[Break]
Lauren Goode: Aarian, what is your recommendation this week?
Aarian Marshall: OK. I don’t like to spend a lot of money on things as a rule, but I have had the frustrating experience of splurging for a tech product and having it be really great, which is annoying.
Lauren Goode: Say more.
Aarian Marshall: But I bought these shocks open run mini because I have a small head, which are these running headphones, or really just Bluetooth headphones. They are great because they’re bone conduction, which means that I can run or just be outside and also hear everything that’s going on around me. I run in downtown Seattle, there’s a lot going on. It’s good to be able to hear everything that’s going on. And these are so great. So it’s so depressing because I could spend a lot less on Bluetooth headphones, but I have been forced to buy these and they’re really wonderful.
Lauren Goode: And by bone conduction, that means they don’t actually go in your ear canal, right? They’re resting outside?
Aarian Marshall: Correct. Yeah, they go over your ear and as a result, they have a little bit of sound leakage, which I’m a little embarrassed about. I don’t know why. We can analyze that in my psych later, but they actually work great and I feel really safe when I’m using them, which is really cool.
Michael Calore: How much are they, when you say expensive?
Aarian Marshall: So I think they are $120 for the mini version. I found a 20 percent off code, which I recommend.
Michael Calore: That’s not bad.
Lauren Goode: No, that’s not. It’s less than AirPods. Yeah
Michael Calore: That’s not expensive for a pair of headphones. Yeah. Most people are accustomed, thanks to Apple.
Aarian Marshall: Oh yeah, definitely less than AirPods.
Lauren Goode: Yeah. Wow. Throwing my AirPods in the trash right now.
Michael Calore: Don’t.
Lauren Goode: Just kidding. I’m not.
Jeremy White: Was that on the WIRED.com discount page by any chance?
Aarian Marshall: Oh, maybe. That’s a good place to check.
Lauren Goode: Jeremy is making sure that you are participating in our affiliate link program, Aarian.
Michael Calore: Helps fund our journalism.
Lauren Goode: It does. Jeremy, have you tried those?
Jeremy White: Have I tried the ear shocks? No, I haven’t. Oh, they’re very odd.
Lauren Goode: I tried bone conducting headphones once for swimming. That was pretty unusual.
Aarian Marshall: They feel a little weird.
Lauren Goode: Well, thank you for that recommendation. Jeremy, what’s your recommendation?
Jeremy White: Well, I have two, one obvious wired type one, which is season two Strange New Worlds, Star Trek. I’m sorry, I have to apologize for my nerdiness, but watch it. It’s brilliant. Anyway, and the next one, but the other one, my other recommendation was to ask you to not do something. I travel a lot for the job and I come to America a lot and go to other different countries and I bring teabags with me being British. And I can’t stand the fancy expensive teabags that I get in America and in other countries as well. Those awful sort of silk nylon type tea bags, which are just, first of all, they’re crap. They don’t work, they’re dreadful. And what you need to do obviously is they’re bad for the environment as well. The microplastics, that’s what you’re talking about there. A 2019 study from the McGill, University of Montreal found nylon tea bags leaked billions of microplastics into every single cup of tea. It’s just really bad for you. And also, the funny thing was, I was reading this piece about it and the researchers found when they experimented with feeding the plastics to microscopic shrimp like creatures called water fleas, the fleas just wigged out and they swam quotes crazily after exposure to the plastics, which really stressed them out apparently. And then also they became unnaturally ballooned in weight. A worrisome effect it says here, which the researchers believe warrants further study. So get some proper tea and make it properly as well, which means milk last, not first.
