Transcript of Bitesize Ep 060 - Transcript

Charlie:
Good morning. Or good afternoon. Or even good evening. Or if you're listening to this in the dead of night, then good night. No, can't say that. In English and other languages alike, for some reason, saying good night means goodbye. So just hello to you listening in the dead of night. Oh, that's inspired me to do a horror episode. Yeah. Or a murder mystery. That would be good. Yes. But today we are back with a bite-size episode on positive news. Recently, in bonus episode 41, we had Steven Devincenzi on because he hosts a great show called Send7, where you get simple English news on a daily basis in just seven minutes. The show covers all continents, and I've actually been listening to it myself for a few weeks now, not necessarily because I need my news to be in simple English, I don't think, but because I don't really like listening to the news, especially mainstream news that has to be given the green light by the powers that be, which seems to always be the case in my opinion. I don't mean to get my tinfoil hat out. This has been my feeling, especially since COVID, because that was a really good reference point for us to see how the news really is so biased. During COVID, I believe that every country was fed, dare I say it, the word propaganda about how badly other countries were dealing with COVID so that they could make their country more tolerable. And I get it. If I'm the government, I'm going to be trying to calm my people down by saying, "No, no, no, calm down. Calm down, guys. Look, I know we didn't manage to keep to our promises regarding the manifesto we swore to stick to if you were to vote us in. But. But look, look, look, look, look over there. Look and see how appalling life would be if you were to even contemplate leaving our great land." For example, I lived in Sydney, Australia, throughout the peak of COVID, and now that I'm back in the UK if the topic of lockdowns ever comes up with a local here, or people who were living here during COVID, they always say, "Oh my God, it must have been horrendous for you being locked down like that in Australia." I get that I'm just one person and the majority of people probably had it much tougher than me because I have a job that could continue online through COVID. But I honestly didn't experience any of what these people are telling me went on Down Under. I guess maybe it did happen in 1 or 2 cases. And then what we often do is we see one bit of news from one country and assume it was that bad everywhere for everyone in that country. But the funny thing is Australia, they were reporting how bad lockdowns were for other countries. I think that's a good reference point to show that the news always or mainstream news has always has an agenda. I will remove my tinfoil hat now, but I still hold that opinion now that mainstream news always wants to paint their country in a good light. And after speaking with all walks of life since I started teaching over eight years ago, I've also come to appreciate how our history classes are all so, so warped. Take, for example, World War Two. I know that in my history classes and to confirm that was in England we were taught, prepare yourself for this, that the UK won the war. Churchill won us the war. Fact, we were the heroes. And then the small print of it is that the Allies won the war, but the UK was for sure a key player in the diplomatic and strategic decisions that led to the ultimate defeat of, you know who. But as kids, we don't remember that long line. We remember we won the war. And then after making friends with those cousins across the pond, it* transpires that the US won the war. And then well, as I said, speaking with all sorts of students, they tell me that their country believes that they were the key player that helped the Allies win the war. And I guess this is possible because the national curriculum planners, they don't all get together like as if they're the UN and come to an agreement about what to teach the young people across the globe. So we all have this within us - a foundational bias towards our own country through our own schooling system. Of course, Let the record state that this is just my opinion and you do not need to get upset about my opinion. I know that many teachers listen to this podcast, so I'm not saying if you are teaching history and geography and stuff, I'm not saying that you're teaching the wrong thing to your students. I'm just saying I think that we are human and we all tend to like to be on the winning end. And so going back to the news, I've been looking for an independent news podcast that keeps me in the loop but doesn't take much time to cover all four corners of the globe evenly. If this is something you would like to try, then after this episode, check out Send7 by Stephen Devincenzi. So in bonus episode 41, we talked about a variety of positive news that had happened in the last 12 months, as of that recording and in this episode, we are going to be covering the much more important topics and give you the hard-hitting facts about the stuff we all need to know. I'm talking mammoth meatballs, unexpected health benefits to caffeine consumption. And finally, from toilet paper to touchscreens: how our bathroom behaviours have evolved. Let's dive into the conversation with Stephen right about now. So let's go for a random silly category or bulletin. I think I want the woolly mammoth meatball story. Can we load that one up, please?

Stephen Devincenzi:
Okay. Absolutely. Here it is loading. In Australia, some scientists have actually made a meatball out of woolly mammoth. And you might be thinking, hang on a minute, the woolly mammoth is extinct. And that's absolutely right. It was extinct, I think, 10,000 years ago or something like that. But they've taken DNA from the woolly mammoth fossils, and bones, and they have actually created meat from the woolly mammoth. And they've, of course, grown it in a laboratory and they've cooked it, but they didn't eat it.

Charlie:
They didn't eat it?

Stephen Devincenzi:
In the stories that I read, they didn't eat it. I don't know why they didn't eat it. I think maybe it took such a long time for them to create it that they didn't want to destroy it or something. I think part of the reason that they did it was to try and promote the idea of lab-grown meat in general to kind of show that it can be done, that it's more sustainable than farmed meat. I'm not sure if they've been successful in that mission, especially because they didn't eat it themselves. I don't know.

Charlie:
No, I've heard about lab-grown meat and I'm very excited about it because I heard that about 15 years ago, maybe even ten years ago, it cost $1 million to invest in creating one lab-grown burger. And now they're selling lab-grown chicken nuggets in Singapore, I believe. So some countries are already able to, like, profit off the product, which is incredible to think.

Stephen Devincenzi:
That is incredible to think, yeah. Actually, I didn't realise Charlie, that they're already selling it commercially somewhere. I'm going to look that up once we finish talking, but fantastic. Yeah. And it... That is amazing to think that it's come down in price that quickly.

Charlie:
So there we go. The silly news article: 'Woolly Mammoth Meatball'. Can imagine that would be a tough bite to get through - a bit of 10,000-year-old DNA creating a meatball. You know we've not tasted woolly mammoth it might be nice. And the amazing thing about...

Stephen Devincenzi:
In another ten years maybe we will.

Charlie:
Yeah. And the amazing thing about lab-grown, there's not that feeling of like, I know a lot of meat eaters will disagree with me, but I sometimes feel a bit disgusted when I'm eating meat. I'm like, "Oh, you naughty boy" for eating that. Like, I know it's controversial, but I won't have that guilty feeling at all with lab-grown meat, right?

Stephen Devincenzi:
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. There's not been a conscious being there that your meat has come from, so there's nothing to feel guilty about.

Charlie:
Yeah. And this is not plant-based replacements. A lot of people are like, "Yeah, I've heard of, you know, the Impossible burger." It's not that. It's actually like the same it's the same scientific, like molecular makeup, right? It's the, it's the same thing.

Stephen Devincenzi:
Yeah, it is cells of an animal that are grown from other cells of an animal. So it just grows outwards, I think. No, no replacement. It is meat that comes from a lab.

Charlie:
Yeah. Brilliant. I guess you could say you can have your cake and eat it. Is that the right way of saying it?

Stephen Devincenzi:
You can have your cake and eat it, too.

Charlie:
Yes. Right, guys. Caffeine, apparently, according to this sentence, caffeine is good for you, which is music to my ears because I am addicted.

Stephen Devincenzi:
Okay, good. Little caveat. It's good for you in reasonably small amounts. So from... There's been, yeah, quite a few studies which have shown that people who drink a moderate amount of caffeine can have some benefits, such as reduction of some heart problems, stroke, diabetes, even Parkinson's disease. A few different things which can be attributed to drinking reasonable amounts of coffee. And I thought a reasonable what does that mean? So I've looked that up and apparently 2 to 4 and I thought four is quite a lot. 2 to 4 coffees.

Charlie:
That's insane.

Stephen Devincenzi:
I know, yeah, yeah.

Charlie:
My father-in-law-to-be has five a day and I think he's going to keel over any day with that amount. But apparently, his tolerance has built up to that point. But that's another story. But I think I heard recently that two shots of espresso, I'm going to ruin it, but it's a lot more caffeine than a Red Bull. So if you're having two coffees a day with two espresso shots. It's a huge amount of caffeine and I've only recently realised why I've had six years of insomnia and it's because I've been having a second coffee. Just. Just two coffees, but one a bit too late in the day, about 2 p.m.. 3 p.m.. And it keeps me up. I'm a sensitive person to caffeine, but yeah, it's astonishing how we're getting so used to having a lot of it. But that's good news that if we take it in a sensible amount, a sensible measure, that it's, it's beneficial for our health in many ways. Lovely.

Stephen Devincenzi:
Yeah. I'm sensitive to caffeine as well. I don't drink caffeine after probably 3 p.m. as well for the same reason. Otherwise, it stops me from sleeping or interrupts the sleep. But yeah, a couple of caveats. Again to stop people going, "Oh great, I'm just going to drink loads and loads of caffeine." Yeah, there are a couple of downsides as well. So if you are somebody who likes lots of milk and sugar in their coffee, that can take away from the good effects, of course. If you have too much, there are some bad things that can come with it. Like you can have an increase in anxiety and headaches. I've also seen that pregnant women should limit their caffeine intake even more.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Stephen Devincenzi:
But overall, lots of good things there. And apparently even just having 1 or 2 coffees a day can even improve your mood in general.

Charlie:
I feel like that even anecdotally is a proven fact, such a motivator. So you said about the milk and sugar. It takes away from the benefits. Are you meaning because you're having an overdose of dairy and sugar, you're then countering the, you know, the reduction in certain issues with your health or are you meaning you're having so much milk that you're going to be...

Stephen Devincenzi:
Yeah. Lactose intolerant.

Charlie:
Lactose intolerant.

Stephen Devincenzi:
I'm not sure about the lactose intolerant thing. One of the benefits that I saw was about the possibility that caffeine is good for preventing people from getting diabetes or generally decreasing the probability that somebody gets diabetes. And yeah, if you have sugar in your coffee, then yeah, that's going to take away from that positive fact as of course, having too much sugar is one of the reasons that people can increase their probability of getting diabetes. If that makes sense?

Charlie:
Yeah, definitely. I don't have any sugar with my coffee, so I'm a good boy with that one. Yay me. All right, so the last one, almost everyone uses their phone on the toilet. That's an interesting, interesting headline. I'm not sure where we're leading to it. Leading like how that's like, positive news, but I did just think...

Stephen Devincenzi:
No more just silly news.

Charlie:
Okay, just silly news. Just a fact. But it just made me think how we constantly share phones like, "Oh, have a little look at this, these pictures." And then you pick up somebody else's phone and you scroll through it. Yeah, it's good to have a bit of bacteria in your life, but you're picking up somebody's poo phone, basically.

Stephen Devincenzi:
Possibly. In fact, some of the things that I was reading was also encouraging people because these surveys, you know, a lot of different surveys have shown that almost everybody says that they use their phones in the toilet. Yes. A lot of people places say that also we should probably clean our phones more often than we do because most people just don't clean their phones. And I've only started cleaning my phone properly since I read these articles because it makes sense. Something that we pick up thousands of times per day, our phone and we take it, take it everywhere with us. You know, we get in the train, get in the car, put it there we go and go to work. We put it down on our desk, whatever. You know, apparently we even all take it into the toilet with us as well. So it goes everywhere. And yeah, it's it makes sense that really it's something which is very dirty because it's being touched constantly like this. And then we go and put it next to our faces when we're going to make a phone call. It makes sense that we spend a little bit more time thinking about keeping it clean.

Charlie:
Yeah. How often are you cleaning your phone these days?

Stephen Devincenzi:
Not enough. Not enough.

Charlie:
Not enough? Not enough.

Stephen Devincenzi:
Because we've just mentioned it. Now I'll probably for the next 2 or 3 days, I'll start doing it every day again. And then... Then I'll forget because I'm human.

Charlie:
I heard. Well, so my partner, she's very into skincare and she said about this, you know, you're putting a disgusting thing next to your face, so you've got to clean that phone quite a lot. But I also heard how was it every McDonald's till or like touch screen those new touch screens. Every single... No not every single this can't be true but some let's say some have faecal matter on them. Like, there's experiments where they test that and they can see there's faecal matter on it, but that obviously means it's fine. We can handle a bit of poo, right.

Stephen Devincenzi:
Well, I suppose we must be able to handle a bit. Must be possible.

Charlie:
I mean, if you can actually see a bit on there. Don't touch it, guys, and don't go near it. But I think we can handle a little bit of poo.

Stephen Devincenzi:
What a great note to end on.

Charlie:
Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Right. Okay.

Stephen Devincenzi:
You can put that as the title of this episode. We can all handle a little bit of poo.

Charlie:
But yeah. Thank you very much for your time, Stephen. That was wonderful. Appreciate the effort that you went to in creating that list of news stories for us to focus on to feel more positive about our lives.

Stephen Devincenzi:
Thank you, Charlie. And really, no, it's great to be able to just show some of the positive things that are happening in the world, because as we discussed earlier, they're often slow-burning stories. Don't make it into the daily news streams. Yeah, it's good to be able to talk about them.

Charlie:
Thank you very much. I appreciate it and I would love to have you on in the future if you would be so kind. Until then, yeah, I hope you enjoy yourself in Canterbury.

Stephen Devincenzi:
Aw, thank you very much, Charlie. It was a pleasure to be here and I would love to come back whenever I've got some more good news to talk about or anything else that you'd like to talk about. It's a pleasure to be here. Thank you.

Charlie:
Wonderful. Okay, guys, so go check out his podcast, Send7. What's the thing that they should search for any podcast app.

Stephen Devincenzi:
On their podcast apps, you can search for 'Simple English News Daily' and the internet, you can search for send7.org.

Charlie:
Nice. Yeah. And I will put those links in the show notes, so enjoy that and I will see you next time on the British English podcast. Bye-bye, Stephen.

Stephen Devincenzi:
Goodbye, Charlie.