Stuff You Should Know - Selects: Geodesic Domes: The Wave of the Future That Wasn't

Episode Date: February 17, 2024

Sometimes a good idea doesn’t pan out in real life. Take Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome: It requires less energy to heat and cool, it’s cheap, and it’s durable enough to withstand a hurricane – but it’s also godawful ugly and that was its undoing. Learn more with Josh and Chuck in this classic episode.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

One of the best shows of the year, according to Apple, Amazon and Time, is back for another round. We had a big bearer of a man who was called Mal Evans, who was our roadie, and uh, he was coming back on the plane and he said, will you pass the salt and pepper? And I miss herding. I said, what? Sgt Pepper. Listen to season two of McCartney, A and lyrics on the iHeart radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, it's Alec Baldwin. This past season on my podcast, here's the thing.

I spoke with more actors, musicians, policymakers and so many other fascinating people, like jazz-basist Christian McBride. Jazz is based on improvisation, but there's very much a form to it. You have a conversation based on that melody and those chord changes. So it's kind of like giving someone a topic and say, okay, talk about this. Listen to the new season of Here's the Thing on the iHeart Radio App Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey everybody, Chuck here in 2023,

but I'm gonna hop us all in the wayback machine and take us back to December 2018 to listen to our episode on Geodesic Dome's because this ties into the live show that we did last year, all about the Biosphere 2 project. The Geodesic Dome figured in very prominently in that project. We talk all about Buckminster Fuller in this episode. We also figured into that live podcast and check it out now if you're into architecture or just cool things. Listen to Geodesic Dome's colon, the wave of the future that wasn't.

Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of I Heart Radio. Hey and welcome to the podcast. I'm British Josh. There's American Chuck and there's neutral Switzerland Jerry, which by the way, now we're saying Switzerland. Switzerland? So just decided because it's close to the end of the year and I'm about to die of exhaustion. I love it. On the friendly fire movie podcast been Harrison, you know Ben he says Nazis yeah Nazis that's like kind of like a throwback It's like a greatest generation way of saying yeah, and I know he does it as an affectation sure

But now I got it from him and he got it from God knows where his great-grandpa. Maybe nazis. Yeah That's a pretty great way to say there's a lot of occasion to say the word Nazi. Sure. A lot. How do you mention this? And why did you say you were British? Because I, Chuck, say geodesic. And you say?

Geodesic. And we just looked it up. Which, I mean, that's like the first time in years. The lady said geodesic. And I was like, yes, I'm in years. The lady said geodesic. And I was like, yes, I'm right. Or in America, geodesic. And I said, we're both right. But then she didn't say though it was British.

It could be like whatever, South African. Oh, I guess so. It could be Africana. Well, Africana is not English. Well, yeah, you know what I mean. We are so far off course already. Jerry's just got ramen coming through her nose. She thought that was so funny.

Thanks for the laugh, Jerry. Well, we are talking about geodesic desic. Maybe we should just say that every time. Say them both. I'm sure people would love that. I'm gonna say geodesic, because that's what I've always said, okay? Great, I'm gonna say geodesic.

That's fine. We're talking about domes, geodesic domes. And if you have ever seen a weird contraption of a circular house, a ball house you might call it, a sphere house, you've seen a geodesic dome. If you've ever been to Epcot, I went when I was a kid. You've seen a Geodesik Dome. They're all over the place. Do you like these as like people's houses in a neighborhood or wherever?

No, I don't either. But I don't, I mean I'm not gonna yuck anybody's yom you know what I'm saying? No, I mean when reading and researching like they're cool and there are a lot of like great advantages that will go over, but I just don't care for them. Right. Aesthetically. I don't either. And actually, if you read a quote from Buckminster Fuller, the guy who actually didn't invent geodesic tones,

we'll get into all that anyway. He said one of the reasons they never took off is because they're weird looking. They just are. And, well, I'm not going to say that. I really, you tell me later, okay? Yeah, I just don't care for him, you know. It's like, I'm a craftsman, California craftsman bungalow type guy, which is about the opposite

of a geodesic dome. It's pretty angular for sure. Yeah. And the geodesic dome is angular. Everybody put your laptops away, geometry nerds. But it's not rectangular and a craftsman is definitely rectangular. Like you can even make a case.

The roof is not a triangle. It's a rectangle on its side. I just made that case. How's it going? Yeah. Pretty good. I also, although I probably will never live in one, I do love a modern, like a mid-century modern.

That's my thing. I love it, but it's not really like ultimately where I would want to live for the rest of my life. Well, okay, so I don't want to feel like I'm like in Finland in the winter or something like that. That's not I'm talking Mid-century American actually built for a family in like the mid 50s early 60s I love it that has all little cool details and built-ins and wall that doesn't even really need to be there You can see right through it because it's like wood spindles. Sure. That's what I like. Yeah, me too not ultra modern mid-century

Modern. Yeah, okay mid-sinch. Yeah, that's what I like. Yeah, me too. Not ultra-modern mid-century modern. Yeah, okay mid-sinch. Yeah It's what we call it. But you still you don't think you could live in one of those? No, I mean craftsman guy We'd have to get all new stuff like if we started over like if our if our god forbid of our house burned down And we lost everything right I could start over like that But like the stuff that we have doesn't fit like you know, grandma's antique bar doesn't really go in that setting. I've seen that bar and that thing is classic.

Thank you. You could put it anywhere. Grandma was a bit of a boozehound, huh? Well, they didn't use this as a bar. They had like humble figurines and stuff. And I saw it. It was funny when I first saw it, I was like, oh God, I don't really want that. And like they're giving it to us.

And then we turned it to a bar and I was like, it's amazing what 30 liquor bottles will do to it. Exactly, can really dress up a homo figure in cabinet. So clearly we're talking again about geodesic domes. And there was a period in time check where you could go into some neighborhoods around the country and you could find well-to-do hippie types, environmental types, back to earthers, living

in these geodesic domes. And it's not like they were living in a tent. It was their house. They had plumbing and heating and electricity and all this stuff. It's just that it was a dome. Yeah. That was one near where I grew up actually, and we would pass it going to elementary school. Really?

And it was always just sort of like, you know, there's those weirdos that built the weird house. Isn't it interesting though? Like that had some impact on who you are today. Yeah, no matter how minute or how small, but seeing that every day or every weekday that had to have some impact on you. Yeah, and theirs was also one of those, it was also partially underground even. So there was an exposed dome, but then it was sort of built into a hill. And so they were full on. They had a lot of hippie creds. Yeah, they were going for it.

And looking back, there were probably super cool people. Probably. They were wearing Birkenstocks way before anybody else was wearing Birkenstocks. So let's talk a little bit about the first geodesic dome, a little geodesic history, okay? Okay. All right.

You have to go way back, way, way back to 1926. And not only do we have to go back, we have to go to Germany, Jenna, Germany. I don't know where that is. I don't either. But there is a very famous optics company called Zeiss. I do know that. Sure.

And Zeiss wanted to build a planetarium on top of one of their factories, their factory at Gena Germany. And they said, please build us a planetarium, Walter Bauer's Field, where if you didn't know if he was German or not, just listen to his name. Feld. Feld. Even more German. Yeah. And he said, sure, let me think about this And I'll see what I can come up with and he came up with what's was widely pointed to as the world's first geodesic dome Yeah, and it was a good it was a good idea for this project in particular because They needed it to be light because it had to go on top of a roof They needed it to hold a lot of people and obviously because it was a planetarium that that interior

roundness was kind of key. It would be weird to have a square planetarium. It would, you know. Especially if you're like, I didn't know Venus could take a corner like that. I didn't know he could do that. So that's what he did. It really worked well. It did house a lot of people. I mean, not house, but you well. It did house a lot of people.

I mean, not house, but it could hold a lot of people. It can withstand storms. These are some of the factors that make them not only popular, but a good idea, depending on where you are. If you're in Antarctica, they have them there there and it's perfect for that kind of weather. Yeah, there was a period in time which we'll see in a second where Geodesic domes were like the house of the future. It was a very very good idea that never took off because everybody said no, we think those are kind of weird. We don't feel comfortable with that. Pretty much. So

Bowersfeld's planetarium actually kicked off a planetarium craze. It was apparently the first planetarium on earth, which I would make the case that you can just say the first planetarium in the universe then. Probably so. But because there were people who started to build planetariums as a result of this, Geodesic Domes kind of became a thing. Yeah. But it wasn't until a guy named Richard Buckminster Fuller of Carbondale, Illinois, came along and actually patented the Geodesic dome that they really became that house

of the future thing that I was talking about. Yeah, and he was an engineer and a sort of a visionary thinker, one of the great Americans, I think. We could do a show on him Americans, I think. We could do a show on him all together, I think. Agreed. But his whole jam was like, well, first of all, he saw the inherent, like, good points to these. And we'll get into all those. But first and foremost, you can have a huge volume of space with very little materials,

very lightweight materials, and it's still be super strong, right? Which is awesome but so because of this he thought like He had a higher goal in mind, which was like the housing in the future like they don't cost that much money they can hold you know people safely and Like this is how we should think about housing right? You could you could build it off-site at a factory and deliver it by helicopter It was that light kind of put it together about like a kit. Yep. And like you were saying,

it required, because it could withstand more weight, it required less building materials, which meant it was lower cost. And supposedly, you could put these things like a good kit together in a day if you were really cruising along at a good clip. Sure So I had some some high-grade 60 speed Give it to all your friends Man you got me with that one So so this just became plainly obvious that this is going to be the house of the future. There's one of the other things about it is there is no other building structure that has a larger volume of space with the least amount of surface area.

Yeah, and he got this idea through looking at nature. He very famously looked to things like crystals and seed pods and things like that and thought like, you know, nature and a lot of people do this in design. They looked in nature because nature has sort of proven to get it right usually over the years. Yeah. Like if you look at an egg shell, you're like, this thing shouldn't withstand anything and yet it does. And it's a very curious thing. But it sure looks like it could slip out of a chicken's butt with ease. Right. It's just kind of what it does. Like what if it was square?

It slips out of the cloaca. That's true. So, Bucky Fuller, as he's known, he apparently, I don't know if he wasn't aware of Bowersfeld's design or something. Did you get that impression? I couldn't tell if this was nefarious. He seemed like a good guy. so I don't think he like, stole this idea, but he was able to secure a patent.

He did, and there's a really great time article, if you can find it, it's called Dimexian American. Dimexian was a word that was associated with him. He just made up words a lot, but it tells it, it's from 1964, it says that he was trying to figure out a geometry of energy and he was using spheres as a model of energy, no idea. But he was putting spheres together

and his idea was that when you put spheres together, they would just make a larger and larger sphere. But that's not what happened. If he took a central sphere and put other spheres around it and pushed it together. And what he found was that it started to make squares and triangles rather than a larger sphere. And he figured out that what he had just come up with

was actually a very smart structure that you could take those squares and divide those into triangles. And you could take the triangles and divide the triangles into even smaller triangles. And if you kind of curve the edges of the triangles and divide the triangles into even smaller triangles. And if you kind of curve the edges of the triangles inward towards some imaginary center inside the sphere, you actually create a sphere. And technically it's a polyhedron and most geodesic domes are acossahedrons, which if you play Dungeons and Dragons is just a 20-sided die. But the

more you cut the sides into smaller and smaller triangles, the closer to an actual perfect sphere you get. And that's a geodesic sphere. And if you cut it in half or cut a portion of it and just use one half of it, that's a geodesic dome. Yeah, which is what you see like, it's not fully round because it has to be flat and sit on something right well actually

The spaceship Earth geodesic dome is a full sphere, but that is pretty rare And I thought it was interesting too that they said that if you were Just designing something on paper you could just design it bigger and bigger and it would just get stronger and stronger. But in reality, that's really not the case. Like when when rubber meets the road, there are really, there's really only so big you can kind of get. Yeah, because I had no idea about this. You know, I was roughly familiar with geodesic domes. I didn't know any details, but one thing that I was surprised to find is that the triangles are not all the same size. Yeah.

They have to be adjusted to make this shape, to make this circle or this sphere. So, if you're putting together one of these things as we'll see, you have to be like, oh, this struck goes here, not here, and I actually put it here up on the top, and now I have to go take the whole thing apart again. Right. Yeah, the less complex, the better in practicality. But yeah, you can really mess with it to make it virtually a perfect sphere out of triangles. Yeah, and you mentioned a minute ago that, and I think people that pay attention were

probably like, oh, Josh is so funny. Or what did he just say? Did Buck Minister Fuller make up words? Yeah. He did. Because he made up another word when it comes to these domes, Tensegrity. Which is not a good word.

It's not. He mixed two words together, Tentional and Integrity. And so that's the relationship between the tension and compression. And that really kind of describes how these things fit together And why they end up being super strong even though when you look at it You're like man, I could blow that thing over right so let's let's take a break and then we'll get into like the actual dynamics going on Okay, and geometry. Yes promise. Yes Yes. One of the best shows of the year, according to Apple, Amazon and Time, is back for another

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Listen to Best of Both Worlds every Tuesday on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I promise. All right, Chuck, I promised. It's time to talk geometry. How'd you do in geometry? I failed the first time, ace to the second time.

I'm actually really glad that I failed it because when I was forced to take it again by the man. And this was high school, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I, it clicked and I've never understood any field of math like I understood geometry. I don't quite remember it now, but like I understood geometry. Yeah. Like I was Pythagoras's like brother. I kind of, I wasn't quite at that level, but I feel like because I'm, I have long sort of poo pooed the maths. Yeah, but you've like, because I have long sort of poo pooed the maths.

Yeah, but you've rejected that, right? Well, yeah, but I mean, just for my P-brain, like understanding it, I understood geometry more than all the other maths. Right. And I did okay in it for an English nerd. Yeah. You know? Good enough. It's completely different than anything else, I feel like in math.

Geometry does seem like its own thing for sure very much It's on like yeah, there's numbers and Sigma makes an appearance and stuff like that But it definitely seems to be it's different than algebra. I'll tell you that buddy shout out to miss karn read and high school Oh, I wish I could remember my geometry teacher the one it clicked with she was great She was one of those teachers that's like Was 70 years old from the time that she was 28 till the time she was 70. She was great.

And then she turned back into 28. Yeah, I remember she had this polka dot, it's funny the things that you remember. She had this polka dot shirt where all the polka dots were collected at the bottom. And she said that it used to be all over, but she hung it up to dry. That was her big joke.

It's a great joke. She's like, welcome to my class. It's the only joke of the year. Let's get busy. Yeah, I bet you there's one person out there who had Ms. Karn in those that shirt. Yeah. I hope.

It's a great joke, Ms. Karn. Okay, so we're talking geometry, right? Yeah. Do you remember our Bridges episode? Yeah. Remember when we talked about bridge trusses, the bridges that are made up of triangular shapes? We said like those things are extraordinarily strong

because they're triangles. Yeah, man, triangles. Same thing here. Can't beat them. A geodesic dome or sphere is a sphere made up of triangles. And if you actually take the triangular shape and build one in reality. It is one of the strongest shapes you can create because wherever you press on it, it transfers

that pressure, that force to the rest of the shape. So it distributes that kind of weight or pressure or force or whatever you want to lay on it. It distributes it evenly and if you put another triangle together with one triangle, it sends it to the other triangle too. And so the more triangles you add, the more a force is distributed throughout it. And that's why it's so strong. Like what you were saying, like you look at it,

you're like, I can blow that over. You might be able to push it over and make it roll away if it's a sphere, but you probably could not break it. Yeah, and when you look at like, if you're inside one of these, it's usually covered with like wood or drywall or something, so it's not as evident, but on the outside, you generally can still see this frame of triangles, all fitting together beautifully to make something super, super strong.

Yes. And apparently the strongest version of a geodesic dome or sphere is one that's actually made not just out of triangles, but out of pyramids. If you look at the EPCOT spaceship Earth, geodesic sphere, It's actually pyramids. All the triangles are actually pyramids. Yeah, that's it. That's the money geodesic dome. Yeah, and that one, since we're on that, is interesting in that one of the downfalls,

and we'll go over more later, but one of the downfalls of geodesic domes is sometimes rain doesn't treat them well. Yeah. But the one at Epcot was just like We're not even gonna pretend that we want to repel the rain Right, they have little grooves that actually collect the rain and that send it to one of those Little corny lagoons. I love those. I know I love everything about Epcot. I haven't been since I was in seventh grade It's great. Is I mean did they update it or is it still very much like

the world of tomorrow today? No, they've updated it. I mean, the whole thing is still like that. But there's like newer stuff. Like there's a really cool ride and immersive ride called Soarin' where like you get lifted up and you're in front of this huge, giant curved movie screen and you're like Soarin, where like you get lifted up and you're in front of this huge

giant curved movie screen and you're like Soarin through this like the world like a world tour it's really neat. And did they move your little thing around so you feel like you're... You definitely feel like you're Soarin through there. Yeah that's like when they debuted that back to the future ride years ago. Was it like that? Yeah you sit in the DeLorean and it's on hydraulics and it's like moving all around. But it's a movie screen in front of you? Yeah, and you're going through,

but it's amazing how accurate they can sync that up to where you really feel like. Right. Like I remember there was at one point where the car was on the edge of a cliff and it was sort of teetering and it got really quiet and then it teetered over and then the car just stopped moving and he felt like you were falling Wow

Just because it stopped moving right and if you like turned around and looked backwards You're like everyone's freaking out and you're just sitting in a car doing nothing But everybody's going oh, so great. I loved it So we were saying like this this thing pops up all over nature Yeah, the geodesic dome did and And this Time Magazine article put it really beautifully that it was like Buckminster Fuller had discovered a signature of God. Whoa.

This made scare quotes. Yeah. Because it- Around God or signature. Hitted the whole thing. Since it is such like an efficient structure that can support a lot of weight, you do see it in things like eggs,

cornea, the testicle, which I'm like, really, I guess so. I couldn't find that anywhere else. And I definitely typed testicle geodesic dome into Google and it didn't really come back with anything, but this 1964 time article says it, so it's so. Well, the dome period is a pretty strong structure. The Romans were building really big strong domes a long, long time ago, but they don't stay strong for long. That's sort of one of the problems with a dome, just a regular dome, is that you need a lot of super heavy supporting materials and walls to keep it up.

And over time they wear out, but what Fuller did was took that sort of same principle and applied this geometry to it. And these triangles that the Romans didn't think of and the rest is history, I guess. Yeah, what he found was that when you put these spheres together, you created what he called a vector equilibrium, the outward force of the thing that's trying to collapse it.

You know how like if you could press down on the roof of a house, it would collapse outward to the sides? Yes. Same thing wants to happen to geodesic dome, but in a geodesic dome, that pressure outward from the force of gravity makes it stronger is actually equal to the force that's being distributed around it, the circumferential force. And since they're equal in equal measures, they cancel each other out. So it's just like the thing is gravity free. Yeah, I mean you see, you definitely see why he was like, this is the house of the future. Because they were cheap, they were strong,

they were lightweight, and they distribute, like heat just blows around them because they're around, they're really efficient to heat and cool. There are a lot of really great advantages to them. Yeah And so when he I can't remember when he made his first one I think it was at a world's fair. Well, was that the Montreal was that the first one? No Montreal was 67 This would have been in Moscow 54 Well, that's when he got his patent. Yeah, I guess this would have been before that, or right around the same time. But in 59, yeah, I guess the first one must have been Ford, the Ford plant.

Yeah, the Ford Motor Company wanted covering, and he said, well, I think this is the trick. And he built it, he was like, and this is what Ford wants to hear, or any company. He was like, it'll be better and cheaper and I'll get it done faster than any of these other schmucks. And so bear in mind that when Ford called them

from Dearborn, Michigan, that they, no one had ever come up with this before. They thought since they wanted to enclose their courtyard, the central courtyard in this rotunda that they built, that it was gonna have to be a traditional dome with buttresses and supports and like heavy walls and all that. The problem was is because the courtyard was so far across,

I think it was more than 30 meters, 90 feet across, anything that they built would probably collapse the walls of this very sturdy rotunda building. So they had a problem. And when they called Buckminster Fuller, I don't know how, who got in touch with who? It was pretty brazen for him to say what you said he said that he can get this done below cost in time.

It's gonna be super light. And he proved the world wrong, his doubters wrong at least. When he built the first geodesic dome over it. And it was pretty awesome. Also, we didn't mention he was a freshman college dropout. So he's self taught and he just came along and showed the world of engineering

a basically a brand new type of structure, an incredibly elegantly efficient type of structure. He just showed the world it could be done. Yeah, some people are just born with like a certain kind of brain. That's why he deserves his own episode for sure. Yeah, so the Ford dome was great for a while until 1962 when it was leaking. And they said, hey, this thing's leaking, we need to do some repair work. So they were doing that and they were waterproofing

and weatherproofing the panels and they were using a waterproof, see-through transparent waterproof sealer. But to make it easier to spray, they heated it up, which makes sense. But unfortunately those vapors ignited from a propane heater. This thing caught on fire and I get the idea that it was like,

the whole thing was done in like an hour. Yeah, because they sealed a lot of it with the waterproofing, the highly flammable waterproofing stuff. So when a little bit caught, those vapors caught, the whole dome caught fire and it was made of like aluminum and plastic so it just went up like a match. And they were decorating for the Christmas fantasy exhibit below in the courtyard. All that stuff caught on fire. It burned the whole rotunda down. I imagine there's nothing more flammable than Christmas decorations in the early 1960s.

It was really sad. Everyone got out of there, which is good, but by the time the fire department got there, it was too late. It was toast. So again. Since 50 foot flames, I can't imagine what that scene looked like. And it burned the whole building down.

Oh yeah. Like this was actually a tourist attraction. And imagine going to Dearborn, Michigan. To see the Ford dome. Yes, that's what people did. I think it'd seen like 18 million visitors in like it's 20 or 30 years of operation. And this waterproofing fix,

burn the whole thing down at Christmas time. So this, I love how this article kind of brushes over. It says, no matter Buck, Mr. Fuller's geodesic dome had shown that it could be done. Yeah, it bears a little more digging in than that. For sure, but it is true. Like he had shown the world there's this thing and we should start making them

because they are efficient, cheap, affordable, and highly transportable. And apparently next, the next people to call was the military because they wanted to start using them as like Antarctic bases or to cover radar dishes, that kind of thing. Yeah, he very famously too in 1967 at... No, was this the World's Fair or is this a different thing? No. They just didn't call it World's Fair, right? Yeah. The Universal Exposition in Montreal in 67 very famously had a 200 foot tall dome and he was

He was really trying to push the limits of what you could do like he dreamed of Enclosing part of Manhattan and a dome. Yeah, and saying we could give you clean air and climate control Yeah, and it'll pay for itself over time because you won't have to Use snow plows and all these other like things that cost money It seems ghastly, almost like a Bernesean type of idea. Well, I mean, there would definitely be a certain class of people that lived in that thing. Yeah, but it's really... I doubt if he'd be like, we'll do it over all of Queens.

Well, yeah, it was lower, it was 22nd to 62nd, I think, from river to river in Manhattan. Wow. It was gonna be huge. And he did say it could pay for itself just from snow removal, not having to do snow removal, but imagine not having precipitation ever. It's just, it's wrong.

There's something wrong with that, but it really captures the can do engineering spirit of mid-century America for sure. Yeah. I mean, you can do a cool experiment with like a biosphere type of thing, but you don't want Manhattan covered by a dome. No. You know, all the smells. Maybe Topeka or something like that.

And that's one of the problems is all the smells, apparently, like they just fill up that dome, there's nothing to stop it. Right, yeah, the sewer gas accumulating at the top and eventually exploding. Yeah, no good. The ghostbusters running around shooting off proton packs inside that thing? No good, man. That's been a while since the GB ref.

Should we take a break? All right, we'll be right back. Chachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachachach Paul McCartney about his life and career. We had a big bearer of a land, which was called Maladins, with our logo. And I was coming back on the plane and he said, will you pass the salt and pepper? And I miss her. I said, what? So I drew back on. This season we're diving deep into some of McCartney's most beloved songs. Yesterday, Band on the Run, Hey Jude, and McCartney's favorite song in his entire catalogue,

Here, There, and Everywhere. Listen to season two of McCartney, A Life in Lyrics, on the iHeart Radio app Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All that sitting and swiping, our backs hurt, our eyeballs sting. That's our bodies adapting to our technology, but we can do something about it. We saw amazing effects.

I really felt like the cloud in my brain kind of dissipated. There's no turning back from me. Make 2024 the year you put your health before your inbox. And take the Body Electric Challenge. Listen to Body Electric from NPR on the iHeart Radio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Laura VanderKimm. I'm a mother of five, an author, journalist, and speaker.

And I'm Sarah Hart Unger, a mother of three, practicing physician, writer, and course creator. We are two working parents who love our careers and our families. On the best of both worlds podcast each week, we share stories of how real women manage work, family, and time for fun. We talk all things planning, time management, organization, and more. We share what's worked for us and our listeners as we're building our careers and raising our families. We're here to cheer you on as you figure out how to make your days even more amazing. From figuring out childcare to mapping out long-term career goals,

we want you to get the most out of life. Listen to Best of Both Worlds every Tuesday on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, so the 60s and 70s come along. He's been doing this thing in the 50s. And this is when the counterculture and the anti mainstream sort of vibe was hitting. And so it was sort of primed for these things to come into fashion. And they did just for regular old houses. Yeah.

Not that they didn't sweep the nation, but you know. There were enough people looking for ways to very blatantly thumb their nose at the establishment. Yeah, look at my round house. Basically, yeah. And again, like it really does provide a lot of benefits that other ones don't, right? So like because it's a sphere

and it's basically one big room. Yeah, well, yes, but you can build rooms inside of it. You can't, sure. But the heat and the air distribution is really efficient, so it's very cheap to heat and cool. I think that the average number that people reported was about a 30% savings in energy costs.

Yeah, that sounds totally made up. It does, but I saw as high as 50, and it seems like the world said, no, we'll go with 30. We'll go with the low end. That seems believable. And so you've got heating and cooling efficiencies. Like you were saying, because it's round, it's not trying to stop wind, like cool wind, hot wind, when it runs into your house, if it's a rectangular house,

craftsman, mid-century modern, who cares? It runs into it and it's going to transfer heat or coal into your house. Yeah, in my case, right through my windows. And okay, yeah, it's a great, great example. The thing is, is you don't want that heater that cool in there usually, so you're going to have to spend a lot of money to artificially pump it out, right? Yeah.

Through AC. With a geodesic dome, the wind kind of just moves around it. Yeah. It's super aerodynamic, so it's not just running into this flat surface and trying to go through. It's just like, excuse me, I'll just go around. Yeah, and that's why they're great in Antarctica. They can withstand whatever kind of weather they throw. They Antarctica.

They. And I have seen some of these at the beach. Again, they're not like the coolest looking beach house, but you see them, you know, you'll see like quaint old beach house, Cape Cod, geodesic dome, and then like McMansion, and I imagine they do very well at the beach. Yeah, because after a hurricane, if a hurricane is bad enough, you see empty lot, empty lot, geodesic dome, empty lot. And apparently that's, it's anecdotal, but that's been reported that geodesic domes

can make it through substantial hurricanes when the rest of the houses around it did not. Yeah, it makes sense. Some of the disadvantages is like we were joking about the smell, but it's really true. Smell and sound, if you've just got a big globe that you're inside, or really gonna move around, there's not a ton of privacy,

even though you can build out, sort of like living in a loft, you can build out rooms, but if your rooms don't have a ceiling, although I guess you could do that too. You could, but then you're like, well, you know. Like why am I even in a dome? Right, exactly.

Light as well. That's a big one. Yeah. You know, like the little light on your router that's like really bright at night? Oh, God. Imagine that just being distributed throughout your entire house. Yeah, no good. No, that's not a good one. Plus, I mean, if you look at any piece of furniture that's ever been created in the history of humanity,

it's all meant for rectangular structures. Yeah, unless it's some sort of custom piece for a geodesic tone. Which is very expensive. Yeah, you have to get all this stuff made yourself and the same goes true for like the construction world is set up for square. So fixtures and plumbing and pipes and all that stuff has to be sort of... And contractors get scared away from these things. Oh yeah, they won't come near it.

Yeah, unless you're just a specialist. Sure. And you're probably like the highest paid contractor in the world. Yes. Who works like once a year. Yes. Um, but those same disadvantages are also advantages, right? Like you have a lot more floor space. Yeah, but sometimes it's wasted.

It can be. Like if you've got a big long couch, you've got a bunch of space behind it that's just sitting there, a little semi-circle behind you. That's why a lot of, and I think this is the reason why I'm not super hip on geodesic domes, is a lot of the stuff is just kind of out in the center of the room. Right, right. And it looks adrift or unanchored. That's a good thing about a wall or a corner or something like that.

It provides a visual anchor to your stuff. No one can sneak up on you. No, that's another, maybe that's why I don't like it. I'm like, what's behind me? Do you like your back against the wall in a restaurant? No, I don't care about that. Oh man. Do you?

Yeah. Really, you're afraid you're gonna eat, what are you, a gangster or something? No, I don't think I'm gonna care about that. Oh man. Do you? Yeah. Really? You're afraid you're going to eat? What are you, a gangster or something? No, I don't think I'm going to get whacked. It's just, I just feel exposed. And Emily is very sweet.

She's usually like, go ahead and take the seat. But lately she's been like, no, that's mine. Oh yeah? Yeah. Wow. What'd you do? Nothing, man. It's just the time we're living in.

She's doing it. So do you sit there and like turn around every time somebody comes in? The waiter comes in and I punch him. I turn around and punch him. Don't touch my stuff. Rain, we talked about rain. It can be problematic. Yeah, and it says in here that flat roofs are the best.

What they mean are flat roofs at an angle. Right. Because a truly flat roof is not good. Frank Lloyd Wright did a bunch of those and his houses could be very problematic. He had the very famous exchange. I can't remember the person, but it was some very wealthy sort of noteworthy person. Frank Lloyd Wright built him a house and he called and complained and said, the water is now dripping onto my desk. And supposedly Frank Lloyd Wright said, move the desk.

That sounds like Frank Lloyd Wright. Yeah. For sure. I don't know if that's a true story, but I love it. I guarantee it's true. Yeah. So with the shingle roof, even with the flat roof, like a flat roof is not moving water, but it's probably not coming down. There's not as many places for it to come down. With a geodesic dome, every place where your struts, the sides of the triangle come together at an angle, at the nodes, there is a point where water can get in. And actually it can get in along

where one triangle goes into another. There's a lot of places for water to penetrate the geodesic dome. It's a water nightmare Yeah from what I can tell well, it's put together from a lot of little panels. Yeah So let's let's just really briefly say that so one of the things one of the reasons why people were crazy for geodesic domes is You could put them together like we said in a day. Yeah, you can get a color-coded kit. You still can. And there are companies out there that will send them to you and you can get your friends,

get some good 60-speed and a case of beer or two, and build your house in a couple of days. Yeah, and not sleep the entire time. That's right. So when you put these things together, you're building the structure and, you're building the structure and then you're coating the structure. It can be one kid I saw is like greenhouse.

It's a really great greenhouse. I bet. If you've ever been on a jungle gym that was built after the 60s, you know those dome ones? The best. It's a geodesic dome. But the structure can be made from like hollow tubing, ply or two by fours, whatever. It can be wood, it can be made from like a hollow tubing, ply or two by fours, whatever it can be wood,

it can be whatever. And then usually the outside, the triangles that fill in over the structure, concrete or plastic or plywood or something like that. Then you want to coat it. But all of those different seals or those different seams, they're all just water heaven. Yeah.

Which is again a big problem. Probably problem number one, practically speaking. Yeah, it's interesting now that I think about it. It's sort of how tent design has gone over the years. Tents used to be just like camping tents, just like triangles, like a pup tent. And then the big dome tents came into fashion. And then I think the secret was to try and make dome tents with as few seams as possible.

Cause that's where your water gets in. Yeah. And as few poles too. Yeah. Just a couple of, and then maybe a, and then, there you go, you got your tent. You could be a tent designer. I want to go ahead and trademark what I just said. Okay. Should we talk about some famous stones?

I think we should. That's always the best part. There's the Expo 67 one that by the way burned as well. Oh really? The structure stayed. They turned it into a biosphere in the 90s I believe. So Brendan Frazier listen there in Polly sure

And Steven Baldwin sure and alive. That's where he's been There is the in these to me like if you look up the how do you pronounce the one in Japan the Fukuoka Yahoo, oh cool What's your name? What's your name? What's your name? What's your name? What's your name? What's your name? What's your name? What's your name? What's your name?

What's your name? What's your name? What's your name? What's your name? What's your name? What's your name? What's your name? What's your name?

What's your name? What's your name? What's your name? What's your name? What's your name? What's your name? What's your name? What's your name? What's your name? What's your name? What's your name? What's your name? When you look at this baseball stadium, it doesn't feel, I mean it is a geodesic dome,

but it just doesn't feel like that kind of futuristic, like highly paneled triangular thing. Well, what's cool about it is the dome part actually retracts. Yeah, retractable roof. In like 20 minutes, and the reason it retracts so quickly is because it's so lightweight, comparatively speaking. Yeah. So it's pretty sweet. There's the Tacoma Dome. Yeah, which is a wood dome that just does not sound

sturdy to me. Yeah, what was it? Oh, our skyscrapers episode. That was that new wood skyscraper somewhere. Why do I want to say like Nebraska? I thought that was Japan too. Oh, was it? I think so.

It's one of the two. Right. It's easy to get them too. Oh, was it? I think so. It's one of the two. Right. It's easy to get them confused. Osaka, Nebraska. Right. They sound alike. Yeah.

Tacoma Dome is where the Sonics used to play. They're like, Kevin Durant's going to love this. Oh man. So sad. I wonder when a team leaves, I've always wondered if they just, because I know like when the Browns left and became the Ravens, you know, my stepfather was like, they were just dead to me. Wait, what?

Yeah, that's where the Ravens came from. They were the Cleveland Browns. Where are the Browns? The Browns aren't playing still? No, no, no, they, they, the Browns had no, there were no Browns for years. Okay. And then they came back and said, we'll give you a team again Cleveland. And you can be the Browns again.

Gotcha. But he, Art Modell, literally famously packed up in the middle of the night, like their footage of 18 wheeler trucks at like 2 a.m. like hauling stuff. Yeah. You don't want to leave Cleveland, Escalabraan. But they were dead to him after that.

And I always wonder like if the Falcons left Atlanta and went to Birmingham, they'd still be the same guys. I wouldn't be like, no, screw that team. No, that's definitely how I went with the SuperSonics for sure. Seattle was not very happy about that. They weren't not. I don't blame them. But supposedly they're gonna get another team.

One of the Microsoft founders, I guess Wozniak is talking about bringing them. Somebody from Microsoft is gonna bring a team, they're saying. One of the Microsoft founders, I guess Wozniak is talking about bringing them. Oh really? Somebody from Microsoft is gonna bring a team, they're saying. What was it, Paul Allen? I don't think so. He just passed away though, right?

Maybe it was Paul Allen. I mean, he owned the Sonics, I think. But he was from Microsoft? I'm just getting all confused now. No, I think you're right. Yeah, Paul Allen was Bill Gates' partner. He died? Yeah, I think he died Paul Allen was Bill Gates partner. He died Yeah, I think he died kind of in the last like six months. Oh, well, maybe Seattle's not getting a basketball team I'm not sure. Okay. Where did they go? Oh Oklahoma City, right? Yeah

No, it's so confusing everyone For two half sports guys like us. We don't even make a full sports guy. Who's your team this season? Well, I always root for the Hawks, but it's just they're a wasteland So I don't even care. Yeah, who does shrewder play for now? Does he I thought it was a different Western team you like Lebron in LA Sure, we should have a sport show called the worst sport show on the web This is a trailer for it. What about the Eden Project? That one's pretty cool.

Aren't there two of these in there one in China as well? I think they're going to open one in China. I think there's a third one they're opening, but the one that the original one's in Cornwall, I'm sorry, Canal. Cornhole? In the UK. God knows how you pronounce that. I guarantee it's not cornwall probably cornwall

maybe This one's really cool though. This is one where you look it up and you're like this is what you should be doing right within Geodesic dome like Experimentation they build a di or biome. Yeah, that's one of the points of a geodesic dome is you can build a diome or biome. That's one of the points of a geodesic dome is you can create a different climate inside a larger climate. It's a bubble, you're creating a climate bubble.

That's what the Eden Project did at least. And they have two of them. They've got a tropical biome and then a smaller Mediterranean biome. And they're just beautiful. Lots of amazing plants and waterfalls and just great stuff. Apparently it's a wonderful tourist attraction. I would go. I think there's also a witchcraft museum in Cornwall that I want to go to. Let's do it man. All right. We're going road trip. Yeah

We got to do a UK tour again. Yeah, that was awesome. And then we'll detour off to Cornwall. Maybe do a show there. How many people are there? Cornwall let us know if we should do a show there. Let's do a live show inside the tropical biome. I'd be cool. I wonder if we could set that up We could also do an ad upcott to you Do a geodesic dome tour can we do one inside of the castle in the magic? We can ask You have connections there, right? Yeah, our friend Brandon. That's right. Who built my site the Josh Clark way.com I know I'm gonna have to get in touch with him as my kid gets older have to finally drag Emily down there he will happily help you out yeah great guy he helped my

brother oh and by the way I'm glad you brought that up congratulations to Brandon and Katie on the birth of their first ever child oh wow yes Cooper born into Disney royalty yeah pretty much that much. That's pretty great. Congrats dudes I wonder if Cooper's gonna go up and just be like yeah and take your leave it I go like twice a week, right? This isn't Euro Disney. I wish it was Euro Disney Well that is spaceship Earth, of course is the one we're talking about there that we mentioned 180 feet tall silver geosphere Very much the central sort of shining star of EPCOT.

That's what everybody thinks of with EPCOT. Yep, it's on every shirt. Well, not every shirt, but 98%. 98%. Did you know that EPCOT is an acronym, Chuck? I did, but I remembered that from when I was a kid, but I can't remember now. What is it? Experimental prototype community of tomorrow. That's right. And the name of the geodesic dome is actually called Spaceship Earth. And it was directly influenced by Bucky Fuller while Disney was a big futurist.

That's why there's like Tomorrowland and all that stuff. And why there's Epcot in general. But not only did he inspire Spaceship Earth, the name Spaceship Earth comes from a Bucky Fuller essay, kind of a novella, called An Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth. You can find the PDF for free on the web and get a pretty good idea of Bucky Fuller's whole jam. You know what I heard?

I heard that very famous Walt Disney signature is not his signature And that like a cartoonist designer came up with that for him. It's too perfect. I could totally see that. Yeah I'm not I'm not affected by that. I'm okay with it. Oh really? He's not just a big fraud now in your mind I let him off the hook. If you want to know more about Geodesic domes, go make friends with a hippie. And since I said that, it's time for Listener Mail. I'm going to call one of our new young fans. I've got a very sweet email from Veronica. Hey, guys, I'm Veronica, 15 years old, and I'm from Indianapolis, Indiana.

I just heard about Sarah, the 13 year old superfan. Who's like 15 now? Yeah, Sarah's, she's Miss Karn. And I too am a superfan. I started listening when I was nine or 10 with my mom every once in a while. Then I got an iPod and started listening to you regularly when I was 11.

I love listening to the show when I'm getting ready in the morning and I'm going to school or going to sleep before bed Every time you guys do a tour announcement I always hope you're gonna say somewhere close like within two hours of Indianapolis But I don't think that has ever happened dude Cleveland is not that far from Indianapolis I took a break from podcasts for about two months, but I miss listening to them So I came back and now I'm back to regularly again. I just want to stop in and say hi

If I'm lucky, I'll make it to the podcast, but I don't expect it. Just keep being you guys, because I love to learn about the four different types of cat hair. The fact that cinnamon is a type of tree bark, perfume is made from whale vomit, and urosol is what makes poison ivy so itchy.

Wow. My mom really likes your beard, Chuck, and she hopes that someone gives you some beard lights for Christmas. Oh, I saw those. If you don mom really likes your beard, Chuck, and she hopes that someone gifts you some beard lights for Christmas. Oh, I saw those. If you don't know what they are, they're just little ornaments that you hang in your beard. Have you seen them?

And they light up super festive. Do you want some? No. Okay. I cut most of my beard off. I just noticed that. It looks very trim. This is sort of like the old days.

Looks nice. And that is, she put a signed Veronica, which is adorable. Thank you, Veronica. So Veronica, which is adorable. Thank you Veronica. So Veronica, I think we should, we're trying to hit the major cities we've never been to eventually. Right. I think we might want to put Indianapolis on the list for 2019.

Oh boy. And give Indiana some love. Okay, fine. This year we were like, I don't know, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, and they were great. It's true. Well, to be honest, Salt Lake City Phoenix and they were great. It's true. Well to be honest Salt Lake City came out For us they time they emailed us. They're like, yes, please come we got such an overwhelming response Yeah, that we're like, how could we say no? So we should go to Indianapolis

I told her if we do then we'll put her in mom on the guest list. That's very nice. Yeah, okay They have a dome there settled. You could we could go do a show there where the Colts play we could Is it the Colts? What do they play soccer? Yeah, but they came from Baltimore who then became the Ravens It's just so weird everyone's moving all over the place. Who's the great leader of them? The Pacers now Victor. Um the great leader. Yeah Kim Jong Victor I don't know, their coach? No, no, he's like their captain.

But yeah, he's a player. I don't know, Ron Artest. Victor. What year is this? Right now. Victor Borja? Yes, Victor Borja is now. Anyway, we're going to list him too

once I remember his last name because he's an amazing player. Victor Victoria? If you want to know, well, I already said that, if you want to get in touch with us, you can go to stuffyshino.com and you will find all of our social links there. You can always send us an email to stuffpodcast.howstuffworks.com. Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio.

For more podcasts, my heart radio, visit the iHeartRadio app. Apple podcasts are wherever you listen to your favorite shows. We had a big bearer of a man who was called Mal Evans, who was our roadie. And he was coming back on the plane and he said, will you pass the salt and pepper? And I miss herding. I said, what? Sergeant Pepper. Listen to season two of McCartney, a life in lyrics on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi everyone, I'm Jackie Goldschneider from the Real Housewives of New Jersey and I'm Jennifer Fessler also from the Real Housewives of New Jersey. Welcome to our new podcast, Two Jersey Jays. We are going to have lots of fun on this podcast while we discuss what it's really like to be a real housewife and all the drama that comes with it follow us as we navigate family friendships and even her enemies listen to Jersey Jays on the I heart radio app apple podcasts or ever you listen to podcasts.

Hey, it's Alec Baldwin this past season on my podcast here's the thing I spoke with more actors, musicians, policy makers, and so many other fascinating people, like jazz-basist Christian McBride. Jazz is based on improvisation, but there's very much a form to it. You have a conversation based on that melody and those chord changes. So it's kind of like giving someone a topic and say, okay, talk about this. changes. So it's kind of like giving someone a topic and say, okay, talk about this.