December 15, 2018 • 28 mins
Igloos were traditionally used by Inuit Indians as temporary shelter while on hunting and fishing trips. In this episode, Josh and Chuck look at the design of igloos, from their impressive heat-catching properties to their ingenious construction.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
All right, everybody, it's Chuck here. It's Saturday, and you
know what that means. It's time for Stuff you Should Know.
Select episode curated by me. This one's about igloos. How
much fun? Right from March two eleven, and this one
should be landing here in the winter as well, so
you can go out and build an igloo yourself, That's
what I say, but be safe while you're doing it.
(00:22):
There's a fun episode. I remember enjoying this one quite
quite a lot, so I hope you guys like it.
Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from house Stuff Works
dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh
(00:42):
Clark with me as always as Charles W. Chuck Bryant. Hello, sir,
it makes this stuff you should know. All right, it's right,
unless I'm in the wrong place. You're a little under
the weather still, Aren't you just as sick as I
was when we recorded Fainting Goats? Yes? Not not ten
minutes ago. Yes, So Chuck hasn't been sick all week.
It'll probably just be a couple of days. So clear.
(01:03):
If you have a robust um immune system for a
man of your age, remember when you were actually sick
for weeks and weeks like in year one. Yeah, and
I think like eighteen podcasts were screwed up because I
was just I could not get better. I thought, you,
those are the unhealthy days. So you lead a much
healthier lifestyle, much much healthier. You're not. We don't need
(01:24):
to check you into the sanitarium like we had to
back in the day. I'm okay, now I'm not. I've
gotten over my consumption. Hopefully you will very soon. I
have all faith that you will. Right, So, Chuck, while
we're waiting for you to recuperate, I have I want
to talk to you about technology specifically. Some of the
oldest technology known to man clothes. Clothing is technology. Yeah
(01:49):
so didn't think so, but it is, Chuck, Probably more
than anything else. The thing that defines humanity is our
desire and our ceaseless striving to become more than more
than human, to take ourselves out of the rat race
of evolution, the crapshoot of genetics, and to basically take
(02:10):
hold of our biological destiny. Right. Yeah. We sort of
did that with clothing many many, many years ago. Yeah,
so that's that's what we do. We use technology to
do that and clothing was one of the earliest ones.
Because we are a subtropical species humans are. Yeah, we're
not supposed to live in really cold places, right, but
we do. We've managed to migrate from you know, somewhere
(02:31):
near the equator where we can run around without clothes too. Yeah,
because we're what they call the sexy epoch um to
some colder climbs. Thanks to close Along the way, we
um figured out that we could use hammers and or
use stones for hammers and other tools. Um, and we
(02:52):
figured out that we could build our our own shelters
make things warm on the inside. Right. So eventually over
the years we figure out enclosed heating systems. And then now,
thanks to all this, we have swedes right Involvos. Involvos
thanks to the sweds. So the technology of Volvos are
a direct result of the technology of clothes. Wow, in
(03:12):
a weird way, you're exactly right. But somewhere along the
line there was a branch of that linear development of
thought and talent of technology all the way to enclosed
shelters that house swedes, where somebody figured out that you
can make it enclosed shelter out of blocks of hard
packed snow, and we know those today as ig loose. Yes,
(03:37):
and do you know what the Inuit called the igloo igloos? Question?
That's a good that's a great. That was a good
question though, because, yeah, it's an Innuit word for what,
believe it means snow house. So the Inuits are just
among the most pragmatic speakers on the planet. You're very
cut and dry. Yeah, they call their snow houses igloos, right,
(03:59):
that just makes other sense. Yeah, we're talking about the
Canadian tundra, Josh, and they uh, you know, tps and
castles and other things that were being built were all
well and good if you're in in Europe, or if
you are in a warmer climate, let's say, like the
Florida Painhandle, you don't have to take throught of ice
to quarry stone exactly. But if you're in the Canadian tundra,
(04:20):
those aren't really good options. So, uh, snow, hard packed
snow became the masonry, if you will, for the Inuits. Right,
let's go ahead and get to this Eskimo thing. Yeah, yeah, um,
Eskimo and Inuit are one and the same. There are
two different terms for the same group of people. These
people who Um inhabit areas spanning from Siberia to Alaska,
(04:45):
Canada Greenland UM thirty five hundred mile range, right, yeah,
which makes them the most widely spread Aboriginal group on
the planet. Yeah. An Aboriginal, for those of you don't know,
doesn't just refer to the Aborigines in Australia. It's any um,
any any any indigenous indigenous, the first people in that region. Yes,
(05:07):
or it would be Aboriginal, yes, okay, that was the
ones you get pushed around by the Europeans Aboriginal um
And if you want to insult in Inuit, you just
go ahead and call them an Eskimo. Yeah. Apparently it's
a derogatory term because it was a term that the
white man gave. I think it was another tribe, was it, Yeah,
but it was an outside group. I was just figure
(05:29):
it's the white man. Yeah, So it was another group
named them Eskimos, which um it was thought to mean
eaters of raw meat or raw blubbers what I've heard
as well, blubber. But then they later thought that eskimoment
to netch snowshoes, to build snowshoes, and linguists can't prove it,
although that's kind of what they think. But in the
(05:50):
glory that is language, things can go from their original
meaning to a popular meaning, and it's old meaning is meaningless. Yeah,
it's only what people think or use, right, right, which
is how l o l is a word, that's right.
So we're going to refer to them, refer to them
as Inuit, because that's the that's the way to do it.
(06:12):
We don't want to alienate anybody, no, especially the Inuit,
because they are tough people and they have survived for many, many,
many years in conditions that don't seem to be survivable,
especially way back in the day. But they made it through, right,
and they're thriving actually too. We'll get to that in
a second. Yeah, I was surprised to see that. But
(06:32):
um chuck. A couple of other facts about these, uh,
the Inuit, which means the people, right, So they call
their snowhouses, they glues, they call themselves the people. It's
just it's very spare. I could have been a good Innuit,
I think. I think so too. Keep things simple, fall down, goat, Yeah,
so they don't. They they have never really established a
(06:56):
formal system of government. It's the family is generally the
the center of the community. Yeah. Um, the class system.
Males are the figure heads. Yeah. No, class system is
pretty cool. Um. And basically, if you're a boy, you're
a hunter. If you're a girl, you marry a hunter
and hopefully produce more boy hunters because the everyone's equally
(07:18):
responsible for coming up with food and I imagine every family,
um is that's what that means. Every family is equally
responsible for contributing to the food in the community. Yeah. Yeah,
So the more boy hunters, the better. So um, fascinating group.
And they have never lived in it loses permanent shelters, huh. Well. Yeah,
And it's important that you mentioned hunting because clearly, if
(07:41):
you are living on the Arctic tundra, there's one thing
that you're probably not going to have, and that is
a vegetable garden. So they are very carnivorous as a
as a people. They do a lot of hunting. They
did a lot of hunting of seals, which is probably
they were called blubberry marketing blood reads and we're there
are seals, is gonna be a lot of ice sea ice? Yeah,
(08:04):
which leads to another peculiar trait of the Inuit. Peculiar
meaning unique specific um kayak angst. Remember we talked about
that on the webcast like a long time ago, remember that,
and everything was cut off in the middle of it,
and like it was Guy Kawasaki day. And I wrote
a blog post on it saying like as I was
(08:25):
saying before I was cut off, and kayak angst is this, um,
it's a it's a condition specific only to the Inuit,
where an Inuit males too, where you become afraid of
going out to hunt seals in a kayak, usually following
an episode where you've been up for several days. The
(08:46):
sun very rarely sets because at summertime, which is the
only time you're when when you can hunt seal really um,
So you have a loss of sense of time. You're
completely without any lamb mark, a reference point. It's all
just horizon and sea ice. So you're without no bearings,
no sense of time, and you doze off and wake up,
(09:08):
and you have no idea how long you've been asleep,
how far you've drifted, and you may be out there
drifting for the rest of your life. And you finally
do find land again, you make your way back to
your community and you become terrified at the thought of
getting back in a kayak again. Kayak angst Yeah, specific
only to the Innuit. I don't remember that at all.
That's so weird. Well you should read my blog posts.
(09:31):
I usually have an inkling, but that that one doesn't
ring true for me. So the Inuit did not live
in iglas, Josh as you said, that is not true.
People might think that um Inuit tribes just had igloos
all over the place and that was their house. They
were really hunting shelters. Yeah, it's like a hunting camp
like um Robin Williams uh, fishing camping, insomnia, Yeah, except
(09:55):
nutty because of no sleep and too much sun. Yeah.
Well al Pacino was yeah right, that was Christopher Nolan,
you know. Yeah, he's just amazing. Although you had inception problems, right,
it was really just Ellen Page. Get her out of
the movie. You're okay. It wasn't even her necessarily, although
I'm not a big fan of hers. Um. I think
(10:15):
she's a she's a good actress and everything, but you know,
I'll never forgere it for Juno. But um, it was
more her character, Like clearly her character was put in
afterward because the producers were like, or the studio execs
were like, wait, what is going on? So they wrote
in Ellen Page's character to explain everything to everybody at
(10:36):
each step so that you can keep up with this
really dense movie. You love getting me wound up about
that inception around John All right, where were we the Innuits?
(11:11):
They were hunting camps, like we said, and uh, they're
still around today and they're booming. Um not igloos. Actually
they're they're not quite as common, but they did a
study who is just the human rights program in Canada
in Canada Department of Canadian Heritage said that there could
be as many as sixty eight thousand, four hundred Inuit
(11:32):
in Canada only in Change. So um, yeah, they're they're
booming as a people. Pretty cool. So they're thriving. Igloos
are were never um, permanent shelters or structures for them,
And um they had kayak angst One other thing too,
eskimo kisses. Yeah, what's the deal there? So you know
(11:54):
it's like rubbing the tip of your nose. Yeah, it's cute,
it is. It's not entirely accurate though, I'm sure, but
they did kiss with their noses. Yeah, but it was um,
you would put your no, your nostrils to the face,
usually around like the cheeks, right below the eyes. Um.
The you would put your nose to a loved one's
face like that and inhale deeply, and that was that's
(12:17):
the real Escobote kiss. Who are Inuit kiss? Interesting, isn't it? Yeah?
They had it wrong, though, you know how it right?
The French. Yeah, they figured it out and everyone was like, oh, yeah,
this is the way to kiss. Forget that no stuff,
all right, So let's talk about igloos for a second.
They were built out of blocks of ice. They are
(12:37):
not built out of the kind of snow that you
probably have in your front yard in Ohio in the wintertime.
It depends on how what it was. Although my cousin
in law, Alex Schreiber, Ohio State University student, built an
igloo last winter. He and his buddies. Check this thing out, dude, nice, wow,
(13:04):
I should post this. I'm gonna get to post this.
But it's like seven ft tall at least. It's huge,
and it's it's like really well constructed. He's sitting on
top of it and it's not caving in. If I
built an igloo that you know, it wouldn't last very long.
Pretty cool though. That is a backyard in Ohio too.
Yeah it's gray day, leafless trees everywhere. Yeah. Yeah, he
(13:24):
and his buddies you know, clearly had enough boredhom in
time to build this cool. So Alex Driver huh yeah, awesome.
Is he listening right now? I hope? So yeah he listens,
And I told I get my heads up. Yeah, well
you have to post that he's gonna right back and say,
don't mention the iglu don't they always huh yeah, so chuck.
Even though like, um say, a hunting expedition went out
(13:47):
or even a single hunter went out and built an iglu,
um that that it wasn't just the single igloo every
single time. Sometimes they lived in him for longer periods.
Sometimes more people lived in a group, and they would
actually um create compounds out of igloos by you know,
melding them together, creating walkways, breeze waste. Pretty cool. And
(14:08):
there were some that um basically igloo cities that came
about where you I think they would have like halls
for banquets and beasts and like balls and stuff like
like Inuit balls held in. Um. Uh, well, an igloo,
a big, large igloo. Pretty cool. Though I didn't know this.
I had no idea. I always pictured just the single
(14:30):
and I also thought they lived in them. So this
was this one. I was because we're like the totem poles,
we should probably also while we're just like busting things
left and right. Um Chili Willie, helpful little penguin from
the He was so cute. I went and watched when
to refresh my memory. He was very cute. He wasn't
I I thought he would be mischievous or I remembered
(14:52):
him being mischievous like Woody Woodpecker, who was a jerk. Um. No,
Chili Willie was a very helpful, cute, sweet little baby penguin.
Um and his little igloo, the typical igloo that you
think of a dome with like a rounded entryway, pretty
much dead on. Yeah, but it looks like your your cousin,
They don't, uh cousin, cousin in law. It looks like
(15:13):
he he knows, he knows what he's doing. Alex, not Matthew, No,
I said, nephew, Oh sorry, Uh yeah, there's no penguins
in Alaska either, So that's the other problem as well.
Chili will he was not accurate but cute. Nonetheless, No,
but the igloo he built was accurate. That's right. And Josh,
since we're talking igloes. Um, here's here's what a a
(15:34):
naive person might say. Why in the world, if you're
freezing cold out in Alaska, would you build a room
out of ice and snow to sit in? How warm
could that be? It would take somebody pretty naive to
say something like that, though, you know how warm it
could be up to forty degrees warmer than it is
outside of the iglue buddy, Yes, And why chuck, where
(15:54):
these furnaces coming from? Well, your body, for one human body,
is a pretty good furnace, yep. And um, when you
cut down the wind chill, you're gonna take a big
bite out of the cold. And you put a couple
of warm Inuit bodies in there, and imagine these are
big tough dudes. Anyway, they're probably just like exuding warmth
that'll it'll you know, radiate out and insulate. The igloo
(16:16):
will insulate that heat in it trips the heat. Yeah.
So I mean, if you're talking negative forty degrees, that's
really cold. But if you could bring that up to zero.
That's still cold, but it ain't like negative forty, which
is the same in Celsius san fahrenheigh. Oh yeah, yeah,
good point. So, Uh, the snow is an insulator, right, Yeah,
(16:40):
it cuts down on the on the wind um of
the melting. That's the other thing too. Yeah. When when
you build an igloo, and don't worry, we're about to
give you step by step instructions on how to build
an igloo, we should get alex on the orange. Um.
At the very least you can verify it, right, that's right. Um,
when you build an igloo, you uh, the sun when
(17:02):
it does come out or if it's out the whole time,
especially during the day. Uh, it'll heat up enough possibly
to melt some refreeze at night, which is what you want,
melt refreeze and um you you your body heat also
may melt it from the inside out something. And then
when you go out to hunt, it'll refreeze every time
more likely, it's probably the more likely scenario. So this
(17:24):
um thawing and freezing and thawing and freezing basically turns
the igloo into this really um strong and insulated structure
and about a boom, bought a being. You got yourself
an insulated place to fish, or at least to bunk
down while you're fishing. Yeah, so, Josh, are we at
(18:02):
the point where we tell people how to build eglue?
I don't think we can delay it any longer. Oh
we can. Okay. You mentioned that igloo igloos are kind
of out of fashion with the Inuit these days. Yeah,
not as common, but they are becoming increasingly common at
a ski resorts apparently. Yeah, if you're such a ski
(18:22):
junkie and that you want to just basically wake up,
roll out of bed, put on your skis and start
skiing immediately, they have igloos, usually on the slopes. Um
that you can rent igloo villages, that you can run
an igloo overnight or for as long as you stay there.
Pretty sweet, huh. Or if you're, you know, feeling squirrely,
(18:42):
you can build one yourself. True down, is that a segue?
It is if you're if you've done it before, like
your cousin in law, it could take as little as
an hour. If you don't know what you're doing, it
could take six or more. Yeah, I want to ask Alex, actually,
how long it took because the first pick yours are
or at night, so it clearly took them longer than
(19:04):
a few hours. Like when I saw that someone could
build one an hour, I don't know about that. I
don't believe that. Well, I'm pretty sure if you were
raised as an intuit, and you were I don't know,
in your twenties, I'll bet you could build an iglue
in an hour. Yea. Yeah, And it looks like Alex
and his buddies used a tub, like a shallow plastic
tub to pack the snow down, and that's smart inform
(19:25):
the blocks. Yeah, so the way we're going to teach
you how to do it requires a snow shovel, which
looks an awful lot like a dry wall or not
a snow shovel. It does require a snow shovel, but
a snow saw, which looks an awful lot like a
dry wall saw. Indeed. Um, and basically you want to
go find some ice like you were saying you normally
wouldn't find ice or snow. Um that's just fallen. It's
(19:49):
gonna work for an iglu. Yeah, you want to find
um wettish, hard packed like that's more solid. The better, snow, Right,
And what do you want to do with it, snow Chuck, Well,
you want to use your little saw. You want to
cut large blocks. Um, I guess you can vary the size,
but they recommend in the Complete Wilderness Training guy, they
recommend three ft long, fifteen inches high, eight inches deep.
(20:13):
So once you get your blocks, you want to start building.
Uh you know, put your foundation in a circle and
start building up that foundation, working your way up as
you go, decreasing in size as you go. And you
also have to shape it at a at a slant obviously,
or you're just gonna have a ice block tower and
(20:34):
not a domed roof. Correct. Yeah, yeah you um, you
want to shape it at a slant, like you said,
but you also want to make the blocks decrease in
sizes you get bigger decrease and and overlap. See you
you did some some brickwork, and that's sort of the
same principle there. I never built anything that was tall
enough that I had to really build it back to
(20:54):
stagger it. And when I did, it was like the
pre made castle rock wall that's designed to set back right,
so it didn't require any thought. But yes, if you
if you kind of have something that's technically at a
slight incline. It will provide structure if you can get
it to connect as a dome like Buckminster Fuller's geodesic
(21:17):
dome exactly, very super strong structure. So as you're building
this and then you start to make the dome part,
it should support itself if you've done it right, but
you can always use sticks on the inside to support
it temporarily until you get the dome complete and then
it's all pressing against each other. Uh. And then how
do you finish it off with with the top? Well,
you want to take a chunk of ice. You're what
(21:39):
you're gonna have is this perfect dome, some variation of
a perfect dome. Um. And there's gonna be a central
hole in the top, right, Yeah, like a little chimney, yes, um,
but you actually want to plug this one. That's right.
This is one chimney you want to plug. And you
take you cut another block that's going to be bigger
than the hole, and you want to shape it so
(22:00):
that it basically fits this this hole that's left over, UM,
which should be something like an octagon maybe roughly L shape. UM,
And you want to fit it in there perfectly. You
want to cut it, shape it, put it in there
so it's in there perfectly, packed in there. Because this
is your load bearing keystone. Basically, as long as that
(22:23):
thing's intact, everything else should be fine. You'll lose that,
you're in a lot of trouble. Um. And then after
that you're ready to start insulating it, filling in the cracks.
You want to shovel snow on top of everything, and
the loose snow that is what you want. Now you
want to work with it, and you're going to use
some insulated gloves on your hands or else you're going
(22:45):
to lose your hands to gangreen in a few days. Um.
And you fill in the cracks with the snow, you
just kind of smooth it over with your hands so
that the snow packs into the cracks, and all of
a sudden, this um separate block pattern is lost and
you have a basically a smooth dome. Yes, is what
you're going for, right. Yeah, And at the end, it's
(23:06):
it's a lot harder to try and build a door
into your thing. It's easier just to build a dome
and then cut your door out after it's finished. There's
a good point and um, a lot of people, Um,
a true aficionado of the igloo would build a little
L shaped entryway tunnel because that'll cut down on the
wind coming in even more. Yeah, because the wind has
to turn a corner, that's right. Um. So you cut
(23:28):
that hole in whatever shape you want, whether a key
shape um or a lot of people use like a
tent shape and a frame. Yeah. Yeah. And you then
you cover it with blocks you make like an entry
way shelter basically, and then like you said, you you
might want to put it as an L and then
you dig a hole into the snow so that you
(23:48):
can get into it. But basically you're kind of crawling
into the entryway. It looked like yeah, right, um. And
then after that you get inside. And there's a very
vital step that you might not think of, and that
is drilling air holes. Yes, because once you've packed it
full of loose snow and it's um, it's basically mortared
(24:09):
um and you uh, the thing melts and thaws and
freezes and thaws and freezes and becomes even more of
a solid structure. If you don't have air holes, you'll
suffocate and die. Yes, especially if you do something like
bring a camp stove or a Colman lantern or that
kind of thing in there. Uh, we don't want to
(24:30):
see that happen. No, And I don't even know that
we should recommend bringing a stove at all. Yeah, which
this article says you can, as long as you have
enough air holes for ventilation. I just say, build it
for fun and just keep the noxious fumes out of it.
Yeah all together. Yeah, I I should say that this
article also specifically says that it is in no way,
shape or form a meant to be a comprehensive guide
(24:52):
to building an iglue. It's just the basic. Yeah, there
are some good how to photos, so if you want
to check it out for some really good illustration, right huh,
as how stuff works is lousy with That's right. So
I guess that's it for igloos. They are everything we
thought they were and more. Yeah. You know a lot
of times you think, oh, I bet you, it's just
(25:13):
our interpretation that you see in the movies all these things.
But they really do look just like that, and they're
built just like that, and not a lot of surprises here,
which is kind of reassuring. In a lot of words.
It makes me feel good. Yeah, so I guess if
you want to catch up on your Chili Willy, we
won't blame you. I found plenty on YouTube. He's adorable,
more better, more better, more syrup, more syrup. I don't
(25:35):
remember that one. That's a good one. Um. No, that's
a parque commercial. Now are you sure? Okay? Well, um,
check out Chili Willy and be sure to um go
onto how stuff works dot com and type in igloo
I g l o O and is going to bring
up a pretty cool um step by step illustrated guide
(25:55):
to building your own igloo sans camp stove with holes.
That's right? Um, I think did I say handy search bar?
You just did? Okay, Well, then it's time for a
listener mail. Yeah, this isn't so much a mail. This
is something I want to mention a long time ago
and kind of forgot. Remember the life straw podcast? Yes,
(26:15):
you don't do a quick recap of what a LifeStraw is. Yeah,
A life straw is a portable device for purifying water. Um,
and it's cheap, it's easy to hang onto, it lasts
for up to a year, and if you were in
a place that's invested with guinea worm. You still need
to drink water, but you don't want guiney worm. LifeStraw helps,
and I think the rotarians are big into getting them
(26:38):
all over the world. They are, and so is Steven Neeman.
And Steven wrote on our Facebook while after the LifeStraw
podcast that he was pretty blown away by this thing
and he thoughts pretty cool inventioned and that he and
his company the result of this podcast, their company is
going to donate a minimum of six thousand lifestraws this
(26:59):
year and nice six thousand not bad, huh. And I
asked him if he minded us mentioning this. He said
not at all. His company is Eleventh Hour Search in Alexandria, Virginia.
It's a very small staffing firm, so it's not like
even some huge company that's doing this. And he said
his wife works in Haiti for the US, and that's
(27:20):
where he is right now. I don't know if he
still is. Is a little while ago, and they like
the podcast on Haitian voodoo and so good an you
brother donating six thousand lifestraws. That is awesome, So we
just want to reckon more than awesome. I mean, that's
very cool. That's gotta be worth a T shirt. I
would say so Stephen shirt. I don't have his email,
but if feels right in, yeah, right in. Send us
(27:41):
your email, Stephen in your T shirt size. Sorry it
took so long to mention this, it got lost in
the shuffle. Well, good going, chuck Um. If you are
saving the world, we want to know how, because we
want to send you a T shirt. If you're saving
the world in a verifiable and inspirational manner in a
dramatic fashion. Yeah, you can go onto our Facebook page,
(28:01):
Facebook dot com, slash stuff you should know, You can
tweek to us s y s K podcast, and you
can send us an email. Stuff podcast at how stuff
works dot com. For more on this and thousands of
other topics, is it how stuff works dot com. Want
more how stuff works, check out our blogs on the
(28:24):
how stuff works dot com home page.
All right, everybody, it's Chuck here. It's Saturday, and you
know what that means. It's time for Stuff you Should Know.
Select episode curated by me. This one's about igloos. How
much fun? Right from March two eleven, and this one
should be landing here in the winter as well, so
you can go out and build an igloo yourself, That's
what I say, but be safe while you're doing it.
(00:22):
There's a fun episode. I remember enjoying this one quite
quite a lot, so I hope you guys like it.
Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from house Stuff Works
dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh
(00:42):
Clark with me as always as Charles W. Chuck Bryant. Hello, sir,
it makes this stuff you should know. All right, it's right,
unless I'm in the wrong place. You're a little under
the weather still, Aren't you just as sick as I
was when we recorded Fainting Goats? Yes? Not not ten
minutes ago. Yes, So Chuck hasn't been sick all week.
It'll probably just be a couple of days. So clear.
(01:03):
If you have a robust um immune system for a
man of your age, remember when you were actually sick
for weeks and weeks like in year one. Yeah, and
I think like eighteen podcasts were screwed up because I
was just I could not get better. I thought, you,
those are the unhealthy days. So you lead a much
healthier lifestyle, much much healthier. You're not. We don't need
(01:24):
to check you into the sanitarium like we had to
back in the day. I'm okay, now I'm not. I've
gotten over my consumption. Hopefully you will very soon. I
have all faith that you will. Right, So, Chuck, while
we're waiting for you to recuperate, I have I want
to talk to you about technology specifically. Some of the
oldest technology known to man clothes. Clothing is technology. Yeah
(01:49):
so didn't think so, but it is, Chuck, Probably more
than anything else. The thing that defines humanity is our
desire and our ceaseless striving to become more than more
than human, to take ourselves out of the rat race
of evolution, the crapshoot of genetics, and to basically take
(02:10):
hold of our biological destiny. Right. Yeah. We sort of
did that with clothing many many, many years ago. Yeah,
so that's that's what we do. We use technology to
do that and clothing was one of the earliest ones.
Because we are a subtropical species humans are. Yeah, we're
not supposed to live in really cold places, right, but
we do. We've managed to migrate from you know, somewhere
(02:31):
near the equator where we can run around without clothes too. Yeah,
because we're what they call the sexy epoch um to
some colder climbs. Thanks to close Along the way, we
um figured out that we could use hammers and or
use stones for hammers and other tools. Um, and we
(02:52):
figured out that we could build our our own shelters
make things warm on the inside. Right. So eventually over
the years we figure out enclosed heating systems. And then now,
thanks to all this, we have swedes right Involvos. Involvos
thanks to the sweds. So the technology of Volvos are
a direct result of the technology of clothes. Wow, in
(03:12):
a weird way, you're exactly right. But somewhere along the
line there was a branch of that linear development of
thought and talent of technology all the way to enclosed
shelters that house swedes, where somebody figured out that you
can make it enclosed shelter out of blocks of hard
packed snow, and we know those today as ig loose. Yes,
(03:37):
and do you know what the Inuit called the igloo igloos? Question?
That's a good that's a great. That was a good
question though, because, yeah, it's an Innuit word for what,
believe it means snow house. So the Inuits are just
among the most pragmatic speakers on the planet. You're very
cut and dry. Yeah, they call their snow houses igloos, right,
(03:59):
that just makes other sense. Yeah, we're talking about the
Canadian tundra, Josh, and they uh, you know, tps and
castles and other things that were being built were all
well and good if you're in in Europe, or if
you are in a warmer climate, let's say, like the
Florida Painhandle, you don't have to take throught of ice
to quarry stone exactly. But if you're in the Canadian tundra,
(04:20):
those aren't really good options. So, uh, snow, hard packed
snow became the masonry, if you will, for the Inuits. Right,
let's go ahead and get to this Eskimo thing. Yeah, yeah, um,
Eskimo and Inuit are one and the same. There are
two different terms for the same group of people. These
people who Um inhabit areas spanning from Siberia to Alaska,
(04:45):
Canada Greenland UM thirty five hundred mile range, right, yeah,
which makes them the most widely spread Aboriginal group on
the planet. Yeah. An Aboriginal, for those of you don't know,
doesn't just refer to the Aborigines in Australia. It's any um,
any any any indigenous indigenous, the first people in that region. Yes,
(05:07):
or it would be Aboriginal, yes, okay, that was the
ones you get pushed around by the Europeans Aboriginal um
And if you want to insult in Inuit, you just
go ahead and call them an Eskimo. Yeah. Apparently it's
a derogatory term because it was a term that the
white man gave. I think it was another tribe, was it, Yeah,
but it was an outside group. I was just figure
(05:29):
it's the white man. Yeah, So it was another group
named them Eskimos, which um it was thought to mean
eaters of raw meat or raw blubbers what I've heard
as well, blubber. But then they later thought that eskimoment
to netch snowshoes, to build snowshoes, and linguists can't prove it,
although that's kind of what they think. But in the
(05:50):
glory that is language, things can go from their original
meaning to a popular meaning, and it's old meaning is meaningless. Yeah,
it's only what people think or use, right, right, which
is how l o l is a word, that's right.
So we're going to refer to them, refer to them
as Inuit, because that's the that's the way to do it.
(06:12):
We don't want to alienate anybody, no, especially the Inuit,
because they are tough people and they have survived for many, many,
many years in conditions that don't seem to be survivable,
especially way back in the day. But they made it through, right,
and they're thriving actually too. We'll get to that in
a second. Yeah, I was surprised to see that. But
(06:32):
um chuck. A couple of other facts about these, uh,
the Inuit, which means the people, right, So they call
their snowhouses, they glues, they call themselves the people. It's
just it's very spare. I could have been a good Innuit,
I think. I think so too. Keep things simple, fall down, goat, Yeah,
so they don't. They they have never really established a
(06:56):
formal system of government. It's the family is generally the
the center of the community. Yeah. Um, the class system.
Males are the figure heads. Yeah. No, class system is
pretty cool. Um. And basically, if you're a boy, you're
a hunter. If you're a girl, you marry a hunter
and hopefully produce more boy hunters because the everyone's equally
(07:18):
responsible for coming up with food and I imagine every family,
um is that's what that means. Every family is equally
responsible for contributing to the food in the community. Yeah. Yeah,
So the more boy hunters, the better. So um, fascinating group.
And they have never lived in it loses permanent shelters, huh. Well. Yeah,
And it's important that you mentioned hunting because clearly, if
(07:41):
you are living on the Arctic tundra, there's one thing
that you're probably not going to have, and that is
a vegetable garden. So they are very carnivorous as a
as a people. They do a lot of hunting. They
did a lot of hunting of seals, which is probably
they were called blubberry marketing blood reads and we're there
are seals, is gonna be a lot of ice sea ice? Yeah,
(08:04):
which leads to another peculiar trait of the Inuit. Peculiar
meaning unique specific um kayak angst. Remember we talked about
that on the webcast like a long time ago, remember that,
and everything was cut off in the middle of it,
and like it was Guy Kawasaki day. And I wrote
a blog post on it saying like as I was
(08:25):
saying before I was cut off, and kayak angst is this, um,
it's a it's a condition specific only to the Inuit,
where an Inuit males too, where you become afraid of
going out to hunt seals in a kayak, usually following
an episode where you've been up for several days. The
(08:46):
sun very rarely sets because at summertime, which is the
only time you're when when you can hunt seal really um,
So you have a loss of sense of time. You're
completely without any lamb mark, a reference point. It's all
just horizon and sea ice. So you're without no bearings,
no sense of time, and you doze off and wake up,
(09:08):
and you have no idea how long you've been asleep,
how far you've drifted, and you may be out there
drifting for the rest of your life. And you finally
do find land again, you make your way back to
your community and you become terrified at the thought of
getting back in a kayak again. Kayak angst Yeah, specific
only to the Innuit. I don't remember that at all.
That's so weird. Well you should read my blog posts.
(09:31):
I usually have an inkling, but that that one doesn't
ring true for me. So the Inuit did not live
in iglas, Josh as you said, that is not true.
People might think that um Inuit tribes just had igloos
all over the place and that was their house. They
were really hunting shelters. Yeah, it's like a hunting camp
like um Robin Williams uh, fishing camping, insomnia, Yeah, except
(09:55):
nutty because of no sleep and too much sun. Yeah.
Well al Pacino was yeah right, that was Christopher Nolan,
you know. Yeah, he's just amazing. Although you had inception problems, right,
it was really just Ellen Page. Get her out of
the movie. You're okay. It wasn't even her necessarily, although
I'm not a big fan of hers. Um. I think
(10:15):
she's a she's a good actress and everything, but you know,
I'll never forgere it for Juno. But um, it was
more her character, Like clearly her character was put in
afterward because the producers were like, or the studio execs
were like, wait, what is going on? So they wrote
in Ellen Page's character to explain everything to everybody at
(10:36):
each step so that you can keep up with this
really dense movie. You love getting me wound up about
that inception around John All right, where were we the Innuits?
(11:11):
They were hunting camps, like we said, and uh, they're
still around today and they're booming. Um not igloos. Actually
they're they're not quite as common, but they did a
study who is just the human rights program in Canada
in Canada Department of Canadian Heritage said that there could
be as many as sixty eight thousand, four hundred Inuit
(11:32):
in Canada only in Change. So um, yeah, they're they're
booming as a people. Pretty cool. So they're thriving. Igloos
are were never um, permanent shelters or structures for them,
And um they had kayak angst One other thing too,
eskimo kisses. Yeah, what's the deal there? So you know
(11:54):
it's like rubbing the tip of your nose. Yeah, it's cute,
it is. It's not entirely accurate though, I'm sure, but
they did kiss with their noses. Yeah, but it was um,
you would put your no, your nostrils to the face,
usually around like the cheeks, right below the eyes. Um.
The you would put your nose to a loved one's
face like that and inhale deeply, and that was that's
(12:17):
the real Escobote kiss. Who are Inuit kiss? Interesting, isn't it? Yeah?
They had it wrong, though, you know how it right?
The French. Yeah, they figured it out and everyone was like, oh, yeah,
this is the way to kiss. Forget that no stuff,
all right, So let's talk about igloos for a second.
They were built out of blocks of ice. They are
(12:37):
not built out of the kind of snow that you
probably have in your front yard in Ohio in the wintertime.
It depends on how what it was. Although my cousin
in law, Alex Schreiber, Ohio State University student, built an
igloo last winter. He and his buddies. Check this thing out, dude, nice, wow,
(13:04):
I should post this. I'm gonna get to post this.
But it's like seven ft tall at least. It's huge,
and it's it's like really well constructed. He's sitting on
top of it and it's not caving in. If I
built an igloo that you know, it wouldn't last very long.
Pretty cool though. That is a backyard in Ohio too.
Yeah it's gray day, leafless trees everywhere. Yeah. Yeah, he
(13:24):
and his buddies you know, clearly had enough boredhom in
time to build this cool. So Alex Driver huh yeah, awesome.
Is he listening right now? I hope? So yeah he listens,
And I told I get my heads up. Yeah, well
you have to post that he's gonna right back and say,
don't mention the iglu don't they always huh yeah, so chuck.
Even though like, um say, a hunting expedition went out
(13:47):
or even a single hunter went out and built an iglu,
um that that it wasn't just the single igloo every
single time. Sometimes they lived in him for longer periods.
Sometimes more people lived in a group, and they would
actually um create compounds out of igloos by you know,
melding them together, creating walkways, breeze waste. Pretty cool. And
(14:08):
there were some that um basically igloo cities that came
about where you I think they would have like halls
for banquets and beasts and like balls and stuff like
like Inuit balls held in. Um. Uh, well, an igloo,
a big, large igloo. Pretty cool. Though I didn't know this.
I had no idea. I always pictured just the single
(14:30):
and I also thought they lived in them. So this
was this one. I was because we're like the totem poles,
we should probably also while we're just like busting things
left and right. Um Chili Willie, helpful little penguin from
the He was so cute. I went and watched when
to refresh my memory. He was very cute. He wasn't
I I thought he would be mischievous or I remembered
(14:52):
him being mischievous like Woody Woodpecker, who was a jerk. Um. No,
Chili Willie was a very helpful, cute, sweet little baby penguin.
Um and his little igloo, the typical igloo that you
think of a dome with like a rounded entryway, pretty
much dead on. Yeah, but it looks like your your cousin,
They don't, uh cousin, cousin in law. It looks like
(15:13):
he he knows, he knows what he's doing. Alex, not Matthew, No,
I said, nephew, Oh sorry, Uh yeah, there's no penguins
in Alaska either, So that's the other problem as well.
Chili will he was not accurate but cute. Nonetheless, No,
but the igloo he built was accurate. That's right. And Josh,
since we're talking igloes. Um, here's here's what a a
(15:34):
naive person might say. Why in the world, if you're
freezing cold out in Alaska, would you build a room
out of ice and snow to sit in? How warm
could that be? It would take somebody pretty naive to
say something like that, though, you know how warm it
could be up to forty degrees warmer than it is
outside of the iglue buddy, Yes, And why chuck, where
(15:54):
these furnaces coming from? Well, your body, for one human body,
is a pretty good furnace, yep. And um, when you
cut down the wind chill, you're gonna take a big
bite out of the cold. And you put a couple
of warm Inuit bodies in there, and imagine these are
big tough dudes. Anyway, they're probably just like exuding warmth
that'll it'll you know, radiate out and insulate. The igloo
(16:16):
will insulate that heat in it trips the heat. Yeah.
So I mean, if you're talking negative forty degrees, that's
really cold. But if you could bring that up to zero.
That's still cold, but it ain't like negative forty, which
is the same in Celsius san fahrenheigh. Oh yeah, yeah,
good point. So, Uh, the snow is an insulator, right, Yeah,
(16:40):
it cuts down on the on the wind um of
the melting. That's the other thing too. Yeah. When when
you build an igloo, and don't worry, we're about to
give you step by step instructions on how to build
an igloo, we should get alex on the orange. Um.
At the very least you can verify it, right, that's right. Um,
when you build an igloo, you uh, the sun when
(17:02):
it does come out or if it's out the whole time,
especially during the day. Uh, it'll heat up enough possibly
to melt some refreeze at night, which is what you want,
melt refreeze and um you you your body heat also
may melt it from the inside out something. And then
when you go out to hunt, it'll refreeze every time
more likely, it's probably the more likely scenario. So this
(17:24):
um thawing and freezing and thawing and freezing basically turns
the igloo into this really um strong and insulated structure
and about a boom, bought a being. You got yourself
an insulated place to fish, or at least to bunk
down while you're fishing. Yeah, so, Josh, are we at
(18:02):
the point where we tell people how to build eglue?
I don't think we can delay it any longer. Oh
we can. Okay. You mentioned that igloo igloos are kind
of out of fashion with the Inuit these days. Yeah,
not as common, but they are becoming increasingly common at
a ski resorts apparently. Yeah, if you're such a ski
(18:22):
junkie and that you want to just basically wake up,
roll out of bed, put on your skis and start
skiing immediately, they have igloos, usually on the slopes. Um
that you can rent igloo villages, that you can run
an igloo overnight or for as long as you stay there.
Pretty sweet, huh. Or if you're, you know, feeling squirrely,
(18:42):
you can build one yourself. True down, is that a segue?
It is if you're if you've done it before, like
your cousin in law, it could take as little as
an hour. If you don't know what you're doing, it
could take six or more. Yeah, I want to ask Alex, actually,
how long it took because the first pick yours are
or at night, so it clearly took them longer than
(19:04):
a few hours. Like when I saw that someone could
build one an hour, I don't know about that. I
don't believe that. Well, I'm pretty sure if you were
raised as an intuit, and you were I don't know,
in your twenties, I'll bet you could build an iglue
in an hour. Yea. Yeah, And it looks like Alex
and his buddies used a tub, like a shallow plastic
tub to pack the snow down, and that's smart inform
(19:25):
the blocks. Yeah, so the way we're going to teach
you how to do it requires a snow shovel, which
looks an awful lot like a dry wall or not
a snow shovel. It does require a snow shovel, but
a snow saw, which looks an awful lot like a
dry wall saw. Indeed. Um, and basically you want to
go find some ice like you were saying you normally
wouldn't find ice or snow. Um that's just fallen. It's
(19:49):
gonna work for an iglu. Yeah, you want to find
um wettish, hard packed like that's more solid. The better, snow, Right,
And what do you want to do with it, snow Chuck, Well,
you want to use your little saw. You want to
cut large blocks. Um, I guess you can vary the size,
but they recommend in the Complete Wilderness Training guy, they
recommend three ft long, fifteen inches high, eight inches deep.
(20:13):
So once you get your blocks, you want to start building.
Uh you know, put your foundation in a circle and
start building up that foundation, working your way up as
you go, decreasing in size as you go. And you
also have to shape it at a at a slant obviously,
or you're just gonna have a ice block tower and
(20:34):
not a domed roof. Correct. Yeah, yeah you um, you
want to shape it at a slant, like you said,
but you also want to make the blocks decrease in
sizes you get bigger decrease and and overlap. See you
you did some some brickwork, and that's sort of the
same principle there. I never built anything that was tall
enough that I had to really build it back to
(20:54):
stagger it. And when I did, it was like the
pre made castle rock wall that's designed to set back right,
so it didn't require any thought. But yes, if you
if you kind of have something that's technically at a
slight incline. It will provide structure if you can get
it to connect as a dome like Buckminster Fuller's geodesic
(21:17):
dome exactly, very super strong structure. So as you're building
this and then you start to make the dome part,
it should support itself if you've done it right, but
you can always use sticks on the inside to support
it temporarily until you get the dome complete and then
it's all pressing against each other. Uh. And then how
do you finish it off with with the top? Well,
you want to take a chunk of ice. You're what
(21:39):
you're gonna have is this perfect dome, some variation of
a perfect dome. Um. And there's gonna be a central
hole in the top, right, Yeah, like a little chimney, yes, um,
but you actually want to plug this one. That's right.
This is one chimney you want to plug. And you
take you cut another block that's going to be bigger
than the hole, and you want to shape it so
(22:00):
that it basically fits this this hole that's left over, UM,
which should be something like an octagon maybe roughly L shape. UM,
And you want to fit it in there perfectly. You
want to cut it, shape it, put it in there
so it's in there perfectly, packed in there. Because this
is your load bearing keystone. Basically, as long as that
(22:23):
thing's intact, everything else should be fine. You'll lose that,
you're in a lot of trouble. Um. And then after
that you're ready to start insulating it, filling in the cracks.
You want to shovel snow on top of everything, and
the loose snow that is what you want. Now you
want to work with it, and you're going to use
some insulated gloves on your hands or else you're going
(22:45):
to lose your hands to gangreen in a few days. Um.
And you fill in the cracks with the snow, you
just kind of smooth it over with your hands so
that the snow packs into the cracks, and all of
a sudden, this um separate block pattern is lost and
you have a basically a smooth dome. Yes, is what
you're going for, right. Yeah, And at the end, it's
(23:06):
it's a lot harder to try and build a door
into your thing. It's easier just to build a dome
and then cut your door out after it's finished. There's
a good point and um, a lot of people, Um,
a true aficionado of the igloo would build a little
L shaped entryway tunnel because that'll cut down on the
wind coming in even more. Yeah, because the wind has
to turn a corner, that's right. Um. So you cut
(23:28):
that hole in whatever shape you want, whether a key
shape um or a lot of people use like a
tent shape and a frame. Yeah. Yeah. And you then
you cover it with blocks you make like an entry
way shelter basically, and then like you said, you you
might want to put it as an L and then
you dig a hole into the snow so that you
(23:48):
can get into it. But basically you're kind of crawling
into the entryway. It looked like yeah, right, um. And
then after that you get inside. And there's a very
vital step that you might not think of, and that
is drilling air holes. Yes, because once you've packed it
full of loose snow and it's um, it's basically mortared
(24:09):
um and you uh, the thing melts and thaws and
freezes and thaws and freezes and becomes even more of
a solid structure. If you don't have air holes, you'll
suffocate and die. Yes, especially if you do something like
bring a camp stove or a Colman lantern or that
kind of thing in there. Uh, we don't want to
(24:30):
see that happen. No, And I don't even know that
we should recommend bringing a stove at all. Yeah, which
this article says you can, as long as you have
enough air holes for ventilation. I just say, build it
for fun and just keep the noxious fumes out of it.
Yeah all together. Yeah, I I should say that this
article also specifically says that it is in no way,
shape or form a meant to be a comprehensive guide
(24:52):
to building an iglue. It's just the basic. Yeah, there
are some good how to photos, so if you want
to check it out for some really good illustration, right huh,
as how stuff works is lousy with That's right. So
I guess that's it for igloos. They are everything we
thought they were and more. Yeah. You know a lot
of times you think, oh, I bet you, it's just
(25:13):
our interpretation that you see in the movies all these things.
But they really do look just like that, and they're
built just like that, and not a lot of surprises here,
which is kind of reassuring. In a lot of words.
It makes me feel good. Yeah, so I guess if
you want to catch up on your Chili Willy, we
won't blame you. I found plenty on YouTube. He's adorable,
more better, more better, more syrup, more syrup. I don't
(25:35):
remember that one. That's a good one. Um. No, that's
a parque commercial. Now are you sure? Okay? Well, um,
check out Chili Willy and be sure to um go
onto how stuff works dot com and type in igloo
I g l o O and is going to bring
up a pretty cool um step by step illustrated guide
(25:55):
to building your own igloo sans camp stove with holes.
That's right? Um, I think did I say handy search bar?
You just did? Okay, Well, then it's time for a
listener mail. Yeah, this isn't so much a mail. This
is something I want to mention a long time ago
and kind of forgot. Remember the life straw podcast? Yes,
(26:15):
you don't do a quick recap of what a LifeStraw is. Yeah,
A life straw is a portable device for purifying water. Um,
and it's cheap, it's easy to hang onto, it lasts
for up to a year, and if you were in
a place that's invested with guinea worm. You still need
to drink water, but you don't want guiney worm. LifeStraw helps,
and I think the rotarians are big into getting them
(26:38):
all over the world. They are, and so is Steven Neeman.
And Steven wrote on our Facebook while after the LifeStraw
podcast that he was pretty blown away by this thing
and he thoughts pretty cool inventioned and that he and
his company the result of this podcast, their company is
going to donate a minimum of six thousand lifestraws this
(26:59):
year and nice six thousand not bad, huh. And I
asked him if he minded us mentioning this. He said
not at all. His company is Eleventh Hour Search in Alexandria, Virginia.
It's a very small staffing firm, so it's not like
even some huge company that's doing this. And he said
his wife works in Haiti for the US, and that's
(27:20):
where he is right now. I don't know if he
still is. Is a little while ago, and they like
the podcast on Haitian voodoo and so good an you
brother donating six thousand lifestraws. That is awesome, So we
just want to reckon more than awesome. I mean, that's
very cool. That's gotta be worth a T shirt. I
would say so Stephen shirt. I don't have his email,
but if feels right in, yeah, right in. Send us
(27:41):
your email, Stephen in your T shirt size. Sorry it
took so long to mention this, it got lost in
the shuffle. Well, good going, chuck Um. If you are
saving the world, we want to know how, because we
want to send you a T shirt. If you're saving
the world in a verifiable and inspirational manner in a
dramatic fashion. Yeah, you can go onto our Facebook page,
(28:01):
Facebook dot com, slash stuff you should know, You can
tweek to us s y s K podcast, and you
can send us an email. Stuff podcast at how stuff
works dot com. For more on this and thousands of
other topics, is it how stuff works dot com. Want
more how stuff works, check out our blogs on the
(28:24):
how stuff works dot com home page.
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If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
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Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!