The Smiley, Stubborn Llama | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

[Music]. welcome to stuff you should know a. production of iHeart. [Music]. Radio hey and welcome to the podcast I'm. Josh and there's Chuck and Ben's here. too sitting in for Jerry the illustrious. Ben uh who's doing his thing really well. that makes the stuff you should. [Music]. know uh hey just said the listeners know. I finally met been in person oh yeah was.

there a hand off Georgia oh yeah no. there wasn't a handoff but I went to. that uh that RM tribute show in Athens. and Ben lives in Athens yeah so tell me. about that show didn't like Michael. Shannon reunite RM somehow well Michael. Shannon and Jason nari got together a. band to play uh some RM tribute shows. basically playing all of murmur in. chronic town and then like another 15.

early deepish Cuts okay and in Athens as. happens at the 40 watt in Athens when. there's RM things like that MH the boys. tend to come out and and that night all. of them came out wow and shared a stage. for the first time and like you know. they said 17 years but um it feels like. more than that but yeah it was great boy. that was something huh cuz 40 wad is not. a big venue it's a tiny black box for. everybody who's never been there yeah a. couple hundred people maybe but it was.

you know all of them perform like you. know Peter Buck shows up a lot and. performs Bill Barry is starting to come. out and perform a little bit every now. and then Mike Mills if you start singing. an R song in your backyard he'll. probably pop out from behind a tree and. ask if you want some backup right but uh. stype never performed so when he jumped. up the place was just vibrating and I. was like it's happening it's happening. but he didn't perform he just was very. sweet and said thank you and they all. kind of congregated for a minute and uh.

that was it oh but he he didn't perform. that's crazy no he didn't sing I think. everyone was just like it's finally. gonna happen he said nope no but I get. it but it was a great night and uh met. old Ben that's awesome man that's a heck. of a story yeah and it's a great way to. kick off our llama episode frankly if. you ask me and I agree I think and you. know what I will agree because uh what I. was very very briefly in a band in.

college I don't know who had it but. someone in the band knew a friend with a. llama Farm wow who knew that was coming. so when we would go out to play in this. big barn we would drive through the. llamas that makes sense because somebody. out in Georgia having a llama Farm is so. 90s that is such a '90s thing to do you. know totally yeah um and uh it's funny. because there was an attempt to. introduce llamas to the United States. well before the 90s and even the 880s.

when they kind of became a thing for the. first time in the US all the way back in. 1914 the mayor of Buenos arees tried to. give Secretary of State William Jennings. Brian the gift of a llama and that's. when they would have entered the US the. first time but it turned out that that. particular llama had foot and mouth. disease so it wasn't allowed. in well and it's also interesting. because llamas their their back and. forness with North America is. interesting cuz they originated in North. America on the central plains yeah like.

40 million years ago and then about 3. million years ago they dispersed to. South America they were like we're. heading south not for the winter but. perhaps forever Permanent Vacation like. Aerosmith exactly the boy music reps. were just flying all over the place sure. and at the end of the last ice age uh. the camelids which we'll see they're. part of the camet family they went. extinct in North America yeah even. though that's where they started yeah so.

you just kind of um touched on something. that I think is maybe the fact of the. podcast llamas are members of the. camelid family they share common. ancestor with camels themselves hence. camels originated in North America just. mind-blowing to me like take that. Central Eurasian steps now were there. actual camels here yeah I believe yes I. I looked it up and I can't remember. exactly so I'm sure I'm getting it dead. wrong.

but um the the I believe camels. themselves did evolve here in North. America and crossed over into Eurasia. through the bearing land straight same. with horses wow yeah I know so USA right. but also Mexico and. Canada yeah sure we were USA back then. right. exactly uh they were domesticated. they're actually one of the um oldest. domesticated animals in history in the.

history of animals uh there in the. andian highlands of Peru uh between 4. and 5,000 years ago they were. domesticated and then back in the United. States they were redomestication and. that's obviously the only way they exist. in the US now yeah so it was a little. confusing to me and I went and hashed it. out llamas have never existed in the. wild llama like um animals and species. that are related to llamas like the. guanacos guanacos.

um they're wild and if you look up. iguano it looks like a wild llama but. llamas were domesticated from the outset. they were Brad from guanico so they. never existed in the wild and they still. don't which I find fascinating they're. they they were breed out of whole cloth. is as a domesticated animal it was never. not domesticated Isn't that cool yeah. it's super cool and they're specifically. bred because they're a beast of burden. yeah like the Rolling Stones yeah man.

another music gra I'm going to keep them. coming okay you totally should okay uh. and we'll talk about their you know. their uh Beast of Burness and how it's. okay as far as that goes uh but they. also provided uh meat obviously to. herdsman um they could make candles out. of their Tallow their clothing although. it's not quite like Al it's not as. effective I guess as alpaca wool um. they're still Shor and we'll talk about. that as well and you know their hides. things like that their their poo poo.

they could use for fuel they were a very. useful animal yeah super useful the only. large animal domesticated in the ancient. Americas and they definitely came in. handy they were put to good use um and. they were like we said they were never a. wild animal they were always bread so. humans always always had a hand in how. llamas were and um the llamas that are. around today again they were bred from. guanacos gu yeah guanacos right that's. how you'd say that right.

it's got to be or guanako I'm not sure. right um but they are um some people say. that these are separate guanacos and. llamas are separate other people say no. they're both they're both members of the. subspecies llama glama isn't that great. right and then collectively llamas. guanacos vicunas and alpacas are. collectively known as lams not to be. confused with. graboids and that they're still related. to camels because they're all originally.

um. camelids there's a lot of differences. between them especially with body shape. or body morphology but as we'll see they. also share a lot of characteristics with. camels still camels are from the the. Americas by the way totally but they. don't have that hump that's one they're. much. smaller yeah they're smaller they're uh. a little more slender they do have long. legs they got the long necks they got. those cute little short Waggy details.

yes uh smaller heads if you look at. their their face they have a split upper. lip and big pointy ears and they smile. they're I feel like we do maybe we're uh. you know pre have a predisposition to. highlight animals who smile at us sure I. feel like we've done that a lot that. really hijacks our brain wiring oh. totally but you look up llama smile and. you're going to see some pretty cute. stuff yes um they also have a panoramic. vision because their eyes are on the.

sides of their head so they can see. Predators from coming a mile away and. what's something uh interesting about. llamas that I didn't know about is they. are naturally aggressive toward. Predators they don't they don't shy away. if they see like a fox or a coyote or. something they they go after it and they. chase it off which is pretty cool as. we'll see it's very useful yeah nice. defense although I I I I took that their. main defense is like to charge at. something like that but it it's sort of. a lot of Bluster because they don't have.

a lot of Defense no it is Bluster but. they also have a lot of size on on like. any coyote or any Fox certainly um I. didn't realize how big they can get they. uh a llama gets about 4 feet at the. shoulder pretty tall it's 1.2 M and. males can weigh between 300 and 400 lb. which is 135 to 180 kg that's a hefty. Hefty husky little boy there yeah uh. females can weigh between 230 and 350.

and I saw a video of a guy whose llama. busted out on his farm and went after. the the dog and uh it it was funny he. wasn't harming the dog but that he was. chasing this dog and they they're pretty. fast they're way faster than I thought. they can hit a max speed of 40 miles an. hour that's insane which is just yeah I. mean I I've seen them run but I I didn't. think it was that fast it's kind of like. when a camel runs I think it's a little. deceiving how fast they are because of. their big ly long legs right right it it.

doesn't have that like intensity of a. horse gallop right uh but it helps them. run at a predator or more most. importantly run away from a predator I. mean 40 mes hour is really really fast. that's like Road Runner fast yeah but. imagine the Road Runner with a furry. coat and a big old smile while he's. running 40 miles an hour uh what's going. on with those feet too so I say we talk. about the feet and use it as a. cliffhanger to take a break and then. come back and talk about how those feet. come in handy how about that wowe wow so.

remember I said that they uh share a lot. in common still with camels both of them. neither one of them are hooved animals. camels have uh two toes and so do llamas. camels have um toenails in the front but. they don't use those for walking on the. bottom of the feet of llamas and camels. are uh soft pads very leathery and soft. that are not Hooves which means that. when they're walking on like rocks and. um mountains and stuff like that they.

they can actually kind of grip those. rocks with their feet and their split. two toes um which makes them very. surefooted which again made them very. useful in the80s which again leads us to. a message break all right we'll be right. [Music]. back.

[Music]. [Music]. so Chuck I think we kind of started to. set it up pretty nicely llamas are. surefooted to say the least that's right. uh one of the benefits of being uh un. hooved or maybe even anti- hoof I've. never talked to a llama they they've got. no problem with hoofed hoed animals. they're fine with it all right so. they're not anti-hook no uh but that.

that like you said that makes them very. sure-footed but it also uh it doesn't. tear up the the side of a mountain like. a hoof uh does because they got a little. give there yeah so if you want to walk. around and not accidentally start off a. rock slide bring a llama instead of like. a. cow it's a good point uh I mentioned we. would talk about their um whether or not. they were good Beast of Burden they're. okay uh a llama that's about 250 can. carry a load that's 100 to 135 lbs maybe.

15 miles maybe 20 mil in a day that's. not bad at all it's no ox or horse but. if you've got a a a lightish load and. you're going a you know not the furthest. distance then you can do a lot worse. than a llama it's true um they couldn't. pull they couldn't carry human they. couldn't pull a machine and I saw it. it's spelled out that even if the Inca. who really put the llama to good use um.

had had discovered the wheel the Llama. still wouldn't have been able to be. attached to anything bigger than. probably like a wheelbarrow size type. thing they just don't have that strength. but they they are good pack animals and. that they can carry a lot of weight just. not like human weight so if you have a. ton of stuff say you're mining Silver a. pre-colombian contact you got a silver. mine set up a ptoi you need a lot of. llamas and apparently there was a. Spanish Observer didn't catch their name.

uh who visited pososi which is a really. important silver mine in what's now. Bolivia um and found that the Inca were. employing what they guess to be about. 300,000 llamas yeah transporting the. silver ore from the mine to be. refined yeah I mean that's a lot of. llamas and again if each one of those. can carry over you know 100 pounds then. they're they're moving some silver for. sure sure and I it probably goes without.

saying but you could also Delight your. child if as long as your child's under. 100 lb and let them ride the Llama too. they could have done that sure I'm sure. there was a an Inc and birthday party at. some point where a kid wrote a llama. that's right uh they're also you know as. far as being up there in the in the high. dryness uh they have a very high thirst. tolerance which is super handy obviously. uh has a lot to do with their their. camel uh celess uh they have a lot of.

endurance they can eat a lot of. different kinds of Shrubbery yeah uh. which is great and their blood has a. really unusually high amount of. hemoglobin and uh as we all know that. protein is going to carry oxygen uh from. the lungs throughout your body so that's. an animal that's basically built to. survive a high elevation where it's dry. and where there's lots of you know sort. of dry grasses and shrubs to eat so as. animals themselves like uh you know. without the human touch of um of being.

used as pack animals just if you have. some llamas hanging out with one another. can't believe how I just put that um. they are gregarious which means they. need social um like social groups like. you don't really want to have just a. single Llama Or I even saw just a couple. llamas you want to have a handful. because they have specific ways of. living and typically a llama family. group will have a single male and a. handful of females and then whatever.

Offspring were born from those uh by. those females that year yeah exactly and. you'll see why in a minute uh if you are. the head of a family if you the male. leading that group uh you're going to be. pretty territorial you're going to. defend your family if a competing male. comes in there that doesn't have a. family that's like hey I might like to. take yours they will be pretty. aggressive toward that even though. they're not super aggressive animals uh. drive them out of there and say go back.

to your bachelor pad and by bachelor pad. we mean the group of males that don't. have families that all just seemingly. hang out together and play cards yeah um. there's another thing too that is really. just loving about llamas um they. actually will adopt and protect other. species of animals uhhuh remember how I. said they're naturally aggressive toward. Predators they'll actually defend other. kinds of animals that they consider part. of their group on say like a farmer.

Ranch from. predators yeah I saw that they would. adopt sheep and I wonder I mean they'll. probably do this with all the animals. but I wonder if it's cuz the Sheep you. know in the face at least and there are. some similarities there I think that or. the the llamas are familiar with the. whole bamu message that allows you into. the Sheep family or maybe it was a. particularly you know uh interested male. llama who saw that sheep and was like. Hey. shy you want to you want to join our.

family yeah for some reason I'm. disturbed by that he probably should be. uh they communicate with each other um. mainly through uh body language their. posture um can kind of tell you a lot. their ears apparently are going to. indicate their mood they're they don't. make a lot of noise llamas are pretty. quiet if you have a llama Farm um but. they will like vocalize if they're. Predators around and. little mommies and babies can hum at one.

another like back and forth kind of sing. to each other and it's very sweet did. you watch that YouTube I sent you oh you. know I did so there's a YouTube I can't. remember the exact name but just look up. um llama hum I think is it'll come up. but there's a baby llama um drinking. from a bottle and the mom's standing by. watching and the baby's just humming. while it's drinking the mom hums back a. little bit it's really really sweet it's. pretty great and there are just gental. for the most part but they are a little.

bit stubborn too because if you put too. much weight on them if you're not. treating them right then they're they're. just like I'm just going to have a sit. in basically they won't budge they won't. move they will spit at you they might. hiss or kick at you yeah and they're. just like no no no no that's not llamas. don't play that game homie all that. behavior is shared in common with camels. too camels are just like that um also. one other thing about the vocalizations. when they when you said when they warn. of predators um I looked that up too and. it sounds like a fork being scraped.

across a metal plate yeah it's pretty. aggressively um annoying yeah it is very. that's what it is it doesn't scare them. off it just annoys them away yeah. they're like fine geez so we said that. um the family groups consist of The. Offspring that were born that year. that's because um the young the little. babies get to hang out with the moms who. are very attentive of them for that. first year and then after that the the.

dominant male chases the baby off after. its first birthday um it for a couple of. reasons it makes sense so number one if. it's a boy it doesn't want to have to um. have to um fight over the females with. the boy but if it's a girl it doesn't. want to have a a girl around that it. might mate with and kind of taper the. gene pool a little bit right so it makes. sense biologically and genetically Ally. for the dominant male just Chase off.

female and male young yeah totally uh. they have a gestation period about 11. months uh they only have one little BB. at a time and the male has you know. those those mult they have a little Herm. around them because they're uh polygon. they will mate with u all the females in. their family that will accept that and. um they release it's an induced. ovulation so once they they do that. thing they're going to release an egg. within about a day or a day and a half. half after mating yeah yeah I I'm I'm.

just withholding any jokes um so did you. say that they just ate for 11 months. yeah okay and their offspring are called. Korea yeah and they're they're like any. smallish long-legged mammal a little 18. to 20 lb llama standing for the first. time within that first hour is just. something that everyone just needs to. make part of their their life yep for. sure um and after that that first hour. that they stand they can expect to live.

about 15 years from that moment on. average as as far as um yeah as far as. lifespan is concerned yeah not bad um. speaking of little baby llamas being. born there's a movie I watched recently. another a24 knock it out of the park. movie called lamb have you seen it uh I. I haven't seen it I think I know the one. uh with the the the what's her name room. me yeah yeah yeah what's her last name I.

want to say mie but it's I think it's. rapie rap I'm not sure if that's how you. pronounce it but I haven't seen it but. there's almost no way to talk about it. without spoiling it right I'm not going. to but I'm just going to say I'm going. to encourage you to please see it as. soon as possible it's so good and I I. started to watch it in subtitles and. then I realized they weren't talking. that much and when they were talking it. was kind of distracting from the the. visuals which are just lovely um so I. actually watched most of the movie in.

Icelandic and you can just tell from you. can tell from the conversations and the. context generally what they're talking. about oh that's funny enough that the I. I don't feel like I missed anything from. the movie I probably missed some very. subtle things here or there but I got. the broad Strokes for sure but I think. I'll probably go back and watch it with. the subtitles to see what I missed but. however you watch it just watch it it's. so good yeah it was on my list and I. kind of forgot about it I I know what. the the the deal is I just hope it's not. a case where I'm talking about a part.

and you're like yeah that's when blank. happens and I'm like no no no that's not. at all it happens you weren't reading. the subtitles uh right exactly it's. actually far more disturbing and sad. it's possible it is an a24 movie yeah so. I just wanted to shout out lamb because. it was good yeah I can't wait um should. we take a second break here now and then. come back and talk about how valuable. llama fleece has been uh yeah let's do. that we'll talk about that that lamb of. fleece right after.

[Music]. [Music]. this uh all right well quickly before we. talk talk about L fleece uh I I I kind.

of forgot until I started researching. this that there was a uh there's a book. series for kids called llama llama okay. and boy oh boy did I have to read a lot. of llama llama for those first few years. yeah I totally forgot about it but now. I'm like oh my god Ruby had like I feel. like 20 of those llama llama books is it. like about a llama that solves. Mysteries no it didn't solve Mysteries. and I'm trying to remember the thrust of. it I think it's just about a llama. that's like always getting in trouble. and stuff oh yeah that kind of llama.

like like every children's book. sure uh but we were going to talk about. fleece uh their fleece is pretty good. it's they they get shared about every. two years they don't produce the most. fleece in the world you get about 6 and. 1 half to 7 and A2 pounds of fiber every. two years and like I said it's not like. that uh like that wool of the alpaca. that makes for such a a wonderful War. experience yeah it's also not like.

cashmir which everybody knows it's the. gold standard for soft wool and fleece. right but I was reading an article by um. a historian named Emily W wed wlid sorry. wa Li from Boise State uh who wrote a. piece on the conversation about llamas. and and the natural history of llamas. and apparently one of the things that. the Inca used to do was bury llamas uh. sacrificially and ritually on land that.

they were claiming as their own they're. like we're the ones with the llamas cuz. I don't know if we said this or not they. were never exported outside of the Incan. Empire until after the Spanish came so. the Inca had like a lock on the Llama um. so they would bury llamas mummify them. and bury them um on land that they were. claiming as part of their territory and. so th like a thousand years later um. archaeologists and anthropologists came. along and dug these llama up and what. what they found is that these incredibly. well-preserved llamas actually used to.

have fleece that was like on par with. Kashmir and that it just got lost over. time as the Spanish came along and were. like we have cashmir we're just going to. eat these llama instead yeah and it's. and it's crazy and I guess just uh the. reason they didn't remain that way is. because they they left the area and went. somewhere else um no they were no longer. bred so selectively for their fleece. they were more Dre to be meat bearing I.

gotcha well I know that while they were. meat bearing for the Incas that they. were um highly revered it wasn't just. like Hey we're going to raise and kill. this animal um they were very much. revered in their sort of cultural and. spiritual beliefs uh and while they did. sacrifice them along with. alpacas um they were you know they ate. the meat at Big like important uh. Community celebrations they would would. do it to honor the gods specifically the. rain gods I think yeah and uh yeah and.

they would sacrifice and bury them along. with like jewelry and stuff like that. yeah um so they also today you can see. llamas dressed up in like pretty ribbons. and hats little cute little hats um in. like parades in areas like Bolivia and. they still it's just been carried down. over the generations they're still very. traditionally revered right um there's a. um an explanation that apparently some.

kinds of La llama herders or llama. farmers in the Andes um still consider. llamas basically a conduit to the. spirits of the mountains the wamani is. what they're called and that the Llama. don't actually belong to these humans. they're just kind of tending the Llama. they're taking care of the llama and so. they engag in all these rituals which on. their face sound really bizarre like. marrying llamas right oh man it's so. cute it is cute so they will take llamas.

and they'll be like you're going to. marry um Esther over here right Fred and. so Fred and Esther are made to get. married and I guess they lay down in a. marriage bed or something like that and. all this sounds like so weird and like. of course it's just spiritual and. mystical so this kind of has this just. bizarre cast to it but and I love it. when this happens when like a custom. turns out to have like a practical. reason behind it mhm the llamas that go.

along with this are like yeah I'm going. to lay down this marriage bed with. Esther this is fun right they prove. themselves to be more docile so those. are the ones who are Les less likely to. be slaughtered for meat or oil or Tallow. for candles they're going to be kept. around and they're going to breed more. and more so that the llamas in this. flock become more and more docile. generation to. generation yeah amazing and I guess. that's why we have the the sort of sweet. Smiley Greg ious friends that we have. now right exactly you would not have.

wanted to meet a llama from 5,000 years. ago no you'd black your eye big trouble. yeah one more thing about the the wool. and the fleece though Chuck is that like. while it is much coarser um although. surprisingly light apparently the the. hairs themselves are Hollow um they're. working on getting it back to something. akin to cashmere it's just going to take. a very long time but they've kind of on. back to the traditional um caregiving.

that they had pre-spanish awesome what. is cashmir even isn't it some kind of. goat it's a. goat okay yeah but like a special goat. right well yeah if it has cashmere it's. pretty special and expensive that's an. expensive. [Laughter]. goat but what I meant is it's not it's. not just any old goat has cashmere right. uh no I don't know the kind of goat it. might be a Kashmir goat it probably. isn't I I will look it up while you talk. how about that okay sure because most of.

the goats IET I love them but their hair. feels like it's a a horse brush or. something right and they their eyes make. them look like emissaries of Satan. himself it's true that side sideways. slit eye is very very evil looking did. you change or did you uh did you think. that before the the vitch movie or did. you even see that the what movie oh the. witch oh my God I love that yeah yeah. I've always thought that okay for sure. that certainly reinforced it though oh. yeah it didn't do the goat the goat.

population any favors with me no what. was the name of that guy he had a great. name in the movie I can't remember the. dad no the goat oh like it was like. something something like ugly Sam but it. wasn't ugly Sam it was like black Billy. or something evil black evil Bart. uh Blue Beard no that's not it and I. know people are screaming at their uh. Black Phillip Black Phillip was that it.

Black Phillip was it and in a double. whammy of quick research the Kashmir. goat is called the Kashmir goat oh of. course and it just so turns out that. black philli was a Kashmir goat well. look at this it's all com in Full Circle. that last part was a. lie oh black Philip isn't he was not a. Kashmir goat no oh geez. man weird thing to trick me over you. just got pummeled all over the place huh. I did all right so let's move on then. because this to me we kind of saved the.

best for last uh as far as you know. llamas are great we love them they smile. they spit they'll carry some stuff for. you you can go Vis and and pet those. long necks and they're wonderful but. they are some of the most valuable um. research animals around and research. animals that you can take very good care. of and because all they need are just. like small samples of their blood for. this stuff yeah and the reason why is. because they're after llama antibodies.

just like we have antibodies um that. attack or they tag they destroy they say. hey go get this virus or this bacteria. cell over here um antibodies fight. foreign Invaders in your body well um. being mammals and being alive llamas. have the same thing they have antibodies. too but there's a very specific. apparently llamas and sharks and I can't. remember there might have been something. else that has these very specific. antibodies that are way tinier way.

simpler and way more stable than the. super fruity High futin complex. antibodies that we produce and that. makes them extraordinarily valuable. because they can Target viruses and. diseases that um human antibodies can't. yeah the camels was the other one no. surprise but sharks that just kind of. came out of nowhere yeah but you know. what I'm pretty sure we'd mentioned that. at some point in an episode I remember. the horseshoe crab blood used to detect.

some like in it used in some medical. tests but I don't remember the been one. of our uh ill-advised videos from the. old days I'm not sure uh but yeah the. llamas they have the antibodies that are. formed in uh only two long chains uh as. opposed to the four chain antibodies. that most mammals have and this. structure is uh has really paid. dividends in a lot of ways and and one. of the biggest ones has been to to. neutralize specifically HIV and.

specifically all 60 HIV strains that. they've tested those llamas have. antibodies that can work together and. just neutralize that stuff yeah and. here's why um the antibodies are uh. smaller they're called well actually the. I've seen it both ways but I think the. antibodies that scientists create based. on llama antibodies are called. nanobodies because they're very very. small well being small they can connect. to receptor sites on viruses that have.

very very small receptors and humans. have these large clumsy antibodies that. just kind of slap around on the outside. of the virus cell um and don't do. anything they can't attach to it they. can't attack it they can't keep it from. connecting with the cell um the Llama. antibodies can and HIV happens to be one. of those viruses with the very tiny. receptor sites that a llama antibody. just goes up to and says uh I you're. with me now yeah for sure also with.

potentially covid-19 mhm uh it is. similar to HIV and and the way that the. nanobodies uh from the Llama can bind. super tightly to that uh C cov2 virus. and you know you may be able to think a. llama one day for for covid Progress. yeah for sure they I think they've. already found because covid is a is like. uh SARS that's right it's also closely. related to Ms I think they found that. that's that can be used for that as well.

um they also it's so weird they've also. figured out how to use these llama. antibodies um as biological warfare. detectors too because they don't just. work on viruses they work on bacteria as. well um and other biological foreign. Invaders yeah I mean it's remarkable so. um scientists for a while now have been. working on devices their biosensor so. they're you know uh obviously part. biological that can detect uh like the.

very first um hints of something bad. going down. biologically which is what you want you. want super early detection and these. sensors are made up of antibodies and. you know in the past they were human. cloned antibodies called uh. immunoglobin uh G so I little G Big G. and that's what they use so the idea is. that you know somebody would launch like. a a a Cera bomb or a small poox bomb or.

something like that that' be so bad it. would be really really bad and all of a. sudden you have this uh biosensor that. can immediately detect that and the. Llama um biosensors work way better than. the other ones yeah the the human ones. work in concept and I I believe like in. in actuality too but they're so fragile. because human antibodies are fragile. because they're complex. because they have like heavy chains. connected to light chains um they're.

just really fragile they um don't hold. up well in in harsh environments they. just totally fall apart at 150 degrees. 65 degrees C or more um they're. expensive they are very expensive to. reproduce because again they're super. complicated and all of the stuff that. llama antibodies are not compared to. human antibodies make it that much more. uh valuable and precious in in. applications like this because they're. simpler they are sturdier and they um.

are harder too they can survive in much. harsher environments so it's like we. figured out this concept of using. antibodies to detect biological warfare. in the air the moment it's launched but. um we've replaced these kind of shoddy. um antibodies the human antibodies with. much sturdier more reliable antibodies. so we actually can do this now yeah I. mean it's amazing and it's it you know. you and I have uh are not big fans of.

animal research or using animals in in. research like this but from everything I. saw this was like a a pretty decent. scenario where these llamas are treated. very well they are are in captivity. anyway right as a species and they're. drawing you know just small amounts of. blood from these llamas to build this. huge Library I think they have more than. a billion uh different they're called um. I wouldn't even know how to say that SDF. um single domain antibodies basically.

and it seems like a win-win for sure. because the they're so good at drawing. blood that the llamas don't even stop. smiling right oh one other thing I saw. um if you ever see a llama with its ears. turned forward and maybe even leaning. forward a little bit that llama is. curious it wants to know what's going on. it wants to meet you it wants to hang. out you know if I'm not mistaken uh Ruby. went to a kids birthday party where you. can like have farm animals on site and.

I'm pretty sure there was a llama there. yeah yeah I'm sure there was ever since. the 80s like they became like a common a. common thing in the United States yeah. um for my 35th birthday party Yumi had a. petting zoo including a llama there I. was there my friend did you ride the. horse I didn't ride the horse but I ate. some uh I mean if I may reveal your uh. your catered food is that okay yeah uh.

you guys had McDonald's and I just. remember humongous trays of stacked. cheeseburgers and trays of french fries. and it was a great great party that you. forgot the Taco Bell tacos on another. tray oh I I don't know I don't even know. if I saw those yep there was McDonald's. cheese cheeseburgers and Taco Bell tacos. and we even borrowed the trays we asked. him if we could borrow some trays and we. we actually took him back after the. party that's seemed like a hundred years. ago it it was maybe 150 man so long ago.

it good times though yep good times had. by all we just had one all together. talking about llamas and if you want to. know more about llamas and go out and. meet one uh and since I said that it's. time for listener. mail uh instead of listener mail we're. going to take this opportunity to. reinforce that we are going out on tour. this year oh boy and this is it these. are all the cities we're doing for the. year we rarely have them all locked in. uh this early so we're pretty excited uh.

but May 29th 30th and 31st will be in uh. Medford Mass outside of Boston then down. to DC and then back up to New York City. finally at Town Hall there right and. then what about August August 7th 8th. and 9th we'll be in Chicago then. Minneapolis once again we're so happy to. be back there and we're super excited to. add Indianapolis to our list of cities. that we've never been to yep and then. what and then we're going to wind it all. down in September uh back in Durham.

North Carolina the Carolina Theater. there on uh September 5th such a lovely. place it's it was great and then closing. it out uh in Atlanta once again uh on. September 7th and you can go to our. website go to these venue websites to. get tickets and as a reminder please. make sure you are only at venue websites. because a lot of times it'll just say. stuff you should know tickets oh here. they are $80 that sounds expensive if if. you ever see tickets that are more than.

like I think the highest ever is like 60. bucks or something maybe 65 some places. for like front row for face value like. they'll add like some of those ticket. vendors add a bunch of stuff but like. the face value shouldn't be more than. that right yeah so if you see a ticket. for more than that then that means. you're you're not on the right website. or if you're um required to pay only in. cryptocurrency you might want to go to a. different website too but we're super. excited it's a great show and we just we. can't wait to see everybody yeah come on. out everybody if if we made two our own.

horns it is loads of fun for us and it. seems based on how people respond for. the audience as well yeah uh oh yes you. can go to linktree ssk or you can go to. stuff know.com and there's all of the. links and stuff like that to um all the. ticket sites and they're on sale now so. we'll see everybody for the rest of the. year huh yeah and now how do we end the. show I don't even remember oh yeah yeah. uh if you want to get in touch with us. in the meantime not to ask about parking.

or anything like that at any of the. venues you can email us at stuff podcast. iheartradio.com. stuff you should know is a production of. iHeart radio for more podcasts ihart. radio visit the iHeart Radio app Apple. podcasts or wherever you listen to your. favorite. shows.