WEBVTT - Short Stuff: Firewalking 0:00:04.280 --> 0:00:06.600 Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh and 0:00:06.640 --> 0:00:09.840 there's Chuck and this is short stuff and we're talking 0:00:09.840 --> 0:00:14.560 about firewalking, which is interesting because you can explain how 0:00:14.560 --> 0:00:17.400 it works and I love those I was convinced we 0:00:17.440 --> 0:00:20.200 had done this, but we have not. No, we haven't. 0:00:20.960 --> 0:00:22.480 I just felt I don't know, I thought it fell 0:00:22.480 --> 0:00:25.479 into our circus arts or it does seem like a 0:00:25.640 --> 0:00:28.520 two thousand and ten, two thousand eleven circus stuff you 0:00:28.560 --> 0:00:32.159 should know episode, like a full episode, doesn't it. Yeah, 0:00:32.320 --> 0:00:35.040 but it's not a circus arts thing at all. No, 0:00:36.000 --> 0:00:37.959 you know, I don't. I don't think it. I mean 0:00:37.960 --> 0:00:40.479 maybe like a gem Rose circus might do something like this, 0:00:40.600 --> 0:00:44.559 but it is generally sort of a religious thing in 0:00:44.600 --> 0:00:47.879 most cultures, right. Yeah. And they think that, Um, it 0:00:48.000 --> 0:00:52.440 dates back at least thirty two wish hundred years. The 0:00:52.479 --> 0:00:55.400 first mention of it is in an ancient Indian text 0:00:55.480 --> 0:00:59.920 from around that time. Um. And either it's spread out 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:02.320 of there, there's I've seen some theories that it was 0:01:02.320 --> 0:01:05.000 actually it actually predated, that it was one of the 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:09.880 things that the Mesopotamians and Neo Babylonians did, and then 0:01:09.880 --> 0:01:13.600 it just kind of spread from there. Um. Or people 0:01:13.680 --> 0:01:17.240 invented it independently, because it has spread all over the 0:01:17.280 --> 0:01:28.120 world over the last couple of thousand years. Yes, these days, India, Greece, China, Spain, Japan, Bulgaria, Thailand, Tibet, Fiji. 0:01:28.160 --> 0:01:31.319 It's all over the place, and it's almost always a 0:01:31.319 --> 0:01:35.640 religious thing, like you're paying tribute to somebody who was passed, 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:40.760 or uh, you were commemorating your what you see as 0:01:40.760 --> 0:01:45.280 a miracle in your area. Uh, some sort of celebration 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:48.800 or or parade. There might be a firewalker, but it's 0:01:48.840 --> 0:01:53.840 usually got some sort of religious spiritual connotation. A firewalker 0:01:53.840 --> 0:01:56.800 in a parade would be hilarious because that poor guy 0:01:56.800 --> 0:01:58.640 would just have to keep running to the back of 0:01:58.680 --> 0:02:01.000 the float and walking over it again and then running back. 0:02:01.560 --> 0:02:04.920 That would be That'd be a long parade for that guy. Oh, 0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:07.120 I was thinking more along the lines of there is 0:02:07.160 --> 0:02:10.480 a the entire parade has to walk. There's one portion 0:02:10.639 --> 0:02:13.320 that's on fire. Yeah, all the spectators have to go 0:02:13.360 --> 0:02:16.840 down this way, come over here, and we set on fire. 0:02:17.240 --> 0:02:21.000 Spoiler alert, there's never flames, it's coals, right, And we 0:02:21.040 --> 0:02:24.560 can thank our friends at the University of London Council 0:02:24.600 --> 0:02:28.600 for psychical research back in the nineteen thirties for figuring 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:32.320 that out. Um. And they did that, Chuck, by conducting 0:02:32.400 --> 0:02:38.160 two different experiments on firewalking, in which they also participated 0:02:38.240 --> 0:02:42.760 to Yeah, these are they're not mean. But what they 0:02:42.800 --> 0:02:45.280 did was in both of these experiments in thirty five 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:50.320 and thirty seven, they got a couple of British scientists 0:02:50.840 --> 0:02:53.040 and then you know, someone from a native culture like 0:02:53.080 --> 0:02:56.239 an India or someplace, and they basically the whole point 0:02:56.240 --> 0:02:59.560 of the study was like, see white British man did 0:02:59.600 --> 0:03:02.640 it too. It's not religious or special, right, but they 0:03:02.680 --> 0:03:05.920 were skeptical societies, I think is what they were doing. Yeah, 0:03:05.960 --> 0:03:07.480 and I'm sure they didn't rub it in like that, 0:03:07.520 --> 0:03:13.160 but decree fire pit uh. And then those two separate 0:03:13.240 --> 0:03:17.600 years they basically I think they use oak and they 0:03:18.480 --> 0:03:19.920 the whole point of it was to kind of just 0:03:20.040 --> 0:03:24.200 debunk the like you have to be I don't know 0:03:24.240 --> 0:03:26.000 about possessed. Maybe that's too strong of a word, but 0:03:26.040 --> 0:03:30.519 guided by spirit to do so, guided by voices, that's right. 0:03:31.200 --> 0:03:34.639 So Um. That was yeah, that and that at the 0:03:34.760 --> 0:03:37.720 very least in the West, those two studies put that 0:03:37.800 --> 0:03:41.560 to rest permanently. Um. And they did it so thoroughly 0:03:41.640 --> 0:03:46.480 chuck that. For about I don't know, forty fifty years, 0:03:46.920 --> 0:03:49.120 people in the West, I should say, in the United 0:03:49.160 --> 0:03:52.760 States and Great Britain, UM, didn't think much about this 0:03:52.800 --> 0:03:56.080 whole thing. They just were like, firewalking has been explained whatever. 0:03:56.600 --> 0:04:00.200 And then as our friends in the New age community 0:04:00.440 --> 0:04:03.880 kind of came along in the seventies and eighties, UM, 0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:08.520 they adopted firewalking and apparently had never read the two 0:04:08.560 --> 0:04:12.400 studies by the University of London Council for Psychical Research, 0:04:12.480 --> 0:04:17.120 because they started attributing it to a more metaphysical explanation, 0:04:17.760 --> 0:04:20.800 and that's when interest in debunking it kind of came 0:04:20.800 --> 0:04:23.919 around again. That's right. Uh, And I think this is 0:04:23.920 --> 0:04:27.080 a good time for a cliffhanger because we have danced 0:04:27.120 --> 0:04:31.880 around the fire and not revealed the secret to why. 0:04:31.920 --> 0:04:35.680 It has nothing to do with religion or spirituality. It's 0:04:35.800 --> 0:05:09.240 pure physics and we'll explain it right after this. Welcome 0:05:09.240 --> 0:05:11.880 back to pure physics. Yeah. And since we're talking about 0:05:11.920 --> 0:05:13.599 pure physics, I want to give a shout out to 0:05:13.800 --> 0:05:17.680 Professor David Willie, who's a physics professor. I believe it's 0:05:17.680 --> 0:05:21.280 Willie could be wily w I L. L. E. Y Yeah, 0:05:21.279 --> 0:05:25.640 I think it's wildly he um. Oh, I'm thinking of 0:05:25.680 --> 0:05:31.120 Willie Ames from Charles and Charge. Uh. But Professor Wiley 0:05:31.279 --> 0:05:36.360 is a physics of firewalking guy. He has dedicated a 0:05:36.400 --> 0:05:40.119 certain portion of his career to explaining how it works 0:05:40.120 --> 0:05:43.279 and doing firewalking himself. So thanks a lot to Dr 0:05:43.320 --> 0:05:46.360 Willie because basically everything we're talking about is based on 0:05:46.440 --> 0:05:52.960 his research. Dr Wiley, Yeah, that's right, So let's explain 0:05:53.000 --> 0:05:55.800 how this works. There are quite a few components to 0:05:55.880 --> 0:05:59.560 go into a successful firewalk, which is to say, one 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:03.000 or you don't end up with burns on your feet. Uh. 0:06:03.160 --> 0:06:06.000 The first thing that you've got to start with is 0:06:06.360 --> 0:06:10.120 charcoal that has lit well before you walk over it. 0:06:10.920 --> 0:06:12.520 I sort of spoil it earlier when I said there 0:06:12.520 --> 0:06:15.279 are no flames, but when you see a firewalker, they're 0:06:15.279 --> 0:06:19.320 walking over hot coals, not a real flaming fire. And 0:06:19.440 --> 0:06:21.960 these are embers that they're walking over, So right out 0:06:21.960 --> 0:06:24.760 of the gate, you've got a bit of an advantage. 0:06:24.760 --> 0:06:26.599 And that there's not in direct contact with a flame 0:06:26.960 --> 0:06:30.520 well a huge advantage too, but also the embers themselves, 0:06:30.600 --> 0:06:32.640 so you've got no flame. It's a big one. Just 0:06:32.640 --> 0:06:35.160 put that in your hat. Uh, here's the second one 0:06:35.200 --> 0:06:40.520 for your hat. Those embers themselves are actually really good insulators. 0:06:40.920 --> 0:06:44.400 The type of wood that's typically used for firewalking, and 0:06:44.440 --> 0:06:47.239 you want to use specific kinds of wood. They glow 0:06:47.360 --> 0:06:52.240 really bright, but they actually don't conduct heat very well. Right, 0:06:52.360 --> 0:06:55.359 And I think the top two woods or cherry or 0:06:55.400 --> 0:06:58.960 maple for good looking coals that will get the crowd 0:06:58.960 --> 0:07:01.960 whipped up into a friend's right exactly, but not super 0:07:02.000 --> 0:07:06.400 hot no. Um. And because there's also a layer of 0:07:06.440 --> 0:07:09.880 ash that coats them. Here's the third part for your hat. Right. 0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:15.679 I think the uh, the investigator would say, you neverice. 0:07:15.760 --> 0:07:17.920 You notice they don't do this during the day because 0:07:17.920 --> 0:07:19.880 you would see that ash all over the place. But 0:07:19.920 --> 0:07:22.400 at night that ash sort of goes away to the 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:26.440 to the eyeball and it makes for a better show. 0:07:26.520 --> 0:07:28.880 But that ash is going to also provide a buffer 0:07:29.440 --> 0:07:32.840 and cut down on that heat transfer. Yeah, yes, exactly. 0:07:33.200 --> 0:07:36.160 And then the last one, and this one's pretty important too. 0:07:36.560 --> 0:07:39.360 There's an actually really limited amount of time that your 0:07:39.400 --> 0:07:43.720 feet is making contact with the hot embers because they 0:07:43.760 --> 0:07:47.080 are hot like these fires that you're walking over. If 0:07:47.160 --> 0:07:50.000 you hold the thermometer, um, it's gonna register something like 0:07:50.080 --> 0:07:55.760 nine thousand degrees fahrenheit four degrees celsius. So it is hot, 0:07:56.680 --> 0:07:59.680 but again it's not conducting that heat very well to 0:07:59.760 --> 0:08:02.960 your eat, and then your feet aren't touching them very 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:05.880 long to begin with. Yeah, there's a reason it's not 0:08:05.960 --> 0:08:10.320 called fire sitting. Yeah, fire standing around there may be 0:08:10.400 --> 0:08:12.760 a thing. Who knows. Watch someone right in and say, 0:08:12.760 --> 0:08:15.000 oh no, bro, fire sitting is totally a thing. I 0:08:15.040 --> 0:08:17.480 work for the gym row Side show and I fire sitting. 0:08:18.080 --> 0:08:20.840 It's firewalking. You want to walk across it at a 0:08:20.840 --> 0:08:23.800 brisk pace. Uh, they do, say don't run. And by 0:08:23.800 --> 0:08:26.760 the way, we're let's just go ahead and p s 0:08:26.800 --> 0:08:28.880 A here and say or c o a and say 0:08:28.920 --> 0:08:31.920 please don't try this. Thank you for doing that. Kids, 0:08:31.920 --> 0:08:34.640 don't try and firewalk. Just don't do it. But if 0:08:34.640 --> 0:08:37.560 you are a firewalker or you see someone doing it, 0:08:37.600 --> 0:08:39.800 they are walking at a brisk pace. But you don't 0:08:39.800 --> 0:08:42.199 want to run because they make the good point that 0:08:42.600 --> 0:08:44.520 you know, you could actually dig in when you're running 0:08:44.520 --> 0:08:46.880 more than if you're just sort of hot foot in it, 0:08:47.280 --> 0:08:49.760 because it's where the word comes from exactly, and you 0:08:49.760 --> 0:08:51.680 can end up with coals on top of your foot 0:08:51.800 --> 0:08:54.320 or just digging down too deep. So they say you 0:08:54.400 --> 0:08:58.360 walk less than a half a second of contact um 0:08:58.480 --> 0:09:02.680 on a like a tend to fifteen foot firewalk. Yeah, 0:09:02.800 --> 0:09:06.560 so it's only a few seconds. Yeah. So those four 0:09:06.679 --> 0:09:10.079 things together basically the physics of firewalking. But even if 0:09:10.080 --> 0:09:13.160 you you know, if you're if you're not well versed 0:09:13.200 --> 0:09:16.240 in the physics of firewalking, and you hold a firewalking event, 0:09:16.360 --> 0:09:19.719 it can go wrong. And that actually has happened from 0:09:19.760 --> 0:09:22.400 time to time. Most recently from what I can tell, 0:09:22.679 --> 0:09:25.800 was in two thousand twelve, We're twenty one people were 0:09:25.840 --> 0:09:29.760 treated for burns at a Tony Robbins event. Right, he's 0:09:29.840 --> 0:09:33.960 doing this at least in two thousand twelve. Are you 0:09:34.000 --> 0:09:38.360 surprised by that? Have you seen shallow? How well? I 0:09:38.400 --> 0:09:43.040 haven't seen shallow? How you're not missing? But um, I 0:09:43.720 --> 0:09:45.760 don't know. I knew he's a motivational speaker. I did 0:09:45.760 --> 0:09:50.160 not know he did stuff like this, Yes, dude, Yes, 0:09:50.280 --> 0:09:52.600 his his whole jam is stuff I thought he's got 0:09:52.600 --> 0:09:54.680 on the stage and just you know, made people feel good. 0:09:54.880 --> 0:09:58.280 Random stuff like this is no. No, no, he's very 0:09:58.280 --> 0:10:02.960 hands on. He had a TV show once that we 0:10:03.040 --> 0:10:05.520 had to like cover for some reason back in the day. 0:10:05.559 --> 0:10:08.160 Do you remember that? It came in my mind today 0:10:08.200 --> 0:10:10.200 and all I could think of is what did we 0:10:10.280 --> 0:10:13.120 do with Tony Robbins. Did we interview him? We we 0:10:13.160 --> 0:10:16.120 interviewed him. I think you did. I don't think I did. Yeah, 0:10:16.160 --> 0:10:18.680 but I don't remember whatever happened with the interview. But 0:10:18.960 --> 0:10:21.120 in the TV show, in the first episode, the pilot 0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:23.959 of this, there was a man who became paralyzed when 0:10:23.960 --> 0:10:28.600 he jumped into his pool after his his wedding UM 0:10:29.000 --> 0:10:31.520 the ceremony. He was so excited he jumped into pool 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:35.839 and landed head first and became paralyzed. Tony Robbins talks 0:10:35.920 --> 0:10:43.000 this guy into um into skydiving, and if I remember correctly, 0:10:43.320 --> 0:10:48.240 essentially like pushed him out of the plane. Tony Robbins 0:10:48.400 --> 0:10:54.280 very hands on, motivational guy. So anyway, one of his 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:56.760 uh the people that a saying walked on fire. I 0:10:56.760 --> 0:10:59.719 guess I had to get treated for burns. This made 0:10:59.720 --> 0:11:02.640 me one to try it, and you know why I won't. 0:11:03.360 --> 0:11:06.840 Why is because it's the bottom of my feet, Like 0:11:07.640 --> 0:11:10.640 if something did go wrong, then I'm not walking for 0:11:10.640 --> 0:11:12.600 a little while, or I'm walking in a lot of pain. 0:11:13.640 --> 0:11:15.400 It's not like a pain on my forearm or something. 0:11:15.400 --> 0:11:18.200 You know, is it actually worth it? No? No, no no, 0:11:18.480 --> 0:11:19.880 That's why I said, I'm not going to do this 0:11:19.920 --> 0:11:24.400 because I'm going camping tonight. And I was like, you know, no, 0:11:24.520 --> 0:11:27.240 should I pull out all the stop? You understand the 0:11:27.240 --> 0:11:29.880 physics of firewalking. Who are you trying to impress at 0:11:29.880 --> 0:11:32.719 this point, Emily, No, she won't be there. All my 0:11:32.800 --> 0:11:35.559 dumb friends from years ago, they oh, well, then yes 0:11:35.600 --> 0:11:41.760 you should definitely fireworks. No, I'm never gonna do it, impress, dude, 0:11:41.800 --> 0:11:45.600 you have to stop. Just remember to use some cherry 0:11:45.760 --> 0:11:48.520 or what was the other one. I think you got 0:11:48.559 --> 0:11:51.240 maple up there. No, it's a bunch of hardwoods. Yeah, 0:11:51.280 --> 0:11:53.400 you don't want those. They'll burn off too quick or 0:11:53.400 --> 0:11:55.800 else too too hot. You want to use cherry or maple, 0:11:55.840 --> 0:11:58.199 like you said, And if you don't have it, don't firewalk. 0:11:58.559 --> 0:12:00.800 My old friend Jason Jenkins jump through the fire one 0:12:00.800 --> 0:12:04.199 time and a drunken fit late night and a camping trip. 0:12:04.640 --> 0:12:07.839 Did he melt like Snea? No, he was fine. He 0:12:07.920 --> 0:12:10.920 jumped right through it. But I remember thinking, like, dude, 0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:12.920 if he would have tripped and landed in that fire 0:12:13.000 --> 0:12:15.240 all of a sudden, this this trip has ruined, which 0:12:15.280 --> 0:12:18.240 is another another problem with firewalking. If you do trip, 0:12:18.520 --> 0:12:23.439 you're you're in trouble. Yeah, yeah, so don't don't firewalk. 0:12:23.480 --> 0:12:26.480 I was really just joking when I was encouraging YouTube. No, 0:12:26.600 --> 0:12:29.880 I know. Well, I think that's it for short stuff, 0:12:29.920 --> 0:12:36.600 don't you. It sounds like it's out to me. Stuff 0:12:36.640 --> 0:12:39.240 you should Know is a production of iHeart Radio. For 0:12:39.280 --> 0:12:42.280 more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, 0:12:42.520 --> 0:12:45.400 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.