>> Hunter Hoover: My can is literally sweating, begging for mercy. It's just. It's so hot. It's not hot. It's not even hot in my house. It's just hot and humid out here. Welcome back to privy. Privy is a podcast about bathrooms recorded from my home bathroom. I'm your host, hunter Hoover, and I love bathrooms. Um, welcome back, everyone. Thank you for being here. It's hot. Before I came into the studio, which, if you're new to the show, when I say studio, it's really where I poop.
Um, this is my home family. Not family. It's my wife and I's bathroom, but it is my home bathroom. It's my studio. But before I. Before I came in here, I was. I was talking to Anna, really, just complaining about, uh, the temperature. It's hot. I don't live in states like Arizona and Texas and things like that because I do not do well with the heat. For me, the idea of dwelling in that much heat is just. It's just not okay. I do not want that, and so I do not seek it out. Um, but it's.
It's just hot as heck. They're. They're, like, pouring new asphalt in our neighborhood right now. And the asphalt stays, like, sticky and in asphalt form. Whose fault? Uh, but it stays, like, in roadtar form for much longer than a person would probably want it to. And it's just hot. I want to also note that when it gets this hot, there's just certain foods that are just kind of more off limits than others. One of those is just milk. Just know anything that is too spicy. Like, why do you want
that? Uh, yesterday, my family and I ventured out to the Oregon coast, and while there, we ate at local. Local kind of seafood restaurant, mo's. And it was delicious. But I ordered the chili instead of the clam chowder. Uh, because I was thinking, I don't know if want dairy, and, like, I'm just not a clam chowder guy. I know it's probably sacrilege if you're going to Moe's not to get whatever. But I got the chili, and it was. It was delicious, but it was spicy, but it was also, like,
80 degrees outside. And so then you're, like, sweating because it's hot, and you're sweating because you're fat, and you're also sweating because now your insides have gotten, like, fire put into them. Um, so that was fun. Here we are. But it's hot out, and there's things
that are just off limits. I do think it's ironic that ice cream plays such a big role, uh, in the summer treats because it is refreshing, it's cold, and so, as a result, it is refreshing, but it is also just very dairy, and it is also just sugar. And so it sits like a big, milky gut bomb every time you have it. Um, um. Will I stop having it? Heck, no. Um. Um. But it is just true. Like, you don't want. When it's hot, you don't want too much dairy, and you don't want m too much
sugar. And ice cream is just like the perfect venn diagram overlap of those two things. It is just all dairy and all sugar. If this hits like a ton of bricks. But it's summer. It's privy summer. And, uh, there's a lot going on this summer since our last unguested episode, our last unguessed episode. We talked about the White House and about the political landscape and all that, and a lot has happened
since then. I'm not going to speak to it here on the show, but, yeah, things are a mess out here. We're going to transition to something a little more international in scope at the point of this episode's release. This episode comes out, uh, July 25. If you're hearing this day, it comes out July 25. Um, the world is getting ready, or. I don't know, the timeline's kind of weird, but there's so many pre event things and qualifiers and things that happened before the Olympics
happen. But we're getting ready to kick off the 2024 Summer Olympics. Um, and those who know me, they know a couple things. Number one, I don't really care that much about sports. Um, I know it is what it is. My family likes the Mariners. I like to root on gritty, um, in hockey. Um, but besides that, I could take it or leave it, but my goodness, I love the Olympics. And I love watching the Olympics because, for me, I love seeing all these weird sports. But
also, I like, um. I'm gonna be honest, I'm an american, and I kind of like to see America beat people. Now, we do lose some, and that's fine. Like, you know, you're gonna take the l in some. Um. Like, we're not. We're not winning many anyway. But. But I love. I love watching the Olympics. And the Olympics have existed for a long time. Like, they've been around a minute. They existed, like, before the formal Olympics,
like we have today. Those kind of got their start in around, like, the late 18 hundreds, 1896. But before that happened, there was the classic Olympic games back in ancient Greece. So the ancient Grecians, that's the greek people, uh, they held these games as a means of entertainment, but also as a means of proving themselves. Uh, and that happened in ancient Greece. And whether or not they fell off with the fall of Greece. But the modern Olympics, the Olympics that we kind of know and love
today, things have changed a lot. Began in 1896, and they held their first Olympics in Athens, Greece, as an homage to the ancient Olympians. Before these first Olympics were held, though, they were meeting to discuss the Olympics. They had to, just like anything, you have to meet to discuss how you're going to do it. And so they, they began to meet to discuss the Olympic games. And these meetings were promoted by, and were put on by french delegates.
While Athens held the first modern Olympics in 1896, the second Olympic games were held in 19 hundreds. In the year 1900 in Paris, France. These were held as part of the 19 hundreds world's fair. Uh, uh. And it is also that they did this as a note to, like, Paris and France's influence in getting the Olympics, like, up and going once more. It should also be noted that this 19 hundreds Olympic Games was the first Olympic games where women
were allowed to participate. Now, this is an obvious homage to Paris's involvement in getting the modern Olympics back off the ground and up and running. In modern times, it seems that the city is mostly chosen, like where the Olympics land is mostly chosen, much like many elections are won by a lot of arguing and a little bit of bidding. Uh, there's like a bidding war
to see who gets the Olympics. And it is noted that many of the cities that want to host the Olympics have to petition to host the Olympics and to win the bid. And they have to do that anywhere between five and ten years prior to the games that they desire to hold. Now, this year marks the 33rd Olympic games. And, uh, the last time Paris held the Olympics was 1924. So it has been 100 years since Paris and France
has seen the Olympics. Um, and it is going to return to what is, in many ways, the home of the modern Olympics. It's returning to Paris this year. Something we've talked about in the past is the bathroom landscape. And the bathroom history of Paris is just rife with information. We've discussed at length. The public pissoirs and the infrastructure rehaul Paris had to over go with their, their new sewer system to meet the needs of these things.
But it turns out the infrastructure in the cities that host the Olympics often struggles to keep up with the sudden addition of, uh, athletic and olympian turds now, before we discuss the history of the Paris sewer systems and the ongoing concerns we have at even at the time of this record with, yeah, the things going on in Paris, it should be noted that the Olympics have not had a lot of impact on bathroom history. We're here to talk about bathrooms. This is privy. We're not here to
talk about. We're going to talk about the Olympics, but we're not really here to talk about the Olympics. You know what I'm saying? Like, we got to get to the bathrooms. What have the Olympics done for the bathrooms? And the Olympics have really done one significant positive impact on bathrooms, and it doesn't really have anything to do with bathrooms itself. Rather, it is more a step forward in communication. It is paved the way by way of the bathroom pictogram.
The Olympics, especially in modernity, have done a lot to focus on how to depict a desired idea without using words, text, or, like, any specific language. And the reason that the Olympics were so concerned with this is because none of you know this, but not everybody speaks the same language. Sea Tower of Babel. Um, but we don't all share a same language. Don't share a
common language. And so when you begin to try to communicate Olympic events and things, you have to come up with pictures and images to help ease that process along. When you're inviting people from all over the world to compete, you got to have something as a solution for communication. Otherwise, it's just going to get muddy. Gotta get. Get that polar seltzer. We got. We got ruby red grapefruit. Oh, it's just. Just fierce. It's good. Every time. My can is literally
sweating, begging for mercy. It's just. It's so hot. It's not hot. It's not even hot in my house. It's just hot and humid out here in the Pacific Northwest. There's flipping yellow jackets everywhere. But the Olympics have paved a lot of. A lot of way in the area of bathroom pictograms. Um, you have to describe a desired idea without using a lot of language. And when you get all these people, you know, you got these pictograms end up being
pretty helpful. But turns out this idea is useful when you are in communicating who is intended to use a specific bathroom, uh, labeling the bathrooms. We get the bathroom pictograms. I don't think I need to explain it. The newest update, I think, is, like, the. The handicap stall guy, but he's a little more active and, like, leaning forward. He looks fast. Um, it's kind of cool. But
I digress, tangent. The 33rd Olympics are back in Paris, and the Paris sewers are definitely going to be experiencing an influx of users. The amount of international deuce that's going to be flying through Paris's pipes is going to be wild. A sentence, Paris Hilton. Nevermind. In the middle ages, in Paris, just, it's all connected, I promise. I swan to Jan. It is, um, in the middle ages in Paris, drinking water was traditionally drawn from the sien cyan. Sien. Um, just. We
have the power of the Internet at our fingertips. How do you pronounce sane? It is pronounced sane. Very good. Thank you, Internet. The sane watch. It's wrong and I'm gonna sound like a complete flippin idiot. But the Seine, it just doesn't sound right. Uh, whatever. But, but middle ages Paris, much of their drinking water was drawn from the Seine river. Dirty and waste water would be tossed out into the fields. The idea here being it adds to the, the, uh, uh, fertilizing qualities of the water.
Um, but it turns out what happens with that water is it soaks down and it flows back via groundwater into the seine. This likely led to much of their cholera problems throughout the time. Uh, but the Seine has often in history been linked to the sewers of Paris. Napoleon III ordered the construction of new boulevards, aqueducts and sewers. Um, and his prefect for the Seine,
it just looks like scene. Baron Hausmann and the engineer Eugene Belgrand designed the present Paris, or Parisian Paris, uh, sewer and water supply networks. This was built more than a century ago. A double water supply network, one for drinking water and one for non drinking water. A, ah, sewer network that was about 600 km long back in 1878. This is prior to the first Olympics. From 1880 to 1913, um, they began to connect the
buildings to the sewers. Uh, most were connected to the clean water pipes, but now they had to connect them to the dirty water pipes. Um, they had free neighborhood taps. But by 1914, 68% of the buildings in Paris had been connected. Architect Belgrand, um, his work is continued to be built on. From 1914 to 1977, another 1000 sewer line are added to the city's sewers to help, uh, meet the needs of the growing population of the Paris city and the problems that it was having with the sewer.
Later, they would add sewage treatment as a rehaul. That happened after world War one. Paris wastewater, um, at the Akari's Acheres treatment, uh, plant uses a network of channels, and this plant has continued to grow. At the end of 1970, it was one of the biggest sewage treatment plants in Europe. And so the Seine is, is connected to Paris's water situation and their water supply, but also their, their waste water. Today, the status of the Seine is, ah, get both the river and people's mental
stability. But, um, the status of the Seine is of great concern. There have been many measures in the past 20 to 30 years to diminishe storm overflow, pollution runoff, the like, into the river. The last time Paris held the Olympics was 1924. The Seine was probably a little cleaner, fresh off of a lot of these infrastructure rehauls at the time.
But with the Olympics just around the corner at the time of this episode's writing, and probably by the time you're hearing this, hopefully the Seine is looking great with all those measures. M right. We would, we would think that's the case. It turns out it is not. As was noted, the 2024 Olympics are being held in Paris, home of the Seine river. If you don't keep tabs on all that's happening in french politics, I'm going to give you so, so we have problem number one. Paris sewage and the Seine
river bucket over here. Next bucket is the french political landscape right now. I'm going to give you the short and sweet. I'm not a politician. I'm not a historian. At least not a historian about France. I don't care enough to be that. Um, I'm going to give you the hunter Hoover's fourth grade understanding Cliff's notes of the political landscape of France right now. Um, in short, from what I can tell, uh, and again,
I'm not an analyst. This is just me trying to read some stuff online, listen to a couple things, and spit that information back at you listeners so you can get some appreciation on the trouble we have and the turds that are going to be a part of this episode. Um, but there are three main groups vying for control of the french legislature right now. Um, they're the leftists. So the left, who seem almost akin to some communist
ideals and some of their approaches. And I don't mean that like, I mean like actually some communist ideals in their approaches. Um, then there are the centrists and the centrist. The current president, um, President Macron, uh, this is his party. He is of this centrist, more centrist party. And then there is the far right, so left center right. Uh, and they recently had this vi for the french legislature. And from what I can understand, none of
them really won the majority. The left came out the most mostly because Macron, or the centrist kind of advocate advocate, I don't know the word. They gave up a little bit and allowed the leftists to take maybe more than they would have, um, by rushing this election on. Now, to save you the boring part, they aren't
really sure who is in control. And there seems to be a, at minimum, political insecurity and at most political unrest, dwelling, um, kind of in France, in Paris right now, it's just another day in paradise. I'm glad we here in America have no political unrest that has happened recently. If we can learn anything, thank God for visual diagrams to gesture towards, like, the Lord works in mysterious ways. So yeah, Paris and the french
government have some government problems. It's nothing except the entire world is getting ready to descend on, or has already descended on that french paradise to get real sweaty in the spirit of competition. And that brings us back to the saying, because as Paris is holding the Summer Olympics, there are some really cool Olympic events like basketball and fencing, which, by the way, I don't follow women's sports, but there's this like, lady in women's basketball that's like totally
turned the thing upside down. She probably should have went to the Olympics and they didn't. They slid or whatever. It's not my thing. Um, but they've got like some really cool events like basketball and fencing. And those events have nothing to do with water except for drinking it. And that's great. But, um, there are other events which are very much going to take place in the water. Things like water polo and swimming
relays. And, um, these events are really cool because they take place in a swimming pool, usually with measured lines and markings. And it's, it's a really nice pool. However, if you are a marathon swimmer or if you plan on taking place and competing in the triathlon, which involves a distance swim, you are likely staring down and preparing to take a plunge in the Seine river for your
event. Now, as was noted, the Paris, the Paris and french, Paris and french government have been preparing for Paris to hold the Olympics for like five to ten years.
So one would think that when France won the approval, when Paris won the approval for the Olympic event five to ten years ago, they would have, if the water of the Seine river was not up to snuff, to have people puddling around in it, that they would have made efforts and began efforts five to ten years ago to make the river ready for international swimmers this week. Right.
I think if there was an image for the unpreparedness and political problems of franchise of France right now, it's the river Seine. And, um, it's. It's a telling thing. Turns out, scientific experts, river experts have said that the. The river is not fit for bathing in. I'm a key in a little secret. If it's not fit for bathing in, it's definitely not fit for swimming in. Mhm. President McCrone assured onlookers that the river would be ready by the Olympic events in which the river is needed.
Now, perhaps in response to the political turnings out of the, of the lead up to the Paris elections, or perhaps in protest of the Olympics Games causing all sorts of trouble to Paris. Citizens in their lives for the weeks of the games like to go through the part of the city where they're holding Olympics, they got to get, like, these special passes. It's a whole mess, or perhaps an expression. In opposition of the french leadership, a plan was made, a plan using the Internet and math.
And this brings us to another segment of poo in the news. This poo in the news comes from an article which has really been published everywhere. It's, um, all over. Um, so this is going to serve more as a synopsis than a summary of the specific news article. But as is noted, there have been some concerns with the water quality of the Seine river as it relates to swimming in the water.
Travelers and world leaders knowing that the Olympics are coming up, are like, looking at this river and they're going, y'all gonna have people swimming in this river, right? You're not gonna have people in it, right? And Paris games, french. The head of Paris games, the french president and Paris mayor are all like, oh, no, no, no, the water's fine. Everything's fine. As people look at this, like, murky. Just water. It's a slightly green swamp, but yeah, the water's great. It looks
like Shrek. Just shrek them. Shrek right in the river, but, like, water's great. Nothing wrong here. If you tell yourself a lie loud enough and long enough, maybe, you know. But anyway. But their word was not enough. Weirdly enough. People, they have some trust issues with Paris government right now. Um, and the people were still concerned. But then the mayor of Paris, uh, and the french president, uh, President Macron, they made a statement that they then
immediately regretted. They said, the river is fine. The river Seine is just fine. And to prove it, the mayor and I will swim in the river. Now that. Don't sign yourself up for stunts like, just don't do that. But even more foolishly than signing yourself up for this activity, they told the public the day and the time that they would swim in the river June 23. Now, to the onlooker, that's over a month ago. So this is all in the past.
But this statement by the mayor and the president of France turned into the 2024 Paris poop protest. Frustrated by the reported $1 billion spent to, quote, clean up the river, it would seem too little success. Like it. Any time that your president and your mayor have to go, it's fine, we'll swim in it. It's probably not fine. Like you're, like you do protest a little too hard, my friend. Um, and the way in which the games are going to impact. A call went out online.
A gentleman created a website and a hashtag to go along with it. Uh, and the website is called jashai don slausoniel 23 Juan Fr. Which is France. Now, that's a french website. Now, I'm going to warn you, when you google translate this website, and I'll put it down in the. I got all my sources down below. Go check out. You can check out this website down below. But the website name has a little more colorful language than Paris poop protest.
Um, and I presume it's in the place of that chai, in that french phrase in the URL. But what this website was, it is a website where you can enter your address, your location, and it will tell you what part of the sign river is the closest to you and what time you need to take a fat dump in that river. And then it measures and it has the speed at which the river flows at different areas. And, ah, it calculates when you would need to drop, drop
ham in the river Seine. So that way the turd will arrive in Paris at the exact time that President Macron and the mayor. And mayor Hidalgo will be swimming in the Seine in France. It's a wild world we live in. A wild, wild world out here, kids, uh, if you're. If you're still with me, kids, I'm gonna. Little public service announcement here. When you're in school and your teacher is having you practice your algebraic expressions and your multiplication and division, and they're having
you do math work, and you think to your. And you. And you're gonna be tempted to say you're gonna. And I've heard it. I work at a public high school. I hear it all the time. Sometimes they're right, sometimes they're not. Um, but you're gonna say, you're gonna be tempted to say, I'm never. When am I ever gonna use this? I'm never gonna use any of this.
You should remember that it is math and science that allows french and european citizens to organize pooping in a river so that an unpopular president and a, uh, mayor that people are frustrated with have to swim in their turrets. It's math and science that make this possible. Science is so amazing. It's a fun thing we could be doing. No, here's the deal. We're about a month removed from this infamous June 23 poop protest. And at the time of this record, Macron and Hidalgo
did not take a swim on June 23. They did not. Um, but at the point of this record, uh, yeah. So, breaking news. This is from four days ago. A point of this record episodes released would be almost a week ago. Um, the mayor did swim in the river. So he didn't do it on June 23. He kind of chickened out on that one. Turns out it probably wasn't as clean as he hoped. But Ann Hidalgo, the mayor, swam, uh, in the sin on Wednesday morning, so on the 18th ish.
Yeah. Or maybe it was the 11th, but they got in the thing, and there's pictures. I'll try to share pictures online. Yeah. July 17. Oh, yeah. So, like, this Wednesday the 17th, and according to findings, um, last week, they saw four days out of the whole month. So out of the last week in June, where the water was clean enough, um, but no days when it was clean enough to swim in, according to us standards. So the european standards are a little
less, um. And they're like, oh, yeah, Europeans dunkin them turds. But America's like, nah, that's fine. I. Now, they had some contingency plans, and those still stand in place because the quality of the water fluctuates. However, it should be said the mayor swam in the sand. Now, I don't know if the president did and president, um. McCrone. Do it. You said you would do it. Words mean things. I say that to my high school kids that I work with. All the times. Words mean things. If you say you're
gonna do it, you have to do it. Get in the water. Props to Mayor Hidalgo for doing it. Uh, hope you don't get whatever disease that water is carrying. We look forward, poo in the news looks forward to seeing if the Olympians truly do get to swim. In this scene, it's the Seine. If it is pronounced safe for swimming or if it is not, maybe next time. We'll keep you updated. But this brings us to the end of poo in the news. It should be noted there are contingency
plans for the river. If it is deemed unsafe to swim in by the time the Olympics roll around. The rivers, I mean, the sewers of Paris, are a truly historical thing, and maybe some of the Olympians will get to swim in them. Fun stuff. But suffice it to say, an Olympics coming to a city plays a significant toll on the sewer system and infrastructure of any city that they're held in. It's not Paris's fault. They just had ten years to get the
river ready. Paris is just the ones that happen to kind of force through a quick election right as they're getting ready to host the biggest sporting event in the last two to four years. Um, you know, don't worry about the river being teeming with turds. We got to get this election through. Good stuff, Olympians. Good luck out there. Stay hydrated. Hopefully, you don't have to swim in turds. If you were part of the Paris poop protest, if you took part in that,
let me know. Uh, maybe that's something we have to try out here in the states. Figure out when, you know, it'd be kind of fun. Figure out when I need to deuce in the river so it floats by certain things. Hmm. Hm. That could be an app. Ooh. Tm. Tm. This, um, brings us to the end of another episode of Privy. Thank you so much for joining us. Uh, we appreciate you being here, as always. Leave us a rating or review. The five star options are preferred. Um, five star wood
poop. Here again, that, um, five star helps people find the show when they search for bathrooms, because we know they're searching for bathrooms when they search for history. More likely history. Um, it helps the show populate sooner. So leave us a rating and review. The five star options are preferred. And for every rating and review you leave through the end of July, we're going to be donating $3 to wounded warriors and living water International as a thank you to those who have made our
world a little more free. As a reminder to keep pooping in the free world and to pursue cleaner water for all knowing that there are parts of this world that are less free and their water is less clean. Um, like Paris, France. Too soon? Uh, yeah. Thank you, guys. Follow, uh, us on social media. We're the cast. Send us an email, privycastmail.com dot. You can follow me. I'm at seven. Hit us up on
TikTok. All those things. It's the same everywhere. Um, you can go to our website, privy dash, cast.com. all those things, you can find them there. Uh, follow randy bulls andybowles online. If you're not afraid of some turd filled pots. Um, yeah, go out there, check those things out. We'd love to hear from you. If you have a story you'd like to share. You want to be on the show, let me know. Thank you to Kevin McLeod and Poddington bear for the use of their music this
week. Uh, you can find info on that in the ding dong down below. This brings us to the end of another episode of Privy. Thank you all so much for being here. Keep hooping in the free world. Own your stank. And now, as always, don't forget to flash. Yes.