CLASSIC: The Curious Rise of SPAM

Summary

Ridiculous History: Classic Episode Summary – The Curious Rise of SPAM

Release Date: June 21, 2025

Hosts: Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown
Guest: Annie Reese, Co-Host and Co-Creator of Savor

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Introduction to SPAM's Ubiquity

In this classic episode of Ridiculous History, hosts Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown delve into the fascinating and often overlooked history of SPAM, the iconic canned meat product. Joined by Annie Reese, a renowned food historian from their personal lives and the co-host of the food podcast Savor, the trio explores how SPAM transcended its initial purpose to become a global phenomenon, particularly beloved in Hawaii and Korea.

Ben Bowlin kicks off the discussion by expressing his fondness for SPAM musubi, highlighting its popularity in Hawaiian cuisine:

"[00:07] Noel: ...I did recently have a spam musubi, which is like a little Hawaiian kind of spam sushi roll situation."

Origins of SPAM

SPAM was introduced in 1937 by Hormel Foods in Austin, Minnesota. Initially marketed as a convenient solution for busy homemakers, SPAM was fashioned from surplus pork shoulder—an otherwise less desirable cut of meat. This strategic move not only provided a shelf-stable meat option but also maximized the use of Hormel's byproducts.

Annie Reese elaborates on the branding genius behind SPAM:

"[09:12] Noel: Well, first of all, it's good branding, right? It's fun to say the spa sound is one of my favorite sounds and then add the AM and it's just a delight to say out loud."

SPAM During World War II

The onset of World War II significantly boosted SPAM's prominence. With fresh meat scarce, especially in the Pacific theaters, SPAM became a staple in soldiers' rations. The U.S. government saw SPAM as an ideal option due to its non-perishable nature and ease of transport.

Annie Reese reflects on the soldiers' relationship with SPAM:

"[15:24] Noel: Wasn't it just kind of like leftover meat parts that they had that they shipped to Hormel and then they made them my Spam like stuff?"

However, the extensive consumption led to a backlash among soldiers, some of whom expressed their distaste through humorous yet critical letters:

"[16:08] Annie Reese: ...some of my favorite disses are, 'meatloaf without basic training, ham that didn't pass its physical.'"

Cultural Impact and Global Adoption

Post-war, SPAM found a second home in Hawaii and later in Korea. In Hawaii, SPAM was incorporated into local recipes, transforming it into beloved dishes like SPAM fried rice and SPAM musubi. This culinary integration made SPAM a cultural staple, with Hawaiians consuming approximately 5 million pounds annually.

Annie Reese provides insights into SPAM's cultural assimilation:

"[25:44] Annie Reese: ...they were putting it in things that we make anyway. They were adding them into Spam fried rice or Spam and eggs."

In Korea, SPAM became part of foreign aid packages during the Korean War, further cementing its status. It's noteworthy that Korea remains SPAM's second-largest market, with traditions like gifting SPAM during Lunar New Year.

Modern Consumption Trends and SPAM's Evolution

Today, SPAM continues to evolve with various flavor options tailored to different regional tastes. In Hawaii, SPAM is so ingrained in the culture that festivals like the Spam Jam Festival in Waikiki celebrate its enduring legacy through contests and themed events.

Ben Bowlin shares a personal anecdote reflecting on SPAM's place in modern times:

"[25:30] Ben: I will make a mean Spam fried rice if you ever want to come over."

Moreover, SPAM's manufacturing process remains largely unchanged, emphasizing its unique texture and shelf stability, which contribute to its lasting appeal.

Pop Culture and Linguistic Influence

The term "spam" extended beyond the product, especially after the famous Monty Python sketch, where "Spam" became synonymous with an overwhelming and unsolicited deluge—mirroring the clamor SPAM caused among soldiers.

Noel Brown humorously connects the linguistic shift:

"[37:22] Noel: It was the idea of just inundating you with something... like annoying."

Despite Hormel's attempts to distance the product from its negative connotations, the term "spam" has firmly entrenched itself in popular vernacular, often used to describe unwanted emails and messages.

Challenges and Market Dynamics

In recent years, Hawaii has faced unique challenges related to SPAM. The high demand has led to instances of SPAM theft, creating a black market where stolen cans are sold illicitly. This surge in demand highlights SPAM's continued relevance and the lengths to which consumers will go to obtain it.

Annie Reese discusses the rise in SPAM-related crimes:

"[47:14] ...some stores have started storing their cans of Spam locked in those plastic cases that are typically used for expensive items."

Conclusion: The Enduring Legacy of SPAM

SPAM's journey from a surplus meat product to a beloved cultural icon is a testament to strategic branding, adaptability, and cultural integration. Whether enjoyed in a musubi in Hawaii, incorporated into Korean dishes, or featured in high-end restaurants, SPAM remains a unique and enduring element of global cuisine.

Ben Bowlin wraps up with a light-hearted reflection:

"[53:37] Ben: I'm wondering if I'm gonna cook some this week. And we've talked so much about it. I feel like we've almost, in a way, consumed it ourselves just by exploring this concept."

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Notable Quotes:

• Annie Reese [09:12]: "It's meant to be an acronym, but the origin of what this acronym actually might be is a little bit lost to history or it's kind of a little murky."

• Noel Brown [16:08]: "Some of my favorite disses are, 'meatloaf without basic training, ham that didn't pass its physical.'"

• Annie Reese [25:44]: "They were putting it in things that we make anyway. They were adding them into Spam fried rice or Spam and eggs."

• Ben Bowlin [37:22]: "It's like our true north. It's the true north of canned animal matter."

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Additional Resources:

For those interested in exploring more about SPAM's history and cultural impact, visiting the SPAM Museum in Austin, Minnesota is highly recommended. The museum offers hands-on exhibits, including interactive SPAM-canning simulations and a collection of vintage advertisements that showcase SPAM's evolution over the decades.

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This summary captures the essence of the podcast episode "The Curious Rise of SPAM," highlighting its historical significance, cultural integration, and lasting impact on global food landscapes.

Transcript

[Ben]

Fellow ridiculous historians, we're gonna say it. We hope this doesn't ruffle too many feathers. We are big fans of spam.

[Noel]

Boy, are we ever just. I don't know, man. I don't love it to eat necessarily, but I love the concept of it. And I did recently have a spam musubi, which is like a little Hawaiian kind of spam sushi roll situation.

[Ben]

Yeah, spam musubi is crazy good. And if you've ever spent time in Hawaii or, or maybe in Korea or even Japan, you know that spam is a global phenomenon. It is darn near ubiquitous in Hawaii. And yeah, it's not for everyone. It is a processed meat. And learning about how that meat is processed may turn you off of the stuff. But luckily, in today's classic episode, we are joined with our legendary dear friend of our show, dear friend in our personal lives, the co host and co creator of Savor, Annie Reese. She's going to help us understand just how ridiculous the origin of spam actually is.

[Noel]

It is indeed. So let's roll that beautiful spam footage.

[Annie Reese]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Noel]

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[Ben]

OpenAI is a financial abomination, a thing that should not be an aberration, a.

[Noel]

Symbol of rot at the heart of Silicon Valley.

[Ben]

And I'm gonna tell you why on my show, Better Offline, the rudest show.

[Noel]

In the tech industry where we're breaking down why OpenAI, along with other AI companies, are dead set on lying to your boss that they can take your job. I'm also gonna be talking with the greatest minds in the industry about all.

[Ben]

The other ways the rich and powerful.

[Noel]

Are ruining the computer. Listen to Better offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you happen to.

[Ben]

Get your podcasts.

[Annie Reese]

A body, a suspect.

[Ben]

And a hundred Years of silence.

[Annie Reese]

Buried Bones is a podcast about the.

[Ben]

Forgotten crimes history tried to leave behind. A common misperception about serial predators is that every single time they commit a crime, they commit it the same way.

[Annie Reese]

The past has a way of talking, if you know what to listen for.

[Ben]

New episodes every Wednesday on the exactly right network.

[Annie Reese]

Listen to Buried bones on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Ben]

In 2022, a group of divers were sucked into an oil pipe and trapped deep beneath the sea. They could have been saved, but they weren't following their story has led us to lucrative contracts, failing safety standards, and secretive political relationships. As we ask, why were those men left to die? This is Pipeline. Episodes are released weekly. Search for pipeline on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio.

[Noel]

Foreign.

[Ben]

Hello, everyone. Ridiculous historians. Thank you for tuning in. This is the show where we look at some of the strangest, weirdest, most bizarre, and, yes, ridiculous people, places, things and events throughout the span of human civilization.

[Noel]

Animals, vegetables, minerals. Today. I'm not sure which category this topic falls under, but it's a thing. It's historically driven, and it's a fun thing. It is a fun thing. You know what just happened? I want to point out, by the way, Ben.

[Ben]

What's that, Noel?

[Noel]

Our super producer, Casey Pegram said. Okay, start talking. Go right, go. He literally cracked the whip at us.

[Ben]

Well. Cause you had thrown both Casey and I under the bus before the. Before the show started.

[Noel]

Why had I?

[Ben]

Yeah. By saying that you are more grateful than anyone for a particularly surprising, amazing thing we have happening in this episode.

[Noel]

That's just me overcompensating. You know this about me, Ben, you know this about me. Do you want. How about this? Let's drop the. Drop the goods. What do we have today that's so cool?

[Ben]

That's correct. Yeah. So we have today an amazing story about an iconic food product that everyone in the US is aware of, and I assume many people throughout the world are aware of this in it is called spam. But you and I are not exploring this story alone today. Thank God we called in an expert. Folks, we'd like to introduce you to our friend and today's co host, Annie Reiss.

[Annie Reese]

Hi, everybody. Thanks so much for having me, you guys.

[Noel]

Did you know that you were a spam expert? Annie?

[Ben]

Spam spurt.

[Annie Reese]

You know, I'm sorry.

[Noel]

Sounds disgusting.

[Annie Reese]

That does sound really gross.

[Ben]

Yeah, it didn't work out.

[Noel]

It's like what happens when you open the can and a little bit of the juice that's in your eye?

[Annie Reese]

Oh, I did not need that mental image.

[Noel]

You did. You didn't know it, but you did, Annie. Okay, expert, Maybe not. I don't know. We're all kind of like armchair experts on a lot of things. We have a good time researching. I don't know how you would get the qualification of spam expert, but I'm going to refer to you as our spam spirit guide today. How about that?

[Annie Reese]

Oh, yeah.

[Ben]

How about spam consultant?

[Annie Reese]

Spam consultant.

[Ben]

I'm going to go spam.

[Annie Reese]

It sounds like an email. Like, I come in and you're getting a lot of spam.

[Noel]

You sort it out. You make all the filters on your emails.

[Ben]

I feel like I'm shopping at a grocery store and I'm going, oh, wait, there's so many different things. And then you appear and you explain it in a step by step basis. And I just want you to know that I am preemptively very appreciative of that.

[Annie Reese]

I feel like I'd be good at that. I'm not sure.

[Noel]

You are very efficient.

[Annie Reese]

Thank you.

[Ben]

And you are a co host of our food podcast, Savor Food Lifestyle Travel. Could you tell us a little bit about Savor?

[Annie Reese]

Yeah. Savor is a show where we explore the science, history, culture of food and drinks and why we like what we like and how you can get more of that. It used to be called Foodstuff. We recently rebranded, but we did a whole episode on Spam back when it was old school Foodstuff. And I have a confession to make that Noel and I were talking about briefly before this. Anyone who knows anything about Apple podcast reviews, you don't read them unless you're a masochist.

[Noel]

Oh, yeah, right. Which I am.

[Annie Reese]

Well, you are a braver soul than me. But one time a friend of mine left a review and was like, you've gotta go find it, you've gotta read it. And I said, do you know what you're asking me to do? But eventually I got over it and delved into the nightmare world.

[Noel]

You waded into the shark pit that is podcast reviews.

[Ben]

I like the reviews. I like reading it.

[Annie Reese]

Oh, that might say something about you, but it might say something about me as well. But one of the number one recurring negative reviews was that I have never tried any of the foods we're talking about. And when we recorded Spam, I had not tried it.

[Noel]

Yeah, that was. You're very open about it on the show, though. So it seems like a very misplaced complaint. You know, you're copying to it, you're owning up to it. You honestly, maybe it's better that you haven't tasted the stuff. It makes you more objective about it.

[Ben]

Have you still not tried it?

[Annie Reese]

I tried it afterwards. I got Spam Subi, and it was lovely.

[Ben]

Spam what?

[Noel]

Musubi.

[Annie Reese]

Musubi? Yeah, it's a very popular. You can find it in convenience stores in Hawaii. That's how popular it is. And it kind of, to me looks like nigiri, like sushi, but it's spam.

[Ben]

Oh, yes. Okay. Yeah, I'm familiar with that. And what we know nowadays is that in most grocery stores that carry spam, you won't just see the iconic regular garden variety spam. You'll see stuff like turkey spam, Spam with bacon, Spam Lite. And because this is so recognizable, we have to ask ourselves, how did this thing, which people love or hate, how did it become so ubiquitous in the world today? How come everybody, vegetarians, vegans included, know what you're talking about when you say spam?

[Noel]

Well, first of all, it's good branding, right? It's fun to say the spa sound is one of my favorite sounds and then add the AM and it's just a delight to say out loud. And it's meant to be an acronym, but the origin of what this acronym actually might be is a little bit lost to history or it's kind of a little murky. Right?

[Annie Reese]

Yeah. There are a couple of stories about where the name came from, from the people who should know where it came from. One is that it's like spiced ham. Or maybe it's stands for scientifically processed animal matter.

[Ben]

Animal matter.

[Annie Reese]

How's that sound? So delicious.

[Ben]

Not quite meat animal matter.

[Noel]

And there's others too. There's a shoulder of pork and ham, and like you said, spiced ham. And then if we want to really get into the weeds, that's utterly not food related. There's Stop Pornography and abusive Marketing Act. There's also the State Police association of Massachusetts, lest we forget.

[Annie Reese]

I didn't realize that that was in the running. For what?

[Noel]

Schools of the Pacific Atmospheric Monitoring Society.

[Ben]

For the publication of American Music Systems Personnel activity meeting. That's from Yale.

[Noel]

And my personal favorite, society for palmtop advancement. Through meetings.

[Ben]

Oh, only through meetings.

[Noel]

That seems like a fascinating use of time, but okay. So spam. It dates back to 1937 in a town called Austin, Minnesota, aka Spamtown, USA.

[Ben]

Mm. And it was made by Hormel Foods, they initially pitched it as a way to help busy homemakers serve quick and easy pork dishes without having to slave away for hours in front of an oven.

[Noel]

But in like an Edward Bernays style stroke of genius, it also did a thing where it Hormel, the guy had a slaughterhouse and he had these byproducts, parts that weren't very sellable, AKA the pork shoulder. We now kind of dig pork shoulder. That's like a thing that. It's like a delicacy. Right, or like people eat it at the Thanksgiving table or whatever.

[Annie Reese]

People are into it now.

[Noel]

Yeah, for barbecue, I think. Right?

[Annie Reese]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

[Noel]

So but he had this surplus of pork shoulder. It was not a popular cut. And so he wanted to figure out a way to make this, as you say, been convenient product that could be marketed to homemakers who are all about canned food. At the time, it was all the rage.

[Ben]

And they haven't really futzed with the ingredients too much. You know, it's strange because when you think of shelf stable, that shelf stable being the term for stuff that can stay at room temperature without going bad or I guess, getting worse than it originally was. When you think of that, usually think of a ton of chemicals with so many syllables in the name that it sounds like a spell from Harry Potter.

[Annie Reese]

Right, right.

[Ben]

But in the case of Spam, they have, what, six ingredients? There's just pork, ham, salt water, potato starch, sugar, and of course, sodium nitrite.

[Annie Reese]

Of course, for color.

[Ben]

Yes, that captivating pinkish hue. It's a great way to describe it. So Spam didn't immediately become this worldwide sensation. There were other things happening across the planet that eventually would lead to Spam becoming like the king of canned meat. And it goes into an angle that a lot of people might not be aware of. It goes to tensions between the US and Japan during the 1930s. There's a guy, Donald M. Shug at the University of Hawaii, who published a paper on this, and he says that the US Military began to view Hawaii's fishing fleet as. As a serious threat to national security. So, you know, at this time, Hawaii is still not a US State. Right. So when the Japanese government arranged for many of Hawaii's Japanese fishermen to attend fishing schools in Japan, there were concerns that these fishermen were actually being interrogated by Japanese Navy officials.

[Noel]

Yeah, but to what end, Ben? To what end?

[Ben]

So this eventually. Okay, we'll walk through this real quick. So in 1940, three years after the invention of Spam, suspicions about the loyalty of Japanese immigrants resulted in the implementation of a federal statute that stopped or banned fishing vessels of 5 tons or more from obtaining licenses unless the person who owned the vessel was a US citizen. The next year, 1941, they passed a law prohibiting, quote, aliens from fishing with gill purse or these different kinds of nets within 1 mile of shore because they wanted to preserve the fishery resources for native Hawaiians and U.S. citizens. This ended careers of a lot of people in the fishing industry in Hawaii. And then that meant that without Spam, these other canned meats and sardines, the economy would have collapsed. They had to find something to replace this massive fishing industry.

[Noel]

And let's not forget about Executive Order 9066, where Franklin Roosevelt basically banned Japanese American citizens who were occupying military zones and had them put in internment camps. So this whole anti Japanese sentiment was wide rife in the country. And weirdly enough, it trickled down to this canned meat product.

[Ben]

And of course, these tensions, these discriminatory laws and economic practices were only ripples of a much larger event on the horizon, which is World War II. And when the war begins, Spam also has a part to play.

[Annie Reese]

Yeah, it does. Because if you remember, spam was pretty new around the time that America was getting involved in World War II. But it was a popular option for soldiers because getting fresh meat or fresh anything to Hawaii was difficult for American soldiers stationed there. So the US Government was sending Spam, or it might not have been exactly Spam.

[Noel]

Wasn't it just kind of like leftover meat parts that they had that they shipped to Hormel and then they made them my Spam like stuff?

[Annie Reese]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So Hormel's canning them, but it probably wasn't exactly what Spam is today or what we think of it today. And it was cheap, non, perishable, could withstand all sorts of weather conditions. But soldiers weren't exactly happy with Spam. They were sometimes eating it three times a day. So I'm sure they were tired of it. Some of them even wrote hate mail to Hormel, which the company kept in a, quote, scurrilous file. And some of my favorite disses are, quote, meatloaf without basic training, ham that didn't pass its physical. And the real reason war was hell.

[Ben]

That's great. That's fantastic.

[Noel]

That's pretty harsh. Those are some sick burns. Do you think that this would have been, like, branded as Spam? Would it have come in the tins, like, with the logo on it and everything? Because you kind of made a point on your episode of Foodstuff, back when it was called that, that almost like the. The proper Spam kind of got a bad rap because this was like, almost like bootleg Spam, but it was being manufactured in Hormel's canning facilities. Because I'm wondering if they, like, branded it differently or called it like MRE spam or something or. I don't know. Did you find anything about that in your research?

[Annie Reese]

I didn't find much about that at all. In fact, the fact that it wasn't spam was sort of a deep cut.

[Noel]

It was kind of lost on people, clearly, because they were writing those letters, those angry letters. And it's also, you know, it reminds me of the kind of people that write mean things about podcasts.

[Ben]

Well, it's also, in the case of spam, there's an interesting linguistic thing that occurs because they're using it as one word to describe this umbrella of. Umbrella of processed meat. So the image just got weird for me. But, you know, it's similar to the way that instead of people saying, search for something on the Internet, they say, google it, or instead of make a copy, Xerox this. Right. And it seems pretty certain in the history that only a few soldiers received genuine Spam. But because there had already been this Kami product around since the late 30s, that's just what people called it. So maybe Spam got an unfair mark, a scurrilous mark on its.

[Annie Reese]

Scurrilous mark on its reputation. I wonder if it's possible too, that because Spam was new and at the time there was such a push to be like, behind the boys and, you know, all American soldiers and America's doing.

[Ben]

Great in the war, Annie is throwing some great propaganda.

[Noel]

Yeah, she's got these tiny American flags that she's gently twisting, twisting between her thumb and forefinger.

[Ben]

She shot off a firecracker.

[Annie Reese]

I always come with props. I always come with props.

[Noel]

Very true.

[Annie Reese]

But I wonder if maybe they made a miscalculation and thought, oh, spam is supporting the soldiers and this will really get our name out there. And it did, but not in the way they were hoping.

[Noel]

Oh, man. So you think this is like an attempt, Like a ham fisted, huh? Attempt and a PR kind of stunt.

[Annie Reese]

Spam fisted attempt.

[Noel]

Spam fisted attempt. That's even better. Annie, he took it to the next level like you do.

[Annie Reese]

I'm just curious if there was an element of that behind it, because I could see the calculation there, because it.

[Ben]

Is free advertising when you think about it. That's a good point, because These soldiers from the US Are traveling around the world. They're going to Europe, they're going to the Pacific, they're going to various different islands, and they're bringing spam along with them.

[Annie Reese]

Yeah. And it's a government contract, so you're getting paid to do it. I bet there was something like that going on. And the backlash from the soldiers generated one of my favorite quotes about spam, because there are a lot of excellent quotes about spam. Hormel describes it as meet with a pause button, which I love.

[Noel]

I'm gonna need you to unpack that for us a little bit. Meet with a pause button meaning, like, it never goes bad, or is that the implication?

[Annie Reese]

Yeah, like you put it in that can. It's like a time capsule. It's just gonna stay the same.

[Noel]

I got it.

[Annie Reese]

Pushing pause.

[Ben]

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[Noel]

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Thanks.

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[Ben]

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[Noel]

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[Annie Reese]

I feel like I have to give.

[Ben]

You something in return for karma.

[Noel]

That's okay. I don't really have much in my purse.

[Ben]

Oh, let's see.

[Annie Reese]

Hands, sanitizer.

[Noel]

It's lavender. I'm good.

[Ben]

Seriously.

[Noel]

Let me check this pocket.

[Annie Reese]

Oh, mints.

[Noel]

Really, I'm fine.

[Annie Reese]

Oh, I have raisins.

[Ben]

I'm a mom. Wait, wait one sec.

[Annie Reese]

I've got cupcakes in the car.

[Ben]

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[Noel]

To 800 bucks with 24 monthly bill credits. New line $100 plus a month on experience beyond 5. Agreement $999.99 and qualifying boarded for well qualified. Plus tax and $10 connection charge. Payout via virtual prepaid card. Allow 15 days credits and ambalance due if you pay off earlier. Cancel CT mobile dot com. Are there any pictures of you online? I'm not just talking about Google. I'm talking anywhere. Clear View scrapes together images from Facebook, from LinkedIn, from Venmo accounts. That database is now being used by police departments all across the country to match criminals suspect photos. And sometimes it makes mistakes. So in this one case, two of Their search results that I think were in the top 10 of the search results were Michael Jordan, a picture of Michael Jordan. But cops are still using it to make arrests. Police, they are trusting this software to lead them to the right suspect. But you're not even being told that it was used, let alone given any of the details about how it works. This is not Minority Report. This is happening right now. People are getting arrested and doing actual time in jail after being picked out by a computer. I'm Dexter Thomas, host of Kill Switch, where every Wednesday we explain the right now of living in the future. You can turn off the computer, but do not let the computer turn you off. Listen to Kill Switch in the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Ben]

OpenAI is a financial abomination, a thing that should not be an aberration, a.

[Noel]

Symbol of rot at the heart of Silicon Valley. And I'm going to tell you why.

[Ben]

On my show Better Offline, the rudest.

[Noel]

Show in the tech industry where we're breaking down why OpenAI, along with other AI companies, are dead set on lying to your boss that they can take your job. I'm also going to be talking with the greatest minds in the industry about.

[Ben]

All the other ways the rich and.

[Noel]

Powerful are ruining the computer. Listen to Better offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts. Wherever you happen to get your podcasts.

[Ben]

A murder happens. The case goes cold. Then, over 100 years later, we take a second look. I'm Paul Holes, a retired cold case investigator. And I'm Kate Winkler Dawson, a journalist and historian. On our podcast Buried Bones, we re examine historical true crime cases using modern forensic techniques.

[Annie Reese]

We dig into what the original investigators may have missed.

[Ben]

Growing up on a farm, when I heard a gunshot, I did not immediately think murder. Unless this person went out to shoot squirrels. They're not choosing a 22 to go hunting out there.

[Annie Reese]

These cases may be old, but the.

[Ben]

Questions are still relevant and often chilling. I know this chauffeur is not of concern. You know, it's like, well, he's the last one who saw our life, so how did they eliminate him?

[Annie Reese]

Join us as we take you back to the cold cases that haunt us to this day.

[Ben]

New episodes every Wednesday on the exactly right network. Listen to Buried bones on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Annie Reese]

Another one of my favorite quotes comes from a 1945 New Yorker piece, and it was all about as a profile on Jay Hormel. And in the article the author wrote, I got the distinct impression that being responsible for Spam might be too great a burden on any one man.

[Ben]

I love that idea. Sort of being cursed by the success of Spam.

[Annie Reese]

Yeah.

[Ben]

So is it that the soldiers genuinely didn't like the taste, or is it. Do you think it's really more because, as you said, they were eating it so often.

[Annie Reese]

I think it was a couple of things. I think it was they. They were eating it so often, they were eating it cold. And one of the reasons I found when looking into this question of why Spam is so popular in Hawaii and like other Asian Pacific countries is because not only were they kind of. Their hand was forced because of the things you were talking about earlier where Japanese immigrants couldn't fish, they also were incorporating Spam in ways that were delicious. Like, they were putting them in recipes that they made anyway. They were adding them into Spam fried rice or Spam and eggs. Soldiers were just eating them cold. Out of the 10, I think I have very limited experience with Spam. I don't know about the two of you, but.

[Noel]

Limited.

[Annie Reese]

Limited, yeah.

[Noel]

Purposefully.

[Ben]

I. I will make a confession that Casey and Annie probably know. You probably don't know. I received. In my early years working, when we all started working together, I received an MVP award. Do you remember this, Annie? It's just three cans of Spam that have been wrapped together and artistically. Artistically designed so that parts of the Spam logo say MVP or something like that. And it's one of the most prestigious awards I've ever received.

[Annie Reese]

Oh, yeah.

[Ben]

It's also still in our office. In case of an emergency.

[Annie Reese]

Yes. In case of a trophy emergency.

[Ben]

In case of a trophy emergency. In case we're trapped here and we have to eat Spam.

[Annie Reese]

Oh, yeah. Okay.

[Ben]

I think about that. But I might have just a little bit more familiarity with this stuff, because in Boy Scouts, we would camp a lot, and we would have to. We would have to eat that stuff. And we tried to find different ways to make it taste interesting. So it's not the same old thing.

[Noel]

But it's already spiced. I mean, what else does it need?

[Annie Reese]

It's got potato starch.

[Ben]

Right.

[Annie Reese]

The secret ingredient, sodium nitrate. I don't know what else you're missing.

[Ben]

But, yeah, I think it's a thing that a lot of people did. As you said, they assimilated Spam.

[Annie Reese]

Yes. And to get back to the point, they were putting it in things that I think were probably much. Well, definitely much more flavorful. And so they had a positive experience with Spam on Hawaii after soldiers left. A lot of soldiers, when they went home, they brought with them their distaste.

[Noel]

They were also turning Spam into Spaminade. Right. I mean, they were flooded and inundated with all these Spam, and because they couldn't get protein from fishing. And didn't the US Kind of, like, send them a lot of the Spam because they had, like, a surplus of the stuff.

[Ben]

Right. And that wasn't just during World War II. That continued during the Korean War as well, I believe.

[Annie Reese]

Yes. Because Spam was included in a lot of foreign aid packages. And during the Korean War, people made something that. I'm not entirely sure what's in there, and other folks weren't either, but they called it Army Stewart. And Spam was one of the ingredients that we do know was featured in Army Stew.

[Ben]

Army Stew.

[Annie Reese]

Mm. And to this day, Korea is Spam's second largest market, and it's a popular gift on Lunar New Year in that country.

[Ben]

Oh, wow. Oh, that's cool. Do they have different varieties of Spam in different countries? Like, different flavors and such?

[Noel]

I.

[Annie Reese]

Yes. I'm not. I couldn't speak to specifics, but I do know that there's a wide variety of Spam flavors and that it does vary in different countries, but Hawaii for sure, is the biggest market.

[Ben]

Yeah. Do you have some stats for us about that?

[Annie Reese]

Do I ever. And I'm not sure. I didn't know that Spam had this association with Hawaii until I did that. The research for that episode. But I think it's pretty common knowledge, at least here in the United States. But Hawaiians consume about 5 million pounds of spam every year, which is about 2 million. A little over 2 million kilograms. And on average, that's about 3 pounds per person or about 1.3 kilograms a.

[Noel]

Year, or I think around six cans a year. For every man. Every man, woman, child, any type of human is consuming about six cans of Spam a year.

[Ben]

I can't. We. We completely forgot. Hey, Casey.

[Noel]

Yes?

[Ben]

Do you have. Do you have any experience or familiarity with Spam?

[Noel]

Just the. The Weird al song, the R.E.M. parody.

[Annie Reese]

Oh.

[Ben]

Oh, yeah.

[Noel]

Wait, which one is that? Spam and the place where you live. You know that one. I don't.

[Annie Reese]

I know that one.

[Noel]

That's a deep, weird outcut. Well, it's stand by R.E.M. but. Yeah, no, I understand. I was not aware there was a. Is this. Is this, like, classic? Yeah. Mid eight. I mean, it's. Whenever Stan was out, so I didn't know. Okay. Casey on the. Casey.

[Annie Reese]

Casey on the case. I like that.

[Noel]

There'S a sound effect and everything, Annie.

[Annie Reese]

Oh, yeah. I mean, it's got to, because he's on the case.

[Ben]

We. We love being able to drop the sound cues so multiple times.

[Noel]

Yeah.

[Ben]

Well, just listen after. After Casey spins this into. Spins the Spam into gold, I'm going to be shocked.

[Annie Reese]

Hawaii also has what looks to be one of the festivals I would just be over the moon to attend. It's called Spam Jam Festival in Waikiki. And I was looking at pictures for it. There's just mascots dressed as all the different types of spam, Spam eating contests. I think somebody got married there once. It looks awesome, and I would love to go. And spam is also called Hawaiian steak, which I wasn't sure if it was a joke or not when I was reading that. In the state, they call it Hawaiian steak.

[Ben]

Okay. So actual native Hawaiians call it that?

[Annie Reese]

From what I understand, from what the Internet tells me, yes.

[Ben]

Okay. Okay. I'm just. I'm trying to figure out if we can say that or if that's mocking it.

[Annie Reese]

Yeah, right. I not here to mock.

[Noel]

Surely they also have steak in Hawaii.

[Annie Reese]

Surely they do, but probably they prefer Spam. Yeah, I mean, I'm sure steak is.

[Ben]

Certainly much more expensive than it is here on the mainland.

[Noel]

That's a very good point.

[Annie Reese]

That is true. Yeah.

[Noel]

Yeah. We kind of take for granted the fact that they are sort of isolated and require all of their goods to be shipped in, literally, you know, by plane or by sea.

[Annie Reese]

Yeah. Which makes things expensive.

[Ben]

So the legacy of Spam, established during World War II and the Korean War, takes this canned food product, this animal matter, from Minnesota to its new home in. You said Hawaii is by far the largest market. Korea is second. That should surprise a lot of people. Right? Because Spam feels like such an American food because of the way it's spread across the planet.

[Annie Reese]

Yeah. It surprised me. I do find it really fascinating that it's so localized, it's so specific, where people love it. And then I feel like the rest of the world and the rest of the U.S. we're kind of like, meh, what's that weird food thing? What is that? Exactly. But I would like to mention that there is an amazing. I've never been, but listeners have sent some stuff they've gotten from this museum in Austin, Minnesota, which is, like you said, Spamtown, usa. And if anyone has the opportunity, I highly recommend it. It's hands on did you touch the Spam?

[Ben]

I think you mean hams on, right?

[Annie Reese]

N. You get to race to see how many cans of fake. It's fake Spam that you can make in a minute.

[Ben]

It's practice Spam.

[Annie Reese]

Yeah. Like, you're trying to shove it into the can and you're competing against, like, a robot.

[Noel]

So it's kind of like the world of Coca Cola in Atlanta, but like, with Spam.

[Annie Reese]

Yes.

[Noel]

I would hope that you would have the opportunity to sample different types of Spam. The Spams of the world, a la world of Coke. That would be super cool. We didn't really talk about this, and I think it's fine to save it for the end. Spam is cooked in the can.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Noel]

The way it's made, isn't that weird? That struck me as super odd. And there's a reason for that. Right, Annie?

[Annie Reese]

Yeah. And it has to do with that whole shelf stable thing, because you want to mix the meat in a vacuum and vacuum seal it and then cook the whole can that's part of the whole meat with a pause button thing. It's so nothing gets in there that you don't want. Unless maybe you don't want the Spam, but that's a whole different argument. And when you cook it, the meat breaks down, and you're left with a little loaf of Spam and some juices. We're not making it sound very appetizing.

[Ben]

Semi gelatinous, almost not as gelatinous as.

[Noel]

It could be if it didn't have that additive. Right. Because wasn't there one of those additives that keeps it from forming a gross congealed layer of goo on the top to make something that's already not super appetizing practically inedible?

[Ben]

And I'll tell you guys, I will. I make a mean Spam fried rice if you ever want to come over.

[Noel]

I'd be cool with that. If you cut it into little cubes like that, Right. It's like you hide it. It's like the way I feed my kid vegetables. You know, I chop the carrots up so small you can't even see them. I mean, Spam, for all intents and purposes, probably tastes fine. But the texture of it and the look of it and the idea of it. Just give me the. Give me the gross outs.

[Ben]

It's the fact that it comes out can shaped, I think for a lot of people. You see the rills and the Cannes.

[Annie Reese]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ben]

But not everybody. Not everybody hated it. Right. We said Hawaiians welcomed it with open Arms people in parts of the Pacific Rim also really enjoyed it. And the Russians liked it. They called it Roosevelt sausage.

[Noel]

To be fair, Russian food's pretty gross.

[Ben]

I feel like in terms of cuisine, Russians are very familiar with a lot of canned meat products, you know, like anchovies, different potted meats. So maybe it was just something that already seemed familiar to them.

[Noel]

Okay. And first of all, for any Russian listeners out there, I want to apologize for insulting the entire cuisine of Russia. But I've just never really run across Russian food that was particularly appetizing. To me, it seems like a lot of cabbage, a lot of like lard based things and borscht and, you know, very rustic kind of.

[Ben]

There's a great Russian restaurant up north of Atlanta where we are based and I would highly recommend checking it out. And actually, you know, in defense of Russian food, this is totally non spam related, but in defense of Russian food, make friends with someone who cooks Russian food themselves and it'll be amazing. There's always like 30 dishes of things.

[Annie Reese]

Yeah, I would imagine that there's probably a lot of food that is historically Russian. That is, we just have lost. Yeah, we've forgotten that it is. Or we've made it our own thing. I'm sure there's. I'm not thinking of any right now, but I'm sure there's good Russian food.

[Noel]

We do like a chicken Kiev.

[Ben]

Yeah, we could do a Russian food update too. I'm sure we're going to get some emails about this one. Another one of perhaps one of the most famous Russian fans of spam was Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. Oh, yeah, he wrote about spam in his memoirs called Khrushchev Remembers. Not the most amazingly innovative thing.

[Noel]

Sounds like a threat though. Khrushchev remembers.

[Annie Reese]

He never forgets.

[Ben]

Yeah, he probably had some threats in there. He probably took some shots. But in the memoir, he specifically shouts out spam by saying, quote, there were many jokes going around in army, some of them of color of American spam. It tastes good. Nonetheless, without spam, we would not feed our army. We would have lost our most fertile land.

[Noel]

Most fertile land, duh. Got it, got it.

[Annie Reese]

Who was that Russian guy?

[Noel]

It was. It was Khrushchev.

[Annie Reese]

He's ghost back from the grave.

[Ben]

Terrible. Oh my gosh. We've got to. I've got to practice on the accents, folks. But he raises an interesting point. You know, that similar to what was happening with war survivors in the countries on the Pacific Rim, there were people who would have starved without access to this easily transportable, infinitely durable food.

[Annie Reese]

Yeah. Kind of along the same lines. Margaret Thatcher called it a wartime delicacy. She called Spam a wartime delicacy. And it's interesting, I think, because there is an odd sense of nostalgia for Spam that a lot of people have. And I feel that it needed time to get away from the war, the direct aftermath. But then after that, people had this association with Spam. It was there for me when I needed it. Oh, yeah.

[Noel]

It's also one of those things where it's like it hasn't changed much. The branding is the same. It's, you know, people have fond memories of that and they like the idea of, you know, everything in this. In this fast paced, mixed up world of ours. Everything's always changing a mile a minute. But we can rely on Spam.

[Annie Reese]

Yes. The Spam never changes.

[Noel]

It's like our true north.

[Ben]

There we go. The true north of canned animal matter. I do have a question. This is something that I was wondering if we could explore together. How did Spam also become a term for deluges of bizarre emails?

[Annie Reese]

Well, Ben, it has to do with Monty Python.

[Noel]

Oh, yeah, yeah. That sketch.

[Annie Reese]

Right, yes. Can you describe the sketch?

[Noel]

We should just play a clip of it.

[Annie Reese]

What you got then?

[Noel]

Well, there's egg and bacon, Egg, sausage and bacon, egg and Spam. Egg, bacon and Spam. Egg, bacon, sausage and Spam. Spam, bacon, sausage and Spam. Spam, egg, Spam, Spam, bacon and Spam. Spam, Spam, Spam, egg and Spam. Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, baked beans, Spam, Spam, Spam and Spam. Oh, lobster thermidor. O cravats with mornay sauce garnished with truffle pate, brandy and a frying end.

[Ben]

Of pot and Spam.

[Noel]

Have you want anything without Spam in it? Well, span, egg, sausage and Spam. It's not got much Spam in it. I don't want any Spam.

[Annie Reese]

The end credits for that episode, by the way, include Spam with every company member. Spam, Terry Jones, Terry. Spam, sausage, Spam, egg, Spam. Gillian.

[Noel]

And the idea of just like inundating you with something.

[Annie Reese]

Yeah, like annoying. You always kind of just blaring in the back of your mind. It has no appreciable content. It's omnipresent. But as you can imagine, Hormel doesn't exactly love that association.

[Ben]

No way.

[Annie Reese]

Yeah. I think they've even tried to. I think there was some very quickly defeated legal way they tried To.

[Noel]

Well, it's not like anybody branded spam. It's just in the zeitgeist. People just like toss it around, you know, no one owns it.

[Annie Reese]

I don't. I'm not sure.

[Noel]

Who are they going to sue? Like everyone.

[Annie Reese]

Exactly. I'm not sure what they thought. They could just send out a message to everyone, a spam message and say, please use a different term for this, what this thing is that we're sending.

[Ben]

And usually when people or institutions or companies attempt to do something like that, they just make the problem much, much worse. Such as when a celebrity politely asks the Internet to take down a photo of them. You know what I mean? So they've probably done the math and they've thought, if we ask people to not do this, it's not gonna work. I know there's some. There's a bit of a renaissance sometimes for spam, every so often in more high end restaurants, right?

[Annie Reese]

Yes. I saw this a lot when I was in San Francisco a couple a year or so ago. And there's one restaurant, I think it's called Leo, Leo Yacht Club, something like that. And they have a lot of spam options on their menu and it's a very nice restaurant.

[Noel]

But is it Hawaiian, like themed?

[Annie Reese]

It is.

[Noel]

Like, what's this? Loco Moco. I keep hearing about Moco Loco, Loco Moco.

[Annie Reese]

Moco is good.

[Noel]

It's like Spam with gravy or something.

[Annie Reese]

Yes.

[Noel]

Rice.

[Annie Reese]

Maybe it's rice, Spam gravy and a fried egg. You can also get it with ground beef or other meats or a hamburger patty. So that's what I had. I didn't have Spam Locomoto.

[Noel]

Oh, okay, okay.

[Annie Reese]

I did have the other one and it was very.

[Noel]

That's interesting that there's like high end Hawaiian restaurants that still use this pretty cheap, not very nutritional canned meat. Speaking of nutrition, just want to point out real quick that one of these cans of spam is 12 ounces and it apparently contains about six servings which contain. So there's six servings in a can, which.

[Annie Reese]

Yes.

[Noel]

Come on. Really? You're eating the can and it contains 25% of the daily recommended fat intake for the US and 33% of the sodium.

[Annie Reese]

So it's not a health food.

[Ben]

No, but there's another stat. Americans eat approximately 3.8 cans per second. I have a problem with that stat because I think Hawaii is throwing off the average.

[Annie Reese]

Yes, I would agree. I can't really recall Spam ever coming up in my childhood as an option.

[Noel]

Well, you clearly didn't have elderly parents like I did.

[Annie Reese]

Oh, really?

[Noel]

Because they, you know, remembered it fondly from the wartime.

[Ben]

Were they spam fans?

[Noel]

No, my parents weren't alive in World War II, but their parents were. And so it was something, you know, a lot of people that went through the Depression, they, like, they. They learned how to hoard properly.

[Annie Reese]

Right.

[Noel]

And they learned how to, like, be frugal and like, use canned meats and things. Like, I remember growing up and my grandpapa would make brains and eggs, which is like brain. It's literally. I didn't even realize this until many years later. It' cow brains and eggs. But it was like a cheap part that you could just, you know, added a little texture and a little flavor to your eggs. Same with spam or something called liver pudding or scrapple is what it's known as in the where, not the Midwest. Like up in Dutch German. Yeah.

[Ben]

Pennsylvania area.

[Noel]

Yeah, exactly. I liked all of those things and didn't think anything of it, but they're both kind of these congealed meat cubes that you then slice up and fry, like spam. So there's, there's, there's other analogues to spam for sure.

[Annie Reese]

Absolutely.

[Ben]

Hi, Zoe Saldana.

[Noel]

Welcome to T Mobile.

[Ben]

Here's your new iPhone 16 Pro on us.

[Noel]

Thanks.

[Ben]

And here's my old phone to trade in.

[Noel]

You don't need to trade in. When you switch to T Mobile, we'll give you a new iPhone 16 Pro.

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[Noel]

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[Ben]

Not right now.

[Noel]

@ T Mobile.

[Annie Reese]

I feel like I have to give.

[Ben]

You something in return for karma.

[Noel]

That's okay. I don't really have much in my purse.

[Ben]

Oh, let's see.

[Annie Reese]

Hand sanitizer. It's lavender.

[Noel]

I'm good. Seriously, Let me check this pocket.

[Annie Reese]

Oh, mints.

[Noel]

Really, I'm fine.

[Annie Reese]

Oh, I have raisins.

[Ben]

I'm a mom. Wait, wait one sec.

[Annie Reese]

I've got cupcakes in the car.

[Ben]

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To 800 bucks with 24 monthly bill credits. New line, 100 plus a month on experience beyond financial freebie. $999.99 and qualify. Imported for well qualified plus tax and $10 connection charge. Payout via virtual prepaid card. Allow 15 days credits and balance due if you pay off earlier, cancel CT mobile dot com. Are there any pictures of you online? I'm not just talking about Google. I'm talking anywhere. Clear View scrapes together images from Facebook, from LinkedIn, from Venmo accounts. That database is now being used by police departments all across the country to match criminal suspects photos.

[Annie Reese]

And sometimes it makes mistakes.

[Noel]

So in this one case, two of the search results that I think were in the top 10 of the search results were Michael Jordan, just a picture of Michael Jordan. But cops are still using it to make arrests. Police, they are trusting this software to lead them to the right suspect. But you're not even being told that it was used, let alone given any of the details about how it works. This is not Minority Report. This is happening right now. People are getting arrested and doing actual time in jail after being picked out by a computer. I'm Dexter Thomas, host of Kill Switch, where every Wednesday we explain the right now of living in the future. You can turn off the computer, but do not let the computer turn you off. Listen to Kill Switch in the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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[Noel]

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[Noel]

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[Noel]

Powerful are ruining the computer. Listen to Better offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts. Wherever you happen to get your podcasts.

[Ben]

A murder happens, the case goes cold. Then over 100 years later, we take a second look. I'm Paul Holz, a retired cold case investigator. And I'm Kate Winkler Dawson, a journalist and historian. On our podcast Buried Bones, we re examine historical true crime cases using modern forensic techniques.

[Annie Reese]

We dig into what the original investigators may have missed.

[Ben]

Growing up on a farm, when I heard a gunshot, I did not immediately think murder. Unless this person went out to shoot squirrels. They're not choosing a 22 to go hunting out there.

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These cases may be old, but the questions are still relevant and often chilling.

[Ben]

I know this chauffeur is not of concern. You know, it's like, well, he's the.

[Annie Reese]

Last one who saw her alive.

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So how did they eliminate Him.

[Annie Reese]

Join us as we take you back to the cold cases that haunt us to this day.

[Ben]

New episodes every Wednesday on the exactly right network. Listen to Buried bones on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or. Or wherever you get your podcasts. These are foods that come about out of necessity, you know, and I think necessity and nostalgia are inextricably intertwined here. So I guess the next question would be, what is the. What is the future of spam? Are they slowing up? Are they speeding up?

[Annie Reese]

I think they're in a good place. I definitely don't think that they need to be worried. Hawaiians love it. They're gonna keep the market going. Like we said, these fancier restaurants, and this is a trend we see a lot where the combination of high end and low end I've seen around Atlanta, government cheese at really nice restaurants pretty frequently. So I don't think they have to be worried. What they should be worried about is theft.

[Ben]

That's right. Okay, can you tell us a little bit about this?

[Annie Reese]

Yes, we love.

[Ben]

I. Well, I can't speak for you, but I love a good heist story. Do you love a good heist story?

[Noel]

No, you were wrong. You shouldn't have spoken. Of course I love a good heist story, especially when it involves an absurd potted meat.

[Annie Reese]

A spam heist story is. It's up there. That's a good one. Lately, there have been a spate of spam thefts in Hawaii.

[Ben]

Ooh, nice.

[Annie Reese]

In one account, three women filled a cart with 18 cans of Spam at a drugstore and made a dash for the exit. But this customer, he just planted himself in front of the doors and said, what are you doing with that spam? He didn't say that, but along those lines. And they. They made a run for it, and they did not succeed in their heist. But enough people have that. Now. Some stores have started storing their cans of Spam locked in those plastic cases that are typically used for expensive items. Electronics, razors.

[Noel]

Sure.

[Annie Reese]

Yeah. Now spam is back there. You have to go ask for key for your spam.

[Noel]

The reason for this is super interesting. It has to do with a change in the law in Hawaii, where I think, like, in the past, theft up to $300 was considered a felony. And then they raised it to 700. So you could steal up to $700 worth of spam and it would be just a misdemeanor if they caught you.

[Annie Reese]

Right.

[Noel]

But you also. It's like, how are you going to, you know, track down the perp if you don't catch them doing it. And the fact that this famous spam shelf stability means that you don't have to fence it right away. Right. You can, like, sit on your stash for a while. And this great article from Grub street that you turned us on to any Hawaiian grocery stores reportedly overrun with spam bandits. Spam dates Spam dick. That it's. It's like an epidemic. And it's a lot. Largely the article conjectures folks are stealing this stuff so that they can flip it and buy drugs. But it's so flippable because the market for spam in Hawaii is, like, through the roof.

[Annie Reese]

Yeah. Tina Yamaki, the president of Retail Merchants of Hawaii, calls it organized retail crime. And she's spoken a lot about the spam black market and how you can buy Spam out of somebody's car, like out of their trunk.

[Ben]

Wow. You know, usually if I see somebody with a ton of canned meat in their trunk standing by the side of the road, my first instinct isn't to ask them how much, what the going price is.

[Annie Reese]

You clearly are not a spam fan, Ben.

[Ben]

I'm not built, you know, what I can say safely I'm a fan, but I don't think I'm built to be a spam tycoon. I hope they're out there somewhere in Hawaii. I hope there's a black market spam tycoon. And I hope that you are listening to this show. We want to hear may God have.

[Noel]

Mercy on your soul.

[Ben]

May God have mercy on your spam.

[Annie Reese]

That's right.

[Ben]

I think we all want to hear spam recipes from listeners, if you're a fan of spam.

[Noel]

Well, speaking of spam recipes, we talked about, like, how the Hormel company is doing and moving forward or whatever. Well, they've really embraced a lot of this kitsch surrounding spam and, like, the musubis and all that. And they have, like, recipes on their site for this fantastic National Geographic article by April Fulton and show some images of some of the stuff that I'm talking about. One of them is a hello Kitty spam musubi that they show you how to make. They also have a tour, a national tour called the Tiny House of Sizzle Tour, where they are shopping around the whole US Of A. A spicy spam breakfast burrito recipe made by their chef, Jordan Andino. And it's like a traveling, like, spam food truck sort of the way you see the Oscar Meyer wiener mobile or whatever. So, you know, spam's not slowing down. They're. They're. They're rising to the occasion. They're adapting to the times.

[Ben]

Yeah, they're adapting times. They always have. I want to show you guys one of my favorite pictures. So, Annie, on this show, we love vintage advertisements.

[Annie Reese]

I do too. So that's pretty excellent.

[Ben]

Spam Dandy is one of my. One of my favorites. And they have these collections of all their ads that have the exact nostalgia tone for anybody who enjoyed our previous episode on. What was it, Noel? Was it? Meat jello?

[Noel]

Oh, yeah. Aspects, aspects. And also just, like, various savory gelatin dishes that were very popular as, like, centerpieces and made you seem like you really had your homemaking skills in order in Spam, I'm sure it's all part of this, like, food of the future movement. The idea that, oh, we'll just eat out of tins, and that's super progressive and, like, shows that we have money or something. Even though it was cheap and gelatin was cheap, it was a very odd dichotomy and really interesting to look back on.

[Ben]

And savory gelatin. Just when you see pictures of those things at the center of a dining table, it strikes me as Lovecraftian. I'm gonna be honest. It's something from, like, the Darkness beyond the Stars.

[Annie Reese]

Oh, I love looking at a good aspic or meat jelly. They're hilarious, and they are that interesting intersection of. At the time, if you didn't have a lot of money, you wanted to put a lot of work and artistry into a thing to show that you were successful and that you could afford to do this. But it was a cheap food thing. Everyone was participating in kind of this masquerade, this facade. And Spam is a similar food in that it does have that futuristic, it'll last forever vibe, but it's very cheap. And during the recent recession in 2008, because of this, spam saw an increase of sales of 10%. Because, yeah, it is a food that people can't afford, and there aren't strict numbers, but according to the Hormel website, they estimate 12.8 cans of Spam are consumed every second across the planet, mostly in Hawaii.

[Noel]

That's not even to speak of the ones that are just hoarded in a bomb shelter.

[Annie Reese]

That's right.

[Ben]

Or in the trunk of a Cadillac driving somewhere near you.

[Annie Reese]

I love it.

[Noel]

Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm filled with gratitude at the end of this episode for you, Annie. My heart is just bursting out of my chest. With gratitude. Clearly more gratitude than either Ben or Casey are capable of mustering.

[Annie Reese]

So I win.

[Ben]

Annie, I wasn't really listening when Noel was talking, but I do want to say thank you so much for coming on the episode. I'm kidding. Noel, I think we're both really happy that you took the time here and taught us so much about spam. I'm wondering if I'm gonna cook some this week. And we've talked so much about it. I feel like we've almost, in a way, consumed it ourselves just by exploring this concept.

[Noel]

I think we should do a potted meat. Like potluck.

[Ben]

Let's do it.

[Noel]

Get it. It would be a potluck. A potted. Potted meat.

[Annie Reese]

A potted meat. Look, this is the office to host such an event. There would be very creative concoctions behind the curtain.

[Ben]

Folks, we recently hung out after work and had a game night where we learned. Well, I think you already knew all the games, Annie, but we both learned some really cool stuff. So shout out to Dixit.

[Noel]

Right, Dixit. Fun to say, fun to play. That should be their tagline. That should be their tagline.

[Annie Reese]

You're going to give it to them for free?

[Noel]

Well, I don't know. They can send me some swag, some mugs or something. You guys can have it. It was so fun. It was really a joy. And it was a successful game night and I look forward to doing it again. But I also look forward to having you, Annie, on the show again.

[Ben]

Yes, please.

[Annie Reese]

Yes, please. This was so much fun.

[Ben]

Yes, we're so glad you enjoyed it. I'm a huge fan of food history, as you know from some of our works outside of this show. But in the meantime, before you make another return appearance, where can our listeners hear more of work with how stuff works?

[Annie Reese]

You can find me over at Savor Podcast, your Internet humans. I'm sure you can find it, but I will say it's Savor without the you. So for the non American listeners among you, and I also am a co host of a show called Stuff Mom Never Told you'd, which you can Google.

[Ben]

Right away and you'll find it fantastic. Shows. Do check them out. They're shows that I personally listen to in my free time.

[Noel]

So.

[Ben]

Okay, yeah, I don't want to fanboy out too much, but maybe I'll ask you to autograph after the show.

[Noel]

I definitely listened to the spam episode today and cribbed most of my notes for this episode from that episode. So this is where the.

[Annie Reese]

This is like A weirdo bettos the.

[Ben]

Snake that consumes its tail. And we have more tales to tell. We had earlier said that we would be exploring some more spooky stories as we lead up up to Halloween. So tune in next time when we delve into this strange story of, well, mummies.

[Noel]

Yeah, Mexican mummies to be precise. And in the meantime, I'd like to thank Casey, our super producer, Alex Williams, who composed our theme research associates, Christopher Haciotes and Eve's Jeffcoat. And Ben, as usual, I'd like to throw a little thanks your way, my friend.

[Ben]

Just being you, I would like to treat that thanks like a boomerang, add some extra thanks to it and make sure it gets right back to you.

[Noel]

Why do you always have to one up me on the thanks, man.

[Ben]

I'm not man. I just like hanging out.

[Noel]

All right, cool. We'll see you next time, folks. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Are there any pictures of you online? Then you could already be in a massive police database without even knowing it. Clearview scrapes together images from Facebook, from LinkedIn, from Venmo accounts. I'm Dexter Thomas, host of Kill Switch, a podcast about how living in the future is affecting us right now. Police, they are trusting the software with this magical ability to lead them to the right suspect. In this episode, we dive into how cops are using AI and facial recognition and sometimes getting it wrong and putting.

[Ben]

Innocent people behind bars.

[Noel]

So if your accuser is this algorithm, but you're not even being told that it was used, let alone given any of the details about how it works, Listen to Kill Switch on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Ben]

OpenAI is a financial abomination, a thing that should not be an aberration, a.

[Noel]

Symbol of rot at the heart of Silicon Valley. And I'm gonna tell you why on.

[Ben]

My show better Offline than the rudest.

[Noel]

Show in the tech industry where we're breaking down why OpenAI, along with other.

[Ben]

AI companies, are dead set on lying.

[Noel]

To your boss that they can take your job. I'm also going to be talking with the greatest minds in the industry about all the other ways the rich and powerful are ruining the computer. Listen to Better offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you happen to.

[Ben]

Get your podcasts.

[Annie Reese]

A body, a suspect, and a hundred years of silence. Buried Bones is a podcast about the.

[Ben]

Forgotten crimes history tried to leave behind. A common misperception about serial predators is that every single time they commit a crime, they commit it the same way.

[Annie Reese]

The past is a way of talking.

[Ben]

If you know what to listen for. New episodes every Wednesday on the Exactly Right Network.

[Annie Reese]

Listen to Buried bones on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Ben]

In 2022, a group of divers were sucked into an oil pipe and trapped deep beneath the sea. They could have been saved, but they weren't. Following their story has led us to lucrative contracts, failing safety standards, and secretive political relationships. As we ask, why were those men left to die? This is Pipeline. Episodes are released weekly. Search for pipeline on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Annie Reese]

This is an iHeart podcast.