0:08

Hello, and welcome to Save your Protection of iHeartRadio.

0:11

I'm Annie Reese.

0:11

And I'm Long Vocal BAM, and today we have an

0:13

episode for you about sea urchin. Yes,

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you know, we love these weird

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sea creatures are so.

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Weird, they're great. I know.

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I was stilling Lauren before this A lot of times with these.

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I'm like, I'm just gonna wait and see what Lauren has

0:28

to say about this, because I'm so I'll

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see terms.

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I'm like, oh, I gotta know more, but I'm gonna wait.

0:35

So I'm very excited as well.

0:38

Was there any particular reason this was on your

0:40

mind?

0:41

This was kind of with that batch

0:43

of things that I

0:45

was feeling really ambitious about. I was like,

0:48

you know, like, like what is a like like a like

0:50

a protein was kind of up in the rotation, and

0:53

uh, we had never done

0:55

sea urchin because I had never suggested

0:57

it because they're real strange.

1:00

I was like, that's going to be a lot of work, and

1:03

listener, it was in

1:05

fact, like like right before we started, I was

1:07

like, do you want to do like a short side

1:10

episode about just sea

1:13

urchin science that I didn't have time

1:15

to work into this outline because

1:17

there's a lot of it, and I

1:19

said very enthusiastically, yes, yeah,

1:22

of course, yeah, possibly

1:25

for a different show because it doesn't have a lot

1:27

to do with them as a food source

1:30

for humans, but you know, still

1:33

still hard to resist.

1:34

It's hard to resist, so cool.

1:37

I do love sea urchin, although

1:39

I have to say I

1:42

don't know that I

1:44

quite realized that

1:46

I had it because I usually

1:49

see it as uni oh sure,

1:51

huh and I so when I was reading

1:53

this, I was like, oh that, but

1:57

yes, I do enjoy it quite a bit. Louren

2:00

and I also were talking about this, and

2:04

we were discussing how terrifying they look.

2:07

They do, uh huh, yes,

2:09

And I was seeing that. I have had

2:12

an experience where I was scuba diving there

2:15

was a shark near me, but

2:18

I was more afraid as

2:20

the sea urchins, because I was pretty sure that shark

2:22

was a gray nurse shark.

2:23

And I know a lot about gray nurse sharks, and you're fine.

2:25

Oh yeah, yeah. Most sharks in general

2:28

want nothing to do with human people. I

2:30

mean, unless you're really sloshing

2:32

around like a food source of theirs. Their

2:35

sharks are the puppos of the sea, like for the

2:37

most part. You're you're you're fine. You could

2:39

go up and hug them if you really wanted to. I don't

2:41

necessarily recommend that, but.

2:44

No, but yeah, I froze.

2:47

I was just floating above the sea urchins

2:49

like, don't move a muscle.

2:53

I mean, they don't want this. They weren't going to come

2:55

after you.

2:56

Yes, it was just like share.

2:59

They were close enough afraid

3:01

if I moved too much. Yeah,

3:04

it wouldn't be pretty for me.

3:05

M h.

3:06

Yeah. When we were snorkeling

3:09

out in Hawaii, Uh,

3:11

yeah, I definitely saw some in

3:13

one of the tide pools that we were in, And

3:17

yeah, I had very much the same reaction because

3:19

I did not have gloves or anything on, and

3:21

so I was kind of like, oh, oh hey,

3:23

buddy, Hey, I want nothing to do with you. I would

3:25

like you to continue doing whatever you're doing, and I would

3:27

like to do something very far away from that like

3:30

that. Yeah, just go ahead.

3:34

And yet and yet some

3:37

humans somewhere at one point saw

3:39

them, and we're like, I.

3:40

Wonder, I wonder what's in there and if

3:42

I can eat it and if it would be so delicious?

3:45

Yeah, and here we are and here we

3:47

are. Yeah, I will say I

3:49

have very limited experience eating sea or chin.

3:52

They I had like a bad experience

3:55

with a piece of one once in a

3:57

sushi kind of situation and was

4:00

off from it was very funky. I think it had gone

4:02

off a little bit. But uh,

4:04

but then I but I, but so I was reticent to

4:06

try it again in case that was

4:09

just how they all are. But yeah, but then

4:11

I had another one at a very good restaurant

4:13

and it was denxious. So yeah, a

4:16

plus which would eat again?

4:19

Excellent news.

4:22

Uh yeah, and you can definitely see our past

4:26

episodes we've done on sea creatures.

4:28

Some are related than others, but I would say generally

4:31

check about Yeah.

4:33

Yeah, but I guess that brings us to our question,

4:36

Oh it does sea

4:38

urchins?

4:41

What are they?

4:43

Well?

4:43

Uh?

4:44

Sea urchin meat is

4:46

the gonad of male or female

4:48

animals from a number of marine species

4:51

of invertebrates that are easily identified

4:53

by their sort of globe shape

4:56

that has a lot of spiky spines

4:58

coming up off of it. Oh

5:01

that's a whole sentence. I love it, Okay, Yeah, yeah.

5:03

The meat is really beautiful, often

5:06

bright orange yellow, like like school bus

5:08

yellow. Each piece will be

5:10

just a couple inches long and like an inch or so

5:12

wide, maybe three to six centimeters. The

5:15

texture and taste can vary a little bit, but

5:17

you're basically looking at like a briny,

5:20

creamy, melty, slightly

5:23

sweet, funky little bite. It

5:25

is often eaten raw, as in a sashimi

5:27

or nagery sushi, or

5:30

it's almost like a garnish for pasta or

5:32

rice dishes. It's been called

5:34

the fuligrave the sea.

5:37

It is just a shockingly tender

5:39

and delicious thing for coming from

5:42

something that so clearly does not want

5:44

to be picked up and eaten. It's

5:47

like a it's like a danger

5:49

chrysanthemum that contains these

5:51

five little bites of just creamy ocean

5:54

foam.

5:57

M hm.

5:58

I feel like it's the definition

6:00

of your kind of outwardly spiky.

6:03

Character, the softest.

6:06

Sweetest little, just little nibbling

6:08

little inside. Yeah, you just have

6:10

to break past their spikes,

6:13

you. Oh

6:16

my goodness. There

6:18

There are several hundred known

6:21

species of sea urchin within

6:23

the class kind of Idia,

6:26

which encompasses two subclasses and just

6:28

a whole bunch of orders and genuses

6:30

and species. They are marine

6:32

animals and different species and habit every

6:35

ocean on the planet from tropical tupolar

6:37

at all kinds of different depths. They

6:40

live on the seafloor, and their mouths

6:42

are on the underside of their bodies, and they scrape

6:44

up bits of algae or seaweed or

6:46

really anything that moves slow enough for them to get

6:49

their mouth on. Different types

6:51

have all kinds of different bodies and lifestyles

6:54

really fascinating and weird and beautiful.

6:57

They're related to other kind of like

7:00

the sea cucumber, the starfish, and sand

7:03

dollars. But we

7:05

are ostensibly a foodshell of

7:08

all of those varieties. We tend to eat

7:10

ones from cooler waters, which are less

7:12

likely to be venomous yay, and

7:16

specifically ones that are commonly

7:18

called the purple sea urchin, the red

7:20

sea urchin, and the green sea urchin

7:23

for pretty top down obvious

7:26

color coating purposes. Yeah,

7:30

there are among those two different

7:32

genuses and than within

7:34

one. Yeah, two different species. But I'm

7:36

not going to say the names of them because I don't feel like doing that today.

7:38

I already have one Latin word

7:41

and that's all you get.

7:42

So that's enough.

7:43

That's it, Okay.

7:47

So, because they are from from different species,

7:49

I'm going to make some generalizations here, but all

7:52

have this sort of a spherical skeletal

7:55

shell made of calcium

7:58

carbonate, and the

8:00

shell is called a test, and

8:03

I love that terminology. That's just great.

8:06

The test has these little openings

8:09

all over from which the sea urchin's tube

8:11

feet can reach out and help propel it

8:14

slowly wherever it wants to go, and

8:16

then a large opening on the underside

8:18

for the mouth. If

8:20

you've ever seen a sand dollar skeleton, a

8:23

sea urchin, a sea urchin's test looks

8:26

like a puffy version of that. Okay,

8:31

now, okay, with within within the mouth

8:34

its jaw is in this configuration commonly

8:36

called Aristotle's lantern. This

8:40

this has these five triangular

8:42

teeth that come together in a sort

8:44

of beak like five sided

8:47

pyramid. Yes,

8:49

this is another thing that looks like a sarlac. Oh.

8:53

Yeah, and it's actually

8:55

really clever for for grasping and grinding

8:58

food. So that's

9:00

on the underside. Then

9:02

on the outside, the test

9:04

is covered with a layer of skin

9:06

and muscles which hold on to the animal's

9:09

many movable spines, which

9:12

also can help it boop around

9:14

the ocean floor. And these spines

9:16

are often brightly colored, and they

9:18

come off it just at all angles and discourage

9:21

predators. Although we are not the

9:23

only ones who enjoy eating it. Other

9:26

things like lobsters and sea otters like it

9:28

too. The anus

9:30

of the creature is at the top of the

9:32

shell and then along the inner

9:35

upper of the test. The

9:38

animals, reproductive organs or

9:40

gonads are sitting in

9:43

these sort of little sacks, five

9:45

of them, arranged in a star shape.

9:48

You may have noticed that there were five teeth. There's also

9:50

five gonads. Sea urchins

9:53

have fivefold symmetry, similar

9:55

to how we have twofold or bi

9:57

symmetry. Yeah,

10:00

and okay, Like, if you look

10:02

at a cross section of

10:05

a sea urchin, it

10:08

looks shockingly like

10:11

the interior of the tartis

10:13

that they introduced for the twenty first century remount

10:15

of Doctor who like the ninth and tenth Doctor so

10:19

much so that I would be very

10:21

surprised if that were not a design

10:23

influence. Except the Tarti

10:26

that tartist was hex based. These

10:28

are five penta penta based.

10:31

Yeah. Other than that,

10:33

pretty close.

10:35

That's cool. Now

10:38

I won't be able and see it, I'm sure.

10:40

Oh yeah, look up, look up photos

10:42

or illustrations. It's really it's really cool.

10:45

But okay, all right, uh back back

10:47

to the gonads. So uh

10:52

so, the gonads are the only particularly

10:55

fleshy bit within the sea urchin.

10:58

They also helped store nutrients to keep

11:00

the animals going during lean times.

11:02

But when there is a good supply of food, usually

11:05

during the warm spring and summer months, sea

11:07

urchins build up their gonads in preparation

11:09

to spawn during the colder months.

11:12

But if you catch them before they use all

11:14

that potential energy to fuel the creation

11:17

and release of eggs or sperm. The gonads

11:20

will be large and fleshy and high

11:22

quality, and can account for up to a quarter

11:24

of the urchin's total weight.

11:27

Wow.

11:28

So yeah, at which point they may be harvested

11:30

and kept chilled for immediate market.

11:33

This means that fresh sea urchin is a seasonal

11:36

product in the northern Hemisphere. It's available

11:38

like late summer to early to

11:40

midwinter, depending on the

11:42

specific species. When buying,

11:45

look for bright color and like a defined

11:47

bumpy surface. If they look

11:49

dull or a little bit gooey, they may be past

11:52

their prime. Enthusiasts

11:54

do get really into those local varieties,

11:57

like the same way that people talk about the terearoir of

11:59

wine or the flavor of like acorn

12:01

fed pork products. People

12:03

talk about searechin from Hokkaido having

12:06

this really special flavor from the particular

12:08

combo that it eats. Oh

12:11

yeah, there's a lot of different varieties. They can

12:13

be golden yellow to deep orange in color

12:16

and range from like creamier when they're

12:18

harvested earlier in the season to almost

12:21

grainy kind of when they're harvested later. People

12:23

like different things, and yet searechin aren't

12:26

really farmed. I read that about ninety

12:28

nine percent are harvested wild by

12:31

either drags, which are these kind of almost

12:34

like chainmail bags but

12:37

large that you just sort of scrape along

12:39

the seafloor to collect the urchins,

12:41

or harvested by hand by divers.

12:44

There are hatcheries working to provide

12:46

environments to protect young sea urchin

12:48

until they're large enough to avoid predation by

12:51

by most animals, which usually takes

12:53

like a couple years. It can be about

12:55

five years from birth

12:58

before a sea urchin is considered large enough

13:00

to be marketable or hatching. I

13:02

should say they don't really, they're not really. It's not

13:04

a burst kind of kind of animal, partially

13:10

because of all of this, they can

13:12

be pricey, though they are so

13:14

like rich and flavorful that a little bit goes

13:16

a long way, Like you're probably not looking

13:18

to consume more than a few pieces,

13:21

even when you are cooking with them.

13:23

Speaking of yes, a sea urchin is very popular

13:26

in Japan as a sushi item, whereupon

13:28

it is known as uni and

13:30

usually eaten raw, either by itself or maybe

13:33

with some sushi rice, maybe a little bit of garnish on there.

13:35

Other seaside cultures also eat them simply

13:38

raw. You can also use

13:40

them themselves as a kind of garnish on

13:42

worn dishes like risotto or eggs,

13:44

or spread on toast. Maybe they

13:47

can also add a complex zing to like

13:49

creamy bright pasta sauces, either

13:52

blended or whole, adding them at the

13:54

end of cooking and like just heating them through.

13:58

Yeah yeah, sound so good. I've

14:00

only added in sushi, so yeah,

14:03

yeah, I was reading as per the usual.

14:05

Jkeng Lopez Alt writing

14:07

for Serious Eats has like a really

14:09

good basic guide to see

14:12

yourchin pasta sauces, so

14:15

I recommend looking that up.

14:18

Okay, definitely, all right, Well,

14:20

what about the.

14:21

Nutrition by themselves. Searchin

14:24

is pretty good for you, like a nice punch of protein

14:26

and good fats, smattering and micronutrients,

14:28

eat a vegetable.

14:30

Yes, always,

14:33

Well, we do have some numbers for you.

14:36

We do because se

14:38

yourchin can be expensive. It's

14:40

typically like five to ten bucks

14:42

per ounce, which

14:44

is not cheap, but

14:47

can be like two bucks per gram,

14:50

which is like three hundredths of an ounce,

14:54

like zero point zeros zero

14:57

two pounds for two

14:59

dollars.

15:03

I hate converting these things. I have

15:05

to say.

15:06

I'm the one in the grocery store that's like, I don't

15:09

know why this isn't court, this

15:11

is not this is now.

15:13

Anyway,

15:16

I feel like it's expensive. Yeah, it's

15:18

expensive.

15:19

Yes, yes.

15:21

According to one source that I found, eighty

15:24

percent of sea urchin consumption takes place

15:26

in Japan.

15:27

That was as of twenty seventeen, so

15:29

that might have shifted a tiny bit, but

15:31

I suspect it's still pretty

15:34

much that thing. Yeah.

15:37

There is a sea urchin festival in

15:39

the south of France every March, for

15:41

which some twenty thousand sea urchins

15:43

are harvested, and apparently for

15:45

like five euro you can get like a

15:47

glass of white wine and a plate of raw

15:50

sea urchin with bag at and butter. Sounds

15:53

pretty good to me, right, yes,

15:55

oh heck yeah. There's

15:58

also a sea urchin festival in

16:00

June that I think just started last year

16:02

in California. Yeah

16:04

yeah, listeners, let us know. There

16:08

is also a sea urchin Science

16:11

Center and gallery in Australia

16:14

in the Lower Blue Mountains, not

16:16

at all.

16:16

Near the sea.

16:17

It's run by the world's

16:19

pre eminent sea urchin taxonomist

16:23

and opened in twenty eighteen. He

16:25

sounds like a fascinating dude, like

16:27

he got invited out to the research center in Antarctica

16:30

to study the sea urchins there. I

16:32

yeah, and this is just his personal collection. He was

16:34

like, this is cool. Do you guys think it's cool? Do you want to

16:36

see? Did you do you want to see my sea urchin collection?

16:39

Cool? Yes? Oh

16:43

my gosh. Should I want to know more about that?

16:45

Oh yeah,

16:48

and one last number for you. Some

16:51

species like the red sea urchin

16:53

which we eat, can live over

16:55

fifty years and research

16:58

has found specimens that were over too hundred

17:00

years old. Dang,

17:03

yeah, all right sea urchins.

17:05

Yeah, well they

17:08

are quite old as

17:11

a species.

17:12

Oh yes,

17:15

and.

17:15

We will get into the history. After

17:17

a quick break for a word from our sponsor.

17:28

And we're back.

17:29

Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you. Okay,

17:32

So yes, if you are talking about

17:34

the family that sea urchins are a part

17:36

of the fossil record indicates

17:39

they go back a stunningly long

17:41

time, like impossible to

17:43

comprehend for my brain. Long sea

17:47

urchins probably evolved

17:49

four hundred and fifty million years ago, so a long time.

17:51

So a minute. Yeah, the ones,

17:54

the species that we know today evolved

17:57

from that older group a little more recently,

17:59

like sometime in the Triassic period, you know,

18:01

just just only two hundred

18:04

to two hundred and fifty million years ago. So

18:07

so yeah, mere babes in the woods.

18:09

That Aristotle

18:14

described sea urchins in the fourth

18:16

century BCE, which

18:19

is where we got the term Aristotle's

18:21

lantern for its mouthbits.

18:24

However, interestingly, research in

18:27

Greece from like the twenty oughts

18:30

showed that he was probably referring when

18:32

he said lantern. He was probably referring

18:34

to the entire skeleton or test,

18:37

you know, not just the mouthbits, because

18:40

they found they totally had similarly

18:42

perforated lamps around

18:44

that time.

18:45

So yeah, yeah,

18:47

Aristotle's lantern is such a cool name

18:50

that is at or.

18:52

Something like, oh, I mean now it is

18:54

okay.

18:58

Coastal areas like Peru, create Greece,

19:00

and Italy have a long history of fishing and harvesting

19:03

sea urchins.

19:05

And I would like to come.

19:06

Back to this because we've actually talked about this a couple of times.

19:08

But yeah, for centuries, women

19:11

scuba divers, they actually free dive in

19:14

Korea, trained to yes, free

19:16

dive and harvest these creatures with knives,

19:18

which is not easy,

19:21

can be dangerous.

19:22

It's usually older women. Really

19:25

interesting history.

19:26

Sure, because it's based on breath support and

19:28

really developing the musculature

19:31

that the training to do that kind of breath

19:33

support is wild. Yeah,

19:35

yes, yeah.

19:38

Et homology note, okay,

19:41

the word urchin in English

19:43

comes from the French, which comes

19:45

from a Latin word for hedgehog,

19:48

which itself comes from an old pie

19:50

a proto Indo European route,

19:53

meaning to bristle, from

19:55

which we also get the word horror,

19:58

as in bristle with fear.

20:02

Okay, but okay, okay.

20:04

In English, the term urchin was

20:06

applied to all sorts of bristly beings

20:09

during the fifteen hundreds, including

20:11

goblins, people hunchedbacks, grubby

20:13

looking kids in general, and bad girls

20:16

in particular. Oh yeah,

20:20

the sea urchin for the

20:22

animal entered the written record in the fifteen

20:24

nineties, so around

20:27

the same time, indicating that that English

20:29

speakers were familiar with them around

20:31

then. And it was

20:34

around the time of this urchin

20:36

expansion that English speakers seemed

20:38

to agree to call hedgehogs hedgehogs

20:42

instead of urchins. I

20:44

don't know what the transfer was, yeah,

20:47

although I should also note, because

20:49

of course I looked into it, street urchin

20:52

was not popularized. Although it had

20:54

come about during this time, it wasn't popularized

20:57

until like Victorian England.

20:59

Oh, I was wondering

21:01

about that. I was like, that's my experience with that term,

21:03

and I wonder.

21:04

Yeah, or like like a little bit before, like like

21:06

the seventeen nineties ish, I

21:09

think, yeah, yeah.

21:10

Also urch and expansion again

21:13

sounds like a card game where you're buying the expansion

21:15

pack.

21:19

I want the urchin expansion.

21:20

Yes, I bet it's hard. Yes.

21:26

So basically

21:28

from what I read, I couldn't find a lot of specifics.

21:30

But again, coastal areas

21:33

where sea urchins were available, people

21:35

were probably yep, eating them.

21:37

Found it harvest them.

21:39

Some sources I read suggest that for a while

21:41

sea urchins were largely used as bait in

21:44

Japan until about the nineteenth century,

21:47

when sushi chef started using it after

21:49

they realized it was a great compliment to sushi

21:52

rice. At first,

21:54

only select regions in the country offered

21:56

it, and it was considered a local specialty.

22:00

When Japanese cuisine started to really take hold

22:02

globally in the mid nineteen hundreds.

22:04

Uni sushi got more popularity worldwide.

22:07

It did take time depending

22:09

on the area, but that was when it started to be.

22:11

Like okay, okay, yeah.

22:14

During the eighteen hundreds, some Japanese

22:16

Americans living in California formed

22:18

fishing villages, especially near

22:21

Monterey, and they foraged for

22:23

sea urchins off the coast.

22:26

Yes. Yeah. They were

22:28

also apparently harvested in Newfoundland

22:31

in the eighteen hundreds, where

22:33

they further apparently had the nicknames

22:36

eggs oh

22:41

my, yep, yep.

22:43

So many animalogy nets in this one. You're well, I

22:45

love it, thank you.

22:49

When Sicilian immigrants arrived in New

22:51

York in the early twentieth century,

22:54

they started to demand for sea urchin, which

22:56

led to the harvesting of sea urchins in Maine

22:59

that were then shipped to New York.

23:02

A little bit more on that later.

23:04

Salvador Dali was

23:06

a big fan of them, so much

23:09

so that he started in a nineteen thirty

23:11

short film or he explained how

23:14

to eat them. I had to look this up because I was like, wait,

23:16

what what Yeah, you can still

23:18

watch it?

23:19

Cool yep.

23:20

And in his book Fifty Secrets

23:22

of Magic Craftsmanship, he wrote,

23:25

to begin with, you will eat three dozen sea

23:27

urchins gathered on one of the last two days

23:30

that precede the full moon, choosing

23:32

only those who star is coral red,

23:34

and discarding the yellow ones, which

23:37

have, according to him, quote sedative

23:40

and narcotic virtues so special

23:42

and so proprietous to your

23:45

approaching slumber, so basically

23:47

make you nap.

23:48

And you don't want that if you're trying to make.

23:49

Something, No, sure, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.

23:52

The star that he's referring to is

23:55

okay. Usually when you crack

23:57

open a sea urchin to consume it,

24:00

you often use

24:03

either a knife or like a special

24:05

kind of kind of pinchy scissor

24:08

thing that that just cuts off the

24:11

top of the sea urchin where

24:14

the gonads are attached to

24:16

that top of the of the skeletal system

24:19

and then just kind of kind of open it up like a like

24:21

a like a skull, like a human skull, you know. And

24:25

and then on the inside

24:27

those those five gonads form a little star

24:30

on the inside of that cap.

24:31

So that's that's what.

24:33

He's referring to. Okay, I got you.

24:36

Wow, Well, there is a lot of horror imagery in this

24:38

one. I'm gonna say.

24:43

Well. In nineteen sixty

24:45

seven, Dolly finished a painting called

24:48

sea Urchin Yes So Cool,

24:50

Big Fan. In

24:53

the nineteen seventies, Japanese seafood

24:55

traders reached out to those in the US

24:57

that might help them supplement there's a

25:00

in Japan. They're basically like, we would like more of these, can

25:02

you get them? Divers

25:04

in California and Maine who were willing

25:06

to take the risks, including shark attacks,

25:10

could make a lot of money. At one point in the nineteen

25:12

nineties, they could earn up to two thousand, five

25:14

hundred dollars of sea urchins in

25:16

a week. Yes, and the

25:19

sea urchin harvest in Maine saw a massive

25:21

rise. From about nineteen eighty seven to nineteen

25:23

ninety two. The value of their

25:26

the market went from about fifty

25:28

thousand dollars to fifteen million dollars

25:31

in nineteen ninety.

25:32

Yeah, yeah wow, or

25:35

by nineteen ninety yeah, from like yeah, over

25:37

the course of just a couple of years, because

25:39

they had been previously producing this

25:41

relatively small amount for these

25:43

local markets like Sicilian immigrants to

25:46

the New Yorkish area. So they've

25:49

been they've been harvesting maybe like forty five

25:51

metric tons a year, and

25:53

then that jumped in the same short period

25:55

to over fifteen thousand metric

25:58

tons, which

26:00

unfortunately led to a marked decrease

26:02

in the sea urchin population, like a ninety

26:04

percent decrease. And so

26:06

that is where you get these sustainability

26:09

efforts happening to try to protect

26:11

the young population until it can

26:13

help repopulate the area.

26:17

Rights.

26:17

Yeah.

26:18

Also, the Nobel

26:20

Prize for Medicine was awarded

26:23

to three scientists in two thousand and one

26:25

quote for their discoveries of key

26:27

regulators of the cell cycle. And

26:30

that's from the Nobel Prize website that they came

26:32

to by observing sea urchins.

26:35

Yes, I very briefly,

26:37

right before we started recording, tried to

26:39

figure out what that means. And I

26:42

don't know so made so so maybe

26:44

science episode science many in those sature

26:46

Yeah, yeah, we'll find out, because

26:48

I do know that sea urchins are pretty widely

26:51

used to study stuff.

26:56

I don't remember why, So there you go. What

27:00

I do know about is the Internet.

27:03

So okay.

27:04

Sea urchin hit another spike of more like mainstream

27:07

popularity around twenty sixteen, which

27:09

I strongly suspect is due to what researches

27:12

of the future shall surely call the Instagram

27:14

effect. You know, they look

27:16

real pretty and weird, and

27:19

so there you go. And that was

27:21

combined with a surge of interest in like new

27:23

foods, although of course people had been

27:25

eating them forever, right, And

27:28

speaking of Internet influence, I

27:31

do have to put in here because

27:33

of this thing that happened like early

27:35

pandemic. Yes,

27:39

many sea urchins enjoy wearing

27:41

hats,

27:45

or at the very least, we'll put on a

27:47

hat if you give them one. Okay.

27:50

A lot of sea urchin species have this natural

27:53

behavior of grabbing up shells

27:56

or rocks or like branches of seaweed

27:59

with there were weird little suction arms,

28:03

and then wearing them around as

28:05

like a sort of camouflage to avoid predation

28:08

and possibly in areas

28:11

in like tidepools that are nearer to the surface,

28:14

maybe to avoid sunburn. So

28:18

if you, for example, three

28:20

D print a tiny

28:23

sinkable cowboy hat

28:26

and you leave it in a seaarch

28:28

and habitat, there's

28:30

a decent chance it's going to pick it up and put it on its

28:32

little searearch and dome.

28:37

I need this my life.

28:39

I didn't know I needed it so badly

28:42

until you've said it.

28:42

It's very cute. I

28:45

highly recommend googling seaarchin

28:48

hats.

28:48

Oh my gosh.

28:50

Can you imagine if you'd like printed out a bunch

28:52

of hats and then we have like a search

28:54

and party hat

28:57

party.

28:58

This is pretty much occurred. I

29:01

again, Oh my gosh.

29:02

I thank

29:04

you, Lauren. You've done me a great service

29:06

today.

29:07

I have like never wanted a

29:10

marine a saltwater aquarium as

29:12

much as I did when when

29:14

all of this started coming out on the internet.

29:20

New character for donut

29:24

guard to that

29:27

is so good.

29:28

Oh gosh, trying

29:30

to prevent someburn. They're just being smart,

29:33

they are and don't get sburn. Yeah,

29:35

come on, that fashionable had

29:39

perfect perfect

29:41

all right? Well, future

29:45

research for me I

29:48

did see a lot of stories

29:50

that started circulating in twenty twenty three

29:52

about the quote moral imperative to

29:54

eat sea urchin in certain places

29:57

since they are invasive there. For example,

30:00

one story reported that off the coast of California,

30:02

the sea urchin had devoured ninety percent

30:05

of the bull kelp there, which

30:07

is important to the local ecosystem.

30:09

Yeah. Yeah, as opposed to the

30:12

overfishing that we've seen in some areas

30:14

like Maine and many parts of Japan. The

30:18

problem in California is

30:20

that when the natural

30:22

predators that usually keep sea urchins

30:24

in check, when they decline

30:27

in population, like like otters

30:30

and sea stars, which are cousins

30:32

of sea urchins, those urchins

30:34

will overpopulate and just

30:37

totally take over. It's you

30:39

know, like you probably learned an elementary school,

30:41

whenever there's an imbalance in the food chain, everything

30:43

gets messed up.

30:44

So yeah, yeah,

30:47

yep, that's I

30:49

know. I've mentioned this game before, but I loved

30:51

this Magic school Bus game. I

30:53

played Elementary School

30:55

and it had this whole we've got

30:57

to keep the ecosys

31:00

them and check and kelp was a big part of

31:02

it.

31:02

I had to make manage the kelp.

31:04

Oh my goodness.

31:05

Yeah, yeah, I

31:07

had it was an important job. No, it was fun. It

31:10

was actually really fun game.

31:11

But it's just it was funny that I was like, oh yeah,

31:14

school us. Yeah,

31:17

thanks, yes, absolutely,

31:21

well, for sure, there is a

31:24

plethora of things we could come back to you with

31:26

this one. Oh yeah, right yeah,

31:30

but I think that's what we have to say for

31:32

now.

31:33

I think it is. We

31:35

We do have some listener mill for you, though, and

31:37

we are going to get into that as soon as we get back

31:39

from one more quick break for a word from our sponsors.

31:50

And we're back.

31:51

Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you.

31:53

And we're back with Spikey

32:01

on the outside. It's off on the inside.

32:03

Oh yeah, yes, yes.

32:06

Okay, I love this. A couple of people have written

32:08

in about this.

32:09

Okay, okay, okay, I'm gonna leave you in suspense.

32:13

Melissa wrote, just listened to

32:15

the latest episode of muld Wine and the aside

32:17

about the Muppets Christmas Carol reminded

32:20

me of a tweet that was recently

32:22

circulating. Disney owns the

32:24

rights to the Muppets, so why aren't

32:26

they making Muppet versions of their classics

32:29

instead of all these live action remakes?

32:31

We need Muppets, Beauty and the Beast, Muppet

32:34

Pinocchio, all of it. I

32:36

wish I could find the original tweets so I could credit the

32:38

writer. However, the more a titchen

32:41

this idea gets, the more likely

32:43

it is for someone at Disney to see the wisdom

32:45

and create these obvious masterpieces.

32:48

Oh right, I mean

32:52

especially right, especially Disney

32:54

films where you have this interaction

32:56

between humans and

32:59

very read other characters. Yes,

33:02

I mean, I'm not saying that Cinderella herself could

33:04

not be a muppet, but like human Cinderella

33:06

with a bunch of muppets would

33:09

be pretty aces.

33:10

Yes, all, while

33:12

the Muppet Christmas Carol we have Michael Kane

33:15

playing it so seriously. Yeah, around

33:17

these muppets, it's just a fun dynamic.

33:19

There's a lot of fun to be had there. Oh my

33:21

goodness, I think this is a

33:23

great idea. We

33:27

could have more classics on our hand, like

33:30

the Christmas care Rol.

33:33

Oh beautiful, beautiful herd

33:36

degree,

33:40

Heidi wrote, first, I want

33:42

to say thank you for all the enjoyment and knowledge

33:44

you have brought to my life from the beginning of Savor.

33:47

I'm currently a little behind on episodes,

33:49

but always get excited when a new episode drops

33:51

and I get to see what's coming my way. On

33:53

the recent episode about Zelee, you

33:55

asked for more information about cookie tables.

33:58

Oh, yes, okay. As someone

34:00

born and raised in the northwest corner of Pennsylvania,

34:03

I had never heard about cookie tables

34:05

nor seen one at a wedding until I got engaged

34:08

while living in Pittsburgh. The

34:10

greater number of Scandinavians over German,

34:12

Polish, Italian, and Greek immigrants where I grew

34:14

up only two and a half hours north of Pittsburgh,

34:17

meant the cookie table didn't develop into

34:19

a thing. It was one thing my

34:21

now spouse insisted on having had our wedding,

34:23

even though we got married in northwest

34:26

Pennsylvania. My family was

34:28

a little surprised by the table, but loved

34:30

the table and the to go bags,

34:32

which all good cookie tables must

34:34

include.

34:37

That seems to be a consensus.

34:40

I'll say, oh, yes,

34:43

that is beautiful. Love

34:45

this because we've said

34:48

before it's so fun when we learn

34:50

about like very localized things.

34:52

But I love that you were like only.

34:54

Two and a half hours away and

34:56

it would still be on your can.

34:59

Yeah,

35:02

that's so great, wonderful,

35:04

right, Yes, and we

35:07

have several more messages

35:10

coming up about this that is it's fantastic

35:12

and pictures that look like.

35:15

Like banquet hauls, I mean just

35:17

of cookies. It's amazing. So

35:21

thank you all for answering

35:23

when we were like, let.

35:25

Us know more about it.

35:27

Yes, yes, so much. Yes,

35:30

yeah, oh my goodness.

35:31

Uh.

35:32

And and if you and if you have anything,

35:34

if if you have anything to say about sea urchins?

35:37

Yeah, oh my gosh.

35:39

Yes, have you have you been diving

35:41

for sea urchins? Do

35:44

do you have a do you have a recipe that

35:46

we should have?

35:48

Did you make one a hat?

35:49

Did have you made one a hat?

35:53

We have to know, we have to let us know we

35:56

do.

35:57

Please, yes, please,

36:01

Thanks to both of these listeners for writing

36:03

in. If you would like to write to us

36:05

with answer these very important questions, you

36:08

can our email is hello at saverpod

36:10

dot com.

36:11

We're also on social media. You can find us

36:13

on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram

36:15

at saver pod and we do hope to hear from

36:18

you. Savor is production of iHeartRadio

36:20

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36:22

the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

36:25

or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Thanks

36:27

as always to our superproducers Dylan Fagan

36:29

and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening,

36:31

and we hope that lots more good things are coming your way.