Fever Potting and Mole Hunting

Joanna explains how to use a Fever Pot. Kyle reveals he had shingles once and has never hunted groundhogs with spears.

Follow the show on Instagram @mywholepersonalitypod
Produced and edited by Joanna Clark
Theme music by Rebecca Jaffe
Podcast art by Michelle Hong (michelleyhong.com)

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

One thing that I hoped for my for my episode and my recording is I l only listened to a few episodes, but there are I'm not gonna name names, but there are a few episodes that I feel like they really it really hit for me in terms of like this is my whole personality. And what I mean by that is this is kind of like a joke, right? Like the name, the title's a joke, and you people are listening to it. But it was like the topic powder was quite a big part of my life. The topic that was being discussed was so specific to both of you, both of you the participants, that I felt like this it really replicated for me the experience. Like, had you been talking at a party or in the office or whatever, and I would have happened upon the conversation, I would have wanted to leave because it was it was like my whole personality. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 0:49

Like yeah, I thought you were gonna compliment me, and at the end you pulled all the way back in the other way. You're like, if I was listening to your podcast on accident, I would stop.

SPEAKER_00 0:59

I like this one thing, so I made it my whole thing. Now no one wants to talk to me at parties. Please listen to my spiel, because I made it my whole deal. I made it my whole personality. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:19

Hey everyone, welcome back to my whole personality. This episode is with my good friend Kyle, who is a very good sport. This is actually, we talk about it in the episode, but this is the second time we had to record our episode together because I have a really hard time following instructions and just like checking in on technical equipment. I I I revealed to him that I actually never look to make sure the mics are turned on when I'm recording an episode and that did um come to bite me in the in the butt. Um I'm actually cutting our interview into two parts because we talked for a while. This first episode is about fever pot. What it means to fever pot. And you're probably actually not gonna learn a lot about fever potting, um, because kind of similar to my King Richard the third episode. I didn't really spend that much time talking about the actual act of fever potting. I spent a lot of time talking around it, which I'm realizing I do. But um you'll learn a little bit, maybe, maybe not. And then the next episode that we'll do um will be part two, and that will be Kyle talking about his topic, which is which is nerf. So um I hope you all enjoy it, and I'll see you in a couple weeks. This person is on the podcast for the first time, but it is actually not the first time we've done this podcast because we recorded an entire episode a couple weeks ago and then he left, and I realized Mike was not working. Um, so he kindly came over and gave me a whole new tech setup, walked me through it, is gonna like Anna, his beautiful wife, is going to do some programming for me over there. Um I'll say your name. I'll say something else first. So honestly, what's because in my previous introduction of you, I said you are like a Ron Swanson. Yeah, like the most compliment. Yes, the most just crafty, smart, creative. Both of him, him and his wife, are constantly like building things, tearing things down. Um, you dug out a basement.

SPEAKER_01 3:28

I know more than you.

SPEAKER_03 3:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:31

That's the it's the that's a quote. That's a Ron, that's a Ron direct Ron Swanson quote. There's this there's this little clip of him walking down an aisle at like a hardware store. And like there's a guy that works there that says something like, Do you need assistant? And Ron just says, I know more than you.

SPEAKER_03 3:44

Okay. I thought this was just having a man on the podcast. Yeah. You know the meanest thing, I'll introduce you more in a second, but you know, one of the meanest things I've ever done to somebody, um, my friend, when I was working at the ad agency, somebody had like tickets to a Nick Offer Nick Offerman and like Megan Malale talk or something. And they were like, We're gonna give these out, we're gonna do like an auction or like a what's that called? A raffle. A raffle, like a lottery. You know, I don't think you had to pay anything, whatever. And my friend Maddie like really liked Nick Offerman, and she was like, Will you just like put your name in for me? And then like if you win, like, can I have the tickets? I was like, Yeah, you know, I don't care. It was before I started walking watching Parks and Rec. And then I won. And then I texted my sister about it, and she was like, Wait, I actually really like Nick Offerman and Megan Lally, and I was like, So Maddie, unfortunately, I'm gonna need to keep these tickets, and we had like VIP access. So mean. It's awful.

SPEAKER_01 4:35

So it was so mean because you said you'd give them away, then it turned out you didn't give him away, even though you won.

SPEAKER_03 4:44

Yeah. Like I basically entered for her.

SPEAKER_01 4:47

Didn't she also enter?

SPEAKER_03 4:48

Yeah, but it was like she then she was getting like two entries, you know what I mean? I've also been in a couple Starbucks lines where they've been doing like pat pay it forward, and I didn't realize that you're supposed to keep paying it forward, and somebody's twice, they've been like, This is free, you know. The person in front of you, like, we've been doing like this fun line, and I've been like, thanks, drove away. And I got I like didn't realize you were supposed to be going because then that takes the point out of it. Like then it's actually not a gift, you know?

SPEAKER_01 5:17

Pay it forward until it gets to Joe, then the buck stops here.

SPEAKER_03 5:20

But it's like, why would I then pay for the person behind me? Because then that totally negates what the purpose of the whole thing was, was from somebody to get something for for you.

SPEAKER_01 5:28

Yeah, I mean, if if if your goal is to function as like a purely capitalist fat cat on on coffee in terms of coffee money, and you're like, they bought it for me, suckers, you know.

SPEAKER_03 5:39

Yeah, and I don't know what the person behind me ordered.

SPEAKER_01 5:41

I think it's it's supposed to be some way of generally spreading goodwill, I guess. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 5:47

But everybody, this is Kyle.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

Hi, I'm Kyle.

SPEAKER_03 5:50

This is Kyle. We've been friends for a while, like, and you've said a lot of funny things. But I'm gonna say this again one of the funniest things that you ever said that has stuck with me was when we were at that stand-up show um when that guy was harassing women with his with song, and there was that other guy who was really nice who grew up at a Renaissance fair. And you everybody was like, What's it like? Like, what oh my gosh, what was it like growing up in a renaissance fair? Like, what was your like, I don't know, day-to-day like? And you just go, Do you joust, man? And I just thought that was the funniest thing in the world.

SPEAKER_01 6:21

I mean, that's all we really want to know. If you grew up at a Renaissance fair, there's sort of like in my mind, immediately there's this imagination of like another kid, you grew up somewhere else, and they're like, when do you get the training wheels on your bicycle? Or when do you start start taking swimming lessons or something like that? It's like, when do we get them up on the horse?

SPEAKER_02 6:37

When you get your first lance.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

Yeah, when you get your first lance, when do you break your first lance? You know, these are the these are the like kind of like the milestones of I grew up at the Renaissance fair.

SPEAKER_03 6:46

Yeah, totally.

SPEAKER_01 6:47

That's what I thought. Like immediate just immediately.

SPEAKER_03 6:49

Is there anything else that you wanted to get off your chest from like previous episodes that you'd listen to? Because you did say you had some notes.

SPEAKER_01 6:55

Yeah, I didn't um listen to any additional uh episodes to accumulate more questions, more bugaboos outrage, bugaboos, investigation. But um, yeah, some of them that I'm still baffled at are the bloody nose thing. I think about I've been thinking about it lately about like you're like, I've never had a bloody nose, and I'm like, how's this possible?

SPEAKER_03 7:19

I that's I forgot that we that is I don't how many bloody noses have you had?

SPEAKER_01 7:25

Uh there was this period of time, and I I'm not saying that this is normal. I was unwell, but there's this period of time when I was in college where I would wake up every single day and I would have a bloody nose.

SPEAKER_03 7:34

Like a full-on.

SPEAKER_01 7:35

Yeah, like it was pretty serious. Like, probably just get in the shower. That's the same thing.

SPEAKER_03 7:40

Oh my gosh. That's the answer. What you never had that looked at?

SPEAKER_01 7:44

Um, not really.

SPEAKER_03 7:46

And that's the difference between us. Yeah. I the first time it would have happened, I would have gone to the hospital and stayed there until they stopped.

SPEAKER_01 7:55

No, it was fine. I mean, it's not like I would stop. It would it would stop relatively quickly. So I just assumed, oh, it was dry in the building, or it was like, you know, the r the heat because of the type of heaters they had, something like that. Whatever. I didn't think that much about it.

SPEAKER_03 8:09

That's crazy to me. I, yeah, no, I've never had one, and I don't think I would be so cool if I got one. It to me, it feels like just looking at it, I would be like it would make me feel ill and like weak.

SPEAKER_01 8:20

But you've never gotten hit in the face doing anything where you're one time I was- You've been hit in the face. And you didn't get a bloody nose.

SPEAKER_03 8:26

No.

SPEAKER_01 8:26

One time I was in grade school and I went to uh I went to a parochial school. So we What's that mean again? That means that we weren't heathens, you know, we served the Lord.

SPEAKER_03 8:38

Oh, oh, okay. Yeah, you were praying for those nosebleeds to go away.

SPEAKER_01 8:43

No, what happened was is I was praying and my face was like an inch away from my desk and I sneezed and then I I sneezed and I smashed my face against my desk and started bleeding everywhere.

SPEAKER_03 8:54

Oh my gosh. Wow, while praying.

SPEAKER_01 8:57

Yeah, yeah. Maybe I wasn't doing it right. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 9:00

Apparently not. You were struck it down. Oh my gosh. Heather knows somebody who was struck by lightning. Really? Yes. Did they she's okay?

SPEAKER_01 9:07

Did they turn into powder?

SPEAKER_03 9:08

That was my question. And Heather said, I've never seen it. And I said, What are you doing? We I had a whole podcast about it.

SPEAKER_01 9:14

You had a whole podcast about powder?

SPEAKER_03 9:16

Yeah. I haven't got that part. Oh my god. Yeah, listen to that one. But I did a whole podcast on it. Oh my god. So did you just reference powder naturally?

SPEAKER_01 9:24

I feel like Anna and I will reference powder like once a month.

SPEAKER_03 9:28

Because she had that zinc sunscreen.

SPEAKER_01 9:30

Because yeah, because her she has fair skin and then she's putting sunscreen on and every day. And there are there are times where I'll see her with the sunscreen applied, but it has yet to soak all the way in. And however pale she is normally, this is like she's in whiteface or something like that. It's all on top of that.

SPEAKER_03 9:47

It's like my sister does that too with her face.

SPEAKER_01 9:49

Yeah. It's shocking to be like, oh, okay, hi.

SPEAKER_03 9:53

Have you seen powder recently?

SPEAKER_01 9:55

It's been a long time.

SPEAKER_03 9:56

I think you I think you need to I think you need to listen to the podcast and then watch it or do in either direction. It was so it was quite, it was I can't believe they did it. And I also can't believe that they were trying to say this man is albino and they painted him like a mime.

SPEAKER_01 10:13

So I'm not seeing the problem. This seems like everything tracks here.

SPEAKER_03 10:16

Yeah, but it it was good. Why are we talking about oh, because she got struck by lightning.

SPEAKER_01 10:19

One thing that I hoped for my for my episode and my recording is I only listened to a few episodes, but there are I'm not gonna name names, but there are a few episodes that I feel like they really it really hit for me in terms of like this is my whole personality. And what I mean by that is this is kind of like a joke, right? Like the name of the title's a joke, and you people are listening to it, but it was like the topic powder was quite a big part of my life. The topic that was being discussed was so specific to both of you, both of you, the participants, that I felt like this it really replicated for me the experience. Like, had you been talking at a party or in the office or whatever, and I would have happened upon the conversation, I would have wanted to leave because it was it was like my whole personality. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 11:09

Like Yeah, I thought you were gonna compliment me, and at the end you pulled all the way back in the other way. You were like, if I was listening to your podcast on accident, I would stop.

SPEAKER_01 11:19

It is a compliment because the goal is like, we're gonna get into something. Insufferable maybe we're towing the line between like, is it that is it, did we get to the place where we're like, yeah, nobody else is. We're really nerdy, we're really in the deep end. So what I wanted for myself was like, I wanted mine to be like that, like to exercise that kind of like this fandom. This is nerdy enough where you're like, you're so into it that some people might be like, oh boy, I don't know if I can I don't know if I can do it.

SPEAKER_03 11:44

Listen, if there's one thing that I know how to do, it's how to turn people away. Oh, I did have a question. Do you do you still hunt um groundhogs with spears?

SPEAKER_01 12:02

I I've never hunted groundhogs with spears. I've hunted moles and I have used a variety of different weapons to hunt moles. This is very, this is very um timely because mole hunting starts tomorrow. I'm going on a mole hunting trip. These trips are referred to as this is a whole other topic. This could be a whole other episode. But these trips I would refer to them as I'm going for blood and lumber. You could have a whole episode about blood and lumber. Blood and lumber? Blood and lumber.

SPEAKER_03 12:29

I am never having men back on the podcast. Wait, are you guys going to Wisconsin? Yes. Okay, and that's when you go mole hunting.

SPEAKER_01 12:36

Yes, and also lumberjacking and collecting wood and setting aside that. I have a big stash of black walnut that's potentially ready to get moved back here to start building some things.

SPEAKER_03 12:47

What are you gonna make with it?

SPEAKER_01 12:48

I'm gonna make some, I'm gonna make a dining room table, a foin dining room table. Wow. Some cabinets, um, some tops for things, probably some cutting boards um to for gifts or giveaway or sale or whatever.

SPEAKER_03 13:00

Um Do you sorry, do you have a quota this weekend or this time for moles?

SPEAKER_01 13:05

No, there's never a quota. I'm just trying to get as many as I can get. Yeah. My best, my best outing was I got 10 in about a week.

SPEAKER_03 13:12

Oh my god. And do you stack them all up on a pole or wear them around your neck?

SPEAKER_01 13:16

Wow. I wish I did, but actually they get respectfully buried.

SPEAKER_03 13:19

Oh, you bury them. Yes, absolutely. That's very sweet.

SPEAKER_01 13:22

Yeah. I mean, the moles are just trying to mole, they're just trying to do their things, but they'll destroy your property, they'll rip up stuff, they'll leave potholes in your yard, all kind of stuff. I'm team worm. So if I get a mole, then I'm burying it in such a place where I'm giving it back to Team Worm.

SPEAKER_03 13:37

Okay, the worms eat the moles.

SPEAKER_01 13:39

Um, the moles eat the worms.

SPEAKER_03 13:42

Oh, they do? Yes. So can you believe what Heather just walked in on time? So we're gonna talk about a couple things today. And the first thing we're gonna talk about is uh my topic, which I always just assumed was just like a really casual, nonchalant part of my personality. But then when you discovered it, discovered it, you said, I don't think that's normal. Or you just really liked it.

SPEAKER_01 14:12

Both.

SPEAKER_03 14:13

Both. Um, but what we're gonna be talking about is fever pot.

SPEAKER_01 14:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:17

Two fever pot, fever potting, potting, potting.

SPEAKER_01 14:21

Anna was telling me just this pack week past week she potted.

SPEAKER_03 14:23

She did?

SPEAKER_01 14:24

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:25

Was she sick? She just potted to cool down.

SPEAKER_01 14:28

I think she potted to cool down, which isn't a but I had a lot of questions about her methodology and see how closely it adhered to the original techniques. Like I was like, so you are warm. Mm-hmm. And then I was asking, did you use ice or did you not?

SPEAKER_03 14:42

Because you're not supposed to.

SPEAKER_01 14:43

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 14:44

Yeah, it's too much of a shock to the system.

SPEAKER_01 14:45

I know. Well, but that's what I was trying to confirm. I was like, was she was it performing malpractice on herself? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:52

Yes. It's like we really want you to come in and like if you're gonna fever pot, you need to train.

SPEAKER_01 14:56

Well, that's why I'm I hope you'll teach us.

SPEAKER_03 15:00

We're putting out this episode. So um I will talk about the specifics of the fever pot in a minute, but first I just want to say that it is um, as it the name suggests, it is a f a fever. Um, I won't say cure because I don't want to feel I don't want to be liable, um, but it just makes you feel better when you have a fever. Would you agree?

SPEAKER_01 15:16

I would say from what I know about it, it seems like it could cure almost anything. Oh. Um, I think there's rarely a situation where you might not want to use a fever pot as one of your first lines of defense. Totally. Yeah. Um, I feel like I have it's been demonstrated on me.

SPEAKER_03 15:40

And I feel like I know it's wearing long sleeves today.

SPEAKER_01 15:43

I am, but we could we could still demonstrate, we can, you know, take off the jacket, whatever. No problem. I feel like I'm still feeling the positive benefits of the demonstration.

SPEAKER_03 15:53

Just from the yeah, okay. And I'm not even putting, you know how they get that water, not holy water, but there's this place lords where people go for like magical medicinal holy water.

SPEAKER_01 16:05

I don't. Please. Is this is this something that you know about because of your fever plant research?

SPEAKER_03 16:11

No, I think I watched um an episode about something on water, like different types of water. And this is like a holy water that people go and it's like blessed, and they bring it home as like miracles.

SPEAKER_01 16:21

I'm sorry. Um, an episode of what?

SPEAKER_03 16:23

Um You're like, I watched an episode on water. I don't know. But Zach Efron was in it.

SPEAKER_01 16:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 16:31

And he was incredible. Yeah, he was also doing like there's like there's water somaliers.

SPEAKER_01 16:36

Okay, I can see that for sure.

SPEAKER_03 16:38

Uh-huh. And then I don't know if this was part of it or I just was so interested I did further research on water.

SPEAKER_01 16:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 16:45

Oh my gosh, you hate the shape of water.

SPEAKER_01 16:49

I mean, I can't talk about that here.

SPEAKER_03 16:51

Okay, that's fine. But so before I get into, you know, the practical use of the fever pot, I'm so glad Anna's here so that she can be retrained because I didn't know that she was out there using it incorrectly.

SPEAKER_01 17:01

I think she didn't use ice.

SPEAKER_03 17:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 17:05

But uh I was worried that she was like, like, what are you doing to yourself? Do you know what kind of uh risk that you're taking?

SPEAKER_03 17:12

Well, yeah, yeah. They say sometimes, like, don't put ice in dog's water bowls. I don't know why, but I've heard that people have died.

SPEAKER_01 17:19

People have died.

SPEAKER_03 17:20

Yeah. Okay, so first we're talking about fever treatments throughout history.

SPEAKER_01 17:24

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 17:24

Okay. One of my favorite fever treatments, and as you'll know, I did no no deep research on this. I didn't see when these things happened, who was doing them. Um, there's just really bare bones notes here.

SPEAKER_01 17:35

I might still have some questions, so bear with me if you if you're like, they said this, and I'm like, who? Who's that? Or when when you're like, I don't know. Doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_03 17:43

Doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. It never matters. Um, so some people would do exorcisms.

SPEAKER_01 17:48

So to get rid of the fever.

SPEAKER_03 17:50

To get rid of the fever, right?

SPEAKER_01 17:51

In your in your list, are these listed like is this a chronological progression where it was like early man did this to do fevers, then we did this, then we we progressed to this. I feel like I must have asked that last time too. I was very interested in like the evolution of the science around fever and fever potting.

SPEAKER_03 18:08

And I'm not giving that. There's no structure here because it starts at exorcisms and it ends at desert iguana.

SPEAKER_01 18:13

Awesome.

SPEAKER_03 18:14

Okay. So then they would also bleed patients, as you're familiar with. They would bleed them, sweat them, make them pee-pee poo-poo barf to get the fever out.

SPEAKER_02 18:22

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 18:22

Then even some plants have been known to use fever. Because we talked about how like fever has a bad rap, like a lot of a bad rap. Like a lot of times, people are like, is a fever bad? Is it good? And we actually, there's some like competing thoughts on that. Because some people are like, yeah, fever is like good because it's your immune system kicking in and like burning out this invasion. But then other people, you know, a fever can be really detrimental.

SPEAKER_01 18:45

So when you say some plants have used fever, you mean like if this is a strategy that people are using to the body is using to cleanse itself. You're saying plants also use this strategy.

SPEAKER_02 18:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:57

Do you know which plants? No. Okay. Excellent. No. Which plant would do this? Is it a tree? Is it a shrub? Is it a fung of any kind of plant? I know when you say plant, are you including fungus in that or no?

SPEAKER_03 19:09

Well, interesting that you bring up fungus. So it says that some plants, again, not specified, have been known to increase their leaf temperature in response to fungal infections.

SPEAKER_01 19:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 19:17

So we're thinking they get a fungus and then they say, let's crank our leaf temperature up.

SPEAKER_01 19:21

So in this case, plant means correct categorizing plant, not fungus. No. And the fungus is invasive.

SPEAKER_03 19:27

Yeah, fungus is invasive. And then also there was this desert iguana that they like to sit on hot rocks, and when they weren't able to do that, a lot of them died.

SPEAKER_01 19:38

This is I think I had a question, I have a question about this too, which is like, do they just like the rocks? Or what does the hot rock have to do with having a fever or not having a fever?

SPEAKER_03 19:46

I think let me see this. Cold-blooded creatures will deliberately raise their body temperature if they have an infection by sitting on a hot rock, for instance.

SPEAKER_01 19:54

So that sounds like they know they're sick. Yeah, but that sounds like the iguana's body can't produce a fever. So they got a hot rock to get fever-like conditions versus the fever pot, which is supposed to do the opposite of the potential.

SPEAKER_03 20:07

Yes, they're inducing fever.

SPEAKER_01 20:09

This is like a whole uh secondary tact of medicine where you're like, Are you f are you potting or are you hot rocking?

SPEAKER_03 20:16

Yes. Why my biology teacher in college, he was a really weird guy. He started the entire semester by saying, Listen, one of your grandparents is gonna die by the end of the year. And I was like, okay. But he was a weird guy. And he used to, when he wasn't feeling all that great, he would wrap himself in like a million blankets and try and induce fever like a desert iguana.

SPEAKER_01 20:36

Really?

SPEAKER_03 20:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:38

It took me a minute to understand that when he says one of your grandparents is gonna die, he doesn't mean like he's not predicting the future. He's saying like statistically. Really?

SPEAKER_03 20:47

Yeah, he was being like, he's being like, you're gonna have to miss class. Like I've every year, so he's just speaking, like one in three, you know.

SPEAKER_01 20:54

I thought that it was something like one of your grandparents is gonna die, like somebody's gonna come and give me this bullshit excuse that my grandparent died, or a real excuse, but you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_03 21:03

I interpreted it as like, look, I don't want to be the one to tell you this, but like it's gonna happen this year for some of you.

SPEAKER_01 21:10

I thought it was like a dog ate my homework.

SPEAKER_03 21:12

Oh, no, no, no. I think it was real. It was very similar, like when we started college, like we sat down, we had an orientation, like first day, they were like, one in three of you will be one of you, three of you women will be sexually assaulted this college term.

SPEAKER_01 21:27

Welcome to school.

SPEAKER_03 21:28

Welcome to school, yeah. And also don't even get us started on your grandparents. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:34

For the for the situation with the guy and the grandparents, we're gonna put a pin in the you know one one three of you is gonna say.

SPEAKER_03 21:40

It's not something that I feel comfortable talking about. Yeah, like right now on this platform with you. I don't know, you know.

SPEAKER_01 21:45

So for the grandparents thing, knowing that, did he do anything other else in preparation to help support this person? Was he like, not only do I know that, but I have a kit set aside here. And when this happens, these are gonna be the amenities that I'm gonna offer you. No, I don't think. Happen to him. No, he didn't. He so he he knew it was gonna happen, but he wasn't he's basically just like like sorry about it.

SPEAKER_03 22:05

Yeah, sorry, you'll have to probably miss school.

SPEAKER_01 22:08

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_03 22:08

Um he also said that he really hated it when people raked their lawns because he was like the leaves need to be on the lawns to like fertilize the soil. So he would in the fall drive through the neighborhood with like a knife and slash open everybody's lawn bags so the leaves would be released back to the land. I actually really liked this teacher. Okay, oh yeah, then this was interesting. I forgot about this. So in the early 1900s, they used to treat syphilis with fever.

SPEAKER_01 22:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 22:37

Because they would give they didn't have um penicillin, so they would give people malaria. People would come in, they'd be like, I've got syphilis, and they'd be like, Okay, well, we're gonna give you malaria.

SPEAKER_01 22:45

Great, you've got malaria now too.

SPEAKER_03 22:47

And then once the malaria kind of like took over their bodies, they then gave them the malaria cure after the fever had like made its way through. It's very similar to if you've seen Twilight, you know, they turn Bella into a vampire when she's dying, but then they like inject her, or no, she's like dying, giving birth to a where a vampire. And then um she when she is about to die, they inject her with vampire venom, and then that's what cures her. Very similar to syphilis and malaria. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 23:20

Um I'm surprised that uh I feel like I feel like I think of myself as like a really nerdy person. So if you're like this is a fantasy series, I'm gonna give you a description of how this plot mechanic works and what the fantasy consequences of this, I'm like, got it, absorbed it, no problem. I'm most of the time I think I spend the shorthand that Anna and I have would be like, I'm thinking about dragons. Like I'm somewhere in some realm or universe spending a lot of time thinking about that. I think I had trouble absorbing this explanation about Twilight just now. I feel like it bounced off my brain a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 23:58

Did you not see it?

unknown 24:00

No.

SPEAKER_03 24:01

Oh, you didn't? I did not. Okay, well, if you are um if you have seizures, you shouldn't see this one because there's like there is like a warning that's like a lot of like light sensitivity. People were having seizures in the theater because it was like a lot of flashing.

SPEAKER_01 24:16

There are are there four movies?

SPEAKER_03 24:17

I think there's four. Okay. This is the scene, it's at the end of the third one when she is giving birth and the baby's like because I'm sure you've heard about Ronesme.

SPEAKER_02 24:27

No.

SPEAKER_03 24:27

Okay, you know what? You know why it doesn't matter. Okay, so uh they did this syphilis treatment with minilaria. A lot of people died, but the people that lived no longer had syphilis.

SPEAKER_01 24:38

Boom. Got rid of both. Yeah, and you got rid of all those people that couldn't handle having syphilis.

unknown 24:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:45

Such an ick, man. Did you ever have like a sick, a sick meal as a kid? Like whenever you were sick, did your did your family like do anything for you food-wise?

SPEAKER_01 25:01

No, not really. I mean, I feel like we had some things that were often uh discussed. Like it would be like drink a flat seven up or a drink a flat ginger rail to calm your stomach.

SPEAKER_03 25:14

Why flat?

SPEAKER_01 25:15

Because the carbonation is is uh too boisterous.

SPEAKER_03 25:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 25:22

You're trying to calm down, you're not trying to have too much fun, yeah. And then like saltine crackers.

SPEAKER_03 25:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:27

Those are things that I feel like stick out as like sick foods, but there wasn't like a meal.

SPEAKER_03 25:33

My sick meal was my mom would always make toast and it would be like butter and like so much cinnamon sugar on it. It was like cinnamon sugar butter toast.

SPEAKER_01 25:41

Would you only have that when you were sick? Because that just sounds like breakfast on a Saturday or something.

SPEAKER_03 25:46

I mean, I would have it now as breakfast, but for some reason that was like a special sick. We only really had it when we were sick.

SPEAKER_01 25:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 25:53

And then Gatorade, which I can't drink now because it reminds me of Throw Up.

SPEAKER_01 25:57

Really?

SPEAKER_03 25:58

Because like I would only drink it when I was sick.

SPEAKER_01 26:00

I love Gatorade.

SPEAKER_03 26:02

Did you have any weird diseases as a kid?

SPEAKER_01 26:09

I wish I had like 12 that I could tell you about. Like, where do we even start? I I probably did. In fact, there were probably some like stuff going on with me for a long time, but maybe I didn't find out about it until later. But no nothing I had no, I had allergies. I don't know why. I didn't have I don't think I have any I don't have any fun, good stories that's like you know, whatever.

SPEAKER_03 26:27

Did you have any Yeah, this is why I did this whole topic. I knew somebody with whooping cough.

SPEAKER_01 26:33

Really?

SPEAKER_03 26:34

Yeah. She's one of my good friends. She would cough so hard that she would throw up.

SPEAKER_01 26:41

I don't know a lot about whooping cough.

SPEAKER_03 26:43

And my mom had tuberculosis.

SPEAKER_01 26:46

She did.

unknown 26:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:48

Tuberculosis. Oh, never mind. Nope. We're not gonna do it.

SPEAKER_03 26:52

Well, I didn't because I I remember her saying something about that, and then I texted her the other day and I was like, Mom, do you have tuberculosis? And she was like, I had tuberculosis. But yeah, so she still has like tuberculosis walled off in her lung.

SPEAKER_01 27:03

Nice.

SPEAKER_03 27:04

Isn't that crazy?

SPEAKER_01 27:05

It is crazy.

SPEAKER_03 27:06

My mom was also born in 1890.

SPEAKER_01 27:08

That's exactly like that's the joke I was gonna make. And like, it sounds like the kind of disease that you get and you go to tell somebody and they're like, here's what we can do for you. We can give you another disease.

SPEAKER_03 27:17

Oh, I had another, I also had a friend with shingles. Okay, sorry, we've been talking for so long, and I I hadn't even touched on fever pot.

SPEAKER_01 27:23

I had shingles when I was in college, but it was like a tiny little spot of shingles. It was like the size of a dime. And they were like, Yeah, you're just stressed out. And I was like, just what?

SPEAKER_03 27:31

Oh, you're stressed out?

SPEAKER_01 27:32

Yeah, they were like, You're really stressed out, so your body is like not uh your immune system is really depleted.

SPEAKER_03 27:38

Is the name shingles like I feel like the name shingles does not match the way the disease looks. Because when I think shingles, I think on a house. So I'm picturing like little It's exactly like that.

SPEAKER_01 27:49

Oh, it does look like that? Exactly like that.

SPEAKER_03 27:51

Seriously? No. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 27:53

It looked like it was like a small uh for when I had it again, very mild, it was like a small rash on my back again, like on my lower back, like the size of a it's like a tramp stamp style um shingle. Shingle, and it was like the size of a dime. They're like, you just need some antibiotics, and also like maybe like go to sleep sometimes. How about that?

SPEAKER_03 28:13

Okay, so that's all about shingles. Okay, let me talk about fever pot. Okay, so fever pot first came up in our dialect when I had COVID and I didn't realize it was weird to be doing this, and I was sitting on the couch, and it didn't help that I was wearing a flesh-colored tank top, and Heather just looked over and I was had a pot of water next to me in a washcloth, and I was giving myself a sponge bath. And she was like, What are you doing? And I was like, This is my fever pot. I'm bringing down my fever. Yeah, um, and it felt great, and I didn't realize it was weird, and then we talked about it, and you were like, I don't know, people people aren't having fever pots as part of their modern medicine.

SPEAKER_01 28:51

The way that you had said it was, this is my fever pot. Like, as in I have one, everyone has one. Where's that? This is the one I'm using. And of course, like if you have a medicine cabinet or you have uh, you know, any other things in your house, if you have half of a brain cell, like you also have a fever pot.

SPEAKER_03 29:10

You have a fever pot. You have a barf bucket and you have a fever pot.

SPEAKER_01 29:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:15

Yeah. And you have a um, because a lot of people don't wash their rice. You need to have a rice, a rice, a fine mesh colander to rinse your rice off.

SPEAKER_01 29:23

I mean, obviously.

SPEAKER_03 29:24

Not related to being sick, but just like in general.

SPEAKER_01 29:26

I mean, there's so many toxins in the soil you're gonna not wash.

SPEAKER_03 29:30

Well, people are buried in the soil, as we know.

SPEAKER_01 29:31

Your rice?

SPEAKER_03 29:32

Yeah, people don't wash their rice. So, um, but a fever pot can really be any pot. I recommend using one that's not gonna make your roommate go, we cook in that, you know, when you use it. But um, this is you know, this is actually so what I have right here, this is actually smaller than I would like the fever pot to be, and this is a bigger washcloth than I would like the washcloth to be. So this isn't even a perfect setup. But what you do is you just fill up, let's put some water in a pot, tap water, room temperature, and then you just like have a little washcloth in it. And then when you have a fever, you're just like lying down and you're just wiping the cold rag on your skin, and then it cools you down and it and it feels great.

SPEAKER_01 30:10

For the fever pot, it's important that you again that the mention of the water temperature, you're like, it's just tap water, it's cold. It also seems like it's important that you are applying it directly to your skin.

SPEAKER_03 30:22

Oh my god, you do not want to put it on clothes. I'm just asking. Yeah, that would be so uncomfortable. Yeah, you know, so that's why I was wearing that flush color tank top because you also want to have create the illusion that you're not wearing any clothes.

SPEAKER_01 30:34

Yeah, it helps with the medicinal qualities of the fever pot.

SPEAKER_03 30:38

Yes. Um any questions so far?

SPEAKER_01 30:42

Um Yeah, I mean, when was the last time you potted? And how soon after potting did your symptoms diminish?

SPEAKER_03 30:55

Now, here's the rub. I don't think it works like in that I don't think it actually like does anything like regarding like I'm gonna break this fever or I'm gonna like help my it's more like a a soothing. Or I mean, but also if your fever was too high, it probably would bring it down a little bit because it kind of like cools you off. But I think the last time I fever potted was probably I had norovirus and then I had the flu, kind of like back to back last winter. And I think that I think I that was the last time I fever potted.

SPEAKER_01 31:26

Are you ever are you ever doing anything in conjunction with the fever pot to amplify the effects of the fever pot? For example, like say, I don't know, pair it with a fan.

SPEAKER_03 31:34

Oh, I was gonna say Tylenol. Tylenol, maybe pair it with a little bit of Tylenol.

SPEAKER_01 31:38

The Tylenol? Pairing it with like three fingers of whiskey. A fan and then fever potting?

SPEAKER_03 31:43

A fan could be a little too much.

SPEAKER_01 31:45

Oh.

SPEAKER_03 31:46

Because like you don't realize how much. And well, I'll let permission to pot your arm.

SPEAKER_01 31:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:51

Because like it will cool down significantly. And then so when any kind of air touches it, you're like, whoa, that's intense. I'm gonna put some clean water in here.

SPEAKER_01 32:00

Okay.

unknown 32:02

Are you left-handed or right-handed? Like when you get a shot.

SPEAKER_01 32:07

It's gotta be left. We don't wanna right hand I'm right-handed, so I wanna use the left in case we have something that we don't okay. Do you want this on camera too?

SPEAKER_03 32:19

Anna, I'm washing your husband.

SPEAKER_01 32:23

I'm we're demonstrating the fever pot.

SPEAKER_03 32:26

And then you just which direction is your hair growing?

SPEAKER_01 32:29

What? I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 32:30

Um I would just go with the hair.

SPEAKER_01 32:31

With the hair, I see. What happens if you go against?

SPEAKER_03 32:37

It just it's just irritating. Because then, like, if you go against your hair, it just like looks unkoof. Okay, alright. So then just wait a minute and see. I feel like you're just gonna like it's you're gonna feel a cool reading.

SPEAKER_01 32:48

I remember that um when we had to do the episode the first time, we we potted and I said, I think I'm still feeling the positive effects. And in fact, really strongly now, I'm feeling the positive effects. It's almost like, let's say I uh you go to the gym and you're just like, I just do bicep curls with my left arm, and then you're gonna get lopsided arms. It feels like my left arm now is so much healthier than my right.

SPEAKER_03 33:13

We did that same arm.

SPEAKER_01 33:14

Same arm. Yeah, it's like double.

SPEAKER_03 33:17

It's like when you I was gonna say, like, when you die, it's like this is gonna stay intact forever. Like your whole body will be a skeleton, but your left arm will just look like still exist.

SPEAKER_01 33:30

You're just sleeping. They'll put it in some kind of case, like it's a a relic of a saint or something like that.

SPEAKER_03 33:36

Like that Lord's water that I was talking about.

SPEAKER_01 33:38

Exactly. What happened there? Feverpotted.

SPEAKER_03 33:40

He fever potted. Yeah, yeah. It's like I think we talked about this last time. It's like an Ella Enchanted when her mom drinks, they both are sick and they both get served soup with a unicorn hair in it. And Ella's mom doesn't drink the unicorn hair, she gives it to Ella, and Ella drinks the unicorn hair. So Ella lives and her mom dies.

SPEAKER_01 33:56

She's not paying it forward either.

SPEAKER_03 34:00

Well, I guess Ella's mom. Yeah, wait. I think Ella's mom paid it forward. Oh, yeah, but Ella should have been like that's what I'm telling you, pay it forward doesn't work. Yeah. Because it's like the point of paying it forward is to like give somebody a gift.

SPEAKER_01 34:13

She could have given someone else a sip of the unicorn hair potion.

SPEAKER_03 34:17

I mean, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:18

I'm sure she has a couple regrets. Let's see. Oh, and then last night I was just like trying to think of other things that we could talk about. So I Googled famous sponge baths in history, and there aren't Wait a minute, wait a minute.

SPEAKER_01 34:36

Would you say I wanted to talk about this? But the fever pot is the same as the sponge bath.

SPEAKER_03 34:41

No, but I think that's the I think that is what people to if you need to get into it quickly and you need a visual, it looks a lot like a sponge bath. We're not actually bathing.

SPEAKER_01 34:50

I'm shocked by this. I'm shocked by the vulgarity of this comparison, honestly. I know.

SPEAKER_03 34:54

I was too, because then I was like thinking about it and I was like, what is a sponge bath? And then I was like, oh my god, have I been sponge bathing?

SPEAKER_01 35:00

Have you been sponge bathing yourself on your couch that's owned by both you and another person?

SPEAKER_03 35:05

I think so. But when I think sponge bath, I think of like you put soap in there because you're like actually bathing.

SPEAKER_01 35:12

So whatever this is, is even more disgusting.

SPEAKER_03 35:16

Yeah, yeah, there's there's no umacterial properties.

SPEAKER_01 35:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:23

And I'm also not doing my whole body. I mean, I'm doing my legs, I'm doing my arms, I'm doing my neck, I'm doing my chest.

SPEAKER_01 35:30

You're doing your flesh-colored tank top.

SPEAKER_03 35:34

Um, I guess I'm oh my god. Nope, never mind. It's not right. I was gonna say I only fever pot the front of my body. But then I will get under, I'll get like my whole leg, like my calves.

SPEAKER_01 35:46

Okay. But your back rarely gets potted. Have you ever had somebody, a a trained assistant that you taught them the techniques of potting, and you're like, okay, now you're gonna use those techniques and you're gonna apply that the learning to this area that we haven't really covered and I haven't demonstrated, but you're gonna apply that same concept and be like, but on my back.

SPEAKER_03 36:11

Yeah, um, so if you're asking if I've ever had anybody wash my back before, the answer is no.

SPEAKER_01 36:16

Um I think we clearly just the the two minutes before that, yeah. Yeah, we decided.

SPEAKER_03 36:22

No, I've never had anybody potted my back. Because like then, you know, we're both flying by and they're like, I'm like, I can't see what you're doing. You could be doing it wrong. You could be going against the hair. Yeah. No, I've never had anybody pot my back. There are parts of my back that I've never washed, I think.

SPEAKER_01 36:39

You said that like it's something you've thought about before and you're and and you're disturbed by it. Yeah. Like it was like um a continent that you're like, there's danger there. Nobody knows what could be there.

SPEAKER_03 36:55

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 36:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 36:57

Um oh, oh my god, my last bullet point, which actually just really proved your bias, your biases is um, I said, I think sponge baths get a bad name. And it seems like you had a real visceral reaction to that.

SPEAKER_01 37:15

I think it's just that I hold the potting and all the medicinal benefits of potting in such high regard that to equate it with another just, you know, like mundane hygiene ritual. I'm like, it's like if somebody was like, Yeah, like take Tylenol, or like we're doing open heart surgery with robotic assistance. You're like, these are different levels of medical intervention.

SPEAKER_03 37:43

I was thinking like to me, fever pot, it's like witchy versus hospital. Fever pot is witchy, sponge baths are hospital.

SPEAKER_01 37:51

I was thinking like mundane. I was thinking fever pot is like pedestrian. No, not fever pot, sponge bath sponge bath is pedestrian, and fever pot is like John fucking Hopkins.

SPEAKER_03 38:03

Oh, so you're actually thinking that it's more like a you're giving in a lot more support and backing from the scientific medical community where I'm saying like I think this is the things that witches were doing, and just like home healers.

SPEAKER_01 38:17

I look at you and I think I'm vaccinated. I look at you and I think, have I ever seen anyone healthier?

SPEAKER_03 38:23

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 38:24

And then I think that's gotta be the fever pot, right? You don't think that about yourself, you're not like look at me, it must be, but the fever pot.

SPEAKER_03 38:33

Well, I don't know, because like being the way that I am there's a real vacillation between being like I'm doing everything right versus like I'm doing everything wrong. So it's like I'm always like, I of course have some horrible disease, even though I know that I am using the best, you know, medicine available.

SPEAKER_01 38:58

Absolutely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:59

So I don't know.

unknown 39:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 39:01

It's like sometimes I'm like, I'm the funniest person in the world, and the other times I'm like, I should have my mouth zoned shut. Yeah. Yeah, I understand. Pocus pocus style.

SPEAKER_01 39:07

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That makes sense. Yeah. And also, like, just because you have the best medicine in the world, you can always get sick, right? Something always there's new things that can happen.

SPEAKER_03 39:16

John Hokkin Hopkins probably got sick from time to time. Thanks for listening to my whole personality. This podcast is edited and produced by me, Joanna Clark. Theme music by Rebecca Jaffe. If you like this podcast, please like, subscribe, rate it, review it, wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening. Bye bye.