Getting Stoned: A Podcast About Gems and Minerals – Details, episodes & analysis

In this episode of Getting Stoned, Johnna chats with Dr. Robert Lavinsky, the founder of The Arkenstone, and www.iRocks.com. 

Rob shares his story with Johnna and the conversation covers, minerals, gems,  Rob's support of Mindat, the largest mineral database and a mineralogical reference website on the Internet, Elon Musk at a Denver gem show some years ago, artificial intelligence, and its impact on the mineral industry. 

You can learn more about Rob by visiting his website, www.irocks.com.

In this episode of Getting Stoned, I interviewed Nikita and Moji, a married couple who moved from Houston to San Diego to embark on a new life. They got into the crystal business and have had quite the adventure. The two bought their first Tesla with crystal sales, have had a child, and are awaiting their third Tesla. 

We talked about crystals, the business and the stones, Elon Musk and my recent interview with him, Tesla, and more. 

You can find them on Instagram at instagram.com/om.crystals

I went to a local mineral show a couple of weeks ago and splurged on this massive yet stunning Goethite specimen. 

gettingstoned.online

patreon.com/johnna

The podcast cover graphic includes the photomicrograph by Nathan Renfro

GIA scientists examined the gemstone which is a D color .53 carat round brilliant cut diamond with a unique cloud inclusion that looks like the profile of a faceted round brilliant diamond. It seriously looks like someone typed a gemstone emoji inside the gem.

In their blog post, GIA said the diamond-shaped cloud appeared to be completely natural when it was examined in the microscope. GIA stated, "In this diamond, the cloud’s presence adds beauty, value, and distinction. Thanks to an observant and skillful polisher, we get to see another “brilliant” example of an intriguing cloud inclusion in diamond."

Scientists used photomicrography to determine the depth of the cloud and found that not only was it three-dimensional, but part of the center reached the diamond's surface.

They also compiled photoluminescence maps from thousands of spectra--each with pixels that are 10 microns in size. This shows the peak intensity of the gemstone and showed that the diamond cloud had a lower intensity than the surrounding diamond yet a portion of the girdle section in the cloud had a higher H3 intensity.

I'll include the link to the blog post in the podcast description for you to check out.

https://www.gia.edu/gems-gemology/spring-2021-microworld-diamond-shaped-cloud-in-diamond

Getting Stoned is a podcast about gems, minerals, and fun conversations that may go off-topic--but that’s perfectly fine. This podcast's mission is to encourage folks to explore the wonderful world of crystals, gems, minerals, and the various ways they are used in life, technology, and more.

For more information on sponsoring, merch, and YouTube, visit gettingstoned.online.

In my last episode of Getting Stoned, I talked about Eterneva, a company that specializes in creating lab grown diamonds from the ashes of a pet or loved one as a way to honor that person's life. Upon hearing my short and sweet episode, Eterneva reached out to me and I am to delighted to share my interview with Adelle Archer, Co-Founder of Eterneva. Adelle lost a dear friend of hers and shared the story of the birth of this gem of a company.

To learn more about Eterneva, you can visit their websites

Webs; https://eterneva.com/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@eterneva

Twitter: https://twitter.com/eterneva

Getting Stoned is a podcast about gems, minerals, and fun conversations that may go off-topic--but that’s perfectly fine. This podcast's mission is to encourage folks to explore the wonderful world of crystals, gems, minerals, and the various ways they are used in life, technology, and more.

For more information on sponsoring, merch, and YouTube, visit gettingstoned.online.

Today I want to tell you about this company I found while scrolling through TikTok. I have become slightly addicted to the app and have learned a lot from it. Tons of jewelry artisans, gemologists and mineral lovers fill my feed with dazzling content and I stumbled upon one company, Eterneva, which has a unique product.

Eterneva specializes in lab grown diamonds from your loved one's or pets ashes or hair. This may sound morbid at first, but I think it's a neat way to honor a loved one.

Their prices range from $3,000 to $50,000 depending on the carat weight of the stone and its color. I invited them to come on to the podcast via Instagram, but so far no response. I admit, the podcast is in its beginning stages--it’s not even a year old. However I would love to know the inspirational story behind this company.

When you bring a human element such as a story, it makes a product much more endearing--creating an emotional connection. The idea of memorializing a loved one by turning them into a gemstone is unique. Eterneva also offers grading, engraving and jewelry setting for your diamond.

Links

Eternava.com

Getting Stoned is a podcast about gems, minerals, and fun conversations that may go off-topic--but that’s perfectly fine. This podcast's mission is to encourage folks to explore the wonderful world of crystals, gems, minerals, and the various ways they are used in life, technology, and more.

For more information on sponsoring, merch, and YouTube, visit gettingstoned.online.

This wasn't intentional at all. I've shared bits of this story and people are always asking me to share details so I decided to make a podcast about it. Long story short, I had placed my Golden Herkimers with my regular Herkimers and grabbed one to meditate with. Placed it in the cup of a candle holder (where the oil goes for tea light candle holders) and had an explosive meditation session, to say the least. 

Getting Stoned is a podcast about gems, minerals, and fun conversations that may go off-topic--but that’s perfectly fine. This podcast's mission is to encourage folks to explore the wonderful world of crystals, gems, minerals, and the various ways they are used in life, technology, and more.

For more information on sponsoring, merch, and YouTube, visit gettingstoned.online.

Did you know that we have magnetite crystals inside our brains? Magnetite is a mineral made up of iron oxide but it has equal amounts of iron (ii), which is ferrous oxide,  and iron (iii) which is ferric oxide. Ferric oxide has three electrons--represented by the number 3 and one of those came from ferrous oxide--represented by the number 2.

Both produce numerous types of materials such as plastics, heat-absorbing glass, ceramics and even rubber. Special high purity iron oxides are used in the production of ferrites, a type of ceramic magnet used in electronics such as speakers, TVs and computer memory cores.

Magnetite is found in all types of rocks--igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary and yes it is magnetic. And this stuff is in our bodies and more primarily, our brains.

Physics Today published an article back in 2018 titled 'Mapping magnetite in the human brain.' In 1992, researchers discovered the magnetic crystal in human brain tissue and it's thought to have formed biogenically with some possibly originating in ferritin which is an intracellular protein that is found in many organisms.

The article goes on to say that various studies have shown that brain cells respond to external magnetic fields. There's also a link between elevated levels of magnetite and neurodegenerative diseases. Researchers noted that there were elevated levels of magnetite in brain tissue from Alzheimer’s disease patients.

Two scientists from the Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich, geophysicist Stuart Gilder and neuroscientist Christoph Schmitz, carried out the first systematic mapping of magnetite nanoparticles in the human brain.

They found magnetite concentrated in the same places in the seven brains they analyzed. They noted that the magnetite was mostly in the cerebellum and brain stem and that there was a striking asymmetry in the distribution of the magnetite particles between both hemispheres of the brain. In animals such as homing pigeons and honeybees, magnetites enable them to sense magnetic field lines. As for humans, we don't seem to sense those magnetic fields. Perhaps we are simply not in tune with our bodies anymore? Think of when a natural disaster is about to happen and animals start to flee. This is because they are able to sense a disturbance, but we are unable to.

For more information, explore the links in the podcast description.

LINKS

https://info.noahtech.com/blog/what-is-the-difference-between-ferrous-and-ferric-oxide

https://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/PT.6.1.20180830a/full/

https://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.2897947

Photo in podcast cover from Arkenstone https://www.irocks.com/minerals/specimen/46980

Getting Stoned is a podcast about gems, minerals, and fun conversations that may go off-topic--but that’s perfectly fine. The mission of this podcast is to encourage folks to explore the wonderful world of crystals, gems, minerals, and the various ways they are used in life, technology, and more.

For more information on sponsoring, merch, and YouTube, visit gettingstoned.online.

Today on Getting Stoned, I’d like to share with you how a piece of Elon Musk’s rocket found its way to me.

Before sharing how I got so lucky, I'll give you a quick recap of Starship Serial Number 9 (SN9 for short). Back in February, SpaceX, which has been testing its Starships that will one day take us to Mars, tried to land Starship SN9.

The rocket did this really cool flip maneuver then exploded. The cause was one of the Raptor engines not relighting and this caused SN9 to land at high speed, thus experiencing rapid unscheduled disassembly.

Fast forward to July and a piece of that rocket is sitting next to one of my apophyllite specimens. My friend Gail, who often goes to Starbase, had a few twisted metal pieces from the explosion gifted to her. She gave one to me.

Getting Stoned is a podcast about gems, minerals, and fun conversations that may go off-topic--but that’s perfectly fine. The mission of this podcast is to encourage folks to explore the wonderful world of crystals, gems, minerals, and the various ways they are used in life, technology, and more.

Today on Getting Stoned, I want to talk about a lovely mineral called Phenakite. Phenakite, spelled with either a c or a k, is a rare neso-silicate mineral with beryllium ortho-silicate. It's often found sold as a crystal and used in spiritual practices or worn as jewelry.

Southern Jewelry News shared some great info on Phenakite which is a great gem alternative to diamonds while not actually trying to be a diamond. Phenakites have a colorless variety (they also have peach and gold) and although they are known are a rare stone, they are, in my opinion, easily obtainable. I have some and have wrapped and sold some to customers.

Phenakite gets its name from the Ancient Greek word, phenakos which means deceiver and this is because of the gem's appearance. The gem is similar to quartz. Rough Phenakite sometimes may display trigons which would lead one to think they've found a diamond and ranks 7.5-8 on the Moh's scale.

PalaGems pointed out that Phenakite was first found with an emerald and alexandrite embedded in a mica-schist in the Ural Mountains. It was also found in the Urals on Lake Ilmen at Miask.

Here’s an interesting fact about Phenakite and the U.S. Navy. The USS Phenakite was a converted yacht used by the Navy during both World Wars and was built in 1902 as the yacht, Celt. It had other names as well. As the USS Phenakite, it patrolled the waters off of the Florida Keys during World War II.

https://southernjewelrynews.com/columnists/the-story-behind-the-stone-finding-phenakite/

http://www.palagems.com/rarer-gems

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Phenakite

Getting Stoned is a podcast about gems, minerals, and fun conversations that may go off-topic--but that’s perfectly fine. The mission of this podcast is to encourage folks to explore the wonderful world of crystals, gems, minerals, and the various ways they are used in life, technology, and more.

For more information on sponsoring, merch, and YouTube, visit gettingstone.online.