Stuff You Should Know - Rice is Nice

Episode Date: November 25, 2025

Rice may be the most eaten food on the planet, accounting for 50% of the caloric intake of Asian countries and 25% worldwide. Learn all about this edible cereal crop today.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hi, Kyle. Could you draw up a quick document with the basic business plan? Just one page as a Google Doc. And send me the link. Thanks. Hey, just finished drawing up that quick one-page business plan for you.

Here's the link. But there was no link. There was no business plan. I hadn't programmed Kyle to be able to do that yet. I'm Evan Ratliff here with a story of entrepreneurship in the AI age. Listen as I attempt to build a real startup run by fake people. check out the second season of my podcast shell game on the iHeart radio app or wherever you get your podcasts on this week's episode of next chapter i t d jakes sit down with denzil washington a two-time academy

award winning actor and cultural icon for a conversation about change identity and the moment everything shifted i mean i don't take any credit for it is nothing i i don't know I did as special, you know, did knock down a few pegs and recognize it, but I just didn't put me first. I just put God first and he's carried me. Whether you're rebuilding, reimagining, or just trying to hold it together, this one will speak to you. Listen to the next chapter podcast on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. new episodes drop weekly. Don't miss one of them.

On the podcast Health Stuff, we are tackling all the health questions that keep you up at night. I'm Dr. Priyanko Wally, a double board certified physician. And I'm Hurricane Dibolu, a comedian and someone who once Googled, Do I have scurvy at 3 a.m? And on our show, we're talking about health

in a different way, like our episode where we look at diabetes. In the United States, I mean, 50% of Americans are pre-diabetic. How preventable is type 2? Extremely. Listen to health stuff on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of IHeart Radio.

Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's Chuck and Jerry's here too. And this is a podcast called Stuff You Should Know about rock. That's right. Can I just throw out a couple of stats real quick at the onset? I would love that. Because this is about rice, the food, just in case it was confusing at all. What other kind of rice is?

I don't know. I just wondered, I mean, for all I know, it's some weird new sex term. Oh, that's Riche. Okay. Yeah, you've clearly only seen it written before. I guess so. All right, so rice. generally is looked at as the most eaten food in the world.

I think some people might have wheat just ahead of it, but it's either one or number two. It's grown on every continent except Antarctica. About three and a half billion people, it's a staple food, accounting for 20% of the calories consumed all over the world is rice, which is a staggering number. And in Asian countries, 50% of the calories.

It's amazing. 50% is rice. Yeah, it is until you realize that pork cracklings make up another 20% of all the calories consumed worldwide. Yum. There's also like something that's worth mentioning, too, that rice production supports 200 million households in developing countries. That's how they make their living. Yeah. So to say that rice is an important crop here on planet Earth is kind of an understanding.

understatement. Yeah. Okay, good. I'm glad you agree. There's one thing I want to cover before we move on because it bothered me, so hopefully it will bother somebody else, and that's why I want to satisfy that itch. Okay. I wondered what rice is when we're eating rice. What is it?

It's a seed. The rice is the seed of the rice plant. Did you know that? Yeah. Okay. What if that was just my new persona? How obnoxious is that? Here's how we know that rice is a seed aside from, you don't have to be a botanist for this.

You can go to the store and buy rice and plant it, and it will grow a rice plant. So it's the seed. But it's classified as a cereal, which is a seed from a grass plant. And so rice is a seed, everybody, calm down. That's right. And I'm clearly joking, by the way. I can't imagine how many people I turned off with the new persona. I liked it.

I figure people would like, is that what Chuck shaved his beard for Halloween? Is that new Chuck? I don't like it. Oh, yeah, that's right. You did. I think you should have grown the mustache back real quick after Halloween. Buddy, if I could, I would. I miss that beard so much already.

Are you growing it back? I mean, I told Ruby, Ruby hated it, of course. But I said, Ruby, it's already growing back. I've already started. The second I finished shaving, I started growing it back. Nice. You're like, I got to hurry up and squeeze Halloween in. But the stash looked pretty good, though, right?

It did. I liked it a lot. You looked like a construction worker slash porn star slash yacht rock musician all rolled into one. Yeah. Like Kenny Loggins, I guess. Yeah. Any time you have a stash like that, you're 20% more police officer too. Oh, don't forget that, yeah. Yeah. But you looked a little more like village people police officer. Hey, I'll take that any day. Okay. That just sounded like Kim Cottrell. You should have been like, oh, I'll take that any day.

All right. Back to Rice. Because this is a bulky one, we can't goof around. We're going to break down types of rice. If you look sort of at the top of the dividing point, you're probably going to go white rice or brown rice. I really don't care for brown rice. I'm not yucking yum. I can't stand the taste. It's an acquired taste.

It's much better for you. They are not different varieties, but white rice is rice with the brand and the germ removed. Brown rice and also red and black rice still has. the brand and the germ, and it's much, much, much better for you than white rice. I just cannot stomach it. Yeah, the reason why is because the brand and the germ are the thing that have all the nutrients. So if you're eating white rice, it's basically stripped of any nutritional value whatsoever, so much so that a lot of rice is actually fortified.

They mix the vitamins and minerals that they strip out back in in different ways. That's enriched, right? Yeah. Let's talk about that real quick, okay? Did you see the different ways that you can enrich white rice? I mean, can't they just kind of like powder coat it? Sure, powder coatings one, but they don't powder coat all of it. They pick out select grains of rice, powder coat them, and then mix them back in with unpowder coated rice at a ratio of about one to 100. What? Really? And that provides enough good stuff? I guess so. Do you have any other guesses? of how you could enrich rice?

I'm trying to think how I would do it. No, I have no other guesses. You could coat it in layers, base coat, nutrient coat, protective top coat. And then the last one is you can extrude it. So you take rice flour and you actually make fake rice grains. And you've mixed the rice powder with the nutrient powder. And you mix those in with real rice or regular rice. That's how you do it.

I don't know why, but I could not not find. out how you would enrich rice. It just got me. So I had to go figure it out, and I wanted to share that, just like sharing the fact that rice is seed. That's right. I love it. Most of the rice that we, you know, kind of buy in stores and know about is a descendant from the O-R-Y-Z-A, capital oh, I guess the oriza, setiba, that was domesticated in China, you know, somewhere between 8,200 and 13 and a half thousand years ago. There are two main subspecies, Indica, Indicouch, am I right? And Joponica, I think the indica is more likely to be long grain, the japonica is more likely

to be short, even though there are exceptions, and the starch levels are different in the two, right? Yeah, I think japonica has more starch, a certain kind called amylophectin, which is water-soluble, so it makes the rice sticky. Indica is chock full of amylose, which is a starch, but it keeps the rice separate. Or the rice doesn't stick together. It doesn't actually keep it separate. And so knowing that and knowing long grain and short grain, you can kind of start to guess what different varieties of rice. belong to which family? Yeah, for sure.

We don't want to leave out the Orazah labarima, that's African rice, and that is grown in Africa still. It is not as popular as the Asian or as a variety, but they have tried to mix the two because there are good and bad points for both. I think the African variety is a little hardier and more resistant to disease and pests

and climate issues, which is great. I think water depth and soil. It just seems like a better all-round sort of grower. But the yields aren't as great, and it's harder to mill without breaking. So maybe cross-breeding these two, you could come up with like a super rice. Yeah. I don't know what you'd call it. Maybe glaborema japonica. Poof. Yeah, that sounds great. Let's talk some varieties, shall we? Yeah. We can kind of quickly go through. Basmati is one of my faves. It's a long-grain indica. rice, South Asian cuisine. A lot of time we'll have Basmati or maybe Jasmine, also a long grain

indica rice. That's a little stickier than Basmati and a little more floral. Did you know, I've always thought like they added something to give Jasmine rice that smell. Apparently that's natural to the rice. Did you know that? I kind of figured that because I just didn't think they would add a scent to a rice. I could see that. I could see somebody adding a scent, especially the tie. They love like orchids and stuff. like that. They love things that are lovely. And so adding a lovely scent to rice makes sense. Yeah, two of my favorite rice is right off the bat. All right. Well, one of my favorites, actually, let's just go ahead and say it. My favorite is sushi rice. It's a type of japonica,

not surprisingly. It's sticky, but it's not as sticky as another kind of rice called sticky rice or glutinous rice. And they're not to be confused, even though they're both pretty sticky. Glutenous rice is naturally sticky because it's got so much amylopectin starch in it that it actually, the grains actually kind of crumble together, and it almost turns into like a porridge-like. When you make a batch of sticky rice, it's almost like just a big clump that sticks to your fingers.

It's all over the place. You can use it to hang wallpaper. Yeah. Sushi rice is sticky. It'll stick together. But if you ever really look at sushi, like a piece of nagiri, you can see the individual grains of rice. Yeah.

But it's still sticks together. And the reason why it really sticks together is because of the treatment it gets with a little bit of vinegar, salt and sugar concoction that's mixed in with the rice after it cooks. That's right. Maybe a manny-pity? I don't get that one. you know, the treatment.

Oh, okay. Do you ever get those? No. Chuck, treat yourself, at least to a pedicure. You will never not get one again. We'll talk off air. Okay, but I'm just saying you can't surprise those people or offend them. Somebody who's a professional pedicurist, it doesn't matter what your feet look like, they will do it.

And they will not crack a smile. It's not a hammer toe issue. Oh, okay. Can we move on to risotto? Because if you love risotto, you're probably looking at one of a couple of things, both Joponica versions, either Arborio or Carnaroli rice. Risotto, they're both medium grain, delicious. I've made risotto before, but it's really tough to perfect. Yeah.

But one of my favorite dishes, if it's done right. I made it once or twice, too, and it actually turned out both times, but it is very time-consuming. Because you add, like, the broth a little bit. at a time, and you basically have to stir until that the rice absorbs the broth and over and over and over again. But when it turns out, it is delicious. It's just much easier to order out, though. Yeah, it's a dish you got to babysit, you know. You can't walk away. Similarly, paella is a dish that you have to babysit, too. And that uses a couple of specific kinds of rice, bomb, which means bomb, because it expands into little bombs the grains of rice

do when they encounter water and calispara and they're both short grain rice which is strange they should be long grain because of the dish kind of calls for it but you do not want to use other short grain rice as substitutes in paella because they're not they actually indica type rice like those other two are and they'll just cook different and you'll basically ruin your paella and who wants to ruin paella Now, I used to make paella, and I never babysat it. Was I doing it wrong? Oh, yeah.

I thought, like, you typically made it outdoors, and you basically had to hang around it while it was cooking. I always just baked it in the oven in the proper pan. Maybe that was just a cooking show I saw once, and they were doing that to seem cool. It was like one of those cooking challenges that, like, they give them a bunch of restrictions. No, weirdly, it was a cooking.

show, I don't remember the chef, but Gwyneth Paltrow was standing around there. And it was like first thing in the morning and they were both bleary-eyed and clearly messed up still from the night before. But they decided to film that episode of the cooking show that day. I'm probably not doing it in the traditional style or something, but it always turned out pretty good. Good. I want to talk a little bit about Carolina Gold. It's one of my favorite prices. It's an heirloom, long grain. Oh, you've had it. Japanica. You haven't had it? No, I've never had it. Oh, man.

Is it good? Is it good? Yeah. It's great. I always, when I go to Charleston, I'll pick up a bag of the local stuff. We'll pick up, too. I will, big boy. Comes in a cool-looking little soft bag, too, you know?

I saw, oh, like a kind of a little burlap bag? Yeah, like a cloth thing. I saw there's a company called Anson Mills that they started making it in the 1990s, I guess, at least for national sale. And their prices aren't terribly bad. I didn't get to the shipping stage that probably jacks the price up, but it was like eight bucks for a pound of this, apparently the best rice you'll ever have. I mean, I think you can just buy it in publics here, can't you? I've never looked for it.

Maybe I will. I'm not sure. I mean, in Charleston, certainly, you can buy it at just Harris Teeter or whatever because it's local, and that's the deal. It was, you know, it comes from the Carolinas, the lowlands of South Carolina and North Carolina. I think it was the first commercial rice in the United States. And genetically goes back to South Asia, although the seeds reportedly arrived to Charleston in the 1600s from Madagascar, went away after the Civil War and then came back into fashion, like you said, in the 90s when Anson Mill started making it again. But this was a rice where English colonists, you know, they came here.

They hadn't grown rice very significantly, so they didn't really know what they were doing. Um, but, uh, enslaved Africans arrived. They had that experience on how to grow rice, which is, was, it's a tricky crop and we'll get to all that later. Um, they had, you know, some lowland, wetland cultivation areas in West Africa. So they came with that knowledge. And, um, you know, that's how it became a thing in South Carolina, like how to, how to cultivate it and grow it there. Yep. And then now we have Carolina gold.

That's right. I have to go try. Because this, um, this, um, article. Thanks to Dr. Claw for helping us with this, too. It made me very hungry for rice. How many of these others do you want to go over? I don't know that there's much to go over. There's black rice, which apparently has anthracyanins, the same pigment and blueberries,

so it's high in antioxidants. Yeah. Apparently it was called forbidden rice in ancient China because only royalty could eat it. That's black rice, I think, right? Yeah, black rice. Yeah. And then I think it's worth mentioning wild rice. It's not technically rice because it doesn't come from a rice plant.

It comes from a different type of grass that's native to North America. But from what I see, it's actually even healthier than brown rice. Okay. And it's not bad. I love it. Do you like it? And, you know, I'll quickly shout out cow rose because when I used to roll my own sushi, that's what I would use, even though it's not exactly sushi rice. I was told by a chef like it that it does pretty good.

Okay. That's a nice little tip from Chuck's Kitchen. All right. Well, let's take a break then. It's a good start, and we'll come back and talk about that cultivation I spoke of right after this. Hi, Kyle. Could you draw up a quick document with the basic business plan? Just one page as a Google Doc. And send me the link. Thanks. Hey, just finished drawing up that quick one-page business plan for you. Here's the link. But there was no link. There was no business plan. It's not his fault.

I hadn't programmed Kyle to be able to do that yet. My name is Evan Ratliffe. I decided to create Kyle, my AI co-founder, after hearing a lot of stuff like this from OpenAI CEO Sam Aldman. There's this betting pool for the first year that there's a one-person, a billion-dollar company, which would have been like unimaginable without AI and now will happen. I got to thinking, could I be that one person? I'd made AI agents before for my award-winning podcast, Shell Game. This season on Shell Game, I'm trying to build a real company with a real product run by fake people. Oh, hey, Evan. Good to have you join us.

I found some really interesting data on adoption rates for AI agents and small to medium businesses. Listen to Shell Game on the IHeart Radio app or wherever you get your podcast. On the podcast Health Stuff, we are tackling all the health questions that keep you up at night. Yes, I'm Dr. Priyanka Wally, a double board certified physician. And I'm Hurricane Dibolu, a comedian and someone who once Googled, Do I have scurvy at 3 a.m? On health stuff, we're talking about health in a different way. It's not only about what we can do to improve our health.

But also what our health says about us and the way we're living. Like our episode where we look at diabetes. In the United States, I mean, 50% of Americans are pre-diabetic. How preventable is type 2? extremely or our in-depth analysis of how incredible mangoes are oh it's hard to explain to the rest of the world like your mangoes are fine because mangoes are incredible but like you don't even know you don't know you don't know it's going to be a fun ride so tune in listen to health stuff on the iHeart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts

Hey there, Dr. Jesse Mills here. I'm the director of the men's clinic at UCLA Health, and I want to tell you about my new podcast called The Mailroom. And I'm Jordan, the show's producer. And like a lot of guys, I haven't been to the doctor in many years. I'll be asking the questions we probably should be asking, but aren't. Because guys usually don't go to the doctor unless a piece of their face is hanging off or they've broken a bone.

Depends which bone. Well, that's true. Every week, we're breaking down the unique world of men's health, from testosterone and fitness to diets and fertility, and things that happen in the bedroom. You mean sleep? Yeah, something like that, Jordan. We'll talk science without the jargon and get you real answers to the stuff you actually wonder about. It's going to be fun, whether you're 27, 97, or somewhere in between.

Men's health is about more than six packs and supplements. It's about energy, confidence, and connection. We don't just want you to live longer. We want you to live better. So check out the mailroom on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite shows. All right, rice cultivation, like we mentioned earlier, started in China, specifically the Yangtze River Basin, could have been like as much as 14. thousand years ago, definitely at least nine or ten thousand years ago. And it's the kind of thing that happened over time from like wild rice growing just in the wild after heavy rains

to them saying, hey, like, let's actually try and farm this stuff. And, you know, valleys would flood and they would say, hey, this is how you grow rice and water flooded patties. I imagine it was quite a revelation. Yeah. I think it made it to South Asia, that is India, I think 8,300 years ago, and it made it to Southeast Asia about 4,400 years ago. And the whole idea of growing rice, like anybody who ever thinks about growing rice,

you know, when you're sitting around thinking about growing rice. Yeah. You think of it in patties, like you're talking about, like little flooded fields, usually surrounded by slightly raised dikes or walkways or buns.

Yeah. And that is a way that rice grows. but it doesn't actually need a flooded field to grow. It needs a lot of irrigation, a lot of rainfall, but it can also be grown on like mountainsides, terrace mountainsides that's called upland farming. I never knew that part. I didn't either.

Usually that's for subsistence, the upland stuff, because it's so much more productive using the lowland method, which is using flooded paddies. But it only needs flooding a couple of times during growing, the growing season, and they actually drain the paddy for harvesting. But a lot of people who cultivate rice just keep it flooded the whole time

because it's a lot easier to not put water in and out when you need it. Yeah, for sure. As far as farming it, you can be old school. It can be done by hand. Obviously, they have machinery that can do that stuff now in a lot of places. the rice plants you can like a lot of plants and vegetables and things like that and herbs you can

start them out in like a nursery bed transfer them over to a paddy or it could be a big mechanized system of seed drilling or you can drop rice you can air drop it into a flooded field and it doesn't take that long a few months about 120 days and you know different varieties it depends on like the depth of water for the different varieties and stuff like that and they will drain as needed Just a few months to grow a successful rice yield. Yeah. I was watching some mesmerizing videos on growing rice. One of them was in Vietnam.

I couldn't tell where the other one was. But it was really interesting. For some reason, I find a rice paddy fascinating. Oh, same. It's just way more interesting than your typical crop field. Yeah, agreed. Yeah. And I thought until yesterday that was the only way to do it.

No, that's wrong. Cranberries. Didn't it cranberries that grow in water? Yeah, and like a bog. Yeah. That's deep water. You have to wear waiters to harvest cranberries as far as the commercials for ocean spray that I've seen. Yeah. So after you harvest the rice, there's a lot of ways to harvest it.

One of the traditional ways is just use hand sickles and cut probably the top half of the plant off. After that, you dry the rice. and what you have is called rough rice. And that still has the hole on it. It's got the protective husk, which you'll sometimes see if you buy a plant, there's these little holes. Those are rice husks.

I guess they put them in for drainage, maybe. I don't know why else they would. But when you remove just the husk and leave the rest of the rice alone, like shucking in ear of corn, but really tiny. That's essentially the rice husk. Once you take the husk off, you got brown rice.

Yeah, little tiny bits of cardboard, ready for eating. I mean, I'm with you. It takes a lot for me to make myself make brown rice when I have the option of making sushi rice. Yeah. But it is so much better for you. I know. It's crazy. But I don't know if either of us eat enough rice to really matter.

I don't know. No, I mean, any help problems I have are not from eating white rice. You know. But what about white rice? How do you get white rice from brown rice? Because that's where you get it from. Well, another, you've got to go through another round of work, basically, and called the milling process.

That's going to remove the brand. Sometimes they even, if you see rice, it looks like just super pristine and shiny that might have been polished in a factory somewhere with glucose. Weird. And then we talked about, you know, some rice even goes through the enriching process. Would you like to go over those three ways again?

Oh, that's all right. Okay. But, you know, we're going to talk a little bit about the downside of rice because anytime you're talking about like these major crops or farm situations, it's not always the greatest for the environment. And it takes a lot of water to grow rice. Like you said, if it's not done in a patty, just tons and tons of irrigation, which makes it surprising that California, which suffers a lot of drought, has about half a million

acres of rice. Yeah. If you listen to our Salt and Sea episode, that should be an eye popular. number to you. Yeah. That said, though, rice production still requires less water than any kind of meat production, any kind of nut production, from what I understand. And a lot of vegetables still use more water than rice cultivation, I guess, worldwide.

So water use is a thing. Land use is another thing, too. But greenhouse gases seem to be probably the biggest problem with rice production. Yeah, this kind of is something that I would not have considered. Again, I was just sort of naive to that. I usually think of, like, factory farming of animals and stuff as being big methane contributors. But when you have a big flooded rice field, you're also going to have a lot of microbes in there feeding off of decaying plant matter. And that's going to create a lot of methane.

I didn't realize it was that big of a problem, but apparently it is. It must be because so much rice is cultivated worldwide that that that is. All combined makes it a problem. Yeah. One of the things you can do to reduce methane emissions is to drain the patties when the rice is at a growing stage where it doesn't need to be flooded. And then when it needs it again, you can reintroduce the water, then you dry it again for harvesting. The problem is this. And I love stuff like this, even though it's terrible.

I love it when you solve one problem and it creates an equal and opposite problem. That's exactly what happens with rice cultivation. When you dry out that paddy, it exposes the soil, and a bunch of nitrous oxide, which is another greenhouse gas, gets emitted. And so if you just grow it just with soil, it's going to emit nitrous oxide. It's going to be covered up with the water and the paddy. And then when you dry it again, it's going to release more nitrous oxide. So they're trying to figure out, like, the balance of which one's worse,

you know, would it be better to just leave it flooded all the time? Would it be better to dry it? Because you can take care of the methane, nitrous oxide goes up. Take care of the nitrous oxide, the methane goes up. But did you see that thing about rice fish farming? Is that like the seawater farming? No, this is, it's a little different. It's where you actually, you grow fish.

You like farm fish in your rice paddy. And they actually help take care of the methane problem by either. a lot of the algae that would otherwise decompose. So the methane goes down. The nitrous oxide emissions go down because the patty's always flooded because, you know, the fish need the water. And I saw that it increases yields by 10 to 15 percent because the fish are pooping. And so the nitrogen cycle is going a lot more frequently. You don't need to add as much fertilizer, if any.

And they're eating a lot of the pests. So there's a 50 percent reduction in pests. And I think in some, if you do it right, you don't even need to use pesticides and rice production. So growing fish with your rice is like the way to save the planet. What kind of fish? Do you know? I don't think it matters, probably a smallish fish because there's only a few inches of water that you need for a rice paddies. So it wouldn't have, it wouldn't be like a giant carp. You'd be up the creek, I think, or the carp would be if you tried to grow carp in a fish paddy.

Right. It wouldn't be, say, a Marlin or Great White shark. No. No, but it would be something to see. I did mention seawater rice. They're, you know, people efforting to do that kind of thing to, you know, grow it in seawater. Obviously, it's got to be a situation where they can get a rice variety that can tolerate that salt content and the alkaline soil. But it's something that they're looking into that has got a little bit of promise, I think.

Yeah, because it reduces the land use, right? Because you're not using really valuable land for cultivating rice. Yeah. There's also the matter of toxins, too. I didn't realize rice was such a downer, did you? I did not. I didn't know about the toxins. And I think specifically arsenic is one of the, I think, like, lead and cadmium also,

but arsenic seems to be the major offender. Yeah, and the reason why it's such a deal with rice is rice absorbs it more than most crops for some reason. The big downer about the whole thing is that arsenic is most present in the germ and the brand. So the type of rice that's most beneficial for you, health-wise, brown rice, is also the ones that have the most arsenic. Aha. I found an article that asks if the benefits outweigh the risk as far as arsenic and brown rice is concerned. Yeah, I wouldn't say. It was in 2023 edition of Frontiers and Nutrition.

And they basically said, I don't know, we should do more study on it. Said, eat what you want, Bub. Yeah, I guess. But basically, they were like, we don't know. Why would you even read this article, chump? If you're seeking out safer rice, you know, there are people who have done studies. Consumer reports, I think, did some testing for arsenic specifically. They found white Basmati in California, India, and Pakistan.

and sushi rice from the United States, maybe not intuitively, has the least amount of arsenic. If you get rice from Arkansas, Louisiana, or Texas, it's going to have higher levels of arsenic. Yeah. If your soil is more likely to be contaminated by industrial metals, that rice is going to suck it up. And apparently, California's soil is less contaminated by industrial metals

and some other states. So from what I could tell, your best bet is California rice as far as arsenic is concerned. Yeah, and, you know, rinsing the rice helps before you cook it, cooking it in the water, and then draining and even rinsing

afterward can reduce the arsenic count even more. But it's not like, apparently it's not enough arsenic to really do a ton of damage to you, but the problem is, is children that eat, Like a lot of times, you know, you'll have, like, the processed rice meal and baby food. And I think that stuff, you can't ever tell how much that has been rinsed or not, is my orthodontist, Dr. Blake used to say.

So, yeah, it can be problematic for little babies and toddlers. It can be problematic for you, too, like, as a grown-up. And, yeah, it's not, like, you would have to eat a lot of rice to hurt yourself with, say, arsenic. But if you eat rice every day, which a lot of people do, you can't. you can, and arsenics associated with multiple kinds of cancer, diabetes, cardio issues, and obesity. So you don't really want a lot of arsenics. So that is an issue with rice, everybody. Let's face it.

Should we take a second break? Yeah. All right, we'll take another break. Go over some lists of countries who eat rice a lot. Probably not a very surprising list, but that and other stuff right after this. Hi, Kyle. Could you draw up a quick document with the basic business plan? Just one page as a Google Doc, and send me the link. Thanks. Hey, just finished drawing up that quick one-page business plan for you. Here's the link. But there was no link. There was no business plan. It's not his fault. I hadn't programmed Kyle to be able to do that yet.

My name is Evan Ratliff. I decided to create Kyle, my AI. co-founder, after hearing a lot of stuff like this from OpenAI CEO Sam Aldman. There's this betting pool for the first year that there's a one-person billion dollar company, which would have been like unimaginable without AI and now will happen. I got to thinking, could I be that one person? I'd made AI agents before for my award-winning podcast, Shell Game. This season on Shell Game, I'm trying to build a real company with a real product run by fake people.

Oh, hey, Evan. Good to have you join us. I found some really interesting data on adoption. rates for AI agents and small to medium businesses. Listen to Shell Game on the IHeart Radio app or wherever you get your podcasts. On the podcast Health Stuff, we are tackling all the health questions that keep you up at night. Yes, I'm Dr. Priyanka Wally, a double board certified physician. And I'm Hurricane Dibolu, a comedian and someone who once Googled,

Do I have scurvy at 3 a.m? On Health Stuff, we're talking about health in a different way. It's not only about what we can do to improve our health. But also what our health says about us and the way we're living. Like our episode where we look at diabetes. In the United States, I mean, 50% of Americans are pre-diabetic. How preventable is type 2? Extremely.

Or our in-depth analysis of how incredible mangoes are. Oh, it's hard to explain to the rest of the world. Like, your mangoes are fine because mangoes are incredible, but like you don't even know. You don't know. You don't know. It's going to be a fun ride, so tune in. Listen to Health Stuff on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey there, Dr. Jesse Mills here.

I'm the director of the men's clinic at UCLA Health. And I want to tell you about my new podcast called The Mailroom. And I'm Jordan, the show's producer. And like a lot of guys, I haven't been to the doctor in many years. I'll be asking the questions we probably should be asking, but aren't. Because guys usually don't go to the doctor unless. a piece of their faces hanging off, or they've broken a bone. Depends which bone.

Well, that's true. Every week, we're breaking down the unique world of men's health, from testosterone and fitness to diets and fertility, and things that happen in the bedroom. You mean sleep? Yeah, something like that, Jordan. We'll talk science without the jargon and get you real answers to the stuff you actually wonder about.

It's going to be fun, whether you're 27, 97, or somewhere in between. Men's health is about more than six packs and supplements. it's about energy, confidence, and connection. We don't just want you to live longer. We want you to live better. So check out the mailroom on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite shows. Okay, Chuck, I'll give you 10. guesses what continent produces the most rice.

Is this production? Yes, production. My guess is China. No, continent. Oh, Asia. Yes, you got it. Right out of the gate. Within that, I would say China.

Yeah, you'd be right. China is the number one rice-producing country in Asia, followed by India. But that makes sense because they both have a lot of landmass. Bangladesh is a big eye popper because it's not very big, but it's the third highest-producing rice country in the world. Yeah, that's impressive. But all 10, top 10 are Asian, whether Southeast Asian, South Asian, or Asian proper, I guess. Yeah, I mentioned those states.

California, Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Missouri, and Arkansas produced the almost all the rice in the U.S., which is about 20 billion pounds a year. more than I thought, obviously nowhere close to being a top 10 producer, but as far as eating rice in the United States, you're probably eating American rice unless you're going to, like, a specialty store because of about 80% of the rice sold and eaten in the U.S., and 95% of sushi rice eaten in the U.S. comes from U.S. farms. That's why when you go to an Ezekiah in America, you'll frequently see somebody with a mouthful of rice chanting U.S.A.

That's right. Okay. What about the countries that eat the most rice? That eat the most? What continent would those be on, all ten? Well, I'm going to say Asia, but I'm also going to drill down and say China just because of the sheer amount of people. Okay, yep. China's number one. Indian is number two, both because they have a lot of people there. Bangladesh is number three, again, they really love the rice. Yeah.

But in the top ten list, Nigeria is number ten of the countries that are. eat the most rice. And there's something about eating a lot of rice. It's impressive, number one. Bangladesh is number one for eating rice. The per capita rice consumption, per year, equals 592 pounds of rice per person, which is almost two pounds of rice a day. And that's dry, uncooked rice that they're counting.

This isn't like the wet stuff. Yeah. And like I said, it's impressive, but it also goes to point out or underscore that the developing status of a country like Bangladesh, because if you eat tons of rice and you're getting a lot of your calories from rice, it's because a lot of other foods aren't available to you because your country is lower income. So that's why Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, they all eat the most rice, in part because it's widely available, but also in part because their economies are still developing or aren't as developed as countries that eat less rice. Yeah, and that's, again,

And those are per capita numbers for that last list. Yeah. That reminds me, though, of when I was a kid in like first, second, third grade maybe, we would, once a year at school, the school lunch would be a cup of white rice with a little pat of butter on it. So that it drove home like what other kids around the world were eating for lunch that day. Oh, interesting. Yeah, I thought it was kind of a nice in principle. but there were always at least one or two kids who ate that and then also ate their lunch that they brought from home to like little bass.

Yeah, and I would say that pat of butter is a bit of a cheat. Probably, probably, but still, I mean, I definitely, it gave me pause. Yeah, I mean, I like a little butter and some rice. I mean, not when I'm cooking any kind of like, you know, Asian-style food. and stuff like that, I'm not going to put butter on sushi rice, but if you give me a, you know, a steak and a big old glob of Carolina Gold, you can bet your bibby. I'm going to throw a little butter on that. All right. Salt and pepper. Yeah, I never got into, this was definitely not Carolina Gold rice that they were feeding us in styrofoam cups in first grade.

It's probably, uh, what's the stuff in the bag, the minute rice or whatever? Yeah, like Uncle Ben's or something? Yeah, I mean, the only time we see that in our house, we keep a stash, for when the dogs are tummy sick and you have to boil chicken and just have chicken and plain rice and so we have those bags. That and like camping when I was a kid is that evokes those memories.

All right. Like would you just have your pockets full of loose rice? Isn't that how you'd hike it in? That's how to hike it in. Let's see. What else? Anything else about this? Oh, I want to point something out.

There is a study in 2005. Remember I talked about how people eating rice, the countries that eat the most rice also tend to be developing. Well, there was a study from Titori University, and the reason that stood out to me is because Yumi taught English in Tatori at a high school. No way. Yeah. Oh, cool. It's a very rural area. She taught it at like a technical school, technical high school.

But she loved it. She went over there for a year as part of this program. But this Tatori University study basically found that rice is, rice consumption is, dropping off in Asian countries because wealth is expanding in Asian countries. And they're saying, hey, we love rice, but we also want that steak, like Chuck said. You know, every time you throw a little, another Yumi tidbit out, she becomes that much more interesting. Yes, she's very interesting. And I realize how much more interesting both Yumi and Emily are than either one of us.

Yes, it's true. I'm kind of a slob compared to Yumi for sure. Yeah. I mean, yeah. Congratulations to both of us because they're both wonderful, interesting women. I mean, Yumi had a, her graffiti tag was apothecary, for God's sake. Pretty great. That's amazing. We already took a second break, right? This is the third act we're in? Yeah, we're in the third act, so we can have a little fun with some of these rice dishes if you want. Okay. Go ahead and fire that gun. Well, rice, obviously, and a lot of dishes worldwide is going to be like a base layer for something. Maybe a curry, maybe a stewed meat or vegetable.

Maybe you're going to stir fry something and throw it on top of that rice. That's a great way to eat rice, not just as a regular old plain side dish, even though that's fine too. But I've had quite a few of these. I have had joliffe rice at African restaurants. Yeah, it's got, you know, got like stewed tomatoes, onions. you know, peppers, a lot of these are kind of similar around the world because it's, you know, it's meager, honest ingredients like, you know, garlic and thyme and ginger and rice and tomatoes and onions, like stuff you get from the ground. Sometimes you can add meat and vegetables,

but Jolliffe rice is good on its own. Yeah, I looked up a recipe of that and I'm like, that is something I'm going to try. Yeah. There's also biryani. Love it. I am not more, I'm more of a curry guy. I don't get baryani when I go to Indian restaurants because it's a little drier. Yeah. But it's got some nice flavors to it for sure when I have had it. But it's a rice dish. It's got rice spices, some vegetables, usually some kind of meat in there.

Yeah, it's good. You're a red curry guy? Green. Red, green maybe if I'm at a Thai place, but I'm a ticamasaola and buttered chicken person. Oh, man. God. I could eat that all day long every day. Yeah.

No, I mean, I said it before, and I think it was our Chinese food episode, like, I could subsist entirely on Asian cuisine 100% of the time and be as happy as I've ever been. For real. I don't need the other foods. Also, shout out SOG. Sog pannear is fine, but chicken sog is the best. Yeah. I did mention paella earlier. I love it.

Yeah. If you aren't familiar, it is a Spanish. dish, I think the Moors brought it over. The Moops. And it is, yeah, that's right. Oh my God. What was that? That was from Seinfeld when George played

Trivial Pursuit with the Bubble Boy. That's right. That's right, the moops. No, I'm sorry, the moops. Pie is delicious, though. You cook it in a very specific flat bottom round pan. If you don't have one, like I've cooked it in just cast iron. Skillets.

It's got that clam juice. a lot of that seafoody flavor comes from depending on what kind of seafood you want in there it could be clams could be shrimp it could be scallops could be all that stuff some saffron some like tomatoes that stew up nicely um it's just delicious i love a paella it's it's usually not the kind of thing you can just get a serving of you get like a a larger paella for a table um that clam juice thing didn't that remind me didn't you used to make or maybe still do make um bloody mary's with Clamato? Yeah, that's the only way for me.

And that's a Canadian thing, and I can't remember what they call it. Oh, really? That's what it is. Oh, I've heard of that. I didn't know it was Canadian. There's something, there's another rice dish that I've had before. I don't know if you've ever had it. It's called sushi.

Yeah. And it's made with that short grain rice season with some vinegar, like I said. But it actually, and I know we talked about this in the sushi episode, it grew out of a way of preserving fish in vinegar. They would jam some uncooked rice in there with it, too, pack it in there. That's right. And I guess somebody said, there's a better way to do this. And that's where sushi came from. But you can still get that original version called Narezushi, which I really want to try.

I like pickled anything, man. You could pickle an old shoe, and I'd be like, I'll eat a little of that, sure. We're not going to go down the list of rice noodle dishes, but we should point out that rice noodles are a thing. Yeah. We should mention a few rice desserts because a really, really nice rice pudding to me is one of the more delicious things you can eat. Yeah, I'm more of a bread pudding guy, but yeah, I'll eat rice pudding as well. That's when you cook the rice with the milk and sugar, and usually there's like vanilla or cinnamon or something like that in there. I would eat just about anything with condensed milk.

Yeah, that's good stuff. Oh, I have a little tip for you, Chuck. Yumi found this stuff. It's Ube, condensed milk. It is the greatest flavor you will ever put in your mouth. It's insane how good it tastes. Is it, do I have to go to like an Asian mart to get it? You probably order it online, but yeah, you're going to find it at an Asian store more than maybe Target.

Okay. There's also mango sticky rice, which uses that sticky glutinous rice, which, by the way, it doesn't have gluten. It's just glutinous meaning sticky, starchy. Gluten with an eye. Yeah. Have you heard a Polish rice cake or Polish rice cake? I'm not sure. I had not until this. It's basically rice and condensed milk and some other stuff, but it's a cake with rice. It looks pretty good.

Well, we should talk about mochi at least because mochi is a cake, and that is made from the glutinous rice as well. And if you've ever had mochi in the U.S., it's probably a little different from Japan because it's not always a sweet thing there. but in the U.S., it's usually wrapped around ice cream. As most things are. Yeah, and you can buy like the little mochi ice cream balls or whatever here. Yeah, they're good. A lot of times in Japan, they'll have like sweet red bean paste inside. That's a traditional mochi there too.

But apparently it references the rabbit in the moon. In Japan, it's a rabbit in the moon rather than a man in the moon. But he's making mochi up there. Oh, I never knew that. Yep. And we can't not mention Hortchato. real quick, okay? Yeah, I had a, I went to a, I had a horchata flight in Mexico City one time on a food tour.

Oh, nice. And it was my first kind of real exposure to it that, I think, maybe my first real exposure. And man, it was so different and delicious. Yeah, it's, it's rice soaked in evaporated milk, so you know I'd like it. Had some cinnamon, some vanilla. And then you eventually, after it's mush, you strain it so that it gets any of the grid out. So it's kind of a thickish, milky-ish drink that's amazing on its own. But if you're into things like rum or bourbon, they mix really well with horchata, especially in wintertime.

Very interesting. Oh, yeah. You'll thank me later. Okay. I'll pre-thank you now because, yeah, I didn't know that was a thing. Oh. I mean, where do you get horchata here? You can buy horchata.

People make it and sell it here in the United States. meaning companies or whatever, but it's actually not that hard to make. You might be better off making it yourself. All right. I'll give it a shot. I know that the stuff we had in Mexico City was like really, really authentic and great. Yep. There's plenty of recipes.

There's like five or six ingredients, all of them easily obtainable. So I say make your own, Chuck. All right. I'll give it a try. That reminds me, what did you think of cherry pop tarts, cherry frosted pop tarts? Ah, yes, follow up. I texted Josh photos. I immediately went to the store.

I bought the cherry frosted pop tarts, and, of course, I had to get the cinnamon, brown sugar cinnamon. Boy, those cherries are beeping delicious. Yeah, I told you they're way better than strawberry, aren't they? Yeah, I mean, they are. They're way better. I did my butter trick. Believe it or not, I think there were four packs in each. So eight total packs, 16 total pop tarts.

and I've only eaten six total Pop-Tarts. So three packs since then. I'm really, you just can't go in there and house those things in two days. You can pretty easily, but I think you're showing a lot of restraint here. I feel like I'm showing restraint. Yeah, way to go, man. And are you enjoying them more than if you just ate them all at once? Nah, they're just saying.

That's awesome. You got anything else? I got nothing else. Grow rice. Yeah. Go grow some rice. Make your own horchata. Make some sushi.

Make some sticky rice. Make some curries. Just do all of that stuff. Some jaw-off rice. Get to it. And while you're making all that, we'll just go ahead and read some listener mail. Well, this is from Ted. Ted wrote in because Ted, I'll just read it.

You've responded to Ted. You're going to send Ted something, which is very nice of you. Nice. Hey, guys. I recently finished listening to the full stuff you should know catalog. Big deal. For the fifth time.

That's a big deal, Ted. For sure. I think it's a big deal if you listen to it all once. Yeah. Oh, yeah, you're doing your new thing. Yeah, I mean, you think. Okay. I like it. See us attached screenshot for proof. Ted, we didn't need proof. We take you out your word.

At least I've finished my most recent listen, guys. Thanks for all the wonderful hours. as an appreciation here are the five things I most like about stuff you should know. Number one, Josh and Chuck have character arcs as their lives have changed over the 17 years and they're not afraid to share some of that personal stuff. I'd say big-time character arcs. Yeah, I mean, 17 years.

Yeah, like think about what's happened to anyone over the last 17 years. There's a lot of stuff. Yeah. Number two, Josh and Chuck don't talk over each other like many other podcasters. do. We don't often. Sometimes we do, but yeah, we usually let each other go, right? Yeah, we try to. I mean, every once in a while, there's a stumble here or there, but no, we're pretty good about that. We always have been. Yeah, but, boy, some podcasts, even some of my favorite ones, at times I'm like, what is going on? There's like three or four people talking. Oh, you can't do that.

Can't do that. Number three, I've learned more about movies and popular music by listening to stuff you should know than actually by watching movies or listening to music. Yeah, I like to think that we have imparted some pretty cool recommendations over the years. Yeah, I just noticed Ted said he'd send in five things he loved the most. There's only four, so I guess... Oh, Ted, this is beautiful, because I know what the last one is. Oh, I bet that's why he did it. Duh. Number four, Josh and Chuck never make it all the way through a list.

Of course, Ted. I'm so dense. I didn't even get the joke. That was a great arcane end joke for stuff you should note, Ted. Bravo on listening to the entire catalog five times, and we are trying to figure out something special to get you for it. So thank you for letting us know. That's right.

Thanks, Ted. If you want to be like Ted and talk about how much you like stuff you should know or how many times you listen to stuff you should know or whatever you want to say, you can send it in an email to Stuff Podcast at iHeartRadio.com. Stuff you should know is a production of iHeartRadio. Heart Radio. For more podcasts My Heart Radio, visit the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. If a Lenovo gaming computer is on your holiday list, don't shop around, just go directly to the source, Lenovo.com.

You'll find exclusive deals on the gaming PCs you want, like the Lenovo Legion Tower 5 Gen 10 gaming desktop and Lenovo Locke gaming laptop. So avoid all that shopping, chaos and price comparing, and just go directly to the source. Lenovo.com, where PCs are up to 50% off. That's Lenovo.com. Linovo, Lenovo. Hi, Kyle, could you draw up a quick document with the basic business plan? Just one page as a Google Doc, and send me the link. Thanks.

Hey, just finished drawing up that quick one-page business plan for you. Here's the link. But there was no link. There was no business plan. I hadn't programmed Kyle to be able to do that yet. I'm Evan Ratliff here with a story of entrepreneurship in the AI age. Listen as I attempt to build a real startup run by fake people. Check out the second season of my podcast, Shell Game, on the IHeart Radio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

On this week's episode of next chapter, I, TD Jake, sit down with Denzel Washington, a two-time Academy Award-winning actor and cultural icon for a kiddie. conversation about change, identity, and the moment everything shifted. I mean, I don't take any credit for it. It's nothing I did as special, you know, been knocked down a few pegs and recognize it, but I just didn't put me first. I just put God first and he's carried me. Whether you're rebuilding, reimagining, or just trying to hold it together, this one will

speak to you listen to the next chapter podcast on the iHeart radio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast new episodes drop weekly don't miss one of them this is an iHeart podcast guaranteed human