>> Speaker A: Hey, hats off to you, chemistry. >> Speaker B: Imagine being a chemist, and your job for the day is to root around in someone's scoot and, like, figure out what it's made out of. Uh, welcome back to privy. Privy is a podcast about bathrooms recorded from my home bathroom. I am your host, hunter Hoover, and I love bathrooms. Thank you so much for
joining me. Um, here in my domicile of, uh, know something I realized this week, as you've noted, I've shared on the show before, I have logged every turd I have taken for the past about almost two and a half years. And I realized something as I was looking back on my poop map, and that is, I go to the bathroom a lot at my house, but it pales in comparison to, uh, how often I go to the bathroom in other places. Um, and this week, man, boy howdy, did I go to the bathroom in some other places.
I almost feel like I shouldn't share what I did. Um, I might tease it, and then let's let it float out there for a few weeks. But in short, what you need to know is I use the number two. I went number two. Um, but I did not go at my home. And, uh, I did have an audience, and that's really what you need to know. Um, also, the young adults crew and I, we went out for
some red robin. Yum. Um, here in all, I don't know if I can talk about this, but a lot of people have skipped out on red robin for some time because there was maggots in the red robin. There's no maggots. Well, I can't say there's none, but it has proven to be fewer, if not no maggots in the red robin
since they, air quotes, dealt with it. Um, but we went to red robin, and I almost caved into peer pressure, and the peer pressure was essentially three other blokes in their early 20s trying to talk me, a bloke in my late 20s, early 30s, I'll never tell, uh, into consuming not one, not two, but three large root beer floats. Now, I had two of them, and after two, and my burger and fries, I did think my tummy was going to explode.
It's too much. I think back to the days in youth group where when I was in youth group, when I was, like, in high school, and you go to little Caesars and you could polish off a little Caesars pizza by yourself, or you go to McDonald's and you get a large sized meal with an extra shake, you take that down, and then by the time you get home, you might have dinner too. You know what I'm saying?
Man, we ate some food in high school. I'll tell you what, I remember this one time, my budy Josh, we went to Denny's. Um, this was Denny's of old. This was back before Denny's had kind. >> Speaker A: Of caved to just the cultural whatevers. >> Speaker B: But I remember Denny's at the time, they had all you could eat pancakes. >> Speaker A: For like $6 or $5 or something.
>> Speaker B: And so we went into, and this Denny's was also a truck stop for a lot of the local, um, truckers in the area. And that was, they were coming through on the interstate. And I remember my budy Josh, we sat down and we went for just, he got the all you could eat. >> Speaker A: Pancakes and they bring the first plate. >> Speaker B: Out with like three cakes and it's real good.
And then you order the refill and they bring you out like two cakes and you're sitting here going, okay, I know what's happening now. And the cakes are getting gradually smaller. It's as if they're passively, aggressively telling you like, hey, bud, we're going to keep decreasing these until we bring you out like quarter sized pancakes and you decide to leave. But I remember Josh ordered eight pancakes and after eight pancakes they
cut him off. And I'm sitting here thinking, you know, eight pancakes is a lot like, that's a lot of pancakes, but it's not that many pancakes. I think a lot of people, if they put their heart and soul and mind to it, they could consume eight pancakes. And my budy Josh, I have no doubt this guy could have put down at least ten, but they cut him off at eight. And I'm sitting here going, all you can eat. Yeah,
right. We were there for 2 hours. They started making it so slow to bring him new think I think Denny's had a conspiracy with those pancakes. I don't know, that seems like, why would you put all you can eat? Why don't you just say, hey, all you can eat limit eight? But I assure you they did not. Nowadays, I probably would have fought the power a little more on that, but uh, yeah,
the things I care about are a little bit different. For instance, you know what I'm rambling at the beginning of the show. If nobody cares about this, I'm sorry, but a little rant for you here. So, uh, I'm employed, um, and I am the Venn diagram question mark. Who is Hunter? He is in the bubble of employed. >> Speaker A: And the bubble of receives email notifications. >> Speaker B: For new Pokemon center merch. And so Friday, the Pokemon company
released two new Pokemon squishmellows. And I really want to get my hands on this snorlax squish mellow. Um, but because I am employed and I do not regularly shop online while I'm at work, I had to wait till my break to check and see if these Pokemon squishmellows were available. So the email came at 1030. I hopped on. It was about 11:00, maybe a little before, and these jokers sold out in under 20
minutes. That's what I'm hearing. And I'm sitting here going, so, like, I mean, I know the Pokemon company puts them out when they're going to make the most money. I get it. You're a business. But like the working man and the working woman, um, the working child. No, we don't do that here. Uh, but these aren't going to be able to get the Pokemon squishmellow. It's just not fair. I've digressed. Thank
you for listening. Sorry for my ramblings. Um, it's time to get our nose into the topic this week here in America. Um, where I am, uh, that's where I'm from. Leave it to America to bring you a show about toilets. Let's get this going here. Let's get this going here. Let's see what we got. Oh, polar, uh, orange, vanilla polar seltzer. You know, it's good. Ooh, ooh, man alive, that's good stuff. Have. I'm telling you, those orange vanilla polar seltzers
are it. But here in America. Leave it to America to bring you a show about toilets brought to you by America. America. Uh, but here in America, every year we take an opportunity to culturally appropriate mexican culture, and we do that through the celebration of Cinco de Mayo. Now, you think to, you know, with all the concern about appropriation and equality and sensitivity, you'd think that people would have chilled out and really pumped the brakes on this. But
no, you would be wrong. Why, pray tell, do Americans still sling Cinco de Mayo on the calendar and celebrate this as a day? Well, the answer, it seems, is folks here in America love to have some drinks. And Cinco de Mayo is often a holiday associated with going out and getting drinks. In short, it is a day. So that's what we've made it. But we must ask ourselves, what is it? Now? If you're like me, when asked, what is Cinco de Mayo?
I honestly, until recently, I had no context for I didn't really understand it, but Cinco de Mayo is. Ah, first of all, that stands for the 5 May. Cinco being fifth. De Mayo being of May. Um, so it's the 5 may, if you didn't suss that one out. But it's a day celebrated to commemorate when the mexican army defeated the French at the battle of Puebla in 1862.
Now, what's weird is I always thought Cinco de Mayo was a celebration of mexican Independence day, but that is not the case because Mexico was actually declared independent 50 years prior to the Mexicans defeat of the French at the battle of Puebla in 1862. It's good stuff. Um, I feel like this is part of history that you don't really learn about in history. Um, if you ask me about Europe, I could tell you a few things about Europe. But as I was doing research for.
>> Speaker A: This episode I realized we've kind of. >> Speaker B: Just glossed over the mexican history and the mexican culture in our education. It's kind of stupid. Um, because if anything, it's fascinating. In the 1960s, Latin Americans began to celebrate Cinco de Mayo to commemorate their identification with the indigenous Mexicans and their victory over the european invaders, the conquistadors. Conquistadors? That sounds like a stupid Power Rangers villain.
I mean, I feel like all Power Rangers villains are kind of stupid. Power Rangers is stupid. Um, if you like Power Rangers, I'm sorry, but in my opinion, Power Rangers are just kind of dumb. The action's too slow for me to think it's that cool. Like, when I watch Power Rangers, all I can think of is this is like when not Nickelodeon made that, not avatar, the last Airbender movie. And it was really stupid and bad because their bending kung fu
moves were so slow. That's how I feel about Power Rangers, except for my understanding is their kung fu is supposed to be that slow in Power Rangers. I don't understand it. But these Latin Americans started to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. Uh, to, uh, identify and show that they identified with the indigenous Mexicans and the victories they had had in the past over their invaders to a culture that was living in America often trying to be changed by the Americans
around them. They started to identify with this. They began to hold observances that celebrated and highlighted mexican cultures. It started as identification with indigenous mexican victory over incoming settlers. And that's why I find it fascinating that Americans at large, I'm not hispanic. I am not Latina or Latino. I probably got the wrong one in there somewhere. But I'm none of those things. I am el Gringo. But I just find it fascinating that we keep this ball
rolling. But I'm, for all people celebrating whatever they want. But I think some things should be harder to get hyped about than others. Or maybe I'm not the one, like, imagine if I got imagine. I guess we do put quans on the. That ain't my thing either. I don't know. I'm rambling. But what's also ironic is for many Mexicans, they don't do a whole lot of to celebrate the day. I, uh, don't know. I shouldn't speak for them. But as I research and ask around,
it isn't really a holiday. It's usually just business as usual. What's also ironic is there's not a lot of, uh. It very much seems like an american holiday on behalf of the mexican people. Originated from the Latino culture, Latina, latin cultures, I don't know. Look at the white guy from Montana. Try to figure out how to talk about these things. But what I do know is, as I've looked these things up, is that mexican history is rich. And the native mexican peoples and people groups were
diverse. There were a number of very well known native mexican people. The oldest of these people groups are the Olmecs, um, after them. It is believed that the Mayans and these lasted some time, and these were credited for being the most well known, uh, uh, in many ways, them and the Aztecs, the Mayans are most well known for that fun calendar that said that everything was going to end in 2012. Uh, next was the towacin.
I'm sorry if I'm butchering these, um, I'm doing my best tot Hawaiian, which is a large residential gather. It's again like a city with an estimated 200,000 inhabitants. The Toltec, uh, culture was next, and this eventually gave rise to the aztec cultures, which were present in the 13 to 15 hundreds. Now, the Aztecs formed an empire, and it was an empire that centered on human sacrifice. They appeased many of their deities through the offering of human
blood. At the height of the aztec empire, there were over 10 million people who were ruled over by a wealthy elite of 350,000. This was based on a system of offering tribute. The capital of the aztec empire was Mexico, Tenochtitlan. I think that's right. Which is a place, essentially, where m modern day Mexico city is, which is, I believe, the capital of
Mexico today. In the early 15 hundreds, Europeans arrived in Mexico, originally off of spanish shipwreck and later in the form of the conquistadors in 1517, Fernando Hernandez met conflict with the mayan people. It was the first encounter of white Europeans that would begin an over 300 year conflict. In 1521, Tinoctitlan fell to the spanish conquistadors, and this began a 300 year colonial rule of the indigenous Mexicans.
Now, if you do math, if you do math, that 300 years, it is not until the end of that 300 years that the mexican people gain their independence. Now, I don't want to dwell too long on the time of the spanish conquest, but, like, 300 years is a long time. During this time, indigenous Mexicans struggled to exist as a people. And goodness knows, there are real history podcasts that could do this time period a lot more justice. Go seek those
out, if you will. But they really underwent two different empires. And during the second mexican empire, the country was invaded by France. And on May 5, 1862, the mexican army had one of its early defeats of France, which is the commemoration of Cinco de Mayo. Now, though this was the first mexican victory over the french people, the conflict in the campaign would last another ten to 15 years until the
republic was restored. The ensuing history of Mexico is characterized by turmoil, dictatorship, and, at times, unrest. In modernity, they have elected presidents, but things at times seem outside of these presidents's control. Now, I don't want to go on too much about this, because we got to talk about bathrooms. For goodness sakes, we're over 15 minutes in, and Hunter hasn't even said one thing about a bathroom, except for he teased me with that. He went to the bathroom thing at the beginning.
You'll have to wait. But to talk about bathrooms this week, I want to back up into mexican history and talk about the mayan empire. Now for centuries, when it comes to mexican infrastructure and their water and sewer and all of those things, it is believed that the spanish people introduced running water to Mexico. But in 1999, when archaeologists were doing a map survey of the region of Polenque, I don't know, they noticed this weird feature, this weird, uh, structure, if you will.
It was like many of the water aqueducts flowing beneath Polanc Polanki, but this one was different. And so another expedition returned seven years later with a hydrologist to figure out what in the heck this thing was. Now, they eventually named this feature the Piedris bolus aqueduct. It is a spring fed conduit, and it flows downhill, uh, on the course of about 200ft. >> Speaker A: As it approaches the end, and as.
>> Speaker B: It moves down this tunnel, the end narrows to a smaller opening. The combination of this downward movement of the water. And the narrowing of the tunnel itself. Creates water pressure as it exits the feature. The mayan people were able to build. >> Speaker A: A barrier for the end opening that. >> Speaker B: They could close, stopping the water's flow. And the pressure, however, would not knock it down. As the air being cut
off would keep it from doing so. In short, the mayan people kind of created a large, spring fed underground faucet of sorts. And those pesky Spaniards thought they had done it first. Not likely. Now, while the Mayans had an extensive system. For irrigation to water, crops and other household use, this system of closed off, pressurized water. Could hold up to 68,000 liters of water. To give you perspective, that's about how much g fuel those twitch streamers consume in a week.
Playing warthone call of Duty war zone. What's up, guys? Snipers on your left. But, like, that's a lot of g. No. Uh, but that's a lot of 60,000 liters is how much this tunnel could hold. It's a lot. It's a big tunnel. It is also believed that the Mayans hooked this pressurized system. To something that would have been like a fountain. Where they could turn it on and have running water. This could be gathered to be used for bathing or home use by the people. Think of it like a
public faucet. Not a well, but like a public faucet. One archaeologist and anthropologist Kirk French says that these fountains would have been intricate like, most of what the. >> Speaker A: You know, I gotta say this, and. >> Speaker B: I'll try to post some pictures of this. In the privy socials and on the privies group. But these mayan structures are pretty fascinating. Yeah, they did some interesting work here. >> Speaker A: Uh, the ancient watering spot was also.
>> Speaker B: Kind of like it was kind of like the fox or CNN news of the know. If you wanted to know what was going on in the limited scope of the world as it is, it was probably limited to their town and the next town over. But she went to the fountain. Think of it like the water cooler. You know, the whole office, water cooler gossip thing. I don't know very many, uh, offices that ever actually had water cooler gossip. You go down there. Hey, I heard Tony saw a bunch.
>> Speaker A: Of people wash up on shore last week. >> Speaker B: Yeah, it'll probably blow over in a week or so. Probably just some wanderers. Hey, did you hear Big Doug finished his calendar? Yeah. Only about 500 more years until the end of the world. Uh, probably I'll be gone by then. Some people, perhaps the less well off of society, may have even bathed in this water feature itself, the palace at Pollunk also has some features.
>> Speaker A: We are really interested here at privy. >> Speaker B: Because they resemble ancient toilets. These were essentially drain basins that would empty into the same spot, and they were all in a line. They were the appropriate height for doing one's business. Now, I must note, we can't prove that these were toilets, but, like, if it quacks like a duck and it looks like a duck, it probably isn't a pig. Imagine you walk in on this.
>> Speaker A: It's a line of basin shaped features. >> Speaker B: With rudimentary stone piping coming out the. >> Speaker A: Bottom that empties into the same trough. >> Speaker B: The water did not, uh, come up them. You would be left to assume a toilet or some type of sink. But why do they have to be so close together and at the same time separated if it's a sink, they're unsure. But I like to think these toilets really embody the spirit of
Cinco de Mayo. Plumbed or semi plumbed years before outsiders came in. And that's victory. Y'all don't get this with the post production edit, but I just blew my schnaws so fiercely. Aren't you glad that I edit this stuff out? As is often the case when it comes to bathrooms and where we dump our trash, they really serve as a time capsule.
When you find these ancient spots where people took a dump or dumped their things, they took, it's kind of finding, like a little mini time capsule into their lives, except for instead of being filled with Tamagotchis, whose batteries have exploded inside the device over the years, it's just busted housewares, bones, and turds. Now, at a different mayan site from. >> Speaker A: Central Guatemala, mayan ruins were found with. >> Speaker B: A number of circular pits dug in
the corner of the home. These pits are called, which translates essentially into a rock lined pit. Often they're carved into the natural limestone of the region. And what they found in some of these pits is kind of interesting. First, they found maize starch spherulites, which is a very small byproduct of a process of nix
tamilization. In short, this is one of the most essential processes involved in making and forming tamales, in which corn products are cooked and then steeped in a solution of water and alkaline, often calcium hydroxide or food grade lime. So they found a bunch of these particles in these circular pits in the center of. In the
corner of a home. And what's interesting is this practice also probably helped with the smell, because they also found human poopy things there remember back when we talked about the river tams and how it was stinking so hard, they used lime to help with that stink? Well, lime is also used in soap and other products. And so dumping this food grade lime. Yeah, this lime into this pit might have helped with the stink of the pit. Mexico is a hot land, and I assume so is
guatemala. These are some dark, dank holes. And like I noted, what else they found on there was particles from parasites commonly found in human feces. Now, lest you hear that and think, as I thought, that they were preparing their tamales in a toilet, likely what they did was they made their tamales using this process, and then they had this lime alkali salt water left over. And they used this to either rinse out a piss pot or another container with the remaining lime water
that was left. Let no water go unused. Not only does this tell us some about the life practices of the Mayans, but it is likely one of the earliest evidences of this specific tamale making process. A chemical analysis of the feces. A thing that happens a lot when you go digging through old toilets. And also something that we talk a lot about here. >> Speaker A: Hey, hats off to you, chemistry.
>> Speaker B: Imagine being a chemist, and your job for the day is to root around in someone's scoot and, like, figure out what it's made out of. Really get up in there and do some science on that turd. What we can learn here is. So they did the chemical analysis, and they found that the people of this area had a lot of stomach trouble. Like, the mayan people probably had significant tummy troubles, likely from poor drinking water. Diet. All of the
classics. Poor hygiene. Um, I mean, for goodness sakes, they're dumping their crap in the corner pit of the house. Uh, but that was then. A couple of things we've learned. Do not make tamales in the toilet, but feel free to use the water to rinse it out if you turn a faucet on to do so. Remember the indigenous Mexicans who went before you to make that pressurized water? They figured out before the spanish conquistadors arrived. This week, I think we can be thankful for
faucets. I thought to myself, Friday night this week, as I took a shower, how thankful I am for hot running water. Faucets, uh, are pretty cool. We can also be thankful for tamales. They are delicious. Um, this week, I want to be thankful for cinco de mayo. Happy, um, cinco de mayo, everybody. I hope you
celebrate. However you can. Remember, um, it's not mexican Independence day, but it is a remembrance and an identification with how the mexican people have overcome the challenges of those, uh, of the european cultures have put on them. I'm also thankful for what we can learn from the bathrooms. We go digging around in these things, and we find all sorts of good stuff. This brings us to the end of another episode of privy. Thank you for listening. Uh, if you want to send us an email, email us
privycast@gmail.com. We'd love to hear from you. Send us episode suggestions, feedback, common concerns. We're working on some stuff. We'll be rolling that out here. If you have a story to tell or if you want to, um, promote. >> Speaker A: Your things by going on the show. >> Speaker B: With me, let me know. Send me an email there. Uh, follow us on social media. We're at Privycast on all social medias. I'll note again, we started the privy's Facebook group.
>> Speaker A: That is a little more informal. >> Speaker B: Come on in there. Join the group. >> Speaker A: Hang out, post some dumb bathroom related memes. >> Speaker B: Say hi, don't be a stranger. Come check us out on the privies. Leave us a rating and review. The five star options are preferred. And every review you leave us, we. >> Speaker A: Will be donating some money to the wounded warriors.
>> Speaker B: Uh, just as a reminder, the, uh, wounded warriors we chose because we keep pooping in a free world. But that free world was not always free. And it's just a small token of gratitude to those who have fought to make it a little more free. Thank you all. Um, thank a vet. Do it. Uh, we want to thank Kevin McLeod for the use of his music this week. Thank you, Kevin. This has been another episode of Privy. Thank you guys so much for
joining us again. Love that you're here. We love you guys. Keep pooping in the free world. Wash your butthole, and don't forget to flush.