1 00:00:05,800 --> 00:00:08,039 Speaker 1: Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My name 2 00:00:08,119 --> 00:00:11,240 Speaker 1: is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and it's Saturday 3 00:00:11,400 --> 00:00:14,400 Speaker 1: time for a bonus episode. Normally on Saturday, you know 4 00:00:14,440 --> 00:00:17,040 Speaker 1: what you'd be getting as a rerun a classic episode 5 00:00:17,040 --> 00:00:18,920 Speaker 1: of Stuff to Blow Your Mind. But that's not what 6 00:00:18,960 --> 00:00:21,800 Speaker 1: you're getting today. Today you're getting an episode of our 7 00:00:21,880 --> 00:00:25,880 Speaker 1: other podcast, Invention. Because some of you are not subscribed 8 00:00:25,920 --> 00:00:30,360 Speaker 1: to Invention yet, what's going on? Well, true, So this 9 00:00:30,360 --> 00:00:33,320 Speaker 1: this is an episode of Invention, the first of two 10 00:00:33,360 --> 00:00:36,879 Speaker 1: that we did on toilets. We figured this is something 11 00:00:36,920 --> 00:00:40,000 Speaker 1: everybody can relate to. All of you use toilets of 12 00:00:40,080 --> 00:00:42,479 Speaker 1: some form or another. Even if you just go out 13 00:00:42,520 --> 00:00:44,360 Speaker 1: into a field and dig a hole, well, you are 14 00:00:44,400 --> 00:00:47,400 Speaker 1: creating a toilet. You're creating a little latrine pit. And 15 00:00:47,479 --> 00:00:49,599 Speaker 1: in this episode we get into the history of that. 16 00:00:49,600 --> 00:00:51,479 Speaker 1: Where did it come from? What were some of the 17 00:00:51,520 --> 00:00:56,480 Speaker 1: earliest advanced systems of using a toilet? Like when when 18 00:00:56,520 --> 00:00:59,959 Speaker 1: was the first time someone was was actively pooping into 19 00:01:00,040 --> 00:01:03,680 Speaker 1: running water? That's sort of thing now, So this is 20 00:01:03,680 --> 00:01:06,360 Speaker 1: gonna be, as we're saying, part one of our two 21 00:01:06,400 --> 00:01:09,600 Speaker 1: parter on toilets over on Invention. So if you listen 22 00:01:09,640 --> 00:01:12,000 Speaker 1: to this episode and you'll like it and you want 23 00:01:12,000 --> 00:01:14,320 Speaker 1: to learn more, You're you're hanging on the edge of 24 00:01:14,360 --> 00:01:16,600 Speaker 1: a cliff. You want to know where toilets go after 25 00:01:16,640 --> 00:01:18,840 Speaker 1: we leave off, you'll have to go over to the 26 00:01:18,880 --> 00:01:22,640 Speaker 1: Invention feed, check out part two there and subscribe. Yeah, 27 00:01:22,680 --> 00:01:24,039 Speaker 1: so the best way to do it you can go 28 00:01:24,120 --> 00:01:28,400 Speaker 1: to invention pod dot com. That's the website for our show. 29 00:01:28,520 --> 00:01:31,880 Speaker 1: But also you can just look for Invention on any 30 00:01:32,120 --> 00:01:34,440 Speaker 1: service that you happen to use to get your podcasts. 31 00:01:34,680 --> 00:01:36,960 Speaker 1: Be at say Apple podcast sort of the I Heart 32 00:01:37,040 --> 00:01:41,240 Speaker 1: radio app. Uh. Look for the kind of labyrinth like 33 00:01:41,800 --> 00:01:45,319 Speaker 1: sun uh emblem that we've created to go along with 34 00:01:45,400 --> 00:01:49,480 Speaker 1: our title. That's right, gorge onto Dailian imagery. Uh, learn 35 00:01:49,560 --> 00:01:53,160 Speaker 1: about toilet's, think about pooping, think about pooping way too much, 36 00:01:53,360 --> 00:02:05,240 Speaker 1: and have a wonderful weekend. Hey, welcome to Invention. My 37 00:02:05,320 --> 00:02:07,840 Speaker 1: name is Robert lamp and I'm Joe McCormick. And Robert 38 00:02:07,880 --> 00:02:10,359 Speaker 1: I got a question for you. Have you ever been 39 00:02:10,600 --> 00:02:14,520 Speaker 1: to like a festival or big public event where the 40 00:02:14,680 --> 00:02:21,520 Speaker 1: organizers did not get enough porta potties? Probably so probably so. Um, 41 00:02:21,560 --> 00:02:24,359 Speaker 1: it's I mean, it's it's a weird. It's a weird 42 00:02:24,360 --> 00:02:26,160 Speaker 1: equation you have to work out right because you need 43 00:02:26,160 --> 00:02:29,400 Speaker 1: to have the approximate number of porta potties for a 44 00:02:29,440 --> 00:02:32,400 Speaker 1: given event. And at the same time, like I've definitely 45 00:02:32,440 --> 00:02:35,240 Speaker 1: I've been to events where people care more for the 46 00:02:35,280 --> 00:02:38,280 Speaker 1: porta potties, like there's more of a communal effort to like, 47 00:02:38,400 --> 00:02:40,920 Speaker 1: let's let's look after these porta potties. Let's even go 48 00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:43,480 Speaker 1: in there and clean the porta potties right to ensure 49 00:02:43,520 --> 00:02:46,400 Speaker 1: that things don't get too vile too fast. Like if 50 00:02:46,440 --> 00:02:49,320 Speaker 1: there's if it's a multi day event, people might be 51 00:02:49,360 --> 00:02:51,360 Speaker 1: more respectful of the fact that people will need to 52 00:02:51,360 --> 00:02:54,359 Speaker 1: continue to use these over a period of time. Then 53 00:02:54,400 --> 00:02:56,480 Speaker 1: if it's just like a it's you know, this is 54 00:02:56,520 --> 00:02:58,760 Speaker 1: going on for a few hours, let's just go total 55 00:02:58,800 --> 00:03:02,679 Speaker 1: war on these facility teas I've been to a one 56 00:03:02,720 --> 00:03:06,880 Speaker 1: time went to a beer tasting festival in North Carolina 57 00:03:07,600 --> 00:03:10,160 Speaker 1: where they did not get nearly enough porta potties, and 58 00:03:10,200 --> 00:03:13,079 Speaker 1: I remember feeling like this is the closest thing I've 59 00:03:13,080 --> 00:03:16,320 Speaker 1: ever felt to like a Mad Max type scenario in 60 00:03:16,400 --> 00:03:19,639 Speaker 1: real life. People were losing their minds, Like when when 61 00:03:19,680 --> 00:03:21,880 Speaker 1: you don't have a place you've been drinking beer, and 62 00:03:21,880 --> 00:03:24,480 Speaker 1: then you don't have a place where you can legally 63 00:03:24,960 --> 00:03:27,640 Speaker 1: and uh in, uh in, in a polite way, go 64 00:03:27,720 --> 00:03:31,880 Speaker 1: to the bathroom. Things start to get dire really fast. Yeah, 65 00:03:31,919 --> 00:03:34,640 Speaker 1: and I'm guessing there's probably a lot of indiscriminate aiming 66 00:03:34,760 --> 00:03:38,400 Speaker 1: from male urinators at this these particular events. Yeah, there 67 00:03:38,440 --> 00:03:41,040 Speaker 1: was also a you could tell just like this all 68 00:03:41,120 --> 00:03:45,040 Speaker 1: over the place, frantic search like ants foraging about looking 69 00:03:45,080 --> 00:03:47,800 Speaker 1: for other places they could go apart from the far 70 00:03:47,840 --> 00:03:50,800 Speaker 1: too few porta potties that were swarmed by people waiting. 71 00:03:51,400 --> 00:03:54,400 Speaker 1: But you start doing some very odd math if you're 72 00:03:54,440 --> 00:03:56,320 Speaker 1: in a situation like that, or even if you're not, 73 00:03:56,360 --> 00:03:58,120 Speaker 1: even if it's not that bad, you're just waiting in 74 00:03:58,160 --> 00:04:00,560 Speaker 1: line to use a porta potty, it least I find 75 00:04:00,600 --> 00:04:02,480 Speaker 1: I do. And one of the questions that I think 76 00:04:02,520 --> 00:04:07,360 Speaker 1: you inevitably start pondering is how much exactly do people 77 00:04:07,480 --> 00:04:10,080 Speaker 1: poop in a lifetime? Like how much do I poop 78 00:04:10,080 --> 00:04:13,120 Speaker 1: in a year? How much do does does my whole 79 00:04:13,120 --> 00:04:17,760 Speaker 1: household poop in you know, in twenty years? Yeah, though 80 00:04:17,800 --> 00:04:19,960 Speaker 1: these are not necessarily factors that are going to help 81 00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:23,440 Speaker 1: you out, for you know, weekend music festival no, no, 82 00:04:23,600 --> 00:04:26,000 Speaker 1: But I mean you have to imagine that there's some 83 00:04:26,120 --> 00:04:29,120 Speaker 1: kind of rough math along those lines going in. I 84 00:04:29,120 --> 00:04:32,159 Speaker 1: guess it's less for the festival. It's probably less thinking 85 00:04:32,240 --> 00:04:34,640 Speaker 1: about the total mass of poop and more about, like, 86 00:04:34,680 --> 00:04:36,719 Speaker 1: I don't know how many people and how often they'll 87 00:04:36,720 --> 00:04:38,560 Speaker 1: need to go, because it's not like the things are 88 00:04:38,600 --> 00:04:41,040 Speaker 1: going to be filled up and overflowing, at least hopefully not. 89 00:04:41,920 --> 00:04:44,039 Speaker 1: But yeah, that is the thing that you can start 90 00:04:44,080 --> 00:04:47,600 Speaker 1: wondering about, and it's a weird question once you actually 91 00:04:47,640 --> 00:04:51,160 Speaker 1: get the answer. I found an article that addresses this. 92 00:04:51,360 --> 00:04:55,240 Speaker 1: It was a article on Live Science by Mindy Weisberger 93 00:04:55,320 --> 00:04:58,760 Speaker 1: addressing exactly this question full on with an interview with 94 00:04:58,920 --> 00:05:02,960 Speaker 1: a like health p fessional who had the dirt. So 95 00:05:03,480 --> 00:05:06,120 Speaker 1: it's impossible to answer this question exactly how much you 96 00:05:06,120 --> 00:05:09,240 Speaker 1: poop in a lifetime, because of course everybody's different, there's 97 00:05:09,279 --> 00:05:12,480 Speaker 1: different average fecal mass production, there's different lifespan and all that. 98 00:05:12,560 --> 00:05:15,560 Speaker 1: But it's actually fairly easy to get some average figures. 99 00:05:15,600 --> 00:05:18,719 Speaker 1: So the article sites Kim Barrett, a professor of medicine 100 00:05:18,720 --> 00:05:21,560 Speaker 1: at You See San Diego, and Barrett says, on average, 101 00:05:21,600 --> 00:05:25,160 Speaker 1: men and women have roughly one bowel movement per day. Though, 102 00:05:25,440 --> 00:05:27,200 Speaker 1: if you have more than that or less than that, 103 00:05:27,240 --> 00:05:31,080 Speaker 1: don't panic. There's a normal range that's more and less. 104 00:05:30,600 --> 00:05:35,400 Speaker 1: It's okay. But the daily average amount of feces produced 105 00:05:35,440 --> 00:05:38,159 Speaker 1: by mass by a person an adult is usually about 106 00:05:38,440 --> 00:05:41,360 Speaker 1: fourteen to seventeen ounces or about four hundred to five 107 00:05:41,440 --> 00:05:45,360 Speaker 1: hundred grams, And from their Weisberger does some simple math 108 00:05:45,760 --> 00:05:48,520 Speaker 1: quote starting with an average daily amount of about fourteen 109 00:05:48,640 --> 00:05:51,240 Speaker 1: ounces or four hundred grams, the total poop production in 110 00:05:51,240 --> 00:05:54,000 Speaker 1: a week's time would be about six pounds or two 111 00:05:54,000 --> 00:05:56,920 Speaker 1: point eight ms. In a year, a single person would 112 00:05:57,000 --> 00:05:59,520 Speaker 1: yield about three hundred and twenty pounds or a hundred 113 00:05:59,520 --> 00:06:02,360 Speaker 1: and forty i've kilograms of poop, just a little more 114 00:06:02,400 --> 00:06:05,279 Speaker 1: than an adult panda. Ways. Al Right, So when when 115 00:06:05,279 --> 00:06:08,360 Speaker 1: one here's the sort of drill sergeant cliche of like 116 00:06:08,440 --> 00:06:11,520 Speaker 1: I've I've craped bigger than you, that's probably true. If 117 00:06:11,520 --> 00:06:14,200 Speaker 1: you're looking at a like a year's worth of defecation, 118 00:06:14,440 --> 00:06:18,039 Speaker 1: well that starts to call to mind this thing that 119 00:06:18,080 --> 00:06:20,320 Speaker 1: It got me thinking about it. It got me thinking 120 00:06:20,320 --> 00:06:24,200 Speaker 1: about how as people get older, often their bodies shrink. Right, 121 00:06:24,240 --> 00:06:27,200 Speaker 1: you know, after adulthood, your body can actually physically shrink. 122 00:06:27,240 --> 00:06:30,200 Speaker 1: You don't continue getting bigger and bigger as life goes on. 123 00:06:30,400 --> 00:06:35,599 Speaker 1: And yet there's this invisible phantom of biomass following every 124 00:06:35,640 --> 00:06:38,440 Speaker 1: person around throughout the years, and no matter what, it's 125 00:06:38,480 --> 00:06:41,839 Speaker 1: always getting larger and larger the older you get. It 126 00:06:41,960 --> 00:06:46,160 Speaker 1: is the phantom mountain of combined mass of all the 127 00:06:46,200 --> 00:06:49,479 Speaker 1: feces you've ever produced. Like like a big poop golem 128 00:06:49,680 --> 00:06:53,680 Speaker 1: following you around, you have an invisible phantom poop golem 129 00:06:53,720 --> 00:06:56,800 Speaker 1: that follows you everywhere and only gets bigger with age. 130 00:06:56,880 --> 00:06:59,880 Speaker 1: So so this means that like if you live to 131 00:06:59,920 --> 00:07:03,039 Speaker 1: the age of seventy six, Weisberger does the math, on average, 132 00:07:03,040 --> 00:07:06,000 Speaker 1: you'll produce like twenty four thousand, three hundred and twenty 133 00:07:06,040 --> 00:07:09,080 Speaker 1: pounds or eleven thousand and thirty kilograms of poop in 134 00:07:09,120 --> 00:07:12,160 Speaker 1: your lifetime. If you live to eighty one, it's more 135 00:07:12,240 --> 00:07:14,920 Speaker 1: like it's close to twenty six thousand pounds are close 136 00:07:14,960 --> 00:07:18,840 Speaker 1: to twelve thousand kilograms. Quote, So a lifetime of a 137 00:07:18,880 --> 00:07:21,800 Speaker 1: woman's poop, because the average female lifespan is about eighty 138 00:07:21,800 --> 00:07:25,480 Speaker 1: one years in the United States, UH, the average lifetime 139 00:07:25,520 --> 00:07:27,960 Speaker 1: of a woman's poop weighs as much as three adult 140 00:07:28,000 --> 00:07:31,240 Speaker 1: male hippos. But if you follow the same averages we've 141 00:07:31,240 --> 00:07:33,760 Speaker 1: mentioned a minute ago, think about those people who lived 142 00:07:33,800 --> 00:07:37,640 Speaker 1: like a hundred and twenty, you know, the super supercentenarians. Uh. 143 00:07:37,680 --> 00:07:39,239 Speaker 1: One of these people who lives to like a hundred 144 00:07:39,280 --> 00:07:41,920 Speaker 1: and twenty has created, by the end of their life 145 00:07:41,960 --> 00:07:45,280 Speaker 1: a phantom poop mountain, or one of these poop golems 146 00:07:45,280 --> 00:07:49,000 Speaker 1: of thirty eight thousand, four hundred pounds or about seventeen thousand, 147 00:07:49,000 --> 00:07:51,480 Speaker 1: four hundred and twenty kilograms. I was trying to find 148 00:07:51,480 --> 00:07:54,160 Speaker 1: an object to compare this to. It's close to the 149 00:07:54,160 --> 00:07:57,240 Speaker 1: weight of a number of lighter combat vehicles like the 150 00:07:57,360 --> 00:08:00,320 Speaker 1: M twenty four Chafee light tank, the first used by 151 00:08:00,320 --> 00:08:04,160 Speaker 1: the Americans in World War Two. Just imagine this. If 152 00:08:04,200 --> 00:08:06,600 Speaker 1: you live to a hundred and twenty, over the course 153 00:08:06,640 --> 00:08:09,560 Speaker 1: of your life, you can, on average, poop a tank. 154 00:08:10,840 --> 00:08:15,200 Speaker 1: All right, Well, uh, let's think about these poop golems. 155 00:08:15,440 --> 00:08:18,640 Speaker 1: Obviously they cannot live with us. They must live elsewhere. 156 00:08:18,920 --> 00:08:21,080 Speaker 1: And that's why that's where we get to the subject 157 00:08:21,240 --> 00:08:24,240 Speaker 1: today's episode and the episode to follow this, because this 158 00:08:24,280 --> 00:08:26,200 Speaker 1: is gonna be a two parter and we think you'll 159 00:08:26,200 --> 00:08:28,040 Speaker 1: love this one. But episode number two is going to 160 00:08:28,080 --> 00:08:31,680 Speaker 1: be a real doozy. Yes, so, yeah, that's that's the 161 00:08:31,680 --> 00:08:34,280 Speaker 1: subject of our episodes. It brings us to the technology 162 00:08:34,280 --> 00:08:39,719 Speaker 1: of the toilet and ultimately the concept of the flush toilet. Um. So, 163 00:08:39,760 --> 00:08:42,880 Speaker 1: I think in today's episode, we're gonna be focusing primarily 164 00:08:42,960 --> 00:08:45,760 Speaker 1: on sort of the history of toilet technology, what we 165 00:08:45,880 --> 00:08:48,880 Speaker 1: what we were dealing with, like the problems faced by 166 00:08:49,000 --> 00:08:52,560 Speaker 1: disposal of human waste and and toilets before the flush 167 00:08:52,600 --> 00:08:56,240 Speaker 1: toilet was invented, And then the next episode we'll meet 168 00:08:56,240 --> 00:08:59,719 Speaker 1: the power of the flush. But so, I think one 169 00:08:59,720 --> 00:09:02,880 Speaker 1: of the things to think about is that the problem 170 00:09:03,240 --> 00:09:06,800 Speaker 1: of what to do with human waste only really becomes 171 00:09:06,800 --> 00:09:11,240 Speaker 1: a huge issue once you have sedentary lifestyles and civilization, 172 00:09:11,440 --> 00:09:14,200 Speaker 1: like once you get a lot of people living in 173 00:09:14,360 --> 00:09:19,240 Speaker 1: roughly the same place and not constantly moving right absolutely, uh, 174 00:09:19,240 --> 00:09:20,800 Speaker 1: you know. I was looking back at one of my 175 00:09:20,880 --> 00:09:23,640 Speaker 1: favorite books on hygiene clean A History of Personal Hygiene 176 00:09:23,640 --> 00:09:27,600 Speaker 1: Impurity by Virginia Smith, and she points out that making 177 00:09:27,600 --> 00:09:30,280 Speaker 1: sure that your poop is somewhere other than your immediate 178 00:09:30,360 --> 00:09:34,439 Speaker 1: living environment has always been just a universal human behavior. 179 00:09:34,800 --> 00:09:38,000 Speaker 1: It's just part of our our species, and certainly you 180 00:09:38,000 --> 00:09:40,640 Speaker 1: see this in any number of species as well. Um, 181 00:09:40,679 --> 00:09:43,560 Speaker 1: I mean you see, like dogs would rather go poop 182 00:09:43,640 --> 00:09:45,560 Speaker 1: somewhere far away from where they live. You know, they 183 00:09:45,559 --> 00:09:48,040 Speaker 1: don't want to poop in their den right, and they're 184 00:09:48,040 --> 00:09:50,840 Speaker 1: they're even you know, we've talked about coprophagia. There even 185 00:09:50,880 --> 00:09:53,839 Speaker 1: like some ideas and science about like when a dog 186 00:09:54,760 --> 00:09:57,160 Speaker 1: ends up pooping in its house. This may come from 187 00:09:57,200 --> 00:10:00,560 Speaker 1: like an instinct to the fact that sometimes dogs will 188 00:10:00,600 --> 00:10:03,360 Speaker 1: then eat it, which seems gross to us, is actually 189 00:10:03,400 --> 00:10:06,880 Speaker 1: something to like prevent possible parasite eggs from hatching in it, 190 00:10:06,960 --> 00:10:09,720 Speaker 1: because there can be a health risk from poop staying 191 00:10:09,760 --> 00:10:12,080 Speaker 1: around in your living areas. Yeah, and if you want 192 00:10:12,080 --> 00:10:13,600 Speaker 1: to hear more about this Stufforable in your Mind has 193 00:10:13,640 --> 00:10:16,440 Speaker 1: an entire episode about animals eating poop. That's right. We're 194 00:10:16,440 --> 00:10:19,520 Speaker 1: not going to be focusing on eating poop today, except 195 00:10:19,520 --> 00:10:22,640 Speaker 1: in the sense the toilet eats poop if you will, Yeah, 196 00:10:23,000 --> 00:10:24,560 Speaker 1: you can. You can look at it that way for sure. 197 00:10:25,679 --> 00:10:28,760 Speaker 1: So but you know, back when we were just nomadic creatures, 198 00:10:28,920 --> 00:10:30,840 Speaker 1: we didn't have to worry about this is so much. 199 00:10:31,120 --> 00:10:33,480 Speaker 1: You you poop where you had to poop, You did 200 00:10:33,840 --> 00:10:36,959 Speaker 1: whatever you needed to do to to hide the feces. 201 00:10:37,440 --> 00:10:40,080 Speaker 1: But then you're going to be moving on. You're not 202 00:10:40,080 --> 00:10:42,440 Speaker 1: going to stay in that immediate area, and you're probably 203 00:10:42,440 --> 00:10:45,080 Speaker 1: there aren't that many of you anyway, like any given 204 00:10:45,520 --> 00:10:49,280 Speaker 1: group of human nomads. Uh, it's not going to be 205 00:10:49,320 --> 00:10:52,079 Speaker 1: the size of of a of a village or the 206 00:10:52,120 --> 00:10:55,280 Speaker 1: stuff certainly the size of a large metropolitan area. Now 207 00:10:55,400 --> 00:10:58,959 Speaker 1: that doesn't mean there are no dangerous associated with defecation 208 00:10:59,040 --> 00:11:01,040 Speaker 1: at this stage. Even you're not gonna have nearly as 209 00:11:01,080 --> 00:11:03,599 Speaker 1: much of a problem with what to do with the excrement. 210 00:11:04,080 --> 00:11:06,760 Speaker 1: You are still like when you when you go to 211 00:11:06,880 --> 00:11:10,280 Speaker 1: go to the bathroom, you're putting yourself in a vulnerable state. Absolutely. 212 00:11:10,400 --> 00:11:14,800 Speaker 1: I mean, poop itself opens up vulnerabilities. You see this 213 00:11:14,840 --> 00:11:17,960 Speaker 1: in any number of animals that have various methods for 214 00:11:18,200 --> 00:11:21,959 Speaker 1: hiding their own poops. Sometimes it's essentially self hiding, such 215 00:11:22,000 --> 00:11:25,320 Speaker 1: as the way a goat's poop will rolled away. Goats 216 00:11:25,679 --> 00:11:30,160 Speaker 1: often would favor hilly environment so that the poop rolls 217 00:11:30,200 --> 00:11:33,040 Speaker 1: away hides itself. Cats, on the other hand, of course, 218 00:11:33,080 --> 00:11:35,640 Speaker 1: or are known for their uh, their their skillet, bearing 219 00:11:35,679 --> 00:11:39,319 Speaker 1: their poop and thus hiding it from from larger predators 220 00:11:39,320 --> 00:11:42,760 Speaker 1: because that's the fear, right, is that your fecal matter 221 00:11:43,320 --> 00:11:46,400 Speaker 1: is h is a signal. Uh, it's an it's a 222 00:11:46,760 --> 00:11:49,880 Speaker 1: it's an odor that is letting anyone with a nose 223 00:11:49,960 --> 00:11:52,480 Speaker 1: to smell it know where you are and perhaps what 224 00:11:52,559 --> 00:11:55,040 Speaker 1: degree of healthier in as well. Yeah, if you are 225 00:11:55,080 --> 00:11:57,800 Speaker 1: a prey animal, it shows you where a predator can 226 00:11:57,840 --> 00:11:59,600 Speaker 1: come get a meal. If you're a predator, it can 227 00:11:59,640 --> 00:12:02,880 Speaker 1: scare off prey animals. Uh. There's a paper that looked 228 00:12:02,920 --> 00:12:06,120 Speaker 1: into into some of this. It's a two paper called 229 00:12:06,120 --> 00:12:10,080 Speaker 1: the Control of Defecation in Humans and Evolutionary Advantage. The 230 00:12:10,240 --> 00:12:14,319 Speaker 1: question mark part of it there by Italian bowel experts G. 231 00:12:14,960 --> 00:12:20,760 Speaker 1: Massotti and V. Villainacci, And they did something interesting here. 232 00:12:20,800 --> 00:12:24,040 Speaker 1: They ran a human fecal sample. Uh. They were they 233 00:12:24,120 --> 00:12:27,400 Speaker 1: use both a modern and an ancient example through complex 234 00:12:27,480 --> 00:12:33,440 Speaker 1: gas uh chromatographic mass spectro spectrometric analysis, and they discovered 235 00:12:33,480 --> 00:12:37,480 Speaker 1: that quote, human feces are rich in volatile compounds likely 236 00:12:37,520 --> 00:12:41,439 Speaker 1: to be identified by potential predators. And so they went 237 00:12:41,480 --> 00:12:44,760 Speaker 1: on to argue that the high predation risk for ancient 238 00:12:44,800 --> 00:12:49,640 Speaker 1: hominids by large carnivores suggests something rather amazing about our 239 00:12:49,679 --> 00:12:54,600 Speaker 1: pooping powers. Quote. We hypothesize that the voluntary control of 240 00:12:54,640 --> 00:12:57,800 Speaker 1: defication by our ancestors, together with greater brain volume, the 241 00:12:57,880 --> 00:13:02,240 Speaker 1: rex stature, opposable things, and other changes may have contributed 242 00:13:02,440 --> 00:13:05,559 Speaker 1: to the successful march of hominids along the road of evolution. 243 00:13:05,920 --> 00:13:09,240 Speaker 1: In fact, by deciding when, how and where to defecate 244 00:13:09,640 --> 00:13:13,560 Speaker 1: may have several advantages in the complex prey predator relationship 245 00:13:13,600 --> 00:13:17,400 Speaker 1: because spores are left in places undetectable by predators, or 246 00:13:17,440 --> 00:13:21,559 Speaker 1: there are no fecal tracks who sent maybe easily individualated 247 00:13:21,559 --> 00:13:25,240 Speaker 1: by prey. So they propose that choosing carefully where to 248 00:13:25,280 --> 00:13:27,840 Speaker 1: poop maybe an important part of what kind of animal 249 00:13:27,920 --> 00:13:31,960 Speaker 1: we are exactly so. But but even from an early 250 00:13:32,040 --> 00:13:36,120 Speaker 1: point um, as Virginia Smith points out, Neolithic people's they 251 00:13:36,120 --> 00:13:39,120 Speaker 1: made use of midden piles. So you would have an 252 00:13:39,160 --> 00:13:42,240 Speaker 1: area in which you're living, and if you need to 253 00:13:42,240 --> 00:13:45,520 Speaker 1: to poop, you're either pooping beyond the area in which 254 00:13:45,520 --> 00:13:48,160 Speaker 1: you're living, or you're taking your poop and dumping it 255 00:13:48,160 --> 00:13:50,839 Speaker 1: out there in in the midden pile. And there are 256 00:13:50,920 --> 00:13:53,360 Speaker 1: you know, a few different systems that that one can 257 00:13:53,480 --> 00:13:56,600 Speaker 1: use here, one of course, is the dry sewer system. 258 00:13:56,880 --> 00:13:59,280 Speaker 1: And uh and this is this will remind probably a 259 00:13:59,320 --> 00:14:02,120 Speaker 1: lot of people of a hat box because a cat's 260 00:14:02,160 --> 00:14:05,640 Speaker 1: litter box is a dry sewer system. Uh that this 261 00:14:05,679 --> 00:14:09,680 Speaker 1: would have been an indoor bucket of sand, ash or 262 00:14:09,760 --> 00:14:12,640 Speaker 1: dirt that one would defecate into, and then you could 263 00:14:12,720 --> 00:14:16,600 Speaker 1: take that dirt, sand or ash outside, take it to 264 00:14:16,640 --> 00:14:18,400 Speaker 1: the mid and bile dump it out and you're done. 265 00:14:18,559 --> 00:14:20,000 Speaker 1: Or you could do it in the inverse. I mean 266 00:14:20,000 --> 00:14:22,800 Speaker 1: this is actually still a common method and dry pit 267 00:14:22,920 --> 00:14:25,160 Speaker 1: latrines around the world. Like if you've got an outhouse 268 00:14:25,240 --> 00:14:28,680 Speaker 1: and it's just a pit latrine. UM, a common thing 269 00:14:28,720 --> 00:14:32,080 Speaker 1: to do to help prevent smells and and help keep 270 00:14:32,120 --> 00:14:34,160 Speaker 1: things from getting too nasty is after you do your 271 00:14:34,200 --> 00:14:36,880 Speaker 1: business in the pit, you've got a bucket of like 272 00:14:37,000 --> 00:14:40,160 Speaker 1: old coal ash or something like that, or lime or 273 00:14:40,200 --> 00:14:43,400 Speaker 1: something in the uh in the out house, and you 274 00:14:43,440 --> 00:14:45,880 Speaker 1: scatter that on top, and that helps contain smells and 275 00:14:45,920 --> 00:14:48,160 Speaker 1: so forth. Now, of course, the wet sewer system, We're 276 00:14:48,160 --> 00:14:49,600 Speaker 1: gonna get more into that in a bit, but that, 277 00:14:49,640 --> 00:14:52,200 Speaker 1: of course is ultimately what we have today in much 278 00:14:52,200 --> 00:14:54,840 Speaker 1: of the world where you certainly a flush toilet is 279 00:14:54,840 --> 00:14:57,680 Speaker 1: an example of this, right, and that simply derives from 280 00:14:57,800 --> 00:15:02,360 Speaker 1: sort of the the ingenious mechanical action of water flow. Right. 281 00:15:02,680 --> 00:15:04,840 Speaker 1: If you have to if you want to say, poop 282 00:15:04,880 --> 00:15:07,160 Speaker 1: in a chamber pot or in a bucket or something 283 00:15:07,200 --> 00:15:10,800 Speaker 1: like that, you've got to physically remove it yourself from 284 00:15:10,840 --> 00:15:14,280 Speaker 1: where you are. If you are to poop into moving water, 285 00:15:14,440 --> 00:15:17,160 Speaker 1: then the moving water can remove your waste for you 286 00:15:17,200 --> 00:15:19,360 Speaker 1: and you don't have to do that, right Or I 287 00:15:19,360 --> 00:15:22,000 Speaker 1: guess one could poop into a container of water that 288 00:15:22,200 --> 00:15:25,080 Speaker 1: is not moving and then you would remove that yourself. 289 00:15:25,320 --> 00:15:27,800 Speaker 1: That's also a possibility, I guess it is now the 290 00:15:27,800 --> 00:15:30,280 Speaker 1: other They are all kinds of things you can poop into, 291 00:15:30,520 --> 00:15:32,840 Speaker 1: and I imagine people have tried all of them at 292 00:15:32,840 --> 00:15:37,359 Speaker 1: one point or another. Now, beyond this dry wet distinction, 293 00:15:37,400 --> 00:15:40,280 Speaker 1: there's another important one that Smith points out, and she 294 00:15:40,360 --> 00:15:45,920 Speaker 1: says that toilet culture divides sharply into wiper and washer culture. Yeah, 295 00:15:46,000 --> 00:15:48,400 Speaker 1: and this is, of course, is just how one cleans 296 00:15:48,520 --> 00:15:52,520 Speaker 1: one's bomb toilet defecation. Yeah, like toilet paper versus like 297 00:15:52,600 --> 00:15:56,240 Speaker 1: a b day or wet wipes or something like that. Yeah. Now, 298 00:15:56,280 --> 00:15:58,880 Speaker 1: most ancient culture, she points out that they were wipers, 299 00:15:58,920 --> 00:16:01,480 Speaker 1: so they would have used certainly paper if it was available. 300 00:16:01,480 --> 00:16:04,960 Speaker 1: Of course, for the longest paper was um, it was 301 00:16:05,000 --> 00:16:09,720 Speaker 1: a rarity. So you're gonna probably depend on things like grass, leaves, sticks, 302 00:16:10,080 --> 00:16:13,640 Speaker 1: corn cobs, mud balls, and of course stones I've commonly 303 00:16:13,680 --> 00:16:16,160 Speaker 1: seen sided. I'm trying to imagine this. I just see 304 00:16:16,200 --> 00:16:19,520 Speaker 1: it pop up in like articles about ancient toilets, that 305 00:16:19,600 --> 00:16:23,360 Speaker 1: people would use bits of broken pottery to clean themselves. 306 00:16:23,360 --> 00:16:25,560 Speaker 1: That I see that sited. But I'm just trying to 307 00:16:25,600 --> 00:16:27,880 Speaker 1: picture it, and it will not picture it. But you 308 00:16:27,880 --> 00:16:31,480 Speaker 1: know it, it seems it seems a little little risky. 309 00:16:31,520 --> 00:16:34,640 Speaker 1: Well it it drives down just the ridiculousness I think 310 00:16:34,640 --> 00:16:38,160 Speaker 1: of any wiping culture, because I feel like ultimately washing 311 00:16:38,240 --> 00:16:42,000 Speaker 1: culture has the stronger argument. Um. And washing culture is, 312 00:16:42,040 --> 00:16:44,800 Speaker 1: of course, instead of using even paper, what have you 313 00:16:44,840 --> 00:16:48,960 Speaker 1: simply depended more or exclusively on running water or spraying 314 00:16:49,000 --> 00:16:52,240 Speaker 1: water or water poured from an apparatus. That the the 315 00:16:52,760 --> 00:16:55,640 Speaker 1: sort of lubricant power of water. It's taking the principle 316 00:16:55,680 --> 00:16:58,520 Speaker 1: of the flush toilet to your own skin, right. And 317 00:16:58,760 --> 00:17:00,920 Speaker 1: you know this is the standard in many parts of 318 00:17:00,960 --> 00:17:06,520 Speaker 1: the world, you know, particularly say in Islamic and Hindu cultures. Um. 319 00:17:06,800 --> 00:17:09,560 Speaker 1: I mean you'll even find this. Uh, if you've ever 320 00:17:09,600 --> 00:17:11,600 Speaker 1: traveled abroad, you may have encountered this. But I have 321 00:17:11,680 --> 00:17:14,119 Speaker 1: also I know people who like purchased a house in 322 00:17:14,160 --> 00:17:16,560 Speaker 1: the Atlanta area and they're like, I don't know why, 323 00:17:16,600 --> 00:17:20,400 Speaker 1: but there's a vegetable sprayer installed next to my toilet. Well, 324 00:17:20,520 --> 00:17:23,879 Speaker 1: that is, it's a bi day sprayer. That's that's simply 325 00:17:24,080 --> 00:17:27,439 Speaker 1: a means of of washing one's bum after one has defecated, 326 00:17:28,119 --> 00:17:31,520 Speaker 1: and it's a rather elegant solution. I would, in my opinion, 327 00:17:31,680 --> 00:17:33,800 Speaker 1: hard to argue there. I mean, yeah, water gets things 328 00:17:33,840 --> 00:17:36,320 Speaker 1: cleaner than than without water. I mean it's not a 329 00:17:36,320 --> 00:17:39,000 Speaker 1: perfect analogy, but imagine if I gave you the option 330 00:17:39,080 --> 00:17:42,560 Speaker 1: of would you rather be able to take showers or 331 00:17:42,600 --> 00:17:45,720 Speaker 1: just wipe yourself down with some paper towels to clean 332 00:17:45,760 --> 00:17:48,080 Speaker 1: your body? Absolutely, I think most of us would probably 333 00:17:48,160 --> 00:17:51,120 Speaker 1: choose the running water if it is an an option. Uh. 334 00:17:51,160 --> 00:17:54,480 Speaker 1: That being said, for many of these cultures, running water 335 00:17:54,640 --> 00:17:56,560 Speaker 1: was not an option. You know that, then that's one 336 00:17:56,560 --> 00:17:59,240 Speaker 1: of the main reasons that you're seeing the wiping method 337 00:17:59,800 --> 00:18:04,160 Speaker 1: is the primary method in these in among ancient peoples. Now, 338 00:18:05,040 --> 00:18:07,800 Speaker 1: for the most part, this this worked right. They were 339 00:18:07,840 --> 00:18:13,040 Speaker 1: able to sort of roll with very simple um sewage systems. 340 00:18:13,480 --> 00:18:16,200 Speaker 1: Just simply get up and move on. Because you're nomadic 341 00:18:16,520 --> 00:18:18,480 Speaker 1: or if you're living in a small area, just keep 342 00:18:18,480 --> 00:18:20,720 Speaker 1: it on the outside of your your living environment. But 343 00:18:20,800 --> 00:18:24,199 Speaker 1: the thing about humans is that we inevitably did a 344 00:18:24,280 --> 00:18:28,000 Speaker 1: number of things. We overcame all of our predators. We 345 00:18:28,000 --> 00:18:31,479 Speaker 1: we conquered the natural world and innovented to agriculture, and 346 00:18:31,520 --> 00:18:35,640 Speaker 1: then we started more move and then we started building cities. 347 00:18:35,760 --> 00:18:42,000 Speaker 1: We started building just increasingly large cramped complex um just 348 00:18:42,359 --> 00:18:46,399 Speaker 1: accretions of human population, which of course is one of 349 00:18:46,400 --> 00:18:49,720 Speaker 1: the reasons we have I have so many wonderful things 350 00:18:49,800 --> 00:18:52,920 Speaker 1: in our culture. But also it created a lot of problems. Yeah, 351 00:18:52,920 --> 00:18:55,360 Speaker 1: of course the city comes with many wonders for good 352 00:18:55,400 --> 00:18:58,000 Speaker 1: and ill, and it just I mean, obviously, how to 353 00:18:58,080 --> 00:19:00,800 Speaker 1: deal with human waste is a major one of the ills, 354 00:19:00,920 --> 00:19:03,800 Speaker 1: right is one of the biggest problems that you immediately 355 00:19:03,840 --> 00:19:08,000 Speaker 1: face as soon as you decide to create crowded, sedentary civilization. 356 00:19:08,080 --> 00:19:10,760 Speaker 1: Cramming a bunch of people close together and having them 357 00:19:10,760 --> 00:19:13,320 Speaker 1: all live there and not leave, and what to do 358 00:19:13,359 --> 00:19:15,239 Speaker 1: with human waste has long been I think one of 359 00:19:15,320 --> 00:19:18,920 Speaker 1: the single most important and consequential problems in the design 360 00:19:19,040 --> 00:19:22,639 Speaker 1: of human civilizations. Like think about okay, if we go 361 00:19:22,720 --> 00:19:25,320 Speaker 1: with those numbers earlier, like the you know, fourteen ounces 362 00:19:25,400 --> 00:19:29,679 Speaker 1: or whatever. Average a day, a household of five people 363 00:19:29,760 --> 00:19:32,960 Speaker 1: is producing on average, like thirty pounds of feces a week. 364 00:19:33,320 --> 00:19:37,160 Speaker 1: An apartment building of fifty people produces like three hundred 365 00:19:37,240 --> 00:19:41,440 Speaker 1: pounds a week. Obviously, people don't want that stuff hanging around, 366 00:19:41,600 --> 00:19:44,160 Speaker 1: So where does it go? And how does it get there? 367 00:19:44,520 --> 00:19:46,800 Speaker 1: If you Okay, so if you're in a city, you 368 00:19:46,840 --> 00:19:50,120 Speaker 1: can't walk outside the outskirts of the city every time 369 00:19:50,160 --> 00:19:51,679 Speaker 1: you need to go to the bathroom and go to 370 00:19:51,720 --> 00:19:54,199 Speaker 1: like a midden pile, that's you know, where nobody is. 371 00:19:54,280 --> 00:19:56,440 Speaker 1: I mean, we'll come back to it. To a certain extent, 372 00:19:56,560 --> 00:20:00,320 Speaker 1: you can, but that's only going to scale for so long, right, 373 00:20:00,440 --> 00:20:03,320 Speaker 1: Like residents of New York City cannot go to New 374 00:20:03,400 --> 00:20:07,560 Speaker 1: Jersey to poop. It's it's you can't leave. If you 375 00:20:07,600 --> 00:20:10,520 Speaker 1: have to leave Manhattan to poop, then I mean, why 376 00:20:10,840 --> 00:20:13,680 Speaker 1: you can't really live in Manhattan. And even then that's 377 00:20:13,720 --> 00:20:15,600 Speaker 1: not a good idea, especially when you've got lots of 378 00:20:15,640 --> 00:20:18,960 Speaker 1: people crowded around open defecation, even if it's in in 379 00:20:19,040 --> 00:20:21,480 Speaker 1: a place separated from you, if it's often a midden 380 00:20:21,520 --> 00:20:24,120 Speaker 1: pile or something like that, that can lead to negative 381 00:20:24,119 --> 00:20:26,679 Speaker 1: health outcomes. And we'll talk about that in a bit um. 382 00:20:26,720 --> 00:20:28,560 Speaker 1: But so, yeah, so you don't want all that stuff 383 00:20:28,600 --> 00:20:31,760 Speaker 1: hanging around. And it's not just because we don't esthetically 384 00:20:31,920 --> 00:20:34,320 Speaker 1: like the idea of feces piling up in the streets 385 00:20:34,320 --> 00:20:37,400 Speaker 1: and alleys around our homes because it's gross. It can 386 00:20:37,480 --> 00:20:41,080 Speaker 1: actually be dangerous to be exposed to untreated human waste, 387 00:20:41,160 --> 00:20:45,960 Speaker 1: like untreated sewage getting into water sources is especially dangerous. 388 00:20:46,240 --> 00:20:49,320 Speaker 1: This can spread water borne diseases like diarrhea, which you 389 00:20:49,320 --> 00:20:51,800 Speaker 1: know is one of the biggest killers of children around 390 00:20:51,800 --> 00:20:54,959 Speaker 1: the world in terms of infectious disease, and then like 391 00:20:55,000 --> 00:20:57,639 Speaker 1: a cholera. I mean, cholera has been just one of 392 00:20:57,640 --> 00:21:00,520 Speaker 1: the most awful diseases in human history, and it still 393 00:21:00,600 --> 00:21:03,560 Speaker 1: kills tens of thousands of people every single year, I 394 00:21:03,560 --> 00:21:06,840 Speaker 1: mean even today. And this generally is it's the fecal 395 00:21:07,000 --> 00:21:09,560 Speaker 1: oral route of disease transmission. It's kind of gross to 396 00:21:09,560 --> 00:21:13,760 Speaker 1: talk about, but it's when sewage contaminates sources that end 397 00:21:13,840 --> 00:21:16,800 Speaker 1: up going into people's mouths, like drinking water, like soil 398 00:21:16,880 --> 00:21:19,600 Speaker 1: that you know that ends up on food um. And 399 00:21:19,640 --> 00:21:21,800 Speaker 1: so for this reason, like you know, I was reading 400 00:21:21,840 --> 00:21:25,040 Speaker 1: this the thing by the United Nations about the sort 401 00:21:25,080 --> 00:21:28,160 Speaker 1: of their toilet initiatives, trying to get toilets and clean 402 00:21:28,240 --> 00:21:32,360 Speaker 1: sewage sewage disposal systems to people around the world, and 403 00:21:32,480 --> 00:21:36,720 Speaker 1: they say, bluntly, toilets save lives. We should think about that, 404 00:21:36,760 --> 00:21:39,440 Speaker 1: because obviously the toilet is a nice thing to have. 405 00:21:39,680 --> 00:21:42,439 Speaker 1: It's a good convenience that makes life more esthetically pleasing. 406 00:21:42,480 --> 00:21:45,440 Speaker 1: But it's also like a life or death question, right, 407 00:21:45,520 --> 00:21:47,199 Speaker 1: And and it is so easy to take it for 408 00:21:47,240 --> 00:21:50,200 Speaker 1: granted just because it's this it's this thing that we're 409 00:21:50,240 --> 00:21:52,280 Speaker 1: we're grateful for it when we have it and when 410 00:21:52,320 --> 00:21:55,360 Speaker 1: we need it, but we're also very willing to forget 411 00:21:55,400 --> 00:21:58,359 Speaker 1: it and and and probably not plan our life around 412 00:21:58,400 --> 00:22:01,240 Speaker 1: it too much unless we absolutely have to. Yeah, And 413 00:22:01,240 --> 00:22:03,919 Speaker 1: and one way to definitely know that you shouldn't take 414 00:22:03,920 --> 00:22:06,040 Speaker 1: it for granted is to think about all the people 415 00:22:06,080 --> 00:22:08,679 Speaker 1: who are around the world who are deprived of these amenities. 416 00:22:08,720 --> 00:22:12,120 Speaker 1: Like according to the World Health Organization and UNI SEF, 417 00:22:12,520 --> 00:22:16,000 Speaker 1: about sixty percent of the global population either don't have 418 00:22:16,080 --> 00:22:18,440 Speaker 1: a toilet in their home or they don't have one 419 00:22:18,520 --> 00:22:22,520 Speaker 1: that's safely removes uh removes human ways. So they might 420 00:22:22,560 --> 00:22:24,800 Speaker 1: have one, but it doesn't Maybe it just goes into 421 00:22:24,800 --> 00:22:28,280 Speaker 1: a place where it re enters drinking water areas and stuff. 422 00:22:29,080 --> 00:22:31,800 Speaker 1: Among the facts they said also is that like almost 423 00:22:31,880 --> 00:22:36,280 Speaker 1: nine dred million people worldwide still regularly practice open defecation 424 00:22:36,440 --> 00:22:39,000 Speaker 1: just out you know, they have to go wherever, like 425 00:22:39,040 --> 00:22:41,680 Speaker 1: in a latrine field or or something like that. Yeah, 426 00:22:41,680 --> 00:22:44,640 Speaker 1: it just means somewhere that is not being captured or treated. 427 00:22:45,240 --> 00:22:47,480 Speaker 1: Like if you had if you had a properly dug 428 00:22:47,520 --> 00:22:50,120 Speaker 1: pit latrine, that would not count. But so you're going 429 00:22:50,160 --> 00:22:52,879 Speaker 1: somewhere in the open, like an open pit or something. 430 00:22:53,040 --> 00:22:56,320 Speaker 1: And then this was crazy. So the they say globally, 431 00:22:56,359 --> 00:23:00,960 Speaker 1: about eight percent of waste water generated by human civilization 432 00:23:01,160 --> 00:23:07,679 Speaker 1: flows back into the ecosystem without being treated. Without being treated. Yeah, um, 433 00:23:07,920 --> 00:23:10,359 Speaker 1: I mean it's just ramping around the world that this 434 00:23:10,480 --> 00:23:13,240 Speaker 1: obviously is going to have be having lots of negative 435 00:23:13,320 --> 00:23:16,840 Speaker 1: environmental consequences but also negative health outcomes for humans. And 436 00:23:16,840 --> 00:23:19,520 Speaker 1: then another thing that we shouldn't take for granted is 437 00:23:19,560 --> 00:23:21,840 Speaker 1: like just the idea of you know, people don't like 438 00:23:21,920 --> 00:23:25,600 Speaker 1: the idea of fly is getting into their their stuff. Right, 439 00:23:25,640 --> 00:23:27,480 Speaker 1: So like if if people have an outhouse or a 440 00:23:27,480 --> 00:23:30,000 Speaker 1: pit latrine, they tend to want to keep a lid 441 00:23:30,080 --> 00:23:32,000 Speaker 1: on it. And one thing that does It helps keep 442 00:23:32,040 --> 00:23:34,520 Speaker 1: flies from getting down in there and buzzing around, and 443 00:23:34,560 --> 00:23:36,600 Speaker 1: of course that would be an annoyance when people are 444 00:23:36,640 --> 00:23:39,960 Speaker 1: trying to use these facilities. But that's also not just 445 00:23:40,040 --> 00:23:43,720 Speaker 1: an esthetic concern when when human feces are left uncovered 446 00:23:43,720 --> 00:23:47,840 Speaker 1: their breeding ground. For for like the fly um Musca 447 00:23:47,920 --> 00:23:51,119 Speaker 1: sorbins known as the bizarre fly, which there's some evidence 448 00:23:51,200 --> 00:23:55,359 Speaker 1: or a disease vector for the bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis, which 449 00:23:55,400 --> 00:23:57,920 Speaker 1: can cause an infection in the eye, is called trachoma, 450 00:23:58,000 --> 00:24:00,720 Speaker 1: which is a leading cause of blind us around the world. 451 00:24:00,800 --> 00:24:03,880 Speaker 1: It's it leads to hundreds of thousands of people being 452 00:24:03,920 --> 00:24:07,560 Speaker 1: blind worldwide. So again we have we have real life consequences, 453 00:24:07,600 --> 00:24:13,280 Speaker 1: actual hygiene public health consequences UH to lack of efficient 454 00:24:13,760 --> 00:24:17,680 Speaker 1: UH toiletry and sewage technology. I can't emphasize this enough. 455 00:24:17,960 --> 00:24:20,119 Speaker 1: The toilet and I want to be very clear about this, 456 00:24:20,160 --> 00:24:22,520 Speaker 1: and not just the toilet in your house, but the 457 00:24:22,600 --> 00:24:26,680 Speaker 1: toilet paired with a waste disposal and sewer infrastructure. That's 458 00:24:26,720 --> 00:24:31,600 Speaker 1: really important. UH. Those things together are not just esthetically nice, 459 00:24:31,760 --> 00:24:34,760 Speaker 1: they save lives. This is a life and death issue. Yeah. 460 00:24:34,840 --> 00:24:37,400 Speaker 1: And but just to bring it back to a joke. Uh, 461 00:24:37,440 --> 00:24:39,639 Speaker 1: this is exactly why the sign at a Kia and 462 00:24:39,680 --> 00:24:42,639 Speaker 1: the model apartment says, do not use this toilet. It's 463 00:24:42,680 --> 00:24:45,000 Speaker 1: not hooked up to anything. The toilet in and of 464 00:24:45,000 --> 00:24:48,560 Speaker 1: itself will do nothing exactly. And we'll revisit this theme 465 00:24:48,600 --> 00:24:51,919 Speaker 1: throughout these episodes. But so without a flush to I 466 00:24:51,920 --> 00:24:54,880 Speaker 1: guess we should sort of consider the history of toilet 467 00:24:54,880 --> 00:24:58,760 Speaker 1: technology in in in consider some broad categories. Right, So, 468 00:24:59,359 --> 00:25:02,520 Speaker 1: without a flush toilet connected to a safe disposal system 469 00:25:02,560 --> 00:25:06,000 Speaker 1: like a sewer or a well contained septic tank, what 470 00:25:06,080 --> 00:25:09,359 Speaker 1: options do you have for disposing of human waste? There 471 00:25:09,400 --> 00:25:11,360 Speaker 1: are a few main categories, and they pretty much all 472 00:25:11,400 --> 00:25:14,080 Speaker 1: have some major disadvantages. One of course, as we've discussed, 473 00:25:14,160 --> 00:25:16,960 Speaker 1: is open defecation. That's just anywhere in the environment. We 474 00:25:17,000 --> 00:25:20,160 Speaker 1: know now that's that's dangerous, that can lead to disease 475 00:25:20,320 --> 00:25:24,800 Speaker 1: risks um. Another option is pit latrines is like an outhouse, 476 00:25:24,880 --> 00:25:27,560 Speaker 1: you go in a hole, you know, and uh, these 477 00:25:27,600 --> 00:25:30,159 Speaker 1: these are better than open defecation because they can be 478 00:25:30,200 --> 00:25:33,199 Speaker 1: covered up and they can keep stuff separating contained. But 479 00:25:33,359 --> 00:25:36,840 Speaker 1: also they're outside your home, you lose the convenience and 480 00:25:36,880 --> 00:25:39,760 Speaker 1: the privacy. If they're inside your home, there can be 481 00:25:39,800 --> 00:25:43,120 Speaker 1: problems with smells and exposure to waste, so they might 482 00:25:43,160 --> 00:25:47,359 Speaker 1: be better from a health perspective than just open defecation 483 00:25:47,520 --> 00:25:50,320 Speaker 1: or defecation and to say water sources, but they're also 484 00:25:50,800 --> 00:25:53,439 Speaker 1: that their problems with them that make people not prefer 485 00:25:53,520 --> 00:25:57,440 Speaker 1: them generally. And then you've got like chamber pots and buckets. 486 00:25:57,480 --> 00:26:00,679 Speaker 1: Historically these are very common. These were often emptied by 487 00:26:00,680 --> 00:26:04,120 Speaker 1: pouring the contents out of windows into city streets, which 488 00:26:04,200 --> 00:26:08,280 Speaker 1: is obviously unsanitary. Even though it's more convenient like you 489 00:26:08,400 --> 00:26:11,159 Speaker 1: do your stuff indoors, the impact is sort of the 490 00:26:11,240 --> 00:26:14,200 Speaker 1: same as like open defecation on city streets and can 491 00:26:14,280 --> 00:26:17,800 Speaker 1: lead to unsanitary conditions and disease and all that like 492 00:26:17,840 --> 00:26:21,479 Speaker 1: immediately right outside your your your building. So ideally, what 493 00:26:21,560 --> 00:26:25,000 Speaker 1: you'd want, given the limitations of all these things, is 494 00:26:25,080 --> 00:26:27,640 Speaker 1: some kind of appliance that allows you to do your 495 00:26:27,680 --> 00:26:31,120 Speaker 1: thing inside the privacy and comfort of your own home 496 00:26:31,520 --> 00:26:35,040 Speaker 1: and then removes the waste automatically to somewhere that it 497 00:26:35,080 --> 00:26:38,560 Speaker 1: can be safely stored or treated that doesn't allow unpleasant 498 00:26:38,640 --> 00:26:41,639 Speaker 1: sights and smells to bother you, and doesn't allow the 499 00:26:41,680 --> 00:26:44,679 Speaker 1: waste to pollute the surrounding environment or get into drinking 500 00:26:44,720 --> 00:26:47,760 Speaker 1: water and soil. Obviously, this is a recipe that a 501 00:26:47,920 --> 00:26:50,199 Speaker 1: that a flush toilet could meet very nicely if it's 502 00:26:50,200 --> 00:26:52,520 Speaker 1: paired with the right kind of like sewer system. But 503 00:26:52,600 --> 00:26:54,560 Speaker 1: I think maybe we should take a quick break and 504 00:26:54,600 --> 00:26:57,800 Speaker 1: then come back and discuss some of the solutions that 505 00:26:57,880 --> 00:27:02,240 Speaker 1: ancient civilizations came up with for for toilets and sewer designs. 506 00:27:08,000 --> 00:27:11,440 Speaker 1: All right, we're back. So we're talking about ancient complex 507 00:27:11,520 --> 00:27:14,480 Speaker 1: latrine systems. I was reading about this in a book 508 00:27:14,520 --> 00:27:16,560 Speaker 1: by Brian Fagan that I've mentioned on the show before, 509 00:27:16,640 --> 00:27:19,720 Speaker 1: the seventy Great Inventions of the Ancient World, and he 510 00:27:19,800 --> 00:27:23,200 Speaker 1: points to one of the earliest examples we have of 511 00:27:23,200 --> 00:27:27,520 Speaker 1: of latrine technology being that of a latrine drainage system 512 00:27:27,560 --> 00:27:32,480 Speaker 1: in the Neolithic period. Uh one example being uh Scara 513 00:27:32,640 --> 00:27:37,040 Speaker 1: Bray on the Orkney Islands of Scotland from roughly one 514 00:27:37,440 --> 00:27:42,400 Speaker 1: hundred to b C. And the site featured six houses, 515 00:27:42,920 --> 00:27:47,159 Speaker 1: each with a buried duct that drains from small toilet 516 00:27:47,240 --> 00:27:50,880 Speaker 1: rooms to a single duct that removed waste from the houses. 517 00:27:51,400 --> 00:27:54,760 Speaker 1: So it's it's simple, but basically in that you have 518 00:27:54,880 --> 00:28:00,159 Speaker 1: the roots of modern sewage technology. Yeah, and uh, so 519 00:28:00,240 --> 00:28:03,119 Speaker 1: we see things kind of like this in other ancient 520 00:28:03,160 --> 00:28:06,639 Speaker 1: civilizations like for example, one of the great UH ancient 521 00:28:06,680 --> 00:28:10,680 Speaker 1: civilizations in terms of civic design and UH and technological 522 00:28:10,720 --> 00:28:13,520 Speaker 1: advancement in the way cities are put together is the 523 00:28:13,560 --> 00:28:17,920 Speaker 1: Indis River Valley civilization like including sites like Mahinjo Daro 524 00:28:18,080 --> 00:28:21,119 Speaker 1: and Harapa, where they had buildings with these sort of 525 00:28:21,160 --> 00:28:25,560 Speaker 1: toilet holes that rested over an underground brick drainage pipe 526 00:28:25,560 --> 00:28:27,879 Speaker 1: and these sewer drains could be washed out with water 527 00:28:28,280 --> 00:28:31,040 Speaker 1: to carry the waste away to cess pits. Right, this 528 00:28:31,080 --> 00:28:35,560 Speaker 1: would have been about And another interesting bit about the 529 00:28:35,680 --> 00:28:38,720 Speaker 1: Mahinjo Daro site is that they appeared to be channel 530 00:28:38,800 --> 00:28:41,520 Speaker 1: junctions in the sewage system so that you could it 531 00:28:41,520 --> 00:28:43,720 Speaker 1: could be easily be cleaned, You could go in there 532 00:28:43,800 --> 00:28:47,240 Speaker 1: to prevent blockage. So it would seem to be in 533 00:28:47,320 --> 00:28:53,040 Speaker 1: an advancement from from earlier designs. Yeah. And another advancement, 534 00:28:53,080 --> 00:28:56,120 Speaker 1: of course, comes if you have a good source of 535 00:28:56,240 --> 00:28:59,400 Speaker 1: flowing water, like the ancient Romans made use of their 536 00:28:59,440 --> 00:29:03,040 Speaker 1: aqueduct supplied water to power a sort of flush toilet. 537 00:29:03,080 --> 00:29:05,320 Speaker 1: I think it's not quite a flush toilet because it 538 00:29:05,320 --> 00:29:08,640 Speaker 1: depends on how you define it, but it consisted of 539 00:29:08,840 --> 00:29:13,000 Speaker 1: in ancient rome basically a bench with multiple holes in it, 540 00:29:13,120 --> 00:29:15,360 Speaker 1: So this would have been a very communal affair. These 541 00:29:15,400 --> 00:29:17,719 Speaker 1: holes are just like right next to each other, so 542 00:29:17,760 --> 00:29:19,920 Speaker 1: you'd go and sit next to a whole bunch of 543 00:29:19,960 --> 00:29:22,440 Speaker 1: people and I guess just sit around talking while you 544 00:29:22,480 --> 00:29:26,200 Speaker 1: were pooping. And uh. These holes in the bench were 545 00:29:26,280 --> 00:29:30,280 Speaker 1: suspended over a drainage ditch with running water, and the 546 00:29:30,280 --> 00:29:33,240 Speaker 1: flowing water below the toilet bench would remove the waste 547 00:29:33,280 --> 00:29:36,000 Speaker 1: and would also help limit smells. So this is great, Like, 548 00:29:36,040 --> 00:29:38,200 Speaker 1: you don't you know, it doesn't stink in there because 549 00:29:38,200 --> 00:29:40,000 Speaker 1: stuff skinting. Well, it might stink a little bit, but 550 00:29:40,080 --> 00:29:41,479 Speaker 1: it's not as bad as it could be because it's 551 00:29:41,520 --> 00:29:44,520 Speaker 1: all getting washed away immediately by the running water. Yeah, 552 00:29:44,520 --> 00:29:48,880 Speaker 1: there's running water. There's there's there, there's their mosaics and frescoes, 553 00:29:49,400 --> 00:29:53,360 Speaker 1: there is there's probably live music at some of these. Yeah. 554 00:29:53,480 --> 00:29:56,080 Speaker 1: I didn't know that. Yeah, that that was a detail 555 00:29:56,160 --> 00:29:58,960 Speaker 1: I was reading in I believe it was Smith's book. 556 00:29:59,440 --> 00:30:01,640 Speaker 1: Um put pointing out that, Yeah, this would have been 557 00:30:02,040 --> 00:30:04,440 Speaker 1: just kind of a fun place to hang out and 558 00:30:05,360 --> 00:30:07,840 Speaker 1: have a poop. Yeah, I mean it does seem like 559 00:30:07,880 --> 00:30:10,680 Speaker 1: it was a thing that Uh, it's it's hard to 560 00:30:10,800 --> 00:30:14,520 Speaker 1: like with modern Western sensibilities about like embarrassment. You know, 561 00:30:14,960 --> 00:30:16,560 Speaker 1: you know, when you when you have to go to 562 00:30:16,600 --> 00:30:19,880 Speaker 1: the bathroom. It's just hard to imagine sitting around talking 563 00:30:19,920 --> 00:30:22,479 Speaker 1: to people while you're all pooping on the same bench. 564 00:30:22,760 --> 00:30:25,800 Speaker 1: But when in Rome, you know, poop poop on the bench. 565 00:30:26,360 --> 00:30:29,120 Speaker 1: But of course this this had some limitations also because 566 00:30:29,160 --> 00:30:32,360 Speaker 1: it relied on a certain kind of infrastructure, right, it 567 00:30:32,400 --> 00:30:36,960 Speaker 1: relied on the constant running water supplied by the aqueduct system, 568 00:30:37,000 --> 00:30:39,000 Speaker 1: and it had to be done at the end of 569 00:30:39,040 --> 00:30:41,600 Speaker 1: the water supply system or else you would of course 570 00:30:41,640 --> 00:30:44,440 Speaker 1: foul the water sources downstream of you. So this sort 571 00:30:44,480 --> 00:30:46,600 Speaker 1: of had to you know, you wouldn't want to put 572 00:30:46,640 --> 00:30:49,760 Speaker 1: this toilet side at like the first place the aqueduct 573 00:30:49,880 --> 00:30:53,400 Speaker 1: water supplied water gets to in the city. Right now, 574 00:30:53,440 --> 00:30:55,400 Speaker 1: and now, certainly we're going to talk some more about 575 00:30:55,480 --> 00:30:59,760 Speaker 1: Roman toilets here, because just the Roman plumbing situation was fabulous. 576 00:30:59,800 --> 00:31:03,800 Speaker 1: It was really it was a wonderful creation. They were 577 00:31:03,880 --> 00:31:06,440 Speaker 1: really proud of it too. Oh yeah. But at the 578 00:31:06,480 --> 00:31:10,640 Speaker 1: same time, there's a problem with thinking too much about 579 00:31:10,680 --> 00:31:14,640 Speaker 1: ancient toilets in light of our you know, our modern concepts, 580 00:31:15,320 --> 00:31:16,960 Speaker 1: because you know, we're standing at the end of a 581 00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:21,880 Speaker 1: long journey in which innate, uh, you know, sensibilities about 582 00:31:21,920 --> 00:31:25,840 Speaker 1: cleanliness are confused with concepts of purity and they're augmenting, 583 00:31:26,120 --> 00:31:31,680 Speaker 1: augmented to varying but hopefully significant degrees by public health concerns. Right, So, 584 00:31:31,760 --> 00:31:34,960 Speaker 1: like you know for a fact that exposure to human 585 00:31:34,960 --> 00:31:37,800 Speaker 1: feces can actually be a public health risk. But there's 586 00:31:37,840 --> 00:31:40,640 Speaker 1: also like this weird kind of primal thing where you 587 00:31:40,680 --> 00:31:44,400 Speaker 1: think of feces as morally bad or something. Yeah, And 588 00:31:44,520 --> 00:31:47,760 Speaker 1: that's one of the major trends. And in a Smith's 589 00:31:47,800 --> 00:31:50,120 Speaker 1: book about hygiene is that these two things just become 590 00:31:50,720 --> 00:31:54,080 Speaker 1: interwoven and it's hard to to to to take them apart. 591 00:31:54,680 --> 00:31:57,760 Speaker 1: But the ancient understandings of public health, we're very unlike 592 00:31:57,760 --> 00:32:01,160 Speaker 1: our own we've discussed before, are unstuff to blow your mind. 593 00:32:01,200 --> 00:32:06,040 Speaker 1: How Roman civil engineer Vitruvius advised against building towns near 594 00:32:06,120 --> 00:32:10,280 Speaker 1: marshes because of the fear of the miasma, right, which 595 00:32:10,480 --> 00:32:13,600 Speaker 1: which there's some truth to that, and also just like 596 00:32:13,920 --> 00:32:16,400 Speaker 1: he seems the fund truth, but at the same time, 597 00:32:16,440 --> 00:32:19,520 Speaker 1: there's no magical fog that's going to come out and 598 00:32:19,560 --> 00:32:21,480 Speaker 1: give you an illness. Well, he was right for the 599 00:32:21,520 --> 00:32:24,000 Speaker 1: wrong reason. Right, Like, so, the idea that you might 600 00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:28,080 Speaker 1: get malaria because there are bad smells and vapors coming 601 00:32:28,120 --> 00:32:31,040 Speaker 1: off of the marshes is wrong, but it might actually 602 00:32:31,080 --> 00:32:32,920 Speaker 1: be correct, so that you don't want to be too 603 00:32:32,960 --> 00:32:36,400 Speaker 1: close to the marshes because the standing water produces disease 604 00:32:36,520 --> 00:32:39,640 Speaker 1: vectors the mosquitoes that are the vector for the malaria. Now, 605 00:32:39,680 --> 00:32:42,360 Speaker 1: he also advised that latrine should be positioned so that 606 00:32:42,400 --> 00:32:46,160 Speaker 1: odor is directed away from public spaces. Sounds reasonable, but 607 00:32:46,240 --> 00:32:49,280 Speaker 1: as Brian Fagan um at All point out in the 608 00:32:49,520 --> 00:32:52,840 Speaker 1: seventy grade Inventions of the Ancient World, quote, such purely 609 00:32:52,840 --> 00:32:56,440 Speaker 1: practical measures need not reflect they generalized concern for public 610 00:32:56,480 --> 00:32:59,520 Speaker 1: health as we understand it. Uh, you know. But for all, 611 00:32:59,640 --> 00:33:01,800 Speaker 1: for all the the Roman feats of plumbing, you know, 612 00:33:01,800 --> 00:33:05,240 Speaker 1: it all says little about what they necessarily thought about hygiene. 613 00:33:05,600 --> 00:33:08,680 Speaker 1: For instance, Fagan points out that many private toilets and 614 00:33:08,800 --> 00:33:13,400 Speaker 1: pompeii were positioned right next to the kitchen. Right. Yeah, 615 00:33:13,760 --> 00:33:16,200 Speaker 1: it makes me think about Simpson's episode where they building 616 00:33:16,240 --> 00:33:18,959 Speaker 1: at Flanders a new house and the toilet is just 617 00:33:19,000 --> 00:33:21,080 Speaker 1: in the middle of the kitchen. Because they're like, you 618 00:33:21,120 --> 00:33:23,760 Speaker 1: haven't tried lugging a toilet up a flight of stairs. 619 00:33:24,080 --> 00:33:28,280 Speaker 1: Another fact about how these Roman toilets don't necessarily like 620 00:33:28,360 --> 00:33:32,280 Speaker 1: completely interlocked with common ideas about hygiene. So you wonder, 621 00:33:32,320 --> 00:33:34,680 Speaker 1: what are the ancient Romans used for toilet paper? Right 622 00:33:34,880 --> 00:33:37,080 Speaker 1: like when when they were sitting around by the dozens 623 00:33:37,120 --> 00:33:39,520 Speaker 1: for social pooping, where they wipers or where they washers, 624 00:33:39,960 --> 00:33:41,680 Speaker 1: there was sort of in between, there were well, I 625 00:33:41,680 --> 00:33:43,920 Speaker 1: guess you call them washers because there was water elements. 626 00:33:43,960 --> 00:33:48,120 Speaker 1: So they apparently wiped themselves with a kind of wetted 627 00:33:48,280 --> 00:33:51,560 Speaker 1: sponge on a stick, which they So you'd be sitting 628 00:33:51,600 --> 00:33:53,160 Speaker 1: there on the toilet, and then in front of you 629 00:33:53,200 --> 00:33:56,680 Speaker 1: there'd be a separate stream of fresh water washing in um, 630 00:33:56,760 --> 00:33:59,360 Speaker 1: and then everybody would sort of dip their sponges at 631 00:33:59,360 --> 00:34:01,520 Speaker 1: the end of their sick in this water to like 632 00:34:01,560 --> 00:34:03,480 Speaker 1: wet it and wash it off, and then they'd wipe 633 00:34:03,520 --> 00:34:05,680 Speaker 1: themselves with that and then dip it in there to 634 00:34:05,760 --> 00:34:08,000 Speaker 1: wash it off again, and everybody like you would you know, 635 00:34:08,120 --> 00:34:11,880 Speaker 1: people would share these things obviously, uh, I mean, imagine 636 00:34:12,040 --> 00:34:15,600 Speaker 1: an alternate version of our present world and which instead 637 00:34:15,640 --> 00:34:18,799 Speaker 1: of using toilet paper or any kind of sprayer or 638 00:34:18,840 --> 00:34:23,360 Speaker 1: what have you, instead it's single use disposable sponges on sticks. 639 00:34:24,000 --> 00:34:26,799 Speaker 1: You know, like we're very we're hygienic about it, but 640 00:34:26,880 --> 00:34:30,000 Speaker 1: we're just so extra wasteful about it. I came across 641 00:34:30,040 --> 00:34:32,360 Speaker 1: I think, what is a false factoid that I'm I 642 00:34:32,680 --> 00:34:34,600 Speaker 1: wonder if I should even repeat because I don't want 643 00:34:34,600 --> 00:34:37,839 Speaker 1: to spread it via the illusory truth effect. But I'll 644 00:34:37,880 --> 00:34:40,839 Speaker 1: say it anyway. Uh. There there are people out there 645 00:34:40,920 --> 00:34:43,640 Speaker 1: saying that the phrase getting the wrong end of the 646 00:34:43,719 --> 00:34:46,880 Speaker 1: stick comes from this Roman experience. But I did not 647 00:34:47,040 --> 00:34:49,200 Speaker 1: find good evidence so that is true. I do not 648 00:34:49,320 --> 00:34:51,799 Speaker 1: think that is the origin of that phrase in English. Yeah, 649 00:34:51,840 --> 00:34:54,480 Speaker 1: and really what which what end is the wrong end? 650 00:34:54,520 --> 00:34:56,480 Speaker 1: It kind of depends on what you're doing, right, Yeah. 651 00:34:56,520 --> 00:34:58,160 Speaker 1: I mean if they were like, if it's good enough 652 00:34:58,200 --> 00:35:02,560 Speaker 1: for your butt, why isn't it good enough for your hand? End? Um? 653 00:35:02,600 --> 00:35:04,760 Speaker 1: All right, we're gonna come back to the Romans, but 654 00:35:04,760 --> 00:35:07,319 Speaker 1: but real quick, I want to touch base again on 655 00:35:07,400 --> 00:35:11,600 Speaker 1: some of these these older settlements, Um, because we don't 656 00:35:11,600 --> 00:35:13,640 Speaker 1: want to give the false impression that like from a 657 00:35:13,760 --> 00:35:18,760 Speaker 1: very early point, from say again UT B C onward, 658 00:35:19,040 --> 00:35:21,440 Speaker 1: people were just all on board with some sort of 659 00:35:21,440 --> 00:35:24,839 Speaker 1: primitive sewage system because that's not the case, because there 660 00:35:24,840 --> 00:35:27,920 Speaker 1: are plenty of other advanced settlements in the ancient world. 661 00:35:28,160 --> 00:35:31,040 Speaker 1: They just didn't seem that concerned with the latrine technology. 662 00:35:32,000 --> 00:35:36,000 Speaker 1: Cattle Hook, I believe I'm attempting to pronounce that correctly. 663 00:35:36,600 --> 00:35:40,560 Speaker 1: This has been abrout seven thousand b C. In modern Turkey. 664 00:35:40,600 --> 00:35:43,600 Speaker 1: So they had mud brick houses for thousands of people. 665 00:35:44,120 --> 00:35:46,319 Speaker 1: And one of the interesting things about this settlement is 666 00:35:46,360 --> 00:35:50,520 Speaker 1: that most of these buildings were accessible by like sometimes 667 00:35:50,560 --> 00:35:53,040 Speaker 1: like apertures in the sides of the buildings, but often 668 00:35:53,120 --> 00:35:56,560 Speaker 1: ceiling holes. And they had no proper streets. The rooftops 669 00:35:56,560 --> 00:36:01,080 Speaker 1: were the streets um so so so so that's fascinating. 670 00:36:01,080 --> 00:36:03,120 Speaker 1: But but then they also had they had cooking hearts, 671 00:36:03,120 --> 00:36:06,600 Speaker 1: they had ovens, they had storage rooms, uh. And yet 672 00:36:06,640 --> 00:36:08,920 Speaker 1: they seemed to have been just content with carrying all 673 00:36:08,960 --> 00:36:12,200 Speaker 1: of their trash and ratrine latrine waste out to dumping sites, 674 00:36:12,239 --> 00:36:15,799 Speaker 1: out to middens beyond the limits of their uh, their 675 00:36:15,920 --> 00:36:17,880 Speaker 1: their town. Well. I wonder if the fact that the 676 00:36:17,960 --> 00:36:22,719 Speaker 1: streets were positioned above the dwelling spaces actually would have 677 00:36:22,800 --> 00:36:25,799 Speaker 1: discouraged them from dumping all of their waste out on 678 00:36:25,920 --> 00:36:28,319 Speaker 1: the streets as often happened in other cities because they 679 00:36:28,320 --> 00:36:32,480 Speaker 1: would quickly and easily run into people's homes. Yeah, it 680 00:36:32,480 --> 00:36:37,680 Speaker 1: could be another big example. Classical Athens may do just 681 00:36:37,960 --> 00:36:41,799 Speaker 1: open sewers. Fagan adds that although the water supply was 682 00:36:41,840 --> 00:36:45,520 Speaker 1: taken care of, the fifth century BC drainage system consisted 683 00:36:45,560 --> 00:36:48,720 Speaker 1: of a single large duct in the marketplace, and everybody 684 00:36:48,760 --> 00:36:50,680 Speaker 1: else just had to make do. But let's get back 685 00:36:50,719 --> 00:36:54,800 Speaker 1: to Rome, Okay, So obviously a lot of time, energy 686 00:36:54,800 --> 00:36:56,880 Speaker 1: and money went into the sewage system, into the overall 687 00:36:57,280 --> 00:37:01,160 Speaker 1: plumbing infrastructure. We've mentioned the Acqua ducks already, but we 688 00:37:01,200 --> 00:37:07,560 Speaker 1: haven't mentioned Rome's great central sewer, the Cloaca maxima. Cloaca maxima, 689 00:37:07,640 --> 00:37:10,640 Speaker 1: that's like a body part on a Tyrannosaurus reaxident. But 690 00:37:10,760 --> 00:37:13,800 Speaker 1: cloaca means sewer, So yeah, it's the So it's the 691 00:37:14,520 --> 00:37:19,280 Speaker 1: maximum sewer, the great sewer, I mean. So to clarify 692 00:37:19,360 --> 00:37:22,279 Speaker 1: the cloaca in the uh, in the animal world, I think, 693 00:37:22,280 --> 00:37:25,719 Speaker 1: I'm I think it's basically like a single passage way 694 00:37:25,800 --> 00:37:28,360 Speaker 1: that serves the function of like a rectum and a 695 00:37:28,520 --> 00:37:31,160 Speaker 1: urethra and a birth canal and all that. It's all 696 00:37:31,160 --> 00:37:33,520 Speaker 1: sort of in one right and so but but here 697 00:37:33,560 --> 00:37:37,479 Speaker 1: we're talking about a great central sewer, and accounts vary 698 00:37:37,560 --> 00:37:40,560 Speaker 1: on when this was built. There's there's a tradition that 699 00:37:40,600 --> 00:37:42,760 Speaker 1: says that it was built in the sixth century BC, 700 00:37:43,320 --> 00:37:45,879 Speaker 1: but Fagin stresses that it likely came later and may 701 00:37:45,960 --> 00:37:49,360 Speaker 1: have remained an open sewer until about second century BC. 702 00:37:50,239 --> 00:37:54,240 Speaker 1: But but it was a pretty impressive sense system. For instance, 703 00:37:54,280 --> 00:37:58,759 Speaker 1: our old friend Plinity Elder was absolutely bonker balls. I 704 00:37:58,800 --> 00:38:00,920 Speaker 1: want to read a quote here. This is from the 705 00:38:01,719 --> 00:38:04,719 Speaker 1: Rackham translation that we've used before on the show. You 706 00:38:04,719 --> 00:38:06,640 Speaker 1: mean of the natural history. Yes, this is from the 707 00:38:06,719 --> 00:38:10,759 Speaker 1: Natural history quote. But at that time elderly men still 708 00:38:10,800 --> 00:38:15,279 Speaker 1: admired the vast dimensions of the rampart, the substructures of 709 00:38:15,320 --> 00:38:18,960 Speaker 1: the capital, and furthermore, the city sewers, the most noteworthy 710 00:38:19,000 --> 00:38:23,239 Speaker 1: achievement of all, seeing that hills were tunneled, and Rome, 711 00:38:23,640 --> 00:38:26,760 Speaker 1: as we mentioned a little earlier, became a hanging city 712 00:38:26,840 --> 00:38:30,680 Speaker 1: beneath which men traveled in boats during Marcus Agrippa's term 713 00:38:30,719 --> 00:38:35,320 Speaker 1: as Edile after his consulship. Through the city, there flows 714 00:38:35,320 --> 00:38:39,480 Speaker 1: seven rivers meeting in one channel. These rushing downwards like 715 00:38:39,640 --> 00:38:43,760 Speaker 1: mountain torrents, are constrained to sweep away and remove everything 716 00:38:43,800 --> 00:38:46,600 Speaker 1: in their path, and when they are thrust forward by 717 00:38:46,600 --> 00:38:50,000 Speaker 1: an additional volume of rain water, they batter the bottom 718 00:38:50,000 --> 00:38:52,960 Speaker 1: and sides of the sewer. So yes, in case anyone 719 00:38:53,000 --> 00:38:55,840 Speaker 1: missed it, there plenty is telling us that Marcus Agrippa 720 00:38:56,040 --> 00:38:59,000 Speaker 1: took a sailing vessel through the sewers. That's how amazing 721 00:38:59,040 --> 00:39:02,480 Speaker 1: they were. That there's a sin actually a river uh 722 00:39:02,840 --> 00:39:05,640 Speaker 1: that runs through Rome, and it is the fabulous sewer. 723 00:39:05,880 --> 00:39:08,680 Speaker 1: So this sort of toilet technology. You find this throughout 724 00:39:08,680 --> 00:39:11,760 Speaker 1: the Roman Empire. Uh. And yet at the same time 725 00:39:11,800 --> 00:39:17,040 Speaker 1: they still had to post warnings against public defication. So 726 00:39:17,560 --> 00:39:19,400 Speaker 1: I want to touch on some of these, but I'm 727 00:39:19,400 --> 00:39:24,600 Speaker 1: gonna stress here that apparently in translating these, the word 728 00:39:24,600 --> 00:39:27,200 Speaker 1: poop is not always sufficient. So I am going to 729 00:39:27,239 --> 00:39:29,440 Speaker 1: go ahead. We're gonna go ahead and use the stronger 730 00:39:29,760 --> 00:39:32,839 Speaker 1: S word for excrement, but we're going to come up 731 00:39:32,880 --> 00:39:36,440 Speaker 1: with the delightful ways to bleep the profanity. This is 732 00:39:36,480 --> 00:39:38,759 Speaker 1: a show of family values, folks, right, But but it 733 00:39:38,760 --> 00:39:42,800 Speaker 1: also has a show about about history, and apparently these 734 00:39:43,000 --> 00:39:47,600 Speaker 1: these bits of often graffiti cannot be properly translated without 735 00:39:47,719 --> 00:39:52,879 Speaker 1: using some vulgar terminology. Let's give vulgar alright. So one 736 00:39:52,960 --> 00:39:56,320 Speaker 1: this was a graffiti on a wall in Pompeii that says, 737 00:39:56,360 --> 00:40:00,400 Speaker 1: again translated with comfort and good cheer, so long as 738 00:40:00,480 --> 00:40:05,120 Speaker 1: you don't do it here. So it's a warning, please 739 00:40:05,360 --> 00:40:08,720 Speaker 1: please don't poop here. Don't poop here. There are places 740 00:40:08,760 --> 00:40:10,680 Speaker 1: to poop, but not here. There's a kind of beautiful 741 00:40:10,680 --> 00:40:13,120 Speaker 1: irony about that being on a house at Pompeii. They 742 00:40:13,160 --> 00:40:16,359 Speaker 1: want to keep all nice and clean. Yeah. Uh, there's 743 00:40:16,400 --> 00:40:19,319 Speaker 1: another one. This was on a wall of a Roman amphitheater. 744 00:40:19,800 --> 00:40:25,120 Speaker 1: Uh that is what is it? Cassatur cave mallum. I 745 00:40:25,160 --> 00:40:27,359 Speaker 1: think it would be hard season in Latin. I think 746 00:40:27,360 --> 00:40:32,160 Speaker 1: it would be cocatour cocatur cave mallum, which means roughly 747 00:40:32,200 --> 00:40:38,000 Speaker 1: translated as sure beware the evil eye, which is which 748 00:40:38,000 --> 00:40:40,720 Speaker 1: is a delightful thing. I actually actually saw a website 749 00:40:40,719 --> 00:40:44,279 Speaker 1: where someone had had taken this thing in Latin and 750 00:40:44,320 --> 00:40:48,680 Speaker 1: they framed it above their modern toilet in their apartment, 751 00:40:48,719 --> 00:40:51,400 Speaker 1: which is a nice, a nice, a nice twist. So 752 00:40:52,040 --> 00:40:55,680 Speaker 1: Christina Kilgrove actually wrote a wonderful article on Forbes about 753 00:40:55,719 --> 00:41:00,880 Speaker 1: these inscriptions, titled Uh, scatological graffiti was the Roman version 754 00:41:00,920 --> 00:41:04,040 Speaker 1: of Yelp and Twitter, and she points out that you know, 755 00:41:04,080 --> 00:41:06,359 Speaker 1: even with with latrines, pooping was still something you were 756 00:41:06,360 --> 00:41:09,359 Speaker 1: exposed to a lot. Again, they were very communal, these 757 00:41:09,440 --> 00:41:11,640 Speaker 1: Roman toilets. Now, she points out that these bits of 758 00:41:11,719 --> 00:41:15,600 Speaker 1: for grel graffiti were generally not found in actual latrine zones. 759 00:41:15,640 --> 00:41:18,360 Speaker 1: They were found elsewhere in the city. And part of that, 760 00:41:18,400 --> 00:41:23,520 Speaker 1: of course is warning against inappropriate defecation. Please go usual trine, 761 00:41:23,600 --> 00:41:25,680 Speaker 1: don't do it here. But then she said, there are 762 00:41:25,719 --> 00:41:29,919 Speaker 1: other such inscriptions that were essentially Yelp reviews, like one 763 00:41:29,960 --> 00:41:32,440 Speaker 1: that is translated as we pete in the bed. I 764 00:41:32,480 --> 00:41:36,000 Speaker 1: confess we have aired innkeeper. If you ask why there 765 00:41:36,080 --> 00:41:42,239 Speaker 1: was no chamber pot, that's a good excuse, except why 766 00:41:42,320 --> 00:41:45,280 Speaker 1: in the bed? Why not somewhere else in the room? Well, 767 00:41:45,680 --> 00:41:47,360 Speaker 1: I mean yeah, I mean you could just use the corner. 768 00:41:47,360 --> 00:41:49,080 Speaker 1: I guess. It's like it would be the most destructive 769 00:41:49,080 --> 00:41:52,800 Speaker 1: thing you could do, right, And since you can't, you can't. 770 00:41:52,800 --> 00:41:55,120 Speaker 1: Actually you leave a Yelp review. You can just say 771 00:41:55,200 --> 00:41:57,160 Speaker 1: I peet in this bed, but the reason is because 772 00:41:57,239 --> 00:42:02,399 Speaker 1: you didn't provide a latrine of media used. So yes, 773 00:42:02,600 --> 00:42:06,600 Speaker 1: graffiti artists of Rome had some fun with with defecation 774 00:42:06,640 --> 00:42:10,719 Speaker 1: in general, and with the use of latrines. Um the 775 00:42:10,719 --> 00:42:13,040 Speaker 1: whole books have been written on Roman graffiti. It's it's 776 00:42:13,040 --> 00:42:16,160 Speaker 1: a wonderful topic. But still at the same time, we 777 00:42:16,200 --> 00:42:19,520 Speaker 1: stressed that the latrines of ancient Rome, they do represent 778 00:42:19,560 --> 00:42:22,759 Speaker 1: a major contribution to public health. Uh, you know, even 779 00:42:22,760 --> 00:42:26,000 Speaker 1: if they didn't have the science down perfectly on everything, 780 00:42:26,480 --> 00:42:28,760 Speaker 1: and even if there were a few rogues who didn't 781 00:42:28,760 --> 00:42:31,040 Speaker 1: appreciate any of it. Okay, I think we need to 782 00:42:31,080 --> 00:42:32,919 Speaker 1: take one more break and then we will come back 783 00:42:32,960 --> 00:42:41,600 Speaker 1: to finish up our discussion about toilet history. All right, 784 00:42:41,640 --> 00:42:43,840 Speaker 1: we're back. Are we ready to get into some medieval 785 00:42:44,360 --> 00:42:47,920 Speaker 1: toilet technology here? Joe, Yeah, we've talked about some pit latrines. 786 00:42:48,040 --> 00:42:51,600 Speaker 1: We've talked about some uh some ancient sewer systems sort 787 00:42:51,640 --> 00:42:54,680 Speaker 1: of with toilets suspended over them. I wanted to talk 788 00:42:54,680 --> 00:42:58,800 Speaker 1: about guard robes. So guard robes are a common solution 789 00:42:59,000 --> 00:43:02,680 Speaker 1: later in like sole building periods in Europe, And there's 790 00:43:02,680 --> 00:43:05,400 Speaker 1: a simple principle at work here. Why not let gravity 791 00:43:05,440 --> 00:43:08,720 Speaker 1: flush for you? Uh So, a garden robe would generally 792 00:43:08,800 --> 00:43:12,080 Speaker 1: be like a small room with holes that you could 793 00:43:12,080 --> 00:43:15,759 Speaker 1: sit over, suspended up high over a pit or over 794 00:43:15,960 --> 00:43:19,200 Speaker 1: an exposed area outdoors, so there could be multiple ways 795 00:43:19,200 --> 00:43:21,479 Speaker 1: you would do this, but the waste would generally fall 796 00:43:21,560 --> 00:43:23,759 Speaker 1: down into a pit where it would be stored and 797 00:43:23,760 --> 00:43:26,719 Speaker 1: then could be removed by workers at some point, or 798 00:43:27,200 --> 00:43:29,360 Speaker 1: it would fall into a moat this was pretty common 799 00:43:29,400 --> 00:43:32,040 Speaker 1: for castles, or it would just fall down to the 800 00:43:32,080 --> 00:43:35,880 Speaker 1: ground along the exterior wall of the castle or manor house. 801 00:43:36,400 --> 00:43:39,960 Speaker 1: Uh And because of exposure to like cold winter winds. 802 00:43:39,960 --> 00:43:43,000 Speaker 1: A sixteenth century poet named John Harrington, who we will 803 00:43:43,040 --> 00:43:46,120 Speaker 1: revisit in the next episode, called this quote sitting on 804 00:43:46,200 --> 00:43:48,719 Speaker 1: the draft, so you can imagine it was like, you know, 805 00:43:48,960 --> 00:43:51,680 Speaker 1: there's just a hole that's exposed to outside, and I 806 00:43:51,680 --> 00:43:54,479 Speaker 1: guess your your stuff falls down along the castle wall 807 00:43:54,600 --> 00:43:57,360 Speaker 1: and and you've got the winter winds biting at your butt. Ye, 808 00:43:57,520 --> 00:44:00,840 Speaker 1: your hole is exposed to the outside. Think this, yeah, exactly. 809 00:44:01,080 --> 00:44:02,960 Speaker 1: So of course the waste would either end up in 810 00:44:02,960 --> 00:44:05,640 Speaker 1: a water source and that's not great, or it would 811 00:44:05,680 --> 00:44:08,400 Speaker 1: pile up below and have to be removed by workers. 812 00:44:09,080 --> 00:44:11,640 Speaker 1: And I'm not positive, but I think a guarterobe type 813 00:44:11,680 --> 00:44:16,840 Speaker 1: structure is the central UH architectural feature. In a story 814 00:44:17,120 --> 00:44:19,680 Speaker 1: that I loved about a castle, I've actually been to 815 00:44:19,920 --> 00:44:24,080 Speaker 1: in Slovenia. Uh. So, there's a castle called Prajamsky Grod 816 00:44:24,160 --> 00:44:28,040 Speaker 1: and Slovenia also known as Prajama Castle, and I've got 817 00:44:28,040 --> 00:44:30,279 Speaker 1: a picture of it here. It's it's so. It's a 818 00:44:30,320 --> 00:44:33,120 Speaker 1: castle that was built in the thirteenth century in the 819 00:44:33,160 --> 00:44:36,879 Speaker 1: mouth of a cave. Yeah. And Slovenia just generally has 820 00:44:36,960 --> 00:44:41,680 Speaker 1: awesome caves and like karst geological features. But here's somebody 821 00:44:41,719 --> 00:44:44,879 Speaker 1: decided to be super bad and build a castle right 822 00:44:44,920 --> 00:44:47,320 Speaker 1: on a cliff at the entrance of a cave system. 823 00:44:47,360 --> 00:44:50,080 Speaker 1: I like the way they think. So, You've got this 824 00:44:50,120 --> 00:44:54,279 Speaker 1: guy named erism Luger or Erasmus of Lugue, who is 825 00:44:54,320 --> 00:44:56,759 Speaker 1: a so called robber baron. He's a bad dude who 826 00:44:56,840 --> 00:44:59,239 Speaker 1: owns a castle, though I guess most of the people 827 00:44:59,239 --> 00:45:01,759 Speaker 1: who own castle are bad. Yeah. It's kind of a 828 00:45:01,800 --> 00:45:05,200 Speaker 1: red flag. Yeah. Oh, and that's something we'll get to 829 00:45:05,320 --> 00:45:08,600 Speaker 1: again in a minute. Uh So. Uh he's a he's 830 00:45:08,600 --> 00:45:10,840 Speaker 1: a so called robber baron, and he and his family 831 00:45:10,920 --> 00:45:14,799 Speaker 1: Arizon Luker. Uh. They take over the Progama Castle by 832 00:45:14,800 --> 00:45:17,360 Speaker 1: the end of the fifteenth century, and at one point 833 00:45:17,840 --> 00:45:21,239 Speaker 1: Luger gets in trouble because he murders a relative of 834 00:45:21,280 --> 00:45:24,520 Speaker 1: the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick the Third, and the Holy 835 00:45:24,600 --> 00:45:27,400 Speaker 1: Roman Empire comes to collect and they end up laying 836 00:45:27,440 --> 00:45:30,560 Speaker 1: siege to his castle here at the Cave Mouth. But 837 00:45:30,800 --> 00:45:34,200 Speaker 1: the siege went on and on because the castle had 838 00:45:34,239 --> 00:45:37,600 Speaker 1: a secret weapon for siege survival. It had a tunnel 839 00:45:38,200 --> 00:45:41,640 Speaker 1: leading into the cave system, which had other openings to 840 00:45:41,680 --> 00:45:45,320 Speaker 1: the countryside, so it allowed occupants occupants of the castle 841 00:45:45,680 --> 00:45:48,920 Speaker 1: to secretly sneak out and get supplies while they were 842 00:45:49,000 --> 00:45:51,239 Speaker 1: under siege. And this of course means the siege can 843 00:45:51,280 --> 00:45:53,040 Speaker 1: go on for a really long time. For all I know. 844 00:45:53,160 --> 00:45:55,560 Speaker 1: You know, it could go on forever. While the army 845 00:45:55,640 --> 00:45:58,719 Speaker 1: is waiting outside to starve you out, you're sneaking off 846 00:45:58,760 --> 00:46:02,200 Speaker 1: to the snack bar. So apparently somebody within the castle 847 00:46:02,280 --> 00:46:04,640 Speaker 1: got sick of this after about a year or so, 848 00:46:05,160 --> 00:46:08,520 Speaker 1: and the insider decided to betray Lugar, the master of 849 00:46:08,520 --> 00:46:11,440 Speaker 1: the castle. And I guess they must have coordinated a 850 00:46:11,520 --> 00:46:14,200 Speaker 1: plan with the army outside. But however they arrived at 851 00:46:14,200 --> 00:46:17,720 Speaker 1: this plan. What happened is they waited until Luger himself 852 00:46:17,880 --> 00:46:20,360 Speaker 1: had to go up to the garter robe. It was 853 00:46:20,400 --> 00:46:24,320 Speaker 1: this little room overhanging the outside wall of the castle, 854 00:46:24,920 --> 00:46:27,239 Speaker 1: and then they raised a red flag to let the 855 00:46:27,320 --> 00:46:30,920 Speaker 1: army outside know, and the army blasted the garter robe 856 00:46:30,920 --> 00:46:35,120 Speaker 1: with a cannon and killed Luger in one shot. And 857 00:46:35,239 --> 00:46:38,200 Speaker 1: that should have been adapted to a Game of Thrones scene. 858 00:46:38,239 --> 00:46:40,600 Speaker 1: Maybe it still will be. That's right. The Game of 859 00:46:40,640 --> 00:46:43,960 Speaker 1: Thrones did have a death on the toilet scene. They 860 00:46:43,960 --> 00:46:47,320 Speaker 1: also had the moon door, which was not a toilet, 861 00:46:47,640 --> 00:46:50,320 Speaker 1: but was. It was very much like what we're describing here. Yeah, 862 00:46:50,480 --> 00:46:53,600 Speaker 1: a hole that opens up onto the the expanse below 863 00:46:53,640 --> 00:46:56,600 Speaker 1: the castle or along the castle walls. No One more 864 00:46:56,640 --> 00:46:59,800 Speaker 1: note about medieval toilets. Generally, there were two ways to 865 00:47:00,280 --> 00:47:03,319 Speaker 1: do your business in the medieval bedroom. There was a 866 00:47:03,400 --> 00:47:06,440 Speaker 1: jerry which you simply pushed under the bad so this 867 00:47:06,480 --> 00:47:08,680 Speaker 1: would be just like a standard chamber pot. But then 868 00:47:08,719 --> 00:47:11,799 Speaker 1: there was also the closed stool, which is like a 869 00:47:11,840 --> 00:47:15,320 Speaker 1: toilet box. And you'll you'll find some examples in the cushion. 870 00:47:15,600 --> 00:47:18,600 Speaker 1: It's like satin cushion. It's the fancy little box. It's 871 00:47:18,600 --> 00:47:23,680 Speaker 1: like imagine the fanciest um, you know, enclosure for a 872 00:47:23,719 --> 00:47:26,640 Speaker 1: litter box you can purchase and it's essentially that for 873 00:47:26,719 --> 00:47:29,520 Speaker 1: human defecation, you know, I find. So you look at 874 00:47:29,520 --> 00:47:33,560 Speaker 1: a lot of this like medieval royal toilet technology, you know, 875 00:47:33,719 --> 00:47:36,640 Speaker 1: the stuff that kings and queens of Europe would poop in, 876 00:47:36,719 --> 00:47:39,719 Speaker 1: and in these times there's an awful lot of like 877 00:47:40,120 --> 00:47:43,680 Speaker 1: cloth in the elements involved. It just seems like a 878 00:47:43,719 --> 00:47:45,840 Speaker 1: bad idea, like you don't want you know, when you 879 00:47:45,880 --> 00:47:49,800 Speaker 1: see people who have like toilet like toilet seat covers 880 00:47:49,840 --> 00:47:53,440 Speaker 1: that are like fuzzy cloth stuff, and I'm always just like, 881 00:47:53,520 --> 00:47:55,920 Speaker 1: what are you doing? A toilet should be all like 882 00:47:56,080 --> 00:47:59,040 Speaker 1: hard surfaces that are easy to clean off. You know, 883 00:47:59,800 --> 00:48:02,280 Speaker 1: my god, it just seems wrong to like be putting 884 00:48:02,320 --> 00:48:06,440 Speaker 1: cushions and fabric and all that are all over your toilet. 885 00:48:06,480 --> 00:48:10,480 Speaker 1: That just seems like a recipe for disgusting nous. Oh yeah. 886 00:48:10,640 --> 00:48:13,640 Speaker 1: An example of this, my family wants rented a home 887 00:48:14,360 --> 00:48:17,719 Speaker 1: that had a white carpet in the bathroom all the 888 00:48:17,760 --> 00:48:21,600 Speaker 1: way up to the toilet. Is ridiculous. Oh my god, 889 00:48:21,680 --> 00:48:26,400 Speaker 1: that's horrible, like brown shag carpet. Fine, but you don't 890 00:48:26,239 --> 00:48:29,000 Speaker 1: want white carpet. It's just a terrible idea. I mean, 891 00:48:29,040 --> 00:48:31,080 Speaker 1: why don't you If you're gonna do that, why not 892 00:48:31,160 --> 00:48:36,560 Speaker 1: just have like cloth dinner plates and stuff hard non 893 00:48:36,640 --> 00:48:40,000 Speaker 1: porous surfaces people though, yeah, you gotta be able to 894 00:48:40,000 --> 00:48:42,320 Speaker 1: clean it all right, So we're gonna go and close 895 00:48:42,360 --> 00:48:45,280 Speaker 1: out this episode right here, but we will be back 896 00:48:45,400 --> 00:48:48,680 Speaker 1: because the next episode we're going to really get into 897 00:48:48,960 --> 00:48:51,080 Speaker 1: what you probably think of as the modern toilet. We're 898 00:48:51,080 --> 00:48:53,840 Speaker 1: gonna talk more about the modern flush toilet, where it 899 00:48:53,880 --> 00:48:57,240 Speaker 1: came from, uh, and what it's it's impact has been. 900 00:48:57,520 --> 00:48:59,080 Speaker 1: In the meantime, if you want to check out more 901 00:48:59,120 --> 00:49:02,080 Speaker 1: episodes of invent S, head on over to invention pod 902 00:49:02,320 --> 00:49:04,560 Speaker 1: dot com. That's our website. That's where we'll find all 903 00:49:04,560 --> 00:49:07,560 Speaker 1: the episodes, links out to social media accounts you name it. 904 00:49:07,880 --> 00:49:09,720 Speaker 1: And I should really stress if you want to support 905 00:49:09,760 --> 00:49:12,000 Speaker 1: the show, the best thing you can do is make 906 00:49:12,040 --> 00:49:15,080 Speaker 1: sure you've subscribed, and then if you have the ability 907 00:49:15,160 --> 00:49:18,560 Speaker 1: to rate and review the show wherever you get it, 908 00:49:19,080 --> 00:49:21,359 Speaker 1: please do so because that that helps us out, helps 909 00:49:21,360 --> 00:49:24,080 Speaker 1: the algorithm, helps us continue to bring you week after 910 00:49:24,160 --> 00:49:31,279 Speaker 1: week uh new amazing, mundane and world changing inventions. That's right, So, 911 00:49:31,480 --> 00:49:34,840 Speaker 1: as always, thanks so much to our excellent audio producer, 912 00:49:34,920 --> 00:49:37,400 Speaker 1: Torre Harrison, And if you would like to get in 913 00:49:37,480 --> 00:49:40,600 Speaker 1: touch with us with feedback about this episode or any 914 00:49:40,640 --> 00:49:43,480 Speaker 1: other to suggest a topic for the future, or just 915 00:49:43,600 --> 00:49:46,959 Speaker 1: to say hello. You can email us at contact at 916 00:49:47,000 --> 00:50:01,000 Speaker 1: invention pod dot com, se