WEBVTT - How Did MythBusters Work? 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:02.920 Guess what will? What's that mango? So you know, I'm 0:00:02.920 --> 0:00:06.120 a fan of the show MythBusters, right, definite, And I 0:00:06.160 --> 0:00:08.720 was reading Carrie Byron's new book where she talks about 0:00:08.720 --> 0:00:10.920 one of the crazier explosions she's ever done, and it 0:00:10.960 --> 0:00:14.239 involves a creamer cannon creamer light What do you mean 0:00:14.280 --> 0:00:18.040 like coffee creamer? Yeah, it's like super explosive. She and 0:00:18.079 --> 0:00:20.239 the team watched this YouTube video where this guy put 0:00:20.280 --> 0:00:22.640 creamer over a lighter and it made a flame. So 0:00:22.680 --> 0:00:25.239 they decided to supersize it by building a giant air 0:00:25.280 --> 0:00:28.240 cannon and shooting it up into the air. And honestly, 0:00:28.480 --> 0:00:31.920 this thing is so terrifying. The stuff goes up, doesn't 0:00:31.960 --> 0:00:34.080 look like it's going to ignite, and then it just 0:00:34.120 --> 0:00:37.120 creates a giant puff of smoke and then all of 0:00:37.159 --> 0:00:38.920 a sudden, it just rips up into the sky and 0:00:39.000 --> 0:00:42.960 makes this enormous fire bomb. It's insane. That sounds crazy. 0:00:43.080 --> 0:00:45.160 But the funniest part, and the thing I would never 0:00:45.200 --> 0:00:47.560 have realized from watching the show, was that the wind 0:00:47.640 --> 0:00:51.360 changed mid explosion and all this hot, milky fire bombs 0:00:51.400 --> 0:00:54.400 started raining down from the sky. And she and the 0:00:54.440 --> 0:00:57.920 Bill team were responsible for the cleanup. So apparently coffee 0:00:57.920 --> 0:01:03.080 creamer bomb residue is discuss Anyway, Carrie is one of 0:01:03.080 --> 0:01:05.039 the most fun craziest jobs in the world, and we're 0:01:05.080 --> 0:01:07.000 lucky to have her on the program today, So let's 0:01:07.000 --> 0:01:26.480 dive in. All right, Well, today we've got the wonderful 0:01:26.560 --> 0:01:28.440 Carrie Byron on the show, who most of you will 0:01:28.480 --> 0:01:31.399 remember from the Bill team on MythBusters, but also the 0:01:31.440 --> 0:01:34.360 host of head Rush, The White Rabbit Project, and so 0:01:34.480 --> 0:01:36.920 much more. And now she's the author of a new 0:01:36.959 --> 0:01:39.120 book that we're excited to talk about. It's called crash 0:01:39.160 --> 0:01:43.199 Test Girl. So Carrie, welcome to Part time Genius there. 0:01:43.640 --> 0:01:45.839 So Carrie, before we start, I'm gonna say I'm actually 0:01:45.840 --> 0:01:48.360 from Delaware. I grew up with the punkin chunk and 0:01:48.440 --> 0:01:51.680 just being a thing only we knew about. Thank you 0:01:51.720 --> 0:01:55.040 for bringing it to a wider audience. And uh, I 0:01:55.080 --> 0:01:58.560 know you've posted that and the large Dangerous Rocketship Festival. 0:01:59.000 --> 0:02:01.000 Have you been surprised by the rise of the maker 0:02:01.040 --> 0:02:03.360 movement over the last decade or so and how much 0:02:03.400 --> 0:02:06.120 do you think MythBusters has contributed to it? You know, 0:02:06.240 --> 0:02:08.760 the maker movement was coming about at the same time 0:02:08.800 --> 0:02:12.280 as MythBusters. I think that was just the feeling that 0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:13.919 was in the air at the time that people were 0:02:13.960 --> 0:02:15.960 getting really d I y and we were all right 0:02:16.000 --> 0:02:19.000 in that same wave. Um, you know, I don't make 0:02:19.080 --> 0:02:21.560 magazine out here. I just wrote an article for him 0:02:21.600 --> 0:02:25.760 because I'm totally a fan of all maker. Yeah. It 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:27.919 was such a fun movement to see, right, I mean 0:02:28.320 --> 0:02:30.720 we were huge fans of Boeing Boeing and Wired and 0:02:30.960 --> 0:02:33.320 then like, I feel like all of that stuff, the 0:02:33.400 --> 0:02:35.519 d I Y stuff, exploded in such a big way 0:02:35.560 --> 0:02:38.680 and and uh and I love that you sort of 0:02:38.680 --> 0:02:40.919 come to it naturally, right, Like as an artist, I've 0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:43.240 been doing it my whole life. I've always been somebody 0:02:43.240 --> 0:02:45.040 who like to tinker and work with her hand. I 0:02:45.120 --> 0:02:48.200 love the smell of you know, sawdust in the garage. 0:02:48.280 --> 0:02:50.760 I like making things. But you know, I think maybe 0:02:50.760 --> 0:02:53.400 it might even be my little rebellion to technology in 0:02:53.440 --> 0:02:56.240 a bit, because everything you can do with the computer 0:02:56.440 --> 0:02:59.680 factor and better. But I don't really like a racing 0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:01.440 and you take a pencil and I you know, I 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:06.280 like building things with my hands and redimensions. Yeah. Well, 0:03:06.360 --> 0:03:08.679 you know, the new book is super fun and I 0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:11.000 actually love how you use the scientific method as a 0:03:11.040 --> 0:03:14.000 means for examining, you know, your entire life, everything from 0:03:14.000 --> 0:03:16.200 the fun parts of your life to the difficult things 0:03:16.200 --> 0:03:19.080 you've had to face. But it speaks to so many 0:03:19.120 --> 0:03:22.920 audiences that I'm curious who you actually were thinking about 0:03:22.960 --> 0:03:25.519 when you were writing the book. Who is the book for? Well, 0:03:25.560 --> 0:03:28.120 I'm not a writer, so for me, I only maken 0:03:28.240 --> 0:03:30.520 write for the audience I know, which is myself. So 0:03:30.560 --> 0:03:32.120 I kind of feel like I wrote the audience for 0:03:32.160 --> 0:03:34.839 the person I was when I was twenty years old 0:03:34.840 --> 0:03:38.240 and starting out in life, the person who just trying 0:03:38.280 --> 0:03:41.800 to figure out how to take to how to create opportunities, 0:03:41.800 --> 0:03:45.600 and how to make big moves. Um I, I, you know, 0:03:45.680 --> 0:03:48.480 wanted to lay out all of my journey so that 0:03:48.680 --> 0:03:51.320 maybe if I've made mistakes, that you don't have to 0:03:51.360 --> 0:03:55.200 make any great I mean, I used the scientific method 0:03:55.320 --> 0:03:58.520 as a critical thinking tool, but really it's just an 0:03:58.520 --> 0:04:01.640 easy way to organize your thought process. So I think 0:04:01.640 --> 0:04:04.520 in making any decision in your life, using the scientific 0:04:04.560 --> 0:04:07.720 method is just all about being able to analyze the 0:04:07.760 --> 0:04:10.040 results of the choices that you make. Well. I mean 0:04:10.080 --> 0:04:13.800 that the structure of the books really fun, the contents excellent, 0:04:13.880 --> 0:04:16.800 but I also just really love the sidebars that you 0:04:16.839 --> 0:04:20.080 throw in there so weird and funny. Things I hadn't 0:04:20.120 --> 0:04:23.000 even thought about, like the bad smells that are on 0:04:23.200 --> 0:04:27.200 TV sets and uh, and also how you used things 0:04:27.240 --> 0:04:30.080 like um blacknail polish to cover up grease on your 0:04:30.080 --> 0:04:33.000 hands and stuff. I I thought those elements were really fun. 0:04:33.040 --> 0:04:34.680 But would you actually walk us through some of the 0:04:34.720 --> 0:04:39.799 smells that maybe people don't know about at home? I'm 0:04:39.839 --> 0:04:42.360 a list maker. I've always just just for fun and 0:04:42.520 --> 0:04:44.440 make a list of things. And bad smells was a 0:04:44.480 --> 0:04:45.960 list that I had made and I was looking through 0:04:46.000 --> 0:04:47.760 on my journals and like, I feel like this is 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:52.440 something other people might explaind amusing. Well, we had a 0:04:52.440 --> 0:04:54.560 lot of bad melbum set because we worked with like 0:04:54.600 --> 0:04:56.880 a lot of animals. We worked with a lot of 0:04:57.360 --> 0:05:01.880 um toxins and you know every being from wolf hearing 0:05:02.360 --> 0:05:07.039 from a female dog and heat to um brotting meat 0:05:07.080 --> 0:05:09.400 that got left in the fridge over the weekend. I mean, 0:05:09.440 --> 0:05:13.240 we had a lot of really disgusting smells. I remember 0:05:13.279 --> 0:05:15.560 when You're doing Shark Week one time and we had 0:05:15.600 --> 0:05:19.159 to figure out how to cure sharks skin for stand paper, 0:05:19.240 --> 0:05:21.320 and when I was reading, like how they do that 0:05:22.040 --> 0:05:24.600 Sailey is a p on the shark skin and let 0:05:24.640 --> 0:05:27.520 it just brought in the peat. I had to pee 0:05:27.520 --> 0:05:30.440 in a cup and put shark skin with kino sounds 0:05:30.480 --> 0:05:33.920 like fish into that current and just let it um 0:05:34.279 --> 0:05:37.280 fit and for mint in my own urine in the shop. 0:05:37.360 --> 0:05:40.120 And I think that that is a that is a 0:05:40.200 --> 0:05:43.920 vile smell that nobody should ever have knowledge of. I mean, 0:05:43.960 --> 0:05:47.039 we had to capture parts and you know, examine the 0:05:47.040 --> 0:05:49.240 constituents at the part, you know, to get to a 0:05:49.279 --> 0:05:51.840 mass gestometer so we could find out what makes them 0:05:51.880 --> 0:05:55.320 to smell. I mean, capturing marks from everybody you worked with. Still, 0:05:58.320 --> 0:06:00.599 that's it's a kind of fun to get that behind 0:06:00.640 --> 0:06:02.720 the scenes. You know, something else you talked about in 0:06:02.760 --> 0:06:05.599 your book that that I found just very interesting was 0:06:05.680 --> 0:06:08.640 you know, you talked about your family struggling economically, and 0:06:09.040 --> 0:06:10.640 one of the scenes that really sticks out to me 0:06:10.760 --> 0:06:13.000 is how you lived in your car at night and 0:06:13.160 --> 0:06:15.919 all this sounds terrifying, but you know, you also built 0:06:15.960 --> 0:06:17.800 this dummy to sit in the front seat to make 0:06:17.800 --> 0:06:19.640 it look like there was a man sitting in the car. 0:06:19.760 --> 0:06:21.840 And I'm curious, you know, how did you come up 0:06:21.839 --> 0:06:24.480 with this idea and how do you know, as a team, 0:06:24.640 --> 0:06:30.120 how to build a believable dummy. I just, you know, 0:06:30.560 --> 0:06:33.839 sometimes it's just an essentity of the moment. And to 0:06:34.000 --> 0:06:36.680 build a believable dummy, I've just always been somebody who 0:06:36.720 --> 0:06:38.479 I think was meant to be in sort of a 0:06:38.480 --> 0:06:41.440 special effects world. Maybe somebody I'll actually get there. They 0:06:41.520 --> 0:06:45.239 got the way, But I just I always made things, 0:06:45.279 --> 0:06:48.160 you know, I made I made cultures of people I'm 0:06:48.200 --> 0:06:52.000 as a little kids and how aween, how every year 0:06:52.120 --> 0:06:54.960 was in same So already knew that to make zombies, 0:06:55.040 --> 0:06:59.599 it's really not that far off from me zombie. So 0:06:59.720 --> 0:07:02.000 I just stuff like one of my dad's attle news 0:07:02.000 --> 0:07:03.760 and put a hat on it and use the skeleton 0:07:03.760 --> 0:07:07.640 mask for face. Nobody's gonna come up with that's really funny. 0:07:07.680 --> 0:07:10.760 It's probably true. So for for me, MythBusters with so 0:07:10.840 --> 0:07:13.320 much about settling bar bets, and I know you talk 0:07:13.360 --> 0:07:16.040 about it, if I know, my friends and I at 0:07:16.840 --> 0:07:18.920 at a bar and Della were actually we're discussing like 0:07:18.920 --> 0:07:20.800 could the car from Night Rider really drive up a 0:07:20.880 --> 0:07:22.600 ramp like that on the truck and not crash? And 0:07:22.640 --> 0:07:24.760 then obviously the first thing you google, you see you 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:27.360 guys have covered it. But I'm curious what was the 0:07:27.480 --> 0:07:29.920 writer's room like on the show and how did you 0:07:29.920 --> 0:07:32.240 guys come up with ideas and more importantly, how do 0:07:32.280 --> 0:07:35.000 you decide what not to do? Um? Well, we never 0:07:35.040 --> 0:07:37.760 said no to things. We generally are like how could 0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:40.040 we do these things? And you know we did have 0:07:40.560 --> 0:07:42.680 done forammeters like it had to be buildable and had 0:07:42.680 --> 0:07:45.520 to be visual. We couldn't have bog boogie. We can't 0:07:45.520 --> 0:07:47.840 go find out a vampires don't like darlic. It has 0:07:47.880 --> 0:07:50.560 to be something scientifics that we can actually come up 0:07:50.560 --> 0:07:53.760 with the conclusion. So, um, you know, with all of 0:07:53.800 --> 0:07:56.160 the diversity in the room, we have different people coming 0:07:56.200 --> 0:07:59.320 from different backgrounds, and um, we could come up with 0:07:59.400 --> 0:08:02.440 being most of wild and wacky contraption because I don't 0:08:02.480 --> 0:08:04.600 think any of us knew that you couldn't do things. 0:08:04.680 --> 0:08:07.640 You know, you could come up with like I remember 0:08:07.680 --> 0:08:09.520 sitting there the first time it came up. The weirdest, 0:08:09.520 --> 0:08:11.640 biggest thing that we could is when we had this, 0:08:11.880 --> 0:08:15.240 Uh there was a smith about somebody who catapulted themselves 0:08:15.280 --> 0:08:18.600 with a boom lift and they franked down the boom 0:08:18.600 --> 0:08:21.320 look really hard, um with a chain or something, and 0:08:21.360 --> 0:08:24.080 then when they cut it, it catapulted the guy in 0:08:24.120 --> 0:08:28.720 the basket. Well, we tried it several times in you know, 0:08:28.760 --> 0:08:31.440 its truest form, and it didn't catapult anybody. It just 0:08:31.520 --> 0:08:35.559 bounced a little stuffing. Everybody's like, well, how are we 0:08:35.600 --> 0:08:39.880 gonna actually catapult to die? And I was like, what 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:43.720 if we made an actual catapult? Because I'm not an engineer, 0:08:43.760 --> 0:08:46.480 I don't know if it's possibility or not. And then 0:08:46.480 --> 0:08:49.120 we came up with packing containers on top of each other, 0:08:49.600 --> 0:08:54.440 welding a pivot where the wheels are of the catapult, 0:08:54.520 --> 0:08:58.560 and actually franking it back for real and making a 0:08:58.800 --> 0:09:02.760 battle sized catapult like lump and jumping and launching it 0:09:02.880 --> 0:09:05.600 dunny as far as we possibly could, and it uh 0:09:06.080 --> 0:09:09.040 didn't work well, but it was a fantastic thing to see. 0:09:09.400 --> 0:09:12.480 I think engineering skills made it that. We just didn't 0:09:12.520 --> 0:09:16.080 know whether things were actually impossible, so we went for it. Wow, 0:09:16.280 --> 0:09:18.600 that's that's pretty great. Well, we've got plenty more questions 0:09:18.640 --> 0:09:33.960 for Carrie. But before that a quick break. Welcome back 0:09:33.960 --> 0:09:36.240 to Part Time Genius, where we're talking to Carry Byron, 0:09:36.280 --> 0:09:38.679 author of Crash Test Girl. You know, one of one 0:09:38.679 --> 0:09:41.440 of my favorite parts of the White House in somewhat 0:09:41.440 --> 0:09:44.040 recent years has been the White House Science Fair, which 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:46.440 of course you hosted. I was curious, what was it 0:09:46.559 --> 0:09:49.200 like getting that call and and then of course being 0:09:49.280 --> 0:09:52.200 at the White House being able to promote science. Who 0:09:52.320 --> 0:09:56.480 is so cool that I couldn't believe it. When I 0:09:56.520 --> 0:09:58.199 feel my parents I was going to the White House, 0:09:58.200 --> 0:10:03.360 They're like, what Just walking into that place, it's the 0:10:03.559 --> 0:10:06.520 White House is just something you see in the movies 0:10:06.640 --> 0:10:09.920 from far away. And actually getting clearance to walk inside 0:10:09.960 --> 0:10:12.520 and being all of the the people do you see on 0:10:12.559 --> 0:10:15.280 the news every day just walking around looking at their phone. 0:10:16.280 --> 0:10:19.880 It was incredible. I got to, you know, go meet 0:10:19.920 --> 0:10:24.080 all of these incredible kids that we're doing things, you know, 0:10:24.120 --> 0:10:27.320 by age fifteen, that I could couldn't imagine doing. Now. 0:10:28.120 --> 0:10:30.680 I met a kid who learned how to make a 0:10:30.720 --> 0:10:34.079 better standbag by using the polymers from inside of a diaper, 0:10:34.120 --> 0:10:37.720 and he actually created a sandbag that would absorb water 0:10:37.920 --> 0:10:40.960 when there were floods and then go back to being 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:43.840 flat so it could be easily moved and reused. Like, 0:10:43.920 --> 0:10:46.640 how did you think of that? You're leavin I mean 0:10:47.120 --> 0:10:50.760 aspiring and humbling, And at the time, it was persident 0:10:50.800 --> 0:10:53.520 Obama and just having him come and give me a 0:10:53.640 --> 0:10:57.080 hug and say my name in a speech. Felt it 0:10:57.160 --> 0:10:58.600 felt like I've made it, you know what I mean, 0:10:58.640 --> 0:11:01.280 It's pretty cool. I'd say that actually does qualify as 0:11:01.320 --> 0:11:09.520 having made it. So congratulations on that one as well. Yeah, 0:11:09.520 --> 0:11:12.200 I mean, it's so fun to see your president just 0:11:12.280 --> 0:11:15.760 so excited about science and in all of these kids. 0:11:16.120 --> 0:11:20.959 Just that really was such a highlight. But um, I'm curious. 0:11:21.120 --> 0:11:23.800 You know, your tasks in that buildroom seemed to be 0:11:24.080 --> 0:11:27.800 so different. You know, you're you're like making ballistics with creamers, 0:11:27.880 --> 0:11:32.480 You're building a vomit chair for making people nauseous, uh, 0:11:32.840 --> 0:11:34.760 you know, and and also making these china shops for 0:11:34.800 --> 0:11:38.320 bulls to run through. Like how do you research these projects? 0:11:38.320 --> 0:11:41.000 And do you have go to reference books or reference 0:11:41.040 --> 0:11:43.720 sites that you used to turn to? I mean we 0:11:43.800 --> 0:11:45.680 used to We started out with books on the show. 0:11:45.720 --> 0:11:49.360 That's how long ago that we had started. As we 0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:53.080 progressed through you know, the internet is just a wealth 0:11:53.120 --> 0:11:56.520 of knowledge and it's easy to find experts to help 0:11:56.559 --> 0:11:58.520 you out in anything. So you know, we would just 0:11:58.520 --> 0:12:01.160 get on the phone and you call somebody in Arizona 0:12:01.200 --> 0:12:04.120 and be like, hey, so if I were going to 0:12:04.160 --> 0:12:09.600 blow something up, underwater, how would you do that? More 0:12:09.640 --> 0:12:12.000 and more famous. It was a lot easier to make 0:12:12.040 --> 0:12:14.760 those at a point of reference, and we didn't sound 0:12:14.760 --> 0:12:17.520 like crazy people. But you know, we we we start 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:21.120 where everybody will start. We start on Google or you know, 0:12:21.520 --> 0:12:23.520 smokes with a good way to find a couple of myths, 0:12:23.720 --> 0:12:26.240 or you know, just kind of follow the leaves down 0:12:26.240 --> 0:12:28.960 the internet rabbit hole. Yeah, and and and most of 0:12:28.960 --> 0:12:30.600 them turned out. I mean, of course we have no 0:12:30.679 --> 0:12:32.720 idea how most of them turned out, because I'm sure 0:12:32.760 --> 0:12:34.760 we we we get to see the best of the best. 0:12:34.800 --> 0:12:36.920 But it did sound like only a few of the 0:12:36.960 --> 0:12:39.840 myths on MythBusters ever went really wrong. You know, you 0:12:39.880 --> 0:12:43.479 talk about the cannon incident in particular, that was near disastrous, 0:12:43.520 --> 0:12:46.400 But I'm curious about some of the smaller, like funnier 0:12:46.480 --> 0:12:48.880 things that just ended up not working on set, and 0:12:49.160 --> 0:12:51.760 how you came up with some fixes for those. Yeah, 0:12:51.800 --> 0:12:53.760 I was trying to like some of the stuff. I'm 0:12:53.800 --> 0:12:55.720 not sure you'd need it. But I didn't always watch 0:12:55.760 --> 0:12:58.520 all the episodes because I was so busy making the 0:12:58.559 --> 0:13:01.200 show that more and think that so when people have 0:13:01.280 --> 0:13:03.240 questions sometimes I'm like, did that happen on TV? Here 0:13:03.280 --> 0:13:06.560 did that happen in real life? A lock of fuel 0:13:06.640 --> 0:13:11.240 myths has to make us still um And it turned 0:13:11.320 --> 0:13:13.319 up that was illegal, but it didn't make the show. 0:13:13.360 --> 0:13:15.760 But I said the day trying to put together a 0:13:16.000 --> 0:13:20.320 giant still to still rocket fudle from alcohol, and it 0:13:20.720 --> 0:13:25.320 went wacky and totally exploded, and I was on my 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:27.720 own in the shop, just like feeding it with a broom, 0:13:27.760 --> 0:13:30.240 trying to break things so that I could not catch 0:13:30.280 --> 0:13:32.920 things on fire. And I just wish some of time 0:13:33.000 --> 0:13:36.280 with stuff like that that went slightly wrong and actually 0:13:36.320 --> 0:13:39.440 made air. It was us being crazy. So you haven't 0:13:39.440 --> 0:13:42.120 asside in the book that Jamie was more diligent about 0:13:42.120 --> 0:13:44.320 the safety of magnets than he was table saws. Can 0:13:44.360 --> 0:13:46.360 you talk a little bit about that? Oh well, no, 0:13:46.480 --> 0:13:47.959 I just mean that he took it very He was 0:13:48.000 --> 0:13:52.320 tilaging about safety on everything. Jamie had these um safety protocols, 0:13:52.320 --> 0:13:54.440 and he'd walk around and give you the tour of 0:13:54.640 --> 0:13:57.360 how to do things safety. He also accompanied it with 0:13:57.440 --> 0:14:01.360 the most forwarding story he designed for teaching cool. You 0:14:01.360 --> 0:14:04.160 can just hear about the table saw. You would hear 0:14:04.200 --> 0:14:07.640 about a time the table stock kicked it back. A 0:14:07.760 --> 0:14:11.440 board that wlintered off and entailed the man and hear 0:14:11.520 --> 0:14:13.840 all the glory details of it, so that you would 0:14:13.840 --> 0:14:16.440 now look at every tool as if it were trying 0:14:16.480 --> 0:14:20.760 to attack you and had peace. It was terrified. And 0:14:21.080 --> 0:14:25.240 I think that he emphasized magnets because they seem so innocuous. 0:14:25.280 --> 0:14:27.680 When you think magnets, you know, it doesn't have teeth 0:14:27.760 --> 0:14:31.320 like table stoic come bad. They just like magnets. But 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:35.120 magnets really strong, said the ones he had told tape 0:14:35.120 --> 0:14:37.840 off a finger, it could, you know, pull something from 0:14:37.840 --> 0:14:39.800 the other side of the room. They were so strong, 0:14:39.840 --> 0:14:42.360 and you know, until you along the way, I think 0:14:42.360 --> 0:14:45.560 you Gus had a really dark way of explaining safety. 0:14:46.840 --> 0:14:49.120 I think one of the things people don't think about 0:14:49.120 --> 0:14:51.440 when they're watching a show like this is what it 0:14:51.520 --> 0:14:54.120 might be like being a woman on the set of MythBusters. 0:14:54.120 --> 0:14:56.440 And you talk about this, and you know, many times 0:14:56.520 --> 0:14:59.680 you make light of it understandably and kind of embrace it, 0:14:59.720 --> 0:15:02.280 but you know, dealing with pregnancy on set and then 0:15:02.280 --> 0:15:05.480 postpartum depression, as as well as things like being forced 0:15:05.480 --> 0:15:08.080 to wear prosthetic breast to see if people tip better. 0:15:08.160 --> 0:15:10.760 And I'm I'm curious with with all of this in mind, 0:15:11.120 --> 0:15:14.240 how many women were actually on set, and you know, 0:15:14.320 --> 0:15:16.480 in these situations, how do you speak up in these 0:15:16.520 --> 0:15:18.760 kinds of environments. Well, like to me, I mean, it's 0:15:18.880 --> 0:15:21.440 the only woman that you saw on camera. But we 0:15:21.520 --> 0:15:23.800 did have some women behind the scenes. You know, we 0:15:23.840 --> 0:15:28.480 had producers, directors, researchers, um are, we had a female 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:31.640 sound downy as well, So it wasn't just me, and 0:15:31.840 --> 0:15:34.920 so it was it was definitely helpful through the years 0:15:35.240 --> 0:15:38.160 as the production went on, we had more and more 0:15:38.200 --> 0:15:41.400 women working behind the scenes. At times could have it 0:15:41.480 --> 0:15:45.600 was difficult. It was definitely difficult pregnant because nobody intelligence 0:15:45.880 --> 0:15:48.160 to have children. Even just getting a sort of body 0:15:48.240 --> 0:15:50.520 on the set, it was always a little bit of 0:15:50.560 --> 0:15:52.400 a struggle because all the guys on set were like 0:15:52.440 --> 0:15:57.160 wanting to spy in the bushes like us, right right. Um. 0:15:57.200 --> 0:16:00.000 The hardest thing I think it was probably finding out 0:16:00.000 --> 0:16:01.880 that the other two guys I was working with UM 0:16:02.160 --> 0:16:04.560 for grant, when I thought that there was a paid 0:16:04.560 --> 0:16:08.280 disparity that they were making UM specifically more than me. 0:16:08.440 --> 0:16:11.320 I sort of thought I had a moment that I 0:16:11.360 --> 0:16:13.040 had a little normal ray moment where it's like sweet 0:16:13.080 --> 0:16:16.480 a minute, that's not okay, And it was quite a 0:16:16.560 --> 0:16:19.280 fight to get to be paid to stain guide. So 0:16:19.480 --> 0:16:21.160 from that point on, I actually put it in my 0:16:21.240 --> 0:16:23.360 contract that if I had the same title and I 0:16:23.400 --> 0:16:26.720 had the stink job, I had not painting that I 0:16:26.760 --> 0:16:29.080 know I was reading about. That just makes you so sad. 0:16:29.120 --> 0:16:31.880 You look at places like toy companies or NPR or 0:16:31.960 --> 0:16:36.840 like Discovery just assume they're like happy places and totally 0:16:37.360 --> 0:16:40.120 equal in things. And and the fact that you had 0:16:40.120 --> 0:16:43.200 the same title and even some seniority and you weren't 0:16:43.200 --> 0:16:45.600 getting paid that is it's just so disturbing. How did 0:16:45.640 --> 0:16:48.320 you discover that? Like, how how did you figure out 0:16:48.320 --> 0:16:50.080 that you weren't getting paid the same amount? You know, 0:16:50.560 --> 0:16:54.120 it was through casual conversation because we were you know, 0:16:54.280 --> 0:16:56.000 we we had a season coming up and we had 0:16:56.040 --> 0:16:59.800 contract negotiations coming up, and um, they're talking about how 0:16:59.840 --> 0:17:02.720 much we should ask for to get and I was like, wait, 0:17:02.960 --> 0:17:06.320 you're getting white. It was it was one of you know, 0:17:06.320 --> 0:17:08.000 it was just you know, since we all did have 0:17:08.040 --> 0:17:10.000 the same title and think we all expected we're being 0:17:10.000 --> 0:17:12.240 paid the same we started talking about, you know, what 0:17:12.480 --> 0:17:14.960 we should negotiate for the next season, and I it 0:17:15.080 --> 0:17:17.040 was just sort of a shocking moment. For me, that's 0:17:17.040 --> 0:17:19.800 when I decided to do what you should do when 0:17:19.800 --> 0:17:22.920 you you're you're kind of out of your your league, 0:17:23.119 --> 0:17:25.160 you find expert help. So I went and I got 0:17:25.160 --> 0:17:28.439 an agent, and from then on we negotiate all our 0:17:28.480 --> 0:17:30.399 contracts as a leagueable nation. All right, well, we have 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:32.640 a few more questions on a kind of a different note, 0:17:32.640 --> 0:17:36.800 but before we get to those, let's take a quick break. 0:17:53.960 --> 0:17:55.840 Welcome back to Part Time Genius. We're talking to the 0:17:55.880 --> 0:17:58.200 author of a brand new book called Crash Test Girl, 0:17:58.400 --> 0:18:00.719 Carrie byron Um. You know, I, I don't know if 0:18:00.720 --> 0:18:02.800 I've just been living in a cave and hadn't heard 0:18:02.800 --> 0:18:06.440 about the White Rabbit Project, And after reading about your descriptions, 0:18:06.480 --> 0:18:08.960 I definitely want to binge watch this, but I was 0:18:09.000 --> 0:18:10.679 hoping could you tell us a little bit about the 0:18:10.720 --> 0:18:13.080 project and what some of the more fun experiments you've 0:18:13.119 --> 0:18:16.240 done on it are. So White Rabbit Project was, It's 0:18:16.280 --> 0:18:18.280 based on that moment where you're on the internet, you 0:18:18.320 --> 0:18:20.680 guys know this, and considering where you came from, where 0:18:20.720 --> 0:18:23.119 you kind of falling down a rabbit hole because you 0:18:23.240 --> 0:18:25.959 looked up Belcro and all of a sudden, you're you're 0:18:26.280 --> 0:18:28.359 you're looking at the space program like it's just this 0:18:28.840 --> 0:18:30.719 one thing reads, the next thing reads the next thing. 0:18:31.080 --> 0:18:36.000 So we had um themes for each episode like Superhero 0:18:36.119 --> 0:18:40.040 Powers that you can create with technology now, or Key 0:18:40.119 --> 0:18:45.880 Forces or Great American Heights. Um. So, one of my favorites, 0:18:45.960 --> 0:18:48.480 which I believe is the first episode in the series, 0:18:48.600 --> 0:18:51.199 is called Superhero Powers, where we each pick one that 0:18:51.240 --> 0:18:53.760 we could try to create with technology, and I picked 0:18:54.200 --> 0:18:58.719 mind control, and um, it is hilarious. I looked up 0:18:58.720 --> 0:19:01.000 toward you a bunch of electrodes, find amuts of dinner 0:19:01.320 --> 0:19:04.920 and made sure that uh I, I could control him 0:19:05.000 --> 0:19:07.720 with electrodes. They were attatched to me, so sort of 0:19:07.760 --> 0:19:10.680 like my brain powering my arm and my arms powering 0:19:10.720 --> 0:19:13.400 his arm. And then we sat down for a big, 0:19:13.440 --> 0:19:16.480 messy spaghetti and wine game. I mean it was. It 0:19:16.600 --> 0:19:19.560 was delight. It was a delayable, fun, weird show to do. 0:19:19.640 --> 0:19:22.359 It's on Netflix. You can still catch it. Um we 0:19:22.359 --> 0:19:25.440 had a full season airing. I don't think it got 0:19:25.440 --> 0:19:27.240 promoted like it should because we only did get the 0:19:27.240 --> 0:19:30.440 one thing. Well, we'll definitely be I'll definitely be checking 0:19:30.480 --> 0:19:33.320 it out. So. Um one of the things you hit 0:19:33.440 --> 0:19:36.239 it at was this wonderful relationship with the fans of 0:19:36.440 --> 0:19:40.320 MythBusters and how some of their ideas uh lad to 0:19:40.760 --> 0:19:43.800 um things on the show. I'm curious, what are the 0:19:43.840 --> 0:19:46.679 best fan ideas that came through that that you might remember, 0:19:47.080 --> 0:19:49.680 or what are the best interactions you've had with fans? Oh, 0:19:49.840 --> 0:19:52.440 you know, with the message boards and with our relationship 0:19:52.480 --> 0:19:55.080 with them. You know, we could constantly talking with the fans, 0:19:55.080 --> 0:19:58.119 and you know, even if we did an episode that 0:19:58.119 --> 0:20:00.440 they didn't like our methodology or how did it, we 0:20:00.440 --> 0:20:02.399 would go back and revisit it and do it again 0:20:02.480 --> 0:20:04.520 because you know, we would actually be talking with them 0:20:04.520 --> 0:20:07.000 on the message sports. But I remember my favorite was 0:20:07.040 --> 0:20:11.320 a fourth grade class found this ancient myths about paper 0:20:11.359 --> 0:20:15.879 being used as armor in ancient China. I was obsessed 0:20:15.960 --> 0:20:18.320 with it. So I pitched it and pitched it and 0:20:18.359 --> 0:20:21.960 pitched it until they did it. And you know, we 0:20:22.000 --> 0:20:25.439 made a whole student armor out of paper, and we 0:20:25.600 --> 0:20:28.280 tested it with arrows and with swords, and we did 0:20:28.280 --> 0:20:30.879 it with a medal as well, and found out the 0:20:30.960 --> 0:20:34.359 paper actually was a viable option up until you know, 0:20:34.440 --> 0:20:37.600