WEBVTT - Did a Volcano Eruption Really Help Invent the Bicycle? 0:00:03.279 --> 0:00:12.600 Welcome to Part Time Genius, the production of iHeartRadio. Guess what, Well, 0:00:12.760 --> 0:00:15.920 what's that Mango? So this is something I certainly haven't 0:00:15.920 --> 0:00:19.000 thought about that often, but it is much harder to 0:00:19.040 --> 0:00:21.720 balance on a bike that isn't moving compared to one 0:00:21.720 --> 0:00:22.040 that is. 0:00:22.280 --> 0:00:24.400 I'm glad to know you haven't thought about it that often, 0:00:24.480 --> 0:00:26.760 but it is actually strange when you think about it, 0:00:26.760 --> 0:00:28.680 like you think it would be harder to balance on 0:00:28.760 --> 0:00:31.880 something that's whipping along in like ten fifteen miles an hour. 0:00:31.760 --> 0:00:34.600 Right exactly, And it turns out the difficulty is mostly 0:00:34.640 --> 0:00:36.480 due to the fact that a bike only has two 0:00:36.520 --> 0:00:39.080 points of contact with the ground, like the thin parts 0:00:39.080 --> 0:00:41.560 of the front and back wheel, and typically you need 0:00:41.600 --> 0:00:43.639 three contact points with the ground to create a good 0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:46.360 base of support, and four is actually I deal with 0:00:46.400 --> 0:00:49.160 like a table or a bed. But what bikes lack 0:00:49.240 --> 0:00:52.640 and static stability, they actually make up for in dynamic stability, 0:00:52.760 --> 0:00:55.360 which is the ability to remain stable while moving forward. 0:00:55.760 --> 0:00:58.200 And it works because a rider can maneuver the bike's 0:00:58.200 --> 0:01:00.639 points of support, or in other words, the rider can 0:01:00.680 --> 0:01:03.360 reposition the wheels as needed to keep everything nice and 0:01:03.400 --> 0:01:06.039 balanced from one moment to the next. And the best 0:01:06.040 --> 0:01:08.960 part is riders usually steer like this without even realizing 0:01:09.040 --> 0:01:12.040 what they're doing. Like, that's how subtle these micro adjustments are. 0:01:12.160 --> 0:01:14.080 Yeah, I was actually going to say, I never feel 0:01:14.120 --> 0:01:17.200 like I'm that focused on, you know, like the handlebars 0:01:17.200 --> 0:01:18.920 when I'm out riding a bike. It's just one of 0:01:18.920 --> 0:01:22.000 those things where your brain goes into autopilot and you 0:01:22.040 --> 0:01:24.080 really just respond without thinking about it. 0:01:24.280 --> 0:01:25.920 Yeah, I mean, that's one thing I realized this week. 0:01:25.920 --> 0:01:27.640 There are a lot of things about bikes we don't 0:01:27.680 --> 0:01:30.760 really think about, from how we ride them, to where 0:01:30.760 --> 0:01:32.679 they came from, to what they have to do with 0:01:32.800 --> 0:01:36.000 horses deaths. So that's what I thought we could tackle today, 0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:39.039 all the weird questions about bikes we never think to ask. 0:01:39.120 --> 0:01:41.160 And this is usually where I suggest we dive right in. 0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:43.560 But since today it's all about bikes, why don't we 0:01:43.600 --> 0:02:00.400 put on our helmets and roll out instead. 0:02:07.200 --> 0:02:09.639 Hey, their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm 0:02:09.639 --> 0:02:12.000 Will Pearson, and as always I'm joined by my good 0:02:12.000 --> 0:02:14.400 friend mangesh hot Ticketter on the other side of the 0:02:14.400 --> 0:02:17.080 soundproof glass. He's been doing this all morning, and I 0:02:17.080 --> 0:02:18.760 gotta be honest, it's pretty impressive. 0:02:18.840 --> 0:02:19.839 He's saying there. 0:02:19.760 --> 0:02:24.480 Popping yet another wheelie his office chair. That's the world's 0:02:24.520 --> 0:02:29.359 most impressive producer on one of these wheelie chairs, Lowel Berlante. So, Mango, 0:02:29.720 --> 0:02:31.000 are you much of a bike er? I don't think 0:02:31.000 --> 0:02:32.720 I've ever seen you ride a bike before. 0:02:33.000 --> 0:02:35.040 I know. It's funny, you know what I was when 0:02:35.040 --> 0:02:36.440 I was a kid, Like I used to have this 0:02:36.480 --> 0:02:39.200 little BMX and I'd ride it around the neighborhood into 0:02:39.240 --> 0:02:41.320 the country store we had in our town and to 0:02:41.360 --> 0:02:43.560 get candy and whatever. But you know, when I hit 0:02:43.720 --> 0:02:46.639 sixth or seventh grade, like my dad got super to 0:02:46.800 --> 0:02:49.480 safety all of a sudden, and he put this long 0:02:49.720 --> 0:02:52.679 plastic stick on the back of our bike that had 0:02:52.760 --> 0:02:54.920 this orange flag at the top of it. Yeah, and 0:02:55.000 --> 0:02:57.120 he made us wear helmets. And suddenly it was like, 0:02:57.560 --> 0:02:59.000 I'm good, I think I can walk from here. 0:02:59.360 --> 0:02:59.880 Yeah. 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:03.040 Did you ride around much? Oh? 0:03:03.080 --> 0:03:05.280 I rode to school every single day. But yeah, I 0:03:05.400 --> 0:03:07.359 was that kid. You know, we were the first generation 0:03:07.560 --> 0:03:11.000 where some parents started making kids wear helmets, you know, 0:03:11.120 --> 0:03:12.920 So I wore a helmet every day. But yeah, we 0:03:12.919 --> 0:03:15.639 were definitely like these days kids don't think that much 0:03:15.680 --> 0:03:18.160 about it. But but yeah, it was a little cooler. 0:03:18.240 --> 0:03:20.280 They do a look cooler. Yeah, it's a very big 0:03:20.280 --> 0:03:22.880 difference day. Some of them have those mohawk helmets, which 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:24.000 are just so jealous of. 0:03:24.160 --> 0:03:26.120 Yeah, I know, the helmets really are so much cooler 0:03:26.120 --> 0:03:29.000 with the mohawks. But let's get off my hesitation about 0:03:29.000 --> 0:03:31.200 bikes because I still don't really ride that much, and 0:03:31.280 --> 0:03:34.440 talk about a different weird story that bikes were invented 0:03:34.480 --> 0:03:37.000 because of volcano killed all the horses. 0:03:36.960 --> 0:03:40.080 Right, of course. No, Actually, I think you're going to 0:03:40.120 --> 0:03:41.760 have to explain this one because I have no idea 0:03:41.760 --> 0:03:42.600 what you're talking about. 0:03:42.760 --> 0:03:44.960 So today we tend to think of bikes mostly as 0:03:45.000 --> 0:03:48.120 recreational items, but their invention was actually a matter of necessity, 0:03:48.200 --> 0:03:51.520 so it was a weird, tragic necessity. Here's what happened. 0:03:51.520 --> 0:03:55.240 In eighteen fifteen, a volcano named Mount Tambora erupted on 0:03:55.240 --> 0:03:58.880 an island in Indonesia, and that eruption was and still is, 0:03:58.920 --> 0:04:01.960 the largest eruption in recorded history. It was so bad 0:04:02.040 --> 0:04:04.800 that the blast all but wiped out the island's inhabitants, 0:04:05.200 --> 0:04:07.560 and to make matters worse, the neighboring islands became so 0:04:07.680 --> 0:04:09.960 choked with ash and smoke that tens of thousands of 0:04:09.960 --> 0:04:12.760 people died from famine and disease in the months that followed. 0:04:13.200 --> 0:04:16.120 But here's the thing. The effects were even more widespread 0:04:16.160 --> 0:04:19.280 than just that area. In fact, they were worldwide, and 0:04:19.640 --> 0:04:22.480 such a massive amount of ash and sulfur dioxide had 0:04:22.480 --> 0:04:25.400 been shot up into the atmosphere that actually blocked sunlight 0:04:25.480 --> 0:04:27.919 and disrupted weather patterns all over the world for a 0:04:27.960 --> 0:04:28.760 full three years. 0:04:28.880 --> 0:04:31.440 Wow. So this was one of those massive eruptions. It 0:04:31.560 --> 0:04:34.760 actually affected the Earth's climate, the whole Earth's climate. 0:04:35.080 --> 0:04:38.000 Yeah, it did so. The average global temperature actually dropped 0:04:38.000 --> 0:04:40.400 almost a full degree after the blast, and while that 0:04:40.400 --> 0:04:42.800 doesn't sound huge, it was enough to make eighteen sixteen 0:04:42.839 --> 0:04:45.640 the coldest year on record since the fourteen hundreds. It 0:04:45.720 --> 0:04:48.680 was so bad that historians now referred to eighteen sixteen 0:04:48.760 --> 0:04:50.160 as the year without Summer. 0:04:50.400 --> 0:04:52.520 Yeah, it's a pretty depressing label for a year. But 0:04:53.040 --> 0:04:54.480 all right, Well, what happened next? 0:04:54.640 --> 0:04:56.760 I guess the temperature drop and the lack of sunlight 0:04:56.800 --> 0:05:00.880 actually led to all kinds of global problems like versus froze, 0:05:01.240 --> 0:05:04.279 crops failed, disease broke out, and lots and lots of 0:05:04.279 --> 0:05:06.920 people and animals starved to death and In fact, there 0:05:07.000 --> 0:05:09.440 was so little food in Europe that the vast majority 0:05:09.480 --> 0:05:12.359 of horses and draft animals wound up being slaughtered and 0:05:12.400 --> 0:05:15.440 eaten by their owners who were themselves starving. And it 0:05:15.560 --> 0:05:18.760 was bleak and tragic, obviously, But you know, if there's 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:21.719 any bright side to it, it's that two great creations 0:05:21.720 --> 0:05:25.839 were inspired by this dreary atmosphere, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein novel 0:05:26.200 --> 0:05:29.200 and Baron Carl von Dreys's early bicycle. 0:05:29.360 --> 0:05:32.320 Ye know, I'm tempted. I've got a couple good frankensteinfachts 0:05:32.320 --> 0:05:34.080 that I'm ready to share with you for some reason, 0:05:34.120 --> 0:05:37.760 but I'm going to be disciplined. Let's stick to the 0:05:37.760 --> 0:05:39.080 bike for today, I think. So. 0:05:39.279 --> 0:05:42.360 In Germany, this guy Andres worked both as an inventor 0:05:42.480 --> 0:05:45.120 and also as a forestry master for the government, and 0:05:45.279 --> 0:05:47.359 this meant that he had to travel between the different 0:05:47.360 --> 0:05:49.080 parts of the forest that he was in charge of, 0:05:49.440 --> 0:05:52.040 which became pretty difficult once all the horses in the 0:05:52.080 --> 0:05:56.359 region had been eaten. So basically Von Dreis needed this reliable, 0:05:56.480 --> 0:05:58.839 horseless way to get around, and the solution he came 0:05:58.920 --> 0:06:02.400 up with was this two wheeled running machine or lout machine, 0:06:02.400 --> 0:06:05.239 as he called it. His device had no pedals, and 0:06:05.279 --> 0:06:07.360 as the name implies, the riders would actually have to 0:06:07.440 --> 0:06:09.919 run to propel it, kicking off the ground with their feet, 0:06:10.000 --> 0:06:12.160 kind of like you might on a scooter. Aside from 0:06:12.160 --> 0:06:14.280 the lack of pedals, though, the design looked pretty close 0:06:14.279 --> 0:06:16.400 to what we're used to today. It's got kind of 0:06:16.440 --> 0:06:18.360 like the two in line wheels, a seed, a pair 0:06:18.400 --> 0:06:20.279 of handlebars, so fairly similar. 0:06:20.440 --> 0:06:22.200 Yeah, but it almost makes me think of like those 0:06:22.240 --> 0:06:24.520 little balanced bikes that toddlers use, right. 0:06:24.839 --> 0:06:27.080 Totally, So it was exactly one of those kind of 0:06:27.080 --> 0:06:30.320 this protobike and Andre's Pattens's design in eighteen eighteen, and 0:06:30.640 --> 0:06:33.280 soon after that other manufacturers in England and France begin 0:06:33.360 --> 0:06:36.159 putting their own spins on the invention. So France comes 0:06:36.200 --> 0:06:38.000 up with a pretty cool name for the version, it's 0:06:38.000 --> 0:06:42.440 called a velocipede. England goes the other way. They call 0:06:42.480 --> 0:06:44.440 their bikes dandy horses. 0:06:44.160 --> 0:06:47.560 Which, yeah, one name is definitely cooler than the other. 0:06:47.720 --> 0:06:51.600 Yeah yeah, I mean, I guess it's a tribute to 0:06:51.640 --> 0:06:55.920 their horses, which you know they'd eaten. But it wasn't 0:06:55.960 --> 0:06:58.800 long before the pedalist bikes made their way straightside as well. 0:06:58.960 --> 0:07:00.880 I mean, if you look at the timeline, one of 0:07:00.880 --> 0:07:03.480 the things that's funny is that it takes about another 0:07:03.640 --> 0:07:06.359 seventy years to go from these balanced bikes to the 0:07:06.480 --> 0:07:08.720 you know, like the gear and chain models with pedals. 0:07:08.920 --> 0:07:10.960 Why do you think that is well, I mean, I 0:07:11.000 --> 0:07:12.920 think part of the delay was that people were not 0:07:13.080 --> 0:07:15.480 at all convinced that it was possible to balance on 0:07:15.520 --> 0:07:18.080 a two wheeled bike, you know, while pedaling, and not 0:07:18.280 --> 0:07:20.760 just fall over. And so it's exactly what you were 0:07:20.760 --> 0:07:22.800 talking about at the top of the show. But a 0:07:22.840 --> 0:07:26.240 few decades of innovation eventually got us there. This was 0:07:26.280 --> 0:07:29.320 by the eighteen nineties, and the truth is, the basic 0:07:29.400 --> 0:07:31.920 form of the bike has stayed pretty much the same 0:07:32.120 --> 0:07:36.240 ever since then. But even with better bikes and growing popularity, 0:07:36.320 --> 0:07:39.360 the cyclist of the era still had a huge obstacle 0:07:39.440 --> 0:07:41.640 ahead of them, the main one being that all the 0:07:41.720 --> 0:07:46.160 roads pretty much everywhere were terrible. So they were unpaved, uneven, 0:07:46.680 --> 0:07:50.320 littered with holes, and easily turned into mud. So, as 0:07:50.320 --> 0:07:53.120 one New York Times article put it, the country roads 0:07:53.120 --> 0:07:57.240 where a Martian spring a sahara in summer, frozen stiff 0:07:57.240 --> 0:07:59.960 and later autumn, and a swamp wherever there was thought 0:08:00.200 --> 0:08:03.360 in winter, and so the urban roads weren't really that 0:08:03.520 --> 0:08:05.760 much better. I mean, they were often covered in wood 0:08:05.760 --> 0:08:08.680 planks at least, which made riding a little bit smoother, 0:08:08.800 --> 0:08:11.960 but still you'd sometimes have cyclists riding on the sidewalk 0:08:12.120 --> 0:08:14.600 just to get a break from this rough ride, and 0:08:14.640 --> 0:08:17.880 so this inevitably led to accidents where pedestrians would get 0:08:17.960 --> 0:08:20.640 knocked over, and then people would complain that bikes should 0:08:20.680 --> 0:08:23.600 be banned entirely. So it was a tough time to 0:08:23.640 --> 0:08:26.080 be a bike fan or a wheelman as they were 0:08:26.120 --> 0:08:26.760 called back then. 0:08:26.920 --> 0:08:28.520 How did things get better for bikers then? 0:08:28.600 --> 0:08:31.800 Well, instead of giving up, these cyclists formed advocacy groups, 0:08:31.840 --> 0:08:35.559 including the League of American Wheelmen, and they began advocating 0:08:35.600 --> 0:08:38.280 for paved roads throughout the country. There are more than 0:08:38.320 --> 0:08:41.120 one hundred thousand of these people that joined the cause, 0:08:41.160 --> 0:08:43.880 and due to the success of their grassroots efforts, the 0:08:44.040 --> 0:08:47.400 nation got its first paved roads in eighteen ninety eight. 0:08:47.760 --> 0:08:49.680 So it's really no stretch to say that the early 0:08:49.720 --> 0:08:52.719 work of these cyclists literally paved the way for the 0:08:52.840 --> 0:08:55.880 national highway system. I had been waiting so long to 0:08:55.920 --> 0:08:58.200 be able to say that literally paved alay. 0:08:59.080 --> 0:09:01.800 That's pretty odd. Incredible both the fact and you're punning. 0:09:01.840 --> 0:09:05.000 But since we're giving the real men their due, let's 0:09:05.000 --> 0:09:06.559 talk a little bit about the real women of the 0:09:06.640 --> 0:09:09.160 day as well. Because as big as the bike craze 0:09:09.240 --> 0:09:12.040 was in general, from a cultural perspective, it was probably 0:09:12.200 --> 0:09:14.920 most significant to women. Before the bike came along in 0:09:14.960 --> 0:09:17.640 the nineteenth century, women had been expected to travel either 0:09:17.679 --> 0:09:20.880 on foot or on horseback or in a carriage. They 0:09:20.880 --> 0:09:23.280 were usually accompanied by a chaperone of some kind, and 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:25.560 they rarely got to travel at speeds any faster than 0:09:25.600 --> 0:09:28.679 a leisurely trot. The bike changed all of that by 0:09:28.679 --> 0:09:30.520 giving women the chance to travel with a whole new 0:09:30.640 --> 0:09:33.520 level of independence. It completely flipped the table on this 0:09:33.600 --> 0:09:36.280 old fashioned view of women as the frails, slow going 0:09:36.400 --> 0:09:37.120 gentler sex. 0:09:37.360 --> 0:09:39.320 Yeah, and I feel like I can finish the story 0:09:39.320 --> 0:09:41.960 because I would imagine that newfound freedom was met with 0:09:42.000 --> 0:09:46.120 complete approval from the public and no backlash. Kind of 0:09:46.200 --> 0:09:47.920 changed everything for the better forever. 0:09:48.000 --> 0:09:51.559 Right of course, so you know, there had to be detractors, 0:09:51.640 --> 0:09:53.679 and many of them were saying that being able to 0:09:53.720 --> 0:09:57.079 travel free and unsupervised might somehow corrupt the women's morals. 0:09:57.600 --> 0:09:59.920 In fact, that there was even a business that crop 0:10:00.200 --> 0:10:02.480 up to help guard against this threat. It was called 0:10:02.480 --> 0:10:06.160 the Cyclist Chaperone Association, and according to its ad the 0:10:06.280 --> 0:10:10.679 company provided gentlewomen of good social position to conduct ladies 0:10:10.720 --> 0:10:13.800 on bicycle excursions and tours so nervous husbands could be 0:10:13.840 --> 0:10:16.760 put to ease. But you know, it wasn't just these 0:10:16.840 --> 0:10:19.240 husbands who were worried. Newspaper columnists all over the country 0:10:19.280 --> 0:10:21.920 were also baffled by the sudden appearance of wheelwomen. And 0:10:22.400 --> 0:10:25.640 here's what the confused editors at the San Francisco Call 0:10:25.679 --> 0:10:29.160 wrote in eighteen ninety five. Quote, it doesn't really matter 0:10:29.280 --> 0:10:32.040 much where one individual young lady is going on her wheels. 0:10:32.240 --> 0:10:34.240 It may be she's going to the park, or to 0:10:34.320 --> 0:10:37.200 the store for a dozen hairpins, or to get a dollar, 0:10:37.559 --> 0:10:41.280 or to get a doily pattern of somebody, or a 0:10:41.320 --> 0:10:44.800 recipe for removing tens and freckles. Right right, of course, 0:10:44.960 --> 0:10:47.120 let that be as it may. What the interested public 0:10:47.160 --> 0:10:49.560 wishes to know is where are all the women on 0:10:49.600 --> 0:10:54.360 wheels going? You know, just one woman on an aaron 0:10:54.480 --> 0:10:56.640 for I guess a freckle cream is the type of 0:10:56.679 --> 0:10:59.480 thing you can excuse. But dozens of them traveling without 0:10:59.520 --> 0:11:01.880 knowing where the going is something to rail against. And 0:11:02.240 --> 0:11:05.520 the truth is, the outcry against women riding bikes did 0:11:05.559 --> 0:11:09.280 get pretty serious. So female cyclists were frequently harassed as 0:11:09.320 --> 0:11:12.439 they rode. Men and women would both taunt the riders, 0:11:12.720 --> 0:11:15.719 demanding they go home where they belong. Some women were 0:11:15.720 --> 0:11:19.679 banned from public places where male cyclists were permitted, and 0:11:20.520 --> 0:11:23.199 in the worst cases, the female cyclists were actually assaulted 0:11:23.240 --> 0:11:24.160 with rocks and bricks. 0:11:24.240 --> 0:11:25.600 Yeah, I mean, it sounds like there's a lot more 0:11:25.600 --> 0:11:28.959 at play here than just not wanting women to ride bikes, right. 0:11:28.960 --> 0:11:30.880 Yeah, definitely, And I do want to talk a little 0:11:30.880 --> 0:11:34.199 bit more about what exactly was fueling that outrage, including 0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:36.679 the role bikes played in the women's suffrage movement. But 0:11:36.720 --> 0:11:38.640 before we get into that, let's take a quick break. 0:11:52.559 --> 0:11:54.679 You're listening to Part Time Genius and we're talking about 0:11:54.720 --> 0:11:59.000 all the unexpected ways that bicycles changed the world. All right, mego, 0:11:59.080 --> 0:12:00.880 So before the break, you were saying that all the 0:12:00.920 --> 0:12:04.480 public outcry in the early twentieth century wasn't just about 0:12:04.559 --> 0:12:05.800 the bike's women were. 0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:08.800 Riding, right, Yeah, So the outrage was also partly about 0:12:08.840 --> 0:12:12.040 what women wore while riding bikes, So long skirts and 0:12:12.120 --> 0:12:14.920 dresses posed as a safety risk for female cyclists because 0:12:14.920 --> 0:12:17.760 they could get caught in the bike chains and spokes. 0:12:17.960 --> 0:12:20.920 And in light of this, the modest fashion of the 0:12:20.960 --> 0:12:23.840 Victorian age, it all started to give way and all 0:12:23.840 --> 0:12:26.040 of a sudden, women were, I guess, taking up the 0:12:26.080 --> 0:12:30.000 scandalous practice of wearing ankle bearing bloomers in public. This 0:12:30.160 --> 0:12:32.760 was an appalling development for some people, and in fact, 0:12:32.760 --> 0:12:37.000 one US newspaper referred to the bloomers as a gateway garment. Man. 0:12:37.120 --> 0:12:39.600 I mean it starts with wearing bloomers, but the next thing, 0:12:39.640 --> 0:12:41.680 you know, like she's moved on to book learning, you 0:12:41.679 --> 0:12:42.079 know what I mean. 0:12:42.160 --> 0:12:46.040 It's just dangerous, I know. And when you think about it, 0:12:46.160 --> 0:12:48.679 all that kind of criticism really just proved the level 0:12:48.720 --> 0:12:51.880 of cultural impact the women's movement was having. And probably 0:12:51.920 --> 0:12:54.240 the best example of that is the bicycle actually became 0:12:54.280 --> 0:12:57.120 a symbol of women's rights. This was both with Susan B. 0:12:57.240 --> 0:13:02.120 Anthony and Elizabeth Katie Stanton's credited as saying that women 0:13:02.200 --> 0:13:05.000 were quote riding the suffrage on the bicycle. 0:13:05.480 --> 0:13:07.480 I mean that was literally the case, though, right, I mean, 0:13:07.480 --> 0:13:10.440 suffragettes relied on bikes when they were out campaigning for 0:13:10.480 --> 0:13:13.240 the vote. They might not have won nearly as much 0:13:13.280 --> 0:13:16.160 support as they did without bikes to help them reach 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:16.920 all these people. 0:13:17.200 --> 0:13:19.760 Yeah, that's true. In fact, The Atlantic ran this great 0:13:19.840 --> 0:13:22.160 article a few years ago about just how much of 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:25.040 a game changer bikes were for women. It closes on 0:13:25.080 --> 0:13:27.319 this really beautiful sentiment that I wanted to share. It's 0:13:27.360 --> 0:13:31.240 from the author, Adrian Lefrance, and this is what she writes. Quote, 0:13:31.480 --> 0:13:33.600 Imagine what it must have felt like in an age 0:13:33.600 --> 0:13:36.079 when American women were still decades from the right to 0:13:36.160 --> 0:13:39.560 vote and inundated with men's opinions about their ankles for 0:13:39.600 --> 0:13:42.320 a women to go outside, hop on her bicycle, and 0:13:42.400 --> 0:13:45.040 ride as fast as she could wherever she wanted, leaving 0:13:45.040 --> 0:13:47.240 the rest of the world wondering where she might go next. 0:13:47.360 --> 0:13:49.880 Yeah. I mean, maybe she's out looking for freckle cream. 0:13:50.400 --> 0:13:53.760 But maybe she's not. It's still really a mystery about it. 0:13:53.800 --> 0:13:56.640 But all right, let's talk about another public good that 0:13:56.720 --> 0:13:59.640 bikes are good for, which is they make perfect ambulances 0:13:59.679 --> 0:14:02.640 for ingested cities. So one of the first people to 0:14:02.720 --> 0:14:05.720 demonstrate just how effective a bike ambulance unit could be 0:14:05.840 --> 0:14:08.840 was this guy named Tom Lynch. And so what's interesting 0:14:08.920 --> 0:14:12.040 is that Lynch is a pro BMX rid turned London 0:14:12.160 --> 0:14:15.000 Ambulance driver. This really isn't that long ago. This was 0:14:15.000 --> 0:14:17.520 back in the eighties and nineties. Lynch was basically the 0:14:17.559 --> 0:14:20.520 Tony Hawk of BMX, but as he got a little 0:14:20.520 --> 0:14:23.040 bit older, he wanted what he considered, you know, a 0:14:23.120 --> 0:14:26.080 normal job, and for Lynch that meant training with the 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:29.720 London Ambulance Service and becoming a licensed EMT, which he 0:14:29.760 --> 0:14:33.120 did in nineteen ninety four. But the more time Tom 0:14:33.200 --> 0:14:35.400 spent stuck in traffic on his way to a call, 0:14:35.520 --> 0:14:38.200 the more frustrated he became. So he often told his 0:14:38.240 --> 0:14:40.920 colleagues how much faster they'd be able to respond to 0:14:40.960 --> 0:14:44.240 calls if only they could use bikes instead of vans. 0:14:44.880 --> 0:14:47.040 No one else thought much of this idea, but Tom 0:14:47.160 --> 0:14:50.760 kept pushing it until finally, in nineteen ninety nine, Tom 0:14:50.800 --> 0:14:54.080 got permission to launch a trial version of the Ambulance 0:14:54.120 --> 0:14:57.800 Cycle Responsive Unit or CRU, which is just a great idea. 0:14:58.120 --> 0:14:59.920 Yeah, I love that. You finally just kind of wore 0:15:00.240 --> 0:15:02.440 everyone down by talking about it all this time. 0:15:02.520 --> 0:15:04.880 Yeah, so yeah. Anyway, Tom used his connections in the 0:15:04.880 --> 0:15:07.280 bike industry to make sure all the top gear was 0:15:07.320 --> 0:15:10.040 on hand for his big trial run and He loaded 0:15:10.080 --> 0:15:13.040 up his bikes with all sorts of customized equipment, including 0:15:13.080 --> 0:15:16.480 a siren, special medic bags, and there was this fifty 0:15:16.560 --> 0:15:20.119 pound defibrillator, which are much lighter these days of course. 0:15:20.080 --> 0:15:22.360 And so you know, he set up the system like 0:15:22.920 --> 0:15:25.280 what are his metrics for success? Lay like, what's the 0:15:25.320 --> 0:15:26.240 goal of this? Exactly? 0:15:26.560 --> 0:15:29.720 Well, basically to be able to successfully answer nine to 0:15:29.800 --> 0:15:32.000 nine to nine calls in the West of London. And 0:15:32.120 --> 0:15:34.600 if you asked Tom, he says that he could tell 0:15:34.640 --> 0:15:37.720 early on that the new approach was definitely going to work. 0:15:38.120 --> 0:15:40.720 He told one interviewer, I was based around the West 0:15:40.800 --> 0:15:42.720 End and the calls were coming in and I was 0:15:42.760 --> 0:15:45.640 doing my best to ease pressure on the ambulance cruise. 0:15:46.120 --> 0:15:49.160 I would race the incidents, flying past traffic, cycling where 0:15:49.160 --> 0:15:52.720 motor vehicles couldn't go, and getting to patients quickly. I 0:15:52.800 --> 0:15:56.840 went to five incidents within one hour. I treated patients, 0:15:56.960 --> 0:16:00.960 canceled the ambulances and used other medical centers as opposed 0:16:01.000 --> 0:16:04.440 to the accident and emergency. And that last part is 0:16:04.480 --> 0:16:06.440 really the key in all of this, Like the bike 0:16:06.440 --> 0:16:09.520 EMT's free up ambulances to respond to the calls that 0:16:09.720 --> 0:16:14.440 actually require hospital treatment, not just the on site care. Yeah, 0:16:14.600 --> 0:16:17.480 super interesting. And one group that benefits from this big 0:16:17.520 --> 0:16:20.880 time is their heart attack victims, like where every second 0:16:20.960 --> 0:16:24.080 you're not breathing counts so much and so it really 0:16:24.080 --> 0:16:25.200 helped a ton on that front. 0:16:25.440 --> 0:16:28.160 So where does this cycle crew operate? Is it mainly 0:16:28.200 --> 0:16:30.200 like a London thing or has it expanded? 0:16:30.360 --> 0:16:32.560 No, the unit Tom found that is now composed of 0:16:32.640 --> 0:16:35.440 several teams that operate all over London. More than one 0:16:35.480 --> 0:16:39.800 hundred paramedics and trained volunteers are involved. But other similar 0:16:39.800 --> 0:16:42.640 teams have started popping up in major cities across Europe, 0:16:42.800 --> 0:16:46.040 some of the US, even China and Japan. So each 0:16:46.080 --> 0:16:49.200 of those cycle response teams now responds to thousands of 0:16:49.240 --> 0:16:51.720 calls every year. And it's all because a big hearted 0:16:51.720 --> 0:16:54.920 bmx or just couldn't stand being stuck in traffic. 0:16:55.560 --> 0:16:57.560 I love that. Well. I know we wanted to circle 0:16:57.600 --> 0:17:00.320 back and talk about the neuroscience behind biking, but that 0:17:00.440 --> 0:17:02.640 was such a feel good story. I just want to 0:17:02.640 --> 0:17:04.200 bask him the glow for a minute. Why don't we 0:17:04.200 --> 0:17:06.040 take another quick break and then we can jump right 0:17:06.080 --> 0:17:22.120 back in. Welcome back to part time Genius. Okay, Well, 0:17:22.160 --> 0:17:25.760 so today's show is clearly all about bicycles. But nonetheless, 0:17:25.800 --> 0:17:27.800 I have to tell you about something amazing I found 0:17:27.800 --> 0:17:30.760 out about this week, and it's all about unicycles. 0:17:31.160 --> 0:17:33.920 M you know, this is a bike episode, so I'm 0:17:33.960 --> 0:17:37.560 not sure that's a little Frankenstein fack no unicycle and 0:17:37.680 --> 0:17:41.120 Loell is definitely shaking his head. But I actually because 0:17:41.119 --> 0:17:43.359 he's doing that, I kind of like breaking Loll's rules. 0:17:43.359 --> 0:17:46.840 So if you insist, let's hear the story. Okay, So 0:17:46.920 --> 0:17:50.280 here's my fact. Unicycles have basically become a cornerstone of 0:17:50.359 --> 0:17:52.200 Japan's educational curriculum. 0:17:52.400 --> 0:17:54.760 Is Japan like really into clowns or something? I've just 0:17:54.800 --> 0:17:56.800 somehow never noticed this. How did that happen? 0:17:57.320 --> 0:17:58.920 I don't know that there are any countries that are 0:17:58.960 --> 0:18:03.840 still really into In Japan's case, the real apeeal is 0:18:03.880 --> 0:18:05.800 that unicycling can be a good way to teach and 0:18:05.840 --> 0:18:09.439 improve both motor skills and balance, and the idea to 0:18:09.560 --> 0:18:12.240 use unicycles in schools with the result of a series 0:18:12.240 --> 0:18:14.679 of studies done in Japan in the nineteen eighties, I 0:18:14.680 --> 0:18:17.119 guess researchers found that children who learned to ride a 0:18:17.240 --> 0:18:19.920 unicycle were more successful at school and in their home 0:18:19.960 --> 0:18:21.200 lives than children who didn't. 0:18:21.320 --> 0:18:23.359 It's pretty interesting. So did they figure out why that 0:18:23.400 --> 0:18:24.080 would be the case? 0:18:24.200 --> 0:18:26.679 I guess the leading theory is that it's because the 0:18:26.800 --> 0:18:29.760 high level of concentration that it takes to ride a 0:18:29.840 --> 0:18:32.600 unicycle like that kind of focus engages a different area 0:18:32.640 --> 0:18:35.719 of the brain than other physical activities, including biking. 0:18:35.920 --> 0:18:38.680 So, based on these findings, Japanese schools started teaching kids 0:18:38.720 --> 0:18:40.040 to ride unicycles. 0:18:40.280 --> 0:18:43.879 Yeah, I guess the Ministry of Education added unicycling to 0:18:43.960 --> 0:18:47.080 the p curriculum in all of the country's elementary schools. 0:18:47.119 --> 0:18:50.000 But Japan's schools aren't the only place you actually find this. Today, 0:18:50.000 --> 0:18:52.560 there are unicycle programs in schools across the US, and 0:18:52.920 --> 0:18:55.440 more and more educators are starting to see unicycles as 0:18:55.440 --> 0:18:58.480 a tool not just for brain development, but for character development. 0:18:58.720 --> 0:19:01.680 So you think about people like the psychologist and Angela 0:19:01.800 --> 0:19:05.080 Duckworth who talks about like the most important metric for 0:19:05.080 --> 0:19:08.880 a person's successes is grit, because that's kind of what 0:19:09.240 --> 0:19:11.560 makes you keep trying when you fail instead of giving up. 0:19:11.600 --> 0:19:15.600 So riding a unicycle is so unnatural and so awkward 0:19:15.600 --> 0:19:18.040 and hard that the kids in these programs fall off 0:19:18.080 --> 0:19:20.159 dozens of times before they finally start to get it, 0:19:20.200 --> 0:19:23.360 and it's sort of like thought to reinforce that perseverance. 0:19:23.720 --> 0:19:26.200 Yeah, it kind of reminds me of that famous Samuel 0:19:26.240 --> 0:19:28.800