Stuff You Should Know - Short Stuff: Theme Park Cremations

Episode Date: March 29, 2023

There’s a little-discussed trend you might run into at your favorite theme park – people scattering the ashes of a loved one on rides. Here's hoping you don't literally run into it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hi, I'm David Eagleman. I have a new podcast called Inner Cosmos on iHeart. I'm going to explore the relationship between our brains and our experiences by tackling unusual questions like, can we create new senses for humans? So join me weekly to uncover how your brain steers your behavior, your perception, and your reality. Listen to Inner Cosmos with David Eagleman on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey and welcome to the short stuff. I'm Josh and Chuck's here and Jerry's here. We're all here and this is short stuff. With even more talk on cremains, you thought we were done with talking cremains? We're not done talking cremains. Don't you remember cremains is offensive

to the funeral directors. It's cremated remains. Oh, did they say that? Yeah, we said that. Because people wrote in and told us that? No, I think we found it in our research actually. Yeah, I think we talked about it on one of our many, many episodes where we've talked about human remains. All right. Well, I apologize then to start off this short stuff. That's okay. It's really tough not to say. It's everywhere too. It's just so catchy, but apparently what the basis of it is that what you're talking about is needs more dignity than a jargony catchphrase like cremain. I'm with you. It's not a McDonald's product. It's not me saying that. No, you're thinking of the Mick cremains. Mick ashes.

So what we're talking about is what people do with cremated remains. It's so hard not to say it now. Yeah. And a lot of things, you know, sometimes people keep it in a vase in their home or in a box or something like that, but it seems like more and more the thing to do. And what I would like done as well is to scatter those cremated remains somewhere meaningful for that person, whether it be a place they went camping or their favorite rooftop pool at a high end hotel. What? Are you speaking about something specific or just pulling stuff out of your cuffs? Out of the cuffs. Okay. Wow. That was really nice and random. I love it. Or, you know, someone's favorite restaurant, you name it. Like, man,

Chuck really loved this steakhouse. So we're going to sneak some cremated remains in here and put a couple of spoonfuls in the palm plant by the front door. Yeah. And maybe sprinkle a little bit in the bottle of tomorrow. Yeah, why not? Yeah. What you just described is what's called wildcat scattering, where you know that there are rules in place and there are plenty of rules in place about scattering cremated remains, but you're just flouting it. You say, I don't care. Chuck wouldn't care. Chuck would want me to spread them all over this steak joint. He's a wildcat. And that's what we're going to do. Yeah. So that's called wildcat scattering. What's interesting about the term wildcat scattering is I'm not sure if our friends at

HowStuffWorks made that up or not. Yeah, this is from Nathan Chandler from HowStuffWorks.com. You think they made that up? I don't know. It might be triggering a different memory. When I was learning to drive, the woman who taught me to drive like that, like I went to an actual driving school, she said, you know, when you're in a snarl of people on the highway and you have to kind of wiggle your way out and speed up and lose it, call them wolf packs. Oh, okay. And I thought that that's what they were called. And I remember saying that to a friend within the next year and they were like, that's not what that's called. And they said it was such confidence that I realized that that woman had made it up and was basically trying to spread it around

as if it were real to make it real. So I saw wildcat, maybe it triggered wolf pack. Who knows? You don't think it could have been a regionalism? I've never heard anybody else call it a wolf pack. Well, we'll find out if someone writes in and they're like, oh yeah, in Sheboygan, we call them wolf packs. Right. Or somebody will write in and be like, that's so high a wolf pack is. One place that if you're interested in scattering remains in a meaningful place, one place that you can do so in the wild legally with permission is at a national park. You've got to have to get a special permit for those. You can also put them in bodies of water as well, public body of water. But again, it's their regulations and a lot of times

you need to get permission or a permit and then they say like, hey, listen, you can do that, but you can't do it 15 feet from the shore because no one wants to swim up on that stuff. Get out there 100 feet or whatever the rule is and notify us and then you're good to go. Well, from what I saw, you need to be out three nautical miles to scatter somebody's ashes legally. That's in an ocean, clearly. Yeah. But what about in your favorite municipal lake? I don't know, man. I do not know what the rule is on that because... It probably depends on the place. The whole thing that they're trying to do is get around people getting pumped up against the cremated remains that are not floating in your lake.

No matter how you feel about it, you probably don't want to kayak through like a puddle of, no, a slick, a slick of cremated remains just kind of floating there. That wouldn't bother me. Okay. So I'm wondering about this because... A lot of people might, but not me. All over the internet, there are some people who are like, oh yeah, you don't want to do that. And other people are like, that's the most disgusting thing I've ever heard. And it's like throwing body parts into the lake. I mean, these are cremated remains. This is ash. It's pulverized ash. And what's more, the temperatures that the corpse is exposed to are on the order of about 1500 degrees Fahrenheit, 815 degrees Celsius.

It's considered sterile. Ashes are sterile. But I think it's just the association with the fact that it used to be a body, that that's what really bothers people, right? I guess so. And everyone is different. I'm not yucking a yuck or yucking a yuck. But I see it, if I had done that, if I like canoed through something that turned out to be remains, I would see that as like, wow, that's kind of like an honor almost. Like getting sprayed by a whale. Exactly. But the thing is, okay, so yes, I understand that, but what if when you got out of the lake and you put your body on your trailer, and it was just smeared on your canoe, wouldn't you feel bad about toting

the person's remains with you, you know, putting them in your garage on your canoe, or even worse, hosing them off at home? Sure. That's, I think, one of the other problems. People who aren't grossed out by it don't want the responsibility of somebody's cremated remains like on their shoe and not knowing what to do about that. Yeah, that's true. All right, I'm going to think hard about this while we take our break and we'll be right back. Okay. Hi, I'm David Eagleman. I have a new podcast called Inner Cosmos on iHeart. I'm a neuroscientist and an author at Stanford University, and I've spent my career exploring the three-pound universe in our heads. On my new podcast, I'm going to explore the relationship between our brains

and our experiences by tackling unusual questions so we can better understand our lives and our realities. Like, does time really run in slow motion when you're in a car accident? Or, can we create new senses for humans? Or, what does dreaming have to do with the rotation of the planet? So join me weekly to uncover how your brain steers your behavior, your perception, and your reality. Listen to Inner Cosmos with David Eagleman on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Rosie O'Donnell, and I've got a new podcast called Onward with me, Rosie O'Donnell on iHeart. I'm 60 years old now, believe that? Yes, it's the truth. So I figure two

thirds of my life are done, zero to 30, 30 to 60, and now I'm in the 60 to 90 if I'm lucky. Mostly, this part of my life is just about moving forward, and I thought, what a wonderful way to do it. With the podcast that I can sit down here in my home, with people I love and admire, people I've worked with, people I've gotten to be friends with, and some family friends that feel like the real deal. Like who, you might ask? Natasha Leon, Jennifer Lewis, Ricky Lake, Fran Drescher, Sharon Glass, Kathy Griffin, Cameron Mannheim, the list goes on and on. Listen to Onward with Rosie O'Donnell, a proud part of the outspoken podcast network on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So we talked about places

to do it legally in there. There are plenty of places. The key seems to be asking permission ahead of time, right? There are places where if you ask permission ahead of time, they'll say, no, no, and don't you dare do it anyway. Right. One of those places that's one of the most popular places to engage in wildcat scattering. Sometimes if you do it as a group that's a wolf pack wildcat scattering, is Disney World and Disneyland. Yeah, theme parks, and of course, Disney's going to be the big daddy. That place means a lot to a lot of people and people that go there. We know people that go there many, many times every year of their life. It's part of their fabric and they're like, I want to be dumped in the Pirates of the Caribbean. That's where I want

to be. That's one of the big ones is Pirates of the Caribbean. It's a small world, I think, and then also the Haunted Mansion is another big one. Yeah, dark places. Yes, they're literally called dark rides. Right. But the Pirates of the Caribbean one and it's a small world makes sense because you're dumping the ashes into the water and it's really becoming part of that ride. The Haunted Mansion in particular is a really bad choice because they're probably going to see you do it. They're probably going to stop the entire ride, evacuate everyone from the ride, bring in a special custodial team, and vacuum up the ashes and dump them in the trash. That's what's going to happen. That's where Grandpa will end up because, like you said, there's cameras everywhere,

but people still take this risk. Although, I mean, didn't something in this article say that Disney said that people don't do this? Yeah, so this article said that Disney's official stance is that it does not happen. Come on. I saw a 2018 Wall Street Journal article. I should say I saw a lot of reference to it. I'm too cheap to spring for the subscription. But apparently, in that article, they interviewed people who were with Disney saying, like, yes, this happens a lot, and here's what happens when they do that. And ultimately, the bottom line is even if you get away with it, even if you don't get caught and escorted out of the park and probably banned for life from any Disney attraction, the cremated remains are going to be swept up one way or another

and thrown in the trash. Grandpa is not going to forever be part of the Haunted Mansion ride because they clean those rides thoroughly and frequently, and he's not going to be there anymore. He's going to end up in the trash. And is that really where he wanted to be? Yeah. Yeah, meaning no. Right. That's what I saw is basically the bottom line to the whole thing. Yeah. And like you said, you're probably going to get kicked out. I don't even know if they have a public stance, like official stance on that because their public stance is like, no one does that here. Right. Yeah. Keep coming to Disney World. You're not, when you drag your hand in the water of the pirate's Caribbean, it's not just literally full of cremated remains. Maybe a tooth bobbing

up and down here or there. That would gross me out. Sure. That would be very disturbing. I still, I do see the Pirates of the Caribbean ride being the smart one though if you're going to do it anyway. If you're such a wildcat that you listen to this episode and still do it, I would guess that's probably the best way to do it. I want to be scattered at my camp. Oh yeah. I'm sure of that. Unless something changes, that seems like a great place to spend eternity. Yeah. Way to go, man. That's a great thing to settle on. You mean I are still trying to figure that one out? Well, let me know. Maybe me doing it. Okay. I would. If you guys go down in a hail of gunfire and a bank robbery or something. Well,

if it's going to be you doing it, then definitely Pirates of the Caribbean ride. You want me banned from Disney World. You got anything else? I got nothing else. Me either. Wildcat Scattering. Don't do it. The short stuff is out. Stuff you should know is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts on myHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.