(S6Ep8) Fluoride!

"I say T, you say Dazzle!" 

H2Flow, sparkle points, plain blue t-shirts, oh my! 

Today, we talk all about fluoride and learn a lot about how it's safe, good for you, and a great accomplishment in public health. We also see an amazing arc for Tom and discover a deep relationship with April and Donna. Plus, Chris and Ron hang out! 

Plus, we get an amazing voice memo from Jay Tapaoan who plays "Frasier" at the baby store! Learning how to say that chemicals name, working with Rob Lowe/Nick Offerman and more! Thank you so much Jay! 

PS What's your spirit dog?! 

Sources: 

Fluoride: 

https://ilikemyteeth.org/where-does-fluoride-come-from/#:~:text=Fluoride%20is%20derived%20from%20natural,millions%20of%20people%20every%20day.

https://www.nidcr.nih.gov/health-info/fluoride/the-story-of-fluoridation

Public Health: 

https://www.tiktok.com/@drjessicaknurick?lang=en

NFL Play 60: 

https://www.cooperinstitute.org/youth/nfl-play60#:~:text=Get%20involved,the%20most%20active%20and%20healthy.

https://www.nfl.com/causes/play60/

Transcript

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Holly Constant (00:05.07)
Okay. Hi everyone, thanks so much for joining today. my gosh, we have one of the best episodes in the whole world today, Flooride. my gosh, this is Peak Parks. I know I've said that about a handful of episodes actually. And you know what, this could be in one of my, you know, the starter pack where we talk about which episodes you'd introduce to people who had never watched the show before. This could absolutely be one of those episodes for sure.

It's so smart, so quick, so witty, so everything. It's season seven, episode eight, Flooride. This episode originally aired November 21st, 2013. It is, to me, so RFK slash Trump-coded. It's insane that we are still dealing with this BS. And I mean, I did look up like...

Was there any specific opposition to fluoride slash opposition to public health in general around 2013 when this was coming out? But my research didn't really show anything. It just said that this is what Parkes does best is kind of give us a tierical view on what's really happening in the world. And here we are still dealing with public health issues and people that aren't actually scientists trying to science or.

pseudoscience their way out of public health initiatives that could really help people. So anyhow, yeah, I just really love this episode so much. This was written by Matt Hubbard, directed by Michael Trim. We actually interviewed Michael Trim. He goes by Mike sometimes. He was a director of photography for a couple episodes. I believe he was DP first and then directed. But yeah, we've seen both of these people before. We actually, like I said, interviewed Mike Trim.

And then Matt Hubbard is also a producer on Parks as well as 30 Rock, Loot, which I believe just came out with a new season on Apple TV and a bunch of other amazing things. Right now, so far, this is his first time writing, but he had been a producer already for Parks and we'll see him again for the Johnny Karate Super Awesome Musical Explosion show. So very much looking forward to that. But as you can probably tell, Maddie is not here today and so she did send us a summary.

Holly Constant (02:21.613)
Let's go ahead and take a listen to that.

Holly Constant (02:29.294)
Park Palace. am here to give a summary on Flooride.

Okay. Tom and Leslie work together in a fight against Jam to get fluoride in Pawnee's drinking water. Chris and Ron work together to build a crib for their soon to be, soon to be born children. And the rest of the Parks gang assigns each other dog breeds for fun. I love this episode because I think Tom usually thinks that Leslie is kind of lame or, you know, kind of goes against how she's feeling and he really

finds something to align with her on and something to drive him after he's lost, to went to swag. And so it's really, really cool that he uses his marketing and his business tact to kind of come in and help Leslie. And so I've always really loved this moment. additionally, have Ron and Chris who are just complete opposites, right? You have Chris who is loud and

Holly Constant (03:34.638)
I liked it.

Holly Constant (03:43.886)
so comical and just good fun. And then the rest of the gang assigning each other dog breeds. And I liked, I liked kind of this, this side because you're seeing how well they know each other and they're doing something fun and a little out of the ordinary. It kind of gave me office vibes where, you know, they're, take a step away from their work and they're not actually doing their jobs, but they're having fun all together. It kind of reminded me of the...

Holly Constant (04:11.981)
of the office when they're judging Hilary Swank and trying to decide if she's hot or not. It did make me a little sad, the little tear between Donna and April.

Holly Constant (04:28.499)
April kind of dig deeper into finding out more about Donna. They've worked together for so long. So I'm glad it worked out happily. One of my favorite things in this episode is when they all, the city council members, leave and go into the parking lot to look at Jam's car and they brought the stenographer with them, which cracks me up every time, and Leslie going, why are we, why did we come out here? I love that.

also decided to use AI a little bit, ChatGPT, to help me find out what our dogs would be, Holly. So I would be interested to know what your vibe is on if you think these are accurate. And if you wanna do your own little search situation, let me know. I would be interested to see if we get different dog answers. But for myself, I just gave ChatGPT some qualities that I feel are...

to meet as a person and I came they came up with a Golden Retriever border Collie mix and so that seems super on par the Golden Retriever energy I definitely cannot sit down very long so that felt real and it's kind of cute because I asked you about you and they came back with

a breed, a German house, a German shepherd. What is it? German shepherd. It was a mix, sorry.

thing here. was a German shepherd boxer mix. And I was like, okay, but I someone like a little bit more fabulous and fierce. And not that that's not a fierce dog. But when I looked at it, I didn't picture you Holly. And what came back was a border collie, just regular border collie. So very, very similar energies. and I just got a little bit more of that. I guess the crazy.

Holly Constant (06:34.711)
the crazy in me from the golden retriever. But yeah, so I patronized to see what else, what you get if you searched it differently and anybody else that listens, all our park pals out there, if you want to like find out what you would be yourself, we would love to hear what everybody else is out there. That's my summary and my thoughts coming out of this episode. I'm sorry to not be there, but hope to get you on the next one.

Yeah, I don't know what I would be. I feel like I'm like Donna where I feel like a cat. Most of the time I do feel like a cat is my spirit animal, like an outgoing cat, if you will. Like I like my space, I like to be by myself. You do kind of have to earn your place in my like tribe of like small, close friends. Like yes, I'll obviously be very, very energetic and nice and, you know, welcoming.

to people when I first meet them and everything, but to be like in my inner circle, I suppose, which is not elite by any means, it's just like not everybody likes that. So I feel like I'm a cat. However, yeah, border collie definitely makes sense for me. yeah. Okay, so let's get into this episode. This is so exciting. We are at the Indianapolis Colts Stadium. Again, this is our second time here because we have gone to the bachelorette or bachelor.

party for Ben. Super fun this time though because first of all more Colts are actually there and not that they were really there at the beginning but they you know had their little moment with so many they got so many actual Colts players which is amazing. I mean I looked it up and yes this is a real thing the NFL has a campaign to get kids active for 60 minutes per day and so they bust out a bunch of lucky buggers as Leslie says.

For this like field trip moment so fun and yeah, this is a real initiative that started in 2007 to get kids moving and experiencing exercise for 60 minutes a day and one of the things that I took from one of the websites I'll post all my sources in the show notes But it read in an effort to tackle childhood obesity NFL play 60 was established in 2007

Holly Constant (08:51.149)
bringing together the NFL clubs and numerous partner organizations committed to health and wellness of children throughout the country. In 2009, the Cooper Institute developed the NFL Play 60 Fitness Gram project to support the NFL Foundation in the common goal of making the next generation of youth the most active and healthy. And yes, certain cities did bus kids out to the actual stadium in their towns if they lived close enough so they could all play and learn and get active.

A lot of times, yes, the real teams did get involved. I don't believe it was all the time. Sometimes it was like in PE classes, this initiative. So super cool either way. And yeah, the partners were American Heart Association, St. Jude's Research Hospital, many others that I found. So yeah, again, I'll post everything in the show notes if you wanna research more.

It made me laugh that Leslie thinks that she knows what a button hook is but of course obviously she doesn't because Reggie Wayne is Reggie Wayne and he would know. I like that. I laughed out loud at it. Yeah, you would know. Side note, I know Maddie would know what this is but I did not know what a button hook actually is in football. It's also known as a curl root they call it. It's a pass play where a wide receiver runs downfield, plants a foot.

and abruptly turns back toward the line of scrimmage to catch a pass, often faking a deep route to fool a defender. So it's like a little switch and hook. Maybe that's why it's called button hook. I don't Anyway, I did not look up why it's actually called button hook, so you'll have to forgive me on that one. Ron is saying hey to Andrew Luck, who is there. April stole his wallet, which is so funny. Andrew Luck is like, you guys are weird. Thank you.

98, the player hits on Donna. This is Robert Mathis, by the way, who is actually a linebacker. And I love Donna's line. He's a linebacker. Skilled positions only for Donna Meagle. Yes, Donna. Love this so much. And you'll see, I'm going to post on Instagram if you follow us. There are just so many one-liners in this, or like little, you know, couplets of dialogue that are just so smart, so fantastic, so hilarious. I am obsessed.

Holly Constant (11:05.981)
And I probably have like six of them right now. So I'll post those and I'll tell you which ones too, but that's the first one. then we see Tom who is just sitting on the field with all of his merch for the Colts. And he just thinks that's what sports is. so funny that he has the grill going in the middle of the field. And this reminds me of his glamping moment where he just brings all the merch and it's really just about the things, things last forever. So I love that very much.

I love that he says, fetch this football throw, fellas. And he barely even throws it. I love sports. That is me. I think that's me. Just eating, hanging out, having a good time, wearing all of my merch. So now Tom and Leslie are at the Eagleton Reservoir and it has fluoride in it, which is great and very exciting for Pawnee because Pawnee has never had fluoride in it, or in their water rather.

Tom is trying to one up her saying that the puppy video is more exciting than fluoride, but right now, to Leslie, this is really exciting because it will help so many citizens that didn't have it before. Also side note, lame duck, and I know that most people know what this means, and in fact, I know I've researched it many a time, but I always forget what it means.

Lameduck means an outgoing politician who is an elected official whose successor has already been elected or will be elected soon. So because we know that Leslie has been recalled and she is no longer going to stay in her seat, she technically has the title of Lameduck. Okay, so I did a quick breakdown on fluoride just so that everyone is a little bit aware of what is happening and why this is so important. It is digestible, it is a natural chemical, and it is in fact already naturally

in some water systems. So you don't always have to add it to water systems. Sometimes it's naturally in there. So the fluoridation of public drinking water started in the United States in 1945 in Grand Rapids, Michigan to prevent tooth decay and improve dental health. Scientists observed that areas with naturally occurring fluoride in their water had lower rates of cavities, leading to the controlled addition of fluoride to public water supplies.

Holly Constant (13:23.433)
So this was a public health initiative that targeted widespread tooth decay and its social disparities, and it's now considered one of the CDC's top public health successes. And I want to pinpoint slash highlight a couple of those terms. Number one is that it is sometimes naturally occurring. OK, this is not something that was just randomly made. It was scientifically studied and it was naturally occurring in some of them already. And the second part of that

goes hand in hand that after they did the scientific studies, they had a controlled addition, controlled. It was not just thrown about randomly, not measured, anything like that. This was a controlled addition that was also scientifically studied for the population at large. It's relatively inexpensive. It's an accessible way to protect dental health for everyone, regardless of income, age, or access to regular dental care. This is what we mean when we say public

health. A lot of people these days, I believe, are getting public health and personal health confused. Okay, so public health is getting the community healthy. It's pollution is a big portion of that. The communities that are redlined, that are lower income, a lot of black and brown communities that do not have access because they're not funded, or they're not in areas of the community that have these great things. Like Pawnee is a lower income

city compared to Eagleton and they did not have fluoride. Not because it was mega expensive, but just because, you know, I don't think science and public health was as funded, just like we saw with Anne when she came into her public health position, how many things that she wanted to address and fix, you know, especially with diabetes. That is public health, the larger portion of the community. Private health or

health where you are only focusing on the individual is not the same. So when you're talking about people who want to do supplements, who want to do the pseudoscience of, you know, blouche, like that is for you personally. And most of the times those are also expensive things. But public health is, and I know I sound like a broken record, but you know, public health is really affecting everyone. know, school lunches are a public health initiative.

Holly Constant (15:48.812)
Vaccines are public health initiative. They help people live longer is really the end goal. And they help communities of people live longer, not just you, which I hope that we all want everyone to live long, healthy lives. So the last thing I'll just tell you is a little bit of a story on how water fluoridation kind of happened. If anyone's interested, it did start in Colorado, just the scientific studies, the United States,

started the public fluoridation of drinking water in Grand Rapids, but the actual like study started in Colorado in 1901 when a Dr. McKay found that kids and adults had brown teeth and he called in dental experts to help him research, but they found that they switched their drinking supply and that resolved the issue. So they switched over to a different fluoridation water or

you know, they found fluoride in the natural water and that proved to prevent cavities and stains slash decay. The first children to drink fluoridated water since infancy began reaching school age and dental examiners in Grand Rapids, Newburgh and Brantford reported a sharply lower number of cavities among children starting school in 1949. There are natural sources like I talked about which comes in soil, rocks, water and volcanic emissions and there are two industrial sources

which are phosphate rock processing, aluminum smelting, and steel production. So if you would like to research a little bit more of that, I will post those in the show notes so that you can do some research. But yeah, super interesting to learn about. Also, if you've been to the dentist recently, they do add fluoride to your teeth because that's another thing that fluoride does. It's kind of like soap for your teeth where it...

You know, if it's on your teeth, when you brush your teeth, your toothpaste and your water and all that stuff, it blocks the bacteria from getting inside the enamel and cavities are prevented. So anyway, that is fluoride and that is what everyone is fighting against. It sounds pretty innocuous as far as things go, you know, to use Ben's line and it also sounds pretty healthy and

Holly Constant (18:05.709)
So much health problems start in your mouth. It's insane the amount of bacteria. It's so crazy how it leads to so many other things. So you would think that this would be a no-brainer, but we will see that that's not true. She has a flame duck shirt. I never really noticed that. I love that so much. She tries to cheer Tom up by looking at the trash collector because Tom is like, know, Rent-A-Swag has gone downhill. I don't want to do this anymore. I don't want to be like,

working in the government all the time. And she's like, you know, have to see what you do like in your job. Not everyone loves every single portion, which is funny because that's kind of the advice that he was giving April during the dog adoption thing. You know, you have to find pieces of the job that you do like. It's not always glamorous, but you know, he's this trash collector doing it with a smile on his face. He's trying his best, which proves not to be the best point.

for him as a metaphor if you will because he looks maybe clinically insane and doesn't have any pants on. So that is something. And then we're moving on to Ron who has made a crib from a crib tree. He says that he murdered the tree. He found a crib tree and murdered it which is so Ron. Everyone's very excited about it and kind of proud of Ron I think and Chris freaks out because it's not up to his safety standards.

He's been reading and obsessing in these parenting books. One of them, Are You Going to Crawl My Way by Lenny Kravitz. my God, so good. That was probably the work of Gabe Pirello, who is the of the props department and has made many a book cover for these folks to use in the show. Chris says Ron needs to go to Bloomington with him to look at his crib or he'll have to do a four hour fax meeting. And either way, that's a win for Chris. my God. Yikes.

I don't know if Chris should be like making him go, but I think he thinks he's helping. I guess, you know, whatever. Okay, so let's see. So now we are voting to approve the Pawnee-Eagleton Reservoir merger. Jam and literally every other member except for maybe Hauser, to me, is reminiscent of Trump's administration. They have no idea what they're talking about. They are hurting people and they don't fucking care.

Holly Constant (20:30.145)
Jam says no, it's like they know nothing about this chemical. They think that it's like this brand new untested thing, which is completely false. It's been tested scientifically for years. It improves everyone's lives. Milton says it was used by communists, so there's no way that they should use it, which this was actually based upon an actual conspiracy theory during the Cold War between the United States and Russia in the 1950s.

where people believe that the Russians would try to poison our nation's water supply. Okay, ridiculous. Dexheart says, well, if it can control minds, can it make ladies do stuff? my God. And Leslie is so true. I love this line. How am I the one getting booted off this city council? She's the one that's trying to actually help and they just are making things terrible.

Holly Constant (21:44.908)
Moving on. She explains that it's good for you, it's safe. Most towns in America use it and Jam just doesn't want it because he says he wants money for his dentist business because obviously if you don't have fluoride, you have more cavities, AKA Jam makes more money. They go out to the yellow car, which is what Maddie was talking about before, the stenographer, literally everyone goes out with him. I believe it was Shana maybe who was talking about this or maybe it was...

No, I think it was Shawna. I was gonna say maybe it was Norm, who was the producer that we also talked to, but Shawna was the camera woman for the first, I believe, four seasons and, no, sorry, six seasons. And then I think she left, or maybe she left, I don't know, I don't know, but it was somebody we were talking to from the show that said they remember going out to that.

to that car and it was so random and they did have to do a whole setup. You you do have to turn the set around, make sure the lighting is there, everything. So crazy. Okay, yeah, so Jam is proposing a clean water bill to ban anything from getting in their water ever for like the foreseeable future, which is again ridiculous and totally what this administration would absolutely do. I love this line as well.

When she's talking to Ben, she's trying to kind of present her case and she's like, on my side, I have facts, science, and reason. All he has is fear mongering. my God, he's gonna win. a moment of silence for that. just, that's what it is. That's what it is. If you fear monger, you can really get into the hearts and minds of people because they don't know how to think for themselves and critically think.

Holly Constant (23:27.155)
Then we get a vaccine joke. Vaccines turn you European. Ben says that this happened. That was a conspiracy theory. So there's just like so much public health initiatives here. my God. So now Ben has to clear up another awful mistake. The Sweetums lady comes in and says they did something about, you know, where they made kids diarrhea all over the place. And now Ben has to fix it by sending them something. Which can Sweetums just like get their shit together then?

Why? They're wasting so much money. They don't care. Whatever. Okay. So Animal Control has to take over all the pets from Eagleton and Craig ran all their shelters. So he helped make a website to get these dogs adopted. It's so great. They're so cute. And when April says, if you can look at that website and not want to adopt at least one dog or what does she say? All of them, then you're basically a criminal. This is so

amazing because it reminded me of what I used to do this with the Nashville Humane Society they had my god They had the cutest little animals and yeah, they're their little photo shoots are so beautiful and precious And yeah, you just want to adopt all of them. In fact Nashville Humane had a kitty cam They would put a little camera on there and then have a little cat or kitten or something in there for people to look at online my god, it was so cute. It definitely made me want to adopt all of them

That's where I got Phoebe, my beloved first born cat. So there's a dog that reminds April of Andy and there's also a dog that reminds them of Tom. So April says they're going to have a meeting and pick their spirit dogs. And that is such a cute little moment. And I agree. I love that. What Maddie said about, you know, it's nice that they're at work doing something that isn't necessarily work, but they're still bonding and, you know, having this agreement disagreement. It's a really cool idea.

I do have to agree with Ron a little bit on the sounds of nature machine. I would understand maybe a white noise machine because that doesn't really sound like nature as much, but yeah, I don't know. But to each their own. Parenting is so subjective, so whatever they need to do to feel like it's comfortable. So Chris says hi to this worker at the baby store, which is hilarious because he also bought the book from Vanna White. I'd like to solve a puzzle of parenting.

Holly Constant (25:45.71)
So funny. So this worker says that the crib is actually a death trap and it's being recalled. And he explains that there was like this crazy chemical reaction that burned off his fingernails and he has band-aids all over his fingernails. my gosh, terrible. This worker's name, his character name is Frazier and he's played by the actor Jay and he is...

Let's see, he's a new girl, Grace and Frankie, Jane the Virgin, a ton of other things. Jay was actually super sweet and sent us some voice memos. So yes, let's go ahead and take a listen.

Holly Constant (26:27.821)
So I do remember getting this audition for Parks and Rec for the episode entitled Floor Ride. I remember I only had a day to prepare for this. I was at work serving tables at a restaurant and I got the email. I was super excited about it, especially just to go in for cast director Dorian Frankel. She's such a huge casting director and I just wanted to prepare as much as I could, but I only had 24 hours and back then we were auditioning in person, which was great because we got to meet the cast director one on one.

and remember there was a jargon chemical jargon word that was just so hard to pronounce at the time and i i believe it was the word maxi silo-fentable and employees were helping me say that word while i was rehearsing lines with them because it was such an early audition next morning and i do remember that morning when i went to the audition i felt super comfortable comfortable about it and i had memorized all the lines and i remember we

We did the whole scene and you know they were laughing and then we did it again and then she said, Jam might just kind of throw out, some improv with you just see if you can kind of just go along with it. And I don't remember specifically what she did but you know at the very end of the line she threw something at me and I came back with something and then she was laughing and right then and there I just knew I was going to either get a call back or I was going to get pinned for the part.

Yay! What a nice feeling to feel like, you know, you nailed it and to feel like you kind of had that connection with the casting director. And yeah, you're right. I have not had an in-person audition except for theater in 1000 years. And some people for theater are even sending in videos too. Yeah, that's crazy. And of course you were serving. Love that so much. And love that for you that you booked this role. And yeah, so crazy pronouncing that chemical name. my God, nuts.

Nuts, nuts, nuts. But yeah, my god, that must be fun to have that practice and that experience to improv in an audition with Dorian Frankel. my god. Okay, let's listen to the second one.

Holly Constant (28:33.292)
So after booking the part, I was super excited. It was a one day shoot and the funny thing was, is that we were shooting at a baby store in Sherman Oaks and it was literally like two blocks from where I lived. And I passed by that baby store to my work every single day. So we get on set and lo and behold, there's Nick and Rob and we start rehearsing with the director and I'm just like in awe over there.

and you know we just start you know rehearsing and then all of a sudden you know they're like let's start rolling and the funny thing was also is that I remember Rob was floating his lines like five or six times you know I think it was the line when he talked about the Vanu White book but he was super cool Nick was awesome just cracking jokes the whole crew was super helpful and it was a very professional set and it was just amazing to be there and it was it all happened so fast you know they were on the time crunch

but we did it within an hour so. We were done with that scene. It was really quick and fast. Wow, that's crazy. Yes, we've definitely heard that, especially by season six, that it's just a well-oiled machine. have no time to dilly-dally. They know what they're doing. I think they can fit in fun runs even if they're on that time crunch because they have done the real version or the scripted version so many times, and they know how to do it quickly. So yeah, that's amazing.

That is so funny about the location that you actually like know where that baby store is. You pass it every day on the way to work. my gosh. And hopefully you still see that and have like a memory if you still live in that area or if you just live in LA in general, that would be really funny to just kind of have that memory as you're driving by. That is really funny information about Rob Lowe. I feel like I've heard that about him and I've seen it on blooper reels too where he kind of flubs his lines.

pretty frequently, but it's also really funny when he does it, so it's not like the end of the world. Also, he's Rob Lowe, so I guess now it doesn't matter. Maybe he didn't used to do that as much when he was younger, I don't know. But yeah, and the Nick seems super cool, too. I know he didn't really say much. He was just like, okay, my point is proven. Yeah, I love that. Okay, let's listen to the last

Holly Constant (30:50.771)
with Nick and Rob was literally a dream come true. This show literally helped pave the way for my comedic TV career. After this, I did several other comedy shows. But you know, this was the one that kind of I felt like kind of put me on the map. wasn't a huge role. you know, I remember certain people that were fans of the show would kind of recognize me here and there. But I, man, it was honestly a dream come true. And

The weird thing was, you know, after we shot this, and I were sharing a huge honey wagon together. And I was just like, my gosh, like normally I would expect Nick to have like this super huge trailer all by himself, but they were like, no, you and Nick are sharing this honey wagon, this really big trailer. And it was great because we got to talk a little bit. And you know, I said, you know, what an honor it was to be working with him and Rob and.

you I got to take some pictures with them and they were just super cool, professional and just cracking jokes. So those guys were just a joy to work with. I couldn't ask for a better gig to be working on at the time when I was a struggling actor. I had only done a couple credits, but Parks and Rec was so much fun and it's really helped me in my career. So I was very blessed to be part of that.

Yay, that is so exciting. Oh my gosh. Yeah, people have definitely said that before that like, you know, this was either their first role or their, you know, second role or whatever. And it really helped them with, you know, having things on their resume, especially like, like you said, even though was a smaller part, which I don't even think it was that small of a part compared to some of the people that we've talked to, you know, and what you did with it. it was hearing Parks and Rec or seeing Parks and Rec on your resume, especially in this season.

when it wasn't fresh and to know the influence it has now. Yeah, I think that would definitely help people kind of see what you can do and that you have the comedy chops because Parks and Rec and The Office are very improv heavy shows. Even though they mostly do scripted, they do mostly do scripted, but they do have that improv portion of it. And people said that some people's auditions when they had to improv is so new and fresh that it really taught them to...

Holly Constant (33:05.035)
Be prepared for anything in the audition room, which has helped them, they think, book more things. I had never heard the term honey wagon. That's hilarious. I kind of figured, because you were talking about trailers and I used context clues, but that's really hilarious. And wild that you would share a trailer with Nick. You'd think that Nick would have his own. And to hear that Nick didn't really give a shit. mean, it sounds like he didn't. He was just chill with whatever happened. So that is so lovely and, my god, beautiful.

Well, thank you so much, Jay. I really appreciate that. Those were super fun. We always love getting voice memos from our guests because it just makes our fandom grow and hearing behind the scenes and how well it was run, how nice it was, how fun it was, and how it kind of kickstarted careers and things like that is so fun and just a dream. So thank you for contributing to that. Love it so much. And I'm glad that you never have to say that chemical hopefully again.

Okay, so Jam is now on Perd saying Leslie Knope wants to put chemicals in the water. And this whole fascination to me, this is a personal note, not a note from the show, but this is just a thing that I've been noticing. This whole trend of being mad that chemicals are in things is just so not necessary to me. So many things are chemicals and most food chemicals, not all, but most food chemicals, like the synthetic ones that everyone is going crazy about, are tested and safe.

Obviously, you can have your opinion. I totally understand that. And there are some chemicals that are probably in things, not probably, they are in things that we should be very aware of. But most food chemicals in particular, I feel, are tested and safe for us. And in fact, no, you know what? I'm just not even gonna go on that tangent, because I just feel like that's really long. But yeah, just do some research. And before you say like, well, Europe has this.

Maybe just research that and make sure that that's true because there are a lot of people who think that it's like safer in other countries and it's just like not, you know what I mean? I will post this one lady who is a public health doctor and she's a registered dietician, I believe as well, but she studies public health really and she posts on TikTok all the time. I believe her name is Dr. Jessica and the last name is Kay, starts with K something.

Holly Constant (35:24.941)
I'm going to post her in the show notes because her TikToks and her videos are so informative and really, really smart. So if you are interested in not fear mongering. yeah, Jam is doing exactly what this administration is doing, fear mongering, using actually unsafe chemicals that have nothing to do with fluoride or the issue at hand to make people scared. He's saying, you know what else is a chemical? Cyanide, strychnide, those people kill, those things kill people. So I don't think that's the same at all.

because cyanide is known for its high toxicity, it contains carbon and nitrogen triple bonded. Yeah, a lot of times there's hydrogen cyanide. Well, again, I don't know if this is really important, but it's a highly volatile liquid or gas with a faint bitter almond-like odor, which I did not know, but many people cannot detect it. So, yeah. And it does, I mean, it's saying that it does...

come in natural occurrences like some plants and microorganisms and things like that, but I believe the amount itself is not enough to do anything. But yeah, then strychnine is actually a literal poison. So it is derived from a plant, but it is actual poison. So that is not the same as what we're trying to do with fluoride.

And Perd tries to bounce off Jam and says that, yeah, know, other chemicals, dirt, rust, broken glass. Yeah, totally. And I love that Jam is like, yeah, Perd, you definitely know what chemicals are. Those are not chemicals. And then Jam says, if you have an issue, call the number on the bottom of your screen. And it's Leslie's office. my God. And Leslie's mom calls her. No.

I do love though, this is the best part I think for me. What are they gonna do? Kick me out of office? Because she answers the phone and she's mean to her constituents, which she never does. She always speaks to them so nicely. Now she's speaking to them so poorly, disrespectfully, yelling at them. And Tom is like, yo, you can't do that.

Holly Constant (37:33.11)
Maybe I would do that, but like you cannot do that. And she's like, what are they gonna do? Kick me out of office? Like why haven't I been a loose cannon before? There are no consequences to my actions anymore. No matter what I do, literally nothing bad can happen to me. I'm like a white male US Senator. So smart. So good. And then this is where her mom calls. Leslie says she's a loose cannon. She's super excited about it, but she's still thinking small with binders and making the binders yellow.

That's gonna be her loose cannon moment. Tom has this great idea of rebranding. Like Maddie said, he's using his business acumen, he's using his marketing skills, and he's doing what Leslie kind of suggested. Like you are doing your job with the parts that you like, and you're doing your best with a smile on your face, even though you know that it's not the most glamorous thing ever. But he makes it glamorous because he knows that he's good at this. And I love how confident he is.

to help Leslie sex up fluoride, if you will. The whole rebrand of fluoride. Like, what are you saying? We need to sex up fluoride? I don't know, Tom. It's a pretty sexy topic already. And I just love that he, you know, we started this confidence in the last episode where he knew he was in demand. So he knew what he could ask for as far as money goes and the name and all that kind of stuff. And now he's using it in parks, which ends up helping Leslie a lot.

And this is showing that this is a great skill of his that he can use to further his career, his personal life, all the things. It's really nice. Then we get to Back to the Dogs. The crazy dog is Craig, which he knows it too. He's like, yeah, okay, that's accurate. He doesn't like it at first, but he gets it.

So now they're all picking dogs. It's super fun. The golden retriever is totally Leslie. The bulldog is totally Ron Swanson. The floofy cute one is Larry. Totally love that. And then we get kind of to like a weird awkward moment where April picks a poodle for Donna and says it's because she's pretty and likes makeup and stuff. And April totally thought that she nailed it, but Donna hates it and gets mad and leaves. And everyone's like, what just happened?

Holly Constant (39:48.038)
And I do understand Donna's point of view here because I think she thought that maybe her and April were closer and April literally just whittled her down to the most surface level shit in a friend. And I think that that really upset Donna and didn't make her feel like they were close or that she even knew anything about her even though they've been working together for a long time. So I mean, in April's head, it was a compliment, but to Donna, was just like, that's it.

that's all I am to you. Like I don't have any other meaning, you know what mean? So I get it. also side note in season two, says she, says she wants to put in a dog park for poodles only, but no pooping, which I thought that was funny because it was a little bit like, I think Donna does acknowledge that poodles are cute and fancy and things like that, but it's not all of her, you know? So let's see.

Chris talks to Ron now and says he wants to do things Ron's way and wants to build his own crib. Side note, that must be exhausting counting the words in a conversation to make sure that you never have to have a conversation more than 100 words. I feel like it'd be easier to just go by vibes, because Ron would be like, yeah, I'm done talking now. And that would be it. But to each his own. All right, so then we get back to Jam, and this is exactly what

Jam did during the Donna scandal, the Twitter Donna scandal, just saying random buzzwords to make you associate this with something terrible. He says fluoride, chemical, tiny genitals, misinformation, panic, death, Jenny McCarthy. Which again, whoever wrote that is so brilliant because it's just so many like lightning flashes in your brain to associate these things.

So Leslie and Tom make a really fun presentation and have this commercial for fluoride in water. It's so good. It appeals to everyone's kind of materialistic, stupid side, like, of themselves where they, all they really want is a plain blue t-shirt thrown at them. You know what I mean? You want a punch card. You want it to be something sexy. You want T-dazzle. The commercial itself, Kyle is back. He says plain water.

Holly Constant (42:12.567)
boring, like he's so bored. And then he tries fluoride water and he turns into this like super sexy model that's super fit and like jacked up. And it's so funny. This model is played by Brayden Bode, B-A-A-D-E is his last name. He was in Days of Lives, a bunch of short films, looks like he's done some super interesting things, but I didn't hear back from him. So if you want to talk to us, Brayden, let me know.

But yeah, T Dazzle. I love Tom's little like, I don't know, tagline, if you will, starts a party in your mouth. And then they have sexy models dancing around, super fun music, everyone's dancing around. my God, and the way that he describes this, the way that he uses these influencer words, aquatic based social media, oral experience, and you can get entered to win a plain blue t-shirt. I say T, you say Dazzle, T, Dazzle, T, Dazzle. It's so good.

my God. And I just love it so much because this is what anyone really wants. The buzzwords, the cult kind of energy, you know, like, are you a follower or not? Do you want this cool thing or not? And I mean, that is what Democrats need to do, honestly, anyway, but we'll talk about that later. Okay, so Chris is asking Panicky Parent questions and Ron is like, yo, just do the thing. Like, don't freak out. And Ron's really getting annoyed.

Then we've got back to the tea dazzle. 75 % of people are good with fluoride or tea dazzle in their water, which effectively kills Jam's bill. And that's amazing. But Jam is now taking it further and basically starts sugar water for their drinking supply called Drinkums from none other than Sweetums. And he brings his own chess set, which is so funny, but also so disgusting, but also so funny.

One of the Lurpuses, the way, Bjorn Lurpus is in the audience. He didn't have any deleted scenes that I saw, so I just love that they brought him back. I don't know, maybe he was just in town that day or what's going on. But yeah, so they wanna put basically Kool-Aid coming out of your sinks. Gross. All right, so now April and Donna are talking and Donna is sad about April not knowing much about her.

Holly Constant (44:35.781)
and Donna reads her to a T because April's like, well, you don't know me that well either. It's not like we hang out all the time. And Donna reads her to a T and picks the perfect dog for her, which is the Siberian husky. And Craig is like, my God, that was so spot on. I need to go lie down for 45 minutes. No, an hour, a full hour. And, it's really funny because Craig is really the only one that survived from Eagleton, from our doppelgangers episode. So I do enjoy, that we're getting to see some.

of his stuff. And I enjoy that we're getting to see more Donna stuff too. And kind of piggybacking off what Maddie said too, getting these duos that you wouldn't normally get. Donna and April haven't really had a ton that much yet. We do learn that they become close and everything, especially after this episode, but they haven't had a ton. And they said they did that on The Office as well. Kind of pairing people that you wouldn't normally put together.

Chris and Ron have been paired mostly professionally, I feel, and usually it's with someone else. Like they had the catump situation with April or like Ann will be there kind of vibe. It's not, which Ann wasn't in this episode either, side note. So I think she was shooting something. She had done a lot of movies in like, I don't know, the couple years that I saw on IMDB.

in like the 2013 era. So I'm sure she was shooting something. But anyhow, so it's nice to see, you know, these pairs together. So Leslie accidentally says cookie dough toothpaste, like after the Kool-Aid Sweetums thing. She's like, what's next, cookie dough toothpaste? No, nevermind, that would be great. It's a terrible example. And she slammed Sweetums so bad. And it's really powerful because she's going off of her whole US male senator thing. She's like,

down with Sweetums, down with that poison-peddling corporate monster. And sad thing is that she did have a consequence to that one. Ben gets fired from Sweetums because of her speech. But I love that we don't really know that until the end because he's so sweet and says that he thought it sounded great. He was really proud of her. He wasn't thinking about that to bring up to her immediately. But then he does tell her and she's like,

Holly Constant (46:59.179)
because you were embezzling, I hope. But then of course she knows that it's because she said what she said. Leslie does try to appeal to Jessica Wicks at Sweetums. She wants all these demands. Jessica Wicks wants her to apologize in a lime green suit and that they, she wants Leslie to say in her apology that Sweetums is a moral upstanding corporation. Disagree.

So April tries to learn more about Donna to try to get Donna's perfect dog. And Donna is such an enigma. I love that we are getting so much of this information that we would not have gotten otherwise. She plays oboe in the jacuzzi. Downton Abbey is her favorite book. It's not a book, Downton Abbey. She has different colors depending on cars. Yeah, different foods. Like it's just amazing. So then we get Chris.

that is trying to take more meaning than Ron actually intends during the woodworking session. Ron means nothing, honestly, except the woodworking, because he hates metaphors. He doesn't want to discuss anything really except for the woodworking and how to teach Chris to do the crib building. But Chris wants to take such parenting from this because he doesn't know what else to do, really. I feel like he doesn't know what else to talk about. He's also so like,

paranoid so he's just trying to take metaphors in anything that Ron says, which is not right, not real. Okay, so then we get to, my gosh, I forgot to say the other book is Rad Dads by Apollo, Anton Ono, and Sean White.

my god, so hilarious. I don't know how they came up with this stuff. It's so good. I also love that Ron doesn't know that Moby Dick is a whole metaphor. He just thinks that Moby Dick is a fish and he's just like, a guy doing his passion, man. Trying to get that whale. Okay, so April tries and says that Donna is a Nova Scotia toler, but no.

Holly Constant (49:13.323)
that doesn't ring true. It could be true, technically, with the things that she says and the reasons that she gives, but then Donna appreciates the effort and April absolutely nails it because off the cuff, after she really starts like kind of thinking about it, she's like, nope, you're a cat. And she lists all these reasons that are so Donna and it was so perfect. And I love that they hug and Donna purrs. It's so sweet. And Donna has definitely led April into her inner circle.

which is very sweet and I love the way that it ends. And she did, mean, April had to work for it, as she said, for Donna to be a cat, you know what mean? So perfect. So now Leslie's wearing her lime green pantsuit, practicing for this stupid speech that she's supposed to give and Ben is like, no, don't do this. And Ben makes the point that we kind of talked about earlier where 90 % of the charity work,

that he has to do slash that the company does in general is to compensate for messes that they caused or, you know, failure is on their end. It's not even real charity. It's just like an apology department. You know what I mean? And Ben doesn't really want to work for them anyway. And he wants to, he would rather see Leslie, I think, stand up to them than just keep the job for the sake of keeping the job. And then Leslie gets this crazy idea and she's like, run, get Tom. And she,

Ben is like WTF, like what do I even do? And then she just tells him to run and get Tom, which is funny.

Okay, I don't think I noticed this at her press conference, by the way, but there's a banner that says, Drinkums Leslie's Apology, which is so good. I love that they make these banners for her press conferences. I'll have to post a picture where you guys can go check that out. So this is where Leslie uses Tom's Acumen. Leslie's a quick study, and she is making Drinkums boring with science and facts.

Holly Constant (51:13.495)
So she's reading off her binder, she's reading off her index cards, telling all of the scientific facts and scientific evidence of Drinkums. And it's super boring, super gross. Nobody wants to listen to it. And there's chemistry and science involved and ew. And so Tom steps in and is like, yo, that's boring. Say hello to H2 Flow, not T Dazzle, an app for your teeth. And he creates.

Sparkle Points, an Aqua badge, H2 Flow Platinum Club. It's like all his ideas for club names or just regular business ideas have all been condensed into this T-Dazzle H2 Flow moment and it's beautiful to watch. I love it so much. And Jessica Wicks and Jam know that they've been one-upped because they are both just giving each other glances like, my God, she did it again. So great call.

Great work, great teamwork for Leslie and Tom. Love that Leslie, you know, takes Tom's advice. And I know that Tom had to kind of fight for that and say like, are you loose cannon or not? Like this is what it is that you want to do. And Leslie really steps up and is like, okay, well, I'll trust you Tom. And which I think Leslie has always wanted to trust Tom, but there have been hesitations. So I like that she kind of lets go and it works out and is so perfect.

So now we get to Ron giving his crib to Chris and Anne, which by the way, like I said, Anne is not in this episode, so it's funny to watch that. And maybe that's another reason why we haven't talked about Chris and Anne in a really long time, but maybe that's another reason why I'm not as sold on them being parents together too, because you don't really see them talking about being parents that much either. You see them talking about naming them Olive when they're on the couch and telling everybody. And then she disappears.

and then you see her at her going away party pregnant.

Holly Constant (53:16.077)
I don't know. Okay, moving on. So Ron, well, going back to, should say, not moving on, but Ron is giving the crib to Chris and he smashed it with his truck, which was the test for Ron to make sure that it was sturdy and ready to go. And Ron actually makes an emotional connection, which is so nice. He's like, anybody that is this worried about being a parent is going to do just fine. Just, you know, try to follow your instincts and

You know, it's a good thing that you're stressed because that means you care. you know, obviously in Ron's terms or words, I should say, but that was really special to me because I don't feel like Ron would have done that normally, but I feel like as we've seen him grow and kind of connect with people throughout the seasons, he's really trying to make a case for Chris to be like, yo, you're fine. It's fine. Take my crib.

There's more than one crib tree in the forest, which is so true for Ron, especially because Ron's the only one that could find a crib tree. So that's nice. And this is the last meme, GIF, whatever thing that these kind of couplet of dialogues where Ron is like, does the white whale actually symbolize the unknowability and meaningless of human existence? No, it's just a fucking fish or it's just a bleep fish.

That is so funny. It's so good. Okay, so now we are rounding out the episode here where Drinkums is dead and fluoride passed. We're still not sure if H2Flo is fluoride, so she'll have to ask Tom, but she's 98 % sure. Yeah, I just, think it's a great episode. These last couple episodes have been really great for the arc of Tom and to see him kind of grow in his...

business acumen and also how he can relate to people and be a team player. Because I think a lot of the times we see Tom being sleazy, we talked about that, but also just only out for his own interests. And to really help Leslie in this way and kind of have that dynamic between them is a really nice reminder that Tom's a good guy and he wants everyone to succeed. And if he can help, he will. Whereas I think before,

Holly Constant (55:32.045)
in the first couple seasons, of course, when you're trying to figure out who the character is. And even last season, you're just like, I only want to make money slash make things well and good for myself. And that's not to say that can't be a portion of why you do something, but to see him really pull through for Leslie is really beautiful and such a nice arc, I think. Okay.

Ben won the plain blue t-shirt. We love this. Look how blue it is. It's so plain. Love that for him. And now we have to see what he's going to do with the rest of his life. think then we get to Ben because of course we, you know, now he's not going to be with Sweetums anymore. And now they're both, Leslie makes this kind of comment too. They're both out of a job in a minute. So we got to pivot now.

which they always do very well. They always land on their feet, as we can tell. And they had their little drunk Halloween moment last season, or last episode. So we'll get there. Okay, well, I think that that's pretty much it. Thank you so much to Jay for sending in those wonderful voice memos. Hopefully we'll have a few more interviews for you as well. And then we'll just keep on trucking along. We're in season six and each episode is better than the last, I feel. It just keeps getting better. These characters keep growing. It's so beautiful. So.

If you have any questions, anything like that that you'd like us to research or take a look into, let me know. And yeah, we'll talk to you soon. Hope you're hanging in there. Make sure you go vote if you're in one of the countries. Well, country too. But if you're in one of the states that have November elections, I am in Virginia, which means I have a governor election coming in. Abigail Spanberger is our girl. And you need to go vote for her if you're in Virginia. Check your registration.

If you're not in a state that has elections this year, you will have them next year. So make sure you're registered, make sure you're educated and know what you're going to do. Okay, we'll talk to you soon. Thank you so much for listening everybody. Bye.