Informal Investigation podcast

#Lifestyle #Podcasting Education #Hobbies #Asher Mechanic

36:27

Not many artists actually hail from Tennessee, but the scenic valleys and rolling hills of The Volunteer State are part of Dustin Lynch’s DNA. In this episode of On the Bus, Country Thunder CEO Troy Vollhoffer sits down with Dustin to discuss his journey from playing fraternity parties and weddings across the southeast to being the first country artist with a club residency at the Wynn in Las Vegas. Plus, stick around for our new segment, Thunder Strike, where Troy features upcoming festival performer Riley Green’s hit song “Damn Good Day to Leave” to give you a taste of what’s to come at Country Thunder in 2025.…

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Need a new hobby? Just curious about someone else's hobby? You're in the right place! The Informal Investigation Podcast dives deep into the wondrous world of stuff you never knew you were missing! Click subscribe and let's begin!

7 episodes

Informal Investigation explicit

updated 4 years ago

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7 episodes

#Lifestyle #Podcasting Education #Hobbies #Asher Mechanic

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1
Investigation into Mansplaining 48:21

4 years ago48:21

48:21

Investigation into Mansplaining Introduce Summar Audience recommendation How did mansplaining find us? What is mansplaining? Summar's definition? Some “formal” definitions Asher’s definition Is mansplaining real? What is an example? Where is the line between sharing and mansplaining? Can you be mansplaining in a debate setting? Summar’s experiences? Why do men mansplain? Do you think men get under explained? Do you think annoying talkers think of women as easy victims? How do you think you should respond if someone is explaining things in a condescending way? Can a man mansplain to a man? Can a woman mansplain? Is the term mansplaining sexist in it of itself? To use the word mansplain or to not use the word mansplain? Notable books: Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit Audience recommendation: Branzino Another podcast on mansplaining - Living experiment - Mansplaining - This is a different podcast with a different but interesting view on the word.…

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Investigation into Starting a Podcast 15:23

4 years ago15:23

15:23

You are listening to the Informal investigation podcast This is the podcast where we investigate, experience, and share interesting finds My name is Asher and lets begin ::Music:: The informal investigation podcast is for entertainment purposes only. We are not responsible if you mess up. You should always do your own homework. If you try anything mentioned on this podcast you are doing so at your own risk. The views presented on this podcast do not represent any affiliated or unaffiliated organizations. ::music:: Today we are opening an informal investigation into how to start a podcast. I hope by the end of this podcast you will feel empowered to start your own. I’m excited to announce we have finished our first quarter of the informal investigation podcast. I hope all you listeners out there have been enjoying our content. If you have I kindly ask that you subscribe and rate our podcast on Itunes . Let’s review what we have been doing. We started off with episode 1 - Investigation into Pumpkin Beer - Where we discovered pumpkin beer dates back to 1771 and we made an actual recipe from the 18th century. In episode 2 we investigated Gold to help us understand the rising gold prices and an exploration into the process of buying gold without getting ripped off For our third episode we investigated flannel and how this warm soft material became so popular and fashionable. We found our favorite flannel company - The Vermont Flannel Company and shortly after our episode release they almost completely sold out! For our fourth episode we were getting thirsty again and investigated pale ale . Of course we had to brew our own and made an amazing blonde ale. Then there was our most recent and popular episode where we took a super deep dive into dry cereal . We talked about the kellogg family, CW Post, and ofcourse we made our own cereal - Coffee Bean Puffs . ::music:: Why am I making this episode? I know what y'all are thinking...I have only been podcasting for 3 months now! What do I know? You're correct to some extent. Although I lack the long term experience of many podcasters I am close to my podcasting beginning and I remember exactly what it's like to start a podcast because I'm living it now. I can give you a slightly different perspective then what you may be reading online . Since starting this journey 3 months ago I have already been approached by multiple people asking for advice on starting their own podcasts. I hope by the end of this episode if you wanted to start your own podcast you will feel ready, inspired and empowered to do so. Why do you want to start a Podcast? There are really 2 reasons people start podcasts. Either to make money or they have something they are passionate about that they want to share with the world! Obviously you can be doing it for both reasons. The reason I started this podcast is a little different. For those of you who are listening to this episode years in the future - we are recording this episode during the covid 19 pandemic. This has been a stressful time for everyone. To get my mind off of things I have been taking on small projects - or investigations as I now call them. The pandemic has limited my social life and I wanted to tell people about these experiences - This is how the informal investigation podcast was born. One thing to understand is Podcasting is just a medium of distributing information. I believe the topic of your podcast should be your inspiration and not that - you just want to make a podcast What are you going to name your podcast? This can be difficult but generally you want something that describes your topic, is easy to remember/spell, and not currently in use. For me, the Informal Investigation Podcast seemed appropriate because I was talking about my informal investigations. Now that you have your name...Should you Trademark your podcast? I am not a lawyer so I cannot give you legal advice. I don’t think this is hugely important if you're just starting a small podcast for fun. If you have the $500 to spend go for it! What about a website and domain name? Your domain name is what people type in to find your website. This is the www.wtvryouwant.com. Podcasts should have a website because the information on podcast listening apps are extremely limited. Also having a website helps people find your podcast through search engines. In my mind it is important to reserve a domain name. I snatched up Informalinvestigation.com and informalinvestigationpodcast.com for about $20 a year. You don’t want a situation where your podcast is becoming more popular and someone else buys your domain name and holds it for ransom. What about artwork? This is actually pretty important because it is what people will see every time they click on your podcast. I wanted to get started quickly so I just went onto Fivrr and found a graphic designer who made me my current artwork for around 30$. In the future depending on the direction of the podcast I may hire a really talented graphic designer I know to improve the design and make other artwork. If you're short on cash design something simple yourself - don’t leave this blank. So you're ready to make a podcast, how do you make your first episode? Topic: First you need to research your topic. Whether it's you, you and your co-host or hosts, or you and your special guest or guests; some research needs to be done. If you want people to listen, you have something worthwhile to stay. Microphone: Next is what you are speaking into. This is going to be a microphone. You don’t need anything special but if you are willing to spend $60 on a microphone you will get significantly better results. If you don’t have the $60 I would recommend a pair of iphone headphones which will be just fine to start with. When purchasing a microphone you need to be aware there are 2 types of microphones - Condenser and dynamic microphones. I didn’t bother researching all the nitty gritty of the differences. I chose a dynamic microphone, which is appropriate for most beginner podcasters, because you don’t hear background noise unlike with condenser microphone. If you have a home sound proof studio then go for the condenser version. The 2 most popular beginner podcast dynamic microphones are the samson Q2U and the ATR 2100 because they both have ports for usb cable in addition to XRL(thats those beefy mic cables the pros use) options so you don’t need a big mixing board. Just plug it into your computer and play! And when your podcast is a huge success you have the option to change to XLR. Also for the small price tag they give you all the accessories you need - a little microphone stand, both cables, and a foam ball that limits the plosives - This is the P’s that slap you in the face - lemme show you - peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers! Editing software: There are a bunch of options out there. Macs come with garage band for free. Watch a couple youtube videos on garage band and you will be editing like a pro in 15 minutes. Theme Music: This actually was a bit more complicated than I thought it was going to be. Finding good royalty free music can be difficult and expensive. After going back and forth on what to do I eventually decided to go way way old school with my music. I looked for something that was “public domain” - this means the copyright has expired. Regardless of what you decide to use, be careful not to break any copyright laws. Hosting company: This is a company that you upload your podcasts to and they manage your RSS feed so all your listeners can easily download episodes. I believe you need a hosting company even if you already have your own website. Podcasts require the ability to rapidly transfer large amounts of data and you're likely to just crash your website. There are a number of good companies that do this. I chose captivate because they give you a free easy to set up website and have amazing customer support(important for a noob like me). They are a newer company but their product is good. Also they are constantly innovating and making their product better. Every few weeks they send me an email explaining new features. I am paying 19$ a month - for me this is worth it because of all the support they give. If you're interested in captivate please use the affiliate link on informalinvestigation.com to help support this podcast - just click the captivate logo at the bottom of my website and they will give some amount of time free. If you don’t have the cash there are hosting companies that offer an entry level plan for free. I hope you are seeing the theme here - you can start a decent podcast for free and if you are willing to spend a little money it can be even better. Podcast listening apps: In order for people to be able to find your podcast on their podcast listening app of choice you need to sign up with each listening app. If you have a host they normally walk you through this process regardless it's pretty straight forward. Letting people know you have a podcast: In order to let people know you have a podcast you can use social media, ads, or leave it up to search engines and word of mouth. I set up 2 social media accounts: YouTube channel: The people who do this normal have a video of their podcast. This makes your podcast discoverable by you-tubers and potential also have a second source of income if you monetize your YouTube channel. An example of this is Joe Rogan. I currently don’t have the setup for video podcasting but maybe in the future. Instagram: I also set up an intagram account because this allowed me to post pictures from my investigations. You can’t really appreciate how amazing coffee bean puffs look without a picture! How often should I put out an episode? Setting a schedule is important no matter what you are doing. You need to have a goal or it will never happen. Even my podcast which is a hobby podcast - me letting my mind and interests loose and then telling everyone about it needs a schedule. Obviously the more content the better but at the same time you want to keep quality up and not burn yourself out! For me, I decided on 2 episodes every month that would be released on the 14th and 28th of the month. One thing to keep in mind is if your schedule is not practical, change it rather than giving up. I heard that most podcasts fail after 7 episodes. So try to break 7! How do I meet other podcasters? I don’t really know the answer to this! If you know, comment on Itunes! I happened upon a few creators the past few months just by chance. I met one of the hosts from My so-callled Opera Life - its a podcast about opera. I also met a random lady on a swipe app that had a feminist podcast(will respect her privacy and not mention it by name here). What are my future plans? I have tons of great investigations planned. Now that we made it through our first quarter i’m going to start throwing in some more controversial investigations to spice things up! Stay tuned for our valentine's day episode. I'm already super pumped! I also want to start having guests on this podcast. I am currently working out the technical details to record multiple people in studio and remotely. I have an amazing lineup of guests already scheduled. I am also working on a mailing list to keep everyone up to date on all of our latest episodes. There is an email signup form on my website. With that we are going to close this investigation. I would like to wish everyone a happy new year and thanks for investigating with us! If you enjoyed this podcast please subscribe to be notified about our upcoming episodes. Also, Check the links in our show notes for the resources discussed in this episode on informalinvestigation.com .…

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Investigation into Dry Cereal 21:14

4 years ago21:14

21:14

Investigation into Dry cereal You are listening to the Informal investigation podcast This is the podcast where we investigate, experience, and share interesting finds My name is Asher and lets begin ::Music:: The informal investigation podcast is for entertainment purposes only. We are not responsible if you mess up. You should always do your own homework. If you try anything mentioned on this podcast you are doing so at your own risk. The views presented on this podcast are solely those of the speakers and do not represent any affiliated or unaffiliated organizations. ::music:: Today we are opening an informal investigation into Dry Cereal If you like what you hear on this podcast please subscribe to us on your podcast listening app of choice to be notified about all of our latest episodes! Disclaimer! This episode on dry cereal got way-way-way more out of control then I expected! What started out as an investigation into cereal turned into a deep dive into gastrointestinal diseases, the war on masturbation, corporate legal battles, suicide, and ultimately the making of the official informal investigation podcast cereal. Consider yourselves warned! To get our story started let's take you back to the breakfast table before the 20th century. Generally there were 2 versions of the American breakfast: If you were rich it was a meat and fat heavy meal consisting of bacon, gravy, fried potatoes, and who knows what else. Obviously this was not a very healthy way to start your day. If you were poor you would eat hot cereals from grain whether it be porridge, gruel or mush. I wasn’t exactly sure the difference between these. With a little help from wikipedia it appears Porridge is a breakfast cereal made by boiling ground or crushed grain in water or milk. Gruel is similar to porridge however it is generally thinner. Mush on the other hand is a cornmeal porridge that can either be served as is or allowed to set then cut into squares and fried. These hot cereals were labor intensive requiring hours of boiling over wood stoves every morning. I bet all the mothers out there were starting to get fed up needing to wake up hours early to make some hardly appreciated mush for their family The obvious disadvantages of these two breakfast options left a vacuum for a revolution of American breakfast. ::music:: Let’s jump in! In 1875 the now popular oatmeal was brought to the market by Henry Parsons Crowell. First he made cracked oats then later on the technology was developed to make rolled oats. His company was originally called the Consolidated Oatmeal Company and later switched their name to Quaker Oats - as this sounds a lot more wholesome. I can’t imagine why anyone would put consolidated and oatmeal in the same sentence - but that’s just me. Making oatmeal still took a decent amount of time as instant oats had not yet been invented. I assume Crowell's oats were similar to the old fashioned Quaker Oats we have today. If only he knew one day his breakthrough hot cereal would be called old fashioned. Another fun fact...those cylindrical containers we buy oatmeal in were created by Crowell and a major breakthrough in food packaging at that time. Where exactly the story of dry cereal begins is unclear. Some people start with Sylvester Graham. He was the maker of flour and these bread nuggets which later got bastardized into what we know as the graham cracker. Sylvester Graham -- Graham cracker -- Yep, mind blown! This story is going to become a who’s who of American food manufacturing. Some tell a story where grahams biscuits were too hard to chew so people started to soak them in milk and then call this the beginning of dry cereal. Dry - sure but cereal I dono... Graham was a presbyterian minister and called himself a christian physiologist and created the American physiological society(still around today and can be found at physiology.org if you're into that kinda thing). He is best remembered for inventing the graham cracker - the American cookie enjoyed by Americans to this day. They are the essential ingredient in the campfire delicacy known as s'mores - a graham cracker - chocolate - marshmallow sandwich. These were not our modern day grammies but simply made from whole wheat flour and water only - more like Matza probably. The purpose of these little nuggets were part of his program to stop sexual impurity and the urge to masturbate. It seems everyone at this time in history had a bone to pick with masturbation. In my opinion graham was not the inventor of modern day cereals but rather the maker of a really bland hard to chew cracker. ::music:: So who invented cold cereal? We likely won’t ever know for sure. The top contenders are one of the Kellogg brothers (of Kellogg cereals), CW Post (This is the Post of Post cereals) or Henry perky the inventor of shredded wheat. That being said I am almost certain the idea was born in the head of Dr. John Harvey Kellogg - one of the two notable Kellogg brothers to this story. Let’s talk about him! His contributions to society were much more far reaching than a cereal monger. He was a talented physician, opened his own hospital called the sanitarium, wrote numerous books and treated thousands of patients. Like many physicians his dedication to medicine started with his own personal ailments. In his younger years he had “consumption” aka pulmonary tuberculosis, colitis, severe constipation, and an anal fissure - thats a rip in your butt hole and ya, it’s as painful as it sounds. Now imagine being constipated with a rip in your butt hole - that really hurts. It’s no wonder he developed an obsession with colon health and taught all his patients the importance of multiple soft BM's daily. When you have an anal fissure you want your BM’s to be as soft as possible so they just slide out and allow the wound to heal. He actually went to medical school 3 times. The first 2 times he felt his schooling did not provide him with adequate education. This ultimately led him to Bellevue Hospital Medical college where the education met his expectations. It seems he first got the idea of ready to eat breakfast cereal while in medical school. While a medical student he could not afford the time to make a hot bowl of porridge or afford the price of salted meats (he was also a vegetarian btw). At the same time he needed something that would produce his desired 6 soft bowel movements every day. I can actually relate to this. Back in my schooling days I perfected the eggrito, thermos oats, and the rapid PBJ assembly line. In medical school you quickly figure out that the amount of learning that needs to happen is greater than the amount of time you have to learn it in. You quickly discover you need maximum efficiency in all aspects of your life. My first med school discovery was thermos oats. This is a technique to cook oatmeal using a thermos so you don't have to stand there stirring a pot for half an hour. I actually made a youtube video on this while I was in school. You can find this on the informal investigation youtube channel. My next idea was the Eggrito. This is a fast egg sandwich I created where you place a corn tortilla on a plate, crack an egg on top of it, add any toppings you would like then place another corn tort on top. This plate is then placed in the microwave. The end result is an egg sandwich. I found this was the only way to make edible eggs in the microwave because the torts help contain the moisture in the eggs. My final contribution to fast food in medical school was my PB and J sandwich making technique. I would pretty much make an entire loaf of bread worth of PB and J’s at once and then put it back in the loaf bag. This way for lunch all I needed to do was reach into the bag and grab a sandwich! If you decided to only try the above diet for a day(i don’t necessarily recommend this) it would likely cost you less then $2. Dr. Kellogg reported in a letter that once he had his diet locked in he was living on 6 cents/day. ::music:: Let's get back to cereal! The next step in the dry cereal journey was at Dr. Kellogg's hospital/medical spa called the sanitarium or the san for short. At the San they served a variety of health foods. One of the notable ones to this topic was something called Granula. This was a bread made from wheat, corn, and oats that was then forced through a sieve. I’m assuming these looked like bread crumbs. It seems these were a hit at the san because people would even buy boxes of the stuff for the road. Dr. Kelloggs brother Will even set up a mail order business for Granula. Unfortunately it seems another Doc named James Jackson from New York already invented a cereal called Granula and sued Dr. Kellogg forcing him to change the name to granola. Will Kellogg built up their Granola business to a point where they were supposedly selling 2 tons of granola every week. Around this time an eclectic man named Henry Perky who was originally a school teacher then a Grocer then an attorney, a Nebraska senator and finally the proud inventor of shredded wheat. He was a chronic sufferer of indigestion; he read everything he could to find a cure. With the help of a machinist friend he created a machine that made his little whole wheat mattresses. After some tweaking this became known as shredded wheat. He later held more than 40 patents for machines that made cereal. Supposedly Perky and the Kelloggs interfaced when the Kelloggs were going to buy his shredded wheat business but the deal ultimately fell through. Following the failure of the shredded wheat deal the Kelloggs created a test kitchen in the basement of the San where they started working on their flaked cereals. The Kellogg’s original cereal creation was likely the combined work of Dr. Kellogg, his wife Ella, and his brother Will. After many experiments in their test kitchen they created wheat flakes that they called Gran-ose. Gran which stood for grain and ose - Which i’m not quite sure about but its typically seen as a suffix for sugars in chemistry. These flakes were a big hit at the san and the patients especially liked them in milk. Next on our list is CW Post. Post suffered from various GI ailments and was a patient of Dr. Kellogg at the San. At the time he was a failed businessman and could not pay his medical bills. To pay for services rendered he helped out in the Sans experimental kitchen. This gave him full access to Kellogg's recipes. Soon after leaving the San he created his own food manufacturing business. His first successful product was a coffee substitute called Postum. This showed a shocking resemblance to the Kelloggs “minute brew.” His first cereal was called grape nuts that bore a strong resemblance to Kellogg's granola but he added a little extra sweetness. He eventually copied their flaked cereal creating “Post Toasties.” ::music:: Following Post’s success off the backs of the Kellogs. Will Kellogg went full force into cereal experimentation. It was at this point he decided cereal needs to also taste good and changed the wheat flakes to corn flakes. He also added sugar, malt, and salt. These changes did not go over well when Dr. Kellogg found out. In January 1906 Will bought the rights to corn flakes from his brother for $170,000 - over 4 million now - a - days. To understand how Will was able to turn a small health care company into a corporate behemoth that would be doing over a billion dollars in sales every year let's talk about Will Kellogg who was at least equally impressive to his brother John. ::music:: As a child Will was berated and felt to have inferior intellect to his older brother John Harvey. He was berated by his teachers for not doing well in school and his schooling ended at age 13. He only discovered years later that the reason he did not do well in school was simply because he needed glasses. This was the reason he later instructed his foundation to focus on children's dental and eye care. His adult life started out not all that different. He worked for his brother for the majority of his younger years. He successfully ran the Sanitarium along with all of its side businesses to include publishing company and food company. Dr. Kellogg, unlike Will, was not a nice boss. It was reported that he would make Will take notes for him while he was taking each of his 6 bowel movements for that day. It is no doubt that running the San was the training ground for Will to be crowned the corn flake king only six years after buying the company. Following Wills acquisition of the food company he was strapped for cash and needed money to start his cereal empire. He was not able to even find a bank that would give him a loan back then. They felt the idea of cold cereal was still ridiculous. Wills success and the success of the cereal industry was because of multiple reasons that all perfectly fell into place at that time. Modern mechanized factories were being built, railroads were being built, increase in popularity of the telephone and telegraph, government regulations ensuring the safety of the milk supply, and of course Will’s ingenuity. Wills brilliant use of the new advertising industry transitioned the modestly sized Battle Creek Michigan company into a national and then global brand. He built the largest electrical sign at that time and placed it on the mecca building in times square. The sign was a boys face that measured 40 feet high. The boy was frowning and it read “ I want Kelloggs toasted corn flakes.” Then the sign switched to a smile and read “I got Kelloggs toasted corn flakes.” He also advertised in magazines and newspapers. Of his many ad campaigns one was called the wink campaign - he advertised that women wink at their grocers to receive a free package of something called “KTC” - I'm assuming this is Kellogg’s Toasted Corn flakes. He further spearheaded the idea of giving free samples. In Dayton Ohio he had door to door salesmen hand out free samples. Also he was the first to have the idea to place a free toy on the bottom of the cereal box. Not only did this encourage children to encourage their parents to buy Kellogg’s toasted corn flakes; The toy was cheaper by volume than the flakes and actually saved him money. And then of course there were chants/slogans K-E- double L - O - Double good Kellogg's best to you! And our three friends snap crackle and pop. Their campaigns also coined breakfast as the “The most important meal of the day” His words are still burnt into the minds of Americans. When I was in medical training I would be counseling patients on weight loss and we would be going over their diet. Naturally we would start off with breakfast. There were many times that I found myself listening to patients explaining to me how they made sure to eat a large breakfast “because it's the most important meal of the day.” This ad campaign is so ingrained in American society that I needed to explain to people that eating more even if it was for breakfast is not conducive to losing weight. ::music:: Some time near the end of this investigation I went on a first date with a lady we will call Meg - because that is actually her name. Trying to sound multidimensional I told her about the podcast and my investigation into cereal. She asked me how I became interested in dry cereal. How did I get so into this? The reason is a combination of fascination and disgust. Fascination - because when I was kid and remember all the advertisements and dreamy cereals. Walking into a supermarket and seeing an entire wall of interesting flavored sweets I had a chance at convincing my parents were a legitimate meal substitute. As a child my parents wisely did not let me eat any mainstream cereals. The ones I ate came from a health food store and were made more in the image of Dr. Kellogg then Will, Post and the others. Disgust - because it is one of the most inaccurately represented foods. Once a health food and now extremely unhealthy and likely bares some responsibility for childhood obesity. It is also not at all a cheap food - I can’t tell you how many times people tell me they eat cereal because they cannot afford other foods. Let's clear this up once and for all - dry cereal is not cheap - you are actually being robbed! Let's take a walk down the cereal aisle. The average box of cereal will run you 3-6$ and contains around 350 grams of cereal. Now compare that to a small container of oatmeal that sells for 2-3$, far more healthy and contains 850g of cereal. ::music:: Regardless of my feelings above I was determined to join this dreamy dry cereal saga! I was going to make my own dry cereal that would make the American breakfast even more convenient and taste! Here enters my creation - Coffee Bean Puffs. In looking for a base grain I wanted something that would provide some nutrition. My focus went to puffed grains - puffed rice, puffed corn, puffed wheat. You may have seen the fake versions of these puffed grains when you buy Rice Krispies, Corn Pops, and Smacks - these are just some kind of batter shaped into what these puffed grains are supposed to look like. Let's get back to my puffed grains! After researching how to puff grains - which you can do at home, I realized that it is infinitely easier to buy already puffed grains. I experimented with these 3 grains and finally went with puffed wheat. Puffed wheat has this fantastic nutty flavor, great crunch, and is shaped like a coffee bean. I then found some extremely high end instant coffee, added in vanilla extract, sugar and a small amount of boiling water. After allowing the mixture to cool I added it to the puffed wheat and allowed it to dry in a 170 deg oven. The final product is what I decided to call Coffee Bean Puffs. Every bowl of coffee bean puffs is equivalent to one cup of coffee. You poor a bowl of coffee bean puffs, add milk and start eating. The Milk will soon turn into a fantastic tasting vanilla latte just like the milk of coco pebbles turns to chocolate milk. By eating Coffee Bean Puffs you are eating breakfast and drinking coffee at the same time. You're Welcome world! If you're interested in the recipe please go to informalinvestigation.com, sign up for our mailing list and we will send you the recipe for free! Before concluding this...…

1
Investigation into Pale Ale 15:23

4 years ago15:23

15:23

Investigation into Pale Ale You are listening to the Informal investigation podcast This is the podcast where we investigate, experience, and share interesting finds My name is Asher and lets begin ::Music:: The informal investigation podcast is for entertainment purposes only. We are not responsible if you mess up. You should always do your own homework. If you try anything mentioned on this podcast you are doing so at your own risk. The views presented on this podcast are solely those of the speakers and do not represent any affiliated or unaffiliated organizations. ::music:: Today we are opening an informal investigation into Pale Ale For those of you who have been following this podcast you will remember our first episode in mid October covered pumpkin beer. If you haven't listened to it stop now! and go listen! It’s not what you expect and it will blow your freakin mind! Pumpkin beer is a specialty beer and definitely not for everyone. Even though the one we made was pretty great, I got sick of it after 1 or 2 beers and the rest of it is just sitting in my fridge gathering dust. Anyone ever wonder why things in the fridge don’t gather dust? That's for a different time! Pumpkin beer is a novelty beer though and I'm sick of it. After coming off of pumpkin beer I needed a super basic beer to clean my pallet and reset my beerometer! Ya, beerometer said first on the internal investigation podcast. Quick disclaimer! On this podcast we investigate, experience, and share interesting finds! Interesting being subjective I wanted to warn you I happen to have a special place in my heart for all sorts of brews and ferments. These topics are likely to have more than their fair share of episodes. ::music:: The history of pale ale is complex, zig zagging, and still being written. There are constantly new styles being added to this category. Milk Shake Indian Pale Ales, Sour Indian Pale Ales, White IPAs are just a couple of the newer styles. To learn more about Pale Ales I was able to find a book called “Pale Ale” (I know really original) by Terry Foster . The book goes into detail about the history of pale ales and how to brew them Before pale ale existed there was just plain old “Ale” in England. Ale was a very strong beverage that did not include hops. Sometime after the 15th century when hops were introduced in England they started making ale with hops and this was known as beer. Hops in addition to their unique flavor have antimicrobial properties. This allowed brewers to make Ale much weaker (ie less alcohol) and save money on their grain bill. Ironically, nowadays hops are the most expensive ingredients in beer. Eventually the term Ale faded from common use as people started to exclusively enjoy hopped beer. The term later re-surfaced to refer to strong beers. Unfortunately the hydrometer was not used in brewing till the 18th century so it's hard to know exactly what they meant by “strong” beer. We will get back to hydrometers in a different episode but in short it measures how much sugar is extracted from the grain and later turned into alcohol. So where did the Pale get put into Pale Ale. Like it sounds pale refers to color. ::music:: Let's get back to our beer basics: Beer is made by soaking milled barley in warm water to extract the sugars. This sugar water called wort is then boiled with hops to add additional flavor. Finally the wort is cooled and yeast are added to ferment the sugars into alcohol. That simple! But not quite…we missed a crucial step that most people don’t think about! What I didn't tell you is that the barely used to brew beer and all grain alcohol for that matter first needs to go through a process called malting before it even gets to the brewer. The person who malts the barley is known as a maltster. Awesome name! To make Pale Ale you need pale malt that is made from barley ::music:: Let's take a detour down maltster lane so we can really understand what this process entails. The process of malting frees up the sugars in the grain that allows us to make beer and other alcoholic beverages. The final step in malting is roasting the grain. This stops the malting process and adds extra flavor. Before the 18th century the final step in malting was roasting the grain over a wood fire. The heat was difficult to control and the malt would get quite toasty, smokey, or even scorched. The toasty, smokey, scorched malt as you may have guessed was not pale at all. I’m going to leave you hanging and talk a little about malting then we will get to how everything became Pale. Malting can be broken down into 3 steps: Steeping (2days) - This is when water is added to the grain to create the ideal growing environment - This starts the synthesis of enzymes in the Aleurone layer of the barley. Germinating (3-4days) - The grain starts the growing process and allowing enzymes to break down the complex carbohydrates that we will later be fermenting. Kilning - Heating the grain to stop the germination process. This process also gives the roasty flavor in grains Now back to the pale! Things got pale In the 18th century when Coke started to be used to dry the malt making kilning more controllable leading to a much lighter and pale end product. Ya, so what's coke? Cocaine? Coke-a-cola? That really went through my head for a second. It turns out it's a coal derivative that is used for fuel. In 1752 Jorge Hodgson opened a brewery in London and started shipping pale ale to India. Shipping beer to the indies was an interesting idea. A Lot of what fueled this was the free ride there. The actual point of these journeys was more to bring spices and other products back after the ships unloaded the beer. Hodgson created an ale that was more heavily hopped to help the beer survive the journey. Remember we said that hops have natural antimicrobial properties. This is where our extra hoppy Indian pale ales came along. The 18th century brought on all sorts of changes in England that led to increasing popularity of pale ale. None of these things seem to be a slam dunk on why pale ale took off. There were the Neopoloetic wars that raised grain prices and obstructed trade. There were water profiles from different areas. The industrial revolution gave people disposable income. Railroad openings. Regardless people seemed to like pale ales. Even Pale lagers in Europe took off at this time. Maybe this is simply the evolution of the human palate for Pale beer. It wasn't until the 1970’s that pale ale really took off in the United States however. The biggest difference between english pale ale and American pale is likely the hops. American pale ales use the more fruity American hops while the English Pales use the more earthy English varieties. The first one was likely liberty ale by anchor brewing to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Paul Revere's ride. Yup, the pale ale is coming! Soon after this one of the most popular and well known American pale ale’s were made - Sierra Nevada pale ale. Pale American Ale is BJCP (Beer Judge Certification Program) category 18. It is subdivided into 18a American blonde Ale and 18b American Pale Ale 18a American Blonde Ale: “Easy-drinking, approachable, malt oriented American craft beer, often with interesting fruit, hop, or character malt notes. Well-balanced and clean, is a refreshing pint without aggressive flavors.” These beers typically taste similar to our classic golden lagers out there(ie-bud or corona). The difference is Ale yeast is used instead of lager yeast. I perceive the difference as a fruitier rather than a crisp finish. 18b American Pale Ale: “A pale, refreshing and hoppy ale, yet with sufficient supporting malt to make the beer balanced and drinkable. The clean hop presence can reflect classic or modern American or New World hop varieties with a wide range of characteristics. An average-strength hop-forward pale American craft beer, generally balanced to be more accessible than modern American IPAs.” The big difference that I appreciate between American Blonde and American Pale is the hop forwardness and hop bitterness of the American Pale. Let's get back to me needing to clean my palate and reset my beerometer! I was shooting for an American Pale Ale...ya, shooting for! Before I started this brew I had a glass on glass accident and broke my hydrometer(again we will talk about this tool a different time) and I wasn’t in the mood of doing calculations so I just eyeballed this recipe and things didn’t quite turn out as expected! No surprise there! Here is my recipe: Victory malt 170g American 2-row 2500g Munich malt - 170g Wheat malt - 115g Lupo citra 5g 60 min Lupo citra 14g 10 min Lupo Mosaic 14g 10 min Lupo citra 14g 0 min Lupo Mosaic 14g 0 min Yeast us 05 So let’s do some tasting! For those of you that wanna see what these beers look like check out the Informal Investigation YouTube channel! With that we are going to close this investigation. If you enjoyed this podcast please subscribe to be notified about our upcoming episodes. Also, Check the links in our show notes for the resources discussed in this episode on informalinvestigation.com .…

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Investigation into Flannel 10:57

4 years ago10:57

10:57

Investigation into Flannel You are listening to the Informal investigation podcast This is the podcast where we investigate, experience, and share interesting finds My name is Asher and lets begin ::Music:: The informal investigation podcast is for entertainment purposes only. We are not responsible if you mess up. You should always do your own homework. If you try anything mentioned on this podcast you are doing so at your own risk. The views presented on this podcast are solely those of the speakers and do not represent any affiliated or unaffiliated organizations. ::music:: Today we are opening an informal investigation into Flannel In case you have been isolating super hard and don’t get out much - Let me be the one to tell you flannel season 2020 is here! As you're getting geared up with your favorite soft, warm, and colorful winter garments Do you find yourself asking yourself - Self? What, when, how, and why did we all get flannelized!? Flannel is a soft woven fabric, yep a soft woven fabric, It's really that simple! Originally it was made from wool but now it's made from wool, cotton, synthetic fiber, and I think you can even get it made out of some kind of vegetation. So! What makes it so soft? 2 things It is loosely spun and Flannel can be brushed for extra softness. What happens is a fine metal brush scrapes the material raising fine fibers creating a nap - which is just a fancy word for a raised fuzzy surface What about the pattern? Does it need to be tartan? I know big words. Tartan is that classic pattern seen on flannel shirts with criss crossed horizontal and vertical bands of different colors. The answer to this is no. Flannel is just the soft fuzzy material that is fuzzified using the 2 methods we just mentioned. ::music:: But tartans! Common now! Tartans deserve a little side tract here. Tartans have a rich history in Scotland. Each clan was represented by a different tartan pattern. Believe it or not you can officially register your own pattern today no matter where in the world you live, who your ancestors are, or your personal feelings on flannel - that's equal opportunity for ya. Just go to tartanregister.gov.uk and make it official. It seems you design a weave, then name it, and register it for the meer price of 70 pounds. You should prob check that no one has already registered your tartan or your application can be rejected and you will be chased down by an angry Scotish clan. Of Course, I immediately started sketching out my tartan but tartans are going to have to have their own episode. This is about flannel! My first exposure to flannel was from Osh Kosh Bigosh before I can even remember. My first memorable flannel experience was in grade school. My mom bought me a wardrobe full of beautiful flannel. It's warm, soft, and colorful - what could go wrong, rite? Unfortunately my esteemed grade school colleagues did not feel the same way. At that time I suppose flannel was not the coolest thing. I was made fun of a bit and some people called me raymor and flanneligan haha i know. Fortunately, I was always a big dude so there was a limit to how far they were willing to take this. I don’t actually remember caring all that much but it likely made an impression because my next phase was Hawaiian shirts which are so not fuzzy they feel slick. As you can tell I was always the super cool kid. ::music:: I was trying to figure out the origin story of flannel but I was not able to find all that much. There is no official book on flannel and when you google it you find vague stories by every company that sells flannel. After reading the same useless information 25 times I gave up and went with what I had. The party line seems to be flannel is of welsh origin sometime in the 17th century. Makes sense because the welsh had tons of sheep, therefore wool, and the first flannels were wool. Also, they created new ways to process wool such as carding in 1789 which would make production much easier. Stepping back and thinking of things from the walians perspective - these people were just taking a firm stance against scratchy wool sweaters or even underwear. Imagine wearing scratchy wool underwear every day! I know, try to unthink that one! Your welcome! Also, poofing out material makes it warmer just like poofing up your down coat. It makes sense that the origin story is a little murky. We are literally trying to figure out where soft fuzzy fabric was invented. This is not the most specific thing in the world. ::music:: In 1861 during the US civil war soldiers were commonly seen in flannels In 1889 Hamilton Carhartt, yep, that carhartt, opened his factory in detroit michigan creating tough flannel garments for the working man. Flannel quickly became the symbol for the rugged hard working man. Loggers and railroad workers soon adopted this material as their flannelform(i just made that up btw). The mythical giant paul bunyan garbed in his classic red flannel shirt really drove home the relationship between flannel and manliness. At this point I headed down the paul bunion rabbit hole to discover it goes way too deep for comfort - so let's move on. Flannel was used in clothing in both world wars. The famous Parsons M1941 field jacket was lined with flannel. Even our white collar friends wanted to get in on this and in the 1950’s mens flannel suits became somewhat popular. In the 1990’s flannel joined the grunge scene and was worn by nirvana, pearl jam and others. Currently, flannels are as popular as ever. The website “outside online” calls this fashion trend “lumbar-sexual” - like sexy lumbar jack - if you needed that explained. ::music:: While researching this episode I came across the Red flannel festival celebrated 82 years this October! I know, we just missed it! Next year we are going to be there! I already added it to my calendar! I really did btw. The story of this festival begins during the frigid winter of 1936. A New York feature writer was complaining(no surprise there) that there were no red flannels to wear during this freezing winter. It seems a news paper from Cedar Springs Michigan wrote back kindly explaining that just because you don’t see red flannel in the hoyty toyty stores in NY doesn’t mean flannel is not being made around the country - she wrote “who but a New Yorker would conclude that all the world doesn’t because we don’t.” The story was picked up and next thing you know orders were pouring into this small city with a population of 2000. It seems they mostly sold “dropseaters” which looks to be a one piece flannel long underwear with a butt flap. I’m assuming the flap was to allow the wearer to use the bathroom without having to take all their clothes off and expose themselves to the elements. I guess it can also help with procreation on those cold nights. When you live in a town of 2000 every opportunity counts. Soon after, a festival day was made to commemorate this big event in the town of Cedar springs. These festivals were pretty serious business! On their website they state that in 1939 the police were arresting anyone not wearing red on festival day. In all seriousness red flannel helped keep this little town of 2000 on the map! I’m hoping to see everyone October 2nd 2021 at the Red Flannel Festival. ::music:: As you may have guessed I didn’t let a bunch of haters affect my clothing choice in grade school. I have been going strong with flannel ever since and patiently waited for the world to catch up. With everything going on in the world I have been trying to support US businesses and thought I would take this opportunity to upgrade my flannels. I came across the Vermont Flannel Company . This is a family owned business in vermont. All of their flannels are made in the USA. Overtime they have created quite the customer base of fanatic flannel followers - thats what they call um. I have bought alot from them and its extremely high quality. They have pretty much flannelized everything. They have shirts, pants, robes, scarves, bags, hats, flanyards - to go around your neck, the flanny pack - flannel waist pouch, and ofcourse their vong - flannel thong not a bong. While recording this episode i’m wearing their luxurious and super loungeable flannel robe. And no i'm not getting paid by them. ::music:: Why is flannel so manly? Why is it so fashionable? Why does it transcend age, sex, race?(not really sure where race comes in to this but sure) Simply, it's comfortable and warm. Wear what works and don’t let any hacks tell you what’s fashionably acceptable. We are currently in the time of the practisexual revolution - being practical is fashionable but only if you're not doing it for that reason! With that we are going to close this investigation. If you enjoyed this podcast please subscribe to be notified about our upcoming episodes. Also, Check the links in our show notes for the resources discussed in this episode on informalinvestigation.com .…

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Investigation into Gold 17:10

4 years ago17:10

17:10

You are listening to the Informal investigation podcast This is the podcast where we investigate, experience, and share interesting finds My name is Asher and lets begin ::Music:: The informal investigation podcast is for entertainment purposes only. We are not responsible if you mess up. You should always do your own homework. If you try anything mentioned on this podcast you are doing so at your own risk. The views presented on this podcast are solely those of the speakers and do not represent any affiliated or unaffiliated organizations. Today we are opening an informal investigation into Gold If you like what you hear on this podcast please subscribe to us on your podcast listening app of choice to be notified about all of our latest episodes. Also links to resources mentioned in this episode can be found in the show notes at informalinvestigation.com . At the time this podcast is being recorded it is 2020 and the VID is upon us. That is the COVID19 pandemic. Gold prices have soared to around $2000 an ounce. This should not be a surprise. It is during times of crisis that gold prices rise. People still turn to gold when uncertain about their nation's currency. In my mind, the price of gold going up is a harbinger of badness. Gold is element number 79, labeled Au, in group 11, period 6 on the periodic table. Aside for being shiny and having some industrial uses gold gets its value from being currency In order to understand how the element with the atomic number 79 gained its relative significance, we need to first understand currency. ::music:: The journey started when I picked up the book “The bitcoin standard” by Saifedean Ammous - Apologies for butchering his name. At the time, I was interested in bitcoin - but that is going to be a discussion for another time. He starts his book explaining primitive moneys and monetary metals. The first couple chapters completely changed the way I look at money. The purpose of money is “to move economic value over time and space” The most primitive way this is done is with barter or the direct exchange of goods. You want a loaf of bread and I want a dozen eggs so let's trade - easy rite? This works great but only on a small scale. However in a larger economy people start to specialize. They become more efficient at making specific products. Because of this specialization many more products come to market. This is good but also creates some obvious trade problems: coincidence of wants - I want what you got but you don’t want what I got - You want a case of my pumpkin beer for your party tonight. However, you make cars and I already have one. What do we do now? How do you pay me for the beer so your party isn’t a total bust? Coincidence of scales - What this means is lets say I do want that car you make and you want a case of beer that I make. Are you going to trade me 1/1000 of a car for my case of beer? Or do I need to give you 1000 cases of beer for a car. Not very practical. Coincidence of time - Let's say we agreed on 1000 cases of beer for one car. However I need the car now and your ragger isn't scheduled till next year. Coincidence of location - How are we supposed to exchange your car for my 1000 cases of beer if you make your cars in china If your curious about all these pumpkin beer references, make sure to listen to our previous episode where we investigate pumpkin beer. The solution to these issues is to have a medium of exchange A middle man so to say, an item that can hold value that you can give me for the case of beer that I can use whenever I want to acquire whatever I want - AKA money What qualifications does this money need to have? Conveniently divided into smaller portions, easy to transport, and holds onto its value over time(restraint on production or inflation). There have been all sorts of currency over the years - Gold, silver, copper, stones, seashells, cattle, cigarettes in prison, and ofcourse paper. Of the three requirements listed above many things can meet the first 2 - conveniently divided(smaller stones and bigger stones) and ease of transport(anything that is relatively small in size and weight). The issue is the third - holds its value over time - hold its value over time - If we are not confident that our money will hold value no one in their right mind will use it for trade. I am not going to accept $30 for my case of beer if I think my $30 is going to only be worth $20 next month. ::music:: Ammous explains the concept of stock to flow ratio of currency. Hang with me for this concept because it is crucial for the rest of our discussion. A good currency has a high stock to flow ratio. What this means is people hold onto a large amount of it to store value(thats the stock) but it's difficult to increase the flow or the amount of currency available at any given time. Lets give an example: if you use sea shells for currency and sea shells are very hard and time consuming to find you have a high stock to flow ratio - the stock being all the sea shells found over the past 100 or X number of years and the flow being the 1 or 2 that can be found by the sea shell mining company on a daily basis. Now, what happens if green beard the currency pirate comes to land in your city with a ship full of shells that he got from a land far far away where shells are plentiful. This would flood and devalue the currency and shortly after destroy the entire economy. Huge problem - One that we know as inflation - In order for money to hold its value for the duration that you own it there needs to be a restriction on drastic increases in its supply. When the market is flooded, history bears witness, economies get crushed. ::music:: This is where gold enters the picture - simply, gold has held its value over time Gold is super stable chemically and nearly impossible to destroy. Also, it cannot be man made and is extremely difficult and costly to mine for. Humanity has been accumulating gold for a long time now making the stock very high Since gold is difficult to mine for the flow has consistently remained low Gold therefore has a high stock to flow ratio and this is why it has succeeded as currency Because of this the gold standard was adopted which allowed unprecedented unity, trade, and prosperity across the world. This was seen in the USA in what was later known as the gilded age. This soon led to gold being centralized in banks and government money was issued that was backed by gold - Ie for every dollar you could get x amount of gold. The gold standard fell apart when governments started printing more money then they had gold. For the united states and alot of the world the effect of this was appreciated in 1914 with the outbreak of world war I. History is littered with crises > government printing more money to try to solve the problem > inflation > economic collapse > and people starving. We are not the first society in history to deal with a pandemic, political conflict, and social unrest. No amount of technology or social media will change basic human behavior. We must look to history and learn from the failures of our ancestors. Let's get back to today As people lose confidence in their governments and their respective currencies they fall back to gold > increases the demand for gold > increases the price of gold > me spending $2000 on one tiny little piece of gold > me telling you about iron this podcast ::music:: Before buying gold I realized I needed an insider's view into the market so I don’t get completely ripped off. We all have seen those seemingly shady neon lights on a street corner store “we buy and sell gold.” I would not step foot in one of those places unless I had a clear plan. This led to googling, youtubing, and finally I bought the book Stack Silver Get Gold by Hunter Riley III. It's a quick 132 page soft cover that tells you everything you need to know with absolutely no BS or fluff. I learned alot from this book and recommend reading it if you are interested in gold. How does gold pricing work? Spot price - Spot price is the price that gold is currently being traded for in the market. This is how much people who buy huge quantities of gold pay for it. This is the price you will see quoted online. Rileys favorite resource is metalsmine.com - its a good site that compares the current prices of all sorts of currency. Premium - This is the price that the investor meaning you pays over the spot price for gold. This includes the price of minting, marketing, distributing, and ofcourse a dealer fee. As a general rule smaller bars will have higher premiums then larger bars and coins will have higher premiums than bars. That leads to the next question What forms do gold come in? Coins, rounds, bars, and jewelry Coins - Coins are made by a government mint, and normally contain an ounce of gold. Examples include the american gold eagle, the canadian maple leaf, chinese panda and many others. Advantages are they are difficult to fake, easy to authenticate and therefore sell. Disadvantage is they have high premiums. Rounds - Rounds are coins that are not made by a government mint. They are therefore Easier to fake and harder to authenticate. Therefore they normally have lower premiums then coins. An example of this would be the coins from John Wick made by the high table. Bars - Bare are what we see in movies. They do come in all sizes. Similar to rounds harder to authenticate but have lower premiums. What is the purity? We have all heard about Karats. 24 Karat is the highest it goes and is almost pure gold. Don’t let someone sell you 26 karat gold - it doesn’t exist. Another unit you may hear is “fine” f-i-n-e. 24 karat = any gold > 0.999 fine. Fineness is the parts per thousand of pure gold. Examples you may see are .999 or .9999 fine. Another important and confusing concept to understand is how gold is weighed. Gold is weighed in “troy ounces” which does not = our typical ounce. A troy ounce = 31.1 grams and a regular ounce = 28.35 grams. Don’t be scammed. What about gold investments? There are products out there called gold futures and exchange traded funds. I did not go for either of these. I wanted physical metal. Gold goes up in price during times of crisis. Its back up currency. During a time of crisis i don’t want to be the guy stuck with a stack of useless certificates or virtual gold from a company that just went bankrupt. Who to buy from? You need to find a trustworthy dealer. Do your research! And there is no harm in first doing a small trial sale first. Where to store it? There are 3 basic storage options...Personal, bank, private storage company They all have there advantages and disadvantages The place most people think of first is a bank vault. Nothing wrong with this option however there are some clear disadvantages that deserve mention. During times of crisis governments have historically made excuses to confiscate and control the wealth of its citizens. Also, if banks are closed you can’t get your gold. Private companies whether domestic or international can be an option as long as you do your research on their business practises and carefully read their contracts. Home storage is an option but depends on your home situation. Advantages are you have max control of your gold. Disadvantages are that you need to protect your gold and this can put you and your family at risk for theft and violence. At the very least don’t let anyone know you have gold! ::music:: After doing some research I went back and forth weighing pros and cons of investing in gold. In the end I decided to try it. For a dealer I went with one of the well known online gold dealers. I decided to go with a 1 once bar to avoid an excessive premium tagged onto the coins. I made sure the bar came from a reputable mint. Mine was made by the perth mint - An Australian government owned mint. After arranging for payment a few days later I received a small non-assuming package in the mail. Inside I found my small 1 ounce piece of gold that cost me $2000 of hard earned cash. To be honest, I did feel a little jipped. For $2000 I was expecting a little treasure chest of gold. Was this a good investment? Only time will tell... ::music:: This investigation completely changed the way I look at money, currency, and gold. The notion that money is evil is completely false. It is the medium that when supported appropriately allows us to trade, specialize, do what we love, and create together as a society. Having a single medium of exchange with a high stock to flow ratio strengthens everyone and creates a truly prosperous society. Think about this very podcast episode. It required the microphone company, computer company, audio editing software, hosting company, podcast streaming app, the device you are listening on, ammous who is a professor of economics, Riley who is a precious metals financial advisor, the book editors, the printing companies, the book stores I bought them from, and many more people all to make this podcast episode. Alot of specialists! None of this would be possible without currency. Imagine me trying to trade pumpkin beer with all the above people for their services. I understand there is a little bit of circular logic here because i am making a podcast about currency to begin with but you get the point. With that we are going to close this investigation. If you enjoyed this podcast please subscribe to be notified about our upcoming episodes. Also, Check the links in our show notes for the resources discussed in this episode on informalinvestigation.com .…

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Investigation into Pumpkin Ale 14:40

4 years ago14:40