Boo_ep602

[TRANSCRIPT]
0:00:00 - (Kat): When Mark Mongilliardo was in his second year of teaching, someone at school said he smelled like alcohol. And he was surprised because he hadn't been drinking at work and he didn't want to risk his job, obviously. But over the years, he several times heard comments about how he smelled like alcohol. And whenever someone complain, leaned, he would get called to the principal's office. Which is bad enough when you're a student, but when you're a teacher, it's even worse.
0:00:35 - (Kat): It happened on and off over several years. Mark worked long hours, sometimes more than twelve a day, and he believed that it was exhaustion and changes in his behavior that were due to his long hours. Eventually, he switched jobs and became an athletic director. But just three weeks into his new position, Mark was pulled over by police and failed a field sobriety test.
0:01:03 - (Jethro): Okay.
0:01:04 - (Kat): Even though he claimed he hadn't been drinking. Then, within six months, he was arrested again for driving while intoxicated.
0:01:12 - (Jethro): Oh, my God.
0:01:13 - (Kat): These incidents led to felony charges and he was put on administrative leave, of course, because a school can't.
0:01:19 - (Jethro): Right.
0:01:20 - (Kat): That's just inexcusable. Mark exhibited all the signs of intoxication, from slurred speech to balance issues. Given the circumstances, it's understandable why people assumed he had a hidden struggle with alcohol.
0:01:35 - (Jethro): Well, he smells like alcohol, right? He's slurring his speech. He's failed a couple of different sobriety tests. Why? Is there any question?
0:01:46 - (Kat): Well, I assume at this point that you figured out, because I'm telling you about it, that that's not what's right, right.
0:01:51 - (Jethro): Otherwise this would be a really boring oddity, right?
0:01:55 - (Kat): Just like, turns out Mark has a problem.
0:01:58 - (Jethro): The end.
0:02:00 - (Kat): No. Mark has auto brewery syndrome or abS.
0:02:05 - (Jethro): Auto brewery syndrome.
0:02:08 - (Kat): Yes. Also known as gut fermentation syndrome or androgynous ethanol fermentation.
0:02:15 - (Jethro): Holy crap.
0:02:16 - (Kat): It is a rare medical condition in which the body produces excessive amounts of ethanol internally. Also, can you hear this wild wind?
0:02:27 - (Jethro): Yeah, the wind just came up here.
0:02:29 - (Kat): Wow, she's spooky. And I like it. Blue does not like it.
0:02:33 - (Jethro): No.
0:02:34 - (Kat): Auto brewery syndrome is characterized by the fermentation of ingested carbohydrates in the gastrointestinal tract, resulting in the production of alcohol. Honest to goodness, is a goosebumps story happening outside.
0:02:49 - (Jethro): What is this?
0:02:50 - (Kat): In individuals with autobrewery syndrome, certain types of yeast or bacteria in the gut convert sugars and carbohydrates into ethanol through a process called fermentation. And the fermentation process typically occurs in the stomach or small intestine and as a result, alcohol is produced inside the body. It's like a brewery is going on inside your tummy tum.
0:03:17 - (Jethro): And this makes you drunk?
0:03:19 - (Kat): Yeah. There's alcohol in your body.
0:03:21 - (Jethro): Wow. I've never heard of this. It doesn't seem like it would be a very convenient thing to have.
0:03:28 - (Kat): No.
0:03:29 - (Jethro): I mean, you'd save on beer prices. But felony arrest, there is that.
0:03:35 - (Kat): So, with this, it leads to elevated blood alcohol levels without having consumed alcohol. The exact cause of autobrewery syndrome is not entirely understood, but it has been associated with factors like an overgrowth of yeast or bacteria in the gut, like candida, maybe imbalances in the gut microbiome, or a disruption in the normal digestive process. Certain medical conditions, like diabetes, obesity, and gastrointestinal disorders, have been linked to an increased risk of developing abs.
0:04:10 - (Jethro): So does this happen all of the time? Are you, like, drunk constantly?
0:04:16 - (Kat): It depends on what triggers it in your body. And for a lot of people, it's eating carbs.
0:04:21 - (Jethro): Okay, that makes sense.
0:04:22 - (Kat): Yeah. So I'd be like, fuck, eat a.
0:04:25 - (Jethro): Lot of corn and make me some bourbon, bitch.
0:04:29 - (Kat): Yeah, it's hard to find bourbon here. The symptoms of autobrewery syndrome can vary from person to person. Some common signs include just like, chronic fatigue and brain fog. Because you're just a little bit drunk all the time, difficulty concentrating. I get it. And mental fogginess, general intoxication symptoms, dizziness, impaired coordination, slurred speech, confusion, and changes in behavior.
0:04:57 - (Kat): Of course, the obvious Elevated blood alcohol levels and digestive problems like bloating, diarrhea and discomfort. Well, of course. Because there's a keg in your body.
0:05:08 - (Jethro): Talk about a beer belly.
0:05:10 - (Kat): Oh, I didn't even think about that. That's so obvious. And I really failed.
0:05:15 - (Jethro): I'm really disappointed. The only time I've been more disappointed in you. You know what was when you were doing the dishes left handed.
0:05:22 - (Kat): Maybe you should do them.
0:05:23 - (Jethro): I do.
0:05:24 - (Kat): And I do them the proper way you do them.
0:05:27 - (Jethro): I do.
0:05:27 - (Kat): I've never seen you do them.
0:05:29 - (Jethro): Why are you lying like this?
0:05:31 - (Kat): Because now you're being mean about how I do dishes. That's not true. You do dishes frequently. Sometimes we do dishes together. In which case, we should switch sides, because I am left handed.
0:05:45 - (Jethro): Right.
0:05:46 - (Kat): So I can see why it would be a problem if you did help me.
0:05:51 - (Jethro): Well, now I'm just not going to help anymore. Problem solved.
0:05:55 - (Kat): Gut fermentation syndrome was first described in Japan in 1952, and it was only formally named in 1990. Since its first documented case, it's been reported in only a small number of patients. Less than 100 cases are reported worldwide. Now, while autobrewery syndrome is rarely diagnosed, it's probably under diagnosed because it's so rare and people don't know to look for it. And it could be diagnosed as other things.
0:06:26 - (Kat): There have even been rarer cases, too, of autobrewery syndrome. Identified one inside an oral cavity.
0:06:34 - (Jethro): Oh, that's very disturbing.
0:06:36 - (Kat): Isn't that upsetting? And one in the urinary bladder, which I don't even understand how that might work.
0:06:43 - (Jethro): So you'd be creating beer in your urinary tract area.
0:06:49 - (Kat): Yeah.
0:06:49 - (Jethro): And that's how we get american beer.
0:06:52 - (Kat): Stop diagnosing. Auto brewery syndrome can be challenging, as I said, because it's a rare condition. But medical professionals may conduct various tests, including blood alcohol level measurements, breathalyzer tests.
0:07:12 - (Jethro): You sound like you've had a couple.
0:07:13 - (Kat): I know. I don't know what's wrong with me today. And glucose tolerance tests that will help them diagnose. In Mark's case, the doctor ran a glucose challenge test to see if he had the condition. And while fasting, his blood alcohol concentration was zero. Considered completely sober. And then, as he had a delicious, sugary beverage, his blood alcohol content steadily increased. And within the first hour, he was at zero point 14%.
0:07:46 - (Jethro): Wow.
0:07:47 - (Kat): The doctor was shaking his head. He said, your BAc level went through the roof. You absolutely have auto brewery syndrome.
0:07:55 - (Jethro): It's fascinating.
0:07:56 - (Kat): It really is. And it's also, in his case, saving his ass because Mark had to move out of his house and his family had to move in with his in laws because he had lost his job. But now he's got a doctor's note.
0:08:13 - (Jethro): I was going to ask, do you get a little special little id card that says, I'm drunk, but it's okay.
0:08:22 - (Kat): My dad had a friend that talked so slowly that he twice got pegged for drunk driving. But it was just because he was such a slow talker, they didn't believe that he wasn't drunk.
0:08:34 - (Jethro): And that's surprising, because in Maine, everybody.
0:08:37 - (Kat): Talks slowly, especially the older generation of Mainers.
0:08:41 - (Jethro): I used to love going to the little corner store where we lived in Glenburn, Maine, because all of the old guys would gather there for donuts and coffee in the morning, and you'd hear the same stories over and over and over again. So, Dicky, do you ever tell you about the time the deer broke into my house? And everybody goes, yes. I had to fight him off with a spatula. My kitchen. Just lurking in my kitchen.
0:09:13 - (Kat): I used to work at a convenience store. Well, I worked at that convenience store, but I worked at a different convenience store, and we had a regular named Smiley who one time came in after mucking stalls, and I had just mopped the floor, and his boots were covered in shit. And I was like, literal shit out of this store immediately.
0:09:36 - (Jethro): You yelled at Smiley.
0:09:38 - (Kat): I did. I made him take his boots off.
0:09:40 - (Jethro): Well, I don't blame you there.
0:09:41 - (Kat): Outrageous. He was a good shit, though.
0:09:43 - (Jethro): Anyway, so were his boots, or they were just covered in it.
0:09:46 - (Kat): Barry Logan, the executive director of the center for Forensic Science Research and Education in Philadelphia, said, we all produce small amounts of alcohol from fermentation, but in most individuals, the levels are far too small to be measured. And normally, any fermentation that occurs in the gut is removed before it can get to the bloodstream. I didn't have any idea.
0:10:10 - (Jethro): Is that why we fart?
0:10:11 - (Kat): I don't think so. I'm just wondering if someone has abs. He said they would have to be producing alcohol at a rate which exceeds what can be removed in what's called the first pass. Treatment for autobrewery syndrome involves managing the underlying factors contributing to the condition, and that usually includes dietary modifications like reducing carbohydrates, avoiding foods that promote fermentation, and incorporating probiotics or certain antifungal medications to rebalance the gut microbiome.
0:10:46 - (Kat): In some cases, a keto diet could be recommended to minimize the production of ethanol in the body. It is a rare condition, and further research is needed to fully understand all of its factors, causes, risks, and treatment options. But if you suspect that you have abs, it is crucial to consult a healthcare professional, because this can fuck your shit up. I mean, that's not the technical term for it, but it's true.
0:11:14 - (Kat): How scary would that be for no one to believe that you haven't been drinking and your family doesn't believe you because you smell like booze and you're acting drunk. Come on.
0:11:26 - (Jethro): But you said this is incredibly rare, though. It is, like 100 cases that have been diagnosed, so at least the ODS are that you don't have it. But if you think you do, it's important to follow up.
0:11:41 - (Kat): And we talked about alpha gal syndrome, right? The tickmeat thing.
0:11:47 - (Jethro): Yeah.
0:11:47 - (Kat): And we had listeners who have dealt with that.
0:11:50 - (Jethro): That is an extremely rare condition as well. And we had, I can think of at least two people who wrote to us and said that they had never heard of it, but recognized the symptoms and went to their physician and were diagnosed with it because they heard your story. That's crazy.
0:12:08 - (Kat): That's why I want to talk about this, because this is serious. I got my information from the National Library of Medicine, Alcohol, American Journal of Gastroenterology, the BBC, and Mark's story came from today.
0:12:24 - (Jethro): That's fascinating. And now that thing in the middle, technology is an amazing thing. Because of laser based technology, the data transferring speed on the moon is up to 622 megabits. So you can stream high def movies faster on the moon than you can on earth. So maybe someday soon you can call your Internet provider and order the lunar broadband package if you can ever get them to answer their phone.
0:12:58 - (Jethro): Chris sent us an email. I've been a time listener having heard every episode of the show. I have a habit of not listening for a few weeks so that I can binge multiple episodes throughout my work day. Sadly, by doing this, I just found out today about haggis and I had to reach out with my condolences as well as something that I hope will help. Please see the attached photo of our newest family member, which we have officially dubbed Haggis II.
0:13:26 - (Jethro): In honor of your dearly departed, I hope to keep the spirit of such a wonderful presence alive and hope that it brings you some joy to know that you've touched many of us out here in many ways. Well, not in those ways. That would be weird. Or maybe not. Jethro is pretty cute and then sent a picture of a cute little puppy. That's really sweet. Thank you, Chris.
0:13:53 - (Kat): I don't know how to express the feelings inside without them coming out, so I'm just going to say, gosh, that's nice. And no more. I'm not going to say more about it.
0:14:08 - (Jethro): All right, Alex wrote to us too. What's up, foreigners? I just wanted to share with you guys a little something that happened to me a few years back relating to screwing up your balls on a motorcycle. Oh, pictures will do the story justice, so enjoy. Here's what happened to me after hitting a deer on my motorcycle going 55 mph. I've decided to be nice and not send you the picture of my baby makers after the fact.
0:14:41 - (Jethro): But I will say they were swollen in purple for about three weeks. Good news though is that they still work. My wife and I just had our first child six months ago. He's a beautiful, happy, healthy baby boy. I sent you a picture of him as well for enjoyment. Any hoozle. Love you guys. And be careful on motorcycles.
0:15:02 - (Kat): For real.
0:15:03 - (Jethro): The only podcast that has a mad crush on both Rob Lowe and Taylor Swift. I mean, they are both so cute. This is the box of oddities. If I asked you to say who invented the motion picture, what would your guess be?
0:15:24 - (Kat): That french guy.
0:15:26 - (Jethro): Well, there were actually a couple of french guys that were involved in the invention of motion picture. But the person who gets the most credit, of course, is Thomas Edison.
0:15:36 - (Kat): Did you want me to say Thomas? I can say Thomas Edison. Thomas Edison.
0:15:40 - (Jethro): I think most people would associate the motion picture with Thomas Edison.
0:15:45 - (Kat): Not me, though. I said those french guys.
0:15:47 - (Jethro): This is the curious case of Louis Le Prince. It's a name that many might not recognize, but whose legacy has influenced every film that we watch today. Le Prince was no ordinary guy. He was really a visionary. He was a french artist and an inventor who essentially set the foundation for modern cinematography. It was back in the late 19th century. Le Prince created something extraordinary. He engineered a single lens camera capable of capturing motion on film. We're talking about a device that recorded sequences of moving images years before the likes of Edison or the Lumiere brothers, which I believe was probably the.
0:16:32 - (Kat): That's what I was thinking of.
0:16:34 - (Jethro): Long before they made their mark, his most famous footage was recorded, and this is considered by many to be the actual very first piece of motion picture ever created. He recorded it in 1888 and it shows people walking around in a garden. A very simple but very groundbreaking piece of footage. It's known as round hay garden scene. It's considered to be the first true motion picture segment ever made.
0:17:05 - (Kat): Cool.
0:17:05 - (Jethro): And this is 1888. So we could very accurately refer to Le Prince as the great great great grandfather of every TikTok and YouTube video ever made, as well as every film in history. So a little time passes, and remember, this is a time of gaslights and top hats and cloaks, and Le Prince is gearing up for something really big. He's planning to go to the UK and then to the US to patent his invention. He was going to showcase it publicly, essentially to let everybody know, hey, I invented cinema. And again, long before Edison made any claims to it, long before anybody had. So he packs his bags and he heads to the train station in Dijon in France. He waves goodbye as he boards the train to Paris and then totally disappears. And no one has ever seen or heard from him again. He vanished.
0:18:05 - (Kat): What? This took a turn. This is not what I was expecting at all.
0:18:10 - (Jethro): He did not arrive in Paris. There are no more records. Just a man gone without a trace. He gets on this train to go do all of these exciting things and then just vaporizes when someone like Le Prince disappears, right before a significant breakthrough. You bet. There are going to be some conspiracy theories. And, boy, are there. Here's a couple of them. Number one, foul play by competitors.
0:18:39 - (Kat): Sure.
0:18:39 - (Jethro): Number two, suicide or voluntary disappearance. There's the possibility that he was facing financial and personal woes and chose to disappear or even end his life. It's a sad thought, but the pressures that he was under were undoubtedly intense at the time. But still, he's about to make this huge breakthrough, right? Was it an accidental death? Maybe just a tragic accident? Could he have met an untimely end along the journey? Maybe he fell off the train somehow and his body was never found.
0:19:14 - (Jethro): Then there's another theory, and this one feels a little bit more like it's, I don't know, a bit soap opera ish. Was family involved? Could there have been some kind of a dark family secret leading to his disappearance? It's a theory with a hell of a lot more drama than evidence, so most people have kind of put that aside.
0:19:34 - (Kat): Okay.
0:19:35 - (Jethro): Theft and murder is another one. Was he the victim of a crime of opportunity? Does someone see a chance to take advantage of an unsuspecting inventor? Or another theory? Did he decide to just start over and assume a new identity and live a life away from the limelight and the pressure, again, seems unlikely, considering he just invented motion pictures and he was on this big tour to make sure that he got his patents and he got the credit.
0:20:06 - (Jethro): Let's circle back to the foul play by competitors theory and one competitor in particular.
0:20:12 - (Kat): Edison.
0:20:13 - (Jethro): Thomas Edison. It's the theory with the most intrigue. The timeline of events surrounding Le Prince's disappearance and Thomas Edison's subsequent patent of the kinescope indeed raises some eyebrows.
0:20:29 - (Kat): Aha.
0:20:30 - (Jethro): And here's why. It was 1890 and he was about to publicly demonstrate his moving picture camera in the United States. He was confident in his invention. He had plans to file a patent for it. He was going to showcase it. This was going to establish him as the unequivocal father of cinematography. And again, he disappeared in 1890. Edison applied for a patent for his kinescope in 1891, the very next year after Prince's disappearance.
0:21:03 - (Jethro): Edison had been working on motion picture technology for some time, but his work had not come to the point that Le prince's had. So the closeness in the timing of Le Prince's planned demonstration and Edison's patent application is often considered more than just a coincidence. It suggests that Edison may have taken advantage of Le Prince's absence to assert dominance in the field. Or perhaps there are some even darker theories now, the late 19th century was a time of intense innovation, and competition in patent wars were very common, and Edison was known to fiercely be protective of his inventions and patents, or what he claimed were his inventions and patents. The disappearance of a competitor could have been seen as beneficial to Edison's ambitions.
0:21:56 - (Jethro): Edison later engaged in legal battles in an attempt to control completely the motion picture patents, all of them. In 1898, he filed a lawsuit against American Mudoscope company, claiming infringement. And during these proceedings, evidence regarding Le Prince's prior invention surfaced, which could have threatened Edison's claims. However, the disappearance of Le Prince meant that there was no one to contest Edison's position.
0:22:28 - (Jethro): It's all circumstantial evidence, of course. There is no smoking gun, no documents, testimonies or physical evidence that could be found to suggest that Edison had a hand in it. But it looks pretty bad.
0:22:42 - (Kat): Well, it could have also been not that Edison had a hand in his disappearance, but that someone saw that there was something Edison might be interested in and then offered it to him.
0:22:53 - (Jethro): That's true.
0:22:54 - (Kat): For money.
0:22:54 - (Jethro): Some kind of industrial espionage?
0:22:56 - (Kat): Right.
0:22:57 - (Jethro): Some accounts suggest that witnesses saw the prince in France after he supposedly boarded the train, which could indicate that he never actually made it onto the train.
0:23:07 - (Kat): But wasn't he going to France anyway? He was going from Dijon to Paris. Right?
0:23:12 - (Jethro): To Paris, and then to the UK and then to the US, I guess. So there is a theory that he never did make it onto the train or that something happened to him after disembarking along the way. Edison's behavior following Le prince's disappearance did not indicate any direct involvement. Edison continued his work and publicly did his demonstrations without acknowledging prince's prior achievements or the mystery surrounding his fate. He just didn't even acknowledge it.
0:23:40 - (Kat): But he was aware of Le Prince?
0:23:42 - (Jethro): Yes.
0:23:43 - (Kat): Okay.
0:23:43 - (Jethro): And it's true that Edison's work in patents were frequently challenged and questioned. This wasn't the only time. One of the most notable disputes revolves around the invention of the telephone. While Alexander Graham Bell was granted a patent for the telephone, Elijah Gray had submitted a caveat for a similar invention on the very same day. And that caveat signaled Gray's intention to file a patent for the art of transmitting vocal sounds or conversations telegraphically through an electric circuit. This scenario sparked a lot of historical speculation. And despite 600 legal battles challenging Bell's patent, the courts consistently ruled in favor of Bell. Edison, who later made significant improvements to the telephone transmitter, also found himself embroiled in legal disputes over this as well. Another significant dispute centered around probably his most famous invention, the light bulb.
0:24:40 - (Jethro): Edison's patent for the electric lamp faced legal challenges. And although the patent was initially upheld as valid, it was ultimately invalidated in a higher court. The legal battle surrounding Edison's patents reflected a fierce competition that was going on at this time among inventors. And then, of course, Edison's famous feud with Tesla. The war of the currents.
0:25:04 - (Kat): Right. Ac DC.
0:25:05 - (Jethro): The coincidences surrounding the timing of Edison's patent and Le prince's disappearance are indeed curious. And he obviously was involved in. He was accused by others of stealing ideas. But there's a lack of any concrete evidence connecting Edison and Le Prince's fate. So it's all just speculative historical records do not provide a clear narrative that could indict Edison. So we just don't know the true circumstances of Le Prince's disappearance.
0:25:36 - (Jethro): Likely more complex and less sensational than the Edison theory, but the man himself was still fascinating. And the circumstances surrounding his disappearance, it's one of those mysteries from history that remains unsolved that will drive me crazy.
0:25:54 - (Kat): Until the end of time.
0:25:56 - (Jethro): Until the end of time, Le Prince was mostly unrecognized for his work. It wasn't until much later that historians began piecing together his rightful place in the history of film. If he hadn't vanished, he probably would have been the father of modern cinematography.
0:26:14 - (Kat): Interesting.
0:26:15 - (Jethro): And today, the mystery of Louis Le Prince remains just that, a mystery. His disappearance is a puzzle. And the problem is the puzzle is missing a lot of pieces. So we can't really put together. We can only speculate what may have happened to Louis Le Prince. I got my information from the National Science and Media Museum blog, the BBC and the Smithsonian.
0:26:37 - (Kat): What do you think happened?
0:26:39 - (Jethro): I don't like the idea that Edison had him off. It does seem suspicious, the timing of things. But I think maybe you're on to something where it could have been a third party who did something and stole the diagrams and the plans and then sold them on the black market to Thomas Edison, the highest bidder at the time. That seems pretty likely to me, but they did a good job hiding the body.
0:27:09 - (Kat): Well, when you're on a train, you.
0:27:10 - (Jethro): Just throw Louie from the train.
0:27:13 - (Kat): Something like that.
0:27:16 - (Jethro): Just want to take a couple of minutes before we close to thank the newest members of the order of freaks. Bobby, Ryan, elise, liz, nicole, rifan, Martin, allison, sheila and deborah.
0:27:30 - (Kat): Thanks to those who joined us for our zoom last night. We had so much fun. And thank you for your insight. You are really like a little focus group for us. It works out really nicely.
0:27:41 - (Jethro): It does. If you'd like to become a member of the order of freaks and support the podcast on patreon, the link is on our website, theboxobodities.com, and we'll see you next time.
0:27:51 - (Kat): Until then, keep flying that freak flag.
0:27:53 - (Jethro): And fly it proudly. A beautiful free.