Carrots

Episode notes

Alex Schmidt is joined by comedy podcaster/creator Jack O’Brien (‘The Daily Zeitgeist’ podcast) and bestselling author Jason Pargin (‘John Dies At The End’ series, ‘Zoey Ashe’ series) for a look at why carrots are secretly incredibly fascinating.

Visit http://sifpod.fun/ for research sources, handy links, and this week’s bonus episode.

LINKS FOR THE GUESTS:

• The Daily Zeitgeist
• Miles and Jack Got Mad Boosties: An NBA Podcast
• PREORDER the new novel by Jason Pargin! It’s called If This Book Exists, You’re In The Wrong Universe. Here’s a preview quote from the novel.
• Jason’s blog post about the new novel, and the value of pre-orders.
• Zoey Punches The Future In The Dick by Jason Pargin
• Jason’s website
• Jason’s Substack
• Jason Pargin on Twitter

RESOURCES USED TO INFORM THE EPISODE’S LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

• native-land.ca
• U.S. Department Of Arts And Culture
• The True Native New Yorkers Can Never Truly Reclaim Their Homeland (Smithsonian)
• Mapping Manahatta: 10 Lenape sites in New York City (6sqft)

RESEARCH SOURCES:

• The Carrot Purple, And Other Curious Stories Of The Food We Eat by Joel S. Denker 
• Vegetables: A Biography by Evelyne Bloch-Dano, translated by Teresa Lavender Fagan 
• Food: A Culinary History From Antiquity To The Present, edited by Jean-Louis Flandrin and Massimo Montanari 
• Carrot unstuck: A new twist in an old debate (The Boston Globe) — key quote: “in Edward P. Montague’s account of a US expedition to the Dead Sea, published in 1849, the travelers’ balky horses remind Montague of, yes, of a cartoon showing a donkey race, a cartoon “illustrat[ing] the idea that persuasion is better than force.” One rider is armed with a whip of “strong blackthorn twigs,” which he applies to the animal; the other uses just the bunch of carrots tied to a stick, suspended in front of the donkey.”
• The World According to Stephen Colbert (NPR) — this has an excerpt from the Colbert character’s book I Am America (And So Can You!), where he says baby carrots are trying to turn him gay.
• YouTube video from WIRED showing baseball bat production
• 2022 Twitter thread from Jason about carrots-finding-wedding-rings stories
• Fish With Lost Wedding Ring Wrapped Around Body Spotted by Snorkeler (Newsweek)
• Imgur upload of a potato grown through a lost ring
• From the Ground Up: Leaving Carrots for Two Years (University Of Wyoming Extension / YouTube)
• How to Grow Carrots from Seed to Harvest (Jag Singh / YouTube)
• Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition of “taproot”
• Kale, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and cabbage are all varieties of a single magical plant species (Vox.com)
• A WWII Propaganda Campaign Popularized the Myth That Carrots Help You See in the Dark (Smithsonian)
• MTN DEW Purple Thunder Is the Best Kind of Abomination (The Takeout)
• Amazon.com sales page for C4 Energy Drink Frozen Bombsicle
• SIFpod: “Tulips”
• SIFpod: “The Color Orange”

Screencaps of the University Of Wyoming Extension video, displaying two-year-old carrot taproots:

Screencap of the flowers from a two-year-old carrot plant:

British WWII propaganda poster (from Smithsonian piece):

Example of a carrot growing through a wedding ring, from Canadian story: