Speaker 1: I guess what, mango, what's that will? So I know
Speaker 1: you and I both fly a lot, and if there's
Speaker 1: one thing I definitely know about you, it's that you
Speaker 1: love flying, right because I just have the best travel
Speaker 1: luck in the world, right, you know. I don't know
Speaker 1: if this is something we've mentioned on the show, but
Speaker 1: it's actually pretty baffling to me, like how bad your
Speaker 1: travel luck has been over the years. Like there are
Speaker 1: times you'll be flying out of Chicago or something and
Speaker 1: then I'll check in with you just to see if
Speaker 1: you've made it home, and you'll say something like I'm
Speaker 1: in Milwaukee. It's a long story, and I don't know
Speaker 1: anybody that can pull that off in the way that
Speaker 1: you do. Or there was even the time we were
Speaker 1: flying out of Cleveland at the same time. Both of
Speaker 1: us were there, we were on different sides of the airport. Now,
Speaker 1: somehow my flight took off and on the other side
Speaker 1: of the airport they told you're plane that the airport
Speaker 1: was closing down because of the wind, I think, which
Speaker 1: is a true story, like that really happened. In fact,
Speaker 1: sometimes when you are righting me to see where I am,
Speaker 1: I don't even want to respond. Yes, as long as
Speaker 1: it's entertaining for others. Oh, it definitely is entertaining. But
Speaker 1: you know, I was thinking about the fact that you
Speaker 1: and I are most often traveling solo and for work purposes.
Speaker 1: And you know, it's funny how when you do something
Speaker 1: so frequently, it's pretty easy just to go through the
Speaker 1: motions not really think about what's going on around you.
Speaker 1: And you know, part of that maybe because half the time,
Speaker 1: I know, I'm flying at such a crazy early hour,
Speaker 1: and I'm I'm kind of half asleep when I'm there.
Speaker 1: But as you know, last week, Georgia and I flew
Speaker 1: up to Toronto so that I could officiate a wedding
Speaker 1: because apparently that's what I do now, and it's been
Speaker 1: nice to hear from some listeners. I guess you made
Speaker 1: the offer that I could officiate other weddings, and so
Speaker 1: I'm trying to decide whether I want to sign on
Speaker 1: to do this or not. But you know, we had
Speaker 1: a bit more time than usual in the Atlanta airport,
Speaker 1: so we spent a little time walking around, and when
Speaker 1: you're not rushing to your next flight, spending time in
Speaker 1: the country's busiest airport actually makes for some pretty fantastic
Speaker 1: people watching, and so know, we spend time looking out
Speaker 1: the window as those luggage cars rushed around in between
Speaker 1: the terminals. We watched people run off the trains to
Speaker 1: their next flights, and then a couple of times we
Speaker 1: just set down and watched people flying by and try
Speaker 1: to make guesses on why certain passengers were going to
Speaker 1: different locations. Yeah, I mean it's a fun game to play.
Speaker 1: You know, when I'm walking through airport terminals, I'll often
Speaker 1: see like an airport employee come walking out of one
Speaker 1: of those personnel only sections, and I always want to
Speaker 1: go behind that door just to see what's back there.
Speaker 1: Oh me too. I mean would probably be disappointing if
Speaker 1: you actually got to go there. But yes, so many
Speaker 1: times you see that happen, You're like, what, what is it?
Speaker 1: What's happening is such a mystery. But you know, we
Speaker 1: started talking about just how many people work at the
Speaker 1: nation's biggest airports and how many people you interact with
Speaker 1: before you even get on a plane. You've got the
Speaker 1: people behind the check in desk to t s A.
Speaker 1: The people working at the restaurants, to gate agents, customs.
Speaker 1: I mean, so many people and then all the people
Speaker 1: behind the scenes, controlling the schedules, handling bags and just
Speaker 1: generally keeping the place running efficiently. And we're talking thousands
Speaker 1: of people in places like the Atlanta Airport, and that's
Speaker 1: what God is thinking. You know, what are some of
Speaker 1: the secrets behind how an airport operates? And what do
Speaker 1: we not know? And of course what are some of
Speaker 1: the strangest things t s A has pulled out of
Speaker 1: passenger bags in security. So let's dive in. Y Hey,
Speaker 1: their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will
Speaker 1: Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good friend
Speaker 1: man Guesho Ticketer and on the other side of the
Speaker 1: soundproof glass doing his best impersonation. Now, you guys may
Speaker 1: not know this about Tristan, but he does incredible repers,
Speaker 1: so good. Well, today's is a really special one. It's
Speaker 1: of the carpet from the Portland International Airport. That's our
Speaker 1: friend and producer Tristan McNeil. Now I do need to
Speaker 1: clarify here. Tristan is not lying on the floor with
Speaker 1: a rug over him. He does that sometimes, but not today.
Speaker 1: He's not just doing that to pretend to be a carpet.
Speaker 1: He actually is decked out head to toe and clothing
Speaker 1: based on that old carpet design from the Portland's Airport.
Speaker 1: Really creative idea to which honestly doesn't sound that much
Speaker 1: less weird, right, No it doesn't. But that's this is
Speaker 1: just the kind of stuff that Tristan does. He's that committed.
Speaker 1: But actually he was telling me earlier what this is
Speaker 1: all about. So basically, the Portland Airport, or PDX as
Speaker 1: you might call it, they added this new carpet to
Speaker 1: its terminals back in now because this was in the eighties.
Speaker 1: The carpet had this kind of funky and geometric design
Speaker 1: with this teel background and all these blue and purple
Speaker 1: and red shapes repeating all over in a very loud carpet. Anyway,
Speaker 1: the carpet stuck around until I think two thousand six,
Speaker 1: and that's when PDX decided it was finally time to remodel. Now,
Speaker 1: they started ripping up the carpet and people went ballistic,
Speaker 1: and that is not an overstatement. I mean they were
Speaker 1: grieving the loss of this carpet. They decided to take
Speaker 1: to social media and just as a way to pay
Speaker 1: tribute to the airport carpet, and they were calling for
Speaker 1: it to be preserved. There was a Facebook page for
Speaker 1: people to post pictures and stories of all the great
Speaker 1: times that had standing on that carpet, and somebody made
Speaker 1: a Twitter account and began posting from the carpet's point
Speaker 1: of view. These are all things that actually happened. And
Speaker 1: you know, some folks even memorialized the carpet by having
Speaker 1: its design tattooed on their arms. And of course, it
Speaker 1: wasn't long after that that the beloved carpet design started
Speaker 1: appearing on all sorts of merchandise. And you know, just
Speaker 1: looking at Tristan, you can see that they made pd
Speaker 1: X carpet t shirts, sweatpants, socks, shoes, even a headband. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know. And Tristan was telling me about all this,
Speaker 1: and it got me curious about what other bizarre airport
Speaker 1: stories and secrets are out there. And so that's what
Speaker 1: today's show is all about. You know, we'll we'll take
Speaker 1: a look at how airports function, and along the way,
Speaker 1: we'll also check out some of the odd ball amenities
Speaker 1: that different airports offer, as well as some of the
Speaker 1: weirdest stuff that people have tried to slip past security.
Speaker 1: So let's get started. But where do you want to begin, Mango, So, actually,
Speaker 1: I don't want to get off the airport carpet facts
Speaker 1: just yet, because one of the things I didn't notice
Speaker 1: until Gate pointed out to me is that most airports
Speaker 1: have linoleum or tile in the check in areas and
Speaker 1: all through security, but then when you get to the
Speaker 1: flight gates, the floor suddenly switches the carpet. And there's
Speaker 1: actually a reason behind this. So airport designers use this
Speaker 1: trick as a way to make holding areas feel more relaxing.
Speaker 1: So not only does the soft carpet help bring the
Speaker 1: feel of a living room into the airport, it also
Speaker 1: helps muffled the noise from people's roller bags and footsteps.
Speaker 1: But the biggest reason is that all this works together
Speaker 1: to make past and just feel less stressed out. Yeah
Speaker 1: it makes sense, but I mean, carpets aren't the only
Speaker 1: thing designers are thinking about when they design these airports spaces.
Speaker 1: I mean, another handy tool they used to make us
Speaker 1: feel comfortable is called wayfinding, or that process designers used
Speaker 1: to make the airports easier to navigate or as easy
Speaker 1: as possible. And one big part of this, of course,
Speaker 1: is the signage and there's so much careful planning that
Speaker 1: goes into that, not just where to place the signs,
Speaker 1: but how they're designed, how they're laid out, and for instance,
Speaker 1: the font on the signs needs to be legible from
Speaker 1: a distance and easy for non native language speakers to decipher. Now, amazingly,
Speaker 1: sev of all airports in the world use just one
Speaker 1: of three different typefaces, all of which are sands sarah,
Speaker 1: meaning they don't have the little tails on the letters.
Speaker 1: And because I know you're curious, those three in demand
Speaker 1: fonts are Fruitiger, which was designed specifically for airports, clear View,
Speaker 1: which is the same one used on highway signs or
Speaker 1: on the US, and of course Helvetica. By the way,
Speaker 1: as a side note here, I learned just this week
Speaker 1: that there actually is an airline called Helvetic Airlines, which
Speaker 1: is a small airline out of Switzerland where Helvetica typeface originated,
Speaker 1: and in a truly weird turn of events, the airline
Speaker 1: does not use Helvetica for its logo. That's super weird.
Speaker 1: So what do they use? I don't know what it's
Speaker 1: called exactly, and it's kind of this squat and italic
Speaker 1: font for some reason that almost feels scandalous to not
Speaker 1: use there. But in another way of wayfinding that I
Speaker 1: hadn't thought about are all the works of art that
Speaker 1: are placed around the airport for you. And these can
Speaker 1: be murals or sculptures or sometimes even interactive exhibits. But
Speaker 1: whatever form it takes, airport art is never there just
Speaker 1: to look pretty or to help passengers relax. That's because
Speaker 1: designers are actually thinking of them as landmarks, like a
Speaker 1: quick way to establish a point of reference for passengers
Speaker 1: as they make their way through what are otherwise these
Speaker 1: monotonous terminals. So if you're ever doing some exploring at
Speaker 1: the airport and need to find your way back to
Speaker 1: your gate, just look for the big bronze bear or
Speaker 1: whatever to help point the way. Well, since you bring
Speaker 1: up airport art, I do want to tell you about
Speaker 1: maybe the strangest and creepiest examples I came across. And
Speaker 1: by the way, if you want to see these, it's
Speaker 1: pretty convenient because you just go to one airport. It's
Speaker 1: the Denver International Airport. So that actually doesn't surprise me,
Speaker 1: because what's weird is that there are all these conspiracy
Speaker 1: theories about that specific airport, like, uh, the runways are
Speaker 1: all pin wheel shaped, and some people claim they're meant
Speaker 1: to look like Swastika's. Uh. Some people think there's a
Speaker 1: secret underground city and the tunnels beneath the terminals. You know,
Speaker 1: it is super weird, But uh, I don't think I've
Speaker 1: heard about the artwork. Can you run me through that? Well,
Speaker 1: you're in for a treat with this because some of
Speaker 1: this stuff is just off the wall. So to start
Speaker 1: on the road that leads to the terminal, there's this
Speaker 1: enormous thirty two foot tall sculpture of a blue mustang
Speaker 1: rearing up in anger. But it's not just the size
Speaker 1: or the stance that makes this thing so scary. And
Speaker 1: that's because at night, the horse's eyes actually glow bright red.
Speaker 1: How strange is this? But if that isn't enough to
Speaker 1: convince you the horse is pure evil, just listen to this.
Speaker 1: Back in two thousand six, when the statue was still
Speaker 1: being sculpted, a nine thousand pound piece of stone broke
Speaker 1: free and tragically fell on the sculpture as he was working.
Speaker 1: And you know, sadly he died from this not too
Speaker 1: long after. So not only is this giant blue mustang
Speaker 1: terrifying to behold, it also killed its creator, and that's
Speaker 1: why the locals call him Bluecifer. Wow. So I'm actually
Speaker 1: a little of her to ask, But I think you
Speaker 1: said the horse was just one example. Well, the art
Speaker 1: inside the airport gets even weirder than Bluesifer. So, for instance,
Speaker 1: at baggage claim, there are these two stone gargles keeping
Speaker 1: watch over the luggage carousels, and together the pair forms
Speaker 1: of sculpture known as Notre Denver, which is pretty CUTEI
Speaker 1: name for a couple of winged demons that are pretty
Speaker 1: weird looking. But probably the most unsettling piece of art
Speaker 1: in the whole place is is mural. It's right there
Speaker 1: inside the airport, and it's called Children of the World
Speaker 1: Dream of Peace. Now this title sounds hardwarming, and you think, oh,
Speaker 1: this must be a really nice thing, but just listen
Speaker 1: to this description that I found from Atlas Obscure. It
Speaker 1: says in the mural, a gargantuan figure and flowing olive
Speaker 1: green military garb and a gas mask, wields an assault
Speaker 1: rifle in his left hand while stabbing a dove with
Speaker 1: the cutlass in his right. A line of shrouded, despairing
Speaker 1: figures cowers in his wake. It's just what you want
Speaker 1: to see before boarding an international like, what is going
Speaker 1: on at this airport? I do think somebody might have
Speaker 1: missed the memo about how airport artists supposed to be soothing,
Speaker 1: because that's definitely not suiting. So here's something even scarier
Speaker 1: than demons and killer horses. So you know, the plastic
Speaker 1: bins we used to unload all our stuff on the
Speaker 1: way through security. Definitely. Yeah. So, according to a recent
Speaker 1: study out of Finland, those bins actually contain a whole
Speaker 1: host of respiratory viruses, including germs known to cause both
Speaker 1: the common cold and flew and in fact, researchers found
Speaker 1: that the bins contain more germ samples than any other
Speaker 1: tested part of the airport, which includes elevator buttons, flight
Speaker 1: checking machines, even twilet handles. And while these findings were
Speaker 1: specific to the Helsinki Airport, other studies have turned up
Speaker 1: similar results in a lot of different airports. And unfortunately,
Speaker 1: those bins just don't get cleaned that often. You know.
Speaker 1: It's one of those things that most of the time,
Speaker 1: my wife Georgia is very clean about the things she does,
Speaker 1: but sometimes when we travel she takes a pillow and
Speaker 1: she puts it into one of those bins when we're traveling,
Speaker 1: and it is the grossest thing that anyone has ever done.
Speaker 1: I just can't handle it. But it's you know, I
Speaker 1: actually love these facts that confirm my suspicion that everything
Speaker 1: I come into contact with is filthy. And so those
Speaker 1: are just great stats. I mean, it's like when we
Speaker 1: talked about how the trade tables on airplanes are also
Speaker 1: super gross, I mean grosser than anything. But I vaguely
Speaker 1: remember this. Can you notdge my memory a little? Of course,
Speaker 1: I have the fact right here. I keep them with
Speaker 1: me at all times, just in case anybody needs to
Speaker 1: be reminded. But this was from a two thousand fifteen
Speaker 1: study from travel Math, and it showed that trade tables
Speaker 1: on the back of cabin ce typically contain over two
Speaker 1: thousand colony forming units per square inch. Now these are
Speaker 1: also known as cf us. Now, to put that in perspective,
Speaker 1: the average household toilet, average household toilet has only around
Speaker 1: a hundred and seventies cf us. Even the flush buttons
Speaker 1: for airport toilets only have about two hundred and sixty CFU.
Speaker 1: So that's two thousand on these trade tables compared to
Speaker 1: two hundred and sixty on a flush button on an
Speaker 1: airport toilet. It is so weird that trade tables are
Speaker 1: that filthy. So I actually remember this great scene in
Speaker 1: Roll dolls book Going Solo. It's his biography, where he's
Speaker 1: on his boat and he's watching this woman eat an
Speaker 1: orange with a knife and fork, and he's just kind
Speaker 1: of amazed by how nimble she is with it, and
Speaker 1: he asked her why she's using a knife and fork,
Speaker 1: and she goes on this big about how dirty our
Speaker 1: hands are and how she would never use her hands.
Speaker 1: And I think that's why whenever I touched a trade
Speaker 1: table from now on, it's going to be with a
Speaker 1: knife and fork. That's a smart way to approach it.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, I feel like we rushed onto the
Speaker 1: plane too quickly and need to come back to the airport.
Speaker 1: So what do you say we take a minute to
Speaker 1: talk about some of the deeply weird things that people
Speaker 1: stuff in those dirty bins you were talking about. I mean,
Speaker 1: there are all kinds of strange stories there about people
Speaker 1: smuggling everything from human remains to ninja throwing stars and
Speaker 1: all of this in their carry on bags. But the
Speaker 1: most interesting examples to me are all the weird things
Speaker 1: that scientists though. I mean, it's so funny to read
Speaker 1: some of these. I actually just listen to some of
Speaker 1: the stuff that T. S A Has turned up in
Speaker 1: recent years. All right, a cooler full of turtle embryos,
Speaker 1: several bottles of monkey pee, the shin bone of a
Speaker 1: giant ground sloth, fifty vials of freeze dried milk from
Speaker 1: an Antarctic fur seal, and of course a three D
Speaker 1: printed model of a dolphin vaginant. I mean, you can't
Speaker 1: make this stuff up. That's so weird. But I'm guessing
Speaker 1: the scientists must have like legit reasons for carrying this
Speaker 1: stuff through, right, Like does security just give him a pass? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I mean most of the time they do, And and
Speaker 1: most of these things don't really break the rules. They're
Speaker 1: just odd and usually require some sort of explanation. For
Speaker 1: for instance, when the Antarctic researcher with all the seal
Speaker 1: milk was stopped, he just had to explain what all
Speaker 1: these vials of white powder really were. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: if you're taking a lot of white powder on a plane,
Speaker 1: you're kind of asking to get stopped. But well, you know,
Speaker 1: once he had clued them in there, there really wasn't
Speaker 1: that much of a problem. And in fact, as the
Speaker 1: guy later explained, quote, some of the officers just wanted
Speaker 1: to wave me on, but others wanted me to stay
Speaker 1: and answer their questions like how do you milk a
Speaker 1: first seal? And so he pointed out, that's a nice
Speaker 1: way to engage in a discussion about science. But he
Speaker 1: also almost missed his flight. So I actually love these
Speaker 1: types of interactions, Like I was reading about this one
Speaker 1: time a few years ago when this as a physicist
Speaker 1: flew to Fargo, North Dakota, and he had his Nobel
Speaker 1: Physics Prize with him. So his name is Brian Schmidt
Speaker 1: apparently won the prize back in two thousand eleven for
Speaker 1: co discovering dark energy. But anyway, he was going to
Speaker 1: Fargo to visit his grandmom and she asked him to
Speaker 1: bring along his Nobel and just in case other listeners
Speaker 1: don't know, a Nobel prize kind of looks like an
Speaker 1: Olympic medal, like it's made of gold, ways about half
Speaker 1: a pound. It's pretty big. So Schmidt has this giant
Speaker 1: metal in his bag and because it's made of golden
Speaker 1: actually absorbs all the X rays and it just looked
Speaker 1: like a big black mystery object to the manityrs. So
Speaker 1: security asked him, like, what's in it? And he tells
Speaker 1: them it's a gold medal. And then they opened the
Speaker 1: bag and inspect it and they're like, who gave this
Speaker 1: to you? To which Schmidt says, and he gives an
Speaker 1: honest answer, the King of Sweden. Of course, the King
Speaker 1: of Sweden, as you as you do, you know, so,
Speaker 1: so did the agent just let him through or what? No,
Speaker 1: they were totally suspicious. So then the officers had all
Speaker 1: these follow ups, like they asked, like why the king
Speaker 1: give this to you? And so it's continued and tell
Speaker 1: the truths. He says, uh, because I helped discover that
Speaker 1: the expansion rate of the universe was accelerating. And as
Speaker 1: he's saying this, you know, the officers are looking more
Speaker 1: and more angry. You could sense that they were losing
Speaker 1: their patients. So he finally explained the whole thing in detail,
Speaker 1: like the science, how he won this award, that the
Speaker 1: king presented it to him, all that, and even then
Speaker 1: they had one more question for him, which was why
Speaker 1: were you in Fargo. I mean, I guess that's a
Speaker 1: pretty fair question under the circumstances. But all right, well,
Speaker 1: now that we've made our way through security, what do
Speaker 1: you say we stretch our legs a little bit and
Speaker 1: check out a few of the more surprising amenities the
Speaker 1: airport seems to offer these days. But before we get
Speaker 1: to that, let's take a quick break. You're listening to
Speaker 1: part Time Genius and we're talking about airports, all right, Mango.
Speaker 1: So you and I fly fairly often, as we said before,
Speaker 1: and I know one thing we've both noticed is that
Speaker 1: airports offer a much wider array of amenities than they
Speaker 1: used to. You know, you see things like massage chairs,
Speaker 1: which honestly is so weird to me to be walking
Speaker 1: through a terminal and look over and see somebody with
Speaker 1: their eyes clothes and a massage. I just don't feel
Speaker 1: like that's a place I could relax. But you definitely
Speaker 1: see lots of those. You see sleeping pods and day
Speaker 1: spas made to order sushi like This is a huge
Speaker 1: list of luxuries that are involved in some of these airports,
Speaker 1: and it seems to get longer every year. And so
Speaker 1: I've assembled my own little list here, but I actually
Speaker 1: want to hear from you first. So what are some
Speaker 1: of the most unexpected services you've come across during your travels?
Speaker 1: So one of the things I really like is that
Speaker 1: you see more and more playgrounds for kids and airports,
Speaker 1: and it's been really nice to be able to like
Speaker 1: let the kids run around on these little jungle gyms
Speaker 1: and let them be loud and crazy for a bit
Speaker 1: before you have to, like, you know, reel it all
Speaker 1: in when you get on a plane. But as a
Speaker 1: solo traveler, probably my favorite trend that's been gaining steam
Speaker 1: states side is airport movie theaters. And this is something
Speaker 1: I think started back in two thousand fourteen, which is
Speaker 1: when the airport in Minneapolis St. Paul opened this free
Speaker 1: around the clock screening room near Gate C eighteen. I've
Speaker 1: been there, but I actually haven't noticed that before, so
Speaker 1: so catching a movie it sounds like a fun way
Speaker 1: to kill a pine before a flight, but you probably
Speaker 1: have to get there pretty early to be able to
Speaker 1: watch the whole thing, right, so it's not actually a
Speaker 1: problem in this case. Uh. The Minnesota screening room only
Speaker 1: shows short films and documentaries by filmmakers from the Upper Midwest,
Speaker 1: So in addition to providing some free entertainment, they're really
Speaker 1: way to showcase this local talent. And this approach isn't
Speaker 1: unique to the Minneapolis airport either, So last spring, the
Speaker 1: airport in Portland opened its first microcinema, and concourse, it's similar.
Speaker 1: Where ticketed passengers have made it through security, they're free
Speaker 1: to grab a spot in this seventeen seat theater and
Speaker 1: catch short films by filmmakers from Portland. But maybe the
Speaker 1: most unique airport theater is the one that opened last
Speaker 1: August at Miami International. And unlike the others I mentioned,
Speaker 1: this one doesn't show recent films shop by local artists. Instead,
Speaker 1: the airport actually uses this bank of old flight monitors
Speaker 1: to show all kinds of vintage footage they found in
Speaker 1: and around the airport. So you might see like a
Speaker 1: Miami Families Home movies from the nine twenties on one reel,
Speaker 1: or a reel of different celebrities who've arrived at the
Speaker 1: airport between the fifties and eighties. Plus there are all
Speaker 1: these quirky vintage promotional films for Florida sprinkled in. It
Speaker 1: is pretty great and it just seems like a really
Speaker 1: cool project and a fun way to see all the
Speaker 1: changes the airport in the surrounding community have gone through
Speaker 1: over the years. That does sound pretty neat. I feel
Speaker 1: like I need to check that out the next time
Speaker 1: I'm in Miami. But all right, Well, for my turn,
Speaker 1: I want to talk about something I know you'll love,
Speaker 1: and that's the menagerie of therapy animals that some airports
Speaker 1: now keep on hand as you really a way to
Speaker 1: help calm frazzled passengers. So let's get the boring ones
Speaker 1: out of the way. I guess I know I should
Speaker 1: mention that there are more than thirty airports around the
Speaker 1: US that now have therapy dogs, as well as a
Speaker 1: few that also have cats and even rabbits. What's the
Speaker 1: therapy rabbit. Well, it's a therapeutic rabbit. Actually, I have
Speaker 1: no idea. I guess it's just calmer than your typical
Speaker 1: rabbit and less skittish. But way back to the idea
Speaker 1: of these other animals. So there are plenty of common
Speaker 1: therapy animals scattered in airports across the country, but there's
Speaker 1: only one airport here with its own pot bellied pig,
Speaker 1: and that's in San Francisco. Now, I've flown to San
Speaker 1: Francisco many times. I know you have to. I have
Speaker 1: never seen that, have you know? I have not seen
Speaker 1: a populi pig there. Yeah. The pig's name is Lulu,
Speaker 1: and back in two thousand and sixteen, she joined the
Speaker 1: airport's wag Brigade, which, as you could probably guess, as
Speaker 1: a group of specially trained therapy animals that the airport
Speaker 1: keeps on staff. But Lulu doesn't just sit there like
Speaker 1: a lump while you pet her, like say a therapy
Speaker 1: rabbit might do. Lulu is actually a highly skilled performer.
Speaker 1: So get this. She has not one, not to but
Speaker 1: ten different tricks in her repertoire, and including one where
Speaker 1: she plays a miniature piano. But you know, like any
Speaker 1: pig diva, she also brings a complete wardrobe with her,
Speaker 1: and so her vast costume collection includes, among other outfits,
Speaker 1: a sparkly pink too too, and of course a pilot
Speaker 1: uniform with a hat, which sounds adorable. But you know,
Speaker 1: if gigs aren't your thing, you might actually have better
Speaker 1: luck at the airport in hebron Kentucky. So folks that
Speaker 1: are originally planned to use dogs when they launched the
Speaker 1: therapy animal program in two thousand and sixteen, but in
Speaker 1: the end they went with something much more unique and
Speaker 1: also more local. So the airport got in touch with
Speaker 1: a nearby nonprofit that happened to run a miniature horse
Speaker 1: therapy program, and after a few visits, the airport decided
Speaker 1: to ditch the dogs and just bring many horses to
Speaker 1: the airport twice a month instead. And as you can imagine,
Speaker 1: you know, the prospect of hurting multiple horses through the
Speaker 1: security lines was pretty daunting, so the horses are usually
Speaker 1: kept in the ticketing area during the visits, and even
Speaker 1: if you aren't flying anywhere, you can still swing by
Speaker 1: and pet some therapy horses. It's like a stable full
Speaker 1: of little Sebastian like a fun airport to go to.
Speaker 1: But it's funny that stuff happens in the US, because
Speaker 1: I typically only hear about these kinds of programs at
Speaker 1: foreign airports, like, for instance, I read that the Shipple
Speaker 1: Airport in Amsterdam has all kinds of jealousy inducing amenities.
Speaker 1: They've got a fully stocked airport library, a museum showcasing
Speaker 1: art from the Dutch Masters, and probably coolest of all,
Speaker 1: a team of concierge robots, and don't even get me
Speaker 1: started on the airport in Singapore. So I've actually been
Speaker 1: to the Singapore airport. It was in the nineties, and
Speaker 1: even back then it was unreal, like if you had
Speaker 1: a layover, Singapore would actually give you like honestly, it
Speaker 1: was like a forty five minute or an hour long
Speaker 1: tour of the country and then bring you back to
Speaker 1: the airport and whisk you through security. It also had
Speaker 1: like amazing public showers and these super clean stalls, and
Speaker 1: and there was this garden with birds in it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: except that it's actually gardens plural, like the first one
Speaker 1: was built in the nineteen eighties, I think. But now
Speaker 1: there are whopping ten gardens that are spread across the
Speaker 1: airports for different terminals, and altogether they contain over half
Speaker 1: a million plants from nearly three hundred different species. It's
Speaker 1: pretty absurd, Like they have this dedicated cactus garden, one
Speaker 1: with just sunflowers, another that's full of orchids. But I
Speaker 1: think my favorite has to be this two story, open air,
Speaker 1: thirty hundred square foot butterfly garden in Terminal three. And
Speaker 1: apparently there are more than a thousand tropical butterflies that
Speaker 1: call this garden home at any given time. And if
Speaker 1: you're not into butterflies, the garden is still worth a
Speaker 1: visit because it also contains a twenty foot tall waterfall. Wow.
Speaker 1: I mean that was definitely not there when I was there.
Speaker 1: But uh, you know, we had a significant layover when
Speaker 1: I was at the Singapore Airport, and I have never
Speaker 1: been to another airport where I wouldn't have minded waiting
Speaker 1: for like a flight delay. You know, the food was great,
Speaker 1: the place was great, it was well lit, it was
Speaker 1: it was really gorgeous. I'd love to visit there sometime.
Speaker 1: And apparently you're not the only one who feels this way.
Speaker 1: It's actually according to the World air Port Awards, which
Speaker 1: is apparently a thing. In two thousand eighteen, the Singapore
Speaker 1: Airport was voted the world's best airport for the sixth
Speaker 1: year in a row. And there's a pretty steep competition
Speaker 1: out there. So at this point, I'm not sure what
Speaker 1: it would take to beat Singapore. So I do think
Speaker 1: that they have one feature that could knock them out
Speaker 1: of the top spot, and that is rocking chairs. I
Speaker 1: think you missed the part where I said Singapore Airport
Speaker 1: has a twenty foot indoor waterfall. I'm pretty sure that
Speaker 1: tops rocking chairs. Well. I think some cities prefer their
Speaker 1: manti is a little less show you, thank you very much,
Speaker 1: or at least that was my takeaway after learning that
Speaker 1: over fifty airports around the US now have a fleet
Speaker 1: of rockers set up in their terminals. You know, not
Speaker 1: that you mentioned that, It's something I've noticed a lot lately,
Speaker 1: especially when I'm passing through airports here in the South.
Speaker 1: I mean, it feels like Charlotte has had them forever,
Speaker 1: But maybe that's part of what's going on there. Like
Speaker 1: Southern folks just like the airport to feel a little
Speaker 1: more like their front porch. Maybe. Yeah, I mean, I
Speaker 1: think you're probably half right, because it's not just Southerners
Speaker 1: who like the rockers. You can actually find them in
Speaker 1: airports as far west as Seattle and San Diego. But
Speaker 1: you know, that front porch field you mentioned is definitely
Speaker 1: a big part of the appeal. In fact, the whole
Speaker 1: trend seems to have started thanks to a temporary art
Speaker 1: exhibit called Porch Sitting, and you're absolutely right. It was
Speaker 1: featured at the airport in Charlotte, North Carolina. And this
Speaker 1: was way back in and so the way it worked
Speaker 1: was they had all these giant photographs of different front
Speaker 1: porches with rocking chairs on them, and then in front
Speaker 1: of the photos they put actual rocking chairs, kind of
Speaker 1: like props to make the exhibit a little more interactive.
Speaker 1: But when the exhibit finished its run and the chairs
Speaker 1: were taken away, people got super upset. You know. It
Speaker 1: was just like with that carpet in Portland, Like passengers
Speaker 1: had grown so fond of these airport rockers, and once
Speaker 1: the public outcry started, the amenities manager not only brought
Speaker 1: the chairs back, he also added even more of them.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's fascinating to see what kinds of things
Speaker 1: people get attached to, and at airports of all places.
Speaker 1: But I'm curious, though, because what you just outline is
Speaker 1: a pretty specific chain of events. Like I doubt all
Speaker 1: these other airports had their own rocking chair exhibits or whatever,
Speaker 1: but how did they wind up with them? Right? So,
Speaker 1: for the most part, it seems like people who worked
Speaker 1: at one airport started noticing the chairs at other airports
Speaker 1: while they were traveling, and then they just decided to
Speaker 1: copy the idea. But here's the best part. All those
Speaker 1: rockers spread across fifty some airports like, they all come
Speaker 1: from the same company. It's called Troutman Chairs and it's
Speaker 1: co owned by a husband and wife who have basically
Speaker 1: become the go to supplier for airport rocking chairs. Wait, seriously, like,
Speaker 1: what a bizarre market to domin also had they pull
Speaker 1: this off? Well, the company is based in North Carolina,
Speaker 1: which is where the trend got started, so they were
Speaker 1: the ones who built the chairs for that exhibit in
Speaker 1: ninety seven, and then over the years, whenever one airport
Speaker 1: manager asked about the rockers at a different airport, they're
Speaker 1: always pointed right back to Troutman Chairs. But the other
Speaker 1: cool thing I read is the theory on why these
Speaker 1: chairs were a hit with passengers in the first place.
Speaker 1: And this is the explanation that the amenities manager in
Speaker 1: North Carolina eve quote. Airports tend to be such a
Speaker 1: fast paced environment it could be overwhelming for people who
Speaker 1: aren't seasoned travelers. The rocker is a yen to that yang.
Speaker 1: You're controlling the rocker, where a lot of the time
Speaker 1: in an airport you're not controlling your environment. It's a
Speaker 1: nice pause button in a hectic environment. It definitely isn't.
Speaker 1: You can see that when you travel through Charlotte and
Speaker 1: you see all the people sitting there. In fact, I
Speaker 1: can remember when we were traveling so much in our
Speaker 1: Mental Floss days, and our old designer Winslow, and I
Speaker 1: would travel through that airport all the time. We got
Speaker 1: so used to knowing what was in every spot in
Speaker 1: that airport that we could use code for the different terminals.
Speaker 1: And there was this barbecue restaurant where we ate one time,
Speaker 1: and it was not the best dish of barbecue, and
Speaker 1: it was very wet for some reason. So whenever I
Speaker 1: would check in with Winslow when he was traveling, sometimes
Speaker 1: he would just text back wet barbecue, and I knew
Speaker 1: that meant he was in Terminal E in the Charlotte Airport.
Speaker 1: But but back to the idea of these rocking chairs.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, he's asolutely right about airports being hectic,
Speaker 1: and that's actually something I do think we should talk
Speaker 1: about and a little bit more detail. But before we
Speaker 1: get to that, let's take one more quick break. If
Speaker 1: you're listening to Part Time Genius, and we're talking about
Speaker 1: the special kind of anxiety that people feel at airports, okay, Well,
Speaker 1: so one thing I noticed while looking through our research
Speaker 1: is that society actually used to have a much more
Speaker 1: romantic view of airports than we do today. Like, if
Speaker 1: you look back at the mid twentieth century, when commercial
Speaker 1: air travel was just you know, taking off, thank you Tristan,
Speaker 1: people had a very rosy, optimistic view of flying. A
Speaker 1: trip to the airport didn't fill you with dread because
Speaker 1: airports were still seen as dynamic, forward looking places. But
Speaker 1: that's definitely not what most of us see them as today.
Speaker 1: So I'm curious, why do you think that happened? Well,
Speaker 1: you know, I would think a big part of this
Speaker 1: is the massive uptick and security that we've seen since
Speaker 1: the nineties seventies, And I think we covered this a
Speaker 1: bit in our Golden Age of Hijacking episode. But airports
Speaker 1: first added metal detectors in the seventies, and this was
Speaker 1: of course as a way to thwart hijackers. And ever
Speaker 1: since then, we've watched the security process at airports gradually
Speaker 1: grow more strict and more complicated. And while tighter regulations
Speaker 1: are needed in some cases, I think part of the
Speaker 1: fallout from them is that a lot of people feel
Speaker 1: really stressed at the airport. And that's even before you
Speaker 1: factor in other changes that have negatively impacted the airport experience.
Speaker 1: Like you know how much dingier airlines are compared to
Speaker 1: just twenty years or so ago. And there used to
Speaker 1: be free meals on short flights for all classes, and
Speaker 1: then it was restricted to long flights, and now it's
Speaker 1: really only international if you're flying coach. You've also got
Speaker 1: the baggage fees that have gone up, and set fees
Speaker 1: keep going up, and people are getting bumped from flights
Speaker 1: left and right, and so this kind of stuff. You know,
Speaker 1: people are now associated eating with flying and and you
Speaker 1: can tell to like last year, Americans gave airlines lower
Speaker 1: marks on customer satisfaction surveys than the US Postal Service.
Speaker 1: And not only that, airlines were in the bottom six
Speaker 1: for the least liked industries in America, and they were
Speaker 1: right there with stuff like health insurance and TV and
Speaker 1: internet providers. I mean, that's not great company, definitely not.
Speaker 1: But I do think you're right that tighter security and
Speaker 1: hidden costs are kind of what robbed airports of their luster.
Speaker 1: I was reading this article in Slate about the current
Speaker 1: state of the aviation industry and they said, you can
Speaker 1: basically divide the perception of airports into three phases. The
Speaker 1: first was when the airports were this icon of progress,
Speaker 1: which is the period I mentioned earlier, probably from like
Speaker 1: the fifties through the sixties. And the second phase would
Speaker 1: maybe be the seventies through the mid nineties, and that's
Speaker 1: when the airports felt what Slate put like another stale
Speaker 1: waiting room of modern life. I mean, that's probably about
Speaker 1: how I feel about them. So I'm guess maybe I'm
Speaker 1: stuck in phase two right now. Yeah, and I'm guessing
Speaker 1: you're not alone. But for everyone else where now in
Speaker 1: the third phase, where the airport has become quote the
Speaker 1: marble floored home of our national fear fueled psychosis. Wow, Wow,
Speaker 1: it is not pretty when you spell it out like that.
Speaker 1: I guess that's not too far off from how a
Speaker 1: lot of people feel about it. And what's interesting is
Speaker 1: how airports have responded to the rising anxiety levels among
Speaker 1: their passengers, Like that's got to be what's prompting all
Speaker 1: the over the top new amenities and the herds of
Speaker 1: therapy animals to art galleries, the rocking chairs that we
Speaker 1: talked about. I mean, it's all meant to help calm
Speaker 1: us down and sort of forget that we're in a
Speaker 1: place where most of us would rather not be. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that sounds right to me, And I think the fact
Speaker 1: that airport retail is booming right now kind of backs
Speaker 1: that up. So a lot of people use shopping as
Speaker 1: a way to curb their anxiety or just brighten their
Speaker 1: mood in general. You know, we call it retail therapy.
Speaker 1: And in two thousands sixteen, airport retail actually rose a
Speaker 1: full four percent worldwide, and for the U S. Canada,
Speaker 1: airport retailing is set to rise from aground four billion
Speaker 1: dollars in two thousand fifteen to just under ten billion
Speaker 1: dollars by that's ap going to micro Market Monitor, which
Speaker 1: is a publication for the trade. But you know, that's
Speaker 1: some seriously impressive sales growth, and I bet a lot
Speaker 1: of it will be thanks to stressed out shopping. You know.
Speaker 1: Those figures actually, I guess don't surprise me when you
Speaker 1: think about because no matter how bad brick and mortar
Speaker 1: stores start hurting, airport retailers really seem like they're going
Speaker 1: to be just fine, because if you think about it,
Speaker 1: there are more people flying now each year than at
Speaker 1: any time in history. So your local mall might not
Speaker 1: be getting that much traffic, but airport retailers have this
Speaker 1: steady stream at just about any hour of the day. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a good point. And I was reading about this
Speaker 1: one bit of airport managure lingo called dwell time. It's
Speaker 1: basically the time between when a passenger makes it through
Speaker 1: security and when they board their plane, so you know,
Speaker 1: all the time during which you could be spending money,
Speaker 1: and apparently the first six minutes of dwell time are
Speaker 1: the most lucrative. It's actually called the golden hour because
Speaker 1: it's supposedly when passengers are feeling their most self indulgent.
Speaker 1: I mean that makes sense. You've just gone through security,
Speaker 1: suffered the indignity of the pat downs. You're just looking
Speaker 1: for any way to make yourself feel a little bit better.
Speaker 1: I guess. Yeah. Actually it reminds me. I was in
Speaker 1: the quick X ray thing that they do where you
Speaker 1: walk into that space and turn and raise your arms
Speaker 1: and then walk through it, and this guy, I don't
Speaker 1: know whether he was on a power trip or what,
Speaker 1: but he started telling me while I was in there
Speaker 1: to pull up my pants and it is not like
Speaker 1: I wear low riding pants, like, but I had taken
Speaker 1: off my belt as you do to go through the
Speaker 1: security thing, and and uh, my pants were resting on
Speaker 1: my hips and he was like, I said, pull up
Speaker 1: your pants, and he kept getting louder and louder about it.
Speaker 1: In this situation where you're supposed to keep your hands
Speaker 1: up in the air and there's this queue forming behind me,
Speaker 1: and it was so anxiety inducing. And it's also one
Speaker 1: of these situations where you can't talk back, right because
Speaker 1: you know if you do, it's only going to escalate
Speaker 1: the problem. So I hiked my pants up as high
Speaker 1: as I could bottled out of this place, And of
Speaker 1: course what I do next. I bought some candy and magazines,
Speaker 1: you know, just to get out of that headspace. But
Speaker 1: I mean, like, I guess it's one of those things
Speaker 1: where he knows that we're getting older, and he just
Speaker 1: thought by this point, you're almost to that age where
Speaker 1: your pants should be up to your belly button, right,
Speaker 1: or maybe he's on the take from these stores just
Speaker 1: like getting up sales. But you know, there are plenty
Speaker 1: of other reasons to buy things too. People forget to
Speaker 1: pack things for their trip, like headphones or whatever. Maybe
Speaker 1: they forget to get someone a gift and the airport
Speaker 1: becomes their last chance to save face with a mug
Speaker 1: or buy some candy. I have definitely been in that
Speaker 1: position a few times. And you know, airport retailers are
Speaker 1: lucky to have this captive audience. You know, their customers
Speaker 1: are psychologically primed to buy. And it's even more true
Speaker 1: when you throw incentives like the whole duty free thing
Speaker 1: that's added into the mix here. Yeah, that that reminds me.
Speaker 1: I was reading about the airport in Dubai, and not
Speaker 1: only is it one of the busiest in the world,
Speaker 1: it's also home to the most lucrative duty free shop
Speaker 1: of all time. By the way, I've actually been to
Speaker 1: the Dubai airport, and speaking of luxuries, if they know
Speaker 1: you're flying through with a kid and we were on
Speaker 1: our way to India at the time, they actually bring
Speaker 1: you a stroller to meet you at the gate, so
Speaker 1: that like you can connect to your next plane without
Speaker 1: like having to wake up your kid. You can just
Speaker 1: put them in the stroller and stroll them along. It
Speaker 1: is really sort of very thoughtful and and nothing I've
Speaker 1: experienced in the States. But uh, back to the duty
Speaker 1: free thing. So their giant shop is just called Dubai
Speaker 1: duty Free, which is a little basic, but the sheer
Speaker 1: size of the place is actually staggering. The store boasts
Speaker 1: four hundred nine thousand square feet of retail space, and
Speaker 1: the Pacific Standard says, if you want to picture it,
Speaker 1: it's a full one and a half times the size
Speaker 1: of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Yeah, that's helps me
Speaker 1: get a great picture of this thing. But that is huge.
Speaker 1: But you also said it's the most lucrative though, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: So the stores annual sales typically fall just shy of
Speaker 1: two billion U S dollars from one store. I mean,
Speaker 1: so what are they selling to generate this kind of money.
Speaker 1: It is the typical duty free stables, just at this
Speaker 1: greater volume. So they sell tons of perfumean liquor. It's
Speaker 1: three million dollars in sales with that. Last year tobacco
Speaker 1: sells really well there they sold two million dollars of that. Um.
Speaker 1: They also sell other items like gold is a big seller,
Speaker 1: and not just jewelry, but a show like bars of
Speaker 1: twenty to carrot, bricks of gold. You know, it's it's crazy, um,
Speaker 1: there's another big seller that I never would have guessed. Uh, Tang.
Speaker 1: What is like the orange powder drink mixed. So it's
Speaker 1: just like the astronauts supposedly loved. But we're in a
Speaker 1: Pacific standard. The Dubai airport can sell upwards of metric
Speaker 1: tons of tang in a single year. Isn't that insane?
Speaker 1: Like how much tang? And I was wondering that. Apparently
Speaker 1: it's South laborers who like the stock up before going
Speaker 1: home after working in the Persian Gulf. But you know,
Speaker 1: if you're thirsty for something a little stronger than tang,
Speaker 1: you can actually check out the special first class only
Speaker 1: floor the store, and that's where you'll find a two
Speaker 1: d thousand dollar bottle of whiskey. It's named the Royal
Speaker 1: Salute Tribute to Honor. Oh what an? I feel like
Speaker 1: I might just stick with the Tang in this case,
Speaker 1: and the store can't be selling too many of those
Speaker 1: bottles of whiskey though, right, Oh you mean Royal Salute
Speaker 1: Tribute to Honor. It sounds like a dictator named but
Speaker 1: supposedly like having these high price bottles around creates what's
Speaker 1: called a halo effect, and it encourages these wealthy travelers
Speaker 1: to spend more of, which is, you know, just so
Speaker 1: typical of rich people, classic rich people. But I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, airports have plenty of other ways of getting
Speaker 1: your money besides retail, and one of them is that
Speaker 1: we just straight up give it to them, or at
Speaker 1: least that's the end result. So how's that. Well, we
Speaker 1: really do this though, by leaving money behind accidentally, So
Speaker 1: every year, millions of travelers hastily emptied their pockets into
Speaker 1: those plastic bins at the security line, and then we
Speaker 1: forget to collect that loose change once we've made it through.
Speaker 1: And yeah, that could be just a few pennies here there,
Speaker 1: but all those coins actually do add up. I was
Speaker 1: looking at this breakdown that CNBC put out, and over
Speaker 1: the years, it's interesting to see how much it's been growing.
Speaker 1: So back in two thousand eleven, it was just shy
Speaker 1: of half a million dollars that was left behind by people,
Speaker 1: and then it jumped to six hundred and seventy five
Speaker 1: thousand dollars in two thousand and fourteen, kept increasing every year.
Speaker 1: In two thousand and sixteen, the t s AS take
Speaker 1: was the biggest one reported yet It was a whopping
Speaker 1: eight hundred and sixties seven thousand dollars and abandoned coins
Speaker 1: and other currency just left behind. So what happens to
Speaker 1: that money? Like it just becomes t s A profit? Uh?
Speaker 1: Pretty much. There was actually a law passed back in
Speaker 1: two thousand five by Congress that states that t s
Speaker 1: A is free to keep the unclaimed cash it finds
Speaker 1: and put it toward whichever security efforts it wants to.
Speaker 1: And personally, my vote is for a dedicated ben cleaner
Speaker 1: so that I never have to hear another study about
Speaker 1: how dirty they are compared to a toilet. I can
Speaker 1: get behind that, all right. Well, Tristan is over there
Speaker 1: tapping his PDX carpet wrist watch, which means it's time
Speaker 1: for today's fact off, So you're ready to do this?
Speaker 1: Mango always h So you know how all these airports
Speaker 1: had various codes like PDX is Portland, l A X
Speaker 1: is l A, etcetera. Apparently the tiny sand dune where
Speaker 1: the Wright brothers made their first flight in Kitty Hawk
Speaker 1: has been given a code as well, and they were
Speaker 1: sweetly given the name f A, which stands for First
Speaker 1: Flight Airport. Oh I like that? Well? For years? If
Speaker 1: you were flying through Genoa's Christopher O. Colombo Airport. You
Speaker 1: have to leave your pesto as a purity, at least
Speaker 1: if it was more than a hundred million leaders of
Speaker 1: the stuff. And of course this made tons of tourists unhappy,
Speaker 1: so then they decided to amend the rules and now
Speaker 1: you can fly with five hundred grams of pesto and
Speaker 1: these are bigger jars, but that's as long as you
Speaker 1: make a donation to Flying Angels. Now, this is a
Speaker 1: charity that helps fund air travel for six children. So
Speaker 1: it's a sweet idea and people seem to be happy again.
Speaker 1: But there is one catch though. The airport waiver only
Speaker 1: applies to pesto that is actually made in Genoa, so
Speaker 1: this is an airport related exactly. But do you know
Speaker 1: that pilots on flights are served different meals and they
Speaker 1: are not allowed to share. Apparently it's done as a
Speaker 1: rule because of a fear of food poisoning. Wow, which
Speaker 1: makes a lot of sense actually, Well, speaking of planes,
Speaker 1: I realized this isn't something will probably ever have to
Speaker 1: worry about. But if the oxygen mask drops down, you're
Speaker 1: only going to get about fifteen to twenty minutes of oxygen.
Speaker 1: There's a limited amount of course on there, but the
Speaker 1: idea is that more than enough. The ideas that's more
Speaker 1: than enough time to take you to a lower altitude,
Speaker 1: which is when you won't really need them. And actually,
Speaker 1: one other thing about those oxygen masks. What you're getting
Speaker 1: isn't really oxygen. It's actually kind of this cocktail of
Speaker 1: chemicals that when they're burned together, they release oxygen because
Speaker 1: pure oxygen tanks would just be too heavy and bulky
Speaker 1: to take up into the air. That's interesting. So if
Speaker 1: you're wondering why certain passengers get pulled aside for a
Speaker 1: cavity check, there's actually a system for it. So t
Speaker 1: s A agents assign you points for specific suspicious behavior,
Speaker 1: and if you have too much of it, you know,
Speaker 1: too many points, that's when it happens. But here are
Speaker 1: some of the things they're looking for. Exaggerated yawning or
Speaker 1: excessive throat clearing, covering your mouth when you're speaking, showing
Speaker 1: up in disguise, which makes sense, carrying an almanac, which
Speaker 1: makes less sense to me, widely open staring eyes, and whistling. Whistling,
Speaker 1: I'm mean, whistling is like the classic thing people do
Speaker 1: in movies when they're like, I'm not up to anything.
Speaker 1: But is that really whistling? Is it really on the list? Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's when the individual approaches the screen process because they're worried.
Speaker 1: It's a code or signal. But you know, maybe it's
Speaker 1: also to teach annoying people to whistle us. All right, Well,
Speaker 1: here's a strange one. In New York. There's an airport
Speaker 1: dentist and I just learned about this. He's actually at
Speaker 1: one of the airports that I frequent but his name
Speaker 1: is Dr Robert Traeger, and much like those airports stores,
Speaker 1: he's taking full advantage of this location. So he's got
Speaker 1: to practice in Terminal B at LaGuardia apparently, where he
Speaker 1: both sees airport employees and frequent flyers along with some
Speaker 1: emergency walk ins, and at JFK his office is close
Speaker 1: by outside of the main airport, so his wife will
Speaker 1: actually show for you to the main terminal, but that's
Speaker 1: only if you're part of his Smile High club. And
Speaker 1: I'm wondering how often these people are going to the
Speaker 1: dentist and in onto the airport to be part of
Speaker 1: whatever this club is. But it's pretty amazing. The crazy
Speaker 1: thing is that Dr Trigger also does work for the
Speaker 1: government while he's there, so the I n S uses
Speaker 1: him to look at wisdom, teeth and these other indicators
Speaker 1: to determine whether people they're detaining our miners or whether
Speaker 1: they may be lying about their age because you can
Speaker 1: tell age through inspecting bones and also teeth. It's crazy
Speaker 1: that he's got this double life. Well, yeah, here's a
Speaker 1: weird one. Do you know the f A has a
Speaker 1: theme song, M and I was not aware of that.
Speaker 1: And here if you're the lyrics, So we're planning and
Speaker 1: building away to make tomorrow even safer than today while
Speaker 1: flying grows, so do we And that's what it's all about.
Speaker 1: We want to help you get back home in a
Speaker 1: jumbo jet or flying alone. We make it safe up
Speaker 1: in the sky so you'll relax when you fly. So
Speaker 1: it's super cashy. Everyone knows the lyrics, they can sing along.
Speaker 1: But it's actually got a great story. Apparently, when morale
Speaker 1: was down in the eighties, this guy named John Hanks,
Speaker 1: he was the public affairs director at the time. He
Speaker 1: decided to give the f A a little boost, and
Speaker 1: as he put it, quote, it was designed to bring
Speaker 1: the f A employees closer together and the common purpose
Speaker 1: we had in our mission of aviation safety. Oddly, it
Speaker 1: was a huge success, so employees really bought into it.
Speaker 1: They thought it was super fun. The f A administrator
Speaker 1: thought it was great, and the f A Corral was
Speaker 1: performed at lots of events around the country, including and
Speaker 1: this is from Auntlas Obscure at quote, one of Nancy
Speaker 1: Reagan's Just Say No anti drug rallies, following the headliner
Speaker 1: LaToya Jackson. You know, the eighties were this heady time
Speaker 1: where LaToya could be followed by Corral. But you know,
Speaker 1: the best part of it is that the song costs
Speaker 1: nothing to taxpayers. It was all done by Hanks and
Speaker 1: his friends in their free time. You know, that's a
Speaker 1: good fact But I think the fact that you slipped
Speaker 1: the words LaToya Jackson into a fact off makes you
Speaker 1: just automatic winner. There's nothing I can do to beat that.
Speaker 1: So congratulation, and we wanted to say thanks to some
Speaker 1: of our listeners out there. It's actually been a lot
Speaker 1: of fun to hear from you guys in recent months
Speaker 1: keeping track of who is winning the fact off battle,
Speaker 1: because we actually haven't been keeping track, and it was
Speaker 1: pretty funny. We stumbled across a website that somebody had
Speaker 1: actually pointed out to us where one of our listeners
Speaker 1: is keeping track of who is winning this fact off battle,
Speaker 1: and unfortunately, it looks like Mango has been in the lead.
Speaker 1: And of course just widen that lead again today. And
Speaker 1: I think you've been in the lead all year. You
Speaker 1: took a big lead last year, and we've been pretty
Speaker 1: even this year. But I think his house Frounce he uh,
Speaker 1: he created this whole graph of it. It's pretty amazing,
Speaker 1: it's pretty terrific. But we love hearing from you on
Speaker 1: this kind of thing and and and always love seeing
Speaker 1: those types of things. But if there are any facts
Speaker 1: that we forgot to include about airports, about flying, anything
Speaker 1: related to the this episode, we always love hearing from
Speaker 1: You can reach out to us at part Time Genius
Speaker 1: at how stuff Works dot com or hit us up
Speaker 1: on Facebook or Twitter, or from Gabe, Tristan, Mango and me.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for listening, Thanks again for listening. Part
Speaker 1: Time Genius is a production of How Stuff Works and
Speaker 1: wouldn't be possible without several brilliant people who do the
Speaker 1: important things. We couldn't even begin to understand. Christa McNeil
Speaker 1: does the editing thing. Noel Brown made the theme song
Speaker 1: and does the mixy mixy sound thing. Garry Rowland does
Speaker 1: the exact producer thing. Gabe Bluesier is our lead researcher,
Speaker 1: with support from the research Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan
Speaker 1: Brown and Lucas Adams and Eve. Jeff Cook gets the
Speaker 1: show to your ears. Good job, Eves. If you like
Speaker 1: what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe, And if you
Speaker 1: really really like what you've heard, maybe you could leave
Speaker 1: a good review for us. Do we do? We forget
Speaker 1: Jason Jason who did