Latest / Ridiculous History / Ridiculous Stuff We Didn't Get To in 2026, Part Two: Apple Trees, Ice Cream Wars and Weird Nuclear Gadgets

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Ridiculous Stuff We Didn't Get To in 2026, Part Two: Apple Trees, Ice Cream Wars and Weird Nuclear Gadgets · 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. Look, this is our super producer, Mr.
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  Speaker 1: Max Williams. That's Noel Brown. They call me Ben Bullen.
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  Speaker 1: And we figured out a few years ago a concept
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  Speaker 1: of a clip show because, Noel, as you know, there's
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  Speaker 1: a ton of stuff that we research and can't quite
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  Speaker 1: fit into an episode.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I like the clip show concept.
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  Speaker 3: I did point out last time that it's a little
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  Speaker 3: different than your, you know, clearly run of the mill
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  Speaker 3: 90s sitcom and Simpsons-esque clip shows where you are literally
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  Speaker 3: seeing some frame story surrounding the repetition of clips of
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  Speaker 3: episodes you've already seen. These are things that may have
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  Speaker 3: could have been featured in episodes you've already heard. But
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  Speaker 3: you've never heard these bits before. So we do set
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  Speaker 3: ourselves apart in that respect. I would maybe posit more
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  Speaker 3: of a listicle show.
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  Speaker 2: There we go.
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  Speaker 1: It's a modular approach. And essentially what you're hearing here, folks,
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  Speaker 1: is various examples of times that we got super obsessed
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  Speaker 1: with rabbit holes. We've been going through kind of an
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  Speaker 1: Americana folklore phase this year, and we recently had an
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  Speaker 1: episode about the legendary Johnny Appleseed, or as we decided
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  Speaker 1: to call him in the episode, Johnny Apps.
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  Speaker 2: Johnny Apps, like Willie Shatz.
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  Speaker 1: Yes.
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  Speaker 2: Before him, well, after him, yes.
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  Speaker 3: So the last known survivor, we'll call it, of Johnny Apps...
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  Speaker 3: Reign of positivity.
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  Speaker 2: I could say. Yeah, is a tree, as you can imagine.
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  Speaker 3: An ancient apple tree that lives on to this day
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  Speaker 3: in a farm in a place, a very cool sounding
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  Speaker 3: place called Nova in Ohio.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, Nova, Ohio. This is where Johnny Appleseed, the actual guy,
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  Speaker 1: Johnny actual Appleseed, is believed to have planted a whole orchard.
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  Speaker 1: of what are called Rambo apple trees in 1830, and
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  Speaker 1: I had no idea there was such a thing as
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  Speaker 1: Rambo apple trees.
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  Speaker 3: Do you think John Rambo was named after the trees
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  Speaker 3: or were the trees named after?
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  Speaker 2: No, no, I wouldn't make it. John Rambo, of course,
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  Speaker 2: the fictional Sylvester Stallone, problematically Americana, a bit of an
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  Speaker 2: American folk hero in his own way. First blood. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Like I love kill Brown people. Oh, geez.
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  Speaker 1: Well, that aside, the apple trees that Johnny apparently planted,
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  Speaker 1: still do produce fruit. You can learn more about this
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  Speaker 1: by going to nurserymag.com, where you'll see the news about
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  Speaker 1: the last living Johnny Appleseed tree.
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  Speaker 3: Now, Ben, I seem to recall there was an issue
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  Speaker 3: with the way he planted. It kind of caused like mealy,
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  Speaker 3: kind of gross apples that you wouldn't want to nosh on,
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  Speaker 3: but you could definitely mash them up and make them
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  Speaker 3: into a bit of a mash, an alcoholic concoction.
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  Speaker 2: Is that true of these legacy trees as well?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, we talked a little bit about this in our
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  Speaker 1: previous exploration. The issue is that every time you make
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  Speaker 1: an apple from a seed.
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  Speaker 2: An angel gets its wings?
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  Speaker 1: An angel gets its wings and plays a genetic lottery
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  Speaker 1: because apples don't do what we call breeding true to seed.
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  Speaker 2: Ben, if I win the genetic lottery, I won't say anything,
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  Speaker 2: but there will be signs.
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  Speaker 1: There will be signs, yeah. Think about it this way.
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  Speaker 1: You know, if we... plant a tomato, we are going
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  Speaker 1: to get a plant pretty much identical to.
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  Speaker 2: The parent plant, but apples are built different, homies. Because
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  Speaker 2: of the grafting, right?
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  Speaker 1: Well, you have to graft because of their love of mutation.
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  Speaker 1: The apple genome has, and this is true, more genes
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  Speaker 1: than the human genome. Their heterozygous, meaning that their genetic
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  Speaker 1: makeup is a mix of somewhat unpredictable DNA from two
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  Speaker 1: different parents.
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  Speaker 2: I'm guessing, Ben, this is not the case with oranges. Otherwise,
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  Speaker 2: people wouldn't, you know, use that as a thing for
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  Speaker 2: two things that are completely different. That's right.
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  Speaker 1: That's right.
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  Speaker 3: I'm on a dad joke tear today, guys. We're having
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  Speaker 3: some big Friday energy on Thursday.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, you're on fire.
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  Speaker 1: And it is Thursday.
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  Speaker 2: I forgot.
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  Speaker 1: We have to talk about nominative determinism, one of our
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  Speaker 1: favorite inside jokes today. because we found an explanation about
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  Speaker 1: how apple mutations occur from a guy named napton cidery yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah i mean jonathan apple seed as if that weren't
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  Speaker 3: enough you know that was a was a nickname yes
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  Speaker 3: that's right uh napton cidery which if he didn't start
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  Speaker 3: a cidery That was called the Napton cider.
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  Speaker 2: It already sounds like it should be a thing.
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  Speaker 1: I don't want to drink a cider from some guy
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  Speaker 1: named Napton. I don't know why.
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  Speaker 2: Why not? You drink a wine from Napa.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I should finally learn about wine at some point.
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  Speaker 2: You know what's really big these days, Ben? What's that?
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  Speaker 2: Natural wine. Natural wine. What's the difference? Natural wine. It's natural, man.
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  Speaker 2: I don't know. Oh, my God. I mean, I guess
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  Speaker 2: most wines, it's a subgenre of wine. What's his face?
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  Speaker 2: Eric Wareheim of Tim and Eric fame. Oh, yeah.
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  Speaker 3: He has a winery called Las Charas. He wrote a
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  Speaker 3: great cookbook, too, by the way. He's a smart dude
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  Speaker 3: and an interesting guy and a real bon vivant. And
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  Speaker 3: he loves food and wine. And he has this natural
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  Speaker 3: wine company called Las Charas. And they have one called
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  Speaker 3: Glue Glue, which is fun because when you pour a wine,
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  Speaker 3: what sound does it make?
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  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Pretty, pretty cute.
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  Speaker 3: The most popular ones, you'll start to see them at like,
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  Speaker 3: you know, nice restaurants. Really popular ones right now are
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  Speaker 3: orange and they are naturally fizzy. Just a little bit.
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  Speaker 3: Something to do with the process of how they're made.
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  Speaker 3: And they have these kind of floaty little bits in them.
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  Speaker 2: Sulfides, I think they're called. And they just have a vibe, man.
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  Speaker 2: They're really nice. They're really refreshing.
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  Speaker 3: And I'm a huge fan of natural wines.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, natural wine is pure grape juice that's fermented without
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  Speaker 4: anything else. There's no sulfites, artificial coloring, sugar, yeast.
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  Speaker 2: Tannins?
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  Speaker 1: Where are we at with tannins?
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  Speaker 2: That's what the floaty bits are. They're not sulfites.
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  Speaker 3: Sulfites you will find in more traditionally fermented wines. But
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  Speaker 3: the floaty bits in this, it's a feature, not a bug.
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  Speaker 3: It just shows you that it was really done correctly.
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  Speaker 4: And there's also stuff about how the best practices you'd
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  Speaker 4: have to do with them and stuff like that. I'm
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  Speaker 4: getting this from Dry Farm Wines, by the way.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, OK. Dry farm wines. Also, I'm grateful to you
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  Speaker 1: guys for teaching me the stuff that cool kids know.
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  Speaker 1: You know, I would just be walking to a winery
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  Speaker 1: and saying the one thing I know about wine, which
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  Speaker 1: is that red wine has tannins.
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  Speaker 2: It does have tannins.
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  Speaker 3: And just to correct myself, the bits floating in the
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  Speaker 3: natural wines. are sediments that are made up from leftover
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  Speaker 3: grape solids, dead yeast particles, or natural crystals that derive
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  Speaker 3: from the process. But we are not talking about natural wine,
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  Speaker 3: but that was a delightfully refreshing aside.
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  Speaker 1: And speaking of asideries, Napton Sidery writes in regard to
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  Speaker 1: apple mutation, think of it like human children. You and
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  Speaker 1: your partner might have a child, but that child is
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  Speaker 1: not a clone of you. They are a unique remix
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  Speaker 1: of your DNA. So imagine if you have 50 children,
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  Speaker 1: they're all going to look different, some taller, some shorter,
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  Speaker 1: some with blue eyes, some with brown. And Sidery, I think,
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  Speaker 1: makes an excellent analogy here about how apples work.
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  Speaker 2: Is that what they mean when they say the apple
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  Speaker 2: doesn't fall too far from the tree?
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  Speaker 1: You know, I was thinking about that, and that's a
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  Speaker 1: really weird one because the apple does genetically seem to
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  Speaker 1: fall pretty far from its parent.
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  Speaker 2: That's true. An apple fruit is the ovary of the tree,
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  Speaker 2: and the seeds inside are, to stick with the comparison,
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  Speaker 2: the children. So the mother would be the tree that
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  Speaker 2: the fruit grew on. The father would be the unknown
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  Speaker 2: tree that a particular bee visited. Before landing on the
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  Speaker 2: mother's seductive blossom. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: So every single seed in every single apple is genetically unique.
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  Speaker 1: So this is a problem Johnny Appleseed had. If you
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  Speaker 1: plant 10 seeds from one apple, you will get 10
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  Speaker 1: totally different trees. And most of these, to our earlier point,
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  Speaker 1: most of these wild apples were that are called pippins,
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  Speaker 1: by the way, they make small bitter fruit. You can
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  Speaker 1: mash it down for cider, but you wouldn't want to
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  Speaker 1: pull one off a tree and eat it. It tastes
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  Speaker 1: pretty gross.
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  Speaker 3: And that's why the grafting is the move, because that
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  Speaker 3: gives you predictable genetic results.
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  Speaker 1: A hundred percent. And while we are on the subject
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  Speaker 1: of food, we have to return to another recent obsession
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  Speaker 1: of ours, which is the iced creams.
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  Speaker 2: Ah, yes, the iced creams, the soft-served iced creams, Ben.
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  Speaker 3: This was a little bit that I was kind of
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  Speaker 3: sad we didn't get to in that history of soft-serve
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  Speaker 3: ice cream episode because it introduces, much like in our
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  Speaker 3: discussion of Atlanta streets earlier, a bit of a true
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  Speaker 3: crime story.
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  Speaker 2: Which, you know, it's okay every now and then. It happens.
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  Speaker 2: It does happen. So you'll recall Tom Carvell, the creator
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  Speaker 2: of Fudgy the Whale and other delicious ice cream-based characters, including,
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  Speaker 2: there was another weird one, Sugar Puss. What? Cookie Puss.
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  Speaker 1: Is that real?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Cookie Puss.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, wow.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Is it like an octopus that's a cookie and also
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  Speaker 1: ice cream?
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  Speaker 2: I think he must be if we're sticking with the
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  Speaker 2: nautical theme.
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  Speaker 1: Let's see.
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  Speaker 2: Cookie. I don't know. I don't think we talked about
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  Speaker 2: Cookie Puss. No. No, we did. Cookie Puss is not
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  Speaker 2: an octopus at all. He's just a face because that's
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  Speaker 2: what they used to call a face, your puss. Your puss, yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Which doesn't really stand.
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  Speaker 1: Up to modern scrutiny. Well, you know, the English language
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  Speaker 1: is a living document.
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  Speaker 2: So, nope.
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  Speaker 1: I remember from your research in our history of soft
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  Speaker 1: serve episodes that Tom Carvell passed away, unfortunately, in 1990.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and it was maybe less of a true crime
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  Speaker 3: story at the end of the day than just sort
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  Speaker 3: of like a succession kerfuffle, right? So Tom Carvell, like
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  Speaker 3: I mentioned before, I got derailed by Cookie Puss, passed.
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  Speaker 2: Away in 1990. And when he did, a really gnarly
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  Speaker 2: feud exploded between his and his widow, Agnes Carvell's fortune.
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  Speaker 2: as well as their charitable trusts.
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  Speaker 3: The trustees, Mildred Arcadapain and Robert Davis, were essentially emboldened
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  Speaker 3: by mutual wills. They limited Agnes' access to the funds
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  Speaker 3: and were later sued by the New York Attorney General
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  Speaker 3: for mismanagement of the funds, prompting the trustees to resign
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  Speaker 3: in 1996. However, Tom's niece, Tom Carvell, Pamela Carvel escalated
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  Speaker 3: the whole gnarly affair with some pretty intense accusations, unsuccessfully
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  Speaker 3: claiming in 2007 in a bid to exhume Tom Carvel's body,
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  Speaker 3: alleging that he was murdered by the trustees in order
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  Speaker 3: to hide embezzlement.
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  Speaker 1: Well, first off, I am so excited. for all of
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  Speaker 1: us to one day get our own charitable trust.
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  Speaker 2: I can't wait.
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  Speaker 1: But also, yeah, this does feel like true crime, Noel,
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  Speaker 1: because Pamela Carvel is saying that her uncle was murdered
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  Speaker 1: because of financial crimes. And as you found in your research,
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  Speaker 1: Courts repeatedly rejected her suits. She brought this to the
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  Speaker 1: courts at multiple instances.
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  Speaker 2: Well, $ 28 million worth of instances, Ben. I mean, we're
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  Speaker 2: talking gnarly court costs and fees that ultimately led to
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  Speaker 2: a big fat nothing.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, because they're trying to control charitable entities and
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  Speaker 1: they're burning through their nest egg.
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  Speaker 3: So it does seem that it's very unlikely that Mr.
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  Speaker 3: Carvel was the victim of foul play and that his
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  Speaker 3: heir was barking up the wrong tree. And, you know,
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  Speaker 3: in doing and in pursuing these allegations burned up quite
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  Speaker 3: a bit of her inheritance.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: And. There is definitely a tale to be told there.
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  Speaker 1: Let's see if we can pitch it to our friends
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  Speaker 1: over at Ridiculous Crime.
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  Speaker 2: Good call. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: While we're on the subject of ice cream crimes, Noel,
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  Speaker 1: you and I mentioned this either on Stuff They Don't
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  Speaker 1: Want You To Know or here on this show. We
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  Speaker 1: have to give a shout out to another recent ice
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  Speaker 1: cream movement, the Free Ben and Jerry's movement.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, man, we were in a green room doing this
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  Speaker 3: little speaking event for ad week thing here in Atlanta,
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  Speaker 3: and there's this kindly older gentleman in the back. I
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  Speaker 3: kind of walked in late, and I was just introduced
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  Speaker 3: to him as another fellow Ben, and I missed the
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  Speaker 3: detail that he was Ben of Ben and Jerry's fame.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, and I've got to admit, Noel, you know this well.
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  Speaker 1: When Bens meet each other, we typically– tend to grow
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  Speaker 1: up instantly. And we should probably ask more questions because
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  Speaker 1: a name doesn't mean you are immediately someone's soul brother.
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  Speaker 1: But in general, Ben's tend to get along. So we
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  Speaker 1: later learned this guy was actually the ice cream man.
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  Speaker 1: And not only that, he has since 2021 been fighting
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  Speaker 1: a corporate takeover, a big baddie named Unilever. which owns
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  Speaker 1: another ice cream brand called Magnum, has apparently compromised the
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  Speaker 1: values of Ben & Jerry's. Now, how would we describe
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: Ben & Jerry's ice cream to anybody who's never heard
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  Speaker 1: of it?
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  Speaker 2: Well, it's delicious.
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  Speaker 3: You may know some of their more popular flavors, such
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  Speaker 3: as Chunky Monkey, Cherry Garcia.
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  Speaker 2: They love a pun, dude.
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  Speaker 3: They love a pun, and they love a hippie.
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  Speaker 2: They never met a hippie they didn't like.
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  Speaker 3: The pair were based in Vermont, and they look it
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  Speaker 3: in their images, as did Mr.
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  Speaker 2: Bennett, by the way, short for Bennett.
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  Speaker 3: You know, I swear in my mind he was wearing
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  Speaker 3: a puffy jacket, but he may not have actually been.
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  Speaker 3: But as you can imagine, that part of the country
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  Speaker 3: here in the United States is well known for its activism.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, yeah.
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  Speaker 3: And Ben & Jerry's as a brand has always kind
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  Speaker 3: of leaned into that in the writings on the back
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  Speaker 3: of their pints, some special one-off kind of drops that
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  Speaker 3: they will do that benefit certain charitable organizations. And that's
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  Speaker 3: Still the case today, at least in theory, but they,
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  Speaker 3: at least Mr. Ben, does not feel that the Magnum
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  Speaker 3: Unilever brand have honored the spirit of their agreement when
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  Speaker 3: they acquired the Ben & Jerry's brand in continuing in
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  Speaker 3: that legacy of charitable activities.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely.
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  Speaker 1: And I think that's an excellent summation. We were surprised
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  Speaker 1: to learn that Mr. Cohen has done something Old school protesting,
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  Speaker 1: old school activism with Magnum. He gate crashed the Magnum
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  Speaker 1: Capital Market Day in London and his got arrested.
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  Speaker 2: Right.
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  Speaker 1: I think he did get in trouble. And I can't
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  Speaker 1: wait for us to have him on the show to
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  Speaker 1: tell us about the ice cream wars.
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  Speaker 3: Fingers crossed. He gave us his assistance info. And I
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  Speaker 3: think whether he's on. This show or stuff they don't
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  Speaker 3: want you to know, honestly, it fits both bills. We'll
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: figure that out off mic. But it seems pretty likely
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  Speaker 3: that we'll get to have a chat with Mr.
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  Speaker 2: Bennett Cohen. Yes, yeah.
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  Speaker 1: And if you want to sign the petitions they have
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  Speaker 1: to Free Ben & Jerry's, you can go to FreeBenAndJerrys.com.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, and lest we bury the lead a little bit,
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  Speaker 3: literally they just are trying to wrest control of this
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  Speaker 3: once independent brand from their customers.
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  Speaker 2: Now corporate overlords.
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  Speaker 3: And I don't know exactly all of the mechanisms that
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  Speaker 3: they're employing other than just, you know, good old fashioned protests.
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  Speaker 3: But the goal, and this is from Ben himself, is
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  Speaker 3: to become an independently owned company with socially aligned investors.
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  Speaker 3: And once again, be free to honor its social mission
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  Speaker 3: and live by its brand values without compromise.
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  Speaker 1: What a cool guy.
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  Speaker 2: Pretty cool guy.
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  Speaker 1: Pretty cool guy. Obviously, I'm biased, and I guess you're
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  Speaker 1: biased too, but what a cool guy. And they're trying
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  Speaker 1: to do all of this before the world— I.
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  Speaker 2: Like the cut of his cookie puss. There it is.
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  Speaker 2: Bring back cookie puss. He's back. He can get a
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  Speaker 2: cookie puss ice cream cake to this day. Oh, my gosh.
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  Speaker 1: I wish we didn't have to work after this because
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: it would be a perfect time to have a cookie
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  Speaker 1: cake party, especially if we could do it before the
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: world collapses. into nuclear Armageddon. No, remember when we figured
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: out that the boffins of World War II didn't just
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: want to make nuclear weapons really big. They wanted to
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: make them really small.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, they wanted them to fit in little knapsacks or backpacks,
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: believe it or not. These weren't the only, however, crazy
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: nuclear power weapons of the Cold War.
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: We got a couple more. One in particular with the
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: intriguing name, the Davy Crockett nuclear rifle, which, again, seems
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  Speaker 2: like it should be a weapon in the Fallout universe.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it feels like Fallout. It feels like John Carter
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: novels or something. It feels old school, 1950s sci-fi. And
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: it very much is. It's a nuclear recoilless rifle that
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: you could pack on a Jeep. And you can move
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: it around.
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: What a great detail. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's got to
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: be a Jeep, though. It can't be a sedan.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Jeep lobbyists got to it hard. And the idea
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: is that you could fire this thing and launch a
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: nuclear round, a small nuclear device, up to two and
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: a half miles away. And if you read the research
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: documents on this, the U.S. Army did something really ominous.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: In every document, they say, look, if we use Davy
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: Crockett correctly, this rifle is not going to automatically kill
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: the crew.
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: Thank God for that. It probably will, but it's not
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: a foregone conclusion.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: It's so Florida man style. They said, just put the
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: thing on a hilt. activate it, and then run away.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: Run like mad.
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: You may or may not have to die on that hill. Right. Exactly.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Cover your neck and your head and duck. The
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: Davy Crockett was manufactured. It was even put in the field,
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: as far as we could tell. It was never used
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: in combat because it was probably not as good of
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: an idea as chicken-powered nuclear landmines.
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: What's not to like about that? Big chicken, little chicken.
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: There we go. Yeah. After World War II, the Brits
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: learned that their precious island was in a bit of
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: a precarious position. The best defense, as you say, Ben,
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: and I agree, is– I think you coined this phrase, actually.
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: It's a good offense. Oh, not me. That was a
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: football coach somewhere. Maybe so.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: But you're absolutely right. So the British are in a
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: tight spot, and they say, we're going to place these
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: landmines we call blue peacocks– Sounds like some sort of
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: pretty firework.
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: It sure does.
• 21:14
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: And we're going to put them across the plain of
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: North Germany. And this way, they say, if the Soviets
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: come rushing into Europe. Oh, Soviets come rushing in.
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: All right. We'll keep it.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: That was my fault. The opposing forces are going to
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: run into these nuclear landmines. But the British will figure
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: out there's a big problem. That part of the world
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: gets really cold. And if it gets too cold, their
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: landmines won't work.
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, if I'm not mistaken, Ben, peacocks like
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: it pretty warm.
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: Yes. Yes. That's my understanding as well.
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: I've only ever seen them down California way.
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: Is that true? It is true. They're actually peacocks that
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: roam the grounds of the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. And you
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: know my position on exotic birds. I steer clear, but
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: it is cool that they exist. Yeah, yeah.
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: You can see peacocks roaming around in the strangest places.
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: Birds are quite adaptable, and that is what brought them
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: into the conversation at the British Boffin Drawing Board of Ideas.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: They said, how do we keep these landmines warm enough
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: to work And they said, what if we just like
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: put chickens inside the mines and we'll give them food
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: and water and they'll stay alive and their body heat
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: will keep the landmines warm. So this whole idea, which
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: does sound like peak ridiculous history, was so hard to
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: grok to comprehend that once the project got declassified, the
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: British public, thought it was malarkey. They thought it was
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: an April Fool's Day joke, like that famous spaghetti trees
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: piece from BBC.
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: 100%, which if you haven't seen, it is available as
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: a video for you. You can watch it online.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: And we'll blow through a couple of other ones quickly here.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: There's Atomic Annie. This was a nuclear field cannon. It
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: could fire a nuclear shell up to 20 miles. It
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: was fired once in 1953 at a test in Nevada
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: in And you can see it in a video. One
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: fun fact, they also paraded this atomic Annie in the
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: inaugural parade of President Dwight D.
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: Eisenhower.
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: Presumably, it wasn't looted with, you know, nuclear munition. But
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: remember back when our presidential parades used to be good?
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Oh, man.
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: Speaking of which, not to clown the man exactly as
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: much as is warranted.
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: Did you see President Xi Jinping is in town?
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: And there's a really great clip where he and Trump
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: are standing side by side with Trump holding a salute
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: and then cringing visibly when a military flyover happens.
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: Like he looks genuinely spooked.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: We've got some genuinely spooked. strange stuff to get to
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: with weird nuclear experiments. Noel, I think we may have
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: mentioned it previously, but the Trinity test was super top secret.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: There are some great pieces of fiction or what will
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: we call Oppenheimer? Will we call it an adaptation?
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, a blockbuster, you know, but weird one, too.
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: I mean, I think the thing there is Christopher Nolan
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: really just has become one of the only truly, you know,
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: sure thing box office names in directing.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: And in the story of Oppenheimer, you're going to learn
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: a lot about the U.S. 's mad secret rush, a
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: true conspiracy to create nuclear weapons and We don't know
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: how history would have gone if Kodak went public with
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: their knowledge. This is so crazy. Kodak, the camera company,
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: almost blew the whistle on nuclear arms. And it's all
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: because they had to use cardboard that is not contaminated
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: with any radioactive substance because of the way camera film works, right?
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: And so in August of 1945, one of their scientists says,
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: hang on. Why is all our camera stock, why is
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: all our film fogging up?
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, real canary in the coal mine there. I'm taking
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: a look into that phenomenon.
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: One of the scientists working for the Kodak company determined
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: that there must have been some sort of nuclear event
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: near enough that it would have caused this phenomenon.
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: I mean, it literally is.
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: If it had been really near, it would have blacked
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: out the film entirely, but what we're talking about is
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: just enough of a little bit of fogging a lens,
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: that's I think what it would look like, that they
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: could tell a nuclear explosion took place. And since the
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: Trinity test was set up as top secret, this was
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: a big deal.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and this scientist goes to his bosses and he says, okay,
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: definitely someone is letting a lot of radiation into the environment.
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: And his bosses say, shh. So he doesn't talk about
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: this until 1949. And instead of going public, Kodak is
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: putting air filters on their film factories to keep the
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: radiation out.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: Pretty neat.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: Pretty neat. Something to crack a nuclear brew to, right?
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: Hey, look at that. Ben, you are really, there are
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: segues today. We're on fire today, man. You're killing it
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: with the dad jokes. You know, thanks, Bob.
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: I'm a walking dad joke, and I come by it
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: honestly because I am an actual dad. But you teased
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: the idea of a nuclear brew, like a Nuka-Cola type situation.
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. So picture this. We're hanging out, minding our
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: own business, and then a nuclear bomb goes off. You
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: see that mushroom cloud in the distant horizon. You get
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: the shockwave. There are fires everywhere, chaos, pandemonium, dogs and
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: cats sleeping together, and you have survived, and you think,
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: I'm kind of thirsty. What do we do, Noel, in
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: that situation?
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: Well, Ben, there's no running water, at least not where
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: you are, but there is a little bit of a
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: bodega nearby, a convenience store. Sadly, it's been crushed by
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: the shockwave, but as in any post-apocalyptic scenario.
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: Shout out, Fallout. Well, that's where you go, man, to
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: find your canned goods, to find your bottles and cans.
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: Just clap your hands. So you got to wonder... What's
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: okay and what's not okay? How much radiation, you know,
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: how much rat away am I going to have to take?
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: There we go.
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: There we go.
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: I love that reference. Could I grab one of these
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: sodas or one of these beers and will I survive
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: drinking it? Also, how's it going to taste? This is
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: a true story, folks. In 1957, the U.S. government was
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: so worried about this that they paid for a study called, quote,
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: the effect of nuclear explosions on commercially packaged beverages.
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: You know, the more you know. Written by three executives
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: from the Can Manufacturers Institute. That's so shady.
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: And the Glass Container Manufacturers Institute for the Federal Civil
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: Defense Administration. The study says that after placing cans and
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: bottles of soda and beer next to an actual atomic explosion,
• 28:39
  Speaker 3: after measuring subsequent radiation... and actual taste tests. Which one
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: is the most radiated? You know, it's the Pepsi challenge.
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: You can grab a can, pop the top, and drink away.
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: It turns out it's mainly okay.
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's good news. We always like to end on
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: good news. So this study, we said it comes out
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: in 1957. It's based on research from 1956. They exploded
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: two nuclear bombs. One had the equivalent of 20 kilobytes,
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: kilotons of TNT and the other had 30 kilotons. This
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: was at, of course, a test site in Nevada. They
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: put these cans and bottles of beer and soda and
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: carbonated water at various measured distances away from ground zero.
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: They would bury them, they would place them on top
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: of wooden boxes, or they would just chuck them over
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: to the ground. The closest can was about a thousand
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: feet away from the blast site.
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: Well, Ben, I think any of us who read like the,
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: the road or any of these post-apocalyptic books where people are,
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: you know, stockpiling canned goods and bottled, you know, goods.
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: Maybe they're safe. Maybe they won't kill you, but are
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: they going to taste like radiation-y?
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: That's the big question.
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: And luckily, our pals at NPR came through with that question.
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: They said, radiation aside, will this stuff actually taste good?
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: And what they found is, first off, the blast actually
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: didn't destroy all the cans and bottles. A bunch of
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: them would be, you know, cracked open or they would
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: be crushed by falling debris. They might be shattered completely.
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: But even the ones closest to detonation, which were radioactive,
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: were judged safe for emergency use. And they immediately, as
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: you said, they went into a round of taste test.
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: You got to wonder, like, who gets that job? Is
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: that a volunteer or are you in trouble?
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: Maybe someone's just really into it. You know what it
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: reminds me of, Ben?
• 30:46
  Speaker 3: There's a think it's a local brand um monday night
• 30:50
  Speaker 3: brewery oh they have emergency beer emergency drinking beer that's
• 30:53
  Speaker 3: what it's called i love the name i love the
• 30:56
  Speaker 3: name yeah and so how i think in case of
• 30:58
  Speaker 3: emergency right.
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: And however these uh these folks these brave uh scientists
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: got hired to taste uh these irradiated beverages they said
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: look it's not that bad but there is a slight
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: flavor change, and one of our favorite lines from the
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: study says the beers that were closest to the explosion were, quote,
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: definitely off.
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: The most blasted. Yeah, I think that's how they put it.
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: But still, apparently, not that bad.
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so the question is... Still so good you could
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: drink with your mouth.
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: Yes, there it is.
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: If you find yourself near an atomic blast and you
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: run short of potable water, yes, You can chug a Coke,
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: you can sip a beer, just don't expect it to
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: taste awesome.
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: Well, and let's remember that the earliest, you know, beers
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: and fermented drinks were in large part because None of
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: the water was potable. So they had to ferment it
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: so they could actually get liquid sustenance.
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a great point, actually. And maybe it's a
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: story for another day because we have so much more
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: stuff we want to get to. But I say we
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: call it here on Nuclear Beer, you guys.
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: Oh, I think so. Before we end, though, I think
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: Max has something to say.
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: What's on your mind?
• 32:18
  Speaker 4: Yeah. I just want to shout out Monday Night Brewery.
• 32:21
  Speaker 4: Their main location is in West Midtown of Atlanta. I
• 32:24
  Speaker 4: want to shout them out, though, because as a bartender
• 32:26
  Speaker 4: and bar manager, the people at Monday Night are super cool.
• 32:29
  Speaker 3: There's some real cool breweries here in Atlanta and in
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: the region. In Athens, we've got Creature Comforts. Here in Atlanta,
• 32:36
  Speaker 3: we've got Orpheus. And there's a lot of cool... You know,
• 32:40
  Speaker 3: like what do you call those places?
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: Microbreweries? Where you can go and have a meal.
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: Gastropubs. Yeah. Or no, just like the actual, there is
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: a Monday night garage, I think is what it's called.
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: Taproom.
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: There it is.
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: And folks, there we are. There you are. Thank you
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: so much for joining us on this continuing mission to
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: explore all things ridiculous about history. Big shout out to
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: Max Monday Night Williams. Big, big shout out to A.J.
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: Bahamas Jacobs, the puzzler, who is going by Bermuda these days,
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: at least through October.
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: Indeed.
• 33:18
  Speaker 3: Huge thanks to Christopher Asiotis and Yves Jeffcoats here in spirit.
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: Jonathan Strickland, the quizster. A.J. Bahamas Jacobs, the puzzler.
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: And big thanks to you, fellow ridiculous historians.
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: We'll see you next time, folks.
• 33:37
  Speaker 3: For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,
• 33:40
  Speaker 3: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.