Speaker 1: Hey, they're part time geniuses. Before we start the show,
Speaker 1: we wanted to take a minute to recognize a few
Speaker 1: of our brilliant listeners. During an episode on building the
Speaker 1: Ultimate Animal Superhero, we challenge you guys to draw the
Speaker 1: bizarre creature created in that episode. This thing involved parts
Speaker 1: from the platypus, the salamander, the Texas horned lizard, the
Speaker 1: scarlet jellyfish, the eel, and so many more creatures. And now,
Speaker 1: I'll be honest, this seem like such a crazy, difficult
Speaker 1: test that I didn't expect we'd actually get many submissions,
Speaker 1: so we were thrilled when so many started coming in.
Speaker 1: I really wish we could give prizes to everyone who
Speaker 1: submitted a drawing, but please know you're all geniuses to us. Okay,
Speaker 1: here's some of the winners. We've got Andrea Burns and
Speaker 1: Jamie fam a pair of friends who decided to submit
Speaker 1: drawings together. We have Simon de Zubria Ristrepo, who submitted
Speaker 1: our cartoonist drawing. And for our winner in the best
Speaker 1: Kids Drawing division, we have Laney, who's twelve and a
Speaker 1: terrific artist, and the grand prize winner. This drawing was
Speaker 1: so insane as I told the creator I really want
Speaker 1: to see it as a poster, and we might just
Speaker 1: have to make that happen. But in first place, we
Speaker 1: have Natalie Leigh. Will post Natalie's winning piece on our
Speaker 1: Facebook page, and you guys will all be getting part
Speaker 1: Time Genius T shirts and some other fun prizes. Thank
Speaker 1: you again to everyone who submitted drawings, and be on
Speaker 1: the lookout for other contests and upcoming episodes. Now enjoy
Speaker 1: the show. Guess what Mango? What's that? Will? So I
Speaker 1: took a couple of wrong turns on the internet this
Speaker 1: week and I ended up in this gallery of libraries
Speaker 1: from the Middle Ages. And you know, book that used
Speaker 1: to be a huge problem. So the first thing any
Speaker 1: self respecting book collector would do is chain their books
Speaker 1: to their bookshelf like dogs. Know, these things were so
Speaker 1: much thicker, like heavy duty chains. If you look up
Speaker 1: the Hereford Cathedral in London, you see bookshelves filled with manuscripts,
Speaker 1: and in front of each book there's just a curtain
Speaker 1: of chains hanging down because every one of those books
Speaker 1: is tethered to the shelf. It's so imposing. That could
Speaker 1: be a great tactic if you actually want people reading
Speaker 1: the books but that wasn't even the best solution for
Speaker 1: protecting your library. If you wanted to upgrade, you could
Speaker 1: put your chain books inside a locked safe. It's kind
Speaker 1: of a nesting doll approach to the book security. But
Speaker 1: if you were really looking for protection, the ultimate in
Speaker 1: book protection was a curse. Of course occurs. Well, they
Speaker 1: were a little more like little inscribed threat that feels
Speaker 1: like such a hail Mary. Like you've got a thief
Speaker 1: who's broken into your home and then into your safe,
Speaker 1: sod through a thick chain. Got this Harry Potter sequel
Speaker 1: he's been dying to read, finally in his hands, and
Speaker 1: somehow a curse is going to make him put the
Speaker 1: book down. I mean, that's the idea. Let me read
Speaker 1: you my favorite threat. It says, if anyone take away
Speaker 1: this book, let him be fried in a pan. That
Speaker 1: sounds like such a Looney Tunes threat. I know, it
Speaker 1: isn't that intimidating unless the book owner also on the
Speaker 1: human sized frying pan. All this research on book thefts
Speaker 1: made me curious. What's the most stolen publication from public libraries.
Speaker 1: Number two on the list is the Bible. Why does
Speaker 1: anyone steal a Bible? I don't know, maybe they just
Speaker 1: skimmed the first few pages, didn't get far enough to
Speaker 1: realize that God's pretty clear about not stealing. But here's
Speaker 1: some of the other things in the top ten. You've
Speaker 1: got prep books for exams, books on not he's an
Speaker 1: occult things generally books people might be too embarrassed to
Speaker 1: check out. But the number one book that gets stolen
Speaker 1: from public libraries the Guinness Book of World Records. What
Speaker 1: I mean that itself kind of feels like a record.
Speaker 1: I know, honestly, I hadn't thought about the Guinness Book
Speaker 1: in years. I mean, I loved it as a kid,
Speaker 1: couldn't wait for the book fair to come so I
Speaker 1: could pick up a copy. But when I heard that fact,
Speaker 1: it made me wonder, why are we so impressed with records?
Speaker 1: And what is it about the Guinness Book that's made
Speaker 1: it such a beloved institution? And who has the record
Speaker 1: for reading the most baked beans in five minutes? So
Speaker 1: that's what we're digging into today. Important Stuffy Hey their
Speaker 1: podcast listeners, Well, when a part time genius, I'm will
Speaker 1: Pure and then as always I'm joined by my good
Speaker 1: friend Manes Tor and today's episode is all about world records,
Speaker 1: how the Guinness Book got its start, how they're cataloged,
Speaker 1: what countries take the book most seriously, And of course
Speaker 1: we'll have a couple of terrible quizzes. Who do we
Speaker 1: have on the line today, Mango, We've got Dan Rollman
Speaker 1: from records center dot com. He's terrific. He's going to
Speaker 1: tell us how his site, which allows you to set
Speaker 1: all sorts of world records from the comfort of your phone,
Speaker 1: got its start. All right, So before this episode, it
Speaker 1: had been years since I looked at the Guinness Book.
Speaker 1: How about you? Yeah, I remember reading them with friends
Speaker 1: on the school bus and thumbing through them at the library,
Speaker 1: but it had been like decades since I held one.
Speaker 1: Actually had a strange experience buying my book for this episode.
Speaker 1: What happened, Well, I went to this big bookstore in
Speaker 1: my neighborhood and went up to the clerk, who is
Speaker 1: this judgey literary type, And I said, I'm wondering if
Speaker 1: you could help me, and he looked eager, and then
Speaker 1: I said I'm looking for the Guinness Book of World Records.
Speaker 1: And as that title is filled out of my mouth,
Speaker 1: I just watched his face. Al Right, why is that
Speaker 1: I don't know. It was almost like when I was
Speaker 1: a kid at the local video store and my friends
Speaker 1: and I would approach the counter with like City Slickers too,
Speaker 1: or some mainstream movie, and the clerk would just judges
Speaker 1: because we weren't trying to rent like a Portuguese art film. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think you're gonna have to explain to our younger
Speaker 1: listeners what a video stores. Well, a long time ago,
Speaker 1: somewhere between when dinosaurs ruled the earth and Netflix took over,
Speaker 1: people used to travel to the stores to rent games
Speaker 1: and movies and sometimes pay exorbitant late fees to them.
Speaker 1: That's probably the worst fact we've ever told on our show.
Speaker 1: But you were talking about the bookstore experience. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: I said get his book, and he didn't even bother
Speaker 1: to look at his computer. He was like, reference, you
Speaker 1: just go to reference. But then I started flipping the pages,
Speaker 1: and holy smokes, I honestly forgot just how fun to
Speaker 1: Guinness book is. Like, of course, kids steal us from libraries.
Speaker 1: Who doesn't want to know? What's the most number of
Speaker 1: bowling balls someone's caught on their forehead? It's six, by
Speaker 1: the way, Like I had six bowling balls in a
Speaker 1: row thrown at him, and then he caught them on
Speaker 1: his forehead, one after the other, which is impressive. I
Speaker 1: don't even know how that works, but I'm guessing presumably
Speaker 1: there was a seventh ball chucked his way that he
Speaker 1: didn't catch. Yeah, the book doesn't mention that, but it
Speaker 1: does say what the world's largest robots snakes, which is
Speaker 1: what I can tell You're dying to talk about this,
Speaker 1: of course I am. It's the Titana Boa. Not only
Speaker 1: is it fifty ft long, but it was engineered to
Speaker 1: be a life size replica of an extinct snake. It's
Speaker 1: all based on a real fossil, and apparently the engineers
Speaker 1: remote controlled it around at science festivals where it goes
Speaker 1: wild on dance floor. I can only imagine. So I
Speaker 1: love all those crazy facts to What's strange is that
Speaker 1: when I was a kid, the stuff I really remembered
Speaker 1: was much more about the guy with the longest mustache
Speaker 1: or the tallest man in the world. But the book
Speaker 1: actually has so much general knowledge in there. Like in
Speaker 1: the two thousand and seventeen edition, there's a page on
Speaker 1: the business of sports and how the average NBA player
Speaker 1: makes six hundred times what an Nbah cheer leader makes
Speaker 1: or that the Lakers franchise pulls in two point six
Speaker 1: billion dollars a year. Like those are real facts, not
Speaker 1: just stunts. Like most apples held in a mouth and
Speaker 1: cut in half by a chainsaw in a minute, which
Speaker 1: is an actual record, right, yep, it's Johnny Strange cut
Speaker 1: twelve apples in half out of Danielle Martin's mouth. Of
Speaker 1: course that sounds terrifying. Also does the Guinness Book look
Speaker 1: through all the apples and determine, well, this one wasn't
Speaker 1: cut exactly down the center, so you're getting docted an apple.
Speaker 1: I mean, the record keepers are definitely meticulous, which we're
Speaker 1: going to talk about in a bit because it sounds
Speaker 1: like a crazy job. And how you actually get into
Speaker 1: the Guinness Book is an incredible process. But this guy,
Speaker 1: Johnny Strange, he is an artist, so he also holds
Speaker 1: the record for most apples held in one's own mouth
Speaker 1: and cut my chainsaw in a minute. He cut eight
Speaker 1: apples in half in his own mouth. I get uncomfortable
Speaker 1: when I point scissors on myself. I can't even imagine
Speaker 1: like turning a chainsaw in my own direction. But let's
Speaker 1: get back to what I think you were saying, which
Speaker 1: is that the Guinness Book contain more history and economics
Speaker 1: and just facts about the world than you expected. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's right. There are all sorts of facts about geology
Speaker 1: and earth science, like the longest natural arch, the largest
Speaker 1: slot canyon. And that's because Guinness Book actually started out
Speaker 1: as a way to settle argument. Really. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: before people had cell phones or access to the internet,
Speaker 1: you might be at the cafe and get into a
Speaker 1: silly debate or something ridiculous, like what country dominates synchronized swimming? Sure, Switzerland? Okay, Well,
Speaker 1: let's say one of your friends is arguing for Switzerland.
Speaker 1: If you correct, I mean, you never bet against Swiss precision.
Speaker 1: That's that's true, all right. So you're on team Switzerland
Speaker 1: and someone else can't stop praising Russia, and the whole
Speaker 1: debate gets heated because maybe you've had a few drinks
Speaker 1: and you're a little too invested. But back in the
Speaker 1: nineteen fifties, there really weren't a lot of ways to
Speaker 1: settle this without either taking the word of the biggest
Speaker 1: synchronized swimming fan in the group, or maybe calling him
Speaker 1: a bookie with a specialty in the sport, and because
Speaker 1: sometimes a drunken argument, no matter how trivial the topic,
Speaker 1: can lead to a brawl. And that's what the Guinness
Speaker 1: Book was for. It was actually a peacemaking device to
Speaker 1: be stocked in bars and settle bickering. Oh I love that.
Speaker 1: I feel like the Guinness Book deserves a Nobel Peace Prize,
Speaker 1: or at least an Ignoble Peace Prize. You love the
Speaker 1: Ignoble I do, but this feels so deserving. Singer wish.
Speaker 1: Do you know what my favorite Ignoble peace prizes? What's that?
Speaker 1: Tell me? It's from a few years back and it
Speaker 1: went to a mayor in Lithuania. According to the Ignobles,
Speaker 1: he want it for a quote demonstrating that the problem
Speaker 1: of illegally parked luxury cars can be solved by running
Speaker 1: over them with an armored tank. I looked up the
Speaker 1: photos of this. The mayor would actually drive the tank
Speaker 1: himself over Mercedes and Lexus is parked and Bikelon and
Speaker 1: he was right. It solved the problem. I think they're
Speaker 1: using the word piece ironically there though. Yeah, or the
Speaker 1: Ignoble Pieces Prize also a full confession. I don't know
Speaker 1: anything about Switzerland. Synchronized swimming team. The only thing I
Speaker 1: do know about the sport is that swimmers use jeladan
Speaker 1: to keep their hair in place. Yeah, that's why their
Speaker 1: hair is so perfect and shiny. So, by the way,
Speaker 1: Russia is dominant in the sport. They've won nineteen international
Speaker 1: synchronized swimming titles in a row, which I learned from
Speaker 1: the Guinness Book. See it actually worked well. It definitely
Speaker 1: stopped us from getting in a fifth fin. That's true.
Speaker 1: So do you know what the original argument that spurred
Speaker 1: the idea for the Guinness Book was, like, was there
Speaker 1: one specific thing people were debating there was? Actually it
Speaker 1: all started with Sir Hugh Beaver. Sir Hugh Beaver. That
Speaker 1: sounds like a name out of Wind in the Willows,
Speaker 1: but he's a real person. So Sir Beaver was out
Speaker 1: on a shooting expedition with friends when he took aim
Speaker 1: and a golden plover and missed after a few shots.
Speaker 1: He used the excuse that the plover was the fastest
Speaker 1: European game bird. And you know how friends are that
Speaker 1: give each other a hard time. So not only did
Speaker 1: his friends remind him that he had a bad shot,
Speaker 1: but they also claimed the red grouse was faster, and
Speaker 1: so they took their argument to a pub than to
Speaker 1: a library, and when they couldn't find the answer, Sir
Speaker 1: Beaver came up with this idea of this fact book
Speaker 1: that might help settle pub disputes. And because he was
Speaker 1: such a big shot at Guinness Brewing, he knew there
Speaker 1: were over eighty thousand pubs in England and Ireland and
Speaker 1: he hoped they'd create a market. And it isn't that old.
Speaker 1: Sir Hugh commissioned the first version in nineteen fifty four
Speaker 1: as a promotional giveaway. He hired these twin brothers from London,
Speaker 1: they were meticulous fact checkers, to help him write it.
Speaker 1: But by nineteen it was already this institution. They printed
Speaker 1: fifty thou copies of the first edition and immediately hit
Speaker 1: the best seller list, which is pretty interesting that the
Speaker 1: company isn't that old. But you left me on a cliffhanger,
Speaker 1: was Sir Hugh right? Was the golden plover faster than
Speaker 1: the red grouse? What's funny is that the whole book
Speaker 1: was started to answer this one question, but according to
Speaker 1: the Society of Guinness Book Collectors, that answer wasn't tackled
Speaker 1: until the thirty six ndition where they gave the nod
Speaker 1: to the red grouse, which travels fifty eight miles an hour.
Speaker 1: For you, I hope his friends aren't mocking him in
Speaker 1: the afterlife. Well, they wrote this thing so apologetically, Like
Speaker 1: the book reads, air speeds of seventy miles per hour
Speaker 1: have been claimed, but it is extremely doubtful whether this
Speaker 1: rapid flying bird can exceed fifty to fifty five miles
Speaker 1: an hour, even in an emergency. But at least they
Speaker 1: waited until he was dead a few decades before broaching
Speaker 1: the subject. That's so considerate. So who do we have
Speaker 1: on the line today? Mango? Today we have the number
Speaker 1: twelve ranked competitive eater in the world and the former
Speaker 1: world record holder of corn on the Coby eating seven
Speaker 1: and twelve minutes and also cannoli. And he's the defending
Speaker 1: champion of the Tour to Donut bicycle race in multiple states.
Speaker 1: And his name might be familiar to you, will it's
Speaker 1: Yasir Selin. Hey, Yasir, how's it going? So for full disclosure,
Speaker 1: when Manguesh and I were at Mental Philoss, Yasir worked
Speaker 1: in the marketing department. So uh, during the weekdays, he'd
Speaker 1: be working on brilliant marketing ideas, and on the weekends
Speaker 1: he'd be off to these crazy competitive eating contests and
Speaker 1: races and other kinds of extreme activities. We're gonna ask
Speaker 1: him all about those. But y'asa to start off, how
Speaker 1: did you get into this world of extreme sports and
Speaker 1: competitive eating. So back to two thousand ten, my wife
Speaker 1: and I a pretty wacky goal all of doing the
Speaker 1: New York City Manrathon. She was just coming up some
Speaker 1: major health thing and we wanted to set a really
Speaker 1: big goal for us both. And then I had dabbled
Speaker 1: in competitive eating a couple of years earlier, but I
Speaker 1: never quite got the hang of it, and I felt
Speaker 1: like I could do anything. After doing a marathon, I thought, well,
Speaker 1: let me revisit this whole competitive eating thing. And I
Speaker 1: went in with an extra energy and and you know,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give to another shot. And uh, it was
Speaker 1: really supposed to be just a joke. I want to
Speaker 1: do it one time, something that I could say, you
Speaker 1: know what, I competed at Nathan's. But it turned into
Speaker 1: like a three year affair of trying to figure out
Speaker 1: how to get it, how to get there, because it's
Speaker 1: actually a lot harder than people think. Wow, it's amazing.
Speaker 1: I can remember when we worked together. We were so
Speaker 1: excited to come see you at the Nathan's Contest, and
Speaker 1: you offered us tickets to the spray zone, which is
Speaker 1: the area in front of the competitors. We won't get
Speaker 1: into details that I think the house so incredible. So
Speaker 1: you're the former world cannoli eating champion. In fact, you
Speaker 1: had a world record in both cannoli eating and corn
Speaker 1: on the cob eating. Is that correct? That's right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I broke the world record last year in corn. I
Speaker 1: did forty seven corn on the cob in twelve minutes.
Speaker 1: A few years ago, I did Cannoli down in literally
Speaker 1: in New York City, and I set the record. But
Speaker 1: some of these other contests are about ninety major league
Speaker 1: eating contests a year. So if you can think of
Speaker 1: something new and you come up with a really smart
Speaker 1: technique to go in and and disrupt the competition, there's
Speaker 1: there's plenty of contests there out there, And in both cases,
Speaker 1: in cannoli and in corn, that was how I just
Speaker 1: sat down and figured out, well, there must be a
Speaker 1: better way to eat corn a lot faster than everybody
Speaker 1: else that they haven't thought of. So I'll tell you so.
Speaker 1: In cannoli, so there's an outside, there's a there's a
Speaker 1: really hard shell on on cannoli, and a lot of
Speaker 1: the conventional wisdom was like just put it in and
Speaker 1: then start crunching away and the squishy stuff will kind
Speaker 1: of make its way down your throat. But it's the
Speaker 1: hard stuff you have to worry about that, you know what.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna put the effort of crunching the shell
Speaker 1: on my teeth. I'm gonna crush it in my hand,
Speaker 1: so pre I'm gonna pre crunch it. So that's kind
Speaker 1: of what I did. I would grab the canoli. I'd
Speaker 1: wear gloves, um, you know, like just rubber gloves, and
Speaker 1: I crunch. I'd crush them and then I just shove
Speaker 1: each one into my mouth and that that's what That's
Speaker 1: what got me to one. Nobody thought of it. It
Speaker 1: was just like it was there on the table and
Speaker 1: I took it. I also wanted you to explain the
Speaker 1: concept of the Tour to Donut. We obviously mentioned the
Speaker 1: fact that you've you've won this race in multiple states,
Speaker 1: but how does the Tour to Donut work and explain
Speaker 1: the whole idea of the how the timing is kept.
Speaker 1: The format is generally about a thirty six mile race,
Speaker 1: and you have two doughnut stops, like at the twelve
Speaker 1: mile mark and at the twenty four mile mark. You
Speaker 1: get off your bike ups a twelve mile mark, you
Speaker 1: set your bike aside, and then they have a glazed
Speaker 1: donuts there from your the local donut shop, and you
Speaker 1: eat as many as you possibly can now the person
Speaker 1: for every donut that you eat you get a three
Speaker 1: to five minute time credit, depending upon which race it is,
Speaker 1: and then you do the same at the second stop.
Speaker 1: You know, you get off your bike again, and you
Speaker 1: do it again, and you can't vombit. Um that you
Speaker 1: you just qualified immediately, thankfully, so there's no mess on
Speaker 1: the course. Um. My record is fifty five donuts over
Speaker 1: the course of a thirty six mile race. Um, and
Speaker 1: that put me in the negative territory. So I'm actually
Speaker 1: going back in time every time I do one of
Speaker 1: these races. That's incredible. Just need a bunch of donuts
Speaker 1: and you go back in time. That's impressive. So it's
Speaker 1: very challenging. I can tell you. Just biking thirty six miles. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, a good clip twenty miles or more. It's difficult,
Speaker 1: but to me, adding the donuts in there as a
Speaker 1: bit of of of skill. But it's really it's fun everybody.
Speaker 1: I mean, I approach it like it's it's just a
Speaker 1: fun thing that I get to do on the weekend.
Speaker 1: I get to eat the donuts, which I love donuts,
Speaker 1: I love bike, So why not put them both together?
Speaker 1: Yeah sounds good to me. So well, we wanted to
Speaker 1: put Yaster to the challenge today, although he has the
Speaker 1: Big Nathan's Eating contests coming up in just a few days.
Speaker 1: Of course, this episode will publish just a few days
Speaker 1: after the Big Nathan's hot Dog eating contests, so we're
Speaker 1: excited to see how you do, Yaster. I'm sure you'll
Speaker 1: improve over last year. But what game are we playing
Speaker 1: with Yaster today? Mango, We're playing a little game called
Speaker 1: Mouthful of Doughnuts, and it's more than a quiz because
Speaker 1: we're going to try to set a world record most
Speaker 1: donut holes eaten while answering four trivia questions about donuts
Speaker 1: and sixty seconds. All right, so the most donut holes
Speaker 1: eating while answering four trivia questions about donuts in sixty seconds. Wow,
Speaker 1: what a record. Okay, so we've got four trivia questions here.
Speaker 1: We're gonna ask you a question, let Yasser answer, and
Speaker 1: then while he's stuffing his face, we're going to ask
Speaker 1: him another and we'll see how how many donuts we
Speaker 1: can get through or donut holes we can get through.
Speaker 1: And by we I mean he Okay, So alright, so
Speaker 1: yeahs do you have all your supplies? Right? You've got
Speaker 1: your donut holes, you got your water, You've got everything
Speaker 1: else you might need. I got my water, I got
Speaker 1: my donut holes, and I am ready. Okay, let's do it.
Speaker 1: Mango three two one, alright, y'assir. What city has the
Speaker 1: highest donut shops per person? That's Boston? I heard it,
Speaker 1: all right, Let's let him, Yes, let's let him meet
Speaker 1: a few donuts. And which legend of Sleepy Hollow author
Speaker 1: is credited with the first use of the word donut
Speaker 1: in print? Oh man, um uh? Yes? All right? What
Speaker 1: Oregan donut shop used to make a medicine donut cook
Speaker 1: hooded with ni quill I don't um? Oh man? That's right?
Speaker 1: What roll did Rene's lagger gain? Wait for a boy
Speaker 1: eating twenty donuts today one second time. All right, let's
Speaker 1: let him, Let's let him chew and swallow, and then
Speaker 1: we'll get an official count of our doughnut eating. Okay,
Speaker 1: how'd you do donuts? I mean, that's got to be
Speaker 1: a record of world record, right while answering for trivia
Speaker 1: questions donuts about donuts. Yes, that's got to be a
Speaker 1: world record. So, in addition to hopefully setting a new
Speaker 1: world record, what else has yasir one mango? Well, aside
Speaker 1: from the joy of his new accomplishment, will be sending
Speaker 1: him a bottle of pepto bismol. All right, so, Yaser,
Speaker 1: good luck this coming week at the Nathan's Hot Dog
Speaker 1: Eating Contest. And then he said, just right after that,
Speaker 1: what do you have coming up? I am defending my
Speaker 1: title at a tournid Donut um in Stun, Illinois, the
Speaker 1: twenty nine annual Tourni Donut This will be my third
Speaker 1: year um defending my title and I'm hoping to hit
Speaker 1: at least uh fifty stick donuts this year. All right, Well,
Speaker 1: good luck to you. It's always a pleasure to talk
Speaker 1: to you, and thanks for coming on to part times.
Speaker 1: We're rooting for you. Love you guys, you're listening to
Speaker 1: Part Time Genius and we're talking about the Guinness Book
Speaker 1: of World Records. So, Mango, what's your favorite part of
Speaker 1: the Guinness Book. I mean, there's so much fun stuff
Speaker 1: in there, but I love the strange personal feats, Like
Speaker 1: I always remember seeing a photo of the dude with
Speaker 1: the longest fingernails in the world as a kid, and
Speaker 1: that's always the first thing I think about. In fact,
Speaker 1: almost every fact enthusiast i've talked to mentions that pick, Yeah,
Speaker 1: those visuals are so unforgettable, and I think for kids,
Speaker 1: it's something both so creepy looking but also so ordinary,
Speaker 1: like not clipping your nails can get you in the
Speaker 1: Guinness Book. It's kind of insane. And I guess the
Speaker 1: thing that didn't occur to me when I was a
Speaker 1: kid and the thing that I really wanted to hear
Speaker 1: more of, and maybe this is what separates it from
Speaker 1: being put in the kid's hobbies section, but I wanted
Speaker 1: to hear more of the stories of the people behind
Speaker 1: these records. You can find a few articles on people,
Speaker 1: and you can find some of the stories on Guinness's
Speaker 1: YouTube page. But take the guy Tree, the Chill l
Speaker 1: who hadn't cut his nails on his left hand in
Speaker 1: sixty two years. It's like his left hand is growing roots.
Speaker 1: It surprises me every single time I looked at it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but his story is insane. Like as a high school kid,
Speaker 1: he threw a ball at a teacher playfully and the
Speaker 1: teacher yelled at him because he chipped a teacher's nails,
Speaker 1: and the teacher told him he'd never understand the beauty
Speaker 1: of having long nails. So he and his friend, as
Speaker 1: a joke, started growing their nails out, and then he
Speaker 1: kind of gets enamored with it. So he keeps growing
Speaker 1: the nails on his left hand and people call him
Speaker 1: dirty because of it. They start treating him badly. When
Speaker 1: his parents try to arrange his marriage years later, twelve
Speaker 1: families reject him. And when the families don't reject him,
Speaker 1: the girls do because they think he's a monster and
Speaker 1: that he'll strangle them that night. Like he can't get
Speaker 1: a job because of the way he looks, even putting
Speaker 1: on a shirt his heart. I mean, it's so depressing.
Speaker 1: But he grows them and grows them to this insane
Speaker 1: length and to keep them preserved. Not only does he
Speaker 1: treat them with a special product. But when he's sleeping
Speaker 1: and he wants to roll over, he has to carefully
Speaker 1: move his entire hand to the other side of the bed.
Speaker 1: He claims he rolls over every thirty minutes, so he
Speaker 1: never gets a full night of sleep, And all this
Speaker 1: for a little bit of fame. And in his mind
Speaker 1: he thinks he'll get paid a lot for the nails
Speaker 1: to be in a museum later, and that there's a
Speaker 1: good bit of money that will come to him now.
Speaker 1: And maybe it will, let's hope, But he just takes
Speaker 1: such pride in those nails. They're like thirty feet long
Speaker 1: now and gnarled, but he sees them as this thing
Speaker 1: of beauty, and he loves that people like you and
Speaker 1: me know who he is. And also that he never
Speaker 1: has to wait in the line in a line like
Speaker 1: wear like at the club. I don't know this is
Speaker 1: what he says, but I think it's like at the market.
Speaker 1: Of course, in India, your left hand is the one
Speaker 1: you used to clean yourself. So I'm not sure how
Speaker 1: he's performing certain tasks. Well. I do like some of
Speaker 1: these personal stories, like you were telling me about the
Speaker 1: British woman who holds the record for the youngest female
Speaker 1: with a full beard. That's another video Guinnist did. Her
Speaker 1: name's Hanan Car and her story is amazing because she
Speaker 1: has a genetic disorder that gave her this lush facial
Speaker 1: hair at a young age. At some point she chose
Speaker 1: to ignore the relentless bullying she was facing and just
Speaker 1: decided to embrace the beard, which had to be so
Speaker 1: insanely difficult. She's very feminine actually, and really quite striking,
Speaker 1: and I don't know that she wants to extra attention.
Speaker 1: But the reason she's chosen to be in the Guinness
Speaker 1: Book is that having all this facial hair drove her
Speaker 1: to have suicidal thoughts when she was younger, and when
Speaker 1: she realized that her life was worth more than that,
Speaker 1: she wanted to help others with body image issues to
Speaker 1: learn to accept themselves. She's really remarkable. Yeah, she is. Well.
Speaker 1: As much as the book is filled with thousands and
Speaker 1: thousands of world records, you're not really considering what's driving
Speaker 1: each person to be in this book. So one thing
Speaker 1: that surprised me in researching Guinness was just how popular
Speaker 1: it is in India. I mean, there are a few
Speaker 1: big record keeping authorities in the country. Guinness is one Limpa,
Speaker 1: which is basically India's Sprite is another. But this is
Speaker 1: great New York Times story on the only Guinness judge
Speaker 1: who lives in India and he's running around the country
Speaker 1: trying to verify records and just how exhausting it is,
Speaker 1: but also how obsessed Indians are with numbers. Why do
Speaker 1: you think this is well, I mean, part of it
Speaker 1: is just that India, from my experience of it, loves
Speaker 1: trivia in a way I haven't seen anywhere else. There's
Speaker 1: an obsession with general knowledge, and having a book of
Speaker 1: records definitely fits into that category. But I also think
Speaker 1: that in a place with such disparity of wealth and resource,
Speaker 1: being the best in the world at something and being
Speaker 1: recognized for it is something that gives people pride and purpose.
Speaker 1: Yet saying that there are actually some academic papers written
Speaker 1: about this topic and how the records feel like such
Speaker 1: a great leveler in a place where the odds can
Speaker 1: feel stacked against you exactly like the Times piece has
Speaker 1: all these funny stories to talk about the problems of
Speaker 1: trying to verify a handshake gathering where millions of people
Speaker 1: turn up to participate. I mean that's a headache for
Speaker 1: one judge. You have to register and verify each person
Speaker 1: and count them and ensure that they're all shaking hands
Speaker 1: at the same time. It's like a giant fact checking
Speaker 1: problem that could take days to sort. And there's a
Speaker 1: story of a young athlete trying to beat a light
Speaker 1: bulb hurling record, which is also great. But at the
Speaker 1: end of the yeast, there's a story about this farmer
Speaker 1: who does squats every day and at fifty he realizes
Speaker 1: he could potentially beat the world record. And when the
Speaker 1: Guinness judge asked him why he cares about a squat record,
Speaker 1: it's all because his daughter is marrying into a better family.
Speaker 1: And his quote is, I want her husband's family to
Speaker 1: know that I'm worth something. I want to make a
Speaker 1: markak I know, and kind of beautiful. I mean, I
Speaker 1: love these stories because you don't think about the desperation
Speaker 1: and work that goes into trying to set these records
Speaker 1: and the different motivations. Like for me, I have assumed
Speaker 1: they were always like publicity stunts. Gary's Angelato Shack is
Speaker 1: trying to break the world's largest alata records, and Guinness
Speaker 1: actually has an arm that works with corporations to build
Speaker 1: out those events, or I assumed it was attention seekers
Speaker 1: but of a more fun variety, like most baked beans
Speaker 1: eaten in five minutes, which is two one. So that's
Speaker 1: a shred of Furman's record, right, He is the best
Speaker 1: I know. He held over a hundred records simultaneously at
Speaker 1: one point. Yeah, I think it was a hundred thirty
Speaker 1: one records at the same time, and he's broken over
Speaker 1: six hundred records in his career. He's done everything from
Speaker 1: like po going up Mount Fuji to underwater jump roping
Speaker 1: too fastest mile using two shovels of stilts. He actually
Speaker 1: has the long distance sack racing record, which for some
Speaker 1: reason involved raising a yak in demand's a beast. Also,
Speaker 1: how much do you love his nickname Mr? Versatility? A lot,
Speaker 1: although if I had his name, I'd probably go by
Speaker 1: a shred to the fir Monster, Furman mascot or the Ferminator.
Speaker 1: I mean. Mr Versatility has a lot of options. But
Speaker 1: before we get into his secrets or breaking records and
Speaker 1: how you can to, why don't we break for a quiz?
Speaker 1: Sounds kid? So our guest today has one of the
Speaker 1: coolest jobs in the world. As the CEO of Record Center,
Speaker 1: he's created a new digital home for world records, making
Speaker 1: it easier for humans to compete in important categories like
Speaker 1: most quarters fit inside of belly button and longest office
Speaker 1: chair train pulled by a motorcycle. Dan Rohman, We've spent
Speaker 1: way too much time watching videos on your site and
Speaker 1: we're big fans of your work, so welcome to part
Speaker 1: time Genius. Thank you so much. It's great to be
Speaker 1: with you guys. All right, well, let's dive right into it.
Speaker 1: Tell us about your early obsession with records. Sure, um, well,
Speaker 1: I always say Record Center. Uh. Started probably when I
Speaker 1: was a ten year old kid and got my first
Speaker 1: Guinness Book of World Record book. Um, and it instantly
Speaker 1: became my favorite book on my bookshelf. I was endlessly
Speaker 1: obsessed with the pictures of the guy with the long
Speaker 1: curvy fingernail and the UH set the world sad as
Speaker 1: twins on the motorcycles at These images just became indelible
Speaker 1: in my mind, and I really, from a young age,
Speaker 1: I just thought that owning a world record myself would
Speaker 1: possibly be the coolest thing I could do in my lifetime.
Speaker 1: For some reason. I tried to a a girl in
Speaker 1: college by telling her that I thought I was going
Speaker 1: to become the world record holder in ravioli eating. Um So,
Speaker 1: I looked into ravioli eating, and then I also was
Speaker 1: researching the longest time riding a roller coaster, um and
Speaker 1: I quickly realized that I was not a particularly fast eater.
Speaker 1: And I quickly realized that I was never going to
Speaker 1: write a roller coaster for days and end. Um But
Speaker 1: but but just that idea stuck with me that somehow,
Speaker 1: someday I wanted to hold the title of being the
Speaker 1: world best at something I did not successfully get Get
Speaker 1: Get the Lady with my rap shocking. I don't understand
Speaker 1: how that didn't work out. I heard some of the
Speaker 1: started at burning Man. Can you tell us a little
Speaker 1: about that? Sure? Um So. I started going to Burning
Speaker 1: Man in two thousand and two, and after a couple
Speaker 1: of years, my friends and I were really excited to
Speaker 1: develop a theme camp that had a real interactive component.
Speaker 1: We'd like the idea of something that would allow other
Speaker 1: people at burning Man to come up to our space
Speaker 1: and engage with us in a fun, creative manner. And
Speaker 1: since I had had this lifelong obsession with world records.
Speaker 1: I said, what if we become the official world record camp,
Speaker 1: essentially a burning Man kind of a governing body for
Speaker 1: all world records set in the desert. So we created
Speaker 1: a camp in two thousand and four called the Apply
Speaker 1: a Book of Records. Apply is what Burners called the
Speaker 1: desert area out there. And we all put on a
Speaker 1: bunch of yellow sports coats that were inspired by Howard
Speaker 1: Cosell Air Wide World of Sports, and we and we
Speaker 1: just said that people coming up, and we're gonna make
Speaker 1: you a world champion. And it was It was amazing
Speaker 1: because I could see from the first day we we
Speaker 1: set up shop that I was not the only person
Speaker 1: out there who had had these dreams of being a
Speaker 1: world champion. And people were really excited by this opportunity
Speaker 1: of like, why you guys really are going to help
Speaker 1: me set like my own world record. So so in
Speaker 1: the first years and we did it for for five years,
Speaker 1: we saw things like the fastest accordion rendition that the
Speaker 1: Devil went down to Georgia, the most consecutive backflips of
Speaker 1: stilt was one that blew us away. Um. We had
Speaker 1: like people would come up and do balloon twisting like
Speaker 1: I think it was like the most balloon animals made
Speaker 1: in thirty seconds. Uh, you know, we just we just
Speaker 1: saw this endless paradeive of people coming up and being
Speaker 1: creative and and clearly getting a deep sense of joy
Speaker 1: when we said great congratulations, were recognizing this as an
Speaker 1: official world record. So this project kept evolving, and then
Speaker 1: inspired by by Wikipedia as much as anything, I felt
Speaker 1: that there would be an opportunity to take what we
Speaker 1: were doing in the desert and put it onto the
Speaker 1: Internet and love the open, democratic, participatory approach of Wikipedia
Speaker 1: for encyclopedic information, and said what happens if we try
Speaker 1: and do the same thing with human achievements. So we
Speaker 1: launched in two thousand eight UM what was originally called
Speaker 1: the Universal Record Database u r dB dot org. And
Speaker 1: it was the same premise that we had um given
Speaker 1: people at Burning Man. We we we gave the same
Speaker 1: invitation to the world. So, Dan, I love that you
Speaker 1: once held the record for the most bananas stuff down
Speaker 1: a pair of pants while wearing them. So how how
Speaker 1: fun is it to see an entirely new category of
Speaker 1: record open up? And and what are some of your favorites? Uh? So, yeah,
Speaker 1: the first time. So the first world record that I set,
Speaker 1: which I actually did a burning man, was the most
Speaker 1: times whistling Happy Birthday in one minute, and so I
Speaker 1: think I had done at fifteen or sixteen or something.
Speaker 1: I did it pretty quickly. I'll give you a quick
Speaker 1: example exactly. I'm um, so I had I had this
Speaker 1: record up, and again I would tell people like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I hold the world record for the most times whistling
Speaker 1: Happy Birthday in one minute, and had this great sense
Speaker 1: of pride, and then we launched the website, and within
Speaker 1: maybe a month or so, it got my record got
Speaker 1: broken by a teenager in San Diego who I really like.
Speaker 1: When it happened that day, I was angry at I
Speaker 1: just couldn't believe that this jerk had taken away my
Speaker 1: dreams and stolen my world record for most times swissling
Speaker 1: Happy Birthday. But over the years, as I set more
Speaker 1: world records and basically watched I think all of them
Speaker 1: are almost all of them get broken, and I've come
Speaker 1: to really find a deep joy in watching people break
Speaker 1: my records and the analogy that I uses it feels
Speaker 1: like I've I've written the song and somebody's covering it.
Speaker 1: But they're actually doing a better job playing the song
Speaker 1: and than I did originally. Um So, for a category
Speaker 1: like most bananas sitting a pair of pants while wearing them,
Speaker 1: I had done sixty and thought that I had said
Speaker 1: a pretty pretty high mark, and then it suddenly got
Speaker 1: broken by radio DJ in Australia, and then I think
Speaker 1: some guy in Texas maybe holds the record now. And
Speaker 1: we've seen this time and time again on Record Setter,
Speaker 1: where we have a lot of these really obtuse categories,
Speaker 1: like we've had people compete in the in the category
Speaker 1: for most giraffe tattoos on a shoulder, We've had a
Speaker 1: couple of guys go back and forth. And another one
Speaker 1: of my favorite categories that's become very competitive and I
Speaker 1: think could be a to come in Olympic sports someday
Speaker 1: is the longest high five. So it began with these
Speaker 1: two guys in Toronto who called themselves the Record Collection.
Speaker 1: They set themselves up several kilometers apart from each other
Speaker 1: in downtown Toronto, and they ran towards each other with
Speaker 1: a camera following each of them and set the world
Speaker 1: record for the literally the longest high five. They ran
Speaker 1: towards each other so it's sort of like a two
Speaker 1: person running race, and then that exploded into a globally
Speaker 1: competitive category. And I think the records gosh, I haven't
Speaker 1: looked in a while, but I'm pretty sure it's over
Speaker 1: ten miles. So it's become this two person running race.
Speaker 1: Both participants have to keep their arms up for the
Speaker 1: duration of the of the run, and the moments at
Speaker 1: the end of these runs where they at please see
Speaker 1: each other and exchange the high five. It's just it's
Speaker 1: jubilation every time. That's pretty true. I love that. Alright, Well,
Speaker 1: this has been a lot of fun and we are
Speaker 1: now ready to put you to the test. Mango. What
Speaker 1: game are we playing with Dan today? So this is
Speaker 1: a game called the Rename Game. And since Record Centers
Speaker 1: originally went by a different name, the u r dB
Speaker 1: before taking on the Sleeker Moniker, we thought would be
Speaker 1: fun to quiz Dan on some other industry giants and
Speaker 1: the names their companies used to be called. Okay, right,
Speaker 1: So we'll give you an old name and a clue,
Speaker 1: and you'll tell us the name of the current company.
Speaker 1: So we'll see how many of these you can answer
Speaker 1: in sixty seconds. Is that right? Okay? So Dan, We're
Speaker 1: gonna put sixty seconds on the clock. I'll ask you
Speaker 1: questions and you just keep answering as many as you can.
Speaker 1: Maybe you'll set a world record. We'll see that sounds good.
Speaker 1: I think that sounds okay. This Oregon based sneaker company
Speaker 1: was called Blue Ribbon Sports before it was renamed for
Speaker 1: a Greek goddess, Nike. Right. This lad magazine was called
Speaker 1: Stag Party before it was named by Hugh Hefner. Right.
Speaker 1: This Larry and Sarage internet search company was called BackRub
Speaker 1: before it was renamed This choice of a new generation
Speaker 1: cola was called Brad's Drink before it was renamed PEPs.
Speaker 1: This big electronic box store and home to the Geek
Speaker 1: Squad was called Sound of Music before it was renamed
Speaker 1: by This maker of smartphone devices was called Research in
Speaker 1: Motion before taking a fruitier name. Obama famously had one
Speaker 1: when he started his first term in the White House, BlackBerry.
Speaker 1: That's right. This Eat Fresh sandwich chain was called Pete
Speaker 1: Super Submarines before it was renamed pet Is a man
Speaker 1: Uh Subway. This number one rental car company was called
Speaker 1: Drive Yourself before it was renamed For Measurement for Frequency
Speaker 1: that is correct, and I think we do have a
Speaker 1: world record for most correct questions answered in the rename
Speaker 1: game on Part Time Genius Congress. Teenager from San Diego
Speaker 1: can beat that. So how many did he get correct?
Speaker 1: Maga Dan scored an astounding eight for eight, which runs
Speaker 1: them an official certificate of admiration from us here at
Speaker 1: Part Time Genius. Congratulationsratulations, Dan, Thank you very much. I
Speaker 1: hope all of our listeners will check out Records Center
Speaker 1: and aim to set a record of their own. Dan,
Speaker 1: thanks so much for joining us on Part Time Genius,
Speaker 1: my pleasure. Thanks so much, guys. So we were talking
Speaker 1: about a Shrida Firman who's a legend on the Guinness Circuit.
Speaker 1: What's his secret? Well, I think part of it is
Speaker 1: that it's the same sense of validation everyone's looking for.
Speaker 1: Some people run marathons to prove it to themselves, right,
Speaker 1: and for someone like a Shrida, who apparently gained confidence
Speaker 1: after finding a guru and getting into spirituality and meditation,
Speaker 1: he wanted to push his body in fun ways. So
Speaker 1: we started by doing twenty seven thousand jumping jacks, and
Speaker 1: then he moved on to things like long distance somersaulting
Speaker 1: or whatever. But it also seems like one of his
Speaker 1: better skills is creating funny new categories that get attention. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're right. There are a lot of rules for getting
Speaker 1: into the Guinness Book because they're super strict. I mean,
Speaker 1: they're getting flooded with fifty record claims a year and
Speaker 1: only three or four thousand of them make it into
Speaker 1: the book, and they care about the accuracy. But Ashrida
Speaker 1: is particularly good at gaming the system, right. I mean
Speaker 1: he's particularly good at creating spectacles. I mean you need
Speaker 1: to witnesses, and you have to do this in a
Speaker 1: public space and multiple cameras and media. There are lots
Speaker 1: of conditions, and part of the reason he incorporates places
Speaker 1: like Mount Fuji and the Pyramids into his attempts is
Speaker 1: that it's just an easier way to draw press exactly.
Speaker 1: But he also understands the rules, like Guinness is pretty
Speaker 1: specific about what they will and won't admit. There's an
Speaker 1: interview on fre economics with the editor of the Guinness Book,
Speaker 1: which is really great, but it shows how hard the
Speaker 1: job is and where the Guinness Book draws some of
Speaker 1: the lines, like they won't let you put an animal
Speaker 1: in harm or another person you're free to put yourself
Speaker 1: at danger. And in addition, they only want categories with
Speaker 1: one variable. So, like the example he gives is someone
Speaker 1: submitting for the heaviest person to raft a particular river,
Speaker 1: and that just opens up a can of worms for them,
Speaker 1: because in addition to verifying that, they have to open
Speaker 1: up the category to the lightest person on a raft
Speaker 1: on that river male female considerations, and then they'd have
Speaker 1: to open up to every river. And you can see
Speaker 1: how that sort of snowballs. Yeah. Well, when we talk
Speaker 1: to Dan, his analogy was really interesting to me. So
Speaker 1: a site like Records Center, where anyone can enter a
Speaker 1: new category with video evidence and it's self patrolled in
Speaker 1: a Wikipedia way, is such a smart idea. It really
Speaker 1: does feel like a Wikipedia model to the Guinness Books Britannica,
Speaker 1: which is interesting right. It democratizes the whole process and
Speaker 1: takes away all the need for judging and at the
Speaker 1: same time allows everyone to feel special. You can see
Speaker 1: how something like this would take off in India. You
Speaker 1: get quick validation instead of having to write to Guinness
Speaker 1: and wait for two months for a response. And even here,
Speaker 1: I mean Record Center is all over Jimmy Fallon like
Speaker 1: I think Camera Diaz held the record for the most
Speaker 1: bunny snuggled in a hammock. Yeah, she did that on
Speaker 1: the show. And the thing is everyone's good at something,
Speaker 1: you just have to figure out what that is. It's
Speaker 1: like that guy David Kalb who's the best in the
Speaker 1: world at horse He beat Lebron James because he mounted
Speaker 1: the hoop on a forklift and then did trick shots
Speaker 1: to a basket that was like thirty feet in the air.
Speaker 1: And if you have enough variables and the right stack
Speaker 1: of talents, you can be the best in the world
Speaker 1: at something. So we should probably figure out what ridiculous
Speaker 1: records we should try to set listeners. If you have
Speaker 1: any thoughts on that, please email them into part time
Speaker 1: genius at how stuff works dot com and we'll work
Speaker 1: on trying to break some ridiculous records in the not
Speaker 1: so distant future. But back to Guinness, with competition like
Speaker 1: Records Center, which is called fire in a surprisingly big way.
Speaker 1: What do you think will happen to Guinness? Is it
Speaker 1: bound to go the way of Britannica. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I mean they have evolved, They do video game records
Speaker 1: and have a strong site online, and I think there's
Speaker 1: so many good stories in there. The books are really
Speaker 1: just a good way to get kids into learning, and
Speaker 1: I feel like there's value in the publishing and TV
Speaker 1: arms it. You know, Guinness has changed hands a few
Speaker 1: times in the last few years, and what's interesting is
Speaker 1: that they're now owned by the company that owns their
Speaker 1: Ripley's Believe it or Not museums, and they want to
Speaker 1: build these big, combined Guinness Ripley museums where you can
Speaker 1: go with your family and try to set your own records,
Speaker 1: like for the loudest family scream or the longest laugh,
Speaker 1: which maybe gives the brand a new leash. All I
Speaker 1: know is that I've loved reaquainting with the book, and
Speaker 1: I have no intention of growing out my fingernails to
Speaker 1: compete on that front. But I do plan to change
Speaker 1: my Guinness book to my desk and inscribe it with
Speaker 1: a threatening note so that no one takes it away
Speaker 1: from me. That's great, that's a brilliant idea. Well, one
Speaker 1: thing that's going to be harder to protect is your
Speaker 1: part time genius fact off record. Are you ready to
Speaker 1: drop some knowledge And by drop knowledge, I mean share
Speaker 1: super nerd effects that we couldn't get into the episode earlier.
Speaker 1: M So here's a quick one to get us going.
Speaker 1: While the US has the most records on record per
Speaker 1: capita of the Vatican City is the greatest source of records.
Speaker 1: Roughly nine claims come from the Vatican every year from
Speaker 1: a population of only nine hundred and twenty people. I
Speaker 1: want to see what those records are to. Three of
Speaker 1: the most common records to break also sound like they're
Speaker 1: being craned for at preschools. Largest finger painting, longest reading
Speaker 1: a loud marathon, and largest group hug or all records
Speaker 1: that are regularly challenged and broken. Nice. Kevin Shelley set
Speaker 1: the record for the most toilet seats broken by one's
Speaker 1: head in two thousand eight. He made his family prows,
Speaker 1: shattering forty six of them in a minute. That's crazy.
Speaker 1: I know. The record for most people riding on a
Speaker 1: surfboard is sixty six. Of course, if I had sixty
Speaker 1: five other people on the board with me, I feel
Speaker 1: like I'd have a better chance of learning surfing to
Speaker 1: The highest shallow dive was accomplished by Professor Splash on
Speaker 1: Chinese TV. What's the high shallow dive. It's what it
Speaker 1: sounds like. So he jumped from nearly thirty eight ft
Speaker 1: in the air into a kiddie pool filled with twelve
Speaker 1: inches of water. Oh that's insane. So here's a cute
Speaker 1: one black and the cat is the world's wealthiest cat.
Speaker 1: He inherited twelve point five million dollars. And I don't
Speaker 1: know about you, but I need to find myself a
Speaker 1: sugar cat. Blackie, if you're listening, call me a sugar cat.
Speaker 1: Good luck with that. Most number of fatalities in a
Speaker 1: crocodile attack used to be a category. Do you want
Speaker 1: to elaborate on that? And not really, except please don't
Speaker 1: tangle with saltwater crocodiles on Ramrey Island. They hold the
Speaker 1: record for a reason. Well, I'm not tangling with any crocodiles,
Speaker 1: but here's one about a shark. When the Guinness Book
Speaker 1: of World Records honored Jonathan Lee Riches as the most
Speaker 1: litigious men in the world, he did what he did best.
Speaker 1: He suited them, of course he did. Okay, I'll give
Speaker 1: you this round, but before we go, we should figure
Speaker 1: out who we should add to our Hall of genius.
Speaker 1: What do you think about adding Sir Hugh Beaver to
Speaker 1: the mix. I feel like he created the Guinness Book.
Speaker 1: He honored millions of people while delighting others. He encouraged
Speaker 1: generation upon generation to be their best selves, even if
Speaker 1: the best self meant trying to crack more than semi
Speaker 1: two eggs in a minute by sitting on them. But
Speaker 1: sir weever doesn't win them any awards anymore, and I
Speaker 1: think he deserves one today. I agree, So the record
Speaker 1: stops today, Sir Beaver. Your certificate will be in the
Speaker 1: mail shortly. That's it for today's episode of Part Time Genius.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening. You know what I
Speaker 1: thought about, including farthest distance to throw and catch a
Speaker 1: running chainsaw it's four meters every Thanks again for listening.
Speaker 1: Part Time Genius is a production of how stuff works
Speaker 1: and wouldn't be possible without several brilliant people who do
Speaker 1: the important things we couldn't even begin to understand. Tristan
Speaker 1: McNeil does the editing thing. Noel Brown made the theme
Speaker 1: song and does the mixy mixy sound thing. Jerry Rowland
Speaker 1: does the exact producer thing. Gay Bluesier is our lead
Speaker 1: researcher with the work from the Research Army, including Austin Thompson,
Speaker 1: Nolan Brown and Lucas Adams and Eve. Jeff Cook gets
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Speaker 1: like what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe, And if
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