The Civil Union
2 Midwest husbands breaking down politics with humor, receipts, and real-life context you won’t hear on the coasts.
The Civil Union
Double Tap Strikes & Unqualified People | 12.05.25
In this episode of The Civil Union, the hosts tackle a series of diverse topics, blending humor and serious discourse. They discuss local quirky news, like a drunken raccoon found in a Virginia liquor store, and dive deep into political controversies, including the legality of U.S. military operations in the Caribbean and the Trump administration's appointments of unqualified individuals. They also touch on topics like lab-grown meat, Trump’s Thanksgiving outbursts, and current pop culture mentions. The episode is fueled by a mix of personal anecdotes and strong opinions on pressing political issues.
00:00 Introduction to The Civil Union Podcast
00:37 Weekly Updates and Personal Anecdotes
05:33 Hockey, Romance, and Pop Culture
09:20 Controversial Military Operations in the Caribbean
11:52 Congressional Reactions and Legal Implications
16:40 Senator Mark Kelly's Response
17:51 Venezuela and US Military Involvement
18:45 Trump's Controversial Pardons
20:41 Unqualified Administration Appointments
26:45 Trump's Thanksgiving Week Behavior
31:23 Lab-Grown Meat: The Future of Food?
35:04 Conclusion
Welcome to the Civil Union, the podcast where politics and everyday life collide. Two Midwest husbands breaking down politics with humor, receipts, and real life context. You won't hear from the coast. If you are ready to stay informed and connect with your community, you've come to the right place. Yes, you did and lots to talk about this week. Uh, Pete Hexes kills everybody. Order, we got Trump's Thanksgiving Trumper tantrum, and we have unqualified people in the administration. Big surprise. Alex, how are you doing this week? I'm hanging in there. It's a long work week for me. I, you know, but we're, we're getting through plus the snow. I feel like when it's cold out, you just, your body just does not want to move. Yeah. Any Oopsy DSEs this week? No. Don't think so. What about you? What do you think? Hey, I never have Oopsy DSEs. I'm the perfect person in the world. Oh, interesting. So I wanna clarify, does this Oopsy Dsy just cover only me or does it cover you too? I would call, you know, I will. You are free to call me out for my Oopsy ies. Oh, okay. If I have any Uhhuh, which was very rare. Yeah, yeah, sure. So two episodes in one week. It must be Winter in the Midwest. Winter. I don't know her. Oh, two episodes in one week. I hope you guys are ready to keep up. But you know, the only thing I like about Winter is that I want to change my last name to Winter Green. Doesn't that sound like. Perfect. Ryan Wintergreen. Where did this Winter Green come from? Guys? He's been running on this for like a year. I have not a couple of months. They were from the Altoids Box. You know the flavor? Winter Green. Oh, that's right. I, I love them and I love the name Wintergreen, Alex Wintergreen, the Winter Greens fact. Did you know Altoids are made or their headquarters are in St. Louis. Are they really? Oh, wait, no. Maybe Toms. Those are different. Well, that's completely d different. That is completely different. I dunno where I'll take this from. Nevermind. Not fact fiction. If that was fiction. Hey babe. How many uh Instagram followers did we get this week? You know, I actually think we got one or two A actually. Hey, that's one. So there you go. Yeah. One a week next week. Right week. Hi. Yeah. You know, you can only go up from there, right? Yeah. We're gonna hit a hundred here soon, you guys really fast. Um, we really hope you guys share us and ke, you know, spread the word. We really appreciate it. Hey, you know how I'm always talking about how I'm a nice guy. I don't wanna sound like cocky or anything, but I'm a nice guy, you know? Yeah. So like, I, there's friend I've had, I worked with her at McDonald's I guess when I was like 19 years old, and I, I'm pretty sure she's a lesbian. I'm not sure. She moved to Portland, Oregon and I've been, been friends with her on Facebook and I've seen like all these like updates she's had and everything. She just bought her first home. You know, and she's much younger than me, so that's a really big deal. A home in Portland, Oregon. I can only imagine. That's probably double the cost of what our house is, you know, here in the Midwest. But, um, she. Had a post today and I, I wanna share it because she said last week I unexpectedly and abruptly was let go from my job without a given reason. I am devastated working through the emotions of feeling sad, upset, worried. But don't worry, I have a therapist. Over the past three and a half years, I've been building a DEI department alongside some incredible humans, and I am so just heartbroken. And as I've been sharing updates slowly throughout Facebook on my life and everything you, you guys know, I just bought a house and. I'm really worried because that depleted my savings when she bought the house and now she doesn't know if she's gonna be able to make her mortgage payment. And so recently Facebook, I guess, had some crazy like lawsuit where they had to pay people for selling our information to Russia. We gotta look into that. I'm pretty sure it was like a legit thing. And Facebook put$38 and 38 cents into my account because I signed up to. Be part of that, you know, lawsuit or whatever. And so I, I, she had a Venmo up on her, uh, Facebook, and so I, I, I gave that money to her today. Because I thought, well, she needs some help and I'm gonna do that. I'm, I'm a nice guy, so that is a nice thing to do. I didn't know Facebook was actually giving out money. I know it was like actually in the news, but I really didn't think how much people were gonna get, which was interesting. Uh, we were just talking about this, I was just talking about this with some people, about how, you know, these bigger cities, they pay better, but. You know, the chances of you being let go and all that, is it worth moving for a job? All of that, while you, a lot of these bigger cities with these bigger companies also give out remote positions. And remote positions are maybe the way of the future in a way, because then you can still get paid what they would get paid in bigger cities. But you're able to keep secure in an area where you already established life and housing and all this. Stuff because a lot of people move for these jobs to these cities thinking, oh, you know, great. But these, not only are they higher price, cost of living, but it's a big risk to move for a job, especially in today's climate where cuts are going to the people first hired. You know what I mean? Like the, the chances of you losing a job. It's just really risky. It's really sad. It's crazy. I could not imagine living in an expensive city with let's say a$3,000 mortgage and losing a job that would be. Yeah, so stressful. What would you do? Like, what would you do? It's crazy. So do you remember us, uh, talking about the hockey game last week, and I forgot to mention this in the last episode? There is a gay romance show on HBO right now called heated rivalry. And my friends have all been messaging me, like snippets of it and telling me I need to watch it. And I'm like, oh, well maybe we should watch it. It's come up in my algorithm too. It's kind of funny. I'm very intrigued to watch. I think it was a book too, but also this week I started listening to Lily Allen's new album. It's called West End Girl, and she goes through, I guess she was married to. David Harbor from the Stranger Things cast and they like had a open marriage or whatever, and then I guess he like fell in love with this person he was sleeping with or whatever. And so Lily Allen literally like wrote this album all about that and everything she's gone through and it is such a cohesive album from start to finish. Like I know I sent you a few tracks, but you need to listen to like the entire album. It's really good. Kind of off topic, but not really. I would be curious when Lily Allen got with David, what's his face? Because he was not kind of, not really anybody until Stranger Things came around. And I would be curious because it is, it reminds me a lot of what Anna, um, oh my gosh, what was her name from Scary Movie and how Chris Pratt was kind of a nobody too. I mean, he wasn't really a nobody, he was in Parks and Recreation and stuff for, but Anna Ferris. Anna. Anna Ferris, yeah. But like he got really. Big, very fast and then they, it slowly got them divorced and it's like, I am, I wonder because he kind of got bigheaded and I wonder if this guy's kind of going through the same situation or their relationship. It's very interesting'cause Stranger Things just blew up. Have you watched the new season? I haven't, but I've seen like snippets and it looks really, really good. I'm waiting for the whole thing to come out. Yeah, I haven't either. I really wanna watch it though. Speaking of your whole hockey situation. I was, we were, we listened to Andy Cohen podcasts and stuff, and he had a guy, a hockey player on that was, um, the most recent episode I'm behind, so it's, this was like a month or two ago, but he had this hockey player wrote a romance novel and so it kind of made waves because it was a straight man that made a romance novel about hockey. And he was saying that like in hockey, it's probably with the gayest sport because it's a very like. You know, roughhousing in the locker room every, you know, he, whatever the case is. But he said there's a lot of closeted gay men in NHL and I find that very interesting. I would love to, like, I would, I wish people would just come out now, you know, when I first came out of the closet, I was dating this random guy and he was. He had told me he had dated several hockey players, but he would never tell me the names. Interesting. So interesting. But this isn't that podcast. This isn't, yeah, yeah. No. Anyways, anyways, moving God. So, um, you know, you, we aren't traveling out of the country because of literally. Your skin color, you're brown and you don't feel safe traveling outside of the country or whatever. And we actually had a really good friend who had a birthday party plans in the spring. We were all gonna go to Antigua. And you were kind of going back and forth because of the whole situation with the immigration situation in the United States and. You woke up one morning and you were like, you know what? I just, I don't want to go, I don't feel safe going. And I was like, oh, okay. Absolutely. I don't want to go either because I have been so into the news that you didn't realize that I had, you know, reservations about going because of antique was like in the Caribbean Sea and we are like literally bombing boats in the Caribbean right now. So,
Speaker 2:Why are high ranking military officials suddenly announcing their early departures? We had Commander of Southcom, Admiral Alvin Holsey, and three Star General Joe McGee from the Joint Chiefs of Staff who both made headlines in October for their unexpected exits, the reason for their departures, A controversial US operation targeting alleged drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean. On September 2nd, US forces disabled. One of these boats killing all but leaving two survivors in a shocking move. A second strike dubbed a double tap strike. Targeted those two survivors clinging to burning wreckage. Killing them. Reports suggest that Admiral Frank Bradley was ordered to carry out this second brutal attack, allegedly on orders from defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, A claim. The Pentagon has disputed, though they haven't clarified what's inaccurate about the reports. The tension builds when you consider that both Holsey and McGee had. Simmering conflicts with Hgsf regarding these operations, which has also raised serious legal concerns. Hgsf argues that the strikes were lawful adhering to both US and international law. However, legal experts across the left, right and center strongly disagree with this. Just to cite one source from the right Jack Goldsmith of Harvard. Who used to work for the George W. Bush presidency, he noted that in the Department of Defense and Law War manual, it states that it is, quote, prohibited to conduct hostilities on the basis that there shall be no survivors or to threaten the adversary with the denial of the quarter. Goldsmith also goes on to say if the two sources are in fact correct, it appears the special operations forces. Committed murder when the two survivors were killed in the double tap Strike. Another person from the right, Andrew McCarthy from the Conservative National Review. He also says, quote, even if you buy the untenable claim that people are combatants. It is a war crime to internationally kill combatants who have been rendered unable to fight, such as those who are clinging to burning. Wreckage in the Caribbean. Now, this has caught the attention of Congress. Both the House and Senate Armed Service Committees have vowed to investigate these operations, especially the double tap strike. We'll, we'll just have to see how serious they are. But more notably, bipartisan concern is starting to rise with lawmakers from. Both sides questioning the legality of targeting survivors. Now, during a recent press conference, Caroline Levitt addressed reports about the September 2nd incident explaining that the administration considers the strikes lawful as acts of self-defense. Yet she also tries to distance Trump and Hegseth from the order placing the responsibility squarely on Admiral Bradley's shoulders. Meanwhile. Hex. Seth has publicly backed Bradley, calling him an American hero, and that hex Seth, uh, stands by combat decisions that were made by Bradley on September 2nd, and all missions since shifting the blame solely onto Bradley. This dynamic raises a crucial question when military orders cross ethical and. Legal lines, who is truly accountable here Overall, as this situation unfolds, it's more than just military protocol. It should also be a wake up call to the world that America is now a bully who targets survivors cling to burning wreckage in the Caribbean. This is not normal, folks. It's not normal.
So these small, tiny boats are over 2000 miles away from the US border. They aren't just driving nonstop here. They would have to stop. Numerous times in different countries in order to refuel Congress has been left in the dark because there has been no evidence presented to prove that these votes are actually carrying drugs, that these are narco terrorists, is what the White House is calling it. Even so Trump just pardoned the former Honduran President, Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was convicted of helping smuggle millions of tons of cocaine into the United States. Yes, Trump just parted him this week. So what's the difference here? I'm so confused by this. I also find it. I also find it fascinating how six Democrats released a video a few weeks ago before this actually hit the news reels. In that video, which we discussed in the previous episode, the six Democrats talk about how the military should not follow illegal orders. I wanna play that video again because it really ruffled the feathers of Trump and who basically called for their hangings and hegseth who. Threatened legal actions against everyone, including Arizona Senator Mark Kelly.
Speaker 3:i'm Senator Alyssa Slotkin.
Speaker 4:Senator Mark Kelly, representative Chris De Lucio,
Speaker 3:Congresswoman Maggie Goodland. Representative Chrissy Houlahan,
Speaker 4:Congressman Jason Crow. That was a captain in the United States Navy,
Speaker 3:former CIA officer,
Speaker 4:former Navy former Paratrooper and Army Ranger,
Speaker 3:former intelligence officer, former Air Force.
Speaker 4:We wanna speak directly to members of the military
Speaker 3:and the intelligence community
Speaker 4:who take risks each day to keep Americans safe.
Speaker 3:We know you are under enormous stress. And pressure right now. Americans trust their military,
Speaker 4:but that trust is at risk. This administration is pitting our uniform, military
Speaker 3:and intelligence community professionals
Speaker 4:against American citizens like us. You all swore an oath
Speaker 3:to protect and defend this constitution.
Speaker 4:Right now, the threats to our constitution aren't just coming from abroad, but from right here at home, our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal order.
Speaker 3:You can refuse illegal orders.
Speaker 4:You must refuse illegal orders.
Speaker 3:No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our constitution.
Speaker 4:We know this is hard and that it's a difficult time to be a public servant,
Speaker 3:but whether you're serving in the CIA,
Speaker 4:the Army or Navy, the Air Force, your vigilance is critical and
Speaker 3:know that we have your back.
Speaker 4:cause now more than ever,
Speaker 3:the American people need you. We need you to stand up for our laws, our
Speaker 4:Constitution, and who we are as Americans. Don't. Give up. Don't give up. Don't give up.
Speaker 3:Don't give up the ship.
So let's talk about Pentagon pd, how he talked about the illegal actions in the military back in 2016. Let me play that video for you.
Speaker 5:If you're doing something that is just completely unlawful and, uh, and, and ruthless, then there is a consequence for that. That's why the military said it won't follow unlawful orders, uh, from their commander in chief. Uh, there there's a standard, there's an ethos. There's a belief that we are above what so many things that our, our enemies or others would do.
and here is Senator Mark Kelly responding to this entire situation
Speaker 6:The job of the president to lay out a case before we go to war. And if it is about removing, uh, Maduro, I mean, how do you square that with Pardoning? Juan Hernandez, who is basically the same guy from a different country who got sentenced to 45 years in prison and he's barely been there, he's probably hasn't even gotten settled in yet. And the president's gonna release'em. Doesn't make any sense. And I'll tell you what, regime change as a policy of the United States generally in our history has not worked out well. Think of South Vietnam. Think of the Bay of Pigs, Iraq and Afghanistan. It results in the deaths of US service members without the intended outcome. And in this case, I don't even think we know the intended outcome. President needs to make a case to the American people when he is about to put thousands of American men and women in harm's way.
Trump is literally planning to put our military on the land of Venezuela to go after what they call narco terrorists right now. Interesting to note, Venezuela holds about 17% of the world's oil, which is why you still drive a gas car and why you can't afford an electric vehicle. Oil rich, billionaire Republicans just don't have enough money, and for some reason, the poor country folk who vote for these guys, yell drill, baby drill. So we have this administration that is starving people. Healthcare costs are going to skyrocket very soon. Republicans hate, and I mean. Hated the Affordable Care Act. So why haven't they fixed the situation? Why haven't they come up with a better health plan for all Americans? They've had 16 years to come up with a better plan. Short answer is they don't care about you. I can't believe I didn't know that Trump arrested or Pardon? Not arrested. Pardon that guy this week. I didn't see that. And that's, that is, that makes no sense. Especially'cause of all the stuff going on with them trying to go after these drug cartels and rebel bringing in drugs. It's a huge deal. And they, you know, they had the first family go after them with a human rights action lawsuit because of Trump, you know. Going after one of their boats of their family members and they, the story was this family member used to go out in the ocean and fish, and so who knows what he actually was doing, but it's like how deep are they actually researching this? Yeah. No, that person actually just filed a human rights violation complaint, I guess. To some global thing, yet, I haven't read into it yet, but literally that family hasn't seen their fishermen husband, and a lot of these are really, really poor people that drive these boats to different islands or actually go fishing. And some of these people have been killed. Because they are just doing a job. Who knows what's on these boats? I mean, no one knows. There's no evidence. And listen, these drug cartels are very creative. They're gonna find other ways to get drugs into this country. Maybe we should not focus on. Oceans and boats and actually maybe put all the power and energy you're putting in the ice into actual departments to be able to clear the drugs off the streets and in areas of the country that, you know, it's prevalent. They, they're taking energy that they could be putting in other departments, shutting them down. And if they're not shutting'em down, they're putting'em in areas where it shouldn't, doesn't matter. That's what I think. Or maybe just like, don't do drugs. That too. I mean, that's an option, right? That too. I mean, shit has never really been presented to me before in my life, you know? So I don't, I don't like seek it out, you know what I'm saying? I'm sure you could find it, but it's just crazy to me. I. Anyway, so HUP is clearly, and we've been saying this, unqualified for the job. In March, a group of United States national security leaders were observed, conversing on a messaging app about imminent military operations in Yemen before those actions even took place. The sky is not qualified for his job, literally. So this has to be. Altogether, the most unqualified administration in the history of the United States. You got RFK Junior who was an environmental lawyer. Now he's the Secretary of Health. No medical background whatsoever. You got Sean Duffy, a former cast member of the real world, and a former lumberjack athlete, whatever that means. I don't even know what that means, but he also has like nine kids. But then you have. Linda McMan, who is the former CEO of the Worldwide wrestling, who is in charge and is the Secretary of Education. It just doesn't make sense to me. I mean, we are literally living in a Twilight Zone here, and the Republicans in Congress just sit back and let this unfold in front of their eyes, you know? I don't know what experience you get from the worldwide wrestling or running that, but I just think it's really funny that now she's in charge of our kids and there is an outbreak also going on of neurovirus if no one is, knows that yet. You know, there's a lot of people getting sick. It's going through, we're washing our hands and having to use sanitizer and be able, you know, be very cognizant in the healthcare community and nothing is, there's nothing out there really because of. Person leading the Department of Health. I mean, it's just there's, these people aren't qualified and we're gonna see, we're gonna start seeing it. We're not even a year into this administration, and we're gonna start seeing the effects of this. Yeah. And on the whole unqualified jobs theme or whatever, it's like a federal appeals court just backed a lower court's ruling that Trump's pick for acting US Attorney General Alina Haba was. Pointed illegally. Trump put Haba in for a 120 day gig, and after that gig is up, it's up to the district court judges to fill the role until a new US attorney is confirmed by the Senate. The judges just weren't having it since Haba lacks prosecuting experience. Instead, they chose, Desiree Lee Grace, a seasoned prosecutor to take the lead. But here's where things got wild. In retaliation, attorney General Pan Bondy then fired Grace and snatched the office back to Haba. One of the judges pointed out that the current administration is just clearly feeling the heat from legal and political challenges. And we continue to let Trump get away with this. I just don't understand. But of course there's more here. A federal judge ruled that. Trump's appointment of Lindsay Hooligan, who was recently in the news. she was appointed to be the US attorney for Virginia. they said that that was illegal tossing her cases out against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. Other judges have declared Trump's appointments in both the Central District of California and even the district of Nevada are also illegal. So he's literally putting these people in for, I, I don't even know, I guess bargains or something. I have no idea. It has to be bargains. Or friendships or other other reasons because there is no other, if they're not qualified, that should be the end game. That should be it done deal seal delivered. But why I would love, I don't know. I feel like these people would, it may takes more research to dig and see exactly who they're pocketed with. Yeah. And so. On that same subject, here's a whole list of unqualified journalists. So When you're trying to filter out people from the newsroom, they've been doing this for a while but I, I don't know if anyone remembers them. Barring a certain news organization, I can't remember what, which one it was, but they wouldn't be able to get on Air Force One and things, and it, you know, no one has ever done that, but. For, and them doing that just creates a bigger divide. So, and it creates bigger filtration of what these, what these new sources can cover in a rapid pace to be able to allow the public to know of certain things going on, which is exactly what they want. Yeah, so before this gets way too far into the history of things, Trump's behavior over Thanksgiving week can increase concerns about his mental acuity. His posts promoted far right conspiracy theories, AI videos and attacks on his political opponents, but a rant on his social media account at midnight on Thanksgiving itself threatened to strip citizenship from naturalized immigrants. He called the Minnesota Governor Tim Walls, the profoundly offensive R word, and ended his post with a happy Thanksgiving to all except those that hate, steal, murder, and destroy everything that America stands for. You won't be here for long. Clearly the President is fading both physically and mentally. The mental capacity to be ranting at midnight on Thanksgiving should give all reasons to continue to be concerned. It's just not normal behavior, but it's not shocking. He does this all the time. Now. Presidents throughout history have released their tax returns, not Donald Trump presidents throughout history have released their medical records, not Donald Trump. And here's another thing, the guy got an MRI but doesn't even know what the MRI was for. Who goes in for an MRI and doesn't even know what it's for. So on Air Force one, Trump responded oddly to a reporter's question about a call to release these MRI records.
Speaker 8:What part of your body was the MRI
Speaker 9:looking at? I have no idea. It was just an MRI. What part of the body? It wasn't the brain because I took a cognitive test and I aced it. I got a perfect mark, which you would be incapable of doing. Goodbye everybody. Thank
Speaker 8:you. You too, p. Thank you. Thank you, Mr.
Speaker 10:President. Thank sir.
It God. Yeah, that's him saying, which you would be incapable of do doing. Pointing to a female reporter and then he pointed to another female reporter and said, you too. He also told a female reporter last week. Quiet. Quiet pig. Like he is the absolute scum of the earth. I can't stand the man. He's so inappropriate. And maybe, maybe, maybe the solution is we stop putting people in presidencies that are over 70 years old. Like of course they're gonna start deteriorating. I mean, Biden had the same issues. Other P other presidents, we've had the same conversations about, it doesn't matter whether they're left or right, it, they all get older and they all naturally. De Degradate, but I don't think that, you know. It doesn't surprise me that Trump has mental, like, could possibly have mental issues, but the thing with the MRI thing, MRIs are not just something you walk into like that is a, that is a process. You have to take all your metal off. You have to take, you know, stripped down. This is not just something, you know, this is not just some walk in the park. You have to have it scheduled. So for him to not, not to know why he didn't get one. Blatant lie, and they definitely are looking at a certain part of the body. It's not a full body scan. They look at a certain pinpoint. So I mean, there has to be a reason they're doing that. And he's obviously either A, he's not being informed, which is crazy, or B, he really is, there's something going on that he's hiding. Yeah, agreed. So, do you have any fun topics or fun news, babe? I do. So, you know, I'm gonna run with our week theme of raccoons here for a second. there is a really funny story. While I was searching for the top three stories of the week, which I post on Wednesdays, there was a story that I came across in Virginia, a very drunk raccoon. Was found passed out on the floor of a liquor store after breaking in and apparently hosting a one raccoon Black Friday. Rager, uh, staff walked in on Saturday morning to smashed bottles, puddles of scotch and wait for it. The mast bandit snoozing in the bathroom between the toilet and the trash can. It's a drunk trash panda panda. A little drunk trash panda animal control says the raccoon fell through the ceiling and went on a full blown rampage. Drinking everything. Sobered up in a custody, showed no injuries except maybe a devastating hangover, and was released back into the wild to rethink its life choices. Wow. The liquor store thanked officials for giving their furry customer a sober ride home. And honestly. Same vibe as half of America after Thanksgiving weekend, but it was it. You should see the photo, I mean this rec, and there is a photo, there is this raccoon just face planted starfish style on the bathroom floor of this liquor store and the liquor store. There's just tons of liquor bottles just smashed on the ground and hilarious. Yeah. Wow. That's wild story one. Alright, here's another fun story for you. this is more, I find this interesting'cause I, I've been more cognizant about not eating as much meat. I, not because of health, but because I care about animals. And I started reading bio, like food biographies about the food system and watching food, watching food biographies that just, I don't know why I do it to myself. It just makes things worse. So now I, whenever I eat meat, I think of these poor, poor animals. Anyway, imagine this. You want a burger. But you don't want to raise a whole cow. Scientists looked at that problem and said, cool. What if we just grew the meat ourselves and then. Well, they actually did it. Here's how it works, and I promise this is the simple version. They start by borrowing a teeny tiny sample of cells from a cow. Not the whole cow, just a few cells, the bovine equivalent of a Q-tip swab. Then they put those cells in a warm nutrient rich tank. Think of like a giant. Slow cooker for science. The cells get fed proteins, sugar, vitamins, basically the cow version of a multivitamin, and then they start multiplying like bread dough, you forget about on the counter, like my sourdough. And next the cells need something to grow on because meat has structure you, it has to look like meat. You can't just serve a puddle of loose cells. So we're not doing that. So scientists give the cells a scaffold. And here's the fun part. Sometimes that scaffold is a. Decellularized spinach leaf. Yes. A salad that's trying to be a steak, but it works because spinach veins help deliver oxygen to the growing meat. As the cells multiply, they spread across the scaffold or this spinach leaf and grow into muscle tissues, which is exactly what meat is. At the end of the process, you get real biological steak or meat just made without raising or slaughtering an animal. Now who is funding this? Exactly. I supposedly, from when I was researching with this story, there are numerous. Researchers around the world trying to come up with this. I think they wanna be first, you know, kind of like NASA was getting to the moon. So these different countries are putting in research in various ways and there's, you know, this is why people should care. Cows produce massive amounts of emissions, need huge amounts of land and water, and they say it's one of the highest reasons of global warming. Effects of global warming. So scaling beef production globally is a, it's a climate nightmare because of all the resources needed. Lab grown meat could dramatically cut pollution if scientists can make it cheaper and tastier. So right now it's kind of like an early iPhone era of meat. It's impressive, expensive. I think the hamburger costs first, like. Uh, tons of money. I'm talking like thousands of dollars now. They've brought it down to being$10 a meat patty, but obviously they can't scale it for grocery stores yet, but they're still figuring out. So my question, if you're a burger lover, but it was grown in a tank using science, spinach, would you eat it or is that a No thanks, I'm just ordering. A normal steak, like would you even be open to the idea of eating grown lab meat? Uh, not me. I don't think so. Not yet, Elise? I think, I don't think so either. I mean,'cause the thing is I don't even eat red meat anymore, so I think it's crazy that people crave this taste of meat so much that they're putting this much rich into growing meat. Like just eat a fucking, but it's good for the cows though, so that's good. Just eat a vegetable, eat some tofu and call it a day. And if you want to eat meat, eat meat. But just take in your conscience that a cow died for it. Yeah. Well, so, uh, if you made it this far, thank you for listening and everyone knows that I'm really into Mel Robbins right now. So here is a quote from our favorite Mel Robbins. You can be a kind person with a good heart and still tell people to f off when needed. It's called boundaries. I love boundaries, and here's my boundary. I'm closing it down. This is the end of the episode. All right. Thanks everyone. Love you. Have a good one. All right, bye.