Live in Dallas: Colossal Labs, Rosabel, & the JFK Assassination

Summary

Flightless Bird Podcast — Live in Dallas: Colossal Labs, Rosabel, & the JFK Assassination
Host: David Farrier | Cohosts: Rob & Rosabelle | Special Guests: Stefano Dazo Arango (Colossal Labs), Robin Brown (JFK historian)
Date: July 28, 2026

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Episode Overview

David Farrier brings his signature Kiwi curiosity—and irreverent humor—to a live audience in Dallas, Texas. He tours the city’s oddities with cohost Rob and special guest Rosabelle, then dives deep into American innovation and mythology: the rise of Colossal Labs and the quest for de-extinction (with mammoths on the horizon), the whimsical and weird sides of Dallas, and the enduring conspiracy theories surrounding the assassination of JFK, all in the theatre where Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested. The episode captures Dallas’s contradictions: its car culture, self-love, historic pride, and tragic past.

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Key Segments & Discussion Points

Dallas, the City of Contrasts

• Basketball, Cars & Toast

  • David’s friend Hayden provides a tongue-in-cheek rundown of Dallas, focusing almost exclusively on the Mavericks, poking fun at Dallas’s car-centric culture and local quirks (01:00–02:13).
  • David and Rob share their stressful experiences navigating Dallas roads: “Your roads are fucked. I’m so deeply stressed out driving here...But fuck it. Scary out there.” (06:30–07:14, David)

• First-Time Texas Experiences

  • Buc-ee’s sets the scene for quintessential Texas maximalism: “It’s worthy of the hype. Everything about it is incredible—it’s like a theme park at a gas station.” (08:25–09:02, David)
  • Sampling local bakeries and accidentally breaking Catholic rules by eating meat on Good Friday.

• Touring Local Art & Landmarks

  • Pioneer Plaza cattle statues get an enthusiastic (and hilariously inappropriate) embrace: “You should be fucking proud of these big cows...Very sturdy. Very sexy. Couldn’t resist.” (14:23–14:46, David)
  • The giant downtown eyeball prompts musings on accessibility and the weird domination of American public art (15:19–15:54).

• New Dallas Facts with Rosabelle (17:07–21:02)

  • 7-Eleven originated as “Totem Stores” in Dallas; trivia includes why the second “n” is lowercase.
  • The frozen margarita machine was invented here by Mariano Martinez, inspired by 7-Eleven’s Slurpee equipment (18:25–19:45).
  • Barney the Dinosaur was born in Dallas; his creator’s son later had a tragic brush with the law.

“Dallas Man” — News Headlines & Local Weirdness

• Using the “Florida Man” meme as a template, the trio shares surreal Dallas crime stories:

  • A man keeping a body in his freezer and the intricacies of Texas justice (21:46–23:48).
  • The man found dead in a trash chute on Valentine’s Day, a miraculous church resurrection, and a legendary polio survivor in an iron lung (23:48–28:21).
  • Meth hidden inside cauliflower: “Cauliflower is good for you, we love cauliflower. Meth, not so good for you. Fun for a while until it’s not.” (29:30–29:42, David)

• Audience cards reveal further oddities:

  • Dallas’s pride (sometimes crossing into a “superiority complex” and “Texas-shaped everything”), extensive underground tunnels, and sports teams that don’t even play in the city.

De-Extinction & Colossal Labs — The Science of Resurrection

[35:10–54:44]

• Colossal Labs Intro:

  • David and Rosabelle tour Colossal Labs, which is working to revive extinct species like the woolly mammoth, Tasmanian tiger, and moa. “Being in their lab...it was like living in a sci-fi movie.” (11:08–11:12, Rosabelle)
  • David’s Jurassic Park obsession provides context and comic relief: “My first film that I really loved in a theater was Jurassic Park...oh my God, this is happening.” (11:12, David)

• Guest Interview: Stefano Dazo Arango (Manager of Conservation Partnerships, Colossal)

  • Stefano’s lifelong dinosaur passion steered him into conservation: “What got me into conservation was realizing these animals were gone—and it’s still happening today.” (37:22–39:12)

  • The science of de-extinction:

    • Not Jurassic Park: “Amber is actually a really bad preservative for DNA...But at Colossal, we find specimens of animals that went extinct in the recent past—like the woolly mammoth—and extract preserved DNA.” (40:06–41:16, Stefano)
    • Closest relatives’ DNA is edited (via CRISPR): “The Asian elephant is 99.6% identical to the woolly mammoth...We are engineering that using CRISPR Cas9 technology.” (44:02–44:20, Stefano)
    • Artificial wombs and eggs will be needed for species like the moa: “We’re developing artificial womb technology to drastically ramp up mammoth production...It’s fucking bonkers.” (45:54–46:49, Stefano/David)

  • Ethics & Conservation Debate:

    • Colossal isn’t just “tech bros”—it’s focused on reversing human-driven extinction and developing tools for current endangered species: “We are less good at restoring things. De-extinction is one of our first real attempts at trying to do that to the natural world.” (53:03, Stefano)
    • Practical applications include helping the American red wolf and using artificial wombs for northern white rhino IVF.

  • Memorable Quotes:

    • “A lot of people compare us to Jurassic Park, but there’s a lot of Matrix also happening at the level.” (46:55, Stefano)
    • “Humans love killing shit. We do it so well...We are less good at restoring things.” (53:03, David)

Kiwi Childhood vs American Childhood

[54:44–67:11]

• The Barefoot Kiwi Stereotype:

  • “It’s not a crazy thing to be in the supermarket in bare feet. People say, ‘What about the glass?’...We’re not dropping bottles everywhere like you Americans are.” (56:12–56:25, David)

• Iconic New Zealand Traditions:

  • Fairy Bread: white bread, butter, and rainbow sprinkles—a party staple for NZ kids.
  • School differences: public school religious instruction from volunteers (“these strangers off the street”).
  • Childhood belief in witchcraft leading to mass “hypnosis” attempts among classmates (60:15–61:48, Rosabelle).

• New Zealand names and pop culture:

  • Kids sometimes named after their “origin story,” e.g., “Bus Stop Number 11.”
  • Influence of American TV and fast food: “We are yearning for relevance always.” (66:19–66:51, David)

The JFK Assassination & Dallas’s Dark Tourist History

[67:11–81:50]

• Interview: Robin Brown—Funeral Home Director & JFK Tour Guide
  • The live show takes place in the theater where Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested.
  • Robin’s mission is to “solve the murder” for his tour clients, holding a firm view: “Lee Oswald had nothing to do with murdering John Kennedy...” (71:43, Robin)
  • On conspiracy vs. “official mythology”: “The official mythology...was that one person overthrew the United States government, which is a lie, which is impossible.” (71:43–73:00, Robin)
  • Historical distrust in government stems from JFK’s death: “That all changed...because the official explanation was so fanciful and so impossible that the public rejected that explanation. The term ‘conspiracy’ didn’t have a negative connotation until after John Kennedy’s murder.” (79:10, Robin)
  • Key evidence highlighted: The presence of Lee Oswald at the theater as an alibi, per eyewitness Jack Davis (75:57–78:38).
  • Research recommendations: “Find the documentary A Coup in Camelot; find the book Crossfire by Jim Mars (which spawned the Stone film JFK).” (80:31–80:51)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Dallas Traffic:

  • “Your roads are fucked...I feel like I’m having a stroke when I’m driving.” (06:30–07:14, David)

• On Buc-ee’s:

  • “It’s like a theme park at a gas station.” (08:29, David)

• On De-Extinction:

  • “Artificial womb is an insane concept...That is just to say that is fucking bonkers.” (46:49–46:55, David)

• On Conservation:

  • “We are less good at restoring things. De-extinction is one of our first real attempts at trying to do that to the natural world.” (53:03, Stefano)

• On Dallas Confidence:

  • “Never lived somewhere that’s loved itself so much. Texas-shaped everything.” (33:55–34:03, Rob)

• On Kiwi Childhood:

  • “Stay barefoot, stay strong.” (57:08, David)

• On JFK:

  • “If you’re trying to get to the truth...I’m sorry, it’s going to sound conspiratorial.” (73:12, Robin)
  • “We are conspiracy theorists. We have to question any authority figure...That began with John Kennedy’s execution.” (79:10–80:15, Robin)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [01:00–02:13] Dallas Mavericks digression/Hayden’s trivia
• [06:10–08:29] Road woes and Buc-ee’s
• [09:37–10:21] Bakery stop, Easter, Catholic faux pas
• [11:08–11:38] Colossal Labs sci-fi experience
• [12:45–13:14] Dealey Plaza & JFK tourist sites
• [14:23–15:54] Pioneer Plaza cows and Big Eyeball art discussion
• [17:07–21:02] Rosabelle’s Dallas fun facts
• [21:46–28:21] “Dallas Man” headlines
• [35:10–54:44] Colossal Labs deep dive w/Stefano
• [54:44–63:09] Kiwi childhood and differences with America
• [67:11–81:50] Robin Brown on the JFK assassination

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Live Q&A Highlight Reel

• On De-Extinction’s Role in Climate:

  • “If you brought back the mammoths to clear out the trees, to trample the snow, you could see less permafrost melt and less greenhouse gases escaping into the atmosphere...that’s our argument for fighting climate change through de-extinction.” (94:47, Stefano)

• American Food Recommendations & Oddities

  • “Texan BBQ at Terry Black’s...flattened us. So intense and loved it.” (86:53–87:04, Rosabelle/David)
  • “Do you consider the deliciousness of what you’re bringing back?...If we are hunting these animals to the point that we’re making dodo Thanksgiving meals, we would have done a good job...but just focused on bringing them back.” (88:43–89:35, Stefano)

• On Being a Kiwi in a Land of Predators:

  • “We are pathetic...if a stoat gets loose, it kills hundreds of our flightless birds...so, I think America is a bit of a shock.” (65:15–66:08, David)

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Tone and Takeaways

This episode is classic Flightless Bird: witty, affectionate, genuinely curious, and laced with self-deprecation (both personal and cultural). Farrier’s love for oddities and nonjudgmental exploration ties together mammoth resurrection, Texas bravado, childhood wizardry, and the never-settled mystery of JFK. Whether fearing Dallas traffic, marveling at resurrected wolves, or just craving fairy bread, the cast is always in pursuit of what makes America—in all its mess and glory—singularly strange and wonderful.

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For More:

• Colossal Labs, dire wolves, and de-extinction [40:04–54:44]
• Robin Brown’s JFK tour insights [69:07–81:50]
• Q&A segment: climate, food, historical drama [81:54–end]

(Minor segments omitted: most ads, intros, and outros.)

Transcript

[A]

G', day, mate. Hi, Hayden. My big papa bear. How are you? Oh, dear. I was doing all right. I thought I'd use a more empowering pet name for you. Big papa bear. It's bold, it's big, it's powerful. Just like you, Hayden. Yeah, I'm pretty large now at the into my 40s and I am a papa, so I guess that's accurate. So I appreciate the thought that went into that. Thanks, Dave. Now, I don't mean to put you on the spot, but I secretly love doing this. Rob and I are about to walk on stage to a sea of applause in the not too distant future in Dallas, Texas. And I'm wondering, Hayden, what do you know of Dallas, Texas? Oh, Dallas, Texas. What don't I know about Dallas, Texas is the better question. Dallas, Texas, let me start my presentation on Dallas, Texas is a place in America, the state of Texas. Dirk Nowitzki. I think we need to start with Dirk Nowitzki. He is the top scorer for the Dallas Mavericks. Cooper Flag. That's a great guy. He's on the Dallas Mavericks now. He's got a lot of potential. Anthony Davis, he's on the Dallas Mavericks for now, even though he's probably going somewhere else pretty soon. Nico Harrison, that was the GM for the Dallas Mavericks, he was pretty much run out of town for being absolutely stupid. Is there anything else that you want about Dallas? Is there anything unmaverick related? Although I do feel you've done a pretty amazing job so far, I'm pretty much constrained just to Dallas Maverick Facts. I've got to tell you on this one, Dave, what I believe it to be is like quite a car based city and that's it.

[B]

I love Dallas.

[A]

It's one of my favorite places. No, no, no, no, no, no. One more time.

[C]

One

[D]

fly.

[A]

Beautiful. Thank yous. Thank you so much. It's so good to be revved up by that theme song. So fucking good. Thank you so much. Thank you for being here. Dallas. Fucking beautiful. Did Hayden get it right? He did right? He loves basketball so, so much. A fact you might not know about. Hayden and I might try and get the photo at some point. He loves basketball and he's played so much aggressive basketball in his days. His biggest toe has gotten mangled from like hitting the end of his shoe so much. So one thing you need to know about Hayden is that his big toe doesn't have a toenail. It's more like a combination of like skin and fungus and it's Hayden's awful. He's the Worst. It's really nice to be here, Rob, tonight. We love to take photos of these shows because, I mean, just this theater we're in is fucking incredible. The history here, which we'll get to, it's. I can't believe we're here. Rob does everything and he's also an amazing photographer, so he's occasionally going to run off stage and maybe take some photos.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

Because he does everything. So if you see Rob flee, That's why I just want to let you know.

[D]

David just insists on a lot of pictures taken of him.

[A]

Yeah. Can you just. Thanks, Rob. We're incredibly glad to be here. I haven't been here. I came here when we filmed dark tourist almost 10 years ago now, and I haven't been back since. So it's fucking lovely to be here. We do have something, a little Easter egg, I guess, that I want to get to. We have a Patreon where we have bonus episodes, et cetera, et cetera. But we sort of set ourselves and our Patreons a list of things to achieve almost. And so what was the list?

[D]

1,000 was a screening of Lord of the Rings for you to finally watch it.

[A]

Yes. Because Peter Jackson is a genius, but I also hate those films. But we're going to do it. We're doing that very soon. And then the next goal was 1500.

[D]

Rosabelle would crack an egg on your

[A]

head when she is done if you've listened, watched that horrific episode.

[D]

But then she also gets to come to America.

[A]

She gets to come to America. And thanks to our Patreons, we have achieved this goal. And we're fucking flown Roosevelt to America. And we'd like to welcome Roosevelt to the stage right now. Hi, Rosabelle. Hi. You've got a wonderful, wonderful hat.

[E]

Thank you. I bought it in Austin. It's really, really good.

[A]

Welcome. We have been having a wonderful time in your city. It's been short. We just got here yesterday, but we've had a bit of a look around. How have you found it so far? Rosabelle and Rob.

[E]

I wish we had more time here.

[A]

Yeah, that's such a. The curse of this show is like, we wish we had more time. Your roads are fucked. I'm so deeply stressed out driving here. It's like, I thought California was a horrific mess, but there's something about. I feel like I'm having a stroke when I'm driving. Like I sometimes don't know when I'm turning, if I'm going to come into oncoming traffic or. Or if there's. And it's something. I haven't quite figured it out, but it's something to do with the number of lanes and the amount of time you have to change. Maybe it's tied in with the map system that I'm using, but I've never been more scared to drive anywhere in America than Dallas. And so do you know this? Yeah.

[D]

Okay, everyone.

[A]

Well, maybe it's the fault of Californian drivers like ourselves.

[D]

I guess everyone we met said Dallas people are terrible drivers too. Like if they admit it, we didn't say it.

[A]

It's scary. And also, you've got a thing. And I haven't come across this. You've got these big trucks in Texas and. Oh, I find them very scary. And you make big vroom vroom noises. And I've also noticed when I try and. Cause I like walking. And when I step out onto the road, a crossing, no one's really stopping. Yeah, it's look good on you for loving your cars, I suppose. But fuck it. Scary out there. But look, it's just been something I've observed. It's a lot. Should we look at some photos that we took around town? Yeah. So we were in. We came here and we drove what, three hours?

[D]

Yep. Three hours from Austin yesterday.

[A]

And we start, of course, Buc EE's. I had been here once before and it was fucking incredible. And I was just. Rosabelle. Rosabelle's never been to Texas.

[E]

First time.

[A]

What did you think of BUC EE's?

[E]

It was amazing. It had everything you could ever want.

[A]

It's beyond. I mean, it is. It's one of those things that there's hype and it holds. It is worthy of the hype. Everything about it is incredible. This stupid clown outfit that I'm wearing tonight is from Buc EE's. That's why I'm dressed like this. And I legitimately think it's amazing. I like the vibe in there. Everyone. It's like a sea of positivity and everyone is happy. It's like a theme park for some reason at a gas station. I really have. You been there with your family before?

[D]

I got trigger happy. No, we did not stop at BUC EE's.

[A]

But do you have beef with Baky's?

[D]

No.

[A]

You said I've been.

[D]

I've been.

[A]

You got shit to do. You weren't going to go back again.

[D]

Correct.

[A]

Once is enough.

[D]

Nah.

[A]

Oh, wow. Well, I'm going back 10 more times. Where do we go next? Yeah, I mean, I love a good bakery. This place was incredible and multiple People told us to go there. And it was. I mean, it was delicious. We had. What do we had? We had, like, a little coconut version

[E]

of the meaty one and then a sausage jalapeno cheese one as well.

[A]

Delicious meat and bread combined into sort of a delicious snack.

[D]

You did eat meat on Good Friday, though.

[A]

Oh, yeah. Sorry about that.

[D]

We accidentally forced my dad to eat one.

[A]

Oh, no, he's Catholic.

[D]

He's Catholic. Yeah.

[A]

Sorry.

[D]

He politely declined. And we didn't realize it was Good Friday.

[A]

Oh, no. We've been informed that doing a tour around Easter is not a good time to do a tour because. And I sort of forget about this. But, like, Easter is a real thing here. Praise Jesus. We love the eggs. All that is he. Is Jesus alive or dead? He's back.

[D]

He rises tomorrow.

[A]

Tomorrow. Currently in stasis.

[C]

Yes.

[A]

He's in the cave.

[E]

He's sleeping.

[A]

Did he go to heaven or is he just in the cave? We know. We should we learn all this. I don't fucking know.

[D]

There's like a big rock in front of the cave right now.

[A]

Okay. And then at home, it's a very big day. Very excited. Jesus is coming back. Oh, my God. I can't wait.

[D]

Speaking of things coming back.

[A]

Oh, we. Rosabelle and I, on the way, we got an invite to Colossal, which is the outfit who. They bought back the direwolf for a version that was very close to the direwolf. They're a de extinction company based here, and their ultimate goal, they're going to bring back the woolly mammoth and some other creatures. It blew our minds in there.

[E]

It was like living in a sci fi movie.

[B]

It was.

[A]

I mean, do you know this outfit? Okay, yeah. No, it's just insane. We're going to come back to it. But being in their lab, it was like. I mean, my first film that I really loved in a theater was Jurassic Park. So, of course, when this outfit, they have a VHS in the lobby of this theater, by the way, which is fucking cool of Jurassic Park. But when they started talking about de extinction, I was like, oh, my God, this is happening. And here we are. We'll come back to this.

[D]

You do kind of look like Laura Dern in that outfit right now.

[A]

Thank you. She's fucking hot. I'll take that. And also, just that slide you were previously on, that was the direwolf model. And that model that you're looking at there, which is in the office of Colossal, that was created by Weta, Peter Jackson's special effects outfit. And so I just Thought that was cool. When you're a New Zealander, you're always looking for, like, you're desperately looking for any sign of Kiwi anywhere in the world. And so Roswell and I saw that, and we're like, fuck, yes. New Zealand rules. We made the wolf, the animatronic wolf that is in the lobby of Colossal. Do you know where this is? Look, life's crazy when you're a dark tourist. I'm trying to bring that back. It didn't work at all. I mean, we had to go to Dealey Plaza. I think it's pretty amazing when one of your main tourist attractions is a place of death and tragedy. I'm deeply curious if the city puts the cross on the road or whether it's, like, some other outfit that does it. It feels dangerous just putting X's on the road.

[D]

It's dangerous to run out on the X's, too.

[A]

This was scary. Those massive trucks I was talking about earlier that want to run you over, they were ready to fuck me up.

[D]

They seem to go faster when you're jaywalking.

[A]

No, that's the other fucking thing about you people. When you step out onto the road, you speed up to either kill or, like, scare me. And I don't like it. And that definitely happened there. Although if I saw me standing there, I'd kind of want to kill me as well. It's fine. This horse, what do we think of this horse? I like it. Pegasus. It was annoying to take a photo with because, like, the only part was the hiking was a hotel. And then I got moved on and I got grumpy with these two. I was like, do we have to take a photo next to this horse? Is this important? But I think it came out well. Yeah. I don't know about this. This is kind of like. Rob would call it his, like, sense of humor. So he sees, like, a wacky poster from across the road.

[D]

He's like, you've been lonely on these shows.

[A]

I've been lonely. I've been lonely. You haven't been giving me any love, Rob. And he saw this. He's. Oh, so maybe it's a sex line. Let's get a photo in front of you. Calling it. What was it? It was like a viral fucking ad for a pop star that I don't know.

[D]

Casey Musgraves, right?

[A]

Do we like her? Is she Texan? Okay, well, she's. Now, her PR department has my number, and they're probably gonna spam me with her album release details. But it's A funny photo. We like these.

[D]

Yeah. This is the Pioneer Plaza cattle drive.

[A]

This was legitimately. I'm a big fan of inanimate objects. And I think this is the best I've seen in the United States of America. You should be fucking proud of these big cows. Big cows we got up there. They're very sturdy. Very sturdy. Very sturdy. Very sexy. Couldn't resist.

[D]

You were horny and you found this cow, this cattle.

[A]

And I had to. I had to. Pretty repulsive, looking back. But I don't regret anything. Those are amazing statues and I support them. And I think you should all passionately embrace them whenever you're next there. Now, Rosabelle, you love art.

[E]

I love art. I love eyeballs.

[A]

What do you think of? Oh, we all love Roosevelt. She's the best. Also annoying how she, like, gets a bigger applause than us when you come out. I'm not happy about that. Great. What did you think of this big eyeball?

[E]

I thought it was amazing. I want to know what it's made out of. It looks very realistic as I feel

[A]

like art is trying to teach us something about ourselves and the place we're in. What do you feel like you learned from this big eyeball staring at you?

[E]

I learned that not all art is physically accessible and you have to stand behind a fence to appreciate it.

[D]

Yeah, that was coin.

[A]

It was weird. Like, it's very. It's very gated off. So you've got. It's a great distance. You can't get close to this thing. So I don't know if you made it from something very, very fragile. We can't get close. I don't know. It's a bit fucking weird. What an artist. We're going to do a separate Selene episode for Flight the Spirit at some point. It's happening and just being in this city. I went into a record store that's just down the road earlier today. There's like they had her doc on DVD and it's like a 43 year old. I still get excited by DVDs. They had her music. They had like a big poster of her. The episode is coming. She's a fucking legend. I'm sorry. I didn't know about her until about a week ago. Did you buy it? I bought the dvd.

[D]

You did?

[A]

Yeah. Now I need to buy a DVD player so I can play the dvd, but we'll get there. Now, this is a new segment on Flightless Bird. We're trying it out because as we've been hanging out with Rosabelle on this trip, she just started coming up with facts about the city that I was surprised with. I think Rob was surprised with. And she said, rosabelle, could you.

[D]

Mostly from your head.

[E]

I used the power of the Internet

[D]

and any particular source that's private.

[E]

I did use a little bit of Claude to help me find these facts. I thought it was only appropriate, now that I've been here for two days, to come and tell you about your own city. So I've got some facts about Dallas that we've learned in the past 36 hours. It is really nice to have spent a little bit of time before tonight in the city, so we know a little bit more about it. The first fact is about the traditional custodians of the land. So acknowledging the Caddo Nation and the Wichita affiliated tribes. Yeah, I just want to pay respect to the elders, past, present, and future. The second fact, which I really loved and I had no idea about, was that 711 was invented here. I love 7 11, but it was originally called totem stores because customers toted away their purchases. That's a little wordplay for you, Rob,

[D]

too. Yeah.

[E]

I think that they also had some totem poles at the front that we. We'll just. We'll move on. In 1946, they changed their name to reflect their hours of operation. Something that I've never noticed is that 7 11, it's all in capitals except for the N. The N is lowercase. And that's because the first wife of John P. Thompson Senior, who was the company's president during the 1960s, said all caps was a little bit aggressive, and having a lowercase letter would make it look more graceful. So I feel like, hopefully you've felt that in your 711 experiences. Fact two is that the frozen margarita machine was invented in Dallas. We love frozen margaritas in 1971 by a restaurateur named Mariano Martinez, who got the idea after seeing a 711 slushy machine. It's all connected. And that happened because he just opened his restaurant, Mariano's Mexican Cuisine, and his staff couldn't keep up with the orders because they were trying to make over 200 margaritas each night with just one blender.

[A]

It's too many.

[E]

Seems hard.

[A]

Yeah, it's a lot.

[E]

And now frozen margarita machines everywhere. And my third and maybe my most favorite fact is that Barney the dinosaur was invented here.

[A]

Did you know this? Is this well known? Okay. We love Barney.

[E]

Okay. Sorry for coming here and just telling you everything. You. So everybody's favorite anthropomorphic Tyrannosaurus rex. I Also didn't know he was a T. Rex, but now I do.

[A]

I have no idea.

[E]

Who conveys educational messages through songs and small dance routines with a friendly, huggable and optimistic attitude. It was invented by Cheryl Leach, a school teacher. She originally created it to entertain her son, and then she developed it into a TV show. In 1987, Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato got their start on the show. We love them. And in 2015, Leitch's son Patrick, the inspiration for Barney, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for attempted murder.

[A]

Very Texan. I feel like.

[E]

I feel like maybe Barney's lessons should have been a bit stronger.

[C]

I agree.

[E]

He was released in 2019, just in time for the pandemic.

[A]

A really dark turn. Like really dark.

[E]

Just normal.

[A]

But we love Barney. We love Barney. Are they making new Barney? He's done. Don't know what happened to Barney. It's animated now. Okay. Probably better AI knowing how things are going. Thank you, Rosabelle. That was a great segment. Can we all give her a round of applause? Great facts. Oh, my God. We now are going to move into a segment of the show called Dallas Man. This is riffing on the idea of Florida man, where you look at news headlines and you sort of like to imagine that Florida man is one man doing all these things. So if Florida man did this, a Florida man did that in a news story, you can do the same with any city in America. It's really fun. Dallas Man.

[D]

All right. Dallas man in jail after storing body in apartment freezer.

[A]

So this happened on September 28, 2019. A Dallas man is in jail after police found a body in his apartment freezer over two weeks ago. On September 13th. This is in 2019, police arrested 56 year old Marcelino Menchada for abusing a corpse. You never want to be arrested for abusing a corpse. It's never a good vibe. After finding an unidentified body in his apartment, the there had been no word on who the victim was, how they died, and why the body was in his freezer. He's currently being held in the Dallas County Jail in lieu of a $25,000 bond. I heard that. I had a lot of questions. A year later, in 2020, there was a follow up story. Prosecutors are dropping the murder charge. And I was like, pray tell, why are they. Massalino, 57, told police he found the body of Godfrey in a motel room. According to police report, Manchadis admitted he had soared. Intense. Manchadis admitted he used a saw to cut the body into pieces, then store the severed corpse in a freezer for several months. He pleaded guilty to a charge of tampering with evidence, AKA the body, in exchange for a seven year prison term. Police had initially charged him with murder, but defence attorney Austin Ortiz said while the crime is gruesome, there was no evidence to support a theory of murder. Which makes sense, but also I'd argue if you're sawing up a body you might have had, it's suspicious. If you're soaring up, a body could

[E]

have come from anywhere.

[A]

It could have come from anywhere. So point being, if you were out there tonight, find a frozen body and you saw it up, it's fine. Well, it's not fine. You'll get seven years. Doesn't mean you kill them. I just found that really fascinating. Obviously he fucking killed them.

[E]

Headline 2 Man found dead inside Dallas high Rise trash chute on Valentine's day. Very romantic.

[A]

February 20, 2024. Dallas police are investigating the death of a Dallas man whose body was found in the bottom of a garbage chute in an apartment building on Valentine's Day. Officers responded to the 2300 block of Thomas Avenue around 1:30pm they said when they arrived at the apartments in the uptown neighborhood, they found the body of Marcus Brown, according to the Dallas County Medical Examiner's office. His manner of death is still labeled as pending. The police department said due to the victim's unexplained death, it could not provide further details. I did a lot of extra looking into this case. No foul play, just a man in a garbage chute. There's a lot of people dying in here city and it's never murder. It's just kind of happened. Someone in a freezer, someone in a garbage chute. Don't love it. This is a positive headline.

[D]

Saved by the Lord. Dallas man survives heart attack in church. This is nice honor of Easter weekend.

[A]

Jesus a big part of America. We love Jesus. Good guy. September 6, 2022. A Dallas man is sharing what he calls his miracle story. After he nearly died, he was in church when he went into sudden cardiac arrest. We have done the Lord's Prayer and are getting ready to make the donation. That was the last thing Bob, 72, remembers about the morning of Aug. 28. He was sitting in his normal pew three from the front at the early service of Lovers Lane United Methodist Church. My wife who was sitting right next to me looked over and apparently my head went back and I dropped the envelope I was going to put in the collection plate. Dr. Gary Weinstein and his family happened to be Sitting just across the aisle, 30ft away, when he noticed something was wrong with Richardson and he sprang into action. I went over to him and he didn't look very well. He said. I'm a doc, he said, who is the director of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas. And while the organist and pianist continued to play, which is crazy, he started CPR as a senior pastor called 911. A church worker grabbed a defibrillator, and Weinstein shocked Richardson. Still no pulse. He continued cpr, and after a heart wrenching minute, sort of a pun. Did you like that? Richardson took a breath, the pulse got stronger, and then the paramedics came and whisked him away, said Weinstein. Richardson spent five. Way too much detail in this story. Richardson spent five days in the hospital, but returned to his favorite pew a week later to worship and say thank you to the man who saved his life. Jesus. No. Jesus. As well as Weinstein Pew, the church has added three additional defibrillators to the ones they already had. And I added this line to the end of the article just for myself and for us. Happy Easter. Just to tie it in with the date.

[E]

A Dallas man who lived in an iron lung for 70 plus years. Years has died.

[A]

This is actually really sad. So anyone that laughed. Terrible. No, this blows my mind. So this was from March 14, 2024. A Dallas man who spent more than 70 years in an iron lung after a childhood polio diagnosis has died. Polio struck Paul Alexander in 1952 when he was just six years old. Within days, the disease robbed him of the use of his body, and he went into the iron lug at six in there. That's the noise it makes in there for 70 years. And as someone who's claustrophobic and like a bit weirded out by death, that whole idea just freaks me out a lot. But this guy sounds like a fucking legend. This is a quote. Paul took a lot of pride in being a positive role model for others. More than anything, I believe he would want others to know they're capable of great things. He was eventually recognized by the Guinness World Records as the longest surviving iron lung patient. He was 78 when he died. He painted. How did he paint in there?

[D]

With his mouth. I saw a picture of it.

[B]

Oh.

[A]

Oh, my God. He painted. He wrote a book and he worked as an attorney. He died when he was 76. As a side note to all this, the US officially eliminated wild transmission of polio in 79. But sporadic paces have popped up over the years, including a 2022 case involving an unvaccinated traveler. Vaccines are good, guys. You should get them. And this story isn't actually that amazing, but I like the headline, dallas man

[D]

sentenced to life over Meth concealed in cauliflower.

[A]

I think it's just a funny place to put it. The story is kind of boring. So it's $3.7 million worth of methamphetamine that was in boxes of cauliflower, like, inside the cauliflower. Life in federal prison for that, which I think is too long. Meth's bad. I don't know if it's life. I looked up facts about prison after this. Texas has one of the largest prison systems in the US it has the largest state prison population in America, with nearly 139,000 people imprisoned in 2022, including this guy who creatively put meth in cauliflower.

[E]

Cauliflower is good for you, though.

[A]

Cauliflower is good for you. We love cauliflower. Meth, not so good for you. Fun for a while until it's not. Don't do it. It's not great. I've never done it. Have you done meth?

[D]

No.

[A]

No, Rosabelle. High as a kite right now.

[E]

You make cauliflower?

[A]

You made cauliflower? No, meth. Okay, we're going to go into a slight sort of audience participation segment now. We got you to fill out cards at the front for the weirdest things in Dallas, because we all want to learn about what the fuck is going on. So if these beautiful cards could be bought out, they're going to magically appear from one of the sides of stage. If they don't, that's okay. Yeah, they can run. Oh, my God. Hello. Who's this? Who's this? Round of applause. Calvin.

[B]

Thank you.

[D]

Hold on. Wait. Take her.

[C]

Wait, wait, wait, wait.

[A]

Calvin, your dad's gonna take a photo of you. Come back briefly. No, he's got things to do. He might come back. Your dad's gonna take a photo. I say Rob does it all. It's insane. Stay tuned for more Flightless Bird.

[E]

We.

[A]

We'll be right back after a word from our sponsors. Introducing Meta Glasses. You have questions. They've got answers. Hey, Meta, what's the capital of Peru?

[E]

Lima.

[B]

How do you say where's the restroom in Spanish?

[E]

Donde esta albano? Hey, Meta, is a hot dog a sandwich? Technically, no. Spiritually, yes.

[B]

Hey, Meta, what should I do with my life?

[E]

That's one of life's biggest questions. What do you think?

[A]

Ask anything with the new Meta glasses?

[C]

What if I told you you only have 12 hours to legally have sex?

[E]

To finding true love or just like a good guy.

[A]

From the director of Easy A and Anyone but you. This whole thing is nuts. There's nothing traditional about this language.

[C]

On August 7th, the clock starts on the summer's biggest rom com.

[E]

I'm Owen. Ally.

[A]

What about you and me?

[C]

Monica Barbaro. Callum Turner.

[A]

I've been told I'm a seven.

[B]

By who? Your mom?

[A]

No, she thinks I'm a ten.

[C]

One night only.

[A]

Rated R. Only in theaters August 7th. I wrote a little song to remind you. Choice hotels get you more of the experiences you value.

[B]

Mm.

[C]

The Cambria Hotel's got it all.

[A]

A rooftop bar. Have a ball.

[C]

Cocktails up here.

[A]

Feel just right, Ms. Cambria. Amazing. All right, bring it down your team or even your mom. Book [e-mail]. see you on the roof. Calvin, you're a legend. Thank you.

[D]

There's not a lot.

[A]

That's okay. We're going to learn a few little facts. Rosabelle, do you want to begin with a weird thing about this city?

[E]

Yes, I would love to. So, northern city McKinney has a dragon walking tour museum. The dragons make noise and are. I don't know why this is in square quotes. Life size, maybe.

[A]

Life size, maybe not.

[E]

How big is a dragon?

[A]

No, I mean, that's the big question, isn't it? How big is a dragon?

[E]

Yeah. Who knows? I guess we'll find out.

[A]

We will soon.

[D]

Rob home of the first seven. 11. Did you write this card?

[E]

Yeah, I was out there.

[A]

Roosevelt got ego. Oh, controversial. I'm curious if you agree with this. Apparently your city has a superiority complex. Accurate yell. Not accurate yell. Oh, wow. You do. Fuck. All right, good to know.

[E]

Dallas, underground walkways and tunnels. There is a food court of national brands under Renaissance Tower. It feels like a creepy underground subway. Food court.

[A]

I love the sound of that. Still open. Okay, let's go. We need to go to that. Up to this.

[D]

This is a lot like yours. I've never lived somewhere that's loved itself so much. Texas shaped everything.

[A]

It's good to be proud of your city, isn't it?

[D]

Yeah. And people stand in the road where JFK died.

[A]

Fucking idiots. Fucking idiots. It's funny. I mean, I like that whole confidence thing is something I'm still wrapping my head around this country because in New Zealand, it's like it's seen as a bad thing. If you're too confident and proud of

[E]

yourself, it will cut you down.

[A]

Yeah.

[E]

Run you over on the Cross.

[A]

So just hearing that a city loves itself so much is like a real conflict with the New Zealand way. But I support it. We gotta be confident. Be confident in your fucked up roads and your big cars. The Dallas Cowboys don't play in Dallas. That's crazy.

[D]

Do you know what sport that is?

[A]

Fuck Dallas Cowboys. Now I know this. I'm getting the image in my head. It's football. Yeah, yeah, I know. Thank you for submitting on those cards. I should also say I'm just getting a great vibe from this crowd. So thank you for being here. You're fucking wonderful. Thank you. Rosabelle, you can go backstage and have a little break. We're gonna bring you back.

[D]

She's gonna take photos.

[A]

You're gonna take photos now? Yeah, Rosabelle is gonna take photos. Thank you, Rosabelle. So I mentioned this earlier, but yesterday Rosabelle and I, we took a tour of the Colossal labs here in. The whole thing was amazing. I'm a big Jurassic park guy, so the idea of bringing back extinct creatures blows my mind. I've been fascinated by this company for a long time. The whole premise is that they're going to de extinct various species. Species like the woolly mammoth, the Tasmanian tiger in Australia, and perhaps most importantly, one of the coolest flightless birds ever. The moa. Do you know what a MOA is? Fucking beautiful. It's a tear on our Patreon, but it's not made up. Moa were a 12 foot high beast of a flightless bird that became extinct due to overhunting because they're basically a giant chicken. So we ate the shit out of them and they don't exist anymore. Colossals already had really great PR and great success for bringing back the direwolf, or at least something like deeply close to the dire wolf. I've got a lot of questions about this company, about the tech, but also just about how it ties in with one of its key aims, which is conservation. Bringing back these things that have died off. Mostly because humans have done things like eaten them into extinction. So please welcome the manager of conservation partnerships at the Colossal, Stefano Dazo Arango. Thank you so much. Hi, Stefano. You can choose where you want. You can sit here or you can sit there. This is a test. You can sit there, further away from me. Interesting. Interesting. How's it going, man?

[D]

Nice to meet you.

[A]

Thank you for being here.

[B]

Of course.

[A]

Pull that mic into you just so it's sort of up to your mouth there. I'm curious how you came to somewhere like Colossal, because I'm not I've been drawn into the hype and we're going to get to my skepticism as well. But being in that lab was incredible. I'm wondering how you came to it and what you were doing before my personal story.

[C]

So I was that kid that grew up watching Jurassic park, falling in love with dinosaurs and never getting out of that phase. I feel like it's natural progression for young boys to love dinosaurs and then grow up and become adults. That didn't happen for me. For me, dinosaurs were a thing that kind of stuck around forever and were the reason why I got into conservation. It taught me about extinction. And going to the museums and seeing these incredible specimens and learning that they didn't exist anymore was kind of like eye opening. And learning that this was happening to species today, like elephants and rhinos and polar bears, name your favorite animal is probably going extinct was really saddening. And I knew then that I wanted to dedicate the rest of my life to preventing at least man made extinctions. So I got into conservation from a young age. I studied ecology and evolution biology. I'm a nerd for the interactions between environments and animals and how things evolve over time. And that got me into conservation. And when I saw right in 2021, as the pandemic was kind of slowing down a little bit ish, that this company was trying to make de extinction a thing, I told myself, well, if you don't apply, you're going to regret it for the rest of your life. So I put in my application and got in and I've been working at Colossal ever since.

[A]

So you took Rosabelle and I through the process and the science behind how you are doing this. And obviously the direwolf. You've got these. It's three wolves, right? Yep. They're functioning. They're doing their thing in an undisclosed location. You've got the mammoth and the MOA on the list. I know it's complex to go through, but can you just like very quickly break down how this is achieved? Because obviously these animals aren't with us anymore. They're extinct for a variety of reasons. What are you doing to bring these animals back? Just the direwolf you've done, but you've got these other animals on the list.

[C]

Yes, great question. So let's go through how Jurassic park did it and then let me walk you through how we're doing it.

[A]

Because I feel like Jurassic park is either a curse where you're trying to undo people's belief in how this can happen, or maybe it's Like a handy guide into that world in the first place.

[D]

It'll be a theme park at some point.

[C]

So no theme park. I like Jurassic park because it got people excited about the idea of the extinction and got them exposed to it. But there's a lot of misconceptions. So what do they do in Jurassic Park? In Jurassic park, they find dino DNA in amber, which now we have discovered that amber is actually a really bad preservative for DNA. It's really porous and DNA breaks down almost immediately when preserved in amber. But alas, in Jurassic park, they pull out dino DNA and they fill the missing gaps with frog DNA, which is weird because we knew then that it was birds that were closely related to dinosaurs, not frogs. But anyway, so that's how they rebuilt T. Rexes and Triceratops and velociraptors, Whatever. So how are we doing it at Colossal? At Colossal, we find specimens of animals that went extinct in the recent past, like the Tasmanian tiger or the dodo or the moa or species that went extinct maybe 10,000 years ago, like woolly mammoths, dire wolves, but that still have some preserved DNA in them.

[A]

Okay, so just super quickly, like as a speedrun, where are you getting the DNA for a mammoth and a moa?

[C]

Say so for us in the mammoth case. Conveniently, mammoths kind of flash froze themselves in the permafrost for us, which is really nice. And MOA and MOA preserved themselves in caves. So a lot of moas actually fell into caves that were very alkaline, very dry in, you know, environment wise, which is a good place for DNA to not break down as fast as they would in, you know, exposed to the elements.

[A]

And as a side note to this, just because Lord of the Rings is big lore in our podcast, Peter Jackson has invested heavily in Colossal because he wants. He's like a massive nerd and he wants to bring the MOA back. And I believe you, Colossal went on like a dig with him in New Zealand to look for bits of moa, which is insane to me because you think of this director who's made Lord of the Rings. It's funny, these directors, like James Cameron is obsessed with ocean discovery. Now he's got his own submarine. And Peter Jackson is using his resources now to get the MOA back. I just find that mind blowing and weirdly Simon diversion. James Cameron also lives in New Zealand now, which I find weird. So you've got these directors that made these massive films. For some reason, they're all in New Zealand. Anyway, continue a Lot of really cool

[C]

people live in New Zealand.

[A]

That's my point.

[B]

Thank you.

[A]

We're trying to get validation the whole time.

[C]

New Zealand rocks, by the way. I just got back from New Zealand like a couple weeks or a couple of months ago, and I loved it. If I could live in anywhere, it would be the south island of New Zealand.

[A]

Fucking great. Thank you, sir.

[C]

So, okay, so let's go back to woolly mammoths.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

We find these specimens that have conveniently preserved themselves in environments that are conducive to preserving DNA. So for the woolly mammoths, it's flash frozen in the permafrost remains. In the case of dodos or moas, it's animals that froze or preserve themselves in caves. We take these bones and then we go through this whole step of paleogenomics, the art of ancient DNA, extracting the ancient DNA that remains from these specimens, bones, whatever is left. And oftentimes because it's been so long, these genomes are very fragmented. When an animal dies, organisms, bacteria enzymes start to break down the DNA, so you get really fragmented pieces. But if you get enough of them, you can sequence them and eventually get a relatively good picture genomically of what this animal was. What this lets us do, once we are able to sequence these specimens, is identify the closest living relative of these extinct animals. So in the case of the woolly mammoth, it's the Asian elephant, 99.6% identical to the woolly mammoth. In the case of the moa, it's the emu or the Tinamou. In the case of the dodo, it's the Nicobar pigeon. And unlike Jurassic park, where they're kind of filling in the gaps with the, you know, DNA of a frog or whatever, we are taking the living relative's genome, which is already 99.6% of the way there, and putting in the key genes that made that extinct animal unique. What made a woolly mammoth woolly. What made a woolly mammoth have those iconic curved tusks? What gave that woolly mammoth the traits to live in an Arctic environment? And we are engineering that using CRISPR Cas9 technology, gene editing tools into the cells of the living relative to restore the traits, to restore the genes that made that organism a living contributing member of that ecosystem.

[A]

So when you've got the embryo, I can understand conceptually the mammoth situation. You're putting into an elephant. The mower thing's kind of crazy because you've got an egg involved and so are you putting it. And also, moas are fucking huge like, eggs don't exist that big. Like, what are you putting, like, where are you growing? Where would you grow a moa? And you haven't done this yet, but, like, where would that be in an egg? It's not going to fit in a chicken.

[C]

Right, so it's a good question. We are looking at emus as the potential surrogates for moas. But eventually an emu will. The emu egg won't be large enough. So we are going to need to create an environment to artificially incubate a MOA into full gestation.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Some sort of artificial egg of some kind.

[C]

So at Colossal, we have an incredible team that's dedicated to building exogenous development tools. So artificial womb technology, artificial egg technology, so that not only can we bring giant birds that don't have surrogates that produce eggs big enough, but if we're serious about producing thousands of woolly mammoths to prevent the climate from accelerating and heating, we're going to need a lot of elephant wombs and there's not a lot of Asian elephant mothers out there. So we're developing artificial womb technology to drastically ramp up mammoth production and the production, hopefully in the future, of other endangered species like northern white rhinos, blue whales, other long lived animals that take a long time to reproduce.

[A]

Artificial womb is an insane concept. Like that is just to say that that is fucking bonkers.

[C]

A lot of people compare us to Jurassic park, but there's a lot of matrix also happening at the level.

[A]

There really is.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

Just from the conservation perspective, I see there's two arguments here because I'm very excited about sort of undoing what humans have kind of messed up. But then on the other side, these things have gone extinct for a reason at times, and things are changing and bringing things back. The world has changed since they were last here. Like, from a conservation perspective, how do you view that and what you're doing? Because there's also this other argument of like, no, fuck, let's put resources into protecting what is still here and alive and like gasping for breath as we fuck the world up instead of looking at things that have already disappeared. Like, how do you. So you can go anywhere with this, but how do you look at that?

[C]

Yeah, I love this question because before I came to Colossal, that's what I was doing, Right. I was in the conservation space in Yellowstone. And, you know, I think today it's easy to see that we're in a climate crisis. You hear it in the newspapers and whatever every day that the world is heating up and whatever. But what is lesser known is that we are in an ecological crisis and we are witnessing the erasure of nature. We are witnessing the collapse of our biosphere. Since the 1970s, we've lost over 50% of all wildlife species. That means that our planet is less wild, it's more tame, it's more domesticated. There's less wild spaces. And this isn't just sad in an intrinsic sense. It's sad because every system that we depend on depends on a living biosphere. Right? What happens if we lose our pollinators? What happens if we lose our keystone species? It's not good. It's one thing to bring back recently extinct species like the dodo or the thylacine that we know we humans drove into extinction, but how do we develop the tools and the technologies to not just slow, but maybe even reverse this destruction that we are accelerating on the natural planet? For us at Colossal, this moonshot mission to bring back extinct species like the woolly mammoth, like the dire wolf, like the moa, is what brings in the excitement, the awareness, the investment to develop these incredible novel tools like cloning rare animals like elephants, like producing endangered species, birds, where these technologies don't exist at scale cheaper to help conservationists have the tools they need to slow down and even reverse the ecological crisis. And that's what gets me really excited about what we're doing each and every day at Colossal. How do we use this incredible engine of innovation, which is de extinction, and funnel it into the conservation of threatened species today?

[A]

What would you say is the biggest misconception about Colossal? Because my temptation, when I first read about you, I'm very cynical about everything. I'm like, these are a bunch of tech bros. They got a lot of money. They're, like, just doing something insane. I kind of changed my mind because in a previous live show, we had Joanna Lambert, who is a wolf expert. She's in Yellowstone. She's like this baller woman who's been looking at wolves and trying to conserve them for, like, decades. She's fucking amazing. And she said to me, like, she's like, colossal's fucking great. And I was like, maybe I. Maybe I'm being too cynical about this. But, like, what do you. What. What is the biggest misconception that you see about your company? Because it is, like, very glossy. You've got the most insane PR that I've seen for any sort of tech company ever. Really. Like, it's amazing.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

That direwolf was on the front page of Fight the Papers in New Zealand, you know, it was really cool. Yeah.

[C]

Yeah. Well, for one, I think one big misconception is that we're a bunch of tech bros, which, you know, we like. Joe, Joanna Lambert. We have recruited an incredible array of experts, advisors, scientists that help consult our work, that help lead our projects, both on the science side, on the rewilding side, on the conservation side. So we have an incredible team, but also just this incredible group of people that help us pioneer the science to make what we're doing a reality. I think the other thing is the Jurassic park analogy, right? Jurassic park put this idea in everybody's heads that you're bringing back these extinct animals for fun, for whatever purpose, putting dinosaurs back into an ecosystem 65 million years after when they're maladapted for it. We're looking to bring back species that went extinct much more recently, species that often we humans drove into extinction. And in that process develop powerful new tools and technologies that are directly applicable to the conservation of species today. Let me give you a quick example. There's two Northern White Rhinos left in the world. Two females named Najin and Fatu, their mother and daughter. No matter how much these rhinos love each other, they're not going to save their species.

[E]

Right.

[C]

The only way that we can save the Northern White Rhino is through disruptive biotechnologies like ivf, like stem cell technology, like cloning. And we're currently working with partners like BioRescue and Ol Pejeta to do just that. How do we use preserved sperm and eggs to clone these animals? How do we go back into museum specimens to identify lost genetic diversity and gene edit that diversity in so that we can restore a population of genetically healthy and robust Northern White Rhinos? We poached Northern White Rhinos into oblivion. That's our moral failing.

[A]

Yeah. Humans love killing shit. We do it so well and we

[C]

are freaking amazing at killing shit. We are less good at restoring things. And I would say that De Extinction is one of our first real attempts at trying to do that to the natural world.

[A]

Do you promise that when you bring the MOA back, you'll give Flightless Bird the exclusive so very Small podcast?

[C]

It seems like a natural partnership.

[A]

It does, right?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

We've got a deal on that.

[C]

Yeah. I'll have to bring it up with the higher ups.

[A]

Rob, I feel I've like talked all over this. Do you have any questions?

[D]

Is the end goal humans at some

[C]

point of what we're doing at Colossal?

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

So we're focused only on wildlife on you know, organisms that have struggled because of humanity's impact. I think it's important to realize that what we're doing here have applications far beyond just wildlife. Right. Artificial womb technology, gene editing technologies has applications to things like human medicine, human fertility manufacturing. And we envision a future where we can develop all these technologies, spin out whatever is useful for those other fields as other companies or products or whatever. But we're really focused on the de extinction side of things. And how do we open source as much of this technology as we can for conservation, a field that is overly underfunded, under focused, and how do we ramp up the tools necessary to do that?

[A]

Stefano, thank you so much. We're going to have you back at the end for questions from you guys. You're a fucking legend. We are going to bring back onto the stage a Rosabelle, because we love Rosabelle. She's been taking photos out there. She's a multitasker, like Rob Rulma. Here she is. I just sort of thought. I wanted to talk to you, Rosabelle, kind of about. Because I've been accused of having a very warped view of what New Zealand is as well. I think I get a lot of things wrong. And so I just thought we could talk a little bit about your growing up in New Zealand maybe, and kind of compare it. Do a bit of compare and contrast with Rob here and what his childhood was, maybe.

[E]

Yeah. Well, we should compare it with yours as well, because it would have been quite different.

[D]

You're like a third third in here.

[A]

I was trying to remove myself from this conversation, but, yeah, true enough. I'm involved, too. So where do we want to start with this? What was life growing up for you in New Zealand, Rosabelle?

[E]

Well, I moved to New Zealand when I was eight. I was born in Brisbane, so I didn't have, like, early childhood. But I think something that would be really different from the US Is everyone just walks around barefoot.

[D]

I have that on my list.

[E]

Just like the hobbits.

[A]

Yeah. It's not a crazy thing to be in the supermarket in bare feet or walking through town in bare feet. And people say, like, what about the glass? Like, what about that? Two things.

[D]

Do you have glass in New Zealand?

[A]

Well, we're not littering like you Americans are, and we're not dropping bottles everywhere. Like, we're clean. And the other thing is, in New Zealand, and correct me if I'm wrong, Rosabelle, you grow up as this little feral kid running around without shoes. You build up a thick.

[E]

You really do.

[A]

Yeah, I have thick soles on these beautiful feet.

[E]

But if you stop wearing bare feet all the everywhere, or not having bare feet everywhere, you lose the thick sole. You become weak again.

[A]

And so to stay strong in New Zealand, we stay barefoot. Our main logo, our main saying, stay barefoot, stay strong. That's what we say.

[D]

Is there anywhere you have to wear shoes?

[E]

No.

[A]

A wedding, maybe? No, not really.

[E]

I mean, up to the bride and the people getting married.

[A]

It is. Yeah.

[E]

Maybe something that I did as a child that I wouldn't do now is walk into a public toilet barefoot.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah. We have limits. Yeah. These souls don't want to be covered in piss. We've still got, like, some limits on

[B]

what we want on those days.

[E]

Just a personal preference.

[A]

Just a personal preference, exactly. Is there anything that stands about your childhood that you feel is unique to New Zealand or to Rosabelle?

[E]

I don't know if this is a thing unique to me or to Aotearoa, but one. If you have a birthday party as a child, the main treat that you really want to have and that will impress all your friends is who were there is this thing called fairy bread. Oh, do you have that here?

[C]

Wow.

[A]

No one person has it.

[D]

What is it called?

[E]

Fairy bread.

[D]

Fairy bread.

[A]

Can you have a guess, Rob, to what that is?

[D]

Like a fruit. Fruit and bread.

[E]

Fruit and bread. Is it? Yeah.

[D]

I don't know.

[E]

It's a slice of white bread slathered in butter, and then you just pour some confetti on top.

[D]

Confetti? Edible.

[E]

What do you call that? Hundreds and thousands.

[A]

Hundreds and thousands of sprinkles.

[E]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah, it's delicious.

[E]

It is actually really good. You should try it.

[D]

I had a similar. My mom would make white bread with butter and cinnamon sugar.

[E]

Ooh, that sounds good.

[D]

Yeah, Very healthy.

[E]

Yeah. We saw cinnamon butter at the Czech stop.

[A]

Yeah, we did. Yeah, we did. America loves cinnamon so much. What was school like for you, Rosabelle? Like, school in New Zealand, like, any memories from that time? Because I was homeschooled, so it was just me and Mummy, you know, hanging out until I was about 12.

[E]

Well, something that might be similar for you and I, even though you just had your mummy is. I remember being really surprised when I moved here. I came from a Lutheran school in Brisbane, so that was religious by its design. But then I just went to a regular public school here, and these strangers off the street volunteered to come and teach us Bible studies every.

[A]

Yeah, that was my mum.

[E]

What do you mean? With you?

[A]

Yeah. No, with other schools. So my mum would go into schools, Mummy would leave Me at home. And she would go and teach Bible in schools, which was this really odd thing where it was like kind of. It wasn't part of the school, but they just have people come into a secular school and just give like an hour talk on.

[E]

Were they vetted? Like, how did.

[A]

No, my mum wasn't vetted. My mum's a maniac. They let her in? No, Pam's fucking great, but no, just go in there to talk about the good word of God, I suppose. Happy Easter, America. Yeah. So anything else that, like, what were you like at school? I'm just sort of getting. I'm sort of honing into just you now.

[E]

Oh, yeah, Okay. I mean, I was a real suck up. Like, I don't think other kids liked me. I was a real nerd. But I also really believed I was a witch, like all children do.

[A]

I don't know if all children believe it, but. And what did this look like?

[E]

Well, I do remember getting into trouble because I went to the library and I found this book on self hypnosis. And it included all the scripts you should use on yourself, which is kind of just like meditation, really. It's just like maybe at the end you can be a bit more susceptible to other people's instruction. And I took the book to school and I told all my friends I could hypnotize them. And we all went down to the long jump pit, which is a stretch of sand.

[A]

We have that.

[E]

Okay, just checking. It's quite a weird thing that is universal in the world, just jumping into sand. And I remember getting in trouble and I can imagine why, because I was standing there with all these children lying around me while I read the hypnosis script. I was trying to hypnotize them, but it probably looked quite strange.

[A]

How many kids did you have down there?

[E]

Maybe like 10.

[A]

That's so weird.

[D]

They were in a trance on the ground.

[E]

I couldn't say because I got dragged away.

[A]

Did you have intent of what you wanted to get them to do?

[E]

We're just sharing a nice experience of being hypnotized together.

[A]

See, people think you're the normal one. You're not?

[E]

No. If I. If after the show, I was like, hey, would you guys like to be hypnotized? Like, don't you think?

[A]

In the lobby, out by the merch table. We'll be out there. You join us.

[E]

Rosabelle, I take it back.

[A]

Did you have any questions?

[D]

Kids here have real weird names like this generation, naming kids like Wolf and things like that. What are weird New Zealand names for kids.

[A]

I do know we had a family that called their kid Metallica. That was weird. Yeah, we've got a lot of bogans. Like, bogans are like metalheads.

[E]

Yeah, I do. These weren't kids I knew personally. But there are children in New Zealand who are named after their origin story, I guess, or like their place at conception. So there's. I think there's a child called bus stop number 11.

[C]

Really good.

[E]

I haven't met them, but I would love to.

[A]

Absolutely.

[E]

We had lots of international students come to our school and they could choose an English name. So we had lots of students strange names that children themselves had picked, like Tuna sundae. And I remember there was a girl called Cake, which I was like, that's such a cool name.

[A]

That's such a good name. Stay tuned for more Flightless Bird. We'll be right back after a word from our sponsors.

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[D]

You guys have no predators. When we were growing up, we were afraid of bears and snakes, and you don't have any.

[E]

That's why we were running around barefoot.

[A]

Yeah, that was part of it. We wouldn't get bitten by spiders or snakes or anything like that. That was another thing. Our feet were safe, our bodies were safe.

[D]

Do you think it's made you get softer?

[A]

Well, I mean, I do think of us a bit like, sort of the show name for this podcast. Like, we are. Our birds don't fly. Like, we're not used. And if a predator, like, we had, like, a stoat get loose on an island one time in New Zealand, and it was just one stoat, it was killing, like, hundreds of our pathetic, flightless birds. And this whole manhunt has to take place where people swoop in to, like, catch this one little creature. And so I think, in a way, we are a bit soft, maybe. Like, we're not used to being harassed. And so I think America is a bit of a shock. And I think maybe that's where it comes down to being in Texas and having these big cars going, vroom, vroom. Like, I jump. Like, I've been walking around with Hubert Roosevelt, sort of jumped a few times at some of the loud noises. So I think, to answer your question, we are pathetic.

[D]

And you guys watched a lot of American TV growing up.

[A]

We love tv. We love America.

[D]

Do you think that gave you a bit of an identity crisis that you were kind of adopting our culture?

[A]

Yeah. I mean, it's part of our desperation to kind of be talked about in any way and sort of referred to in any way, because, yeah, a lot of our touchstones in New Zealand were American shows in America. I mean, I remember when Burger King opened in New Zealand, and that was, like, a big deal. We're like, here's this classy restaurant opening. You know, it's got, like, a jukebox and, like, really good burgers, and it's, like, so much better than a McDonald's. Like, that was an exciting day, and it's like, that's what we're. So. We are. I can't remember what your question was, but we are yearning for, like, relevance always.

[D]

Is that true?

[E]

Yeah, I think. And because we're sort of halfway between England and America, those are our idols. And I feel like if I hear an American or a British accent, I'll pay attention. I hear a New Zealand accent. I'm not listening.

[A]

Rosa. I've just looked at the time. We've got to get our final guest on. We're going to bring you back for the Q and A. So if you have questions for Rosabelle, store them up. In your American brains, because you're going to get an opportunity. Thank you, Rosabelle, again. Oh, my God. Okay, okay. I'm excited about this one, especially considering where we are right now. I said at the beginning, it's been about 10 years since I was here. I was here 10 years ago shooting a documentary series called Dark Tourist. In that show, I traveled around visiting tourist spots associated with sort of death and destruction. And of course, I came to Dallas because you have this tourism industry built up here around the assassination of jfk. So during Dark Tourist, I met a gentleman called Robin Brown, who was kind of the heart and soul of that episode. As well as running a funeral home, he's devoted 50 years to studying what happened on November 22, 1963. When I met him, he was taking very intimate and detailed tours in his car. I'm talking one on one six hour, really intense tours. Peter Jackson has taken one of them, which is fucking amazing. I loved filming with Robin. He was a delight. He was also the most difficult character in that show because he talked so fucking much like he's so passionate. So I'm kind of worried about having him come to the stage tonight because he's just so fucking passionate. And at some point, I'm going to have to cut him off. Please welcome to the stage a legend, Robin Brown. Let me clear this American Girl doll off the seat. Robin, it's such a delight to have you here. Were you happy with how the Netflix show turned out? I haven't seen you in about a decade. Are you all right with it?

[B]

Absolutely.

[A]

Okay, good. I think we should cut to the chase. Here we are in. When we booked this tour, we didn't know the significance of this building we're in, which is bonkers. Could you just quickly take us through what happened and the significance of the building we're in right now? As someone that knows every detail of the assassination,

[B]

so not knowing what they know. David, if you're trying to resolve why John Kennedy was publicly executed in this town 62 and a half years ago, eventually, in search of the truth, you're led here to this theater. Lee Oswald was arrested in this theater. But there was a lot of moving parts that led the trail to this theater. Now, you know this. When David and I met nine years ago, see my customers, my daughter and I have people that find us that want to know why this happened to jfk. After being with David for a few days, I became increasingly frustrated that it didn't seem like David wanted to solve the murder. And that's what we do, my daughter and I. That's what we do. We solve the murder. And finally, my wife grabbed me and said, robin, David is not trying to solve the murder. He's providing entertainment. And that helped me. And then I was able to relax and enjoy my friendship with David. Because, see, when people do a tour, they book through my daughter, and we do a tour. It might be six hours, eight hours. And I never stopped talking. And I had to realize, David's not like one of our customers. David's trying to see another side of all this.

[A]

Yeah, I was trying to get into your head and sort of who you were. And I just remember our cards were, like, filling up. Our DP was so stressed. Cause, like, we don't have any storage for this man. It's like there's too much information.

[B]

It is endless. I think you said the information is endless. But this theater is a part of history because Lee Oswald had nothing to do with murdering John Kennedy. But the official mythology that was created at that time by Kennedy's enemies was that one person overthrew the United States government, which is a lie, which is impossible. But your parents and grandparents were asked to accept that as the truth. So Lee Oswald's role was to take the blame for John Kennedy's murder. And the people that put Lee Oswald in this position gave him instruction. Who's Lee Oswald? He's CIA. And people led Oswald to come to this theater. That day, a cop was murdered six blocks east of here. Eventually, the world was told that not only did Lee Oswald murder the President in retreating later, he killed a cop. Well, Lee Oswald did not kill the President, and he did not kill a

[A]

cop, which I shouldn't. I don't want to interrupt.

[B]

Go ahead.

[A]

That's.

[B]

I need to be interrupted.

[A]

That's a big counter statement to what you'll find on the Wikipedia page for the assassination. And I'm sure you know that when

[B]

David was with me nine years ago and he let me ramble for a while, he said, this is sounding a lot more conspiratorial than I was expecting. Well, if you're trying to get to the truth, Rob, I'm sorry to ignore you.

[D]

What evidence is there for this?

[B]

There's no evidence convicting Lee Oswald. None. But Lee Oswald was chosen by John Kennedy's enemies to take the blame. Because once the decision was made to hit John Kennedy, his enemies had no intention of going to jail. This is where I lost David nine years ago. No offense to David. David's very good at his job. His job is Just not to solve John Kennedy's murder.

[A]

Not fair.

[B]

Incredibly good. David came to my daughter and me. My daughter calls me nine years ago and she says, dad, we're going to be with a man named David from New Zealand.

[D]

Zealand.

[B]

And I said, no, that sounds too conspiratorial. I'm not gonna do that.

[A]

And I should just say I have an immense respect for your attention to detail in all of this. And I don't mean to keep interrupting, but it is. It's fascinating when someone spends this much time getting into the depths of this stuff. And I'm just wondering over the years if you feel you were getting this message across about what you see the truth being to other people out there. Cause there's so much information swirling around, and you're delivering this information almost one to one, to people that come on your tour. I'm wondering how you feel like your

[B]

message is going well when our customers get to me. Now, you understand our customers. Find my daughter's website. My daughter's out there somewhere. Kendall.

[A]

Kendall.

[B]

She's the real power behind all this. My daughter. Kendall said, kendall, thank you. But people find my daughter's website, they book a tour, and then I'm face to face with them. David, what we need to understand is by the time my customers are face to face with me, they want me to go on for hours. You and Rob have given me 15 minutes. Thanks. When Kendall told me, dad, we're going to see David again and he's giving you 15 minutes, I said, well, forget that. What about the six or eight hours anyway? Okay, so I've used up 11 minutes. Rob's question was, I think, Rob, what you're trying to say is how can you prove that Lee Oswald didn't kill the President?

[D]

What's the most damning piece of evidence?

[B]

Kendall and I are still working on putting all these pieces together. 62 and a half years later, Rob, we're still connecting pieces. Two and a half years ago, Kendall and I met a man who was in this theater on November 22, 1963. And when he was here in the theater 62 years ago, he was 19 years old. When Kendall and I met him, he was 79. Now, here's why he's important. His name is Jack Davis. You can find him in books if you're so interested. Here's the importance of the man Kendall and I sat down with. Two and a half years ago, Lee Oswald walked in this theater and sat right beside Jack Davis. What's the time? 1:15. The time affixed to the cops. Murder. Six blocks from here was 1:15. So the importance of Jack Davis, the 19 year old kid. If he's telling the truth, Lee can't be six blocks east of here murdering the cop. If I can prove that the official explanation about Kennedy's death, the Warren explanation, if I can prove they've lied about this moment, then I should be in search and I should compel anybody who will listen to me. We should be in search of. What else have we been lied to about? So my job, my daughter's job is easy to prove that a cabal of industry and finance and big oil producers and defense contractors and our intelligence apparatus conspired to murder John Kennedy. That's easy. What's hard is to try to convince someone that one man using a bolt action rifle overthrew the United States government. So, Rob, I don't think you'll ever book an eight hour tour with me. But if you do, I will be looking forward to that. To having you. By the way, the man that Kendall and I were with two and a half years ago, that was in the theater that day, we invited him to meet for lunch. We said, if you'll meet us, we'll buy your lunch. Well, we held him hostage for four hours and I've since invited him. Let's go to this conference, let's do to that conference. And he will say, robin, I don't think so. Maybe some other time. But we did buy his lunch.

[A]

I have just a broad question here. As someone that obviously you're very passionate about this case, you're an American. I'm wondering how one of your main areas of focus is about distrust and the narrative that you're getting from the government here in the United States. I'm wondering how that's colored your view of the United States and how you live your life in general when you realize that, oh, the government is like deeply capable of lying, which I think all of us realize. But I think you have that to another added level of depth.

[B]

The general distrust that people, in this case Americans, have of their authority figures didn't exist until 60 years ago. Our parents and our grandparents trusted and wanted to trust our leaders. That all changed in the aftermath of John Kennedy's murder because the official explanation was so fanciful and so impossible that the public rejected that explanation. And from that moment on, if you questioned the official explanation of John Kennedy's murder, you were called a conspiracy theorist. The term conspiracy didn't have a negative connotation until after John Kennedy's murder. So My daughter and I proudly wear that mantle. We are conspiracy theorists. We have to question any authority figure. I'm just saying that didn't happen 100 years ago. That began with John Kennedy's execution.

[A]

In this town, what would you say is, like, the one thing you should point people to dig into? Further, if they're curious at picking at this story, because people out there, you will know the story, probably to death in some ways. But I feel like you probably also have a lot to learn. Where would you point people to?

[B]

Well, what my daughter and I recommend people do is find the documentary a coup in Camelot. Find it, watch it, find the book. Crossfire. Jim Mars, 1989. Jim Mars book in 1989 is what compelled Oliver Stone to make his movie JFK.

[A]

Such a good film. My God.

[E]

Well.

[A]

Oh, you disagree.

[B]

Oliver Stone was crucified by the American media when his movie came out because he was right over the damn target, and he made a lot of people uncomfortable. I'm sorry. I'm starting to rant.

[A]

This is fast.

[B]

Kendall asked me to not rant tonight.

[A]

Five hours later.

[B]

Yeah, well, anyway, the truth has always been right in front of us. But as Colonel Nathan Jessup said in the movie Few Good Men, very few people can handle the truth. And to get to the truth of John Kennedy's murder, you have to learn some very disturbing, haunting, horrible things. And that's what we do. So you've got to be prepared to hear some terrible things to get to the truth of John Kennedy's murder. I think. David, I've gone over 15 minutes. Thank you very much.

[A]

Something I've realized in the last nine years, you have become much more aware of time. And I'm so appreciative. You're wonderful. We can all learn. Robin, you're a beautiful man. I want to invite our other two guests back to the stage now. Rosabelle and Stefano, you stay here. Robyn, I would really like to open this up to you guys. You can throw questions at any of the people up here on stage, and we will answer them to the best of our ability. I'm still going to be keeping an eye on your time.

[B]

If anyone asks you a question, Kendall, I'm sorry. Wherever you are, I'm very sorry.

[A]

Show of hands. If you have a question, ma'. Am. Right here. White shirt. Did you know that Clyde Borrow is

[C]

buried two miles from where we are right now of Bonnie and Clyde?

[A]

Can you repeat that? I feel that man is sure.

[B]

Part of our tour is we also do a grave tour. We can visit Clyde's grave. We can visit Bonnie's grave now, see, they're not buried together because Bonnie's mother hated Clyde.

[A]

But, well, you can still go to Clyde Barrow's grave. And there's Jack Daniel bottles still left in his grave. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. Right there. How does one book the A hour Tour? Go to jfkcustomtours.com it's legitimately amazing.

[B]

Book the marathon tour.

[A]

I mean, I'm blown away because Peter Jackson took that tour and he was like, he's such a nerd. I kind of love that Peter Jackson has a connection to both our guests tonight. It's wild to me.

[B]

Yeah, that is interesting.

[A]

Sir, into the row. The question have you spoken to any remaining Kennedys? Robyn?

[B]

Yes, the President had a lot of brothers and sisters. His youngest sister was Jean Kennedy Smith. Ten years ago, Kendall and I met a son of Gene Kennedy Smith who would be a nephew of the President, and he was here in Dallas on a book tour, Stephen Kennedy Smith. So the answer is yes. None of the Kennedy family that's alive today wants to talk about this except for RFK Jr none of them will talk about this except for RFK. Who's your friend there?

[A]

This is an American Girl doll. She comes on tour with me.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

Yeah, it's weird. At airport security.

[B]

David,

[A]

any other questions? Over here on that side row. Oh, it's a small child. Oh, it's a Calvin. How long was the murder? You can interpret that question however you like.

[B]

9.9 seconds, right?

[A]

5:14. Is this all right? I'm worried. 5.9 seconds.

[B]

Well, no, that's a future customer for me, David. I want to meet them afterwards. Kendall, let's get their email address.

[A]

So it's dying right on that side at the back. Okay. So the question was, as far as conservation goes, what animal are you most worried about that is currently present that is about to go into extinction? What is colossal Most concerned about, or you personally?

[C]

That's a fantastic question because there is a lot, you know, with our dire wolf project so prominent, we focused a lot on the American red wolf. A lot of people don't realize that there is such a thing as an American red wolf, but it's the world's most endangered Canid species. I think it's just 16 left in North Carolina and about 200 or so in zoos, all descendant from just about 14 individuals. So highly inbred population, breeding with cousins, close siblings. Not a good situation. When we launched the direwolf project, we announced the birth of three Direwolf puppies, Romulus, Remus and Khaleesi. They got all of the press. They appeared on the Times cover. We also cloned four ghost red wolves that not a lot of people talked about. These are animals with genetic diversity that is not seen in the recovery program. So it's like fresh, new genetic diversity to bolster this incredibly endangered American wolf species and could help refresh that species. So I love the American red wolf. I think it's the most patriotic project that's going on in conservation right now, at least here in America.

[B]

America.

[C]

And I think more people should know what the red wolf is.

[E]

Awesome.

[A]

Thank you. Right, second row on the side here.

[D]

Were you looking forward to trying any specific food in Texas?

[E]

Oh, yeah. I was really excited to try Texan barbecue, which we did at Terry Black's.

[A]

It flattened us. It was so intense and loved it.

[E]

But if you have any recommendations, please let me know.

[A]

Send that to Rosabelle's email address. We'll find out on Patreon in a couple of weeks. Front row. Yes, sir. Are you. When you're looking for DNA for the moa, are you also looking for any DNA or you're intrigued at all by the Haast eagle?

[C]

All right, so for people who don't know what a Haast eagle is, this is the biggest eagle that has ever lived, the biggest raptor. And there are myths that the first people to settle into New Zealand, their kids were getting picked up by this giant eagle, getting carried away and getting eaten.

[A]

It's our main, like, not pathetic bird we had.

[C]

No, we're not currently working on the giant possible.

[A]

We don't need that.

[C]

Yeah, we got enough pushback with all of our other projects, but if the moas ever grow out of control and we need a bio control, we'll think about the host eagle.

[A]

Release the eagles.

[C]

Exactly.

[A]

Chaos. Kids being flung up into the air. White shirt, ish hat there. Are you working on any insects?

[C]

So no prehistoric or extinct insects yet, but I think that's a great project because insects are dying out. If you drive your car today, you see a lot less insect splatters on your windshield, which is not good. Even though it's nice that you don't have to wash your car as much. But not yet. Hopefully we launch some insect projects in the future.

[A]

Cool pinkus shirt. Sir. Does Colossal consider the viciousness. Deliciousness. Deliciousness. Do you consider the deliciousness of what you're bringing back? That is, are you bringing things back kind of okta style to consume these creatures in some way? No.

[C]

I've heard dodo was quite good back in the day, but no, we're focused on bringing these guys back again. If we are hunting these animals to the point that we're making dodo Thanksgiving meals or giant moa Thanksgiving meals, we would have done such a good job. We would have been pretty proud of it. But for now, just focused on bringing them back, having them do conservation ecological roles.

[A]

Congratulations to the most American question of the evening. Can we eat it, please? Down here, sir?

[C]

Classes, Rob.

[D]

So I go to Chicago once a year.

[C]

I've been to Girl on the Goat.

[A]

I've been to High five.

[D]

Do you have any recommendations on local areas?

[C]

Also, I challenge you to my coin.

[D]

Local areas, Bucktown, Wicker Park.

[C]

Food is good.

[D]

Oriole, I would say restaurant. I don't know what that coin challenge is.

[C]

I gave you a coin earlier.

[D]

Yeah, yeah. Challenge you to a shot.

[C]

I don't drink, but I give you a coin.

[E]

You're not going to take a malort with us?

[A]

No. What happened? How did your show go? Oh, I got back on the booze again and I'm a complete wreck. Thank you though, for the coin. I don't understand what's happening, but thank you. And, and we're very appreciative questions right here. We were, are you the guys that created the woolly mice?

[C]

So yesterday when we were giving David a tour, he asked, how do you make sure that these edits that you're making work? And I was like, well, did you see our wooly mice? You know, before we try these things on animals like elephants, which take two years to gestate, you know, it's a long time endangered animal. We want to try them out on what are called model organisms. So mice, for example, can we find the traits that make an elephant woolly? Can we find those similar traits in mice and make those edits and make sure that those edits work? If they do, we should see a mouse that has the traits of that trait that we're going that gene that we're going after. So in the case of the woolly mouse, we were looking for wool, we were looking for fat cells, so cold resistance. And we were able to prove that with Chip and Dale, who were born like a month before our dire wolves. So that was a crazy May, April of last year. So, yes, we did make the woolly mice huge popular phenomena right before our direwolves.

[A]

And you can't eat them and you

[C]

can't have them as pets. A lot of people ask if we can make woolly Mice as pets. We do not offer them as pets.

[A]

There's a big hand up in the middle there. Yeah. Hello. Waving. Yeah. How many times do you have to stop yourself from quoting Jurassic Park? Or maybe my added PS to that question is like, how often do you get Jurassic park shit quoted at you?

[C]

Every day you go on our Instagram. Every single comment is, didn't you watch the movies or read the books? They made a whole series on this. You know, I think the lesson from Jurassic park is just pay your IT people more. If you take care of your IT people, they won't ruin your park and let all the dinosaurs out. But, yeah, again, I think it was awesome because it got a lot of people excited about technology and this idea of de extinction. It got me excited about it and now I'm in real life, Jurassic park, but with conservation. But it's important to remember that Jurassic park was a science fiction book and not a documentary. And if we can deploy this technology for good, if we can focus it on conservation, if we can restore species that went extinct because of us and not 65 million years ago, there's a lot of value to that. So I think it's actually kind of a good thing that Jurassic park got people excited about this idea of de extinction in the first place.

[A]

One more question. There is a hand right at the front there. Yes. The question for you, Robin, where were you when JFK got assassinated?

[B]

Fourth grade, 12 miles west of here, Grand Prairie, Texas. I get applause for being in the fourth grade.

[A]

Do you remember what that day was sort of like for you? Was it just like a bit of sort of excitement and something going on?

[B]

Well, they sent everybody home from school. I was not emotionally attached. But my memory is that every adult in my world is sitting around a black and white television for the next four days. That's a pretty strong memory. But at that moment, I wasn't emotionally invested. As you can see, I am today. And now I've dragged my daughter into it. But that's my memory.

[A]

Okay, one bonus question middle there you have your arm up. I didn't hear that. But if you heard it, can you repeat the question back for the.

[C]

How does de extinction help alleviate the climate crisis? So that's a fantastic question. One of our biggest focuses is how do we restore the ecological functions that these animals used to play? Right? So these animals weren't just individual members of ecosystems. They played a role in maintaining that role. Let's take the woolly mammoth, for example. Right? We know that if you remove an elephant from The African savanna, that ecosystem will drastically change. There won't be that truck tank force to clear out the trees to keep that landscape open, open up niches for other species. 10,000 years ago, during the Ice Age, the Arctic looked a lot different than it does today. Today, it's dense forests. 10,000 years ago, it looked like the African savanna that lashed open spaces with a lot of species, not a lot of trees. When you removed mammoths, elephants, there wasn't that force to clear trees to trample snow. And you got these dense forests growing in. So what does that do? When you have dense green trees, you get a subtraction of the albedo effect, Right? Green attracts sun rays. Less snow reflects less sunlight. It absorbs more heat, it gets hotter there. For thousands and thousands of years during the Ice Age, when animals were living and dying in the Arctic, all of those animals were being preserved in the permafrost and they were locking up those methanes, carbon dioxides from those decomposing bodies from escaping into the atmosphere and warming up the planet. Today, what we're seeing is, with a warming planet, that the permafrost is melting and is releasing all of those greenhouse gases back into the atmosphere, which is kind of like a ticking time bomb, right? So as climate change increases and the permafrost melts, it releases more greenhouse gases, which accelerates climate change. We argue that if you are able to restore the keystone species that played a role in maintaining that mammoth steppe ecosystem during the Ice Age, if you brought back the mammoths to clear out the trees, to trample the snow, you would see less permafrost melt and less greenhouse gases escaping into the atmosphere. How, for one, you would clear out those trees, Less green, more snow, more reflective effect from the snow. But also, snow is very insulating. So if anybody has ever been in an igloo, you know that it's warm inside of an igloo. If you step on and compress that snow, that ground layer stays colder, Right? So if mammoths are able to be restored and large enough numbers to restore that ecological function, you could see the slowing down of the melting of the permafrost and the slowing down of the release of those greenhouse gases like methane, which are way worse than carbon dioxide, in greenhouse gas effects. So how do we replicate this, not just in the Arctic, but across ecosystems, like in Tasmania with our Tasmanian tiger, in New Zealand with our moa, all of these species played an ecological role. If we can restore these species and make these ecosystems more resilient, more robust, then maybe we can help nature be more adapt in the face of a changing world. That's our argument for helping fight climate change through de extinction.

[A]

Fucking beautiful. Stefano, thank you for being here. Robin Brown, thank you for being here. Can we have a round of applause for both these gentlemen? Thank you for coming out tonight. A special thanks for Rosabelle coming to America, first time in Texas. And Rob, thank you for doing this show with me. It's been a real journey and I'm like, really grateful that you've kept this thing going and that I feel like it's like it's our little thing and it feels like it's growing. And we get to this show has let me come to Texas and assemble these wonderful people. And so thank you, Rob. Thank you all for being here. Hi, Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile.

[D]

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