A few months ago, Ed Curry found himself lying down in the pouring rain in a state of agony.

His heart was beating fast. His arms were numb, and his mouth felt like it was on fire.

The heat pain lasted for about two hours and then the cramps sat in and that lasted for about four more to the point where

just couldn't even move the cramps hurt so bad.

Curry had brought this suffering upon himself.

He had just tasted the fruit of his own

labor, a hybrid chili pepper grown on his farm in South Carolina.

It's about the size of a golf ball. It's covered in bumps and spikes and it just looks like an apple that has gone through a Frankenstein.

The oil gives it kind of a yellowish-flemy tinge and it's just a brutal pepper. It's ugly.

This little nugget of pure torture is called Pepper X.

It's up to a thousand times hotter than a Hallopeno,

and its kick is more powerful than most brands of police-grade pepper spray.

It recently set a Guinness world record for the hottest

chili pepper ever measured in a lab. For Curry, Pepper X is the culmination of

more than 20 years of cross breeding.

Peppers aren't just his hobby, they're his livelihood.

And the hotter they are, the better for business.

By making things hotter, we can produce products that are in your grocery store right now at a cheaper cost.

It's about economies of scale.

For the Freak economics radio network, this is the economics of everyday things.

I'm Zaffrey Krakkin. Today, the world's hottest peppers.

Before Ed Curry was growing hot peppers, he was on a path to self-destruction.

...