WEBVTT - Bedside Manners 10: Dark Matter

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<v Speaker 1>The Emperor hoped to end the squabbling once and for all.

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<v Speaker 1>Ludwig the Third, a landholding count, and Archbishop Conrad the

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<v Speaker 1>First were locked in a feud. You see, Conrad wasn't

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<v Speaker 1>being a good neighbor. At least that's what Ludwig thought.

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<v Speaker 1>Conrad had started building a castle near Ludwig's territory, and

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<v Speaker 1>it all seemed a little aggressive to Ludwig. It seemed

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<v Speaker 1>that Conrad was staking a claim in a space that

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<v Speaker 1>wasn't exactly his. In fact, the territory was and had

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<v Speaker 1>for a long time been pretty contested. So to build

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<v Speaker 1>a castle there was a move of confidence that didn't

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<v Speaker 1>sit well with Ludwig. It didn't seem fair. As the

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<v Speaker 1>story goes, the Emperor directed King Heinrich the sixth to

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<v Speaker 1>call in his trusted advisers, counts and other nobles in

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<v Speaker 1>order to convene at Saint Peter's Church in Erfurt, Germany,

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<v Speaker 1>in July of eleven eighty four. He wanted mediation, and

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<v Speaker 1>he wanted it fast. A judgment would be made on

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<v Speaker 1>what to do about the land, and that would fully

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<v Speaker 1>be the end of the story. But of course it wasn't,

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<v Speaker 1>but not for reasons that you might imagine as the

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<v Speaker 1>sixty or so noblemen ambled into the church on that

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<v Speaker 1>warm summer's day, the atmosphere was tense. There were politics

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<v Speaker 1>and power at play, and those at the center of

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<v Speaker 1>the dispute were being called in to explain themselves. The

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<v Speaker 1>floorboards creaked and groaned as they shuffled in to face

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<v Speaker 1>their boss. Everyone settled in and the king called the

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<v Speaker 1>meeting to order. But if anyone was worried about the

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<v Speaker 1>boeing of the floor beneath their feet, they certainly didn't

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<v Speaker 1>speak up. Within moments of kicking off the mediation, the

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<v Speaker 1>floorboards splintered, cracked, and fell out from under them. Everyone

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<v Speaker 1>standing there was pitched into the darkness below. But oh,

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<v Speaker 1>if it were only just darkness, it would have been

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<v Speaker 1>that much more simple. It wasn't. Instead of being dropped into, say,

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<v Speaker 1>an open cellar, the sixty odd noblemen met with a

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<v Speaker 1>much worse fate. They had collapsed into the church's large

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<v Speaker 1>communal latrine area. The latrine couldn't withstand the impact of

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<v Speaker 1>their flying bodies, and with that the latrine area also

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<v Speaker 1>collapsed in on itself, dropping their bodies down another level

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<v Speaker 1>into the festering cesspool of feces. There was no way

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<v Speaker 1>to quickly rescue the fallen. The unluckiest of folks drowned

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<v Speaker 1>when their lungs filled with human waste or were asphyxiated

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<v Speaker 1>by a cloak of noxious fumes. By chance, the king,

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<v Speaker 1>Archbishop Conrad the First and Langrave Ludwig the third survived.

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<v Speaker 1>Evidently they had gone off into the church's side nook

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<v Speaker 1>to have a private conversation just before the floor gave out,

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<v Speaker 1>and since they were closer to the walls, they were

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<v Speaker 1>able to hold onto the iron rails of the windows

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<v Speaker 1>until their cries for help were answered. If the dispute

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<v Speaker 1>they set out to resolve that day ever got settled, well,

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<v Speaker 1>that remains unclear. What's likely true is that the outcome

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<v Speaker 1>of this meeting was something that they could never have anticipated.

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<v Speaker 1>The latrine disaster remains a dark and squeamish moment in

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<v Speaker 1>our history, but it's true. Everybody poops. Historically, this universal

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<v Speaker 1>need has been experienced very differently, depending on the time, place,

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<v Speaker 1>social class, and technology of the day. At the core

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<v Speaker 1>of these differences, though, is a uniting truth. Sanitation and

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<v Speaker 1>hygiene are inextricably linked to our everyday health. It's not

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<v Speaker 1>always as dramatic as it was that day in medieval Germany,

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<v Speaker 1>but when poorly executed, the results have historically been positively deadly.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm Aaron Mankee and welcome to bedside manners. It's hard

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<v Speaker 1>to overstate how important poop is to humans. When we're born,

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<v Speaker 1>we poop. After we die, our bowels often let go

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<v Speaker 1>one last time, and in between those moments, the experience

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<v Speaker 1>of relieving ourselves often functions as a barometer for health,

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<v Speaker 1>a litmus test of our bodies basic functionality. Poop offers

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<v Speaker 1>important insights, but we've developed a squeamishness around this particular

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<v Speaker 1>mundane event. The universal experience of emptying our bowels has

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<v Speaker 1>long been met with silence and shame, embarrassment, and unease.

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<v Speaker 1>Those who are too casually honest about their bathroom adventures

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<v Speaker 1>might be given side eyes. We might scold our own

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<v Speaker 1>kids for their bad language, accusing them of having a

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<v Speaker 1>potty mouth. What goes down the loo is considered far

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<v Speaker 1>from polite conversation, but it wasn't always this way. The

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<v Speaker 1>link between bowel contents and shame is a contemporary evolution.

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<v Speaker 1>Life always follows poop in everything from oral tradition to

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<v Speaker 1>scholastic analysis. Cultures across the world are home to origin stories,

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<v Speaker 1>wherein land masses and life arises from the droppings of

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<v Speaker 1>mythical creatures. Take one tail from the Chukchee people of Siberia,

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<v Speaker 1>which describes the origin of the world resulting from a

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<v Speaker 1>creature known as the first Bird relieving itself. Solids became land,

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<v Speaker 1>liquid became waterwys and if folklore tells us that the

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<v Speaker 1>world arose from waste, some scholars believe that civilization itself

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<v Speaker 1>could have risen from it. Excrement is chock full of

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<v Speaker 1>nutrients that the soil and the critters living in it

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<v Speaker 1>absolutely love, and as our early ancestors spread out from Africa,

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<v Speaker 1>it's possible that they noticed that the places in which

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<v Speaker 1>they stayed longer or revisited year after year seemed to

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<v Speaker 1>be extra fertile. It's possible that these rhythms of return

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<v Speaker 1>gave way to farming and then to the rise of

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<v Speaker 1>agrarian societies. But as humans settled down, their waste began

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<v Speaker 1>to pile up in excess. This waste started to become

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<v Speaker 1>a problem. It stank and crawled with vermin. It was

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<v Speaker 1>clearly becoming a nuisance, and what was to be done

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<v Speaker 1>with it became a long adventure that occupied many of

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<v Speaker 1>our ancestors. The earliest communal restrooms can be traced in

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<v Speaker 1>Mesopotamia in the third millennium BC. Some scholars believe that

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<v Speaker 1>trade routes gave rise to public rest stops, which, if

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<v Speaker 1>you've ever been on a long road trip, is a

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<v Speaker 1>welcome site. Because all early civilizations rose along water sources,

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<v Speaker 1>depositing waste in waterways became a practical solution to a

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<v Speaker 1>stinky problem. The Minoan civilization, which thrive between twenty six

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<v Speaker 1>hundred and eleven hundred BC on Crete and the Islands,

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<v Speaker 1>has been credited as the first to do this systematically.

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<v Speaker 1>In fact, they've been credited with building the world's first

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<v Speaker 1>flushing toilets and underground waterways designed to carry their waste away.

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<v Speaker 1>The ancient Romans, too were known for their waste disposal,

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<v Speaker 1>but their strategizing came through utilizing cesspits, sewers, and basic

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<v Speaker 1>street runoffs. They eventually built the Cloak of Maxima Latin

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<v Speaker 1>for the greatest sewer around six hundred BC, which moved

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<v Speaker 1>millions of gallons of water per day. The wealthy constructed

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<v Speaker 1>public latrines in marketplaces, not out of the goodness of

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<v Speaker 1>their hearts, nor for the health of their slaves, but

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<v Speaker 1>so that they wouldn't have to step in or see

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<v Speaker 1>human waste across the world. In centuries later, in seventeenth

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<v Speaker 1>century Osaka, Japan, shimogo collectors would travel across the city

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<v Speaker 1>gathering what roughly translates in English to night soil. The

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<v Speaker 1>words most literal translation shows up as fertilizer from the

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<v Speaker 1>bottom of a person. They were in the business of

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<v Speaker 1>gathering human feces, bringing the waste den to the docks

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<v Speaker 1>and loading it into the bellies of waiting sewage ships.

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<v Speaker 1>From there, the boats would transport the human waste to

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<v Speaker 1>farmers who would compost it and transform it into incredibly

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<v Speaker 1>rich fertilizer. Those farmers then fed the urbanites. It was

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<v Speaker 1>a beautiful, albeit smelly cycle without them. Without this cycle,

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<v Speaker 1>Japan would have been a much hungrier place. Life beget

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<v Speaker 1>poop and poop beget life. But life doesn't always mean health.

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<v Speaker 1>As history tells us, we know that toilets and what

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<v Speaker 1>goes in them could be a profound source of illness.

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<v Speaker 1>But although humans did their best to keep their waste

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<v Speaker 1>out of sight, some lingering issues meant that it was

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<v Speaker 1>never out of mind. In the summer of eighteen fifty eight, London,

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<v Speaker 1>the largest and wealthiest city on earth at the time,

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<v Speaker 1>had a problem. It had been an unseasonably hot, dry,

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<v Speaker 1>and wildly unpleasant summer, so much so that it had

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<v Speaker 1>even won itself a nickname, the Great Stink. No one

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<v Speaker 1>could escape the heavy blanket of stench. Fueled by the

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<v Speaker 1>putrid state of the River Thames and the crumbling state

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<v Speaker 1>of London sewer system. The populations in areas surrounding the

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<v Speaker 1>River Thames were rapidly expanding, more than doubling between eighteen

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<v Speaker 1>hundred and eighteen fifty. The river had long served as

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<v Speaker 1>an out of sight, out of mind solution for what

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<v Speaker 1>to do with human waste for centuries, people depositing their

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<v Speaker 1>waste in it and assuming the current would just take

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<v Speaker 1>it all far far away. This was all compounded by

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<v Speaker 1>a relatively new invention that was beginning to work its

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<v Speaker 1>way into homes of wealthy Londoners, and which was later

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<v Speaker 1>described by some as the most life saving invention of

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<v Speaker 1>all time, the flushable toilet enclosed in water closets. The

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<v Speaker 1>water closets, which were just toilets enclosed in small rooms

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<v Speaker 1>discharged far more liquid into the cesspools than the average

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<v Speaker 1>chamber pot. And as this innovation became more and more

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<v Speaker 1>popular and people began installing more of them in their homes,

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<v Speaker 1>the household cesspools began to fully saturate and overflow. Soon

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<v Speaker 1>the streets were being flooded by these cesspools, spreading stench, vermin,

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<v Speaker 1>and disease. As for the poor River Thames and all

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<v Speaker 1>the people it served, the unusually hot summer had caused

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<v Speaker 1>her to dry up more than usual. What was revealed

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<v Speaker 1>in the lower water line were festering masses of hot

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<v Speaker 1>baking waste, and a time before germ theory became popularized,

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<v Speaker 1>it was believed that most diseases were borne by miasma,

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<v Speaker 1>or the lethal vapors given off by decaying organic matter.

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<v Speaker 1>It's reported that those who went too close to the

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<v Speaker 1>Thames suffered from fainting spells and seizure fits. Some would vomit.

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<v Speaker 1>One legend reports that a woman tried to end her

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<v Speaker 1>life by jumping into the river, but was first knocked

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<v Speaker 1>unconscious by its fumes. The government attempted to neutralize this

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<v Speaker 1>problem by dumping chalk lime, chloride of lime and carbolic

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<v Speaker 1>acid into the river, but efforts fell short. Sanitary conditions

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<v Speaker 1>had reached epically bad proportions, and the problem, of course,

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<v Speaker 1>was worse than just the smell. You see, London had

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<v Speaker 1>suffered a series of cholera outbreaks, and at that point

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<v Speaker 1>it was believed that cholera was contracted by inhaling bad air.

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<v Speaker 1>With this logic, it was assumed that the foul River

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<v Speaker 1>Thames was a health hazard, and it was The Thames

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<v Speaker 1>was likely to blame for a lot of the city's illnesses,

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<v Speaker 1>but not for the reasons that Londoners thought. It turns

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<v Speaker 1>out that cholera wasn't airborne, but it was wasteborn. Toilets

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<v Speaker 1>were becoming more popular and moving beyond the ranks of

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<v Speaker 1>the financial elites. More sewage was being dumped into the

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<v Speaker 1>River Thames day by day, even though it was often

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<v Speaker 1>the main water supply that people used in their homes.

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<v Speaker 1>It was bathing water, it was drinking water. It took

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<v Speaker 1>four decades before new, more appropriate drainage systems were engineered

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<v Speaker 1>and fully implemented. Toilets were beginning to catch on across

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<v Speaker 1>the world through the nineteenth century and cities were struggling

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<v Speaker 1>to keep up. Across the pond, another public sanitation crisis

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<v Speaker 1>was brewing. This one, though, it'd be the impetus behind

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<v Speaker 1>one of the greatest marvels of engineering in recent history.

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<v Speaker 1>Those who developed Chicago only had to look to Europe

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<v Speaker 1>to see what happens when a city grows too large,

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<v Speaker 1>too quickly. In eighteen fifty, Chicago's population was nearly thirty

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<v Speaker 1>thousand by eighteen fifty three. Just three years later, it

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<v Speaker 1>had doubled. In eighteen fifty four, a cholera outbreak killed

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<v Speaker 1>six percent of the city's population, and leaders knew that

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<v Speaker 1>they had to do something drastic. They knew that illness

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<v Speaker 1>was linked to waste, and it just seemed that waste

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<v Speaker 1>was everywhere. So when the city appointed its Board of

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<v Speaker 1>Sewage Commissioners in eighteen fifty five, they tasked engineer Ellis

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<v Speaker 1>Sylvester Chessboro to do what seemed impossible. No city in

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<v Speaker 1>America had a sewage system, and they wanted him to

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<v Speaker 1>create the first one. After striking out on a handful

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<v Speaker 1>of ideas, he ultimately settled on the final plan. The

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<v Speaker 1>city would need to drain the sewage into the river,

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<v Speaker 1>which would then be drained into Lake Michigan, diluting the

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<v Speaker 1>sewage and dispersing what they believed to be the disease

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<v Speaker 1>ridden stench. But first, in order to do this, he

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<v Speaker 1>would need to raise the city. Chicago was roughly sea level,

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<v Speaker 1>and he needed it to be higher. At its highest point,

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<v Speaker 1>the city sat only about five feet above the surrounding waterways,

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<v Speaker 1>and the success of Ellis's solution was predicated on his

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<v Speaker 1>ability to get gravity to work for him. Starting the

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<v Speaker 1>next year and carrying on for the next twenty, Chicago

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<v Speaker 1>raised its city streets anywhere from two to fourteen feet.

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<v Speaker 1>The new streets looked like ramps and were often level

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<v Speaker 1>with the second story of some homes. Many of those

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<v Speaker 1>ground floors even became cellars, and this worked according to

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<v Speaker 1>Ellis's plan. Things seemed to be draining as they should,

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<v Speaker 1>but the lake still supplied the city's drinking water, and

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<v Speaker 1>it became evident that widespread contamination was still only a

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<v Speaker 1>matter of time. In the back of his mind, he

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<v Speaker 1>knew this. He knew the choice was a flawed one,

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<v Speaker 1>but he thought it was the best one he could

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<v Speaker 1>could make given the information that he had available to

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<v Speaker 1>him at the time. As a more permanent solution for

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<v Speaker 1>handling the waste from the booming city, Ellis proposed something

0:13:08.960 --> 0:13:12.720
<v Speaker 1>much more dramatic, something unheard of. He wanted to reverse

0:13:12.760 --> 0:13:16.720
<v Speaker 1>the direction of the Chicago River entirely, sending it backward

0:13:16.800 --> 0:13:21.240
<v Speaker 1>away from Lake Michigan and into the Mississippi. He identified

0:13:21.240 --> 0:13:24.680
<v Speaker 1>a subcontinental divide just west of the city. He believed

0:13:24.720 --> 0:13:27.280
<v Speaker 1>if they could only dig a small, deep canal through it,

0:13:27.559 --> 0:13:30.600
<v Speaker 1>then gravity would do its job and carry the water away.

0:13:31.120 --> 0:13:33.720
<v Speaker 1>This idea, of course, seemed to be marvelous and to

0:13:33.720 --> 0:13:36.840
<v Speaker 1>some extent entirely short sighted. It would be a feat

0:13:36.920 --> 0:13:40.720
<v Speaker 1>of engineering, but not necessarily of sanitation. They were worried

0:13:40.760 --> 0:13:43.720
<v Speaker 1>about miasma's stench and hadn't come to understand that the

0:13:43.760 --> 0:13:47.000
<v Speaker 1>pathogens were in fact waterborn. It just sent the problem

0:13:47.080 --> 0:13:51.920
<v Speaker 1>to their neighbors downstream. Chicago claimed that the solution was dilution,

0:13:52.400 --> 0:13:55.600
<v Speaker 1>but downriver Saint Louis, Missouri didn't buy it. So while

0:13:55.600 --> 0:13:58.960
<v Speaker 1>the city explored its legal options, the citizens of Chicago

0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:02.640
<v Speaker 1>clamored for their clean water at last, after many years

0:14:02.640 --> 0:14:06.079
<v Speaker 1>of delays, On September third of eighteen ninety two, thousands

0:14:06.080 --> 0:14:09.760
<v Speaker 1>of diggers got to work. They brought their shovels, horses, wagons,

0:14:09.760 --> 0:14:12.520
<v Speaker 1>and dynamite to carve a new pathway for the river.

0:14:13.000 --> 0:14:15.840
<v Speaker 1>In all, they excavated more than forty two million cubic

0:14:15.920 --> 0:14:18.720
<v Speaker 1>yards of rock and soil to the tune of twenty

0:14:18.760 --> 0:14:22.680
<v Speaker 1>eight miles. On January Tewod of nineteen hundred, quietly and

0:14:22.840 --> 0:14:26.200
<v Speaker 1>under the cover of night, a few canal commissioners, their wives,

0:14:26.240 --> 0:14:29.240
<v Speaker 1>and a small number of reporters broke the final dam

0:14:29.280 --> 0:14:32.160
<v Speaker 1>connecting the canal to the des Plains River, which then

0:14:32.200 --> 0:14:34.960
<v Speaker 1>linked up with the Mississippi and then finally flowed out

0:14:35.040 --> 0:14:38.040
<v Speaker 1>into the Gulf of Mexico. And it worked. After a

0:14:38.080 --> 0:14:40.800
<v Speaker 1>few days time, the Chicago Record reported the river to

0:14:40.840 --> 0:14:44.120
<v Speaker 1>be turning blue. Some even noted the clear colored ice

0:14:44.160 --> 0:14:48.240
<v Speaker 1>that flowed by backwards. The citizens of Chicago would stop

0:14:48.320 --> 0:14:51.000
<v Speaker 1>to stare in amazement at what had taken place in

0:14:51.040 --> 0:14:54.360
<v Speaker 1>their city and to their water, And as they did,

0:14:54.840 --> 0:15:04.680
<v Speaker 1>they hoped for brighter and healthier days ahead. Keeping ourselves

0:15:04.720 --> 0:15:07.400
<v Speaker 1>free from waste and disease has driven us to major

0:15:07.440 --> 0:15:11.280
<v Speaker 1>technological undertakings. In the case of re routing the Chicago River,

0:15:11.360 --> 0:15:13.840
<v Speaker 1>more earth was moved in that effort than ever before

0:15:14.000 --> 0:15:18.000
<v Speaker 1>in human history. The machines used for excavation developed and

0:15:18.120 --> 0:15:21.040
<v Speaker 1>used in Chicago would eventually help dig the Panama Canal

0:15:21.200 --> 0:15:23.920
<v Speaker 1>just a few years later. For the city's efforts, their

0:15:23.960 --> 0:15:26.840
<v Speaker 1>problem of the build up of raw sewage and industrial

0:15:26.880 --> 0:15:31.360
<v Speaker 1>waste contaminating their city's water was solved as the construction continued.

0:15:31.360 --> 0:15:34.240
<v Speaker 1>In years to follow, new extensions of the canal were

0:15:34.280 --> 0:15:38.240
<v Speaker 1>also built, but of course this problem merely shifted. Those

0:15:38.320 --> 0:15:41.840
<v Speaker 1>downstream were less happy, and a host of environmental issues

0:15:41.880 --> 0:15:45.680
<v Speaker 1>developed as a result. Saint Louis continued its crusade, but

0:15:45.720 --> 0:15:48.640
<v Speaker 1>the city of Chicago denied its culpability. In the first

0:15:48.680 --> 0:15:52.400
<v Speaker 1>pollution case ever brought before the Supreme Court, Chicago defended

0:15:52.400 --> 0:15:55.560
<v Speaker 1>itself by pointing its finger at these several other cities

0:15:55.640 --> 0:15:58.760
<v Speaker 1>closer to Saint Louis that were discharging their waste into

0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:01.560
<v Speaker 1>their waterways. It was determined that Saint Louis had no

0:16:01.640 --> 0:16:04.840
<v Speaker 1>recourse and ended up building a filtration system for the

0:16:04.880 --> 0:16:08.400
<v Speaker 1>incoming water. Others were concerned with the diversion of fresh

0:16:08.480 --> 0:16:11.760
<v Speaker 1>water away from Lake Michigan and its surrounding areas. The

0:16:11.840 --> 0:16:14.120
<v Speaker 1>Supreme Court ruled that locks and gates had to be

0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:17.560
<v Speaker 1>installed to help control this process, but according to one report,

0:16:17.840 --> 0:16:20.920
<v Speaker 1>over twenty three thousand gallons of fresh water are still

0:16:20.960 --> 0:16:24.760
<v Speaker 1>diverted downstream every second. The influx of water into the

0:16:24.800 --> 0:16:28.960
<v Speaker 1>Mississippi has caused a host of other environmental disasters. It

0:16:29.040 --> 0:16:34.560
<v Speaker 1>flooded farmland, introduced invasive species, created uninhabitable environments, and brought

0:16:34.600 --> 0:16:37.840
<v Speaker 1>pollution all the way to the Gulf. But it's not

0:16:37.880 --> 0:16:41.880
<v Speaker 1>just Chicago, and it's not just the Mississippi River. Even today,

0:16:42.160 --> 0:16:45.920
<v Speaker 1>cities across the world still pump their wastewater untreated into

0:16:45.960 --> 0:16:49.600
<v Speaker 1>their waterways. Sometimes it's on purpose, other times these sewer

0:16:49.640 --> 0:16:53.080
<v Speaker 1>systems fail due to watery weather events. We now have

0:16:53.160 --> 0:16:56.360
<v Speaker 1>a better idea of how to manage wasteborn illnesses. We

0:16:56.480 --> 0:16:59.480
<v Speaker 1>teach small children to wash their hands and shudder when

0:16:59.520 --> 0:17:01.760
<v Speaker 1>we notice some one walking out of a public restroom

0:17:01.800 --> 0:17:05.359
<v Speaker 1>without doing so. But around the world, sanitation measures and

0:17:05.400 --> 0:17:08.520
<v Speaker 1>their failings are still responsible for the spread of disease

0:17:08.760 --> 0:17:12.080
<v Speaker 1>and death. The Centers for Disease Control released a study

0:17:12.119 --> 0:17:15.639
<v Speaker 1>in twenty twenty finding that two point three billion people

0:17:15.760 --> 0:17:19.520
<v Speaker 1>lacked basic hygiene services and one point six billion people

0:17:19.560 --> 0:17:23.640
<v Speaker 1>had access to hand washing facilities that lacked water or soap.

0:17:23.800 --> 0:17:27.199
<v Speaker 1>They went on to estimate that if everyone had appropriate resources,

0:17:27.320 --> 0:17:31.680
<v Speaker 1>access and education about hand washing, one million deaths could

0:17:31.680 --> 0:17:35.360
<v Speaker 1>be prevented each year. So don't forget to soap up

0:17:35.760 --> 0:17:44.400
<v Speaker 1>after all, clean hands save lives for something that's such

0:17:44.440 --> 0:17:47.359
<v Speaker 1>a benign act of the every day. It's fascinating to

0:17:47.400 --> 0:17:51.400
<v Speaker 1>know that relieving oneself has such a dynamic and complicated history.

0:17:51.840 --> 0:17:54.600
<v Speaker 1>Stick around through this brief sponsor break, and my teammate

0:17:54.720 --> 0:17:58.159
<v Speaker 1>Robin Minitter will tell you one more story about the invisible,

0:17:58.280 --> 0:18:05.560
<v Speaker 1>everyday world of newer systems.

0:18:07.080 --> 0:18:09.280
<v Speaker 2>Almost eight and a half million people call New York

0:18:09.320 --> 0:18:11.880
<v Speaker 2>City home, and you can find just about anything there,

0:18:12.240 --> 0:18:14.720
<v Speaker 2>and with that kind of density there are always bound

0:18:14.760 --> 0:18:18.320
<v Speaker 2>to be some surprises. In twenty ten, an alligator was

0:18:18.320 --> 0:18:20.800
<v Speaker 2>spotted in the streets and naturally caused a bit of

0:18:20.840 --> 0:18:23.320
<v Speaker 2>a stir, but it probably didn't cause a lot of shock.

0:18:24.080 --> 0:18:27.000
<v Speaker 2>After all, if you've spent any time there, you've definitely

0:18:27.000 --> 0:18:29.560
<v Speaker 2>heard about the legends of gators hanging out below the

0:18:29.600 --> 0:18:33.280
<v Speaker 2>city streets. On February ninth, nineteen thirty five, The New

0:18:33.359 --> 0:18:36.520
<v Speaker 2>York Times published a headline that read, alligator found an

0:18:36.640 --> 0:18:39.960
<v Speaker 2>uptown sewer. As the story went, a group of teenage

0:18:39.960 --> 0:18:42.399
<v Speaker 2>boys were shoveling snow down a sewer drain when one

0:18:42.480 --> 0:18:45.399
<v Speaker 2>yelled in excitement he had seen movement and told his

0:18:45.400 --> 0:18:49.359
<v Speaker 2>friends what he spotted was in fact, an alligator. The

0:18:49.400 --> 0:18:51.440
<v Speaker 2>story then goes on to report that they lasted the

0:18:51.480 --> 0:18:53.920
<v Speaker 2>creature with the clothes line, hauled it out, and beat

0:18:53.920 --> 0:18:56.640
<v Speaker 2>it with their shovels. At one hundred and twenty five

0:18:56.680 --> 0:18:59.600
<v Speaker 2>pounds and eight feet long, it was also now very

0:18:59.760 --> 0:19:03.840
<v Speaker 2>bare ver dead. Stories of city sewer gators can be

0:19:03.880 --> 0:19:07.160
<v Speaker 2>traced back to the early nineteen twenties. To sell copies

0:19:07.160 --> 0:19:09.680
<v Speaker 2>and turn a profit, it wasn't uncommon for newspapers to

0:19:09.720 --> 0:19:13.720
<v Speaker 2>publish hoaxes the original fake news if he will. Famously,

0:19:13.880 --> 0:19:16.560
<v Speaker 2>The New York Sun ran an entire series about creatures

0:19:16.560 --> 0:19:19.640
<v Speaker 2>on the Moon shock full of fake interviews and everything.

0:19:20.080 --> 0:19:22.040
<v Speaker 2>But in the case of the boy's unfortunate at gaiter,

0:19:22.280 --> 0:19:24.720
<v Speaker 2>there was a kernel of truth to be had. Their

0:19:24.760 --> 0:19:29.439
<v Speaker 2>creature was indeed real, and upon further investigation, it seems

0:19:29.440 --> 0:19:31.280
<v Speaker 2>that the gater had hitched a ride aboard a ship

0:19:31.320 --> 0:19:34.560
<v Speaker 2>coming up from Florida and accidentally gotten itself flopped into

0:19:34.640 --> 0:19:38.439
<v Speaker 2>the East River. Sewer inspectors themselves first reported seeing gaiters

0:19:38.440 --> 0:19:41.359
<v Speaker 2>below the streets in nineteen thirty five, the Commissioner of

0:19:41.359 --> 0:19:44.000
<v Speaker 2>New York City tenny May believed that these men were

0:19:44.080 --> 0:19:47.200
<v Speaker 2>just drinking on the job, but he went down for himself,

0:19:47.280 --> 0:19:49.920
<v Speaker 2>and he was shocked of what he found. His flashlight

0:19:49.920 --> 0:19:53.600
<v Speaker 2>showed gaiters, indeed, averaging about two feet in length. So

0:19:53.640 --> 0:19:55.680
<v Speaker 2>he set out on a campaign to rid the sewers

0:19:55.680 --> 0:19:58.520
<v Speaker 2>of them, and hired men with twenty two caliber rifles

0:19:58.600 --> 0:20:01.359
<v Speaker 2>to do it. Years later, he announced that they had

0:20:01.359 --> 0:20:06.159
<v Speaker 2>all been exterminated, at least the alligators underground, but the

0:20:06.160 --> 0:20:09.240
<v Speaker 2>alligators kept popping up. They were found north of Manhattan

0:20:09.280 --> 0:20:12.000
<v Speaker 2>in Westchester County, and on a subway platform in Brooklyn.

0:20:12.680 --> 0:20:14.720
<v Speaker 2>A barge captain even pulled a five footer out of

0:20:14.720 --> 0:20:17.760
<v Speaker 2>the East River in nineteen thirty seven and reportedly decided

0:20:17.800 --> 0:20:20.119
<v Speaker 2>to keep it as a pet. It was reported that

0:20:20.160 --> 0:20:22.880
<v Speaker 2>the Bronx River was swarming with them. An authority set

0:20:22.920 --> 0:20:25.680
<v Speaker 2>out to capture them for an installation at the zoo.

0:20:25.840 --> 0:20:27.720
<v Speaker 2>But where did all of these gators come from? You

0:20:27.800 --> 0:20:31.680
<v Speaker 2>might ask? Well, before Amazon took over, we used to

0:20:31.800 --> 0:20:33.439
<v Speaker 2>order a lot of things from the back pages of

0:20:33.440 --> 0:20:36.080
<v Speaker 2>all kinds of magazines, and in the backs of the

0:20:36.119 --> 0:20:39.320
<v Speaker 2>magazines aimed at young boys pistoled all kinds of stuff,

0:20:39.600 --> 0:20:45.359
<v Speaker 2>practical jokes, card games, and even baby alligators. For one

0:20:45.480 --> 0:20:47.840
<v Speaker 2>fifty at pop you could have your very own baby

0:20:47.840 --> 0:20:50.840
<v Speaker 2>dinosaur ship to you right through the US Postal Service.

0:20:51.400 --> 0:20:53.760
<v Speaker 2>It was a brisk business in those days, especially for

0:20:53.800 --> 0:20:56.800
<v Speaker 2>the kids whose parents wouldn't get them a dog. And

0:20:56.840 --> 0:20:59.040
<v Speaker 2>I'm sure that there were many parents who, upon meeting

0:20:59.080 --> 0:21:01.280
<v Speaker 2>their new room rate we usually had just gotten their

0:21:01.320 --> 0:21:05.119
<v Speaker 2>kid at puppy and then probably made their kid flush

0:21:05.200 --> 0:21:07.200
<v Speaker 2>their new friends down the drain.

0:21:09.480 --> 0:21:13.640
<v Speaker 1>Grimm and Mild Presents Bedside Manners was executive produced by

0:21:13.680 --> 0:21:17.240
<v Speaker 1>Aaron Manke and narrated by Aaron Mankey and Robin Minitter.

0:21:17.680 --> 0:21:21.000
<v Speaker 1>Writing for this season was provided by Robin Miniter, with

0:21:21.160 --> 0:21:25.640
<v Speaker 1>research by Sam Alberty, Taylor Haggerdorn and Robin Minutter. Production

0:21:25.720 --> 0:21:30.159
<v Speaker 1>assistants was provided by Josh Thain, Jesse Funk, Alex Williams,

0:21:30.359 --> 0:21:33.240
<v Speaker 1>and Matt Frederick. You can learn more about this show,

0:21:33.359 --> 0:21:35.960
<v Speaker 1>the Grimm and Mild team and all the other podcasts

0:21:36.000 --> 0:21:40.440
<v Speaker 1>that we make over at Grimandmild dot com, and as always,

0:21:40.840 --> 0:21:41.800
<v Speaker 1>thanks for listening