Latest / The Radio From Hell Show - Best Of / Dr. Randy Hurd on Urinals from June 23rd, 2025

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Dr. Randy Hurd on Urinals from June 23rd, 2025 · The Radio From Hell Show - Best Of

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: All right, Now we have a special guest on the show. Uh,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: it's a doctor Randy Hurd. Good morning, doctor heard.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: How are you good.
• 0:08
  Speaker 3: How are you guys doing?
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: We're doing well, thank you. Doctor Hurd is a an
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: associate professor at Weaber State University, and he's he's been
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: trying to develop and has developed he thinks a better
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: way for men to p.
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: Doctor, for men to p is to sit down.
• 0:26
  Speaker 4: But that's a didn't say that's what.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: I started doing that a few I started doing that
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: a few years ago because I'd have to get up
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: in the dark and go to the bathroom. Well, you're
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: gonna miss in the dark. So I thought, oh, I'll
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: just sit down, and now I just do it out
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: of habit.
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it doesn't get any better than that.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there you go. Uh. Now, you're an associate professor
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: of you're not an associate professor of urinals. What is
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: your specialty?
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: So, technic mechanical Engineering. That's the program I teach in
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: which a big portion of that degree is fluid mechanics.
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: Fluid mechanics is my specialty. So fluid may see the connection.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, fluid mechanics. Well that's p uh, And so what
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: what gave rise to this this uh, this idea that
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: you and I guess you did this with an associate
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: to design a new kind of urinal? What what gave
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: rise to all of that?
• 1:23
  Speaker 4: Yeah, we were at a conference that several years ago.
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: And we really got a lot out of it, and
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: we were thinking about how we would explain it to
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: our friends and family, and we realized that basically everything
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: we learned at the conference was unexplainable. You know, you
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: almost needed a whole degree to to even have an
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: entry point. And so we thought, you know, it'd be
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: really great if there were some some stuff going on
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: in this field that people felt like connected with them.
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: Uh. And then I guess we're just immature. So it
• 1:49
  Speaker 4: drifted to urinals.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: You know, it's it's it is interesting to think about
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: all the different kinds of urinals you encounter. And now
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: we're leaving a whole segment of the audience out of
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: this because I don't know, have either of you been
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: in a men's restroom to see a urinal? Yes you have, Okay,
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: I don't. I won't ask the circumstance. I won't ask
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: what the circumstances.
• 2:08
  Speaker 5: I don't know. One female that has not gone into
• 2:11
  Speaker 5: a boy's restroom just to see what it's looked like.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: It looks like, and they're all kinds of urinals. Are
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: there any before you came along, doctor Hurd? Are there
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: any that are sort of acceptable?
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah? There, There definitely are some some decent designs out there.
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: I think a lot of things are designed kind of
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: with gut steal and that works okay, but you know,
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: we we took a little more scientific approach and so
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: ours would definitely work better. But there are some that
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: don't give you.
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: On ideal angles, and that's the flattering is a little
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: bit less likely.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: I mean, where do you stand on the on the
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: trough urine where everybody just well everybody stands in the
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: trough everybody's yeah.
• 2:52
  Speaker 6: Where everyone else does? Yeah, I mean yeah, they have
• 2:55
  Speaker 6: one of those in Wrigley Field. That was one of
• 2:57
  Speaker 6: the first times I encountered that. Was it Wrigly shuffled
• 3:00
  Speaker 6: in there, and man, in terms of efficiency, those are incredible.
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: That that line was moving. Yeah, but no, you're definitely
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: you're getting other people's p on you when you use that.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's you. And then then what about the floor
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: what about the floor length? One they have those at
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: Costco and I and they always they had years ago
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: that that was kind of very common to have the
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: floor length urinal.
• 3:22
  Speaker 7: There's also splashing there, I would.
• 3:24
  Speaker 8: Guess, yeah, because people tend to end low and so yeah,
• 3:29
  Speaker 8: the droplets are more formed and you get kind of
• 3:32
  Speaker 8: a more a more undesirable splashing event.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: So those those are are not great.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: So how is your urinal different?
• 3:41
  Speaker 4: So one thing we noticed early on is that the angle.
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: So the one thing I guess you have to know
• 3:46
  Speaker 4: is a stream turns into droplets relatively quickly. It might
• 3:49
  Speaker 4: not be observable, but it's dropless. And so we study
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: these droplets impacting flat surfaces and we found if the
• 3:56
  Speaker 4: angle is low, the splatter will go away below a
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: certain angle. And then my colleague later that was kind
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: of something I worked on. My colleague Joapan, who's a
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: professor at the University of Waterloo. He conceived this idea, well,
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  Speaker 4: if we if we designed this surface mathematically such that
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  Speaker 4: the stream can't impact it at.
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: A bad angle, then splatter goes away. And so we
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: tested that and that's essentially the paper we published this
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: last Now do you get.
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: To patent this?
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  Speaker 7: Like, are you going to become rich off urnals because
• 4:27
  Speaker 7: you designed this.
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: We hope.
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: So the patent is pending. We're working with Weber State
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: on that, but it's a pretty long process before the
• 4:36
  Speaker 4: patent is eventually through. So it was submitted just over
• 4:40
  Speaker 4: a year ago. We're just waiting to hear the results.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: Now. I'm looking at pictures of the journals that are
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: here in the Desright News. There's the Now you guys
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: came up with the cornacopia and the Nautilus. Which one
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  Speaker 1: is yours and which one is your colleagues?
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: So it was it was a group project for both
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: of us. Those are essentially actually the same solution one.
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: The one that looks a little more complicated is a
• 5:04
  Speaker 4: three dimensional solution to the problem, and the simpler.
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: One is just a two dimensional solutions, so kind of
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: assuming people wouldn't aim up and down too much, and
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  Speaker 3: that one's a little bit nicer because it would be
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: easier to clean.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: Was that the nautilust I kind of is that the Nautilus?
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: I kind of like the Nautilus?
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's the Nautilist?
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah? Is there is there a place I can demo these?
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: You need to pee right now, don't you.
• 5:27
  Speaker 8: Yeah, I wish they are available.
• 5:32
  Speaker 4: I'm gonna, you know, once they're available, I'm gonna bug
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: Weaver State and say, hey, we better see these.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: All all around and these are these are just porcelain?
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: I would assume yep, they would be made out of
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: materials that traditional you knows would be made out of.
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: I want to give Meg Walter some credit here.
• 5:49
  Speaker 7: Because Bill mentioned in the Desert the Desert News, but
• 5:52
  Speaker 7: she did a story about this.
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: That's how I found it. How did she find you,
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: doctor Hurd?
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: You know I should have asked her that. So there
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: was a press release that we restated when the paper
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: was published, and several media outlets saw that and reached out,
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: and she was part of a second wave, so she
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: must have read one of those first and responded. But
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: Meg's article is by far the best. I mean, she's
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: very witty. Yeah, and the approach she took at it
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  Speaker 3: I thought was perfect. So I'm so glad she covered
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: it well.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: And I think the approach that we're going to start
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: taking toward a urinal is is going to be revolutionized
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: by these these designs that you and your colleague have
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: come up with.
• 6:30
  Speaker 7: Will might decide to stand up to pee again. Maybe
• 6:33
  Speaker 7: you might have got bill, I might up again.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: I mean I still I still do it when when
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: it's when when the situation requires it, you know, like
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: when you have to stop the road of the car
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: on the side of the road. That's sort of that
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: sort of thing. But uh, well doctor heard this is
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  Speaker 1: this is just an incredible, incredible inventor.
• 6:56
  Speaker 7: You put the Wii and weaver state that needs to
• 6:59
  Speaker 7: be on and this patent goes through.
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: We need those T shirts made for sure.
• 7:04
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I would love to love to have that ensure.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: Thanks for taking some time to talk to us, and
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: uh we'll post a link to this if we haven't already,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: to this article that Meg Walter did so they can
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: see the the two yurinals that you guys designed juxtaposed
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  Speaker 1: with the kind of ordinary inferior inferior designs.
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: I like that word.
• 7:26
  Speaker 4: Well, thanks so much. It's been a pleasure to be.
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: On and have a great date.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: That's now, that's that's great research. You see, our universities
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: they they do research then and do things to benefit humanity.
• 7:41
  Speaker 7: Those are the kind of things that are going to
• 7:42
  Speaker 7: go away if we get rid of brants.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, they do things to I should in
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: this say case say they they do things to benefit man.
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah this doesn't help women, No, not not too much.
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: But yeah, no, Katie's right.
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  Speaker 7: I think all women at one time or another just
• 7:58
  Speaker 7: because they're out of curiosity and and we're horrified.
• 8:03
  Speaker 5: And you walk in there and you go oh gross,
• 8:06
  Speaker 5: and then you walk out because then you're immediately feel dirty.
• 8:09
  Speaker 7: Have you ever Katie accidentally walked in a men's room
• 8:12
  Speaker 7: like you didn't see the sign and you.
• 8:14
  Speaker 5: Yes, wellheartedly saw guy there.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: Wrong one I've been. I was. I think it was
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: at the state fair grounds and during the state Fair,
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: and the bathrooms get very back, you know, crowded at
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: the state Fair and and for women it's difficult that
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  Speaker 1: the line. And so I was in there in the
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: men's room, standing at a urinal and it was every
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: it was full, a man at every urinal, and all
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: of a sudden we hear this female voice saying, hey, guys,
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: I'm coming in. I've gotta I've just got to do
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: this because the line is too big at the other
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  Speaker 1: and I'm and all the guys in the room, okay,
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: come on in.
• 8:55
  Speaker 5: I'm sure, but I agree for every female bathroom there
• 9:00
  Speaker 5: needs to be at least like twelve stalls plus compared
• 9:04
  Speaker 5: to the men's Yep, all right, yeah.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: I think they've tried to do that in some new.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: They have.
• 9:11
  Speaker 5: Still not enough. I fell, not in public places.
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: Or they have bathrooms that are for every.
• 9:18
  Speaker 7: One, and there are little stalls that everybody can if
• 9:22
  Speaker 7: you go to more of those.
• 9:23
  Speaker 5: If you ever go to Red Rocks in Colorado, the Amphitheater,
• 9:26
  Speaker 5: they have restrooms like that that are just unisex restrooms
• 9:29
  Speaker 5: that are just it's like twenty thirty stalls.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: It's great.
• 9:33
  Speaker 8: So