Delicious still, but Nutritious no longer!

I have liked Vitamin Water since I was first introduced to it in September 2006. My GRE tutor (I was taking the GRE that October) loved them and thought I needed to try them too! For my first ever taste, she decided I should try the Power-C (called Mega-C in Canada) bright pink one. The actual flavour is Dragonfruit (see picture below) which I don't think I'd even heard of until then. Now I hope I'll one day be able to taste it (apparently they're available throughout Central America) to determine if I like the fruit more, less, or the same as the drink. I sometimes wonder what would have happened had the tutor chosen a different one to give me, as I have become a die-hard Power/Mega-C fan and worry that had she first given me one of the boring yellow or orange ones I would never have tried Vitamin Water again. I've dabbled in a few other flavours, Focus - the light pink one (strawberry & kiwi flavour) which is too sweet for me, Defense (apple & raspberry flavour - both fruits I like but the taste is not good) and S.'s favourite XXX (acai, blueberry & pomegranate), which is pretty good and which I will drink if need be; but ultimately nothing rivals Mega-C for my affection.

I have to admit I've always been pretty smug about the fact that I don't like Coke, or pop in general (although I did enjoy taking the Coke Pepsi Challenge when I was a little kid, mostly because it was fun to a. see which one I preferred (I always picked Pepsi) and b. to get the prizes (usually gum!) they gave out). It's embarrassing, but it definitely made me feel pretty good about myself that I didn't regularly ingest sugary, wasteful calorie filled drinks. My little smug bubble, however, came crashing down recently when I read an article about how Vitamin Water actually has a lot of sugar, and is not that much better than Coke or other similar drinks. Sure, it has some vitamins (in my case, C and B) but it's also not just, as the label boasts "Vitamins + Water". It's not that I ever really equated it with water, but reading that it's the equivalent of Gatorade (a beverage I find pretty gross) disappointed me. Just recently, the Advertising watchdog Agency in the UK told Vitamin Water it is no longer allowed to use the slogan "Delicious and Nutritious" (which was only used in the UK) because the nutritious part is simply not true. There has been a similar case going on in the US as well.

My burst bubble aside, these developments actually just made me realize that I wasn't ever drinking Vitamin Water for any purported nutritional value. Maybe I wasn't aware it had a lot of sugar, but I was not under the impression that it was super healthy for me either. I just like the taste and it's a good way to keep hydrated every day. Recently I had a conversation with J. about how North Americans are obsessed with drinking lots of water and always staying hydrated. I have to agree. My first few years at Berkeley I was astounded at how many people I knew/saw who brought their Nalgene bottles with them everywhere - to class, to the library, for walks, to the movies. Fast forward a few years, and I had (and have) one too, and drink from it every day (although I really only bring it to school). I have definitely embraced this hydration culture, and I think Vitamin Water is just a part of it. People have decided they need to be drinking fluids all the time, and Vitamin Water is just another option. I do fill up my Nalgene with regular water every day, but it's nice to also have another non-water beverage every day.

In closing, I will say that Vitamin Waters are the absolute best drinks for long car rides, bar none. When S. and I drove from Austin to LA, and then from Austin to Nashville the next year, I always liked stopping in little towns in the middle of nowhere along the highway and buying a Vitamin water. It may not have been nutritious, but it was delicious, and it definitely brightened up the long hours on the road.

The Wonderful World of Podcasts

A. sent me an email a few weeks ago saying that he was a bit late to the game but had recently discovered podcasts and thought I'd like them too, if I didn't subscribe to some already. I wrote back saying I had come fairly late to the game too, and that he was right - I did/do love them!

My love of podcasts is tied to my love of the subject matter of the podcasts I subscribe to. For a very long time, until really only this past fall, I had no idea there was a whole world of interesting podcasts out there, just waiting for me to discover! It all started just under a year and a half ago when (a different) A. told me that I needed to subscribe to the 'This American Life' podcast since she was sure I'd love it. She was right. Learning about/listening to/reading other people's stories and finding out about other people's lives have long been some of my favourite things, and 'This American Life' combines all that in one perfect podcast hour.

Almost all of the podcasts I currently subscribe to are connected to each other. The 'This American Life' podcast led to me 'The Moth' podcast (where people tell true stories to a live audience, without notes) as they sometimes featured Moth speakers. 'The Moth' podcast is great because, as I said above personal stories are the best, and also because it's usually about 17 minutes long, which makes listening to it all in one go much easier than with hour long podcasts. In November I was telling L. about 'The Moth', and she in turn introduced me to the 'Story Corps' podcast, which is where regular people record themselves having a 1 minute conversation and then submit it to 'Story Corps'. This is a great podcast to subscribe to if you don't have much time because they're super short, but also usually quite poignant and thought-provoking.

Early last fall I decided to search for podcasts about history, another interest of mine. Some googling brought up the BBC History Magazine's podcast, which I promptly subscribed to and now enjoy. It's only once a month, which seems just right, and features interviews with historians who have published articles in that month's edition of the magazine. The topics are a good mix of recent & much older history. For example, one episode (I think October's?) had a feature on Mussolini's mistress whose diaries have recently been released. Another featured an interview about an English Queen from the 1500 or 1600s, which reminded me a bit of a Philippa Gregory book. The 'BBC History Magazine' podcast also led me, from their December episode where they had a special, short feature on it, to subscribe to the BBC's 'Witness' - a podcast released by the BBC World Service. 'Witness' is one of my favourite podcasts! Each day, there is a new episode which contains an interview with a living person who 'witnessed' an actual event in (usually fairly recent) world history. A few times they've broken with this and just interviewed a historian who did not actually witness the event his/herself, but usually they are from real events that took place over the last 50 years. The one I listened to today was actually an interview with the founder of Wikipedia, in honour of the 10th anniversary of the founding of Wikipedia in January 2001. There have also been super interesting ones on the Taliban, on the Iraq War, on the US invasion of Panama in 1989, and all sorts of other things. Since my time at Berkeley I have been really into oral history, and I love having the opportunity to now get a daily dose of it on fascinating topics!

The last two podcasts I subscribe to are also connected. My homepage on Firefox is the BBC International News and one Sunday in November one of the featured articles was a column I'd never noticed before called 'From Our Own Correspondent' which consisted of a series of vignettes written by BBC foreign correspondents stationed all over the world. The bottom of the article mentioned the podcast which I then subscribed to, and now like listening to every week. It's really cool because I love travelling and hearing about what life is like in other places and this podcast does exactly that! After of a few episodes of this though, it occurred to me that there must be a Canadian equivalent. So I searched CBC (kind of like a Canadian NPR) and found 'Dispatches'. It's also excellent - subtly different from the BBC show in that the host has more of a role, and often interviews historians/economists etc, which the BBC one doesn't do. In any event, it, like the BBC one, provides great stories/events/insights on things happening around the world.

The thing about podcasts are that there are just so many (an endless amount really) to choose from. The ones A. just recently discovered are ones I don't subscribe to, and other friends subscribe to other ones that sound equally good but right now I feel like I'm good with the seven I have. I'm sure I will eventually start subscribing to more in the future though because I really adore podcasts. They make things so easy, since though there's technically nothing stopping me from listening to 'Dispatches' on my own radio it's just much simpler to listen when I want, instead of at the exact time it's being aired on the radio. Plus, I don't get 'This American Life' or
'The Moth' or the BBC programs on the radio in Montreal. Additionally, thanks to my ipod, all my podcasts are transportable! My daily walks to and from school have this past fall become times where I'm transported to other people's lives in far flung countries of the earth. Listening to Witness, in particular, on my walk every morning is a great and, cheesy as it sounds, enriching way to start the day.