A Boomer and GenXer Walk into a Bar
Wit and wisdom, some smart assery, and a Mother and Daughter questioning “Are we even related?”
A Boomer and GenXer Walk into a Bar
We Compare Vaping To Smoking And Confront The Myths Keeping Teens Hooked S:02E:10
A sweet cloud that smells like blueberry muffins shouldn’t come with a lung scare—but that’s exactly where our conversation goes. We start with a plan to quit cigarettes and pull apart the promise that vaping is a cleaner, safer swap. From a frightening, first-hand reaction after just a couple of puffs to the chemistry behind e-liquids, we unpack what’s really inside those cartridges and why “no smoke” doesn’t equal no harm.
We break down how vaping works—battery, coil, and aerosol—and why ingredients like propylene glycol, high-dose nicotine, and flavorings behave differently when heated and inhaled. Diacetyl and the “popcorn lung” story make an uncomfortable return, reminding us that a flavor fit for food can become hazardous in the lungs.
Culture and marketing play a huge role here. Kid-friendly flavors, playful device designs, and even vapes with built-in mini-games take an already addictive product and layer on habit-forming triggers. Meanwhile, higher nicotine concentrations and the ease of “just one more hit” make dependence creep in fast—especially for teens with developing brains. We talk acceptance vs. safety, why vaping remains more welcome than smoking in many spaces, and how that social permission fuels use.
If you’re trying to quit, we share practical harm-reduction ideas: proven nicotine replacement, prescription supports, and clear boundaries that move you toward a nicotine-free life instead of a new dependency. Press play to get the facts, hear the stories, and decide what actually serves your health and your family’s safety. If this helped you or made you think, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review to keep the conversation going.
email: boomerandgenxer@gmail.com
Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome to today's show. A boomer welcome to the bar. Coming to you from the rabbit hole studio, where you as our listener will experience some wit and wisdom, some smart ass reading a mother and a daughter questioning. Are we even related down there? I think today you don't want to be. Oh, I don't. My name is Jane. My co-host is my daughter Bobby. And I don't know, for the next several minutes, it will be entertaining, I am certain. How are you doing there, Bobby? I'm good. You want to tell them what we probably don't even want to talk about what we probably have no problem. But I mean you could put that in your pipe and smoke it, maybe. I suppose that's true. You know, my mom used to say that. I know. All the time. Well, you can put that in your pipe and smoke it. Okay. Thanks, Mom. I don't even know what that means, but uh, I kind of do now, but I didn't when I was a kid. Yeah. So what's our topic today, Bob?
SPEAKER_00:So today we're gonna talk about uh vaping. Vaping. Like vaping versus smoking? Like vaping versus we're talking about nicotine vaping. Okay. So do you know maybe maybe not everybody knows what vaping is. Yeah, I mean, so it's an alternative to smoking. Yeah. Um, and the reason it came up is because I had mentioned that I'm quitting smoking.
SPEAKER_01:And how many cigarettes do you have left?
SPEAKER_00:I have three.
SPEAKER_01:Three. And you're saying after those three smokes, you're done.
SPEAKER_00:Well, yeah, I got no money.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. Yeah, I mean, makes sense. Okay. So Dr. Domain already looks perplexed and looks like he wants to ask the question.
SPEAKER_02:Just do it. Just why why do you have to work on three more?
SPEAKER_01:Cigarettes are expensive. They're expensive. How much is a pack of cigarettes? Give them to the homeless or something. Here's what I want to know Give them to the car. How much Marlboro's are probably Marlboro's are probably the most expensive cigarettes.
SPEAKER_00:Uh no, actually, camels are. What? Yeah, camels are a good two dollars a pack more than Marlboro's right now.
SPEAKER_01:How much are Marlboro's a pack? Uh, they're right around$9 a pack. Nah uh for a little bitty pack of 20 cigarettes. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, you get a, you know, if you go to certain gas stations, you get a special if you buy like two packs or you know, something like that. Crazy. Um, but I don't always smoke Marlboro's. I do smoke the cheaper knockoff brand of uh quick trip cells of Bronsons.
SPEAKER_01:Generic. Yeah. Than generic ones. Yeah. Literally generic while genetic drugs work. We might as well have genetic.
SPEAKER_00:Generic smoke. So basically, what they do is they just scrape the tobacco off the floor of the Marlboro plant and go, hey, we can use this. We have a byproduct. There's some sawdust they won't even notice. But yeah, and then you had asked me, Oh, are you going to vape in order to place you though? And I said, I can't. I can't vape. I've tried. And the the hell that it wreaked on my body was like nothing I've ever felt in my life. I thought I thought I was seriously going to die because I could not breathe.
SPEAKER_01:Really?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Like right away, or it took a little while.
SPEAKER_00:So right away I felt a pressure in my lungs. Um, you know, after like one or two hits off of a vape. Yep. The next, I would say like four, four to five hours later, because I did go to sleep. So I slept for about four hours. And I woke up and I could not draw a breath. Like I couldn't, it felt like there was something so heavy on my chest that I could not draw a breath. That's crazy. It is. And that was only like one or two, you know, puffs off of vape.
SPEAKER_01:You know, a lot of people went to vaping because they thought it was a healthier alternative. And it was marketed alternative than cigarettes. For those who don't know what vaping is, it's really the act of inhaling an aerosol product through a battery-powered um electric device that heats the actual liquid, correct? Right. And so that includes a battery heating element, a little reservoir in there for the liquid. Um, and the liquid itself often contains nicotine or flavorings or other chemicals. And so when they inhale that aerosol, it's called vapor. Right. And, you know, like a water vapor.
SPEAKER_00:Like, oh, a little nicotine with some water in it. And here's the thing, and this has been a huge thing about uh among vapors. Um there have been recalls and bans of certain vape products because they don't know exactly what's in them. Like they're being shipped over from overseas, and even here in America, they cannot confirm what chemicals are actually in these vapes besides nicotine.
SPEAKER_01:Isn't there something that federally regulates those? Oh, kind of like our food industry. Oh, guess what the answer is? No.
SPEAKER_00:You buy those at your own risk. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So you've got uh propylene glycol that's in there because I think that's what makes the actual vape uh the smoke, isn't it? I believe so, yeah. It's that's what it's like. We are not scientists, nor are we doctors.
SPEAKER_02:What's well what's the chemical that causes you to have popcorn lung? There's something in there that will that's the combination of them.
SPEAKER_00:Ooh, goody. I've never what popcorn lung? Popcorn lung. Yeah, it's called popcorn lungs. So it's really bad. I've never even heard of that before.
SPEAKER_02:It's the same stuff they put on like microwave popcorn.
SPEAKER_01:No way.
SPEAKER_00:Oh my gosh, it is Diacetyl. Dice Diacetyl. Yeah, diacetyl inhalations. It flavors popcorn, butter, and other foods. No way. And it's a little bit vaping. It also has ammonia and chlorine in it.
SPEAKER_01:I'm so upset that it's in that artificial butter flavoring. Oh god. I like microwave popcorn.
SPEAKER_02:She's so screwed now. She's on the couch last week vaping, eating her popcorn.
SPEAKER_01:I can't vape and I can't eat buttered popcorn from the microwave. This pisses me off.
SPEAKER_02:Double screwed on that one.
SPEAKER_01:So the industrial processes to even make this stuff, I don't know. I don't know anything about the processes themselves, but you know, it it is um nasty, I guess.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and and the vapes, they contain higher nicotine levels than the average cigarette.
SPEAKER_01:I'm uh I'm just floored by this because it was marketed as being some safer alternative or something that's safer to help you quit smoking.
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_02:You're just as floored as the people from the 50s that the doctors are like, hey, have a have a smoke. It's good for you.
SPEAKER_00:Have a cigarette. It'll it'll have to be a good thing.
SPEAKER_02:People were probably just a surprise that'll calm you down. It's bad for you.
SPEAKER_00:It'll help you lose weight. Yeah, it'll it'll make you happier.
SPEAKER_01:I had never heard of popcorn lung. It's funny that you brought that up. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, it's huge in vaping.
SPEAKER_01:I am just give me a minute. Because it apparently it's not just big in vaping, it's big in microwave popcorn.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, but it's called popcorn lung because the the little what are they called? Areelus or whatever they are in your lungs, actually kind of when they get damaged, they look like popcorn kernels. Oh no, that's in that's an area areola.
SPEAKER_01:I said Oreol. Oh my gosh, that was Dr. Jo Main talking about the nipple.
SPEAKER_02:I was trying to get clarification on these$20 words.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, but they actually made them in scans and things like that. The damage to them actually made them look like popcorn kernels.
SPEAKER_01:So apparently, now, so I'm looking at the American Lung Association that provided some information on popcorn lung because I am so worried about my popcorn now that in the early 2000s. I don't even vape, but I I could die from popcorn lung because it's popcorn. So in the in the early 2000s, workers in the micro popcorn factory got sick by breathing that diaceticaline or diacetyl, whatever it's called, um, that chemical, and um that flavoring, even though apparently, I mean, obviously it's tasty to eat. They'll be huffing it as it cooks. Being inhaled is a whole different story. Who would have known that? Yeah. Oh my gosh, that's crazy. So causes shortness of breath, causes long-term scarring tissue on the lungs.
SPEAKER_00:Yep. Dang. I mean, people have lost entire lobes of their lungs over this stuff.
SPEAKER_02:I am so you better quit that popcorn. I am so take a crack or something.
SPEAKER_00:At this point, cocaine's probably healthier. It probably is. You gotta get to pure stuff because you know they're putting fentanyl in it now. Yeah. Um why are we laughing at that? I don't know. You know, on top of the uh nicotine levels being way higher in these vapes, you know, people think, oh, well, I'm gonna vape, you know, it's it's like a cigarette, so I'm gonna puff it like 10 times, and that's gonna equal one cigarette. And it's like, no, you the nicotine is way, way higher, way higher in these vapes. And so, of course, you know, nicotine's bad for you. Right. Cigarettes are bad for you, smoking is bad for you. I'll put that out there right now. I know that, I've known that the entire time I've smoked. Don't get on me about it, okay? Um, but you know, they they also have a lot of unknown long-term effects, right? Because vaping is so new and it's so unregulated. You know, they can pull things from the market and say, oh, well, we we can't guarantee what's in that. That's not stopping these kids and these people from going and buying these vapes, right? And it's respiratory problems, heart disease, increased ri risk of cancer in the short term. Now, this is just short-term stuff. We have no idea what it's doing long term, yeah. Um, but it's also they have um where it can stop or slow the blood to your heart, and it can also damage your kidneys. Like, who would have thought that kidneys would be a part of vaping, but it can damage your kidneys to the point where your kidneys will shut down.
SPEAKER_01:That is so bizarre because vaping was often thought of as being safer, right? Right than cigarette smoking, right?
SPEAKER_00:But because there's no secondhand smoke, it's literally vapor and it smells like strawberry cheesecake most times.
SPEAKER_01:But here's the other kicker people thought that vaping was not addictive, yeah, and it is very addictive.
SPEAKER_00:It's almost, I would say it's more addictive than smoking because you know, I see.
SPEAKER_01:Well, because the levels of the chemicals that are burning are at a higher, higher rate than tobacco.
SPEAKER_00:And a higher temperature, right? Yeah, absolutely. And you know, I see a lot of these kids that don't smoke and they pick up a vape and they think, well, it's healthier than smoking, I can still be cool, I can still do this, I can and it is absolutely destroying these kids' bodies, like worse than if they would have just picked up a Marlboro red and lit it up.
SPEAKER_01:But yet, even today, as we're speaking, uh vaping is accepted more than cigarette smoking. Yeah, like if you see somebody, somebody says, Oh, I vape, you know, and it's like most places have banned cigarette smoking, like restaurants, public places, public parks, whatever they ban smoking in public. Vaping is not vaping, it's not banned. Now companies ban it, right?
SPEAKER_00:You know, but it's like but I mean you can you could step into a bathroom stall and vape hit your vape a couple times, and it just smells like I said, like a blueberry muffin or something. Nobody's gonna think twice about it, right? Nobody's gonna complain about it because they know that it's not secondhand smoke, so all of a sudden it's it's just more widely accepted. And speaking of that, the flavors, you know, they got in big trouble because of marketing towards children, yeah, because of the flavors, yeah, like cherry, strawberry, you know, rooting a colada, yeah. I mean, yeah, all the flavors you can think of. And so a lot of these companies stepped back and said, Okay, well, we can do mint, we can do regular tobacco flavor, we can do this. We can do popcorn flavor, buttery popcorn flavor. I'm pretty sure they actually have a baby. They probably do it that smells like butter popcorn with tail, and they don't even flavor it, it just comes up. Yeah, yeah. And you know, way back when I remember, you know, Camel got in trouble for marketing to children because of their Joe Cool. Oh, yeah. You remember Joe Cool the Camel? No, that was Cool's. No, that was Joe Cool the Camel. Was Joe Cool?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it was a really great marketing deal.
SPEAKER_00:It was. I love Joe Cool, but that might be why it's smoking.
SPEAKER_02:That's why I took up smoking because of Joe Camel.
SPEAKER_00:And you know, Marlboro Marlboro had the place. Marlboro, man. I mean, you come to school dressed head to toe in Marlboro. Yeah, you were you were shim. Yeah. You know, you had the toe, you had the bag, you had the camping set, you had the the windbreaker, the hat, the the joggers.
SPEAKER_02:Didn't we uh we I had a jacket. Did I give it to you? No, Marlboro jacket? Yeah, it had the had the lining inside of it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. I remember that.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. But you know, they got in big trouble over marketing and advertising because it was geared towards a younger audience to get them to start smoking. And now the vape industry has been attacked multiple times uh because it does target teenagers with the flavors, with the oh, it's safer than smoking, it's a better alternative, it's you know widely accepted, you can vape anywhere, type of thing. And it's you know, they have these cool little vapes now. They have vapes that you can play video games on. What? Yes, what? So they have these vapes, and uh you can literally play video games on your vape. How? I mean, it's not that it's a digital screen, and it's just a little video game that you can play on your vape.
SPEAKER_02:Oh my god, that's a that's that's ingenious. It is they've taken the addictive nature of a phone, a video game, and combined it with habit of vaping. Oh my god, yeah, that's brilliant.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it oh, it is, but it's sad. And it's just like every day I see something new that where it's like, okay, you guys wanted to crack down on marketing to kids, and yet you have one that when you turn it on, it lights up the room around you like a night sky. Yeah, you have one that has a video game on it, you have one that tastes like their favorite bubble gum. You have, you know, yeah, and it's just like, what are we doing here? Yeah, like what are we doing? You know, and you I'm convinced overall that the entire industry of healthcare is meant to keep us sick, and that's a whole nother show, I know, but you know.
SPEAKER_01:I said that, so yeah, and Dr. Domain, you know, kind of argued with me.
SPEAKER_00:But without us being sick, where's the money to be made? Right. So I think they are allowing these things. They say that they're cracking down on the marketing towards younger people, but I think really they are not that they are actually allowing this because it does bring up new things, yeah. You know, like popcorn lung.
SPEAKER_01:Uh that blows my mind. I I'm just being honest, I never even heard of popcorn lung, but you know, obviously the chemicals that are in these vapes um can cause cancer, they are carcinogens, yeah. Um, like acetaldehyde and formaldehyde, I did say right. They're known to cause lung disease, heart disease, heart disease. You know, some of them, much like the chemicals in marijuana, not that severe though, but can get you a little bit high. Yeah. Uh the vitamin E acetate linked to lung injury caused by vaping. And that's a whole different story if you look up, you know, the CDC and stuff, right? And get that information there. You mentioned heavy metals, nickel and tin and lead and cadmium. Yeah. And it's just crazy.
SPEAKER_00:And you can go on TikTok and you can scroll through and you see these doctors with these x-rays of these young children. I'm talking like 13, 14, 15, 16 years old, who have picked up a vape and their lungs, they're literally destroyed for the rest of their life. Like there, there's not you can't come back from a lot of the damage that this is doing to them.
SPEAKER_01:Well, and it can it can make you prone to to you know, having asthma, uh, which is a lung disease, uh, COPD, which is chronic obstructive uh pulmonary pulmonary disorder or disease, uh, lung scarring, obviously, from the chemicals when you talked about popcorn lung, uh, organ damage besides the lungs themselves. I mean, it raises your blood pressure and it can hurt brain development. And God knows we got enough of that going on. I'll just look at our enough wall lickers out there, y'all need to stop. I always say window lickers, but yeah. And you know, that's that's not even to count like secondhand exposure. I mean, I'm just talking about those who, you know, just vape because people go, Oh, the vaping isn't gonna hurt you. I vape, and uh, it's not gonna hurt either.
SPEAKER_00:And you know, and they do market the fact that it's not secondhand smoke, but look at all of these instances where pets and young children have been poisoned by the cartridges, either leaking or them getting a hold of them, even you know, vapes that explode in your pocket and catch you on fire. I it's insane. It's like, why are we carrying around a tiny bomb in our pocket that's full of nicotine? That if my toddler gets a hold of, I have to call poison control and rush them to the ER. If my dog accidentally chews on it, it'll kill my dog. You know, the and you seem more upset about that. I mean, because my kids are older. I mean, they're they're not all stupid, but but my dog sure as hell is she'll eat anything.
SPEAKER_01:She's the one working off of two brain cells, yes. Um, you know, the other thing was when we were talking about marketing, is it it was marketed to be so safe that even pregnant women thought it was okay to vape. Yeah. And that that was so underhanded from the marketing.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, anything that they tell pregnant women is safe, I always side-eye because look at the history of it. It's like, eh, yeah. I I don't even trust, honestly, the city water if I'm pregnant, but that's just me.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, that's just me. I don't trust city water. Oh my gosh. Well, we hope that you learned something today from either the, you know, obviously, we all know that smoking is bad for you. Drugs are bad. Drugs are good.
SPEAKER_00:Uh that's a South Park reference. You'll have to show her Mr. Mackey. Drugs are bad, Mr. Mackey.
SPEAKER_01:Um, anyway, uh, yeah, so we want to make sure that people do go in and just, you know, look at the information uh as it relates to vaping and e-cigarettes, and uh it shouldn't be as acceptable as it is. I I'm just floored by how many people that I've talked to that just act like it's no big deal.
SPEAKER_00:No big deal. And have you ever seen somebody lose their vape? It's like they've lost their newborn child on a train. It's like it's pure panic. Yeah, and pure panic.
SPEAKER_01:You think, wait a minute, and they go, Well, it's not addictive.
SPEAKER_00:Really? Really? Because I just saw you tore up your house for a vape that's been in your pocket the whole time. You were ready to stab a bitch for that.
SPEAKER_01:I'm telling you, I'm telling you.
SPEAKER_00:You're ready to cut a bitch. So anyway, I think that's all we have for today, don't you, Bobby? I think it is, but we do appreciate you joining us here at the Rabbit Hole Studio. So be sure to follow us because we look forward to spending time with you each and every week. Please like us. We have our official Facebook page out there. And if you have positive feedback, if you have a topic for us, or if you just want to say something to us, please just want to say something. Anything, anything you want to do.
SPEAKER_01:You know, I mean, I'm not guaranteeing that. Well, I mean this. We had a lot of people wish you happy birthday. We didn't do it. Wow, how cool was that? So happy birthday, bit a later. Happy birthday, Bobby.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so drop us a short email at boomerandgemxer at gmail.com or just comment on our Facebook page. And if you have hate mail, well, you can put that in your pipe and smoke it. So until next week, I'm Bobby Joy and I'm Jane Bird. And you're stuck with us peace later.