Lab 020: Our 2019 Mixtape

It's that time of year again where you get all the countdown lists.

Right, everybody has those countdowns, like on television. It's like, oh, top whatever of twenty nineteen, Top whatever of the decade. Yeah. Spotify also did their end of the year rap Who was your top artist? Ari Lennox? That fits for you so much? Who was your You are a shade butter baby, I am? I am. I feel like she's my friend in my head.

My top songs.

I want to know artist? How do I see that? It was probably Holling Oates. Let's just say that and let's just continue.

This is shady. My top artist was Summer Walker.

That is fitting.

Can you guess who my number two artist is?

Is it the Dream? It is the Dream?

Okay?

And my number three artists is one of my favorite rappers. A lot of people don't know him, but I like him a lot. He's kind of up and coming, and he's from the lou Saint Louis is it.

Saint Louis Is?

That's what it's called.

Saint Louis. No, no, not everything is French. As a kid doesn't know what the word is.

Get to a friend, I know it's Saint Louis, I'm T T and I'm Zakiah and from Spotify Studios.

This is dope laps. So everybody's doing these countdowns and everything like that. Yes, should I list mine? Yeah? My number two artists was the best Baby, of course. I don't think anybody was able to guess my number three artists. It was the Testy Brothers. Have you heard of them? No, it's a group. They are very soulful, okay, But number four was DJ Mustard I loved perfect. Ten was Fire. I don't know anybody says, don't at me, don't at me, don't at me. I don't give on the beat, that's right.

I love T Grizzly whenever I'm.

Feeling down, no effort, come on now.

So we have some top songs, and we also have some top moments.

How is your twenty nineteen? Though my twenty nineteen was phenomenal, twenty nineteen was very exciting for us. We launched a podcast.

Every other week in your Ear.

I can't believe it, and y'all keep showing up, and I love you for that, right, I just feel like my internet life has grown so much. I have a whole family from people that listen to the podcast. I just go in there. I look at those stories. When I wake up in the morning, I.

Say, oh, look at what great Price is doing.

Look at what right I'd be like, Okay, Respiration Junkie is doing this new house.

Do you see all those plants at her house.

She has a lot of plans. I can't even keep my one piece lily alive, and I am very jealous.

That's why I haven't brought that.

I had started a plant for you, but I'm scared you gonna kill It's gonna die, and so I just keep it at my house and you can look at it when you come home.

I'll enjoy it. From Afar, I think it'd be really fun if we take some of our favorite twenty nineteen moments and make it into like a twenty nineteen mixtape.

Ooh, I love that girl. I'm ready. Let's dive in.

So we're gonna run through all of our twenty nineteen top moments. Yeah, for each of these topics. What we're gonna be doing is just a little mini dissection of each.

We're gonna give you the category, our favorite moment from twenty nineteen, and just a little bit of the science behind it.

Tell them what the categories are Z.

All right, so drum roll please, we need a real drum roll.

You're always good at that, Okay, Our twenty nineteen year in review, our four categories. We're going to address our music, sports, tech, and politics. All right, So let's jump off with music.

Some of the artists that I feel like really took twenty nineteen by the horns and just sword all the way to the top. Billie Eilish, Yes, the Baby first.

He's a North Carolina native, and I think the Baby will replace Pete Pablo Lil.

Nasax definitely took advantage of his superstardom and took that all the way to the top. You know, I think Summer Walker, oh my gosh, yes, Summer Walker and Ari Lennox, they showed up and showed out absolutely well you know who we haven't mentioned who. And I think it's time for everybody to gather around the campfire because it's time to salute our new queen. Mmmm yeah.

Probably thought I was gonna say Lizzo, but I'm gonna say Megan thee Stallion. You show me anybody else who can say, yes, I'm a woman, but I'm a male horse. Okay, yes, I'm a woman. I'm a male horse, and I run the gammuck she can. I was like, is this Pepsy?

It's Pepsy back.

Honestly, Megan thee Stallion is probably one of the better rappers out right now, and she has really been taken over all of the charts and has been taken over the zeitgeist because of Hot Girl Summer. Yes, and Hot Girl Summer. Everybody was talking about it. I don't care who you were, your mama, your grandmama, your granddaddy. Everybody was talking about Hot Girl Summer. My mom better not be saying hot Girl Summer. But yes, everyone was talking

Yes, how old is Megan thee Stallion.

She's like twenty four. I don't think I could have done that at twenty.

Four, I don't think.

So she gets low and she stays down there and I'm like, you, okay, sis right, somebody would have to help me up.

It's amazing to me, and I thought, let's do a little bit of science behind that, because people are not really appreciating what Megan thee stallion is doing.

So let's break down the art of getting low.

And I think in order to do that, we really have to kind of just turn the complex twerks that megane stallion does into a basic movement. Yes, the square root, oh, like the square root of a twerk.

Is a squat.

Absolutely so for a squat, the major muscles that you are using are your quads, your calves, and your glutes. But there are also other ligaments and tendons that are super important, like your IT band.

This is your.

Illeo tibial band. Okay, this ligament is right along the thigh bone, so it extends from your knee all the way up to your hip. It is the thickest and longest tenon in your entire body.

Basically your IT band and the muscles that are associated with it help you extend, abduct, and basically rotate your hip. It also contributes to knee stabilization.

And that brings us back.

To what you said, TG that meganistallion has knees of vibranium.

Yes, yes, and so I think the vibranium pieces are her it band for sure. But there are also some other parts of your knees that are very important. Right.

Yes, your knee has tons of ligaments to keep it stabilized. So first you have your ACL, and that's your anterior cruciate ligament. And so I think everybody's heard of that athletes tear the ACL all every other day.

It's really a sad story.

The MCL, that's your medial collateral ligament, and that stabilizes the inner part of your knee, and the outer part of your knee is stabilized by the lateral collateral ligament or the LCL.

Okay, so ACL in the front, MCL in the middle, and LCL on the side, and all of those things, those powers combined prevent you from flipping your leg backwards like a cricket.

That's right.

Keeping everything in line. Now, some of y'all at play sports, you know you've seen a torn ACL, MCL, whatever, l or just somebody taking a nail, and I haven't seen her take one.

That's right. So with all those things in mind, it seems like Megan the stallion, those ligaments and tendons are just superior to the rest of us. Really, there's no way you can become like Megan the Stallion if you aren't already. Now, I've seen some of you on these internets, and some of you are Megan the Stallion adjacent because of your ability to get low and stay low. I am not there.

Yeah, we'll just continue reporting. Okay, we're ready to move on to our next category. Next up is sports. Now, first we got to shout out DC Sports.

Yes, that's the home team. So men Zakia live right outside of DC in Maryland. So all those DC teams are the home team, except for the football team because they need to change their name. The Nationals, the Capitals, and the Mystics, they all brought the chip home this year and so we are very proud.

Another proud moment in sports was a women's soccer team. Oh my goodness, that was so funn the watch.

Yes, Megan her Pino.

Is a hero. Yes anything and Sports and Sports Illustrated made her their Athlete of the Year.

I'm behind that, I can see it.

You know.

Team USA did their thing and they really had her. She was a great leader on and off the field this year. But the Dope Labs Athlete of the Year. My inner Dominique Dolls is very very proud Simone Biles.

That's right.

Simon Bows showed y'all that you ain't never done a flip like that before.

You thought you was flipping, but you wasn't. You was just standing still.

You don't know what power is, and I definitely don't understand gravity or physics when it's coming. When it comes to what she is doing. I saw her do a flip in some jeens. Okay, sometimes I feel like my jeens don't even cooperate when I sit down.

Let me tell you, into my chair.

I was sitting too long in a pair of jeans, and I thought I was going to die. I couldn't do a flip.

I couldn't believe it.

Simone Biles has not only just obliterated the playing field like no one is coming close to her, she also is doing these new tricks that are being named after her. There's the Biles and then there's the Biles two.

One wasn't even enough. I am blown away. I'm like, what's next?

Right? So for this section, we're gonna be dissecting the Biles two, which is a triple double flip. She's doing two flips and three twists. That's how you get the triple double.

So here's the biles too. She begins to jump up defy gravity, and she begins her first twist. As she's doing that twist to rotate around, she's completing her first flip. Before that flip is done, she does a complete rotation again, another three sixty degree twist. Then she completes her second flip as she's twisting for the third twist, second flip, and she lands smooth as butter perfect ten and she lands.

So it just seems so soft too. I don't know how she does it her ankles. What are her ankles made of the same stuff that Megan the Stallion's knees are made out of. So the Biles two can be broken down into three basic movements, a jump, a flip, and a twist. So first you have a jump. So we're all held to the ground by gravity, the gravitational force, and that's called G when somebody's in space. That's why

Okay, so to jump.

High you really have to propel yourself up.

So if you want to jump up and stay up, which.

Is what Simone is doing, she's practically levitating up there, you've really got to be very very strong.

And then you have a flip. And the flip is your heels coming up above your head. Yes, so when we think of like a summrsault, that's.

A flip exactly. But the technique that she uses is what's really special. When she's doing this flip, she tucks her arm in her leg while she's in the air, and this actually makes her speed up while she's doing the flip. What right, then you have a twist, and the twist part, she also has another special technique that she does where she puts one arm up and one

That is crazy. So Simone Bowles is a physicist. That's what you're telling me.

Yes, give that girl a PhD, doctor, Simone Biles. So far we've discussed music and sports, but coming up after the break, we're gonna jump into technology and politics. And we're back and next up in our mixtape is tech.

There are a lot of great things that happen. The iPhone eleven came out. Yes, I didn't know I needed three lenses, but I did.

We all did. I have three lenses Now.

I think the technology that I've seen advancing and just appearing everywhere is facial recognition software.

As so, absolutely it is everywhere. None of us, let me repeat, none of us have not used facial recognition technology. A lot of y'all are out there thinking that you haven't, but you have all these filters, honestly, every single filter.

I think that's where it started.

Snapchat. You know.

I used to say Snapchat is creepy, Snapchat is crazy, And before I knew it, I had dog gears and it.

Happened so fast.

It was the flower crown.

I was enjoying it great, and then I was like, how does it know where to put these freckles? How does it know where to put this nose because it recognizes your face.

Girl, exactly. So the way that facial recognition technology works is that one it's technology that's able to recognize a human face and then measure its features. And every face has distinguishable landmarks and different peaks and valleys and things like that. Your face is a map, right, Like Zakia has big eyes and I have a big fourhead. Do you not have big eyes? I can see will the white parts don't see? But and each human face has about eighty nodal points, which are these landmarks. And so

Yes, And we didn't even stop there. We said thank you, Snapchat, I'll have another, and then we started doing these things where we were saying age me ten years exactly. I want to see what I'm going to look like when I'm wrinkley, And a lot.

Of people did it. It's a lot of fun. But the difference, I think the difference is is like what folks are doing with that information later on, and the technology is advancing. So facial recognition used to only be two D. Now we have three D facial recognition.

What what does it mean.

That iPhone that you have when you have unlocked with your face. But when you were trying to.

Set that up, it said to turn to the side.

It said look to the camera, look into the camera, and turn your head all around. So I did it to that three D facial recognition technology knows every nook and cranny of that face.

And that makes so much sense because now now they have all the markers on my face, right. So that's why when I have my sunglasses on, it still knows who I am because it has all these other markers from all around, right.

Or if your phone is on the table and you're looking down at it, it still knows that it's you. Yeah.

But you know what, when I'm sleepy and I swipe up in that phone unlocks, I say thank you Steve Job.

But this technology is really cool and really useful for a lot of other things. So people are able to use this, like for crimes and things like that. Like if you have a mugshot, they're able to scan that mugshot into facial recognition technology. And let's say they're looking for that criminal or the alleged criminal in a sea of people, They're able to locate that person based on that Based on that mugshot. The government already has your face.

And I think, you know, I felt like I'm just gonna take it back. And y'all some of y'all might not remember this, but I remember y two K and people were scared of computers. Okay, we were like, oh, what are they gonna do when it resets to two thousand.

Everybody's withdrawing all their money from their bank account.

Yes, we had so much bottled water.

And when you think about that and how skeptical we were, and now I'm like, when I can't purchase with Apple pay or PayPal or something where I have my information stored and it just needs to scan my face.

I cancel it. Yeah, I'm like, no, you think it ain't worth it.

You want me first of all, I'm shopping in the night.

You want me. It's shopping by the light of the moon. You want me to throw those covers back. Damned up with my non MEGANI stallion knees and non someone biles ankles, risk my it band, risk it all to go get that wallet. It's not happening.

And by the time I make all those steps, I'm like, you don't need to buy this. You have enough candles. How many greeting cars.

Do you need to buy? I love to buy people's art own greeting cards.

I said this the other day. I was like, you do not need a sweatshirt. This is cool, aunt, Yes, you do.

The thing what people forget is that all of this technology has to be It needs data to be trained. And I feel like no one is slowing down and saying, wait a minute, is this the best idea?

Yes?

Like t T said, this technology takes all of these different pieces of information and it's relational. It says, okay, I see this is these peaks are up here. Those are your eyebrows, and some of y'all drawing them too high, but that's not what we're going to talk about.

And they say, these are your eyebrows.

And then over here this shiny part right here, these are your cheeks, you know, And so it makes a.

Match highlighter too much highlight?

Okay, that nars albatross t tbot that four years ago, and I'm.

And we've been painting ourselves with it Tennyson's and so it takes all this information. It says, this is a face.

But one of the things that we've been seeing come up in the news about this type of technology is biased. When people are pro and creating this software, they're saying, this is what a face should look like. And if you only train these systems or this technology on a certain type of face, then yeah, you always expect the face to look narrow, plenty nose, little eyes.

Some of us have big eyes. Okay, And I think it's so important.

You know, this technology is only as good as the people designing it and the data sets that they use to train it. So this is great technology, but there's so much room for improvement to eliminate bias, right, and that bias can lead to technology that ends up being sexist or racist, and that's also been in the news. So while yes, we all love dog ears and flower crowns and the smooth skin filter on Instagram.

Yes, it's perfect on a long day, there's still so much more to do when we think about this technology being implemented in other areas and it's inclusivity. And next up in our mixtape is politics.

And you may be thinking, why do we have to hear about this.

Again, Well, it's because all these things are very important to our everyday lives. It's important who is in these positions of power and what they're doing and all these things like that, So we're gonna talk about it. I feel like the story of the year has been crime. Who's doing crime, When did the crime occur, who was in on the crime? How many crimes did they do?

Was it enough crime? More importantly, is it enough crime to be impeached?

Right?

So our twenty nineteen political moment is around impeachment. Now, I've seen your tweets, I've seen your Instagram stories, and I'm a little worried because it seems like y'all think impeachment is actual removal from office, and I hope I don't sound ridiculous, but that's not what impeachment is. Impeachment is just the filing of formal charges. You can be impeached and still remain president. I know y'all didn't forget Bill Clinton, right, who was impeached but then remain president

In Article two, Section four of the Constitution, it gives the House of Representatives the sole right to impeach an official, and an official can be the President, the vice president, or any civil officers of the United States.

There is Congress, right, and Congress is split into two houses. The higher house is the Senate, in the lower house is the House of Representatives. I thought that Congress had the right to impeach. I didn't know it was only the House of Representatives.

So the reason why the framers, which is the people who drafted up the Constitution, put this into it was because prior to the Constitution being drafted up, each state had impeachment laws for their government officials, and so they saw that and said, this is really important, and it's important because it keeps all of our government officials in check.

So let's give the general flow chart of how impeachment works. Impeachment starts in the House of Representatives. So the House has this committee called the Judiciary Committee, and if impeachment is pursued, the House tells the Judiciary Committee to review all the evidence and see if there are sufficient grounds to impeach. Then the whole House votes on whether or not to impeach, and all it requires is a simple majority.

Just a quick note here, we've actually never had a president be forcibly removed from office as a result of an impeachment. We've had two presidents that were impeached, and neither of them were Nixon.

Yep.

Nixon actually left before the House voted on impeachment.

He was like the writing's on the wall, I'm out of here.

It was actually former President Johnson and then former President Bill Clinton.

So there's a trial at the Senate, and if the Senate chooses to convict the president, that president is forcibly removed and the current vice president becomes the new president. So hopefully you have a better understanding of what's going on, what's been happening, and what's coming up.

This was a lot of fun.

I could have gone on for hours, all right.

So what would you say was the most important piece of cinema in twenty nineteen?

In twenty nineteen, Yeah, definitely when they see us.

Yes, I was gonna say that and us. A lot of people are talking about Queen and Slim. I haven't seen it, so I haven't. I can't really talk about it right me either, but when we have to go see it.

What is your favorite meme from twenty nineteen, it's.

Kickie Palmer, hands down. Sorry to this man, I hope I don't saund ridiculous. What's your favorite thing that's happening in your scientific field?

Oh? For me, I think it's the redefinition of the kilogram. So before twenty nineteen, the kilogram, which is how we standardize all weights for everything. Was an actual physical thing that is housed under vacuum somewhere in Paris or somewhere in France. Okay. And so now they have this thing called a kibble balance that uses electro mechanical measurements to define a kilogram. It's very cool. What's your favorite science moment?

When I learned that mosquitoes could taste deep with their feet, which is why they don't land on you, I have my mind has been blown. They're not tasting with their mouth, they have receptors on their feet.

And if you want to hear more about that, listen to our episode called Predator.

Yes, that's when I went down that rabbit hole and I haven't come back.

Between that and our truth Pie episode.

So I started reading this book called fourteen twelve, and now I'm reading all about the landscape of the Americas before the settlers.

It is wild for me. The book that I started reading after an episode was after How Not to Get Away with Murder? Our guest on there she has a book called Inside the Cell, very very good. That's it for Lab twenty. Don't forget to check out our website for a cheat sheet on today's episode. You can find it and sign up for our newsletter at Dope labspodcast dot com.

We want to hear from you though. What are some of the categories you think we should have covered? What are your top moments from twenty nineteen?

Tell us?

Hit us up on Instagram or Twitter at Dope Labs podcast.

Tt is on Twitter at dr Underscore t Sho.

And you can find Zakiya at z Said So.

Follow us on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. This episode of Dope Labs is produced by Jenny Ratlick Mass of Wave Runner Studios and Elizabeth Nikano. Mixing and sound designed by Hannis Brown.

The original theme music is by Taka Yasuzawa and Alex Sugi Eurra, with additional music by Elijah Alex Harvey. Dope Labs is a production of Spotify Studios and Mega Owned Media Group, and it's executive produced by us T. T. Shadia and Zakiah Wattley. So we'll be back in three weeks with LAP twenty one.

We hope you guys have a great holiday season, a happy new Year, and we'll see you in twenty twenty.

Some own bows is not one of us, well, she ain't me because I can barely stand up from a swivel chair without feeling dizzy.

Do you remember when we were doing those circuits outside in your yard. We were doing burpies and like jumping up and stuff.

I thought I was going to pass out.

Can you imagine not just jumping up, but jumping up and twisting and flipping.

I thought jumping up with my arms in the air was like the ultimate. In that moment, you couldn't tell me that I wasn't like the strongest person alive.