Hey, it's Adam Wild and Jacks, hosts of the Adam Wild and Jacks Show. What does it feel like to have a better laptop like the Dell XBS powered by Intel Core? With a premium design that's thin and light, it feels smooth. Very smooth.
For a better feel in your hands and less weight on your shoulders. With a responsive touch screen, it feels fast and precise. For better scrolling, zooming and swiping. So everything just flows.
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Search Technology at Capital One Canada. Hey, it's Lila. For the last couple of weeks, we have been strongly encouraging you to please sign up for Dakota Ring Plus. We do our damnedest to bring you a very delightful deep carrier show.
And the only way to sustain it is with the help of you, our listeners. Now through October 16th, we are running a deal 50% off on a year's membership. And one of the many perks you get, along with listening to all our episodes without any ads, is access to every episode of Dakota Ring's Back. That's our series where I call up a listener just like you and answer the question about a cultural mystery directly.
I've loved doing these. It is so fun to talk to people as curious as we are. And we thought as an enticement, we would give you a taste of a Dakota Ring's Back. Give you a taste of what you'll get just by becoming a Plus member.
Which again, you can do by going to slate.com.com. And entering the promo code Decoder50 at checkout. So for our latest episode of the Coder Ring's Back, I spoke to Samantha Houston, who works in market research, which I learned is a job surprisingly similar to my own. I actually interview people all the time.
That's fun to be on the other side of things. What do you interview people about? All kinds of stuff. Everything from their snacking preferences to their pets to healthcare changes constantly.
How do you know you're doing a good job? Like, how do you make people comfortable? What do you do? Oh my goodness.
It is hard to know if you're doing a good job. Especially sometimes if we talk about really personal things, especially when it comes to health-related topics, it can feel really personal. Some people are good about giving feedback, like, oh, I feel so comfortable. Or love that you're asking these questions.
I think a lot of times, too, people just enjoy getting to talk about themselves in a judgment-free, completely anonymous situation. Yeah. And a lot of times we end interviews and they're like, that's a like, they're a beer or something. Do you, what do you end interviews do you say?
Like, I snuck them like, bye, talk to you, too. Like, I feel like, we just had such a conversation. I'm like, we'll talk again. And then you're like, oh, no, we won't.
Yeah, I want to get to know you better. Or like, I would love to have some kind of friendship with you. And then it's sad that that's not always the reality or ever the reality. Samantha lives in Tucson, Arizona.
But that's not where she was when we spoke. I'm actually in Missouri, currently at my mom and dad's house. And you grew up in Missouri. I grew up in Missouri.
And growing up in Missouri, what she ate growing up in Missouri, actually, is what got her thinking about the question she sent us. It was a lot of, I don't know, my mind, like, country cooking type stuff. So I would explain it as like Thanksgiving food, but almost all the time. Like a lot of mashed potatoes and gravy or like...
Yes, like it was like a lot of mashed potatoes, mac and cheese. I feel like we used the crockpot a lot or any, just like, big pot. Like, I never learned recipes growing up. Like, it was always cook a vegetable and add like a little bit of sugar and a dash of salt and a dash of pepper.
Okay. Definitely salt and pepper on almost everything. That was the rule. And it's that mandatory dash of pepper that Samantha wrote to us about.
I am very confused by black pepper. Like, since I was a little kid, I've always been confused about why black pepper was the second spice out there. It was in everything and I never liked it. It was always on the table when you went to the restaurant and like, I never understood it.
It hurts my nose to smell it. Like, I feel like it gets stuck in my throat. It makes me want to sneeze, but I just thought maybe it was an adult spice. Like, things that kids don't like but adults seem to like it for some reason.
So you were like, as a kid, you're like, eh, not having it. Don't like it. It's in things though. Like, I can't avoid it.
Maybe when I'm a grown up, I will understand this. And then you became a grown up and we're like, I still understand this. Yeah, exactly. This still just doesn't.
I don't understand why it's an absolutely everything given. Also, the amount of awesome spices that are out there. So you have like other spices you think would be better? Yeah, I mean, I love spices in general.
Like, I like a lot of flavor. I don't think I have a very refined palate. Like, I need a lot of flavor to really taste something. I will salt something to like the insta-gree.
Okay. Chili pepper, I think is amazing. I feel like it's a little bit of heat, but it's more flavor. I really like paprika.
Are you into like, like what, like you cumin, like, like, all that? Yeah. Black pepper is the only one that I think I have strong negative feelings towards. It's your spice nemesis.
It's my spice nemesis and it's everywhere. And there's like no escaping it. So I've been wondering of all the seasonings, salt and pepper, like the two big ones and salt undoubtedly number one. But why why black pepper as like the number two seasoning?
How did this come to be? And like, why has it endured? Yes, 1000%. So I'm going to try and answer this question.
I want to acknowledge here that we did an episode not that long ago about a spice. Everything bagel spice. Yes. But it's almost like the mirror image because everything bagel spice is like about a spice that's gotten really trendy.
And this pepper is like a spice that is enduring, as we just said, like that is anti trendy is not subject to the whims of trends is like the most establishing and how did that on earth happen. And sort of before doing that, I want to just underscore the weirdness a little bit here by doing a little bit of vamp thing about salt, which you apparently love, which is just like no one's going to question the status of salt because salt is the thing that makes everything taste more like itself. You can have too much salt and then it tastes too salty. But when you're cooking anyone who cooks any cookbook anything, it's like salt enhances flavor just in general, like pepper doesn't do that.
It just doesn't do that. So it is like, OK, why pepper? It has a taste. It has a little spice to it, but it's not salt.
It's it's no salt. No, salt is magic. Right. Exactly.
And pepper is just even if you like pepper, it's not quite as magical. So how did black pepper come to be on all our tables, even though maybe you think anyway, it's kind of mid here. The rest of this episode of Dakota rings back and find out the full story about pepper took its place next to salt on the table, a story involving ancient Rome, Louis XIV, then Salem, Massachusetts sign up for Dakota ring plus now through October 16th, it's 50% off for one year. All you have to do is go to slate.com slash decoder plus and enter the promo code decoder50 at checkout.
Thank you. Hey, it's Adam Wild and Jacks hosts of the Adam Wild and Jack show. What does it feel like to have a better laptop like the Dell XBS powered by Intel core with a premium design that's thin and light. It feels smooth, very smooth for a better feeling your hands and less weight on your shoulders with a responsive touch screen.
It feels fast and precise for better scrolling, zooming in swiping. So everything just flows and with a long lasting battery life, it feels like nonstop energy for a better way to work without being your charge or charge or charge. Feel for those who want better. The Dell XBS built for you.
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