Hey proof

listeners, it's Bridget.

Now today's episode of proof is another bonus episode.

We're determined to answer those weird obscure food questions from you.

Today we're answering the question, do pistachios spontaneously combust?

Our executive producer Caitlin Kelleher is here with me.

Caitlin, should we be afraid of pistachios?

I mean, I eat them all the time time but are pistachios bursting into flames

around the country and I am the very last to hear about it. Is there a bomb in my kitchen right now?

Bridget you should be very afraid of pistachios. Very afraid. Really? So this question

speaks to one of those like fun food urban legends, the legend of the

mysteriously exploding pistachio.

I feel like I should be doing this interview like in a pillow fort with a flashlight under my chin.

But anyways, we got to the bottom of it, and I do have an answer for you and fortunately it involves

some good food science. Oh I love a good food science slash horror story that's

what this is. So you've mentioned an urban legend at the top. There is an urban legend on this. Where did that come from?

Yeah, well like most good things I think it sort of came from the internet.

So this story made the rounds online. There were blogs like I.O9 and Gothamist that published stories and they had these great click-bady headlines like when

pistachio nuts explode and the spontaneously combusting raw pistachio.

Do you like Reddit, Bridget?

Do I like Reddit?

Sure. It's a wormhole to go into and never come back out.

...