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Speaker 1: Guess what, mango, what's that will? So I know you

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Speaker 1: and I both fly a lot, and if there's one

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Speaker 1: thing I definitely know about you, it's that.

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Speaker 2: You love flying, right because I just have the best

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Speaker 2: travel luck in the world, right.

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Speaker 1: You know. I don't know if this is something we've

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Speaker 1: mentioned on the show, but it's actually pretty baffling to me,

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Speaker 1: like how bad your travel luck has been over the years.

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Speaker 1: Like there are times you'll be flying out of Chicago

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Speaker 1: or something and then I'll check in with you just

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Speaker 1: to see if you've made it home, and you'll say

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Speaker 1: something like I'm in Milwaukee. It's a long story, and

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Speaker 1: I don't know anybody that can pull that off in

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Speaker 1: the way that you do. Or there was even the

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Speaker 1: time we were flying out of Cleveland at the same time.

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Speaker 1: Both of us were there, we were on different sides

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Speaker 1: of the airport. Now, somehow my flight took off and

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Speaker 1: on the other side of the airport they told your

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Speaker 1: plane that the airport was closing down because of the wind,

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Speaker 1: I think.

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Speaker 2: Which is a true story, like that really happened. In fact,

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Speaker 2: sometimes when you are write me to see where I am,

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Speaker 2: I don't even want to respond. Yes, as long as

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Speaker 2: it's entertaining for others.

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Speaker 1: Oh, it definitely is entertaining. But you know, I was

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Speaker 1: thinking about the fact that you and I are most

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Speaker 1: often traveling solo and for work purposes. And you know,

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Speaker 1: it's funny how when you do something so frequently, it's

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Speaker 1: pretty easy just to go through the motions not really

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Speaker 1: think about what's going on around you. And you know,

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Speaker 1: part of that maybe because half the time, I know,

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Speaker 1: I'm flying at such a crazy early hour, and I'm

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Speaker 1: kind of half asleep when I'm there. But as you know,

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Speaker 1: last week, Georgia and I flew up to Toronto so

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Speaker 1: that I could officiate a wedding because apparently that's what

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Speaker 1: I do now, and it's been nice to hear from

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Speaker 1: some listeners. I guess you made the offer that I

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Speaker 1: could officiate other weddings, and so I'm trying to decide

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Speaker 1: whether I want to sign on to do this or not.

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Speaker 1: But you know, we had a bit more time than

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Speaker 1: usual in the Atlanta airport, so we spend a little

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Speaker 1: time walking around, and when you're not rushing to your

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Speaker 1: next flight, spending time in the country's busiest airport actually

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Speaker 1: makes for some pretty fantastic people watching and so you know,

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Speaker 1: we spent time looking out the window as those luggage

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Speaker 1: cars rushed around in between the terminals. We watched people

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Speaker 1: run off the trains to their next flights, and then

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Speaker 1: a couple of times we just sat down and watched

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Speaker 1: people flying by and try to make guesses on why

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Speaker 1: certain passengers were going to different locations.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's a fun game to play. You know,

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Speaker 2: when I'm walking through airport terminals, I'll often see like

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Speaker 2: an airport employee come walking out of one of those

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Speaker 2: personnel only sections, and I always want to go behind

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Speaker 2: that door just to see what's back there.

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Speaker 1: Oh me too. I mean, it'd probably be disappointing if

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Speaker 1: you actually got to go there. But yeah, so many

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Speaker 1: times you see that happen, you're like, what is it?

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Speaker 1: What's happening is such a mystery. But you know, we

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Speaker 1: started talking about just how many people work at the

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Speaker 1: nation's biggest airports and how many people you interact with

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Speaker 1: before you even get on a plane. You've got the

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Speaker 1: people behind the check in desk to TSA, the people

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Speaker 1: working at the restaurants, to gate agents, customs. I mean,

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Speaker 1: so many people, and then all the people behind the

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Speaker 1: scenes controlling the schedules, handling bags and just generally keeping

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Speaker 1: the place running efficiently. I mean, we're talking thousands of

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Speaker 1: people in places like the Atlanta Airport, and that's what

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Speaker 1: God is thinking. You know, what are some of the

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Speaker 1: secrets behind how an airport operates? And what do we

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Speaker 1: not know? And of course what are some of the

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Speaker 1: strangest things TSA has pulled out of passenger bags in security.

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Speaker 1: So let's dive in. Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to

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Speaker 1: Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm

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Speaker 1: joined by my good friend mangesh Hot Ticketer and on

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Speaker 1: the other side of the soundproof glass doing his best impersonation. Now,

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Speaker 1: you guys may not know this about Tristan, but he

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Speaker 1: does incredible impersonations. Oh so good. Well, today's is a

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Speaker 1: really special one. It's of the carpet from the Portland

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Speaker 1: International Airport. That's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. Now

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Speaker 1: I do need to clarify here. Tristan is not lying

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Speaker 1: on the floor with a rug over him. He does

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Speaker 1: that sometimes, but not today. He's not just doing that

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Speaker 1: to pretend to be a carpet. He actually is decked

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Speaker 1: out head to toe and clothing based on that old

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Speaker 1: carpet design from the Portland Airport. Really creative idea.

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Speaker 2: Which honestly, it doesn't sound that much less weird, right.

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Speaker 1: No it doesn't. But this is just the kind of

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Speaker 1: stuff that Tristan does. He's that committed. But actually he

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Speaker 1: was telling me earlier what this is all about. So basically,

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Speaker 1: the Portland Airport, or PDX as you might call it,

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Speaker 1: they added this new carpet to its terminals back in

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Speaker 1: nineteen eighty seven. Now, because this was in the eighties,

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Speaker 1: the carpet had this kind of funky and geometric design

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Speaker 1: with this teal background and all these blue and purple

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Speaker 1: and red shapes repeating all over it. A very loud carpet. Anyway,

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Speaker 1: the carpet stuck around until I think two thousand and six,

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Speaker 1: and that's when PDX decided it was finally time to remodel. Now,

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Speaker 1: they started ripping up the carpet and people went ballistic,

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Speaker 1: and that is not an overstatement. I mean they were

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Speaker 1: grieving the loss of this carpet. They decided to take

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Speaker 1: to social media and just as a way to pay

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Speaker 1: tribute to the airport carpet, and they were calling for

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Speaker 1: it to be preserved. There was a Facebook page for

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Speaker 1: people to post pictures and stories of all the great

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Speaker 1: times that had standing on that carpet, and somebody made

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Speaker 1: a Twitter account and began posting from the carpet's point

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Speaker 1: of view. These are all things that actually happened. And

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Speaker 1: you know, some folks even memorialized the carpet by having

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Speaker 1: its design tattooed on their arms. And of course, it

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Speaker 1: wasn't long after that that the beloved carpet design started

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Speaker 1: appearing on all sorts of merchandise.

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Speaker 2: And you know, just looking at Tristan, you can see

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Speaker 2: that they made PDX carpet t shirts, sweatpants, socks, shoes,

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Speaker 2: even a headband.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I know. And Tristan was telling me about all this.

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Speaker 1: It got me curious about what other bizarre airport stories

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Speaker 1: and secrets are out there. And so that's what today's

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Speaker 1: show is all about. You know, we'll take a look

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Speaker 1: at how airports function, and along the way, we'll also

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Speaker 1: check out some of the odd ball amenities that different

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Speaker 1: airports offer, as well as some of the weirdest stuff

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Speaker 1: that people have tried to slip past security. So let's

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Speaker 1: get started. But where do you want to begin mango.

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Speaker 2: So actually, I don't want to get off the airport

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Speaker 2: carpet fact just yet, because one of the things I

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Speaker 2: didn't notice until Gabe pointed it out to me is

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Speaker 2: that most airports have linoleum or tile in the check

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Speaker 2: in areas and all through security, but then when you

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Speaker 2: get to the flight gates, the floor suddenly switches to carpet.

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Speaker 2: And there's actually a reason behind this, So airport designers

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Speaker 2: use this trick as a way to make holding areas

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Speaker 2: feel more relaxing. So not only does the soft carpet

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Speaker 2: help bring the feel of a living room into the airport,

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Speaker 2: it also helps muffle the noise from people's roller bags

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Speaker 2: and footsteps. But the biggest reason is that all this

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Speaker 2: works together to make past and just feel less stressed out.

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Speaker 1: Yeah it makes sense, but I mean, carpets aren't the

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Speaker 1: only thing designers are thinking about when they design these

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Speaker 1: airport spaces. I mean, another handy tool they use to

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Speaker 1: make us feel comfortable is called wayfinding, or that process

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Speaker 1: designers use to make the airports easier to navigate or

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Speaker 1: as easy as possible. And one big part of this,

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Speaker 1: of course, is the signage. And there's so much careful

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Speaker 1: planning that goes into that not just where to place

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Speaker 1: the signs, but how they're designed, how they're laid out,

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Speaker 1: and for instance, the font on the signs needs to

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Speaker 1: be legible from a distance and easy for non native

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Speaker 1: language speakers to decipher. Now, amazingly, seventy five percent of

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Speaker 1: all airports in the world use just one of three

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Speaker 1: different typefaces, all of which are sanserah, meaning they don't

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Speaker 1: have the little tails on the letters. And because I

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Speaker 1: know you're curious, those three in demand fonts are Frutiger,

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Speaker 1: which was designed specifically for airports, Clearview, which is the

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Speaker 1: same one used on highway signs on the US, and

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Speaker 1: of course Helvetica. By the way, as a side note here,

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Speaker 1: I learned just this week that there actually is an

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Speaker 1: airline called Helvetic Airlines, which is a small airline out

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Speaker 1: of Switzerland where Helvetica typeface originated, and in a truly

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Speaker 1: weird turn of events, the airline does not use Helvetica

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Speaker 1: for its logo.

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Speaker 2: That's super weird. So what do they use?

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Speaker 1: I don't know what it's called exactly, and it's kind

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Speaker 1: of this squat and italic font for some reason.

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Speaker 2: Huh. That almost feels scandalous to not use helvetica there.

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Speaker 2: But another way of wayfinding that I hadn't thought about

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Speaker 2: are all the works of art that are placed around

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Speaker 2: the airport for you. And these can be murals or

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Speaker 2: sculptures or sometimes even interactive exhibits. But whatever form it takes,

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Speaker 2: airport art is never there just to look pretty or

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Speaker 2: to help passengers relax. That's because designers are actually thinking

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Speaker 2: of them as landmarks, like a quick way to establish

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Speaker 2: a point of reference for passengers as they make their

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Speaker 2: way through what are otherwise these monotonous terminals. So if

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Speaker 2: you're ever doing some exploring at the airport and you

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Speaker 2: need to find your way back to your gate, just

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Speaker 2: look for the big bronze bear or whatever to help

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Speaker 2: point the way.

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Speaker 1: Well, since you bring up airport art, I do want

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Speaker 1: to tell you about maybe the strangest and creepiest examples

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Speaker 1: I came across. And by the way, if you want

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Speaker 1: to see these, it's pretty convenient because you just go

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Speaker 1: to one airport. It's the Denver International Airport.

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Speaker 2: So that actually doesn't surprise me, because what's weird is

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Speaker 2: that there are all these conspiracy theories about that specific airport,

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Speaker 2: like the runways are all pinwheel shaped, and some people

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Speaker 2: claim they're meant to look like swastikas. Some people think

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Speaker 2: there's a secret underground city and the tunnels beneath the terminals.

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Speaker 2: You know, it is super weird, But I don't think

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Speaker 2: I've heard about the artwork. Can you run me through that?

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Speaker 1: Well, you're in for a treat with this, because some

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Speaker 1: of this stuff is just off the wall. So to

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Speaker 1: start on the road that leads to the terminal, there's

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Speaker 1: this enormous thirty two foot tall sculpture of a blue

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Speaker 1: mustang rearing up in anger. But it's not just the

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Speaker 1: size or the stance that makes this thing so scary.

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Speaker 1: And that's because at night, the horse's eyes actually glow

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Speaker 1: bright red. How strange is this? But if that isn't

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Speaker 1: enough to convince you the horse is pure evil, just

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Speaker 1: listen to this. Back in two thousand and six, when

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Speaker 1: the statue was still being sculpted, a nine thousand pounds

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Speaker 1: piece of stone broke free and tragically fell on the

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Speaker 1: sculpture as he was working. And you know, sadly he

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Speaker 1: died from this not too long after. So not only

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Speaker 1: is this giant blue mustang terrifying, to behold, it also

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Speaker 1: killed its creator, and that's why the locals call him Blucifer.

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Speaker 2: Wow. So I'm actually a little afraid to ask, but

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Speaker 2: I think you said the horse was just one example.

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Speaker 1: Well, the art inside the airport gets even weirder than Blucifer. So,

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Speaker 1: for instance, at baggage Claim, there are these two stone

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Speaker 1: gargles keeping watch over the luggage carousels, and together the

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Speaker 1: pair of forms a sculpture known as Notre Denver, which

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Speaker 1: is pretty cutesy, named for a couple of winged demons

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Speaker 1: that are pretty weird looking. But probably the most unsettling

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Speaker 1: piece of art in the whole place is mural. It's

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Speaker 1: right there inside the airport and it's called Children of

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Speaker 1: the World Dream of Peace. Now this title sounds haarmwarming,

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Speaker 1: and you think, oh, this must be a really nice thing,

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Speaker 1: But just listen to this description that I found from

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Speaker 1: Atlas Obscure. It says in the mural, a gargantuane figure

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Speaker 1: in flowing olive green military garb and a gas mask

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Speaker 1: wields an assault rifle in his left hand while stabbing

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Speaker 1: a dove with the cutlass in his right. A line

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Speaker 1: of shrouded despairing figures cowers in his wake. It's just

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Speaker 1: what you want to see before boarding an international flight.

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Speaker 2: What is going on at this airport?

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Speaker 1: I do think somebody might have missed the memo about

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Speaker 1: how airport artists supposed to be soothing, because that's definitely

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Speaker 1: not soothing.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. So here's something even scarier than demons and killer horses.

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Speaker 2: So you know, the plastic bins we use to unload

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Speaker 2: all our stuff on the way through security.

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Speaker 1: Definitely.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. So, according to a recent study out of Finland,

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Speaker 2: those bins actually contain a whole host of respiratory viruses,

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Speaker 2: including germs known to cause both the common cold and

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Speaker 2: flew and in fact, researchers found that the bins contain

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Speaker 2: more germ samples than any other tested part of the airport,

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Speaker 2: which includes elevator buttons, flight check in machines, even toilet handles.

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Speaker 2: And while these findings were specific to the Helsinki Airport,

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Speaker 2: other studies have turned up similar results in a lot

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Speaker 2: of different airports. And unfortunately, those bins just don't get

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Speaker 2: cleaned that often.

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Speaker 1: You know. It's one of those things that most of

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Speaker 1: the time, my wife Georgia is very clean about the

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Speaker 1: things she does, but sometimes when we travel, she takes

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Speaker 1: a pillow and she puts it into one of those

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Speaker 1: bins when we're traveling, and it is the grossest thing

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Speaker 1: that anyone has ever done. I just can't handle it.

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Speaker 1: But it's you know, I actually love these facts that

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Speaker 1: confirm my suspicion that everything I come into contact with

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Speaker 1: is filthy. And so those are just great stats. I mean,

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Speaker 1: it's like when we talked about how the trade tables

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Speaker 1: on airplanes are also super gross, I mean grosser than anything.

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Speaker 2: So I vaguely remember this, but can you nudge my

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Speaker 2: memory a little?

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Speaker 1: Of course, I have the fact right here. I keep

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Speaker 1: them with me at all times, just in case anybody

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Speaker 1: needs to be reminded. But this was from a twenty

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Speaker 1: fifteen study from travel Math, and it showed that trade

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Speaker 1: tables on the back of cabin seats typically contain over

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Speaker 1: two thousand colony forming units per square inch. Now these

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Speaker 1: are also known as CFUs. Now, to put that in perspective,

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Speaker 1: the average household toilet average household toilet has only around

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Speaker 1: one hundred and seventy CFUs. Even the flush buttons for

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Speaker 1: airport toilets only have about two hundred and sixty CFUs.

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Speaker 1: So that's two thousand on these trade tables compared to

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Speaker 1: two hundred and sixty on a flush button on an

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Speaker 1: airport toilet.

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Speaker 2: It is so weird that trade tables are that filthy.

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Speaker 2: So I actually remember this great scene in Rolldahl's book

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Speaker 2: Going Solo, it's his biography, where he's on this boat

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Speaker 2: and he's watching this woman eat an orange with a

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Speaker 2: knife and fork, and he's just kind of amazed by

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Speaker 2: how nimble she is with it, and he asks her

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Speaker 2: why she's using a knife and fork, and she goes

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Speaker 2: on this big about how dirty our hens are and

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Speaker 2: how she would never use her hens. And I think

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Speaker 2: that's why whenever I touched the tray table from now on,

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Speaker 2: it's going to be with a knife and fork. That's

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Speaker 2: a smart way.

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Speaker 1: Of approach it. All Right, Well, I feel like we

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Speaker 1: rushed onto the plane too quickly and need to come

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Speaker 1: back to the airport. So what do you say we

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Speaker 1: take a minute to talk about some of the deeply

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Speaker 1: weird things that people's stuff in those dirty bins you

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Speaker 1: were talking about. I mean, there are all kinds of

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Speaker 1: strange stories there about people smuggling everything from human remains

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Speaker 1: to ninja throwing stars and all of this in their

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Speaker 1: carry on bags. But the most interesting examples to me

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Speaker 1: are all the weird things that scientists stow. I mean,

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Speaker 1: it's so funny to read some of these. I actually

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Speaker 1: just listen to some of the stuff that TSA has

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Speaker 1: turned up in recent years. All right, A cooler full

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Speaker 1: of turtle embryos, sure, several bottles of monkey pee, the

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Speaker 1: shin bone of a giant groundsloth, fifty vials of freeze

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Speaker 1: dried milk from an Antarctic fur seal, and of course

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Speaker 1: a three D printed model of a dolphin vagina. I mean,

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Speaker 1: you can't make this stuff up.

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Speaker 2: That's so weird. But I'm guessing the scientists must have

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Speaker 2: like legit reasons for carrying this stuff through, right, Like

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Speaker 2: does security just give him a pass? Yeah?

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Speaker 1: I mean most of the time they do. And most

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Speaker 1: of these things don't really break the rules. They're just

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Speaker 1: odd and usually require some sort of explanation. For for instance,

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Speaker 1: when the antarctic researcher with all the seal milk was stopped,

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Speaker 1: he just had to explain what all these vials of

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Speaker 1: white powder really were.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, if you're taking a lot of white

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Speaker 2: powder on a plane, you're kind of asking to get stopped.

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Speaker 1: But well, you know, once he had clued them in there,

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Speaker 1: there really wasn't that much of a problem. And in fact,

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Speaker 1: as the guy later explained, quote, some of the officers

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Speaker 1: just wanted to wave me on, but others wanted me

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Speaker 1: to stay and answer their questions like how do you

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Speaker 1: milk a first seal? And so he pointed out, that's

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Speaker 1: a nice way to engage in a discussion about science.

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Speaker 1: But he also almost missed his flight.

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Speaker 2: So I actually love these types of interactions, Like I

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Speaker 2: was reading about this one time a few years ago

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Speaker 2: when this asked physicists flew to Fargo, North Dakota, and

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Speaker 2: he had his Nobel Physics Prize with him. So his

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Speaker 2: name is Brian Schmidt apparently won the prize back in

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Speaker 2: twenty eleven for code discovering dark energy. But anyway, he

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Speaker 2: was going to Fargo to visit his grandmom and she

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Speaker 2: asked him to bring along his Nobell and just in

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Speaker 2: case other listeners don't know, a Nobel prize kind of

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Speaker 2: looks like an Olympic medal, like it's made of gold,

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Speaker 2: weighs about half a pound.

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Speaker 1: It's pretty big.

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Speaker 2: So Schmidt has this giant medal in his bag, and

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Speaker 2: because it's made of gold, it actually absorbs all the

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Speaker 2: X rays and it just looked like a big black

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Speaker 2: mystery object to the monitors. So security asked him, like,

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Speaker 2: what's in it? And he tells him it's a gold medal.

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Speaker 2: And then they opened the bag and inspect it and

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Speaker 2: they're like, uh, who gave this to you? To where

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Speaker 2: Schmidt says, and he gives an honest answer, the King

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Speaker 2: of Sweden. Of course, the King.

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Speaker 1: Of Sweden, as you do you know, so did the

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Speaker 1: agent just let him through or what?

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Speaker 2: No, they were totally suspicious. So then the officers had

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Speaker 2: all these follow ups, like they asked like, why did

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Speaker 2: the king give this to you? And so Schmidt has

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Speaker 2: continued to tell the truths. He says, because I helped

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Speaker 2: discover that the expansion rate of the universe was accelerating.

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Speaker 2: And as he's saying this, you know, the officers are

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Speaker 2: looking more and more angry. He gets sense that they

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Speaker 2: were losing their patience. So he finally explained the whole

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Speaker 2: thing in detail, like the science, how he won this award,

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Speaker 2: that the king presented it to him, all that, and

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Speaker 2: even then they had one more question for him, which was,

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Speaker 2: why were you in Fargo?

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Speaker 1: I mean, I guess that's a pretty fair question under

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Speaker 1: the circumstances. But all right, well, now that we made

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Speaker 1: our way through security, what do you say we stretch

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Speaker 1: our legs a little bit and check out a few

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Speaker 1: of the more surprising amenities the airport seems to offer

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Speaker 1: these days. But before we get to that, let's take

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Speaker 1: a quick break. You're listening to Part Time Genius and

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Speaker 1: we're talking about airports, all right, Mango. So you and

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Speaker 1: I fly fairly often, as we said before, and I

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Speaker 1: know one thing we've both noticed is that airports offer

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Speaker 1: a much wider array of amenities than they used to.

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Speaker 1: You know, you see things like massage chairs, which honestly

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Speaker 1: is so weird to me to be walking through a

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Speaker 1: terminal and look over and see somebody just with their

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Speaker 1: eyes closed and a massage. I just don't feel like

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Speaker 1: that's a place I could relax. But you definitely see

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Speaker 1: lots of those. You see sleeping pods and day spas,

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Speaker 1: made to order sushi like This is a huge list

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Speaker 1: of luxuries that are involved in some of these airports,

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Speaker 1: and it seems to get longer every year, and so

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Speaker 1: I've assembled my own little list here, but I actually

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Speaker 1: want to hear from you first. So what are some

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Speaker 1: of the most unexpected services you've come across during your travels?

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Speaker 2: So one of the things I really like is that

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Speaker 2: you see more and more playgrounds for kids in airports,

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Speaker 2: and it's been really nice to be able to like

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Speaker 2: let the kids run around on these little jungle gyms

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Speaker 2: and let them be loud and crazy for a bit

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Speaker 2: before you have to, like, you know, reel it all

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Speaker 2: in when you get on a plane. But as a

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Speaker 2: solo traveler, probably my favorite trend that's been gaining steam

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Speaker 2: states side is airport movie theaters. And this is something

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Speaker 2: I think started back in twenty fourteen, which is when

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Speaker 2: the airport in Minneapolis Saint Paul opened this free around

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Speaker 2: the clock screening room near Gate C eighteen.

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Speaker 1: Huh, I've been there, but I actually haven't noticed that before,

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Speaker 1: So catching a movie it sounds like a fun way

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Speaker 1: to kill pine before a flight, but you probably have

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Speaker 1: to get there pretty early to be able to watch

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Speaker 1: the whole thing, right.

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Speaker 2: So it's not actually a problem in this case. The

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Speaker 2: Minnesota screening room only shows short films and documentaries by

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Speaker 2: filmmakers from the Upper Midwest, so in addition to providing

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Speaker 2: some free entertainment, they're really a way to showcase this

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Speaker 2: local talent. And this approach isn't unique to the Minneapolis

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Speaker 2: airport either, So last spring, the airport in Portland opened

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Speaker 2: its first microcinema and concourse, see it's similar. Where ticketed

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Speaker 2: passengers have made it through security, they're free to grab

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Speaker 2: a spot in this seventeen seat theater and cast short

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Speaker 2: films by filmmakers from Portland. But maybe the most unique

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Speaker 2: airport theater is the one that opened last August at

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Speaker 2: Miami International. And unlike the others I mentioned, this one

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Speaker 2: doesn't show a recent films shot by local artists. Instead,

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Speaker 2: the airport actually uses this bank of old flight monitors

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Speaker 2: to show all kinds of vintage footage they found in

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Speaker 2: and around the airport. So you might see like Miami

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Speaker 2: Family's home movies from the nineteen twenties on one reel,

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Speaker 2: or a reel of different celebrities who've arrived at the

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Speaker 2: airport between the fifties and eighties. Plus there are all

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Speaker 2: these quirky vintage promotional films for Florida sprinkled in. It

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Speaker 2: is pretty great, and it just seems like a really

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Speaker 2: cool project and a fun way to see all the

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Speaker 2: changes the airport and the surrounding community have gone through

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Speaker 2: over the years.

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Speaker 1: That does sound pretty neat. I feel like I need

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Speaker 1: to check that out the next time I'm in Miami.

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Speaker 1: But all right, Well, for my turn, I want to

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Speaker 1: talk about something I know you'll love, and that's the

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Speaker 1: menagerie of therapy animals that some airports now keep on

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Speaker 1: hand as really a way to help calm frazzle passengers.

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Speaker 1: So let's get the boring ones out of the way.

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Speaker 1: I guess I should mention that there are more than

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Speaker 1: thirty airports around the US that now have therapy dogs,

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Speaker 1: as well as a few that also have cats and

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Speaker 1: even rabbits.

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Speaker 2: Oh, what's a therapy rabbit.

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Speaker 1: Well, it's a therapeutic rabbit. Actually, I have no idea.

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Speaker 1: I guess it's just calmer than your typical rabbit and

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Speaker 1: less skiddish. But way back to the idea of these

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Speaker 1: other animals. So there are plenty of common therapy animals

434
00:21:15,160 --> 00:21:18,800
Speaker 1: scattered in airports across the country, but there's only one

435
00:21:18,840 --> 00:21:21,960
Speaker 1: airport here with its own pot bellied pig, and that's

436
00:21:21,960 --> 00:21:25,359
Speaker 1: in San Francisco. Now, I've flown to San Francisco many times.

437
00:21:25,400 --> 00:21:27,320
Speaker 1: I know you have two. I have never seen that,

438
00:21:27,359 --> 00:21:27,800
Speaker 1: have you?

439
00:21:27,840 --> 00:21:30,040
Speaker 2: No, I have not seen a potbellid pig there.

440
00:21:30,200 --> 00:21:33,159
Speaker 1: Yeah. The pig's name is Leelu, and back in twenty

441
00:21:33,280 --> 00:21:36,840
Speaker 1: sixteen she joined the airport's wag Brigade, which, as you

442
00:21:36,840 --> 00:21:39,520
Speaker 1: could probably guess, as a group of specially trained therapy

443
00:21:39,560 --> 00:21:43,439
Speaker 1: animals that the airport keeps on staff. But Leelu doesn't

444
00:21:43,480 --> 00:21:45,399
Speaker 1: just sit there like a lump while you pet her,

445
00:21:45,520 --> 00:21:48,879
Speaker 1: like say a therapy rabbit might do. Leelu is actually

446
00:21:48,920 --> 00:21:52,400
Speaker 1: a highly skilled performer. So get this, she has not one,

447
00:21:52,840 --> 00:21:56,280
Speaker 1: not two, but ten different tricks in her repertoire, and

448
00:21:56,680 --> 00:22:00,879
Speaker 1: including one where she plays a miniature piano. But you know,

449
00:22:01,000 --> 00:22:04,480
Speaker 1: like any pig diva, she also brings a complete wardrobe

450
00:22:04,480 --> 00:22:07,960
Speaker 1: with her, and so her vast costume collection includes, among

451
00:22:08,000 --> 00:22:11,439
Speaker 1: other outfits, a sparkly pink too too, and of course

452
00:22:11,520 --> 00:22:14,000
Speaker 1: a pilot uniform with a hat.

453
00:22:13,880 --> 00:22:16,680
Speaker 2: Which sounds adorable, But you know, I kigs aren't your thing.

454
00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:18,960
Speaker 2: You might actually have better luck at the airport in

455
00:22:19,080 --> 00:22:22,560
Speaker 2: hebrin Kentucky. So folks that originally planned to use dogs

456
00:22:22,560 --> 00:22:25,400
Speaker 2: when they launched the therapy animal program in twenty sixteen,

457
00:22:25,480 --> 00:22:28,560
Speaker 2: but in the end they went with something much more

458
00:22:28,680 --> 00:22:31,639
Speaker 2: unique and also more local. So the airport got in

459
00:22:31,640 --> 00:22:34,320
Speaker 2: touch with a nearby nonprofit that happened to run a

460
00:22:34,520 --> 00:22:38,040
Speaker 2: miniature horse therapy program, and after a few visits, the

461
00:22:38,080 --> 00:22:40,240
Speaker 2: airport decided to ditch the dogs and just bring many

462
00:22:40,280 --> 00:22:43,600
Speaker 2: horses to the airport twice a month instead. And as

463
00:22:43,640 --> 00:22:46,199
Speaker 2: you can imagine, you know, the prospect of hurting multiple

464
00:22:46,280 --> 00:22:49,280
Speaker 2: horses through the security lines was pretty daunting, So the

465
00:22:49,359 --> 00:22:52,240
Speaker 2: horses are usually kept in the ticketing area during the visits,

466
00:22:52,280 --> 00:22:54,880
Speaker 2: and even if you aren't flying anywhere, you can still

467
00:22:54,920 --> 00:22:56,720
Speaker 2: swing by and pet some therapy horses.

468
00:22:57,440 --> 00:23:00,200
Speaker 1: It's like a stable full of little Sebastian It's like

469
00:23:00,240 --> 00:23:02,680
Speaker 1: a fun airport to go to. But yeah, it's funny

470
00:23:02,680 --> 00:23:05,040
Speaker 1: this stuff happens in the US because I typically only

471
00:23:05,119 --> 00:23:08,080
Speaker 1: hear about these kinds of programs at foreign airports, like,

472
00:23:08,520 --> 00:23:11,040
Speaker 1: for instance, I read that the Shippell Airport in Amsterdam

473
00:23:11,119 --> 00:23:15,080
Speaker 1: has all kinds of jealousy inducing amenities. They've got a

474
00:23:15,119 --> 00:23:19,280
Speaker 1: fully stocked airport library, a museum showcasing art from the

475
00:23:19,359 --> 00:23:23,439
Speaker 1: Dutch masters, and probably coolest of all a team of

476
00:23:23,520 --> 00:23:27,199
Speaker 1: concierge robots. And don't even get me started on the

477
00:23:27,200 --> 00:23:28,240
Speaker 1: airport in Singapore.

478
00:23:28,760 --> 00:23:31,199
Speaker 2: So I've actually been to the Singapore airport. It was

479
00:23:31,200 --> 00:23:34,040
Speaker 2: in the nineties, and even back then it was unreal,

480
00:23:34,200 --> 00:23:37,159
Speaker 2: like if you had a layover, Singapore would actually give you,

481
00:23:37,240 --> 00:23:38,560
Speaker 2: like I want to say, it was like a forty

482
00:23:38,560 --> 00:23:40,520
Speaker 2: five minute or an hour long tour of the country

483
00:23:40,560 --> 00:23:42,879
Speaker 2: and then bring you back to the airport and whisky

484
00:23:42,960 --> 00:23:46,439
Speaker 2: through security. It also had like amazing public showers and

485
00:23:46,480 --> 00:23:49,800
Speaker 2: these super clean stalls, and there was this garden with

486
00:23:49,920 --> 00:23:50,560
Speaker 2: birds in it.

487
00:23:51,560 --> 00:23:54,560
Speaker 1: Yeah, except that it's actually gardens plural, like the first

488
00:23:54,560 --> 00:23:57,080
Speaker 1: one was built in the nineteen eighties, I think. But

489
00:23:57,640 --> 00:24:00,679
Speaker 1: now there are whopping ten gardens that are spread across

490
00:24:00,720 --> 00:24:04,520
Speaker 1: the airport's four different terminals, and altogether they contain over

491
00:24:04,680 --> 00:24:08,360
Speaker 1: half a million plants from nearly three hundred different species.

492
00:24:08,800 --> 00:24:12,040
Speaker 1: It's pretty absurd, Like they have this dedicated cactus garden,

493
00:24:12,200 --> 00:24:15,480
Speaker 1: one with just sunflowers, another that's full of orchids. But

494
00:24:16,040 --> 00:24:18,720
Speaker 1: I think my favorite has to be this two story,

495
00:24:18,920 --> 00:24:22,639
Speaker 1: open air, thirty five hundred square foot butterfly garden in

496
00:24:22,800 --> 00:24:25,760
Speaker 1: Terminal three. And apparently there are more than a thousand

497
00:24:25,760 --> 00:24:29,399
Speaker 1: tropical butterflies that call this garden home at any given time.

498
00:24:29,840 --> 00:24:32,280
Speaker 1: And if you're not into butterflies, the garden is still

499
00:24:32,320 --> 00:24:35,040
Speaker 1: worth a visit because it also contains a twenty foot

500
00:24:35,119 --> 00:24:36,160
Speaker 1: tall waterfall.

501
00:24:36,320 --> 00:24:38,600
Speaker 2: Wow. I mean that was definitely not there when I

502
00:24:38,640 --> 00:24:41,879
Speaker 2: was there. But you know, we had a significant layover

503
00:24:42,000 --> 00:24:44,879
Speaker 2: when I was at the Singapore Airport, and I have

504
00:24:45,080 --> 00:24:47,280
Speaker 2: never been to another airport where I wouldn't have minded

505
00:24:47,280 --> 00:24:49,840
Speaker 2: it waiting for like a flight delay. You know, the

506
00:24:49,920 --> 00:24:52,160
Speaker 2: food was great, the place was great, it was well lit,

507
00:24:52,200 --> 00:24:53,560
Speaker 2: it was it was really gorgeous.

508
00:24:54,000 --> 00:24:56,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'd love to visit there sometime. And apparently you're

509
00:24:56,200 --> 00:24:59,120
Speaker 1: not the only one who feels this way. Actually, according

510
00:24:59,160 --> 00:25:02,440
Speaker 1: to the World air Awards, which is apparently a thing.

511
00:25:02,920 --> 00:25:06,320
Speaker 1: In twenty eighteen, the Singapore Airport was voted the world's

512
00:25:06,359 --> 00:25:09,479
Speaker 1: best airport for the sixth year in a row. And

513
00:25:09,880 --> 00:25:12,520
Speaker 1: there's a pretty steep competition out there. So at this point,

514
00:25:12,600 --> 00:25:14,879
Speaker 1: I'm not sure what it would take to beat Singapore.

515
00:25:15,680 --> 00:25:18,399
Speaker 2: So I do think that they have one feature that

516
00:25:18,440 --> 00:25:20,520
Speaker 2: could knock them out of the top spot, and that

517
00:25:20,680 --> 00:25:21,719
Speaker 2: is rocking chairs.

518
00:25:22,840 --> 00:25:24,640
Speaker 1: Wait, I think you missed the part where I said

519
00:25:24,640 --> 00:25:28,360
Speaker 1: Singapore Airport has a twenty foot indoor waterfall. I'm pretty

520
00:25:28,400 --> 00:25:30,040
Speaker 1: sure that tops rocking chairs.

521
00:25:30,280 --> 00:25:32,520
Speaker 2: Well, I think some cities prefer there. Maybe he's a

522
00:25:32,600 --> 00:25:35,399
Speaker 2: little less showy, thank you very much, Or at least

523
00:25:35,520 --> 00:25:38,600
Speaker 2: that was my takeaway after learning that over fifty airports

524
00:25:38,640 --> 00:25:40,680
Speaker 2: around the US now have a fleet of rockers set

525
00:25:40,760 --> 00:25:41,760
Speaker 2: up in their terminals.

526
00:25:42,119 --> 00:25:44,240
Speaker 1: You know, now that you mentioned that, it's something I've

527
00:25:44,280 --> 00:25:47,280
Speaker 1: noticed a lot lately, especially when I'm passing through airports

528
00:25:47,320 --> 00:25:49,560
Speaker 1: here in the South. I mean, it feels like Charlotte

529
00:25:49,560 --> 00:25:51,960
Speaker 1: has had them forever, But maybe that's part of what's

530
00:25:52,080 --> 00:25:54,600
Speaker 1: going on there. Like Southern folks just like the airport

531
00:25:54,720 --> 00:25:56,960
Speaker 1: to feel a little more like their front porch.

532
00:25:57,040 --> 00:26:00,000
Speaker 2: Maybe. Yeah, I mean, I think you're probably half right,

533
00:26:00,080 --> 00:26:02,399
Speaker 2: because it's not just Southerners who liked the rockers. You

534
00:26:02,400 --> 00:26:04,320
Speaker 2: can actually find them in airports as far west as

535
00:26:04,320 --> 00:26:07,640
Speaker 2: Seattle and San Diego. But you know, that front porch

536
00:26:07,680 --> 00:26:10,080
Speaker 2: field you mentioned is definitely a big part of the appeal.

537
00:26:10,320 --> 00:26:12,440
Speaker 2: In fact, the whole trend seems to have started thanks

538
00:26:12,480 --> 00:26:15,440
Speaker 2: to a temporary art exhibit called Porch Setting, And you're

539
00:26:15,640 --> 00:26:18,520
Speaker 2: absolutely right. It was featured at the airport in Charlotte,

540
00:26:18,520 --> 00:26:21,160
Speaker 2: North Carolina. And this was way back in nineteen ninety seven.

541
00:26:21,600 --> 00:26:23,280
Speaker 2: And so the way it worked was they had all

542
00:26:23,280 --> 00:26:26,280
Speaker 2: these giant photographs of different front porches with rock and

543
00:26:26,359 --> 00:26:28,560
Speaker 2: chairs on them, and then in front of the photos

544
00:26:28,600 --> 00:26:30,959
Speaker 2: they put actual rock and chairs, kind of like props

545
00:26:31,000 --> 00:26:33,520
Speaker 2: to make the exhibit a little more interactive. But when

546
00:26:33,520 --> 00:26:36,919
Speaker 2: the exhibit finished its run and the chairs were taken away,

547
00:26:37,280 --> 00:26:40,280
Speaker 2: people got super upset. You know. It was just like

548
00:26:40,320 --> 00:26:42,800
Speaker 2: with that carpet in Portland, Like passengers had grown so

549
00:26:43,080 --> 00:26:47,240
Speaker 2: fond of these airport rockers, and once the public outcry started,

550
00:26:47,320 --> 00:26:49,720
Speaker 2: the amenities manager not only brought the chairs back, he

551
00:26:49,760 --> 00:26:51,960
Speaker 2: also added even more of them.

552
00:26:52,160 --> 00:26:54,480
Speaker 1: I mean, it's fascinating to see what kinds of things

553
00:26:54,520 --> 00:26:57,840
Speaker 1: people get attached to, and at airports of all places.

554
00:26:57,840 --> 00:27:00,159
Speaker 1: But I'm curious, though, because what you just outline was

555
00:27:00,200 --> 00:27:03,159
Speaker 1: a pretty specific chain of events. I doubt all these

556
00:27:03,200 --> 00:27:06,440
Speaker 1: other airports had their own rocking chair exhibits or whatever,

557
00:27:06,520 --> 00:27:08,320
Speaker 1: but how did they wind up with them?

558
00:27:08,680 --> 00:27:10,760
Speaker 2: Right? So, for the most part, it seems like people

559
00:27:10,760 --> 00:27:13,280
Speaker 2: who worked at one airport started noticing the chairs at

560
00:27:13,320 --> 00:27:15,720
Speaker 2: other airports while they were traveling, and then they just

561
00:27:15,760 --> 00:27:18,320
Speaker 2: decided to copy the idea. But here's the best part.

562
00:27:18,600 --> 00:27:22,200
Speaker 2: All those rockers spread across fifty some airports like they

563
00:27:22,240 --> 00:27:25,320
Speaker 2: all come from the same company. It's called Troutman Chairs,

564
00:27:25,640 --> 00:27:27,840
Speaker 2: and it's co owned by a husband and wife who

565
00:27:27,840 --> 00:27:31,360
Speaker 2: have basically become the go to supplier for airport rocking chairs.

566
00:27:32,320 --> 00:27:35,400
Speaker 1: Wait, seriously, like, what a bizarre market to Domino also

567
00:27:35,440 --> 00:27:36,320
Speaker 1: had they pulled this off?

568
00:27:37,000 --> 00:27:39,120
Speaker 2: Well, the company's based in North Carolina, which is where

569
00:27:39,119 --> 00:27:41,400
Speaker 2: the trend got started, so they were the ones who

570
00:27:41,440 --> 00:27:43,800
Speaker 2: built the chairs for that exhibit in ninety seven, and

571
00:27:43,840 --> 00:27:46,720
Speaker 2: then over the years, whenever one airport manager asked about

572
00:27:46,720 --> 00:27:49,400
Speaker 2: the rockers at a different airport, they're always pointed right

573
00:27:49,400 --> 00:27:52,199
Speaker 2: back to Troutman Chairs. But the other cool thing I

574
00:27:52,240 --> 00:27:54,480
Speaker 2: read is a theory on why these chairs were a

575
00:27:54,560 --> 00:27:57,399
Speaker 2: hit with passengers in the first place. And this is

576
00:27:57,400 --> 00:28:01,280
Speaker 2: the explanation that the amenities manager in North Carolina gave. Quote,

577
00:28:01,680 --> 00:28:04,679
Speaker 2: airports tend to be such a fast paced environment it

578
00:28:04,720 --> 00:28:07,960
Speaker 2: could be overwhelming for people who aren't seasoned travelers. The

579
00:28:08,040 --> 00:28:11,439
Speaker 2: rocker is a yin to that yang. You're controlling the rocker,

580
00:28:11,600 --> 00:28:13,560
Speaker 2: where a lot of the time in an airport you're

581
00:28:13,600 --> 00:28:16,879
Speaker 2: not controlling your environment. It's a nice pause button in

582
00:28:16,920 --> 00:28:17,840
Speaker 2: a hectic environment.

583
00:28:18,680 --> 00:28:20,679
Speaker 1: It definitely is, and you can see that when you

584
00:28:20,760 --> 00:28:23,520
Speaker 1: travel through Charlotte and you see all the people sitting there.

585
00:28:23,560 --> 00:28:26,159
Speaker 1: In fact, I can remember when we were traveling so

586
00:28:26,280 --> 00:28:28,760
Speaker 1: much in our mental f loss days, and our old

587
00:28:28,760 --> 00:28:31,520
Speaker 1: designer Winslow, and I would travel through that airport all

588
00:28:31,560 --> 00:28:34,199
Speaker 1: the time. We got so used to knowing what was

589
00:28:34,240 --> 00:28:36,480
Speaker 1: in every spot in that airport that we could use

590
00:28:36,560 --> 00:28:40,160
Speaker 1: code for the different terminals. And there was this barbecue

591
00:28:40,200 --> 00:28:42,600
Speaker 1: restaurant where we ate one time, and it was not

592
00:28:42,720 --> 00:28:45,360
Speaker 1: the best dish of barbecue, and it was very wet

593
00:28:45,400 --> 00:28:48,240
Speaker 1: for some reason. So whenever I would check in with

594
00:28:48,280 --> 00:28:50,800
Speaker 1: Winslow when he was traveling, sometimes he would just text

595
00:28:50,880 --> 00:28:53,240
Speaker 1: back wet barbecue, and I knew that meant he was

596
00:28:53,280 --> 00:28:56,640
Speaker 1: in Terminal E in the Charlotte Airport. But uh, but

597
00:28:56,840 --> 00:28:59,360
Speaker 1: back to the idea of these rocking chairs. I mean,

598
00:28:59,440 --> 00:29:02,360
Speaker 1: you know, he's absolutely right about airports being hectic, and

599
00:29:02,760 --> 00:29:04,880
Speaker 1: that's actually something I do think we should talk about

600
00:29:04,920 --> 00:29:07,239
Speaker 1: in a little bit more detail. But before we get

601
00:29:07,280 --> 00:29:20,560
Speaker 1: to that, let's take one more quick break.

602
00:29:23,120 --> 00:29:24,920
Speaker 2: You listen to Part Time Genius, and we're talking about

603
00:29:24,920 --> 00:29:28,120
Speaker 2: the special kind of anxiety that people feel at airports. Okay, well,

604
00:29:28,160 --> 00:29:30,400
Speaker 2: so one thing I noticed while looking through our research

605
00:29:30,480 --> 00:29:32,600
Speaker 2: is that society actually used to have a much more

606
00:29:32,720 --> 00:29:35,479
Speaker 2: romantic view of airports than we do today. Like if

607
00:29:35,520 --> 00:29:37,960
Speaker 2: you look back at the mid twentieth century, when commercial

608
00:29:37,960 --> 00:29:43,000
Speaker 2: air travel was just you know, taking off, thank you Tristan,

609
00:29:43,320 --> 00:29:46,680
Speaker 2: people had a very rosy, optimistic view of flying. A

610
00:29:46,720 --> 00:29:48,840
Speaker 2: trip to the airport didn't fill you with dread because

611
00:29:48,840 --> 00:29:52,760
Speaker 2: airports were still seen as dynamic, forward looking places. But

612
00:29:53,040 --> 00:29:55,680
Speaker 2: that's definitely not what most of us see them as today.

613
00:29:55,840 --> 00:29:57,920
Speaker 2: So I'm curious, why do you think that happened?

614
00:29:58,880 --> 00:30:00,880
Speaker 1: Well, you know, I would think a big part of

615
00:30:00,920 --> 00:30:03,680
Speaker 1: this is the massive uptick and security that we've seen

616
00:30:03,800 --> 00:30:06,800
Speaker 1: since the nineteen seventies. And I think we covered this

617
00:30:06,840 --> 00:30:09,160
Speaker 1: a bit in our Golden Age of Hijacking episode. But

618
00:30:09,320 --> 00:30:12,280
Speaker 1: airport's first added metal detectors in the seventies, and this

619
00:30:12,440 --> 00:30:14,840
Speaker 1: was of course as a way to thwart hijackers, and

620
00:30:15,440 --> 00:30:18,520
Speaker 1: ever since then, we've watched the security process at airports

621
00:30:18,560 --> 00:30:22,680
Speaker 1: gradually grow more strict and more complicated. And while tighter

622
00:30:22,720 --> 00:30:25,320
Speaker 1: regulations are needed in some cases, I think part of

623
00:30:25,360 --> 00:30:27,400
Speaker 1: the fallout from them is that a lot of people

624
00:30:27,520 --> 00:30:31,120
Speaker 1: feel really stressed at the airport. And that's even before

625
00:30:31,160 --> 00:30:34,040
Speaker 1: you factor in other changes that have negatively impacted the

626
00:30:34,080 --> 00:30:37,719
Speaker 1: airport experience. Like you know how much dingier airlines are

627
00:30:37,800 --> 00:30:40,440
Speaker 1: compared to just twenty years or so ago. And there

628
00:30:40,520 --> 00:30:43,800
Speaker 1: used to be free meals on short flights for all classes,

629
00:30:43,880 --> 00:30:46,800
Speaker 1: and then it was restricted to long flights, and now

630
00:30:46,840 --> 00:30:50,320
Speaker 1: it's really only international if you're flying coach. You've also

631
00:30:50,400 --> 00:30:53,040
Speaker 1: got the baggage fees that have gone up, and seat

632
00:30:53,080 --> 00:30:55,959
Speaker 1: fees keep going up, and people are getting bumped from

633
00:30:56,040 --> 00:30:58,280
Speaker 1: flights left and right, and so this kind of stuff,

634
00:30:58,440 --> 00:31:02,720
Speaker 1: you know, people are now associated with flying. And you

635
00:31:02,720 --> 00:31:05,760
Speaker 1: can tell too, like last year, Americans gave airlines lower

636
00:31:05,800 --> 00:31:09,840
Speaker 1: marks on customer satisfaction surveys than the US Postal Service.

637
00:31:09,880 --> 00:31:12,720
Speaker 1: And not only that, airlines were in the bottom six

638
00:31:12,760 --> 00:31:15,719
Speaker 1: for the least like industries in America, and they were

639
00:31:15,800 --> 00:31:19,120
Speaker 1: right there with stuff like health insurance and TV and

640
00:31:19,160 --> 00:31:22,120
Speaker 1: internet providers. I mean, that's not great company.

641
00:31:21,960 --> 00:31:24,320
Speaker 2: Definitely not. But I do think you're right that tighter

642
00:31:24,360 --> 00:31:28,200
Speaker 2: security and hidden costs are kind of what robbed airports

643
00:31:28,240 --> 00:31:31,240
Speaker 2: of their luster. I was reading this article in Slate

644
00:31:31,320 --> 00:31:34,440
Speaker 2: about the current state of the aviation industry, and they said,

645
00:31:34,480 --> 00:31:37,720
Speaker 2: you can basically divide the perception of airports into three phases.

646
00:31:38,160 --> 00:31:41,680
Speaker 2: The first was when the airports were this icon of progress,

647
00:31:42,000 --> 00:31:44,040
Speaker 2: which is the period I mentioned earlier, probably from like

648
00:31:44,080 --> 00:31:47,000
Speaker 2: the fifties through the sixties. And the second phase would

649
00:31:47,040 --> 00:31:49,480
Speaker 2: maybe be the seventies through the mid nineties, and that's

650
00:31:49,480 --> 00:31:53,479
Speaker 2: when the airports felt what Slate put like another stale

651
00:31:53,520 --> 00:31:55,000
Speaker 2: waiting room of modern life.

652
00:31:56,080 --> 00:31:58,560
Speaker 1: I mean, that's probably about how I feel about them.

653
00:31:58,600 --> 00:32:00,720
Speaker 1: So I guess maybe I'm stuck in in phase two

654
00:32:00,800 --> 00:32:01,200
Speaker 1: right now.

655
00:32:01,320 --> 00:32:03,680
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I'm guessing you're not alone. But for everyone else,

656
00:32:03,720 --> 00:32:05,760
Speaker 2: we're now in the third phase, where the airport has

657
00:32:05,760 --> 00:32:09,120
Speaker 2: become quote, the marble floored home of our national fear

658
00:32:09,200 --> 00:32:10,280
Speaker 2: fueled psychosis.

659
00:32:11,280 --> 00:32:14,320
Speaker 1: Wow. Wow, it is not pretty when you spell it

660
00:32:14,320 --> 00:32:16,560
Speaker 1: out like that, but I guess that's not too far

661
00:32:16,600 --> 00:32:18,400
Speaker 1: off from how a lot of people feel about it.

662
00:32:18,440 --> 00:32:21,240
Speaker 1: And what's interesting is how airports have responded to the

663
00:32:21,320 --> 00:32:24,800
Speaker 1: rising anxiety levels among their passengers, Like that's got to

664
00:32:24,840 --> 00:32:27,880
Speaker 1: be what's prompting all the over the top new amenities

665
00:32:28,000 --> 00:32:31,360
Speaker 1: and the herds of therapy animals, the art galleries, the

666
00:32:31,440 --> 00:32:34,040
Speaker 1: rocking chairs that we talked about. I mean, it's all

667
00:32:34,080 --> 00:32:36,640
Speaker 1: meant to help calm us down and sort of forget

668
00:32:36,640 --> 00:32:38,240
Speaker 1: that we're in a place where most of us would

669
00:32:38,360 --> 00:32:38,880
Speaker 1: rather not be.

670
00:32:39,320 --> 00:32:41,400
Speaker 2: Yeah, that sounds right to me, And I think the

671
00:32:41,440 --> 00:32:44,280
Speaker 2: fact that airport retail is booming right now kind of

672
00:32:44,400 --> 00:32:47,200
Speaker 2: backs that up. So a lot of people use shopping

673
00:32:47,200 --> 00:32:49,600
Speaker 2: as a way to curb their anxiety or just brighten

674
00:32:49,640 --> 00:32:53,200
Speaker 2: their mood in general. You know, we call it retail therapy.

675
00:32:53,640 --> 00:32:57,120
Speaker 2: And in twenty sixteen, airport retail actually rows a full

676
00:32:57,240 --> 00:33:01,120
Speaker 2: four percent worldwide, and for the US in Canada, airport

677
00:33:01,200 --> 00:33:04,000
Speaker 2: retailing is set to rise from a ground four billion

678
00:33:04,040 --> 00:33:07,280
Speaker 2: dollars in twenty fifteen to just under ten billion dollars

679
00:33:07,280 --> 00:33:10,920
Speaker 2: by twenty twenty. That's going to micro Market Monitor, which

680
00:33:10,960 --> 00:33:13,720
Speaker 2: is a publication for the trade. But you know, that's

681
00:33:13,760 --> 00:33:16,920
Speaker 2: some seriously impressive sales growth, and i'd bet a lot

682
00:33:16,960 --> 00:33:20,400
Speaker 2: of it will be thanks to stressed out shopping. You know.

683
00:33:20,440 --> 00:33:23,240
Speaker 1: Those figures actually, I guess don't surprise me when you

684
00:33:23,320 --> 00:33:26,280
Speaker 1: think about because no matter how bad brick and mortar

685
00:33:26,320 --> 00:33:30,040
Speaker 1: stores start hurting, airport retailers really seem like they're going

686
00:33:30,040 --> 00:33:32,280
Speaker 1: to be just fine. Because if you think about it.

687
00:33:32,440 --> 00:33:34,800
Speaker 1: There are more people flying now each year than at

688
00:33:34,920 --> 00:33:37,920
Speaker 1: any time in history, so your local mall might not

689
00:33:37,960 --> 00:33:40,640
Speaker 1: be getting that much traffic, but airport retailers have this

690
00:33:40,760 --> 00:33:43,640
Speaker 1: steady stream at just about any hour of the day.

691
00:33:43,840 --> 00:33:45,920
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a good point. And I was reading about

692
00:33:45,920 --> 00:33:49,120
Speaker 2: this one bit of airport manager lingo called dwell time.

693
00:33:49,720 --> 00:33:52,840
Speaker 2: It's basically the time between when a passenger makes it

694
00:33:52,880 --> 00:33:55,720
Speaker 2: through security and when they board their plane, so you know,

695
00:33:55,720 --> 00:33:58,000
Speaker 2: all the time during which you could be spending money,

696
00:33:58,080 --> 00:34:01,320
Speaker 2: and apparently the first six minutes of dwell time are

697
00:34:01,320 --> 00:34:04,920
Speaker 2: the most lucrative. It's actually called the golden hour because

698
00:34:04,920 --> 00:34:07,680
Speaker 2: it's supposedly when passengers are feeling their most self indulgent.

699
00:34:09,120 --> 00:34:11,520
Speaker 1: I mean that makes sense. You've just gone through security,

700
00:34:11,640 --> 00:34:14,320
Speaker 1: suffered the indignity of the pat downs. You're just looking

701
00:34:14,360 --> 00:34:16,840
Speaker 1: for any way to make yourself feel a little bit better.

702
00:34:16,880 --> 00:34:19,520
Speaker 2: I guess yeah. Actually it reminds me. I was in

703
00:34:19,640 --> 00:34:21,640
Speaker 2: the quick X ray thing that they do where you

704
00:34:21,680 --> 00:34:24,239
Speaker 2: walk into that space and turn and raise your arms

705
00:34:24,239 --> 00:34:27,200
Speaker 2: and then walk through it, and this guy, I don't

706
00:34:27,239 --> 00:34:28,719
Speaker 2: know whether he was on a power trip or what,

707
00:34:28,800 --> 00:34:30,680
Speaker 2: but he started telling me while I was in there

708
00:34:30,719 --> 00:34:33,799
Speaker 2: to pull up my pants and it is not like

709
00:34:33,840 --> 00:34:36,520
Speaker 2: I wear low riding pants like, but I had taken

710
00:34:36,560 --> 00:34:38,680
Speaker 2: off my belt as you do to go through the

711
00:34:38,680 --> 00:34:41,879
Speaker 2: security thing, and my pants were resting on my hips

712
00:34:41,920 --> 00:34:44,360
Speaker 2: and he was like, I said, pull up your pants,

713
00:34:44,400 --> 00:34:46,920
Speaker 2: and he kept getting louder and louder about it in

714
00:34:46,920 --> 00:34:49,279
Speaker 2: this situation where you're supposed to keep your hands up

715
00:34:49,280 --> 00:34:51,600
Speaker 2: in the air and there's this cue forming behind me,

716
00:34:51,760 --> 00:34:56,280
Speaker 2: and it was so anxiety inducing and it is so weird.

717
00:34:56,440 --> 00:34:58,319
Speaker 2: It's also one of these situations where you can't talk

718
00:34:58,360 --> 00:35:01,479
Speaker 2: back right like, because you know if you do, it's

719
00:35:01,520 --> 00:35:04,279
Speaker 2: only going to escalate the problem. So I hiked my

720
00:35:04,320 --> 00:35:07,080
Speaker 2: pants up as high as I could waddled out of

721
00:35:07,120 --> 00:35:09,600
Speaker 2: this place, and of course what I do next. I

722
00:35:09,680 --> 00:35:12,359
Speaker 2: bought some candy and magazines, you know, just to get

723
00:35:12,400 --> 00:35:13,400
Speaker 2: out of that headspace.

724
00:35:13,920 --> 00:35:16,320
Speaker 1: But I mean, I guess it's one of those things

725
00:35:16,360 --> 00:35:19,120
Speaker 1: where he knows that we're getting older, and he just

726
00:35:19,160 --> 00:35:21,520
Speaker 1: thought by this point, you're almost to that age where

727
00:35:21,560 --> 00:35:23,719
Speaker 1: your pants should be up to your belly button.

728
00:35:23,520 --> 00:35:26,560
Speaker 2: Right, Or maybe he's on the take from these stores

729
00:35:26,719 --> 00:35:30,640
Speaker 2: just like getting up bus sales. But you know, there

730
00:35:30,680 --> 00:35:32,680
Speaker 2: are plenty of other reasons to buy things too. People

731
00:35:32,719 --> 00:35:35,680
Speaker 2: forget to pack things for their trip, like headphones or whatever.

732
00:35:36,239 --> 00:35:38,560
Speaker 2: Maybe they forget to get someone a gift, and the

733
00:35:38,600 --> 00:35:41,400
Speaker 2: airport becomes their last chance to save face with a

734
00:35:41,480 --> 00:35:42,760
Speaker 2: mug or buy some candy.

735
00:35:43,440 --> 00:35:45,720
Speaker 1: I have definitely been in that position a few times.

736
00:35:45,719 --> 00:35:47,799
Speaker 1: And you know, airport retailers are lucky to have this

737
00:35:47,880 --> 00:35:51,800
Speaker 1: captive audience. You know, their customers are psychologically primed to buy.

738
00:35:51,960 --> 00:35:54,600
Speaker 1: And it's even more true when you throw incentives like

739
00:35:54,640 --> 00:35:57,680
Speaker 1: the whole duty free thing that's added into the mix here.

740
00:35:58,239 --> 00:36:00,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, that reminds me. I was reading my airport in Dubai,

741
00:36:01,000 --> 00:36:02,920
Speaker 2: and not only is it one of the busiest in

742
00:36:02,960 --> 00:36:05,480
Speaker 2: the world, it's also home to the most lucrative duty

743
00:36:05,520 --> 00:36:08,440
Speaker 2: free shop of all time. By the way, I've actually

744
00:36:08,440 --> 00:36:11,920
Speaker 2: been to the Dubai airport, And speaking of luxuries, if

745
00:36:11,920 --> 00:36:14,560
Speaker 2: they know you're flying through with a kid and we

746
00:36:14,560 --> 00:36:16,799
Speaker 2: were on our way to India at the time, they

747
00:36:16,840 --> 00:36:19,879
Speaker 2: actually bring you a stroller to meet you at the gate,

748
00:36:20,160 --> 00:36:23,000
Speaker 2: so that like you can connect to your next plane

749
00:36:23,080 --> 00:36:24,799
Speaker 2: without having to wake up your kid. You can just

750
00:36:24,800 --> 00:36:27,319
Speaker 2: put them in the stroller and stroll them along. It

751
00:36:27,400 --> 00:36:30,840
Speaker 2: is really sort of very thoughtful and nothing I've experienced

752
00:36:30,880 --> 00:36:33,680
Speaker 2: in the States. But back to the duty free thing.

753
00:36:33,800 --> 00:36:37,720
Speaker 2: So their giant shop is just called Dubai duty Free,

754
00:36:37,760 --> 00:36:39,880
Speaker 2: which is a little basic, but the sheer size of

755
00:36:39,920 --> 00:36:43,920
Speaker 2: the place is actually staggering. The store boasts four hundred

756
00:36:43,960 --> 00:36:47,400
Speaker 2: and nine thousand square feet of retail space, and the

757
00:36:47,440 --> 00:36:49,719
Speaker 2: Pacific Standard says, if you want to picture it, it's

758
00:36:49,719 --> 00:36:51,960
Speaker 2: a full one and a half times the size of

759
00:36:51,960 --> 00:36:53,680
Speaker 2: Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome.

760
00:36:54,760 --> 00:36:57,279
Speaker 1: Yeah, that helps me get a great picture of this thing.

761
00:36:57,400 --> 00:36:59,719
Speaker 1: But that is huge. But you also said it's the

762
00:36:59,719 --> 00:37:01,560
Speaker 1: most lucrative though, right, Yeah.

763
00:37:01,600 --> 00:37:04,160
Speaker 2: So the store's annual sales typically fall just shy of

764
00:37:04,320 --> 00:37:06,360
Speaker 2: two billion US dollars.

765
00:37:06,640 --> 00:37:09,440
Speaker 1: From one store. I mean, so what are they selling

766
00:37:09,520 --> 00:37:10,840
Speaker 1: to generate this kind of money.

767
00:37:11,280 --> 00:37:13,759
Speaker 2: It is the typical duty free stables, just at this

768
00:37:13,920 --> 00:37:17,360
Speaker 2: greater volume. So they sell tons of perfume and liquor.

769
00:37:17,440 --> 00:37:19,799
Speaker 2: It's three hundred million dollars in sales of that. Last year,

770
00:37:20,200 --> 00:37:22,879
Speaker 2: tobacco sells really well there. They sold two hundred million

771
00:37:22,920 --> 00:37:26,960
Speaker 2: dollars of that. They also sell other items like gold

772
00:37:27,040 --> 00:37:29,920
Speaker 2: is a big seller, and not just jewelry, but actually

773
00:37:30,000 --> 00:37:32,759
Speaker 2: like bars of twenty two carrot bricks, of gold. You know,

774
00:37:32,960 --> 00:37:37,120
Speaker 2: it's crazy. There's another big seller that I never would

775
00:37:37,160 --> 00:37:38,600
Speaker 2: have guessed. Tang.

776
00:37:39,920 --> 00:37:42,759
Speaker 1: What is tang? Oh like the orange powder drink mix.

777
00:37:43,080 --> 00:37:46,640
Speaker 2: Yeah, so it's just like the astronauts supposedly loved. But

778
00:37:47,239 --> 00:37:49,960
Speaker 2: we're in the Pacific standard. The Dubai airport can sell

779
00:37:50,040 --> 00:37:52,960
Speaker 2: upwards of fourteen hundred metric tons of tang in a

780
00:37:53,040 --> 00:37:57,000
Speaker 2: single year. Isn't that insane? Like its just that much tang?

781
00:37:57,440 --> 00:38:00,879
Speaker 2: And I was wondering that. Apparently it's southey laborers who

782
00:38:00,920 --> 00:38:03,400
Speaker 2: like the stock up before going home after working in

783
00:38:03,440 --> 00:38:05,799
Speaker 2: the Persian Gulf. But you know, if you're thirsty for

784
00:38:05,840 --> 00:38:08,480
Speaker 2: something a little stronger than Tang, you can actually check

785
00:38:08,520 --> 00:38:10,840
Speaker 2: out the special first class only floor of the store,

786
00:38:10,960 --> 00:38:13,800
Speaker 2: and that's where you'll find a two hundred thousand dollars

787
00:38:13,840 --> 00:38:18,840
Speaker 2: bottle of whiskey. It's named the Royal Salute Tribute to Honor.

788
00:38:19,560 --> 00:38:23,000
Speaker 1: Oh what a well. I feel like I might just

789
00:38:23,040 --> 00:38:25,000
Speaker 1: stick with the Tang in this case, and the store

790
00:38:25,080 --> 00:38:27,840
Speaker 1: can't be selling too many of those bottles of whiskey though, right.

791
00:38:27,960 --> 00:38:30,040
Speaker 2: Oh, you mean Royal Salute Tribute to Honor.

792
00:38:30,520 --> 00:38:32,160
Speaker 1: Right, Tribute to Honor.

793
00:38:32,200 --> 00:38:36,920
Speaker 2: It sounds like a dictator. Named it, but supposedly, like

794
00:38:37,040 --> 00:38:40,040
Speaker 2: having these high priced bottles around creates what's called a

795
00:38:40,040 --> 00:38:43,960
Speaker 2: halo effect, and it encourages these wealthy travelers to spend more,

796
00:38:44,120 --> 00:38:46,640
Speaker 2: which is, you know, just so typical of rich people.

797
00:38:46,880 --> 00:38:49,440
Speaker 1: Classic rich people. But I mean, you know, airports have

798
00:38:49,560 --> 00:38:52,800
Speaker 1: plenty of other ways of getting your money besides retail,

799
00:38:52,880 --> 00:38:55,440
Speaker 1: and one of them is that we just straight up

800
00:38:55,480 --> 00:38:57,560
Speaker 1: give it to them, or at least that's the end result.

801
00:38:58,160 --> 00:38:58,879
Speaker 2: So how's that.

802
00:39:00,000 --> 00:39:03,959
Speaker 1: Well, we really do this though, by leaving money behind accidentally,

803
00:39:04,040 --> 00:39:07,720
Speaker 1: So every year, millions of travelers hastily empty their pockets

804
00:39:07,719 --> 00:39:10,279
Speaker 1: into those plastic bins at the security line, and then

805
00:39:10,320 --> 00:39:13,520
Speaker 1: we forget to collect that loose change once we've made

806
00:39:13,520 --> 00:39:15,640
Speaker 1: it through. And yeah, that could be just a few

807
00:39:15,640 --> 00:39:18,920
Speaker 1: pennies here or there, but all those coins actually do

808
00:39:19,200 --> 00:39:21,719
Speaker 1: add up. I was looking at this breakdown that CNBC

809
00:39:21,880 --> 00:39:24,560
Speaker 1: put out, and over the years, it's interesting to see

810
00:39:24,560 --> 00:39:27,600
Speaker 1: how much it's been growing. So back in twenty eleven,

811
00:39:28,000 --> 00:39:30,040
Speaker 1: it was just shy of half a million dollars that

812
00:39:30,120 --> 00:39:32,640
Speaker 1: was left behind by people, and then it jumped to

813
00:39:32,680 --> 00:39:36,000
Speaker 1: six hundred and seventy five thousand dollars in twenty fourteen,

814
00:39:36,160 --> 00:39:40,520
Speaker 1: kept increasing every year. In twenty sixteen, the TSA's take

815
00:39:40,719 --> 00:39:43,320
Speaker 1: was the biggest one reported yet. It was a whopping

816
00:39:43,400 --> 00:39:47,320
Speaker 1: eight hundred and sixty seven thousand dollars in abandoned coins

817
00:39:47,360 --> 00:39:49,240
Speaker 1: and other currency just left behind.

818
00:39:49,360 --> 00:39:51,640
Speaker 2: So what happens to that money? Like it just becomes

819
00:39:51,760 --> 00:39:52,640
Speaker 2: TSA profit?

820
00:39:53,719 --> 00:39:56,439
Speaker 1: Uh? Pretty much. There was actually a law passed back

821
00:39:56,440 --> 00:39:59,440
Speaker 1: in two thousand and five by Congress that stays that

822
00:39:59,480 --> 00:40:02,560
Speaker 1: TSA free to keep the unclaimed cash it finds and

823
00:40:02,640 --> 00:40:06,800
Speaker 1: put it toward whichever security efforts it wants to. And personally,

824
00:40:06,840 --> 00:40:09,560
Speaker 1: my vote is for a dedicated bin cleaner so that

825
00:40:09,640 --> 00:40:12,320
Speaker 1: I never have to hear another study about how dirty

826
00:40:12,320 --> 00:40:14,760
Speaker 1: they are compared to a toilet. I can give behind

827
00:40:14,800 --> 00:40:17,319
Speaker 1: that all right, Well, Tristan is over there tapping his

828
00:40:17,400 --> 00:40:21,799
Speaker 1: PDX carpet wristwatch, which means it's time for today's fact off.

829
00:40:21,880 --> 00:40:24,640
Speaker 1: So you ready to do this? Mango always.

830
00:40:34,000 --> 00:40:36,600
Speaker 2: So you know how. All these airports had various codes,

831
00:40:36,640 --> 00:40:41,320
Speaker 2: like pdx's Portland, LAX's La, et cetera. Apparently, the tiny

832
00:40:41,360 --> 00:40:43,720
Speaker 2: sand dune where the Wright brothers made their first flight

833
00:40:43,719 --> 00:40:46,000
Speaker 2: in Kiddie Hawk has been given a code as well,

834
00:40:46,400 --> 00:40:49,279
Speaker 2: and they were sweetly given the name f FA, which

835
00:40:49,280 --> 00:40:51,240
Speaker 2: stands for First Flight Airport.

836
00:40:51,840 --> 00:40:54,319
Speaker 1: Oh I like that. Well, for years, if you were

837
00:40:54,360 --> 00:40:58,480
Speaker 1: flying through Genoa's Christophero Colombo Airport, you'd have to leave

838
00:40:58,520 --> 00:41:01,480
Speaker 1: your pesto as security, at least if it was more

839
00:41:01,560 --> 00:41:04,600
Speaker 1: than one hundred milliliters of the stuff. And of course

840
00:41:04,600 --> 00:41:08,200
Speaker 1: it's made tons of tourists unhappy. So then they decided

841
00:41:08,239 --> 00:41:10,400
Speaker 1: to amend the rules and now you can fly with

842
00:41:10,560 --> 00:41:13,680
Speaker 1: five hundred grams of pesto and these are bigger jars,

843
00:41:13,719 --> 00:41:16,279
Speaker 1: but that's as long as you make a donation to

844
00:41:16,480 --> 00:41:19,560
Speaker 1: Flying Angels. Now, this is a charity that helps fund

845
00:41:19,600 --> 00:41:22,800
Speaker 1: air travel for sick children. So it's a sweet idea

846
00:41:22,840 --> 00:41:25,520
Speaker 1: and people seem to be happy again. But there is

847
00:41:25,600 --> 00:41:29,040
Speaker 1: one catch though. The airport waiver only applies to pesto

848
00:41:29,160 --> 00:41:33,240
Speaker 1: that is actually made in Genoa.

849
00:41:32,080 --> 00:41:34,719
Speaker 2: So this is an airport related exactly. But do you

850
00:41:34,760 --> 00:41:37,839
Speaker 2: know that pilots on flights are served different meals and

851
00:41:37,880 --> 00:41:41,399
Speaker 2: they are not allowed to share. Apparently it's done as

852
00:41:41,440 --> 00:41:43,760
Speaker 2: a rule because of a fear of food poisoning.

853
00:41:44,560 --> 00:41:47,600
Speaker 1: Wow, which makes a lot of sense actually, Well, speaking

854
00:41:47,600 --> 00:41:50,080
Speaker 1: of planes, I realized this isn't something we'll probably ever

855
00:41:50,160 --> 00:41:53,960
Speaker 1: have to worry about. But if the oxygen mask drops down,

856
00:41:54,000 --> 00:41:56,560
Speaker 1: you're only going to get about fifteen to twenty minutes

857
00:41:56,600 --> 00:41:59,560
Speaker 1: of oxygen. There's a limited amount of course on there,

858
00:41:59,560 --> 00:42:02,760
Speaker 1: but the idea is that more than enough. The ideas

859
00:42:02,800 --> 00:42:04,960
Speaker 1: that's more than enough time to take you to a

860
00:42:05,000 --> 00:42:08,120
Speaker 1: lower altitude, which is when you won't really need them.

861
00:42:08,360 --> 00:42:11,279
Speaker 1: And actually, one other thing about those oxygen masks. What

862
00:42:11,320 --> 00:42:15,080
Speaker 1: you're getting isn't really oxygen. It's actually kind of this

863
00:42:15,200 --> 00:42:19,240
Speaker 1: cocktail of chemicals that when they're burned together, they release

864
00:42:19,360 --> 00:42:22,840
Speaker 1: oxygen because pure oxygen tanks would just be too heavy

865
00:42:22,880 --> 00:42:24,560
Speaker 1: and bulky to take up into the air.

866
00:42:24,760 --> 00:42:28,120
Speaker 2: That's interesting. So if you're wondering why certain passengers get

867
00:42:28,160 --> 00:42:31,240
Speaker 2: pulled aside for a cavity check, there's actually a system

868
00:42:31,280 --> 00:42:34,719
Speaker 2: for it. So TSA agents assign you points for specific

869
00:42:34,760 --> 00:42:37,560
Speaker 2: suspicious behavior, and if you have too much of it,

870
00:42:37,760 --> 00:42:40,319
Speaker 2: you know, too many points, that's when it happens. But

871
00:42:40,520 --> 00:42:43,319
Speaker 2: here are some of the things they're looking for. Exaggerated

872
00:42:43,400 --> 00:42:47,800
Speaker 2: yawning or excessive throat clearing, covering your mouth when you're speaking,

873
00:42:48,400 --> 00:42:52,640
Speaker 2: showing up in disguise, which makes sense, carrying an almanac,

874
00:42:52,800 --> 00:42:56,920
Speaker 2: which makes less sense to me, widely open staring eyes

875
00:42:57,200 --> 00:42:58,120
Speaker 2: and whistling.

876
00:42:59,360 --> 00:43:02,360
Speaker 1: Whistling, I mean, whistling is like the classic thing people

877
00:43:02,440 --> 00:43:05,680
Speaker 1: do in movies when they're like, I'm not up to anything.

878
00:43:05,800 --> 00:43:08,280
Speaker 1: But is that really whistling? Is it really on the list?

879
00:43:08,440 --> 00:43:12,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's when the individual approaches the screen process because

880
00:43:12,200 --> 00:43:14,400
Speaker 2: they're worried. It's a code or signal. But you know,

881
00:43:14,440 --> 00:43:17,160
Speaker 2: maybe it's also to teach annoying people to whistle less.

882
00:43:18,800 --> 00:43:22,160
Speaker 1: So all right, Well, here's a strange one. In New York.

883
00:43:22,200 --> 00:43:25,759
Speaker 1: There's an airport dentist and I just learned about this.

884
00:43:25,880 --> 00:43:28,120
Speaker 1: He's actually at one of the airports that I frequent

885
00:43:28,120 --> 00:43:30,840
Speaker 1: but his name is doctor Robert Traeger, and much like

886
00:43:30,920 --> 00:43:35,080
Speaker 1: those airport stores, he's taking full advantage of this location.

887
00:43:35,560 --> 00:43:38,640
Speaker 1: So he's got to practice in Terminal B at Laguardi apparently,

888
00:43:38,719 --> 00:43:43,000
Speaker 1: where he both sees airport employees and frequent flyers along

889
00:43:43,040 --> 00:43:46,720
Speaker 1: with some emergency walk ins, and at JFKA. His office

890
00:43:46,760 --> 00:43:50,120
Speaker 1: is close by, outside of the main airport, so his

891
00:43:50,200 --> 00:43:53,280
Speaker 1: wife will actually show fer you to the main terminal,

892
00:43:53,320 --> 00:43:56,560
Speaker 1: but that's only if you're part of his smile high club.

893
00:43:57,239 --> 00:43:59,319
Speaker 1: And I'm wondering how often these people are going to

894
00:43:59,320 --> 00:44:01,520
Speaker 1: the dentist and then onto the airport to be part

895
00:44:01,520 --> 00:44:02,719
Speaker 1: of whatever this club is.

896
00:44:02,800 --> 00:44:03,840
Speaker 2: But it's pretty amazing.

897
00:44:04,360 --> 00:44:07,479
Speaker 1: The crazy thing is that doctor Tregger also does work

898
00:44:07,520 --> 00:44:11,120
Speaker 1: for the government while he's there, so the ions uses

899
00:44:11,200 --> 00:44:14,200
Speaker 1: him to look at wisdom, teeth and these other indicators

900
00:44:14,239 --> 00:44:17,400
Speaker 1: to determine whether people they're detaining are minors or whether

901
00:44:17,440 --> 00:44:20,160
Speaker 1: they may be lying about their age because you can

902
00:44:20,200 --> 00:44:22,880
Speaker 1: tell age through inspecting bones and also teeth.

903
00:44:23,320 --> 00:44:26,080
Speaker 2: It's crazy that he's got this double life. Well, yeah,

904
00:44:26,160 --> 00:44:28,440
Speaker 2: here's a weird one. Do you know. The FAA has

905
00:44:28,480 --> 00:44:32,279
Speaker 2: a theme song and I was not aware of that,

906
00:44:33,200 --> 00:44:35,960
Speaker 2: And here a few of the lyrics. So we're planning

907
00:44:36,040 --> 00:44:39,480
Speaker 2: and building a way to make tomorrow even safer than today.

908
00:44:39,840 --> 00:44:42,600
Speaker 2: While flying grows, so do we And that's what it's

909
00:44:42,640 --> 00:44:45,520
Speaker 2: all about. We want to help you get back home

910
00:44:45,920 --> 00:44:49,319
Speaker 2: in a jumbo jet or flying alone. We make it

911
00:44:49,400 --> 00:44:52,560
Speaker 2: safe up in the sky so you'll relax when you fly.

912
00:44:52,960 --> 00:44:56,480
Speaker 2: So it's super cashy. Everyone knows the lyrics, they can

913
00:44:56,520 --> 00:45:00,359
Speaker 2: sing along. But it's actually got a great story. When

914
00:45:00,400 --> 00:45:02,880
Speaker 2: morale was down in the eighties, this guy named John Hanks,

915
00:45:03,200 --> 00:45:05,480
Speaker 2: he was the public affairs director at the time. He

916
00:45:05,520 --> 00:45:08,439
Speaker 2: decided to give the FA a little boost, and as

917
00:45:08,480 --> 00:45:11,040
Speaker 2: he put it, quote, it was designed to bring the

918
00:45:11,120 --> 00:45:13,960
Speaker 2: FAA employees closer together and the common purpose we had

919
00:45:13,960 --> 00:45:18,239
Speaker 2: in our mission of aviation safety. Oddly, it was a

920
00:45:18,400 --> 00:45:21,640
Speaker 2: huge success, so employees really bought into it. They thought

921
00:45:21,640 --> 00:45:24,840
Speaker 2: it was super fun. The FA administrator thought it was great,

922
00:45:24,880 --> 00:45:27,920
Speaker 2: and the FA Corral was performed at lots of events

923
00:45:27,920 --> 00:45:30,919
Speaker 2: around the country, including and this is from Atlas Obscura

924
00:45:31,000 --> 00:45:34,520
Speaker 2: at quote one of Nancy Reagan's Just Say No anti

925
00:45:34,600 --> 00:45:40,920
Speaker 2: drug rallies, following the headliner LaToya Jackson. You know, the

926
00:45:40,960 --> 00:45:43,680
Speaker 2: eighties were at this heady time where LaToya could be

927
00:45:43,680 --> 00:45:47,279
Speaker 2: followed by Corral. But you know the best part of

928
00:45:47,320 --> 00:45:49,759
Speaker 2: it is that the song costs nothing to taxpayers. It

929
00:45:49,800 --> 00:45:51,759
Speaker 2: was all done by Hanks and his friends in their

930
00:45:51,800 --> 00:45:52,239
Speaker 2: free time.

931
00:45:53,840 --> 00:45:55,480
Speaker 1: You know, that's a good fact. But I think the

932
00:45:55,520 --> 00:45:58,440
Speaker 1: fact that you slip the words LaToya Jackson into a

933
00:45:58,520 --> 00:46:01,960
Speaker 1: fact off makes you just automatic winner. There's nothing I

934
00:46:02,000 --> 00:46:04,560
Speaker 1: can do to beat that. So congratulations, thank you so much.

935
00:46:04,600 --> 00:46:05,520
Speaker 2: I appreciate it.

936
00:46:05,880 --> 00:46:07,879
Speaker 1: And we wanted to say thanks to some of our

937
00:46:07,960 --> 00:46:10,040
Speaker 1: listeners out there. It's actually been a lot of fun

938
00:46:10,120 --> 00:46:13,600
Speaker 1: to hear from you guys in recent months. Keeping track

939
00:46:13,760 --> 00:46:16,960
Speaker 1: of who is winning the fact off battle because we

940
00:46:17,080 --> 00:46:20,520
Speaker 1: actually haven't been keeping track and it was pretty funny.

941
00:46:20,520 --> 00:46:23,320
Speaker 1: We stumbled across a website that somebody had actually pointed

942
00:46:23,360 --> 00:46:26,120
Speaker 1: out to us, where one of our listeners is keeping

943
00:46:26,160 --> 00:46:30,399
Speaker 1: track of who is winning this fact off battle, and unfortunately,

944
00:46:30,520 --> 00:46:32,880
Speaker 1: it looks like Mango has been in the lead, and

945
00:46:32,960 --> 00:46:36,080
Speaker 1: of course just widen that lead again today. And I

946
00:46:36,120 --> 00:46:38,440
Speaker 1: think you've been in the lead all year. You took

947
00:46:38,480 --> 00:46:40,920
Speaker 1: a big lead last year and we've been pretty even

948
00:46:40,960 --> 00:46:41,399
Speaker 1: this year.

949
00:46:41,480 --> 00:46:46,840
Speaker 2: But I Knowavda, I think his Husbanasi he created this

950
00:46:46,880 --> 00:46:47,799
Speaker 2: whole graph of it.

951
00:46:47,800 --> 00:46:51,160
Speaker 1: It's pretty amazing, it's pretty terrific. But we love hearing

952
00:46:51,160 --> 00:46:53,560
Speaker 1: from you on this kind of thing and always love

953
00:46:53,600 --> 00:46:55,560
Speaker 1: seeing those types of things. But if there are any

954
00:46:55,560 --> 00:46:58,600
Speaker 1: facts that we forgot to include about airports, about flying,

955
00:46:59,080 --> 00:47:01,839
Speaker 1: anything related to the episode, we always love hearing from

956
00:47:01,880 --> 00:47:03,760
Speaker 1: You can reach out to us at part Time Genius

957
00:47:03,760 --> 00:47:06,640
Speaker 1: at HowStuffWorks dot com or hit us up on Facebook

958
00:47:06,680 --> 00:47:10,200
Speaker 1: or Twitter. We're from Gabe, Tristan, Mango and me. Thanks

959
00:47:10,239 --> 00:47:26,399
Speaker 1: so much for listening, Thanks again for listening. Part Time

960
00:47:26,440 --> 00:47:28,640
Speaker 1: Genius is a production of How Stuff Works and wouldn't

961
00:47:28,680 --> 00:47:31,680
Speaker 1: be possible Without several brilliant people who do the important things,

962
00:47:31,719 --> 00:47:33,400
Speaker 1: we couldn't even begin to understand.

963
00:47:33,640 --> 00:47:35,279
Speaker 2: Christa McNeil does the editing thing.

964
00:47:35,480 --> 00:47:37,480
Speaker 1: Noel Brown made the theme song and does the mixy

965
00:47:37,520 --> 00:47:38,319
Speaker 1: mixy sound thing.

966
00:47:38,840 --> 00:47:40,960
Speaker 2: Gerry Roland does the exec producer thing.

967
00:47:41,160 --> 00:47:43,560
Speaker 1: Gabe Bluesier is our lead researcher, with support from the

968
00:47:43,600 --> 00:47:46,959
Speaker 1: research Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and Lucas.

969
00:47:46,600 --> 00:47:48,920
Speaker 2: Adams and Eves. Jeff Cook gets the show to your ears.

970
00:47:49,000 --> 00:47:49,800
Speaker 2: Good job, Eves.

971
00:47:49,960 --> 00:47:51,880
Speaker 1: If you like what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe,

972
00:47:51,880 --> 00:47:53,759
Speaker 1: And if you really really like what you've heard, maybe

973
00:47:53,760 --> 00:47:56,040
Speaker 1: you could leave a good review for us. Do we

974
00:47:56,080 --> 00:47:57,560
Speaker 1: forget Jason Jason, who

975
00:48:01,200 --> 00:48:01,399
Speaker 2: Comp