128 Pop Rocks
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Melissa: [00:00:00] Hey, I'm Melissa

Jam: I'm Jam

Melissa: and I'm a chemist

Jam: I'm not.

Melissa: and welcome to chemistry for your life.

Jam: The podcast helps you understand the chemistry of your everyday life.

Melissa: Okay, Jam, I'm very excited for today's episode.

Jam: Really, that's weird. That's like kind of different than normal.

Melissa: I know I'm so excited about everything, but this one I am extra, super excited about.

Jam: I would love for there to be a time where we start an episode and you say, okay, Jam, I'm not excited about today's episode at all.

Melissa: Well, that's kinda how I felt about plastic. It was a little heartbreaking, but interesting.

Jam: And important to share about, you know, so like you can be excited about telling everyone about something that's important for them to know, without being excited about the fact that it is true.

Melissa: That is terrible. Yeah.

that's true. Well, well maybe, sometimes I'll say this sometimes when I'm preparing to write an [00:01:00] episode and I can't think of an idea that I'm excited about, then I'm not excited, then I'm like, ugh.

And I don't want to do any of these topics. And then I get excited about one. So that's why I'm always excited

Jam: right. It's the one that, that you got excited about this past week.

Okay. Got it. Okay. So what is it?

Melissa: Okay. It is from listener and actually this person is a real life friend of ours. Katie J she wrote in and asked about how pop rocks pop.

Jam: Oh, nice the the candy from old.

Melissa: Uh huh.

Jam: I mean, it probably still exist, but I've not had pop rocks. And who knows how long?

Melissa: Well, I think we're going to have to do a little pop rocks, experiment or something it does still exist. And it's a really super fun question. And the answer is so chemistry.

Jam: This sounds like it would have to be, if not, then I would be like, okay, it must just be magic then in

Melissa: But it is not a chemical reaction. Actually. It's chemicals doing things, obviously everything is kind of, but it's not a [00:02:00] reaction.

Jam: Okay. Okay.

Melissa: Okay.

So pop rocks were invented by a tag team of two chemists, according to the pop rocks website.

Jam: Okay.

Melissa: Initially it was invented by someone attempting to make an instant soda Like Coca-Cola in a tablet, I think was the idea.

Jam: Okay. Like add this to some water and it it'll become a soda. Okay. Interesting.

Melissa: But it didn't really work out. So it kind of got abandoned.

Jam: Okay.

Melissa: And then 20 years later, another chemist came along, saw the potential for this as a candy and slightly modified it, it make it usable. And that's how pop rocks were born.

Jam: Interesting. Wow. I would not have expected that.

Melissa: I know I was very excited to see it on the website attributed to chemists because I think food chemists do a lot of things behind the scenes, but for it to just get the credit, oh, a chemist did this. was exciting to me.

Jam: That is exciting.

Melissa: So What pop rocks are is essentially [00:03:00] carbonated candy.

Jam: carbonated candy. So it's carbon dioxide. Okay.

Melissa: It's highly pressurized carbon dioxide in a hard candy shell.

Jam: Interesting.

Melissa: So I want to talk about what highly pressurized carbon dioxide actually means. So I think we, we think about things being under higher pressure. You know, if your air pressure in your tire is low, versus if. But what it actually means is if you have a higher concentration of gaseous molecules in a space than less concentration of gaseous molecules, they will move around more and exert more pressure on the container they're in because gaseous molecules are moving around and there they are trying to be further apart from one another.

Jam: Right, right.

Melissa: So you may have heard this from Andy on parks And rec. He says in a shocking move, that gasses expand to fill the size of the container they're in, is like very [00:04:00] surprising from him. Cause he kind of was usually saying goofy stuff.

Jam: And also doesn't he say in a really random time, like it's not even relevant.

Melissa: I think it's because somebody has a poison filled balloon

Jam: Oh, okay.

Melissa: and he said no, because if there was poison in one of these balloons, it would expand to fill the size of the container we're in or something like that. So these gasses are moving around. They're trying to spread out, but if there is a high concentration of them and they can't spread out, they'll be under pressure.

Basically they're putting pressure on the container and you need the pressure to contain them back

Jam: Got it.

Melissa: the way I think of it. I don't know why this came to my mind is if you think of a high pressure situation, it's similar to having a fish. Fishnet full of fish, like in that finding Nemo.

Jam: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Melissa: Yes. There's tons of fish in the area and they're all trying to break out, but they can't really, there are so many in there that they're [00:05:00] really exerting pressure on the net,

Jam: Right. Okay. Yeah. That's a great analogy.

Melissa: But normal air is like a fish net with not very much like the air that we're in right now is mostly empty space with a few molecules.

So inside your pop rocks are little bubbles inside the hard candy shell with highly concentrated CO2 in them.

Jam: Interesting.

Melissa: So that's known as pressurized, carbon dioxide bubbles. So a high concentration of CO2 in a smaller space than you normally have.

Jam: Okay.

Melissa: Okay.

So. As soon as the fishnet gets removed,

Jam: Uh, huh.

Melissa: the fish are going to scatter. Right,

Jam: right,

right.

Melissa: Okay. So that is essentially what happens when you have the pop rocks in your mouth. in this container, that's holding all the CO2 in, but [00:06:00] as you put it in your mouth and the sugar starts to break down, Eventually the pressure that the molecules are putting on the container to try to get out is going to be greater than the gradually thinning, smaller, smaller sugar wall.

And eventually the molecules will be able to break out as if the fish tank popped open or the fish net popped open.

Jam: right. So that's why it feels like a pop. Okay. Okay. Because they're able to, at a certain point overcome. The strength the walls that are kind of holding them in and they do kind of pop out, but it is just a gas that was trapped in there.

Melissa: Yes. It's a gas that's trapped in there that gets its opportunity to rapidly expand to fill the size of the container in this case, your mouth, you open your mouth, the whole atmosphere.

Jam: Yeah. Interesting. So if you held your mouth closed while you had pop rocks in there with your like kind of cheeks puff up a little bit, you think, or was it not enough?

Melissa: It At might, I don't know, you'd have to [00:07:00] keep your mouth closed the whole time, but also I don't think your mouth is a closed system,

Jam: Yeah. You have to breathe the whole time. So you'd be in need to let it out.

Didn't think that through.

Melissa: Also was some fear that it could choke children for that reason, but really it that's not possible. The worst that could happen is you'd get like gas in your tummy.

Jam: Yeah. Right, right.

Melissa: You know, it seems like they're considered safe.

Jam: When, when people measure like different amounts of pressure for like gasses and stuff, I've heard just in like, I guess TV shows and books and stuff, because I like Sci-Fi things. So use the word like atmosphere. Do they mean that almost as like a, a word to describe would be a normal amount of pressure.

If you just measured, like outside in,

Melissa: Yeah, pretty much. It's just another unit of measurement for pressure. So there's like, I don't remember what the other one is. Cause I feel like I used atmosphere most often, but atmosphere is a unit of pressure and it's actually not the same everywhere outside. I think it's at [00:08:00] sea level,

Jam: Oh, I see. I

Melissa: the amount of pressure that is exerted just by literally the atmosphere.

So you would need like four atmospheres to be under greater pressure or whatever? So it's a unit of measurement, almost like a mile, you know, or a pound it's like this amount of pressure is equal to an atmosphere. And then you can convert that, that we didn't do that. We don't use that very much in o-chem but in gen chem you'll use that to solve problems, especially about gas molecules and figure out how much pressure and how many molecules would give you this temperature, things like that.

Jam: Got it. Got it. Is there another more like chemist chemistry related unit to measure pressure that's not atmospheres or is that the standard

Melissa: I definitely use atmospheres a lot. I think I just had that and there's a constant use in gas equations and you can have it in a bunch of different units that I had the atmosphere one memorized, so I'd use that the most, but there's also PSI.

And I think the SI unit is maybe pascals. [00:09:00] And then there's also barrs. We used barr a lot, B a R R.

Jam: Yes. I don't know why none of those other ones came to my mind PSI obviously would, should have thought of, because tires and barrs I should thought of because of coffee. That's what, like they measure pressure for like a espresso machine in barrs.

Melissa: Interesting.

Jam: So both those should come to mind for me. I think it just the idea of a gas, right.

And a gas captured and contained somewhere, um, that, you know, PSI should go to my barrs I think of like, oh, I'm putting pressure on something. So atmosphere, I don't know, for some reason it seemed different than that, but it makes sense that you'd measure. You could measure those in similar ways or

Melissa: they're all essentially measuring the same thing. Just the same way. Fahrenheit and Celsius are measuring the same thing or like miles and meters are both measuring distance. They're all measuring pressure, but they just have different methods of measuring pressure,

Jam: Right. And I, I guess they probably have different, like one unit would be different sizes too. Like obviously [00:10:00] that's one of the benefits people have, or like, you know, Celsius over Fahrenheit instead, or whatever. Like one degree of Celsius is actually larger than a degree of Fahrenheit. And stuff like that..

Melissa: with a quick Google, I found that one standard atmosphere is equal to 14 PSI. So yeah, there are different basic units. know if that means very much to people, but.

Jam: Well, that's why we have to put more air in our tires. We can just have a 14 PSI in our tires, just like leave my tire outside for a little bit. fill with 14 PSI. Like that's not gonna be enough.

Melissa: What tire pressure is do tires normally need to have? I don't have that off the top of my head in thirties.

Jam: 32 is like, I think our car, or at least at least the one set of the wheels is 32, but that's just off the top of my head.

Melissa: That's double atmospheric pressure.

Jam: yeah, yeah.

Melissa: So there you go. That's a little side note. That was a fun. That was a fun side note.

Jam: Yeah. Little tangent. Sorry. I mean, it ended up being panning out, I guess, but.

Melissa: That's Okay.

I think that was fun. So, and that's [00:11:00] basically it that's how pop rocks work, except there is more chemistry to it than just gas molecules, trying to expand, to fill a container.

Jam: Okay.

Melissa: How do you think does the sugar dissolve?

Jam: Because of our saliva.

Melissa: Right, but what would allow our saliva to interact with sugar molecules? So let's say I know there's other stuff in saliva. let's get rid of all the other stuff in saliva and just focus on the water in saliva. How does water interact with sugar? Yeah, say it.

Jam: I mean.

The water dissolves the sugar.

Melissa: Yeah,

Jam: Is it, do you want me to say more than that?

Melissa: I do want you to say you can't it's Okay.

But I think you have the answer for this already. [00:12:00] what have you learned about how two molecules interact with each other? Like how has the water molecule interacting with a sugar molecule

Jam: um,

it seems like, you know exactly what you want me to say and I'm like, Oh man. There's so many things I could pull out of my brain from different episodes and like and none of them could be right.

Melissa: I think you do know the right answer. I just think you haven't applied it in this new context.

Jam: Okay. So one thing I could think of is that it could, you know, just the bonds could change a lot. So I like either the water could start breaking down parts of the sugar or it could start exchanging. Molecules or electrons between each other or something like that,

Melissa: Okay. So that would

Jam: that would be a chemical reaction.

Melissa: because sugar stays sugar, even when it dissolves.

Jam: Um,

Melissa: guess.

Jam: okay. Oh, I got this. I got this. Okay. So it's just that the molecules of [00:13:00] sugar are able to spread out. So they are very close together, right. Packed in, in their Crystalyn situation.

Melissa: Yeah.

Jam: So is it that because of the water it's able to, that's why it changes form. It's not solid anymore. It slowly becomes a liquid because the sugar molecules stay liquid.

They stay sugar, but they're spreading

Melissa: so close okay, the sugar molecules, they do move around from being. In one crystaline state, but they're not changing to a liquid they're getting dissolved, which means the water molecules are surrounding them.

Jam: Okay.

Melissa: But we learned one type of force that describes how two molecules interact, the series of forces that describe how molecules interact.

Jam: Oh, intermolecular.

Melissa: Yes,

Jam: Is it a specific one? You want me to say?

Melissa: no. I just wanted you [00:14:00] to bring up in a molecular forces.

Jam: Okay,

Melissa: teaching technique. Usually you should ask a wide range questions so that students can say a lot, but we talk about intermolecular forces so much. I thought you would have it on the top of your brain.

Jam: it's funny. Is it like, I think because we talk about it so much, it doesn't occur to me to be like the answer to a question it's like, it is so much a part of everything we do. So I was like, oh, she wasn't really specific. Like, okay, well what's happening at the molecular level? I don't know. I'm going to guess,

Melissa: I liked though, that you were thinking about the molecular level. I think that is important.

Jam: So anyway, yes. I probably could have easily gotten that. I just was thinking too hard or

something, I don't know.

Melissa: you overshot, you are being to impressive.

Jam: yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Very impressive.

Melissa: So intermolecular forces allows the water molecules to interact with the sugar, to actually dissolve that sugar and take the individual sugar molecules and they'll spread all out in the water and our saliva. I'm [00:15:00] sure there's also other things in our saliva that are happening like enzymes and stuff, but you can also see pop rocks, pop in water.

Jam: Right, right.

Melissa: And then there's another thing that exists in our mouths that makes this dissolving happen more rapidly that allows the CO2s to break out or the CO2 molecules to break out.

Jam: Okay,

Melissa: So if our mouths were cold, when you put the pop rocks in, you would have less energy being put into the molecules. So the heat of our mouths not only.

Makes it easier for the sugar to dissolve in the water of saliva, but it also puts energy into those carbon dioxide molecules. So they are moving around more. they're more ready to break out of their sugary cells than they would be if it was in a cold temperature.

Jam: right, right.

Melissa: So our mouth is not only give the.[00:16:00]

Water that dissolves the sugar so that the barrier for the CO2 to break out is thinner and thinner,

Jam: Yeah,

Melissa: but it also puts heat into the way these molecules are interacting to give them more energy so that everything happens faster.

Jam: got it. Got it.

Melissa: So that's your three in one chemistry lesson.

Jam: Okay. Wow. There's a lot more to pop rocks than I thought. I, I don't know what I would have expected, but

Melissa: I didn't really think about what they were either. I kind of assumed it would have been a acid-base reaction to produce the chemistry, like to produce a carbon dioxide on the spot. I didn't think about the fact that they could just have put the carbon dioxide in.

Jam: Yeah.

Melissa: Cause a lot of things are carbon dioxide.

Like if you make mix baking powder or baking soda and vinegar, baking powder is, uh, a base and an acid already mixed in All those things.

that release bubbles, bath bombs, a lot of stuff we've talked about before just releases bubbles. So I [00:17:00] think

I assumed there was some, when he put it in our mouths, the liquid. allows an acid base reaction to happen.

Jam: Yeah, I see. Yeah, that would make sense too. Yeah.

Melissa: Okay.

So that's your 3 in 1 chemistry lesson, and I want you to try and give it back to me, and then I'm going to one give our listeners and you and at home and experiment you can do with pop rocks

Jam: Okay.

Melissa: And two, I'm going to talk about one other link to a previous episode we've talked about that could play into how pop rocks interact with our bodies.

Jam: Okay, sweet.

Melissa: Okay.

Jam: So the first thing that we talked about is that there is carbon dioxide gas that has been trapped inside these little pop rocks on purpose. And obviously that carbon dioxide gas wants to get out, especially because it has been [00:18:00] very pressurized. They put a lot of gas in us, in an amount of space.

The gas wants more room

Melissa: yes.

Jam: as soon as

Melissa: molecules. Yeah.

Jam: And so all of these molecules of carbon dioxide packed in there and they are waiting for a chance to bust out. But before we put these in these little pop rocks in our mouth, They do not yet have enough pressure to break out of the how strong the pop rock is

Melissa: Yeah, the sugar is a strong cage.

Jam: one of the, the images that came to mind for me.

I liked your fish in net in a net thing. A lot I was thinking about, I went grocery shopping last night and came back. I was thinking about how. Um, treacherous. It can sometimes be when you are bringing a lot of groceries in, and some bags are very, very full

Melissa: Yes, that's a good.

Jam: You know, every bag of groceries, if you have either paper or plastic, or if you use your own, obviously if you have reusable shopping [00:19:00] bags, this is not going to be such a problem for you, but for either paper or plastic, you can get a lot of groceries in some of those, but the risk starts to become higher and higher of those groceries

busting free the constraints of the bag.

Melissa: Yeah, definitely.

Jam: And that's always sad, especially when it ends up being the apples or something like that, that fall

Melissa: Or the glass like olive jar container, olive oil container.

Jam: Yeah. So in the pop rocks, as we put the pop rocks in our mouths and we start to dissolve away the sugar that the carbon dioxide is trapped inside. The, the walls of what is containing them become thinner and thinner

Melissa: Yes.

Jam: and it gets more and more possible, more, more easy for them to be able to eventually break out.

And once it gets thin enough and they do that, it feels to us very much like something just popped. Um, even though it's not really like [00:20:00] a chemical reaction kind of thing happened, it was just already in there and got a chance to release itself. And then the other thing that's happening is the, is the second thing that is often you said,

Melissa: Yes. I talked about also the.

Jam: okay.

So the reason that our saliva, there's probably other things in our saliva,, but one of the basic things would just be that there is water in our saliva, and it is able to dissolve the sugar and start pulling it apart in a way and stuff because of intermolecular forces.

Melissa: That's right.

Well, I do want to ask in your analogy of your bags, the intermolecular forces, I don't think I did a quick review of intermolecular forces, but it's just the way that the electrons in two different molecules allow the two molecules to interact. And we did a lot of episodes about that early on so you can go back and listen to some of those.

But what in your analogy is pulling apart your grocery sack?

Jam: [00:21:00] Hmm,

Melissa: it some, is there an, a nefarious creature below spreading it?

Jam: you know, there could easily be, I mean, that could be one of our dogs,

um, or child.

Melissa: if it's a brown paper bag and it gets wet,

Jam: Yes. Oh yeah.

Melissa: that's a good, Yeah,

Jam: Yeah, a hundred percent. Like if like a lot of time they wanna put frozen stuff in the brown paper bags, which it's always confused me a little bit because of the fact that in the car ride, the frozen stuff is getting meltier.

Um, I realize some of that it's because of the size of the bags, you can fit a lot in there, but then when you get home and the paper bags are wet and way more

Melissa: That good analogy. If you have a brown paper bag busting full and it's, there's condensation happening,

Jam: yeah, yeah. Yeah, there we go. That's it?

Melissa: it's slowly defying the integrity of the situation.

Jam: Yes. I had did not think about that before, but yeah, now that makes sense.

Melissa: That was a good one.

Jam: Um, I'm

glad

Melissa: water in both cases,

Jam: yeah, exactly.

Melissa: it's probably very similar at the molecular [00:22:00] level the water is doing in both of them.

Jam: And then the third thing you said that we've talked about in a bunch of other episodes too, is just that heat and the, uh, increase energy that comes with. Will often speeds up reactions of any kind

Melissa: It just makes molecules move around more.

Jam: and move around more.

And that would be obviously our mouths are usually warmer than the outside of our mouths, unless you are in a super hot place. In which case I feel I feel for you. Um,

Melissa: Yikes

Jam: and so we're doing a lot of things there. It's like we're introducing, um, water that starts to dissolve the sugar at what, at the same time, introducing more heat than they had.

So. It's all happening faster. Um, but it still could happen. If you just put room temp, water, put the pop rocks in there. It would still probably happen. It just might be slower.

Melissa: Yes. So. I think that was a great analogy. One thing is that the heat makes the carbon dioxide molecules [00:23:00] move more,

Jam: Oh yeah.

Melissa: basically puts more pressure. So similar to when it got cold, air pressure and our tires goes down when it heats up, the air pressure goes back up.

Jam: Okay. So would it speed up? It would usually, we've also talked about like water temperature being higher, being better for dissolving

stuff.

Melissa: does.

Jam: two things it's increasing the pressure of the gas, the CO2 that's trapped in there and increasing the speed at which. And the amount of which, um, sugar can dissolve into the warm water in our mouth.

So we call saliva.

Melissa: Yes, absolutely.

Jam: Okay. That makes sense.

Melissa: Okay. So, and That brings us beautifully into a chemistry experiment you can do with pop rocks.

So if you have two different sets of pop rocks, or you can just split them into two evenly, you can put some pop rocks into warm water and some into very cool water, like maybe water straight out of the refrigerator and compare the rates at which they [00:24:00] pop. That would be a fun experiment, for kids.

Jam: Yeah, definitely.

Melissa: ask yourself, okay.

why is this one happening faster?

I haven't done this. I found a very similar reaction on the American chemical society website, where they are not reaction, I guess, a very similar experiment where they did that. And I included the link and our references, but I really want to do that. Now. That sounds fun. have a hard craving for pop rocks now. the other fun fact about this is we have. CO2 detectors on our tongue. We talked about that way, way back on the why does carbondioxide carbonated water taste weird episode or We talked to my brother requested.

Jam: Yeah. Does carbon carbonation have a taste

Melissa: Yes. That's what it was.

Jam: that?

Melissa: So it's possible that this whole experience is made more enjoyable by those CO2 detectors on our [00:25:00] tongue.

Jam: Interesting.

Melissa: I feel like I don't know for sure. And I'm sure people have not looked into that?

but I'm assuming that adds to this sensation. If we're feeling the popping of the rock, literally breaking open and we're feeling the sensation of CO2 on our tongue. So that was my tidbit, but I haven't found references for that.

That's just what I assume

Jam: Yeah. Interesting.

Melissa: those are two fun things for you to take away after our chemistry lesson.

Jam: Yeah. There's a few callbacks to other episodes in this. Like it happens a lot obviously, but this one seems like it's got several. At first glance, might not seem related. I mean the carbon dioxide one definitely seem related, but we've talked about intermolecular forces tons. We've talked about these dissolving and other things.

Tons

heat.

Melissa: is all related.

Jam: We hear that. We discover that just now. Like you guys don't realize it, but like it's all related.

It's

Melissa: all related.

Jam: You heard it here first.

Melissa: I didn't hear it here first. I don't want my, uh, my chemistry [00:26:00] professors from grad school to be like, you heard it herefirst. just now got it,,

Jam: yeah.

Melissa: but Jam heard it here first.. Okay. So great job. That was a fun episode.

Jam: That was very interesting. I liked that one a lot.

Melissa: Is there anything else fun? This happened to you lately that you want to talk about besides how much fun this pop rocks episode

Jam: Ooh, man. That's so tough. What could be more fun than this pop rocks episode.

Okay. So I have something fun, sort of to share about that kind of relates to this, our podcast and previous topic. So I, you and I were both very effected by the Teflon slash cast iron

Melissa: Oh, my gosh. Yeah,

Jam: episodes, we talked about a bunch of times. I have somehow found a way to bring it up a lot in my like fun thing from the week or whatever.

So

Melissa: you really took it to heart, you know?

Jam: I really did. And so the other day, I was at the store and there was steak that was like on sale quite a bit. [00:27:00] And I like rarely ever eat it. I am not against it or whatever, but just going to a nice steak house, something that my wife and I just don't do very often or whatever.

Melissa: You guys go to Asian food places

Jam: Totally. We do both appreciate good steak, but you know, good steak, high price, that kind of stuff.

So I was like, why not? And so we bought some steak and I looked up some really good, like, uh, Cast iron steak recipes. by recipe. I mean like, I mean, it's not like it's, you know, crazy, but I've never tried to make steak at home. So just bear with me. I re I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel here. I was discovering the wheel for the first time.

All you guys already out

there

Melissa: Maisons and I only cook steak on cast iron and usually at home, like we could probably dprobably

Jam: do, betterer tried to make steak, do it. Grill steak on my own

Melissa: How interesting. I mean, it is really good on a, on a good old-fashioned grill.

Jam: Yeah, and I have one of my old roommates would do that on a grill, but the tough thing is that it, at least to me seemed pretty hit or miss [00:28:00] it was, he messed it up sometimes.

Melissa: easier with a gas grill. That's more consistent. you can kind of get your, where it goes on the grill down.

Jam: Yeah. And so we did, we made steak cooked steak, grilled steak, what you want to say in our cast iron pans. And it was so good.

Melissa: Yeah.

Jam: dang good. And I've found a super simple like recipes, like salt rub of thing. Leave it in the fridge for a day or so. And it was really fun. And also, you know, my wife and I don't do fancy stuff at all.

Very often. It's like, whoa, we're like having steak..

Melissa: I know. Yeah. It makes a regular day fancy. A lot of times for holidays. That's our go-to. We're like, it's, you know, a bank holiday we're off work on a Monday. for dinner. Our, to go to is our Frwench toast for breakfast or steak for dinner.

Jam: Nice. And then we made some really good, like we, we love Brussels sprouts a lot

and have a very specific recipe we love to do, but we did that also. And so it was like even [00:29:00] more. Special

Melissa: So

fancy. did, you have a good potato with it? Like a nice potato wedge or some kind

Jam: did, we did, we have this microwave I talked about before.

Melissa: Oh

Jam: That's in one.

Melissa: Someone did reach out and ask us about the type of a microwave. It

Jam: kinda nuts. So it's like got a broiler, a convection oven and an air fryer all in there, which I realize that's probably a lot of the same technology, but it has very different settings for things you'd do.

And it's called a four in one. Okay. That's their marketing, not me. Anyway. We baked potatoes in there. And what was crazy too, is it was so fast.

Melissa: Yeah,

Jam: incredible. And anyway, so that's kinda my thing. We had a fancy

meal. Some of you guys are like, we do that all the time, but we don't and we have a kid and so

Melissa: So it's hard to do fancier

Jam: Yeah, anything fancy. It also is cheap is like, wow, [00:30:00] that's that makes for a fun week.

Melissa: That really does

Jam: all I need.

Melissa: well. I have a very, like only kid free type people are going to do this. So mine's kind of similar, guess, in, in that it was a fun spontaneous kind of fancy.

Jam: Nice

Melissa: So I went to Austin on a work trip awhile back, and it was so fun. And I was telling Mason about all the good food I ate and I love Indian food and there's a not high concentration of that in Denton. And there's so much good ai Austin. And I was just so excited. So I convinced him that we should take a day trip. To Austin and we could thrift and do all these things. So that's been on the, Hey, let's do this idea for awhile. And then I was on tik-tok which shout out I'm @OrganicMelissa on tik tok, if you to follow me, but I was on Tik TOK and I found an Austin photographer who happened to be needing models to come and do [00:31:00] a downtown like south Congress photo walk. And I said, Hey, we will get our pictures taken.

Jam: Yeah.

Melissa: And so we did, and it was really fun. So we got our pictures taken from this day on this downtown south Congress walk. So we went to all those cool murals in Austin, which I I've been to Austin a lot. I never seen south Congress cause I don't like trying to park

Jam: Yeah. Yeah, right.

Melissa: So, but that was really fun and worth it. And she was really cool. She's I think. @emilymakesstuff. That's her business name? tag her in some pictures I can post that she took when she did a really good job and we had so much fun.

Jam: Dude. That's awesome. That sounds super fun. had no idea. You guys did that.

Melissa: it was so spontaneous. We just kind of took off randomly. One day. back in time. Uh, we had church stuff on Sunday. We were back in time for that.

We had good.

food. We have this beautiful city with really delicious food and cool cultural stuff. Just a few hours away. we wanted to take [00:32:00] advantage.

Jam: That's awesome.

Melissa: So that was a really good time. That's that's what my fun thing was. So now if you're in Denton, Catherine Nicole photography, if you're in Southern DFW B Dallas creations, and if you're in Austin, Emily make stuff, we've got a photographer for you all over Texas.

So that was our, that was our fun adventure. Almost as fun as this pop rocks episode.

Jam: Which we have Katie J our friend and listener to thank for that idea, for suggesting it. And if you out there have a question in your everyday life, you've wondered about like, is this chemistry and if so, how, and if, how. When and if, when could someone tell me, and that's why we are here. So please send your ideas or questions or thoughts to us on Gmail, Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook at ChemForYourLife. That's chem F-O-R your life to share your thoughts and ideas with us. [00:33:00] If you'd like to help us keep our show going and contribute to cover the cost of making it. Go to ko-fi.com/chemforyourlife. And the link is also in our show notes, to donate the cost of a cup of coffee to help keep our show going. And if you're not able to donate, you can still help us by subscribing on your favorite podcast app and rating and writing a review on apple podcasts. That also helps us to share chemistry with even more people.

Melissa: episode of chemistry for your life was created by Melissa Collini and Jam Robinson references for this episode can be found in our show notes or on our website. Jam Robinson is our producer, and we'd like to give a special, thanks to a Hefner and V Garza who reviewed this episode.