Stuff You Should Know - What has the world's deadliest venom?

Episode Date: January 26, 2011

Venom isn't unique to snakes -- animals like scorpions, spiders, jellyfish and even platypuses can all use venom. Join Chuck and Josh as they explore the world's most venomous creatures (and break down the difference between poison and venom). 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. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant. Snowpocalypse 11. Yeah, this is the first day we've been in the office this weekend. It's

Thursday afternoon. Yeah, and I know all you northern folks like to make fun of us here in the south, but, um, just, well, I told the guy on Facebook. It's a generic thing to make fun of. I said, you know what? Next time it snows in ISIS seven inches in your city, wherever you are up north. Like, don't salt any roads. Don't get out any snow chains. Don't get out any snow plows. I saw. And see how you do. I saw. And that guy was like, uh, sorry. He was, he was fine. He was a nice guy. I wasn't trying to be a jerk. I'm just saying we don't have the stuff to deal with it. No, apparently we have 10 snow plows. 10 snow plows for the city of Atlanta. Yeah. That's about what we, I don't think we should go out and buy 50 snow plows now though. No,

I didn't even know we had 10. Yeah, I thought that was pretty decent. It's a southern city, so, yeah. Um, it's the weather's fault. Not Atlanta's fault. You know, that's right. So, yeah, we had to come in, uh, to make sure that we still continue getting everybody's stuff you should know. I can't imagine not publishing. It will never happen. Chuck. Are you knocking on wood? We're in America. It'll never happen, dude. Chuck. Sorry. Okay. My knuckles are starting to hurt. Yeah. You ready? Yeah. Warm enough to do this. Before we start this, can I say something to Australia? Because we're going to be talking about Australia. They're suffering through some flooding there in Brisbane.

It's like a 500 year flood, right? It's, it's a big flood and it's, um, killed so far about 34 people. And so, uh, we just want to say that, you know, we're thinking about Australia. That's an awful thing. And we're going to be poking fun at you later on with all the deadly creatures there. And your outback steak houses. Yeah. But, um, we're thinking about you on a serious note. So, having said that, let the jokes fly. Uh, that's tough. You just shut me down. I know. Sorry. All right. You ready? Yeah. Let's do this. Okay. So, Chuck, uh, there is a couple of different guys out there in the world who are in stiff competition right now to come up with a cure for cancer based on scorpion venom.

Are there two dudes leading that? There are two dudes and they are scrambling for their lives right now. Right. Um, there's a guy at the St. Louis University School of Medicine and there's another guy who, uh, is at the Henry Ford Health System in Michigan. Okay. All right. Awesome. And both of them have found or are working upon the idea that scorpion venom, something in it attacks gliomas, which are a very, very deadly type of cancer cell, brain cancer tumor. Right. Um, they go after gliomas first for some reason. So if these guys can figure out the treatments really where you inject the scorpion venom, it goes and attaches itself to the glioma and then you radiate it and it just destroys everything. So if they can figure out how to get this to work

reliably, they would have basically come up with a cure for brain cancer. I knew a guy undergoing that treatment. You were joking. Yeah. This was at the very beginning stages of it, like probably seven or eight years ago. Yeah. This is from 2006. Yeah. This guy was, um, I worked for a company that produced documentaries like medical documentaries and they were documenting this guy's fight with cancer. And one of the things I remember at the time hearing was that he was undergoing a very experimental thing with scorpion venom. And we were all like, what? Yeah. But it wasn't about that. So I didn't learn much about it at the time. Yeah. Interesting. It is very interesting. And scorpions, of course, are extremely poisonous,

right? Uh, no, Josh. Oh, really? Here's your, here's your, uh, cocktail party fact of the day. There is a difference between venomous and poisonous and the difference is not in the toxin, but in the way the toxin is transferred from the animal to the whatever. That's right. I never knew that. I suspect it as much. So poison is transmitted passively. Uh, so you have to ingest it or absorb it somehow and venom is injected. Right. And usually poison, like say a, um, poison tree frog. What is it? The dart frog? Yeah. The poison tree dart frog. Poison dart frog. Poison dart frog. Where am I getting tree from? I think they're, they're in trees. Okay. All right. The poison dart frog, um, it creates this poison passively. Like you said, usually through a diet. That's how

poison is created. And it's not out to hurt you unless you eat it or handle it in a way it doesn't like. You get the toxin absorbed through your skin. Boom. You're dead. Right. Or if you're, uh, a human being, you're on one heck of a trip. Yeah. I would imagine so. Uh, you said something very important though. That's another difference. Poison is, um, created through the diet, whereas venom is inherent in the animal itself. Well, the animal creates it. Yeah. The animal creates it without the help of diet. Right. Right. There's like some sort of mechanism in their metabolism that creates venom. And poison is generally, uh, a defensive, um, has a defensive role in venom is usually, uh, for the offense for predators. Right. You want to get your prey.

Bite it. Yeah. Like with a fang or a stinger. Release some venom. Boom. You're fine. You just got dinner. Those are the differences. Yeah. So a scorpion isn't poisonous. It is venomous. It produces its own venom on purpose, uses it on purpose. Mm hmm. Venomous. Right. Poison tree dart frog. That's poisonous. That's right. It even says it in the name poison. Yeah. Tree dart frog. Creates it through the skin. All right. So Chuck, this is something I've always wondered. Right. Yeah. What is the most venomous animal on the planet? I would imagine that it's something along the lines of a cobra. Coral snake. Maybe. Maybe they have them in Florida. Those things are extremely poisonous. Right. Uh huh. Are they the most poisonous? I'm sorry. Venomous animal.

How many times do you think we'll do that this time? I know. After we explained it, we're going to screw it up. We'll get a very accurate number from Aaron Cooper. I'm sure. Um, the, what the, the most venomous animal, uh, I would think is either coral snake. I should say before I read this article, the black mamba. Maybe I've always heard those are pretty bad. That's another one too. The, um, black widow spider or possibly the brown recluse. Like, you always hear black widows going to kill you. That's what my dad always said to me before I went to sleep every night. But, um, the brown recluse apparently is way, way worse. Yeah. It's because they, yeah, sure. I've heard that. Black widows, man. I see those all the time.

They always scare me. Yeah. Well, they look really scared. That shiny black body with the red hourglass and that look like, where are you looking at? I'll kill you. Uh, those are not, Josh, but I would have guessed, placed my guesses on some of those things as well. Yes. Before this article, apparently the deadliest, most venomous animal being on the planet is found in the ocean, right off of the coast of Australia. Yep. The box jellyfish, AKA the sea wasp, right? AKA the marine stinger. Yeah, I think that's a stupid name. I like sea wasps. Sea wasp is bad. I think they have these at the Georgia aquarium, although I may be wrong. It's possible. They have those little, the little translucent sort of fluorescent, almost jellyfish. I think a lot of

them are like that though. Are they? Yeah. Well, no, I know that. They're not like solid orange. They're like, they have tentacles. Yeah. They sort of look like jelly. These are pale blue, almost transparent. And they are of the most deadly creatures in the world because they can kill a human in five minutes or less. That's pretty quick. They can. So if you're out at sea, you will likely die before you reach help. Yeah, you're going to shock. The venom of the box jellyfish or sea wasp. It paralyzes your central nervous system, right? So you can't breathe, your heart stops beating, your muscles stop working. You probably do all sorts of unpleasant things in your pants. Yeah, you lose control of yourself. And that's probably the least of your

worries at that point because you are dying and you're swimming back to shore. The problem is, when you encounter one of these things, if it does indeed sting you, if you pull your arm away, that actually tends to cause more of the stingers to latch onto you and deliver even more venom, right? So if this happens to you, just lay still and let it sting the crap out of you. How does this happen though, Josh? What are these little dealies called? They are called nematocysts, right? Nematocysts are these little cells that house something called senitoblasts. And this is actually Canido. Is it really? Yeah. And it was a lovely British one. She went, Canito Blast. Canito Blast. It's Kate Middleton. It was. This is the only British

one we know right now. So each tentacle has 5,000 of the nematocysts that are housed in the Canito Blast. Okay. So the Canido Blasts are basically like the little charge of venom that shoot out, right? Yeah. And there's a trigger protruding from the nematocyst, which basically is like a little, it looks like a little claw, the trigger is. And when this thing is triggered, the Canido Blast shoots out, deposits the venom in you, and you're in big trouble. Now that's just one Canido Blast, right? There's apparently a ton of these on any given tentacle, correct? Yeah. 5,000 stingers, 75,000 total if you have 15 tentacles, 75,000 nematocysts. That's a lot. Oh yeah. And all it takes is probably a few to do some major damage. Yeah. I wondered if one of the reasons it was so deadly

was because there's just so many zapping you at once. Yeah, we definitely think so. I think it's very powerful venom. Yeah, right. So the pairing of the two is deadly. Yes. And the reaction of the nematocyst trigger, the Canido Blast, no, the nematocyst is triggered releasing the Canido Blast by chemicals in our skin, pheromones, I would imagine. Yeah, that's key. And some Australians have very cleverly figured out that for some reason nylon as in pantyhose keeps this chemical from seeping out and being detected by the Canido Blast. So you can just walk right up to a box jellyfish with pantyhose on your arm or your head and rub the jellyfish and it won't do anything. I love that. Do not do that, but I'm just saying theoretically you could. So if you see some Aussie

surfers wearing pantyhose, then don't laugh, don't hate. That's probably the reason why. That's the reason why. Well, you never know. You don't, do you? You might just be into that kind of thing. Luckily, there are some cures for this. There are things like vinegar, acetic acid can render it harmless. Yeah, and then funny, this is like one of the deadliest animals on the planet, but then vinegar is fine. It's crazy. And there's an anti-venom, and notice I did not say anti-venom, which people usually say anti-venom. That is not correct, although it's sort of accepted now. It's still not proper. It's anti-venom, V-E-N-I-N. Yes. One of my personal little gripes. Yeah. A lot of jive. Is it? Is it? Yeah.

It's jive. People say jive. Yes, they do. It's not jive. Chuck, apparently it takes about two to three minutes to die from a box jellyfish injection, right? It's fast. There's been over 5,500 people who have died since 1954 in Australia alone. How many? 5,500. Wow. Yeah, that's a lot of dead people. Just from this jellyfish? Just from the box jellyfish, just in Australia. And apparently from November to May, they come into the North Shore, and a lot of times they're just like, well, the beach is closed until May, until these things leave because they will kill you, right? Right. 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 will 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 for it. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast,

or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Nikki Lynette, the host of About a Girl, here to tell you about our new season. Every episode of About a Girl digs deep to explore the real stories of women who were there playing an important role in the creation of classic, beloved music. For every story you might think you know, there's always another side. Claudia Lanier sang with Ike and Tina Turner, George Harrison and Bob Dylan, but she also inspired songs by David Bowie, The Rolling Stones, and Leon Russell. Sharon Osborn is a household name today, but she toiled for years under the sway of her violent criminal father before a turbulent marriage to Ozzie very nearly killed her. Shirley and Willie

Nelson, Shantay Brodis and Snoop, even Beyonce. I'm excited to tell you all about them on About a Girl season four. Listen to About a Girl on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. But also in Australia, they believe that there is pound for pound another jellyfish, which by the way, the box jellyfish is not a true jellyfish. It's in the family, it's not a true jellyfish. And neither is, I'm going to try this, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to butcher it, the Irukenji. Irukenji. I haven't heard of that. Is that in here? No. Okay. It's the Irukenji jellyfish. It's like the size of a fingernail. But it can kill people. It can kill you just this little thing, right? So pound for pound. It's definitely more venomous than the

box jellyfish. Gotcha. But there is this guy who, there's this thing called Irukenji syndrome, and the Irukenji are a tribe of Australian Aborigines. And they live near the water and every once in a while, one of them would go out into the water and just mysteriously die right there swimming. So there's a doctor suspected that there was a jellyfish involved, and he started looking for it and he found it. That what it's now called the Irukenji jellyfish. But to prove his point, he took this one little tiny jellyfish, stung himself, his son, and the lifeguard on duty. And all three of them ended up in the hospital, like at the edge of death because of this one little jellyfish. And he's like, I found it.

So that one is probably the deadliest jellyfish, pound for pound, definitely. Wow. Well, the box jellyfish we should mention too, even if it doesn't kill you, it is a, how do you pronounce that? Dermonic, it's Dermacrotic. Is that right? So that means that it kills your skin cells and tissue underneath. So even if it wraps around your arm and you manage to get it off and live, it can turn your skin black and dead and you'll be scarred for life. And no one will love you. No one will ever love you again. But I think you'd be so happy to be alive, you could live without love. Sure. For a little while. And then you'd be like, why didn't the jellyfish just take me? Why didn't I wear a pantyhose? So there it is, right? The box jellyfish, or at least the

arukinji, arukinji jellyfish are the deadliest, most venomous animals on the planet, right? So are we done? No, you know, as well as I do, that we're not done. That's teasing. Yeah. Let's talk about venom in general. And the reason why it's hard to test its potency is because it's, you know, like you. So the answer to the question is no, they're not necessarily. Not necessarily what? The most venomous animals on the planet. No, no, no, they are. Oh, okay. I'm just talking about difficulties in testing venom potency. It's tough because when you, let's say you get this deadly venom and you inject it into a lab rat, it's not necessarily going to, even if you do the pound, the equation to equate it to a human,

like a full size human. Why are you laughing? A rat doesn't necessarily react in the same way that a human would. Right. And what you're talking about is the, what's called the lethal dosage standard, LD 50, right? Yeah, explain that. It's kind of cruel. It's very cruel. Basically, they figure out how much of a venom it takes to kill 50% of a lab population. And we're not talking about like the grad students, we're a bunch of mice or rats or whatever. So let's say you have, you know, 20, 20 mice and you inject them all with a venom. However much venom it takes to kill half of them is what's considered the LD 50 measurement, right? Which you'd express in terms of like, um, with a mouse, you'd be like, uh, it's five milligrams of box jellyfish venom

to every 10 grams of mouse weight. Yeah, it's, it's for every 100 grams of the animal's body weight. Yeah, that the amount of venom, right? Or larger animals is kilograms. Yeah, sure. So, so a low number is deadly. Um, for instance, the coral snake has an LD 50 of 1.3 in the box jelly fishes is 0.04. So the coral snake has a LD 50 of 1.3 on, I guess a mouse, because it's specific to the animal and like a proper LD 50 measurement will say the way that it's injected like orally through skin injected, right? Um, and then the animal. So it'll be like, uh, 0.4 LD 50 rat, comma, skin, transdermal, um, you know, one kilogram dash. So sorry. So sorry. And you bring up an excellent point. That's, it is a very cruel way of figuring out how deadly a venom is, right?

Yeah. So in large part, it's been discontinued or abandoned. Um, well, at least there's been calls for it. I don't think the research is quite as fast and loose as it once was. Right? Yeah, boy, the 80s. There was a crazy time for LD 50 ratings. Yeah, they're trying to figure out better ways to do this. But the whole point is to create a scale of comparison. Like you don't want coral snake to bite you, but you really don't want a box jellyfish to bite you. I don't really want either one to bite me. Yeah, I'll stay away from both of them. That'd be my, my call. Uh, I wonder what some of those methods are. They didn't, they didn't mention this in the article. Curious. What? Well, to, to measure the, the potency of a venom, if they're getting away from LD 50,

how is she going to tell unless you kill something? I wonder if it's one of those things where you know how it says like not tested on animals. Right. One of the reasons why there's so many products that say that now is because they already did all the animal testing. They're not using a lot. There's not a lot of new stuff that they're introducing that need animal testing. So these people didn't test it on animals, but somebody 30 years ago did and it's fine. They, that's what the label should say, no longer necessary to test on animals. Right. Like we specifically didn't test on animals. Right. Uh, let's, you want to talk about some other deadly venomous creatures? Yeah. And they're in Australia. Yeah. Also dangerous with really

dangerous stuff. Yes. The geographic cone snail Josh is found along the coral reefs of the Indo Pacific. And it is a little brown and white gastropod and it has the ability to paralyze you almost instantly with a little mini spear. It's like extends a tube like organ with a spear on the end of it and just boom. Yeah. You swim by and you paralyze and some little smaller creatures die before they even realize they've been bitten. Isn't that awesome? Yeah. They're like, what the, or not even what the, they're like, I wonder what I'm going to have for lunch and then nothing. Yeah. Then you are lunch. And apparently this little spear, this protrusion can reach anywhere on its shell. So you can't pick it up anywhere. Oh, really? Yeah.

Or you're in big trouble. So you go at it from like the very rear and you think I'm safe here. And I think you probably use like long tongs or something like that. That's how you handle a cone snail. Uh, the inland taipan. I'd never heard of this snake. It's a snake. It's in Australia. It's inland. Let's talk about its venom. Okay. The, uh, the taipan has a venomous bite powerful enough. This is the shagana t-shirt to kill 15,000 mice. Yeah. It's a lot of mice death. I don't know how many humans that is, but that's certainly more than one. Yeah. I would think. Uh, they created an anti-venin luckily, but before that you were pretty much toast. If you got bitten by one of these. Yeah. And do you want to talk about anti-venin real quick? Anti what? Anti-venin. Yeah, go ahead.

So you know how it's made, right? Uh, no. I didn't until today, but it's pretty awesome. Let's hear. Basically they milk, right? And there's actually a guy in Kentucky whose job it is, and he's one of several. I imagine he milks venomous snakes. Yeah, that's pretty cool. It makes some pretty, pretty good money doing it, but it's a lot of repetitive work. Yeah. Like a gram of, uh, what is it? I think, um, rattlesnake maybe? No, coral snake. A gram of coral snake venom to be used to make anti-venin, um, is like a grand thousand dollars. Like you can sell it for a thousand dollars a pop, but it takes like three to 400 milkings to create a gram of this venom, right? Yeah. So the guy's working hard, but he's being paid well for his effort. Anyway,

they milk whatever animal it is, whether it's a black widow, a box jellyfish, uh, a rattlesnake, exactly. Um, and they take the venom, they slowly introduce it into a horse's system. I think I did know this. The horse becomes immunized through to this venom, whatever it is, right? Over time. Yeah. And then this, this immunization is expressed in its hemoglobin. So they take the horse's hemoglobin that's, so it's immunized horse hemoglobin. That's an event. Wow. That's what they're injecting into you. Wow. And I was reading how they do it. If you come in, you're like, I got bit by a black widow, just like dad said, right? Right. Um, they, they apparently, if you're aged 16 to 60, black widows are not quite so bad. Like they're, they're

like, you can treat this with muscle relaxers and it should go away in a couple of days. Yeah. I've heard you feel pretty bad. Yes. Very anxious and you're having trouble breathing. You're really sick, sure. But after a couple of days, it should pass and muscle relaxers will work. Right. And barbiturates if you're real anxious. Wow. But, um, if it's, if you suspect it may be a fatal bite, you use this anti-venom, you, vanden, I'm sorry, Chuck, you take a little bit and you, um, you mix it in with, uh, sodium solution, saltwater saline. And, um, you start out with a 0.01% solution. Right. And you go up to, I think all the way up to a one to 10 solution. Wow. Uh, and then that you give them the full dose of anti-venom, which is horse hemoglobin. Wow. Isn't that crazy? I hope that

never happens to us. That's how we treat snake bites in the 21st century. Here's some horse blood. You mentioned, uh, painkiller. I did want to mention quickly that the, uh, the cone, not the cone snail, but the cone shell, I wonder if that's the same thing. Apparently the cone shell's venom has been developed by, uh, drug companies for chronic pain because the venom is said to be 10,000 times stronger than morphine. That's a painkiller. Yeah. Right there. 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, uh,

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 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. Yeah. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the I heart radio app, apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Nikki Lynette, the host of about a girl here to tell you about our new

season. Every episode of about a girl digs deep to explore the real stories of women who were there, playing an important role in the creation of classic, beloved music. For every story you might think you know, there's always another side. Claudia Lanier sang with Ike and Tina Turner, George Harrison and Bob Dylan. But she also inspired songs by David Bowie, The Rolling Stones and Leon Russell. Sharon Osborn is a household name today, but she toiled for years under the sway of her violent criminal father before a turbulent marriage to Ozzy very nearly killed her. Shirley and Willie Nelson, Shantae Brodis and Snoop, even Beyonce. I'm excited to tell you all about them on about a girl season four. Listen to about a girl on the I heart radio app,

apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Got anything else? Oh, wait, the funnel web spider. Yeah. Also in Australia. Also can kill you very quickly under 15 minutes. Yeah. And it's known for being very aggressive. So you put two words together, aggressive spider, and you'll see the back of my head walking out the door for the airport. I know. I don't like spiders. I'm not big on spiders either, nor aggressive ones. Well, those are the worst kind of spiders really, because you know, you're raised like, well, if you leave them alone, they'll leave you alone. Except for that one. Yeah, he'll come after you in your sleep and crawl up your nose and kill you. I wonder if LD 50 research has been replaced with

cancer fighting venom research. I hope so. I hope so too. Except now they're developing cancer and mice to see if they can treat it with, you know, or mice. Yeah. Well, that's it for deadliest venom. If you want to learn more about venom and see a very cool drawing of the canidoblasts of a box jellyfish type in deadliest venom in the handy search bar at HouseThePorts.com, which brings us now to listener mail. No, no. That's right. Do we have a jingle for this? Facebook questions. Yeah. Facebook questions. There we go. Facebook questions. Jerry laughed not because she thought it was funny, but because she was like, sweet, I don't have to go find some special music. He

just made my job easier. Yeah. We asked for some Facebook questions the other day on the Facebook and which we are want to do from time to time. And we're going to go through a few of those now. And then on the next one we record. So let's just fire some of these out. All right. Here's one from Peppy Brown. Mary Ann or Ginger Lawl. I don't know what that means. LOL means laugh out loud. Okay. And Mary Ann or Ginger is asking the age old question from Gilligan's Island, which style of lady do you prefer? Like the little farm? I think we've answered this one already. We have. I think I said both. Yeah, go ahead. Let me see. Amber Lee Stewart says, when was the last time Chuck had no facial hair at all?

Last Halloween, I did the mustache. That's facial hair. And then I shaved the mustache after Halloween to grow out just an even goatee. And I don't think I saw you. That was oh nine. I thought nine. I was around. Yeah. I think I saw you. I have a scar on my upper lip that's covered by my stash. Is that from your handsome older brother? The scar? Yeah. No, no, no. It was from a lawnmower accident. So yeah, that was the last time I had no facial hair. And this riveting stuff here. Here's one from Jennifer Lugar. What do your families think of your S.Y.S.K. fame and fortune? My family is largely unaware of it. And the stuff that they are aware of, they're like, don't get a big head. And the word fortune is not quite applicable

at this point. Modest fame. My family thinks it's neat. My nephew, you know, I think it's pretty cool. My brother thinks it's cool. That's right. He listens a lot, right? Yeah. My dad, remember, he finally bought an iPod. Yeah. I still don't think he's listening to one. Yeah, I don't think my dad does either. Andrea Steele, what are you afraid of, Josh, Chuck and Jerry? I'm not really afraid of anything as far as phobias go. I'm not crazy about spiders and snakes, but who is? What are you afraid of, Josh? What am I afraid of? Mine are more emotional. Like, I'm afraid of being left out. Yeah. Of, like, not getting invited to things. That's a good one, Chuck. You didn't still didn't say anything. No. Jerry,

anything. What are you afraid of? Lightning. I used to be afraid of dying in a plane crash or falling off of a building. You've done pretty good with that. Yeah. All right. What you got? Let's see. What's your deserted island food as in if you were stuck in an island and could only have one food to eat forever. Really, really, really good mild buffalo wings with ranch and blue cheese. Okay. That's pretty good. I'll say same thing. Okay. I can eat buffalo wings for the rest of my life. What do you have? Oh, that was, by the way, Mary Margaret Shepard. Thanks for that one. Devin Stone. Chuck, what was the inspiration for your band name, El Chippo? That was given to us by our friend Justin. And my parents actually used to say that it was sort of a saying in the

70s like, yeah, this El Chippo car dealership or this El Chippo pizza place. Or no way, Jose. That was a big one in the 70s too, wasn't it? It was a big and then guys named Jose stood up and were like, shut up. We say yes way. So yeah, that's where it came from. Here's one from Danette at Akins Koski Koski Koski. What did you do during our snow days? I worked. Yeah, me too. I even wrote a blog post about working during snow days. Yeah, we may have been in jammies, but we were working. Yes. How many more, Josh? One, two. Let's do one more. Guys, this is from Colleen Sweeney. If you were a baseball player, what would you have them play when you came up to bat? You know how players always pick out like some

sure tough song. Yeah. What would you play? You're the best around. Joe Esposito. Pretty good. I should have thought about this. I didn't even think about it. Yeah. I've got that answer at the ready. I would play something tough like classic rock, maybe like when the levee breaks by Led Zeppelin. That'd be a good one. That's intimidating. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I do. Okay. Well, that's it, huh? For now. Yeah. You do one more. I'll save my next one for the next time. Okay. Okay. If you want to join in the fun on Facebook, we strongly encourage you to go hang out there on our page. And while you're there, feel free to like us if you want to. It makes us look cool. Not to my family necessarily, but Chuck's family at least. That's facebook.com

slash stuff you should know. We also tweet that's sysk podcast. And of course, you can always drop us a line via email if you're old at stuff podcast at how stuff works dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com. To learn more about the podcast, click on the podcast icon in the upper right corner of our homepage. The house 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 asset. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart radio app, apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast. Welcome to season two of Ruthie's table four. I'm Ruthie Rogers, the founder, chef and now podcaster of the river cafe in London. In this series, I will be talking with amazing people, hearing their food stories, discussing the role food plays in all their lives. Listen to Ruthie's table four every Tuesday on the iHeart radio app on apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.