Speaker 1: You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope
Speaker 1: and iHeartRadio. Guess what, kid?
Speaker 2: What's that Mango?
Speaker 1: Did you know that one of the first things to
Speaker 1: go viral on the Internet was a payphone in the
Speaker 1: Mojave Desert?
Speaker 2: Okay, so was this before or after that a flying
Speaker 2: toaster screensaver that everybody was going nuts over.
Speaker 1: That is so long ago. This was after the toasters,
Speaker 1: but before the Hamster Dance.
Speaker 2: I got it, I got my bearings now, So what
Speaker 2: was so special about this payphone?
Speaker 1: Nothing? Really, It was just random and this super isolated
Speaker 1: payphone that was in the middle of the Mojave National Preserve.
Speaker 1: But for this brief moment in nineteen ninety sive and
Speaker 1: it completely captivated the online community, and thousands of people
Speaker 1: started trekking out to the desert just to see this
Speaker 1: payphone and of course to call up their friends from
Speaker 1: the middle of nowhere, which I just love so much.
Speaker 1: And the person who brought this to everyone's attention was
Speaker 1: a guy named Godfrey Daniels who stumbled upon a mention
Speaker 1: of the phone in an underground zine.
Speaker 2: Okay, so this guy sparked an online craze about a
Speaker 2: payphone after reading about it in a zine that might
Speaker 2: be the most nineties thing I've ever heard.
Speaker 1: I know. But Daniels got obsessed with the idea of
Speaker 1: this payphone in the middle of a desert and all
Speaker 1: the mysterious people who might be using it. So, you know,
Speaker 1: he wanted to satisfy that curiosity, so he started calling
Speaker 1: the phone over and over, using the number he'd gotten
Speaker 1: from that zine article, and he later told reporters quote,
Speaker 1: I was just imagining making a phone ring out where
Speaker 1: presumably no one could hear it except the coyotes. But
Speaker 1: then there was also in the back of the mind
Speaker 1: that thought that what if, like what if someone is
Speaker 1: wandering by?
Speaker 3: Who would be out there?
Speaker 1: Who would pick up? Right? So Daniels calls this booth
Speaker 1: every day for a solid month without ever getting an answer,
Speaker 1: But then at last he gets this busy signal, so
Speaker 1: someone's actually using the phone. So he waited a whole minute,
Speaker 1: calls back, and to his delight, somebody finally answers and
Speaker 1: her name was Loreene. She was a local cinder miner
Speaker 1: who lived off grid and used the phone booth to
Speaker 1: make her calls.
Speaker 2: It is so random, but a case closed, right, I mean,
Speaker 2: he figured it out who the clientele was for such
Speaker 2: a remote phone booth. Time to move on, learn the
Speaker 2: macarena or you know whatever else we were all doing that.
Speaker 3: They were doing in the nineties. Well not quite so.
Speaker 1: After making his own pilgrimage to visit the phone in person,
Speaker 1: Daniels made a website, presumably with like geo cities because
Speaker 1: again this is the nineties, right, and he published the
Speaker 1: phone number and address so anyone in the world could
Speaker 1: enjoy his strange discovery. And like I said, people started
Speaker 1: coming in droves to make and receive calls from this
Speaker 1: phone booth. It was really cool at first because visitors
Speaker 1: would just answer the phone and have conversations with total strangers,
Speaker 1: some of whom spoke different languages or were calling from
Speaker 1: the other side of the world. But unfortunately, this drastic
Speaker 1: spike in foot traffic actually created problems for the National
Speaker 1: Park Service because remember the booth was technically inside a
Speaker 1: nature preserve. So after three years of this weird early
Speaker 1: form of internet fuel tourism, the Majave phone booth was
Speaker 1: sadly decommissioned.
Speaker 2: That is a shame for the Taurus, but it feels
Speaker 2: like Loreen is the one who really lost out here,
Speaker 2: like she actually.
Speaker 1: Needed that, you know, she actually needed it. But this
Speaker 1: is right around the time that like cell phones start
Speaker 1: to take off, so I'm sure she had options. But
Speaker 1: for anyone else who's still mourning the loss of the
Speaker 1: Mahave phone booth, there is a silver lining to the story.
Speaker 1: About a decade ago, someone revived the phone booth, at least,
Speaker 1: you know, in spirit, by reinstating the original number, which
Speaker 1: is seven six 's oh seven three three nine nine
Speaker 1: six nine. That's the real number. It is no longer
Speaker 1: tied to a physical phone, but if you call it,
Speaker 1: you'll be placed in a digital conference call, just like
Speaker 1: calling that original phone booth. You have no idea who,
Speaker 1: if anyone, will be waiting on the other end. You
Speaker 1: just dial the number and see what happens.
Speaker 2: I am definitely going to call that, And you know,
Speaker 2: it really does hit on one of the peculiar appeals
Speaker 2: of payphones, which is kind of the romance and excitement
Speaker 2: of the anonymity. Right Like you get a call from
Speaker 2: a payphone, or you walk past one that's ringing, there's
Speaker 2: no caller ID to tell you who's on the other end.
Speaker 1: You just have to pick it up and find out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's definitely a thrill. You don't get as much in
Speaker 1: this age of smartphones where everyone screens their calls to
Speaker 1: avoid spam. So today on the show, we're taking a
Speaker 1: trip back to the golden age of payphones. We'll look
Speaker 1: at how they became this integral part of society, why
Speaker 1: they went away, and most importantly, what some folks are
Speaker 1: doing to bring them back.
Speaker 3: Let's dive in. Hey there, podcast listeners.
Speaker 1: Well, in a part time genius, I'm Mungi's articular and
Speaker 1: today I'm joined by my old pal Gabe Luzia and
Speaker 1: on the other side of that soundproof glass rocking a
Speaker 1: vintage one eight hundred collect hoodie I didn't even know
Speaker 1: there was available. That's our friend and producer Dylan Fagan.
Speaker 1: That really takes me back to those commercials where that
Speaker 1: were kind of you know, everywhere in the nineties, right,
Speaker 1: like like Chris Rock did a bunch of them, David Spade,
Speaker 1: mister t Alf got in on the Actually, I'm not sure,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure I ever actually called collect from a payphone, Gabe,
Speaker 1: did you actually do that?
Speaker 2: That's where you like reverse the charges, right, so that
Speaker 2: the person you're calling pays for the call.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you would call collect and then you'd have to
Speaker 1: say your name real quick so the person can decide
Speaker 1: whether or not they want to pay to talk to you.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I don't think I officially called collect, right, but
Speaker 2: I definitely did the trick where you shout a message
Speaker 2: in the space where you're supposed to say your name,
Speaker 2: like Mom, I'm at the mall, come pick me up?
Speaker 3: But what about you?
Speaker 2: Like any memorable experiences with payphones growing up?
Speaker 1: My dad lived very close to my high school, so
Speaker 1: when I needed a ride that he would come pick
Speaker 1: me up. It was fairly easy to communicate with him.
Speaker 1: But I remember after like soccer practice or tennis practice,
Speaker 1: kids would always use that trick to like get a
Speaker 1: message across to their parents that they were staying later
Speaker 1: or whatever.
Speaker 2: No one had a quarter or you want to use
Speaker 2: them for like like machines. Of course, Yeah, I'm not
Speaker 2: gonna lays to call on my mom.
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Speaker 1: So I love that we're doing this on phone boots.
Speaker 1: You actually came up with the idea. I love that,
Speaker 1: you know, someone like Wes Anderson finds phone boots to
Speaker 1: put in New York just to make his movies seem
Speaker 1: more New york Ish.
Speaker 3: But but like, where do you want to start with this?
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, if we're going to trace you know,
Speaker 2: the rise and fall of payphones, we should probably start
Speaker 2: at the beginning, right, So in this case, that would
Speaker 2: be eighteen eighty eight, just over a decade after the
Speaker 2: invention of the telephone. At the time, owning your own
Speaker 2: phone was an expensive prospect, as not only did you
Speaker 2: have to buy the actual device, you also had to
Speaker 2: pay for a monthly phone subscription.
Speaker 1: Sure, because back then every call had to be manually
Speaker 1: connected by like a switchboard operator, right.
Speaker 2: Right, And this was like a small pool of people
Speaker 2: using this service. And you know, the phone companies had
Speaker 2: to pay those switchboard operators somehow, so monthly service. But
Speaker 2: the high cost of a telephone meant the new technology
Speaker 2: was beyond the reach of most Americans. And that includes
Speaker 2: a man named William Gray. Now he was the son
Speaker 2: of Scottish immigrants, and he lived in Hartford, Connecticut, where
Speaker 2: he worked as a machinery polisher at a local armory.
Speaker 2: He was also an amateur inventor who would eventually find
Speaker 2: success with his design for an improved chest protector for
Speaker 2: baseball catchers.
Speaker 3: Yeah, kind of a jack of all trades.
Speaker 2: It was all over the map. But you know, in
Speaker 2: eighteen eighty eight, he was not a wealthy man and
Speaker 2: certainly couldn't afford his own phone. And this became a
Speaker 2: problem for Gray when his wife fell ill one day
Speaker 2: and he had no way to call for a doctor. So,
Speaker 2: as the story goes, the desperate husband ran from one
Speaker 2: local business to another asking to use their phone, but
Speaker 2: all of them flat out refused.
Speaker 1: That is really horrible. I'm confused, though, Like, was he
Speaker 1: one of the most hated men in town? Like, why
Speaker 1: was no one letting him use it?
Speaker 2: Well, as you know, people in Connecticut are notorious for
Speaker 2: their prejudice against machinery polishers, So yeah, I think no.
Speaker 2: But thankfully Gray did eventually find a phone to use,
Speaker 2: and his wife made a full recovery. But you know,
Speaker 2: the ordeal had underscored the need for him, you know,
Speaker 2: for some kind of public telephone, one that people could
Speaker 2: pay to use only when needed. And so Gray spent
Speaker 2: the rest of the year tinkering with different prototypes, and
Speaker 2: in eighteen eighty nine he installed the first coin operated
Speaker 2: public payphone inside a bank in downtown Hartford. The device
Speaker 2: had a small bell to alert the operator when a
Speaker 2: coin had been deposited, and you know, so they would
Speaker 2: know to allow the call to go through. And Grey's
Speaker 2: invention was an immediate hit. Two years later, he established
Speaker 2: his own company and began installing payphones all over the country,
Speaker 2: and by nineteen oh two, the US was home to
Speaker 2: more than eighty one thousand pay phones. So this took
Speaker 2: off pretty quickly, and one hundred years later that number
Speaker 2: had soared to over two million.
Speaker 1: That is incredible And I really love that origin story, right,
Speaker 1: that desire to solve this public problem. But I assume
Speaker 1: that you know, you're talking about these two million phone boots,
Speaker 1: that these are unenclosed, right, they're like outside, not not
Speaker 1: in the like phone boots we think of today.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, the two million number was both of those, right,
Speaker 2: So the ones that are just kind of hanging out
Speaker 2: there on the side of the wall and the ones
Speaker 2: that were enclosed in booths. But for the first decade
Speaker 2: or so, you know, payphones were either mounted to poles
Speaker 2: or hung on walls in their own little cabinets, and
Speaker 2: they were always installed indoors to protect them from the elements.
Speaker 2: So the first outdoor payphone that was actually installed on
Speaker 2: a street in Cincinnati in nineteen oh five, so, you know,
Speaker 2: over a decade later, and unfortunately a few people used
Speaker 2: it because you know, it didn't have any walls or
Speaker 2: partitions around it. There were no booth yet, and most
Speaker 2: people balked at the idea of having a private conversation
Speaker 2: right out in public, and that aversion led to the
Speaker 2: creation of the first phone booths shortly after.
Speaker 1: That is so funny to think about privacy that way,
Speaker 1: the idea that Americans are hesitant to make phone calls
Speaker 1: in public. This week, I was on a bus and
Speaker 1: people were using a speaker phone for us to hear
Speaker 1: both sides of the conversation, and.
Speaker 3: Crazy you hear that everywhere.
Speaker 1: I mean, it really is funny. I remember thinking it's
Speaker 1: so weird when that sort of became more and more
Speaker 1: the norm, when people were talking on funds outside. But
Speaker 1: what are your thoughts about that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, whatever scruples we used to have about
Speaker 2: private conversations in public, that is like right out the window.
Speaker 2: The line between public and private life is you know,
Speaker 2: a lot more blurred than it used to be, and
Speaker 2: in a weird way, phone booths are where that gradual
Speaker 2: blurring first started. Phone booths were a kind of transitional
Speaker 2: space between public and private life. They weren't wholly one
Speaker 2: or the other. Someone in a phone booth was still
Speaker 2: outside on a busy street, but now they were kind
Speaker 2: of cut off from the crowd and the noise, even
Speaker 2: though in those cases they were still plainly visible because
Speaker 2: of the glass.
Speaker 1: I was thinking about this recently because Henry mentioned he
Speaker 1: loved the new Superman movie, and like, how strange it
Speaker 1: is that Clark Kent would run into a phone booth
Speaker 1: where you need to change into Superman, like like, you know,
Speaker 1: everyone can still see him, right.
Speaker 2: But to be fair, this is the guy whose secret
Speaker 2: identity hinges solely on a pair of glasses, So I
Speaker 2: don't think that discretion is really his strong suit.
Speaker 1: Well, regardless, I do see what you're saying about this
Speaker 1: idea of phone boots being this bizarre in between of
Speaker 1: like public and private spaces. I almost think like the
Speaker 1: closest thing we have to that now is sitting in
Speaker 1: a parked car, right, Like that's kind of an idea
Speaker 1: of like being inside and outside.
Speaker 3: But I'm curious.
Speaker 1: Were phone boots always made of glass or was that
Speaker 1: something that came along later so people wouldn't get too
Speaker 1: comfortable in there? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Right, So the earliest phone boots were mostly made of wood,
Speaker 2: so the only side you could see into was the
Speaker 2: one with that French folding door that you've probably seen,
Speaker 2: and the one with the two long panes of glass
Speaker 2: on it that was included so people could tell whether
Speaker 2: the phone was in use or not. And wooden phone
Speaker 2: boots looked super classy and you know, afforded users with
Speaker 2: a high level of privacy, but they were also expensive
Speaker 2: to maintain against the constant exposure to sun and rain.
Speaker 2: And the United Kingdom is the one that found a
Speaker 2: better solution to that in the nineteen twenties when it
Speaker 2: began producing its iconic red telephone boxes. And although the
Speaker 2: initial model for those was made from cumbersome concrete, future
Speaker 2: versions were mass produced with sturdy cast iron frames and
Speaker 2: rows of small glass window panes for maximum visibility. So
Speaker 2: in the post war nineteen fifties, the US followed Britain's
Speaker 2: lead and began replacing its wooden phone booths with sleeker,
Speaker 2: mass produced ones. The new booths featured easy to maintain
Speaker 2: aluminum walls and large glass panes so you could see
Speaker 2: inside from almost every angle. And the new design made
Speaker 2: phone booths, you know, much easier to install in service,
Speaker 2: and by the nineteen sixties they had become a ubiquitous
Speaker 2: part of the urban landscape, not only in the US
Speaker 2: but all over the world.
Speaker 1: It's kind of wild when you look at that timeline,
Speaker 1: because you had that big phone booth boom in the
Speaker 1: nineteen fifties and sixties, But then in the early seventies,
Speaker 1: the seeds of the payphone's downfall were already being planted.
Speaker 1: The world's first cell phone call and I had to
Speaker 1: look this up, but it was made in nineteen seventy three,
Speaker 1: and the first American cell phone network launches just a
Speaker 1: decade later. It would take another twenty or so years
Speaker 1: for mobile phones to really go mainstream and push payphones
Speaker 1: out of the limelight. But once that first call was
Speaker 1: made in the seventies, it really was just a matter
Speaker 1: of time.
Speaker 2: Let's not write the eulogy just yet, Okay, Like, after
Speaker 2: we take a quick break, we'll find out how cell
Speaker 2: phones muscled out the phone booth, and we'll also talk
Speaker 2: about some places where payphones still reign supreme.
Speaker 4: So don't go away, Welcome back to part time Genius.
Speaker 1: In just a second, I'm going to tell you about
Speaker 1: the rapid decline of payphones in the twenty first century.
Speaker 1: But first I want to ask you a favor. We've
Speaker 1: got an episode in the works all about milk, and
Speaker 1: we want to know your favorite way to drink it.
Speaker 3: Do you go for a.
Speaker 1: Skim, low fat or whole milk? Do you ever drink
Speaker 1: a full glass of it? And if you prefer your
Speaker 1: mood juice without the mood, what's your non dairy milk
Speaker 1: of choice? Soy, oat, pistachio, almond? You tell us, So
Speaker 1: give us a call on the PTG hotline, leave us
Speaker 1: a voicemail, and we might include your answer in the episode.
Speaker 1: The number is three oh two, four oh five, five
Speaker 1: nine two five. We cannot wait to hear from you
Speaker 1: because we've actually like been debating this internally, right.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, right, Like, who is out there drinking a
Speaker 2: full glass of milk.
Speaker 3: We have to know every night. Yeah, we've heard rumors
Speaker 3: so that people are doing this, so like we definitely
Speaker 3: want Yeah.
Speaker 2: And in case you're worried, the call is completely free
Speaker 2: unless you dial in from a payphone. But I mean,
Speaker 2: you know, good luck find in one of those.
Speaker 3: So yeah.
Speaker 1: So actually, on that topic, let's talk about how phone
Speaker 1: boots are really hard to find these days. We mentioned
Speaker 1: that there were more than two million payphones in the
Speaker 1: US at their peak in the late nineteen nineties, and
Speaker 1: that was because even though cell phone usage was on
Speaker 1: the rise, the devices and service plans were still extremely expensive,
Speaker 1: just like in the early days of landlines, and that
Speaker 1: meant that payphones were still the cheapest way to make
Speaker 1: calls while away from home. But all of that changed
Speaker 1: at the turn of the century when service providers began
Speaker 1: slashing service rates to lure more customers in and so
Speaker 1: in two thousand and one, Bell South became the first
Speaker 1: major phone company to announce its departure from the payphone business,
Speaker 1: and it reduced the nation's payphone count by nearly one
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty thousand units overnight. Wow. Other major companies
Speaker 1: eventually followed suits. Print in two thousand and six, at
Speaker 1: and T in two thousand and eight, and Verizon in
Speaker 1: twenty eleven. And the result was that between two thousand
Speaker 1: and twenty sixteen, most states saw the number of their
Speaker 1: payphones fall by more than ninety percent.
Speaker 2: My gosh, that is like shockingly steep in such a
Speaker 2: short amount of time. Was this across the board, though,
Speaker 2: because I'd imagine some states you might have more of
Speaker 2: a need for payphones than others.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so there were definitely some holdouts.
Speaker 1: New York was one of the examples. In twenty sixteen,
Speaker 1: the state account for one five of the country's remaining payphones.
Speaker 1: Most of them, of course, were located in New York City,
Speaker 1: where you know, you used to be able to find
Speaker 1: one on almost every block. Since then, most of the
Speaker 1: city's former phone booths have been converted into Link NYC kiosks,
Speaker 1: which offer free domestic phone calls public Wi Fi device charging.
Speaker 1: You've seen them, probably like nearbus stops in New York.
Speaker 2: Have you ever used one of those?
Speaker 1: I'm just curious. I haven't, but I've seen people use them,
Speaker 1: and I've seen people charge the phones at them. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it seems pretty handy for that, especially in that era.
Speaker 1: Before and now the buses actually have like a phone
Speaker 1: charging but before that.
Speaker 2: So even the kiosks are becoming outdated now.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: Aside from New York, though, the bigger outlier is Hawaii,
Speaker 1: which I wouldn't have expected. The number of payphones in
Speaker 1: the island state had only dropped by about sixty percent
Speaker 1: in twenty sixteen, so about a third slower than the
Speaker 1: national average. It's not fully clear why that was, but
Speaker 1: experts think it's because of all the international travelers Hawaii gets,
Speaker 1: and that can mean that, like mobile calls abroad from
Speaker 1: the US can be pricey, so you know, for foreign tourists,
Speaker 1: it's still cheaper to call home on a payphone.
Speaker 2: And so what about today, like how many payphones are
Speaker 2: still left in Hawaii or you know, in the US
Speaker 2: in general.
Speaker 1: That's actually the crazy part. Payphones have become such a
Speaker 1: rarity that the FCC stopped requiring audits of them in
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen. It just wasn't worth the money to count
Speaker 1: them anymore. So, like the last tally found fewer than
Speaker 1: one hundred thousand of them left in the US. But
Speaker 1: you know, since no one's really keeping track, there's a
Speaker 1: strong chance the number is way lower than that.
Speaker 2: Obviously, that's a far cry from two million, but it's
Speaker 2: still a lot of payphones, right, given how infrequently you
Speaker 2: come across one.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: That said, though, there is one place I know of
Speaker 2: in the US where you're still bound to find at
Speaker 2: least a few of them in active use, and that's
Speaker 2: inside the National Radio Quiet Zone. So if you've never
Speaker 2: heard of this, it's a thirteen thousand square mile area
Speaker 2: located between Green Bank and sugar Grove, West Virginia, and
Speaker 2: within that zone, wireless signals are completely illegal. So no smartphones,
Speaker 2: no Wi Fi, no microwaves, no nothing.
Speaker 1: You know, I was thinking like maybe there's something like
Speaker 1: comming about that, but I also think like my kids,
Speaker 1: I would think it's their worst nightmare, right, there's nothing
Speaker 1: worse than no, And then for plenty.
Speaker 2: Of adults too, absolutely, But yeah, federal officials established this
Speaker 2: quiet zone back in nineteen fifty eight as a way
Speaker 2: to protect a pair of government radio telescopes from man
Speaker 2: made interference. So the astronomers station there, they use this
Speaker 2: equipment to listen to radio energy that's traveled light years
Speaker 2: across the cosmos. And you know that provides insights on
Speaker 2: how far away stars and galaxies were formed, and since
Speaker 2: signals from outer space are you know, millions or billions
Speaker 2: of times weaker than those from a nearby satellite, they
Speaker 2: can't risk that information being garbled by a stray radio
Speaker 2: signal from somebody's cell phone, and so as a result,
Speaker 2: landlines and payphones are still a necessity for the hundreds
Speaker 2: of thousands of people who call that region home.
Speaker 1: I love this idea of this like kind of protected zone,
Speaker 1: and I also love the idea of like them accidentally
Speaker 1: hearing some sort of like a zoom morning.
Speaker 2: Crews into a star being born in a different galaxy,
Speaker 2: and then it's just somebody you know, asking to pick
Speaker 2: up milk on the way home or whatever.
Speaker 1: So how strictly enforced is all this because I, you know,
Speaker 1: I can't imagine everyone who lives there is happy with
Speaker 1: their radio. Yeah.
Speaker 2: No, There's been a lot of pushback in recent years,
Speaker 2: especially from first responders, because like they're only allowed to
Speaker 2: communicate by short distance CB radios, which you know, makes
Speaker 2: the job a lot harder. And while local officials don't
Speaker 2: have much power to enforce these measures, that's actually the
Speaker 2: job of the FCC. The National Science Foundation does have
Speaker 2: people who patrol the area listening for rogue radio signals.
Speaker 2: So if they catch someone using, you know, an illicit
Speaker 2: smartphone or whatever, all they can do is ask the
Speaker 2: person to turn it off. So this is it's mostly
Speaker 2: on the honor system.
Speaker 1: That is so strange to think about it. It's like
Speaker 1: almost like living in some kind of minimum security tech jail.
Speaker 2: The guards just like politely ask you not to use
Speaker 2: the microwave. But you know, actually speaking of jail, the
Speaker 2: prison system is another place where payphones are still a
Speaker 2: big deal. Studies show the communication between inmates and their
Speaker 2: loved ones that helps to improve their mental health, health
Speaker 2: increases the odds of successfully rejoining society, and payphones are
Speaker 2: oftentimes the easiest way to maintain those connections with the
Speaker 2: outside world. Unfortunately, as you may guess, prison phone calls
Speaker 2: are based on a profit driven model, like those are
Speaker 2: private phones, not public ones, and so telecommunication companies have
Speaker 2: historically charged really exorbitant fees for the service, in some
Speaker 2: cases more than twelve dollars for a fifteen minute phone call. Well, thankfully,
Speaker 2: the FCC did introduce new rate caps for the cost
Speaker 2: of phones in jails and prisons. This was actually just
Speaker 2: last year in twenty twenty five, so it now ranges
Speaker 2: between six cents to twelve cents per minute. That's the limit.
Speaker 2: But of course, you know, telecom companies are still finding
Speaker 2: new ways to price gouge prisoners through you know, other
Speaker 2: communication methods like electronic messaging.
Speaker 1: That's really really unfortunate, Like, and it feels hard that
Speaker 1: these people are already paying their debt to society in
Speaker 1: now like to have to have a cost for communications. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's crazy because it feels like it doesn't take much
Speaker 1: to make a payphone sustainable, right, Like I found this
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen interview. It was with the head of a
Speaker 1: telecommunication firm, and he said that for a payphone to
Speaker 1: be profitable, you just need people to make three fifty
Speaker 1: cent calls per day.
Speaker 2: That's it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, But since most remaining payphones are now owned by
Speaker 1: private operators, they can basically charge whatever they want because
Speaker 1: they know that people still using these phones don't really
Speaker 1: have other options.
Speaker 2: It's kind of shocking to hear that, like all the
Speaker 2: major providers pulled up stakes in the payphone business when
Speaker 2: the bar was low as a dollar fifty a day.
Speaker 2: But I guess there were a ton of payphones out
Speaker 2: there that weren't even meeting that three call threshold.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it kind of makes sense for payphones
Speaker 1: to persist in like rural areas and prisons and places
Speaker 1: where mobile phones are unreliable or also not allowed. But
Speaker 1: in most parts of the country and the rest of
Speaker 1: the developed world, the average person just wouldn't have much
Speaker 1: need for a payphone except in sort of a dire emergency.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, and nine to one one calls are free
Speaker 2: from payphones, so you know those aren't going to keep
Speaker 2: the industry afloat anyway.
Speaker 1: That's a really good point.
Speaker 2: So what do you think this all means for the
Speaker 2: future though, Like our payphones, you know, destined for the
Speaker 2: scrap heap once the last few hangars on kind of
Speaker 2: let go.
Speaker 1: You know, if you had asked me that a week ago,
Speaker 1: I would have said, yes, absolutely. Like my friend Winslow,
Speaker 1: who's the designer for Mental Floss, had a phone booth
Speaker 1: in one of his early apartments.
Speaker 3: You just like decorated.
Speaker 1: But uh, you know, I actually think they're kind of
Speaker 1: making a comeback, and I'm going to tell you a
Speaker 1: little bit about that right after the break. Welcome back
Speaker 1: to part Tien genius. Now before the break, I tease
Speaker 1: that some groups out there are currently working to resurrect
Speaker 1: the payphone And while it might be tempting to call
Speaker 1: this project futile, the correct term is actually futel.
Speaker 2: I don't get it is that the French pronunciation.
Speaker 1: No futel, as in futile telephone or pointless telephone. That's
Speaker 1: the name of a nonprofit group. It's based in Portland,
Speaker 1: Oregon that's been updating decommissioned payphones to provide free calls
Speaker 1: and voicemail. The service is meant to help impoverished and
Speaker 1: unhoused members of the community, as well as people who
Speaker 1: just don't want to carry a cell phone.
Speaker 3: Everywhere they go.
Speaker 1: At the time of recording, Futel had fifteen outdoor payphone
Speaker 1: style phones in Portland, plus four more in Washington State
Speaker 1: and another two in Michigan. And this is actually how
Speaker 1: the group's founders sum up their mission quote. We believe
Speaker 1: in the preservation of public telephone hardware as a means
Speaker 1: of providing access to the public square for everybody. We
Speaker 1: are primarily driven by the basic needs that we see
Speaker 1: on the streets every day. By giving something away that
Speaker 1: is cheap for us, but valuable to the recipient.
Speaker 2: Huh so payphones that don't require payment? Is there a
Speaker 2: name for that, payless phones?
Speaker 1: I guess free payphones, but you know that's kind of
Speaker 1: an oxymoron, free and payphone.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, whatever you call them, I like it.
Speaker 2: It's been crazy talking about payphones getting more expensive in
Speaker 2: the age of smartphones, you know, like you'd imagine that
Speaker 2: as demand lessened, this is a service that would get cheaper,
Speaker 2: But no, it's been the opposite. So this is a
Speaker 2: nice change of pace. I'm curious, though, do you know,
Speaker 2: are there any other cities that have kind of followed
Speaker 2: Portland's example? Is this catching on?
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's actually a similar program in Philadelphia, inspired by futel.
Speaker 1: It's actually called phil Tel Philadelphia Telephone, I imagine, and
Speaker 1: its goal is to create a network of phones all
Speaker 1: across the city that could make free calls anywhere in
Speaker 1: North America. And the cool thing is that they are
Speaker 1: just revitalizing these existing payphone locations that are also installing
Speaker 1: refurbished phones and places that never had one before.
Speaker 2: And they work just like old payphones, except you know,
Speaker 2: without the whole pay part.
Speaker 1: They functioned the same, but the hardware is more modern.
Speaker 1: The collective's co founders their name Mark Dank and Navien Albert.
Speaker 1: They developed a way to replace the coin system with
Speaker 1: a payment free circuit board and router. So when someone
Speaker 1: makes a call, the analog phone uses voiceover Internet Protocol
Speaker 1: or VoIP, which connects a call using an Internet connection.
Speaker 2: That is super clever. And I've got to ask, though,
Speaker 2: who pays for all this, like, not just the calls,
Speaker 2: but you know, the phones, the installations, keeping the servers running.
Speaker 2: That can't be cheap.
Speaker 1: So that's actually the amazing part. All of Filltel's employees
Speaker 1: are volunteers and the work they do is completely funded
Speaker 1: by public donations.
Speaker 3: So this is how.
Speaker 1: Mark Dank put it quote, you could think of this
Speaker 1: as half art project, half community service project. We like
Speaker 1: tinkering with these phones. We like the idea of providing
Speaker 1: interesting experiences and having people play with them. But at
Speaker 1: the same time, there are people out there who can
Speaker 1: really benefit from having free phones available. So if anyone
Speaker 1: listening has some extra time or spare change they'd like
Speaker 1: to donate to the cause, you can definitely check out
Speaker 1: filtele dot org to learn how you can contribute.
Speaker 2: It's nice to see projects like that, because you mostly
Speaker 2: hear about old phone boots being converted into tiny libraries
Speaker 2: or art galleries, and you know, don't get me wrong,
Speaker 2: those are awesome ways to repurpose those spaces. But the
Speaker 2: whole point of payphones was to facilitate conversations for people
Speaker 2: on the go, So it's cool that people are finding
Speaker 2: ways to kind of carry forward that service. And another
Speaker 2: thing I was struck by this week is how using
Speaker 2: a payphone not only allows for conversations, but specific kinds
Speaker 2: of conversations, so ones that you might never have otherwise. Like,
Speaker 2: there's this really beautiful practice that started in Japan. I
Speaker 2: was reading about. It's called wind phones, and so these
Speaker 2: are disconnected payphones or sometimes just an old landline phone,
Speaker 2: and they're usually set up in some kind of booth
Speaker 2: in a secluded spot in nature. And the idea is
Speaker 2: that people who are grieving the loss of a loved
Speaker 2: one can use these to call the person who's gone
Speaker 2: and have a one way conversation with them. So it's
Speaker 2: a way to kind of help people process their emotions
Speaker 2: or say the things they never got the chance to say.
Speaker 1: That is really really beautiful. It reminds me of like
Speaker 1: forest bathing too, which is also a Japanese concept. I
Speaker 1: feel like there's something about being in nature and communicating
Speaker 1: that's really interesting. So like, how did this come about?
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, so the.
Speaker 2: First wind phone was created in Japan back in twenty
Speaker 2: ten by a garden designer named Itaru Sasaki. He moved
Speaker 2: an old phone booth into his yard so he could
Speaker 2: talk to his late cousin and let his thoughts, as
Speaker 2: he put it quote be carried on the wind. But
Speaker 2: then you know, the following year, the Fukushim earthquake and
Speaker 2: tsunami struck Japan in quick succession, killing more than twenty
Speaker 2: thousand people. So Sasaki opened up this phone booth to
Speaker 2: his neighbors who had lost relatives in that disaster, and
Speaker 2: once word got out, people started coming from all over
Speaker 2: the country to express their grief through the phone of
Speaker 2: the wind. And in the time since then, the idea
Speaker 2: has been adopted all over the world. Like, there were
Speaker 2: currently about six hundred registered wind phones, most of which
Speaker 2: are actually right here in the US. And if you'd
Speaker 2: like to try one, you can go to my windphone
Speaker 2: dot com and find a location nearest to you.
Speaker 1: I really really love that, like It kind of speaks
Speaker 1: to the power of placemaking, right, Like a lot of
Speaker 1: people wouldn't sit in their living room to talk to
Speaker 1: a deceased loved one. You know, you can get self
Speaker 1: conscious or like like, you know, it feels weird to
Speaker 1: do that with an iPhone and play act. But if
Speaker 1: you carve out the space that's designated for that type
Speaker 1: of connection, suddenly people become so much more open to
Speaker 1: the idea. I really think there's something special about it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, me too. And it kind of goes back
Speaker 2: to you know, when the payphone wasn't just a means
Speaker 2: of communication, it was part of the landscape. And I
Speaker 2: think the fact the phones are kind of archaic also
Speaker 2: plays a part in this. You know, we all know
Speaker 2: there's there's nothing magical about a smartphone, right but an
Speaker 2: old timey rotary phone where you have to pull that dial,
Speaker 2: or a payphone with those big clicky steel buttons like
Speaker 2: those aren't devices that were used to interacting with anymore.
Speaker 2: So when you pick one up, you know, who knows
Speaker 2: what might happen?
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, being old, I know that what's happening
Speaker 1: is that you hear an annoying dial tone. If you
Speaker 1: didn't deposit any money or recording would tell you to
Speaker 1: hang off the phone.
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, yeah, okay, so nothing too magical about
Speaker 2: that either. But you know, everything looks more charming when
Speaker 2: viewed through those rose tinted glasses and nostalgia and even
Speaker 2: something as mundane as payphones.
Speaker 1: So you know, if you're not ready to hang it
Speaker 1: up just yet, I've got another quarter here that should
Speaker 1: buys a few more minutes, and I think there's no
Speaker 1: better way to spend that time than with the fact off.
Speaker 1: Let's do it.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'll get us started with my favorite piece of
Speaker 2: payphone psychology, which is that callers tend to take longer
Speaker 2: if they know someone is waiting to use the phone.
Speaker 2: So we've all e to this, but according to a
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty nine study conducted by Professor Barry Rubach, it
Speaker 2: is true another person's presence really does make a caller linger.
Speaker 2: It's an example of a behavioral phenomenon called territorial defense,
Speaker 2: which happens when someone develops a personal sense of ownership
Speaker 2: over a public space and kind of feels the need
Speaker 2: to defend it from challengers. So it all goes back
Speaker 2: to the idea of payphones being a limbo state between
Speaker 2: public and private life. Even our brains can't tell the difference. Sometimes.
Speaker 2: The good news, though, is this is likely happening unconsciously,
Speaker 2: so the person on the phone probably isn't trying to
Speaker 2: be a jerk.
Speaker 3: And you know.
Speaker 2: Professor Rubac also pointed out that in some cases the
Speaker 2: person waiting might be distracting to the caller, causing them to,
Speaker 2: you know, need more time to get their words out.
Speaker 2: So as unlikely as it is these days, if you
Speaker 2: ever find yourself waiting for a payphone, your best bet
Speaker 2: is to give the caller some space and try to
Speaker 2: look nonchalant.
Speaker 1: So we talked about a few ways that people have
Speaker 1: been vitalizing phone boots on the streets and nature, But
Speaker 1: another place where they found a new life is in
Speaker 1: the modern office. So soundproof privacy pods styled after phone
Speaker 1: boots have become super popular as a solution to the
Speaker 1: problems of open office floor plans. They provide individuals or
Speaker 1: small teams with a quiet place to focus conduct meetings
Speaker 1: without being distracted. This trend to actually started small in
Speaker 1: twenty fifteen, with only one dedicated office phone booth company.
Speaker 1: It was this finish firm called Framery. But then the
Speaker 1: pandemic pushed a lot of businesses to sort of re
Speaker 1: examine the value of private offices, and now there are
Speaker 1: dozens of companies selling office phone boots. In twenty twenty four,
Speaker 1: the global phone booth market was about one point four
Speaker 1: billion dollars, and it's projected to be nearly triple that
Speaker 1: by twenty thirty three. So phone boots, may you know,
Speaker 1: have lost their place on the street corners, but they
Speaker 1: found a new home next to the water cooler.
Speaker 2: Wow, I feel like come on back to the office
Speaker 2: so we can stick you in a phone booth. Might
Speaker 2: not be as enticing as managers think, but well, my
Speaker 2: next fact is about a public servant who spent so
Speaker 2: much time in a phone booth that he's now immortalized
Speaker 2: inside one at the Honolulu International Airport. World War II
Speaker 2: veteran Daniel K and Noeh became one of Hawaii's first
Speaker 2: representatives in Congress when he was elected to the Senate
Speaker 2: in nineteen sixty two. He held his seat there for
Speaker 2: the next fifty years, and during that time, most of
Speaker 2: which was before cell phones, he would routinely use an
Speaker 2: airport phone booth. Between his flights to Washington. It became
Speaker 2: such a common sight to see the Senator working away
Speaker 2: in his phone booth that after his passing in twenty twelve,
Speaker 2: his supporters decided to erect a bronze statue of him
Speaker 2: right there in the terminal. It depicts him seated inside
Speaker 2: a reconstituted phone booth with a bronze payphone in his
Speaker 2: left hand, and there's even enough room on the bench
Speaker 2: for visitors to sit next to him and snap a selfie,
Speaker 2: something they couldn't have done back then. And there's also
Speaker 2: a plaque that reads, quote in honor of Daniel k
Speaker 2: in no way as our superman, he timelessly served Hawaii
Speaker 2: and America with extraordinary dedication and valor.
Speaker 1: That's really sweet, Ashly. My last fact is another fitting
Speaker 1: tribute to an avid phone user, mister Alexander Graham Bell.
Speaker 1: When the inventor of the telephone passed away in nineteen
Speaker 1: twenty two, every phone in the US and Canada, including payphones,
Speaker 1: fell silent for a full minute. It was a show
Speaker 1: of respect from all the telephone exchanges, and the moment
Speaker 1: of silence coincided with the start of his funeral, And
Speaker 1: you know. I read that the first ever phone book
Speaker 1: told callers to end a conversation by saying that is all.
Speaker 1: But that feels so unfriendly, So instead, I think we
Speaker 1: should close out the show with Bell's preferred telephone greeting,
Speaker 1: which was actually a hoy.
Speaker 2: Not hello. Well, a hooy to Alexander Graham Bell, and
Speaker 2: congratulations to you, Mango for bringing us around to the
Speaker 2: man who started it all. I think you've earned today's trophy.
Speaker 1: I think it's the perfect place to keep all of
Speaker 1: my spare quarters, so thank you so much. If anyone
Speaker 1: listening has a payphone related story to share, we'd love
Speaker 1: to hear about it. Give us a call at three
Speaker 1: oh two, four oh five, five nine two five. We're
Speaker 1: also waiting for those answers about milk, so send those
Speaker 1: as well. You can send us an email at high
Speaker 1: Geniuses at gmail dot com. Two that is spelled Hi
Speaker 1: Geniuses at gmail dot com. You can also find us
Speaker 1: on Instagram, blue Sky at part Time Genius. We'll be
Speaker 1: back next week with another new episode, but in the meantime,
Speaker 1: from Will Dylan, Gabe, Mary and myself, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for listening. Part Time Genius is a production of
Speaker 1: Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. It is hosted by my good pal
Speaker 1: will Pearson, who I've known for almost three decades now.
Speaker 3: That is insane.
Speaker 1: I'm the autoco host, Mangeshatikular aka Mango. Our producer is
Speaker 1: Mary Phillips Sandy. She's actually a super producer. I'm going
Speaker 1: to fix that in post. Our writer is Gabe Lucier,
Speaker 1: who I've also known for like a decade at this point,
Speaker 1: maybe more. Dylan Fagan is in the booth. He is
Speaker 1: always dressed up, always cheering us on, and always ready
Speaker 1: to hit record and then mix the show after he
Speaker 1: does a great job. I also want to shout out
Speaker 1: the executive producers from iHeart my good pals Katrina and
Speaker 1: Norvel and Ali Perry. We have social media support from
Speaker 1: Calypso Rallis. If you like our videos. That is all
Speaker 1: Calypso's handiwork. For more podcasts from Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio, visit
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or tune in wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows. That's it from us here
Speaker 1: at Part Time Genius. Thank you so much for listening.