Hello Internet - H.I. #79: From Russia with Love

Episode Date: March 16, 2017

Grey and Brady catch up with each other after a while to discuss: the reality of freebooting, the best living mathematician, Russian shaggy dogs, FOT5k, 100 to 1, the HI limited edition sneakers, important breaking flag news, and plane crash corner. Homework: Westworld & Sully Brought to You By: Harry's: Quality Men's Shaving Products Squarespace: start bulding your website today with a free fifteen day trial Audible: get a free 30-day trial by signing up at audible.com/hellointernet Listeners like YOU on Patreon Show Notes: The original freebooting discussion on Hello Internet Copyright infringement on wikipedia (Previous version) Brady at VidCon Europe Wikipedia page for Jeff Dujon Terry Tao Periodic Videos: Elements Inauguration The Mighty Black Stump Polymath project Temptation away from home Brady vs Grey HI limited edition sneakers Nebraska flag flew upside down at Capitol for 10 days and 'nobody noticed,' says senator who wants design change Aeroflot Aeroflot uniform Harrison Ford near miss

Do you remember how to do this? According to the way I was setting up, no, I don't remember how to do this. Do you know what? You setting up took a while and you stuffed up a few things and you had to reboot and all that sort of stuff. But in the scheme of things, that was still pretty smooth for you. Thank you, Brady. I'll take that as a compliment, I guess. You're not very good at it. Like, I think I'm better at it, which is amazing. Brady, you are like a professional with this. You're all over the world. You're setting up interviews with people. You're always doing audio recording. I am a guy who shows up occasionally to record podcasts. So it's

always a bit of a like, wait, what? What was I doing? How did this get set up? You can't expect me after what? Two years? Two and a half years? How long have we been doing this? I don't know. To be a professional at it. I think that's an unrealistic expectation, Brady. I'll tell you a story and I have to be careful telling it because I don't want to give certain things away. But I remember one time I made this video for Periodic Videos, which was of a really interesting chemical reaction, really fiery and explosive.

It was a really cool thing. And I made the video and I put it on YouTube. Good for me. And then someone who I would describe as kind of a colleague, but also for various reasons, a bit of a rival, decided they were going to film the same reaction. And what they did was because they were probably just a bit less experienced and for whatever reason, I get this email one day saying, Dear Brady, I recorded that reaction that you did a few weeks ago, but unfortunately, in the heat of the moment, I forgot to press the record button.

And this whole thing had gone off for them. That had been set up for them and had taken all day, and they hadn't filmed it. And basically, he just had to come to me, like, tail between his legs and said to me, Can I please just have your footage of when you did it? Oh God. Okay.

I've been there, you know, like it's a very easy thing to do when you're new to filming and you've got a million things to think about to actually forget to press record. I've done it with interviews before when I was like a newbie at the BBC even. So I just felt the pain and I said, man, not a problem. And I just sent it straight to him. I was like, I get it. How he must have felt. I just totally had sympathy. What a nice guy. Giving footage to a quasi rival.

Yeah. It's complicated to call him a rival and I can't really go into it, but it's not someone anyone knows. Like for Tim's who are listening thinking, oh, I wonder if it's, you know, one of the YouTubers we know. It wasn't a YouTuber. It was nothing like that. It was no one anyone knows. But it was a funny story. What's the worst thing that you have forgotten to record? You didn't interview the prime minister or anything and then forget to press record. No.

When I was very new to it, I remember I once went to like an aquarium fish store and I interviewed this woman for like 20 minutes and then hadn't pressed record. Oh, God. And I didn't admit to her. I actually said, I think that was good, but I think we could have done that better. Let's do it again. You sneaky dog, you Brady. I would admit to it now. Oh, maybe I wouldn't. I can imagine times when I wouldn't, if it wasn't too embarrassing. But these days, you know, as you get more confident in life, you also get more confident about admitting your shortcomings. So, I remember when I first became a newspaper journalist in the newsroom

and I was like the new cadet and being given a job and assignment was a big deal. Like, Brady, go and, you know, ring the local business council and find out their response to this story and, you know, given jobs to do. I would like wait till there was no one around or go and hide in another room to make phone calls because I was so scared of people listening to my phone calls and hearing me interview people. And I was so nervous, you know, I was just a young new journalist. And I hated the idea of all the experienced journalists hearing me phone people up and doing that sort of thing. I look back now and think that's really sweet. You were what, in like an open office situation and supposed to just interview someone over the

phone? Newsrooms are normally quite open plan things. And, you know, all the journalists all sit around each other. Like when you watch on TV, it's quite like that. There's lots of noise and phone calls and stuff going on and everyone can hear what everyone else is doing to some extent. I was just, you know, the new green young kid. So, I would like go into like a conference room where there would be a phone and make the phone calls or things like that. Just because, you know, I didn't want all the experienced journalists hearing me ask lame questions or not be able to handle myself, you know, like anyone young and nervous. Hell, I don't blame you for that at all. I don't think I could do that.

Talk on the phone in a big open space where other people listen. When I'm in my own apartment, if I make a phone call, I go into another room, even if just my wife is home. It's just it's weird having somebody else listen to half a conversation. It doesn't matter if I'm just talking to my family or something. It feels like there's a weird pressure. Like, I'm sorry, I'm using the telephone. I have to go into a different room and close the door. I mean, the reality is you don't really hear other people's phone calls because people talk quietly into the phone and there's lots going on. Like you'd have to really make an effort to listen to other people's phone calls or they would have to be really loud. And so you don't hear

everyone else's phone calls, but when you're a young paranoid new cadet journalist, you are scared that everyone's going to be listening to your phone call and laughing at you. So anyway, it goes away. You're a professional now and you're sure you're recording this podcast, right? Yeah. No, after all that, I bet something's going catastrophically wrong and we'll lose this whole thing. This episode of Hello Internet is brought to you in part by Harry's. Harry's was started by two guys, Jeff and Andy, who were fed up with being overcharged for razors. So they decided to start their own razor company to give guys everywhere what they deserve. A great shave at a fair price. They bought a factory with a hundred years of blade making experience so they could get their own high quality razors, sell them online, and

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To redeem your free trial, just go to harrys.com slash hellointernet and offer the code HI at checkout to get your free starter set. That's harrys.com slash hellointernet and enter the offer code hi to get started with harry's you have nothing to lose except for your stubble thanks to harry's for supporting the show i think brady that freebooting has really made it as an official official word now well it's not in a dictionary is it a dictionary smictionary, smictionary, right? Like they're just descriptive, like they'll catch up eventually to the way that the word is being used. I just happened to have in a bunch of cases come across recently people using the word freebooting who would have no idea about the podcast, like it's spread very far. But I think the real, in my mind, cementer of the legitimacy of this word is that on the Wikipedia page for copyright infringement, there is a section

which is about the terminology. Like, how does one talk about copyright infringement? Because as we discussed in that episode so many years ago now, the word theft, not appropriate because it's not actually a description of what's happening. You can't really use that word. It's too emotive. That's your position, by the way. That's not actually a description of what's happening. You can't really use that word. It's too emotive. That's your position, by the way. That's not my position.

No, no. I'm presenting it as the position, Brady. That's obviously the way it goes. I think our difference of opinions on that is what started the whole free mooting debacle to start with. I think that's the only correct position is that theft is obviously the wrong word to use. But yeah, so on the Wikipedia page, they do run through this, the idea of using the word piracy versus

the word theft. And then at the bottom, there is now an official section for freebooting, which I would say, as the article on the Wikipedia is arranged, is presented as the solution, the correct way to talk about copyright infringement, and that is freebooting. I think it's fantastic. And you have even been properly credited as the creator of freebooting on the Wikipedia. I think this is the big time, Brady. This is like the final step in the journey of freebooting. It's like a real word now on the Wikipedia. Is this a coincidence that you've brought this up? You realize there was naughtiness yesterday about this.

I have no idea what you're talking about. You've been off Twitter, haven't you? I haven't been on the internet in a long time. Just yesterday, it was brought to my attention. And it has since been corrected back to what you're seeing now. But yesterday afternoon, that little section on freebooting was actually a section on viewjacking and the title was viewjacking you were credited not me and someone brought this to my attention on that exact wikipedia page and i shared it on twitter i said very funny guys like look what

everyone's done and like the official word was viewjacking and then obviously when people saw this someone's gone back in and changed it back to freebooting so just to show how unofficial something is when it's on wikipedia as of yesterday it was viewjacking is the official word but we all know freebooting is the real word i mean look at this i just went through the history and yes as of a couple days ago the term view jacking has been used to describe the unauthorized rehosting of online media, particular videos. This term was coined by CGP Grey, YouTube content creator, on the audio podcast, Hello Internet. So I think we're not quite at the end of this. I feel a bit like the people hanging onto viewjacking are kind of

the flaggy flag of copyright infringement people, but... Look, I can't take responsibility for any credit jacking that occurs when people rewrite things on the Wikipedia. It's out of my hands. like the Oxford English Dictionary or something like that. Because until they do it, any Tom, Dick or Harry can go on Wikipedia and change it to viewjacking. It has to be official. You need a dictionary, huh? That's what you need? That's what I need, yeah.

Like I accept that it's sort of had a little moment in the sun and it has kind of infiltrated our language a little bit. In fact, I was asked to do a talk about freebooting at VidCon. Oh, yeah? Which I declined actually. I didn't want to step on that landmine at the moment. And also I didn't really feel like much of an expert, like just because I coined the word, I didn't feel like I could legitimately sit on a panel and talk about the legalities of copyright infringement. So I'm just like, yeah, I came up with a word.

I don't know, Brady. It feels like you need to be on a panel at VidCon about freebooting. It feels like the world is not right if you're just sitting in the audience on that panel. Oh, by the way, 10 second ad. I will be at VidCon Europe in Amsterdam. So if anyone's in that part of the world and wants to come along and have their record signed, come along. I'll be there. You're not doing the freebooting panel, but are you doing any official panels while you're

there? Any official talks? Yeah, I am. I'm doing there. You're not doing the freebooting panel, but are you doing any official panels while you're there? Any official talks? Yeah, I am. I'm doing an education-y type panel. I can't remember who's on the panels, though. It's just educational YouTubers. I know Hank Green is on it. And it's got some subtitle catchphrase, like, can you fit the universe inside a YouTube video or something that I had nothing to do with that name. And I'm not entirely sure what I'm supposed to talk about. That sounds like a very Vsauce name. Yeah.

Hank's moderating the panel now and Hank knows what he's doing, so I'm sure it'll be good. And I'm sure there'll be a decent audience there because Hank's there. So that'll make me feel better. I don't know, man. I think there's going to be a lot of Hello Internet fans at a VidCon event. I think you're going to be a pretty big draw at the panel too, Brady. No, I don't think that. But if there are any Tims there, come and say hello if you happen to be a vidcon people are going to be

screaming in the audience throwing their underwear on stage that's what's going to happen brady so there we go so freebooting credit jacking all sorts of stuff the saga rolls on stay out of the wikipedia editing you naughty teams yeah if there's one thing we know, it's vandalizing the Wikipedia. Never hilarious. Never entertaining. I'm opposed to it, Gray. In my soul, I'm opposed to it, although it always makes me laugh. Yeah, that's right. Of course it makes you laugh, right? Because it's the spirit of the internet, right? It's like the trickster god here, because we have this thing, which is sort of the end-all be-all authoritative source on how everything is in a neutral view in the world and also can constantly be milked for the lulz by

random trolls like it's fantastic it is tiring though it's tiring millions of people all trying to be funny at the same time it's like when you put a question on twitter like can someone help me what's the national anthem of something And everyone wants to reply with a joke. And they all think they're the one person being funny. But when you're the recipient of that and you've got all these people trying to be funny, it's like, for God's sake, I just need this answer. Like, enough of the jokes. If it catches you in the right mood, it is funny.

And I'm sometimes that guy. I'm the guy who's always trying to be funny as well. But when you're on the other end of it. I feel like this is just the fundamental spirit of the internet. If you're coming to the internet and you're being really serious about everything, you're going to have a bad time. I will never not love the kind of hilarity of internet commenters that results as this competition to be the funny person or the person who's like trying to sneak a joke into an otherwise serious Wikipedia article, or all kinds of mischief.

I really think that's just fundamentally part of the internet, and we'll never be rid of it, and you can't be too serious about it. And whoever tampered with Jeff Dujon's Wikipedia article and included the line that he once signed an autograph for renowned journalist Brady Haran, is a bit of a hero of mine. that's still one of my favorites right like this is one of the best wikipedia vandalizations ever it hasn't been changed yet because the only place it's been

mentioned is on our vinyl episode now i've mentioned it here on the internet version it's gone i've shot myself in the foot there although why, why remove it? Because it is true. Yeah, I know. I know. Like people, like serious Wikipedia editors, that deserves to remain there. It is true and it's hilarious. And if you're upset about it, add a citation because it's not cited. But there is an episode of Hello Internet where I tell the story about him signing an autograph for me.

So it can even be cited. God bless you, internet. You're the best thing and the worst thing. It is for me to bring people up to speed. I have been zooming back and forth a little bit lately in planes and my body clocks all over the place. I'm currently in spiritual home, Berkeley, and it's six in the morning and I've woken up specially to do this. So I'm a little bit tired and a bit out of it. And I have just come from Russia before that. I don't know if I'm coming or going, so I don't know how well the brain will work, but we'll get there. This is so confusing to me because I knew you were doing

some traveling, but I vaguely thought, oh, you're going to America. And then I get messages from you from Russia with love. And then suddenly you're somewhere else. And then you're back in the UK. And then you're flying over to San Francisco. I feel like I can't keep track of you at all, Brady. I don't know what you're up to. I don't have any idea what you're doing. Why were you in Russia? I went through a really good period of three months of not even leaving the UK. And it was so lovely. Wow. You know, I still had to go to London and Nottingham a lot, but they're just like overnight trips. But it was three months of loveliness with the doggies and being able to spend time with my wife and all the nice things. But now I'm entering a period of two or three months of mad travel all over the place.

Three months at home. That must be some kind of record for you. It was really nice. Yeah. So anyway, I'm in America now, you know, doing the usual number file thing for a week. Actually, just yesterday, I interviewed the person who, this is debatable. Okay. But I would say, and a lot of other people say, is currently the smartest, best mathematician in the world. He's like the top gun. He's on top of everything. He's the superstar of math at the moment. I would say he's the greatest living mathematician. There are mathematicians alive who maybe in their peak were greater and are now coming towards the end of their days. But in terms of current form, current stuff going on,

I think he's the man. And I got to meet him yesterday and interview him at MSRI. Can you say who it is? I can. I'm building up to it because there's an extra reason I'm a bit excited about it. His name is Terry Tao. That's a really good name. It is a good name.

He's across all sorts of things. He's a real all-rounder of mathematics, which is pretty important these days because we've gotten to a point in mathematics now where most of the proofs rely on pulling from different parts of mathematics and not just specialising in one subject. And the reason I'm particularly excited about him is he was born in... Oh, God. Adelaide? Yes.

And he's pretty much my age as well. He's only like one year older. Oh, really? Yeah. But you couldn't really call us contemporaries because he was the stereotypical super genius. And I think like, you know, when he was 10 years old, he was at university and all that sort of stuff. He was like super, super prodigy. And he's one of those prodigies that has gone on to genuine greatness as well so anyway

just for the record because i know it will amuse you when we were setting up and about to start we were talking a bit about adelaide and where he was from and how often he goes back and somehow i fell down the rabbit hole and told him the story about how much i love the black stump and i wanted to tell black stump stories with him and i I have to say, he wasn't feeling it. In my head, you are wanting to discuss the black stump with him while wearing your black stump t-shirt. Like, let me tell you about this amazing building. He didn't even remember the black stump.

I was like, you know, before they built the state bank building, it was the biggest building in Adelaide. And he was like, yeah, I remember the state bank building because it's the biggest building. I'm like, no, before that, it was the black stump. You're the same age as me, man. He should have had the same feelings, but he wasn't on board. Everyone should have the same feelings that you do, Brady. That's the way it should be, right?

I know. Because then I sort of boxed myself into a corner. Because when he wasn't into the black stump, I felt like, oh. Because I was then going to tell him the funny story about how now I talk about it all the time and I've made t-shirts and we would laugh about how it's- Right, right. But because he wasn't into the black stamp, I was kind of like, oh no, where do I take this conversation now? I've just started talking about this building. Now he doesn't remember it.

I've got no anecdote to tell. These conversational dead ends are always awful, right? When you run down like this false path with someone else and you think like, we're going to have a great bonding conversation. And they're like, oh no, right? No, this isn't working at all. Like abort, abort. But it's too late. And now you're going to have a great bonding conversation. And like, oh, no, right now this isn't working at all. Like, abort, abort. But it's too late. And now you're trying to, like, justify the amazingness of this building. That's exactly what happened. And it just got worse and worse.

But I have to say, he was like a really, really excellent man. He was really generous with his time and polite and friendly. And considering how smart he is and the mathematical plane he works on, he was a really accessible, normal guy. And he also was quite familiar with Numberphile, including my controversial minus 112th video about the sum of the integers. Of course, we all remember that. This is in his wheelhouse, this subject.

Like he's written blogs about it and he was also very gracious about that. I'm sure he could have ripped me to pieces, but he was actually quite nice about it, which made me really pleased. I said, you're being diplomatic, aren't you? Inside he's thinking, yes, yes, yes. I'll just keep this black stump loving weirdo happy. So anyway, Terry Tao, brilliant. I'm still taken aback by his age because I was going to guess, surely the top guy has got to be like in his late 20s, early 30s at most. Isn't that the reputation in the sciences and the mathematics that it's just like being a model or an athlete? Like you peak in

your 20s and then it's all downhill from there. So this guy's like 2x peak age. That's true. That's true. And also you'd think in some ways he's like the equivalent of a 60 year old because he was already like a top gun when he was like 16 or 17. But no, he's still like on top of it and cracking new things. One of the reasons for that though is he's unusually collaborative. Like he's really into collaboration and works with other people. And he's even got this thing that you'd find quite interesting actually. He's working on this thing called the Polymath Project. It's kind of like crowdsourcing mathematics finding subjects that could benefit from loads of loads of people working on it and they set up like

a web page and everyone works on little bits and it doesn't work for all mathematics but for some problems it works really well where lots and lots of different people are doing lots of little different bits it really pushes things forward quickly and it it sounds like, you know, it's not something you and I could do. It's still like, you know, professional mathematicians and stuff like that. We can't help out. They don't need someone to run an Excel spreadsheet on some basic numbers. No, I know. When you hear about this polymath thing and crowdsourcing, you think, oh, it's my chance to be involved, but it really is for mathematicians. It's just taking collaboration to the next level. There's this thing called the twin

prime conjecture that there are an infinite number of primes that are separated by just two right right and you know no matter how far you go down the number line there's always another twin prime coming somewhere and this guy a while ago released a proof which was amazing which proved that there are an infinite number of primes that are separated by 70 million, which was a huge breakthrough. It was like one of the biggest breakthroughs in mathematics of the last sort of, you know, 10 years or so. And then this polymath project and Terry Tao in particular have really taken the bull by the horns

and they've been like doing all this new stuff to bring that number down, that bound. And I think they've got it to like, you know, 270 now. And they're all working on it to try to get it down to this, you know, two, which is the Holy Grail. I find that stuff so interesting in mathematics. Like just obviously like I can't follow any of the details of it. But just like there's something really satisfying about mathematical proofs. And I do love that idea of you can see people working towards like once you've proven there's an infinite number of primes

that are separated by an arbitrary number it feels like oh i can see how that's a toehold to try to work towards the solution that you're looking for which is to get them just separated by two yeah it seems like it must be incredibly pleasing and satisfying work to move a proof forward like step by step and to be part of a project forward, like step by step, and to be part of a project that is like solving this bit by bit. I can just imagine that that has to be very satisfying for professional mathematicians. One of the really interesting things about Terry, because I've not really seen this trait often in mathematicians, or I've not often seen them speak about it so openly, but it makes perfect sense, is that his attitude is pretty much as follows.

Because I spoke to him about the Riemann hypothesis, which is like one of the holy grails of mathematics. And I said to him, are you working on the Riemann hypothesis? And he said, no, I'm not at the moment, because to me, it's like a cliff that I can't get to the top of, and it's just a sheer flat wall with no way to climb it. But if someone somewhere makes a breakthrough and produces a few toe holds and hand holds that I can grab onto and start working on, I would go to it. I'd run to it. It almost sounds kind of mercenary in a way that he's like this samurai wandering the world of mathematics because he knows so much about so many different areas of mathematics. And as soon as there's a

breakthrough somewhere else, there's a battle going or something good that he thinks he can get his teeth into, that's what he'll go to and work on because there's a chance now. There's an opening. He's not like Andrew Wiles sitting up in his attic working on Fermat's Last Theorem all his life in secret. He's this guy that's just doing 20 things at once. And whenever he hears about a new cool breakthrough, that's where he goes and what he wants to do, because there's a chance now, there's a chance it can be solved or proved. And it was really kind of honest, but also really interesting that that's his attitude to it all. You mean it was refreshing to hear that he's trying to work on problems that are possible

to solve instead of like reinforcing the idea of being the lone genius working on the impossible thing? Is that what you mean? Like, is that how people normally talk about it? Yeah. But also like hearing it described that way, you could almost say it sounds a bit like opportunistic or a bit exploitative, isn't it? Like, you know, I'm waiting for someone else to do something great so that I can then piggyback it and take this thing to the future glory. Don't get me wrong. He's not a glory seeker and he doesn't need it. He's had his share of glory already. He'll retire now as one of the greatest mathematicians ever. But I don't know, mathematicians are quite secretive and they don't always like you to know what their

dreams are and what they're working on. And maybe because they fear the embarrassment of not solving it or maybe just because they're private people. But to hear him be really open about, you know, yeah, I want to solve, you know, I want to do all this stuff. And I'm waiting sometimes to see where the next big opportunity is. But he's also a total collaborator. And it's not about him. He just wants to know everything. And he wants everything to be solved and proved. And like you say, what he's doing is entirely rational. He wants to go to where the opportunity is, where progress can be made. But you don't often hear mathematicians talk that way, which is what I found interesting. He sounds like a very smart guy. He is. He's pretty smart. But he's from Adelaide. All the best people are from Adelaide.

Yes, of course. How can I forget? All the best people are from Adelaide and they all love the mighty Blackstone. It's crazy that he's not famous in Adelaide. He's like one of the great Adelaideans that have been produced. Yeah. He should be right next to the Brady Haran statue. That's the way that should work. Yeah. All right, Brady. So tell me, what were you doing in Russia? I have no idea why you were there. I just randomly got a photograph of a postcard of Vladimir Putin riding a bear. And that's how I knew you were in Russia. Well, this should be semi-interesting for you because one of my interests that you do share to some degree is the periodic table. You do seem to show more than a flicker of interest in all things periodic table related. And the reason I

was there was for the inauguration of three of those four new elements that were discovered. Oh, that's right. The elements. Yeah. So there were these four new ones that have been discovered over the last however many years, but they finally got their rubber stamp towards the end of last year in terms of IUPAC, the official periodic table guardians saying, yep, they were definitely discovered. You people can name them. They propose the names and then the names were approved. So we had Nahonium, which was made and discovered in Japan, so named after Japan. And then we had three that were synthesized at a place called Dubna,

just outside Moscow. These were Moscovium, Tennessane, although it was named after Tennessee, it was actually made in Russia as well, and Oganesson, which is named after a guy called Yuri Oganessian, who is still alive, which is only the second time this has ever happened. I don't know exactly how it happened, but Martin Polyakov, the chemistry professor who I make periodic videos with, I think contacted Yuri Oganessian and they became kind of friendly on email, helped by the fact that Martin speaks Russian, which I think was a real icebreaker because he could write his emails in Russian. And much to our surprise, actually, these people who make these super heavy elements

totally know who we are because I think what happens is whenever they Google their new elements and things, they always inevitably see all our YouTube videos because we make a million YouTube videos about them. No, I think it is actually just your towering fame in the world of chemistry. Surely you must be one of the most famous popularizers of chemistry, right? The two of you together in particular. Well, maybe this is possible. You have a whole statue of you in Adelaide, in no small part because of that.

What is this statue in Adelaide? People are going to think this is a thing if you keep saying that. If I keep saying it, it'll become a thing. Okay. Yeah. But anyway, go on, go on. So anyway, they had this ceremony to name the elements. So they invited us. They said, you should come to the ceremony. And they didn't only invite us. Martin was invited to be like a speaker. So I thought, oh, they'll get him to say a few words. But he became like the keynote speaker who gave like probably what the main speech of the event in Russian. And then we went to Dubna, the big facility where they made the elements. And Oganessian himself was like so like giving of his time. And we spent like a day with him and he took us around and gave us tours and interviews

and took us out for meals and all sorts of stuff. So I spent all this time with the guy who had the element named after him and we made all these videos and had this amazing time. It was brilliant. I'm just confused here though, because we first discussed these elements, I don't know, whatever it was, a year ago. So I understand there must be some kind of process to make it official. And I thought we already passed the, yes, they're really official stage. Yeah, we had passed that stage. But now they're officially named. This is the official naming ceremony. Yeah, this was like the party.

This was like the ceremony. Okay. So the names had become official, but this was like the, all the people from America and all the people from Japan and all the different collaborators that had any role all came together for a few days. And they had the big shindig in Moscow, like the Academy of Sciences, with ceremonies and speeches and lots of vodka. I can imagine. And like pickled herring and all the Russian food, lots of caviar.

So that was the big party. And then they went and had a tour of the Dubna facility for themselves because some of them hadn't really had a good look at it. And because it was switched off for the morning, they could like get up close to all the things they normally can't see, like all the cyclotrons and the beam lines and the places where the atoms all get smashed. So it was like a nice tour. And then they had like a half a day little symposium where everyone gave technical scientific talks about the state of play. How can we make the next elements? What are the next steps? It was a chance for them all to get together, partly to celebrate and have a drink and partly to do a bit of face-to-face collaboration. And we kind of piggybacked

it as a chance to make videos. But also we were kind of, I mean, more Martin than me, to be honest, we're sort of fettered as the sort of VIPs as well. So I thought we were going to be like the fly on the wall, but we ended up being quite a center of attention. You went from fly on the wall to bell of the ball. Is that what you did, Brady? Look at you. You can tell it's not six in the morning where you are, coming up with these little clever turns of phrase. But okay, look, I have a lot of charity towards the world of science and chemistry, but I

have to like, is this the final party? Because it feels like it's just getting stretched out a little bit here. Is there going to be a party later on that's like, ooh, the official embossing of the element onto the periodic table? I'm just wondering how many stages is it until, like in a high school chemistry class when you buy a periodic table, it's just listed there, or like, or is that not allowed yet until another party occurs? We're already past that. Oh, okay.

This was like, you know how sometimes like if you win an award, you know, sometimes it's announced. Like the Nobel Prize, they announce the Nobel Prize, who won it. And there's a big media kerfuffle, but it's usually two or three months later that they then actually give them the medals and do the speeches and the certificates. Or when someone gets a knighthood, you know,

it's announced so-and-so is now a knight, but they don't actually have the sword on their shoulder from the queen until a few months later. That's what this was like. So the elements were official and it was announced. This was just the sword on your shoulder from the queen to say, well done, because it takes a while to get everyone together, you know? You know what? I just realized, like, I knew this, but I never really thought about it because I think in my head, when I hear about people going to the Nobel Award ceremony, I think I was imagining it was like the Oscars. And all of the nominees are sitting there in the audience waiting to find out who the winner is when they open the envelope. In retrospect, getting a whole bunch of scientists together at the same time to do that

for a crowd that is not explicitly publicity seeking in the same way that say Hollywood would be? Obviously, yes, that's not the way it's going to work. But I think in my head, I always imagine when they announced the Nobel Prize winner that there's four sad Nobel Prize losers who are sitting there in the audience and still have to have a party that night with everybody else. I mean, the Nobel Prizes are kind of a bit crazy. I assume you know this or you knew this, but maybe you don't. But obviously, who's even under consideration is kept secret. And then there's a press conference held in Sweden where there's just basically journalists there and some people from the Nobel Committee and a few has won only finds out themselves about 10 minutes before. They phone them wherever they are in the world and say, this is the Nobel Committee. You've won the Nobel Prize.

We're about to announce it. You know, well done. But that process actually causes problems because quite often they can't contact the person they need to contact. So they'll be phoning someone around the world saying, we need to speak to Jane doe she's just won the nobel prize and they can't get her and they famously couldn't get higgs when he won it for the higgs boson and he found out from someone who just heard it on the radio and told him oh you've just won the nobel prize recently there was a big problem though because they phoned someone who won and the person had died like a week or two before and they didn't know. And they like

phoned the house and they said, oh, he's dead. And you can't win the Nobel prize if you've died, but he still got it. It made an exception. I did know that about the phone call because I think like I've heard various stories and that's what I mean. Like I never put two and two together in my head. I was still imagining that somehow there were people in the audience at the actual ceremony. I did know about the phone call because you do hear those stories sometimes of someone missing it or some kind of incident that occurs when trying to get in touch with someone for the phone call. So I spent a lot of time around people speaking Russian to each other over the last week. Eventually I got used to it. But when it first started happening, more when I was applying for my visa and I was around a lot of people speaking Russian to each other, I felt quite silly and embarrassed by myself by how much I felt like I was in a spy movie.

Like, when two people speak Russian to each other, it's amazing how their Hollywood training takes over and you assume everything's like a big conspiracy and they're talking about all this cool spy stuff. It did make me wonder if like when Russian people who don't speak English hear two people speaking English to each other, do they think the same thing? I can't imagine what English sounds like to people who don't speak English. Like, what do we sound like? Do we sound like villains from an Indiana Jones movie the same way that I think that? Or like, I wonder if that's the case or English has a different sound to it. I imagine it must be like that. I know i had a friend who didn't grow up speaking english a long time ago and i asked her about like what does english sound like and her response was it was if anyone ever imitates a language there's usually just a couple of sounds that you're really doing a whole bunch of times

yeah like if you're doing french you'll be like like yeah exactly yeah it's like that's exactly what french sounds like yeah yeah or famously you know the way the team america world police movie did middle eastern languages like it was really terrible but it's the same thing where they're just doing a couple of sounds yeah and her response was that the english sounds were t sounds and s sounds like that sound was for her like the couple of sounds she would make if she was thinking about the way english sounds they say oh look at those english speakers over there it's yeah like she said it was not exactly a pleasant sounding language if you don't know what they're saying and i can see that i imagine english is not the best sounding language if you haven't heard it or if you don't know what

they're actually saying. But I think it's impossible to get out of because I know there's a YouTube video where someone tries to make gibberish sounds to give you the idea of what English sounds like to a foreign language speaker. But it doesn't seem convincing to me. And I've asked some people and it seems like it's not a good representation of what it actually sounds like. I don't think you can get out of your head with this sort of thing. But I'm trying to think if I have ever in my life heard Russian spoken not in the context of a spy movie. I think I may have never heard this language spoken outside of Hollywood's representation of it on a submarine. I think that might be the only time

I've ever heard it. It's like, oh, Sean Connery speaking Russian. That's what Russian is. I heard a bit of it spoken, that's for sure. Do you pick up anything? I hear it's a really easy language to pick up. No. It's like Spanish. You know, I spend a week in Spain. You'll get the gist of it. I'm sure it's the same way in Moscow. It's really easy. I can tell you one story about Russian being spoken. If you can handle a bit of a shaggy dog story, I'll tell you my story about the final day in Russia. Brady, I am a professional Brady shaggy dog story listener. I should put that on my business card. This is what

I actually do. Shaggy dog listener. So on the final day, we left Dubno, north of Moscow, and we were going to go to the airport that night. But Professor Polyakov has this friend near Moscow who he wanted to visit. So, the taxi driver was going to take us to this friend's house, who has this nice house, and adjoins a museum she runs, which is a tank museum. Ooh. Yeah, because her father was the designer of, I think it's the T-34, the famous Russian tank. And she herself, I was told, is quite famous in Russia. She's quite old now, but she was a famous poet when poetry was a big deal in Russia and poets were celebrities. And now she's just famous as being an elder stateswoman.

Was that really a time when there were famous poets? Yeah. The Russian language apparently is really good for poetry, way better than English, because word order is less important. So you can be a bit more creative with poetry. So in the Soviet times, poets were like pop stars, apparently. It seems like something a poet would tell you, but okay, I'm going to run with it for the purpose of the story. Anyway, this is by the by.

We were being taken to our house for lunch. We were going to have a look at the tank museum, and then we were going to go to the airport. So this taxi driver comes to pick us up from Dubna at the hotel. And Martin explains to this taxi driver in Russian, you have to take us to this house first, and we're going to be there for a few hours eating, going to a museum, and then you're taking us to the airport. And the taxi driver didn't know this. What he had done is he was being a bit naughty and he had arranged for his wife to come with us on the drive to Moscow. And he was going to use the trip as a chance to take his wife for the day shopping in Moscow. So his plans have suddenly been scuppered. So he was pretty unhappy.

So he drove to the apartment building where he lived where his wife was waiting out the front and she was all dressed up and she had loads and loads of makeup on and she'd obviously done her hair because her hair was standing at some angle that i can't believe was even physically possible she was clearly a woman dressed for her big day out in moscow and he's had to go up and say to her look we can't go because i've got to take these people to some house and sit outside the house for three hours and he was was telling her, go back. You're not coming. But she was like, no, I'm all dressed up. I've got my makeup on. I look amazing. I'm coming to Moscow anyway. Yeah. You can't say no to a woman at the end of her preparation rituals.

I know. It's like, nope, sorry. Like whatever plans you had for the day, if she finished getting ready, your plans are changing. That's what's happening. And I can assure you this woman had spent a long time getting ready. It was evident. So she gets in the car and it's all, I've already got like three bags on my lap because I can't put my bags on the chair that's been reserved for her in the car. So like everyone's pretty inconvenienced by this whole thing. We drive for two hours to this house and we park outside and we say something like, do you want to like come in or something like that? And they're like, no, of course not.

So they're parked out in the snow and they have to sit out in their car for three hours while I go inside, which I couldn't believe they were doing. So I go inside, Martin speaks Russian to this woman for three hours. She did speak a bit of English and she was really polite and nice to me, but I have to tell you, it was pretty hard work for me sitting there watching two people who are a bit older talking Russian to each other. But I couldn't get away. I couldn't escape. And Martin was therefore trying to include me. So every two or three sentences, Martin would give me a brief summary of what had just been said. And it was quite, you know, boring stuff. Oh, she just told me that her uncle is remarried to her aunt Maria. And I'm like, oh, really? Oh. Like I'm having a social freak out just even listening to you describe this. I like,

I don't think I could handle this. I don't think I could psychologically handle this situation. And I love Martin. He's like family and I love spending time with him, but this was quite difficult. I think it was difficult for everyone. and I was sitting at this table with all this like alcohol and really rich Russian food filling my nostrils and I was starting to feel a bit unwell and then eventually we get to go to this tank museum and we walk around and there was a funny moment because apparently this woman's famous but she was like showing Martin around and at some point some person in the tank museum walked up to her and i think she was preparing herself for the yes yes i am who you think i am this guy actually said to her do you realize who

that is that you're translating for that's martin polyakov from periodic videos which she thought was quite funny and then we went back to the house we said our goodbyes and it was all good and we get in the car and we say to them okay we're ready to go and this woman who's been sitting in the car for three hours with all her makeup on and her hair done whose day we've ruined just turns around and says one moment and she goes back to the house where the old woman who we've been with is sort of standing waving goodbye to us and this woman goes up to her and like shakes her hand and like almost falls to her knees and starts crying and says that she cannot believe what an honor it has been to sit outside her house for the last three hours. Meeting this person is like the highlight of her life.

Wow. And then she comes back to the car and says, I can't believe I just got to meet her. Thank you so much. Like she is a living museum to the history of Russia. And like, this has been like the most massive honor I could ever have had. So this woman whose day we ruined and whose shopping trip we ruined ended up sitting outside someone who, I don't know who it's the equivalent of, but it's like the most famous person to her in all of Russia. And she just got to meet her and she couldn't believe it. She was so grateful. I feel way less doubtful about your statement of the fame of poets in Russia after that. Yeah.

I mean, this woman has written like a hundred books. She was showing me, you know, there was pictures of her with Yuri Gagarin and Vladimir Putin and all that stuff. She's a mover and a shaker. So it turns out for this three hours I was sitting at the table, absolutely bored out of my brains. I was with this super famous Russian person. And to me, it was just a couple of old people talking about Auntie Maria.

That's the thing with fame, right? It is a light that only works in some circles, right? If you're outside of it, it's just totally meaningless. Yeah, yeah. I tell you what, I got Oganessian to sign my periodic table with Oganesson on it, which is now one of my prized possessions. Ooh, you're going to hang that up? It's going to go up in your office?

I might get it framed. It's pretty special. Only the second person alive ever to have their name on the table. Glenn Seaborg was the other one, and he's dead now. Big deal, that. I didn't know what you were up to in Russia, but it sounds like you were up to a hell of a lot is what you were up to. Yeah.

And, like, at one point Martin did in his speech, like, mentioned me and put a photo of me up and everyone like clapped and i had to get up and wave to the audience so like i had my little moment although it was belittled a little bit by the fact that when martin first got on stage he had a frog in his throat and he said brady can you bring me a water so the first thing i had to do was like walk on stage and bring him a bottle of water at which point i felt totally like the lackey i didn't feel like the big star filmmaker then i felt like he's a personal assistant yeah exactly he's a knight and you are the squire yeah boy bring me some water

anyway that's a lot of talk about russia so it's a big country funny you should say that because one of the things that did occur to me and like this is not a big deal, it just did pop into my head, is you know how there are those apps and things where you list the countries you've been to and then it renders a map that colours in all the countries you've been to? Just by going to Moscow and Dubna, which is like two hours outside Moscow, I have now coloured in a massive, massive section of that map. Oh, yeah.

So when I look at the map of countries I've been to now, like, most of it's coloured in now, just by going to Moscow. You're totally cheating by doing that. But actually, I think it's not really cheating, because most of the people live on just this tiny little sliver by Moscow anyway. So, it's like, oh, yeah, you know, you covered most of the people area, I guess. So, it's fine. You can colour in that whole section. So, all like Siberia and Kamchatka and all those areas are all coloured in now, but I've never even seen them. Yeah, you got that, man.

Don't worry. Yeah. No, you're cool. On the binary map, you have ticked this box. I've done a few of those apps where you do that and you list all your countries and it colours them in. But it does the United States separately as states and you've got to list the states you've been to. That's goddamn right. Yeah, of course. How American-centric is that? That's crazy.

It's not American-centric. It's just the way it should be, you know? Just like the states, they need to have their own emoji flags and the emoji picker, as we decided last time. It's clearly, that's the way it should be. And yeah, if you're travelling to America, it only counts statewide. You don't get to take the whole country of America. Brady, Brady, do you know how wildly culturally diverse the United States is in different areas? They're like totally different countries. Just think about it. Delaware is so different from New Jersey. They might as well be thousands of miles apart. You have to color in each one of those states separately. You don't get to color in all of America. No. It's amazing how much the cuisine changes from state to state,

like the subtle variations of barbecue sauce. But you see, I actually will argue that's quite important. You picked the wrong one there, buddy. I figure in America, you can actually draw like four or five big distinction areas. But even then, like it's not that much of a distinction. United States is pretty homogeneous. You're either on the West Coast where it's sunny or the East Coast where it's like a bit cold or you're in the middle that you only ever see from the plane anyway. So it doesn't really matter. There's a huge section of no man's land.

There are the coasts. And then there's the South. Yeah. And that sort of it. Yeah. That's my mental map of America. Yeah. No man's land is beautiful though.

You got to drive through it someday. Doesn't count if you're flying over. You don't get to tick the states if you fly over. I really want to drive across America. And my wife who loves travel and adventure, it's the one holiday and trip I can't enthuse her about. Like, she went to Everest Base Camp with me, and she'll do anything, and she wants to see everything. And I always say, let's drive across America.

And she just thinks, I don't know, she's got limited holidays, and it just doesn't capture her imagination. I can't get her to do it. You got to do it on your own, Brady. I can't do it on my own. That's too big a waste of my time. Too big of a waste of time with a once in a lifetime opportunity that everybody should do. Let's do a podcast road trip.

We'll do the Hello Internet across America. We'll record an episode each night. I am pretty sure one of us would not survive that trip. Really? If we had to do it together, I think we would strangle each other to death. Maybe both of us wouldn't survive. Who knows? I think we'd be all right, because there's like a formality and politeness between us where I think we would never have a big argument. I think we'd be all right. Are we in the same car together? Yeah, of course.

Okay. Are we staying in the same hotel rooms? No, different rooms. We did that once. Okay. Yeah. So. Yeah, that was fine. But no, different rooms, of course, different rooms. I don't know. All right. I'm just thinking, you seem very confident, so you throw a little bit of doubt in my mind. I have no doubt we'd get along, but whether or not, you know, that's how we want to spend our time is a whole other question. But But, you know, it'd be quite interesting. Hello Internet across America. Yeah. Hello Internet, ultimate road trip.

We could review different flags we saw along the way. Each night we could do a few press-ups and do a bit of Fitatron lifestyle. No, we'd just eat. A press-up? I tell you what, that's the big difference coming from russia to america the extreme differences in food like my hosts in russia were great and they put us in like a posh place but even then the food was pretty ropey and then you come to america and it's just like whoa yeah look at all that amazing stuff oh you're out there in Berkeley. You go to the local pizza place.

They give you an extra pizza with a wink without you even asking. It's amazing. I've already had my extra slice last night. Extra slice or extra pie, Brady? Which was it? It was three extra slices because I only ordered a half pizza. And when you order a half pizza, they then give you three extra slices in the box. So it's three quarters of a pizza or seven eighths of a pizza.

How big are these slices? I would or seven eighths of a pizza. How big are these slices? I would say they give you half a pizza and then with the extra stuff, you probably get just short of three quarters. It's a big pizza though. I've literally gone from like Russian brown bread to a place called the gourmet ghetto. It shows the extremes of the world. Well, I think we've made it official before, but we all know calories in America don't count. That's how it works. When you're in America, everything's fine. Those calories don't count. If you live there, yeah, obviously the calories count. But if you're just visiting, it doesn't count at all. That's how that works.

There's this song by a band called Liberty X that's got this line in it. It's about love and stuff. And it's about being a part. And the line in the song says, I'm on my own, all alone, a thousand miles from home. There's temptation all around. But the idea is I love you and I'm staying true to you because I love you so much. So I was in Safeway the other day and the cake section was surrounded by all the amazing stuff. So I made a video for my wife where i played that song really loudly so it was playing in the background and i was just filming all the cakes and it just said i'm on my own a thousand miles you know temptation all around and i was panning across all these cakes and cream puffs and stuff she got a bit of a laugh out of that if i've still got it i'll post it somewhere for people to have a laugh at.

That's fantastic. That's absolutely fantastic. And so true. Yeah, I know. I'm really trying with my Fitatron lifestyle at the moment. And this is just a torpedo this week coming back to Berkeley. I feel like we need to back up in the story a little bit because it's like, oh, you're trying with the Fitatron lifestyle.

But wait, why were you in a cake store? No, I was in Safeway doing my grocery shopping, but there's just so much good stuff everywhere. It's like, you can't help it. Poor Americans. I don't blame them. It's terrible what's being done to you. Everywhere you look, there's just delicious food and it's all so big. It's not fair. It isn not fair. There is food everywhere in huge portions that's delicious. And I feel like people are obviously affected by their environment. There's all kinds of interesting experiments that you can do that can show how you can sort of fool people into eating more. And I've just been finding out about how foods are designed.

I feel like I've really changed my mind on this to some extent that it's like, this is way more of an environmental issue than it's like, this is way more of an environmental issue than it is like a personal issue. It's a lot easier to stay slim in Russia because the food is disgusting and nobody wants it. Well, that's it. I've gone from like, literally when I was having dinner in Russia, they were bringing me out like a plate of grated cabbage and a piece of brown bread. And like, because it was a posh place you know a piece of meat and that was like a nice meal and i enjoyed don't get me wrong i enjoyed it and then i come here and like i go to the pizza place and i order half a pizza to show restraint and they're throwing

more pieces at me to eat here have more melted cheese what can you do well there's nothing you can do there's nothing well yeah there is. You can not eat it, but... No, no, no, Brady. Let's back up, right? The logical conclusion is there's nothing you can do, right? If it's largely environment, then there's no personal responsibility. How is that Fititron lifestyle going, though? Are you okay with that?

I mean, obviously, all bets are off for the next two weeks. My body doesn't realize that, so I still pay the the penalty but i'm off the horse at the moment but prior to that i think i've done about 20 odd personal training sessions i'm doing three training sessions a week so i'm getting a lot stronger and fitter but i hadn't yet modified my eating but for the week and a half or so before i left, I started calorie counting again. And I'm going to calorie count again when I get home. So now I'm attacking it on both the fronts I need to be attacking on, the exercise and the reduced calorie intake.

So I have no like stats to report or anything like that. But I am doing it. I'm working it hard. Oh, that's fantastic. I'm really glad to hear that you've been sticking with the personal trainer. I was wondering because very early on in this process, you sent me an awesome looking photo of you like silhouetted against the light, holding kettlebells, like looking like a total badass. And I was like, oh, wow, look at this, like Brady's doing amazing. And then you told me later on that, oh, that wasn't a picture of you

in the middle of exercising. That was a picture of you just moving kettlebells out of the way and someone else just happened to snap. And I was like, what's he really doing? No, no. I just saw the really nice silhouette in the window and I had just been using a kettlebell. And I know that your wife is a fan of kettlebells. Basically, it was just a posed picture to show off to your wife of me holding a kettlebell. But like, you know, I was exercising. I was there for doing an hour of exercise. It wasn't like I was doing an hour long photo shoot so that I could send photos to my friends. That's what it looked like a little bit though. That was the feeling I was getting. I was like, what's he doing over there?

I'm doing it. So I think my body's getting stronger, but I was still like going to the gym and then maybe getting a sneaky McDonald's on the way home. So there's no more of that now. Now it's going to the gym and then going home and eating like, you know, brown rice. Yeah. Gruel. That's what you're coming home and eating. It's just some gruel. I tell you what, I should just go to Russia for three months. Honest to God, I bet that would sort you out. I totally think that it would. I always find it's much easier to keep at being strict with what you're eating in a different environment. I honestly think if you went to Russia for three months, you'd come back looking like Adonis

Brady. I think that's what would happen. What's your kind of Fitatron lifestyle now? I mean, obviously you hit it hard to lose all this weight you wanted to lose. Are you living some regime now or are you more just going back to what you were doing before, but keeping it steady? Or like, are you exercising a lot? Are you really disciplined eater still? It's been an interesting process because this past month, I've been pretty terrible about making it to the gym. I haven't been really good about that. But that process that I went through last time, I feel like really did fundamentally change a lot of the kind of foods that I eat. I mean, if you rewind to two years ago, I had essentially an all carbohydrate-based diet.

Like there was nothing that I ate that wasn't carbohydrates. And now that's really dropped. And so I don't know if other people have this feeling, but I feel like there are like snap points that my body wants to maintain weight at. And before the Fititron lifestyle, like I was properly like overweight and it felt

like my body really wanted to stay around that weight. And so now that I dropped under 200 pounds, like just under 200, I feel like this is another point that my body wants to stay around. Like in the last month where I haven't been exercising as much as I was exercising prior to that, my body weight actually hasn't changed all that much. And so it's like, oh, okay, it's interesting. It doesn't want to go up. And also when I've been like a few months ago, I was like, you know what, I really want to break the 190 barrier. But I could feel like I have this same resistance just like when I was much heavier that like my body just doesn't want to go down. And it feels like it would take a lot of effort to actually get down to the next level. So there's some kind of homeostasis, I think, that happens at different points.

I don't know if there's anything to back that up, but that's really the way it feels. So I am at a homeostasis point that I'm pretty happy about. But it is on my mind that I still would like to, at some point in the future, really try to step it up and see if I can find another homeostasis point that's a little bit further down the curve. But yeah, so you've been very good with exercising and I have not been so good with exercising in the past month. That's where we are. You've also put a little seed in my head now that there's some homeostasis point out there for me, that if I can just get to it, I can then start eating crap again and stay at the low weight.

I don't want to put that idea in your head, but I have found it interesting to note that when I haven't been good with food, it doesn't seem to affect me as much as when I was heavier. Like when I was heavier, if I dropped a couple pounds and then I ate one sneaky McDonald's, it was like, boom, immediately back up another two pounds. I think the homeostasis point, it does exist, Brady. There's a ring out there somewhere that if you can just grasp it, then you can go back to eating McDonald's like you really want. We'll see.

We'll see. I think the next week or so is going to be hard here in California, but I'll do my best. And then when I get back to the UK, I'll get back on the horse. Good luck, man. to create a website of your own, even if you know nothing about making websites. If you have an idea you want to show off, if you have a business you want to start, you're going to need a website and Squarespace is the place to do it. They offer award-winning templates that are the most beautiful way to present your ideas online. And with Squarespace, there's nothing to install, patch, or ever upgrade. All of that is a hassle you don't want to have to deal with. You just want a website that works.

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You'll be able to try Squarespace for free for 14 days and receive 10% off your first purchase. That's squarespace.com slash hello, offer code hello. So get started right now with your idea for a website. Squarespace makes it just too easy not to do it. Thank you to Squarespace for supporting the show. Do you know the counter of the number of videos that I'm responsible for since you released a video,

which you know I think is ridiculous, but it does exist. I think there's a real chance I'm going to get to 100. Unless you're about to put a video out in the next few days, I'm going to get to 100 videos since you last put out a video. Oh yeah, I totally think you're going to hit 100. I think you're going to hit 100. That's going to happen. So you're not putting one out in the next week or two? I just want to know, because if you are, maybe I will batch release a few just so I can get the hundred. Now I kind of want to. Yeah. It feels like it should be some sort of trophy maybe that you could get. Like you put

it up on your wall, like a hundred videos. Yeah. What about a gray button? Yeah. I could give you a gray button for that. And you get a diamond button if it reaches a thousand. That's the way that could work. I'm sure the next one will be a cracker. That's the bad thing about having a big gap is everyone's like, oh my God, the next one, he's got to be working on some huge project. It's like, no people, it's not a huge project, no expectations. Like it's just going to be a thing. That's all. It's going to be an iPhone unboxing. Oh my God, I should totally do that. That'd be a fantastic idea, especially mid-season,

right? Just like, oh, I'll do an iPhone unboxing now for a phone that's six months old. No comment at all. Just upload it without any remarks just like oh yeah this is what it is that's actually a brilliant idea just release it the day the counter gets to 99 to spite me there's literally what i was just thinking is like what can i put together i'm gonna write a little script to keep an eye on that counter number and to get notified the incident goes up to 99 and then like bam all right i right, I've got to release something, anything. It could just be five seconds of sorry, Brady. Not this time.

Oh my God, man. You're saying this, it's so tempting. It's so tempting, Brady. You do it. I don't mind. You do it. I think the counter thing is ridiculous anyway, but it is a handy resource for me. I don't think the counter is so ridiculous because I don't really take it so seriously,

but I do think it's ridiculous that you get credit for computer file on that counter. Yes. That seems ridiculous. That is ridiculous. That is ridiculous. So we have to subtract that out from your 100 score. Yes. Because of course, nearly all the videos on computer file are made by Sean. I don't actually even see all of them. I have some responsibility for them and is part of my business. You're like the producer. That's what you are. Yeah. But you're right. They are not a drain on my business. You're like the producer. That's what you are. Yeah. But you're right. They are not a drain on my time. So, but I think it's funny that they're included. Speaking of planting seeds and ideas, I think we need to deal with something. I know we've got a

lot of other stuff to talk about, but I've got to get this off my chest. In the last episode, Grey planted in my head an idea and it was not obviously it was not his intention and as soon as he did it he tried to undo it but i'm afraid things have gotten out of control i feel like i've been trying to undo this behind the scenes brady no no so i'm talking about limited edition hello internet sneakers, trainers, shoes. Because Gray pointed out that he had just recently found out about the world of sort of limited edition sneakers that were sold to be collectible. Sneaker heads. Sneaker heads.

And I sort of thought, I think what you don't understand, I don't know if you were like this when you were a young lad, Gray, but I went through a phase of being obsessed with sneakers. Like I remember being on the school bus every day and just talking with my friend Chris for hours about the latest Nike Air Jordans or Reebok pumps or Adidas torsions. And I would go home on my computer and like design like my dream pair of sneakers. And every time one of us would get a new pair, like if dad took us shopping for sneakers, which was the ultimate experience,

taking them on the bus the next day and showing your friends. For a few years, I was quite obsessed with the culture of sneakers, probably like a lot of young people. Were you ever into sneakers like that? Yeah, this is totally foreign to me. I did not experience this. I don't think I knew anybody who experienced this. I didn't understand what we were stepping into when I brought this up last time. So anyway, it brought back a lot of nostalgia for me. And because of the success of the vinyl episode, having like created a physical thing, I sort of thought, imagine that.

Imagine having like releasing a pair of sneakers, Hello Internet sneakers. So I've taken the bowl and run with it. And we are now going to make available Hello Internet sneakers. I can't believe you've really done this, Brady. I can't believe it. I know, but I want to make this clear. This is not like a mass market product. And I want to start this by encouraging everyone who is listening now

to not order a pair of these sneakers. Do not order them. You are not missing out on anything. There's no like material or episode of Hello Internet you're going to miss out on. You should not get these. In fact, I would suggest skipping now. What have you done, Brady? I don't know anything about this.

What have you done? I want the two watchwords for the next few minutes to be quality and understatement. That's been my mission. I saw some people make designs of possible sneakers and they made them like look like over the top basketball high top shoes and things like that and it was very funny but i wanted to create a pair of shoes that i think you and i would wear oh god okay but also i wanted them to be like the highest quality i didn't want to like get some cheap knockoff china thing where you could mass produce a thousand

pairs of some shoddy things that fall apart or were like super cheap i wanted to make something like special because i quite you know like wearing nice shoes so what i've done is i've teamed up with a company called crown in northampton in england which is like the shoemaking capital of england and it's a place that also has family associations for me so it was important to get in in Northampton in England, which is like the shoemaking capital of England. And it's a place that also has family associations for me. So it was important to get in touch with my shoemaking roots. I've modified one of their premium sneakers that they make. These aren't like sneakers that you would go and like run in.

These are like nice dress leather sneakers that you would wear to look nice in. Leather. Okay. Yeah. And they're going to be like dark gray, halo internet color with white trimming and like a white toe area. And then embossed with a specially made brass stamp, which is currently being forged. Embossed on one side is the nail and gear into the leather,

but it's not like color. It's not going to be like a big white nail and gear and look all. It's like just embossed into the leather. It's just depressed into the leather. it's not like color it's not going to be like a big white nail and gear and look all it's like just embossed into the leather it's just depressed into the leather subtle classy and then on the tongue of the leather upper another bra stamp that i'm having made is embossed again the hi so it's got the hallow internet branding but like you wouldn't immediately know to look at it i want it to look nice You could wear this out to a bar and look cool. And we were going to have white laces, and we may still have white laces available, but I just thought it would look better with the grey laces,

which have to be specially imported from Italy. They're special waxed laces. No, Brady, no. This is like a premium, premium pair of shoes oh my god yeah oh my god brady they're gonna look amazing i've already got like a sample of one of the other shoes but obviously these ones haven't been made yet so the hello internet limited edition sneakers are a thing but they're like they're really expensive gray they're made in England already, which is already going to make them expensive. And I can't undercut the price they sell them for elsewhere anyway.

So I have to use like the market controlled price. So these are expensive shoes. You should not buy them. I'm getting a pair and I'm going to get Gray a pair when he gives me his shoe size. If anyone else wants them because they're really into sneakers or really likes them, you can order them. You can order your size and then they'll be made to order to your specifications. These are bespoke special sneakers. But if you're not obsessed with sneakers or you don't have like money to spend, do not order these. Do not order these. I'll share pictures of them and people can

look at them and I'll make a video of how they're made and you can just enjoy that. You don't need to own them. But if you for some reason want to, they will be out there to be owned. You have an actual cobbler? Yeah. Who's going to be making shoes for people individually? That's what's happening here? It's an English family business that's been going for like a hundred years. They specialize in shoes and these are going to be made to order. The special color leather is being ordered. The laces are being brought in from Italy. Each pair will be handmade in England to order for the person who ordered it. I mean, what, like delivered to your door by a beautiful maiden on a horse?

I don't understand this at all. Okay. I have to wrap my head around this whole thing. You're saying that there is a company that still exists today that is just a bespoke, custom, small-scale shoe manufacturer? I almost feel like I can't believe that such a thing exists in the modern economy. Northamptonshire, which is a place close to my heart, is famous for shoemaking in England. And obviously, most of the industry gets decimated like all these industries do. But there are still a handful of these bespoke shoemakers littered around the county of Northamptonshire. And I called on my friends.

But unbelievably, I know people in the shoe business in Northamptonshire. And I said to them, I want limited edition sneakers. Who do I speak to? And they said, speak to this guy called Chris at Crown. He already makes these amazing sneakers. I contacted him. He showed me what he makes. I told him how I wanted them customized and changed for Hello Internet.

And we've been exchanging ideas and having phone calls. And he's been sending me designs. Let me send you a picture now so you can get some idea of what we're talking about. The final design is not yet in place. So anyone who orders these will kind of be ordering them off plan. So you're taking a bit of a risk. This is a prototype image. That's what I'm going to be looking at.

And it hasn't even got the nail and gear on it yet, the one I'm sending you. Okay. So imagine these kind of with a bit of more of a gray upper. Nail and gear subtly, subtly embossed on the side what's an upper i don't know your shoe manufacturing terms the upper is like the upper part of the shoe like the leather and all that not like the rubber heel part that deals with where the rubber meets the road uh okay okay ah okay so i see what you mean by their formal sneakers yes you kept saying this and i have didn't really have any idea what you mean by this.

Like I have no frame of reference for the existence of formal sneakers. But looking at this, I can completely see what you mean, that they are formal sneakers. Yeah. You could wear them just casually, but you could also get away with wearing them on a night out. They're like nice shoes. They're not like going to the gym and running on the treadmill sneakers. They're like casual wear. I don't know what the word is. I don't know enough about sneakers. I should by now, but I still don't. I could definitely use a pair of sneakers that looks nice that lets me get away with still wearing sneakers. And it seems like these could definitely fit that bill. You have to have a pair, Gray, surely. Even if you don't wear them, you have to at least

have accept a pair. Well, I have to accept a pair to wear for any in-person events we ever do. Like when we're doing Hello Internet across America, right? And we stop at various cities. And that might look a bit weird if you and I are wearing matching sneakers. No, no, it'd be awesome, right? Or look, we can alternate the sneakers at different cities. That's the way it can work, right? So we don't look too weird. So I'll create a page. You can put an order in if you want but please this is not like a business thing this is just a thing i've done so they can exist but it will be pointless to make like one pair and just me wear them so i do like the idea that there are a few pairs out there but if you've got some weird completionist thing in

your head that makes you think you have to own these. You don't. There is nothing necessary about these. This is Brady just doing a fun thing so that it can exist and they are out there. It feels like the most Brady project that you could possibly do to me. It really feels that way. I'm just worried that people are going to get upset because I didn't decide to find the cheapest thing I could do and have a hundred made in China or something. I decided to go down this bespoke English handmade cobbler artisan, which is posh as cushions kind of thing. Because I've gone down that path, I realize it's going to exclude most people.

It would exclude me. I wouldn't buy them except that I'm doing it. So I realize these are more expensive than the sneakers I wear. So it's a bit silly, but how many times in my life am I going to make like, you know, my own pair of sneakers? So there you go. I'm sorry. I know it was not your intention and you tried so hard to stop me. I really did. I really did try to stop you, Brady. It was one of these things like, sometimes you pitch me ideas and I feel like I can stop you. But I knew there was something about this one that right away, even though it makes no sense at all as a project, I just knew there was something about this that

captured your mind. So I'm kind of not surprised that this has come to pass, even though it's sort of a terrible idea all around. I do think you owe it to me, though, and have no choice in the matter that you have to give these official status. I would feel like a monster if I didn't give them official status. So yes, Brady. These are the official limited edition sneakers of Hello Internet. There you go. I give them my blessing.

Even though they're crazy. And I'll get you a pair. They do half sizes and all sorts. They're like, really? It's a good product. It is worthy of our name. I'll have to figure out what my shoe size is. I'll send you the sizing chart and I'll be on the website as well.

And people can figure it all out. So even though I don't think many people should own these, I do want people to feel part of the process. So I'm going to try and go to the factory when they're made and show how they were made. Oh, cool. I want to see the nail and gear being embossed into the leather. Oh, that sounds very cool. I like the idea that we've got a nail and gear brass stamp that had to be made as well. That's pretty cool. Yeah. Do we get to keep that? Can we keep that as part of the process?

Do you know what? I haven't actually asked about that. I'm paying for it. So I would imagine so. He said you could all use it for other things if you wanted, like you could emboss leather key rings and stuff like that with it. So it may come in handy one day if we ever have the official leather key ring of Hello Internet. But for now, it will just be something that sits somewhere, like the official cast of the vinyl record, which I don't know where that is either. But wherever the cast is, they used to press the vinyl.

That must exist somewhere as well. How's that for a collector's item, wherever that is? There you go. Hello Internet sneakers, limited edition. You're an impressive man, Brady. Bosh's Cushions. You're an impressive man. I know I'm going to regret it. It's going to turn into some kind of debacle, but... I'm genuinely impressed. Like as a side note that you've done this, Brady. I can't believe it. It was a bit easier than it sounds. It doesn't matter. I would never do it in a thousand years. I would never even know where to start. So I'm genuinely impressed.

I have a bit of flag news, Brady. Regular coverage of all the important flag news on our podcast. You know, I never realized until we started Hello Internet how much important flag news there was. Was all this flag news out there before we started? Like all of these controversies and votes and I mean, obviously this stuff's been rolling on for years, but now it's just flooding our inboxes. Oh, no, there's always important flag news going on. I mean, how do you think the Vexillology subreddit stays active every day?

It's like everything in the whole world. They manufacture their own news, though. They kind of cheat. They're like, oh, let's design the American flag with, you know, the theme of pigeons. Like, that's not news. That's just flag nerds entertaining themselves. I'm talking about real news, like important stuff, like changes to officialness.

There's always super important flag news, like this story about how Nebraska flew its flag upside down at the Capitol for 10 days and nobody noticed because it's such a terrible design. Just because no one looks up at flags. You could fly the American flag upside down from the White House and I bet no one would notice for a week. No. If you flip the American flag, you would have someone notice immediately. No, because flags flop down on the pole. If it was really windy, fair enough, you'd notice. But if it's just a flag drooping on a pole, you could easily have it there for a week and no one would know what orientation is. I bet even under your proposition here of droopy flag, I bet somebody would notice

the American flag in particular, the most fanatically loved flag by its citizens. No way. There's no way you'd get away with that. Within two seconds, there'd be a vet complaining to a newspaper about that. And it would be like national news if the White House accidentally had the flag upside down for a minute. I don't think you could possibly get away with it. You raise an interesting question though. Is there a country that loves its flag more than Americans? You sort of threw that line out there like it was a given, but is there a country, maybe some obscure one we don't know, that for some reason has some passion for its flag that exceeds even America? If you know one, let us know. That is a good question.

I'd be curious about that. But I do feel like the American flag and its relationship to its people is like a borderline unique one right with the whole like america super patriotic thing yeah gigantic military the flag folding services like i don't know i feel like it might be the most loved flag i mean your national anthem is actually an anthem about your flag yeah exactly you don't talk about how much you love your country. It's about, God, our flag's awesome. Yeah, isn't it? Look at that star-spangled banner. It's just amazing.

It wasn't enough to have a flag. You then had to write a song about the flag. What about the freedoms of... Like, ah, whatever. But look at that flag. I guess the opposite would be a country that loves its national anthem so much that it makes its flag the shit music of the anthem yeah exactly if only that existed i'll be curious to hear if people have any contenders for for more love flag but i think the american flag is gonna win that okay even though i've said before i think it's kind of garish and ugly but you know it's still like

it's a flag and it would never fly upside down without someone noticing. I challenge you. I admit it's more likely to be noticed also because of the design of the flag. I shouldn't have chosen the American flag in the White House. That was too extreme an example. But I can imagine many, many flags being flown upside down in prominent places and people not noticing. So I think jumping on this particular bandwagon. What did we say?

Was it Nebraska, did you say? Yeah, it was Nebraska. And I mean, here's the thing. I agree with you. There's many flags that could fly upside down and nobody would notice, including all of those horrible state flags that are just a blue background with an ugly seal on it. And that of course is what the Nebraska flag is. And that's why nobody would notice. Like any of these flags that just have the seal and the blue background at 10 paces, you can't tell if it's right side up anyway,

even if it's flying in a full breeze, right? Because it just, there's nothing to orient it. It's just a circle with some too small garbage in the middle to actually see. So I think this is hilarious.

And I think it's an indication that all of these flags should be redesigned. Oh, it's definitely hilarious, but it doesn't mean that you need to change the flag. How many stories are there of famous paintings being hung upside down in museums and stuff? Like this is fun stuff. The paintings, that's always like, oh, someone hung a Jackson Pollock upside down. It's like,

well, is there really a right side up to that Jackson Pollock? I'm going to disagree with you. I don't think that there is. So I think So I think for sure this is a case that the Nebraska flag should be totally redesigned. I want to see this happen. New Nebraska flag, Nebraska. Get on it. You heard it here. Not first, but you heard it here. Yeah.

Hello, internet. Breaking the news months later, but it doesn't matter. Right. We never covered timely things anyway. This could have happened three years ago. It would be the exact same later, but it doesn't matter. We never covered timely things anyway. This could have happened three years ago. It would be the exact same thing, right? With a lukewarm, not passionate plea to maybe change the flag from grey. I don't think that was a passionate call.

Your call for hot stoppers at Starbucks. Now that is passionate. I mean, but that's something I have to deal with every day. It's a national tragedy on the scale of a single person is what that is. You know what will happen though? The minute these states start changing their flags, they'll balls it up like New Zealand did and either not change it or choose bad options or... Oh God. You can't rely on people and politicians to fix the problem. You need a dictator to take over Nebraska and just install his or her own flag. Yeah. You can't trust people. That New Zealand election,

I still look back on last year at that. It's just terrible election result. I mean, I think when history looks back at 2016, that's going to be the thing they remember. It really is. New Zealand, you had this opportunity to change the course of the world. Yeah. And you said no. Stood aside the path of history. Yeah. Disappointing. You're about to listen to an ad that has earned me personally $100 trillion. And in typical Shaggy Dog Story style, I will explain. But first, let's say thanks to Audible.com for supporting the podcast. Audible's a leading provider of premium digital spoken audio information and entertainment on the internet. That's audiobooks to me. And they have a truly staggering range of titles covering

pretty much anything you could possibly desire, spanning fiction, nonfiction, whatever you fancy. And as a podcast listener, I'm sure you already appreciate the value of audiobooks as a way to enrich your life during commutes, your working day, maybe when you're appreciate the value of audiobooks as a way to enrich your life during commutes, your working day, maybe when you're walking the dog, or maybe just lying in bed at night. My personal favorite time for listening to audiobooks is on holiday, lounging by the pool when I want an easy life and I feel so lazy I don't even want to use my eyes. I just want to slob on a sun lounger, pop in my headphones and play an audiobook from my phone. And by the way, Audible's app for the phone is really, really good.

Now, Audible's so confident that you're going to like their service, they offer a free audiobook with a 30-day trial. And if you'd like to try that, go to audible.com slash hellointernet. Hellointernet all as one word. That's audible.com slash Hello Internet. Now, I'm sure you know by now that we also like to share a possible book for you to download, like a bit of a suggestion. And it seems appropriate for this episode that I recommend a great book about the periodic table. And for that, it's impossible to go past the appropriately

named The Periodic Table by Primo Levi. This is widely regarded as one of the great science books. It's a kind of autobiography with each chapter loosely based around a different element on the periodic table. There are 21 chapters and they include argon, zinc, arsenic, of course gold. And while parts of the book draw on Levi's experience as an industrial chemist, it also deals with other more dramatic chapters of his life, including his time in Auschwitz. It's a truly compelling book, a life story worth reading, and beautifully written, of course.

In fact, this book is so dear to me that I own a special hard copy edition that sits on my coveted shelf of favourite books here in my office. Actually, before doing this little ad, I actually pulled the book off the shelf for the first time in four or five years. And do you know what? Inside its first page, I found something I'd been searching for for years. A pristine $100 trillion note from Zimbabwe, which a friend jokingly brought back for me when he'd visited the country.

Seriously, I'd been looking for this note for years. It's a little souvenir that means a lot to me, and I'd been tearing my office apart looking for it. I thought I'd never see it again, but at some point, I'd obviously popped it in the periodic table for safekeeping. Such was my esteem for the book, although I had forgotten I'd put it there. Anyway, let's get back on message here, because there's no chance you're going to lose any foreign currency in the audiobook version. But what you can enjoy is the narration of a chap called Neville Jason, who does a really superb job bringing the story to life,

really doing justice to Livy's great writing. Both the humour, which infuses the story of his life, but also the terrible sadness. It's a real bittersweet story at times. If you'd like to download The Periodic Table or any other book for free as part of your 30-day trial, go to audible.com slash hellointernet. Thank you to Audible for supporting the show, for their offer to Hello Internet listeners, and for inadvertently reuniting me with some lost and pretty much worthless Zimbabwean currency.

So quick plane crash corner. Oh, okay. Here we go. Just a quickie. That's the feeling of me tightening up. Now, I'm not going to talk about Aeroflot. I flew Aeroflot, by the way, on my trip to Russia. What's Aeroflot?

Aeroflot's like the National Russian Airline. Oh, okay. It wrongly has a reputation for crashing a lot. Okay. I guess it's partly for crashing a lot. Okay. I guess it's partly because of a crash or two, but also I think it's got such a terrible name. Aeroflot sounds like the name a plane would make when it like smacks into the runway with the wheels still up. Oh no, did you see that Aeroflot? It's a terrible name.

I'm sorry, Brady. You almost made me spit out my water with the like, oh, they have a reputation for crashing that's undeserved, except for the crashes. Well, you know, every airline has a couple of crashes. But anyway. What are you going to do? So when I was booked on them, I was a little bit apprehensive. Because obviously, I have no reason to believe I'm going to die in a plane crash. But I do now see the irony that if it does happen,

what everyone's going to think, because I talk about plane crashes so much in public. It feels like something the universe wants to happen the more you talk about it. That's how it feels. It's like Richie Valens in La Bamba. He's always dreaming he's going to die in a plane crash and that he dies in one at the end of the film. But anyway, so when I was booked on Aeroflot, I thought, well, here we go. I'm tempting fate. But I thought the airline was fine.

And the air, I think they were all women. The air hosts, hostesses, stewards. I don't know what I'm supposed to call them and not get in trouble. I never know either. My mom was a flight attendant, but even I always felt a little bit uncertain. Like, what is the word I'm supposed to use? That's a good word. Flight attendant.

The Aeroflot flight attendants wear the coolest uniforms because they look like they're from the 70s. They've still got like sickles and stuff all over them. They wear these white gloves, like objectivity white gloves. They look totally awesome. I even said to one of them, can I just take a picture of like the gloves in your uniform? I won't show you or anything because it was a bit weird.

And it just came across weird. But I took my picture anyway. They were cool uniforms. I just pulled up some pictures and yes, they're cool looking uniforms. They do look like they're straight from the seventies. They do have the hammer and sickle on them. Yeah. Awesome. I don't understand how it threaded this needle in history of like hammer and sickle it should be like the swastika but instead it's like nah it made it through some sort of threshold and somehow it's just kind of cool even though it was sort of during a horrible time if like if i sit down and i'm using like oh my serious self i'd be like oh yes like like horrible symbol, horrible time. How many Russians died in World War II? All of them, right? That's how many. It was just like

horrible. But like, I don't know, the hammer and sickle, it's just a cool symbol. Yeah, you're right. It's got this kind of retro cool that it somehow escaped the stigma of what was done under it. Yeah. I just don't know how that happened. I'm aware in London seeing like t-shirts that are sometimes just like the red hammer and sickle. And it's like, this how that happened. I'm aware in London seeing like t-shirts that are sometimes just like the red hammer and sickle and it's like, this doesn't seem like I'm thinking about it like a shirt that should exist. But still some part of my brain is like, yeah, retro cool, like the Cold War.

Wasn't that a great time? Like, no, it wasn't. It was a terrible time. But you know, like I didn't live through it. Whatever. Those dictators, they've always got the best graphic design teams. That's for sure. Yeah.

So continuing my little quick plane crash corner corner sortie i just thought i'd let you know that i watched the film sully on my flight to san francisco why do you do this i thought it was quite extreme it doesn't bother me watching plane crash things on a plane so i watched the film sully on the plane which was really cool and maybe we should talk about that film one day i don't know but anyway just to let you know i've watched it because a lot of And maybe we should talk about that film one day. I don't know. But anyway, just to let you know, I've watched it. Because a lot of people said we should watch Sully because it's a film about a plane crash, of course. Of course, right.

So there you go. Although not a crash, a forced water landing, as he likes to point out is the difference. Not a difference. Well, I don't know. If you're on the plane, it's a massive difference. But anyway, the last thing I want to talk about is Harrison Ford was involved in another aviation incident. I don't know if you saw this because it happened a little while ago now. He's a private pilot.

He actually crash landed on a golf course a little while ago. Yeah, I think we discussed that on the show previously, I think. Yeah. His latest incident is apparently he was coming in to land at an airport and he was given clearance for the runway and it seems like investigations are continuing etc etc but it seems like instead of landing on the runway he landed on an adjacent or parallel taxiway and in the course of landing he came in and landed over the top of a passenger airliner that i believe was sitting on the ground that had 110 people on it. So the story's been bigged up as Harrison Ford near miss

with a passenger airline, 110 people, et cetera, et cetera. Now, I don't know how much of a close call it was. If the airliner was on the ground, I don't think he was like on the brink of wiping out 110 people in one fell swoop. He was probably more danger to himself than anything. But let's put all of that aside for a minute. This is what I want to put to you, Gray. Harrison Ford is like this untouchable legend, isn't he? He's Han Solo, he's Indiana Jones, he's in Blade Runner, he's been Jack Ryan. And it seems like his legacy is safe. And even though he's made a few he's been Jack Ryan and it seems like you know his legacy is safe

and even though he's made a few dud films in more recent times of all movie stars he has the ultimate get out of jail free card and leave pass because he's done those things before and we love him if Harrison Ford collided with a passenger airliner and took it down and 110 people

died because of his error, a 74-year-old man flying a small plane. Would that be his new legacy? Would that undo all the other stuff? I think for some people it would. Yeah. I don't know. I would imagine for most people that would become an interesting trivia fact. You don't think that would become the dominant fact?

Let's say that that happened and then we fast forward 20 years and two people are sitting together and they're watching one of his great movies, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. And one leans over to the other and says like, oh, hey, did you know he... You think that was bad. You should see what he did to... Yeah, exactly. And which of these things was worse? It's hard to judge, right? And he could have like an interesting conversation about that.

I agree if he had a single crash and that was how he met his demise. But if he took out 110 people on a passenger plane, like over LA- I still think that would be like interesting trivia fact, like an accident. Okay. Especially as you go farther and farther forward into the future. You know, I think with any person of note, the further you go in the future, they either become forgotten and then they can finally leave that waiting room in the afterlife. Or everything they have ever done gets compressed down into one or two things. That's the timeline of history here. If he's remembered in the future,

if anybody's still watching Star Wars a thousand years from now, which they certainly will be because Disney will never let the franchise go. I think that's how he'll be remembered as the Star Wars guy. It'll just be like an interesting fact. I think perhaps the more interesting question is how horrible of an atrocity would he have to commit before that would be the thing that people primarily remember him for 300 years from now? Exactly. So I thought maybe taking out 110 people in a plane might reach the threshold. You say no. I mean, clearly the only atrocity he could perform that would undo it must be some kind of major serial killing, maybe? Because even if he shot three or four people, I don't think that would do it. Like, if he went

crazy with a gun in a shopping mall and shot a bunch of people, I think that's akin to the plane crash, isn't it? Yeah, I agree. I'm thinking it would need to be some kind of nuclear terrorism. That's what would need to happen, is that Harrison Ford destroys LA with a nuclear bomb. I think then that would be like, this is the primary thing that he was remembered for. And people a thousand years from now would get the story all wrong, as it always goes. And he would be some actor who was spurned and didn't get what he wanted, and so destroyed the whole of the entertainment industry. That's what would happen in 100 years. Like, that's how people would remember the story. I think this could be an interesting new metric for how successful your movie career has been.

How bad an atrocity do you now have to perform to undo that work? There's some kind of sliding scale here, isn't there? Yeah. At some end, right, it's like, this is the thing you'll be remembered for. Where is the dividing line where it goes from interesting fact about you that might color the movie watching experience to the primary thing that you're remembered for? Like the kid who played Anakin Skywalker. I mean, he's only got to like commit a shoplifting offense and he's done it. Yeah. But like Harrison Ford has to set off a nuclear weapon.

Yeah. I think that's where I'm putting it. Yeah. Nuclear terrorism. The other question here is, should a 74 yearold man be allowed to pilot a plane over a major city? When you start telling me this story, that's my first thought about it. Is this like, okay, once we all have accidents, I guess.

You know, twice I'm getting a little suspicious. There's a third one, Harrison Ford. I think someone needs to take away your license. You can't take away Han Solo's license to fly. I think you can, right? If I was in charge of things, you know, if he was in three car accidents, I'd take away his license to drive. Way too many people who shouldn't be driving, driving, but you just kind of let them because it's a necessity of life in America. But you know, flying around in your hobbyist airplane, this is not a necessity. And if you're 74, has anyone done like the vision

chart test for him recently on this kind of thing? Or did he get his pilot's license 30 years ago and you just keep it forever? They just need to watch that scene in the new Star Wars film of him running down that corridor in the Millennium Falcon. And then they just take his license off him. Yeah. They'll be like, no, sorry, man. I don't think you should be flying. I do have to say though, even if he did destroy all of LA with a nuclear bomb, I still think I could watch Star Wars and be like, I like this movie. I don't think it would destroy the movie. No. No.

You have to separate the art from the artist. You don't have to like both of them. No. all right we mentioned it several episodes ago about west world by far and away the most requested thing we have ever had for us to watch as my memory serves you watched what was it two episodes three episodes and gave up on the show no i think i watched more i think i watched either three or four i'm not sure but yeah nearly most of the way towards 40% of the season. Right. So you didn't make it all the way through? No. I did recently decide to give it a try because of this. There's like a delicate balance, right? When people are recommending you things, and I sometimes have this feeling of

when a thing gets recommended tremendously, like it can pass a point where I feel like I don't want to watch that thing. You want to be a little bit rebellious. I don't want to be a sheep. Yeah, exactly. Everybody in the world is telling me to watch Westworld. Maybe I don't want to. It's not going to be on the top of my queue.

I'm going to watch something else because I'm my own man. I can do whatever I want. I can sit here and watch some terrible TV show. But eventually I did give in because I had some near misses with some spoilers for the show. And I decided, you know what? Okay, I'm going to try to save myself future grief. I'm going to sit down and I'm going to give it a shot and see how I like it. So I did watch Westworld. And my feeling is, if you watch some of the episodes, I am not going to make you watch the rest of the series. Because I think if someone sits down and watches westworld if you're not into it after the first two episodes or you find yourself kind of

drifting you don't need to watch the rest of the season it's not going to be for you but i watched it and everybody was right i totally loved this show it just hit like every tick box of stuff for me that I really liked. And so I did make my way through the whole series. I really enjoyed it. I would highly recommend that everybody give the first two episodes a shot, but I am not going to make you sit through the rest of the season, Brady. I think you got far enough. I've got to fly back to England in a few days and I've got nothing to do on the plane. So I've only got a few episodes left to watch, haven't I? Maybe I'll barrel through and watch it. Should I watch the rest of it and we'll do a proper review?

Well, I mean, I guess that's up to you, Brady. I have thoughts on it. And if you've got thoughts, I want to hear them. And I know that certainly that the people listening would like to hear them. And I might not do it justice talking to you about it if I haven't actually seen it all. I won't ask you as many good questions or have different opinions. So, well, even though you've tipped your hand a little bit by saying you liked it. Isn't that what you like, Brady? Don't you like to have things right

up front? I'll finish it. Oh, look at that. Look at that. Okay. All right. It wasn't going to make you do it. I guess what we've discovered is we're going to be assigning this for homework. Is that what's happening at this moment? It is homework. There we go. Non-compulsory as always. Non-compulsory homework. I mean, how could we set compulsory homework? Our podcast listeners don't have to do anything we say, but. I think we could set compulsory homework. What's the nearest thing we've ever done to setting compulsory homework? I mean, entire Star Wars episodes are pretty pointless if you haven't watched the film. Yeah. People do listen to them without having watched the movies though, which I don't understand. I'm trying to think like compulsory homework. We'd have to assign a thing

that if you're watching it, it would reveal a password to you that you could use to access an episode that you couldn't listen to otherwise. Maybe that's what it would be. How about we do this? So if I'm going to sit and watch the rest of Westworld, you've already seen it and you're obviously not doing much else at the moment because I haven't seen any videos. Why don't you try and see if you can fit in Sully before we do the next episode? And we'll have a special Plane Crash Corner special edition movie review as well. Okay. All right. Just a short review of Sully. So it's a double homework episode then? Is that what's going on here? It was nowhere near as requested as Westworld, but a lot of people did ask us to talk about Sully.

We'll have a brief talk about Sully and a slightly longer talk about Westworld in the next episode. Okay, there you go, people. We were going to talk about it, but now you're going to wait. That's what's happening. Sorry, you've probably got all these notes and things you were about to say about Westworld. And I just feel like I'd be like, I'd feel unequipped to do it justice. It's very honorable of you, Brady. And I'm certainly happy to pretend that I am really prepared.