Something You Should Know - SYSK Choice: What Really Influences Your Buying Decisions & The Odds of Bad Things Happening

Episode Date: November 30, 2019

Can your pet really get sick eating poinsettia leaves or drinking Christmas tree water? We begin this episode looking at some of the real holiday pet hazards and some you don’t really need to worry about. http://www.paws.org/library/pet-info/pet-care/holiday-hazards/ Not long ago you most likely would choose a TV or a computer or even grocery items because of the name brand. That has a changed a lot of the last several years thanks to things like online ratings and reviews. Here to discuss this evolution is Itamar Simonson, professor of marketing at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and author of the book Absolute Value: What Really Influences Customers in the Age of (Nearly) Perfect Information (https://amzn.to/2Dl5dfW) Why is it that you can freeze your leftovers once – but only once? What’s so bad about freezing them again? I will explain the science of once is enough when it comes to freezing food. http://www.bonappetit.com/story/when-can-you-refreeze-food What are the odds you will be struck by lightning? What are the odds that your online dating partner lied about his or her age, height, weight or even marital status? What are the odds you’ll be injured by duct tape? The odds of things happening to you are very different than you might imagine. Joining me to discuss some of these interesting facts, stories and statistics is Amram Shapiro, author of The Book of Odds: From Lightning Strikes to Love at First Sight, the Odds of Everyday Life (https://amzn.to/34usiZI). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As a listener to Something You Should Know, I can only assume that you are someone who likes to learn about new and interesting things and bring more knowledge to work for you in your everyday life. I mean, that's kind of what Something You Should Know was all about. And so I want to invite you to listen to another podcast called TED Talks Daily. Now, you know about TED Talks, right? Many of the guests on Something You Should Know have done TED Talks. Well, you see, TED Talks Daily is a podcast that brings you a new TED Talk every weekday in less than 15 minutes. Join host Elise Hu.

She goes beyond the headlines so you can hear about the big ideas shaping our future. Learn about things like sustainable fashion, embracing your entrepreneurial spirit, the future of robotics, and so much more. Like I said, if you like this podcast, Something You Should Know, I'm pretty sure you're going to like TED Talks Daily. And you get TED Talks Daily wherever you get your podcasts. Today on Something You Should Know, is your pet really going to get sick if they eat a poinsettia plant or drink the Christmas tree water? Also, how we decide what to buy has changed, and changed for the better. If you were buying, say, a computer

in 1999, your assessment probably was influenced by the brand name, by the price, where it was made, all kinds of quality proxies. Those proxies often are very inaccurate. Also today, why it's okay to freeze leftovers once, but not twice. And the amazing odds of living everyday life. Like, what are the real odds you'll get hit by lightning? The odds of being struck by lightning are really one in a million or a little bit more than that. And actually, your odds of surviving a lightning strike are one in 1.1 or 90 percent. And those are the same odds as the

household has a Bible that a person is right-handed. All this today on Something You Should Know. Since I host a podcast, it's pretty common for me to be asked to recommend a podcast. And I tell people, if you like Something You Should Know, you're going to like The Jordan Harbinger Show. Every episode is a conversation with a fascinating guest. Of course, a lot of podcasts are conversations with guests, but Jordan does it better than most.

Recently, he had a fascinating conversation with a British woman who was recruited and radicalized by ISIS and went to prison for three years. She now works to raise awareness on this issue. It's a great conversation. And he spoke with Dr. Sarah Hill about how taking birth control not only prevents pregnancy, it can influence a woman's partner preferences, career choices, and overall behavior due to the hormonal changes it causes. Apple named The Jordan Harbinger Show one of the best podcasts a few years back, and in a nutshell, the show is aimed at making you a better, more informed critical thinker. Check out The Jordan Harbinger Show. There's so

much for you in this podcast. The Jordan Harbinger Show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Something you should know. Fascinating intel. The world's top experts. And practical advice you can use in your life. Today, Something You Should Know with Mike Carruthers. Hey, and welcome to the weekend edition of Something You Should Know this week. Now that we're in the holiday season, people will start to decorate and get ready for Christmas. And if you have pets, there are some precautions you need to take. First of all, you've probably heard that poinsettia plants can harm pets if they're eaten. The truth is, though, that a human or an animal would have to eat a lot of those leaves for

it to be a problem, and that's not likely because they taste terrible. So that's probably not a big concern. Snowglobes. If broken, the glass could obviously be an issue, but so could the liquid inside. It sometimes contains antifreeze, which pets are attracted to and can do them no good. Pine needles are always a concern because if they're ingested, they could pose a puncture hazard to your pet's intestines. The Christmas tree itself can be an issue because if it gets knocked over all sorts of bad things could happen. So make sure the Christmas tree

is anchored and secure if you've got curious pets. And don't let them drink the tree water. It could contain fertilizer or harbor bacteria and don't use aspirin in the water. A lot of people put aspirin in Christmas tree water because they think it helps prolong the tree, but it could make that water deadly if your pets drink it. And skip the tinsel. Cats are especially attracted to it, and it can cause major intestinal problems. And that is something you should know. For consumers, there's been a fundamental change in the way we buy products and services. It used to be that we would make a decision to buy based on things like reputation and brand name and our loyalty to that brand, which, when you think about it, isn't really the best way to buy something.

But now, because of the Internet, there is so much information about products and services in the form of professional reviews, customer reviews, ratings. So brand loyalty, it just isn't so important anymore. And this is changing the way products and services are marketed to us. Here with some fascinating insight into this is Itmar Simonson. He is a professor of marketing in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, and he's author of the book Absolute Value, What Really Influences Customers in the Age of Nearly Perfect Information. So, Professor, why is this so important, do you think? What is it that you're seeing and saying? So, what we are saying is that consumers today can evaluate the quality

of products, that is, the real quality that they will experience when they consume the product. That's what we mean by absolute value, as opposed to the value that marketers try to communicate using brand names and advertising and so on. So the mask is off that people can figure out for real what's going on. That is exactly correct. And that's a big change that has happened thanks to the easy access to reviews from experts, from consumers, and being able to see so much information available to them, and that also changes what marketers of products can do. And it changes it how? Is it just a sense of consumers are now more informed with real information, so that's the basis on which decisions are being made, rather than brand loyalty or things like that.

Think about if you were buying, say, a computer in 1999, your assessment or your evaluation of the quality of this computer probably was influenced by the brand name, by the price, by your prior experience with the brand, where it was made, where it was sold, all kinds of quality proxies, not the actual quality of this product. Those proxies, they often are very inaccurate. In other words, you're just relying on other things without having information about the specific product you want to buy. And what happens now is that consumers have more and more information directly about the product they want to buy, which I think completely changes the rules for consumers when they make buying decisions, if they take advantage of the available information. And it also means that marketers should focus on the real quality of the product instead of relying on all those proxies. But just because consumers have access to this information,

I mean, some people say that a lot of that information is bogus, that people put on fake reviews, that some of that information, although it's there, may not be accurate. No, I think that often comes up. And I should note that if you are looking, say, at a restaurant and you see 10 reviews, yeah, I think you can probably assume that several of those are perhaps friends and relatives, and you probably will not rely on that. However, if you see a product or a restaurant with, you know, three, four hundred reviews, this is something that's really hard to manipulate. Furthermore, if you look at websites like Amazon and Yelp,

for them, it is critical to take care of this problem that you're raising of fake reviews and fake likes and fake followers and what have you. Because if they cannot control the problem, then their customers will not benefit from the reviews. And indeed, there are now better and better technologies and methods to get rid of those fake reviews. It doesn't mean they're going to completely go away, but if you see enough reviews, and you can also look at expert reviews, you have very good information.

But for consumers, though, sometimes, I mean, I'll go on Amazon and think about buying this product, and I'll look at the reviews, and there may be just as many five-star reviews as there are one-star reviews. And so now I don't know who's right. Well, I think that's the advantage of those reviews. You can look, and that's what I often do. I look at those people who didn't like the product, and I want to see what caused them to dislike the product. So let's say that I'm thinking of buying some headphones

and I'm looking and see someone who gave it only three stars, whereas most others gave it four and five stars. I'm saying, you know, what is it that bothered the three-star reviewer? And let's say this person is, you know, if you will, sound connoisseur. You know, someone said, well, it's because it's, you know, the bass is not up to the standards I'm used to. And I may be thinking to myself, well, you know, I'm not in that group. You know, I'm not that particular about, you know about sound, I just need to be able to hear.

So you look at the content of the reviews, and that tells you whether the review applies to you or not. Yeah. You just got to read them. You can't necessarily just go by how many stars. That's absolutely right. Of course, if everyone gives it, you know, four and a half, five stars, you know, maybe you will spend less time reading reviews. But if you see different reviewers giving it very different, you know, number of stars, yeah, I think that looking, you don't need to read all of the reviews,

but looking at some of them, especially the negative ones, I think can be very helpful. How is this change affecting brand loyalty and the importance of a name brand? I think it changes it in a very significant way. Obviously, again, it's not happening overnight. But one of the main benefits of brands for consumers in the past was that it told you about the quality of the product. That was the best information you had. And if you had previously a good experience with a particular car, you say, well, I like this car. I like this brand, I'm going to buy it again. Well, today, you don't have to rely on your previous experience with another product. You don't have to rely on your previous experience with a brand or some general brand reputation.

You can look at the information that is specific to this product that you want to buy. What that means is that brands in product categories where consumers do check reviews, the importance of brands and loyalty is declining. Because they want quality, not necessarily a brand. Yeah. I mean, obviously obviously there are some categories. If you want to walk around with a Louis Vuitton bag, that's a different issue. That doesn't change if you like the status. So brands will continue to have some relevant functions.

But if you're using brand name to figure out the quality of the product, in that regard, brands become less important. I'm speaking with Itmar Simonson. He is a professor of marketing at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, and his book is Absolute Value, What Really Influences Customers in the age of nearly perfect information. Contained herein are the heresies of Redolph Buntwine, erstwhile monk turned traveling medical investigator.

Join me as I study the secrets of the divine plagues and uncover the blasphemous truth that ours is not a loving God and we are not its favored children. The Heresies of Randolph Bantwine, wherever podcasts are available. People who listen to Something You Should Know are curious about the world, looking to hear new ideas and perspectives. So I want to tell you about a podcast that is full of new ideas and perspectives, and one I've started listening to called Intelligence Squared. It's the podcast where great minds meet. Listen in for some great talks on science, tech, politics, creativity,

wellness, and a lot more. A couple of recent examples, Mustafa Suleiman, the CEO of Microsoft AI, discussing the future of technology. That's pretty cool. And writer, podcaster, and filmmaker John Ronson, discussing the rise of conspiracies and culture wars. Intelligence Squared is the kind of podcast that gets you thinking a little more openly about the important conversations going on today.

Being curious, you're probably just the type of person Intelligence Squared is meant for. Check out Intelligence Squared wherever you get your podcasts. So, Professor, are there some brands that have really taken a hit from the change you're talking about, who have really relied on being a name brand and really riding on their name, and now that ride is over. Take a look at the cell phone category.

I mean, we know what happened with Nokia and BlackBerry. They used to be the leaders, you know, BlackBerry in the business sector and Nokia among consumers. And today, they're very small brands relative to Samsung and Apple and so on. And at the same time, if you look at brands that were not known to consumers, like there is a brand that was totally unknown named Asus. They were selling computers really not under their own name. And then they decided, well, we'll make good product, and they started using their own name.

Well, the word got around that these are good products, and people wrote positive reviews. And today, Asus is one of the top, I forget, four or five computer and, that is, laptops and tablets in the world, because they delivered value. If you're familiar with the video streaming service, one of the leading brands is a company called Roku. And the reason that they've done so well is that they have so many very satisfied customers. That shows you that unknown brand names can do really well if they deliver quality. And more so than that, they used to be able to do because brand names would kind of overshadow. That is exactly correct.

I remember Vizio TVs when you could only get them like at Costco and I bought one years ago for a lot of money and everybody thought I was nuts because nobody had ever heard of Vizio TVs and now they're considered a pretty good brand. That's another excellent example. I mean, another change along those lines, it used to be that if you were using a brand in one product category, like Samsung, let's say, where in TVs, you couldn't enter, you couldn't start selling, using the same name, other products like

washers or cell phones. Because people said, well, this brand, with your name, you're only expert in one category. But today, if you're selling good washers or good cell phones, and reviewers agree, yeah, you can sell various products regardless of where you started. That's the old Jack Trout positioning argument that, you know, Levi's can sell Levi's, but they can't sell shoes because they tried and they failed because Levi's makes Levi's. That's an excellent point. And that is another very important change.

I mean, I teach MBAs here at Stanford, and we used to tell them that the most important thing for marketers is to decide how they want to position the product, how you want your brand to be perceived by consumers relative to competition in that specific category. But now this is changing. As long as you deliver real value to consumers, then you can be anything you want to be. Now, of course, it's important to point out not all consumers are taking advantage of that

information. Not all consumers, even when they buy expensive products, like let's say you want to buy a camera, some consumers would not take the time to read the reviews and look at expert reviews, even though it's just a click away. And if they don't do that, they still are susceptible to influences by things that really should not influence them. But things are changing, and have things changed enough, apparently, where this is really shifting how it's working, that we've hit critical mass here with a number of people that are doing it, even though some are not,

that it is making a difference? Oh, it is already making a huge difference, and I think that even though some marketers still believe that they can persuade you to buy anything, I think they're very quickly learning that that's not working as well as it used to. And this trend is not going away. You talked earlier about the problem of some fake reviews. It's certainly still a problem. But that doesn't mean that consumers will ignore reviews.

I mean, the trend is there. That's happening. Temporarily, maybe there will be some problems, and maybe here and there you'll find some products that manipulate reviews somehow and are not getting caught. But if you look at the long run, and actually even in the relatively short run, that's where things are going. Consumers have better information sources than relying on, say, advertising or positioning or the sales tactics of marketers.

So what does that mean, though? I mean, it almost sounds like your marketing is out of your hands, that now it's up to the consumers to decide if you succeed or fail. That is absolutely right. I think now it's the marketer, especially, again, I'm talking about product categories where consumers do check reviews, but as a marketer, what you need to do is just figure out what consumers are saying, what reviewers are saying, then figure out what's the problem, and if they can correct it,

address the problem quickly, and see what happens then. And if the product consistently gets two or three reviews, you know, maybe you should just try something completely different. So I think it's no longer true that marketers can convince you to buy whatever they put their mind to. It's the consumers now are in a much stronger position. How important or how worried should marketers be about negative reviews? If you don't have any negative reviews, is that a red flag that there's something wrong? Because nobody's perfect. If you have 200 positive reviews, nothing wrong

with that. You must have done a great job. If you have 200 positive reviews, nothing wrong with that. You must have done a great job. If you have, you know, five reviews, all of them five stars, I think most consumers will not be impressed by that and may be concerned that somehow those five reviews are not the most reliable. So I think that, you think that marketers should be concerned about negative reviews. I mean, if there are many negative reviews, I think it's not a matter of trying to convince people that they are wrong or that the negative reviewers don't know what they're talking

about. Instead, you should look at the problems with your product and try to be responsive. Right. Well, it's fascinating because I think most people have, I mean, I know I have and other people have always look at reviews now when you buy something on Amazon or wherever because it's just so easy to do and you check reviews on restaurants before you go there and they do have an impact on whether you buy or don't buy. That's absolutely right.

They have tremendous reviews. I mean, again, probably before you buy paperclips or soap, you're not checking reviews. So there's many product categories, what we call consumer goods, like many supermarket items, where the influence of this trend is not as significant, even for products like, say, diapers. Many consumers do check reviews. In fact, if you go to, say, Amazon, for example, you'll be surprised by how many reviews there are of perfumes, of cosmetics products. You say, well, that's a matter of personal taste. Why, what do I care what other

consumers are saying? Well, it turns out that there are lots of reviews and apparently someone is paying attention. And it did kind of creep up slowly. This wasn't like a sudden change. It's like this was kind of slow in coming and it's just kind of crept up. This wasn't like a sudden change. It's like this was kind of slow in coming, and it's just kind of crept up. That's exactly right. I think that, I mean, it is true that, let's say, 15 years ago, if you read books and articles about what will happen on the internet, I think many people didn't quite expect the great influence of reviews. But it did take, I'd say, 10, 15 years. I don't know if we call it long or short, but it's been, and we're just at the beginning. And I think that this has

definitely been an extremely important change. Well, it's interesting when you stop and think about it, or when I stop and think about it, I am much less likely to buy something just because of the name brand. And yet that shift happens so slowly, I'm not sure I barely noticed it. Itamar Simonson has been my guest. He is a professor of marketing at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, and he's author of the book, Absolute Value, What Really Influences influences customers in the age of nearly perfect information. Do you love Disney? Then you are going to love our hit podcast, Disney Countdown. I'm Megan,

the Magical Millennial. And I'm the Dapper Danielle. On every episode of our fun and family-friendly show, we count down our top 10 lists of all things Disney. There is nothing we don't cover. We are famous for rabbit holes, Disney themed games, and fun facts you didn't know you needed, but you definitely need in your life. So if you're looking for a healthy dose of Disney magic, check out Disney Countdown, wherever you get your podcasts. I myself have been married for 56 years. Unfortunately to four different women. You can work out a whole lot of shit in the hours of Target. Every week on the Moth Podcast, we share stories that are funny, strange, heartbreaking, and above all, true.

I refuse to settle for being the future when I can be right now. Listen along by searching The Moth wherever you get your podcasts. I've always enjoyed those books and interviews of fascinating facts, things you never knew. Like, you know, your odds of drowning are actually higher than your odds of meeting your mate on a blind date, which happens to be true. And there is a book about the odds of things happening to you. It's called The Book of Odds. And one of the authors is Amran Shapiro. He is my guest, and he and his co-authors spent a huge amount of time and effort uncovering the odds of some of the strangest things that could happen to you. And so, Amram, there are so many things in this book that are fascinating.

Let me just ask you to dive in and start talking about some of the things that you find most interesting. Yeah, sure. Well, you know, there's so many things. I think one of the things that are dangerous, you know, the odds of being struck by lightning are really one in a million or a little bit more than that. And actually, your odds of surviving a lightning strike are one in 1.1 or 90 percent. And those are the same odds as the household has a Bible that a person is right-handed. Yeah, well, I like those because I do think that there's a sense that people are worried about things that perceive as dangerous that probably aren't, and aren't as worried about

things that perhaps are bigger dangers. Oh, I think you're quite right. I mean, the number one fear in the world is, you know, for everybody, is snakes. And really, how many people do you know who've ever seen a snake actually bite anyone? And most snake bites are not fatal. So one in two are afraid of snakes. But the real risk in the United States that somebody will die of a venomous snake, a lizard bite, are one in 37.4 million. You're much more likely to die of bad food, 360 times more likely to die of bad food than a snake bite, and you're 12,000 times more likely to go to an ER because of a piece of jewelry.

What? Say that again? I know. It's incredible. I mean, they keep statistics on what brings people to the emergency. And, you know, you would expect that it would always be, you know, a car accident and something. Of course, that's number one. But one in 167,000 go to an ER because of an accident involving duct tape. That's about the same as the accidents for

leaf blowers. I don't even know how you hurt yourself with duct tape, but you can. The odds somebody will die from a shark attack in a year are 1 in 250 million. I mean, if you look at the things that have killed people and do regularly, escalators kill about two people a year, which I find incredible. But not too long ago, a man died in Seattle because his clothes got caught in the gears and he was strangled. People fall off the edge if they're drunk. So anyway, people die.

Two people, more people, escalators kill more people than sharks. What are the odds? Did you look at just the odds of your likelihood of dying prematurely from something other than natural causes? Oh, that's such a good way of asking it. We did look at sort of the reverse of that, which is the odds of living to 100. And here's the thing that I think is a surprise, or, you know, not obvious, and that is that the older you get, the odds of your living to 100 get better and better and better, so that when

you're 90, your odds of living to 100 are better than when you're 30. Why would that be? Yeah, you see, that's what it does, isn't it? I mean, the kind of odds we look for are the ones that sort of contain a story, and you go to yourself, well, that's not what I expected. Why would that be? And then you find yourself thinking about these things. And also, you find yourself remembering these odds,

and they start to stick in the mind, and then they start to be helpful. What about some of the odds that look at the differences between, say, men and women? Here's one that surprises everybody. Men shower, the odds that a man showers daily are higher than the odds for a woman. One in 10 people are left-handed. More of these are men than women. One in 50 people have green or hazel eyes, but more of these are women than men. And here's one that I think is fascinating. It's dangerous for a woman to marry a these are women than men. And here's one, actually, which is fascinating.

It's dangerous for a woman to marry a man much younger than herself. There was a study done with two million couples, and they found that women who marry a man seven to nine years her junior increases her mortality risk in a year by 20%. And this was done in Denmark. So I assume these Danish men must be really high maintenance. So, Amram, when I hear you say these things, like the thing about Danish men, I mean, it just makes you wonder, well, why would that be? Doesn't it? I mean, you know, I mean, to go back to your first question about, you know, why do this? The truth is that when you look at the simple fact, the smallest kind of fact you can find, a simple count, you know, how many are this, how many are that, you almost always find something

that you'd never expect, and it's not what you really think or thought. And that leads to interesting questions, and that may lead you to wonderful speculations. You know, the other areas that I think are fascinating are what people believe in, and if we have time for it, what people lie about. You know, one in three Americans believe in UFOs, and one in six say they've seen one. This one's really shocking, I think. But one in six believe that the U.S. government participated in or didn't stop when it could have the 9-11 attacks. 1 in 8 believe the U.S. government had a hand in the Kennedy assassination. 1 in 12 believe there's a chance Elvis is alive. And here's my favorite.

1 in 17 believe the Apollo moon landing was faked. Now, these are our fellow citizens, you know, and we attribute to them a certain, I don't know, shared worldview. But there are an awful lot of people who believe that the world is really laced with conspiracies. There must be something in human nature that, you know, where there's a vacuum, you know, conspiracy fills the void. I agree with you. I agree with you. And I always, I remember reading about, you know, these kind of conspiracy theories in countries that didn't have free presses. But when you have a free press, I would expect less of this. I think the other thing I find really fascinating is the comparison between what people say they do or what people really are and what they say they are. And, you know, it's amazing, especially on the Internet, just how much lying we do. There's a landmark study that says 1 in 2.5 people will tell at least one lie a day. And it goes up to like 20. I mean, I wouldn't have time to tell 20 lies in a day, but some people do it. One in 3.5

of us will lie about being sick in order to get a day off. And for all those people going on to Match.com and eHarmony and OKCupid, the folks online, both men and women, lie about their age, about their weight, about their height. And this is a shocker. 1.8 lie about their marital status. Wait, wait, 1.8 of what? Oh, you mean one in 1.8 people? One in 1.8 people lie about their marital status? Yeah, 1.8. I mean, we're talking about more than half. And that's both men and women. So, I mean, it's interesting, isn't it? I mean, everything has a surface, but if you look behind the surface,

and you just say, okay, behind there are people telling the truth or lies, let me just count them. And if you do, you know, you often find you encounter something you didn't expect. And they lead you to a story, and they lead you to thinking about human beings and what they're like and what you're like. And also, you find that you remember the number. I mean, for example, the odds that nobody will come to pick up the cremated remains of a family member are one in a hundred.

Why do they do that? I mean, did they hate them? Really, there was no subject area where we didn't find stuff like that. How about something in sports? I imagine sports would be ripe for this kind of thing. You know, here's one that I found surprising. We compared injuries in sports, and I always expected ice hockey would be right at the top. And it turns out that ice hockey is safer.

The odds that an ice hockey player will end up going to an emergency room during the year are 1 in 119. When you compare that to baseball, it's 1 and 89, South Shore at 175, and it's safer than football, basketball. And again, that wasn't what I expected. Well, pretty much everything you've said in this conversation isn't what I expected. Amran Shapiro has been my guest. He is one of the authors of the book, The Book of Odds, from lightning strikes to love at first sight, the odds of everyday life.

And there's a link to that book in the show notes. You've probably heard that you shouldn't refreeze food, That freezing it once is okay, but after it thaws out, you shouldn't freeze it again. But why? Well, according to Bon Appetit magazine, the reason is twofold. First, in terms of taste. Repeated freezing and thawing can turn your meal into mush. Due to the nature of dihydrogen monoxide, which is one weird molecule, water actually expands as it freezes, and that can rupture the cell walls of your meat and vegetables, and that can make them very unappealingly mushy. In terms of food safety, each time you thaw it out, it introduces new bacteria. Though freezing can halt bacterial growth,

it doesn't necessarily kill every single type of bacteria. So for those two reasons, it is best to limit your thawings to one. And that is something you should know. And that wraps up this weekend edition of Something You Should Know. Remember to hit the share button and share this episode with someone you know. I'm Micah Ruthers. Thanks for listening today to Something You Should Know. Welcome to the small town of Chinook, where faith runs deep and secrets run deeper. In this new thriller, religion and crime collide when a gruesome murder rocks the isolated Montana

community. Everyone is quick to point their fingers at a drug-addicted teenager, but local deputy Ruth Vogel isn't convinced. She suspects connections to a powerful religious group. Enter federal agent V.B. Loro, who has been investigating a local church for possible criminal activity. The pair form an unlikely partnership to catch the killer, unearthing secrets that leave Ruth torn between her duty to the law, her religious convictions, and her very own family. But something more sinister than murder is afoot, and someone is watching Ruth. Chinook, starring Kelly Marie Tran and Sanaa Lathan. Listen to Chinook wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, this is Rob Benedict.

And I am Richard Spate. We were both on a little show you might know called Supernatural. It had a pretty good run, 15 seasons, 327 episodes. And though we have seen, of course, every episode many times, we figured, hey, now that we're wrapped, let's watch it all again. And we can't do that alone. So we're inviting the cast and crew that made the show along for the ride. We've got writers, producers, composers, directors,

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