WEBVTT - How Coffins Work 0:00:01.200 --> 0:00:04.680 Welcome to Stuff you should know from house Stuff Works 0:00:04.680 --> 0:00:13.360 dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast on Josh Clark. 0:00:13.400 --> 0:00:16.079 There's Charles W Chuck Bryant and this stuff you didn't 0:00:16.079 --> 0:00:19.600 know the podcast that's right. This is part of our 0:00:19.720 --> 0:00:24.160 ongoing death Suite, which is sweet. Yeah, we've covered death 0:00:24.160 --> 0:00:27.960 a lot because death is multi faceted. Sure you know. 0:00:28.320 --> 0:00:31.960 This reminded me of the I guess we covered green 0:00:32.000 --> 0:00:35.320 burial not in its own podcast, but in like different 0:00:35.360 --> 0:00:37.720 ways to what to do with the dead Bonnie. There 0:00:37.720 --> 0:00:39.280 you go, That's what I thought it was into. But 0:00:39.400 --> 0:00:42.760 I'm surprised we didn't do a podcast dedicated just to that. 0:00:42.880 --> 0:00:45.479 Maybe we should. Yeah, I looked up because I'm interested 0:00:45.520 --> 0:00:48.680 in that for myself. And uh, there are some lovely 0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:52.360 places right outside Atlanta to be buried greenly where you 0:00:52.400 --> 0:00:54.240 can just be wrapped in a shroud and buried in 0:00:54.280 --> 0:00:58.640 the field, which ripped to death by coyotes left in 0:00:58.680 --> 0:01:00.600 the field that they don't leave you enough. No, well 0:01:00.600 --> 0:01:03.520 they bury you in a shallow grave for the coyotes 0:01:03.560 --> 0:01:05.039 to come get you. Now. They said they don't have 0:01:05.040 --> 0:01:06.360 a problem with that. But I'm not one of those 0:01:06.360 --> 0:01:12.039 people that uh cares about that. Yeah, like about what 0:01:12.080 --> 0:01:14.200 happens to your body, Like I would do a sky burial. 0:01:14.280 --> 0:01:16.520 That wouldn't bother me for vultures to pick me apart. 0:01:16.640 --> 0:01:19.600 Like use the body if it would feed an animal? Great, 0:01:20.640 --> 0:01:23.120 why not donated to science? Yeah, maybe I'll do that. 0:01:23.160 --> 0:01:26.040 I'm not precious about that my body after death. I'm 0:01:26.080 --> 0:01:30.800 not precious about my body in life. Why start then? Exactly? Yeah, 0:01:30.840 --> 0:01:34.520 that's funny. Yeah. So anyway, well a shroud, a shroud 0:01:34.600 --> 0:01:38.640 does kind of technically count as a coffin. Chuck, Yeah, 0:01:38.680 --> 0:01:40.000 back in the day if you didn't have a lot 0:01:40.040 --> 0:01:43.920 of money, right, um, or if you're into being picked 0:01:43.920 --> 0:01:47.480 apart by coyotes. Um. But the the whole point of 0:01:47.520 --> 0:01:52.280 a coffin or what constitutes a coffin is it provides 0:01:52.280 --> 0:01:55.680 a barrier between the body and the ground. And technically 0:01:55.760 --> 0:01:58.160 a shroud does that. It's a really really poor coffin. 0:01:58.960 --> 0:02:01.680 But that it's the whole point. It's that the body 0:02:01.720 --> 0:02:05.400 is encapsulated in something that just dropping a body into 0:02:05.600 --> 0:02:12.000 a grave is um undignified. You might say, even cremating 0:02:12.040 --> 0:02:14.840 a body without some form or fashion of a coffin 0:02:14.960 --> 0:02:17.880 is considered undignified. And you'll be hard pressed to find 0:02:17.919 --> 0:02:20.440 a crematorium that will let you just put your loved 0:02:20.480 --> 0:02:22.160 one on the conveyor belt and let them just kind 0:02:22.160 --> 0:02:25.639 of flop lifelessly toward the flames. I don't think they 0:02:25.720 --> 0:02:30.200 flop well, I mean, if they're jostle, they're gonna flop, okay, 0:02:30.320 --> 0:02:34.400 especially after rigors um the coffin, the word coffin. We're 0:02:34.440 --> 0:02:37.639 not gonna do any Merriam Webster stuff, because that's who 0:02:37.639 --> 0:02:39.840 would start an article like that or do it six 0:02:39.880 --> 0:02:43.000 times in an article. But we will say we like 0:02:43.040 --> 0:02:45.080 to get root words. And of course Greek and Latin 0:02:45.080 --> 0:02:49.440 are involved here with the Greek cofinos in Latin cofee nuts. 0:02:50.320 --> 0:02:53.680 They're always like, oh yeah, right, I'll change that cato 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:57.080 a c and that otto a you remember, the Greeks 0:02:57.080 --> 0:03:01.200 happen exactly. So that's where the word coffin came from. Um. 0:03:01.200 --> 0:03:04.520 But here in the United States we generally referred to 0:03:04.680 --> 0:03:09.880 that vessel as a casket, whereas in places like England 0:03:09.919 --> 0:03:13.080 and Australia I'm sorry, Great Britain and Australia they might 0:03:13.120 --> 0:03:15.040 say coffin, even though a lot of people here think 0:03:15.040 --> 0:03:17.480 that's like a word you shouldn't use. Well, yeah, their 0:03:17.840 --> 0:03:21.679 casket still means a place to like keep your valuables right, 0:03:21.760 --> 0:03:24.639 your bubbles right. Yeah. Here in the US, if you 0:03:24.720 --> 0:03:28.760 go to a funeral directorium also called a funeral home, 0:03:29.360 --> 0:03:33.239 you're going to find that they'd never use the word coffin. No, 0:03:33.639 --> 0:03:36.360 and you know it's pretty subtle, but the language is definitely. 0:03:37.160 --> 0:03:39.920 They don't say, uh, we'd love to pick out for you, 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:43.400 to pick out a coffin for your husband's dead body, um, 0:03:43.520 --> 0:03:45.640 and then we'll dig a grave over there and put 0:03:45.680 --> 0:03:49.680 it in the ground. They will say things like, we 0:03:49.680 --> 0:03:51.440 would like you to pick out a casket for your 0:03:51.520 --> 0:03:54.640 husband and from our display area, from the display area, 0:03:54.720 --> 0:03:56.760 and we will take you there in the casket coach, 0:03:56.840 --> 0:04:00.560 not a hearse and uh, and place him in internment 0:04:00.560 --> 0:04:05.240 space which is opened, and then we'll close afterward. Rather 0:04:05.320 --> 0:04:07.920 than filling or digging the grapes, they don't say where 0:04:07.920 --> 0:04:12.000 it's like digging and ground isn't anything that that brings 0:04:12.040 --> 0:04:18.520 to mind. Um, the guy from phantasm does the funeral 0:04:18.560 --> 0:04:21.559 industry avoids those words. Yeah, And of course we've ruined 0:04:21.640 --> 0:04:24.880 six feet under and the Fisher and Sons the boys, 0:04:24.880 --> 0:04:27.760 such a great show. Michael always did, such a great 0:04:27.839 --> 0:04:30.919 job of you know, being the proper funeral director and 0:04:31.000 --> 0:04:33.640 using all the all the words that you should use, 0:04:33.720 --> 0:04:35.719 like casket. He's good at it, and then he turned 0:04:35.720 --> 0:04:40.039 into a serial killer. No, well yeah, um, so there 0:04:40.040 --> 0:04:43.280 actually is a distinction beyond where you live with the 0:04:43.320 --> 0:04:48.040 word casket in coffin. There's a slight difference. Shape. Yeah, 0:04:48.040 --> 0:04:51.240 it's it's all. It's basically shape. A casket is a 0:04:51.279 --> 0:04:54.760 long rectangle and the top is usually split, so you 0:04:54.800 --> 0:04:57.760 can know that's a coffin. That's a casket. Oh yeah, 0:04:57.800 --> 0:05:02.760 that's a casket. Coffin is the hexagonal, right, a hexagonal box. Yeah, 0:05:03.240 --> 0:05:05.480 and that you know, back in the day you had 0:05:05.480 --> 0:05:07.279 the old pine box. Actually a lot of those were 0:05:07.279 --> 0:05:12.359 just rectangular. Um, but somewhere you know, had that familiar 0:05:12.520 --> 0:05:15.840 sort of keyhole shape. Well back in the day, in 0:05:15.880 --> 0:05:19.880 the nineteenth century, the person who was responsible for carrying 0:05:19.880 --> 0:05:23.239 out your funeral services and building your coffin was usually 0:05:23.320 --> 0:05:28.760 the local carpenter, and he undertook your funeral service, hence 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:32.520 the word undertaker from what I understand, Um, but it 0:05:32.600 --> 0:05:37.640 was usually somebody who built wagons and kitchens and whatever. 0:05:37.760 --> 0:05:40.680 They also built coffins too, and they built him the suit. 0:05:40.920 --> 0:05:52.280 That sounded to me like our first casket fact. Well done, Chuck, Wow, Yeah, 0:05:52.279 --> 0:05:54.919 thank you Jerry for going the extra mile there. And uh, 0:05:54.960 --> 0:05:57.239 if you like that, you're going to love this episode 0:05:57.279 --> 0:06:00.640 because this place is lousy with casket facts. Yeah, we 0:06:00.680 --> 0:06:02.440 won't play the sound effect on this one. But I 0:06:02.440 --> 0:06:05.760 thought another interesting fact, because you know, I like origins 0:06:05.760 --> 0:06:09.160 of phrases and things. If someone casts the pall over 0:06:09.200 --> 0:06:12.919 a room, Paul was actually a dark cloth that they 0:06:12.960 --> 0:06:16.919 would put over the casket too. I guess cover you know, 0:06:17.000 --> 0:06:19.679 block out the bad juju of having the dead body 0:06:19.680 --> 0:06:21.560 in there, right, so you would cast a pall over 0:06:21.600 --> 0:06:23.960 the casket. Yeah, or if you're me, you cast a 0:06:24.040 --> 0:06:28.880 pall over any room you enter. That's fun, no fun anymore? Everybody? 0:06:29.560 --> 0:06:31.120 Can we can we talk a little bit about the 0:06:31.120 --> 0:06:34.160 funeral industry for a second. About the casket industry has 0:06:34.200 --> 0:06:37.920 to say specifically, there's still some furniture companies that make 0:06:38.000 --> 0:06:41.000 caskets on the side, like Lazy Boy. Yeah. I don't 0:06:41.000 --> 0:06:43.280 know if Lazy Boy doesn't, but there's they represent a 0:06:43.360 --> 0:06:47.560 very small shape of the caskets ultimate Lazy Boy, you 0:06:47.640 --> 0:06:51.400 know you're You're forever chair exactly. Well, they actually have 0:06:51.560 --> 0:06:57.280 caskets for those people. It's called um, goliath caskets, oversized caskets, 0:06:58.120 --> 0:07:03.400 order oversized caskets. Calm huh. Anyway, of course there's someone 0:07:03.440 --> 0:07:05.440 that does that because that's a common thing. You know, 0:07:05.520 --> 0:07:10.400 caskets aren't you know some people of of girth. That's 0:07:10.440 --> 0:07:12.640 pretty embarrassing now when you can't fit in your casket, right, 0:07:12.680 --> 0:07:14.800 And I went and looked, and these are very dignified 0:07:14.840 --> 0:07:21.800 caskets there for the larger person. Um uh wow Um. 0:07:22.000 --> 0:07:26.600 There's also uh okay, so when the largest casket makers. 0:07:26.760 --> 0:07:30.800 Batesville originally started out as a furniture company. So there's 0:07:30.840 --> 0:07:34.080 like this whole origin of yeah, I'll build your chair 0:07:34.160 --> 0:07:37.360 and I'll build your coffin for your uncle too. That 0:07:37.400 --> 0:07:40.520 makes sense. It's carpentry. And then um, that's kind of 0:07:40.560 --> 0:07:43.280 the way it went. There was some some groups that 0:07:44.080 --> 0:07:49.760 that started to consolidate and just make caskets around the 0:07:49.920 --> 0:07:52.160 late the turn of the twentieth century the beginning of 0:07:52.200 --> 0:07:54.880 the twentieth century, and you know, that was fine. They 0:07:55.360 --> 0:07:57.720 kind of created the industry. And then it was like 0:07:57.760 --> 0:08:01.160 the fifties after the Korean War, when metal caskets became 0:08:01.240 --> 0:08:04.239 like all our age. Yeah, because that was mad looking 0:08:04.280 --> 0:08:06.240 and that was popular at the time it was. And 0:08:06.560 --> 0:08:08.880 you'll also find in the funeral industry it was easy 0:08:08.920 --> 0:08:14.880 to um subtly exploit the grieving out of their money. Um, 0:08:15.000 --> 0:08:18.320 there was that it was very cheap to mass produce 0:08:18.440 --> 0:08:21.920 metal caskets and so they were sold, sold, sold. There 0:08:22.000 --> 0:08:24.400 was a huge profit margin with them, and I think 0:08:24.480 --> 0:08:29.720 by um the seventies, half of all caskets were um 0:08:29.840 --> 0:08:34.199 we're metal. Yeah, Well, because what better way to protect 0:08:34.280 --> 0:08:39.000 your loved one from the elements and the harsh afterlife 0:08:39.040 --> 0:08:41.760 that they may encounter than with a good old solid 0:08:41.880 --> 0:08:46.760 metal in casing. Yes exactly, um, which also happens to 0:08:46.800 --> 0:08:51.440 be I have greater profit margins and it's cheaper to produce, 0:08:51.480 --> 0:08:53.480 so it is it's cheaper to mass produced the other 0:08:53.640 --> 0:08:55.559 aspect of a metal coffin. In the rise of the 0:08:55.559 --> 0:08:59.560 metal coffin, it changed the casket making industry, UM because 0:08:59.600 --> 0:09:03.199 it's really really expensive to get into metal coffin making. 0:09:03.240 --> 0:09:05.960 Apparently cost about a million dollars just for the dies 0:09:06.040 --> 0:09:09.280 to make a standard metal coffin just for the dies alone. 0:09:10.160 --> 0:09:12.679 So this kind of consolidated industry down to a fewer 0:09:12.679 --> 0:09:16.240 and fewer companies that were making metal caskets, UM, so 0:09:16.360 --> 0:09:20.400 it became a real industry at that point. UM. And 0:09:20.440 --> 0:09:23.880 then ultimately the casket industry started to suffer and decline 0:09:24.280 --> 0:09:27.600 thanks to advances in medicine. There were fewer deaths, so 0:09:27.679 --> 0:09:31.079 their profits dropped or the revenue drop. And then starting 0:09:31.120 --> 0:09:34.480 in the eighties, people said, you know what, maybe cremation 0:09:34.559 --> 0:09:38.640 isn't so bad, and so in I think of people 0:09:38.679 --> 0:09:43.760 opted for cremation, and then by two thousand, um, I think, no, 0:09:43.920 --> 0:09:48.480 two thousand eleven, it's like yeah, and every time somebody 0:09:48.480 --> 0:09:52.840 gets cremated, the coffin industry dies a little bit. Yeah, 0:09:52.960 --> 0:09:56.040 although you know, um, like you said, you can um 0:09:56.640 --> 0:09:59.839 still have a casket to be cremated in and we 0:09:59.840 --> 0:10:02.280 can over this in the Cremation podcast. Yeah, well you 0:10:02.360 --> 0:10:04.480 have to, like you can't find somebody who will just 0:10:04.559 --> 0:10:06.560 let your but that can be it's super cheap, like 0:10:06.600 --> 0:10:09.520 sometimes it's even cardboard. Well it's supposed to because it's 0:10:09.520 --> 0:10:11.520 got to burn. Yeah, but I mean at the very 0:10:11.640 --> 0:10:14.199 least would uh will also burn. But you can you 0:10:14.240 --> 0:10:15.640 can spend a little bit more money, or you can 0:10:15.640 --> 0:10:19.160 get a temporary encasing and outer encasing that is more 0:10:19.160 --> 0:10:24.080 attractive to show the family and then when push comes 0:10:24.120 --> 0:10:28.320 to shove, they shove that. They remove the outer casket 0:10:28.320 --> 0:10:31.600 and shove you. And it's like a rental casket just 0:10:31.679 --> 0:10:35.240 for the service. Yeah, and you can actually rent caskets period, 0:10:35.520 --> 0:10:38.000 like even if you aren't being cremated, just for a 0:10:38.000 --> 0:10:41.400 more showy experience and then they'll you know, then you 0:10:41.400 --> 0:10:45.440 get the pine box treatment, right because nobody will loves you. Yeah, 0:10:45.480 --> 0:10:48.120 it's expensive, man. People. A lot of people don't have 0:10:48.160 --> 0:10:50.000 the money to pay for a big funeral, and it's 0:10:50.280 --> 0:10:52.000 a lot of people really believe in that kind of thing. 0:10:52.000 --> 0:10:54.439 It's really sad for them, you know. It is. Luckily 0:10:54.440 --> 0:10:57.200 there's such a thing as Walmart and Costco. Both of 0:10:57.240 --> 0:11:02.839 them sell caskets. Walmart has a casket for eleven one thousand, 0:11:04.040 --> 0:11:08.960 it's the Lady of Our Lady of guadaloup Um casket model. Uh. 0:11:09.040 --> 0:11:13.000 And then Costco Yeah okay, and then Costco has the 0:11:13.080 --> 0:11:16.520 same same model for a hundred bucks more. Really. Yeah, 0:11:16.559 --> 0:11:18.760 I was surprised that it's not exactly the same. But 0:11:18.800 --> 0:11:22.240 it's nice to see that the big box retailers aren't 0:11:22.280 --> 0:11:26.760 price fixing coffins. Yeah, it's great to see Walmart selling coffins. 0:11:27.320 --> 0:11:29.640 But I mean it's like that you if you need 0:11:29.679 --> 0:11:33.320 a coffin, and they're attractive looking coffins. I think they're fiberglass. 0:11:33.440 --> 0:11:35.400 Have you ever laid down in a coffin? Probably not, 0:11:35.520 --> 0:11:37.520 I haven't. I haven't either. I would just to see 0:11:37.520 --> 0:11:40.120 what it felt like. They look comfy. Did you see 0:11:40.120 --> 0:11:42.400 the thing about the six ft under club in San Francisco? 0:11:43.320 --> 0:11:46.040 There is a club where it's like, hey, you and 0:11:46.160 --> 0:11:52.319 you're UM partner, life part swinging partner, partner, what your 0:11:52.360 --> 0:11:55.400 sex partner. Let's just call it what it is. UM 0:11:56.120 --> 0:11:59.320 can write, can come lay down in our coffin and 0:11:59.360 --> 0:12:03.080 we'll bury you and you guys can do it, and 0:12:03.200 --> 0:12:06.320 we are going to watch you on a night vision 0:12:06.360 --> 0:12:09.280 webcamp that's going to be projected on the walls of 0:12:09.320 --> 0:12:13.160 the club above. Where's the San Francisco San Francisco six 0:12:13.520 --> 0:12:15.559 Under Club and you can email in reserves space in 0:12:15.600 --> 0:12:18.439 their coffin. Huh? Is there? I mean, is there any 0:12:18.520 --> 0:12:20.840 room in the coffin that's pretty I would imagine it 0:12:20.880 --> 0:12:23.520 would have to be a larger, but maybe a goliath 0:12:23.600 --> 0:12:27.160 coffin double one. Huh. Well, I will never do that, 0:12:27.200 --> 0:12:29.040 but it's interesting to know what's out there. It is 0:12:29.080 --> 0:12:33.360 out there, Sisco options. Let's talk about the anatomy of 0:12:33.360 --> 0:12:36.920 a coffin, Chuckers, Well, the you know, the most important thing, 0:12:36.920 --> 0:12:41.000 of course, is that it is a barrier too, from 0:12:41.200 --> 0:12:43.880 the body to the you know, the elements. No one, 0:12:44.640 --> 0:12:46.840 Actually I don't care, like I already said, but most people, 0:12:47.200 --> 0:12:50.040 most normal people, I don't want to think about their 0:12:50.080 --> 0:12:54.040 loved ones bodies like decaying and being eaten by you know, 0:12:54.080 --> 0:12:57.720 being worm dirt. But one thing they cannot tell you 0:12:57.880 --> 0:13:01.160 is that it's illegal to say that we have a 0:13:01.240 --> 0:13:05.600 casket that will permanently seal the body, Like it's against 0:13:05.600 --> 0:13:10.400 the law to claim any sort of permanence. Um, even 0:13:10.440 --> 0:13:13.600 if it's one of these new gasket coffins. What are 0:13:13.600 --> 0:13:16.680 those called. Um, it's called the protective coffin, Yeah, which 0:13:16.679 --> 0:13:18.920 actually has a rubber gasket so it feels much tighter. 0:13:18.920 --> 0:13:21.200 But they still legally can't say like it will protect 0:13:21.280 --> 0:13:24.720 them forever, right, because it will protect them from the elements. 0:13:24.720 --> 0:13:27.720 But there is such a thing as decay, like your 0:13:27.760 --> 0:13:30.280 your body is going to decay and nothingness. And apparently, 0:13:30.640 --> 0:13:33.320 I guess the funeral industry was selling coffins based on 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:36.480 the idea that the body was going to survive forever 0:13:37.559 --> 0:13:41.280 and with this impermeable seal that the protective coffins had, 0:13:42.080 --> 0:13:45.160 I mean, it wasn't letting anything in, but it also 0:13:45.240 --> 0:13:47.480 wasn't letting anything out, which is a problem. And in 0:13:47.559 --> 0:13:53.000 an airtight um environment, anaerobic bacteria gets to work and 0:13:53.120 --> 0:13:57.720 as they start putrefying the flesh, they expel methane gas 0:13:57.760 --> 0:14:01.079 as a by product. And there's a thing called exploding 0:14:01.120 --> 0:14:06.160 coffin syndrome which was most um apparent in mausoleums, where 0:14:06.640 --> 0:14:09.920 a coffin would just blow up, and sometimes they would 0:14:09.920 --> 0:14:11.959 blow up so much that it would blow the mausoleum 0:14:12.000 --> 0:14:17.080 door open, like a huge methane explosion from the gas 0:14:17.120 --> 0:14:20.120 built up from the decaying corps in this protective coffin. 0:14:20.240 --> 0:14:23.240 So now they have ones that that don't let anything in, 0:14:23.320 --> 0:14:26.840 but they burp gas out. They're called burping coffins, which 0:14:26.920 --> 0:14:30.080 is a great name for a coffin. So but so 0:14:30.280 --> 0:14:34.280 is exploding casket syndrome. Boy, could you imagine being a 0:14:34.320 --> 0:14:38.400 cemetery worker and seeing a mausoleum door explode wide? Yeah, 0:14:38.520 --> 0:14:41.120 you're just like I seen it all. I would quit 0:14:41.160 --> 0:14:44.560 my job that day. Um, So it depends on where 0:14:44.600 --> 0:14:47.040 you are in the world what you're gonna get with 0:14:47.080 --> 0:14:50.840 your with your coffin and with regulations, you know, and 0:14:50.920 --> 0:14:54.800 less developed countries obviously they're less regulated. Um, you could 0:14:54.800 --> 0:14:56.760 still be wrapped in a shroud in some parts of 0:14:56.800 --> 0:15:00.280 the world. Right here in the US, um, in the West. 0:15:00.440 --> 0:15:03.800 You they're basically public health regulations, which is why that 0:15:03.800 --> 0:15:07.160 that place for the green burial is designated a green 0:15:07.160 --> 0:15:10.360 burial place. Yeah, so I'm sure you the body won't 0:15:10.680 --> 0:15:13.280 come in contact with the groundwater, I think is what 0:15:13.320 --> 0:15:15.480 they're trying to keep from happening. Yeah, that was in 0:15:15.520 --> 0:15:19.600 the thank you. Yeah. So, um, that's pretty much the 0:15:19.600 --> 0:15:21.600 whole public health regulation, and it's gotten to the point 0:15:21.640 --> 0:15:25.160 where most most people are buried with cement and casement 0:15:25.240 --> 0:15:27.480 around them, right, Oh is that what they do these days? 0:15:27.520 --> 0:15:29.600 I think so? Yeah, I think I knew that. Actually, 0:15:29.920 --> 0:15:32.600 it's so funny, like we're we're all still six year 0:15:32.600 --> 0:15:35.640 old at our courts, like, dude, dead body cross, I 0:15:35.720 --> 0:15:38.040 can't let they get in the water. Yeah, that stuffing 0:15:38.160 --> 0:15:41.680 better me? Do you cant? Sadies? No not. I wouldn't 0:15:41.680 --> 0:15:43.760 want to drink a dead body now, but seeing one, 0:15:44.440 --> 0:15:46.360 I mean I'm the guy who poked a head floating 0:15:46.400 --> 0:15:50.720 in a bucket, you know. Yeah, yeah, I forgot about 0:15:50.760 --> 0:15:53.720 that story. I didn't poke it, but I mentally poked it. 0:15:53.760 --> 0:15:59.000 It didn't me. Uh. If you are in the Western world, 0:15:59.000 --> 0:16:02.080 you're probably gonna be dealing with wood or metal or fiberglass. 0:16:02.280 --> 0:16:04.440 If you are live out in the desert, they may 0:16:04.560 --> 0:16:09.120 use things like local products like clay or stone, which 0:16:09.160 --> 0:16:11.440 is kind of interesting. I guess we got a lot 0:16:11.440 --> 0:16:14.840 of wood here in the United States though, particle board. Yeah, 0:16:15.240 --> 0:16:20.920 and like we mentioned the sad, sad cardboard cremation vessel, right, which, again, 0:16:20.960 --> 0:16:24.200 if you're being you probably don't care. Yeah. I was 0:16:24.240 --> 0:16:27.040 all set for cremation, and then I thought, I don't know, 0:16:27.920 --> 0:16:30.400 is there anything that's in the green burial seems like 0:16:30.400 --> 0:16:34.840 a good option. Sure, just become one with the dirt maybe, 0:16:35.080 --> 0:16:37.360 but I like the idea being scattered as well, or 0:16:37.440 --> 0:16:42.640 again helping somebody helping other people. Yeah, but they'll still 0:16:42.680 --> 0:16:45.040 like if you don't your body to science, did they 0:16:45.080 --> 0:16:47.520 not give you any sort of like, no, you can't 0:16:47.560 --> 0:16:50.840 be embalmed or anything. I guess you probably could if like, 0:16:50.880 --> 0:16:52.760 say you're going to the body farm, you wouldn't be 0:16:52.800 --> 0:16:55.760 able to be involved. And I'm sure there's like memorial services, 0:16:55.800 --> 0:16:57.880 but I don't. I don't as I understand it. That's 0:16:57.880 --> 0:17:01.520 another thing that's eating into the casket industry profits is 0:17:01.600 --> 0:17:04.880 body donation. Hey man, I think this is a perfect 0:17:04.880 --> 0:17:08.560 time to have a message break from our sponsor, which 0:17:08.600 --> 0:17:16.439 means they're jingle all right, So I think this is 0:17:16.440 --> 0:17:20.080 actually a great time for a second gasket. Fact, I 0:17:20.200 --> 0:17:28.040 like these already. Alright back in the day, in the 0:17:28.119 --> 0:17:31.080 early nineteenth century, that was sort of a they called 0:17:31.119 --> 0:17:35.280 it graves body snatching period, and people were into snatching 0:17:35.359 --> 0:17:39.440 up bodies, digging up graves, exhuming people, if you will, 0:17:40.080 --> 0:17:44.359 and basically selling bodies for money for medical research. It 0:17:44.480 --> 0:17:46.280 was a way to make a buck or doing research 0:17:46.280 --> 0:17:49.320 on your own. Medical College of Georgia was they found 0:17:50.200 --> 0:17:54.800 dozens of skeletons. I was like, I don't think dozens 0:17:54.800 --> 0:17:58.359 of skeletons of um people who were dismembered, and they 0:17:58.359 --> 0:18:00.679 figured out that all of them had been and from graves. 0:18:00.800 --> 0:18:04.000 Remember that. Of course, that wasn't in the early nineteenth century, 0:18:04.400 --> 0:18:08.560 was it. It was in the nineteenth century. It so 0:18:08.600 --> 0:18:12.719 they developed something well, various things to you know, protect 0:18:12.800 --> 0:18:16.960 bodies like locked mausoleums and vaults. And then something I 0:18:16.960 --> 0:18:19.480 think it's gonna net called the mort safe, which is 0:18:19.520 --> 0:18:23.959 basically an iron cage put over the coffin. It's like 0:18:23.960 --> 0:18:26.359 sunk into concrete. It's like what people used to protect 0:18:26.400 --> 0:18:29.919 their air conditioners today. Yeah exactly, but over like a grave. 0:18:30.440 --> 0:18:32.280 So that that was a mort safe and that kept 0:18:32.760 --> 0:18:38.160 people out. They had guards sometimes stats guards. I think 0:18:38.160 --> 0:18:42.000 then the caretaker doubles as a guard, but they had 0:18:42.000 --> 0:18:44.760 people who they hired as guards and protect a specific grave. 0:18:46.119 --> 0:18:48.719 I think if you had enough dough, you could have like, um, 0:18:48.800 --> 0:18:51.000 you know the mausoleum with a guard. That's pretty cool. 0:18:51.080 --> 0:18:54.199 And that's you know, that's if you're rich and wealthy. Um. 0:18:54.240 --> 0:18:56.960 There are also if you weren't wealthy, other ways to 0:18:56.960 --> 0:19:00.720 to thwart grave robbers, just to put heavy planks um 0:19:01.080 --> 0:19:04.000 to backfill the grave with rocks instead of dirt, which 0:19:04.400 --> 0:19:06.520 might not have kept somebody out, but they would have 0:19:06.520 --> 0:19:10.600 made quite a bit of noise digging you up. And 0:19:10.800 --> 0:19:14.960 uh yeah, have you ever been to um Oakland Cemetery. Yeah? 0:19:15.000 --> 0:19:16.280 I go all the time, well not all the time, 0:19:16.320 --> 0:19:19.240 but I go. It is beautiful all the times. A year. Yeah, 0:19:19.280 --> 0:19:20.840 you mean, and I went and just did like this, 0:19:21.040 --> 0:19:24.440 just walked around like there's some there's some ausoleums there 0:19:24.480 --> 0:19:26.640 that like there's no way you could have gotten into. Yeah. 0:19:26.720 --> 0:19:29.480 For those uh people that haven't been to Atlanta, that 0:19:29.560 --> 0:19:33.960 is what are probably oldest in like cemetery. It is 0:19:33.960 --> 0:19:40.359 our Parade de Lache. Yes, I've been to that one 0:19:40.359 --> 0:19:44.040 to actually the one in Paris. What parade is it? 0:19:44.119 --> 0:19:47.159 The one with Jim Morrison. Yeah, of course, and uh, 0:19:47.720 --> 0:19:52.399 I think Oscar Wilde is there and Chopin, but you know, 0:19:52.560 --> 0:19:55.399 Morrison's the one that you go by and there's like 0:19:55.480 --> 0:19:58.439 joints on the ground and like tabs of acid and stuff. 0:19:58.480 --> 0:20:01.720 And then you always like the random guy kind of 0:20:01.760 --> 0:20:03.920 hanging out like waiting for everyone to turn their back. 0:20:05.760 --> 0:20:10.600 A bunch of dirty hippies basically uh in Ghana and 0:20:10.760 --> 0:20:13.639 other parts of Africa. It is kind of cool because 0:20:13.680 --> 0:20:17.520 they will They have a very um, sort of a 0:20:17.600 --> 0:20:21.600 joyous way of celebrating death with their bright colored coffins 0:20:21.680 --> 0:20:25.840 and even odd shapes that would pay honor to what 0:20:25.920 --> 0:20:28.600 this person loved in life. Um. I saw one that 0:20:28.680 --> 0:20:32.240 was like a giant shoe and this guy this uh, 0:20:32.359 --> 0:20:34.880 this Aprican dude was just like, you know, it must 0:20:34.920 --> 0:20:36.440 have been as relative and it was just so proud 0:20:36.480 --> 0:20:39.359 to show that they were bearing him in a giant shoe. 0:20:39.760 --> 0:20:43.879 So it's like it's like to the dead in Ghana 0:20:44.040 --> 0:20:48.440 what a pinionta is to like a kid in Mexico. Really, yeah, 0:20:48.440 --> 0:20:51.120 they have like pinionas that are like shape for their 0:20:51.280 --> 0:20:55.720 different specific Yeah, there was just a b there's like 0:20:55.840 --> 0:20:58.280 lets of hello kiddies and like really yeah, yeah, there's 0:20:58.320 --> 0:21:01.720 there's some great pinontas out there. Um. And then the 0:21:01.760 --> 0:21:03.679 other example they gave in here is like if it 0:21:03.720 --> 0:21:05.960 was a businessman, he might be buried in something that 0:21:06.040 --> 0:21:09.720 resembled his luxury car. Or a fisherman, it might be 0:21:09.720 --> 0:21:13.720 a fish shaped the fish finally got him back. He's 0:21:13.760 --> 0:21:17.760 in the belly of it. So chuck, you you mentioned 0:21:18.000 --> 0:21:21.240 things that coffins may be made out of. You mentioned 0:21:21.280 --> 0:21:25.920 like wood, fiberglass, um, oak, hardy woods, bronze is still 0:21:26.040 --> 0:21:29.879 used on occasion, yeah sure, um. And that's the shell 0:21:30.080 --> 0:21:33.760 of the coffin yeah, um. And then the inside you'll 0:21:33.760 --> 0:21:36.600 find the lining, usually some sort of rich fabric like 0:21:36.720 --> 0:21:40.240 tafida or velvet or something that looks like that. Maybe 0:21:40.359 --> 0:21:43.440 volure if if they like juicy clothes that kind of thing, 0:21:43.920 --> 0:21:47.720 silk maybe, Yeah, and it's stuffed with batting to keep 0:21:47.760 --> 0:21:51.600 the corpse nice and comfortable. And uh, that's pretty much it. 0:21:51.680 --> 0:21:54.440 You've got hardware on the outside and that's a casket. Yeah, 0:21:54.480 --> 0:21:58.359 it's probably gonna be warm. Colors here in the Western world, Um, 0:21:58.400 --> 0:22:00.080 it's not gonna You're not gonna see a lot of 0:22:00.119 --> 0:22:02.560 brightly painted coffins and stuff like that. No, but also 0:22:02.640 --> 0:22:04.840 they kind of avoid like, um, you're probably I can 0:22:04.880 --> 0:22:09.200 see a black coffin anywhere. Yeah. Those are called um 0:22:09.240 --> 0:22:14.200 receding colors. They're they're dismal in of desperation and despair. 0:22:14.359 --> 0:22:16.040 I feel like I've seen a lot of like light 0:22:16.119 --> 0:22:19.360 gray and things like that, or just would color. If 0:22:19.359 --> 0:22:21.800 you get like a really nice wood like cherry, sometimes 0:22:21.800 --> 0:22:24.240 it will just be in that. You know that that 0:22:24.240 --> 0:22:26.920 will be the outer shell. And those are pricing, Yes, 0:22:27.000 --> 0:22:29.200 they are um that. As a matter of fact, the 0:22:29.240 --> 0:22:31.359 average cost of a funeral in the US and two 0:22:31.400 --> 0:22:33.800 thousand nine was six thousand, five hundred and sixty which 0:22:33.800 --> 0:22:36.879 is less than I thought. I think a green barrels 0:22:36.880 --> 0:22:38.560 about half that. Yeah, I can see that. I think 0:22:38.560 --> 0:22:41.040 they're like two or three grand because the coffin um 0:22:41.040 --> 0:22:43.600 in the average funeral was two thousand, two hundred and 0:22:43.680 --> 0:22:46.040 ninety five dollars the average cost of a metal coffin 0:22:46.080 --> 0:22:49.359 in two thousand nine UM which in two thousand and seven, 0:22:49.440 --> 0:22:52.320 funeral homes and crematories pulled in eleven point nine five 0:22:52.400 --> 0:22:54.960 billion dollars, And one of the ways they pulled in 0:22:55.040 --> 0:22:59.480 that much was from casket sales. Yeah. And I don't 0:22:59.480 --> 0:23:01.879