Welcome to the Waves, Slate's podcast about gender, feminism, and this week pineapple

on skewers. Every episode you get a new pair of women to talk about the things we can't

get off of our minds. And today you've got me, Shannon Paulis, a senior editor at Slate

covering science and health. And me, I'm Christina Cauterucci, a Slate senior writer and

host of the Slate podcast outward. This week we're going to be talking about what happens

when you cross a fruit basket with a floral arrangement, with a pandemic, with a wellness

trend gone off the rails. I'm talking about edible arrangements. That is the best summary

of an edible arrangement that I've ever heard. Good job, Shannon. It contains molotitudes.

Christina, I'm really excited to talk to you about this because you've been working on

a piece that I've been looking forward to ever since I first heard Tell of it in a Slate

meeting. You have gone long on edible arrangement. I cannot say that I've ever received an

edible arrangement myself or sent one. Oh my God, I'm so sorry. So sorry to hear that, Shannon.

But I think that as you write in the piece, something like 90% of their potential customer

base is aware of edible arrangements. So they're one of those things that I've seen out

in the world. And thought, what would it be like to get a little bite of pineapple in the

mouth? How did you start reporting this piece? So the piece is called what's eating edible

arrangements. It's out today on Slate. And this is like a very rare success story for me

in the idle thought out in the world category of pitches. So a few months ago, I passed an

edible arrangement store on the street. And I just kind of thought, like, huh, you don't hear

about edible arrangements much anymore. What are they up to? Like, I got one when I was in college,

when I had strep throat. My parents sent it to me, you know, probably worried that I wasn't going

to be getting enough nutrients. It feels like a relic of the past because it's so earnest and

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