1 00:00:16,115 --> 00:00:26,035 Speaker 1: Pushkin The Last Archive, A history of truth. 2 00:00:28,075 --> 00:00:30,955 Speaker 2: Imagine there's a place in our world where the known 3 00:00:30,995 --> 00:00:36,475 Speaker 2: things go, shelves stocked with proof, and all around the 4 00:00:36,515 --> 00:00:40,075 Speaker 2: clutter of clues. I haven't been down here in the 5 00:00:40,115 --> 00:00:43,475 Speaker 2: Last Archive for a while, but Jill's stopping by later, 6 00:00:43,715 --> 00:00:46,795 Speaker 2: and I promised her i'd keep it clean, which, well 7 00:00:46,875 --> 00:00:49,715 Speaker 2: for starters. There's a car in the middle of the room. 8 00:00:49,875 --> 00:00:53,315 Speaker 2: Is that a DeLorean from Back to the Future. Cool? 9 00:00:53,995 --> 00:00:56,555 Speaker 2: I'll deal with that later. May as well start small 10 00:00:56,595 --> 00:01:00,835 Speaker 2: with this stack of old stencils. Welcome people from the future. 11 00:01:01,515 --> 00:01:03,275 Speaker 2: March ninth, nineteen eighty two. 12 00:01:04,235 --> 00:01:04,595 Speaker 1: Weird? 13 00:01:05,835 --> 00:01:08,355 Speaker 2: And what's this sleigh doing over here? By these candles? 14 00:01:10,035 --> 00:01:15,555 Speaker 2: There's a plaque and you factured by HG. Wells that 15 00:01:15,555 --> 00:01:18,715 Speaker 2: it's turning on the date on the dial. It's changing 16 00:01:21,515 --> 00:01:26,315 Speaker 2: February twenty twenty. Oh no, there's no going back now, 17 00:01:27,635 --> 00:01:32,955 Speaker 2: So step across the threshold to a highway in California 18 00:01:33,515 --> 00:01:36,315 Speaker 2: on February seventeenth of that cursed year. 19 00:01:42,035 --> 00:01:42,955 Speaker 1: It's like we could. 20 00:01:42,795 --> 00:01:47,795 Speaker 3: Be being pulled by Oxen right now, except who lives 21 00:01:47,835 --> 00:01:48,315 Speaker 3: to Melbom. 22 00:01:48,715 --> 00:01:55,995 Speaker 2: I actually think we'd be faster in February twenty twenty, 23 00:01:56,235 --> 00:01:59,675 Speaker 2: I went to California with Jill Lapour, host emeritus of 24 00:01:59,715 --> 00:02:02,955 Speaker 2: The Last Archive, and her youngest son Oliver. We rented 25 00:02:03,035 --> 00:02:07,875 Speaker 2: a twenty seventeen red Camaro convertible for work like this 26 00:02:07,995 --> 00:02:10,595 Speaker 2: is overpowered for our purposes because we're currently going to 27 00:02:10,835 --> 00:02:11,795 Speaker 2: ten miles an hour. 28 00:02:13,315 --> 00:02:15,315 Speaker 1: Yet, but we're going to pick up speed. 29 00:02:16,715 --> 00:02:21,195 Speaker 3: You don't want it so cold in here, Oliver, don't 30 00:02:21,275 --> 00:02:21,715 Speaker 3: do that. 31 00:02:21,955 --> 00:02:26,915 Speaker 2: I'm so cold. You really not that cold. We were 32 00:02:26,915 --> 00:02:30,275 Speaker 2: out in California because we were recording the final episode 33 00:02:30,355 --> 00:02:34,875 Speaker 2: of our first season. The convertible was Oliver's idea, very California, 34 00:02:35,395 --> 00:02:37,395 Speaker 2: but it wasn't really top down weather. 35 00:02:39,715 --> 00:02:40,475 Speaker 4: Cold at all. 36 00:02:40,635 --> 00:02:42,915 Speaker 2: You're just scared. The first episode of the season was 37 00:02:42,915 --> 00:02:48,115 Speaker 2: in Vermont. Yeah, were you also contained presence. We were 38 00:02:48,155 --> 00:02:53,555 Speaker 2: researching ideas about predicting the future, computers, big data, time capsules, 39 00:02:53,635 --> 00:02:56,035 Speaker 2: that kind of thing. We wanted to see the place 40 00:02:56,115 --> 00:02:59,875 Speaker 2: that future was being made, Silicon Valley, so we headed 41 00:02:59,915 --> 00:03:02,675 Speaker 2: west in our red Camaro. We were on a quest 42 00:03:02,875 --> 00:03:07,475 Speaker 2: to figure out who killed Truth, and. 43 00:03:08,515 --> 00:03:09,715 Speaker 1: We're gonna go. 44 00:03:11,195 --> 00:03:14,915 Speaker 3: Try to reconstruct some of that story to understand how, 45 00:03:17,515 --> 00:03:20,075 Speaker 3: I don't know, all the world became California in the nineteen. 46 00:03:19,795 --> 00:03:23,715 Speaker 2: Fifties, So that was a good explanation. The tape is 47 00:03:23,755 --> 00:03:31,395 Speaker 2: totally unusual, blowing out my ears. The episode ended up 48 00:03:31,435 --> 00:03:35,155 Speaker 2: being a lot about California archives and the fantasy of 49 00:03:35,195 --> 00:03:37,675 Speaker 2: predicting the future. We spent a lot of time in 50 00:03:37,715 --> 00:03:41,315 Speaker 2: the old church offices of the Internet Archive. But there 51 00:03:41,395 --> 00:03:43,595 Speaker 2: was one other stop we made that trip that we 52 00:03:43,635 --> 00:03:46,635 Speaker 2: didn't include in the final thing to dig for another 53 00:03:46,755 --> 00:03:56,595 Speaker 2: forgotten piece of computer history, the Yahoo time capsule. Yeah, 54 00:03:56,635 --> 00:03:59,275 Speaker 2: when was the last time you went to the Yahoo homepage? 55 00:04:00,195 --> 00:04:02,435 Speaker 2: I'm going to guess that it was sometime before two 56 00:04:02,435 --> 00:04:06,195 Speaker 2: thousand and six. Back then, Yahoo had been the biggest 57 00:04:06,195 --> 00:04:10,235 Speaker 2: website on the Internet for years. Millions of people visited 58 00:04:10,275 --> 00:04:15,355 Speaker 2: its homepage every month, totaling billions of views. Then one 59 00:04:15,435 --> 00:04:19,675 Speaker 2: day a portal appeared on that homepage to a time capsule. 60 00:04:20,995 --> 00:04:24,155 Speaker 2: Yahoo had hired an artist to make an anthropological account 61 00:04:24,235 --> 00:04:27,475 Speaker 2: of the Internet. In two thousand and six, users could 62 00:04:27,515 --> 00:04:30,275 Speaker 2: upload photos, videos, text whatever they wanted. 63 00:04:30,835 --> 00:04:30,915 Speaker 5: This. 64 00:04:31,435 --> 00:04:34,115 Speaker 2: I know it just sounds like any social media, but 65 00:04:34,195 --> 00:04:38,915 Speaker 2: the Yahoo time capsule was before Twitter, TikTok, snapchat, Instagram, 66 00:04:39,115 --> 00:04:41,875 Speaker 2: when Facebook was just a thing on some college campuses. 67 00:04:42,355 --> 00:04:45,715 Speaker 2: This Yahoo thing felt new and exciting, and billions of 68 00:04:45,755 --> 00:04:48,795 Speaker 2: people would have seen it. Hundreds of thousands of people 69 00:04:48,875 --> 00:04:53,035 Speaker 2: made entries. Then, a little under a month after it opened, 70 00:04:53,475 --> 00:04:57,075 Speaker 2: the portal closed. The contents of the capsule were beamed 71 00:04:57,155 --> 00:05:00,755 Speaker 2: vlaser into outer space, downloaded on a Mac Mini hard drive, 72 00:05:01,035 --> 00:05:04,915 Speaker 2: and sent to the Smithsonian. Yahoo planned to open it 73 00:05:05,115 --> 00:05:08,835 Speaker 2: fourteen years later, on the twenty fifth anniversary of the 74 00:05:08,955 --> 00:05:12,155 Speaker 2: day the company was incorporated, at a moment in time when, 75 00:05:12,395 --> 00:05:15,555 Speaker 2: of course Yahoo would still be on top and everything 76 00:05:15,635 --> 00:05:19,155 Speaker 2: would be normal and cool. They put a date in 77 00:05:19,235 --> 00:05:25,835 Speaker 2: the sand March of twenty twenty. I read about all 78 00:05:25,875 --> 00:05:29,115 Speaker 2: this in January of that year, and it sounded hilarious 79 00:05:29,155 --> 00:05:31,635 Speaker 2: to me. We thought maybe we could see them open 80 00:05:31,675 --> 00:05:34,195 Speaker 2: it on our trip out west, except it seemed like 81 00:05:34,235 --> 00:05:37,595 Speaker 2: everybody at Yahoo had just forgotten about it. I kept 82 00:05:37,635 --> 00:05:41,315 Speaker 2: emailing Verizon, Yahoo's new parent company, but they didn't respond 83 00:05:41,395 --> 00:05:44,155 Speaker 2: at first. When I reached the original artist, he said 84 00:05:44,155 --> 00:05:45,955 Speaker 2: nobody had been in touch with them about the opening. 85 00:05:46,515 --> 00:05:48,755 Speaker 2: And then weeks after we got back from that trip, 86 00:05:49,155 --> 00:05:56,475 Speaker 2: lockdowns began. The world changed dramatically overnight. Nothing planned in 87 00:05:56,515 --> 00:05:59,515 Speaker 2: the before fell right anymore. We dropped the idea of 88 00:05:59,555 --> 00:06:03,355 Speaker 2: the Yahoo Time capsule changed our episode. We moved on, 89 00:06:03,715 --> 00:06:07,595 Speaker 2: The world moved on, but for some reason in the 90 00:06:07,635 --> 00:06:13,835 Speaker 2: corner of my mind and stop thinking about it. Welcome 91 00:06:14,075 --> 00:06:16,835 Speaker 2: to the Last Archive, the show about how we know 92 00:06:16,915 --> 00:06:19,395 Speaker 2: what we know, how we used to know things, and 93 00:06:19,435 --> 00:06:22,155 Speaker 2: why it seems sometimes lately like we don't know anything 94 00:06:22,195 --> 00:06:26,515 Speaker 2: at all anymore. I'm Ben that of Haffrey. For our 95 00:06:26,635 --> 00:06:29,955 Speaker 2: season finale, I want to reckon with that time capsule 96 00:06:30,475 --> 00:06:32,555 Speaker 2: and something that I think a lot of us experienced 97 00:06:32,635 --> 00:06:36,115 Speaker 2: during the first year of the pandemic. Time started to 98 00:06:36,155 --> 00:06:40,235 Speaker 2: feel different. And I know I wasn't the only one 99 00:06:40,235 --> 00:06:42,995 Speaker 2: feeling this way, because all of a sudden, everyone around 100 00:06:43,075 --> 00:06:46,115 Speaker 2: me was watching and reading all these time bending time 101 00:06:46,275 --> 00:06:50,235 Speaker 2: travel stories, everything everywhere, all at once, Out of Range, 102 00:06:50,355 --> 00:06:53,795 Speaker 2: Sea of Tranquility, Outlander, This Time Tomorrow, anything in the 103 00:06:53,835 --> 00:06:56,755 Speaker 2: Marvel multiverse. It's like we're living in a time travel 104 00:06:56,795 --> 00:07:01,755 Speaker 2: golden age. But why, you know how? On this podcast, 105 00:07:01,795 --> 00:07:05,835 Speaker 2: we've always been chasing that question who killed Truth? Today 106 00:07:06,075 --> 00:07:13,675 Speaker 2: I've got a different question, what happened to I'm One 107 00:07:13,675 --> 00:07:16,715 Speaker 2: of the weirdest things about time travel stories is they 108 00:07:16,715 --> 00:07:20,035 Speaker 2: haven't been around very long. The science fiction writer HG. 109 00:07:20,155 --> 00:07:23,115 Speaker 2: Wells basically started the genre in eighteen ninety five with 110 00:07:23,155 --> 00:07:26,035 Speaker 2: his book The Time Machine. I read it a few 111 00:07:26,115 --> 00:07:28,595 Speaker 2: years ago, but if I'm being honest, I've known about 112 00:07:28,635 --> 00:07:30,795 Speaker 2: it since I was eight years old, because it was 113 00:07:30,835 --> 00:07:32,795 Speaker 2: on an episode of Wishbone. 114 00:07:34,315 --> 00:07:40,195 Speaker 6: What's the story Wishbone's Dream. 115 00:07:40,275 --> 00:07:43,235 Speaker 2: If you've never seen Wishbone, it's a PBS children's show 116 00:07:43,275 --> 00:07:46,875 Speaker 2: where a talking dog reenacts literary classics. Most of what 117 00:07:46,915 --> 00:07:49,715 Speaker 2: I know about the classics I learned first on Wishbone. 118 00:07:50,155 --> 00:07:53,755 Speaker 2: So if we're talking time travel, I'm thinking season one, 119 00:07:54,075 --> 00:07:58,755 Speaker 2: episode twenty three, Bark to the Future, an episode written 120 00:07:58,835 --> 00:08:01,955 Speaker 2: by a young Morocca. The dog plays the time traveler. 121 00:08:03,795 --> 00:08:06,155 Speaker 5: The hero of our story is a man who will 122 00:08:06,155 --> 00:08:09,675 Speaker 5: defy convention. He is a man who will use to 123 00:08:09,675 --> 00:08:11,875 Speaker 5: technology to redefine travel. 124 00:08:13,595 --> 00:08:16,075 Speaker 2: In Bark to the Future, as in The Time Machine, 125 00:08:16,235 --> 00:08:18,715 Speaker 2: an inventor claims he's got a new machine that can 126 00:08:18,755 --> 00:08:23,195 Speaker 2: move through the fourth dimension time. I was probably in 127 00:08:23,235 --> 00:08:25,795 Speaker 2: the second grade when I saw this. I love time 128 00:08:25,835 --> 00:08:28,595 Speaker 2: travel stories now, but this, I think was the first 129 00:08:28,595 --> 00:08:31,235 Speaker 2: one I ever came across. Wish Bon. It turns out 130 00:08:31,355 --> 00:08:34,355 Speaker 2: was sticking pretty closely to the nineteenth century source material, 131 00:08:34,915 --> 00:08:38,155 Speaker 2: just with dogs not people. This by the way is 132 00:08:38,195 --> 00:08:39,075 Speaker 2: the dog's voice? 133 00:08:39,635 --> 00:08:44,035 Speaker 5: Have I really traveled to the year eight hundred, two thousand, 134 00:08:44,435 --> 00:08:47,475 Speaker 5: seven hundred and one. 135 00:08:49,155 --> 00:08:51,515 Speaker 2: People like to say there are only something like seven 136 00:08:51,595 --> 00:08:55,275 Speaker 2: plots for every story. Plots people have been reusing since forever. 137 00:08:55,675 --> 00:08:58,795 Speaker 2: You know them Rags to riches, the hero's journey, overcoming 138 00:08:58,835 --> 00:09:01,515 Speaker 2: the monster, the quest. Okay, maybe it's all a little 139 00:09:01,555 --> 00:09:05,875 Speaker 2: schematic exactly seven, but still it's weird to have this 140 00:09:05,995 --> 00:09:09,275 Speaker 2: big new story time travel come out of nowhere in 141 00:09:09,315 --> 00:09:13,155 Speaker 2: the eighteen nineties. People have explained that in a few ways, 142 00:09:13,715 --> 00:09:16,435 Speaker 2: but what it all amounts to is that at the 143 00:09:16,475 --> 00:09:19,595 Speaker 2: turn of the century the eighteen nineties, when HG. Wells 144 00:09:19,675 --> 00:09:22,275 Speaker 2: was writing, people had a sense that they were living 145 00:09:22,275 --> 00:09:25,755 Speaker 2: in a historic time, not just because the twentieth century 146 00:09:25,795 --> 00:09:29,755 Speaker 2: was starting, but also because industrialization seemed to have sped 147 00:09:29,835 --> 00:09:32,795 Speaker 2: up the pace of history. Things were changing so fast. 148 00:09:33,275 --> 00:09:36,755 Speaker 2: Suddenly there were machines for everything. Why not a time 149 00:09:36,875 --> 00:09:41,675 Speaker 2: machine for time travel? It didn't seem so crazy, especially 150 00:09:41,715 --> 00:09:44,115 Speaker 2: since a lot of those machines had made it possible 151 00:09:44,155 --> 00:09:46,555 Speaker 2: to travel at speeds that just a few decades before 152 00:09:46,635 --> 00:09:53,515 Speaker 2: had been impossible, like travel by train. Trains collapsed distance 153 00:09:53,675 --> 00:09:57,875 Speaker 2: and altered people's sense of time. For instance, it used 154 00:09:57,875 --> 00:10:00,195 Speaker 2: to take about ten days to get from London to 155 00:10:00,315 --> 00:10:04,715 Speaker 2: Edinburgh by horse drawn stagecoach, but by the late nineteenth century, 156 00:10:04,875 --> 00:10:08,395 Speaker 2: you could board a train in London, stop for lunch 157 00:10:08,435 --> 00:10:13,395 Speaker 2: in York, gossip about the Royal Baccarat scandal of eighteen ninety, 158 00:10:14,355 --> 00:10:16,475 Speaker 2: and step off in Edinburgh a mere eight and a 159 00:10:16,515 --> 00:10:22,075 Speaker 2: half hours later. The speed of travel changed how people 160 00:10:22,155 --> 00:10:26,075 Speaker 2: thought about time, and not just because trains moved quickly. 161 00:10:28,755 --> 00:10:32,595 Speaker 2: Imagine the world before the nineteenth century, before trains and 162 00:10:32,595 --> 00:10:37,355 Speaker 2: telegraph lines and telephones. Back then, time was a local thing. 163 00:10:38,075 --> 00:10:41,155 Speaker 2: You'd set your clock to the town clock. Depending on 164 00:10:41,195 --> 00:10:42,875 Speaker 2: where in the world you were. You might even have 165 00:10:42,915 --> 00:10:46,595 Speaker 2: an entirely different calendar. But there was no sense that 166 00:10:46,675 --> 00:10:49,075 Speaker 2: whatever time it was in one town should match up 167 00:10:49,115 --> 00:10:52,675 Speaker 2: exactly with the time in another town. Until trains and 168 00:10:52,715 --> 00:10:55,635 Speaker 2: telegraphs and all sorts of machines started to connect those 169 00:10:55,675 --> 00:10:58,875 Speaker 2: towns together for trade and travel, and it became necessary 170 00:10:59,035 --> 00:11:03,755 Speaker 2: to standardize time across them. Public time became an absolute, 171 00:11:04,275 --> 00:11:10,155 Speaker 2: precise thing, But as soon as time became rigid began 172 00:11:10,315 --> 00:11:14,635 Speaker 2: to unravel. Einstein came up with his theory of special relativity, 173 00:11:14,715 --> 00:11:17,475 Speaker 2: in part through a thought experiment about clocks on trains, 174 00:11:18,115 --> 00:11:21,235 Speaker 2: and then all this renegotiation of time fueled the time 175 00:11:21,235 --> 00:11:24,835 Speaker 2: travel genre from HG. Well's right up to Bark to 176 00:11:24,875 --> 00:11:29,595 Speaker 2: the Future, stories about the malleability of time and the 177 00:11:29,635 --> 00:11:32,555 Speaker 2: feeling of being in history. 178 00:11:33,155 --> 00:11:38,795 Speaker 5: This is the problem of time. I'm hungry now, but 179 00:11:38,915 --> 00:11:40,235 Speaker 5: snack time is lighted. 180 00:11:41,115 --> 00:11:43,395 Speaker 2: I'm not saying that. As an eight year old sprawled 181 00:11:43,435 --> 00:11:45,755 Speaker 2: on the floor after school, I was thinking about how 182 00:11:45,755 --> 00:11:48,675 Speaker 2: the time travel genre was a way of metabolizing rapid 183 00:11:48,715 --> 00:11:52,075 Speaker 2: historical change. But you can't watch one of these stories 184 00:11:52,155 --> 00:11:56,635 Speaker 2: without thinking about time just a little differently. These stories 185 00:11:56,835 --> 00:12:00,475 Speaker 2: chip away at that standardized public time, and they restate 186 00:12:00,515 --> 00:12:03,035 Speaker 2: a feeling most of us have privately that was more 187 00:12:03,035 --> 00:12:07,195 Speaker 2: publicly shared centuries ago. Time isn't a rigid straight line 188 00:12:07,275 --> 00:12:09,475 Speaker 2: that works the same for you as it does for me. 189 00:12:11,755 --> 00:12:15,395 Speaker 2: Wishbone is a thirty minute long show. Back in the nineties, 190 00:12:15,515 --> 00:12:19,515 Speaker 2: watching it was to me a major event. Rewatching now, 191 00:12:19,675 --> 00:12:21,635 Speaker 2: it felt like it passed in the blink of an eye. 192 00:12:22,235 --> 00:12:24,795 Speaker 2: Part of that's just getting used to hour long prestige TV, 193 00:12:25,435 --> 00:12:27,555 Speaker 2: but most of it is that when I was eight, 194 00:12:27,835 --> 00:12:31,875 Speaker 2: afternoons felt the way days do to me now. So 195 00:12:31,915 --> 00:12:34,675 Speaker 2: there's a history of a feeling about time baked into 196 00:12:34,715 --> 00:12:39,275 Speaker 2: time travel stories, something personal. I wanted to figure out 197 00:12:39,315 --> 00:12:42,635 Speaker 2: what that was, and I found my answer by doing 198 00:12:42,635 --> 00:12:46,155 Speaker 2: a kind of time travel myself to a party for 199 00:12:46,275 --> 00:12:51,115 Speaker 2: time travelers on March ninth, nineteen eighty two, in Baltimore. 200 00:12:52,315 --> 00:13:06,755 Speaker 2: That party after the break In nineteen sixty HG. Wells's 201 00:13:06,835 --> 00:13:10,715 Speaker 2: The Time Machine was adapted into a blockbuster film. It's 202 00:13:11,075 --> 00:13:13,635 Speaker 2: not a good movie, but it was a big movie 203 00:13:13,915 --> 00:13:16,395 Speaker 2: and a lot of people saw it, including a little 204 00:13:16,435 --> 00:13:20,515 Speaker 2: boy named Richard trisno Elsbury. It was his bark to 205 00:13:20,555 --> 00:13:21,475 Speaker 2: the future. 206 00:13:22,395 --> 00:13:25,435 Speaker 7: And the movie like totally blew my mind. I was 207 00:13:25,515 --> 00:13:26,715 Speaker 7: like seven years old. 208 00:13:27,675 --> 00:13:30,195 Speaker 2: Richard grew up in a quiet, middle class home in 209 00:13:30,235 --> 00:13:34,075 Speaker 2: Baltimore in the nineteen sixties. His dad worked for the irs. 210 00:13:34,475 --> 00:13:36,795 Speaker 2: His mom was a part time secretary who wanted to 211 00:13:36,795 --> 00:13:39,915 Speaker 2: be an artist. Richard was a dreamy kid and a 212 00:13:39,915 --> 00:13:44,595 Speaker 2: bit obsessive. He kept thinking about that movie, especially the 213 00:13:44,675 --> 00:13:47,195 Speaker 2: first time the time traveler gets his machine to work. 214 00:13:47,675 --> 00:13:50,355 Speaker 2: The traveler jumps just a couple hours into the future, 215 00:13:50,755 --> 00:13:55,195 Speaker 2: and everything looks the same, except the candles he lit 216 00:13:55,235 --> 00:13:58,595 Speaker 2: just before he left have all burned down to the Wick. 217 00:13:59,235 --> 00:14:01,475 Speaker 7: I would like lyon bade awake at night and think 218 00:14:01,515 --> 00:14:04,515 Speaker 7: about the candles burning Dad, and it was it was 219 00:14:04,595 --> 00:14:05,795 Speaker 7: just spectacular, you know. 220 00:14:08,075 --> 00:14:11,035 Speaker 2: Richard wanted to know if time travel would ever be possible. 221 00:14:11,755 --> 00:14:14,675 Speaker 2: One day he had a realization, what if we were 222 00:14:14,675 --> 00:14:18,235 Speaker 2: a few lifetimes away from the invention of a time machine. 223 00:14:18,315 --> 00:14:21,195 Speaker 2: If someone invented time travel in the future, they could 224 00:14:21,235 --> 00:14:24,675 Speaker 2: go whenever and wherever they wanted, but they very likely 225 00:14:24,715 --> 00:14:27,035 Speaker 2: would not come check in with Richard and Baltimore in 226 00:14:27,075 --> 00:14:30,155 Speaker 2: the nineteen sixties. How could he get them to come 227 00:14:30,195 --> 00:14:33,395 Speaker 2: to him? And then he had an idea. 228 00:14:34,155 --> 00:14:37,675 Speaker 7: Suppose we invited people from the future to come visit us. 229 00:14:37,715 --> 00:14:42,275 Speaker 7: And it seemed very logical to me, and now it 230 00:14:42,355 --> 00:14:43,795 Speaker 7: still seems logical to me. 231 00:14:44,635 --> 00:14:48,035 Speaker 2: This idea became a lifelong obsession, and it grew in 232 00:14:48,115 --> 00:14:52,875 Speaker 2: his mind into something totally wild, a party for time travelers. 233 00:14:53,275 --> 00:14:56,595 Speaker 2: Maybe if Richard made the party big enough, fun enough, 234 00:14:57,075 --> 00:15:00,795 Speaker 2: absolutely legendary enough that it got into the historical record 235 00:15:00,835 --> 00:15:04,355 Speaker 2: and centries on people were still reading about it, well, 236 00:15:04,795 --> 00:15:07,555 Speaker 2: he might wind up with some surprising guests. 237 00:15:07,755 --> 00:15:09,035 Speaker 7: It's a logical idea. 238 00:15:10,075 --> 00:15:13,555 Speaker 2: Richard thought about this for years when he grew up 239 00:15:13,595 --> 00:15:16,515 Speaker 2: and graduated art school. He was part of Baltimore's wacky 240 00:15:16,555 --> 00:15:19,755 Speaker 2: conceptual art scene in the nineteen seventies. He was living 241 00:15:19,835 --> 00:15:22,355 Speaker 2: in a Rundown twenty room mansion with three or four 242 00:15:22,395 --> 00:15:26,875 Speaker 2: other artists, throwing parties, parades, making weird art, wearing black 243 00:15:26,915 --> 00:15:31,075 Speaker 2: trench coats with oversized red buttons, and always he was 244 00:15:31,115 --> 00:15:34,915 Speaker 2: thinking about his time travel party. He decided to set 245 00:15:34,915 --> 00:15:35,275 Speaker 2: a date. 246 00:15:35,595 --> 00:15:38,035 Speaker 7: So, first of all, the date was chosen because of 247 00:15:38,075 --> 00:15:42,835 Speaker 7: an astronomical event called a syzygy that was known to 248 00:15:43,355 --> 00:15:46,595 Speaker 7: becoming in nineteen eighty two, which was an alignment of 249 00:15:47,075 --> 00:15:50,115 Speaker 7: a lot of planets and was going to be in March. 250 00:15:50,435 --> 00:15:52,715 Speaker 7: And then I selected a night of the full moon, 251 00:15:52,755 --> 00:15:55,035 Speaker 7: which would be March ninth of nineteen eighty two. 252 00:15:55,955 --> 00:15:57,715 Speaker 2: Once he had the date nailed down, he had to 253 00:15:57,715 --> 00:16:00,475 Speaker 2: figure out how to get that date into the historical record. 254 00:16:00,915 --> 00:16:03,715 Speaker 2: I love this part, the pad cap rigor of it. 255 00:16:03,715 --> 00:16:06,435 Speaker 2: It's like sort of a joke, but then not really 256 00:16:06,515 --> 00:16:07,235 Speaker 2: a joke at all. 257 00:16:07,875 --> 00:16:10,075 Speaker 6: But that was kind of a nature of what we 258 00:16:10,075 --> 00:16:15,235 Speaker 6: were doing, was trying to figure out possible placements in 259 00:16:15,435 --> 00:16:20,315 Speaker 6: history that could somehow end up in an archive somewhere. 260 00:16:21,195 --> 00:16:24,835 Speaker 2: Artist Doug Retzler he was part of an organization Richard 261 00:16:24,875 --> 00:16:28,475 Speaker 2: started to manage all this, the Chrononautic Society. 262 00:16:29,515 --> 00:16:33,955 Speaker 6: Richard had created a stencil welcome people from the Future 263 00:16:33,995 --> 00:16:36,115 Speaker 6: of March nineteen eighty two. 264 00:16:36,515 --> 00:16:39,435 Speaker 2: They used that stencil to spray paint the date everywhere, 265 00:16:39,835 --> 00:16:42,275 Speaker 2: including the National Archives in Washington, DC. 266 00:16:43,435 --> 00:16:46,955 Speaker 6: And so we went down there and we were about 267 00:16:47,035 --> 00:16:51,715 Speaker 6: to spray it onto the base of the sculpture that 268 00:16:51,835 --> 00:16:56,355 Speaker 6: was outside of that and we were apprehended by the 269 00:16:56,475 --> 00:16:59,715 Speaker 6: National Archives Police and detain. 270 00:17:00,875 --> 00:17:03,515 Speaker 2: They wanted to get in the news. They wanted the 271 00:17:03,555 --> 00:17:05,555 Speaker 2: story of the party and that date to be in 272 00:17:05,555 --> 00:17:08,275 Speaker 2: the historical record, and they had people working around the 273 00:17:08,275 --> 00:17:11,755 Speaker 2: country trying to spread the word. In nineteen eighty Richard 274 00:17:11,755 --> 00:17:14,475 Speaker 2: bought an ad in Art Forum magazine inviting people from 275 00:17:14,515 --> 00:17:16,755 Speaker 2: the future to come to a party on March ninth, 276 00:17:16,875 --> 00:17:20,155 Speaker 2: nineteen eighty two. It said welcome people from the future 277 00:17:20,195 --> 00:17:23,995 Speaker 2: in huge letters. An influential la art magazine called Wet 278 00:17:24,035 --> 00:17:27,995 Speaker 2: Magazine ran an article titled future Humans Read This, giving 279 00:17:27,995 --> 00:17:30,595 Speaker 2: the date and inviting future readers to come back to 280 00:17:30,675 --> 00:17:34,155 Speaker 2: nineteen eighty two in Boogie. Richard even wrote a letter 281 00:17:34,235 --> 00:17:37,635 Speaker 2: to famed astrologist Linda Goodman, who reprinted it in her 282 00:17:37,635 --> 00:17:40,835 Speaker 2: best selling book, Linda Goodman's Love Signs, which is still 283 00:17:40,835 --> 00:17:45,035 Speaker 2: in print. She called it a perfect example of aquarian thinking. 284 00:17:46,355 --> 00:17:49,315 Speaker 2: There were plans for parties in Los Angeles, New Mexico, 285 00:17:49,435 --> 00:17:52,675 Speaker 2: and Montreal, but Richard still needed a venue for the 286 00:17:52,675 --> 00:17:55,955 Speaker 2: main event in Baltimore, and he got his chance when 287 00:17:55,955 --> 00:17:58,875 Speaker 2: a new bookstore came to town and decided to set up 288 00:17:58,915 --> 00:18:03,875 Speaker 2: shop in a glamorous, abandoned old beauty parlor Second Story Books. 289 00:18:04,995 --> 00:18:10,395 Speaker 8: The place was a go to destination for a let's say, 290 00:18:10,595 --> 00:18:13,915 Speaker 8: evolving counterculture. 291 00:18:14,795 --> 00:18:18,075 Speaker 2: Alan Steipeck, owner of the store, which was staffed entirely 292 00:18:18,115 --> 00:18:20,315 Speaker 2: by Richard and his conceptual artist friends. 293 00:18:20,955 --> 00:18:24,755 Speaker 8: I was the wrong person to own a store with 294 00:18:24,955 --> 00:18:26,915 Speaker 8: this kind of culture. 295 00:18:27,955 --> 00:18:31,675 Speaker 2: The artists became a problem for Alan. They're always throwing parties, 296 00:18:31,715 --> 00:18:34,395 Speaker 2: sleeping in the art installations, or stealing his books. 297 00:18:34,875 --> 00:18:37,355 Speaker 8: There were two separate cultures trying to run a store 298 00:18:37,355 --> 00:18:41,995 Speaker 8: and concert and that concept. It was like having kazoos 299 00:18:42,035 --> 00:18:43,115 Speaker 8: and violins. 300 00:18:43,635 --> 00:18:46,315 Speaker 2: I completely fell in love with recreating the crazy world 301 00:18:46,315 --> 00:18:49,235 Speaker 2: of this bookstore. I have to admit, so indulge me 302 00:18:49,315 --> 00:18:51,675 Speaker 2: for a minute. It's like if Empire Records were an 303 00:18:51,715 --> 00:18:55,115 Speaker 2: episode of the X files set at MoMA, but in Baltimore. 304 00:18:55,635 --> 00:18:57,595 Speaker 2: I spoke to a bunch of people who worked at 305 00:18:57,715 --> 00:19:00,875 Speaker 2: or hung out around the shop, including the artist Lori Stepp, 306 00:19:01,155 --> 00:19:03,515 Speaker 2: who seemed to confirm the kazoos and violins thing. 307 00:19:04,235 --> 00:19:05,715 Speaker 9: I mean, what did you expect, you know? 308 00:19:06,795 --> 00:19:09,875 Speaker 2: Despite the chaos for a beautiful moment, the store was 309 00:19:09,955 --> 00:19:13,035 Speaker 2: at the center of the Baltimore arts scene. Alan Ginsberg 310 00:19:13,115 --> 00:19:15,995 Speaker 2: read there, so did a lot of famous poets and artists. 311 00:19:16,315 --> 00:19:19,435 Speaker 2: John Waters, the director, was always hanging around. It was 312 00:19:19,435 --> 00:19:21,715 Speaker 2: on national lists as one of the best bookstores in 313 00:19:21,715 --> 00:19:24,595 Speaker 2: the country. The Mayor of Baltimore would start the city's 314 00:19:24,595 --> 00:19:27,795 Speaker 2: parades from there, and it was totally beautiful. It had 315 00:19:27,875 --> 00:19:31,275 Speaker 2: thirty foot high ceilings, twin staircases up from the ground 316 00:19:31,315 --> 00:19:34,435 Speaker 2: floor to a balcony, an art gallery on the second floor, 317 00:19:34,755 --> 00:19:37,075 Speaker 2: and twelve foot high gilt mirrors all over the place. 318 00:19:37,515 --> 00:19:40,995 Speaker 2: It was perfect. And when Alan Stipeck decided to open 319 00:19:41,035 --> 00:19:45,835 Speaker 2: a bar in the basement, Richard saw his golden opportunity. 320 00:19:45,955 --> 00:19:48,755 Speaker 2: He suggested that the bar's opening night should be on 321 00:19:48,915 --> 00:19:53,075 Speaker 2: March ninth, nineteen eighty two, the night of his Time 322 00:19:53,115 --> 00:19:54,315 Speaker 2: Traveler landing party. 323 00:19:54,795 --> 00:19:58,315 Speaker 9: I do remember thinking serving alcohol to poets wasn't a 324 00:19:58,315 --> 00:19:59,075 Speaker 9: great idea. 325 00:20:01,795 --> 00:20:04,835 Speaker 2: Alan agreed to host the Time Traveler party, and Richard 326 00:20:04,835 --> 00:20:08,195 Speaker 2: got to work planning the most legendary party of Baltimore's history. 327 00:20:10,115 --> 00:20:14,675 Speaker 2: Years of thinking Richard's big day was finally arriving the syzygy. 328 00:20:14,915 --> 00:20:17,235 Speaker 2: The alignment of the planets was actually a big deal, 329 00:20:17,315 --> 00:20:20,355 Speaker 2: not just for Richard. It was like y two k light. 330 00:20:20,795 --> 00:20:23,635 Speaker 2: There'd been a best selling book called the Jupiter Effect 331 00:20:23,915 --> 00:20:26,395 Speaker 2: that predicted that the alignment of the planets would lead 332 00:20:26,395 --> 00:20:30,995 Speaker 2: to a whole bunch of natural disasters earthquakes, floods, nuclear meltdowns. 333 00:20:31,515 --> 00:20:34,755 Speaker 2: The local news in Baltimore covered the astrological angle by 334 00:20:34,795 --> 00:20:38,195 Speaker 2: going to the director of the planetarium, doctors or Poli, 335 00:20:38,555 --> 00:20:40,195 Speaker 2: and asking for his expert opinion. 336 00:20:40,835 --> 00:20:42,395 Speaker 7: As you can see, the planets are not in a 337 00:20:42,435 --> 00:20:43,035 Speaker 7: straight line. 338 00:20:43,035 --> 00:20:46,195 Speaker 2: They're in kind of a crazy zigzag line across the sky. 339 00:20:47,435 --> 00:20:48,955 Speaker 7: There's nothing unusual about it. 340 00:20:49,155 --> 00:20:52,035 Speaker 2: But who cares. Even the newscasters wanted to believe. 341 00:20:52,635 --> 00:20:55,555 Speaker 1: But if Zirpulli and the majority of astronomers in the 342 00:20:55,555 --> 00:21:01,075 Speaker 1: world are wrong, well we'll see tomorrow, Bill Sider, you've 343 00:21:01,075 --> 00:21:01,595 Speaker 1: seen too. 344 00:21:02,395 --> 00:21:04,315 Speaker 2: A few of the crononauts drove out to a Mesa 345 00:21:04,355 --> 00:21:07,115 Speaker 2: in New Mexico for the big night. Crews around the 346 00:21:07,155 --> 00:21:10,475 Speaker 2: world started setting up their spin off parties, but most 347 00:21:10,475 --> 00:21:13,275 Speaker 2: of the team was in Baltimore. Richard and the staff 348 00:21:13,315 --> 00:21:16,635 Speaker 2: of Second Story Books got the flagship party started, and 349 00:21:16,675 --> 00:21:21,955 Speaker 2: when evening came around, the scene was unprecedented. 350 00:21:21,795 --> 00:21:26,675 Speaker 7: So it was like, we're here, and I believe that 351 00:21:26,795 --> 00:21:29,115 Speaker 7: the Mayor came by that day. 352 00:21:29,835 --> 00:21:34,635 Speaker 8: The Mayor brought in searchlights helped them up to try 353 00:21:34,675 --> 00:21:38,715 Speaker 8: to catch the the interplanetary travelers as they came down 354 00:21:38,755 --> 00:21:39,235 Speaker 8: to Earth. 355 00:21:39,995 --> 00:21:42,395 Speaker 10: It was crazy. It was full of people. 356 00:21:42,955 --> 00:21:45,715 Speaker 6: So I was on the top of this mesia lighting 357 00:21:45,795 --> 00:21:50,075 Speaker 6: flares and documenting the star and the different venuses rising. 358 00:21:50,675 --> 00:21:54,315 Speaker 7: There was a nude couple who claimed that they were 359 00:21:54,355 --> 00:21:55,035 Speaker 7: Adam and Eve. 360 00:21:55,675 --> 00:22:00,515 Speaker 10: I was getting really nervous because we couldn't really tell 361 00:22:00,555 --> 00:22:01,395 Speaker 10: who was doing what. 362 00:22:02,315 --> 00:22:06,475 Speaker 7: Jello all over the floor and people were like writhing around, 363 00:22:06,515 --> 00:22:08,635 Speaker 7: and Kirby had a television set on. 364 00:22:08,755 --> 00:22:11,635 Speaker 9: The where the people from the future, where we see 365 00:22:11,675 --> 00:22:12,715 Speaker 9: our future selves. 366 00:22:13,715 --> 00:22:16,755 Speaker 11: Not only did the may of thick around, but he 367 00:22:16,835 --> 00:22:20,875 Speaker 11: stayed there the whole night and led a conga line 368 00:22:21,595 --> 00:22:26,715 Speaker 11: of people up the stairs of the Washington Monument at 369 00:22:26,795 --> 00:22:27,675 Speaker 11: Quall for flop. 370 00:22:29,155 --> 00:22:31,835 Speaker 2: The New York Times sent a reporter to cover this madness, 371 00:22:31,955 --> 00:22:34,515 Speaker 2: and I swear to you I am not making this up. 372 00:22:34,835 --> 00:22:37,875 Speaker 2: The Times reporter at the Time Traveler party was named 373 00:22:38,955 --> 00:22:43,075 Speaker 2: Benjamin Franklin. They ran out of alcohol, the party just 374 00:22:43,195 --> 00:22:48,115 Speaker 2: kept going. It was amazing. Except so did any time 375 00:22:48,155 --> 00:22:49,475 Speaker 2: travelers come to the party. 376 00:22:50,595 --> 00:22:53,755 Speaker 7: We don't know. I mean, you know, there wasn't any 377 00:22:53,755 --> 00:22:56,955 Speaker 7: indication that there definitely was time travelers there. 378 00:22:57,595 --> 00:22:59,875 Speaker 2: That was Richard. Again. When I talk to the Second 379 00:22:59,875 --> 00:23:03,435 Speaker 2: Story bookstore management about this, they had a slightly different take. 380 00:23:04,355 --> 00:23:09,155 Speaker 10: I will say, just for the mostly for Ben's sake, 381 00:23:09,875 --> 00:23:13,275 Speaker 10: that I'm totally open to the idea that the time 382 00:23:13,315 --> 00:23:16,995 Speaker 10: travelers erased all of that from our memories. 383 00:23:17,915 --> 00:23:22,235 Speaker 2: Okay, so probably no time travelers. But the party was incredible. Still, 384 00:23:22,515 --> 00:23:24,915 Speaker 2: good things never last, and a little more than a 385 00:23:24,995 --> 00:23:28,995 Speaker 2: year later the store closed. It was just untenable kazoos 386 00:23:29,035 --> 00:23:31,915 Speaker 2: and violins. But when I talked to Richard about the 387 00:23:31,915 --> 00:23:34,395 Speaker 2: whole thing, I wasn't so much after whether or not 388 00:23:34,435 --> 00:23:37,635 Speaker 2: the experiment worked, as I was trying to understand why 389 00:23:37,675 --> 00:23:40,075 Speaker 2: so many people were drawn to it and what he 390 00:23:40,195 --> 00:23:43,315 Speaker 2: meant by it. It seems to me like you're not 391 00:23:43,435 --> 00:23:46,315 Speaker 2: a person who's necessarily like, time travel is real and 392 00:23:46,355 --> 00:23:48,235 Speaker 2: this will prove it. You're more a person who's like, 393 00:23:48,275 --> 00:23:50,435 Speaker 2: why have we closed our minds to so many things? 394 00:23:51,515 --> 00:23:54,835 Speaker 7: Is that that's a that's a pretty correct statement. Yeah, 395 00:23:55,075 --> 00:23:57,755 Speaker 7: I see it. It's fun and funny, but it's also 396 00:23:58,755 --> 00:24:02,155 Speaker 7: kind of dead serious. I think that the limitations that 397 00:24:02,195 --> 00:24:07,555 Speaker 7: people have on their thinking, on their imaginations keeps us 398 00:24:07,595 --> 00:24:12,515 Speaker 7: sort of you know, and trapped in a lot of 399 00:24:12,875 --> 00:24:16,235 Speaker 7: pretty lousy stuff in this world, you know. And if 400 00:24:16,235 --> 00:24:20,075 Speaker 7: they felt if they felt more self empowered to use 401 00:24:20,115 --> 00:24:24,675 Speaker 7: their imagination and to like follow their their dreams, not 402 00:24:24,715 --> 00:24:26,635 Speaker 7: only would they be better off, but other people would 403 00:24:26,635 --> 00:24:27,235 Speaker 7: be better off. 404 00:24:28,475 --> 00:24:32,995 Speaker 2: Somewhere in between dead serious and fun and funny. That 405 00:24:33,155 --> 00:24:37,235 Speaker 2: is the exact feeling that time travel stories express. And 406 00:24:37,315 --> 00:24:40,355 Speaker 2: this party wasn't just a rave. It was, as Laurie 407 00:24:40,395 --> 00:24:42,555 Speaker 2: reminded me, a work of art. 408 00:24:42,995 --> 00:24:45,995 Speaker 9: I mean, it's all about raising questions, you know, and 409 00:24:46,035 --> 00:24:49,675 Speaker 9: making making you think so. But I do remember that 410 00:24:49,795 --> 00:24:56,675 Speaker 9: sort of you know, like maybe maybe they'll show up. 411 00:24:56,755 --> 00:24:57,915 Speaker 2: How will we know, you know? 412 00:24:57,995 --> 00:25:02,315 Speaker 9: I mean certainly now I'm like, are you the same person? 413 00:25:03,275 --> 00:25:05,195 Speaker 9: Like if you met yourself, would it be like meeting 414 00:25:05,275 --> 00:25:08,475 Speaker 9: the same person. I think it's a great conceptual piece. 415 00:25:08,515 --> 00:25:09,635 Speaker 9: I really, I really do. 416 00:25:11,355 --> 00:25:14,875 Speaker 2: Time travel stories and time travel parties raise all these 417 00:25:14,875 --> 00:25:17,435 Speaker 2: big questions about what happens to us as we move 418 00:25:17,555 --> 00:25:20,635 Speaker 2: through time, but they also ask a big question about 419 00:25:20,635 --> 00:25:23,275 Speaker 2: what we would change if we could go back. There 420 00:25:23,275 --> 00:25:27,555 Speaker 2: are often stories about regret and loneliness and time. The 421 00:25:27,635 --> 00:25:31,275 Speaker 2: time traveler is almost always lonely. If you visit the past, 422 00:25:31,475 --> 00:25:34,835 Speaker 2: you know how everything's going to turn out, how people die, 423 00:25:35,155 --> 00:25:38,675 Speaker 2: when wars break out, who winds up with whom. If 424 00:25:38,675 --> 00:25:42,035 Speaker 2: you go to the future, your world is gone, replaced. 425 00:25:43,035 --> 00:25:46,555 Speaker 2: That's why I love this party. It's about bringing people together, 426 00:25:47,195 --> 00:25:50,755 Speaker 2: calling out across the void to the future, and welcoming 427 00:25:50,755 --> 00:25:52,635 Speaker 2: it back to the past. 428 00:25:53,475 --> 00:25:56,395 Speaker 7: One of the definitions for me of conceptual art is 429 00:25:56,395 --> 00:25:59,355 Speaker 7: is that it carries some content, whether or not you're 430 00:25:59,395 --> 00:26:03,835 Speaker 7: there to experience it or not. It's participating people participating 431 00:26:03,875 --> 00:26:07,155 Speaker 7: in the idea. Say you're part of the You're part 432 00:26:07,195 --> 00:26:11,195 Speaker 7: of it. You being here is part of it. Yeah, 433 00:26:11,675 --> 00:26:14,555 Speaker 7: this is what we were going for forty years ago. 434 00:26:14,795 --> 00:26:16,995 Speaker 7: It's one day Ben, it was not even born yet. 435 00:26:17,075 --> 00:26:19,515 Speaker 7: He's going to come back and ask good questions. 436 00:26:20,755 --> 00:26:23,755 Speaker 2: Thank you, I'm glad to have been part of whatever 437 00:26:23,835 --> 00:26:27,635 Speaker 2: weird time lift this is. To me, the party is 438 00:26:27,675 --> 00:26:30,835 Speaker 2: not really about time travelers in the future. It's about 439 00:26:30,875 --> 00:26:33,155 Speaker 2: living in the present, which is a hard thing to 440 00:26:33,195 --> 00:26:35,955 Speaker 2: do because as soon as you're thinking about a present moment, 441 00:26:36,155 --> 00:26:39,075 Speaker 2: it's already in the past. The party seems to me 442 00:26:39,155 --> 00:26:41,315 Speaker 2: like a moment when everyone was really aware of that, 443 00:26:42,075 --> 00:26:45,075 Speaker 2: aware of where you are in time, that one day 444 00:26:45,315 --> 00:26:48,475 Speaker 2: your crazy bookstore full of conceptual artists will be gone, 445 00:26:49,115 --> 00:26:51,435 Speaker 2: and so will a lot of your friends, and so 446 00:26:51,555 --> 00:26:54,515 Speaker 2: will the old you. It's a message in a bottle 447 00:26:54,555 --> 00:26:59,915 Speaker 2: to the future, just like a time capsule. We'll be 448 00:27:00,035 --> 00:27:10,875 Speaker 2: right back. We're in Mountain View, seven miles away from 449 00:27:10,915 --> 00:27:12,355 Speaker 2: the Googleplex. 450 00:27:12,955 --> 00:27:16,395 Speaker 3: Isn't it gonna Doesn't it seem like you're entering a wormhole. 451 00:27:16,995 --> 00:27:20,035 Speaker 1: Just because it's called the Googleplex? Oh yeah, you know, 452 00:27:20,075 --> 00:27:21,755 Speaker 1: they used to have this thing that they never. 453 00:27:23,395 --> 00:27:23,595 Speaker 8: Back. 454 00:27:23,635 --> 00:27:27,475 Speaker 2: On February seventeenth, twenty twenty, Jill, her youngest son Oliver, 455 00:27:27,595 --> 00:27:30,195 Speaker 2: and I drove all around San Francisco in that bright 456 00:27:30,275 --> 00:27:33,795 Speaker 2: red convertible for a long time. We were looking, among 457 00:27:33,835 --> 00:27:37,395 Speaker 2: other things, for that Yahoo time capsule, that archive of 458 00:27:37,435 --> 00:27:40,315 Speaker 2: the early Internet. We were curious about it because it 459 00:27:40,355 --> 00:27:43,315 Speaker 2: was strangely like an early social media thing, before social 460 00:27:43,355 --> 00:27:47,235 Speaker 2: media was really mainstream, Uploading yourself was still new for people. 461 00:27:47,835 --> 00:27:50,075 Speaker 2: What did that look like right before it became the 462 00:27:50,075 --> 00:27:52,875 Speaker 2: thing we all did all the time. We wanted to know. 463 00:27:53,555 --> 00:27:56,035 Speaker 2: We saw Facebook in the Google Plex, but we never 464 00:27:56,075 --> 00:27:59,715 Speaker 2: found the Yahoo time capsule. Still, we're pretty sure that 465 00:27:59,755 --> 00:28:03,115 Speaker 2: we're the reason Verizon, Yahoo's new parent company, remembered it 466 00:28:03,155 --> 00:28:06,675 Speaker 2: even existed, because right after we started emailing about it 467 00:28:06,715 --> 00:28:09,795 Speaker 2: that January, the artist who created the time capsule, Price 468 00:28:10,235 --> 00:28:12,835 Speaker 2: said Verizon reached out to him. And then a week 469 00:28:12,915 --> 00:28:16,115 Speaker 2: or so after we left San Francisco, Yahoo staff got 470 00:28:16,115 --> 00:28:18,875 Speaker 2: the Macmini they'd saved it on out of storage and 471 00:28:18,995 --> 00:28:21,995 Speaker 2: hauled it out on stage during their twenty fifth birthday party. 472 00:28:22,915 --> 00:28:25,755 Speaker 2: Nobody could find the password the Luckily someone had it 473 00:28:25,755 --> 00:28:30,315 Speaker 2: written down somewhere. The password was the word paper. 474 00:28:30,715 --> 00:28:35,075 Speaker 11: And making its return in cinematic fashion, a digital time capsule. 475 00:28:35,355 --> 00:28:39,715 Speaker 2: After sitting in the Smithsonian for years, Yahoo's twenty fifth birthday. 476 00:28:39,515 --> 00:28:42,195 Speaker 11: Marked the perfect time to take a glimpse at history. 477 00:28:42,995 --> 00:28:45,395 Speaker 2: I gotta say, watching the chip or video of Horizon 478 00:28:45,435 --> 00:28:48,515 Speaker 2: made about the event, I'm happy we weren't there. During 479 00:28:48,555 --> 00:28:51,035 Speaker 2: the heady days of the early two thousands. This thing 480 00:28:51,155 --> 00:28:54,115 Speaker 2: was beamed into outer space and projected on canyon walls 481 00:28:54,155 --> 00:28:57,875 Speaker 2: in New Mexico. Now he was just carried out in 482 00:28:57,875 --> 00:29:01,235 Speaker 2: a box during an all staff ah the passage of time. 483 00:29:01,995 --> 00:29:03,875 Speaker 2: It kind of feels like you're going through someone's home 484 00:29:03,955 --> 00:29:05,595 Speaker 2: videos that you don't know, But it was really just 485 00:29:05,675 --> 00:29:08,275 Speaker 2: kind of looking at a slice of personal lives of 486 00:29:08,275 --> 00:29:10,635 Speaker 2: these people that we never met that were Yahoo users 487 00:29:10,675 --> 00:29:14,275 Speaker 2: Once upon a Time. Thirty six thousand, five hundred and 488 00:29:14,315 --> 00:29:18,195 Speaker 2: forty eight messages, ninety seven one hundred and seventy seven pictures, 489 00:29:18,675 --> 00:29:22,115 Speaker 2: hundreds of thousands of slices of life. Two friends at 490 00:29:22,115 --> 00:29:25,995 Speaker 2: a soccer game with flower necklaces, someone skiing in a cowsuit, 491 00:29:26,395 --> 00:29:30,275 Speaker 2: a teen wielding two lightsabers, a note that read I 492 00:29:30,355 --> 00:29:33,115 Speaker 2: love Anita. I'll tell her after I finished my MBA 493 00:29:33,235 --> 00:29:37,675 Speaker 2: in France. All these messages to the future met with 494 00:29:38,155 --> 00:29:42,075 Speaker 2: a shrug. But I couldn't stop thinking about it because 495 00:29:42,075 --> 00:29:45,635 Speaker 2: of how utterly unimaginable the world that Time Capsule landed 496 00:29:45,675 --> 00:29:49,435 Speaker 2: in was from the one that left just fourteen years before. 497 00:29:52,195 --> 00:29:55,035 Speaker 2: The week we were in California, the number of worldwide 498 00:29:55,035 --> 00:29:59,595 Speaker 2: deaths from Sarskov two passed one thousand A day later, 499 00:29:59,995 --> 00:30:04,995 Speaker 2: the who gave it the new name COVID nineteen. On 500 00:30:05,075 --> 00:30:07,675 Speaker 2: March second, Yahoo opened up the time capsule at a 501 00:30:07,675 --> 00:30:11,155 Speaker 2: big in person event. A couple of week later. Ninety percent 502 00:30:11,275 --> 00:30:16,155 Speaker 2: of Verizon staff started working from home when the lockdown started. 503 00:30:16,355 --> 00:30:18,715 Speaker 2: I kept working on the last archive from my apartment. 504 00:30:19,475 --> 00:30:22,275 Speaker 2: My fiance Julia, and I were in New York. I 505 00:30:22,315 --> 00:30:24,675 Speaker 2: remember running in the streets and holding my breath when 506 00:30:24,715 --> 00:30:28,355 Speaker 2: I passed someone. I'm embarrassed to say. We scrubbed down groceries. 507 00:30:29,035 --> 00:30:34,035 Speaker 2: Suddenly everything changed, and then nothing was changing. All the 508 00:30:34,075 --> 00:30:37,395 Speaker 2: old clockwork fell away no more. At the next trains 509 00:30:37,395 --> 00:30:39,435 Speaker 2: in three minutes, pick ups at four, meet you at 510 00:30:39,475 --> 00:30:42,515 Speaker 2: five for anyone lucky enough to be working from home 511 00:30:42,955 --> 00:30:46,235 Speaker 2: who was just big, long days, each the same as 512 00:30:46,235 --> 00:30:49,475 Speaker 2: the one before. After a little while, we moved to 513 00:30:49,515 --> 00:30:52,595 Speaker 2: Julia's mom's house in Connecticut. I watched a nest of 514 00:30:52,595 --> 00:30:55,515 Speaker 2: Bluebird's Fledge and another move in and start the process 515 00:30:55,555 --> 00:30:59,155 Speaker 2: all over again. I fell in love with birds. I 516 00:30:59,195 --> 00:31:01,995 Speaker 2: was also listening to a lot of ambient music. I 517 00:31:02,035 --> 00:31:04,675 Speaker 2: came to realize birds and ambient music were just two 518 00:31:04,715 --> 00:31:08,675 Speaker 2: different ways of thinking. About time. Cycles of natural time, 519 00:31:09,155 --> 00:31:11,955 Speaker 2: like treeswa is showing up on the same day years apart, 520 00:31:12,635 --> 00:31:17,155 Speaker 2: and then music without any meter long spare vast like 521 00:31:17,195 --> 00:31:21,555 Speaker 2: an ocean. For some people, it was like time had 522 00:31:21,595 --> 00:31:26,515 Speaker 2: just stopped. The days seemed unbelievably long. For others, they 523 00:31:26,595 --> 00:31:30,795 Speaker 2: sped by. People started calling everything before March twenty twenty 524 00:31:30,915 --> 00:31:35,595 Speaker 2: the beforetime. They didn't usually mention in after the psychologist 525 00:31:35,595 --> 00:31:37,835 Speaker 2: talked about that on NPR. 526 00:31:38,355 --> 00:31:40,995 Speaker 12: We are aware of time, We're aware of the fragility 527 00:31:41,035 --> 00:31:43,635 Speaker 12: of time, and we're aware of what happens when your 528 00:31:43,675 --> 00:31:45,995 Speaker 12: time to do the things you want is taken away 529 00:31:46,035 --> 00:31:48,475 Speaker 12: from you. And I think that that is the real 530 00:31:48,555 --> 00:31:51,355 Speaker 12: thing that will have changed, is how people value time. 531 00:31:53,315 --> 00:31:56,555 Speaker 2: Valuing time. That was part of what freaked me out 532 00:31:56,555 --> 00:31:59,395 Speaker 2: about the Yahoo time capsule, how near it came to 533 00:31:59,475 --> 00:32:02,395 Speaker 2: being lost, and how pointless it all seemed in the end, 534 00:32:02,875 --> 00:32:06,475 Speaker 2: and just how totally inconceivable everything in between closing and 535 00:32:06,515 --> 00:32:09,595 Speaker 2: opening that box had been. Like a lot of people 536 00:32:09,635 --> 00:32:13,835 Speaker 2: don't the pandemic. I had so much time, and all 537 00:32:13,875 --> 00:32:25,395 Speaker 2: I could do was think about how it was slipping away. 538 00:32:25,555 --> 00:32:29,795 Speaker 13: It's like, so it's the brick apartment building smack in 539 00:32:29,795 --> 00:32:32,795 Speaker 13: the middle of Cambridge. Right, that looks like maybe we 540 00:32:32,795 --> 00:32:34,835 Speaker 13: can go to that main door and then we have 541 00:32:34,915 --> 00:32:36,315 Speaker 13: to press a button on the intercom. 542 00:32:37,635 --> 00:32:40,755 Speaker 2: Three years after that first pandemic bunch, on March twenty eighth, 543 00:32:40,755 --> 00:32:43,795 Speaker 2: twenty twenty three, Jill and I met up in Cambridge 544 00:32:44,275 --> 00:32:45,875 Speaker 2: to go see a time machine. 545 00:32:47,315 --> 00:32:48,875 Speaker 1: Hey Stewart, it's Jill and Ben. 546 00:32:49,115 --> 00:32:51,635 Speaker 4: Yeah, I'll buy you and go to third flour left. 547 00:32:52,115 --> 00:32:52,355 Speaker 2: Great. 548 00:32:52,395 --> 00:32:54,315 Speaker 1: Thanks. 549 00:32:55,035 --> 00:32:57,715 Speaker 2: I told Jill I wanted to talk about time travel stories. 550 00:32:58,275 --> 00:33:00,715 Speaker 2: Jill told me she had a crafty neighbor named Stuart 551 00:33:00,755 --> 00:33:03,315 Speaker 2: who had built a perfect replica of a tartist Doctor 552 00:33:03,355 --> 00:33:04,515 Speaker 2: Whose time machine. 553 00:33:05,115 --> 00:33:06,595 Speaker 1: Look it's perfect. 554 00:33:06,755 --> 00:33:09,355 Speaker 4: It's pretty good. I got. They were rebuilding the house 555 00:33:09,395 --> 00:33:12,795 Speaker 4: next door, and I got all the wood for free. 556 00:33:13,915 --> 00:33:14,875 Speaker 4: And that's why. 557 00:33:14,675 --> 00:33:19,795 Speaker 2: It's to tear. Doctor Who is a sixty year old 558 00:33:19,835 --> 00:33:22,875 Speaker 2: BBC show which is still running. The Doctor is the 559 00:33:22,955 --> 00:33:26,435 Speaker 2: last of an alien race called time Lords. Each week 560 00:33:26,595 --> 00:33:28,715 Speaker 2: he travels in his time machine, which looks like a 561 00:33:28,715 --> 00:33:31,995 Speaker 2: blue police box. Usually, when Doctor Who shows up, it's 562 00:33:32,035 --> 00:33:34,835 Speaker 2: because something's gone terribly wrong in time and he has 563 00:33:34,875 --> 00:33:38,675 Speaker 2: to save the world. It's a mad zany, beautiful, sad show. 564 00:33:39,635 --> 00:33:42,995 Speaker 2: It's also a show though, about how disorienting time travel is. 565 00:33:43,795 --> 00:33:47,235 Speaker 2: The Doctor is a little adult and very lonely. We 566 00:33:47,315 --> 00:33:50,315 Speaker 2: wanted to see this perfect artist, just the right shade 567 00:33:50,315 --> 00:33:53,075 Speaker 2: of blue on a wood framed phone booth. Stuart had 568 00:33:53,115 --> 00:33:55,875 Speaker 2: built it on the roof of his apartment building in Cambridge, 569 00:33:56,155 --> 00:33:59,915 Speaker 2: which had entailed some compromises the dimension of the base. 570 00:34:00,035 --> 00:34:01,635 Speaker 4: It should have been like a four foot square, but 571 00:34:01,675 --> 00:34:05,275 Speaker 4: I was constrained by the dumpster next do our. It's 572 00:34:05,315 --> 00:34:06,995 Speaker 4: on wheels though, it can be moved. 573 00:34:06,795 --> 00:34:10,675 Speaker 1: Around, and well, I mean also it can tell Oh 574 00:34:10,675 --> 00:34:11,195 Speaker 1: that's true. 575 00:34:11,635 --> 00:34:14,155 Speaker 2: Stuart gave us the keys. Oh my god, it's. 576 00:34:13,995 --> 00:34:16,915 Speaker 3: Really the key and you have a little chartist on 577 00:34:17,035 --> 00:34:19,075 Speaker 3: it and it's the real yellow. 578 00:34:19,475 --> 00:34:20,835 Speaker 1: So where would you go if you could? 579 00:34:21,115 --> 00:34:24,195 Speaker 3: If it was working, it wasn't temporarily disabled. 580 00:34:24,875 --> 00:34:27,155 Speaker 4: Oh I would probably go the future, I guess. Yeah. 581 00:34:27,195 --> 00:34:29,195 Speaker 1: When would you go? Is what I'm supposed to Wan scared? 582 00:34:31,235 --> 00:34:31,595 Speaker 10: I don't know. 583 00:34:31,955 --> 00:34:33,555 Speaker 2: Fifty years to start? 584 00:34:33,835 --> 00:34:36,795 Speaker 4: Yeah, I never really thought about that. 585 00:34:36,835 --> 00:34:40,235 Speaker 2: Then do you have any predictions for what you would 586 00:34:40,235 --> 00:34:41,195 Speaker 2: see in fifty years? 587 00:34:41,475 --> 00:34:41,555 Speaker 12: No? 588 00:34:42,075 --> 00:34:43,675 Speaker 4: I also stopped watching the news about a. 589 00:34:43,675 --> 00:34:47,035 Speaker 2: Year though, Yeah, are you still watching Doctor Who? 590 00:34:47,115 --> 00:34:47,275 Speaker 8: Though? 591 00:34:47,395 --> 00:34:50,475 Speaker 4: Yeah? 592 00:34:50,555 --> 00:34:53,155 Speaker 2: It turned out that this particular tartist was full of 593 00:34:53,195 --> 00:34:55,115 Speaker 2: stacked lawn chairs and buckets. 594 00:34:55,515 --> 00:34:57,555 Speaker 14: It is true, the inside is not as exciting as 595 00:34:57,595 --> 00:34:59,115 Speaker 14: the outside. 596 00:35:00,435 --> 00:35:03,395 Speaker 2: We left Stuart and his amazing tartists and headed back 597 00:35:03,435 --> 00:35:05,915 Speaker 2: to Jill's house down the street. We set up in 598 00:35:05,915 --> 00:35:07,395 Speaker 2: the kitchen to talk about time. 599 00:35:09,235 --> 00:35:11,235 Speaker 1: This isn't really about doctor, but I like I do. 600 00:35:11,555 --> 00:35:14,475 Speaker 3: I'm very fascinated by the idea that messages can travel 601 00:35:14,515 --> 00:35:15,075 Speaker 3: across time. 602 00:35:15,755 --> 00:35:17,955 Speaker 1: Like I just really like that, and. 603 00:35:19,915 --> 00:35:21,915 Speaker 3: Like that's why I like going to an archive, Like 604 00:35:21,955 --> 00:35:24,355 Speaker 3: it's a message that somebody left and now I can 605 00:35:24,355 --> 00:35:28,195 Speaker 3: see it. So when I was a freshman in college, 606 00:35:28,195 --> 00:35:29,675 Speaker 3: I got a letter in the mail that was from 607 00:35:29,675 --> 00:35:32,235 Speaker 3: my mother. But inside the envelope I thought it was 608 00:35:32,275 --> 00:35:34,115 Speaker 3: a letter from my mother, But inside the envelope was 609 00:35:34,115 --> 00:35:36,875 Speaker 3: a letter in my It was another envelope, and it 610 00:35:36,915 --> 00:35:39,115 Speaker 3: had my handwriting in it. It was addressed to me by me, 611 00:35:39,275 --> 00:35:41,715 Speaker 3: And it was this letter that my high school English 612 00:35:41,755 --> 00:35:44,035 Speaker 3: teacher had everybody writes yourself four years in the future, 613 00:35:44,075 --> 00:35:46,515 Speaker 3: which was like new then. Although I talked to students 614 00:35:46,555 --> 00:35:47,675 Speaker 3: all the time, I was like, oh, yeah, we all 615 00:35:47,715 --> 00:35:50,235 Speaker 3: have to do that now. But it was really it 616 00:35:50,275 --> 00:35:52,595 Speaker 3: really affected me to get this because I was like 617 00:35:52,595 --> 00:35:55,155 Speaker 3: this is a completely different person. I don't remember writing it, 618 00:35:55,355 --> 00:35:58,315 Speaker 3: and then I had access to this whole other view 619 00:35:58,355 --> 00:36:00,075 Speaker 3: of the world, and like that's. 620 00:35:59,915 --> 00:36:01,035 Speaker 1: Why I like doing history. 621 00:36:01,515 --> 00:36:04,395 Speaker 2: But so what was striking about the letter when you 622 00:36:04,475 --> 00:36:04,795 Speaker 2: got it? 623 00:36:05,515 --> 00:36:09,235 Speaker 3: So I was fourteen when I read it and nineteen 624 00:36:09,275 --> 00:36:12,075 Speaker 3: when I got it, And if you can think about 625 00:36:12,115 --> 00:36:15,435 Speaker 3: yourself at those two ages, there's a lot of changes. 626 00:36:16,115 --> 00:36:19,715 Speaker 1: And I didn't remember what I was like at fourteen. 627 00:36:20,195 --> 00:36:22,635 Speaker 3: I probably now can't remember what I was like at nineteen, 628 00:36:22,675 --> 00:36:24,315 Speaker 3: but I was a lot closer to who I am now. 629 00:36:25,195 --> 00:36:29,195 Speaker 3: But when I was fourteen, I could actually imagine who 630 00:36:29,235 --> 00:36:32,195 Speaker 3: I was when I was nineteen, because the letter that 631 00:36:32,235 --> 00:36:35,875 Speaker 3: I wrote at fourteen was sort of perfectly pitched to 632 00:36:36,035 --> 00:36:41,035 Speaker 3: that nineteen year old self and was a very effective harangue. 633 00:36:41,475 --> 00:36:44,355 Speaker 3: Like the letter was like I know you will not 634 00:36:44,435 --> 00:36:46,795 Speaker 3: actually have done the following things that you really should 635 00:36:46,835 --> 00:36:48,795 Speaker 3: have done by now, and I'm really mad at you 636 00:36:48,875 --> 00:36:51,115 Speaker 3: for not doing them. So if you haven't done them yet, 637 00:36:51,155 --> 00:36:55,715 Speaker 3: like get them the fuck done. And it was furious 638 00:36:55,835 --> 00:37:02,835 Speaker 3: and scathing and seething and passionate and urgent and terrifying. 639 00:37:04,595 --> 00:37:07,195 Speaker 3: And then I did all the things like I got 640 00:37:07,275 --> 00:37:07,915 Speaker 3: the letter. 641 00:37:07,675 --> 00:37:11,155 Speaker 1: And I was like, Oh my god, I guess she's right. 642 00:37:11,275 --> 00:37:14,355 Speaker 1: I didn't. I thought I was going to do those things, 643 00:37:14,395 --> 00:37:15,715 Speaker 1: but I also thought I might. 644 00:37:15,595 --> 00:37:19,875 Speaker 2: Not sending messages to the future. This seemed to me 645 00:37:19,995 --> 00:37:23,555 Speaker 2: a perfect segue to my old hobby horse. The reason 646 00:37:23,595 --> 00:37:25,875 Speaker 2: I wanted to do this story is because of the 647 00:37:25,875 --> 00:37:29,515 Speaker 2: Ahu time Capsule, which, as you may recall, as a 648 00:37:29,915 --> 00:37:35,315 Speaker 2: story I've been unable to let go of. But I 649 00:37:35,715 --> 00:37:37,835 Speaker 2: because I think for me, one of the things that 650 00:37:37,915 --> 00:37:42,235 Speaker 2: expresses the weirdness of the pandemic and time and all 651 00:37:42,275 --> 00:37:44,515 Speaker 2: of that is the fact that, you know, two weeks 652 00:37:44,515 --> 00:37:47,995 Speaker 2: before Lockdown, two or three weeks, we were on the 653 00:37:48,035 --> 00:37:51,515 Speaker 2: last trip that I took, like traveling around sort of 654 00:37:51,555 --> 00:37:53,475 Speaker 2: like nothing was wrong, with the growing sense that something 655 00:37:53,555 --> 00:37:54,235 Speaker 2: was maybe wrong. 656 00:37:54,635 --> 00:37:56,635 Speaker 3: I do think about that trip as a kind of 657 00:37:57,395 --> 00:38:02,915 Speaker 3: crazy Hurrah last Hurrah turned out because it was a 658 00:38:02,955 --> 00:38:05,275 Speaker 3: mad cap trip and there was all this weirdness around 659 00:38:05,315 --> 00:38:08,195 Speaker 3: the Matrix being shot in San Francisco, and we rented 660 00:38:08,195 --> 00:38:13,275 Speaker 3: this crazy car and then we locked that interview in 661 00:38:13,275 --> 00:38:16,355 Speaker 3: a vault, like it became its own time capsule. 662 00:38:17,075 --> 00:38:19,755 Speaker 2: Every time we had a brainstorm meeting. For years after 663 00:38:19,795 --> 00:38:22,675 Speaker 2: that trip, I kept bringing up the Yahoo time capsule. 664 00:38:23,275 --> 00:38:25,235 Speaker 2: I felt like it was finally time for me to 665 00:38:25,275 --> 00:38:29,555 Speaker 2: explain myself. I wonder if there's something about like a 666 00:38:29,995 --> 00:38:34,595 Speaker 2: feeling of historical disjunction or like epical change, where you 667 00:38:34,675 --> 00:38:38,755 Speaker 2: suddenly feel like things that are somewhat recent in chronological 668 00:38:38,755 --> 00:38:42,155 Speaker 2: time are actually just like totally different eras, and if 669 00:38:42,195 --> 00:38:45,635 Speaker 2: part of the way people express that feeling is through 670 00:38:45,675 --> 00:38:49,275 Speaker 2: stories about time travel and being out of time. 671 00:38:49,875 --> 00:38:55,035 Speaker 3: Well, one thing that I noticed a lot during the 672 00:38:55,075 --> 00:39:02,635 Speaker 3: pandemic is that I think it meant that everyone had 673 00:39:02,635 --> 00:39:04,395 Speaker 3: a sense of living in historical time. 674 00:39:04,915 --> 00:39:06,075 Speaker 1: That is to say that there was. 675 00:39:07,515 --> 00:39:11,195 Speaker 3: Not just this is February, but this is a specific 676 00:39:11,275 --> 00:39:13,715 Speaker 3: time in the history of humanity or the history of 677 00:39:13,715 --> 00:39:16,275 Speaker 3: the planet, and that I don't think most people walk 678 00:39:16,315 --> 00:39:19,755 Speaker 3: around with that every day, although I do think most 679 00:39:19,835 --> 00:39:23,555 Speaker 3: historians do, like that's part of the job, like where 680 00:39:23,595 --> 00:39:27,835 Speaker 3: are we in time? That sense of orientation is it's 681 00:39:27,915 --> 00:39:30,155 Speaker 3: kind of a pain, right, but like you're kind of 682 00:39:30,355 --> 00:39:34,315 Speaker 3: in that a lot. Like so, I remember thinking how 683 00:39:34,355 --> 00:39:37,755 Speaker 3: weird it was that everybody was thinking that way when 684 00:39:37,795 --> 00:39:39,795 Speaker 3: it used to just be like I could talk. 685 00:39:39,635 --> 00:39:40,755 Speaker 1: To my colleagues that way. 686 00:39:41,555 --> 00:39:43,675 Speaker 2: It's good to live in the present, but it's a 687 00:39:43,715 --> 00:39:46,915 Speaker 2: little crazy making to be constantly aware of the historical 688 00:39:46,955 --> 00:39:50,555 Speaker 2: contingency of everything. It's like putting a window between yourself 689 00:39:50,595 --> 00:39:51,795 Speaker 2: and the world. 690 00:39:51,955 --> 00:39:53,755 Speaker 1: And it reminded me a little bit of. 691 00:39:55,555 --> 00:39:58,195 Speaker 3: A friend of mine who was living with us when 692 00:39:58,195 --> 00:40:00,635 Speaker 3: she was in medical school, and she talked about the 693 00:40:00,715 --> 00:40:05,435 Speaker 3: day that you first do start dissecting a human cadaver 694 00:40:05,635 --> 00:40:06,995 Speaker 3: in anatomy class. 695 00:40:07,235 --> 00:40:07,795 Speaker 1: And it's like. 696 00:40:10,235 --> 00:40:12,275 Speaker 3: You cross a bridge and then the people that are 697 00:40:12,275 --> 00:40:14,195 Speaker 3: on the other side of the bridge are other human 698 00:40:14,195 --> 00:40:18,195 Speaker 3: beings who have also dissected a cadaver, and you're completely 699 00:40:18,235 --> 00:40:20,715 Speaker 3: separate from all other humans because you have seen the 700 00:40:20,715 --> 00:40:25,955 Speaker 3: inside of humans and it's transformative. You then belong to 701 00:40:25,995 --> 00:40:28,075 Speaker 3: that guild. But you even if you don't never become 702 00:40:28,115 --> 00:40:30,715 Speaker 3: a doctor, like, you'll always belong to that guilt because 703 00:40:31,195 --> 00:40:34,435 Speaker 3: you were one of the people who has seen. 704 00:40:34,275 --> 00:40:35,275 Speaker 1: The inside of people. 705 00:40:35,875 --> 00:40:37,795 Speaker 3: And I think of historians as people who've seen the 706 00:40:37,875 --> 00:40:41,155 Speaker 3: kind of inside of time. And so that it was 707 00:40:41,235 --> 00:40:43,675 Speaker 3: just weird, weird during the pending that it was like 708 00:40:43,715 --> 00:40:46,995 Speaker 3: everybody had seen the inside of a human body. Like 709 00:40:47,035 --> 00:40:49,635 Speaker 3: it wasn't like, oh, great, everybody now knows what this 710 00:40:49,715 --> 00:40:52,835 Speaker 3: feels like. It was more like, oh, everybody carries the 711 00:40:52,875 --> 00:40:53,475 Speaker 3: same burden. 712 00:40:57,275 --> 00:41:00,035 Speaker 2: I remember how during the pandemic people said they started 713 00:41:00,075 --> 00:41:03,515 Speaker 2: keeping journals because things just months in the past felt 714 00:41:03,515 --> 00:41:06,395 Speaker 2: like they came from a different time. But the main 715 00:41:06,475 --> 00:41:08,955 Speaker 2: reason I think there were so many stories about time 716 00:41:08,995 --> 00:41:12,115 Speaker 2: and time travel these last few years is that time 717 00:41:12,155 --> 00:41:15,875 Speaker 2: travel thinking is the same as pandemic thinking. You step 718 00:41:15,955 --> 00:41:18,555 Speaker 2: on a crack in the sidewalk and suddenly you've changed 719 00:41:18,595 --> 00:41:21,595 Speaker 2: the whole course of history. You cough on a subway 720 00:41:21,995 --> 00:41:25,515 Speaker 2: and suddenly you've risked the life of someone's aminocompromised mom. 721 00:41:25,875 --> 00:41:29,995 Speaker 2: Everything's tangled up and everything else. Richard, the time travel 722 00:41:30,035 --> 00:41:32,555 Speaker 2: party guy said something about this towards the end of 723 00:41:32,595 --> 00:41:32,955 Speaker 2: our call. 724 00:41:33,435 --> 00:41:36,195 Speaker 7: I just wanted to mention because it's important to me. 725 00:41:37,275 --> 00:41:40,035 Speaker 7: The song by the Beatles. I've just seen a face 726 00:41:40,515 --> 00:41:42,675 Speaker 7: and there's one line in that which I think is 727 00:41:42,715 --> 00:41:45,155 Speaker 7: so brilliant. Had it been another day, I might have 728 00:41:45,235 --> 00:41:48,635 Speaker 7: looked the other way. And there's this couplet, you know, 729 00:41:48,755 --> 00:41:54,515 Speaker 7: this like simple line, and it really encapsulates the whole idea. 730 00:41:54,635 --> 00:41:56,515 Speaker 7: Am I going to answer the door or not answer 731 00:41:56,635 --> 00:41:58,395 Speaker 7: the door? Am I going to make the phone call 732 00:41:58,475 --> 00:42:03,075 Speaker 7: or not make the phone call? And we're constantly inventing 733 00:42:03,195 --> 00:42:07,395 Speaker 7: new lives for ourselves. You know, you know, where did 734 00:42:07,435 --> 00:42:10,875 Speaker 7: COVID come from? Somebody I did something wrong. 735 00:42:12,515 --> 00:42:15,915 Speaker 2: That kind of thinking it can be totally paralyzing, but 736 00:42:15,995 --> 00:42:18,355 Speaker 2: I think in a spirit of acceptance and letting go. 737 00:42:18,675 --> 00:42:22,275 Speaker 2: It's also beautiful. All the future depends on even the 738 00:42:22,315 --> 00:42:26,155 Speaker 2: smallest moments. Now, even if you can't speak to the future, 739 00:42:26,835 --> 00:42:33,475 Speaker 2: it still depends on you. Okay. It's twelve twenty eight 740 00:42:33,995 --> 00:42:38,395 Speaker 2: on Wednesday, March twenty ninth, and I am on the 741 00:42:38,475 --> 00:42:40,715 Speaker 2: Eagle Scout bench just to the left when you come 742 00:42:40,715 --> 00:42:44,635 Speaker 2: into the main area outside the Dudham Public Library, Massachusetts, 743 00:42:44,755 --> 00:42:49,915 Speaker 2: just off Norfolk Street, waiting for time travelers. After Jill 744 00:42:49,955 --> 00:42:52,355 Speaker 2: and I wrapped up our conversation, I went back to 745 00:42:52,395 --> 00:42:56,595 Speaker 2: my parents' house to get my things. They live in Denham, Massachusetts. 746 00:42:56,835 --> 00:42:59,075 Speaker 2: I was on my way back to New York, but 747 00:42:59,115 --> 00:43:01,755 Speaker 2: before I left, I wanted to throw my own party 748 00:43:01,755 --> 00:43:03,995 Speaker 2: for time travelers, just to see what it felt like. 749 00:43:04,915 --> 00:43:07,515 Speaker 2: I took down the latitude and longitude of that bench 750 00:43:07,555 --> 00:43:09,355 Speaker 2: at the library, just in case they don't have a 751 00:43:09,395 --> 00:43:11,475 Speaker 2: record of the street names in the future, and I 752 00:43:11,475 --> 00:43:14,035 Speaker 2: also wrote down the time that I was there. I'm 753 00:43:14,035 --> 00:43:16,435 Speaker 2: not a proud man, so I'll admit it. I was 754 00:43:16,555 --> 00:43:18,915 Speaker 2: slightly embarrassed to be sitting alone on a bench holding 755 00:43:18,955 --> 00:43:21,475 Speaker 2: a microphone in front of a public library at noon 756 00:43:21,515 --> 00:43:24,395 Speaker 2: on a Wednesday. So if it sounds like I'm speaking 757 00:43:24,395 --> 00:43:27,955 Speaker 2: out of the corner of my mouth, I am four 758 00:43:28,035 --> 00:43:31,435 Speaker 2: to two point two four seven seven nine three four 759 00:43:31,555 --> 00:43:36,355 Speaker 2: comma negative seventy one point one seven five nine four 760 00:43:36,475 --> 00:43:42,075 Speaker 2: seven zero. History is not time travel because the past 761 00:43:42,235 --> 00:43:44,715 Speaker 2: is actually past, and all you have left of it 762 00:43:44,755 --> 00:43:47,075 Speaker 2: are these bits and pieces of messages from the people 763 00:43:47,075 --> 00:43:50,875 Speaker 2: who were, to the people who are. Yahoo time capsules, 764 00:43:50,995 --> 00:43:55,395 Speaker 2: parties for time travelers, letters to yourself. I've spent a 765 00:43:55,395 --> 00:43:57,675 Speaker 2: lot of time with those bits and pieces this season 766 00:43:57,675 --> 00:44:00,555 Speaker 2: of the Last Archive, and I didn't plan it this way, 767 00:44:00,955 --> 00:44:02,755 Speaker 2: but I came to realize that a lot of these 768 00:44:02,755 --> 00:44:06,075 Speaker 2: stories are about moments when people became connected in new ways, 769 00:44:06,755 --> 00:44:09,195 Speaker 2: the dawn of social network theory, the rise of the 770 00:44:09,235 --> 00:44:14,315 Speaker 2: telephone at work, human population science, time travel, moments when 771 00:44:14,355 --> 00:44:16,555 Speaker 2: people came up with new ways of thinking about how 772 00:44:16,595 --> 00:44:20,595 Speaker 2: everything was bound up together, networked, like any moment in 773 00:44:20,675 --> 00:44:25,435 Speaker 2: time and everything that follows. Everyone you see who have 774 00:44:25,555 --> 00:44:28,675 Speaker 2: this question, was that person from the future, which of 775 00:44:28,715 --> 00:44:33,995 Speaker 2: course is ridiculous, but there is something sort of destabilizing 776 00:44:34,035 --> 00:44:37,315 Speaker 2: about it. I'd assume this would be a party of one, 777 00:44:37,755 --> 00:44:40,515 Speaker 2: not because I'm sure there'll never be time travel, but 778 00:44:40,715 --> 00:44:42,715 Speaker 2: more because a few people have tried this now and 779 00:44:42,755 --> 00:44:45,955 Speaker 2: it never quite seems to work. After Richard, there was 780 00:44:45,995 --> 00:44:48,555 Speaker 2: a party for time travelers at MIT in two thousand 781 00:44:48,555 --> 00:44:51,875 Speaker 2: and five. Destination Day in Perth, Australia the same year. 782 00:44:52,555 --> 00:44:56,315 Speaker 2: Stephen Hawking, the famous physicist, even through a birthday party 783 00:44:56,315 --> 00:44:59,115 Speaker 2: in two thousand and nine, but didn't invite anyone until 784 00:44:59,235 --> 00:45:03,835 Speaker 2: after the event. Nobody came, and same for me. Okay, 785 00:45:03,875 --> 00:45:07,315 Speaker 2: it's twelve thirty six and I'm gonna head home now. 786 00:45:07,475 --> 00:45:09,195 Speaker 2: That was the window for time travelers. 787 00:45:09,795 --> 00:45:12,115 Speaker 14: I saw a man in a black zip up with 788 00:45:12,875 --> 00:45:15,955 Speaker 14: a bald patch walk by. See a man with a 789 00:45:15,995 --> 00:45:19,435 Speaker 14: shock of white hair and a black shirt approaching movers left, 790 00:45:19,475 --> 00:45:20,995 Speaker 14: but no sign of time travelers. 791 00:45:22,515 --> 00:45:26,155 Speaker 2: I walked home to catch my train. It was a sunny, warm, 792 00:45:26,315 --> 00:45:29,875 Speaker 2: late March day. The pandemic felt something like it was over. 793 00:45:30,875 --> 00:45:33,555 Speaker 2: Someone had put new mulch in the churchyard and the 794 00:45:33,635 --> 00:45:37,235 Speaker 2: church clock was running four minutes fast. The birds were 795 00:45:37,275 --> 00:45:41,595 Speaker 2: out the daffodils and crocuses were coming up. Richard is 796 00:45:41,635 --> 00:45:45,555 Speaker 2: restarting the Chrononautic Society, so later I sent him my 797 00:45:45,555 --> 00:45:49,235 Speaker 2: party's coordinates. But I don't think it matters whether anyone 798 00:45:49,315 --> 00:45:53,235 Speaker 2: knows where or when I was. Besides, even if you 799 00:45:53,275 --> 00:45:56,075 Speaker 2: wrote it down, saved it on a hard drive, walked 800 00:45:56,115 --> 00:46:00,315 Speaker 2: it in a box, eventually, somebody is probably gonna forget 801 00:46:00,315 --> 00:46:16,715 Speaker 2: that password. That's okay. The Last Archive is written and 802 00:46:16,755 --> 00:46:20,715 Speaker 2: hosted by Me Ben Nattapaffrey. It's produced by Me and 803 00:46:20,795 --> 00:46:24,875 Speaker 2: Lucy Sullivan and edited by Sophie Crane. Jake Gorsky is 804 00:46:24,875 --> 00:46:28,675 Speaker 2: our engineer. Fact checking on this episode by Arthur Gomberts. 805 00:46:29,155 --> 00:46:33,315 Speaker 2: Sound design by Jake Gorsky and Me. Additional music by Korntooth. 806 00:46:33,915 --> 00:46:37,875 Speaker 2: Our executive producers are Sophie Crane and Jill Lapour. Special 807 00:46:37,875 --> 00:46:41,795 Speaker 2: thanks on this episode to Amaldra, Jacob Goldstein, and Sarah Nix. 808 00:46:42,235 --> 00:46:44,355 Speaker 2: If you're a lover of time travel stories and time 809 00:46:44,355 --> 00:46:47,675 Speaker 2: travel history, check out the Time Travelers Almanac from Tour 810 00:46:47,715 --> 00:46:52,075 Speaker 2: Books and Time Travel a History by James Glick at Pushkin. 811 00:46:52,275 --> 00:46:56,315 Speaker 2: Thanks to our executive team including Jacob Weisberg, Malcolm Gladwell, 812 00:46:56,555 --> 00:47:00,955 Speaker 2: Heather Fain, John Schnarz Leet Malade and Greta Cone. And 813 00:47:01,035 --> 00:47:05,635 Speaker 2: to our business team including Kerrie Brody, Carly Migliori, Christina Sullivan, 814 00:47:05,915 --> 00:47:10,795 Speaker 2: Royston Beserve, Jasmine Perez and Blair Jilkes. Marketing team includes 815 00:47:10,915 --> 00:47:16,875 Speaker 2: Eric Sandler, Jordan McMillan, Isabella Navarez, Sean Karney and Brian Strebrenek, 816 00:47:17,155 --> 00:47:21,875 Speaker 2: with operations and licensing support from Nicole Optenbosch, Maya Kanig, 817 00:47:22,195 --> 00:47:27,275 Speaker 2: Daniella Lakhan, Jake Flanagan, Fara de Grange and Owen Miller. 818 00:47:27,955 --> 00:47:32,075 Speaker 2: Thanks to everyone at Pushkin for a bibliography, further reading 819 00:47:32,115 --> 00:47:34,915 Speaker 2: and a transcript and teaching guide to this episode. Head 820 00:47:34,995 --> 00:47:38,555 Speaker 2: to the Last Archive dot com. The Last Archive is 821 00:47:38,595 --> 00:47:41,715 Speaker 2: a production of Pushkin Industries. If you love this show, 822 00:47:41,915 --> 00:47:45,755 Speaker 2: consider subscribing to Pushkin Plus, offering bonus content and ad 823 00:47:45,795 --> 00:47:48,715 Speaker 2: free listening across our network for four ninety nine a month. 824 00:47:49,155 --> 00:47:52,195 Speaker 2: Look for the Pushkin Plus channel on Apple Podcasts or 825 00:47:52,195 --> 00:47:54,835 Speaker 2: at pushkin dot fm, and please sign up for our 826 00:47:54,875 --> 00:47:58,995 Speaker 2: newsletter at pushkin dot fm slash Newsletter. To find more 827 00:47:59,035 --> 00:48:03,355 Speaker 2: Pushkin podcasts, listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or 828 00:48:03,355 --> 00:48:06,675 Speaker 2: wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Ben Mattafhaffrey,