WEBVTT - The Soap Dragon 0:00:03.000 --> 0:00:04.960 Welcome Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of I 0:00:05.000 --> 0:00:13.920 Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, you welcome to Stuff 0:00:13.960 --> 0:00:16.040 to Blow your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb and 0:00:16.079 --> 0:00:18.520 I'm Joe McCormick. And today I thought maybe we should 0:00:18.520 --> 0:00:21.479 start off with a little don't do what Donnie Don't does? 0:00:22.000 --> 0:00:25.240 All right, tell us about Donnie Don't. Okay, So let's, uh, 0:00:25.320 --> 0:00:27.480 let's let's see what Donnie Don't is doing and see 0:00:27.520 --> 0:00:30.000 if maybe we should don't do what he does. Uh, 0:00:30.400 --> 0:00:32.720 try and spot the don't. So Donnie Don't is He's 0:00:32.760 --> 0:00:34.880 cooking up a big old mess of French fries in 0:00:34.960 --> 0:00:37.720 his deep friar, and he eats all the fries while 0:00:37.760 --> 0:00:40.159 watching RoboCop three, And then it's time to clean up. 0:00:40.479 --> 0:00:42.920 So first of all, he realizes he is greasy all 0:00:42.960 --> 0:00:45.159 over from eating this big batch of fries, so he 0:00:45.200 --> 0:00:47.519 gives himself a good wipe down with some wet wipes, 0:00:47.880 --> 0:00:50.640 and then he flushes them down the toilet. Now it's 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:52.840 time to get rid of the gallon of duck fat 0:00:52.920 --> 0:00:55.160 that he used to cook his fries. So what does 0:00:55.200 --> 0:00:57.680 he do? He pours it straight down the drain in 0:00:57.720 --> 0:01:01.760 the bathtub. Now I think most of us can easily. 0:01:01.800 --> 0:01:04.160 I don't know about all of us, because somebody's obviously 0:01:04.880 --> 0:01:07.560 doing what Donnie Don't does. But I think most of 0:01:07.640 --> 0:01:10.800 us can easily spot the Donnie don'ts here. He's made 0:01:10.840 --> 0:01:13.800 several errors, but now I think it's pretty common knowledge 0:01:13.840 --> 0:01:16.280 that you are not supposed to flush wet wipes and 0:01:16.319 --> 0:01:19.840 other non toilet paper products down the toilet, and you're 0:01:19.880 --> 0:01:23.240 definitely not supposed to pour fat down the drain. Yeah, 0:01:23.280 --> 0:01:24.720 I mean there's some other things that he's doing you 0:01:24.760 --> 0:01:27.399 could potentially criticize. I mean, I don't I don't know 0:01:27.480 --> 0:01:31.319 how how often he's eating French fries that have been 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:34.480 fried in duck fat. Like, if he's doing that too often, 0:01:34.520 --> 0:01:37.160 that's probably not great for his health. But you know, 0:01:37.200 --> 0:01:40.600 once in a while, why not, right? Um? RoboCop three, 0:01:40.640 --> 0:01:42.280 I have no problem with that. It may not be 0:01:42.319 --> 0:01:45.360 the strongest in the RoboCop movies, but it's uh it 0:01:45.440 --> 0:01:47.640 has like cyber Ninja is in it. That's kind of cool. 0:01:48.080 --> 0:01:50.200 But yeah, it's the it's the wet wipes and then 0:01:50.280 --> 0:01:52.920 pouring that grease down the drain, and it's the pour 0:01:52.960 --> 0:01:54.880 of the grease down the drain. I often forget that 0:01:54.880 --> 0:01:58.240 that is a key rule. Oh do you do you 0:01:58.240 --> 0:02:00.600 break this one? No? I I just am generally not 0:02:00.680 --> 0:02:02.760 in a position to break it because we just don't. 0:02:02.760 --> 0:02:07.640 We don't cook with with fat uh much anymore at 0:02:07.680 --> 0:02:10.880 all anymore. And uh. And then as far as wet 0:02:10.919 --> 0:02:12.840 wives go, like I I know, not to put wet 0:02:12.880 --> 0:02:15.400 wipes down though, really no oils in your house, no 0:02:15.480 --> 0:02:19.280 salad dressing, no, like no olive oil or anything. But 0:02:19.320 --> 0:02:22.520 not duck fat. Oh well, I mean, of course, other 0:02:22.720 --> 0:02:25.919 like non animal fats are still like fats and oils. 0:02:26.240 --> 0:02:28.320 But I guess what I'm thinking, Like I I remember, 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:30.680 so I shouldn't have said just duck fat. I mean 0:02:30.919 --> 0:02:33.480 that you're not supposed to pour oil or lipids of 0:02:33.520 --> 0:02:36.160 any time down to drain but but but specifically like 0:02:36.200 --> 0:02:40.160 the you know, like a big fry vat kind of 0:02:40.240 --> 0:02:46.120 drainage situation. Like I I remember seeing jars of of 0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:49.440 of fat and oil like underneath the sink growing up, 0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:51.440 because like that was, you know, the appropriate thing to do. 0:02:51.720 --> 0:02:53.760 That's the grandma's house kind of thing, like the big 0:02:53.760 --> 0:02:56.680 old mason jar of bacon grease under the sink. And 0:02:56.680 --> 0:02:58.680 then of course when whenever we go, if you go 0:02:58.760 --> 0:03:03.760 to um fast food restaurant, or even a restaurant in general, 0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:06.680 you're gonna find that big grease trap outside. Like sometimes 0:03:06.680 --> 0:03:08.960 it's a little bit hidden, but sometimes there's no place 0:03:09.000 --> 0:03:11.960 to hide it. Um, and it's just right up front. 0:03:11.960 --> 0:03:14.680 It's just there in the parking lot. Yeah. I remember 0:03:14.720 --> 0:03:17.520 one of my jobs that I worked at when I 0:03:17.560 --> 0:03:20.160 was in college. Every morning when i'd go into it, 0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:22.480 I'd have to park in the parking lot of a 0:03:22.600 --> 0:03:25.519 restaurant that was like next to where I worked, and 0:03:25.600 --> 0:03:28.239 I parked right next to their big it was like 0:03:28.280 --> 0:03:30.359 a burger and fries place and the heart next to 0:03:30.400 --> 0:03:34.160 their big grease grease depository. Uh. And it just looked 0:03:34.200 --> 0:03:38.520 like the saddest robot from some Star Wars spinoff, like 0:03:38.640 --> 0:03:43.120 Lithuanian Star Wars has our four, uh you know D seven, 0:03:43.200 --> 0:03:46.760 And it's this big black thing with with like this 0:03:47.040 --> 0:03:51.920 dripping sad, grease tears stained head. But of course that's 0:03:52.000 --> 0:03:53.920 this restaurant usage, and we can I think we can 0:03:53.920 --> 0:03:56.920 all understand that. I mean, there's certain rules and regulations 0:03:56.920 --> 0:03:59.760 there they're following, and they're also producing just a ton 0:03:59.760 --> 0:04:02.840 of the this uh, this material. I wonder if, like 0:04:02.920 --> 0:04:05.600 the problem with a household situation is either you're creating 0:04:05.640 --> 0:04:07.800 so little that you don't think about it, so it's 0:04:07.840 --> 0:04:11.520 like death by thousand cuts, right, or when you do 0:04:11.640 --> 0:04:15.480 produce a more sizeable amount, doing you know, some sort 0:04:15.480 --> 0:04:18.600 of frying scenario like you just suddenly have this this 0:04:18.680 --> 0:04:21.560 huge mess to clean up, and it's easy to just 0:04:21.640 --> 0:04:25.240 convince yourself, I'm just gonna do the easy thing. I'm 0:04:25.279 --> 0:04:26.720 just gonna go and put it down the sink and 0:04:26.920 --> 0:04:29.479 next time I'll do better. Right, who's gonna know? Yeah, 0:04:29.760 --> 0:04:32.200 but maybe we should step back and ask a question. 0:04:32.240 --> 0:04:34.400 I mean, it's not like RoboCop is gonna show at 0:04:34.440 --> 0:04:37.760 your house, right, right, So that's what they do in 0:04:37.839 --> 0:04:41.239 RoboCop too, right, They reprogram him so instead of fighting crime, 0:04:41.320 --> 0:04:44.800 he goes out and he he pursues uh minor infraction 0:04:45.240 --> 0:04:48.000 minor and littering and stuff like that and people using 0:04:48.040 --> 0:04:51.800 swear words. Uh. So we should ask this question of 0:04:51.839 --> 0:04:54.000 wait a minute, why are you not supposed to do 0:04:54.040 --> 0:04:56.920 these things? Why are you not supposed to pour oil 0:04:57.120 --> 0:05:01.200 and fat and grease down the drain. One reason you're 0:05:01.200 --> 0:05:02.919 not supposed to do this has to do with the 0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:06.960 way sewers work. Sewers are I say, with no hesitation 0:05:07.279 --> 0:05:10.560 one of the greatest human inventions. And if you doubt this, 0:05:11.040 --> 0:05:14.080 listen to our invention episodes on the toilet or listen 0:05:14.160 --> 0:05:16.800 to uh we we did an episode of stuff to 0:05:16.800 --> 0:05:20.320 blow your mind about the miasma theory of disease. And 0:05:20.400 --> 0:05:22.719 in all of these we talk about how you know 0:05:22.800 --> 0:05:26.960 properly maintained sanitary sewer facilities are are not not just 0:05:27.040 --> 0:05:29.720 there to make our homes and our streets more pleasant, 0:05:30.160 --> 0:05:33.359 like they play a crucial role in protecting public health 0:05:33.760 --> 0:05:38.120 and preventing outbreaks of diseases, especially fecal oral route diseases 0:05:38.120 --> 0:05:41.520 which are as gross as they sound, diseases like cholera. UH. 0:05:41.600 --> 0:05:45.799 Sewers work when everything flows smoothly to its destination point 0:05:46.040 --> 0:05:49.119 at a treatment facility, and they're one of the best 0:05:49.160 --> 0:05:52.800 innovations in the history of civilization. I say that no 0:05:52.960 --> 0:05:56.480 qualifications at all. But sometimes things get in the way, 0:05:56.920 --> 0:06:00.359 like tree roots can intrude on sewer pipes and block flow. 0:06:00.440 --> 0:06:02.560 We live here in Atlanta where there are a lot 0:06:02.560 --> 0:06:04.560 of trees and a lot of a lot of old 0:06:04.720 --> 0:06:08.400 large trees and places that are intersecting with sewer pipes, 0:06:08.480 --> 0:06:11.280 and so this we know about this happening a lot uh. 0:06:11.320 --> 0:06:14.200 And of course they can cause turbulence and this can 0:06:14.279 --> 0:06:16.760 lead to build up. Or you can have old, decaying 0:06:16.800 --> 0:06:20.560 sewer mains that crack and do similar stuff, and sometimes 0:06:20.800 --> 0:06:25.280 blockages in these sewer sewer pipes occur from the inside out. 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:29.359 One of the most all inspiring things that can block 0:06:29.360 --> 0:06:32.680 a sewer is what we're going to be talking about today. 0:06:32.680 --> 0:06:35.240 It's something that has in recent years come to be 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:40.200 known as a fat berg According to an article I 0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:43.360 was reading by Kelly Oakes and New Scientists from earlier 0:06:43.400 --> 0:06:46.000 this year. UH. This term was apparently coined in two 0:06:46.080 --> 0:06:48.839 thousand and eight, but it became widely popular after news 0:06:48.839 --> 0:06:53.640 reports about a huge fatburg in and what it refers 0:06:53.680 --> 0:06:59.120 to is a giant, solidified mass of stuff based on 0:06:59.640 --> 0:07:02.760 fat and oils that just states in the heart of 0:07:02.800 --> 0:07:06.720 a sewer system, feeding on things like wet wipes and 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:10.920 floss and other trash, but especially on fats and the 0:07:10.920 --> 0:07:15.400 byproducts of fats like cooking oils you know, uh, grease 0:07:15.480 --> 0:07:19.360 from cooking animals, all that stuff that people wash down 0:07:19.400 --> 0:07:22.120 the drain when they just either dump out oils they 0:07:22.160 --> 0:07:24.120 cook with or just when they wash their dishes, and 0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:26.360 the oils that are already on the dishes, come come 0:07:26.360 --> 0:07:28.840 off and go down the down the tubes. Yeah, I 0:07:28.920 --> 0:07:31.520 understand that they're they're like the wet wipes, the floss, 0:07:31.520 --> 0:07:34.000 all of that can can sort of serve as a substrate. Right, 0:07:34.000 --> 0:07:38.119 It's like a scaffolding on which this, uh, this new 0:07:38.760 --> 0:07:41.080 mass will form. Yeah, and we'll talk about how it 0:07:41.120 --> 0:07:43.720 forms in a little bit. But I wanted to talk 0:07:43.760 --> 0:07:46.840 about the terminology because while fat bergs has really caught 0:07:46.880 --> 0:07:49.680 on with the public, this is like what I think 0:07:49.720 --> 0:07:52.000 the reason that there have been so many articles in 0:07:52.040 --> 0:07:54.840 recent years about fat bergs is just because of the 0:07:54.960 --> 0:07:58.840 term fat bergs, Like there was now this beautiful, attractive 0:07:58.920 --> 0:08:02.160 terminology for it, whereas previously, especially in the US, I 0:08:02.200 --> 0:08:05.160 think they were referred to primarily with the acronym fogs 0:08:05.320 --> 0:08:09.520 for fat oil and grease or frogs for fat roots 0:08:09.560 --> 0:08:12.160 as in tree roots and oil and grease. But they 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:14.600 have really miss an opportunity there to dug to dub 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:18.920 them for instead of frogs, same letters, but it would 0:08:18.920 --> 0:08:21.160 have scratched more of a chudditch, you know, and I 0:08:21.200 --> 0:08:23.080 think maybe would have resonated a little more, maybe not 0:08:23.120 --> 0:08:25.960 as much as fat birds ultimately did, but I mean 0:08:26.000 --> 0:08:30.800 attack of the Forgs be where the Forgs. I feel 0:08:30.800 --> 0:08:33.680 like that could have resonated with with the public. If 0:08:33.720 --> 0:08:35.800 there is not already a movie about one of these 0:08:35.840 --> 0:08:40.359 things becoming sentient, there will be soon. But one particularly 0:08:40.440 --> 0:08:43.240 massive fat burg that we might linger on for a 0:08:43.280 --> 0:08:46.880 bit has been covered extensively, especially in the British press. 0:08:46.920 --> 0:08:49.600 This was the White Chapel Berg. It was removed in 0:08:49.640 --> 0:08:53.679 TV and it was a mass blocking the sewer under 0:08:53.840 --> 0:08:56.520 the under White Chapel Road in East London. I think 0:08:56.520 --> 0:08:59.800 this was Jack the Rippers neighborhood totally. I think that 0:09:00.000 --> 0:09:03.480 adds to the appeal of the White Chapel fatburg, and 0:09:03.679 --> 0:09:07.400 it sounds even more sinister exactly. And the berg itself 0:09:07.440 --> 0:09:09.600 in a way was sort of a white chapel. It's 0:09:09.640 --> 0:09:12.840 like this, uh, this unholy things, sort of a gray 0:09:12.920 --> 0:09:16.559 off white color. And so it was about two hundred 0:09:16.559 --> 0:09:20.000 and fifty meters long or about eight hundred and twenty feet, 0:09:20.520 --> 0:09:23.880 and it weighed probably about a hundred and thirty tons. 0:09:24.559 --> 0:09:28.200 This monster was so magnificent that a piece of it 0:09:28.280 --> 0:09:30.960 was broken off and displayed in a special exhibit in 0:09:31.000 --> 0:09:35.280 the Museum of London. And I came across a gorgeous, 0:09:35.320 --> 0:09:41.000 absolutely haunting description of this sewage fatburg fragment by Sam 0:09:41.080 --> 0:09:44.120 Knight in The New Yorker. And this, this description of 0:09:44.120 --> 0:09:46.680 the fatburg was so moving that I have to quote 0:09:46.679 --> 0:09:50.400 from it. Are you ready, Robert? The piece of fatburg 0:09:50.559 --> 0:09:53.559 was slightly smaller than a loaf of bread and looked 0:09:53.600 --> 0:09:55.880 like it might have come from the moon. It was 0:09:55.960 --> 0:10:01.040 putty colored and marked everywhere with geological looking indentation, including 0:10:01.080 --> 0:10:03.959 a cluster of fingerprints from when it was removed from 0:10:04.000 --> 0:10:07.520 a sewer in East London last October and lifted through 0:10:07.559 --> 0:10:10.320 a man hole. On the surface, there was also a 0:10:10.400 --> 0:10:13.640 dark fragment from an autumn leaf which must have slipped 0:10:13.679 --> 0:10:17.280 down the drains into its mall. Emerging through the congealed, 0:10:17.360 --> 0:10:21.040 calcified fat was the purple and orange perforated edge of 0:10:21.080 --> 0:10:24.880 a double decker chocolate bar wrapper. Every detail of the 0:10:24.960 --> 0:10:28.320 hideous object was starkly visible because it was resting on 0:10:28.360 --> 0:10:31.480 a bed of black granules under a spotlight in a 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:34.720 glass box at the Museum of London at the opening 0:10:34.720 --> 0:10:38.280 of its new exhibition fat Burg. I stared at it 0:10:38.320 --> 0:10:41.280 for a while, and while I did so, a tiny 0:10:41.400 --> 0:10:45.040 dark speck on the fat bird became animate and started 0:10:45.080 --> 0:10:48.760 to move. A fly the size of a pinhead flew 0:10:48.880 --> 0:10:52.720 up and battered against the glass. That's pretty great because 0:10:53.000 --> 0:10:55.600 he capture us this sense of it almost being alive 0:10:56.320 --> 0:10:59.640 and uh and and also this this haunting feeling that 0:10:59.720 --> 0:11:04.160 it is like our sins. Uh, may you know manifested 0:11:04.240 --> 0:11:07.880 into a physical form, like here is you know, all 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:12.720 your recklessness and your you're willingness to to flush inappropriate 0:11:12.760 --> 0:11:16.280 things down the toilet. Well, here it is altogether, uh, 0:11:16.320 --> 0:11:20.679 to confront you and to point it's grotesque finger at you. Yeah, 0:11:20.760 --> 0:11:23.400 I hope this description of the fatburg it's nominated for 0:11:23.440 --> 0:11:27.400 like a Pulitzer prize. That's uh. It's powerful stuff. But 0:11:27.559 --> 0:11:31.080 the seen white chappelberg that mentioned a minute ago was 0:11:31.200 --> 0:11:34.600 by no means the only fat burg. Fat Bergs form 0:11:34.960 --> 0:11:39.240 all the time in cities all around the world due 0:11:39.240 --> 0:11:43.600 to people flushing and washing fats and other inappropriate stuff 0:11:43.760 --> 0:11:47.120 down the drain. According to Night's article, it's estimated that 0:11:47.240 --> 0:11:51.600 London alone has at least five large fat bergs at 0:11:51.600 --> 0:11:54.280 any given time. So sometimes you know, they go down 0:11:54.280 --> 0:11:57.800 there to fight them, but they're they're always new ones forming. 0:11:58.400 --> 0:12:02.240 So let's talk about side. Is they can become so huge. 0:12:02.360 --> 0:12:04.800 Let me restate what I said a minute ago. This 0:12:04.880 --> 0:12:08.520 White Chapel beast was two hundred and fifty meters long, 0:12:08.559 --> 0:12:12.160 which is approximately the length of the Hindenburgh, and it 0:12:12.280 --> 0:12:16.000 weighed probably about a hundred and thirty tons, or heavier 0:12:16.080 --> 0:12:20.880 by about a third than the biggest ever Sora pod dinosaurs. 0:12:21.280 --> 0:12:23.280 Of course, it makes sense because we're talking about a 0:12:23.320 --> 0:12:28.400 massive sewage system. We're talking about massive consumption, a massive population, 0:12:28.679 --> 0:12:32.640 and therefore the clog the thing is going to be 0:12:32.720 --> 0:12:34.839 massive as well. Well. Yeah, and also you want to 0:12:34.880 --> 0:12:37.800 consider the particulars of the London sewer system, because this 0:12:37.880 --> 0:12:39.800 is where a lot of these stories come from. The 0:12:39.840 --> 0:12:43.040 London sewer system. You know, it's it's got Victorian elements, 0:12:43.040 --> 0:12:45.360 and it was a sewer system built over a hundred 0:12:45.440 --> 0:12:48.560 years ago, uh, you know, back in Victorian times as 0:12:48.600 --> 0:12:50.840 a response to the great stink you know that we've 0:12:50.840 --> 0:12:54.080 talked about on on this show before, where the you know, 0:12:54.720 --> 0:12:57.960 sewage being discharged into the Thames one year in the 0:12:58.200 --> 0:13:00.839 believe it's the eighteen fifties or sixties, sometimes in the 0:13:00.880 --> 0:13:03.760 middle of the nineteenth century, it got so foul and 0:13:03.800 --> 0:13:06.720 it stanks so bad that Parliament was just you know, 0:13:07.040 --> 0:13:10.960 about to puke in their uh in their deliberation chambers. 0:13:11.000 --> 0:13:13.880 And so they eventually did something about it, and that 0:13:14.000 --> 0:13:17.280 was to get this sewage system. Uh not only because 0:13:17.280 --> 0:13:19.160 of the smell, but also because it was you know, 0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:21.400 the sewage system that they had in place at the time, 0:13:21.679 --> 0:13:24.560 which consisted of more like open sewers in the streets 0:13:24.679 --> 0:13:27.600 and stuff draining into the Thames, which uh then people 0:13:27.600 --> 0:13:30.280 would drink out of. It was just leading to the 0:13:30.320 --> 0:13:35.160 cholera outbreaks and terrible public health conditions and these horrible stinks. 0:13:35.200 --> 0:13:38.720 So they created this massive sewer system under the ground 0:13:38.760 --> 0:13:41.520 in order to take away all of the waste water 0:13:41.600 --> 0:13:44.120 and discharge it away from the city. So you've got 0:13:44.120 --> 0:13:47.760 these like in some cases very large, like old elaborate 0:13:47.840 --> 0:13:52.040 and some sometimes kind of beautiful brick built sewage channels 0:13:52.080 --> 0:13:54.840 and you know, access tunnels and all this. Uh So, 0:13:54.840 --> 0:13:58.480 so you've got old facilities. But you might be wondering, Okay, 0:13:58.559 --> 0:14:01.000 so one of these giant b east, You've you've got 0:14:01.000 --> 0:14:05.200 a hindenburg of fat and sewage and waste stuck in 0:14:05.440 --> 0:14:10.199 the sewer blocking blocking things, preventing them from flowing. What 0:14:10.240 --> 0:14:12.760 do you do about it? Well, that's the question. We're 0:14:12.760 --> 0:14:14.839 gonna take a quick break and when we come back 0:14:15.160 --> 0:14:19.560 we will answer it. Thank thank Okay, we're back. So 0:14:19.600 --> 0:14:21.800 we're talking about fat bergs. How do you fight them? 0:14:21.920 --> 0:14:25.720 You got one of these giant concrete fat conglomerations made 0:14:25.720 --> 0:14:30.760 out of wet wipes and and dental floss and old 0:14:31.000 --> 0:14:34.600 you know, wrappers of food and bits of plastic, and 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:37.320 of course all of these fats and oils and grease 0:14:37.360 --> 0:14:40.240 and sewage and waste. It just makes this huge mass 0:14:40.280 --> 0:14:42.960 that blocks up the sewers. What do you do about it? Well, 0:14:43.440 --> 0:14:46.800 you literally have sewer workers that go down to break 0:14:46.840 --> 0:14:50.040 it up and remove it. The city sewer workers in 0:14:50.120 --> 0:14:53.160 London are known as flush errs, and they have to 0:14:53.280 --> 0:14:55.400 fight these wicked villains. They have to go down and 0:14:55.480 --> 0:14:59.400 confront the ball rog in person. And in Night's article 0:14:59.440 --> 0:15:01.960 in The New Yorker, he talks about the process of 0:15:02.000 --> 0:15:05.160 breaking up the White Chapel mass. So first of all, 0:15:05.160 --> 0:15:07.240 he says, they've got to wear protection and they've got 0:15:07.240 --> 0:15:10.080 to have a breathing apparatus because this thing is in 0:15:10.080 --> 0:15:13.120 a way alive. It's got a lot of uh life 0:15:13.440 --> 0:15:16.160 feeding on it, and as a result, it can let 0:15:16.200 --> 0:15:19.680 out sudden explosions of gas like hydrogen sulfide, which of 0:15:19.680 --> 0:15:22.640 course smells like rotten eggs and is the It's a 0:15:22.640 --> 0:15:25.960 common gas released as a byproduct of decaying organic matter, 0:15:26.320 --> 0:15:28.840 but it also releases methane, and sometimes it can just 0:15:28.920 --> 0:15:32.080 blast out carbon monoxide, which can be deadly. So let's 0:15:32.080 --> 0:15:34.920 say you're outfitting your D and D Adventure the Flusher 0:15:35.000 --> 0:15:38.240 class to go down into this dungeon and fight the monster. 0:15:38.520 --> 0:15:41.240 What weapons do you want to equip them with? Well, 0:15:41.280 --> 0:15:43.720 probably not fire. Fire would seem like a bad idea. 0:15:43.800 --> 0:15:46.840 Oh yeah, that's uh. And and unfortunately they are not 0:15:46.920 --> 0:15:49.480 a magic using class, so they don't have any spells 0:15:49.480 --> 0:15:51.600 available to them. I don't know. Is that a thing 0:15:51.640 --> 0:15:55.200 in D and D. There's some classes who can't do spells, right? Uh? Yeah, 0:15:55.280 --> 0:15:56.840 I mean it seems like there are a lot of 0:15:56.840 --> 0:15:59.200 classes that have some sort of magical abilities, especially as 0:15:59.240 --> 0:16:02.840 they level up. Yeah, this sounds more like like fighter 0:16:03.080 --> 0:16:06.120 uh uh material right here, You need some fighty to 0:16:06.120 --> 0:16:09.760 go down and physically fight this physical threat and remove it. 0:16:09.840 --> 0:16:13.520 These are paladins. I'll allow it. I'll allow it. I 0:16:13.520 --> 0:16:16.280 mean paladins have some some you know that they have 0:16:16.320 --> 0:16:18.880 holy powers, etcetera. But a lot of those holy powers 0:16:18.920 --> 0:16:23.280 are about, like, you know, increasing their physical prowess. Right, Okay, 0:16:23.920 --> 0:16:27.440 certainly I don't know my stuff. Okay, we'll say they're paladins. Anyway. 0:16:28.320 --> 0:16:31.720 So the Mighty Flusher's weapons include the bomb hose. That's 0:16:31.720 --> 0:16:34.400 the term bomb hose, which is just like a high 0:16:34.440 --> 0:16:37.760 pressure water jet that should be able to cut through blockages. 0:16:37.840 --> 0:16:41.840 It's like a cutting jet. But apparently, according to Night's article, 0:16:41.960 --> 0:16:44.880 even this didn't work all that well on the hardened 0:16:44.880 --> 0:16:48.000 mass of the White Chapelberg, and so later on these 0:16:48.120 --> 0:16:51.080 these warriors had to use more old fashioned implements like 0:16:51.160 --> 0:16:54.520 pick axes, shovels, and he says in one case, even 0:16:54.600 --> 0:16:58.840 as Saul, when pieces were removed and kept for the 0:16:58.880 --> 0:17:02.640 London Museum exhibit it, one expert who handled them described 0:17:02.760 --> 0:17:06.560 the Fatberg chunks as sort of hard but light, feeling 0:17:06.640 --> 0:17:10.679 like pumice stone. I think that was interesting. Yeah, but 0:17:11.200 --> 0:17:13.560 even the smaller one so so that one's gigantic, But 0:17:13.640 --> 0:17:17.080 even the smaller ones are still huge in disgusting ways. 0:17:17.320 --> 0:17:20.359 I found a brilliantly funny article with a great title 0:17:20.960 --> 0:17:24.959 on Atlas Obscura by Jessica Lee Hester from January of 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:27.480 this year is called seven Big Things. They're smaller than 0:17:27.520 --> 0:17:31.960 this fatberg, and it refers to another British fatburg, one 0:17:32.000 --> 0:17:34.720 found in a sewer beneath the town in beneath the 0:17:34.760 --> 0:17:37.919 town in Devon, and according to the water utility in 0:17:37.960 --> 0:17:40.320 that area, it was the largest fatburg that they had 0:17:40.359 --> 0:17:42.480 come across in that area. It was about two and 0:17:42.520 --> 0:17:46.119 ten feet or about sixty five meters uh. And so, 0:17:46.119 --> 0:17:48.600 so what are the things she lists as smaller than 0:17:48.600 --> 0:17:51.160 this fatberg? At least in terms of dimensions. I don't 0:17:51.200 --> 0:17:52.800 think they had weight on it at the time she 0:17:52.880 --> 0:17:56.720 was writing. Um. So smaller in terms of length was 0:17:56.840 --> 0:17:59.560 the above water surface height of the iceberg that sunk 0:17:59.560 --> 0:18:03.920 the Titan Annic, the tallest known Ginko tree in the world, 0:18:04.640 --> 0:18:08.639 the Christ the Redeemer statue, and Rio de Jannaro, the 0:18:08.720 --> 0:18:12.560 Coney's Island or the Coney Islands Wonder Wheel, uh, the 0:18:12.600 --> 0:18:18.879 Statue of Liberty, the Roman Colosseum, and Nelson's column in 0:18:18.920 --> 0:18:22.680 Trafalgar Square all smaller than this fatburg, which is not 0:18:22.800 --> 0:18:25.600 even the largest fatburg by a long shot. And she 0:18:25.680 --> 0:18:28.439 also pointed out something in in her article that was 0:18:28.480 --> 0:18:31.720 just an interesting phrasing of things that it's sort of 0:18:31.760 --> 0:18:34.399 echo thoughts I'd been having as I was reading about 0:18:34.400 --> 0:18:39.159 Fatburg's in in Hester's words quote, the chunky, gunky sewer 0:18:39.280 --> 0:18:42.800 cloggers are murky mirrors into the behaviors of people above 0:18:42.880 --> 0:18:46.000 ground because they hold all the stuff we flush and 0:18:46.040 --> 0:18:50.680 try to forget about, including cooking, grease, napkins, floss, minstrel 0:18:50.720 --> 0:18:53.760 products which don't belong in the pipes in the first place. 0:18:54.480 --> 0:18:56.959 So it's this idea of like these are sort of 0:18:57.000 --> 0:18:59.600 the the places of all the things that we want 0:18:59.640 --> 0:19:01.800 to just get out of our lives. It's, you know, 0:19:02.160 --> 0:19:06.960 the purging of convenience all becomes this mass yea. And 0:19:07.000 --> 0:19:10.000 again it kind of it confronts us once more. The 0:19:10.080 --> 0:19:12.359 horror is even greater because it is all it is 0:19:12.400 --> 0:19:16.040 a it's it's congealed into this this massive form. And 0:19:16.080 --> 0:19:18.080 I think maybe that is part of the like the 0:19:18.119 --> 0:19:21.080 psychological reason why people can't look away, Like why was 0:19:21.119 --> 0:19:24.000 there a museum exhibit about these things where everybody wanted 0:19:24.040 --> 0:19:27.800 to go see them. It's this fascinating, uh, you know, 0:19:28.240 --> 0:19:30.560 almost kind of freudy and feeling kind of thing, like 0:19:30.880 --> 0:19:34.760 the suppressed part of our culture and civilization. It's what's 0:19:34.840 --> 0:19:38.360 shoved down and covered up and not looked at, almost 0:19:38.600 --> 0:19:41.360 out of a sense of shame, and it becomes this stuff. 0:19:41.680 --> 0:19:44.840 And a lot of our modern life is about distantcing 0:19:44.880 --> 0:19:48.480 ourselves from the reality of our waste, from the reality 0:19:48.560 --> 0:19:52.240 of our dead things of this nature. So so yeah, 0:19:52.240 --> 0:19:54.720 I think it's it definitely speaks to us on that level. Okay, 0:19:54.800 --> 0:19:57.399 maybe we should turn to the question of how, like, 0:19:57.480 --> 0:20:00.800 how do simple bits of cooking oil and other turn 0:20:00.960 --> 0:20:04.719 into these mighty slumbering beasts, the monsters of the dungeon, 0:20:04.880 --> 0:20:07.640 because it could seem almost magical right that it's it's 0:20:07.680 --> 0:20:10.000 it's like this thing has become alive down there. It 0:20:10.080 --> 0:20:12.359 is like one of these uh you know, there are 0:20:12.440 --> 0:20:15.520 multiple uh uh you know, I think horror properties where 0:20:16.000 --> 0:20:19.359 some sort of garbage monster comes alive, uh And it 0:20:19.400 --> 0:20:22.119 basically fulfills the same purpose we're talking about here, to 0:20:22.320 --> 0:20:25.560 confront us and to uh, you know, to to show 0:20:25.640 --> 0:20:28.960 us the horrors of our of of of our you know, 0:20:29.040 --> 0:20:33.520 disposable society. But but there's a very but the process 0:20:33.600 --> 0:20:36.159 is happening here is not magical. It is you know, 0:20:36.200 --> 0:20:37.800 we can we can we can look at what is 0:20:37.800 --> 0:20:42.399 happening chemically. Yeah. Uh So, obviously there's one extremely simple 0:20:42.480 --> 0:20:44.399 way that there are multiple ways here, but there's one 0:20:44.440 --> 0:20:47.560 extremely simple way that fat can end up blocking sewer pipes, 0:20:47.880 --> 0:20:50.879 and that's by congealing. Like if you ever cooked bacon, 0:20:50.960 --> 0:20:53.480 cooked bacon in a pan, what happens, Well, the white 0:20:53.560 --> 0:20:57.159 solid fat in the bacon in the animal flesh renders. 0:20:57.560 --> 0:20:59.840 It turns into a fluid that runs around in the 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:02.680 hand like water, and it flows, so you can pour 0:21:02.720 --> 0:21:05.040 it out, etcetera. You can pour it down the drain, 0:21:05.400 --> 0:21:08.280 but that's only because it's hot. If you take that 0:21:08.359 --> 0:21:10.879 bacon grease and you leave it out at room temperature, 0:21:10.920 --> 0:21:13.040 you put it in the fridge. We all know what happens, right, 0:21:13.080 --> 0:21:15.640 It turns into a kind of waxy solid and this 0:21:15.720 --> 0:21:18.119 is large, right Yeah, I guess the curing process of 0:21:18.160 --> 0:21:21.440 bacon doesn't change that. Yeah, So it's pork fat either way. Uh. 0:21:21.440 --> 0:21:25.960 And Now, not all fats can geal into solids or 0:21:26.000 --> 0:21:29.280 semi solids at room temperature, but plenty do. So if 0:21:29.320 --> 0:21:32.359 you melt this fat and then pour it down the 0:21:32.400 --> 0:21:36.080 sink into cold pipes and wash it away, the cooling 0:21:36.160 --> 0:21:39.240 fat forms a solid or semi solid mass. That can 0:21:39.359 --> 0:21:42.679 build up, it can coat surfaces and so forth, and 0:21:42.720 --> 0:21:45.720 can of course block sewer pipes. So that that that's 0:21:45.760 --> 0:21:48.040 like the simple version. That's just one way fat can 0:21:48.520 --> 0:21:50.600 clog up your sewers, that one reason you don't want 0:21:50.640 --> 0:21:52.280 to put it down there, right, And I think we 0:21:52.359 --> 0:21:54.520 can all grasp that even if if you've ever washed 0:21:54.560 --> 0:21:56.760 dishes before, you can get a sense of how, how, 0:21:56.880 --> 0:21:59.919 what's happening exactly. But this is actually not the main 0:22:00.000 --> 0:22:03.840 mean piece of chemistry contributing to fat bergs. The truth 0:22:03.960 --> 0:22:07.720 is actually weirder. Often the fats that we wash down 0:22:07.720 --> 0:22:13.200 the drain essentially become soap. The chemical process is known 0:22:13.240 --> 0:22:16.760 as saponification u. This word comes from the Latin sapo, 0:22:16.920 --> 0:22:20.719 meaning soap, And once a mass of fat gets washed 0:22:20.720 --> 0:22:24.160 down the drain, it chemically breaks down into fatty acids, 0:22:24.200 --> 0:22:27.600 and these fatty acids undergo a chemical reaction in the 0:22:27.640 --> 0:22:31.880 alkaline environment of the sewer, combining with other elements and compounds, 0:22:31.920 --> 0:22:37.600 often calcium, to form this calcified soap like deposit And 0:22:37.640 --> 0:22:40.520 of course, as we all know, soap can be pretty solid. 0:22:40.640 --> 0:22:42.480 Like you, you don't want to get whacked with a 0:22:42.520 --> 0:22:45.040 bar of soap in the bottom of sock. But it 0:22:45.119 --> 0:22:49.320 gets even worse because calcified fat bergs build up a 0:22:49.400 --> 0:22:52.159 real kind of rigidity. Like the workers who have to 0:22:52.200 --> 0:22:54.800 cut them out sometimes compare them to concrete by the 0:22:54.800 --> 0:22:57.280 time you have to go in and break them up. Uh. 0:22:57.320 --> 0:22:59.520 And I don't know exactly what leads to all that. 0:22:59.600 --> 0:23:02.320 It might be this forming of a solid mass and 0:23:02.320 --> 0:23:05.119 then like the sort of compacting of time, you know, 0:23:05.240 --> 0:23:09.120 think of pressure just forcing it together. But the soap 0:23:09.200 --> 0:23:12.760 like masses tend to form around solid pieces of trash 0:23:12.880 --> 0:23:14.800 that get flushed down the toilet. So that's the other 0:23:14.840 --> 0:23:18.760 major component we mentioned earlier. Like wet wipes are by 0:23:18.840 --> 0:23:21.119 far the worst offender here. This is in you know, 0:23:21.160 --> 0:23:23.760 all the British press about this is just saying like, 0:23:23.880 --> 0:23:26.920 don't wash fats and oils down the drain and don't 0:23:27.000 --> 0:23:30.000 flush wet wipes. Don't flush wet wipes. Wet wipes are 0:23:30.080 --> 0:23:33.600 like the the most hated thing but the sewer workers. 0:23:34.080 --> 0:23:36.399 And that's of course because you know, they're not designed 0:23:36.520 --> 0:23:39.480 industrially the way like toilet paper is, which is made 0:23:39.480 --> 0:23:43.159 to break up when it's in this aqueous environment. The 0:23:43.160 --> 0:23:45.560 wet wipes tend to not break up. They stick together 0:23:45.600 --> 0:23:48.880 and they form a sort of binding or substrate for 0:23:48.920 --> 0:23:51.320 this nightmare soap of the deep on its way to 0:23:51.400 --> 0:23:53.479 becoming a berg. I mean it makes me think of 0:23:53.520 --> 0:23:57.760 the of the science choice we've covered about uh creating 0:23:57.880 --> 0:24:01.600 artificial say years we have some sort of a scaffolding 0:24:01.840 --> 0:24:04.480 on which you're gonna you're gonna build up like the 0:24:04.520 --> 0:24:08.399 you know, the collagen and create this artificial piece of flesh. 0:24:08.760 --> 0:24:11.679 It's kind of like that process taking place in a 0:24:11.760 --> 0:24:15.120 foul sewer, but imagine that process is taking place where 0:24:15.119 --> 0:24:17.520 stuff just keeps flowing into it, so it just keeps 0:24:17.600 --> 0:24:21.239 getting more solid material like wet wipes and more like 0:24:21.359 --> 0:24:25.600 binding soap like fat structure, until it becomes an ear 0:24:25.720 --> 0:24:30.280 the size of the Hindenburg. Another contributor to the fat 0:24:30.320 --> 0:24:32.480 bergs in the London sewers, and not just the London 0:24:32.520 --> 0:24:36.000 sewers in other places, but especially in London sewers is old, 0:24:36.160 --> 0:24:39.720 rough brick surfaces. I'm not positive, but I think the 0:24:39.760 --> 0:24:44.879 mechanism here is that rough surfaces create more friction with 0:24:44.960 --> 0:24:48.600 the flowing water, and this causes turbulence. Instead of flowing 0:24:48.640 --> 0:24:51.159 smoothly the water or the you know, the sewage, it 0:24:51.200 --> 0:24:54.439 gets sort of churned up, and this interrupts the smooth 0:24:54.480 --> 0:24:57.520 flow and it gives uh and and so it causes 0:24:57.560 --> 0:25:00.480 build up of solid matter. But also I think the 0:25:00.600 --> 0:25:03.119 rough surfaces just sort of give the wet wipes and 0:25:03.240 --> 0:25:06.520 other trash little crags to catch on, and then of 0:25:06.560 --> 0:25:09.360 course once they catch on, other things can catch onto them, 0:25:09.400 --> 0:25:11.680 and it just builds up from there. Yeah. And and 0:25:11.720 --> 0:25:15.520 also so these soap like masses are not water soluble, 0:25:15.640 --> 0:25:18.399 meaning they're not dissolved by water, so they're not gonna 0:25:18.560 --> 0:25:21.000 over time just like break up and wash away with 0:25:21.080 --> 0:25:23.560 the flow of the sewer water. They just sit there 0:25:24.080 --> 0:25:26.480 and they build up and they grow too, mescent with 0:25:26.560 --> 0:25:30.160 new waste and trash and layers of soapy solids made 0:25:30.160 --> 0:25:33.439 out of fat, until somebody finally goes down there to 0:25:33.440 --> 0:25:36.200 slay the dragon. And as we discussed, of course the 0:25:36.240 --> 0:25:39.320 battles of the flushers, you have to you physically break 0:25:39.359 --> 0:25:42.160 these things up and remove them. Yeah, again with things 0:25:42.200 --> 0:25:46.000 like pick axes and saws, because it is almost like concrete, 0:25:46.200 --> 0:25:48.920 you know, it's not just this big, you know, gross 0:25:48.920 --> 0:25:51.480 sewer jelly that you just need to sort of you know, 0:25:51.640 --> 0:25:53.840 flush a little bit more, you know, just spray with 0:25:53.920 --> 0:25:55.800 water and you know you'll get it done. A plunger 0:25:55.880 --> 0:25:58.119 is not going to do it. Now. In some cases, 0:25:58.160 --> 0:26:00.800 I do think these like water jet hoses can be 0:26:00.880 --> 0:26:02.800 used to cut it up. They just, at least in 0:26:02.840 --> 0:26:04.840 the one case I was reading about, they weren't quite 0:26:04.840 --> 0:26:06.960 doing the job and they had to resort to the 0:26:07.040 --> 0:26:09.760 old ways. Also, I just wanted to do a little 0:26:10.119 --> 0:26:13.560 side note on suppontification because what's happening here in the 0:26:13.600 --> 0:26:16.280 sewers is not exactly the same as but it's somewhat 0:26:16.320 --> 0:26:19.760 analogous to, uh, something that I'm very interested in that 0:26:19.840 --> 0:26:24.800 occasionally happens to human bodies in certain burial conditions. Robert, 0:26:24.960 --> 0:26:28.040 have you been to the Mooder Museum in Philadelphia. I haven't. 0:26:28.040 --> 0:26:31.600 I've never visited h Philly. Yeah, I haven't been, but 0:26:31.680 --> 0:26:33.960 I've wanted to for a long time. So they've got 0:26:33.960 --> 0:26:36.840 an exhibit, or I don't know about an exhibit. They've 0:26:36.880 --> 0:26:39.000 got a thing at the Modern Museum that is a 0:26:39.080 --> 0:26:42.760 human body. It's known as the soap Lady. And do 0:26:42.800 --> 0:26:44.840 you know the soap Lady? No, but I'm already horrified 0:26:45.000 --> 0:26:47.720 because I know enough about the mood Museum to know 0:26:47.840 --> 0:26:49.919 that a soap Lady there is going to be a 0:26:49.960 --> 0:26:52.000 site to behold. I think they've got a soap lady 0:26:52.000 --> 0:26:54.600 and a soap man. I've primarily read about the soap lady, 0:26:54.640 --> 0:26:57.800 so those two should mean yeah, exactly. So. It was 0:26:57.840 --> 0:27:00.439 originally believed that she was a woman who lived in 0:27:00.440 --> 0:27:03.600 Philadelphia in the eighteenth century and had died of yellow 0:27:03.600 --> 0:27:07.200 fever sometime in the seventeen nineties. But in nineteen eighty 0:27:07.320 --> 0:27:10.240 six they did some X rays of the body of 0:27:10.240 --> 0:27:13.520 the Soap Lady, and this revealed that she was wearing 0:27:13.560 --> 0:27:17.040 clothes with like buttons and pins that weren't manufactured in 0:27:17.040 --> 0:27:20.040 the US until around the eighteen thirties. So it's now 0:27:20.040 --> 0:27:22.919 believed that she must have died later than was originally believed. 0:27:22.960 --> 0:27:26.600 But whenever she died. In eighteen seventy five, her body 0:27:26.680 --> 0:27:30.080 was exhumed from a local cemetery and it was discovered 0:27:30.119 --> 0:27:34.600 that the corpse was encased almost entirely in a solid 0:27:34.920 --> 0:27:39.720 soap like substance, and that she was essentially a soap mummy. 0:27:40.200 --> 0:27:42.639 If you look at pictures of her, she looks like 0:27:42.680 --> 0:27:45.439 a mummy. She looks like some of these uh like uh, 0:27:45.720 --> 0:27:49.480 you know, sort of dried, mummified, preserved corpses that you 0:27:49.560 --> 0:27:51.080 might find in the case of some of like the 0:27:51.119 --> 0:27:55.119 Andean mummies, um, except that she has except that, like 0:27:55.200 --> 0:27:58.840 her features are less defined, and she's got a bunch 0:27:58.880 --> 0:28:01.800 of extra stuff around the outside of her body, like 0:28:01.960 --> 0:28:05.560 almost like she's encased in some kind of concrete or something, 0:28:06.040 --> 0:28:10.120 but it's not concrete. This substance in reality is something 0:28:10.240 --> 0:28:12.760 kind of like soap. It's not exactly so, but it's 0:28:12.760 --> 0:28:16.560 something known as adipus here, also sometimes referred to as 0:28:16.600 --> 0:28:20.000 corpse wax or grave wax. Now, I do think I 0:28:20.040 --> 0:28:23.280 remember reading about this like years and years past, and 0:28:23.480 --> 0:28:28.160 some you know, texts on decomposition. Uh yeah, there there's 0:28:28.160 --> 0:28:30.800 some interesting stories about the role of grave wax in 0:28:31.520 --> 0:28:35.080 uh in. Like, so, one thing that corpse wax does 0:28:35.200 --> 0:28:37.320 when it forms around a body is that it can 0:28:37.359 --> 0:28:40.880 help preserve some of the elements within um. And this 0:28:41.040 --> 0:28:44.920 like keeps corpses from decaying like they would normally. So 0:28:45.000 --> 0:28:47.080 the formation of adapass here, I do believe is it's 0:28:47.120 --> 0:28:51.080 chemically considered a form of suppontification, like what's happening with 0:28:51.160 --> 0:28:54.360 the fat bergs and the sewers. Adapas are is this 0:28:54.480 --> 0:28:58.880 waxy substance that sometimes forms around dead bodies since they decay, 0:28:59.200 --> 0:29:04.400 particularly in certain kinds of burial conditions. And these environments 0:29:04.440 --> 0:29:07.080 tend to be alkaline, you know, like the the opposite 0:29:07.120 --> 0:29:10.560 of acidic. They tend to be anaerobic, meaning without access 0:29:10.600 --> 0:29:13.640 to air, and they tend to be warm and moist, 0:29:14.720 --> 0:29:17.680 which are just you know that generally sounds like the 0:29:17.760 --> 0:29:20.120 kind of environments you don't want to bury bodies. But 0:29:20.400 --> 0:29:22.960 you know, some soil is like that. And and and 0:29:22.960 --> 0:29:24.560 I'm guessing at least some of these are gonna I'm 0:29:24.560 --> 0:29:26.720 gonna match up with with sewer scenarios. I know we've 0:29:26.720 --> 0:29:30.360 talked before about some of the the organisms that can 0:29:30.400 --> 0:29:35.080 grow in a sewer environment that really thrive in a 0:29:34.960 --> 0:29:38.440 in a like a low oxygen environment. Yeah, exactly. So, 0:29:38.680 --> 0:29:42.760 freshly formed adipas here can be kind of soft and waxy, 0:29:42.800 --> 0:29:46.800 but older adipac here can more closely resemble something like concrete. 0:29:47.080 --> 0:29:49.239 I was reading a Life science article about this by 0:29:49.280 --> 0:29:52.680 Wynd Perry, and the author quotes an anthropologist from North 0:29:52.720 --> 0:29:56.560 Carolina State University named Anne Ross, and she says, quote, 0:29:57.000 --> 0:29:59.840 a lot of people say it's greasy. I always think 0:30:00.040 --> 0:30:04.000 bit like a thick cottage cheese consistency because it's kind 0:30:04.000 --> 0:30:09.560 of lumpy also, so maybe not the grave wax or 0:30:09.560 --> 0:30:12.880 the grave soap, but the grave cottage cheese, cottage cheese 0:30:12.880 --> 0:30:16.440 of the dead, the corpse cheese. Alright, well, on that 0:30:16.480 --> 0:30:18.520 grotesque note, let's take one more break, and when we 0:30:18.600 --> 0:30:21.320 come back, we have some other fat burg facts to 0:30:21.480 --> 0:30:23.920 roll through, and uh, you know, maybe we'll talk to 0:30:23.960 --> 0:30:27.080 us a little bit about about the sewer monster movies 0:30:27.120 --> 0:30:32.080 at the end of the episode. Thank, alright, we're back. Okay. 0:30:32.080 --> 0:30:36.640 So quite clearly these things you don't want fat bergs 0:30:36.640 --> 0:30:38.760 in your sewers, and yet they form in sewers under 0:30:38.760 --> 0:30:42.040 cities all over the world. It's happening all the time 0:30:42.280 --> 0:30:45.600 because of this combination of like stuff that people shouldn't 0:30:45.600 --> 0:30:49.240 flush and fats and oils going down the drain, which 0:30:49.240 --> 0:30:51.800 I guess both variations of the same thing. You know, 0:30:51.920 --> 0:30:53.760 stuff that you shouldn't put down the drain is going 0:30:53.800 --> 0:30:56.760 down the drain. Uh. And in the article I mentioned 0:30:56.800 --> 0:31:00.760 earlier in New Scientist, Kelly Oaks refers to a University 0:31:00.760 --> 0:31:04.840 College Dublin professor named Tom Curran who is who works 0:31:04.840 --> 0:31:08.080 in this field, and he says that the major factors 0:31:08.120 --> 0:31:11.640 contributing to a sort of recent increase in fatberg incidents 0:31:12.080 --> 0:31:15.360 in London are of course like a larger populations in cities, 0:31:15.360 --> 0:31:17.920 So it's just more people washing more stuff down drains. 0:31:18.400 --> 0:31:22.360 Aging sewers contribute a lot. One factor is more dining 0:31:22.360 --> 0:31:25.760 out at restaurants, because it appears that restaurants are responsible 0:31:25.800 --> 0:31:28.080 for a huge amount of the fats and oils that 0:31:28.120 --> 0:31:29.840 go down the drain. You know, you know, I would 0:31:29.840 --> 0:31:32.000 have thought it would be more regulated with the restaurants. 0:31:32.360 --> 0:31:35.400 Apparently it's uh in the UK at least it is 0:31:35.840 --> 0:31:38.320 not as regulated as some people think it should be, 0:31:38.440 --> 0:31:40.040 or I don't know if that's changed recently. In the 0:31:40.120 --> 0:31:42.000 articles I was reading from the past couple of years, 0:31:42.040 --> 0:31:46.040 it's I think there's a problem with like last lack 0:31:46.080 --> 0:31:50.560 of specificity in regulations, Like there are regulations that say 0:31:50.600 --> 0:31:53.600 restaurants aren't supposed to wash anything down the drain that 0:31:53.600 --> 0:31:56.160 would be harmful to the sewer system, but like it 0:31:56.200 --> 0:32:01.080 doesn't specifically say don't wash fats and oils down the drain, okay, 0:32:01.320 --> 0:32:03.320 And then the other big thing is of course trash 0:32:03.400 --> 0:32:05.440 that goes down the drain. But there's you know, as 0:32:05.480 --> 0:32:08.240 we've already said, there's like one huge culprit here that's 0:32:08.240 --> 0:32:12.000 like of the problem, and it's wet wipes. It just 0:32:12.000 --> 0:32:14.400 seems like that one would be an easier one to knock. 0:32:14.480 --> 0:32:16.640 It seems like that would be something we could solve. 0:32:17.200 --> 0:32:19.040 Is like, if you use a wet wipe, no matter 0:32:19.080 --> 0:32:21.760 what you used it for, no matter how befoul it is, 0:32:21.920 --> 0:32:26.440 just put it in a garbage can. Like maybe maybe 0:32:26.440 --> 0:32:29.800 it's easier because you go to some you know, you 0:32:29.840 --> 0:32:31.920 travel to you know, to certain you know parts of 0:32:31.960 --> 0:32:35.840 the world where the sewer system can't even handle toilet paper, 0:32:36.280 --> 0:32:38.200 and you get used to it. You know, like at 0:32:38.200 --> 0:32:40.240 first it may seem a little weird, like, oh, you know, 0:32:40.240 --> 0:32:43.440 I must wipe and then put the toilet paper into 0:32:43.480 --> 0:32:46.600 a receptacle. Uh, you know, it runs against what you've 0:32:46.640 --> 0:32:49.640 been doing. But you get used to it and it 0:32:49.720 --> 0:32:52.080 becomes the new normal. I didn't even know that was 0:32:52.120 --> 0:32:54.960 the thing. Oh yeah, I mean you travel, uh, and 0:32:55.000 --> 0:32:57.880 it just depends on the on the sewage system, and yes, 0:32:57.960 --> 0:33:02.840 some just can't handle the paper. Um, so you know 0:33:02.920 --> 0:33:06.200 it's it's it's asking even less I feel to say, look, 0:33:06.280 --> 0:33:08.080 just you have a wet wipe. I know you just 0:33:08.200 --> 0:33:11.160 used it on some disgusting part of like a two 0:33:11.240 --> 0:33:14.120 year old body, but you know, you just put in 0:33:14.160 --> 0:33:17.040 the garbage apparently, so I was reading in the same 0:33:17.120 --> 0:33:20.440 article that you know, there are there are things that 0:33:20.560 --> 0:33:24.360 have proved effective, and it's essentially regulating the stuff we're 0:33:24.360 --> 0:33:28.000 talking about. It's like regulating what restaurants can put down 0:33:28.000 --> 0:33:30.400 the drain and putting grease traps in place and all that, 0:33:31.000 --> 0:33:34.080 but then also doing like public education campaigns to get 0:33:34.120 --> 0:33:36.560 people to not put anything in the toilet other than 0:33:36.640 --> 0:33:39.280 human waste and toilet paper, and that this has been 0:33:39.280 --> 0:33:43.280 effective and like Dublin already, but it's it hasn't been 0:33:43.280 --> 0:33:46.960 effective enough everywhere. And I wonder if the problem is that, 0:33:47.040 --> 0:33:51.080 I mean, I would hope that in a campaign against Fatburg, 0:33:51.240 --> 0:33:56.160 somebody has created, with practical effects and costuming, an anthropomorphic 0:33:56.480 --> 0:34:00.160 fat Burg creature, you know, or even like a know, 0:34:00.440 --> 0:34:02.880 like thinking about when I know we both love good 0:34:02.920 --> 0:34:08.080 like paranormal copsploitation films from years past, like Maniac Cop 0:34:08.120 --> 0:34:10.480 and so forth, and there was that cool trailer from 0:34:10.520 --> 0:34:13.640 what was it melt Cop or something, Yeah, like they 0:34:13.640 --> 0:34:16.680 could make Fatburg cop, and so Fatberg Cop is this like, 0:34:17.640 --> 0:34:21.640 you know, anthropomorphic Fatburg in a police uniform that it 0:34:21.719 --> 0:34:25.080 comes to your apartment or your restaurant and chastises you 0:34:25.160 --> 0:34:30.399 for your destructive ways. Fatburg Cop versus Flukeman the next 0:34:30.440 --> 0:34:32.839 big crossover hit. Oh yeah, or they're they're buddy it's 0:34:32.840 --> 0:34:36.160 a buddy cop. Yeah. Wait, this is making Fatburg's the hero. 0:34:36.760 --> 0:34:39.000 You're doing it backwards. Well know, the fat Burg in 0:34:39.040 --> 0:34:42.800 the same way that the Fatburg confronts us Fatburg becomes 0:34:42.840 --> 0:34:45.040 the hero, like he's a cop made out of Fatburg, 0:34:45.360 --> 0:34:48.799 raising consciousness about the need to destroy his own kind. Well, no, 0:34:48.960 --> 0:34:52.920 it's not, you know, he's like, uh, he didn't want 0:34:52.920 --> 0:34:55.040 to be in Fatburg form. You know. Maybe I don't know, 0:34:55.040 --> 0:34:56.840 maybe he was previously human. I don't know, maybe he 0:34:56.920 --> 0:34:59.720 just took on human consciousness. Maybe it's kind of a 0:34:59.800 --> 0:35:02.000 you know, a swamp things swamp man of kind of 0:35:02.080 --> 0:35:08.520 a scenario. Yeah, why don't they look? But I mean, 0:35:08.760 --> 0:35:10.680 it can be hard to get people to behave you know. 0:35:10.880 --> 0:35:14.120 It's like it's just usually pretty easy to get away 0:35:14.120 --> 0:35:16.759 with flushing and draining things you shouldn't because who's going 0:35:16.840 --> 0:35:20.640 to catch you? Something that is momentarily your problem is 0:35:20.680 --> 0:35:23.719 now just gone. It's purged, and it becomes instead like 0:35:23.800 --> 0:35:27.760 a small part of a big problem that is everybody's problem. 0:35:27.800 --> 0:35:30.440 It's not your problem right now, right And of course 0:35:30.480 --> 0:35:33.680 this I mean, there's so many other things in the 0:35:33.719 --> 0:35:35.920 world that can fall into this category. This is the 0:35:35.960 --> 0:35:38.400 tragedy of the commons. I mean, it's you know, people 0:35:38.440 --> 0:35:42.080 have shared common resources that they all need. The biggest 0:35:42.080 --> 0:35:45.279 one probably is like the natural environment. It's you know, 0:35:45.360 --> 0:35:48.680 supposed to be something that is of common access to everyone, 0:35:49.080 --> 0:35:52.560 but in fact there are individual actors who overexploit and 0:35:52.600 --> 0:35:55.960 foul and cause damage to this common resource resource that 0:35:56.000 --> 0:35:59.680 should be shared by everybody because it's momentarily convenient for 0:35:59.719 --> 0:36:02.040 them and they can get away with it. It's one 0:36:02.040 --> 0:36:04.319 of the most crucial flaws in human psychology that we 0:36:04.360 --> 0:36:07.360 exploit common resources this way and in that way. I 0:36:07.640 --> 0:36:10.280 do think we should think about sewers as a type 0:36:10.320 --> 0:36:12.800 of commons, just like we would think about like the oceans, 0:36:12.880 --> 0:36:16.200 the rivers, the air, the environment. Sewers are a common 0:36:16.280 --> 0:36:19.160 shared resource among all the people who use them and 0:36:19.160 --> 0:36:22.120 should be treated as such, even though it's definitely that 0:36:22.200 --> 0:36:24.080 kind of thing where we don't want to think about 0:36:24.080 --> 0:36:25.640 it and we try not to think about it unless 0:36:25.680 --> 0:36:28.480 it's broken right. Well, apparently, when the London Museum was 0:36:28.560 --> 0:36:31.400 running this Fatburg exhibit, it had a plaque on the 0:36:31.440 --> 0:36:34.880 wall that read as follows the size and foulness of 0:36:34.880 --> 0:36:38.600 fat Bergs makes them impossible to ignore and reminds us 0:36:38.680 --> 0:36:41.799 of our failings that they do. It seems like something 0:36:41.800 --> 0:36:44.160 that should be inscribed over like the I don't know, 0:36:44.239 --> 0:36:46.960 over over the door of like a Puritan church from 0:36:46.960 --> 0:36:50.560 the seventeen hundreds. But I should also point out I 0:36:50.600 --> 0:36:53.520 was reading that, uh, at the same museum exhibit they 0:36:53.560 --> 0:36:57.480 sold something called fat Burg fudge. I guess this was 0:36:57.560 --> 0:37:00.319 in the museum. They'd have to have some thing like 0:37:00.360 --> 0:37:03.040 the cafe or the gift shop to line up with it. Literally, 0:37:03.239 --> 0:37:06.520 a sweet treat modeled on a fat Burg brick with 0:37:06.680 --> 0:37:12.120 raisins to represent flies. You know we mentioned earlier. You 0:37:12.120 --> 0:37:14.160 know that, of course, London isn't the only city to 0:37:14.239 --> 0:37:16.520 have to deal with this, obviously, there are other large 0:37:16.560 --> 0:37:21.080 metropolitan areas that that are plagued by fatberg's. And I 0:37:21.120 --> 0:37:24.480 was reading a net Geo article titled huge Blobs of 0:37:24.480 --> 0:37:27.440 Fat and Trash or Filling the World Sewers by Erica 0:37:27.600 --> 0:37:30.560 Inglehop and this was a really nice article as well, 0:37:30.920 --> 0:37:35.120 if I remember correctly, the lead UH said that, you know, 0:37:35.320 --> 0:37:37.600 in one part of the city someone flushes a wet wipe, 0:37:37.640 --> 0:37:39.840 and another part of the city someone flushes some oil. 0:37:40.320 --> 0:37:42.960 When those two meet, a baby fat burg is born. 0:37:44.360 --> 0:37:48.160 So I I applaud the the writing in this article. 0:37:48.600 --> 0:37:51.600 But angle Hop points out that in New York City, 0:37:52.080 --> 0:37:55.120 according to the city's two thousand sixteen State of the 0:37:55.120 --> 0:38:00.920 Sewers Report, Greece causes se sewer backups in the city. Uh. 0:38:00.920 --> 0:38:02.800 And then and and as a and as a result, 0:38:03.160 --> 0:38:06.120 New York City spends eighteen million and spent eighteen million 0:38:06.120 --> 0:38:09.360 dollars over a five year period fighting fat burgs. But 0:38:09.480 --> 0:38:12.800 even in smaller U. S cities you can see, um, 0:38:12.960 --> 0:38:15.480 you know, the local government having to blow like half 0:38:15.520 --> 0:38:18.600 a million dollars a year to battle these build ups. 0:38:18.800 --> 0:38:22.160 And UH. Another interesting thing that ingle Hop pointed out though, 0:38:22.280 --> 0:38:26.200 was that, um, there was a particular River Thames project 0:38:26.600 --> 0:38:32.279 with argent Energy UH to potentially harvest fat burgs and 0:38:32.360 --> 0:38:35.680 turn them into renewable fuel. And this is pretty sensible 0:38:35.719 --> 0:38:37.240 if you think about it. I mean, all that oil 0:38:37.360 --> 0:38:39.960 going down the drains, uh, you know, it should be 0:38:40.000 --> 0:38:42.480 going somewhere else. Uh, such as in the case of 0:38:42.520 --> 0:38:46.080 restaurants into grease traps um, which are and and sometimes 0:38:46.200 --> 0:38:49.160 grease traps are are pilfered for this very reason because 0:38:49.160 --> 0:38:52.960 their contents are valuable in a sense. Uh. And and 0:38:52.960 --> 0:38:55.400 and there are also parts of the world where you know, 0:38:55.480 --> 0:38:59.400 essentially sewer oil is is reclaimed and sort of sold 0:38:59.480 --> 0:39:02.040 on the black market, you know, kind like sewer oil. 0:39:02.600 --> 0:39:04.960 But I think this has been done with some of 0:39:05.080 --> 0:39:07.640 the British fat birds. I don't think all of them, 0:39:07.680 --> 0:39:09.719 I'm I'm not sure, but yeah, I think at some 0:39:09.800 --> 0:39:12.200 point some of them have become biofuel. Yeah, I mean, 0:39:12.200 --> 0:39:15.520 and it seems like a logical alternative to the typical 0:39:15.520 --> 0:39:17.680 fates for a fat burg, which are I mean, if 0:39:17.719 --> 0:39:19.440 it except for the rare pieces that go to the 0:39:19.520 --> 0:39:22.399 museum to become art, uh you know, other stuff, it's 0:39:22.400 --> 0:39:25.200 either being hauled off to a landfill or it's broken 0:39:25.280 --> 0:39:28.960 up so as to better diffuse into the sewer system. Um. 0:39:29.000 --> 0:39:31.960 So yeah, to whatever extent you could. I mean, obviously, 0:39:31.960 --> 0:39:34.000 you want to prevent the fat burg to begin with. 0:39:34.400 --> 0:39:37.320 You don't want to have to to toil with it. Um. 0:39:37.360 --> 0:39:38.520 You know, even if you get to the point where 0:39:38.520 --> 0:39:40.760 you could send a robot down to battle the fat birds. 0:39:40.760 --> 0:39:43.879 It's you still gotta you know, haul it up, uh 0:39:44.080 --> 0:39:45.920 and all and then potentially hauled off to a landfill. 0:39:45.960 --> 0:39:47.520 But if it could be turned into fuel, if it 0:39:47.520 --> 0:39:51.000 could you know, uh, power the Deloreans the future, then 0:39:51.480 --> 0:39:53.279 that sounds like the way to go. Well, I do 0:39:53.360 --> 0:39:55.560 think it is a good idea to turn these things 0:39:55.760 --> 0:39:58.160 as long as they are still being made into fuel. 0:39:58.560 --> 0:40:01.160 But don't don't get distry acted by that as like 0:40:01.200 --> 0:40:03.600 an excuse to Okay, so it's not so bad if 0:40:03.600 --> 0:40:06.520 we keep making them because they turn into fuel, right right, 0:40:06.760 --> 0:40:09.520 I mean, because again, the sewer systems are not made 0:40:09.840 --> 0:40:12.560 for fat bergs. Like if you, I guess, if you 0:40:12.680 --> 0:40:15.439 reach the situation where you're like, look, we refuse to learn, 0:40:15.719 --> 0:40:20.280 we're not gonna stop flushing oil and wet wipes, then okay, 0:40:20.320 --> 0:40:23.120 you could conceivably imagine a scenario where the sewer systems 0:40:23.120 --> 0:40:26.600 have to be redesigned in order to um, you know, 0:40:26.680 --> 0:40:32.279 sequester fat bergs for harvesting. But they're not built like that, 0:40:32.320 --> 0:40:34.600 and they're probably not going to be rebuilt like that, 0:40:34.719 --> 0:40:38.680 and it's ultimately an easier prospect to just change how 0:40:38.719 --> 0:40:41.000 we're handling the things that we're sending down into the sewer. 0:40:41.120 --> 0:40:43.760 This is going to become some crack pop political parties 0:40:44.040 --> 0:40:47.279 energy platform. And they're saying all this talk about you know, 0:40:47.400 --> 0:40:50.520 green energy. What you do is you pour oil down 0:40:50.520 --> 0:40:54.440 the drain all day. Our energy problems are solved. I'm 0:40:54.480 --> 0:40:56.840 not super up on British politics. Is there a Fatburg 0:40:56.920 --> 0:40:59.279 party yet? I know that the new parties get get 0:40:59.280 --> 0:41:03.879 formed in there. I can't heard about it, but I'm sure. 0:41:04.080 --> 0:41:07.239 I mean, like all issues, especially issues in fact that 0:41:07.640 --> 0:41:11.080 have to do with people exploiting or ruining the commons 0:41:11.120 --> 0:41:15.080 for everybody, these issues often do get like politically polarized 0:41:15.080 --> 0:41:18.080 because it's advantageous for somebody to do that. And this 0:41:18.120 --> 0:41:21.080 is why we need Fatburg cop out there on the beat, 0:41:21.280 --> 0:41:23.040 in the in the you know, at least in the 0:41:23.280 --> 0:41:26.279 eyes of the public, in the messaging, uh, you know, 0:41:26.360 --> 0:41:31.759 confronting us, chastising us far aways, um and and I 0:41:31.880 --> 0:41:33.560 but and but I mean, I mean that's seriously because 0:41:33.560 --> 0:41:35.239 I think, like, for my part, like one of the 0:41:35.280 --> 0:41:39.600 reasons that the other reasons that fat birds are so captivating, uh, 0:41:39.719 --> 0:41:42.800 in addition to all the grotesque photos and footage that 0:41:42.920 --> 0:41:45.520 shows up I saw one article is like a video 0:41:46.000 --> 0:41:49.400 based article online that the title was something along the 0:41:49.400 --> 0:41:52.520 lines of the moment when a rat crawls out of 0:41:52.520 --> 0:41:55.239 the fat Bird, and that was apparently the footage of 0:41:55.400 --> 0:41:59.400 like a live rat swarming out of fat burg Um. 0:41:59.440 --> 0:42:01.320 You know. So we can't look away from the grotesque 0:42:01.360 --> 0:42:04.560 nature of them. But then also the sewers are this 0:42:04.680 --> 0:42:07.840 unique location where there have been a number of notable 0:42:08.080 --> 0:42:11.160 films over the years that populate the sewers with monsters, 0:42:11.560 --> 0:42:15.319 be it you know, Chud's or or you know or 0:42:15.440 --> 0:42:19.040 Or or cannibals in the British film Raw Meat, well, 0:42:19.040 --> 0:42:21.600 I guess that was a subway system but still underground environment. 0:42:21.880 --> 0:42:24.600 And Ghostbusters too, I think, yeah, the river of slime 0:42:24.719 --> 0:42:26.440 flowing out of New York City, that's a big one 0:42:26.520 --> 0:42:32.080 for me. But also definitely the Blob at least remake 0:42:32.160 --> 0:42:35.000 had a lot of like, uh, you know, under I 0:42:35.040 --> 0:42:37.759 think there was like the sewer system shenanigans there with 0:42:37.800 --> 0:42:41.399 the blob, you know, ripping through the sewer and attacking people. Yeah, 0:42:41.600 --> 0:42:44.879 and it definitely came up through the drains. So it's 0:42:46.840 --> 0:42:50.000 I feel like the fat Berg reminds us of these 0:42:50.080 --> 0:42:54.160 monstrosities as well. Except there they're not fantasy, they're real. Uh, 0:42:54.200 --> 0:42:57.520 you know, they just don't actually assault us and try 0:42:57.520 --> 0:42:59.560 to digest us. Well, I feel like some of these, 0:42:59.640 --> 0:43:03.480 especially Ghostbusters too. Yeah, it does bring in some of 0:43:03.480 --> 0:43:06.200 that same metaphor stuff we were talking about earlier about 0:43:06.600 --> 0:43:09.000 you know, like it it's all the bad things we 0:43:09.000 --> 0:43:11.080 don't want to think about and all the negative energy 0:43:11.160 --> 0:43:13.160 is that that is what was feeding the slime and 0:43:13.160 --> 0:43:16.120 Ghostbusters too, right, it was like Prince Vigo and just 0:43:16.239 --> 0:43:19.040 New Yorkers being jerks. That's kind of weird for a 0:43:19.080 --> 0:43:22.520 sequel to a movie in which an e p A 0:43:22.560 --> 0:43:27.160 representative was a villain. Yeah, but there you go. It 0:43:27.280 --> 0:43:32.760 was a different time. Ghostbusters a bravely pro littering movie. 0:43:34.280 --> 0:43:36.560 Al Right, Well, there you have it. A fat Bergs 0:43:36.960 --> 0:43:40.320 for you. Now. Obviously, if anyone out there has direct 0:43:40.400 --> 0:43:43.840 experience with fat Bergs or any other strange monstrosities in 0:43:43.840 --> 0:43:47.080 our sewer systems, let us know. I feel like, just 0:43:47.480 --> 0:43:49.799 thinking about the sheer number of listeners and just all 0:43:49.800 --> 0:43:53.040 the you know, the diverse backgrounds that you all have, 0:43:53.520 --> 0:43:56.719 somebody out there has had to have battled the fat birg. 0:43:56.840 --> 0:43:59.120 We've got a first hand flusher in the audience. I 0:43:59.160 --> 0:44:01.320 know it. Yeah, it's just a matter of getting you 0:44:01.400 --> 0:44:03.480 to write in and tell us about it. Uh. So 0:44:04.160 --> 0:44:06.719 you know, if so, do right in and tell us 0:44:06.719 --> 0:44:09.400 about it. And also just if there's some sort of 0:44:09.440 --> 0:44:13.640 sewer monster movie that we've failed to reference, uh yeah, 0:44:13.960 --> 0:44:16.160 hit us up on that as well. We're always happy 0:44:16.200 --> 0:44:18.480 to cha at about movies. And hey, if you're if 0:44:18.480 --> 0:44:21.880 you're an artist, maybe you can create uh an image 0:44:21.880 --> 0:44:24.600 of fat bird cop because I feel like you'd be 0:44:24.800 --> 0:44:27.520 not only amusing us and amusing other listeners, you would 0:44:27.520 --> 0:44:30.719 potentially be um uh you know, saving the world by 0:44:31.000 --> 0:44:33.600 introducing this character. In the meantime, if you want to 0:44:33.640 --> 0:44:35.160 check out more episodes of Stuff to Blow your Mind, 0:44:35.200 --> 0:44:36.759 head on over to stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. 0:44:36.760 --> 0:44:39.000 That's where you'll find them all. You also find out 0:44:39.000 --> 0:44:41.879 links to social media accounts, as well as our link 0:44:41.920 --> 0:44:44.359 to our t shirt store. But ultimately the best thing 0:44:44.400 --> 0:44:47.200 you can do to support the show is to just 0:44:47.239 --> 0:44:49.440 make sure you rate and review us wherever you have 0:44:49.480 --> 0:44:51.600 the power to do so. Wherever you get this podcast 0:44:51.840 --> 0:44:55.920 huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer, Tari Harrison. 0:44:56.239 --> 0:44:57.680 If you would like to get in touch with us, 0:44:57.719 --> 0:45:00.640 directly with feedback about this episode or the other. To 0:45:00.680 --> 0:45:03.320 tell us about your battles for the fatburg, to suggest 0:45:03.320 --> 0:45:05.719 a topic for the future, to suggest a guest, or 0:45:05.760 --> 0:45:08.799 just to say hello. You can email us at contact 0:45:09.120 --> 0:45:21.200 at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. Stuff to 0:45:21.200 --> 0:45:23.200 Blow Your Mind is a production of iHeart Radios How 0:45:23.200 --> 0:45:25.680 Stuff Works. 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