Donald Trump's Nuclear Regulatory Commission is resurrecting decommissioned nuclear power plants like the Palisades facility, racing to get them online with what appears to be questionable safety oversight. Companies are practicing "greenhushing" - doing environmental good but staying silent about it to avoid greenwashing accusations, NASA calculated Earth's expiry date at one billion years from now when the sun expands, a man named Les Stewart spent 16 years typing the numbers one to one million in words for a Guinness World Record, and Waymo admits that driverless car fatalities are inevitable, planning for "when" rather than "if" accidents happen.
Today we're exploring a world where nuclear safety takes a backseat to speed, corporate environmental efforts go unpublicised, planetary doom has a timeline, human perseverance manifests in pointless tasks and autonomous vehicles accept that killing people is just part of progress.
Nuclear Resurrections: Speed Over Safety
The United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission under Donald Trump is resurrecting decommissioned nuclear power plants like Palisades, and the rush to get these facilities online has raised serious safety concerns. There's palpable tension between the race to restore nuclear capacity and the potential for oversight failures that could have catastrophic consequences.
Restarting old nuclear infrastructure is inherently risky, requiring meticulous safety protocols and comprehensive inspections. When regulatory bodies prioritise speed over thoroughness, it creates scenarios where corners get cut and warning signs get ignored. It's the kind of decision-making that makes cave exploration look like a safe hobby by comparison.
Adhocracy: Chaos as Management Philosophy
Adhocracy is a management structure that eschews rigid bureaucracy in favour of creativity and flexibility, assigning tasks to whoever is simply good at them regardless of formal training or credentials. It's the organisational equivalent of letting someone perform surgery because they're naturally talented with a scalpel, which sounds either revolutionary or terrifying depending on your perspective.
The concept challenges the formalities and hierarchies that often choke innovation in traditional organisations. While it promises a world where competence matters more than credentials, it also raises questions about accountability, quality control and whether some fields actually need those rigid structures for good reason. It's unorthodox management theory that could either unleash creativity or create complete chaos.
Greenhushing: Silent Environmental Efforts
"Greenhushing" describes companies doing genuine environmental good but choosing to remain silent about their efforts to avoid accusations of greenwashing. It's a trend possibly born from corporate fear of public scrutiny, where businesses would rather make no claims than risk being called out for exaggeration or hypocrisy.
This silent resistance is baffling yet possibly more sincere than the PR-heavy sustainability announcements that dominate corporate communications. Companies are essentially doing the right thing without seeking credit, which is either admirably humble or suspiciously evasive depending on whether you think they're genuinely committed or just avoiding accountability. Either way, it's a weird reversal where environmental action becomes a secret rather than a selling point.
Earth's Expiry Date: One Billion Years
NASA and Tohoku University calculated Earth's "best before" date at approximately one billion years from now, when the sun's expansion will render life unsustainable on our planet. It's the ultimate long-term planning challenge, though admittedly not one that affects anyone's daily comfort or retirement savings.
These projections serve as a potent reminder of our planet's finitude, even if the timeline is so distant it's essentially meaningless to current generations. Still, knowing that Earth has an expiration date adds existential weight to conversations about planetary stewardship, even if we'll be long gone before the sun becomes a problem.
Les Stewart: 16 Years of Typing Numbers
Les Stewart holds a Guinness World Record for typing the numbers one to one million - in words - which took him 16 years to complete. It's possibly the most pointless demonstration of human perseverance ever documented, yet somehow deeply impressive in its sheer commitment to an utterly meaningless goal.
While some might question the point of this endeavor, it's a testament to human dedication and the bizarre ways people choose to spend their limited time on Earth. Stewart could have learned multiple languages, mastered musical instruments, or contributed to society in countless ways - instead, he typed "nine hundred ninety-nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine" and called it an achievement.
Driverless Cars: Accepting Inevitable Deaths
Waymo, a pioneer in autonomous vehicle technology, has candidly acknowledged that driverless car fatalities are inevitable, planning for "when" accidents happen rather than "if." It's a grim but honest assessment that challenges us to weigh convenience against potential risks as technology advances without fully understanding consequences.
This acceptance of inevitable deaths is both pragmatic and unsettling. While human drivers cause thousands of fatalities annually, there's something disturbing about programming machines that will predictably kill people and calling it progress. It forces uncomfortable questions about whether technological advancement justifies accepting preventable deaths as the cost of innovation.
Between nuclear plants cutting safety corners, companies hiding their good deeds, a man wasting 16 years on numerical typing, and car companies accepting that their robots will kill people - this week's stories paint a picture of humanity that's equal parts ambitious and absurd. We're resurrecting dangerous infrastructure, staying silent about environmental wins, dedicating decades to pointless tasks and programming inevitable fatalities into our transportation future.
Maybe Les Stewart had the right idea all along - at least typing numbers for 16 years never hurt anyone. Unlike, say, rushing nuclear facilities online or accepting driverless car deaths as collateral damage for convenience.
CHAPTERS:
00:00 Introduction
00:30 Trump's Nuclear Regulatory Commission
01:17 Nuclear Power Plant Resurrections
02:16 The Palisades Power Plant Incident
08:30 Adhocracy vs. Bureaucracy
12:31 Greenwashing and Greenhushing
19:05 NASA and Supercomputers
19:35 Life's Expiry Date on Earth
21:24 Human Survival and Climate Change
25:47 Les Stewart's Guinness World Record
28:39 Robo Taxis and Safety Concerns
34:35 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
SOURCES:
Is greenhushing the new greenwashing? Or something else entirely
Greenwashing: 20 recent stand-out examples
Waymo CEO Says Society Is Ready for One of Its Cars to Kill Someone
NASA supercomputers calculated when life will end on Earth
Worker Falls Into Nuclear Reactor, Drinks a Little “Cavity Water”
Counts per minute
Comparison of Radiation Population Screening Recommendations from ROSS ToolKit
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[00:00:01] ROD: [00:00:00] I used to have what you could describe as a relatively dangerous job, relatively, or it could be dangerous. So I was throwing people off cliffs. I was taking 'em down caves. I was testing cliff line wires and stuff that would plummet 120 meters down to the ground and just making sure they worked. You know, it was all very brave.
And, you know, safety was first, second, and third in our minds. You know, all very brave. But I, I often felt a little bit smug, you know, I was like, man, I've got a dangerous job. You know, I'm pretty fucking tough. but then I heard about
[00:00:29] WILL: this
[00:00:30] ROD: Donald Trump's nuclear regulatory commission, the NRC. He was resurrecting a bunch of decommissioned nuclear power plants.
What could possibly go wrong?
[00:00:46] WILL: It is time for a little bit of science. I'm will grant an associate professor in science communication from the Australian National University,
[00:00:55] ROD: and I'm Roderick g Lamberts, a, uh, 30 year sitcom veteran with the mind of a teenage [00:01:00] boy, as will increasingly become apparent.
[00:01:01] WILL: And today as well as, uh, your job is not dangerous, that Rod is gonna tell us more about,
[00:01:07] ROD: What have I got? I've got, uh, I learned a new word.
[00:01:09] WILL: I learned a new word too.
[00:01:10] ROD: too. We both learned new words. I've also got, uh, so what do we do with this? And
[00:01:15] WILL: look, it's just maths.
[00:01:16] ROD: It's just maths.
[00:01:17] WILL: I love nuclear power plants. Like, I love them. Like in the documentary form, like my favorite form of nuclear power
[00:01:22] ROD: You are like a documented plant.
[00:01:23] WILL: Uh, is is like Chernobyl obviously. Yeah. Like it's, it's, it's a, it's a rotten husk of a thing that has like, like, uh, malignant lava down the bottom
[00:01:33] ROD: Much like the empire it represents Yeah, indeed. A malignant husk of, Ugh.
[00:01:37] WILL: Yeah, exactly. Like that's the kind of nuclear power plan I like. Uh, but I would go to a modern one and check it out.
[00:01:43] ROD: Well, this is kind of in between, it's modern esque, so like I said, Donald Trump's a nuclear regulatory commission. The NRC, they used to be an independent agency.
[00:01:53] WILL: Well, I, I was just gonna question there. You said Donald Trump's nuclear re like
[00:01:56] ROD: a good reason.
[00:01:57] WILL: they're America's nuclear Reg
[00:01:59] ROD: Well they were, now [00:02:00] they're Donald Trump's. They used to be independent and now less so.
[00:02:03] WILL: Well, the Man with the Crown.
[00:02:04] ROD: Yeah. Now yeah, they're a tad more AI slop, crown Hero, writing a wild ball wielding Seven Swords persons,
[00:02:12] WILL: I dunno about all of the things he just said. That's
[00:02:13] ROD: what he does.
[00:02:14] WILL: what he does. Okay.
[00:02:15] ROD: Okay. Haven't you seen his videos? So they're resurrecting power plants.
[00:02:19] WILL: Yeah, sure.
[00:02:20] ROD: So one of them is called the Palisades Power Plant. It's in Covert or covert? Covert Michigan. Covert Covert. T
[00:02:26] WILL: Kert.
[00:02:27] ROD: Kermit,
[00:02:28] WILL: mic. Yeah. Okay. It's in mic.
[00:02:30] ROD: It's in Michigan. so this is a single combustion facility and it operates, uh, a pressurized water reactor. Obviously.
[00:02:36] WILL: That's what they do. You
[00:02:37] ROD: know how they are?
Yeah. When it comes back online, it'll be the first commercial reactor to restart after being decommissioned. So they're bunch recommission, uh, decommissioned. A bunch now are gonna be recommissioned.
[00:02:48] WILL: I think I saw a top gear on this once, you know, like a seventies
[00:02:51] ROD: famous for the
[00:02:52] WILL: No, but an Italian Ferrari. Like it was a seventies Ferrari, still Ferrari.
[00:02:56] ROD: Italian
[00:02:56] WILL: And it's been sitting in a no doubt, and it's been sitting in [00:03:00] a garage for, you know, 30 years, collecting insects. I, I, I don't feel they run.
[00:03:05] ROD: As smoothly. As smoothly? Well, they, they dust it off. They polish the glass, you know,
[00:03:11] WILL: get the Windex out.
[00:03:12] ROD: Exactly. Knock a bit of the rust off the corners. so when it comes back online, it'll be the first of the commercial reactors to be restarted after being decommissioned. It will be number one. Not the best, just the
[00:03:22] WILL: first. Yeah. Fair.
[00:03:23] ROD: And it's fair to say a few groups are a little concerned about the whole thing. Yeah, a few Ws WS groups because they feel like this is the particular concern. And this one I'm not against. maybe they're prioritizing, they being the nuclear officials in the NRC, they're prioritizing speed over safety.
[00:03:37] WILL: Ah, that's, that's the, that's the classic thing you shouldn't do in, in nuclear power.
I, I don't know if I've learned one lesson. That's the sweet spot.
[00:03:43] ROD: Get the fuck on with it. That's the cry of the Atomic Energy Agency as well. It's like, just get on with it. Stop fucking around is their other
[00:03:49] WILL: problem with Chernobyl. They went too slow.
[00:03:51] ROD: They did? I think they did.
[00:03:52] WILL: I don't remember
[00:03:53] ROD: If they'd acted hastily. Yeah.
At least the meltdown would've been faster.
[00:03:57] WILL: Yeah, that's what they always say. Fast meltdowns a good meltdown.[00:04:00]
[00:04:00] ROD: It's clean, it's sweet, it's delicious. So apparently the Trump administration is one quote quickly and completely torn up the nuclear oversight playbook, so that's cool. So, Arnie Gunderson, I mean, come on. Yeah, you, you can't get more kind of Middle America. Oh, Arnie Gunderson. He's a nuclear engineer and a consultant for the anti-nuclear group. Don't waste Michigan. Not a good name.
[00:04:24] WILL: Don't waste Michigan. I
[00:04:25] ROD: Yeah, don't. Don't irradiate Michigan. Yeah, sure. Don't. Nuke Michigan. No nukes in Michigan.
We don't like nuclear power brackets Michigan.
[00:04:34] WILL: Michigan responsibly.
I got too many Michigans
[00:04:37] ROD: Michigan use. I don't, I dunno what that is, but Arnie Gundersen, we urge the uh, NRC to put a stop to this resurrection before Michigan is placed at radioactive.
Risk. Yeah. Okay. Which is fair. You don't wanna be placed at radioactive
[00:04:51] WILL: Yeah. But, but, but, but you know, he's just, he's just reacting. What do we got?
[00:04:54] ROD: Is he reacting to the reactor? Is that what you're telling me? Dreadful. Few days ago, like October this year, late [00:05:00] October, the plant took delivery of a shipment of uranium.
And the quote from, and I, I couldn't follow this up, the quote was from a mysterious source. So the uranium came from somewhere. Definitely came from somewhere. And I dunno where it's killing me. I'm looking up, it's like, it's not gonna tell me what the mystery is. I suppose that's a mystery.
[00:05:19] WILL: Well,
[00:05:20] ROD: the next day, as workers from the plant were in the middle of loading the new fuel rods into the reactor core, there was a.
[00:05:26] WILL: was a
[00:05:26] ROD: Spot of an accident.
[00:05:28] WILL: Oh oh. But day one,
[00:05:29] ROD: day, day one, day one of loading up the, uh, mysteriously
[00:05:33] WILL: what do we mean by spot of an accident?
[00:05:34] ROD: Well, one of the workers fell, quote, an unknown distance into a nuclear reactor pool or nuclear cavity as they're called, tumbled as
[00:05:43] WILL: help, help. I'm in the reactor,
[00:05:44] ROD: Oopsy. So a spokesperson spokes to obviously,
[00:05:50] WILL: to pause.
But one, one day I'll do a full story of, of list of people who've fallen into nuclear reactors. Um, how long is it or jumped, um, or jumped.
[00:05:58] ROD: Which pit did they jump into? The [00:06:00] cooling towers, the visible
[00:06:01] WILL: well, no. Well, uh, the, the story, and I'm only gonna give you a little hint of this, and I think I've given you
[00:06:05] ROD: just, just tease me.
Just
[00:06:06] WILL: But this was a, um, a Soviet, uh, it wasn't a reactor, it was a, a storage facility. of, of, of water and stuff like, and, and, and nuclear fuel. and it was leaking. And so they put a whole bunch of flour in there to, to stick it together. And I think,
[00:06:21] ROD: and make damper. No heat required is good bread with the gem.
So a spokesperson for the, uh, the reactor in, uh, Michigan said, while performing work inside the containment building, a Palisades contractor fell into a pool near the reactor that contained clean orated water.
[00:06:39] WILL: So what are you worried about? I mean, it's just berated.
[00:06:42] ROD: I know, but cleanly. Yeah. And we all know Bo rated means
[00:06:45] WILL: it's got boron in it
[00:06:46] ROD: could be pronounced bo ratted.
[00:06:48] WILL: even.
It's got boron in it.
[00:06:49] ROD: it also turns out while he was, you know, having fun in the pool, the worker ingested an amount of cavity water.
[00:06:56] WILL: Cavity water. Mm-hmm. I mean, okay.
[00:06:59] ROD: from the [00:07:00] pool. Oh, it's a cavity, it's a cavity. Yeah, not, not from someone's crevice. I
[00:07:04] WILL: thinking like he got it into his cavities, like, or something like that.
[00:07:08] ROD: just, he drank some water. Drank some water, which I suppose is getting
[00:07:11] WILL: cavity water in your
[00:07:12] ROD: in ya. So apparently they were hauled out fast and they went through a quote, full battery of decom, A decom con, that's a hard word. Decontamination procedures
[00:07:22] WILL: Not that hard. It
[00:07:23] ROD: was for me. But even after the worker, still after this full contamination procedures, the worker still had 300 counts per minute detected in their hair. Now counts per minute. CPMs, it's a rate of counts per unit as registered by whatever your radiation monitoring instrument is. Like duck, duck, duck, duck. How many times
[00:07:41] WILL: Okay. Depends how you got it calibrated.
[00:07:43] ROD: Yeah. And what, what the thing is, but
[00:07:45] WILL: it good or bad? Well,
[00:07:46] ROD: it was, it was the bottom level of not great.
[00:07:48] WILL: Okay. Ah, whatever.
[00:07:49] ROD: Bottom level of not great. So
[00:07:52] WILL: an optimist would say the top of good.
[00:07:54] ROD: Well done. Exactly. The last, last stage of cool.
[00:07:59] WILL: Yeah.[00:08:00]
[00:08:01] ROD: So it marks the bottom end.
So they took all the precautions, they do more monitoring. It's not catastrophic, but it's not great. So the anti-nuclear folk, however, uh, saying, look, this, this is probably gonna become more common because of the speed of the maga recommissioning, and they're a little concerned. Um, and how's the worker? Back at work the very next day.
[00:08:17] WILL: Good on him.
[00:08:18] ROD: that there's a job. I've never had a job that had those kinds of risks, but I, I aspire one day still my career's not over.
[00:08:25] WILL: Thou shalt work for the company. Yes.
[00:08:29] ROD: So I learn a new word. Normally it's you, but I learned a new word. It's just a little one, but You know how I love bureaucracy? You know how I'm a huge
[00:08:36] WILL: you do love bureaucracy. If there's a thing that you tell me off this, you say, I just wanna do more bureaucracy. I
[00:08:41] ROD: more paperwork. I
[00:08:42] WILL: be inside layers.
[00:08:43] ROD: I want processes for their own
[00:08:44] WILL: I wanna live in a matrix organization where I'm reporting in both horizontally and vertically
[00:08:49] ROD: Oh, and, and diagonally. And I want, and I want the more people involved in an approval process for absolutely anything, the happier I am.
Yeah. I love it. I love it. So I was rummaging around the inter tube and I want, I wanted the [00:09:00] opposite of bureaucracy.
[00:09:01] WILL: the opposite of
[00:09:01] ROD: what's what's, what's the opposite of bureaucracy?
[00:09:03] WILL: Anarchy, man.
[00:09:04] ROD: Is there what you think? Well,
[00:09:05] WILL: oh, it's, it's one opposite.
[00:09:07] ROD: Ah, I suppose it is, but it's the opposite of a lot of things. The strongest word that came up was, was
[00:09:15] WILL: a little bit of a
[00:09:15] ROD: Yeah. Oh,
[00:09:16] WILL: for the listener there.
[00:09:18] ROD: I nearly
[00:09:18] WILL: beer was, uh, doing things. To me,
[00:09:20] ROD: Anyway, so Ad Hoy.
[00:09:22] WILL: Ad hypocrisy. Ad hypocrisy. Tell me more.
[00:09:26] ROD: It's a system of adaptive, creative, and flexible integrative behavior based on non permanence and spontaneity.
[00:09:32] WILL: All right. Tell me more. In, in human.
[00:09:34] ROD: Yeah. Look. Humans, there's a list, right? So the term ad hoy was, was coined by a fellow called Warren Benni. It's 1968 in a book called The Temporary Society, but Alvin Toffler, the, the classic dude who wrote Future Shock in the
[00:09:48] WILL: City. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:09:49] ROD: Um, but of course he popularized it a couple of years later.
and it became, you know, I, I, I heard this one that this is fantastic ad hoy, I love it. Then I realized it's been already co-opted by management and business academics. So this is what [00:10:00] they say. Some of the characteristics, one of the more famous of these people, and I know you know this, but others might not.
Henry Berg, who's a Canadian academic of business and management. He said, here are some characteristics of Adhocracy. Are you ready? Highly organic structure, little formalization of behavior, job specialization, not necessarily based on formal training.
[00:10:22] WILL: Oh, cool. I
[00:10:24] ROD: love that.
[00:10:25] WILL: No, no. I mean this
[00:10:25] ROD: you a trained surgeon?
No, but I'm fucking good at it. I've got an instinct.
[00:10:29] WILL: Sounds a little bit like trump's, uh, nuclear power plants.
[00:10:32] ROD: little, a little, uh, reliance on liaison devices to encourage mutual adjustment within and between teams
[00:10:38] WILL: people talk to each other and adjust something
[00:10:40] ROD: about Slack. Oh, it's, it's it's liaison device.
[00:10:43] WILL: It's Microsoft Teams as a, as
[00:10:45] ROD: Yeah, exactly. Low or no. Standardization in procedures. I am a fan 'cause fuck it. Why not?
[00:10:50] WILL: Uh,
[00:10:51] ROD: not clearly defined roles. Selective decentralization. Power shifts to specialized teams. High cost of communication. Yeah. Culture. [00:11:00] Uh, look, this is my favorite. So ad hoc, which is the reverse apparently of bureaucracy is a culture based on non bureaucratic work.
Yes.
[00:11:07] WILL: And so what, what actually gets done in the end?
[00:11:09] ROD: difficult to say. Well, there you go. Difficult to say, but I like the word. Have
[00:11:13] WILL: companies done this?
[00:11:14] ROD: Yeah, seven. But I'm not gonna tell you which, because I don't
[00:11:16] WILL: Alright, well, well, look, I would like either someone to throw a critique in a meeting.
Mm-hmm. You know, you're like, you're in a meeting and you're like, you guys, you're all just in a fricking adhocracy
[00:11:25] ROD: no, you bureaucrat. Should adhoc prioritize this?
[00:11:27] WILL: this. Or we should move to an ad hoc. Where we just, you know, instead of, formalizing shit, let's adhoc prioritize
[00:11:33] ROD: Let's un formalize, let's organify.
[00:11:35] WILL: You know, you know that one of my life achievements that I did unlock, and I was very happy with that. I used the word anti disestablishment arianism in a meeting once. Legitimately, legitimately,
[00:11:45] ROD: well, like, here's a long word. I know.
[00:11:46] WILL: No, no, no, no. People were, people were disestablishing a program.
And I said, look, look, look, I am not anti disestablishment.
[00:11:52] ROD: But,
[00:11:53] WILL: But,
[00:11:53] ROD: they all went, no way.
[00:11:54] WILL: No one noticed. And I'm like, screw you all. Don't, you know, it's the longest word in the English language.
[00:11:58] ROD: Didn't you record it on your phone? [00:12:00] I,
[00:12:00] WILL: I recorded it in my brain. And that's where it matters. That's where it matters.
[00:12:03] ROD: Well, my biggest disappointment with ad hoy is very clearly it's already been co-opted by the bureaucracy. Yeah, yeah.
To be a subbranch of something that they've killed it.
[00:12:10] WILL: In the end, the always wins.
[00:12:12] ROD: Borg always
[00:12:13] WILL: Although apparently there's something the bull's scared of.
[00:12:16] ROD: Yeah. Jean-Luc Picard, man, everyone, everyone's scared of Jean-Luc Picard.
[00:12:20] WILL: Well, I learned a new word too. Where's my new word?
[00:12:23] ROD: How many syllables?
28.
[00:12:24] WILL: No, no, no.
[00:12:25] ROD: no.
[00:12:26] WILL: Three.
[00:12:27] ROD: three. Will li um, Roger, Rick.
[00:12:29] WILL: I've known my name before. You've heard of the term green washing?
[00:12:34] ROD: I have. It's using spinach instead of soap.
[00:12:40] WILL: It does sound like that would actually, I mean, I bet there are hippies that
[00:12:43] ROD: it's the chlorophyll
[00:12:44] WILL: you know, you know there are hippies that, you know, the crystal deodorant and their spinach soap.
[00:12:49] ROD: Fucking, have you ever tried a crystal deodorant? I
[00:12:51] WILL: I don't know what works. No, of course. I haven't tried.
I mean,
[00:12:54] ROD: I was handed one once in a, in a, in an environment where I was like, oh, I might get late here.
So I'll be really cool about it.
[00:12:59] WILL: might, I might [00:13:00] get late here. Hang on. So this was a moment where they're like, okay, you, you, you. In the zone of possibly getting laid. Yeah. And they're like, can you put some deodorant on?
Here's the
[00:13:08] ROD: crisp. Not, not kenia is like, do you want to, do you wanna try this?
I'm like, sure. And she hands it to me and I'm like,
[00:13:13] WILL: it's a test. It's a test and it's covered
[00:13:15] ROD: in lots of stuff from you.
[00:13:18] WILL: but,
[00:13:19] ROD: so I rubbed it diligently into
[00:13:20] WILL: that what you do with it?
[00:13:21] ROD: Yeah. You rub it on
[00:13:23] WILL: I thought you hold the crystal and you
[00:13:24] ROD: No, you actually rub it on your body like a roll on.
And what it does is capture hairs.
[00:13:29] WILL: And
[00:13:29] ROD: And tingle a bit.
[00:13:31] WILL: Yeah, because it's, it's a, it's a rock.
[00:13:33] ROD: Like it is a
[00:13:33] WILL: some sharp edges.
[00:13:35] ROD: Oh no. The edge was smooth. Probably by aons of
[00:13:38] WILL: By the fact of
[00:13:39] ROD: By the fact that in the armpit. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
[00:13:40] WILL: crystals can be smooth, but they have edges.
[00:13:42] ROD: Yeah. So it was tingly and covered in other people's armpit
[00:13:45] WILL: you smell nice? I,
[00:13:46] ROD: I, I couldn't tell I was too busy going, this better be worth it. This better be worth it.
[00:13:50] WILL: Ah, spoiler. Did it, was it? Oh, well, good times all round. I, you know, you know, maybe, maybe [00:14:00] she was like, you know what, you're never gonna get I, I gotta normie to rub the crystal on him.
[00:14:03] ROD: Yeah, exactly. She's like, try this idiot anyway.
Gotta go. I'm off to eat alpaca
[00:14:09] WILL: No, greenwashing is not rubbing yourself in spinach. Greenwashing is a thing that our friends or enemies in the corporate world might do when they're pretending to do something good for the environment. Yes. While just murdering the planet. you know, in some classic examples, like, uh, in 2019, McDonald's introduced some, paper straws that weren't actually recyclable.
I think. I think they were coated in plastic. So it's like, come
[00:14:34] ROD: gotta be waterproof
[00:14:36] WILL: or, here we go. I like this one. In 2020, Windex claimed that its bottles were made from 100% ocean plastic, but it wasn't, plastic. Pulled from the ocean. It was plastic that was, that was on the land that they were like, it was gonna go into the ocean.
So we stopped it. We stopped it. It's like, could you just stop it in other ways? Do you fucking you fucking evil people? Like, it's like they're threatening with [00:15:00] the plastic.
[00:15:01] ROD: Are they gonna gonna say plastic made out of the ocean? And I'm thinking, I don't even, that's willfully nasty.
No,
[00:15:06] WILL: no, no. Plastic outta seaweed.
Is that, that's a good thing. That's a good thing. Or, or, or nearly all of the banks, which are like, you know how much we love the environment and here's all the money to digging up more coal.
[00:15:16] ROD: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:15:17] WILL: But anyway, anyway, so that's greenwashing. The new term that I learned
[00:15:21] ROD: green wiping,
[00:15:22] WILL: Green Hushing, it's, it's not quite, not quite as catchy, but it comes from a new report from a consulting firm called South Pole.
[00:15:30] ROD: Uhhuh,
[00:15:30] WILL: And they reckon there's this thing called green hushing going on. Mm-hmm. And I don't know if it's worse or better, and I'd like, I'd like your judgment on
[00:15:37] ROD: Mm-hmm.
[00:15:38] WILL: They went and surveyed, 4,000 global companies. Mm-hmm. Um, and over the period between their surveys and I think this was like 24 to 2, 20, 24, back to 2023 or something like that.
Yeah. Only one in six had dialed back their climate goals. Actually, I think it was more recent, 25. Um,
[00:15:54] ROD: only one in six had dialed them back. Yeah. In fact, O overtly.
[00:15:57] WILL: Yeah, overtly right. Uh, in fact, you [00:16:00] know, a lot the ambition hadn't changed. So they're, they're working on whatever their climate targets are.
Yeah. And there's a bunch, the ambition had increased, in fact, something nearly 30%, the ambition of these, of these companies all over the world had increased. So they're, so they're doing more things, uh,
[00:16:14] ROD: or, or saying they're Yeah.
[00:16:16] WILL: No, no, no. They're doing, this is the interesting
[00:16:18] ROD: thing,
[00:16:19] WILL: Microsoft, for example, you know, they expanded a carbon removal project.
Mm-hmm. Uh, PepsiCo has up its regenerative agriculture goals, so they're actually doing more things for the climate. Hmm. But at the same time, they're talking about it way less. They're,
[00:16:34] ROD: Well, I can see why.
[00:16:35] WILL: Well, that's the question. So they're, they're, they're scrubbing. Any acknowledgement of this,
[00:16:41] ROD: that is really interesting.
[00:16:42] WILL: And so the question of green Hushing Yeah. Is alright. Why now? I sort of, I, I, I only, I only get you to give your potential answer. So the charitable answer. Is all right. Maybe they don't wanna be accused of greenwashing, so they're like, all right, we, we [00:17:00] actually believe in doing something good here and we're not gonna crow about it because we'll get kicked in the dick by all the environmentalists.
Yeah. for greenwashing. So they're like, just do the stuff and don't
[00:17:09] ROD: yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:17:10] WILL: yeah, or
[00:17:11] ROD: My awe is other companies will go you, you pack her pussies, what are you doing? We don't wanna work with you because you're actually like getting into this. It could
[00:17:19] WILL: could be. Uh, it could be, it's
[00:17:20] ROD: one of my suspicions. The other is it's horseshit, but
[00:17:23] WILL: the other, the other is, it's Trumpism, like that there's people that
[00:17:26] ROD: are, yeah.
If they, if they do it out loud, they will get punished.
[00:17:28] WILL: there's like a hundred bills in America, uh, US state legislatures that are trying to make it harder for businesses to implement, environmental, social, or, or governance.
So
[00:17:37] ROD: This is what I heard from a buddy of mine who's big in, like, he's very plugged into the corporate world and he was saying the whole ESG environment.
Yeah. Sex
[00:17:43] WILL: If you say, if you're saying you're doing anything environmental, then you're gonna get prosecuted or whatever,
[00:17:48] ROD: yep. Or at least you, you'll be, you'll be black band. Like you're,
[00:17:51] WILL: so they're still doing these things, but they're keeping quiet about it.
And so, thing is ah, is, is that. Bad. I mean, [00:18:00] one version says, okay, it's still, they're still doing good stuff, but they, they, they're actually doing more good stuff than they were. but you know, it might kill momentum. You know, people, if they don't talk about what you're doing, then other people will go, oh, we don't have to do it.
It
[00:18:12] ROD: Yeah, yeah. But this, this also plays into that whole situation where, you know, it it, it's not about us individuals recycling a few bottles. That's just fricking busy work. So killing momentum for other companies maybe, but for like the general citizen re I don't think that matters. I
[00:18:26] WILL: think for other companies though, like if, if you are Google and you say, oh, Microsoft is doing this, then you're like, okay, that's a, you know, they actually have a big impact on the climate.
[00:18:34] ROD: some presses. Yeah.
[00:18:35] WILL: And so, and so if we stop talking about it, maybe that's dangerous, but maybe people are actually doing it and it's, and, and, and so I'm, I'm really torn on what's going on here, but I think it's an interesting thing to
[00:18:44] ROD: document. Yeah.
[00:18:45] WILL: Yeah, that's green Hushing.
[00:18:46] ROD: I'll take doing over talking about it any day,
as long as they're doing it. I'm,
[00:18:51] WILL: was, I was gonna try and make some sort of sex joke, but it was pretty obvious.
[00:18:54] ROD: I like fuckings Good.
[00:18:55] WILL: Good. I know.
[00:18:56] ROD: It's not really a joke though. That's more of a statement.
[00:18:59] WILL: I feel like the [00:19:00] jokes should be better, but, uh, but still
[00:19:02] ROD: Oh, fuckings good. Ha ha.
Researchers, Toho University or Toho in Japan. Oh, and nasa. so they use supercomputers to model and determine how long life will remain possible on earth.
[00:19:14] WILL: Just to pause, NASA is like, we do, we do everything with supercomputers.
They're like, they're like, can we send an email? Use the supercomputer? Yeah. You know, they'll fricking break out
[00:19:22] ROD: gonna buy something on Amazon. Well,
[00:19:23] WILL: supercomputer like they, they can't stop. No,
[00:19:26] ROD: they can't. And they shouldn't. They shouldn't. Someone's gotta use it
[00:19:29] WILL: Yeah. To model how long life is possible,
[00:19:32] ROD: how determine how long life will remain possible on earth.
So there's an expiry date for all life on Earth. Guess, guess the year.
[00:19:38] WILL: Well, one version is when, uh, the sun envelops us.
[00:19:42] ROD: the year?
[00:19:43] WILL: Wait, gimme a second. Gimme a second.
[00:19:46] ROD: Okay. You ready?
[00:19:47] WILL: No. Well, so the sun is gonna envelop us around the year 5 billion. I reckon. I reckon probably a bit before that. Like we, it'll get a bit hot.
but who knows? [00:20:00] We might be extremophiles by then.
[00:20:01] ROD: Evolution and shit.
[00:20:03] WILL: Evolution. Mm-hmm.
[00:20:05] ROD: The year 1 billion 2021.
[00:20:08] WILL: 1,000,002,000. This, it's not like they were that specific.
[00:20:11] ROD: 1 billion 2021. The year 1 billion. That's when all life on
[00:20:16] WILL: you know what's weird supercomputer? Yeah. No, but it's weird that they've got a 2021 at the end.
It's like they did the study in 2021 and they said, can you add a billion? Add
[00:20:24] ROD: billion thanks supercomputer
[00:20:26] WILL: supercomputer?
[00:20:28] ROD: We typed it at clawed anthropic
[00:20:31] WILL: And it said, yeah, about billion.
[00:20:33] ROD: you about billion. I reckon well give or take. Give or take. How much? Couple years? Uh, 1 billion 2021.
[00:20:41] WILL: Tell me more.
[00:20:43] ROD: So of course it won't be instant. You're right. It's about the lifespan of the sun.
[00:20:46] WILL: Oh, the fucking told you so.
[00:20:48] ROD: so by the year 1 billion T and 21, the sun will have swollen to the point that the earth's surface conditions become so extreme.
Life becomes impossible
[00:20:54] WILL: But we can live on the, on the, on the back.
[00:20:56] ROD: Talking about earth though. Oh, the other side. Yeah, the bit the sun. [00:21:00] Can't see us from
[00:21:00] WILL: You just hide. You just keep,
[00:21:02] ROD: It's coming.
[00:21:03] WILL: you keep running.
[00:21:03] ROD: Ducked down. Duck down, pop your umbrella up. So even the most resistant organisms rooted.
[00:21:09] WILL: Yeah. Okay.
[00:21:10] ROD: For our non Australian listeners, rooted means not going well.
And
[00:21:14] WILL: they're like, you use rooted for everything you do.
You like, you mean rooted to, to
[00:21:18] ROD: rooted to the ground rooting. We are routers.
[00:21:22] WILL: Yeah.
[00:21:23] ROD: So that's all life. But what about humans? Where do humans come into this timescale between now and 1 billion to 2021? I
[00:21:29] WILL: I think a bit less. A bit less. We're not the last
[00:21:31] ROD: It is a bit. No, we're not. We're not. We're
[00:21:33] WILL: We're not, not, not, not in the, everything gets super hot
[00:21:36] ROD: Yeah. We're not in the sort of worms living by volcanic sulfuric vents under
[00:21:40] WILL: the, or in the bottom of the crust. Like right down where
[00:21:42] ROD: or in the bottom of the crust. That's not us. We are not bottom of crust wellers. So, um. they gave us a list of changes predicted using detailed climate models for stuff and solar radiation. So the sun will get hotter and bigger. Yes. Falling oxygen content will be an issue. Yes. Poor air quality. Definitely. [00:22:00] Yeah. Guess what else? Shark rise in temperatures.
[00:22:02] WILL: I thought you were gonna say shark. I had in my mind shark rise in sharks, and I was like, what
[00:22:07] ROD: Sharknato. But it hot. Hot temperatures.
[00:22:09] WILL: want that. I want that.
[00:22:11] ROD: so apparently it's also, this is what they say, it's quite possible that environmental conditions will become too difficult for humans much earlier than the 1 billion year
[00:22:18] WILL: Like what?
[00:22:19] ROD: You're like, no, but it's Yes.
[00:22:21] WILL: what? Like what do they say?
[00:22:22] ROD: like the falling oxygen content,
[00:22:24] WILL: are we talking the year?
900 million?
[00:22:25] ROD: No, they don't give us a number. Fucking super computer. Super. Exactly.
[00:22:29] WILL: The year I just feel like 900 million. I'm not, I'm not concerned.
[00:22:34] ROD: No, but you should be. We'll get to that. They then tell us, we can already see the effects of this stuff.
Like coronal, mass, ejections and solar storms have increased in intensity. They affect the earth's magnetic field, which allegedly is already, uh, uh, reducing oxygen content in the, in the atmosphere. I'm, I'm gonna go by 1.21e-05%. Yeah. On a bad day, human induced climate change. Apparently we can see the effects of that too.
[00:22:58] WILL: that, that, that [00:23:00] human induced climate change, very different thing from sun induced climate change.
Very different. I, I think in fairness, that's not our fault.
[00:23:05] ROD: They're saying they're
[00:23:06] WILL: though, like if, if, if those hippies are starting to blame us for sun induced climate change, then I, I, I respectfully, I say, no, that's not my fault.
[00:23:14] ROD: Go and do your armpits with a crystal. That's what I say. Go on. So they don't give any actual estimate. They only say life on earth won't suddenly end. It will fizzle out slowly. Irreversibly. Decline. But here's where it gets into what you were just saying. This is the quote. Despite the long time span, researchers are urging the importance of preparation and adaptation for humanity's future.
Now they're going to talk about scientists who are proposing technological interventions, closed life support systems, habitats, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So here's what I wanna say First. Good for science. Do what you want.
[00:23:49] WILL: Yeah, yeah, yeah,
[00:23:49] ROD: Checks it out. It's great. Not everything needs to be immediately useful.
Yep. My second is, of course, this is gonna be the message that changes everything.
[00:23:57] WILL: Oh my God,
[00:23:57] ROD: We've done the thing, we've used this to [00:24:00] computers, we've used nasa
[00:24:01] WILL: Finally, we know in 1,000,000,021 years.
[00:24:04] ROD: it's time to panic everyone start doing something and, and my final point is, what the fuck do you do with this?
You can't verify it. The evidence doesn't really tell us anything.
[00:24:13] WILL: if, if you really, if you really wanna panic, then uh, I do.
Well, no, just, okay. You could go, all right, whatever billion years we can build ourselves some rockets and shit. Oh, shit. And, and go to Mars, and then go to other parts of the galaxy and shit like that. And maybe, maybe we can go to other galaxies. Maybe we can, you know. That's freaking
[00:24:33] ROD: hard using the Space Whale from that Star Wars series.
[00:24:35] WILL: you know, there is a heat death of the universe that is coming inexorably, where suddenly in the, in the trillions of years, all of the stars will blink out.
There is nothing we're gonna be able to do about that. And so, so
[00:24:49] ROD: what you're telling me, cope, you're saying the lifespan is fi is finite
[00:24:53] WILL: no matter what.
[00:24:54] ROD: with even, what's his name? Roger Smith's,
[00:24:57] WILL: Roger Ramjet.
[00:24:58] ROD: The dude who eats his son's [00:25:00] blood or something and has pills every day. And
[00:25:03] WILL: you should read the internet.
[00:25:04] ROD: What's his name?
[00:25:05] WILL: that eats
[00:25:05] ROD: his, isn't it,
[00:25:06] WILL: How am I get, sorry.
[00:25:07] ROD: sorry. It. Yeah. Very boring
[00:25:10] WILL: No, there are two Brian Johnsons and the cool thing is, one,
[00:25:12] ROD: not the awesome
[00:25:13] WILL: They're both weird body people like Brian Johnson. Brian Johnson, there's Brian Johnson that has the very constrained diet that is sort of, I wanna live forever.
[00:25:20] ROD: Johnson, who has a hat welded to his
[00:25:21] WILL: head, no. Then there is Brian Johnson, the liver king, who is, is like, no, I never took Roys.
But he took
[00:25:27] ROD: but isn't there also Brian Johnson, lead singer of AC dc who's got a hat. So there's three.
[00:25:31] WILL: uh, I think there's even more.
So you know what?
Here's the thing, like as the Buddha says, things are impermanent cope. Whoa cope. Thanks supercomputer.
[00:25:43] ROD: So, Alex, I hear, I hear a rumor that you've got a story.
[00:25:47] ALEX: Oh, it's a very quick story, but about someone with an equally boring ish name. Have you heard of Les Stewart from Queensland, Australia?
[00:25:56] ROD: Yeah. He wrote that cookbook. How to just do things with sausages?[00:26:00]
[00:26:00] ALEX: Well, he did write some sort of book.
[00:26:02] WILL: no. really?
[00:26:03] ALEX: Les Stewart holds a, uh, um, a Guinness World Record
[00:26:07] ROD: Is it sausage related? no, I came across this. 'cause it was just a sad kind of, why would you do it, but I guess you did it. Uh So he has typed the numbers one to 1 million in the fastest time.
Jesus CR on a phone. types
[00:26:25] WILL: number 1, 2, 3,
[00:26:27] ALEX: In letters. In
[00:26:29] WILL: oh, in letters. ONE?
And so he's got a Word doc. He's typed out, you know, you know, I'm, I'm sorry, Les. That's cool. No, love it. Love it. And, and we can all spend our time doing what we want. I think libertarianism or freedom, or, or Liberty says, but that's the thing you choose.
[00:26:48] ROD: I wanna say, I have one question for Les. Are you okay? Because I think, I think short answer, no, but you know,
[00:26:56] WILL: oh, for varying definitions of, okay.
[00:26:59] ALEX: [00:27:00] it took, do you wanna have a guess how long it took
[00:27:02] ROD: seven months,
[00:27:03] ALEX: Little bit longer.
[00:27:04] WILL: Oh, is this like a, a 12 year project?
[00:27:08] ALEX: 16 years.
[00:27:09] ROD: Oh wow. Can I, uh, here, here's my question then. So his nearest competitor was, oh, no. One,
[00:27:15] ALEX: That's right. Yep. Second was non-existent and he did it with one, one finger because he, he did a tour of duty in Vietnam and he suffered some injuries which prevented
[00:27:25] WILL: I, at this moment, I can say, well, I could smash that. I fucking smash that record. I,
[00:27:29] ROD: Do, do you know? Do you know what I, I challenge you. No, you couldn't because you would have to stick with it.
[00:27:33] WILL: No. Yeah, mate. I, I, I would go No.
[00:27:36] ROD: Are you physically capable? I
[00:27:38] WILL: I, I salute Les for, for his sticktoitiveness.
[00:27:41] ROD: Les has always been a big fan of a little bit of
[00:27:43] WILL: no, no. To be honest, I Look, let's go with, let's go with, if it's something that gives you meaning, then we don't get to judge.
[00:27:51] ROD: I'm not judging. I just think, oh.
[00:27:53] WILL: It's not
[00:27:53] ROD: judgment, it's compassion.
[00:27:55] WILL: That's how you express compassion.
[00:27:56] ROD: the, yeah. Oh,
[00:27:58] WILL: that's, you could work on your [00:28:00] noises because that's not a compassion
[00:28:01] ROD: noise.
Oh.
[00:28:02] ALEX: I have to end it with a pre, pre-written joke that, uh, Les Stewart worried to have any kids would be very
[00:28:08] ROD: He didn't have time to have kids.
[00:28:10] WILL: Oh, you talked over the end of his joke.
[00:28:11] ROD: ding. Say sorry.
[00:28:12] ALEX: I Screw it. Press the button. I'm
[00:28:14] WILL: Ah, you talked over the end of his joke. You'd ding
[00:28:16] ROD: bag. I thought he was still warming
[00:28:17] WILL: it? No. You ding bat. You're a ding bat.
Look.
[00:28:21] ROD: Maths are important, stats are important, and we should all be motivated by them. We should just be driven by stats. Would you not
[00:28:26] WILL: agree?
Oh, uh,
[00:28:26] ROD: uh, yes
[00:28:29] WILL: yes and yes
[00:28:30] ROD: at least that's not, but
[00:28:31] WILL: no, no. I like stats. I, I just think they're not the only thing.
[00:28:35] ROD: I think they're the only thing.
[00:28:35] WILL: thing. No, they're not. The
[00:28:37] ROD: I'm gonna prove it. Uh. So robo taxis are pretty cool, right? A robo taxii, a taxi that drives itself pretty
cool.
[00:28:43] WILL: I don't care. No. No. 'cause I, I like the pretty cool, the human talk to the racist taxi driver who's
[00:28:49] ROD: like
oh, you're like, how much do you love Alan Jones and hate everyone who's got hair.
[00:28:53] WILL: So you got a skin color, do
[00:28:55] ROD: look at you? You got an earring. You must be, I don't know bad. [00:29:00] So the original total recall movie proved that these taxis are cool. I don't know if
[00:29:05] WILL: you've
seen No, that's true. Johnny
Taxi. Johnny Cab.
Johnny
[00:29:07] ROD: Johnny Cab. that's right.
[00:29:08] WILL: I knew the Johnny Bit shit.
[00:29:09] ROD: Creep as shit. 'cause it's a ventriloquist w driving your cab.
But you know, it worked. It's cool. Very low fire for 2080 on Mars, but nonetheless it's still great.
[00:29:19] WILL: on Mars, man. Actually no, that bit wasn't on
[00:29:21] ROD: actually, that wasn't, it was before he got to
[00:29:22] WILL: Mars.
If you, if you remember your total recall.
I do. So I
[00:29:25] ROD: So there are a few companies already playing in the US with these robo taxis. So the question is not if they exist, it's about how safe are the fledgling, fledgling ones We already have fledgling. My, my English is not good today. So General Motors, they already have a Robo taxi. They're are a competitor called Cruise.
They recently restarted operations. Yeah. After a pause following an incident in 2023, a uh, cruise roboto taxi dragged woman down to San Francisco Street for 20 feet. So she was hit by the cab and dragged down the street for a bit. She settled, she got millions after she sued the company.
So that's not great. That's for [00:30:00] cruise Tesla. They've notched at least three crashes involving robo Taxii services, lawsuits all over the place, et cetera. Their autopilot was accused of being at fault in two fatal incidents. Mm-hmm. Not
[00:30:11] WILL: great,
but you gotta look at the crashes. They don't have
[00:30:14] ROD: exactly, let's count the crashes.
They haven't had. Wait a minute, that could take a while. But we would get into the Guinness Book of Records. So, um, what about Waymo? Waymo, you know Waymo, so they started back in 2009, which is basically pre-history. Yeah. For auto cabs.
[00:30:32] WILL: They're
[00:30:32] ROD: head and tails above their competition. That's 'cause they roll out
[00:30:35] WILL: in in what?
In,
[00:30:36] ROD: in not.
Like killing, killing people, and jaw crashing. So they roll out really slowly. They're very careful with the streets that they, they go down, et cetera. And the, the, the co CEO, uh, te says the company continually retest its vehicles in order to address challenges like. Things like they accidentally block emergency vehicles.
Um, so they wanna make sure it's working. [00:31:00] So they say according to their own data, their taxis are very safe. Their driver's vehicles are involved in 91% less crashes than human operated
[00:31:08] WILL: That sounds good.
[00:31:09] ROD: I
dunno how they measure it or against what, but apparently less
[00:31:12] WILL: usually it's on kilometers
[00:31:13] ROD: traffic. Yeah.
[00:31:14] WILL: So probably in miles in America, but you can convert them moderately
[00:31:17] ROD: easily. What's a mile?
[00:31:19] WILL: knows?
[00:31:19] ROD: so apparently their taxis very, very safe in comparison. So apparently also they also employ remote operators just in case things go wrong. so so anyway, they're, they're not clear how often employees the, these human interventionists have to dive in, but.
They exist anyway, even with their above safety. the above average safety record way must have been known to behave in weird ways. And I love the example here, which doesn't really freak me out. One pastor stopped school bus in Atlanta when it was unloading children, which is apparently highly illegal.
And it could cost you a thousand bucks,
[00:31:51] WILL: Oh, what if the I,
[00:31:52] ROD: in case they
[00:31:53] WILL: guess if there's no road to go,
[00:31:54] ROD: the child or whatever lately, you should wait for the bus to unload the children
[00:31:57] WILL: go Kids, kids should be not crossing the
road in [00:32:00] front of a
[00:32:00] ROD: Yeah, they shouldn't. No. On the side of the bus. But you apparently it's bad.
In Atlanta. It's bad. It's just a weird, a
[00:32:07] WILL: weird
I, I, I would say problem lies with the policy there, that that buses should pull over on the side that the kids are,
[00:32:14] ROD: are, are gonna get off. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, it was weird, but The thing that's most interesting about this is in the stats, the company Waymo is basically bracing itself and getting ready for the, when it finally does kill someone.
Yeah,
[00:32:25] WILL: Yeah,
[00:32:25] ROD: well,
which they should. So the CEO, sorry, co-CEO says, you know, we don't say whether we kill someone. We say when and we plan for
[00:32:32] WILL: that.
Yeah. Well, fair. No, fair.
[00:32:34] ROD: I, I thoroughly agree. And so they,
[00:32:36] WILL: then they,
that's what I do in my work. I, I,
[00:32:37] ROD: it's not if I kill
[00:32:39] WILL: no. I'm like, in all meetings, I'm like, look, what we need to think of is when we kill
[00:32:42] ROD: someone,
Yeah. Not
if. Let's be, let's be real. We're gonna murder someone. We might not be deliberate,
[00:32:48] WILL: and it might not be you, but,
[00:32:50] ROD: but someone's gonna die on our
[00:32:52] WILL: watch.
And I'm looking at you, Gary
[00:32:55] ROD: or Gary, the people you stand in
[00:32:57] WILL: front
of.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're metaphorical,
[00:32:58] ROD: Gary.
You've [00:33:00] metaphorical you, you're nearly dead, Gary.
So the, the Maa, the CEO was asked if the public is willing to accept a Waymo cause death. And they said, look, I think society
[00:33:08] WILL: will,
[00:33:09] ROD: because it's a moment that society will have to. Yeah. Make trade
[00:33:12] WILL: offs.
Yeah, You'll go, you'll go. Okay. But I do like getting home when I'm drunk.
[00:33:18] ROD: Yeah. Without having to talk to someone.
And on the whole, the cars
[00:33:22] WILL: Oh yeah, that's, that's right. The not talking to someone. Yeah. That's, that's the only real benefit. I could just go with a taxi driver.
[00:33:27] ROD: Yeah. Or an Uber apparently.
[00:33:30] WILL: Well, yeah. Or whatever, but like kind of a human drive.
[00:33:32] ROD: Okay.
But what I think is really interesting though, about this is, and I applaud this to be honest, that they've
[00:33:37] WILL: said.
[00:33:38] ROD: Someone's gonna fucking die. It's gonna be because of our car. That's true. It will happen. We're owning it. We're aware of it. We're gonna talk about accepting it. And I'm, I'm actually quite surprised to see that, that they've actually said this out loud in larger forums. I,
[00:33:52] WILL: I mean, I know it would be that there are scenarios where it's like, I'd love someone to drive me home.
Hmm. But it's like we had this [00:34:00] problem solved. I just, I just don't quite
[00:34:02] ROD: with a handsome cab.
[00:34:05] WILL: Indeed, indeed. And,
[00:34:06] ROD: A top hat and two
[00:34:07] WILL: know, I could,
I could get my cane and Don don't driver off me.
[00:34:10] ROD: Off me
on, we go on. We go stop here.
[00:34:13] WILL: Well, good on
[00:34:13] ROD: that. But no, like, I'm, I'm actually really impressed with that because the whole notion of accepting risk and the possibility that something could go wrong is really uncommon in corporate
[00:34:20] WILL: worlds.
Totally.
And so, uh, here's, here's my, uh, lesson for you and for us and for everyone, right? Yes. In your, in your work. Uh, bring it up every day.
[00:34:28] ROD: Yep. We're gonna kill
[00:34:29] WILL: someone.
[00:34:30] ROD: The stats
[00:34:31] WILL: prove
when, when we kill
[00:34:32] ROD: someone
and the public is ready.
[00:34:35] WILL: I wanted to finish, uh, a little bit of science is a thing that you can rate on the rating machines.
Mm-hmm. You should give it all of the ratings and send it to your friends. Uh, and
[00:34:46] ROD: if you have ideas or complaints, don't send us complaints, but send us ideas
to no complaints. Those as well to our email address.
Oh, Jesus Christ. Cheers.
[00:34:55] WILL: Cheers. A little bit of science.com
[00:34:59] ROD: au.[00:35:00]
Is that what an
[00:35:00] WILL: Au
[00:35:00] ROD: address looks like? Did au Did I,
[00:35:02] WILL: did. Uh, is there anything else we need to write? Oh, you should check this out on Twitch. It's so much fun. Yeah. Like we have, um, all of the jokes that are censored by our producers.
Yeah.
