Your favorite trendsetters are back, though they are suspicious and confused. M and M's biology degrees are put the test before Mr. Botany takes over to describe these hairy bowling bowls rich in nuclei. Its a Tale of Marketing and Endosperm as we gaze upon the majesty of this somehow slippery and turgid beverage.
Matthew's Now but Wow: The Gate of Memory, edited by Brynn Saito and Brandon Shimoda
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:00
Hi, I'm Matthew, and
Molly 0:05
I'm Molly. And this is spilled milk, the show where we cook something delicious, eat it all, and you can't have any today. We are talking about coconut water. It's this new beverage that you haven't heard of. You heard of it, but we think it might become a thing. We think
Molly 0:19
so. And wow. Companies you should get on this. I think we're ahead of the trend.
Speaker 1 0:23
I think we are. I think the three trends we're keeping our eye coconut water, yep, Coleman cups. Is that what they're called,
Molly 0:32
Coleman Oh, Stanley Stanley Cups.
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:36
Coleman cups. You've heard of Stanley Cups and
Molly 0:41
escargot, that's gonna be, oh yeah, okay, perfect. Yeah. Molly
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:45
recently came back from France, and I'm very jealous. That's
Molly 0:48
right. So, I mean, by the time that you hear this episode, I will have been back from France for like, two months, but yeah, there was this thing called escargot, and they've just started eating it
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:58
there. They're slowly making their way across the sea. That's
Molly 1:01
right. Ah, okay, coconut water, all right. So
Speaker 1 1:04
I think we tasted this on a previous episode. I didn't actually listen to this episode, but many, many years ago, we did an episode called natural waters. I know, what would you be thinking? It just sounds like pee, right? It does sound like pee.
Molly 1:19
We used to make episodes like so much broader, like crispy corners. We
Speaker 1 1:23
did, yeah, crusty corner. The crusty corners are crunchy corners, some sort of corners. Yeah, the corners that are like, Quan, CLA, call, right? So, yeah, we apparently, like, I looked at the description of that episode to see if it said anything about whether we tasted coconut water. It said we made jokes about horizontal pole dancing. And I was like, I don't know what that means, but it made me laugh. That's
Molly 1:47
really funny. That's like, those horizontal poles, like monkey bar type things they have on the playground, and when you play on those, it's called pole dancing.
Speaker 1 1:55
I mean, in a way, like, like Olympic parallel bars is like horizontal pole dancing. That's exactly right, we probably said the same thing on this done. Why
Molly 2:03
don't we talk about it? The more I'm thinking this is like a euphemism. I mean,
Speaker 1 2:07
yeah, for sure, what's the horizontal?
Molly 2:17
Like, no, no, no, we're horizontal, but we're pole dancing.
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:20
Oh, okay, I get it. Oh, now it makes sense. This is
Molly 2:24
one of those jokes where the more you explain it, the funnier it gets. Like
Speaker 1 2:27
most jokes, all right. Oh, so glad we're back. We haven't recorded the show in weeks. Okay, would you like to talk about coconut water? I
Molly 2:35
would love to talk about coconut water. Okay, hold on, wait. Should we do we didn't really do a memory lane. Oh, right. And one thing that I want to say is so, so Brandon and I used to go to some restaurant where he used to get a fresh coconut water, and it would have, like, even some sort of chunks of coconut in it. And I, I've always struggled a little bit with coconut water. I didn't want to get involved.
Speaker 1 2:59
Yeah, I don't know if I'm gonna like anything we taste today, but I'm trying to keep an open mind and an open mouth. Yeah. Okay, here we go. Yeah. So I've had this before and didn't like it, so that's my memory. I find it strange. So having said that, like, I think I have had like, fresh coconut water, and did enjoy that,
Molly 3:15
like, you drink it like, from a straw out of like, out of the coconut, exactly like you put the straw in the coconut and drink it on
Speaker 1 3:23
up, yeah, yeah. And then you put the straw in the coconut and mix it all up, and then you remove the straw for the coconut, and then you shake it all out, shake it all out onto your lap. And this is how you enjoy coconut water. Okay, so what is coconut water? You may ask yourself, Well, can
Molly 3:41
I try to guess? I think we're gonna have to call Mr. Botany in here soon, but
Speaker 1 3:45
Mr. Botany is absolutely bursting with knowledge. Okay, well,
Molly 3:50
coconut water. So when you break into a whole coconut, there's a liquid in the middle of it that is kind of watery,
Speaker 1 3:58
yeah? So if you are breaking into like a mature brown and fuzzy coconut, that will be a very small amount of liquid. That's not where coconut water that we drink comes from. It comes from young green coconuts. Oh, okay, wait, hold on and boy, yes, yes,
Molly 4:14
Mr. Botany's here.
Speaker 1 4:21
Do. Oh, hello. There's no Mr. As you recall, Mr. Botany does not have an interesting voice or accent, but, but he is here. Hi, Mr. Botany. Mr. Botany has a lot to report about coconut water, probably 100 times more than I expected. Oh, wow. Okay, so God, let's get started. Like, have you Molly and you the listeners ever been to college? Because if not, you're about to, Oh, wow. Okay, you're probably gonna have some questions that I didn't look up the answer to. So I'll say I don't know. Is
Molly 4:53
there gonna be a test? Yeah, oh god, okay, there
Speaker 1 4:56
wasn't. There wasn't going to but because you asked for. I forgot a pen. Okay, you can, you can use one of mine, but, but give it back at the end of class. Okay. Did you bring your Scantron? Oh, you mean
Molly 5:08
the actual thing?
Speaker 1 5:10
Did you bring the actual Scantron machine for reading the test? Did you bring your mimeograph machine that I'm gonna use to run off copies? I brought carbon paper. Okay, this is detour for a true story here recently, acots D, adult child of the show, December, who is, who is a college student, was excited because they got to use some form that that was like three part carbon paper. Oh, my God, I was like, the carbon paper has become, like, a cool, retro thing. Oh, good riddance. Carbon paper. Did you ever use like, like, not, not like, the the like, carbonless kind, but the actual, like, where the black ink stuff rubs off. Yep, me too. Yep, good time. Do you
Molly 5:49
remember, like, old credit card? Oh, yeah. Things. Do you remember that? Like,
Speaker 1 5:53
rubber swipers usually say Swiper, no swiping, but they didn't listen. It's from Dora the Explorer. Oh, okay, so Mr. Botany is back to tell you that coconut water is the liquid inside a young green coconut. Wait, Matthew already told you that. Okay, so why is it there? Okay, so it is nuclear phase, liquid endosperm.
Molly 6:18
Remind me what endosperm is. Okay. I will
Speaker 1 6:20
remind you what endosperm is, using coconuts as an example, because they are often used as a very clear example of endosperm phases. Okay, so a coconut is a seed, okay, big seed. It's a big seed, meaning, when it gets planted in the ground, in the right conditions, it will germinate and A shoot will grow out of it and grow into a new coconut tree. Okay, right? Got it. So seeds of flowering plants, which which coconuts are, contain endosperm, which is a starchy food for the developing embryo. Got it. So let's take a wheat berry as an example, like you, because everyone knows there's like, in a wheat Berry, there's like, Bran, germ and the rest of the stuff. Everybody knows that. Everybody knows that. So, so the germ is the embryo. That's the little.at the tip. Okay. The Bran is the like layer under, like the hard layer underneath the husk that has a lot of fiber, okay, that protects the seed, then the rest of it, the stuff that gets ground into white flour, is endosperm. It's very starchy, it's very nutritious, and it is there to feed the embryo until it can produce leaves and and, you know, turn, turn energy from light into food.
Molly 7:26
Okay, so it's kind of like the yolk of the egg. It's kind of like the yolk of the egg. Yeah, got it. Okay, so this is a liquid. It's kind of like the white of the egg, I think a minute
Speaker 1 7:38
because, because doesn't the yolk get fertilized. Maybe you're right. I don't know how a chicken. I know more about a coconut than a chicken egg at this point, forget
Molly 7:49
about the egg metaphor. Let's get about forget about it. Forget it. Okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:53
so in a coconut, the meat and the water.
Molly 7:56
Excuse me, that was an egg simile. Oh no, no egg comparison. What did, what did you say? Again,
Matthew Amster-Burton 8:03
whatever
Molly 8:04
I said. It was like the yolk of a chicken egg. It
Speaker 1 8:07
was like the it was, it's not, I don't even know why I'm bringing it up. You just said, Let's not talk about eggs. And then you start talking next, we're gonna be talking about how expensive eggs are. Okay,
Molly 8:17
let's not do that. Let's get back to endosperm, which I'm not going to say that word again, the E, G, G word,
Speaker 1 8:24
right? But you are going to say sperm a lot. I am. Okay. So in a coconut the meat, the white coconut meat around the edge and the water, are both endosperm in different phases. I'll get to what that means. But coconut water, it's like a nutritious bath that exists to feed the embryo. All right, okay. Now, if you remember anything from biology class, and I know at least two people at this table have biology degrees, and possibly, I mean, Mr. Botany does too. So that's three. You probably remember mitosis. I do. Okay, I do. Moll, if you want to explain to people what mitosis is, it's
Molly 8:58
where us, it's where a cell divides into two cells Exactly.
Speaker 1 9:03
So mitosis is actually the division of the nucleus into two nuclei, but in animal cells, that is always accompanied by cytokinesis, which is the division of the cell into two cells, the whole thing. So plants are like, no, no, no, no, you don't have to do it that way. Why don't we just do mitosis through telophase, which is the last phase of mitosis. And like when you learned it in class, they always say telophase and cytokinesis, as if these things, like, can never happen separately in plants, they happen separately. So in nuclear phase, mitosis in plants, as the endosperm is being produced. There's a phase where the nuclei just keep dividing and dividing over and over and sitting in this soup inside, like one big cell. Oh,
Molly 9:49
so for a period of time the nuclear phase, you've got many nuclei within one cell, yes. Oh, what's the point of that?
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:59
Okay. Like, I was wondering this too, and like, the general consensus is this is a really efficient way to use like, existing, like developmental pathways to produce a ton of biomass quickly. So
Molly 10:11
each of those nuclei is going to become its own cell. It's going to become
Speaker 1 10:16
its own cell, but, like, not for the purpose. Like, we usually think of the nucleus as, like, the boss of the cell that's there to, like, run the cell machinery. These nuclei are just going to end up as kind of food for a developing embryo, like, so, so they are like, you know, they're going to be directing the next phase where the where the soup turns into meat. But right now, it's just like a bunch of nuclei, like, millions of them, floating around in a rich soup. Okay, okay, I think there's you would think that's it. So just
Molly 10:44
hold on. So, so when we are talking about coconut water, we are talking about this soup.
Speaker 1 10:50
We're talking about this soup. And coconuts have an unusually long and extensive nuclear phase and produce a lot of soup because, partly because they just have enormous seeds, as far as, like, relative to the other things in the flowering plant area. Okay, I tried to get an estimate of, like, really, like, how many nuclei are there in, like, a harvested, uh, young coconut. And nobody could agree, but, like, somewhere in the like, hundreds of 1000s to a few million, but maybe more than that, wow.
Molly 11:17
Okay, so to be clear, when we are drinking coconut water, we are drinking basically a ton of coconut nuclei in cytoplasm, sort of
Speaker 1 11:31
so when we are drinking pasteurized coconut water, which is what we're going to be drinking today, the pasteurization process, even If it's like cold, like pressure treated, lyses the nuclei. So like, the nuclear the nuclear stuff, spills out into the cytoplasm, and it's all mixed up. There's like, like fragments of nucleus stuff, but there aren't intact nuclei anymore, okay, huh? This is probably gonna be our most popular episode. It's gonna be our most popular episode the shit out of everything I just said. So then in most flowering plants, including coconuts, the nuclear phase is followed by a cellular phase, where cell walls form around the nuclei, and it gets kind of absorbed and turns into the coconut meat.
Molly 12:14
Oh, okay, and so hold on. So then what's happening to the cytoplasm during that time the liquid stuff? That's a good question. So there's lots of it in a mature in a brown COVID. See, I knew you were gonna ask
Speaker 1 12:27
me some things. I don't know how to answer. I don't know the answer. Like, where, where does that extra liquid go? I think probably some of it just evaporates. Like, because there is a way out of the coconut. So if you're ever trapped in a coconut, there's a way out. I'm gonna tell you in a minute how to get out. Oh, okay, good. You man. Yeah, you're gonna thank me later.
Molly 12:45
This episode has so many different facts to offer. Yeah, we're gonna get like, you know, whatever your situation. We
Speaker 1 12:52
love getting messages for our listeners. Contact at spill milk podcast.com but nothing makes me happier than what Alyssa Wright did to say, I was trapped inside a coconut, and you saved my life. Do you remember
Molly 13:04
the number of listeners who wrote in to tell us about listening to this show in a tree? Yes, it was four or five people,
Speaker 1 13:10
like four or five tree. Listeners, we got at least a couple of boat. Listeners, I love our show. Listeners, I think we asked if someone had listened in a castle, and maybe one person had maybe, okay, we need to, we need to revive that. We didn't have a name for that segment. We need to revive it and ask for, like, another unlikely place that people could listen to our show. All right, okay, hold that thought. Okay, okay. So, yeah. So, like, Where does all that extra cytoplasm go? I don't know. But, like, the, you know, some of it gets absorbed and is, like, you know what? What makes the coconut meat turgid?
Molly 13:42
Turgid, right? Turgid. Yeah. Does that have to do with turgor pressure? Sure, yeah. So if it's turgid, it has solidity.
Speaker 1 13:54
Well, yeah, because, like, like, a turgid plant cell is one that has, like, a lot of internal pressure from the cytoplasm. So, like, when, when you're when you have, like, what?
Molly 14:02
Oh, I for a second I thought you were, like, just BS, ing me, and you were gonna talk about it, like, exploding or something, maybe, you know, pressure, internal pressure. No, no. I always think it's funny,
Speaker 1 14:11
self motivated. Like, like, cells are generally pretty self motivating. They can, they can receive messages from other cells, but they can do a lot on their own. I mean, some, obviously, some cells, like, do everything on their own because they're unicellular organisms. Yeah, this is gonna be like, all of our episodes are gonna be like this from now on, like, next week, we're just gonna talk about the Krebs cycle. So, but like, like, when you have, like, a, I've made some rhubarb crumble the other day, and I noticed the rhubarb was just starting to get a little floppy. That's because, like, it had, like, some of the cytoplasm had evaporated, and there wasn't as much turgor, so it was less turgid. It was less turgid. I don't see what's funny about why would people
Molly 14:54
not use this to talk about erections? We use it, but we should use. Like,
Speaker 1 15:01
turgid people. I have definitely heard people, people, you're so turgid. I mean, I was thinking, I was thinking more of, like, a medical context, as, because you're right. That is, that is like, maybe not like, like, if that, if that's like, the dirty talk that does it for you. Like you, do you? But
Molly 15:17
yeah, trigger pressure, yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:21
Gaze upon the turgor.
Molly 15:25
Do you say that? Gaze upon I
Speaker 1 15:27
say, whatever. So some there's some thing that I that I watched years ago where somebody used to say like it was a joke, gaze upon its majesty. And I've been saying that ever since. So that's where that comes from. I got it like, the more mundane the thing, like, the more fun it is to take gaze upon its majesty. But yes, like, like you could if one could say that about one's dick, if, if they Oh, yeah,
Molly 15:52
I'm sure somebody has the
Speaker 1 16:02
music. Back to the plant kingdom, you probably already know this, that coconut water is totally different from coconut milk, which is made for mixing mature coconut meat with water and straining it okay? And we did an episode
Molly 16:13
on that. So did you learn anything about coconut eyes? Like, why do they have those things? Okay,
Speaker 1 16:19
yes. So remember I was going to tell you, like, like many of our listeners, are still trapped inside coconuts because I forgot to talk about this part. So, okay, so, you know, the coconut has three eyes. It looks sort of like where you would stick your fingers in and do a bowling balling ball. That's it like did he'll come up with the idea for bowling balls so weird that they look so much alike,
Molly 16:38
right? So weird that they look like and how hairy bowling balls are
Speaker 1 16:42
that that definitely, it's so, it's so it kind of like, like grips the grips the lane, because care is so grippy.
Speaker 1 16:56
Okay, so glad we're back. So, yes, so, come to come down to my pub, the hairy bowling
Molly 17:05
ball, just a single hairy ball, single hairy
Speaker 1 17:07
bowling ball. But we serve, we serve drinks and coconuts. So you got those three eyes, if you look closely at them, two of them you can see are sort of plugged up. And one of them is more, is a little more open. Is that the one you can get out of, that's the one you can get out of the open one is called the germ pour. And that is like the the embryo is like, just at the base of the germ pour. So if the coconut, you know, floats down the river, like, like, lands in some fertile soil and germinates, a little shoot is going to come out of that germ pour and grow into a palm tree. Do you think
Molly 17:37
that all the coconut vendors out there who are like, waiting by the beach to sell you your whole coconut with a straw, right? They all probably poke through the germ pour
Speaker 1 17:46
they Yeah, they probably, probably do. That's why they slash the top off. Oh,
Molly 17:52
they do. Oh, you're right. They slash the top off, or kind of, kind of whittle the top a bit. No,
Speaker 1 17:56
this is a really good, good segue, because Mr. Botany needs a nap now, and Matthew is gonna be back.
Molly 18:02
Oh, thank god. Okay, wait, wait, wait, bye. Mr. Botany, bye.
Molly 18:07
Lulu. I love that guy. I love that guy too. He's so enthusiastic,
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:14
unmatched when it comes to turgor.
Molly 18:17
Gaze upon it. Yeah, really. Oh, okay, so why did we start drinking this juicy endosperm? Humans
Speaker 1 18:24
have been drinking coconut water since prehistoric times. Like, you've got coconut palms around. They've got very big, obvious fruits. You know, sometimes we talk about, like, How did someone decide to, like, eat an oyster or whatever? Like, this was an obvious one. Like, it was a big, big ass, juicy fruit, and the juice tastes good, yeah. How did coconut water become a thing that many, many people consume in cans or bottles in North America? That is a tale of marketing. Can we crack into some I'm kind of thirsty. I'm kind of thirsty too. That we should start with Vita Coco, because it's kind of the most mainstream brand, okay? And this one comes
Molly 18:57
in like a Tetra pack, Petra pack, yeah, okay, and you got to shake this stuff, am I right? Or you
Speaker 1 19:01
gotta upend it a little bit. I'm up ending. I'm up ending this whole organization. You sure
Molly 19:06
are. We're now a Science Podcast, yep. I can't wait till we do our adenosine triphosphate
Speaker 1 19:14
episode, yes, but then one of us is gonna pop off and then, and then we'll be turned into a Denison diphosphate. And then, does that? Would that make us more or less energetic?
Molly 19:25
I think less, right? I don't know. This is so
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:28
we don't like it.
Molly 19:30
God, this stuff is so weird. It makes me uncomfortable. It's very sweet. It tastes slippery. Yes, like the flavor is slippery. Flavor is slippery. It's not slippery in my mouth, just the flavor is slippery.
Speaker 1 19:41
Yeah, as you might expect, packaged coconut water in North America. It's one of those classic stories of commodification of an immigrant food stuff. Okay, so people from the many areas of the world where coconuts grow have immigrated to the US and brought the practice of drinking coconut water with them. And. Then some like startup types got involved. You're rolling your eyes as if you don't love startup types as much as I
Molly 20:06
did. Okay, okay, do we have a particularly lovable startup type? We
Speaker 1 20:10
sure don't. Okay, so the coconut water trend kicked off in the US in 2004 when two companies were founded, Zico and Vita Coco. I'm not sure actually, if ZICO is still around. I didn't see it when I was out shopping, but it probably is. Zico was founded by Mark rampolla, who served in the Peace Corps in Central America and drank coconut water there. Vita Coco was founded by Michael Kerbin and Ira lyrin, according to their definitely apocryphal corporate history, the founders, quote, met two Brazilian women in in a New York City Bar in 2003 and asked them what they missed the most about their home country. With them answering, coconut water.
Molly 20:46
These are great lengths to go to to, like, impress the ladies. Yeah, you know, hey, let's start a company selling coconut water. And
Speaker 1 20:53
they did things really exploded in the late 2000s when people from Madonna to Matthew McConaughey to Demi Moore, invested in Vita Coco, and Pepsi bought ZICO. Wow,
Molly 21:05
and we should go talk to some Brazilian women in bars. Matthew, okay, let's figure twist
Speaker 1 21:10
my arm. Okay, all right. Coconut Water took off, partly just like because trends got a trend, but also it was marketable as clean and natural, and it was a huge part of marketing. They could set themselves apart from both, like, you know, it's not soda, but it's also not something like, you know, sort of like, suspiciously chemical, like, vitamin water, like, it's a totally natural product, okay, yeah, the vitamin water was huge at the time. I kind of think of coconut water as, like, something you would drink at a yoga studio. I don't know if this is true. I've only occasionally ever been to a yoga studio. Yeah, I
Molly 21:44
just feel like it's everywhere now. And I mean, now being I
Speaker 1 21:47
realize it was still popular, honestly, like so many different brands, oh yeah. Like, I never really pay attention to it, because I don't think I like it. And so when I went shopping for it, I wasn't sure if I would, if it was gonna be like, a store based situation where, like, everyone had moved on to, I don't know, kombucha or something, but no, there's still lots of brands, and at the Co Op, there's a lot of shelf space devoted to it.
Molly 22:10
So let's taste some more. Because, wait a minute, hold on. What's the what? Okay, so
Speaker 1 22:14
I've got c2 Oh, which I bought just because I thought it was a funny name, because, because it's science, it's got two two carbons coconut Yes,
Molly 22:21
two carbons and one oxygen. It's got two carbons oxygen and it tastes like coconut water. Tastes
Speaker 1 22:28
like coconut water, all right? And this one's in a can. Did you say it's got two coconuts and one oxygen? Like two whole coconuts connected by one oxygen atom? I didn't really shake this one. I don't know. I don't think it matters,
Molly 22:44
huh? Sniff it. Smell it. No. Weird kind of
Speaker 1 22:48
I think I like this one much less than the first one. Is awful. Yeah, it's terrible. It's
Molly 22:53
terrible. What are people doing with this stuff? This is awful.
Speaker 1 22:57
Way, way back in the day, someone as I recall, it might have been friend of the show Kenji, but I'm not positive we had mentioned something about coconut water, and they said, You've got to try harmless harvest. It's the only good one. Okay, so I got two different harmless harvests. Here. I got regular and sparkling. They
Molly 23:14
both look slightly pink because of the pink wrapper on the but
Speaker 1 23:19
the bottle, I don't think this one has a pink wrapper. It doesn't. Oh, I think it's a white wrapper. Like,
Molly 23:26
is this just plain coconut milk? What did you do to this?
Speaker 1 23:30
So what's in it? Okay, it's pink. Don't worry, it's natural. If you leave pure coconut water alone, like we do, varying antioxidant levels can cause a pinking over time. Have you ever experienced a pinking over time? Oh,
Molly 23:44
huh? That is the best one I've still not like. It is better. Oh, the aftertaste is much better. Yeah, the aftertaste is like, lightly nutty, yeah, I got pinked the other day. I sat in the sun a little too long. Pink
Speaker 1 24:02
to in the line for the germ pour. I feel like our show has been way too clean lately, but I think I got pinked in the germ pour is the nastiest thing you've ever said. I really, I really, almost pulled it back before I said, No, I'm so glad you didn't paint to the germ hole. Maybe even
Speaker 1 24:35
worse, wow, all right, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna, like, buy this again, but it's okay. I think
Molly 24:42
I might take that one home if you don't want Oh yeah, I don't hate it. And so people drink this because Is this, like, nature's Gatorade, or is this basically, like, akin to just drinking a soda? I
Speaker 1 24:54
think it's nature's Gator. No, nature's Gator because it's got bite. Oh, wow. This one's. Very, I don't know. Like, I didn't really want to, want to, like, start diving into the whole, like, what are the health claims made about it? But I think, I think, basically, yeah, like, I don't know, it's got, like, electrolytes or phytoplankton or something,
Molly 25:13
bioluminescence, sorry. Oh, I can't decide what I think about this. At first I was like, oh, no, I don't want the carbonation.
Speaker 1 25:24
I kind of like it. Okay, it's very lightly carbonated. Oh,
Molly 25:28
I kind of like it, yeah. Oh, it's so much better than the other brands. Wow. Harmless harvest. Good job.
Speaker 1 25:34
You know what I think it is, in part, like, because, like, when you carbonate something, it produces carbonic acid. The other ones are really lacking in acidity. I mean, because coconut water, like you can, I mean, you can ferment it, and the acidity in this is perfect, yeah, but this one, this one has it just because of the carbonation. God, I'm feeling so hydrated. I wonder if we were to put, hypothetically speaking, the lime in the coconut, like a squeeze of lime into one of these others. That would be an improvement, right? I think that would be
Molly 26:04
an improvement. Should we try to have a lime? Let's put a little lime in the sparkling one.
Speaker 1 26:10
Yeah. But I was thinking also, like, at least one of the other ones that's like, way under acidic. Oh, okay.
Molly 26:16
Well, you know how squeeze a tiny bit into the fizzy one? You
Speaker 1 26:20
know how there are, like, cozy mystery series, and they always, the titles are always puns, like, you know, a good day to pie or,
Molly 26:29
yeah, sure, that's the best
Speaker 1 26:31
one I could come up with on short notice. But I came up with a better one, which is, put the crime in the coconut. Oh, that's good, yeah. Okay. So what are we drinking here?
Molly 26:40
So I just had it in the fizzy one, and it kind of tasted like just a, like instant non alcoholic cocktail.
Speaker 1 26:46
Okay, I'm gonna try a little lime in the the Vita cocoa, which I didn't, I didn't like, but I didn't hate it to the same extent as the C 2o
Molly 26:54
you put the lime in the Vita Coco and drink it on up. Oh
Speaker 1 27:00
no, I still don't like it. It's, I mean, I guess it's better because it has lime in it, but it's, I'm gonna,
Molly 27:06
I'm gonna try the the flat, harmless harvest. Try to try the the flat harvest. That's a little weird, yeah, I think it works really nicely in the fizzy one. Yeah.
Speaker 1 27:16
Okay, so I guess, like, if you have a beverage that you don't really like. Try carbonating it, yeah. What have we learned? Right? What
Molly 27:24
have we learned? We've learned that. Well, we still really don't like coconut water very
Speaker 1 27:30
No, but I'm really glad we did this episode, really, because I got to like botany out. It was so nice to hang out with Mr. Botany. So nice to hang out with Mr. Botany. I don't, I feel like, like he always takes off whenever I come in the room, which is really rude, but like, I can't argue with his, with his deep knowledge of, like, endosperm and other sperms. And
Molly 27:52
I mean, I love hanging out with him, and clearly he likes hanging out with me. So Sucks to be you. All
Speaker 1 27:57
right, that's fair. I feel, I feel like the phosphate group that fell off the ATP and is now like floating around all lonely inside the wherever that happens, all lonely, and you're hanging out with phosphorescent. I'm hanging out with phosphorescent that band, right? Is that a band? I believe you. There's a lot of bands I don't know. I don't know,
Molly 28:20
like big, dumb single or something.
Speaker 1 28:21
Listeners, is there a band called phosphorescent contact at spellbound podcast.com No, we can look this up all right. Now we're pausing now to look up what this band is, because I've never heard of it. Okay, like, I haven't heard of most of the bands at this point in my life. Like I look at a I look at a flyer for a festival, and I'm like, I've heard of one of you, one of you, phosphorescent American singer songwriter. It's the stage name of American singer songwriter Matthew Houck, and he began recording under this nickname in 2001
Molly 28:51
but yes, you're correct. Okay, I did it. Yep, I knew something. Huh? Matthew, hey, we've got some spilled
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:57
mail. We sure do.
Molly 29:02
I so this is from listener, Ellie. I'm an American living in England, and can tell you that Brits love to hear a good y'all. Being from Wisconsin, I've never used it stateside, but sometimes I throw a y'all into conversation around my British friends and family just to give him a thrill. Ellie,
Speaker 1 29:22
I think this is, must be a thing we asked about on a previous episode. Like, we know what? What British things we love to hear as Americans, what are the American things that British people love to hear? Y'all, yeah, who knew that's good. I say it sometimes. I never do like, mostly, I type it sometimes, like at work. Okay, why am I saying y'all at work? I don't know just what y'all
Molly 29:45
doing. Seem folksy, I guess. Yeah, Matthew, I hear you've got a now, but wow, I do.
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:58
This is a book of poetry. Whoa,
Molly 30:00
who are you? Are you still Mr. Botany, no,
Speaker 1 30:03
I'm not. Mr. Poets. Okay, okay. This book is called The Gate of memory, and it's edited by Bryn Saito and Brandon Shimoda Watson, wife the show Lori, took me to a book event for this book at Elliot Bay in Seattle, and I was very glad she did, because it was a very intense and moving event with a lot of cool people reading, including four poets from the book, including friend of the show, Tamiko Nomura. That's incredible. Yeah. So she is in the book, along with a bunch of other poets of Japanese descent. This is a collection of work about Japanese incarceration in North America during World War Two. I enjoyed all the poet all the readings by the post, there's one, like, young guy who's a professor at Western Washington University. I do not remember his name offhand, but I will put it in the show notes that I thought his poem was amazing. And like, like, had referenced Japanese magical realism in a really satisfying way. Like, so these, these poems, like, really, like, range from very concrete to very speculative, but it was a highly political event. My takeaway from it is that most of the Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War Two were American citizens. And so if you if you are going around like I do, sometimes thinking I'm an American citizen, this protects me somehow from American authoritarianism. It doesn't and this is something everyone needs to be cognizant of. If you happen to live in North America, if you happen to live in the US at this time, yeah,
Molly 31:29
yeah, wow. That sounds incredible. So it's, it's an anthology, anthology, okay? And it's called the gate of memory, yes,
Speaker 1 31:36
Brynn Saito and Brandon Shimoda, editors, wonderful.
Molly 31:40
Wow. Okay, well, our producer is Abby sercatella Molly.
Speaker 1 31:44
Has a newsletter that you should sign up for@mollywisenberg.substack.com it's called, I've got a feeling, and I always look forward. I just re I just renewed. Oh, thanks,
Molly 31:54
Matthew, thanks. I've got, well, by the time, I'm not going to say what I've got coming up, because we're recording this episode kind of early. Yeah. Matthew makes music under the name early to the airport. You can find his stuff everywhere you find music. And, hey, how's that EP?
Speaker 1 32:12
It's become an LP. Oh, it's become an LP. It grew up and it probably still won't quite be out by the time you hear this. But it's getting it's getting there. I've heard now five out of the eight songs in final form. Fantastic. That's so cool. There's still a lot to do, but there's some cool stuff on there. I'll play, I'll play another one for Molly after this episode. After we're done recording this episode, all
Molly 32:33
right, you can rate and review us anywhere you get podcasts, and you
Speaker 1 32:36
can hang out with other listeners at reddit.com/r/everything, spilled milk. It's, it's a delightful place where, like Molly and I take a peek in there. Every once in a while, we do, we do one of our, one of our favorite listeners posted. I mean, all of you are our favorite listeners, but some some that Matthew, well, but not all of you like do, like a beautiful color drawing of our dream restaurant that we talked about on our dream grocery store. Dream grocery store,
Molly 33:03
right, right. Sorry, I loved the illustration. I'm carrying a whip and wearing horns. Yes, that
Speaker 1 33:09
must have been some things from the episode of armor.
Molly 33:13
Of course. Yes, of course. There's a suit of armor. Fantastic. Anyway. So yeah, that's reddit.com/our/everything,
Speaker 1 33:20
spilled milk, and until next time. Thank you for listening to spilled milk, the show that goes right up the germ pour.
Molly 33:25
Yeah, I mean, I'm gonna, I mean, you don't need to exfoliate after you listen to us,
Speaker 1 33:30
your germ pours. You absolutely do need to get in, into those germ pores deep. I'm Matthew Amster Burton.
Molly 33:37
I'm Molly Weisenberg. You
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:45
chirp, chirp, chirp, meat,
Molly 33:46
meat meat meat.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai