Stuff You Should Know - Is the world going to end in 2012?

Episode Date: March 31, 2009

According to the Mayan calendar, a new age will begin on December 21, 2012. Will this mean the end of the world, or just a transition? Tune in as Josh and Chuck discuss whether 2012 will be a bad year for the planet or not. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Flooring contractors agree. When looking for the best to care for hardwood floors, use Bona Hardwood Floor Cleaner. The residue-free, fast drying solution is specially designed for hardwood floors, delivering the safe and effective clean you trust. Bona Hardwood Floor Cleaner is available at most retailers where floor cleaning products are sold and on Amazon. Also available for your other hard surface floors like Stone, Tile, Laminate, Vinyl, and LVT. For cleaning tips and exclusive offers, visit bona.com slash Bona Clean. On the new podcast, The Turning Room of Mirrors, we look beneath the delicate veneer of American ballet and the culture formed by its most influential figure, George Balangene. He used to say, what are you looking at, dear? You can't see you,

only I can see you. What you're doing is larger than yourself, almost like a religion. Like, he was a god. Listen to The Turning Room of Mirrors on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready, are you? Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Chuck Bryant. You're lubed, Chuck. What? You're lubed. Oh, I thought you said I'm lubed. Well, a little bit of both, Chuck. Great. Yes, so this is Stuff You Should Know. I did say your full name, didn't I? No, it doesn't matter. I'm just Chuck. Just Chuck. CB. Yeah. LOL. So, Chuck, did you know that just a couple days ago, the earth

actually had a near miss with an asteroid? I did hear about that. Someone actually a fan wrote in and told me that. What's unaware? Yeah, this asteroid about the size of a 10-story building. We know the height. I don't know the width or depth or anything, but passed within 50,000 miles of earth, which NASA considers a close call. I believe that this is what they call it, or near miss. Sure. Same thing. But there have been closer asteroids. Very recently, I think 2004, 2006, one came within 5,000 miles. That's close. But the thing was pretty small and wouldn't have done much damage. This one came within 50,000 miles, which is a fifth of the distance between us and the moon, so it was really close. Yeah. And it was about the same size as the one that leveled 800 square

miles of Siberia in 1908. Wow. So, it could have been a real problem, right? Right. We should have gotten Bruce Willis and the gang of drillers to go up and explode it with the nuclear warhead. I don't think they were at the ready. Sure, he was. Yeah. Ben Affleck, too. Yeah. That was a terrible movie. It really was. Are we allowed to say that? Oh, yeah. Oh, it was a terrible movie. It was. Thank you, Michael Bay, for that stinker. That's funny that you bring up Michael Bay's name because he's doing something right now that will be out soon, I believe. He may have already finished. He's directing a movie called 2012. No, he's not. Yeah, he is. Roland Emmerich directed that film. Well, then we need to update this article because this is Michael Bay. I

believe he's producing it. Same thing. Okay. Okay. Michael Bay is a tag to this. I worked with him. Let's hear it, Chuck. I can't tell the full story, honestly, because I would most definitely get a phone call from his people. Oh, yeah? But yeah, I worked with him on a truck commercial at the Grand Canyon. Pretty cool. Very cool. What truck? The Canyon Arrow? Oh, I don't even remember. Okay. So, well, I bring up 2012 because that's kind of what we're talking about today. That's right. And Josh, this is another listener suggestion. We're going to diving into these from Jason of Santa Barbara. Yeah. Wanted to hear about the Doomsday theories of the year 2012. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks, Jason. Let's do this, right, Chuck? Yes. Okay. So basically, it's not just the year

2012. There's actually a specific date, December 21st, 2012, the winter solstice. And actually, I was on a site called All About 2012, and it's site's 11.11 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time as the moment when the world's going to end. Really? Yeah. I think I will hold off on buying my Christmas presents that year until the 22nd. You do anyway, don't you? Yeah, true. Yeah. So, you know, the end of the world is not going to bring any big changes for you. I would feel mighty foolish if I plunked down like several hundred dollars on gifts from my wife and then the world ended. Well, you're not going to need money anyway after the apocalypse comes. Yeah, that's true. All right. So, well, Chuck, December 21st, 2012, this is not an arbitrary date, right? No. This is

actually based on the mine calendar or one of them, right? Yeah, they had several. Though, first we should probably say this is actually becoming something of a trend. This kind of Doomsday prophecy that December 21st, 2012 is going to see the end of the world or at least significant changes. There's all sorts of groups around the world. I read an article about one in Belgium led by a guy named, what's his name? Patrick Gerald. Yeah. You heard of him, too? Yeah, I read that. He's developing quite a following and apparently he and his people have found a plot of land in Africa in the Highlands, I imagine somewhere in Ethiopia, where they're going to basically hole up and wait and then come back out and try starting

civilization up again. That's what he said. He's stockpiling stuff. He quit his job a couple of years ago after he saved up some money and yeah. Yeah, so taking seriously. Yeah. I mean, we're talking probably the thousands of people who are actively thinking that this is going to happen and maybe making preparations about it, but it seems to be gathering steam the closer we get to 2012, right? Oh yeah. You remember Y2K? I do. Do you remember what a paranoid time that was? Well, not for me. No? No, man. I remember and I'm not just saying this now, but I remember at the time saying, nothing's going to happen. Nothing's going to go wrong. The elevators aren't going to fall down the side of the building and all our computers aren't going to explode.

And I just remember thinking it's just all much to do about nothing. I feel like you're in the minority then. Like, think about it. Remember, X-Files had a tremendous run and I think a lot of it was because of the changing over from, you know, one millennia to another. For some reason, we humans attach great significance to a change in calendar even though it's a human construct, right? Yeah, true. But I mean, also these kind of doomsday prophecies, these fears that the world's going to end are usually, they usually reflect like our cultural concerns at the time, like Y2K, that fears about that began to grow alongside technology. Technology was taking off and like the internet was this huge thing that we hadn't really figured out what to do with except to put

like really, really dirty porn that involved goats onto, you know? So it seemed like, you know, Y2K, it was technology-based concerns, fear. And this 2012 thing, it's taking place, it's transpiring while we've become a very eco-conscious society. We're aware of our environmental impact and it seems like part of the 2012 movement is kind of this back-to-earth thing. I think I get this sense that a lot of people who are like, I'm going to be prepared, I'm going to make it, I'm going to be one of the lucky people who gets to repopulate earth. And part of that is knowing how to plant crops and, you know, like raise livestock and that kind of thing. So it seems to reflect the kind of the green consciousness that we have right now, although the common thread, of course,

is that the world's going to end, right? Exactly. And I think global warming has got a lot of people scared and a lot of the people, the 2012ers, that's good. You like that? Sure. A lot of the 2012ers bring up things like global warming is like, this is a sign, the oceans will boil and, you know, volcanoes will erupt and mass chaos. No, and a critic would say, yeah, volcanoes erupt, you know, fairly commonly. There are earthquakes and there are floods. These things happen, you know. Exactly. We don't have enough of a handle on climatology to really say either way, which is, I think, why debates like these rage, right? Right. Okay, so like we said, the December 21st, 2012, the date, it's based on a Mayan calendar. That's where it all started. And actually,

among, to borrow your term, 2012ers, there's a predominant theory that the Mayans, the Mayan civilization, were either aliens or in contact with aliens. Right. And when you kind of start to look at the Mayans, you get an idea of how somebody could say that. The earliest Mayan settlement they found is from 2400 BCE. And they just kind of lived primitively for a couple of millennia. And then out of nowhere, there's a sudden birth of ingenuity and insight from the 3rd century to the 10th century CE. And all of a sudden, the Mayans developed this really tremendous understanding of mathematics, including zero, which you can't function, you can't create a mathematical system without zero. You have to have zero. And it's very elusive and rare. Right.

And to develop it out of nowhere is really something. They understood crop domestication, really elaborate architecture. And, you know, they became arguably the most advanced, pre-Columbian civilization in Mesoamerica almost overnight, historically speaking. Right. Yeah. I think they were easily the most advanced. They had an advanced system of writing. They were the first people to do that. They had a recorded history. They were the first civilization to record their own history. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Astronomy, like you said, mathematics. Right. Yeah. And one of the other things that they were really, really good at was marking time, especially through calendars. Yes. And building things. They were. They were good at building things and blood lighting.

Binging to blood lighting. Really? And human sacrifice. Oh, well, yeah. Sure. Yeah. But ritual blood lighting as well. Okay. You can't, you can't leave that out. For the person whose blood is being lent, it's pretty significant experience, I imagine. Yeah. And probably for the person who's doing the cutting too, but we'll find out later. In 1968, five black girls dressed in oversized military fatigues were picked up by the police in Montgomery, Alabama. I was tired and just didn't want to take it anymore. The girls had run away from a reform school called the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children, and they were determined to tell someone about the abuse they'd suffered there. Picture the worst environment for children

that you possibly can. I believe Mount Mages was patterned after slavery. I didn't understand why I had to go through what I was going through and for what. I'm writer and reporter Josie Duffy Rice. And in a new podcast, I investigate how this reform school went from being a safe haven for black kids to a nightmare and how those five black girls changed everything. All that on unreformed. Listen to unreformed on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 1980, cocaine was captivating and corrupting Miami. Miami had become the murder capital of the United States. They were making millions of dollars. I would categorize it as the Wild Wild West. Unleashing a wave of violence. My God,

took a walking into the devil's den. The car killed. They just killed everybody that was home. They start pulling out pictures of Clay Williams' body taken out in the Everglades. A world orbiting around a mysterious man with a controversial claim. This drug pilot, by the name of Lamora Chester. He never ran anything but grass until I turned over that load of coke to him on the island. Chester would claim he did it all for the CIA. Pulling many into a sprawling federal investigation. So Clay wasn't the only person who was murdered? Oh no, not by a long shot. I'm Lauren Bright Pacheco. Join me for Murder in Miami. Listen to Murder in Miami on the iHeart Radio App, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So they had 20 different

calendars at least that we know of. Right. And actually five of them are still kept in secret by Mayans today. Yeah, pretty cool. Really kind of makes you wonder what those five calendars are counting, right? But there's this, there's, I guess I call them the big three calendars. Yes. The Zolkin, which is actually a 260-day calendar that actually parallels human gestation. Okay. All about 2012 again, that site, which I found pretty cool. They basically have a calendar for a pregnancy, right? There's the Hob, H-A-A-B. Yeah, that's 360 days with a five-day period called the Weyeb. Is that correct? Which, it's a solar calendar, but it's essentially the same thing as the one that we use the Gregorian calendar that we use, right? Exactly. And then

there's the calendar round, which is a 52-year calendar. Right. And then there's, there's actually the big one. This is the one that all of this doomsday stuff is centered around. Right. And it's called what the long count calendar, right? Yes. And that's all about the great cycle, is what they call it. Yeah, which is a period of 5,125.36 years. Yeah, very specific. Yeah. Yeah. Approximately, right? Yeah. And we know that this date of December 21st, 2012, is the end of this great cycle. Exactly. Thanks to the conquistadors. So they show up and just completely subjugate and commit genocide against the Mayans. Some of them are left alive. And actually there was one Mayan scholar who adopted the Gregorian calendar in conjunction with the long count

calendar and started recording the same dates on both. Oh, right. Yeah. And so eventually some scholars went back and started comparing dates and found the pattern and finally determined that the last beginning of, or the beginning of the last great cycle was August 13th, 3114 BCE. Right. And, you know, 5,125 years after that is.36..36 would be December 21st, 2012. Yep. So that's how we know that the Mayan calendar is going to reset itself on that date. Right. But I think it's now is where we should note that the Mayans did not say this was the end of the world. It was a restarting of the great cycle and they, I believe, had gone through three other great cycles. Is that correct? So far, yeah. Yeah. So they didn't think it was

going to be the end of the world. This is something that other people have kind of put on it. And apparently we're, as far as the Mayans are concerned, we're extraordinarily lucky to live through the end of a great cycle in the beginning of another. It's a time of really good luck. Right. It's a time to celebrate. Exactly. It's not really a time to stock up on bottled water, you know. Evaporated milk. Yeah, exactly. But yeah. So that's kind of one of the fatal flaws, I think, in this whole 2012 doomsday prophecy, is that the very people whose calendar it's based on didn't necessarily believe this, right? Well, right. But the reason, and you know, I did a little more research too, and a lot of Mayan scholars are really upset about this,

that it casts them in a negative light and they're saying, this is not all accurate. This is not at all accurate. Sorry. And Mayans didn't believe this. And this is something we put on it because of the, it ends with a winter solstice. That's the key, right? Right. There are a couple of things that I'm doing research I found slightly unsettling. Let's hear them. And okay, can I tell you a quick Y2K story? Yeah. I wasn't big into it either, but I'm kind of one of those. I was a Cub Scout for a little while. Never made it to Boy Scouts because I thought respecting your elders just because they're old, that's a stupid concept and I quit. But I wasn't Boy Scout long enough to learn to prepare just in case. So on December 31, 1999, I was at Phillips

Arena at a widespread panic show. And had you followed me back to my van, you would have found a 410 shotgun, some shells, my dogs, some water and a couple of other supplies. And I was ready to go to the Georgia mountains just in case. Are you serious? I'm very serious. You're kidding. Yeah. No, a younger, much more out of it, Josh, made that decision. But hey, if it had happened, I would have, I would have, you know, been fine. I was at the Gravity Pub in East Atlanta that night. Were you? Great place. Bringing in the new year. That's great, Chuck. A plug for the Gravity Pub. Seriously, Ann Phillips Arena. So come to Atlanta. We've got at least two things for you to do. Right. So my point is that I'm not necessarily a really nervous person about stuff like this.

I am prepared. I'm probably not going to do anything for December 21, 2012, except maybe throw a party. Right. But there are a couple of things, like I said, doing research that I found that were kind of weird about December 21, 2012. One of them is that on that date, the winner solstice, the sun is actually going to be on that one day at the center of the Milky Way. Yep. The last time that happened was about 26,000 years ago. Right. And apparently only happens every 26,000 years. Yeah. Or so. And we're talking like a day. This is this one. It will be in that position for a day. Yeah. And probably not even the whole day. At 11, 11, maybe even. Who knows? Right. I found that a little significant. And then another is that we're actually beginning

a new sunspot cycle. This is something that actually, if you read some of the 2012 literature, they keep talking about sunspots and sunspots and how it's going to create, you know, severe climate change and imbalance in earth processes. Right. And on July 31, 2006, NASA astronomers found a backward sunspot, meaning that it was polarized in the wrong direction from south to north rather than lying north to south. It appeared on the sun. Right. And it's basically a planet-sized magnet. And they've been waiting for it because it signals the start of a new solar cycle. Uh-huh. Okay. And when that happens, we have like proton storms and it actually messes with the earth's magnetic field. Right. These happen,

I don't know, every few years, I think, there's a few year period between solar cycles. Um, so it's not that significant, but it could have a big effect. Right. The thing is, is the earth's so magnetic field right now is in the process of reversing. It is. Did you read about this? I did. And I know that 2012ers think that pole reversal might be one of the significant events as in sunrises in the west, sets in the east, that kind of thing. And actually, it is. Like I read on Science Daily that we're about, in about probably 1200 years of saying it's going to reverse. And it happens randomly. And they know that it's reversed through some very clever techniques. They find ancient lava flow. Uh-huh. And lava, because of its composition,

aligns itself with magnetic north. It flows. Right. Right. So whatever direction it's flowing in, it basically leaves like a line of this is where magnetic north was on this day. And if you can date that lava flow, then you know, right then, hundreds of thousands or millions of years ago, that's where magnetic north was. Right. Wow. So they're finding now that, that the, the magnetic field on earth is reversing. And this only happens about every 780,000 years. So all these things are kind of significant. I can understand how somebody who is very concerned about war, famine, pestilence, and it is, you know, conceivably into the end of the world. Disease. Sure. Sure. Yeah. Um, could kind of take all this information in and say,

yep, December 21st, 2012. Right. I'm going to be in a bunker in Ethiopia. I see your point, Josh, but most serious scholars say there's nothing to it. And I didn't find any mainstream scientists to endorse anything like that. Everyone I ran across is like, no, no, no, no. This is not going to happen. Right. And in fact, they call it, a lot of them just call it out as downright irresponsible to spread something like this. Not, not only that, but a way to make quick money too. Well, it was another criticism I saw. Oh yeah. So will the world really end in 2012? I'm going to go ahead and say probably not because humanity is far too blemish to get off that lucky. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. That's an interesting point of view. I don't think it's going to end at 2012 either,

Josh. Okay. We're in agreement, Chuck. We typically don't give our opinions, but darn it, that's mine. Yeah. And, um, anybody out there stocking up for 2012 and listening to this podcast, more power to you, you will have the last laugh that the world really does in. As we usually say to each his own, or her own, and that's what you believe in. Yeah. Stock up. Yeah. Chuck, that's one of those podcasts that now that we've done it, it stays done. I don't understand that. You don't have to. Okay. You'll find out on December 21st, 2012. Oh, you rat. In 1968, five black girls dressed in oversized military fatigues were picked up by the police in Montgomery, Alabama. I was tired and just didn't want to

take it anymore. The girls had run away from a reform school called the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children, and they were determined to tell someone about the abuse they'd suffered there. Picture the worst environment for children that you possibly can. I believe Mt. Mays was patterned after slavery. I didn't understand why I had to go through what I was going through and for what. I'm writer and reporter, Josie Duffy Rice. And in a new podcast, I investigate how this reform school went from being a safe haven for black kids to a nightmare, and how those five black girls changed everything. All that on Unreformed. Listen to Unreformed on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 1980, cocaine was captivating

and corrupting Miami. Miami had become the murder capital of the United States. They were making millions of dollars. I would categorize it as the Wild Wild West. Unleashing a wave of violence. My God, talk about walking into the devil's den. The car sales. They just killed everybody that was home. They start pulling out pictures of Clay Williams' body taken out in the Everglades. A world orbiting around a mysterious man with a controversial claim. This drug pilot, by the name of Lamora Chester, he never ran anything but grass until I turned over that load of coke to him on the island. Chester would claim he did it all for this CIA. Pulling many into a sprawling federal investigation. So Clay wasn't the only person who was murdered? Oh no, not by a

long shot. I'm Lauren Bright Pacheco. Join me for Murder in Miami. Listen to Murder in Miami on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So, Chuck, we're big time now. And I want to, I think, I think we should express this. We have a spoken word album for Love of God, Chuck. We have a spoken word album available for sale on iTunes right now. Let's discuss. Correct, Josh. It's the Stuff You Should Know Superstuffed Guide to the Economy. Beautiful. And what we try to do is break down economics and the economy in a way that the layman can understand. Because we're layman as well. Exactly. We learned a lot. We think you'll learn a lot. Yeah. I'm pretty proud of it. I am too. I think it's worth four bucks. I do too.

And Jerry, our producer, did an outstanding job with the sound design. It's much different and very special. We would be nowhere without her. No. So you guys can find that on iTunes. All you have to do is type Superstuffed into their handy search bar. And from my experience, it's the first thing that comes up. And have at it. I wouldn't click on anything else that said Superstuffed. Let's put it that way. Agreed, Chuck. Agreed. And while we're at it, while we're just plugging away, let's talk about our blog too, which frankly, I've come to be pretty proud of. I wasn't sure about the blogging thing at first and now I'm like, I get this. Yeah. Yeah. We have a blog now called Stuff You Should Know. And you can access it through the home page on the right

hand side there at HowStuffWorks.com. And we post twice a day, one of us posts. I post in the morning, Chuck posts at night. Both of them are well worth reading. And Chuck likes to do a little recap on Fridays of the podcast, the Week in Podcasting. And we will answer you. We chat with the folks. Yes. And we follow up. And it's a good way to reach us. Yeah. Chuck likes to interact with you guys more than I do because he likes to show off his cool guy hat in his photo that pops up every time he posts something. So ask us to come out and play and we will. Okay. So. Relief. Yes. We got the Spoken Word album knocked out. We got the blog knocked out. You know what that means. It's time for. Yes. LM. But Listener Mail. Listener Mail.

Right. Josh, this is significant because today is the day where we retire Haiku Theater. Thank you. Did everyone hear that? We are retiring Haiku Theater. We love your Haiku's. And you can still send them if you want, but we're not going to read them anymore. Agreed. Thank you, Chuck. Thank you. Thank you, Chuck. Okay. So Chuck, let's do it. This is the final. Can we get Jerry maybe a drum roll in here? Right. And I should say that one of the reasons we're retiring is because we received the best Haiku ever and it cannot be topped. Great. I'm still looking forward to this one. All right. So here we go. Nathan of Akron, Ohio says, I'm a CPA anesthesiologist. Man, they make some loot.

Belinda, who doesn't say where she's from, says Haiku and search bar. No article for learning. I had to Google. So I think she was expecting an article on Haiku's. Okay. David, who is an LVN, which I believe is a nurse, says frozen mist on ground. The railing has lots of holes. It's a long way down. He's referring, of course, to Niagara Falls. Gotcha. Jesse, I'm going to read this one pretty quickly. Odin has an eye. Valhalla is in Asgard. I do not know why. Thor has a hammer. Heimdall, nine moms and white God. Please enlighten me. Balder dreamt his death. His mom, Frig, dreamt it as well. Mistletoe, who knew? Venom on Loki. Forseti and his justice. How does this all fit?

I have no idea how it fits. Norse mythology in Haiku. That was gorgeous. We have one that just came in today from Ryan and I was going to not use it, but I told him I would make a joke about him being a hack poet. Okay. So here we go. Then you did. You fulfilled your obligation. Urban exploring, squatting at best place to get shot. Yes, I am smarter. Keep up the great work. I'll continue to listen. Knowledge is power. Is that, was that in Haiku form? Yeah. Okay. Two more. Cassie and Minneapolis is getting married this June and we wish her all the best. Yeah. She does a dance. She says stuff podcast delight. When I get a new podcast, I dance at my desk. Good luck, Cassie and your groom.

And now the last one ever folks that you will ever hear from my mouth. This comes to us from Austin from Fort Worth, Texas. He has this to say, uninvited guests at night. They in my food. Los cucaraches. Tell me their secrets. One podcast to rule them all. Los cucaraches. And that was the best Haiku I've ever heard in my life. Well, wow. From Austin. So thank you, Austin. Congratulations, Austin. You just ended Haiku theater forever. So thanks, Austin. That was awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Agreed. Los cucaraches. And thanks to everybody who sent us in Haiku's. Please stop now. We love your creativity,

but too much of a good thing. And we'll move on. We'll think it's something else creative you guys can do for us. Agreed. So in the meantime, if you want to just say hi, tell us that we said something wrong or send us anything. I believe one of them was a Shakespearean son. It's where we're an idea in iambic pentameter. That was Jonathan Strickland or colleague at TechStuff's idea. Anything you want to do. Just, just let us know that you're out there. Send an email to us at stuffpodcast at howstuffworks.com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit howstuffworks.com. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready. Are you? Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get

your podcast. On the new podcast, The Turning, Room of Mirrors, we look beneath the delicate veneer of American ballet and the culture formed by its most influential figure, George Ballinjean. He used to say, what are you looking at, dear? You can't see you, only I can see you. What you're doing is larger than yourself, almost like a religion. Like, he was a god. Listen to The Turning, Room of Mirrors, on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.