Rice is Nice

Rice may be the most eaten food on the planet, accounting for 50% of the caloric intake of Asian countries and 25% worldwide. Learn all about this edible cereal crop today. See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:04Josh Clark?

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• 1:05Josh Clark?

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• 1:40Speaker 00

  Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeart Radio.

• 1:49Josh Clark?

  Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's Chuck, and Jerry's here, too. And this is a podcast called Stuff You Should Know about rice.

• 1:59Speaker 03

  That's right. Can I just throw out a couple of stats real quick at the onset?

• 2:03Josh Clark?

  I would love that.

• 2:05Speaker 03

  Because this is about rice, the food, just in case it was confusing at all.

• 2:09Josh Clark?

  What other kind of rice is there?

• 2:11Speaker 03

  I don't know. I just wondered, I mean, for all I know, it's some weird new sex term.

• 2:17Josh Clark?

  Oh, that's ricce.

• 2:18Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 2:21Josh Clark?

  Yeah, you've clearly only seen it written before.

• 2:23Speaker 03

  I guess so. All right, so rice generally is looked at as the most eaten food in the world. I think some people might have wheat just ahead of it, but it's either one or number two. It's grown on every continent except Antarctica. About three and a half billion people, it's a staple food, accounting for 20% of the calories consumed all over the world is rice, which is a staggering number. And in Asian countries, 50% of the calories. It's amazing. 50% is rice.

• 2:59Josh Clark?

  Yeah, it is until you realize that pork cracklins make up another 20% of all the calories consumed worldwide.

• 3:07Speaker 03

  Yum.

• 3:09Josh Clark?

  There's also like something that's worth mentioning, too, that rice production supports 200 million households in developing countries. That's how they make their living.

• 3:20Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 3:20Josh Clark?

  So to say that rice is an important crop here on planet Earth is kind of an understatement.

• 3:27Speaker 03

  Uh, yeah.

• 3:29Josh Clark?

  Okay, good. I'm glad you agree. There's one thing I want to cover before we move on because it bothered me, so hopefully it will bother somebody else, and that's why I want to satisfy that itch.

• 3:40Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 3:41Josh Clark?

  I wondered what rice is when we're eating rice. What is it? It's a seed. The rice is the seed of the rice plant. Did you know that?

• 3:50Speaker 03

  Uh, yeah.

• 3:51Josh Clark?

  Okay, well.

• 3:52Speaker 03

  What if that was just my new persona? How obnoxious is that?

• 3:57Josh Clark?

  Here's how we know that rice is a seed aside from, you don't have to be a botanist for this. You can go to the store and buy rice and plant it, and it will grow a rice plant. So it's the seed, but it's classified as a cereal, which is a seed from a grass plant. And so rice is a seed, everybody. Calm down.

• 4:17Speaker 03

  That's right. And I'm clearly joking, by the way. I can't imagine how many people I turned off with the new persona.

• 4:23Josh Clark?

  I liked it.

• 4:25Speaker 03

  I figured people would be like, is that what Chuck shaved his beard for Halloween? Is that new Chuck? I don't like it.

• 4:30Josh Clark?

  Oh, yeah, that's right. You did. I think you should have grown the mustache back real quick after Halloween.

• 4:36Speaker 03

  Buddy, if I could, I would. I miss that beard so much already.

• 4:39Josh Clark?

  Are you growing it back?

• 4:41Speaker 03

  I mean, I told Ruby, Ruby hated it, of course, but I said, Ruby, it's already growing back. I've already started the second I finished shaving, I started growing it back.

• 4:50Josh Clark?

  You're like, I gotta hurry up and squeeze Halloween in.

• 4:52Speaker 03

  But the stash looked pretty good, though, right?

• 4:54Josh Clark?

  It did. I liked it a lot. You looked like a construction worker slash porn star slash yacht rock musician, all rolled into one. Like Kenny Loggins, I guess.

• 5:04Speaker 03

  Yeah. Any anytime you have a stash like that, you're 20% more police officer, too.

• 5:09Josh Clark?

  Oh, don't forget that. Yeah.

• 5:10Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 5:10Josh Clark?

  But you looked a little more like village people, police officer.

• 5:14Speaker 03

  Hey, I'll take that any day.

• 5:16Josh Clark?

  Okay.

• 5:17Speaker 03

  That just sounded like Kim Cattrall.

• 5:19Josh Clark?

  You should have been like, oh, I'll take that any day.

• 5:23Speaker 03

  All right, back to rice, because this is the bulky one. We can't goof around. We're going to break down types of rice. If you look sort of at the top of the dividing point, you're probably going to go white rice or brown rice. I really don't care for brown rice. I'm not yucking yum. I can't stand the taste.

• 5:41Josh Clark?

  It's an acquired taste.

• 5:42Speaker 03

  It's much better for you. They are not different varieties, but white rice is rice with the bran and the germ removed. Brown rice and also red and black rice still has the bran and the germ, and it's much, much, much better for you than white rice. I just cannot stomach it.

• 6:01Josh Clark?

  Yeah, the reason why is because the bran and the germ are the thing that have all the nutrients. So if you're eating white rice, it's basically stripped of any nutritional value whatsoever, so much so that a lot of rice is actually fortified. They mix the vitamins and minerals that they strip out back in in different ways.

• 6:21Speaker 03

  That's enriched, right?

• 6:22Josh Clark?

  Yeah, let's talk about that real quick, okay? Did you see the different ways that you can enrich white rice?

• 6:30Speaker 03

  I mean, can't they just kind of like powder coat it?

• 6:34Josh Clark?

  Sure, powder coating is one, but they don't powder coat all of it. They pick out selected grains of rice, powder coat them, and then mix them back in with un-powder coated rice

• 6:44Speaker 03

  Oh, okay.

• 6:44Josh Clark?

  at a ratio of about one to 100.

• 6:47Speaker 03

  What, really? And that provides enough good stuff?

• 6:50Josh Clark?

  I guess so. Do you have any other guesses of how you could enrich rice?

• 6:54Speaker 03

  Hmm, I'm trying to think how I would do it. No, I have no other guesses.

• 6:59Josh Clark?

  You could coat it in layers, base coat, nutrient coat, protective top coat. And then the last one is you can extrude it. So you take rice flour and you actually make fake rice grains and you've mixed the rice powder with the nutrient powder and you mix those in with real rice or regular rice. That's how you do it. I don't know why, but I could not not find out how you would enrich rice. It just got me. So I had to go figure it out and I wanted to share that, just like sharing the fact that rice is seed.

• 7:31Speaker 03

  That's right. I love it. Most of the rice that we, you know, kind of buy in stores and know about is a descendant from the O R Y Z A, capital O, I guess the Oriza Satiba. That was domesticated in China, you know, somewhere between 8,213 and a half thousand years ago. There are two main subspecies, Indica, Indicouch, am I right? And Japonica, I think the Indica is more likely to be long grain, the Japonica is more likely to be short, even though there are exceptions. And the starch levels are different in the two, right?

• 8:12Josh Clark?

  Yeah, I think Japonica has more starch, a certain kind called amylopectin, which is water soluble. So it makes the rice sticky. Indica is chock full of amylose, which is a starch, but it keeps the rice separate, or the rice doesn't stick together. It doesn't actually keep it separate. And so knowing that and knowing long grain and short grain, you can kind of start to guess what different varieties of rice belong to which family.

• 8:44Speaker 03

  Yeah, for sure. We don't want to leave out the Oriza Glabarima, that's African rice, and that is grown in Africa still. It is not as popular as the Asian Oriza variety, but they have tried to mix the two because there are good and bad points for both. I think the African variety is a little hardier and more resistant to disease and pests and climate issues, which is great. I think water depth and soil, it just seems like a better all around sort of grower. But the yields aren't as great and it's harder to mill without breaking. So maybe cross breeding these two, you could come up with like a super rice.

• 9:24Josh Clark?

  Yeah, I don't know what you'd call it, maybe glaberima japonica. Poof.

• 9:32Speaker 03

  Yeah, that sounds great.

• 9:33Josh Clark?

  Let's talk some variety, shall we?

• 9:36Speaker 03

  Yeah, we can kind of quickly go through. Basmati is one of my faves. It's a long grain indica rice. South Asian cuisine, a lot of time we'll have basmati, or maybe jasmine, also a long grain indica rice. It's a little stickier than basmati and a little more floral.

• 9:53Josh Clark?

  Did you know that? I'd always thought like they added something to give jasmine rice that smell. Apparently that's natural to the rice. Did you know that?

• 10:01Speaker 03

  I kind of figured that because I just didn't think they would add a scent to a rice.

• 10:06Josh Clark?

  I could see that. I could see somebody adding a scent, especially the Thai. They love like orchids and stuff like that. They love things that are lovely. And so adding a lovely scent to rice makes sense.

• 10:18Speaker 03

  Yeah, two of my favorite rices right off the bat.

• 10:21Josh Clark?

  All right. Well, one of my favorites, actually, let's just go ahead and say it. My favorite is sushi rice. It's a type of japonica, not surprisingly. It's sticky, but it's not as sticky as another kind of rice called sticky rice or glutinous rice. And they're not to be confused, even though they're both pretty sticky. Glutinous rice is naturally sticky because it's got so much amylopectin starch in it that it actually, the grains actually kind of crumble together and it almost turns into like a porridge. Like when you make a batch of sticky rice, it's almost like just a big clump that sticks to your fingers. It's all over the place. You can use it to hang wallpaper.

• 11:03Josh Clark?

  Sushi rice is sticky. It'll stick together. But if you ever really look at sushi, like a piece of nigiri, that you can see the individual grains of rice.

• 11:13Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 11:13Josh Clark?

  But it still sticks together. And the reason why it really sticks together is because of the treatment it gets with a little bit of vinegar, salt and sugar concoction that's mixed in with the rice after it cooks.

• 11:25Speaker 03

  That's right. Maybe a mani-pedi.

• 11:28Josh Clark?

  Um, I don't get that one.

• 11:32Speaker 03

  You know, the treatment.

• 11:33Josh Clark?

  Oh, do you ever get those?

• 11:36Speaker 03

  Uh, no.

• 11:37Josh Clark?

  Chuck, treat yourself, at least to a pedicure. You will never not get one again.

• 11:43Speaker 03

  Uh, we'll talk off air.

• 11:47Josh Clark?

  Okay, but I'm just saying you can't surprise those people or offend them. Somebody who's a professional pedicurist, it doesn't matter what your feet look like, they will do it and they will not crack a smile.

• 11:58Speaker 03

  It's not a hammer toe issue.

• 12:00Josh Clark?

  Oh, okay.

• 12:00Speaker 03

  Um, can we move on to risotto? Because if you love risotto, you're probably looking at one of a couple of things, both Japonica versions, either arborio or carneroli rice. Um, risotto, they're both medium grain, um, delicious. I don't, um, I've made risotto before, but it's really tough to perfect.

• 12:20Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 12:21Speaker 03

  But one of my favorite dishes, if it's done right.

• 12:23Josh Clark?

  I made it once or twice too, and it actually turned out both times, but it is very time consuming. Because you add like the broth a little bit at a time and you basically have to stir until that the, the rice absorbs the broth and over and over and over again. But when it turns out, it is delicious. It's just much easier to order out though.

• 12:41Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's a dish you gotta babysit, you know, you can't walk away.

• 12:45Josh Clark?

  Similarly, paella is a dish that you have to babysit too. Uh, and that uses a couple of specific kinds of rice, bomba, um, which means bomb because it expands into little bombs, the grains of rice do when, um, they encounter water. And calispara, and they're both short grain rices, um, which is strange. They should be long grain because of the, the dish kind of calls for it, but you do not want to use other short grain rices as substitutes in paella because they're not the actually indica type rices like those other two are. And they'll just cook different and you'll basically ruin your paella and who wants to ruin paella?

• 13:27Speaker 03

  Now I used to make paella and I never babysat it. Was I doing it wrong?

• 13:32Josh Clark?

  Oh yeah. I thought like you typically made it outdoors and you basically had to hang around it while it was cooking.

• 13:39Speaker 03

  I always just baked it in the oven in the, in the proper pan.

• 13:44Josh Clark?

  Maybe that was just a cooking show I saw once and they were doing that to seem cool.

• 13:50Speaker 03

  It's like one of those cooking challenges that like they give them a bunch of restrictions.

• 13:54Josh Clark?

  No, weirdly, it was a cooking show. I don't remember the chef, but Gwyneth Paltrow was standing around there. And it was like first thing in the morning and they were both bleary eyed and clearly messed up still from the night before. But they decided to film that that episode of the cooking show that day.

• 14:14Speaker 03

  I'm probably not doing it in the traditional style or something, but it always turned out pretty good.

• 14:18Josh Clark?

  Good.

• 14:19Speaker 03

  Uh, I want to talk a little bit about Carolina Gold. It's one of my favorite prices. It's an heirloom long grain.

• 14:24Josh Clark?

  Oh, you've had it.

• 14:25Speaker 03

  Japonica. You haven't had it?

• 14:27Josh Clark?

  No, I've never had it.

• 14:28Speaker 03

  Oh, man.

• 14:29Josh Clark?

  Is it good?

• 14:29Speaker 03

  Yourself. Yeah. It's great. Always when I go to Charleston, I'll pick up a bag of the local stuff.

• 14:34Josh Clark?

  We'll pick up two.

• 14:36Speaker 03

  I will, big boy. Comes in a cool looking little soft bag too, you know?

• 14:41Josh Clark?

  I saw, oh, like a kind of a little burlap bag?

• 14:43Speaker 03

  Yeah, like a cloth thing.

• 14:45Josh Clark?

  I saw there's a company called Anson Mills that they started making it in the 1990s, I guess, at least for national sale. And their prices aren't terribly bad. I didn't get to the shipping stage. That probably jacks the price up, but it was like eight bucks for a pound of this, apparently the best rice you'll ever have.

• 15:05Speaker 03

  I mean, I think you can just buy it in Publix here, can't you?

• 15:07Josh Clark?

  I, I, I've never looked for it. Maybe I will.

• 15:11Speaker 03

  I'm not sure. I mean, in Charleston, certainly you can buy it at just Harris Teeter or whatever. Cause it's local and that's the deal. It was, um, you know, it comes from the Carolinas, the lowlands of, of South Carolina and North Carolina. Uh, I think it was the first commercial rice in the United States. And genetically goes back to South Asia, although the seeds reportedly arrived at Charleston in the 1600s from Madagascar. Went away after the civil war and then came back into fashion, like you said, in the nineties when Anson Mills started making it again. But this was a rice where English colonists, you know, they came here, they hadn't grown rice very significantly. So they like, didn't really know what they were doing.

• 15:55Speaker 03

  But, uh, enslaved Africans arrived. They had that experience on how to grow rice, which is, was, it's a tricky crop and we'll get to all that later. They had, you know, some lowland, wetland cultivation areas in West Africa. So they came with that knowledge. And you know, that's how it became a thing in South Carolina, like how to cultivate it and grow it there.

• 16:17Josh Clark?

  Yep. Now we have Carolina Gold.

• 16:20Speaker 03

  That's right.

• 16:21Josh Clark?

  I have to go try, because this article, thanks to Dr. Claw for helping us with this too, made me very hungry for rice.

• 16:30Speaker 03

  How many of these others do you want to go over?

• 16:33Josh Clark?

  I don't know that there's much to go over. There's black rice, which apparently has anthocyanins, the same pigment in blueberries, so it's high in antioxidants.

• 16:42Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 16:42Josh Clark?

  Apparently it was called forbidden rice in ancient China because only royalty could eat it.

• 16:47Speaker 03

  That's black rice, I think, right?

• 16:49Josh Clark?

  Yeah, black rice.

• 16:50Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 16:50Josh Clark?

  And then I think it's worth mentioning wild rice. It's not technically rice because it doesn't come from a rice plant, it comes from a different type of grass that's native to North America. But from what I see, it's actually even healthier than brown rice.

• 17:08Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 17:09Josh Clark?

  And it's not bad.

• 17:09Speaker 03

  I love it.

• 17:10Josh Clark?

  Do you like it?

• 17:11Speaker 03

  And you know, I'll quickly shout out Calrose, because when I used to roll my own sushi, that's what I would use, even though it's not exactly sushi rice. I was told by a chef that it does pretty good.

• 17:22Josh Clark?

  Okay. That's a nice little tip from Chuck's Kitchen.

• 17:26Speaker 03

  All right. Well, let's take a break then. It's a good start, and we'll come back and talk about that cultivation I spoke of right after this.

• 17:48Josh Clark?

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• 20:22Speaker 03

  All right. Rice cultivation, like we mentioned earlier, started in China, specifically the Yangtze River Basin, could have been like as much as 14,000 years ago, definitely at least nine or 10,000 years ago. And it's the kind of thing that happened over time from like wild rice growing just in the wild after heavy rains to them saying, hey, like, let's actually try and farm this stuff. And, you know, valleys would flood and they would say, hey, this is, this is how you grow rice in water flooded patties. I imagine it was quite a revelation.

• 20:57Josh Clark?

  Yeah. I think it made it to South Asia, that is, India by, I think, 8,300 years ago. And it made it to Southeast Asia about 4,400 years ago. And the whole idea of growing rice, like anybody who ever thinks about growing rice, you know, when you're sitting around thinking about growing rice.

• 21:15Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 21:16Josh Clark?

  You think of it in patties, like you're talking about, like little flooded fields, usually surrounded by slightly raised dikes or walkways or buns.

• 21:26Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 21:27Josh Clark?

  And that is a way that rice grows, but it doesn't actually need a flooded field to grow. It needs a lot of irrigation, a lot of rainfall, but it can also be grown on like mountainsides, terrace mountainsides. That's called upland farming.

• 21:43Speaker 03

  I never knew that part.

• 21:45Josh Clark?

  I didn't either. Usually that's for subsistence, the upland stuff, because it's so much more productive using the lowland method, which is using flooded patties. But it only needs flooding a couple of times during growing, the growing season, and they actually drain the paddy for harvesting. But a lot of, a lot of people who cultivate rice just keep it flooded the whole time because it's a lot easier to not put water in and out when you need it.

• 22:17Speaker 03

  Yeah, for sure. As far as, you know, farming it, you can, you can be old school. It can be done by hand. Obviously, they have machinery that can do that stuff now in a lot of places. The rice plants, you can, like a lot of plants and vegetables and things like that and herbs, you can start them out in like a nursery bed, transfer them over to a paddy, or it could be a big mechanized system of seed drilling, or you can drop rice, you can airdrop it into a flooded field, and it doesn't take that long, a few months, about 120 days. And, you know, different varieties, it depends on like the depth of water for the different varieties and stuff like that, and they will drain as needed. But just a few months to, to grow a successful rice yield.

• 23:01Josh Clark?

  Yeah. I was watching some mesmerizing videos on growing rice. And one of them was in Vietnam. I couldn't tell where the other one was. But it was really interesting. For some reason, I find a rice paddy fascinating.

• 23:15Speaker 03

  Oh, same.

• 23:16Josh Clark?

  It's just way, way more interesting than your typical crop field.

• 23:20Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 23:20Josh Clark?

  Because there's a lot of water.

• 23:21Speaker 03

  Yeah. And, and I thought until yesterday, that was the only way to do it.

• 23:25Josh Clark?

  Nope.

• 23:26Speaker 03

  Like cranberries. Didn't it cranberries that grow in water?

• 23:29Josh Clark?

  Yeah, and like a bog.

• 23:31Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 23:31Josh Clark?

  That's deep water. You have to wear waders to harvest cranberries, as far as the commercials for Ocean Spray that I've seen.

• 23:39Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 23:40Josh Clark?

  So after you harvest the rice, there's a lot of ways to harvest it. One of the traditional ways is to just use hand sickles and cut the, probably the top half of the plant off.

• 23:53Josh Clark?

  After that, you dry the rice, and what you have is called rough rice. And that still has the hole on it. It's got the protective husk, which you'll sometimes see if you buy a plant, there's these little holes. Those are rice husks. I guess they put them in for drainage, maybe. I don't know why else they would. But when you remove just the husk and leave the rest of the rice alone, like shucking an ear of corn, but really tiny, that's essentially the rice husk. Once you take the husk off, you got brown rice.

• 24:27Speaker 03

  Yeah, little tiny bits of cardboard, ready for eating.

• 24:30Josh Clark?

  I mean, I'm with you. It takes a lot for me to make myself make brown rice when I have the option of making sushi rice.

• 24:38Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 24:39Josh Clark?

  But it is so much better for you.

• 24:41Speaker 03

  I know. It really is.

• 24:43Josh Clark?

  But I don't, I don't know if either of us eat enough rice to really matter. I don't know.

• 24:49Speaker 03

  No, I mean, any health problems I have are not from eating white rice. You know?

• 24:54Josh Clark?

  Yeah. But what about white rice? How do you get white rice from brown rice? Cause that's where you get it from.

• 25:00Speaker 03

  Well, another, you gotta go through another round of work, basically, and called the milling process. That's gonna remove the bran.

• 25:08Speaker 03

  Sometimes they even, if you see rice that looks like just super pristine and shiny, that might've been polished in a factory somewhere with glucose.

• 25:14Josh Clark?

  Isn't that weird?

• 25:16Speaker 03

  And then we talked about, you know, some rice even goes through the enriching process.

• 25:20Josh Clark?

  Would you like to go over those three ways again?

• 25:22Speaker 03

  Oh, that's all right.

• 25:23Josh Clark?

  Okay.

• 25:24Speaker 03

  Uh, but you know, we're gonna talk a little bit about the downside of rice, because anytime you're talking about like these major crops or farm situations, it's not always the greatest for the environment. And it takes a lot of water to grow rice. Like you said, if it's not done in a paddy, just tons and tons of irrigation. Which makes it surprising that California, which suffers a lot of drought, has about half a million acres of rice.

• 25:48Josh Clark?

  Yeah. If you listen to our Salt and Sea episode, that should be an eye popping number to you.

• 25:53Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 25:54Josh Clark?

  That said, though, rice production still requires less water than any kind of meat production. Any kind of nut production, from what I understand. And a lot of vegetables still use more water than rice.

• 26:08Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 26:08Josh Clark?

  Cultivation, I guess, worldwide. So water use is a thing. Land use is another thing, too. But greenhouse gases seem to be probably the biggest problem with rice production.

• 26:21Speaker 03

  Yeah, this kind of is something that I would not have considered. Again, I was just sort of naive to that. I usually think of like factory farming of animals and stuff as being big methane contributors. But when you have a big flooded rice field, you're also going to have a lot of microbes in there feeding off of decaying plant matter, and that's going to create a lot of methane. I didn't realize it was that big of a problem, but apparently it is.

• 26:45Josh Clark?

  It must be because so much rice is cultivated worldwide that that all combined makes it a problem.

• 26:52Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 26:53Josh Clark?

  One of the things you can do to reduce methane emissions is to drain the patties when the rice is at a growing stage where it doesn't need to be flooded. And then when it needs it again, you can reintroduce the water, then you dry it again for harvesting. The problem is this, and I love stuff like this, even though it's terrible, I love it when you solve one problem and it creates an equal and opposite problem. That's exactly what happens with rice cultivation. When you dry out that patty, it exposes the soil and a bunch of nitrous oxide, which is another greenhouse gas, gets emitted. And so if you just grow it just with soil, it's going to emit nitrous oxide, it's going to be covered

• 27:38Josh Clark?

  up with the water in the patty, and then when you dry it again, it's going to release more nitrous oxide. So they're trying to figure out like the balance of which one's worse. You know, would it be better to just leave it flooded all the time? Would it be better to dry it? Because you can take care of the methane, nitrous oxide goes up, take care of the nitrous oxide, the methane goes up. But did you see that thing about rice fish farming?

• 28:03Speaker 03

  Uh, is that like the seawater farming?

• 28:06Josh Clark?

  No, this is, it's a little different. It's where you actually, you grow fish, you like farm fish in your rice patty. And they actually help take care of the methane problem by eating a lot of algae that would otherwise decompose. So the methane goes down. The nitrous oxide emissions go down because the patties always flooded because you know, the fish need the water. And I saw that it increases yields by 10 to 15% because the fish are pooping. And so they're, the nitrogen cycle is going a lot, but a lot more frequently. You don't need to add as much fertilizer, if any, and they're eating a lot of the pests. So there's a 50% reduction in pests. And I think in some, if you do it right, you don't even need to use pesticides in rice production.

• 28:51Josh Clark?

  So growing fish with your rice is like the way to save the planet.

• 28:55Speaker 03

  What kind of fish? Do you know?

• 28:58Josh Clark?

  I don't, I don't think it matters. Probably a smallish fish because there's only a few inches of water that you need for rice patties. So it wouldn't have, it wouldn't be like a giant carp. You'd be, you'd be up the creek, I think, or the carp would be if you tried to grow carp in a fish patty.

• 29:14Speaker 03

  Right. It wouldn't be say a marlin or great white shark.

• 29:18Josh Clark?

  No. No, but it would be something to see.

• 29:21Speaker 03

  I did mention seawater rice. They're, you know, people efforting to do that kind of thing to, you know, grow it in, in seawater. Obviously it's got to be a situation where they can get a rice variety that can tolerate that salt content and the alkaline soil. But it's something that they're looking into that has got a little bit of promise, I think.

• 29:43Josh Clark?

  Yeah, because it reduces the land use, right? Because you're not using really valuable land for cultivating rice.

• 29:49Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 29:52Josh Clark?

  There's also the matter of toxins too. I didn't realize rice was such a downer, did you?

• 29:57Speaker 03

  I did not. I didn't know about the, the toxins. And I think specifically arsenic is one of the, I think like lead and cadmium also, but arsenic seems to be the major offender.

• 30:07Josh Clark?

  Yeah. And the reason why it's such a deal with rice is rice absorbs it more than most crops for some reason. The big downer about the whole thing is that arsenic is most present in the germ and the bran. So the type of rice that's most beneficial for you health-wise, brown rice, is also the ones that have the most arsenic.

• 30:30Speaker 03

  Aha.

• 30:31Josh Clark?

  Um, I, I found an article that asks if the benefits outweigh the risk as far as arsenic and brown rice is concerned.

• 30:38Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 30:39Josh Clark?

  It was in 2023 edition of Frontiers in Nutrition. And they basically said, I don't know, we should do more study on it.

• 30:48Speaker 03

  Said, eat what you want, bub.

• 30:49Josh Clark?

  Yeah, I guess, but basically they were like, we don't know. Why would, why would you even read this article, chump?

• 30:55Speaker 03

  Right.

• 30:58Speaker 03

  Uh, if you're seeking out safer rice, uh, you know, there are people have done studies, Consumer Reports, I think, did some testing for arsenic specifically. Uh, they found white basmati in California, India and Pakistan. Uh, and sushi rice from the United States, maybe not intuitively, uh, has the least amount of arsenic. Um, if you get rice from Arkansas, Louisiana, or Texas, um, it's going to have higher levels of arsenic.

• 31:27Josh Clark?

  Yeah. Um, it's if your soil is more likely to be contaminated by industrial metals, that rice is going to suck it up. And apparently California's soil is less contaminated by industrial metals than some other states. So from what I could tell, your best bet is California rice as far as arsenic is concerned.

• 31:49Speaker 03

  Yeah. And you know, you rinsing the rice helps before you cook it. Um, cooking it in the water and then draining and even rinsing afterward can reduce the arsenic count even more. But it's not like, um, it, it's apparently it's not enough arsenic to really do a ton of damage to you. But the problem is, is children that eat like a lot of times, you know, you'll have like the processed rice meal and baby food. Um, and I think that stuff, you, you can't ever tell how much that has been rinsed or not, as my orthodontist, Dr. Blake, used to say. Uh, so yeah, it can be problematic for, for little BBs and toddlers.

• 32:29Josh Clark?

  It can be problematic for you too, like, uh, as a grown up. And yeah, it's not like you would have to eat a lot of rice to hurt yourself with say arsenic. But if you eat rice every day, which a lot of people do.

• 32:40Speaker 03

  Yeah, sure.

• 32:40Josh Clark?

  You can, and arsenic is associated with multiple kinds of cancer, diabetes, cardio issues and obesity. Um, so you don't really want a lot of arsenic. So that is an issue with rice, everybody. Let's face it.

• 32:55Speaker 03

  Should we take a second break?

• 32:56Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 32:57Speaker 03

  All right, we'll take another break, go over some lists of countries who eat rice a lot. Probably not a very surprising list, but that and other stuff right after this.

• 33:21Josh Clark?

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• 34:21Speaker 06

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• 35:09Josh Clark?

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• 36:48Josh Clark?

  Okay, Chuck, I'll give you 10 guesses. What continent produces the most rice?

• 36:57Speaker 03

  Is this production?

• 36:58Josh Clark?

  Yes, production.

• 37:00Speaker 03

  My guess is China.

• 37:02Josh Clark?

  No, continent.

• 37:04Speaker 03

  Oh, uh, Asia.

• 37:06Josh Clark?

  Yes, you got it.

• 37:07Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 37:07Josh Clark?

  Right out of the gate.

• 37:08Speaker 03

  Within that, I would say China.

• 37:10Josh Clark?

  Yeah, you'd be right. China is the number one rice-producing country in Asia, followed by India. But that makes sense because they both have a lot of landmass. Bangladesh is a big eye-popper because it's not very big, but it's the third highest-producing rice country in

• 37:26Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 37:26Josh Clark?

  in the world.

• 37:28Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's impressive.

• 37:30Josh Clark?

  But all 10, top 10, are Asian, whether Southeast Asian, South Asian, or Asian proper, I guess.

• 37:38Speaker 03

  Yeah, I mentioned those states. California, Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Missouri, and Arkansas produce the, almost all the rice in the US, which is about 20 billion pounds a year, more than I thought. Obviously nowhere close to being a top 10 producer, but as far as eating rice in the United States, you're probably eating American rice unless you're going to like a specialty store because about 80% of the rice sold and eaten in the US and 95% of sushi rice eaten in the US comes from US farms.

• 38:06Josh Clark?

  Mm-hmm. That's why when you go to an izakaya in America, you'll frequently see somebody with a mouthful of rice chanting, "USA!"

• 38:15Speaker 03

  That's right.

• 38:16Josh Clark?

  Okay, what about the countries that eat the most rice?

• 38:20Speaker 03

  That eat the most?

• 38:22Josh Clark?

  What continent would those be on, all 10?

• 38:26Speaker 03

  Well, I'm gonna say Asia, but I'm also gonna drill down and say China, just because of the sheer amount of people.

• 38:32Josh Clark?

  Okay, yep, China's number one, India is number two, both because they have a lot of people there. Bangladesh is number three, again, they really love the rice.

• 38:41Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 38:41Josh Clark?

  But in the top 10 list, Nigeria is number 10 of the countries that eat the most rice. And there's something about eating a lot of rice. It's impressive, number one. Bangladesh is number one for eating rice. The per capita rice consumption per year equals 592 pounds of rice per person, which is almost two pounds of rice a day. And that's dry, uncooked rice that they're counting. This isn't like the wet stuff.

• 39:08Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 39:09Josh Clark?

  And like I said, it's impressive, but it also goes to, it goes to point out or underscore that the, the developing status of a country like Bangladesh. Because if you eat tons of rice and you're getting a lot of your calories from rice, it's because a lot of other foods aren't available to you because your country is lower income. So that's why Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, they all eat the most rice. In part because it's widely available, but also in part because their economies are still developing or aren't as developed as countries that eat less rice.

• 39:43Speaker 03

  Yeah. And that's, again, those are per capita numbers for that last list.

• 39:47Josh Clark?

  Yeah. That reminds me though of when I was a kid in like first, second, third grade, maybe, we would, once a year at school, the school lunch would be a cup of white rice with a little pad of butter on it. So that it drove home like what other kids around the world were eating for lunch that day.

• 40:09Speaker 03

  Oh, interesting.

• 40:10Josh Clark?

  Yeah, I thought it was kind of a nice in principle, but there were always at least one or two kids who ate that and then also ate their lunch that they brought from home to like little bastards.

• 40:24Speaker 03

  And I would say that pad of butter is a bit of a cheat.

• 40:27Josh Clark?

  Probably, probably, but still, I mean, I definitely, it gave me pause.

• 40:34Speaker 03

  Yeah. I mean, I like a little butter in some rice. I mean, not when I'm cooking any kind of like, you know, Asian style foods and stuff like that. I'm not going to put butter on sushi rice, but if you give me a, you know, a steak and a big old glob of Carolina Gold, you can bet your bibby I'm going to throw a little butter on that, a little salt and pepper.

• 40:55Josh Clark?

  Yeah, I never got into, this was definitely not Carolina Gold rice that they were feeding us in Styrofoam cups in first grade.

• 41:02Speaker 03

  It's probably, what's the stuff in the bag, the Minute Rice or whatever?

• 41:06Josh Clark?

  Yeah, like Uncle Ben's or something.

• 41:09Speaker 03

  Yeah, I mean, the only time we see that in our house, we keep a stash for when the dogs are tummy sick and you have to boil chicken and just have chicken and plain rice. And so we have those, those bags. That and like camping when I was a kid is, is that evokes those memories.

• 41:25Josh Clark?

  All right. Like, would you just have your pockets full of loose rice? Isn't that how you'd hike it in?

• 41:32Speaker 03

  That's how I'd hike it in.

• 41:34Josh Clark?

  Let's see, what else? Anything else about this? Oh, I want to point something out. There, there is a study in 2005. Remember I talked about how people eating rice, the countries that eat the most rice also tend to be developing. Well, there was a study from Totori University. And the reason that stood out to me is because Yumi taught English in Totori at a high school.

• 41:56Speaker 03

  No way.

• 41:56Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 41:57Speaker 03

  Oh, cool.

• 41:57Josh Clark?

  It's a very rural area. She taught it at like a technical school, technical high school. But she loved it. She went over there for a year as part of this program. But this Totori University study basically found that rice is, rice consumption is dropping off in Asian countries because wealth is expanding in Asian countries. And they're saying, hey, we love rice, but we also want that steak, like Chuck said.

• 42:23Speaker 03

  You know, every time you throw a little, another Yumi tidbit out, she becomes that much more interesting.

• 42:30Josh Clark?

  Yes, she's very interesting.

• 42:31Speaker 03

  And I realize how much more interesting both Yumi and Emily are than either one of us.

• 42:36Josh Clark?

  Yes, it's true. I'm kind of a schlub compared to Yumi for sure.

• 42:41Speaker 03

  Yeah, I mean, yeah, congratulations to both of us because they're both wonderful, interesting women. I mean, Yumi had a, her, her graffiti tag was apothecary, for God's sake.

• 42:54Josh Clark?

  Pretty great.

• 42:55Speaker 03

  It's amazing.

• 42:57Josh Clark?

  We already took a second break, right? This is the third act we're in?

• 43:01Speaker 03

  Yeah, we're in the third act, so we can have a little fun with some of these rice dishes if you want.

• 43:05Josh Clark?

  Okay, go ahead and fire that gun.

• 43:07Speaker 03

  Well, uh, rice, obviously, and a lot of dishes worldwide is gonna be like a base layer for something. Maybe a curry, maybe a stewed meat or vegetable. Maybe you're gonna stir fry something and throw it on top of that rice. That's a great way to eat rice, not just as a just a regular old plain side dish, even though that's fine, too. Um, but I've had quite a few of these. Um, I have had jalaf rice.

• 43:30Josh Clark?

  Oh, yeah?

• 43:31Speaker 03

  At African restaurants. Yeah, it's got, it's, you know, got like stewed tomatoes, onions, um, you know, peppers. A lot of these are kind of similar around the world, because it's, you know, it's meager, honest ingredients, like, you know, garlic and thyme and ginger, and rice and tomatoes and onions, like stuff you get from the ground. Sometimes you can add meat and vegetables, um, but jalaf rice is, is good on its own.

• 43:54Josh Clark?

  Yeah, I, I looked up a recipe of that, and I'm like, that is something I'm going to try.

• 43:59Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 43:59Josh Clark?

  There's also biryani.

• 44:02Speaker 03

  Love it.

• 44:02Josh Clark?

  Um, I am not more, I'm more of a curry guy, so I don't get biryani when I go to Indian restaurants, because it's a little drier.

• 44:11Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 44:11Josh Clark?

  But it is, it's got some nice, um, flavors to it for sure, when I have had it. But it's a rice dish, it's got rice spices, some vegetables, usually some kind of meat in there. Yeah, it's good.

• 44:24Speaker 03

  You're a red curry guy? Green?

• 44:25Josh Clark?

  Uh, red, green, maybe if I'm at a Thai place, but I'm a tikka masala and butter chicken person.

• 44:32Speaker 03

  Oh, man.

• 44:33Josh Clark?

  I could eat that all day long, every day.

• 44:37Speaker 03

  Yeah. No, I mean, I said it before, and I think it was our Chinese food episode, like, I could subsist entirely on Asian cuisine 100% of the time and be as happy as I've ever been.

• 44:48Josh Clark?

  For real.

• 44:49Speaker 03

  I don't need the other foods.

• 44:51Josh Clark?

  Um, also, shout out sog. Sog paneer is fine, but chicken sog is, oh, it's the best.

• 44:57Speaker 03

  Yeah. Uh, I did mention paella earlier. I love it.

• 45:00Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 45:01Speaker 03

  If you aren't familiar, it is a Spanish dish. Uh, I think the Moores brought it over.

• 45:05Josh Clark?

  The Moops.

• 45:06Speaker 03

  And it is, uh, yeah, that's right. Oh, my God. What was that?

• 45:12Josh Clark?

  That was from Seinfeld, when, um, George played Trivial Pursuit with the Bubble Boy.

• 45:18Speaker 03

  That's right, that's right, the Moops.

• 45:20Josh Clark?

  No, I'm sorry, the Moops.

• 45:23Speaker 03

  Pie is delicious, though. It's, you know, you cook it in a very specific, flat-bottom, round pan. If you don't have one, like I've cooked it in just cast iron, skillets. It's got that clam juice. That's where a lot of that seafoody flavor comes from. Depending on what kind of seafood you want in there, it could be clams, could be shrimp, could be scallops, could be all that stuff. Some saffron, some like tomatoes that stew up nicely. It's just delicious. I love a pie. It's usually not the kind of thing you can just get a serving of. You get like a larger pie for a table.

• 45:55Josh Clark?

  That clam juice thing, didn't that remind me, didn't you used to make, or maybe still do make Bloody Marys with Clemato?

• 46:03Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's the only way for me.

• 46:04Josh Clark?

  And that's a Canadian thing, and I can't remember what they call it. Bloody Caesar. That's what it is.

• 46:09Speaker 03

  Oh, I've heard of that. I didn't know it was Canadian.

• 46:12Josh Clark?

  There's something, there's another rice dish that I've had before. I don't know if you've ever had it. It's called sushi. And it's made with that short-grain rice, seasoned with some vinegar, like I said. But it actually, and I know we talked about this in the sushi episode, it grew out of a way of preserving fish in vinegar. They would jam some uncooked rice in there with it, too, pack it in there.

• 46:34Speaker 03

  That's right.

• 46:35Josh Clark?

  And I guess somebody said, there's a better way to do this, and that's where sushi came from. But you can still get that original version called Nare Sushi, which I really want to try. I like pickled anything, man. You could pickle an old shoe, and I'd be like, I'll eat a little of that, sure.

• 46:54Speaker 03

  We're not going to go down the list of rice noodle dishes, but we should point out that rice noodles are a thing.

• 47:01Speaker 03

  We should mention a few rice desserts, because a really, really nice rice pudding, to me, is one of the more delicious things you can eat.

• 47:09Josh Clark?

  Yeah, I'm more of a bread pudding guy, but yeah, I'll eat rice pudding as well.

• 47:13Speaker 03

  That's when you cook the rice with the milk and sugar, and usually there's like vanilla or cinnamon or something like that in there.

• 47:19Josh Clark?

  I would eat just about anything with condensed milk.

• 47:22Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's good stuff.

• 47:23Josh Clark?

  Oh, I have a little, a little tip for you, Chuck. Yumi found this stuff. It's Ube condensed milk. It is the greatest flavor you will ever put in your mouth. It's insane how good it tastes.

• 47:37Speaker 03

  Is it, do I have to go to like an Asian mart to get it, or is it?

• 47:40Josh Clark?

  You probably order it online, but yeah, you're, you're going to find it at an Asian store more than maybe Target.

• 47:47Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 47:48Josh Clark?

  Um, there's also mango sticky rice, which uses that sticky glutinous rice, which by the way, it doesn't have gluten. It's just glutinous, meaning sticky, starchy.

• 47:57Speaker 03

  Gluten with an I.

• 47:57Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 47:58Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 47:58Josh Clark?

  Uh, have you heard of Polish rice cake or polish rice cake? I'm not sure.

• 48:04Speaker 03

  I had not until this.

• 48:05Josh Clark?

  It's basically rice and condensed milk and some other stuff, but it's, it's a cake with rice. It looks pretty good.

• 48:10Speaker 03

  Uh, well, we should talk about mochi at least, cause uh, mochi is a cake. And that is made from the glutinous rice as well. And if you've ever, you know, had mochi in the US, it's probably a little different from Japan, because it's not always a sweet thing there. But in the US, it's usually wrapped around ice cream.

• 48:28Josh Clark?

  As most things are.

• 48:30Speaker 03

  Yeah. And you can buy like the little mochi ice cream balls or whatever here.

• 48:34Josh Clark?

  Yeah, they're good. A lot of times in Japan, they'll have like sweet red bean paste inside. That's a traditional mochi there too. But apparently it's, it references the rabbit in the moon. In Japan, it's a rabbit in the moon rather than a man in the moon, but he's making mochi up there.

• 48:50Speaker 03

  Oh, I never knew that.

• 48:51Josh Clark?

  Yep. And we can't not mention horchata real quick. Okay?

• 48:56Speaker 03

  Yeah, I, I had a, I went to a, I had a horchata flight in Mexico City one time on a food tour.

• 49:02Josh Clark?

  Oh, nice.

• 49:03Speaker 03

  And it was my first kind of real exposure to it that I, I think maybe my first real exposure. And man, it was so different and delicious.

• 49:11Josh Clark?

  Yeah, it's um, it's rice soaked in evaporated milk. So you know, I'd like it. Add some cinnamon, some vanilla. And then you eventually, after it's mush, you strain it so that it gets any of the grit out. So it's kind of a, a thickish, milky-ish drink. That's amazing on its own, but if you're into things like rum or bourbon, they mix really well with horchata, especially in wintertime.

• 49:37Speaker 03

  Very interesting.

• 49:38Josh Clark?

  Oh, yeah. You'll thank me later.

• 49:41Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 49:42Josh Clark?

  Okay.

• 49:43Speaker 03

  I'll pre-thank you now because, uh, yeah, I didn't know that was a thing.

• 49:46Josh Clark?

  Oh.

• 49:47Speaker 03

  Uh, I mean, where do you get horchata here?

• 49:49Josh Clark?

  Uh, you can buy horchata. Um, it, those people make it and sell it here in the United States, meaning companies or whatever, but it's actually not that hard to make. You, you might be better off making it yourself.

• 50:00Speaker 03

  All right. I'll give it a shot. I know that the stuff we had in Mexico City was like really, really authentic and great.

• 50:05Josh Clark?

  Yep. Plenty, there's plenty of recipes. There's like five or six ingredients, all of them easily obtainable. So I say make your own, Chuck.

• 50:13Speaker 03

  All right. I'll give it a try.

• 50:14Josh Clark?

  Um, that reminds me, what did you think of cherry pop tarts, cherry frosted pop tarts?

• 50:19Speaker 03

  Ah, yes. Follow up. I, I texted Josh photos. I immediately went to the store. I bought the cherry frosted pop tarts and, um, of course I had to get the cinnamon, uh, brown sugar cinnamon.

• 50:29Josh Clark?

  Of course.

• 50:30Speaker 03

  Boy, those cherries are beeping delicious.

• 50:33Josh Clark?

  Yeah. I told you they're way better than strawberry, aren't they?

• 50:37Speaker 03

  Uh, yeah. I mean, they are. They're way better. I did my butter trick. Um, believe it or not, I've, I've, um, I think there were four packs in each, so eight total packs, 16 total pop tarts. And I've only eaten six total pop tarts. So three packs.

• 50:56Josh Clark?

  That's nice.

• 50:57Speaker 03

  Since then. I'm really, you just, you just can't go in there and, and house those things in two days.

• 51:05Josh Clark?

  You, uh, you can pretty easily, but I think you're showing a lot of restraint here.

• 51:10Speaker 03

  I, I feel like I'm showing restraint.

• 51:11Josh Clark?

  Yeah. Way to go, man. And you're, are you enjoying them more than if you just ate them all at once?

• 51:17Speaker 03

  Nah, they're the same.

• 51:19Josh Clark?

  That's awesome. Uh, you got anything else?

• 51:23Speaker 03

  I got nothing else. Grow rice.

• 51:24Josh Clark?

  Yeah. Go grow some rice, make your own horchata, make some sushi, make some sticky rice, make some curries. Just do all of that stuff. Some jollof rice. Get to it.

• 51:35Speaker 03

  Hmm.

• 51:35Josh Clark?

  And while you're making all that, uh, we'll just go ahead and read some listener mail.

• 51:41Speaker 03

  Well, this is from Ted. Ted wrote in because Ted, I'll just read it. You've responded to Ted. You're gonna send Ted something, which is very nice of you.

• 51:49Josh Clark?

  Nice.

• 51:49Speaker 03

  Hey, guys. I recently finished listening to the full Stuff You Should Know catalog. Eh, big deal. For the fifth time. That's a big deal, Ted.

• 52:00Josh Clark?

  For sure. I think it's a big deal if you listen to it all once.

• 52:04Speaker 03

  Uh, yeah.

• 52:06Josh Clark?

  Oh, oh, yeah, you're doing your new thing?

• 52:08Speaker 03

  Yeah, my new thing.

• 52:08Josh Clark?

  Okay, I like it.

• 52:10Speaker 03

  Uh, see us attached screenshot for proof. Ted, we didn't need proof. We take you at your word. At least I finished my most recent listen, guys. Thanks for all the wonderful hours. As an appreciation, here are the five things I most like about Stuff You Should Know. Number one, Josh and Chuck have character arcs as their lives have changed over the 17 years, and they're not afraid to share some of that personal stuff. That's a big time character arcs.

• 52:37Josh Clark?

  Yeah, I mean, 17 years.

• 52:39Speaker 03

  Yeah, like, think about what's happened to anyone over their last 17 years. It's a lot of, lot of stuff.

• 52:44Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 52:45Speaker 03

  Uh, number two, Josh and Chuck don't talk over each other like many other podcasters do. We don't often. Sometimes we do, but, yeah, we usually let each other go, right?

• 52:54Josh Clark?

  Yeah, we try to. I mean, every once in a while, there's a stumble here or there, but, no, we're, we're pretty good about that. We've, we always have been.

• 53:02Speaker 03

  Yeah, but, boy, some podcasts, even some of my favorite ones, at times, I'm like, what is going on? There's like three or four people talking.

• 53:07Josh Clark?

  Oh, you can't do that.

• 53:09Speaker 03

  Can't do that. Number three, uh, I've learned more about movies and popular music by listening to Stuff You Should Know than actually by watching movies or listening to music.

• 53:20Josh Clark?

  Yeah, I like to think that we have imparted some pretty cool recommendations over the years.

• 53:26Speaker 03

  Yeah, I just noticed Ted said he'd send in five things he loved the most. There's only four, so I guess.

• 53:30Josh Clark?

  Oh, Ted, this is beautiful, because I know what the last one is.

• 53:34Speaker 03

  Oh, I bet that's why he did it. Duh. Uh, number four, Josh and Chuck never make it all the way through a list. Of course, Ted, I'm so dense. I didn't even get the joke.

• 53:42Josh Clark?

  That was a great, that was a great arcane in-joke for Stuff You Should Know, Ted. Bravo. I'm listening to the entire catalog five times and we are trying to figure out something special to get you for it. So, thank you for letting us know.

• 53:55Speaker 03

  That's right. Thanks, Ted.

• 53:56Josh Clark?

  Thanks, Ted. If you want to be like Ted and talk about how much you like Stuff You Should Know, or how many times you've listened to Stuff You Should Know, or whatever you want to say, you can send it in an email to [email protected].

• 54:14Speaker 00

  Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts, iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

• 54:30Josh Clark?

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• 55:01Speaker 00

  She's been thinking about this sleepover all week, but I think about her food allergies all the time. Fortunately, her doctor prescribed Zolair, omalizumab. It's proven to significantly reduce allergic reactions if a food allergy accident happens.

• 55:14Speaker 05

  Zolair 150mg is a prescription medication used to treat food allergy in people one year of age and older to reduce allergic reactions due to accidental exposure to one or more foods. While taking Zolair, you should continue to avoid all foods to which you are allergic. Don't use if you are allergic to Zolair. Zolair may cause a severe, life-threatening allergic reaction called anaphylaxis. Tell your doctor if you ever had anaphylaxis. Get help right away if you have trouble breathing or if you have swelling of your throat or tongue. Zolair should not be used for the emergency treatment of allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis. Zolair is for maintenance use to reduce allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis, while avoiding food allergens. Serious side effects such as cancer, fever, muscle aches and rash, parasitic infection, or heart and circulation problems have been reported. Please see zolair.com for full prescribing information. Ask an allergist

• 55:56Speaker 05

  about Zolair. This is an advertisement for Zolair, paid for by Genentech and Novartis.

• 56:01Speaker 07

  This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.