[// Pregenerate link to episode ahead of time: - clicktotweet.com- sharelinkgenerator.com]: #
This week's episode is gr-r-reat, probably because we can see why kids love the swirl of Nicks in every bit of this week's episode... on Breakfast Cereal fans!
Next week, we'll have special guest friend, [EFG Nick](http://www.epicfilmguys.com/), to talk about fans of fad foods!
## Episode outline
### Fandom Facts
**History and Origins:**
Breakfast cereal is a type of food, often made of grains and eaten as the first meal of the day (in Western society, at least). Cereals are often fortified with vitamins, lack the vitamins needed for a healthy breakfast, _and_ are often high in sugar. In 1970, there were only 160 different kinds of cereal in the US; in 2012, there were almost 5000.
[//Apparently, breakfast cereal has profit margins of 40-50%? That's a lot ]: #
Breakfast cereal actually shares its history _way_ back with indigenous North Americans who had found a way to make ground corn palatable (later, called "grits" or "hominy")... though it never gained a foothold in the northern US. Apparently, there was a group of food reformers who wanted to cut back on excessive meat consumption at breakfast (including Seventh-day Adventists, who made the food reforms part of their religion).
Flash forward a bit to the end of the 19th century with a certain John Harvey Kellogg, son of an Adventist factory owner, medical superintendent, _and_ masturbation rehabilitator. The institute he worked at often had wealthy industrialists visit for recuperation and they were accustomed to egg, ham, sausage, fried potatoes, coffee... and so on; at the facility, they found abstinence and a vegetarian diet. Kellogg experimented with granola, which eventually lead to Cornflakes, the archetypical breakfast cereal. Later, Charles W. Post (a patient at Kellogg's sanitarium), impressed by the all-grain diet, began experimenting on his own and eventually introduced Grape-nuts.
...But there is a lot of history. Too much for me to get through. Read it for yourself [on wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakfast_cereal#History_in_North_America).
**Search Data:**
Would you believe that we are in the middle of a [slow growth in interest in breakfast cereal](https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=%2Fm%2F0l6sg)? While there was a decline in interest from 2004 to about 2008, it seems that interest is slowly on the rise again.
The top 10 countries by search volume: Poland, United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Singapore, South Korea, Norway, Australia, Ireland, and New Zealand.
**Fanac Fast Facts:**
- There are over 1000 fanfics when searching for cereal on [Archive of Our Own](http://archiveofourown.org/works/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&work_search%5Bquery%5D=cereal)
- [Frankenberry caused a strange health epidemic in the 70s](https://www.theodysseyonline.com/the-strangest-stories-behind-famous-cereals-and-their-mascots)... because kids were eating a lot of the cereal leaving their stool discoloured
- There were some really racist and weird cereal mascots, like [So-hi and a creepy clown for "Rice Krinkles"](http://mentalfloss.com/article/53218/6-controversial-moments-world-breakfast-cereal) (later, Cocoa and Fruity Pebbles)
- [Cap'n Crunch has a backstory](https://www.theodysseyonline.com/the-strangest-stories-behind-famous-cereals-and-their-mascots)
> Taken from the official website as well as commercials and official social media posts, Crunch Island, located in the Sea of Milk--a magical place with talking trees, crazy creatures and a whole mountain (Mt. Crunchmore) made out of Cap’n Crunch cereal--is the birthplace of Cap'n Horatio Magellan Crunch.
>
> — [Odyssey - 4 Strange Things You Never Knew About Your Favorite Breakfast Cereals](https://www.theodysseyonline.com/the-strangest-stories-behind-famous-cereals-and-their-mascots)
### [Last Episode's](http://fanthropological.com/e/wonder-woman-lassoing-the-truth-about-the-fairer-fandom/) Famous Last Words
This week's famous last words around *next week's* fandom, Breakfast Cereals!
**G**
Cinnamon toast crunch is the internet's favourite cereal.
**Z**
Out of all the cereals in all the world... has the most complex song-of-ice-and-fire style background story (the mascot)?
**T**
How divisive is the fandom?
[// Captain Crunch video games ]: #
### The Verdict
**G is in.** Loves eating breakfast cereal.
**T is out.** Didn't get into cereal... and not as much community as I would have expected.
**Z is out.** ...But is a Weetabix man.
### This week's spotlight
**[Magic Breakfast](https://www.magicbreakfast.com/what-the-charity-does)**
Magic Breakfast is a UK charity that helps provide healthy breakfast food and support to schools.
> We work with over 470 Primary, Secondary and ASL/Special Educational Needs schools, plus Pupil Referral Units, to make sure that over 31,500 children start their school day in the best possible way.
>
> — [Magic Breakfast - What we do](https://www.magicbreakfast.com/what-the-charity-does)
[// Plugs go here ]: #
### Famous Last Words
This week's famous last words around *next week's* fandom, Fad Foods!
**Z**
Is there a fad food fan out there who collects wrappers (or similar)?
**G**
What was the first fast food restaurant to have a secret menu?
**T**
Are there people who collect and preserve fad foods? If so, how do they do it?
## Where can you find us online?
We are everywhere! Most notably though, we like to hang out in a few places on social media:
- If you want to help us to create more amazing fannish content, become a patron on [Patreon](http://patreon.com/thenickscast); even as little as a dollar a month pledge really helps us out!
- If you want to be part of our podcast (or just want to check us out), we record our podcast LIVE on [twitch.tv](http://twitch.tv/thenickscast) every Monday at 20:00 Eastern Time!
- For all the latest updates, check us out on [Facebook](https://facebook.com/thenickscast) or [Twitter](https://twitter.com/thenickscast)
- To see the latest hijinx from our conventions or even our daily lives and adventures, check us out on [Instagram](https://instagram.com/thenickscast)
- For our latest convention updates, *Let's Plays*, and other in-real-life video, [check out our YouTube channel](http://youtube.com/thenickscast)
- We're also on [iTunes](https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/fanthropological/id1163621210), and [Google Play](https://play.google.com/music/m/Icmngxz7yhaoivdvivvf6q6c2pu?t=Fanthropological), and would love it if you could leave a review and rating!
- if you want to reach us, and for some reason none of those work for you, try [
[email protected]](mailto:
[email protected])
- You can check out [our website](http://thenickscast.com); that will mostly bring you back to this stuff.
- Everything is `thenickscast`, so if you can't find us, go on your social network and search for that!
## What is "Fanthropological"?
How did you read this far without asking this question?!
Fanthropological is an anthropological (ish) podcast where we bring the fan's-eye view to you! Each week, we take a look at a different fandom, dig up interesting background, trivia, and history, and try to get to why it is that people are a fan. We also try to highlight good causes related to that fandom, and find interesting things that fans have created to share those to the world. Each episode is about an hour. Ish.
## Who is "The Nickscast"?
*We* are the Nickscast! Three products of late-80s / early-90s pop culture who love exploring fandom and everything geek ... who also happen to have been best buddies since high school, and all happen to be named Nick. Yes, we are super creative (dare we say, the _most_ creative).
*Ahem*
We are Nick Green, Nick Terwoord, and Nick Zacharewicz: We started the Nickscast as a labour of love, and as a place to entertain and to discuss our love of fans and fandom, and all that is shiny and interesting in that realm. It's what lead us to start our first podcast, our satellite podcasts, Fanthropological, and so much more.
We want to help others learn more about different fandoms, and to create empathy with other fans: We dream of a world where other fans aren't "those Weird-o's", but just folks with different tastes. A world where fandom is full of discourse and analysis, and there are plenty of tools and resources to help. Fans building communities to do good in the world. *Because everyone's a fan.*
## Credits
### Sources
- [Wikipedia - Breakfast Cereal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakfast_cereal#History_in_North_America)
- [Google Trends - Breakfast Cereal](https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=%2Fm%2F0l6sg)
- [Archive Of Our Own - Cereal search results](http://archiveofourown.org/works/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&work_search%5Bquery%5D=cereal)
- [Odyssey - 4 Strange Things You Never Knew About Your Favorite Breakfast Cereals](https://www.theodysseyonline.com/the-strangest-stories-behind-famous-cereals-and-their-mascots)
- [MelMagazine - How Tony the Tiger Became the Most Sexually Objectified Breakfast Mascot](https://melmagazine.com/how-tony-the-tiger-became-the-most-sexually-objectified-breakfast-mascot-8cad4f6e7901)
- [Mentalfloss - 6 Controversial Moments in the World of Breakfast Cereal](http://mentalfloss.com/article/53218/6-controversial-moments-world-breakfast-cereal)
- [YouTube - Cereal Fans Flock to NYC’s Kellogg’s Cafe](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW05r-mXqVg)
- [YouTube - Kellogg’s Cereal Cafe](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_94DiFrAh3M)
- [YouTube - Cereal Time TV](https://www.youtube.com/user/MrGabeFonseca/videos)
- [Quora - Why Isn’t Breakfast Cereal as Well Known in China as it is the US?](https://www.quora.com/Why-isnt-breakfast-cereal-as-well-known-in-China-as-it-is-in-the-US)
- [Quora - Do People Outside of America Eat Breakfast Cereal](https://www.quora.com/Do-people-outside-of-America-eat-breakfast-cereal)
- [Quora - Why Is Breakfast Cereal so Popular in Europe?](https://www.quora.com/Why-is-breakfast-cereal-so-popular-in-Europe)
- [Quora - If Breakfast Cereals Were People Which Would You be in a Romantic Relationship with and Why?](https://www.quora.com/If-breakfast-cereals-were-people-which-would-you-be-in-a-romantic-relationship-with-and-why)
- [News-a-Rama - Serial Fiction Meets Cereal Boxes: DC & General Mills Team-Up](https://www.newsarama.com/33435-serial-fiction-meets-cereal-boxes-dc-general-mills-team-up.html)
- [Odyssey - 4 Things You Never Knew About Your Favourite Breakfast Cereals](https://www.theodysseyonline.com/the-strangest-stories-behind-famous-cereals-and-their-mascots)
- [The Robot’s Pajamas - The 10 Weirdest Cereal Mascots](http://www.therobotspajamas.com/the-10-weirdest-cereal-mascots/)
- [Mental Floss - The Stories Behind Your Favorite Cereal Mascots](http://mentalfloss.com/article/18236/stories-behind-your-favorite-cereal-mascots)
- [Ad Age - See the Spot: Lucky Charms Finds Gold With Adult Fans](http://adage.com/article/news/lucky-charms-finds-gold-adult-fans/238551/)
- [Cerealously - Home](http://www.cerealously.net/)
- [BrainCharm - The Crazy Psychology Behind Cereal Boxes](https://braincharm.com/2017/11/01/the-crazy-psychology-behind-cereal-boxes/)
- [BakeryAndSnacks.com - Cereal Psychology: Mascot Eye Contact Sparks Consumer Trust](https://www.bakeryandsnacks.com/Article/2014/04/03/Breakfast-cereal-psychology-Mascot-eye-contact-sparks-trust)
- [PsyBlog - The Psychology of Nostalgia (in under 300 words)](http://www.spring.org.uk/2013/07/the-psychology-of-nostalgia-in-under-300-words.php)
- [Quora - What is Captain Crunch’s Backstory?](https://www.quora.com/What-is-Captain-Crunchs-backstory)
### Music / Sound
- ["Invading the 80s"](http://teknoaxe.com/Link_Code_4.php?q=1285&Genre=Downtempo) by TeknoAXE used under [CC BY 4.0](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/us/)
- All other music and sound for this week's episode were provided by Nick Green!
### Artwork
- ["Glasses"](https://thenounproject.com/term/glasses/132894) by [Anton Anuchin](https://thenounproject.com/antonwebium) used under [CC BY 3.0](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/)
- [“Breakfast”](https://thenounproject.com/term/breakfast/163057/) by [Stan Diers](https://thenounproject.com/stan.diers) used under [CC BY 3.0](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/)
