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0:40

Truffles. Known for

0:42

being food. Famous for

0:45

being fancy.

0:46

Nobody things much about them.

0:48

So let's have some fun. Let's

0:50

find out why truffles are

0:53

secretly incredibly bad fascinating.

1:13

Hey there

1:13

folks. Welcome to a

1:16

whole new podcast

1:16

episode. a podcast

1:18

all about why being alive is more interesting

1:21

than people think it is. My name

1:23

is Alex Schmitz and I'm not

1:25

alone. My wonderful guest today

1:27

is Dana Schwartz, who is an amazing

1:29

podcaster and novelist. She

1:31

hosts the podcast Noble Blood,

1:33

where she tells amazing stories

1:35

of fascinating royals and nobles,

1:38

and to my mind, other people who would

1:40

have eaten today's topic. Dana

1:42

is also a number one New York Times best

1:44

selling author because her novel, anatomy,

1:47

a love story, was a huge hit.

1:49

It was praised by folks like Neil Gaiman,

1:51

and she's completing the cycle

1:53

of that duology with a new book out

1:55

in February of twenty twenty three. It's

1:57

called immortality, a love story.

1:59

So,

2:00

you know, check out anatomy now, and then

2:02

preorder immortality, and you'll have

2:04

an amazing Gothic, romantic adventure.

2:07

There you go. Also, I've gathered all

2:09

of our zip codes and used resources

2:11

like native dash land dot

2:13

c a to acknowledge that I

2:16

recorded this on the traditional land

2:18

of the Karnarsi and Lenape peoples.

2:20

I acknowledge Dana recorded this on the

2:22

traditional land of the Gabrioleñoortongba and

2:25

teach and chew mashed peoples and

2:27

acknowledge that in all of our locations,

2:30

native people are very much still

2:32

here. That feels worth doing

2:34

on each episode and today's

2:36

episode is about truffles.

2:39

And truffles might be a little of a mystery

2:41

to you. Are they of Are they a

2:43

living thing? Are they from the Earth?

2:46

And that mystery is, I think everybody's

2:48

starting point. That's where we start from and we got

2:50

a great episode out of it. So

2:52

please sit back or

2:55

let me know immediately if you

2:57

listen to this episode while foraging

2:59

for truffles. people still do it and

3:02

I would be so happy. Just let

3:04

me know and send me a picture of pig or dog,

3:06

whatever. Either way, here's

3:08

this episode of secretly incredibly

3:10

fascinating with Dana Schwartz.

3:13

I'll be back after we wrap up.

3:15

Talk to you then.

3:27

English words, it is so nice to have you on the

3:29

show. And of course, I always start by asking guests

3:31

their relationship to the topic or opinion

3:33

of it. So how do you feel about truffles?

3:36

com

3:37

The the food. The food. Yeah. The

3:40

food. Yeah.

3:40

Like like normal positive,

3:42

I think. like,

3:43

you know, if I'm at a fancy pizza place

3:45

and they're like, truffle is on

3:47

this pizza. I'm like, I'm never gonna

3:49

do that thing where it's like some crazy restaurant

3:51

where it's like, thousand extra dollars. But

3:54

if this is a restaurant, they have, like, a little truffle

3:56

oil on the pizza or, like, you

3:58

know, one or two shavings on the pasta,

4:00

like, yeah, let's let's live.

4:02

I do, like, purposefully

4:05

rebel against any restaurant where

4:07

so clearly there's an option for

4:09

men to try to impress their dates. You

4:12

know, like, like, a hundred dollar martini

4:15

or, like, for, you know, six hundred

4:17

dollars have this truffle. So, like, instinctually,

4:19

I'm, like, no. I am against this

4:21

morally and spiritually. But

4:24

the flavor, I

4:26

have nothing against. I

4:28

think it's good in moderation. And

4:30

III know pigs are involved

4:32

and I think that's cute. It

4:36

is there's something really pastoral about

4:38

those pictures of, like, a guy in spenders

4:40

with his pig friend. Finding the

4:42

best. Like, cool. Look at you too. Exactly.

4:45

Look at you too. You're, like, living the life in

4:47

the English countryside that I fantasize

4:49

about even though you probably voted

4:51

for Brexit. hey Yeah.

4:56

Once they have that, like, green hat

4:58

whatever it is. It's like, okay. Alright. You're you're into

5:00

the countryside a little too much. I see. I see.

5:02

I just I just don't wanna I wanna ask

5:04

your opinions on soil, and I will

5:06

not ask your political opinions.

5:08

Yeah. Perfect. Yeah.

5:11

I also I have been playing this topic

5:13

for a while, but I a little bit thought of your podcast

5:15

noble blood just because, like, some

5:18

maybe Midwestern part of me always thinks,

5:20

like, as much as I'm into truffles,

5:22

it's also like fancy. It's

5:24

for the fancies even though I have

5:26

I consumed it like a week ago. It's for

5:28

fancy people. You know? I

5:31

I fully think it's for the fancies.

5:33

Yes. Also, where in the Midwest

5:35

are you from? We're gonna have to do a brief.

5:37

Oh, please. You're outside Chicago,

5:39

Glen Allen, Illinois, and Western suburbs.

5:42

I'm from outside Chicago in

5:44

the northern suburbs. Have we talked about I guess

5:46

we haven't talked about this. Wow. Okay. I'm from

5:48

I'm from Highland Park. That is this good.

5:50

Okay. We we did it. We

5:52

both agree that truffles are fancy,

5:54

and we're both from around Chicago. because

5:57

even when you mentioned them on pizza,

5:59

I think I was never

5:59

exposed to them on pizza until

6:02

outside of home. like It

6:04

was it was almost like sausage and onions.

6:06

That was great. Oh, the

6:08

big treat growing up, like, the the

6:10

the most exotic pizza

6:12

we had was there was a place that did Italian

6:15

beef on the pizza, but underneath

6:17

the cheese.

6:18

the

6:19

Let's leave and go. Like, what are we

6:22

doing? taping. I know. That's That

6:24

was like, oh my god. Should we should we

6:26

go there? They're innovating in the form.

6:28

Yeah.

6:30

Before researching, I borderline

6:33

didn't know what truffles are,

6:35

like I knew it's a food. It turns out it

6:37

is a mushroom as I guess, but

6:40

like, were you at all familiar

6:42

besides the the pigs and the guys

6:44

about how these work? Now

6:46

that you say their mushrooms, I'm

6:49

like, okay. Yeah. I

6:51

guess, gotten to my head. I might have been

6:53

able to to put that out. Same.

6:55

But I I have never thought about it.

6:57

I'm just like, you know, it's a food. It's

6:59

a it's a it's a thing that grows

7:01

in the ground. Yeah. But it makes sense

7:03

that it's a it's a mushroom. Yeah. And

7:05

let's let's get into how that works because

7:07

normally the show starts with numbers and statistics

7:10

and then a couple big takeaways, but I I

7:12

wanted to start this week with one big takeaway

7:14

about what these are because I

7:16

think most people are in our boat. And

7:18

takeaway number one,

7:23

truffles are an underground fungus

7:26

and a mutual relationship with

7:28

plant roots. What

7:30

is What does that mean? Yeah. It turns

7:32

out, like, I think people's mental picture of a

7:34

mushroom is a little toadstool above the

7:36

ground. Yeah. It turns out that

7:38

truffles grow around the

7:40

roots of plants especially trees

7:42

and then truffles and the

7:44

trees like each help each other

7:46

live like the truffles help the trees

7:48

get water, and then the trees do photosynthesis

7:51

and give sugars and nutrients to the truffles.

7:53

It's like a symbiotic relationship.

7:56

Yeah. And one one of my sources, it's a a

7:58

book called truffle, a global history

7:59

by Zachary Nowak. I guess

8:02

he says that, like, there's some debate about

8:04

how symbiotic it is. Like some

8:06

experts say they both totally benefit

8:08

and others say, like, if the tree could get

8:10

rid of the travels, it would. Doesn't like it.

8:12

Interesting. Yeah. So we we don't really know.

8:14

But yeah. I

8:16

mean, that's kind of cute

8:18

that truffles have manipulated

8:20

this situation, so they're benefiting from

8:22

trees. and also they've tricked

8:25

humans into thinking that they're

8:27

fancy, worth hundreds of

8:29

dollars an ounce. I

8:31

kind of admire it. It's, like, pluck. Like,

8:33

I'm I'm totally personifying it, but I I'm

8:35

imagining truffles is, like,

8:37

weird dirt muffins

8:39

we have to really we have

8:41

to Chris Jenner this PR situation

8:44

for ourselves. Dirt

8:47

muffins. Exactly. Yeah. Right? Like,

8:49

they're really they're winning.

8:51

Good for them. Yeah. And

8:53

they're out here, like, attracting pigs

8:55

and people and and good. You

8:57

know? They've made themselves feel really

8:59

special. People have to look for them.

9:03

other mushrooms just pop up and you're

9:05

like, oh, well, no. I have to deal with this. But they're

9:07

like, no. No. Come to us. Right.

9:10

And it's yeah. And it's especially in France

9:13

and Italy, the author of this book,

9:15

Zachary Nowak. He's the director of the

9:17

Umbre Institute in Parusia,

9:19

Italy. and so it's around

9:21

truffles a lot. That's why he wrote about it. But

9:23

there there's other types. Oh, go ahead. Can

9:25

I

9:25

say that the most ignorant

9:28

thing I'm probably gonna say on this show,

9:30

please. Is there

9:32

enough about truffles to write a

9:34

book about? Turns

9:36

out, yeah. Yeah. And

9:38

especially because there's like a bunch of species all

9:40

over the world. It's not just the the

9:42

European fine dining ones I'm used

9:44

to. So

9:44

is the book more about, like, the

9:47

ecology, like, biology thing, or

9:49

is it more about, like, the economic

9:52

way that truffle has

9:53

or both? It it's about both, and

9:55

that's how they got a whole book. Yeah.

9:56

Interesting. Alright. I'm back in. I'm

9:59

in. Good.

9:59

Yeah. because they added it turns out, like,

10:02

the biology on its own I

10:04

have never done an episode about any kinds of

10:06

mushrooms. So this is the most I've thought

10:08

about mushrooms in a long time, but

10:10

truffles or mushrooms, they're fungi. And

10:12

when you see like a visible

10:15

mushroom like a toadstool, technically

10:17

that is the fruiting body of

10:19

a spore. Like a spore

10:21

is the start of a fungus and then this

10:23

fruiting body is the mushroom and that

10:25

spreads more spores and spreads the

10:27

fungus. but truffles are

10:29

different because, like, all

10:31

fungi, they don't do photosynthesis like

10:33

plants do. They don't have to be exposed

10:35

to sunlight or above the ground.

10:37

and so truffles live underground, and

10:40

then they form a network of

10:42

water called hyphy. There's small

10:44

hairs, small little things that

10:46

wrap around the roots of a tree,

10:48

and then they form this relationship

10:50

where they're trading things.

10:52

Wow. so weird. That's wild to

10:55

imagine plants growing underground.

10:57

Or

10:57

fungus. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A

10:59

fungus. Yeah. Sorry. I'm

11:01

I'm the the dummy who does know that

11:03

energy plant and fungus, but it's it's

11:05

an it's astonishing to me to

11:07

imagine any living thing

11:09

growing underground.

11:10

And and not a dummy because, like, there there

11:12

is some part of my mind even

11:14

after researching all this stuff that still says

11:17

like stuff that grows from the ground as plants

11:19

and stuff that runs around as animals. and that's how it

11:21

works. Like, I Exactly.

11:23

Sally I always found

11:23

it very weird when you play that game

11:26

and you have to be like, is it a is

11:28

it person, is it an

11:30

animal or is it a mineral? I was something mineral

11:32

was getting way too big of a

11:34

billing there. Right. Who's who's

11:36

minerals agent And I

11:38

sort of always felt like that about fungi

11:40

in biology, where I'm like, can't we just

11:42

also make this plant? whoever,

11:46

like, the CEO of twenty questions is,

11:48

like, why did we sign a hundred year deal with

11:50

minerals? Just take I'm

11:52

firing everyone. Yeah. No

11:55

one's ever doing twenty questions with

11:57

minerals. Yeah. Has

11:59

anyone

11:59

ever?

12:01

Right. Unless your opponent is wearing

12:03

a mining helmet or something like don't -- Yeah.

12:05

-- don't guess that way. That doesn't make sense.

12:07

I guess if you're studying for

12:09

your geology exam.

12:11

Yes. Yeah.

12:13

And and

12:16

with with this other category of

12:18

fungus, like, this is a particularly

12:20

weird one even for fungus. and this

12:22

Zachary Nowak describing truffles.

12:24

The truffle wraps, small hairs around

12:26

the tree's roots, like a kind of loose

12:28

neck, love. Then the

12:30

tree provides the truffle with sugars and

12:32

other nutrients through this cellular

12:34

glove, which is called a heartache

12:36

net. And then in return, the

12:38

truffle forms a huge network of hairs called

12:40

hyphy that absorb water

12:42

and minerals for the tree to use.

12:44

which expands the reach of the tree's roots system.

12:47

Yeah.

12:47

I mean, that sounds helpful. Yeah.

12:50

It

12:50

seems good. I I lean I

12:52

don't really know, but I lean toward the side of this is

12:54

symbiotic and positive. Like, it seems like everybody

12:56

wins. Yes. Or it's like

12:58

a sixty forty, but everyone's might

13:00

be benefiting a little. rain.

13:02

Or maybe they're they're they're canceling

13:05

out what they take, where it's like maybe they're

13:07

not adding benefit, but

13:08

it doesn't quite seem like they're just

13:10

taking. Right. Yeah. Like, it it's

13:12

working well enough.

13:14

TROUBLES

13:14

their underground to get all of this

13:16

food and do this relationship. And

13:19

then that also complicates how they

13:21

reproduce and how they spread their sports,

13:23

which is why Yeah. I was gonna

13:25

ask. It seems more challenging. they

13:27

taste good? Is that how they spread their

13:29

spores? Yeah.

13:30

They're animals that are called fungivores

13:33

that eat fungus and then truffle

13:35

spread by getting eaten and then getting

13:37

pooped out. That's the the deal.

13:40

What

13:40

a miracle that all this exists?

13:43

This is why It shouldn't

13:45

exist. There shouldn't be all these working pieces

13:47

that work together. Yeah.

13:49

It's really shocking and like

13:51

and when you look at what pre

13:54

eighteen hundreds people thought truffles

13:56

were. They were very confused because

13:58

this is not how most things work

13:59

and so a lot of people thought truffles

14:02

were like geological formation

14:04

like rocks or or just some

14:06

other thing that is not an animal or

14:08

plants or fungus or anything. because

14:10

it's weird. Yeah. Yeah. It

14:12

is weird. No wonder people are are

14:14

gave them their own category because we were

14:16

confused by them. Yeah.

14:17

They were like time for me to do a lot of

14:20

guesses, and the the guesses were wild

14:22

yet. And

14:22

yet, to play devil's advocate, there are

14:24

a lot of animals doing weird

14:27

things. and we still group them in as

14:29

animals. True. Maybe

14:31

plants should just be a bigger category.

14:34

I I'm gonna advocate for for

14:36

just calling them plants. I

14:38

want I want the the biologists to

14:40

come at me in my mentions -- Right.

14:42

-- that mad at me. Why can't fungi

14:45

just be weird plants? It

14:48

can just be like a corporate merger or

14:50

something. Like plants have acquired fungi

14:52

and a major deal. Like a

14:54

ticker is going about it.

14:57

Yeah. Stack symbol p, acquires

14:59

Stack symbol f, and that's it.

15:01

Bye. Yeah. I think the

15:03

Supreme Court will allow that.

15:05

Yes. It's not a monopoly if

15:07

unfair aren't doing anything. Right.

15:09

They're just sitting there sporting and

15:11

-- Yeah. -- getting pooped, I guess, yet.

15:16

But but yeah. So this this is the basic

15:18

way truffles work and also It

15:20

turns out there are also lots of different truffle

15:22

species. Like, my my

15:24

familiarity with them was the black

15:26

truffle and the white truffle. Those

15:28

are kind of the two you see in fancy

15:30

food. Turns out black truffles

15:32

are mainly from France, white truffles

15:34

from Northern Italy, and they grow

15:36

around the roots of like big

15:38

hardwood trees, like oak trees and

15:40

hazelnut trees. But there's a lot

15:42

of other species out there. There's

15:44

another truffle that is black

15:46

colored, but it's called the Chinese truffle, and

15:48

it's all across East Asia and grows

15:50

around the roots of all sorts of trees there.

15:53

Apparently, it's a much planar flavor

15:55

and so you eat it almost more like a

15:57

base, like a vegetable rather

15:59

than a fancy oil

16:01

flavoring like these European ones.

16:03

Interesting. Yeah.

16:04

Yeah. And there there's another

16:07

sort of base flavored truffle called the

16:09

desert truffle that's in North Africa

16:11

and it's in the Middle East. and that

16:13

one doesn't grow around trees. It growers

16:15

around the roots of flowering

16:17

shrubs, which are in the genus

16:19

helianthemum. So this is like a bush

16:22

truffle. in the desert? I guess you

16:23

take what you can get in the desert. It doesn't

16:25

seem like there would be a lot of hardwood trees

16:27

there. Yeah. That's

16:28

how it goes. Yeah. But even there,

16:31

it's like, not a lot of trees. We still have

16:33

root fungus still going on.

16:35

Interesting.

16:35

Yeah. I

16:37

wanna try those. Me

16:39

too. I yeah. I did not

16:41

look hard to try to consume these other ones, but

16:43

they're out there, and I'd love to know what people think if

16:45

they've had it.

16:45

I would just love to know what they taste like. Like,

16:47

I wonder if just a more mild version of

16:49

that truffly flavor or if it's

16:52

something totally different. It's fun

16:54

that this is a hunger inducing episode. while

16:56

talking about dirt muffins, you know? That's cool.

16:58

Durb muffins. Weird

17:02

fingers of roots and pears are like,

17:04

oh, that's I wanna get that.

17:06

Great. Because it makes us the thing

17:08

is also look, we're not

17:10

salivating over truffles. We're associating because

17:12

we associate truffles with,

17:14

like, the most expensive delicious

17:17

pasta and pizza. Like,

17:19

fancy pizza. Like, that's what I'm

17:21

like, their PR team is nailing it.

17:25

Yeah. If you say truffle and I

17:27

immediately think like, oh, the most

17:29

delicious kachaepepepepe I've

17:31

ever had. Yeah. So many

17:33

positives. And and I think that's part of why they're with

17:35

us today. Like, it's a relatively hard to

17:37

find and get food, but it's just

17:39

so good. So You're weird.

17:41

Yeah. Yeah. and you only need

17:43

another thing for like luxury goods

17:45

that makes it I feel like feel important

17:47

is like you only need a little and

17:49

you only get a little? Right. Right?

17:52

Or if it's like any other food, if you're

17:54

if you're served a big slab of

17:56

it, even if it's expensive,

17:58

you're like, well, it can't be that rare. Like, I'm

18:00

getting a whole slab of it where it's

18:02

like they're using like a razor blade

18:04

to shave off like the tiniest little

18:06

bit and you're like, oh, special.

18:08

Yeah. It has to be rare. because you

18:11

only need a little bit for the flavor,

18:13

but also that just reinforces

18:15

how how special it is.

18:18

Now

18:18

now I'm thinking of black pepper. Like, black

18:20

pepper transforms if a a fella does

18:22

it with a wand. Like, if it's just in a

18:24

shaker at a or table. I'm like, oh,

18:26

yeah. But, like, a guy did it. Whoa. That

18:29

doesn't have to be a guy. I don't know why I'm gandering

18:31

it so hard. But, you know what I mean? It's

18:33

just an employee. Yeah. He's

18:34

holding a phallic a phallic

18:37

thing. I get it. True. Is

18:39

this this the symbolism there is

18:41

very masculine. That's true. Yeah.

18:44

Yeah. If you come and that's like,

18:46

that's good pepper. For some reason that

18:48

pepper tastes better. You're like, I know

18:50

why they colonize the world for this. I

18:53

get it. Yeah. I

18:55

wouldn't do it. I wouldn't do it for the

18:57

record, but I get it. Right.

19:02

Yeah. And as far as the history of travels, that leads

19:04

us into the next segment here because

19:06

next segment is a quick set of fascinating

19:08

numbers and statistics. And

19:10

this week, that's in a segment

19:12

called YatSpan

19:14

one week of me researching. But that's a

19:16

bad to make the podcast complete.

19:21

And then that day was submitted by John

19:23

Steblick. We have a new name for this segment every please make

19:25

him a silly and wacky and bad as possible. Submit to

19:27

sipp pod on Twitter or to sipp pod at gmail

19:29

dot com. It's amazing. Great

19:31

job. Thank

19:32

you. And

19:34

and, yeah, and the the first number here

19:36

is speaking of weeks and

19:38

dates and stuff, it's eighteen

19:41

o eight the year eighteen oh

19:43

eight. That is when a

19:45

French farmer named Joseph Talon

19:47

created the first known truffle

19:50

farm. So they existed,

19:52

but he's making it an actual

19:54

farm. Yeah. Like, in Europe,

19:56

before eighteen o eight, people were

19:58

foraging truffles. That was the only way to get

19:59

them. And then he figured out a way to

20:02

farm black truffles specifically.

20:04

We -- Interesting. -- are

20:06

still kind of trying to figure out how to farm white truffles. That's

20:08

still the next frontier of

20:10

farming them. But in eighteen

20:12

o eight, this guy got information about

20:16

which Oak trees in his region of France were known

20:18

to be good truffle hunting locations,

20:20

and then he plants at a set of

20:22

acorns from them all in one place.

20:25

and after some years, like, I don't know if

20:27

he knew the exact details, but the fungus

20:29

network developed and he was able to,

20:31

like, plant and harvest black truffles.

20:34

That's amazing. Also because eighteen o

20:37

eight in France, this is

20:39

now me having to go noble blood

20:41

on everyone Yes.

20:42

Look after the seventeen nineties,

20:44

it's a tumultuous period in France.

20:46

There's a lot of chaos that has happened

20:48

very recently and is continuing to

20:51

happen. And so I do like this one guy

20:53

being like, look, if I can just

20:55

make one thing orderly in

20:57

my life, can I just make one thing

21:00

easy I'm gonna try. I really

21:02

respect this farmer. France is

21:04

figuring out whether they're gonna be, you

21:06

know, they're in, like, the the rain of terror. They're

21:08

coming back to, like, Are we

21:10

gonna be a monarchy? What's gonna happen?

21:12

You know, the Muscadians are storming the

21:14

streets. And he's like,

21:15

look, I'm gonna focus on my truffles, and I

21:18

really respect that. I'm

21:20

glad

21:20

he didn't do, like, mistaken

21:23

science of thinking that the

21:25

revolution helps you know? Like, oh, if you wanna

21:27

grow truffles, you plant acorns, and

21:29

you kill an entire royal house and all

21:31

their friends. Like, that's what does

21:33

it. It's the

21:34

blood of of nobles

21:36

that really makes the truffles

21:39

rich. Right. But,

21:42

yeah. And again, it's dead on. Like, this

21:44

is a a wild time, and it is

21:46

it's so pastoral to just be,

21:49

like, forget new calendars and

21:51

currencies and and

21:53

Napoleon on the way or already there? Like, I'm

21:55

just gonna Yeah. Just getting there. I'm

21:57

just gonna plant some trees and

21:59

they'll make

21:59

ovens. Great. Do

22:02

you think Napoleon would have enjoyed

22:05

troubles? Were they still considered fancy at

22:07

this time? Oh, I didn't check about

22:09

him specifically. I would I would think so. Yeah.

22:11

They were they were -- But like -- Yeah. -- for this

22:13

farmer farming them, they

22:15

were already a food that people wanted

22:17

in value. Yeah. Yeah. They

22:19

were already popular, and he was trying to,

22:21

like, win as a

22:23

farmer. Yeah. Yeah. So that makes sense.

22:25

I'm gonna imagine that

22:27

Napoleon is much on truffles. Yeah.

22:29

He did from what

22:31

I've read about him, Napoleon did a

22:33

lot of, like, moving into Versailles and

22:35

wearing gold crowns, I I think

22:37

anything royal he was like, I'm gonna I'm gonna get in on

22:40

that. Sounds good. Yeah. He loved

22:42

symbolism to show off his own

22:44

important and godliness. And so if there was a

22:46

food that was considered fancy, it'd

22:48

be all about that. I'm surprised there's not

22:50

a portrait of him eating

22:53

truffles. Yes. Like, he keeps

22:55

eating them too fast. They can't paint it at one time.

22:58

Yeah. They can't paint it at that. He's like,

23:00

oh, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. Just really

23:02

go at them. Yeah.

23:04

But yeah.

23:05

And so the the black truffle

23:07

now is something that humans can kinda

23:09

cultivate on purpose. They don't have to just gather it. The

23:11

next number here is about white

23:14

truffles. It is up to three

23:16

thousand dollars US per

23:18

pound. That's the modern price. Three

23:20

thousand dollars. Yeah. Per pound. The

23:22

up to three grams. Alright. I

23:24

mean, a

23:24

pound of truffles is a lot.

23:27

You

23:27

can get a lot out of it. Yeah. It's true. Yeah. But yeah.

23:30

Wow. I'm gonna also

23:31

link an article from Food and Wine

23:34

Magazine because In last year twenty

23:36

twenty one, an Italian

23:38

research institute claimed that they had,

23:40

like, solved the problem of cultivating

23:42

white truffles. and

23:44

and getting trees to grow them outside

23:46

their normal range. So if if that's accurate,

23:48

I don't know that's kind of on the way, but

23:51

And like, for now, people

23:53

don't know how to do what Talon did

23:55

in the eighteen hundreds and like

23:57

spark an orchard that will grow

23:59

white truffles. So still -- Yeah. --

24:01

gathered by people more often with

24:03

dogs in the present day than pigs,

24:05

but but people with animals to dig

24:07

these up. That's

24:08

so cute to me. It's adorable.

24:11

Yeah. And

24:11

I get that apparently the dogs can

24:13

be trained on the sense and the

24:15

pigs more naturally find it, but then want to eat

24:17

it. So people go with dogs because the dog doesn't

24:20

eat the truffle too, if it

24:22

can.

24:22

Yeah. That makes sense. Yeah. The

24:24

dogs are are are better trained, but

24:26

the pigs are more chaotic and adorable.

24:29

it And

24:31

next number here is sixty

24:33

one thousand dollars US. Sixty

24:36

one

24:36

thousand US. that is

24:39

the auction price paid for one white truffle in

24:41

twenty fourteen. How much does

24:43

that weigh? It weighed

24:45

more than four pounds? But

24:47

we're still way above the standard pricing.

24:50

And apparently, they they partly

24:52

bought it as a stunt, but also because it was

24:54

considered a particularly flavorful white

24:56

truffle. by however you analyze these

24:58

things. That's

24:59

wild to me. Yeah. One

25:02

that they can analyze.

25:04

First, just to say that you you

25:06

can analyze how flavorful the

25:08

truffle is just by looking at it because what if it was a

25:10

bad truffle? Yeah.

25:12

Also, imagining a four pound

25:14

mushroom is wild to me in

25:16

my head. that just is a

25:18

big a big mushroom. Yeah.

25:20

And of course someone freaking bought it

25:22

as a stunt just to,

25:24

like, yeah, it's like a PR thing because they knew it'll get written

25:26

up. We're we're broken. We should

25:28

just all enjoy the pig mushrooms.

25:31

Some months

25:32

back, I didn't upset

25:35

about Tuna, and there was stories of

25:37

people at especially like Japanese

25:39

sushi restaurants, buying the

25:41

first huge tuna of the season at a

25:43

huge price is like a stunt, and then

25:45

Yeah. Like, I've I've read about that, and then I went and

25:47

ate a can of tuna later that day. You know? Like,

25:50

it's just there's such a range on these

25:52

things. There really is.

25:55

Isn't there? Yeah.

25:55

The

25:57

next number here is about

25:59

cultivating black

25:59

truffles. It is seven. and

26:02

it's because seven is the minimum number of

26:04

years it takes for a truffle farm to

26:06

start producing. Oh, so

26:09

this is also why I took expensive.

26:11

It takes a lot of investment. Yeah. It's

26:13

sort of a a really good parallel

26:15

is winemaking. And the the source for

26:17

this story is a New York Times piece.

26:19

where they covered a California winemaker who

26:22

expanded into black truffles. Because,

26:24

like, it's it's one of these products where you

26:27

have to apparently, plants of truffle orchard, you

26:29

get nothing for five years and you don't

26:31

hit peak production for at least seven

26:33

years, maybe eleven. So

26:35

it's it's just very slow for this, like,

26:38

delicate fungus network to grow its little

26:40

hairs and roots all over the

26:42

trees. It's a

26:42

rich man's business.

26:44

Yeah. And one more number.

26:47

This is eighteen sixty

26:49

three. The year eighteen sixty three.

26:51

Okay. That is the year when insects

26:53

wiped out most of the vineyards in

26:56

France. Whoa.

26:57

Yeah. I'd

26:58

I'd never heard of this. In in eighteen

27:01

sixty three, an AFID like

27:03

insect called PHILAXera, which eats

27:05

the roots of grape thorns,

27:07

destroyed at least two thirds of all

27:10

French vineyards. It just came

27:12

into the region and started eating

27:14

everything and

27:14

is known as the great French

27:17

wine blights. No. In

27:19

in the history of wines in France.

27:21

What a tragedy? Yeah.

27:23

Really bad. And and then the source

27:25

here is a cookbook called simply

27:27

truffles by food writer Patricia Wells.

27:30

She says that some European

27:32

grape growers responded by, like,

27:35

breeding and growing new grape binds that

27:37

Felix Sarah doesn't wanna eat. And so that, you know,

27:39

that keeps mind going. Yeah. But a lot

27:41

of other ones just moved into

27:43

farming truffles. like this is about fifty years

27:45

after they developed the firearms and they

27:47

said, okay, I'll just do this

27:49

different luxury product. Great.

27:51

And so like, massively increase

27:53

the supply of truffles in the world.

27:55

That makes sense.

27:56

That that's, you know, demand

27:59

or supply

27:59

matching demand. Yeah. Yeah.

28:01

Like, and it's kind of a cycle like then

28:03

more people have heard of truffles and have access to

28:05

them, and then they want more. And so

28:08

So this sudden eighteen sixty three death

28:10

of a lot of wine led to a lot

28:12

more truffles, and that's why a lot of people have

28:14

heard of them. That's really,

28:17

really interesting. I

28:19

also love when I learn about

28:21

history, the fact that there's just a

28:23

random

28:23

thing that then had

28:26

massive ramifications. The

28:28

idea

28:28

that just like this Afib,

28:30

like, you know, blight happened and

28:32

it massively changed the

28:33

the cultural agricultural economy

28:36

of France. It's just like, sure.

28:38

Why not? Everyone decided to

28:40

grow truffles. Great. Yeah.

28:42

Also, it's as a as

28:44

a Jewish person

28:45

who I feel like culturally values

28:48

food over alcohol. like

28:50

growing up in my family. I like this this shift.

28:52

We're like, oh, well, we can't do this wine blade.

28:54

So let's let's have

28:57

pasta.

28:59

That's really

29:00

fascinating. Yeah. I never

29:02

I never think about any of these agricultural shifts

29:04

or anything. But -- Yeah. --

29:05

and I ended this I I

29:08

like that. thing you describe about

29:10

your family and and that feeling. Like, there

29:12

are there are foods that I

29:14

value, like, I value alcohol,

29:16

especially ice cream. I'm like, I'll just have

29:18

that treat Like, forget it. Yeah. I don't need drink. I value

29:20

almost every food more than

29:22

alcohol. Yeah. Makes

29:25

sense. Well, so that's the the numbers about

29:27

it. There's two more takeaways for this

29:29

main show here, and they're each about

29:31

a major ancient myth about

29:33

travels. Okay.

29:34

be leaped. Wait. Wait. Can I

29:36

can I guess one? Yeah. Yeah. That

29:39

it

29:39

makes your penis better.

29:42

Exactly

29:42

right. That's the next thing. Yes. Yeah.

29:44

They let it. Oh.

29:45

So much of history is men doing

29:47

crazy things because they think it'll it'll

29:49

make their penis better. Sorry to

29:51

interrupt. Yeah. No. You just

29:53

described exactly what's covered. Yeah.

29:55

because takeaway number two.

29:59

We're pretty sure truffles

30:02

are not an aphrodisiac, and

30:04

that's thanks to scientists sequencing the

30:06

truffle genome and

30:08

analyzing bores saliva. Like,

30:10

they checked and it's definitely not

30:12

that thing guys thought.

30:14

Bores.

30:14

Bores saliva. Apparently,

30:16

pigs are pretty closely related to

30:19

Bores. Like, Both animals are are kinda used to find these

30:21

yet. It's just very funny

30:22

that that's how somehow that involved

30:24

how they figured this out.

30:27

Yes. Good for scientists.

30:29

It it because to become

30:31

the person who analyzes Porsche Lab, I feel

30:33

like you have to spend many years on it. Like,

30:35

you don't just start for this interesting project.

30:38

So it was probably a really good day in

30:40

the office. Yeah. They've been doing Bolsolive

30:43

before years and finally they're like, oh,

30:45

oh, good. We have a

30:47

use.

30:48

Yeah. And

30:49

the

30:50

the keys see here, it's an interview with

30:53

Stanford University biology professor,

30:55

Kabbir pay, because

30:57

he talks about how ruffles

30:59

depend on fungivores to spread their

31:01

spores. They depend on animals to dig them

31:03

up, eat them, excrete them. And

31:05

so in order to attract animals truffles release

31:07

a lot of chemicals and hormones.

31:10

Sure. And it's sort of like

31:12

pheromones and mammal species. And

31:14

one of those is that truffles are a big

31:16

producer of Androstenol, which

31:18

is a steroidal pheromone, and

31:20

that matches a key pheromone released

31:22

by male wild boars and pigs.

31:24

And it can be found in their saliva.

31:27

And it's also found in human sweat.

31:29

And so, like, there's a

31:31

long running myth that truffles

31:33

are anaphrodisiac, and then also some scientists

31:36

found this connection and said,

31:38

oh, I found the proof, which it

31:40

turns out is not actually proof.

31:42

But, like, initially, they were, like, we figured

31:44

it out that it it really works. Now

31:46

I understand the

31:49

the Boris saliva connection.

31:52

Yeah. I also have to

31:54

say, I know pheromones are

31:56

real, but doesn't it

31:57

still to you or to me,

31:59

I don't

32:00

wanna make

32:01

you seem as dumb as I am. But No.

32:03

No. I I still believe it oh,

32:05

whenever anyone brings up fair amounts, it's

32:07

still sounds like some made up thing that a

32:10

pickup artist came up with. And

32:11

and

32:12

I think the kind of

32:15

art, like, it's it

32:16

exists and also, like, for one

32:19

thing, I would believe in them a lot more if you could see,

32:21

like, cartoon wavy lines for

32:23

them. Yeah. Yeah. Wavy lines.

32:25

But also, it's basically every belief

32:28

about Ephradesia exits people saying

32:30

like, I heard about a chemical,

32:32

and then that doesn't actually necessarily

32:34

change a human's entire behavior. or, like,

32:36

that's kind of that's kind of a leap from

32:38

there. Okay.

32:39

That's that's fair. That makes me feel better

32:41

about things. Yeah. because

32:44

because before there was any checking

32:46

of chemistry, there were just a bunch

32:48

of European guys saying, truffles make

32:50

you get a text up. Yeah.

32:52

In the eighteen hundreds, there was a French gourmand

32:55

named John on film Briat

32:57

Savareen. He said, quote,

32:59

whoever says truffle utters a

33:01

great word. which arouses erotic

33:03

and gastronomic memories among

33:05

the skirted sex and the bearded

33:08

sex. Oh, which

33:10

is flowery version of what

33:12

we've been saying. But also, I

33:15

do have to say he does

33:17

he is right that it it

33:19

evokes you know, these thoughts. But now it's because

33:21

I associate it with like a fancy Italian

33:24

restaurant. So I don't know if it's so

33:26

much that trouble doing it or that

33:28

I just mentally am like,

33:30

oh, fancy dinner, date,

33:32

cheesy pasta. Right. Yeah.

33:33

Like the placebo effect

33:36

and the context we've created is strong.

33:38

Like, that's the maximum amount. This is

33:40

an effort easy act. Yeah. Or or

33:42

even,

33:42

like, it's like a nice bottle of wine as

33:44

like, oh, nice bottle of wine, I'm probably not

33:47

alone watching nothing. Like, a bit spread

33:49

out a bit. Yeah. It's a

33:51

special occasion. You're you're

33:54

spending money, that's also kind of, you

33:56

know, a fancy event.

33:58

Yeah. Something's going on.

33:59

And they as far as, like, that scientific

34:02

link they thought they found. They said, oh, we

34:04

found Androstenol. If that chemical's

34:06

here, it must be a thing. Sure. But

34:09

then there's been like further checking in

34:11

modern times. And it turns out

34:13

that truffles put out a whole

34:15

set of compounds and androstinol's

34:18

probably not the important one.

34:20

There was a chemist named Thierry Thalou

34:22

at the Palatechnic Institute of Thalou in

34:25

France He did an experiment where they offered pigs

34:27

a choice. They offered them

34:30

either androstinol or all of the

34:32

other compounds released

34:34

by truffles. Yeah. And they always went to the other ones. They were not

34:36

interested in the end draft and

34:38

all. That makes sense. I

34:39

mean, it doesn't it doesn't I

34:41

don't know the science of

34:43

it, but I'm like, oh, yes. Okay. Sure. That's not the actual aphrodesiac.

34:46

It's whatever this combination of

34:48

overwhelming chemicals

34:50

is. specifically four pig

34:52

so they poop it out. Exactly.

34:54

Yeah. Which is also

34:56

so disconnected from humans made egg But

34:59

that's yeah. There's a lot

35:01

of gap there. Yeah. Nothing to

35:03

do with us. there's

35:06

no evolutionary advantage to making people

35:08

want to have

35:09

sex more for the

35:12

plant. Right.

35:12

Yeah. The fungus. It doesn't

35:15

care. That fungus. Jesus. Sorry. It's okay. Sorry. I don't mean to be

35:17

worried about it. It's just like No. You're

35:19

you're supposed to educate me. That's the

35:21

whole point. I just have

35:23

not said the word fungus

35:25

doesn't really

35:26

appear organically in my vocabulary.

35:28

I'm realizing. Same. Yeah. and

35:31

I You've been reading about it and

35:34

yeah. There's also

35:34

in twenty ten a team of

35:37

European geneticist decoded the

35:39

genome of black truffles. they found

35:41

all the genetic information of them, and they found that

35:43

the core instructions that they contain

35:46

for making a pheromone or a

35:48

hormone is

35:50

to make domethyl sulfide. Like,

35:52

androstenol actually

35:52

varies by soil and situation, but

35:56

that and further studies have

35:58

found, like, the key

36:00

compound for attracting pigs is

36:02

dimethyl sulfide, and that

36:04

has kinda really no relationship to

36:06

human sexuality. Like, it's

36:08

even this myth and

36:10

first scientific thing they found. It's

36:12

not really what's going on. Howard Bauchner:

36:14

That's very interesting. And I've all

36:16

so very much respect to the scientists for taking the time and figuring that

36:19

out. It's cool. Yeah. I'm glad

36:21

I'm glad they probably

36:22

did many other genomes first.

36:25

and then got around to black travels. So good job

36:27

at Christmas. Probably not

36:28

the most important, but look, it's

36:30

there. Race. They

36:33

wanted a trip to Italy. They deserved

36:35

it. I hope the scientists

36:36

got to go to France.

36:38

yeah Oh,

36:39

yeah. Yeah. And I I feel like, by

36:41

the way, we're already there too. Like, I'm I with some products, like,

36:44

like, we were talking about pepper being taken by

36:46

colonizers from across the

36:48

world, like, some of these truffles

36:50

were already there. They didn't have to

36:52

seize them from other places. So that's good.

36:54

That's a good thing. Yeah. That's guys

36:55

it's it's as

36:58

far as these things go, it could be a lot

37:00

worse. Yeah. Yeah.

37:00

And then

37:01

yeah. And then beyond,

37:04

like, these specific studies of truffles and pigs and

37:06

genetics. In general, Effortize the X

37:08

are kind of a myth across the board.

37:10

And I'm gonna link a few things

37:12

about it, especially from BBC

37:14

Future. Also, if people have heard the

37:16

episode we did about chocolate, we talked

37:18

about how chocolate is kind of

37:20

like this. Like, there are people in

37:22

blogs that have said, hey, it has

37:24

like one chemical or thing in

37:26

it that relates to people some

37:28

way, but you would need like

37:30

such massive amounts of it and specific

37:32

intake of it for it to like actually

37:34

change how you behave. Sure.

37:35

I mean, that's the type of

37:38

that's the type of chocolate

37:40

consumption. Me and Kathy are doing, but

37:42

forever and

37:44

out. so much of that is pseudoscience. And, like,

37:46

I I think as a rule, if anything,

37:48

like, historically, is meant to be an aphrodisiac,

37:51

almost never is.

37:54

Yeah. Just as a rule. Because it's almost

37:56

more I would argue

37:58

it's it's a more

37:59

powerful Effortesiac that we do

38:02

associate truffle with

38:04

fancy date night. Absolutely.

38:06

the you now Yeah.

38:08

Yeah. There are, like, psychological markers that

38:10

we've come up with inner culture. For sure.

38:12

Yeah. And

38:13

and those are actually felt like the brain is

38:15

a very powerful sexual organ. Like, that

38:17

actually is a

38:20

very probably a functional effort, Zach, in the ways that

38:22

we would ascribe to whatever

38:24

hormone we're kind of making up.

38:28

Yeah,

38:28

yeah wow wow. Yeah. And, like,

38:30

a date night is so much more in the mind

38:33

of a

38:33

pickup artist guy, labor, huge quotes

38:35

with my hands. like, it's

38:37

it's not a magic potion. It's like, oh, I actually have

38:40

to talk for an hour and, like, like,

38:42

be be someone other humans wanna

38:44

be around jeez. Yeah.

38:45

It's like, oh oh, guess what? Women will,

38:47

you know, be interested if you are

38:50

romantic and, like, engaging

38:52

and fun. Like, Yeah. Do

38:54

you know,

38:54

like any human being? No.

38:56

I need a dirt

38:58

muffin. A dirt muffin. That'll

39:00

do it. Yeah. A dirt muffin. That'll do

39:02

it.

39:04

instantly.

39:05

Hey folks. It's

39:08

Alex. If you like learning about lore behind some of

39:10

your most beloved of things, then I think you'll

39:12

really enjoy the chart topping podcast

39:14

billed for tomorrow, hosted

39:17

by Entrepreneur Magazine Editor

39:19

in Chief Jason Pfeiffer. Build for

39:21

Tomorrow takes the things we're most confused concerned about today and then shows

39:23

you a much smarter way to solve or

39:25

think about them. Episode's consider

39:28

questions like Did you know the

39:30

phrase nobody wants to work anymore, has

39:32

been around for one hundred

39:34

years, or the people have been taught the wrong way to

39:36

write since eighteen

39:38

seventy five, And if you need somewhere

39:40

to start, I highly recommend checking out the episode. All the fun facts you have wrong. In

39:42

that, Jason Pfeiffer debunks more than a

39:44

dozen common misconceptions and

39:48

then asks, Why do we remember misinformation

39:50

so easily? And is there a better way to learn? It's

39:52

fascinating lesson, so don't miss out. Follow

39:54

build for tomorrow on Apple

39:58

Podcasts. Spotify, or wherever you find

39:59

podcasts. And hey, tell them Alex

40:02

say it.

40:07

And

40:07

then there's this one other takeaway for

40:09

the main show. This is about a myth

40:11

about truffles that I had not heard

40:13

before researching. But takeaway

40:16

number three, Thanks

40:17

to scientists studying

40:19

chemistry and

40:22

meteorology. we are pretty sure

40:24

that truffles benefit from

40:27

thunder. What?

40:28

There was like

40:29

a long running, especially

40:31

ancient belief that truffles

40:34

either were boosted in their

40:36

growth or totally grew from

40:38

thunder. And that might

40:40

be, like, indirectly accurate because

40:42

lightning strikes do actually help them

40:44

grow?

40:46

How

40:46

how? It

40:48

gets for just, like, making more nitrogen

40:50

in the in the soil or something?

40:52

Yeah.

40:52

Pretty much. Yeah. Oh, good. No.

40:55

Please. No. Explain

40:58

this

40:58

to

41:00

me. It turns out that we'll we'll

41:02

cover like the myth later, but what happens is lightning

41:04

strikes boost the growth of truffles.

41:08

because there are chemicals called nitrates that are

41:10

a key source of food for them.

41:12

And when lightning starts happening in the

41:16

atmosphere, Modern studies say that it discharges

41:18

electricity that breaks the bonds of atmospheric

41:20

nitrogen, and then that

41:22

releases different compounds

41:24

including nitrates, that, like,

41:26

joins with water to follow the earth in

41:28

precipitation and then fertilizes the

41:30

soil and helps

41:32

truffles grow. Wild. Especially because saying a

41:34

sentence like lightning helps truffles grow.

41:36

It feels

41:38

insane. but

41:41

I love it. That's great. I love behind it. It's

41:43

so cool. Yeah. And it

41:45

is like kind of

41:48

charming that ancient

41:50

people like ancient Romans, ancient

41:52

Greeks had a beat on this. They

41:54

didn't really understand it or

41:56

understand truffles at all, but they

41:58

had observed tremble

41:59

growth being, like, stronger in

42:02

particularly stormy seasons and

42:04

places. After thunder,

42:05

the thunder fortifies

42:07

it. Yeah. No. It's there. It reverberates

42:09

through the roots. Makes it

42:11

strong. I get it. If I was if I was

42:13

in ancient times and I didn't know what nitrogen in

42:15

the air was, I would

42:18

fully associate, like,

42:20

the the boom of thunder with

42:22

the the round things

42:24

that need fortification Right. Yeah.

42:26

The troubles are

42:27

now stronger. They're

42:30

kind of cloud shaped. I get

42:32

it. Look, I can't explain it, but I

42:36

get it. Oh, cloud is a more

42:38

romantic comparison than muffins, I think. That's

42:40

that's very nice. Yeah.

42:42

Dirt Dirt

42:44

clouds. Like, if

42:46

I was offered cloud pasta at the restaurant,

42:48

like, now we're talking. Oh, cloud

42:50

pasta. Great. I don't

42:51

know what cloud pasta

42:53

is, But if you could come up with something that, you know,

42:55

is that you could go so viral

42:57

on TikTok?

43:00

Yeah. Wait. I should do I'll

43:02

get in the kitchen. We'll do that. Then we'll

43:04

do a joint one showing people the Italian

43:06

beef pizza. Like, welcome back to the food

43:08

TikTok that I run now. Yeah.

43:12

Great. Innovations in food

43:14

technology.

43:15

it Yeah.

43:17

Yeah. And and, like, for thousands of

43:19

years, people have said, like, thunderproof

43:22

truffles. That's a thing. And

43:24

one of the

43:26

earliest observations an ancient Greek botanist named

43:28

Theophrastis who lived in the three hundreds

43:30

BC. He said that in

43:32

North Africa,

43:34

people observed seasonal thunder increasing truffle growth. And

43:36

then the ancient Roman

43:38

naturalist, Plentyy, the Elder,

43:40

who lives twenties

43:42

to the seventies AD. Yeah. Honey said that when

43:44

there have been showers in autumn and

43:46

frequent thunderstorms, truffles are

43:49

produced. thunder contributing more particularly to this

43:52

development. It's amazing with this like

43:54

gathered dug up secret food

43:56

that they sust out this

43:58

phenomenon. Like, they noticed that there were more of

43:59

them. I also just

44:02

love the thought that we are eating a

44:04

food that plenty of the elder was also

44:06

eating. Yeah. Pretty cool.

44:08

Yeah. I know that that's how food

44:10

works. That, like, of course, they were also

44:12

eating bread and cheese, but, like, truffles

44:14

feel so weird and specific.

44:16

that this still imagining this

44:18

link of, you know, thousands

44:21

of years -- Right. --

44:23

you know, a thousand plus

44:25

years. is just it's kind of inter it's like

44:27

surreal. Because also to me, maybe because

44:29

I only I

44:30

learned about truffles as an adult, you

44:33

know, moving to a place. It feels very

44:35

modern. I'm like, oh, we just all

44:37

discovered I discovered truffles six

44:40

years ago. So we all covered trouble six

44:42

years

44:44

ago. Yeah. It's like

44:46

if he had Oreos or something.

44:48

Like, I Or I should get that. That's

44:50

mine. Like, Like, what if you

44:52

found out that, like, Cleopatra loved,

44:54

like, Pasto on her

44:56

pasta. Yes. You're

44:58

like, what? That's

45:00

how it feels even though obviously, troubles are a fungi

45:02

that have been around.

45:04

Yeah. Exactly

45:05

right. And it even isn't

45:07

this is not even the only place

45:09

where people were feeling this. Apparently,

45:12

also, there's some desert

45:14

truffles in the Nagav desert in

45:16

the Middle East. bedouin people there

45:18

have a name for those truffles and

45:21

the word means thunder

45:24

fungus.

45:25

Whoa. That's so much

45:27

cooler than dirt and muffin.

45:29

Thunder fungus. That's an energy

45:31

drink or something. We got that.

45:33

Yeah. Great. Yeah. You know how

45:35

now they're doing mushrooms in coffee? because they think that, you know, like,

45:38

chagagena, have you

45:38

seen those? So I oddly,

45:42

I I'm also not that into eating, like, regular

45:44

mushrooms. I truffle's pretty

45:46

good, but, like, regular mushrooms, I don't love the

45:48

texture. I'm not so I don't think about eating

45:52

a much. I've never

45:52

I've never had this, but, like, at, like, fancy coffee shops,

45:54

I've started to see that they're doing,

45:57

like, mushroom powder lattes because it's just,

45:59

like, whatever these

45:59

special mushrooms

46:02

are

46:02

they, like, energize you and,

46:04

like, I guess, you

46:05

know, give you a boost that's different from

46:07

caffeine. To me, it seems

46:09

a little gross But, like, of course,

46:11

you know, I'll probably love it. But, you know, thunder

46:13

fungi would be a great name for

46:16

what that

46:18

is.

46:18

Yeah. I I could see that being on one of those boards where you

46:20

put in the little white letter, plastic letters,

46:22

and it's like eight letters. Yeah.

46:25

Yeah. That's it exactly. These are all eight dollar

46:28

lattes. Yeah. You

46:30

know, turmeric was big a few years

46:32

ago, and I feel like the next

46:34

on. It's gonna be mushroom. And I I the idea that

46:36

these things come in cycles too because

46:38

like this the truffles and

46:40

thunder

46:41

belief, it's sort of a

46:43

little bit as the Greeks and Romans went

46:46

away, but then in the renaissance, people brought it

46:48

back. Like, the writings got

46:50

translated and kept in print by Arabic

46:52

scholars and then Europeans

46:54

like Bartolomeo, Platinum in the fourteen

46:56

hundreds and Castore deRante in

46:58

the fifteen hundreds re

47:00

popularized the idea because they were like,

47:03

everything the Romans said is good, and this is

47:05

something they say is the truffles

47:07

are thunder. I love that. That's

47:09

so funny. And and smart, they were right. They weren't

47:12

I mean, the thunder was a little

47:14

off, but like they weren't wrong. Yeah.

47:15

And I never think about fungus,

47:17

but like, I'll link also a

47:19

separate study here.

47:22

There's covered by National Geographic, but it was done in Japan.

47:24

A group at Iwate University

47:26

in Japan looked into a

47:30

Japanese farmer belief that lightning benefits all

47:32

mushrooms and like they all thrive in it.

47:34

And so in twenty ten, a team at this

47:36

university bombarded mushrooms

47:38

with electricity. and

47:40

they found that it more than doubled their yields. Like, they

47:42

reproduced a lot faster. And

47:44

so -- Interesting.

47:45

-- there's, like, all

47:48

kinds of lightening and thunder connections to fungus

47:50

that I never think about, but people have

47:52

been thinking about it for thousands

47:54

of years. Good for

47:56

them.

47:56

them

47:57

Yeah. And I

47:59

maybe

47:59

I'll try the latte.

48:02

I don't know. if if I'm presented

48:04

with it. I

48:05

remember the first time I saw it. I was in, like,

48:08

Portland where my husband is from. And I was,

48:10

like, this is what

48:12

and

48:12

I was, like, laughing. I was, like, a mushroom

48:14

and coffee. This is so gross. This will never

48:16

catch on. And then I saw that,

48:18

like, a different chop. And then I

48:21

like -- Mhmm. -- now this shop in LA that we go to, like, has

48:23

it outside? It's like and I'm like, oh,

48:25

no. Is this people

48:26

people must be buying

48:28

this. People must be doing

48:30

this. This must be happening. In

48:32

spite of me, this is happening.

48:35

What if,

48:37

like, it also spreads because of storms in your region.

48:39

Right? Like, also Yeah.

48:43

Lightning is is spreading that the

48:46

chuggy now.

48:48

The owners, like, change the menu. I don't know why.

48:50

I don't know why. I

48:52

just

49:04

Oakes. That

49:04

is the main episode for

49:08

this week. My thanks to Dana Schwartz for supporting my

49:10

efforts to root around in the

49:12

earth and find those dirt muffins, which

49:14

is also a name I'm carrying with me

49:16

from her. Dirt

49:18

muffins. Love it. Anyway, I said

49:20

that's

49:20

the main episode because there

49:22

is more secretly, incredibly fascinating stuff

49:25

available to you right

49:28

now.

49:29

e if

49:31

you support this show

49:33

on patreon dot com. Patrons

49:35

get a bonus show every week where

49:37

we explore one obviously incredibly

49:40

fascinating story related to

49:42

the main episode. This week's bonus topic is

49:44

a couple stories of ancient truffles

49:46

and a story of European

49:50

truffle diplomacy. Visit SIF pod

49:52

dot fun for that bonus show for a library of almost ten

49:54

dozen other bonus shows and

49:57

to back this entire podcast

50:00

operation. And thank you for

50:02

exploring truffles with us.

50:04

Here's one more run through the big takeaways.

50:07

Takeaway number one,

50:10

truffles are an

50:13

underground fungus and a

50:15

mutual relationship with plant

50:17

roots. Takeway number two, we're

50:19

pretty sure truffles are not an

50:21

aphrodisiac. Thanks to scientists sequencing

50:23

the truffle genome and

50:26

other scientists analyzing bores saliva. And

50:28

takeaway number three, scientist

50:30

studying chemistry and meteorology

50:32

have confirmed the ancient belief

50:36

that truffles benefit from thunder.

50:39

Those are the

50:43

takeaways. Also, please, Follow my guest.

50:46

She's great. Dana Schwartz

50:48

is a number one New York Times best selling

50:50

author. Her novel, anatomy, a

50:52

love story is out now. and you can pre

50:54

order its sequel. It's called

50:56

immortality a love story. It's out February

50:58

twenty twenty three. Dana also

51:00

hosts a wonderful podcast called

51:02

Noble Blood. From iHeartRadio, it's about stories of

51:04

rulers and kings and nobles and

51:06

other people who are worth humanizing

51:08

and worth discovering the

51:10

truth of. And, of course,

51:12

follow her at Dana Schwartz, that

51:14

is the name Dana Schwartz with

51:16

three z's on

51:18

the end. many research sources this week. Here

51:20

are some key ones. One of them is a

51:22

fantastic book. It is called truffle

51:24

a global

51:26

history. by Harvard lecturer

51:28

and director of the Umbra Institute,

51:31

Zachary Nowak. Also, leaned on

51:33

work by Stanford University ofology

51:35

professor, Kabir Pei, Further material from The New

51:37

York Times, Atlas Obscura, The Guardian, Find Those,

51:40

and many more sources in

51:42

this episode's

51:44

links at SIF pod dot And

51:46

beyond all that, our theme music is

51:48

unbroken, unshaven by the Buddha's band. Our

51:50

show logo is by artist Burton Durand,

51:54

special thanks to Chris Souza for audio mastering on this episode. Extra

51:57

extra special thanks.

51:58

Go to our patrons. I hope you'll

51:59

love this week's bonus

52:02

show about the Acadians

52:04

on the House of Savoy and everything

52:06

else. And thank you to all our listeners. I'm

52:08

thrilled to say we will

52:10

be back next week with more secretly

52:12

incredibly fascinating.

52:14

So how about that? Talk

52:18

to

52:20

you then.