, Sun's here. Hi, Orin, what do you collect? Let's get the boy in here. Marbles. Monster trucks. Toy cars. Oh no.

Should I keep talking? Yeah, keep talking. Oh, so yeah, I used to collect, much like Hank, whatever things came upon my possession. Pressed pennies, Legos, Pez, Richie Rich comics, et cetera. You collected Legos? Yeah. I had a lot of Legos growing up. Now I've paired it down to only my most prized possessions, my Pokemon cards and other Pokemon memorabilia,

which are currently in a huge trunk in Sylvia's parents' basement. And I got her brother's Pokemon cards too, so it's still going on. I found them in a pile while we were cleaning her parents' basement and I texted him, I was like, Andres, can I have these? And he was like, yes, I have no need for them anymore.

I'm a well-adjusted normal person. I don't need my toys. I'm like, me. Yeah, what are your toy collections, Sam? Oh, wow. Look at my room that I'm standing in. Well, okay, so I collect, my main thing I collect, and this is all because when I was a child,

I feel like we answered this question last week, or last month. I don't care if we did. My dad threw all my toys away when I was little. So he brought me down in the basement and he said you can choose one, you can choose two of these boxes of toys to keep and you only can look on the top of them. You don't get to dig. You get to pick two. My dad's very nice.

I don't know why he did this. He was just having a bad day. That would be heartbreaking. Yeah. So then I threw away, I didn't do a good job picking the two boxes basically. And my Ninja Turtles all got thrown away. My Godzilla toys all got thrown away. My Transformers all got thrown away. So ever since then, I've been in a completely arrested development being like, I need to get all this stuff back. So I have Ninja Turtles all over. I have He-Mans all over. So I collect a lot of stuff.

I have Legos. I have everything. I have a problem basically, but Rachel does too. So it's okay. Yeah. Perfect match. Your house is full of things that you like. Okay.

And the final icebreaker question. What's your favorite breakfast cereal? Cracklin' oat bran. Horrible answer. I don't even know what that is. Disgusting. Have you ever had it? No. Do you come back from the 18th century to answer that question?

Excuse me. It's a bunch of ignorant people who have never had Cracklin' Oat Brand telling me that it's not good. You go to the store right now. It's the most high quality gourmet breakfast cereal on the shelf. Where you get it?

I will go get it next time. Did they have it at Wegmans? That's where we go grocery shopping. I bet they do. I bet they do. It sounds kind of like, yeah, that level of bougie. What is it? I can't even picture what the box for crackling.

They're squares? It's like dark blue and they're little, they're little, uh, Odie, uh, sugary squares with, with a little bit of, I don't like coconut, but they got little flakes of coconut ground up in it. And so it's more like the flavor than the texture. Which is what I don't like. The most generic box I've ever seen in my life. It looks like Monica from Friends would have this box on her shelf because of public domain box. I'm surprised it wasn't flakes.

If it was flakes, I would have written it off, but the shape intrigues me. They are shaped like a square. What is this? With a hole in it though. They're very good with milk. You have to, they're okay without milk, but they're amazing with milk. I'm going to go buy some. They look kind of good.

They're so good. They're so underappreciated. They're kind of expensive. I think that's why people don't do like do crack and open. Do they keep you normal? Energized? Keep your, keep the poop flowing? A poop's regular.

What's the word? Keep your... Regular? Keep the poop flying. A poops regular. Yeah. Do they keep you normal? And I'm like, definitely not. I very rarely get crack with a brand. It's not like super good for you.

There's a lot of sugar. So. Oh, that increases my desire to try it. Yeah, me too. OK, Sarah, what's your favorite cereal? Probably off the top of my head, Apple Jacks. I don't know why, I haven't had it recently, but it has like such a strong childhood nostalgia for me.

That fake apple flavor, that fake cinnamon flavor, and then the milk afterward, delicious. Everyone likes the chocolate milk afterward, but this like appley cinnamon, it's like oatmeal but better because it's all sugar. We have a box of Apple Jacks upstairs. They are very very good. Oh good. I'm glad they've held up. Yeah. I also I have not thought about having an Apple Jack for decades. So maybe I should try it out again. Yeah, we're mostly at Cheerios and Granola household.

That's probably for the best. All of these cereals do feel like a relic of a bygone era sort of like people ain't eating this anymore. Come on. Yeah. Come on. Come on. My favorite cereal.

Rachel loves cereal. So we go through like a rotation of cereal all the time. I love rice, uh, kit rice, checks. Just like, uh, yeah, I love checks. Something indescribably delicious about some checks. All right. Well, do we feel like we know each other better now? Totally. Okay. Yeah. We all know what kind of cereal is each other. Yeah. Well, mostly if I influence cereal they're by each other. Yeah. Well, mostly if I influence you to go and try Cracklin' Oat Bran, I feel like my work here.

I'm absolutely going to go to Cracklin'. I feel like a success for the day. I think I will. Next time I go to the store. Because I can convince Sylvia to help me eat it too. That seems like a good neutral cereal because I can't commit to a whole box. At Cracklin' Oat Bran HQ, they'll be like, oh, two people bought a box. Our sales have gone up 200%.

Yeah, in like an urban area too, across the demographics, we've got Missoula, Montana, Boston, Mass. They're like, wow, flying off the shelves and all across the country. Now I want to search for Google for Cracklin O Brand person the first one I thought says fuck I love cracklin oat bran I'm still like very there's on Wikimedia Commons There's stack of cracklin oat bran cereal where someone has made a pyramid of it And it's so square and so regular and I'm mesmerized Is this it's food should not be shaped this way.

Well, you know, we're doing what we're doing. Humans, what year do you think the crackling over and was invented? Who? I had a bet it's the 60s. Nineteen eighty three. Wow. Eighty. Now, is that a guess? That's a guess, right? That's my guess. Yeah.

I can't find them. I don't know if they have a Wikipedia page. Once again. Oh, I thought you knew that's what I got. I just like, yes. OK, 1977, much later than I had thought. Wow. Good job. It seems like the first serial.

No, that's like Grape Nuts. That's what you guys were picturing when I said crap. Crap. No, brand. You thought of a crap. No, brand's like grape nuts. That's what you guys were picturing when I said crap. Yes, totally. You thought about Grape Nuts. Yeah. Which I like Grape Nuts sometimes, which is weird and I don't get it. Like I will occasionally I'll be in the starting like I'm going to want Grape Nuts and I will

like enjoy the whole box, but then I won't get it again for four or five years. 1897s Grape Nuts. So yeah. Yeah, that's right. That makes sense. Yeah. 1897s, Grape Nuts. So, yeah, yeah, that's right. That makes sense. Yeah. Can you believe that Grape Nuts held on? It was like, what is it? Well, Grape Nuts are is like grape or nutty. No, it's like rocks.

It's like it's like we turn food into rocks, but it's really shelf stable, which in 1897, sure. But it's here. 2022. Yeah. We97, sure, but it's here 2022. Yeah. We don't. Yeah. Charitable. We can still buy grape nuts.

You could charitably describe it as like nuts, I would say. Grapes? No way. Get out of here. If it's one of those two things, it's more like nuts than grapes. I will agree with you. All right. Thank you for making podcasts with me, guys., thank you for

Making podcasts with me guys and thank you listening for supporting us on patreon That's how we are able to make size show tangents, which is a fun thing that we like to do So we appreciate you and we I can't wait for you. I see what we have for you next on our goofy patreon patron bonus episodes.