WEBVTT - Why Are We So Obsessed with Time Capsules? 0:00:14.560 --> 0:00:17.920 You're listening to part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope 0:00:18.120 --> 0:00:19.080 and iHeartRadio. 0:00:23.880 --> 0:00:26.680 Guess what mango was that? Well, so do you remember 0:00:26.720 --> 0:00:29.520 back at the turn of the millennium when everyone started 0:00:29.520 --> 0:00:31.040 making these time capsules? 0:00:31.480 --> 0:00:34.640 Oh, my god, definitely. I am certain. There are so 0:00:34.800 --> 0:00:38.519 many shoe boxes and backyards and playgrounds across the country 0:00:38.560 --> 0:00:41.520 that are just filled with like POGs and slap bracelets 0:00:41.560 --> 0:00:43.839 and Pokemon cards. 0:00:43.520 --> 0:00:45.960 You name. That's so weird. Like you named the the 0:00:46.240 --> 0:00:48.560 three things that I put in my time capsule in 0:00:48.640 --> 0:00:50.879 one day, I'm going to dig that thing up. But 0:00:50.960 --> 0:00:53.440 you know, one thing I'd actually forgotten is that the 0:00:53.479 --> 0:00:56.880 time capsule craze was so widespread that even the US 0:00:57.000 --> 0:00:59.360 government got in on this. And it was the Clinton 0:00:59.360 --> 0:01:01.560 administration that was in office at the time, and so 0:01:01.640 --> 0:01:05.520 they put together this National Millennium Time Capsule, and it 0:01:05.600 --> 0:01:09.120 was based on the suggestions of everything from former presidential 0:01:09.200 --> 0:01:13.319 and congressional medal winners to groups of students from across 0:01:13.400 --> 0:01:16.920 the country. There were more than thirteen hundred items that 0:01:16.959 --> 0:01:19.480 were selected, and these were there to tell the story 0:01:19.520 --> 0:01:21.200 of life in the twentieth century. 0:01:21.600 --> 0:01:24.040 So what kind of things made the cut? 0:01:24.400 --> 0:01:26.119 Well, it was a range of stuff. So they had 0:01:26.120 --> 0:01:29.480 footage from the moon landing, a model of the Liberty Bell, 0:01:29.720 --> 0:01:32.680 a piece of the Berlin Wall, and of course Ray 0:01:32.800 --> 0:01:35.080 Charles sunglasses. 0:01:34.880 --> 0:01:37.360 Ray Chel sunglasses. I love it. 0:01:37.360 --> 0:01:38.080 That was pretty great. 0:01:38.240 --> 0:01:40.520 But what really stuck out to me was something submitted 0:01:40.560 --> 0:01:43.720 by a group of high schoolers from Washington State. Their 0:01:43.760 --> 0:01:46.759 gift to Americans of the twenty second century was a 0:01:46.840 --> 0:01:50.720 pack of Hostess Twinkies, which Bill Clinton agreed was quote 0:01:50.760 --> 0:01:54.640 an object of enduring American symbolism, and honestly I kind 0:01:54.640 --> 0:01:55.960 of have to agree. 0:01:55.800 --> 0:01:58.040 Yeah, I love that. So there's a box of old 0:01:58.080 --> 0:02:00.559 Twinkies sitting in the National Archives. 0:02:00.720 --> 0:02:03.440 Well there should be. But here's the thing. All the 0:02:03.480 --> 0:02:06.320 objects included in the time capsule had to pass the 0:02:06.520 --> 0:02:10.280 archives rigorous perpetuity test, as they called it. And although 0:02:10.400 --> 0:02:13.480 urban legend claims that twinkies can last as long as 0:02:13.520 --> 0:02:17.760 fourteen years, their true shelf life is only forty five days, 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:20.440 which actually I found quite surprising. I bought it into 0:02:20.440 --> 0:02:23.560 the whole thing because my first thought when I saw 0:02:23.600 --> 0:02:25.120 that they had submitted this, I was like, oh, well, 0:02:25.120 --> 0:02:27.120 those will be just fine. They could probably eat them 0:02:27.120 --> 0:02:30.320 in a hundred years. But turns out. Not only would 0:02:30.320 --> 0:02:33.120 the snackcakes not have been good at that time, you know, 0:02:33.200 --> 0:02:36.880 the staff also worried that food might attract mice, so 0:02:36.880 --> 0:02:38.640 there was real concern about this. 0:02:39.160 --> 0:02:41.840 So what happened to all those twinkies? 0:02:42.360 --> 0:02:44.600 This is the best part actually, so according to former 0:02:44.720 --> 0:02:48.320 archive is David s. Fario, the staff actually ate them, 0:02:48.480 --> 0:02:51.280 which I guess is better than just throwing them out. 0:02:51.320 --> 0:02:53.600 But what's funny is that despite the fact that the 0:02:53.639 --> 0:02:58.400 time capsule contents are almost always underwhelming, we just can't 0:02:58.440 --> 0:03:02.240 resist making them. It's a pretty bizarre cultural practice. So 0:03:02.520 --> 0:03:04.000 today we're going to try to make sense of this, 0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:08.280 like what's the appeal of the time capsule? What actually qualifies? 0:03:08.480 --> 0:03:10.880 What are the best and most bewildering things that people 0:03:10.960 --> 0:03:14.239 have stashed inside them? It's time to dig up some answers, 0:03:14.440 --> 0:03:38.080 so let's dive in. Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to 0:03:38.120 --> 0:03:41.360 part time genius Samuel Pearson, And as always I'm joined 0:03:41.360 --> 0:03:44.000 by my good friend mangesh Hot Ticketer and over there 0:03:44.000 --> 0:03:47.160 in the soundproof booth, filling a tupperware bin with a 0:03:47.200 --> 0:03:51.120 tin of glitter, a box of hot pockets yum, and 0:03:51.160 --> 0:03:56.280 some nicely folded athletic socks. That's our Palain producer Dylan Fagan. 0:03:56.840 --> 0:03:58.920 I know, when I asked Don why he was filling 0:03:58.920 --> 0:04:01.760 his time capsule with us, he just said they'll want 0:04:01.760 --> 0:04:06.000 to know how he lived, which only made me more confused. 0:04:06.120 --> 0:04:08.760 That Dylan always making lots and lots of sense. Well, 0:04:09.160 --> 0:04:12.160 let's get into the concept of time capsules, because the 0:04:12.280 --> 0:04:15.280 term is more flexible than you might think. For example, 0:04:15.320 --> 0:04:18.200 say you define a time capsule as a collection of 0:04:18.240 --> 0:04:21.600 preserved objects that provide a cultural record of the past. 0:04:22.160 --> 0:04:25.400 In that case, an ancient Egyptian tune is actually a 0:04:25.440 --> 0:04:26.080 time capsule. 0:04:26.480 --> 0:04:28.840 I mean I could see that, Yeah, But something like. 0:04:28.800 --> 0:04:32.000 A childhood bedroom that somehow wasn't converted to a home 0:04:32.080 --> 0:04:35.560 gym could also be a time capsule. But neither of 0:04:35.600 --> 0:04:38.320 those things feels like what we mean when we're talking 0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:39.720 about a time capsule here. 0:04:40.240 --> 0:04:42.120 Yeah, I mean, I guess does kind of feel like 0:04:42.200 --> 0:04:45.880 accidental time capsules because that wasn't the primary intent, right, 0:04:45.720 --> 0:04:48.839 Like they tell future visitors about what life was like 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:51.560 for someone in a certain time and place. But that's 0:04:51.560 --> 0:04:53.000 obviously not what they were meant to do. 0:04:53.279 --> 0:04:55.520 Right, And that's something that most experts on the subject 0:04:55.560 --> 0:04:59.360 will point out. For example, a faculty librarian named William E. 0:04:59.520 --> 0:05:02.880 Jarvis wrote in his two thousand and two book Time Capsules, 0:05:02.880 --> 0:05:05.960 a Cultural History, that for something to be considered a 0:05:06.040 --> 0:05:09.200 true time capsule, it has to meet two criteria. The 0:05:09.240 --> 0:05:11.600 first one it has to be created with the intention 0:05:11.800 --> 0:05:14.680 of being found, and second it has to have a 0:05:14.800 --> 0:05:16.839 definite date for when it's to be opened. 0:05:17.279 --> 0:05:19.480 I like that, so, so in his definition, it's about 0:05:19.480 --> 0:05:21.799 this intentional communication with the future. 0:05:22.160 --> 0:05:23.960 That's exactly right. It's a great way to put it. 0:05:24.000 --> 0:05:27.240 And one early precursor to the modern time capsule is 0:05:27.279 --> 0:05:30.440 the cornerstone deposit, which fails this test because it was 0:05:30.480 --> 0:05:31.960 designed to stay hidden. 0:05:32.560 --> 0:05:35.400 So I've actually never heard of a cornerstone deposit. What 0:05:35.839 --> 0:05:36.039 is that? 0:05:36.640 --> 0:05:39.920 So it's a box of objects or documents that's placed 0:05:39.960 --> 0:05:42.640 in the foundation of a building during the construction of 0:05:42.680 --> 0:05:47.000 that building, typically underneath or inside the cornerstone, which is 0:05:47.000 --> 0:05:49.000 where it gets its name. And so one of the 0:05:49.000 --> 0:05:52.160 most famous examples is a copper box that Paul Revere 0:05:52.160 --> 0:05:54.760 and Samuel L. Adams buried during the construction of the 0:05:54.760 --> 0:05:59.520 Boston State House. This was on July fourth, seventeen ninety five. 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:02.760 Now the box was unearthed in twenty fourteen due to 0:06:02.800 --> 0:06:07.600 concerns about water damage, and when museum conservator Pat Hatchfield 0:06:07.640 --> 0:06:11.920 managed to pry it open, she found newspapers, coins, there 0:06:11.960 --> 0:06:16.599 was a metal depicting George Washington, and a silver dedication plaque. 0:06:16.720 --> 0:06:19.400 Now this wasn't the most interesting collection of artifacts, but 0:06:19.440 --> 0:06:22.520 the box's opening was still big news because it was 0:06:22.600 --> 0:06:26.760 widely regarded as the oldest time capsule in America. But again, 0:06:26.839 --> 0:06:29.839 Revere and Adams never meant for it to be recovered, 0:06:29.960 --> 0:06:31.840 much less on a specific date. 0:06:32.400 --> 0:06:35.400 That's really fascinating. So what is the point of doing 0:06:35.440 --> 0:06:37.360 this if it's not meant to be found? 0:06:37.839 --> 0:06:39.960 Yeah, I was wondering the exact same thing, and I 0:06:39.960 --> 0:06:42.760 guess it turns out there's no clear cut reason. According 0:06:42.800 --> 0:06:46.840 to William Jarvis, the practice dates back to ancient Mesopotamia. Now, 0:06:46.839 --> 0:06:49.320 the best guess is that people started depositing items in 0:06:49.400 --> 0:06:53.159 foundations and cornerstones as kind of a good luck charm, 0:06:53.200 --> 0:06:56.000 I guess. And so the practice moved to medieval Europe, 0:06:56.000 --> 0:06:59.440 where clergy began placing holy objects in the foundations of 0:06:59.520 --> 0:07:04.920 churches and cathedrals, and eventually government institutions, fraternal orders, even 0:07:04.960 --> 0:07:08.640 private businesses adopted the practice as well, now, the other 0:07:08.680 --> 0:07:12.480 big authority on time capsules is a writer named canut Berger. 0:07:12.960 --> 0:07:16.320 He and Jarvis are actually founding members of the International 0:07:16.400 --> 0:07:20.480 Time Capsule Society, and he points out that cornerstone deposits 0:07:20.480 --> 0:07:23.280 can also serve as kind of a signature, either for 0:07:23.360 --> 0:07:26.840 the builders themselves or for the people who spearheaded the project. 0:07:27.600 --> 0:07:29.480 That's kind of funny. I like the idea of it 0:07:29.560 --> 0:07:33.440 being a secret signature. And now I'm kind of curious 0:07:33.440 --> 0:07:35.400 how many buildings and spaces I've been in where they 0:07:35.400 --> 0:07:39.840 are actually these like hidden cornerstone boxes. But just out 0:07:39.840 --> 0:07:43.040 of curiosity, do we know what the oldest actual time 0:07:43.120 --> 0:07:43.680 capsule is? 0:07:44.440 --> 0:07:46.520 I mean I think we do, or at least the 0:07:46.560 --> 0:07:49.480 oldest time capsule in the US. It was this project 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:52.640 called the Century Safe. It was created for the eighteen 0:07:52.800 --> 0:07:56.160 seventy six Philadelphia World's Fair, and it was meant to 0:07:56.200 --> 0:07:59.600 be opened during the bi centennial in nineteen seventy six. 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:02.400 That is fun Also, I had no idea that they 0:08:02.400 --> 0:08:04.600 were doing World's Fairs in eighteen seventy six. 0:08:04.640 --> 0:08:08.520 Those great go way back. But you know the actual 0:08:08.600 --> 0:08:12.000 contents of this thing were We're unfortunately a little bit boring, 0:08:12.120 --> 0:08:15.440 Like the items included a book on the Temperance movement, 0:08:15.760 --> 0:08:19.880 a collection of random signatures, and some early photographs of 0:08:20.040 --> 0:08:22.520 US politicians. I mean, talk about a letdown. 0:08:22.920 --> 0:08:25.280 I feel like if you're waiting one hundred years to 0:08:25.320 --> 0:08:28.160 crack open the safe and like that's what you get. 0:08:28.240 --> 0:08:30.720 It feels like a trick, like trick on you. 0:08:31.400 --> 0:08:34.600 It's it's totally a drink your ovaltine kind of moment. 0:08:36.760 --> 0:08:39.680 So lucky for us. Time capsules get a bit more 0:08:39.720 --> 0:08:42.240 interesting in the mid nineteen thirties, and this is when 0:08:42.240 --> 0:08:45.040 the concept really starts cooking with the public. And the 0:08:45.120 --> 0:08:49.480 person credited with kickstarting the trend is Thornwell Jacobs, who 0:08:49.520 --> 0:08:54.400 is president of Oglethorpe University in Atlanta. Now. Jacobs was 0:08:54.440 --> 0:08:57.280 inspired by the opening of Egyptian tombs in the nineteen 0:08:57.320 --> 0:09:00.000 twenties and he decided he wanted to create a record 0:09:00.200 --> 0:09:05.240 of human culture, whereas he called it the Crypt of Civilization. Now, 0:09:05.240 --> 0:09:07.880 true to its name, the Crypt is a twenty foot long, 0:09:08.160 --> 0:09:11.839 ten foot high, air tight stone chamber and to this 0:09:12.080 --> 0:09:16.760 day it lies undisturbed beneath the building on the Oglethorpe campus. 0:09:17.160 --> 0:09:18.200 That's a pretty big space. 0:09:18.200 --> 0:09:21.520 So what's inside, Well, a whole bunch of objects and 0:09:21.559 --> 0:09:25.160 files that Jacobs and his team assembled. They were meant 0:09:25.200 --> 0:09:27.720 to create this portrait of life on Earth. It includes 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:31.520 over six hundred and forty thousand pages of microfilm documents, 0:09:31.960 --> 0:09:35.880 but also thousands of random objects. There's like a plastic flute, 0:09:35.920 --> 0:09:38.720 a pair of stockings, a quart of beer, a bar 0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:42.400 of soap shaped like a bowl for some reason, there's 0:09:42.440 --> 0:09:46.200 a life size cutaway model of a pregnant woman. You know, 0:09:46.800 --> 0:09:49.160 just the important stuff. We have to edit this down. 0:09:49.600 --> 0:09:52.840 But Jacob's Crypt was sealed up in nineteen forty and 0:09:52.880 --> 0:09:56.760 it's not scheduled to be opened until the year eight thousand, 0:09:57.000 --> 0:10:00.400 one hundred and thirteen or eighty one thirteen. Oh WHOA 0:10:00.440 --> 0:10:02.160 should probably mark your calendar for that. 0:10:02.400 --> 0:10:04.880 Yeah, I thought you're going to say, like twenty forty 0:10:05.040 --> 0:10:07.320 or I don't know, that's wild. I mean most time 0:10:07.320 --> 0:10:10.440 capsules shoot for feels like one hundred years or one 0:10:10.440 --> 0:10:13.000 thousand at most, But what is that like six millennia? 0:10:13.040 --> 0:10:14.800 Who knows if people are going to be around at 0:10:14.800 --> 0:10:15.280 that point. 0:10:15.400 --> 0:10:18.280 I know, they really really went for it. I mean, 0:10:18.600 --> 0:10:22.280 the Crypt was this massive undertaking, and Jacob's got so 0:10:22.360 --> 0:10:25.360 much buzz for the project that the Westinghouse Company decided 0:10:25.400 --> 0:10:28.719 to launch a similar project during its exhibition at the 0:10:28.840 --> 0:10:32.280 nineteen thirty nine World's Fair, and that's actually how we 0:10:32.320 --> 0:10:35.560 get the term time capsule. The company borrowed the idea 0:10:35.640 --> 0:10:38.920 of filling a container with various objects that were, you know, 0:10:39.040 --> 0:10:42.200 indicative of the era, but instead of stuffing them into 0:10:42.240 --> 0:10:47.320 an underground bunker, Westinghouse used a big rocket shaped cylinder. 0:10:47.800 --> 0:10:50.040 Now the pr consultant they were using at the time, 0:10:50.080 --> 0:10:53.120 this guy named George E. Pendre initially wanted to call 0:10:53.160 --> 0:10:56.680 the capsule a time bomb because of the container's shape, 0:10:56.960 --> 0:10:59.040 and you know, it kind of seems fun like it 0:10:59.080 --> 0:11:01.960 explodes with all this nostalgia, but there was a world 0:11:01.960 --> 0:11:04.760 war looming, so they thought better of it, and he 0:11:04.880 --> 0:11:08.240 came up with the term time capsule. But even though 0:11:08.240 --> 0:11:10.959 Pendre used a different name for the device, he basically 0:11:11.000 --> 0:11:16.400 copied everything else from the Crypt, including its multi millennia timeline. So, 0:11:16.880 --> 0:11:19.760 in a bid to beat Jacobs to the punch, the 0:11:19.800 --> 0:11:23.360 company chose the year six nine hundred and thirty nine 0:11:23.480 --> 0:11:26.440 for its opening date, so they went with a conservative 0:11:26.520 --> 0:11:28.840 five thousand years in the future compared to the Crypt 0:11:28.920 --> 0:11:29.720 six thousand. 0:11:30.120 --> 0:11:33.040 That is just wild. So what did Westinghouse put in 0:11:33.080 --> 0:11:33.920 their time capsule. 0:11:34.240 --> 0:11:36.520 I mean, it's kind of like an equally random assortment 0:11:36.559 --> 0:11:39.880 of objects. There's an alarm clock, an electric razor, a 0:11:39.920 --> 0:11:43.640 can opener, a Mickey mouse cup, a dollar in change, 0:11:43.679 --> 0:11:46.120 and a pack of Camel's cigarettes, among other things. But 0:11:46.760 --> 0:11:51.439 Westinghouse also included messages from three Nobel Prize winners, which 0:11:51.520 --> 0:11:55.040 is kind of interesting, right, like Robert Milliken, Thomas Mann, 0:11:55.120 --> 0:11:58.319 and Albert Einstein. Now, the project was meant to complement 0:11:58.400 --> 0:12:02.280 the World's Fairs theme, which was building the World of tomorrow. 0:12:02.360 --> 0:12:05.320 But you can tell the mood was pretty tense at 0:12:05.320 --> 0:12:09.200 the time because obviously, with this world war on the horizon, 0:12:09.559 --> 0:12:12.679 none of the men's letters were actually that hopeful. Like 0:12:12.920 --> 0:12:17.360 Einstein actually wrote quote, people living in different countries kill 0:12:17.400 --> 0:12:21.000 each other at irregular time intervals, so that anyone who 0:12:21.080 --> 0:12:24.319 thinks about the future must live in fear and terror. 0:12:24.679 --> 0:12:28.800 Oh wow, Yeah, that does sound very Einstein though, and 0:12:28.960 --> 0:12:30.880 honestly pretty pretty grim though. 0:12:31.520 --> 0:12:33.520 I mean, it doesn't seem like Einstein with his tongue 0:12:33.520 --> 0:12:36.720 out right. It feels like a very different Einstein. But 0:12:37.120 --> 0:12:39.640 I guess it pairs well with Mickey mouse cup and 0:12:39.679 --> 0:12:43.600 a pack of camels. But the other thing that hadn't 0:12:43.600 --> 0:12:46.800 really occurred to me was how solemn that burial process 0:12:46.840 --> 0:12:49.559 can be. It's pretty interesting. Like the articles about this 0:12:49.840 --> 0:12:52.480 from the Time show that the Westinghouse time capsule was 0:12:52.520 --> 0:12:55.839 buried fifty feet beneath the New York Fairgrounds in a 0:12:55.880 --> 0:12:59.960 location dubbed the Immortal Well, and as it was being low, 0:13:00.559 --> 0:13:04.120 spectators took off their hats as the capsule was going down, 0:13:04.400 --> 0:13:06.800 like they were at a funeral or paying respects to 0:13:06.840 --> 0:13:09.800 this moment, And that, to me feels kind of surprising. 0:13:09.960 --> 0:13:12.120 It's almost like they're paying tribute to a box of 0:13:12.120 --> 0:13:15.720 home appliances and spare change. It feels a little dramatic. 0:13:15.720 --> 0:13:17.560 Especially because like when you think about it, it feels 0:13:17.600 --> 0:13:21.360 like a glorified juncturer or like everything I stuffed into 0:13:21.400 --> 0:13:24.480 a closet before guests come over. But to be fair, 0:13:24.880 --> 0:13:27.880 it is hard to predict the future, right, like time 0:13:27.920 --> 0:13:31.160 capsule makers never know what later generations will care about 0:13:31.400 --> 0:13:34.120 or what they'll know about our time right right. 0:13:34.520 --> 0:13:36.439 I guess what surprises me is that so many people 0:13:36.480 --> 0:13:39.199 still think time capsules are worth the bother, even though 0:13:39.240 --> 0:13:42.480 it is all based on guesswork, Like it seems a 0:13:42.520 --> 0:13:45.400 little weird to assume that strangers thousands of years from 0:13:45.400 --> 0:13:48.080 now will share our interest, or that, you know, the 0:13:48.160 --> 0:13:51.480 minutia of daily life will teach them something. It's really 0:13:51.600 --> 0:13:52.520 such a guessing game. 0:13:52.960 --> 0:13:55.080 M hmm. I mean. The other funny thing about it 0:13:55.120 --> 0:13:58.920 is that placing items underground in dirt is typically not 0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:01.080 the best way to preserve of them. A lot of 0:14:01.080 --> 0:14:04.480 amateur time capsules get ruined because people forget groundwater is 0:14:04.520 --> 0:14:08.680 a thing. I also like how optimistic it is. You know, 0:14:09.679 --> 0:14:12.040 it feels to me like it's almost like a message 0:14:12.040 --> 0:14:14.400 in a bottle that you're just hoping someone will stumble 0:14:14.480 --> 0:14:17.680 into and you know, maybe that'll delight them. But there's 0:14:17.679 --> 0:14:21.240 actually a quote from kanoo Berger where he says, when 0:14:21.240 --> 0:14:23.960 it comes to time capsules, the ritual is almost more 0:14:23.960 --> 0:14:27.760 important than the substance. What matters is that you were there, 0:14:28.160 --> 0:14:30.440 And I think that's true and also kind of sweet. 0:14:30.720 --> 0:14:33.480 Yeah, and you know, especially an hour college, did you 0:14:33.520 --> 0:14:35.080 know do you know about this where the kids in 0:14:35.120 --> 0:14:38.280 our class buried a time capsule to be opened this 0:14:38.480 --> 0:14:41.520 year and then there was a big WhatsApp post trying 0:14:41.520 --> 0:14:43.880 to figure out where the spot was because no one 0:14:43.920 --> 0:14:47.800 could remember. No one could remember, and the campus had 0:14:47.920 --> 0:14:50.960 changed a lot, and they actually never found this thing. 0:14:52.040 --> 0:14:53.560 I mean, I'm guessing it was just like a Dave 0:14:53.640 --> 0:14:56.600 Matthews album and a poster the basketball team. It can't 0:14:56.640 --> 0:14:57.600 be that interesting. 0:14:57.920 --> 0:15:00.640 That's got to be exactly what it was, all right. Well, 0:15:00.680 --> 0:15:02.440 after a quick break, I'm going to tell you about 0:15:02.440 --> 0:15:05.120 one of the few occasions when people opening a time 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:08.600 capsule were deeply invested in what they might find inside, 0:15:09.120 --> 0:15:12.120 even though the only two options were a dead lizard 0:15:12.440 --> 0:15:30.000 or a live one. So stay tuned, Welcome. 0:15:29.800 --> 0:15:32.320 Back to Part Time Genius. If you're enjoying this episode, 0:15:32.360 --> 0:15:34.800 please do not seal it inside a time capsule for 0:15:34.840 --> 0:15:36.880 a thousand years. Share it with a friend. You can 0:15:37.040 --> 0:15:39.400 also leave us a nice rating and review on your 0:15:39.400 --> 0:15:43.440 favorite podcast app. It helps inform future listeners and it 0:15:43.480 --> 0:15:46.040 makes us feel very good about the present. Okay, well, 0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:49.480 so before the break, you tease the story about a lizard. 0:15:49.960 --> 0:15:53.880 Go all right, thank you? All right. So our tale 0:15:53.920 --> 0:15:57.400 begins back in eighteen ninety seven, and it was at 0:15:57.400 --> 0:16:01.840 the groundbreaking ceremony for a new courthouse. This was in Eastland, Texas. 0:16:02.160 --> 0:16:05.720 Hold on, I thought we established that foundation deposits don't 0:16:05.720 --> 0:16:08.040 count as time capsules because they are meant to be opened. 0:16:08.280 --> 0:16:11.040 That is generally correct, But in this case, there was 0:16:11.120 --> 0:16:13.800 one person who had always intended for it to be 0:16:13.880 --> 0:16:17.040 open and at a specific time as well, one hundred 0:16:17.080 --> 0:16:19.800 years in the future. His name was Ernest Wood, and 0:16:19.840 --> 0:16:22.000 at the time of the building's dedication, he was a 0:16:22.040 --> 0:16:25.480 county clerk in Eastland. Now, like most folks in Texas 0:16:25.520 --> 0:16:28.080 back then, would had grown up hearing stories about the 0:16:28.160 --> 0:16:32.160 supposedly long lives of local horned lizards, or as they 0:16:32.160 --> 0:16:35.520 were better known, horny toads. So while most lizards only 0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:38.040 lived for a few years in a while, Texas legend 0:16:38.080 --> 0:16:40.760 holds that horned lizards can live up to a hundred 0:16:40.920 --> 0:16:43.880 years in hibernation, not just one hundred years. One hundred 0:16:43.920 --> 0:16:47.640 years in hibernation without the need for any food or. 0:16:47.560 --> 0:16:50.080 Water, and so people I should believe that. 0:16:50.400 --> 0:16:52.520 Well, that's what Ernest Wood wanted to find out, and 0:16:52.560 --> 0:16:55.480 he figured the courthouse dedication would be the perfect way 0:16:55.520 --> 0:16:58.760 to test this theory. Now, as luck would have it, 0:16:58.880 --> 0:17:01.920 his four year old son will had recently caught a 0:17:02.000 --> 0:17:05.080 horned lizard and named it Blinky. And since the building's 0:17:05.119 --> 0:17:09.560 cornerstone was already set to house typical commemorative items, including 0:17:09.600 --> 0:17:13.280 a bible, several town documents. Ernest convinced Will to let 0:17:13.359 --> 0:17:15.639 him put Blinky in there as well. 0:17:16.880 --> 0:17:18.920 I mean the fact that the lizard has a name 0:17:19.400 --> 0:17:20.639 and it's his son's lizard. 0:17:20.760 --> 0:17:25.760 It's so much worse it is. This is totally totally tragic, 0:17:25.840 --> 0:17:29.200 and I guess the kid believed in Blinky, and Ernest 0:17:29.200 --> 0:17:31.480 figured in a hundred years the boy might still be 0:17:31.520 --> 0:17:33.800 around to dig up the box and check the outcome. 0:17:34.760 --> 0:17:37.960 You just never know, the love of Blinky might keep 0:17:38.000 --> 0:17:42.240 him going, you know. But things shockingly didn't go as 0:17:42.280 --> 0:17:45.480 planned because the town of Eastland grew much faster than expected, 0:17:45.880 --> 0:17:48.800 and after just thirty years, they needed a bigger courthouse, 0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:51.560 so the old one was scheduled to be demolished in 0:17:51.720 --> 0:17:54.760 early nineteen twenty eight. Ernest Wood was still very much 0:17:54.800 --> 0:17:56.720 alive at that point, and in the lead up to 0:17:56.760 --> 0:17:59.680 the demolition he told the editor of the local paper 0:17:59.680 --> 0:18:03.119 about the lizard he had sealed inside the cornerstone. Now again, 0:18:03.520 --> 0:18:06.439 everyone in Texas was familiar with this legend, so the 0:18:06.520 --> 0:18:09.639 chance to confirm it was hugely exciting for people. 0:18:11.080 --> 0:18:15.280 It is so weird that everyone was invested. But I 0:18:15.280 --> 0:18:17.760 guess I'm glad that many people in Texas are excited 0:18:17.800 --> 0:18:18.480 about science. 0:18:18.720 --> 0:18:22.240 Yeah. I love that we're somehow calling this science rather 0:18:22.320 --> 0:18:24.240 than just murdering a lizard. 0:18:24.280 --> 0:18:27.000 It's an experiment. Yeah, at a courthouse. 0:18:27.560 --> 0:18:30.520 Well, the hype really spread and the paper ran a 0:18:30.600 --> 0:18:34.040 story under the headline all ready for the Liberation of 0:18:34.080 --> 0:18:38.919 the horn Toad, and the article flew across the wire services. 0:18:39.119 --> 0:18:41.720 And as a result of this, on February eighteenth, nineteen 0:18:41.760 --> 0:18:45.640 twenty eight, three thousand people gathered at the court. Three 0:18:45.720 --> 0:18:48.200 thousand can you imagine this to see a dead lizard? 0:18:48.520 --> 0:18:51.479 To watch as the cornerstone was open, and among those 0:18:51.520 --> 0:18:55.159 in attendance County Judge Ed Pritchard, whose job was to 0:18:55.400 --> 0:18:58.800 verify that the lizard hadn't been secretly swapped out for 0:18:58.880 --> 0:18:59.720 a fresh one. 0:19:00.160 --> 0:19:02.639 I mean, if there's anyone I trust, this County Judge 0:19:02.760 --> 0:19:05.720 Ed Pritchard. Yeah, no, you know you can count on 0:19:05.760 --> 0:19:08.560 the amazing and well, I'm pretty sure I know the answer. 0:19:08.600 --> 0:19:09.880 I feel like I'm on the edge of my seat 0:19:09.920 --> 0:19:10.520 for this one. 0:19:10.800 --> 0:19:13.400 Well, you might be surprised here because when the lizard 0:19:13.520 --> 0:19:18.000 was finally pulled from its resting place, it did initially 0:19:18.040 --> 0:19:20.800 seem dead It was flat as a pancake and covered 0:19:20.800 --> 0:19:25.000 in a thick layer of dust. But then Mango, all 0:19:25.000 --> 0:19:27.840 of a sudden, one of its legs began to twitch. 0:19:28.160 --> 0:19:31.879 Then someone shouted the derned things alive, and the whole 0:19:32.040 --> 0:19:35.960 crowd burst into cheers, like, no joke, this happened. 0:19:36.240 --> 0:19:38.040 I guess if you put a Bible in there too, 0:19:38.119 --> 0:19:41.560 it makes a lot of sense. That feels incredible. 0:19:41.760 --> 0:19:44.320 So this really happened, well, I mean that was what 0:19:44.560 --> 0:19:48.240 was reported. Blinky was renamed old Rip after the fairy 0:19:48.240 --> 0:19:52.080 tale character Rip van Winkle, and following his resurrection, old 0:19:52.160 --> 0:19:57.120 Rip became a full blown national celebrity. Newsreel staged reenactments 0:19:57.119 --> 0:20:00.119 of the cornerstone removal and old Rip was reported and 0:20:00.200 --> 0:20:03.800 every periodical from the New York Times to peer reviewed 0:20:03.960 --> 0:20:07.640 science journals now. A print run of sixteen thousand old 0:20:07.720 --> 0:20:11.440 Rip postcards sold out immediately, and the Fort Worth Star 0:20:11.560 --> 0:20:15.400 Telegram proclaimed Rip to be quote the most famous animals 0:20:15.400 --> 0:20:18.280 since the Serpent and the Garden of Eden. These people 0:20:18.320 --> 0:20:19.800 were all about this situation. 0:20:21.240 --> 0:20:24.280 I mean, that's pretty good branding, right, That's a good line. 0:20:24.800 --> 0:20:26.679 Well, and it wasn't even the end of it. So 0:20:26.760 --> 0:20:29.600 old Rip was escorted on a publicity tour around the 0:20:29.640 --> 0:20:32.600 country by will Wood, the now adult man who had 0:20:32.600 --> 0:20:35.480 caught him as a child. They traveled together to Washington, 0:20:35.560 --> 0:20:39.800 d C. To meet President Calvin Coolidge, who reportedly canceled 0:20:39.960 --> 0:20:43.359 several prior engagements to make room in his schedule for 0:20:43.600 --> 0:20:44.280 Old Rip. 0:20:44.359 --> 0:20:46.119 I'm just gonna block out the day. I feel like 0:20:46.160 --> 0:20:46.760 Old ripped down. 0:20:47.320 --> 0:20:48.560 Yeah he did, he did. 0:20:48.760 --> 0:20:51.000 Coolidge famously had a ton of pets, right like, he 0:20:51.000 --> 0:20:54.520 had a raccoon, dogs, a pygmy hippopotamus, so I'm sure 0:20:54.520 --> 0:20:55.760 he was like to beat the creature. 0:20:55.880 --> 0:20:58.200 Good memory there. I think we covered that in mental 0:20:58.280 --> 0:21:01.240 loss back in the day. But to the press, Coolidge 0:21:01.320 --> 0:21:05.520 stroked the lizard's back with his own horn rimmed glasses. 0:21:05.200 --> 0:21:07.040 Which is a weird thing to do. 0:21:07.280 --> 0:21:09.520 Very weird thing to do, but that's definitely what he did, 0:21:09.560 --> 0:21:12.640 and will Wood telegraphed home saying that Old Grip had 0:21:12.680 --> 0:21:15.120 blinked approvingly at the president. 0:21:15.119 --> 0:21:17.400 Which I mean his name was Blinky, so I guess 0:21:17.440 --> 0:21:18.880 that's a less weird thing to do. 0:21:19.440 --> 0:21:19.960 Definitely. 0:21:20.680 --> 0:21:20.840