WT: Snakes on a Chip

Episode Notes

The episode opens with the hosts joking through a grocery-store movie-night snack run, including pretzels, Sun Chips, Reese's cups, Doritos, bean dip, guacamole, and pre-popped popcorn. That setup turns into the main Weird News story: a Virginia woman found a snake in a bag of popcorn, which leads to a long back-and-forth about whether pre-popped popcorn is worth the risk and how startling a snake would be if it showed up in food.

From the snake story, the conversation spirals into a series of hypotheticals about keeping a snake alive in exchange for free food, which restaurant would be worth that deal, and how comfortable anyone would be with a snake nearby, in a house, or even in a toilet. The episode then shifts to birds: Andrew explains why birds are rarer in parts of China because of historical pest-eradication efforts and ongoing eating of wild birds, and the hosts riff on bird-control lasers, absurd pest-control tech, and whether those tools could be extended to other animals.

In the final section, Andrew recommends ADV China, a YouTube travel series about exploring China on motorcycles and showing rural areas, ghost cities, and unfiltered scenes outside official narratives. The episode also includes picks for Harley Quinn, Better Call Saul, Christopher Moore's Lamb, and a broader reflection on Westworld and the bicameral mind idea, with Andrew explaining how a rewatch made the show and the theory more compelling.

Key topics

• Movie-night snack shopping: The hosts role-play a grocery run for movie-night snacks, naming Snyder's pretzels, Sun Chips, Reese's cups, Doritos, bean dip, guacamole, and pre-popped popcorn, while joking about quieter packaging and bowls.
• Delta 8 THC chocolate as an unwanted gift: Brian says people keep giving him Delta 8 THC-infused chocolate, including people connected to vape shops, and treats it as something he is expected to pass along.
• Snake found in popcorn: Andrew brings in the Fox News story about a Virginia woman finding a snake in a bag of grocery-store popcorn, and the hosts discuss the packaging hole, possible mouse attraction, and whether pre-popped popcorn should be avoided.
• Snake bargain for free food: The group invents a scenario where a restaurant gives free meals if you keep a snake healthy and bring it back, with Taco Bell and Arby's named as the restaurants that come to mind.
• Snake size, safety, and containment: They debate how big a nearby pet snake could be before it becomes unacceptable, including fears about birds, doors, vents, and toilets, and joke about snake-proofing and living with snakes.
• Snake husbandry and snake farms: Andrew mentions snake farms, snakes used in antivenom work, and keeping snakes in drawers or plastic cabinets, which the others react to as surprisingly compact and low-space husbandry.
• Bird scarcity in China: Andrew explains that Mao-era attempts to eliminate pests helped decimate bird populations in China, and that wild birds are still eaten in some rural areas, making birds comparatively rare there today.
• Ecological destruction for political ends: The discussion compares China's bird decline to the American slaughter of buffalo used to starve Native Americans, framing both as ecosystem destruction tied to political goals.
• Bird-control lasers: The hosts examine Bird Control Group's laser systems for deterring birds from crops, airports, warehouses, and golf courses, including handheld and automated versions that use green lasers to scare birds away.
• Absurd extensions of laser deterrence: The conversation widens to wasps, feral hogs, quarterbacks, and teenagers outside convenience stores, joking about where laser deterrence might or might not make sense.
• Toilet birds and other impossible plumbing scenarios: A long riff imagines birds, fish, crustaceans, and even ostriches emerging from toilets, including jokes about leases, museums, landlords, and turning the absurdity into a sideshow.
• Westworld and the bicameral mind: Andrew says a rewatch of Westworld made him appreciate it more, and he explains the bicameral mind theory from Julian Jaynes and how the show uses hearing voices and emerging consciousness as a story framework.
• China travel vlogging and unfiltered rural footage: Andrew recommends ADV China as a motorcycle travel YouTube channel that shows rural China, ghost cities, and local life outside official narratives, noting that the creators later were asked to leave China.

Picks

• Brian Brushwood: Harley Quinn — He says he is a season and a half into the show and that it is very funny and worth your time, making this a clear recommendation.
• Justin Robert Young: Better Call Saul — He explicitly says the show is great and worth watching while it is almost over, which functions as a direct endorsement.
• Brian Brushwood: Lamb — He clearly recommends Christopher Moore's Lamb and calls it great, silly, loving, fun, and wild.
• Andrew Mayne: ADV China — He explicitly introduces it as one of his picks and describes why he has been watching it, including its China travel perspective and unfiltered footage.