Hello, hi. This could be fun. I wonder if people can tell the difference between us in our voices when we talk? I think so. Yeah, I think we're different enough, I guess. Well, then I'll just say I'm Kat Cox. I'm Tiffany Verbeck. And this is Greening Up My Act, what! Here we go. Thanks, anyone who's listened to this, thank you very much, hopefully. Hi, mom. Right? At least my mom. But Tiffany, this is your jam. I think you should introduce the idea behind this. And then I can talk about how I just glommed on because I like you so much. Glom is not the right way to describe. But we can we can go that go with that. So yeah, I had the idea for this podcast, because I really got kind of obsessed with green housekeeping. And kind of trying to decipher what the heck that even is. With all of the marketing that's put into green products that aren't actually green. Sorry, I feel like I hear my child crying. One second. I can't tell is that the dog being annoying. Shoot. Anyway, I should have brought this on monitoring. Yeah, I think we'll be is that my dog being annoying? Isn't my baby. Welcome to the life of any woman trying to figure out how to run her house. Yeah, for real, though, seriously? Yeah. So I just really wanted because I realized, like, nobody has the time to do the research on these products and figure out what, what works, what doesn't work, what is actually affordable. What's so exorbitant, like in some of the research, I did, it's like, absurd, some of the things that people want to charge you for some of these products. Yeah, and you can't just trust it, because it's on the shelf of your local favorite health food store or conglomerate. It could just be marketing, or as I call it, which we will go into in detail later, but green hooey, like could just be green, who a just a lot of words that sound nice, but don't mean anything meaningful to avoiding horrible chemicals in your house that can you know, just cause really bad health issues, you know, right, that are unregulated. Right? Exactly. And, and then on this at the same time, don't work, you know, they don't clean anything, don't you know, provide support for your immune system, things like that. There's, there's all kinds of sustainable sounding things that also just don't do anything are just pretty to look at. Exactly. They have really good packaging or something, but they're not actually functional. Yeah. I was gonna say, like, digging through the science of all that. Who has the time? Yeah, you know, we do. We do. We're making the time for hobbyist hobby scientists. Yeah. For at least hobby science journalists, I guess. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. We're gonna do the best we can. But we aren't scientists. So yeah, it's, um, you know, we're gonna we're gonna just learn as we go. We do know scientists, though. We do. We know a couple. So they're, they're gonna come on and help us. Hopefully, we're gonna have to convince them scientists don't like talking out loud. A lot of the time they welfare want to hide in the corner. So you might have to entice them with treats. Yeah, totally. I have. I like to bake. So we're green baking. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So I hope I know that, like you've done so much of the research to start off this podcast you've done I mean, especially the first few episodes, and I'm really excited about nerding out over this kind of information, because I you know, I like to get into conspiracies. And I think so much of the green sustainable, eco friendly healthy for your house stuff. It can have some real conspiracies behind it about like, who is actually selling this, you know, yes. Adley recycling for recycling is trash. I think that's the name of our literally, literally trash. So yeah, I mean, are the alternatives actually doing anything? I you know, there's so much to talk about. Yeah. And, and, yeah, well, it's insane. That's the funny thing. I think we both kind of come from a skeptic perspective of like, even the mainstream stuff like recycling, people would probably freak out. Some people. A lot of people maybe know already that recycling is really not working, but I think a lot of us do it and if you don't do it, you're shamed for not doing it but you don't actually know that it was created by Coca Cola because they wanted to make. They wanted it to be cheaper for them and they wanted to put it put it on the consumers. Yeah. And so they're like, plastic is great. And you can actually recycle it, but it doesn't really work. And we'll get into that. Yeah, yeah. Big bit. Well, maybe not lie. But like, that's flattening out something that has a lot of nuance to it. Yes. Yeah. Exactly. Agreed. Again, since we're marketers, we recognize, you know, those words that are hedging, and maybe take away. A lot of explanation is we can dig deeper down into what does that actually mean? Yeah, find definitions and explanations. So yep, happy to do it. Yeah, and even like the word natural, that means Oh, legit. Nothing. So I love are. No, no chemicals. I'm sorry. Everything's a chemical. What are you talking about? Do you not understand how the world where everything is chemistry? Yeah. Agree. Yeah. Like all potato chips, say GMO free or not GMO. Gluten Free. Gluten Free? Yes. Just like Nile it's like potatoes don't have gluten anyway. Yes. Fine. I love gluten free water. I think is my favorite gluten free vegan water is my favorite. All of it. Yes. I've seen it. Yes. Labeled gluten free. I you know, I guess some people really have to check. Like if it's processed in a plant where maybe wheat has shown its face once or twice? Yeah, I don't know. Oh, my God. Yeah. I mean, some people that is a serious thing. That's a serious concern. But it's also a fad in a lot of ways that yeah, do we really have to label the water gluten free? That's crazy. Wow. But I guess we are skeptics. And I think, you know, we might get in some trouble. Some people who really care about eco friendly and sustainable living are gonna get a little mad that like, we don't like essential oils. And I don't believe crystals do anything? Yeah, I mean, either. I'll do the research and see and find if there's, you know, I like pretty rocks, but I don't, I don't think they they heal me. And I also I have a lot of trouble with trying to do homemade, you know, grow your own stuff sometimes. Because you can really do some harm, you know, with your vinegar or kombucha that is actually 90% Rubbing alcohol by accident, you know, oh, boy. I do believe in some I do believe in some regulation. Also, I think there's a lot of times that we're so desperate for a solution to something that, you know, we don't we don't trust our own government, the FDA, but I think a lot of the time that does, has saved lives for the FDA to regulate things. I do think some things need more. I do think some things need less. But I am a fan of the FDA. I don't think they're an evil overlord that is trying to control as I think they're an underfunded in government institution that doesn't get to do their job well enough. Yeah, totally. And also, yeah, I'm curious to see why some chemicals just pass straight through, like without any regulation it like, is somebody getting paid off? I don't know. Yeah. Or is it up? There's just not enough people to manage it. Yeah, that's where the funding isn't there. Yeah. That's, that's what I hope to do. I really do too. But yeah, there's lobbyists out there for everything, right. There really are. Big Food, big cleaning, Big Pharma. Those are all they're big for a reason. Mm hmm. Yeah. And then Yeah, cuz it's like, I'm coming from that. And but then also, I'm very, very skeptical of like chemical companies and oil companies and anyone making money off of super unsustainable practices. So, you know, you can't sit there and trust that they're doing the right thing, either. Right. And then on top of that, that they're hiding behind new labels, you know, BV? Yeah, they just start a new company that has agreed in the name and people buy the stuff, you know, Kraft or Nestle or Coca Cola. They own green brands screen versions of what they do and just hide behind it. And you have you have to dig to really figure that out. Totally. And I've seen all of these like, these ads. I think it's BP I'm pretty positive. It's BP but they're like, trying to frame themselves as green. Yes. stewards of the environment. Yes. Like future generation protecting the planet. It's like, are you crazy? Are you crazy, but it's very effective. I was almost like, Wow, maybe they're, their PR people are really, you know, they they do point out they're like, look if we quit for using oil and gas, there'd be an energy crisis. Right. But what they don't say is because we have stifled any, any kind of development to, to change oil and gas is dominance. Right? You talked about that. But yeah, I mean, they do, I think they do are putting a lot of research into wind and solar things, but also as ways to stifle it and keep it under control so they can continue to make money off of oil and gas, because why not really? Yeah, totally. Yeah. Yeah. And I think hopefully, they're realizing that the future is not going to be oil or gas. And so follow the money. But we'll see. You know, it's hard to say. Yeah, it's just when does it's, it's like in Fight Club, when he talks about if the cost of a recall is less than the cost of a lawsuit. Right. And that's where it is right now is the the money that they can make from oil and gas costs less than the amount of value they've put on human lives in the future. Until that tipping point changes, we're going to be choking to death in our own homes. Yeah, totally. Yeah. And I got really into this after I had a baby. So she's just turning to, and I think it kind of opened my eyes a little bit more, I was always going to into the trying to be green, quote, unquote, I didn't really ever call myself green, but you know, just trying to cut down on the chemicals. But it was sort of like when she came around, I just even spraying windex in the room, like next to her freaked me out. So that was really my impetus where it was like, I want to be able to, you know, she's always not always there. She's in daycare, but when she is there, I want to be able to clean my bathroom without worrying about her breathing next day. Or, you know, I want her to know what glaciers are. Are polar bears polar bears? Yes. Yeah, I completely agree. And you don't realize, I mean, pregnant people and babies. We have so many, like, so many rules about what you should do around your child. You know, when you're pregnant, you shouldn't be in a room where they're paying. So why should I be when I'm not pregnant? You know, was, like, once a bit, once a baby pops out. Nobody gives you any advice. I mean, they're like, oh, try to get them to eat vegetables. But that's yeah, preferably, preferably vegetables. Yeah. Oh, and then so you know, full disclosure, I had I had cancer, I had skin cancer. And, you know, I was a little nonchalant about sun exposure, especially when I was younger. And I do know that there's a huge genetic component to any kind of cancer, but it's, it's fascinating to me, what are carcinogens in our modern lives that we just have exposure to at all times? Yeah. And our, you know, again, it's not regulated by the FDA. I mean, they do in California, and it feels like overkill some of the time. But what kind of sunscreens, you know, have been previous to, to cause cancer, or we all know, you're not supposed to smoke cigarettes, but driving cars causes cancer, and we don't talk about that, you know. So, being aware of, of those things in my diet in my, my living space, you know, but, but other not just cancer, but other harmful diseases you can cause you know, people try to replace smoking with vaping. And the chemicals in that are bad and other ways. Yeah. Or even like, hormones get disrupted by so much of this stuff. And that's true, proven, it's not a conspiracy, right. The, the hormones and the food you eat, or Teflon, yeah, Teflon. Teflon is really scary. Or the you know, we don't do lead paint anymore for a reason. So, although I have a house from 1960, and I like swear to God, it's got lead paint all the lines for the 1920. Okay, good. I'm not alone, though. Yeah, there's I'm just trying to paint everything as fast as I can. But yeah, sorry, to flake off. Make sure the kitchen is under control. Yeah. But yeah, I think for sure, having like a health crisis, like that would be very eye opening. Yeah. Yeah. If, you know, the medical world is improved drastically, just in the past 50 years, even 10 years. And if you're gonna live to be 100, which you probably will, you might as well be pleasant show. Mm hmm. Anything I can do to prevent unnecessary decay? Yeah. Yeah. So what is our plan for the podcast? Well, again, as we said, it's called greening up my act, which is about finding ways to find truly green sustainably produced eco efficient products that aren't bad for the environment when they're being made. aren't bad for the environment in your home. or lifestyle, and can continue to not be bad for the environment in the way that they are disposed of or not disposed of. So reusability, all of that. And so I think that's greening up your act. That's what it looks like. Yeah, and finding stuff that actually works. And if it works better, like, we're gonna ask, does it work better than the less green counterpart? Or does it work at all? And is it easy to use? How much does it cost? We're gonna try to look into I think a lot of this stuff, like I said, is overpriced. And some of the stuff you can make at home is like, why literally? Yeah, more affordable. So yeah, and then we're gonna look at the marketing. Yeah, the green Hui, how much of it is just buzz, buzz speech, and not really eco friendly at all, or sustainable or better for you. Yeah. And so the plan is to try so each week, we want to try like one product, or like a cleaning method, or some kind of method that people use or hack, something that we found the other people claim to be. Either the people or products claimed to be eco friendly, and we're gonna test them out, ask all these questions and give you the results. And then we're, yeah, we're gonna rate each product from one to five granolas. In the French year, the better because, as we all know, yeah, of course, if you don't know crunchy granola, what the hell are you doing? So you know, this from soggy to sticky, chewy to crunchy and then break your tooth off is like super awesome. So I'm hoping we can find some break your tooth off products. Me too. I'm, I'm excited to see what those look like. Right. We'll end up without teeth by the end of it. It'd be great. I mean, yeah, that's the ideal. Awesome. Just, yeah. I need one. Great. So what's going on for our next episode, then this was the intro. Yeah. So next week, we're gonna be talking about unpaper towels, which are just reusable paper towels, which, yeah, I was really interested to learn about this, because I didn't know about it. And then what I found was, like, really surprising when I did research and you use them and I've been using them for like a year. So I think we have some pretty good insight. Yeah, absolutely. And, yeah, I do think your research because you know, I've just been using a well, you don't have to get into it. You can find that out next week. But yeah, yeah. Research. I was like, Oh, so that's always good news. Right. But yeah, so if you're listening to this, please hit the subscribe button. That's that's how we know who you are. Also, you know what, I guess we need to come up with an email address for people to email us. You're right. We do. We'll share that next time. And sounds good. So yeah, get ready to green up your act when? Thanks, Tiffany. Thank you. Talk to you next week. Okay, bye bye.