>> Speaker A: Uh, as I try to think of the notion of pay toilets in modern. In modern society, this credit card charge to pay a toilet would just be absolutely scam worthy. Welcome back to privy. Privy is a podcast about bathrooms recorded in my home bathroom. I'm your host, hunter Hoover, and I love bathrooms. Welcome back. Thank you for being here. Uh, it's the season of thankfulness, and, uh, as we approach the end of 2023, we're nearing the landing. My intention is to have, um, a fun
filled December for you. I'm hoping that we can get it, um, going. It's going to be good. I'm excited for it. Uh, so stay tuned. But, um, we rereleased, uh, on the five. So if you're new to the show, welcome. Uh, this is episode like, 115 or something. So if this is your first one, welcome, uh, to the show. We, uh, release episodes on the fives. What that means is if the day of the month ends in a
five, we put an episode out. Now, our last regular episode was an interview with my dad, uh, in honor of Veterans Day, where we celebrated, um, all veterans by hearing from but one perspective of veterans, um, my dad. And that came out on Veterans Day. And so, on the five, we rereleased an episode called Toilet Taxes and pay toilets. Um, I want to encourage you to go listen to that, because a lot of the ideas that we begin to explore in that episode are going to come to play in
our episode today. Over a year ago, we discussed pay toilets here on the pod. Now you can go back and listen to that. And I tried to rerelease it to make it easier for you to find, um, but for all intents and purposes, pay toilets were this phenomenon that existed, um, years ago, mostly here in the states, but also elsewhere in the world. Uh, in many countries, these still exist, but, um, in the United States, these were things that existed
before. Public access to bathrooms was as robust as it is, um, now it's a little more robust. Uh, but back then, often there would be payment required to access public bathrooms. And so these were public toilets that, in a sense, you could go and use them, but you had to pay to use these toilets. Uh, and in other words, if you're at the park and you have to drop a stack, you have one too many drumsticks from the little homie pushing the little ice cream cart around, um,
which those ice creams never look good. I was talking to a coworker recently about if they run into or had the ice cream cart. And I always remember the strange Frankenstein's monster looking spongeBob popsicle that would always show up in these. Um, very clearly, it has both melted and refrozen into the just most monstrosity looking SpongeBob you've ever seen in your life. But you ate one too many monster SpongeBob pops and now your tummy has a grumble and you run to the
nearest toilet. But it is a paid toilet and you have no quarter, uh, to use the toilet. But back when we talked about toilet taxes and paid toilets, I'm pretty sure that I was in favor of these and I, uh, was in favor of the pay toilet and possibly the idea of a toilet tax, as long as there is also an unpaid option. I'm not trying to remove access to folks who are
unable to pay. Rather, I am just pointing out that those who do not want the taco bell experience of public bathrooms ought to be able to pay for the upgraded dine in mexican restaurant experience of the public bathroom, if you understand what I'm saying. If people are willing to pay for what could perhaps be a cleaner, more controlled, more assuring environment, they should be allowed to do so. They have
the right to do so. Also related to this conversation is, and the argument would be that all toilets should be clean and accessible and good, and we shouldn't have to have this payment in order to get there. I understand that sentiment. I actually agree with that sentiment. The problem is, stuff costs money. And rather than tax everybody for the upgrading of toilets that only some will use, I say we directly tax the people who desire to use these upgraded and better toilets
by charging them to do so. Uh, so at the time of our discussion, um, at the time there was discussion of our topic this week. Um, but we are going to go back to look at the history of, um. Well, that's not true. We're going to look at the history of an association today. But in doing so, we are going to, in a roundabout way, arrive at what is an international observance. We are going to look at a holiday seemingly created by the American Restroom association.
No, not the american restroom. The World Toilet Organization is who ends up making. But we got. We gotta go. We gotta go a roundabout way to get there through the American Restroom association. While the American Restroom association was not founded until 2004, it really harkens itself back to the. Do you really got to get in the harken there? Harkens itself back to the days of pay toilets here in America when folks began to want to push back against the ideas of pay
toilets. Agencies and initiatives and foundations were formed. Anytime that you want to push against something or rally a cause for or against something, you know that committees and organizations and foundations are going to be formed to organize people in these ways. Now, one such committee that formed in America was the committee to end pay toilets. Now, when you name your committee the committee to end pay toilets, I'm here to tell you it's pretty straightforward what you exist
to do. Now, I don't think I need to explain that, but this committee to end paid toilets, the Sept. Get it? Because, like, septic. Um, I'm pretty sure I made a similar comment previously, like two year. I don't know. Um, but this committee was a grassroots political organization and agenda that started in 1970 by a 19 year old named Ira Gassel, who would go on to become a mathematician m later on in
life. And Ira Gasol started the committee on the notion that even if you were rich, if you didn't have a physical dime to stick into the pay toilet box, you can't go like Mr. Monopoly, been playing woofie monopoly, go again. If you're not playing monopoly, go. You might as well, um, Monopoly go and download it. Uh, join up my link. Uh, but even if you are rich, Uncle Lester, penny bags or whatever in the flip giblet his name is, if you don't have a dime on you, it's not going to
do you any good. And I think today, um, in the day of credit cards and debit cards and cash, seems to be going by the wayside. Old man rant here. So we spent an evening in the, uh, lobby of the emergency room. Everything's fine, it would seem, but I got, like, a level 13 thirst. You know what, actually, level 13 thirst. There's no sense in belaboring it. Yes, sir, I got to say, the spiced apple cider, it really grows on you. Um, as I venture farther and farther away from it's
still fall. Did you know that? It's fall until like, three or four days before the Christmas day? It's wild. Um, but as I venture farther and farther into, I guess, fall and closer to winter, I am reminded that I probably should consume my spiced apple Waterloo cider. Uh, but, uh, I had a level 19 thirst in the lobble in the lobby. Good golly. In the lobby of
the ER. And so I went to the thing and I'm like, I don't really want to slide my credit card on this weird lobby machine and have some dude in Pakistan steal my identity. I don't really want that. So I took out a $5 bill. I had $5 bill. That's all I had. And I inserted the $5 bill, and I selected a sweet iced tea. Now, the sweet iced tea was purportedly to have cost 2.20, um, $0.05. But it's really 235, because here in Oregon, we can't figure it
out. Uh, and so I punch it in, and then I hit the return money button, uh, to no avail. It is not returning my money. Uh, and so I kind of panicked. So I ordered a water for my wife because I was like, well, I don't know if she can drink not water yet because we haven't got this sorted. And so then I was left with, like, 75, $0.80 left in the machine, and it would not give it to me back. So whoever came up to that machine later got, um, a free $0.75 onto their
drink. I say that because as I try to think of the notion of pay toilets in modern, modern, uh, society, this credit card charge to pay a toilet would just be absolutely scam worthy. But Ira Gassel pointed out that even if you are loaded, even if your bank account is flush with cash, if you don't have the money or the means to put that cash into the box, you can't go to the bathroom. Ironically, a membership in the organization and the committee to end pay toilets cost $0.25. So that's
fun. Um, when you paid your committee, you received free toilet paper, their newsletter. It is estimated that over the course of six years, the committee to end pay toilets got toilets banned in twelve states, and it disbanded after the momentum that they began moved into the other states. Since the committee to end paid toilets, states have had their own initiatives to raise awareness and enact new legislation that leads to cleaner, safer, more accessible bathrooms. Um,
tell that to target. And while the history of public bathroom access m it's really muddy, it's marred by notions of segregation and imposing on access. There's been a huge push in modern times to improve restrooms and people's access to safe, clean bathrooms. And from what I can tell, the largest of these movements and the largest of these push and the most prominent is put forth by the American Restroom association. The American Restroom association was founded as a nonprofit in 2004.
What's interesting is it's hard to tell who found it. Like, when you go exploring the. The American Restroom Association's website and their info and all these things, it kind of becomes hard to tell who founded the association. The current president is a man named Dr. Stephen Soifer. I'm going to go with that. Um, and Dr. Stephen Soifer has a PhD in social work. So he's technically a doctor, but not like
a drugs doctor. Um, he has also done research on p shyness and the psychology related to being p shy. Dr. Soifer gave a TED talk in 2019, and in this TED talk, he shares that, uh, he is concerned with the state of the world's toilets. And that the reason that he is so concerned about this is because as a teenager, he was pee shy. This couples with his anxiety about using poor quality public bathrooms. It led to a passion for public bathrooms. Dr. Soifer has got it bad for a clean public
restroom. But the problem is, I would say a clean, ready to use public restroom is about a 5% chance. Like, you really have a 5% chance that you're going to get a public bathroom, that you're really ready to press beef on, and that's not okay. And Dr. Soifer is like, we got to do something about this. And so in his TED talk, Dr. Soifer shares that he helped co found the American
Restroom association. Uh, and, ah, one of the things the association seeks to do is lessen the stresses and anxieties that people will experience when they go to use public bathrooms. The design is of american restroom associations in modern. The design that they promote and push is essentially one where there are many single stall toilets. The American Restroom association wants clean, safe, and well designed
toilets. And most notable to me is on the board of the American Restroom association at this time. M they have a high school student who has been working in their community to improve bathroom access. But as you might have gathered, the American Restroom association is primarily concerned with these matters. Specifically for the United States, America, however, a similar organization is on the horizon.
The World Toilet Organization is similar to the American Restroom association, except for one, they're focusing specifically, it would seem, on toilets, and two, they are dealing with the entire world, which, the last time I checked, included America. Now the World Toilet Organization, the WTO is based out of Singapore and looks to raise awarenesses, awareness on the discrepancies between the world's toilets and to increase clean, safe public toilet access for all peoples.
In 2001, three years prior to America's Restroom Association, a man out of Singapore named Jack Sim um, left the construction business and started devoting his life to social work and reform. He founded the World Toilet Organization, and one of its first initiatives was an observance, a holiday, if you will, called World Toilet Day. World Toilet Day was founded on November 19, 2001, and it serves to draw attention to the global
sanitation Cris. The United nations later recognized World Toilet Day as an official international Day of observance in 2013. This recognition was huge for World Toilet Day, and as a result, the UN picks a yearly theme to promote for World Toilet Day this year, the year 2023 of our Lord. The theme is accelerating change.
Now, uh, I would argue, and I'm not going to argue against the UN's choice here, but I would like to point out that the idea of accelerating change, one, doesn't really speak anything specifically toilet, and two is most of the time when you're talking about the bathroom, if you're accelerating things, things are getting dangerous. Like you're going to blow a gasket on that goose, you know what I'm saying?
But with the idea of accelerating change, this brings us to a brief segment of who in the news? This article is brought to you by the unwater.org, which is the home of World Toilet Day. It's titled World Toilet Day 2023, accelerating change. Man, we really didn't workshop anything fun on that title. We just said, hey, what is it? It's World Toilet Day. And what's the theme again? Oh,
accelerating change. I think of the office when they're throwing the birthday party for Kelly, and she asks what the theme is, and they tell her, and she says, that's not a. To. You see, a theme. You don't have to be told what a theme is. I feel like that's what's going on with the accelerating change. Personally, that's just me. Like, here I am being a negative nellie. Uh, we don't have no time for negativity, you know what I'm saying? But I just feel like we could have
workshopped it. But in this article, which was released in September, uh, the unwater.org, I guess, notes that there are still 3.5 bubba billion people living without safe toilets to use, and 419,000,000 people worldwide who still take a dump in the open. That's my words, not theirs. Now, to give you perspective, 3.5 billion people is like just under half of all the people. That means just under half of all the people have
unsafe toilets. And about just a little, about 5% of people take a dump in the open with no toilet at all in either of these situations. The UN reports that these unsafe toileting and waste deposit situations lead to the death of about 1000 children every year on average. That's about five per day. And it impacts young women and girls more than any other demographic. The UN has a goal with World Toilet day. Their goal is safe toilets and water for all people by 2030. And that's a huge
task. We're working at it. And yes, I said we this year. Uh, and you might hear that. And if you're like me, you hear that, because there is not safe access to toilets. The way that people deposit their waste is leading to probably cholera and other waterborne diseases, which are leading to the death of children. And you hear that, and it's just frustrating. And part of it's frustrating because right now, I am sitting on top of a device that I take for so
granted. I used it countless times a day. Literally, I could not actually count how many times a day I use it. I've probably pooped four times today. And when I do, I hit a little lever and it disappears out of my mind. And it's good. But what is not good is that anybody is dying, because that technology is limited, that sucks,
and it's bad. And if you hear that and you feel overwhelmed by these numbers, the World Toilet Organization, they're aiming for 2030 as this safe access for everybody, all people. And you hear that and you hear the staggering number of people who do not have safe toilet access, you might hear those things and think, well, what in the flipping heck am I supposed to do? Like, where do I even start? And it is for that reason that the World Toilet Organization chose an image for 2023. And the image
is a hummingbird. And they chose the image of a hummingbird because of an old Peruvian fable about the hummingbird. One day, a terrible fire broke out in a forest. A huge woodlands was suddenly engulfed by a raging wildfire. Frightened, all the animals fled their homes and ran out of the forest. As they came to the edge of the stream, they stopped to watch the fire, and they were feeling very discouraged and powerless. They were
all bemoaning the destruction of their homes. Every one of them thought there was nothing they could do about the fire except for one little hummingbird. This particular hummingbird decided it would do something. It swooped into the stream, picked up a few drops of water, and went into the forest and put out the fire. Then it went BaCk to the stream and did it agaiN. And it kept Going BaCk AgaiN and AgaiN And AgaiN.
And all the other animals watched in disbelief. Some try to discourage the hummingbird with comments like, don't bother, it's too much for you. You're too little. Your wings are going to burn. Your beak is too tiny. It's just a drop. It can't make a difference. And you can't put out this fire. And as the animals stood around disparaging the little bird's efforts, the bird noticed how
hopeless and forlorn they looked. And then one of the animals shouted out and challenged the hummingbird in a mocking voice, what do you think you're doing? And the hummingbird, without wasting time or losing a beat, looked back and said, I'm doing what I can. Doing what we can. This brings us to the end of pooh on the news. World toilet day often kicks off with something called or contains events called urgent runs. Now, see me when I
ate too much dragon fruit this summer. But in these, much like the Michael Scott's Dunder Mifflin Scranton Meredith Palmer Memorial Celebrity rabies awareness pro am fun run race for the cure, they raced to raise money for a pretty well dealt with problem. The urgent runs exists to raise awareness of a problem that has gotten significantly out of hand. The fact that any kid's death can be tied remotely to the problem means that it has gotten out of hand. Now, not everyone has a
toilet to use. And while, uh, this episode started by suggesting and arguing about paid toilets, that is here in America, we've got a different situation. I'm sorry, but something is for sure. Little kids should not be dying, uh, over bad toilets or lack of
toilets. While we argue about whether Starbucks should let us use their toilet without paying for a coffee, or whether the bathroom should be gender neutral, some kids left with the choice of having to poop in the stream or they'll later gather water. And so we're left with the notion of the hummingbird. What do we do? We do what we can. M. Not everyone. Not everyone poops in a free world. And as a result, not everyone poops in a safe way.
Lack of infrastructure, lack of toilet access lead to ill and dying people. This year's World's toilet day. World Toilet day is about doing what you can. And, um, their website lists some steps. Most of them are pretty conservative in mindset, use less water, use bottles to conserve plastics. And a lot of them, it's good advice to help with the water situation. And while there's something, um, while I was on the World toilet day site, something became evident.
World toilet day exists to raise awareness about a problem that is being tackled by a lot of different people. A lot of different people are trying to get their hand on the ball and make a difference in the way they can. And I want to give you a peek behind the curtain here. Hi, I'm, um, hunter. One of the things that I have wanted to accomplish with this podcast from the beginning. Maybe not from the beginning. At the beginning, this
was all a joke. It has turned into something different, but I wanted to grow it and not to make money. The goal is not to make money. The goal is that any money made would help go towards the betterment and upkeep of this show, and towards charities and nonprofits to give back. So far, this podcast has made me zero money, but we have given gifts to the wounded warriors. It's been humbling and in short, I wish I could do more at this point. Uh, they deserve more. But one thing has been pressing.
While the free world is a worthy thing to donate towards, the clean world is as well. And so starting today on privy, we are striving to grow and expand our support. In honor of World Toilet Day, and in a nod to my perspective as a christian person, I've chosen along with wounded warriors, we will be also, uh, donating to Living Water International. Living water international exists to provide safe water and sanitation
in the name of Jesus. And while this podcast is small, I hope as we grow, our support of these good endeavors can too. It's really, uh, something for us to slow down and take time to be thankful for this season. I'm not going to do the plugs this week, except to say leave us a rating and review the five star options preferred all ratings and reviews. We will donate money to the wounded warriors and
living water. I would encourage you go to the description, check out the Wounded warriors project and Living Water International. This has been another episode of privy. Keep pooping in the free world. Make the world a little cleaner. And now, as always, don't forget to be thankful.