Speaker 1: Guess what, Mango? What's that? Will? All Right? So, I
Speaker 1: know we're doing this episode on inventions, and I wanted
Speaker 1: to give you an update. I'm not giving up on
Speaker 1: my invention, and tell me about that again. You know
Speaker 1: the pudding truck. We talked about this putting ruck. So
Speaker 1: this is the one where you take one of those
Speaker 1: cement trucks with this huge spinny things on the back
Speaker 1: and fill it with pudding, right, yeah, exactly. I mean
Speaker 1: I've had this vision for years and one day, I mean,
Speaker 1: this is probably when I retire, but I'm determined to
Speaker 1: do this. I don't know how much it costs to
Speaker 1: buy one of these trucks new, but we'll figure that
Speaker 1: out in the future. But I'm determined to make this
Speaker 1: thing work. And you know, I'm planning to compete with
Speaker 1: the ice cream truck. I mean, go head to head
Speaker 1: with the ice cream truck. I want to drive around neighborhoods,
Speaker 1: but you know, instead, the pudding will come pouring down
Speaker 1: that cement shoot. Kids will just hold their hands out
Speaker 1: and the pudding will just like rush into them, and
Speaker 1: the people are gonna love it. I've just I've got
Speaker 1: to figure out how to pass the health code stuff first,
Speaker 1: but but again I'll figure that out later. Yeah, those
Speaker 1: minor details. So I know it's brilliant, but it seems
Speaker 1: like a bit of a stretch to call it an invention,
Speaker 1: and especially when I think about all the cool stuff
Speaker 1: we read about this week. I mean, I I certainly
Speaker 1: don't want to crush your dreams. You should, you should
Speaker 1: definitely pursue this, but we should probably also talk about
Speaker 1: some of the most important inventions that shaped the modern economy.
Speaker 1: What do you say? All right, well, one day I
Speaker 1: think you'll understand more mango, But all right, let's get started. Hey,
Speaker 1: their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will
Speaker 1: Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good friend
Speaker 1: men Guestow, Ticketter and the man on the other side
Speaker 1: of the soundproof class who's giving us not one but
Speaker 1: two thumbs up. Thanks Tristan as our producer, Tristan McNeil.
Speaker 1: And today we're looking at some of the revolutionary ideas
Speaker 1: and breakthrough innovations that have helped make our economy what
Speaker 1: it is today. I mean, it's kind of crazy when
Speaker 1: you stop and think about how quickly humanity has gone
Speaker 1: from scattered, nomadic tribe to this current information based age,
Speaker 1: and of course a few things have happened in between.
Speaker 1: But it's pretty amazing to think about all this progress.
Speaker 1: Even the concept of money is, you know, what it
Speaker 1: looks like, what it can buy for us, All that
Speaker 1: has changed along the way too. And all this rapid
Speaker 1: evolution is due in no small part to some very
Speaker 1: unexpected consequences, you know, the surprising, often life changing impacts
Speaker 1: of a few key people and ideas and inventions. And
Speaker 1: so that's what we're planning to cover today. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: we should definitely say upfront that today's episode is a
Speaker 1: little different than most. The theme and content is directly
Speaker 1: inspired by a new book out this month called Fifty
Speaker 1: Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy, and our guest is
Speaker 1: actually the best selling author of that book, Tim Harford.
Speaker 1: So Tim is a rare cripple threat. He's an author, broadcaster,
Speaker 1: and an economists so we're super excited to talk to
Speaker 1: him and see what juicy details he has about about
Speaker 1: the world economy. Yeah, and it probably sounds a little
Speaker 1: strange to some of our listeners to hear us talking
Speaker 1: about the juicy details. I mean, it sounds a little
Speaker 1: strange to me, to be honest. Yeah, so you mean
Speaker 1: the fact that economics can be interesting pretty much? Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean a lot of people assume economics is this
Speaker 1: extremely complex and therefore unapproachable science, and you know, people
Speaker 1: feel like it's too abstract of a concept to truly
Speaker 1: wrap your head around and make it real to us,
Speaker 1: you know, for us to really understand it. And it
Speaker 1: has this reputation of being kind of boring or tedious,
Speaker 1: and some people even call it the dismal science for
Speaker 1: this reason. Yeah, which is true. A lot of people
Speaker 1: call it that because economics can lead to some pretty
Speaker 1: upsetting outcomes, like the idea that robot labor will one
Speaker 1: day supplant the need for human workers. But I actually
Speaker 1: read about how that nickname originated, and the funny thing
Speaker 1: is it really points to the merits of economics rather
Speaker 1: than his drawbacks. Oh really, I haven't. I haven't read this.
Speaker 1: What did you read? Yes? So, according to this article
Speaker 1: in The Atlantic, Thomas Carlyle, a Scottish writer and philosopher,
Speaker 1: called economics the dismal science when he was writing in
Speaker 1: defense of the slave trade in the West Indies, and
Speaker 1: he was actual arguing that white plantation owners should be
Speaker 1: able to force black plantation workers to be their slaves.
Speaker 1: But to Carlins chagrin, he wasn't able to justify this
Speaker 1: by looking at the economics. Apparently, like supply and demand
Speaker 1: are more in favor of leaving people alone rather than
Speaker 1: forcing them in to do labor. Wow, I don't think
Speaker 1: i'd heard that. So, so Carlisle called economics a dismal
Speaker 1: science because it wouldn't back up slavery. Is that what
Speaker 1: you're saying, Yeah, And then he railed against political economy,
Speaker 1: calling it a jury, desolate and indeed quite adject and
Speaker 1: distressing science, what we might call the dismal science. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So if you really trace the term back to its root,
Speaker 1: it's a nickname that connects economics with morality, and it's
Speaker 1: also this argument against racism and slavery. Like Carlo considered
Speaker 1: that to be a failing of economic thought. But obviously
Speaker 1: for any decent person that's a really good thing. That's
Speaker 1: pretty cool that that's where that came from. So the
Speaker 1: dismal science is actually a tool for making the world
Speaker 1: less dismal. Exactly. So, well, why don't we go ahead
Speaker 1: and talk about one of the big inventions and and
Speaker 1: one that also made life less dismal, especially during the
Speaker 1: hot summers. We're talking about air conditioning, yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, we all know air conditioning was
Speaker 1: a big deal, but sometimes you do have to stop
Speaker 1: and really consider the impact of an invention like this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I'd say air conditioning is one of those inventions
Speaker 1: whose impact is always staring you right in the face,
Speaker 1: yet you never really quite make the connection. And and
Speaker 1: I remember hearing how much like how much less legislation
Speaker 1: was passed by the founding fathers and and future congresses
Speaker 1: because of the summer heat. But uh, you know, just
Speaker 1: think about skyscrapers, like they're these beautiful bastions of finance
Speaker 1: and commerce. But without air conditioning, we'd never be able
Speaker 1: to occupy those buildings, and people on the higher floors
Speaker 1: they'd be baked live. You know, it's weird. I had
Speaker 1: never really thought about that, But that's a good point.
Speaker 1: And air conditioning is definitely good for all kinds of business.
Speaker 1: I mean, actually, one when you were saying skyscrapers, I
Speaker 1: was thinking about shopping malls. I mean, there's no way
Speaker 1: those would exist. No one would want to walk around
Speaker 1: in them because it would just be too hot in there,
Speaker 1: but they were a huge part of the American economy
Speaker 1: for deck aids. Yeah, and even if you look at
Speaker 1: online shopping, like remember computers stopped working all together if
Speaker 1: they get too hot. So really, without air conditioning, we
Speaker 1: wouldn't have the vast server farms that make online shopping
Speaker 1: and really the Internet itself possible. Yeah, that's very true.
Speaker 1: And it's hard to imagine cities in the Nations Sun Belt,
Speaker 1: you know, ever, of really emerging without air conditioning. We
Speaker 1: just think about how hot it's been here this summer
Speaker 1: in Atlanta. I can't imagine there's anyway you would have
Speaker 1: made the move to Atlanta if we didn't have air conditioning,
Speaker 1: not when I looked at it, like all the states
Speaker 1: in the Sun Belt, so there's Georgia, but also like Arizona,
Speaker 1: New Mexico, Texas, Southern California. It's amazing to think they
Speaker 1: all experienced population booms during the second half of the
Speaker 1: twentieth century, you know, when air conditioning became commonplace and
Speaker 1: people's homes and offices, so they it's a boom. But
Speaker 1: like how big of a boom are we talking? Well?
Speaker 1: Pretty big. I mean between nineteen fifty and two thousand,
Speaker 1: the sun belts share of the national population shot up
Speaker 1: from twenty percent to Oh wow, that's pretty huge, all right,
Speaker 1: So the economic effect of air conditioning are definitely coming
Speaker 1: into focus now. But I want to back up a
Speaker 1: little bit. I mean, what's the story behind air conditioning,
Speaker 1: you know, the origins of it. I know Tim included
Speaker 1: it on his list, but there's got to be some good,
Speaker 1: you know, background stories there. Absolutely, so finding a way
Speaker 1: to cool down in hot weather has been on humanity's
Speaker 1: mind forever and and in fact, there was this eccentric
Speaker 1: Roman emperor named Ella Gabalus who sent a thousand slaves
Speaker 1: into the mountains to fetch huge amounts of snow, which
Speaker 1: he then had them pile up in his garden. And
Speaker 1: and that way it was just when the wind kicked up,
Speaker 1: the cooler air would blow inside his palace. So it
Speaker 1: took a thousand people to try to cool this one dude,
Speaker 1: Ella Gables. And I'm not sure that I remember that name.
Speaker 1: I would have to imagine that would not be easy
Speaker 1: to implement, though on like a wider scale, though definitely not.
Speaker 1: The concept was revived in the nineteenth century by an
Speaker 1: entrepreneur from Boston named Frederick Tudor. In winter, Tutor harvested
Speaker 1: blocks of ice from frozen New England lakes. Then he
Speaker 1: packed the blocks and sawdust which served his installation, and
Speaker 1: he shipped the warmer regions in the summer. And the
Speaker 1: practice grew so popular that a mild New England winter
Speaker 1: like it would cause this panic all over and people
Speaker 1: would worry about a potential ice famine next summer. But
Speaker 1: my favorite revival of this Roman emperor's methods happened in
Speaker 1: one after a President Garfield took a bullet from a
Speaker 1: would be assassin. He had naval engineers construct this makeshift
Speaker 1: cooling device to keep him comfortable while he slowly died.
Speaker 1: That summer, so sad, but following the Romans lead, the
Speaker 1: device cooled the room down by blowing air over a
Speaker 1: cold material. So you know, Garfield was super smart and
Speaker 1: and these naval officers are bright, and they got cotton
Speaker 1: sheets that have been soaked in ice water, and that's
Speaker 1: how they created the coldness. That's the best the Navy
Speaker 1: could come up with. I have to be honest, that
Speaker 1: doesn't seem that impressive. Well it's kind of impressive, but
Speaker 1: just like with the Emperor's snow Mountain. It was incredibly
Speaker 1: wasteful and impractical, and Garfield's caretakers supposedly went through half
Speaker 1: a million pounds of ice in just two one. Oh wow,
Speaker 1: that is insane. All right, well, why don't you tell
Speaker 1: us how proper air conditioning then became a reality. I
Speaker 1: appreciated all that background information, but let's talk about more
Speaker 1: modern form. This is not how it happens right now.
Speaker 1: I said, no, people aren't carrying snowback. Actually, before I
Speaker 1: do that, I didn't want to go on a little
Speaker 1: tangent about how smart Garfield was. He was this president
Speaker 1: that could write Latin with one hand and Greek with
Speaker 1: the other. Um, but he was also too smart for
Speaker 1: his own good. Like you know, when he caught that bullet,
Speaker 1: he had doctors used a metal detector to locate it,
Speaker 1: which is really a smart idea, but they forgot to
Speaker 1: count for the bed springs. So the doctors went all
Speaker 1: these exploratory missions, like trying to find things they thought
Speaker 1: were the bullet, but I thought just bullets. Tangent, that's
Speaker 1: a good one. But back to air conditioning. So the
Speaker 1: air conditioning we know today got its start in nineteen two,
Speaker 1: following the much needed advent of electricity, and and uh, surprisingly,
Speaker 1: the invention of a C had nothing to do with
Speaker 1: making people more comfortable. It was actually invented by Willis Carrier.
Speaker 1: He's this young engineer at a heating company called Buffalo Forge,
Speaker 1: and it was this big printing company had actually tasked
Speaker 1: Buffalo Forge with creating a system to help control the
Speaker 1: heat and humidity and their factories. So they needed something
Speaker 1: to help prevent paper from wrinkling and from their ink
Speaker 1: from running down the paper like during the printing process.
Speaker 1: And so Carrier was put in charge of the project
Speaker 1: and he's quickly figured out that circulating air over coils
Speaker 1: that were chilled by compressed ammonia, that that could help
Speaker 1: keep the humidity at a constant and as you might guess,
Speaker 1: this thrilled the printers to no end. Wow, that's interesting
Speaker 1: that it really wasn't about people at first. So how
Speaker 1: did this transition happen, you know, going from printing factories
Speaker 1: to people's homes. Well, it was kind of slow because
Speaker 1: Carrier's original model was pretty massive, and at first the
Speaker 1: company just stuck to the other industrial clients, like you know,
Speaker 1: other places have been plagued by humidity. Uh, you can
Speaker 1: think about like flour mills, or even like the Gillette
Speaker 1: Corporation was a client. The moisture from humidity was just
Speaker 1: as bad for razor blades as it was for paper.
Speaker 1: But um Still, Carrier knew his invention had wider applications,
Speaker 1: so four years later, in nineteen o six, he started
Speaker 1: looking into possibilities for adding a C to public buildings,
Speaker 1: but instead of government buildings or offices, he decided to
Speaker 1: target theaters, which traditionally shut down during the summer months. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I can imagine. You can imagine all these
Speaker 1: packed bodies and one room the windows no a C.
Speaker 1: And it's definitely not a great recipe for getting people
Speaker 1: in there, not at all, and especially considering the best
Speaker 1: option for cooling a theater at the time was the
Speaker 1: way Tutor used to do it, Like some theaters had
Speaker 1: used large fans to blow air over ice and help
Speaker 1: cool the audience. I mean the downside was, you forget
Speaker 1: about this, that pollution was on the rise, and especially
Speaker 1: in New England's lakes, so so the damp air from
Speaker 1: the melting ice it's sometimes made the whole place reek
Speaker 1: and so um so so Carrier's new device, which which
Speaker 1: he called the weather Maker, was this obvious upgrade, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean, I've heard this before about people's first exposured
Speaker 1: air conditioning being in the nineteen twenties, you know, back
Speaker 1: when movie theaters started popping up ball over the country.
Speaker 1: But it actually never occurred to me to think about
Speaker 1: the economic upheam that would have occurred here. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, look at where we are now with summer
Speaker 1: blockbusters raking in billions every year, and you figure a
Speaker 1: lot of this has to do with people wanting to
Speaker 1: get a break from the heat. Absolutely, And and when
Speaker 1: home model Lacey's started being produced on mass like in
Speaker 1: in the post war nineteen fifties, they completely changed the
Speaker 1: way we live and the boom was insane. So I
Speaker 1: just looked at these figures and I saw that there
Speaker 1: were seventy four thousand units sold in ninety versts a
Speaker 1: million units sold in nineteen fifty three. So that's like
Speaker 1: a crazy economic boom. But you know, the thing I
Speaker 1: always think when I think of economic booms, like, I've
Speaker 1: got to mention this is the mini golf craze in
Speaker 1: the they put like one course on a rooftop and
Speaker 1: in four years there were a hundred fifty courses on rooftops,
Speaker 1: like but actually there's a course on the roof of
Speaker 1: our building here, I know, one of the few remaining.
Speaker 1: I guess. Yeah. So it's impressive, but but the A
Speaker 1: C is way more actical. Wow, it's it's interesting to
Speaker 1: think about it. And I know we want to talk
Speaker 1: about a lot more inventions, but first I feel like
Speaker 1: we need to get Tim Harford himself on the line
Speaker 1: to give us a rundown of some of his favorite inventions.
Speaker 1: So our guest today as an award winning journalist, economist,
Speaker 1: and broadcaster triple threat. As we mentioned earlier in the episode,
Speaker 1: he's the author of the best selling The Undercover Economists,
Speaker 1: as well as Messy. But today we're going to be
Speaker 1: talking to him about this terrific book that we've been
Speaker 1: speaking about all episode long, and that's fifty inventions that
Speaker 1: shape the modern economy. Tim Harford, welcome to Part Time Genius.
Speaker 1: It's great to be on the show. Thank you. Now.
Speaker 1: I know that, um, when we asked you to come
Speaker 1: on the show, you said that you would only appear
Speaker 1: if both Manguesh and I were on the line, and
Speaker 1: I've got bad news. This uh, this hurricane now tropical
Speaker 1: storm has thrown us for a bit of a loop.
Speaker 1: So I appreciate your willingness still to come on despite
Speaker 1: what we'd agreed to earlier. It's I felt it was
Speaker 1: the least I could do. Although you see, my familiarity
Speaker 1: with American geography is is not as hot as it
Speaker 1: might be. So for all I know you, you guys
Speaker 1: are actually speaking in Alaska and there aren't any hurricanes there.
Speaker 1: But in all seriousness, I hope that that you and
Speaker 1: all your colleagues are safe. Thank you very much. Everyone
Speaker 1: has done fine. Our our studios are in Atlanta, and
Speaker 1: for our listeners, let you in on a little bit
Speaker 1: of a secret. We don't always record our interviews on
Speaker 1: the same days as the rest of our episode, and
Speaker 1: so our offices have been closed for a couple of days.
Speaker 1: But everyone seems to be okay, and so our thoughts
Speaker 1: are obviously with all of those affected by Hurricane Irma
Speaker 1: over the past few days in Florida and everywhere else.
Speaker 1: But let's get started to talk about this book that
Speaker 1: we've really fallen in love with, Fifty inventions that shape
Speaker 1: the modern economy, One of the things I love about
Speaker 1: it is that even though it's really structured as this
Speaker 1: really kind of a massive list and we love list,
Speaker 1: there's still such a terrific narrative quality throughout the book,
Speaker 1: and you feel like you can follow the these stories.
Speaker 1: And I was just wondering, you know how much time
Speaker 1: it took to try to pull this off, because you
Speaker 1: could just say, here are fifty inventions and facts about them,
Speaker 1: but you really took such great efforts to weave then
Speaker 1: such terrific narrative through all of this. I was just
Speaker 1: curious to hear about the process of writing this book.
Speaker 1: You're very kind, thank you. I mean, one of the
Speaker 1: great things about um the way that I wrote the
Speaker 1: book was there's also a BBC series based on the book,
Speaker 1: and it's it's nine minute episodes, and each episode has
Speaker 1: got to stand alone because somebody might just tune in,
Speaker 1: they might just listen to that one story and there's
Speaker 1: no context for anything, and so you've you've got to
Speaker 1: make the story work. And nine minutes he is about words.
Speaker 1: It's long enough to say some interesting stuff, but it's
Speaker 1: it's never long enough to say everything you might want
Speaker 1: to say, And so you've got to pick a good
Speaker 1: hook and drive towards a particular point, and there's loads
Speaker 1: and loads that that you always leave out. And I
Speaker 1: found actually incredibly fun to write like that. I had
Speaker 1: never really quite written a book in that style before,
Speaker 1: but it worked, It worked nicely. So yeah, the story
Speaker 1: is always the thing. Well, it was terrific. And part
Speaker 1: of the fun is is seeing chapters that you don't
Speaker 1: always realize just how entertaining or interesting they're going to be.
Speaker 1: Just just as an example, you know, a chapter on
Speaker 1: concrete where you're talking about the influence that it had.
Speaker 1: And I have to mean, when I first saw you'd
Speaker 1: listed concrete as one of these inventions that had shaped
Speaker 1: the modern economy, I really thought it was going to
Speaker 1: be about I don't know, maybe communist structures and Edison.
Speaker 1: But you know, you talk about how concrete is influencing education,
Speaker 1: so I was hoping maybe you could tell us a
Speaker 1: little bit about that, and and also why you find
Speaker 1: concrete so interesting. Yeah, I mean I should say, Chushia
Speaker 1: of form of Soviet Premier did once give a two
Speaker 1: hour lecture on the subject of concrete and what good
Speaker 1: Soviet concrete should be like, So it's there is there
Speaker 1: is some Soviet brutalism in there, but yeah. So I
Speaker 1: began with a great story that I heard from the
Speaker 1: development economist Charles Kenny about using a concrete ready mixed
Speaker 1: concrete as an anti poverty program in rural Mexico about
Speaker 1: fifteen years ago. So development organizations and governments are always
Speaker 1: trying to figure out where if we throw some money
Speaker 1: at the problem of poverty, is there something we can do.
Speaker 1: Maybe we should give people cash, maybe we should give
Speaker 1: people vaccinations, maybe we should provide schools. This particular poverty
Speaker 1: program anti poverty program said, we are going to provide
Speaker 1: ready mixed concrete. We're going to drive through these low
Speaker 1: income townships right up to people's doors. Obviously, it's it's
Speaker 1: pre arranged whore you're going to go to. And then
Speaker 1: they opened the door and you just pour the ready
Speaker 1: mixed concrete from the mixer lorry the mixer truck straight
Speaker 1: into the front room. And the people who live there
Speaker 1: have been given instructions as to how to smooth it
Speaker 1: out and look after it themselves, and they just wait
Speaker 1: and give it a few hours and it cures and
Speaker 1: then you have a concrete floor and the truck drives
Speaker 1: off to the next household, and it turns out to
Speaker 1: be fantastically effective as an anti poverty intervention because these
Speaker 1: floors are they're much more clean, they're much more hygieneq.
Speaker 1: In particular, there's a problem with parasitic worms that the
Speaker 1: kids will pick up through their their bare feet, and
Speaker 1: they make them sick they missed school. Put the concrete
Speaker 1: floor in and this problem largely goes away, and so
Speaker 1: the whole health of the household, the mental health of
Speaker 1: the parents, the physical health of the children all improves.
Speaker 1: And it's incredibly cheap. And so I was just trying
Speaker 1: to get people to look at this really unromantic substance
Speaker 1: in a different way. If we use it wisely, it
Speaker 1: can do a tremendous amount of good. Another invention that
Speaker 1: you talk about, and something that we actually covered a
Speaker 1: bit in an episode we did a few weeks ago
Speaker 1: on ike and their Secrets of IKEA. I'm curious to
Speaker 1: hear from, you know, including the Billy bookcase and a
Speaker 1: list of the inventions you know what makes it so
Speaker 1: special and worthy of being on a list like this.
Speaker 1: I'm totally going to download that episode. By the way,
Speaker 1: that sounds great. The reason I put the Billy Bookcase
Speaker 1: in was because I wanted people to think about what
Speaker 1: innovation looks like in a modern economy. We get very
Speaker 1: fixated on certain particularly sexy, eye catching innovations, so things
Speaker 1: like the latest iPhone, m Google algorithms, big data, and
Speaker 1: actually a lot of the innovation that that makes the
Speaker 1: modern economy what it is is very simple. It's unromantic.
Speaker 1: It's all about process. It's all about shaving off a
Speaker 1: bit of cost here, a bit of cost. They're getting
Speaker 1: the supply chains working a bit more smoothly, maybe trying
Speaker 1: to get the logistics reduced transport costs. It's it's not sexy,
Speaker 1: it's not exciting, but it is the reason why the
Speaker 1: you know, the dollar in your wallet goes so much further.
Speaker 1: You know, for an hour's work, you can buy much
Speaker 1: more than you could thirty, forty, fifty hundred years ago.
Speaker 1: And a lot of that is just this very a straightforward, unromantic,
Speaker 1: unheralded logistical innovation. And the Billy bookcase stands as the
Speaker 1: representative of all of that kind of stuff. That and
Speaker 1: of course the shipping container, which gets gets his own chapter.
Speaker 1: I was curious to hear a few. If you had
Speaker 1: a favorite overlooked older invention, you know, maybe something older
Speaker 1: than you know, fifty sixty years that that maybe you
Speaker 1: didn't realize would be quite so interesting when you dived in. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there is one, the one that I have a really
Speaker 1: soft spot for. I mean, while I was writing the book,
Speaker 1: I went all the way back to the plow, which
Speaker 1: is maybe five six, seven thousand years old and bang
Speaker 1: up to date inventions like the sell of feedback mechanism
Speaker 1: used by Uber. But the invention that I have a
Speaker 1: really soft spot four is well, let me keep you
Speaker 1: hanging for a second. Everybody said, as I was working
Speaker 1: on the book, you've got to do the Guttenberg Press.
Speaker 1: It transformed Europe, put Europe at the center of world civilization,
Speaker 1: gave us the textbook, the newspaper, the novel, mass literacy,
Speaker 1: the Reformation is completely transformative. But when you look at
Speaker 1: the products of the Guttenberg Press, these beautiful Guttenberg Bibles,
Speaker 1: you have to ask what they're printed on. And most
Speaker 1: of them, not all of them, but most of them
Speaker 1: are printed on paper. And the printing press doesn't make
Speaker 1: economic sense without paper. I mean, as a practical matter,
Speaker 1: you can print on animal skin parchment, but you have
Speaker 1: to kill two and fifty thousand sheep. Literally, I counted
Speaker 1: your law fall up. You have to kill two fifty
Speaker 1: sheep in order to get enough parchment to do an
Speaker 1: economically viable print run, say sort of four or five
Speaker 1: thousand copies or something. So you need to mass produce
Speaker 1: paper before it makes any sense whatsoever to mass produce
Speaker 1: writing with The Chinese invented paper two thousand years ago.
Speaker 1: It moved to the Middle East, the Islantic world, and
Speaker 1: at six or seven hundred years a d they have
Speaker 1: mass literacy in that society, and the Europeans just were
Speaker 1: not interested. The idea that you have a cheap material
Speaker 1: to write your bibles on is like saying we're going
Speaker 1: to have a cheap metal to make crowns out of.
Speaker 1: It felt like you were violating this this sacred thing
Speaker 1: so nobody can. And it was only when Europeans started
Speaker 1: getting more and more sophisticated commercial culture, to contracts, accounts, receipts,
Speaker 1: that sort of thing, that you start getting this demand
Speaker 1: for a cheap writing surface, and that's when paper finally
Speaker 1: starts to take off, maybe the thirteenth century, and then
Speaker 1: Shortly after that you get the Goods and book press. Wow,
Speaker 1: that's incredible. You've taught us so many things. But we
Speaker 1: can't let you leave without putting you to the test.
Speaker 1: And even though mangas the author many of our quizzes,
Speaker 1: is unable to be here, he did send me a
Speaker 1: quiz to excellent excellent to test you with today. And
Speaker 1: it's called real invention from the U. S. Patent Office
Speaker 1: or something we made up. Okay, so what I'll do
Speaker 1: is I'll give you a ridiculous invention and you have
Speaker 1: to tell me whether it's something uh that's actually in
Speaker 1: the U. S. Patent Office or something we just made up.
Speaker 1: Simple as that, you're ready to go, alright? Question one.
Speaker 1: Jet propulsion golf clubs. This gas powered high pressure water
Speaker 1: pump and tank forces water through a hose and into
Speaker 1: your hollow club. When you're ready to swing, just press
Speaker 1: the red button and hang on, and highly pressurized water
Speaker 1: shoots out the back of your club and propels your
Speaker 1: swing forward. Is this something that was actually at the U. S.
Speaker 1: Patent Office or something we made up? I know there's
Speaker 1: some truly ridiculous patents, but I'm going to guess that
Speaker 1: you made that one up. We actually did not make
Speaker 1: that one up. That is true, and that that one
Speaker 1: did in fact happen. So all right, I got a
Speaker 1: chance to make up for a number two, the aquarium vest.
Speaker 1: If you love your fish bowl but hate leaving it
Speaker 1: at home on walks, the aquarium vest is for you.
Speaker 1: Just fill it up with water, PLoP in your fish,
Speaker 1: and get out and go. Okay, that's got to be
Speaker 1: made up. It is. Yeah, good gauge on that one. Okay.
Speaker 1: Question number three the bananas suitcase. No one likes a
Speaker 1: bruised banana. That's why the banana suitcase offers a protective
Speaker 1: plastic case for carrying a single banana around. Something tells
Speaker 1: me I have actually seen that invention. I'm pretty sure
Speaker 1: I've seen that invention and so on, And if the
Speaker 1: invention exists, the pattern probably also exists. So I'm gonna
Speaker 1: say that that is real. You are absolutely right. It
Speaker 1: was patented in two thousand three. Okay, here we go
Speaker 1: to the last question is the pogo stick weed whacker.
Speaker 1: I have to ask, are you familiar with the pogo stick?
Speaker 1: Is that something that exam familiar with the pogo stick?
Speaker 1: My daughter, in fact, has a pogo stick, but she
Speaker 1: doesn't have a weed whackers and I was gonna say, yeah,
Speaker 1: you could, you could put her to even more use.
Speaker 1: Let's at the description here is if you want to
Speaker 1: put the fund back into thankless gardening chores, the poco
Speaker 1: stick weed whacker is for you. With every bounce, a
Speaker 1: monofilament line spins out, helping to edge grass and trim weeds.
Speaker 1: Is this something with a real patent or something we
Speaker 1: just made up a mono for them, So it's it
Speaker 1: until you're just going to I was gonna say, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's real, but now I can't possibly imagine how it
Speaker 1: could work, so I'm gonna guess it's made up. And
Speaker 1: you are absolutely right. It is something that we just
Speaker 1: made up. And I believe that makes you three out
Speaker 1: of four, which wins you our top prize, which is
Speaker 1: a note to your mom or boss singing your praises.
Speaker 1: So Tim, congratulations for the win. Here. Oh that's that's
Speaker 1: it's real, it's real less and that's a that's a
Speaker 1: good time. That's right. Well, I hope all of our
Speaker 1: listeners will check out Fifty Inventions that Shape the Modern Economy.
Speaker 1: It really is a terrific book. And Tim Harford, thanks
Speaker 1: so much for joining us on Part Time Genius. My pleasure. Thanks.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Part Time Genius, and we're talking about
Speaker 1: a few of the surprising inventions that have shaped the
Speaker 1: modern world economy. So mego before the break. You mentioned
Speaker 1: how air conditioning paved the way for an economy where
Speaker 1: movies and television are big business, and so now I
Speaker 1: want to talk about an invention that forever changed the
Speaker 1: music industry, and that is the grammophone. I just feel
Speaker 1: like this is a tough sell, Like air conditioners aren't
Speaker 1: going anywhere, but the gramophone gonna be big. I mean,
Speaker 1: it seems like it had an effect on an economy
Speaker 1: at a time, but like that feels like a long
Speaker 1: time ago. All right, Well, we'll get to the lingering
Speaker 1: impact of the grammophone, but I do want to give
Speaker 1: you a sense of why it was such a game
Speaker 1: changer in the first place. And to do that, we've
Speaker 1: got to get acquainted with one miss Elizabeth billing traits.
Speaker 1: Do you are you familiar with No, not at all? All. Right, Well,
Speaker 1: over two hundred years ago, well before recorded sound was
Speaker 1: a thing, she was actually the highest paid solo singer
Speaker 1: in the world. Some even said she was the most
Speaker 1: talented English soprano of all time, and yet nobody knows
Speaker 1: who she is now. In fact, when the composer Joseph
Speaker 1: Hyden saw a painting that showed Billington's being serenaded by
Speaker 1: a choir of angels, he actually got irritated with us
Speaker 1: and he said the angels should be listening to her. God,
Speaker 1: And I don't think of Hyden is such a super fan.
Speaker 1: It's yeah, well he was definitely had some steep competition
Speaker 1: even for for that as well. I mean outside the
Speaker 1: concert halls. Billington's was every bit as famous. There was
Speaker 1: even this scandalous biography written about her. So it sounds
Speaker 1: like a lot of the you know, the modern day
Speaker 1: celebrities that we would think of. And so, just like
Speaker 1: with today's pop stars, the public went wild for her
Speaker 1: offstage annex, you know, prompting a very pricey bidding war
Speaker 1: for her performances. This was between London's top opera houses,
Speaker 1: so I'm sure Elizabeth appreciated the pay day. But so
Speaker 1: you've got to help me out. What does a singer
Speaker 1: who pre dates recorded sound have to do with the
Speaker 1: grand fun alright? Well, you know, so Tim uses her
Speaker 1: story to help underscore the different levels of success as
Speaker 1: singer could attain before and after an artist was able
Speaker 1: to produce recordings of their songs. So, in Billington's case,
Speaker 1: you know, the most she ever made in a year
Speaker 1: was the equivalent of about a million dollars today. I mean,
Speaker 1: can you even imagine trying to live on only a
Speaker 1: million dollars and just bless her heart? As Mama would say,
Speaker 1: you know, well, it definitely doesn't sound like a small sum.
Speaker 1: I'm sure it's nowhere near what today's musicians. No, it's true.
Speaker 1: I was looking at the list from Forbes, and the
Speaker 1: highest paid solo singer in two thousand fifteen was this
Speaker 1: guy named Elton John. I don't know if you're familiar
Speaker 1: with this John, gentlemen, but he reportedly netted a hundred
Speaker 1: million dollars that year. It actually, it's crazy to imagine
Speaker 1: that in two thousand, still making a hundred million dollars
Speaker 1: a year all in two thousand and sixteen, This one
Speaker 1: won't be a surprise. Can you guess who this probably was?
Speaker 1: Taylor Swift? She told them a hundred and seventy million dollars,
Speaker 1: making her actually not just the highest paid musician, but
Speaker 1: the highest paid celebrity of any kind. Well, you're saying
Speaker 1: there was a huge disparity between Billington's take and Taylor
Speaker 1: Swift's is because of the gramophone, Well, I mean sort of.
Speaker 1: So nearly sixty years after Billington died, there was this
Speaker 1: economist named Alfred Marshall, and he was taking stock of
Speaker 1: how the electric telegraph had drastically affected the world's top industrialists.
Speaker 1: And so basically, you know, he was saying that the
Speaker 1: rapid communication of telegraphs gave successful businessman an even bigger
Speaker 1: field to operate in. So you know, now they weren't
Speaker 1: just limited to where they were from, but they could
Speaker 1: make money in Europe or Australia or wherever. And and
Speaker 1: so Marshall recognized that the new technology wouldn't benefit the
Speaker 1: cream of the crop in other professional fields, so you know,
Speaker 1: say the performing arts. And so Marshall wrote, the number
Speaker 1: of persons who can be reached by a human voice
Speaker 1: is strictly limited. So Billington's earning power was capped by
Speaker 1: the fact that you could only give so many performances
Speaker 1: and and only so many people could fit into a
Speaker 1: concert Hall at one time, which makes sense. But but
Speaker 1: Marshall is right, like the telegraph isn't going to help
Speaker 1: with that. Sure, So enter the grammophone or or actually
Speaker 1: enter the phonograph. And this was the first machine that
Speaker 1: could both record and reproduce the human voice. Right. So
Speaker 1: that's one of Edison's inventions, the one that used like
Speaker 1: wax cylinders or whatever instead does right. Right. So Edison
Speaker 1: patent to this in eighteen seventy seven, And this was
Speaker 1: just a couple of years after Marshall's musings on the
Speaker 1: Limitation of the human voice. And it wasn't long after
Speaker 1: that that people realized the real economic potential of this invention,
Speaker 1: you know, namely the ability to record the best singers
Speaker 1: and sell their recordings. So here's what I understand, Like,
Speaker 1: why are we talking about the gramophone when we should
Speaker 1: be talking about the phonograph? Well, because patients here, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna get to it. Because revolutionary as it was, the
Speaker 1: phonograph had some considerable weakness. So not only was the
Speaker 1: sound quality of its cylinder's poor, they also couldn't be
Speaker 1: mass produced and a performance could only be captured on
Speaker 1: a maximum of three or four phonographs at once, and
Speaker 1: so that means that even if a singer wanted to
Speaker 1: exhaust their voice by singing the same song fifty times
Speaker 1: in a day, they'd still only have two recordings to
Speaker 1: show for this trouble. Actually, you want to know something weird.
Speaker 1: I actually have one of these in my house. This
Speaker 1: is one of my favorite things I've ever owned. My
Speaker 1: grandfather he was an antique dealer, and he had gotten
Speaker 1: one of these, was called an Edison amber all and
Speaker 1: it's got these wax cylinders and I kind of get it.
Speaker 1: Maybe why it didn't catch on? Do you want to
Speaker 1: hear one of these? Okay, so check this one out.
Speaker 1: This one's called um, I Don't Want to Get Well,
Speaker 1: and it's about a man that goes off to war,
Speaker 1: gets injured, he's being cared for, and then of course
Speaker 1: he falls in love with a nurse and doesn't want
Speaker 1: to get well. I don't. Yeah, I think it's uh,
Speaker 1: it's duper a remix. But the photograph expanded the number
Speaker 1: of years that could be reached by human voice, but
Speaker 1: not nearly as much as the gramophone. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: it was only with Emile Berliner's invention of the gramophone
Speaker 1: in seven that true mass production became possible, you know,
Speaker 1: the reason being that Berliners recording machine used these flat
Speaker 1: zinc discs to hold the recordings, and so you know,
Speaker 1: these were suddenly portable and stackable and easier and cheaper,
Speaker 1: and you could produce these in large numbers and much
Speaker 1: more so than the phonographs cylinders. And they sounded better too,
Speaker 1: oh man. So think of how much more dope Billington
Speaker 1: could have made if if the gramophone had been invented
Speaker 1: like eighty years earlier. Yeah, it's really true, I mean
Speaker 1: so much more. She would have been one of the
Speaker 1: big winners of this breakthrough, you know, much like the
Speaker 1: top industrialist that Alfred Marshal lauded before. And and you know,
Speaker 1: still this is something that Tim also points out in
Speaker 1: the book several times that every impact invention it creates
Speaker 1: both economic winners and economic losers. And it's something that
Speaker 1: you don't often stop to think about. So in this case,
Speaker 1: you know, thinking about recorded sound, the losers were actually
Speaker 1: what we're called as these these journeymen singers or these
Speaker 1: lesser known B level acts who actually did pretty well
Speaker 1: for themselves when choices were limited. And let's say one
Speaker 1: of Billington's concerts was already sold out. But as Tim
Speaker 1: puts it, when you can listen to the best performers
Speaker 1: in the world at home, why pay to here a
Speaker 1: merely competent act in person, you know. So Thomas Edison's
Speaker 1: phonograph led the way towards this winner take all dynamic
Speaker 1: in the industry, and so the top performers went from
Speaker 1: learning like Billington too much more like Elton John And
Speaker 1: then these slightly less good performers went from a pretty
Speaker 1: comfortable living actually to really struggling to pay their bills.
Speaker 1: And so these these gaps in quality became these huge
Speaker 1: gaps and income. That's fascinating to think about. So the
Speaker 1: B level performers still had the same skill set, but
Speaker 1: suddenly it's worth a whole lot less. And I wonder
Speaker 1: if that's change much now with digital formats like m
Speaker 1: P three's, because like for a lot of people, they
Speaker 1: either buy new music like that or they simply stream
Speaker 1: it online for free. And it seems like there might
Speaker 1: be fewer ways to make money off music recordings now
Speaker 1: without the struggle for sales, Maybe a bigger variety of
Speaker 1: musicians get a chance to shine well. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: a nice thought. But Tim also covers this and and
Speaker 1: talks about the fact that, you know, the inequality between
Speaker 1: big and small musical acts is actually still pretty much
Speaker 1: in full effect. And in fact, I thought this statistic
Speaker 1: was really interesting. The top one percent of artists make
Speaker 1: more than five times more money than the bottom nine
Speaker 1: put together, so it's pretty staggering. And the catches that
Speaker 1: all these profits aren't coming from mass produced recordings anymore.
Speaker 1: They're coming from live concerts, which is crazy because it's
Speaker 1: like we've gone full circle now, right, like from Billington's
Speaker 1: days to live performances being back on top. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: except those lucrative concert tours are driven by demand that
Speaker 1: sparked from these recordings, so it's still a huge part
Speaker 1: of it. And and that whole economic system, for better
Speaker 1: or worse, it owes a huge debt of gratitude to
Speaker 1: the Gramophone. See and I guess we owed a that
Speaker 1: too since since we're podcast hosts, So so thank you, Granmophone.
Speaker 1: That's right, life with you, okay. So, so we've looked
Speaker 1: at two big ease and and one thing they have
Speaker 1: in common besides being economic shapers, is that they're both
Speaker 1: physical products, but they're also a fair amount of inventions
Speaker 1: that are totally conceptual or abstract. So what do you
Speaker 1: see we give those ideas to do all right, Well,
Speaker 1: the conceptual inventions were definitely some of my favorites from
Speaker 1: this book. You know, for example, the cold chain, And
Speaker 1: have you ever heard of the cold chain? I had
Speaker 1: not really thought known it as this term, but it
Speaker 1: actually is pretty interesting to think about. This is this
Speaker 1: is the term for the global you know, temperature controlled
Speaker 1: supply system that keeps all these perishable goods and low
Speaker 1: temperatures while they're being shipped and stored around the world.
Speaker 1: So so think about the fact that, you know, we
Speaker 1: wouldn't be able to transport blood or drugs or vaccines
Speaker 1: without them going bad and transit if we didn't have
Speaker 1: some way to keep them consistently cold, or you know,
Speaker 1: safely ship fish or meat for more than a day
Speaker 1: or two away from where their packaged. Or even think
Speaker 1: about things like fruits, you know, bananas, pineapples, all these
Speaker 1: things that get to our local grocery stores. None of
Speaker 1: these things would be possible. And it's as far as
Speaker 1: getting them to us without the cold chain, I know,
Speaker 1: it's so weird that we get bananas like completely yellow, right,
Speaker 1: But but the cold chain is pretty special and and
Speaker 1: I like how it isn't the invention of anyone person,
Speaker 1: like instead, it's this amazing result of like a bunch
Speaker 1: of different people in different countries, on different continents, and
Speaker 1: they're all meeting this like need in society and stepping
Speaker 1: up to meet it like whatever they can. I mean,
Speaker 1: just think about it, like how it braced down, Like
Speaker 1: an engineer in France builds a ship with an onboard
Speaker 1: refrigerator system and uh, and then a mechanic and Cincinnati
Speaker 1: starts outfitting trucks with the system of his own, and
Speaker 1: little by little it's all linked together. It's kind of amazing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it really is. I mean, it's one of the most
Speaker 1: influential inventions of the last century. And so you know,
Speaker 1: the full chain came together really, I guess it was
Speaker 1: in the late nineteen thirties around that time, and it's
Speaker 1: odd to think of how even things like World War
Speaker 1: two might have been completely different without it. Definitely, But
Speaker 1: you know, there was one abstract invention I wanted to
Speaker 1: mention that's even newer than the cold chain. And Tim's
Speaker 1: book covers things like insurance and intellectual property. But one
Speaker 1: of my favorite entries was on seller feedback. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I actually I thought that was an incredible section of that.
Speaker 1: So this stuff that helps you determine whether that eBay
Speaker 1: listing is too good to be true, or whether you're
Speaker 1: Uber driver can be trusted, or things like this exactly.
Speaker 1: And we don't really think of those star based ranking
Speaker 1: systems and hundred character reviews as these like influencers of
Speaker 1: the economy, but but maybe we should. So, so why
Speaker 1: would you say that? Well, Tim describes seller feedback as
Speaker 1: this necessary component of online platforms that offer what's called quote,
Speaker 1: collaborative consumption. You know, I've heard that term thrown around recently.
Speaker 1: I feel like it's one of these, and there's a
Speaker 1: bunch of these. I mean, it's like crowd based capitalism
Speaker 1: and the sharing a economy. That's another big one I
Speaker 1: feel like I hear over and over. I guess. I mean,
Speaker 1: it feels like they're all just different ways of describing
Speaker 1: stuff like Airbnb or Uber, right, I mean, that's that's
Speaker 1: kind of what that is. Yeah, Like the services like
Speaker 1: ride sharing, dog walking or doing some odd job around
Speaker 1: the house, like anything that involves matching people who have
Speaker 1: these coincidental wants. So, for example, like, so you need
Speaker 1: to spend the next hour working on a business proposal
Speaker 1: instead of walking your dog, and I want to make
Speaker 1: some money during a spare hour. Like in a traditional marketplace,
Speaker 1: like both of those wants would probably go unmet for
Speaker 1: one reason or another. But with the Internet, of course,
Speaker 1: and this is obvious, the instant access to a digital
Speaker 1: marketplace that provides suddenly we can find each other and
Speaker 1: you can finish your proposal and I can walk your
Speaker 1: dog right right right, Yeah, I mean it actually kind
Speaker 1: of feels like a whole new kind of commerce. Though, really,
Speaker 1: if you think about it. Yeah, so, I think Tim
Speaker 1: really sums it up nicely when he says this, and
Speaker 1: this is a quote. Uh. This function of matching people
Speaker 1: who have coincidental wants is among the most powerful ways
Speaker 1: the Internet is reshaping the economy. Platforms such as Uber, Airbnb, eBay,
Speaker 1: and task rabbit create real value. They tap into capacity
Speaker 1: that would have gone to waste. A spare room, a
Speaker 1: spare hour, a spare car seat. You know, think about
Speaker 1: this though, it it makes sense. What you're saying makes sense,
Speaker 1: but it kind of feels like the Internet is the
Speaker 1: real economy shape or here. So how does this relate
Speaker 1: to seller feedback? Yeah? So I actually wondered that too.
Speaker 1: But it's all about trust, right Like. Without trust, you
Speaker 1: can't have a legitimate marketplace, and and no one would
Speaker 1: be able to choose to do business with each other
Speaker 1: if we were all potential enemies. But that trust, like
Speaker 1: the kind that traditional markets provide in the form of
Speaker 1: well known brands or immovable store fronts or just personal relationships,
Speaker 1: that's so much harder to come by online, or at
Speaker 1: least it was before eBay, right like, and and eBay
Speaker 1: really changed this. They introduced seller feedback to the world,
Speaker 1: and once people had a system that gave them the
Speaker 1: reason to trust each other on the Internet, they overcame
Speaker 1: their natural caution and this new type of industry was
Speaker 1: off to the races. I guess we're celebrating the twentieth
Speaker 1: anniversary of seller feedback. I don't know why this isn't
Speaker 1: being talked about more. Actually, I saw this fact the
Speaker 1: other day. Do you know what the first item ever
Speaker 1: sold on eBay was. I'm not like like a pezz dispenser.
Speaker 1: I knew that, good guest, but it was actually a
Speaker 1: broken laser pointer. Was that your next guest. It was
Speaker 1: this guy Mark Frasier that he was. He decided to
Speaker 1: take this fifteen dollar gamble or something like that because
Speaker 1: he was looking for one of these laser pointers for work.
Speaker 1: He was giving presentations all the time, and he decided
Speaker 1: to try to find one that was broken and fix
Speaker 1: it himself so he could get a deal. And he did.
Speaker 1: That's so crazy, Like, I don't think about laser pointers enough.
Speaker 1: He really don't. I meant to tell you that I
Speaker 1: meant to have an intervention until you need to talk
Speaker 1: about It's all about coincidental wants again, right right, and
Speaker 1: it's it's a beautiful thing. But now it's time for
Speaker 1: something truly stunning. Are you ready for this? Mango for
Speaker 1: the part times fact off always all right, since we've
Speaker 1: talked about some of the most influential inventions in modern times,
Speaker 1: we agreed for the fact off, and I hope you're
Speaker 1: still planning to do this, that we share some of
Speaker 1: our favorite ridiculous inventions that you know, maybe they won't
Speaker 1: revolutionize any industry, but we still kind of like to
Speaker 1: own them for one reason or another. So I'm gonna
Speaker 1: start and I want to talk about the mobile toilet
Speaker 1: paper dispenser. Have you seen this? It's this old Japanese
Speaker 1: invention of like headgear with the toilet paper roll over
Speaker 1: your head and you just pull it down, like wait,
Speaker 1: when you need to blow your nose. I want to
Speaker 1: strap into my kids so badly. Wow, So you go ahead,
Speaker 1: you if you've got this helmet on, I guess you
Speaker 1: can go anywhere with that. Okay, what agrees anywhere? I guess.
Speaker 1: I guess I can get behind that. All right, Well,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go with the dog Brella. I mean, honestly,
Speaker 1: I may order one of these. So when I take
Speaker 1: our dog out and it's raining, I try to hold
Speaker 1: the umbrella over both of us, but usually that just
Speaker 1: results in me getting wet, and there's no way to
Speaker 1: do this effectively. And of course these like doggy ponchos
Speaker 1: and things like that are kind of silly. So the
Speaker 1: dog Brella has this rod that serves as a leash,
Speaker 1: but with an umbrella on the end of it so
Speaker 1: you can keep your pup dry. It's pretty smart. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's no sneezing on the go, No, that's right.
Speaker 1: So so the next thing I want is like one
Speaker 1: of these hand choppers, and and uh, you know, I
Speaker 1: love chopping veggies, but I'm terrified of sharp knives. So
Speaker 1: this is basically a zombie hand where you hold the
Speaker 1: rubber fingers where your fingers should go on the edge
Speaker 1: of a carrot or whatever, and then you chop away.
Speaker 1: It's like outsourcing a hand, except you've got to use
Speaker 1: your hand to make that work. That's still that's still
Speaker 1: pretty interesting. Okay, all right, Well the next one I
Speaker 1: was going to come up with was the chork, and
Speaker 1: it's chopsticks at one end and a fork on the other,
Speaker 1: which is just brilliant or maybe it's stupid. I don't know,
Speaker 1: but I just like saying chork. So I'm going to
Speaker 1: get one of these. So, speaking of stupid, I want
Speaker 1: one of these hand buggers. It's a mold with the
Speaker 1: press to make hamburger meat into hot dog shapes. And
Speaker 1: it's called a ham dog Yeah, but you don't even
Speaker 1: eat hot dogs, I know, or hamburgers, but it's called
Speaker 1: a ham dogger. All right. Well, if you're willing to
Speaker 1: buy a ham dogger, I'm gonna have to give you
Speaker 1: this week's fact Off trophy. And I can't wait for
Speaker 1: our next cookout. Thank you and thank you all for listening.
Speaker 1: See you next time. Thanks again for listening. Part Time
Speaker 1: Genius is a production of how stuff works and wouldn't
Speaker 1: be possible without several brilliant people who do the important
Speaker 1: things we couldn't even begin to understand. Christa McNeil does
Speaker 1: the editing thing. Noel Brown made the theme song and
Speaker 1: does the MIXI mixy sound thing. Jerry Rowland does the
Speaker 1: exact producer thing. Gay Bluesier is our lead researcher, with
Speaker 1: support from the Research Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown
Speaker 1: and Lucas Adams and Eve. Jeff Cook gets the show
Speaker 1: to your ear. It's a good job, Eaves. If you
Speaker 1: like what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe, And if
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