Speaker 1: Guess what mango? What's that will? So you may remember
Speaker 1: a couple of years ago when an artist named Elizabeth
Speaker 1: Butcher got a ton of attention for this special shower
Speaker 1: curtain she designed. You'd be standing there just enjoying a nice,
Speaker 1: warm shower, but if you didn't stay focused, after four minutes,
Speaker 1: you'd start to notice these soft spikes inflating around you,
Speaker 1: and before you knew it, you'd be surrounded by them. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm so guilty of long showers, but I love that thing.
Speaker 1: I meet me too. And these were obviously not sharp spikes.
Speaker 1: But the idea of Spiky, as it was called, was
Speaker 1: to crowd the shower after you've been in there long
Speaker 1: enough and encourage you to wrap things up. And I
Speaker 1: just thought it was so funny. But Beaucher designed a
Speaker 1: shower curtain that would also slowly squeeze and trap you.
Speaker 1: This was a different one. I guess this was like
Speaker 1: an area of expertise or hers. And so I started
Speaker 1: thinking about Spiky the other day, and I wondered if
Speaker 1: this ever actually became a real product. Unfortunately, when I
Speaker 1: searched for shower curtains with spikes, I found dozens of
Speaker 1: options for curtains with cacti on them, but not the
Speaker 1: spiky I was looking for. But even if this didn't
Speaker 1: become a real product, it was a fun way to
Speaker 1: make people think about water usage and the very real
Speaker 1: water issues the planets facing today and those issues along
Speaker 1: with the solution scientists are trying so hard to find
Speaker 1: or exactly what we'll be talking about today, So let's
Speaker 1: get started a their podcast. Listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius.
Speaker 1: I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my
Speaker 1: good friend man guest shot Ticketter. A few weeks ago,
Speaker 1: we published an episode titled Can We Feed ten Billion?
Speaker 1: If you didn't hear it was an episode focused on
Speaker 1: many of the efforts being made to feed a rapidly
Speaker 1: growing global population. Well after the episode ran, we heard
Speaker 1: from several listeners asking if we would do a similar
Speaker 1: one but focused on water. Well, there's no question the
Speaker 1: future of water and our access to clean water is
Speaker 1: a major issue, So much like we did in the
Speaker 1: Feeding the World episode, we'll be talking about many of
Speaker 1: the attempts to find solutions. We have some really interesting guests,
Speaker 1: like we've got Martin Reese, who's the world's most respected
Speaker 1: water Somalia water Somalia I have to have Before this episode,
Speaker 1: I did not know that job existed. Well, he's actually
Speaker 1: the only one certified in the US, and he is
Speaker 1: so enthusiastic. And we'll also be talking to Florence Metz,
Speaker 1: who is the winner of the two thousand fifteen Dancer
Speaker 1: PhD contest, which I'm just so excited to talk to
Speaker 1: her as well. And have you seen this competition. I
Speaker 1: love this competition. Actually you kind of have to see
Speaker 1: the submissions to understand it fully, but it's pretty much
Speaker 1: exactly what it sounds. You get all these PhD candidates
Speaker 1: and they submit these dance videos that help explain the
Speaker 1: research that they're doing. It's pretty awesome. I know, I want,
Speaker 1: like PBS to do a reality show based on this.
Speaker 1: And I was like, so I could think your dance.
Speaker 1: So Florence's research was about government policy and its effects
Speaker 1: on water quality, and it's super sophisticated. Oh that's great.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, I know we'll be talking about solutions
Speaker 1: in a bit, but I think we have to start
Speaker 1: with the numbers and why this is a very real issue.
Speaker 1: And now, Mango, I know you pulled several of these
Speaker 1: so why don't you tell us what you found. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So here's a quick rundown on the stats I I located.
Speaker 1: So the Atlantic reported that the global middle class will
Speaker 1: start from one point eight to four point nine billion
Speaker 1: by which will lead to a serious rise in fresh
Speaker 1: water consumption. That's a huge increase. Yeah, and combine that
Speaker 1: with the fact that by there will be an estimated
Speaker 1: one point eight billion people living in areas plagued by
Speaker 1: water scarcity, and two thirds of the world's population will
Speaker 1: be living in water stressed regions. Plus the demand for
Speaker 1: water is expected to grow by more than fifty over
Speaker 1: the next thirty years. I mean, those numbers are just staggering.
Speaker 1: And these issues affect people in more ways than one, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, like water scarcity can threaten the political stability
Speaker 1: of regions. And we won't really get into this, but
Speaker 1: water access isn't really fair. Like, right now, more than
Speaker 1: six million people are without access to safe water, and
Speaker 1: more than one point five billion or accessing a source
Speaker 1: that's contaminated by feces. And this is a little different.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the movie, I don't know
Speaker 1: if you remember this, but the Big Short, there's this
Speaker 1: ominous line about Dr Michael Blurry, one of the investors
Speaker 1: who saw the mortgage collapse coming, and how he's only
Speaker 1: investing in water, which isn't exactly true. He's not buying
Speaker 1: up water rights, but he is using water scarcity as
Speaker 1: a way to guide his investment decisions, which is fascinating.
Speaker 1: And all those are striking and and honestly very concerning numbers.
Speaker 1: But let's bring this back to the US for just
Speaker 1: a minute. So a few years ago, there was this
Speaker 1: really interesting book published called The Big Thirst, The Secret
Speaker 1: Life and Turbulent Future of Water, and it was by
Speaker 1: a reporter named Charles Fishman. You and I have talked
Speaker 1: about this before, and it really helped us see what
Speaker 1: water uses like in the US and how it's a
Speaker 1: resource that's completely taken for granted. Yeah, there's a fascinating
Speaker 1: section earlier in the book that talks about study that
Speaker 1: looked at how Americans flush and the research team in
Speaker 1: the study used electronic water flow sensors and over a
Speaker 1: dozen cities to keep track of water and how it
Speaker 1: was being used over the course of a mon And
Speaker 1: even though the study is nearly two decades old now,
Speaker 1: it was considered so extensive and detailed that the e
Speaker 1: p A still looks at it as this like pretty
Speaker 1: clear view on how we use water in the States. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they looked at pretty much every way we use water,
Speaker 1: whether it's taking baths or washing clothes, using the dishwasher,
Speaker 1: and how often we flush the toilet, And as Fishman notes,
Speaker 1: the studies overall conclusion can be summed up in four words.
Speaker 1: We like to flush. I mean, it's really crazy, isn't it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: for Americans, it's by far the biggest way we use
Speaker 1: water in our homes, more than cooking or bathing or
Speaker 1: even washing our clothes. The study found that the average
Speaker 1: American flushes the toilet five times a day and uses
Speaker 1: over eighteen gallons in this process. So, if you're gonna
Speaker 1: like put that in perspective, that's nearly six billion gallons
Speaker 1: of water flushed every day. I mean, when you consider
Speaker 1: that there are six million people without access to water
Speaker 1: who use only honestly, like five liters a day, and
Speaker 1: we're using seventy just to flush our toilets, it's completely insane.
Speaker 1: And uh, it's even more insane when you consider that
Speaker 1: the fact that the water we're flushing is cleaner than
Speaker 1: most people get to drink right right. And while that's true,
Speaker 1: that definitely doesn't mean we don't have our own water
Speaker 1: sanitation issues to deal with here. You know, there was
Speaker 1: the tragic news out a flint, of course, but a
Speaker 1: report from the NRDC looked at fifty two thousand community
Speaker 1: drinking water systems across the country and what they found
Speaker 1: was that a third of those had reported violations of
Speaker 1: the Safe Drinking Water Act. So this affects something like
Speaker 1: seventy seven million people in the country, which is so troubling.
Speaker 1: And by the way, all this talk of flushing made
Speaker 1: me remember a story from about seven or eight years ago.
Speaker 1: This guy Anton Stookie, who is the head of a
Speaker 1: German sewage treatment plant, started piping in classical music while
Speaker 1: he worked this yeah, and he realized that Mozart specifically
Speaker 1: was stimulating the microbes that were cleaning the water, and
Speaker 1: it made them work faster. And apparently they responded particularly
Speaker 1: well to the magic flute. I mean, who doesn't. But
Speaker 1: before we leave the topic of water usage, we should
Speaker 1: note that whild toilet flushing is the number one use
Speaker 1: of water in the home. The biggest consumption of water
Speaker 1: in the country comes from power plants like our utilities
Speaker 1: use about seven times more water than Americans using their homes.
Speaker 1: And this is about two billion gallons of water each day.
Speaker 1: And we're not just talking hydroelectric power. This is the
Speaker 1: water needed for coal and gas and nuclear power plants
Speaker 1: and processes like cooling. Nearly half of the water used
Speaker 1: in the US is coming from power plants. Yeah. One
Speaker 1: of the things Fishman talks about in his book is
Speaker 1: how a big part of the problem with water usage
Speaker 1: in the US is that water is largely invisible. But
Speaker 1: luckily you don't have to panic. There are some incredible
Speaker 1: solutions on the horizon. But before we get to those,
Speaker 1: let's break for a quiz. So, Omega, who do we
Speaker 1: have the line? Today? We've got the winner of the
Speaker 1: two thousand fifteen Dancer PhD contest, Florence Mets, and she's
Speaker 1: joining us from the University of Verne in Switzerland. All right,
Speaker 1: well into part time genius. Florence, thank you very much
Speaker 1: for having me in your So for those of you
Speaker 1: who have never seen the dance your PhD contest, you've
Speaker 1: definitely been missing something awesome. There's some great videos you
Speaker 1: really need to google. Florence. Is that if you just
Speaker 1: google Florence Mets. The last name is EMM E. T Z.
Speaker 1: It's a terrific video. But we'll talk a little bit
Speaker 1: about that. But Florence, before we jump into that, why
Speaker 1: don't you tell us a little bit about your research.
Speaker 1: You know, we've been doing this episode on the future
Speaker 1: of water and and obviously your your research was relevant
Speaker 1: to this, but tell us a little bit about it. Yes, So,
Speaker 1: my research is about corporation in politics, and I took
Speaker 1: the example of water protection policies where there's new um
Speaker 1: new pollutants that are called emerging pollutants on micro pollutants
Speaker 1: because they're in the water in very small concentrations, and
Speaker 1: until now we didn't really know whether that they are
Speaker 1: in the water. But because technology improved, we can now
Speaker 1: find pollutants in very small concentrations, for example, from um medication,
Speaker 1: from cleaning agents, from all types of cosmetics. And the
Speaker 1: question really is does it matter to have these pollutants
Speaker 1: and water in these small concentrations, and how can we
Speaker 1: agree on a political solution. So Fors, how did you
Speaker 1: decide to enter this contest? Did you just feel it
Speaker 1: would naturally be communicated and dance form well? I once
Speaker 1: heard about a colleague who participated in the Dancer PDD contest,
Speaker 1: and first of all, I could really believe that this exists.
Speaker 1: The business a thing, and then um, I watched a
Speaker 1: few a few videos and I just thought it's such
Speaker 1: a funny idea of such a cool idea, And because
Speaker 1: I love dancing and I do this since I can
Speaker 1: practically walk, and I also love um research, so I
Speaker 1: thought it would be a cool way of combining both
Speaker 1: of my interests. Did you have any other favorites from
Speaker 1: the from the competition that you feel we should check out.
Speaker 1: There is a video on the mating behavior of fruit flies.
Speaker 1: I think that is really creative because the dance that
Speaker 1: they do kind of transports the well, how how this
Speaker 1: can possibly work? So I also really liked the video
Speaker 1: from the year before the year one, which was two thousand,
Speaker 1: so from two thousand and fourteen, that was somebody explaining
Speaker 1: in chemistry how to make my knees with less that
Speaker 1: he's very creative. It was actually a little source of
Speaker 1: inspiration for my video. Because you are clearly a talented dancer,
Speaker 1: I don't think you'll have any problem with this quiz.
Speaker 1: What are we playing today? With Florence Mango. It's a
Speaker 1: game called So you Think you Know Dance, and it's
Speaker 1: a true false about important moments in dance history. All right,
Speaker 1: here we go, Florence. Are you ready? Yes? Okay? Question
Speaker 1: number one. As a teenager, Bruce Lee was a Cha
Speaker 1: Cha champion. True or false? Well, it's funny that you
Speaker 1: mentioned Bruce Lee because all the mactual arts and kung
Speaker 1: fu is really beautiful towards it's like a dance. And
Speaker 1: I really like these choreographies of kong fu in the movies,
Speaker 1: So I would I can very well imagine that somebody
Speaker 1: who does kung fu and martial arts also is into dancings.
Speaker 1: I would say, yes, Well, you're right. He was an
Speaker 1: excellent dancer in he won a Hong Kong championship. Oh wow,
Speaker 1: that's pretty great, alright. Question number two. The Chicken Dance
Speaker 1: wasn't inspired by chickens, but by skiers. The dance was
Speaker 1: invented after an accordion player noticed the way Swiss skiers
Speaker 1: happily flap their arms as they came down the mountains.
Speaker 1: Is this true or false? Well? I should know because
Speaker 1: I live in Switzerland, but I've never really noticed anybody
Speaker 1: doing after skiing. I know, I know the Chicken dance
Speaker 1: more from funk Dance, which has a move called funky Chicken,
Speaker 1: and this is a thing, so I would just assume, yes,
Speaker 1: it's true. Alright, yea lawence provides better commentary than we
Speaker 1: do for days. That's pretty great, alright. Question number three.
Speaker 1: In South America, the Hokey Pokey is known as totally barotely.
Speaker 1: I would say it's um, let's say it's true. Oh good,
Speaker 1: guess it's actually a false though the song is known
Speaker 1: as the Hokey Coke in the UK the Hokey Coke. Alright, Well,
Speaker 1: she's two for three. Still on a path toward a prize,
Speaker 1: I think so. Number four slots engage in a Pooh
Speaker 1: dance when they use the bathroom. Once they've climbed to
Speaker 1: the base of a tree. They hold onto the trunk
Speaker 1: as they slowly sway and wiggle their hips. True or false.
Speaker 1: That sounds very very handy, like in relieving nature is fantastic,
Speaker 1: and I would say it's true. That's right, and they
Speaker 1: only go once a week. Wow, alright, well, I haven't
Speaker 1: dance too okay. Number five last one for the big prize.
Speaker 1: Michael Jackson had a line of lavender scented medicated dance
Speaker 1: socks to combat stinky feet. The tagline was, you don't
Speaker 1: have to be a wallflower just to smell like one
Speaker 1: true or false? So I would say this, you're right,
Speaker 1: all right? So how did Florence do today? Mango? So
Speaker 1: Florence went an amazing four for five, which wins her
Speaker 1: a note to her mom or boss sing her praises.
Speaker 1: But in addition to that, we're actually gonna send her
Speaker 1: Martha Graham finger puppet, which is probably the most important
Speaker 1: way to honor Martha Graham's legacy. That's right, Well, congratulations Florence,
Speaker 1: thanks so much for being on Part Time Genius. Thank
Speaker 1: you very much. That was fun. Welcome back to Part
Speaker 1: Time Genius. And I was promised we're going to talk
Speaker 1: about some of the technological developments that will hopefully help
Speaker 1: us in an effort to provide much more of the
Speaker 1: Earth's population with access to clean water. But real quick,
Speaker 1: can we just talk about how old Earth's water is? Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is fascinating to me, and it's similar to what
Speaker 1: we discussed the other day with Caesar's Last Breath, when
Speaker 1: we talked about the fact that each time we take
Speaker 1: a breath, there's a good chance that there's some molecule
Speaker 1: in that breath that was breathed by Julius Caesar. It's
Speaker 1: really weird to think about. And with water, we don't
Speaker 1: think about the fact that the water we drink and
Speaker 1: swim in and even wash our clothes with has been
Speaker 1: around since just after the Earth was formed, that's right.
Speaker 1: I mean, the Earth is somewhere around four point four
Speaker 1: or four point five billion years old, which is kind
Speaker 1: of weird when something is old enough not to think
Speaker 1: of a margin of ara of a hundred million years
Speaker 1: is very pick But the solar system itself was formed
Speaker 1: around four point six billion years ago. But the point
Speaker 1: is when the Earth was created, water was present shortly
Speaker 1: after that, and new water has been neither created nor
Speaker 1: destroyed since then. So the water used today has pretty
Speaker 1: much always been here. So the issue we're talking about
Speaker 1: today is not really that there's a lack of water
Speaker 1: on Earth. There's a whole lot of water on Earth.
Speaker 1: It's the water that we can actually drink that's the issue.
Speaker 1: And to begin, less than three of the water in
Speaker 1: the world is fresh water, and less than one percent
Speaker 1: is even accessible and most of the rest would either
Speaker 1: be found underground or in glaciers. All Right, So we
Speaker 1: keep saying we're going to get to the fun stuff,
Speaker 1: the science behind some of the solutions to providing access
Speaker 1: to more drinkable water. So let's get to it. So
Speaker 1: I'll start us off. So I know this isn't exactly
Speaker 1: a new technique, but I think we should talk about
Speaker 1: fog harvesting. And this is something that's been practiced in
Speaker 1: several countries, even ones that get very little rainfall. But
Speaker 1: in this case, it's not about developing a completely new idea.
Speaker 1: It's about making significant improvements to existing systems to get
Speaker 1: a visual of how fog harvesting works. Imagine giant tennis
Speaker 1: nets being put up in the desert, except the netting
Speaker 1: is mesh like and has much much smaller holes, so
Speaker 1: it actually catches the water and fog as it passes through.
Speaker 1: And the work that's being done between M I. T
Speaker 1: and the researchers in Chile is it's it's really impressive. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they've been working for a few years now to improve
Speaker 1: the efficiency of previous nets by five or six times,
Speaker 1: which may seem difficult, but it's really going from capturing
Speaker 1: about two percent of the fog that passes through them
Speaker 1: to about ten per and that can make a huge
Speaker 1: difference if each square meter of mesh can yield several
Speaker 1: more liters of water each day. Yeah, and in a
Speaker 1: desert region where there are really few options for getting
Speaker 1: drinkable water, I mean, this is pretty promising thing. But
Speaker 1: there are other options being developed to One that I
Speaker 1: think is really cool is being developed by a company
Speaker 1: called Zero Mass Water. And this is another effort to
Speaker 1: take water out of the air and turn it into
Speaker 1: water that we can drink. And the tech ology behind
Speaker 1: it is so cool. So to simplify it, it's basically
Speaker 1: using solar panels to help create drinking water instead of electricity.
Speaker 1: That's awesome. How does that work? Well, there was this
Speaker 1: terrific popular science article by a guy named Jeremy Deaton
Speaker 1: on this from last year, and his Deeton explains, imagine
Speaker 1: a salt shaker with grains of rice interspersed among the salt.
Speaker 1: The rice absorbs moisture, keeping the salt dry, and Zero
Speaker 1: Mass Water developed a material that acts like those grains
Speaker 1: of rice. They absorbed the water from the air, so
Speaker 1: the waters extracted from that material and then purified and
Speaker 1: source adds calcium and magnesium to match the flavor and
Speaker 1: pH of bottled water, which produces five liters a day.
Speaker 1: And that's enough to say the family of four. And
Speaker 1: this is done using solar panels because they make it
Speaker 1: possible to create power in developing countries and areas that
Speaker 1: are far from any power grid. It's actually pretty amazing. Yeah.
Speaker 1: There's also been some pretty significant advances in water generators,
Speaker 1: which use these plastic leaves that created station by cooling
Speaker 1: the air around them. And on a pretty warm and
Speaker 1: humid day, some of these generators can create over eight
Speaker 1: gallons of water. And obviously these work better or generate
Speaker 1: more water and humid climates, but they still work in
Speaker 1: dry climates, even if a little more slowly. It really
Speaker 1: is incredible to see all the thinking going into solving
Speaker 1: these kinds of problems. I know, the other day when
Speaker 1: we were talking about how exercise doesn't actually contribute that
Speaker 1: much to weight loss, I made a comment that science
Speaker 1: was stupid. I want to go ahead and change my mind.
Speaker 1: I guess science is is pretty incredible. But anyway, so
Speaker 1: these are just some of the ways people are trying
Speaker 1: to capture more water. We should also talk about wastewater
Speaker 1: and the progress scientists and engineers are making towards being
Speaker 1: able to reuse it. To think about all the water
Speaker 1: we talked about Americans using every day, right and once
Speaker 1: it's flushed or used, there's got to be a more
Speaker 1: efficient and even productive way to reuse it. I mean,
Speaker 1: there is some reuse of treated wastewater, but not nearly
Speaker 1: at the scale that it should be. Yeah, right now,
Speaker 1: wastewater is typically pumped pretty long distances to these centralized
Speaker 1: plants to be treated, but there are efforts to figure
Speaker 1: out how to have that wastewater treated more locally, then
Speaker 1: it can be returned more easily to nearby users rather
Speaker 1: than having to be pumped several miles. And there's also
Speaker 1: the big project happening out in Modesto, which is going
Speaker 1: to be California's largest wastewater to agg project. They're actually
Speaker 1: building a federal canal to move recycled water to farmers nearby,
Speaker 1: and you can just imagine how helpful this is going
Speaker 1: to be during times of drought. This kind of thing
Speaker 1: is done on much smaller scales around the country, but
Speaker 1: getting this right on a much larger scale, it's going
Speaker 1: to be huge. Yeah, hopefully it'll be a big success.
Speaker 1: And I see here at schedule to start maybe by
Speaker 1: the end of the year, which would be which would
Speaker 1: be pretty incredible. All right, since we're already talking about wastewater,
Speaker 1: I've got one that may take some time for people
Speaker 1: to get used to. It's one thing to think about
Speaker 1: reusing wastewater for farming, but what about the research going
Speaker 1: into turning urine into drinkable water. I feel like that's
Speaker 1: the plot point that uh made water world collapse. But
Speaker 1: I can't say i'd be ready to sign up for
Speaker 1: road I'm not sure I would either. But my favorite
Speaker 1: part of about this is where some of the earliest
Speaker 1: testing was done a couple of years back. The researchers
Speaker 1: in Belgium have created a solar powered machine that gets
Speaker 1: rid of all the yucky stuff pretty sure that's the
Speaker 1: scientific term, but the yucky stuff in urine that turns
Speaker 1: it into drinkable water. And guess where they tested this,
Speaker 1: I don't know, tell me. So it was at a
Speaker 1: huge music festival in Belgium. They took lots and lots
Speaker 1: of festival p and were able to recover over a
Speaker 1: thousand liters of water and that was then available for
Speaker 1: use in making Belgian beer. Again, this was all from
Speaker 1: the urine of people attending this festival. Festival, p that's right,
Speaker 1: So tell me how it's possible. Well, there's a distillation
Speaker 1: process where the main purpose is to get rid of
Speaker 1: the ammonia in urine, and then the remaining liquid goes
Speaker 1: back into this big tank and it's heated up by
Speaker 1: solar power and this boiler. Then it goes through another
Speaker 1: filtering system which separates things out like nitrogen and potassium,
Speaker 1: and those things can actually be reused for products like fertilizer.
Speaker 1: And then you're left with this drinkable water, which I
Speaker 1: I know I was down on it earlier, but it
Speaker 1: actually sounds pretty incredible. It does, and I know NASA
Speaker 1: has been successful in turning urine into drinkable water too,
Speaker 1: and obviously if this can eventually be executed on this
Speaker 1: larger scale, that could provide a ton of drinking water.
Speaker 1: But since we're on the topic of drinking water, why
Speaker 1: don't we talk to our next guest. I'm really excited
Speaker 1: about having Martin on Wine. Our guest today is the
Speaker 1: only one of his kind in America. He's a water Somalia.
Speaker 1: Of course, there are lots of wine Somalia's out there.
Speaker 1: In fact, I didn't know there were any other kinds,
Speaker 1: did you, men go, I didn't. These are experts that
Speaker 1: help us understand what to look for in a wine,
Speaker 1: what the pair wines with, how to taste them, and
Speaker 1: all that. So that's what our guest today does, and
Speaker 1: he's the only certified water Somalia in America. I know.
Speaker 1: We both love it when people have these crazy, interesting,
Speaker 1: unique jobs, and so I'm super excited to talk with
Speaker 1: and Martin Reese. Welcome to Part Time Genius. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much, happy to be here, Martin. Martin, tell us
Speaker 1: how you got into this? I mean, was was this
Speaker 1: something you did? You always love water, so I have
Speaker 1: to say, like, the first impression what I had about
Speaker 1: water was on vacation time with my parents, and I
Speaker 1: was around four or five years so I can't really
Speaker 1: remember so much, but it was always for me intrigue
Speaker 1: to taste the different tap waters in the different cities
Speaker 1: of Europe, and I realized it's a child that water
Speaker 1: had taste. That was for me really interesting, and my
Speaker 1: parents always thought like, why is he running always in
Speaker 1: the cities to the tap right away? Is he thirsty
Speaker 1: or what's going on with them? And it's not like overhydration.
Speaker 1: For me, it was literally about the taste. And then
Speaker 1: in two thousand five for our guests came to me
Speaker 1: in Berlin where I worked in the restaurant business there
Speaker 1: and said, hey, Martin, you have over a thousand different
Speaker 1: wines on your wine menu, but you're just serving one
Speaker 1: particular brand of water and I don't really like that brand,
Speaker 1: like from the chaste profile. Ways do you have something
Speaker 1: else for me? And I thought, you know what he's
Speaker 1: upsotte right, it's all about options in the restaurant business.
Speaker 1: You have a wine menu, you have different beers on tap,
Speaker 1: you have different liquors. But when it comes to water,
Speaker 1: our most important beverage in our lives, the server mostly
Speaker 1: will tell you, oh, do you want sparkling flat or tap?
Speaker 1: They don't even asking you if you prefer brand. And
Speaker 1: I thought, I need to change that. So the constant
Speaker 1: of a water summery is not like brand new, it's
Speaker 1: not in inventional here in l A. I started that
Speaker 1: in two thousand fives in Germany. Wow, so what are
Speaker 1: you looking for in a great water? First? Of all,
Speaker 1: I'm looking where it's coming from. So there's two big
Speaker 1: differences when it comes to bottled water here in America.
Speaker 1: On the one hand, you have purified waters. On the
Speaker 1: other hand, you have natural curring spring or glacier waters.
Speaker 1: I am a person who doesn't go out to dine
Speaker 1: when I'm going out in like restaurants, like fast food
Speaker 1: chains or something, because I think food should be healthy
Speaker 1: and food should be coming from a natural resource as well,
Speaker 1: and I want to make sure that my food actually
Speaker 1: has vitamins and all the ingredients in there. And by water,
Speaker 1: it's actually the same because purified water is nothing else
Speaker 1: than highly processed food. That means it's tap water. In
Speaker 1: the different region where they like actually bothering that you're
Speaker 1: flutting everything out of the tap water, they're adding back
Speaker 1: some middals in very small amounts, and they're selling it
Speaker 1: for high price. In my opinion, the biggest scamra planet Earth.
Speaker 1: So so do you do you ever drink tap water? Yeah? Sure,
Speaker 1: I'm tasting it still every time when I'm going to
Speaker 1: a new city. Are always the first thing I'm gonna do,
Speaker 1: it's tasting the tap water and see if I like it.
Speaker 1: Or don't like. Cities have amazing tap boarders. Some cities
Speaker 1: I don't. I can't even smell the tap water right away.
Speaker 1: It's not really a good sign that I want to
Speaker 1: drink it. What are the top three cities for tap
Speaker 1: water for fair opinion? The top cities for tap water.
Speaker 1: Munich is very good. I was in New York. I
Speaker 1: was actually impressed. But even New York has so many
Speaker 1: different tap water qualities. I was in a building and
Speaker 1: in an interview on the tap water was terrible. In
Speaker 1: the next building, the tap water was actually very good.
Speaker 1: So it depends as well, a little bit on the
Speaker 1: pipes where the tap ball is running through, so it's
Speaker 1: even there. It's not even that just one city is
Speaker 1: perfect and the other city is very bad. But mostly
Speaker 1: cities a little bit northern of US, like Alaska or Canada,
Speaker 1: these CDs have way better tap water qualities than actually
Speaker 1: here in the United States. You know, I'm not a
Speaker 1: big fan of the tap board It's it's chlorinated. I
Speaker 1: can smell it. It's not really what I'm looking for
Speaker 1: when I want to drink of water. So are you ever,
Speaker 1: you know, blown away by the taste of a new water?
Speaker 1: These days and and do you have a favorite water. Yes.
Speaker 1: I've just been in China for three weeks ago and
Speaker 1: there was a big water tasting competition. It's an international
Speaker 1: water tasting competition from the Fine Water Society, and I
Speaker 1: tasted over a hundred and tenders from mineral waters and
Speaker 1: they were like two or three waters. I was really
Speaker 1: impressed off and I gave them then like obviously good
Speaker 1: points as well. There was one water it's called Prima
Speaker 1: from South Africa. I gave this hundred point unbelievable great water.
Speaker 1: It was such unique. It was very sweet in your palette,
Speaker 1: almost like a gummy beer, and it was very unique
Speaker 1: for me, a characteristic to find in the water. Another
Speaker 1: water comes from Romania's called Aquaca Patica. I thought, it's
Speaker 1: an incredible, great tasting water, beautiful man reality in it
Speaker 1: nitrate free, so nothing harmful in that water. It's a
Speaker 1: very very good and taste and it's killed it for
Speaker 1: e summer from Denmark, oxygenated water. When I've shaked the bottle,
Speaker 1: it turns into almost like milky flavors. The course, there's
Speaker 1: a lot of oxygen into this water, so it changed
Speaker 1: colors when you're pouring it into your glass. So there's
Speaker 1: so many interesting unique springs out of there. I'm really
Speaker 1: fascinated about it. Or Yeah, and the grocery store, I
Speaker 1: have to say, in America, my seeing what I'm buying
Speaker 1: is Fichi mostly of the time. It's because I like
Speaker 1: the taste of Fichi water as well. There's a very
Speaker 1: smooth mouth field to it. I think it's a great
Speaker 1: tasting water. But hey, it's all about personal preferences. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, I don't know if this is
Speaker 1: bad or not, but some of my favorite water in
Speaker 1: the world was when I used to drink it out
Speaker 1: of the hose as a kid. Is that bad? It
Speaker 1: tasted it almost tasted metallic, and for some reason I
Speaker 1: liked that. Hey, this is interesting part of it. I'm
Speaker 1: glad you're saying this because now people always think, oh,
Speaker 1: but there's like taste tests made of tap water versus
Speaker 1: spring water, and some people think tap water or mostly
Speaker 1: tap water will will win the competitions. I can tell
Speaker 1: you why, because people are raised on tap water and
Speaker 1: they think that the taste of tap water is the
Speaker 1: taste of water. When they've been raised on clorin the
Speaker 1: tap water, they don't know better. In my opinion, they oh,
Speaker 1: this is the taste of water, so they suddenly realized, oh,
Speaker 1: there's a different taste to water. But I don't really
Speaker 1: like this because I cannot think that this is actually water.
Speaker 1: It doesn't mean it's good or bad. So it's quite
Speaker 1: interesting that sometimes tap water winds in competitions against mineral
Speaker 1: water because people are just known to the taste of
Speaker 1: tap water better than to mineral water. It's you talk
Speaker 1: about I love that very passion about that's should not
Speaker 1: be at right topic. Funny too. All right, Well, since
Speaker 1: we are speaking of bad puns, right, Since since you
Speaker 1: are a master of taste, we thought we would put
Speaker 1: you to the test. What game is Martin playing with
Speaker 1: us today? Mano, He's gonna play a game called tastes
Speaker 1: like Chicken? And every one of these answers supposedly tastes
Speaker 1: like chicken. Alright, so we've got five questions for you, Martin.
Speaker 1: Here we go. You're ready, sure? Okay? Number one, before refrigeration,
Speaker 1: Russians used to drop these animals live into their milk
Speaker 1: to keep the milk fresh. Kermit should watch out. What
Speaker 1: are we talking about? That taste like chicken? Frockles. Yes,
Speaker 1: well done. One for one. Okay, here we go. Number two.
Speaker 1: We're in the restaurom business. I I actually add a
Speaker 1: lot of flex already myself, but not to the milk,
Speaker 1: I hope. No, alright? Question number two, it's illegal in
Speaker 1: Queensland to own this pet unless you can prove you're
Speaker 1: a magician. What are we talking about? That taste like chicken?
Speaker 1: It's that would be a good guess. But the hint
Speaker 1: there was magician, it's actually is it rabbit? Mango? So
Speaker 1: what happens if they if they're found with a rabbit?
Speaker 1: Offenders actually face at dollar fine because the critters are
Speaker 1: considered an invasive species. Wow, but not if you're a magician. Okay, alright.
Speaker 1: Question number three. While a popular prank involves claiming that
Speaker 1: this snake's eggs are inside an envelope and when the
Speaker 1: pranky opens at the envelope clatters, the truth is this
Speaker 1: noisy snake actually gives birth to live babies. What are
Speaker 1: we talking about? That taste like chicken? Yes? All right, Martin? Okay.
Speaker 1: Question number four. George RR. Martin claims that watching these
Speaker 1: shelled pets interact with one another gay of him. The
Speaker 1: inspiration to create Game of Thrones. What are we talking about?
Speaker 1: That taste like chicken? It's funny. I've just been to
Speaker 1: the premiere of Game of Thrones. It was thousands of
Speaker 1: um dragons dragons, It should be dragons. I wish they
Speaker 1: were dragons. What is it? It's turtles. He imagined his
Speaker 1: pets had much less tame personalities. As you drove the outline,
Speaker 1: first book and the interesting parties. I think I was
Speaker 1: the only person on the Games of Room premiere after
Speaker 1: show party who never saw any episode of Game of Thrones.
Speaker 1: Like that's maybe an interesting water so much effect any
Speaker 1: episodes of Game of Thrones? All right, well here we are.
Speaker 1: You didn't have to see any episodes of Game of
Speaker 1: Thrones for this last one, but we'll see how you
Speaker 1: do question number five. This one's for the big prize.
Speaker 1: While these animals and University of Florida mascot can't chew
Speaker 1: because their jaws can't move side to side, they're still
Speaker 1: capable of ripping big chunks of flesh and swallowing. What
Speaker 1: are we talking about that taste like chicken? I would yeah,
Speaker 1: absolutely all right? How did Martin do today? Mango? Martin
Speaker 1: went an amazing three for five, which wins them our
Speaker 1: big Prize are undying admiration. All right, congratulations Martin. This
Speaker 1: has been really fun. Martin, thanks so much for being
Speaker 1: on Part Time Genius. Thank you so much, and welcome
Speaker 1: back to Part Time Genius. So we've talked a bit
Speaker 1: about the very real water issues we're facing over the
Speaker 1: coming decades, and we've talked a little bit about the
Speaker 1: brilliant efforts to generate drinkable water in places all around
Speaker 1: the world. So we need to talk about the future
Speaker 1: and whether there's any hope of getting control of this
Speaker 1: problem more honestly, whether it's simply too late. Well, the
Speaker 1: good news is isn't too late, right though, we have
Speaker 1: some serious work ahead of us. As Charles Fishman explains
Speaker 1: in The Big Thirst, a big part of the problem
Speaker 1: is the way we look at water and the fact
Speaker 1: that it's largely invisible. So we should explain what he
Speaker 1: means when he says invisible. Yeah, what Fishman means is
Speaker 1: that all the ways we get our water and where
Speaker 1: it actually comes from are mostly unknown to us. I mean,
Speaker 1: think about it. When you get a drink of water
Speaker 1: from your sink or take a shower, where does that
Speaker 1: water come from? And how to get to you? I'd
Speaker 1: say most people can't answer that question. Yeah. And not
Speaker 1: only that, but you know, something I'm also guilty of
Speaker 1: is just kind of seems like this endless supply. Yeah.
Speaker 1: On top of that, it costs next to nothing, Like
Speaker 1: despite the fact that we couldn't survive without access to
Speaker 1: clean water, our monthly water bill is usually a fraction
Speaker 1: of what we pay for our cell phone. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's closer to what you'd sell out for Netflix. And
Speaker 1: according to Fishman, and I'm going to quote him here,
Speaker 1: ten gallons of tap water at home costs on average
Speaker 1: three pennies. That's the equivalent of getting seventy four of
Speaker 1: those dollar twenty nine half liter bottles of water we
Speaker 1: love so much for less than nickel. We happily pay
Speaker 1: three thousand times that price at the convenience store one
Speaker 1: bottle for dollar twenty nine. But when the water bill
Speaker 1: goes from thirty dollars to thirty four dollars a month,
Speaker 1: customers react as if they'll have to choose between their
Speaker 1: prescription drugs and their water service. So this is what
Speaker 1: Fishman means when he talks about waters and visibility and
Speaker 1: He even points out that in many places our water
Speaker 1: bill isn't actually for the water itself, it's for the
Speaker 1: cost of everything involved in getting the water to us.
Speaker 1: And if you pointed this out to someone, they might
Speaker 1: even say it's water, of course it's free. It's really
Speaker 1: such a weird way to think about a resource that
Speaker 1: we couldn't possibly live without. As for the future, Fishman
Speaker 1: talks about the fact that we're going to have to
Speaker 1: find ways to begin using the right water for the
Speaker 1: right purpose, like there's no reason to be using purified
Speaker 1: drinking water and our toilets and to keep our lawn screen.
Speaker 1: And we'll probably have tiers of water based on how
Speaker 1: clean the water is and what it's used for, and
Speaker 1: those prices will probably vary. What's definitely an interesting thought
Speaker 1: and and also very interesting to think about, you know,
Speaker 1: the fact that, unlike shoes of global warming, solving this
Speaker 1: crisis really isn't that much of a global solution as
Speaker 1: it is a local solution. Every region and community will
Speaker 1: need to solve its own water crisis, though I know
Speaker 1: regions will obviously learn from each other. Yeah, and the
Speaker 1: keys to remember that these water problems are solvable. As
Speaker 1: we discussed earlier. The water here today will be here tomorrow.
Speaker 1: We just need to learn how to harness it and
Speaker 1: take proper care to use it wisely. And I'm hopeful
Speaker 1: we can figure that out. But I'm even more hopeful
Speaker 1: that I can take home today's PTG fact Off trophy.
Speaker 1: And we'll see about that. H So, our genius researchery
Speaker 1: gave send me a list of animals that conserve water
Speaker 1: in interesting ways. Sand gazelles in the Arabian Desert actually
Speaker 1: shrink some of their organs during periods of little rain.
Speaker 1: They can reduce the size of their heart by and
Speaker 1: their livers by. We means they don't have to breathe
Speaker 1: as much because those organs actually require lots of oxygen
Speaker 1: to function. And when they breathe less, they use less
Speaker 1: water in their respiratory process, which is a pretty cool
Speaker 1: survival trection. It is all right, Well, I've got a
Speaker 1: short one to start. Approximately half of all water delivered
Speaker 1: to homes in Florida is used to water the lawn.
Speaker 1: Speaking of lawns, here's one about flamingos that I learned
Speaker 1: from the podcast Every Little Thing. Did you know flamingos
Speaker 1: can drink water at near boiling temperatures. They basically use
Speaker 1: geyser as like water fountains. So strange, all right, Well,
Speaker 1: when we think of water use, Las Vegas is not
Speaker 1: the first place that comes to most people's minds when
Speaker 1: it comes to smart recycling. But it turns out that
Speaker 1: more than nine of water that's used indoors in the
Speaker 1: Las Vegas metro area, from showers, the dishwashers, toilets, whatever
Speaker 1: it is, it's captured and then recycled. Some of it
Speaker 1: goes to water in golf courses and parks, of which
Speaker 1: there are plenty in that area, and then some of
Speaker 1: it's cleaned and returned to like meat. So I guess
Speaker 1: what I've got? Another animal fact? Australian tree frogs have
Speaker 1: these weird waterproof mucous cocoons that they can secrete when
Speaker 1: it's really hot and dry out, and this cocoon holds
Speaker 1: moisture in They can actually live for more than two
Speaker 1: years with the liquid remaining in their bladder. Alright. After
Speaker 1: not really being an industry a few decades ago, bottled
Speaker 1: water has finally passed soda as the number one beverage
Speaker 1: in the US in two thousand and sixteen, bottled water
Speaker 1: edged out soda, with the average American drinking thirty nine
Speaker 1: gallons of water and thirty eight and a half gallons
Speaker 1: of soda. But the two largest bottled water brands, the
Speaker 1: Sani and Aquafina, they're still owned by Coca Cola and PepsiCo. Well,
Speaker 1: I might as well use this opportunity to get in
Speaker 1: one more animal surprise. So tortoises can go a year
Speaker 1: without drinking water, and Australian tree frogs can go two years.
Speaker 1: But the kangaroo rat lives its whole life without drinking
Speaker 1: any water, at least not water by itself. They get
Speaker 1: their water by oxidizing food, meaning they can create water
Speaker 1: by recombining molecules. That's pretty cool and crazy. I can't
Speaker 1: say that I quite understand that, but that is pretty amazing.
Speaker 1: They don't have to drink their whole lives. All right,
Speaker 1: I think you should put that back to a dance.
Speaker 1: It's so good. I'm gonna have to give you this
Speaker 1: week's fact Off trophy. Congrats Mango. Well, thank you, and
Speaker 1: that's it for today's episode. Thank you so much for listening,
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. Part Time Genius is a production
Speaker 1: of how stuff works and wouldn't be possible without several
Speaker 1: brilliant people who do the important things we couldn't even
Speaker 1: again to understand. Christa McNeil does the editing thing. Noel
Speaker 1: Brown made the theme song and does the mixy mixy
Speaker 1: sound thing. Jerry Rowland does the exact producer thing. Gay
Speaker 1: Bluesier is our lead researcher, with support from the Research
Speaker 1: Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and Lucas Adams and
Speaker 1: Eves Jeffko gets the show to your ears. Good job, Eves.
Speaker 1: If you like what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe,
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