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In this month's bonus episode, Melissa and Jam do something a little different. Because they're needing to record quite a bit ahead of time, this Q&R couldn't be about episodes that haven't come out yet, so they recorded a long-awaited sequel to their ice-breaker questions episode from last year.
Bonus Episode: Question and Response 33
In this month's bonus episode, Melissa and Jam do something a little different. Because they're needing to record quite a bit ahead of time, this Q&R couldn't be about episodes that haven't come out yet, so they recorded a long-awaited sequel to their ice-breaker questions episode from last year.
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A podcast that helps you understand the fascinating chemistry hidden in your everyday life.
Have you ever wondered why onions make you cry? Or how soap gets your hands clean? What really is margarine, or why do trees change colors in the fall? Melissa is a chemist, and to answer these questions she started a podcast, called Chemistry for your life!
In each episode Melissa explains the chemistry behind one of life’s mysteries to Jam, who is definitely not a chemist, but she explains it in a way that is easy to understand, and totally fascinating.
If you’re someone who loves learning new things, or who wonders about the way the world works, then give us a listen.
Hey. Hey. I'm Melissa.
Jam:I'm Jam.
Melissa:And I'm a chemist.
Jam:And I'm not.
Melissa:And welcome to chemistry for your life.
Jam:The podcast helps you understand the chemistry of your everyday life.
Melissa:Boom. Icebreaker edition. Edition. I got you.
Jam:Icebreaker because Icebreaker. Ice being a previous
Melissa:Yes. Maybe we should call
Jam:talked about the ice in the previous episode, and now we're gonna break That ice.
Melissa:Or we should call this the ice floater episode.
Jam:The ice floater. Yeah.
Melissa:The floating icebreaker Says our audience. Yes. Sometimes, Jam and I can con my husband who we both really like Mhmm. To hang out with us while we record, which basically I don't know if it's that fun for him, but it's really fun for us.
Jam:Yeah. We we both just like having an audience, which I guess shouldn't surprise you guys because here you are listening to this podcast. But Having a live audience just, I guess, makes us feel a little bit more attentive.
Melissa:He doesn't do or say anything, but we just like having him around.
Jam:Yes. That's true. He makes comments sometimes. But
Melissa:Sometimes. But maybe we can get him to come over and answer some questions as well through our our icebreaker because Today's episode is gonna be a little bit different.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:In preparation for me traveling to Canada, as we've mentioned before, and Jam's baby to arrive, We're recording ahead of time, and q and r's are actually very difficult to do that with because we can't get questions from you on episodes that you haven't heard yet. Yeah.
Jam:Which is on you guys, honestly.
Melissa:Why aren't you also listening to these ahead of time? You guys are always
Jam:so behind. It's like you can't you don't even have a question till you've already heard a thing. That is So weird.
Melissa:So today's episode, we're gonna do one of our traditions of randomly doing this of icebreaker and get to know you questions. And then in September, you can expect take things to go back to normal. Yeah. But Jam won't have things going back to normal because he'll have 2 children now.
Jam:Yeah. Normal is long gone for me.
Melissa:Actually, by the time you're listening to this, there's a very good chance that Jam has had Baby number 2 in the world. Yeah.
Jam:It's very it's very possible.
Melissa:Yeah. Wild. Yeah. Okay. So and we're also just because we're switching things up, I'm gonna ask jam questions this week because I don't get to do that very much.
Jam:Yeah. Usually, I'm not asking the questions because I don't have the answers.
Melissa:That's true.
Jam:Like, just think about it.
Melissa:So but do you have answers to these?
Jam:I hope so.
Melissa:I guess we'll see. So the first question is, if you could be any type of animal, what would it be? This is from Renee, My sister, and she said to think Animorphs. Did anyone else read the the Animorphs book?
Jam:I didn't, but I always liked looking at the covers. Yeah. For some reason, I never read them. I don't know if they thought they might be a little scary or something, but the way they did the covers, you know, transforming into the thing was always cool.
Melissa:I think we read them, like, out loud as a family, actually.
Jam:Interesting.
Melissa:The other thing you could think of is, like, in a mad Anamagis or in a magus In Harry Potter? That's what it's called when they can turn into animals? Okay.
Jam:I have an answer already.
Melissa:You do?
Jam:But what's tough is this. I think the only thing I think of is also, like, one of my favorite animals is. So it's a similar answer.
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:Those 2 different questions. But I'm really interested in birds of prey. Oh. And, also, if you could turn into something being a bird would be so cool. I mean, Be able to fly Yeah.
Jam:Be way up there. So Peregrine falcons are the fastest animal. Just scared because when they dive bomb, they the term involves the damage is, like, insane. So but also they're just cool. They look great.
Jam:They look awesome. They're fascinating. Flying would be incredible. If I can morph into 1 or be whatever the hair powder thing is, that would be so cool. That'd be so useful.
Jam:I
Melissa:mean That would be useful.
Jam:I mean, like, They go so fast, so I could travel quickly to places. Yeah. Carrying things in my town, like a baby or whatever?
Melissa:Like a baby. Mason just suggested that off mic, but I'm not sure carrying a baby. Well, I don't know. The The eagles, spoiler alert, at the end of Lord of the Rings do carry the hobbits in their talons, and they're safe.
Jam:Yeah. Those are some massive eagles. But yeah. So, I mean, There's options. I think there could be a lot of utility to being a bird, and being able to morph into and out of bird mode
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:In my everyday life right now, I could get benefit of it out of it right now. So what about you?
Melissa:For some reason, when I thought about what animal I would be, the first thing that came to my mind was the penguin, which isn't useful, but I think I'd like Being cold, and I do feel kind of clumsy and weird sometimes so that maybe I just relate to penguins. But if I could choose something that would be really useful. Okay. I've gone back and forth a little bit, and I tried to think of something that would be useful. It could be fun to be a deer because you could just, like, play around in the woods all day, but they can get shot.
Melissa:Right. And I don't think I'm graceful enough to be a deer, honestly, or physically active enough. And then we thought of the idea of a bear. And I think that's kind of accurate because I can get mad pretty quickly, especially over, like, my children, you know, like mama bear situation. Yeah.
Melissa:People who I perceive to be having a hard time protecting themselves, I'll, like, very quickly get angry in defense of the injustice. Yeah. And then I can really quickly bring it back down, and I just wanna, like, hang out and eat dessert. That's pretty accurate.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:And they love honey.
Jam:Yeah. Bears have such distinct modes. Like, you could,
Melissa:like Yeah.
Jam:You know, like, watch videos of bears where they don't know they're being observed, and they're just chilling.
Melissa:Yes.
Jam:They're having fun. The Cubs are playing. The mom is watching, whatever. And then you hear the stories.
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:And they feel threatened.
Melissa:And I think, I also if I'm, like, having a hard time, I just, like, shut down and sleep a lot, and that's kinda like hibernation, the low energy situation. And so I can just identify with a lot of what happens in a bear's life. So I think if I got to choose, I'd Probably choose something cool like an octopus or, like, some like, I could or a dolphin. You could be in water. Octopus can do a lot of really amazing things.
Melissa:You know? That'd be strong.
Jam:Time, they can do stuff. So yeah.
Melissa:I like that one. That's a good one.
Jam:Yeah. Good choice.
Melissa:Okay. So the next question is from Bordeaux b, And they said, what's your favorite type of ice cream?
Jam:Wow. Okay. Great question. I we have a really awesome little ice cream shop here in
Melissa:Yeah. We do.
Jam:Called Beth Marie's, And they have a pepperoni cream there called sinful oat. Don't worry. Hold your horses. Spelled with a c, like cinnamon, oat.
Melissa:Yeah. Because food is amoral inherently.
Jam:Yeah. It's Oatmeal cookie is basically it, but sinful oat is much more fun of a name and creative and stuff
Melissa:like that. Yeah.
Jam:I love oatmeal cookies. And not everything that you love translates to ice cream. But let me tell you that oatmeal cookies translate amazingly into ice cream.
Melissa:Yeah. At least
Jam:when Beth Marie's does it. And it's a Super, super good ice cream.
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:It used to be seasonal, but they have it all the time now. And it's the best. And anytime I try ice cream form is my favorite kind of ice cream.
Melissa:So that's interesting. I used to be a solidly chocolate ice cream kind of a girl. Uh-huh. Especially if it had, like, a little bit of raspberry in it.
Jam:Oh, interesting.
Melissa:There was a groom's cake ice cream for 1 season Uh-huh. From Blue Bell. Uh-huh. That was that. That was my jam.
Melissa:It was chocolate, and it had these little chocolate hearts with, like, raspberry in it. And there's a very similar one also at Beth Marie's. It's chocolate raspberry Uh-huh. That I really liked, but I've been very into this one at Beth Marie's called salty dog lately.
Jam:Interesting.
Melissa:It's like I don't know what the base flavor is, but I think it is a salty caramel toffee type thing.
Jam:Uh-huh.
Melissa:And it's very good, and there's a similar one that you can get anywhere Uh-huh. That Tillamook brand sells only in the pints, and it's a custard one, and it's called honeycomb toffee, I think. Mhmm. And it's really good, and it's always light and fluffy, but I like to add my own homemade granola with oats in
Jam:it Nice.
Melissa:To give it a little crunch because I want a little bit more crunch than what it has, or maybe even, like, a crunched up ice cream cone would do it for you. Yeah. But it's really good.
Jam:That sounds very good.
Melissa:They're kind of in the same family. I've been into that family of ice creams lately.
Jam:Nice. You salty T dog.
Jam:Add your own ingredients to the
Jam:kite throughout the store. Wow. That's what a salty dog meal.
Melissa:Because I wanted the texture. I want the shop, it smells so good because they make their own Waffle cones?
Jam:Yeah. Totally.
Melissa:It smells like happiness.
Jam:If you I mean, some of you guys listeners live here, and so you know what we're talking about. It's it's very normal. It's a staple of Denton. You ever pass through Denton, you don't live there. If you've ever passed through Denton, you gotta go to Beth Marie's.
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:Sorry.
Melissa:I mean, the ice cream, I feel like If you have a specialty ice cream shop, it'd probably be similar, but not a lot of places do. And the flavors are just really good and innovative and delicious.
Jam:Yep. Mhmm.
Melissa:Okay. Next question. I really like this one and the next one. They're kind of deep. Okay.
Melissa:Actually, the next 3. The next one is how do you want to affect people around you? And my answer to that one is really easy. I just I wanna love people well. It's easy to say.
Melissa:It's not easy to do. I want to love people well, and I want to help those people sort Sort of as an act of love as a flowing out of that love to see the beauty in science and make them understand that they It is accessible that they can understand it because a lot of people don't. And I feel like when you get to see it, it's it is really beautiful. Yeah. And so that all of the work that I do sort of flows out of my Hope to help people feel loved and help them see the beauty in this world that we're in.
Jam:Nice.
Melissa:I think that's That's mostly my goal. I mean, day to day, I I don't know how well I live that out always, but that's my overarching goal of the work that I've chosen and The things I invest in and the way I spend time with people.
Jam:Yeah. This is so hard to do off the cuff. A couple things. I think that at least in my mind, most of the time, I am trying to do, but not definite all the time. Like you're saying, like, there's some most things are things that are easy to say, hard to do.
Jam:I, I regularly try to, make sure people feel heard.
Melissa:You're with me? You're really good at that.
Jam:But I'm I am not inherently trying to be an agreeable person about everything.
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:So I don't toward people pleasing very often.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:But I that's okay because I think there are plenty of situation where people just need to be heard. Yeah. And that's something I'd also appreciate whenever I feel heard. So that's one thing. And this comes especially kind of From the marketing side of things that I used to do, a lot more of.
Jam:But to hope that the the way I affect people around me is that I I hope that I can clarify slash simplify stuff. In any form of communication,
Melissa:in any
Jam:relationships or whatever, There's messiness and also just things get muddled or whatever. So I would like to be somebody who Clarifies, simplifies kinda stuff when I'm around things.
Melissa:That's funny because both of our Goals of how to affect people is also the role we play in this podcast. Yeah.
Jam:I didn't think about that until halfway through saying it. I was like, oh, that's basically what I've
Melissa:been doing. Do in this show. Yeah. I mean, I I do think that you're good at making people fear her. Jam and I have conflict a lot, not really because we disagree.
Melissa:Like, our base values are pretty similar. Like Yeah. We care a lot about loving people well. We care a lot about justice. We care a lot about, you know, like, promoting those voices that aren't often heard Very effectively, that kind of thing.
Melissa:Like, all of those big values we agree on, but then we really disagree on stupid crap a lot. Yeah. That's like a classic thing. Yeah. But when we have a real disagreement, I always leave that feeling heard.
Jam:Yeah. And some of their
Melissa:Even if we don't agree at the end.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah. And I I think for people who have as strong opinions as we do
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:It's a testament. We both get credit that we don't have bigger fights that end really badly. Yeah.
Melissa:That's so true.
Jam:Which it is but I'd also do love how many times We have had half half serious
Melissa:moments, but half kidding, argue
Jam:with that really stupid stuff.
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:Yeah. We're both completely, rigid in our Yes. In our voice about it from the beginning, and we stay that way through the entire
Melissa:And everyone around us is uncomfortable. Yeah. But we're especially our spouses. Or maybe they're not that comfortable anymore. Maybe they're used to it, but they do not care.
Jam:Yeah. They're
Melissa:They're like, so anyway. Yeah. But when we have real conflict about not stupid stuff, I do think we don't have that same attitude. Dude.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:We we know when it's important to, like, actually communicate and when we're just kind of screwing around, but we are right.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:It's how we feel.
Jam:Yes. Exactly. Exactly.
Melissa:The next question is what is something that is not on your resume that you're most proud of?
Jam:Dang. These are hard.
Melissa:I know. That's from I don't know if I said the last one was from Mina. This one is from Katie Jay. This is a real life friend of ours.
Jam:Nice.
Melissa:And I got to think about this a little bit longer, and I've been thinking about it. And something happened, and I was like, oh, that's it for me. So I can share first if you need some time to think.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:So I was thinking about this, and then I thought, I don't know. Getting my PhD is pretty big deal. Convincing Mason to marry me, he's really nice. I don't know how I did that. Like, those are some things I'm really proud of.
Melissa:One that is work related, though, that came up is some of my students, we were kind of going through their exam and they were. I noticed that a lot of them were kinda freaking out, and we, like, stopped and did a debrief and addressed some of those things. And a lot of them sent me emails about how much it's meant to them to have a teacher who's empathetic and patient. And I I wanna shout out. Doctor Tran Parsons actually listens to this show, and she helped To me, think about the fact that my students, for the most part, are really trying their best.
Melissa:And if they're not meeting my expectations or whatever, I used to get really frustrated and be like, don't they care? Why don't they this or that? And she said that she's noticed that if when her students are having a hard time and she figures out what's going It's not usually because they're just like, screw you. I don't care about learning in this class. It's usually because they have all these other things going on, and they don't know how to manage if if I was in that same position, I would probably also not be doing well.
Melissa:And that has been a big shift for me, and I think I'm really starting to get better at achieving that. I'm not perfect. I am human, and I can get very annoyed at times. But having that mindset and being like, it's just not a big deal. Yeah.
Melissa:I'm really proud of being able to shift in that, and I'm so honored by the fact that my stud students are so touched that they Take the time to reach out and share that I'm impacting their life. Like, not just I'm teaching them chemistry and they're getting good grades, but I I feel like They've communicated that I'm actually impacting their lives, and that is something that I'm really proud of that will never really be on a resume because it's an interpersonal relationship of, like, It is me doing that thing of affecting people well that I have, like, loved them and supported them through this time in their life. Yeah. And that's always my goal. So that's a a work related thing.
Melissa:I'm also just really proud of, the way I was with my mom as she
Jam:As
Melissa:her life was ending, which is a little heavy. So I won't talk about that in-depth, but always put the people you love over your work.
Jam:Yeah. So
Melissa:That's good. I can buy you some time.
Jam:I thought of 1 I mean, it's hard to top what you just said, both ears. But At the same time, I think mine are kinda kinda gimme. So I'll say, I think I would agree. Like, I I have some situation where I tricked my wife, Emily, to marrying me. Truly, like, always gonna wonder how I pulled that off.
Melissa:Yeah. That's how Yeah. We, Jam and I, being similar, our partners are also very similar, and they're also way out of our leagues in both of our opinions. Although they think That's not true. We definitely know it's true.
Jam:Yeah. So that's a huge one. But, and I think anyone who has kids would be tempted to give put their kids as, like, the thing. Yeah. And so I'd I'm gonna do that.
Jam:But so I have a son, as you guys know, obviously. And but I wanna add in there and then this is something that, like, lots of people could put on their resumes.
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:But so it's not, like, new. But I'm really proud of that. I've ever since my son was born and my wife went back to work after She had, 12 weeks of maternity leave. Yeah. She went back to work.
Jam:I've watched my son for 3 days a week. Yeah. While my wife works 12 hour shifts. And I'm just proud of that. I mean, like, it's not something that I was like, this is gonna be easy or like that.
Jam:And obviously, tons of people have done that for every day of the week for, You know, centuries and millennia and whatever, parents and kids have been around forever. But just the when I think about it And I'm like, oh, there's a time I hadn't done that at all. And now I've done that every week, 3 days a week, watching my Done on my own.
Melissa:And still doing a full time job?
Jam:And still doing a full time job and stuff. And Anyone who does any amount of that, I think you feel that pride, and you'd love to put that in your resume. Like, it'd be like Like and I watch my son, and I, you know, clean up this stuff that he these messes he causes, and I figure out how to You have meltdowns and all that kind of stuff that you feel like, I really wanna put this on a resume.
Melissa:You're like, I've built so many skills. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and something I think also is A lot of times in, just in the culture that we're in in America, dads aren't as involved or they haven't been traditionally. And that's just kinda been we came out of a time where dads worked and moms ran the home, and that was the structure of the family.
Melissa:And I think it's been hard For women to transition into working and then men to realize that, oh, that now the dad has to be at home more too. Like Yeah. This has to be like a Teeter totter where we balance out, not like, now the wife's doing all these things. Yeah. And I have seen some of my male friends do that really well, and Some of them maybe are having a harder time, and I I do admire how you and your wife split the child care.
Melissa:It really does feel like you both are very involved in your kid's life, and you both are managing work while also managing him.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:And, Yeah. I think that that is becoming a lot more common, and it should be I hope all dads get to be involved like that, you know, because I think it is a joy. Yeah. But it's also a huge adjustment, and so I've real I've really enjoyed watching not just you. My brother's really involved in his kid's life.
Melissa:I can think of a lot of guys who I know who are really involved in their his life and who can totally handle them. It's not like the wife is the only one who deals with the kids. Yeah. But I've really had fun watching you guys shift into that.
Jam:And sometimes there's people like, there's, there's a lot of people I know also who both the parents Work full time jobs, and they actually just have to do some version of it because it's another option.
Melissa:Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Jam:For a lot of situations, it's not up to you. You have to do what you Right. What your job, you know, requires or whatever. So that's like obviously, there's all kinds of situations out there. Yeah.
Melissa:But I
Jam:do remember Getting from people who hadn't had really many examples in their lot in their minds of, like Yeah. Dads who had been pretty involved in watching their kids, Especially from the youngest stages. You know? Yeah. Like, some of the comments I would get early on would be like, oh, are you ready?
Jam:Are you gonna watching, you know, your kid while your wife's at work and stuff like that.
Melissa:And
Jam:it was funny because I would get some comments like that and quietly, Be lasering holes into their heads. And I remember this feeling of like, man, it's gonna be so funny whenever I freaking crushed this, and and they're just gonna be like, woah. You know?
Melissa:Do you feel like you crushed it?
Jam:Oh, yeah. And I set out to prove all the people who made those kind of comments to me, very wrong. And I Never told them any of the hard things. I always made sure
Melissa:to make sure that
Jam:they only got this really easy report.
Melissa:Yeah. Other
Jam:people I gave the full picture was like, the people who like that, who kind of cast out on me like that. Like, sorry. You're gonna feel bad. Alright. Just so you
Melissa:know probably don't think about it. I do yeah. I was gonna say I was not talking about even whether or not day care was involved. No. Tell you.
Melissa:I just went in general when the kids at home. But, also, I think that's funny because I do remember the 1st time that Emily had to go back to work, and you were gonna be there by yourself.
Jam:Uh-huh. And
Melissa:I was like, that would be scary no matter which parent you were. For the Yeah. Either of you, the first time you're totally alone with a kid Yeah. That's yours, And you have to keep it alive.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa:You're that's scary when you're even babysitting, and you're watching someone else's kid, and you're Yeah. Thinking, wait. I gotta keep this kid alive. Okay. But when they're so new Yes.
Melissa:It means, like, your job. And you've had your person there this whole time you guys have been taking care of it together. Yeah. And now you're by yourself all day Yeah. For 12 hours or 8 hours or whatever with a tiny human.
Melissa:That's Carrie, for any person. Yeah. But it would be especially annoying to as if you couldn't handle it. You're like, I'm gonna handle it. But what a terrifying thing that you have to keep this kid alive now.
Jam:So that's mine. So I was long, but yeah.
Melissa:No. That's good. I think that's kind of what this one's about. Just a bonus episode of us chit chatting. Okay.
Melissa:The next question from Caitlyn h is, what would you need to happen or has already happened for you to feel successful? Again, getting my husband to marry me.
Jam:Same.
Melissa:Yeah. You're getting my husband to marry you? Yep. That
Jam:will be it. That will be it.
Melissa:That's it. I'll be mad.
Jam:I will not rest until I'm taking everything from you. Getting my wife to marry me is definitely a big one. But, wow. What a hard question, dude. Dang.
Melissa:My thought is in some ways, that bar is always moving. Mhmm. Oh, yeah. Right? Like, I think I thought, oh, I'm gonna start this podcast, and that'll be amazing.
Melissa:I'll feel successful, and I do. But then also, I'm like, what if it was the number 1 podcast? And then it became the number 1 podcast, and then I was like, what if it pays my bills? In chemistry. Yeah.
Melissa:In QStreet. Yeah. The number 1 QStreet podcast. Yes. Not the number one Of all.
Melissa:I don't even think that is. Days. So it's almost like that bar keeps It's it's almost like that bar keeps moving. Or, oh, once I get my PhD, I'll feel successful. Well, now I have my PhD, and it's like, Do what do I need to do to contribute to my family, to contribute to the podcast?
Melissa:So it does kind of in one way, I feel like the next step is always coming up, but I also do feel very successful, not because of anything I've achieved, I guess, but because I have such good Friends and family around me. So my life feels full, so I'm like, is that successful enough?
Jam:Yeah. I agree with that. I think to sort to sort of cop out, I don't think I really nowadays, for the most part, don't usually think about, a goal or future bar that I'm trying to hit that's It's kinda the big one, I guess, if that makes sense. I have had those for sure. Like, definitely not knocking at all.
Jam:But I think right now, I am in a spot of, like, I'm doing the things I wanna do and like doing, and Yeah. There are a lot of small goals and bars to hit and stuff all the time, you know, month to month or whatever. But, I don't I don't currently feel like I've got a really big one that I'm like, I'm building toward that. But that might change. I don't know.
Jam:We'll see.
Melissa:Yeah. The next few are kind of lighthearted. We'll wrap up with some lighthearted ones.
Jam:Nice.
Melissa:So I just read the last one, and it really made me laugh. Okay. So these are I'm gonna combine from Preeesh in another Instagram user, the questions we got were, what would your last meal be, and what is your favorite comfort food? So I figured we can kind of combine those and just talk about food we like.
Jam:Okay. Yeah. So mine has changed. I've gotten this question before just like it's one of those that can be an ice cream.
Melissa:They just come up. Yeah.
Jam:A previous one for me, I'll say that so I can kinda give 2 answers sort of, was that I would have in the past answered Penang curry. Mhmm. As like a like, there was a time where that was, like Like, the highest satisfaction of craving
Melissa:treat meal. Yeah.
Jam:Yes. So good. So as far as I said, I love spicy food. So tasty. So much flavor.
Jam:Everything's great. I love the veggies that come in typically from the from most Thai restaurants around here at least. So was one for a while. Now I think at least today, right now, my, like, last meal or comfort meal kinda thing would be some Nashville hot chicken.
Melissa:Oh, yeah.
Jam:It just it I love it. It's just so good. And
Melissa:That's good.
Jam:My brother used to live in Nashville, and so I got to have it a few times whenever he lived there. He does not live there anymore. And so It's one of those things that's, like, to really get it.
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:It's not just something you can just easily get. I mean, there's other places that do the same style, so it's not it's not, like, completely, like no. It's not like it's completely a secret that no one could repeat, but it feels to me like, oh, it's like this Yeah. The thing I've had, It's hard to attain. It's hard to get.
Melissa:And I love it.
Jam:And I love it.
Melissa:Yeah. Yeah. That's a good one. I'm gonna go more on the comfort food side. This is kind of weird, but I've been making this smoothie for breakfast, and it just makes me feel so comforted.
Melissa:Uh-huh. I'm like, this is good for my body. I put frozen squash, some spinach, some blueberries. I'm like, this is good for my body. This is good for my My brain, I'm, like, happy to be eating this.
Melissa:I know it's fighting the antioxidants, and it just, like, does give me this sense of comfort. My husband's laughing at me, it's like I'm doing something good for my body, and it makes me really happy. But I also really love pasta, but pasta doesn't love me. We're trying to figure out why my stomach hates me all the time, and we're suspicious that cheese, which is a big component in most of the pastas I like. Yeah.
Melissa:That's part of it. But I just love a good Prego, no sugar added pasta sauce with some good ravioli. Mhmm. It's my jam.
Jam:Nice. Nice.
Melissa:And then I also like, if I was gonna set up my whole meal, I'll probably then have I also love sushi. It's kinda hard.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:Oh, on my birthday, I had sushi, and then I had some Cake with champagne, and that was really good. I love cake with, like, a glass of champagne. So and you can buy little individual cakes and individual bottles of champagne. So sometimes if I wanna celebrate, I'll go buy, like, a single serving cake and a single serving champagne and have that on a Friday hate by myself. So I think those are some of my those are some of my more consistent treats
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:In sort of different types of comfort maybe.
Jam:Nice. Nice. Those are good good choices.
Melissa:Oh, my husband who it's well past his bedtime is ready to Chime in.
Jam:He's gotten delirious enough to get on the mic.
Melissa:He's ready to share with you what his last meal slash favorite comfort food would would
Jam:So there's this hot pot place, and it's like a whole experience. So that's nice
Jam:Uh-huh.
Jam:For being your last meal. And when you leave, you don't feel Like, you've eaten too much or it's gross. It's like a nice, healthy ish kinda like what you're saying with your smoothie.
Jam:Yeah. Like, it makes you feel like it's a good full. Satisfied, not Mhmm. Like, bursting. Exactly.
Jam:Of course.
Jam:So that would be my My last meal. Nice. Nice. I realized that 2 years ago when I had it, and
Jam:I was like, yep. This could be it. Yeah.
Melissa:And I will say the last thing Mason did before the pandemic started was go to hot pot with his family at that restaurant. That was one of the last things he did, so that could have been hit one of his last love. Yeah. Eat out meals. Yeah.
Jam:In a way. Yeah.
Melissa:Okay. So the last 2 questions are kinda light and fun too in that same way. K. 1 is what wild animal would you have as a pet if there were no ethical or Fifty issues.
Jam:Okay. Interesting.
Melissa:I'm definitely gonna go penguin, because then I would also have to have an ice rink.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:Me and that penguin would skate around? Oh, that'd be cute.
Jam:That would be so cool. Okay. Man, why don't you question no ethical or okay. Okay. Is I don't know.
Jam:This is my idea. I might have a bit different on later. Whatever. But ever since I was a kid, I thought it'd be super cool To have a raccoon.
Melissa:Oh, yes. They're very
Jam:able and capable. I mean, obviously, they can get into trouble and stuff. Right? But say you got one that Hadn't been trained up in the ways of, like, too too wild and have not was not getting into the trash too much or whatever. But they, you know, they can open all kinds of things.
Jam:They're very capable.
Melissa:Yeah. They could be like in Pocahontas, they could be a good sidekick.
Jam:Yes. Yes. And I think they're if you don't think of them as a, you know, causing mischief kind of analog they tend to be in most of our experiences Mhmm. They I think they're pretty cute. And
Melissa:They are pretty cute.
Jam:Yeah. They just have a unique look to them and all that has this. I think if you could if you could train it and, You know, make sure there's no problems about, like, rabies or whatever, other things they might carry around or something like that. It'd be super cool to have raccoon.
Melissa:That would be cool. Yeah. Also, giraffes are super cool.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:They're just really cool.
Jam:They're fascinating.
Melissa:We'd have to have, like, a habitat for that. Yeah. Okay. And the last 1 although I'm not sure if I said this. That one was from Caitlin r.
Jam:K.
Melissa:The last question is from Bridget, and I wanna shout out Bridget because She has a degree in science, and she's been doing these scientific animations that are really cool
Jam:Uh-huh.
Melissa:On Twitter. And I'm usually liking with her post because they're so beautiful. I really, really like them. But Brigitte asked, How would you rather pronounce Chipotle Aristotle? Both like Aristotle or both like Chipotle?
Melissa:So your options are Chipotle Chipotle air or Chipotle I can't say it. Chipotle Aristotle?
Jam:Yes. Chipotle Aristotle or Chipotle or satellite?
Melissa:Every time I read this, I laugh. Aristotle. Would be more like that. Chapotal. Yeah.
Melissa:Yeah. Yeah. Chapotal.
Jam:So I think I
Melissa:would like to Chapada Chapada, Aristotle.
Jam:Yeah. I think about We
Melissa:added Chapada in there. Yeah. Yeah.
Jam:I would like to do Chipotle Aristotle, I think. Partly because I have a friend who used to just just switch the l and the t, Chipotle. Chipotle. Chipotle. Could not convince him to take it away.
Jam:He's just like it was too set in his brain if that was how to say it. So I think the idea of Of me accidentally or whatever mispronouncing Chipotle around would would annoy me too much. Aristotle, fine with me. Not worry about it.
Melissa:Chipotle or Astarte?
Jam:Astarte. What about you?
Melissa:I like Chaputte Aristotle. I don't know that that was an option given, but Yeah. It makes me laugh.
Jam:Chaputte Aristotle. With it both wrong, much would be fun.
Melissa:One of
Jam:the things I did say a thing about being annoyed about with pronouncing Chipotle or whatever. But what what I like to do sometimes is pronounce something in the way that I want to, and it'd be, Like, enough for people know what I'm talking about, but it'd be very much very off of what the real thing is. So at some time ago about I would guess sometime around 5 years ago, I got in my head that it was just funny sounding to me to call Chipotle Chaputscoot. It is, like, so far from
Melissa:the real word. I was not expecting that at all. Think I've already heard the story, and I'm still surprised. So you're saying, like, should
Jam:we go get some Chaput Scoot? Just Usually, no one knows what you're talking about. At least most of the time around me, they do. And it just is way fun to say. And sometimes, I just I don't know.
Jam:I think it's just too fun to say things that, like, Are that weird to say? I don't know.
Melissa:I definitely have the sleepy time sillies because I laughed really hard at the Chipoot skin. Yeah. It's
Jam:very dumb. It is. I'm sorry.
Melissa:That was a good one to end on. Okay. Well, thanks, Bridget, for that. And thanks to all of you who sent in our icebreaker and get know your questions. There was a lot more.
Melissa:We could probably even do an extra one. And so let us know if you like these, if you want us to do these more often. We think this is fun. Jim and I are friends IRL. So we chat about random stuff like this all the time, so we think that this kind of stuff is really fun.
Jam:And we can easily rope Mason on some of these, which really always fun too.
Melissa:We could probably never get Emily in on them because she's kind of you know, she's very private.
Jam:Yes.
Melissa:But especially the Chaputal, Aristotle one, the more times you wanna send them questions like that, the happier we'll be. Yep.
Jam:But, yeah, if you guys like that, we obviously wanna balance, like, of course, like, I guess it's exists for helping you understand the chemistry of your daily life. But
Melissa:Yes.
Jam:It's fun to get to just hang out and talk and hear fun questions from you guys and feel feel like we're hanging out with you all. So that's cool too.
Melissa:And, also, we've thought about making these maybe more regularly and making them available only to those to register on Cofi. So if that's something that you think you'd wanna do, support us on Cofi and get more q and r episodes like this that are nothing about chemistry and just fun, extra content. I mean, chemistry is fun too. But Yeah. Just non chemistry fun, extra content, then let us know.
Melissa:Let us know what you think about it. We love hearing from you, and we love learning ways to make your experience with our show better.
Jam:This episode of Chemistry For Life was created by Melissa Coleenie and Jam Robinson. We'd like to give a special thanks to e Robinson who reviewed this episode.