August 6, 2009 • 28 mins
Competitive eating is a modern "sport" that's very popular in the United States. Join Josh and Chuck as they delve into the fascinatingly gross world of competitive eating in this podcast from HowStuffWorks.com.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff you should know
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(00:24):
Check out how stuffworks dot com slash tent Evaders to
find out more. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
Josh Clark. With me as always this Charles W. Chuck
Chucker's chuckle Head, Chuck Chuck Chuck Chuck Chuck Bryant. You
can just call me Kobayashi. No, okay, good, that was
(00:44):
a great set of Chuck. Let's talk about a competitive
eating go. Wow, you had something better than that plan out, didn't,
you know? Not really? Okay against talking about like, oh
I'm awful. I remember in high school, back when I
was a younger man. Uh, there was this place. Do
you remember Buffalo is the chain? I don't think it's
around anymore. I think I think the Wings Cafe or whatever. Yeah. Um,
(01:06):
they used to have like a like an ongoing um
hall of Fame or whatever wall of fame. It was
a plaque with people's names on it. They would like,
eat an X number of wings. And I had a
couple of friends on there at the one by Sprayberry
High School, Mary Georgia. I don't think fifty or more
gute on there. Did you got Sprayberry? Yeah? I went Sprayberry.
(01:27):
Did not know that? Did you know anybody who went
to Sprayberry besides Travis Tritt and some guy who was
on some reality show? No, no, I did not realize
that they went there. Yeah, I've got let me see.
I think you had a cup. Chris Kardaki went to
my school. He was an NFL punter, and um, where'd
you go? I went to read Ann oh Over in
(01:49):
the cab. Yeah. Yeah. Is it possible that I'm the
most famous person that went to my high school? Holy cow?
How cool would that be? Chuck, Well, Chuck, what's the
most you've ever eaten? I have no idea. It had
to be some like Chinese food buffet or something. I'll
just say, yeah, yeah, those things will kill you, especially
the big ones. I have like seven buffets in one restaurant.
(02:10):
One of my friends had to be helped out. I
had to help him out with hi hippie justin Okay,
yeah close? Really wow, yeah that was close. Yeah. I
I don't do the buffet thing anymore. That's I learned
that from my dad, you know, how to master the
buffet when I was very young. But I get your
money's worth. Yeah, yeah, and I have since learned. You know,
my dad was busy gorging himself. My mom was stuffing
(02:32):
things in her purse. This is like how things were
in the seventies when he went to a buffet. Yeah. Well,
buffets have come a long way since then. And why
does anyone go to any cafeteria style restaurant, especially there's
usually a buffet across the street. It's like all you
can eat or very tiny portions for the same exact price.
I'll tell you where I'm going, buddy. I'm going to
(02:53):
the place where people with oxygen tanks and rascals who
are sweating grease are coming out of the doors. That's
where I'm going, because that's where you're going to get
your money for agreed, So buffet's. We've both eaten too
much at buffet's. That's our setup. Really Yeah, but no
more let's let's talk about competitive eating. There's nothing competitive
about a buffet except vying for the white meat. That's
(03:15):
the only competitive that's your thing. Yeah. Yeah, So there
are people out there, as as you may have guessed
by now, um, that eat competitively. A lot of people.
You've got rugby, you have highly poker, dolphin glass owing,
and competitive eating. Yeah, those are pretty much the top
(03:35):
four or five sports. I don't remember how many I
just said. Okay, yeah, yeah, I would agree. I can't
think of any other sport that would that would top those. No,
I would put highlight in the first position, though, would
you really? So you should? I guess we should just
go ahead and say that there is an actual federation
called the International Federation of Competitive Eating. It's since been
(03:56):
retitled Major League Eating. Did you know that there? We'reization
really I think they still go by uh the I
f O c E, but they also go by competitive
Major League Eating. Yeah, this sounds more official the other way.
I like. I like the first one more two. Just
gonna go ahead and say it. Did you know it
was founded by Nathan's Hot Dogs publicity wing. It does
(04:17):
not surprise me. I didn't know that though the rumor
has it that the Nathan's, the famous Nathan's hot dog
stand in Coney Island, started uh competitive eating in nineteen
sixteen with four friends who sat down together and challenge
each other too too out eat hot dogs two and
whoever ate the most was the better patriot. So if
(04:39):
you can eat more hot dogs, you are better patriot. Yeah.
It was I think Fourth of July right that they
did it. I think so. And then they I think
one of like thirteen hot dogs and he was the
better patriot. And since then it's been a thing, which
is it's peanuts, it's measily. Can I stop doing an
accent now? No, I'd like you to continue for the
rest of the podcast. How wouldn't that be great? Yeah?
(04:59):
Are you going to? No? It sounds very Coney Island show,
very Coney Island nineteen sixteen. I mean you nailed it. Um. So,
I think Nathan's continued this for all Fourth of July's
after that, or probably the vast majority. Probably not during
World War two. Nobody did anything during World War Two.
The thing is is people were still just kind of
(05:19):
um eating twelve thirteen, sixteen hot dogs, right, which is
nothing compared to what they do now, right, And there
were there were other eating competitions. There was this one
between a guy who played outfield I think for the Yankees,
Ping Body, that was an Italian American and Uh in
nineteen nineteen, he engaged in a spaghetti eating contest with
(05:43):
an Ostrich. I challenge you Ostrich, yep, the but I
think that's exactly how it went down too, and the
Ostrich just is like, what's spaghetti? The Ostrich just ate
whatever was based in front of it, eleven bowls. Apparently, Uh,
Ping Body was declared the winner because apparently the Ostrich
either fainted or died on its eleven pole, depending on
(06:06):
who you ask, the proud tradition of the Yankees exactly
the dark and Ping just probably ate the the unconscious
Ostrich and then smoked five cigars right afterwards, exactly. And
then did you gotten a drinking contest with Babe Ruth?
That's probably how that went down. Yeah. So uh, there's
also painting contests, a staple of country fairs. Yeah, back
(06:27):
in the day. I think they in the article at
Leasta said that that was more along the lines of, hey,
let's like tie your hands behind your back, not necessarily
see how many pies you can eat. It was a
little more I wouldn't say challenging, but I think the
fund yeah more gross chuck. We have been organically and
um irresistibly led right back to standby man, you're going
(06:50):
to say that, how could I not the great great
story that young Will Wheaton says about the that he
makes up as the young writer the painting contest, large
wide load, fantastic scene. Um. But yes, so that was
a county fair pie eating contest. It's just kind of
goes willy nilly all over the place. Anybody who wanted
(07:10):
to get fifty people or so to their um store
will the eating contest. Well. In the nineties, as we
were saying, I think, um, George and Richard Shay, who
I think may still run publicity for Nathan's Famous Hotdogs,
took this old concept and really drummed it up. They
took it to the next level and then some and
(07:31):
they were answered by some people who have dedicated their
free time at least to competitive eating. Like I don't
know exactly how this symbiotic relationship came about, but these
guys put the call out there and some people answered it.
What are they called chuck gurgitators, gurgetators. That's right, it is.
(07:54):
It is gross because you slap ran there and you're
talking about someone who pukes, and we'll we'll get into
the thing, and I know I can't wait, just to
warn people it is coming. Yeah. Um, so since the
since the late nineties, actually since the century, because I
think for a few years it took a few years
to catch on and people were still just really phoning
(08:15):
it in eating thirteen fifteen eighteen hot dogs, and then,
like I think, starting in about two thousand two, a
little fella, I think a hundred and sixty pounds out
of Japan named Takaro Kobayashi, which is why you said,
called me Kobayashi. Not to be confused, um with the
attorney in um the usual suspects it Okay, die hard,
(08:39):
I'm an idiot, die Hard Kobayashi, the usual sub suspects. Yeah,
that's not to me. Yeah, not tell me, tower's what
I was thinking. Yeah, no, I'm talking Kobayashi and the
usual suspect. I feel like a heel now. It's because
I'm a movie guy. Do you want us to edit
this part out? Okay, thanks for leaving it in chuck,
I'll be wrong. Um. So, Takiro Kobayashi hits the scene
hundred sixty pounds sucking red hair. Uh can eat fifty
(09:03):
sixty hot dogs in like eight minutes, ten minutes. So
all of a sudden, all these guys who were you know,
just like, oh, check me out a eighteen hot dogs
in ten minutes. These they're they're weeping at home and
their garages. That's it. They're done, they're over, their careers
are done. Kobayashi rocks the competitive eating world, and he
attracts more and more people big time. He owned it
(09:25):
for many years, he did and actually lost only because
of a jaw injury. Really yeah, we'll get to that
in a few okay, um but so yeah, he's he's
at the Nathan's hot Dog Fourth of July hot Dog
eating contest, and that's the biggest one. There's all kinds
of eating contests, which we'll get into that too. We
keep teasing, we're not going to get around to any
of this, but the Nathan's hot Dog Contest is is
(09:48):
easily the most famous, and I mean it's the world
series of the Super Bowl of Yeah, it's broadcast on ESPN.
Have you actually actually watched it in full? I wish
you wouldn't ask me that, because as I did a
few years ago. I don't remember why I was in
front of my television at the time, but I did,
and uh, it was disgusting. It was really really gross
(10:10):
and hard to watch. You know. I've I've read um
and actually I've got to source this openly and honestly,
I've read this on cracked dot com. But there's this
stuff called side food and the stuff that comes out
the sides of the mouth that's kind of half chewed,
and man, I guess just through physics, you know, yea
to two objects can't occupy the same space at the
(10:30):
same time, so I think the rest of that law
ends with so some of that stuff comes out of
your mouth kind of chewed up the sides of your mouth,
I guess. Um. So yeah, I understand it is very gross. Yeah,
I had a hard time watching it. Yeah, you didn't
make it through the whole thing. No. I watched it
because I wanted to see if it was the big
matchup between Kobayashi and Joey Chestnut. Okay, so we've arrived
(10:54):
at Joey Chestnuts that that must have been two thousand seven, Buddy,
I think it was the first year he won, which
was two thousand seven. That was the year that kobey
Ashi had a jaw injury that supposedly field um And
apparently during the competition, Chestnut beat Kobayashi sixty six to
sixty three, and kobey Ashi says, no, no, I had
(11:15):
a jaw injury, and Chestnut says, eat it, buddy, I
beat you and I'm now the champion in Kobe. She said,
don't get in some water and I will eat it. Yeah,
because that is a technique that many competitive eaters used.
It is and um actually almost all of them. Ed Grabanowski,
the grabster who wrote this article and actually for this
article went to uh An eating constant in Buffalo. Yeah,
(11:39):
he describes it clearly. He didn't read the last two pages,
didn't um. He describes this visit to it, and you
know several people are there. Sonya Thomas, the black widow,
hundred pounds dude, hundred pounds of Korean ancestry ancestry fury.
Can we just go ahead and mention a couple of
records she holds because she is littered over the I
(11:59):
fo c E Record Book. Sonya Thomas has eaten thirty
five brought worse in ten minutes. She's eating a hundred
and sixty seven chicken wings in thirty two minutes. She's
eating four pounds of fruit cake in ten minutes. Can
I say my favorite? Yeah, She's eaten eight point three
one pounds of armored Vienna sausage in ten minutes. Wow,
(12:23):
all right, and I'm gonna go with this final one
unless you have one. She ate forty four forty four
main lobsters, dude in twelve minutes. And that's the meat
obviously only, which is that was eleven pounds of meat.
She also you left out probably your most famous one,
which is that? So have you seen cool hand Luke Well, yeah,
you know the hard boiled egg eating cont so cool
(12:45):
hand Luke Tift. She ate sixty five hard boiled eggs
in six minutes for seconds. Hundred pounds of woman. Yeah,
stuff in this food down to throat. Yeah. She eats
um once a day, one large meal a day, usually
from a buffet. In the article, she's shown helping herself
to some sushi um and uh, yeah, she's a hundred pounds.
(13:07):
She's she lives in Alexandria, Virginia, and she dominates right
now as of what's the date today, Chuck, the thirty
one of July. She is number six in the i
fo c E rankings. I bet she's the top female
in g Yes. I imagine she destroys the female competition. Yeah,
it's good for her, right and again, like you said,
(13:27):
she's a hundred pounds, she's it's awesome and she goes
by the black Widow. So it doesn't get cooler than
that right now, not any core. Um. We talked about
Kobe Ashi, who for I think from like two thousand
to two thousand and seven held all the major records. Uh,
he just could not be stopped and so competitive eating.
He's from Japan. The Japanese just dominated competitive eating until
(13:50):
two thousand seven Joey Chestnut shows up. Joey, this guy
has put the smack down on absolutely everybody everyone. He
hold some crazy, crazy records. Uh. He ate a hundred
and three Crystal Burghers, which, for our friends in the
Northeast are the same thing as White Castle pretty much sliders,
(14:10):
uh and I don't know what they would be out west,
any clue? Are Jack in the Box small and square.
Uh no, okay, I don't remember. I don't actually remember
ever seeing any little sliders out there. I'm sure they
have them though. Uh. If you go onto the I
f o C website, click on Joey Chestnut if you
dare everything that comes up. He's just got this laundry
(14:32):
list records that he holds. Right, he's a champion eater
for sure, and he has Kobe Ashi's but uh in
oh seven oh eight and then just a month or
like not even a month ago and O nine Yeah,
instead of new world record, right that jaw injury. Um
excuse only goes so far. Sixty eight hot dogs is
what Joey Chestnut eight this year and that's including buns.
(14:53):
And let's talk about some of these people do this. Um,
you talked about dunking and water. Almost everybody uses mostly water,
but you're allowed to with any dip your food in
a drinks. It makes it you would get so full everywhere. Um,
have a Roman incident? Is that what you mean? That's
what the FOC calls it. That's right, Yeah, they call
(15:15):
it a Roman incident. If you vomit, and I believe
if you vomit on the table or on the food,
then you're disqualified. But um, apparently, from what I understand,
if you puke uh and it doesn't touch the table
or whatever, um, you can proceed, I guess. But at
the same time, like they probably count that as eaten.
(15:35):
I think in two thousand two, Kobayashi um had a
little controversy where he vomited some up and it was
counted as eating. He held most of it back though, right, Yeah,
he put his hand and see that's what's so gross, man.
And these guys and ladies are eating the stuff and
they're just stuffing in in their mouths and you can
see this like look on their face like they're gonna die.
(15:56):
And all of a sudden you see one of them
like yeah, and they put their hands over their mouth,
and you know what's happening. Kind of tell you a
little story, yeah, God, a little little story from my path.
Let so imagine Josh Clark age one on July. Okay,
sleep in a in a field behind a home depot.
That would have been U. I'm in Athens, Georgia, go dogs, right, uh,
(16:21):
And I'm at what was the I guess the Half
Moon Pub. Yeah, it was downstairs. Yeah, I had friends
at work there downstairs from the Athens Coffee House, I
think so it was. Um, So, I'm down at half
Moon hanging out with some friends and I see a
guy who i'm I have I'm mutual friends with or
we have mutual friends. I'm sorry, but he and I
don't really like each other. He comes over and he goes, hey, here,
(16:44):
it's your birthday. Let me buy you a shot. I'm like, sure,
no problem. So he buys me a shot of two
fifty two. What is that? Baccardi? Are you ready? It's
a shot of bacartie and wild turkey one oh one.
There is no reason for the shot to exist in
the universe, right, So the guy buys me the shot.
(17:06):
I take it, you know, not wanting to to look
like a coward and already kind of ripped. Um. I
take the shot and I feel it immediately start to
come back up, and not just that, everything everything start
to come back up. I throw my hand in front
of my mouth and stop it just before it comes
back up, wipe my mouth, put the shot glass down,
look the guy in the eye and say thanks for
(17:27):
the shot, and turn around and walk away. Because he
was trying to get me the puke, right, I showed him.
That's what happened in my head. You wanna hear what
happened in reality. The guy buys me the shot, I
take it, throw my hand up to my hand, to
my mouth, puke everywhere, including the bar, on the guy,
on myself, put the shot glass down, look him in
(17:47):
the eye and say thanks for the shot, and turned
around and walked away. You're kidding, and you were disqualified.
I was disqualified because it would have gotten on some
food or something. Yeah, Tony first birthday. You know I
had friends at work there at the time. I bet
they remember that night. I'm gonna ask them. You should
ask my buddy Clay. Have them send in some listener mail.
We'll read it. Alright, So Chuck, let's talk about I
think we're going to talk about how people do this, right. Yeah,
(18:10):
I think that the water we're on the water thing
and we get really sidetracked by vomit. Kobayashi has a
little technique called Japanese ng or solemnon ng. Yeah, breaking
the wiener in half, separating the weener from the bun,
breaking the weener in half, stuffing the winer in his
mouth with both hands at the same time, at the
same time to to get yeah, to get the hold
(18:31):
and then dunking the bun very quickly in the water.
And it's at that point in the bun is just
like a you know, stoppy mess. It goes down pretty easy, imagine, right.
I was doing a little research, dude, and I gotta
tell you, Crystals is mixing it up. If they're they're
hamburger eating contest into September coming up. Uh, they have
a no dunking rule really, and they're introducing their big burgers.
(18:55):
Oh wow, So it's gonna it's gonna be all crazy,
gonna get messy. Yeah, but yeah, they won't be allowed
to which is actually a radical departure from standard rules. Yeah.
I'd prefer to see a straight up contest. Yeah, I
mean if it's not sixty eight dogs, who cares, what
if it's like forty, but it's genuine hot dog eating,
no dunking, no water, lots of vomiting. Yeah, that's what
(19:16):
we all want, Chuck, we should probably put like a
needle coming off of a record at this point. Thank you.
We've um gotten kind of all delta force on this,
you know, competitive eating, even though I think it's disgusting.
Not everybody thinks it's a it's good or great or whatever.
A lot of people, including the fine, fine actor star
(19:39):
of Van Wilder, Ryan Reynolds, thinks that basically it's a um,
it's a real symbol of America's obese wastefulness. And you
know what, that's not an argument that's easily defended. No,
it really isn't, because you know, you think, well, this
guy just eight, um, how many sixty eight hot dogs
in eight minutes? How many uh, how many kids died
(20:02):
in the eight minutes from starvation? And some of these competitors.
You're allowed to make yourself throw the food up afterward, right, Yeah,
whatever you do after you after it's done, however you
get rid of it, is okay. So that's straight up
it is, and that's no one is encouraging that by
any means. And it's dangerous. Some of these people too,
when they train, they they'll drink like a gallon of
(20:24):
water in a minute, and they try and do these
things to expand your stomach. That's dangerous too. It is
there's actually water intoxication, which can be fatal because it
screws with the the dilution of electrolytes in your body,
which is bad. That's bad news, dude. Right, and a
woman died of fears back from water intoxication from a contest.
I had heard that. Well, not only that, Um, you
(20:46):
can actually get gastro pariasis, which is a stomach paralysis. Right,
And basically, after your stomach is stretched out enough enough times,
it will stop contracting and you won't evacuate your stomach
to your small intestine any longer. Yeah, which is not
good when that happens. Actually, yeah, so I don't know
(21:07):
if you knew that. It's it's not good. The dark
side of competitive eating. Uh, you know the people who
endorse this or I'm gonna say that, they just have
a lot of fun with it. And then it's a
tradition and it's kind of a big joke. I know
when you see it on TV, they look like they're
taking it really seriously. Apparently that's all kind of part
of the act and they all think it's kind of funny.
But dude, twenty grand on the line. Yeah, there's some
(21:30):
serious prose money for for Nathan's hot dogs. It's twenty
dollar prize and the mustard Belt. So, um, that's a
nice little chunk of change for stuff and down hot dogs. Plus. Also, um,
I think the i fo c E does not endorse
or support anybody practicing or training for it. But the
(21:50):
gurigitators actually do train very hard. Actually, um, I think
I was reading about an interview yeah with Joey chest
U And dude, he drinks like a gallon of milk
in a single sitting to expand his stomach. Um, he
eats or no, actually goes several days without eating and
(22:12):
just subsist some protein supplements, so his weight will very radically,
like in the teens and in low twenties of pounds
within you know, a couple of weeks, and then afterwards
he gains a lot of it back, because if you
eat eight pounds of food, you just gained eight pounds
pal Until you pass it, it's there and your stomach
(22:33):
is in big trouble. Yeah, I can't imagine. I hate
feeling full. For god, that's like overweight. You would think
that I'd just gorge myself, But dude, I hate feeling full.
It's the worst stupid metaoism. Do you know why you
feel full? Uh? Well, I know You've got a little
science here. Try and legitimize this real. Um. So when
you're hungry, uh, hormone produced in the stomach called growing
(22:56):
sends a signal to your brain via the Vargas uh
nerve I believe, um. And as you eat, a hormone
produced from the same d n A on the same
genetic code called opus staton kind of like obese that
(23:17):
goes to your brain and says, hey, dude, stop eating. Well,
apparently a physiologist who's studying this name is David Mets
from the University of Pennsylvania. He has he can't say
how they're doing it, but from studying a guy called
eater X sexually, UM, he he's figured out that these
people have figured out how to block the signal from
(23:39):
their brain. Just highly dangerous a k. A. Kobayashi. It's
probably not Kobayashi, but I bet he uses those techniques.
I think they all do. They have to do. You
have to expand your stomach. And actually, you noticed a
lot of these people are very small. Uh. And there
is a theory that kind of came about that said,
the less fat you are, because you think, well, if
(24:00):
you're a big bat guy, yeah, yeah, you're gonna be
able to just gorge yourself. And there's smaller people like
the black widow hundred pounds, right, Um, she can put
it away like the red like the best of them.
And they think that the reason why is because there's
less resistance for the stomach to stretch. It's not pressing
up against fat, which doesn't give as much as air.
Sort of makes sense. Can I mention the paper that
(24:22):
was written by Ed Cratchy, he's a uh, he's a
competitive eater himself, and he were a paper called can
Abdominal fat act as a restrictive agent on Stomach expansion?
And Exploration of the impact of adipose tissue and competitive eating?
So it sounds very intelligent. Unfortunately, the medical community rejected
(24:45):
it and it refused to publish it and said go
eat your hot dog's buddy and leave the medical journaling
to us, right, But Popular Science had an article that
supported it in two thousand three. That's the tree this
this basically checks out true. So legitimate maybe, but not
as far as a medical science is concerned. I do
want to talk about one gross thing. Yeah, since it
(25:05):
hasn't been gross at all. Old leg Or Zornitsky, he's
he's very fashionable apparently he's known for his fashion sense.
Ukrainian competitive eater. He this is the worst one to me,
chicken wings. I love all that stuff brought worst. Give it,
give it, give it up. He ate four thirty two
ounce bowls of mayonnaise in eight minutes, and I love mayonnaise,
(25:29):
and it makes me not want to eat mayonnaise. Four
thirty two ounce bowls of mayonnaise. Can you imagine that? Man?
Is definitely something that you should eat in moderation. Okay,
I'm not feeling so good now. Did you mention the
cow's brains? No, Kobayashi, Kobyashi, he holds the record for
eating cow's brains, which was do you know how many? Yeah?
I think it was like eighteen pounds of cows brains
(25:50):
in fifteen minutes. It was I could not eat one
ounce of cow's brain in a lifetime. So koby Ashi
has me lick did that one? Especially not with this
hoof and mouth thing that they've got going on. Seriously, So,
if you want to learn more about competitive eating, including
Ed Grebanowski's um first person account of what and eating
contest is like, you can type in competitive eating appropriately
(26:13):
enough in the handy search bar how stuff works dot com?
And since I just said handy search bar how stuff
works dot Com, that means it's time. Thank god for
listener mail. Josh, I'm just gonna call this, um, we
are banned in classes? Yeah, I saw this one, you know. Yeah,
(26:34):
this from Sarah, and Sarah says, I love the podcast,
but I recently got a banned for my AP biology class.
And did you take AP classes? You probably did, your
smart guy. Really, I took AP English and AP history actually,
but science not my thing. She is a senior in
high school and for the past year she has spent
every day in biology lab poking dead things and staring
(26:56):
at cell walls in a microscope. You can imagine gets
a little boring, even for a bio fanatic, ignoring the
stinch of fetal pigs and memorizing the function of cell organelles.
So during study hall, I would take out my iPod
and listen to your podcast. Some of the subjects we
would cover overlap with podcast episodes I just listened to,
so I would mention what I had learned in essays
(27:17):
or discussions and even on an AP exam using us. Anyway,
my teacher discovered this. She was thrilled that I've been
doing research out of class and she asked where I
was learning all these odd but accurate facts. When I
let her listen to the iPod, she called it a
utensil for cheating or a tool of the devil, and
subsequently banned it from our classroom. And I really think
(27:39):
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my questions about alien hand syndrome than she was about
my listening to the podcast. But either way, thanks so
much for helping me. As her essay questions, you guys
are the best. For the record, I never used your
podcasts as a utensive to cheating. All the best, Sarah, fantastic.
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(00:24):
Check out how stuffworks dot com slash tent Evaders to
find out more. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
Josh Clark. With me as always this Charles W. Chuck
Chucker's chuckle Head, Chuck Chuck Chuck Chuck Chuck Bryant. You
can just call me Kobayashi. No, okay, good, that was
(00:44):
a great set of Chuck. Let's talk about a competitive
eating go. Wow, you had something better than that plan out, didn't,
you know? Not really? Okay against talking about like, oh
I'm awful. I remember in high school, back when I
was a younger man. Uh, there was this place. Do
you remember Buffalo is the chain? I don't think it's
around anymore. I think I think the Wings Cafe or whatever. Yeah. Um,
(01:06):
they used to have like a like an ongoing um
hall of Fame or whatever wall of fame. It was
a plaque with people's names on it. They would like,
eat an X number of wings. And I had a
couple of friends on there at the one by Sprayberry
High School, Mary Georgia. I don't think fifty or more
gute on there. Did you got Sprayberry? Yeah? I went Sprayberry.
(01:27):
Did not know that? Did you know anybody who went
to Sprayberry besides Travis Tritt and some guy who was
on some reality show? No, no, I did not realize
that they went there. Yeah, I've got let me see.
I think you had a cup. Chris Kardaki went to
my school. He was an NFL punter, and um, where'd
you go? I went to read Ann oh Over in
(01:49):
the cab. Yeah. Yeah. Is it possible that I'm the
most famous person that went to my high school? Holy cow?
How cool would that be? Chuck, Well, Chuck, what's the
most you've ever eaten? I have no idea. It had
to be some like Chinese food buffet or something. I'll
just say, yeah, yeah, those things will kill you, especially
the big ones. I have like seven buffets in one restaurant.
(02:10):
One of my friends had to be helped out. I
had to help him out with hi hippie justin Okay,
yeah close? Really wow, yeah that was close. Yeah. I
I don't do the buffet thing anymore. That's I learned
that from my dad, you know, how to master the
buffet when I was very young. But I get your
money's worth. Yeah, yeah, and I have since learned. You know,
my dad was busy gorging himself. My mom was stuffing
(02:32):
things in her purse. This is like how things were
in the seventies when he went to a buffet. Yeah. Well,
buffets have come a long way since then. And why
does anyone go to any cafeteria style restaurant, especially there's
usually a buffet across the street. It's like all you
can eat or very tiny portions for the same exact price.
I'll tell you where I'm going, buddy. I'm going to
(02:53):
the place where people with oxygen tanks and rascals who
are sweating grease are coming out of the doors. That's
where I'm going, because that's where you're going to get
your money for agreed, So buffet's. We've both eaten too
much at buffet's. That's our setup. Really Yeah, but no
more let's let's talk about competitive eating. There's nothing competitive
about a buffet except vying for the white meat. That's
(03:15):
the only competitive that's your thing. Yeah. Yeah, So there
are people out there, as as you may have guessed
by now, um, that eat competitively. A lot of people.
You've got rugby, you have highly poker, dolphin glass owing,
and competitive eating. Yeah, those are pretty much the top
(03:35):
four or five sports. I don't remember how many I
just said. Okay, yeah, yeah, I would agree. I can't
think of any other sport that would that would top those. No,
I would put highlight in the first position, though, would
you really? So you should? I guess we should just
go ahead and say that there is an actual federation
called the International Federation of Competitive Eating. It's since been
(03:56):
retitled Major League Eating. Did you know that there? We'reization
really I think they still go by uh the I
f O c E, but they also go by competitive
Major League Eating. Yeah, this sounds more official the other way.
I like. I like the first one more two. Just
gonna go ahead and say it. Did you know it
was founded by Nathan's Hot Dogs publicity wing. It does
(04:17):
not surprise me. I didn't know that though the rumor
has it that the Nathan's, the famous Nathan's hot dog
stand in Coney Island, started uh competitive eating in nineteen
sixteen with four friends who sat down together and challenge
each other too too out eat hot dogs two and
whoever ate the most was the better patriot. So if
(04:39):
you can eat more hot dogs, you are better patriot. Yeah.
It was I think Fourth of July right that they
did it. I think so. And then they I think
one of like thirteen hot dogs and he was the
better patriot. And since then it's been a thing, which
is it's peanuts, it's measily. Can I stop doing an
accent now? No, I'd like you to continue for the
rest of the podcast. How wouldn't that be great? Yeah?
(04:59):
Are you going to? No? It sounds very Coney Island show,
very Coney Island nineteen sixteen. I mean you nailed it. Um. So,
I think Nathan's continued this for all Fourth of July's
after that, or probably the vast majority. Probably not during
World War two. Nobody did anything during World War Two.
The thing is is people were still just kind of
(05:19):
um eating twelve thirteen, sixteen hot dogs, right, which is
nothing compared to what they do now, right, And there
were there were other eating competitions. There was this one
between a guy who played outfield I think for the Yankees,
Ping Body, that was an Italian American and Uh in
nineteen nineteen, he engaged in a spaghetti eating contest with
(05:43):
an Ostrich. I challenge you Ostrich, yep, the but I
think that's exactly how it went down too, and the
Ostrich just is like, what's spaghetti? The Ostrich just ate
whatever was based in front of it, eleven bowls. Apparently, Uh,
Ping Body was declared the winner because apparently the Ostrich
either fainted or died on its eleven pole, depending on
(06:06):
who you ask, the proud tradition of the Yankees exactly
the dark and Ping just probably ate the the unconscious
Ostrich and then smoked five cigars right afterwards, exactly. And
then did you gotten a drinking contest with Babe Ruth?
That's probably how that went down. Yeah. So uh, there's
also painting contests, a staple of country fairs. Yeah, back
(06:27):
in the day. I think they in the article at
Leasta said that that was more along the lines of, hey,
let's like tie your hands behind your back, not necessarily
see how many pies you can eat. It was a
little more I wouldn't say challenging, but I think the
fund yeah more gross chuck. We have been organically and
um irresistibly led right back to standby man, you're going
(06:50):
to say that, how could I not the great great
story that young Will Wheaton says about the that he
makes up as the young writer the painting contest, large
wide load, fantastic scene. Um. But yes, so that was
a county fair pie eating contest. It's just kind of
goes willy nilly all over the place. Anybody who wanted
(07:10):
to get fifty people or so to their um store
will the eating contest. Well. In the nineties, as we
were saying, I think, um, George and Richard Shay, who
I think may still run publicity for Nathan's Famous Hotdogs,
took this old concept and really drummed it up. They
took it to the next level and then some and
(07:31):
they were answered by some people who have dedicated their
free time at least to competitive eating. Like I don't
know exactly how this symbiotic relationship came about, but these
guys put the call out there and some people answered it.
What are they called chuck gurgitators, gurgetators. That's right, it is.
(07:54):
It is gross because you slap ran there and you're
talking about someone who pukes, and we'll we'll get into
the thing, and I know I can't wait, just to
warn people it is coming. Yeah. Um, so since the
since the late nineties, actually since the century, because I
think for a few years it took a few years
to catch on and people were still just really phoning
(08:15):
it in eating thirteen fifteen eighteen hot dogs, and then,
like I think, starting in about two thousand two, a
little fella, I think a hundred and sixty pounds out
of Japan named Takaro Kobayashi, which is why you said,
called me Kobayashi. Not to be confused, um with the
attorney in um the usual suspects it Okay, die hard,
(08:39):
I'm an idiot, die Hard Kobayashi, the usual sub suspects. Yeah,
that's not to me. Yeah, not tell me, tower's what
I was thinking. Yeah, no, I'm talking Kobayashi and the
usual suspect. I feel like a heel now. It's because
I'm a movie guy. Do you want us to edit
this part out? Okay, thanks for leaving it in chuck,
I'll be wrong. Um. So, Takiro Kobayashi hits the scene
hundred sixty pounds sucking red hair. Uh can eat fifty
(09:03):
sixty hot dogs in like eight minutes, ten minutes. So
all of a sudden, all these guys who were you know,
just like, oh, check me out a eighteen hot dogs
in ten minutes. These they're they're weeping at home and
their garages. That's it. They're done, they're over, their careers
are done. Kobayashi rocks the competitive eating world, and he
attracts more and more people big time. He owned it
(09:25):
for many years, he did and actually lost only because
of a jaw injury. Really yeah, we'll get to that
in a few okay, um but so yeah, he's he's
at the Nathan's hot Dog Fourth of July hot Dog
eating contest, and that's the biggest one. There's all kinds
of eating contests, which we'll get into that too. We
keep teasing, we're not going to get around to any
of this, but the Nathan's hot Dog Contest is is
(09:48):
easily the most famous, and I mean it's the world
series of the Super Bowl of Yeah, it's broadcast on ESPN.
Have you actually actually watched it in full? I wish
you wouldn't ask me that, because as I did a
few years ago. I don't remember why I was in
front of my television at the time, but I did,
and uh, it was disgusting. It was really really gross
(10:10):
and hard to watch. You know. I've I've read um
and actually I've got to source this openly and honestly,
I've read this on cracked dot com. But there's this
stuff called side food and the stuff that comes out
the sides of the mouth that's kind of half chewed,
and man, I guess just through physics, you know, yea
to two objects can't occupy the same space at the
(10:30):
same time, so I think the rest of that law
ends with so some of that stuff comes out of
your mouth kind of chewed up the sides of your mouth,
I guess. Um. So yeah, I understand it is very gross. Yeah,
I had a hard time watching it. Yeah, you didn't
make it through the whole thing. No. I watched it
because I wanted to see if it was the big
matchup between Kobayashi and Joey Chestnut. Okay, so we've arrived
(10:54):
at Joey Chestnuts that that must have been two thousand seven, Buddy,
I think it was the first year he won, which
was two thousand seven. That was the year that kobey
Ashi had a jaw injury that supposedly field um And
apparently during the competition, Chestnut beat Kobayashi sixty six to
sixty three, and kobey Ashi says, no, no, I had
(11:15):
a jaw injury, and Chestnut says, eat it, buddy, I
beat you and I'm now the champion in Kobe. She said,
don't get in some water and I will eat it. Yeah,
because that is a technique that many competitive eaters used.
It is and um actually almost all of them. Ed Grabanowski,
the grabster who wrote this article and actually for this
article went to uh An eating constant in Buffalo. Yeah,
(11:39):
he describes it clearly. He didn't read the last two pages,
didn't um. He describes this visit to it, and you
know several people are there. Sonya Thomas, the black widow,
hundred pounds dude, hundred pounds of Korean ancestry ancestry fury.
Can we just go ahead and mention a couple of
records she holds because she is littered over the I
(11:59):
fo c E Record Book. Sonya Thomas has eaten thirty
five brought worse in ten minutes. She's eating a hundred
and sixty seven chicken wings in thirty two minutes. She's
eating four pounds of fruit cake in ten minutes. Can
I say my favorite? Yeah, She's eaten eight point three
one pounds of armored Vienna sausage in ten minutes. Wow,
(12:23):
all right, and I'm gonna go with this final one
unless you have one. She ate forty four forty four
main lobsters, dude in twelve minutes. And that's the meat
obviously only, which is that was eleven pounds of meat.
She also you left out probably your most famous one,
which is that? So have you seen cool hand Luke Well, yeah,
you know the hard boiled egg eating cont so cool
(12:45):
hand Luke Tift. She ate sixty five hard boiled eggs
in six minutes for seconds. Hundred pounds of woman. Yeah,
stuff in this food down to throat. Yeah. She eats
um once a day, one large meal a day, usually
from a buffet. In the article, she's shown helping herself
to some sushi um and uh, yeah, she's a hundred pounds.
(13:07):
She's she lives in Alexandria, Virginia, and she dominates right
now as of what's the date today, Chuck, the thirty
one of July. She is number six in the i
fo c E rankings. I bet she's the top female
in g Yes. I imagine she destroys the female competition. Yeah,
it's good for her, right and again, like you said,
(13:27):
she's a hundred pounds, she's it's awesome and she goes
by the black Widow. So it doesn't get cooler than
that right now, not any core. Um. We talked about
Kobe Ashi, who for I think from like two thousand
to two thousand and seven held all the major records. Uh,
he just could not be stopped and so competitive eating.
He's from Japan. The Japanese just dominated competitive eating until
(13:50):
two thousand seven Joey Chestnut shows up. Joey, this guy
has put the smack down on absolutely everybody everyone. He
hold some crazy, crazy records. Uh. He ate a hundred
and three Crystal Burghers, which, for our friends in the
Northeast are the same thing as White Castle pretty much sliders,
(14:10):
uh and I don't know what they would be out west,
any clue? Are Jack in the Box small and square.
Uh no, okay, I don't remember. I don't actually remember
ever seeing any little sliders out there. I'm sure they
have them though. Uh. If you go onto the I
f o C website, click on Joey Chestnut if you
dare everything that comes up. He's just got this laundry
(14:32):
list records that he holds. Right, he's a champion eater
for sure, and he has Kobe Ashi's but uh in
oh seven oh eight and then just a month or
like not even a month ago and O nine Yeah,
instead of new world record, right that jaw injury. Um
excuse only goes so far. Sixty eight hot dogs is
what Joey Chestnut eight this year and that's including buns.
(14:53):
And let's talk about some of these people do this. Um,
you talked about dunking and water. Almost everybody uses mostly water,
but you're allowed to with any dip your food in
a drinks. It makes it you would get so full everywhere. Um,
have a Roman incident? Is that what you mean? That's
what the FOC calls it. That's right, Yeah, they call
(15:15):
it a Roman incident. If you vomit, and I believe
if you vomit on the table or on the food,
then you're disqualified. But um, apparently, from what I understand,
if you puke uh and it doesn't touch the table
or whatever, um, you can proceed, I guess. But at
the same time, like they probably count that as eaten.
(15:35):
I think in two thousand two, Kobayashi um had a
little controversy where he vomited some up and it was
counted as eating. He held most of it back though, right, Yeah,
he put his hand and see that's what's so gross, man.
And these guys and ladies are eating the stuff and
they're just stuffing in in their mouths and you can
see this like look on their face like they're gonna die.
(15:56):
And all of a sudden you see one of them
like yeah, and they put their hands over their mouth,
and you know what's happening. Kind of tell you a
little story, yeah, God, a little little story from my path.
Let so imagine Josh Clark age one on July. Okay,
sleep in a in a field behind a home depot.
That would have been U. I'm in Athens, Georgia, go dogs, right, uh,
(16:21):
And I'm at what was the I guess the Half
Moon Pub. Yeah, it was downstairs. Yeah, I had friends
at work there downstairs from the Athens Coffee House, I
think so it was. Um, So, I'm down at half
Moon hanging out with some friends and I see a
guy who i'm I have I'm mutual friends with or
we have mutual friends. I'm sorry, but he and I
don't really like each other. He comes over and he goes, hey, here,
(16:44):
it's your birthday. Let me buy you a shot. I'm like, sure,
no problem. So he buys me a shot of two
fifty two. What is that? Baccardi? Are you ready? It's
a shot of bacartie and wild turkey one oh one.
There is no reason for the shot to exist in
the universe, right, So the guy buys me the shot.
(17:06):
I take it, you know, not wanting to to look
like a coward and already kind of ripped. Um. I
take the shot and I feel it immediately start to
come back up, and not just that, everything everything start
to come back up. I throw my hand in front
of my mouth and stop it just before it comes
back up, wipe my mouth, put the shot glass down,
look the guy in the eye and say thanks for
(17:27):
the shot, and turn around and walk away. Because he
was trying to get me the puke, right, I showed him.
That's what happened in my head. You wanna hear what
happened in reality. The guy buys me the shot, I
take it, throw my hand up to my hand, to
my mouth, puke everywhere, including the bar, on the guy,
on myself, put the shot glass down, look him in
(17:47):
the eye and say thanks for the shot, and turned
around and walked away. You're kidding, and you were disqualified.
I was disqualified because it would have gotten on some
food or something. Yeah, Tony first birthday. You know I
had friends at work there at the time. I bet
they remember that night. I'm gonna ask them. You should
ask my buddy Clay. Have them send in some listener mail.
We'll read it. Alright, So Chuck, let's talk about I
think we're going to talk about how people do this, right. Yeah,
(18:10):
I think that the water we're on the water thing
and we get really sidetracked by vomit. Kobayashi has a
little technique called Japanese ng or solemnon ng. Yeah, breaking
the wiener in half, separating the weener from the bun,
breaking the weener in half, stuffing the winer in his
mouth with both hands at the same time, at the
same time to to get yeah, to get the hold
(18:31):
and then dunking the bun very quickly in the water.
And it's at that point in the bun is just
like a you know, stoppy mess. It goes down pretty easy, imagine, right.
I was doing a little research, dude, and I gotta
tell you, Crystals is mixing it up. If they're they're
hamburger eating contest into September coming up. Uh, they have
a no dunking rule really, and they're introducing their big burgers.
(18:55):
Oh wow, So it's gonna it's gonna be all crazy,
gonna get messy. Yeah, but yeah, they won't be allowed
to which is actually a radical departure from standard rules. Yeah.
I'd prefer to see a straight up contest. Yeah, I
mean if it's not sixty eight dogs, who cares, what
if it's like forty, but it's genuine hot dog eating,
no dunking, no water, lots of vomiting. Yeah, that's what
(19:16):
we all want, Chuck, we should probably put like a
needle coming off of a record at this point. Thank you.
We've um gotten kind of all delta force on this,
you know, competitive eating, even though I think it's disgusting.
Not everybody thinks it's a it's good or great or whatever.
A lot of people, including the fine, fine actor star
(19:39):
of Van Wilder, Ryan Reynolds, thinks that basically it's a um,
it's a real symbol of America's obese wastefulness. And you
know what, that's not an argument that's easily defended. No,
it really isn't, because you know, you think, well, this
guy just eight, um, how many sixty eight hot dogs
in eight minutes? How many uh, how many kids died
(20:02):
in the eight minutes from starvation? And some of these competitors.
You're allowed to make yourself throw the food up afterward, right, Yeah,
whatever you do after you after it's done, however you
get rid of it, is okay. So that's straight up
it is, and that's no one is encouraging that by
any means. And it's dangerous. Some of these people too,
when they train, they they'll drink like a gallon of
(20:24):
water in a minute, and they try and do these
things to expand your stomach. That's dangerous too. It is
there's actually water intoxication, which can be fatal because it
screws with the the dilution of electrolytes in your body,
which is bad. That's bad news, dude. Right, and a
woman died of fears back from water intoxication from a contest.
I had heard that. Well, not only that, Um, you
(20:46):
can actually get gastro pariasis, which is a stomach paralysis. Right,
And basically, after your stomach is stretched out enough enough times,
it will stop contracting and you won't evacuate your stomach
to your small intestine any longer. Yeah, which is not
good when that happens. Actually, yeah, so I don't know
(21:07):
if you knew that. It's it's not good. The dark
side of competitive eating. Uh, you know the people who
endorse this or I'm gonna say that, they just have
a lot of fun with it. And then it's a
tradition and it's kind of a big joke. I know
when you see it on TV, they look like they're
taking it really seriously. Apparently that's all kind of part
of the act and they all think it's kind of funny.
But dude, twenty grand on the line. Yeah, there's some
(21:30):
serious prose money for for Nathan's hot dogs. It's twenty
dollar prize and the mustard Belt. So, um, that's a
nice little chunk of change for stuff and down hot dogs. Plus. Also, um,
I think the i fo c E does not endorse
or support anybody practicing or training for it. But the
(21:50):
gurigitators actually do train very hard. Actually, um, I think
I was reading about an interview yeah with Joey chest
U And dude, he drinks like a gallon of milk
in a single sitting to expand his stomach. Um, he
eats or no, actually goes several days without eating and
(22:12):
just subsist some protein supplements, so his weight will very radically,
like in the teens and in low twenties of pounds
within you know, a couple of weeks, and then afterwards
he gains a lot of it back, because if you
eat eight pounds of food, you just gained eight pounds
pal Until you pass it, it's there and your stomach
(22:33):
is in big trouble. Yeah, I can't imagine. I hate
feeling full. For god, that's like overweight. You would think
that I'd just gorge myself, But dude, I hate feeling full.
It's the worst stupid metaoism. Do you know why you
feel full? Uh? Well, I know You've got a little
science here. Try and legitimize this real. Um. So when
you're hungry, uh, hormone produced in the stomach called growing
(22:56):
sends a signal to your brain via the Vargas uh
nerve I believe, um. And as you eat, a hormone
produced from the same d n A on the same
genetic code called opus staton kind of like obese that
(23:17):
goes to your brain and says, hey, dude, stop eating. Well,
apparently a physiologist who's studying this name is David Mets
from the University of Pennsylvania. He has he can't say
how they're doing it, but from studying a guy called
eater X sexually, UM, he he's figured out that these
people have figured out how to block the signal from
(23:39):
their brain. Just highly dangerous a k. A. Kobayashi. It's
probably not Kobayashi, but I bet he uses those techniques.
I think they all do. They have to do. You
have to expand your stomach. And actually, you noticed a
lot of these people are very small. Uh. And there
is a theory that kind of came about that said,
the less fat you are, because you think, well, if
(24:00):
you're a big bat guy, yeah, yeah, you're gonna be
able to just gorge yourself. And there's smaller people like
the black widow hundred pounds, right, Um, she can put
it away like the red like the best of them.
And they think that the reason why is because there's
less resistance for the stomach to stretch. It's not pressing
up against fat, which doesn't give as much as air.
Sort of makes sense. Can I mention the paper that
(24:22):
was written by Ed Cratchy, he's a uh, he's a
competitive eater himself, and he were a paper called can
Abdominal fat act as a restrictive agent on Stomach expansion?
And Exploration of the impact of adipose tissue and competitive eating?
So it sounds very intelligent. Unfortunately, the medical community rejected
(24:45):
it and it refused to publish it and said go
eat your hot dog's buddy and leave the medical journaling
to us, right, But Popular Science had an article that
supported it in two thousand three. That's the tree this
this basically checks out true. So legitimate maybe, but not
as far as a medical science is concerned. I do
want to talk about one gross thing. Yeah, since it
(25:05):
hasn't been gross at all. Old leg Or Zornitsky, he's
he's very fashionable apparently he's known for his fashion sense.
Ukrainian competitive eater. He this is the worst one to me,
chicken wings. I love all that stuff brought worst. Give it,
give it, give it up. He ate four thirty two
ounce bowls of mayonnaise in eight minutes, and I love mayonnaise,
(25:29):
and it makes me not want to eat mayonnaise. Four
thirty two ounce bowls of mayonnaise. Can you imagine that? Man?
Is definitely something that you should eat in moderation. Okay,
I'm not feeling so good now. Did you mention the
cow's brains? No, Kobayashi, Kobyashi, he holds the record for
eating cow's brains, which was do you know how many? Yeah?
I think it was like eighteen pounds of cows brains
(25:50):
in fifteen minutes. It was I could not eat one
ounce of cow's brain in a lifetime. So koby Ashi
has me lick did that one? Especially not with this
hoof and mouth thing that they've got going on. Seriously, So,
if you want to learn more about competitive eating, including
Ed Grebanowski's um first person account of what and eating
contest is like, you can type in competitive eating appropriately
(26:13):
enough in the handy search bar how stuff works dot com?
And since I just said handy search bar how stuff
works dot Com, that means it's time. Thank god for
listener mail. Josh, I'm just gonna call this, um, we
are banned in classes? Yeah, I saw this one, you know. Yeah,
(26:34):
this from Sarah, and Sarah says, I love the podcast,
but I recently got a banned for my AP biology class.
And did you take AP classes? You probably did, your
smart guy. Really, I took AP English and AP history actually,
but science not my thing. She is a senior in
high school and for the past year she has spent
every day in biology lab poking dead things and staring
(26:56):
at cell walls in a microscope. You can imagine gets
a little boring, even for a bio fanatic, ignoring the
stinch of fetal pigs and memorizing the function of cell organelles.
So during study hall, I would take out my iPod
and listen to your podcast. Some of the subjects we
would cover overlap with podcast episodes I just listened to,
so I would mention what I had learned in essays
(27:17):
or discussions and even on an AP exam using us. Anyway,
my teacher discovered this. She was thrilled that I've been
doing research out of class and she asked where I
was learning all these odd but accurate facts. When I
let her listen to the iPod, she called it a
utensil for cheating or a tool of the devil, and
subsequently banned it from our classroom. And I really think
(27:39):
she was more upset about not being able to answer
my questions about alien hand syndrome than she was about
my listening to the podcast. But either way, thanks so
much for helping me. As her essay questions, you guys
are the best. For the record, I never used your
podcasts as a utensive to cheating. All the best, Sarah, fantastic.
So we are educating and getting kids in trouble all
(28:01):
over the world. I like that our listeners are generally
moral people. I think so good false at the very least,
there is if If you've ever been told that we're
a utensil for something, uh, let us know. Send it
in an email to stuff podcast at how stuff works
dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics,
(28:27):
is it how stuff works dot com. Want more how
stuff works, check out our blogs on the house stuff
works dot com home page. Hey, If you're a fan
of Altoids that curiously strong mints, you probably have a
lot of empty tins laying around. You can do some
pretty cool stuff with them. You can make survival kids,
flash drives, even robots. Check out Altoids on Facebook to
(28:50):
find out more. Brought to you by the reinvented two
thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you
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