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Speaker 1: Guess what, mango? Do you remember that scene in Spaceballs

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Speaker 1: where mel Brooks opens up a can of Perry Air?

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Speaker 1: Did you know that's actually kind of a thing in

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Speaker 1: China now? Is selling air there? Well? I don't think

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Speaker 1: that company actually exists, but Canadians are doing this. So

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Speaker 1: The Washington posted his story on this guy named Moses

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Speaker 1: Lamb and it started as kind of a gag, but

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Speaker 1: he put a zip block full of fresh Canadian air

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Speaker 1: on eBay. It took two months to sell, and it

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Speaker 1: sold for a whopping, which sounds like a great business.

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Speaker 1: But he was bored with his day job, so he

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Speaker 1: decided to try it again. And guess how much? The

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Speaker 1: next bag sold for a hundred and sixty eight dollars.

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Speaker 1: So he started packaging it better and for thirty two

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Speaker 1: dollars a can, and they've been selling like hot And

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Speaker 1: he isn't the only one. I decided to do a

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Speaker 1: little research on this, and there's a whole industry around this. There.

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Speaker 1: Eucalyptus lay six packs from Australia, Rocky Mountain air straight

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Speaker 1: from the Colorado, even air from the Swiss Alps, and

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Speaker 1: people in Beijing are going crazy for it. Does anyone

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Speaker 1: in China do the reverse, like, do they like package

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Speaker 1: their smog for people living abroad? Well, I know you're joking,

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Speaker 1: but actually this does happen when I was doing the

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Speaker 1: looking into this. So novelty cans of Beijing air are

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Speaker 1: huge sellers, and the ingredients listed on them are pretty great.

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Speaker 1: It says nitrogen, oxygen and other stuff. But reading about

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Speaker 1: packaged there made me wonder what's actually in the stuff

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Speaker 1: around us and what crazy stories are hiding in every

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Speaker 1: breath we take. And that's what this episode is all about. Hey,

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Speaker 1: their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will

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Speaker 1: Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good friend

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Speaker 1: man guest how Ticketer, And in today's episode, we're talking

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Speaker 1: about the stories literally hanging in the air. But before

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Speaker 1: we get to that, we've got some housekeeping to take

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Speaker 1: care of. You're talking about Pan Piguan. Yes, you may

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Speaker 1: remember from a few episodes ago it was called what's

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Speaker 1: the most American Place. We challenged our listeners to come

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Speaker 1: up with this mnemonic device to help us remember the

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Speaker 1: five territories that are part of the United States but

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Speaker 1: actually not one of the United States. Puerto Rico, Guam,

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Speaker 1: the US, Virgin Islands, American Samoa and Northern Mariana Islands.

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Speaker 1: And I think mine was pancakes grow under a nice

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Speaker 1: tree to help remember those? What was yours again? Uh?

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Speaker 1: What was it? It It was like pickles. Pickles get ugly

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Speaker 1: after negotiations. Yeah, that's what it was. So we asked

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Speaker 1: listeners to send in their own, and they came flooding in.

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Speaker 1: It was pretty awesome to see. So I wanted to

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Speaker 1: recognize some of those, and we've got some prizes to

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Speaker 1: give away. One that I thought was pretty terrific was

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Speaker 1: and very simple, but I thought easy to remember. From

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Speaker 1: Fred Kruk. We have pine nuts are unusually good, unusually good,

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Speaker 1: all right? The best trio of responses. Kelly Lawson in

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Speaker 1: Um Georgia sent this one, as she actually sent three,

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Speaker 1: and we've got pirates go ashore under nightfall, people get

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Speaker 1: uneasy around Ninja's and politics get ugly around November like

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Speaker 1: also are so good? All right? You got a T

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Speaker 1: shirt coming to you, Kelly. And let's see what other

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Speaker 1: we've got two more. We tried to come up with

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Speaker 1: the top three, but it was just too hard to

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Speaker 1: do this. I have to admit this might actually be

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Speaker 1: my favorite from Brett Wilkes in Massachusetts. Paul Giamat's undershirts

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Speaker 1: are nuanced, just so nuanced, all right. And then one

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Speaker 1: that was um actually used more letters to use both

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Speaker 1: letters and some of these pose Raven gave us vodka

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Speaker 1: and said never more, and I just thought that was awesome,

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Speaker 1: all right, So you guys are winners. And then one

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Speaker 1: that was just crazy complicated, and I thought, because it

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Speaker 1: was even more difficult to remember than just remembering the names,

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Speaker 1: I think deserves a prize. Rob Brown, Um, you're gonna

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Speaker 1: be getting a prize as well. So his explanation, Since

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Speaker 1: Demonic begins with a silent M, I suggest the following

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Speaker 1: Northern Mariana's American Samoa guam Us, Virgin Island, Puerto Rico

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Speaker 1: becomes Mascus viper. The end, of course, is silent pronounced

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Speaker 1: the Mascus with a silent like with us, which sounds

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Speaker 1: a little like Damascus, and then the rest sounds like viper.

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Speaker 1: It's so complicated, but but I love that, So Rob,

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Speaker 1: you're going to be getting a prize too, So thank

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Speaker 1: you all for participating in this contest. That is pretty awesome.

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Speaker 1: But let's dig into today's episode topic, you know, one

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Speaker 1: of the things that really inspired this episode was Sam

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Speaker 1: Kaine's new book called Caesar's Last Breath. Yeah, that's right,

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Speaker 1: we'll have Samon in just a bit. And you know

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Speaker 1: what his book kind of reminded me of. So here's

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Speaker 1: a book that came out a few years ago called

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Speaker 1: Twinkie Deconstructed, where the author looked at the back of

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Speaker 1: a Twinkie package and realized there were like thirty nine

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Speaker 1: ingredients that go into Twinkies. Then many he didn't recognize.

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Speaker 1: A whole bunch of them were unpronounceable. So we decided

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Speaker 1: to chase down the story for each one, and each

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Speaker 1: chapter is about a different ingredient. So he goes down

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Speaker 1: to mind Shaft and Idaho, He's chasing across this field

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Speaker 1: in China, and it's crazy, but that's kind of what

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Speaker 1: Sam does. Like he looks at a single breath of

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Speaker 1: air and goes down a rabbit hole on the elements

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Speaker 1: and compounds in air and it is fascinating. Yeah. But

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Speaker 1: the funny thing is, as soon as I started researching

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Speaker 1: air and this is so me, but I immediately wanted

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Speaker 1: to go to Tangent Town, like I know where someone

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Speaker 1: to be talking oxygen and nitrogen and argon and whatever.

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Speaker 1: But I immediately wanted to talk about like an air

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Speaker 1: hockey game some students invented, and air guitar competitions, and honestly,

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Speaker 1: anything but chemistry spoken like the son of a chemical engineer,

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Speaker 1: and that would be you. Yeah, well, just to be warned,

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Speaker 1: I've got this pile of non essential facts for the

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Speaker 1: fact off that all have the word air in them,

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Speaker 1: like air fresheners. Can't wait for this. By the way,

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Speaker 1: do you know the inspiration for those little tree air

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Speaker 1: fresheners that hang in taxis? I mean, I've seen those

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Speaker 1: a million times, but now I don't know where those

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Speaker 1: came from. You probably realize it's a bad smell, but

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Speaker 1: more specifically, they got to start when this chemist overheard

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Speaker 1: a milkman crying over spilled milk, or rather that he

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Speaker 1: hated the smell of the spilled milk in his truck. Anyway,

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Speaker 1: the chemist wasn't immigrant from Europe, and he started thinking

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Speaker 1: that a little like alpine scent from his homeland could help.

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Speaker 1: So he designed the air freshener. But strangely, the first

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Speaker 1: ones weren't tree shaped. They were shaped like pin up girls.

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Speaker 1: But He didn't change the design because it was sexist.

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Speaker 1: It was just that it was easier to pull plastic

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Speaker 1: off a tree pattern, So that's why he changed it

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Speaker 1: from a woman's shop. It's weird to think about the

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Speaker 1: fact that there were just all these things that we noticed,

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Speaker 1: but we don't ever stop to question why they're that way.

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Speaker 1: You know, I've been again and hundreds of calves and

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Speaker 1: you just are like, oh, well, they're just all shaped

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Speaker 1: like trees. I don't really know why, but they are

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Speaker 1: the other awesome things that like, his family's owned this

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Speaker 1: company for three generations and they claimed that they've sold

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Speaker 1: as many air fresheners as McDonald's has sold Hamburgers over

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Speaker 1: the airs. Oh my god, I would imagine that things

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Speaker 1: are crazy profitable to all. Right, to keep us on

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Speaker 1: track here, So just like sleep flavor, two topics we've

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Speaker 1: covered here on the show, the reason we chose air

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Speaker 1: is that it's something that's easy to overlook, you know,

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Speaker 1: partially because it's invisible. But the other reason we don't

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Speaker 1: think about it very often is that, honestly, we just

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Speaker 1: don't have to. Yeah, I mean, breathing happens automatically, and

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Speaker 1: I'm consciously under normal circumstances. So unless something is actually wrong,

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Speaker 1: we're not really concentrating on our breath. That just keeps

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Speaker 1: going on in the background. But until we researched it

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Speaker 1: for this episode, like, I had no idea what the

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Speaker 1: numbers look like. Like you could have told me, like,

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Speaker 1: we take five thousand breaths a day or a million

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Speaker 1: breaths in a day, and I probably would have believed you. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I probably would too, But what's the real number? Thank

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Speaker 1: you for crying that up. I actually have those numbers

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Speaker 1: right here. So the average adult takes a breath once

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Speaker 1: every four seconds, So most people are taking somewhere in

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Speaker 1: the neighborhood of like twenty thousand breaths to day, and

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Speaker 1: it can be closer to fifty if you're really active.

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Speaker 1: But you can imagine if every one of those breaths

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Speaker 1: was a conscious action, we'd never get anything done. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean, there's no way for us to be as

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Speaker 1: picky about our breathing as we are out eating or drinking.

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Speaker 1: We'd lose our minds if it was something we actually

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Speaker 1: thought about. Yeah, And I'm so used to thinking of

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Speaker 1: airs like a single thing, but air is actually a

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Speaker 1: combination of tons and tons of different gas molecules. Like

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Speaker 1: in his book Sam keenes as a normal human breath

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Speaker 1: is about a half liter of air, which breaks down

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Speaker 1: to over twelve sex tillion molecules. That doesn't even sound

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Speaker 1: like a real number. I'm pretty sure you just wanted

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Speaker 1: to say sex. But so, how many zeros are at

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Speaker 1: the end of a sex tillion? I know, I had

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Speaker 1: to actually look this up. There are twenty one. Oh

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Speaker 1: my god, it's a staggering amount of zero. It's also

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Speaker 1: a crazy number of molecules for a single So that's

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Speaker 1: a single breath. Yeah, and imagine like we're taking twenty

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Speaker 1: thousand breaths a day. I don't even want to think

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Speaker 1: about that. That's crazy. Yeah. So what's even weirder is

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Speaker 1: that a large portion of the gas molecules and every

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Speaker 1: breath we take are recycled from someone else's. So no

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Speaker 1: matter where you are in the world, no matter how

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Speaker 1: fresh and clean the air scenes, even if you're getting

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Speaker 1: it from like a six pack of your Rocky mountain

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Speaker 1: air that you're talking about, it's a certainty that some

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Speaker 1: of what you're breathing is really second and breath, or

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Speaker 1: third hand or fourth hand or fifth hand, which is

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Speaker 1: a little unsettling, but I don't know, maybe kind of sweet.

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Speaker 1: I mean, breath seems like this intimate thing to share

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Speaker 1: with someone. So the fact that we're all swapping it

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Speaker 1: around every four seconds, that means we're all tapping into

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Speaker 1: this invisible shared history between us. Yeah, it's like a

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Speaker 1: brotherhood of breath, which is this wonderful, poetic notion. I

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Speaker 1: was kidding, it's actually kind of gross, really, like, think

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Speaker 1: about people breathing on you. But the really crazy thing

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Speaker 1: is how far back that shared history goes. Like the

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Speaker 1: air we breathe is never completely lost or destroyed, is

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Speaker 1: just redistributed. So the title of Sam's book hints at

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Speaker 1: this by bringing up Caesar. He breathes dying breath like

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Speaker 1: over two thousand years ago. But those sextillion gas molecules

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Speaker 1: they live on and wind spread them all over the

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Speaker 1: world in a matter of weeks, and Da've been breathing

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Speaker 1: and out in different combinations ever since. In fact, it

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Speaker 1: turns out that approximately one particle of Caesar's last breath

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Speaker 1: will be found in the very next one you take.

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Speaker 1: So multiply that by the number of breaths you take

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Speaker 1: per day, and you're literally inhaling thousands of microsoftic bits

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Speaker 1: of Caesar's secondhand air every single day of your life. Wow,

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Speaker 1: that is pretty nuts, And I'm still sticking with the

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Speaker 1: fact that that's a little bit gross, but especially when

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Speaker 1: you consider that has to be true of every person's breath,

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Speaker 1: not just Caesar's. Yeah, the other thing I didn't realize

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Speaker 1: was just how fluid there is. Like, in fact, any

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Speaker 1: expulsion of air anywhere in the world will reach you

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Speaker 1: within the span of two weeks, two months, or a

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Speaker 1: year or two depending on where you are in relation

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Speaker 1: to it. You can almost imagine it as the sea

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Speaker 1: of gas is flowing across the whole world. That is

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Speaker 1: really wild. Actually this isn't an air tangent. But what

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Speaker 1: about fluid dynamics. Do you know that scientists that you

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Speaker 1: see Santa Barbara have studied why we tend to spill

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Speaker 1: coffee from our mugs when we walk, Like apparently because

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Speaker 1: of our gate and the way the coffee moves, we

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Speaker 1: naturally create this oscillation that will spill the drink between

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Speaker 1: our seventh and tenth steps. I love that there's a

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Speaker 1: study around this. Yeah, so if you actually like slow

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Speaker 1: down every fifth or sixth step, you should be golden.

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Speaker 1: That's pretty awesome. I actually I thought when you said

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Speaker 1: you were going to do a tangent, I thought this

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Speaker 1: was going to be about how mosh pits actually follow

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Speaker 1: fluid dynamic models, and how people in mosh pits act

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Speaker 1: the same way molecules and gas to I mean, they're

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Speaker 1: actually scientific papers on this. You know, it's crazy, Like

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Speaker 1: I was looking that up again and and I realized

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Speaker 1: that the scientists figured out that if you reshape how

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Speaker 1: a mosh pit works, people actually motion straight lines. They phenomenal.

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Speaker 1: I like the I like the phrase motion straight list. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: we'll have to do a totally different episode on like

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Speaker 1: fluid dynamics and the studies of like swimming in molasses

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Speaker 1: and whatever. All right, but now that we have an

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Speaker 1: idea on how air flows, why don't we talk about

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Speaker 1: its power and specifically how it's aided human flight. So

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Speaker 1: I'm guessing you want to talk about the right Brothers, No,

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Speaker 1: not the rights. I'm thinking we should go back to

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Speaker 1: the late seventeen hundreds, even before the rights, when another

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Speaker 1: Frenchman named Joseph Michelle Montgolfier was daydreaming about his wife's lingerie.

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Speaker 1: I love how much like laundren pin ups. So then

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Speaker 1: you mentioned the sextillion. It's just getting area to dirty fast.

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Speaker 1: But all right, so there's a great story here. Montgolfier

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Speaker 1: was watching his wife's laundry dry over a fire when

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Speaker 1: he noticed her underwear billowing and rising whenever the heat

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Speaker 1: from the flames increased. So he gets curious about what's

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Speaker 1: causing this lift, and he starts thinking about it, and

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Speaker 1: he decides that he could build this you know, sack

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Speaker 1: of air as he decides to lift himself in the

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Speaker 1: same way to possibly fly. So he tries a few

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Speaker 1: experiments and after some help from his younger brother, Montgolfier

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Speaker 1: succeeded in creating the world's first hot air balloon, which

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Speaker 1: he described as a cloud and a paper bag. That's

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Speaker 1: pretty amazing. So he figured that all out by watching

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Speaker 1: some laundry air. Well, that's the thing. So josephont Gulfier

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Speaker 1: was an amateur scientist at best. I mean, he was

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Speaker 1: a fan of chemistry rock stars like Priestley and Labassier,

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Speaker 1: but he could hardly claim to be an expert himself.

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Speaker 1: He actually thought it was the smoke from the fire

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Speaker 1: that would make the balloon rise, not the air itself.

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Speaker 1: So when the Montgolfier's held the first public demonstration of

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Speaker 1: an unman balloon flight, they got it airborne by building

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Speaker 1: the biggest smokiest bonfire they could. They burned wool, rabbit, skins, straw,

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Speaker 1: even old shoes. Can you imagine how bad the smelled? Terrible?

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Speaker 1: But the Montgolfier brothers had perfected their shoe burning technique

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Speaker 1: by the time they held their second flight. This time

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Speaker 1: they sent a sheep, a rooster, and I think a

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Speaker 1: duck airborne. And they were all in this little cage

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Speaker 1: that hung beneath the balloon, and the demonstration drew this

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Speaker 1: huge crowd. I think even King Louis the sixteenth was

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Speaker 1: there to watch this thing. As the balloon animals traveled

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Speaker 1: two miles before they touched down unharmed. Well, I'm glad

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Speaker 1: they arrived on harm But this is supposed to be

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Speaker 1: mankind's dream. Did the Montolfier has ever managed to get

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Speaker 1: a human airborne? They sure did, and King Louis had

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Speaker 1: suggested that their brothers send up two criminals first, just

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Speaker 1: in case something went wrong, But the Montgolfier's didn't think

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Speaker 1: the convicts worthy of the honor, so Instead, they decided

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Speaker 1: to enlist a physicist and a local marquis for the task.

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Speaker 1: It was on November three, and these men became the

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Speaker 1: first human beings in history to actually fly, which is

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Speaker 1: a huge honor. Yeah, though unfortunately the same physicist holds

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Speaker 1: a less prestigious title. Two years later, he became the

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Speaker 1: first flight fatality when his balloon caught fire. He was

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Speaker 1: trying to cross the English Channel at the time, which

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Speaker 1: is horrible. But before we move on, mind if I

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Speaker 1: cleared the air with one of my favorite hot air

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Speaker 1: balloon stories. All So, Tristan, can you cue the storytelling music?

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Speaker 1: So this is a story from East Germany in the

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Speaker 1: late nineteen seventies. He's two friends, Hans Strelzik and Gunther Wetzel,

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Speaker 1: both happened to watch a late night documentary on the

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Speaker 1: history of hot air balloons and it gave them this idea,

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Speaker 1: what if they used a balloon to flee communism and

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Speaker 1: hoped the Berlin Wall like It sounds obvious in theory

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Speaker 1: but pretty difficult in practice. And it helped that one

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Speaker 1: was a bricklayer and the other was this mechanic and

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Speaker 1: of course they had to work on the project in

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Speaker 1: total secrecy. They built an engine out of propane gas

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Speaker 1: cylinders that they somehow squirreled away, and they stitched a

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Speaker 1: balloon out of tafada. They had to buy the material

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Speaker 1: from different shops and space out their purchases so it

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Speaker 1: didn't look suspicious, and their wives got involved, like stitching

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Speaker 1: this giant balloon together. It had to be big enough

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Speaker 1: to hold both their families. But here's the crazy part.

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Speaker 1: Right on the night they decided to leave, Mrs Wetzel

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Speaker 1: gets nervous and backs out, says the strel They go

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Speaker 1: it alone. I mean it's rainy and the conditions aren't great,

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Speaker 1: and the engine on the balloon gives out after a

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Speaker 1: few minutes. But suddenly they get spotted by the border police.

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Speaker 1: Somehow they managed to escape to their car without getting caught.

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Speaker 1: But now the Stazzi, you know, those terrifying East German

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Speaker 1: secret police, they have this evidence of the balloon and

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Speaker 1: they're on the trail. So now they're working against the

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Speaker 1: clock and there's really no option but to flee. The

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Speaker 1: families start over. This time they use canvas and bed

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Speaker 1: sheets to make a stronger balloon. They somehow source all

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Speaker 1: this material again, I mean sixty pieces of canvas go

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Speaker 1: into this thing in addition to all these bed sheets,

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Speaker 1: and they're working overtime, as it's told, and I don't

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Speaker 1: think this is false. Stazi is basically closing in on

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Speaker 1: the operation. So the two families take off and the

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Speaker 1: dead of night again. This time the conditions are better,

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Speaker 1: but there's no basket, just a platform and some metal

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Speaker 1: bits for these two wives and two husbands and four

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Speaker 1: kids to hold onto. And they're up in the air

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Speaker 1: at a height of eight thousand feet if I for

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Speaker 1: what feels like thirty minutes, just clinging on for their lives.

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Speaker 1: And finally they land and they have no idea where

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Speaker 1: they are, but when a cop spots them in the

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Speaker 1: field and approaches them, they quickly realized they made it

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Speaker 1: to West Germany. I mean, isn't that a great story?

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Speaker 1: They became heroes in the West overnight, and the hot

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Speaker 1: air balloon became for wild at least, the symbol of freedom.

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Speaker 1: That is crazy. Yeah, that's a that's that's a good story.

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Speaker 1: I think maybe LaVar Burton needs to be worried about

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Speaker 1: story time with Mango. That is really good and I

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Speaker 1: can't imagine trying to build a Hot Air Balloon on

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Speaker 1: my own. I mean now that we have the benefit

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Speaker 1: of YouTube, but back then based on what they learned

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Speaker 1: from a documentary, that seems insane. But before we return

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Speaker 1: to the topic of air, what do you say we

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Speaker 1: take a break for a quiz? Sounds great, Samango, Who

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Speaker 1: do we have on the line today? We've got Stan

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Speaker 1: Hesse and Kyle Laxton from the U S Hot Air

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Speaker 1: Balloon Team out of Lancaster, p A wonderful Welcome to

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Speaker 1: part time genius guys, So stay and I see you

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Speaker 1: founded the company. Can you tell us how it all started.

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Speaker 1: I went for a balloon ride one day back in

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Speaker 1: the early nineteen eighties, and UH decided I just had

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Speaker 1: to have one, got my first balloon, decided to um,

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Speaker 1: bigger was better, and the United States had her balloon team.

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Speaker 1: Just seemed like a natural extension, and we went to work,

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Speaker 1: and probably fifty balloons later, here we are. That's incredible.

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Speaker 1: So I heard you guys are on the NTV show Promposals,

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Speaker 1: and I was curious, what's the most romantic thing you've

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Speaker 1: seen in the air. You've got anything from you know,

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Speaker 1: proposals to people just coming out to hang out all

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Speaker 1: the way to drop on a couple of skydivers out

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Speaker 1: of the balloon. You know what I mean, it's just

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Speaker 1: you name it. If you could do it in the balloon,

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Speaker 1: you know, we're down to have some fun. Typically we

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Speaker 1: probably have an engagement or two every week in one

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Speaker 1: of our balloons. What about any surprising or memorable landings.

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Speaker 1: I mean, you gotta think, you gotta remember, you know

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Speaker 1: how your ballooning were always landed somewhere different every time,

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Speaker 1: So I would say every flight is unusual and exciting

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Speaker 1: in its own way, you know, whether it be a

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Speaker 1: field in the middle of a farm or culd de

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Speaker 1: sac during Fourth of July, you know, when you've got

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Speaker 1: barbecues left and right. You know, it's it's just really

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Speaker 1: neat everybody coming out, either helping out put the balloon away,

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Speaker 1: or just come out and take pictures. You know. It's

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Speaker 1: just definitely makes for a good story at the end

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Speaker 1: of the day. And if I can offer, if I

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Speaker 1: can offer mine, I think that I probably would tell

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Speaker 1: you that the most memorable place that I've ever landed

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Speaker 1: a balloon a nudist colony, and it would have been

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Speaker 1: better that they had their clothes on. That's pretty great, Now,

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Speaker 1: was that an intentional landing? Did you mean to land

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Speaker 1: in a nudist colony? Actually, it was part of a

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Speaker 1: part of a contest where we're as part of the event,

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Speaker 1: all the participants were given we're given coordinates to where

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Speaker 1: they were supposed to land their balloon. We didn't know

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Speaker 1: it was the newest colony up front, but we tried

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Speaker 1: to fly to the coordinates and we and we come

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Speaker 1: into the coordinates and my goodness heard these people are

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Speaker 1: without clothing and we had no idea it was a

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Speaker 1: new dest colony. Do we land? Yeah? So you did?

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Speaker 1: You didn't offer any rides once you got there? I'm

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Speaker 1: guessing no, No, But it was it was it was,

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Speaker 1: It was different, It was different. Well, let's put these

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Speaker 1: guys to the test, Mango, What what quiz are we

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Speaker 1: playing with them today? We've got a really dumb quiz

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Speaker 1: called the air up there, or rather things that rhyme

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Speaker 1: with the air of their Okay, right, So, because we

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Speaker 1: like to make people say things that sound like phrases,

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Speaker 1: every answer in this quiz will be the blank up there. Um,

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Speaker 1: So here we go. Let's get started with question number one.

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Speaker 1: You guys ready, all right, let's do it you can

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Speaker 1: work together. Question Number one. If lazy Way put too

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Speaker 1: many balloons on their furniture, it would be got that

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Speaker 1: one to chair up there? You got it, all right,

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00:20:07,600 --> 00:20:10,879
Speaker 1: one for one. Number two, if Paddington or Winnie the

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Speaker 1: Pooh went to space, they'd be the bear up there.

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00:20:15,680 --> 00:20:18,840
Speaker 1: Got it. If Joe Biden went airborne, he'd be representing

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Speaker 1: this state, Delaware. Yeah, the Delaware up there right here

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Speaker 1: we go, all right. Number four, if your family's nice forks, knives,

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Speaker 1: and spoons were since skyward, they would be you got it.

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Speaker 1: Here's a tough one. Number five, This is for all

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Speaker 1: the prize. Here we go. Number five, if the dromedary

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Speaker 1: colored overcoat were shot into the atmosphere, it would be

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Speaker 1: the hare up there. You got it. Congratulations, guys, tell

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Speaker 1: them how they did mango. They went a't astounding five

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Speaker 1: for five, And in addition to a note to their

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Speaker 1: mom or boss and their praises, are contestants of each

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Speaker 1: earned macaroni and cheese air Freshener's the strangest smelling air

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Speaker 1: freshener we could find the market. Congratulations, all right, congratulations guys,

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Speaker 1: and thanks so much for being on part time genius. Unbelievable.

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much. It's all good. Welcome back to

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Speaker 1: part time genius. So Mango, we should probably talk a

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Speaker 1: little bit about the composition of air and some of

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Speaker 1: those stories, but honestly, I want to keep talking about

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Speaker 1: hot air balloons after your story, So Sam Keene writes,

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Speaker 1: Besides the daredevils and picnickers, balloon flights also stimulated interest

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Speaker 1: in the properties of gases. Indeed, it's no coincidence that

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Speaker 1: some of the first balloonists were also some of the

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Speaker 1: first people to explore the behavior of gases in a

425
00:21:46,200 --> 00:21:49,440
Speaker 1: systematic way. These men had the most to lose, including

426
00:21:49,440 --> 00:21:52,200
Speaker 1: their lives, if their theories failed, which is a great point.

427
00:21:52,280 --> 00:21:55,399
Speaker 1: Like atmosphere chemists and other brainy aeronauts made full use

428
00:21:55,440 --> 00:21:58,160
Speaker 1: of the practical applications of hot air balloons. They used

429
00:21:58,160 --> 00:22:01,240
Speaker 1: balloons in all kinds of experiments that grastually expanded our

430
00:22:01,400 --> 00:22:03,960
Speaker 1: understanding of the miles and miles of air above us.

431
00:22:04,440 --> 00:22:08,040
Speaker 1: And while Sam makes a distinction between daredevils and scientists,

432
00:22:08,359 --> 00:22:12,280
Speaker 1: the French chemist and physicist Joseph Louis gay Lusak he

433
00:22:12,320 --> 00:22:15,280
Speaker 1: was definitely both. How's that well, even before he was

434
00:22:15,320 --> 00:22:17,720
Speaker 1: pushing the limits of the skies. Gay Lusac was testing

435
00:22:17,720 --> 00:22:20,480
Speaker 1: the limits of his lab. He almost blinded himself during

436
00:22:20,560 --> 00:22:23,680
Speaker 1: multiple experiments, and he even shocked himself with a homemade

437
00:22:23,680 --> 00:22:25,880
Speaker 1: battery to the point that he couldn't move his arm

438
00:22:25,960 --> 00:22:28,000
Speaker 1: for a day. It just sounds a little more reckless

439
00:22:28,000 --> 00:22:30,680
Speaker 1: than well. I think we should just call him determined,

440
00:22:31,000 --> 00:22:32,879
Speaker 1: which is the best way to explain the fact that

441
00:22:32,920 --> 00:22:35,240
Speaker 1: he took a hot air balloon solo to over twenty

442
00:22:35,359 --> 00:22:38,199
Speaker 1: three thousand feet, which is totally insane. I mean, we

443
00:22:38,200 --> 00:22:40,360
Speaker 1: do need to put this in perspective for our listeners.

444
00:22:40,359 --> 00:22:44,440
Speaker 1: So most recreational balloon is stick between about twelve hundred

445
00:22:44,480 --> 00:22:47,439
Speaker 1: and three thousand feet tops, and that's in balloons with

446
00:22:47,560 --> 00:22:50,840
Speaker 1: modern day safety features. Yeah, his altitude stood as a

447
00:22:50,880 --> 00:22:53,400
Speaker 1: world record for more than a century, so at least

448
00:22:53,400 --> 00:22:56,080
Speaker 1: the ordeal netted him some fame afterwards because it had

449
00:22:56,080 --> 00:22:58,439
Speaker 1: to be rough going in the moment. That air up

450
00:22:58,480 --> 00:23:01,640
Speaker 1: there is really thin, and he would have only had

451
00:23:01,640 --> 00:23:04,560
Speaker 1: a short period to collect samples of verified like high

452
00:23:04,600 --> 00:23:07,560
Speaker 1: altitude air before high tailing it back down After all

453
00:23:07,560 --> 00:23:10,160
Speaker 1: that effort, where the samples even useful totally I mean,

454
00:23:10,160 --> 00:23:12,439
Speaker 1: they showed us that the composition of the atmosphere is

455
00:23:12,480 --> 00:23:14,840
Speaker 1: the same at sea level as it is miles up

456
00:23:14,840 --> 00:23:17,080
Speaker 1: in the air, and while there's less air in general

457
00:23:17,119 --> 00:23:22,080
Speaker 1: at higher altitudes, as gay Lusac learned, the proportions of nitrogen, oxygen,

458
00:23:22,160 --> 00:23:24,679
Speaker 1: and other gases are the same no matter the altitude.

459
00:23:24,920 --> 00:23:27,600
Speaker 1: To breakthrough led to the discovery of several crucial gas

460
00:23:27,640 --> 00:23:30,240
Speaker 1: laws that have helped explain the nature of gases and

461
00:23:30,280 --> 00:23:32,960
Speaker 1: how they behave under different conditions. All Right, I'll admit

462
00:23:33,080 --> 00:23:35,199
Speaker 1: that does sound worth the risk. I guess as long

463
00:23:35,240 --> 00:23:37,800
Speaker 1: as it's somebody else doing the flight. And gaylu Sock,

464
00:23:37,880 --> 00:23:39,359
Speaker 1: he's the guy that figured out that water is made

465
00:23:39,440 --> 00:23:41,920
Speaker 1: up of two parts hydrogen one part oxygen. Right, Yeah,

466
00:23:41,920 --> 00:23:44,800
Speaker 1: that's right. He and his partner in science, Alexander von Humboldt,

467
00:23:44,800 --> 00:23:46,880
Speaker 1: who is often in that hot air balloon with him.

468
00:23:46,920 --> 00:23:49,200
Speaker 1: All Right, So here's something I've found fascinating, and it's

469
00:23:49,240 --> 00:23:52,000
Speaker 1: not something I normally think about, but it's how strong

470
00:23:52,080 --> 00:23:55,040
Speaker 1: the air pressure is around us. So the planet's normal

471
00:23:55,080 --> 00:23:58,320
Speaker 1: air pressure is something like fourteen point five pounds per

472
00:23:58,359 --> 00:24:01,400
Speaker 1: square inch, which is a solid ton of force per

473
00:24:01,440 --> 00:24:04,479
Speaker 1: square foot. I mean, that's round the clock power pressing

474
00:24:04,520 --> 00:24:07,240
Speaker 1: in on you from all directions. It really is kind

475
00:24:07,240 --> 00:24:09,560
Speaker 1: of a wonder we can even stand it. But I mean,

476
00:24:09,600 --> 00:24:11,280
Speaker 1: do you know the only thing that keeps us from

477
00:24:11,280 --> 00:24:15,080
Speaker 1: crumpling from that air pressure are indomitable human spirits, good

478
00:24:15,119 --> 00:24:18,240
Speaker 1: guesses always, but nope, it's the It's the air that

479
00:24:18,280 --> 00:24:20,720
Speaker 1: we're carrying around with us, so we don't notice these

480
00:24:20,720 --> 00:24:23,320
Speaker 1: twenty or so tons of force pressing into us because

481
00:24:23,600 --> 00:24:26,119
Speaker 1: there's an equal amount of force pushing back from the

482
00:24:26,160 --> 00:24:29,440
Speaker 1: inside of our bodies. So Sam Kane describes it pretty well.

483
00:24:29,520 --> 00:24:32,560
Speaker 1: He says, in theory, a piece of aluminum foil, if

484
00:24:32,600 --> 00:24:37,359
Speaker 1: perfectly balanced between blasts from two fire hoses, would survive intact.

485
00:24:37,720 --> 00:24:39,840
Speaker 1: But who would risk it. Our skin and our organs

486
00:24:39,880 --> 00:24:43,800
Speaker 1: face the same predicament visa the air. Just imagining that's crazy,

487
00:24:43,840 --> 00:24:46,880
Speaker 1: and I'm so glad it's a tie between the air forces.

488
00:24:47,200 --> 00:24:50,280
Speaker 1: I would say, though, If the Industrial Revolution taught me anything,

489
00:24:50,600 --> 00:24:54,320
Speaker 1: it's that gases like steam can be powerful allies. Oh absolutely,

490
00:24:54,359 --> 00:24:56,359
Speaker 1: And it's best to stay on their good side too,

491
00:24:56,400 --> 00:24:59,520
Speaker 1: because some of them fight pretty dirty. So take nitroglycerin

492
00:24:59,600 --> 00:25:02,200
Speaker 1: for examp apple, which Sam also talks about in his book.

493
00:25:02,560 --> 00:25:06,080
Speaker 1: There's a huge amount of energy within nitro's chemical bonds.

494
00:25:06,119 --> 00:25:09,600
Speaker 1: But the real reason for any explosive destructive power, it's

495
00:25:09,640 --> 00:25:12,760
Speaker 1: the speed and force at which that energy is released, right,

496
00:25:12,800 --> 00:25:16,160
Speaker 1: Because technically speaking, an ounce of coal or gasoline, or

497
00:25:16,200 --> 00:25:18,359
Speaker 1: even a stick of butter contains more energy than the

498
00:25:18,400 --> 00:25:21,280
Speaker 1: same amount of most explosives. It's just that my pad

499
00:25:21,280 --> 00:25:23,560
Speaker 1: of butter here doesn't have the means to release its

500
00:25:23,640 --> 00:25:26,440
Speaker 1: energy outwardly because it doesn't have the same power of

501
00:25:26,480 --> 00:25:29,119
Speaker 1: a volatile gas cocktail on its side. You have a

502
00:25:29,119 --> 00:25:33,280
Speaker 1: pad of butter over there all right. By the way,

503
00:25:33,320 --> 00:25:36,159
Speaker 1: I can't let the topic of nitroglycerin pass without talking

504
00:25:36,160 --> 00:25:38,439
Speaker 1: about Alfred Nobel. I mean, we all know him from

505
00:25:38,480 --> 00:25:40,800
Speaker 1: the Nobel Prizes and that he made his fortune by

506
00:25:40,840 --> 00:25:43,399
Speaker 1: making dynamite. And this is one of those facts that

507
00:25:43,440 --> 00:25:45,800
Speaker 1: before anybody starts screaming, I know that fact. I know

508
00:25:45,920 --> 00:25:48,080
Speaker 1: that fact. It's kind of like that fact about Taft

509
00:25:48,119 --> 00:25:50,600
Speaker 1: getting stuck in the bathtub, where everybody knows it and

510
00:25:50,640 --> 00:25:52,840
Speaker 1: everybody likes to point it out. But you know what's

511
00:25:52,840 --> 00:25:55,080
Speaker 1: funny is that I always thought Nobel came up with

512
00:25:55,160 --> 00:25:58,040
Speaker 1: dynamite in a vacuum, but he was actually the son

513
00:25:58,080 --> 00:26:01,720
Speaker 1: of a Swedish weapons manufactured Did you know this. He

514
00:26:01,800 --> 00:26:05,239
Speaker 1: then witnessed the demonstration of the destructive power of a

515
00:26:05,320 --> 00:26:08,639
Speaker 1: single drop of nitroglycerin in his youth, and he became

516
00:26:08,640 --> 00:26:12,320
Speaker 1: obsessed with explosives. He started funneling his family's fortune into

517
00:26:12,359 --> 00:26:16,880
Speaker 1: making nitroglycer and more reliable and less likely to explode prematurely.

518
00:26:17,320 --> 00:26:19,040
Speaker 1: I mean, just to give you a sense of how

519
00:26:19,119 --> 00:26:23,600
Speaker 1: volatile nitroglycerin is. Gunpowder explodes in a few thousands of

520
00:26:23,600 --> 00:26:27,320
Speaker 1: a second, but nitroglycern explodes within a millionth of a second.

521
00:26:27,680 --> 00:26:30,240
Speaker 1: But no. Bill's big breakthrough was to slow down the

522
00:26:30,359 --> 00:26:33,880
Speaker 1: nitro by adding gunpowder and then packing them both into

523
00:26:33,920 --> 00:26:36,640
Speaker 1: a hollow piece of wood. And this creates the world's

524
00:26:36,640 --> 00:26:40,119
Speaker 1: first blasting cap. So he started selling blasting caps as

525
00:26:40,160 --> 00:26:42,960
Speaker 1: well as raw nitro, which he dubbed blasting oil, to

526
00:26:43,119 --> 00:26:45,840
Speaker 1: miners and construction crews all over the world. So I'm

527
00:26:45,840 --> 00:26:48,960
Speaker 1: guessing he used those profits to fund his prize program.

528
00:26:49,040 --> 00:26:51,840
Speaker 1: Well maybe partly, but really the blasting caps and oil

529
00:26:51,920 --> 00:26:55,600
Speaker 1: proved to be disastrous products. There were numerous deaths and

530
00:26:55,640 --> 00:26:58,760
Speaker 1: injuries from accidental explosions. In fact, this thing got so

531
00:26:58,800 --> 00:27:02,080
Speaker 1: bad that nobody he would rent labs based the Nobel anymore.

532
00:27:02,119 --> 00:27:05,800
Speaker 1: This is Alphred Nobel. So he actually converted a barge

533
00:27:05,840 --> 00:27:09,040
Speaker 1: into this floating laboratory and he spent years sailing from

534
00:27:09,119 --> 00:27:12,800
Speaker 1: port to port and people started calling this Nobel's death show.

535
00:27:13,960 --> 00:27:15,520
Speaker 1: And it was while he was at sea that he

536
00:27:15,600 --> 00:27:18,400
Speaker 1: hit on the idea of encasing the nitro and gunpowder

537
00:27:18,400 --> 00:27:21,199
Speaker 1: and a clay like substance, and that made the mixture

538
00:27:21,240 --> 00:27:23,960
Speaker 1: less likely to blow up unintentionally. So now we're talking

539
00:27:24,000 --> 00:27:27,480
Speaker 1: about dynamite, and with a capital D. Actually because Nobel

540
00:27:27,600 --> 00:27:30,320
Speaker 1: trademarked the name, and that was a move that paid

541
00:27:30,320 --> 00:27:34,399
Speaker 1: off for him to Dynamite became incredibly popular once mining

542
00:27:34,400 --> 00:27:37,680
Speaker 1: and construction firms saw what it could do, and suddenly

543
00:27:37,720 --> 00:27:41,000
Speaker 1: all kinds of knockoff sprang up, something called hercules powder

544
00:27:41,040 --> 00:27:44,080
Speaker 1: and grin rock, but Nobel was swatting them down with

545
00:27:44,160 --> 00:27:47,080
Speaker 1: his patents, and in the end the products success actually

546
00:27:47,119 --> 00:27:50,000
Speaker 1: cost him his trademark. Dynamite worked its way into the

547
00:27:50,000 --> 00:27:52,760
Speaker 1: public lexicon and became a generic term, kind of like

548
00:27:52,840 --> 00:27:55,920
Speaker 1: clean X or zipper. By the way, my uncle, who

549
00:27:55,960 --> 00:27:59,200
Speaker 1: was an advertising bombay, actually ran into the same problem.

550
00:27:59,280 --> 00:28:01,320
Speaker 1: He couldn't get people to stop saying they were making

551
00:28:01,359 --> 00:28:04,200
Speaker 1: a xerox like for some reason, the word coffee wouldn't

552
00:28:04,240 --> 00:28:06,879
Speaker 1: catch on there, and his client was HP. So the

553
00:28:06,880 --> 00:28:09,520
Speaker 1: slogan they ended up pushing was make your xerox on

554
00:28:09,600 --> 00:28:13,639
Speaker 1: an HP. That's ridiculous. All right. Well, there's actually a

555
00:28:13,680 --> 00:28:15,480
Speaker 1: little bit more of a Nobel's story that I think

556
00:28:15,480 --> 00:28:17,720
Speaker 1: we should talk about, and and that's the role that

557
00:28:17,800 --> 00:28:21,159
Speaker 1: air plays in human psychology. But before we get into that,

558
00:28:21,200 --> 00:28:28,560
Speaker 1: why don't we break for a quiz. So our guest

559
00:28:28,600 --> 00:28:31,080
Speaker 1: today is one of our favorite science writers. He was

560
00:28:31,080 --> 00:28:33,080
Speaker 1: one of the early writers at Mental Flaws actually in

561
00:28:33,080 --> 00:28:35,800
Speaker 1: our days there. Obviously, he's written such books as the

562
00:28:35,800 --> 00:28:39,960
Speaker 1: Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons, The Disappearing Spoon, and many

563
00:28:40,000 --> 00:28:42,440
Speaker 1: of our other favorites. But his latest book is called

564
00:28:42,520 --> 00:28:44,840
Speaker 1: Caesar's Last Breath, and that's the book that we've been

565
00:28:44,840 --> 00:28:48,320
Speaker 1: talking about today. Sam Keene, Welcome to Part Time Genius. Hi,

566
00:28:48,440 --> 00:28:52,080
Speaker 1: thanks for having me. Hey Sam, so uh, you know,

567
00:28:52,360 --> 00:28:54,800
Speaker 1: the title of your book is so poetic, and I

568
00:28:54,840 --> 00:28:57,240
Speaker 1: was wondering if you'd explain it to our listeners. Yeah.

569
00:28:57,280 --> 00:29:02,160
Speaker 1: It's sort of a classic problem in chemistry and physics

570
00:29:02,200 --> 00:29:06,080
Speaker 1: classes where they ask students what are the odds that

571
00:29:06,200 --> 00:29:12,040
Speaker 1: the next breath you are taking will include a molecule

572
00:29:12,720 --> 00:29:16,880
Speaker 1: that Caesar breathe his last breath um when he was

573
00:29:16,920 --> 00:29:22,480
Speaker 1: assassinated back into b c in robe. And it's the

574
00:29:22,560 --> 00:29:26,280
Speaker 1: question kind of investigates a couple of different ideas about,

575
00:29:26,760 --> 00:29:29,840
Speaker 1: you know, how many molecules are in every breath that

576
00:29:29,880 --> 00:29:35,040
Speaker 1: you inhale, how long those molecules last in the atmosphere,

577
00:29:35,600 --> 00:29:39,400
Speaker 1: how uh you know a breath or any gas really

578
00:29:39,480 --> 00:29:42,200
Speaker 1: spreads around the atmosphere, how quickly it is, how large

579
00:29:42,280 --> 00:29:45,040
Speaker 1: the atmosphere is, And to answer the question you kind

580
00:29:45,040 --> 00:29:47,160
Speaker 1: of have to take all of those factors into account.

581
00:29:47,240 --> 00:29:50,520
Speaker 1: So it's a poetic and interesting question, but there's a

582
00:29:50,520 --> 00:29:54,400
Speaker 1: lot of good science behind it as well, and kind

583
00:29:54,400 --> 00:29:58,560
Speaker 1: of surprisingly, the odds of you breathing in a molecule

584
00:29:58,640 --> 00:30:01,600
Speaker 1: that's Caesar breathe during his last breath are quite high.

585
00:30:02,200 --> 00:30:04,520
Speaker 1: Each time you take a breath, on an average, you're

586
00:30:04,520 --> 00:30:08,040
Speaker 1: probably breathing in depending on the assumptions you make, one

587
00:30:08,120 --> 00:30:11,080
Speaker 1: molecule or so, and over the course of a day,

588
00:30:11,120 --> 00:30:14,720
Speaker 1: it's almost a statistical certainty that you're going to breathe

589
00:30:14,760 --> 00:30:18,400
Speaker 1: in several thousands of those molecules. So it is really

590
00:30:18,440 --> 00:30:24,200
Speaker 1: cool connection between the past and the present day that

591
00:30:24,240 --> 00:30:26,400
Speaker 1: you wouldn't really think about that's something that happens every

592
00:30:26,440 --> 00:30:29,320
Speaker 1: single time you take a breath. Wow, that's it's still

593
00:30:29,360 --> 00:30:31,640
Speaker 1: so strange, no matter how much we thought about it

594
00:30:31,680 --> 00:30:34,120
Speaker 1: in in reading this book, it's such a such a

595
00:30:34,120 --> 00:30:36,280
Speaker 1: bizarre fact. I felt like after I read the chapter

596
00:30:36,360 --> 00:30:39,680
Speaker 1: on these German scientists racing to extract ammonia from the air,

597
00:30:39,760 --> 00:30:42,640
Speaker 1: I came away with this, I don't a new appreciation

598
00:30:42,760 --> 00:30:45,400
Speaker 1: for the compound. And I think you wrote that ammonia

599
00:30:45,440 --> 00:30:48,640
Speaker 1: fertilizers actually grow what half of the world's food did.

600
00:30:48,920 --> 00:30:50,840
Speaker 1: Now did you come away from the book with a

601
00:30:50,840 --> 00:30:55,280
Speaker 1: new respect for any element or other compounds. Yeah, the

602
00:30:55,360 --> 00:30:57,880
Speaker 1: ammonia thing, getting the nitrogen out of the air and

603
00:30:57,920 --> 00:31:02,280
Speaker 1: making something useful from it, it does really give you

604
00:31:02,320 --> 00:31:07,640
Speaker 1: a perspective on how important the air is and what

605
00:31:08,600 --> 00:31:11,040
Speaker 1: I mean, just just the hidden way that really influences

606
00:31:11,080 --> 00:31:14,160
Speaker 1: our lives that we don't think about. Uh, you know,

607
00:31:14,280 --> 00:31:17,680
Speaker 1: half the people on the planet wouldn't be here today

608
00:31:18,320 --> 00:31:20,360
Speaker 1: if not for that process of being able to get

609
00:31:20,400 --> 00:31:23,640
Speaker 1: the nitrogen out of the air and make it into fertilizers.

610
00:31:23,760 --> 00:31:26,120
Speaker 1: So it does, I mean, we all know on some

611
00:31:26,320 --> 00:31:28,800
Speaker 1: level obviously that you need to you know, have access

612
00:31:28,840 --> 00:31:32,560
Speaker 1: to air to live. But the fact the importance of

613
00:31:32,600 --> 00:31:35,440
Speaker 1: the air really goes even beyond just sort of day

614
00:31:35,440 --> 00:31:37,400
Speaker 1: to day breathing. All of these guests is you know,

615
00:31:37,440 --> 00:31:40,800
Speaker 1: they helped drive the industrial revolution. They really drive the weather.

616
00:31:41,040 --> 00:31:44,120
Speaker 1: Things like that, Um, you can you know, and you're

617
00:31:44,120 --> 00:31:49,000
Speaker 1: inhaling anesthesia and refrigerants, all these different things, uh that

618
00:31:49,040 --> 00:31:52,760
Speaker 1: make up our modern life. They really are derived. They

619
00:31:52,800 --> 00:31:55,160
Speaker 1: come from things that are going on in the air

620
00:31:55,240 --> 00:31:57,560
Speaker 1: all the time, even if you don't really think about

621
00:31:57,600 --> 00:32:00,160
Speaker 1: them in your day to day life. Now of the

622
00:32:00,160 --> 00:32:02,160
Speaker 1: things I really loved about the book is that these

623
00:32:02,240 --> 00:32:05,040
Speaker 1: little offbeat meanderings that you had. And I was curious

624
00:32:05,040 --> 00:32:08,640
Speaker 1: why you included the tangent on the Peto Maine because

625
00:32:08,760 --> 00:32:11,600
Speaker 1: it's really funny, but I just want to hear your

626
00:32:11,640 --> 00:32:15,000
Speaker 1: thoughts on it. Yeah, the Peto main was sort of

627
00:32:15,040 --> 00:32:18,120
Speaker 1: this uh they called him as Partis, who was basically

628
00:32:19,000 --> 00:32:23,320
Speaker 1: uh an artist who used a flagelence to do impressions

629
00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:27,040
Speaker 1: in uh Lulin rouge in Paris at the end of

630
00:32:27,080 --> 00:32:31,080
Speaker 1: the And I included that one because I think it's

631
00:32:31,120 --> 00:32:35,040
Speaker 1: just such a delightful story, um, something you would never

632
00:32:35,080 --> 00:32:37,440
Speaker 1: ever expect to be going on in sort of high

633
00:32:37,520 --> 00:32:41,160
Speaker 1: society Paris, but he was the most popular artist there

634
00:32:41,200 --> 00:32:43,600
Speaker 1: for a very long time. And the other reason I

635
00:32:44,000 --> 00:32:46,200
Speaker 1: chose to include it is, you know, I think you know,

636
00:32:46,240 --> 00:32:49,080
Speaker 1: you can sort of giggle over it. It's uh, you know,

637
00:32:49,160 --> 00:32:52,520
Speaker 1: kind of low brown humor, but it's something, uh, you know,

638
00:32:52,600 --> 00:32:54,560
Speaker 1: the the gas inside of us that we produced, that

639
00:32:54,680 --> 00:32:57,800
Speaker 1: people think about. You know, it's something kind of on

640
00:32:57,880 --> 00:33:00,600
Speaker 1: their mind, even if it's you know, we don't always

641
00:33:00,640 --> 00:33:03,720
Speaker 1: talk about it in polite society. But there again, there's

642
00:33:03,760 --> 00:33:06,200
Speaker 1: a lot of good science in there about what those

643
00:33:06,240 --> 00:33:08,960
Speaker 1: gases are, where they come from, how they affect us

644
00:33:09,640 --> 00:33:11,480
Speaker 1: um and you can even get into other things, like

645
00:33:11,520 --> 00:33:14,440
Speaker 1: there was sort of a digression in there about uh,

646
00:33:14,520 --> 00:33:18,120
Speaker 1: you know, communication and other things. Why do we communicate

647
00:33:18,240 --> 00:33:23,280
Speaker 1: from one side of our digestive tract and not the

648
00:33:23,280 --> 00:33:25,600
Speaker 1: other side of it. There's really no reason things couldn't

649
00:33:25,640 --> 00:33:28,400
Speaker 1: have evolved differently. So again, you can get into a

650
00:33:28,400 --> 00:33:32,520
Speaker 1: lot of really interesting, cool science based on this story

651
00:33:32,560 --> 00:33:34,000
Speaker 1: that on the surface of it might seem you know,

652
00:33:34,120 --> 00:33:36,080
Speaker 1: just amusing, but there's a lot of good stuff behind it.

653
00:33:36,520 --> 00:33:38,480
Speaker 1: Do we know of any animals that communicate through the

654
00:33:38,520 --> 00:33:42,000
Speaker 1: other end? I don't think we do. Do we There

655
00:33:42,040 --> 00:33:45,680
Speaker 1: are some species of cod that they think, uh that

656
00:33:45,840 --> 00:33:48,680
Speaker 1: you know, they're obviously not the articulate speaking like human beings,

657
00:33:48,720 --> 00:33:52,880
Speaker 1: but they seem to respond in some ways the bubbles

658
00:33:52,920 --> 00:33:57,040
Speaker 1: that they release, so it's some sort of rudimentary communication

659
00:33:57,800 --> 00:34:00,280
Speaker 1: going on there. So yeah, there, there, there are tints.

660
00:34:00,280 --> 00:34:02,720
Speaker 1: There are some animals. I do that with various dialects.

661
00:34:02,760 --> 00:34:05,479
Speaker 1: I'm sure that's right. Were there any other facts in

662
00:34:05,520 --> 00:34:09,239
Speaker 1: your research that you found equally just mind blowing? I mean,

663
00:34:09,239 --> 00:34:12,359
Speaker 1: there's so many interesting things in this book, but any

664
00:34:12,400 --> 00:34:14,960
Speaker 1: facts where you you you walked away thinking that can't

665
00:34:15,080 --> 00:34:19,359
Speaker 1: possibly be true. One fact that I really still kind

666
00:34:19,360 --> 00:34:22,520
Speaker 1: of blows my mind is the idea of what's called

667
00:34:22,520 --> 00:34:27,280
Speaker 1: the oxygen catastrophe. So nowadays we think about oxygen obviously

668
00:34:27,360 --> 00:34:29,800
Speaker 1: as vitals or life. It's very important for life. We

669
00:34:29,840 --> 00:34:32,040
Speaker 1: would all die if there was an oxygen in the air.

670
00:34:32,120 --> 00:34:36,839
Speaker 1: But for most preachers who have ever lived on planet Earth,

671
00:34:36,960 --> 00:34:42,680
Speaker 1: especially microbes, oxygen is a deadly poison, and oxygen actually

672
00:34:42,760 --> 00:34:48,040
Speaker 1: caused probably the greatest mass extinction in the history of

673
00:34:48,120 --> 00:34:51,640
Speaker 1: Earth because it was a pollutant. It was a very

674
00:34:51,680 --> 00:34:55,759
Speaker 1: reactive molecule. Most microbes back a few billion years ago,

675
00:34:55,880 --> 00:34:59,080
Speaker 1: didn't want it around, so they would expel it. Eventually

676
00:34:59,080 --> 00:35:02,040
Speaker 1: it built up in the air to such a degree

677
00:35:02,080 --> 00:35:05,239
Speaker 1: that it started killing them off. So again, one of

678
00:35:05,239 --> 00:35:08,920
Speaker 1: the greatest mass extinctions in history was driven by something

679
00:35:08,960 --> 00:35:13,279
Speaker 1: that we considers absolutely vital to life nowadays. So it

680
00:35:13,400 --> 00:35:17,239
Speaker 1: really gives changes your perspective on what this gas is,

681
00:35:17,280 --> 00:35:19,680
Speaker 1: what the air has been over time, and how it

682
00:35:19,760 --> 00:35:23,520
Speaker 1: really has evolved been changed. Yeah, yeah, wow, that is fascinating.

683
00:35:23,719 --> 00:35:26,399
Speaker 1: So we've got a terrible quiz to play with Sam today.

684
00:35:26,440 --> 00:35:29,400
Speaker 1: What's the quiz called. We've got a pop quiz called

685
00:35:29,520 --> 00:35:32,640
Speaker 1: It's elemental. Okay, that's right, And so when Mango says

686
00:35:32,640 --> 00:35:35,360
Speaker 1: pop quiz, he means pop culture quiz and it should

687
00:35:35,360 --> 00:35:38,760
Speaker 1: be fun. So every question we've included the chemical symbol

688
00:35:38,800 --> 00:35:43,480
Speaker 1: for an element. So we'll get started if you're ready, Sam, Okay,

689
00:35:44,000 --> 00:35:47,319
Speaker 1: all right. Question number one, This lead singer for the

690
00:35:47,360 --> 00:35:50,600
Speaker 1: band Queen could have been known as Freddie h G.

691
00:35:51,120 --> 00:35:55,200
Speaker 1: Who is this must be Freddie Mercury? It is question

692
00:35:55,280 --> 00:35:58,440
Speaker 1: number two. This magician who made the Statue of Liberty

693
00:35:58,480 --> 00:36:04,839
Speaker 1: disappear could be known as David see you Field, all right,

694
00:36:04,920 --> 00:36:08,200
Speaker 1: he's a genius. Number three, that's talking about Sami genius,

695
00:36:08,239 --> 00:36:11,520
Speaker 1: not David Copperfield. I don't know if he's pretty smart. Yeah.

696
00:36:11,760 --> 00:36:15,000
Speaker 1: Number three, when he was hankering for a late night sandwich,

697
00:36:15,080 --> 00:36:17,520
Speaker 1: Elvis used to fly his jet out to Colorado to

698
00:36:17,560 --> 00:36:21,000
Speaker 1: get a peanut butter and jelly with bacon sandwich, also

699
00:36:21,160 --> 00:36:27,040
Speaker 1: known as fools a you fools gold you must have

700
00:36:27,080 --> 00:36:29,360
Speaker 1: called it. I love that story, but I didn't know

701
00:36:29,400 --> 00:36:31,839
Speaker 1: he called it, had a special name for it. Right.

702
00:36:31,840 --> 00:36:33,719
Speaker 1: I'm glad we're teaching you a couple of things too,

703
00:36:33,840 --> 00:36:38,040
Speaker 1: equally important alright. Number four, This Belgian comic book journalist

704
00:36:38,120 --> 00:36:42,480
Speaker 1: and his dogs Snowy, raced around the world solving mysteries elementally.

705
00:36:42,560 --> 00:36:45,520
Speaker 1: You'd known him, you'd know him better as s N

706
00:36:46,040 --> 00:36:52,479
Speaker 1: s N. Alright, Another very important one here, Number five.

707
00:36:52,560 --> 00:36:55,799
Speaker 1: Calling this Canadian rock band in I back wouldn't have

708
00:36:55,840 --> 00:37:01,759
Speaker 1: made their music sound any better Nickel. Okay, all right,

709
00:37:01,800 --> 00:37:04,640
Speaker 1: let's do one more. Winston Churchill's speech about this cold

710
00:37:04,680 --> 00:37:08,640
Speaker 1: word boundary could have been called the fe Curtain speech.

711
00:37:08,920 --> 00:37:14,440
Speaker 1: What are we talking about? You must be the Iron curtain. Dazed.

712
00:37:14,719 --> 00:37:17,480
Speaker 1: I was kind of dreading anything related to pop culture,

713
00:37:17,600 --> 00:37:22,080
Speaker 1: but well, you nailed it. How did you do? Sam?

714
00:37:22,080 --> 00:37:24,839
Speaker 1: When astounding six or six which earns them are hard

715
00:37:24,840 --> 00:37:28,799
Speaker 1: earned admiration. Alright, congratulations, Sam, did you did great? See

716
00:37:28,840 --> 00:37:30,759
Speaker 1: there was nothing to be stressed about there. So I

717
00:37:30,800 --> 00:37:35,320
Speaker 1: hope everyone will check out Sam's latest book, Caesar's Last Breath.

718
00:37:35,480 --> 00:37:37,200
Speaker 1: I know you will enjoy it just as much as

719
00:37:37,239 --> 00:37:39,680
Speaker 1: we did. Sam. Thanks so much for writing a terrific

720
00:37:39,719 --> 00:37:42,080
Speaker 1: book and for being a guest on Part Time Genius.

721
00:37:42,160 --> 00:37:43,640
Speaker 1: All right, well, thanks for having me. It was fun.

722
00:37:57,160 --> 00:37:59,200
Speaker 1: So we were talking about the incredible gas power we

723
00:37:59,239 --> 00:38:02,840
Speaker 1: see expressed an explosive compounds like dynamite. But will you

724
00:38:02,880 --> 00:38:06,200
Speaker 1: were telling us when ended up happening with Nobel. Well,

725
00:38:06,239 --> 00:38:08,719
Speaker 1: as you know, Nobel made a fortune off of dynamite

726
00:38:08,719 --> 00:38:11,640
Speaker 1: and it was the equivalent of a quarter billion dollars today.

727
00:38:11,960 --> 00:38:15,080
Speaker 1: And that was all from tunneling projects and subway construction.

728
00:38:15,320 --> 00:38:17,360
Speaker 1: I mean, that was part of it. But his manufacturers

729
00:38:17,400 --> 00:38:20,600
Speaker 1: started to see the potential of nitro for new deadlier

730
00:38:20,640 --> 00:38:24,600
Speaker 1: weapons like bombs and land mines. Nobel became famous all

731
00:38:24,680 --> 00:38:27,680
Speaker 1: over again as a merchant of death. He was rich

732
00:38:27,719 --> 00:38:31,040
Speaker 1: and successful, but ultimately miserable because of how hated he

733
00:38:31,080 --> 00:38:33,200
Speaker 1: was seeing in the public eye. Right, so I'm guessing

734
00:38:33,239 --> 00:38:36,359
Speaker 1: the prizes were this form of penance exactly. I mean

735
00:38:36,360 --> 00:38:38,640
Speaker 1: he took his dynamite money and set up a prize

736
00:38:38,640 --> 00:38:43,320
Speaker 1: fund for chemistry, physics, medicine, literature, and lastly, of course,

737
00:38:43,360 --> 00:38:45,600
Speaker 1: for peace. I mean it was his way of making

738
00:38:45,640 --> 00:38:48,360
Speaker 1: amends for all the suffering he caused while salvaging his

739
00:38:48,400 --> 00:38:51,279
Speaker 1: reputation at the same time. Well, it might just be

740
00:38:51,320 --> 00:38:53,959
Speaker 1: like the best long tail pr move in history, because

741
00:38:54,080 --> 00:38:56,960
Speaker 1: most people remember him for the prizes, and if you were,

742
00:38:57,000 --> 00:39:00,640
Speaker 1: people remember him for that floating death bar. That's true,

743
00:39:01,040 --> 00:39:03,200
Speaker 1: you know, for all his success is poor. Alfred Nobel

744
00:39:03,320 --> 00:39:06,760
Speaker 1: certainly experienced plenty of anguish from the damage gases can cause.

745
00:39:06,840 --> 00:39:09,799
Speaker 1: But there are also some parts of human psychology that

746
00:39:09,840 --> 00:39:12,839
Speaker 1: are directly affected by our need for air. And that's

747
00:39:12,840 --> 00:39:14,799
Speaker 1: actually one of the things I found most interesting in

748
00:39:14,920 --> 00:39:17,880
Speaker 1: Sam's book. He talks about the reason why gas attacks

749
00:39:17,880 --> 00:39:20,839
Speaker 1: are so frightening and appalling to us, and he ends

750
00:39:20,920 --> 00:39:23,239
Speaker 1: up concluding that it's because gases have the power to

751
00:39:23,280 --> 00:39:26,480
Speaker 1: attack our basic biology on a level that things like

752
00:39:26,680 --> 00:39:29,880
Speaker 1: blades and bullets just can't match. When our air supply

753
00:39:29,960 --> 00:39:32,520
Speaker 1: has threatened, humans tend to freak out. I mean, we

754
00:39:32,520 --> 00:39:35,400
Speaker 1: seem to have a fear of poisonous air that's hardwired

755
00:39:35,440 --> 00:39:38,120
Speaker 1: into our brains, and when it's triggered, you know, all

756
00:39:38,280 --> 00:39:41,120
Speaker 1: rational behavior goes right out the window, and our instincts

757
00:39:41,120 --> 00:39:43,960
Speaker 1: tend to take over. Yes, some researchers now think humans

758
00:39:43,960 --> 00:39:47,319
Speaker 1: have a second, independent fear system that deals exclusively with

759
00:39:47,360 --> 00:39:50,560
Speaker 1: monitoring our air supply. So even though we don't consciously

760
00:39:50,600 --> 00:39:53,839
Speaker 1: focus on our breathing, deep down we're always anxious about it.

761
00:39:54,160 --> 00:39:56,000
Speaker 1: We know how much we need air to survive, and

762
00:39:56,280 --> 00:39:59,160
Speaker 1: we also know how quickly too much or too little

763
00:39:59,200 --> 00:40:01,759
Speaker 1: of its properties can wipe us out. But you know,

764
00:40:01,760 --> 00:40:03,840
Speaker 1: if we're going to talk about dangerous air, we should

765
00:40:03,840 --> 00:40:06,880
Speaker 1: probably talk a little bit about nuclear blasts, do we

766
00:40:06,960 --> 00:40:10,120
Speaker 1: have to? I mean just a little so unlike regular explosives,

767
00:40:10,120 --> 00:40:13,160
Speaker 1: that gas molecules released into the atmosphere continue to do

768
00:40:13,280 --> 00:40:16,600
Speaker 1: harm long after the initial blast. And that's actually where

769
00:40:16,640 --> 00:40:19,480
Speaker 1: we get this term fallout from the radioactive leftovers that

770
00:40:19,520 --> 00:40:22,760
Speaker 1: gets shot up into the upper atmosphere before they fall

771
00:40:22,840 --> 00:40:25,720
Speaker 1: out of the sky and rain down on unsuspecting victims,

772
00:40:25,840 --> 00:40:28,880
Speaker 1: which is actually fascinating, but I find the topic so depressing,

773
00:40:29,360 --> 00:40:32,480
Speaker 1: Like the fallowout creates some of the most toxic air imaginable,

774
00:40:32,719 --> 00:40:35,520
Speaker 1: the kind that can ruin food and water supplies and

775
00:40:35,840 --> 00:40:39,960
Speaker 1: causes widespread cases of fast acting cancers and other maladies.

776
00:40:40,320 --> 00:40:42,440
Speaker 1: Part of the reason fallout is so dangerous is that

777
00:40:42,480 --> 00:40:44,880
Speaker 1: there aren't a whole lot of ways to protect against

778
00:40:44,880 --> 00:40:48,239
Speaker 1: something as pervasive as the air itself, And like we

779
00:40:48,239 --> 00:40:50,959
Speaker 1: were saying in the beginning, it's all fluid, as sam

780
00:40:51,080 --> 00:40:55,080
Speaker 1: Keen rights. By the early nineteen sixties, radioactive atoms from

781
00:40:55,120 --> 00:40:58,760
Speaker 1: both Soviet and American tests had seated every last square

782
00:40:58,800 --> 00:41:02,680
Speaker 1: inch on Earth. Even penguins and Antarctica had been exposed. Well,

783
00:41:02,880 --> 00:41:07,240
Speaker 1: just like with everything else, radioactivity is safest and moderation followed.

784
00:41:07,320 --> 00:41:09,560
Speaker 1: Is most dangerous in regions that are fairly close to

785
00:41:09,640 --> 00:41:12,440
Speaker 1: nuclear strike zones. But for the average person, the amount

786
00:41:12,440 --> 00:41:15,800
Speaker 1: of radioactive gases we breathe in from atomic weapons testing

787
00:41:15,800 --> 00:41:18,640
Speaker 1: each year is pretty negligible. It's actually less than the

788
00:41:18,719 --> 00:41:21,799
Speaker 1: radiation we receive from a single X ray, which makes

789
00:41:21,800 --> 00:41:24,279
Speaker 1: me feel a little better, especially because it gives me

790
00:41:24,320 --> 00:41:26,920
Speaker 1: the perfect opening to talk about the surprising truth of

791
00:41:27,040 --> 00:41:30,960
Speaker 1: banana radiation. You guys have no idea how much Mango

792
00:41:31,040 --> 00:41:33,560
Speaker 1: likes to talk about banana facts. But but what's this one?

793
00:41:33,800 --> 00:41:37,440
Speaker 1: Banana facts are the best facts. But I promised this

794
00:41:37,480 --> 00:41:40,360
Speaker 1: one's good. So you probably already know that. Plenty of

795
00:41:40,400 --> 00:41:43,160
Speaker 1: things we interact with on a daily basis, even many

796
00:41:43,200 --> 00:41:47,200
Speaker 1: of the ones we ingest are chalk full of radioactive molecules. Sure,

797
00:41:47,280 --> 00:41:50,840
Speaker 1: so I know brazil nuts, coffee, red meat, even things

798
00:41:50,880 --> 00:41:55,120
Speaker 1: like cat litter and granite countertops have trace amounts. But bananas, Yeah,

799
00:41:55,160 --> 00:41:59,280
Speaker 1: So here's what's weird. Like bananas are actually the gold standard.

800
00:41:59,600 --> 00:42:02,640
Speaker 1: SIGNED has actually compared the radio activity of other ordinary

801
00:42:02,719 --> 00:42:06,720
Speaker 1: objects to bananas, and the amount of radioactive potassium forty

802
00:42:06,960 --> 00:42:10,279
Speaker 1: found in banana is known among nuclear scientists as the

803
00:42:10,360 --> 00:42:14,319
Speaker 1: b D or banana equivalent. Does have a hard time

804
00:42:14,360 --> 00:42:16,200
Speaker 1: believing that, but I'm gonna take your word for it.

805
00:42:16,239 --> 00:42:19,760
Speaker 1: That's pretty ridiculous. I'm guessing beds of radiation aren't anything

806
00:42:19,800 --> 00:42:21,719
Speaker 1: to worry about them, Well, not as long as you

807
00:42:21,760 --> 00:42:25,840
Speaker 1: monitor your banana intake. There are cases of large banana

808
00:42:25,880 --> 00:42:29,279
Speaker 1: shipments setting off the radiation detectors at some seaports, but

809
00:42:29,360 --> 00:42:32,120
Speaker 1: that's just because there's so many beds in one place.

810
00:42:32,440 --> 00:42:35,840
Speaker 1: For human to contract banana induced radiation poisoning, you'd have

811
00:42:35,880 --> 00:42:39,279
Speaker 1: to scarf down about twenty million of them. All right, quick,

812
00:42:39,320 --> 00:42:45,439
Speaker 1: what's your favorite banana related food item? Uh? Banana? Now?

813
00:42:45,440 --> 00:42:48,319
Speaker 1: And laters? Maybe banana? I was thinking, like a real

814
00:42:48,440 --> 00:42:54,200
Speaker 1: thing like peanut butter and banana, think of anything banana? Banana?

815
00:42:54,320 --> 00:42:58,120
Speaker 1: Runts like, what else is banana? Blanana? Laffy taffy obviously

816
00:42:58,120 --> 00:43:01,720
Speaker 1: the answer, but so so I'm guess we're safe. Well

817
00:43:01,840 --> 00:43:04,680
Speaker 1: to clarify, I like bananas, but I don't like banana

818
00:43:04,719 --> 00:43:08,400
Speaker 1: flavor thing. Okay, good, But let's recap a little. So

819
00:43:08,440 --> 00:43:12,439
Speaker 1: we've examined the longevity, permeability, and speed of air, it's

820
00:43:12,560 --> 00:43:15,720
Speaker 1: usefulness in achieving the dream of flight and even helping

821
00:43:15,719 --> 00:43:18,520
Speaker 1: people escape places like East Berlin, which is less of

822
00:43:18,560 --> 00:43:21,040
Speaker 1: a problem today. And we also talked about the force

823
00:43:21,160 --> 00:43:23,960
Speaker 1: that wheels to keep us humans in line and its

824
00:43:24,000 --> 00:43:27,560
Speaker 1: propensity for causing damage both physical and mental. But there's

825
00:43:27,640 --> 00:43:30,839
Speaker 1: one last aspect of air I'd like to demonstrate, all right,

826
00:43:30,880 --> 00:43:34,120
Speaker 1: what's that? The power of its facts? Remember that air

827
00:43:34,160 --> 00:43:36,880
Speaker 1: hockey fact I couldn't quite fit into the episode Prepared

828
00:43:36,920 --> 00:43:39,160
Speaker 1: to be blown away in the part time genius fact off.

829
00:43:39,239 --> 00:43:51,080
Speaker 1: All right, let's see what you got yah yah. So

830
00:43:51,160 --> 00:43:54,680
Speaker 1: this is from two six, but I love it so much. Basically,

831
00:43:54,719 --> 00:43:57,759
Speaker 1: some students created a virtual air hockey game. You have

832
00:43:57,880 --> 00:44:00,440
Speaker 1: half an air hockey table and a videos green with

833
00:44:00,520 --> 00:44:02,719
Speaker 1: someone on the other side. It could be anywhere, like

834
00:44:02,760 --> 00:44:05,239
Speaker 1: in Russia or wherever, and when you hit the puck,

835
00:44:05,600 --> 00:44:08,359
Speaker 1: the table actually calculates how you hit it and at

836
00:44:08,400 --> 00:44:10,919
Speaker 1: one angle and it spits it out on the other

837
00:44:10,960 --> 00:44:13,520
Speaker 1: side of the world, which, as someone who grew up

838
00:44:13,520 --> 00:44:15,960
Speaker 1: with a sister who rarely wanted to play sports with me,

839
00:44:16,440 --> 00:44:18,880
Speaker 1: to always be able to find a table, tennis partner

840
00:44:19,000 --> 00:44:21,680
Speaker 1: or whatever across the globe for a game is sort

841
00:44:21,719 --> 00:44:24,160
Speaker 1: of incredible. That is pretty awesome. So here's one about

842
00:44:24,200 --> 00:44:27,040
Speaker 1: black umbrellas and how they became the standard. Did you

843
00:44:27,080 --> 00:44:29,879
Speaker 1: know that excessive coal burning in the seventeen hundreds caused

844
00:44:29,920 --> 00:44:33,320
Speaker 1: an inky rain in London? So the black umbrella protected

845
00:44:33,360 --> 00:44:36,759
Speaker 1: you from pollutants without looking disgusting. Actually, have you heard

846
00:44:36,800 --> 00:44:39,560
Speaker 1: about that company Air Inc. So an M. I. T.

847
00:44:39,680 --> 00:44:42,359
Speaker 1: Scientist was in India when you realized the soot and

848
00:44:42,400 --> 00:44:44,920
Speaker 1: pollution in the air was actually making smudges on his

849
00:44:45,000 --> 00:44:47,520
Speaker 1: white shirt. So he came up with a novel idea,

850
00:44:47,880 --> 00:44:50,520
Speaker 1: why not use it to replace the carbon black and printers.

851
00:44:50,880 --> 00:44:54,600
Speaker 1: His company actually harvests the straight from the tailpipes of trucks,

852
00:44:54,960 --> 00:44:57,680
Speaker 1: and it's now helping to clean the air while putting

853
00:44:57,680 --> 00:45:01,200
Speaker 1: that pollutant into safe markers and paints that actually, apparently

854
00:45:01,320 --> 00:45:04,319
Speaker 1: artists really dig. That's pretty awesome, all right. Here's one

855
00:45:04,360 --> 00:45:07,560
Speaker 1: about whales. Scientists have long wondered why they leap into

856
00:45:07,600 --> 00:45:10,400
Speaker 1: the air and breach when it exerts so much energy

857
00:45:10,440 --> 00:45:13,360
Speaker 1: to do this, and it turns out it's a communication trick.

858
00:45:13,719 --> 00:45:16,160
Speaker 1: Often the behavior happens when whales are traveling in a

859
00:45:16,200 --> 00:45:19,480
Speaker 1: pod and get separated. While whales have songs and other

860
00:45:19,480 --> 00:45:22,880
Speaker 1: ways to communicate over very long distances, flopping is an

861
00:45:22,880 --> 00:45:25,240
Speaker 1: easy way to get another whale's attention in a closer

862
00:45:25,360 --> 00:45:27,960
Speaker 1: range or in places where there's a lot of competing noise.

863
00:45:28,440 --> 00:45:31,399
Speaker 1: As one scientist told Quartz, it's akin to a really

864
00:45:31,480 --> 00:45:33,719
Speaker 1: keen kid in a classroom jumping up and down and

865
00:45:33,760 --> 00:45:38,560
Speaker 1: waving his hands. Really keen kids and classrooms, right, which

866
00:45:38,600 --> 00:45:41,440
Speaker 1: is pretty awesome. Uh Okay, so this one's about the

867
00:45:41,440 --> 00:45:43,799
Speaker 1: fresh Prince of l Air. Well. First off, did you

868
00:45:43,840 --> 00:45:47,160
Speaker 1: know that that New Yorker writer Andy Borrowitz actually wrote

869
00:45:47,160 --> 00:45:49,600
Speaker 1: the pilot for the show. I didn't, so He told

870
00:45:49,640 --> 00:45:53,400
Speaker 1: Complex magazine that the Spoiled Hillary character was based on

871
00:45:53,520 --> 00:45:57,600
Speaker 1: Quincy jones daughters, or, more specifically, the phone messages they

872
00:45:57,640 --> 00:45:59,640
Speaker 1: used to leave for him while they were at summer camp.

873
00:46:00,040 --> 00:46:03,239
Speaker 1: And one message that Quincy played for Borrowitz said, Dad,

874
00:46:03,440 --> 00:46:08,319
Speaker 1: the water here sucks. Please FedEx avien. Al Right, this

875
00:46:08,360 --> 00:46:10,239
Speaker 1: doesn't actually have anything to do with air, but it's

876
00:46:10,239 --> 00:46:12,200
Speaker 1: too good not to share. It came up when I

877
00:46:12,239 --> 00:46:14,840
Speaker 1: was looking in the ways to clean the environment. Apparently

878
00:46:14,840 --> 00:46:17,359
Speaker 1: this woman in Cleveland, Susan Warren, came to be known

879
00:46:17,400 --> 00:46:20,120
Speaker 1: as the Cleaning Fairy because she would randomly break into

880
00:46:20,160 --> 00:46:24,040
Speaker 1: people's homes, clean them, and then leave. It was apparently

881
00:46:24,080 --> 00:46:26,480
Speaker 1: her way of drumming up business. But cops, could you know.

882
00:46:26,520 --> 00:46:28,439
Speaker 1: Of course, they didn't take kindly to this, so she's

883
00:46:28,440 --> 00:46:30,959
Speaker 1: been arrested twice for it. Oh man, that's so good.

884
00:46:31,160 --> 00:46:34,640
Speaker 1: I had one about this, uh the Helsinki University of Technology,

885
00:46:34,640 --> 00:46:37,440
Speaker 1: which actually created a functional air guitar, like you wear

886
00:46:37,520 --> 00:46:40,479
Speaker 1: colored gloves and a camera watches your movements and turns

887
00:46:40,520 --> 00:46:43,400
Speaker 1: into a real live instrument, which is awesome. But I

888
00:46:43,400 --> 00:46:45,880
Speaker 1: actually really love that cleaning Fairy story. All right, well,

889
00:46:45,920 --> 00:46:48,040
Speaker 1: I'll take it. Well, thanks to Sam Kane, whose book

890
00:46:48,080 --> 00:46:50,640
Speaker 1: we leaned on heavily for this episode. Yeah, the book

891
00:46:50,680 --> 00:46:53,360
Speaker 1: is jam packed with incredible stories, from the shocking and

892
00:46:53,400 --> 00:46:56,840
Speaker 1: amazing tale of scientists collecting ammonia from the air to

893
00:46:57,400 --> 00:47:02,680
Speaker 1: why plants actually respond to anesthesias seriously. Venus flycrafs reflexes

894
00:47:02,680 --> 00:47:05,080
Speaker 1: get all slow and boozy when they're put under. So

895
00:47:05,360 --> 00:47:07,319
Speaker 1: please go out and get Caesar's breath. When you get

896
00:47:07,360 --> 00:47:09,440
Speaker 1: a sec it'll blow your mind. And that's it for

897
00:47:09,440 --> 00:47:11,759
Speaker 1: today's episode. Thanks again for listening. By the way, have

898
00:47:11,800 --> 00:47:14,439
Speaker 1: you heard about the Japanese dio drinkum? Apparently you chew

899
00:47:14,480 --> 00:47:16,879
Speaker 1: it and it makes your bio smell like flowers, which

900
00:47:16,920 --> 00:47:32,719
Speaker 1: is crazy. Thanks again for listening. Part Time Genius is

901
00:47:32,760 --> 00:47:35,000
Speaker 1: a production of how stuff works and wouldn't be possible

902
00:47:35,000 --> 00:47:37,680
Speaker 1: without several brilliant people who do the important things we

903
00:47:37,680 --> 00:47:41,080
Speaker 1: couldn't even begin to understand. CHRISTA McNeil does the editing thing.

904
00:47:41,360 --> 00:47:43,320
Speaker 1: Noel Brown made the theme song and does the MIXI

905
00:47:43,360 --> 00:47:46,719
Speaker 1: mixy sound thing. Gary Roland does the exact producer thing.

906
00:47:47,040 --> 00:47:49,440
Speaker 1: Gay Bluesier is our lead researcher, with support from the

907
00:47:49,440 --> 00:47:52,800
Speaker 1: Research Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and Lucas Adams

908
00:47:52,880 --> 00:47:54,760
Speaker 1: and Eves. Jeff Cook gets the show to your ears.

909
00:47:54,800 --> 00:47:56,800
Speaker 1: Good job, Eves. If you like what you heard, we

910
00:47:56,840 --> 00:47:58,960
Speaker 1: hope you'll subscribe, And if you really really like what

911
00:47:59,000 --> 00:48:00,720
Speaker 1: you've heard, maybe you could leave have a good review

912
00:48:00,760 --> 00:48:03,439
Speaker 1: for us. Do we do we forget Jason? Jason who