Latest / Privycast / Ep. 114 World Toilet Day 2023

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Ep. 114 World Toilet Day 2023 · Privycast

0:01
>> Speaker A: Uh, as I try to think of the notion of pay toilets
0:04
in modern. In modern society,
0:06
this credit card charge to pay a toilet would just be
0:10
absolutely scam worthy.
0:18
Welcome back to privy. Privy is
0:21
a podcast about bathrooms
0:23
recorded in my home
0:26
bathroom. I'm your host, hunter Hoover,
0:29
and I love bathrooms.
0:32
Welcome back. Thank you for being here. Uh, it's
0:34
the season of thankfulness, and, uh,
0:38
as we approach the end of
0:41
2023, we're nearing the
0:43
landing.
0:46
My intention is to have, um, a fun
0:49
filled December for you. I'm hoping that
0:52
we can get it, um, going. It's going to be good. I'm excited
0:55
for it. Uh, so stay tuned. But,
0:58
um, we rereleased, uh,
1:01
on the five. So if you're new to the
1:04
show, welcome. Uh, this is episode like,
1:07
115 or something. So if this is your first one,
1:10
welcome, uh, to the show. We, uh, release
1:13
episodes on the fives. What that means is if
1:16
the day of the month ends in a
1:19
five, we put an episode out. Now,
1:22
our last regular episode
1:26
was an interview with my dad,
1:28
uh, in honor of Veterans Day, where we
1:31
celebrated, um, all veterans by hearing
1:34
from but one perspective of veterans,
1:37
um, my dad. And
1:40
that came out on Veterans Day. And so, on the
1:42
five, we rereleased an episode
1:45
called Toilet Taxes and pay toilets.
1:48
Um, I want to encourage you to go listen to that, because
1:53
a lot of the ideas that we begin to explore
1:56
in that episode are going to come to play in
1:59
our episode today. Over a year ago,
2:02
we discussed pay toilets here on the pod.
2:04
Now you can go back and listen to that. And I tried
2:07
to rerelease it to make it easier for you to find,
2:10
um, but
2:14
for all intents and purposes, pay
2:17
toilets were this phenomenon that
2:19
existed, um, years ago,
2:22
mostly here in the states, but also elsewhere in the world.
2:25
Uh, in many countries, these still exist, but, um,
2:29
in the United States, these were things that existed
2:32
before. Public access to bathrooms
2:35
was as robust as it is, um, now it's a
2:37
little more robust. Uh, but
2:40
back then,
2:43
often there would be payment required to
2:46
access public bathrooms. And so
2:50
these were public toilets that, in a sense, you could
2:52
go and use them, but you had to
2:55
pay to use these toilets. Uh,
2:58
and in other words, if you're at the park
3:01
and you have to drop a stack, you have one too
3:04
many drumsticks from the little homie
3:07
pushing the little ice cream cart around, um,
3:10
which those ice creams never look good. I was talking
3:13
to a coworker recently about if they
3:16
run into or had the ice cream cart.
3:19
And I always remember
3:24
the strange Frankenstein's monster looking
3:27
spongeBob popsicle that would always show up in
3:30
these. Um, very clearly, it has both
3:33
melted and refrozen into the just
3:36
most monstrosity looking SpongeBob
3:39
you've ever seen in your life. But you ate one too many
3:42
monster SpongeBob pops and now
3:45
your tummy has a grumble and you run to the
3:47
nearest toilet. But it is a paid toilet and
3:50
you have no quarter, uh, to use the
3:52
toilet. But back when we talked about
3:55
toilet taxes and paid toilets, I'm pretty sure
3:58
that I was in favor of these
4:01
and I, uh, was in favor of
4:04
the pay toilet and possibly the idea of a
4:07
toilet tax, as long as there
4:10
is also an unpaid option. I'm not trying to
4:13
remove access to folks who are
4:16
unable to pay. Rather, I am
4:19
just pointing out that those who do not
4:21
want the taco bell experience
4:24
of public bathrooms ought to be able to pay
4:27
for the upgraded dine in
4:30
mexican restaurant experience of the public
4:33
bathroom, if you understand what I'm saying. If people
4:36
are willing to pay for what could perhaps
4:39
be a cleaner, more
4:41
controlled, more assuring environment,
4:44
they should be allowed to do so. They have
4:47
the right to do so. Also
4:50
related to this conversation is,
4:53
and the argument would be that all
4:56
toilets should be clean and
4:58
accessible and good, and we shouldn't have to have
5:01
this payment in order to get there.
5:04
I understand that sentiment. I actually agree with that sentiment.
5:07
The problem is, stuff costs money.
5:10
And rather than
5:13
tax everybody for the upgrading of
5:15
toilets that only some will use, I say we
5:18
directly tax the people who desire to use these
5:21
upgraded and better toilets
5:24
by charging them to do so. Uh, so
5:27
at the time of our discussion, um,
5:31
at the time there was discussion of our
5:34
topic this week. Um, but we
5:37
are going to go back to look at
5:40
the history of, um. Well, that's
5:43
not true. We're going to look at the history of an
5:45
association today. But in doing so, we are
5:48
going to, in a roundabout way, arrive at
5:51
what is an international
5:53
observance.
5:56
We are going to look at a holiday seemingly
5:59
created by the American Restroom association.
6:02
No, not the american restroom. The World Toilet
6:05
Organization is who ends up making. But we got. We gotta go. We gotta go
6:08
a roundabout way to get there through the American Restroom
6:10
association.
6:19
While the American Restroom association was
6:22
not founded until
6:24
2004, it really harkens
6:27
itself back to the. Do you really got to get in the harken
6:30
there? Harkens itself back to the days
6:33
of pay toilets here in America when
6:36
folks began to want to push
6:38
back against the ideas of pay
6:41
toilets. Agencies and
6:43
initiatives and foundations were formed.
6:46
Anytime that you want to push
6:49
against something or rally a
6:51
cause for or against something, you know
6:54
that committees and organizations and
6:57
foundations are going to be formed to
7:00
organize people in these ways.
7:02
Now, one such committee that formed
7:05
in America was the committee to end pay
7:08
toilets. Now, when you name
7:11
your committee the committee to end
7:14
pay toilets, I'm here to tell you
7:17
it's pretty straightforward what you exist
7:20
to do. Now, I don't think I need to explain that,
7:22
but this committee to end paid
7:25
toilets, the Sept.
7:28
Get it? Because, like, septic. Um,
7:31
I'm pretty sure I made a similar comment previously,
7:34
like two year. I don't know. Um, but
7:37
this committee was a
7:39
grassroots political organization and
7:42
agenda that started in
7:45
1970 by a 19 year old named
7:47
Ira Gassel, who would go on to become
7:51
a mathematician m later on in
7:53
life. And Ira Gasol
7:56
started the committee on the notion that even if
7:59
you were rich, if you didn't have
8:02
a physical dime to stick into
8:05
the pay toilet box, you can't go
8:08
like Mr. Monopoly, been
8:10
playing woofie monopoly, go
8:14
again. If you're not playing monopoly, go. You might as well, um,
8:16
Monopoly go and download
8:19
it. Uh, join up my
8:22
link. Uh, but even if you are
8:25
rich, Uncle Lester, penny bags or
8:28
whatever in the flip giblet his name is, if
8:31
you don't have a dime on you, it's not going to
8:34
do you any good. And I think today,
8:37
um, in the day of credit
8:39
cards and debit cards and cash, seems to be
8:42
going by the wayside. Old man
8:45
rant here. So we spent an evening
8:48
in the, uh, lobby of the emergency room.
8:51
Everything's fine, it would seem, but
8:55
I got, like, a level 13 thirst. You know what, actually, level
8:58
13 thirst. There's no sense in
9:01
belaboring it.
9:05
Yes, sir,
9:09
I got to say, the spiced apple cider, it
9:12
really grows on you. Um,
9:16
as I venture farther and farther away from it's
9:19
still fall. Did you know that? It's fall
9:22
until like, three or four days before the Christmas
9:25
day? It's wild. Um,
9:28
but as I venture farther and farther into, I
9:31
guess, fall and closer to winter, I am
9:34
reminded that I probably should consume my spiced
9:37
apple Waterloo cider. Uh,
9:39
but,
9:42
uh, I had a level 19 thirst in the
9:45
lobble in the lobby.
9:48
Good golly. In the lobby of
9:51
the ER. And so I went to the thing and I'm like, I don't
9:54
really want to slide my credit card on this
9:57
weird lobby machine and have some
9:59
dude in Pakistan steal
10:02
my identity. I don't really want that. So
10:05
I took out a $5 bill. I had $5 bill. That's all I
10:08
had. And I inserted the $5 bill, and
10:11
I selected a sweet iced tea.
10:13
Now, the sweet iced tea was
10:16
purportedly to have cost 2.20,
10:20
um, $0.05. But it's really
10:22
235, because here in Oregon, we can't figure it
10:25
out. Uh, and so I punch it in, and then I hit the
10:28
return money button,
10:30
uh, to no avail. It is not returning
10:33
my money. Uh, and so I kind
10:36
of panicked. So I ordered a water
10:39
for my wife because I was like, well, I don't know if she
10:42
can drink not water yet because we haven't got this
10:44
sorted. And so then I was left with, like,
10:47
75, $0.80 left in the machine, and it would not give it to
10:50
me back. So whoever came up to that machine later
10:53
got, um, a free $0.75 onto their
10:56
drink. I say that because
10:59
as I try to think of the notion of pay toilets in
11:02
modern, modern, uh, society, this
11:05
credit card charge to pay a toilet would just be
11:08
absolutely scam worthy.
11:11
But Ira Gassel pointed out that even
11:13
if you are loaded, even if your bank account is flush
11:16
with cash, if you don't have the
11:19
money or the means to put that cash into the box,
11:22
you can't go to the bathroom.
11:25
Ironically, a membership in the
11:28
organization and the committee to end pay
11:31
toilets cost $0.25. So that's
11:34
fun. Um, when you paid
11:37
your committee, you received free
11:40
toilet paper, their newsletter. It is
11:43
estimated that over the course of six years, the
11:45
committee to end pay toilets got
11:48
toilets banned in twelve states, and it
11:51
disbanded after the momentum
11:54
that they began moved into the other
11:56
states. Since
11:59
the committee to end paid toilets, states have had their
12:02
own initiatives to raise awareness and enact
12:05
new legislation that leads to cleaner, safer, more
12:08
accessible bathrooms. Um,
12:11
tell that to target. And while the
12:13
history of public bathroom access
12:17
m it's really muddy,
12:20
it's marred by notions of
12:22
segregation and imposing on
12:25
access. There's been a huge push
12:28
in modern times
12:31
to improve
12:34
restrooms and people's
12:36
access to safe, clean
12:39
bathrooms. And from what I can
12:42
tell, the largest of
12:45
these movements and the
12:47
largest of these push and the most prominent
12:50
is put forth by the American
12:53
Restroom association.
13:02
The American Restroom association was founded
13:04
as a nonprofit in 2004.
13:08
What's interesting is it's hard to
13:11
tell who found it. Like, when you go
13:13
exploring the. The American Restroom
13:15
Association's website and their info and all
13:18
these things, it kind of becomes
13:21
hard to tell who founded the association.
13:24
The current president is a man named Dr.
13:27
Stephen Soifer. I'm going to go with that. Um,
13:30
and Dr. Stephen Soifer has
13:33
a PhD in social work. So
13:35
he's technically a doctor, but not like
13:38
a drugs doctor. Um,
13:42
he has also done research on p
13:45
shyness and the psychology related
13:48
to being p shy.
13:51
Dr. Soifer gave
13:54
a TED talk in 2019,
13:56
and in this TED talk,
13:59
he shares that, uh, he is
14:02
concerned with the state of the world's
14:04
toilets. And that the reason that he is
14:07
so concerned about this is
14:10
because as a teenager, he was pee
14:13
shy.
14:16
This couples with his anxiety
14:19
about using poor quality public
14:22
bathrooms. It led to a passion
14:24
for public bathrooms. Dr. Soifer has
14:27
got it bad for a clean public
14:30
restroom. But the problem is,
14:34
I would say a clean, ready to use
14:37
public restroom is about
14:40
a 5% chance. Like, you really have a 5%
14:43
chance that you're going to get a public
14:45
bathroom, that you're really ready to press beef on,
14:48
and that's not okay. And Dr.
14:51
Soifer is like, we got to do something about
14:54
this. And so in his
14:57
TED talk, Dr. Soifer shares that he
15:00
helped co found the American
15:03
Restroom association. Uh, and, ah, one of
15:05
the things the
15:08
association seeks to do
15:10
is lessen the stresses and
15:13
anxieties that people will experience
15:16
when they go to use public
15:18
bathrooms.
15:22
The design
15:24
is of american restroom associations
15:27
in modern. The design that they
15:30
promote and push is essentially one where
15:33
there are many single stall toilets.
15:37
The American Restroom association wants clean,
15:40
safe, and well designed
15:42
toilets. And most notable to me
15:46
is on the board of the American Restroom
15:49
association at this time.
15:52
M they have a high school student
15:55
who has been working in their community
15:59
to improve bathroom access.
16:04
But as you might have gathered, the
16:07
American Restroom association is
16:09
primarily concerned with these matters.
16:12
Specifically for the United States,
16:14
America,
16:17
however, a similar organization
16:21
is on the horizon.
16:27
The World Toilet Organization
16:30
is similar to the American Restroom
16:32
association, except for one,
16:35
they're focusing specifically, it would seem, on
16:37
toilets, and two,
16:40
they are dealing with the entire world, which, the last time
16:43
I checked, included America. Now the World
16:46
Toilet Organization, the WTO
16:48
is based out of Singapore and looks
16:51
to raise awarenesses,
16:54
awareness on the discrepancies between the
16:56
world's toilets and to increase
16:59
clean, safe public toilet
17:02
access for all peoples.
17:06
In 2001, three years
17:09
prior to America's Restroom
17:11
Association, a man out of
17:13
Singapore named Jack Sim um,
17:16
left the construction business and started devoting
17:19
his life to social work and
17:21
reform.
17:24
He founded the World Toilet
17:26
Organization, and one of its first
17:29
initiatives was an
17:31
observance, a holiday, if you
17:34
will, called
17:37
World Toilet Day.
17:40
World Toilet Day was founded on November
17:42
19, 2001, and it serves to
17:45
draw attention to the global
17:48
sanitation Cris. The United
17:51
nations later recognized World Toilet
17:53
Day as an official
17:56
international Day of observance in
17:58
2013. This recognition
18:01
was huge for World Toilet Day, and as a result,
18:04
the UN picks a yearly theme
18:07
to promote for World Toilet
18:09
Day this year,
18:13
the year 2023 of our Lord.
18:16
The theme is accelerating change.
18:18
Now, uh, I would argue,
18:21
and I'm not going to argue against the
18:24
UN's choice here, but I would like to
18:27
point out that the idea of accelerating
18:29
change, one, doesn't really
18:32
speak anything specifically toilet, and
18:35
two is most of
18:38
the time when you're talking about the bathroom,
18:40
if you're accelerating things, things are
18:43
getting dangerous. Like you're going to blow a
18:45
gasket on that goose, you know what I'm saying?
18:49
But with the idea of accelerating change,
18:52
this brings us to a brief segment
18:55
of who in the
18:57
news?
19:00
This article is brought to you by the
19:03
unwater.org, which is the home of
19:06
World Toilet Day. It's titled World
19:08
Toilet Day 2023, accelerating change.
19:11
Man, we really didn't workshop anything fun on
19:14
that title. We just said, hey, what is it? It's World Toilet
19:17
Day. And what's the theme again? Oh,
19:20
accelerating change. I think of the office
19:22
when they're throwing the birthday
19:25
party for Kelly, and
19:28
she asks what the theme is, and they tell her, and she
19:31
says, that's not a.
19:35
To. You see, a theme. You don't have to be told what a theme
19:38
is. I feel like that's what's going on with the accelerating
19:41
change. Personally, that's just me. Like, here I
19:43
am being a negative nellie. Uh, we don't have no time
19:46
for negativity, you know what I'm saying?
19:49
But I just feel like we could have
19:51
workshopped it. But in this article, which was released
19:54
in September, uh, the
19:57
unwater.org, I guess,
19:59
notes that there are still
20:01
3.5
20:03
bubba billion people
20:07
living without safe toilets to
20:10
use, and
20:11
419,000,000 people
20:14
worldwide who still take a
20:17
dump in the open.
20:19
That's my words, not theirs. Now, to give you
20:22
perspective, 3.5 billion
20:25
people is like just under half of all
20:28
the people. That means just under half
20:31
of all the people have
20:34
unsafe toilets. And
20:37
about just a
20:39
little, about 5% of
20:42
people take a dump in the open
20:45
with no toilet at all
20:49
in either of these situations. The UN
20:52
reports that these unsafe
20:55
toileting and waste deposit
20:57
situations lead to the
21:00
death of about 1000 children
21:03
every year on average. That's about five per
21:06
day. And it impacts young women and girls
21:09
more than any other demographic.
21:13
The UN has a goal with World Toilet
21:15
day. Their goal is safe
21:18
toilets and water for all
21:21
people by 2030. And that's a huge
21:23
task. We're working at it.
21:28
And yes, I said we
21:31
this year. Uh,
21:34
and you might hear that.
21:36
And if you're like me, you hear
21:40
that, because there is not
21:42
safe access to toilets.
21:45
The way that people deposit their waste
21:48
is leading to probably cholera and
21:51
other waterborne diseases,
21:54
which are leading to the death of
21:57
children. And you hear that, and it's just
22:00
frustrating. And part of it's
22:03
frustrating because right now, I am sitting on top
22:06
of a device that I take for so
22:08
granted. I used
22:11
it countless times a day.
22:13
Literally, I could not actually count
22:16
how many times a day I use it. I've
22:19
probably pooped four times today.
22:22
And when I do, I hit a little lever and
22:25
it disappears out of my mind. And
22:28
it's good. But what is not
22:31
good is that anybody is dying,
22:34
because that technology is
22:36
limited, that sucks,
22:39
and it's bad. And if you hear
22:42
that and you feel overwhelmed by these numbers,
22:46
the World Toilet Organization, they're aiming
22:48
for 2030 as this safe access for
22:51
everybody, all people.
22:54
And you hear that and you hear the staggering number of
22:57
people who do not have safe toilet access, you
23:00
might hear those things and think, well, what in the flipping heck
23:03
am I supposed to do? Like, where do I even start?
23:07
And it is for that reason that the World
23:10
Toilet Organization
23:12
chose an image for 2023.
23:15
And the image
23:18
is a hummingbird. And they chose
23:21
the image of a hummingbird because of
23:24
an old Peruvian fable about
23:26
the hummingbird.
23:31
One day, a terrible fire broke
23:34
out in a forest. A huge woodlands
23:37
was suddenly engulfed by a raging
23:39
wildfire. Frightened,
23:42
all the animals fled their homes and ran out of the
23:45
forest. As they came to the edge of the stream, they
23:47
stopped to watch the fire, and they were feeling very
23:50
discouraged and powerless. They were
23:53
all bemoaning the destruction of their homes. Every
23:56
one of them thought there was nothing they could do about the fire
23:59
except for one little hummingbird.
24:02
This particular hummingbird
24:04
decided it would do something. It swooped
24:07
into the stream, picked up a few drops of water, and went into
24:10
the forest and put out the fire.
24:14
Then it went BaCk to the stream and did it agaiN. And
24:17
it kept Going BaCk AgaiN and AgaiN And AgaiN.
24:20
And all the other animals watched in disbelief. Some try
24:22
to discourage the hummingbird with comments like, don't
24:25
bother, it's too much for you. You're too little.
24:28
Your wings are going to burn. Your beak is too tiny. It's
24:31
just a drop. It can't make a difference. And you can't put
24:34
out this fire.
24:37
And as the animals stood around disparaging
24:40
the little bird's efforts, the bird noticed how
24:43
hopeless and forlorn they looked. And
24:46
then one of the animals shouted out and challenged the hummingbird in a
24:49
mocking voice, what do you think you're doing?
24:52
And the hummingbird, without wasting time or
24:55
losing a beat, looked back and
24:58
said, I'm doing what I can.
25:02
Doing what we can.
25:06
This brings us to the end of pooh on the news.
25:11
World toilet day often kicks
25:14
off with something called or
25:17
contains events called urgent
25:19
runs. Now, see me when I
25:22
ate too much dragon fruit this summer. But in
25:25
these, much like the Michael Scott's Dunder
25:27
Mifflin Scranton Meredith Palmer Memorial Celebrity rabies
25:30
awareness pro am fun run race for the cure,
25:34
they raced to raise money for a pretty well dealt
25:36
with problem. The urgent runs
25:39
exists to raise awareness
25:42
of a problem that has gotten significantly out of
25:45
hand. The fact
25:48
that any kid's death can be
25:51
tied remotely to the problem
25:54
means that it has gotten out of hand.
25:56
Now, not everyone has a
25:59
toilet to use. And while, uh, this
26:02
episode started by suggesting and
26:05
arguing about paid toilets, that is here in
26:07
America, we've got a different situation. I'm
26:10
sorry, but something is for sure. Little
26:13
kids should not be dying,
26:19
uh, over bad toilets or lack of
26:22
toilets. While
26:25
we argue about whether Starbucks should let us use their toilet
26:28
without paying for a coffee, or whether the
26:30
bathroom should be gender neutral,
26:34
some kids left with the choice of having to poop in the stream or
26:37
they'll later gather water.
26:42
And so we're left
26:45
with the notion of the hummingbird. What do we
26:48
do? We do what
26:51
we can.
26:54
M. Not
26:57
everyone.
27:01
Not everyone poops in a free world.
27:07
And as a result, not everyone
27:10
poops in a safe way.
27:15
Lack of infrastructure, lack
27:18
of toilet access
27:22
lead to ill and dying
27:24
people.
27:27
This year's World's toilet day. World Toilet day is
27:30
about doing what you can. And, um, their
27:33
website lists some steps. Most of them are
27:36
pretty conservative in mindset, use less water,
27:39
use bottles to conserve plastics.
27:42
And a lot of them, it's good advice to help with the
27:45
water situation. And while there's
27:48
something, um, while I was on the World toilet day
27:51
site, something became evident.
27:54
World toilet day exists to
27:57
raise awareness about a problem
27:59
that is being tackled by a lot of different
28:03
people. A lot of different people are trying to get
28:05
their hand on the ball and make a difference in the way they can. And
28:08
I want to give you a peek behind the curtain here.
28:12
Hi, I'm, um,
28:15
hunter. One of the things that
28:17
I have wanted to accomplish
28:20
with this podcast from the beginning.
28:23
Maybe not from the beginning. At the beginning, this
28:26
was all a joke. It has turned into something different,
28:30
but I wanted to grow it
28:34
and not to make money. The goal is
28:36
not to make money. The goal
28:39
is that any money made would help go
28:42
towards the betterment and upkeep of this show,
28:46
and towards charities and nonprofits
28:49
to give back.
28:51
So far,
28:54
this podcast has made me zero money,
28:58
but we have given
29:00
gifts to the wounded warriors. It's been
29:03
humbling and in short, I wish I could do more
29:06
at this point. Uh, they deserve more.
29:10
But one thing has been pressing.
29:13
While the free world is a worthy thing to
29:15
donate towards, the clean
29:18
world is as well. And
29:21
so starting today on privy,
29:24
we are striving to grow and expand our
29:27
support. In honor of World Toilet
29:30
Day, and in a nod
29:33
to my perspective as a christian person,
29:35
I've chosen along with
29:38
wounded warriors, we will
29:41
be also, uh, donating to Living
29:43
Water International.
29:47
Living water international exists
29:50
to provide safe water and sanitation
29:53
in the name of Jesus. And while this
29:56
podcast is small, I hope as we
29:58
grow, our support of these good
30:01
endeavors can too.
30:04
It's really, uh, something for us to
30:06
slow down and take time to be thankful for this
30:09
season.
30:12
I'm not going to do the plugs this week,
30:15
except to say leave us a rating and review
30:18
the five star options preferred
30:21
all ratings and reviews. We will
30:24
donate money to the wounded warriors and
30:27
living water. I would encourage you go
30:30
to the description, check out the Wounded
30:33
warriors project and Living Water International.
30:38
This has been another episode of privy.
30:40
Keep pooping in the free world.
30:44
Make the world a little cleaner. And
30:47
now, as always,
30:50
don't forget to be thankful.