It's Friday, Sept 11th, 2026 and here is your weird news update featuring some of the odd, and fun things from the news. This is What a Weird Week.
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TRANSCRIPT for Season 7, Episode 37, first aired on 11 Sept 2026:
Intro Which coffee is best on stress? Are you developing pumpkin spice fever? Also, the Statue of Liberty made out of chips. What a weird week. Hi friends, I am Scott. This is the program we call What a Weird Week. It's your weird news update. This episode dropping on Friday, September 11th, 2026. You can get all the stuff we talk about in more detail on the show notes page, which is show notes dot page.
Number 10: Kicking things off this week, some more coffee research where it would seem, not a scientist, but it would seem as though drinking coffee is not a bad choice. So, if you have been on the fence about whether or not to drink this beverage known as coffee, you may want to read this article and you may want to try. Consult your physician first, your dietician, your barista, your spiritual advisor, but maybe coffee. Because we link to an article or write up about some research where they gave coffee to mice. And just a side note, every time I read that the mice are drinking the coffee, I imagine them sitting around with teeny tiny coffee mugs. The barista going around, would you like a top up? The mouse is like, squeak. Anyway, they were giving the coffee to the mice and then studying the effects of chronic stress on the brain. Because chronic stress can do stuff to your brain. Stress induced memory loss, that's one. Also, they talk about mood deterioration. That doesn't sound good for your mood. Another thing that can happen with chronic stress. So, drinking regular coffee, it would seem as though that protects your brain from the effects of chronic stress. Regular coffee. Here's the weird thing, decaf coffee, you get no benefits. The caffeine coffee benefits. The decaffeinated coffee, nah. So, I'll end on that note, that scientific note of nah. If you want to read the whole thing, you can click the show notes or our show notes page is shownotes.page.
Number 9: Number nine is about the cyborg cockroaches. The headline from Spectrum is cyborg roaches can stab you with needles. And that got my attention. That doesn't sound great, but it's actually good news. So, this article is about how they can hook up electronics to a cockroach. And what they're planning is the cockroach can deliver medicine or aid to people in disaster zones. Cockroach can get in there and give you a life-saving dose of medicine. The article says, imagine you're trapped under rubble after an earthquake and you see an electronics covered cockroach with a spring-loaded needle on its back scuttling towards you. That's one of the quotes from the article. And if you do that, if you do imagine that cockroach scuttling towards you, well, that doesn't seem... I don't know if that would lift my spirits, but it is solving a problem. The article gets into it and there is a wonderful, terrifying photo of a cockroach, zoomed in, up close cockroach with all this electronic stuff, tiny electronic stuff on its back. So, if you want to check that out, you can click the show notes. We'll put a link there.
Number 8: Number eight is that flight that got diverted to Baltimore. It was going Texas to New Jersey. It lands in Baltimore because a passenger allegedly started screaming and getting violent and innocent till proven guilty, all of that stuff. But if it's true, there's no room for violence on an airplane. Literally, there's no room. Like, we're all crammed in there and we're all worried about, I hope the hotel didn't screw up the reservation. Did I lock the front door? Where's my passport? We're all in the same boat. Wait, we're all in the same plane. And so, there's no room for violence. This passenger allegedly got violent and some other passengers duct taped them to their seat. And it is a photo that got shared a kajillion times around the internet because, well, you can imagine, it is a wonderful photo of somebody who, in our brain, we're like, that person deserves to be duct taped to their seat. And again, innocent till proven guilty. But if you want to see the photo, you don't have to click, though. You can just imagine an airline seat with a 67-year-old man duct taped to it. But if you want to click, we'll put a link in the show notes or go to shownotes.page.
Number 7: Number seven is the grave digging competition hosted by the Hungarian Association of Cemetery Maintainers and Operators. They had a grave digging race where teams of two dig a grave. It had to be the right dimensions. And you would just dig that grave as fast as possible. How long do you think it would take? I had no idea. And I almost googled it. And then I thought, no, you know what? Maybe don't have that in your search history, Scott. How long would it take me to dig a grave? So, I didn't google it. And I was surprised to learn the winning time in the grave digging race, one hour, 21 minutes. Do you want to read more about this competition? We will link to that in the show notes.
Number 6: Number six is the Statue of Liberty made out of Doritos. A lady in Arizona, United States of America, in the headlines for creating a Statue of Liberty replica, a seven-foot-tall replica of the Statue of Liberty out of Doritos. The lady's name is Gabby. Gabby claims that she had no prior art background, but made a beautiful, Gabby, you made a beautiful statue out of Doritos. This was for a contest with Doritos. And in a travesty, Gabby did not win the big prize money. However, the article says Gabby is in talks with Doritos about something. So, to be continued. Gabby, even though you didn't win the big prize money, this is your calling. You made a beautiful work of art out of Doritos. And I imagine it wasn't easy. You get all that stuff on your fingers. Got to deal with that. Probably you get hungry. You just want to eat the Doritos. Got to overcome that. And then Doritos, I imagine, would break a lot as you're constructing your Statue of Liberty. So, you overcame a lot of things and made a beautiful, delicious work of art. I say now we get some funding and you cover the actual Statue of Liberty in Doritos. That has to happen, Gabby. Serious.
Number 5: Number five is pumpkin spice disaster. Not really a disaster. This is based on some research from the United Kingdom. Hello to our friends in the United Kingdom and thank you for the data. They looked at the fall menu at perhaps your favorite coffee place. They looked at some famous drinks, some famous coffee places. And the pumpkin spice menu or fall menu, mostly they were looking at calories and how much sugar is in the drink. The majority of your drinks on the fall menu have more sugar than recommended. Is that a shock? You're not shocked, are you? But actually, pumpkin spice latte came in lower than they thought as far as calories goes. You could do worse than pumpkin spice latte. That's a pretty good slogan, eh? You could do worse than pumpkin spice latte. I gave that one away for free. I can't believe it.
Number 4: Number four is an interesting study involving traditional Japanese floor mats made of grass. I think it's pronounced igusa grass. I tried. I practiced. And I still feel like I'm doing the opposite of nailing it when I say igusa grass. Traditional Japanese grass mat. And 17 volunteers were involved in this study. So not a big study at all. But some of the volunteers were in a test room with plastic mats. Some were in a room with the traditional Japanese floor mats made of grass. And the volunteers did different tasks. After a couple of days, they crunched the numbers. The volunteers in the room with the grass mat had faster reaction time, better anxiety scores, things like that. So a small study, but some sort of correlation between the grass mat and better outcomes. So I like the idea of less anxiety. I'm not sure if I would want to mow my living room. Yes, you know what? I would. I would do it for less anxiety. And you wouldn't have to vacuum. I hope this research pans out because this sounds great.
Number 3: This one, let's do a trigger warning real quick. If you don't like snakes, heads up. If you don't like spiders, heads up. It's a double trigger warning. Double trigger. The headline from Popular Science, snake that hunts with fake spider on its tail shocks scientists. First side note here. Let me say, Popular Science, I don't know if you did this on purpose with your headline. But when you talk about a snake shocking scientists, I was picturing an electric snake, like an electric eel, but on land. So while I'm relieved that those things don't exist, what they meant was the scientists were surprised as they studied this. So, while I am relieved that those things don't exist, what they meant was the scientists were surprised as they studied the snake that it had a tail that looked like a spider and that is to attract birds. And then, you know, lunch time for the snake. Now the snake is called the spider-tailed horned viper and it is one creepy looking snake. If you want to see what it looks like, if you want to read the article, we will link to that in the show notes.
Number 2: Number two is the Guinness Book of World Records. Where would we be, our show, the What a Weird Week show, where would we be without the Guinness Book of World Records? Oftentimes we cover the fun records that make the news and now the Guinness Book of World Records is in the news because the 2027 edition is coming out. And there's an article about some of the new records that were set in the latest edition. The narrowest drivable car is a car that looks, it looks like a fake photo. A very skinny car, I imagine very easy to park. The car is less than 20 inches wide. Also have a look at the world's largest hairdryer. It looks like a legit hairdryer. It's purple. It looks like a movie prop, really five foot nine inches long, five foot three inches tall and a functioning hairdryer. For big hair. Somebody had to say it. It's for big hair, right? We will link to that article. Click the show notes or go to show notes dot page.
Number 1: for number one and inspiring world record. But I want you to imagine I invite you out to play disc golf. Come on, let's go. Let's do disc golf. Come on. If you don't have time, well, guess what? Yes, you do. Because the world record in the headlines this week, the world record for the fastest hole of disc golf. How fast do you think a team of four finished a hole of disc golf? The world record time, 44 seconds and something. So imagine you tee off, you whip that frisbee, you run like heck, pick up the frisbee, throw it again. 44 seconds and they finished a hole of disc golf. And that is a world record inspiration. You set your mind to doing something and you practice. You might be able to do that thing and do it fast. If you want to read about the world record, we will link to that in the show notes.
Outro That's going to do it for this week's What a Weird Week show. Our look at the weird news of the week, the strange and the fun stories from the news. If you want to get anything about our podcast or any of our links, or if you want to get in touch, everything is on the show notes page, which is shownotes.page. And that again is where the show notes are also. Maybe tell a friend about our program as we try to grow. Maybe tell an enemy. Maybe tell someone you're apathetic to. We'll catch you next Friday with more weird stuff from the news on What a Weird Week.