>> Speaker A: It. Like, I'm getting these pictures from my. From my good friend of these. Of these goddang kids that are just jamming up these toilets left and right. And it leaves you wondering, you know, if we had the added water pressure, if we had the added flushing power of, I don't know, say, literally any other country that doesn't have these regulations, could we booty blast this poop down the tube faster and better? You? Welcome back to privy, and
happy new year, everybody. Uh, it's 2023. It's hard to believe, um, that we've been doing this nonsense for going on three years now. Uh, and something that I sat down at the end of 2022, which was kind of a. It was a big year, uh, I sat down and I wanted to hear at the top of the show, uh, before we get into. Because I know you guys are just dying to know about why the water runs slower now, but I wanted to get back to the heart of privy here. Why does privy exist?
Um, and I've shared on the show a couple times, and this might be a good episode zero, if you need one of those, to tell people, hey, start here, um, I would go start and listen with Santa Claus, but that's just me. But the heart of this show is it exists for bathrooms and history and culture and etiquette and all those things. Um, we love bathrooms here on privy. We're recorded each week
from a bathroom. Whether we're joined by someone or not, we are in a bathroom, and it exists to have fun, it exists to hear from others. Uh, and everyone has a bathroom story to share. It's based on that premise that since, to my knowledge, we all go to the bathroom in some way, we all have a bathroom story to share. But originally, when I sat down to map out this show, um, against all odds, it started as kind of a joke to have me go infiltrate some bathrooms.
And we're going to be testing some things this year. I think we're going to try some things. Whether or not they stick, it's going to be the year of trying things, 2023. Uh, but what this show became early on was it was a show that existed to build thankfulness, um, as we covered a lot of those early episodes, um, which. It is also my intention to rerelease the first ten episodes in some way, uh, as they are next to unlistenable, they'll still live where they are now, but
they might get a rebroadcast. Um, but the show existed early on to build some thankfulness, um, because as you use the bathroom, you're just thankful that you made it. You know what I'm saying? Even if you didn't make it, you're thankful that you had a target, because for a long time in history, people's target for bathrooming was the bush. Uh, and so it exists to try to build some
thankfulness. And so we're going to take a moment, uh, each episode to maybe think about what we have to be thankful for from that episode. But I also want to say at the front of the show here, it is also our intention as often as we are able to make privy as family friendly a podcast about bathrooms can be. Now, when there is some content that maybe is iffy for younger listeners, I will do my best to
give that content warning. Um, and I will also do my best to even put in the diddly do below, uh, some time markings if you want to skip those portions. Um, but as is the case with bathrooming, a lot of the content material, um, is crass and maybe is not for younger listeners. And so we want to keep the show family friendly while not limiting ourselves to not covering these big swaths of the bathroom world. And so we will do our
best. If that is the case for those episodes that do contain it, to contain the e explicit tag, you'll notice that we have removed that by default. So, um, by default, we're family friendly. And if in the case where we are unable to, you will know ahead of time. And so as we look to the past and sometimes the future, I'm looking at you, NASA. And as we shared each other's stories, we heard twelve different stories last year.
Uh, and I want more of that for this year. And so if you have a story and you want to be on this show, send me an email privycast at, uh@gmail.com, we'll set something up. Absolutely everybody has a bathroom story and we want to hear it. We reveled in the good and the bad. And the goal in all that is, again, that we might grow in a little bit of thankfulness. Like, if anything, for all the times we made it to the pot, that we are able to keep pooping in the free world.
And this is one of the other new things that we're going to test this year, is acknowledging that that free world has not always been free and it was not free to achieve. And so with, uh, that, I want to introduce, uh, ah, a new endeavor, as long as I'm able to do it, is writing a review now. You'll hear me say at the end of episodes. Oh, write a review, leave a rating and review. Uh, and the reason that podcasts ask you to do that is because when
you do it, it helps other people find the show. Now, uh, there is a part of you that has to be okay with putting your, if you write a review, putting your tag or your name associated with the show about bathrooms. But as I said, we're three years in and we're going to try to do some good. Um, and so, uh, from now on, those reviews, I'm not the only one who is going to get a benefit.
As privy and as a listener building that listener base of this show, we acknowledge that pooping in the free world has not always been free. And so every review left via, and if you're using some weird podcatcher that I cannot possibly track, um, I'm sorry. But, uh, the main two that I check that I know have ratings and reviews are Spotify
and Apple podcasts. And so if you leave us, uh, a rating on Spotify, that preferably the five star rating, um, we're going to donate some money here and we're going to get to that in just a second. I'm going to say, tentatively out of the gate, a dollar for every rating left on Spotify. And, uh, if you leave us a review that is a typed out word review on iTunes, we're going to donate $2 for those. So you can leave the
star rating on iTunes. We'll do the dollar for those. Um, but we want to kind of incentivize you guys to do that, and we're going to be donating that to the wounded warriors project. Um, so, in acknowledgement that pooping in the free world has not always been free, and to many, it was very costly. And so, uh, that's a little initiative. I'll be sharing more as time goes on. Um, and for those of you who have already left
the reviews and ratings, we will be honoring those. And so I'll go back, I will take a tally of them. And here in the new year, uh, end of each month, we'll probably, uh, check in on those and go to the wounded warriors and just send that straight over. And so, um, please go do that and feel free to share, uh, the show. The more you can share the show, the more people who hear about it. And, uh, yeah, leave us the rating review and we're going to send some love towards the wounded
warriors. Um, and so with that said, if you're interested, by the way, in overseeing privy stuff, let me know, uh, we can talk I'm trying some discord things, but I'm really bad at discord. So if you have some skills in that, let me know. Uh, one other change here at the top of the show before we get into it, is you may. And that may is a capital letters, and I have no idea. I'm learning. Remember, 2023 is the year of trying new things. Um, but you may hear an ad from time to time on privy. I
know. Um, but this is an endeavor to not just make this wounded warriors thing kind of sustainable, um, but also to expand a little bit, um, in the ways that I can. This is my side gig. Uh, this isn't even my side gig. This is for fun. Um, and we're not trying to make any money. Uh, the goal is to make zero money, but, um, I have spent some money on some podcasting equipment and some software. And so it would be helpful, uh, even if it's just to pay the subscription cost, to keep the
podcast up. Uh, you'll be hearing some ads, and I want full transparency on that. Um, and just probably the worst thing to say before you say, hey, we're going to start doing ads, but just use that forward 1030 seconds thing if you must. Uh, yeah, it exists for a reason. Um, so you might be hearing that. And, uh, I cannot stress, it is not a goal to make a trainload of money. Um, the goal is to make no money. And, uh, yeah, it's just to try to, at minimum, break even.
Um, but the show, uh, and the basic stuff of this show, we're not going to be charging for that. But this is one of the ways, um, that we can do that. So, uh, I just wanted to share those things. 2023 is the year of trying new things. Um, and so, uh, with that said, it's time to get right in. Enough housekeeping here at the front. Uh, thank you, guys. In 2015, former president
Donald run at it again. Donald Jebediah Trump told people in an interview with, um, who I don't care enough to look regarding what sort of policies he's going to overturn or revoke if he was elected. Now, we can look back, either fondly or otherwise, on that little bit of history that, uh, he would like to change something. What would he like to change? And he said that he would like to look at water regulation and bathroom water usage regulation.
And when asked why he know our water situation here in the United States, the land of the free, because of the brave, is inferior to other countries of the world. Now, he notes, we have restrictions put into our water fixtures and plumbing, and it really makes you shower for five times as long. Anyway, Trump said a lot of things during his time as president, and Lord knows the world does not need any more political coverage featuring
him in any way. It's not what we're doing. But, like, our former president came out and said that the US water is slower than other countries and we just need to talk about. So, like, what is he talking about here? Is this another cafe fe, or is this, like, real stuff? Well, it turns out our former president may have been onto something, ah. With this one, because America's water pressure really is not what it used to be on the whole.
Um, but to discuss this and how we move forward, we need to look at what in the flipping heck happened to America's water. Why is the water slower? Why is the water so dang slow? Our trip starts with the american buffalo. Bisonist. Bison. If you're a science person, don't tell me I got it wrong. After the United States westward expansion, I know we're going way back. Settlers had begun to settle and dwell from sea to shining sea.
Now, as they did so, they began to use the resources that were present where they lived. Uh, and a lot of those resources were very novel to them, I might add. America is a big country. Um, we're really wide, which is also kind of a comment about what's going on here, but, um, we're wide folks here. But one of the resources really got everyone's attention, because as settlers settled, that's what settlers do. Um, they hunted without
restriction. And as a result, the bison, buffalo, us buffalo of the settled west began to decrease, and it dwindled and dwindled with each hunting expedition to next to nothing. The bison are non existent. And nowadays you gotta go to, like, yellowstone to see some bison. And also, I've been watching yellowstone. This is not a plug. Um, go do it if you want, go. Don't if you don't. But that show's pretty good. Uh, and somehow it does capture what it's like
growing up in Montana. Not all of it, it's not all that scandalous, but, like, the atmosphere and just the general vibe of, like, where in the heck is everything at? That's what it's like to be in Montana. Um, likewise, logging and other human interactions with the landscape left lasting concerns. There was this worry, we've settled sea to shining sea, but are we going to be able to live here now? Like, have we
ruined it? And as we settled the west, and in many cases illegally, did so how much of the west would be left? Are we doing something that is not going to be sustainable? American settling. All right. Um. By the end of the 18 hundreds, concerns had reached a point where the call for conservation, which is nowadays, is plastered at every corner. Um, and I should say again, I'm from Montana, where I feel like I never saw anybody recycle anything except for, like, cans and
scrap metal, because you could get money for it. I don't remember having recycling bins when I was growing it. I don't remember having bins because we just hauled our trash to the dump ourselves. Uh, and then I came out here to Oregon, and they're like, there's, like, rules about how you wash your recycling before you recycle. And this is not like a hoove rant about recycling. Go find that on the Internet elsewhere. But to me, there is just this barrier to recycling
that is. Doesn't this actually cost more time, money, and resources to clean the recycling before I recycle it? I digress. We've come a long way in a bit over 100 years where now rules about recycling are just plastered everywhere. And back then, they were like, are we going to have enough buffaloes for tomorrow? But things started and were fueled by concerns about big companies exploiting resources and leaving nothing for the people or for the future. Oh,
man. We're ringing 2023, uh, in with that orange, uh, vanilla polar seltzer. Its stuff is just dang good. American conservation began, really, with a man named Gifford Pincho. Pinchot. Pincho, who founded the movement in 1890 in order to improve the lives of common citizens. Now, um, and I think when you think about it, that's conservation that you can get behind, improve the lives of the common citizens.
Because a lot of the conservation that was happening was happening because big companies and industries were overusing, overlogging, and misusing nature, um, for their own profit, leaving scraps and garbage for the common citizens. And so Pinchot's measures had the common citizen in mind. That's me. And you know what? I like that. But later, he would be the first head of the National Forest Service under the tagline the land of
many uses. Now, that word uses is important because, notice, Pinchot's vision of conservation in the United States was that we would still use the land, not abuse it, but that it would be used for the betterment of the citizens. Those of you who live in a part of the country where, uh, you have trees that are regularly logged, go ahead and ask literally any tree scientist about the importance of that controlled logging, um, you'll understand what using it means and not abusing
it. President Roosevelt championed, uh, the cause and pushed for the preservation of wildlife and created the National Parks Foundation. I believe that was president Teddy, Theodore Roosevelt, but I'm not sure. Later, Franklin Roosevelt, the other Roosevelt, struck up the new deal which sought to kickstart the economy and create tons of jobs. One of the endeavors to do so was the building and maintenance of over 600 dams
west of the Rocky Mountains. These would provide hydroelectric power, that is, water power. Um, water converted to electricity. Don't worry. I told you that I wasn't a scientist, but I can suss that one out. Using our nation's waterways. Now, even in these, we're still using the wild for our purposes. But there was a group on the horizon called the preservationists, and they stood in contrast to conservation.
John Weir, I think is his name, was a preservationist who opposed Pinchot's ideas that the nation's national components, natural components, are resources to be used. He believes some of these resources should be preserved, conserving the future, and they're put forth. And so what this was is these sections were no longer going to use at all. In fact, we're not even allowed to touch it. Wildlife preservation. As larger settlements began to form, there was a
concern about the water. Will there be enough water? Like we already know there's not enough buffaloes. Will there be enough water? And will there be water in the places where water is harder to come by? With the advent of larger cities, which were being settled further away from water sources, concern about how to get the water there, uh, would continue. America. America struggled for ages with clean drinking water, especially around those cities. And unfortunately, I ain't here to tout.
Uh, there are cities today where clean drinking water is not a thing in the United States now, we are much better off than a lot of parts of the world, and we've come a long way, but we're not all the way there. Around the 1940s, around World War II, people continued to move toward more urban centers, further increasing the toll on the water systems there. Movements to address this started as the federal Water Pollution Control
act passed in 1948. Now, there was a lot of talk around this time about water pollution. And, uh, to me, the best picture of water pollution is that scene, um, in the Simpsons, where they're just like, dumping the uranium or the nuclear waste into the river, and it makes the freak fish. Um, the water pollution is a little more complex than that, but here we are. Ah, it especially arose in communities downstream from these growing urban
centers, these cities. And so in 1972, America passed the Clean Water act and it expanded the previous act, um, from 1948. The goal of the Clean Water act of 1972 was to regulate quality standards for surface waters. It is the means by which the Environmental Protection Agency implements pollution controls. Now, with it, you could no longer dump pollution as Mr. Burns did in the Simpsons. Man, it took me a hot minute to remember his name. Um can no
longer pump and dump. And in short, cities must undergo sewage treatment and received grants for implementing that treatment into their city. The US government during this time invested 60 bubba ba billion dollars to improve America's water between 1972 and 1992. That's about three bill a year. In the interim, states pass their own water conservation members and measures. And one of these measures in the state of Florida. I'm not from Florida. I have a family and a fascination, um, with Florida.
But former senator, former Florida senator Robert McKnight, um, to lobby for his state's water conservation members, sat on a toilet seat in his seat of the Senate to promote water conservation policy. I'll post pictures this in the privy socials. But populations continued to grow. And as we moved out of the 90s, further preservation endeavors were explored. We have to preserve the watersheds. And in 1992, possibly the largest impact on our
bathrooms arrived. No longer regulating things outside our homes, but the things inside our homes. In 1992, the US government passed the Environmental Policy act settling, setting a maximum on water consumption for toilets, urinals, faucets and shower heads. You can no longer have that high pressure shower that you used to have. I mean, you can have it, but everything manufactured after this point is going to have to abide by these regulations. This is later updated in 2005 to reduce
the flow of shower heads. Again, they also updated to sell and promote high efficiency toilets and urinals. In 2007, official specifications of all these would be released in the course of a decade. And bathroom fixture manufacturers who wished to sell their products in the US must follow suit. They must abide by these guidelines. Much of this was headed up and organized by the plumbing manufacturing. Plumbing by plumbing manufacturing international,
PMI. And this regulation continues to be a thing in place today. And so with that brief, like 15 minutes ish long look at about 150 plus years of american history, it would seem that our former president might have been onto something. And that said, if you have a bathroom fixture where you are that was produced prior to 1992, you might have a bit more water pressure than the rest of us. Likewise, if the plumbing in your area is older than 40 to 50 years, you too, might experience some m
added pressure. Now, as things continued, Pinshow's policies and belief continued to guide us conservation. We're no longer seeking to use the resources for a benefit. We have adjusted to saving them, preserving them, if you will, even if that means our toilets suck at flushing.
Like, I'm getting these pictures from my good friend of these goddamn kids that are just jamming up these toilets left and right, and it leaves you wondering if we had the added water pressure, if we had the added flushing power of, I don't know, say, literally any other country that doesn't have these regulations, could we booty blast this poop down the tube faster and better? Like, I imagine you'd have to clean your toilet less often, too, before we
close out this inaugural episode. In short, the former president was kind of right, and he was going to overturn that and make our faucets. Uh, this is probably what it was. I can't prove this, but I imagine he or somebody he knows had some dealings with some sort of a, uh, toilet manufacturing and faucet manufacturing company. And if they had turned that over, you would have seen people just sprinting to Lowe's to buy themselves a new, fancy super flush toilet. They probably would have
even called them that. You know what? If that ever gets turned over, you just watch, wait for the super flush. It's going to just be like what the flush used to be. What the flush. Um, but, yeah, before we close out this inaugural episode of 2023, we should note that in October of last year, there was a news article written. This is poo in the news. You know, privy is probably the only show where something that happened three months ago is even considered
news. But this article comes from us, from the EPA gov. You know, it's legit because it has the gov. The article notes that they are, quote, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Clean Water act on the banks of the Cuyahoga river. They list the key initiatives of the Clean Water act, many of which we discussed in this episode that led to the cleaner, more enjoyable water we experience
today. In 1960, the Cuyahuga river, where they are standing for this press release, um, allegedly gathered, caught fire many times due to the level of pollution in it. That's bad. If your river, or literally any body of water has so much just filth in it that it is actively catching fire, probably not good. We can all agree that that's a bad thing. They mark 1972 and the passing of the Clean Water act as
the turning point. It's also noted this was a policy on which politicians from both parties were unified, in which both parties have contributed. Apparently not anymore. Uh, they note the measure moving forward, including bipartisan infrastructure law and the Inflation Reduction act, are designed to help make steps to continue the work the CDWA set up. That's political. Hoohah. Get on with it. So President Joseph Randall Biden proclaimed the junior. He's a junior,
by the way. That's a terrifying thought. Um, said he, the president of the United States, in case anybody forgot, by virtue of the authority vested in him by the Constitution, whatever. And, um, the laws of the United States do hereby proclaim. He proclaims it October 18, 2022, as the 50th anniversary of the Clean Water act. Now, this is not commentary. This is just me pointing out if the Clean Water act was signed on October 18, 1972, it was the 50th anniversary, whether you proclaimed
it or not, their guy. But he calls upon, quote, all Americans to observe this milestone, recognize the significant contribution the Clean Water act has made to restoring our nation's waters, and consider the crucial role clean water plays in each of our lives, and recommit to protecting our shared water resources. Now, it's kind of like he's trying to create a holiday. Um, but it's just calling us to observe the fact that a piece of legislature passed 50 years
ago. And now a moment of quiet to observe the passing of the Clean Water act. Be nice if my shower had more pressure, though. This has been poo in the news. Wherever you land and whatever your feelings are on either of these past two politicians that we've talked about this episode, we can be thankful for a couple of things here. The first is we can be thankful for clean water. We're not downplaying that. I love tap water. I love a hose water. Give me some hose water. If somebody could design,
uh, an attachment, it's probably just a hose. But, like, a small section of hose that gets the hose water flavor out of my kitchen taps. That way I can have a glass of hose water every time. Oh, yes, please. Maybe it's the act of drinking it out of the hose that makes it that way. But we can be thankful for clean water. And if you don't have clean water, I, um, guess write to your congressman. I don't know how to help you. Um, I'm
sorry. But we can also be thankful that despite the fact that we have regulated fixtures in our homes, we still have fixtures in our homes. Like, they get the job done. Now, I would like them to be better, but here we are. We can still find those things to be thankful for. This will bring us to the end of another episode of Privy. Thank you so much for joining us. I'm going to keep the end short here because I yapped at you for a long time there at the beginning. Follow us on social at
privycast@gmail.com. For ratings, reviews, comments, episode suggestions, or if you want to be on the show or have a story to share with us, go there. Leave those there. You can follow me. I'm at owl at seven on all social media. Uh, and our music is by Kevin McLeod and Pottington. Thanks, Kevin and Pottington. This has been another episode of Privy. Thank you so much for joining us. Happy New Year, everyone. And now, as always, don't forget to flush.