What a Weird Week gets you caught up on the odd, interesting, strange, fun, and weird news that happened this week. Ten stories in 15 minutes! Great conversation starters to amaze your friends and impress your colleagues! *may not impress your colleagues*
See https://www.shownotes.page or "What a Weird Week" where you get podcasts.
See https://www.shownotes.page or "What a Weird Week" where you get podcasts.
Hi friends, I'm Scott and this is What a Weird Week, a look at the odd, interesting, strange, fun and weird stories that made news this week. Ten stories in 15 minutes! Great conversation starters to amaze your friends and impress your colleagues! See bottom of shownotes page for a transcript of the podcast episode. To Subscribe/ get in touch/ other/ see www.shownotes.page.
Thanks for rating and reviewing along with subscribing!
These are the shownotes for Season 7, Ep 12 first published March 20th, 2026.
Thanks for rating and reviewing along with subscribing!
These are the shownotes for Season 7, Ep 12 first published March 20th, 2026.
10 Scientists at the University of Edinburgh make bacteria that converts plastic waste into a type of medicine used for treating Parkinson's disease, work on taking this from the lab to wide production. (https://www.heise.de/en/news/Genetically-modified-bacteria-convert-plastic-waste-into-Parkinson-s-drug-11213301.html)
9 Churning Butter While Running is a thing.
A new viral trend has runners making fresh butter by simply putting heavy cream in a bag and letting the jostling motion of their run do the churning. The science is straightforward: about an hour of constant agitation is enough to separate the fat molecules from the liquid, creating butter by the end of the workout. (https://www.runnersworld.com/news/a70683169/how-to-make-butter-while-running/) (https://parade.com/food/viral-running-butter).
Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdVr9suoMLg&t=7s
8 Woman hospitalized after startling encounter with robot!
It appeared behind her during an evening walk. It didn't make contact with the woman, but just the "appearing behind her" part was alarming enough to cause a brief hospitalization for what I would call "being freaked-the-heck-out by robot". I am not a medical professional and that is not an official diagnosis. (https://hongkongfp.com/2026/03/18/macau-woman-hospitalised-after-being-startled-by-humanoid-robot/).
It appeared behind her during an evening walk. It didn't make contact with the woman, but just the "appearing behind her" part was alarming enough to cause a brief hospitalization for what I would call "being freaked-the-heck-out by robot". I am not a medical professional and that is not an official diagnosis. (https://hongkongfp.com/2026/03/18/macau-woman-hospitalised-after-being-startled-by-humanoid-robot/).
Note: "Pronounced "Mah-GOW" or "Muh-COW", Macau, China is known as the "Las Vegas of Asia" due to its massive gaming industry." - internet.
7 How long until we have Goldfish Limo Drivers?! An engineer in the Netherlands built a fishmobile for his pet goldfish, Blub. How the setup works is Blub is in a fish tank, and the fish tank is in a fishmobile. Blub has made headlines for driving 40 feet in one minute, which is a World Record. (https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2026/03/13/netherlands-Guinness-World-Records-driving-goldfish/5971773414979/).
6 It's official! Last year's Cheetozard set a world record. ICYMI, there's this Flamin' Hot Cheeto that looks like a Pokemon. We featured it last year at this time, and also last week because we did a repeat show. Then by some wonderful coincidence, Cheetozard was back in the headlines! The Guinness Book folks have made it official that Cheetozard being auctioned off for $87,000 + is highest price paid for a video game likeness corn snack.
Background: the Pokemon-shaped Cheeto was discovered and preserved by a sports memorabilia company sometime between 2018 and 2022. Photos of the thing went viral in 2024.
Last year it sold for the World Record amount. (https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2026/03/16/Guinness-World-Records-Cheetozard-auction-Pokemon-Flamin-Hot-Cheetos/6521773670790/).
Background: the Pokemon-shaped Cheeto was discovered and preserved by a sports memorabilia company sometime between 2018 and 2022. Photos of the thing went viral in 2024.
Last year it sold for the World Record amount. (https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2026/03/16/Guinness-World-Records-Cheetozard-auction-Pokemon-Flamin-Hot-Cheetos/6521773670790/).
5 Dublin, Ohio did a Guinness World Record attempt by gathering over 1050 people to form the shape of a giant shamrock after its St. Patrick's Day parade. If confirmed, that would be a new world record. The old record of 800-and-something was set in Dublin, Ireland in 2013. It's a Shamrock Shake-up! (https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2026/03/18/Guinness-World-Records-human-shamrock/4521773847853/).
4 Twizzlers is releasing a new, limited-edition flavor of its edible straws inspired by dirty sodas
(https://people.com/twizzlers-launches-dirty-soda-inspired-twizzlers-straws-11922507).
(https://people.com/twizzlers-launches-dirty-soda-inspired-twizzlers-straws-11922507).
3 German researchers have successfully revived brain activity in flash-frozen mice brains. I'm not a scientist or a licensed mouseologist, so click the link for the whole sccop.
(https://nypost.com/2026/03/16/lifestyle/scientists-revive-frozen-brain-activity-in-cryosleep-leap/).#futureisnow
(https://nypost.com/2026/03/16/lifestyle/scientists-revive-frozen-brain-activity-in-cryosleep-leap/).#futureisnow
2 A 43-year study of over 131,000 people found that moderate daily intake of caffeinated coffee or tea is associated with a reduced risk of dementia and slower cognitive decline
(https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/03/260318033138.htm).
Bonus: A live Australian brushtail possum was discovered hiding among stuffed animals on a gift shop shelf at the Hobart Airport in Tasmania. Almost got away with it, but you can't hide those possum eyes.
(https://apnews.com/article/australia-airport-possum-toys-hobart-shop-c75cdac08eded76b93b4a33191fca56b).
Video https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Wv5nqVWgCAI
1 Athlete Muhammad Arshad has set a new Guinness World Record by performing 66 thumb pushups in one minute with one leg raised. Shoutout to Ben "Hoops" Hooper at United Press International for this one. See (https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2026/03/19/pakistan-Guinness-World-Records-thumb-pushups/4621773931031/).
Video https://youtu.be/IxYhS9__18c?si=IbXTtD0M3kzoovhq
Transcript below.
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Transcript:
What a Weird Week!
00:22
Hi friends, I'm Scott and this is What a Weird Week, a look at the odd, interesting, strange, fun and weird stories that made news this week. Ten stories in 15 minutes. And I would say also great conversation starters, right? To amaze your friends and family, perhaps your colleagues. you want to get all the show notes, we leave them at the website, shownotes.page. Everything about our podcast as well, shownotes.page. Here we go. Our episode first published March 20th, 2026.
00:47
They made a bacteria that converts plastic waste into a type of medicine used for treating Parkinson's disease. I got to say, this is one of the greatest good news stories I've ever heard. Like in seven seasons of doing this show in a world where we have terrible news all the time. This is they've made a bacteria that will get rid of our plastic garbage and turn it into medicine that will help a lot of people. How is this not on the front page of everything?
01:15
All front pages. This is an all front pager. If you want to read more, we'll put the link in the show notes. Right now it's just a lab thing. Like they can do it in the lab and they're working on making it into, you know, like a wide production thing to help a lot of people. Number nine. Number nine is turning butter while running, which is a thing. And perhaps you knew this. This is something that I believe is a trend on TikTok. I would not have seen it though, because
01:41
I am not physically fit, but maybe if you're a runner, you've seen that people are churning butter while running. It was a bit of a mystery to me why it came across my algorithm. But then I realized, of course, butter. I enjoy delicious butter. So the algorithm found me and this has been making headlines. Runners will put heavy cream and salt in a sealed bag in their hydration vest. And then when you run five to six miles, you end up with
02:10
Delicious fresh churned butter at the end of your run I mean what a way to end a workout with a big old bag of butter delicious butter Tuck in and enjoy you worked hard for that butter. I hope that dairy companies hear this and sponsor races where people churn butter Maybe next Olympics they could have the 10,000 meter butter dash
02:35
just brainstorming here. eight is a robot uprising story. Woman hospitalized after startling encounter with robot.
02:45
She is out for an evening stroll. Just imagine you're minding your own beeswax out for a stroll and this robot came up behind her. It didn't make contact with her, but just the appearing behind her part was alarming enough to cause a brief hospitalization for what I would call being freaked out by a robot. I'm not a medical professional. That is not an official diagnosis. So this happened in Macau or Macau.
03:12
China, I'm not good at pronouncing things. This particular part of China has the nickname the Las Vegas of Asia. They have a big gaming industry. I didn't know any of this before this story. The robot was owned by a company was being tested by a company. It's like a promotional thing. So imagine you're walking around downtown and there's this robot and it gets your attention and then it tells you to buy a product or go to a business. That I think is the gist. That's kind of the idea of the
03:42
promotional robot, but it you know has potential to freak a person out if you're not prepared for a world where Robots are walking around and you see something like that that would freak my bean I guess in conclusion. I will just say this I'm pretty sure we're all on the same page the robot uprising is coming maybe not today Maybe not tomorrow, but probably next week
04:06
Number seven is about Blub the goldfish who set a world record. There's an engineer in the Netherlands who built a fishmobile for his pet goldfish Blub. And how this works is Blub is in the fish tank and the fish tank is in a fishmobile. And whenever Blub swims, the technology so fantastic the car moves, the fishmobile moves as Blub swims. Recently, Blub made headlines for driving 40 feet in one minute.
04:36
That is a Guinness World Record for driving goldfish. For a driving goldfish to go 40 feet in one minute, that is quite substantial. It's pretty great to see. It'll make you smile. Click the show notes, go to shownotes.page if you want to see what the whole setup looks like. If you want to get a glimpse of Blubb, if you don't have time to click, I will say, Blubb looks like a goldfish. You know, if you picture a goldfish in your brain, you're probably pretty close to what Blubb looks like.
05:05
I'm not sure if we're headed towards a future where you order a limo or a taxi or a car service and a fish shows up to pick you up, but definitely something there for the makers of Zootopia 3. Number six. Number six. It's official. Last year's Cheetosard has set a world record. In case you missed it, there's this flaming hot Cheeto that looks like a Pokemon. We featured it last year on the show. And then also we featured it last week because we did a repeat.
05:35
because I was on March break. Then by some wonderful coincidence, Cheetosard was back in the headlines this week. The Guinness Book folks have made it official that Cheetosard being auctioned off for $87,000 and something is the highest price paid for a video game likeness corn snack. That's the official world record. Highest price paid for a video game likeness corn snack. And just for background, in case you missed it, the Pokemon shaped Cheeto
06:04
discovered and preserved by a sports memorabilia company. is, you know, a few years ago. Photos of the thing go viral. And last year it sold for that world record amount. And I was dubious that it really was a natural Cheeto. I thought somebody 3D printed it almost or something. It's almost a perfect representation of Charizard in Cheeto form. I don't...
06:31
No Pokemon and all that. And maybe I mispronounced all of the things, but if you want to see a photo, you can click the show notes or go to show notes dot page. Number five is what they did in Dublin, Ohio on St. Patrick's Day. They tried for a Guinness World Record by gathering over 1050 people to form the shape of a giant shamrock. Kind of ingenious how they did it. It was after their St. Patrick's Day parade. So they were like, hey, everybody, did you enjoy the parade? Let's
07:01
keep the festivities going and they formed a giant shamrock. If confirmed, it will be a new world record. It just has to be made official by the Guinness world record folks. The old record was 800 and some people set in Dublin, Ireland. It's a shamrock shakeup y'all. four is a publicity stunt or perhaps it is just a product that is getting a lot of publicity, but no stunt involved. This is about the Twizzlers straws.
07:31
If you're unfamiliar, our show goes out over the WWW. So maybe they don't have Twizzlers where you are, but it's like a licorice stick. think Red Vines is another very popular brand at some places. So you have Twizzlers, licorice in straw form. So it's like you use the Twizzlers as a straw and then you can eat the straw when you're done drinking. I remember doing this as a kid. I think it was maybe even frowned on at the time. But now we're saving the environment drinking through Twizzler straws.
08:00
Well, they came out with a new limited edition flavor inspired by dirty soda, which is still something I don't quite understand. Dirty soda is like soda and cream. I think that's what you do, right? You take, you start with soda or pop and you add some cream and some other flavors in there. And then that is your dirty soda. Well, now that's the flavor of this Twizzler straw. three, the headline I'm going to say is the future is now maybe in post you can put some echo on that.
08:30
The future is now! German researchers have successfully revived brain activity in flash frozen mice brains. I'm oversimplifying it and I'm not very smart, but essentially they were able to bring back the mouse brain from frozen state and get it to a place where it could learn and remember. I'm sure you're aware that there are some people who have had themselves parts of themselves cryonically frozen.
08:59
waiting for this day when technology would catch up and science would catch up and it could be unfrozen. Well, we're not quite there yet. This is early stages in the laboratory to be continued. The future is almost now. This one is good news if you enjoy coffee or tea. A 43 year study of over 130 some thousand people found that moderate daily intake of caffeinated coffee or tea
09:28
is associated with reduced risk of dementia and slower cognitive decline. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think there used to be a time where you would read a study about coffee and it was always bad news. Coffee makes your butt fall off or things like that. Maybe that's not one. There's been a lot of studies on coffee and lately it's been some good news. And this one includes tea. I sort of just did the top line info there, but if you want to do a deep dive into that study, you can click shownotes.page.
09:58
Honorable mention. This one you probably saw or heard about the Australian brush tail possum that was discovered hiding amongst the stuffed animals at a gift shop in the airport in Tasmania. Somebody noticed all these stuffed animals, right? And then somebody noticed the eyes were moving. One of the things, one of the cuter stuffed animals had high tech moving eyes. And it wasn't a stuffed animal. It was an actual animal. And that is kind of the story.
10:28
If you want to see photos, click show notes dot page. The possum was rescued before anyone could, you know, purchase it. Number one. Our number one story this week is a Guinness world record about thumb pushups. A fellow who performed 66 thumb pushups in a minute. So more than one thumb pushup a second on one leg. And a thumb pushup isn't like thumb wrestling or something. It's not like just the thumbs are moving. You're doing pushups.
10:56
supported by your thumbs and in this case with one leg raised. 66 in a minute. So at first I was like, well, how hard can a thumb pushup be? It turns out pretty hard. So I would caution, maybe do not try until you consult with your physician and personal trainer. If you want to read more of the story or see what a thumb pushup looks like in action, you can click shownotes.page. That's a wrap on this week's What a Weird Week Show. Thanks for listening.
11:26
You check out all the show notes on our show notes page at shownotes.page. We'll catch you next week with ten more weird stories from the news on What a Weird Week.
11:40
If you listen this long, we're going to play a song that we had for St. Patrick's Day. Sometimes we post videos and songs on the What a Weird Week social media. This one for St. Patrick's Day was about the leprechaun who was also a sheriff.
12:05
In the tiny town of Shillelaghville, every day is St. Patrick's Day. And when bad guys start actin' up, Sheriff Leprechaun is on the way! Leprechaun, Sheriff, Sheriff Leprechaun, he rides a tiny horse! Leprechaun, Sheriff, Sheriff Leprechaun, he'll take you down by force!
12:36
If you rob a Leprechaun bank or start a Leprechaun war Sheriff Leprechaun will bring the hurt you're going down for sure Leprechaun Sheriff Sheriff Leprechaun his handcuffs fit tiny wrists Leprechaun Sheriff Sheriff Leprechaun his shillelagh is really just a taser Leprechaun Sheriff