Secretly Incredibly Fascinating - Tires

Episode Date: November 23, 2020

Alex Schmidt is joined by comedians/podcasters Caitlin Durante and Jamie Loftus (‘The Bechdel Cast’ and many amazing miniseries) for a look at why tires are secretly incredibly fascinating. Visit http://sifpod.fun/ for research sources, handy links, and this week's bonus episode.

Hey there, it's me, Alex Schmidt. I make this podcast secretly incredibly fascinating, researching and editing and taping and all the parts of it. This is an independent little podcast, so I'm very excited about the independent little company Libro.fm because they let you buy audiobooks directly from your favorite local bookstore. So if you go to their website, Libro.fm, that's a.fm domain name. You go there, you pick your store from their list of more than 1,300 affiliates, and then you can shop for audiobooks with community-focused confidence. You can know that some of that money is coming back to your town, back to your favorite indie bookstore. You can also do that in a way that helps this podcast, if you would be so kind.

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Either way, thank you for listening, and enjoy the show. Tires. Known for going around wheels. Famous for going around wheels famous for going flat sometimes nobody thinks much about them so let's have some fun let's find out why tires are secretly incredibly fascinating Hey there, folks. Welcome to a whole new podcast episode. A podcast all about why being alive is more interesting than people think it is. My name is Alex Schmidt, and I'm not alone. I'm joined by two fantastic comedy writers and comedians and podcasters and so much more. Caitlin Durante and Jamie Loftus are my guests, and you probably know why that's exciting, because they're great.

They're the co-hosts and creators of The Bechdelcast. That's a podcast on iHeartRadio that breaks down movies and has fun with movies and explores whether they do or do not, you know, advance the patriarchy. Because the patriarchy, I don't know, I think we can move past it. They also do so much more from there, even with the pandemic limiting stand-up in many ways. Caitlin does screenwriting classes. Both of them do amazing podcast miniseries. Jamie has a new one coming up soon. The show links are your friend to find those. Also, I've gathered all of our zip codes and used internet resources like native-land.ca to acknowledge that I recorded

this on the traditional land of the Catawba, Eno, and Shikori peoples. Acknowledge Caitlin and Jamie each recorded this on the traditional land of the Gabrielino-Ortongva and Keech and Chumory peoples. Acknowledge Caitlin and Jamie each recorded this on the traditional land of the Gabrielino-Ortongva and Keech and Chumash peoples. And acknowledge that in all of our locations, native people are very much still here. That feels worth doing on each episode. And today's episode is about tires. A feature of almost all modern wheels, a thing that many of you have changed when flat. FYI, this podcast is not a tutorial for that. If that's where you turned by the side of the road, go to YouTube. That's your friend. Anyway, I'm thrilled about this episode because it's really, really good. Also because me and Caitlin have a surprising connection on part

of the material that I don't think has ever happened before on the show that's very exciting. Also, this episode helped me remember the awesomeness of Canada, which is a thing I've been thinking about because I have been writing the cards for donors who backed the mini membership drive for the show last month. And I know I'm an American, I also try to keep this show as international as possible. And sending cards to the listeners who step up and back this show and make the entire thing possible, and also get a bunch of benefits like bonus shows and stuff. But sending cards to those people, it helped me remember how many of those backers are Canadian. I think per capita, there might be more Canadian listeners than American. And thank you so much.

Well, I already thought you were an amazing country. You didn't need to convince me, but keep it up. Great job. Also, I hope you extra enjoy the third takeaway, the final takeaway in this episode, because you will hear three Americans being absolutely mystified by something that is very common to you in your very special country. So I hope that's just straight up entertaining. Of course, this episode is for everybody, and I'm so excited for you to hear it. Please sit back or enjoy some poutine, because

life hack thing for you, places outside Canada serve it. We have it down the street here in Durham, North Carolina. It's very good. And either way, here's this episode of Secretly Incredibly Fascinating with Caitlin Durante and Jamie Loftus. I'll be back after we wrap up. Talk to you then. Jamie, Caitlin, it's so good to see you. And thanks for, you know, connecting about tires. It's a nice thing. Oh, gee whiz. My passion, finally.

So what if I like came on the other, down on the other side, I hate tires. We both have really strong opinions about tires it's been a huge issue in our friendship kitlin's always trying to drive around with without tires she's so anti-tire my car doesn't need tires she just has someone drag her Prius around. Very tired horses. Like, this is not how it should work. Well, I always lead by asking guests what's their relationship with the topic or opinion of it.

And either of you can go first. But how do you feel about tires? I know we're joking about it. But i'm curious if they mean anything to anybody well um i have a few different modes of transportation that do have tires on them my car my bicycle sure yeah uh that's about it and um otherwise i'm pretty neutral on tires i think it's good including bicycles that's a tire yeah you know i my bike tires go flat all the time so uh i actually maybe i i kind of have a bit of a a contentious relationship with the tires which uh which i was joking about earlier but now i'm like you know what my my bike tires go flat way too often what's the deal

anyway so yeah maybe i might i am a little anti-tire wow you just manifested that yeah so constituting a tire that's like that's like a wheel with air in it that technically a tire i just want to make sure i'm not commenting on just wheels and sounding silly jamie like no joke there's a lot of history of this one that is a good question i think we're mainly talking about like air-filled tires yeah like a thing full of air around a wheel yeah okay okay um then i i i'm still a fan that doesn't actually not that i know what it is i love it i was like i just wanted to make sure i was uh coming down the right side no uh yeah uh you know zambonis have tires and as my vehicle of choice uh zambonis have small but but mighty tires.

I just had to triple check and make sure they're not just wheels, but they are tires proper. So the ice ain't getting smooth without tires. Oh, I didn't know that. It is. It almost feels like an impossible device, too. Because the Zambonis going on ice, which you would think would be way too slippery to do anything. But you would think the tires are what's making it happen, like it's making it work. You have to imagine, yeah, that the treading.

Wow. Okay, so now I'm actually more on board with tires than when we started. Well, especially so for tires to be able to work well on ice, usually need like studded tires or like some other thing on the wheel to to like create that friction because like i lived in it is a studded tire right but like the studded tire is going to compromise the integrity of the ice like it's going to compromise the smoothness and the whole point of a zamboni is to smooth out the ice so like isn't that the mechanics the mechanics of the zamboni are so like they're over my head but my understanding is the tires do do a little bit of like uh prop but but the zamboni is smoothing

stuff from behind so it's taking care care of anything the tires just did are immediately going to be resolved by the snail trail of the Zamboni. That smooths out the ice. That's a very, but that also could be a thousand percent wrong. It makes sense to me though. I think that's right. But I never thought of tires as like step two of inventing the zamboni like step one the thingy that smooths the ice and then oh how do we do it like how do we move on ice there's a guy named francois that could at the staple center

who can explain the whole thing to you if you really if you really know who to look for, there is someone who can tell you. Well, bless him. That's great. I think from here we can get into the first segment of the show. On every episode, our first fascinating thing about the topic is a quick set of fascinating numbers and statistics. And today that's in a segment called, fascinating numbers and statistics. And today that's in a segment called Despite all my rage, I am still just a stat on a page.

Boo-doo-doo. Wow. Got me good. Amazing. Got me good. And that name was submitted by James Daniel Little. We're going to have a new name for this segment every week submitted by listeners like you.

Make them as silly and wacky and bad as possible. Submit to at SIFpod on Twitter or to SIFpod at gmail.com. First one here. So it's numbers and stats. The first number is very simple. It's the number two, because that is the number of common English language spellings of the word tire. I don't know if you knew this about the U.S. and Canada, we spell it T-I-R-E. And the whole rest of the English speaking world, they use a Y we spell it t-i-r-e and the whole rest of the

english-speaking world they use a y it's t-y-r-e why yeah yeah i didn't know that i i how do we feel about that i mean i guess that it's just we america is too we just think that we're the center of everything right but yeah but sometimes i'm like you, I think we did have a point with using the I. Sometimes, yeah. Every once in a while we pull one out and I'm going to say this is one of those times. Yeah. You know, the metric system, sure, it makes more sense. But we spelled tire correctly.

So, care. Next number here is 381 million. now we're going big wow and 381 million is the approximate number of tires produced in a year by the world's largest tire manufacturer but there's like a trick there kind of because the largest one technically is Lego. That is like technically because they're making tires for and they're not full of air. It's like sort of a fun Internet fact. But Lego is the leading tire manufacturer. Right. OK. That's cute.

Yeah. I like that. And the numbers from 2011. So it might change a little bit. like that and the numbers from 2011 so it might change a little bit but in that same year lego did 381 million bridgestone did 190 million michelin 184 goodyear 181 so the real tire companies are all kind of in a cluster but but lego is doing like double yeah yeah everyone's gotta step it up get on lego's level It's also another just massive and conceivable number here. 246 million.

246 million is the approximate number of waste tires generated per year in the United States. What do you mean waste tires? That's like a tire got used and needs to get thrown out. It's trash now. Well, that's one of my that's i guess that's a question i had when about tires is how like is it possible to responsibly recycle a tire and if so is it usually done i don't know i don't i don't really know about the recyclability of

tires yeah what i could find because that's a great question i was wondering too and according to national geographic tires are made of a lot of different things all at once like there's natural rubber and synthetic rubber and some other fillers and chemicals and stuff too i don't know why i'm calling them fillers like it's it's not organic food or something you know what i mean like it's kendall jenner's lips yeah it's a hot dog it's the tires are the hot dogs of the automotive world usa yeah but uh basically they're it seems like they're pretty hard to recycle like like there's the extremely simple reuse it as a tire swing but sometimes they get turned into playground equipment or like a bouncy surface or something but unfortunately most of them end up in landfills or dumps like they they

kind of just get piled up and thrown away for the most part oh i hate that no good okay there's there needs to be a tire reckoning yeah i do remember when my elementary school playground got like kind of resurfaced because like kids were falling all the time and like skinning up their bodies with uh like the really hard pavement so they kind of resurfaced it with like they you know they shred up old tires and then like put me you know make a nice little mushy thing for children to fall around on oh that's brilliant my my grade school did that too after i left yeah Yeah. It was gravel. We were just playing on gravel,

which was usually like painful. And then I came back for some kind of event, like seventh or eighth grade. And I was like, what? That is way too nice. I'm pretty jealous. Yeah. I was like, I feel like my school district

was just like, eat shit. It'll build character. And there's also with with tire reusability, there's the one angle of, what do we turn these natural and synthetic rubber tires into? There's also the angle of, what if we make them out of a whole other wild thing? And I sent you guys a picture

of a really strange blue Michelin tire that is the idea of the future. It's a 2019 concept they made where it is a strong, flexible airless tire that's 3D printed, made from biologically sourced materials. And the internal structure is based on coral growth. Like it's supposed to be made that way. Cool. That's cool. like it's supposed to be made that way cool that's cool so it would be way less likely to like go flat and are the did you say the like the materials they're made out of are they like

sustainable it's like biodegradable yeah they say it would be biologically sourced and biodegradable stuff and then there's no air in it and if you need instead of getting new tires a popular mechanic says quote drivers would pull into a docking station and have the treads reshaped according to road conditions okay wow but it it looks like avatar stuff like james cameron's avatar it seems very futuristic to me yeah i'll buy one amazing. Yeah, it looks really cool. I like that the Michelin man is still chilling in the middle of the tire. Oh, the Michelin man. King. That's also, it's so futuristic.

It almost makes me think we'll just have flying cars by the time they would put that out. Like, you don't need them at that point, right? Like, forget it. Whoa. Yeah, I guess flying cars. Just jets and stuff. Yeah, that really that's gonna be a hit to the tire industry that yeah it is but i'm not to be describing tires to

our children back in my day um i i'm not nearly as optimistic anymore that we're going to have flying cars. I'll say it. I don't think it's going to happen. Sorry. I think even if it does happen, I don't trust people with them. No, that too. But you need, I feel like hopefully you would need to get your driver's license again. Like everyone would. Yeah.

But also they would be so expensive that only like the top 1% would be able to afford a flying car. And then by the time flying around, yeah, no, that's exactly. There's also as far as the the other end of the sustainability spectrum, the next number here is 10 million. And that is the number of tires 10 million tires that burned in the longest tire fire that I could find googling around and finding stuff. What? 10 million? Wait, where did that happen?

It happened in Wales, near the town of Knighton, which is near the border with England. So this was in the UK. And it started burning in 1989. And apparently it was in this deep valley and the tires are very, very, very flammable. And so it burned for about 13 years. What? These 10 million tires. Oh my God.

It's just all a nightmare to think about. But that's the other end of sustainability. Wow. Yeah, that's like the air pollution by a 13-year tire fire. Holy cow. I have so many questions it's like do people just like threw their old tire 10 million of their old tires into just this pit and then it yeah was it being fed this was bringing more after it started like well what do you do like well it's already burning

yeah i think they like get piled up i don't know if it's from regular people putting because i was i was trying to think reading this like have i ever thrown out a tire i feel like usually i get it changed and then i let the garage deal with it and i think the garages are all like dumping these in depots various various places in the world. Because it's not just a UK phenomenon. There are tire fires in various places around the world. Yeah. Sure.

Jeez. Well, that's terrifying. 10 million tires, 13 years. Don't like it. A 13-year tire. Yeah. That sounds like a bad metaphor, but it's just something that happened in Wales. Yeah.

Poor Wales. Poor Wales. No one ever talks about Wales. Pouring one out for the Welsh tonight. What with their whole 13-year tire fire situation. It's funny. I feel like right now, just at this point in the year, everyone is constantly saying, like, oh, I'm going to pour one out for this one.

I'm like, I think that just maybe we as a nation currently have a drinking problem. And we might be looking for excuses. Right. Right. I'm holding a beer or wine at all times this year. So I'm ready to pour one out. I'm ready to pour it out for kind of whatever happens. I'm just assuming something will happen. I mean, speaking of waste out for kind of whatever happens. I'm just assuming something will happen.

I mean, speaking of wasteful, though, I mean, geez, pouring out all your alcohol all the time? Oh, well, you, of course, would pour it into your mouth. You pour it into your mouth. Yeah. Yes. The next number here, actually, sorry, the last number here is 170 miles per hour. That's a speed.'s also or 273 kilometers per hour for the the wiser countries but 170 miles per hour is the speed that a passenger jet

airliner is going when its tires touch the ground so those tires you know are just on the plane and then suddenly they need to be going 170 miles per hour when the plane lands. That's a lot of pressure on those tires. I never, I never thought about it until I found this thing. And I was like, oh, right. That's got to be one of the strongest tires in the world on a plane. Yeah. Because it's just always immediately called into action.

That is wild. Good for them. I was like, shout out to the tires. The tires. You you know it's like noon i'm like yeah it's time to pour one out for those tires we're all just we're each just sitting in like ankle deep liquor right now like well what do you do it's it's been a lot i had so many to pour out what What can I say? He also, with the plane tires, according to Wired.com, quote, in the first moments after a plane touches down, the tires are skidding, not rolling yet.

The airplane essentially drags them down the runway until their rotational velocity matches up with the plane. And that's why they smoke upon landing. And quote, I've never noticed that they smoke, but I guess they do. Because they're just hitting the ground so hard but the them skidding that's so rough like on it that like ruins a tire right so like i wonder how often they need to be changed because those tires must wear out very frequently i'm guessing again i'm not a scientist brag i don't know anything about science we're all just finding stuff out it's cool yeah yeah yeah yeah I'm sure it's often yeah I didn't actually find that out but but it's gotta be yeah I'll do some I'll do some further you know

Jamie you've got your Zamboni guy at Staples the Center. I'm going to go to LAX and find my own. I'm going to find an airplane guy. I mean, it could be anyone. It's, yeah. Yeah. I'll ask Francois some follow-up questions about the tires and report back. Please. And if it sounds like he's French-Canadian, he is.

His name is Francois. Oh, man. So he spells tire with an I if he's canadian yeah yeah absolutely okay good good when you jamie when you found out the zamboni operator was named francois did you blink at all or were you like of course french canadian right i was i yeah i was like oh he's probably from canada and then he fully confirmed it very quickly uh because he just moved from canada to la uh like in january so he was really thrilled with being in los angeles in january so it was a it was good i wonder i wonder how he's

doing now i wonder how the zamboni mate what zamboni culture is it's it's kind of a it's a mysterious area they're very private hard to get straight answers it's almost like what's going on do they speak in riddles the zamboni masters they're just yeah yes first you have to answer their riddles three and you can you can crack those then uh then there's a chance you can get info is it a thing where you try to ask them stuff and if they don't want to answer they just slowly begin driving away right like and you're like no but they're just slowly it's like i know you can hear me. You're so close.

I love that we're doing the whole range of tires for vehicles, too, because it is not just a car thing, especially for this episode. And I want to get into, there's three big takeaways for the episode. Let's get into takeaway number one. The first modern tires were created by a father helping his son ride a tricycle. Oh, that's so wholesome. That's the like kind of the origin story. When was this? So this was in the 1880s.

And there's also kind of three people who more or less invented modern tires. And by modern tires, I mean air-filled pneumatic tire and and you know at least some kind of rubber like rubber tire full of air that's standard but the first person helping with tires was a guy named charles goodyear who you might recognize his name from the company i was wondering i was like i wonder if this guy becomes too rich and becomes really scary later in his life. So the fun part is he doesn't because Charles Goodyear was, well, it's funnish. I shouldn't have raised expectations like that. So Charles Goodyear, I'll explain. He was in Connecticut and he accidentally develops vulcanized rubber, which it turns out is when you take rubber, add sulfur and heat it up that makes rubber

stronger that's what vulcanized rubber is but he so he was experimenting with tire fires long before tire fires were even a thing before tire fires sold out you know before they went corporate so loud when tire fires went mainstream i really lost interest and also so he says great i have these incredibly strong rubber tires but he hadn't figured out filling them with air yet so he tried to start a business selling like just i'll wrap rubber around your wheel and it wasn't very popular he dies in 1860 over $200,000 in debt. And then later, other people start the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in 1898 and just name it in his honor. So he made like no money on tires. He completely.

So he didn't live long enough to become the villain. Yeah, that's right. That's too bad. Yeah. But but he helped he did a step and then uh the next guy here is a scottish engineer named robert thompson who came up with pneumatic tires where you fill it with air but they just didn't work very good so they tested them on some carriages in london in 1847 were like, eh, this is okay. And then just kind of dropped the technology. But he did patent it.

He was like the official inventor of air-filled tires. Okay. That's funny that they were like, this is bad. This is a bad idea. Yeah, because on paper it works. But if you don't do it really good, really precisely, it's tough. It's like Caitlin's bicycle. You're like, ah, this is causing me more issues than I want.

It's one of those car parts that I always take for granted, I'm realizing. I could not make that in my life, but I just let other people do it and then drive around. Don't think about it. Yeah, same. And the third guy here, the dad helping his son, it's a guy named John Boyd Dunlop. And people might know Dunlop as another tire company. They make stuff. But he was a Scottish veterinarian.

He was born on a farm in rural Scotland and then trained to become a veterinarian and moved to Belfast in Northern Ireland. Not an engineer. He was just doing veterinary medicine and like going around the country on very bumpy roads in completely like flat solid wheeled carriages and having a really bumpy bad time and then at the same time i guess belfast had cobbled streets so it was very uneven and his son was like trying to ride a tricycle on them and hated it because it's like bump bump bump bump bump everywhere you go one source says his son was getting headaches from it uh like it because it's like bump bump bump bump bump everywhere you go one source says

his son was getting headaches from it uh like it's it's very unpleasant and then he had the idea what if an air-filled tire made some cushion and made that like a experience that's not terrible wow fathers and sons i really i know caitlin and i always say like it went in every movie. The lesson I was always like, ultimately, it's about a father and a son. And so goes the story of tires. That's how tires were partially invented. Yeah. That is nice, though.

That's sweet. That is very wholesome. I like I don't know. I mean, there's so few stories related to industry at all that you're like, oh, that was a little bit heartwarming. I'll take it. Yeah, I was thrilled when I learned that. I was like, great. It's not just like an iron willed mean guy figuring something out. Like there was something like an animal doctor wanted to help his boy. Like, okay, cool. Great. This is better. Yeah. Like, okay, cool. Great. This is better. Yeah. Well, I keep thinking about, okay, so we all remember Oregon Trail, the iconic game. Does anyone remember Amazon Trail? No.

I do. I had Amazon Trail where you're basically in a small boat going down the Amazon and you have to go down these different tributaries and they give you little quests that you have to do is you have to go and find ford i forget his first name but like a ford motor company henry ford oh right and like he's in gerald ford he he's on the amazon no henry ford was like i guess because you're also time traveling in this game like sometimes you get transported back to like turn of the century or sometimes you're like in whatever decade, but they would like transport you to like the turn, like turn of the, like, well, I guess it would be 20th century.

I don't remember how centuries work. It's like early 1900s. And Henry Ford is in South America exploiting, you know, South America exploiting, you know, the people there and like trying to figure out how to like make rubber and like how because there's all these rubber trees down there and all that stuff. And I'm just like, I didn't completely forgot about that until we started talking about tires today. I'm just like, Oh, right. Like, Henry Ford was probably just like oh right like henry ford was probably just like ruining like because i think he also had these like huge rubber plantations yeah in these various south american

countries and communities and was just like probably devastating the the land and the people and the communities so so i anyway I just wanted to bring that up. So I'm very excited about that. I'm going to jump a hair ahead in the notes to takeaway number two. Henry Ford tried to build a bizarre personal rubber kingdom in Brazil. I want to talk about it today. I love that. That's a whole chunk of the show. Okay. Yeah, to talk about it today. I love that. That's a whole chunk of the show.

Okay. Yeah, let's get into it. Great. And I also, there's like a few, my main source is not Amazon Trail, but that was where I first heard about it was that weird side mission and Amazon Trail. That's fascinating that Amazon Trail basically left all the clues you needed to to learn about this devastating part of history so wait what what happened in brazil yeah so that's all and and for people who don't know that that computer game is in the modern day but occasionally

you do this like weird almost like the crew of Trek, like once in a while we time travel, ha ha. Like you time travel to the 1920s and suddenly it's Henry Ford times and you talk to him. But yeah, there was a thing called Fordlandia and this was Henry Ford setting up basically a small private country in the Brazilian part of the Amazon rainforest. He purchased a piece of land about the size of Connecticut and took it over.

What? That sounds bad. I hate everything about it. And I'm sure we haven't even heard the worst of it yet. Yeah. It is like, I'm going to say this is a little bit more positive than you might think. Okay. Even though it doesn't go well and our sources here are

uh besides this i'm still amazed we both play this computer game this is great uh but but i the other sources here are a 99 invisible episode that mostly cites an nyu historian named greg grandin and then also a bbc tv show called brazil with mich Palin, where the Monty Python member Michael Palin visits this thing. He goes and checks it out. Very wholesome. It's great. Another wholesome show, yes. So in 1927, Henry Ford is, if the sources are right, the richest person in the world. He started the Ford Motor Company in 1903 as a corporation, and he sold 15 million Model Ts by that year, and he was incredibly wealthy.

The thing was, he had vertically integrated basically every part of making Model Ts except for the tires, because there was just nowhere in the US he could grow rubber. There was also apparently a rubber grower cartel forming around the world where they were jacking up the prices and stuff oh and so he said i'm gonna buy a chunk of brazil build a company town grow my own rubber and ship it to michigan for myself because i'm so he wanted like his own celebration florida kind of thing yes like exactly that yeah okay. Okay. Yeah. And so you meet him in this game because that's weird. That's a really strange thing to be going on.

Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Congrats to both of you for playing this game. Sounds life changing. There was another game that I think was called like Inca Trail or or something and you were oh I didn't play Inca Trail uh maybe I'm getting the name wrong um but it was yeah they were all like in the same they were all made by the same company but uh they were just like let's let's capitalize on

the popularity of Oregon Trail and then they made these like very difficult games that um were impossible to win and were frustrating and I played them all and again they made these like very difficult games that um were impossible to win and were frustrating and i played them all and again never made any progress anyway oh yeah i also never won amazon trail but was excited i found the weird side missions yeah you can't win it yeah i didn't know there was like an expanded trail universe yeah i guess so yeah where's the where's the um the cinematic adaptation of all this why didn't they ever make oregon trail into a movie that would be bad don't mike michael bay if you're listening please don't do this michael i'll message you later but But again, do not do this. We're all agreed.

Thank you for donating, but really don't do it. Yeah. And the thing with Henry Ford is, as far as I can tell, he was for positive and self-serving reasons, like pretty interested in the welfare of workers. Like he, he got famous for doing what was called like $5 a day workers in Michigan, where like $5 was a lot of money at the time. And it was like, we'll pay them so well, they can buy the cars and that'll be good. Uh, but it's also, you know, for himself too. And so his goal was, I'm going to not just build a rubber tree, like plantation, I'm going to pay my workers really well so that's good and i'm going to uh turn them into midwesterners as much as i can which is worse that's kind of a creepy thing

but he thought it was nice he was like midwestern americans are the best people so i'll just uh cultivate those values in these brazilians who don't necessarily want that. And that's the trouble. Yeah. Yeah. Sir. Also, I think the game, sorry, it was called Maya Quest. I think that's the game I was thinking of. Yeah. It's a spinoff of Oregon Trail. Okay.

Yes. So there you have it. Now we can stop talking about the horrible video games I played as a child. I don't know about you though, Caleb, but like for me with old computer games like when someone even says the name of it like my my whole brain lights up and like they also spent 100 hours on this this goofy game that i did great you also ruined your life for a few months like me yes did anyone uh did anyone play bar Barbie Detective for the PC? I'm afraid not. That's about where I can plug in.

It was good. You solved a mystery at a carnival. Oh. I didn't know Barbie ever was a detective. She was a really, she was not a great detective, but she was a detective. I see. It was the clown. The clown did it. The clown did it the clown did it

geez well that's just anti-clown now i'm not now i'm against it i yeah i agree i agree so henry ford going wrong specifically here i when jamie when you said celebration florida i feel like that's like almost exactly what's going on because this is for business but also it's for what the crazy industrialist founder thinks is important and then also his own specific values and stuff and so they find a place that's a day and a half river trip into the interior of brazil they ship american managers there and american supplies but then hire local Brazilians to be the workers. And almost immediately the first problem is the rainforest because the workers are attacked by ants, hornets, scorpions,

and pit vipers as they try to clear stuff because they're trying to cut down a bunch of the rainforest to build this. The nature reacts. Yes. That's the nature reacts you know like yes that's a classic nature yeah and then the the other issue with the rainforest is that henry ford says i'm henry ford's everybody works eight hour shifts and there's time clocks and it's like a nine to five that's what we do according to 99 pi quote people in bra Brazil were used to working in the early morning, then taking a break during the hottest parts of the day and later coming back to work, end quote, which makes total sense. But the Ford people took it as these guys are lazy. And I am also not great on racial things. And so then there was a whole, you know, to do between the American managers. Okay. So instead of listening to people, he was like, what if I just was, but that's not what we do in the Midwest. Also, I'm racist.

Okay. Yeah. Yeah, that's about right. And so then from there, he builds a company town and all the houses look like little Midwestern American houses. And there's like little town squares with playground. And it looks like, according to Greg Grandin, quote, when you go to Fortlandia, there's an uncanniness to it, a familiarity, it seems very recognizable, end quote. But in like a strange way. Yeah, surprising. He also built a square dancing hall, because Henry Ford met his wife square dancing. And then no one wanted to square dance. Cause why? That's like,

even in the twenties, that's old. The amount of weird projection that he's doing here to be like, I can't sleep at night unless everything is the Midwest. Like it's like, well grow up. Like you're not in the Midwest. Get a grip.

Yeah. What a baby. know truly like he's just creating this like little swaddle like blanket fort for himself it's like no you you have to like learn about and respect the culture you're coming into about just build your house from back home in brazil what is wrong with you got his ass got him and again this is a piece of land the size of connecticut like he i don't i don't know that he cut down every tree but he's like i'm just going to turn that into rubber growing and a town in michigan that's what it's going to be which is not a conventional thing to do well because like connect connecticut is not a huge state relatively

speaking in like by other u.s states standards but it's still a huge area of land there's so much land geez yeah the more we talk about it the the more I'm just like, hold on. It's like, not even Celebration Florida is like a town. Yeah. A town. Yeah. Right. This is a whole state's worth of nonsense happening. Okay. How does it end? How does it go yeah so the other the other henry ford projection thing is he goes past midwest stuff to

just personal henry ford stuff and implements total alcohol prohibition because he did not drink and he also implements a vegetarian diet because he's a vegetarian and so okay apparently the employees immediately revolted they also set up a bar and brothel on an island nearby so they could just go there and do stuff. You know, for what that is, it's what they wanted. And... Yeah. How... What a weird loser.

What a loser indeed how do you justify being a vegetarian and then also be like i'm gonna destroy so much of the amazon rainforest so i can make a rubber plantation this is how i'm gonna offset my carbon footprint is being a vegetarian okay that's so great man yeah no one should have power at any time this is just like weirdo stuff yeah yeah

right it's like it's so he's just giving so many orders like even if like not drinking is cool you know but he's just ordering everyone to do it

like why man I mean pour one out for not drinking yeah pour one out I just like any anytime someone in power like their fixation is like everyone has to be exactly like me it is so just even if you did

have all the power in the world and like you're not technically hurting anybody by saying we all need to be vegetarian now besides removing your rights, of course. But like, I just, I can't imagine. Would any of us want to be around a Connecticut's worth of people exactly like ourselves? That sounds like a nightmare. A true nightmare. Yes. It's horrible. I can't.

I hate myself. I'm like, I don't want to even be around myself we'd all just be quietly like this guy again man it's not good yeah but also jamie you're great and i want to be around you thanks i'm like i feel like i uh i really uh took it to a dark place at the end. And I'm sorry. Self-loathing, I think, is an important emotion. This is Henry Ford's fault. All right? Let's not tear each other apart. I would be in a...

It's on Henry Ford. I would stay in a Connecticut full of Caitlins or Alexes. Aw, thank you. I wouldn't. I'll be somewhere else. Thank you. I wouldn't. I'll be somewhere else.

But. Off of that, we are going to a short break, followed by a whole new takeaway. I'm Jesse Thorne. I just don't want to leave a mess. This week on Bullseye, Dan Aykroyd talks to me about the Blues Brothers, Ghostbusters, and his very detailed plans about how he'll spend his afterlife. I think I'm going to roam in a few places, yes. I'm going to manifest and roam. All that and more on the next Bullseye from MaximumFun.org and NPR. Hello, teachers and faculty. This is Janet Varney. I'm here to remind you that listening to my podcast, The JV Club with Janet Varney, is part of the curriculum

for the school year. Learning about the teenage years of such guests as Alison Brie, Vicki Peterson, John Hodgman, and so many more is a valuable and enriching experience, one you have no choice but to embrace, because yes, listening is mandatory. The J club with janet varney is available every thursday on maximum fun or wherever you get your podcasts thank you and remember no running in the halls oh also and so this thing collapses so that's exciting the final straw with the employees was they put in a vegetarian cafeteria instead of like restaurant service. You had to scoop your own food because that's Henry Ford efficiency stuff.

There was a full on riot. Employees destroyed equipment, the time clocks and a lot of the town. The American managers fled by boat back up the river and the Brazilian military had to come in to restore order wow so that that was toward the end of this situation and the catalyst for that was the implementing of the vegetarian cafeteria that was like the thing that set everything off yeah well it sounds like i mean that must have been like building you know but yeah like the straw that like broke everyone's back

because it's like, oh, you already have to live in Michigan for no reason. You can't drink. You have to go square dancing, which everyone hates. Your boss needs to walk around in a little... He's just creating a weird diaper around this whole world for himself. I would riot as well. There's one other level to it being messed up, which is that Henry Ford never, ever visited this thing. What?

He just told people what to do from Michigan the whole time. He never went to Brazil in his life. He was never there even? Never ever. Why do this? What? Why do this? I thought he was trying to make himself feel more at home, but he wasn't even there.

Yeah. That's... Yeah, they started it 1927, or at least started building it, and they didn't fully give up and abandon it and sell the land back until 1945. So there's 18 years of just people living how he wants without him ever even seeing it like he's just in michigan the entire time that oh i hate it yeah yeah they should yeah they the riot uh makes total sense yeah and it's also because he was also offering the legitimately offering these employees there was a hospital in the company town there was free health care there for employees there was also like free education for their

children but it was like just hard-headed and poorly run enough that that wasn't enough like they were still like let's burn this down i don't want to live like henry ford anymore right well that's good that's good that they had free help i mean that's amazing i just oh god yeah it still feels so culty yeah like oh yeah yeah you're like stepping out of time and space to to work for someone who doesn't even want to be there well i'm glad it's over yeah i can't believe i mean i guess i can believe that I've never heard about this before but that's like that's fascinating the things people try to get away with is just weird you yeah right you would just think no one would have the ambition to do this bizarre uh world reshaping activity but he

did right I'm really glad the whole world isn't Michigan. No offense to Michigan. It's great. But like it should probably just like be just Michigan. And then also other places too. That's my hot take. Hey, I agree. And we can get into the final takeaway of the show. It's a relatively quick one.

Takeaway number three. Takeaway of the show. It's a relatively quick one. Takeaway number three. A chain of tire stores in Canada created a secret separate Canadian currency. What? And this one's relatively short because like we have Canadian listeners who I think will be like, yeah, of course, Canadian tire money, sure. But there's a chain called Canadian Tire that made separate money for the country.

What was it called? It's weird. It's a store called Canadian Tire. There's about 500 locations and they have a system of, it's technically like cash back coupons, but they're printed to look sort of like money with the mascot of the company on it instead of a president or prime minister or something this like script from this company is so widespread and so long running that can a lot of canadians kind of save it like stockpiled weird money to buy stuff from this store whoa so you could only use this currency at this store yeah yeah it's also i'm i'm a little overdoing it calling it currency

but like but this store uh and there's not quite an america equivalent they sell automotive stuff including tires but they also sell hardware sports gear camping gear leisure things and housewares so like if you have money for that that's actually useful so it's like if dick's sporting goods had like their own money that you could use yeah it's like if dick's sporting goods was also jiffy lube and had their own secret currency that you just get it just doesn't sound like enough to justify having your own money. That's not enough things. Yeah. Well, and it's like Dick's Sporinga's Jiffy Lube and maybe like a Pier 1 Imports or something.

They do like a little bit of that stuff too. So like you can buy enough stuff that it's like, I don't want to throw these coupons out. It's like kind of money. And so then Canadians just stock them up in their homes kind of through inertia. Okay. Is it still used to this day? Sorry, you might have already said this. Or is this not a thing anymore? How does it work?

Yeah, they started it in the 1950s. And they just kind of give it to you when you shop you don't have to sign up for a program or anything um and they switched to like a card version in 2018 but they still take the paper money they'll still accept it okay so it is still being used yeah amazing there's probably canadian listeners who have some in their house, if not their wallet, like right now. Yeah. In case shit goes south, they'll have a stockpile. That's really, yeah, I had no idea. I feel like there's like, I guess it sounds like the most extreme version of a points program kind of thing. Is that off?

Okay. Yeah, the electronic version now, they do it just like points. It's kind of like grocery store points, but it's from this place. Good for them. Let's pour one out for the fake tire money. Yeah. In terms of how easy or hard it is to get, the Toronto Star says that talk to a company spokesperson from this chain, Canadian Tire, and they say that a customer would have to spend a hundred Canadian dollars to get 40 cents of Canadian Tire money, barring any promotions or bonuses.

So it's a little bit, but it's not a lot. Yeah, yeah. And we'll have links for people from the CBC and McLean's and a couple other Canadian sources, because we all are not Canadian. We're just taking this for what it is. But there are fun stories of people saving huge physical stacks of this money to buy big stuff. And according to the Toronto Star, there was a man named Brian McPherson in Edmonton, Alberta, who bought a riding lawnmower worth $1,053 Canadian dollars with just huge saved up stacks of Canadian tire money. He just walked in and bought a riding lawnmower. Yeah. Okay.

I figured out what the equivalent is. I figured out what the equivalent is. You know when you go to Chuck E. Cheese or Dave & Buster's and you're at an arcade and you get all the tickets for all the games you play and then you can cash in the tickets for most... You'll probably only ever earn enough to buy a little bit of candy or maybe a little bracelet or some toy that's going to break in two days. But then they also sell PlayStstations but you have to accumulate like yeah tens of thousands like a few people take it really seriously but like 99 of people participating are not gonna put in the time and effort well because you can just

the money you would spend on arcade games is probably more money than what it would cost to actually buy like a video game console but uh amazing okay i love this i love this for canada and kayla i feel like that's dead on two ways because because one is that like with the video games you have to spend a bunch of money but this you're just shopping over time and if it's stuff you would buy anyway you can just rack up the coupons you know right and then the other way is this guy brian mcpherson apparently the story says quote at age 14 he received his first 10 cents in canadian tire money when he got a hockey stick and then he saw the riding lawnmower on the way out of the store and imagine the fun of buying that oh my god so it's like you see the big prize and you're like i'm gonna get that huge uh stuffed thing of of the chucky cheese mascot or whatever i'm gonna do it

jamie would know better than me what the prizes are but yeah i love that long i love that long con that's brilliant it's brilliant yeah it's a lifelong dream for this guy wow so he he came back at age 29 bought it with a huge sack of canadian tire money and said when he was interviewed he said quote it was just one of those things that you set out to do and you tell everyone how you're going to do it. End quote. Wow. A man with a plan to the point. I like it. I think that that, that could be applied to a lot of things, really doing anything.

You can apply that exact plan. That's true. Yeah. Every form of human achievement. It's pretty vague actually. That's right. Yeah. That's right. That's almost

as wholesome as the dad putting tires on his son's tricycle. That's nice. Yeah, there's also the other big purchase here is somebody bought a full-sized canoe worth $777 Canadian.

Wow. And I guess the cashier, they interviewed the cashier about it at the store, like when he brought apparently a literal briefcase of Canadian tire money. And she learned that some people donated some of it. It was like a social media campaign. And the cashier said, quote,

that is awesome. He must be a wonderful man. I need friends like that. End quote. You know, it's just nice. It's just cool. man. I need friends like that, end quote. You know, it's just nice. It's just cool. Oh, I thought you were going to say, like, and now they're married or something.

Oh. No, no. And the baby's born in February. There's also, there's, like, a couple other just sweet stories of this weird money outside the store. In 2011, a Toronto musician named Corinne Raymond put out a call online for Canadians to donate their unwanted Canadian tire money toward paying for his next album. Because there's a recording studio in Toronto called Rogue Studios that will take Canadian Tire money to book time. Like they'll take it as a currency.

Whoa. Cool. And so he raised $6,000 Canadian in Canadian Tire money and recorded a 20 song album, put it out. Just knocked it out. Yeah. Amazing. Good for them. Because I guess everybody has this stuff and they don't quite know what to do with it.

Because it's money, but it's not like money money, you know? So you just pile it up. And the last one here is in 2007, there was a four-month fundraising campaign in Vancouver that sought Canadian tire money, brought in $1,100 Canadian. And then the store matched that donation because people bought 60 sleeping bags, 60 packets of socks, and 20 thermal blankets for a shelter, like an unhoused people shelter in town in Vancouver. Just cool. That's amazing. Canadian tire money.

Wow. A little bit goes a long way, you know? Yeah. If any country would have secret friendly money money it's canada that's great like we have the regular kind but like come on back for the in the back room we have the the secret money where we do good deep folks that is the main episode for this week. My thanks to Caitlin Durante and Jamie Loftus for, among other things, inspiring me to go to Zamboni.com,

which is the website for the Zamboni Company. That's a trademark. Not all ice resurfacers are named that. That's a thing I've learned from Jamie Loftus. Anyway, thanks to their inspiration, I've learned a new number for the show. I've learned from Jamie Loftus. Anyway, thanks to their inspiration, I've learned a new number for the show. 400 is the number of studs on a full set of Zamboni tires. Again, Zamboni is a brand name. Other ice resurfacers might be different. But according to Zamboni.com, quote, each tire on the Zamboni machine is hand studded with around 400 tungsten carbide studs used for each machine's full set of tires, end

quote. So there's a bunch of really strong metal studs. That's how they grip the ice. Also, I said that's the main episode. Back before that, Dan Boney fact, that was the main episode, and there is more secretly incredibly fascinating stuff available to you right now. If you support this show on Patreon.com, like so many Canadians do, patrons get a bonus show every week where we explore one obviously incredibly fascinating story related to the main episode. This week's bonus topic is Michelin Man lore, because it is so much stranger than you realized. Like the canon and the background and everything about that Michelin Man character that you know about, the stuff behind that is so much stranger than you realized. Like the canon and the background and everything about that Michelin Man character that you know about. The stuff behind that is so much stranger than you

realize. Visit sifpod.fun to hear that bonus show, to hear more than a dozen other bonus shows that are just there waiting for you, and to back this entire podcast operation to make it possible. And thank you for exploring tires with us. Here is one more run through the big takeaways. Takeaway number one, the first modern tires were created by a father helping his son ride a tricycle. Takeaway number two, as documented by Amazon Trail 2, the game, Henry Ford tried to build his own personal rubber kingdom by buying a giant chunk of Brazil. And takeaway number three, a chain of tire stores in Canada created a secret separate Canadian currency, and maybe not that much of a secret to you if you are Canadian.

Those are the takeaways. Also, please follow my guests. Caitlin Durante and Jamie Loftus host the Bechdel cast on iHeartRadio every week. One funny thing with that, too, after we taped this, I checked out their new episode about Flubber, the 90s movie, and I had forgotten that that movie really centers on the Ford Motor Company a whole lot. So everything is Ford. It's all coming together. We're also linking Caitlin's amazing miniseries entitled Sludge, an American healthcare story, Jamie's amazing miniseries about the folks in Mensa, and Jamie's upcoming miniseries on the legacy of Lolita in culture. And again, these are just two phenomenal guests. I feel like pitching them on a podcast about tires was not the greatest pitch, and they were nice enough to do it anyway, so I'm really grateful to them. Many, many research sources this week. Here are some key ones. An online museum exhibit about Robert Thompson and John Boyd Dunlop, both patenting the pneumatic tire. That's all from the National Museum of Scotland. An amazing episode of 99% Invisible called Fordlandia, all about Henry Ford's bizarre Brazilian adventure. And then we've got a bunch of articles, mainly from CBC News and from Maclean's, about the history and fun purchases done with Canadian Tire Money.

Find those and more sources in this episode's links at sifpod.fun. And beyond all that, our theme music is Unbroken Unshaven by the Budos Band. Our show logo is by artist Burton Durand. Special thanks to Chris Souza for audio mastering on this episode. Extra, extra special thanks go to our patrons. I hope you love this week's bonus show. I'm also so excited for all of you who are part of the membership drive, Canadian, American, and many other countries,

to receive your sticker and card in the mail. I hope it gets to you by the end of November. If it's way past that, you still haven't gotten it, just let me know. But it's been really nice kind of honoring your support of the show by doing that and just getting to learn about the world. Anyway, thank you for that. And thank you to all our listeners. I am thrilled to say we will be back next week with more Secretly Incredibly Fascinating. So how about that? And thank you to all our listeners. I am thrilled to say we will be back next week with more secretly incredibly fascinating. So how about that? Talk to you then.