--:-- Peter: This message comes from NPR sponsor, 1Password. Secure access to your online world, from emails to banking, so you can protect what matters most with 1Password. For a free two-week trial, go to 1Password.com slash NPR.
--:-- Peter: Hey guys, it's Peter once again in your Wait Wait feed. I am so pleased to present to you another episode of How to Do Everything by Wait Wait producers Ian and Mike.
--:-- Peter: On this week's show, they actually answer a question that we've all had, but have had trouble articulating. Namely, how do you talk to the dentist when your mouth is filled with dentistry?
--:-- Peter: Now, remember, you can only get these episodes of How to Do Everything in our feed for a short while. So if you love the kind of mysteries that Mike and Ian are revealing, make sure you subscribe to How to Do Everything at their own feed. Thanks.
--:-- Peter: Whenever there's an earthquake, the search and rescue team's first priority is to find people who may be trapped under the rubble. It's a very hard thing to do.
--:-- Peter: Danielle Giangrasso of the NGO Apopo has been working on a new way to do it.
--:-- Danielle Giangrasso: So a major challenge that search and rescue teams face is the limited ability to penetrate deep into dense and complex debris structures to find victims.
--:-- Danielle Giangrasso: And so our solution is to work with rats, or as we call them, rescue rats.
--:-- Danielle Giangrasso: You can actually go in and navigate these tight spaces that other technologies can't reach and also locate and identify human survivors.
--:-- Danielle Giangrasso: Wow. How do the rats tell you that? How do they give you that information?
--:-- Danielle Giangrasso: Yes. So we've trained them to pull a micro switch on their vest whenever they are in proximity of a human.
--:-- Danielle Giangrasso: And they pull a microswitch and it triggers a beep back to our base point, our base camp, that they've found someone.
--:-- Danielle Giangrasso: Okay, so I should be picturing these rats wearing vests.
--:-- Danielle Giangrasso: Yes. Also, they're outfitted with a technology-enabled backpack with a camera, with two-way communications, GPS.
--:-- Danielle Giangrasso: So what happens? So, okay, so there's an earthquake. Say there's an area with a lot of debris where you suspect there might be people trapped underneath it.
--:-- Danielle Giangrasso: And then you show up with a bunch of rats?
--:-- Danielle Giangrasso: Yes. When we've identified an area of the debris that we would like to search with the rats, we'll then set up our small team and the rats will go in and search.
--:-- Danielle Giangrasso: Whether it's there's a supposed victim deep in the debris that we need to investigate, or even if we want to see what the internal debris structure is.
--:-- Danielle Giangrasso: And so that's really valuable information. It's less glamorous than finding a person, but it's really valuable information for our search and rescue teams to have.
--:-- Danielle Giangrasso: Do you think about, have you thought about the sort of human experience of this?
--:-- Danielle Giangrasso: I just think like if I were trapped under a bunch of rubble, unsure if I was going to get out, and all of a sudden there was a rat in front of me pulling a switch on its vest, it might only add to my terror.
--:-- Danielle Giangrasso: Yes, or you may think you're hallucinating.
--:-- Danielle Giangrasso: Yes. What's happening?
--:-- Danielle Giangrasso: So we've definitely thought about this.
--:-- Danielle Giangrasso: And so the first thing is, hopefully, public awareness will help.
--:-- Danielle Giangrasso: So the more we can spread the news about this, the more people can hear about it.
--:-- Danielle Giangrasso: But also the rats have, we have search and rescue colors on their backpack. So it's orange.
--:-- Danielle Giangrasso: They have a light.
--:-- Danielle Giangrasso: And we've also played around with having a recording that plays. hey I'm a rescue rat I'm here surveying please let me know if you need help
--:-- Danielle Giangrasso: which may just add to the question I wonder we'll see a talking rat is here to save me well cool
--:-- Peter: Dr. Gingrasso, thank you so much for telling us all about this.
--:-- Peter: Thank you. It was great speaking with you. And please thank the rats for us for all their wonderful work they're doing.
--:-- Peter: I definitely will. Thank you for considering them
--:-- Peter: This is How to Do Everything. I'm Ian. And I'm Mike.
--:-- Ian: On today's show, you keep making us your out-of-office emergency contacts, so we keep helping you out. Sort of. Sort of. Keep sort of helping.
--:-- Mike: But first, hey, Dennis, what can we help you with?
--:-- Dennis: Well, what do you do when you're in the dental chair and your dentist is carrying on a conversation with you, but has his hands in your mouth while he's doing so? That's tough.
--:-- Dennis: You know, I think about this all the time. Well, all the time when I'm at the dentist.
--:-- Dennis: Was there a time, have you been to the dentist recently?
--:-- Dennis: Yeah, I was there, and I'm in the chair, and the dentist says to me, I hear you're running for public office, and I just want you to know that even though you've been a patient of mine for 40 years, I don't agree with your positions, so I'm not going to vote for you.
--:-- Dennis: Wow. And then I had to go, oh, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look.
--:-- Mike: Well, Dennis, what was happening? What was the procedure he was doing? Was this just a cleaning or was there more going on?
--:-- Dennis: No, he was doing a root canal, which was bad enough. That is bad.
--:-- Ian: All right, Dennis, we're going to take this and we're going to see what we can do to help you out.
--:-- Dennis: Well, thank you very much.
--:-- Ian: Okay, we have an idea of how to help Dennis, something that might help any of us when we're in the situation.
--:-- Ian: We're going to call up Christina Hunger. Christina, we understand you can talk to your dog.
--:-- Christina Hunger: That's correct. And she can talk back, which is the coolest part about it.
--:-- Christina Hunger: So she has a system of buttons that all represent a different word.
--:-- Christina Hunger: And when she presses a button with her paw, it says the word that we've previously recorded into it.
--:-- Christina Hunger: And this all came from technology that I used as a speech therapist with kids who were nonverbal.
--:-- Mike: I'm picturing there's like a kind of key, like a keyboard or something.
--:-- Christina Hunger: Describe what I guess your dog is seeing.
--:-- Christina Hunger: Picture a giant, colorful keyboard on the ground.
--:-- Christina Hunger: And it has rows of buttons on it that are about the size of her paw.
--:-- Christina Hunger: So that when she presses down, it says the word that we've recorded into it.
--:-- Christina Hunger: Can you give an example of what a conversation is like then?
--:-- Christina Hunger: Yeah, absolutely.
--:-- Christina Hunger: So we started with just some basic words like she would learn to tell me when she needed to go outside or when she wanted to play, when she needed to eat or when her water dish was empty.
--:-- Christina Hunger: But it's really evolved.
--:-- Christina Hunger: So now she uses our names, different locations.
--:-- Christina Hunger: She has question words, some simple emotions.
--:-- Christina Hunger: So this morning, for example, I was tending to my toddler and she was upset and she said, mad, want outside because I hadn't taken her out yet.
--:-- Christina Hunger: And so then I let her out, came back in, then she marched right back to her board and told me, come eat, come eat when she was ready for her breakfast.
--:-- Christina Hunger: What's your dog's name?
--:-- Christina Hunger: What's her name?
--:-- Christina Hunger: Stella.
--:-- Christina Hunger: And the keyboard is customizable so you can add words
--:-- Christina Hunger: What was the last word you added
--:-- Christina Hunger: Actually we added words since my son was born and we added his name and cry because that was a relevant word for the environmental change going on.
--:-- Christina Hunger: So how does that work? How does cry, how does Stella use that word?
--:-- Christina Hunger: So when he would be crying a lot, she would a lot of times say, cry all done or cry off or she would comment my son's name is max so she would say like max cry max cry
--:-- Christina Hunger: so I'm hearing max crying and then I'm hearing stella say max cry everyone's trying to get the situation
--:-- Christina Hunger: you mentioned uh the word mad is on there because you would say mad outside
--:-- Christina Hunger: Are there other emotions on the board?
--:-- Christina Hunger: We just have happy and mad.
--:-- Mike: So like happy, I don't have a dog, but I think I think of our communication with dogs as mostly being them trying to tell us what they need.
--:-- Christina Hunger: But like happy might just be making conversation.
--:-- Christina Hunger: Does she just make conversation sometimes?
--:-- Christina Hunger: All the time. That's been the most surprising part of this.
--:-- Christina Hunger: So when I set out to teach her, my goal was to just give her a way to say some few basic needs.
--:-- Christina Hunger: But I saw her starting to use words in ways that were really similar to kids, which I could recognize because I'm a speech therapist.
--:-- Christina Hunger: And that's what I do.
--:-- Christina Hunger: She'll come back in from playing outside and say, play happy and smile and lay on my feet.
--:-- Christina Hunger: She didn't have to do that. She just wanted to let me know she was really happy playing outside.
--:-- Mike: That's so cool. That's awesome.
--:-- Christina Hunger: What reactions have you seen from guests in your home of this happening for the first time?
--:-- Christina Hunger: So in the beginning, it was really interesting because no one else had done this.
--:-- Christina Hunger: I'm the one who started it.
--:-- Christina Hunger: And sometimes I just wouldn't say anything.
--:-- Christina Hunger: I would wait for Stella to just go on and talk and then see their reactions.
--:-- Christina Hunger: And that was always really fun.
--:-- Christina Hunger: I'll never forget, we had two friends over.
--:-- Christina Hunger: They came in. We were kind of showing them around.
--:-- Christina Hunger: And then Stella went and got a drink of water and she finished her bowl.
--:-- Christina Hunger: And then she walked over to her board of buttons and said, all done water.
--:-- Christina Hunger: And the look on my friend's faces, because they had no idea about this.
--:-- Christina Hunger: They were just in shock and had a million questions.
--:-- Ian: Well, we have a question from one of our listeners, Dennis.
--:-- Dennis: Dennis wants to know how he can have a good conversation with his dentist while in the dental chair, while having tools in his mouth.
--:-- Ian: And we're wondering if your invention maybe could help in Dennis's situation.
--:-- Christina Hunger: I totally think it could.
--:-- Christina Hunger: It came from, you know, humans using devices when they're not able to communicate with verbal speech.
--:-- Christina Hunger: So I think, you know, our buttons and just this whole concept, augmentative communication in general, could absolutely solve that universal problem when the dentist asks you something and you're laying there and you don't know how to respond when you can't talk.
--:-- Christina Hunger: Yeah, you would need to think of kind of anticipate the dentist questions.
--:-- Christina Hunger: But that's like, I think just in my experience, it would be, I would need a button that said, no, no big plan.
--:-- Christina Hunger: That button.
--:-- Ian: Yep. Of course, I've been flossing.
--:-- Christina Hunger: Yeah.
--:-- Ian: Where are you based?
--:-- Christina Hunger: In the Chicago area.
--:-- Ian: Could we, could we, is there a way?
--:-- Christina Hunger: I wonder if we could get this board to a dentist and try this out.
--:-- Christina Hunger: Oh, absolutely.
--:-- Ian: Okay, so we have acquired from Christina.
--:-- Ian: Thank you, Christina.
--:-- Ian: We've acquired this board.
--:-- Ian: We've programmed it with our own messages.
--:-- Ian: And we are now at the dentist because we're going to try it out.
--:-- Ian: And I'm going to be getting, I'm the one getting in the chair.
--:-- Ian: I'll be the patient.
--:-- Ian: So can I have you just introduce yourself?
--:-- Teresa Neal: Hi, I'm Teresa Neal, owner of Windy City Family Dental here on Michigan Avenue.
--:-- Teresa Neal: Excited to meet Mike see what's going on thinking about Dennis's question do you when you're uh working on the do you talk to your patients when you're all the time do you ask them questions
--:-- Teresa Neal: Yeah of course I do that's how I get to know my patients
--:-- Teresa Neal: But I mean you must know that it's hard for them to respond is it hard
--:-- Teresa Neal: Most do wait are you do you ever have to stop what you're doing to continue a conversation
--:-- Teresa Neal: Yeah. Yeah.
--:-- Teresa Neal: Sometimes I do.
--:-- Teresa Neal: Does it ever, do you ever get into like deep philosophical conversations where yes or no just won't do
--:-- Teresa Neal: Yes. Sometimes I do.
--:-- Teresa Neal: Yeah. So we'll stop and we'll talk, you know, like this, I'll pull my mask down and we'll start talking.
--:-- Teresa Neal: Are you, are there any patients where you, you don't want to hear what they have to say
--:-- Teresa Neal: So you keep going
--:-- Teresa Neal: Yes. Yes, definitely.
--:-- Teresa Neal: Sometimes when it gets into, I don't know, sticky things like politics or just something I don't want to hear about.
--:-- Teresa Neal: We have a device called a bite block where it kind of just keeps their mouth open.
--:-- Teresa Neal: And so they can't really close. They can't really stop and keep talking.
--:-- Teresa Neal: We have different little tools we could use that will end the conversation pretty effectively.
--:-- Teresa Neal: So there are cases where you will use the bite block even if it is not dentally necessary
--:-- Ian: Yeah. Yeah actually it might be good to put yeah to put a bite block in Mike
--:-- Teresa Neal: yeah okay so let's try it then then i
--:-- Teresa Neal: So we have this device that will do the talking for me so that i don't have to talk and this is a device that was invented so that dogs could talk to their owners
--:-- Teresa Neal: all right do you want to put it on top of the
--:-- Teresa Neal: No, I think I...
--:-- Ian: You're okay? It's on this room.
--:-- Teresa Neal: Okay. I think I know.
--:-- Teresa Neal: So welcome, Mike, to our practice.
--:-- Teresa Neal: Thanks. How are your teeth feeling today?
--:-- Ian: Really, really good.
--:-- Teresa Neal: Yeah, they look pretty good.
--:-- Teresa Neal: Let's see. How often are you brushing?
--:-- Ian: Oh, every day.
--:-- Teresa Neal: Every day.
--:-- Teresa Neal: Every day.
--:-- Teresa Neal: How about flossing?
--:-- Ian: Of course I've been flossing.
--:-- Teresa Neal: So you're brushing pretty well. Really, really good.
--:-- Teresa Neal: Okay, I see a little... You had braces too.
--:-- Teresa Neal: I can see a little retainer here.
--:-- Teresa Neal: Really, really good.
--:-- Teresa Neal: Mike, can I ask you a question?
--:-- Teresa Neal: How do you feel about me, your friend, being able to look into your mouth as you're getting a dental exam?
--:-- Ian: I love that for you.
--:-- Teresa Neal: Yeah, I mean, your teeth look good. They do look good, Mike.
--:-- Teresa Neal: Yeah, they're a very good example.
--:-- Teresa Neal: As Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love, said, having a broken heart is a good sign because it means you tried for something.
--:-- Teresa Neal: Okay, where's my bite block?
--:-- Teresa Neal: So far, what do you think about this device?
--:-- Teresa Neal: as a, would you want one of these, say, mounted on the chair so a patient could speak to you
--:-- Teresa Neal: It's effective, but probably not.
--:-- Teresa Neal: I don't know. We don't love it.
--:-- Teresa Neal: I think this device, it needs some refinement.
--:-- Teresa Neal: I think we've uncovered the limitations of this device.
--:-- Teresa Neal: I don't know that it works for the situation.
--:-- Teresa Neal: Maybe the problem is we modified it.
--:-- Teresa Neal: when maybe we should have kept caught the we just kept the dog responses outside yeah uh food yeah
--:-- Teresa Neal: i feel like if you're doing something a patient doesn't like and they keep saying outside that communicates stop yeah yeah what um if you could reprogram this what would you have me say
--:-- Teresa Neal: Um a lot of yes and no really is more simple
--:-- Teresa Neal: Yeah More simple things like how are you doing?
--:-- Teresa Neal: A lot of my patients do thumbs up, which is good.
--:-- Teresa Neal: Thumbs down, which is I need a break.
--:-- Teresa Neal: That hurts.
--:-- Teresa Neal: Do you think being a dentist, do you think that that has made you better at telling when people are lying?
--:-- Teresa Neal: Yes, definitely.
--:-- Teresa Neal: A lot of my patients lie to me about how well they're brushing their teeth, and I can tell.
--:-- Teresa Neal: Let me ask you this question.
--:-- Teresa Neal: If I know I have a dentist appointment next week, should I start flossing the week before?
--:-- Teresa Neal: You should, but I can tell still that you only started flossing recently.
--:-- Teresa Neal: Yeah, I would say like at least three months of consistent flossing.
--:-- Teresa Neal: Oh, that's not going to happen.
--:-- Teresa Neal: Okay. All right, well.
--:-- Teresa Neal: Do you and the hygienists you work with, do you have any kind of secret ways of communicating with each other?
--:-- Teresa Neal: Like if you don't, if you need to say something that you don't want the patient to know you're talking about, do you have kind of code words or anything?
--:-- Teresa Neal: Are we telling you?
--:-- Teresa Neal: We do have code words, yes.
--:-- Teresa Neal: In the notes and when we speak to each other.
--:-- Teresa Neal: Okay, tell me one code word.
--:-- Teresa Neal: Triangle.
--:-- Teresa Neal: We have a triangle patient.
--:-- Teresa Neal: That means something.
--:-- Ian: Wait, what does it mean?
--:-- Teresa Neal: What does it mean?
--:-- Teresa Neal: It can mean a lot of different things, usually just high maintenance maybe in different ways.
--:-- Teresa Neal: Where does that come from?
--:-- Teresa Neal: Why triangle?
--:-- Teresa Neal: I don't know. We just picked triangle because it's not a common word that we would really ever use to describe a patient.
--:-- Teresa Neal: It doesn't really mean anything to the average person.
--:-- Teresa Neal: Sometimes their chart will be labeled triangle, and so if you or another patient sees triangle, they don't really know what that means.
--:-- Teresa Neal: Was Mike a triangle patient?
--:-- Teresa Neal: No, Mike was awesome.
--:-- Teresa Neal: Great team.
--:-- Teresa Neal: Because I don't want everybody to know.
--:-- Teresa Neal: Yeah. Okay, so some patients talk more than others?
--:-- Teresa Neal: Oh, right. Like I do?
--:-- Teresa Neal: This is one of the hygienists in the office.
--:-- Ian: So I'm going to go in there and I'm going to tell her you have a phone call in room 10, which we don't have at room 10, so she knows she has to finish the conversation.
--:-- Ian: So I have to get her out of there because we're running late.
--:-- Teresa Neal: Yeah. You make it sound like an important phone call in room 10, which we don't have at room 10.
--:-- Ian: Well alright I get the sense that there might be a phone call in room 10 that you guys should take
--:-- Teresa Neal: thank you you're welcome thanks for stopping by
--:-- Ian: I don't actually have thank you on here sorry
--:-- Teresa Neal: you need that for sure there's so many we need thank you
--:-- Ian: I love that Christina Hunger who invented this technology wrote a book about her experience
--:-- Ian: It's called How Stella Learned to Talk. Stella's a dog.
--:-- Ian: Hey, Paola. Ooh, this is your treasure. It's your birthday treasure.
--:-- Ian: Everyone else, just move on.
--:-- Ian: If you have questions for us, whatever they may be, you can get them to us at howto at npr.org.
--:-- Ian: We promise we'll do our best.
--:-- Ian: Our very best to find the perfect person to help solve your problem.
--:-- Ian: Send those questions to us, howto at npr.org.
--:-- Ian: This message comes from Schwab.
--:-- Ian: Everyone has moments when they could have done better.
--:-- Ian: Same goes for where you invest. Level up and invest smarter with Schwab.
--:-- Ian: Get market insights, education, and human help when you need it.
--:-- Ian: This message comes from the Council for Interior Design Qualification.
--:-- Ian: Interior Designer and CIDQ President Siavash Madani describes the rigor of NCIDQ certification.
--:-- Ian: An NCIDQ certified interior designer must complete a minimum of six years of specialized education and work experience.
--:-- Ian: Being NCIDQ certified means that you've proven your knowledge and skills and are recognized as a qualified interior design professional.
--:-- Ian: Learn more at cidq.org slash NPR.
--:-- Ian: This message comes from BetterHelp.
--:-- Ian: To mark World Mental Health Day, BetterHelp is thanking the therapists who change people's lives all around the world by providing accessible mental health support.
--:-- Ian: With over 12 years of experience matching clients with therapists and one of the world's largest online therapist networks, BetterHelp can help you find the right therapist.
--:-- Ian: Visit BetterHelp.com slash NPR for 10% off your first month.
--:-- Ian: This message comes from Satva, official mattress and restorative sleep provider for Team USA, who won 231 total medals at the Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024.
--:-- Ian: But could they have done even better if they were getting deeper, restorative sleep?
--:-- Ian: Ron Rudson, Sotva CEO, was determined to find out.
--:-- Ian: So Sotva will provide mattresses for the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
--:-- Ian: You can get deep restorative sleep too.
--:-- Ian: Visit sotva.com slash NPR and save $200 on $1,000 or more.
--:-- Ian: This message comes from Progressive Insurance and the Name Your Price tool.
--:-- Ian: It helps you find car insurance options in your budget.
--:-- Ian: Try it today at Progressive.com.
--:-- Ian: Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates.
--:-- Ian: Price and coverage match limited by state law. Not available in all states.
--:-- Ian: Our offer still stands to be your out-of-office email emergency contact when you go on vacation.
--:-- Ian: And this week, somebody named Paola put us as her contact when she went off to celebrate her birthday week.
--:-- Ian: Specifically, she said, I am mentally away celebrating my birthday week.
--:-- Ian: All birthday messages, celebration logistics, and general love notes should be trusted to Mike and Ian at howto.org.
--:-- Ian: We got a slew of responses.
--:-- Ian: Let's get to them now.
--:-- Ian: Hey, Ken. So, Ken, what's going on?
--:-- Ken: Well, it was kind of a strange reply.
--:-- Ken: So I tried contacting her several different ways.
--:-- Ken: And so I finally emailed her and I got this weird out of office reply.
--:-- Ian: I'm saying to contact you guys.
--:-- Ken: So you can help me in terms of finding out what's going on with her birthday.
--:-- Ian: So you're trying to figure out what her plans are or if there is a party?
--:-- Ken: Because I think we saw the same out-of-office message you did.
--:-- Ken: But we don't know any further details at this point, but we will try and track it down.
--:-- Ian: That'd be great.
--:-- Ian: Okay, so if you wanted us to convey a message to Paola regarding her birthday, or if you have a question, what would it be?
--:-- Ken: Just happy birthday from Ken.
--:-- Ian: Where are you? What are you up to?
--:-- Ken: And I guess that's about it.
--:-- Ian: Okay, terrific.
--:-- Ian: And what birthday is this, do you know?
--:-- Ken: You mean her age?
--:-- Ian: I guess, yeah.
--:-- Ken: I guess I am asking that.
--:-- Ian: You don't have to answer that.
--:-- Ken: Yeah, maybe she's uncomfortable.
--:-- Ian: I don't know. Maybe she's not. Maybe she just embraces the passage of time.
--:-- Ian: She's a year older.
--:-- Ken: That's all I can say.
--:-- Ian: Okay. That's good diplomacy.
--:-- Ian: Okay. I feel like, so we're at the beginning of this process.
--:-- Ian: Can you tell us just like a little bit about her as we kind of shape maybe what we might want to do
--:-- Ken: Well she knows a lot of people
--:-- Ken: She's pretty outgoing
--:-- Ken: She's a very friendly person
--:-- Ken: And she loves to dance.
--:-- Ian: Oh, okay. That's fun.
--:-- Ian: Any dietary restrictions?
--:-- Ken: Yeah, preferably no lactose.
--:-- Ian: Hey, Eduardo, we got an email from you seeking assistance in celebrating Paola's birthday.
--:-- Eduardo: We're happy to help you.
--:-- Ian: If maybe there's some wishes you want to convey, we can send them to her.
--:-- Eduardo: Yeah, sounds good.
--:-- Ian: It'd be great.
--:-- Eduardo: How long have you known Paola?
--:-- Eduardo: She's my sister, actually.
--:-- Ian: Sorry, she's your sister?
--:-- Eduardo: Yeah. That's a joke, right?
--:-- Ian: Sent her a text, I sent her an email, I sent her a WhatsApp, and I called her.
--:-- Ian: And when I got the email back, I was like, what is this?
--:-- Ian: So, okay. So let's see.
--:-- Ian: Why don't we just, we'll, we'll just give you an opening right now.
--:-- Eduardo: Feliz diares. Te quiero mucho.
--:-- Eduardo: Hope you've had a fantastic birthday and we're just entering the weekend.
--:-- Eduardo: So lots more to celebrate and love you very much and wish you the best.
--:-- Ian: That's fantastic.
--:-- Ian: You seem like a great brother.
--:-- Eduardo: I try to be.
--:-- Ian: So we're going to try and take our duty very seriously and try and do something for Paola.
--:-- Ian: Can you tell us, we don't know, we've never met her.
--:-- Ian: We don't know anything about her.
--:-- Eduardo: Do you want to tell us something about her so we know what maybe we want to do?
--:-- Eduardo: She likes dark chocolate, that's for sure.
--:-- Eduardo: Glass of wine and white and dark chocolate.
--:-- Eduardo: Yeah, when we were kids, we used to do treasure hunts for me and my sister.
--:-- Eduardo: But those are more of just memories than anything else, but yeah.
--:-- Ian: Okay, so we wanted to do something nice for Paola, so we sent an edible arrangement to her school.
--:-- Ian: A bouquet of fruit.
--:-- Ian: This is with dark chocolate and no lactose.
--:-- Ian: Can you hear me?
--:-- Paola: Hello, Paola. Hi. Hi. Happy birthday, Paola.
--:-- Paola: Thank you. Thank you so much.
--:-- Paola: I'm still laughing about all this.
--:-- Ian: Yeah, we got a lot of people reached out to us needing help to celebrate your birthday.
--:-- Ian: We talked to Ken.
--:-- Ian: We talked to your brother, Eduardo.
--:-- Paola: I just needed some mental time away and I didn't really want to plan for anything this time.
--:-- Paola: I wasn't purposely picking up the phone or answering texts.
--:-- Paola: People found it a little bit weird.
--:-- Paola: My mom was utterly confused.
--:-- Ian: We didn't hear from your mom.
--:-- Paola: Yeah, she thought someone from work was trying to help me to relax.
--:-- Paola: I have no idea.
--:-- Paola: Well, did it work? Do you feel rejuvenated?
--:-- Paola: I do. I think it worked.
--:-- Paola: And of course, I wanted to leave this with someone I could trust to do absolutely nothing helpful.
--:-- Paola: And you two were the obvious choice.
--:-- Ian: You know, I think one thing we're going to do, we want to do one more thing.
--:-- Ian: So your brother told us that when you were kids, you used to do treasure hunts.
--:-- Paola: Yes, that's right. I think what we're gonna do we're gonna hide treasure in this podcast episode.
--:-- Ian: Okay, probably by this point in the episode everyone will have heard it and wondered what that was.
--:-- Ian: But now they know that was your birthday treasure hidden hidden in here somewhere.
--:-- Paola: Oh, that's so sweet.
--:-- Paola: Well happy birthday thank you so much thank you thank you all right i love you guys
--:-- Ian: If you, having just heard this, having heard how we helped Paola with her birthday, if you want us to be your out-of-office emergency contact, just copy and paste the out-of-office message from our show notes.
--:-- Ian: We blew our entire budget on one edible arrangement, so we will not be helping in that way.
--:-- Ian: But any other way, we'll do our best.
--:-- Ian: Well, that does it for this week's show.
--:-- Ian: What'd you learn, Ian?
--:-- Ian: I learned dogs.
--:-- Ian: I think it's amazing.
--:-- Ian: I learned dogs just sometimes just want to make conversation.
--:-- Ian: Yeah, that does change things, doesn't it?
--:-- Ian: It's not just, you know, give me food, let me out.
--:-- Ian: I don't like the way you're talking to me right now.
--:-- Ian: Don't patronize me.
--:-- Ian: I'm not always a good boy.
--:-- Ian: You know, Mike, one other thing that this episode's been making me think about.
--:-- Ian: I just you know there's a lot of people out there with with broken hearts okay right
--:-- Ian: and if they're listening to us right now
--:-- Ian: I just wonder if you have any any advice oh for people with broken hearts
--:-- Mike: sure you know okay yeah now that you mentioned it it does remind me as Elizabeth Gilbert author of Eat Pray Love said having a broken heart is a good sign because it means you tried for something
--:-- Mike: it is weird right Mike that we in programming the dentist talking board
--:-- Ian: Yeah. We had a long quote from Elizabeth Gilbert, but we didn't think to put in thank you.
--:-- Ian: I feel like, again, we had a lot of missed opportunities.
--:-- Ian: If Stella hears this episode, she's going to have a lot of strong criticism.
--:-- Ian: Out. Crying. Podcast bad. Dorks. Attack.
--:-- Ian: How to Do Everything is produced by Hina Srivastava and Skylar Swenson.
--:-- Ian: Technical direction from Lorna White.
--:-- Ian: Our intern this week is Kin.
--:-- Ian: Kin, thanks for helping us celebrate Paola's birthday.
--:-- Ian: And happy birthday to you whenever that birthday may come.
--:-- Ian: If you have any questions, we're happy to try and answer them.
--:-- Ian: You can send them to us at howto at npr.org.
--:-- Ian: pair of alpaca cruise socks. Moisture wicking, odor resistant, and guaranteed for life.
--:-- Ian: Level up your hoodie game at go.pakaapparel.com slash NPR code NPR.
--:-- Ian: This message comes from Warby Parker.
--:-- Ian: What makes a great pair of glasses?
--:-- Ian: At Warby Parker, it's all the invisible extras without the extra cost, like free adjustments for life.
--:-- Ian: Find your pair at warbyparker.com or visit one of their hundreds of stores around the country.
--:-- Ian: This message comes from Bombas.
--:-- Ian: You need better socks and slippers and underwear because you should love what you wear every day.
--:-- Ian: One purchased equals one donated.
--:-- Ian: Go to bombas.com slash NPR and use code NPR for 20% off.
