Sept. 22, 2026

1,000 pairs of underwear buried across 25+ countries

Show Notes
Transcript

Johnny Mac shares five good news stories: the Ig Nobel Awards in Zurich honored unusual research including a project burying 1,000 pairs of underwear across 25+ countries to study soil health by measuring fabric breakdown, alongside studies of cockroach milk, nose-blowing mechanics, and the evolution of kissing, with paper airplanes thrown as part of the ceremony. In Florida, deputies found a buck inside a home near the bathroom; they guided it outside, where it repeatedly jumped into a pool before escaping through a fence opening. Saul set a Guinness World Record by solving 211 Rubik’s Cubes while bouncing on a pogo stick. In Chile, researchers are testing copper-and-zinc fabric red vests on Humboldt penguins to protect wounds from being picked at. Shelly safely got her dogs indoors when a moose charged, using spray to deter it, with no injuries.

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Hey there, I'm Johnny Mac with five good news stories.

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A team of researchers buried a thousand pairs of underwear

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in more than 25 countries, and they won a science

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prize for it. I know that sentence sounds crazy. I

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just read it out loud. I'm like, wait, what happened? Well,

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you see, it was the annual Ig Nobel Awards in Zurich,

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organized by the Annals of Improbable Research. The ceremony celebrates

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real science. with some wonderfully unusual subjects. In this case,

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the buried underwear helped researchers study soil health. Yeah, don't

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overthink that one. Examining how organisms in the ground broke

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down the fabric. Oh, I see. Other honorees studied cockroach milk.

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Some investigated the mechanics of blowing your nose. And others

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reconstructed the evolutionary history of kissing. Hmm, I see what

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you guys did there. Each team received a trophy that

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looked like a mushroom crossed with a human foot. An

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audience helped open the ceremony by throwing paper airplanes towards

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the stage. That's per tradition. And they want you to

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know these are separate from the Nobel Prizes. These are

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the Ig Nobel Prizes. And congratulations to all the winners.

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In Florida, a deer let himself into somebody's house, checked

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out the bathroom, and then went in the pool. Deputies

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in St. Johns County arrived to find a large buck

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standing beside the toilets looking back at them. One deputy said,

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first time I've had a deer in a house in

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23 years. So they moved some furniture to make a

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route for the deer to leave. They used a pool

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brush to guide the guest into the yard. That got

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the deer out of the house. The deer jumped into

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the swimming pool, climbed out, and then went back in

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for a second dip. Eventually, the deer found an opening

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in the fence and let himself out. The sheriff's office

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said the buck fled before deputies could issue a warning

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for trespassing. Now, solving a Rubik's Cube is impressive, but

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how about solving 211 Rubik's Cubes while bouncing on a

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pogo stick? Yeah, solve. is in the Guinness World Record

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book for whatever that record is. The previous record was

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65 cubes, again, while bouncing on a pogo stick. He's

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very excited to be in the actual book. He said,

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I get a copy of my own and flip through

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it and see my name in it. I was honored

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that they chose me. My record is very unique and

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quite the spectacle to see if I do a demonstration. Okay.

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Good news for some penguins in Chile. They are getting

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little red vests. Those outfits could help them recover from injuries.

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Researchers are testing fabric containing copper and zinc on Humboldt penguins.

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Similar garments have been used to help dogs and cats

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with skin wounds. Ignacio is the director of the local

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zoo and says for years, vests with microfibers containing elements

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like copper and zinc have been tested on pets and

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have greatly helped in the recovery of skin wounds. We

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began to wonder, why can't this be used on penguins?

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Good question. The zoo took penguin measurements for the first suits. Somewhere,

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somebody's workday involved making penguin vests. Now, the theory here

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is penguins reach around with their beaks and pick at

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wounds and even pull out the stitches with the vests

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that'll keep the wounds covered so the penguins don't, you know,

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pick at them. Makes sense to me. Ignacio says, we've

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seen that the penguins tolerate it quite well. We noticed

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that from one day to the next, the wounds were

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in better condition with the vest. And good news for Shelly.

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Shelly got all her dogs back inside when a moose

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charged at them in the backyard. She told CNN, I

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was fearful for sure because, you know, the moose was

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so big. I've never had a big moose like that

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run after me. She was especially worried about Annie, who's

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14 years old and a dog. Annie is deaf and

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losing her sight, and, you know, moose, you get it, yeah.

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There's footage of this. We see Shelly spraying the approaching moose.

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The moose stops and then fled away, and that gave

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Shelly a chance to get the dogs inside. None of

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the dogs were injured. The moose seems okay, and those...

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are your five good news stories for today. If you

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Have a great day.