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Short Stuff: Chia Pet · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, yeah, it's Josh and Chuck and Jerry here too,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: And this is short stuff.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: That's right, another one of our pop culture icons episodes.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: That wasn't quite big enough to do an entire episode on.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: In the old days, we might have stretched it.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: We definitely would have. No, That's why we came up
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: with short stuff, because we're like, hey, there's a lot
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: of stuff out there that just isn't quite big enough.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: So hence short stuff, and hence our episode on the
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: chia pet.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: That's right. And thank you Patty Rasmussen of HowStuffWorks dot com.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Plus our friends at me too.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Of course, I always love the mental floss folks. The
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: chia pet. Everyone knows what a chia pet is, right
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: if you don't look it up, because it is an
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: adorable little planter, terra cotta planter that is shaped like
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: a little figurine like a maybe a Mister t or
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: a Homer Simpson or maybe just a dog or a
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: kitty cat. And if you buy this thing, and if
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: you and we'll talk about how to do it later,
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: and if you spread the spread your seed, spread your
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: seed on it, it will grow chia sprouts that end
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: up looking like hair on the thing on the figurine.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Well put, I think that's actually verbatim the description on
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: the box.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so, mister T. The mohawk would be green chia.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: The cleverest one i've seen, Chuck is a zombie hand
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: like stretching out of the ground, and the chia seeds
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: grow around the arm like it's coming out of grass,
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: like in a cemetery. I love it.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: I like the I was looking at their more recent offerings,
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: and as you will see, they have they got in
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: like a mentioned Homer Simpson or mister T. They got
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: into licensing. And we'll tell that story here in a second.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: But I like the Grogo Star Wars chia pet. It's
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: really really cute, like all things grow gou is.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: That baby Yoda?
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Uh huh?
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Okay, did not know that was the name of that thing.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the name came later. We found out the name later.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: I saw Guardians of the Galaxy three in the theater yesterday.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: That is really good.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: I loved that movie. I loved the three. It's my
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: favorite of the Marble stuff. But that movie was so
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: upsetting for the animal stuff. Yes, almost tough to sit through.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Oh, it was super tough to sit through. But but
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: there's a whole generation of PG thirteen going moviegoers that
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: are like that age that now have a really bad
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: view of animal testing and animal experimentation, and true think
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: it could be worth it because it was really tough.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: But that was a huge message in that movie, like
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: that's not good stuff.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, agreed, Yeah, very hard though. I told Emily is
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: like just and she loves Guardians. I was like, you're
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: not gonna want to.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: See the third No, definitely not.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: Don't even bother. All right, Well back to the That
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: Was movie with Josh Clark. The chia planters are terra cotta.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: Like I said, they used to make them in Wojaca, Mexico. Yeah,
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: who knew, Well, Joe Pettot did, because Joe in the
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: nineteen seventies was the founder of Joseph Enterprises. He went
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: to a trade show in Chicago. These little chia pets,
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: I don't know what they were called at the time,
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: were selling like hotcakes, and he said, I want to
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: buy a bunch of those and brand them and sell
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: them as chia pets. Yeah.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: Apparently he went to department stores and drug stores at
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: that trade show and said, hey, you got anything that
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: sells out reliably every year, and a couple of them
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: pointed to those. Yeah, I don't know what they were
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: called before either, but what would come to be known
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: as chia pets. And they figured out that these things
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: sell themselves with very little advertising. And if you stop,
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: I did not realize this. I thought I saw them
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: throughout the year, But if you stop and think about
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: when you see chia pet ads, it's almost strictly around
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: the holidays. And that's for a reason. They sell over
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: of their inventory that they sell every year around the holidays.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: And they figured out that they just need to advertise
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: a little bit around Christmas and Hanukkah and Kwanza and
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: tet and there you go. That's all. That's all they
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: need to do.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: That's all they need to do. So the first of
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: these chia pets were the first actual animals, were the
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: chia bull and the chia ram. But the very first one,
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: period I think, was a dude, right, like a chia guy.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Our friends at Mental Floss kind of nailed it.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: They said, he looks like a cross between Homer Simpson
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: and Woody from Toy Story, And he looks exactly like that. Yeah,
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: it's like a goofy looking guy with a big nose.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: But apparently that was the first chia pet.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah at chia dude. They got into licensing in the
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: early eighties with Looney Tunes characters Taz, Elmer Fudd and Tweety.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: Oh wait, Chuck before we move on, I love this
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: house stuff works article put in parentheses, Taz parentheses, Tasmanian Devil.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: I thought that was adorable.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: That was pretty funny, and then you know, licensing became
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: a big deal. They I think they license like three
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: or four things a year generally, and then they always
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: have their stable of little animals.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah. They also are known for predicting presidential elections. Actually,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: like they'll release the like chia versions of the presidential
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: candidates each year, and usually the one that sells the
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: most is the candidate that goes on to win the presidency.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's interesting. Yeah. I think there's a few little
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: weird cultural predictors like that.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Like, and they're an octopus that can predict the
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: World Cup.
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I feel like there was something else for
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: the Super Bowl.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: There's a hedgehog that can produce some predictable where they
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: can predict the weather. Yeah, whether it's going to turn
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: to spring or not. I heard about him.
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: The other thing they do to make money, the chia folks,
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: is they will license it out. They'll like partner up
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: with pro sports teams, like you might get a chia
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: La Dodger or something like that. And then I didn't
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: know this. You could if you were a company. You
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: can imagine. It's not cheap, but you can get a
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: chia pet logo of your company made.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: Yes, isn't that neat? I did not realize that. Yeah.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: I ran across instructions for growing chia on your Chiahad
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: Bryce Harper. It was like, all right, this works. It
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: probably applies to all of them, as we'll see.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: All right, shall we take a break.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: Let's take a break.
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: All right, we'll come right back. Talk a little bit
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: more about these little pets right after this.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: Okay, Chuck. So we're talking about chia pets. It turns out,
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: and I think we should talk about how you grow them.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: I've never had a chiapet of you. Nope, we should
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: exchange cheapets.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: When you're my friend, you have one on your on
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: its way. The delivery window begins in ten minutes.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: Are you serious?
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: It's a chia Richard Simmons, he has like a chest head.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: I saw it and I was like, Chuck's getting this.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: Oh so the exchange is half done.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: All right, Well I got to step up. Richard Simmons
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: tying in episodes, I love it. Gonna be tough, all right,
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna hey, man, got me, Okay, your time? Uh
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: if you grow one of these, and I guess I
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: could wait either ten minutes or several hours and read
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: it off the box. But I think what you want
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: to do is you want to completely soak that planner
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: for a few hours, right, yes.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: And the reason why you want to do this with
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: any terra cotta pot that you're growing stuff in is
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: terra cotta, we'll suck water right out of the dirt
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: in this case, right out of the water holding cavity
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: for itself, and it pulls it away from the plants
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: that need it. Whereas if you soak it, it's like, Okay,
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: I'm satiated, literally stuffed with water. I don't need any more.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: And so any water you put into it is going
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: to not get sucked into the terra cotta. So this
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: is an essential step for chia pets in particular.
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: That's right. You also want to soak the seeds. It
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: is chia. Gia is a kind of sage, and I
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: think you eventually make like a sort of like a
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: paste and you spread that paste on there. I've seen
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: them talk about like rubber spatuls and things like that,
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: But I would just use my fingies if I was
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: doing and when I do my Richard Simmons, I'm gonna
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: do my fingies.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: Use my fingers, okay, good, good butt chuck, Do not
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: lick your fingers afterwards. These are chia seeds, and people
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: eat cheeseeds. I put gia seeds in my smoothies because
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: they're full omega three, although I was disappointed to find
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: there's not a lot of studies that show conclusively that
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: we get that omega three from the seeds. But anyway,
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: these particular chia seeds are not grown for human consumption.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: They're grown to grow on your chia pet.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: That's right, So use whatever spretterer you want if you
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: don't feel comfortable using your digits. And once that thing
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: is covered up to your likeness, you want to put
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: that chia pet in the sun, and you want to
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: water it and then just sit back and let the
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: fun begin.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And I was like, Okay, so if this is
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: these chia plants grow to be like six feet tall
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: and flour and everything. Yeah, and I wanted to see, like,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: if you just keep your chia going, like, we'll it
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: get to that point. I saw one site reference that
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: your chia pet would crumble like eventually. It's like under
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: the weight of the plant. I think the bigger thing
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: is the sprouts that grow just aren't viable to grow
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: into actual plants. So apparently after about six weeks, maybe
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: four weeks, they all turn brown. You pull off the
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: old growth, dump out the water, and start over again.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: Oh, you can do they you can reuse the same.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: I saw on their site that you can reuse them indefinitely.
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: You just need chia.
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: Seeds, Okay. And I guess it makes sense that they
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: won't just eventually you won't have like a chia pet
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: that looks like like Richard Simmons, won't end up looking
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: like Greg Almon.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: That'd be pretty cool though. It's a great crossover.
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: It's a good crossover because you would you would need
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: like soil to keep everything stable.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: That's what I'm thinking. I think they just don't have
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: the nutrients to grow beyond the sprout stage.
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's gotta be it.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: So who knows, Maybe you could add nutrients and grow
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: them like hydroponically and see what happens. All right, That's
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: one of the nerdiest things I said this month.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: Regardless, gias have become very very popular over the years
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: that they are, like I said, sort of an iconic
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: fun gift that you can get someone, So much so
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: that the Smithsonian National Museum of American History requested and
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: I assume received some of this stuff from the Joseph Company.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, in particular the advertising tapes, because that's one of
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: the reasons Chia Pets were so huge. Somebody either at
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: an advertising meeting or at a bar one night said
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: chu Chi Chi Chia, and apparently Joe Purdat said that's perfect.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: I'm going to turn that into the jingle, and that
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: was I mean, I would attribute most of the Chia
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: pets success to that jingle. It was so catchy that
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: people were just walking around going ch ch Chichiya were
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: they really? All of my friends were up in Ohio.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: I guess that's Sohio though.
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: That is Ohio, uh, And that's kind of it. I
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: mean they're in the like I said, the Smithsonian, and
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: I think they're in a time capsule in New York
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: City that's going to be unearthed in three thousand, the
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: year three thousand.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: In the year three thousand.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: Very nice. What a great bit that was. So you know,
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: it's it's one of those things. If you're going to
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: include it in the Smithsonian and of time capsule, then
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: it has done its job as far as a cultural staple.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, so hats off to you, Chia Pets, we love you.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: That's right, and I will, I promise, I will, I
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: will do an Instagram series following the growth of my
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: Richard Simmons.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: Oh, great idea, fantastic at what Chuck the podcaster, Chuck
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: the podcaster, great handle. So again, hats off to you,
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: Chia Pets, We love you. Wait, you have to say
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: short stuff. I'll say it. Then short Stuff is out.
• 12:35
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• 12:38
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• 12:43
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• 12:43
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