Stuff You Should Know - How Monopoly Works

Episode Date: July 3, 2014

Since more than 1 billion people have played it, you're probably familiar with the board game Monopoly, but we bet you don't know its secret origins as a left-wing socialist teaching tool. Learn about the history, rules and cultural impact of Monopoly. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

attention bachelor nation. He's back. The host of some of America's most dramatic TV moments returns with the most dramatic podcast ever with Chris Harrison. During two decades in reality TV, Chris saw it all and now he's telling all. It's going to be difficult at times. It'll be funny. We'll push the envelope. We have a lot to talk about. Listen to the most dramatic podcast ever with Chris Harrison on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Munga Chauticular and it turns out astrology is way more widespread than any of us want to believe. You can find it in Major League Baseball, international banks, K-pop groups, even the White House. But just when I thought I had a handle on this subject, something completely unbelievable

happened to me and my whole view on astrology changed. Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, give me a few minutes because I think your ideas are about to change too. Listen to Skyline Drive on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.com. Hey and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryant and Jerry Rowland, which makes this stuff you should know. That's right. I got on my top hat and my cane and your monocle. My monocle, does he have a monocle? I thought it was uh, not as Mr. Peanut. Oh yeah, not Mr. Monopoly. And I think Mr. Pringle has a monocle too, doesn't he? Oh no, he just has a

mustache. Yeah. Mr. Monopoly doesn't have a monocle, huh? I don't think so. Huh. You'd think we'd know. No, we do not, but I do know this. Mr. Monopoly is a nickname for that man. That's right. His born name is given name by his parents. His rich uncle Pennybags, three names. So uncle would be his middle name. Yeah, well he even has a regular name too. Oh, not that I saw. Yeah, it is Milburn Pennybags. No. Yeah, there was a book published and this is one of those after-the-fact deals called the Monopoly Companion. Uh-huh. And they named all the characters on the board, Milburn Pennybags, and then the jail guys, Jake the Jailbird. Okay. And the police officer and go to jail is... I'll bet it's Iris, isn't it? Officer Edgar Mallory. I knew it. Really? You just guessed that, huh?

Yeah. That's pretty funny. We're talking about Monopoly, by the way. Oh, yeah. Yeah. This is not about anything else but Monopoly. No, and I was just remarking to you, sir, how I've never seen one of our... This had more supplemental information than most shows that we research. Yeah, I can explain why. Because this was written... There was a whole suite of game articles written. Yeah. Like just how to play certain games. Sure. So it kind of came out in this mentality of this is the game and here's how we explain how to play it. Right. And this article is done, whereas Monopoly, it's like... This is more like McDonald's or Twinkies or something like that. It's like a cultural cog. Yeah. I mean, there's so much extra junk. History and... I mean, you talk about the different

versions. It's ridiculous. Milburn Penny banks? Yeah. And like I said, that was a post that he wasn't originally called that. This is, I think, Monopoly probably wanted to sell a little book or two. I'm sure they did. Because if one thing we've learned about Parker Brothers and now Hasbro, is they love selling different versions of this game. Yeah, they do. They like licensing it off. There's a lot of money doing that. They like making some changes here or there and releasing a brand new game, but it's all still the same game. And all of it came from a left-wing Quaker intellectual at the turn of the last century, the Fendis Jekyll. Yeah. I think I'm saying that right. Yeah. Sure. Okay. I think it sounds right. And it's interesting to me that the game of Monopoly,

which is all about capitalism and bankrupting our neighbor, was stolen. The game was stolen from a leftist intellectual Quaker. In the original version of the game, it was to teach against the monopolies and how they're bad. Right. So let's talk about this. Monopoly actually, if you trace it back to about the literal beginning of the 20th century, it's what's considered a folk game. There were a lot of people playing versions like this in cities all over the country. But again, they all shared some pretty common viewpoints. I guess today you would kind of call them socialists. But for the most part, they were followers of a guy named Henry George. Yeah. George-ism. Yeah. He came up with this thing

called George-ism, which was based on some other philosophies. But the idea of it is that if you produce something through your own labor, your own work, you own that. That should not be taxed. Right. What should be taxed is things that everybody owns. If somebody's taking something that belongs to everybody, say a parcel of land, technically the land belongs to everybody. Well, that was his notion was that you shouldn't even be a landowner. The whole concept of owning land to him was ridiculous. And that's based on this idea, the law of the commons, which is around for centuries, if not millennia. And then once people started taking land, he's like, okay, well, if you're going to own land, it belongs to everybody. So that should be taxed. And then

that tax will be given back to the community for the greater good. So that's George-ism. And that was kind of the philosophy that formed the basis of Monopoly, what was originally called the landlord's game, which is created by a lady named Lizzie Maggie, M-A-G-Y. M-A-G-I-E. M-A-G-I-E. Yeah. Almost magpie, but without the P. Right? Yeah. And she basically that was on her card. And she came up with this, like you said, to kind of teach so you could go and be a rich landowner and bankrupt other people and exploit the poor who need your help, who need a decent place to stay. And you could see yourself like the evils of capitalism. But she actually came up with two sets of rules for the same game. One was where you got as rich as you could at the expense of

everybody else. The other was basically the community benefited. And you can kind of see that today in like these weird things like community chess. Like why would I want to pay into this pot? I don't care about the community. Now it's a bad thing. In her original version, it was a good thing, like the community won. Right. And that was the basis of the whole thing. Yeah, which is really ironic. It is. Yeah. Like you said, she created two versions and she said one of the quotes from her is, it is a practical demonstration of the present system of land grabbing with all its usual outcomes and consequences. So it was kind of the teach people lessons. And she had it stolen from her. Luckily, Lizzie Maggie was smart enough to patent this game.

It became just kind of a trendy thing. Again, like if you were into socialism at the time and you were on the East Coast, you probably hung out at a friend's house and played this game at some point in some incarnation or another. Yeah, it was really popular. Like you said, like people made up some of their own rules. But it was, I mean, if you look at the original landlords game board, it looks a lot like the current monopoly. I mean, similar at least. Yeah. And apparently a lot of the rules that make the game a lot more enjoyable today came from Lizzie's Quaker friends. Like for example, the original plots of land were up for auction for bid. Quakers prefer silence. So they just put a fixed price on the piece of land. So there

would be a loud obnoxious bidding war. They also instituted tokens, fun tokens before they're just boring pawns. Yeah, like household objects, which, you know, that's why the thimble is in there. And originally the iron will get to those in a minute. But I know it's pretty exciting. And then so this thing's being played and Lizzie Maggie holds the patent, but she's not exactly like cracking down on any kind of infringement really. No. Well, she pitched it to Parker Brothers and they said no. Yeah. So she just kind of went on doing her own thing. So there's another lady actually that figures into this, a lady named Ruth Hoskins. And she was one of the ones who caught on in the Philadelphia Atlantic City area with her Quaker friends. Two of them in

particular, Jesse and Eugene Rayford. And they are the ones who change some of the rules to make it look more like the monopoly we know. They taught it to a friend named Todd and Todd taught it to his friend named Charles Darrow. And that's where the story takes kind of a seedy turn. Well, actually that's where the Parker Brothers official version begins, ironically. Yeah. Things turn seedy. If you go to the website, Parker Brothers is like, Hey, this is where our story begins. Yeah. The inventor of monopoly, Charles Darrow. Right. So he was like a radiator salesman during the depression. This is the 30s, right? Yeah. I mean, it was ironically again, during the depression, this game really caught hold. Well, supposedly that's what caught the Parker Brothers

attention was that this guy came to him, came to them to sell him this game, which he had stolen. Yeah. Apparently he didn't innovate it at all. He kind of just copied it and packaged it, right, and said, Hey, what do you think of this? And the Parker Brothers said, We don't think too much of it. Like how does the game end? We don't know what's going on here. So it's just, you just go your own way. So Charles Darrow went off and started selling it at this Wanamakers department store in Philadelphia. Yeah, without patenting it. Right. And the Parker Brothers said, You know what? It's the depression. Can you believe it? We're not going to have any kind of economic woes like this for another 70, 80 years. Yeah. And this guy's selling these things like hotcakes. You know

what, sir? We will buy your idea from you. And Charles Darrow apparently said, Well, that's great. Yeah. Give me the money first. And then I'll tell you the second part of the story. Yeah. And they gave him a bag of money with a dollar sign on it, much like the ones that Rich Uncle Pennybags likes. Yeah. And he said, Okay, we also need to buy the patent off from this lady named Lizzie Maggie. Yeah, which they did. The game was still stolen, I say, even though that they eventually did pay her money. Yeah. But part of the deal was they said, they agreed to buy her patent and said, You know what? We're going to, we'll sell a few of your other game ideas too. None of those ever went anywhere. And she was

sort of lost to history. Yeah. Except for people who do a little bit of digging. Yeah. And we actually have a guy named Ralph to thank for doing that digging initially. We'll talk about him later. Oh, yeah. That's right. Yeah. Cause he's the one who came up with the unofficial history and like really tracked it down. Well, there's a lot of teases in this one. Yeah. So the Parker Brothers now in the game, and it becomes a huge hit virtually off the bat in the 30s is when they bought it and started really printing it. Yeah. And the game is based on Atlantic City. Those are the properties. And that's because that was the area where it became popular. Right. But this excellent New York Times article you sent. What was the name of it?

Monopoly Ghost Corporate. Yeah. It was written by, what's the lady's name? Mary Pillon. She is a monopoly expert. There's a lot of those out there I've learned. She wrote a lot of the articles you'll find. Oh, really? Yeah. She's good. Well, she pointed out that it's interesting that it mirrored sort of the cartography of the day in Atlantic City. Like Boardwalk was clearly like a rich area. Yeah. The Baltic and Mediterranean, the cheapest properties were in African-American neighborhoods. There was a reading railroad that transferred people between Philly and Atlantic City. Yeah. And little known fact for our friends in the gay community, New York Avenue was one of the earliest gay scenes in the country. Yeah. So buy that one up and

support the LBGT community. That's right. If you're playing monopoly. Yeah. That's what I would do. And maybe just, you know, don't charge anybody when they land on it. Yeah. Just be like, this is a party place. That's right. Exactly. And Marvin Gardens apparently is misspelled. Yeah. E instead of an I or I instead of an E. Yeah. On the board, it's an I. Right. It's supposed to be an E. Yeah. There's a lot of monopoly facts dropping all around us right now. I know. It's raining thimbles. Before we go any further though, you want to do a message break? Yes. Okay. We'll be right back every one. I'm Mangesh Atikular and to be honest, I don't believe in astrology. But from the moment I was born, it's been a part of my life in India. It's like smoking. You might not smoke, but you're going

to get secondhand astrology. And lately, I've been wondering if the universe has been trying to tell me to stop running and pay attention. Because maybe there is magic in the stars, if you're willing to look for it. So I rounded up some friends and we dove in and let me tell you, it got weird fast. Tantric curses, major league baseball teams, canceled marriages, K-pop. But just when I thought I had to handle on this sweet and curious show about astrology, my whole world came crashing down. Situation doesn't look good. There is risk to father. And my whole view on astrology, it changed. Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, I think your ideas are going to change too. Listen to Skyline Drive and the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

On the podcast, Hey Dude, the 90s called David Lasher and Christine Taylor, stars of the cult classic show Hey Dude, bring you back to the days of slip dresses and choker necklaces. We're going to use Hey Dude as our jumping off point, but we are going to unpack and dive back into the decade of the 90s. We lived it and now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it. It's a podcast packed with interviews, co-stars, friends, and non-stop references to the best decade ever. Do you remember going to Blockbuster? Do you remember Nintendo 64? Do you remember getting frosted tips? Was that a cereal? No, it was hair. Do you remember AOL Instant Messenger and the dial-up sound like poltergeist? So leave

a code on your best friend's beeper because you'll want to be there when the nostalgia starts flowing. Each episode will rival the feeling of taking out the cartridge from your Game Boy, blowing on it and popping it back in as we take you back to the 90s. Listen to Hey Dude, the 90s called on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, so we were just talking about Atlantic City. I guess we can go ahead and point out now that there are hundreds of versions of Monopoly out there now. One for your hometown probably, one for your favorite sports team. I have personally, my version is a Star Wars Monopoly, which is pretty fun. I guess Hasbro's like, you got some money. Sure you can license this.

Make your own Monopoly game. Go ahead. There's a Simpsons Monopoly. I haven't played it though. And in addition to the licensed versions that you can find everywhere, they also have official versions too. There's a US version. There's a UK version. There's a new version that's called Monopoly here and now. What does that even mean? Super corporate. Oh, is this the corporate one? Yeah. Okay. It's like everything is multiplied by I think a thousand. So the dollar amounts are way higher. Is this one where they replaced the... The railroads are replaced by airports. Yeah, is this one where they replaced corporations for all the properties though? Yes. Like McDonald's and Sony and yeah, who would want to play that? Some people do. You know? Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, I'm not a purist because I have the Star Wars version, but I just, it's no fun to me to play as Paramount Pictures and to buy the McDonald's property. Yeah. No, it's just me. So there are a bunch of different versions, but the one we're going to talk about, we'll just talk about the normal version with the 2008 rules. Yeah. And there's actually coming soon, later this year there, you can go online at MyMonopoly and you can design your own board. Is that right? And do like your own neighborhood. Wow. And then they will make it for you. And I think it's like 150 bucks or something. Wow. Money bags. You can get... Oh, I'm not going to do it. You can do the Eastlake Monopoly. No, I was talking to whoever went and got it. Oh, sure.

Yeah. Rich Uncle Rich, Pennybags. That's what you should have said. Rich Uncle Pennybags. Pennybags, this sounds not that wealthy. Well, actually... I have a bag of pennies on me right now. Forbes has their silly fictional 15 list of fictional characters, Wealth. And he, in 2013, was number 13 of 15. Jesus. Is Star's decline some, huh? Guess who the first, the richest fictional character is? The Incredible Hulk. No, he was not rich. Scrooge McDuck. Oh, yeah. Well, dude, he had that gold vault. Apparently, 65 billion. Number two was Smaug, which I thought was kind of silly. Smaug from like... Four of the Rings. It's a dragon. I think it had like a bunch of gold. Got you. Carlisle Cullen, number three. Tony Stark, four. Charles Foster Kane, number five.

Who's number three? Carlisle Cullen from Twilight. Who's that? He was the dad, vampire dad of the vampire family. And he's been alive forever, so I guess he just keeps accumulating wealth. Bruce Wayne, Richie Rich, Christian Gray. Richie Rich, I forgot about him. He's number seven. He had a robot maid and a crazy, like, weird scientist friend, didn't he? Sure. Like a Richie Rich robot of himself? I think he had that too, but no, his maid was a robot, wasn't it? That was the Jetsons. No, he had a robot maid too. I thought Monty Burns at number 10 was pretty good. Oh, yeah, it's going. Although, I would guess Mr. Monopoly would be wealthier than Monty Burns, but I guess not. Yeah, 13. And they put it out each

year and it's dumb. Can we just admit that? I was thrilled by it. Okay. We just spent three minutes on it. Yeah, well, that's true. Okay. So, Chuckers, you want to talk about the rules of the game? Again, 2008 rules, if you are a Monopoly purist and like, I'm sorry, that's just what we're going with. Yeah. Well, let's talk about the game board itself just so if you haven't played it, I'm surprised because I think like a billion people have played the game. But if you haven't, when you get your Monopoly game, you're going to open it up and you're going to have a board with all these different properties in a square. You have two dice, 12. They call them tokens. That's not the right amount either, is it? No, there's eight. Yeah. I don't understand where

they got 12 from unless they're counting ones that maybe were retired or something like that. But when you open the box, there's only eight there. Yeah. There's a, can we go over? Sure. There's a wheelbarrow, a Scotty dog, top hat, a cat which replaced the iron in 2013. Yeah. There's a big to do because Parker Brothers or Hasbro is like, we haven't made a lot of money off of this for a couple of months. So let's just do something. Well, they let people vote at least, which is kind of cool. Right. But it was also, did you see the other ones that they were voting for? Yeah. It's like a robot with Richie Rich's name. A guitar. A guitar. Yeah. They didn't make the cut though. No, they got voted out and the cat got voted in. But the iron got booted.

Yeah, I only got 8% of the vote. There's the classic shoe, of course. Or boot, which is a modeled after a 1930s working shoe. And I think they've kept it the same. Yeah, that's one of the original ones. The Scotty dog was not one of the originals that came in the 50s. Yeah. And I think that was supposed to be the companion of Milburn Money, Denny Richie. Is that right? Penny bags. Penny bags. I know. It's not. It should be cash bags. Fat stacks. Fat stacks bag. There was a cannon, which has since been retired. Yeah. They thought it was too militaristic. Well, it was the cannon and the battleship. Yeah, they were from a failed game called Conflict and they were like, well, we got all these pieces. Oh, yeah. Let's just throw them in Monopoly for now.

Right. It's pretty smart. But they faced the cannon out because it was just too overtly violent. It just says without any fanfare or vote or campaign. So probably, yeah, that'd be my guess. If it's hush-hush. Yeah. It's probably because of violence. There's a conspiracy afoot. There's the race car. Yeah. It's every little kid's favorite. Which apparently had a number three on the side for a little while. Yeah, I didn't know that. Yeah. Dale Earnhardt. I guess so. Oh. Purse has been retired. Yeah. The rocking horse was retired. Yep. The lantern was retired. Oh, yeah. I'm doing my best Ben Bowling impression. Did you get wheelbarrow in there yet? I think no. Yes, I did. It was the first one I said. Did we say top hat? Yeah. That was always

my favorite, actually. I don't remember what my favorite was. It fit on my pinky and I used to draw faces. Oh, yeah. The horse and rider, which is retired, which I didn't know. That's one of the best pieces to me. What you didn't know is retired? No. I'm just kind of sad. Yeah. And now they're, and a sack of money was retired as well. The sack of money and a purse. Those are a little similar. Yeah. The cat, come on. Yeah. Cat people. I'm sure they're like, yeah, that's exactly right. I guarantee that's why they got cat voted in. And I am a cat person, you know. And even you think it's stupid. Exactly. So those are the tokens, some of those tokens that we mentioned you're going to find in the 2008 set. Yeah. And that is your piece. That is

what represents you in the game. Yes. Again, for the three people who've never played Monopoly. Right. Yeah. Because supposedly, at least as far as Hasbro calculates, over one billion people have played Monopoly. And frankly, I'm surprised it's that low. It sounds like an old number. Yeah. Okay. So you've got the box open. You get the board. You got two dice. You got the tokens. 32 houses. Yeah. In 12 hotels. Yeah. 16 chance cards, 16 community chess cards. Yeah. A title deed card for each property. It's got the information on it, like how much it cost to purchase. Sure. How much rent is depending on how many houses or hotels you have on it. Yeah. What the mortgage value is worth. That's right. And then you've

got your play money, your Monopoly money. Yeah. Man. I think that's where it grabs kids because, and they even pointed out in this article that it's kind of the first time a lot of kids have money to play with. Yeah. Especially the $500 bill one. Man, that gold bill. I always thought it was orange. Is it gold? Yeah. Okay. One's definitely golden rod, like yellow. But I remember the 500. It was, yeah, I guess gold is the way to go. Yeah. See, I was a cash hoarder, which is no way to win a Monopoly. No. I thought it was... Can't save. No, I just figure for me though. You got to spend money to make money. Yeah. I was like, look at all this cash that I will soon be paying to everyone else. You just keep wandering off in the table to try to

buy stuff with it. Did not work. So Chuck, you've got the board laid out. And if you count them, if you're that kind of person, you're going to find that there's 40 squares. That's right. I believe 22 of which are... No, 28 of which can be purchased. Yeah. 22 are properties. You've got your electric company and waterworks. Yeah. Suckers bet. And then you got the four railroads. The four railroads. Yeah. So that's 28. That's right. There are others that you can't buy. So for example, there's a luxury tax square. Yeah. You got to pay about $100 when you land on that. I believe so. Just right out of your pocket. There's an income tax square. Yeah. No good. There's the go square, which is where you start. And then when you come back around,

you collect $200, which is in Monopoly called your salary. That's right. I never knew that. I didn't either. And there's a lot of rules in here. And I guess it's a good time to point out Monopoly is one of those games where house rules are highly encouraged and a lot of the fun of the game. And in fact, to make more money, Monopoly this year are incorporating the top house rules as voted on by fans as official rules for this one version. In a $70 hard back book. I don't see why a lot of people were in since they were like, no one plays by the real rules anyway. So why bother packaging it and selling it?

Right. And they went, I think you just said the word sell. Did someone say sell? Therein lies the answer. So you've got, oh, there's, and so there's 40 squares, but there's actually 41 places you can go to on the board because jail is divided into two squares. That's right. You got the jail with the jailbird. What's his name? Uh, I can't remember Johnny jailbird or something. Jake, the jailbird. Right. Okay. Which is where Jake, the jailbird is. And then you've got the lower part of it. Um, it's just visiting. Yeah. If you want to visit Jake, give him a butt cake with the nail filing. It'd be very old school or Monopoly set with, um, maybe a map

with an escape route embedded in it. Hey, that sounds familiar. Yeah. POWs in World War two are given such Monopoly sets, which is strange to me. It's like where the Nazis allowing Monopoly sets to be delivered to POWs. Is that what I'm seeing here? Maybe it's the Burmese. No, I mean, you've seen the, uh, like the great escape on those, those, the war prison camps in World War two, it seemed like a lot of them, they let them like garden and they were kind of chummy with them. You saw Hogan's heroes, saw Hogan's heroes and put a lot of stock into it. Yeah. But yeah, no, I just figured it played soccer. Maybe the Japanese or the Burmese or the, the Italians I could see like saying like, yeah, bring some Monopoly and who cares.

But the Nazis, I would think would, I just don't see that. Yeah. I'm not saying it was, uh, a walk in the park, but I think from the depiction and, uh, like, like I said, like the great escape, it's not like Vietnam prison camp. Oh yeah. You know, like they weren't playing soccer or Monopoly. Right. They were playing survive, survive another day, that game. Yeah. Um, and I'm not making a lot of that, by the way. Oh, I didn't think you were. And I'm basing everything on more movies. So I'm probably wrong. I've seen on Common Valor. That was a good movie. That was a great movie. It doesn't age well though. Really? No. Remember that menu with the gun silhouettes on it? Oh yeah. And when you're 12, you're like, oh my God. Yeah. It's like,

I would buy that one and that one. Yeah. Um, all right. So where were we? We were talking about, um, the board itself. Yes. And the different squares. Yes. There are the, um, the, the cards that you can draw as well, community chest and chance squares. When you land on these, you draw a card from one of those two piles and there are various things in there. Like you want a fashion modeling contest, you get $10. And there are dog show one in there too. I think there's probably a dog show and there's also, you know, you have street repairs or, um, those are big time general repairs and that's based on your properties that you own. That's right. They can, they can, uh, get you pretty hard. Yeah. Yeah. It's like in real life. That's right. You know. Um, and that's

funny because the, uh, monopoly, what was her name? Lizzie Maggie? Yeah. In an interview, um, she gave with some leftist magazine at the time. Um, she said, she basically called the thing the game of life. Yeah. That was already taken out. I don't know. Was it? Yeah. That was, that's around since the like mid 1800s. Oh, okay. That's old. I thought she was being prescient. Now she's being, uh, glib. She was, she was making a pop culture reference for the time. Yeah, exactly. But did you know apparently there used to be a square on the game of life board for suicide? Really? Yeah. It was the way that you could go. I never really played that. I think I played it a couple of times. I never did either. I always thought it was kind of like you get the whole family in the car and

it's like what, whatever. Yeah. We, we did, um, I mean, we, we weren't the biggest game players as families, but we did monopoly some and, uh, Yahtzee was a big one. Yahtzee was great. That I still enjoyed today. I love Yahtzee. Sure. Yeah. We also played this game called bull, and it was like a stock trading game. Oh yeah. With cards. And it's just now occurring to me that all these games are just teaching you about life. Yeah. It's like real monopoly is nothing but real estate. Uh, the game of life is everything. Right. This game bull was about the stock market. Yeah. Sorry. It was about, um, sarcastic. Sorry. Yeah. Cause you had to say it like a jerk. Right. Uh, Candyland, we know what that's all about. Yeah. Drugs, right? Probably.

Shoots and ladders. Tell you to stay away from snakes. Yeah. Operation. Tell you how to be a doctor. Oh yeah. That's right. That's right. I got my MD. And then of course, uh, battleship taught you how to be a war monger. That's right. So the risk can take great pride. The risk taught you to be the antichrist. Yeah. Risk. We should do, there is an article on risk. I saw, I looked it over. It didn't seem as interesting as this one. Yeah. I don't know if the history is as interesting. Uh, and I mean, isn't that what, what's interesting about any game, the history of it? Yeah, I think so. So, um, let's talk about the rules, dude. Okay. Let's start at the beginning. We'll start at go. Go is where you start. And that's where you, like you said, you collect the 200

every time you land on it or pass it. Sometimes house rules, uh, get 400 for actually landing on it. Oh yeah. And only 200 for passing it. We never. Oh, that makes sense. That's good. Good. But, um, free parking is where we had house rules. Um, that is a space on the corner of the board where you supposedly per the official rules don't do anything. Yeah, there's nothing. It's just a space. But what we did was we donated all the collected taxes and, uh, fees and put it under free parking. And if you land on that, that was like a lottery win. Oh yeah. And a lot of people play that way. I think I've heard of that one before. I liked it because it allowed you more money, which is my favorite thing. Cash. It's the lotto. Yeah, exactly. Uh, we got ahead of

ourselves. Let's just start at the real beginning. Okay. So, uh, everybody sits down at the table. Yeah. Maybe somebody, yeah, somebody gets a drink. Uh, maybe you have to wait because somebody has to go to the bathroom. So you're all sitting there quietly. And then when everybody's finally at the table, you guys select a banker and the banker distributes the monopoly money, $1,500 to each player, $2,500, $2,100, $2,50s, $6,20s, and $5,10s, $5,5s, and $5,1s. That's right. $1,500. And the goal of the game that we, you're getting to here at 30 minutes in is to bankrupt all of your family and friends. That's the whole point. Pretty much. Um, some people put a time limit because this game can go on forever. Um, and other people say, no, it's gotta,

you gotta finish it by bankrupting everyone or until the last person is like, I give G's. I've got $8. I hate this game. Yeah. That's usually me. All right. And Emily's usually has her foot on my throat. Oh yeah. Yeah. We play two person monopoly, which is just not fun. Yeah. Cause you know, one of you is going to lose. No, that's not why it's just this. It's a game that's more fun with more people, I think. Yeah, I got you. Yeah. Um, so okay. So everybody's got 15 or bucks. You roll the dice to see who goes first, whoever rolls the highest goes first. Classic move. Then you roll both die and you start moving from the ghost square and you go clockwise around the board. Yeah. And when you land on a property, this I didn't know. Yeah.

Which is kind of a basic rule, I guess, but I never played it this way. When you land on a property, yeah, you have the option to buy it. I knew that part. Yeah. But if you declined to buy it, then the, then the property goes up for auction. I've never, not only have I never played it the way I've never heard of anyone playing it that way. So it's not just me. Not just you. All right. So, uh, I guess, uh, the, during an auction, not only the person, not only everybody else, but the banker and the person who declined to buy it, uh, can bid on it, which didn't make sense unless you're trying to get it for lower. Can you start the bidding at wherever? Yes. You can start the bidding anywhere you want. So you could considerably get it for lower. And if you're playing

against somebody who declines to buy something and then starts bidding on it at a lower price, keep an eye on that person. That's a sharp way out to win. Yeah. Uh, yeah. I hate that rule. Because to me, it's just like, what's the point in rolling and landing on something, I guess, right? A first refusal, but yeah, I don't know. I don't like it. No. And plus the Quakers were like, we specifically put a price on these things. So there wouldn't be a lot of yelling. Yeah. We don't like yelling. Uh, they had another game, the follow called, uh, uh, the quiet roof raising ceremony. Those are not Quakers. That's fine. That was the Amish. They're different. Oh, don't you think Quakers raise some roofs? Yeah, they do. Ain't no party

like a Quaker party. That's right. Uh, all right. So let's say you buy all of the properties that, you know, they're, they're divided into different colors. Like there's three green around, you know, green ones, orange ones, blue ones, right? Light blue. Um, if you buy all of the properties that are tied together by a single color, then you have what's called a monopoly. And that means you can then charge double rent. Although we never do that. We just keep it single rent and you now have the option to buy houses. And then once you have enough houses, I think three, you can then buy a hotel. Right. And that's called improvements. You're improving your land. Supposedly. Once you start to do improvements, um, things change a little bit.

Not only can you start making more money, but it's actually harder to, uh, mortgage your properties if you are, if you find yourself in debt. Right. Because this is, this is how crazy complicated it is. Like, I don't think I was ever paying that much attention to monopoly that I ever mortgage the piece of land. Oh, really? I think it's like it started to get into debt or whatever. I was just like, I'm done. I'm done. Yeah. Um, but apparently, so if you find yourself indebted and let's say you have a monopoly and, um, you want to mortgage, you can mortgage just one of the spots, right? Yes. But to do so, let's say you have a hotel, um, on the, that piece of land that you're mortgaging, you first have to sell the hotel back to the bank at half price. Yeah.

And then you can mortgage the land. You're still, I think, are you collecting rent on that land or does it go right to the bank? No, that's where, um, you just turn the card over and it's just, you still technically own it. Right. But you can't collect any rents on it. But you can collect rent and everything on the other two pieces of property or the other one, depending on which one you own. I don't know, really? No, you can. I looked it up. So that doesn't bust up the monopoly? No, it doesn't. Okay. So you still own the monopoly. It's just that, that one is mortgaged. And then to get it back, you have to pay the bank the mortgage plus 10%. Right. And this is where you can get silly with your house rules if you want. Yeah. You

know, like as far as mortgaging and stuff like that, because supposedly it's a rule too where you can't, um, the only thing that is not allowed is a personal loan. Right. And I did all kinds of personal loaning because I was Mr. Cash. What were your, uh, your interest rates? I don't remember. Did you break any usury laws? No, I was a kid. So it was, it was probably just like, just paying back whenever 10% or something. I guess I'm not the right. I'm not enough of a you're not the short cap one now. You're not the one who like declines to buy something so you can bid on it at a lower price. I'm playing Candyland. I loved Candyland. Actually, I never played that. It was a great game. Was it because of the art? It was crazy. It was beautiful stuff.

And then nowadays you look at the Candyland board and you're like, poor kids. Yeah. They don't know what they're missing. I just got a ticket to ride game that I haven't played yet. Have you heard of that one? No. It was a German game that's like one game of the year. It's a train, train game, like you established train routes between cities. But it's supposedly like, it sounds like really, that's fun, but it's supposedly great. I just bled a tear at the thought of it. Yeah, it does sound pretty bad. Yeah. But no, it's, it's one game of the year. Why those Germans and watch people ticket to ride enthusiasts will be like, dude, it's the best ever. Oh, I'm sure. I've heard like German game night is like a thing now.

Yeah, I think they're a little more heady. Is that what it is? I think so. This seems like I read over the rules the other night, just so I would know what to do. And because you got it, like the purchaser of the game has to be the game explainer as well. Right. You have to listen to Kraftwerk while you play it. Yeah. Well, you don't have to, but it helps. House rules. Yeah. Yeah. So I guess we, oh, and we said you, you can do anything but give personal loans, right? That's what the official rules say. So like you can, I can buy from you on the side or something like that, or you can hold something up for auction, whatever anybody's doing. Yeah. And we always played where you had to do that when it was your turn.

That makes sense. And then that would take your turn as well. Right. Yeah. But again, the whole point is, is to be the person who owns the most stuff. Yeah. So that you can bankrupt all of your family and friends. That's right. And I mean, those are the rules, but there's actually strategy to it. And people pay a lot of attention to this. You know, there's a monopoly world championship every four years, although it's been the last ones in 2009. So we're due. An American lawyer won, right? In 2009. No, I think it was a Swede or a Norwegian man. Okay. Maybe he was the North American. That's what he was. The North American champ.

Yeah. And he represented the U.S. and the world championships. It sounds so silly. Weird. Yeah. Well, he, uh, he used the iron that was this week. Yeah. Yeah. I think the American used the thimble. Gotcha. Terry just laughed. She was like, really? That's a fact that people need. Well, we're trying to really appeal to the purists here too. We want everybody to be engaged. Yeah. Okay. Chuggers. So again, the point bankrupt everybody bankrupt. But there's like techniques that you can use to more efficiently bankrupt people. Like the, the overall, the best strategy, the basic strategy is to buy everything,

every chance you have. I'm Mangeh Shatikula. And to be honest, I don't believe in astrology, but from the moment I was born, it's been a part of my life in India. It's like smoking. You might not smoke, but you're going to get secondhand astrology. And lately I've been wondering if the universe has been trying to tell me to stop running and pay attention because maybe there is magic in the stars if you're willing to look for it. So I rounded up some friends and we dove in and let me tell you, it got weird fast. Tantric curses, major league baseball teams, canceled marriages, K-pop. But just when I thought I had a handle on this sweet and curious show about astrology, my whole world came crashing down.

Situation doesn't look good. There is risk to father. And my whole view on astrology, it changed. Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, I think your ideas are going to change too. Listen to Skyline Drive and the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. On the podcast, HeyDude the 90s called David Lasher and Christine Taylor, stars of the cult classic show HeyDude, bring you back to the days of slip dresses and choker necklaces. We're going to use HeyDude as our jumping off point, but we are going to unpack and dive back into the decade of the 90s. We lived it and now we're calling on all of our friends

to come back and relive it. It's a podcast packed with interviews, co-stars, friends, and non-stop references to the best decade ever. Do you remember going to Blockbuster? Do you remember Nintendo 64? Do you remember getting frosted tips? Was that a cereal? No, it was hair. Do you remember AOL instant messenger and the dial-up sound like poltergeist? So leave a code on your best friend's beeper because you'll want to be there when the nostalgia starts flowing. Each episode will rival the feeling of taking out the cartridge from your Game Boy, blowing on it and popping it back in as we take you back to the 90s. Listen to HeyDude, the 90s, called on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

get your podcasts. Yeah, I mean, I looked up, there's a lot of different people's strategies and opinions online. I did find this one from a guy, and that was his strategy, is buy everything. It doesn't matter what it is. Even the suckers bet, the electric company and the waterworks. Yeah, which I don't pay off really. He said buy it all and never have more than $100 in cash as his rule. Wow. He says the number one mistake people make is hoarding cash like I did. Yeah, you're making the number one mistake. That's right. And he says that buy everything and do whatever it takes to get a monopoly, even a bad one. He will trade to get a bad monopoly and give someone a good monopoly even as long as he gets the monopoly. Oh, gotcha. And he says it's fine

because then you two will probably take out everyone else. The point is just to get a monopoly and improve it as fast as you can. So supposedly though, a general rule of film among like hardcore monopoly players is that while you're improving your monopoly, your properties, by adding houses or whatever, you want to stop at three houses. Yes. Because the jump from the third house to the hotel is financially, it doesn't pay off usually. It's over improvement. Yeah. Just like in your home, like don't build that $80,000 kitchen because you're not going to get your money back on that. Right. So three houses. This guy doesn't subscribe to that. He buys everything. And puts hotels on it? Yeah. He says as soon as he gets his first monopoly,

he mortgages everything else to get cash back and then uses that cash to improve. Wow. Which I thought was a little risky. A couple of bad rolls. I mean, it's a game of strategy, but at the end of the day, you're rolling dice. And so it is very much a game of chance. I'll bet that guy feels like he's on the back of a Pegasus, though the whole game, like he's just thrilled. He claims to have been out there on the edge. He claims to have won a game in 12 minutes one time, which I thought was shooting his own horn a bit. Yeah. Sure. But real regular strategy, you're right. They say three houses is the max you should go. And then there's also some that you should avoid. Even though this seemed like very tempting,

we already said the electric company and the water company, the utilities. Yeah. The most you can get for rent from landing on was 10 times the roll of the dice, which is 120 bucks. But it also max roll. It could be as low as $20. Yeah. So I mean, this guy would probably say, well, hey, it was worth it. I still own them and I'm still making money if somebody lands on them. But a lot of, again, the monopoly purists say, just stay away from them. Yeah. And you also may want to stay away from the most expensive ones, Boardwalk and Park Place. Yeah. They're only two of them and they just don't get landed on very much. Yeah. So think about it. Right out of the gate, when you're thinking of probabilities,

the fact that there's two of these properties rather than three means that you are, that another player is less likely to land on your monopoly because there's three or two instead of three. That's one problem. Yeah. The other problem is placement where they are. They're right after go. Yeah. Right before. Right before go. Yeah. So it's at the end of the board, essentially. No, I'm sorry. They're right before jail. No, they're right before go. They're right before go. Okay. So that means that most players are going to, well, they're going to pass them for sure whenever they hit that. Go directly to go. Exactly. Yeah. So that means that your monopoly is going to be passed over. The likelihood of making your money back, recouping it,

especially if they're improved to the hilt. Yeah. Like a really fancy hotel. Sure. Means that's a lot of money. Yeah. You probably sunk a lot of money unwisely into those. You want to go for some other ones? Yeah. Supposedly, and there are people that have done, those is one guy. If you really want to get into monopoly, this dude, I don't even know his name, but just look up probabilities in the game of monopoly. And a scientific American in the mid 90s at an article that talked about probabilities of landing on different spaces, but they excluded community chest and chance and being sent to jail. So this guy said, I took all of that and included everything. And he has statistical charts and long-term

probabilities for ending up on each square. Expected income per opponent role. Yeah. Average income per role. Expected number of opponent role to recoup incremental costs to recoup mortgages. So it's the name of his website, by the way, is monopolywasfun.com. It totally should be. But if you just want to do some basic probabilities, the orange properties are landed on more than anyone else. Yes. And why Chuck? Because they are after jail. Yeah. Six, eight and nine spaces after jail. Yeah. So if you get sent to jail, which is going to happen at some point, and we actually didn't talk about jail, we'll talk about that, then you, chances are you're going to hit one of those orange squares on your way out of jail.

Yeah. Because you're rolling with two dice. So you're much more likely to roll like a six, eight or a nine than you are like a two or a three or a one. Yeah. It's not even possible to roll a one. Try it. You can't. You can't unless you eat one of the dice. And in which case, unless it's a house rule, everybody's going to yell at you and have to wait around until you poop it out to keep playing. Actually, our rule was you had to roll the child in. The what? The child who ate the dice. Oh yeah. Just shake them up. Yep. All right. So jail is in the corner of the board and you can, there are a few different ways you can go there. You can draw a go to jail card. Right. You can throw three doubles in a row and go to jail. Yeah. Which I never understood because

that's a good thing. I guess, but it's also the sign of the devil. So that's why you have to go to jail for a little while to be cleansed. That's right. Or there is a square mark to go to jail and you can land on that and go to jail. You can also get out in three ways. You can have that get out of jail free card. If you draw that, you can hold on to it. We could sell it, although I think that's a house rule. You could sell it to a friend or enemy. Whoever read the most cash, right? Exactly. And then you basically, the other way is to roll, to either pay your way out with 50 bucks or to roll your way out. And the way we played it was each turn, you had one chance to roll your way out of jail by rolling doubles. Rolling doubles, right? Yeah. And then if you,

under official rules, if you don't roll doubles for three consecutive turns, like you get three consecutive chances to roll doubles, then if you don't on any of those turns, then you have to pay 50 bucks to get out of jail. We just played where you just got out and you didn't have to pay. Well, then you guys weren't following the rules. I told you the house rules, the Brian house rules. So there's actually a strategy to jail. Yeah. If you go to jail early on in the game, you want to pay your 50 bucks to get out immediately. Yeah. Just pay the 50 bucks, because then you can keep going around the board and there's more stuff available to buy. Yeah. But later in the game, you want to just kind of hang out in jail. Yeah. Like Josh has bought all

the orange spaces. Yeah. And you've got hotels on each one. Yeah. So I'm thinking I might be good to sit in jail for a few rounds. Yeah. Because you can still collect rent on your properties. But the fact that you're in jail keeps you off of my properties. Yeah. And another Bryant rule we played where when you were in jail, you could not collect any rents. Yeah. I mean, that makes sense. But according to official rules, you just make as much money as you want there. And apparently in jail, you can officially, you can also buy and sell properties and improve your and collect rent and build hotels and houses, which I thought, I don't know if you're in jail, you can lose that right. It seems like in real jail, that's the way it is. No, it's not. You can

own a house and be in jail. I guess that's true. And technically, you could probably charge rent to someone you could sublet it like I'm going to be gone for three to six. No, it's true. But what happens when dishwasher breaks, try to get light out of jail to go fix it. They're not going to let you do that. That's very funny. But it's true too. Probability experts also say you get a good return on buying all the railroads because they're pretty cheap. There's one on each side. And once you have each, once you own all of them, they're $200 in rent. So that's not too bad. Not too shabby. But to me in Monopoly is the reason Monopoly is valuable, but it's because they're in a row, whereas the railroads are spaced out. Right. And our friend, the strategist who thinks he

invented the game says, but what you have to remember is none of these strategies matter because you're playing it's a game of people and personalities. So he said, you got to sit back and watch the different personalities emerge and then use manipulate that. Like the cash hoarder versus the shark. And he's like, you're really playing against people. Man, that's interesting. I thought so. Okay. So let's talk about another friend, an economist friend. His name is Ralph Ansbach. Yes. And he back in the 70s had a game called anti-monopoly. Yeah. He was an econ professor at San Francisco State. That's right. And made his own real game. He didn't just draw it up on paper. He started a little small business and manufactured it. Apparently sold about 200,000

copies of it right out of the gate. It just hit a nerve. Again, it was called anti-monopoly, and the whole point of it was to break up monopolies rather than build monopolies. Yeah. At the beginning of the game is essentially the end of a regular game. Everyone starts off with monopolies. And instead of real estate and utilities and anti-monopoly, they had their individual businesses that have been brought under a single ownership. And you take the role of federal caseworker and bring indictments against monopolized businesses in order to return the board to a free market system. You have to wear sensible shoes. It sounds awesome. Yeah. Well, and he came up with this because he was trying to apparently explain to his son what was wrong

and bad about monopolies. Right. And I suspect capitalism to a certain extent. And he came up with this game instead. Like I said, sold a substantial amount, 200,000 copies of a game, especially back in the 70s. That was pretty good. As a startup. Yeah. And it caught Parker Brothers attention enough that they sent him a cease and desist letter, took him to court, got a court order for him to hand over his like 37,000 copies that he had in his warehouse. And Parker Brothers went and unceremoniously buried him in a landfill in Minnesota. Yeah. So Ralph didn't cotton to this very much. He didn't like that. He doesn't like to be pushed around. I get the impression. No. I mean, a guy who makes anti-monopoly is not going to cave into the courts initially.

And he did so like very much at his own financial detriment. He had a very expensive team of lawyers at first and spent quite a bit of money fighting Parker Brothers for the right to use anti-monopoly. And it wasn't really going anywhere. And he was losing a lot of money. So he started to do legwork himself, found a lawyer friend who worked on the cheap forum. And that's when things started taking off. Yeah. I mean, he basically uncovered the lie that it was invented by Charles Darrow. Yeah. He found out that the game was essentially in the public domain or should have been and went all the way to the Supreme Court and won. Yeah. He won at the Supreme Court. This econ professor came up with a game called anti-monopoly, won in the Supreme Court,

won the right to name his game anti-monopoly. Yeah. I mean, he deposed the two Quakers that were friends of Hoskins. They were old at that point. They took the stand. He deposed the CEO of Parker Brothers and he took the stand and had to admit under oath like, yeah, we did kind of steal it. Nice. The idea from that lady, after all. And so as Ralph says, the whole point to him was for this true story, the true origins of monopoly and how it came about and the whole point of it originally could still be told openly. And that what he said couldn't be bought at any price in his opinion. That's right. So way to go, Ralph. Yeah. He wrote a book awkwardly titled The Billion Dollar Monopoly in Swindle, Cullen. During a David and Goliath battle, anti-monopoly

uncovers the secret history of monopoly. That's a little clunky. Little clunky. But it's still around. In 1984, there was a new version called anti-monopoly 2 where you could actually be a monopolist or a competitor. So you got to choose, which I thought was interesting. And if you chose the competitor, you charge lower rents and you can improve property at any time. But if you're a monopolist, you have to own at least two properties before in a group, before building houses and charge a lot higher rents. So I think you're like playing against the two systems within the same game. That's really interesting. Yeah. I'm going to, I might grab one of these and see what it's like. Yeah. Maybe. Tell everybody it's German. You got anything else? I got nothing else. I do.

I do. The longest monopoly game of all time, 70 days. I played a game of risk that seemed like it lasted that long once. It may have. It didn't last that long, but it lasted a weekend. Okay. And monopoly, I don't have the patience for that. I'll just give up. I'll take my fake cash and go home. You're horrid of it. Yeah. You're like, oh, I just saved all this money. That's right. And I own the utilities. If you want to learn more about monopoly, including how to play, if you don't like house rules, but you also don't feel like looking at the official rulebook, you can just go on to how stuff works. Yeah. And check out the rules that is in this article to site monopoly in the search bar at house of works.com. And since I said search bar, it's time for Chuck. Facebook

questions. So people, this is what we do sometimes when we don't have a listener mail prepared, we will go on Facebook, ask for questions. And then over the course of a couple of episodes, we will read those out in rapid fire, like fashion. We don't do anything in rapid fire fashion. I couldn't even explain rapid fire fashion in rapid fire. No. All right. So I'm going to start this off with Louise Benjamin says, with as many shows as you've recorded, how many would you like to go back and redo? Just a small handful, I would say, that I was literally kind of like, I'm really disappointed with that. Yeah. You're a little harder on us than I am, though. What's weird is like any time I do say, like, that was terrible. You're like, I wasn't bad,

and I'll go back and listen. I'll be like, it was way better than I thought. That's what Jerry says when you leave the room. She says, there's always better than anything. Oh, really? I didn't realize Jerry talked about me when I wasn't here or spoke at all when I wasn't around. She was not allowed. All right, you got one? I do. Let's see. Do either of us have a preference as to what type of vacuum cleaner you use? That's from Taylor Jean Warner with the most pedestrian question anyone's ever asked. Not if you were into vacuuming, my friend. Okay. Very important. I love vacuuming. I have a Electrolux canister vacuum. Oh, really? I call it Luxie, and Emily's not allowed to operate it.

Wow. Yeah. You mean I have a Dyson, one of the little, not the big one. Yeah. One of the smaller ones. Yeah. The yellow ball. Just a regular upright vacuum. Yeah. Yeah. I got on the canister thing years ago. I love them. Yeah. I don't know why. This thing took like, you know, they, they're like, it never loses suction. It's very powerful or whatever. I accidentally rolled over the cord to charge my phone. It sucked the rubber off of the cord. Wow. Yeah. I had to put electrical tape back on. Wow. It does suck. All right. That's some buzz marketing. Joseph Campbell, what is your advice on how to have a successful marriage? Joseph Campbell asked us a question. Yeah. Wow. You should know this question or answer. Mary, Mary, your friend. Yeah. That's my biggest

piece of advice. That's a good one. Because if you don't like your spouse, then you can't love your spouse. Yeah. Mary, the person you want to hang out with the most. You should write a self-help book. The end. I have another one for you, Chuck. Ready? Yes. Bethany Jackson asks, are you ever going to get another pet goat? No. Well, never say never. Yeah. One day I will. When I retire, like to the country, I would love another goat because they're the best. That answers that. Josh, Kari Obermack says, what is your favorite Simpsons episode? Oh, that's a tough one, but I'm going to have to go with the old standby of Mr. Sparkle. I'm going to go with Monorail. That's a good one, too. Or any of the Halloween like one through

10 or so. Yeah. Those are just great. Yeah. Robert Browning, Justice League or Avengers? I don't know what that means. Really? Yeah, you do. As a kid, I was Justice League. I was way more into that, but here as an adult, like that Avengers movie is great. I'm into that. Justice League is DC? Yeah, Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman. Although I like the Super Friends. That was all Justice League, wasn't it? Yeah. Okay. Well, I have a coherent answer then. Okay. For live action animation, well, not live action, but for animation, I prefer Justice League. Yes. For comic books, I preferred Avengers Marvel universe. Well, in the new movie, they're doing the Superman, Batman movie. And then a full on Justice League movie is

this leading up to that. So we'll see. Jury's out. Yes. On motion pictures. Okay. But yeah, it's going to be hard to talk to the Avengers. Maybe that was pretty. Not motion pictures, cartoon only. No, no, no. I'm talking about the new movies that are coming out soon. I got you. Billy Schultz says, were there rejected titles for the podcast before you landed on stuff you should know? Since you named it, I think you should answer. I came up with a bunch of ideas. One of them was McNeil Laird News Hour. That was already taken. But stuff you should know is in the original list of ideas. Yeah. What Terminator 2 judgment day. Yeah. That was one. Yeah. All right. You're next. You want me to go next? Yeah. Let's see. Oh, it is a good one.

Christopher Mark Reese says, which of the two are your favorite person for promoting science? Bill Nye or Neil deGrasse Tyson? Good one. Man, they're both so great. I say N-D-T. Yeah. Yeah. Cosmos is awesome. It is awesome. He also is totally comfortable like rocking a shirt unbuttoned at the top too. Yeah. Like he's like the Billy D. Williams of science. Plando Tyson. Yeah. Yeah. And he was on our TV show, which was really nice. You kind of have to go with him. All right. He's a good guy. Naomi Hartman Garum. Oh, this is from her son Jackson, age nine. What was your favorite book when you were kids? My favorite book when I was a kid was like around your age or younger was the Great Christmas Kidnapping Caper. It was about a bunch

of mice in New York that moved into Macy's during Christmas time. And Santa is kidnapped and they solved the case. Wow. It was a great, great book. What was it called? The Great Christmas Kidnapping Caper. And it wasn't like a little kid's book. I mean, it was my first novel. It was long, long form. That was your favorite book when you were a kid? Yep. My favorite book when I was a little kid was a Christmas book. I think it was a golden book called something like A Visit to Santa's Workshop or something. Yeah. Oh my gosh. It was so cute. And then strangely, the first series of novels that I ever loved were Ramona Quimby books. Oh, really? Man, I used to eat those up. And I would take flak too at school. I didn't care. I loved those books. Yeah. I loved Encyclopedia Brown.

Oh yeah, he was good. And then, you know, when I was younger, younger, you can't do better than Dr. Seuss and Chelsilverstein and stuff like that. Yeah. The classics. I've got one. All right, go ahead. If this is from Alejandro Sandy, if you could live in any era of history, which time would you live in why? That's always so hard. I'm going back to what I said before. Me, Yumi, Cuba, 1920s. Okay. I'm going to say New York in like, I don't know, maybe the 1930s. That'd be pretty fun. Cool. That's a drink and a dance. Yeah. Well, that's Cuba in the 20s too. Yeah, exactly. He just had the Latin flavor. Kevin Kinsey, which pickle thing do you prefer most? Eggs, cucumbers, peppers, or cauliflower or anything else? I don't eat pickled things. So that's you.

I love pickled everything. It's so good for you too. Oh, really? Oh, yeah. It helps you digest fats a lot more easily. Nice. It's just really healthy, like eating pickled stuff. You don't like pickles? No, don't. I have one more. Aslan Bridell, boy, there's some weird names on Facebook. How do I make a 10 year old more responsible? You're getting all the heavy questions like secret to successful marriage. How do you make your kid good? I think, you know, you gotta put them to work or get them a pet. You make them responsible for something and that they're interested in. It would be my advice. I agree with both of your pieces of advice. Marry the person that you want to spend time with. Yeah. And get your kid a hamster. Yes.

Put them to work. Charge money. You got any more? Yeah, I got too many more. Pick one. Okay. Are you ready? Yes. The one that I pick is as follows from Mike Reels, Arnie or Stallone. It depends on the year. I'm going to have to say I would go Schwarzenegger. Yeah. 80s Schwarzenegger. Nowadays, who cares? No. But if we're like taking the time work back to the 80s, I would say Conan the Barbarian, the original Terminator. Total recall. Total recall. You know, those are all pretty great. Yeah. I'm a huge first blood fan and Rocky fan. Yeah. This was tough not to go with Stallone, although he made some really bad movies. Like Tango Assassin type movies. Tango and Cash and the Dolly Parton one when he's a

country singer. Oh, Rhinestone. Rhinestone, Cobra, like I guess. Wait, wait, wait. Those were awful movies. What? What? You didn't like Cobra? How did you? Yes. No, not for me. Must have been the age difference. Yeah. So I'm going to go Arnie too. Okay. How about that? There you go. Arnold. If you want to ask Chuck or me questions, you can go on to Facebook anytime at facebook.com slash stuff you should know. You can tweet to us at syskpodcast. That's our Twitter handle. You can send us an email to stuffpodcast at howstuffworks.com. And as always, join us at our home on the web, stuffyusho.com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit howstuffworks.com. Attention Bachelor Nation. He's back. The host of some of America's most

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