The FDA’s formaldehyde fight

Make Me Smart October 13, 2023 Transcript

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Kimberly Adams

Oh I’m ready.

Kai Ryssdal 

Born ready yo, also we gotta go at 3:30, there’s like a gazillion people waiting for us. Hi everybody, I’m Kai Ryssdal, welcome back to Make Me Smart where we make the day make sense. It is Friday today October the 13th for the triskaidekaphobics among you.

Kimberly Adams 

Oh, that’s a new word. Is that?

Kai Ryssdal 

Oh yeah ,triskaidekaphobia.

Kimberly Adams 

Triska, one more time.

Kai Ryssdal 

Triskaidekaphobia, it’s fear of the number 13.

Kimberly Adams 

Triskaidekaphobia. Cool. I’m Kimberly Adams. Thank you for joining us on the podcast and on YouTube live stream as we make each other smart all the time. And it’s not just you all we are learning together. And I learned a new word from Kai today. And so today it’s economics on tap, which is our Friday, happy hour. And we are very glad to have you all with us. Whether it be on the YouTube live stream, if you’re in the fan run Discord, or if you’re listening to this later on. Thank you.

Kai Ryssdal 

So we’re doing the thing we always do on a Friday, we’ll do some news. We’ll take a quick break, pay the bills, and then arrive at This or That which is not half full, half empty for those of you paying attention. Before we get into it, though, what are people drinking? I, once again water I’ll be operating heavy equipment this afternoon, power tools.

Kimberly Adams 

Oh, well. Good, water is a good choice. I have a drink failure today. I mean, epic fail.

Kai Ryssdal 

Oh no, an exceedingly rare Kimberly Adams fail.

Kimberly Adams 

It was a drink fail. So when I was in New York last week, I went out to dinner with my beloved editor. And I had this great cocktail and they had it as well. And it was great. And I was like I’m going to try to make this cocktail because actually had all the ingredients for the cocktail in my house. And nope, didn’t work didn’t work at all.

Kai Ryssdal

What is it?

Kimberly Adams

It’s called trip city. And the restaurant was called Glasserie. And the drink was called trip city. And it had like apple brandy, rye whiskey and habanero pepper. And like it was just very, very tasty. And I happen to have some apple brandy. I just randomly picked them up the other day, because why not? It’s fall. But it didn’t.

Kai Ryssdal

Sorry. That’s just funny.

Kimberly Adams

Yeah. But my combo.

Kai Ryssdal 

You know, you’re attuned to that stuff. And I think that’s cool.

Kimberly Adams 

My combo was not like their combo. So then I just kept trying to add stuff to it to make it better. And that made it worse. And so now I just have like, a random concoction of various things that I attempted to mix together to make it palatable and it’s drinkable. But it’s not at all what they made. So,

Kai Ryssdal 

So, so Bon Appetite magazine used to have this thing back when my mother got it, which was many, many years ago where they would like write to, uh, you would write in and say, what’s the recipe for the, you know schitkengruber at this restaurant that I went to, and Bon Appetit would write to that restaurant, and if it was good, they would publish the recipe. Do they do that for bars?

Kimberly Adams 

I don’t know. I mean, I’m sure I could ask the bartender or ask the restaurant. Yeah, maybe I should ask them right to write them a little note and be like, hey, help me out here. I can. I am not doing a great job. All right.

Kai Ryssdal 

Let’s do some public service journalism here. Yeah, so from the YouTube chat Anne Gwyneth has a question Kimberly, what is a good apple brandy?

Kimberly Adams 

It was a locally made one in DC there’s this shop shop here called like Shop Made DC that just stocks locally produced items and so it was like a locally made apple brandy. I forget what it is. But I can like take a photo of it and put in the show notes or something. Yeah, let’s see.

Kai Ryssdal 

Oh god Jason Honaker I’m sorry. You’re gonna have to leave the chat, Whole Hog Pumpkin Ale. Sorry. Nice knowing you.

Kimberly Adams 

Michael in Discord is drinking white burgundy. Aligote, the lesser white burgundy never heard of a white burgundy. I like it.

Kai Ryssdal 

Nathan Schmidt is having a Bombay Bombay Sapphire martini with castelvetrano olives, which I really like the castelvetrano olives, not the martinis. Lots of love for your hair by the way.

Kimberly Adams 

Thank you. This is actually a temporary style because I want it to be wavy this weekend because I’m going out. And I do it like this so that when I take it out of these things, it’ll be wavy. But you know, it looks fun in the meantime as well. So thank you, everyone. They’re not actually braids. These are technically called loc knots if you’re interested.

Kai Ryssdal

Should we, shall we?

Kimberly Adams

News. Well, let me do news first because mine is actually related to hair and black women’s hair, specifically, the we talked about this a while back about how there was all this new research finding that the chemicals that are in the hair products, a lot of black women in particular used to straighten their hair, turn out to give you cancer, or at least increase your risk of cancer in a noticeable way. And so, Ayanna Pressley and let’s see Congressman Shontel Brown from Ohio, basically wrote the FDA and were like, what are you going to do about this, there’s all this research. And so now The Root has an article on it. They actually, The Root published this on October the sixth, and so a couple of other news organizations have picked it up since then. But The Root had this first, the FDA has now proposed a new rule to ban those chemicals in hair products that and I’m looking at the proposed rule right now because you know, I love my my regulations. These chemicals are used in certain cosmetic products that are applied to human hair as part of a combination of chemical and heating tool treatment intended to smooth or straighten the hair. The use of these products is linked to short term adverse health effects, such as sensitization reactions and breathing problems, and the long-term adverse health effects including increased risk of certain cancers. Now when they say sensitization reactions, let me just tell you, from my childhood, what I remember those reactions, literally burns the skin off of your scalp, like us, you have to leave it on, anywhere from like, five to 20 minutes, depending on like the curliness of your hair to get it to straighten your hair. And it is like it’s a chemical, it’s like an acid type thing, and it burns the skin on your scalp. And you end up with like all these sores, it’s terrible and stuff like that. So yeah, not this this is, this is a good thing. So regular, it’s not on regulations.gov right now, I looked, but it is on reginfo.gov, which is a different site for regulations.

Kai Ryssdal

But those of you who are wondering why that you see me yelling on the YouTube and no sound is coming out is because I turned off my sound so that I could yell at Bansai who was barking as Kimberly was doing your thing. So I apologize for that. There were people walking by somewhere in the world, there were people walking by somewhere in the world. And Bonsai decided to bark. Truly, that’s the way it is. Mine is brief. It is accompanied by a shake of the head and a fear for democracy. And it’s a line from the Bloomberg article on the house. GOP speaker election today and the line is this. The Ohio Congressman speaking here of Jim Jordan, Congressman from Ohio, who’s now the GOP speaker designate with approximately 150 votes in the conference, the Ohio Congressman embraced Trump’s denial of the 2020 presidential election results and voted to overturn Arizona’s Electoral College count on January 6, 2021, just as a mob of protesters stormed the US Capitol. 150 people voted for this guy to be speaker and a house in the United States, right second in line to the presidency, swearing an oath to uphold, preserve, protect and defend The Constitution. I don’t think the Republican Party is a serious political party anymore. I don’t see how you can make the case.

Kimberly Adams 

I I really don’t see a way out of this either. Like nobody has a path 217, 217 being the number of votes that you need to actually become speaker of the house. Nobody has a path right now. And a bunch of them have already left for the weekend. I imagine more are going to be and as you said on the show today, that clock is ticking down to the next government funding deadline and without a speaker of the house like how are they even going to bring those things to the floor? And, you know, folks in the chat talking about a coalition candidate. I mean, it’s.

Kai Ryssdal 

Maybe but it’s not going to be Jim Jordan, there are zero Democrats.

Kimberly Adams

Now, they’re talking about Hakeem Jeffries that maybe some Republicans would,

Kai Ryssdal 

Hakeem Jeffries now has more votes than anybody to be speaker. He’s got 212. You know.

Kimberly Adams 

He just needs 5 Republicans who gets real tired of this. Who are just like, you know, what? Screw it. Right. I mean, lose their seats forever. And that’s the thing.

Kai Ryssdal 

Oh for sure. Yeah, I know. Well, it’s a little bit of, you know, country over party. That’s what it would be.

Kimberly Adams 

I mean, I suppose you could get enough people voting like present or something to make it so that the Republicans wouldn’t actually have to vote for him. You could do it that way. But that would still, he’s just so unprecedented but then so is everything in American politics these days? So, yeah.

Kai Ryssdal 

And look, I know nobody has missed this news. Certainly nobody listening to this podcast or on the live stream has missed it because you all are news people. I just I had to comment because I just couldn’t help myself. That’s all that’s all.

Kimberly Adams 

I mean, did you see that that they’ve got a new nominee now?

Kai Ryssdal 

No. Or what’s what’s your joke? Come on, come on.

Kimberly Adams 

No, no, no, no, no, hold on. Nevermind. Nevermind. Nevermind. I mean, that’s what I’ll leave alone. Leave it alone.

Kai Ryssdal 

We will call that the end of the news. We’re gonna take a break. And we’re coming back for a round of this or that here we go.

Kimberly Adams 

Okay, this is our game. This or that, Drew is out today. But joining us now is Marketplace Tech producer Daniel Shin. Welcome back, Daniel.

Daniel Shin 

Hello again.

Kai Ryssdal

Hi Daniel. Thanks for coming on.

Daniel Shin

Of course. So special fall edition of this or that. And here’s your first.

Kai Ryssdal 

If there’s pumpkin spice in there, man, you’re fired.

Daniel Shin 

I just got the list. I didn’t make it. Talk to your producers.

Kai Ryssdal 

Marissa, Courtney, and Bridget are all fired if there’s pumpkin spice. Anyway go ahead.

Daniel Shin 

The first one little related, though. Would you prefer? Halloween or Thanksgiving?

Kai Ryssdal 

Oh, interesting. I have thoughts.

Kimberly Adams 

Sorry. Halloween, for sure. Halloween.

Kai Ryssdal

Really?

Kimberly Adams

I have. Oh my gosh. You know, I like dressing up. I have so many costumes.

Kai Ryssdal 

You know, that’s so funny. I’m ought to get a surprised voice out of me. That was That’s true. That’s true.

Kimberly Adams 

Of course, it’s Halloween. I’m going to two different Halloween parties this year that I know of, more may be added to the calendar. And the only reason I don’t have my own Halloween party anymore is because my friend who does a Halloween party with his partner, they have their big Halloween party and so as not to conflict. I do the Fourth of July party and they do the Halloween party and so the friend groups you know don’t have to do the thing. So

Kai Ryssdal 

What I love is your you’re so socially active. And in such a socially active crowd you have to deconflict your party okay, I’m a I’m a Thanksgiving guy over Halloween any day. Halloween is my least favorite day of the year full stop. Just don’t care for it at all.

Kimberly Adams 

That’s because your trick or treaters don’t tell you jokes the way they do in St. Louis and so you don’t get the full joy of Halloween. Yeah, it is much better that way. What’s next?

Daniel Shin 

Second one is specifically about movies, Hocus Pocus or Gremlins?

Kai Ryssdal 

So Hocus Pocus is the witch one right? With uh

Kimberly Adams 

Witches, the Sanderson sisters. I put a spell on you.

Kai Ryssdal 

Of course. I’m just gonna step back and let Kimberly run this one because I have no idea of either. Well, Gremlins is probably scary, right? Was Gremlins a scary movie?

Kimberly Adams 

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I have to do Hocus Pocus because like, I still, no, I was too young to watch that movie. I really was like, that was scary.

Kai Ryssdal 

So so somebody just put it somebody who’s running the Marketplace account in the chat just put amok, amok, amok, amok in the chat, that clearly means something.

Kimberly Adams 

So in Hocus Pocus, there’s a scene where the Sanderson sisters they wake up from their sleep of several 100 years and they wake up on Halloween which used to be like the witches night and they thought that they were seeing monsters and devils roaming the streets and they’re like wait a minute, instead of being a night for you know, evil it’s where children get out and run amok and then Sarah, Sarah Jessica Parker’s character goes amok, amok, amok, amok.

Kai Ryssdal 

I’d forgotten she was in that, is Bette Midler in that.

Kimberly Adams 

Bette Midler. Mhmm.

Kai Ryssdal

There you go.

Kimberly Adams

Yep. And I think that I think they’re all I think all the same ones are in the second version. I haven’t seen Hocus Pocus 2, but I think they’re all in there too.

Kai Ryssdal 

In other news, there was a Hocus Pocus 2. Daniel Shin move us along, shall we?

Daniel Shin 

Third topic. Third topic is Oktoberfest or a pumpkin patch?

Kai Ryssdal 

I’ll go with Oktoberfest even though it’s you know, Bavarian lager. I’ll take a big stein of beer over Pumpkin Patch any day. Just saying.

Kimberly Adams 

I will take a pumpkin patch over a big stein of beer any day. I went to a pumpkin patch last weekend with my nieces and nephews and it was very fun. Good till the rain started. And then we ran

Kai Ryssdal 

Win some, lose some. Yes. Also a bratwurst says Jen Peck, Oktoberfest with a bratwurst. Yes. Absolutely. Okay. All right, Daniel, what do we got? Is this is this last one?

Daniel Shin 

I’ve got a few more actually here. All right. Number four cozy sweater weather or plaid flannel season?

Kai Ryssdal 

Wait, wait, aren’t they the same thing?

Kimberly Adams 

Sweater weather. At least not for me. See to me, like flannel weather is like you’re out in active and doing things. So it’s like that crisp fall. And cozy sweater weather is like when it’s like oh no, it’s too cold. I’m staying inside of my cozy sweater. That’s what it means.

Kai Ryssdal 

That okay, well, we will we will go with your definition. And if that’s the definition, that is the one thing I miss from living on the East Coast is Christmas being outside your nose starts to run a little bit. I miss that more and more every year and I’ve been in LA for 30 something years well, 25 ish years now. So I guess I’ll go with flannel. Right if that’s if we’re defining that as crisp and outdoor doors and moving around stuff. I will go with flannel. Yes.

Kimberly Adams 

You know what I’m gonna have to I’m gonna have to change my vote there because now that I think about it. I do love being outside in the in the fall weather. So I will go with flannel. I still keep my definitions, but I’m gonna go with the weather instead of cozy sweater weather. Yes,

Kai Ryssdal 

Gotcha. Gotcha.

Daniel Shin 

Number five. We got a couple more here. As far as Halloween costumes go, ninja or vampire?

Kimberly Adams 

I’m gonna say vampire. Just because I’m extra paranoid about cultural appropriation. You know, don’t want to even possibly cross the line as a grownup.

Kai Ryssdal

I will take neither, thank you very much. I just, I got to be true to myself. Got to be true to myself. That’s all I’m saying.

Daniel Shin

Okay, this last one. And it’s I believe a poll question as well.

Kai Ryssdal 

Yes. Yes. So we will we will vamp for a minute while all y’all answer and Daniel hit it.

Daniel Shin 

Costume Party or a haunted house?

Kai Ryssdal 

God this is like my version of hell here this this or that. What what is even going on here?

Kimberly Adams 

So my mother used to drag us to so many haunted houses when we were kids. And when I was actually now that I think about it, we had a haunted house in our house around Halloween when I was a child, because my mother converted our basement and there was like a tunnel that ran kind of underneath our house from the front to the backyard, like a little kind of breezeway looking underground thing. And so my mother set it up. So like the front yard would look like a graveyard people would come in through the graveyard go down into this tunnel, which she would like make all full of creepy things and like put like foam chunks on the floor covered in sheets and make it feel like you were walking on body parts. And then you come out the other end of the tunnel and go through some creepy stuff in the backyard then go into the basement where she had like us dressed up as creepy characters like jumping out of cars and things like that. And people coming around corners and it was like a full on haunted house in our house, which I think was actually haunted, like legit. And then people would line up down the block to come to the haunted house in our house and then one year like a bunch of like, bad teenagers like chased somebody in there and got into a fight. And so she had to shut it down but she got like interviewed about it on the news and everything like that. So she was super into haunted houses. She loved scary things.

Kai Ryssdal 

Wow. Ah, no. Hard pass. Wait. So alright, so it’s we have now killed enough time. So you have to answer the question. You want a costume party or a haunted house?

Kimberly Adams 

Costume party, costume party. I don’t like being scared and maybe I have like suppressed childhood memories of my mother constantly jumping out and scaring me. But I do not like jumpscares I don’t like scary movies. I don’t like blood. I don’t like gore. I like costume parties. I like dressing up and I am I’m here for that. Definitely not haunted houses.

Kai Ryssdal 

Yeah. So I’ll be a sport and play along and just make a choice because I’m supposed to make a choice. I would take a costume party over a haunted house any day, any day. I’m a huge chicken, I’m not afraid to admit that.

Kimberly Adams 

I feel like there’s enough real-life scary stuff that we don’t have to intentionally make ourselves frightened or like look outside. Anyway, so As the votes are in we had 202 votes. I think I saw 71% in favor of the costume party. And yes 28% for haunted house so most people have sense not to choose the haunted house industry.

Kai Ryssdal 

Oh my goodness. I appreciate you so much. That was my worst nightmare. Oh, God.

Kimberly Adams 

Oh, don’t don’t tempt fate Kai they’ll come up with something worse. All right, that is it for us today. Yes, we will be back on Monday and I see you all shouting out the solar eclipse over the weekend. I hope everybody who gets to see it, and sees it safely. Don’t burn your vision. If you have a question or comment that you want to share, please we do love to hear from you. Please leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART or you can email us at makemesmart@marketplace.org

Kai Ryssdal 

Or you can tell the Jay is doing a sneak fade here. Make Me Smart is produced by Courtney Bergsieker. Today’s episode was engineered by Jay Siebold. Our intern is Niloufar Shahbandi.

Kimberly Adams 

The team behind our Friday game is Emily Macune and Antoinette Brock. Marissa Cabrera is our senior producer. Bridget Bodnar is the director of podcast and Francesca Levy is the executive director of Digital and on demand. And Robert says in the chat that you can get eclipse glasses at your local library. Thanks, Robert

Kai Ryssdal 

Oh, that’s cool. That’s cool. A little public service journalism right there. Yeah. That’s awesome.

Kimberly Adams 

Happy weekend everyone.