WEBVTT - The Twilight Zone: The Rip Van Winkle Caper

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind production of iHeartRadio.

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<v Speaker 2>Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My

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<v Speaker 2>name is Robert Lamb.

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<v Speaker 3>And I'm Joe McCormick.

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<v Speaker 2>We have something a little different and a little familiar

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<v Speaker 2>for you here today on today's episode of Stuff to

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<v Speaker 2>Blow Your Mind. In a way, this is kind of

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<v Speaker 2>a spin off from our old anthology of horror series

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<v Speaker 2>that we used to do, but it's also a response

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<v Speaker 2>to listeners over the years who've written in about their

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<v Speaker 2>nostalgia for marathons of TVs The Twilight Zone on the

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<v Speaker 2>Sci Fi Channel on New Year's Eve and or New

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<v Speaker 2>Year's Day?

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<v Speaker 3>Do you know why they do that? Like, what's the

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<v Speaker 3>connection with New Year's Is it just a coincidence or

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<v Speaker 3>a coincidence?

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<v Speaker 2>Is it random? I'm not entirely certain. I mean, I've

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<v Speaker 2>been thinking about it a lot, Like why the Twilight

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<v Speaker 2>Zone at New Year's And I guess it's because it's

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<v Speaker 2>this space between right, I mean, I feel that heavily.

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<v Speaker 2>Right now. It's like, all right, we're done with Christmas.

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<v Speaker 2>The New Year's about to start, but it's not there yet,

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<v Speaker 2>and even once it has started, it's not going to

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<v Speaker 2>feel real for a little bit, so I don't know,

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<v Speaker 2>it seems like maybe a fitting time. I'm also not

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<v Speaker 2>super hip to all of like the cable channel business

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<v Speaker 2>side of all of this, Like why does it even

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<v Speaker 2>make sense to run, say a Turkey Day marathon? There

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<v Speaker 2>may just be very like strong and pretty straightforward industry

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<v Speaker 2>reasons why, you know, it's like, I don't know, you've

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<v Speaker 2>got to put something on. Maybe there are more people

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<v Speaker 2>watching at that time, but I don't know, over the years,

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<v Speaker 2>you've seen these kind of holiday marathons really take root.

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<v Speaker 2>Be it MST three K, Turkey Day, or I forget

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<v Speaker 2>which turner channel would air a Christmas story just over

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<v Speaker 2>and over again for like twenty four hour period.

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<v Speaker 3>I wonder if it's that on days people are expected

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<v Speaker 3>to be off work and home for a holiday, that

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<v Speaker 3>they're more likely to just leave the TV on on

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<v Speaker 3>a certain channel where they can expect to kind of

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<v Speaker 3>some kind of like predictable stream in the background.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah. Yeah, it could be it's something comforting and if

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<v Speaker 2>you're like if you're a fan of the Twilight Zone

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<v Speaker 2>or just old timey television in general, like there's a

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<v Speaker 2>pretty good choice to put on in the background now

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<v Speaker 2>for my own part. I think I probably watched episodes

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<v Speaker 2>of the Twilight Zone this way because I believe they

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<v Speaker 2>started doing these marathons on the Sci Fi Channel around

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<v Speaker 2>nineteen ninety five, so I was definitely watching the channel,

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<v Speaker 2>but I don't have strong specific memories of these marathons

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<v Speaker 2>in the same way I do for the Turkey Day

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<v Speaker 2>marathons or for particular tales from the crypt marathons that

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<v Speaker 2>I caught like semi scrambled on HBO back in the day.

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<v Speaker 2>And I think I was looking around. I think there

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<v Speaker 2>may be some regional channels that did Twilight Zone marathons

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<v Speaker 2>as far back as the nineteen eighties. So depending on

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<v Speaker 2>where you are and where you were watching television, this

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<v Speaker 2>might be very deeply rooted. So we figured, okay, let's

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<v Speaker 2>lean into this idea. Let's take an episode of the

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<v Speaker 2>Twilight Zone and consider it, give it sort of the

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<v Speaker 2>old anthology of horror treatment, where we would in that

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<v Speaker 2>we would take a horror anthology episode and we kind

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<v Speaker 2>of like squeeze it out see what kind of science

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<v Speaker 2>or culture we could get out of it. And we figured, Okay,

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<v Speaker 2>there are a lot of episodes of the Twilight Zone

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<v Speaker 2>we've talked about episodes of The Twilight Zone before, so

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<v Speaker 2>there's got to be a good one. There's got to

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<v Speaker 2>be a really juicy one that we can start juicing

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<v Speaker 2>here on the show. And so we decided were to

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<v Speaker 2>juice that it's got to be juicy. Yeah, it needs to.

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<v Speaker 2>It needs to have at least three types of juice

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<v Speaker 2>in it. So we decided to pick a season two episode.

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<v Speaker 2>This is episode twenty four, the Rip Van Winkle Caper,

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<v Speaker 2>which originally aired April twenty first, nineteen sixty one. Joe,

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<v Speaker 2>is this one that you had seen previously?

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<v Speaker 3>I think I had not seen this before, but I

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<v Speaker 3>was aware of it, at least in part because a

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<v Speaker 3>listener wrote in about it sometime in the past couple

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<v Speaker 3>of years. And I forget what the original context of

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<v Speaker 3>that was, but a listener wrote in about it, and

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<v Speaker 3>so I had to explain it briefly in that listener

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<v Speaker 3>mail episode where I was talking about that message. But yeah,

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<v Speaker 3>I had not seen it before, at least as far

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<v Speaker 3>as I remember. And so I laid down horizontally in

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<v Speaker 3>my bed last night and watched it with a laptop

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<v Speaker 3>sitting on my chest the way Rod Serling intended.

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<v Speaker 2>Yes, clearly. Well, there's no bad way to watch a

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<v Speaker 2>Twilight Zone episode. So this is one that I had

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<v Speaker 2>seen on television a long time ago, and I do

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<v Speaker 2>I do remember this one having an impact on me,

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<v Speaker 2>Like it was clever and it's plotting, but also in

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<v Speaker 2>its treatment of human value systems, so as we'll discuss,

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<v Speaker 2>you know, it's it's very economic piece. And that's the

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<v Speaker 2>thing about the Twilight Zone that they didn't have a

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<v Speaker 2>lot of time to bust out their stories and their

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<v Speaker 2>twist and really hit you over the head with some meaning.

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<v Speaker 2>But you know, they generally managed to do a pretty

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<v Speaker 2>good job of it. Sometimes they would, you know, these

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<v Speaker 2>episodes would be more sci fi in nature, other times

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<v Speaker 2>a little more magical realism or outright magical. This one,

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<v Speaker 2>this one's I guess, more in the sci fi area,

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<v Speaker 2>but not so much concerned with the SI so much.

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<v Speaker 3>Well, yeah, a significant chunk of it does take place

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<v Speaker 3>in the future from our perspective, but also is only

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<v Speaker 3>the slightest bit concerned with what that future is like.

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<v Speaker 3>I mean, the characters barely encounter the future. They're just

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<v Speaker 3>mostly wandering in a desert in the future, which would

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<v Speaker 3>have been the same if it was one hundred years

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<v Speaker 3>beyond or one hundred years ago.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, And one thing that becomes clear if you watch

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<v Speaker 2>a number of Twilight Zone episodes is that they'll frequently

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<v Speaker 2>come back to the well on sort of a base,

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<v Speaker 2>sort of gimmicks. So this is one of I think

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<v Speaker 2>several wandering in the Desert episodes, you know, because it

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<v Speaker 2>was it was a location that was attainable, and there

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<v Speaker 2>are all sorts of stories you can tell about wandering

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<v Speaker 2>through the desert, be it a situation where time traveling bandits,

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<v Speaker 2>bandits are trying to get their gold to the nearest town,

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<v Speaker 2>or astronauts who think they're on an alien planet but

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<v Speaker 2>they're actually just outside of Las Vegas. There are so

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<v Speaker 2>many different ways to spin it, you know.

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<v Speaker 3>This episode does have the significant plot point of people

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<v Speaker 3>trying to get their stash of gold ingots from a

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<v Speaker 3>cave in the middle of the desert back to town

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<v Speaker 3>by foot, and they're like dying along the way. You

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<v Speaker 3>would think they would just stash the gold somewhere and

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<v Speaker 3>walk without carrying it. I think they might have lived

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<v Speaker 3>if they had done so, if they had made choices, Well,

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<v Speaker 3>what is they think a porcupine is going to find

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<v Speaker 3>their gold and take away or something. I don't know

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<v Speaker 3>what lives in the desert. Not a porcupine, armadillo or something.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, heavily, this will come for the gold, all right. Well.

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<v Speaker 2>This episode was written by Twilight Zone maestro Rod Serling,

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<v Speaker 2>who lived nineteen twenty four through nineteen seventy five, and

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<v Speaker 2>it was directed by TV director Justice Attis who lived

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<v Speaker 2>nineteen seventeen through nineteen seventy nine, who also directed two films,

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<v Speaker 2>fifty eight's Cry Baby Killer and nineteen sixty six is

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<v Speaker 2>the Magnificent Stranger, though this late. This latter picture was

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<v Speaker 2>cobbled together from two episodes of TV's Raw Hide. This

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<v Speaker 2>sounds great, Well, you know, I don't know. I've seen

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<v Speaker 2>watchable films that were cobbled together in that manner, so

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<v Speaker 2>who knows.

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<v Speaker 3>Sure.

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<v Speaker 2>So this particular episode of The Twilight Zone concerns a

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<v Speaker 2>band of criminals working for a mastermind by the name

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<v Speaker 2>of Farwell. Farwell is an intellectual we'll come to realize.

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<v Speaker 2>He has expertise at least a couple of different areas,

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<v Speaker 2>and he is played by Oscar Bareiki Junior lived nineteen

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<v Speaker 2>eighteen through nineteen seventy six, a Hungarian born actor, whose father,

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<v Speaker 2>Oscar Bragi Senior, escaped the Holocaust and had previously appeared

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<v Speaker 2>in Fritz Lang's The Testament of Doctor Maiboos in nineteen

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<v Speaker 2>thirty three. Baggie Junior did a lot of TV work

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<v Speaker 2>and appeared in such films as seventy four as Young Frankenstein,

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<v Speaker 2>but is perhaps best remembered for three Twilight Zone appearances,

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<v Speaker 2>including sixty one's Deaths Had Revisited and also the episode Mute.

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<v Speaker 3>I don't know if I know either of those.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, they're not two episodes. I'm that familiar with it,

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<v Speaker 2>And I'm not sure if they fall into any of

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<v Speaker 2>the sort of like standard buckets of like desert wanderers

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<v Speaker 2>or weird airplane Shenanigans and so forth.

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<v Speaker 3>Or Monkeys Paul scenarios.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, so Farwell's band here includes criminals played by John

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<v Speaker 2>Mitcham that's Robert's younger brother, and most notably Simon Oakland,

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<v Speaker 2>who lived nineteen fifteen through nineteen eighty three as the

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<v Speaker 2>merciless D'Cruz.

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<v Speaker 3>Ooh, D'Cruz. He's a mean one, isn't.

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<v Speaker 2>He he is? I remember being rather impressed by his

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<v Speaker 2>meanness as a young viewer, because we learned pretty quickly

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<v Speaker 2>that he's ruthless when it comes to the gold. Oakland

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<v Speaker 2>will be familiar with many film fans out there for

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<v Speaker 2>his roles in Psycho, West Side Story from sixty one,

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<v Speaker 2>The Sand Pebbles from sixty six, and Bullet from sixty eight,

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<v Speaker 2>And I realized, oh, yeah, that's as I was rewatching

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<v Speaker 2>this episode. I think that's where i'd primarily seen it

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<v Speaker 2>before Bullet.

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<v Speaker 3>Now I'm trying to remember who is he in Psycho.

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<v Speaker 3>He's not the detective or is he one of the

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<v Speaker 3>cops At the end.

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<v Speaker 2>He plays doctor Richmond. I haven't seen Psycho in a

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<v Speaker 2>long time, so I don't remember who this character is.

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<v Speaker 3>Could he be the psychiatrist who comes out at the

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<v Speaker 3>end of the film to explain things.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, he could be. He's like each Psycho analysis one

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<v Speaker 2>bar of gold. I think that's pretty standard. So this

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<v Speaker 2>is a fun episode. Like I said, the location was

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<v Speaker 2>readily available Death Valley National Park, and looking around at

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<v Speaker 2>different rankings, this episode tends not to rank as highly

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<v Speaker 2>as some of the really iconic episodes like Time Enough

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<v Speaker 2>at Last or The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street,

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<v Speaker 2>or certainly the Airline episodes like Nightmare twenty thousand Feet

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<v Speaker 2>or the Odyssey of Flight thirty three, but it does

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<v Speaker 2>seem to be generally very well regarded by Twilight Zone fans,

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<v Speaker 2>Like this is not one of those that people seem

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<v Speaker 2>to just completely forget that it exists. I don't know

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<v Speaker 2>if it's anyone's absolute top episode, but it's really solid

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<v Speaker 2>and again, I remember being impressed by its brutality, its

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<v Speaker 2>twist ending, and so forth when I watched it for

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<v Speaker 2>the first time.

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<v Speaker 3>Yeah, like a lot of Twilight Zone episodes, not all,

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<v Speaker 3>but a lot hinges a lot on the twist endings

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<v Speaker 3>to really make its point.

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<v Speaker 2>But it's a pretty great twist. So yeah, we'll just

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<v Speaker 2>run through the plot really quickly here. So a crew

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<v Speaker 2>of criminals, again led by former chemistry and physics professor

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<v Speaker 2>mister Farewell, sets out to steal a bunch of gold.

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<v Speaker 2>We're told it's ten million dollars worth of gold bars

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<v Speaker 2>that are bound for Fort Knox.

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<v Speaker 3>I think they had them in a truck going for

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<v Speaker 3>a train. No, a train, right, yeah, yeah, a train

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<v Speaker 3>because D'Cruz blows up the tracks. Yeah that's how they

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<v Speaker 3>get the train to stop.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, we we we do learn that each member

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<v Speaker 2>of the crew has a different skill set as his

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<v Speaker 2>standard for your heist. Though we don't see the heist really, right,

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<v Speaker 2>it's just it's we're just kind of told it worked,

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<v Speaker 2>they pulled it off, they got the gold. But then

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<v Speaker 2>what And those skill sets, by the way, were mechanical engineering, firearms,

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<v Speaker 2>and demolition.

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<v Speaker 3>Right, so D'Cruz does demolition, mechanical engineering. Is this other

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<v Speaker 3>guy named I forget his name, And then there's this

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<v Speaker 3>this guy named Brooks who is sort of at odds

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<v Speaker 3>with D'Cruz at multiple points, and he just seems to

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<v Speaker 3>be the gun guy. He's the button man.

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<v Speaker 2>So, as the characters point out, all right, we've got

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<v Speaker 2>the gold, but one thing about crime is how do

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<v Speaker 2>you get away with it? Where are you going to

0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:06.560
<v Speaker 2>take your gold? Where are you going to spend it,

0:12:06.600 --> 0:12:08.720
<v Speaker 2>where are you going to hide out? And indeed, where

0:12:08.720 --> 0:12:11.640
<v Speaker 2>are you going to run to? But farwell as a

0:12:11.679 --> 0:12:14.720
<v Speaker 2>smart cookie, and he has it figured out. They're going

0:12:14.760 --> 0:12:17.880
<v Speaker 2>to escape into the future.

0:12:17.679 --> 0:12:22.959
<v Speaker 3>The last place that the cops would look, and.

0:12:22.920 --> 0:12:25.439
<v Speaker 2>They're going to They're going to accomplish this, you know,

0:12:25.520 --> 0:12:28.079
<v Speaker 2>not via the standard method of going to the future

0:12:28.160 --> 0:12:31.439
<v Speaker 2>by just continuing to exist at the normal pace of things.

0:12:31.720 --> 0:12:34.320
<v Speaker 2>They're also not going to use a time machine, but

0:12:34.360 --> 0:12:36.840
<v Speaker 2>they are going to use a set of suspended animation

0:12:37.080 --> 0:12:40.240
<v Speaker 2>chambers that are secreted away in a death valley cave.

0:12:40.880 --> 0:12:43.640
<v Speaker 3>Right, So their method of traveling into the future is

0:12:43.720 --> 0:12:47.760
<v Speaker 3>to sleep for one hundred years when when at the

0:12:47.840 --> 0:12:50.720
<v Speaker 3>time they emerge, it will be safe to spend their

0:12:50.760 --> 0:12:52.800
<v Speaker 3>gold without raising any suspicion.

0:12:53.240 --> 0:12:57.280
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, the statute of limitations on stealing a bunch of

0:12:57.280 --> 0:13:00.400
<v Speaker 2>gold from the US government will be will be, it

0:13:00.520 --> 0:13:05.079
<v Speaker 2>will be over. Yeah, probably not. But their idea is like, okay,

0:13:05.080 --> 0:13:06.760
<v Speaker 2>but by this time, like we'll be in the clear.

0:13:06.880 --> 0:13:10.240
<v Speaker 2>Nobody will be looking for us this this gold will

0:13:10.280 --> 0:13:13.439
<v Speaker 2>just be lost. There will maybe be you know, conspiracy

0:13:13.480 --> 0:13:16.040
<v Speaker 2>theorists out there. They're like, remember the story the lost

0:13:16.120 --> 0:13:19.160
<v Speaker 2>Gold and so forth. They'll they'll be in the clear.

0:13:19.679 --> 0:13:23.720
<v Speaker 2>So that's that's the tactic here. They're just gonna park

0:13:23.760 --> 0:13:26.720
<v Speaker 2>the loot and hibernate within these high tech chambers for

0:13:26.760 --> 0:13:31.280
<v Speaker 2>a century and then then they're free. What could possibly

0:13:31.280 --> 0:13:31.679
<v Speaker 2>go wrong?

0:13:32.040 --> 0:13:34.560
<v Speaker 3>You know, maybe I don't know enough about gold. I

0:13:34.559 --> 0:13:38.080
<v Speaker 3>would have assumed that gold is fairly easy to get,

0:13:38.160 --> 0:13:42.959
<v Speaker 3>because it's not like you know, banknotes or something that

0:13:43.000 --> 0:13:45.680
<v Speaker 3>would have serial numbers, or it's got a die pack

0:13:45.760 --> 0:13:48.120
<v Speaker 3>in it. You know, gold you can melt down, and

0:13:49.240 --> 0:13:51.240
<v Speaker 3>can't you just turned I don't know. Maybe maybe they

0:13:51.240 --> 0:13:54.280
<v Speaker 3>could have special radioactive isotopes in them or something that

0:13:54.320 --> 0:13:59.040
<v Speaker 3>would make it traceable. But but who knows. But my

0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:02.040
<v Speaker 3>assumption would be the gold is fairly easy to disguise

0:14:02.080 --> 0:14:03.000
<v Speaker 3>the origin of.

0:14:03.720 --> 0:14:06.000
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, it could melt it down, right, I don't

0:14:06.280 --> 0:14:09.440
<v Speaker 2>At any rate, we can disagree on whether this is

0:14:09.480 --> 0:14:12.640
<v Speaker 2>really a great plan or not, but it seems like

0:14:12.679 --> 0:14:15.640
<v Speaker 2>a great idea within the context of the show. It's

0:14:15.640 --> 0:14:17.720
<v Speaker 2>a best laid plan in fact, and we know what

0:14:17.760 --> 0:14:20.880
<v Speaker 2>happens to those. So let's start talking about how things

0:14:20.920 --> 0:14:25.760
<v Speaker 2>go wrong, the complications that occur. Yeah, So, first of all,

0:14:25.760 --> 0:14:28.400
<v Speaker 2>in this one, I've strongly remembered from watching this when

0:14:28.440 --> 0:14:33.480
<v Speaker 2>I was younger, When they wake up in their simplistic

0:14:34.600 --> 0:14:38.960
<v Speaker 2>cryogenic chambers and they begin to emerge, they quickly learned

0:14:39.000 --> 0:14:42.240
<v Speaker 2>that one of the criminals, mister Irby, is long dead

0:14:42.440 --> 0:14:45.560
<v Speaker 2>because a random rock had fallen from the cavern ceiling

0:14:45.920 --> 0:14:49.040
<v Speaker 2>and broken open the top of his suspension chamber. So

0:14:49.120 --> 0:14:50.600
<v Speaker 2>it's just a skeleton in there.

0:14:50.600 --> 0:14:52.960
<v Speaker 3>Now, yeah, just a skeleton with rings on.

0:14:53.440 --> 0:15:00.200
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, which pretty impressive. I liked it. And then things

0:15:00.240 --> 0:15:03.600
<v Speaker 2>get more complicated because D'Cruz, again the demolition guy, the

0:15:03.720 --> 0:15:07.040
<v Speaker 2>nastiest member of the team. He ends up killing Brooks,

0:15:07.080 --> 0:15:11.000
<v Speaker 2>their firearm expert. In what are they fighting over? Who's

0:15:11.000 --> 0:15:12.720
<v Speaker 2>going to drive the truck into civilization?

0:15:13.080 --> 0:15:16.480
<v Speaker 3>That's what happens immediately before he kills him. But it

0:15:16.520 --> 0:15:20.320
<v Speaker 3>is I think rather confusing. So it for yeah, they're

0:15:20.400 --> 0:15:22.360
<v Speaker 3>arguing about who's going to be driving and who's going

0:15:22.400 --> 0:15:24.160
<v Speaker 3>to be in the back of the truck watching the

0:15:24.240 --> 0:15:27.240
<v Speaker 3>gold while they drive. Also, they have a truck that's

0:15:27.240 --> 0:15:29.240
<v Speaker 3>been sitting in a cave for one hundred years and

0:15:29.280 --> 0:15:31.600
<v Speaker 3>it still just starts up fine.

0:15:31.920 --> 0:15:33.080
<v Speaker 2>It's for tough, right.

0:15:35.160 --> 0:15:37.880
<v Speaker 3>But so yeah, they start up their truck just works

0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:43.440
<v Speaker 3>fine after one hundred years, and for some reason, Brooks

0:15:43.680 --> 0:15:47.320
<v Speaker 3>is out walking ahead of where the truck is and

0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:52.160
<v Speaker 3>D'Cruz drives the truck into him, like runs him down

0:15:52.200 --> 0:15:54.520
<v Speaker 3>with the truck, but jumps out of the truck so

0:15:54.600 --> 0:15:57.160
<v Speaker 3>that the truck after that goes over the edge of

0:15:57.200 --> 0:16:01.160
<v Speaker 3>a cliff and crashes on the rocks low and then

0:16:01.240 --> 0:16:04.000
<v Speaker 3>he you know, says to Farwell, who's standing there looking

0:16:04.040 --> 0:16:07.400
<v Speaker 3>on incredulous. He's like, you know, it looks like poor

0:16:07.400 --> 0:16:09.880
<v Speaker 3>mister Brooks had an accident with a truck. But I

0:16:09.920 --> 0:16:12.440
<v Speaker 3>was thinking, who is he trying to fool here? And

0:16:12.520 --> 0:16:15.280
<v Speaker 3>how does it What does it mean that the truck

0:16:15.440 --> 0:16:19.760
<v Speaker 3>was wrecked, Like, why would that affect anything? It just

0:16:19.760 --> 0:16:22.160
<v Speaker 3>seems like they're I don't know, it seemed like they

0:16:22.160 --> 0:16:25.040
<v Speaker 3>had to get rid of the truck somehow. Yeah, and

0:16:25.400 --> 0:16:27.600
<v Speaker 3>that part made the least sense to me of anything.

0:16:28.000 --> 0:16:33.440
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, so it does deliver us to this resulting scenario. Yeah,

0:16:33.600 --> 0:16:36.760
<v Speaker 2>we're down to just two people. Farwell again, the intellectual

0:16:36.880 --> 0:16:41.320
<v Speaker 2>d'cruze the nasty demolitions expert. They have all the gold

0:16:41.440 --> 0:16:44.240
<v Speaker 2>between them, but they don't have a truck. They're gonna

0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:47.440
<v Speaker 2>have to lug what however much gold they can carry

0:16:47.800 --> 0:16:52.200
<v Speaker 2>across the desert into civilization all by themselves. So they

0:16:52.200 --> 0:16:54.320
<v Speaker 2>set out. They travel by day. Of course, that's the

0:16:54.360 --> 0:16:58.920
<v Speaker 2>only proper time to travel with an enormous amount of gold.

0:16:59.440 --> 0:17:02.200
<v Speaker 2>During the middle the day through the desert, they clearly

0:17:02.240 --> 0:17:05.399
<v Speaker 2>needed a ranger or a desert survival expert in their crew.

0:17:05.680 --> 0:17:09.120
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, but I think they just couldn't have anticipated that

0:17:09.240 --> 0:17:11.399
<v Speaker 3>Dacruz would have this amazing idea of what to do

0:17:11.440 --> 0:17:11.720
<v Speaker 3>with the.

0:17:11.680 --> 0:17:14.960
<v Speaker 2>Trallic I mean, he demolished it. That's his skill set, right,

0:17:15.400 --> 0:17:18.880
<v Speaker 2>you're right, yeah, they should have seen it coming. So

0:17:19.240 --> 0:17:23.320
<v Speaker 2>our two surviving criminals, they're hiking along and Farwell quickly

0:17:23.359 --> 0:17:27.600
<v Speaker 2>discovers that he's lost his canteen. They have one canteen each, apparently,

0:17:27.600 --> 0:17:30.600
<v Speaker 2>which is the appropriate amount of water for trekking across

0:17:30.680 --> 0:17:34.560
<v Speaker 2>the open desert during the middle of the day, and

0:17:35.920 --> 0:17:40.840
<v Speaker 2>D'Cruz begins to sell Farwell SIPs from his own canteen

0:17:41.000 --> 0:17:44.879
<v Speaker 2>at the extravagant price of one gold bar per sip.

0:17:45.400 --> 0:17:47.280
<v Speaker 2>And I really like this. I think like it's an

0:17:47.320 --> 0:17:51.120
<v Speaker 2>excellent introduction to the episode's core themes of the shifting

0:17:51.240 --> 0:17:55.080
<v Speaker 2>value of resources. How much is a gold bar worth? Well,

0:17:55.119 --> 0:17:57.360
<v Speaker 2>how much is a sip of water worth? The answers

0:17:57.400 --> 0:17:58.960
<v Speaker 2>are highly conditional.

0:17:58.760 --> 0:18:03.399
<v Speaker 3>Right, So obviously Farwell's logic is that gold is worth

0:18:03.440 --> 0:18:05.439
<v Speaker 3>nothing if I'm not alive to spend it. So I

0:18:05.520 --> 0:18:07.720
<v Speaker 3>will give you a whole gold bar for one sip

0:18:07.760 --> 0:18:10.240
<v Speaker 3>of water, because that's my only chance to make it

0:18:10.280 --> 0:18:12.479
<v Speaker 3>to the town we're going to. And D'Cruz is not

0:18:12.520 --> 0:18:13.640
<v Speaker 3>going to take pity on him.

0:18:13.840 --> 0:18:17.800
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, So eventually Dacruz, relishing the Cruelty of it all,

0:18:18.200 --> 0:18:21.159
<v Speaker 2>ups the price one more time, saying, what it's like

0:18:21.200 --> 0:18:24.600
<v Speaker 2>two bars of gold for a sip or something, and

0:18:24.680 --> 0:18:29.119
<v Speaker 2>Farwell's just basically out of gold. So Farwell loses it,

0:18:29.160 --> 0:18:32.040
<v Speaker 2>beats the Cruz to death in the desert with one

0:18:32.040 --> 0:18:33.920
<v Speaker 2>of the blocks of gold, I think maybe his last

0:18:33.960 --> 0:18:37.160
<v Speaker 2>block of gold, and so now we just have Farwell

0:18:37.200 --> 0:18:39.800
<v Speaker 2>as the lone survivor. He scoops up as much gold

0:18:39.840 --> 0:18:41.640
<v Speaker 2>as he can carry, which isn't much at this point.

0:18:41.720 --> 0:18:44.960
<v Speaker 2>He marches on, but as he wanders, you know, more

0:18:44.960 --> 0:18:47.200
<v Speaker 2>and more through the desert and he doesn't encounter a

0:18:47.240 --> 0:18:50.240
<v Speaker 2>single living soul, He's forced to steadily shed his gold

0:18:50.280 --> 0:18:54.000
<v Speaker 2>bars until he collapses with just a single bar of

0:18:54.040 --> 0:18:56.359
<v Speaker 2>gold clutched in his dying hands.

0:18:56.760 --> 0:18:59.320
<v Speaker 3>Note that they have not met anyone in the future

0:18:59.400 --> 0:19:02.120
<v Speaker 3>at this point, and at one point while they're walking,

0:19:02.200 --> 0:19:05.159
<v Speaker 3>they speculate, They're like, you know, what if there is

0:19:05.400 --> 0:19:07.560
<v Speaker 3>nobody to meet here, what if there's a war, and

0:19:07.680 --> 0:19:09.440
<v Speaker 3>what if there was a war, what if we're living?

0:19:09.560 --> 0:19:12.680
<v Speaker 3>You know, what if humanity no longer exists? And they

0:19:12.720 --> 0:19:15.520
<v Speaker 3>decide that they think that there is somebody out there

0:19:15.520 --> 0:19:18.280
<v Speaker 3>to meet because they see airplanes flying over in the sky.

0:19:18.400 --> 0:19:21.360
<v Speaker 3>I remember, so they're like, okay, so there is still civilization,

0:19:21.600 --> 0:19:23.399
<v Speaker 3>but who knows what it'll be like.

0:19:23.920 --> 0:19:27.760
<v Speaker 2>It could the airplanes could be full of apes. Yeah, yeah,

0:19:27.840 --> 0:19:30.840
<v Speaker 2>Serling of course. Yeah, credit due with that twist as well,

0:19:31.240 --> 0:19:34.879
<v Speaker 2>but it did any rate. Farwell loses consciousness. Having collapsed,

0:19:35.240 --> 0:19:38.240
<v Speaker 2>he opens his eyes and he finds a man looming

0:19:38.280 --> 0:19:42.200
<v Speaker 2>over him. He offers this stranger his one remaining bar

0:19:42.280 --> 0:19:44.359
<v Speaker 2>of gold and says, it's you know, this is gold.

0:19:44.400 --> 0:19:46.760
<v Speaker 2>This is gold. It's yours if you just take me

0:19:46.800 --> 0:19:49.760
<v Speaker 2>to the nearest town. But then he dies before the

0:19:49.800 --> 0:19:52.879
<v Speaker 2>stranger can really respond to him, and the stranger is

0:19:52.920 --> 0:19:57.200
<v Speaker 2>just kind of puzzled by this, and he turns around.

0:19:57.240 --> 0:20:00.280
<v Speaker 2>He walks back to his future car, which I'm to

0:20:00.359 --> 0:20:02.879
<v Speaker 2>understand is a reused prop from Forbidden Planet.

0:20:03.640 --> 0:20:06.320
<v Speaker 3>Oh with the little bubbles in front of the face.

0:20:06.480 --> 0:20:08.280
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, I didn't do a side by side, so

0:20:08.320 --> 0:20:10.080
<v Speaker 2>I don't know if they augmented it at all or

0:20:10.080 --> 0:20:12.040
<v Speaker 2>if they just drove it right out of the lot

0:20:12.400 --> 0:20:13.119
<v Speaker 2>and reused it.

0:20:13.160 --> 0:20:15.440
<v Speaker 3>But I was wondering why it looked so familiar.

0:20:15.760 --> 0:20:18.359
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, so he returned. He walks over to the future

0:20:18.400 --> 0:20:21.680
<v Speaker 2>car and who we presume is his wife, I guess,

0:20:21.760 --> 0:20:23.720
<v Speaker 2>is setting there and she's like, what's going on with

0:20:23.760 --> 0:20:27.480
<v Speaker 2>that man? Is that dead man over there? And he's like, yeah, yeah,

0:20:27.480 --> 0:20:29.960
<v Speaker 2>he totally died. And the weird thing is is he

0:20:30.520 --> 0:20:32.679
<v Speaker 2>gave me this piece of he said it was gold.

0:20:32.720 --> 0:20:34.680
<v Speaker 2>What's he doing with gold? Out of here? Out here?

0:20:35.240 --> 0:20:40.120
<v Speaker 2>And then they both reveal, uh, oh, gold is useless

0:20:40.240 --> 0:20:42.720
<v Speaker 2>in this future getting there like, didn't gold used to

0:20:42.800 --> 0:20:44.880
<v Speaker 2>be worth something? Didn't people make a big deal out

0:20:44.880 --> 0:20:46.919
<v Speaker 2>of it? And he's like, yeah, yeah, back before we

0:20:46.960 --> 0:20:49.240
<v Speaker 2>could just manufacture it. It will.

0:20:49.359 --> 0:20:52.359
<v Speaker 3>So in Farwell's defense, based on what they say there,

0:20:52.400 --> 0:20:55.440
<v Speaker 3>I would say gold is not worthless in this future.

0:20:55.920 --> 0:20:59.159
<v Speaker 3>It's probably worth I don't know, twenty dollars a pound.

0:20:59.600 --> 0:21:03.880
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, it's worth something. That's why people make all

0:21:03.880 --> 0:21:06.560
<v Speaker 2>they need of it, you know. And from our certainly

0:21:06.760 --> 0:21:08.879
<v Speaker 2>we can assume it's used in all sorts of crazy

0:21:08.880 --> 0:21:12.160
<v Speaker 2>futuristic electronic parts there. You know, there's probably a fair

0:21:12.160 --> 0:21:15.320
<v Speaker 2>amount of gold in that future car that they're driving in.

0:21:15.760 --> 0:21:18.680
<v Speaker 2>But yeah, that's that's the big twist of this episode,

0:21:18.760 --> 0:21:23.280
<v Speaker 2>is this precious commodity that these criminals you know, stole,

0:21:24.280 --> 0:21:27.240
<v Speaker 2>gave up their lives for, you know, traveled essentially traveled

0:21:27.280 --> 0:21:30.320
<v Speaker 2>through time with and then killed each other and died

0:21:30.400 --> 0:21:32.719
<v Speaker 2>for it. Turns out it was worth nothing.

0:21:33.200 --> 0:21:36.920
<v Speaker 3>You can tell. Rod just loves this irony. Yes, he's

0:21:37.000 --> 0:21:40.080
<v Speaker 3>really relishing the narration in this one, especially because I

0:21:40.280 --> 0:21:44.840
<v Speaker 3>always forget that it does this where you don't you

0:21:44.880 --> 0:21:47.360
<v Speaker 3>don't just get his narration at the beginning and the end.

0:21:47.400 --> 0:21:50.879
<v Speaker 3>There's also a mid point stinger where you're in the

0:21:50.920 --> 0:21:53.320
<v Speaker 3>cave with these four criminals and they're arguing, and the

0:21:53.520 --> 0:21:56.280
<v Speaker 3>camera just pans over. Oh there's Rod. He's right there

0:21:56.280 --> 0:21:59.600
<v Speaker 3>in the cave and he's like four men arguing over gold.

0:21:59.680 --> 0:22:02.400
<v Speaker 3>You know what will become of them? We can only

0:22:02.400 --> 0:22:03.840
<v Speaker 3>find out in the twilight Zone.

0:22:04.480 --> 0:22:06.760
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, he can appear at any moment, you never know.

0:22:07.760 --> 0:22:11.320
<v Speaker 2>But yeah, his closing narration is juicy. He says, the

0:22:11.400 --> 0:22:14.639
<v Speaker 2>last of four root van Winkles, who all died precisely

0:22:14.680 --> 0:22:17.600
<v Speaker 2>the way they lived, chasing an idol across the sand

0:22:17.640 --> 0:22:20.160
<v Speaker 2>to wind up bleach to dry in the hot sun.

0:22:20.440 --> 0:22:23.640
<v Speaker 2>As so much desert flotsam worthless as the gold bullion,

0:22:23.840 --> 0:22:28.320
<v Speaker 2>they built a shrine too Tonight's lesson in the Twilight Zone.

0:22:30.040 --> 0:22:33.399
<v Speaker 3>I love how in these little narrated segments they're simultaneously

0:22:33.480 --> 0:22:36.480
<v Speaker 3>trying to do so much in so few words, but

0:22:36.640 --> 0:22:40.160
<v Speaker 3>also just recapping the plot of what you just saw.

0:22:41.280 --> 0:22:41.440
<v Speaker 1>You know.

0:22:41.880 --> 0:22:44.480
<v Speaker 2>I wonder how much of that, too, was thinking like, well,

0:22:44.560 --> 0:22:46.359
<v Speaker 2>people might not have caught the beginning of the episode,

0:22:46.359 --> 0:22:48.640
<v Speaker 2>and you can't just run it back, So yeah, you've

0:22:48.640 --> 0:22:50.680
<v Speaker 2>got to do everything you can to make sure that

0:22:50.760 --> 0:22:53.720
<v Speaker 2>meaning is at the forefront of the viewer's experience, even

0:22:53.720 --> 0:22:55.200
<v Speaker 2>if they didn't catch the whole episode.

0:22:55.359 --> 0:22:57.360
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, no, TVO in nineteen sixty.

0:22:57.800 --> 0:23:11.320
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, all right, well let's get into it. Obviously we're

0:23:11.359 --> 0:23:15.000
<v Speaker 2>gonna be talking about value, because that's ultimately what this

0:23:15.320 --> 0:23:20.800
<v Speaker 2>episode is about, and particularly when it comes to metals

0:23:21.320 --> 0:23:24.119
<v Speaker 2>and specifically when it comes to gold. And I'll be honest,

0:23:24.520 --> 0:23:27.840
<v Speaker 2>I grew up watching this episode and the Bond movie

0:23:27.880 --> 0:23:32.200
<v Speaker 2>Goldfinger Finger, and my understanding of the economics of gold

0:23:32.280 --> 0:23:36.119
<v Speaker 2>value still probably hinges mostly on these two treatments. Like

0:23:36.160 --> 0:23:38.840
<v Speaker 2>I over heard something on NPR the other day where

0:23:38.840 --> 0:23:41.320
<v Speaker 2>they were talking about, you know, the value of gold

0:23:41.400 --> 0:23:45.199
<v Speaker 2>and the gold standard, and you know it, most of

0:23:45.240 --> 0:23:47.199
<v Speaker 2>it made sense to me. But at heart, I just

0:23:47.280 --> 0:23:50.520
<v Speaker 2>still come back to this episode, the Rip Van Winkle

0:23:50.600 --> 0:23:55.000
<v Speaker 2>Caper and Goldfinger is my way of understanding the value

0:23:55.040 --> 0:23:55.880
<v Speaker 2>of gold Man.

0:23:55.920 --> 0:23:58.000
<v Speaker 3>When I was a kid, I thought the plot of

0:23:58.200 --> 0:24:01.600
<v Speaker 3>Goldfinger was just brilliant, and I was like, I thought

0:24:01.640 --> 0:24:04.520
<v Speaker 3>it was amazing. Oh my god, he's gonna, yeah, use

0:24:04.560 --> 0:24:06.680
<v Speaker 3>a nuke on all the gold to make the gold

0:24:06.760 --> 0:24:11.160
<v Speaker 3>he's already got worth so much more. That's nobody else

0:24:11.160 --> 0:24:12.680
<v Speaker 3>would have thought of that. That's really good.

0:24:12.840 --> 0:24:15.680
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. Essentially his plot was to lick all the role

0:24:15.800 --> 0:24:18.800
<v Speaker 2>dinner rolls. Yes, and then the unlicked dinner roles which

0:24:18.840 --> 0:24:21.880
<v Speaker 2>are on his plate are the most valuable ones. Valuable ones.

0:24:21.920 --> 0:24:23.560
<v Speaker 2>Then you know, I guess there's some there's a fair

0:24:23.560 --> 0:24:27.560
<v Speaker 2>amount of economic truth to all of that. But yeah,

0:24:27.600 --> 0:24:31.800
<v Speaker 2>I left these two media properties knowing that number one,

0:24:32.119 --> 0:24:36.040
<v Speaker 2>less non radiated gold in circulation makes non radiated gold

0:24:36.080 --> 0:24:40.439
<v Speaker 2>worth more. Okay, gold is worthless if you're thirsty. Gold

0:24:40.520 --> 0:24:42.439
<v Speaker 2>is only worth as much as people are willing to

0:24:42.480 --> 0:24:43.760
<v Speaker 2>pay for it.

0:24:43.880 --> 0:24:45.560
<v Speaker 3>True, basically anything true.

0:24:45.640 --> 0:24:49.719
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, an excess of gold makes that gold worthless. And

0:24:49.800 --> 0:24:53.480
<v Speaker 2>if you paint a naked woman gold, she'll die. All

0:24:53.480 --> 0:24:55.280
<v Speaker 2>these statements I think are essentially correct.

0:24:55.880 --> 0:24:58.680
<v Speaker 3>I don't know, does painting somebody gold actually kill them?

0:24:59.200 --> 0:25:00.359
<v Speaker 3>I have questions about that.

0:25:00.680 --> 0:25:04.000
<v Speaker 2>Well, you know, I haven't really done a deep biology

0:25:04.040 --> 0:25:06.119
<v Speaker 2>dive on that recently. I guess that the logic was

0:25:06.200 --> 0:25:08.440
<v Speaker 2>that her skin couldn't breathe anymore because she was covered

0:25:08.440 --> 0:25:09.280
<v Speaker 2>in gold, right.

0:25:09.560 --> 0:25:11.560
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, but we breathe through our lungs, not our skin.

0:25:12.960 --> 0:25:17.680
<v Speaker 2>Well lungs too. I don't know. We'll put a pin

0:25:17.760 --> 0:25:19.720
<v Speaker 2>in this one. We'll come back to the gold gold

0:25:19.760 --> 0:25:21.040
<v Speaker 2>finger question in the future.

0:25:21.840 --> 0:25:23.399
<v Speaker 3>Yeah.

0:25:23.440 --> 0:25:25.000
<v Speaker 2>Maybe I only learned four things.

0:25:25.480 --> 0:25:27.600
<v Speaker 3>I'm sure it wouldn't be good for you. Maybe it's fatal.

0:25:27.640 --> 0:25:29.960
<v Speaker 3>I don't know. I'm just raising the question.

0:25:30.000 --> 0:25:34.440
<v Speaker 2>All right, So why is gold valuable? Well, I mean

0:25:35.119 --> 0:25:36.840
<v Speaker 2>it's gold, right, I mean it kind of comes back

0:25:36.880 --> 0:25:39.520
<v Speaker 2>to like that's you know, everybody wants money, that's why

0:25:39.560 --> 0:25:43.879
<v Speaker 2>they call it money. Right. But you know, the answer

0:25:44.160 --> 0:25:46.640
<v Speaker 2>basically comes down to three factors in our modern age.

0:25:46.760 --> 0:25:49.760
<v Speaker 2>The first one is that it's pretty. It's great to

0:25:49.800 --> 0:25:52.640
<v Speaker 2>look at. It's the color of the sun all always

0:25:52.720 --> 0:25:56.399
<v Speaker 2>has been and maybe always will be. Another aspect, of course,

0:25:56.560 --> 0:26:01.000
<v Speaker 2>is that it's rare. Estimates very on this, but the

0:26:01.080 --> 0:26:04.520
<v Speaker 2>amount of gold that has ever been mined on Earth

0:26:06.160 --> 0:26:09.680
<v Speaker 2>can fit into something like three Olympic swimming pools. I've

0:26:09.720 --> 0:26:14.680
<v Speaker 2>also read inside a twenty two meter cube. These these

0:26:14.720 --> 0:26:16.960
<v Speaker 2>types of analogies can be a little confusing because you

0:26:17.000 --> 0:26:18.639
<v Speaker 2>can sort of picture it, but you can't, and then

0:26:18.640 --> 0:26:20.360
<v Speaker 2>you can think, oh, that doesn't sound like a lot

0:26:20.359 --> 0:26:23.000
<v Speaker 2>of gold, and then you can easily be reminded that's

0:26:23.040 --> 0:26:26.679
<v Speaker 2>an awful lot of anything. And then there's also the

0:26:26.680 --> 0:26:29.359
<v Speaker 2>fact that most of it was mined since then, since

0:26:29.440 --> 0:26:35.160
<v Speaker 2>nineteen fifty. So gold is rare throughout the universe, produced

0:26:35.160 --> 0:26:39.080
<v Speaker 2>in high energy cosmic events, and rare on Earth because

0:26:39.160 --> 0:26:42.119
<v Speaker 2>most of what wound up here sank deep into the

0:26:42.200 --> 0:26:45.120
<v Speaker 2>Earth long ago, and most of what we do have

0:26:45.400 --> 0:26:49.480
<v Speaker 2>came via asteroid bombardments later on. So gold is literally

0:26:49.640 --> 0:26:52.159
<v Speaker 2>not of this world. I think we can say that,

0:26:52.440 --> 0:26:55.639
<v Speaker 2>especially in an episode that we started via discussion of

0:26:55.680 --> 0:27:00.359
<v Speaker 2>the Twilight Zone. It's rare, and it's made by cosmic

0:27:00.400 --> 0:27:02.320
<v Speaker 2>events that are high energy in nature.

0:27:02.720 --> 0:27:05.680
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, and so the constrained supply of gold is one

0:27:05.720 --> 0:27:08.840
<v Speaker 3>of the attributes that people prize it for when it's

0:27:08.960 --> 0:27:12.199
<v Speaker 3>used as a currency or basis of currency. So the

0:27:12.280 --> 0:27:15.399
<v Speaker 3>idea is like, well, you can't just, you know, infinitely

0:27:15.440 --> 0:27:18.199
<v Speaker 3>inflate your currency if it's based on gold or so

0:27:18.320 --> 0:27:19.280
<v Speaker 3>the thinking was.

0:27:19.440 --> 0:27:21.080
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and that's where we get the you know, the

0:27:21.080 --> 0:27:24.360
<v Speaker 2>idea of the gold standard, the historical monetary system where

0:27:24.359 --> 0:27:27.439
<v Speaker 2>the currency value is tied to gold. This is what

0:27:27.480 --> 0:27:32.119
<v Speaker 2>British economist John Maynard Keynes referred to as the barbarous relic,

0:27:32.560 --> 0:27:35.040
<v Speaker 2>the idea that it was an outdated thing to base

0:27:35.040 --> 0:27:38.800
<v Speaker 2>the nations and international wealth in general on, and yet

0:27:39.000 --> 0:27:43.320
<v Speaker 2>it continues to to stand as a significant asset. Gold

0:27:43.320 --> 0:27:48.800
<v Speaker 2>has not gone away. And then, of course, while gold

0:27:48.920 --> 0:27:51.879
<v Speaker 2>was long valued for its decorative aspects, during the nineteen

0:27:51.880 --> 0:27:54.880
<v Speaker 2>thirties and the nineteen forties, it began to become important

0:27:54.920 --> 0:27:58.520
<v Speaker 2>in telecommunications, and then again during the fifties and sixties

0:27:58.560 --> 0:28:02.760
<v Speaker 2>as a semiconductor. It also has various uses in aerospace.

0:28:03.320 --> 0:28:06.080
<v Speaker 2>So we now live in a world where gold is

0:28:06.200 --> 0:28:11.560
<v Speaker 2>valued for both esthetic and highly practical technological reasons. Gold

0:28:11.600 --> 0:28:13.560
<v Speaker 2>is valued by people who just want to wear it,

0:28:13.720 --> 0:28:16.080
<v Speaker 2>by people who want to shut it away in a vault,

0:28:16.400 --> 0:28:18.560
<v Speaker 2>and by people who want to use it in the

0:28:18.680 --> 0:28:21.679
<v Speaker 2>circuitry of a microchip or on the visor of a

0:28:21.760 --> 0:28:25.920
<v Speaker 2>space helment. So it does make sense that we would

0:28:25.960 --> 0:28:28.360
<v Speaker 2>want more of it from a number from a number

0:28:28.400 --> 0:28:30.920
<v Speaker 2>of a vantage points. Right, want more of it because

0:28:30.960 --> 0:28:32.199
<v Speaker 2>it's great to look at it, and I want to

0:28:32.200 --> 0:28:35.240
<v Speaker 2>make more things out of it. But also there are

0:28:35.280 --> 0:28:38.480
<v Speaker 2>all these practical applications for it, and one can imagine

0:28:38.760 --> 0:28:41.760
<v Speaker 2>that the need for such precious metals will just continue

0:28:41.760 --> 0:28:45.920
<v Speaker 2>in the future. So what can we do to get

0:28:45.960 --> 0:28:50.560
<v Speaker 2>more of it as opposed to just the normal mining

0:28:50.560 --> 0:28:54.520
<v Speaker 2>efforts that we already have. And there's some really interesting

0:28:54.560 --> 0:28:58.760
<v Speaker 2>science here. One idea that scientists have discussed is, of course,

0:28:59.000 --> 0:29:03.000
<v Speaker 2>to get it somewhere else, somewhere not of this Earth.

0:29:03.640 --> 0:29:08.080
<v Speaker 2>And granted we have the universal rarity factor to consider,

0:29:08.160 --> 0:29:10.360
<v Speaker 2>but that doesn't mean it can't be found in reasonable

0:29:10.400 --> 0:29:15.800
<v Speaker 2>abundance in specific places, such as possibly the asteroid sixteen

0:29:15.920 --> 0:29:20.040
<v Speaker 2>Psyche in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. In fact,

0:29:20.280 --> 0:29:24.800
<v Speaker 2>NASA's Psyche spacecraft launched in twenty twenty three. It's not

0:29:24.800 --> 0:29:26.360
<v Speaker 2>actually going to get to the asteroid toll I think

0:29:26.440 --> 0:29:28.680
<v Speaker 2>twenty twenty nine, and even then it's just going to

0:29:28.680 --> 0:29:31.080
<v Speaker 2>study it. It's not going to bring anything back. It's

0:29:31.120 --> 0:29:35.120
<v Speaker 2>also not expressly going there to prospect for gold. There

0:29:35.120 --> 0:29:39.360
<v Speaker 2>are a number of astrogeology objectives in play, and we

0:29:39.800 --> 0:29:42.800
<v Speaker 2>used to think that Psyche was mostly metal. More recent

0:29:42.880 --> 0:29:45.520
<v Speaker 2>estimates look at a possible thirty to sixty percent metal

0:29:45.960 --> 0:29:50.200
<v Speaker 2>composite alongside rock. But it very well may contain significant

0:29:50.200 --> 0:29:54.320
<v Speaker 2>amounts of metal from the core of a Planetismal, and

0:29:54.640 --> 0:29:57.240
<v Speaker 2>that could mean a fair amount of gold. So that's

0:29:57.280 --> 0:30:01.000
<v Speaker 2>one possibility. This asteroid is most like a survivor of

0:30:01.120 --> 0:30:04.360
<v Speaker 2>multiple collisions during the formation of the Solar System, and

0:30:04.480 --> 0:30:07.240
<v Speaker 2>thus it might have, on one level, just much to reveal,

0:30:08.000 --> 0:30:10.560
<v Speaker 2>perhaps giving us a better understanding of how Earth's core

0:30:10.680 --> 0:30:14.640
<v Speaker 2>and the cores of earth like worlds formed. But it

0:30:14.680 --> 0:30:18.000
<v Speaker 2>could be a potential source of gold, as are various

0:30:18.040 --> 0:30:25.080
<v Speaker 2>other suspected metal monster asteroids out there. So in theory, yes,

0:30:25.360 --> 0:30:30.440
<v Speaker 2>we could harvest them, mine them, bring back gold, and

0:30:30.520 --> 0:30:34.360
<v Speaker 2>bring it back in enough abundance to destabilize the value

0:30:34.400 --> 0:30:35.360
<v Speaker 2>of gold here on Earth.

0:30:35.680 --> 0:30:37.920
<v Speaker 3>So by mentioning this, are you trying to address the

0:30:38.000 --> 0:30:42.360
<v Speaker 3>question of could we actually have a scenario like in

0:30:42.400 --> 0:30:45.320
<v Speaker 3>the Rip Van Winkle Caper where we have criminals go

0:30:45.400 --> 0:30:47.680
<v Speaker 3>to sleep and then they wake up and all the

0:30:47.720 --> 0:30:50.480
<v Speaker 3>gold they stole is no longer as valuable as it

0:30:50.520 --> 0:30:51.040
<v Speaker 3>once was.

0:30:51.440 --> 0:30:55.600
<v Speaker 2>Correct, Yeah, could we have a situation like that occur? Essentially,

0:30:56.160 --> 0:30:59.880
<v Speaker 2>could gold be devalued to such a degree on Earth?

0:31:00.080 --> 0:31:04.600
<v Speaker 2>And it seems like yes it could. And the main

0:31:04.960 --> 0:31:07.120
<v Speaker 2>way that it could happen would be if something like

0:31:07.160 --> 0:31:10.960
<v Speaker 2>this occurred, if we did actually reach the point where

0:31:11.000 --> 0:31:14.440
<v Speaker 2>we were harvesting gold from asteroids and bringing back to Earth,

0:31:14.840 --> 0:31:18.640
<v Speaker 2>bearing in mind, of course, that there are multiple technological

0:31:18.720 --> 0:31:22.520
<v Speaker 2>hurdles to that, and it would have to be you know,

0:31:22.560 --> 0:31:26.360
<v Speaker 2>there would have to be some major will behind the

0:31:26.440 --> 0:31:30.680
<v Speaker 2>quest to get that particular gold. Now, another possibility, and

0:31:30.720 --> 0:31:33.280
<v Speaker 2>one that we've discussed in greater depth in the show before,

0:31:34.000 --> 0:31:36.640
<v Speaker 2>is the capture of trace amounts of gold and seawater

0:31:37.320 --> 0:31:44.600
<v Speaker 2>via absorption, electrochemical extraction, and biomineralization via gold loving bacteria. Yeah.

0:31:44.680 --> 0:31:47.440
<v Speaker 3>We talked about this, I believe in an episode about

0:31:47.480 --> 0:31:50.360
<v Speaker 3>the I don't remember if it had a specific name,

0:31:50.440 --> 0:31:54.320
<v Speaker 3>but the Lubec Main Great Gold Hoax. There was a

0:31:54.360 --> 0:31:56.800
<v Speaker 3>guy who went there and convinced a bunch of people

0:31:56.840 --> 0:32:00.479
<v Speaker 3>that they could harvest vast amounts of gold from the seawater. Uh,

0:32:00.680 --> 0:32:03.080
<v Speaker 3>And it turned out and he didn't actually have a

0:32:03.120 --> 0:32:03.920
<v Speaker 3>method for doing that.

0:32:04.000 --> 0:32:04.520
<v Speaker 2>It was all a.

0:32:04.440 --> 0:32:10.200
<v Speaker 3>Scam, but that it is possible in principle to harvest

0:32:10.360 --> 0:32:14.000
<v Speaker 3>some amount of gold from the ocean, and it has

0:32:14.200 --> 0:32:16.920
<v Speaker 3>in ways been done with The question would be what

0:32:17.080 --> 0:32:19.160
<v Speaker 3>is the efficiency of doing so?

0:32:19.720 --> 0:32:22.880
<v Speaker 2>Right? Yeah? Yeah? The problem, as I understand it, is

0:32:22.880 --> 0:32:27.160
<v Speaker 2>you'd need to process and success successfully process a colossal

0:32:27.200 --> 0:32:29.480
<v Speaker 2>amount of sea water in order to get even a

0:32:29.480 --> 0:32:33.360
<v Speaker 2>gram of gold. And this means that it's it's currently

0:32:33.520 --> 0:32:37.120
<v Speaker 2>not all that feasible as a primary process, but in

0:32:37.160 --> 0:32:39.920
<v Speaker 2>the future, the idea is it might prove useful as

0:32:39.920 --> 0:32:45.400
<v Speaker 2>a secondary process for something like industrial scale desalination. So

0:32:45.560 --> 0:32:50.960
<v Speaker 2>you're already carrying out an industrial process with the salt water.

0:32:51.480 --> 0:32:55.400
<v Speaker 2>Is it possible that you have this secondary process going

0:32:55.440 --> 0:32:57.560
<v Speaker 2>on that is generating gold for you?

0:32:58.120 --> 0:32:58.680
<v Speaker 3>Interesting?

0:32:58.760 --> 0:33:02.320
<v Speaker 2>Okay. Likewise, there's apparently this one. I was not familiar

0:33:02.400 --> 0:33:04.200
<v Speaker 2>with it because I don't think we talked about this.

0:33:04.280 --> 0:33:06.800
<v Speaker 2>Maybe we did and I've forgotten it. But there's also

0:33:06.840 --> 0:33:12.640
<v Speaker 2>the potential for gold capture in sewage like human sewitch. Okay, cool,

0:33:13.000 --> 0:33:15.520
<v Speaker 2>there's gold and den Derek toilets.

0:33:15.960 --> 0:33:20.600
<v Speaker 3>Is this from people drinking gold schlager. There's enough of

0:33:20.640 --> 0:33:23.719
<v Speaker 3>that worldwide that you could recapture some of that and

0:33:23.760 --> 0:33:24.479
<v Speaker 3>repurpose it.

0:33:24.800 --> 0:33:28.760
<v Speaker 2>I think the answer is yes, But I don't think

0:33:28.800 --> 0:33:33.000
<v Speaker 2>goldslager is is really singled out as like one of

0:33:33.200 --> 0:33:36.840
<v Speaker 2>the primary factors here. But yeah, you're dealing with trace

0:33:36.920 --> 0:33:39.760
<v Speaker 2>amounts of gold in our wist, in our waste water,

0:33:40.360 --> 0:33:44.360
<v Speaker 2>and this apparently comes from traces of gold lost off

0:33:44.400 --> 0:33:49.320
<v Speaker 2>of jewelry industrial waste, but also food additives, which I

0:33:49.360 --> 0:33:52.920
<v Speaker 2>think that includes goldslagger. I'm going to throw it in

0:33:52.960 --> 0:33:57.080
<v Speaker 2>there that in your like gold foil based fancy pastries

0:33:57.120 --> 0:34:00.840
<v Speaker 2>and so forth. So essentially human.

0:34:00.640 --> 0:34:02.280
<v Speaker 3>Life eat some of that gold.

0:34:03.280 --> 0:34:06.120
<v Speaker 2>I mean, you know where it's going to go. But essentially,

0:34:06.160 --> 0:34:09.200
<v Speaker 2>I guess the idea is lot human life lived alongside

0:34:09.239 --> 0:34:12.080
<v Speaker 2>gold means tiny bits of gold make their way down

0:34:12.120 --> 0:34:15.759
<v Speaker 2>our drains and toilets, and the process to reclaim this

0:34:15.880 --> 0:34:20.960
<v Speaker 2>gold could also prove environmentally helpful in keeping harmful substances

0:34:20.960 --> 0:34:21.880
<v Speaker 2>out of the environment.

0:34:22.239 --> 0:34:25.480
<v Speaker 3>Oh you mean other things would be filtered out seage, Okay, yeah.

0:34:25.360 --> 0:34:28.200
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, so not just the gold, but various other substances

0:34:28.239 --> 0:34:31.800
<v Speaker 2>as well. Kathleen Smith of the US Geological Survey is

0:34:31.880 --> 0:34:35.080
<v Speaker 2>quoted in the twenty fifteen Guardian article gold in feces

0:34:35.200 --> 0:34:37.840
<v Speaker 2>is worth millions and could save the environment. That was

0:34:37.880 --> 0:34:41.640
<v Speaker 2>authored by Hannah Devlin at the time said that that

0:34:41.719 --> 0:34:44.920
<v Speaker 2>gold had been found at the level of minimal mineral

0:34:44.960 --> 0:34:49.400
<v Speaker 2>deposits in human sewage systems, and once more, kind of

0:34:49.440 --> 0:34:54.480
<v Speaker 2>like with the oceanic gold capture example, there's a potential

0:34:54.520 --> 0:34:58.520
<v Speaker 2>here for a secondary process. So you wouldn't have a

0:34:58.560 --> 0:35:01.360
<v Speaker 2>harvesting scheme that was just going straight after the gold

0:35:01.680 --> 0:35:06.160
<v Speaker 2>in the sewage, but perhaps it could become a secondary

0:35:06.160 --> 0:35:10.920
<v Speaker 2>process alongside basic sewage management. Okay, cool, Though to be

0:35:10.960 --> 0:35:14.720
<v Speaker 2>clear here, of the tactics we've discussed here, the sewage

0:35:14.760 --> 0:35:17.399
<v Speaker 2>and the saltwater options are not going to devalue gold.

0:35:17.719 --> 0:35:21.160
<v Speaker 2>I couldn't find anybody making that argument. I think the

0:35:21.200 --> 0:35:24.719
<v Speaker 2>main way it could potentially happen at some point in

0:35:24.760 --> 0:35:26.960
<v Speaker 2>the future would be if we were bringing a lot

0:35:27.000 --> 0:35:28.359
<v Speaker 2>of gold back from asteroids.

0:35:28.560 --> 0:35:32.600
<v Speaker 3>Okay, so if we have a space mining program, then

0:35:32.640 --> 0:35:35.640
<v Speaker 3>there would be a significant impact obviously, right.

0:35:36.120 --> 0:35:40.440
<v Speaker 2>But then there's another option. What about the alchemical solution

0:35:40.880 --> 0:35:45.480
<v Speaker 2>the generation of gold as it's alluded to in this episode.

0:35:46.080 --> 0:35:48.399
<v Speaker 2>So as already mentioned, we already mentioned gold is an

0:35:48.480 --> 0:35:52.840
<v Speaker 2>extraterrestrial product of intense stellar energy, so we're talking neutron

0:35:52.920 --> 0:35:56.520
<v Speaker 2>star collisions and supernova and this would surely mean that

0:35:56.600 --> 0:35:59.640
<v Speaker 2>humans would need to have such power at their fingertips. Right,

0:36:00.080 --> 0:36:04.920
<v Speaker 2>one would think, yeah, but this is not I mean,

0:36:04.920 --> 0:36:07.160
<v Speaker 2>it's one of those things. The reality of it is

0:36:07.200 --> 0:36:10.640
<v Speaker 2>not far fetched. The scalable reality of it might might

0:36:10.680 --> 0:36:13.440
<v Speaker 2>be far fetched. But yeah, I was reading a bit

0:36:13.440 --> 0:36:16.839
<v Speaker 2>about this. Much has been written on this topic. Tom

0:36:16.880 --> 0:36:19.480
<v Speaker 2>Bartlett had a great article about this recently in the

0:36:19.520 --> 0:36:23.880
<v Speaker 2>Atlantic The profiling a new San Francisco company that was

0:36:24.000 --> 0:36:27.239
<v Speaker 2>arguing that gold could be generated as once more a

0:36:27.280 --> 0:36:31.319
<v Speaker 2>byproduct of another process, in this case a byproduct of

0:36:31.640 --> 0:36:34.719
<v Speaker 2>nuclear fusion, which of course is in many ways the

0:36:34.719 --> 0:36:37.560
<v Speaker 2>holy grail of atomic energy, entailing not the splitting of

0:36:37.600 --> 0:36:40.439
<v Speaker 2>the atom as in fission, but the process by which

0:36:40.440 --> 0:36:43.919
<v Speaker 2>two or more atomic nuclei combine to form a larger

0:36:44.360 --> 0:36:47.160
<v Speaker 2>nucleus and potentially release a tremendous amount of energy in

0:36:47.160 --> 0:36:50.840
<v Speaker 2>the process. So the San Francisco company in question argues

0:36:50.840 --> 0:36:53.520
<v Speaker 2>that by tweaking the process, one could create gold as

0:36:53.520 --> 0:36:58.480
<v Speaker 2>a secondary byproduct of nuclear fusion, thus offsetting the cost

0:36:58.560 --> 0:37:02.200
<v Speaker 2>of the energy production. Specifically, they think one could create

0:37:02.280 --> 0:37:06.560
<v Speaker 2>gold from mercury one ninety eight by bombarding it with neutrons,

0:37:07.320 --> 0:37:10.960
<v Speaker 2>changing it into the less stable mercury one ninety seven,

0:37:11.360 --> 0:37:14.279
<v Speaker 2>which would then decay into gold one ninety seven, the

0:37:14.280 --> 0:37:18.560
<v Speaker 2>stable isotope of gold. This is hypothetical, however, and the

0:37:18.600 --> 0:37:22.320
<v Speaker 2>results in gold might be gold fingered and require lengthy

0:37:22.360 --> 0:37:24.000
<v Speaker 2>storage before it could be utilized.

0:37:24.760 --> 0:37:28.560
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, And as with anything about nuclear fusion, always you know,

0:37:30.000 --> 0:37:32.440
<v Speaker 3>let's wait until we see the results, because they're you know,

0:37:32.520 --> 0:37:35.040
<v Speaker 3>for years and years, always lots of claims about what

0:37:35.080 --> 0:37:39.840
<v Speaker 3>could be done with nuclear fusion. And but yeah, interesting

0:37:39.880 --> 0:37:40.440
<v Speaker 3>to think about.

0:37:40.800 --> 0:37:44.279
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, So again, the idea of creating gold through a

0:37:44.320 --> 0:37:51.000
<v Speaker 2>technique like this at scale open question. But the basic idea,

0:37:51.360 --> 0:37:54.520
<v Speaker 2>the basic thing they're hypothesizing about here isn't isn't all

0:37:54.560 --> 0:37:58.600
<v Speaker 2>that new. It's called nuclear transmutation, and we've already successfully

0:37:58.640 --> 0:38:02.960
<v Speaker 2>carried it out via particle accelerators. In fact, scientists pulled

0:38:02.960 --> 0:38:06.120
<v Speaker 2>this off for the first time back in nineteen forty one. Granted,

0:38:06.120 --> 0:38:09.200
<v Speaker 2>the resulting gold was radioactive and it was also an

0:38:09.280 --> 0:38:15.080
<v Speaker 2>unstable isotope that decayed within days, but still quite an

0:38:15.200 --> 0:38:18.880
<v Speaker 2>alchemical feat. And I think we have to acknowledge that

0:38:18.920 --> 0:38:22.040
<v Speaker 2>given that this was achieved in nineteen forty one. That

0:38:22.080 --> 0:38:26.480
<v Speaker 2>experiment was likely partial inspiration for this Twilight Zone episode,

0:38:26.600 --> 0:38:29.040
<v Speaker 2>or at least they might have factored that into the plotting.

0:38:29.360 --> 0:38:33.360
<v Speaker 3>Interesting though again obviously the amount of gold that you

0:38:33.400 --> 0:38:36.759
<v Speaker 3>would be transmuting in particle accelerators once again would be

0:38:36.920 --> 0:38:38.959
<v Speaker 3>quite physically tiny.

0:38:38.800 --> 0:38:42.960
<v Speaker 2>In physically tiny, and then also if it's radioactive and

0:38:43.120 --> 0:38:47.640
<v Speaker 2>or decays, then it's also useless in terms of all

0:38:47.640 --> 0:38:51.040
<v Speaker 2>these uses for gold that we have. In nineteen eighty

0:38:51.080 --> 0:38:54.640
<v Speaker 2>Nobel Prize winner Glenn Seborg was able to successfully transmute

0:38:54.680 --> 0:38:59.640
<v Speaker 2>bismuth into gold and an accelerator, producing several thousand atoms

0:38:59.640 --> 0:39:03.680
<v Speaker 2>of statele gold, but it was essentially microscopic, and more recently,

0:39:03.760 --> 0:39:06.560
<v Speaker 2>Cern has produced minuscule amounts of gold via the Large

0:39:06.560 --> 0:39:10.719
<v Speaker 2>Hadron collider by colliding lead ions. So I mean that

0:39:10.800 --> 0:39:14.279
<v Speaker 2>in itself is interesting because we're finally talking about the

0:39:14.800 --> 0:39:18.600
<v Speaker 2>alchemical dream of turning lead into gold. But I believe

0:39:18.880 --> 0:39:22.880
<v Speaker 2>the result here was also unstable and radioactive. Yeah, so

0:39:23.120 --> 0:39:26.319
<v Speaker 2>in essence, yes, it can be done. We've done it,

0:39:26.440 --> 0:39:29.279
<v Speaker 2>but we're a long way off from being able to

0:39:29.360 --> 0:39:32.560
<v Speaker 2>do it at scale and in a way that could

0:39:32.600 --> 0:39:36.720
<v Speaker 2>actually on any level impact the value of naturally occurring

0:39:36.719 --> 0:39:37.400
<v Speaker 2>gold on Earth.

0:39:37.719 --> 0:39:50.799
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, so I agree. Based on what I've been reading,

0:39:50.880 --> 0:39:54.279
<v Speaker 3>it seems unlikely to me that we will ever be

0:39:54.360 --> 0:39:59.680
<v Speaker 3>able to manufacture gold in an economically efficient way. But

0:40:00.440 --> 0:40:02.400
<v Speaker 3>I did want to talk here at the end of

0:40:02.440 --> 0:40:07.680
<v Speaker 3>the episode about how something like the scenario described in

0:40:07.719 --> 0:40:11.879
<v Speaker 3>the Rip van Winkle caper not only could happen with

0:40:11.960 --> 0:40:17.760
<v Speaker 3>some metals, it actually has happened in history, not with gold,

0:40:18.040 --> 0:40:23.319
<v Speaker 3>but with a very surprising substance, and that is aluminum.

0:40:23.360 --> 0:40:25.160
<v Speaker 3>So I just want to riff on aluminum here for

0:40:25.200 --> 0:40:30.880
<v Speaker 3>a second. So, aluminum is the third most abundant element

0:40:31.160 --> 0:40:35.719
<v Speaker 3>in Earth's crust, after only oxygen and silicon. It is

0:40:35.920 --> 0:40:39.840
<v Speaker 3>more abundant than iron. Iron is only about five percent

0:40:39.920 --> 0:40:42.799
<v Speaker 3>of the Earth's crust. Aluminum is about eight percent, so

0:40:42.960 --> 0:40:47.640
<v Speaker 3>more abundant than iron. Today, aluminum is the second most

0:40:47.640 --> 0:40:50.640
<v Speaker 3>important metal in human industry, with more than one hundred

0:40:50.680 --> 0:40:55.160
<v Speaker 3>million tons produced annually. When you combine refinement from primary

0:40:55.200 --> 0:41:00.680
<v Speaker 3>sources and recycling, and especially when combined with other materials

0:41:00.719 --> 0:41:03.600
<v Speaker 3>as an alloy, aluminum is I think one of the

0:41:03.600 --> 0:41:08.239
<v Speaker 3>most useful raw materials on Earth. It's strong, it's lightweight,

0:41:08.320 --> 0:41:11.360
<v Speaker 3>it's highly versatile, which is why it's used in so

0:41:11.440 --> 0:41:15.120
<v Speaker 3>many wide ranging applications, so many different things. You know,

0:41:15.360 --> 0:41:19.080
<v Speaker 3>aluminum is it's the substance of your beer can, it's

0:41:19.160 --> 0:41:22.960
<v Speaker 3>the substance of power lines, of airplane wings. I mean,

0:41:23.120 --> 0:41:25.239
<v Speaker 3>there's a real range of what you can do with it.

0:41:26.239 --> 0:41:28.520
<v Speaker 3>But there's a curious thing about aluminum. I wonder if

0:41:28.520 --> 0:41:31.600
<v Speaker 3>you've ever noticed this, Rob, how come when you go

0:41:32.080 --> 0:41:36.600
<v Speaker 3>looking through the artifacts of ancient civilizations in a museum,

0:41:37.239 --> 0:41:43.759
<v Speaker 3>you never come across aluminum swords or aluminum arrowheads, or

0:41:43.800 --> 0:41:48.000
<v Speaker 3>aluminum chariot wheels or plowshares or helmets. You see all

0:41:48.040 --> 0:41:52.160
<v Speaker 3>these important ancient tools made out of iron, which is

0:41:52.480 --> 0:41:55.759
<v Speaker 3>less abundant in the Earth's crust than aluminum. And you

0:41:55.840 --> 0:41:59.240
<v Speaker 3>see them in bronze made from copper and tin, both

0:41:59.239 --> 0:42:02.680
<v Speaker 3>of which are significantly harder to dig up than aluminum. So,

0:42:02.840 --> 0:42:06.799
<v Speaker 3>if aluminum is so useful in human industry, and if

0:42:06.840 --> 0:42:10.120
<v Speaker 3>there is more aluminium in the ground than iron, and

0:42:10.160 --> 0:42:13.440
<v Speaker 3>it's always been this way, where are all the aluminum

0:42:13.520 --> 0:42:14.640
<v Speaker 3>artifacts from history?

0:42:15.000 --> 0:42:17.359
<v Speaker 2>You know, I'd never thought about this before, but you're right,

0:42:17.400 --> 0:42:20.760
<v Speaker 2>there's like no aluminium age in the history books.

0:42:20.880 --> 0:42:25.120
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, totally. The aluminium age does not emerge until the

0:42:25.239 --> 0:42:28.160
<v Speaker 3>nineteenth century. In fact, the reason for this, I think

0:42:28.239 --> 0:42:31.399
<v Speaker 3>is really interesting. I found this one of the most

0:42:31.440 --> 0:42:34.000
<v Speaker 3>fascinating chemistry rabbit holes I've gone down in a bit.

0:42:34.760 --> 0:42:40.040
<v Speaker 3>So metallic aluminum basically does not exist in nature. There

0:42:40.040 --> 0:42:44.560
<v Speaker 3>are some extremely tiny exceptions to this, tiny globules from rare,

0:42:44.880 --> 0:42:48.520
<v Speaker 3>strange kinds of sources, maybe like volcanic or extraterrestrial sources.

0:42:48.520 --> 0:42:53.600
<v Speaker 3>But basically you can't find aluminum metal in nature. Almost

0:42:53.680 --> 0:42:58.480
<v Speaker 3>all of the unrefined aluminum found on Earth comes in

0:42:58.600 --> 0:43:02.040
<v Speaker 3>the form of a compound called aluminium oxide or AL

0:43:02.160 --> 0:43:06.200
<v Speaker 3>two O three, also known as alumina, most of which

0:43:06.360 --> 0:43:10.600
<v Speaker 3>is found within a type of reddish brown sedimentary rock

0:43:10.840 --> 0:43:14.960
<v Speaker 3>called box side. Now, if you think you've never seen

0:43:15.239 --> 0:43:18.320
<v Speaker 3>aluminium oxide on its own, and you can only picture,

0:43:18.560 --> 0:43:21.560
<v Speaker 3>you can only picture aluminium as a metal. Here's a

0:43:21.800 --> 0:43:25.160
<v Speaker 3>kind of strange fact. Did you know that rubies and

0:43:25.320 --> 0:43:30.600
<v Speaker 3>sapphires are made mostly out of a crystalline form of

0:43:30.680 --> 0:43:31.799
<v Speaker 3>aluminum oxide.

0:43:32.480 --> 0:43:33.400
<v Speaker 2>I was not aware.

0:43:34.000 --> 0:43:37.160
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, So it's the crystalline form of aluminum oxide called

0:43:37.440 --> 0:43:41.400
<v Speaker 3>corundum a CO r U n d um, and different

0:43:41.840 --> 0:43:44.720
<v Speaker 3>trace elements or impurities within it give it the different

0:43:44.719 --> 0:43:47.520
<v Speaker 3>colors that make it a ruby or a sapphire. So like,

0:43:47.600 --> 0:43:50.279
<v Speaker 3>if there's chromium in it, it'll turn red and it'll

0:43:50.280 --> 0:43:53.880
<v Speaker 3>be a ruby, and there are other other elements and

0:43:53.920 --> 0:43:57.200
<v Speaker 3>traces give it the sapphire color. And you know that

0:43:57.320 --> 0:43:59.280
<v Speaker 3>just doesn't seem right. You don't look at a ruby

0:43:59.360 --> 0:44:03.120
<v Speaker 3>or a sapphire, think I'm looking at aluminum. But remember

0:44:03.160 --> 0:44:07.880
<v Speaker 3>the aluminum doesn't take on its metallic properties when in

0:44:08.040 --> 0:44:13.480
<v Speaker 3>compound with oxygen, so forms of crystalline aluminum oxide really

0:44:13.520 --> 0:44:17.200
<v Speaker 3>can look like precious gems. But when you separate the

0:44:17.239 --> 0:44:21.320
<v Speaker 3>aluminum atoms from the compound, you get the opaque aluminum

0:44:21.360 --> 0:44:25.080
<v Speaker 3>metal that we're familiar with today. So it's a complex

0:44:25.120 --> 0:44:28.560
<v Speaker 3>process to get it. To get pure aluminum metal, you

0:44:28.680 --> 0:44:33.080
<v Speaker 3>have to mine raw boxide or from the ground and

0:44:33.120 --> 0:44:36.560
<v Speaker 3>then crush it up and heat it with caustic chemicals

0:44:36.560 --> 0:44:41.880
<v Speaker 3>like sodium hydroxide like LYE to extract and isolate the

0:44:41.920 --> 0:44:46.000
<v Speaker 3>aluminum oxide from it. And then at this point the

0:44:46.040 --> 0:44:49.319
<v Speaker 3>aluminum oxide takes the form of a white powder that

0:44:49.400 --> 0:44:52.640
<v Speaker 3>looks like sugar. And then so you've got this powder,

0:44:52.680 --> 0:44:54.680
<v Speaker 3>and after that you have to find a way to

0:44:54.840 --> 0:44:59.440
<v Speaker 3>isolate the pure metallic aluminum from the aluminum oxide. But

0:44:59.560 --> 0:45:03.040
<v Speaker 3>for most most of history, this last step was really

0:45:03.280 --> 0:45:07.040
<v Speaker 3>really difficult to do, so the amount of metallic aluminum

0:45:07.120 --> 0:45:11.920
<v Speaker 3>produced in this way was minuscule now according to a

0:45:11.920 --> 0:45:15.839
<v Speaker 3>commemorative article on something called the Hall Herald process, which

0:45:15.880 --> 0:45:18.560
<v Speaker 3>I'll explain in a minute, this article is produced by

0:45:18.600 --> 0:45:22.240
<v Speaker 3>the National Historic Chemical Landmarks Program of the American Chemical

0:45:22.280 --> 0:45:26.640
<v Speaker 3>Society in nineteen ninety seven. According to this article, before

0:45:26.719 --> 0:45:30.920
<v Speaker 3>the year eighteen eighty six, aluminum was a rare and

0:45:31.080 --> 0:45:34.400
<v Speaker 3>precious metal with a price similar to that of silver.

0:45:35.960 --> 0:45:40.600
<v Speaker 3>Scientists had by this point in the eighteen eighties they

0:45:40.640 --> 0:45:45.879
<v Speaker 3>had already figured out ways to refine metallic aluminum, but

0:45:45.920 --> 0:45:51.520
<v Speaker 3>they were complex, inefficient procedures with multiple steps, like one

0:45:51.640 --> 0:45:55.920
<v Speaker 3>involved first producing aluminum chloride and then reacting that with

0:45:56.040 --> 0:45:59.920
<v Speaker 3>metallic sodium to squirt out some tiny bits of aluminum metal.

0:46:00.120 --> 0:46:04.239
<v Speaker 3>In the end, really inefficient, expensive, difficult to.

0:46:04.200 --> 0:46:08.879
<v Speaker 2>Do, and so it was rare and it was as

0:46:08.960 --> 0:46:12.239
<v Speaker 2>expensive as silver. I can't help but wonder if at

0:46:12.239 --> 0:46:16.799
<v Speaker 2>the time, any like fiction writers were dreamed up a

0:46:16.840 --> 0:46:19.879
<v Speaker 2>monster that could only be killed with aluminum. Oh, that's a.

0:46:19.800 --> 0:46:24.200
<v Speaker 3>Good point, like the werewolf. Yeah, I heard, I can

0:46:24.320 --> 0:46:26.200
<v Speaker 3>now I can't remember where I read this, but in

0:46:26.200 --> 0:46:28.360
<v Speaker 3>one of the sources I was looking at for this episode,

0:46:29.320 --> 0:46:33.680
<v Speaker 3>somebody was quoted talking about the appearance of this fad

0:46:33.719 --> 0:46:36.600
<v Speaker 3>for aluminum jewelry in the mid nineteenth century because it

0:46:36.640 --> 0:46:39.560
<v Speaker 3>was so precious, and I think the person said that

0:46:39.640 --> 0:46:41.319
<v Speaker 3>it had the luster.

0:46:41.120 --> 0:46:41.760
<v Speaker 2>Of the moon.

0:46:42.600 --> 0:46:45.000
<v Speaker 3>People thought it was like a kind of moon metal.

0:46:46.760 --> 0:46:51.120
<v Speaker 3>So one common way of illustrating the preciousness of aluminum

0:46:51.160 --> 0:46:57.320
<v Speaker 3>before before the Hall herald process is that people point

0:46:57.320 --> 0:47:00.920
<v Speaker 3>out that when the Washington Monument was deleted in eighteen

0:47:01.000 --> 0:47:05.160
<v Speaker 3>eighty four, again this is two years before the whole

0:47:05.200 --> 0:47:07.920
<v Speaker 3>heralds process in eighteen eighty six. It was completed in

0:47:08.040 --> 0:47:12.320
<v Speaker 3>eighty four the tower was capped with a one hundred

0:47:12.440 --> 0:47:16.799
<v Speaker 3>ounce cast aluminum pyramid, which was supposed to be an

0:47:16.960 --> 0:47:21.319
<v Speaker 3>ornament of great power and ceremony. So this would be

0:47:21.480 --> 0:47:25.479
<v Speaker 3>roughly six and a quarter pounds of aluminum, roughly enough

0:47:25.480 --> 0:47:29.399
<v Speaker 3>to make two hundred Lacroix cans today. And just look

0:47:29.440 --> 0:47:31.920
<v Speaker 3>on my work see mighty in despair. Look at all

0:47:31.920 --> 0:47:32.840
<v Speaker 3>these cans worth.

0:47:33.239 --> 0:47:35.960
<v Speaker 2>Oh wow. So this would have been exactly the wrong

0:47:36.000 --> 0:47:38.840
<v Speaker 2>item to steal and then run into the future with.

0:47:39.040 --> 0:47:41.520
<v Speaker 3>Oh yeah, so we're about to see exactly how wrong

0:47:41.560 --> 0:47:43.560
<v Speaker 3>you would have been. But you wouldn't You wouldn't have

0:47:44.200 --> 0:47:47.839
<v Speaker 3>been able to predict necessarily. You know that this would

0:47:47.840 --> 0:47:50.400
<v Speaker 3>be good. I mean, this would be a precious, precious

0:47:50.440 --> 0:47:53.359
<v Speaker 3>item to steal and take into the future for your

0:47:53.560 --> 0:47:56.719
<v Speaker 3>group of criminals in eighteen eighty four. So, according to

0:47:56.760 --> 0:48:00.560
<v Speaker 3>that ACS article, the pyramid at the top of the monument,

0:48:00.680 --> 0:48:04.640
<v Speaker 3>weighing again a little over six pounds, was by itself

0:48:04.680 --> 0:48:08.160
<v Speaker 3>about twenty percent of the roughly one hundred and twenty

0:48:08.200 --> 0:48:11.480
<v Speaker 3>five pounds of aluminum produced in America in the year

0:48:11.520 --> 0:48:16.200
<v Speaker 3>eighteen eighty four. So if the entire country's aluminum production

0:48:16.320 --> 0:48:20.760
<v Speaker 3>infrastructure in eighty four eighteen eighty four had been harnessed,

0:48:21.000 --> 0:48:24.120
<v Speaker 3>we could have made about five of these pyramids, or

0:48:24.160 --> 0:48:25.960
<v Speaker 3>about one thousand La croix cans.

0:48:26.480 --> 0:48:26.840
<v Speaker 2>Wow.

0:48:27.920 --> 0:48:31.120
<v Speaker 3>So, as hard as it is to believe, aluminum in

0:48:31.160 --> 0:48:34.880
<v Speaker 3>the eighteen eighties, the early eighteen eighties was rare, precious

0:48:34.960 --> 0:48:41.279
<v Speaker 3>and highly valuable like gold or silver. Another anecdote that

0:48:41.440 --> 0:48:45.040
<v Speaker 3>people often cite to show the value of aluminum at

0:48:45.040 --> 0:48:47.719
<v Speaker 3>the time is actually one that couldn't verify, but a

0:48:47.920 --> 0:48:50.440
<v Speaker 3>figure it's worth mentioning because you come across it a lot.

0:48:51.000 --> 0:48:54.200
<v Speaker 3>So the story is that the French Emperor Napoleon the

0:48:54.320 --> 0:48:59.719
<v Speaker 3>Third would serve his most honored guests on aluminum plates. Mean,

0:49:00.120 --> 0:49:02.279
<v Speaker 3>you know, if you got like the less pritt you know,

0:49:02.360 --> 0:49:05.919
<v Speaker 3>silver plates or whatever, the less precious metals, you weren't

0:49:06.000 --> 0:49:09.000
<v Speaker 3>quite as honored. I could now find a good early

0:49:09.040 --> 0:49:11.399
<v Speaker 3>source for this claim, and as far as I could tell,

0:49:11.440 --> 0:49:13.960
<v Speaker 3>it only pops up unsourced in later books from the

0:49:14.000 --> 0:49:19.760
<v Speaker 3>twentieth century. But there absolutely were lavish royal luxury items

0:49:19.800 --> 0:49:23.359
<v Speaker 3>in the mid nineteenth century, especially in France, made out

0:49:23.400 --> 0:49:26.879
<v Speaker 3>of aluminum. So one example I came across is that

0:49:27.040 --> 0:49:31.279
<v Speaker 3>a German chemist named Friedrich Wohler who was very much

0:49:31.320 --> 0:49:36.560
<v Speaker 3>working on processes for isolating and extracting aluminum from these ores.

0:49:37.080 --> 0:49:42.360
<v Speaker 3>Wohler designed an aluminum and gold rattle for the infant

0:49:42.480 --> 0:49:45.560
<v Speaker 3>Prince Louis Napoleon in the eighteen fifties. This would have

0:49:45.560 --> 0:49:50.280
<v Speaker 3>been Napoleon the third baby son. And at the eighteen

0:49:50.440 --> 0:49:54.080
<v Speaker 3>fifty five Paris World's Fair also known as the eighteen

0:49:54.160 --> 0:49:59.839
<v Speaker 3>fifty five Paris Exposition or the Exposition Universal Bars or

0:49:59.880 --> 0:50:04.760
<v Speaker 3>a like, ingots of aluminum were exhibited in the same

0:50:04.960 --> 0:50:10.040
<v Speaker 3>venue as the crown jewels of the French royals, and

0:50:10.320 --> 0:50:12.640
<v Speaker 3>they were calling it the I don't remember the French phrase,

0:50:12.680 --> 0:50:14.719
<v Speaker 3>but the French phrase they were using to describe it

0:50:14.840 --> 0:50:18.000
<v Speaker 3>was the silver from clay, you know, because it came

0:50:18.040 --> 0:50:21.040
<v Speaker 3>from this reddish brown ore and they could extract it

0:50:21.080 --> 0:50:25.880
<v Speaker 3>through this laborious, expensive process and create a new type

0:50:25.920 --> 0:50:40.880
<v Speaker 3>of silver from it. Apparently, aluminum jewelry, for a time

0:50:41.040 --> 0:50:44.200
<v Speaker 3>in the mid nineteenth century became quite fashionable among the

0:50:44.320 --> 0:50:46.319
<v Speaker 3>rich in Paris, and I think to some degree in

0:50:46.360 --> 0:50:50.440
<v Speaker 3>England as well, but especially in France. Not just because

0:50:50.520 --> 0:50:52.839
<v Speaker 3>it was novel and expensive. It's not just like this

0:50:52.920 --> 0:50:55.840
<v Speaker 3>is a rare status item, but it did have some

0:50:56.000 --> 0:50:59.800
<v Speaker 3>intrinsic qualities that made it desirable, like its light weight,

0:51:00.440 --> 0:51:03.320
<v Speaker 3>it didn't it was thought not to tarnish, and it

0:51:03.400 --> 0:51:07.480
<v Speaker 3>was considered beautiful by some, which is funny because you

0:51:07.480 --> 0:51:10.640
<v Speaker 3>can imagine now like making jewelry out of aluminum foil

0:51:10.680 --> 0:51:13.040
<v Speaker 3>from your kitchen, and you think you the same.

0:51:13.360 --> 0:51:15.759
<v Speaker 2>I remember playing with aluminum foil a lot as a kid,

0:51:15.800 --> 0:51:17.600
<v Speaker 2>where you could you could like take a little bit

0:51:17.640 --> 0:51:19.719
<v Speaker 2>of it and wrap it around a g I. Joe

0:51:19.719 --> 0:51:22.719
<v Speaker 2>figure's head and like, oh, now there is another desk

0:51:22.760 --> 0:51:26.520
<v Speaker 2>stro kind of a situation. You know, there arell sorts

0:51:26.520 --> 0:51:28.640
<v Speaker 2>of things like that you could do or make little

0:51:28.760 --> 0:51:31.000
<v Speaker 2>arrow heads out of it, you know. And then over

0:51:31.040 --> 0:51:35.520
<v Speaker 2>time we we come to realize, or at least we

0:51:35.520 --> 0:51:38.279
<v Speaker 2>we get into our heads that aluminum isn't beautiful. It's

0:51:38.360 --> 0:51:40.360
<v Speaker 2>just this thing you wrap up leftovers in.

0:51:40.800 --> 0:51:44.719
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, but that's because it's abundant now, industrially abundant. So

0:51:44.760 --> 0:51:48.640
<v Speaker 3>how did we get from preciousness to abundance. Well, it

0:51:48.680 --> 0:51:52.239
<v Speaker 3>all changed in the year eighteen eighty six, when, at

0:51:52.480 --> 0:51:56.920
<v Speaker 3>roughly around the same time, two different people on opposite

0:51:56.960 --> 0:52:00.960
<v Speaker 3>sides of the Atlantic discovered a radically more cost effective

0:52:01.000 --> 0:52:06.080
<v Speaker 3>process for refining metallic aluminum from aluminum oxide. And these

0:52:06.080 --> 0:52:10.160
<v Speaker 3>two inventors were the American chemist Charles Martin Hall, who

0:52:10.200 --> 0:52:13.799
<v Speaker 3>lived eighteen sixty three to nineteen fourteen, working out of

0:52:13.840 --> 0:52:17.360
<v Speaker 3>the woodshed behind his house in Ohio, and a French

0:52:17.400 --> 0:52:21.400
<v Speaker 3>scientist named Paul Harold who lived eighteen sixty three to

0:52:21.520 --> 0:52:25.360
<v Speaker 3>nineteen fourteen, also working in France. Note they share the

0:52:25.400 --> 0:52:29.319
<v Speaker 3>same birth and death years. Neither of these inventors, I

0:52:29.320 --> 0:52:33.400
<v Speaker 3>think it's worth noting we're working in a vacuum lots

0:52:33.440 --> 0:52:36.960
<v Speaker 3>of chemists in the university systems, in private industry, and

0:52:37.000 --> 0:52:40.719
<v Speaker 3>even just in like independent laboratories at the time were

0:52:40.760 --> 0:52:43.680
<v Speaker 3>working on the aluminum problem. So this was like a

0:52:43.719 --> 0:52:46.239
<v Speaker 3>big thing a lot of people were feeding into. And

0:52:46.480 --> 0:52:49.160
<v Speaker 3>these these scientists were you know, they had they had

0:52:49.200 --> 0:52:51.719
<v Speaker 3>mentors and had been inspired by others, So they were

0:52:51.719 --> 0:52:54.239
<v Speaker 3>not they were not just like loan geniuses striking.

0:52:53.960 --> 0:52:56.880
<v Speaker 2>Getting an idea in a dream about right slated.

0:52:58.200 --> 0:53:01.880
<v Speaker 3>But what Hall and Harold discovered was that you could

0:53:02.080 --> 0:53:08.200
<v Speaker 3>produce metallic aluminum quite efficiently by well it's actually depending

0:53:08.320 --> 0:53:12.479
<v Speaker 3>it's only efficient relative to the other processes. It's still

0:53:12.600 --> 0:53:16.480
<v Speaker 3>quite costly, an energy intensive process, but you could do

0:53:16.560 --> 0:53:21.240
<v Speaker 3>it by first melting the aluminum oxide in a furnace

0:53:21.520 --> 0:53:27.359
<v Speaker 3>alongside a solvent mineral called cryolite. Now you might hear

0:53:27.440 --> 0:53:32.359
<v Speaker 3>that name and intuitively detect some interesting etymology. You think, like, wait,

0:53:32.600 --> 0:53:37.799
<v Speaker 3>cryo meaning ice and light meaning stone, ice, stone. Yes,

0:53:37.960 --> 0:53:39.719
<v Speaker 3>that is what the name means. And if you look

0:53:39.800 --> 0:53:42.919
<v Speaker 3>up pictures of cryolite, it will all become clear because

0:53:42.960 --> 0:53:45.000
<v Speaker 3>it really does look like ice. It looks like a

0:53:45.120 --> 0:53:47.200
<v Speaker 3>kind of a snowball or a chunk of ice somebody

0:53:47.280 --> 0:53:51.480
<v Speaker 3>has squished together I couldn't find a a I was

0:53:51.520 --> 0:53:53.239
<v Speaker 3>trying to find a video of this right before we

0:53:53.280 --> 0:53:55.160
<v Speaker 3>got started, and I didn't turn it up. Maybe there

0:53:55.200 --> 0:53:58.000
<v Speaker 3>is one out there I didn't connect to. But allegedly,

0:53:58.120 --> 0:54:03.480
<v Speaker 3>if you submerge this rock in water, it becomes nearly

0:54:03.560 --> 0:54:07.360
<v Speaker 3>invisible or takes on a kind of ghostly translucent appearance

0:54:07.440 --> 0:54:12.640
<v Speaker 3>because it has a similar refractive index to water. The

0:54:13.040 --> 0:54:18.280
<v Speaker 3>first major deposit of cryolite discovered on Earth was found

0:54:18.360 --> 0:54:23.160
<v Speaker 3>on the southwest coast of Greenland at a place called Ivetut,

0:54:23.800 --> 0:54:27.840
<v Speaker 3>and an important mining community sprang up there to support

0:54:27.880 --> 0:54:32.520
<v Speaker 3>the extraction of this mineral. And so important was cryolite

0:54:32.560 --> 0:54:37.080
<v Speaker 3>for the industrial production of aluminium that the protection of

0:54:37.160 --> 0:54:40.840
<v Speaker 3>this mine in Greenland became an important point of strategic

0:54:40.840 --> 0:54:43.160
<v Speaker 3>defense in World War II for the Allies, for the

0:54:43.200 --> 0:54:46.200
<v Speaker 3>fear of what would happen if this big source of

0:54:46.280 --> 0:54:50.719
<v Speaker 3>natural cryolite fell under Nazi attack or Nazi control. But

0:54:51.040 --> 0:54:53.600
<v Speaker 3>coming back to the chemical properties of cryolite, So the

0:54:53.640 --> 0:54:58.520
<v Speaker 3>chemical name for cryolite is sodium hexafluoro illuminate, and it's

0:54:58.560 --> 0:55:02.360
<v Speaker 3>made from three sodium atoms, one aluminum, and six fluorines.

0:55:03.239 --> 0:55:08.960
<v Speaker 3>When melted in an industrial furnace. Cryolite has the special

0:55:09.000 --> 0:55:13.520
<v Speaker 3>attribute of dissolving and then greatly lowering the melting point

0:55:13.719 --> 0:55:17.840
<v Speaker 3>of aluminum oxide dissolved with it, and this makes the

0:55:17.880 --> 0:55:24.359
<v Speaker 3>aluminum oxide molecules susceptible to separation by electrolysis. So when

0:55:24.400 --> 0:55:28.120
<v Speaker 3>you run electric current through this solution of cryolite with

0:55:28.200 --> 0:55:33.120
<v Speaker 3>aluminum oxide dissolved in it, it causes the aluminum oxide

0:55:33.120 --> 0:55:37.120
<v Speaker 3>to separate into waste products based on oxygen like carbon dioxide,

0:55:37.200 --> 0:55:39.839
<v Speaker 3>carbon monoxide, and stuff. And then on the other end

0:55:39.880 --> 0:55:45.279
<v Speaker 3>you get nearly pure metallic aluminium which gathers near the cathode. Now,

0:55:45.400 --> 0:55:49.520
<v Speaker 3>this process uses a lot of energy and produces a

0:55:49.560 --> 0:55:54.040
<v Speaker 3>lot of waste products, especially fumes released into the air.

0:55:55.280 --> 0:56:02.000
<v Speaker 3>You get carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, perfluorocarbons. But fortunately, once

0:56:02.120 --> 0:56:04.680
<v Speaker 3>the metal has been separated like this, it can be

0:56:04.760 --> 0:56:08.480
<v Speaker 3>melted down, reused, and recycled pretty efficiently compared to the

0:56:08.520 --> 0:56:12.920
<v Speaker 3>initial smelting process. So recycling aluminum is actually quite important

0:56:12.960 --> 0:56:16.920
<v Speaker 3>when it comes to saving energy and preventing pollution, but

0:56:17.239 --> 0:56:20.120
<v Speaker 3>getting it out of the oxide where it's found in

0:56:20.200 --> 0:56:23.799
<v Speaker 3>nature initially is quite rough. But once the aluminum is

0:56:23.800 --> 0:56:26.759
<v Speaker 3>in circulation, we can continue to do a lot with

0:56:26.840 --> 0:56:29.480
<v Speaker 3>it over the life cycles of many products and uses.

0:56:30.280 --> 0:56:33.240
<v Speaker 3>But coming back to the idea of a metal devalued

0:56:33.360 --> 0:56:36.560
<v Speaker 3>like the gold and the rip Van Winkle caper. According

0:56:36.600 --> 0:56:39.880
<v Speaker 3>to the ACS, within a few years of the invention

0:56:40.160 --> 0:56:43.920
<v Speaker 3>of the Hall Herald process, the price of aluminum it

0:56:44.040 --> 0:56:47.480
<v Speaker 3>just dropped through the floor, like as suddenly vastly greater

0:56:47.560 --> 0:56:51.239
<v Speaker 3>amounts could be produced. So to read a quote from

0:56:51.239 --> 0:56:55.000
<v Speaker 3>that article, quote, as Hall improved his process, the price

0:56:55.040 --> 0:56:58.080
<v Speaker 3>of aluminum ingots dropped from four dollars and eighty six

0:56:58.239 --> 0:57:01.760
<v Speaker 3>cents per pound. Remember that's eighteen eighty dollars four dollars

0:57:01.800 --> 0:57:04.520
<v Speaker 3>and eighty six cents per pound in eighteen eighty eight

0:57:04.800 --> 0:57:08.120
<v Speaker 3>to seventy eight cents per pound in eighteen ninety three.

0:57:09.160 --> 0:57:11.360
<v Speaker 3>And then later they say, by the late nineteen thirties,

0:57:11.400 --> 0:57:14.640
<v Speaker 3>a pound of aluminum costs just twenty cents. Its use

0:57:14.760 --> 0:57:19.120
<v Speaker 3>is numbered more than two thousand. Oh wow, So drastic,

0:57:19.480 --> 0:57:22.440
<v Speaker 3>drastic reduction. And you know remember in the episode they

0:57:22.480 --> 0:57:26.000
<v Speaker 3>sleep for one hundred years. So if you you know stole, yeah,

0:57:26.040 --> 0:57:31.080
<v Speaker 3>stole your one hundred pounds of aluminum in the early

0:57:31.120 --> 0:57:33.680
<v Speaker 3>eighteen eighties, and you think I'm rich, I'm rich. I'm rich.

0:57:33.720 --> 0:57:35.520
<v Speaker 3>I just need to go sleep for one hundred years

0:57:35.560 --> 0:57:37.200
<v Speaker 3>and then wake up when I can put this into

0:57:37.240 --> 0:57:41.480
<v Speaker 3>circulation and cash out. You would be, you know, not worthless,

0:57:41.640 --> 0:57:44.000
<v Speaker 3>Like one hundred pounds of aluminium is I don't know.

0:57:44.040 --> 0:57:47.200
<v Speaker 3>You can get something for that, but wouldn't be worth

0:57:47.200 --> 0:57:47.840
<v Speaker 3>the squeeze.

0:57:48.160 --> 0:57:52.080
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, Wow, it is fascinating how well this line's

0:57:52.160 --> 0:57:54.920
<v Speaker 2>up with the idea here and in Indet. Maybe this

0:57:55.040 --> 0:57:58.200
<v Speaker 2>was partially on the mind of Rod Serling as well.

0:57:58.280 --> 0:58:02.080
<v Speaker 2>I don't know, but but but yeah, that's that's fascinating.

0:58:02.320 --> 0:58:06.960
<v Speaker 2>This this brief aluminium age in which it was a

0:58:07.040 --> 0:58:12.360
<v Speaker 2>highly valued moon metal, and you know, the richest people

0:58:12.480 --> 0:58:14.840
<v Speaker 2>and most powerful people on Earth were wearing it and

0:58:15.480 --> 0:58:17.840
<v Speaker 2>eating off of it. I mean, we're still eating out

0:58:17.840 --> 0:58:19.600
<v Speaker 2>of it and off of it and drinking out of it,

0:58:19.680 --> 0:58:25.000
<v Speaker 2>but without the air of sophistication. Now, this would be

0:58:25.000 --> 0:58:30.680
<v Speaker 2>a good Twilight Zone twist. Some sort of an aluminium

0:58:30.880 --> 0:58:34.200
<v Speaker 2>sensitive werewolf type creature escapes from the past to go

0:58:34.240 --> 0:58:36.640
<v Speaker 2>into the future. Finally I'll be rid of my hunters,

0:58:36.640 --> 0:58:41.080
<v Speaker 2>and then they realize no, every household in the world

0:58:41.240 --> 0:58:45.800
<v Speaker 2>has a copious amounts of aluminum at its disposable they

0:58:45.800 --> 0:58:49.640
<v Speaker 2>have sheets of it in their drawers, they have you know,

0:58:49.840 --> 0:58:52.520
<v Speaker 2>cans of it all over the place. That would be good.

0:58:52.600 --> 0:58:55.120
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, the kids are fighting the werewolf by just like

0:58:55.200 --> 0:58:59.880
<v Speaker 3>ripping out the foil. Yeah, makings just mummifying him in

0:59:00.720 --> 0:59:01.920
<v Speaker 3>tenfoil from the kitchen.

0:59:02.840 --> 0:59:05.160
<v Speaker 2>There you go. It rights itself, rights itself.

0:59:05.360 --> 0:59:07.880
<v Speaker 3>Tonight's lesson in the Twilight Zone.

0:59:08.040 --> 0:59:11.680
<v Speaker 2>Submitted for your approval. All right, well, we're gonna go

0:59:11.680 --> 0:59:13.400
<v Speaker 2>ahead and close this episode out here, but we'd love

0:59:13.400 --> 0:59:15.000
<v Speaker 2>to hear from everyone out there if you have thoughts

0:59:15.000 --> 0:59:17.680
<v Speaker 2>about the science and history that we've discussed here, if

0:59:17.680 --> 0:59:20.720
<v Speaker 2>you have thoughts about this particular episode of the Twilight Zone,

0:59:21.440 --> 0:59:25.280
<v Speaker 2>your history with this episode right in as well, and

0:59:25.320 --> 0:59:29.400
<v Speaker 2>in general. Hey, you know, when New Year's rolls around

0:59:29.520 --> 0:59:32.120
<v Speaker 2>once more, maybe we'll do another one of these if

0:59:32.520 --> 0:59:35.680
<v Speaker 2>if that is something you want to see happen, let's

0:59:35.720 --> 0:59:37.600
<v Speaker 2>get on top of it. Write in and let us

0:59:37.640 --> 0:59:41.360
<v Speaker 2>know which episode we should consider. With the understanding that

0:59:41.360 --> 0:59:44.640
<v Speaker 2>we have already covered to serve man and I believe

0:59:44.640 --> 0:59:47.120
<v Speaker 2>we also discussed the one with the Grimlin on the

0:59:47.160 --> 0:59:49.280
<v Speaker 2>wing of the plane. We've done those two, so we've

0:59:49.280 --> 0:59:51.640
<v Speaker 2>done three now, but the rest are fair game.

0:59:52.120 --> 0:59:56.680
<v Speaker 3>I talked about the one where the guy is sentenced

0:59:56.680 --> 1:00:00.000
<v Speaker 3>to death and then he tells people that they are

1:00:00.040 --> 1:00:02.440
<v Speaker 3>all exists within his dream and if they put him

1:00:02.440 --> 1:00:04.320
<v Speaker 3>to death that they will stop existing.

1:00:04.720 --> 1:00:07.680
<v Speaker 2>Okay, so we've done. We've essentially covered four episodes of

1:00:07.680 --> 1:00:10.040
<v Speaker 2>the Twilight Zone. Yeah. Yeah, there are a lot more

1:00:10.080 --> 1:00:12.480
<v Speaker 2>of them, so there's still a lot of possibilities. So

1:00:12.520 --> 1:00:15.000
<v Speaker 2>if you have thoughts right in, we'd love to hear

1:00:15.040 --> 1:00:16.720
<v Speaker 2>from you. Just to remind it that Stuff to Blow

1:00:16.760 --> 1:00:19.000
<v Speaker 2>Your Mind is primarily a science and culture podcast, with

1:00:19.080 --> 1:00:22.320
<v Speaker 2>core episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and then we have

1:00:22.320 --> 1:00:24.640
<v Speaker 2>a short form episode on Wednesday and on Fridays, we

1:00:24.680 --> 1:00:26.720
<v Speaker 2>set aside most serious concerns to just talk about a

1:00:26.720 --> 1:00:28.520
<v Speaker 2>weird film on Weird House Cinema.

1:00:28.840 --> 1:00:32.560
<v Speaker 3>Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer JJ Posway.

1:00:32.960 --> 1:00:34.520
<v Speaker 3>If you would like to get in touch with us

1:00:34.520 --> 1:00:36.920
<v Speaker 3>with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest

1:00:36.920 --> 1:00:38.919
<v Speaker 3>a topic for the future, or just to say hello,

1:00:39.040 --> 1:00:41.600
<v Speaker 3>you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow

1:00:41.640 --> 1:00:49.600
<v Speaker 3>your Mind dot com.

1:00:49.760 --> 1:00:52.640
<v Speaker 1>Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For

1:00:52.760 --> 1:00:55.560
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