All Horses Share a Birthday | Relaxing Sleepy Chat

Summary

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)

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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)

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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.

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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.

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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)

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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.

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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.

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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)

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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."

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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

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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)

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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.

Transcript

[A]

Hello.

[B]

You're about to drift into an episode of the Nightly, a podcast designed to help you unwind and relax. For the full phone free immersive light experience, visit Hatch Co. Enjoy.

[A]

Hello and good evening, everyone. Hi, everyone. I'm Josh.

[C]

And I'm Kristen. Welcome to the Nightly on Hatch where sleepyhead is the highest compliment, you know.

[A]

Thank you. Because I do feel like sleepyhead is a core quality of my personality.

[C]

I love that about you, Josh. You have such a zen quality about you.

[A]

Thank you.

[C]

Everything's always so relaxed and happy and non judgmental in your presence. You have some such a special way about you.

[A]

Thank you. I'm always happy to see you in the pillow fort and I'm always at ease. I always have such a great conversation when we get to chat. So thank you so much.

[C]

Right. It's been a while since I've seen you.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

It's just nice to catch up again. And you know, it's great because a listener was recently saying to me that, like, 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.

[A]

That's right. We're making sleepy magic.

[C]

We definitely are. Absolutely.

[A]

Well, tonight I just think it's so fun when we get to pursue weird little fascinations. And so the thing that popped into my mind recently, I was at a party where someone shouted out a great animal fact. And this is what they said. I don't even. I didn't verify if it's true. This is a problem I have when I hear a fact that is like no stakes. But 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. And I think the one someone told me recently is that all racehorses, their birthday is January 1st.

[C]

What? What? Why is that?

[A]

It just, I think like too many horse birthdays to remember and you just need to know if a horse is like three or five. You know what I mean?

[C]

Oh, but what if you are born on. I don't know. I guess maybe it doesn't matter to a horse. But I was gonna say, you know, there's a big difference between January 1st and like July 15th.

[A]

Totally.

[C]

That seems like a big difference to me.

[A]

This is something I learned and will never be investigating further.

[C]

Like, think about a dog in dog years. It's seven years for every one human year, right? And so for a horse, if horses are like dogs, that means like we're three and a half years off with that horse's age.

[A]

That's right. Right. For the middle of the year versus. But I guess, like, how much difference does that make? Even though it's more horse years, it's like, what's the difference between a 15 year old horse and an 18 year old horse? Like, they're not taking a driving test, they're not voting.

[C]

Yeah, yeah. We aren't trying to keep them from buying cigarettes at that age. It's. Yeah.

[A]

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.

[C]

Yeah, I. I don't even know how that would work. They don't have a posable thumb, so it'd be kind of hard to hold the cigarette.

[A]

They would need a lot of help, honestly. Even if the horse is breathing in and out. If you get a horse smoking a cigarette, that's more a person's doing than the horse.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

[A]

That's. Who lit the cigarette, who procured the cigarette. Horses. If you're listening, horses probably shouldn't smoke. You probably shouldn't let a horse smoke.

[C]

No, please don't do that. Please don't do that.

[A]

Don't do it. As funny as it might look.

[C]

Yes, absolutely. Oh, my gosh. I am so fascinated with this birthday thing with horses because did you know that the sovereign of England also has one birthday that's always acknowledged as the same day every year, regardless of when the sovereign's birthday is? So.

[A]

So like Queen Elizabeth and King Charles.

[C]

The old King George, all of them had the same birthday that is acknowledged by the citizenry.

[A]

I didn't know about this.

[C]

Yeah. And the birthday is a ceremonial event called Trooping the Color. And it happens every summer. And there's parades, there's horses, obviously. Cause you know those royals, they love their horses.

[A]

They love their horses.

[C]

There's like a flypast of military planes and jets and whatnot. And it's very much like racehorses. Like, this is your birthday no matter what. Doesn't matter if you were born in the 1700s or the 2000s, if you are the monarch, that is it. Yeah.

[A]

Do you think that they also celebrate on the day they were born? Or is that like gauche? Is that like double dipping on birthdays?

[C]

I'm just gonna say it as somebody who's a royal watcher, I don't think they're afraid to Party.

[A]

That's fair.

[C]

I think these are people who will party at the drop of a hat for any reason at all. They're always throwing parties and saying it's a charity banquet or it's to raise awareness about this. And it's like you're just getting dressed up and having fun. You're drinking champagne and dancing. Come on, let's be real. That's what you're doing.

[A]

Right, right, right. This isn't, like, for the good of the nation or whatever.

[C]

Yeah, yeah. So I totally think that privately, they go to one of their castles with some of their closest friends, and they're like, this is our bir for us. Trooping the colors. The birthday party that the nation has to bow down to. But just between us and the 300 of you in this room, this is just my little birthday party.

[A]

Yeah, we're gonna do some karaoke. We're gonna go bowling. You know, classic birthday things.

[C]

Yeah. There's gonna be a dance off at a certain point.

[A]

That's right.

[C]

Could totally see Queen Elizabeth when she was alive, doing, like, a windmill or a robot.

[A]

Yeah, I love. Yeah. Queen Elizabeth doing the worm. That feels like. It's one of those things where I'm like, if I was the kind of person into AI, I would ask it to show me that Queen Elizabeth doing the worm.

[C]

You know who would be doing it with her? It would be Harry.

[A]

Is that his personality?

[C]

Harry is totally, like, a goofball, and he loves dancing. And 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.

[A]

Oh, that's. That's sweet.

[C]

So, yeah, I could totally see the two of them doing a dance off where she does the worm and he does, like, you know, some sort of head spin or something. And they go back and forth. Yeah.

[A]

Oh, my gosh. I think he's probably got it all over her in terms of competitive dancing for the last several years of her life. Was it Harry who was popping up at, like, sporting events? He and Meghan Markle are married, correct?

[C]

Yes. They're at things like the World Series game. They're at, like, Beyonce concerts. They're always out and about doing stuff. Yeah.

[A]

Yeah. That's so interesting, because that kind of feels like what their job is mostly now, right? Yeah. They're like, oh, we're gonna show up. We're gonna appear at Brat Summer.

[B]

Yes.

[C]

Yes, they do that. I mean, they have charity work, and they have their media ventures and stuff too. But yeah, you know, 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.

[A]

Right? Yeah. Which is like, it's such a funny to be born and then to be like, you're going to be famous.

[C]

Yes. It's a weird thing. Very few people are born with the explicit purpose of being famous, but that's what royals are. It's like this is your purpose. You're born to be well known. From the time you are in utero, everybody will know who you are.

[A]

Right. Like, even when someone in the royal family gets pregnant, it's like already such a big deal.

[C]

Starting there, they're already making charts about the line of succession. They're already making coats of arms and doing all of that at that point. Yeah.

[A]

Well, you better be born in the summer because otherwise your birthday is going to get all messed up.

[C]

Yes, that too. That too.

[A]

Amazing. Well, the other animal thing I was thinking about was egg laying mammals.

[C]

Yes.

[A]

I love a fascinating animal fact. And I guess egg laying mammals. I'm looking in the Pillow Ford Encyclopedia, the overarching category that they fit into. They're called monotremes, which I had forgotten. Yeah. And they're the group of living mammals that lay eggs instead of bearing live young. And there are five current monotreme species. It's the platypus.

[C]

Oh, of course.

[A]

Love, obviously love.

[C]

That platypus kind of looks like a duck. Kind of is poison. A venomous creature. Kind of furry, like an adorable cuddle monster and lazy.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

I mean you don't want to cuddle a venomous animal, but you don't.

[A]

But they look like they would be a fun hang.

[C]

Yeah, absolutely.

[A]

There's some freaky little guys. And then the other four species are four different kinds of echidnas. Oh, do you know an echidna? It's a spiny anteater is I think how it's described. And it looks almost like a kiwi, the bird. And they're quill covered. It's like a little porcupine that lays eggs.

[C]

My gosh. And hold on, are they all venomous?

[A]

Oh, this is a good question and I will look it up. Male echidnas have non venomous spurs on their hind feet similar to the venomous male platypus. So they have the spurs but they don't have the poison in them.

[C]

Okay, all right.

[A]

Yeah, that's really interesting. So I think that's why they have the spikes? Cause they don't have poison.

[C]

Yeah, I suppose you don't need poison if you have spikes, right?

[A]

Yeah, that's right. That's just too much. It's gilding the lily.

[C]

Yes.

[A]

But I feel it's so funny because I think we think about egg laying mammals and everybody wants to talk about the duck billed platypus, but it does also feel like there are these other ones that get less shine and they're very cute.

[C]

Yeah. You know, I'm looking them up now in the pillow fort encyclopedia and I have got to say they are adorable. Like, like you said, they're kind of like a cross between an anteater and a porcupine. They do look cute as the dickens and I love that. You know, like the platypus, they nurse their young, they make milk and so on. So it's kind of this confusing animal that it looks like something that is one way but then it does things like lay eggs.

[A]

And they're all indigenous to Australia and New Guinea. Oh. All the species. Which is. I both make sense. Right. Where you're like, oh, sure, I could see how evolution would bring us in that direction of these kind of animals that share similar traits, living in similar places. But I'm also like, but why?

[C]

Okay, so as you know, Josh, my husband, is from New Zealand.

[A]

Yes.

[C]

And what they say in New Zealand is everything in Australia is designed to kill you and everything in New Zealand is designed to not survive. So in New Zealand, like so many of the birds are flightless. You already mentioned the kiwi, obviously. They have other birds like the Weka, which looks like a football with legs and it waddles around. And then they just have all these penguin species and everybody is so cute but they can't get away from you. And their legs are really short, so they can't move very fast. And so they have all of these adorable animals that you're not supposed to pick up and hug. But I want to pick up all of them and hug them and they can't get away from me. But I'm not going to. Don't worry, I won't pick you up. They're so cute. Meanwhile, Australia, everything's designed that if you try to pick it up, you'll be spiked with the porcupine spines or you'll be hit with that venom that we mentioned earlier or you'll be kicked in the face like by a kangaroo. Everything in Australia wants to kill you. Even if it's cute, it's gonna hurt.

[A]

You trying to fight you off.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And New Zealand's exactly the opposite. It's just like, I'm cute and I can't do anything to stop it. I know you love me.

[A]

Also is what I'm seeing is all the modern living monotremes are in Australia and New guinea, but fossils have been found in South America and Antarctica. So it's possible that this is like either they had evolved there as well and have died out, or that this was like, I don't know, is that a Pangea type thing of like, they were there and then didn't reproduce at a fast enough rate to survive to the modern day?

[C]

Oh, maybe I find it interesting because different plates do have certain similar things that exist on certain plates. Right. And so if the plate that Australia's on happened to be the same plate as, you know, were these other creatures similar to a platypus were, then maybe it's just part of that. Because I can say this. I know that New Zealand is not on the same plate as Australia, which would make sense why their animals are so different.

[A]

Yeah. Oh, that's so fascinating that it's so like geographically close, comparatively. But because of tectonics, then it's like there's different stuff happening.

[C]

Oh, yeah, yeah, that's so.

[A]

That's fascinating. That makes so much sense.

[C]

Yeah, I mean, I think about that with a lot of things in the world where it's like, you know, India and the rest of Asia, it's like India's kind of its own thing. And that's partly. Cause, like, India wasn't always part of Asia.

[A]

Right, right, right, right. Oh, that's fascinating.

[C]

Oh, hold on. I have to back up something. So Australia and New Zealand are not technically on separate tectonic plates, but New Zealand is on the boundary, so it's not quite on the main part of where the Australia plate is. It's more on the ridge, if that makes sense.

[A]

Got it. So even though they're relatively close together, but like, historically maybe they were not.

[C]

Yes, exactly, exactly. So it makes sense then that they would have different animals evolve in each one.

[A]

1.

[C]

It's like this is fully this tectonic plate and this, this is the ridge where two plates are meeting. So different things happening.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. Oh, cool. Okay. I'm also hearing from inside the pillow fort that there is another great unfortunate bird in New Zealand called the kakapo, which is like a big parrot, and it is endemic to New Zealand, as you mentioned. They have these flightless birds and it's the only flightless parrot the name is spelled K A, K A P O. And it is like a parrot that can't fly. And it has. They call it the owl parrot or the owl faced parrot. And I don't see a ton of owl in that face.

[C]

I'm looking at a picture of one right now. They have a very large beak as far as like, not sticking out far, but like a long beak, if that makes sense on the face. You know, it seems to take up a lot of room on the bird face.

[A]

A lot of real estate on that face.

[C]

Yes.

[A]

And it's the heaviest parrot in the world, which makes sense why it can't fly.

[C]

Oh, that makes sense.

[A]

Wow.

[C]

Yeah. And yeah, a lot of those New Zealand birds, they sometimes have either very little wings or no wings at all, really, so. And of course, if they don't really have predators, they don't really need wings because for a long time New Zealand just didn't have predators. So just if you're a bird, just walk around. Just be a parrot and take a walk.

[A]

That's nice. Less pressure.

[C]

Yeah, I'm just gonna go on a walk. I'm a bird.

[A]

I think that's so nice. Sometimes though, when you're in a city and you see the flying birds just sitting around, it's like, come on, guy, this is. We all have our place in this landscape and you gotta do it, you gotta get up in the air.

[C]

Also, if I was able to fly, I would do it so often. I have flying dreams a lot and I love flying in my dreams. 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.

[A]

It seems so fun and it seems like. It's funny to say that it seems easy because obviously I can't do it, but it seems like if you are a bird, it is a fairly frictionless way of getting through the world. Whereas, like, think about like the fastest. Obviously there are birds like emus and ostriches that can run pretty fast. But like, what's the fastest you've ever seen a pigeon get across the ground? Those are slowpokes.

[C]

Yeah. They don't walk very fast at all. Not at all. But when they're flying, they soar.

[A]

It's beautiful. Yeah. I'm sorry to have taken up so much time with my rabbit hole, which is really. Well, monotreme is from the Greek for mono. One tree whole, so one hole. And we spent the whole time in a monotreme.

[C]

I loved that. I mean, give me animal facts any day. I'm into them. I'm just fascinated with animals, with how different we all are. It's like we're all walking around this earth or in some cases, flying and living our lives, eating our food, taking our naps. But we all look different and function differently. And I just. I find animals so fascinating.

[A]

Yeah, it's pretty amazing.

[C]

Like, how are we all animals? But we're so different. We're so different and we're all, like.

[A]

Alive on this planet with all these different land features and weather patterns. It's like, this is a very, like. It sounds like a very stoned thought, but it is something that I just like when you really think about it, when you're like, wow, we're on a planet with a platypus and a tiger and they both just exist at the same time. That's ridiculous.

[C]

It's wild. It's wild. And also, I just sometimes wonder, what do animals think of humans when they see us? Like, yeah, they probably think we're very unattractive because I'll just say it. We aren't as cute as a platypus. We're not as cute as a cockapo. All these other animals are colorful or soft or huggable looking. And I think humans, I mean, I love humans. We're great. But are we as cute as a koala bear? No, we're not as cute as that. We're just not.

[A]

Our plumage is much lower in range of color, but we do our best. I think.

[C]

We do. We decorate ourselves. You know, I've got my pink flannel shirt on today. I'm doing the best I can. Yeah, you do great.

[A]

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.

[C]

I am feeling that sloth. Feeling myself. I'm gonna curl up and get to bed. But, Josh, this has been so much fun.

[A]

Likewise. Good night, Kristin.

[C]

Good night, Josh.

[A]

Sam. Foreign.

[B]

To learn more about our phone free light and audio experience, head to Hatch Co. You can also follow us at hatchpodcasts.