0:00

Drumroll, please. Diary of a Wimpy

0:02

Kid Christmas. Cabin Fever. Streaming only

0:04

on Disney Plus December 8th. It's

0:06

Christmas time. Have you been good last

0:08

year? Last year? Oh,

0:10

no. Get ready for the wimpiest.

0:13

I read about this family. They got

0:15

snowed in. And to survive, they had

0:17

to eat each other. Yuck. Christmas Ever.

0:19

I think my freckles might have frostbite.

0:22

Do not make eye contact. Diary of

0:24

a Wimpy Kid Christmas. Cabin Fever. Rated

0:26

PG. Parental guidance suggested. Streaming only on

0:28

Disney Plus December 8th. In

0:32

a world where stranger things keep

0:34

happening. Do you ever think

0:36

about all the stranger things happening in the

0:39

world? Like how celebrities can't

0:41

stop eating spicy chicken wings? Or

0:44

how low-rise pans are back in style?

0:46

Or how your lights will not stop

0:48

flickering? Even

0:51

stranger. Have you noticed the

0:53

environment is getting weirder and

0:55

weirder? Like massive wildfires

0:57

or rising sea levels or

1:00

plastics in our oceans? Yeah. What can

1:02

we do about it? Surely people

1:04

have dealt with strange things like this before. A

1:07

beloved podcast host and her

1:09

trusty co-host search to find

1:12

hope in history. Come

1:15

on, Asa. Bike faster. We've

1:18

got history to find. Why

1:20

are we heading towards that creepy-looking

1:22

forest? Because that's where some of

1:24

the best history is kept. I

1:26

don't know about that. And things just

1:28

keep getting otter and otter.

1:32

Otters? I love otters. Oh,

1:35

they're so cute. And sometimes they hold

1:37

hands when they swim. And

1:39

their little noses are so adorable.

1:41

Oh, and their fur seems so

1:43

soft. Otters are the best. No,

1:46

not otters. Otter.

1:49

O-D-D-E-R. Like

1:52

odd, weird, mysterious

1:56

otter stuff. Oh,

1:59

I get it. Oh, Otter. Is

2:04

that why my pants are backwards? Coming

2:06

to a Forever ago episode near

2:08

you. Welcome

2:18

to Forever ago from APM Studios.

2:20

I'm your host, Joy Dolo, and

2:22

I'm here with my co-host, Asa

2:24

from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Hi, Asa. Hi.

2:28

Hello. Today's episode is all

2:30

about one story where the world came

2:33

together to try and fix a massive

2:35

environmental problem. Wait, Joy, we

2:37

don't want to spoil the story yet. Oh, of

2:39

course not. But we do

2:41

want to talk about issues affecting the

2:43

health of our planet. Because they're all

2:45

around us, from plastic in our oceans,

2:47

to air pollution, to the

2:49

destruction of rainforests, and

2:52

to the biggest of all, climate change.

2:55

Right. When we say climate

2:57

change, we're talking about how the Earth

2:59

is getting warmer because we burn fossil fuels

3:01

for energy. That could be power

3:03

plants that burn coal to make electricity, or

3:06

using gasoline to power our cars. And

3:08

when we burn all those fuels, we release

3:10

a lot of carbon into our atmosphere.

3:13

And all that carbon acts just like a

3:15

blanket, trapping the heat from our sun, which

3:17

is warming our planet, weirding out

3:19

our weather and creating climate change. So

3:22

weird. And just talking about

3:24

environmental problems can feel super overwhelming.

3:27

Asa, do you ever feel that way? Yeah,

3:30

pretty much. Like one time

3:32

in science class, we had to talk about climate

3:34

change and kind of

3:37

freaked out for like a week. Yeah,

3:39

that's really freaky. It's kind

3:41

of frustrating too, isn't it? Yeah. Is

3:43

there anything that you think that gives you hope

3:45

or an excitement for the future? There's

3:48

this one program. These

3:51

people go out in the oceans and pick up plastic and

3:54

stuff like that. That really gives me hope. Oh,

3:56

that's cool. Yeah, I've seen that before too,

3:58

where people pick up trash. and help

4:00

clean things up, there are lots of folks making

4:02

an effort to help. We actually talked to some

4:04

young people to find out what they're doing to

4:07

help make the planet a healthier place. Something

4:11

that I do to help the Earth is

4:15

the school supports being

4:17

sustainable. So we actually

4:19

have a whole class called Sustainability, and

4:22

we do a lot of...we reuse paper,

4:24

and I think we really ever get

4:26

blank paper, because the more

4:29

paper we use, the more trees you have to cut down. I

4:32

like to protect animals, which is like if ants are

4:34

hot, like it's a really hot day, and there's

4:36

just ants on the sidewalk, all kind of shade

4:38

dumb sometimes if I'm not really on the move

4:40

or anything. My

4:42

family recently started composting.

4:45

Composting really helps the environment because

4:48

if you put food

4:50

in the landfill, it

4:53

just builds up and keeps getting more and

4:55

more piles, and then that would be bad

4:57

for the Earth. Reusable

5:00

yogurt cups. When

5:02

we eat the yogurt, my mom and dad will like

5:04

peel the thing, and then we'll

5:06

like take everything off, and then we'll clean it, and then

5:08

we'll use that as just a cup. I

5:10

find seeds, and then I put it in

5:12

the soil, and then it

5:15

grows trees. I once made a plum

5:17

tree, and I picked one

5:19

right off the tree, and it was super juicy

5:21

and fresh. When someone throws

5:23

trash on the gun, sometimes

5:25

I pick it up and throw it

5:27

in the trash because that's where it runs, or

5:30

the recycling bin. Not try

5:32

to buy stuff with plastic like toys

5:35

or food containers. Planet Earth is the

5:37

only safe place that we have, so

5:39

if we destroy it, then we won't

5:41

have anywhere to live. Thanks

5:47

to Malcolm, Oscar, Elias, Aya,

5:49

Sora, Zanna, Pepper, and Ella

5:51

from Brooklyn Compass Charter School

5:54

for their awesome answers and environmental activism.

5:57

The little actions we take every day

5:59

to help. do make a difference. Even

6:01

so, it can be easy to get all doom and

6:03

gloom about the problems facing our planet. It

6:08

can feel like there's an evil lurking in

6:10

the shadows, turning our world

6:12

upside down. But don't lose

6:14

hope. History shows us there's

6:16

a hero out there who can

6:18

take on big, scary environmental monsters

6:20

and win. Is

6:23

it a girl with a shaved head who loves evil

6:25

waffles and moving them to her mind? No,

6:28

it's us, everyday people. We're

6:30

the heroes. Our

6:33

story starts about 100 years ago in the 1920s. Cue the jazz. Charlie

6:41

Chaplin was starring in silly black and white

6:43

silent movies. Families

6:45

were buying newfangled cars like the Model

6:47

T. And

6:50

refrigerators were popping up for the first

6:52

time in kitchens across America. But

6:55

these weren't like our refrigerators today. They

6:58

used toxic gases to keep things

7:00

cold. Not that kind

7:02

of gas, Joy. Oops, sorry. I

7:04

just, I joke. These

7:06

refrigerator chemicals were serious. They were kept

7:08

in compartments inside the refrigerator to keep

7:11

things cool. But sometimes, they leaked out

7:13

and seriously hurt people. This made people

7:15

scared to keep refrigerators in their homes.

7:18

Donald Dear, don't you think

7:21

our new refrigerator is pure magic?

7:23

My jiggly jello's never been this

7:25

chilly. Yes, it's wiggly and

7:27

wonderful, dear. But these fridges are

7:29

dangerous. No. Yes, I'm moving

7:32

this clunker out of the kitchen and next to

7:34

the chicken. People

7:37

got their refrigerators outside? Yeah. So

7:39

a few big companies decided to

7:41

invest in developing a new, safer

7:43

chemical to keep things cold. And

7:46

in the early 1930s, an

7:48

American chemist invented chlorofluorocarbons.

7:51

And the chemical industry leaped for Joy. The

7:54

chemical industry leapt for me?

7:58

Woo! Yeah! Surejoy.

8:01

Chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs for short,

8:04

were colorless, non-slammable, non-toxic, and

8:06

super powerful liquids. And gases!

8:09

That kept the cool stuff

8:11

cool. And the hot? Not.

8:15

People were super excited to have these

8:17

new, safer refrigerators in their homes. By

8:19

1935, eight million

8:21

refrigerators with CFCs had been sold in

8:23

the U.S. And

8:26

over the next few decades, scientists found

8:28

other uses for CFCs. They were used

8:30

to air-conditioned cars, to cool off homes,

8:33

and to send aerosols like hairspray

8:35

and asthma medicine, shooting out of

8:37

bottles and cans. Just

8:40

listen to how happy people were with

8:42

CFC-powered hairspray. La di

8:45

da, D'Elia. I've never CFC-ing such

8:47

a rock-hard hairdo. Isn't it amazing?

8:49

CFCs keep my

8:51

food cold. Now they help

8:54

give my hair hold. CFCs

8:56

are my main squeeze. CFCs.

8:58

Chemicals like you wouldn't believe.

9:02

So big companies made more and more

9:04

of them. And everyone was just so

9:06

happy until the 1970s. Cue the disco.

9:09

In the 1970s, disco balls, bell bottoms, and roller skates were

9:12

in. And

9:21

over in California, two scientists

9:23

named Dr. F. Sherwood Rowland

9:26

and Dr. Mario Molina were

9:28

studying CFCs. Up until

9:30

that point, almost everyone thought CFCs

9:32

were harmless. But Dr. Molina

9:34

and Dr. Rowland weren't so sure.

9:36

So they did experiments and collected

9:38

data. And as they learned more,

9:40

they realized something

9:43

awful was happening. Something

9:45

devastating. Something CFC-ing. CFCs

9:49

were eating the

9:51

atmosphere. So

9:56

let's talk about how these little

9:58

CFC creepers were doing dirty work.

10:01

When I say atmosphere, I mean all the

10:03

layers of gas that surround our earth.

10:06

And one of those layers is called the

10:08

ozone layer. The ozone's job is to absorb

10:10

dangerous UV light coming from the sun. You

10:12

and I can't see UV light, but it

10:14

can burn our skin and our eyes. Yowch!

10:17

There's always a little bit of UV

10:19

light that slips through the ozone layer,

10:22

which is why I wear sunscreen. And

10:24

why I wear my nifty neon green

10:26

cat eye sunglasses. It's looking super fly,

10:28

Joy. Oh, meow. Thank you. So

10:31

the ozone layer helps shield us from UV

10:33

light. Kind of like the

10:36

earth's sunscreen. Right. But remember those

10:38

two scientists, Molina and Roland? They

10:40

discovered that when CFCs float way

10:42

up high into the atmosphere, they

10:44

damage the ozone layer and make it

10:46

disappear. And without enough ozone,

10:49

more UV rays reach the earth's

10:51

surface. Which can cause all sorts

10:53

of trouble. Yeah, a future without

10:55

an ozone is not a pretty sight.

10:57

Without the ozone, those UV rays would

10:59

basically burn the planet to a crisp.

11:02

Plants wouldn't be able to grow so there

11:04

wouldn't be enough food. And those UV rays

11:06

would burn our eyes and skin. Without

11:09

the ozone, it would basically be impossible

11:11

for most life to survive on earth.

11:13

Dr. Molina and Dr. Roland had to

11:16

do something. They published an

11:18

article about the dangers of CFCs in

11:20

a scientific magazine. Which seems like a

11:22

no-brainer, but it was actually a really

11:24

brave thing to do at the time. Yeah,

11:26

because the big companies making chlorophyll or carbons

11:29

did not want to hear about the dangers

11:31

of their beloved chemicals. They were making

11:33

lots of money from CFCs. Like billions

11:35

of dollars a year. And

11:39

if everyone agreed that CFCs were bad for

11:41

the planet, that'd be bad for

11:43

their business. So when Roland

11:45

and Molina published their paper and suggested

11:48

CFCs were hurting the planet and to

11:50

be banned or restricted, these companies pushed

11:52

back. They called Molina and Roland's

11:54

claims... utter nonsense.

11:57

A science fiction tale. Bump

12:00

us, clap-trap! Those are

12:02

all real quotes, by the way. But

12:04

it was too late. The cat was

12:06

out of the bag. Roland and Melina's

12:09

research had made a splash. We've

12:12

got a big ozone-ono for

12:14

you today, folks. Scientists in

12:16

California have let the gassy

12:18

truth rip. Chlorofluorocarbons,

12:20

the chemicals found in

12:22

aerosol cans, fire extinguishers,

12:24

and air conditioners are

12:27

destroying the ozone layer.

12:29

No zone in the ozone? See,

12:31

it's scary. Very freeing.

12:38

At the time, the American public was

12:41

getting much more concerned about the health

12:43

of the environment. In fact, the environmental

12:45

movement was just getting started. More

12:47

people were worrying about toxic chemicals and

12:49

pesticides leaking in the rivers and lakes.

12:51

And things like cars and power plants

12:54

polluting the air. And the United States

12:56

government was listening. In

12:58

1970, they founded the Environmental

13:00

Protection Agency, or EPA,

13:02

inside of making more laws

13:04

to protect America's air, water,

13:07

plants, people, and animals. So

13:09

when Roland and Melina exposed

13:11

the dangers of CFCs, people

13:13

reacted. Many Americans stopped buying

13:15

things that contained these harmful

13:17

chemicals. Air spray,

13:19

no light. Air spray, no

13:21

way. Spray paint is full

13:23

of hate. Spray paint is

13:25

full of hate. At

13:27

the same time, the US, Canada, Sweden,

13:29

and Norway made laws banning the

13:32

use of CFCs in certain cases.

13:34

So change was happening. Thanks to

13:36

Roland and Melina's amazing research.

13:38

CFC manufacturing started to slow

13:40

down. Yep. So you're

13:42

probably thinking, we did it! Kumbaya

13:45

hoorah! But really, it

13:47

was like a kumbay nah.

13:50

Things got weirder. Scientists

13:52

thought they had a handle on the

13:54

problem of CFCs, but there was

13:56

trouble lurking in the skies of

13:59

Antarctica, silently. growing and threatening

14:01

the world. And it

14:03

seemed to be caused by super

14:05

secret spy penguins. ["Spirits

14:08

of the Wild"] Joy,

14:12

penguins don't fly. They can't even be in

14:14

the sky. That's what they want you to

14:16

think. Also, humans can't fly,

14:18

but we're pilots, aren't we? How

14:21

do you know there weren't penguin

14:23

pilots? Joy, we'll circle back to

14:25

penguin pilots and to the real

14:27

cause of the trouble. But in

14:29

the meantime, let's play... ["Spirits

14:34

of the Wild"] Today's

14:37

first things first is all about sun

14:39

protection. Let's put these items in

14:42

the order they were created. Waterproof

14:44

sunscreen, bucket hats, those are the hats

14:46

with the floppy rims that go all

14:48

around them, you know? And aviator

14:50

sunglasses. You know those glasses that

14:52

cool pilots wear that have teardrop

14:54

lenses and wireframes? Okay,

14:57

Asa, which do you think came first?

14:59

Which came second? And which came most

15:01

recently in history? So I think it's

15:03

bucket hats, aviator sunglasses,

15:05

and waterproof sunscreens.

15:08

All right, so first up we have

15:10

bucket hats and then aviator sunglasses. And

15:13

then the most recent in history is

15:15

waterproof sunscreen. Good guesses. We'll hear the

15:17

answers after the credits. Drum

15:23

roll please. Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas.

15:25

Tab and paper, streaming only on Disney Plus

15:27

December 8th. Have

15:30

you been good last year? Last year?

15:33

Oh no. Get ready for the wimpiest.

15:35

I read about this family that got snowed

15:37

in. And to survive, they had to eat

15:39

each other. Good luck. Christmas ever.

15:41

I think my freckles might have

15:43

fraud. But do not make eye

15:46

contact. Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas.

15:48

Tab and paper. Rated PG. Parental guidance

15:50

suggested. Streaming only on Disney Plus December

15:52

8th. You're

16:01

listening to Forever Ago. I'm

16:03

Joy and I'm Asa. We

16:06

love talking about the surprising

16:08

history behind some of our

16:10

favorite inventions on the show.

16:12

We also love hearing about

16:14

inventions you couldn't imagine living

16:17

without. Here's today's Inventionmention. My

16:22

name is Sophia and my

16:24

invention mention is a pencil,

16:26

colored pencil, or crayon. Because

16:28

when you're at school and you didn't have like a

16:30

pencil or crayon or colored pencils, what would

16:32

you write with? Thanks

16:34

Sophia for sharing your invention mention.

16:37

Listeners, send us a recording of

16:39

yourself sharing your favorite invention and

16:42

what's great about it at foreverago.org

16:44

contact. Now back to the

16:46

ozone. We just learned how

16:49

in the early 20th century there

16:51

were numerical chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons or

16:53

CSCs for short. And they

16:55

took the world by storm. They

16:58

helped our refrigerators and air conditioners

17:00

stay cool and even helped aerosols

17:02

spray from asthma medicine to hairspray.

17:04

But in the 1970s scientists

17:07

Dr. F. Sherwood Rowland and Dr.

17:09

Mario Molina discovered that those CSCs

17:11

were bad for our atmosphere. Specifically

17:14

the ozone, the part of our

17:16

atmosphere that acts like sunscreen protecting the earth

17:18

and blocking harmful UV rays. So the

17:20

scientists sounded the alarms and eventually convinced

17:22

the public to listen. People stopped buying

17:24

a lot of the stuff that contains

17:26

CSCs and some governments banned

17:28

them in certain products. Which brings us

17:31

to the 1980s. Cue to new ways.

17:35

Scrunchies and Rubik's cubes were having

17:38

a moment but down in Antarctica

17:40

something fishy was happening. Like

17:42

super secret spies of the

17:45

penguin variety. Joy,

17:51

there were no evil penguin

17:53

pilots. Alien? Nope. An

17:55

upside-down portal to another dimension darker

17:57

than our own? Uh,

17:59

no. So as I was saying,

18:01

there was a giant growing problem.

18:04

Looming in the skies above

18:06

Antarctica, there was a massive

18:09

hole in the ozone layer.

18:12

Thank you. I knew it all along. I

18:14

just like the thing about evil penguin pilots.

18:16

So adorable. So naughty. Little tuxedo cuties. You

18:18

better stop it. Get out of here, you

18:20

little penguin cutie. A little happy feet. Happy

18:22

feet, penguin. You want some fishes? Get

18:24

out of here. OK. Back

18:27

to this ozone hole above Antarctica. Right,

18:30

you're all probably thinking, was it

18:32

an actual hole? And the

18:34

answer is not quite. If

18:37

you looked up in the sky, you wouldn't see

18:39

a big black splotch or something. It's

18:41

more like the ozone was getting very thin in

18:43

this one area. So it was like a

18:46

pothole in the ozone. Yeah.

18:49

And if you looked at it on a

18:51

weather map, it would look like there was

18:54

this dark blob hovering over Antarctica. Oh, blubber.

18:56

Yeah, a big blubber. A blubber that's blibber

18:58

than you would believe. So

19:00

get this. Even though satellites

19:03

have shown really low levels of ozone

19:05

over Antarctica for years, scientists

19:07

thought the numbers were a mistake. Yeah,

19:09

it seemed too wild to be true. But

19:12

finally, in 1985, a British research team was

19:15

like, wait a second. Maybe our data

19:17

is telling us something? Yeah.

19:19

Turns out the hole was

19:21

real and really big. It

19:24

was about the size of the United States of America.

19:26

The scientific community was getting really

19:29

worried. They thought those ozone-destroying

19:31

chemicals called CFCs might be to blame

19:33

again, but they weren't 100% sure. So

19:36

it was research time. Enter

19:41

atmospheric chemists, Dr. Susan Solomon.

19:43

Dr. Susan Solomon was a

19:46

cool, young atmospheric scientist. When

19:48

she heard about the holes in the ozone,

19:50

she jumped at the opportunity to figure out what

19:53

was going on. In the mid-1980s,

19:55

Susan and her team made two visits

19:57

to the South Pole to gather information.

20:00

Reminder, the South Pole is cold.

20:03

Yeah, it is beyond freezing. Sub-zero.

20:06

It's so cold, you can get

20:08

frostbite in five minutes. It's ideal

20:10

weather for penguin spies,

20:12

but freezing for humans.

20:15

But eventually, Susan and her

20:17

team got enough info to

20:19

pinpoint the problem. Evil Penguin

20:21

Pilots! Ugh,

20:25

Joy, no. Kidding! Once

20:28

again, it was CFCs. But

20:31

this time, they were teaming up

20:33

with very special clouds. Right.

20:37

So one of the things that makes antarctica

20:39

different from the rest of the world is it

20:41

has clouds in its stratosphere. Way,

20:43

way, way high up in the sky.

20:45

Susan and her team discovered that these

20:48

clouds created the perfect environment for

20:50

CFCs to destroy the ozone. They

20:53

created these little fluffy surfaces for

20:55

CFCs to sit on while they went

20:58

about their nasty work. Around that same

21:00

time, other research teams confirmed the same

21:02

thing. In fact, they found CFCs were

21:04

eating away at the ozone way, way

21:07

faster than Molina and Roland had thought.

21:09

Oh, my God. No!

21:13

Okay, wait a second. You're probably

21:15

thinking, didn't the world start phasing

21:17

out CFCs in the 1970s? To

21:21

which we say yes, but it was only

21:23

a few countries. Just the

21:25

United States, Norway, Sweden, and Canada.

21:28

And they were only getting rid of CFCs

21:30

that make aerosol products go... Oi,

21:34

they! Not just the spray! I

21:36

know. Most of the world was

21:38

still using chlorophora carbons and all sorts

21:40

of products, so CFCs were

21:42

still everywhere. So how did

21:45

they solve this new, strange problem?

21:47

Did a bunch of kids on

21:49

bikes team up with their telepathic,

21:51

waffle-loving friend to save the day?

21:53

Wow, that is so specific. But

21:55

no, they used science communication. For

21:58

starters, there was a good visual. When

22:00

the media took images of the ozone hole

22:02

and broadcast them on TV, people could see

22:04

the problem really clearly. Now

22:07

would you get a look at that hole, Holly? I'd

22:10

call it more of a blob, Bob.

22:13

Well, my name's Scott and I'd call it

22:15

a swatch. Hahaha! Seriously

22:19

though, this is terrifying. We need

22:21

to do something. Coming

22:23

up next, a kitten that knits.

22:25

Stay tuned! The

22:29

public was shocked. Governments around

22:31

the world were appalled. What happened

22:33

next was amazing. In a few

22:36

months' time, a big international group

22:38

called the United Nations drafted an

22:40

international treaty called the Montreal Protocol.

22:43

It was basically a set of rules

22:46

that called for everyone to stop making

22:48

and using CFCs, as well as other

22:50

chemicals that destroy the ozone. Scientists, businesses,

22:52

and governments from around the world

22:54

agreed to cooperate and build the

22:56

Montreal Protocol together. They created

22:59

a flexible agreement that gave businesses the

23:01

freedom required to develop new products and

23:03

smaller countries the support they needed to

23:05

switch to using cleaner chemicals. As

23:08

a result, the Montreal Protocol became the

23:10

first international treaty to be signed by

23:12

every country in the entire world. And

23:14

it took a few years to start working. But

23:17

by 2006, the hole in the ozone started

23:19

to shrink. And scientists hope the Earth's ozone

23:21

will return to normal levels by 2050. To

23:25

this day, the Montreal Protocol is considered

23:27

the world's most successful environmental

23:29

agreement. Wow!

23:32

You know, this story got me

23:34

thinking. If we came together in

23:36

the past to tackle a big environmental problem like

23:38

the hole in the ozone, why can't we do

23:41

the same thing today to stop using the fossil

23:43

fuels causing climate change? I know!

23:46

The trouble is, so much of our

23:48

world runs on fossil fuels. From

23:50

our cars to the heat and light

23:52

in our homes, it's a much deeper,

23:54

more complicated problem than getting rid of

23:56

CFCs, which weren't used in as many

23:59

things. We can still take action, and

24:01

we can push our leaders to make it easier

24:03

for all of us to kick our fossil fuel

24:05

habits. Yeah! In 2015,

24:07

countries around the world signed the

24:10

Paris Agreement, an international treaty designed

24:12

to combat climate change. Its

24:14

main goal is to stop global temperatures from

24:16

rising above 1.5 degrees Celsius. It

24:20

requires nations to commit to reducing greenhouse

24:22

gas emissions and ramp up their commitments

24:24

every five years. But countries

24:26

are responsible for deciding how much and what

24:29

kind of actions they take. One

24:31

way you can help push your government to do more

24:33

is by making your voice heard. Protest!

24:41

Join a group of climate activists. Encourage

24:43

the adults in your lives to vote for candidates who

24:45

are going to work to protect the planet. Listen

24:48

to the science and take whatever action you

24:50

can. Because remember, when it

24:52

comes to helping the planet, everyday people

24:54

can be climate heroes. This

25:02

episode was written by Rosie DuPont and

25:04

Ruby Guthrie. We had production help

25:06

from Nico Gonzalez-Whistler, Molly Bloom, Shannon

25:09

Totten, Shayla Farzan, Aron Woldes-Slaussie,

25:11

Anna Goldfield, and Anna Wagle.

25:14

Sound design by Rachel Breeze. Game

25:16

music by Mark Sanchez. Beth

25:18

Perlman is our executive producer. We

25:21

had engineering help from Anna Haverman and

25:23

Alex Simpson. The executives in charge

25:25

of APM Studios are Tandra Cavati,

25:27

Joanne Griffith, and Alex Shafford. Special thanks

25:30

to Eric Ringham, Andy Doucette, and David

25:32

Brancaccio. If you want access to

25:34

ad-free episodes and special bonus content,

25:36

subscribe to our Smarty Pass. Check

25:39

it out at smartypass.org. And if

25:41

you want to send us a

25:43

note, head to forevergo.org/contact. Okay,

25:46

Asa, ready to hear the answers

25:48

for First Things First? Yeah! Okay,

25:51

as a reminder, we've got aviator sunglasses,

25:53

waterproof sunscreen, and bucket hats. And

25:56

you said that bucket

25:58

hats were the oldest... Aviator sunglasses

26:01

were second and waterproof sunscreen was

26:03

the most recent in history. Mm-hmm.

26:06

Oh my goodness. Asa.

26:10

I got them all right, you know. I

26:12

already know it. How did you know? How did you know

26:14

that you got them all right? Well, you

26:17

know, I kind of read people's

26:19

minds, you know. Smart

26:22

guy. Yeah, you know. Yeah, you're so

26:24

smart. That's what it is. You can admit it. It's

26:27

okay. Smart guys were invented

26:29

in the 1900s in Ireland and it

26:31

was meant for farmers and fishermen and

26:33

it was made of wool, which is

26:35

like water resistant and it was very

26:37

easy to pack as well. So

26:39

the bucket hat has become like this cultural phenomenon. It

26:42

was worn by the TV character Gilligan of

26:44

Gilligan's Island in the 1960s. And

26:47

then in the 1980s, rapper LL Cool J, sported one. Do

26:49

you remember LL Cool J? He always had like this like

26:51

hat that he always wore like with the big rim on

26:53

the edge. He was very famous in the 80s. My

26:56

dad probably knew him. And even singer

26:58

and mogul Rihanna wore one on the

27:00

red carpet. Rihanna? Yeah, so you know

27:03

Rihanna. That one works. So

27:05

bucket hats were the first. And then

27:07

second up, you were correct again, it

27:09

was aviator sunglasses. And those were invented

27:12

in 1935 and they were developed by

27:14

the US military and they helped the

27:16

US Air Force pilots see better while

27:18

they were flying. So during

27:20

World War II aviators became standard

27:22

military sunglasses, but gained popularity outside

27:25

of the Army too because they

27:27

looked so cool. Right? Do you

27:29

like them? Yeah, I like them.

27:31

I did too. I know they're

27:33

pretty sweet. And then last but not

27:35

least was waterproof sunscreen in 1977. Mom,

27:39

that's your birth. That's when you were born. Waterproof

27:44

sunscreen was invented in

27:46

1977 by American company Johnson

27:48

& Johnson. And it

27:50

was called Coppertone, a brand that's still around today,

27:52

which I think I've seen before. And

27:55

it's called sunscreen. Did you know that people have

27:57

been protecting their skin from the sun for centuries?

28:00

centuries? How? Ancient Egyptians

28:02

used extracts from like rice

28:04

bran as well as like jasmine

28:06

and lupin flowers to block the

28:08

tanning effects of sun or skin as early as

28:10

3100 BC. That's so

28:13

crazy. We'll be back

28:15

next week with an episode all about

28:17

the history of Children's Library. Thanks for

28:20

listening!