Vanilla vs Mint

**Molly Bloom** (0:02)
LEMONADA Hi, friends. It's me, Molly. Before we start the show, I wanted to let you know that we just announced new Brains On live show dates this fall. We're going to be in Charlotte, Colorado Springs, Norfolk, Virginia, Evanston, Illinois, and Princeton, New Jersey. That's right. We're going to be all over the country, and we would love to see you in person To get tickets and find out more, head to brainson.org/events.
That's brainson.org/events. Hope to see you there.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:39)
Brains On Universe.

**Molly Bloom** (0:44)
Thinking critically is more important than ever. That's why we make Smash Boom Best. We want every kid to know how to spot a good argument and how to call out a logical fallacy. But none of it is possible without your support. Seriously, we could disappear if our listeners don't step up. But that part is easy. Just join Smarty Pass. You'll get access to ad-free versions of our shows, special online hangs with our crew, discounts on merch, and more. Plus, you'll feel great knowing you're helping us pay our debaters, sound designers, writers, and more.
Join now at smartypass.org. Thank you. Now, it's showtime.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:22)
From the brains behind Brains On, it's Smash Boom Best.

**Alex** (1:27)
The show for people with big opinions.

**Molly Bloom** (1:31)
Hi, I'm Molly Bloom and this is Smash Boom Best. The show where we take two things, smash them together, and then ask you to decide which one is best. Today, two terrific tastes are here to mix it up. On one side, we have a warming spice that comes from a seed pod, and on the other, a mean green cooling leaf machine. Oh, you know it. It's vanilla versus mint. Here to keep things cool for mint is clown, actor, and improviser, Gregory Parks.

**Gregory Parks** (2:00)
Hello, everybody. Mint keeping it cool.

**Molly Bloom** (2:04)
Here to extract all the winning points for Team Vanilla is writer, performer, and Lego builder extraordinaire, Sam Suksiri.

**Sam Suksiri** (2:12)
I've vanilla bean waiting for this.

**Molly Bloom** (2:17)
And here to crown this superlative snack is Alex from Hamilton, New Zealand. Alex has a dog named Eureka who loves to steal food, makes videos for two YouTube channels, one for cooking and one for animation, and is a big fan of chess, choir, and debate. Hi, Alex.

**Alex** (2:33)
Hi.

**Molly Bloom** (2:34)
So how do you decide what to make your YouTube videos about?

**Alex** (2:37)
Well, honestly, for my baking ones, whatever I want to eat, I can just make it. And sometimes I find inspiration online.

**Molly Bloom** (2:46)
So what's your most recent baking video?

**Alex** (2:48)
I think I made an Oreo cake that I have not uploaded yet, but it was really good.

**Molly Bloom** (2:53)
Excellent. Have you ever had something you made for the YouTube channel and it just didn't turn out?

**Alex** (2:59)
Yes. So I made dragon fruit boba once and it just didn't work.

**Molly Bloom** (3:04)
Oh no. Did you post it anyway?

**Alex** (3:07)
Yeah, I did.

**Molly Bloom** (3:08)
Nice. Yeah. We got to share our failures, right? It's okay. Okay. So please tell us about Eureka.

**Alex** (3:15)
Well, she is a professional chocolate thief. Her sister's actually a therapy dog in Hawaii, so it's obvious which one is more useful, but she's so cute.

**Molly Bloom** (3:26)
So, okay, she's a chocolate thief, which is not good for dogs to eat. So what do you do about that?

**Alex** (3:31)
Yeah, she's only like stolen chocolate a few times, but like she's still alive and she just loves food in general. So we try to keep her away from it, but it's hard because she's really sneaky.

**Molly Bloom** (3:45)
Can you describe what she looks like?

**Alex** (3:47)
She is kind of a mix between a chocolate labrador and a poodle and a cocker spaniel.

**Molly Bloom** (3:53)
Oh, she sounds like a sweetie. Okay, what do you like about doing debate?

**Alex** (3:59)
I really like like sharing my opinions and seeing what other people think of them like against it so that I can like kind of have a wider view of what I'm talking about.

**Molly Bloom** (4:10)
That's really cool. So what have you learned from doing debate that might be useful to our debaters today?

**Alex** (4:15)
I think to use relatable examples and like make it like funny and not too like specific because then people might not be able to understand what you're talking about.

**Molly Bloom** (4:28)
Excellent advice from an experienced debater today. Well, will Alex opt for mint or vanilla? We're going to know so soon, but first the rules of the game. Every debate consists of four rounds, the Declaration of Greatness, the Micro Round, the Sneak Attack and the Final Six. After each round, our judge, Alex, will award points to the team that impresses her the most, but she'll keep her decisions top secret until the end of the debate. Listeners, we want you to judge too. Mark down your points as you listen. At the end of the show, head to our website, smashboom.org and vote for whichever team you think won.