Speaker 1: Guess what, mango, what's that will? So I know you
Speaker 1: and I both fly a lot, and if there's one
Speaker 1: thing I definitely know about you, it's that.
Speaker 2: You love flying, right because I just have the best
Speaker 2: travel luck in the world, right.
Speaker 1: You know. I don't know if this is something we've
Speaker 1: mentioned on the show, but it's actually pretty baffling to me,
Speaker 1: like how bad your travel luck has been over the years.
Speaker 1: Like there are times you'll be flying out of Chicago
Speaker 1: or something and then I'll check in with you just
Speaker 1: to see if you've made it home, and you'll say
Speaker 1: something like I'm in Milwaukee. It's a long story, and
Speaker 1: I don't know anybody that can pull that off in
Speaker 1: the way that you do. Or there was even the
Speaker 1: time we were flying out of Cleveland at the same time.
Speaker 1: Both of us were there, we were on different sides
Speaker 1: of the airport. Now, somehow my flight took off and
Speaker 1: on the other side of the airport they told your
Speaker 1: plane that the airport was closing down because of the wind,
Speaker 1: I think.
Speaker 2: Which is a true story, like that really happened. In fact,
Speaker 2: sometimes when you are write me to see where I am,
Speaker 2: I don't even want to respond. Yes, as long as
Speaker 2: it's entertaining for others.
Speaker 1: Oh, it definitely is entertaining. But you know, I was
Speaker 1: thinking about the fact that you and I are most
Speaker 1: often traveling solo and for work purposes. And you know,
Speaker 1: it's funny how when you do something so frequently, it's
Speaker 1: pretty easy just to go through the motions not really
Speaker 1: think about what's going on around you. And you know,
Speaker 1: part of that maybe because half the time, I know,
Speaker 1: I'm flying at such a crazy early hour, and I'm
Speaker 1: kind of half asleep when I'm there. But as you know,
Speaker 1: last week, Georgia and I flew up to Toronto so
Speaker 1: that I could officiate a wedding because apparently that's what
Speaker 1: I do now, and it's been nice to hear from
Speaker 1: some listeners. I guess you made the offer that I
Speaker 1: could officiate other weddings, and so I'm trying to decide
Speaker 1: whether I want to sign on to do this or not.
Speaker 1: But you know, we had a bit more time than
Speaker 1: usual in the Atlanta airport, so we spend a little
Speaker 1: time walking around, and when you're not rushing to your
Speaker 1: next flight, spending time in the country's busiest airport actually
Speaker 1: makes for some pretty fantastic people watching and so you know,
Speaker 1: we spent time looking out the window as those luggage
Speaker 1: cars rushed around in between the terminals. We watched people
Speaker 1: run off the trains to their next flights, and then
Speaker 1: a couple of times we just sat down and watched
Speaker 1: people flying by and try to make guesses on why
Speaker 1: certain passengers were going to different locations.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's a fun game to play. You know,
Speaker 2: when I'm walking through airport terminals, I'll often see like
Speaker 2: an airport employee come walking out of one of those
Speaker 2: personnel only sections, and I always want to go behind
Speaker 2: that door just to see what's back there.
Speaker 1: Oh me too. I mean, it'd probably be disappointing if
Speaker 1: you actually got to go there. But yeah, so many
Speaker 1: times you see that happen, you're like, what is it?
Speaker 1: What's happening is such a mystery. But you know, we
Speaker 1: started talking about just how many people work at the
Speaker 1: nation's biggest airports and how many people you interact with
Speaker 1: before you even get on a plane. You've got the
Speaker 1: people behind the check in desk to TSA, the people
Speaker 1: working at the restaurants, to gate agents, customs. I mean,
Speaker 1: so many people, and then all the people behind the
Speaker 1: scenes controlling the schedules, handling bags and just generally keeping
Speaker 1: the place running efficiently. I mean, we're talking thousands of
Speaker 1: people in places like the Atlanta Airport, and that's what
Speaker 1: God is thinking. You know, what are some of the
Speaker 1: secrets behind how an airport operates? And what do we
Speaker 1: not know? And of course what are some of the
Speaker 1: strangest things TSA has pulled out of passenger bags in security.
Speaker 1: So let's dive in. Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to
Speaker 1: Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm
Speaker 1: joined by my good friend mangesh Hot Ticketer and on
Speaker 1: the other side of the soundproof glass doing his best impersonation. Now,
Speaker 1: you guys may not know this about Tristan, but he
Speaker 1: does incredible impersonations. Oh so good. Well, today's is a
Speaker 1: really special one. It's of the carpet from the Portland
Speaker 1: International Airport. That's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. Now
Speaker 1: I do need to clarify here. Tristan is not lying
Speaker 1: on the floor with a rug over him. He does
Speaker 1: that sometimes, but not today. He's not just doing that
Speaker 1: to pretend to be a carpet. He actually is decked
Speaker 1: out head to toe and clothing based on that old
Speaker 1: carpet design from the Portland Airport. Really creative idea.
Speaker 2: Which honestly, it doesn't sound that much less weird, right.
Speaker 1: No it doesn't. But this is just the kind of
Speaker 1: stuff that Tristan does. He's that committed. But actually he
Speaker 1: was telling me earlier what this is all about. So basically,
Speaker 1: the Portland Airport, or PDX as you might call it,
Speaker 1: they added this new carpet to its terminals back in
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty seven. Now, because this was in the eighties,
Speaker 1: the carpet had this kind of funky and geometric design
Speaker 1: with this teal background and all these blue and purple
Speaker 1: and red shapes repeating all over it. A very loud carpet. Anyway,
Speaker 1: the carpet stuck around until I think two thousand and six,
Speaker 1: and that's when PDX decided it was finally time to remodel. Now,
Speaker 1: they started ripping up the carpet and people went ballistic,
Speaker 1: and that is not an overstatement. I mean they were
Speaker 1: grieving the loss of this carpet. They decided to take
Speaker 1: to social media and just as a way to pay
Speaker 1: tribute to the airport carpet, and they were calling for
Speaker 1: it to be preserved. There was a Facebook page for
Speaker 1: people to post pictures and stories of all the great
Speaker 1: times that had standing on that carpet, and somebody made
Speaker 1: a Twitter account and began posting from the carpet's point
Speaker 1: of view. These are all things that actually happened. And
Speaker 1: you know, some folks even memorialized the carpet by having
Speaker 1: its design tattooed on their arms. And of course, it
Speaker 1: wasn't long after that that the beloved carpet design started
Speaker 1: appearing on all sorts of merchandise.
Speaker 2: And you know, just looking at Tristan, you can see
Speaker 2: that they made PDX carpet t shirts, sweatpants, socks, shoes,
Speaker 2: even a headband.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know. And Tristan was telling me about all this.
Speaker 1: It got me curious about what other bizarre airport stories
Speaker 1: and secrets are out there. And so that's what today's
Speaker 1: show is all about. You know, we'll take a look
Speaker 1: at how airports function, and along the way, we'll also
Speaker 1: check out some of the odd ball amenities that different
Speaker 1: airports offer, as well as some of the weirdest stuff
Speaker 1: that people have tried to slip past security. So let's
Speaker 1: get started. But where do you want to begin mango.
Speaker 2: So actually, I don't want to get off the airport
Speaker 2: carpet fact just yet, because one of the things I
Speaker 2: didn't notice until Gabe pointed it out to me is
Speaker 2: that most airports have linoleum or tile in the check
Speaker 2: in areas and all through security, but then when you
Speaker 2: get to the flight gates, the floor suddenly switches to carpet.
Speaker 2: And there's actually a reason behind this, So airport designers
Speaker 2: use this trick as a way to make holding areas
Speaker 2: feel more relaxing. So not only does the soft carpet
Speaker 2: help bring the feel of a living room into the airport,
Speaker 2: it also helps muffle the noise from people's roller bags
Speaker 2: and footsteps. But the biggest reason is that all this
Speaker 2: works together to make past and just feel less stressed out.
Speaker 1: Yeah it makes sense, but I mean, carpets aren't the
Speaker 1: only thing designers are thinking about when they design these
Speaker 1: airport spaces. I mean, another handy tool they use to
Speaker 1: make us feel comfortable is called wayfinding, or that process
Speaker 1: designers use to make the airports easier to navigate or
Speaker 1: as easy as possible. And one big part of this,
Speaker 1: of course, is the signage. And there's so much careful
Speaker 1: planning that goes into that not just where to place
Speaker 1: the signs, but how they're designed, how they're laid out,
Speaker 1: and for instance, the font on the signs needs to
Speaker 1: be legible from a distance and easy for non native
Speaker 1: language speakers to decipher. Now, amazingly, seventy five percent of
Speaker 1: all airports in the world use just one of three
Speaker 1: different typefaces, all of which are sanserah, meaning they don't
Speaker 1: have the little tails on the letters. And because I
Speaker 1: know you're curious, those three in demand fonts are Frutiger,
Speaker 1: which was designed specifically for airports, Clearview, which is the
Speaker 1: same one used on highway signs on the US, and
Speaker 1: of course Helvetica. By the way, as a side note here,
Speaker 1: I learned just this week that there actually is an
Speaker 1: airline called Helvetic Airlines, which is a small airline out
Speaker 1: of Switzerland where Helvetica typeface originated, and in a truly
Speaker 1: weird turn of events, the airline does not use Helvetica
Speaker 1: for its logo.
Speaker 2: That's super weird. So what do they use?
Speaker 1: I don't know what it's called exactly, and it's kind
Speaker 1: of this squat and italic font for some reason.
Speaker 2: Huh. That almost feels scandalous to not use helvetica there.
Speaker 2: But another way of wayfinding that I hadn't thought about
Speaker 2: are all the works of art that are placed around
Speaker 2: the airport for you. And these can be murals or
Speaker 2: sculptures or sometimes even interactive exhibits. But whatever form it takes,
Speaker 2: airport art is never there just to look pretty or
Speaker 2: to help passengers relax. That's because designers are actually thinking
Speaker 2: of them as landmarks, like a quick way to establish
Speaker 2: a point of reference for passengers as they make their
Speaker 2: way through what are otherwise these monotonous terminals. So if
Speaker 2: you're ever doing some exploring at the airport and you
Speaker 2: need to find your way back to your gate, just
Speaker 2: look for the big bronze bear or whatever to help
Speaker 2: point the way.
Speaker 1: Well, since you bring up airport art, I do want
Speaker 1: to tell you about maybe the strangest and creepiest examples
Speaker 1: I came across. And by the way, if you want
Speaker 1: to see these, it's pretty convenient because you just go
Speaker 1: to one airport. It's the Denver International Airport.
Speaker 2: So that actually doesn't surprise me, because what's weird is
Speaker 2: that there are all these conspiracy theories about that specific airport,
Speaker 2: like the runways are all pinwheel shaped, and some people
Speaker 2: claim they're meant to look like swastikas. Some people think
Speaker 2: there's a secret underground city and the tunnels beneath the terminals.
Speaker 2: You know, it is super weird, But I don't think
Speaker 2: I've heard about the artwork. Can you run me through that?
Speaker 1: Well, you're in for a treat with this, because some
Speaker 1: of this stuff is just off the wall. So to
Speaker 1: start on the road that leads to the terminal, there's
Speaker 1: this enormous thirty two foot tall sculpture of a blue
Speaker 1: mustang rearing up in anger. But it's not just the
Speaker 1: size or the stance that makes this thing so scary.
Speaker 1: And that's because at night, the horse's eyes actually glow
Speaker 1: bright red. How strange is this? But if that isn't
Speaker 1: enough to convince you the horse is pure evil, just
Speaker 1: listen to this. Back in two thousand and six, when
Speaker 1: the statue was still being sculpted, a nine thousand pounds
Speaker 1: piece of stone broke free and tragically fell on the
Speaker 1: sculpture as he was working. And you know, sadly he
Speaker 1: died from this not too long after. So not only
Speaker 1: is this giant blue mustang terrifying, to behold, it also
Speaker 1: killed its creator, and that's why the locals call him Blucifer.
Speaker 2: Wow. So I'm actually a little afraid to ask, but
Speaker 2: I think you said the horse was just one example.
Speaker 1: Well, the art inside the airport gets even weirder than Blucifer. So,
Speaker 1: for instance, at baggage Claim, there are these two stone
Speaker 1: gargles keeping watch over the luggage carousels, and together the
Speaker 1: pair of forms a sculpture known as Notre Denver, which
Speaker 1: is pretty cutesy, named for a couple of winged demons
Speaker 1: that are pretty weird looking. But probably the most unsettling
Speaker 1: piece of art in the whole place is mural. It's
Speaker 1: right there inside the airport and it's called Children of
Speaker 1: the World Dream of Peace. Now this title sounds haarmwarming,
Speaker 1: and you think, oh, this must be a really nice thing,
Speaker 1: But just listen to this description that I found from
Speaker 1: Atlas Obscure. It says in the mural, a gargantuane figure
Speaker 1: in flowing olive green military garb and a gas mask
Speaker 1: wields an assault rifle in his left hand while stabbing
Speaker 1: a dove with the cutlass in his right. A line
Speaker 1: of shrouded despairing figures cowers in his wake. It's just
Speaker 1: what you want to see before boarding an international flight.
Speaker 2: What is going on at this airport?
Speaker 1: I do think somebody might have missed the memo about
Speaker 1: how airport artists supposed to be soothing, because that's definitely
Speaker 1: not soothing.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So here's something even scarier than demons and killer horses.
Speaker 2: So you know, the plastic bins we use to unload
Speaker 2: all our stuff on the way through security.
Speaker 1: Definitely.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So, according to a recent study out of Finland,
Speaker 2: those bins actually contain a whole host of respiratory viruses,
Speaker 2: including germs known to cause both the common cold and
Speaker 2: flew and in fact, researchers found that the bins contain
Speaker 2: more germ samples than any other tested part of the airport,
Speaker 2: which includes elevator buttons, flight check in machines, even toilet handles.
Speaker 2: And while these findings were specific to the Helsinki Airport,
Speaker 2: other studies have turned up similar results in a lot
Speaker 2: of different airports. And unfortunately, those bins just don't get
Speaker 2: cleaned that often.
Speaker 1: You know. It's one of those things that most of
Speaker 1: the time, my wife Georgia is very clean about the
Speaker 1: things she does, but sometimes when we travel, she takes
Speaker 1: a pillow and she puts it into one of those
Speaker 1: bins when we're traveling, and it is the grossest thing
Speaker 1: that anyone has ever done. I just can't handle it.
Speaker 1: But it's you know, I actually love these facts that
Speaker 1: confirm my suspicion that everything I come into contact with
Speaker 1: is filthy. And so those are just great stats. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's like when we talked about how the trade tables
Speaker 1: on airplanes are also super gross, I mean grosser than anything.
Speaker 2: So I vaguely remember this, but can you nudge my
Speaker 2: memory a little?
Speaker 1: Of course, I have the fact right here. I keep
Speaker 1: them with me at all times, just in case anybody
Speaker 1: needs to be reminded. But this was from a twenty
Speaker 1: fifteen study from travel Math, and it showed that trade
Speaker 1: tables on the back of cabin seats typically contain over
Speaker 1: two thousand colony forming units per square inch. Now these
Speaker 1: are also known as CFUs. Now, to put that in perspective,
Speaker 1: the average household toilet average household toilet has only around
Speaker 1: one hundred and seventy CFUs. Even the flush buttons for
Speaker 1: airport toilets only have about two hundred and sixty CFUs.
Speaker 1: So that's two thousand on these trade tables compared to
Speaker 1: two hundred and sixty on a flush button on an
Speaker 1: airport toilet.
Speaker 2: It is so weird that trade tables are that filthy.
Speaker 2: So I actually remember this great scene in Rolldahl's book
Speaker 2: Going Solo, it's his biography, where he's on this boat
Speaker 2: and he's watching this woman eat an orange with a
Speaker 2: knife and fork, and he's just kind of amazed by
Speaker 2: how nimble she is with it, and he asks her
Speaker 2: why she's using a knife and fork, and she goes
Speaker 2: on this big about how dirty our hens are and
Speaker 2: how she would never use her hens. And I think
Speaker 2: that's why whenever I touched the tray table from now on,
Speaker 2: it's going to be with a knife and fork. That's
Speaker 2: a smart way.
Speaker 1: Of approach it. All Right, Well, I feel like we
Speaker 1: rushed onto the plane too quickly and need to come
Speaker 1: back to the airport. So what do you say we
Speaker 1: take a minute to talk about some of the deeply
Speaker 1: weird things that people's stuff in those dirty bins you
Speaker 1: were talking about. I mean, there are all kinds of
Speaker 1: strange stories there about people smuggling everything from human remains
Speaker 1: to ninja throwing stars and all of this in their
Speaker 1: carry on bags. But the most interesting examples to me
Speaker 1: are all the weird things that scientists stow. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's so funny to read some of these. I actually
Speaker 1: just listen to some of the stuff that TSA has
Speaker 1: turned up in recent years. All right, A cooler full
Speaker 1: of turtle embryos, sure, several bottles of monkey pee, the
Speaker 1: shin bone of a giant groundsloth, fifty vials of freeze
Speaker 1: dried milk from an Antarctic fur seal, and of course
Speaker 1: a three D printed model of a dolphin vagina. I mean,
Speaker 1: you can't make this stuff up.
Speaker 2: That's so weird. But I'm guessing the scientists must have
Speaker 2: like legit reasons for carrying this stuff through, right, Like
Speaker 2: does security just give him a pass? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I mean most of the time they do. And most
Speaker 1: of these things don't really break the rules. They're just
Speaker 1: odd and usually require some sort of explanation. For for instance,
Speaker 1: when the antarctic researcher with all the seal milk was stopped,
Speaker 1: he just had to explain what all these vials of
Speaker 1: white powder really were.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, if you're taking a lot of white
Speaker 2: powder on a plane, you're kind of asking to get stopped.
Speaker 1: But well, you know, once he had clued them in there,
Speaker 1: there really wasn't that much of a problem. And in fact,
Speaker 1: as the guy later explained, quote, some of the officers
Speaker 1: just wanted to wave me on, but others wanted me
Speaker 1: to stay and answer their questions like how do you
Speaker 1: milk a first seal? And so he pointed out, that's
Speaker 1: a nice way to engage in a discussion about science.
Speaker 1: But he also almost missed his flight.
Speaker 2: So I actually love these types of interactions, Like I
Speaker 2: was reading about this one time a few years ago
Speaker 2: when this asked physicists flew to Fargo, North Dakota, and
Speaker 2: he had his Nobel Physics Prize with him. So his
Speaker 2: name is Brian Schmidt apparently won the prize back in
Speaker 2: twenty eleven for code discovering dark energy. But anyway, he
Speaker 2: was going to Fargo to visit his grandmom and she
Speaker 2: asked him to bring along his Nobell and just in
Speaker 2: case other listeners don't know, a Nobel prize kind of
Speaker 2: looks like an Olympic medal, like it's made of gold,
Speaker 2: weighs about half a pound.
Speaker 1: It's pretty big.
Speaker 2: So Schmidt has this giant medal in his bag, and
Speaker 2: because it's made of gold, it actually absorbs all the
Speaker 2: X rays and it just looked like a big black
Speaker 2: mystery object to the monitors. So security asked him, like,
Speaker 2: what's in it? And he tells him it's a gold medal.
Speaker 2: And then they opened the bag and inspect it and
Speaker 2: they're like, uh, who gave this to you? To where
Speaker 2: Schmidt says, and he gives an honest answer, the King
Speaker 2: of Sweden. Of course, the King.
Speaker 1: Of Sweden, as you do you know, so did the
Speaker 1: agent just let him through or what?
Speaker 2: No, they were totally suspicious. So then the officers had
Speaker 2: all these follow ups, like they asked like, why did
Speaker 2: the king give this to you? And so Schmidt has
Speaker 2: continued to tell the truths. He says, because I helped
Speaker 2: discover that the expansion rate of the universe was accelerating.
Speaker 2: And as he's saying this, you know, the officers are
Speaker 2: looking more and more angry. He gets sense that they
Speaker 2: were losing their patience. So he finally explained the whole
Speaker 2: thing in detail, like the science, how he won this award,
Speaker 2: that the king presented it to him, all that, and
Speaker 2: even then they had one more question for him, which was,
Speaker 2: why were you in Fargo?
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess that's a pretty fair question under
Speaker 1: the circumstances. But all right, well, now that we made
Speaker 1: our way through security, what do you say we stretch
Speaker 1: our legs a little bit and check out a few
Speaker 1: of the more surprising amenities the airport seems to offer
Speaker 1: these days. But before we get to that, let's take
Speaker 1: a quick break. You're listening to Part Time Genius and
Speaker 1: we're talking about airports, all right, Mango. So you and
Speaker 1: I fly fairly often, as we said before, and I
Speaker 1: know one thing we've both noticed is that airports offer
Speaker 1: a much wider array of amenities than they used to.
Speaker 1: You know, you see things like massage chairs, which honestly
Speaker 1: is so weird to me to be walking through a
Speaker 1: terminal and look over and see somebody just with their
Speaker 1: eyes closed and a massage. I just don't feel like
Speaker 1: that's a place I could relax. But you definitely see
Speaker 1: lots of those. You see sleeping pods and day spas,
Speaker 1: made to order sushi like This is a huge list
Speaker 1: of luxuries that are involved in some of these airports,
Speaker 1: and it seems to get longer every year, and so
Speaker 1: I've assembled my own little list here, but I actually
Speaker 1: want to hear from you first. So what are some
Speaker 1: of the most unexpected services you've come across during your travels?
Speaker 2: So one of the things I really like is that
Speaker 2: you see more and more playgrounds for kids in airports,
Speaker 2: and it's been really nice to be able to like
Speaker 2: let the kids run around on these little jungle gyms
Speaker 2: and let them be loud and crazy for a bit
Speaker 2: before you have to, like, you know, reel it all
Speaker 2: in when you get on a plane. But as a
Speaker 2: solo traveler, probably my favorite trend that's been gaining steam
Speaker 2: states side is airport movie theaters. And this is something
Speaker 2: I think started back in twenty fourteen, which is when
Speaker 2: the airport in Minneapolis Saint Paul opened this free around
Speaker 2: the clock screening room near Gate C eighteen.
Speaker 1: Huh, I've been there, but I actually haven't noticed that before,
Speaker 1: So catching a movie it sounds like a fun way
Speaker 1: to kill pine before a flight, but you probably have
Speaker 1: to get there pretty early to be able to watch
Speaker 1: the whole thing, right.
Speaker 2: So it's not actually a problem in this case. The
Speaker 2: Minnesota screening room only shows short films and documentaries by
Speaker 2: filmmakers from the Upper Midwest, so in addition to providing
Speaker 2: some free entertainment, they're really a way to showcase this
Speaker 2: local talent. And this approach isn't unique to the Minneapolis
Speaker 2: airport either, So last spring, the airport in Portland opened
Speaker 2: its first microcinema and concourse, see it's similar. Where ticketed
Speaker 2: passengers have made it through security, they're free to grab
Speaker 2: a spot in this seventeen seat theater and cast short
Speaker 2: films by filmmakers from Portland. But maybe the most unique
Speaker 2: airport theater is the one that opened last August at
Speaker 2: Miami International. And unlike the others I mentioned, this one
Speaker 2: doesn't show a recent films shot by local artists. Instead,
Speaker 2: the airport actually uses this bank of old flight monitors
Speaker 2: to show all kinds of vintage footage they found in
Speaker 2: and around the airport. So you might see like Miami
Speaker 2: Family's home movies from the nineteen twenties on one reel,
Speaker 2: or a reel of different celebrities who've arrived at the
Speaker 2: airport between the fifties and eighties. Plus there are all
Speaker 2: these quirky vintage promotional films for Florida sprinkled in. It
Speaker 2: is pretty great, and it just seems like a really
Speaker 2: cool project and a fun way to see all the
Speaker 2: changes the airport and the surrounding community have gone through
Speaker 2: over the years.
Speaker 1: That does sound pretty neat. I feel like I need
Speaker 1: to check that out the next time I'm in Miami.
Speaker 1: But all right, Well, for my turn, I want to
Speaker 1: talk about something I know you'll love, and that's the
Speaker 1: menagerie of therapy animals that some airports now keep on
Speaker 1: hand as really a way to help calm frazzle passengers.
Speaker 1: So let's get the boring ones out of the way.
Speaker 1: I guess I should mention that there are more than
Speaker 1: thirty airports around the US that now have therapy dogs,
Speaker 1: as well as a few that also have cats and
Speaker 1: even rabbits.
Speaker 2: Oh, what's a therapy rabbit.
Speaker 1: Well, it's a therapeutic rabbit. Actually, I have no idea.
Speaker 1: I guess it's just calmer than your typical rabbit and
Speaker 1: less skiddish. But way back to the idea of these
Speaker 1: other animals. So there are plenty of common therapy animals
Speaker 1: scattered in airports across the country, but there's only one
Speaker 1: airport here with its own pot bellied pig, and that's
Speaker 1: in San Francisco. Now, I've flown to San Francisco many times.
Speaker 1: I know you have two. I have never seen that,
Speaker 1: have you?
Speaker 2: No, I have not seen a potbellid pig there.
Speaker 1: Yeah. The pig's name is Leelu, and back in twenty
Speaker 1: sixteen she joined the airport's wag Brigade, which, as you
Speaker 1: could probably guess, as a group of specially trained therapy
Speaker 1: animals that the airport keeps on staff. But Leelu doesn't
Speaker 1: just sit there like a lump while you pet her,
Speaker 1: like say a therapy rabbit might do. Leelu is actually
Speaker 1: a highly skilled performer. So get this, she has not one,
Speaker 1: not two, but ten different tricks in her repertoire, and
Speaker 1: including one where she plays a miniature piano. But you know,
Speaker 1: like any pig diva, she also brings a complete wardrobe
Speaker 1: with her, and so her vast costume collection includes, among
Speaker 1: other outfits, a sparkly pink too too, and of course
Speaker 1: a pilot uniform with a hat.
Speaker 2: Which sounds adorable, But you know, I kigs aren't your thing.
Speaker 2: You might actually have better luck at the airport in
Speaker 2: hebrin Kentucky. So folks that originally planned to use dogs
Speaker 2: when they launched the therapy animal program in twenty sixteen,
Speaker 2: but in the end they went with something much more
Speaker 2: unique and also more local. So the airport got in
Speaker 2: touch with a nearby nonprofit that happened to run a
Speaker 2: miniature horse therapy program, and after a few visits, the
Speaker 2: airport decided to ditch the dogs and just bring many
Speaker 2: horses to the airport twice a month instead. And as
Speaker 2: you can imagine, you know, the prospect of hurting multiple
Speaker 2: horses through the security lines was pretty daunting, So the
Speaker 2: horses are usually kept in the ticketing area during the visits,
Speaker 2: and even if you aren't flying anywhere, you can still
Speaker 2: swing by and pet some therapy horses.
Speaker 1: It's like a stable full of little Sebastian It's like
Speaker 1: a fun airport to go to. But yeah, it's funny
Speaker 1: this stuff happens in the US because I typically only
Speaker 1: hear about these kinds of programs at foreign airports, like,
Speaker 1: for instance, I read that the Shippell Airport in Amsterdam
Speaker 1: has all kinds of jealousy inducing amenities. They've got a
Speaker 1: fully stocked airport library, a museum showcasing art from the
Speaker 1: Dutch masters, and probably coolest of all a team of
Speaker 1: concierge robots. And don't even get me started on the
Speaker 1: airport in Singapore.
Speaker 2: So I've actually been to the Singapore airport. It was
Speaker 2: in the nineties, and even back then it was unreal,
Speaker 2: like if you had a layover, Singapore would actually give you,
Speaker 2: like I want to say, it was like a forty
Speaker 2: five minute or an hour long tour of the country
Speaker 2: and then bring you back to the airport and whisky
Speaker 2: through security. It also had like amazing public showers and
Speaker 2: these super clean stalls, and there was this garden with
Speaker 2: birds in it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, except that it's actually gardens plural, like the first
Speaker 1: one was built in the nineteen eighties, I think. But
Speaker 1: now there are whopping ten gardens that are spread across
Speaker 1: the airport's four different terminals, and altogether they contain over
Speaker 1: half a million plants from nearly three hundred different species.
Speaker 1: It's pretty absurd, Like they have this dedicated cactus garden,
Speaker 1: one with just sunflowers, another that's full of orchids. But
Speaker 1: I think my favorite has to be this two story,
Speaker 1: open air, thirty five hundred square foot butterfly garden in
Speaker 1: Terminal three. And apparently there are more than a thousand
Speaker 1: tropical butterflies that call this garden home at any given time.
Speaker 1: And if you're not into butterflies, the garden is still
Speaker 1: worth a visit because it also contains a twenty foot
Speaker 1: tall waterfall.
Speaker 2: Wow. I mean that was definitely not there when I
Speaker 2: was there. But you know, we had a significant layover
Speaker 2: when I was at the Singapore Airport, and I have
Speaker 2: never been to another airport where I wouldn't have minded
Speaker 2: it waiting for like a flight delay. You know, the
Speaker 2: food was great, the place was great, it was well lit,
Speaker 2: it was it was really gorgeous.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'd love to visit there sometime. And apparently you're
Speaker 1: not the only one who feels this way. Actually, according
Speaker 1: to the World air Awards, which is apparently a thing.
Speaker 1: In twenty eighteen, the Singapore Airport was voted the world's
Speaker 1: best airport for the sixth year in a row. And
Speaker 1: there's a pretty steep competition out there. So at this point,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure what it would take to beat Singapore.
Speaker 2: So I do think that they have one feature that
Speaker 2: could knock them out of the top spot, and that
Speaker 2: is rocking chairs.
Speaker 1: Wait, I think you missed the part where I said
Speaker 1: Singapore Airport has a twenty foot indoor waterfall. I'm pretty
Speaker 1: sure that tops rocking chairs.
Speaker 2: Well, I think some cities prefer there. Maybe he's a
Speaker 2: little less showy, thank you very much, Or at least
Speaker 2: that was my takeaway after learning that over fifty airports
Speaker 2: around the US now have a fleet of rockers set
Speaker 2: up in their terminals.
Speaker 1: You know, now that you mentioned that, it's something I've
Speaker 1: noticed a lot lately, especially when I'm passing through airports
Speaker 1: here in the South. I mean, it feels like Charlotte
Speaker 1: has had them forever, But maybe that's part of what's
Speaker 1: going on there. Like Southern folks just like the airport
Speaker 1: to feel a little more like their front porch.
Speaker 2: Maybe. Yeah, I mean, I think you're probably half right,
Speaker 2: because it's not just Southerners who liked the rockers. You
Speaker 2: can actually find them in airports as far west as
Speaker 2: Seattle and San Diego. But you know, that front porch
Speaker 2: field you mentioned is definitely a big part of the appeal.
Speaker 2: In fact, the whole trend seems to have started thanks
Speaker 2: to a temporary art exhibit called Porch Setting, And you're
Speaker 2: absolutely right. It was featured at the airport in Charlotte,
Speaker 2: North Carolina. And this was way back in nineteen ninety seven.
Speaker 2: And so the way it worked was they had all
Speaker 2: these giant photographs of different front porches with rock and
Speaker 2: chairs on them, and then in front of the photos
Speaker 2: they put actual rock and chairs, kind of like props
Speaker 2: to make the exhibit a little more interactive. But when
Speaker 2: the exhibit finished its run and the chairs were taken away,
Speaker 2: people got super upset. You know. It was just like
Speaker 2: with that carpet in Portland, Like passengers had grown so
Speaker 2: fond of these airport rockers, and once the public outcry started,
Speaker 2: the amenities manager not only brought the chairs back, he
Speaker 2: also added even more of them.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's fascinating to see what kinds of things
Speaker 1: people get attached to, and at airports of all places.
Speaker 1: But I'm curious, though, because what you just outline was
Speaker 1: a pretty specific chain of events. I doubt all these
Speaker 1: other airports had their own rocking chair exhibits or whatever,
Speaker 1: but how did they wind up with them?
Speaker 2: Right? So, for the most part, it seems like people
Speaker 2: who worked at one airport started noticing the chairs at
Speaker 2: other airports while they were traveling, and then they just
Speaker 2: decided to copy the idea. But here's the best part.
Speaker 2: All those rockers spread across fifty some airports like they
Speaker 2: all come from the same company. It's called Troutman Chairs,
Speaker 2: and it's co owned by a husband and wife who
Speaker 2: have basically become the go to supplier for airport rocking chairs.
Speaker 1: Wait, seriously, like, what a bizarre market to Domino also
Speaker 1: had they pulled this off?
Speaker 2: Well, the company's based in North Carolina, which is where
Speaker 2: the trend got started, so they were the ones who
Speaker 2: built the chairs for that exhibit in ninety seven, and
Speaker 2: then over the years, whenever one airport manager asked about
Speaker 2: the rockers at a different airport, they're always pointed right
Speaker 2: back to Troutman Chairs. But the other cool thing I
Speaker 2: read is a theory on why these chairs were a
Speaker 2: hit with passengers in the first place. And this is
Speaker 2: the explanation that the amenities manager in North Carolina gave. Quote,
Speaker 2: airports tend to be such a fast paced environment it
Speaker 2: could be overwhelming for people who aren't seasoned travelers. The
Speaker 2: rocker is a yin to that yang. You're controlling the rocker,
Speaker 2: where a lot of the time in an airport you're
Speaker 2: not controlling your environment. It's a nice pause button in
Speaker 2: a hectic environment.
Speaker 1: It definitely is, and you can see that when you
Speaker 1: travel through Charlotte and you see all the people sitting there.
Speaker 1: In fact, I can remember when we were traveling so
Speaker 1: much in our mental f loss days, and our old
Speaker 1: designer Winslow, and I would travel through that airport all
Speaker 1: the time. We got so used to knowing what was
Speaker 1: in every spot in that airport that we could use
Speaker 1: code for the different terminals. And there was this barbecue
Speaker 1: restaurant where we ate one time, and it was not
Speaker 1: the best dish of barbecue, and it was very wet
Speaker 1: for some reason. So whenever I would check in with
Speaker 1: Winslow when he was traveling, sometimes he would just text
Speaker 1: back wet barbecue, and I knew that meant he was
Speaker 1: in Terminal E in the Charlotte Airport. But uh, but
Speaker 1: back to the idea of these rocking chairs. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, he's absolutely right about airports being hectic, and
Speaker 1: that's actually something I do think we should talk about
Speaker 1: in a little bit more detail. But before we get
Speaker 1: to that, let's take one more quick break.
Speaker 2: You listen to Part Time Genius, and we're talking about
Speaker 2: the special kind of anxiety that people feel at airports. Okay, well,
Speaker 2: so one thing I noticed while looking through our research
Speaker 2: is that society actually used to have a much more
Speaker 2: romantic view of airports than we do today. Like if
Speaker 2: you look back at the mid twentieth century, when commercial
Speaker 2: air travel was just you know, taking off, thank you Tristan,
Speaker 2: people had a very rosy, optimistic view of flying. A
Speaker 2: trip to the airport didn't fill you with dread because
Speaker 2: airports were still seen as dynamic, forward looking places. But
Speaker 2: that's definitely not what most of us see them as today.
Speaker 2: So I'm curious, why do you think that happened?
Speaker 1: Well, you know, I would think a big part of
Speaker 1: this is the massive uptick and security that we've seen
Speaker 1: since the nineteen seventies. And I think we covered this
Speaker 1: a bit in our Golden Age of Hijacking episode. But
Speaker 1: airport's first added metal detectors in the seventies, and this
Speaker 1: was of course as a way to thwart hijackers, and
Speaker 1: ever since then, we've watched the security process at airports
Speaker 1: gradually grow more strict and more complicated. And while tighter
Speaker 1: regulations are needed in some cases, I think part of
Speaker 1: the fallout from them is that a lot of people
Speaker 1: feel really stressed at the airport. And that's even before
Speaker 1: you factor in other changes that have negatively impacted the
Speaker 1: airport experience. Like you know how much dingier airlines are
Speaker 1: compared to just twenty years or so ago. And there
Speaker 1: used to be free meals on short flights for all classes,
Speaker 1: and then it was restricted to long flights, and now
Speaker 1: it's really only international if you're flying coach. You've also
Speaker 1: got the baggage fees that have gone up, and seat
Speaker 1: fees keep going up, and people are getting bumped from
Speaker 1: flights left and right, and so this kind of stuff,
Speaker 1: you know, people are now associated with flying. And you
Speaker 1: can tell too, like last year, Americans gave airlines lower
Speaker 1: marks on customer satisfaction surveys than the US Postal Service.
Speaker 1: And not only that, airlines were in the bottom six
Speaker 1: for the least like industries in America, and they were
Speaker 1: right there with stuff like health insurance and TV and
Speaker 1: internet providers. I mean, that's not great company.
Speaker 2: Definitely not. But I do think you're right that tighter
Speaker 2: security and hidden costs are kind of what robbed airports
Speaker 2: of their luster. I was reading this article in Slate
Speaker 2: about the current state of the aviation industry, and they said,
Speaker 2: you can basically divide the perception of airports into three phases.
Speaker 2: The first was when the airports were this icon of progress,
Speaker 2: which is the period I mentioned earlier, probably from like
Speaker 2: the fifties through the sixties. And the second phase would
Speaker 2: maybe be the seventies through the mid nineties, and that's
Speaker 2: when the airports felt what Slate put like another stale
Speaker 2: waiting room of modern life.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's probably about how I feel about them.
Speaker 1: So I guess maybe I'm stuck in in phase two
Speaker 1: right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I'm guessing you're not alone. But for everyone else,
Speaker 2: we're now in the third phase, where the airport has
Speaker 2: become quote, the marble floored home of our national fear
Speaker 2: fueled psychosis.
Speaker 1: Wow. Wow, it is not pretty when you spell it
Speaker 1: out like that, but I guess that's not too far
Speaker 1: off from how a lot of people feel about it.
Speaker 1: And what's interesting is how airports have responded to the
Speaker 1: rising anxiety levels among their passengers, Like that's got to
Speaker 1: be what's prompting all the over the top new amenities
Speaker 1: and the herds of therapy animals, the art galleries, the
Speaker 1: rocking chairs that we talked about. I mean, it's all
Speaker 1: meant to help calm us down and sort of forget
Speaker 1: that we're in a place where most of us would
Speaker 1: rather not be.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that sounds right to me, And I think the
Speaker 2: fact that airport retail is booming right now kind of
Speaker 2: backs that up. So a lot of people use shopping
Speaker 2: as a way to curb their anxiety or just brighten
Speaker 2: their mood in general. You know, we call it retail therapy.
Speaker 2: And in twenty sixteen, airport retail actually rows a full
Speaker 2: four percent worldwide, and for the US in Canada, airport
Speaker 2: retailing is set to rise from a ground four billion
Speaker 2: dollars in twenty fifteen to just under ten billion dollars
Speaker 2: by twenty twenty. That's going to micro Market Monitor, which
Speaker 2: is a publication for the trade. But you know, that's
Speaker 2: some seriously impressive sales growth, and i'd bet a lot
Speaker 2: of it will be thanks to stressed out shopping. You know.
Speaker 1: Those figures actually, I guess don't surprise me when you
Speaker 1: think about because no matter how bad brick and mortar
Speaker 1: stores start hurting, airport retailers really seem like they're going
Speaker 1: to be just fine. Because if you think about it.
Speaker 1: There are more people flying now each year than at
Speaker 1: any time in history, so your local mall might not
Speaker 1: be getting that much traffic, but airport retailers have this
Speaker 1: steady stream at just about any hour of the day.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a good point. And I was reading about
Speaker 2: this one bit of airport manager lingo called dwell time.
Speaker 2: It's basically the time between when a passenger makes it
Speaker 2: through security and when they board their plane, so you know,
Speaker 2: all the time during which you could be spending money,
Speaker 2: and apparently the first six minutes of dwell time are
Speaker 2: the most lucrative. It's actually called the golden hour because
Speaker 2: it's supposedly when passengers are feeling their most self indulgent.
Speaker 1: I mean that makes sense. You've just gone through security,
Speaker 1: suffered the indignity of the pat downs. You're just looking
Speaker 1: for any way to make yourself feel a little bit better.
Speaker 2: I guess yeah. Actually it reminds me. I was in
Speaker 2: the quick X ray thing that they do where you
Speaker 2: walk into that space and turn and raise your arms
Speaker 2: and then walk through it, and this guy, I don't
Speaker 2: know whether he was on a power trip or what,
Speaker 2: but he started telling me while I was in there
Speaker 2: to pull up my pants and it is not like
Speaker 2: I wear low riding pants like, but I had taken
Speaker 2: off my belt as you do to go through the
Speaker 2: security thing, and my pants were resting on my hips
Speaker 2: and he was like, I said, pull up your pants,
Speaker 2: and he kept getting louder and louder about it in
Speaker 2: this situation where you're supposed to keep your hands up
Speaker 2: in the air and there's this cue forming behind me,
Speaker 2: and it was so anxiety inducing and it is so weird.
Speaker 2: It's also one of these situations where you can't talk
Speaker 2: back right like, because you know if you do, it's
Speaker 2: only going to escalate the problem. So I hiked my
Speaker 2: pants up as high as I could waddled out of
Speaker 2: this place, and of course what I do next. I
Speaker 2: bought some candy and magazines, you know, just to get
Speaker 2: out of that headspace.
Speaker 1: But I mean, I guess it's one of those things
Speaker 1: where he knows that we're getting older, and he just
Speaker 1: thought by this point, you're almost to that age where
Speaker 1: your pants should be up to your belly button.
Speaker 2: Right, Or maybe he's on the take from these stores
Speaker 2: just like getting up bus sales. But you know, there
Speaker 2: are plenty of other reasons to buy things too. People
Speaker 2: forget to pack things for their trip, like headphones or whatever.
Speaker 2: Maybe they forget to get someone a gift, and the
Speaker 2: airport becomes their last chance to save face with a
Speaker 2: mug or buy some candy.
Speaker 1: I have definitely been in that position a few times.
Speaker 1: And you know, airport retailers are lucky to have this
Speaker 1: captive audience. You know, their customers are psychologically primed to buy.
Speaker 1: And it's even more true when you throw incentives like
Speaker 1: the whole duty free thing that's added into the mix here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that reminds me. I was reading my airport in Dubai,
Speaker 2: and not only is it one of the busiest in
Speaker 2: the world, it's also home to the most lucrative duty
Speaker 2: free shop of all time. By the way, I've actually
Speaker 2: been to the Dubai airport, And speaking of luxuries, if
Speaker 2: they know you're flying through with a kid and we
Speaker 2: were on our way to India at the time, they
Speaker 2: actually bring you a stroller to meet you at the gate,
Speaker 2: so that like you can connect to your next plane
Speaker 2: without having to wake up your kid. You can just
Speaker 2: put them in the stroller and stroll them along. It
Speaker 2: is really sort of very thoughtful and nothing I've experienced
Speaker 2: in the States. But back to the duty free thing.
Speaker 2: So their giant shop is just called Dubai duty Free,
Speaker 2: which is a little basic, but the sheer size of
Speaker 2: the place is actually staggering. The store boasts four hundred
Speaker 2: and nine thousand square feet of retail space, and the
Speaker 2: Pacific Standard says, if you want to picture it, it's
Speaker 2: a full one and a half times the size of
Speaker 2: Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that helps me get a great picture of this thing.
Speaker 1: But that is huge. But you also said it's the
Speaker 1: most lucrative though, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2: So the store's annual sales typically fall just shy of
Speaker 2: two billion US dollars.
Speaker 1: From one store. I mean, so what are they selling
Speaker 1: to generate this kind of money.
Speaker 2: It is the typical duty free stables, just at this
Speaker 2: greater volume. So they sell tons of perfume and liquor.
Speaker 2: It's three hundred million dollars in sales of that. Last year,
Speaker 2: tobacco sells really well there. They sold two hundred million
Speaker 2: dollars of that. They also sell other items like gold
Speaker 2: is a big seller, and not just jewelry, but actually
Speaker 2: like bars of twenty two carrot bricks, of gold. You know,
Speaker 2: it's crazy. There's another big seller that I never would
Speaker 2: have guessed. Tang.
Speaker 1: What is tang? Oh like the orange powder drink mix.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so it's just like the astronauts supposedly loved. But
Speaker 2: we're in the Pacific standard. The Dubai airport can sell
Speaker 2: upwards of fourteen hundred metric tons of tang in a
Speaker 2: single year. Isn't that insane? Like its just that much tang?
Speaker 2: And I was wondering that. Apparently it's southey laborers who
Speaker 2: like the stock up before going home after working in
Speaker 2: the Persian Gulf. But you know, if you're thirsty for
Speaker 2: something a little stronger than Tang, you can actually check
Speaker 2: out the special first class only floor of the store,
Speaker 2: and that's where you'll find a two hundred thousand dollars
Speaker 2: bottle of whiskey. It's named the Royal Salute Tribute to Honor.
Speaker 1: Oh what a well. I feel like I might just
Speaker 1: stick with the Tang in this case, and the store
Speaker 1: can't be selling too many of those bottles of whiskey though, right.
Speaker 2: Oh, you mean Royal Salute Tribute to Honor.
Speaker 1: Right, Tribute to Honor.
Speaker 2: It sounds like a dictator. Named it, but supposedly, like
Speaker 2: having these high priced bottles around creates what's called a
Speaker 2: halo effect, and it encourages these wealthy travelers to spend more,
Speaker 2: which is, you know, just so typical of rich people.
Speaker 1: Classic rich people. But I mean, you know, airports have
Speaker 1: plenty of other ways of getting your money besides retail,
Speaker 1: and one of them is that we just straight up
Speaker 1: give it to them, or at least that's the end result.
Speaker 2: So how's that.
Speaker 1: Well, we really do this though, by leaving money behind accidentally,
Speaker 1: So every year, millions of travelers hastily empty their pockets
Speaker 1: into those plastic bins at the security line, and then
Speaker 1: we forget to collect that loose change once we've made
Speaker 1: it through. And yeah, that could be just a few
Speaker 1: pennies here or there, but all those coins actually do
Speaker 1: add up. I was looking at this breakdown that CNBC
Speaker 1: put out, and over the years, it's interesting to see
Speaker 1: how much it's been growing. So back in twenty eleven,
Speaker 1: it was just shy of half a million dollars that
Speaker 1: was left behind by people, and then it jumped to
Speaker 1: six hundred and seventy five thousand dollars in twenty fourteen,
Speaker 1: kept increasing every year. In twenty sixteen, the TSA's take
Speaker 1: was the biggest one reported yet. It was a whopping
Speaker 1: eight hundred and sixty seven thousand dollars in abandoned coins
Speaker 1: and other currency just left behind.
Speaker 2: So what happens to that money? Like it just becomes
Speaker 2: TSA profit?
Speaker 1: Uh? Pretty much. There was actually a law passed back
Speaker 1: in two thousand and five by Congress that stays that
Speaker 1: TSA free to keep the unclaimed cash it finds and
Speaker 1: put it toward whichever security efforts it wants to. And personally,
Speaker 1: my vote is for a dedicated bin cleaner so that
Speaker 1: I never have to hear another study about how dirty
Speaker 1: they are compared to a toilet. I can give behind
Speaker 1: that all right, Well, Tristan is over there tapping his
Speaker 1: PDX carpet wristwatch, which means it's time for today's fact off.
Speaker 1: So you ready to do this? Mango always.
Speaker 2: So you know how. All these airports had various codes,
Speaker 2: like pdx's Portland, LAX's La, et cetera. Apparently, the tiny
Speaker 2: sand dune where the Wright brothers made their first flight
Speaker 2: in Kiddie Hawk has been given a code as well,
Speaker 2: and they were sweetly given the name f FA, which
Speaker 2: stands for First Flight Airport.
Speaker 1: Oh I like that. Well, for years, if you were
Speaker 1: flying through Genoa's Christophero Colombo Airport, you'd have to leave
Speaker 1: your pesto as security, at least if it was more
Speaker 1: than one hundred milliliters of the stuff. And of course
Speaker 1: it's made tons of tourists unhappy. So then they decided
Speaker 1: to amend the rules and now you can fly with
Speaker 1: five hundred grams of pesto and these are bigger jars,
Speaker 1: but that's as long as you make a donation to
Speaker 1: Flying Angels. Now, this is a charity that helps fund
Speaker 1: air travel for sick children. So it's a sweet idea
Speaker 1: and people seem to be happy again. But there is
Speaker 1: one catch though. The airport waiver only applies to pesto
Speaker 1: that is actually made in Genoa.
Speaker 2: So this is an airport related exactly. But do you
Speaker 2: know that pilots on flights are served different meals and
Speaker 2: they are not allowed to share. Apparently it's done as
Speaker 2: a rule because of a fear of food poisoning.
Speaker 1: Wow, which makes a lot of sense actually, Well, speaking
Speaker 1: of planes, I realized this isn't something we'll probably ever
Speaker 1: have to worry about. But if the oxygen mask drops down,
Speaker 1: you're only going to get about fifteen to twenty minutes
Speaker 1: of oxygen. There's a limited amount of course on there,
Speaker 1: but the idea is that more than enough. The ideas
Speaker 1: that's more than enough time to take you to a
Speaker 1: lower altitude, which is when you won't really need them.
Speaker 1: And actually, one other thing about those oxygen masks. What
Speaker 1: you're getting isn't really oxygen. It's actually kind of this
Speaker 1: cocktail of chemicals that when they're burned together, they release
Speaker 1: oxygen because pure oxygen tanks would just be too heavy
Speaker 1: and bulky to take up into the air.
Speaker 2: That's interesting. So if you're wondering why certain passengers get
Speaker 2: pulled aside for a cavity check, there's actually a system
Speaker 2: for it. So TSA agents assign you points for specific
Speaker 2: suspicious behavior, and if you have too much of it,
Speaker 2: you know, too many points, that's when it happens. But
Speaker 2: here are some of the things they're looking for. Exaggerated
Speaker 2: yawning or excessive throat clearing, covering your mouth when you're speaking,
Speaker 2: showing up in disguise, which makes sense, carrying an almanac,
Speaker 2: which makes less sense to me, widely open staring eyes
Speaker 2: and whistling.
Speaker 1: Whistling, I mean, whistling is like the classic thing people
Speaker 1: do in movies when they're like, I'm not up to anything.
Speaker 1: But is that really whistling? Is it really on the list?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's when the individual approaches the screen process because
Speaker 2: they're worried. It's a code or signal. But you know,
Speaker 2: maybe it's also to teach annoying people to whistle less.
Speaker 1: So all right, Well, here's a strange one. In New York.
Speaker 1: There's an airport dentist and I just learned about this.
Speaker 1: He's actually at one of the airports that I frequent
Speaker 1: but his name is doctor Robert Traeger, and much like
Speaker 1: those airport stores, he's taking full advantage of this location.
Speaker 1: So he's got to practice in Terminal B at Laguardi apparently,
Speaker 1: where he both sees airport employees and frequent flyers along
Speaker 1: with some emergency walk ins, and at JFKA. His office
Speaker 1: is close by, outside of the main airport, so his
Speaker 1: wife will actually show fer you to the main terminal,
Speaker 1: but that's only if you're part of his smile high club.
Speaker 1: And I'm wondering how often these people are going to
Speaker 1: the dentist and then onto the airport to be part
Speaker 1: of whatever this club is.
Speaker 2: But it's pretty amazing.
Speaker 1: The crazy thing is that doctor Tregger also does work
Speaker 1: for the government while he's there, so the ions uses
Speaker 1: him to look at wisdom, teeth and these other indicators
Speaker 1: to determine whether people they're detaining are minors or whether
Speaker 1: they may be lying about their age because you can
Speaker 1: tell age through inspecting bones and also teeth.
Speaker 2: It's crazy that he's got this double life. Well, yeah,
Speaker 2: here's a weird one. Do you know. The FAA has
Speaker 2: a theme song and I was not aware of that,
Speaker 2: And here a few of the lyrics. So we're planning
Speaker 2: and building a way to make tomorrow even safer than today.
Speaker 2: While flying grows, so do we And that's what it's
Speaker 2: all about. We want to help you get back home
Speaker 2: in a jumbo jet or flying alone. We make it
Speaker 2: safe up in the sky so you'll relax when you fly.
Speaker 2: So it's super cashy. Everyone knows the lyrics, they can
Speaker 2: sing along. But it's actually got a great story. When
Speaker 2: morale was down in the eighties, this guy named John Hanks,
Speaker 2: he was the public affairs director at the time. He
Speaker 2: decided to give the FA a little boost, and as
Speaker 2: he put it, quote, it was designed to bring the
Speaker 2: FAA employees closer together and the common purpose we had
Speaker 2: in our mission of aviation safety. Oddly, it was a
Speaker 2: huge success, so employees really bought into it. They thought
Speaker 2: it was super fun. The FA administrator thought it was great,
Speaker 2: and the FA Corral was performed at lots of events
Speaker 2: around the country, including and this is from Atlas Obscura
Speaker 2: at quote one of Nancy Reagan's Just Say No anti
Speaker 2: drug rallies, following the headliner LaToya Jackson. You know, the
Speaker 2: eighties were at this heady time where LaToya could be
Speaker 2: followed by Corral. But you know the best part of
Speaker 2: it is that the song costs nothing to taxpayers. It
Speaker 2: was all done by Hanks and his friends in their
Speaker 2: free time.
Speaker 1: You know, that's a good fact. But I think the
Speaker 1: fact that you slip the words LaToya Jackson into a
Speaker 1: fact off makes you just automatic winner. There's nothing I
Speaker 1: can do to beat that. So congratulations, thank you so much.
Speaker 2: I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: And we wanted to say thanks to some of our
Speaker 1: listeners out there. It's actually been a lot of fun
Speaker 1: to hear from you guys in recent months. Keeping track
Speaker 1: of who is winning the fact off battle because we
Speaker 1: actually haven't been keeping track and it was pretty funny.
Speaker 1: We stumbled across a website that somebody had actually pointed
Speaker 1: out to us, where one of our listeners is keeping
Speaker 1: track of who is winning this fact off battle, and unfortunately,
Speaker 1: it looks like Mango has been in the lead, and
Speaker 1: of course just widen that lead again today. And I
Speaker 1: think you've been in the lead all year. You took
Speaker 1: a big lead last year and we've been pretty even
Speaker 1: this year.
Speaker 2: But I Knowavda, I think his Husbanasi he created this
Speaker 2: whole graph of it.
Speaker 1: It's pretty amazing, it's pretty terrific. But we love hearing
Speaker 1: from you on this kind of thing and always love
Speaker 1: seeing those types of things. But if there are any
Speaker 1: facts that we forgot to include about airports, about flying,
Speaker 1: anything related to the episode, we always love hearing from
Speaker 1: You can reach out to us at part Time Genius
Speaker 1: at HowStuffWorks dot com or hit us up on Facebook
Speaker 1: or Twitter. We're from Gabe, Tristan, Mango and me. Thanks
Speaker 1: so much for listening, Thanks again for listening. Part Time
Speaker 1: Genius is a production of How Stuff Works and wouldn't
Speaker 1: be possible Without several brilliant people who do the important things,
Speaker 1: we couldn't even begin to understand.
Speaker 2: Christa McNeil does the editing thing.
Speaker 1: Noel Brown made the theme song and does the mixy
Speaker 1: mixy sound thing.
Speaker 2: Gerry Roland does the exec producer thing.
Speaker 1: Gabe Bluesier is our lead researcher, with support from the
Speaker 1: research Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and Lucas.
Speaker 2: Adams and Eves. Jeff Cook gets the show to your ears.
Speaker 2: Good job, Eves.
Speaker 1: If you like what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe,
Speaker 1: And if you really really like what you've heard, maybe
Speaker 1: you could leave a good review for us. Do we
Speaker 1: forget Jason Jason, who
Speaker 2: Comp