My name is Simone Giertz, and this is my Last Meal. Every person has exactly two things in common. We all got to eat and we’re all gonna die. Today’s guest is inventor, product designer, engineering YouTuber, formally known as Queen of Shitty Robots. She’s the only person I’ve ever met to have eaten a silica gel packet and lived to tell the tale. Simone Giertz, welcome to the show, and what the hell? Wait, how do you know that? That’s not important. How did you eat a silica gel packet? How do you know that? Did I tell you and just forget about it? Didn’t tell me per se, but I did hear it somewhere and I was shocked and appalled by it. You know what? I mean, we’re speaking of dying, and I feel like I am gonna eventually go in some very creative way. She ate too many silico gel packets. I was maybe 14, which is too old to make that mistake. And I remember that we’d gotten these like, weird Japanese cupcakes from somebody that brought it to our house. And I was like, ooh, what’s this little spice bag? And I was like, oh, they don’t really have much flavor, and then I looked at the bag, and it was just like, do not eat, and, uh, yeah, and here I am, I’ve lived to tell the tale. Did you tell anyone about it, or you just ate that shame until it came out? Well, apparently I told you about it. Apparently you did. So, I don’t think I was like, hey, mom and dad, I did something bad. Uh, no. But, I don’t know. Like, I feel like you would probably have to eat a pretty significant amount. Don’t test that, anybody, don’t. We don’t support that and those did not make it on the last meal today so it couldn’t have tasted that good. Cause it is the forbidden seasoning packet that everyone wants to know what it tastes like and you’re the only person that I can actually ask about that. I can’t, I mean this is 20 year old information but it did not taste like much. Okay, good to know, good to know. So now you know. Um, have you thought about your last meal before? I have not. Never? No. What did you find out about yourself thinking about your last meal? That I’m very eclectic. You are incredibly eclectic. You’ll see. You’ll see. When you do think about dying, what are the last that you think of when it comes to death? I’m not, I wouldn’t say I’m scared of dying because like, so many people have done it before me. Yeah, it’s kind of the least, the least, uh, unique thing you can do is die. It’s so trite. It’s played out. It’s so basic. Like, how hard can it be? Like, um, the main thing is sometimes I’ll be like, who would speak at my funeral? And then I make myself really sad because I’m like, I was so good. But I mean, I have definitely been faced with mortality and where you’re like, okay, I might die. And I just remember thinking, and that’s always like, if you’re in an airplane and there’s turbulence and you’re like, okay, what if we go down, what a, what a way to go. Uh, I’m always like, man, I have had such a good run. Like I have already gotten. So much more out of life than I ever expected to, and I think it’s not fear of dying, but grief of letting go of the life I’ve had. Cause like, even if I were to believe in reincarnation, like, there is no way I would ever get this good of a life again. My public speaking rates are really competitive, I’m just saying, if you want to book somebody for your funeral, I do have a lot of heart disease that runs in my family, so I’m probably going statistically pretty early, but I’m saying keep, keep me, you know, keep me out there. That’s great, I’ll put you in contact with my manager. Thank you so much. Yeah. You ready to eat? Yeah! Simone, for the first course of your final meal, a jackfruit. Uh is the, is the number of jackfruits here, and there’s a, and this is about a 30 pound jackfruit. Uh huh. Please explain. I don’t know, it’s just one of my favorite fruits. And I feel like a lot of, especially white people, have just fundamentally misunderstood what the jackfruit is. You’re talking about like the um, unique vegan urge to braise the jackfruit in barbecue sauce and put it on a sandwich and pretend like it tastes like meat? As a majority plant based person. This is the only trill, like, trill of the hunt that I get. That’s incredible. Is having to, like, eat a fruit that really fights back. You want the struggle, the, that’s what makes it worth it. Yeah, you know, and it’s like, wow, I really, I really show that jackfruit who’s boss. You’re like Joe Rogan bowhunting for jackfruit. Uh huh. You know? Incredible. So it is quite the process. Um, how do you normally do it? Because the way that I’ve done it in the past is I have lubed up a knife and everything, cause this is filled with a sticky sap. Yes. Um, and then you just sort of try and run the knife along anywhere. You can break it into hemispheres. Do you want to do this or you want me to take a stab at it? I usually cut. Like this, because then you get less sap. Please, this is your last meal. Enjoy the jackfruit as you would want to. Okay, so what I would do is, yeah, just cut it. You know, just go here. And we’re gonna do with the knife. Yeah, we have a, uh huh. Coconut oil. Is it? It is coconut oil, yeah. We figured that out. You’re like, no, it’s actual lube. I love the confidence. Here, I’ll stabilize her. Thank you. Don’t, don’t gender her. It makes it worse somehow. That makes sense, yeah, yeah, yeah. I said that and it immediately felt terrible. It immediately felt wrong. Yeah, so, and then we can just work on like, this end. And then I would kind of, just go and When’s the first time you had a jackfruit? Just unstoppable. I mean, honestly, it wasn’t that long ago. It was probably a couple years ago. And it made that big of an impact on you? It’s just good, and it’s fun, and weird, and I don’t know. And then you just go and you eat the yellow stuff, and now I immediately got sap. Yeah, there’s sap. There’s sap everywhere. How would you describe the flavor of jackfruit? Cause to me, it’s always been, if like, you soaked a piece of bubblegum in gasoline, but then drank a Snapple right afterwards. And I mean that in a good way. That is so specific. Thank you. You’ve thought about this a lot. Almost every day. Meek, the meekness of papaya, but with the texture of blank. I’m curious why you call papaya meek. Cause like often they’re like, you know, they’re not like the boldest fruit. They’re not like, hey, I’m papaya. It’s like, and I’m papaya. I would argue that that maybe makes it bolder in a certain way. It does have an artificial flavor, but true. It trait, like it tastes like candy. Is this everything you imagined from your last meal? Yeah. I’m happy. I will die with sticky fingers. I want to talk about the moniker that you were known as for a long time. The queen of shitty robots that you have since. Formally or semi formally renounced? I started out building shitty robots, so like, the whole shtick was that I built things that failed. Which I think was great, and it was such a, like, forgiving place to start building things, because if I had set out to be like, I’m gonna build something that’s great, I would never have done it. Um, like, I always wanted to be first to the punchline, and I really shoot myself down a lot. Um, and I think it was just a way to, like, make myself unthreatening as well, and like, just be like, hey, I’m just like, a semi cute girl who doesn’t know what she’s doing! Like, um, and then I was like, why am I still doing that? I know what I’m doing now, because I’ve been building things for years. And something I’m really proud of myself for in my career is really trying to stay true to what I wanted to do and being like not being stuck to the success of something. You referred to yourself earlier as semi cute and I know where that comes from because you’ve talked about how you said you had to be Intelligent enough, but not too intelligent to be threatening. Like, attractive enough, but not too attractive to sort of, like, attract unwanted attention. Now that you’re older and wiser and more established, do you feel like you can be your full self? Or do you think that sense of self is, like, ever developing? I was really scared that somebody was gonna question the merit of my success. And that’s also why, like, I would never get any help when I built things. Like, every screw what I would’ve put in myself. Because I was horrified that somebody was gonna be like, No, a dude built that for her. Or, no, she’s only successful because she’s semi cute. Um, and now I feel a lot like I’ve proven myself in a way, and it opens up being able to, like, get help on stuff, or not constantly have to be on guard for people to question me. Was there a moment where you felt like you proved yourself? Was there one moment in your career that you were like, oh, I am the shit? Honestly, probably the, one of the most recent ones is when I released my foldable coat hanger. Because that was also, like, a project that is not funny at all. Yeah. And so it’s a foldable coat hanger, so if you have a wardrobe that’s too shallow for standard coat hangers, or if you have, like, a really narrow hallway, it hangs closer to the wall. And it went really viral, and I remember being that, of like, okay, I can do this. Even if it’s not me getting slapped in the face with a rubber hand. That was a genius invention, though, I’m just saying. Thank you. I think we’d all kill for the breakfast robot, too. Especially if there’s one that could break down an entire jackfruit for you, which, this is a pretty blunt force task. I think you could build a robot to break down a jackfruit. Okay, serious question. Hmm? Who gets the leftovers? Oh, you. We actually, 100%. That wasn’t the, you didn’t read the writer? We actually have left, we actually have branded last meals to go boxes, um. Thank you, I was hoping. I mean, I assume some of the meals nobody is going to want. That just means more for you. It’s great. Um, do you see any humanity in your robots? Because a lot of your Shady Robots that like deliberately fail a lot of people seem to see themselves in that robot. Even if it makes like a beep at the end, they’re like, oh, I love its self satisfied beep I don’t think a robot can feel self satisfaction. But when you create them, do you anthropomorphize them? I definitely did. Um, and I think that’s what a lot of the stuff I did Instead of programming robot arms to like go from point A to point B, I would have it um, in learning mode where you can kind of move it because it would make the movements more fluid and it would look more human like because when it’s just like It doesn’t, it doesn’t really evoke any emotional response in you, but when it’s like, uh, hey, hey, okay, then it just looks a lot more human. So yeah, I think definitely. You invented the Cybertruck. A Tesla pickup truck, yeah. So you created the Truckla, which is your Tesla Model 3 that you Then turned into an electric Tesla pickup truck several months before the cyber truck made its debut and was unveiled. What were your emotions seeing the design of the cyber truck? I was there at the launch. Actually, I have never felt the air. Leave the room in the same way as when that thing rolled out on stage. But I really tip my hat to the boldness of it. Like it goes hard. It does go hard. There’s so many hard angles, the fonts behind it. I remember the unveiling too, as the. The unveiling, it was like the graffiti font, it looked like the um, Jet Set Radio Future video game from like 2003. I, I think it’s, it’s, it’s pretty cool, but it’s not the pickup truck that I want. Truckla, my pickup truck had come out months before that. People were like, whoa, that’s really out there. And then suddenly, my pickup truck became the more conventional option. So everybody just turned and they were like, no, we wanted that. And, um, yeah. Um, when the robot revolution happens and we’re all slaves in the bitcoin mines, do you think you’ll be treated as friend by the robot overlords, or as some sort of experimental angel of death figure and you’ll be ritualistically slaughtered in front of the masses? There’s too much documentation of me torturing robots. Yeah, I don’t think they’ll like that. But then also, maybe, Ooh, I could be a pawn in their propaganda machine. You’re the one that flipped. You’re the defector that flipped. No, but I’m, I’m the one who’s like, No, no, don’t, don’t be scared. They’re just friendly. They’re nice robots. Look at them. They’re serving me breakfast. So I think that’s probably going to be my survival mechanism. It’s just like, no, no, no. I can serve you. Don’t send me to the mines. You need me in your PR. PR department. Simone, for course number two of your incredibly eclectic last meal, we have semolina porridge, simply just a little bit of cinnamon, a little bit of salt, a little bit of sugar. And then we have a whole boiled artichoke just turned a little bit, just to remove the biggest spikeys and then some salt. And butter. Please tell me what, what, what’s going on, what’s what the hell. The funny thing is, I, I wrote the list of the meals and then I’ve completely forgotten about it, , and now I was so pleasantly surprised. I was like Mandagrünsgröt, really. I’m sorry. Mandagrünsgröt? Mandagrünsgröt. Yeah. Okay. And what does that literally translate to? Is like a type of. Thing? Is it like, so is Mandagrün, is that like the semolina? So semolina is like a very coarse, coarse ground wheat. Probably, and gröt is like porridge. Okay, that is a much better name for porridge than porridge. Gröt? Gröt, yeah. Gröt. So this feels like stepping into my childhood. Yeah. Because we would eat a lot of artichoke, we would eat a lot of Mandagrünsgröt. Because we would either do oatmeal or Mandagrünsgröt. Hmm. And I think this is still in the category of foods that fight back. It really is. I don’t, yeah, I don’t know, and it’s like foods that I have a relationship to in some way. Um, but yeah, I think, I think what I like often is just like the one ingredient thing as well. And it’s just like, this is just a vegetable that does it all. The inner leaves are where it’s at. I don’t want to like forsake the outer leaves. What are you doing? What? There’s a whole process to it. I’m so sorry. This is your last meal. No, I can fix it. I can, somebody get me some glue. I claw from the inside. Oh, this is the thing. People go straight for the heart, but there’s so much foreplay in the weeds. Let’s go there. Most of the time, see, I’m just barreling into the artichoke. Yeah, no, but you gotta, you gotta And then I yell, where’s the butter? And the butter’s always there. Your second coolest scar is from when you had a birthmark removed on your butt. Tell me about your first coolest scar. You mean that I had brain surgery? That one, it looks sick. But yeah, I had brain surgery, which was like, so weird. To be like, hey, you have a brain tumor. And you’re like, wow, that explains a lot. Um, but yeah, I had a swollen eyelid. And, um, for all you hypochondriacs out there. Turns out, a swollen eyelid can be a brain tumor the size of a golf ball. You mentioned earlier that you had, you know, a brush with mortality. Were there points where you seriously thought like, Oh, this could be it, and how did that change your relationship to your priorities in life? I wasn’t really dying. Like, there was a very high chance that I would get out of it still living, but I was at the risk of losing a lot of capacity for life. And I think also just going through the recovery and like, I was best case scenario, like the surgery went great. The tumors that, or the tumor part that I had left kept on growing, so I had to do radiation treatment. But like, really like. That was the best case scenario. Also, nothing makes me feel as young as being in the waiting room at a neurology department. They’re always like, wow, you’re so young. And you’re like, I know, what else am I? I think it’s just going through that and having such limited energy and really having to think about how I spent it. As somebody who came out of it relatively unscathed. Like it’s had such a profoundly positive impact on my life. Um, it completely re evaluated how I feel about rest, what it means for me to be good. Um, it’s changed my relationship to my body in a lot of different ways. It was like, such a profound way of seeing how many people were willing to show up for me. It was like, and you’re also just like, life has never, has never felt as real as it did then. Because you know, you’re always like in an everyday state and you’re like, okay, it’s Tuesday, but then you’re like, okay this is life actually happening and I can’t recommend it. Yes. It’s a tough thing to recommend. Yeah no, don’t don’t do it if you can avoid it, but it was really like had a lot of really good long term consequences dig into the Mandagrünsgröt. Wow. Come on the Mandagrünsgröt is getting cold I did okay. I remember, you did great! Did I do okay? Oh, thank god. That was such a long time ago, you must have run that in your head over and over and over again. Tak tak. Uh, C’mon, who dated a Swede for 8 weeks? Uh, it was the best 8 weeks of my life. Um, you said that you struggled asking for help, and then after brain surgery you had to ask for help because doing everyday things became very difficult. Was that hard for you? Easy for you? And did you learn anything you took away from that? Do you know, like, if you end up shitting on the floor in your bathroom, butt naked, you don’t have a lot of choice but to call your mom in. Sure. But like, was there, do you think it’d be easier to ask for help when you shit on the floor than it is like, Oh, I need to build this robot today. I think about asking for help. Not necessarily as asking for help or like if somebody asks me for support in some way, I try to think of it as a bid to deepen our connection. So it’s not them necessarily being like, hey, can you help out with this? It’s like, hey, do you want to be in a friendship with me where we do things for each other? And I think that’s made it a lot easier both to ask for help and to give help. Um, because you’re like, it’s not necessarily the act of it. It’s just like, and when you say, no, no, no, I don’t need help. Often what people will hear is like, oh no, no, no. I’m not interested in getting help from you. Yeah. How do we do on the Mandagrünsgröt? It’s so good. It’s so good. I’m never eating oatmeal again, Simone. As this is, I mean, it probably would make your blood sugar spike like nobody’s business. I love it. I ride that high. You named your brain tumor Brian. Did you have people named Brian reach out to you and go like, hey, what the hell? Funny thing is now I date a Brian. You date a Brian. Whoa. And I don’t want to call it Stockholm syndrome here. Yeah. But if you’re from the place. Yeah, no, I. And I remember one of the first things I said to him was, I named my brain tumor Brian so I feel like I already know you. You’re so good at flirting, oh my god. That is incredible. The rizz is just dripping off of me here, yeah. Uh, yeah, I did have some people be like, why did you name the Brain, and I get that. I like, I feel so bad for all the Karens out there. Uh, cause like they had, they really haven’t done anything wrong. But it was an anagram of brain and I was in a tough spot, but I do want to extend a semi sincere apology to the Brain’s out there if you were rubbed the wrong way by me naming my brain tumor Brian. Just, uh, Nah, I don’t want to apologize. I changed my mind. You’re fine. Uh, why did you send Brian to Antarctica, the brain tumor, not the person you’re dating? So the thing is, I was supposed to go to Antarctica. I was supposed to shoot a show for PBS Nova, like an online series, which I was really excited about, and then pretty, like, late into the process, I realized, like, I am not well enough. I will not be able to physically do the shoot. I pulled out of the project, but then my friend was still going, and she was like, do you want me to bring anything? And I was like, well, what is your comfort level? Uh, so yeah, so she took one of the slides, uh, from my brain tumor that I had to fight like hell to get from my doctor. Because they won’t give you, like, the pieces of it. It’s literally yours. I know! I was like, I grew that. Over 10 to 15 years. So you don’t think I have a right to it? That is my son. Right there. Um, but the thing that got it was that I said, I want to get a second opinion from my doctor in Sweden. Which, I don’t have a doctor in Sweden. But then they gave it to me. And, uh, yeah, so I sent my brain tumor to Antarctica, which I think was great! And she took a really beautiful photo of it in front of a glacier. And it felt very symbolic to, like, not be able to go myself, but a piece of me that had literally been the thing that prohibited me from going, getting to go. It also feels like how Superman banished, uh, I believe Lex Luthor to an ice prison. I feel like that’s what you did to Brian the brain tumor. Yeah, maybe. Just think, sit there and think about what you did. Yeah. I mean, we brought it back, because you can’t. Oh, okay. Oh, that’s leave no trace. Yeah, don’t. Don’t put, like, bio materials on Antarctica, but, um, yeah, but it’s a beautiful photo and it’s a really fun story. Simone, for course number three, we have the Angel Hair Pasta Nests. We’ve cooked them, added a little bit of a vegan alfredo homage made with blended soaked cashews, and then we have added some fried chanterelle mushrooms on top here, and then we have two doses. This is a delicious, uh, Szechuan, like, shredded, stir fried potato dish, where the texture of the potatoes is meant to evoke somewhat rawness. It’s so crunchy. It’s got the Szechuan peppercorn in there. It’s got some scallion on top, a lot of chili oil, and then black vinegar is what adds a little bit of acid. So good. I mean, I haven’t eaten it yet, but it looks so good. It looks really good. Yeah. I mean, so, this is, I mean, I’m from Sweden. We foraged a lot of mushrooms, especially chanterelles, and I don’t know, it’s just one of the most luxurious meals you can have, in my opinion, because it’s like the fruits of your labor in this way. Like, you come home and you’ve been tired from being in the forest, and then you’re like, let’s put some carbs on this. Um. Can I eat it? You eat it, eat it. I have to ask though, do you go fork or chopstick? Because I think you’re one of the few people in the world who has thought about how forks affect the human condition more than I have. I have thought so much about forks. You do not know how much I’ve thought about forks. Tell me about it. No, tell me about it. No, I love the aggression. Especially about forks. From the man with the sporked tattooed on his arm. I actually, so I’ve been working on a project that is all about everyday objects and why they look the way that they do. And the first one of those is about the forks. It’s like, why does it have four tines? Why not five? Why not three? Some have three. Why does it have the little swoop? Why is it this width? Why is this length? How would different, like, manufacturing methods affect the form factor of the fork? There is so much. I don’t think they should exist at all. And in fact, they didn’t exist, as you probably know, they didn’t exist in this form until really the mid 18th century and before that they were seen as like an effeminate Italian affectation. The Roman Catholic Church actually banned the use of forks in England for hundreds of years. And it was only thanks to Catherine de Medici, who helped actually codify a lot of different things, but who brought forks into the modern table setting. But I don’t think they should exist on a table, especially here. I feel like now you’re stealing my TED talk here. No, no, no. Do you want to do like a battle rap? Yeah, yeah, yeah! Forks, we’re just spitting fork facts! No, but the thing is we’ve had knives and spoons for a long time because they do things that our hands can’t do. We can’t cut, we can’t scoop very well with our hands. The fork just replaces our hands. And the funny thing is that it has four times. So it’s kind of a mockery of the hand. And the main selling points for forks was for one, they kind of spread with the, um, adaptation of spaghetti because they are good for eating spaghetti with. Uh, but also one of the main selling points was that you will not need to do as much laundry because your hands will not get dirty. Oh yeah. So forks are actually, there’s an environmental play with forks. Yeah. How is this the first time we’ve hung out? I was like, I have met my, my equal here in spitting fork facts. Um, but there was already the perfect noodle eating utensil that was invented roughly 10,000 years ago, 5,000 years before the spork, or before the fork, Freudian slip and forkian slip. And that’s the chopstick. I started eating all spaghetti in my home with chopsticks. Wow. Way to upset every culture. Uh, this is very good. Also, I realized that I, speaking of ways to eat pasta, I realized that I do something that not a lot of people do. This is a weird thing to share, but we are on a runaway train of sharing random facts and we’re going with it. I don’t slurp up the pasta, I roll it up on my tongue. Um, is it inappropriate if I ask you to demonstrate while I stare at you? It’s, I don’t know how much you’re going to be able to see. Oh, now I regret doing this. Just like try and play to, not the camera, but play to my face. I don’t want to make eye contact with you while I do this. I’m just going to stare into the tools. Yeah, please, that’d be more comfortable that way too. Okay, so you just put it in your mouth, and then you just run your tongue in a circle, you kind of wind it up on your tongue. I can ask you to cut things out after the fact, right? Okay, cool, cool, cool. Moment of trust here. Okay. Like an anteater! That was incre and the crowd goes wild! It’s like tying a cherry stem in a knot, except it’s like way more practical. I don’t know, but this is like one of the things that I’ve done ever since I was a kid, and I didn’t realize that it was weird until somebody was like, what the [bleep] are you doing? Uh, but yeah, so, no, you get it, like, run your tongue in a circle. I can ask you to cut things after this, right? Tell me about the to do sir, if I’m pronouncing it anywhere close to correct, because you do speak Mandarin, right? I used to live in China when I was a teenager, and this was one of my favorite meals. Um, and it’s just, good and it’s always like because I almost always have two potatoes in my fridge and you’re like I just need something more and it takes five minutes to make. Yeah and that’s got the the Sichuan peppercorn which has like the the prickly ash of the xanthocyanin in there that kind of like numbs your tongue a little bit gives you that electrified feeling mm hmm I love eating it. I don’t love shitting it out. What foods do you love shitting out? Is there a ranking? I don’t know, the only thing that comes up is corn, because you’re like, oh, I forgot about you! It’s a surprise! It’s funny seeing you again! A tip of the hat to you! Good day, sir! Would you rather relive the day where you found out you had a brain tumor, or relive the day where you shot a Chinese sitcom for like 16 hours and had to run your lines 85 times and piss off an entire cadre of Chinese actors when you were 16? Finding out brain tumor. Yep. Honestly. Shooting that Chinese sitcom, so this is me, 16 years old, living in China, going to a public Chinese high school, I’m an exchange student, I live in a Chinese host family, and for some reason, like I’m in a city with almost no foreigners, and they need somebody to play somebody’s like Canadian or American wife. They’re like, that girl can do it and they said I would only have three lines. And it is genuinely the most uncomfortable, awkward, painful day of my life. Because I struggled through that and you’re trying your best and everybody’s annoyed with you, even though like you got thrown in the deep end and you were not able to swim and somebody else made that judgment call on your end. Finding out that I had a brain tumor was great until it wasn’t, but that was like, it was late at night that I found out. So like the rest of the day was kind of fine. Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. Yeah. That’s just good math right there. What’s your most uncomfortable day? So my dad was in a coma, and it was several days before he passed away, but it was that sitting in stasis for so long, let’s say like day four in the hospital, when it was the same hospital food that I’d eaten for the last three days, chicken, white bean, chili, I can’t eat it to this day, um, but it was doing that, and it was just the nothingness of staring at the walls in no news, and looking at the same magazine covers. I would rather do anything than relive that day, which is why I think, like, hospitals freak me out. Which is why, you know, someone like you who spent so much time, I had so much time to think about third mortality and be stuck in this sort of stasis because it took you like, what, two years ish to really go through that journey and I’m sure it’s still, you know, it was felt for that long. I’m always fascinated with, you know, dealing with things for, for that long and not knowing when it’s going to change, so. That being stuck in that gray zone of like the only thing that’s going to get you out of it was most likely him passing and that’s not something to hope for is going to happen, but then at the same time being like, how long am I going to be here for? That sounds like such a weird state to be in. And for such a long time, did you ever feel that with, cause you had the brain operation, but then you also went through radiation after that, when the tumor came back, did you ever feel that like, oh, this is going to last forever, that feeling of uncomfortability, that feeling of, like, dissociation. Yeah, there’s definitely a time where, um, you’re like, am I ever gonna feel better? And it’s so hard to be a patient patient. Did you go into, like, your own treatment with scientific curiosity, or did you do the opposite, where you just pulled back and were like, let go and let science. Hold back completely. It’s weird. Cause you never know how you’re going to react in a situation like that. Uh, I remember my mom being like, you should get second opinions. Let’s like, look into it. And I for just. Latched on to my neurologist, like a scared little child. Yeah. Like, he was the one who, um, was on call when I went to the emergency room after I had my MRI. And he was the one who ended up doing surgery on me. So he kind of became my point of safety. And I remember I was just like, Dr.Reddy, whatever you say, I will do and I will trust. And I did not want to doubt him in any way. So no, I was definitely not like, oh, let’s learn about this. I was like, whatever you needed me to do. Um, I do think that a curious disposition felt like the most constructive way to approach it. Cause you’re not going to like, I can’t be like toxically optimistic of like, everything’s going to be great because like, you don’t know that. I don’t know. Like how often do you get to hear dripping noises inside of your skull? How often do you get to hear dripping noises? Once in my life. It was so crazy because you like. Get like they don’t you will have air trapped in your head. So there will be like drips from the roof of your head because also you have like a big cavity After like I had a little hole in my brain where like the brain tumor had been I guess I thought they filled it With packing peanuts. I didn’t and I remember like moving my head over from one side and go. Which is so crazy like how can you not be curious about that? Yeah, fair point. Yeah you mentioned that your mom and dad they were in the TV business, right? And you said growing up you didn’t want to like, you know do what they did because nobody wants to follow their parents. So you sort of rebelled against that and went to the sciences um, but, your great great great grandfather, Large Magnus Eriksson, Mm hmm. Was kind of the person who, like, brought the, the telephone to Sweden. Do you believe in any sort of, like, fate or higher power? Or do you think that’s all sort of coincidence? Or is there some sort of biological determinism there? I do think, I’m very similar to my mom in that way, she’s just very curious and very like, what if we do it this way? Yeah. And you’re like, that’s not how you do it. And she’s like, no. Um, but I think more than that, it was also I just had parents who were always encouraging and they gave me a very long lead of like, Mm. Do what you want and yeah, so I think it’s more that but there’s definitely something biological going on. Did you invent the proud parent machine? Uh huh, because you didn’t get enough pats on the back I’m proud of you, son. Thank you, thank you so much. I don’t have 25 cents but I’ll Venmo you You don’t have the tap reader on the machine yet. You ready to get to the final course? Yeah, let’s do it. Simone, for the final course, your final meal on this earth. Simone and earth, millions of different crop varietals, thousands of years of culinary engineering. And you have chosen until the long sleep. Edible clay. Now this is Siberian edible clay. Is this your, uh, preferred vintage? I don’t know, I haven’t tried that many. How many is too many? How many is that many? I can’t believe I’m about to confess this on the internet. When I was a young girl. Shh, give her space. There’s no better smell than the smell of rocks and, like, soil. And my siblings also love it. The difference between me is that I’m like, I want to eat it. And I realize I probably have something called pica, where you want to, like, eat. Unedible or inedible things. But then I realized so i’m not like gonna go out into the yard and just pick up a rock and eat it, but I figured you know what i’m in my 30s. Let’s explore the side of myself And I went on a google hunt. And I found that there’s a whole community of people who like eating clay. And apparently in like, indigenous communities, you’d eat it for digestion. There’s, this is very, like, everybody does it. Yeah, there’s, there’s kettle and clay. No, I, no, I am here to validate that. Not that you need my validation. You’ve been thinking about eating rocks for 20 years. I’m an interloper. But, this is a thing that is commonly eaten, especially like, Pregnant women, um, they will eat clay because it is rich in iron. Shit am I pregnant and that’s that’s how I find out. Maybe, I don’t know. We got, also, this specific brand of pika is called Geophagy. Wow! You know more about this than I do. It’s a pretty simple Latin construction of eating the earth. Yeah. And that’s rad. That is metal. It makes me I don’t eat much. Like, I’ll eat, like, a little piece. Mm hmm. This is, like, this is months worth of clay. Yeah. I don’t know. It’s just well, hold on now. Hold on. Where’s this rank in terms of your clay eating experiences? You know, different rocks taste different. This one’s pretty mintier. This is minty that’s good. It’s not S tier. Um, but you know, it’s good. It’s just weird, because I was like, oh, it’s good. Get cravings for it all the It’s not that I’m hungry or anything. Um, but you’re just like, you know what, I really wanna do that. I’m gonna chew on some rock. Are you have you gotten your iron levels tested? I’m chronically anemic. Oh, you are? So maybe that explains but does it really have iron in it? I think that’s typically the reason most people around the world compulsively eat clay. Yeah, maybe I should eat more iron supplements. But even without that, you just love the taste of it. I just love the taste of it. I don’t know. And there’s nothing wrong with it. A little bit wrong with that. A little bit wrong with that. Yeah, um, uh, I look forward to your judgment. Your mom hosts a show where she has psychic mediums. Mhmm. Reconnect family members to deceased loved ones. Is your mom, like, a true believer of the paranormal, or was she just a host for the show, and also, did that transmit to you? I think the effect that that has had on me is that I have, like, teenage allergies to anything spiritual, anything. Like, I just can’t. Oh, gosh. When somebody starts talking about astrological signs, I just glaze over. I’m sorry if anybody here is into it. I just, you know, it I can’t. Did you used to be, I like, I have never heard the phrase teenage allergy, but that describes exactly what I still have intuitively, but definitely had more vocally when I was a teenager. Has that softened in you? Have you, as you’ve gotten older, you’ve gotten a little bit more like, oh, I understand you’re merely using that as a tool for self reflection and blah, blah, blah, or it’s still like that deck of tarot cards is $200 bucks and you’re late on your rent. I think I’ve gotten more hard on it, like, unless somebody is going through grief, if somebody’s grieving somebody and they feel like talking to a psychic person or trying to get contact with the person that they’re grieving is going to help them in some way, then it’s like, whatever works for you in this context. I feel like I deeply identify as an atheist. And, um. But, who knows? We’re malleable beings. And, uh, who knows what the future holds. I’m, I’m very happy to be proven wrong. As an atheist, what do you believe happens when you die? Is it just night, night, nothingness, we were never here? Probably. What’s something you still hope to accomplish before you finally do go for the big sleep? Okay. Picture this. I’m picturing it. I’m 57. I’ve aged very well. I rock a full head of gray hair and I walk into this big brick building and there’s a whole workshop floor with people working and everybody’s a little bit scared of me, but they know that deep down I am very kind. My office is on second floor. There’s a mezzanine. I walk up there. People bring in prototypes and they’re like, how do you like this one? And I say, you know what? Let’s make that button green instead. And let’s look at these other materials. And then I just get to create and guide this whole group of people. And like, this is the product I want to explore. And that just, I so badly want to make that happen. And I am very deliberately working towards that. Uh, I hope you look back at this episode, uh, from that second floor mezzanine office. And you go, wow, why the [bleep] did I eat clay? I’m still eating clay. This is a lifelong commitment. You ready to get to the lightning round? Yeah. Uh, who’s the one person dead or alive you’d want to share your actual last meal with? Mom. You can only take three of your inventions on a desert island. Which do you take? Maybe my dog chair if I could also bring my dog. And Proud parent machine because emotional support. How are you gonna beat that? Uh, what song do you want to be played at your funeral? It’s a song by Laleh, but there’s a cover by Jose Gonzalez. That she did, that was, it’s called En Stund På Jorden, it’s about a moment on earth, and it’s very beautiful. That one. People will cry, oh my god, the speeches, Josh’s speech, everybody. Yeah. I knew I’d crush it. I knew I’d crush it. If you could be any animal other than a business mantis, what animal would you be? Uh, an indoor outdoor cat, cause they have all the best, the best of both worlds. Yeah, they really do. Yeah. Uh, who’s your dream eulogizer other than me at your funeral? It would be so fun if like a very random celebrity showed up and people would be like wait, how did she know? Like, Justin Trudeau. Or, I don’t know. It would just be somebody very, very random and nobody knew that I was, that I knew them. Not Justin Trudeau, I don’t really. Uh, WWE legend Mick Foley. He seems fun. Sure, sure. What’s your biggest fear? That somebody’s angry with me but they won’t tell me why. Uh, what’s the hardest goodbye you’ve ever had to say? Um, I think first time I moved abroad, saying goodbye to my family. Uh, dog, euthanasia. You were a youth in Asia. I was, no, I was, I had to euthanize my dog because of behavioral issues and because he turned really aggressive. And that was, wait, people are laughing? No, I, you said, can we, let’s, we have to run this back. You don’t have a hard out, right? So, you said when I went abroad, you went abroad to China. And then you said, no, euthanasia, but I said, you were a youth in Asia when you went abroad. But then you start talking about a very real story of you having to put your dog down due to, uh, aggressive behavior, and then people laughed. About a second, because it took a while for it to set in, but then they were laughing directly at you murdering your dog. Yeah, it’s a, it’s a very hard judgment call when you have to balance the safety of society and of your environment and your love for your dog. Um, but yeah, that was probably the hardest goodbye. Oh my God, that was so much big segue. Simone are you happy?. Yes, I have a great capacity for being, uh, cranky and, uh, unhappy and moments, but overall in life, I am very, very, very happy. You seem very happy, and, uh, but truly this was an absolute pleasure, and I’ve been watching your stuff for years. I’m excited to watch your career grow, and all that. If you want to deliver your last words, Simone, to that camera right there. I’m thinking my last words before I die would be, I didn’t do it. Only to throw people off. Like, leave a mystery. I buried it in the woods. Or something like that, for people to be like, wait, what? I’m going to every single woods to try and find whatever you buried. I’m just gonna find Trukla, uh, under there, and it’s gonna be incredible. Uh, Simone, truly, this is awesome. Everybody, make sure you follow Simone on YouTube, on socials. Simone, tell them where they can find you. Uh, at Simone Giertz, spelled G I E R T Z, because my ancestors were trolls. Just like it, just like it sounds. Yeah. Just like it sounds. We all gotta eat and we’re all gonna die. But in the meantime, you can wear our Last Meals hoodie, available now at mythical.com.