The Nightly — "All Horses Share a Birthday | Relaxing Sleepy Chat"

Podcast: The Nightly by Hatch Podcasts
Date: December 13, 2025
Hosts: Josh (A) & Kristen (C)

Episode Overview

This cozy, late-night episode invites listeners into the Hatch "Pillow Fort" for a gently meandering chat about peculiar animal facts—beginning with the odd tradition of all racehorses sharing a birthday—and drifts lovingly through royal ceremonies, animal quirks, and the marvel of monotremes. Designed as an antidote to doomscrolling, the conversation is friendly, zen, and quietly funny, making it ideal for unwinding before bed.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Curiosity: All Racehorses Share a Birthday

• Josh kicks off with a quirky animal fact: all racehorses' birthdays are officially celebrated on January 1st, regardless of their actual date of birth.
• Reasoning:
  • Practicality for age category sorting in races.
  • Avoiding the hassle of remembering multiple horse birthdays.

  "I love the sound of it. I'm like, well, I'm gonna file that away in my head as if it's true without verifying." — Josh (01:53)

• Kristen muses about the disparity for horses actually born mid-year and how, like dog years, it could mean a significant difference in perceived age.

[02:30]

"But what if you are born on... there's a big difference between January 1st and like July 15th." — Kristen

• Both agree it's a delightfully odd system, and ponder if it matters much to the horses themselves.

2. Horse Smoking (and Why They Shouldn’t)

• A playful tangent develops about horses smoking.
  • Josh jokes:

    "I'll tell you what, horse of any age wants to smoke, I'm gonna let it. But that's a me problem. I just think it would look funny." (03:36)

  • Kristen:

    "No, please don't do that. Please don't do that." (04:12)

  • The pair quickly clarify: don’t let horses smoke, no matter how amusing it might be.

3. Royal Birthdays & Trooping the Colour

• Kristen draws a parallel to the British monarchy, where the monarch’s “official” birthday is celebrated on a fixed date with the Trooping the Colour ceremony, regardless of their actual birthday.

• "The old King George, all of them had the same birthday that is acknowledged by the citizenry." — Kristen (04:40)

• Anecdotes about royalty using any reason to party, royal karaoke, and even a whimsical image of Queen Elizabeth doing the worm with Prince Harry.

  "I could totally see Queen Elizabeth when she was alive, doing, like, a windmill or a robot." — Kristen (06:21)

[06:59]

"He and Queen Elizabeth, when she was alive, they used to have a very jokey sort of relationship where they would, you know, tell a lot of jokes and goof around with each other a lot." — Kristen

4. Royals as Celebrities

• Discussion shifts to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, their public appearances, and the oddity of being “born to be famous.”

  "It’s a weird thing. Very few people are born with the explicit purpose of being famous, but that's what royals are." — Kristen (08:06)

• "Their job is kind of to be celebrities." — Josh (07:57)

5. Fascinating Animal Facts: Egg-Laying Mammals & Monotremes

• Josh introduces monotremes, the only group of mammals that lay eggs: platypus and four species of echidnas.

  "And there are five current monotreme species. It's the platypus…" — Josh (09:18)

• Kristen and Josh delight in describing echidnas as “spiny anteaters,” cute but quirky, with non-venomous spurs.
• All monotremes are native to Australia and New Guinea.

[11:46]

"But why?" — Josh, marveling at the oddity of monotremes’ geographic concentration.

6. Australasian Animals: Designed to Survive, or Not

• Kristen explains the New Zealand saying:

  "Everything in Australia is designed to kill you and everything in New Zealand is designed to not survive." (11:51)

• Contrasts New Zealand’s flightless, cuddly, defenseless birds with Australia’s dangerous, spiky, and venomous creatures.

7. Animal Evolution & Tectonic Plates

• Echidna and platypus fossils are found outside current habitats (South America, Antarctica), leading to speculation about continental drift and plate tectonics guiding animal evolution.
• The pair reflect on how proximity doesn’t always mean similarity in the animal population due to geologic history.

  "It's so like geographically close, comparatively. But because of tectonics, then it's like there's different stuff happening." — Josh (14:03)

8. The Kakapo: World’s Only Flightless Parrot

• Called the “owl parrot,” the kakapo is large and uniquely flightless, endemic to New Zealand.

  "I'm looking at a picture of one right now. They have a very large beak… seems to take up a lot of room on the bird face." — Kristen (15:48)

• Discuss why so many NZ birds can’t fly: historically, there were few predators, so wings weren’t essential.

9. Bird vs. Human Life

• Kristen dreams of flying and envies birds for the apparent ease of flight, noting how “frictionless” it appears.

  "If I could fly in real life, I'd definitely be a bird. That's just like. I'm not sitting on your picnic table giving you a hard time. I'm flying." — Kristen (16:53)

• Josh observes pigeons “are slowpokes” on land, but “soar” in air.

10. Reflections on Animal Diversity

• The hosts marvel at the sheer variety of animal life on Earth, sharing a gently existential moment:

  "We're on a planet with a platypus and a tiger and they both just exist at the same time. That's ridiculous." — Josh (18:30)

• Self-deprecating notes about human looks versus animal cuteness; Kristen jokes, “We're not as cute as a koala bear. No, we're not as cute as that.” (18:52)

Memorable Quotes & Moments

• [01:12] Kristen: "When you and I are hanging out, they feel especially relaxed. They're like, ah, there's something about the Josh, Kristen hangout feeling that's like, this is the slumber party where everyone's definitely horizontal the whole time."
• [07:41] Kristen: "In a certain way their job is kind of what it's always been, Even when Harry was still over in the uk. Their job is kind of to be celebrities."
• [11:51] Kristen: “Everything in Australia is designed to kill you and everything in New Zealand is designed to not survive.”
• [18:30] Josh: "We're on a planet with a platypus and a tiger and they both just exist at the same time. That's ridiculous."

Noteworthy Timestamps

• [01:32] — The “slumber party” vibe and listener feedback
• [02:30] — Oddities of the all-racehorse-birthdays tradition
• [04:12] — Horse smoking tangent, quickly debunked
• [04:47] — Royals and the Trooping the Colour birthday tradition
• [09:18] — Monotremes: platypus and echidnas explained
• [11:51] — New Zealand vs. Australia: evolutionary contrasts
• [15:13] — The kakapo, NZ’s flightless parrot
• [16:53] — Imagining life as a flying bird
• [18:30] — Philosophizing about animal diversity

Closing Vibes

The episode closes with both hosts growing sleepy, leaning into the show’s mission to provide bedtime comfort and calm.

“All this talk about all different kinds of species is making me feel the need to hibernate. I'm getting pretty sleepy. I think I'm gonna turn in.” — Josh (19:38)

Overall Tone:
Warm, whimsical, and soothing—full of gentle humor, random animal trivia, and zen musings, all delivered in a way that feels like late-night pillow talk between friends.

For listeners:
You'll leave this episode with curious new facts, a smile, and a relaxed mind—possibly wondering about the secret birthdays of racehorses and dreaming of flightless parrots.