September 21, 2017 • 10 mins
Sometimes you find facts about rich people. Sometimes you find facts about Sigourney Weaver. But rarely will you find both in one place. In this exclusive, never-been done before feat, the team presents 9 facts about rich people and/or Sigourney Weaver.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Alright, So Mango, you've made your move to the South.
You're here in Atlanta, and I know you have been
looking for some ways that you might blend in right
a little bit more by taking on some of that
Southern culture. And I'm curious, have you started drinking sweet tea?
I mean, I like sweet tea, but I can't drink
a lot of it. No, okay, all right, Well, I've
actually got a good fact about sweet tea. Do you
know that sweet tea used to be a way to
(00:20):
show off your wealth. So, according to a piece of
Garden and Gun, before refrigeration was everywhere importing ice from
the north, it actually cost quite a bit of money,
and and so did putting these heaping spoonfuls of sugar
into a pot. So while we think of the beverages
this cheap and refreshing Southern standard today, at one time
it was this sort of humble, braggy way of showing
(00:41):
your hospitality and your wealth. And that's just one of
the incredible facts we've got about wealth and or Sigourney
Weaver today. Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson,
(01:10):
and as always I'm joined by my good friend Manesha
Ticketer and sitting behind that soundproof glass with one hand
in his pocket and the other one holding a peace
sign is our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. And of
course we've got our PTG all star Gabe Bluesier on
the line as well. Hey Gabe, Hey, well thanks for
having me back. All right, So last week, Mango and
I were at lunch downstairs, not surprisingly at the Rahman Place,
(01:31):
and as we were eating, we see this woman walk in,
and I swear we both immediately thought it was Sigourney Weaver, right,
Mango looked exactly like Sigourney Weaver. So we were crushed
when it wasn't actually Sigourney Weaver, but she was just
elegantly dressed. It was like Sigourney Weaver in like this
ball gown or something. And so it immediately gave us
(01:53):
this idea for a bonus episode. And we had the
exact same idea, right Mango. Yeah, it was eerie how
we thought of the exact same thing. We both said,
uh nine facts about rich people and or Sigourney Weaver.
It was so wearie and and and we both have
this vision. So we immediately called Gabe and we're like, Gabe,
did you have this same vision? And and it wasn't
exactly the one that he had had. He was he's been,
(02:15):
you know, lobbying us to do this one on seven
great facts about cabbage and or traffic cops. So so
maybe one day and we told him, Gabe, don't worry,
you'll get there eventually for having these sorts of visions.
And of course the next morning he called us and
he said he'd had the exact same idea, and and
that sealed the deal. On this episode, I definitely can't
offer any of that, and you guys a kind of
(02:36):
weird me out with the but I did find some
really great facts about rich people. So how about we
just get started on this all right? Well, why don't
you why don't you kick us off? Gabe? Okay, sure, yeah, Um,
did you guys know that the dishwasher was actually invented
by a wealthy socialite. Most people might assume that the
contraption was invented by someone who was sick of doing
(02:58):
dishes themselves just wanted some of their free time back,
But no, Josephine Cochrane had a different motivation entirely. She
loved to throw dinner parties, but was sick of the
servants always shipping her fancy china when they washed up afterwards.
So she decided to take her idea to her shed
out back and shooming together a solution of her own.
(03:19):
And that's not a metaphor, by the way. She actually
had in inventing shed in her packyard where she invented things.
And in eighteen nine three she presented her dishwasher invention
at the Chicago Worlds there and she actually won an
award for the design. That's crazy, all right, Well, that
that's that's pretty interesting, So Mega, why don't you go next?
So that there's a study from Berkeley and written up
(03:41):
in the Harvard Business Review that found that wealth makes
people less generous. And this isn't a total surprise, right, Like,
I feel like we've all heard people saying you're more
likely to give half your money to someone if you
only have like a single dollar than if you have
a hundred dollars. But how the study was actually conducted
is super interesting to me. The study washed people as
they played monopoly, and what do they learned from it? Well,
(04:04):
the researchers observed that not only do people tend to
talk down to their poor opponents. But as they got wealthier,
they acted more entitled, and it started eating more than
their fair share from a bowl of communal pretzels. The
study found they were eating more pretzels. That's pretty great,
all right. So a lot of people know that Gary
Dahl became a millionaire by selling pet rocks. And his idea,
(04:25):
of course, was was genius. So he put these smooth
rocks and these cardboard pet carriers, and he treated them
like petigreed pets. The boxes came with straw beds and
breathing holes, and people went crazy for them. The rocks
were sold for something like four bucks apiece, and he
sold well over a million of them. But what most
people don't know was about his follow up idea, and
(04:46):
it was called sand breeding kits. Now, his hope was
that people would buy male and female vials of sand
and then quote breathe them to create a whole host
of things, whether it was cat litter or landfills or deserts.
And it's a funny I dia. But it turned out
to be a total flop. I mean, it is hard
to get lightning to strike twice, but I'm pretty sure
(05:06):
gabs about to do just that all right, let's hear it, Gabe.
I appreciate that vote of confidence. Guys. Here's what I got.
While Bill Gates is well known for giving back in
a big way to society, he also gives back in
smaller ways to the Courts reports that since at least
Bill Gates has been participating and read its Secret Santa
Gift Exchange, and he always gives away a bunch of
(05:29):
awesome things, like for example, last year, he sent a
whole slew of gifts to one lucky Redding user, including
a pair of Legend of Zelda themed dog nittens, a
Cajun cookbook in a framed photo of the recipient's family
with himself photoshopped in alongside. Nice. That's great. I like that.
Um So, I was gonna share a fact about how
(05:49):
rich people in ancient Greece used to employ toilet sitters
to warm up their marble toilet seats for them, But
since you brought up Santa, I'm actually gonna switch gears
and and throw a Santa fact that I don't know. Maga,
this kind of sounds like you're trying to sneak in
two facts here. I totally am, but the Santa one
is fun. So I'm not sure if you know, but um,
Forbes magazine used to do, uh this fictional fifteen list
(06:11):
of the wealthiest fictional characters and it's super fun, with
Scrooge McDuck has been on there and Smogg, the gold
hoarding dragon from The Hobbit topping the list. But um,
apparently Smog's wealth is worth sixty two billion dollars of cos.
But initially Santa used to be on this list too,
but then enough kids wrote into fact check Forbes to
(06:32):
say Santa was actually a real character and not a
fictional one, So so then Forbes took him off the list.
Isn't that great? I mean, I do like that, but
but more than that, I kind of love the ideas
of kids sitting around and reading Forbes. All right, so
I'll go next. So this is something that feels obvious
once you hear it, but but not something I thought
about before. So before elevators, the lowest floors and apartment
(06:54):
buildings were reserved for the richest people in the building
in The New York Post actually has this great article
about how eleve Waters transformed New York City, and they
point out that when the first commercial building with an
elevator was built. It was the Equitable Life Building. The
insurance company Equitable Life took the first two floors while
the eighth floor was reserved for storage and custodial apartments.
(07:14):
And the same thing happened at the famous Dakota Building.
Elevators were such a novelty when it was built that
fancy people only lived on the first and second floors,
while things like laundry rooms and servant quarters those were
all placed on the upper levels. That's really interesting. So,
I mean, I think we've covered some good facts about
rich people, but let's get into the stuff that would
really make or break this episode. The slash Sigourney Weaver facts.
(07:38):
So gave have had it all. Right, here's a good one.
Did you know that Sigourney Weaver's dad, Sylvester pant Weaver,
was president of NBC at one point? In fact, he
created both the Today Show and the Tonight Show. Oh wow,
I have no idea how I didn't know that. That's
pretty terrific. I'm actually surprised you didn't keep running with
that theme after both of those were so successful. I mean,
(07:58):
I can picture a mid More n show or an
early afternoon ish show well, I love that her dad
wasn't the only Weaver in show business. Like her mom.
Elizabeth was an actor who worked with Hitchcock, and her
uncle's Doodles Weaver was also in show business. Doodles was
this popular comedian and musician with his own variety show.
I think you get a bonus point for mentioning Doodles Weaver. Well,
(08:20):
my fact about Sigourney Weaver is slightly more simple, but
it is mind blowing. And that's the fact that Sigourney
Weaver's real name Susan, but Sigourney is the best part
of her name, like Weavers, only the second best part. Well,
she she didn't like being called Susie Weavers, so she
changed it. And this was after reading The Great gats
Be at the age of fourteen. Apparently she felt inspired
(08:41):
to take the name of one of the novels supporting characters,
Sigourney Howard. Yeah, so I thought you were facts about
rich people were good will, but that slash Sigourney Weaver
fact took the cakes. So I think we can agree.
You get to walk away with today's prize. Thank you
so much. I'm honored. And that's it for today's part
time Genius Thanks much for listening. Thanks again for listening.
(09:15):
Part Time Genius is a production of how stuff works,
and wouldn't be possible without several brilliant people who do
the important things we couldn't even begin to understand. Christa
McNeil does the editing thing. Noel Brown made the theme
song and does the MIXI MIXI sound. Jerry Rowland does
the exact producer thing. Gay Bluesier is our lead researcher,
with support from the Research Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan
Brown and Lucas Adams and Eve. Jeff Cook gets the
(09:37):
show to your ears. Good job, Eves. If you like
what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe, And if you
really really like what you've heard, maybe you could leave
a good review for us. Do we do? We forget Jason?
Jason who
Alright, So Mango, you've made your move to the South.
You're here in Atlanta, and I know you have been
looking for some ways that you might blend in right
a little bit more by taking on some of that
Southern culture. And I'm curious, have you started drinking sweet tea?
I mean, I like sweet tea, but I can't drink
a lot of it. No, okay, all right, Well, I've
actually got a good fact about sweet tea. Do you
know that sweet tea used to be a way to
(00:20):
show off your wealth. So, according to a piece of
Garden and Gun, before refrigeration was everywhere importing ice from
the north, it actually cost quite a bit of money,
and and so did putting these heaping spoonfuls of sugar
into a pot. So while we think of the beverages
this cheap and refreshing Southern standard today, at one time
it was this sort of humble, braggy way of showing
(00:41):
your hospitality and your wealth. And that's just one of
the incredible facts we've got about wealth and or Sigourney
Weaver today. Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson,
(01:10):
and as always I'm joined by my good friend Manesha
Ticketer and sitting behind that soundproof glass with one hand
in his pocket and the other one holding a peace
sign is our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. And of
course we've got our PTG all star Gabe Bluesier on
the line as well. Hey Gabe, Hey, well thanks for
having me back. All right, So last week, Mango and
I were at lunch downstairs, not surprisingly at the Rahman Place,
(01:31):
and as we were eating, we see this woman walk in,
and I swear we both immediately thought it was Sigourney Weaver, right,
Mango looked exactly like Sigourney Weaver. So we were crushed
when it wasn't actually Sigourney Weaver, but she was just
elegantly dressed. It was like Sigourney Weaver in like this
ball gown or something. And so it immediately gave us
(01:53):
this idea for a bonus episode. And we had the
exact same idea, right Mango. Yeah, it was eerie how
we thought of the exact same thing. We both said,
uh nine facts about rich people and or Sigourney Weaver.
It was so wearie and and and we both have
this vision. So we immediately called Gabe and we're like, Gabe,
did you have this same vision? And and it wasn't
exactly the one that he had had. He was he's been,
(02:15):
you know, lobbying us to do this one on seven
great facts about cabbage and or traffic cops. So so
maybe one day and we told him, Gabe, don't worry,
you'll get there eventually for having these sorts of visions.
And of course the next morning he called us and
he said he'd had the exact same idea, and and
that sealed the deal. On this episode, I definitely can't
offer any of that, and you guys a kind of
(02:36):
weird me out with the but I did find some
really great facts about rich people. So how about we
just get started on this all right? Well, why don't
you why don't you kick us off? Gabe? Okay, sure, yeah, Um,
did you guys know that the dishwasher was actually invented
by a wealthy socialite. Most people might assume that the
contraption was invented by someone who was sick of doing
(02:58):
dishes themselves just wanted some of their free time back,
But no, Josephine Cochrane had a different motivation entirely. She
loved to throw dinner parties, but was sick of the
servants always shipping her fancy china when they washed up afterwards.
So she decided to take her idea to her shed
out back and shooming together a solution of her own.
(03:19):
And that's not a metaphor, by the way. She actually
had in inventing shed in her packyard where she invented things.
And in eighteen nine three she presented her dishwasher invention
at the Chicago Worlds there and she actually won an
award for the design. That's crazy, all right, Well, that
that's that's pretty interesting, So Mega, why don't you go next?
So that there's a study from Berkeley and written up
(03:41):
in the Harvard Business Review that found that wealth makes
people less generous. And this isn't a total surprise, right, Like,
I feel like we've all heard people saying you're more
likely to give half your money to someone if you
only have like a single dollar than if you have
a hundred dollars. But how the study was actually conducted
is super interesting to me. The study washed people as
they played monopoly, and what do they learned from it? Well,
(04:04):
the researchers observed that not only do people tend to
talk down to their poor opponents. But as they got wealthier,
they acted more entitled, and it started eating more than
their fair share from a bowl of communal pretzels. The
study found they were eating more pretzels. That's pretty great,
all right. So a lot of people know that Gary
Dahl became a millionaire by selling pet rocks. And his idea,
(04:25):
of course, was was genius. So he put these smooth
rocks and these cardboard pet carriers, and he treated them
like petigreed pets. The boxes came with straw beds and
breathing holes, and people went crazy for them. The rocks
were sold for something like four bucks apiece, and he
sold well over a million of them. But what most
people don't know was about his follow up idea, and
(04:46):
it was called sand breeding kits. Now, his hope was
that people would buy male and female vials of sand
and then quote breathe them to create a whole host
of things, whether it was cat litter or landfills or deserts.
And it's a funny I dia. But it turned out
to be a total flop. I mean, it is hard
to get lightning to strike twice, but I'm pretty sure
(05:06):
gabs about to do just that all right, let's hear it, Gabe.
I appreciate that vote of confidence. Guys. Here's what I got.
While Bill Gates is well known for giving back in
a big way to society, he also gives back in
smaller ways to the Courts reports that since at least
Bill Gates has been participating and read its Secret Santa
Gift Exchange, and he always gives away a bunch of
(05:29):
awesome things, like for example, last year, he sent a
whole slew of gifts to one lucky Redding user, including
a pair of Legend of Zelda themed dog nittens, a
Cajun cookbook in a framed photo of the recipient's family
with himself photoshopped in alongside. Nice. That's great. I like that.
Um So, I was gonna share a fact about how
(05:49):
rich people in ancient Greece used to employ toilet sitters
to warm up their marble toilet seats for them, But
since you brought up Santa, I'm actually gonna switch gears
and and throw a Santa fact that I don't know. Maga,
this kind of sounds like you're trying to sneak in
two facts here. I totally am, but the Santa one
is fun. So I'm not sure if you know, but um,
Forbes magazine used to do, uh this fictional fifteen list
(06:11):
of the wealthiest fictional characters and it's super fun, with
Scrooge McDuck has been on there and Smogg, the gold
hoarding dragon from The Hobbit topping the list. But um,
apparently Smog's wealth is worth sixty two billion dollars of cos.
But initially Santa used to be on this list too,
but then enough kids wrote into fact check Forbes to
(06:32):
say Santa was actually a real character and not a
fictional one, So so then Forbes took him off the list.
Isn't that great? I mean, I do like that, but
but more than that, I kind of love the ideas
of kids sitting around and reading Forbes. All right, so
I'll go next. So this is something that feels obvious
once you hear it, but but not something I thought
about before. So before elevators, the lowest floors and apartment
(06:54):
buildings were reserved for the richest people in the building
in The New York Post actually has this great article
about how eleve Waters transformed New York City, and they
point out that when the first commercial building with an
elevator was built. It was the Equitable Life Building. The
insurance company Equitable Life took the first two floors while
the eighth floor was reserved for storage and custodial apartments.
(07:14):
And the same thing happened at the famous Dakota Building.
Elevators were such a novelty when it was built that
fancy people only lived on the first and second floors,
while things like laundry rooms and servant quarters those were
all placed on the upper levels. That's really interesting. So,
I mean, I think we've covered some good facts about
rich people, but let's get into the stuff that would
really make or break this episode. The slash Sigourney Weaver facts.
(07:38):
So gave have had it all. Right, here's a good one.
Did you know that Sigourney Weaver's dad, Sylvester pant Weaver,
was president of NBC at one point? In fact, he
created both the Today Show and the Tonight Show. Oh wow,
I have no idea how I didn't know that. That's
pretty terrific. I'm actually surprised you didn't keep running with
that theme after both of those were so successful. I mean,
(07:58):
I can picture a mid More n show or an
early afternoon ish show well, I love that her dad
wasn't the only Weaver in show business. Like her mom.
Elizabeth was an actor who worked with Hitchcock, and her
uncle's Doodles Weaver was also in show business. Doodles was
this popular comedian and musician with his own variety show.
I think you get a bonus point for mentioning Doodles Weaver. Well,
(08:20):
my fact about Sigourney Weaver is slightly more simple, but
it is mind blowing. And that's the fact that Sigourney
Weaver's real name Susan, but Sigourney is the best part
of her name, like Weavers, only the second best part. Well,
she she didn't like being called Susie Weavers, so she
changed it. And this was after reading The Great gats
Be at the age of fourteen. Apparently she felt inspired
(08:41):
to take the name of one of the novels supporting characters,
Sigourney Howard. Yeah, so I thought you were facts about
rich people were good will, but that slash Sigourney Weaver
fact took the cakes. So I think we can agree.
You get to walk away with today's prize. Thank you
so much. I'm honored. And that's it for today's part
time Genius Thanks much for listening. Thanks again for listening.
(09:15):
Part Time Genius is a production of how stuff works,
and wouldn't be possible without several brilliant people who do
the important things we couldn't even begin to understand. Christa
McNeil does the editing thing. Noel Brown made the theme
song and does the MIXI MIXI sound. Jerry Rowland does
the exact producer thing. Gay Bluesier is our lead researcher,
with support from the Research Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan
Brown and Lucas Adams and Eve. Jeff Cook gets the
(09:37):
show to your ears. Good job, Eves. If you like
what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe, And if you
really really like what you've heard, maybe you could leave
a good review for us. Do we do? We forget Jason?
Jason who
Part-Time Genius News
Hosts And Creators
Will Pearson
Mangesh Hattikudur
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