The crew revisits living underground, lunar lava tube safety, and drops into a science hole about a Stanford discovery that rewrites how we think life produces DNA
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joe: [00:00:00] Hey, welcome back to the Rabbit Hole of Research down here in the basement studio for the mini.
Nick: The Mini.
joe: you have me, Joe. We’ve
Nick: You got, Nick.
joe: we got Nick.
Nick: Georgia. We’ve
joe: Georgia here, kinda coming at y’all. Last episode, we talked about the challenges of living underground, both on Earth and or other worlds, other planets.
Nick: planets.
joe: had a wonderful guest and friend, Dr. Ernie Bell, who was part of NASA for some time
Nick: and,
joe: currently with Blue Origin working on their landers and taking us back to the moon and, or taking to Mars. So
Nick: I don’t think I’ve been as excited about space stuff as I have this year in a very long time.
joe: [00:01:00] Yeah.
Nick: I don’t know about you guys, but I have… I, yeah, I don’t know. I this has just been very space-heavy.
joe: been very spacey. Yeah, it has been. Yeah. And then I, we have this mini, then a episode after this will be planetary defense kind of,
Nick: Yep,
that was another one
joe: yeah, large rocks that could be on a collision with Earth. And so there are people and scientists who are looking out for us and making sure nothing is headed our way that we don’t know about.
So that’s gonna be a fun one with Charles Blue. So yeah.
Nick: a fun
Yeah, that was another fun one, talking about s- all the space stuff. So if you’re on a space kick like me, it is going to be a good time.
joe: Yeah, very good time. Artemis II went to around the Moon and back successfully. I think the only little hitch they had was with the toilet not working properly, but it seems like that, , they were– it’s a learning mission, so hopefully Artemis III, but yeah.
Nick: ’cause what the first mission was just to [00:02:00] see if it can… That design can make
joe: The rocket, yeah, it was unmanned un-personed. I don’t know what the
Nick: The third one is also gonna be,
Awesome.
Without people, I thought, right?
joe: I think the third one will have people, and that’s the one where then it will,
Nick: will
joe: have the lander? Will that the second
Nick: was just the delivery truck next time, pretty much.
joe: No, it will be the the SLS Orion and docking with the lunar landers. I thought that was three, and then four was gonna be landing on the Moon. I think everything is with people from now on.
Nick: Oh,
joe: Yep, I could be wrong, but I guess we should put that in the show notes.
Nick: W- we’ll add that onto the show notes. Yeah. So it’s… Is it the footnotes then?
it’s in the notes section.
joe: It’s still the show notes. Yep, and just quickly look in. It’s targeted for twenty twenty-seven, and it will be a crewed mission. So it’s the Orion capsule with– it’ll have a commercial lunar lander, so either from SpaceX or from Blue Origin. So [00:03:00] in any episode,
Nick: gonna be
joe: Ernie
Nick: a regular
joe: the episode.
So
Nick: you
joe: you can go back in here. Yeah he kinda went over the next steps of this mission. So it’ll– we’ll put it in the show notes, but also you can go back and if you listen to the episode, you would’ve heard Ernie speak about that. Now, Joe, do you know if this is gonna be like a more regular thing for space travel?
Like, are we going to
Nick: Thank you. No judgment at all.
are we going to continue going to the moon and,
joe: I think that’s the idea, that once we get there that we’ll start to have regular missions that, you know, that, that felt like the idea with the International Space Station, and we had this kind of way station there, then that would keep the momentum going.
But we had, some delays, and now we’re getting back to that. So my idea is the, , the Moon first and then Mars would be the next goal was the long-term plan that I’ve heard and seen,
so.
But [00:04:00] yeah, we’ll see what happens. For a little bit of a better
Nick: happens.
Yeah, I feel like just sticking to the moon for a little bit is a better idea. Get comfortable with the moon and then start going further.
joe: how long
Nick: ‘Cause
Yep.
I
what, how– it’s been how long since we’ve been to the moon?
joe: How long since we’ve been to the Moon? Was it ’72 was the last Moon mission?
Nick: That sounds about right. So it’s
like,
joe: have a rough time since we are
Nick: give it a little time since we are just getting back into it.
joe: Yeah, the other thing I had in there was I talked about the Catacombs of Paris that episode, and so this is where about six million remains are buried in this kind of this dark labyrinth catacomb of bones floor to ceiling. And so tourists can go and visit and walk through there.
there.
it’s, over time things degrade, so there was an effort, I was reading about it just in April effort where they were going down architects, designers, technicians, masons to renovate the [00:05:00] tomb.
So add new lighting, kind of ventilation systems, restore the bone walls new audio kind of guides, modernize it so that you can have this experience as a person going through, but, be a little more lively. So.
Nick: So. But
joe: yeah, so that was really cool.
Nick: yeah. And well, I think we didn’t have too many comments this week and about this this episode. I think Alex was the only one to comment on the episode from what I saw.
joe: episode from what I saw. That might be right. Yep. I
Nick: Yeah, that’s right.
feel like that’s right.
joe: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Nick: You know, it’s interesting. I
answering the episode’s question. Ernie mentioned that the moon’s volcanic activity is essentially over, making its lava tubes potentially stable for billions of years.
Does that make you more or less interested in living in one? You know Nick will be there. He’s right. I [00:06:00] would. He said it’s too risky for me. And am I right to be cautious? I wouldn’t try to live there, but I might visit. Which I think, yeah I think it would be a s- I feel like I feel like it’d be a safe place to live after it’s not active, right?
Like…
joe: Right. No, I think that was what Ernie’s point was out on the moon there’s been no lava flow activity measured, and they suspect there’s been no activity for millions of years. Once they– once the lava tube source, the lava source is dormant or non-existent, then the lava tube is essentially safe.
So that was my take on it from what he said. But yeah, so
Nick: a good one.
I’d be there.
joe: But I think there’s still gonna be moonquakes, so there might not be lava, but the moonquakes or something. But also that activity they could predict where and, not use this tube versus this tube. So that was something we talked about.
Nick: question that I forgot about asking on the episode. [00:07:00] Since the moon is smaller, would you feel a quake a
further away from where… Like, are they…
it’s a larger mass of land at which point-
joe: I mean, the moon
Nick: because of
joe: smaller, but I think it’s still very large. I mean, it’s not insignificantly small, so I don’t…
Nick: No, I, you know, since it is a smaller mass,
joe: Yeah, I don’t– I think it’ll be the
Nick: know if it would be… Okay.
joe: I think it’ll be distance dependent because you’ll have these kind of whatever plates they have are moving if it’s the same. I don’t know much about moonquakes, tell you the truth. And so if it’s the same as on Earth where you have kind of movement of the tectonic plates that causes these quakes
to happen, then it would have some distance depending on, ,
Nick: The intensity
joe: of the kind of shift.
But that would also be probably distance dependent, just like on Earth. And you probably wouldn’t, like if a earthquake happens in [00:08:00] California, you don’t feel it in Chicago. Like the–
Nick: it if it goes to a tsunami, no?
Not or Chicago.
Does… Do earthquakes
joe: Yeah. I mean- Earthquake
Nick: into s-
joe: into a tsunami.
Nick: tsunamis or
joe: If a earthquake is under the, on the ocean floor, that’s how you get a tsunami. Yep. I don’t know why in my brain
Nick: I don’t know why in my brain it’s just like, yes, these two are always connected if it’s
on the coast.
coast. All right.
Geo\: The moon doesn’t… The moon, this is a stupid question. Have like bodies of water like the ocean?
joe: The moon has no wa- well, except some ice at the poles.
Geo\: That’s what I was thinking, is no-
joe: There is no- There’s no ocean or lakes or rivers or anything like that, no. No. No. So that’s… There is no atmosphere on the moon, so water would evaporate out into space.
Nick: What’s the
definition of an atmosphere? Don’t even know if I [00:09:00] know exactly what an atmosphere is.
joe: Atmosphere would be the layer of gases surrounding the planet held in place by gravity.
that’s
like Earth, our atmosphere is primarily nitrogen with some oxygen, and that provides this kind of pr- protective bubble. We can breathe. Insulation- Yeah … protection from UV- Yeah … Protection from UV radiation, so you think of ozone layer, all these kind of stratosphere, those are part of our atmosphere that we have.
Nick: Hey, Joe do we wanna jump on over to the next section
of our episode? Our… What are we calling this
joe: Science holes? Science
Nick: Science holes.
joe: I don’t know. I thought
Nick: over
to
were gonna-
joe: Hop into. Hop down our science holes. Science holes.
Nick: Hop into?
joe: I think down, right? ‘Cause we’re… I don’t know.
Nick: [00:10:00] drop into our science holes.
hole.
joe: The…
Nick: you had something big
joe: Yeah, it was I mean, very
Nick: You said it was gonna be groundbreaking
joe: I think it’s very, yeah, it’s the way we think about how life produces DNA. So we’re familiar with DNA as a hereditary material. It’s the instructions for life. And, this is something that we study and we have a process.
You have DNA. DNA it’s translated To RNA, which is also kind of information. So in the nucleus, your DNA’s there. It needs to give instructions. RNA then, which is called messenger RNA, goes out into the cell, and then you have ribosomes translate that mRNA into proteins, and then protein can do work in the cell and make us function.
And so that’s how we
Geo\: And we all have our own unique DNA
joe: Yeah. I mean, the building blocks of DNA is the same, [00:11:00] and the instructions are relatively close to same for all humans. But you’re right, we do have some obviously-
Geo\: Because that’s how
joe: in
our to find
find different
Nick: Like in crimes and Yeah
joe: I… But you’re talking very small. Very out of, millions and millions of base pairs, it’s a very small difference between humans. I mean like point one percent or something like that , different species, you would have differences there that, that would be larger. But for humans it’s very close.
And what’s interesting is we… Just last mini, we got on the whole thing about small and how that wasn’t probably the right adjective.
Nick: that. I was like,
joe: And we go and… But it was really more about process. Like, has, have all the processes of, , biological life, , been identified or do we– what’s our handle on that? And was like, “Well, you know, we have a lot.” Do I think there’s still novel stuff out there? Probably, and that’s why we do science and we fund science to find these things similar to how the CRISPR system was found as this defense mechanism.
[00:12:00] So this team in Stanford have also now, in bacteria, found a enzyme that does something really peculiar. It actually will use the protein
the, bacteriophage as a template for creating DNA.
Nick: What? Really?
joe: so instead of the process I explained where you go from DNA to RNA, sometimes you can go from RNA to DNA, so there’s reverse transcriptases where you can do the reverse there.
So some viruses have RNA. They go into our cells. We need– it needs DNA, so then reverse transcriptases will make the DNA, so our cells then would make the RNA, then
Nick: And that’s why you get sick
joe: That’s– Well, viruses infect you. Yes, ’cause they’re replicating using your machinery, and at some number, they burst your cells open, and then they spread out to other cells, and rinse, wash, and repeat.
And so then your body has an immune response , your sickness is your body responding to that [00:13:00] fever, that kind of thing.
But in this in bacteria, as we talked about, the bacteriophages, so the CRISPR system was one mechanism where when the bacteria put its genetic material in, the CRISPR system could recognize that and then, like scissors, the Cas clip it and snip it out, and chop it up, and you can’t make the…
The virus isn’t made. You stop replication, cell lives, cell’s happy. Great defense.
Nick: Wait, that’s so wild.
joe: So that’s how CRISPR works, so we had talked about that.
Nick: Are they trying to stop it before it
joe: It replicates, yes. Yep.
Nick: Whoa.
joe: So that’s what– That’s its job. That’s what it
Nick: is a major thing.
joe: what this, that’s what that system does, CRISPR. That’s not this what I was talking about.
This is even crazier. That’s there. That’s how CRISPR works, and so that’s why we use CRISPR because CRISPR goes in and finds a DNA match and says, “Oh, here’s the piece of DNA I need to cut,” and then use a editing system in our cells to then replace it with the piece of DNA that you wanna replace it with .
So that’s how we manipulate that system. But in the bacteria, [00:14:00] the way it uses the system is to have these kind of repetitive repeats from, viruses, and then it uses that as a template, goes, “Oh, I’m being infected,” and then, “Ah, I see this piece of DNA. I’m gonna cut that out and chop it up.”
And then it doesn’t replace it with anything. It just cuts it up, and the virus can no longer replicate itself and make new ones in simple terms.
This newly discovered system here is a defense where it doesn’t use the nucleic acid as a template. It uses the protein itself, and so the protein comes in, and then it says, “Ah,” and then it takes it and makes a DNA strand out of that to then use and help protect from viruses that are infecting them, right?
So if you chop up all the DNA, how do you make the repeated sequences that CRISPR can use? Well, one of these ideas is that if you have something like this, you can– the protein that was left behind, you can now copy off of that and then save that [00:15:00] as your template, right?
So you can make your own blueprint to fight the next infection event more efficiently.
Nick: absolutely bonkers that can help cure a lot of things before it gets too bad,
joe: Yeah, you could start making, in the paper they talked about this using this to make customized DNA strands to make advanced biomaterials or DNA hydrogels or things like that.
So you don’t need DNA to make protein. You can actually go protein to DNA which is really quite fascinating that you can go that way. So- Yeah … yeah. I
Nick: like
joe: eventually
Nick: I think that’s absolutely wild that we were talking about stuff like this last week. It
joe: Yep, yeah.
Nick: Or not last week, the week before,
joe: Yeah, and I thought, ’cause this is, it’s really a dogma shifting ’cause you don’t think about this, like I said, we usually go, from, DNA to RNA to protein. You don’t really think- Well- … go protein to DNA, so
Geo\: that’s- Right. Well, I think many people probably don’t think about that at all.
at
It’s one of those things, like, how does that [00:16:00] work? You know what I mean? Right. But the implications can be really big. But again, it’s like having that understanding at that level. Right.
joe: I guess people, A, may not know how proteins are made in their
cells- Not
Geo\: think protein, oh, I need to eat more-
joe: Protein,
Geo\: protein, you know? Yep. And I don’t even know how that relates to DNA. you’re,
joe: You need– Well, you’re eating protein for the amino acids, right? The building blocks of protein. So all the proteins use the same what are called amino acids. And so when you have your DNA code, it’s instructions to build something.
What you’re building- Is protein … is a string of amino acids, and these amino acids make proteins, and proteins build your muscles, they build all your cells. So you have proteins on all the work of your body, but you need these things. So- …
Geo\: That’s interesting. I saw something that might be related, but I’m not even sure.
joe: sure.
Nick: But this is something I just saw a headline, and then you’re always interested, [00:17:00] f- first patient cured of sickle cell anemia. Did you see that show?
joe: Yeah. Did that happen a little bit ago with CRISPR, right? Yeah. It was CRISPR gene
Geo\: then it was interesting because this is an article, Infectious Disease Advisor, only because I Googled it because I saw this headline, like, on Instagram or something.
Like, oh, that’s interesting. But it says “For 21 years, Sebastian…” I cannot pronounce his last name, but he lived with the chronic pain of sickle cell anemia. Now, thanks to groundbreaking genetic treatment- Mm-hmm … the first person… Now, this is the thing. In this article, it says he is the first person in New York- to be cured of the disease. Before, it made it sound like first person, but this now says first person in New York, so I don’t know.
And it says that the hospital used an advanced therapy called Lyfgenia, [00:18:00] L-Y-F-G-E-N-I-A, which modifies a patient’s own bone marrow to produce healthy red blood cells.
joe: interesting. Oh, okay. So they didn’t actually
Geo\: Oh.
joe: repair the mutation in the hemoglobin gene,
Geo\: No, it was… Yeah. They,
joe: they-
Geo\: They didn’t, they- … modified the bone marrow. And it says, “When we could use this Sebastian’s own sim- stem cells to do this therapy, we were delighted.” And I thought that was really interesting. I guess sickle cell anemia was first described in 1910.
Mm-hmm. I just thought that was here we are over 100 years later, and this is the first cure we’re seeing in this way. And I just thought that was fascinating.
Nick: Yeah, that actually absolutely
Geo\: but I don’t… Yeah. I don’t know how that relates to, like, CRISPR and stuff. [00:19:00] That’s really totally a different thing, right, Joe?
Well,
joe: , so with CRISPR, what you would do is actually… first lets take a step back. So sickle cell anemia is a it’s an inherited autosomal recessive, so autosomal means non-sex-linked gene. And so this is a genetic disorder that causes hemoglobin to form kind of stiff crescent-shaped red blood cells.
Your red blood cells usually are like they’re disc shape and they are indented in the middle. And so they look like a flat thing with a little indent in the middle. Mm-hmm. And they’re nice and round, and they go around, they travel around-
… through your veins, your arteries, and in your capillaries in the tips of your finger or your lips so blood can get to every part of your body.
So in sickle cell anemia, if you’re a recessive gene, that means you have two copies of every gene, and so if one is normal- And one is the sickle, the HBB mutation, then what happens then is that you won’t show a phenotype [00:20:00] for sickle cell.
Geo\: To- And what you mean by that is you don’t show a symptom?
joe: right, exactly. But genetically you do, so in most sickle cell people with sickle cell are f- of African descent. And so if you’re having, if you’ve had a kid or you’re about to have a kid, they might do genetic testing to see, ’cause there are different genetic disorders which are culturally more prevalent, and sickle cell anemia is one of these.
And so if you were a mom and a dad and you did genetic testing and you both have a recessive gene, there’s a chance 25% genetic probability that your baby could have two copies of the mutated gene, which then will lead to sickle cell anemia. And now sickle cell anemia doesn’t mean that you die or anything. I mean, you can live, but what’s painful about it is that under stress, when your blood has to really flow these small capillaries, these sickle-shaped red blood cells will get trapped in, in, in these areas [00:21:00] and won’t leave, and so cutting off blood flow and that can be pretty…
That’s pretty painful. So that’s the idea. Anemia, all sorts of things that can happen when you have these kind of weird weirdly shaped crescent red blood cells trying to work its way through your body.
that
if we have this set up now and we say, “Oh, well, CRISPR, what can you do with that?”
We just said, “Well, you can go in, and you can have it find some piece of genetic material and then cut that out and then replace it with another piece of genetic material.” The idea then is can you use CRISPR to go in and find the sickle cell gene, that has a mutation, cut that piece out and edit the new piece in, and then you would have a healthy, you wouldn’t have you wouldn’t have that disorder the syndrome, sickle cell anemia syndrome. So that’s the idea that you would
Nick: different than what they were doing.
joe: That’s different than what they were doing. Yeah, so this one sounds like they used this patient’s own stem cells, and we’ve talked about stem cells in the episode, these kind of pluripotent, they can become- any part of [00:22:00] your body, like they, they are just kind of– They have no identity, and they can be coaxed to become, you know, eye, a ear a heart cell or whatever.
In this case, bone marrow cells. So it sounds like they took someone’s own stem cells added a funstional gene using a molecular technique , and then you put that into their bone marrow
So I looked it up quickly while we were talking. 2023, the FDA does approve a first CRISPR-based medicine for sickle cell anemia, and that’s probably what I had seen about,
Nick: so did that lead to this other-
joe: totally
Nick: different
or they’re totally
different.
So- The
joe: person wasn’t cured- So- … with CRISPR. Mm-hmm.
Nick: so it’s oh, there’s these two different cures. Right. And if it’s cured, so they’re both good. Mm-hmm. But I guess- And CRISPR,
joe: you can think of it that the CRISPR editing can happen in embryonic state. instead of doing a bone marrow graft, can you actually just go in, target these cells in the bone marrow of the patient and with a CRISPR system can directly edit the [00:23:00] gene.
Nick: But not
later on.
joe: on. Well, I mean, later on also. You could do it. Yep. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So
Nick: is it could do it or have we done it?
joe: They have done it with deaf children, but no one’s done it with sickle cell. But,
Nick: I feel like we need a whole episode on this, dude.
joe: like we need a
Nick: the amount that goes into it all, I want to know so much more.
joe: That’s the whole idea now is that you can have these tools.
Nick: I can’t wait to see more of that comes from it.
and, kind of
joe: the power of that and now you have this other tool now that I’m just describing that’s just been discovered where you can go from protein.
So you can actually do different things in the system. So how can you manipulate DNA and create other structures and other ways to help, with gene editing or with other materials that we might need bio- biomaterials that we might have. So very interesting.
This is why science is important and reading and learning it. And yeah, we’ll break it down. I mean, let’s– these are complex topics if you’re not with it all the time, [00:24:00] the terms and terminology, RNA transcription, translation. Everyone’s learned this probably in some high school biology class, but, you know, it’s been a while for a lot of people and going through it
Yeah, it is fun.
So proteins. I was gonna say you, Georgia, you had mentioned we’re eating protein, but we only make, I think, 11 of the amino acids that we need and the rest we get through food, so.
Nick: Interesting.
joe: Yep.
Nick: I didn’t know that.
joe: Yep.
Nick: I should have known that, I guess.
joe: that’s why protein’s important ’cause you, you can’t do without it.
So yeah, so people even tell you eat these foods,” and you’re like, “I don’t know why I’m eating the food, but they tell me it’s important.” That’s why. Your body’s using protein all the time that’s why
Nick: how many Big Macs is that, Joe?
joe: right.
Nick: That might not be the best- There’s a- That might not be the best source of
joe: of- There’s always like my– a fun joke or bumper sticker.
I forget where I saw it, but it was like, ” I may look like I’m doing nothing, but molecularly, I’m very busy.” So it’s …
Nick: It’s always like
joe: It’s always like that because so much goes on inside of [00:25:00] ourselves. Yeah, but
Nick: what kind of media have you guys been watching, consuming lately? Oh, I’m sorry, Joe, were you…
joe: No I was just gonna go just like on the other side with Artemis and going back to the Moon and space. I know we get super gaga over that ’cause it’s something we can see. It’s a big rocket. It’s blasting off. We got the astronauts in space kind of communicating with us, and it- it’s just exciting to think about that ’cause we see so much of that in sci-fi.
But on the other hand, inside of ourselves you know, there’s still this wonderful kind of machinery that’s being used and we know a lot about it, but obviously there’s a lot we don’t know, and that’s cool. So on the same kind of both spectrums, both ends of the small and big scale that, that you were starting
Nick: starting
joe: we, we have this you know, that inside of our inside of us, there’s still a lot of unknowns and,, I think people go, “Well, we got all this figured out, don’t…”
No. You know, “Why are we doing all this research?” And- There’s so much that
Geo\: that we don’t figured out. Yeah. And that also makes me think of the [00:26:00] oceans-
’cause I always think of space- and, like, the uncharted, you know, things about space. But if you think about the deep oceans and not understanding what’s going on there either. You know what I mean?
joe: Yep. No.
Nick: space.
I
Me
don’t know why.
No, I think I’m exact- I’m there too.
joe: Yeah.
Nick: Like, it… Just something about it, it doesn’t sit right with me, and maybe it’s ’cause it’s, like, right underneath us and I’m like
Yeah, and
anything could be down
joe: be down there Right.
Geo\: I was gonna say, maybe it’s just the un- the fact that it’s unseen, you know? But-
joe: Yeah. If you
Nick: and it’s just like, “Wow,
joe: the surface, just look up there. Right.
Nick: I wanna go there.”
So
joe: It’s so
Nick: It’s so peaceful up there. But [00:27:00] sh-sh-should we move on to media consumed?
joe: Definitely, yeah. Yep. You
Nick: yeah.
what kind of media have you guys been consuming since we’ve talked on the podcast last?
joe: think still kind of going through… For All of Mankind, Daredevil third season, making our way through that. Fifth season I think of For All of Mankind. Third season for Daredevil on Reborn, .
Geo\: that’s kind of that one.
Mm-hmm.
joe: Yeah, so kinda watching that. This week was kind of strange. We had… I mean, I mentioned it on here, the the Guild Literary Complex had named their 35 Writers to Watch, and so they had the reception-
Geo\: and who was one of
those?
joe: Happened, my name happened to be on that list. Yeah. So that was real exciting, and meeting all the other wonderful writers who were there and I’ll put the link and you guys go check ’em out.
They were just… They’re incredible. So I was really honored to be mentioned as part of this kind of, you know, crop of writers. So yeah, that was in the middle of the week and then Saturday was Free Comic [00:28:00] Book Day.
So went out to a comic book shop.
Geo\: a big shout out to 10th Planet- 10th Planet,
joe: 10th Planet.
Nick: because they were really generous with their free comics. They
joe: out, nice layout, nice store. Yeah. Jon Parish was there who, you know, a comic book writer and
Nick: And from- … saw a
joe: great stuff in,
Nick: the Northwest Indiana region, so.
So
joe: I’ve seen his career grow and over the years. So yeah, I’ll put links to him. He’s got a nice running newsletter he’s had for a while talking about the challenges of being,
an artist or writer, cr- comic creator, both, going through indies and different publishers and rights and, imposter syndrome, the whole thing.
So really good. No, I like John, and so it was good. He hasn’t been out at shows in a while, so it was nice to go out and see him, and he was being hosted by 10th Planet as part of the Guerrilla
Nick: I didn’t get to talk to him much, but he seemed to be a pretty cool person.
joe: cool person.
Nick: So yeah, [00:29:00] I– We were all there together.
right. Having
joe: hole of
Nick: that was a fun
Mobbing around.
all went to go get free comic books.
Nothing better than that.
Geo\: And actually, I do think that a free comic book day is such a cool thing because I know for a fact, like I can think of two or three times where I wasn’t familiar with the comic, and I went and I got the free comic book version of it, the sample, and then it was like, “Oh, I need to check this out,” and it was like s- some really cool stuff.
So I think it is a great way to get exposed to a lot of different comics and
joe: Yeah. No, I
Geo\: novels and stuff. So, I, I don’t know if I, how much I ta- I don’t think I had finished the last mini. So I finished Strange Animals by Jared K. Anderson, and I I would [00:30:00] give it a five-star rating, and really good.
Have you started that, Nick?
I have not.
Yeah. It’s, yeah, very well-written and I guess we’ll talk about it later when you finish, Nick.
Yes I have been slacking on my reading
joe: on
Geo\: lately.
then I’m not quite done, but I’m reading Strange Buildings,
joe: Mm-hmm.
Nick: and now I’m drawing a blank on the author. It’s a Japanese book, and the author is actually, his identity is unknown. But his writer’s name, I c- I’m sorry, I don’t even have that right in front of me.
joe: How
Nick: all right. It start- It starts with a U.
I know that.
joe: Well, you wanna… You can look it up. I got a few
Books that while you’re looking that up for the author. I’m re- I’m in the middle of… Well, edits are off with my agent, so I’ve got a little bandwidth, but I’m reading The Art [00:31:00] Cure by Daisy Fancourt.
It’s a book about how art can be used as medicine and help mentally, physically help us recover and adjust. Reading Havana Hangover book one in in a series by Randy Richardson, so
really
Geo\: got a lot of reviews … reviews,
joe: And he just came out with a second book, An- Another Hangover, I think it’s called.
Geo\: called. Another Havana.
joe: Another Havana Hangover, yep. And then I’m reading Absolution by Jeff VanderMeer book four in the Area X trilogy. Well, now it was a trilogy and now this is
Geo\: Now this Area X.
joe: what that makes it, a quadrilogy or something like that. Yeah. No, I love Jeff
Geo\: and that’s the Annihilation that the movie- Yes … is
based and everything.
joe: So yeah, that’s a few things that I’m reading at the same, and they’re all, I read at different times, … So these… Actually, Absolution is a little… I’m reading the other two a little bit more, and that one is kind of in the background.
Kind of a [00:32:00] mix between audiobook and physical book.
Nick: So
joe: Yeah. So just waiting to hear back, I think soon, so I’ll probably not be reading for a while.
Geo\: so I’ll probably be moving forward on it.
joe: Be writing.
Geo\: His name is Uketsu, and I’m not positive I’m pronouncing that right.
U-K-E-T-S-U. And
joe: And
Nick: he has,
said the writer was unknown.
Well, that’s like his pen name, you know what I mean? That’s
joe: That’s like David
Geo\: His
true identity is not known. Kinda like a Ba- like a Bansky, which didn’t they come out with Bansky’s true identity? I’m saying his name wrong. But yeah, didn’t they come out with his true identity recently?
joe: did. I
Nick: I thought it still wasn’t
joe: him. Yeah, I don’t know if they confirmed it, but they think they have him. I was gonna say it’s like, David Wong,
Nick: But they’ve been doing that for a while, though.
Geo\: Who has?
Nick: Just different people have been pointing fingers at a few different people on who he is.
joe: Oh, okay. Right. Yep. Right. Yep.
Nick: But I’m under the group that thinks that
[00:33:00] Banksy is a, not just a single person, but a group of
Geo\: a- yeah, like a collective.
Nick: Yeah, which would make more sense for how big the pieces be- get.
Geo\: I mean, how spread out they are.
joe: Yeah, different locations. Yep. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Geo\: Mm-hmm. Well, and so this, and he Ukitsu ha- started out with Strange Pictures, then Strange Houses, and now it’s Strange Buildings. But I recommend it. They’re very different than any other books that I’ve read.
But I really like them. Yeah.
joe: Mm-hmm.
Geo\: I think that’s about it.
Yeah.
I feel like we … Did we watch a movie? I don’t know.
joe: Have we watched a movie? Probably.
Geo\: movie. Probably. My brain is, like, having a hard
time recalling stuff. Yeah.
joe: Yep.
Nick: We’ll probably pick it up next week or
next time be like, [00:34:00] “Oh yeah, we
We’ll
joe: move along. It’s just kind of go
Geo\: Yeah, unless it’s
joe: like, Yep
Nick: oh my gosh, I really needed to mention that, then I’ll mention it, right?
joe: What about yourself, Nick? What have you been up to? Me, I’ve been
Nick: up to?
Me? I’ve been watching just some old movies lately. I just rewatched Spaceballs
joe: Spaceballs
Oh
Nick: I love it.
joe: watching the show Community. Mm-hmm. Oh, I don’t remember
Nick: a lot,
Oh, I don’t remember that. What
really been getting into… Community is a TV show on NBC. Joe McHale Chevy Chase, Alison Brie.
Community,
It’s a really good show. Highly recommend that.
joe: college, right?
Nick: thing I
joe: I remember when that was. I don’t think I watched, I didn’t watch it, but I know what you’re talking about.
Nick: talking about.
joe: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yep. Oh, cool.
Nick: But yeah, besides that, I’ve just been playing some games. Skate, I picked that back up again. Just downloaded Phasmophobia [00:35:00] again ’cause they’re gonna have a big Alan Wake update crossover. So yeah, we we’ve been waiting for that to happen, which Alan Wake is a really cool one. But yeah, that’s about
all I’ve Been
joe: for this for- Yeah. Oh, you, you know what else we started watching? That Widow’s Bay. Yeah. We
Geo\: Yeah, only one episode,
joe: reminded me of John Carpenter’s The Fog, I think the, you know, it’s Apple+? It’s
Geo\: on TV. Yeah, Just, It,
just came out, and people are kinda ex- comparing it a little bit to Twin Peaks, and Yeah … like, supposed to be,
Nick: yeah.
Geo\: it’s supposed to be like a horror comedy
joe: probably a little atmospheric kind of
Nick: Yeah.
joe: character-driven thing. Yeah, a little twisty. But yeah, I from the first episode, I’m like, “Oh, this is like, The Fog.”
But I’m just a John Carpenter fan,
so.
Geo\: No.
joe: Coolio. All right.
Nick: all right. Well, that was another mini episode.
episode. Yeah,
joe: that was another mini episode. Yeah, definitely. The mini. Coming to Maxi. Coming to Maxi. [00:36:00] All right. Well, you got me, Joe. You got me.
Nick: You got
Nick.
joe: Nick.
Nick: Georgia.
joe: We got Georgia.
Nick: And we went down the mini hole.
joe: y’all, stay safe, stay curious. We love y’all.
Nick: Bye-bye.
Bye-bye
“Stay curious, stay safe… Love Y’all!”
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