Siblings the Panel Show
Ron has had his hair cut and looks like a fresh young boy
Laura: Hello and welcome to another episode of Lex Education. It's the Comedy Science podcast, where me, a mother of one and a comedian, and a sister, tries to learn science from her, uh, brother. Ron. Ron, do you think we need to do that again without the hell scream?
Ron: For the love of God, please mute yourself from the Google Meet. That was horrible.
Laura: You've had your hair cut.
Ron: Yes, I have. Yeah. Yeah.
Laura: You look like a fresh young boy.
Ron: Thank you.
Laura: You're less like a grubby wizard every day.
Ron: Yeah, I've had my haircut. Uh, um, I'm going grey on the top now. I've got a couple of, um, greys coming through the fringe.
Laura: Wow, you're gonna be a little salt and pepper dude.
Ron: Yeah.
Laura: You've held out. How old are you? 28, 29? Yeah. That's about the age I started to go grey.
Ron: Well, I've been. I've been salt and pepper on the sides for ages. That's why I started shaving them off. Same thing you did.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: But consistently. Ah, yeah. No, I'm thinking about, um, growing it longer on the top and then having a slightly different look for a bit. We'll see how that goes.
Laura: Talk me through this. What?
Ron: I've, uh, got a friend and he's got, like, similar hair to me, but then almost kind of like a 90s look, I think, where you kind of have it longer on the top. Then you can, like, tuck it behind your ears. It's sort of a messy, long look.
Laura: Do it.
Ron: We're gonna give it a go. If not, I'll just cut it off. It's fine.
Laura: Fair. That's fair.
Ron: Um, just feel like I've had this look for a while now.
Laura: Yeah. Ron.
Ron: Hello, I'm Ron.
Laura: Hello, Ron. I've been in Scotland for a week. Ron.
Ron: Yeah. How was that? How was your night out with, um, younger sister of the podcast, Meg?
Laura: It was great, Ron. I had one of the best weeks of touring that I've ever had. So, like, with stand up, mostly you're just bipping about. You do your own thing, you drive to Reading, you do a gig, you drive home, whatever, you know, you pop into London on a train, you pop out of London on a train, but then every now and again there'll be these big group things where, you know, a, uh, producer's organised it and you go off and you do a week here and there. I've done Dubai or around Europe and things like that. And so this one was organised by the lovely people of the Gilded Balloon, which, if you're a Edinburgh Fringe regular. My child is fine. I just. All she's being asked to do is like, probably put shoes on. That's all that's going on downstairs. Um. Ah, gilded balloon. And um. And it was a little tour of Scotland, so we went to Stirling, the Isle of Skye. What are you laughing at?
Ron: Just talking about your best week ever. About how you were away for a week and just screaming downstairs. It's a sound tableau.
Laura: Parents of toddlers will understand. Um, yeah. Stirling, Skye, Inverness, Portobello, which is just a little like seaside suburb of Edinburgh. And then Portobello Road. Yeah.
Ron: Well, those were the riches of ages of stone.
Laura: Anything and everything can unload is sold off the barrow in Portobello Road.
Ron: Banger.
Laura: Yeah. Um, lovely bits. Some of our own by the Tsar.
Radiators are meant to be by the window with long curtains by them
Now to yours again.
Ron: Lovely bit of string.
Laura: You've. You've rotated your desk.
Ron: I have, yeah. For the natural light.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: It wasn't there initially because the radiator is underneath. Uh, it's. The radiator is fucked because not only is it under the window bad. Which is where also where you'd want the desk bad. It's also got floor length curtains which then cover it bad. Um, but I don't foresee myself ever having to put the heating on again.
Laura: So I think that's the whole point though. Radiators are meant to be by the window with long curtains by them because they're meant to catch the cold air coming in, heat it before it circulates around the room. Most radiators you'll find are under windows.
Ron: Uh, uh. Then maybe I'm wrong with that. But the long curtains is just bad.
Laura: Huh.
Ron: Because that. Just like. That's like having furniture right in front of a radiator. Just.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: Maybe holds the heat in. Um, but anyway, my, my understanding was you didn't want the radiator close to the window because then you're just heating air and then it's getting cooled down by the window. Really inefficient.
Laura: Oh, I thought it was the other way around.
00:05:00
Laura: I'm gonna go with because you've probably got a draught coming in, not a draught going out because there'd be more wind outside.
Ron: Yeah, but the window stops the wind. That's why it's called that. It's a wind. Oh, no, not coming in hinge.
Laura: A wind. No.
There were three Scottish comedians on this tour and they were fantastic company
Um, anyway, so I was. I was on this tour and it was really nicely organised so that there were. There were three of us from Dune Sooth, um, myself and Jen Brister and Sarah Barron, who were Just fantastic company. And then there were also two Scottish comedians on each bill, which I think Ron was the perfect mix, because then me, Jen and Sarah, we were like, travelling around all together and then when we turn up, there'd be two new faces to talk to. And I think it's the first time I've ever done a tour like this where I've been with, A, women and, um, B, people, like, similar to my own age, you know, so we've had a lot in common. We've had a lot to chat about. Not that the other comedians I haven't travelled with over the years have been wonderful, but they've generally been men who are about 20, 30 years older than me, so, you know, just less in common. And. And we had a lovely driver who drove us around, so I didn't have to do any driving all week. And the car had a massive sunroof. And so I just, like, saw all the Highlands all the way up to Sky Sky. And then I stayed in a beautiful hotel that overlooked the water on that one. And then we drove back down through the Cairngorms. Um, and I had tatty driving, um, a drive. The tour manager.
Ron: A driver.
Laura: A driver. Oh, my God. When I loved having a driver, they.
Ron: Sent a town car.
Laura: I loved having a driver.
Ron: You could eat M S crisps with both fish.
Laura: Yes. And, um, believe me, I did. Actually. Eating was the thing I got very wrong on this trip. It was because we changed hotel every day and sort of had about three to four hours of moving about every day eating and. And especially on the ones that were more out in the sticks, we just sort of forgot that in some places in the world, food isn't available all day. Like, we'd turn up to places and be like, can we have dinner? And they'd be like, oh, the dinner service starts at 5. And we'd be like, oh, oh, baka.
Ron: Um, a bit of shortbread that's been left on the pillow. It is, yeah.
Laura: Like, I did eat a lot of that stuff. Or there was one day where I bought some Ryvitas and some of those flat leodama cheeses and just made stackables all day, you know. Wasn't great.
Ron: When me and the gentle boy did our, um, you know, half a week of railing around Northern Germany, we really up the eating similar thing. We only had one hot meal in four days.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: And then when we did, we. I swear, I almost welled up from relief of just sitting down and eating something pleasant.
Laura: Yeah, I did a lot of, um, eating more than anybody sat near me wanted me to at hotel breakfasts. Um, like, there was one place where I had a full plate of. Of hash browns and Tattis scones and eggs and beans and mushrooms and stuff. And I was like, I'm full. And then I noticed on the menu that they had vegan sausages. And I was like, wait a second. And so I said to the lady, oh, I didn't see those. And she was like, oh, they have to be cooked. Do you want some? And I was like, well, yeah. So I just had a second full meal for breakfast, and then I was uncomfortably squashy for the rest of the day.
Ron: Judith and I went to the spa the other weekend.
Laura: The shop or like, a spa?
Ron: A spa.
Laura: Oh.
Ron: Um. And, uh, Judith goes to the spa fairly regularly, so she's tried out the different food options that are there. And supposedly the only one that's good is the buffet, which for a spa, I think is insane. But, um, it's also quite an expensive buffet. So I had to fucking fill my dirty boots with. With food. I think I had, like, five plates of food. And then you go and sit in the sauna and you're just like, I'm so full of salmon in the hammam. Just the fish is getting a second steaming.
Laura: Yeah, just salmon coming out your paws as you steam.
Ron: The combo, though, they had had, like, massive fillets of just like, I guess, like, baked or roasted salmon or whatever. Um, and then another one of the dishes was cauliflower cheese. That was a magical combo. I guess it's very similar to that, um, lasagne you make, but, yeah, just the thick, cheesy sauce with the. With the salmon. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.
Laura: Um, listen up, Ron. It's a Dry Bones episode today.
00:10:00
Laura: Yeah, it's dry.
Ron: Um, both.
All biology practicals in biology are very dry, Ron says
Well, we're moving on to less dry biology today. Good.
Laura: Because it's rare for biology to be dry.
Ron: All stuff to do with practicals in biology is very dry. I think I've said this to you well before we ever started doing the podcast, like, on why I didn't pursue a career in this sort of thing, is because biology labs, or biochemistry especially, is just mixing colourless liquids together. And then at the end of it, you. You usually get a different colourless liquid, and then you measure something to do with that, then you get the results two or three days later. And then you're like, oh, okay, biochem labs are dull.
Laura: M. And we're about to express that in podcast form. So listen up, gang. Stick with us.
Ron: We've warmed up A bit.
Laura: Oh, uh, Ron, we're much less cranky than we were before.
Ron: Yeah, we're coming off the back of the Trudy's time and place high.
Laura: Ugh. Uh, Dibble's in the mix.
Ron: What was that one? That was like a tree house.
Laura: I think that's the Lion King one. Wasn't it where you were in Rafiki's tree?
Ron: No, uh, there was, like, a tree house, but it was also encyclopaedia or something.
Laura: Treehouse Encyclopaedia.
Ron: Yeah.
Laura: Whoa. This is the third biology.
Ron: Yeah, I was really surprised by that. I logged on, um, to prep my notes because I do quite a lot of prep before the episodes. I don't just show up to recording. Um, and then, um. Ah. I was like, oh, must be chemistry that we're doing. And then I was like, no, no, we did that. And then did the same thing with physics. And then was like, bloody hell, biology 3. What are you looking at?
Laura: My first encyclopaedia. It was bundled with most Packard Bell computers in 1995 and 1996.
Ron: My first in encyclopaedia. What was it?
Laura: Yeah, just got that computer game.
Ron: Now.
Laura: I think I remember this. Oh, wait, no.
Ron: No, I. Here's the other one that haunts my dreams. Um, and actually, I'd love it if someone listening knew what this was. When there was a Simpsons platformer that was kind of like lemmings, and you had to get the itchies. The itchies and the scratchies from one place to another. And on different levels, you would play as different guys. And I think Krusty was a big bit of it. Krusty was a bad guy. That was the other one that we had. I, uh, can't find. Because there's so much Simpsons stuff out there that you can't troll through it.
Laura: I don't remember that one. I've sent you. I've sent you a thing, though. Uh, Ski. Free.
Ron: Ski.
Laura: Oh, my God. The Spider man cartoon maker. Uh, I'd utterly forgotten that existed.
Ron: Where have you sent this? WhatsApp.
Laura: Yeah. Oh, my God, Ron, do you remember that?
Ron: The Spider man cartoon maker. I had one that was Simpsons.
Laura: Oh, God, Ron, let's stop now and make Spider man cartoons together. I agree.
Ron: Free games on computers are rare these days
To cookies. Let me in. Let me see. Oh, wow. Yeah. Oh. So you had, like, a selection of, um, backdrops, and then you could, like, put characters and stuff on them, and then you press the button and it played it for you. You know, you made your own.
Ron: Yeah, I had one for the Simpsons, but I don't remember one for.
Laura: Oh, do you not. Oh, uh, yeah. Ski Free, man. That is basic Ski free. Yeah.
Ron: Oh, my God. I don't remember this one at all.
Laura: You would assume that this was malware if it came up today, but that was.
Ron: Oh, my God.
Laura: Oh, yeah. And the yeti.
Ron: The yeti is a big part of the graphics that I'm looking at.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: Crazy
00:15:00
Ron: times. Um, anyway, they don't give you enough.
Laura: Free games on computers anymore.
Ron: Where did all these things come from?
Laura: They were just free on the computer. There was, like, a package of games. You had Rodents Revenge. Do you remember that one with the mice and the cat and you were a mouse in the middle of a block of things, and then you had to get out and get the cheese without the cats getting you. You had to trap the cats in blocks, and if a cat was reduced to a single block, then it turned into a cheese and you could go and eat it.
Ron: No, I surely don't remember that at all.
Laura: Oh, my God. You not. Oh, uh, this one I remember, like, really, really well.
Ron: What was it called?
Laura: Rodents Revenge. Oh, my goodness. I think I might be able to get it. No, it looks a bit like Minesweeper. And so you're a mouse, and then you push these blocks around and try and trap a cat, and then the cat turns into cheese and you eat it.
Ron: You know, maybe I do remember this. There's something about the holes in the floor that's very reminiscent. What a digging gym was a big one.
Laura: Digging gym? Yeah, you love to dig.
Ron: Digging Gym is a hell of a game. I think you can just play it online these days.
Laura: I think I've broken my computer.
Ron: What did you do?
Laura: I don't know. Um.
Ron: I used to be pretty good at Digging Jim.
Laura: Didn't our version of Digging Jim have a problem, though, where it, like, cut out at a certain point?
Ron: I'm certain we've had this conversation before on the podcast.
Laura: Was I just bad at doing it?
Ron: I. I don't think we had to get diamonds out.
Laura: Didn't you?
Ron: Yeah. I don't think we had a problem with our digging gym. I think we hadn't bought the full version.
Laura: Um.
Ron: Oh, yeah, But I got around that because there was a free map M editor. So you could just make your own levels and play more.
Laura: Digging Jim, that sounds like you.
Ron: Yeah. I don't like explaining that I had a really sad child.
Laura: Oh, Ron, you did.
Ron: I didn't have a sad child.
Laura: No, you didn't know it was sad at the Time. It wasn't sad for you, it was just sad. Contextually.
Ron: It was a little bit solitary, but that doesn't mean it was sad. No.
Laura: Yeah, it does. Ron. You were making your own underground cave systems to play in, outside and inside. Most of your recreational memories m are, ah, creating systems in mud to entertain yourself.
Ron: I was interested in archaeology.
Laura: Mm mhm. Mm hm.
Laura: We were doing monomers and polymers and polysaccharines
Anyway, um, well, that's eight minutes.
Ron: Yeah. I'm gonna close all these tabs that I opened. Um, Laura, what were we doing last time on biology?
Laura: Well, I would have given you an answer, Ron, but I'm thinking of biology 1. Oh. We were doing monomers and polymers and monosaccharins and polysaccharines.
Ron: Saccharides. Yes, we were. Which is a fancy word for sugars. Yes. Or carbohydrates. Um, absolutely.
Laura says after a workout, she gets hungry for protein
So we're still on the topic of carbohydrates today, Laura.
Laura: Lovely. I've eaten loads of carbohydrates today.
Ron: Yeah.
Laura: Yeah. I've got a real munchies world in my bot today.
Ron: Um, in your bot?
Laura: In my body. So I had two slices of toast for breakfast and then I had some toast and Tara masalata for lunch, and then I had some hula hoops and then I had some Belvita biscuits, and then I had two tiny chocolate mini rolls and then I had two rice cakes.
Ron: Oh, yeah, you do have the munchies.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: That was a relative very hungry caterpillars.
Laura: Yeah. I did a workout today and that does make me hungry because I lift, you know, and I've gone up some weights on a couple of my lifts, so my muscles needed repairing of the n glucomatic energy that's stored in muscles.
Ron: And old Laura, Lex didn't think maybe a bit of protein would help these muscles.
Laura: I can't have protein. I'm a vegetarian.
Ron: You can have protein.
Laura: Isn't there protein in fish eggs?
Ron: Um, it wouldn't be the main thing.
Laura: Huh.
Ron: I think it would be much better to eat a chicken egg.
Laura: Yeah. I often do crave chicken eggs after I've worked out.
Ron: Probably because you're not eating enough protein after a workout.
Laura: Probably because you're eating rice cakes and Cadbury rolls. No, they're not Cadbury's. They're M and S, you know, in the tubs.
Ron: Uh, yeah.
Laura: Yesterday I ate most of a coral reef of Belgian seashells. It was so good.
Ron: Yeah. I think after you work out, uh, maybe try some protein.
Laura: What? Just some eggs. Stop trying to get the egg a thon earlier and earlier no, you could.
Ron: Get it from beans.
Laura: Oh, I don't want to cook anything after work. I'm tired.
Ron: I don't. You didn't ask for this help. I'm gonna stop trying to give it. Um, you're happy. I'm just. I just wouldn't be happy if I was you. And I need to separate myself from that.
Laura: That was a really horrible moment in the podcast history there, Ron. I'd like to take the listeners. I'd like everyone to just have a minute where they sit and really absorb what that would feel like to be. You haven't asked for this help, so I'm not going to give it.
Ron: Do you want.
Laura: You are happy. I just wouldn't be happy if I were living your life.
Ron: I think that's fair. You didn't ask for any advice, so why was I giving it? Laura's pretending to be very sad now.
Boris Johnson says he's not very good at panel shows
Laura: Well, a weird thing happened just as we were being sad. And, um, I'm trying to come off my antidepressants at the moment, so, you know when you're getting floaty thoughts just all over the place. I got the list of people that will be on the news quiz on the same panel as me, and my immediate reaction was, oh, no, because they have really, like, definite Personas of who they are, and I'm just don't have a personality. And then I was like, you do. You just forget about it when you're around other people. I'm not very good, and this is a real downfall of my career. I'm very good at being myself in a situation I'm comfortable with. But because I don't really like being sociable, and I'm not easy in social company. But panel shows and stuff, I'm not. I'm not the same Persona as I am when I do my stand up because I'm just not as comfortable, whereas other people are really good at it. So I need to go into this panel show tomorrow and just record pretending like it's a, uh, me solo show and that everyone in the audience is there for me.
Ron: Yeah, Maybe that's the energy other people bring to it all the time.
Laura: I think it must be. I think that that's. That's. That's what separates your. A casters. He doesn't go on a panel show and go, right, this is Mock the week. How do comedians do on Mock the Week? He goes on and does mock the week in his own style. And that's the difference between a great and a me.
Ron: Yeah, maybe. Also, I think it's it's, um, I think there's. But also, I wouldn't be too hard on yourself because it is just a different skill as well. Like, you're very, very good at stand up. You've done a lot of it and you've honed that. I don't think it's a failing of yours to be thrown into a completely different context and not be as smooth as.
Laura: No, I think that's fine. And I haven't had like regular experience of doing it, so it's not like I'm doing panel shows every month to just. And by the time mock finished, I was really in the swing of how to be myself on it. But, um, the problem with a stand up career is that in order to progress, you get really good at stand up and then basically just do other things to be successful and you put out specials. But, like, the success is being in other scenarios. Um, so if I want to sort of keep progressing and keep paying the mortgage, you have to be able to do other things.
Ron: Well, let's do this for a Patreon special. We'll do a panel show and you can practise and you'll feel really comfortable.
Laura: Siblings, the panel show. Let's get oldest and younger sister of the podcast on.
Ron: Yeah. And then maybe you and husband of the podcast could be team leads.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: The Hislop and Merton of the situation.
Laura: Are you gonna host. Are you the Boris Johnson?
Ron: Yes, I'm Boris Johnson. Or. Or do we. Well, yeah, we'll do like a
00:25:00
Ron: science panel show and I think it makes sense if I host. If I go on one of the teams. That's just unfair.
Laura: Yeah. Is it gonna be science?
Ron: Maybe there'll be a science round. Okay, well, that'll be fun. Um.
What I would do is just get a protein shake and just drink that after workout
Laura: Anyway, so that's 15 minutes in.
Ron: We've got. Was it only six minutes since we last, um, stopped?
Laura: Um, yeah, we talked about my failings as a comedian for way less time than we talked about digging gym.
Ron: Well, we weren't talking about that the whole time.
Laura: No. Um, yeah, we have only got 25 minutes of the lesson left though. And I've just written down eat beans after a workout.
Ron: Tofu's good as well.
Laura: Like just baked beans.
Ron: All beans would be quite high in protein. What I would do though is just get a protein shake and just drink that after your workout. And I know what you've said before about like, you think that you'd use, um, it as meal replacement. How about this? Just don't.
Laura: You do not understand how my brain works, Ron.
Ron: Just drink it like a nice smoothie after the workout. Have all of your other meals as well.
Laura: I would never, ever drink a smoothie.
Ron: No, drink this one because it's got lots of protein in it. Adjust.
Laura: I can't do that, though.
Ron: I don't understand.
Laura: Um.
Ron: Just instead of one other drink you have that day, drink that instead. They taste. It tastes like chocolate.
Laura: Way more calories in it than tea.
Ron: It's like 150 calories.
Laura: That's way more than tea.
Ron: Yeah, but you've just done a workout. Cut out the M and S chocolate rolls.
Laura: No, that was why I did the workout.
Ron: And drink that.
Laura: That sounds horrible.
Ron: It tastes like chocolate.
Laura: Not as much as an M s chocolate roll tastes like chocolate.
Ron: No, but, you know, would help your muscles.
Laura: My muscles are fine.
Ron: Think if you're craving eggs, an object that usually haunt your nightmares after a workout.
Laura: Craving them. I'm not like some goanna crawling around nests.
Ron: Those are words you used.
Laura: Yeah, but, like, it's probably because I don't eat them. So the craving goes unsatisfied.
Ron: Yeah. Eat an egg. Eat some beans, Eat some nuts. Loads of foods are high in protein.
Laura: Oh, I eat loads of nuts.
Ron: Do you?
Laura: Yeah. The other day I had cashew nuts for dinner.
Ron: Well, nuts are very high in cash.
Laura: The thing about nuts for me, though, Ron, is I don't digest nuts. I just poop out loads of nuts.
Ron: Yeah.
Laura: I don't think any of the protein gets in my body.
Ron: Just have to shake, man.
Laura: I don't want to. Isn't it expensive protein powder?
Ron: No.
Laura: Do you remember when you were taking that loam powder all the time?
Ron: Yeah, but then my shits became too powerful and it was awful to drink.
Laura: It was. It wasn't a drink. That was a raw meatloaf. It was so horrible.
Ron: Couldn't get it down, maybe.
Laura: God, that was a bleak point in your life when you were all heartbroken and living in the hutch. Just.
Ron: Nothing wrong with a bit of gut health, Lincoln.
Laura: Drinking loam powder?
Ron: No. Now, in my, uh, overnight oats, just a, uh, tablespoon of flax seeds. Tablespoon of chia seeds. It's all the fibre I need. Fibre is what's in your food.
Laura: Broadband.
Ron: When, um, you eat sort of whole foods and natural things.
Laura: Yeah. That's like my granola. I have rolled oats and nuts, uh, and honey, um, and all baked together.
Ron: No fibre in honey. But the. The sentiment was good.
Laura: The nuts is fine and the oats is fine.
Ron: I don't know if there's much fibre in nuts.
Laura: To be honest, you just said whole foods. A whole nut. It's literally called whole food.
Ron: Every whole food, though A, um, roast chicken's a whole food. It doesn't mean that there's a fucking load of fibre in it.
Laura: Oh, I bet there is. In the bones?
Ron: No.
Meat, poultry and dairy products do not contain dietary fibre
Laura: In the skin?
Ron: No.
Laura: Feathers?
Ron: Uh, no, there's not fibre in chicken. Anyway, we're doing tests. We're doing tests for sugar, Laura. Okay, now, there are two different types of sugar. We have reducing sugars and we have non reducing sugars.
00:30:00
Ron: What are you googling if there's not. If there's fibre in chicken.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: Is it telling you about muscle fibres but not about fibre?
Laura: The, the macro meat, chicken, turkey, fish and dairy products do not contain dietary fibre.
Ron: Yes, I know.
Laura: You have to feed a chicken fibre, though.
Ron: You have to feed all things fibre.
Laura: Not, uh, me.
Ron: Well, you know when you were saying that nuts just pass straight through you.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: It's probably because there's no fibre in you.
Laura: God, what have I got eat now?
Ron: I told you at the beginning of the year 2025 was all about your macros.
Laura: What's a macro?
Ron: It's the different types of things.
Laura: It's a Scottish bird.
Ron: I didn't even get that Mac grow right.
Laura: Um, no, it's just like that's been a mud.
Ron: Carbs are a macro, proteins are a macro, fibre's a macro. Yeah, you can't just.
Laura: It's all about your macros and then say fiber's a macro.
Ron: Yeah, it is. And then it's about, like, not worrying that much about, like, how much you're eating or, like, you know, what's, um, you know, is it this? Is it that. It's just like nail. Get all of these things that you need and then you'll be all right.
Laura: But I am fine.
Ron: Then why are you asking questions and craving eggs?
Laura: Because I just wanted some eggs one time today I didn't want eggs.
Ron: You said quite often after working out, I crave eggs.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: And then you.
Laura: Last week I had eggs because I.
Ron: Said I wasn't going to give you this advice. Now I'm giving you the advice.
Laura: I'm not digesting it, Ron. Possibly because of a lack of fibre in my brain.
Ron: Your perfectly smooth, non fibrous brain. Smooth like an egg. I've got some egg snacks in the kitchen. Some like boiled eggs just ready to go if I need a snack.
Laura: What about corn? I snack on corn out of the fridge.
Ron: Yes, but you snack on those filled.
Laura: Balls and, um, sausages.
Ron: The sausages might Have a decent amount of protein in it. Those filled balls have no nutritional value.
Laura: They're mostly corn round the edges.
Ron: Yes. And butter in the middle. Mmm.
Laura: I think they're vegan friendly, so I don't think it is butter.
Ron: No, but it's some sort of cheesy fatty thing.
Laura: Yeah, but made of beans because it's vegan.
Ron: That's, uh. Corn isn't made of beans.
Laura: Uh, it's made of mushrooms.
Ron: Fungus mushrooms. No.
Laura: You are being pedantic today. Well, ron, we've got 15 minutes.
Ron: Mushroom's just like a fungus's penis. It's not a creature in itself.
Reducing refers to the concept of reduction in chemical reactions
Um, anyway, um, so we're doing tests. There's two types of sugars, Laura. Reducing sugars and non reducing sugars.
Laura: Reducing sugars and non reducing sugars.
Ron: I can't remember if we covered this in GCSE or not, but reducing there refers to the concept of reduction in chemical reactions. That is oxidation and reduction. Have we covered those as concepts?
Laura: M let's say for safety. No.
Ron: Well, we will cover them in more detail in the chemistry course.
Laura: I think what you mean is some detail can't be more. If we didn't do it well, more.
Ron: Detail than we're going to do now. Uh. Don't try and outsmart me. Um, essentially, to all you need to know for the very, very basics, oxidation is the, um, is the process of giving an electron to something. Reducing takes an electron. No, that's completely the other way around. M. Wait. Hold, please. Call her.
Laura: I'm just gonna look at Mackie for a while. Ron, it's a rain episode here.
Ron: Yeah. Oxidation is the loss of an electron. Reduction is the gain of electronic oxidation.
Laura: Losing an, um, electron reduction is gaining an electron. That makes no sense.
Ron: Well, in oxidation, not all the time, because you can have oxidation without oxygen,
00:35:00
Ron: um, but, um. And essentially, like the oxidation of a metal rusting, basically, that is an oxidation reaction. They lose electrons but they gain oxygen. If you were then to reduce that, they would gain electrons but lose oxygen. Um, which is where the names of it comes from. But not all of these reactions. Like that was where we first sort of worked it all out. And then later on we realised actually these are bigger brackets of reactions that are going on. But, um, they just don't always have to involve oxygen.
Laura: Right.
Ron: Um, which is where the names come from. So you've got these reducing, um, sugars and non reducing sugars. And basically all that means in the context of testing for them is different tests work for them, um, because they will act as a Reducing agent or not in different scenarios, essentially reducing. Um, sugars include all monosaccharides. Um, can you name any?
Laura: Hang on. Um, glucose.
Ron: Yep. Glucose, fructose, galactose, um, all of these. And then there are some disaccharides like lactose and maltose that are also reducing sugars.
Laura: Lactose and maltose, did you say?
Ron: Yep.
Laura: I can't spell anything today. Okay. It's probably the lack of eggs in your diet.
Ron: No, no, no, no. That's the afternoon sleepies. It's probably the sugar crash from the M. Chocolate.
Laura: I had to eat them wrong because they went past their best before four days ago.
Ron: I think you know that. You didn't have to eat them.
Laura: I wanted to eat them. Ron.
Ron: Yes, that's okay.
Simple polysaccharides fall under the non reducing sugars category
Laura: Um, so what are some oxidating sugars?
Ron: No, no, so they're not oxidating sugars, they're just not reducing. Um, the other disaccharides, like sucrose is the other one that we've heard of. And then simple polysaccharides fall under the non reducing sugars.
Laura: What's a simple polysaccharide?
Ron: Um, a longer chain of something like glucose, but not.
Laura: What would a complex. What's the difference between similar and complex? Basically, like where does that definition fall?
Ron: Size? So something like starch or glycogen, the two that we've heard of. Or, um, M. What's the other one called? Cellulose. Um, those are all complex polysaccharides because they're huge structures. Um, I don't know the name of any simple polysaccharides.
Laura: Did you say fructose was non reducing?
Ron: Fructose is reducing because that's a monosaccharide. All monosaccharides are reducing.
Laura: Uh, what was the disaccharide you said?
Ron: Sucrose.
Laura: That uh, sounds like the best one.
Ron: Sucrose syrup. That's a thing that it's talked about, isn't it?
Laura: M. It sounds like the sugariest one. You know, if somebody said you want this sweetened with lactose, maltose or sucrose, I'd say sucrose. Maybe it's because it starts with su, like sugar.
Ron: Sucre. Is. Is that French?
Laura: French or Spanish, isn't it?
Ron: Yeah. Well, lactose then you're thinking it's going to get milky. Yeah, Maltose. I'd be Maltesers, but I think it.
Laura: Would be biscuity, which I might not want.
Ron: I don't.
Laura: Isn't lactose what you're allergic to?
Ron: No, I'm allergic to cow's milk.
Laura: Um.
Ron: But not lactose, which is very frustrating because lots of people in my life has gotten this wrong. Um, and they'll be so sweet and I'll stay at their house and they've gone to the trouble of buying me lactose free cheese or lactose free milk and stuff. But I mean, I do drink it because I drink cow's milk anyway, um, because it's just not so bad for me. But it's just, um, oh, they went out of the way but they still bought something that I'm allergic to. Um, and then even more worse than that is they'll go out of their way and they'll bite goat's cheese, which don't even fucking like. Ugh.
The Benedict's test is what's known as semi quantitative
So the big one, the most famous one when it comes to tests because it tests for the reducing sugars, which covers all of the monosaccharides, your glucoses and whatnot, is something called Benedict's test or Benedict's reagent.
Laura: This came up in the quiz I gave you, Ron.
Ron: Yes, it did.
Laura: You couldn't remember it?
Ron: Nope. Because I think it's good that we've had a jolly old silly episode because
00:40:00
Ron: this is fucking dull. It goes thusly. You put your, uh, the thing that you want to test for sugar into. Uh, Baker, add some blue Benedict solution to it and then you heat the mixture, put it in a water bath and bring it to a boil.
Laura: Hang, um, on blue Benedictine solution.
Ron: Blue Benedict sounds like maybe a pirate.
Laura: Or a monk that got kidnapped by pirates.
Ron: Benedict's a very monkey name.
Laura: Yeah. Then we're going to bring it to the boil.
Ron: Or maybe a particularly saucy king. Blue Benedict. The first.
Laura: Yeah. Or cold king.
Ron: Yeah. Um, and then once we've done that, uh, it will change colour. Um, so it starts off as blue. Um, and then it goes through the Roy G Biv spectrum. Um, depending on the concentration of reducing sugars in the sample. So blue, green, yellow, orange and red.
Laura: Mm mhm.
Ron: Um, Benedict's. The Benedict's test is what's known as semi quantitative. Do you know the difference between quantitative and, uh, Qualitative?
Laura: Yes. So quantitative will give an amount. Result. Qualitative will give a describable anecdotal amount a result.
Ron: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, shout out for quantitative. That's just a fun word to say. It's like you're falling down the stairs.
Laura: Quantitative. It's a bit like, um, that test that we were doing the other day. Spectrometry. Quantitative spectrometry.
Ron: Quantitative. I'm Quite confident in. Every time I'm saying it, I'm saying it the same and correctly. Whereas spectrometry I am not.
Laura: I bet people that have gone to Oxbridge say like quantitative or something, you know, to like.
Ron: Well, I do say qualitative. I don't say qualitative quantitative, quantitative. Um, it's semi quantitative because, um, you, you have it, um, going through these different colours. So you can empirically say if, if one of them was red and the other one turned it green. You could empirically say the one with the one that had red is more than the one with green. But it's only semi quantitative because you can't say this as a concentration of five moles per decimeter cubed and this one has a concentration of one mole per decimeter cubed. That sort of thing.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: Um, understand just the semi quantitative.
Laura: Um. Why, why is that semi quantitative and not qualitative then?
Ron: Because qualitative.
Laura: You did m say qualitative?
Ron: Actually, I did actually. Um, because qualitative would just be saying this is good, that's hot.
Laura: Um, but are we not doing that saying this is sugary?
Ron: Yeah, but test finding out whether there's um, reducing sugar in it?
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: Testing just for the presence of them.
Laura: It's quite given that, oh, this is reduced sugary.
Ron: But qualitative research would be something like, um.
What do you think about new plans for the Western Harbour in Bristol
What do you think about, like these new plans for the Western Harbour in Bristol?
Laura: Um, what do you think, Ron? Um. Um, I think that, um, now is definitely considering jumping.
Ron: Yeah. Um, I think that it's in an area that I'm surprised they haven't developed before because you've got a beautiful view of the bridge and whatnot. Um, they are planning to make 50% of it affordable housing. I think that's not enough. Um, but I think it's all right. And that area is a bit of a hellscape of roads. So, you know, it's all, um. If there's one park. Oh like bit of green that's gonna get developed but the rest of it's not great places anyway. So, um, I'm okay with was gonna happen as long as they don't like, do anything to leewards and some of the green spaces around there, I think it's all right.
Laura: Do you think you'll buy one of the affordable houses?
Ron: Depends what I'm doing in
00:45:00
Ron: in 2032, which is when I believe it'll um, be fixed. If you were to do um, Benedict's test and it stayed blue, what would that indicate, Laura?
Laura: No reducing sugars doesn't mean that there's.
Ron: No sugar in there.
Laura: Yeah, just non reducing was oxid. Not, not reducing ones. Some simple polysaccharides perhaps. Or some disaccharides.
Ron: Very good. Or just no sugar at all. How do we test then? Using Benedict's test for these non reducing sugars.
Laura: I wonder see if any bees come along.
Ron: No, um, no. No insects are harmed during these tests. Um, we use the fact that some disaccharides. All disaccharides. But these, some non reducing disaccharides, simple polysaccharides, they're all made of the same thing. What are they made of?
Laura: Carbon and hydrogens.
Ron: Bigger than that.
Laura: Hydroxyl groups.
Ron: Bigger than that.
Laura: Monomers and um. Polymers.
Ron: What are the monomers?
Laura: Polymers.
Ron: No, I said what are the monomers? The monomers aren't polymers, are they?
Laura: What do you mean what are the monomers? Sugars.
Ron: What are the monomers?
Laura: What do you mean?
Ron: What are the monomers in disaccharides and polysaccharides?
Laura: Monosaccharides.
Ron: Yeah. And all monosaccharides are.
Laura: Covalent bonds.
Ron: They are all molecules. Really well done, Laura. Think about what we're talking about today.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: Benedict's reagent only works with reducing sugars.
Laura: Mhm.
Ron: We're trying to test for the ones that are non reducing. Now we've savily worked out between the.
Laura: Two.
Ron: That the non reducing sugars are all made up of the same thing, monosaccharides. Why is that useful in this specific instance where we have something that tests for reducing sugars and they're all made up of monosaccharides. What's the link between those two things?
Laura: If you reduced a monosaccharide, it would just become um. A single thing. Can't reduce a mono. It's already a mono.
Ron: You've forgotten what reducing means.
Laura: Uh, so we have a.
Ron: We have a test for reducing sugars.
Laura: It's gone past the point of learning, Ron.
Ron: We have a test for reducing sugars and we have non reducing sugars that are all made up of monosaccharides. Now I am not leaving this zoom call until you have connected these dots.
Laura: It's Microsoft Teams. It's not.
Ron: It's Google Meet.
Laura: Oh, it's Google Meet and Clean Feed. I got charged for Riverside again today. I need to cancel that.
Ron: Yeah, it's dog shit.
Laura: My eyes are so small that they can hide behind the frames of my glasses like a cartoon character with no eyes.
Ron: Yeah, you do have Piggy Small Eyes.
We have a test for reducing sugars, a concept we've only learned about
Connect these dots for us.
Laura: Laura, do the dots again.
Ron: We have a test for reducing sugars.
Laura: Which means they are gaining an electron.
Ron: And we've worked out that all of the non reducing sugars are made up of monosaccharides. Mmm.
Laura: Mhm. They don't have an electron to give.
Ron: Read your notes.
Laura: There's nothing in my notes.
Ron: Apply yourself.
Laura: I can't. Pages are really thick. Chirality.
Ron: Read your notes from this lesson.
Laura: Oh God.
Ron: Why would it be in a previous.
Laura: Because we were doing this then as well.
Ron: No, um, we weren't.
Laura: I know, I'm getting upset. Mackie. It's okay.
Ron: We have a test for reducing sugars, a concept we've only learned about in this lesson.
Laura: Yep.
Ron: And we have non reducing sugars that we've savvily worked out are made up of monosaccharides.
Laura: Yep.
Ron: Yeah.
Laura: What are you asking?
Ron: I want you to connect those two.
Laura: I don't know what you mean by connect the dots
00:50:00
Laura: though. That could mean any number of things. What is the question?
Ron: No. Apply yourself with some critical thinking.
Laura: No question.
Ron: Why don't you think about the test for reducing sugars? What reducing sugars do we know?
Laura: Monosaccharides.
Ron: Yep. And we've got these non reducing sugars that we've worked out are made out of disaccharides. No, they're made out of monosaccharides, as I've said quite a few times.
Laura: I thought you said they're not reducing sugars were the disaccharides and the simple polysaccharides.
Ron: They are. And what are they made out of?
Laura: Ron? I'm um, not even playing dumb. I don't understand what you're asking.
Ron: I am asking you to connect the dots between these two things.
Laura: Yeah. Fucking sake. Connect the dots one more time and see if it gets the same result. Knob edge. Connect the dots, Sew them together, Draw a line between them.
Ron: We have a test for reducing sugars. What are the reducing sugars?
Laura: Monosaccharides.
Ron: Yes.
Laura: And lactose.
Ron: And we've got, we've got these non reducing sugars.
Laura: Yes. That are made out of simple polysaccharides and some disaccharides.
Ron: No, those are non reducing, uh, sugars. But what are simple polysaccharides and disaccharides.
Laura: Made out of monosaccharides which are reducing sugars.
Ron: Yes. So if we break those up into their small constituent parts, we then have reducing sugars which then Benedict's reaction is going to work for. That's the dots to connect.
Laura: I didn't understand what you wanted me to do with the gap between the dots. I didn't know what on earth you.
Ron: Were asking for the connection of. We have a test for what these things are made out of.
Laura: Why didn't you just say how could you test for not reducing sugars or something?
Ron: Because that's what we're talking about. How to use Benedict's. That was the whole bracket that it's all under. So what we do is, well, how do we break up polysaccharides in our body, Laura? Do you know? Um, saliva, um, further along than that.
Laura: Stomach acid.
Ron: Stomach acid? Yes. What you do is you add some dilute hydrochloric acid. The stomach acid actually isn't um, very dilute. Um, but we add dilute hydrochloric acid and then we neutralise it. The acid will break down the non reducing sugars into monosaccharides. We can use sodium hydrogen carbonate to neutralise it again and then we can then just do the Benedict's test. If we boil it, it will then change colour if there are sugars. Make sense.
Laura: Yep.
Ron: Smashing. Only two more tests to do.
Laura: No, we've run out of time I'm afraid.
Ron: Oh we don't. We can't spend another lesson on this, Ron.
Laura: We've been recording for 45 minutes. We're stopping there.
The six year A level train is go. I've tried to do some swift revision
The six year A level train is go.
Ron: But I think this is how we eek it out. Just more nonsense.
Laura: There's no eeking to be done. It eeks itself. I've tried to do some swift uh, revision but I don't think it's going to go well.
Ron: I was just looking at these uh, example images in this plate up to see if I could learn from it. But I don't think they're real kitchens because there's like places you can't get to and the automation isn't doing anything and they've got long sort of beer Keller style tables and more coffee tables than we. Maybe we're not using coffee tables.
Laura: Here's the thing Ron. I've been wondering about that. Coffee tables and these freaking plant pots, the flower pots.
Ron: I think it's coffee tables in these rooms that we don't use in the spare space.
Laura: Okay, maybe that's tonight's pizzas.
Ron: Maybe that's tonight's pizzas. Are we recording?
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: Um, right. We're doing a quiz. We're
00:55:00
Ron: doing a quiz. Quiz time. Quiz.
Laura: Wow, that's a lot of coffee tables. Yeah, loads and plants in the coffee Tables. And look at all those flower pots, Ron.
Ron: Yeah, We've been missing a bloody trick, I think.
Laura: How are they lining up that many normal tables?
Ron: Well, that's the thing. But if you look at the research corner, you can't get to that copying desk. So this is not a real setup. Also the cheese and the mushrooms going onto the pizza, that's not doing anything.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: So I don't think this is real. No, but then they've clearly played a bit of it because there's dirt on the floor.
Laura: No. Do you know what's happening there though? The tomatoes going into that mixer. Cheese and onion. Cheese and mush is coming forward. They're chopping there and then putting a pizza dough on top of it.
Ron: Sure.
Laura: Because those are uncooked pizzas.
Ron: Whoa, look at the fucking. Look at this one.
Laura: It, uh, doesn't actually say what day that is though. What in beastie's name?
Ron: Look at all those coffee tables.
Laura: Look at all those chickens.
Ron: They've just got three tables and 10.
Laura: Coffee tables and plants. Alright, Ron, coffee tables, man. Uh, pizzas at 7:15. We're going coffee table crazy.
Ron: Yeah.
Laura, what does reducing refer to? Oxidisation
All right. Right, we're in for a quiz now.
Laura: Oh God, this is gonna be so bad.
Ron: Yeah. Where. Where are we? What hospitals? What schools? Where are they? Where the hell are they? Um, Laura, what are the two types of sugars?
Laura: Reducing and non reducing?
Ron: Sick. Two points.
Laura: Yes.
Ron: What does reducing refer to?
Laura: Oxidisation.
Ron: Need?
Laura: More bollocks. Um, adding oxygen to the sugar molecule.
Ron: All right, I'm not going to give you that.
Laura: Okay, that's fine. Because I didn't know what it was. The answer. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I felt it as I was saying it. Ron.
Ron: Oxidation's the opposite of reduction.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: Yeah. So reducing doesn't refer to oxidisation. Uh, it refers to the reaction going the other way. Okay. Laura, what does Benedict's reagent test for?
Laura: Tests for whether it's a. Ah, reducing sugar.
Ron: Reword that. Better.
Laura: It indicates if there's a, uh, reducing sugar present.
Ron: That's better. Yeah. Tests for the presence of a reducing sugar rather than what, Whether what you've got is a reducing sugar. Because it could be a mixture.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: Benedict's reagent would, uh, just tell you if there was one in there, not that everything in there was a reducing sugar. Um, how can you make Benedict's test for non reducing sugars?
Laura: Piss. I do remember discussing this. You can. Oh, how did you do it? You like. Because reducing sugars are, uh, monomers. So non reducing sugars were like more polysaccharine, more complicated ones. So you had to like break them down a bit and then put it in.
Ron: I'll give you one out of two marks because you do have to break it down. The non reducing sugars was your disaccharides and simple polysaccharides, um, monosaccharides are uh, all reducing sugars. So what do you use? You use hydrochloric acid. Okay. Stomach acid. That breaks them down and then you got your reducing sugars. Laura.
Laura: Yep.
Ron: Describe what's meant by semi qualitative.
Laura: It's m.
Ron: Sorry, semi quantitative.
Laura: Semi quantitative means it's a result that is numerical or about an amount but not precisely so. It's
01:00:00
Laura: a result that indicates the presence but not the exact amount. It's not a descriptive result. It's a, it's a, ah, measurable result but it's not completely.
Ron: Try again.
Laura: No, that's all the words.
Ron: Okay. It's semi quantitative because you can use it to empirically say like there's more uh, there's more reducing sugar in this one than this one because of the colour thing. Or even you could say there's a lot of reducing sugar in this one because of the, the way that it turns the different colours. If it goes brick red, you're like, whoa, lots of reducing sugar. If it goes green, you like a little bit of reducing sugar. But from those you can't say, well because of this pantone of green. That means that it's this concentration and therefore there's this much. It's semi quantitative because you get an indicator of quantity without being able to measure it.
Laura: I think that's what I said.
Ron: It might have been what you meant, but it's not what you said.
Laura: Will agree to disagree.
Ron: Congratulations on your GCSE results, lawyer. 50 bloody percent
Ron: All right, lawyer. Well, it's actually, it's been a long time since we recorded that.
Laura: Ages.
Ron: I was um, fairly impressed actually with uh, with that knowledge from you there.
Laura: It's cuz I did revision, Ron.
Ron: Yeah, helps.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: Uh, so you got four out of eight.
Laura: 50 bloody percent. Bang on with my GCSE results.
Ron: Absolute bloodbath coming up in chemistry.
Laura: Oh, we had a lovely message on the Instagram recently by the way. Ron. Um, uh, hang on. What the fucking fuck was that? Uh, the most horrible video just popped up. Someone called Blossoms Cat. Blossom Cats just found your pod and binge listening. I'm scared it's going to come to an end. So listen up, Blossom Cats, when you finally get here, we're still going. You've got ages. You're Gonna be fine.
Ron: How. How far in did they get before they just. These guys aren't, um. These guys are quitters.
Laura: I think Mo probably worried that we'd fall out so savagely that we couldn continue.
Ron: No. Uh, whereas we're better friends than ever.
Jim: I have no memory of discussing Pyjama Sam on this show
Laura: Okay, first things first in this outro run. I want to just say if anybody remembers any of the games that we were discussing. You ski free, you rodents. Revenge. You're digging, Jim. I want to hear about it.
Ron: Pyjama Sam.
Laura: Pyjama Sam.
Ron: Do we not mention on this we've talked about Pyjama Sam On a different episode.
Laura: Maybe we haven't talked about Pyjama Sam.
Ron: We did talk about Pyjama Sam.
Laura: Who's Pyjama Sam?
Ron: We can't keep having this conversation.
Laura: No, Ron, we have not discussed Pyjama Sam.
Ron: We did discuss Pyjama Sam.
Laura: You might have been looking at Pyjama Sam. I've just googled Pyjama Sam, and that guy is not. I do not remember him.
Ron: Pyjama Sam's another one that we had. Looks like it came out in 96. It might have been after your time. Pyjama Sam. No need to hide when it's dark outside.
Laura: I have never heard of this before in my life.
Ron: That's of no concern to me.
Laura: This must have been after my days.
Ron: We had one disc and there were four different games of it. One was Pyjama Sam. His friends are Broccoli, I think. Um, we had. There was one that was about like.
Laura: A broccoli, where his friend would be a broccoli.
Ron: I don't know. We had another one like, his friend was a car. Uh, no, no, no, no, no. There was a time travelling car.
Laura: You can't have a friend that's a broccoli and one that's a car. That's insanity.
Ron: No, no, no. The time travelling car was a different game.
Laura: Right? No, I have no memory of discussing Pyjamas Sam. These are some thoughts you've had alone.
Ron: Sorry.
Laura: That's okay, Ron. You're allowed to have alone thoughts.
Ron: Um, Putt Putt Travels through time.
Laura: What's he talking about? Mackie. I was reunited with Mackie yesterday. It's glorious.
Ron: Yeah. Putt Putt Travels Through Time was another one.
Laura: I'm very worried about how I'm gonna cope without Maki. For all of New Zealand. That's a month without my dog.
Ron: Yeah. Where's she going?
Laura: Um,
01:05:00
Laura: she's going to some friends of ours. The Bag of Bones is owners. Oh, no. Putt Putt Travels Through Time is not memorable either. I don't remember Putt Putt Travels Through Time.
Ron: No, Putt Putt Travels Through Time wasn't as good as Pyjama Sam.
I am officially going to be at the Edinburgh Fringe this year
Laura: Um, on that note, Ron, here's some m announcements. First announcement. I am officially going to be at the Edinburgh Fringe this year.
Ron: What?
Laura: I'll be doing a show at about the 4 o'clock mark from the 11th to the 21st of August. So if you're going to the Edinburgh Fringe this year or you know people that are going, tell them to get in, get me slotted in. The tickets aren't on sale yet, but start planning it. I'll be there. You should come. Okay. Um, if you know anybody that lives in Auckland or Wellington, tell them about my shows there. I just got another TV show to do while I'm out there on.
Ron: Oh, my God.
Laura: I'm doing two TV shows while I'm in New Zealand. That's more TV than I've had in the UK over the last two years, Ron. Yeah, I think I might move to New Zealand and be a superstar.
Ron: Do it.
Laura: It's too far away from everybody I love.
Ron: Yeah, you'd suffer.
Laura: And I won't make new friends. Can you see Mackie?
Ron: I can hear Mackie.
Laura: What you talking about, Mackie? Have you got ideas for the podcast?
Ron: Well, enjoy the episode, folks.
Laura: No, the episode's happened, you f. Idiot.
Ron: Sorry, I was looking at Pun Trap.
Ron asks if anybody remembers the Simpsons platform game that you wanted remembered
Laura: Um, Ron, do you want to put out a plea to if anybody remembers the Simpsons platform game that you wanted people to remember?
Ron: Yeah, I can't even find pictures of it. But, like, the Simpsons famously made so much merch through the 80s and 90s that. But, yeah, it was. And, um, I can only really, like. I think when I was playing this, it was when, you know, it was when the sort of age with a computer where you would just click around and sometimes with video games, you. You just do the first level because you couldn't complete it and stuff. But, like, I'm pretty sure it was almost like a Lemmings thing. And they were like mice that you had to sort of funnel from one place to another and you could play as different characters. I think they're like Itchy and Scratchy mice. But, yeah, do get in touch.
Laura: Yeah, please do.
I'm researching the use of the bare brick wall in Stand up comedy
Oh, another thing that I want to crowdsource that the, uh, the listeners will be the perfect people for is I'm currently doing some research into the use of the bare brick wall in Stand up comedy. Now, I know that this originated with the Hungry Eye and San Francisco and the improv in New York or maybe Chicago. Anyway, um, but can you send me or comment on social media? Let me know instances that stick out in your head of. In cultural, like pop history of stand up in front of a bare brick wall.
Ron: Yes, Ron, I've got one. Yeah, there's an episode of the Simpsons where Krusty, um, turns into almost like a George Carlin esque, um, figure and he starts doing stand up slots. I think it mows in front of a bear brick.
Laura: Simpsons definitely use it. There's also. There's one where McBain does stand up, um, and he does it in front of a bear brick wall too.
Ron: Um, but then you are the Seinfeld cutaways. Is that in front of bear brick?
Laura: So yesterday I haven't watched a lot of Seinfeld and I was doing some research yesterday, and short of watching all of the first seven seasons, the Lego Seinfeld set is Seinfeld stood in front of a brick wall doing stand up. But all the stills I could find yesterday were, uh, of him. It's curtains behind him. It's not bear brick. So I don't know which is much more realistic. Yeah, I don't know if it changed later on or do I need to go and watch like the first seven seasons to check. Maybe they did use Bear Break sometimes.
Ron: I don't get it with Seinfeld. I've tried a couple of times.
Laura: Yeah, I think I've watched the first few seasons. Um, maybe I need to do that just to double check so that I know for sure. But yeah, get in touch if you've got especially early ones. Um, I'm sort of trying to research and look into how the bear brick wall went from being literally just a thing that, um, that was just from necessity because these clubs didn't have much budget. And so you just did it in front of the wall with the first stand at comedy clubs to becoming the symbol of stand up comedy. So if you've got any info, get in touch.
We don't have any new patrons this week
Um, all right, Ron, we don't have any new patrons this week. We've got some upgrades, but Ron's holding on to them for this D and D thingy. Majogly, jiggle all.
Ron: Yeah, those will come closer to the D and D stuff coming out because they
01:10:00
Ron: need to. It's. This isn't just random nonsense. Oh, you're a. You're a Cod Wallopa from the. The Baggins. It's more like you'll actually feature in the thing, and so I want to actually know where you're going to feature.
Laura: Yeah. Um. And if you can't afford to become a patron, but you want to express your love, hey, share our stuff on social media or leave us a review. Reviews are great and we love to be loved. Um, that's it, really. We'll see you next week.
Ron: Class dismissed.
Laura: It.
01:10:33
Ron has had his hair cut and looks like a fresh young boy
Laura: Hello and welcome to another episode of Lex Education. It's the Comedy Science podcast, where me, a mother of one and a comedian, and a sister, tries to learn science from her, uh, brother. Ron. Ron, do you think we need to do that again without the hell scream?
Ron: For the love of God, please mute yourself from the Google Meet. That was horrible.
Laura: You've had your hair cut.
Ron: Yes, I have. Yeah. Yeah.
Laura: You look like a fresh young boy.
Ron: Thank you.
Laura: You're less like a grubby wizard every day.
Ron: Yeah, I've had my haircut. Uh, um, I'm going grey on the top now. I've got a couple of, um, greys coming through the fringe.
Laura: Wow, you're gonna be a little salt and pepper dude.
Ron: Yeah.
Laura: You've held out. How old are you? 28, 29? Yeah. That's about the age I started to go grey.
Ron: Well, I've been. I've been salt and pepper on the sides for ages. That's why I started shaving them off. Same thing you did.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: But consistently. Ah, yeah. No, I'm thinking about, um, growing it longer on the top and then having a slightly different look for a bit. We'll see how that goes.
Laura: Talk me through this. What?
Ron: I've, uh, got a friend and he's got, like, similar hair to me, but then almost kind of like a 90s look, I think, where you kind of have it longer on the top. Then you can, like, tuck it behind your ears. It's sort of a messy, long look.
Laura: Do it.
Ron: We're gonna give it a go. If not, I'll just cut it off. It's fine.
Laura: Fair. That's fair.
Ron: Um, just feel like I've had this look for a while now.
Laura: Yeah. Ron.
Ron: Hello, I'm Ron.
Laura: Hello, Ron. I've been in Scotland for a week. Ron.
Ron: Yeah. How was that? How was your night out with, um, younger sister of the podcast, Meg?
Laura: It was great, Ron. I had one of the best weeks of touring that I've ever had. So, like, with stand up, mostly you're just bipping about. You do your own thing, you drive to Reading, you do a gig, you drive home, whatever, you know, you pop into London on a train, you pop out of London on a train, but then every now and again there'll be these big group things where, you know, a, uh, producer's organised it and you go off and you do a week here and there. I've done Dubai or around Europe and things like that. And so this one was organised by the lovely people of the Gilded Balloon, which, if you're a Edinburgh Fringe regular. My child is fine. I just. All she's being asked to do is like, probably put shoes on. That's all that's going on downstairs. Um. Ah, gilded balloon. And um. And it was a little tour of Scotland, so we went to Stirling, the Isle of Skye. What are you laughing at?
Ron: Just talking about your best week ever. About how you were away for a week and just screaming downstairs. It's a sound tableau.
Laura: Parents of toddlers will understand. Um, yeah. Stirling, Skye, Inverness, Portobello, which is just a little like seaside suburb of Edinburgh. And then Portobello Road. Yeah.
Ron: Well, those were the riches of ages of stone.
Laura: Anything and everything can unload is sold off the barrow in Portobello Road.
Ron: Banger.
Laura: Yeah. Um, lovely bits. Some of our own by the Tsar.
Radiators are meant to be by the window with long curtains by them
Now to yours again.
Ron: Lovely bit of string.
Laura: You've. You've rotated your desk.
Ron: I have, yeah. For the natural light.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: It wasn't there initially because the radiator is underneath. Uh, it's. The radiator is fucked because not only is it under the window bad. Which is where also where you'd want the desk bad. It's also got floor length curtains which then cover it bad. Um, but I don't foresee myself ever having to put the heating on again.
Laura: So I think that's the whole point though. Radiators are meant to be by the window with long curtains by them because they're meant to catch the cold air coming in, heat it before it circulates around the room. Most radiators you'll find are under windows.
Ron: Uh, uh. Then maybe I'm wrong with that. But the long curtains is just bad.
Laura: Huh.
Ron: Because that. Just like. That's like having furniture right in front of a radiator. Just.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: Maybe holds the heat in. Um, but anyway, my, my understanding was you didn't want the radiator close to the window because then you're just heating air and then it's getting cooled down by the window. Really inefficient.
Laura: Oh, I thought it was the other way around.
00:05:00
Laura: I'm gonna go with because you've probably got a draught coming in, not a draught going out because there'd be more wind outside.
Ron: Yeah, but the window stops the wind. That's why it's called that. It's a wind. Oh, no, not coming in hinge.
Laura: A wind. No.
There were three Scottish comedians on this tour and they were fantastic company
Um, anyway, so I was. I was on this tour and it was really nicely organised so that there were. There were three of us from Dune Sooth, um, myself and Jen Brister and Sarah Barron, who were Just fantastic company. And then there were also two Scottish comedians on each bill, which I think Ron was the perfect mix, because then me, Jen and Sarah, we were like, travelling around all together and then when we turn up, there'd be two new faces to talk to. And I think it's the first time I've ever done a tour like this where I've been with, A, women and, um, B, people, like, similar to my own age, you know, so we've had a lot in common. We've had a lot to chat about. Not that the other comedians I haven't travelled with over the years have been wonderful, but they've generally been men who are about 20, 30 years older than me, so, you know, just less in common. And. And we had a lovely driver who drove us around, so I didn't have to do any driving all week. And the car had a massive sunroof. And so I just, like, saw all the Highlands all the way up to Sky Sky. And then I stayed in a beautiful hotel that overlooked the water on that one. And then we drove back down through the Cairngorms. Um, and I had tatty driving, um, a drive. The tour manager.
Ron: A driver.
Laura: A driver. Oh, my God. When I loved having a driver, they.
Ron: Sent a town car.
Laura: I loved having a driver.
Ron: You could eat M S crisps with both fish.
Laura: Yes. And, um, believe me, I did. Actually. Eating was the thing I got very wrong on this trip. It was because we changed hotel every day and sort of had about three to four hours of moving about every day eating and. And especially on the ones that were more out in the sticks, we just sort of forgot that in some places in the world, food isn't available all day. Like, we'd turn up to places and be like, can we have dinner? And they'd be like, oh, the dinner service starts at 5. And we'd be like, oh, oh, baka.
Ron: Um, a bit of shortbread that's been left on the pillow. It is, yeah.
Laura: Like, I did eat a lot of that stuff. Or there was one day where I bought some Ryvitas and some of those flat leodama cheeses and just made stackables all day, you know. Wasn't great.
Ron: When me and the gentle boy did our, um, you know, half a week of railing around Northern Germany, we really up the eating similar thing. We only had one hot meal in four days.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: And then when we did, we. I swear, I almost welled up from relief of just sitting down and eating something pleasant.
Laura: Yeah, I did a lot of, um, eating more than anybody sat near me wanted me to at hotel breakfasts. Um, like, there was one place where I had a full plate of. Of hash browns and Tattis scones and eggs and beans and mushrooms and stuff. And I was like, I'm full. And then I noticed on the menu that they had vegan sausages. And I was like, wait a second. And so I said to the lady, oh, I didn't see those. And she was like, oh, they have to be cooked. Do you want some? And I was like, well, yeah. So I just had a second full meal for breakfast, and then I was uncomfortably squashy for the rest of the day.
Ron: Judith and I went to the spa the other weekend.
Laura: The shop or like, a spa?
Ron: A spa.
Laura: Oh.
Ron: Um. And, uh, Judith goes to the spa fairly regularly, so she's tried out the different food options that are there. And supposedly the only one that's good is the buffet, which for a spa, I think is insane. But, um, it's also quite an expensive buffet. So I had to fucking fill my dirty boots with. With food. I think I had, like, five plates of food. And then you go and sit in the sauna and you're just like, I'm so full of salmon in the hammam. Just the fish is getting a second steaming.
Laura: Yeah, just salmon coming out your paws as you steam.
Ron: The combo, though, they had had, like, massive fillets of just like, I guess, like, baked or roasted salmon or whatever. Um, and then another one of the dishes was cauliflower cheese. That was a magical combo. I guess it's very similar to that, um, lasagne you make, but, yeah, just the thick, cheesy sauce with the. With the salmon. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.
Laura: Um, listen up, Ron. It's a Dry Bones episode today.
00:10:00
Laura: Yeah, it's dry.
Ron: Um, both.
All biology practicals in biology are very dry, Ron says
Well, we're moving on to less dry biology today. Good.
Laura: Because it's rare for biology to be dry.
Ron: All stuff to do with practicals in biology is very dry. I think I've said this to you well before we ever started doing the podcast, like, on why I didn't pursue a career in this sort of thing, is because biology labs, or biochemistry especially, is just mixing colourless liquids together. And then at the end of it, you. You usually get a different colourless liquid, and then you measure something to do with that, then you get the results two or three days later. And then you're like, oh, okay, biochem labs are dull.
Laura: M. And we're about to express that in podcast form. So listen up, gang. Stick with us.
Ron: We've warmed up A bit.
Laura: Oh, uh, Ron, we're much less cranky than we were before.
Ron: Yeah, we're coming off the back of the Trudy's time and place high.
Laura: Ugh. Uh, Dibble's in the mix.
Ron: What was that one? That was like a tree house.
Laura: I think that's the Lion King one. Wasn't it where you were in Rafiki's tree?
Ron: No, uh, there was, like, a tree house, but it was also encyclopaedia or something.
Laura: Treehouse Encyclopaedia.
Ron: Yeah.
Laura: Whoa. This is the third biology.
Ron: Yeah, I was really surprised by that. I logged on, um, to prep my notes because I do quite a lot of prep before the episodes. I don't just show up to recording. Um, and then, um. Ah. I was like, oh, must be chemistry that we're doing. And then I was like, no, no, we did that. And then did the same thing with physics. And then was like, bloody hell, biology 3. What are you looking at?
Laura: My first encyclopaedia. It was bundled with most Packard Bell computers in 1995 and 1996.
Ron: My first in encyclopaedia. What was it?
Laura: Yeah, just got that computer game.
Ron: Now.
Laura: I think I remember this. Oh, wait, no.
Ron: No, I. Here's the other one that haunts my dreams. Um, and actually, I'd love it if someone listening knew what this was. When there was a Simpsons platformer that was kind of like lemmings, and you had to get the itchies. The itchies and the scratchies from one place to another. And on different levels, you would play as different guys. And I think Krusty was a big bit of it. Krusty was a bad guy. That was the other one that we had. I, uh, can't find. Because there's so much Simpsons stuff out there that you can't troll through it.
Laura: I don't remember that one. I've sent you. I've sent you a thing, though. Uh, Ski. Free.
Ron: Ski.
Laura: Oh, my God. The Spider man cartoon maker. Uh, I'd utterly forgotten that existed.
Ron: Where have you sent this? WhatsApp.
Laura: Yeah. Oh, my God, Ron, do you remember that?
Ron: The Spider man cartoon maker. I had one that was Simpsons.
Laura: Oh, God, Ron, let's stop now and make Spider man cartoons together. I agree.
Ron: Free games on computers are rare these days
To cookies. Let me in. Let me see. Oh, wow. Yeah. Oh. So you had, like, a selection of, um, backdrops, and then you could, like, put characters and stuff on them, and then you press the button and it played it for you. You know, you made your own.
Ron: Yeah, I had one for the Simpsons, but I don't remember one for.
Laura: Oh, do you not. Oh, uh, yeah. Ski Free, man. That is basic Ski free. Yeah.
Ron: Oh, my God. I don't remember this one at all.
Laura: You would assume that this was malware if it came up today, but that was.
Ron: Oh, my God.
Laura: Oh, yeah. And the yeti.
Ron: The yeti is a big part of the graphics that I'm looking at.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: Crazy
00:15:00
Ron: times. Um, anyway, they don't give you enough.
Laura: Free games on computers anymore.
Ron: Where did all these things come from?
Laura: They were just free on the computer. There was, like, a package of games. You had Rodents Revenge. Do you remember that one with the mice and the cat and you were a mouse in the middle of a block of things, and then you had to get out and get the cheese without the cats getting you. You had to trap the cats in blocks, and if a cat was reduced to a single block, then it turned into a cheese and you could go and eat it.
Ron: No, I surely don't remember that at all.
Laura: Oh, my God. You not. Oh, uh, this one I remember, like, really, really well.
Ron: What was it called?
Laura: Rodents Revenge. Oh, my goodness. I think I might be able to get it. No, it looks a bit like Minesweeper. And so you're a mouse, and then you push these blocks around and try and trap a cat, and then the cat turns into cheese and you eat it.
Ron: You know, maybe I do remember this. There's something about the holes in the floor that's very reminiscent. What a digging gym was a big one.
Laura: Digging gym? Yeah, you love to dig.
Ron: Digging Gym is a hell of a game. I think you can just play it online these days.
Laura: I think I've broken my computer.
Ron: What did you do?
Laura: I don't know. Um.
Ron: I used to be pretty good at Digging Jim.
Laura: Didn't our version of Digging Jim have a problem, though, where it, like, cut out at a certain point?
Ron: I'm certain we've had this conversation before on the podcast.
Laura: Was I just bad at doing it?
Ron: I. I don't think we had to get diamonds out.
Laura: Didn't you?
Ron: Yeah. I don't think we had a problem with our digging gym. I think we hadn't bought the full version.
Laura: Um.
Ron: Oh, yeah, But I got around that because there was a free map M editor. So you could just make your own levels and play more.
Laura: Digging Jim, that sounds like you.
Ron: Yeah. I don't like explaining that I had a really sad child.
Laura: Oh, Ron, you did.
Ron: I didn't have a sad child.
Laura: No, you didn't know it was sad at the Time. It wasn't sad for you, it was just sad. Contextually.
Ron: It was a little bit solitary, but that doesn't mean it was sad. No.
Laura: Yeah, it does. Ron. You were making your own underground cave systems to play in, outside and inside. Most of your recreational memories m are, ah, creating systems in mud to entertain yourself.
Ron: I was interested in archaeology.
Laura: Mm mhm. Mm hm.
Laura: We were doing monomers and polymers and polysaccharines
Anyway, um, well, that's eight minutes.
Ron: Yeah. I'm gonna close all these tabs that I opened. Um, Laura, what were we doing last time on biology?
Laura: Well, I would have given you an answer, Ron, but I'm thinking of biology 1. Oh. We were doing monomers and polymers and monosaccharins and polysaccharines.
Ron: Saccharides. Yes, we were. Which is a fancy word for sugars. Yes. Or carbohydrates. Um, absolutely.
Laura says after a workout, she gets hungry for protein
So we're still on the topic of carbohydrates today, Laura.
Laura: Lovely. I've eaten loads of carbohydrates today.
Ron: Yeah.
Laura: Yeah. I've got a real munchies world in my bot today.
Ron: Um, in your bot?
Laura: In my body. So I had two slices of toast for breakfast and then I had some toast and Tara masalata for lunch, and then I had some hula hoops and then I had some Belvita biscuits, and then I had two tiny chocolate mini rolls and then I had two rice cakes.
Ron: Oh, yeah, you do have the munchies.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: That was a relative very hungry caterpillars.
Laura: Yeah. I did a workout today and that does make me hungry because I lift, you know, and I've gone up some weights on a couple of my lifts, so my muscles needed repairing of the n glucomatic energy that's stored in muscles.
Ron: And old Laura, Lex didn't think maybe a bit of protein would help these muscles.
Laura: I can't have protein. I'm a vegetarian.
Ron: You can have protein.
Laura: Isn't there protein in fish eggs?
Ron: Um, it wouldn't be the main thing.
Laura: Huh.
Ron: I think it would be much better to eat a chicken egg.
Laura: Yeah. I often do crave chicken eggs after I've worked out.
Ron: Probably because you're not eating enough protein after a workout.
Laura: Probably because you're eating rice cakes and Cadbury rolls. No, they're not Cadbury's. They're M and S, you know, in the tubs.
Ron: Uh, yeah.
Laura: Yesterday I ate most of a coral reef of Belgian seashells. It was so good.
Ron: Yeah. I think after you work out, uh, maybe try some protein.
Laura: What? Just some eggs. Stop trying to get the egg a thon earlier and earlier no, you could.
Ron: Get it from beans.
Laura: Oh, I don't want to cook anything after work. I'm tired.
Ron: I don't. You didn't ask for this help. I'm gonna stop trying to give it. Um, you're happy. I'm just. I just wouldn't be happy if I was you. And I need to separate myself from that.
Laura: That was a really horrible moment in the podcast history there, Ron. I'd like to take the listeners. I'd like everyone to just have a minute where they sit and really absorb what that would feel like to be. You haven't asked for this help, so I'm not going to give it.
Ron: Do you want.
Laura: You are happy. I just wouldn't be happy if I were living your life.
Ron: I think that's fair. You didn't ask for any advice, so why was I giving it? Laura's pretending to be very sad now.
Boris Johnson says he's not very good at panel shows
Laura: Well, a weird thing happened just as we were being sad. And, um, I'm trying to come off my antidepressants at the moment, so, you know when you're getting floaty thoughts just all over the place. I got the list of people that will be on the news quiz on the same panel as me, and my immediate reaction was, oh, no, because they have really, like, definite Personas of who they are, and I'm just don't have a personality. And then I was like, you do. You just forget about it when you're around other people. I'm not very good, and this is a real downfall of my career. I'm very good at being myself in a situation I'm comfortable with. But because I don't really like being sociable, and I'm not easy in social company. But panel shows and stuff, I'm not. I'm not the same Persona as I am when I do my stand up because I'm just not as comfortable, whereas other people are really good at it. So I need to go into this panel show tomorrow and just record pretending like it's a, uh, me solo show and that everyone in the audience is there for me.
Ron: Yeah, Maybe that's the energy other people bring to it all the time.
Laura: I think it must be. I think that that's. That's. That's what separates your. A casters. He doesn't go on a panel show and go, right, this is Mock the week. How do comedians do on Mock the Week? He goes on and does mock the week in his own style. And that's the difference between a great and a me.
Ron: Yeah, maybe. Also, I think it's it's, um, I think there's. But also, I wouldn't be too hard on yourself because it is just a different skill as well. Like, you're very, very good at stand up. You've done a lot of it and you've honed that. I don't think it's a failing of yours to be thrown into a completely different context and not be as smooth as.
Laura: No, I think that's fine. And I haven't had like regular experience of doing it, so it's not like I'm doing panel shows every month to just. And by the time mock finished, I was really in the swing of how to be myself on it. But, um, the problem with a stand up career is that in order to progress, you get really good at stand up and then basically just do other things to be successful and you put out specials. But, like, the success is being in other scenarios. Um, so if I want to sort of keep progressing and keep paying the mortgage, you have to be able to do other things.
Ron: Well, let's do this for a Patreon special. We'll do a panel show and you can practise and you'll feel really comfortable.
Laura: Siblings, the panel show. Let's get oldest and younger sister of the podcast on.
Ron: Yeah. And then maybe you and husband of the podcast could be team leads.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: The Hislop and Merton of the situation.
Laura: Are you gonna host. Are you the Boris Johnson?
Ron: Yes, I'm Boris Johnson. Or. Or do we. Well, yeah, we'll do like a
00:25:00
Ron: science panel show and I think it makes sense if I host. If I go on one of the teams. That's just unfair.
Laura: Yeah. Is it gonna be science?
Ron: Maybe there'll be a science round. Okay, well, that'll be fun. Um.
What I would do is just get a protein shake and just drink that after workout
Laura: Anyway, so that's 15 minutes in.
Ron: We've got. Was it only six minutes since we last, um, stopped?
Laura: Um, yeah, we talked about my failings as a comedian for way less time than we talked about digging gym.
Ron: Well, we weren't talking about that the whole time.
Laura: No. Um, yeah, we have only got 25 minutes of the lesson left though. And I've just written down eat beans after a workout.
Ron: Tofu's good as well.
Laura: Like just baked beans.
Ron: All beans would be quite high in protein. What I would do though is just get a protein shake and just drink that after your workout. And I know what you've said before about like, you think that you'd use, um, it as meal replacement. How about this? Just don't.
Laura: You do not understand how my brain works, Ron.
Ron: Just drink it like a nice smoothie after the workout. Have all of your other meals as well.
Laura: I would never, ever drink a smoothie.
Ron: No, drink this one because it's got lots of protein in it. Adjust.
Laura: I can't do that, though.
Ron: I don't understand.
Laura: Um.
Ron: Just instead of one other drink you have that day, drink that instead. They taste. It tastes like chocolate.
Laura: Way more calories in it than tea.
Ron: It's like 150 calories.
Laura: That's way more than tea.
Ron: Yeah, but you've just done a workout. Cut out the M and S chocolate rolls.
Laura: No, that was why I did the workout.
Ron: And drink that.
Laura: That sounds horrible.
Ron: It tastes like chocolate.
Laura: Not as much as an M s chocolate roll tastes like chocolate.
Ron: No, but, you know, would help your muscles.
Laura: My muscles are fine.
Ron: Think if you're craving eggs, an object that usually haunt your nightmares after a workout.
Laura: Craving them. I'm not like some goanna crawling around nests.
Ron: Those are words you used.
Laura: Yeah, but, like, it's probably because I don't eat them. So the craving goes unsatisfied.
Ron: Yeah. Eat an egg. Eat some beans, Eat some nuts. Loads of foods are high in protein.
Laura: Oh, I eat loads of nuts.
Ron: Do you?
Laura: Yeah. The other day I had cashew nuts for dinner.
Ron: Well, nuts are very high in cash.
Laura: The thing about nuts for me, though, Ron, is I don't digest nuts. I just poop out loads of nuts.
Ron: Yeah.
Laura: I don't think any of the protein gets in my body.
Ron: Just have to shake, man.
Laura: I don't want to. Isn't it expensive protein powder?
Ron: No.
Laura: Do you remember when you were taking that loam powder all the time?
Ron: Yeah, but then my shits became too powerful and it was awful to drink.
Laura: It was. It wasn't a drink. That was a raw meatloaf. It was so horrible.
Ron: Couldn't get it down, maybe.
Laura: God, that was a bleak point in your life when you were all heartbroken and living in the hutch. Just.
Ron: Nothing wrong with a bit of gut health, Lincoln.
Laura: Drinking loam powder?
Ron: No. Now, in my, uh, overnight oats, just a, uh, tablespoon of flax seeds. Tablespoon of chia seeds. It's all the fibre I need. Fibre is what's in your food.
Laura: Broadband.
Ron: When, um, you eat sort of whole foods and natural things.
Laura: Yeah. That's like my granola. I have rolled oats and nuts, uh, and honey, um, and all baked together.
Ron: No fibre in honey. But the. The sentiment was good.
Laura: The nuts is fine and the oats is fine.
Ron: I don't know if there's much fibre in nuts.
Laura: To be honest, you just said whole foods. A whole nut. It's literally called whole food.
Ron: Every whole food, though A, um, roast chicken's a whole food. It doesn't mean that there's a fucking load of fibre in it.
Laura: Oh, I bet there is. In the bones?
Ron: No.
Meat, poultry and dairy products do not contain dietary fibre
Laura: In the skin?
Ron: No.
Laura: Feathers?
Ron: Uh, no, there's not fibre in chicken. Anyway, we're doing tests. We're doing tests for sugar, Laura. Okay, now, there are two different types of sugar. We have reducing sugars and we have non reducing sugars.
00:30:00
Ron: What are you googling if there's not. If there's fibre in chicken.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: Is it telling you about muscle fibres but not about fibre?
Laura: The, the macro meat, chicken, turkey, fish and dairy products do not contain dietary fibre.
Ron: Yes, I know.
Laura: You have to feed a chicken fibre, though.
Ron: You have to feed all things fibre.
Laura: Not, uh, me.
Ron: Well, you know when you were saying that nuts just pass straight through you.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: It's probably because there's no fibre in you.
Laura: God, what have I got eat now?
Ron: I told you at the beginning of the year 2025 was all about your macros.
Laura: What's a macro?
Ron: It's the different types of things.
Laura: It's a Scottish bird.
Ron: I didn't even get that Mac grow right.
Laura: Um, no, it's just like that's been a mud.
Ron: Carbs are a macro, proteins are a macro, fibre's a macro. Yeah, you can't just.
Laura: It's all about your macros and then say fiber's a macro.
Ron: Yeah, it is. And then it's about, like, not worrying that much about, like, how much you're eating or, like, you know, what's, um, you know, is it this? Is it that. It's just like nail. Get all of these things that you need and then you'll be all right.
Laura: But I am fine.
Ron: Then why are you asking questions and craving eggs?
Laura: Because I just wanted some eggs one time today I didn't want eggs.
Ron: You said quite often after working out, I crave eggs.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: And then you.
Laura: Last week I had eggs because I.
Ron: Said I wasn't going to give you this advice. Now I'm giving you the advice.
Laura: I'm not digesting it, Ron. Possibly because of a lack of fibre in my brain.
Ron: Your perfectly smooth, non fibrous brain. Smooth like an egg. I've got some egg snacks in the kitchen. Some like boiled eggs just ready to go if I need a snack.
Laura: What about corn? I snack on corn out of the fridge.
Ron: Yes, but you snack on those filled.
Laura: Balls and, um, sausages.
Ron: The sausages might Have a decent amount of protein in it. Those filled balls have no nutritional value.
Laura: They're mostly corn round the edges.
Ron: Yes. And butter in the middle. Mmm.
Laura: I think they're vegan friendly, so I don't think it is butter.
Ron: No, but it's some sort of cheesy fatty thing.
Laura: Yeah, but made of beans because it's vegan.
Ron: That's, uh. Corn isn't made of beans.
Laura: Uh, it's made of mushrooms.
Ron: Fungus mushrooms. No.
Laura: You are being pedantic today. Well, ron, we've got 15 minutes.
Ron: Mushroom's just like a fungus's penis. It's not a creature in itself.
Reducing refers to the concept of reduction in chemical reactions
Um, anyway, um, so we're doing tests. There's two types of sugars, Laura. Reducing sugars and non reducing sugars.
Laura: Reducing sugars and non reducing sugars.
Ron: I can't remember if we covered this in GCSE or not, but reducing there refers to the concept of reduction in chemical reactions. That is oxidation and reduction. Have we covered those as concepts?
Laura: M let's say for safety. No.
Ron: Well, we will cover them in more detail in the chemistry course.
Laura: I think what you mean is some detail can't be more. If we didn't do it well, more.
Ron: Detail than we're going to do now. Uh. Don't try and outsmart me. Um, essentially, to all you need to know for the very, very basics, oxidation is the, um, is the process of giving an electron to something. Reducing takes an electron. No, that's completely the other way around. M. Wait. Hold, please. Call her.
Laura: I'm just gonna look at Mackie for a while. Ron, it's a rain episode here.
Ron: Yeah. Oxidation is the loss of an electron. Reduction is the gain of electronic oxidation.
Laura: Losing an, um, electron reduction is gaining an electron. That makes no sense.
Ron: Well, in oxidation, not all the time, because you can have oxidation without oxygen,
00:35:00
Ron: um, but, um. And essentially, like the oxidation of a metal rusting, basically, that is an oxidation reaction. They lose electrons but they gain oxygen. If you were then to reduce that, they would gain electrons but lose oxygen. Um, which is where the names of it comes from. But not all of these reactions. Like that was where we first sort of worked it all out. And then later on we realised actually these are bigger brackets of reactions that are going on. But, um, they just don't always have to involve oxygen.
Laura: Right.
Ron: Um, which is where the names come from. So you've got these reducing, um, sugars and non reducing sugars. And basically all that means in the context of testing for them is different tests work for them, um, because they will act as a Reducing agent or not in different scenarios, essentially reducing. Um, sugars include all monosaccharides. Um, can you name any?
Laura: Hang on. Um, glucose.
Ron: Yep. Glucose, fructose, galactose, um, all of these. And then there are some disaccharides like lactose and maltose that are also reducing sugars.
Laura: Lactose and maltose, did you say?
Ron: Yep.
Laura: I can't spell anything today. Okay. It's probably the lack of eggs in your diet.
Ron: No, no, no, no. That's the afternoon sleepies. It's probably the sugar crash from the M. Chocolate.
Laura: I had to eat them wrong because they went past their best before four days ago.
Ron: I think you know that. You didn't have to eat them.
Laura: I wanted to eat them. Ron.
Ron: Yes, that's okay.
Simple polysaccharides fall under the non reducing sugars category
Laura: Um, so what are some oxidating sugars?
Ron: No, no, so they're not oxidating sugars, they're just not reducing. Um, the other disaccharides, like sucrose is the other one that we've heard of. And then simple polysaccharides fall under the non reducing sugars.
Laura: What's a simple polysaccharide?
Ron: Um, a longer chain of something like glucose, but not.
Laura: What would a complex. What's the difference between similar and complex? Basically, like where does that definition fall?
Ron: Size? So something like starch or glycogen, the two that we've heard of. Or, um, M. What's the other one called? Cellulose. Um, those are all complex polysaccharides because they're huge structures. Um, I don't know the name of any simple polysaccharides.
Laura: Did you say fructose was non reducing?
Ron: Fructose is reducing because that's a monosaccharide. All monosaccharides are reducing.
Laura: Uh, what was the disaccharide you said?
Ron: Sucrose.
Laura: That uh, sounds like the best one.
Ron: Sucrose syrup. That's a thing that it's talked about, isn't it?
Laura: M. It sounds like the sugariest one. You know, if somebody said you want this sweetened with lactose, maltose or sucrose, I'd say sucrose. Maybe it's because it starts with su, like sugar.
Ron: Sucre. Is. Is that French?
Laura: French or Spanish, isn't it?
Ron: Yeah. Well, lactose then you're thinking it's going to get milky. Yeah, Maltose. I'd be Maltesers, but I think it.
Laura: Would be biscuity, which I might not want.
Ron: I don't.
Laura: Isn't lactose what you're allergic to?
Ron: No, I'm allergic to cow's milk.
Laura: Um.
Ron: But not lactose, which is very frustrating because lots of people in my life has gotten this wrong. Um, and they'll be so sweet and I'll stay at their house and they've gone to the trouble of buying me lactose free cheese or lactose free milk and stuff. But I mean, I do drink it because I drink cow's milk anyway, um, because it's just not so bad for me. But it's just, um, oh, they went out of the way but they still bought something that I'm allergic to. Um, and then even more worse than that is they'll go out of their way and they'll bite goat's cheese, which don't even fucking like. Ugh.
The Benedict's test is what's known as semi quantitative
So the big one, the most famous one when it comes to tests because it tests for the reducing sugars, which covers all of the monosaccharides, your glucoses and whatnot, is something called Benedict's test or Benedict's reagent.
Laura: This came up in the quiz I gave you, Ron.
Ron: Yes, it did.
Laura: You couldn't remember it?
Ron: Nope. Because I think it's good that we've had a jolly old silly episode because
00:40:00
Ron: this is fucking dull. It goes thusly. You put your, uh, the thing that you want to test for sugar into. Uh, Baker, add some blue Benedict solution to it and then you heat the mixture, put it in a water bath and bring it to a boil.
Laura: Hang, um, on blue Benedictine solution.
Ron: Blue Benedict sounds like maybe a pirate.
Laura: Or a monk that got kidnapped by pirates.
Ron: Benedict's a very monkey name.
Laura: Yeah. Then we're going to bring it to the boil.
Ron: Or maybe a particularly saucy king. Blue Benedict. The first.
Laura: Yeah. Or cold king.
Ron: Yeah. Um, and then once we've done that, uh, it will change colour. Um, so it starts off as blue. Um, and then it goes through the Roy G Biv spectrum. Um, depending on the concentration of reducing sugars in the sample. So blue, green, yellow, orange and red.
Laura: Mm mhm.
Ron: Um, Benedict's. The Benedict's test is what's known as semi quantitative. Do you know the difference between quantitative and, uh, Qualitative?
Laura: Yes. So quantitative will give an amount. Result. Qualitative will give a describable anecdotal amount a result.
Ron: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, shout out for quantitative. That's just a fun word to say. It's like you're falling down the stairs.
Laura: Quantitative. It's a bit like, um, that test that we were doing the other day. Spectrometry. Quantitative spectrometry.
Ron: Quantitative. I'm Quite confident in. Every time I'm saying it, I'm saying it the same and correctly. Whereas spectrometry I am not.
Laura: I bet people that have gone to Oxbridge say like quantitative or something, you know, to like.
Ron: Well, I do say qualitative. I don't say qualitative quantitative, quantitative. Um, it's semi quantitative because, um, you, you have it, um, going through these different colours. So you can empirically say if, if one of them was red and the other one turned it green. You could empirically say the one with the one that had red is more than the one with green. But it's only semi quantitative because you can't say this as a concentration of five moles per decimeter cubed and this one has a concentration of one mole per decimeter cubed. That sort of thing.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: Um, understand just the semi quantitative.
Laura: Um. Why, why is that semi quantitative and not qualitative then?
Ron: Because qualitative.
Laura: You did m say qualitative?
Ron: Actually, I did actually. Um, because qualitative would just be saying this is good, that's hot.
Laura: Um, but are we not doing that saying this is sugary?
Ron: Yeah, but test finding out whether there's um, reducing sugar in it?
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: Testing just for the presence of them.
Laura: It's quite given that, oh, this is reduced sugary.
Ron: But qualitative research would be something like, um.
What do you think about new plans for the Western Harbour in Bristol
What do you think about, like these new plans for the Western Harbour in Bristol?
Laura: Um, what do you think, Ron? Um. Um, I think that, um, now is definitely considering jumping.
Ron: Yeah. Um, I think that it's in an area that I'm surprised they haven't developed before because you've got a beautiful view of the bridge and whatnot. Um, they are planning to make 50% of it affordable housing. I think that's not enough. Um, but I think it's all right. And that area is a bit of a hellscape of roads. So, you know, it's all, um. If there's one park. Oh like bit of green that's gonna get developed but the rest of it's not great places anyway. So, um, I'm okay with was gonna happen as long as they don't like, do anything to leewards and some of the green spaces around there, I think it's all right.
Laura: Do you think you'll buy one of the affordable houses?
Ron: Depends what I'm doing in
00:45:00
Ron: in 2032, which is when I believe it'll um, be fixed. If you were to do um, Benedict's test and it stayed blue, what would that indicate, Laura?
Laura: No reducing sugars doesn't mean that there's.
Ron: No sugar in there.
Laura: Yeah, just non reducing was oxid. Not, not reducing ones. Some simple polysaccharides perhaps. Or some disaccharides.
Ron: Very good. Or just no sugar at all. How do we test then? Using Benedict's test for these non reducing sugars.
Laura: I wonder see if any bees come along.
Ron: No, um, no. No insects are harmed during these tests. Um, we use the fact that some disaccharides. All disaccharides. But these, some non reducing disaccharides, simple polysaccharides, they're all made of the same thing. What are they made of?
Laura: Carbon and hydrogens.
Ron: Bigger than that.
Laura: Hydroxyl groups.
Ron: Bigger than that.
Laura: Monomers and um. Polymers.
Ron: What are the monomers?
Laura: Polymers.
Ron: No, I said what are the monomers? The monomers aren't polymers, are they?
Laura: What do you mean what are the monomers? Sugars.
Ron: What are the monomers?
Laura: What do you mean?
Ron: What are the monomers in disaccharides and polysaccharides?
Laura: Monosaccharides.
Ron: Yeah. And all monosaccharides are.
Laura: Covalent bonds.
Ron: They are all molecules. Really well done, Laura. Think about what we're talking about today.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: Benedict's reagent only works with reducing sugars.
Laura: Mhm.
Ron: We're trying to test for the ones that are non reducing. Now we've savily worked out between the.
Laura: Two.
Ron: That the non reducing sugars are all made up of the same thing, monosaccharides. Why is that useful in this specific instance where we have something that tests for reducing sugars and they're all made up of monosaccharides. What's the link between those two things?
Laura: If you reduced a monosaccharide, it would just become um. A single thing. Can't reduce a mono. It's already a mono.
Ron: You've forgotten what reducing means.
Laura: Uh, so we have a.
Ron: We have a test for reducing sugars.
Laura: It's gone past the point of learning, Ron.
Ron: We have a test for reducing sugars and we have non reducing sugars that are all made up of monosaccharides. Now I am not leaving this zoom call until you have connected these dots.
Laura: It's Microsoft Teams. It's not.
Ron: It's Google Meet.
Laura: Oh, it's Google Meet and Clean Feed. I got charged for Riverside again today. I need to cancel that.
Ron: Yeah, it's dog shit.
Laura: My eyes are so small that they can hide behind the frames of my glasses like a cartoon character with no eyes.
Ron: Yeah, you do have Piggy Small Eyes.
We have a test for reducing sugars, a concept we've only learned about
Connect these dots for us.
Laura: Laura, do the dots again.
Ron: We have a test for reducing sugars.
Laura: Which means they are gaining an electron.
Ron: And we've worked out that all of the non reducing sugars are made up of monosaccharides. Mmm.
Laura: Mhm. They don't have an electron to give.
Ron: Read your notes.
Laura: There's nothing in my notes.
Ron: Apply yourself.
Laura: I can't. Pages are really thick. Chirality.
Ron: Read your notes from this lesson.
Laura: Oh God.
Ron: Why would it be in a previous.
Laura: Because we were doing this then as well.
Ron: No, um, we weren't.
Laura: I know, I'm getting upset. Mackie. It's okay.
Ron: We have a test for reducing sugars, a concept we've only learned about in this lesson.
Laura: Yep.
Ron: And we have non reducing sugars that we've savvily worked out are made up of monosaccharides.
Laura: Yep.
Ron: Yeah.
Laura: What are you asking?
Ron: I want you to connect those two.
Laura: I don't know what you mean by connect the dots
00:50:00
Laura: though. That could mean any number of things. What is the question?
Ron: No. Apply yourself with some critical thinking.
Laura: No question.
Ron: Why don't you think about the test for reducing sugars? What reducing sugars do we know?
Laura: Monosaccharides.
Ron: Yep. And we've got these non reducing sugars that we've worked out are made out of disaccharides. No, they're made out of monosaccharides, as I've said quite a few times.
Laura: I thought you said they're not reducing sugars were the disaccharides and the simple polysaccharides.
Ron: They are. And what are they made out of?
Laura: Ron? I'm um, not even playing dumb. I don't understand what you're asking.
Ron: I am asking you to connect the dots between these two things.
Laura: Yeah. Fucking sake. Connect the dots one more time and see if it gets the same result. Knob edge. Connect the dots, Sew them together, Draw a line between them.
Ron: We have a test for reducing sugars. What are the reducing sugars?
Laura: Monosaccharides.
Ron: Yes.
Laura: And lactose.
Ron: And we've got, we've got these non reducing sugars.
Laura: Yes. That are made out of simple polysaccharides and some disaccharides.
Ron: No, those are non reducing, uh, sugars. But what are simple polysaccharides and disaccharides.
Laura: Made out of monosaccharides which are reducing sugars.
Ron: Yes. So if we break those up into their small constituent parts, we then have reducing sugars which then Benedict's reaction is going to work for. That's the dots to connect.
Laura: I didn't understand what you wanted me to do with the gap between the dots. I didn't know what on earth you.
Ron: Were asking for the connection of. We have a test for what these things are made out of.
Laura: Why didn't you just say how could you test for not reducing sugars or something?
Ron: Because that's what we're talking about. How to use Benedict's. That was the whole bracket that it's all under. So what we do is, well, how do we break up polysaccharides in our body, Laura? Do you know? Um, saliva, um, further along than that.
Laura: Stomach acid.
Ron: Stomach acid? Yes. What you do is you add some dilute hydrochloric acid. The stomach acid actually isn't um, very dilute. Um, but we add dilute hydrochloric acid and then we neutralise it. The acid will break down the non reducing sugars into monosaccharides. We can use sodium hydrogen carbonate to neutralise it again and then we can then just do the Benedict's test. If we boil it, it will then change colour if there are sugars. Make sense.
Laura: Yep.
Ron: Smashing. Only two more tests to do.
Laura: No, we've run out of time I'm afraid.
Ron: Oh we don't. We can't spend another lesson on this, Ron.
Laura: We've been recording for 45 minutes. We're stopping there.
The six year A level train is go. I've tried to do some swift revision
The six year A level train is go.
Ron: But I think this is how we eek it out. Just more nonsense.
Laura: There's no eeking to be done. It eeks itself. I've tried to do some swift uh, revision but I don't think it's going to go well.
Ron: I was just looking at these uh, example images in this plate up to see if I could learn from it. But I don't think they're real kitchens because there's like places you can't get to and the automation isn't doing anything and they've got long sort of beer Keller style tables and more coffee tables than we. Maybe we're not using coffee tables.
Laura: Here's the thing Ron. I've been wondering about that. Coffee tables and these freaking plant pots, the flower pots.
Ron: I think it's coffee tables in these rooms that we don't use in the spare space.
Laura: Okay, maybe that's tonight's pizzas.
Ron: Maybe that's tonight's pizzas. Are we recording?
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: Um, right. We're doing a quiz. We're
00:55:00
Ron: doing a quiz. Quiz time. Quiz.
Laura: Wow, that's a lot of coffee tables. Yeah, loads and plants in the coffee Tables. And look at all those flower pots, Ron.
Ron: Yeah, We've been missing a bloody trick, I think.
Laura: How are they lining up that many normal tables?
Ron: Well, that's the thing. But if you look at the research corner, you can't get to that copying desk. So this is not a real setup. Also the cheese and the mushrooms going onto the pizza, that's not doing anything.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: So I don't think this is real. No, but then they've clearly played a bit of it because there's dirt on the floor.
Laura: No. Do you know what's happening there though? The tomatoes going into that mixer. Cheese and onion. Cheese and mush is coming forward. They're chopping there and then putting a pizza dough on top of it.
Ron: Sure.
Laura: Because those are uncooked pizzas.
Ron: Whoa, look at the fucking. Look at this one.
Laura: It, uh, doesn't actually say what day that is though. What in beastie's name?
Ron: Look at all those coffee tables.
Laura: Look at all those chickens.
Ron: They've just got three tables and 10.
Laura: Coffee tables and plants. Alright, Ron, coffee tables, man. Uh, pizzas at 7:15. We're going coffee table crazy.
Ron: Yeah.
Laura, what does reducing refer to? Oxidisation
All right. Right, we're in for a quiz now.
Laura: Oh God, this is gonna be so bad.
Ron: Yeah. Where. Where are we? What hospitals? What schools? Where are they? Where the hell are they? Um, Laura, what are the two types of sugars?
Laura: Reducing and non reducing?
Ron: Sick. Two points.
Laura: Yes.
Ron: What does reducing refer to?
Laura: Oxidisation.
Ron: Need?
Laura: More bollocks. Um, adding oxygen to the sugar molecule.
Ron: All right, I'm not going to give you that.
Laura: Okay, that's fine. Because I didn't know what it was. The answer. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I felt it as I was saying it. Ron.
Ron: Oxidation's the opposite of reduction.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: Yeah. So reducing doesn't refer to oxidisation. Uh, it refers to the reaction going the other way. Okay. Laura, what does Benedict's reagent test for?
Laura: Tests for whether it's a. Ah, reducing sugar.
Ron: Reword that. Better.
Laura: It indicates if there's a, uh, reducing sugar present.
Ron: That's better. Yeah. Tests for the presence of a reducing sugar rather than what, Whether what you've got is a reducing sugar. Because it could be a mixture.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: Benedict's reagent would, uh, just tell you if there was one in there, not that everything in there was a reducing sugar. Um, how can you make Benedict's test for non reducing sugars?
Laura: Piss. I do remember discussing this. You can. Oh, how did you do it? You like. Because reducing sugars are, uh, monomers. So non reducing sugars were like more polysaccharine, more complicated ones. So you had to like break them down a bit and then put it in.
Ron: I'll give you one out of two marks because you do have to break it down. The non reducing sugars was your disaccharides and simple polysaccharides, um, monosaccharides are uh, all reducing sugars. So what do you use? You use hydrochloric acid. Okay. Stomach acid. That breaks them down and then you got your reducing sugars. Laura.
Laura: Yep.
Ron: Describe what's meant by semi qualitative.
Laura: It's m.
Ron: Sorry, semi quantitative.
Laura: Semi quantitative means it's a result that is numerical or about an amount but not precisely so. It's
01:00:00
Laura: a result that indicates the presence but not the exact amount. It's not a descriptive result. It's a, it's a, ah, measurable result but it's not completely.
Ron: Try again.
Laura: No, that's all the words.
Ron: Okay. It's semi quantitative because you can use it to empirically say like there's more uh, there's more reducing sugar in this one than this one because of the colour thing. Or even you could say there's a lot of reducing sugar in this one because of the, the way that it turns the different colours. If it goes brick red, you're like, whoa, lots of reducing sugar. If it goes green, you like a little bit of reducing sugar. But from those you can't say, well because of this pantone of green. That means that it's this concentration and therefore there's this much. It's semi quantitative because you get an indicator of quantity without being able to measure it.
Laura: I think that's what I said.
Ron: It might have been what you meant, but it's not what you said.
Laura: Will agree to disagree.
Ron: Congratulations on your GCSE results, lawyer. 50 bloody percent
Ron: All right, lawyer. Well, it's actually, it's been a long time since we recorded that.
Laura: Ages.
Ron: I was um, fairly impressed actually with uh, with that knowledge from you there.
Laura: It's cuz I did revision, Ron.
Ron: Yeah, helps.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: Uh, so you got four out of eight.
Laura: 50 bloody percent. Bang on with my GCSE results.
Ron: Absolute bloodbath coming up in chemistry.
Laura: Oh, we had a lovely message on the Instagram recently by the way. Ron. Um, uh, hang on. What the fucking fuck was that? Uh, the most horrible video just popped up. Someone called Blossoms Cat. Blossom Cats just found your pod and binge listening. I'm scared it's going to come to an end. So listen up, Blossom Cats, when you finally get here, we're still going. You've got ages. You're Gonna be fine.
Ron: How. How far in did they get before they just. These guys aren't, um. These guys are quitters.
Laura: I think Mo probably worried that we'd fall out so savagely that we couldn continue.
Ron: No. Uh, whereas we're better friends than ever.
Jim: I have no memory of discussing Pyjama Sam on this show
Laura: Okay, first things first in this outro run. I want to just say if anybody remembers any of the games that we were discussing. You ski free, you rodents. Revenge. You're digging, Jim. I want to hear about it.
Ron: Pyjama Sam.
Laura: Pyjama Sam.
Ron: Do we not mention on this we've talked about Pyjama Sam On a different episode.
Laura: Maybe we haven't talked about Pyjama Sam.
Ron: We did talk about Pyjama Sam.
Laura: Who's Pyjama Sam?
Ron: We can't keep having this conversation.
Laura: No, Ron, we have not discussed Pyjama Sam.
Ron: We did discuss Pyjama Sam.
Laura: You might have been looking at Pyjama Sam. I've just googled Pyjama Sam, and that guy is not. I do not remember him.
Ron: Pyjama Sam's another one that we had. Looks like it came out in 96. It might have been after your time. Pyjama Sam. No need to hide when it's dark outside.
Laura: I have never heard of this before in my life.
Ron: That's of no concern to me.
Laura: This must have been after my days.
Ron: We had one disc and there were four different games of it. One was Pyjama Sam. His friends are Broccoli, I think. Um, we had. There was one that was about like.
Laura: A broccoli, where his friend would be a broccoli.
Ron: I don't know. We had another one like, his friend was a car. Uh, no, no, no, no, no. There was a time travelling car.
Laura: You can't have a friend that's a broccoli and one that's a car. That's insanity.
Ron: No, no, no. The time travelling car was a different game.
Laura: Right? No, I have no memory of discussing Pyjamas Sam. These are some thoughts you've had alone.
Ron: Sorry.
Laura: That's okay, Ron. You're allowed to have alone thoughts.
Ron: Um, Putt Putt Travels through time.
Laura: What's he talking about? Mackie. I was reunited with Mackie yesterday. It's glorious.
Ron: Yeah. Putt Putt Travels Through Time was another one.
Laura: I'm very worried about how I'm gonna cope without Maki. For all of New Zealand. That's a month without my dog.
Ron: Yeah. Where's she going?
Laura: Um,
01:05:00
Laura: she's going to some friends of ours. The Bag of Bones is owners. Oh, no. Putt Putt Travels Through Time is not memorable either. I don't remember Putt Putt Travels Through Time.
Ron: No, Putt Putt Travels Through Time wasn't as good as Pyjama Sam.
I am officially going to be at the Edinburgh Fringe this year
Laura: Um, on that note, Ron, here's some m announcements. First announcement. I am officially going to be at the Edinburgh Fringe this year.
Ron: What?
Laura: I'll be doing a show at about the 4 o'clock mark from the 11th to the 21st of August. So if you're going to the Edinburgh Fringe this year or you know people that are going, tell them to get in, get me slotted in. The tickets aren't on sale yet, but start planning it. I'll be there. You should come. Okay. Um, if you know anybody that lives in Auckland or Wellington, tell them about my shows there. I just got another TV show to do while I'm out there on.
Ron: Oh, my God.
Laura: I'm doing two TV shows while I'm in New Zealand. That's more TV than I've had in the UK over the last two years, Ron. Yeah, I think I might move to New Zealand and be a superstar.
Ron: Do it.
Laura: It's too far away from everybody I love.
Ron: Yeah, you'd suffer.
Laura: And I won't make new friends. Can you see Mackie?
Ron: I can hear Mackie.
Laura: What you talking about, Mackie? Have you got ideas for the podcast?
Ron: Well, enjoy the episode, folks.
Laura: No, the episode's happened, you f. Idiot.
Ron: Sorry, I was looking at Pun Trap.
Ron asks if anybody remembers the Simpsons platform game that you wanted remembered
Laura: Um, Ron, do you want to put out a plea to if anybody remembers the Simpsons platform game that you wanted people to remember?
Ron: Yeah, I can't even find pictures of it. But, like, the Simpsons famously made so much merch through the 80s and 90s that. But, yeah, it was. And, um, I can only really, like. I think when I was playing this, it was when, you know, it was when the sort of age with a computer where you would just click around and sometimes with video games, you. You just do the first level because you couldn't complete it and stuff. But, like, I'm pretty sure it was almost like a Lemmings thing. And they were like mice that you had to sort of funnel from one place to another and you could play as different characters. I think they're like Itchy and Scratchy mice. But, yeah, do get in touch.
Laura: Yeah, please do.
I'm researching the use of the bare brick wall in Stand up comedy
Oh, another thing that I want to crowdsource that the, uh, the listeners will be the perfect people for is I'm currently doing some research into the use of the bare brick wall in Stand up comedy. Now, I know that this originated with the Hungry Eye and San Francisco and the improv in New York or maybe Chicago. Anyway, um, but can you send me or comment on social media? Let me know instances that stick out in your head of. In cultural, like pop history of stand up in front of a bare brick wall.
Ron: Yes, Ron, I've got one. Yeah, there's an episode of the Simpsons where Krusty, um, turns into almost like a George Carlin esque, um, figure and he starts doing stand up slots. I think it mows in front of a bear brick.
Laura: Simpsons definitely use it. There's also. There's one where McBain does stand up, um, and he does it in front of a bear brick wall too.
Ron: Um, but then you are the Seinfeld cutaways. Is that in front of bear brick?
Laura: So yesterday I haven't watched a lot of Seinfeld and I was doing some research yesterday, and short of watching all of the first seven seasons, the Lego Seinfeld set is Seinfeld stood in front of a brick wall doing stand up. But all the stills I could find yesterday were, uh, of him. It's curtains behind him. It's not bear brick. So I don't know which is much more realistic. Yeah, I don't know if it changed later on or do I need to go and watch like the first seven seasons to check. Maybe they did use Bear Break sometimes.
Ron: I don't get it with Seinfeld. I've tried a couple of times.
Laura: Yeah, I think I've watched the first few seasons. Um, maybe I need to do that just to double check so that I know for sure. But yeah, get in touch if you've got especially early ones. Um, I'm sort of trying to research and look into how the bear brick wall went from being literally just a thing that, um, that was just from necessity because these clubs didn't have much budget. And so you just did it in front of the wall with the first stand at comedy clubs to becoming the symbol of stand up comedy. So if you've got any info, get in touch.
We don't have any new patrons this week
Um, all right, Ron, we don't have any new patrons this week. We've got some upgrades, but Ron's holding on to them for this D and D thingy. Majogly, jiggle all.
Ron: Yeah, those will come closer to the D and D stuff coming out because they
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Ron: need to. It's. This isn't just random nonsense. Oh, you're a. You're a Cod Wallopa from the. The Baggins. It's more like you'll actually feature in the thing, and so I want to actually know where you're going to feature.
Laura: Yeah. Um. And if you can't afford to become a patron, but you want to express your love, hey, share our stuff on social media or leave us a review. Reviews are great and we love to be loved. Um, that's it, really. We'll see you next week.
Ron: Class dismissed.
Laura: It.
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