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Live: Is Sparkling Water Actually Water?

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Jan 25, 2016
Live: Is Sparkling Water Actually Water?

This week's episode of The Sporkful podcast is up! Listen through the player or iTunes/Podcasts app. (And please subscribe!)

If you add carbon dioxide to water, is it still water?

Dan says no. Comedian Myq Kaplan (top, left) says yes and points out that many waters we know and love -- notably, salt water -- are hybrids:

"Ice water is water but it’s water with ice in it, and ice is also water," Myq says.

Myq studied linguistics before he was a comedian, so the debate takes an unexpected turn when Dan asks if human beings are water:

Dan: So if I said, 'Myq, I want a glass of water...'

Myq: ...and I get into a glass and hand myself to you? I don't see why you could have a problem with that. I am water, drink me!

Dan: That would not quench my thirst.

Listen in to the full episode to hear the audience pick the winner of that debate and for more edible linguistics debates. Myq's veganism comes into play when he and Dan tackle a big question: Is vegan cheese cheese?

©2015 Evan Sayles (evansayles.com)

This week's show was taped live on stage at Tufts University, near Boston -- Dan's alma mater.

Tufts is where Dan first tried his hand at radio on the campus station, had some formative food experiences, and learned to question conventional wisdom.

All of that prompts the question: Would The Sporkful have existed without Tufts?

In fact, the Socratic dialogue on snack mix ethics in Dan's book comes right out of Dan's first semester philosophy class, Western Political Thought 1.

©2015 Evan Sayles (evansayles.com)

Naturally, Dan invited the professor who taught that course, Robert Devigne (above), to discuss the great philosophers' takes on cherry picking ingredients from a snack mix.

"Thomas Hobbes would say that you're going to have a big problem if you're just going to let people pick out of the snack mix without having some type of higher authority that's going to determine at what point will people's safety be harmed," Professor Devigne says.

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But at least one of the rock stars of philosophy might have been onboard with a little snack mix anarchy:

"Nietzsche's argument that God is dead [could mean that] all the traditional ways of eating are gone," Professor Devigne argues.

Listen in to the full episode to hear why Socrates never would have picked the pretzels out of a snack mix and to get Dan's personal snack mix philosophy.

©2015 Evan Sayles (evansayles.com)

And a big shout out to the two student a cappella groups that performed at our event: the Beelzebubs (above) and Shir Appeal (below). Listen up for some of their music in the episode and check them out on Spotify.

©2015 Evan Sayles (evansayles.com)

This week's episode of The Sporkful podcast is up! Listen through the player or iTunes/Podcasts app. (And please subscribe!)

Connect with me on TwitterInstagram and Facebook!

Music in this episode from Black Label Music:

- "Pong" by Kenneth J. Brahmstedt

- "Hip Hop Slidester" by Steve Pierson

Photos: Evan Sayles (courtesy of Tufts Hillel); FlickrCC / Melanie Holtsman

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