What Is Wrong With Snakes?

This Week in a St Patrick's Day special Joe Thomas and James Buckley discuss James' Irish decent, a disastrous Inbetweeners PR tour in the US and what is the deal with snakes??? Plus this week the Fact Boys get to the bottom of whether the Irish do drink more than other countries! GET IN TOUCH: Whatsapp us - wa.me/447822034330 Fill in our Fact Up Form - https://forms.gle/uzF6XWPqaA5aNTtN7 Subscribe on Youtube - www.youtube.com/@JoeandJamesPod/videos Follow us on Instagram - www.instagram.com/joeandjamespod Follow us on TikTok - www.tiktok.com/@joeandjamespod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Hello, I'm Luke Jones.

• 0:01Speaker 01

  And I'm Poppy Damon.

• 0:02Speaker 00

  We love all the strange true crime stories that you might flick through on a newspaper and think, hang on a minute.

• 0:10Speaker 01

  And this is Strangely, a podcast where every week we bring you the weirdest, wildest stories ripped straight from the headlines or our notebooks from both sides of the Atlantic.

• 0:19Speaker 00

  From the stories that you almost certainly missed in the headlines.

• 0:22Speaker 01

  To the ones you did see and thought, that's odd, but never got to revisit again.

• 0:26Speaker 00

  If you like strange news.

• 0:27Speaker 01

  Unexpected twists.

• 0:29Speaker 00

  And stories that linger on way longer than they should.

• 0:33Speaker 01

  Listen and subscribe now. Search for Strangely wherever you get your podcasts.

• 0:42Speaker 02

  If you dropped me off anywhere on the planet and I've got my phone, I think I'd be able to make my way back.

• 0:50Speaker 00

  Yeah, I mean, to me, the phone is slightly,

• 0:54Speaker 00

  is screwed up that idea of like remoteness.

• 0:58Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:00Speaker 00

  Like, I think, because you can go anywhere and you just know where you are. And, you know,

• 1:07Speaker 00

  did you tell when I was running the London Marathon on my own?

• 1:12Speaker 02

  And you ran out of signal?

• 1:13Speaker 00

  I ran out of signal and I ran out of battery and signal.

• 1:16Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:17Speaker 00

  But one of the reasons I ran out of battery is that as I was running along the map, I was looking at the different restaurants that I was passing, being like, oh, that looks quite good. Maybe we'll go there. Like, I was using loads of battery.

• 1:27Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:27Speaker 00

  Like, reading reviews, like, looking at pictures of the dishes.

• 1:30Speaker 02

  You're an idiot.

• 1:31Speaker 00

  And I got down to 5% battery.

• 1:33Speaker 02

  And you were doing it for charity and stuff, weren't you?

• 1:35Speaker 00

  And I finished. That's why, that's why I finished, because I'd,

• 1:37Speaker 02

  And your times and things like that were really important and the direction that you went in.

• 1:43Speaker 00

  It ran out so quickly. I turned, what did I do? I turned everything off, including my music and my map. So I would just had a brick phone with the app running, no music, no map. And I was running on big roads so that I wouldn't get lost. I basically got on the, a road called the A3. I said, I'll stay on there.

• 2:09Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:10Speaker 00

  I'll run.

• 2:11Speaker 02

  Just follow signs to?

• 2:12Speaker 00

  I was essentially on like motorways.

• 2:15Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:15Speaker 00

  At one point I was like, this is ridiculous. I'm going to buy a charger. So I went into a shop. I was trying to like.

• 2:23Speaker 02

  Keep running.

• 2:25Speaker 00

  Um, bought a charger and then I thought.

• 2:31Speaker 00

  I can't use the charger, like I can't, I'd have to kind of, I'd have to go and sit down somewhere. And then I thought, well, I can't really.

• 2:37Speaker 02

  Well, you needed a battery. You need.

• 2:39Speaker 00

  I didn't, yeah, I know, I bought a plug. So now, so now, so now I'm just, now I was just running with a carrier bag. And I couldn't go into a coffee shop because I thought it's one thing kind of going into a, a, a shop.

• 2:51Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:51Speaker 00

  And sort of.

• 2:52Speaker 02

  Cause I've been there before, um, airports are good for it. I mean, airports have got loads of plugs anyway, they're quite good.

• 2:58Speaker 00

  They've got.

• 2:58Speaker 02

  Well, you've got to be careful with those plugs. Apparently they're like, they'll hack your phone or something like that.

• 3:02Speaker 00

  Well, the airport will, or somebody will.

• 3:04Speaker 02

  Some, some people have set up a plug in an airport and, but, um, usually you can get those little external battery things, can't you? Yeah. And they, and they're, and they're, yeah, and they're ready to go straight away. You can just sort of.

• 3:17Speaker 00

  Should've got that.

• 3:17Speaker 02

  Should've got that.

• 3:18Speaker 00

  So I arrived home. I just felt like I'd been on a really shit shopping trip. Like I'd basically run to a mobile phone shop, bought a plug. Sort of waddled back. I was just kind of walking. By the end I was just walking and weeping because my phone wouldn't get signal. And I was like, I know I've done the distance, but you're not fucking logging it. So I've just got to carry on, like wandering around near where I live. It was just like.

• 3:43Speaker 02

  A cap, just a little few steps of prep would have sorted that out.

• 3:48Speaker 00

  I think they should have done the prep.

• 3:50Speaker 02

  Who's they?

• 3:52Speaker 00

  Well, I don't want to blame Paula Radcliffe, but I do think it was, it was, it was her voice on the app. So I've always kind of vaguely blamed her.

• 3:59Speaker 02

  Tell you something, I've been after Radcliffe for years.

• 4:01Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 4:02Speaker 02

  I've always wanted to get some dirt on her.

• 4:03Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah.

• 4:04Speaker 02

  And if you want to blame her, I'm absolutely fine with that.

• 4:06Speaker 00

  Well, you know, she dropped the ball on this app is all I'm saying.

• 4:09Speaker 02

  Not all she drops when she's.

• 4:13Speaker 00

  Well, yeah, I mean, you've got some dirt on her. I mean, that's, that's the one thing you have got.

• 4:18Speaker 02

  Um, just another little side note. If you were, um, thinking, God, Joe was taking a long time there to get his point across and. Uh, I don't know. Do we edit this? Do we edit Joe's sort of pauses out and things like?

• 4:30Speaker 03

  I might, I might, I might edit it, but you know.

• 4:32Speaker 02

  Cause I'm still getting flack. I'm still getting in the comments and still, can you, oh, it'd be great if Joe could finish a story. I, I agree. I agree. It would be great. But this, for, for today, I'm gonna let you talk.

• 4:45Speaker 00

  Thank you.

• 4:45Speaker 02

  And we're gonna see. You asked for it. All right. I have to, this is what it's like having a conversation with this guy. I have to sit there. We go, like, if we go for this.

• 4:54Speaker 00

  I'm not the one saying that you should, I want you to cut in.

• 4:58Speaker 02

  Yeah, you were always saying that.

• 5:00Speaker 00

  I'm gonna have to get in the comments, aren't I? Do I have to comment on my own podcast?

• 5:02Speaker 02

  I think you might have to go.

• 5:03Speaker 00

  No, no, you're wrong. Let him.

• 5:06Speaker 02

  You're always telling me like.

• 5:06Speaker 00

  Well, if that's what I need to do, then.

• 5:08Speaker 02

  Oh, Buckley, if I go on for a bit. You know.

• 5:12Speaker 00

  I know.

• 5:12Speaker 02

  We're in a meeting or something like that.

• 5:14Speaker 00

  And I'm always, I've got better as well. I used to be.

• 5:16Speaker 02

  Oh, God, yeah. Oh, my God, yeah.

• 5:19Speaker 00

  I've, I, I, um. I remember a lunch I went to once where it was me and. My agent and Johnny Sweet. At that point, we shared an agent. We were, we, we had the same agent. We were double out. And the, I told a story that was so long that I just had to.

• 5:39Speaker 02

  What's going on it?

• 5:39Speaker 00

  It's all right. It's, it's, um.

• 5:41Speaker 02

  It's in the past. It was before we got together.

• 5:43Speaker 00

  It was before we got together. It's okay. Don't worry. And like, um. You know, I just, I sometimes just, you know, search him on Facebook and stuff, but like, it's.

• 5:51Speaker 02

  Was he bigger than me?

• 5:54Speaker 00

  It doesn't matter. It's not about that.

• 5:59Speaker 00

  But I remember telling a story that lasted so long that my agent just had to kind of get up and excuse herself. Obviously, she was, I've just got to go. I've got another meeting.

• 6:06Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 6:06Speaker 00

  And I was talking about the office. It was supposed to be about like work. I just did a big thing about the office, like why I thought it was great. And she just had to leave, obviously, the story. And I didn't stop. I was like, yeah, you go. Anyway, so.

• 6:16Speaker 02

  I had to do it the other day. I had to do it the other day. Me and Joe had a Zoom call. It was a, it was, it was a pre-meeting meeting. We were having a meeting the next day. And, uh, like, they were like, oh, we should probably just have a chat before we go to this meeting. And I'm like, cool. And I did say right at the beginning, I've got, I've got to go in an hour. Then it started to get, like, we're 45 minutes in and I was just like. Just trying to jump in at some point. I was like, sorry, Joe, sorry, mate. I've got fifteen minutes and I've got, then I've got to go. Then it got to like three minutes to where I had to be on this other call. And I was like, I've got to go, guys. I've just got to go.

• 6:58Speaker 02

  And we didn't really, we didn't talk about everything that we were supposed to talk about.

• 7:01Speaker 00

  I am, yeah, I do, I do remember that. I'm sorry about that. And I do, I think I also started a new story.

• 7:08Speaker 00

  When you were kind of in the process of leaving, it was not, it wasn't.

• 7:13Speaker 02

  Well, that was it. Cause I was also like, I was also like, oh no, it's, we've moved on to another thing. Joe's moved on to another thing now. So I've got to say, I've got to go.

• 7:20Speaker 00

  It was bad. It was bad etiquette for me. I shouldn't have started something else. At the time, it felt like it was really important, but I can't remember what it is now.

• 7:27Speaker 02

  Listen, if I didn't, if I didn't have to go, I would have sat there all day with you, mate.

• 7:30Speaker 00

  Oh, well, thank you.

• 7:31Speaker 02

  No, you worry about that.

• 7:32Speaker 00

  Thank you. That's, that's very nice of you. Uh, there were not many who would.

• 7:40Speaker 02

  What's going on, mate?

• 7:41Speaker 00

  I don't know.

• 7:42Speaker 02

  Oh, I'll let you squeak those out.

• 7:47Speaker 00

  What's that?

• 7:47Speaker 03

  Oh yeah, it had a story about something, but you said you, it was a forgetting.

• 7:50Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah.

• 7:51Speaker 02

  That's ironic, isn't it?

• 7:52Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 7:52Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Can I see this?

• 7:54Speaker 02

  I had a story that I was forgetting something. I can't remember it now.

• 7:59Speaker 02

  Oh, the chocolate hobnob. My God. What a biscuit. What a biscuit. Biscuit.

• 8:06Speaker 03

  And that.

• 8:08Speaker 03

  Top tier biscuit.

• 8:09Speaker 02

  It is. It's right up there.

• 8:11Speaker 03

  I agree. Robust biscuit.

• 8:17Speaker 02

  No, it's okay. We're just, yeah, we're just.

• 8:20Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 8:21Speaker 02

  Just take a moment for Joe to finish his biscuit.

• 8:23Speaker 00

  I haven't eaten today.

• 8:24Speaker 03

  Yeah, don't eat too quick.

• 8:25Speaker 02

  I haven't eaten today. And I'll tell you what, where this studio is, just outside the studio, there's this street.

• 8:31Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 8:32Speaker 02

  Full of, um, uh, food trucks and, oh God, my God, it smells absolutely incredible.

• 8:39Speaker 00

  I know, I know.

• 8:40Speaker 02

  You can't move for like little.

• 8:43Speaker 00

  I never have enough time to.

• 8:45Speaker 02

  Food from all over the world. Oh, we, I, I, every time I come here, I'm like, I should really, should sort of try some of this food. It looks absolutely amazing. I've had people come up to me going, Jay.

• 8:58Speaker 00

  I know, I, ah.

• 8:59Speaker 02

  Jay, do you, Jay, can I go, can I get you a burrito or something?

• 9:03Speaker 00

  On my house?

• 9:03Speaker 02

  Okay, yeah.

• 9:04Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 9:05Speaker 02

  I go, I can't, I can't, I've left my phone at home, I've got, I'm running late, mate. Do you ever find that?

• 9:12Speaker 00

  You should go to, have you got a fact?

• 9:13Speaker 02

  Do you know?

• 9:14Speaker 00

  That's what you, that'd be.

• 9:15Speaker 02

  Do you know, you know, like, I think you're the same as me, you definitely are the same, you're, you're worse than me, but that, um.

• 9:23Speaker 02

  Like, I can't not chat to someone.

• 9:26Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 9:26Speaker 02

  If they see me on the street and they wanna just tell me how great they thought the in-betweeners was.

• 9:30Speaker 00

  I'm like that.

• 9:31Speaker 02

  Like, even if I'm, like, I've turned up to, I've turned up to auditions, like, important things in my life, like, late. Um, one time I remembered, uh, I turned up really late for an audition, not really late, I was about sort of ten, fifteen minutes late, because I was. I wasn't running late, I was getting there just on time, which for me is running late. I like to be sort of ten, ten minutes before I'm supposed to.

• 9:57Speaker 00

  Good habit to have.

• 9:57Speaker 02

  Uh, but I was chatting to this kid, must have been about nineteen, eighteen, nineteen. And he started telling me how he's going to film school.

• 10:08Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 10:08Speaker 02

  So I was like, oh, that's brilliant, like, and I was just chatting to him, like, trying to encourage him, I just felt.

• 10:15Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 10:15Speaker 02

  I'd, I had this responsibility.

• 10:19Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 10:19Speaker 02

  Even though I, I suppose I don't, and maybe I'm building myself up in my own head to be more important than what I actually am. But I was like, oh, this young guy has seen me off the television and they've been like, oh, God, you know, and he was like saying things like, oh, the in-betweeners like really.

• 10:35Speaker 00

  I think it is important.

• 10:36Speaker 02

  Influenced me and, so I didn't wanna go, mate, can you fuck off, I'm running, I'm running late at the moment, like, so I was like, just trying to be encouraging and.

• 10:43Speaker 00

  I'm, I'm sure that it made a big difference to him. I think I go the other way, or not the other way, I go the same way, but I go too far, like, I've been in conversations with people who have come over.

• 10:52Speaker 02

  And they go, mate, I've got to go.

• 10:53Speaker 00

  I know, like, genuine, like, um, that, and I also, it gets into a bit of a, um. Gets into a bit of a sort of vortex because I think. They think that because I've in a way got the status in that situation.

• 11:09Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 11:09Speaker 00

  Cause I'm the one who's like well known.

• 11:11Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 11:12Speaker 00

  They're like, well, I can't interrupt him because he's like, it's an important person. But as you know, like if you don't interrupt me, I'll just go.

• 11:19Speaker 02

  You will.

• 11:20Speaker 00

  I will go forever.

• 11:21Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 11:22Speaker 00

  So we do get into a.

• 11:23Speaker 02

  You are like.

• 11:24Speaker 00

  We we.

• 11:24Speaker 02

  You're a cell bunny.

• 11:25Speaker 00

  Yeah, so we get into a, we get into a bit of a problem in these conversations where.

• 11:31Speaker 00

  It's not clear who's gonna end it.

• 11:33Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 11:33Speaker 00

  Cause I I I keep being reminded of other things and then be before long.

• 11:38Speaker 02

  What was the story where you forgot something?

• 11:40Speaker 00

  I forgot. Okay. So you said you forgot your phone. I once, um.

• 11:43Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah.

• 11:44Speaker 00

  Best thing I've ever left, just left an entire laptop just in the public toilet in, um. What was it? One of the big, probably Euston or prob- yeah, you, I think Euston. Just left it as a bit where you wash your hands. I used to just carry my laptop around with me. I've got very bad laptop etiquette. There was one I didn't even have a bag for once. I just used to carry it to get wet, it go in the rain.

• 12:09Speaker 02

  I had, um.

• 12:09Speaker 00

  Like, and this, I just, so you know where you you wash your hands, there's people here, people here, and then there's a thing in between you like this. Just put it up there. Walk out.

• 12:18Speaker 02

  I think, right?

• 12:19Speaker 00

  I got it back, but.

• 12:21Speaker 02

  I also left my phone once in a cab in New York. With Ian Morris, who, to be fair.

• 12:30Speaker 02

  And he's got his problems, Morris, right? But he's a, he'll be the first to tell you, but, right?

• 12:36Speaker 00

  But.

• 12:36Speaker 02

  He's a generous man.

• 12:38Speaker 00

  Oh, he's he's very generous.

• 12:39Speaker 02

  Like he, he does like, like I've known him since I was a teenager. He's like.

• 12:44Speaker 00

  He's one of the most.

• 12:44Speaker 02

  He'll always take you out for dinner. He'll always like get your drinks and stuff like that. He's never been like a stingy guy.

• 12:49Speaker 00

  Oh, my goodness, no, he's, he's, yeah.

• 12:52Speaker 02

  He commented me, we were in New York, this is when we were doing that disastrous, um. Uh, P R thing in America, trying to sort of get the in between us out in America.

• 13:03Speaker 00

  That was.

• 13:03Speaker 02

  Which was just like Spinal Tap, by the way.

• 13:05Speaker 00

  It was like Spinal Tap. It was like we'd, we'd go, we'd have a screening arranged in a cinema and they'd be like, uh, the cinema's burned down. What?

• 13:13Speaker 02

  Yep, that happened once.

• 13:14Speaker 00

  It's burned down.

• 13:15Speaker 02

  Um, we started off in, we started off.

• 13:17Speaker 00

  Do we have anything else arranged in that city?

• 13:19Speaker 02

  We started off in California. We did a screening in a cinema in California. And, uh, it was mostly homeless people.

• 13:28Speaker 02

  Just so they could come inside for a little while, get some air conditioning.

• 13:32Speaker 00

  And they were walking out.

• 13:33Speaker 02

  Yeah, and they were.

• 13:34Speaker 00

  I can't take this. Get me back on the street.

• 13:37Speaker 02

  Then we sort of, then we split up in two and sort of went around two different ways to the east coast. Cause me and you were together and we were in Minneapolis.

• 13:48Speaker 00

  It was.

• 13:49Speaker 02

  We were in Minneapolis. We had, we had a, we had a, a paper, a newspaper interview.

• 13:57Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 13:57Speaker 02

  Set up at a cafe. We turned up at this cafe. It was all boarded up and we were like, this hasn't, not only is this not open, this hasn't been open for a long time. And then, um, the person.

• 14:08Speaker 00

  It was called the Hard Times Cafe. Was it? Because, because, because Bob Dylan was, um, he spent some time in Minneapolis or something.

• 14:15Speaker 02

  Was that right?

• 14:15Speaker 00

  And, um, and it was, it was a student interview.

• 14:21Speaker 02

  Yeah, it was for a student newspaper.

• 14:22Speaker 00

  Was such a flake.

• 14:24Speaker 02

  No, but we had.

• 14:25Speaker 00

  Didn't exist anymore.

• 14:25Speaker 02

  We had a publicist with us who was an American. He didn't know who we were either. And, um, but they were saying things like, uh, like in interviews, they were saying things like, oh, um, they were throwing shade at some, and we were like, and we were all like, I know what that is now retrospectively.

• 14:41Speaker 00

  Yeah, we wouldn't.

• 14:42Speaker 02

  And we were like, what? What's that mean? What do you mean? We were like, there was such a sort of miscommunication every step.

• 14:49Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 14:49Speaker 02

  On this PR trail.

• 14:51Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 14:52Speaker 02

  The publicist that was with us called the guy that we were supposed to be sitting down in the cafe, having an interview with. And, um, I don't know why he put it on speakerphone because it didn't help me at all whatsoever. And he was like, oh, hi, um, we're at that cafe. It looks like it's closed, like, but like closed for business, closed for good.

• 15:13Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 15:14Speaker 02

  And the bloke just went on the other end of the phone. All I heard was, oh, what?

• 15:20Speaker 02

  That was today? I was like, we've literally come all the way to Minneapolis to talk to you, mate.

• 15:28Speaker 00

  Oh, God.

• 15:28Speaker 02

  Then I ended up in New York and me and Ian, um, New York Riot was actually the place where people got the Inbetweeners.

• 15:38Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 15:38Speaker 02

  Like, it was actually, we did a screening there, it was absolutely packed. And everyone was really excited that the Inbetweeners was coming to America or whatever. So say what you like about New York, but.

• 15:48Speaker 00

  Well, you need, it's Americans, it's Americans who are interested in English culture. I hesitate to say culture, but it is, Anglophiles, I suppose, is what you're after.

• 16:01Speaker 02

  But.

• 16:01Speaker 00

  People who like Europe and like Britain and.

• 16:03Speaker 02

  Morris made a comment about me tipping the taxi drivers, because we kept getting taxis everywhere. And, um, he was like, God, you're, you know, you're pretty sweet on the tips there, aren't you, Buckley? I was like, you've got to look after people, got to look after people. I remember saying that to him. I don't know, like, I don't know what point I was trying to make. I was just like, got to look after people, mate. He was like, yeah, yeah, no, no, I get it. And, um, and then I was like, oh, I've left my phone in that taxi. Ian called the taxi, and I was like, there's no way, you cannot leave a phone in New York, in Manhattan, in a taxi and expect to ever see that again.

• 16:42Speaker 02

  He called my phone, the taxi driver picked it up, and he was like, listen, I'm, uh, busy doing fairs and stuff at the moment. I'm, I'm sort of uptown or whatever, but I'll be probably down to you guys in a couple of hours. I'll give you a call. I'll meet you at this corner. A couple of hours' time, I met the taxi driver, got my phone back. And I went to him, that's why you tip.

• 17:04Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 17:04Speaker 02

  That's why you do it.

• 17:05Speaker 00

  Um, I have a story about phones and taxis, which is that Hannah left her phone in the taxi once, and we had a conversation with another taxi driver, this is in London, and the second taxi driver said. You'll never get that back. He would have thrown it in the river.

• 17:20Speaker 02

  Right.

• 17:21Speaker 00

  Because it's too much of a pain trying to get phones back to people.

• 17:27Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 17:27Speaker 00

  So I can't.

• 17:28Speaker 02

  This guy was like, listen.

• 17:30Speaker 00

  I can't run a lost property office.

• 17:31Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 17:32Speaker 00

  If, so it's not, if I throw it in the river, I suppose what they're thinking is it sort of protects you in a way. Like, no one's going to steal your information.

• 17:41Speaker 02

  Right.

• 17:42Speaker 00

  But at the same time, I just haven't got time to, I don't know if that's true. I'd be interested to know if that's true. Do taxi drivers throw phones in the river? Because they just haven't got time to kind of deal with the number of lost phones.

• 17:55Speaker 02

  I genuinely think that that's an honourable thing to do.

• 17:58Speaker 00

  It's better than just leaving it. It's better than nicking it and it's better than leaving it somewhere random.

• 18:02Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 18:03Speaker 00

  Um.

• 18:04Speaker 02

  Destroy it, get, just chuck it in the river.

• 18:07Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 18:08Speaker 02

  As you're driving on the embankment or something, just fling it out the window.

• 18:12Speaker 02

  There we go. And that was some stories about lost stuff.

• 18:16Speaker 04

  Great.

• 18:18Speaker 04

  Joe and James? Ah, Joe and James. Joe and James. Fact up again. Joe and James, Joe and James, Joe and James, Joe and James, Fact Up!

• 18:32Speaker 02

  Let's do a podcast. Welcome to Joe and James Fact Up. Each week we'll be bringing facts to one another that we deem interesting and our policy is the more interesting, the more true it is. We'll also dig into the weird things that you'd like to think are true, but don't want to research in a segment that we're calling Fact Check. So if you do want to send us your facts, our email is hello at joeandjamespod.com. We've also got a cheeky little WhatsApp number. Uh, the number is 07822034330. And you can follow us on our socials, at joeandjamespod. Uh, and if you want to watch our episodes in full, just go on YouTube and search for Joe and James Fact Up. Now, let's get fact up!

• 19:19Speaker 05

  Hello, I'm Giovanna Fletcher.

• 19:21Speaker 00

  And I'm Marco Burchella.

• 19:23Speaker 05

  And this is Boots Off.

• 19:26Speaker 00

  We are friends who have spent a decade together, walking up mountains, across deserts, and along coastlines with some seriously awesome groups of humans.

• 19:34Speaker 05

  And something happens when you're out there, feet on the ground, surrounded by nature. The conversations just spill out of you.

• 19:41Speaker 00

  This series is about the adversities that lead to adventure.

• 19:44Speaker 05

  The adventures that lead to adversity.

• 19:46Speaker 00

  And how life can be one big adventure in itself.

• 19:49Speaker 05

  Listen every Thursday. Just search for Boots Off.

• 20:02Speaker 00

  Yep. So, James, it's St Patrick's Day today. So we're paying homage to the patron saint of Ireland.

• 20:09Speaker 02

  St Patrick.

• 20:10Speaker 00

  St Patrick.

• 20:10Speaker 02

  Yeah. I've got, um.

• 20:12Speaker 00

  You've got fat?

• 20:13Speaker 02

  Well, no.

• 20:14Speaker 00

  I've just given up. Mine isn't even a fat anymore. It's just like, it's definitely not true.

• 20:17Speaker 02

  No, I should probably just say that I do that really annoying thing that I assume Irish people find so fucking irritating. Right. So like, I, I am.

• 20:30Speaker 00

  Well, you become Irish on St Patrick's Day.

• 20:32Speaker 02

  Well, no, but I, I do, I am Irish. I was born in England, right? I mean, I am English.

• 20:37Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 20:38Speaker 02

  But I'm named after my granddad, Granddad Patrick.

• 20:40Speaker 00

  You're just getting that in for the coming government.

• 20:42Speaker 02

  My full name is James Patrick Buckley. He's a very Irish.

• 20:46Speaker 00

  Patrick, yeah.

• 20:47Speaker 02

  James Patrick Buckley, very Irish name. Lots of family in West Cork.

• 20:51Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 20:51Speaker 02

  I love, if I meet someone from Ireland, I love telling them about my family from West Cork.

• 20:56Speaker 00

  West Cork's a cool bit as well. That's like, that's a good.

• 21:00Speaker 02

  You know, my dad grew up there and I do, I do do that thing. Of even though I know nothing about sort of what it's like to be Irish at all whatsoever. I do love trying to convince people I am Irish.

• 21:15Speaker 00

  But I just think it's because, you know, me and you were from Essex and I I love Essex. I genuinely love it.

• 21:20Speaker 02

  It's route one, isn't it?

• 21:21Speaker 00

  It's incredibly underrated. It's beautiful. People from Essex are lovely, but it's not got that sort of romance.

• 21:27Speaker 02

  Sexy, no, no.

• 21:29Speaker 00

  It's not like that. And it's not got that like, and they say that his descendants did come from Essex. You're like, well, it's just, it it just hasn't got, even though it has got a lot of history.

• 21:38Speaker 02

  Yeah, well, it does. Yeah, of course it does.

• 21:40Speaker 00

  It's shit loads, but we don't seem to, somehow in Essex, we're not very good at.

• 21:44Speaker 02

  Colchester, I think it's the first.

• 21:46Speaker 00

  Roman capital, Roman capital?

• 21:47Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 21:48Speaker 00

  If Colchester's got Roman walls.

• 21:50Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 21:50Speaker 00

  Huge.

• 21:51Speaker 02

  Yeah, you can just.

• 21:52Speaker 00

  Huge big motherfuckers.

• 21:53Speaker 02

  You can just throw up on them and piss on them as you're coming.

• 21:55Speaker 00

  Yeah, no, no, they are. They they also, they they're, and they've just got, they've just got like Ikea adverts on them and stuff.

• 22:01Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 22:02Speaker 00

  It, so I don't, I think Essex maybe, maybe it just wears its history lightly. Do you know what I mean? Maybe we're just like, you know, sure, we got it. We're in extent, go on about it.

• 22:09Speaker 02

  I've done it before. I remember, um. Uh, Chris Moyles, he's a really great bloke. He's a nice chap, Chris Moyles. I won't have a bad word said against him.

• 22:19Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 22:19Speaker 02

  And he does a ni- he does a big birthday bash and I went to one a couple of years ago and, um. Oh my God, there were some stars there.

• 22:28Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 22:28Speaker 02

  There were some star, there was some, there was baby spice and, um. Pepe from EastEnders and, um. He had all these stars, but he's also got his Irish lot. He's got loads of cousins and aunts and uncles and stuff and I just hung out with them.

• 22:45Speaker 00

  Mm hmm.

• 22:46Speaker 02

  I was like, I wasn't like sidling up to Judge Rinder or anything like that.

• 22:51Speaker 00

  No.

• 22:52Speaker 02

  I was, um, I was like hooked on on his and they were such a laugh and I just. Cause me and Claire were both supposed to go and she was ill that day. So I went, well, I'm fucking going.

• 23:00Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 23:01Speaker 02

  I'm come off love, see you later. Got really, really drunk with all, with all these. And I was just talking about like. I'm Irish.

• 23:07Speaker 00

  It sounds really funny. I once did.

• 23:09Speaker 02

  And I just, even though, like, I was drunk, the next morning I woke up and I was like, oh my God, I must have been unbearable, like.

• 23:16Speaker 00

  If you're drunk and you think I'm being a bit pretentious now. You cannot even imagine how pretentious you're really being. I'm sort of talking about myself now, but like. If I've I've been conversations where I'm like being drunk and I'm like. This is prob- this feels a bit much even through this.

• 23:36Speaker 02

  But I think we are, you know, it is St. Patty's Day. We are, um. I think it is fair to say. There's something cool about the Irish.

• 23:46Speaker 00

  I'm.

• 23:46Speaker 02

  The Irish are cool. They are cool. They, well, they're certainly. Everyone basically wants to be Ireland.

• 23:52Speaker 00

  Well, as I say, as as someone come as someone come from Essex, which I love. But I do think that we are cer- we're probably not as cool as, and I think, and also again. I think it, and I I say I love Essex, it's a bit, it's a fairly low bar. I don't think, I there's not many people who are like, oh, Essex is, you know, but. Really cool, but like.

• 24:11Speaker 02

  I wanna get my, and I'm eligible, I could get an Irish passport. And I I really wanna get that just so that I can say I've got an Irish passport.

• 24:19Speaker 00

  I think. I I.

• 24:21Speaker 02

  I feel like it'd make me seem more interesting.

• 24:25Speaker 00

  I am.

• 24:26Speaker 02

  I don't know how I'd drop it into conversations, but mark my words, I'd find a way.

• 24:30Speaker 00

  Well, it'd be helpful. I mean. You know. There was, um. There's some sort of trading organisation that we, um, that we're way out of for some reason, um, that you could actually be a. I swear you would, I'd love to, I wish they'd.

• 24:44Speaker 02

  Oh, I don't care about that. I don't care about that.

• 24:45Speaker 00

  Yeah, no, I know, it's weird. No, it's just, I know.

• 24:47Speaker 02

  I wanna be able to go, sorry, I'm late to the podcast, guys. I left my Irish passport at home.

• 24:52Speaker 00

  Ha ha, yeah, yeah.

• 24:54Speaker 02

  Have to go back and get it.

• 24:55Speaker 00

  Yeah. Um, but no, I think you're right. I mean, I, again, I. I think Ireland's cool. I don't know whether Ireland wants. My vindication or actually says, no, thanks, but I.

• 25:05Speaker 02

  Don't need it, mate.

• 25:06Speaker 00

  Nonetheless.

• 25:07Speaker 02

  Ireland's just sitting there going.

• 25:08Speaker 00

  I think Ireland's cool, yeah.

• 25:09Speaker 02

  Don't need it.

• 25:10Speaker 00

  Yeah, I think that's probably true.

• 25:12Speaker 02

  Don't need it.

• 25:13Speaker 00

  I.

• 25:14Speaker 02

  Ireland's also, um. Uh, the birthplace of my favourite guitarist, probably the greatest guitarist who's ever lived, Rory Gallagher.

• 25:23Speaker 02

  And Cork, he's from Cork as well, which I'm, which I'm sort of trying to sort of get some secondhand coolness from.

• 25:29Speaker 00

  Now, I don't know who that is, I'm sure that's terrible. Is he in a band?

• 25:33Speaker 02

  He's dead now, bless him. Um, but he was.

• 25:36Speaker 00

  Was he, so he's a guitarist from a band?

• 25:38Speaker 02

  He was in a band in the sixties called Taste, who were.

• 25:42Speaker 00

  I haven't heard of them either, is that terrible? Are they quite, maybe?

• 25:46Speaker 02

  They were making seventies music in the sixties. This guy was so influential, but, and, and also he never played the game. Um, he got, um, when, before Ronnie Wood, uh, got into the, uh, Rolling Stones, they were sort of courting him. And he was very much like, you've got, you've already got a front man, I'm not going to play second fiddle to Mick Jagger, I'm, I'm my own god, like honestly. Looking to Rory Gallagher, also listen to his music, it's fucking amazing.

• 26:14Speaker 00

  Another Gallagher?

• 26:16Speaker 02

  Just go.

• 26:16Speaker 00

  Also, what is it with Gallaghers and?

• 26:18Speaker 02

  Ireland.

• 26:19Speaker 00

  Oh, it's Ireland, all right, okay. So are those, are they, are they, are they Irish extraction as well?

• 26:24Speaker 02

  Those boys, the, the brothers you're talking about, their parents are both Irish, they're Irish immigrants.

• 26:30Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 26:31Speaker 02

  Um.

• 26:32Speaker 00

  Liverpool, is they? I know that, I know, I know Manchester, but like, but Liverpool, Manchester are.

• 26:36Speaker 02

  Liverpool, Manchester, loads of, loads of Irish going on there.

• 26:40Speaker 00

  Oh, have, have I said about the, um, the Manchester Shipping Canal?

• 26:43Speaker 02

  Go on.

• 26:44Speaker 00

  The Manchester Shipping Canal is there because Liverpool was this massive port. And Manchester was just getting none of the action because the, you couldn't get to Manchester in a massive boat. So they were like, well, if, what if we had a canal between Liverpool and Manchester? Well, you can't, a, but a big boat can't go on a canal. And they went, what about Shipping Canal? So it's a huge, so it's a bit like, like the Panama Canal or the Suez Canal, like it's, and that basically then brought, it gave Manchester a cut of Liverpool's. Trade, and that's the, um, I also thought that was, and I, I feel.

• 27:17Speaker 02

  Is that your fact?

• 27:18Speaker 00

  No, it's just, it's bonus fact, I've just got so, I know so much.

• 27:22Speaker 02

  Just.

• 27:23Speaker 00

  I just know about the shipping canal.

• 27:24Speaker 02

  Just burst it.

• 27:25Speaker 00

  I've got a Patrick fact that's not true. But anyway, so that, so what's he called Rory Gallagher?

• 27:30Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 27:31Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 27:32Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, really great, like, just the greatest guitarist. There's a, there's a story. I'm not su- sure how true it is actually. Um, I think it just goes, it's gone into rock lore. There's sort of different names that come up. But there is a story apparently, and I love this story and I really hope that it's true.

• 27:53Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 27:54Speaker 02

  Yeah, that, um. Someone once asked, journalist once asked Jimi Hendrix what it was like to be the greatest guitarist in the world. And he said, I don't know, ask Rory Gallagher.

• 28:03Speaker 00

  That's nice.

• 28:05Speaker 02

  But I've also heard that story that he said that about someone else as well.

• 28:08Speaker 00

  They pretty said about everyone.

• 28:09Speaker 02

  But, but I hope, I, I, I, but he was, like Rory Gallagher's amazing. Anyway, Joe, do you wanna give me your sexy little fact there?

• 28:16Speaker 00

  My fact is. As I've said, it's not a fact. But. I thought it was an interesting tale. So it's about Saint Patrick's. Staff. He had a staff.

• 28:31Speaker 02

  Was it one of those ones with the wooden club at the end of it?

• 28:35Speaker 00

  Oh, you mean for like beating snakes, I suppose.

• 28:38Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 28:38Speaker 00

  Well, the story is he banished snakes from Ireland.

• 28:40Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 28:40Speaker 00

  That's not true. There were never any, there were never any snakes.

• 28:43Speaker 02

  Yeah, after the Ice Age, Ireland was already an.

• 28:45Speaker 00

  It was already a snake-free zone.

• 28:47Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 28:48Speaker 00

  And.

• 28:49Speaker 02

  It's one of the few places on the planet to not have any snakes, as always, ever.

• 28:54Speaker 00

  I always used to like that when I was a little boy, cause I'm quite frightened of snakes. And I always thought Ireland would be a nice place to go. Therefore, although I also knew Britain didn't have any poisonous snakes, although maybe an attic could kill a dog. So. That was what I grew up with. I was, I don't, I don't enjoy snakes. I do think. I think they're weird.

• 29:14Speaker 00

  They're, they are just weird, like that, that length with no legs.

• 29:19Speaker 02

  Weird doing.

• 29:21Speaker 00

  Just fuck. Yeah, zero legs. What you're doing. Yeah. Is fucking weird. Why do you need to be that long? They don't do anything with it. They're like, it's a hassle. You can see it's a hassle to them. Yeah. They're like, fuck me. Like, they're constantly able to wind it round. Yeah. They're never stretched out fully, never. They never stretch out fully. Some of them are massive as well, weren't they? Those sort of anacondas. They're too big, they're weird, they kill you in a weird way, they poison us, they suffocate you to death, everything they do is weird. I know they're, they're not wet. That's the best I can say for them is they're not wet. Do we need them? They're dry. It is do we need them? Do we need them? They are weird, but they're out of that size where they get away with it. Right. And that is the crab. That's Carl Pilkington on the crab. Yeah.

• 30:04Speaker 00

  Anyway, St Patrick had this staff. And the story is.

• 30:12Speaker 00

  He was gonna go to Rome. Right. And on the way to Rome, he stopped at an island. In the Mediterranean Sea. And on this island, there was a young couple. And the young couple had.

• 30:32Speaker 00

  Children and grandchildren. But the children and grandchildren. What? And they're a young couple? Yeah, the children and grandchildren were decrepit and old. The grandchildren were old, the children were old, the couple were not old. Is this your dream? Is this a dream? And they were holding an octopus. Is this another dream? And he said, what's going on here? Right. And they said. He said, he did. He, well, yeah, I bet he did. He went in and what's, what's, what's that all about then, mate? He said like, what's the crack or something? Sure, absolutely. And, um.

• 31:09Speaker 00

  They said that they'd been born, or they'd got together at the time of Jesus. Right. And Jesus had blessed them. So that's why they were now, you know, five hundred, six hundred years old. Right. And hadn't, hadn't aged at all.

• 31:28Speaker 00

  And they had a a staff.

• 31:31Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 31:33Speaker 00

  And it was and it was Jesus's staff.

• 31:36Speaker 02

  Mm hmm.

• 31:37Speaker 00

  And Saint Patrick got given the staff and the staff, the story about the staff is that. It was made of ash and when he was in England trying to convert people to Christianity. He planted it in the ground and he went down to this town to try and convert the inhabitants of Christianity. And he was there for so long. Trying to convert them.

• 32:00Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 32:00Speaker 00

  That his staff grew into a tree. And that's now, that town is now called Aspatia in Cumbria, which means Saint Patrick's Ash.

• 32:11Speaker 02

  There we go.

• 32:12Speaker 00

  So that's all that, I mean, not as I say, I I don't think any of that's true, but I thought it was a nice story. About this this young couple, you know, kind of weird as well.

• 32:22Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, there's there's all kinds of shit going on there.

• 32:26Speaker 00

  M Night, M Night Shyamalan.

• 32:28Speaker 02

  It is, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I I've got a bone to pick with that geezer, to be honest with you. I think he had a couple of good films and then he's and then ever since.

• 32:38Speaker 00

  Did he do, um.

• 32:39Speaker 02

  Did Sixth Sense.

• 32:40Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 32:42Speaker 02

  Which is amazing.

• 32:43Speaker 00

  I feel like I'm just repeating myself now, but have I told you my present, my um. Story about when I was at school and I did a presentation at the Film Society. And it was about films with surprise endings.

• 32:58Speaker 02

  Mm hmm.

• 32:58Speaker 00

  And I'd got all these films that I knew had surprise endings. So the first stage was that I went through a load of films that have got. Amazing endings, just fast forwarded through the film and was like, okay, so that's what that is.

• 33:11Speaker 00

  Somehow, I don't know how I got them all, I must have got them on tape or something, got them all together. So first of all, I ruined all the films on myself. And then in the presentation, it was the most hated presentation that was ever done at the Film Society. Cause I was just going through these films and people were going, no, no, and they were they were walking out, they were running out of the room. They were shouting at me.

• 33:31Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 33:32Speaker 00

  And as I was doing it, I was like, yeah, this is a terrible idea. This is a fucking terrible idea. Um, so that's why I've never seen The Sixth Sense, but I know what the ending is.

• 33:41Speaker 02

  There's a film, um, there's, there was more, one of his more recent films, cause like when we find out there's an M Night Shyam, what's his name? Shyamalan?

• 33:51Speaker 00

  Uh, well, I, I, I don't, I, I think it's M Night Shyamalan?

• 33:56Speaker 02

  Shyamalan. When, um, when he does bring a film out, me and Claire are like, oh, that's exciting. We'll watch that. We get suckered in every time. We go, yeah, we'll watch that. The last film I watched of his was a film called Old. I think it was called Old.

• 34:09Speaker 00

  It looked good.

• 34:10Speaker 02

  Uh, yeah, yeah. We watched a preview of it. We're like, right, fucking hell. And it is like, and if you just watch the preview, it's, um, a bunch of people that go to a beach. And for some reason they can't get off this beach.

• 34:24Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 34:24Speaker 02

  And they are aging rapidly.

• 34:26Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 34:27Speaker 02

  Like within hours, they are just get, they're just getting really old.

• 34:30Speaker 00

  So, just like British tourists.

• 34:32Speaker 02

  And you go, uh, yeah. And you go, uh, and you go, fucking hell, that's interesting. I wonder what the M Night twist is there. I wonder what's going on.

• 34:39Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 34:40Speaker 02

  No twist.

• 34:41Speaker 00

  Right. Okay. You just don't know what's happened in the end.

• 34:44Speaker 02

  No twist. No, it's not explained. It's not explained at all.

• 34:49Speaker 02

  It's not explained at all. And I don't mind spoiling that for people because I'm doing a service. Cause I actually bought that film. And you got, I think it cost, I think I spent like eighteen ninety-nine of it. I bought it on the day of release.

• 35:01Speaker 00

  Yeah, you should know why that's happening, I think. I'd want to know.

• 35:03Speaker 02

  Yeah, you go, you go, what the fuck's going on here?

• 35:05Speaker 00

  In this world or?

• 35:06Speaker 02

  Exactly. I would have been, I would have been, I would have been like St Patrick on that island. I'm going, what's, what's all this about then?

• 35:11Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 35:12Speaker 02

  And you want, and if they, if it was like, oh, Jesus did this or something like that, I would have gone, right, cool, brilliant. But you don't get anything.

• 35:20Speaker 00

  And was it a beach? Anything about it being a beach?

• 35:22Speaker 02

  And they can't leave the beach. They cannot get off this beach. They can't get off of it.

• 35:28Speaker 00

  Is that explained?

• 35:30Speaker 02

  Not really.

• 35:31Speaker 00

  Not really. It is annoying. I do think if you're one of the, I think you're kind of, I think you're duty bound. Something that doesn't wash with me is this like, oh, it's more interesting if we don't explain it. That, that to me is never, no, no, I know. I'll tell you what's more interesting is if you do explain it.

• 35:47Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 35:47Speaker 00

  That is more like.

• 35:48Speaker 02

  Yeah, the explanation is the interesting bit.

• 35:49Speaker 00

  That is, yeah, that is the interesting bit. I mean, it really, um.

• 35:54Speaker 02

  Stuff that's going on is weird, sure.

• 35:57Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 35:57Speaker 02

  The interesting bit is why that stuff's going on.

• 36:00Speaker 00

  Well, exactly. You need an explanation. It's not.

• 36:02Speaker 02

  There was no explanation. And if I did miss the explanation, then I'm sure people would stick that in the comments for me. But I can't, it was a few years ago that I watched that film and I remember being furious.

• 36:13Speaker 00

  Maybe I, maybe I'm trying to tell you the explanation, but you keep talking over me.

• 36:17Speaker 02

  Sorry, Joe. Sorry, Joe. Shall we talk about this week's fact check?

• 36:21Speaker 00

  Yeah, okay.

• 36:22Speaker 02

  We should probably move on, shouldn't we? Uh, it is time for fact check. Uh, this is the part of the podcast where we read a fact or a question that you'd like us to get to the bottom of. And then we're gonna have a good little think during the break there and we'll come back and let you know how true it feels to us. Um, to decide whether it passes our fact check. And then, uh, we've got Queen Lily May as well. She's back. Um, probably should have said that at the beginning. Um, who will be, again, we don't wanna M night ya.

• 36:54Speaker 02

  Leave you on a sort of, well, was it, wasn't it? We'll, we'll actually get, we'll, we'll decide what me and Joe think and then we'll find.

• 37:00Speaker 00

  You decide.

• 37:01Speaker 02

  Then we'll find out the tru-, then we'll find out the truth. Oh, I'll read this because I feel like it'll get confusing. I was about to go, Joe, do you wanna read that next bit?

• 37:10Speaker 00

  Oh, I say no because I, you'll see why in a minute.

• 37:13Speaker 02

  This, so this, this week's fact check comes from Joe.

• 37:16Speaker 00

  What? How can this be? Because I'm Joe and.

• 37:20Speaker 02

  To clear things up, um, Joe has sent us a voice note.

• 37:24Speaker 00

  Oh, well, I don't remember sending a voice note, so it must be a different Joe.

• 37:27Speaker 02

  Must be a different Joe.

• 37:29Speaker 06

  Uh, hey guys, how's it going? So not to exacerbate racist Irish stereotypes or anything, but

• 37:37Speaker 02

  No, dude.

• 37:37Speaker 06

  St Patrick's Day is coming up and I wanted to fact check something about alcohol. Specifically, the idea that different alcoholic drinks have different effects on people's behaviour. I've heard from so many people that gin makes them depressed.

• 37:52Speaker 02

  Weepy.

• 37:53Speaker 06

  Or that whisky makes them aggressive, or wine is a happy drunk, so on and so forth. Um, I think it's a lot of bollocks, personally, made up by people who can't handle their drink. But nothing is fact or fiction until I hear you confirm it. So hopefully you can help me out with that one. Cheers. Good luck.

• 38:16Speaker 02

  Well, cheers indeed. Thank you very much for that joke. Listen, we're gonna have a little ad break and then we'll be back with our thoughts.

• 38:33Speaker 07

  I'm Claire Buckley and this Halloween on my podcast, Pretty Scary, we are gonna cover the stories that keep you up at night. Real crimes, ghosts and aliens, plus the scariest movies to watch this spooky season with the lights off. So as the nights draw in, the pumpkins are carved and somewhere in the dark, something is scratching at the window. It's probably just the cat, right? Get the candles lit in search for Pretty Scary with Claire Buckley.

• 39:16Speaker 02

  All right, welcome back to Joe and James Fact Up. And we were just fact checking on the behalf of Joe, who wanted to know, do different alcoholic beverages make you feel different emotions? And I'm gonna have to say, Joe, first of all, not you, Joe, the other Joe.

• 39:30Speaker 06

  Yes, yeah, I mean.

• 39:32Speaker 02

  This is a, this is gonna be a problem, isn't it? But I liked, I liked, I liked his attitude.

• 39:38Speaker 06

  I liked it.

• 39:38Speaker 02

  I absolutely loved his attitude.

• 39:39Speaker 06

  He scuttled his own fact. Even as he was saying it, he was like, I don't think it's bollocks.

• 39:42Speaker 02

  No, but it's, it's, again, we're open to that. I've heard this. I don't believe it.

• 39:49Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 39:49Speaker 02

  You guys decide.

• 39:50Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 39:50Speaker 02

  And I like being. The the decider, uh and I will say it feels fact to me. I've heard all those things. Gin makes you weepy, whiskey can get you, get you a bit angry.

• 40:03Speaker 00

  I've had friends who are like, I can't have Stella.

• 40:08Speaker 02

  Right.

• 40:08Speaker 00

  Like, uh as opposed to other beers.

• 40:11Speaker 02

  Right.

• 40:13Speaker 00

  Yeah. It should be really good if we try and get a Stella.

• 40:15Speaker 02

  I think there's facts in it, but I do see where, I'll call him Irish Joe, I do see where Irish Joe's coming from. Um because, cause also it's like, don't mix your drinks. Don't mix your drinks.

• 40:28Speaker 00

  Grain.

• 40:29Speaker 02

  Do not mix your drinks, uh and and I I do subscribe to that.

• 40:34Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 40:34Speaker 02

  Like, I do just mainly stick to beer now.

• 40:37Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 40:38Speaker 02

  I don't really do shorts or cocktails. I do just try and stick to beer because I feel like, not that it changes my personality or that I get angry or anything like that. I do think um hangovers last longer.

• 40:53Speaker 00

  Mm hmm.

• 40:54Speaker 02

  If I've had like some beers, some cocktails, a little bit of champagne.

• 40:58Speaker 00

  But I also think if you're having, the worst hangovers I've ever had have been when I've had very sugary cocktails, that's really bad as well.

• 41:05Speaker 02

  Yeah, I've just.

• 41:07Speaker 00

  So hangovers.

• 41:07Speaker 02

  I've decided no more champagne for me.

• 41:10Speaker 00

  Mm hmm.

• 41:11Speaker 02

  I've just decided it, one, I don't really like it anyway. I feel, it's only like I'm, me and Claire never get champagne in, but we we we will, I think we've got like an emergency bottle. If we've got some grownups coming around, it's like.

• 41:26Speaker 00

  I I think champagne's a little overrated as well.

• 41:29Speaker 02

  I don't like it. I genuinely, it makes me feel sick, it gives me heartburn. I don't, um yeah, it gives me acid. I just don't, I like, I just love beer, I just really love beer.

• 41:41Speaker 00

  I also like the fact that beer is, you can get like the best beer in the world for not that much money.

• 41:47Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 41:48Speaker 00

  For not much more than.

• 41:48Speaker 02

  It's the people's drink.

• 41:49Speaker 00

  It's the people's drink, whereas you can't, you're never gonna taste the finest wine in the world unless you're a, you know, a very wealthy.

• 41:56Speaker 02

  I remember one year, me and Claire went to a posh little restaurant and um it was our anniversary. So, you know, I was thinking.

• 42:06Speaker 00

  Mm hmm. Yeah.

• 42:08Speaker 02

  Might push the beds together till night, you know. Um, so I was shoving off a little bit and I was like, never had, never had it before in my life. I was like, I was like, would you like some champagne? She was like, yeah, I'll have some champagne. I was like, bottle of Cristal for me and my wife, please. Like, never had it before at all whatsoever. The only thing I know about Cristal is that American rappers drink it.

• 42:32Speaker 00

  It's really expensive, isn't it?

• 42:33Speaker 02

  Well expensive. Yeah, I was trying to, I was trying to fucking get my leg over, wasn't I? So, um. I ordered this bottle of sha-, uh, this Cristal. I think it cost about three hundred and fifty quid, right? And, uh, and then, as we were drinking this bottle, they went, uh, how long are you guys gonna be? Cause we need this table in about twenty minutes.

• 42:55Speaker 00

  Fucking hell.

• 42:57Speaker 02

  And I was furious.

• 42:59Speaker 00

  I mean.

• 42:59Speaker 02

  I was so angry. I was like, I've just dropped like three hundred and fi-, who else is buying Cristal tonight, by the way?

• 43:06Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 43:06Speaker 02

  Fucking, you know, you should be so lucky.

• 43:09Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 43:09Speaker 02

  So, um, I made Claire take the ball home with her.

• 43:16Speaker 00

  It's good. It's a real, um.

• 43:18Speaker 02

  And Claire, Claire's mum was at home actually, cause she was looking after the kids while we went out for, this is when the kids were young. Uh, and me and Claire, this is one of like the four dates that me and Claire have been on since we've had kids. Um, so it was a special occasion and, um.

• 43:36Speaker 02

  She had a bit, Claire's mum had a bit and she was like, that's really nice, that is, that's really good. I was like, yeah, he's good, isn't it? Yeah. It didn't, I didn't say this to her, but it didn't have the effect that I wanted.

• 43:49Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 43:49Speaker 00

  Yeah, well, you're like, I wish.

• 43:50Speaker 02

  I was just like, that's three hundred and fifty quid, I'm never gonna get back.

• 43:53Speaker 00

  It's good. You've travelled, you've travelled a long way in that story.

• 43:56Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 43:56Speaker 00

  Sort of classiness wise.

• 43:58Speaker 02

  Yeah. Yeah, I've got, I've tra-, I've traversed the spectrum.

• 44:02Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's good.

• 44:03Speaker 02

  Um, but.

• 44:04Speaker 00

  That is cheeky asking.

• 44:05Speaker 02

  Do you know what? I think we've still got the bottle.

• 44:09Speaker 02

  I think the bottle is uh displayed, we've got like a sort of drinks trolley in our um, it's like a sort of nineteen twenties. Prohibition, it's really cool, like Claire does all the decor in our house, it is really nice. We've got this sort of prohibition drinks trolley in our living room.

• 44:26Speaker 00

  Disguise the song.

• 44:26Speaker 02

  I think, I think it's at the bottom.

• 44:29Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 44:29Speaker 02

  Like just still like crystal, just to let you know, just to if someone comes around.

• 44:34Speaker 00

  Still got beer left?

• 44:36Speaker 02

  No, no, not Claire's mum had that.

• 44:38Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 44:39Speaker 02

  She, she polished it off.

• 44:41Speaker 00

  Oh, that's cheeky asking for the table back.

• 44:44Speaker 02

  And I thought, I'm not having it off of you.

• 44:46Speaker 00

  Well, no, no. Well, I'm sorry, that, that, that sounds like it, but it went badly.

• 44:53Speaker 02

  But I do think there's fact, I do think there is fact in it, like I do, not per, not personality wise, I don't think I'm a really. Angry person or a fighty person anyway, um. I can get a bit weepy when I'm drunk, but I don't um.

• 45:13Speaker 02

  But I do get bad hango- hangovers depending on what I've drunk.

• 45:17Speaker 00

  I think you're right about mixing things. Well, the other thing about beer is that.

• 45:20Speaker 02

  But it's alcohol, isn't it? The body doesn't know the difference between beer, the, the body just knows the chemical alcohol, doesn't it? So why?

• 45:26Speaker 00

  The body doesn't know the difference. I, I think there are also, like, I, I really don't understand the point of shots, for example, they, they seem to me.

• 45:34Speaker 02

  They're grim, absolutely grim. What enjoyment do you get out of that? Who enjoys a shot?

• 45:40Speaker 00

  I don't understand a shot at all.

• 45:41Speaker 02

  I have been in so many occasions.

• 45:44Speaker 00

  I've never liked a shot.

• 45:44Speaker 02

  Where one of my mates have turned up with a tray of shots and they're like, come on, we're all getting on the shots. And I've gone, no. I've just gone, no, I'm not doing it. Don't want to do it.

• 45:53Speaker 00

  You're take, the nice thing.

• 45:55Speaker 02

  I am drunk already.

• 45:56Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 45:57Speaker 02

  I'm enjoying my beer, I'm having a good time. I don't wanna now not remember how I got home or anything.

• 46:03Speaker 00

  It's missing out the only pleasurable bit of the experience. Like, it, the, the nice bit is from going, from being sober to being drunk, fairly slowly. That's what's nuts.

• 46:15Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, you ease into it.

• 46:16Speaker 00

  It's, it's like saying, oh, instead of going on this roller coaster, I could just take you right to the end if you want. So it's like you've never gone on it.

• 46:23Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 46:24Speaker 00

  But you just feel sick. And you're like, why would I want that? That's mental. I, yeah, I don't understand. I think also times where I've had terrible hangovers is because I just don't count shots as drinks. Like, so when they're.

• 46:36Speaker 02

  That's the thing as well, because you've already got a drink.

• 46:38Speaker 00

  I've only had five pints and then there were things in between them, but like, they, but yeah, that was, yeah, I don't understand them at all. They, I mean, I, I understand the kind of, the beer and a shot, if you just wanna really quickly take the edge off. Like, if you, it makes more sense for your first drink to be a shot, actually. If you just wanna quickly get to the point where you're like, I just wanna be drunk, so I'll have the shot first to just get me there and then I can linger over the beer. I understand the beer and a shot thing. That does.

• 47:05Speaker 02

  I remember when I was a teenager.

• 47:07Speaker 00

  Not kind of throughout the night.

• 47:08Speaker 02

  I don't know if people, if, you never hear this anymore, because I think the whole world caught on that it was a bad idea. When I was, when I was sort of like nineteen, eighteen, nineteen, I really got into vodka Red Bull.

• 47:22Speaker 00

  Yeah, that's a mental drink.

• 47:23Speaker 02

  Yeah, absolutely insane.

• 47:25Speaker 00

  Totally mental.

• 47:25Speaker 02

  And it was one, I was working on a TV show and I was away in a hotel room, and there, it was a rap party. It was right at the end. So I was like, oh, I'm gonna go fucking mental here. And I was like, doing double vodka Red Bulls all night long.

• 47:39Speaker 00

  It's the Red Bull that fucks you.

• 47:40Speaker 02

  All night long. And then I got back to my hotel room and I was like, brilliant, I'll just sleep this off now and I don't have to get up in the morning and then I'll just travel home. Stayed up all night long and felt my hangover creeping into my body.

• 47:54Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 47:54Speaker 02

  And I was just going, why am I not falling asleep? Why am I not, why can't I fall asleep here?

• 48:00Speaker 00

  That's horrible.

• 48:01Speaker 02

  Then I realised, oh yes, it's the Red Bull. It's, it's all the caffeine plus the vodka. And I just, I can't remember the last time anyone said the words vodka Red Bull. I don't know if it's because I'm not a kid anymore, or.

• 48:15Speaker 00

  I I can always, I can remember the feeling now.

• 48:16Speaker 02

  Lily May, you're substantially younger.

• 48:19Speaker 00

  Do you ever have vodka Red Bull?

• 48:21Speaker 03

  I have never been into those, but at uni, everyone would drink vodka, yeah vodka Red Bull. I did have um a phase where if I was not able to pre-drink with everyone, I would have, we'd have um like an absinthe kind of um like not proper absinthe because it wasn't like however high percent, but we'd have an absinthe bomb and that was with Red Bull, so I would drink that to catch up.

• 48:44Speaker 02

  I had, there was one time, I used to do, uh I used to drink vodka lemonade before a night out. So that was already drunk, so they didn't have to spend too much money on a night out. And um I had a a pint glass and my ritual was while I was getting ready to go out was I'd do half a pint of vodka and half a pint of lemonade. And I'd get that down there and then that would get me to the, I'd already be drunk. So then I'd buy like two drinks or something like that for the rest of the night. Um anyway, I.

• 49:14Speaker 00

  Anyway, so with the, so do do, so do they make you feel different emotions? I do, I think that there is something in, uh I think, I think red wine can make you a bit sort of bit loquacious, bit pretentious. I think it may, I think maybe it's partly it the, it makes you start to slightly role play the sort of person who you think would drink this. So if you

• 49:37Speaker 02

  Right.

• 49:38Speaker 00

  if you're drinking wine, you're maybe more likely to get into a kind of heated political discussion.

• 49:42Speaker 02

  Right.

• 49:42Speaker 00

  Uh maybe if you're drinking beer, you're more likely to watch football or something. I don't know, like, I have heard the gin thing. I have heard people who say gin makes them depressed.

• 49:49Speaker 02

  Let me tell you something. I can't remember what emperor it was, a Roman emperor, um but obviously in certain parts

• 49:57Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 49:58Speaker 02

  of the empire, grapes would go grow really well, Italy, south of France and whatnot. Um but the sort of barbarians.

• 50:07Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 50:08Speaker 02

  Your northern sort of, gonna say it, Germanic, um.

• 50:13Speaker 00

  There it is, every week.

• 50:15Speaker 02

  And and Britain, um they didn't make wine, but they would ha, they would drink beer or what was beer at that time.

• 50:21Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 50:22Speaker 02

  Um and there was a Roman emperor that made a remark saying that um beer makes these guys really tough and wild.

• 50:33Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 50:33Speaker 02

  And that wine is possibly making becau, because, because they would make it out of um.

• 50:41Speaker 02

  Grain uh uh and the and the the stuff that they would either feed the animals. Or if you were being punished as a Roman soldier, you would eat this this um what's that um.

• 50:53Speaker 00

  What sort of like turnip, some sort of.

• 50:55Speaker 02

  No, no, no. What do they make beer out of?

• 50:57Speaker 03

  Like wheat.

• 50:58Speaker 00

  Or wheat.

• 50:59Speaker 02

  No, there wasn't hops at this point. Uh barley, it was barley.

• 51:02Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 51:03Speaker 02

  Uh if you were if you were being punished, if you did something wrong in the in the in the army, in the Roman army. As your punishment was that you would eat barley. So it was seen as sort of like an animal, sort of um. It was classed as foreign. And that was a really sort of slanderous thing to call someone in ju- in the Roman Empire. Uh but I I can't remember what it was, who what um I think it might have been Nero. But he said um the there's something in this beer, because these guys are really fucking wild and tough. And I feel like wine is actually making the empire quite effeminate.

• 51:43Speaker 00

  Well Nero would have wanted um coffee, wouldn't he? That would have been so that's but but um. But I think I think I I yeah, so in a way, I suppose that's kind of maybe what I. I'm driving at is that wine was wine was seen as a luxury, so if you start to believe that you. Are somebody who is entitled to luxury, maybe you do start getting a bit soft. And you think, oh, all this fighting is a bit beneath me.

• 52:07Speaker 02

  There's something in it, but I don't think it's the alcohol. I think it's the other ingredients.

• 52:11Speaker 00

  I think it's other ingredients. I think there's a little bit of sort of psychosomatic stuff, and I think there's also just. How fast you're getting drunk, like if you're drinking. Like obviously, if you're not used to spirits and you're drinking spirits, that's gonna make you. More drunk, but it's not a different type of alcohol. It's just that you're having the equivalent of a lot more.

• 52:29Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's just a more concentrated.

• 52:31Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 52:32Speaker 02

  Dose.

• 52:32Speaker 00

  But I just have to say anecdotally, some people have said to me that gin makes them feel depressed like more than vodka. And gin is just gin is just vodka flavoured with. Is it juniper? I think so. Gin and vodka are the same thing, basically. It's just that, yeah, gin is basically a flavoured vodka. Uh and I have heard people say it makes them makes them depressed. So I don't know, I have again.

• 52:56Speaker 02

  Is that why Bond asks for a vodka martini?

• 52:59Speaker 00

  I don't.

• 53:00Speaker 02

  Because I think a martini is actually made with gin.

• 53:03Speaker 00

  Well, there's another thing that Ian Morris is very asticler for.

• 53:06Speaker 02

  Right.

• 53:07Speaker 00

  You shouldn't ever have to ask for a gin martini.

• 53:10Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 53:10Speaker 00

  It's just a martini.

• 53:11Speaker 02

  Martini, yeah.

• 53:11Speaker 00

  Something that he's trying to, it's very important to him.

• 53:15Speaker 02

  Um, but I'm gonna, I'm gonna go with.

• 53:16Speaker 00

  He's trying to raise a load of money actually for it. He's got, he's, um, just to try.

• 53:20Speaker 02

  I'm gonna go with fact. I don't think it's so fact it hurts, but there is anecdotally, historically, there is.

• 53:28Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 53:29Speaker 02

  Just through, just through society's own research that we've done.

• 53:34Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 53:34Speaker 02

  Especially in Europe, as a whole continent of big drinkers.

• 53:39Speaker 00

  We are a big sort of, it's a big experiment, isn't it?

• 53:41Speaker 02

  Yeah, um, I'm gonna, I'm go, I am gonna go fact. Uh, Queen Lily May, do you have any actual, um, information for us?

• 53:48Speaker 03

  I've done a bit of digging.

• 53:50Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 53:50Speaker 03

  The one thing I will say is, so there is some research done in this, but it's self-reported research. So it means anyone who participated in it were reporting their own feelings.

• 54:00Speaker 02

  Right.

• 54:00Speaker 03

  So I think what you're talking about with the psychosomatic thing, I think that could come into play with this research. However, um, the research did show that people felt differently with different wines, uh, and beers. And, um, they also said drinking, forty percent of people said that drinking spirits made them feel more sexy. And this was a study of, uh, three, uh, thirty thousand people, by the way. Uh, red wine made people feel more lethargic than white wine.

• 54:26Speaker 02

  Spirits for me has made other people seem more sexy.

• 54:30Speaker 00

  I like that it's some forty percent as well, because that's actually the alcohol percentage of spirits. So.

• 54:34Speaker 02

  Pretty much, yeah.

• 54:35Speaker 00

  And then you can see why that would.

• 54:36Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 54:37Speaker 03

  Over half said drinking spirits gave them energy and confidence.

• 54:40Speaker 02

  Energy.

• 54:41Speaker 03

  And around a third said they felt aggressive when drinking spirits.

• 54:45Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 54:45Speaker 03

  Drinking spirits are more likely than others to be associated with stronger feelings like aggression, illness, restlessness and tearfulness.

• 54:52Speaker 00

  Less likely.

• 54:53Speaker 03

  Uh, more likely.

• 54:54Speaker 00

  More likely, okay.

• 54:55Speaker 03

  Yeah, um, and then having a little look around, basically, it seems like the type of alcohol might not necessarily have the impact, but it's the strength of the alcohol. Plus, um, the research states that the environments that you're drinking the alcohol will also have an effect. So if you're drinking red wine and you're at home and you're trying to relax for the evening, that is sort of an aid and you're already kind of getting into the mindset. So you're already thinking about what you want to do. If you're drinking a spirit, you're more likely to be going on a night out. You might be drinking more, uh, and you also might be trying to get yourself in a party spirit. So it's more like to enhance what you're looking for. Um, and it was also shown that spirits tended to have a stronger impact because it was a stronger alcoholic content than.

• 55:37Speaker 00

  Okay, so context is important. I don't think we can read much into that because of the self-reporting thing. And also because everyone they're asking was drunk.

• 55:47Speaker 02

  Yeah, everyone was so pissed.

• 55:50Speaker 02

  Um.

• 55:52Speaker 00

  Was all the research just like, there were loads of mistakes in the words.

• 55:56Speaker 03

  Exactly.

• 55:57Speaker 00

  It was all sent to the wrong person.

• 56:00Speaker 00

  It was just interspersed with calls to their ex and.

• 56:03Speaker 02

  So we had vomit on it.

• 56:06Speaker 00

  Can't read that bit.

• 56:09Speaker 02

  Well, what do we, yeah, so facts, yeah?

• 56:12Speaker 03

  I think we can say fact. The research, the research says fact. It's just, um, yeah.

• 56:17Speaker 02

  Yeah, well, thank you for that, Irish Joe.

• 56:19Speaker 00

  Thank you, Joe.

• 56:20Speaker 02

  Hopefully, um, I don't think that that's changed your opinion and I hope it hasn't. Cause you said, and I quote, I think it's a load of old bollocks, which is, which is what I liked about you. Um, so I hope that we haven't, um, I hope we haven't changed who you are. Um.

• 56:36Speaker 00

  No, don't change, don't change. Hey.

• 56:38Speaker 02

  Never go back.

• 56:39Speaker 00

  Do me a favour, don't start smiling.

• 56:42Speaker 02

  I do that, I say that constantly. Um, I've got a fact for you. Have we got time for my fact?

• 56:47Speaker 03

  I think we can squeeze one in.

• 56:48Speaker 02

  We could, I'll be really, really quick.

• 56:50Speaker 00

  What Irish fact have you got up your sleeve for us today, James?

• 56:53Speaker 02

  Here we go. Um, the longest running pub licence in the world, um, the licence to sell alcohol.

• 56:58Speaker 00

  Much better than mine.

• 56:59Speaker 02

  Um, Shaun's Bar claims to, uh, their licence claims to date back to 900 AD.

• 57:06Speaker 00

  Brilliant.

• 57:07Speaker 02

  So over a thousand years there. Another quick couple for you.

• 57:12Speaker 00

  No, that's good. We need them because mine was fucking shit.

• 57:15Speaker 02

  Because this is fun. Um, Ireland once had, right, I did look this up and I was getting bits of different in, well, I wasn't getting bits of different information. One piece of information said it was a penguin, but all the others say it was a dolphin. So I'm just gonna say dolphin. Um, but Ireland once had a dolphin as a mayor.

• 57:38Speaker 02

  Uh, in the town of Dingle.

• 57:42Speaker 02

  In the town of Dingle, it was na- it was a dolphin named Fungi or Fungy. Um, it showed up daily in the harbour, became a national celebrity, uh, boosted tourism and was awarded honorary titles from, from 1983 to 2020.

• 57:57Speaker 00

  I love that. They used, goats used to have a rank in the army. They would, they'd actually be like an honorary.

• 58:02Speaker 02

  Dogs do and horses do and pigeons, pigeons have got, um, apparently there's this, I'm sure this will come up at some point when we, when this becomes one of our themes, but there was a, there's, there was a sort of animal equivalent to the Victoria Cross, um, that certain animals during the sort of Great War and the Second World War and stuff would get bestowed upon.

• 58:23Speaker 00

  And I hope that these animals also got, you know, a sugar cube or like something that they actually want.

• 58:29Speaker 02

  Hmm.

• 58:29Speaker 00

  I don't know, the animal really wants a ribbon.

• 58:31Speaker 02

  Sure. Well, I think some of them were, was also post, posthumous.

• 58:36Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 58:38Speaker 02

  I also went down a little rabbit hole.

• 58:41Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 58:42Speaker 02

  And started asking Google, so without, without generalising, what do you think of when you think of the Irish?

• 58:51Speaker 00

  Guinness, I suppose.

• 58:51Speaker 02

  Sure. So I put, um, I put, and I don't, listen, they're proud of it, I, you know.

• 58:58Speaker 00

  It's a nice drink, like, it, it, I, I, it's nothing to be ashamed of.

• 59:02Speaker 02

  But I put, uh, I, I started asking the question, do the Irish drink as much as we think?

• 59:08Speaker 00

  Oh, okay, yeah, okay.

• 59:09Speaker 02

  Uh, and the reality is that Ireland does have high alcohol consumption compared to the world average.

• 59:17Speaker 00

  Not the highest in Europe, I'd imagine.

• 59:18Speaker 02

  But not uniquely extreme.

• 59:21Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 59:22Speaker 02

  Anymore, it said.

• 59:23Speaker 00

  I have a feeling that Ireland has changed quite a lot. I think this, I, they've, they've, they seem to have gone through some quite rapid changes. Um, in some, uh, cultural areas, uh, gay marriage, uh, abortion, things like that. And I wouldn't be surprised if maybe the stereotype to do with alcohol is perhaps not.

• 59:43Speaker 02

  Ireland does rank high in Europe.

• 59:45Speaker 00

  That's true as it was.

• 59:45Speaker 02

  But it's not number one.

• 59:47Speaker 00

  I think I might know what number one is. Can I guess? Have you got it?

• 59:50Speaker 02

  I don't, I should have got that.

• 59:51Speaker 00

  I think it's Belarus. I think it's Belarus. I, I, I saw this.

• 59:55Speaker 02

  I've got here countries like Czechia.

• 59:57Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 59:58Speaker 02

  Is that how you pronounce that?

• 59:59Speaker 00

  Yep. Is it, yeah, Che- Czechia.

• 1:00:01Speaker 02

  Czechia.

• 1:00:02Speaker 00

  Che- or Czechia, is it Czechia?

• 1:00:04Speaker 02

  Yeah, I think that's right, yeah. Czechia, um, but countries like Czechia, Germany, Germany, Germania. And, uh, parts of Eastern Europe often drink more per capita than.

• 1:00:15Speaker 03

  Ireland's in the top ten.

• 1:00:16Speaker 00

  Top ten.

• 1:00:17Speaker 03

  Top ten. I can run you down the top ten if you want.

• 1:00:19Speaker 00

  Yes, please, yeah.

• 1:00:20Speaker 03

  Um, United Kingdom just falls out, we're eleven.

• 1:00:23Speaker 00

  Come on, guys.

• 1:00:24Speaker 03

  Give that a shout out.

• 1:00:24Speaker 00

  Drink up.

• 1:00:25Speaker 03

  Uh, this is research from twenty twenty two.

• 1:00:27Speaker 02

  Is it bad that I'm disappointed?

• 1:00:29Speaker 00

  I'm a bit disappointed because isn't that, isn't that a form of our sort of soft power or something?

• 1:00:34Speaker 02

  That's a part of our culture, isn't it? We're a nation, we're an island nation of drinkers.

• 1:00:37Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:00:38Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:00:38Speaker 02

  We're, we're sort of, you could stick us on a boat and we'll be fa- absolutely fine. You know, we're naval Irish drinkers.

• 1:00:46Speaker 00

  Absolutely.

• 1:00:47Speaker 02

  Irish. We're naval British drinkers.

• 1:00:52Speaker 03

  Trying to sneak that one in.

• 1:00:52Speaker 00

  Yeah, what does the captain do before he turns in for the night? Just checks the level in the whiskey bottle.

• 1:00:57Speaker 02

  Is that right?

• 1:00:58Speaker 00

  Well, I don't know, someone said that to me.

• 1:00:59Speaker 03

  So at 10 is Slovenia.

• 1:01:02Speaker 02

  Right.

• 1:01:02Speaker 03

  At 9 is Ireland.

• 1:01:04Speaker 00

  In at number 9.

• 1:01:05Speaker 03

  At 8 is Hungary. Uh, at number 7 is France.

• 1:01:11Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 1:01:11Speaker 03

  At number 6 is Lithuania.

• 1:01:14Speaker 02

  Oh.

• 1:01:14Speaker 03

  5 Estonia.

• 1:01:16Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:01:16Speaker 03

  4 Czechia. 3 Austria. 2 Spain.

• 1:01:21Speaker 00

  Spain.

• 1:01:22Speaker 03

  And 1 Latvia.

• 1:01:25Speaker 00

  Latvia.

• 1:01:25Speaker 02

  Germany's not in that list.

• 1:01:26Speaker 00

  Where's Belarus gone? Are they just, are they not bothering anymore?

• 1:01:29Speaker 02

  Germany is, they're, they're the guys that, um, got us all into hops.

• 1:01:33Speaker 00

  No, Germany was on there, wasn't it?

• 1:01:34Speaker 03

  Germany wasn't on there.

• 1:01:35Speaker 00

  Wasn't it?

• 1:01:36Speaker 02

  That's nuts.

• 1:01:37Speaker 03

  Nope.

• 1:01:38Speaker 02

  They literally have those, they have those great big jugs of beer that they've.

• 1:01:41Speaker 00

  I wouldn't be surprised also if there's, if there's a kind of maybe a bit of a religious, like, so for example, in Norway, Norway's quite, has a quite a lot of alcohol consumption.

• 1:01:54Speaker 02

  Right.

• 1:01:54Speaker 00

  But also has quite a lot of like Christianity.

• 1:01:58Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:01:59Speaker 00

  And one of our friends told us once that they'd been to a Norwegian wedding and it was so religious that not only was there no alcohol at a wedding.

• 1:02:11Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:02:12Speaker 00

  There was no, like, music, because that was also like Sid before.

• 1:02:17Speaker 02

  Right.

• 1:02:18Speaker 00

  And also no, um.

• 1:02:20Speaker 02

  Sex.

• 1:02:22Speaker 00

  There wasn't an orgy, like, there should always be an orgy.

• 1:02:24Speaker 02

  Yeah, absolutely.

• 1:02:25Speaker 00

  4pm orgy.

• 1:02:26Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:02:27Speaker 00

  Like after the.

• 1:02:28Speaker 02

  It's just after the speeches.

• 1:02:29Speaker 00

  You know, it was after the, it's after the, it's during the father of the bride.

• 1:02:33Speaker 02

  Right.

• 1:02:34Speaker 00

  It's during his speech.

• 1:02:35Speaker 02

  Right, yeah.

• 1:02:36Speaker 00

  Um, but yeah, so I think sometimes there's a bit of an interaction between places that are kind of a little bit bipolar, like, there's a huge kind of.

• 1:02:45Speaker 02

  Well.

• 1:02:46Speaker 00

  Even maybe someone like Scotland. I imagine there's, there's a kind of.

• 1:02:48Speaker 02

  But I would say.

• 1:02:49Speaker 00

  A kind of Protestant type thing going on.

• 1:02:51Speaker 02

  Maybe Protestant, but, well, I was brought up Catholic and like wine's big in the Bible.

• 1:02:57Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:02:58Speaker 02

  Like, that's the best propaganda that alcohol's ever had.

• 1:03:01Speaker 00

  He wasn't changing wine into water, was he?

• 1:03:03Speaker 02

  No, yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah.

• 1:03:07Speaker 00

  Please get rid of all this wine, we hate this.

• 1:03:09Speaker 02

  Sick of this water.

• 1:03:10Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:03:11Speaker 02

  Wait a second.

• 1:03:12Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:03:12Speaker 02

  Like, it like, like alcohol gets a really big, sort of, it gets bigged up in the Bible.

• 1:03:17Speaker 00

  And rightly so, and as you know, we've discussed, you know, it has, it has its own gods, it has, you know, not in Christianity, but.

• 1:03:23Speaker 02

  No, no, it's like, um, oh, there's, there was a, oh, if I had the name, I'd seem really clever. In Sumatra, there was a.

• 1:03:30Speaker 00

  Sumatra's a good name.

• 1:03:31Speaker 02

  There was a, there was a, is that the right, have I said that right?

• 1:03:34Speaker 00

  I don't know, it just depends.

• 1:03:35Speaker 02

  Samarian, it was like ancient.

• 1:03:37Speaker 00

  Oh, there's Sumatra, I think is in Indonesia, well, it doesn't really, well, it does matter, but Samaria.

• 1:03:43Speaker 02

  Yeah, is that what I'm thinking of?

• 1:03:44Speaker 00

  It might be.

• 1:03:45Speaker 02

  Really ancient, really ancient, like 5000 B.C. There's a goddess, the goddess of beer. And there's a prayer that you say to this goddess, and it's basically the ingredients of, of how, of how you make beer. Um.

• 1:03:59Speaker 00

  Don't want to forget, I suppose.

• 1:04:00Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's like, it's like, alcohol's like, and, and I was brought up Catholic, and we used to have our priests come around for dinner and stuff like that every now and again. And obviously, there's lots of stuff that you're not allowed to do that is sin. Um, but alcohol seems to be a bit of a vice that you're allowed to get emboldened, and he used to get fucking.

• 1:04:19Speaker 02

  He'd come around and like, watch the Champions League or something, like, in my, during the 90s in the, or the, or the European Cup, or whatever it was called at the time. And, uh, he would get hammered.

• 1:04:29Speaker 00

  Oh.

• 1:04:29Speaker 02

  He would get absolutely, and but everyone was like, yeah, bloke can't get his leg over, so you can, you know, give him a beer at least.

• 1:04:37Speaker 00

  Yeah, and also Catholicism never really got, never really bothered with that kind of puritanism that came along with, so you're not going to get the kind of.

• 1:04:46Speaker 02

  It was a bit more fun.

• 1:04:47Speaker 00

  Yeah, you're not, Protestantism can get a little bit killjoy, a little bit sort of, a little bit Oliver Cromwell, like, you can't do this, you can't do that. You can't dance at your own wedding.

• 1:04:56Speaker 02

  You're not behaving yourself.

• 1:04:57Speaker 00

  Yeah, whereas the Catholics seem to be a little bit more like.

• 1:05:00Speaker 02

  Let's add a bit of colour to this.

• 1:05:02Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:05:03Speaker 02

  Some stained glass windows put in.

• 1:05:05Speaker 00

  Yeah. What's the harm in that?

• 1:05:06Speaker 02

  Anyway, they were my little facts about Ireland.

• 1:05:09Speaker 00

  I really like them.

• 1:05:10Speaker 02

  I don't know about you, Joe, but I'm all fact out.

• 1:05:12Speaker 00

  I'm fact out.

• 1:05:12Speaker 02

  What have we learned today? Lily May, can you sum us up what we've learned today?

• 1:05:16Speaker 03

  What an absolute cop out.

• 1:05:19Speaker 02

  I can't be bothered.

• 1:05:20Speaker 03

  What we learnt about...

• 1:05:21Speaker 00

  I could have a go.

• 1:05:22Speaker 03

  Oh, go on, Joe, you have a go.

• 1:05:23Speaker 02

  Well, he had a...

• 1:05:24Speaker 00

  We've learned that St Patrick had a staff. It came from Jesus, who'd also made a couple live presumably forever.

• 1:05:30Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:05:31Speaker 00

  He planted in the ground, it turned into town in Cumbria.

• 1:05:33Speaker 02

  Yeah. We learnt that depending what you drink, it does affect your...

• 1:05:37Speaker 00

  It does affect your emotions, we're saying.

• 1:05:40Speaker 02

  And we also fact that Ireland doesn't drink as much, you know.

• 1:05:44Speaker 00

  As you think.

• 1:05:44Speaker 02

  As you think, they do.

• 1:05:45Speaker 00

  But does drink a bit.

• 1:05:46Speaker 02

  They do drink a bit. We hope that you've learned something or had a nice time. We'll be back next week, armed with more facts, chats and beer mats. And don't forget that you can get in touch with us if you'd like us to fact check something that feels true for you, or whatever nonsense you want to get to us. Our email is [email protected]. Our WhatsApp is 07822034330. And you can also follow us on social media, @joandjamespod. And head to the podcast description if you've already forgotten those details. Bye, guys. We'll see you next week. Thanks for listening.

• 1:06:31Speaker 05

  Hello, I'm Joanna Fletcher.

• 1:06:33Speaker 08

  And I'm Marco Burchella.

• 1:06:34Speaker 05

  And this is Boots Off.

• 1:06:38Speaker 08

  We are friends who have spent a decade together, walking up mountains, across deserts and along coastlines with some seriously awesome groups of humans.

• 1:06:46Speaker 05

  And something happens when you're out there, feet on the ground, surrounded by nature. The conversations just spill out of you.

• 1:06:52Speaker 08

  This series is about the adversities that lead to adventure.

• 1:06:55Speaker 05

  The adventures that lead to adversity.

• 1:06:57Speaker 08

  And how life can be one big adventure in itself.

• 1:07:00Speaker 05

  Listen every Thursday. Just search for Boots Off.