Stuff You Should Know

00:00 This is an iHeart Podcast. 00:02 Guaranteed human. 00:04 Hey, Portlandia fans. 00:05 Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen here. 00:07 The dream of the 90s is alive in podcast form. 00:10 We're launching Podlandia AO Rewatch, our brand new podcast where we revisit every episode of Portlandia together, breaking down sketches, going deep on our iconic characters, and pulling back the curtain on how it all got made. 00:22 And we'll also be joined by the people who helped bring it all to life. Guest stars, collaborators, and friends, including director Jonathan Kreisel, the mayor himself, Kyle McLaughlin, legendary musician Amy Mann, and many more. 00:34 Kyle is going for it here. You fully improvised, not just words, but a song. 00:39 Well, I thought you were all going to write a song. 00:41 I remember you thinking that. 00:43 Listen to Podlandia, AAO Rewatch on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 00:51 What's up, fam? I'm sports journalist Ari Chambers. Hey, what's up, y'all? It's your girl, Sam J. And we're the hosts of Everyone Watches Women's Sports, a new podcast from Together and iHeart Women's Sports. We're breaking down the biggest headlines. Naomi Osaka showing out. Shout-outs to you, Naomi. The viral moments. I've been obsessed with Kashawn Rock's boxing journey. She looks good. Her combos are swift. And the stories everyone's talking about across women's sports. 01:14 Because everyone watches women's sports. Listen to Everyone Watches Women's Sports on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you. 01:25 Hey, and welcome to The Short Stuff. I'm Josh, and there's Chuck, and we're just sucking down sardines and The Short Stuff because Jerry's sitting in for Dave, which means it's short stuff about sardines. 01:36 That's right. I picked this because a couple of weeks ago you mentioned sardines because I mentioned I'd been eating tinned, like salmon and tuna, for lunches, for light lunches. 01:47 You said try sardines. I said I got some sardines, and I tried them today, finally. Yeah. And I have to say this. I liked, like the flavor was good. Okay. But I got skeeved out. 02:02 Yeah, the same thing happens to me, man. I have zero recollection of telling you to try sardines. 02:08 And I find them difficult to eat because of the texture. You did not mention any of that when you told me to try sardines. 02:16 I don't know what you're talking about. I'm not kidding. 02:19 Last week or the week before. 02:20 That is bizarre. I think you're even like, oh, sardines are good. Go eat them. Huh. That sounds like me. 02:25 Yeah. 02:26 But like one part of my brain was saying it and the rest of my brain didn't even know that I just said it. 02:30 Yeah, so the idea was to – I got some bagels when I was just in New York from my favorite, Essa Bagel. 02:36 Everythings, bring them home in the suitcase, put them in the freezer, cut them in half, put them in the freezer because eating a whole giant bagel like that is a lot. Oh, yeah. I put a – like for lunch sometimes I'll do a half a bagel with like – maybe sometimes nothing, just a half a bagel, or sometimes I'll put some of that tinned tuna on top. So I was like, today I'm going to throw some sardines on that, but let me try them first. And I tried them, and I'm glad I didn't waste that bagel because I couldn't do it, man. They skeeved me out. But the flavor was still fine. It was hard to describe why it skeeved me. I guess because they're tiny little fish looking at you. 03:08 Well, that's the thing. Yeah, it's a whole little fish. They don't grind it up like tuna or salmon or anything like that. Like, it's A little fish in a tray, a metal tray. 03:19 That didn't skee me out. Again, it's the texture. The taste is fine. Like, they smell way more fishy than they taste, and their taste is fine. 03:28 It wasn't unlike tuna, taste-wise. 03:30 No, it's no. And it's certainly not nothing like anchovies, which are definitely their own thing. And they're good in their own way. It's nothing like that. 03:38 I saw some recipes because I got into sardines before I ever tried them. And we still have cans left from years back. And I'm always looking for ways to use them up. And I found that you can just fry them up like a Spanish tapas is to fry them. And I'm like, if they crisp up a little bit, I might be able to handle them better. 04:00 Agreed. And grilling them, had I maybe just placed them on that bagel and toasted it in the toaster oven, it might have been a little better. 04:08 But yeah, I'm with you. So we're talking sardines. 04:12 These are tiny little fish, of course, very silvery. They're very nutrient dense, which we're going to talk about because they're actually pretty good for you. 04:19 And you can get them, you know, you can get fresh sardines in a lot of Asian countries, usually over here in the United States and other places in the West. You're going to buy them in the little, you know, their little bunk bed that you twist open. 04:33 I wish you still twisted open things like that with a little key, but unfortunately, it's the stupid pull tab now. 04:38 Yeah. 04:39 But one benefit of a sardine, if you're into like a light tinned fish for lunch, is that you don't have to worry about mercury because they don't eat other fish. And apparently that's where mercury comes from is fish eating fish. They eat plankton. And so you don't have to sweat the mercury. 04:53 Yeah, I saw the reason why it's a problem because plankton actually has mercury in it, but it's very small amounts. The problem with eating fish with mercury is that it bioaccumulates. So one fish eats another fish that has mercury. That fish's mercury combines with the fish that ate its mercury and so on and so forth. So that by the time you eat a fish, you're eating a bunch of mercury potentially. Since sardines only eat the little bit of mercury that plankton have, they're fine. Yeah. 05:21 Yeah, which is a shame because if not for that, I would honestly eat a little tin of nice tuna every day for lunch. 05:27 Yeah, I don't eat it every day, but I eat a lot. I've been eating way more fish than usual. Have you ever had branzino? 05:36 Yeah. Anytime it's on a menu, a whole Branzino at the table for everyone to share, that's what I do. 05:40 Okay. My friend, you can go to a certain alternative grocery store, I guess you could call it. Okay. That has a lot of their own brand stuff. Basically, that's all they sell is their own brand. Okay. And they have frozen Branzino fillets and... Like, just put a little salt, a little pepper. Yeah, yeah. Maybe not even olive oil and eat it. And you will just be in seventh heaven. 06:06 Throw it in the oven or just eat it cold? 06:08 You can throw it in the oven. I throw it in the air fryer sometimes. Yeah, sure. Yeah, I don't recommend eating it cold. It's not like sashimi. 06:16 Oh, okay. That's what I thought, because you didn't mention cooking it. I'm sorry. But you know you're not supposed to eat that much tuna. I hope you're not, because that's a serious thing. Like, eating more than one, like, tin of tuna a week is not great. 06:27 I didn't know that, but I don't think I eat a tin of tuna every week now. 06:32 All right, good. You don't want to turn into... 06:35 The Mad Hatter? No, the guy that ate too much tuna, Ari from Entourage. Do you know Plotlines from Entourage? No, Ari, the... 06:45 The agent in Entourage. What's the guy from all the John? 06:50 I know who you're talking about. Go ahead. Yeah. What's his name? I can't remember his name. 06:56 Not John Favreau. 06:58 No. Jeremy Piven. Jeremy Piven. Yeah. He got sick from eating. He got like mercury poisoning years ago from apparently eating too much sushi. 07:07 I think you told me that before. Yeah. Did you ever see PCU? 07:12 I saw parts of it. I never saw the whole thing. 07:14 I saw the whole thing multiple times for some reason. 07:18 Well, that's where you were in your life at the time. 07:19 I guess so. 07:20 All right. So back to sardines. They are found in shallow coastal temperate subtropical oceans all over the world. 07:29 And they're very popular in Europe. Obviously, Portugal and Spain, you can find them on a lot of tapas menus. You can grill those things up, throw them on a pizza toast. You're eating the bones, by the way. They're very tiny, so you don't feel like you're eating bones. They just sort of dissolve in with the rest of the little silverfish. 07:45 I think that might be part of the texture problem, too. Yeah, maybe. But there's a lot of health benefits, including the bones. 07:52 The bones are chock full of calcium. Apparently just eating one tin, I think, of sardines gives you like a third of the calcium you need as a human being, at least according to the U.S. government. 08:04 Yeah, and if you're lactose intolerant, it's a good place to get calcium. Also, because it's a fish, you're going to get lots of vitamin D, B12, phosphorus, selenium, and those omega-3 fatty acids, which are great at preventing heart disease while also being low in saturated fat. 08:22 Yeah, I was reading about that because I take omega-3s for cognitive stuff. Like it helps me focus and it really works really well. I've heard that. But there's a history of atrial fibrillation in my family. And I read that if you have a family history of heart disease, The taking omega-3s, there was a study recently that found taking omega-3s actually increases your risk of developing it yourself. Oh, really? But it has a protective function if you already have heart disease. 08:56 It's really bizarre. Oh, jeez, man. The human body is so weird sometimes. It is. But so this was one study. It was a recent study, but it was a pretty big meta-analysis. And it doesn't seem to be being poo-pooed in the scientific press. So it might be legit. I don't know. But it was enough to make me stop taking it every day. 09:15 All right. All right. Well, we'll take a little break and we'll come back and talk a little bit more about sardines right after this. 09:35 What's up, fam? I'm sports journalist Ari Chambers. Hey, what's up, y'all? It's your girl, Sam Jay. And we're the hosts of Everyone Watches Women's Sports, a new podcast from Together and I Heart Women's Sports. 09:45 Because let's be real, women's sports is giving us way too much to talk about these days. 09:49 So Kelsey Finler, she became the first female solo rower to go from California to Hawaii. My first thought is just like, what's up with the snacks? Like, what are we eating? The highlights, the rivalries, the breakout stars, the moments that take over your entire timeline. 10:05 and the conversations that start during the game and somehow keep going all week. Every week, we're breaking down the biggest stories across women's sports. 10:12 Naomi Osaka showing out. She beat Sabalenka. Shout outs to you, Naomi. 10:17 You get the palm, Naomi. You get the palm for that. Because we're not just interested in what happened, we're interested in why everyone's talking about it. Because everyone watches women's sports. Listen to Everyone Watches Women's Sports on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 10:35 Hey, Portlandia fans. 10:36 Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen here. 10:38 You know us, or rather, you know them. Tony and Candace, Nina and Lance, Spike, and yes, the chicken. 10:45 We've played a lot of iconic characters over the years, but today we're showing up as ourselves to tell you about Podlandia AO Rewatch, our brand new podcast. 10:53 Each week, we'll revisit an episode of Portlandia from the very beginning, breaking down the sketches, exploring the backstories of our most iconic characters, revisiting the Portland locations you know and love, and opening up about our creative process. 11:06 How did any of this get made? Why do we think that was a good idea? We're ready to talk about it. 11:11 And we'll also be joined by the people who helped bring it all to life. Guest stars, collaborators, and friends, including director Jonathan Kreisel, the mayor himself, Kyle McLaughlin, legendary musician Amy Mann, and many more. 11:23 Kyle is going for it here. You fully improvised, not just words, but a song, a melody. Well, I thought he was going to write, I thought you were all going to write a song. I remember you thinking that. 11:34 Listen to Podlandia A-O Rewatch on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 11:54 Okay, Chuck, so we talked about omega-3s. 11:56 We talked about calcium. Let's talk about some other stuff that's in these things, because they're basically like little miracle fish, essentially. 12:04 Yeah. I mean, what else you got? 12:06 One of the things that stands out to me is that they've got this nice balance of protein and fats, but healthy fats, part of the omega-3 thing. They're high in omega-3s, but they're low in saturated fats. So it's like the good stuff. And they have just enough protein, too, that if you eat them, you're not going to be like, I need some more food. Like, they'll satiate you. 12:30 Yeah, for sure. And that's what I'm looking for with these light lunches is something to kind of make me go like, all right, that's enough for now. 12:37 Unfortunately, sardines don't have a place in my life now. 12:40 Yet. You have to fry them first. 12:42 Yeah. I'm going to try that. I am too. Although that means I'll have to buy more. 12:47 I can give you some. I'll loan you some of mine. Bring some to Canada next week. 12:51 Okay. Oh, man, you probably can't sneak sardines into Montreal. Are you kidding me? 12:56 I don't know. I don't know. Let's find out. 13:00 It's not all rosy when it comes to sardines, though, everybody, because if you have gout, if you have kidney stones or high blood pressure, you might want to not to like overload on sardines. I'm sure a little is fine, but they are high in purines and that is going to create extra uric acid, which is obviously the problem with gout and kidneys and how your kidneys process uric acid. So maybe, you know, again, in moderation, I doubt if like a little bit of sardine is going to be too bad for you. 13:28 Yeah, I think this is excess kind of stuff where you're just pounding like. 13:32 Yeah, like Jeremy Piven level. 13:33 Exactly. Also, if you have chronic kidney disease, sardines are so packed with protein that they can actually make it hard on your kidneys to process all of it. So there's essentially we've reached the point where we want to remind all of you that we are not doctors nor dieticians nor nutritionists. 13:51 We're just fans. 13:53 And if you are like, well, I've got chronic kidney disease, but these guys have really made me curious about sardines, maybe talk to a professional or ask your AI assistant. 14:02 Yeah, for sure. They'll tell you Ireland is in Ireland. I know that much. 14:07 A lot of sodium, too, sometimes, depending on what kind you buy. So, you know, buy the ones in water because we didn't say they could be packed in like oil. Sometimes it's like different sauces and things. 14:17 Yeah. 14:19 I do like some of the tuna and salmon packed in oil. And, you know, you drain most of that off. But, you know, get sardines packed in water that don't have a lot of added sodium. 14:28 Yeah, the problem with like tuna packed in water is because you use so much more mayonnaise to make up for the oil that's missing that it just at least washes out if not gets worse. Yeah. That's right. 14:42 There's one other problem that has to do with basically anything that you get in a can. The can probably has some sort of bisphenol in it. 14:51 Oh, yeah. BPAs? 14:53 Yeah. BPA, BP, I think F was one. Remember the replacement ones that they're like BPA free, but there's other bisphenols in here, so don't ask too many questions about those. 15:03 Yeah, yeah. 15:04 Yeah, so that's a problem with basically any canned thing, and sardines are no exception. So go listen to our short stuff on BPAs. It was fairly enlightening, I think. 15:13 Agreed. Is short stuff out? 15:15 Yes. 15:19 Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.