SYSK's 12 Days of Christmas… Toys: How Easy Bake Ovens Work

Summary

Podcast Summary

Podcast: Stuff You Should Know
Episode: SYSK's 12 Days of Christmas… Toys: How Easy Bake Ovens Work
Date: December 12, 2025
Hosts: Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant

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Episode Overview

This installment of the Stuff You Should Know podcast dives into the fascinating history, design, cultural impact, and evolving gender roles of the iconic Easy Bake Oven. Josh and Chuck blend nostalgia, technical curiosity, social critique, and plenty of offbeat humor as they explore why this simple toy became a cultural mainstay—and why a child’s desire to “bake like a grown-up” resonated across generations.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Origins & Early Toy Ovens

• Kenner’s Adult Imitation Approach:
  • Kenner, the toy company, excelled at creating toys that let kids pretend to be adults. “Kenner...were very much into toys that let kids pretend they were grownups. Yeah, that was their bag.” (Chuck Bryant, 04:38)
• History of Toy Ovens:
  • Toy ovens date back to the Victorian era and were practically miniature versions of the real thing—often dangerously so, with children’s models powered by actual solid fuel or wood.
  • “Like wood burning pellet, solid fuel stoves made of cast iron that were sized down for little kids to use.” (Chuck Bryant, 07:14)
• “Make It Safe with a Light Bulb” Innovation:
  • The breakthrough: Kenner replaced dangerous heating elements with ordinary light bulbs, which felt familiar and less scary to parents but could still reach baking temperatures of 350°F.

2. Conception and Invention

• Idea Sparked by Pretzel Vendors:
  • Kenner sales staff saw pretzel vendors keeping food warm with light bulbs—a casual observation that led to the toy’s core design.
    • “What if we used a light bulb to heat up an oven for the little kitties?” (Chuck Bryant, 08:36)
• Norman Shapiro and Ronald Howes:
  • Norman Shapiro floated the original idea. Ronald Howes, Kenner’s chief inventor, brought it to life.

3. How the Easy Bake Oven Works

• Early Models:
  • The first version used two 100-watt incandescent bulbs, one above and one below, for even heating.
    • “...they used two 100-watt incandescent bulbs at first. One over the top and another under the bottom.” (Josh Clark, 13:16)
  • The cooking compartment was tucked safely in a box, accessible only through two side “arms,” minimizing burn potential.
• Charles Cummings’ Innovation:
  • Cummings engineered convection-style airflow so newer models could use a single bulb.
    • “Charles One Bulb Cummings...designed the interior of the oven so that the bulb...created convection current. So it cooked just as well as two bulbs, but you just needed one.” (Chuck Bryant, 18:07)

4. Cultural Impact & Sales Genius

• Immediate Craze (1963):
  • Launched November 1963, just in time for Christmas; half a million ovens sold out instantly.
  • “They made a little more than half a million units and sold them all before Christmas.” (Chuck Bryant, 20:01)
• Pricey for Its Time:
  • $15.95 in 1963, equivalent to about $130 today.
• Consumable Mixes: The Razor Blade Model:
  • 25 initial cake and dessert mixes drove recurring sales.
  • “They sold mixes...that you would pour and it would make a little cruddy cake.” (Josh Clark, 21:46)
• Smart Advertising:
  • Ads ran to parents as well as kids—on “I Love Lucy,” “Hogan’s Heroes” and in comic books—emphasizing mother-daughter bonding.

5. Gender Roles & Marketing Controversies

• Pink Toys, Girl-Only Messaging:
  • Persistently marketed as a girls’ toy for decades, despite changing attitudes on gender roles.
    • “...it was only girls in the ads. They actually got more girly as time went on, more girl-focused as gender roles went on. Which is really weird.” (Chuck Bryant, 24:57)
• Queasy Bake Oven (2000s):
  • Attempt to woo boys with “gross-out” recipes backfired, as the toy still felt sharply gendered.
    • “So the queasy bake oven and the mixerator for you boys...you can make mud and crud cakes and larvalicious cocoon cookies…” (Josh Clark, 26:49)
• Activist Intervention:
  • In 2013, McKenna Pope petitioned Hasbro for a gender-neutral Easy Bake, winning 50,000 signatures and resulting in a black/silver version.
    • “McKenna Pope...started a petition to get Hasbro to make a gender neutral version...Got something like 50,000 signatures.” (Chuck Bryant, 38:02)

6. Design Updates, Mishaps & Safety Recalls

• General Mills Acquires Kenner; Mix Branding with Betty Crocker: (40:40)
• Energy Efficiency Mandate Fallout (2007):
  • The 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act forced light bulbs to be more efficient, pushing out 100-watt incandescent bulbs and triggering a full redesign with a ceramic heating element.
• Recall Catastrophe:
  • The redesigned front-loading oven let kids reach into the hot compartment—resulting in about 250 children burned and one partial finger amputation. Nearly a million units were recalled.
    • “...close to 250 kids ended up with, like, second, third degree burns. One partial amputation of a finger.” (Josh Clark, 35:46)

7. Modern Era and Hall of Fame Status

• Ongoing Sales:
  • Even after multiple redesigns (and persistent complaints about the look), the Easy Bake remains a steady seller.
• National Toy Hall of Fame:
  • Inducted in 2006, the same year as the notorious redesign.
• Cultural Shifts Reflected in Colors:
  • Fun nods to ’70s decorating trends: “In 69, they premiered the avocado green. The very next year was Harvest Gold.” (Josh Clark, 39:16)
• Extended Product Lines:
  • Potato chip maker edition in 1973, digital clocks in the late ’70s, and the “real meal oven” in 2003 capable of making pizza and mac & cheese.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Emotional Power of Nostalgia (02:40):
  • “Just say Easy Bake Oven and watch their eyes well up with tears.” (Chuck Bryant)
• Describing Real Dangers of Old Toy Ovens (07:14):
  • “Here’s the oven that can kill your parents. We’ll just make a smaller one that can kill you, right?” (Josh Clark, 07:23)
• On the Simplicity of the Innovation (12:53):
  • “What they'd figured out was that if they used a light bulb as the heating element. And, believe me, a light bulb can heat up an oven.” (Josh Clark)
• Marketing Genius Acknowledgment (21:46):
  • “Anytime you can sell a supplementary product to the big thing, then you're really cooking with gas.” (Chuck Bryant)
• Gender Role Criticism (23:49):
  • “It’s not just kids going, I want an Easy Bake Oven. It's the parents going, that'd be a great thing to do with my kid.” (Josh Clark)
• On Gendered Advertising Not Evolving (24:57):
  • “They actually got more girly as time went on, more girl focused as gender roles went on. Which is really weird.” (Chuck Bryant)
• On the Gender-Neutral Campaign (38:02):
  • “She started a petition to get Hasbro to make a gender neutral version...got something like 50,000 signatures.” (Chuck Bryant)
• On the Hall of Fame Coincidence (38:50):
  • “2006, they go into the National Toy hall of Fame. The same year that disastrous redesign.” (Josh Clark/Chuck Bryant)

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Important Timestamps

• History of Toy Ovens: 06:58–08:35
• Light Bulb Breakthrough: 09:16–12:53
• How It Works (Visual Description): 13:33–14:34
• Sales Impact (Launch Year): 20:01–20:07
• Mixes & The Razor-Blade Model: 21:27–22:19
• Advertising Strategies: 22:34–23:30
• Gender Roles/Girls-Only Marketing: 23:49–25:08
• Recall and Redesign Fiasco: 34:01–36:39
• 2020s: Gender-Neutral Campaign: 37:43–38:50
• Fun Color Updates in the 1970s: 39:16–39:31

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Tone & Style

The episode is breezy and packed with tangents, jokes, and affectionate ribbing. Nostalgia, gentle cultural critique, and playful cynicism about corporate marketing are recurring flavors. The hosts’ banter keeps the story light even when touching on issues of safety recalls and gender stereotyping.

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Conclusion

The Easy Bake Oven's story is a microcosm of American culture: innovation springing from playful observation, the outsized influence of marketing, the stickiness of gender roles, and the relentless march of tech upgrades (for better or worse). While some aspects, like the classic pink shell and “just for girls” advertising, feel dated or awkward, Josh and Chuck highlight how these missteps led consumer culture—and eventually, the toy itself—to evolve. As they quip, owning or even seeing an Easy Bake Oven can bring an immediate wave of nostalgia and reflection on the toys (and the worldviews) we grow up with.

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Transcript

[Josh Clark]

This is an iHeart podcast.

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[Josh Clark]

Hey everyone, I want.

[Dan]

To talk to you for a SEC about Squarespace and specifically Squarespace Payments.

[Josh Clark]

If you're running a business and using.

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[Ramsey]

Well friends, we've reached the end of Our playlist, the stuff you should know, 12 days of Christmas toys. This one is one of my all time favorite episodes. Not just toy episodes, but favorite episodes.

[Chuck Bryant]

The Easy Bake Oven, which had this.

[Ramsey]

Huge cultural impact and still does today. If you want to make somebody nostalgic.

[Chuck Bryant]

Just say Easy Bake Oven and watch their eyes well up with tears.

[Ramsey]

It's really fun. At any rate, we want to thank you for joining us on this journey.

[Chuck Bryant]

Through our Christmas toy episodes. We want to wish all of you.

[Ramsey]

Happy holidays and merry Christmas from stuff you should know.

[Josh Clark]

Welcome to Stuff youf Should Know, a production of iHeartradio.

[Chuck Bryant]

Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark and there's Charles W. Chuck Bryant. There's Ramsey over there. The huge. Which means it's time for stuff you should know. Nostalgia edition. Colon. T.S. hodgman.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, we've done a few toys. Play Doh. Slinkies. Right.

[Chuck Bryant]

What else does a boomerang count as a toy?

[Josh Clark]

A toy of life, mate.

[Chuck Bryant]

We've done tons. We did Silly Putty. Silly Putty, sure we did, you know, a bunch.

[Josh Clark]

The balls.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, the balls. The balls episode. How balls work.

[Josh Clark]

They round and they bounce.

[Chuck Bryant]

We said balls like a million times in that episode.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. This one's kind of cool though, the Easy Bake Oven, which I never had one. Did you ever have one in your home?

[Chuck Bryant]

I don't think so, no.

[Josh Clark]

I don't think my sister had one either.

[Chuck Bryant]

Although I was a pretty tubby kid, so it's possible that my mom was like, make sure your brother doesn't know you have one of those. Do not feed your brother anything from there.

[Josh Clark]

But it's interesting that this is one where sort of a very simple idea and you never can tell what's going to hit. Toy wise. Nothing super complex about this other than you could literally bake food and sort of pretend to be an adult in the kitchen.

[Chuck Bryant]

That was the basis of it being an adult. That was kind of Kenner's thing. And Kenner, the people who made Star wars toys, were the ones behind this. And they were very much into toys that let kids pretend they were grownups. Yeah, that was their bag.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. I have a new neighbor, actually. Shout out to Rick, Cathy. Hey, guys.

[Chuck Bryant]

Boy, they really got under your skin, huh?

[Dan]

What?

[Chuck Bryant]

Rick and Kathy got a shout out on the podcast and their new neighbors. Geez.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. Because he worked for. I was talking to him and I was like, he seems like a good guy. And I was like, what do you do, Rick? He's retired now. What did you Do. And he's like, I was a toy and action figure designer for kenner and.

[Chuck Bryant]

I was like, wow, whoa, what years.

[Josh Clark]

He came on after his first. The first thing he worked on was the tim burton batman movies.

[Chuck Bryant]

Nice.

[Josh Clark]

And he stayed on for a long time, like his whole career, like after they were sold and everything.

[Chuck Bryant]

Wow.

[Josh Clark]

Pretty neat.

[Chuck Bryant]

That is very cool.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

Good for him.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. He still does wonderful sculpture, so.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, I'll bet.

[Josh Clark]

Just go after rick watkins art online and check it out.

[Chuck Bryant]

I'm going to check.

[Josh Clark]

But I mean, kenner is such a big deal to like to people our age and of many ages. But I didn't realize that they. I didn't realize their origin as a company.

[Chuck Bryant]

Remember in the. We talked. We did a whole action figures episode, remember?

[Josh Clark]

Oh, yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

And we talked a lot about kenner. Was that a two part episode or was it just like an hour and a half long?

[Josh Clark]

I feel like it was just long.

[Chuck Bryant]

It was very long. But kenner almost didn't do the star wars ones, if I remember. But for us at least, that put kenner on the map. What I didn't realize is that kenner was already on the map as far as toys go.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

And one of the ways that they got there was from the easy bake oven, which debuted In November of 1963, right around the time that john kennedy was shot.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. But kenner had been around since the 1940s. Albert, Philip and joseph steiner formed the company after, as legend goes, one of them saw a bubble maker, bubble wand or whatever you call them and was like, hey, if I could do a gun that shoots bubbles, we might be onto something. And that was their very first product is the bubblematic gun.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

And then whatever. Less than 20 years later, the easy bake oven. Even though, as we learned today and yesterday, there had been toy ovens since like the victorian days.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yes. Like really, really dangerous ones.

[Josh Clark]

I know, like real, real little ovens.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. Like wood burning pellet, solid fuel stoves made of cast iron that were sized down for little kids to use.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

Basically.

[Josh Clark]

Like here's the oven that can kill your parents. We'll just make a smaller one that can kill you, right?

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, yeah. So the children's play oven functioning play oven history very kind of closely tracks the real oven history, right?

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

Like when there were cast iron wood burning ovens, there were kids versions of them. As real ovens moved into electric ovens, there were kids versions of them. Apparently, Lionel, the model train makers, they made some in the 30s also. We want to give a Shout out to Lisa Hicks and the people at collectors weekly for a great article. We also used for this episode too. But in the 30s, there were electric ovens. By the 40s or 50s, I think there were fiberglass insulated ovens. Electric ovens. It was just like a small oven for kids, but they were ovens. They were extremely dangerous. And Kenner had this really great idea. And the reason that this idea came about at kenner to begin with is apparently kenner was really big on having, like, ideas could come from anywhere. Anybody in the company float an idea and people would listen. They had like regular meetings where, you know, there were bull sessions. Maybe they ordered some, like, chow mein or something like that. Everyone rolled up their sleeves and relaxed and. And spat out ideas. And one of the salesmen from Kenner came back in from the field and said, you know what? I saw something. I saw some pretzel vendors keeping their pretzels warm on the street using a light bulb. What if we used a light bulb to heat up an oven for the little kitties and somebody. I think Charles Howes, Ralph Houze.

[Josh Clark]

Well, Norman Shapiro was that gentleman. And then Ronald Howes. Ronald Howes was the big time inventor for kenner who had a couple of really big products under his belt. And he was like, that's an aces idea.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's exactly how he talked. Yeah, probably so everyone hated him for it, but he was really good at inventing toys, so they had to put up with it.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, but Kenner's deal, like you were saying, was find things that mimic adult things. And that's like kind of. I bet kids are gonna dig that stuff. And they did. From like. And kids still do little toy lawnmowers and toy bulldozers and I mean, Ruby's got a little cleaning set with like a duster and a dustpan and a mop.

[Chuck Bryant]

And is she ocd?

[Josh Clark]

No, but I mean, all the time she will say, you know, come on, daddy, let's clean. And she'll hand me a mop.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's a little ocd.

[Josh Clark]

Well, no, that's good then. Yeah, I like where she's headed.

[Chuck Bryant]

Did you have one of those plastic safety razors so you could shave next to your dad?

[Josh Clark]

No, I did, but I was. I think a lot of boys are pretty obsessed with shaving before they have whiskers.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

And I think I heard that they would actually stimulate hair growth on your face.

[Chuck Bryant]

I was about to say. I remember being worried about that.

[Guest or Caller]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

Because I didn't have. I had a pretty. I mean, Looking at me now, you would never know, but I didn't have a lot of facial hair going on until well into college.

[Chuck Bryant]

Was it, like, lacking, or did it come in patchy?

[Josh Clark]

Just a little bit. Sort of like my brother is now. He just stayed in that phase where.

[Chuck Bryant]

Your brother's got a perfect chiseled face.

[Josh Clark]

Well, I know that's cause he doesn't have a beard.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, okay.

[Josh Clark]

But Scott can grow a pretty decent goatee now. But I don't think he could grow the full beard. But his was. We were both spotty, like a little bit above the lip, little bit on the chin.

[Chuck Bryant]

The one part just kind of traced a line up to your eye from around. From under your nose.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, but I mean, it was sort of a family thing. We're not hairy dudes. We don't have very hairy legs or.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, it is odd that you have such a full beard.

[Josh Clark]

Like, I don't have hairy arms or anything like that. You're. You're a beast.

[Chuck Bryant]

I don't know if beast is the right word, but, yes, I'm a little hairy.

[Josh Clark]

You're a hairy guy.

[Chuck Bryant]

My chest hair definitely plucks out from under my shirt.

[Josh Clark]

You ever done any, like, laser or anything like that?

[Chuck Bryant]

No.

[Josh Clark]

No. Good for you.

[Chuck Bryant]

I'm just. I'm hairy.

[Josh Clark]

No, I mean, you're normal. It's not like you're Robin Williams. No, he was hairy.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yes, he was.

[Josh Clark]

God rest his soul.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yes, indeed.

[Josh Clark]

So back to the ovens.

[Chuck Bryant]

So the idea's been put out there now by Norman Shapiro.

[Josh Clark]

Yes.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. Okay. So. And it was taken up by Ronald House. And this was huge and groundbreaking because again, there were unsafe ovens for kids that had been around since the 19th century. What these guys had just happened upon was the way to make another unsafe oven seem safe to parents. Yeah, that was it. That was the genius of this idea. That is what made Easy Bake ovens take off. What they'd figured out was that if they used a light bulb as the heating element. And believe me, a light bulb can heat up an oven.

[Josh Clark]

Sure. 350. Yeah, up to 350. Which is a common baking temp.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yes. From a light bulb. And actually, at first, we'll see a pair of light bulbs, but the fact is, they're light bulbs, and parents are familiar with light bulbs.

[Ramsey]

They don't seem weird or scary.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. It's not a wood pellet.

[Chuck Bryant]

And the fact that it's not like a heating element, like in an actual oven, it's just a light bulb. That is what they Used to convince parents that this was a safe product that they could buy for their kids. It was a genius idea.

[Josh Clark]

It really was. And like you teased a second ago, the very first model in 1963. And if you look at that very first one, it doesn't really even look like an oven.

[Chuck Bryant]

Well, certainly the new one doesn't either.

[Josh Clark]

No. I did go online, I was like, maybe I should get one of those. But they're ugly now.

[Chuck Bryant]

I'm sorry. To the person who designed them. Yes. I'm glad you said it. They are ugly, ugly little ovens.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. They should kind of go back to looking more classic. I think that'd be my advice. But they used two 100 watt incandescent bulbs at first. One over the top and another under the bottom. Obviously, they were trying to get an even heat because you're baking things.

[Chuck Bryant]

Right. And they very wisely designed this thing so that the actual oven part was basically inaccessible to the kid on either side. So just imagine a box. Okay. Oh, man. Here's where I love it.

[Josh Clark]

It's my favorite thing when you try to describe something visual.

[Chuck Bryant]

Let me see. If I close my eyes, it works. Imagine a box, okay. And then coming out from either side of the box are a couple of little arms.

[Josh Clark]

Okay.

[Chuck Bryant]

But the arms are half arms and they're rectangular and hollow.

[Josh Clark]

Okay.

[Chuck Bryant]

And they're actually openings. One opening. You slide in the uncooked thing that you want to bake into the heating area, the oven, let it bake, and you push it through the other side, the cooling chamber, and then it comes out the other arm. Everyone.

[Josh Clark]

Josh just had his eyes closed that entire time.

[Chuck Bryant]

And it worked. I really painted a great picture in your mind's eye.

[Josh Clark]

Yes. Yeah. So that's what's going on. You had the two bulbs and in fact, let's go ahead and take a break there.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, oh, okay.

[Josh Clark]

Nice little cliffhanger.

[Chuck Bryant]

When we come back, I'll redescribe the easy bake oven again.

[Josh Clark]

Sounds good.

[Guest or Caller]

Support for this show comes from public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On public, you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto, and now generated assets, which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index. With AI it all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, buys one of a kind index, and lets you back test it against the S&P 500 then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.comsysk and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com, paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors, llc. SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available at public.com disclosures tired.

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[Ramsey]

Hey everybody, we're hitting the road again starting in January 2026, picking up again in April 2026 and eventually Canada will tell you year dates too.

[Dan]

That's right.

[Josh Clark]

We're going to do at least three.

[Dan]

Legs, and the first leg is starting out in Denver, Colorado at the Paramount Theater on January 27th. We're going to go back to our beloved Seattle at the Paramount Theater there on the 28th, and then finally back at SketchFest on the 29th at the Sidney Goldstein Theater.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yep.

[Ramsey]

And then April 16th, 17th and 18th, we're going to be in Madison, Wisconsin, Chicago, Illinois and Akan, Ohio. And if you're not keeping up with all this or taking notes, don't worry, you can get all the info you need and buy tickets atstuffyou should know.com, click on the tour button and thank us later.

[Dan]

That's right. We can't wait to see everybody again out there on the road.

[Josh Clark]

All right, we were at One Bulb, right? I'm sorry, no. We were at Two Bulbs, Right. So long ago I couldn't remember.

[Chuck Bryant]

I know it was a full ad.

[Josh Clark]

Ago, but then what they did was they figured if they just engineered this thing to distribute heat and hold heat a little better. Almost like a convection oven. Yeah, exactly like a convection oven. That they could go down to one bulb.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, there was a dude named Charles. Hold on, I really want. Yeah, Charles Cummings.

[Josh Clark]

Charles One Bulb Cummings.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, that's what he was known as. Charles Cummings was a designer at kenner. And I think in the late 70s he designed the interior of the oven so that the bulb. One bulb, created convection current. So it cooked just as well as two bulbs, but you just needed one. And he owns the patent to that.

[Josh Clark]

Oh, really?

[Chuck Bryant]

Well, that's the way it should be. Yeah, he was the designer. He came up with it.

[Josh Clark]

That's pretty rare too, I think.

[Chuck Bryant]

Kenner, of course, I'm sure had an exclusive license to it, But I'm sure he got like a decent amount of money from that license agreement. That is the way it should be. He also created the patent or he held the patent for the add on popcorn maker that you could put onto the easy bake oven too.

[Josh Clark]

Good for him.

[Chuck Bryant]

Good for you. Charles Cummings.

[Josh Clark]

Charles one bulb Cummings. He probably lives on top of a mountain somewhere.

[Chuck Bryant]

He does.

[Josh Clark]

On a mountain of money.

[Chuck Bryant]

So.

[Josh Clark]

All right, you're down to one bulb. Thanks to Charlie Cummings. They initially wanted to call this in 1963 when it was two bulbs when it debuted.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

Right out of the gate. They wanted to call it In November of 63, the Safety Bake oven. Cause they really wanted to drive this home was that it was super safe. And the regulatory bodies were like, you haven't even sold one yet. We're not sure if this is going to kill kids.

[Chuck Bryant]

It burned a dozen monkeys during the product testing.

[Josh Clark]

Oh, that's so awful. But you can't call it that yet because we don't know yet whether it's truly safe. Go ahead and sell them.

[Chuck Bryant]

Sure.

[Josh Clark]

But just don't call it safe.

[Chuck Bryant]

The safety bake oven. So they're like, well, what about easy? And they're like, are we still talking about this? We're done with you. Go away. And so they were like, okay, fine, we'll call it the easy bake oven then. And they sold it as the easy bake oven. And it sold out immediately. They sold it. So November 1963 is right before the Christmas season. Actually, it's in the Christmas season, I think even back then.

[Josh Clark]

Yes.

[Chuck Bryant]

And they made a little more than half a million units and sold them all before Christmas.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. For 1595, which is expensive. That would be about $130 today.

[Chuck Bryant]

No.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. That's a. That's an expensive toy.

[Chuck Bryant]

Wow. And if you look at the thing, I saw a picture of one that's for sale on ebay for really cheap. I think it was like 30 bucks or something.

[Josh Clark]

Really?

[Chuck Bryant]

It was unused in the box. Still needed to be assembled. But if you look at it, you're like, that thing looks like a death trap. It looks like the Ford Pinto of children's toys from the 60s. You know, like the sharp metal edges.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, sure.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's what it looks like. The baby strollers we were pushed around in.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. Remember that Dan Aykroyd SNL skit from years ago with the dangerous Christmas toys? And there was one called the bag of Glass. So great. And that's all it was. It was just a bag of shards of glass. So yeah, they sold a half a million and then they're like, we gotta make a lot more of these for next year.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. Because this is back at a time when toys didn't do that very often. You know, it seems like every Christmas now people are like, well what's the toy we should go fight other parents for Miles. Tell us.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. Cause I'm training in the ring.

[Chuck Bryant]

This is when it.

[Ramsey]

Right.

[Chuck Bryant]

This is when it happened organically when you put out a toy. And if it became like the fight worthy toy. That was a few and far between thing. The Easy Bake Oven was the fight worthy toy right out of the gate.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. So in year two, I think they made about 1.5 million. Sold all those. And here's the little bit of genius from Kenner is anytime you can sell a supplementary product to the big thing, then you're really cooking with gas.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's like ironically the Gillette razor model. I think it was King Gillette who came up with that.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. So what they did was they sold mixes, these little instant mixes that you would pour and it would make a little cruddy cake.

[Chuck Bryant]

And.

[Josh Clark]

And they had 25 of these at first. And we're selling those like crazy because like hotcakes. If you're a kid. If you're a kid, you want all those. You're like, well, I haven't tried the strawberry cake yet.

[Chuck Bryant]

Plus also it's not.

[Josh Clark]

Maybe it'll taste better, mommy.

[Chuck Bryant]

It's not like you're putting this in a book like some baseball cards and you're like, well, I've got this one, I don't need it anymore. You eat that thing and you need another thing to replace it.

[Josh Clark]

And you poop it out.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. And you're not going to eat the poop again. No, you're going to go buy another one. And that was the genius of the other genius idea of this whole thing. There was a third genius idea too. Kenner did this so. Right. The licensing, not just. No, the advertising.

[Josh Clark]

Oh sure.

[Chuck Bryant]

So remember, this is kids emulating grownups. That was their Thing, they advertised not just to kids through, like, Archie's comics, but they advertise directly to their parents too. There were ads for the Easy Bake Oven on I Love Lucy and on Hogan's Heroes, according to this collector's weekly article. And in these ads, if you look at a lot of old ads, and even some of the newer ads too, for Easy Bake Oven, it's a mom and a daughter.

[Dan]

Right.

[Chuck Bryant]

And the parent is like, oh, this is something we can do together. I love baking. It's basically my whole life. I live in 1963 and I'm a woman. So I would love to share that with my daughter. Maybe she's old enough to have an Easy Bake Oven herself. And that definitely helped propel sales for sure. Because it's not just kids going, I want an Easy Bake Oven. It's the parents going, that'd be a great thing to do with my kid.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. And of course, as people evolved and people became more woke over time, even though that word wasn't used enlightened, maybe it became a bit of a problem with gender roles. And like, this is for moms and daughters. They're pink. And that's what you're supposed to do, is be in the kitchen baking for the men.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. I mean, very famously, the Easy Bake Ovens always ended with the disclaimer like, this toy is not for boys.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, it didn't really, but essentially, yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

Like that was this. That was what was coming through. And the weird thing is, as far as like legendary and iconic a toy as the Easy Bake Oven was, as gender roles and as gender roles evolved, I mean, this was, we're talking like the early 70s when this really started to become like a thing.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

The Easy Bake Oven did not evolve with it.

[Dan]

Right.

[Chuck Bryant]

As we will see, it wasn't until the early 2000s that they started to respond to that kind of thing. And I saw an ad for 2014. Not a boy in sight, all girls. And just dancing around like the girliest Easy Bake Oven you could possibly imagine. They actually got more girly as time went on, more girl focused as gender roles went on. Which is really weird to me to be that not just non responsive, but almost like, no, we're going the opposite way.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. And in early 2000s, Hasbro, who, you know, they bought out Kenner eventually, makers.

[Chuck Bryant]

Of the classic Snoopy snow cone machine.

[Josh Clark]

I never had one of those. Did you have one of those?

[Chuck Bryant]

No, neighbor did.

[Guest or Caller]

Okay.

[Josh Clark]

But you got to eat some of that sweet, sweet sugar Ice.

[Chuck Bryant]

There was nothing like the taste of, I think, the cherry one. I can't remember, but it was just the greatest snow cone you could possibly have.

[Josh Clark]

And that's until you had a shaved ice later and you're like, oh, this.

[Dan]

Is a lot better still.

[Chuck Bryant]

Number one. Reigning champ.

[Josh Clark]

Really.

[Chuck Bryant]

Number two is blue raspberry slush Puppy.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, See, what I would always do is slurp that sweet liquid, and then I'd be left with just some faintly colored kind of just ice.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, yeah, no, I know. That was the problem with it for sure.

[Guest or Caller]

Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

But if you did it right and you just kind of let it settle, you got, you know, through the nasty stuff first when you got to the bottom, then you got to the true, like hyper, hyper dense snow cone experience.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, I could never do that. I still have problems regulating my like, hot fudge to ice cream ratio when eating a sundae.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, yeah.

[Josh Clark]

I just won't even do it anymore.

[Chuck Bryant]

You say you do all the hot fudge first, and then you're left with some cruddy ice cream.

[Josh Clark]

Yep. I mean, that's standard, cruddy, delicious ice cream.

[Chuck Bryant]

Right. This ice cream that some people around the world would kill for is cruddy. It doesn't have any more fudge. Dude.

[Josh Clark]

I've been on a 15 year campaign to convince Emily that vanilla ice cream is like a legit flavor.

[Chuck Bryant]

Sure.

[Josh Clark]

I think she still thinks that vanilla ice cream is just like unflavored ice milk. Yeah, it's like it's the one without the flavor added. Right. I'm like, no, vanilla. This is really delicious, actually.

[Chuck Bryant]

It is. It is.

[Josh Clark]

It's subtle Vanilla bean ice cream. Like a true.

[Chuck Bryant]

Like the flex.

[Josh Clark]

Mm. So good.

[Chuck Bryant]

I'm with you.

[Josh Clark]

So in early 2000, they finally, like you said, tried in a very ham fisted way to get boys involved with the qu. Ezbake.

[Chuck Bryant]

Queasy bake.

[Josh Clark]

Is that what it is?

[Chuck Bryant]

Took me a second too. Cause qu is a separate word.

[Josh Clark]

So. Okay, now I'm not even hyphenated. So the queasy bake oven and the mixerator for you boys, you. You can make mud and crud cakes and larvalicious cocoon cookies. And you know, not like, hey, just bake something good. Because anyone can bake.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, anyone can bake.

[Josh Clark]

And they didn't like the girls don't use that one.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, it was only boys that showed up in these ads. They're like, we really need to get boys involved. How can we do that? Oh, we'll make one specifically for boys that's like they're making cruddy cakes.

[Josh Clark]

I mean, I know they're just trying to sell stuff, but when in these meetings, in these marketing meetings that you just can't help but think it's like a bunch of like 85 year old men. It's our Senate that's in there, right?

[Chuck Bryant]

They're like screaming and pounding and yelling at each other about the idea of like selling this to boys.

[Josh Clark]

Oh man.

[Chuck Bryant]

Well, after that I feel like we should probably take a break.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, we'll go to our Senate chambers and regroup right after this.

[Public Ad Announcer]

Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public, you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index. With AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like EFTs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member finra, SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors llc, SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available at public.com disclosures tired.

[Apollo Ad Announcer]

Of juggling sales tools or spending hours on prospecting just to book a few meetings? Meet Apollo, the Go to Market platform for finding leads, connecting with buyers and closing deals all in one place. Apollo gives you access to over 210 million contacts and AI that handles all your busy work finding leads, drafting emails and even prioritizing your day. So stop paying for five different sales tools when one does it all. Visit Apollo I.O. and sign up free today.

[Ramsey]

Hey everybody, we're hitting the road again starting in January 2026, picking up again in April 2026 and eventually Canada will tell you year dates too.

[Dan]

That's right.

[Josh Clark]

We're going to do at least three.

[Dan]

Legs and the first leg is starting out in Denver, Colorado at the Paramount Theater on January 27th. We're going to go back to our beloved Seattle at the Paramount Theater there on the 28th. And then finally back at SketchFest on the 29th at the Sidney Goldstein Theater.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yep.

[Ramsey]

And then April 16th, 17th, and 18th, we're going to be in Madison, Wisconsin, Chicago, Illinois, and Akron, Ohio. And if you're not keeping up with all this or taking notes, don't worry. You can get all the info you need and buy tickets atstuffyou should know.com, click on the tour button and thank us later.

[Dan]

That's right. We can't wait to see everybody again out there on the road.

[Josh Clark]

All right, so in 1967, the Easy Bake Oven is selling like hotcakes, literally. General Mills buys kenner. And they did a couple of genius things. They partnered because they were General Mills. They had no problem because they owned Betty Crocker as well, I assume, launching Betty Crocker branded mixes. And then later on, they got into licensing deals with McDonald's and Pizza Hut. Because here's the thing. You can bake anything in an Easy Bake Oven because it's just a little oven.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, I saw that.

[Josh Clark]

You can make pizza, and you can make. You don't have to buy these mixes. You can just bake cookies that you made from scratch.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. There's, like, a lot of recipes online. Easy Bake Oven recipes.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. That actually don't taste like garbage.

[Chuck Bryant]

Right. So, yeah. They did have a huge line of mixes, though, and they sold more than 100 million of them over the years.

[Guest or Caller]

Man.

[Josh Clark]

That's how they get you.

[Chuck Bryant]

But, I mean, there were recipes for mixes for candy bars. Pecan brittle, popcorn, bubble gum. You could bake your own bubble gum.

[Josh Clark]

Interesting.

[Chuck Bryant]

It is interesting. I would have tried that for sure. I want to see bubble gum come out in, like, a brownie pan.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

I'd be like, I want some of that bubble gum. That looks amazing.

[Josh Clark]

We had a cotton candy machine, now that I remember. What, it would just spin sugar, and you would.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, I know what they do.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

I wanted one.

[Josh Clark]

Yep. That thing was probably dangerous. It was probably like a nuclear centrifuge.

[Chuck Bryant]

What was interesting about those or fascinating to me was, like, the cotton candy. Oh, it's not called.

[Josh Clark]

It's like. Not the web sponge sugar or something like that.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, I want to say web, but that's not it either. It's not really visible in the machine, but when you stick in the little cone, it just builds up on it. Like, it's just coming out of another dimension into this one.

[Josh Clark]

Like coming out of a spider's butt.

[Chuck Bryant]

It's awesome to see A pink and pink and blue spider's butt.

[Josh Clark]

Man, I had to go out yesterday to. I still have my pickup truck because I just kept it because it was paid for. And I still move and haul stuff occasionally. I had to move something.

[Chuck Bryant]

Doesn't justify it to me.

[Josh Clark]

I had to move something yesterday, and I went out and there was the most beautiful huge spiderweb from a tree down attached to the rear tailgate of.

[Chuck Bryant]

My truck, Chuck Smash.

[Josh Clark]

With this big spider right in the middle. And I was like, oh, man. I just felt so bad. I didn't know what to do.

[Chuck Bryant]

So you just put it in reverse and pretended nothing? You didn't see anything?

[Josh Clark]

No, I actually plucked it off little by little because I wanted to ensure his safety. And the web just goes crumbling down into a long, skinny string, and he climbs right up to the tree. And I was just like, I'm really sorry.

[Chuck Bryant]

He's like, oh, I'm sure you are.

[Josh Clark]

I see you. I know. He tried to.

[Chuck Bryant]

Super sorry.

[Josh Clark]

Spit venom into my eyeball.

[Chuck Bryant]

He's like, what do you need your truck for? And you're like, I gotta go get peanut butter. He's like, oh, good. Thank you for ruining 30 hours of my work.

[Josh Clark]

A giant vat of peanut butter that would only fit in my truck. All right, so let's flash forward here to the Modern Times in 2007, the Energy Independence and Security act, when the government said by 2012, light bulbs have to increase their efficiency by 25%. So bye bye. 100 watt incandescent bulb.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. So let me just say something. Let me set that up, too. Over the years, the Easy Bake oven had just remained a steady seller for Kenner and then Hasbro. And the design had been basically the same. It went from two bulbs to one bulb, but it was this closed box where the heating element was, where there was a slot on the side. Remember, I went through the whole thing, pushed it in, and it came out the cooling chamber on the other side. But really, the design was the same. The outward look changed. Like, it went from the weird. Its own thing to the late 70s and early 80s, it started to resemble a microwave. And then in response to this change in light bulb requirements, Easy Bake did a redesign in 2006. And for the first time ever, the Easy Bake oven actually looked like an oven, like a stove. It had little, like, fake burners on the top. It looked like a stove, and it was actually a front loader to where there was a slot in the front of the Easy Bake Oven. And that's where you put the thing in. And that's what you actually pulled it out from, too. And it went right into the heating element. And they replaced the light bulb because, again, so long, hundred watt light bulb because of the energy act, with an actual heating element, a ceramic heating element. Like an oven. Yeah, it was an oven, so they made an oven. But then when they made the oven, they redesigned this thing so that you could put your fingers right into the oven while it was baking at its hottest temperature. And, of course, kids immediately started doing that.

[Josh Clark]

How did that one slip past?

[Chuck Bryant]

No idea.

[Josh Clark]

I mean, that just doesn't make any sense at all. So in the end, I think, what, close to 250 kids ended up with, like, second, third degree burns.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

One partial amputation of a finger.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. Because kids would get their fingers stuck in it. Right.

[Josh Clark]

And it's just.

[Chuck Bryant]

And then some kids got their fingers stuck in it while it was hot.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

And yes, they were getting huge burns. So Hasbro was like, well, we'll do a recall. And they recalled, like, 985,000. I think ultimately a million of these things they recalled. First they tried to say, here's a little fix.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

Here's a retrofitted piece.

[Chuck Bryant]

It's really easy. Just snap it on and it'll solve everything. And apparently it did solve everything.

[Josh Clark]

They're like, why didn't you make it that way to begin with?

[Chuck Bryant]

Right. But most parents were not, like, they didn't have their ears out that there was a recall of their Easy Bake Oven. And so their kids. The kids kept getting burned. And finally Hasbro was like, just bring them back. So there's a recall of a million Easy Bake ovens from that 2006 redesign.

[Josh Clark]

That's a huge toy for them. Like, if that would have ruined the Easy Bake Oven, that would have been a big, big deal.

[Chuck Bryant]

So what they did was they temporarily, temporarily went back to an old design featuring a light bulb too, while they redesigned it to the new version. So then they came out in 2011 with that really ugly designed, what's called the Easy Bake ultimate oven.

[Josh Clark]

Oh, I'm looking at it now. That thing. Yeah, it does. It looks terrible.

[Chuck Bryant]

It's horrible. It's super. It looks like it's on the go or something like that.

[Josh Clark]

I don't like.

[Chuck Bryant]

Looks like a weird toaster oven.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. But it's sort of. It looks like it's trying to look futuristic and modern, which never ends up looking like that.

[Chuck Bryant]

No, it doesn't. But they also made it pink and purple.

[Josh Clark]

Yep.

[Chuck Bryant]

Super girly. The ads were super girl targeted. Yep. There's flowers on it again. They were like, nope, this is for girls. Boys don't play with this. So in 2000, I think 2013, there was a girl named McKenna Pope.

[Josh Clark]

Yes.

[Chuck Bryant]

Who is just a hero of heroes. She's amazing. I saw an interview with her on cnn.

[Josh Clark]

Pretty great.

[Chuck Bryant]

She's just so, like, self possessed and intelligent and, like, well spoken, but also like a kid and aware. She's a kid. She's just amazing. One of those. Clearly reincarnated.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

And she went on. She started a petition to get Hasbro to make a gender neutral version of its Easy Bake Oven. Cause her little brother liked to bake, but realized that the Easy Bake oven was for girls. She wanted him to be able to bake. So she said, hasbro, why don't you make one that's gender neutral? And got something like 50,000 signatures for her petition. And Hasbro came out with a new version of the Easy Bake ultimate oven, which was just a black version of it. Black and I think silver.

[Josh Clark]

I'm surprised it wasn't like our brushed stainless model.

[Chuck Bryant]

Sure. Right.

[Josh Clark]

To emulate, you know, kitchens.

[Chuck Bryant]

Right.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. She's. Gee, she's probably almost 20 years old now.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

Wonder what she's doing. McKenna Pope, are you out there?

[Chuck Bryant]

She's some sort of, like, consumer protection lawyer, I'll bet.

[Josh Clark]

Probably so. I hope so.

[Chuck Bryant]

Me too.

[Josh Clark]

2006, they go into the National Toy hall of Fame.

[Chuck Bryant]

The same year that disastrous redesign.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

They got in just under the wire.

[Chuck Bryant]

They did, yeah. Can't take it back.

[Josh Clark]

I'm trying to look here. And they're from their very own website. Some of the landmark years. And it is kind of funny that it emulated the styles at the time. Unless they were just doing Pink. Like in 69, they premiered the avocado green.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

The very next year was Harvest Gold. It's very good.

[Chuck Bryant]

Metallic pea.

[Josh Clark]

We say that a lot in our house. Oh, they had a potato chip maker. Did we mention that?

[Ramsey]

No.

[Josh Clark]

1973, the Easy Bake potato chip maker.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's awesome.

[Josh Clark]

And then in 78, they finally started putting a fake digital clock on it that always read 12:30, not 4:20. You see that a lot as a joke.

[Chuck Bryant]

Sure.

[Josh Clark]

And like the pothead joke. Yeah. But like, you'll see an alarm clock ad in like Sky Mall or something, and it'll say 420.

[Chuck Bryant]

Right. Because the publishers aren't paying attention.

[Josh Clark]

They get it.

[Chuck Bryant]

Doesn't know.

[Josh Clark]

Or they don't Care.

[Chuck Bryant]

Sure.

[Josh Clark]

I remember years ago when we used to have a lot of illustrations on House Stuff Works and had two in house illustrators that I won't name and remember. One of them drew, like, a park scene for me, and the tree clearly had a marijuana leaf embedded in it. And I was like, hey, man, you can't do that. And he was like, oh, it was completely an accident. I was like, man, I wasn't born yesterday.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, I've seen a pot leaf before.

[Josh Clark]

I mean, I thought it was funny, but, like, you know.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, couldn't do that. You got anything else?

[Josh Clark]

I don't think so.

[Chuck Bryant]

Easy Bake Oven.

[Josh Clark]

Mac and cheese. You can bake. Oh. In 2003, they introduced the real meal oven, and you could. That's when you could do, like, French fries and pizza and Mac and cheese and stuff.

[Chuck Bryant]

I think that was the predecessor to the ceramic heating element that they eventually redid. The Easy Bacon in 2006.

[Josh Clark]

Good stuff.

[Chuck Bryant]

Good stuff. If you want a nice blast from the past, just type in, like, Easy Bake Oven commercials. There's one from 1980 that was just perfect.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. Was it rad?

[Chuck Bryant]

No, it was pretty rad.

[Josh Clark]

Oh, okay.

[Chuck Bryant]

It was like Carpenter's era.

[Josh Clark]

Gotcha.

[Chuck Bryant]

Which is not rad, but still lovely.

[Josh Clark]

Yes.

[Chuck Bryant]

Love the Carpenters.

[Josh Clark]

Me too.

[Chuck Bryant]

Well, if you want to know more about Easy Bake Ovens or the Carpenters or the Snoopy Snow Cone Machine, just go onto the Internet. It's a vast repository of stuff like that. And since I said that, it's time for listener mail.

[Dan]

Hey, guys.

[Josh Clark]

I'm a freelance writer who works remotely, so I've been riding and traveling the world for the past year and a half. It's been wild. Since I've been traveling alone, it can get lonely. But from Mexico City to Bali to Tokyo, you guys have been with me, keeping me company, making me laugh, teach me all kinds of cool facts. As a content writer, I also feel a connection to y'. All. We both have to research seemingly mundane topics sometimes and discover the cool, interesting things about them, present them in a palatable way. People sometimes laugh when I'm telling that I'm writing something like the History of the egg McMuffin or the best Month to Buy a Mattress. But I just point to your podcast as a sterling example of how gems and surprises lie within even the most unassuming topics.

[Chuck Bryant]

Thank you. Yeah, I agree.

[Josh Clark]

Have you guys ever considered doing a show on digital nomading?

[Chuck Bryant]

Never.

[Josh Clark]

I know it's becoming increasingly popular as more companies embrace remote working. I'm in a cafe in Medellin. Medellin, Colombia right now. And there are five digital nomads tapping away on their laptops as we speak.

[Chuck Bryant]

They would beat me up if they knew I just referred to them as digital nomads.

[Josh Clark]

The future is location independent. I say thanks again for being so awesome. It's a short term dream of mine. To digital Nomad over to a country where you're doing a live show. Buy you guys a drink.

[Chuck Bryant]

Awesome.

[Josh Clark]

If you do read this on the air, please give a shout out to Mark Alexander, who insisted that I keep listening to you guys even after I was initially slightly turned off by all of your asides and off tracking.

[Chuck Bryant]

Happens to a lot of people.

[Josh Clark]

And that's funny because we had a lot of those today.

[Chuck Bryant]

You know that reminds me of totally unrelated story.

[Josh Clark]

She says now. I very much learned to appreciate those. He would burst into tears and I would too. So thank you Mark Alexander for turning on your friend Maria Cristina La Donde.

[Chuck Bryant]

Thanks a lot.

[Josh Clark]

Beautiful name. Yeah, I'm sorry.

[Chuck Bryant]

Lalonde Leonde.

[Josh Clark]

Maria Cristina Lalonde.

[Chuck Bryant]

Beautiful. And I hope that your buddy did just burst out into tears. That'd be amazing.

[Josh Clark]

Pretty neat.

[Chuck Bryant]

Thanks for that email. If you want to get in touch with us, you can find us on the [e-mail] check out our social links there. And if you like, send an email to stuffpodcastowstuffworks.com.

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[Josh Clark]

A production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts My Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, podcasts or.

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[Public Ad Announcer]

Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public, you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like EFTs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing, Inc. Member FINRA SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors, llc SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available at public.com disclosures tired.

[Apollo Ad Announcer]

Of juggling sales tools or spending hours on prospecting just to book a few meetings? Meet Apollo, the Go to Market platform for finding leads, connecting with buyers, and closing deals all in one place. Apollo gives you access to over 210 million contacts and AI that handles all your busy work finding leads, drafting emails, and even prioritizing your day. So stop paying for five different sales tools when one does it all. Visit Apollo I.O. and sign up free today.

[Ramsey]

Hey everybody, we're hitting the road again starting in January 2026, picking up again in April 2026 and eventually Canada will tell you year dates too.

[Dan]

That's right.

[Josh Clark]

We're going to do at least three.

[Dan]

Legs, and the first leg is starting out in Denver, Colorado at the Paramount Theater on January 27th. We're going to go back to our beloved Seattle at the Paramount Theater there on the 28th, and then finally back at SketchFest on the 29th at the Sidney Goldstein Theater.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yep.

[Ramsey]

And then April 16th, 17th and 18th, we're going to be in Madison, Wisconsin, Chicago, Illinois and Akron, Ohio. And if you're not keeping up with all this or taking notes, don't worry, you can get all the info you need and buy tickets@stuffyou should know.com, click on the tour button and thank us later.

[Dan]

That's right, we can't wait to see everybody again out there on the road.

[Josh Clark]

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.