Stuff You Should Know - How Molecular Gastronomy Works

Episode Date: April 13, 2011

After botching a particularly tricky dish, molecular chemist Herve This decided to figure out why his recipe didn't work. He ended up creating a new field of cuisine: Molecular gastronomy. Join Josh and Chuck as they explore this new frontier of cooking. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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They just have way better names for what they call, like what we would call a jackmove or being robbed. They call civil acid. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart Radio App, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready. Are you? Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with me as always is Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and that makes this Stuff You Should Know the podcast for now.

What kind of intro is kind of curious? And to those of you out there, I often sit with bated breath, not often always, and think, what's Josh got for me? Wow. I wish you hadn't just built that up, because this is not really a particularly special. It's okay. We've done 320 plus of these, and I'd say 300 or more of them have been very interesting. That many, huh? Sure. Oh, well. And to heck with it, I'm just going to wrap on this one, okay? All right. Chuck, you remember when we went to Flip Burger? Yeah. Okay, Richard Blaze. Yes, Richard Blaze. He is an excellent chef. He has not only Flip Burger Boutique here in Atlanta, I think he's got a second one that just opened or is about to open.

Yeah, and he's a Richard's a top chef guy. He's a winner, right? No, he actually- He's had a winning personality? Yeah, and he will admit that he choked on his season, because he's clearly the best chef, and he just kind of choked at the end, which is not a very blazian thing to do. Yeah. Because he's pretty money. Well, we know a lot about choking. People send us emails about them choking. Yeah, and he's now on, which I'm watching now, the top chef all-stars. Oh, yeah. Is he choking? Well, as of now, he is probably resolved by the time this comes out, but now

he's one of the top three. Okay. He's in the final three. Well, who else is on there? It's a lot of the second place finishers from all the years. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I mean, tough competition. Sweet. Okay. Well, I should also say to anybody out there who ever is thinking of coming to Atlanta, a lot of stuff you should know listeners email us, right? Yeah. And they say, where should I go eat? Every single time we recommend Flip. Yeah, it's a fun place. It's awesome, but the food is just amazing. I also strongly recommend the Asabuko burger, right? Yeah. Awesome stuff. Anyway, Chuck, you've had the Krispy Kreme milkshake. I know you have. I've watched you drink it, right? Yeah. Did you notice when it came out, it was

steaming? Yeah. Although it was piping cold. It was steaming. That's right. And the reason it was steaming is because Richard Blaise, as is his way, had just injected a bunch of nitrous oxide into it. And he did that to basically fluff it. And I believe to also chill it very quickly, which are both very, they're hallmarkian of molecular gastronomy, which coincidentally is what we're podcasting about today. That's right, Josh. Molecular gastronomy, which is, let's go ahead and just give a quick history here. There was a guy named, well, there still is a guy, his name is Hervetis. Yeah, he's very active still. He still has a blog in the website going. In the 1980s, he was a physical chemist and he was working on a souffle

in his kitchen. And it was a cheese souffle and the recipe had very strict instructions said two yolks, egg yolks at a time. He said, yeah, we'll put in four egg yolks. I'm a chemist. I'm a chemist and it failed big time as the souffle is apt to do. And he said, you know what? This is really interesting. I've been followed those instructions, even though the right ingredients were put in the recipe and it flopped. So let me start studying this. And he started doing this with more dishes, the scientific study of food preparation, very systematic. He said, I think I'm on to something here. I partnered with a guy named Nicholas Curti who was an emeritus professor. Did that do or is that a mistake? Emeritus professor emeritus? Is that a title?

I could see it being a title at Oxford. Okay. So he was at Oxford and he was another physical scientist and they launched together molecular gastronomy. They originally called it molecular and physical gastronomy. And that was a very new thing at the time. This is very new discipline in cooking. It was. And basically there's kind of two bases of molecular gastronomy. It's number one, it's debunking myths. Like there's so many old wives tales surrounding cooking, which like for example, adding olive oil to boiling water that you're cooking pasta in. I did that still. Separate it. It's just bunk. It is bunk. The reason why it's bunk is because oil and water don't mix even when you're boiling it. The oil floats at top. The noodles are down below that

and it's doing absolutely nothing. I feel like a sucker. What you should actually do is add a little bit of vinegar, like white wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, just a little bit because that actually does keep pasta from sticking to itself. Right. And one of the points of molecular gastronomy is getting to the actual truth of does something work? Yes or no? If it doesn't, we should broadcast that it doesn't work so people, you know, don't feel like chumps, right? That's right. Or waste time and money and effort. And if it does work, why? And why is explained on a scientific level? That's molecular gastronomy. That's right. He began looking at the physics and chemistry of the preparation of food and he organized the first international workshop

on molecular and physical gastronomy in 1992 and presented the first doctorate in that field at the University of Palais in 1996. Yeah, which is pretty huge because he created a brand new field and within like a decade or so, they're handing out PhDs in it. Yeah. Well, it's substantial. Sure. It was substantial, but it didn't catch on like wildfire. It wasn't super popular at first. No, and actually it was very shunned. Yeah, controversial sort of. Yeah. Well, because chefs are all about cooking with the soul and cooking with love and all of a sudden there was this guy, these two guys that were breaking it down to the molecular level and kind of taken all the fun out of it to some people's and some people's opinion. Right. And as you said, it's

soulful. It's artistic cooking is when you apply science to art, it loses something intangible, but very important. Right. But on the other hand, molecular gastronomy has been able to produce things like snail porridge. Right. You want to read the quote? Actually, I don't have that. Do you? I do. One eater of the snail porridge. Wow, what just happened to me? An eater. An eater of snail porridge described it as quote, successively savory, sweet, snaily, crunchy, and tart ellipse, nothing less than magical. That's pretty substantial for snail porridge. Right. Yeah. And with snail porridge or with molecular gastronomy, you can come up with dishes like snail porridge, which no one would ever thought of creating. And you can also make it

perfect. Nothing less than magical every single time. Yeah, which is that kind of precision is good when you're a chef, because one of the keys to a successful restaurant is consistency. But early on, it got a lot of criticism because a lot of chefs didn't find it was accessible to your average home chef. And they think it's definitely not. Yeah. They think to be a successful discipline than because Julia Child, for instance, she was a talented cook and chef, but she didn't really hit it big till she put out that book. She was nothing that everyone wanted in their kitchen. Right. And Chuck, while we're talking about books, we should probably give a shout out to Liz, who's the stuff you should know listener. That's right. And who runs

Little Bit Suites, L-I-D-D-A-B-I-T-S-W-E-E-T-S dot com. Yeah, we plugged her before in her awesome kids. Yeah. Yes. And I think it's been a little while since we got some chocolates, frankly. Yeah. I think it's about time for a little, what's it called, Paola? Yeah. She gave us Herve Tisa's book, Molecular Gastronomy, Exploring the Science of Flavor. Right? That's right. And I've had it since June of last year, almost a year, and I've read the first entry. But we have the book, thanks to her. And she gave us the book to kind of grease the wheels toward a Molecular Gastronomy podcast. So here it is. That's right. Almost a year late. Right. So to wrap up the history, in 1998, Herve Tisa's partner in starting up this

new discipline, Nicholas Curti, passed away. Herve then changed it to just Molecular Gastronomy, dropped the physical part. I think that's very honorable that he waited until the guy died, and was like, I'm getting rid of this part. Well, he didn't call it T-Sian Gastronomy. No, he seems like a pretty cool dude. Yeah. So he also loosened his viewpoint a little bit on pure science and said, you know what? There is a lot of art and soul involved. And so let's just say it's art and science, and not one or the other. And it's, quote, the art and science of selecting, preparing, serving, and most importantly to me, enjoying food. That's right. Because you can get to a point where you're no longer enjoying food.

The definition of gastronomy was the art of selecting, preparing, serving, and enjoying food. And a lot of people worried when Molecular was added to gastronomy that it was going to take out the last part. It's not fun when you apply science to it, but he managed to combine the two. And since then, there's a whole just slew of really talented chefs out there working in this field. That's right. And it's delicious food, too. I mean, it looks funny and looks interesting and different, but it's also yummy. It wouldn't be around at $50 a plate if it wasn't yummy. Right. Just because you can make a cube out of mayonnaise doesn't mean people are going to eat it. It's still got a taste like good, you know, mayonnaise. Right. And if you're going to call

something snail porridge because it's made out of snail, you have better taste, good. Who's was that? Nothing less than magic. You know, his recipe that was, or was it Wiley Dufresne? I don't know. I know you're a big fan of his, aren't you? Yeah. And I haven't been to WD50, but next time we're in New York, dude, we should go. Okay. For sure. Okay. He makes a salt assistant in that link. The ice cream bagels. Yeah. It's amazing. And it's, it's, it looks like little bagel halves, but they're bagel flavored ice cream made into the shape of a bagel and then dusted with like an airbrush to give it the shading and appearance of being toasted. It's pretty crazy. Something. All right. So let's talk. It was a Heston Blumenthal. Oh, okay.

Was the snail porridge. All right. Let's talk chemistry for a second. All right. If you're a chemist, you're going to classify matter into one of three things. It's going to be an element, a compound or a mixture. Element can't be broken down any further because it's right. It's like oxygen or hydrogen. Sure. A compound is let's say oxygen and hydrogen, H2O, water, salt. That's a compound and they are actually chemically combined, but they have properties that are separate and distinct from their components, from their constituents, right? Right. And then you have a mixture, which is when you combine substances that are not held together chemically and they can be separated by physical

means like filtering something. Right. And then that's, that's some pretty basic stuff, right? Chemistry 101. Now we start to kind of get into molecular gastronomy's interest in chemistry. Like all of that is taken into account, of course, but we get to colloids. Yes. And once we reach colloids, which we just have, we really have entered the realm of molecular gastronomy and food. And a colloid is basically a mixture of two substances that are dispersed, but not dissolved in one another. And they can actually be of two different phases or states. So you remember there's three phases of matter, technically four, which is plasma remember, which is liquid so hot it behaves like a gas, but I don't think they've entered that field with

molecular gastronomy yet where they use plasma. Blaze is probably like trying to search that out. He's like plasma, huh? Yeah. That's gas, liquid and solid, right? And you can introduce one into the other and create something new. So for example, if you introduce gas, you disperse it into a liquid, you're going to get what's called foam. For example, whipped cream or beer foam. Yeah. Or if you're Marcel from Top Chef, he'll put a foam on anything and everything. I like a nice egg wash on some drinks. It's just like egg white. Oh yeah. It becomes emulsified and turns foamy. Yeah, you're into the cocktails. Oh yeah. I'm into pouring whiskey onto ice. I like that too. Well, sure. Yeah. I'm going to make Manhattan for you sometime, man. I have mastered

it. Really? Oh yeah. I had a fancy cocktail the other night at some place and it was fine, but it's just like why are you putting all this stuff on top of the whiskey? In the end, it's not for me. I will change your mind with my Manhattan. Remember that cocktail that Yumi had at Momofuko that tasted like a sweat sock? Yeah. It was like the mustard whiskey. Oh. It was a mustard whiskey drink with a pretzel stir and it sounded really intriguing and awesome on the menu, but it did. It tasted like not only like an old sweaty gym sock, but one that was taken off a foot that had some sort of infection. It was so gross. Yeah. You guys are adventurous, but both of you are like, no, I can't drink this. I'm sorry, David Chang. Yeah, but Momofuko is

awesome. We don't want to downgrade that place. Agreed. All right. So I don't think we can. We're not in any kind of position to downgrade Momofuko. Exactly. So colloidal systems, Josh, like you said, involve two phases, gas and liquid or solid and liquid. But when you're talking about food prep, a lot of times there's more than two phases and that is called a complex disperse system, that kind of colloidal system, because there's more than two. And this is where it gets a little like mind numbing to me, because T said, you know what, let me create a little shorthand for CDS by describing these complex systems through abbreviations of phases, letters representing the size of the molecules and what ingredients you're working with, and basically break down a

recipe into what looks like a math equation. Right. And I mean, the fact that he created a shorthand for CDS kind of suggests how important it is to molecular gastronomy. Yeah. To basically create these kind of new and radical textures and shapes and things like that. But yeah, it's a, for example, the, I'm going to see if I can describe this. Okay. Good luck. But the CDS shorthand for aioli, right? Just basically mayonnaise. Yeah, but it's garlic and lemon and olive oil. Yeah. It's, it's O times 10 to the negative fifth comma 10 to the negative fourth divided by W times D, which is greater than six times seven to the negative seventh. That's an actual sort of shorthanded recipe. It is. And frankly, I can't make heads or tails of it. I know that the O

and the W stands for oil and water. And the fact that there's a forward slash or a division sign means that the oil is dispersed into the water, right, rather than the water dispersed into the oil. And then the numbers like 10 to the negative fifth or 10 to the negative fourth, those are shorthand for the size of the particles, right, in there that are meant to be introduced into this. So really, if you're Herve Tis or somebody Herve Tis has explicitly sat down over the course of five years and explained this to you, you could look at this and be like, Oh, well, yeah, there's aioli right there. And I know exactly how to make this and how to make it every time. And the surprising thing, don't forget, Herve Tis is not a chef. This whole thing started with a

failure to make souffle. He's a physical chemist. What he came up with stands up across the board. There are literally hundreds of different sauces in the French pantheon of cooking. He managed to figure out that with his CDS shorthand, this colloidal dispersion system shorthand, right? He can basically categorize them in, I think, to 24 different groups. 23. 23 different groups. Hundreds boiled down in 23 different groups. And you can make new sauces by going backwards. That's right. And that's one of the exciting things about it is they're sort of reinventing classic recipes many times. And we should mention the two I kind of walked over this. One of the most familiar complex dispersed systems that you know of

is ice cream. Yeah. Because ice cream is actually very complex. It's solid, which is milk fat and milk protein, liquid, which is water, and gas, air, because you whip air through it as you're chilling it, and in at least two colloidal states. So ice cream is a lot more complex than you might think. Yes. And delicious. Yes. But, and we'll see later on, molecular gastronomists have figured out how to make that very complex delicacy in a very easy way. Or blaze with his liquid nitrogen. Yeah. The war on drugs impacts everyone, whether or not you take drugs. America's public enemy, number one, is drug abuse. This podcast is going to show you the truth behind the war on drugs. They told me that I would be charged for conspiracy to distribute 2200 pounds of marijuana.

Yeah, and they can do that without any drugs on the table. Without any drugs. Of course, yes, they can do that. And I'm the prime example. The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The property is guilty. Exactly. And it starts as guilty. It starts as guilty. The cops, are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call, like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil acid. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart radio app, apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. How's that New Year's resolution coming along? You know, the one you made about

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with guidance three times a week. And we talk about debt payoff. If let's say you've had a particularly spend thrift holiday season, we also talk about building up your savings, intelligent investing, and growing your income. No matter where you are on your financial journey, How to Money's got your back. Millions of listeners have trusted us to help them achieve their financial goals. Ensure that your resolution turns into ongoing progress. Listen to How to Money on the iHeart radio app, apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So Chuck, we have an idea now that you can apply what looks like math, which is really just shorthand to cooking for molecular gastronomy. Other molecular gastronomists have come up with

basically new ways of preparing or presenting food, right? Yes, big time. And there's some are bigger than others. Some are more buzzwords than others, like sous vide cooking. Very popular these days. Yes, sous vide is when you take sometimes it's a meat, sometimes it's vegetables, and you put it in a bag with its spices that you want, and you vacuum seal it, get every single bit of air out, and then you cook that bag of, you know, it's something that won't melt, obviously. You cook the bag with the food in it in a water bath that's a very steady temperature, but never boiling. It's not like rice oroni that you boil in, right? Right. A little more complex in that. It's generally a very low temperature. So like if you're going to cook meat, you put it in

about 140 degrees and you cook it for 30 minutes. Well, it depends on what it is, but yeah, and what it does is in the end, you retain the nutrients more, retain the juices, the flavor, and you get a perfectly even cooking experience. Right. And take it out and you flash fried on both sides to sear it real nice. Well, not flash fry, sear it. And you've just basically made a steak as per molecular gastronomy. Yeah. I like your recipe better though. It's been working for you. Yeah. Yeah. It's nice. Although I do want to try the sous vide. It's just a little pricey to get into. Yeah, because really you need a vacuum sealer and a water oven, technically. I mean, I guess you could do it on the stove, but the whole key to sous vide is having a really,

really precise, consistent temperature. Yeah. And unless you're really good on your gas range, you're probably not going to be able to do that with just a pot and water. That is correct. What about spherification? Technically, you can do this with just a normal pot of water, right? Yeah. Tell me about that. So, spherification is basically a way of presenting food and kind of turning mundane stuff into delicious little balls of food that kind of explode in your mouth, right? Yeah. It's got liquid. It's like, remember that gum that used to chew that had the liquid center? Fresh and up? Yeah. Fresh and up. Yeah. That stuff's still around. It's awesome. That was it. The blue peppermint kind? That's good. Yeah. So, basically, spherification is taking a,

it's a gelling reaction between calcium chloride and alginate. And alginate is this gum-like substance that's extracted from seaweed. Yeah. Okay. So, you take the calcium chloride to make all of spheres, right? Take all of juice, calcium chloride, and I'm not giving any amounts, right? Which is very important, like specific amounts, but I'm just giving you a rough idea. You take all of juice and calcium chloride. You mix it together, right? You take alginate, and you mix it with water. You allow it to sit overnight, let the air bubbles rise to the surface and escape, right? And then, the next day, you make little tiny balls out of the calcium chloride and olive juice mixtures, and then very delicately drop it into the alginate blend of water. Yeah.

And a chemical reaction happens, right? Apparently, long-chain alginate polymers become linked because of the calcium chloride ions, right? A gel is formed. Because you introduce them as little balls, they turn into little gel balls of olive taste. Yeah. And you take them out, no, you drain them, put them in a cold water bath, and then after that, they're set, and you can pop them in your mouth. Yeah. Or serve them like caviar. I know one recipe that they had in here was for someone that takes apple juice and makes little caviar apple, basically. Yeah. You would probably spoon that on top of some sort of other dish, and all of a sudden, these flavors are bursting in your mouth as you bite into it, and it's just an experience. It is. So, I guess at this point,

molecular gastronomy is food done ridiculous. Yeah. They can flash freeze. That's a big popular thing. They have something now called the anti-griddle, and I've seen blaze use this too. It's basically cold cooking. He's into the cold cooking, but it's a griddle, and instead of getting hot, it goes down to negative 30 degrees Fahrenheit. Yeah. And so, I've seen blaze put mayonnaise on there, and then take that little frozen mayonnaise and batter it and fry it. So, in the end, you have a fried mayonnaise ball. That sounds awesome. And it stays in its ball form until you squish the burger down, then it... That is awesome. I did not know about that. Pretty cool. I don't know if he does that at Flip, but I've seen him do that on a TV show once. So, yeah, with the anti-griddle

and flash freezing, it's basically you're taking something that's liquid and making the outside hard and leaving the interior, the core, in a liquid state. So, you know, you do that with chocolate, you get something pretty awesome, right? I would think so. And I guess, Chuck, those are some fairly common, or if you go to a molecular gastronomy restaurant around the world, you're going to run into something like that, spherification, which was, I think, introduced by a guy named Ferran Adria. He's in Spain. Yeah, who owns a Boolean in Rosa, Spain. He created that, but I think it's become kind of standard. If you want to do it more at home, if you want to engage in molecular gastronomy, you could do spherification. You just have to have the right

ingredients. But it's also just kind of using technology. It's like transhuman cooking as well. So, like, if you want to cook duck all orange, right? Yeah. Duck all, duck all orange. I got it that time. Classic dish. You would basically roast a duck for two hours. If you're going to do it molecularly, you would prefer using a microwave. It takes a lot less time, a lot less energy. And I'm not into it. I'm not either. Chuck. Josh. There are some tools. We said one of the great criticisms of molecular gastronomy is this isn't something that most people can do in their kitchen, which is, you know, that's part of cooking. That's what makes cooking soulful. You do it at home. There's a very special room in your house that you cook in. And you teach your kids or your

grandkids, and it's a family bonding. Exactly. But a lot of the stuff we just talked about, you can't necessarily do in your kitchen. Or can you answer, you can. You can go out and buy an anti-griddle, right? Sure. This is something you could have like stored in your kitchen. I think they're about 1200 bucks. Okay. So if you were wealthy, you could go out and buy an anti-griddle. Yeah. You can get a water oven for a few hundred and a good vacuum sealer for about a buck 50. Yeah. So all in on the sous vide, 500 bucks or less. You can do that. It's not too bad. Yeah. The hypodermic syringe isn't very expensive. You can go down to your local free clinic and pose as a junkie and they'll give you a bunch of them for free.

Yeah. I actually use those. They have like the cooking syringes. Yeah. So inject meats. Yeah. Inject meats with marinades. Yeah. Or if you want to do make the little apple caviar, this is good to have. It's also very good for extracting egg white from egg yolk. Yeah. There's a very famous picture that appears in this article of a cracked egg and a syringe dipping into it. It's like the visual icon for molecular gastronomy. That was it. Yeah. A vacuum machine is very important for sous vide cooking, right? Yeah. Can't let any water in there. Got to be sealed tight. And then there's the gastrovac, which is kind of like an all-in-one utility for cooking molecularly. It's about $5,000. Yeah. So it's what is it? A crock pot, vacuum pump,

and a heating plate all-in-one. Yeah. Not bad. And then you got liquid nitrogen, which is what Blaze loves to work with. Right. And we were talking about making ice cream actually easier and creating a colloidal system. You can, say, follow any recipe for ice cream, and you get the ice cream mixture already. But before you get the step of actually processing it, you just pour in some liquid nitrogen and you stir it. And ba-da-boom, ba-da-bing, you have just created ice cream. It's pretty cool. Yeah. Another thing I've seen Blaze do is to get like on a very large serving plate. He'll have a very small, like let's say almost like in a moose bush, like literally one bite. And then he'll have spices sprinkled on the plate. And he'll,

at the table, they will pour some liquid nitrogen onto the plate. And it starts it like, it's like something out of the abyss. It stays together and it starts like dancing all over the plate and collecting the spice. And so it's a clear, you know, it looks like vodka or something. But it's vodka sailing all over your plate until it's collected all the spice into its little sphere. That is awesome. It's very cool. That is very, where was that? I saw a YouTube of it. Nice. Yeah, Blaze has done it. Okay. Very inventive guy. And he lives, I mean, we should have had him in here, actually. He wouldn't have come in here. We could probably get in touch with him. All right. Well, Richard, Blaze, if you're out there and you have a time machine, you can touch this,

because we'd like to have you on this episode. I see him walking his dog and his kid all the time over by Edgewood. Is he living decaying? No, I saw him over near the Edgewood Shopping Center. Okay. Hard to find. Say hi. Say hi from me next time. Hey, Blaze. Be like, hey, do that thing with that liquid nitrogen thing you do. Yeah, exactly. That dang old goat fell over. That's it. You got anything else, Chuck? Well, we should say that if liquid nitrogen seems odd, it's really, really, Blaze likens it to deep frying, except it's cold frying. I'm glad you brought that up. There is a lot of criticism to molecular gastronomy. There's also a lot of explanation to it too, like that, right? Hervé Thies once said, or he pointed out, that you can cook an egg

by adding heat to it. Yeah. You can also achieve the same end by adding alcohol to it. Oh, really? Yeah. So, you know, what's the problem? Especially if you can change the flavor, create something new by adding alcohol rather than just cooking. I think molecular gastronomists kind of think that people who have a problem with it are just kind of looking at it the wrong way. Like you're still achieving the same end. You're just using a different process or different means, right? I think it's cool. I wouldn't want to eat the, you know, it's expensive for one. If you go to one of these restaurants, you're going to drop some serious cash. That's true. But, you know, I'm kind of a classicist as well.

No, you're not. I don't know. You're a Gallitarian. I don't want no emulsifiers in my food. Oh, so you're a classicist upward, not downward. No, I mean, I don't mean a classicist. I mean a classic. Oh, gotcha. I'm into the classics. Well, you went right from like very expensive meals into class. Yeah. I didn't realize you were sorry. And what's sad is you said it correctly. I just assumed you were a classicist. No. Yeah. The war on drugs impacts everyone, whether or not you take drugs. America's public enemy number one is drug abuse. This podcast is going to show you the truth behind the war on drugs. They told me that I would be charged for conspiracy to distribute 2,200 pounds of marijuana. Yeah, and they can do that without any drugs on the table. Without

any drugs. Of course, yes, they can do that. And I'm the prime example of that. The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss y'all. The property is guilty. Exactly. And it starts as guilty. It starts as guilty. The cops, are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil answer for it. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast. How's that New Year's resolution coming along? You know, the one you made about paying off your pesky credit card debt and finally starting to save for retirement. Well, you're not alone

if you haven't made progress yet. Roughly four in five New Year's resolutions fail within the first month or two. But that doesn't have to be the case for you and your goals. Our podcast, How to Money, can help. That's right. We're two best buds who've been at it for more than five years now. And we want to see you achieve your money goals. And it's our goal to provide the information and encouragement you need to do it. We keep the show fresh by answering list of questions, interviewing experts and focusing on the relevant financial news that you need to know about. Our show is chock full of the personal finance knowledge that you need with guidance three times a week. And we talk about debt payoff. If let's say you've had a particularly

spend thrift holiday season, we also talk about building up your savings, intelligent investing and growing your income. No matter where you are on your financial journey, How to Money's got your back. Millions of listeners have trusted us to help them achieve their financial goals. Ensure that your resolution turns into ongoing progress. Listen to How to Money on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm all confused now. Yeah, me too. So that's it for molecular gastronomy. If you want to learn more, including a list of some of the churches of molecular gastronomy around the world, you can type in molecular gastronomy in the handy search bar at howstuffworks.com. It will pull up a great article. And now, of course, we've just traipsed

innocently into the forest of listener mail. That's right, Josh. And this is a sad one. No jokes on this one. Because we have lost a listener, sadly. And her friend, Amanda, wrote us to tell us about it. Hi, guys, and Jerry. Hope you're keeping well. I am unfortunately the bearer of bad news. One of Stuff You Should Know's biggest fans, Lynn Volos, passed away from a particularly virulent cancer a few days ago. And I think we got this letter last week, so mid-March. My friendship with Lynn epitomized all that is new in this century. I was a full-time student with no money, needed some entertainment in the evenings in early 2001. And I had just read a book that delighted me. The publisher set up a message board. So off I went and joined a rabble-rousing community of women

from all over the world. Lynn was one of the first to welcome me. And in the ensuing decade, would often give me the keys to the bus, so to speak, when she was away or indisposed to keep the peace. Because you see, Lynn was a peacemaker. She must have seen in me a glimmer of her ability to relax, frayed nerves, bring people together in crisis and joy, and be a center of calm and still water during many of the storms we have weathered individually and as a community. Lynn lived a life that I doubt many of us could imagine. She discovered her true self later in life, and moved from the deep south to the northeast to be with her darling Nikki, facing hardships from the life to which she had given so much. Lynn gave more as a mother to Jessica

and Becca, a beloved auntie, as a caregiver to seniors and special needs kids, and to her wonderful animals that gave her so much happiness. Just a short time ago, Lynn was diagnosed with cancer, and with the bravest of faces she fought on until she could no longer. I never met Lynn in life, actually, but I cannot imagine the last ten years of my life without her in it. Not only have I lost a friend, our community has lost a beloved presence, and stuff you should know is minus one evangelist who got a treat with her last almost hour-long show last week. Lynn loves stuff you should know. I think more for the rational, measured, and well-balanced way you all present information without judgment and controversy.

So many traits that you all share with Lynn, and I will think of her whenever I hear, hey, welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and with me as always is Charles W. Chuck Bryant. As always, your friend Amanda. Very sad. It is sad. Thank you, Amanda. And I asked Amanda if there was any kind of charity that her family might want us to mention, and she said yes, and she wrote her family and said that if anyone was moved by this, that you can make a donation to the Animal Rescue Fund of Mississippi at www.arfms.com. So a great charity as well. Well, thank you again, Amanda, for letting us know, and rest in peace, Lynn Savolos.

Although we never knew you, we're glad you listened to us. Thank you for listening. Part of the stuff you should know family for sure. And we hope that you can still get us wherever you are, wherever you may be. If you want to let us know about something good, something sad, something neutral, we always want to hear it. You can send it in an email to stuffpodcastathowstuffworks.com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit howstuffworks.com. To learn more about the podcast, click on the podcast icon in the upper right corner of our home page. The How Stuff Works iPhone app has arrived. Download it today on iTunes.

Brought to you by the Reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready. Are you? The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The cops, are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call, like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil acid for it. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. So embrace the holidays at iHeartland in Fortnite. Head to iHeartRadio.com slash iHeartland today.