---
title: 'On knives and Gaza (LIVE PODCAST E82)'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=bd4SnvJmxxA'
video_id: 'bd4SnvJmxxA'
date: 2026-06-28
duration_sec: 3925
---

# On knives and Gaza (LIVE PODCAST E82)

> Source: [On knives and Gaza (LIVE PODCAST E82)](https://youtube.com/watch?v=bd4SnvJmxxA)

## Summary

In this live podcast, Adam Ragusea explores a unique analogy between obsessive knife culture and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He argues that both discussions are often driven by what people want to be true rather than factual reality, and he emphasizes focusing on one's own moral responsibilities within these complex issues, particularly as a U.S. citizen whose tax dollars fund one side of the conflict.

### Key Points

- **New Format and Serious Topic** [0:01] — Adam introduces a new live podcast format, immediately noting the episode's title, 'On knives and Gaza,' indicating a serious discussion linking cooking techniques to a complex geopolitical issue.
- **Knife Nerd vs. Home Cook Reality** [1:01] — Adam recounts a call with chef Kenji López-Alt about knife sharpness. He observes that conversations about knives often mirror political debates because participants argue from what they want to be true, not what is practical or true for most home cooks.
- **The Claw Technique is Unrealistic** [5:11] — Adam argues that professional claw-grip cutting is unrealistic for home cooks due to its unnaturalness and difficulty. He advocates for safer, slower techniques that don't rely on the claw, even if criticized by knife purists.
- **Don't Borrow Trouble: Israel-Palestine** [14:10] — Adam explains his wife's phrase 'don't borrow trouble' to justify focusing his moral scrutiny on his own side (U.S./Israel) in the conflict. He believes it is more productive to examine the actions of the party he funds, rather than internal Palestinian disputes.
- **Call for Ceasefire and Skepticism of Netanyahu** [22:50] — Adam calls for a ceasefire and criticizes Netanyahu's government. He hopes the U.S. is diplomatically restraining Israel behind the scenes, but is personally done supporting what he sees as a potential genocide.
- **The Importance of Fun and Projects** [35:40] — After heavy discussion, Adam shifts to lighter topics. He emphasizes the need for fun, challenging cooking projects, comparing them to his hobbies like keeping fish, to maintain mental health and avoid becoming a passive 'chair dad.'

### Conclusion

Adam uses a single analogy—from knife sharpening to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict—to argue that all complex debates benefit from accepting uncomfortable realities and focusing on one's personal responsibility. Ultimately, he advocates for a balanced life that acknowledges serious issues but makes room for joy and personal projects.

## Transcript

Hello
friends it's the Adam rusia podcast
episode 82 I think and we're trying a
new thing I'm in the greenhouse on a
9900 am local time uh
Eastern Standard Time or daylight I can
never remember Eastern Time 9:00 am my
time Eastern us time uh doing a live
chat on YouTube and we will sort of talk
about whatever we want to talk about for
the next hour or so um I have the chat
open and people are there and if people
want to talk about things they can um
the chat will be archived so that if
people who are listening on the on the
on U an actual podcast app want to just
go on YouTube and look at the chat uh
you can it could get interesting this
time because the title of this episode
is on knives and
Gaza on knives and Gaza okay um before
we get to what you want to say I'm gonna
talk about what I want to say so uh I
was sitting here at the house the other
day and I got a a text from uh your
friend and mine Jay Kenji Lopez alt
Kenji good good man good good internet
cook internet cook of the world the
internet cook we all aspire to be and
Kenji called me and he said I'm working
on uh I think you said a New York Times
piece about like knives and knife
sharpness and sort of what what normal
people should aspire to do with their
knives at home what kind of knife should
you have how good should it be how
expensive uh you know how you should
sharpen it that kind of stuff and since
I have some
rather outspoken comments on the record
on that topic
um I he thought that he would call me
and just sort of you know not not not
necessarily I think I don't think all of
it was really intended to be on the
record but he was trying to sort of work
out his own thoughts for his own peace
about knives and what people home Cooks
should do about knives knife sharpness
and knife use knife technique knife
safety all that kind of stuff so what I
said to Kenji and this is uh where
you're gonna you're gonna understand
where the title of this episode comes
from on knives and Gaza so what I said
to Kenji was that I said you know it
seems to me that convers ations about
like knives and knife
sharpness tend to proceed in a way that
is rhetorically similar to conversations
about the Israeli Palestinian conflict
in the sense that like many topics
around which passions are very
high people tend to proceed
from a place of what they want to to be
true not what is
true right they tend to these
conversations tend to proceed from what
the speaker wants to be true not what
actually is true and in the case of
Israel
Palestine very easy for an a mostly
uninvolved Outsider to say but it seems
to me that one of the many core problems
at play here is
that people don't accept that there are
millions of people with a
multi-generational claim to this general
area of territory and they all need to
live there and they all need to find a
way to share it and we who live around
them and
we directly and enormously financially
and militarily support one of the
parties in this conflict those of us who
are involved in that sense need to
proceed from the assumption that all of
these people deserve to live deserve to
exist and that they all have some degree
of legitimate claim to the territory on
which they sit as we all
do possession is nine10 of the
law unless you are prepared to just kill
everyone you disagree with I mean just
wipe them all off the map unless you are
ready to do that you have to learn to
live with the people who live around
you and we may get into some more
specifics if anyone cares what Adam
rusia thinks about the Israel Israel
Palestine conflict I may give you a few
specific thoughts in fact I have a few
I'm going to give you
soon because I do think that it is
incumbent upon me to offer some and I
I've been struggling so hard with like
how how to talk about it um that I I've
just decided that I just have to run
headlong into it and do a live at 9ine
in the morning so here we are because
now I'm committed I'm pot committed have
to keep going so the reason that I made
this comparison to Kenji about knives
and the is Israel Palestine conflict is
that um I also think that like when sort
of knife nerds people who are love their
kitchen knives and care for them and
want other people to learn to love their
knives as much as they do
I think that they feel very passionately
and trained Cooks trained chefs feel
very passionately about knives and knife
use because it's such an intimate tool
it's it's extension of your body when
this is what you do for a living right
that it's so important to them that they
can't accept what is true about us
people who cook at
home which is that it's
extraordinarily unlikely that all of us
are going to learn how to use the CL
claw technique which is that technique
where the side of the knife literally
touches your knuckles and you kind of
cut with the knife actually touching and
being stabilized against the knuckles of
your stabilizing hand right and this is
this thing that like everyone in kind of
western style restaurants uh learns how
to do you know kind of classical
culinary education because if you do it
properly uh it's theoretically
impossible to cut yourself or maybe
could maybe shave off a little bit of
skin right on the knuckle but you
couldn't really like lose a digit if you
do it this way assuming you do it
basically the way that it's supposed to
be done is H not something that I can
really do I'm not I'm not a trained chef
of any kind not my thing and I I have
been lucky enough to see like lots and
lots of incredibly talented grandmas
cook like really really talented people
who have just you know women who have
been in the kitchen cook their whole
lives and could just kick the ass of me
and probably most of the people here in
the chat right for this live podcast
edition of the Adam rusia podcast
episode 82 where we were talking about
knives and Kasa in a very tenuous
metaphor go with me so
um people care a lot about their knives
I've
seen incredibly talented grandmas people
who have been cooking informally but
very very well their whole lives lots of
them none of them use the
claw the claw technique is a technique
that purely comes out of the western
restaurant tradition and has spread
thusly and it's a good thing I'm not
challenging it but I've never ever ever
seen someone who didn't come out of that
tradition use it or anything like it and
yet they are able to cook incredibly
well so first I think that you know
knife nerds who are who insist upon the
claw as really the only viable
technique need
to need to look at themselves and ask
themselves do you really want to look at
that incredibly talented cooking Grandma
and tell her that she shouldn't be that
like she's doing it
wrong are you gonna do that dude like
let's I'll I would like to film that can
I film that when that happens when you
tell her that she's doing it wrong let's
watch it's gonna be great
right
um so any conversation about knife and
knife safety and kitchen knives has to
proceed from from reality right which is
that most people don't do this and I
think it's very unlikely that lots of
people will ever do this because this is
a hard thing to do it takes a lot of
this CLA I'm sorry for the people who
are listening to the podcast as they're
supposed to be doing because it's a
podcast I'm demonstrating the claw
technique right here visually um when
you do
this
um you have to hold your food with your
fingertips instead of the pads of your
fingers which is not the way our hands
are evolved to like hold stuff at least
not big things small things we're
evolved to hold with the tips of our
fingers but big things like food we hold
it with the the pads of our fingers it's
just what we're evolved to do right and
then we're also evolved I think to keep
our body and our parts away from
dangerous things like knives like we
have this in instinctive desire to
recoil away from the knife and not have
our stabilizing hand right up against it
so it's it's just a deeply unnatural
thing and I just don't think it's
realistic to expect that most people
will ever do it um and I'm not even sure
that if most people tried to do it that
would be a good thing for Public Safety
right because I'm not sure how viable it
is for people to learn how to do that
outside of the context of a professional
kitchen where they're being a
apprenticed right and that they could
end up doing more harm than good and I
have no idea but I know that it's
unrealistic to expect that most people
will cut that
way therefore you have to then engage
with the question what do you want to do
instead as like an as like an internet
cook as you could you could very
grandiosely describe it as a a cooking
educator of some kind right what do you
do if you accept as a reality that most
people are not going to learn how to use
the claw technique what do you do I
think what you do is you try to
demonstrate and preach practices that
allow people to cut safely and well
without using the claw which for me is
mostly just like stabilizing the food
however feels natural to you put your
whole hand down on it if you want just
keep your stabilizing hand way away from
the knife just keep it really far away
from the knife and go slowly go really
slow keep the stabilizing hand away from
the knife as much as possible and I have
been criticized on the internet very
much for that because you know people
will say look it's one thing to not have
the technique it's another thing to be
proud of not having the technique and to
preach to others that they isue the
technique as well and just do your dumb
thing and that's that's on its face I
think a cogent argument but it just
doesn't sort of fit with the facts of
the situation which are as we have
recounted that most people do not use
the claw and I would assert that most
people never will use the claw that is
the reality that we live in and given
that those facts I think the best thing
to do is
to uh just uh you
know cut things normal like the way most
people in the world do it and to try to
do it as slowly and safely as possible
what does that have to do with Gaza and
Israel Palestine
well a lot of people around me a lot of
people in my
Orbit uh does bro not see the chat
someone is asking me no I'm I'm not
paying attention to the chat right now
I'm thinking about my
thoughts so what does this have to do
with
Gaza I a lot of people in my
Orbit which includes me we're struggling
with how to morally size up the war as
it h is
happening struggling with who is
ultimately morally culpable both for the
immediate conflict and also the root
conflict of which the immediate conflict
is merely the most recent phase
struggling with morality and It's Tricky
I I'm really not
sure who I think is more to blame for
the horror
unfolding at least in the broad sense in
the immediate sense I have some pretty
good ideas about who I want to blame not
a big big fan of BB
Netanyahu but in the long in the broad
historical sense I'm really not sure who
is most culpable for the horror
unfolding in West Asia at the moment
other than maybe the British like if you
wanted to like point at one actor who's
really most responsible it's the British
Empire um but here's the
thing here's the
thing my wife who is was born in the
South um the the the American South um
has this well no she was born uh oh she
was born in the north but she was raised
in the South because she military kid
anyway complicated raised in the South
so Lauren has this expression that she
pulls out sometimes that's this kind of
like wonderful Southern mom expression
which is don't borrow trouble and what
it means is um don't don't borrow
trouble when something isn't really a
problem that you have to deal with don't
worry about it like don't that's
somebody else's problem or that's your
problem you know further down the road
but for right now if it's not something
you need to deal with right now don't
think about it don't borrow trouble
right
so the moral quandry that the Israeli
Palestinian conflict presents someone
like me is at least in a moment like
this I think trouble that I don't have
to
borrow meaning that I I I don't have to
decide who's more to
blame because
I I am a party to the conflict I am a
citizen of the United States I am a
wealthy citizen of the United States
thanks to your
patronage I am a wealthy citizen of the
United States I'm an influential citizen
of the United States not everybody can
like pull up a live stream and have
thousands of people watching them right
um I pay lots and lots of taxes to the
United States so much in taxes and I'm
I'm usually happy to not so happy about
it right
now
so because I am who I am I am a party to
the conflict that is unfolding not a
direct party but I am a party I very I
am I am close to what's
happening and my work everything I do
you know um what I'm doing right now
making money like I'm I am funding
disproportionately one side of this
conflict that is just the truth
okay I what I'm doing right
now what I'm doing right now is helping
to fund and arm the Israeli side of the
present
conflict
therefore it is appropriate for me to
morally scrutinize the
behavior of what is in effect my side in
a
conflict
right
it's my side whether I want it to be or
not whether I wanted to whether I signed
up for it or not sure as hell didn't
sure as hell didn't sign up to be on
this side but here I
am and there's things that I could do to
remove myself from this side I could I
could immigrate I could just go to
another country go pay my taxes
somewhere else
right um so I see a lot of people in the
chat asking a lot of like specific
questions about the conflict and I may
answer some of them but like and if you
want to talk about this among yourselves
that's fine but I have a thing that I
want to say and I'm gonna keep saying it
and you can pay attention to that or you
can pay attention to each other and
that's that's all it's all
good I I I have a side in this conflict
what I'm doing right now is funding the
Israeli
military um therefore it is incumbent
upon me to be
more it is incumbent upon me to direct
my moral gaze toward my
side or it is more incoming on me to do
that is more incoming upon me to
scrutinize what my side is doing for
purposes of moral rectitude for purposes
of strategy or tactics or whatever
that's a completely different
conversation but in terms of like
figuring out what what should we do in
terms of doing the right thing
yeah I think it's appropriate that I
scrutinize what is in effect my side
more than I scrutinize other
sides so that is how I try to relate to
this issue in terms of my own moral
calculations I don't want to borrow
trouble I don't need to think I don't
need to scrutinize moral quandries that
are not before me that are not at my
table right I don't need to wrestle over
puzzles that I am not expected to solve
there are moral quandries on the
Palestinian Arab side of this conflict
that are
enormous but they are internal to that
Community I follow them with great
interest but ultimately it's not my
conversation right um that is an
internal conversation among other people
that they have to work out for
themselves it's better for me to focus
on what is in effect my internal
conversation similarly with knives like
I can't
control how
people I let me put it this way I don't
know what the best way to cut is I
really don't I don't know what the best
way to keep people safe
is I can't borrow that trouble like I
can't that stressing over an unknown
that I cannot answer is trouble that
I am borrowing a lot of the time and I
am trying not to just do my
thing similarly I do not have to figure
out the entire moral con quandry that is
the thousands years long conflict over
that strip of land I I can I have the
privilege to focus on that piece of the
puzzle that I have influence over and
that is the United States government and
its
enormous support of the state of
Israel I'm now going to talk a little
bit
about what I think about the that
support and what we should do about it
and I am not looking at the
chat sorry somebody just asked in the
chat like do this am I do I have a gun
in my head does this feel forced in a
way it's forced because I I don't really
want to talk about this you know this is
no one wants not a lot of people do want
to talk about this um but we're in a
place where like I I think you know it's
just morally incumbent upon someone like
me to talk about this and I don't know
how to do it there's no way to do it
perfectly so I decided to just run
headlong into the problem and live
stream my way through it so that's
what's
happening I understand that people are
going to get salty about it
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so
ah so I see someone say
uh well I'm not going to engage with
that so this is my job folks this is
what I do I do podcasts and I support
those podcasts with
advertising and uh and we have to be
able to talk about whatever is important
on this show I think so here we
go
um if we look at the most recent stage
of the conflict in a
bottle
it the the scale and brutality of of the
Hamas
breakout is so
enormous that I think it's completely
unrealistic for anyone to expect that
there would be something other than a
really powerful military response right
this is one of these don't borrow
trouble situations you can you know
fight all day about whether or not a mil
Ary response is is warranted morally it
will happen in the same way that it was
completely you know anyone who had any
sense at all looked at the situation in
Gaza prior to this most recent phase
looked at people who were in effect
being held in an open air refugee camp
well I guess all refugee camps are open
air I guess what I meant is open air
prison I think that's maybe too strong a
word to use but in effect people are
being held in a refugee camp
um that that that people in that
situation are going to break out and
fight back in any way they can whether
it's right or wrong is an important con
is not an unimportant conversation right
and wrong always matter but it is not
the most important conversation at the
moment the most important conversation
at the moment is what is and is not true
what is true is that people living in a
political IAL and security situation
like they have been living in in Gaza in
recent years it is unrealistic to expect
that they won't lash out violently they
will it will happen similarly when an
incursion into a nation's you know
self-perceived Sovereign territory
happens that results in the deaths of
thousands of civilians horrible deaths
of thousands of civilians it is
completely ridiculous to think that
there won't be some kind of profound
military response there will be and so
for me I think it's good for me to
start start from the place of what is
true and what is true is that these
things have
happened it's also true that the United
States is Israel's Daddy for various
historical and cultural reasons and
economic reasons and Military
Reasons I'm not sure I want my country
to radically change its relationship to
the state of Israel right now like I
kind of think
that I'm open to the
possibility
that I'm open to the possibility
that the way that the United States can
help the situation best in this moment
is to remain Israel's Daddy and
therefore try to keep netanyahu's
government on some kind of
leash
I I choose no I
hope that there's a lot more going on
diplomatically behind the scenes than is
apparent to the
eye that the United States is perhaps
actually
more supportive of what the Netanyahu
government is doing publicly than it is
privately I think that's probably the
case that the United States is more
supportive publicly than it is
privately and that may be the most
productive role for the United States to
fulfill at this point in the conflict
like I'm not saying I want the us to
just wash its hands of
Israel but on the other hand I think so
much blood has been
shed so much blood has been
shed that I I I have to
join other
people in my sphere of influence in
calling for a ceasefire and calling for
the United States government to use the
levers of power that it
has which are very big levers
indeed to call for a to create a
ceasefire in this conflict I think
enough people have been
killed when in doubt stop
killing is that a good rule to go with
when in doubt
stop problem of course is that some
people aren't in doubt a lot of
people a lot of moral
certainty I am not a position to tell
them that their moral C is
false right
um I I I am I am comfortably removed
from the reality of most of what I'm
talking about therefore
I I'm not in a position to tell people
that their perception of moral itude
is false or
not again I'm only in a position to
figure out my own
situation and here is my
situation I am funding one of the sides
that's
shooting there are legitimate military
goals to be pursued I
think release Rescue of
hostages yes legitimate military
goal how many children how many
uninvolved children are you willing to
kill in
that in in that
Pursuit if it's my child who's been
taking who who's been taken a hostage
the answer is all of them kill them all
burn
them I will burn this world to the
ground with all of you in it to save my
children that is the
truth I don't I don't say that with
pride I actually I don't say that I mean
again don't borrow trouble don't morally
don't bother morally uh interrogating
things that are immovably true and that
is immovably
true I will protect my children at the
expense of every single one of you and
myself and I imagine that most human
beings feel that way and that's why we
don't have directly involved parties
participate
Injustice in a
civilization that's why that's why we
don't have the dad whose daughter has
been murdered choose the punishment
we you
don't other less involved parties have
to step
in I don't for the people who are just
have blood in their eyes in this
conflict on all sides I feel you man I
kind I can't I can't imagine feeling any
other way in your
situation
I don't really blame you for what you
do in the same way that you know I on a
moral
level if Native Americans the
descendants of Native Americans who had
previously held this land in East
Tennessee that I quote unquote own right
now and from which I'm coming to
you if
people if
if people descended from those native
people came here and said get off our
land this is mine they showed up at my
front door with a weapon and said get
out this is
ours I would like on a moral level I
would I would kind of see their point I
would kind of think yeah yeah I kind of
get where you're coming from man
similarly if descendants of of enslaved
of African slaves in the United States
showed up at my door and said you are in
possession
of wealth that our ancestors were
were were compelled through force of
violence to help
generate give it
back I think I would kind
of understand where they were coming
from like morally like I would be like
yeah yeah I I feel you I get
that but I
still would protect my property I would
protect my family I would protect our
possessions I would protect in as much
as I
could right wouldn't
you like there's a
certain there's this like floor of
self-preservation that everyone has to
meet and all moral and ethical
considerations are like above that floor
right um there's or I guess there's
people who would argue otherwise
pacifists who would say that you know
you remain true to your principles even
if it involves sacrificing your life and
I'm I admire that point of
view I don't share it but I admire
it I continue to find the situation
incredibly morally
confusing but I don't have to figure it
out I only have to figure out my part in
it and I I wonder if all of you who are
with me now would take a second and
think about what is
your part of it right like what is what
hand do you have in what's
unfolding what I have decided based upon
what my hand what my hand is doing in
this conflict what I have
decided is that I want my government to
probably at this moment do what I think
it's doing which is support Israel
publicly work really hard behind the
scenes to restrain Israel and to try to
protect Palestinian civilians in as much
as possible I think I hope that's what
the US government is doing I'm aware
that that's probably a really
Rosy assessment of the situation but I
also don't have
any way of knowing much more than what
I've laid out right
but I want to stop funding this war that
is showing signs of metastasizing into a
genocide I do not want any part in
that and on the one hand as a member of
the United States as a citizen of the
United States it's easy to kind of throw
up your hands and say well uh I'm just
going to we're going to be a normal
country right we're just going to worry
about our ourselves in our own internal
issues and you we'll worry about the
rest of the world in as much as like
global trade is you know our own core
interests blah blah blah blah we'll just
be a normal country that looks out for
oursel you want to have a war over there
that's fine do it
fine that's not a that's neither a
practically nor morally tenable position
from the United States's perspective I
don't think from a practical position
just you know we're too dependent on the
globalized system and the globalized
system is going to be too destabilized
if we Retreat as
the global strong man and there will
always be a strong man in charge of
things there's always a dude with a gun
who's in charge of things at the end of
the day that's what my reading of human
history tells me the best thing you can
hope for is that the guy with a gun lets
you elect his
successor I don't know
guys from a practical standpoint the
United States can't simply wash its hand
of the situation from a moral standpoint
we can't because we've simply we're just
too up to our eyeballs in it we've
funded too much of what's happening now
too many of our weapons are being used
too much of our money is being
used we're up to our eyeballs in it and
I don't want to be anymore or I don't
want to be supporting I'm pretty sure
I've decided for myself that I I'm not I
only want to support the present Israeli
government in as much as I think that
that might be the most productive way
for my country to influence events at
this particular moment
right but longterm I'm really I'm kind
of done
here
um it seems to me that the present
Israeli government is
just at best they're closing their eyes
and going la la la la la we can pretend
that we can instead of integrating
Palestinian Arabs into our state and
giving them full political rights and
suffrage which would therefore allow
them to vote us out of power and
therefore would end the the identity of
Israel as a Jewish state right so he
knows he
can't guy like Netanyahu is looking at
the all of the territory that his
military controls sees that his what he
his people his voters are in the
minority in that territory therefore he
cannot extend full political rights to
everyone within that territory because
he will lose power and indeed that event
could result in another genocide and
that's that's a reality that we need
to think about and take steps to
forestall on the other hand Netanyahu a
guy like Netanyahu can't just say well
let's let let's let's cordon off all of
you know as many Palestinian Arabs as we
can in these two territories
and we will create security barriers
around them and we will say this is your
state this is where you have political
rights you don't have political rights
in our territory you have political
rights in this territory that you don't
actually control you don't really have
sovereignty sovereignty over it but this
is going to be where your political
rights will be expressed therefore
that's how we can get away with not
giving you real political rights to
affect the outcome of the elections of
the government that actually controls
your fate which is the Israeli
government which controls those
territories so it's this from the is
from a the perspective of a guy like
Netanyahu it's this it's this situation
where he just wants everybody to sit
around and wait for the fundamentals of
the situation to change which they won't
or what he wanted to do was to get
everybody as angry as possible to result
in an explosion and in the war that he's
always wanted and I think on some level
that is what's going on with a guy like
that and I do not want to fund a guy
like
that if I looked at the chat right now
there would probably be a million things
a lot of people pointing out all of the
horrendous moral conduct happening on
the Hamas side and the Palestinian Arab
side and blah blah blah blah not gonna
engage with it because it's not my place
to I have to think through my part in
the
conflict and the Israeli side is my side
therefore it is my side to
scrutinize my side to try to influence
as best I
can and that is the calculation that I
have arrived at if that is useful to
anybody out there I hope
so if it was if you were just curious to
know like what Adam marusia thinks about
all of this that's probably about as
much as I feel comfortable telling you
and there it
is
God it all just sucks so
much I like that I like that I I've
created like a job for
myself I like that I've created a job
for myself where I can do fun things and
serious things I am a person who is
interested in both fun things and
serious
things um unfortunately sometimes the
fun things and the serious things in my
job have to come into an uncomfortably
close
proximity
and and th this is one of the moments
that we're at so here's what I would
like to
do here's what I would like to do I
would like to spend the remainder of our
time together this morning talking about
like fun
stuff so
folks in the chat be thinking about you
know any kind of food or anything
anything that's fun that you want to
talk about for the next 20 minutes while
I sincerely thank the other sponsor of
this program and before I I I bring them
up please keep in mind that even though
advertising in proximity to
conversations about genocide may seem
crass um the sponsor is what created the
table at which we are sitting right now
we can't have these conversations
together unless someone pays for the
table at which we sit and having worked
in traditional media before I did this
and having seen the business model
completely melt under our feet and
seeing the enormous damage that that has
done that the the that that the
evaporation of tradition all news media
the especially on the local level in the
United States that the the enormous
Civic damage that has done to us all of
the conversations we used to have about
whether or not a certain Revenue stream
in the newspaper business was ethical oh
my God how quaint those conversations
are that's borrowing trouble let me tell
you first just make sure that you can
run your newspaper first I just have to
make sure that I can run my podcast and
then we can talk about serious stuff or
fun stuff but nothing happens with
without sponsors and to that end I am
very glad to thank the folks at Trade
coffee go to drink trade.com
adamow to get a free bag of coffee with
any subscription purchase um I trade has
been such a blessing in my life like I
am a person who um I
get as you can tell from both the
serious and the less serious parts of
this conversation we've had so far today
I'm a person who is often paralyzed with
choice and when it to like getting into
coffee and deciding what kind of coffee
to drink and where to get it from and
blah blah blah like I I have been
paralyzed with Choice my whole life and
when I found a company like trade where
I could just kind of say hey here's what
I generally like I like uh I like you
know lighter roasts where I can really
taste the bean I like more sort of
acidic tastes I like really strong
coffee um and I usually like to do it
from whole bean but sometimes uh I I use
preg ground I just tell tray that and
they just like find stuff that they
think I might like they're not a they're
not a coffee maker they're not a coffee
wholesaler what they are is just a
network they they they go out they find
great independent coffee roasters in the
United States they sample their coffee
they decide things that they think are
good and then they sort of develop this
database of coffees that are the right
taste and type for certain kinds of
people with certain kinds of tastes and
then based upon that they send you a
stream of coffee to your door as as
often as you want it that comes directly
from the roter like the roaster roasts
the coffee uh within 48 Hours of
shipping it to you and freshness really
matters when it comes to Coffee you get
your coffee in this kind of red
compostable trade bag and then you tear
it open and you see what Christmas
present you got inside or at least
that's what it's like for me being a
person who celebrates Christmas whatever
giftgiving holiday you celebrate uh sub
it in there um and you just see what
kind of awesome fun thing they found for
you this week um it's been just a
delight to have in my life and it can be
so in yours go to drink trade.com
adamow for a free bag of coffee with any
subscription purchase drink trade.com
adamow that link is in the description
and I thank trade very much now we're
gonna talk about something
fun okay Tommy salami proposes as a
topic breakfast
burritos breakfast burritos okay I think
in many ways like the burrito is the
perfect food um
especially what I know to be the San
Francisco style burrito I mean at least
that's what it has historically been
called in the United States although not
So Much Anymore now the San Francisco
style burrito has just become a burrito
because that's the style of burrito that
has been popularized by chains like
Chipotle um it's the burrito that is uh
made with a steamed tortilla filled uh
folded and then wrapped usually in foil
something so that it steams some more
and it gets kind of hot and gooey and it
all kind of molds together as opposed to
a burrito that you like cover in cheese
and then you broil and then you eat with
a knife and fork right which is a
delicious piece of food but it's not a
convenient you know working person's
lunch right in the way that a San
Francisco style burrito really is and
I'm hesitant to use that term because my
guess is that like the idea of steaming
a tortilla filling it with a burrito
fillings and then wrapping it in foil
probably predates its invention in San
Francisco like of all places like but
maybe I don't know I all I'm saying is
that I have known it to be called a San
Francisco style burrito love a San
Francisco style burrito I love the like
texture the like almost skin-like
texture that it has from the steaming
right I I used to work at a I used to
work at a a convenience store a very
popular convenience store chain based in
Pennsylvania Aluna Pennsylvania that's
now all through the Northeastern United
States called sheets and sheets has a
when I worked there they had a steamer
that we used to steam the hot dog buns
right so you take the hot dog bun you
put in this steamer you'd close the door
really tight to form a a steam Tight
Seal you press this button that forces
hot steam into the box and it makes the
the hot dog bun kind of taste and smell
like freshly baked bread for a few
seconds but long enough to sell the hot
dog right um and and it was the it was
the scariest piece of equipment in the
kitchen because steam burns are
incredibly painful steam I don't know
why I think well gu Steam a lot hotter
than boiling water right so that's one
reason and then I guess maybe because it
is able to envelop all parts of you it's
able to kind of rush around you
um uh that's you know steam burs are
awful and we just God we used to burn
ourselves on that damn hot dog bun
steamer so much so I worry about the
like Chipotle employees and whether or
not they're burning themselves on their
um tortilla steamer which looks like a
pretty similar piece of uh technology
but anyways I love it because when you
steam the tortilla and then you fill it
up with a burrito so like the it's
filled to the brim with fillings and
it's all taut like the surface skin of
the burrito is taut like like like skin
and so it's like biting through skin
which sounds absolutely disgusting and
violent as I'm like saying it but I find
that incredibly satisfying when I bite
into a San Francisco style burrito my
favorite kind was from a place called
Laughing Planet in Bloomington Indiana
that s sadly closed and now I mostly get
them from Chipotle we're just fine I
don't Chipotle is good shouldn't
shouldn't you shouldn't should
denigrate something just because it's a
chain okay that that denies the human
beings who work at that chain The Pride
that they should feel for their
accomplishments anyways uh so the one
thing that's kind of funny about like a
San Francisco style burrito is that it's
uh it's it's it's it's all seeds right
if if you get like a beans
rice um like a beans and rice Burrito on
a wheat tortilla um that's like you
would use for a burrito generally a
wheat tortilla rather than a corn
tortilla or even a corn tortilla because
that's also seeds it's all seeds beans
are seeds rice is seeds grains are seeds
wheat is seeds it's all seeds it's like
a it's a rod of seeds when you eat a San
Francisco style burrito right and I'm
not sure how many more seeds I need in
my diet I'm not one of these dudes these
internet dudes who's just like ah seeds
or you know industrial seed oil is
turning men into fem boys or whatever
right because I think the subtext of
those arguments is always that like
there's something unmanly about eating
seeds because birds eat seeds never mind
that birds are dinosaurs literally
dinosaurs and dinosaurs are pretty
badass but anyways um so seeds
uh I think there's a guy on the there's
a kind of guy on the internet who sort
of says like eating SE implies at least
that eating seeds is unmanly because
birds do it whereas men eat meat because
meat requires you to kill it through an
act of violence before you can eat it
and that's what a man does right so I'm
not one of those guys I'm just one of
these guys who eats too many carbs and
so like I'm not I'm not super I'm trying
to reduce my seed intake so I've been
trying to do breakfast burritos lately
I've been trying to like steam tortillas
in the microwave which the to me the
basic technique that works best there is
get um you get a uh paper towel wet get
a paper towel wet wrap the tortillas in
the wet paper towel put in the microwave
for like 10 seconds 15 seconds maybe and
then you get a steam tortilla so you do
that and then you put eggs in it and
eggs aren't
seeds or at least they're not Botanical
seeds eggs are basically uh animal seeds
right it's it is the animal equivalent
of a seed so it's still I guess you
could argue a breakfast burrito is still
a seed
bar a a seed Rod but it's still probably
like better for my nutritional goals so
I've been trying to get into it but I
have a problem which is that I have a
problem with eggs and tomatoes for some
reason eggs and tomatoes just it's the
acid with the egg I don't know it's like
the acid with the kind of like farty
sulfurous notes of the eggs for some
reason that's just a really bad
combination in my mind and uh and
therefore I I don't want to put salsa
onto my breakfast burrito and therefore
my breakfast burritos end up being
really Bland um however I do use hot
sauce and hot sauce serves the function
of salsa to a great extent it provides
the acidity the pency and so if you
think that like a breakfast burito is
good enough if it just has like tortilla
and eggs and hot sauce then I'm killing
it on the breakfast burrito tip I hope
that you are too so we're talking about
some more fun stuff because we talked
about my own feelings on the Israel
Hamas War at the moment earlier in the
episode and I'm not saying that's not
important and I'm not saying that your
feelings about it shouldn't be very
strong they should be very strong I'm
saying that in the remaining 10 minutes
that I am going to be holding Court in
this particular corner of the internet
we are going to restrict ourselves to
fun things to talk about because that's
what's happening so topic for Adam from
Jared Mitchell I'm interested in the
truth versus common misconceptions of
what high altitude does to People's
Health and
Metabolism wow that is absolutely
fascinating and um I don't know but I I
would really I have been thinking for
years about doing a video about high
altitude baking which is legit real like
like when you put stuff in the oven or
when you boil stuff I mean really any
kind of cooking is profoundly affected
by differences in barometric by
significant differences in barometric
pressure right because it affects the
boiling point right so um you know when
you're down here closer to sea level
where I am now well I guess I'm in the
mountains but well no I'm in a valley
I'm I'm effectively just above sea level
right now so like here you have so much
Sky pushing down on our bodies and on
the water that you're boiling to try to
make your coffee or uh Sky pushing down
on the cake that you're baking in your
oven right and that
effectively uh raises the boiling point
makes it so that it takes less energy to
make water boil when you go up higher it
takes less energy to make water boil and
so stuff boils away at a lower
temperature cakes bake real weird cakes
bake real weird it's hard to get them to
Brown um as you can imagine because you
just you can't you can't get them hot
enough before the water starts to leave
and so there's all kinds of weird things
you have to do and the effect on like
the human body is kind of similar right
like we have all of this Sky pressing
down us this keeping all of these
dissolved gases and stuff in solution in
our blood and our other body fluids and
when you alter that all kinds of like
weird stuff happens and you know I
haven't been up to really tall mountain
since I did this really regrettable no
it's not I won't call it regrettable
well maybe for them it was regrettable
but I did this like family vacation with
my parents when I was 14 which like
there you have enough information to
know why this was potentially a
regrettable experience right family
vacation with a 14-year-old boy right
they were still holding on to my parents
were still holding on to the idea that
we were the happy family that we were a
couple years earlier when my brother and
I were both adorable children and not
Sol and teenagers and when we became Sol
and teenagers yeah so uh anyway they
took us on this like driving vacation
through the Great American West you know
kind of the Mountain Time Zone and so we
went up to like jck you know Jackson
Wyoming and stuff like that and I
remember my overriding REM memory of
that vacation is of being in the
car where my dad drives us through these
mountain passes with terrifying
precipices down one side right like you
look down the side like and I'm really
scared of like my Palms are sweating
right now just remembering this memory
right so my Palms are sweating because
I'm looking down at these precipices as
my dad who's a a spirited driver let's
say drives us around these mountains
well I am miserably because I was
suffering from these horrible gas pains
all the time
I in at the time I thought it was
basically just because I was stuck in a
car with my family and I was at that age
where I was too old to feel comfortable
to pass gas in front of my family but
not old enough to be over it enough to
feel comfortable passing gas in front of
my family I didn't want to pass gas in
the car at the age of 14 and as one
necessarily has to do from time to time
right um and so I was just in just gas
pain all the time on this vacation but
now when I look back on it in retrospect
I know that when people go from low
altitude to high altitude gas pain is
one of the first like big acute symptoms
that they experience from the pressure
imbalances and you know GA gases that
are that were dissolved in your body
fluids uh under this under higher
pressure coming out of solution
lower pressure and all that kind of
stuff so I don't know but that was all
you've done really person who asked that
question is remind me of a really
uncomfortable memory which is good
because it makes me it forces me to
remember that when my children
transition from being absolutely
wonderful little cherubic angels to
being like Sullen teenagers I have to
remember to not try to impose my concept
of fun on them and to not expect them to
come with me on my concept of fun all
the time and to just give them their
space to be miserable because those
years are miserable for almost everyone
most of us would be better off if they
could just put us into a medically
induced coma for the Adolescent years
just wake up when it's over nothing good
happens all right let's talk about like
two more fun things before we wrap for
the day I'm going to go down in the chat
see where we are uh so Joel says are
dishes that are hard to cook actually
worth the
hassle um I will give you my opinion on
this which of course is all I can give I
mean I other other internet Cooks might
feel empowered to tell you what you
should feel on such a topic I will not I
will only tell you what I feel the
personal conclusion that I have arrived
at regarding the question are hard to
cook things worth it there are two
situations in which it's worth it to
cook hard to cook things in my opinion
at home the first situation is if that
food is very precious to you you love it
it's unavailable where you live okay
that used to be a really common thing
that came up a lot it's less so true now
like why did I get into home pizza
baking it's because I moved to Boston
and Boston at the
time or if you went out to the suburbs
there was some good pizza but in in sort
of Metro Boston Center City Boston
Cambridge there were good pizzas but
there were no good New York style pizzas
at the time and I really missed that so
that's what I got into doing and that's
why I expended all of this work and time
and money trying to kind of bake the
perfect New York Pizza at home is
because I could not I literally couldn't
get one and I wanted one and it's that
simple we live in a world where at the
moment at least that eventuality is less
and less common right just globalism
global trade Global uh shipping the
miracle of global uh rapid shipping has
made not all of the foods but most of
the foods available to most people
people in most developed countries most
of the time right so that's less
relevant so to me the second situation
in which it's worth it to cook something
hard is more relevant and that is
when it would be
fun it would be fun is a good enough
reason to do almost anything that isn't
particularly harmful to you or somebody
else actually in fact I think it is a
good enough reason to do
something as long as it's a thing that
isn't particularly harmful to you or
someone else you get into trouble
because you know and this is where to
tie things in with where we started our
conversation today talking about like
knives and the Israel palestin is you
know
U app when when
things when things get very P when
people care very much about what is
going on on that tends to result in
absolutist
thinking which is understandable but not
necessarily
productive so the Absolut thinking that
I tend to engage in as it comes to kind
of cooking is I kind of think like
well you know either I'll do it myself
or I'll just buy something and it's you
know it's one of the other the whole
semi homemade thing never had any appeal
to me right the idea of like buying a
rotisserie chicken from the grocery
store and then dressing it up with stuff
yourself that never really made sense to
me it was like I'm either gonna cook or
I'm not gonna cook that's Absolut just
thinking that's my own kind of my own
tendency toward kind of um All or
Nothing or even um ideological thinking
you know
um and and that's bad I've kind of
gotten over that so that's not a good
reason to cook yourself the other sort
of absolutes thing that people tend to
think about is that it's like oh my gosh
did I just lose the train of thought
well hey if that only happened once
terribly over the course of this like
hourlong live stream that's not terrible
that's fine the point is when it would
be fun if it's a project if if if making
this hard toake thing if making tempano
or whatever weird weirdly unnecessarily
elaborate thing you want to make would
just be fun to do because it would be a
fun project hell go for it okay I am
coming to you from my Greenhouse where I
mostly keep decorative plants ornamental
plants I keep some plants that I eat but
not many it's mostly ornamentals and I
keep fish in aquariums I'm not going to
eat them it's all for fun it's all work
I have made myself for fun right the
fish tank is nothing but like a homework
assignment that I gave myself because
projects are fun and I also know that I
as a person and at my best when I have a
project right when I don't have a
project I I I Retreat
into all kinds of really unhealthy
States right and that's why to a certain
extent like I'm choosing to be here
today and talking to you and to keep
doing this to keep making content for a
living even though like I could I'm at
the point where I've made enough money
with it where I could start to kind
of I could start to sort of ramp it down
a little bit um I know that it's good
for me to work and to have a project and
do stuff and so that's why I'm here and
if you like it if it's enjoyable for you
that's awesome that's a benefit that's
great but I'm mostly here just to keep
myself from melting into like C like
chair dad you know like the dad who just
Spends His he's like he's he's he spends
his whole life in his easy chair he's
sort of melt become part of it
you know like almost like Han Solo in
carbonite like he's just kind of part of
the chair and that Dad just kind of
hangs out in the background as everybody
grows up and does their lives around him
and he cuts the checks so people love
him but he he doesn't really do much
other than that I kind of want to be
chair dad that seems like a good I'm not
against I love chair Dad I've known many
chair dads and they're awesome I kind of
want to be chair dad but I feel like
that's probably not the best use of me
and I also think that that's like not
the best thing for my health I need to
keep going I need to keep doing things I
need to stay busy and so the way you do
that is you give yourself projects one
project is hey get off your ass and make
some money for the family which is what
I'm doing here right but other projects
are like hey you know abduct some fish
from the south American stream where
they were perfectly happy try to keep
them alive in a glass
box it's like this weird homework
assignment that I gave myself but I do
it because a I enjoy it and B it it's
good for me it keeps me sharp it makes
me healthy cooking something difficult
keeps me sharp from time to time makes
me healthy gives me something to do and
if it's that for you I 10,000% support
you in that even if it's a complete
waste of it's not like a good
expenditure of resources unless you're
the kind of person who really should be
putting your effort towards something
like you have children that you're not
providing for I think you should go and
like work at a real job instead of
giving yourself a pointless homework
assignment if that's the
eventuality um but on the other hand you
can take that kind of reasoning too far
and say that poor people don't deserve
Leisure right and that is uh not the
kind of argument you want to be making
that people who are Idol are are somehow
morally compromised right uh everyone
needs a certain amount of downtime in
their life in order to like function and
be productive and useful to anyone and
so uh yeah you can't you can't criticize
poor people for trying to have some fun
with some of their day because they
literally have to because there's no
other way we can get through it all
there's no other way we can get through
all the horror that we're presented with
in our daily lives without spending some
time in our happy place and if your
happy place is deep frying something
even though deep frying at home is in
many ways a bad use of resources then
you do you my friend find your peace
however you can in this crazy world that
we live
in love you all and as much as I can
love people I don't know be safe out
there and uh talk to you next
time oh now I have to say end