SPEAKER_10: New, immune-supporting Emergen-C crystals brings you the goodness of Emergen-C and a fun new popping experience. There is no water needed so it's super convenient, just throw it back in your mouth. Feel the pop, hear the fizz, and taste the delicious natural fruit flavors. Emergen-C crystals orange vitality and strawberry burst flavors for ages 9 and up have 500 mg of vitamin C per stick pack. Look for Emergen-C crystals wherever you shop. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Every kid learns differently, so it's really important that your children have the educational support that they need to help them keep up and excel. If your child needs homework help, check out iXcel, the online learning platform for kids. iXcel covers math, language arts, science, and social studies through interactive practice problems from pre-K to 12th grade. As kids practice, they get positive feedback and even awards. With the school year ramping up, now is the best time to get iXcel. Our listeners can get an exclusive 20% off iXcel membership when they sign up today at ixcel.com slash invisible. That's the letters ixcel.com slash invisible. Squarespace is the all-in-one platform for building your brand and growing your business online. Stand out with a beautiful website, engage with your audience, and sell anything. Your products, content you create, and even your time. You can easily display posts from your social profiles on your website or share new blogs or videos to social media. Automatically push website content to your favorite channels so your followers can share it too. Go to squarespace.com slash invisible for a free trial and when you're ready to launch, use the offer code invisible to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. This is 99% invisible. I'm Roman Mars. If you've tried to buy toilet paper in the last few weeks, I suspect you might have found yourself staring at an empty aisle in the grocery store wondering where all the toilet paper has gone. The first thought that came to my mind was that miserable hoarders took it all. And then I started contemplating the volume of a package of toilet paper, especially those massive you know like the equivalent of 96 rolls packs that you see at Target. And I thought if just a couple dozen people bought one extra package that would clean out an entire shelf and buying one extra package is not that unreasonable if your whole family is trapped in the house and not using the toilet at work or at school or out in the world. And this run of toilet paper is not limited to the United States. An Australian man wrote this ballad about the toilet paper shortage. Now we've faced wars and cyclones.
SPEAKER_05: We've survived them all as one. But a toilet paper shortage? Well, it made us come undone. For the people started hoarding all the last remaining sheets. There were punch-ons in the aisles. There was panic in the streets. Me cracks in need of wiping, someone cried in desperation. What else can I bloody use to solve this situation?
SPEAKER_10: And in the Netherlands, a Dutch worker went viral after he filmed a video of himself zooming around a warehouse stacked to the rafters with toilet paper laughing maniacally.
SPEAKER_08: Clearly, the world has lost its mind over toilet paper.
SPEAKER_04: I can confirm that firsthand. This is 99PI contributor Stephanie Joyce.
SPEAKER_10: So Stephanie, what have you seen firsthand?
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so a month ago when people really started going crazy over toilet paper, I actually heard about a company here in New Mexico where I live that makes toilet paper. It's called Roses Southwest. Now, you know, for obvious reasons, this is not a company that I had heard of before the coronavirus. But when stories started, you know, coming out about people running out of toilet paper, Roses announced that it was going to start doing public sales of toilet paper from its warehouse in Albuquerque.
SPEAKER_07: For those of you struggling to find toilet paper, we found a place here in Albuquerque with lots of it. It's cash only, 35 bucks for 96 rolls.
SPEAKER_10: So they were just starting it. So what do they normally do?
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so Roses doesn't usually sell directly to the public. There's this funny division in the toilet paper world between the at home and the away from home markets. And Roses is an away from home wholesaler. So when you're out in the world at a restaurant or at a sports stadium or a convenience store, they sell toilet paper to those businesses. But as you said, of course, now fewer people are out in the world using those businesses. Instead, everyone is trying to stock up their paper at home where they're spending all of their time. And that's part of the reason why it's flying off the shelves. And so in an attempt to help people who are trying to get toilet paper, Roses has decided to sell directly to the public at a kiosk right outside their factory. And I was curious who's going to show up to these sales. So I decided to go down to their next public sale. It was on a Friday morning a few weeks back, I should say, before New Mexico asked people to stay at home. I woke up super, super early and I headed down to Albuquerque to check it out. And let me tell you, I was not prepared for this scene. This is tape of me when I arrived. It is insane. There are cars literally as far as I can see in any direction waiting in line to purchase toilet paper. Wait, so there are like multiple lines of cars filled with people all waiting to buy
SPEAKER_10: toilet paper from this one kiosk.
SPEAKER_04: Yes, coming from literally every direction. I found out later that the longest line was almost three miles long. Three miles. Yes, which is crazy. So of course, I started to interview people who were waiting in their cars in line. And just a warning, the audio quality isn't super great. I was using this really long pole to hold the microphone so I could stay at least six feet away from people. And I was also talking to people through their rolled down passenger side windows for the most part. So it's not the best audio quality. But one of the first people I talked to was this woman named Brittany Perea. She was there with her three year old daughter Azucena. How long have you been in line today?
SPEAKER_12: Since seven. Wow. Yeah. Since seven. Yeah, well, she needed the bathroom so I had to go take her to the bathroom and I lost my place in line and had to start again. Oh my gosh. What's your plan if she has to go to the bathroom again? We did. We had to. I just opened the door and she used it on the side.
SPEAKER_11: I told her I'll hold you like you're sitting and just pee. I told her. Really? Yeah.
SPEAKER_10: And when we did it on the side right here. Oh my lord. She had her daughter pee out the door of the car while waiting for toilet paper. There's so many levels of irony to that. I know. And just horror. Yeah. Oh my god.
SPEAKER_04: Yeah. Yeah. And Brittany realized how insane all of this was. She told me that when she had seen the line earlier in the week when she was running errands, she had laughed at the people who were lined up. She thought they were totally ridiculous. But then she actually started running low on toilet paper and she went to half a dozen grocery stores and they were all completely out.
SPEAKER_12: I saw this line last week on Friday and I was like, these people are ridiculous. But I'm down to like two rows. Yeah. So I need to have it. If I had like five or six, I wouldn't bother. But yeah, I'm on my last two rows. So yeah. But it doesn't make no sense to me.
SPEAKER_10: So she's not like a hoarder or anything trying to get a year's supply of toilet paper. So she's fine. Or even to sell toilet paper or anything like that. She's legitimately out. And she was one of those people, actually like me, who was like, this is a non-perishable supply. This is a non-perishable product. Why is anyone having to stock up on it? But then she's just caught and find that she just doesn't have any.
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, exactly. And, you know, that's what I heard from people over and over again as I walked down the line. Never in a lifetime would I thought I'd be waiting in line for toilet paper.
SPEAKER_12: I could see waiting for food, a box of food, but...
SPEAKER_04: OK, Roman, one last person for you. This is a woman named Mary Salas-Sedillo. And she was there with her granddaughters, Felia and Amor. She told me that they woke up at 4 a.m. to get in line, which meant that by the time I talked to them, they'd already been in line for almost five hours. And it's not like they just woke up and got in line. No, they strategized. They didn't have anything to eat or drink all morning so they wouldn't have to go to the bathroom.
SPEAKER_12: Yeah, I told the girls I'll buy you something to eat after we're done.
SPEAKER_11: Are you hungry? Not really.
SPEAKER_12: Not really? I am. She is. When I was a kid, I used to beg my mom to take me with her on errands, but that's got
SPEAKER_10: to be the worst errand of all time. What's clear is that people are willing to go to extreme lengths to avoid running out of toilet paper.
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I mean, obviously you get the point. But I find this super fascinating. I mean, toilet paper, it's like, I guess important, but it's also not perishable. It's not food or water. So like, why were these people desperate for toilet paper?
SPEAKER_10: So this is a good question and one of the reasons why we wanted to talk to you because I want to know actually how we became so reliant on this one product.
SPEAKER_04: Right. And so I decided to actually look into the history a little bit. And fundamentally, I think this is a story about the genius of marketing. Because obviously, for most of history, people would have thought it was insane to manufacture something specifically for the purpose of cleaning yourself.
SPEAKER_08: Basically people would use whatever, no pun intended, at hand, including their own hands.
SPEAKER_04: So this is Ron Bloomer. And Bloomer wrote a book called Wiped. It's a history of rear end hygiene. And he says that for most of human existence, you know, people didn't have anything like paper. They used rocks, they used shells, they used moss. Or you know, they used the original cleaner, water.
SPEAKER_08: The idea is you wet your hand with water and you use your left hand to clean your rear end and then you wash your hand and then you rinse and repeat, as they say.
SPEAKER_10: I mean this makes sense. There are some cultures, you know, like where your left hand is used for ablutions, for cleaning, and that's just part of the ritual. And then your right hand is for eating and greeting people. So water makes a ton of sense to me. Shbles on the other hand do not make that much sense.
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I didn't get into too much detail with Ron about how exactly that would work. The historical method that I personally found myself questioning that he described was the Romans.
SPEAKER_08: They had a sponge on a stick, which was sitting in a pail of water in these communal bathrooms. And they would use it to clean their rear ends and then they'd put it back in the bucket. And then the next person would swish it around, hopefully, pick it up and clean their rear end. Oh my God, that's horrifying.
SPEAKER_04: I actually can't think about it for too long. It's just like, I'm telling myself they didn't know what we know about germs. They didn't know. Yeah, totally. Yeah. So like there's all these methods that I think sound a little wild to us today, but there actually is one part of the world where disposable toilet paper has been used for a really long time. And that's China. China is, of course, where paper was invented. And starting in 500 or so, there are records of paper being used for wiping. And then starting in the 1300s, there are actually records of paper being made specifically for use in the toilet.
SPEAKER_10: So when does the idea of using paper catch on in the rest of the world in the West?
SPEAKER_04: So in the 1600s and 1700s, paper is starting to become pretty widespread. The first newspapers get printed, you know, paper that's explicitly meant to be thrown out. And then in the late 1700s, we actually figure out how to make paper out of wood. It was made out of rags before. And suddenly paper gets a whole lot cheaper. And most people are still using, you know, whatever is on hand. But it also does become common for people to start using paper. Now this isn't paper that's specifically made for bum wiping. It takes a few more decades before anyone was actually making paper that was intended for that particular purpose. That was in the 1850s. And Bloomer credits a guy named Joseph Gaiety with selling the first actual toilet paper in the Western world. And Gaiety's sales pitch was basically that using newspaper was bad for you.
SPEAKER_08: And so he decided to make this form of paper which was thin and as he sold it more gentle on your delicate membranes and helping if you had hemorrhoids.
SPEAKER_10: So this toilet paper, would we recognize it as the toilet paper we have today?
SPEAKER_04: I don't think so. No. It came in a box like tissues and it was made of hemp. And Bloomer actually told me he got his hands on an original box of it.
SPEAKER_08: And it feels a bit like what we would call tissue paper. I don't think we would be very happy using it. But it was thin and I guess it would sort of do the job.
SPEAKER_04: So this was not a hugely popular product. It cost a lot of money. So only rich people could afford it. And most people really just didn't see the need when there was so much free paper out there. You know, the Sears and Roebuck catalog cost absolutely nothing. It came in the mail. The whole toilet paper thing just didn't seem necessary to most people. And it might not have taken off if not for the fact that around the same time there's another big change that happens in the human waste disposal world. And that changes indoor plumbing.
SPEAKER_10: So now people not only have toilets inside their houses but those toilets are connected to pipes and sewer systems as a way of disposing of the waste.
SPEAKER_04: Exactly. Yeah. And I think anyone who has spent time plunging a toilet before can tell you you can't just be flushing newspaper down a toilet. You need something that's more delicate than that.
SPEAKER_10: Oh, like Gaiety's paper. That's so fortuitous. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04: Exactly. So Gaiety actually pivots and he starts marketing his paper differently as good for use with indoor toilets. And other people start to get in on the business. And among the early adopters is this guy from Albany, New York named Seth Wheeler. And Wheeler is really the guy who creates toilet paper as you and I know it.
SPEAKER_08: Wheeler came up with the idea and patented the idea of having a roll that was perforated so that you could rip off a sheet at a time. And also he had to invent all the mechanisms, the roller, to hold it because people wouldn't have it. So he would sell the unit as a whole.
SPEAKER_10: So this guy is responsible for not only putting toilet paper on a roll but actually dividing it into sheets. It really is the toilet paper as we know it.
SPEAKER_04: Yeah. And he's a toilet paper inventor. In years after he patents all these other ideas related to toilet paper. Some of them I would say more practical than others. He has the patent on hexagonal toilet paper which he thought would be easier to tear from the roll. He has a patent on half a dozen different kinds of paper holder designs. Basically he spent the rest of his life thinking about how to improve toilet paper.
SPEAKER_10: I love people like that. I love people who are obsessed with these things. I mean I don't know if he's a pleasure to be around as a person but I'm glad those people exist in the world.
SPEAKER_04: Yeah I can't imagine what his dinner conversation would have been like but he was definitely a super successful inventor. And he was a fine businessman. His company sold a lot of toilet paper. But he is not the person who actually makes toilet paper really an American essential. That is one of his competitors at the time, the Scott Paper Company.
SPEAKER_10: And this is the same Scott Paper Company that sells toilet paper today that you see in like you used to see in the toilet paper aisle.
SPEAKER_04: Like you used to see in the toilet paper aisle. Very same. Yes. And the Scott Company starts making toilet paper right around the same time as Wheeler. But they are much better at marketing. They take that original idea that toilet paper is a solution to hemorrhoids and they really run with that.
SPEAKER_08: And you'd see these horrifying ads in newspapers and magazines of doctors with scary looking surgical instruments. And the doctor was saying to the other doctor, well we wouldn't have to operate on this man if his wife had bought Scott toilet paper. And they would also attack their rivals by saying, well so and so has wood chips or splinters in their toilet paper. You wouldn't want to use that would you? Yeah it was nothing like fear to sell your product.
SPEAKER_04: Totally. Yeah. But they also sold it as this sophisticated luxury item. That was their two pronged approach. So there's this one ad that's in Bloomer's book that describes women of intuitive daintiness buying Scott tissue.
SPEAKER_10: Intuitive daintiness. Oh I love it. It's so terrible. It's so terrible.
SPEAKER_04: Yeah. And it worked. They basically end up owning the market through the 1950s and they make toilet paper this essential household product for most Americans.
SPEAKER_10: So for like less than 50 years toilet paper goes from nonexistent in the Western world to totally indispensable because of the Scott Paper Company.
SPEAKER_04: Yes. So indispensable that people are willing to wait five hours in line for it. I mean toilet paper now is a 30 billion dollar industry. We use as Americans I look this up we use 28 pounds of toilet paper a year per person which is 141 rolls. So many trees.
SPEAKER_10: So how are toilet paper manufacturers keeping up during this time of increased demand?
SPEAKER_04: I mean I wanted to know that too. So when I was down in Albuquerque I actually set up a meeting with the sales and marketing manager for Rose's Southwest. A guy named Gibson Archer.
SPEAKER_09: Good time to be in the bath tissue business for sure.
SPEAKER_04: That's right.
SPEAKER_09: That's the sexy term for it right? Bath tissue. That's so much better than toilet paper. Okay maybe not. But yeah we do refer to it in the industry as bath tissue.
SPEAKER_10: So is there actually a short supply of bath tissue then?
SPEAKER_04: I mean yes and no right? Yes there is a shortage if you're trying to buy it at the grocery store. But if you take a step back and look at the entire toilet paper supply chain the answer is no. Unlike a lot of other things that are kind of hard to find at the moment the toilet paper supply chain is actually almost entirely here in the U.S. or at least here in North America. And so even though the coronavirus has disrupted a lot of things it actually hasn't disrupted the toilet paper supply chain. You know the trees are still getting cut down. Paper mills are still running. You know Rose's has actually added an extra shift to increase production and try and keep up with the demand. But keep in mind Roman it's not like people are actually consuming toilet paper any faster than usual. They are consuming it differently. So people are using more toilet paper at home as opposed to at work or at restaurants. But that's not more toilet paper overall. That's just a breakdown in where the toilet paper is going. And that's the change that suppliers like Rose's are currently adjusting to. So eventually the supply should catch up to the demand. And in the meantime you know hopefully you have enough roles to get you through.
SPEAKER_04: Hopefully yep or you have to get creative. You know even Gibson who is I will remind you an actual toilet paper salesman was willing to admit that like you know when it comes down to it toilet paper is not that essential.
SPEAKER_09: If you had to take society down to like its survival level we can live without it but we don't want to live without it. And so we're seeing the stockpiling so that they can sort of check that off of their mental list of concerns and move on to the next one if it's something they can go out and buy.
SPEAKER_04: So when I was outside the factory interviewing people I actually did ask everyone that I talked to in line what their backup plan was in case they ran out of toilet paper. And honestly a lot of people were just like nope not going there. That's not possible. I will not run out of toilet paper. But a few people had actually thought about it and had some interesting answers including Brittany Perea the woman who I told you about who had her daughter pee out of the door of a car. She told me that as a kid she her family actually used newspaper. You know we grew up a little poor with my great grandma and we'd soften up the newspapers
SPEAKER_12: and. Oh wait tell me more about that. How does that work? Just get the newspaper and you know ruffle it up a little bit to make it soft. Oh yeah yeah yeah. And then that's how we used to back when I was little.
SPEAKER_10: That is a good tip. Although I should stress here that you should not flush newspapers down the toilet. But if you want to support local journalism and have a backup cleaning system all at the same time you know subscribe to the paper.
SPEAKER_04: Yes all for supporting your local newspaper. The other thing a lot of people said is that they just use water if they ran out of toilet paper which surprise is actually how most of the world cleans themselves after going to the bathroom. 70 percent of the world doesn't use toilet paper and most of those people just use water. In some places they use bidets in most of the Muslim world people clean themselves with water in their left hand. And like I think that sounds maybe to some people like it's unsanitary. But let me remind you that toilet paper sounds really gross to a lot of the rest of the world. Like you're just kind of smushing things around down there not actually getting clean. And you know a few studies have actually shown that toilet paper does very little to stop germs from getting onto your skin. So like not actually more sanitary. Not to mention that I'm sure you remember the original claim that made toilet paper so popular that it prevents damage to your delicate regions. That is just not true. Toilet paper actually can make hemorrhoids worse. Doctors are not fans. Yeah I had a friend who had some surgery down in those areas and he always washed himself
SPEAKER_10: thoroughly with soap and water rather than using paper because it was so sensitive. And he needed to get it more clean. And he said this thing and it always stuck with me is that if you got feces on your hand you wouldn't use a piece of paper to clean it off. You would clean it off with soap and water.
SPEAKER_04: I mean that's what I'm saying. It's not good in design. It's just good marketing.
SPEAKER_10: It's just good marketing. That's exactly right.
SPEAKER_04: Yeah. Of course you know bad design can be comforting. And especially in these times if it makes you feel better go out and buy your toilet paper. But if you can't find any then you know maybe consider joining your friend and the rest of the world in using water and then you can wash your hands.
SPEAKER_10: Which is another thing we should all be doing a lot more of. Everyone keep washing your hands. Well thank you so much Stephanie. This was really this is really great. I learned a lot.
SPEAKER_04: You're welcome.
SPEAKER_06: Good morning. Yes sir that is $35. Okay. Alright one second. Alright so out of $45 change here is your receipt. Go ahead and drive up this way. Give it to those fine gentlemen over there who will get you loaded. Make sure to stay in your vehicle for me sir.
SPEAKER_10: When we come back Avery Truffleman has a very important message from the East Bay Municipal Utility District and I'm guessing all other wastewater public utilities around the world as well about what you should not flush. If you need to design visuals for your brand you know how important it is to stay on brand. Brands need to use their logos colors and fonts in order to stay consistent. It's what makes them stand out. The online design platform Canva makes it easy for everyone to stay on brand. With Canva you can keep your brand's fonts, logos, colors and graphics right where you design presentations, websites, videos and more. Drag and drop your logo into a website design or click to get your social post colors on brand. Create brand templates to give anyone on your team a design head start. You can save time resizing social posts with Canva Magic Resize. If your company decides to rebrand replace your logo and other brand imagery across all your designs in just a few clicks. If you're a designer Canva will save you time on the repetitive tasks and if you don't have a design resource at your fingertips just design it yourself. With Canva you don't need to be a designer to design visuals that stand out and stay on brand. Start designing today at Canva.com, the home for every brand. What's more important, making sure you're set for today or planning for tomorrow? You can actually do both at the same time. With annuity and life insurance solutions from Lincoln Financial you're not just taking care of you and your family's future, you're also helping yourself out today. Lincoln's annuities offer options to not only provide you with your guaranteed retirement income for life but to help protect you from everyday market volatility. And their life insurance policies not only provide your family with a death benefit but some can even give you immediate access to funds in case of an emergency. Go to LincolnFinancial.com slash get started now to learn how to plan, protect and retire. Lincoln annuities and life insurance are issued by the Lincoln National Life Insurance Company, Fort Wayne, Indiana. Products sold in New York are issued by Lincoln Life and Annuity Company of New York, Syracuse, New York distributed by Lincoln Financial Distributors Inc., a broker dealer.
SPEAKER_10: Chances are you're listening to 99% Invisible on your phone, probably while you're on the go. Think of all that you do on your phone the moment you leave your front door, whether it's looking up directions, scrolling social media or listening to your favorite podcast. It requires an amazing network. That's why you should switch to T-Mobile. T-Mobile covers more highway miles with 5G than anyone else and helps keep you connected with 5G from the driveway to the highway and the miles in between. Because your phone should just work where you are, it's your lifeline to pretty much everything you didn't bring with you. So next time you head out, whether you're taking a trip or going to work or just running errands, remember T-Mobile has got you covered. Find out more at T-Mobile.com slash network and switch to the network that covers more highway miles with 5G than anyone else. Coverage is not available in some areas. See 5G details at T-Mobile.com. Down your toilet. After this, here is Avery Tufelman.
SPEAKER_03: After its journey from a tree to a factory to a store to your closet, to your bathroom, into the basin, toilet paper flushes into your private sewer lateral. And that wastewater goes to a public sewer line, to a facility where it gets cleaned.
SPEAKER_01: The first part is collection and we screen it. We take out all of the big pieces. So, you know, sometimes we find boots, sometimes we find animal carcass. Did you say boots? Yeah, like a boot, like a foot boot.
SPEAKER_03: NLC Rodriguez is a public information representative with East Bay Municipal Utility District, also known as East Bay MUD. East Bay MUD provides fresh water from way up in the Sierra Nevada foothills and then after that water is not so fresh, they gather it up again. And we treat it.
SPEAKER_01: We disinfect it. We take out bacteria and virus. We clean it so that it's safe to be able to release it to the San Francisco Bay.
SPEAKER_03: They run it through what they call digesters. There are 11 of them on the plant. There are these circular, massive basins that are just constantly churning.
SPEAKER_01: You put the wastewater into this digester and then we put microbes in there and the microbes feed off of the bacteria in there. So they're getting plump and they're then producing methane gas, which we convert and use that gas to help run the plant.
SPEAKER_03: I went on a tour of this facility once. It is as awesome as it is disgusting. I mean, it smells like sewage. The machinery is objectively extraordinary. This machinery is big and expensive.
SPEAKER_01: And so when we have issues of something that shouldn't be in the wastewater system coming up and slamming into our filters, it can take a filter out of service for a while while we have to replace it. And that's just money that we're really just throwing down the drain.
SPEAKER_03: Which is why they filter out bike tires and boots and other big objects. But it is also why East Bay MUD would like you to use toilet paper.
SPEAKER_01: Because it's thin, it breaks down almost instantaneously in water. Paper towel, not so much. Even less with a wipe.
SPEAKER_03: Even the wipes that say that they're flushable. Yes, especially the wipes that say that they're flushable.
SPEAKER_01: It's an advertising campaign. It's a marketing scheme that is not true.
SPEAKER_03: Do not get anyone at your local utility started about quote unquote flushable wipes.
SPEAKER_01: Those wipes when they are flushed, they collect because they're kind of floating in water. And then they all start to bunch together and they can create these huge, we call them in the industry, we call them turkeys.
SPEAKER_03: Because they look like turkeys.
SPEAKER_01: They're these huge globs of gross wipes that just slam into our filters and they can be really disruptive to the machinery.
SPEAKER_03: Since the shelter in place order when there was a sudden demand for toilet paper, Nelsie says they've seen a lot more wipes show up in the wastewater. We're really asking the public to please do not flush those things.
SPEAKER_03: But if you don't have access to toilet paper, what do you do? What's your next best option?
SPEAKER_01: Facial tissues are decent enough. They're still not preferred. They're not as thin as toilet paper. It may be a last resort, but a cloth, a actual fabric cloth with soap and water jumping in the shower, we're really asking for those kinds of things. You can use the wipes, for sure use the wipes, but throw them in the trash, not in the toilet. I mean, that's what East Bay MUD is going to do to them anyway.
SPEAKER_03: We just toss that thing in the garbage anyway.
SPEAKER_01: So you can save, you can help us save public wastewater rates, public money by not breaking our system with these wipes.
SPEAKER_03: Nelsie is one of the East Bay MUD employees who's able to work from home. And East Bay MUD is putting some of their major projects on hold. But they can't put everything on hold. We certainly can't stop treating water.
SPEAKER_01: We can't stop fixing pipes that are broken.
SPEAKER_03: So I was curious. Last time I went to the store, I saw that people were buying big packs of toilet paper and also buying gallons of water. I didn't really get why, but because I saw everyone else buying water, I bought some too. I assumed we were all bracing for some sort of Mad Max dystopian future where water would become currency, which is a future I don't want to rule out completely. But Nelsie says it's not imminent. At least we're lucky here in Northern California.
SPEAKER_01: It's understandable that people get panicked, but there's no need to when it comes to your water like your water is fine. We're great. We do however, though, this is a really important point. We do recommend that everybody should have emergency water.
SPEAKER_03: It's just that East Bay MUD can't control what happens underground. A pipe could still break and they would still have to come fix it.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, but it could mean that we have to turn off your water for, I don't know, four to twelve hours. And in those instances, you will need your emergency water supply.
SPEAKER_03: And we can all help avoid this in the first place by not flushing wipes or tires or boots or anything else that's not toilet paper. There are two things you can flush down the toilet, things that come out of your body
SPEAKER_02: and toilet paper. That's it. That's the PSA. Sorry if you can never eat turkey again.
SPEAKER_10: 99% Invisible was produced this week by Stephanie Joyce and Avery Truffleman, edited by Joe Rosenberg, mixed in tech production by Sharif Yousif, music by Sean Real. Katie Mingle is our senior producer. Kurt Kohlstedt is the digital director. The rest of the team is Emmett Fitzgerald, Delaney Hall, Chris Berube, Vivian Lay, Sophia Klatsker, and me, Roman Mars. Ron Bloomer, our expert on the history of rear end cleaning wrote the book Wiped, which is full of interesting details about toilet culture that we didn't get to include in this episode. We'll link to it on our website. We are a project of 91.7 KALW in San Francisco and produced on Radio Row in beautiful downtown Oakland, California. 99% Invisible is a proud member of Radio-Topia from PRX, a fiercely independent collective of the most innovative shows in all of podcasting. Find them all at Radio-Topia.fm. You can find the show and join discussions about the show on Facebook. You can tweet at me at Roman Mars and the show at 99PI.org or on Instagram and Reddit too. But the drive to get you to listen to old episodes and share those episodes with your friends is still on and the best place to start is at 99PI.org.
SPEAKER_10: Great sleep can be hard to come by these days and finding the right mattress feels totally overwhelming. Serta's new and improved Perfect Sleeper is a simple solution designed to support all sleep positions. With zoned comfort, memory foam and a cool to the touch cover, the Serta Perfect Sleeper means more restful nights and more rested days. Find your comfort at Serta.com.
SPEAKER_00: Look around. You can find cars like these on Auto Trader. New cars, used cars, electric cars, maybe even flying cars. Okay, no flying cars, but as soon as they get invented, they'll be on Auto Trader. Just you wait. Auto Trader.
