Latest / Ridiculous History / Getting High with Ridiculous Crime: Betel Nut and 'Asthma Cigarettes'

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Getting High with Ridiculous Crime: Betel Nut and 'Asthma Cigarettes' · Ridiculous History

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  Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
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  Speaker 1: the show, fellow ridiculous historians. Thank you, as always, so
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  Speaker 1: much for tuning in. Everybody listening now, please don't do drugs. Okay,
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  Speaker 1: so now that we have that legal stuff out of
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  Speaker 1: the way, we got to shout out our super producer, Mr.
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  Speaker 1: Max Williams.
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  Speaker 2: Max, just say no Williams. Max, dare to dream Williams.
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  Speaker 3: Ben, which is your name, I'm Noel, and I am
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  Speaker 3: sad that I'm not wearing it because it's in the laundry,
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  Speaker 3: but I have a really sick vintage D.A.R.E.
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  Speaker 2: Shirt. Remember D.A.R.E.? Oh, yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, my gosh. Yeah, you dare to keep a kid
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  Speaker 1: off drugs by showing them how to use drugs.
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  Speaker 2: And here's all the fun ones.
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  Speaker 1: And identify them in high school. I'm Ben Bullen. You're
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  Speaker 1: Noel Brown. And we know, we know for sure, folks,
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  Speaker 1: that earlier this year, we learned, despite the puritanical attitudes
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  Speaker 1: toward recreational substances in the modern day, people and non-human
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  Speaker 1: animals alike have been kind of trying to get high
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  Speaker 1: on all sorts of things.
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  Speaker 3: Shout out stoned ape theory, by the way, that's a
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  Speaker 3: conversation for another day.
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  Speaker 1: Well, before the dawn of recorded history. And, you know,
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  Speaker 1: we quickly realized that we had to make this a
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  Speaker 1: continuing series and we are not going into it alone.
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  Speaker 1: You may have heard a legendary voice, uh, Big up
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  Speaker 1: in us. At the intro here, we are thrilled to
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  Speaker 1: welcome not only a returning guest, our brother in podcast arms,
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  Speaker 1: the award-winning journalist, author, activist, and podcaster, Zarin Burnett.
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  Speaker 4: Yo, what up, gentlemen? Thank you for having me.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, man.
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  Speaker 3: I love that you chimed in. I love it when
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  Speaker 3: a guest chimes in before they're introduced. It just adds
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  Speaker 3: to the mystery of it. I fully support that.
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  Speaker 4: I couldn't help myself. No, it's the best.
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  Speaker 3: It's like on one of my favorite pods, Blank Check
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  Speaker 3: with Griffin and David, they'll do a whole intro and
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  Speaker 3: talk for 20 minutes, and the person will just be talking,
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  Speaker 3: and then they'll finally introduce them. And I just, I'm
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  Speaker 3: a big fan of that. But we couldn't be more
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  Speaker 3: thrilled to have you, man.
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  Speaker 4: I'm stoked to be here. So thank you guys for
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  Speaker 4: having me back. Always a fun time with my fellow
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  Speaker 4: ridiculous historians.
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  Speaker 1: Now, as everybody knows, you have created so many shows,
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  Speaker 1: Black Cowboys, Ridiculous Crime, very special episodes. I think I
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  Speaker 1: still owe you a script about New Coke.
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  Speaker 2: Yes.
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  Speaker 1: Not the, I mean, not the drug.
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  Speaker 4: Yes, we've been looking forward to that one. It sounds awesome.
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  Speaker 2: We did a new Coke episode on Ridiculous, didn't we, Matt? Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: we did.
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  Speaker 1: And I'm cribbing it for another show.
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  Speaker 2: As well you should.
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  Speaker 3: And also, just not to bury the lead too much,
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  Speaker 3: but Ridiculous Crime, technically part of the extended Ridiculous universe.
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  Speaker 3: So we're brothers in extended franchise universes as well.
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  Speaker 4: Totally. We are your sister or brother show, depending on
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  Speaker 4: how you want to look at it.
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  Speaker 2: Indeed.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, how's it going, man, out west?
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  Speaker 4: Oh, going really well. It's a beautiful day. We've had, obviously,
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  Speaker 4: a bunch of challenges this summer, but right now it
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  Speaker 4: is looking really nice going into the autumn. So all
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  Speaker 4: things considered, it's going well.
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  Speaker 1: You know, we have a game show together on the way,
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  Speaker 1: not too long from now, probably toward the end of
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  Speaker 1: this year. And Zarin, we came across a study a
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  Speaker 1: while back that argued people have been habitually partying as
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  Speaker 1: far back as 25,000 years ago, which, as you recall,
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  Speaker 1: is a little bit earlier than when we got into podcasting.
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  Speaker 4: Yes, just a little bit earlier.
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  Speaker 3: And I believe, Ben, it was a good, significant jump
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  Speaker 3: from what had been thought prior. Like, is this number
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  Speaker 3: coming from that recent study that we talked about on
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  Speaker 3: Strange News on our other sister show, Stuff They Don't
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  Speaker 3: Want You to Know?
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  Speaker 1: Yes, yes. We've got a Brady Bunch here, and we realized, Zarin,
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  Speaker 1: that we have to get back to the mission of
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  Speaker 1: this series. We had that episode in the past, earlier
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  Speaker 1: this year. Weird things people used to get high off of,
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  Speaker 1: and we're continuing the mission to uncover strange old substances.
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  Speaker 1: To boldly smoke, snort, and chew.
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  Speaker 2: What?
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  Speaker 1: So many have done before that uh star trek parody
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  Speaker 1: for our producer max.
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  Speaker 2: Did they do do they do drugs on star star
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  Speaker 2: trek was that.
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  Speaker 3: Oh yeah they did okay well i love the magazine
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  Speaker 3: resolutely yes no hesitation.
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  Speaker 5: Oh yeah there's a lot i mean there's there's the
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  Speaker 5: episode in the original series where they all get like
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  Speaker 5: horny and so he gets his shirt off and then
• 5:09
  Speaker 5: the second episode of tng they do that same episode
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  Speaker 5: again which is a really weird time to do that
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  Speaker 5: episode and it's really bad and then Data, for some reason,
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  Speaker 5: gets really horny despite the fact that he's immune to
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  Speaker 5: it because everyone else is so horny.
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  Speaker 1: Okay.
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  Speaker 2: I guess his job is just to adapt to the vibe,
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  Speaker 2: you know? Yeah, he's just reading the room.
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  Speaker 6: Seriously, explain to us, it's a contact high.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, he's right on the high.
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  Speaker 6: It's a really bad episode. It's the second episode of
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  Speaker 6: the show.
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  Speaker 1: Now, Zarin, we previously, in that earlier episode, we looked
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  Speaker 1: at stuff like Nutmeg, Henbane, you know, possible inspiration for
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  Speaker 1: the witch broomstick trope. We looked at Belladonna. We looked
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  Speaker 1: at Urgot. And for some reason, I was just re-listening, guys,
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  Speaker 1: for some reason, toward the end of the first episode,
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  Speaker 1: we spend a ton of time talking about hummus. So
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  Speaker 1: your demanding fans, sir, creator of Black Cowboys, very special episodes,
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  Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime, they have to know Zarin Burnett, the third,
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  Speaker 1: what's your hummus stance?
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  Speaker 4: My hummus stance. You know, I don't think I've ever
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  Speaker 4: been asked that. And I actually do have an answer,
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  Speaker 4: not one prepared, but I have one ready in the
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  Speaker 4: back of my mind, which is I'm pro hummus, right?
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  Speaker 4: I'm a big hummus fan. I'm not so big into
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  Speaker 4: all the flavored hummus. It's like they have a lot
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  Speaker 4: of varieties now that are not really my bag, but
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  Speaker 4: I love hummus. I put it on sandwiches all the time.
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  Speaker 4: I was raised a vegetarian. So the idea of like
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  Speaker 4: sneaking proteins in that you can is always been something
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  Speaker 4: I've done forever. So Hummus is something that I still
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  Speaker 4: put on all my like cheese sandwiches. Absolutely love it. Big,
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  Speaker 4: big fan. And by the way, I was thinking when
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  Speaker 4: you were talking about earlier about how people have been
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  Speaker 4: getting high for a long time. I find it interesting
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  Speaker 4: that we'll get high before we'll like satiate ourselves. Like
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  Speaker 4: there's evidence that. We were making beer long before we
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  Speaker 4: were making bread out of the same materials. We were like, oh, yeah,
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  Speaker 4: this grain stuff is awesome. You know, if you ferment it,
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  Speaker 4: you can get drunk. And they were like, huh, you know,
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  Speaker 4: you could actually make bread. And it was like 10,
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  Speaker 4: maybe 20,000 years later, they were like, oh, hey, by
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  Speaker 4: the way, we could also make bread out of that stuff.
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  Speaker 1: 20,000 years.
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  Speaker 6: Yeah, don't quote me on the years.
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  Speaker 4: It's a long period of time. I don't remember exactly,
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  Speaker 4: but yeah.
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  Speaker 3: All right.
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  Speaker 1: So we're pre-gaming now and we have to ask you
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  Speaker 1: another question. You and I, Noel and Max, we're talking
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  Speaker 1: a little bit off air. Zarin, what is the weirdest
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  Speaker 1: quote unquote drug you have ever heard of?
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  Speaker 4: Okay. I've got two. I've got a modern one and
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  Speaker 4: I've got more of an ancient one. The modern one
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  Speaker 4: is people huff disc cleaner. Like, you know, the stuff
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  Speaker 4: you use and like, you know, for cleaning a computer,
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  Speaker 4: like the compressed air. but it's like the ones that are,
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  Speaker 4: they have like a propellant in there and people use it.
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  Speaker 2: They call it duster.
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  Speaker 4: Yes, exactly.
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  Speaker 2: That's the street name. I've heard.
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  Speaker 4: And then also like they use the same idea with
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  Speaker 4: spray paint. So you'll see guys like in the parks
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  Speaker 4: who spray paint like silver paint into a paper bag
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  Speaker 4: and then they huff it and you see them and
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  Speaker 4: they have silver teeth.
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  Speaker 2: Shout out charlie day on us uh always sunny yes.
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  Speaker 1: Shout out mad max fury road yeah oh right shiny
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  Speaker 1: and chrome yeah the duster thing though guys it's like
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  Speaker 1: um again i've read about this phenomenon as well it is.
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  Speaker 3: This very similar high to uh nitrous oxide yes yes with.
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  Speaker 4: It yes it burns holes in your brains because i've
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  Speaker 4: known people who do it and they they are not
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  Speaker 4: the same after doing it it really is it messes
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  Speaker 4: up your brain real bad real quick much like huffing
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  Speaker 4: paint does and That's something I used to see in
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  Speaker 4: San Francisco, like in Dolores Park back in the day.
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  Speaker 4: It was like these kids with like silver teeth. And
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  Speaker 4: I was like, oh, man, that guy's not going to
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  Speaker 4: be able to drive a car soon. Now, as far
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  Speaker 4: as a more ancient one, one that always tickled me because,
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  Speaker 4: you know, OK, in the old fairy tales, a princess
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  Speaker 4: would kiss a frog and they would turn into a prince. Well,
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  Speaker 4: people also lick frogs to get high. Bofo?
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  Speaker 2: What's it called?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, bufotoxin. So like the Colorado river toad, aka the
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  Speaker 4: Sonoran desert toad, it secretes these bufotoxins and then people
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  Speaker 4: go and either lick the frog or some people who
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  Speaker 4: are not so into like getting intimate with the frog back.
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  Speaker 4: they'll scrape the frog and then use that later on.
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  Speaker 4: But once again, not recommended because it can be toxic.
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  Speaker 4: It can literally kill you. But people try to get
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  Speaker 4: just the right amount because usually, you know, it's the
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  Speaker 4: dose that makes the poison. So they're like, if I
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  Speaker 4: get just a little bit, maybe I can get off.
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  Speaker 4: And it has a high, apparently, like ayahuasca or DMT.
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  Speaker 4: And people see all sorts of crazy stuff. So licking
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  Speaker 4: the back of a frog, I think, has to be
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  Speaker 4: one of the weirder ways I've ever heard.
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  Speaker 1: So we're saying that in... ancient days of yore, there
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  Speaker 1: would be some like grizzled frog licking veteran who would,
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  Speaker 1: who was saying, Oh buddy, you can't lick it too hard.
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  Speaker 4: Give it three good licks, but not five.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: I had a really good Peking duck dinner at this
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  Speaker 3: restaurant in Flushing Queens last night.
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  Speaker 2: And on the menu, they had bullfrog.
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  Speaker 3: So you got to wonder, like, you know, with frog
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  Speaker 3: being a staple cuisine in some parts of the world,
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  Speaker 3: like the trial and error that it must have taken
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  Speaker 3: to find the frog that you licked and it got
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  Speaker 3: you mad high.
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  Speaker 2: I'm always fascinated by that.
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  Speaker 4: How many things were you licking before that?
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  Speaker 7: Right.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah. The old mushroom trope, right?
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  Speaker 3: Jordan Firstman, who's a comedian, he was an Instagram sort
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  Speaker 3: of star. And now he's got a new film coming
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  Speaker 3: out called Club Kid that's supposed to be really, really fantastic.
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  Speaker 2: He was in that show. I love L.A.
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  Speaker 3: Anyway, he I saw an interview with him doing some
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  Speaker 3: press rounds and he said that he had a really
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  Speaker 3: crazy year ahead where he had to film it. final
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  Speaker 3: season of a TV series shoot his first directorial feature
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  Speaker 3: and a handful of other things and so he said
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  Speaker 3: he lit he took He took that drug and it
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  Speaker 3: made him see himself as he thinks maybe others see him.
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  Speaker 3: And he had like a total, you know, like existential
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  Speaker 3: realism kind of moments.
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  Speaker 2: And he was able to figure out how he was
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  Speaker 2: going to tackle the year. So, you know, hey.
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  Speaker 1: He got a lick.
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  Speaker 4: Takes all kinds.
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  Speaker 1: Right. We will introduce our first drug that people used
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  Speaker 1: to get high off of. and still do today. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: roughly 1 in 10 people across the planet ingest betel
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  Speaker 1: nut in some form. It probably originates somewhere in the Philippines. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: if we're going to be fancy and put a tie on,
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  Speaker 1: it's the areca nut, the seed of a palm called
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  Speaker 1: areca nut. And I don't think any of us have
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  Speaker 1: personally ingested betel nut, but I have seen a lot
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  Speaker 1: of inexplicably weird mouths.
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  Speaker 3: I am going to red mouths for my purposes, call
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  Speaker 3: it betel nut.
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  Speaker 2: Cause it's just more fun. You can go betel nut,
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  Speaker 2: betel nut, betel nut. And no, you're right, Ben.
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  Speaker 3: And this was actually the, the substance that came up
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  Speaker 3: in the strange news article. We don't stuff they don't
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  Speaker 3: want you to know about how scientists have discovered that
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  Speaker 3: people were getting high on purpose way farther back than
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  Speaker 3: they had previously realized.
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  Speaker 4: And betel nut was the thing that they were getting
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  Speaker 4: the thing.
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  Speaker 7: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: It is still to this day, as we record in 2026,
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  Speaker 1: the fourth most commonly consumed drug. Can we guess the
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  Speaker 1: other three most.
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  Speaker 4: Commonly consumed drugs?
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  Speaker 2: Caffeine.
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  Speaker 5: One.
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  Speaker 2: Nicotine?
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  Speaker 6: Marijuana.
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  Speaker 2: I would hope, but I bet it's nicotine.
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  Speaker 1: I would hope as well. It's caffeine, alcohol, and nicotine.
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  Speaker 4: Oh, okay.
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  Speaker 2: Nicotine, valium, vicodin, marijuana, ecstasy, and alcohol. That was a
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  Speaker 2: Queens of the Stone Age reference.
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  Speaker 3: Ben, I think you mentioned the red mouth situation, the
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  Speaker 3: chewing of this nut or sucking on this nut.
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  Speaker 2: Let's go ahead and we'll leave the jokes at the door. Causes.
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  Speaker 3: This is, it turns out, an archaeological boon. It's what
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  Speaker 3: allowed them to figure out what was going on with
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  Speaker 3: these red stained, you know, remains.
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  Speaker 4: Of course, it leaves behind definitely an indicator of like, oh, yeah,
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  Speaker 4: they'd be getting high. So did they crush it in
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  Speaker 4: their teeth or did they like make it like, you know,
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  Speaker 4: pistol and mortar style?
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  Speaker 1: So originally what what we see, thanks to a study
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  Speaker 1: led by a guy named Adam Brum over in Australia,
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  Speaker 1: Griffith University, Brisbane University. if I'm saying that correctly.
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  Speaker 2: I think you are. Queensland. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: They have a study, kid you not, guys, the title is,
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  Speaker 1: Betel Nutsucking is the Earliest Recorded Evidence for the Habitual
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  Speaker 1: Use of a Neuroactive Plant Drug.
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  Speaker 3: Scientists be so literal, man.
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  Speaker 2: They didn't want to run that through an edit.
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  Speaker 4: They have to know what they wrote.
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  Speaker 6: Betel Nutsucking.
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  Speaker 4: Nutsucking is how we first got on.
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  Speaker 1: Betel Nutsucking. So, Zara, to your question there, these folks, like,
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  Speaker 1: Now you can find a betel nut in something called
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  Speaker 1: betel quid or pond like non with a P and,
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  Speaker 1: and it's essentially big league chew. Uh, it's wrapped in
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  Speaker 1: a leaf and you, you just sort of chew on
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  Speaker 1: it with a slaked lime and calcium hydroxide. But back
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  Speaker 1: in the day, uh, according to this study, uh, These
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  Speaker 1: guys didn't have bigly chew technology, so they would just
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  Speaker 1: grab a betel nut and they would put it in
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  Speaker 1: their mouths, right? They'd tuck it in their cheeks.
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  Speaker 2: Like a dip.
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  Speaker 7: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Or like a snooze.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Like a snooze, yes. And they would– what's the word?
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  Speaker 1: Not quite masticate? Macerate?
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  Speaker 2: I can't remember.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, it would also, if I'm not mistaken, Ben,
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  Speaker 3: one of its properties is that it– increases the flow
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  Speaker 3: of saliva oh naturally yeah naturally so you just hold
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  Speaker 3: it in there and all of a sudden you're gonna
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  Speaker 3: be spitty as hell and then you're swallowing up that
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  Speaker 3: you know the red spit juice so it really is
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  Speaker 3: like all of a sudden yeah 100 yeah.
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  Speaker 4: Very much between your cheek and gum and then all
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  Speaker 4: of a sudden you're good to go okay.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah and it's due to ericoline uh that's the functional
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  Speaker 1: substance a kissing cousin of nicotine but uh like you
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  Speaker 1: guys were pointing out this stuff does have an impact
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  Speaker 1: on people's dentation, right? They call it dental pathology. And
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  Speaker 1: they're like, hey, why are these teeth bizarrely red?
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  Speaker 4: Do we know what kind of high? Is it like nicotine?
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  Speaker 2: I think it's a mild amphetamine type.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, okay.
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  Speaker 2: So some euphoria, alertness.
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  Speaker 3: I don't think it goes so far as to become
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  Speaker 3: truly psychedelic in any way.
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  Speaker 2: But I think it is like, you know, sort of
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  Speaker 2: like chewing on a cocoa leaf.
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  Speaker 4: Okay, I got you.
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  Speaker 2: Or sucking on a chili dog.
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  Speaker 1: Sure. Very much so.
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  Speaker 6: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: It's like a strong cup of coffee, you know, and
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  Speaker 1: it doesn't, the, the thing is it's somewhere between, between
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  Speaker 1: coffee and alcohol, right? It doesn't get you too wonky. Like,
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  Speaker 1: you know, if you, not calling anybody out but if
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  Speaker 1: you smoke too much cannabis you might feel a little
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  Speaker 1: weird about the world and if you drink too much
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  Speaker 1: booze you might be stuporific yeah you might get intoxicated
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  Speaker 1: this won't do it it just uh keeps you up
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  Speaker 1: for a while apparently thousands of.
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  Speaker 3: Years which makes sense uh why it was so popular
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: and it remains popular today because it's just kind of
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: gives you a little give you a little zing a
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: little pep in.
• 16:50
  Speaker 4: Your stick a labor aid i'm surprised we don't have
• 16:52
  Speaker 4: it here Labor aid.
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: Someone should make a joke, a product called labor aid.
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: That's very funny.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: Oh, God, we're so close, you guys. We're so close.
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: For the proletariat.
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: For the proles. Oh, my gosh. Man, we're also going
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: to have to talk about another problematic relative of the
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: betel nut, obviously, tobacco, nicotine. Now, Zarin, you and Elizabeth
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: often record videos out in California, right?
• 17:24
  Speaker 6: Correct.
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: And I, I, I am of the mind or from
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: what I understand, uh, smoking cigarettes is way worse than
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: smoking cannabis in California.
• 17:36
  Speaker 4: Yes. Uh, well, like places like, uh, and I think
• 17:39
  Speaker 4: San Francisco County, they have banned the sale of vapes.
• 17:42
  Speaker 4: So like, you can't get like vape cartridges in stores,
• 17:45
  Speaker 4: but you, You can obviously go and get marijuana pretty
• 17:49
  Speaker 4: much on every corner store if you want because they
• 17:51
  Speaker 4: have all sorts of like both dispensaries and then legal
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: work around so you can sell it in corner stores.
• 17:55
  Speaker 4: So there's obviously a predilection for giving people marijuana as
• 18:00
  Speaker 4: opposed to tobacco, nicotine. So it's much easier to be
• 18:04
  Speaker 4: a pot smoker than a cigarette or a vape smoker
• 18:07
  Speaker 4: in a lot of parts of California. But generally– You
• 18:11
  Speaker 4: can't smoke it outside. A lot of places like apartment
• 18:14
  Speaker 4: complexes have rules where you can't smoke it in your apartment,
• 18:17
  Speaker 4: so you can't smoke it outside. There's large parts of
• 18:21
  Speaker 4: downtowns where there's no smoking and you can be fined
• 18:24
  Speaker 4: if you are smoking. So there's a big push to
• 18:28
  Speaker 4: ban cigarettes, vapes. There's a lot of places where they'll
• 18:31
  Speaker 4: be illegal. you will be fined heavily for it. So
• 18:36
  Speaker 4: there's definitely a push. And whereas you can pretty much
• 18:39
  Speaker 4: walk around most of California and smell pot smoke in
• 18:41
  Speaker 4: the air.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: For sure.
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: It's becoming the case in a lot of places. Like
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: I'm here in New York City and in a lot
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: of boroughs.
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: It is illegal. I mean, I think in the entire
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: state to sell like flavored vapes. Oh, yeah, definitely.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: Oh, sure.
• 18:55
  Speaker 4: They're down to like just normal vapes like you can't.
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: A hundred percent.
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: But my point is that, you know, weed is also
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: decriminalized here and recreationally. So it is kind of becoming
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: that similar kind of vibe. But there are, to your
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: point about the workarounds for corner stores, now the workarounds
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: are for vapes and cigarettes where they're trying to figure
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: out how to low-key under the table sell you, you know,
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: a geek bar or a freaking elf bar that tastes
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: like pina colada. Like that is now becoming the contraband.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: This cotton candy caramel-flavored vape is definitely for people in
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: their 50s.
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: What do you want? I got you. You want Coco Crispy?
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: What do you want?
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: Well, it's interesting. We're bringing this up because we know
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: that the world is learning more about the dangers, right,
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: of inhaling anything, right?
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: We have to get to a bizarre hypothetical. Riddle us this, guys,
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: if we're walking into a bar in, say, Oakland, right,
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: and we're smoking a coffin nail, and they say, hey,
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: you can't smoke in here, what if we say it's
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: for our Our asthma.
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: And this is my emotional support dog. This is my
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: emotional support sig.
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: Guys, come on. Leave me alone. Let me live my life.
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: What is this referencing, Ben?
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: Is this a weird little flash in the pan, like
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: medical craze that took place long ago?
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: Unfortunately, it is not little.
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: It is weird.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: It did happen.
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: Remember when they had like nine out of ten doctors
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: recommend you smoke this brand?
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, yes, yes.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: Truth be told, pretty much everybody, I think, knows that
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: cigarettes are not great these days. And sadly, most of
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: us know someone suffering from asthma. That chronic lung condition
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: makes it difficult at times, impossible to breathe. Zaret, Noel,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: have you guys encountered asthma in your personal lives?
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: Oh, yes.
• 21:05
  Speaker 4: I've got a family who have asthma issues. Growing up,
• 21:09
  Speaker 4: I knew a lot of kids who had asthma that
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: seem to have changed now. Like people I know who
• 21:13
  Speaker 4: have children, they don't seem... to talk about asthma as
• 21:16
  Speaker 4: much as i did but apparently in certain areas depending
• 21:19
  Speaker 4: on industrial pollution levels you find a lot more asthma
• 21:22
  Speaker 4: so there is definitely that uh but it's not something
• 21:26
  Speaker 4: that i've personally experienced but i've watched people have asthma
• 21:29
  Speaker 4: attacks and it seemed terrifying it was like they're like
• 21:31
  Speaker 4: drowning in the air your.
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: Chest tightens up the uh what is it bend What
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: are those particles in your lungs?
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: Thank you. Alveoli. That's right. They contract, I want to say.
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: And the reason that people are able to mitigate an
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: asthma attack almost like with an EpiPen when you're having,
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: you know, an attack.
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: Anaphylactic shock.
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, anaphylactic shock is with an inhaler that's albuterol, if
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: I'm not mistaken, that literally causes those very, very important
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: parts of your lungs to expand again.
• 22:03
  Speaker 4: Okay. You get the dilution.
• 22:04
  Speaker 6: Okay.
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And let's cast our memory back there, by the way, folks,
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: to something totally unproblematic called the Columbian Exchange. The Europeans
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: had no idea what tomatoes or potatoes or llamas were
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: until that interaction occurred. That exchange brought with it many
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: horrible things, one of those being tobacco. We don't know
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: a ton about who invented the first cigarette, but guys,
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: it was probably a hobo in Spain.
• 22:41
  Speaker 4: We do know that Walter Raleigh made it such that
• 22:44
  Speaker 4: you could smoke it without hacking the entire time. He
• 22:47
  Speaker 4: was the one who came into curing tobacco, and that's
• 22:49
  Speaker 4: how Europeans were able to suddenly be able to Stomach
• 22:52
  Speaker 4: it long enough to become a Joneser for it.
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: Is he the guy that invented that dope, long cigarette
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: holder that you put it in that would make you
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: look like.
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: A real aristocratic gentleman? Yeah, I don't know.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: Who is that legend?
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: What about filters? I guess this is probably pre-filters.
• 23:07
  Speaker 4: Oh, yeah, definitely. That's much more of a 20th century invention.
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: But you're right. The curing is what made it more palatable.
• 23:14
  Speaker 4: Yes, exactly. Because otherwise you just retch and hack the
• 23:17
  Speaker 4: whole time and you're like, this is not.
• 23:18
  Speaker 7: Going to work.
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: This is fun.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: I like this. Yeah, because it was supposed to be
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: in indigenous land. It's like a ceremony.
• 23:27
  Speaker 6: That's right.
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: Or they chew the leaves as well. Much like the
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: coca leaves.
• 23:31
  Speaker 4: Also, you throw it in a pile, light it on fire,
• 23:33
  Speaker 4: then you just kind of fan some of the secondhand
• 23:35
  Speaker 4: smoke into your face as opposed to.
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: That's what my father always threatened to do if he
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: ever caught me smoking.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: Oh, really?
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: Put me in a closet and make... No, it's just
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: the old joke of like.
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: I'm going to make you sit in a closet and
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: smoke the whole carton of cigarettes.
• 23:45
  Speaker 6: Oh, yeah.
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: I know kids whose dads did that. They made them
• 23:48
  Speaker 4: smoke the whole pack. It's a thing, man. Yeah, and
• 23:50
  Speaker 4: then they never wanted it. They turned green the whole thing.
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: It is a thing, like Pinocchio.
• 23:54
  Speaker 5: And to jump in here from my extensive research that
• 23:57
  Speaker 5: I've been doing for the last 45 seconds.
• 24:00
  Speaker 6: It does not seem like any one person is attributed
• 24:04
  Speaker 6: for inventing the cigarette holder.
• 24:05
  Speaker 4: Fascinating.
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: It's to the point of this whole conversation.
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: It's like people figured out how to consume stuff in
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: odd ways. And there's a lot of parallel thinking when
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: it came to like ingesting things that got you, you know, faded.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: And there was one, there were multiple people at some
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: point in history who said, I want my fingers not
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: to smell as much like tobacco.
• 24:28
  Speaker 5: And the thing is, it was also because there was
• 24:30
  Speaker 5: no filter. And so it was just kind of came
• 24:33
  Speaker 5: out of necessity, just not wanting it to be nasty
• 24:36
  Speaker 5: and messy.
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: Oh, I got you.
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So we do have to give, by way of tangent,
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: we do have to give a reluctant shout out to
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: a guy named James H. Albury Bonsack.
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: That's a name. I know, I know.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: Speaking of nutsack.
• 24:52
  Speaker 6: We got sucking on nothing.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: Yep, we're a family show.
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: Are we sure we're.
• 24:59
  Speaker 6: Not doing a James Joyce episode?
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: Oh, geez.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: Well, the reason we're shouting out our buddy James is
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: because historians believe he was the first guy to invent
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: the an automatic cigarette rolling machine way back in 1881.
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: Those are dope. Have you ever invest with one of those?
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: A hundred percent. The little ones.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: For rolling a joint or something. I mean, they're like
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: really great.
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: You put the filter in on one side, you sprinkle
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: it in and it's almost like a little, uh, printing press.
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 25:31
  Speaker 4: It's a perfect analogy.
• 25:33
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 25:34
  Speaker 4: And we used to use those for parties. Do the roll,
• 25:35
  Speaker 4: like just tons of joints.
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: Copious joints.
• 25:38
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: It's an assembly line. A lot of them.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: And, This popularized cigarettes, big deal for a long time.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: A lot of people understand more about lung health and
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: cancer and cardiac issues and cool uncles and so on.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: So cigarettes were before cigarettes. That point for decades, they
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: were portrayed as medicinal. Now, we mentioned earlier how this
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: zeitgeisty thing occurred in the world. We would actually have doctors.
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: recommending cigarettes, is it okay for us to play a clip?
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: Oh my God, yeah.
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: And I hope it involves like a pretty lady dressed
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: up as a cigarette showing some leg.
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: That's all I'm going to say.
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: It has a problematic series of doctors.
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: Fair, fair. Here we go. Oh man. All right.
• 26:31
  Speaker 7: You know, if you were to follow a busy doctor
• 26:33
  Speaker 7: as he makes his daily round of calls, you would
• 26:36
  Speaker 7: find yourself having a mighty busy time keeping up with him.
• 26:40
  Speaker 7: Time out for many men of medicine usually means just
• 26:43
  Speaker 7: long enough to enjoy a cigarette. And because they know
• 26:47
  Speaker 7: what a pleasure it is to smoke a mild, good-tasting cigarette,
• 26:51
  Speaker 7: they're particular about the brand they choose. In a repeated
• 26:55
  Speaker 7: national survey, doctors in all branches of medicine, doctors in
• 27:00
  Speaker 7: all parts of the country were asked, what cigarette do you.
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: Smoke, doctor?
• 27:05
  Speaker 7: Once again, the brand named most was Camel. Yes, according
• 27:09
  Speaker 7: to this repeated nationwide survey, more doctors smoke camels than
• 27:13
  Speaker 7: any other cigarette. Why not change to camels for the
• 27:17
  Speaker 7: next 30 days and see what a difference it makes
• 27:20
  Speaker 7: in your smoking enjoyment? See how camels agree with your throat.
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: And we'll stop it there.
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: Not dressed as a cigarette, but a very pretty lady
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: smoking and puffing away at a dart.
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: Jesus Hubert Christ.
• 27:33
  Speaker 6: If I could jump in here.
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: I'm sold. I mean, you know.
• 27:37
  Speaker 5: As somebody who smoked camels for 15 years and quit
• 27:39
  Speaker 5: four years ago, I never found them soothing on my throat.
• 27:45
  Speaker 4: That's why you gotta smoke the menthols.
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: You gotta smoke the menthols.
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: Turkish domestic.
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. It's like a lozenge in cigarette form.
• 27:54
  Speaker 4: Oh my god, menthols. My uncles used to smoke those
• 27:56
  Speaker 4: and I definitely caged one or two from them and
• 27:59
  Speaker 4: that cool breeze afterwards was always kind of shocking to me.
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: It's super shocking.
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: It wakes you up. This is not an advertisement. I
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: feel like legal is gonna get us. This is not
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: an advertisement for cigarettes, but we have Right. We have
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: to remember that at the time before people figured out
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: this stuff, medicated cigarettes were quite the rage, just like
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: we were talking about with vapes or indeed, Zaret, with
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: f * * * ing hummus, you could add extra flavors.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: And one of the most infamous ones we found comes
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: to us courtesy of Pharmacy Times. It's something called pages, inhalers,
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: and we've got a couple of photographs of their medicated cigarettes,
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: which does sound pretty crazy. Noel, can you give us
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: just a couple of quotations from this box?
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, absolutely.
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: Oh, and let me just say, can I also just say,
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: and this is more of a collector's thing, like a
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: Pokemon type situation. The laws in other countries surrounding the
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: sale of cigarettes, to Zarin's earlier point about how it
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: is in San Francisco or in the Bay Area, fascinating
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: because when you buy any brand of cigarettes in Europe,
• 29:18
  Speaker 3: or other countries, they're going to have a picture of
• 29:21
  Speaker 3: a withered fetus on the pack or a limp penis
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: or some sort of person wasted away, emaciated in a
• 29:31
  Speaker 3: hospital bed and with often these captions that are very
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: like guilting you into quitting smoking. Oh my gosh.
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: So I like to buy them just for collecting.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: As a completionist. A hundred percent. The favorite one, by
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: the way, that I've ever seen, the most heartbreaking one,
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: is from South Korea. There's a picture of a small child,
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: old enough to stand, and the parents are only waist down.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: And there's smoke everywhere and they're arguing and the child
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: is crying. Yeah.
• 30:05
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: That's a gnarly one. I've also seen one with amputated limbs.
• 30:09
  Speaker 3: Another one, a very popular one, is, again, the kind
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: of guilting you about how you're killing your child. Really,
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: I mean, I think it's a good thing. I don't
• 30:17
  Speaker 3: know how effective it is, to be honest. You've got
• 30:20
  Speaker 3: to be interested to see stats about that. But, Ben,
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: I bring that up because what we're talking about here
• 30:26
  Speaker 3: is the exact opposite of that.
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: Page's inhaler, 95 medicated cigarettes for the temporary relief. of
• 30:35
  Speaker 3: the paroxysms of asthma and to aid in the relief
• 30:39
  Speaker 3: of the discomforts due to excessive secretions in the nasal
• 30:42
  Speaker 3: passage associated with hay fever and simple nasal irritation.
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: And if you turn the pack around, you will see
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: step-by-step instructions, which, by the way, don't make anything better.
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: They go this way. Exhaust the lungs of air, then
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: fill the mouth with smoke and take a deep breath
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: drawing the smoke down into the lungs hold a few
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: seconds then exhale through mouth and nostrils prescribed dosage for Well.
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: That's conservative. At least they're not telling you to smoke
• 31:19
  Speaker 3: the whole pack. And then also, then peek over your
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: cool guy sunglasses.
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: Right, right. And then roll the pack up in the
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: sleeve of your leather jacket.
• 31:32
  Speaker 4: Do we know what they were medicated with? Is this
• 31:34
  Speaker 4: like in the era of cocaine lozenges? Is this like
• 31:36
  Speaker 4: the same? We do, actually.
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: It's pretty close. They had alkaloids from stromonium leaves, and
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: then they had chestnut leaves, tea leaves. Cola nuts.
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So, you know, Cokie stuff. Yes.
• 31:49
  Speaker 4: Cokie and Cokie Jason.
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: Cokie Jason, kissing cousin. And these were not necessarily, as
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: we can tell, meant to be recreational, but it's not
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: like a doctor had to prescribe you a specific brand.
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: You could just roll up to, you know, your soda
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: jerk and say, I saw an ad and a lot
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: of doctors are telling me. these smokes are perfect for asthma.
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 32:18
  Speaker 3: I love the idea of doctors taking smoke breaks, too.
• 32:21
  Speaker 3: I just, the concept of that is just really funny
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: to me.
• 32:24
  Speaker 4: Or, like, you go to see the doctor, you're in, like,
• 32:26
  Speaker 4: you know, his, like, his little room with him and, like,
• 32:28
  Speaker 4: the nurse, and he's just, like, leaned over smoking on you,
• 32:30
  Speaker 4: ashing right above you.
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You could smoke in hospitals back
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: in the day.
• 32:35
  Speaker 6: Oh, yeah.
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: In the waiting rooms, especially.
• 32:37
  Speaker 7: Yeah. I mean.
• 32:38
  Speaker 3: I think we're all, we're at, we're of an age
• 32:40
  Speaker 3: where we probably vaguely remember being able to smoke in airports.
• 32:43
  Speaker 4: Oh, on, on airplanes. I remember the ashtrays being filled
• 32:46
  Speaker 4: with like the cigarette butts.
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: Definitely.
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: What you, uh, you real quick, Zarin, uh, Gut check.
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: You did fly on planes where you could smoke?
• 32:56
  Speaker 4: Oh, yeah. It was much later than people remember because
• 32:59
  Speaker 4: the first time I flew was 1989. And there was
• 33:02
  Speaker 4: still cigarettes allowed in the plane in 1989. There was
• 33:04
  Speaker 4: a section. There was a smoking section. And the ashtrays
• 33:07
  Speaker 4: still had cigarette butts in them if you weren't in
• 33:09
  Speaker 4: the now new smoking section. So, yeah. And I also
• 33:12
  Speaker 4: remember in restaurants— people have in the smoking section and
• 33:15
  Speaker 4: there's like nothing there's wasn't like filtration and like you
• 33:19
  Speaker 4: get in casinos now instead it was just smoke wafting
• 33:23
  Speaker 4: over while you're eating your your you know your breakfast.
• 33:26
  Speaker 3: Casinos, by the way, the last bastion of indoor smoking.
• 33:29
  Speaker 3: And they do have insane filtration systems. And now most
• 33:33
  Speaker 3: of them are moving away from, you know, just, you know,
• 33:36
  Speaker 3: open smoking to like they have one little casino room
• 33:40
  Speaker 3: with slot machines and, you know, where all the smokers go.
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: Before we continue, Max, I see you, man. You're having
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: like 17 million ideas at once. What's going on?
• 33:51
  Speaker 5: Okay, so I looked it up to back up Zarin's point.
• 33:55
  Speaker 5: 1988 is when the ban of smoking on planes first
• 33:59
  Speaker 5: came in. It was for flights under two hours. And
• 34:03
  Speaker 5: then in 1990, it was banned on flights under six hours.
• 34:07
  Speaker 5: It wasn't until 2000.
• 34:12
  Speaker 6: 2000 is when it banned for all flights.
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: So they're saying in 1988, they're saying, Well, you know,
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: two hours and one minute in the air. What the
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: hell are we going to do? Tell people not to smoke?
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: Smoke up, Johnny.
• 34:24
  Speaker 3: They're great.
• 34:25
  Speaker 4: Got a bunch of jonesing passengers? No, thank you.
• 34:29
  Speaker 6: So like you go to New York, you're screwed. But
• 34:31
  Speaker 6: you go into Seattle, absolutely light up.
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: And Noel, you were going to say you traveled a lot.
• 34:36
  Speaker 3: Oh, just when I was little, my mom was an
• 34:39
  Speaker 3: opera singer and she would be singing in different countries
• 34:43
  Speaker 3: and I would go and visit her. So I actually
• 34:46
  Speaker 3: flew by myself a decent amount when I was pretty little.
• 34:48
  Speaker 3: And I absolutely flew in the late 80s and remember
• 34:52
  Speaker 3: exactly what Zarin's talking about. And weirdly, even after the cutoff,
• 34:57
  Speaker 3: obviously they didn't just immediately retrofit those planes to get
• 35:00
  Speaker 3: rid of the ashtrays.
• 35:00
  Speaker 4: Those ashtrays were around for years. Yes, totally true.
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: It's like seeing signs at your local gas stations that
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: say unleaded only.
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: Right. I want the leaded, man.
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: Like at this point, what's going on?
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: It's also, we also have to admit that around the world,
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: Smoking cigarettes is more normalized than it would be in California.
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: So you go to international airports, et cetera. There's always
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: that one little room, right? Good place to meet weirdos.
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: That's for sure.
• 35:35
  Speaker 6: It's a great place to meet weirdos.
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: So we're going to pause here for a moment. This
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: is a two-part episode. We've got the entire week with Zarin. Zarin,
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: thank you so much. for coming on the show. Now, obviously,
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: through the magic of editing, you know everything that's going
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: to happen in episodes.
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: That pause for a moment was several days for you
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: out there.
• 35:59
  Speaker 4: Yes, pause for the cause. No, I'm stoked to be
• 36:01
  Speaker 4: part of this. Thank you all for having me.
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: The best, man. So much fun.
• 36:04
  Speaker 3: Huge thanks to Zarin, our guest. Huge thanks to Max.
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: Say no, just say no, Williams. Alex Williams, who composed
• 36:13
  Speaker 3: our theme.
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: Big, big thanks to A.J. Bahamas Jacobs, a.k.a. The Puzzler.
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: A tepid I know what you did to Jonathan Strickland, a.k.a.
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: The Quister.
• 36:23
  Speaker 3: Ben, did you know that if you lick Jonathan Strickland's
• 36:25
  Speaker 3: bald head, nothing happens?
• 36:29
  Speaker 6: I to the test. That is true.
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: Well, thank you. Thank you guys for being first to
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: the post.
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: You had to try.
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: That's saving Zarin and I at a party for sure.
• 36:40
  Speaker 4: Instead of getting high, you get nigh.
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: Got to remember that. Exactly. He talks in a funny voice.
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: He does. He does.
• 36:47
  Speaker 4: Oh, my gosh.
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: And he listens just for the credits, Zarin, by the way. Also,
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: at the end of every episode, we love to shout
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: out Ridiculous Crime.
• 36:56
  Speaker 3: And the Rude Dudes over at Ridiculous Crime.
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: If you like us, you'll like them, is what Ben
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: will say.
• 37:00
  Speaker 6: If you dig.
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: Us, you will love the Rude Dudes. So Zarin, how
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: would you describe the show to someone who's never heard it?
• 37:09
  Speaker 4: Well, as we always, we have our tagline. It's 99%
• 37:12
  Speaker 4: murder-free and 100% ridiculous. So it's true crime without the gore,
• 37:16
  Speaker 4: without the blood. And we focus on Much more of
• 37:19
  Speaker 4: like art crimes, book thefts, heists, forgeries, ridiculous scenarios, people
• 37:25
  Speaker 4: who think they're somebody that they are not, people who
• 37:27
  Speaker 4: pretend that they are somebody that they are not. And
• 37:29
  Speaker 4: it gets to the funny side of true crime.
• 37:32
  Speaker 3: And it turns out there's more than enough of these
• 37:34
  Speaker 3: kinds of stories to sustain your podcast for many years.
• 37:37
  Speaker 4: Oh, my goodness.
• 37:37
  Speaker 7: Are there?
• 37:38
  Speaker 4: It is a literal treasure trove. And they keep making more.
• 37:41
  Speaker 4: I mean, it doesn't stop.
• 37:44
  Speaker 3: I just remember when we first started this show, I
• 37:46
  Speaker 3: was worried that we were going to run out of
• 37:47
  Speaker 3: silly history stories. And the more you do this kind
• 37:50
  Speaker 3: of thing, these podcasts, the more you realize that life
• 37:53
  Speaker 3: just creates more weird stories for you.
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: Exactly.
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: Hey, Zarin, real quick, what are you, Elizabeth, and Dave
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: working on next? Like, what's in the queue if you
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: got some spoilers?
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: Oh, OK.
• 38:05
  Speaker 4: Let's see. I just did one recently about the Black
• 38:10
  Speaker 4: Tuna Gang, which is a bunch of people who were
• 38:13
  Speaker 4: the pot smugglers in the Florida area who set the
• 38:16
  Speaker 4: precedent for the cocaine dealers and the cocaine era of
• 38:20
  Speaker 4: the late 70s and early 80s. So it turns out.
• 38:22
  Speaker 4: A bunch of like quasi hippies from the Philadelphia area
• 38:25
  Speaker 4: went down to Miami and introduced the idea of like,
• 38:28
  Speaker 4: you know, we need some go fast boats and we
• 38:30
  Speaker 4: need to go into these coves that nobody ever goes
• 38:32
  Speaker 4: to on the western side of Florida. And then we
• 38:34
  Speaker 4: can just spread this stuff around. We'll get a bunch
• 38:36
  Speaker 4: of big, nice houses. Nobody will look twice. It was
• 38:39
  Speaker 4: like most of what the cocaine people then said, you
• 38:42
  Speaker 4: know what? That's a great model. Let's do that. But
• 38:44
  Speaker 4: with a drug that's easier to move.
• 38:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and also a little more innocuous and probably involved
• 38:49
  Speaker 3: a lot less, like, gun crime.
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: Oh, God, yes. That was the big difference.
• 38:53
  Speaker 4: Suddenly the murder rates went ratcheting up, and that's when
• 38:55
  Speaker 4: everyone was like, let's throw billions of dollars at stopping this.
• 38:58
  Speaker 4: Because before it was like, maybe we got, like, four
• 39:00
  Speaker 4: DEA agents in Florida, and now it's, like, you know, hundreds.
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: I can't wait.
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: I didn't know about that at all, Zarin. I can't
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: wait to check that out.
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I can't wait to check that out. Thank you
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: again so much, Zarin, and everybody tune in later this week.
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: If you are feeling like an irritated reindeer or a
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: fussy baby, boy, do we have news for you.
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: We'll see you next time, folks.
• 39:30
  Speaker 3: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
• 39:34
  Speaker 3: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.