Speaker 1: I guess what will what's that man go? So I'm
Speaker 1: super giddy because I just got my eclipse glasses in
Speaker 1: the mail, and I can't wait for next Monday. I
Speaker 1: know I can't either. I know we'll both be taking
Speaker 1: our families up to Nashville for the big event. And
Speaker 1: you know, this is the first time a total solar
Speaker 1: eclipse has happened on the mainland US in our lifetimes.
Speaker 1: The last time one occurred was just a few months
Speaker 1: before either of us were born, back in nine. Well,
Speaker 1: because everyone's buzzing about the event, I thought i'd be
Speaker 1: really fun to share a few of our favorite eclipse facts.
Speaker 1: You know, so everyone has something to talk about out
Speaker 1: their viewing parties, So why don't we get started. Hey,
Speaker 1: their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius the Eclipse Edition,
Speaker 1: a special mini episode. Yeah that's right. So a lot
Speaker 1: of times we have too many facts, but we don't
Speaker 1: have enough time to turn them into full episodes, and
Speaker 1: the clips is just days away, so we thought, what
Speaker 1: a great time to drop some of our favorite eclipse
Speaker 1: facts on people. These are some strange, fun things you
Speaker 1: can suddenly bring up as you watch the event. So
Speaker 1: where do you want to start, will I think we
Speaker 1: should go back to the beginning. I mean, eclipses are
Speaker 1: something people have been talking about for centuries, and I
Speaker 1: like thinking about the early myths about eclipses and just
Speaker 1: the way people would have talked about them so long ago.
Speaker 1: They're all sorts of tales of Mesopotamians hiding their monarchs
Speaker 1: and replacing them with decoy monarchs, you know, just in
Speaker 1: case the dark skies were coming to take their powers
Speaker 1: or something. And you know, I read about an ancient
Speaker 1: China many thought that the solar eclipse was actually a
Speaker 1: dragon getting ready to feast on the sun. So they
Speaker 1: would run out and bang on pots and drums and
Speaker 1: make all kinds of noise, you know, just to try
Speaker 1: to scare the dragon away. That's so funny. I also
Speaker 1: love how the Beach Way Indians which shoot flaming arrows
Speaker 1: at the sky to relight the heavens during eclipses, Like
Speaker 1: there's something so wonderfully poetic about that. Yeah, they're great stories.
Speaker 1: But what about that Pope fact. I know, when we
Speaker 1: were doing research for the Vatican episode, you you stumbled
Speaker 1: into some interesting eclipse information. Yeah, I know, and I
Speaker 1: wanted to save it specifically for this uh. Supposedly, the
Speaker 1: reason astrology was banned by the Catholic Church is that
Speaker 1: because Pope Urban the eighth used to believe in it
Speaker 1: and Italy's top astrologer, which I don't even know what
Speaker 1: that means, because like, what would it mean to be
Speaker 1: like the number one astrologer in Italy? But he foretold
Speaker 1: that this eclipse would mean the death of the pope
Speaker 1: unless he did some magic to protect himself. And so like,
Speaker 1: Pope Urban followed all these spells, and he hid and
Speaker 1: and he did some elaborate ceremonies, and you know, of
Speaker 1: course he survived. But then when he survived a second
Speaker 1: eclipse a few years later, he was so annoyed that
Speaker 1: he banned astrology. All right, well, maybe we should talk
Speaker 1: for a second about why this eclipse feels so special.
Speaker 1: You know, I was wondering that, like, why is there
Speaker 1: such mania for the eclipse this time around? Well, as
Speaker 1: we mentioned earlier, the US has been going through somewhat
Speaker 1: of a drought, you know, from total solar eclipses. In fact,
Speaker 1: this is the longest in the US his tree, and
Speaker 1: you know the last time a total solar eclipse was
Speaker 1: observed anywhere in the mainland US was back in February
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy nine. Of course, the gift of waiting out
Speaker 1: this drought is we're going to get to see this
Speaker 1: coast to coast totality sweeping across the continent. In some
Speaker 1: places it will be up to two minutes and forty
Speaker 1: seconds of darkness, which is so crazy. And you know
Speaker 1: what I love is I love all this talk of
Speaker 1: animals being tricked by this, like that crickets will start chirping,
Speaker 1: and some spiders will deconstruct their webs, and birds stop singing.
Speaker 1: But but the best thing I read is that chickens
Speaker 1: supposedly stopping their tracks, which means sometimes they'll wait with
Speaker 1: one foot in the air, like so strange that Mother
Speaker 1: Nature wants to prank um like that. It's actually kind
Speaker 1: of wild to think about animals freezing in place for
Speaker 1: almost three minutes long. I mean, this thing is going
Speaker 1: for you know, if it's two minutes and forty seconds,
Speaker 1: that's a lot of frozen time. But did you know
Speaker 1: that the longest total solar eclipse could last up to
Speaker 1: seven and a half minutes. You know, I've got to
Speaker 1: admit it might be a little freaky to experience something
Speaker 1: that long, but even two minutes and forty seconds is
Speaker 1: pretty crazy. So I'm just tired of talking about eclipses
Speaker 1: before the time's up. So I'm going to change the subject.
Speaker 1: When someone starts talking too much about eclipses, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: pretend that they said ellipses, and I'm gonna start telling
Speaker 1: ellipses facts. So, mano, I have to ask, is there's
Speaker 1: such a good thing as a good ellipses fact. So
Speaker 1: in the US we used three periods in a row
Speaker 1: to make an ellipses, and in China they use six.
Speaker 1: So that's that's my fact. Grammar comedy always kills at
Speaker 1: the clubs. I don't know, man, I'm thinking we should
Speaker 1: stick with the eclipses. So now, there's so much cool
Speaker 1: science about the eclipse. Honestly, it's strange to think about.
Speaker 1: But the moon has only just arrived in this so
Speaker 1: called sweet spot for total eclipses. So the move has
Speaker 1: been moving away from us ever since it was created,
Speaker 1: you know, four billion years ago, racing away at a
Speaker 1: rate of one and a half inches per year, So
Speaker 1: it hasn't always been in the right spot. And in
Speaker 1: just a few hundred million years from now, total solar
Speaker 1: eclipse as will be over forever, so we've better take
Speaker 1: advantage while we can. Yeah, that's true, but you know,
Speaker 1: it is crazy to think about how rare solar eclipses are.
Speaker 1: I mean, if the Moon's radius was just another eighty
Speaker 1: or ninety miles smaller, we actually wouldn't be able to
Speaker 1: experience this phenomenon. That's a that's pretty nuts. But you know,
Speaker 1: there's been so much talk about these special glasses, But
Speaker 1: in reading about them, I couldn't help stumble into, like
Speaker 1: some other sunglasses facts. And you know what's fascinating to
Speaker 1: me is that historical sunglasses references go all the way
Speaker 1: back to ancient China and Rome. And apparently Nero used
Speaker 1: to wear his sunglasses in the box seats that he
Speaker 1: had while he was watching Gladiator facts. I mean, of course,
Speaker 1: those polished gems war wouldn't have protected his eyes, but
Speaker 1: but they did look pretty good. Well, I went into
Speaker 1: a similar rabbit hole, and because you know, everyone knows
Speaker 1: you're not supposed to stare directly at the sun, and
Speaker 1: I started thinking about other things you're not supposed to
Speaker 1: stare at, and I stumbled into this this weird study
Speaker 1: I don't know if you know about this, but staring
Speaker 1: into someone's eyes for too long is actually problematic. There
Speaker 1: was a two thousand, fifteen Italian study that found when
Speaker 1: people looked into each other's eyes for too long, they
Speaker 1: often experienced symptoms of dissociation, including feelings of detachment from
Speaker 1: one's body and even from reality. And the weirdest part
Speaker 1: of this whole thing is that some of them even
Speaker 1: felt full on hallucinations. So crazy, strange, you know. But
Speaker 1: but we promised to keep this short. So any any
Speaker 1: last facts or tangents you want to throw out there? Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I've got to throw out one tangent because you know,
Speaker 1: we're talking about moons to some degree. Um, I wanted
Speaker 1: to talk about mooning, and specifically that for thirty years,
Speaker 1: the city of Laguna Niguel in California, they've hosted a
Speaker 1: mooning amtrack event, so up to ten thousand people actually
Speaker 1: take part. And basically it started in nineteen seventy nine,
Speaker 1: the last year of total eclipse happened, and it began
Speaker 1: with the barroom bet like this, uh, this drinker at
Speaker 1: the Mugs Away Saloon offered to buy drinks for anyone
Speaker 1: who ran outside and moon the next train, and the
Speaker 1: tradition was born. I'm not sure that's eclipse related off,
Speaker 1: but it is a really good fact. All right. How
Speaker 1: about one more so? Did you know the word eclipse
Speaker 1: comes from the Greek word for abandonment, so quite literally,
Speaker 1: and eclipse was seen as the Sun abandoning the earth.
Speaker 1: That's crazy. But but you know one thing we'll never
Speaker 1: do is abandoned our listeners. So Part Time Genius will
Speaker 1: be back with full episodes next Wednesday and Friday. Happy
Speaker 1: Eclipse watching everybody, Thanks so much for listening, Thanks again
Speaker 1: for listening. Part Time Genius is a production of how
Speaker 1: stuff works and wouldn't be possible without several brilliant people
Speaker 1: who do the important things we couldn't even begin to understand.
Speaker 1: Chris and McNeil does the editing thing. Noel Brown made
Speaker 1: the theme song and does the mixy mixy sounding. Jerry
Speaker 1: Rowland does the exact producer thing. Gay Bluesier is our
Speaker 1: lead researcher, with support from the Research Army including Austin Thompson,
Speaker 1: Nolan Brown and Lucas Adams and Eve Jeff Cook gets
Speaker 1: the show to your ears. Good job, Eves. If you
Speaker 1: like what you heard, We hope you'll subscribe, and if
Speaker 1: you really really like what you've heard, maybe you could
Speaker 1: leave a good review for us. Do we do we
Speaker 1: forget Jason? Jason who