The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week - Pantone-deaf, Naked Mole Rat Perfume, a Berry of Many Names

Episode Date: August 26, 2026

Alexis Nikole joins the show to talk about the heinous etymology of the juneberry (if that's even it's real name...). Plus, Liz Clayton Fuller returns to explain how birds are behind Pantone, and Rachel details the ins and outs of Naked Mole Rat society -- and what it has to do with their STINK. The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week is a podcast by Popular Science. Share your weirdest facts and stories with us in our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook group⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠tweet at us⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Click here to learn more about all of our stories! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Links to Rachel's TikTok, Newsletter, Merch Store and More: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/RachelFeltman⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Rachel now has a Patreon, too! Follow her for exclusive bonus content: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/RachelFeltman⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Link to Jess' Twitch: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.twitch.tv/jesscapricorn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Link to all of Jess' content: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.jesscapricorn.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ -- Follow our team on Twitter Rachel Feltman: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.twitter.com/RachelFeltman⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Produced by Jess Boddy: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.twitter.com/JessicaBoddy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Popular Science: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.twitter.com/PopSci⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Theme music by Billy Cadden: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/artist/6LqT4DCuAXlBzX8XlNy4Wq?si=5VF2r2XiQoGepRsMTBsDAQ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This back-to-school season, spend less on your kids with Amazon. Hi, I'm Laura Clary, mom, chaos coordinator, and someone who has learned the hard way that back-to-school season is basically a second mortgage. Last year, my daughter decided she absolutely needed this very specific backpack, not just any backpack, the backpack. I found it, I bought it, I sent her off on the first day of school. She lost it by week two, gone forever. So remember, with Amazon,

Amazon's low back-to-school prices, just spend less on your kids because every dollar you don't spend on them is a dollar you haven't spent on them. What if doctors could detect Alzheimer's before symptoms appear or treat cancer with unprecedented precision? On the new season of Tomorrow's Cure, the chart topping in 2025 Ambie Award finalist podcast from Mayo Clinic, we explore how breakthroughs like these are already reshaping the future of health care. I'm Lindsay Siever. the new host of Tomorrow's Cure. And this season, I'm joined by leading physicians,

researchers, and Mayo Clinic experts exploring everything from AI-powered diagnostics to precision cancer treatments. Follow Tomorrow's Cure, wherever you get your podcasts. At Popular Science, we report and write dozens of science and tech stories every week. And while most of the stuff we stumble across makes it into our articles,

we also find plenty of weird facts that we just keep around the office. So we figured, Why not share those with you? Welcome to the weirdest thing I learned this week from the editors of popular science. I'm Rachel Fultman. I'm Liz Clayton Fuller. Hi, I'm Alexis Nicole Nelson.

Welcome to the show. Yay! I'm so excited to be here. Thank you so much. So I think a lot of our listeners will know who you are. I will say telling folks that you were coming on as a guest, I probably got the most excited response I've ever gotten. Hi, friends. Yeah, yeah.

And I feel the same, but just in case there are folks listening who aren't familiar, would you tell them about your amazing work, which I really think is so important and you do so well? So, yeah, please tell us more. So the way I describe my job that my mom hates for me to say is that I professionally eat things off the ground and teach people how to do the same thing without dying. But I guess if I was giving a more serious description, I am an outdoor educator. I specifically focus on education through the lens of foraging, especially for food, sometimes for medicinal. And now my new hyperfixation is also for like fiber plants for clothing. But that's neither here nor there.

I am on the lecture circuits. I lecture at schools and universities. I lead plant walks. I begrudgingly am a social. media human and I make content for le internet. And now I also have a book coming out. We love physical media. Yes, we do. But we have a good time. I think there's a lot to learn and get excited about when you realize that all of the little plants hiding around you have wonderful little secrets. And then it makes your neighborhood seem cooler and then you take better care of it.

Yeah, that is so true. Absolutely. And Liz, welcome back. It's been a minute. It's so great to have you back on the show. It's so nice to be back. I am your resident bird guy back to talk about more bird stuff. Yeah. All right.

Well, let's dive art in because I am on the edge of my seat to hear everybody's facts today. Same. So on the weirdest thing I learn this week, we start by each offering up a little tease about some kind of factor story that we found in the course of reading, writing, reporting, picking stuff off the ground and eating it, et cetera, and decide which one we just absolutely have to hear about first. Then once we've all had time to spin our little science yarns, we reconvene and decide what the weirdest thing we learned this week actually was, except there's not actually winner anymore.

We had too many three-way ties. It was just a, now we just chit-chat. Everyone wins. Everyone's a winner. Yeah, or no one is. But no, it's definitely that everybody's the winner. Liz, what's your tease today? My tease today is birds are the reason the company Pantone exists.

Wow. I'm intrigued. Can't wait to hear more. My tease is you probably already know that I'm obsessed with naked mole rats. Who is it? Now I'm going to talk about how they get their way by being stinky. Oh my God. that's inspirational.

I was going to say that's aspirational. Like I really, every new thing I learned about the naked mole rat impresses me more and makes me want to emulate them more. Alexis, what is your tease? My tease is the greatest fruit you've never heard of has like five million names. And we all know how language works.

When something has five million names, it's got to be good. Yeah, absolutely. Or at least economically important, I guess. True. It may turn out to be just our last episode, but if not, a few episodes ago. We were talking to Greg Jenner from the show You're Dead to Me. And as an aside, you know, it came up that he's really interested in how some cities have just like one name.

And that's what everyone calls it. And some cities have many, many names in different languages. and sort of, you know, the various historical and geopolitical things that go into making that the case. And now I'm like, you know, if it's good and fiscally important, maybe it's got more names. Maybe it's got more names. Maybe there's a little theory to throw into a past tidbit. Well, yeah, let's get started. Liz, why do you kick us off with birds and pantone?

I'm so excited. Yes. So this is kind of a thread that I pull. on because I'm here's a little backstory. I'm working on my federal duck stamp competition painting entry right now. Oh so important to me. Oh I'm already rooting for you. I hope you win. Do we get to know what do we get to know what ducks you're depicting? You do. I actually have it right here which is not helpful for the listeners but I'll give you just a little a little piece. Beautiful. So that's my guys.

year. So he is, for the listeners, a blue-winged teal. And I was thinking about bird names and the color teal and the name teal. And I was like, where, like, what is the origin of teal? Like, what does that word actually mean? And interestingly enough, the color teal is named after the Eurasian teal, which is a bird. So Eurasian teal came first and they have this beautiful stripe of teal on their head that was so iconic that they named a color after it, which is just like, again, goals, like naked mole rat, stinky goals, being so beautiful, a whole color gets named after you. Oh, my God. That is the goal.

So I tried to look into if there were any other colors named after birds as sort of directly as that. And the answer was like, not really. Like there's like Robin's Egg Blue, which like, you know, it's very descriptive, but isn't the same as like, wow, there's this perfect color and it's the, you know, now this is the name of the color. But as I was kind of pulling on that thread, I learned that because of the beauty and the color of birds, this guy, this ornithologist back in the day, Robert Ridgeway, okay, so a little backstory on Robert, quick lore on Robert. He was the oldest of 10 children.

Dang. Wow. Yep. And so as an eldest as well, I understand why he became a like a weird bird artist. Same. Same. It is our job to be the weirdo of the family. Yes, absolutely. Yes, it's our job and we must carry that torch with pride. So he had all these siblings and his parents encouraged him to draw and his aunt whose

name was Fannie Gunn. This is not really related to anything, but I just was like, I was a great name and I need to share that on the internet. Fannie gets your gun. Yeah, Fannie Gugn. I feel sort of disappointed that my kid is already like two and I did not name her Fannie Gun, but that's okay. Someone else who's listening can take that name and run with it.

So they were all big supporters of his art. And when he was 13, which this is like the cutest thing I've ever heard, he did a beautiful, detailed, full color drawing of some birds that he saw. And he didn't know what they were. So he sent them in the mail to the commissioner of patents and was basically like, sir, do you know what these birds are? Which like, I'm just saying the internet could never, AI could never. Like the idea of seeing a bird doing a painting of it, putting it in the mail and like waiting

and wondering to know what bird it is. Like I feel like we all kind of need something like that in our lives. We need less immediate access to the information. We need to earn it a little bit. I do have a running bit with my good friend. friend Ryan F. Mandelbaum, who is a bird, a bird person. Yes. I frequently send them pictures of actual birds out in the world being like,

what's this bird? And I've always described our text communication as dada est in nature. The best kinds. Yeah, we never know how long it's going to take to get a reply, you know, what the syntax will be. But then I also have a running bit where I send things that are very clearly not birds. We sent a recording of my child shrieking like a seagull inside Ryan, what's this bird? So I really, I feel like a really warm kinship to this little boy is said to a bird painting. Yes.

As, you know what, I'm realizing that I'm, I'm the commissioner of patents for my friends. Like, they say me the birds. That's me. That's a beautiful thing. And I also love that he was like, the commissioner of patents, he has to recognize a lot of things. Right. He'll definitely know. And I was like, okay.

And I'm like, did we put patents on birds and I missed it? I think he was just like, this guy must know a lot. So I'm going to reach out to him, which is amazing. So the commissioner of patents actually very sort of started the snowball for Robert Ridgeway because he forwarded his letter to Spencer Fullerton Baird of the Smithsonian Institute, of And so Baird sees the art and he's like, oh my God, this is like really good. Holy crap. And so he writes him back and he's like, dude, your art's awesome.

Your artistic abilities are amazing. But please learn to use the scientific names of birds and further correspondence. So definitely just shoved Robert. Yeah. into being a full nerd. He's like, learn the scientific names. You're so talented,

but you better come correct the next time we speak. Yeah, I'm going to need you to learn the bird, son, okay? He said there are, in fact, stupid questions. Yes.

I need to ask you. Basically, it was like great art, but, you know, get good, okay? Yeah. So,

so Ridgeway and Baird essentially became like pen pals and formed kind of like a mentor-mente relationship. And much later in Robert's life, he was actually appointed as the secretary at the Smithsonian Institute. So he really like, you know, pulled on this thread until he ended up actually at the Smithsonian. So Ridgeway, big nerd and artist affectionate.

I say that with all the love in my heart. So he is like talking to other ornithologists and other birders and they're all trying to describe birds to each other. And they're like, yeah, that one was blue, but like a dark blue. And this one was brownish. But, you know, so they're all sort of struggling to use color language to describe the birds to each other. And Ridgeway is like, I've got to do something about this. It's like, I can't let this stand.

So he decided to make a color dictionary to help. ornithologists communicate about bird colors. Yes. Yes. So his effort to describe the diversity of bird color ends up later inspiring one of the first modern color systems, Pantone. But in the beginning, so this is 1886, by the way. I don't think I've given you a timeline yet, but this is where we are. So in 1886, he created and published a nomenclature of colors for naturalists, which categorized 186 colors alongside diagrams of birds. By the way, you can look at this book on the internet on the Smithsonian's website. I have.

I recommend you do. It's really delightful. It's so much fun to look at. So the initial book that he made, he and his wife, Julia, painted these huge pages of each color. So every one of the 186 colors he wanted to categorize, he and, Julia, mix the colors, and painted these huge sheets of it, and then cut it into perfect little rectangles and put original swatches of the colors in each of the original books. I think there were like 500 books, which is a huge number for a book in 1886. And each of them has these

original little swatches of color. And in the books, you can literally see the paint strokes. Like, it is a beautiful thing. And not only can you see the paintstrokes, also each color has a name and lists the colors used to mix the color. So it's like he really, he went all the way in. He said no one is messing up their bird pages moving forward. You have no excuse. No one is ever not going to be able to identify a purple finch again.

He's like, I made this mistake and no one else ever will. So in the original book, you know, it's this beautiful work of art. It's absolutely incredible. And he puts it out. People love it. And he says, you know what? That's actually not enough. I'm going to make another book.

Good. In 1912, he self-published an expanded version for broader audience. And it was called Color Standards and Color Numerous. And that one included, so the first one was 186 colors. This one includes 1,115 colors. How were him in Julia's hands after this? At this point, he and Julia are not doing the paintings themselves because they have access to like chemical color mixing and printing.

Yes, they said everyone needs to know about more colors, but like we can't be painting 1, 115 sheets of paper and cutting them up into a little bit. So that book is also available to view online. It's gorgeous. And a lot of the colors are actually named after birds like warbler green and j blue and things like that. So here's a quick, here's a quick side note for me to get to talk about bird color as I'm talking about, you know, the colors that were. inspired by birds. Jay blue in the book is this like beautiful blue, right? But you all may or may not know listeners and my fellow podcasters, blue j feathers are not actually blue. No, they are not.

No, they are not. So most color in nature comes from pigments that absorb and reflect light, but blue jay feathers create their color through structural tricks. It's called structural color. Lots of birds have this as a part of their sort of like color display. And structural color is microscopic layers and air pockets in the features that scatter blue light back to your eyes and let the rest of the light go through. So you can see a blue jay feather. There's actually, I watched a guy and like, don't do this at home. Don't watch a guy. Don't watch a guy. Don't watch. Don't ever watch a guy. Never watch a guy. Never do that again. Guy watching. Done.

Bird watching. Yes, exactly. That's true. That's my personal new goal for life. Never watch a man on the internet again, period. So if you look at a blue jay feather sort of like, you know, on the blue Jay, you're like, wow, that's blue. But if you take it off of the blue jay, which like, do not. That's the part to not do it.

That's actually something you talk about. Corvids are so good at remembering. That blue jays don't be so pissed. They'll never forget. And they're going to tell their whole family. Also, the migratory bird act of 1912 is no joke. Leave them alone. That's my, Alexis, that's literally the topic I talked about last time I was on this podcast.

I'm not kidding. I was like, you cannot have bird feathers. I know you want to, but you can't. Don't do it. If I, Liz, we need to be friends because I literally have to bring up the migratory bird act of 1912 at least once a week. Yes, it happens constantly. Yes. People will text me not only pictures of birds, but then they're holding a feather.

And I'm like, babe, put that down. Put it down. Put it down. That's not yours. Put that thing back where I came from. Or so help me. Yes. Yes, exactly.

So I'm sure this, I'm sure this internet man had permission to do this. I don't know. He had a blue jay feather. He's showing how it looks blue in certain light, but when the light passes through it, it looks brown. And then he puts it in a mortar and pestle. And he grinds it. it up. Yum.

And that destroys the structure, which makes structural color. Wow. So it's just brown. It just becomes totally brown. So, anyhow, bird color. That is, that's crazy cool. If anyone out here is still science fair age and is trying to take home that blue ribbon. Wow.

Excellent idea. True. Absolutely. Yeah. You can even compare it if you, I don't know, maybe ask a museum near you. If they have something. Yes. Or like a zoo, maybe.

Or a zoo? Love that. Love that. Don't steal feathers from Jays. No. They'll tell all of the other Jays about you and they gossip. Yes. Yeah. And then they'll tell the crows like COVID family.

Then it'll be a whole problem. Exactly. Exactly. You'll be having to wear a mask every day of your life. Then the government's going to get involved. My recovery bird act. Like, you know, listen, just don't do it to yourself. Okay.

So that's my side. bar on J-Blue, but we're going to fast forward to the 1950s, okay? So printers and advertisers are facing sort of the similar color quandary that Ridgeway went through, right? Which way? Ridgeway. And they're like, how do we create colors that are consistent and unique and distinct? We need a system. So essentially, recognizing an unmet need, this guy needs. named Lawrence Herbert, bought out the printing company where he was working in 1962 and created the company Pantone from that. And he referenced all of these older color guides, including Robert Ridgeways, to sort of establish a color system that was ultimately inspired by the beauty of birds.

And we can't really talk about Pantone today without mentioning the color of the year this year, which is white. Yeah. It's called Cloud Dancer, but like, that's bullshit. Yeah. I had Sky Dancers as a kid and they didn't look like that. No, they did not. They were way cooler and more colorful. Just letting them rip and, oh, man. Oh, my God. Yeah. And so many hair tangles. Oh, God, yes. Absolutely. Yes. But yes. So Cloud Dancer, you know, everything is political. And it's impossible to separate the color choice for the color of the year from the like broader cultural context that we are living in and experiencing with a rise of white nationalism and our government being loudly supportive of that. So at best, it's insanely tone deaf and at worst it's sinister. So not a good color of the year this year, pantone.

Tone deaf. Tone deaf. Tone deaf. Mm-hmm. Yes. Yes. Tone deaf, indeed. Yes, it goes right to the top.

Yep. Right to the top. Pan tone deaf, yes. Whoa. Dang, where was that when this was announced? That should have been the headline for everybody. Absolutely. But yes, bad color of the year this year, Pantone, but we came a long way to skate here,

and it ultimately started with birds. So that is my, that's my, that's my, that's my, my yarn for you today. A great yarn. Hopefully it's teal next year. Yes. You're the teal. Something. Just something.

I know they're like white is all colors at once. No. No. Yeah. No. It's not. That's enough. No.

That's enough out of you. Exactly. Cut that out. My thoughts. No thank you, please. All right. We're going to take a quick break. And then we'll be back with some more facts.

This back to school season, spend less on your kids with Amazon. Hi, I'm Laura Clary, mom, overthinker, and someone who has a complicated relationship with the back-to-school supply list. Can we just be honest for a second? Kids are expensive. Last year, I went all out on my daughter's school supplies, color-coded folders, the fancy pencil case, gel pens and 17 colors she absolutely needed. By October, she had one pencil left, one. I don't know what happened to the rest, and honestly, neither does she. Amazon has everything your kids need for back-to-school at prices that won't make you want to cry in the school supply aisle. Great prices, huge selection, and when half of it goes missing by October, at least you didn't

break the bank. So remember, with Amazon's low back-to-school prices, just spend less on your kids because every dollar you don't spend on them is a dollar you haven't spent on them. Ready to take your investing knowledge to pro-level? This is Fidelity Connects, your daily edge in the markets. Get deep insights on real-time market topics that may impact your investment portfolio. Listen to Fidelity Connects on Spotify today and power your next move tomorrow. Okay, we're back.

And so I'm going to talk about how naked mole rat queens, which again, queens. Queens. Yes, queen. Listeners already know I'm obsessed with how they use smell to get their way. Now, just in case you missed the like full ode to naked bonnots I did apparently many years ago. That was scary when I looked back at how long ago that was. Or if you need a refresher, let's like briefly talk about why the naked mole rat is proof that if there is a god, she loves us. And there's also like a real freak. Yes.

I love them. And they're nasty and weird. So naked mole rats, heterocephalous glaber, are the only mammals whose body can't regulate a steady internal temperature. Their temperature regulation has a lot more in common with cold blooded animals like reptiles than it does with other rodents. And that's why you often see them kind of squirming around and big squishy, pasty piles. They do a lot of smuggling to stay warm when they're not engaged in bloody dynastic feuds,

which I will get into in a bit. I was going to compare them to anemic people like myself, but then we got to bloody dynastic feuds. And so we've taken a slight diversion. Slight. But, you know, just some other things about how bizarre they are. There was a study published a few years ago that showed that naked monots can survive oxygen levels. That would be, this is a quote, fatal to humans and fatal to laboratory mice and probably to everyone else.

Oh my God. They put them at 5% oxygen, which is less than the atmosphere at the top of Mount Everest. And they thought they would show some signs of distress within 15 minutes. But an hour later, they were fine. Just chew them. And then five hours later, this is a quote from, uh, an article in Popsie back in 2017. After five hours, we were convinced that 5% oxygen is not a problem for these guys.

So we decided to call in a night, go home and have dinner. And when they put them in a container with zero oxygen, they did pass out after five minutes. But then they were like, okay, put them back to normal. And they like popped back up a few seconds later. They were five minutes. So that's sinister. Yeah, I was like, the ethics of that. Give me pause.

But I love what we learned from it. Yes. Yes. Absolutely. It is the kind of animal study that you're like, oh, and why? And why? Which we, you know, we're not going to dig too deep into that today. But the ability itself has something of a sinister edge to it, I would say.

Why do need that naked bull rats? Honestly, I kind of feel like, I mean, they do live underground. And also they do like get into these snugly. cold-blooded piles. I'm like, maybe they just like need to be able to deal with being smothered all the time. Like if you're in the bottom of the pile, maybe you're not getting a lot of oxygen. Yeah. You know, scientists, something to think about. I don't know. They also don't seem to experience pain in the way that we understand it. They don't react to injuries that it seems like they should react to. They also don't, they don't like seem to have the instinct to treat an injured area as

if it's like sensitive. They don't baby it, you know, in other words. They're just like, whatever. So maybe they're like bloody, dynastic feuds are just like fun time. Yeah. Maybe that's just a pillow fight for them. Maybe to them it's like totally chill until one of them is dead. And then they're like, I missed this part of Kim Possible. I mean, this was tumbling a lot. Didn't didn't tell us all this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Basically, of any mammals that had been studied as of, you know, when, when I last looked it up, and I think probably still, they have the least sensitive paid receptors. Yeah. So there's all of that. They also, they get studied a lot for both aging research and cancer research, because they're basically impervious to cancer in a way that is very unusual for mammals. And then also they, you know, there's some research on whether they sort of. they like age in the way that we would expect mammals to age. They do definitely like age and die. They're not like the freaky immortal deli fish guys.

But it's like there's maybe some interesting stuff going on with them. I wouldn't be surprised. Yeah. Someone find the telemars at the end of their jeans. There's sort of like there are very few things you could tell me scientists have discovered about naked wild rats that I wouldn't at least be tempted to believe. They're just very weird. It's giving that's what people.

peak performance. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. I'm sorry. They really are like, you know, I'm saying all the time, both on weirdest thing and like in my book and, you know, whatever.

Like, humans are not the pinnacle of anything. Like evolution is not carrying us to a goal. It's just what we are. It stuff is happening and some of us are surviving. And that's that's continuing to happen. And those things are compounding. And I feel like naked mole rats are one of those things where it's like, unfortunately, this might be the pinnacle of evolution. Yes.

You can't tell me they're not doing really well for themselves. I mean, that's kind of amazing. Maybe I want to be a naked mole rat. Yeah. I'm kind of like humans. We're sort of like working towards a self-destruction situation and naked mole rats are just down here like chilling, not feeling pain, being stinky, cuddling. Yeah. All the good things about.

life. Surviving in low oxygen levels. They're on my vision board. Like let me, let me in the, in the colony, please. Well, so speaking of the colony and getting into the aspects of them that are weird, that are relevant to the new research we're going to talk about. So they're what scientists call you social animals. That literally translates to good or true social. It's the highest level of sociality. Basically, adults live in groups and care for their young cooperatively and only certain individuals produce those young. Ants and bees are more famous examples because use sociology is mostly seen among insects. It's that sort of like super organized high war colony where you've got like ranks of individuals and it all seems to just

sort of like happen that way and like they're programmed to like have that society and they interrelate to each other in that very complex way that seems to be like a well well-willed machine. We're all the best. Yeah, exactly. And there are only two mammalian species that are considered truly use social. Both of them are mole rat. The other one is the De Marlunds mole rat, which looks a lot like a naked moorat except not

naked. Oh. The clothes. They have clothes on. The clothes, yeah. The clothed mole rat. That little outfits. Yeah.

A little top hat. So honestly, if you thought that a skinful. were the thing that made the naked mole rat look kind of terrifying. You should take a look at the Damarland mole rat because they're very different, but like those beady little eyes and giant incisors

on like a weirdly skinny hamster also unsettling. Oh my. They're not. They're still not cute. And I'm learning. Yeah. I was really taken aback at how still freaky they look with hair. Oh. Oh. More freaky.

because it's like it makes less sense. Like when they're naked, you're like, yeah, you should look like that. Yeah, yeah. They do kind of have a top hat. They have a little white spot on their head. That's their little top hat. I love how with the way their teeth are oriented, they always look like they are mid-scream. Yes.

Oh, yes. That's a part of it. But yeah, so there are these weird, you social mammals, a very bizarre thing, which obviously fascinate scientists to know. I mean. Yeah. I kind of love him. He's kind of growing on me.

Yeah. Oh, I mean, same as like, I also kind of love naked mulrats, even though objectively, they're really horrifying looking. And I'm sure, given enough time, the clothed mulrat will also throw its way into my heart. Yeah, they're organized in a hierarchy that's like loosely correlated with their size. You've got your like workers and foragers. you know, sort of the equivalent of those like worker bees. Shout out to foragers.

Yeah. Shout out to foragers. It's important to work. They're the base of the pyramid. Exactly. Everyone's got to eat. Yeah. Yeah.

You got to eat. Yeah. And then they've got some more like soldiers in the middle. And then the socially speaking, the highest ranked are the, sorry. And then socially speaking, the higher ranks, you know, there's the breeding male. And then there's the queen who. is the only breeding female, similar to what you would see in a bee colony. And yeah, one thing that I just learned in prepping for this, which is fascinating and hilarious

to me, is that you can, their ranks are so defined that you can actually sort them using a very simple dominance test. You just put two of them and have them meat in a tunnel. And then whichever one yields, you know is the lower range of the pair. Oh, my God. They're just like, oh, pardon me. Oops. Excuse me. Oh, I guess if they're the same rank, maybe they just do the thing where they like

step to either side of the hallway repeatedly. Yeah. Yeah. And then they're an advanced battle. Exactly. Yeah. That's incredible. I'm envisioning them with like tiny arms like yielding like a year.

Yeah. You know. And so yeah, similar to Queen Bees, you know, the most dominant mole rat lady is basically competes for that role. then has the right to bear the colonies young. Well, everyone else does everything else. Honestly, I'd be like, let her. Yeah. Go off, queen. Yes. And yeah, this can result in some very bloody, dynastic battles. Back in 2018, the Smithsonian National

Zoo actually had a long drawn-out battle for Queendom. There's a quote from DCS back then of a zookeeper saying, yeah, they've been fighting and killing each other. They have mole rat wars. We're hoping things will calm down a little now. Yeah, did they, like, put up, like, a screen, like, dynastic battle happening. Come back later. And I think they probably did. Like, honestly, I think they did.

Oh, my God. Because, yeah, their adult brood went from... I'm, like, actually crying. I am laughing. Their adult brood went from 17 to 13 over the course of a few months because there was so much fighting. This is giving like watership down. Yes.

Yeah. Absolutely. This is all that's feeling it's giving Lord of the Flies. Like if we're going to be isolated and here we got to figure some things out. Yeah. And so like back in 2018 when when this happened at the zoo, it played out in the way that zookeepers and researchers had grown to expect it to play out, which is that the theme. who were kind of like largest and seemed most likely to become queen, like fought with each other

quite a bit and also like started trying to get pregnant the fastest. And the unsurprisingly, the biggest lady won. And so back when I did my deep dive on naked mole rats back in like 2018 or whatever it was, which is, ah, anyway, scientists knew that non-breeding females in the colonies like were infertile. They had. had sexual organs that appeared prepubescent. And then if you took them out of the colony, that would kickstart their puberty. So they knew that this was a thing, that like there could literally only be one queen. You can only be one.

There can be only one. But they didn't know what mechanism might actually prevent fertility and non-queans, which is where the new research comes in. The stinky? Yeah, it seems like the answer is the stinky. The stinky thing. She's producing the mammalian version of like, Faribones like a queen bee uses. Whoa.

Yeah, she's a perfume girlie. She's into those niche sense. Mm, back of rock. Man. So, yeah, to figure this out. I know, I love it. And the research is really fascinating. So they analyzed 351, I think,

naked mulrats, a bunch of different ages, ranks, reproductive states, just a swath of naked mole rat culture. And they helped it all. absorbent plastic tubes near them for half an hour each so that they could like waft their odors. Then they put those. Yeah. As one does. Yeah. I'm, I can't wait for like alchemia to release their normal rat scent. But they put those through a mass spectrometer. They found about a hundred distinct chemical compounds. Not surprising that scent is very important to them because they are blind and very

good at smelling stuff. They have 1,200 olfactory receptor genes, which is, I think mice only have about a thousand and humans only have a few hundred. So they're very smelly guys and so that wasn't surprising. But they did find that there was a common thread where queens all had this chemical, isopropyl myrostate, which was basically undetectable in other naked mole rats. And it seemed to peak during ovulation. So they were like, hmm, this does seem to probably be related to reproduction. Also, fun fact from new scientists reporting. on this, which I will link to at pop-theta-com slash weird. This compound is generally considered odorless from human perspectives, but the researchers

think that maybe is not the case. It's used as a solvent and moisturizer in a lot of cosmetics, and the study author said that some of his colleagues who shared lab space swore they could smell it when it was present in the lab. So it might just be that it's like subtle and some people can't smell it, but now that it's present in so many products, maybe some people have learned to recognize it, TBD. Has not been studied yet. But yes, bacon mow rats can definitely smell it.

They show that it activated cells that respond to smell and stimulated their little olfactory bulbs. It's so wild to think that using your lotion, if you like went to the mole rat colony, you'd just make all the lady mull rats infertile immediately. Yeah. Honestly, like, I'm the queen. Yes, exactly. You can make yourself smell like a naked Molot Queen every day. I think I might buy that lotion.

Yeah. If that was the way it was being marketed, unfortunately, I think they would have me. Yeah. I'm kind of bummed in. Where's that Kickstarter? Yeah. I'm opening a tab to start it right after this call. Yes.

I'm in. We're going to be your first supporters. Yes. Thank you. So in testing how they reacted to it, first they found that it did seem to be dependent on Ray. They used a T-shaped maze, and they placed the smelly queen molecule on one side. And when they put quite high-ranking females on the other,

the ones that could theoretically become queen if a queen were to be, you know, deposed, she avoided it. So they were like, oh, maybe they have an instinct to, like, avoid the queen because they're sort of, you know, her potential competitors, whereas, you know, other animals in the colony are like, I'm beneath her notice. I don't have to worry. Don't worry about me, miss a city. Just passing through.

And then when they sprayed it in cages, basically they took non-breeding females and, you know, took them out of the colony, put them in cages with males. And when they sprayed those cages with this compound, there were no pregnancies. And in the cages where they did not spray this compound, almost all the females got pregnant. So it does seem to be that the presence of this chemical, you know, helps to send the message that nobody else needs to be naked babies. Cut that out. Yeah. It's amazing. Yeah.

And they have birth control like, like, patch for. She's got you covered. Yeah. And yeah, they founded boost levels of prolactin, which reduces fertility and lowered pedestrian. which promotes fertility. And so another part of the experiment, they decided to remove the queen, which would usually lead to like one of those bloody scrambles for a succession we talked about. But they sprayed this chemical so that from an olfactory point of view, she was still there.

And everyone hung out very peacefully until they stopped the spray. And then they were like, you know, open season. Yeah. It's me now. That also sort of, I mean, many people in articles about. this. You know, like, it's sort of a creepy sci-fi thing where there's a spray that makes you peaceful. It's not like there was a whole sci-fi franchise spinoff movie with that as a plot point. But, yeah, they also, the study was primarily looking at sort of like scent

in general. And they found that scent signature is also really important for peasants and commoners. Different colonies carry different like bouquets of chemical compounds. Sure. Different stinky. Yeah, different stinky. And when mold rats from different colonies were put together, they spent an average of 40 seconds stiffing each other to suss each other out. They were like, who the hell are you? Yeah. And if they decided they were strangers, if they smelled strange, they would in fact usually try to take care. Oh, God. Yeah. But disabling their sounds of smell also disabled their violent xenophobia, which Must be nice.

Is that, is that the secret? I was going to say, is there, is there something here? I know. I'm like, I'm feeling like we're inching up to something applicable. Not today, but, you know, maybe one day. What do we get to spray the violent xenophobes with? Yeah, exactly. Just a spray bottle like a bad cat.

Exactly. Yes. But yeah, one other thing before I'm done talking about naked bull rats, unfortunately for today. Another recent study. Basically with asking, you know, okay, so we know that they have these very violent turnovers. Not surprising that they're up for that given that they like don't feel pain.

But basically asking the question like, okay, so this is a stable evolutionary strategy for them because, you know, in this colony mindset, they're all investing in this one very controlled group of offspring. so it's like very stable for them as opposed to resources being scattered around but like it can't always be the the most stable option to have just one person doing all the reproduction and like do they have any mechanisms for things going a different way and so this study speaking of vaguely sinister animal research um they basically induced was it a man on the internet all way all But they basically induced temporarily artificial environmental stressors on a colony, like, you know, relentless, slow burn apocalypse scenario.

And under those very specific conditions where it was like there is generational environmental strife here, things are not good, they saw that when they moved them to a new location and that was like the final straw, the queen was like not reproducing well anymore. Instead of a bloody fight, several of her daughters started breeding and even had some overlapping pregnancies without violence. And then one of them just kind of inched ahead and was like reproducing more. She became queen and the others like gradually stopped reproducing and fell back into these other roles. So while this was a very, you know, artificially induced situation, it was still just like, they didn't tell them to do this. It was the natural behavior of the naked morats.

So it does indicate that they have the versatility to be more chill if that's what's good for the sake of the survival of the colony. But they'd rather not. They'd rather not be jail. Maybe like, no, we're duking it out. Let's go. Yeah, yeah. How were they, were they just shaking the colony every day? Everyday earthquakes.

So I didn't go into the methods. I'm sure a lot of it was about like food and water utility. maybe maybe some temperature stuff. Though again, they're like hearty. Exactly. Yeah, I know. They're like, I don't need oxygen or food. Or food.

I don't need any of you. I just need snuggles. Rachel, do they have like litters of babies? They do. Here's another horrifying fact about them. Yes. So when the zookeepers in D.C. were talking about the naked morat who would come out ahead. They were like, well, her first.

litter was three pups, which is modest, but she's going to get pregnant again really quickly. And as progressive pregnancy stretch out her spine, she'll be able to carry many more babies. So that is a thing about that. More at body horror. That's crazy. Wow. I also don't like that her body's like, ah, perfect. Yes.

More baby. Yeah. Yes. All according to my plans. Oh, nature, you're so scary. Yeah, nature is so scary. Nick and Molot, one of the scarier nature. Yeah.

Considering that they, like, don't bother us. They're around, they're scrubbing around there in the dark. Up to no good. I respect them. I love that they just have a sort of feudal society going on. They do. They do. But, like, sort of like a socialist feudal society.

They're all getting what they mean. Exactly. And they get it together when the times call for us. Yeah. Yeah. But I can't wait to hear what more we learn about the naked mole rat in the future. Because again, every new fact I learn about that makes me more uncomfortable, more impressed.

I love them. I love them so much. That's a good fact right there. One that makes you uncomfortable and impressed. Also, I just love that we're still learning so many things. Yes. Yes. We think we know so much, but there's so much to learn.

Yeah, absolutely. So cool. All right, we're going to take one more break, and then we'll be back with one more fact. All right, we're back. And tell me about this fruit, this berry, Alexis. Who is? Oh, my goodness. I mean, it's not quite as exciting as crushed bird feathers

or the political bloody squabbles of one naked morgue. mole rat. But I am here to talk about one of my favorite fruits that you, unless you're Canadian, probably haven't heard of. Shout out to Canada. And the craziest thing about it is it is probably growing very close to you because people love using it as a street tree. And that is going to be the fruits of the trees in the Amalankier genus. And you might be saying, okay, nerd, can you give me like the real people name of this fruit? And my answer for you is, it's complicated. Amazing.

So, many of us have heard that story where it's like, oh, the Inuit have. many words for snow and snowy conditions because when something is so important, so prevalent in your society, you tend to have a lot of words to describe it. I think that that speaks to how important this fruit is because without fail, every single time that I talk about it on the internet, I will get a handful of people being like, but you didn't say that it also goes by this name that my community calls it. actually. And I'll be like, yeah, because I don't have 10 minutes, guys.

Yes. Because we literally be here five ever. Um, actually, it's called this. Actually, no, I get, um, actually on those videos more than anything, especially by the Canadians. They're just like, don't you know, it's our opportunity to be better than the Americans. And you know what? Good for you, Canada. Yeah.

Shout out to the Canadians who are listening. Yeah. Like, you already have that, Canada. Like, do you need this too? Exactly. Exactly. Come on now. So I will start with its most basic name, most basic common English name, which is the name that I grew up calling it, which is Juneberry.

It is also the name that is the easiest to explain because its berries are ripe in the month of June. Yep. I love a name that says what it is. Exactly. Because we don't always get those. Scientists just be naming things after themselves. Oh, my God. Nine times out of ten.

Birds prime example of that. Yes. So many birds named after old white dudes and their homies. Wilson, snipe. Who are you, Wilson? Exactly. You are not a snipe. Take your name off of him.

Release the bird. His name is Jebben. He doesn't know you. So we have June berries. And so growing up, I'm like, oh, yes, June berries, makes perfect sense. Start popping them in your mouth around like the first second week of June. Unfortunately now as where I live has moved up in growing zones. And as we have inched closer to climate calamity,

unfortunately, we now should maybe be calling them end of May berries. But that's really going to be throwing things all up in the hands. We don't want to confuse people. June berries. Now, the first thing that's going to happen if you say Juneberry to someone who lives on the western side of the country, is there going to be like, that's not that fruit's name? Its name is service berry. And you'll go, hmm, service berry. That's interesting.

I wonder why it has that name. And a liar will pop up out of nowhere. And they don't even know that they're lying, and that's sometimes the worst kind of liar. And they'll say, it's because when they flower, it's right around the time when the ground has thawed enough after winter to be able to continue funeral services. So you can start putting people in the ground again, which does make me go, all right, when the ground froze, I do guess it would be pretty hard. putting people in the ground. True. I did just have that exact thought. Like, yeah, that seems tough.

Yeah, I'm like, oh, dang, I do guess you've got to just let people like chill quite literally. Yeah, yeah. Until you can be putting them back in the ground. And so for years, I also was a liar. And I inherited this story about this alternate name. And then I met my friend and mentor and also critically acclaimed foraging book writer Sam Thayer. And he pulled me aside and said, Did you know that's wrong?

And I said, I did not tell me everything. So service is actually a really bad, like, Americanized pronunciation of the genus Sorbus, which is European and is the Mountain Ash or Rowan tree. They are both in the Rose family. They both have the little crown butt ends, as many Rose family fruits do. And so when people, people, colonists got here,

they were just like Sorbis berry. That's who that is. And it just slowly became serviceberry. Just like a game of telephone essentially. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. And we just kept it. We just kept it. And we just have to be okay with that. Serviceberry by and large is the name that you are going to find for members of the Amalanky or genus in the most places in North America. But then a Canadian will come knocking on your door and say, hey, we have that fruit. And that's not what we call it here. And you'll say, oh, Okay, Canadian, tell me your story about the Amelankier genus. And they will say, oh, that's a Saskatoon, don't you know?

And then you'll say, that's not a berry. That's the name of a city. In Saskatchewan, what are you talking about? And they'll say, we literally named the city after the fruit. Whoa. Wow. We literally, the big apple. The big apple.

The big Saskatoon. The big Saskatoon. It comes from a Cree word for the Saskatoon fruit. Nice. It was a very important food stuff for the Cree, usually one of the earlier fruits you'd be getting in the growing season. And it was important enough that, yeah, we just named, we named the city Saskatoon. Amazing.

The actual Cree word is much longer, and I will not embarrass myself or disrespect the Cree language by trying to pronounce the original word. But I implore all of you to do internet search. Yes. And make yourself smarter and wiser. Now, at this point, you're like, okay, so this fruit's got a lot of names. But I feel like we've gotten them all covered.

Wrong. Incorrect. Because then someone from specifically South Eastern Ohio we'll show up and say, actually, I should have shown up before because I have to do with the last one. We just call it Sarvis. Sarvis. We just call it Sarvis. And you'll say, oh, okay.

And they're like, yeah, it's Sorbis, what wrong? The missing link. Yeah. Because I was sitting there being like imagining the horrible American accent that had turned Sorb. Sorbis. The service. And there it is. And there it is.

Sarbus. Sarbus. Sarbus. I'm from Tennessee and I feel like Sarbus sounds like us. I mean, South Eastern Ohio, we're in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Very much like culturally have things in common. More so with Appalachia than the rest of Ohio.

And so there you have Sarvus, which yes, is the, the, the Australopithecus missing link between Sorbis and Serviceberry and so then you'll be like, oh, okay. So that, and then someone from Newfoundland will kick down your door. You don't have a door anymore. And they'll be like, that there is a chuckly pear.

Chuckly? A chugly bear. What? So this was the one, I've known all of these other ones for a while. Chuckly Pear was the one that I was like, no, I actually have to do some deep diving for this one because what in the heck is a Chuckly?

What is a Chuckly? And it don't look like a pear. It don't look like a pear. It looked like a plube. Yeah. It looked like a bloob. But on long stems and bunches. Mm-hmm.

So I found out that Chuckly is an old newf colloquial term for like strong. Nazi wood. Okay. Which service berries do tend to have. They have pretty strong wood, useful for a lot of different things. And I'm sure that in an area like Newf, where the seasons are shorter and maybe you're not always getting the big, tall, majestic trees to be cutting things out of, a use, it is a useful

plant for more than just the fruit reasons. is also useful for the wood that it is offering. And pear, they're like, it's like a pear. It's really not. Have they ever seen a pear before? Well, now they are closely related. They are cousins. Pears are also in the Rose family.

They also have that cute little like blossom and star butt like apples and like service berries. Okay. And if you find some pear species, they do, I mean, the Bradford pear fruits, if we want to talk about a very stinky pear. Right. We want to talk about a pair that everyone wants to fight. I looked up wild pear and I'm seeing some, like I can at least understand where this came from. It makes a bit more sense when you're not thinking of the like bodacious.

Right. The grocery store pair. the like engineered pair. Yeah, we're not talking about an enjou. Yeah. We're talking about one of their ancestors. So you're like, oh my gosh, okay, chuckly pear. Chucky pear adding that one to the list.

I should have been counting. And then someone from New England will be like, that's a sugar plum. Sugar plum like the fairy? Exactly. And I'm like, do we need to call Chikovsky? Like what? What are we doing? What's happening? Where did this one come from? And then they're like, oh, it's just because it's sweet. Okay. It's just because it's sweet. And it looks a little bit like a small plum.

It kind of purpleish, yeah. And I guess once again, plums and all of the stone fruits are in the Rose family. Rose family I'm learning is massive. Oh, she is that girl when it comes to some of our favorite fruits. Okay. Here, there, and everywhere. And if you look at the flowers of all of these different plants, it makes sense. They all look.

I'm thinking about it and they are very, I can see it. Yeah, the five petals. The very similar reproductive systems at the center. It makes sense. And so now I'm going to take a moment and go through my notes to make sure that I didn't miss any of the additional ones. because the last thing that I want to do, oh, I did. Okay.

Okay. No, I missed an important one too. One that I should have brought up even earlier. Who's coming into our house this time? It's more New Englanders. It's the mass holes of which I am descended. So I'm allowed to use that term. That's our word.

And they're like, that's shad bush. What bush? Shad Bush. Shad. Got it? Yes, Shad. Like Chad, but with an S. Shad.

Like the beefy man or the country, but with an S. Sure. Yeah. Who's Shad and why does he push? Exactly. Exactly. That is the very question that I had. And they'll be like, what do you mean who's Shad?

Where do you live? What does your family do? Shad, like the fish that we eat. and I'll be like, oh, yeah, yeah, there is a fish called Shad. Now that I take a step back. But what is it out to do with the bush? The bush doesn't even like growing that close to water, so what are we talking about?

And they'll say, you fool, slap, slap. It flowers when the Shad run in early spring. You're silly, silly goose. circled back. Incredible. The seasonal timing names. To the seasonal time of names. Yes.

And so it will also sometimes be called Shadbush or the weirder Shad Blow. I don't. Okay. And I will say right now. And how do we explain that one? If anyone wants to write in and explain why Shad Blow is interchangeable. Is it the season of the blow? Like, do we need it?

answers. The Shad, they're just blowing through the streams. They're just blowing through the streams. And finally, last but not least, you have the genus name itself. Amalankier. If you're familiar with the binomial nomenclature of many things, you may be thinking to yourself, that don't sound like Latin. and you would be correct.

It is not Latin. It actually is taken from Provincial, the very small dialect in the southeastern part of France, which directly comes from the original like Gaul language, back when France was Gaul, and the Romans shook their fist at them from a distance. for being barbarians. And in the original

Gaul language, the very similar word to Amalankier means little apple. Oh. He's just a little apple, you guys. He's just a little guy.

And that is the tale of the Juneberry service berry, service berry, sugar, plum, shad, Bush Shadblow Chocley Pear.

Wow. Which, and I didn't even get to mention this, is absolutely delicious. It's one of my favorite foods. Heck yeah. They taste like an apple and a blueberry and an almond had a baby. Ooh. Because the seeds inside are edible and almond-y almond, also in the apple, also in the rose family. Yes.

She does it all. Yes. She really does it all. Almonds are just the kernels inside of a pears family do. inside of a pit of a stone fruit. Incredible. Wow. And all of those guys are all related to sweet, sweet Juneberry, one of my favorite snacks.

It does happen to have its own chapter in my book with some of my favorite recipes in it. But honestly, usually the issue that we have is the fruit making at home to be cooked into anything. Because we'll be gathering and we'll be like, two for my mouth. and one for the jar. Yes. And one for the jar. We are planting our own in our backyard to hopefully

help mitigate this issue. Yes. And I can't wait to put their name tags on them. Yay. I want it to be a little school. It's going to be like a string. Yeah. Yes.

That you can pull out and it just gives you all of them and a little sentence about why. Oh. Incredible. I love that. I love that. So there, a little etymology. and yeah, little botany.

Incredible. For your day. Also, the birds be loving service berry. You got to get your hands on these berries. I always tell people, go onto I Naturalist and type in Amalankier into the search bar and be shocked at how many of them are in your area. Yes, I bet. People love them as street trees.

They are very resilient guys. Yeah. No, there are for sure some around here. And I just, you know, I'm somebody who pays some attention to things I can forage. And that just is it one that I knew I should be eaten. I grew up in the part of South Jersey that is weirdly Appalachian. And listening to this, I was like so shocked that this was not a thing that we ate and talked about. But I think it's because I was so deep in blueberry country, a lot of pride about blueberries.

But I think that just dominated the pine barons. Yeah. If you're close to like the pine barony areas, it's absolutely going to be a blueberry to cranberry conversation for you guys 100%. But you do also have a handful of amalankier species as well. Nice. Oh, very exciting. Yeah. I want to plant one now for me and the birds.

Oh, my gosh. And you will be duking it out with the birds. Oh, I know. The cedar wax wings. Yes. The cedar wax wings will start camping in them, like the week before the fruits. are fully right. I love that.

And they'll just be like, listen, we're unemployed. We got all day. Yeah. We got all day. You'll never beat us to all of these. And you know what? That's okay with me. Exactly.

Me too. I love sharing with the birds. It's always a good time. The robins. They'll be so cute about it. Just bobbing along. But it's the war robins at least will eat a full berry. The cedar wax wings will just poke a piece out and be like,

Yes. That's always, it feels. They're nibblers. Yes. Then I think I can take the fruit and then I find that it's already been gone. Exactly. Not the best. Well, Alexis, that was a wonderful fact and makes me very excited for your book.

Would you remind our listeners what it's called so they can go pre-order it and get it and read it for themselves? My book is called. happy snacking, don't die. Those are the two things that I want you to do. If you're going to follow any of the suggestions and rules for safety in this book, it would be to snack happy and also to not die. Good rules. We love being alive in this household.

Yes. We try to in this household. We try. And my fiance is an attorney, and so he loves when I remind people, don't die. He's like, good job. Yes. Very nice. He's like, I don't know, she explicitly told you don't die.

So I don't... You're legally obligated to not die. Exactly. The weirdest thing I learned this week is produced by all of our hosts, including me, Rachel Fultman, along with Jess Bodie, who also serves as our audio engineer and editor extraordinaire. Our theme music is by Billy Cadden. Our logo is by Katie Belloff. If you have questions, suggestions, or weird stories to share, tweet us at Weirdest underscore Thin. Thanks for listening, weirdos.