WEBVTT - Is Cryonics Really a Thing? 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:02.640 Guess what, mengo. So that will So I read this 0:00:02.680 --> 0:00:07.000 incredible story in a book called Shocked. In year old 0:00:07.040 --> 0:00:10.440 woman goes skiing in Norway and she has this awful accent. Man, 0:00:10.560 --> 0:00:13.760 this doesn't sound good and that's the end of the story. 0:00:13.920 --> 0:00:16.439 So it gets better. So she rolls down this massive 0:00:16.440 --> 0:00:20.760 slope into this frozen stream and she's under the ice. Well, 0:00:20.800 --> 0:00:23.360 basically her skis saver from going fully in, but she 0:00:23.560 --> 0:00:25.840 is under so when the ski patrol finds her, it 0:00:25.880 --> 0:00:28.720 seems hopeless. She has no pulse, no signs of life. 0:00:29.080 --> 0:00:32.320 She's insanely cold. Her body temperature is something like fifty 0:00:32.400 --> 0:00:36.199 seven degrees. So at the hospital she's declared dead. But 0:00:36.280 --> 0:00:38.400 for some reason, and it isn't clear why, but they 0:00:38.400 --> 0:00:40.680 hook her up to a bypass machine which pumps her 0:00:40.720 --> 0:00:43.519 heart and her lungs, and a few hours later her 0:00:43.560 --> 0:00:47.080 heart flutters like it actually starts up again. Then in 0:00:47.120 --> 0:00:49.040 just over a week she comes out of her coma 0:00:49.320 --> 0:00:53.559 and eventually makes this startling recovery. I know, it's miraculous, right. 0:00:53.920 --> 0:00:56.520 The press calls her Ice Woman, and while doctors and 0:00:56.560 --> 0:00:59.640 scientists get really excited about her story, there's one group 0:00:59.680 --> 0:01:02.720 that takes even more joy in her recovery. The cry 0:01:02.800 --> 0:01:06.680 and I love the crying. Yeah, that's the tiny subculture 0:01:06.720 --> 0:01:09.240 of people who have been laughed at for decades, you know, 0:01:09.240 --> 0:01:11.360 a group of people who believe that freezing your body 0:01:11.440 --> 0:01:13.040 for a few hundred years is going to be the 0:01:13.160 --> 0:01:15.680 key to living forever. And that's what we're exploring in 0:01:15.720 --> 0:01:35.320 today's Part Time Genius. Hey there podcast and listen is 0:01:35.360 --> 0:01:37.680 welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as 0:01:37.720 --> 0:01:40.000 always I'm joined by my good friend Manguesh how Ticketer 0:01:40.040 --> 0:01:43.880 hey Man. Today we're talking cryonics, this notion of freezing 0:01:43.920 --> 0:01:45.839 your body with the hope of thawing it out later 0:01:45.880 --> 0:01:48.360 so you can extend your life. So we'll be diving 0:01:48.400 --> 0:01:50.880 into the science of this bizarre field. We'll look into 0:01:50.920 --> 0:01:53.560 how many people have actually signed up for already stored 0:01:53.640 --> 0:01:57.120 in cryonics facilities around the world, and how movies usually 0:01:57.160 --> 0:01:59.960 get it wrong. But as always, will have our Part 0:02:00.040 --> 0:02:02.600 Time Genius quiz with two listeners. Who do we have 0:02:02.640 --> 0:02:05.840 this week? Mango, We've got board game inventors, not only 0:02:05.880 --> 0:02:10.000 board game inventors, but these are like big time, are awesome. 0:02:10.040 --> 0:02:11.840 I'm decided to have them, so we'll talk to them 0:02:11.840 --> 0:02:14.160 in a bid, and I can't wait to put another 0:02:14.160 --> 0:02:16.480 guy to the test. One of our favorite funny people 0:02:16.680 --> 0:02:19.480 SNL writer Streeter side L. That's right, who will test 0:02:19.520 --> 0:02:22.480 with another frozen related quiz? Is that right? Uh? Huh okay, 0:02:22.520 --> 0:02:24.520 good deal and lots of fun stuff to get too, 0:02:24.560 --> 0:02:26.720 So let's dive in now. I've got to tell you, Mango, 0:02:26.800 --> 0:02:29.720 this whole cryonics thing makes zero sense to me. I mean, 0:02:29.720 --> 0:02:31.920 I can get behind it in fiction, but in the 0:02:31.960 --> 0:02:34.840 real world, yeah, like it makes for a great TV 0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:38.400 and movies Captain America or like a doctor Evil scheme, 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:41.800 But personally, I am so uninterested in putting my body 0:02:41.800 --> 0:02:45.400 on ice. And just to be clear, cryonics and this 0:02:45.480 --> 0:02:48.120 hope of living forever is separate from cryogenics, which is 0:02:48.120 --> 0:02:50.680 the study of cold temperatures and their effects on materials. 0:02:50.720 --> 0:02:53.239 But let's get back to this obsession with living forever. 0:02:53.880 --> 0:02:56.239 I have no interest in being a hundred fifty years 0:02:56.240 --> 0:02:58.600 old or however old the founders of Google and all 0:02:58.600 --> 0:03:01.079 these super rich billionaires want to be. Doesn't it make 0:03:01.120 --> 0:03:02.959 more sense just to try to extend your life in 0:03:03.000 --> 0:03:05.160 the present than try to freeze yourself for the future. 0:03:05.760 --> 0:03:08.560 So well, first off, I didn't realize this until we 0:03:08.639 --> 0:03:11.320 dug into the topic. But it's actually illegal to freeze 0:03:11.320 --> 0:03:14.720 yourself alive. Like I always assume these rich people who 0:03:14.760 --> 0:03:17.800 had cancer or whatever, we're freezing themselves before they passed away, 0:03:18.280 --> 0:03:20.000 you know, so that they could be defrosted when a 0:03:20.000 --> 0:03:22.920 cure comes around. But that's not the case. Everyone who's 0:03:22.960 --> 0:03:27.359 frozen in a cryogenic facility is dead, like dead dead dead, 0:03:27.560 --> 0:03:29.760 really dead, or to use the term they use in 0:03:29.760 --> 0:03:33.120 the industry, deanimated. So all these dead people are actually 0:03:33.120 --> 0:03:36.760 waiting to be reanimated like zombies, which feels like a 0:03:36.800 --> 0:03:39.880 tall order. And in addition, they're hoping to be cured 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:43.920 of whatever disease killed them. I mean, that's so optimistic. Well, 0:03:44.000 --> 0:03:46.200 I mean even the weirder part in my mind, as 0:03:46.280 --> 0:03:48.600 you either get your whole body frozen or you could 0:03:48.600 --> 0:03:51.160 go budget and just do your head. It's just a 0:03:51.240 --> 0:03:53.600 really strange decision to have to make, which is what 0:03:53.640 --> 0:03:56.160 Ted Williams did. The theory is that the head is 0:03:56.200 --> 0:03:58.560 the only important part and the rest of your body 0:03:58.640 --> 0:04:02.240 is completely replaceable. And while that sounds ludicrous, what's weird 0:04:02.360 --> 0:04:04.720 is the science kind of backs this. I mean, the 0:04:04.760 --> 0:04:08.200 truth is head transplants have a surprisingly long history. Back 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:11.600 in nineteen seventies, scientists at Case Western transplanted a rhesus 0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:15.480 monkey's head onto another monkey's body. This was almost fifty 0:04:15.560 --> 0:04:18.800 years ago, and while this Frankenstein monkey couldn't walk around 0:04:18.960 --> 0:04:21.320 or move from the neck down, mainly because the scientists 0:04:21.320 --> 0:04:23.760 didn't have the technology to connect the spinal cord to 0:04:23.800 --> 0:04:26.440 the brain, they did manage to get the blood flow 0:04:26.480 --> 0:04:28.920 between the neck and the head so it could smell 0:04:28.960 --> 0:04:32.120 and see and even taste. Yeah, the head retained all 0:04:32.160 --> 0:04:34.720 of those functions. The monkey only lived a few days. 0:04:34.720 --> 0:04:37.719 But remember we're talking about nineteen seventy and all of that. 0:04:37.760 --> 0:04:41.159 Science has improved dramatically since then. Like in Japan, they've 0:04:41.160 --> 0:04:44.400 grafted the head of a mouse onto another healthy mouse's body, 0:04:44.440 --> 0:04:47.640 which created this two head monstrosity, but also showed that 0:04:47.640 --> 0:04:50.080 the body could accept the new head. And we know 0:04:50.240 --> 0:04:52.720 scientists have severed the spinal cords of mice to make 0:04:52.760 --> 0:04:56.520 them paralyzed, then repaired their spines, allowing them to walk again. 0:04:56.920 --> 0:04:59.640 Which once you've mastered repairing a spine and grafting a 0:04:59.640 --> 0:05:02.720 head on to its body, well, human head transplants don't 0:05:02.760 --> 0:05:05.599 feel that far away. That's umbly right. You know what 0:05:05.680 --> 0:05:07.840 else is funny that I never thought about and sort 0:05:07.839 --> 0:05:10.360 of backs up your point is let's say you're into 0:05:10.400 --> 0:05:13.599 cryonics and you go for the whole body options, the 0:05:13.640 --> 0:05:16.479 facility will actually store you upside down in their tanks 0:05:16.480 --> 0:05:19.960 of chemicals like you're hanging out bat style, because they 0:05:19.960 --> 0:05:22.240 want to protect your head that way, if the facility 0:05:22.279 --> 0:05:25.200 loses power and your body starts to get accidentally thought, 0:05:25.400 --> 0:05:27.080 they want to make sure your noggin is the last 0:05:27.120 --> 0:05:29.600 bit affected. I kind of like that there's this option 0:05:29.640 --> 0:05:32.240 of the whole body versus just the head. I mean, 0:05:32.320 --> 0:05:35.240 it really does seem like a super stressful if you're 0:05:35.240 --> 0:05:37.599 going to invest in us. But your point about storing 0:05:37.600 --> 0:05:40.000 those bodies. If you're watching a science fiction movie and 0:05:40.000 --> 0:05:42.880 people are getting frozen stored upright, you can tell the 0:05:42.920 --> 0:05:45.599 writers haven't done their research. Yeah, I mean in movies 0:05:45.640 --> 0:05:47.680 and shows, people are always stored up right, and that's 0:05:47.720 --> 0:05:50.400 completely bunk. But back to what you were saying about 0:05:50.400 --> 0:05:54.719 head transplants, Like, the science of cryonics is actually amazing, 0:05:55.200 --> 0:05:58.039 whatever you think about the realistic nous of thawing out 0:05:58.040 --> 0:06:00.120 all these rich people two hundred years from now and 0:06:00.400 --> 0:06:03.039 giving them a second shot at life, which, let me 0:06:03.080 --> 0:06:06.160 be clear, I do not believe will happen. The actual 0:06:06.240 --> 0:06:09.279 research that's come out is not only fascinating, but it's 0:06:09.360 --> 0:06:12.160 really important. And before we get to that, I want 0:06:12.160 --> 0:06:14.719 to finish this thought, and that's at the freezing part 0:06:14.760 --> 0:06:17.800 of cryonics feels like an outdated idea to me. Sure 0:06:17.839 --> 0:06:19.880 I see that. I mean, the whole notion came up 0:06:19.880 --> 0:06:22.799 around the time of refrigeration and innovation of frozen food, 0:06:22.880 --> 0:06:25.279 so it feels like a rich person solution for the 0:06:25.320 --> 0:06:28.080 forties or fifties, Like, if we can reheat a bag 0:06:28.120 --> 0:06:31.120 of frozen feet, why can't we do that with humans? Yeah, 0:06:31.200 --> 0:06:34.160 but today the question is why freeze yourself versus just 0:06:34.200 --> 0:06:37.039 trying to extend your life. And this is a weird tangent, 0:06:37.200 --> 0:06:39.440 but my great grandmother lived to be a hundred three. 0:06:39.960 --> 0:06:42.920 She was born in one and that's two years before 0:06:42.920 --> 0:06:45.640 the Right Brothers took flight. And what she lived through 0:06:45.720 --> 0:06:49.279 is insane, like world wars and moon landing sliced bread. 0:06:49.600 --> 0:06:52.840 She was older than slice impressive, and she lived all 0:06:52.839 --> 0:06:55.279 the way through seven police academies and a couple of 0:06:55.320 --> 0:06:58.320 rush hours even more impressive. Yeah, so you know, that's 0:06:58.320 --> 0:07:00.880 a really full life. But she wanted to stay alive 0:07:00.880 --> 0:07:03.240 for an extra year because I don't know the new 0:07:03.400 --> 0:07:06.720 season of Sherlock was coming out, or something more important, 0:07:06.800 --> 0:07:10.320 like her great granddaughter was getting married. Like I understand 0:07:10.360 --> 0:07:13.640 this very human desire to want a one year extension 0:07:13.760 --> 0:07:15.920 or two year extension or life for something you've been 0:07:15.960 --> 0:07:20.160 waiting for. But the idea of dying, then freezing yourself, 0:07:20.320 --> 0:07:22.640 then waiting two years in the hopes of a cure, 0:07:23.080 --> 0:07:25.360 and then essentially hoping to be turned into a zombie 0:07:25.400 --> 0:07:27.080 to live longer. I don't think you should be a 0:07:27.120 --> 0:07:30.280 spokesperson for the crown of society, by the way, I won't. 0:07:30.720 --> 0:07:33.480 And in addition to how creepy and unrealistic that all 0:07:33.520 --> 0:07:36.400 feels to me, I honestly don't think I could psychologically 0:07:36.440 --> 0:07:40.360 handle it. Like you know, um Japanese tourist struggle with 0:07:40.400 --> 0:07:44.000 Paris syndrome, which is that psychological shock when a trip 0:07:44.040 --> 0:07:47.600 to Paris doesn't live up to your romantic expectations. The 0:07:47.680 --> 0:07:50.760 Japanese embassy actually runs the twenty four hour hotline to 0:07:50.800 --> 0:07:53.240 help citizens deal with it. If you think about that's 0:07:53.240 --> 0:07:56.280 the problem of like people from one modern culture visiting 0:07:56.280 --> 0:07:59.000 another modern culture. So imagine a person from the eighteen 0:07:59.080 --> 0:08:02.520 hundreds waking up today, Like, isn't all this change going 0:08:02.520 --> 0:08:05.559 to be too jarring? If you think about it. People 0:08:05.560 --> 0:08:07.880 don't acknowledge each other as they walk in parks, and 0:08:07.920 --> 0:08:11.600 they communicate through watches, and everyone eats tacos with shells 0:08:11.600 --> 0:08:15.520 made of doritos, which just feels two locos to puffery heads. 0:08:15.840 --> 0:08:18.000 I am sad that your grandmother never got to experience 0:08:18.040 --> 0:08:20.840 the doritos locos taco. So a cryon not from two 0:08:20.920 --> 0:08:23.720 hundred years ago would have died in eighteen seventeen. And 0:08:23.760 --> 0:08:26.120 that's a lot of learning to have to do, catching 0:08:26.200 --> 0:08:28.960 up with the technology, civil rights, women's rights, and so 0:08:29.040 --> 0:08:31.679 many other things. And I'm sure seeing all that change 0:08:31.680 --> 0:08:34.040 has to be thrilling too. And I know you're not 0:08:34.120 --> 0:08:36.640 pro cryonics, but if anyone's going to change your mind 0:08:36.679 --> 0:08:40.080 about yourself, it's Ben Franklin, right. So he put a 0:08:40.080 --> 0:08:42.280 twist on this. He said he didn't want to live forever, 0:08:42.679 --> 0:08:44.920 but if he could be suspended in a drunken state 0:08:44.960 --> 0:08:47.440 in a giant vat of Madeira, and if he got 0:08:47.440 --> 0:08:49.160 to have a few friends come along with him for 0:08:49.200 --> 0:08:51.240 a ride, he'd be excited to wake up a hundred 0:08:51.320 --> 0:08:53.439 years later and see how the country is progressed. Well, 0:08:53.480 --> 0:08:55.880 obviously I'm not gonna argue with Ben Franklin. I mean, 0:08:56.040 --> 0:08:59.400 his idea of getting drunk is really good and bringing friends. 0:09:00.040 --> 0:09:02.360 What do you proposed was basically a hot tub time 0:09:02.360 --> 0:09:06.720 machine colonial edition, I'd see that. But for someone like Franklin, 0:09:06.880 --> 0:09:09.280 he actually created a new country. So of course he's 0:09:09.320 --> 0:09:12.040 going to be curious. And this is just on the side, 0:09:12.040 --> 0:09:14.240 but can you imagine if he was frozen and then 0:09:14.440 --> 0:09:17.640 emerged in two thousand seventeen, how pissed he'd be that 0:09:17.679 --> 0:09:20.800 he doesn't have a pardon helmet like he was in 0:09:20.880 --> 0:09:23.480 so many rooms where it happened, and he dropped zero 0:09:23.559 --> 0:09:26.360 bars in the musical. So unfrozen, Ben's not going to 0:09:26.400 --> 0:09:29.000 see Hamilton's that they sold out for another five years, 0:09:29.040 --> 0:09:31.040 I think at least. But on the other side, I'm 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:33.080 sure he'd be thrilled by how our post office and 0:09:33.120 --> 0:09:36.280 fire departments work, or that people still use his inventions. 0:09:36.360 --> 0:09:39.880 What team been in, bifocals and swim flippers and that 0:09:39.920 --> 0:09:42.679 whole grabber thing people use it their grabinator, Yeah, the 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:46.040 grab house. That one is called the grabinator, but that's 0:09:46.040 --> 0:09:48.200 a different episode. So right now, let's get back on 0:09:48.240 --> 0:09:56.319 the frozen track with a quiz. Okay, mango, So who 0:09:56.320 --> 0:09:58.240 do we have on the line today? So today we've 0:09:58.240 --> 0:10:01.640 got two incredible board game in ventors online. We've got 0:10:01.679 --> 0:10:05.120 Mary Joe Ruder from l A and Peggy Brown calling 0:10:05.120 --> 0:10:10.400 in from Milwaukee. Welcome guys. And it turns out you 0:10:10.440 --> 0:10:13.760 guys actually know each other because both of you were 0:10:13.800 --> 0:10:18.000 the winners of the Toy Industries Game Inventor of the Year. Right, 0:10:18.040 --> 0:10:21.040 so you guys are even friends. I think we are. 0:10:21.040 --> 0:10:24.040 We are, yep, we've worked on projects together. It's funny 0:10:24.080 --> 0:10:28.439 in the business of game inventors were all competitor were like, um, 0:10:28.480 --> 0:10:32.840 the Williams sisters were competitors. But we're also friends. We're 0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:38.679 not we're not frend of these like that from from petitors. 0:10:38.840 --> 0:10:41.240 That's a good one. That's a pretty small universe. Being 0:10:41.320 --> 0:10:44.640 game inventors, I hear though, is not all easy. In fact, Peggy, 0:10:44.679 --> 0:10:46.880 I was seeing that that you're suffering from something that 0:10:46.960 --> 0:10:50.000 comes with being a game inventor. You mind telling us 0:10:50.040 --> 0:10:53.920 about that. It's an old affliction that was named gamekeepers 0:10:53.960 --> 0:10:57.839 thumb because Scottish peasant hunters. I think it was used 0:10:57.840 --> 0:10:59.920 to take their catch and strap it with a piece 0:10:59.920 --> 0:11:02.480 of leather over um, wrapping around their thumb and then 0:11:02.480 --> 0:11:04.480 slinging over their shoulder, and it would stretch out that 0:11:04.559 --> 0:11:07.560 ligament and break that ligament between their sum and four fingers. 0:11:07.600 --> 0:11:10.520 So that's how it got the name gamekeeper thumb. But um, 0:11:10.559 --> 0:11:14.120 I've basically rebranded it from cutting out pumping pieces and 0:11:14.200 --> 0:11:17.560 game proponents and cards and everything overall the year, the 0:11:17.600 --> 0:11:21.560 sacrifices you've made for this, Wow, that's crazy occupational hazard. 0:11:23.000 --> 0:11:26.120 Mary Joe, do you suffer from Gamekeeper's thumb? I don't, 0:11:26.240 --> 0:11:28.520 and I'm not envious of that at all. I was 0:11:28.600 --> 0:11:31.720 reading about you though, that you have a pretty strange 0:11:31.960 --> 0:11:36.040 collection of is it ABC books from all of the world? 0:11:36.400 --> 0:11:41.240 It is, Yeah, I collect ABC books. I'm a graphic 0:11:41.280 --> 0:11:45.280 designer by original trade, and I've always loved Bonds. And 0:11:45.400 --> 0:11:49.120 I was trying really hard to learn Danish and I 0:11:49.240 --> 0:11:52.280 learned mostly that I'm not competent in foreign languages. But 0:11:52.440 --> 0:11:55.200 as I was practicing, I picked up an Apple and 0:11:55.240 --> 0:11:57.240 I'm in the kitchen. I'm like, hey, is for Apple? 0:11:57.400 --> 0:12:00.160 Wait a minute, No, it's not. It's that crazy E 0:12:00.440 --> 0:12:03.480 letters that I don't even know how to pronounce. It 0:12:03.600 --> 0:12:05.719 just became a fun thing to do when I went 0:12:05.760 --> 0:12:07.880 to any country that I hadn't sent to you before 0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:11.520 is to find the ABC book. What's the weirdest picture 0:12:11.559 --> 0:12:13.600 that kicks off and off of that book? Yeah? I 0:12:13.640 --> 0:12:16.800 think the weirdest one I have is from Thailand, which 0:12:16.960 --> 0:12:21.400 has a lot of I'm sure not not authorized pictures 0:12:21.520 --> 0:12:26.720 of different people like Snoppy instead of Snoopy happy, and 0:12:26.720 --> 0:12:32.720 then I'm I love the opponents. All right, Well, let's 0:12:32.720 --> 0:12:36.120 get started with our game today, Mango, what are we 0:12:36.200 --> 0:12:38.760 playing today? We're playing a game called the Ice Have 0:12:38.920 --> 0:12:42.040 It where every answer includes the word ice. So if 0:12:42.040 --> 0:12:44.320 we said this is the product Ben and Jerry decided 0:12:44.360 --> 0:12:50.240 to make instead of bagels, you'd say done. All right, Now, 0:12:50.280 --> 0:12:53.280 remember you're playing for a big prize here. Whoever wins, 0:12:53.280 --> 0:12:56.559 we'll get a handwritten note from us to your mom 0:12:56.720 --> 0:12:59.640 or your boss or somebody else important in your life 0:12:59.760 --> 0:13:03.240 to sing your praises. So there's a lot at steak here. 0:13:03.920 --> 0:13:06.720 So Mary, Joe, you were the more prompt on the 0:13:06.800 --> 0:13:09.679 dial ends, so you get to go first. We're gonna 0:13:09.720 --> 0:13:13.560 put thirty seconds on the clock and we're gonna see 0:13:13.559 --> 0:13:16.840 how many you can answer We've got six questions for you. 0:13:16.880 --> 0:13:18.800 Let's see if we can get through all all six 0:13:18.840 --> 0:13:21.800 of them. You ready, remember, I'll give you. I'll give 0:13:21.840 --> 0:13:24.199 you a clue and you have to tell me the answer. 0:13:25.160 --> 0:13:29.040 All right, let's go. Val Kilmer's nickname and top gun 0:13:30.160 --> 0:13:34.200 ice Man got it. One half of an Arnold, one 0:13:34.240 --> 0:13:38.600 half of an Arnold. Palmer iced tea phrase meaning on 0:13:38.720 --> 0:13:49.880 shaky ground. Rapper Robert Van Winkle's hit song from Yes 0:13:50.360 --> 0:13:53.680 nineteen seventy seven fourigner hit and we are over time. 0:13:53.679 --> 0:13:58.880 We'll see if she can answer this one. I see freezy, 0:13:58.960 --> 0:14:08.080 goodness happy. It's probably a little bit hard when the 0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:10.480 other contestants going, I know this one. I know this one. 0:14:11.480 --> 0:14:13.319 I can't help it. I have a confession to make. 0:14:13.400 --> 0:14:15.640 I wrote five thousand of these clues for a game 0:14:15.640 --> 0:14:19.520 called Buzzword. So how many did you get? How many 0:14:19.520 --> 0:14:22.040 did you get? Right? Mary Joe went four for six. 0:14:22.280 --> 0:14:25.240 All right, we're gonna put thirty seconds on the clock again. 0:14:25.480 --> 0:14:30.280 Are you ready? Peggy? Ready? Help between each one? Mary Joe, 0:14:30.280 --> 0:14:33.240 you may make sure you say I know it. Okay, 0:14:33.440 --> 0:14:36.360 That's That's how I'm going to help al Right, Here 0:14:36.480 --> 0:14:41.880 we go. The star of the movie Friday movie Friday. 0:14:42.080 --> 0:14:44.880 I don't know it all right, solid form of carbon 0:14:44.920 --> 0:14:49.400 dioxide ice, the name for the nineteen U. S. Hockey 0:14:49.400 --> 0:14:54.240 game against the USSR. I do know that one. I 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:57.600 don't know, like glory on ice or something like. You 0:14:57.680 --> 0:15:00.520 got it. We're gonna give that to you. Same work. 0:15:01.240 --> 0:15:04.160 Dry ice was the other one. Now, A cheap beer 0:15:04.240 --> 0:15:07.320 we drank a lot of in college, made by Miller Brewing. 0:15:08.680 --> 0:15:11.680 Tell Us Well Done One More two thousand two animated 0:15:11.720 --> 0:15:17.120 movies starring a saber tooth squirrel named Scrat. Well Done. 0:15:17.200 --> 0:15:20.400 Let's do this last one together? A reality TV show 0:15:20.440 --> 0:15:23.960 on the History Channel involving drivers who operate giant vehicles 0:15:24.040 --> 0:15:29.400 across frozen rivers and lakes and remote Arctic territories. Wow, 0:15:29.480 --> 0:15:33.200 who was that was? That? Was that Peggy? All right? 0:15:33.680 --> 0:15:36.800 So we'll give Peggy five for six and Mary Joe 0:15:36.960 --> 0:15:42.960 four for six. That's right. So, Peggy, you're gonna get 0:15:42.960 --> 0:15:44.800 a letter to your mom or a friend or a 0:15:44.800 --> 0:15:47.160 boss in the mail shortly. And because we don't want 0:15:47.200 --> 0:15:50.800 anyone's mailbox to feel lonely, Mary Joe, you can wipe 0:15:50.840 --> 0:15:52.920 that sour expression off your face and replace it with 0:15:52.960 --> 0:15:55.360 a different sour expression. Because We're going to send you 0:15:55.400 --> 0:15:59.000 a package of Bob's Frozen Pickles, the only frozen pickle 0:15:59.040 --> 0:16:04.240 pops on the market, so such a great price. We're 0:16:04.240 --> 0:16:07.280 all winners here today. Thank you guys, so much. Good 0:16:07.360 --> 0:16:09.720 luck to both of you. Um and you can't wait 0:16:09.720 --> 0:16:21.480 to see your next inventions. So one of the strangest 0:16:21.520 --> 0:16:23.760 parts about cryonics is that it occurs in nature all 0:16:23.760 --> 0:16:25.960 the time. Yeah, that's right. There are a few animals 0:16:25.960 --> 0:16:29.080 that can freeze and survive. Ice worms do it, painted turtles, 0:16:29.080 --> 0:16:31.560 certain scorpions, but the American wood frog is kind of 0:16:31.600 --> 0:16:33.520 the all star and that's the one that gets talked about. 0:16:34.000 --> 0:16:37.320 Unlike other animals that hibernate by slowing their metabolism down, 0:16:37.560 --> 0:16:41.080 the wood frog actually freezes to a halt. It'll stop breathing, 0:16:41.280 --> 0:16:43.880 it's heart stops. Like you could actually pick one up 0:16:43.920 --> 0:16:47.840 and break off a little legsicle, alexicle, I know it's frozen, 0:16:49.000 --> 0:16:51.560 and in places like Alaska, it'll stay in the state 0:16:51.600 --> 0:16:54.480 for seven months. Then they'll just wake up and hop 0:16:54.520 --> 0:16:57.480 off like no big deal. So scientists were trying to 0:16:57.480 --> 0:17:00.480 figure out the trick because freezing is really hard. Cells 0:17:00.800 --> 0:17:05.240 human cells contain water almost and when the water solidifies 0:17:05.280 --> 0:17:08.199 into ice. It presses down and squeezes the cells and 0:17:08.240 --> 0:17:11.480 causes the cellular death for various reasons. You can poke 0:17:11.560 --> 0:17:14.639 holes or harm the membrane or whatever, and we just 0:17:14.680 --> 0:17:17.320 aren't made for freezing. But the American wood frog is 0:17:17.400 --> 0:17:20.760 totally different. It basically pumps itself full of glucose and 0:17:20.800 --> 0:17:23.440 creates its own anti freeze well, which is essentially how 0:17:23.440 --> 0:17:26.639 croyonots are stored. Right after they pass away, their bodies 0:17:26.640 --> 0:17:28.600 are cooled and they're put on the machine to keep 0:17:28.640 --> 0:17:31.320 circulating their blood until it can be replaced with an 0:17:31.320 --> 0:17:34.040 anti freeze, and then the bodies are packed in sleeping 0:17:34.040 --> 0:17:37.760 bags with ice and store and chambers and incredibly low temperatures. 0:17:38.160 --> 0:17:41.720 So different facilities have very different processes. But what I'm 0:17:41.760 --> 0:17:44.240 kind of fascinated by is that, like the wood frog, 0:17:44.520 --> 0:17:47.719 there's been at least one instance of reported human hibernation. 0:17:48.320 --> 0:17:51.200 So in the book shop, David Casserett tells this great 0:17:51.240 --> 0:17:54.320 story about this thirty five year old Japanese man who 0:17:54.320 --> 0:17:57.159 went to this company picnic and a mountainous area and 0:17:57.200 --> 0:17:59.399 he gets a little tipsy at the picnic, decides to 0:17:59.440 --> 0:18:02.160 walk home, and so you can imagine what happens next 0:18:02.480 --> 0:18:07.520 he slips and breaks his pelvis, and this is where 0:18:07.520 --> 0:18:10.560 the story gets really strange. He's there for twenty four 0:18:10.680 --> 0:18:13.480 days before some hikers find him, just exposed to the 0:18:13.520 --> 0:18:17.159 elements without food or water, and his temperature has dropped 0:18:17.200 --> 0:18:20.240 to seventy one degrees, but his heart was still beating 0:18:20.240 --> 0:18:22.760 slowly and he was breathing, and like the story we 0:18:22.840 --> 0:18:25.680 told at the beginning, he made a full recovery. Now 0:18:25.720 --> 0:18:29.040 there's some speculation about what actually happened during those twenty 0:18:29.040 --> 0:18:31.920 four days, and no one really knows, but it brings 0:18:32.000 --> 0:18:34.080 up this idea of what could happen if you put 0:18:34.080 --> 0:18:36.560 an injury victim in a suspended state by lowering their 0:18:36.560 --> 0:18:40.400 body temperature. Right, And though it sounds so incredibly far fetched, 0:18:40.680 --> 0:18:43.720 the benefits like being able to cool a gunshot victim 0:18:43.760 --> 0:18:45.800 to keep their body in stasis until they can get 0:18:45.800 --> 0:18:48.320 worked on. That could change the way we do medicine, 0:18:48.640 --> 0:18:51.080 like it could help soldiers in the battlefield, or give 0:18:51.080 --> 0:18:54.040 a surgeon more time to conduct a heart transplant. I 0:18:54.080 --> 0:18:55.840 know you were telling me this too, but about that 0:18:55.920 --> 0:18:58.600 study on dogs that showed if the animals were cool 0:18:58.680 --> 0:19:01.439 to a body temperatures seventy seven degrees, that they can 0:19:01.480 --> 0:19:05.920 actually survive circulatory arrest for fifteen minutes and still be revived, 0:19:06.320 --> 0:19:09.120 Like previously the most animal could survive without a heartbeat 0:19:09.200 --> 0:19:11.480 was three minutes. Yeah, that could make a huge, huge 0:19:11.480 --> 0:19:14.200 difference in the survival right. So, but also they're all 0:19:14.200 --> 0:19:16.840 these practical applications that have come out of chronics and 0:19:16.880 --> 0:19:19.359 getting a better understanding of how to freeze and revive 0:19:19.440 --> 0:19:22.360 cells without freezer burn or cellular damage we were talking 0:19:22.400 --> 0:19:24.960 about earlier, Like, scientists have been able to freeze a 0:19:25.040 --> 0:19:28.640 rabbit's kidney than thought and implanted into a rabbit successfully, 0:19:29.040 --> 0:19:31.680 and that technology in itself would be a huge boon 0:19:31.800 --> 0:19:34.560 to humans. I read a figure that twelve people die 0:19:34.680 --> 0:19:37.520 every day waiting for a kidney transplant, and in two 0:19:37.520 --> 0:19:41.200 thousand fourteen, even though there were seventeen thousand kidney transplants 0:19:41.200 --> 0:19:43.760 in the US, there were five times as many people 0:19:43.800 --> 0:19:46.520 on the waiting list. But the major reason isn't that 0:19:46.560 --> 0:19:49.240 we don't have enough kidneys. It's that kidneys can only 0:19:49.280 --> 0:19:51.960 be kept alive for thirty hours outside a body to 0:19:52.000 --> 0:19:55.280 still be viable. And this totally upends that. Yeah, like 0:19:55.359 --> 0:19:57.840 supposedly half of the donated hearts and lungs are thrown 0:19:57.840 --> 0:20:00.560 out each year because they don't make it the patients 0:20:00.560 --> 0:20:03.200 in time, so that could all change. But all these 0:20:03.240 --> 0:20:05.639 things like eggs and sperm and even kidneys are all 0:20:05.760 --> 0:20:08.880 relatively simple cell structures to keep on ice, and while 0:20:08.880 --> 0:20:11.719 we know human bodies are way more complicated, it's not 0:20:11.920 --> 0:20:15.679 entirely convincing that cryonics institutes have the answers yet, at 0:20:15.760 --> 0:20:26.240 least so. Our guest today is an incredibly funny guy. 0:20:26.400 --> 0:20:28.240 Got his start in the comedy world as the front 0:20:28.240 --> 0:20:30.680 page editor of College Humor, where he went on to 0:20:30.720 --> 0:20:33.480 become one of the stars of their online skits. Now 0:20:33.560 --> 0:20:35.199 Mango and I were lucky enough to get to know 0:20:35.359 --> 0:20:37.679 him as a huge history buff, which is part of 0:20:37.680 --> 0:20:39.879 why we wanted to have him on today. But in 0:20:39.920 --> 0:20:42.040 recent years he spent most of his time as a 0:20:42.040 --> 0:20:44.440 writer for Saturday Night Live, writing some of the most 0:20:44.440 --> 0:20:47.840 popular sketches of the past couple of years. So Street 0:20:47.840 --> 0:20:51.159 your side all, welcome to part time genius. Thanks for 0:20:51.280 --> 0:20:53.600 having Yeah, it's good to have you. Actually, I was 0:20:53.600 --> 0:20:57.000 curious to uh to hear how you ended up on SNL. 0:20:57.040 --> 0:20:59.720 You know, we hear about the stressful auditions that aspiring 0:20:59.760 --> 0:21:02.080 cat members have to go through to get on the show. 0:21:02.160 --> 0:21:06.360 But how does it work for writers? Well, it's certainly 0:21:06.359 --> 0:21:10.359 not as um terrifying, I guess as the cast. You 0:21:10.400 --> 0:21:13.160 don't have to like stand there and read your sketches 0:21:13.200 --> 0:21:16.240 you've written in front of a quiet room with just 0:21:16.320 --> 0:21:20.200 your bosses. But the way it's done is like a packets. 0:21:20.240 --> 0:21:23.960