menu Home chevron_right
NEWS & CULTURE

The Best (And Worst) Invention Of All Time | Answers With Joe

Joe Scott | September 23, 2025



Get Brilliant at http://www.brilliant.org/answerswithjoe/
And the first 295 to sign up for a premium account get 20% off every month!

Plastic is a surprisingly recent invention, and it’s become completely ubiquitous in our society. It’s solved a ton of problems and made our way of life possible. It also might be killing us.

Like my shirt? Get one here sucka!
http://www.answerswithjoe.com/shirts

Support me on Patreon!
http://www.patreon.com/answerswithjoe

Follow me at all my places!
Instagram: https://instagram.com/answerswithjoe
Snapchat: https://www.snapchat.com/add/answerswithjoe
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/answerswithjoe
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/answerswithjoe

LINKS LINKS LINKS:

Bloomberg’s Unsolvable:
https://youtu.be/ergwipqLwqY

Jeanette Garcia’s TED Talk:
https://www.ted.com/talks/jeannette_garcia_a_super_strong_plastic_that_reverts_to_dust#t-456978

The Ocean Cleanup YouTube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYXGHivsMPVU-h-M_wd9m3Q

Vice News Report on Plastics:
https://youtu.be/74YQWthFz8g

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Written by Joe Scott

Comments

This post currently has 35 comments.

  1. @gocastleman

    September 23, 2025 at 12:34 am

    Congrats!🎉 I am glad I caught the first episode. Looking forward to seeing you and team grow. As a Army Veteran 12B I have fond and not so fond memories of the spare parts Army of the early 90's. Essayons! 🪖

  2. @JohnDoe-lt5fq

    September 23, 2025 at 12:34 am

    call me crazy but im 100% confident youtube is hiding most of your (way old) videos from me and then unhiding them like theyre new.
    srsly ive been binging your channel (yw for the dime for the views or whatever ahaha) annndddd yeaaahhh uhhhhh this video just popped up in my new vids feed? def never saw it when browsing your channel even the older vids around this time….i am confusion

  3. @sussekind9717

    September 23, 2025 at 12:34 am

    They have been able to make biodegradable plastic sourced from corn and/or soybeans since the 80s. However, the petroleum interests do not want to forward that. And since they have teams of lawyers and huge government lobbies to protect their interests, it never went forward.
    I know this because my grandfather was a microbiologist and the head of the team that helped come up with it.
    🎼Money, money, money, 🎶don't mess with our money.🎵

  9. @quinnhalley

    September 23, 2025 at 12:34 am

    Just burn it in a chamber where the gasses emmited get captured by a filter that can then be composted. Recycling is not the answer, and the emissions from transporting this stuff around to be recycled alone isn't worth it.

  10. @bj.bruner

    September 23, 2025 at 12:34 am

    Banning single use plastics would be great, but the medical industry would be in over its head over trying to keep things sterile in the same way.
    Sure you can wash things, but in northern Mexico they were using reusable epidural needles in a particular hospital and several women died of infection from those needles, so either we should get on sterilization or figure something else out.

  12. @terihammond5932

    September 23, 2025 at 12:34 am

    Why aren't people pushing more for things like hemp plastic which is biodegradable? I heard about this a couple of years ago and then nothing. Kind of like they were using recycled plastic and trash that was dredged out of the ocean to make a new kind of asphalt that was pliable and they were reviewing surfacing roads with it and it made them last longer it's set her up. Nobody talks about these things and I'm just wondering why not?

  14. @TheFLOMAN76

    September 23, 2025 at 12:34 am

    Everybody lives in their own bubble.
    Fo sho.
    Problem is?
    Everybody is afraid of that bubble being popped!
    Step outside of your bubble popping property and realize it'll be okay!
    If we all worked together and make this planet the best it could be? Lol? Right? Fucking HAHAHA!!!
    It just doesn't matter what I say….
    Everybody knows what they need to do on this Planet!
    !!!OUR ONE AND ONLY PLANET!!!
    Yet most of you choose to be a piece of shit.
    If you disagree?
    And…
    I'm sure, some will. 😐🙄
    Tell me how FkN wrong I am!
    🧐

    That's all.

  15. @barryphillips7327

    September 23, 2025 at 12:34 am

    For some reason i did not think of ''plastic bottles'' for worst invention i was more thinking Nuclear Bombs or other things! 20–30 years if somebody had said to INVEST in bottled water i would have 🤣laughed 🤣 at them, NOW i would laughing ALL THE WAY to the bank vault!! 🤣🤣
    MOST plastic NEVER gets recycled!!!!!!!!!!! A lot is simply burned to get RID of it!!!!!!!
    Question; WHO is mankinds No1 ENEMY????

    ANSWER; OURSELVES WE ARE!!!!!!!!!!!! MANKIND IS WELL ON THE WELL ON THE WAY TO WIPING OURSELVES OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND KILLING OUR PLANET EARTH oh it is alright there are plenty MORE in the Galaxy for us to F**K up!!!!!!!!!!!!
    STOP DEFORESTATION, IT IS AT LEAST THE REASON FOR OUR POLLUTION PROBLEMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  18. @sclass4867

    September 23, 2025 at 12:34 am

    Speaking from 2022 the garbage patch is now double the size of Texas and the plastics have broken down so much it’s actually found in everything now from fish to animals yes even your babies it is found in embryo

  22. @LawTaranis

    September 23, 2025 at 12:34 am

    PLA is a great material that can be recycled a lot more than most plastics, and will biodegrade in a couple of decades even in the worst composting environment, like a cold landfill.

  23. @Ian_sothejokeworks

    September 23, 2025 at 12:34 am

    At 8:04, or more likely, when you recycle, it gets sent off to China, where it gets dumped in the ocean because their costs of just making new stuff got so low, they stopped wanting the crap of other nations.

    They grow up so fast…

  27. @bauhausbastard

    September 23, 2025 at 12:34 am

    Wouldn't it kind of make sense for all environmental and government agencies around the world (all of them) to work together depeloping the plastic eating nanobot thing to get rid of the various plastic dumping graveyards around the place, 1 step at a time, or am I missing the point?

  30. @hubertcumberdale30

    September 23, 2025 at 12:34 am

    Omg: super late to this video. I just recently stumbled upon your channel and I love it!. Your story about typing class reminds me of a time I worked in a wilderness therapy program and I fully distracted a group of teenaged boys from a conversation that was wildly inappropriate by telling them the detailed and compelling story of Derek Zoolander. (This was like 2019) they’d never heard of it and were like 👁👄👁

Comments are closed.

Related
Edward Gibson: Human Language, Psycholinguistics, Syntax, Grammar ...
Lex Fridman | July 21, 2026
Related
The Death Of America’s Soft Power
Leeja Miller | July 21, 2026
Related
What are we gonna do with all these C*ons…
Signified B Sides | July 21, 2026

This area can contain widgets, menus, shortcodes and custom content. You can manage it from the Customizer, in the Second layer section.

 

 

 

Go to album
  • play_circle_filled

    92.9 : The Torch

  • play_circle_filled

    AGGRO
    'Til Deaf Do Us Part...

  • play_circle_filled

    SLACK!
    The Music That Made Gen-X

  • play_circle_filled

    KUDZU
    The Northwoods' Alt-Country & Americana

  • play_circle_filled

    BOOZHOO
    Indigenous Radio

  • play_circle_filled

    THE FLOW
    The Northwoods' Hip Hop and R&B

play_arrow skip_previous skip_next volume_down
playlist_play