🕯️ Melissa found something stinky about luxury candles while trying to make her own luxury candle in this video.
🌚 Sabrina looked into dark mode and accidentally discovered nuance in this video.
⭐ Answer in Progress made the paper as one of the top 24 creators of 2024 in Toronto. You can check out the article here.
↔️ Tom Scott continues to make the mistake of having us on Lateral and we continue to beef it at every opportunity. Give it a listen here!
🍌 Hank Green invited us onto SciShow Tangents and taught us so many unfortunate things about bananas. You can learn them too by listening here!
✨ We have new exclusive wallpapers from the candle and dark mode videos. You can access them on our website using this month’s password: STINKY
🎧 Mixtape
This newsletter was supposed to come out in June, but we’re releasing it late since it’s always pride somewhere!
🛍️ Merch Update
In Melissa’s latest video, she tried to make a luxury candle without the luxury price tag. It was a journey going from zero candle making experience to hosting a pop-up shop, but Melissa loved the After Hours candle and apparently y’all did too since the limited edition first run sold out in under 2 hours!
We hear that some folks are still interested, so we have three updates:
We’re working on a restock! Since Melissa isn’t ready to become a full-time candle maker, we’re partnering with a manufacturing team who can help us make this a little more sustainable. We’ll let you know when that restock is available!
You can start your own candle business! If this video got you curious about making candles, you should check out the Shopify article Melissa used to help her figure things out: https://www.shopify.com/ca/blog/candle-business (you can also access a free Shopify trial to start your side hustle)*
You can win a free candle! To enter for a chance to win, just submit your name and email address in this Google form.
GIVEAWAY DETAILS: Entries up to (and including) Wednesday July 10th at 11:59pm ET will be considered. Three (3) winners will be randomly selected from qualified entries on Thursday July 11th. They will be contacted via their email and must reply by 9am ET on Monday July 15th. If there is no response, we will select the new winner(s) from the original entry pool. Limit one entry per person. No purchase necessary. Candle shipping fees will be covered by Answer in Progress Inc.
* This section contains messaging sponsored by Shopify
📝 Fact Check by Sabrina Cruz
Have you heard the rumour that in medieval times, people mainly drank beer because it was safer than water?
The idea is that the process of making alcohol would kill the germs inside impure water - making it safe to drink. There are just three problems with this rumour:
People in medieval times didn’t understand germ theory so they couldn’t have done this intentionally
Medieval brewing processes generally resulted in lower alcohol volumes which wouldn’t have the proposed anti-bacterial effect
It isn’t true. There is a large amount of recorded history that implies people knew the importance of drinking water and how to make sure it was potable.
So, medival people’s rumoured preference for beer over water was likely more about its higher caloric content instead of the relative safety of the drink.
Heard a rumour your want us to fact check? Submit one with the Google Form below and we might answer it in the next newsletter!
To learn more about the history of drinking water, check out From ‘Vilest Beverage’ to ‘Universal Medicine’ by David Gentilcore and Drinking Water by James Salzman
🔦 Creator Spotlight
Joss and Adam are two science communicators we’ve always admired and they’ve just launched a channel that explores how we know the things we know. Their work is balanced, beautiful, and patient in a creator culture that seems to prioritize speed above all else. Please give them a watch!
🙏 Thank You
Thank you for subscribing and following our chaotic little journey - see ya next month!
from ur neighbourhood nerds,
Sabrina, Melissa, and Taha<3
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