Back to the Future: Part 2
Erin Cline, Ben Silverio, and Ansel Burch are pop culture observers/content creators/excellent friends who are willing to do almost anything to put everything back the way we remember it, or maybe a little better.
Find us online!
Erin Cline is @NYDErnGenC on Instagram
Ben is @bsilverio20 on Instagram, and letterboxed among others.
Ansel Burch is @TheIndecisionist on IG, Facebook, Yowsa, Blusky, Reddit, and Threads.
Check out Ansel’s new TTRPG, Deck! https://the-indecisionist.itch.io/Deck
Next week, we’re closing out our series with Erin in the Conversation Pit! We’re going to chat about life, and celebrate the occasion of our 200th episode. So, make sure you’re subscribed because it’s always #Time2Party
Transcript
Ben Silverio 0:08
Hey, I'm Ben Silverio
Ansel Burch 0:10
and I'm Ansel Burch.
It's time to party.
We are not doctors. We are not doctors. We don't give medical advice. Please drink responsibly. Oh, today's episode was recorded on February 27 2026 welcome.
Ben Silverio 0:30
I want to hump the score to this movie, but it's already our theme song.
Ansel Burch 0:35
No, it's not. I mean, distinct from
Ben Silverio 0:38
That's correct. It's just different enough,
Ansel Burch 0:45
hopefully don't look too close. Yes, we're not sure.
Ben Silverio 0:49
We've dodged it for five years at this point, let's, let's keep it going.
Ansel Burch 0:55
This truly is the danger of if our show blows up, will it then blow up, right?
Ben Silverio 1:03
Please. Bob Zemeckis and Bob Gail, don't, don't hurt us.
Ansel Burch 1:08
Yeah, please be nice that said. Would would love the extra press. So please feel free to help us blow up so we can find out if Bob and Bob want to come get our shit.
Ben Silverio 1:23
We'd prefer it if you were nice. But you know, either way, people will be talking
Ansel Burch 1:27
Uh huh. No such thing as bad press.
Ben Silverio 1:30
No, no party people. Welcome back to time to party where, you know, good vibes and stuff. This month is very special, because we are celebrating time to party 200 Whoa, hondos.
Ansel Burch 1:54
Hondos, that's right.
Ben Silverio 1:56
As the kids say, six, seven, are they still doing that?
Ansel Burch 1:59
Two hole, Benjamins.
Ben Silverio 2:03
Ansel, do you know? Do you know about six seven?
Ansel Burch 2:06
I do. I mean, as much as an adult person can know about six seven, I'm aware that it happened. I know that there is no explanation for it, and we shouldn't be trying to make one, and that I think it is dead now because I know about it, that's
Ben Silverio 2:24
because we're talking about it now officially dead.
Ansel Burch 2:28
The fact that it got to me means, means that it was on its way out. Yeah, I do have the benefit of advance warning. I have a dear friend who is a grade school teacher who does keep me apprised of the most annoying thing that her classes are doing at the time? So I was, I was advised of six seven before it was on the, you know, morning news shows and what have you boy six seven, skippity toilet though. Oh, that's got some staying power, it turns out, outlasted, outlasted six, seven. Got there first, still there.
Ben Silverio 3:05
Now. Movie is coming. Unfortunately, hopefully there's no time travel in it so we don't have to
Ansel Burch 3:12
talk about it. No, I refuse. I refuse. I also I don't know that. I don't know that I could survive a skibbity toilet movie like, what could that possibly even be?
Ben Silverio 3:27
I shudder at the thought. I don't even want to think about
Ansel Burch 3:33
it like we truly will invest money in anything that we know children will will will pound their parents into going to,
Ben Silverio 3:44
yeah, obviously, I mean,
Ansel Burch 3:49
and that's why capitalism doesn't work. You hear me? That's why,
Ben Silverio 3:53
yes, that's why party people this month, we are talking about Back to the Future. You know it, you love it, if you don't.
Ansel Burch 4:05
Why we know it, we love it, yeah, trust us, yeah.
Ben Silverio 4:09
And that's why this month, on time to party, we've been talking to the Enigma, Aaron Klein, who started this wonderful venture with us all those years ago, who we love having back whenever possible. And yeah, if you've been a guest on time to party in the past five years and have been wondering why we haven't done back the future yet, this is why. Because we were saving
Ansel Burch 4:34
it for we were saving
Ben Silverio 4:37
for Aaron for a big occasion. Here it is. So we're
Ansel Burch 4:41
doing it is 200 will be next week's episode. So this week we are in a new format, new season, new format. It was our thought. So hopefully by now you've already heard our review episode that was the first one that came out last week. Real talk, and this new episode is going to be a combination. Of what the first and third used to be. And then next week, we just get to spend, we get to spend some time with Erin and find out what she's into, what she's doing. Talk about gene and then genes just to, like, round it out, yeah, rule a third zone.
Ben Silverio 5:23
Oh, would have been great, yep. Well, next time gotta hit the trifecta.
Ansel Burch 5:29
Uh huh, uh huh. That'll be the new thing we look for in the recording. Okay, what's the theme? So we can make sure we three times it.
Ben Silverio 5:40
Yes, because we're, we're comedic geniuses here at Time to party, truly, the rule of three is very funny. Yes, my very important, fancy and very expensive piece of paper taught me in college, if for whatever reason you don't know about Back to the Future. Here's what our good friends of rotten tomatoes have to say in this 1980s sci fi classic small town California, teen Marty McFly is thrown back into the 50s when an experiment by his eccentric scientist friend Doc Brown goes awry, traveling through time in a modified DeLorean Marty encounters young versions of his parents, and must make sure they fall in love or he'll cease to exist. Even more dauntingly, Marty has returned to his own time and save the life of Dr Emmett Brown, somebody was doing overtime at Rotten Tomatoes.
Ansel Burch 6:40
Yeah, that's a very complete synopsis
Ben Silverio 6:43
that's way better than they usually do. But, you know, I like
Ansel Burch 6:49
eccentric rather than Maverick. Yes,
Ben Silverio 6:54
anything that doesn't remind me of Logan Paul is great.
That idiot,
Ansel Burch 7:06
yeah, what a dingus, yeah. So we're here, let's, let's, let's dive in.
Ben Silverio 7:15
Let's start with some party favors. Hell yeah. And I think we'll kick things off with the drinking and smoking game, the world famous time to party drinking and smoking game. That's right, we we've been doing this a long time now. There's been a lot of rules. Ansel, how do we keep coming up
Ansel Burch 7:36
with new rules? I mean, they're different movies. That helps a lot, that does that, yeah, yeah, that's but, yeah. I think the the thing about making drinking game rules is it's a it's a muscle that you flex like I think we are getting better at it as we go.
Ben Silverio 7:57
I agree. But first our guest for the month, Erin Klein, has some good rules that she can share with us. So let's go
Speaker 1 8:10
for a drinking rule. I think every time you see a guitar is a good one, because that happens a decent amount, but not as much as you might think that it does, like there are heavy scenes of guitar, and that's kind of it. And so I feel like that one fits in there pretty well. I was gonna say a smoky rule is that you should take a hit anytime there's product placement, which, again, there's not a lot of in this movie, but yep, not as much as you would think. They had to return money to Stevens or to, oh my god, the raisins company, because they were, yeah, because they were supposed to feature them more prominently, and they were just on like a bench, and so they had to give all that
Ansel Burch 8:52
money back. I believe part of the complaint was also that there was an unhoused person on that bench, and they were like, that's not the look we're going for.
Speaker 1 9:00
Yep, that is correct. Yeah, that's it. Those are my two my drinking and my smoking roll.
Ben Silverio 9:06
Those are some really great rules. Aaron, yes, exactly the vibe. I'll start with a drinking rule. Take a drink when you see the face of a clock. Oh, god, yeah. It's a lot in the beginning, but you know, yeah, I was
Ansel Burch 9:25
gonna say Jesus, you will be wrecked by the time you get to the through the opening credits,
Ben Silverio 9:32
yeah, especially if you want to include the digital face as the face.
Ansel Burch 9:37
Oh, yeah, which I would argue you should it is, it is a clock face.
Ben Silverio 9:44
It is so do with that rule. What you will?
Ansel Burch 9:50
As a reminder, these rules are meant to be taken a la carte. Please do not do all of them. You will die. I. It. But they are, they are great for divvying up amongst a group, so that everybody has a different thing to look for, or you can just, you know, pick and mix your favorite ones, the things you think look most interesting or most fun. Have a good time with it. That's that's what it's here for. You don't want to have a bad time. That's for sure.
Ben Silverio 10:19
That's not our brain?
Ansel Burch 10:21
Yeah, no. So my first rule is to drink whenever Einstein is on screen. Yeah, Einstein. Einstein is such a great part of this movie. First time traveler, by the way, first time traveler. So, you know, put some respect on his name, but he doesn't come in all the time. So I think it's a little treat. And so you should get a little treat whenever he's on screen.
Ben Silverio 10:47
In the first episode, I mentioned the Universal Studios Fan Fest nights and how Back to the Future was part of that. One of the experiences in the back to future section was a meet and greet with Einstein in the DeLorean. Very cute photo op. It was the longest line in that entire area for the entire night, of course. And Einstein was the best boy.
Ansel Burch 11:18
He was so good. Cute dog in in a time machine. Sign me up.
Ben Silverio 11:25
It was well worth the Benadryl that I had to take while waiting in line. But that section had so many good photo ops, like you could also have a photo with Doc Brown's amp and Marty's weird yellow guitar. There was also, that's cool. They set up a stage with Marvin Barry and starlighters playing at the enchantment under the sea dance, with Strickland walking around. There was a section where Goldie Wilson was walking around,
Ansel Burch 12:05
Mayor Goldie Wilson, or young Goldie Wilson.
Ben Silverio 12:08
This was 1955 55 Goldie Wilson, so he was still working at the diner,
Ansel Burch 12:15
still cleaning up town, in a more literal sense,
Ben Silverio 12:18
exactly, I did have a chance to speak to him and let him know that, you know, hey, maybe if you studied law or something, or, like, some kind of civic engagement, might help him. He's just like, Mayor, I like the sound of that. And I'm like, like, know, just trying to, trying to help a guy out. But yes, thesis statement, Einstein is the goodest boy in all of time. Travel.
Ansel Burch 13:01
Now makes sense
Ben Silverio 13:04
if we were to apply this rule to the whole franchise, what about Copernicus?
Ansel Burch 13:11
Yeah. I mean, hell yeah,
Ben Silverio 13:12
yeah, he doesn't actually do the time traveling. You know, he's, he's pre time traveling,
Ansel Burch 13:21
so, but I mean, any, any friend of Doc Browns is friend of mine, and that includes his best friend. But, yeah, so whenever Ryan is on screen, take a little take a little snooch. You've earned it. Yeah. What is your next rule?
Ben Silverio 13:36
I mentioned Marvin Barry and the starlighters, and I would like you to take a hit with the band as they are taking a break. They're taking a break, and you should, too,
Ansel Burch 13:54
yep, it's a good point in the movie to get a little get a little loose. I Yes, you could smoke whenever you see smoking on screen. It's not too frequent.
Ben Silverio 14:09
I did have a separate rule that I thought about inserting here instead, but it does kind of go along with it, where I suggest that you take a hit and then exhale when the time machine is unveiled out of the back of the truck. Ah, Big Smoke moment there. So, I mean, if we were to combine the two, take a hit whenever there's smoke on screen.
Ansel Burch 14:36
Oh, there we go. Okay, that does which? Which does happen a few other times as well.
Ben Silverio 14:43
Yeah, look at that. We just workshop that for you and
Ansel Burch 14:49
to get you more smoking chances.
Ben Silverio 14:51
Yeah, you don't for you now you have to remember less.
Ansel Burch 14:59
I. Yeah, oh, hey, there's smoke go.
Ben Silverio 15:04
And honestly, that's all. That's all the this new format business is all about making it easier for for you, the listener,
Ansel Burch 15:12
everybody involved, yeah,
Ben Silverio 15:14
yeah. Except Ansel, when he's editing
Ansel Burch 15:18
that that is true. We have, we have definitely made a mildly larger task for me, but I'm okay with it. Speaking of larger tasks, this, this next one you may need to use with care. This is a sip and rule. This is a, this is a low ABV drink. This might be even a soda or a water rule, if you need to, like, if you're about to do a colonoscopy and you got to drink that whole gallon of prep juice that they give you, this might be the one for it, because I want you to drink whenever a year or years are quoted. So I'm saying like anytime they say, like 1955 or 1985 or another year, or an interval of years. So if it's 30 years or 20 years, or either of those scenarios, get a drink in
Ben Silverio 16:06
that's so much, that's a whole lot. It's a lot. Man just oh god, you mad man, you.
Ansel is trying to get schwasty with this rule,
Ansel Burch 16:36
but by the time you get past the first 10 minutes of this movie, you may be on onto a new place.
Ben Silverio 16:45
I'd like to reiterate that we are not doctors. Yeah, it's just medical advice. It is not our fault if you have to go the emergency room
Ansel Burch 16:56
or the bathroom a bunch or
Ben Silverio 16:59
the bathroom. Yes, my God, considering the rules that we've given so far, I feel like you're, you're you're set up for a really good game. I do have one more which almost feels unnecessary now, but I recommend that you take a drink when someone is referred to by their last name. So Amy fly or, Hey, tannin Strickland, you know
Ansel Burch 17:26
something, yep, yep. Does that include Doc Brown?
Ben Silverio 17:32
Uh, no, because I think they're always calling him doc or Doc Brown, not just brown.
Ansel Burch 17:38
Yeah, that's fair. That's a good one. I like that. I have two more. Okay, my my next one is another one that might kill you. So proceed with caution. I would like you to take a drink every time Marty says, Mom,
Ben Silverio 17:52
oh, my god, after what we talked about in episode one, uh huh. You're really
Ansel Burch 18:01
I want to make it weird. This is the one for making it weird, because that means every time he slips up and calls her mom, which he frequently does in sets of three or four, get some get some in. Yeah. And then my last one is a bit of this one. This is a hard mode. This is a drinking game on hard mode. I would like you to take a drink, maybe even a shot, if this is the only rule you're choosing every time you see part of Eric Stoltz,
Ben Silverio 18:32
oh, that's so tough, man. That's like expert level.
Ansel Burch 18:38
There's the one we know. There's one lots of people know. So like, you'll at least get a shot in for that. But if you want to do some extra googling on where you can see him in the rest of the film, it can be done. There are more opportunities. But, yeah, I
Ben Silverio 18:55
don't even think I know all of
Ansel Burch 18:56
there's the one famous one, which is when Biff gets punched in the diner that is Eric Stoltz. Fist the other, the other shots I was able to find to research are all long shots of the DeLorean. So there are some long shots of driving the DeLorean where it wasn't worth it to reshoot with with proper Marty McFly. So effectively Eric Stoltz, because becomes the stunt driver for the film in those scenes,
Ben Silverio 19:29
and he hasn't been getting credited all these years. Wow. He's been missing out on some serious royalties.
Ansel Burch 19:36
Yeah, right, man, what a hard conversation that must have been,
Ben Silverio 19:44
yeah, hey, Eric, buddy,
Ansel Burch 19:48
I know we've basically shot the whole movie, but we've all agreed that your performance isn't what we're looking for, so we're gonna do it over without.
Ben Silverio 20:00
You Listen, man, you're just kind of a bummer. Wow. I'm sorry, but have a good one.
Ansel Burch 20:09
I read a an anecdote today about this situation, and apparently Eric Stoltz did the whole thing method. So he insisted that everyone on set call him Marty. He wouldn't respond to his real name to the point where, supposedly, and I can't verify this, but supposedly, when he got let go, somebody went to Christopher Lloyd to let him know that Eric wasn't on the picture anymore. And Christopher Lloyd went, who?
Ben Silverio 20:41
Who's Eric? Who's Eric?
Ansel Burch 20:45
Legitimately thought his name was Marty.
Ben Silverio 20:48
Oh, my God. Chris Lloyd, you treasure,
Ansel Burch 20:53
right, but a what a genius.
Ben Silverio 20:57
Speaking of treasures, we have even more goodies for you, because we here, like to party, like to give back, you know, not physically, because we're not, you know, there, yeah, you know, just like mentally, intellectually, even, you know, culturally, maybe, Maybe we'll get there, but
Ansel Burch 21:21
some mental high five, we're about to hand you right here.
Ben Silverio 21:24
There it is. That's that's totally how we should start advertising our edutainment section. Hey, now get ready for a mental high five. And then sounds
Ansel Burch 21:35
crisp, it's clean, it's fast, it's loud. There we go. Yeah.
Ben Silverio 21:41
Here we have edutainment, our very shallow dive into something that caught our fancy, something we wanted to learn more about. Fun Facts, you know that we, hey, we found, we found this fun fact for you. Please have it.
Ansel Burch 22:02
Yeah, we thought it was neat.
Ben Silverio 22:09
And there's so much we could talk about with Back to the Future. I mean, there's a lot of stuff going on. In fact, there was a second where I thought about talking about all of the crazy shit that happened behind the scenes, but, you know, we ended up talking about a lot of that stuff organically. Anyway, we did a few other potential topics for edutain. Were license plates, shopping malls, camcorders, okay? And skateboards.
Ansel Burch 22:49
All good things, skateboards, skateboards would have been a
Ben Silverio 22:53
good one. All good things, but ultimately, not what I went with. How about you, Ansel, anything that you thought about going with?
Ansel Burch 23:00
I did. I did. I thought about the history of clock towers. Oh, which, which could have been fun. I actually, I've got, I've done, I've done a fair amount of horology facts in the in the past of time to party. So if you're a big horology head, don't worry. You still got your chances. But decided not to go with that. I also thought about the Chiquita travel guitar, which is the teeny, tiny guitar that Marty blows up the amp with at the very beginning of the movie, and electric guitars more generally. And then I did, I did think about just to really throw in a left hook manure. But I couldn't figure out the angle that I would go at for manure, you know, how long have we been collecting it? What? What is the history of its use? Do they really trip it around in open top pickup trucks? You know, that sort of thing.
Ben Silverio 23:58
This would have been the most intellectual poop joke. Oh, ever
Ansel Burch 24:05
I'm not above that. Don't think
Ben Silverio 24:07
I am. No, no, we're definitely not. That's like, that's included in the brand. It's in the fine print. It's part of it. That's a future, it's built in. But party people, we would like you to know that this is almost like our our Muppet Labs, corner of time to party, where beaker and Dr Bunsen Honeydew present you with some nonsense so you can decide who's who. I'm not gonna hold it against you. But you know, considering the Ansel and I are already other Disney characters, the dream finder and figment, shout out to all my Walt Disney World heads out there. Disney parks, brethren and Sistren. Is it?
Ansel Burch 24:57
Sistren, sister? In, I don't know that there is a feminine form for that one. What would be the binary form for that one? I have heard sister in used, but I don't know that it's ever felt right. Siblings would be the word you want that.
Ben Silverio 25:15
Yes, that's I made that far too complicated, as usual.
Ansel Burch 25:23
This is the trumpet patriarchy. You start with Brother brethren, and then you're like, I should include everybody, but I'm already in this mode.
Ben Silverio 25:30
Fuck Yeah, fucking patriarchy.
Ansel Burch 25:35
It's I. I don't know if you've had to do jury duty recently, but they have not updated it. So all of the court talk is he or she, to the point where every time there is a pronoun in use for the like, General Instructions thing, when they have to read out the thing, every single time a pronoun comes up, the judge, the bailiff, the lawyers will say, and then he or she will do such and such, then he or she will do such and such, because those are the only options.
Ben Silverio 26:10
Famously, yeah, I guess so. Kansas. What the fuck man Jesus, trans people alone.
Ansel Burch 26:20
Just got why?
Ben Silverio 26:24
Yeah, this. This episode was recorded on February 27 2026 when some went down. So yeah,
Ansel Burch 26:36
just happened. Hopefully, by March 9, they've, they've come to their senses or something. I don't know
Ben Silverio 26:44
that you're asking a lot from the government right
Ansel Burch 26:48
now, especially the government of Kentucky,
Ben Silverio 26:52
Kentucky. Kentucky also
Ansel Burch 26:56
isn't that. Sorry. Where was it? Kansas? Kansas. That's, that's my brain. Sorry, wrong. K State, I feel
Ben Silverio 27:04
like Kentucky is not too far behind, though. Yeah.
Ansel Burch 27:07
I mean, honestly, tell me one thing that's different about Kansas and Kentucky. Go ahead. I'll wait. I'll wait. Aside from the colonel is from one of them.
Ben Silverio 27:19
Yeah, couldn't tell you,
Ansel Burch 27:23
they're both famously boring. They're both kind of broad. One of them's more easy, the other one's more Westy. I don't know
Ben Silverio 27:37
that's that's what we've got for you.
Ansel Burch 27:40
All right, if you live in Kansas or Kentucky, feel free let us know what makes your state distinct.
Ben Silverio 27:45
Please tell us, is it barbecue? Because I like barbecue,
Ansel Burch 27:51
the better Kansas City is not in Kansas.
Ben Silverio 27:54
Oh, that's right, I forgot about that.
Ansel Burch 27:58
I hate to say it, but the Missouri side is the better side in in my experience.
Ben Silverio 28:05
Oh, my God, such a tangent. But did I tell you that I want to try to hit all 50 states before I turn 50 This is a recent that's a great goal. I've just recently decided that I want to do this because it's like I'm so close already, I drove across the country.
Ansel Burch 28:24
So I put to you, yeah, you did. That's, that's a pro move, right there. I put to you that on your 50th birthday, you should go to Puerto Rico. Oh, that way you hit the you know? Yeah, yeah,
Ben Silverio 28:38
yeah, no, that would be a good one. And that would be a good way to end it, because ending it in Alaska doesn't sound as cool. Oh, it sounds much cooler. Are you kidding? Well, I mean, that's true. God, yeah, cuz I've already hit Hawaii. I've hit all of the East Coast, all the West Coast, there's just some random ones, all of the East Coast, all the fiddly little ones, yeah, because it's like they're Rhode Island from mother Hampshire. Yeah. Like I was staying in in Massachusetts, in Lee, Massachusetts, and I wanted to get dinner, but it was after six o'clock, and everything was closed, so I had to go to New Hampshire to get pizza, and then I went to a comic book Rhode Island. And it was only like a 15 minute drive,
Ansel Burch 29:38
because they're all right, they're so small,
Ben Silverio 29:40
they're so small. It's like going from one borough of New York to another.
Ansel Burch 29:46
I mean, I could drive that far and still be in my neighborhood.
Ben Silverio 29:52
Yeah, that's, that's exactly what LA was like.
Ansel Burch 29:58
I mean, in LA you could drive that long. And still be 10 feet from where you started, for crying out, well,
Ben Silverio 30:03
fair, depending on what time of the day you were driving, that's true. Oh, I miss, I miss La Hill Valley was nice.
Ansel Burch 30:17
Took a little break in in Hill Valley here, yeah, did
Ben Silverio 30:20
you know I, you, I did tell you that I've gone to a large number of Back to the Future filming locations, right?
Ansel Burch 30:28
You have it has come up over the years. Yeah, yeah,
Ben Silverio 30:32
dad, we've been doing this for so long that I don't remember what I've told you anymore.
Ansel Burch 30:38
Same, honestly, I'm amazed I remembered as many things as I've remembered in today's recording session so far.
Ben Silverio 30:45
Because you're a time traveler.
Ansel Burch 30:48
I am. It's for me, it was yesterday. Exactly. The hard part is the continuity with hair.
Ben Silverio 30:55
Ah, yes. Would you like to go first? Or would you like me to go first?
Ansel Burch 31:01
I would happily go first. Yes. Okay, okay, so the thing that I did settle on is maybe a little bit of a cheat, because I did as as has been well established over the course of our series, I did work at the Museum of Science and Industry, and it has colored many, many, many of my interactions ever since. And as a science educator of days past, I would love to tell you about electricity via lightning. Oh yeah, I have pulled up some authoritative sources to give you some real answers about lightning, just to get like into the briefest, briefest situation, thunderstorms have a lot of movement going on up in them. So clouds are being acted upon by winds that move laterally, as well as forces that move up and down, and so those that combination of forces cause there to be a great deal of charge in the clouds themselves. So positive charge tends to be towards the top of the cloud, and negative charges tend to be towards the bottom of the cloud. As that balances out, as the charge grows higher and higher, it creates a field when there's enough potential energy between the cloud and the ground, which is itself positively charged, that's where the lightning happens. So it is the negatively charged particles sandwiched between the positive charged particles at the top of the cloud and the positive charged particles of the ground, pushing that that negative energy down towards the ground. That is where lightning comes from, and that's why, why it likes to come strike at high standing conductors, such as poles and what have you, because the positive charge of those objects is more attractive, which is why lightning rods work. Lightning rods I am, I am hesitant to bring up the great men of history, but here we are. This is one of those ones where there's unquestionably somebody who did it first, and it's Benjamin Franklin. He was the first guy to stick a lightning rod up on the top of the of a building and then hand a wire to a kid because he didn't want to hold it himself. That's not true. He connected it to a grid. But regardless, lightning rods work on this principle. So lightning rods intentionally put that higher that location on top of a building, which is why, when Doc Brown connects the wire to the top of the clock tower, that he is able to conduct the lightning down from from the cloud. So the question then becomes, is there anything to this? 1.21 gigawatts business? And the answer is yes. In fact, according to energy professionals.com 1.21 gigawatts is a legit figure that is the maximum energy output of a bolt of lightning, so thank goodness they recorded that it was a particularly powerful bolt of lightning that struck the clock tower, because that's what you need energy professionals.com. Also gives us a handy comparison for what a light bulb for what a watt is average household light bulbs before the advent of LED technology were ranging between 60 to 100 This is not about brightness, which is what a lot of people think. It's a measurement of how much energy was required to actually power the filament inside the bulb. So the brightness of the bulb had some to do with the wattage going through it, but it all, it honestly had more to do with the kind of filament that was inside that light bulb. Certain metals are brighter. That's the most important thing there. So the I wanted to wrap up with one last thing offered by energy. Professionals.com a legitimate website run by an organization of electricians. So you know, do they know anything about lightning bolt harnessing? I don't know, but they say harnessing the electricity in a lightning bolt is something that has been tried but never successfully pulled off. So while you can conduct electricity across, being able to capture that lightning and store it something we've never been able to pull off. MIT did attempt it, and apparently it went rather badly. Robust safety mechanisms would need to be built to be able to contain the burst of energy and then prevent the entire facility from being blown to bits, is the quote that was provided from MIT. So lightning, it is 1.21 gigawatts. You can collect it from the sky, but you will not be able to store it. So hopefully your Mr. Fusion takes it immediately.
Ben Silverio 35:56
Yeah, suck it. Thomas Edison, that's right now. Do your sources have anything about the correct pronunciation of gigawatt
Ansel Burch 36:10
No, there is no authoritative pronunciation guide in any of these How Stuff Works, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and electric field. Energy professionals.com did not weigh in on gigawatt versus gigawatt. I do wonder. I do wonder. It's a very specific choice that Christopher Lloyd made to call it a gigawatt. I don't know that I've ever heard anyone outside of the context of Back to the Future call it a gigawatt. I have just you have just pointed out that I've been code switching this whole time, and I knew, Oh yeah, you're right. This is the only context in which it's gigawatts.
Ben Silverio 36:52
I would like to know how Doc Brown pronounces.
Ansel Burch 36:57
GIF. Oh yeah, I would bet you he's one of those JIFF people.
Ben Silverio 37:06
Maybe, I mean, if it's gigawatts, then maybe, yeah,
Ansel Burch 37:12
he is a maverick scientist after all. Oh god.
Ben Silverio 37:22
Look. Look what you've done IMDb, like, how dare you? Oh man, well, from one lazy river to another. I bring to you hope? Because, because, yeah, we can all use a little bit. It will be great. And if, if you were to have some, do you know where you'd keep it? You know, chest?
Ansel Burch 37:56
Oh, my God, yes, yes.
Ben Silverio 38:00
I realized during this last rewatch, I'm like, I don't fully know what a Hope Chest is. I assumed it was a dresser, but like, it's not,
Ansel Burch 38:13
it's white people shit. That's what it is.
Ben Silverio 38:15
Super white people shit. I mean, it does have some history in ancient Egypt, but it's more so Middle Ages Europe, and it got carried over to here for a while. So more than a dresser, also called a dowry chest, or a true so chest, or my favorite one, the glory box.
Ansel Burch 38:43
I've never heard glory box.
Ben Silverio 38:45
That's good. Why I don't I've also never
Ansel Burch 38:49
heard it called a trousseau chest. Yeah, true. So I've heard just like, This is my trousseau, but I did never trousseau chest. That's that feels very, very, even more formal. Somehow, it
Ben Silverio 39:03
sounds to me like when someone says PIN number, when you don't pin number, because the end in pin is number, but it's, you know, hat on a hat. We're getting a lot of hats on hats, hats on hats on hats. But historically, hope chests were these large trunks that mothers would pass on to their daughters. A mother would typically start preparing a Hope Chest from the time that their daughter was very young, and slowly start build the collection as the years went by now, if you're like me, and you're thinking collection, it's like, oh, this has got to be some cool stuff, right? It's actually the things that were considered to be essential for young women to start a new life in marriage. So, silverware, fine, cheese. China, linens, fancy clothes, jewelry, maybe a lot of times there are family heirlooms or mementos to remember your family by, so like photo albums, letters or those you know the I was about to say ancient jewelry, but it's not always so ancient, right? But it's just, like, significant, you know, objects and items. Yeah, that, that that a young woman could find comfort in, basically just to be like, Oh, hey, remember, remember these people? They were cool.
Ansel Burch 40:37
It's also a great place to store your children's body parts, turns out
Ben Silverio 40:41
getting there. Oh, all right, sorry,
Ansel Burch 40:46
pretend I said nothing.
Ben Silverio 40:47
When Hope chests were popular, they were mainly made of cedar, because cedar is naturally mold resistant, Insect Repelling, and a very durable wood over time, as as traditions changed, and you know, outlooks on life, marriage rituals evolved, and all those things, the the Hope Chest, or the dowry chest, gradually became smaller, and that's when jewelry boxes started to emerge, and so these large dowry boxes, so in a way, you can kind of trace the Hope Chest to interesting buying women jewelry as gifts pipeline. Now, as Ansel, as Ansel, alluded to another reason why Hope Chest fell out of style because of the reported fatalities of children suffocating.
Ansel Burch 41:48
Oh, that's not what I meant at all. Oh,
Ben Silverio 41:52
see, it got dark. It got real dark. Jesus, yeah, because of the design of a Hope Chest, the lid could be really heavy. So if children got trapped in there, and sometimes, like really fancy one were self locking. So like, even up to 1996 following at least, like, there could have been way more, but there were at least six child suffocation deaths. The manufacturer Lane furniture recalled 12 million self locking hope chests, which could not be opened from the inside.
Ansel Burch 42:33
So, yeah, that feels like a an obvious mistake. Yeah.
Ben Silverio 42:40
So, I mean, that's a pretty good reason to stop using a Hope Chest. Or, if you were to use one, make them much, much smaller. Now, I do believe some people will use one as like a time capsule, or just like a fancy way to store memorabilia from the family. You know, things that are being passed down. But you know, since dowries fell out of fashion, the Hope Chest has faded away since Lorraine Banes time, where she puts Calvin Klein's pants when she takes them off in her bedroom, what were you talking about with the body parts?
Ansel Burch 43:18
Oh, well, so as you said, family mementos are something that commonly find their way into the Hope Chest. So my mother stored in her Hope Chest locks of our hair, our baby teeth, photo albums, all sorts all sorts of bits of ephemera related to our childhoods.
Ben Silverio 43:45
What was she hoping to do with those I hate
Ansel Burch 43:48
Boy, that is a great question. Moms do some weird shit. I don't know that we had a word for postpartum depression back then. This was 1985 it was a dark time. But I mean, moms have been collecting locks of hair. We as a people have been collecting locks of hair for a long time. And the question why, and for what, I don't know that that's ever been answered. For me. I read the whole story of rape of the lock and aside from being upset, somebody cut her hair, I don't know why he wanted it. Still don't know what that was about. You want to you want to smell her hair. Maybe that's creepy. Really.
Ben Silverio 44:32
The question is, are white dudes, okay? Like, no, no.
Ansel Burch 44:38
We have too much power and no idea what to do with it, yeah and yeah, no, no.
Ben Silverio 44:43
Big truth. Big big truth.
Ansel Burch 44:46
Yeah, big truth. But yeah, we had a Hope Chest growing up. And as I actually now that you mentioned it, I do recall being warned not to touch it, and because the lid was very heavy, that was something that was told to me. I. I don't know that anybody said because you could fall in it and die. I don't know that that was made explicit, and that Hope Chest was big enough my brother and I could have fit in it at the same time. So it was a man that's a significant danger. You could lose. You lose the whole line right there.
Ben Silverio 45:19
I'm not sure if it was post 1996 or, like slightly before that. But at some point they did introduce drawers to hope, chests to make them. Oh, sure, you know.
Ansel Burch 45:32
I mean, if you look back at chests for storage, which I hope, chest is just one that is special, right, right? Chests for storage with with drawers, not so much pull out drawers, but drawers that set in, oh God, go way, way, way back. Yeah. So they were like organizational boxes within more than, more than a drawer, like you might imagine. But some of them, I mean, and I'm again, I Who knows if there are rules around what counts as a Hope Chest, but you can get some real cool chests out there. Even still today there are, there are woodworkers who are replicating these old designs with, you know, hidden compartments and, you know, trick latches and just all sorts of shit. Get. Get into the pirate side of Tiktok for a minute. You'll you'll see some you'll see some chest technology that you never thought you needed,
Ben Silverio 46:34
because you don't need people. If you get some new things in your algorithm about woodworking and hope chests, you're welcome. Yep, this is from your friend.
Ansel Burch 46:43
I'll put it into the metadata for just for you.
Ben Silverio 46:48
Well, we hope you enjoyed these very educational moments courtesy of your resident, you know, Googlers. Oh, yeah, but to be fair, accurate, to be fair, Ansel did have that information beforehand, because he's an educator, so I was
Ansel Burch 47:14
at one time. Yeah, there was so you know, there was a time when I would have given you that speech while standing under a tesla coil, and it would have been much cooler. You wouldn't have heard the end of it.
Ben Silverio 47:26
Fuck Mary. Kill Tesla. Franklin Edison,
Ansel Burch 47:34
Oh, easy, easy. That's not there's no conversation there, Mary Tesla, because then you still get to fuck him. Oh, kill Edison. That guy's a fuck. And, yeah, you got to fuck Franklin, because Franklin, Franklin fucked
Ben Silverio 47:55
Yeah, but that's, that's part of, like, why I was questioning it, like you didn't know what Franklin had that day?
Ansel Burch 48:03
Oh, sure, but you're not gonna kill him and fuck Edison.
Ben Silverio 48:07
I mean, maybe you want revenge on Edison.
Ansel Burch 48:12
Hate fuck you can hate fucking
Ben Silverio 48:14
exactly, you know, people do that.
Ansel Burch 48:21
Oh, that's gonna be its own clip.
Ben Silverio 48:29
Oh, see, we hear it time to party continuously give and give and give. But we hope you're here for it, because, you know, you've been here for five years and 200 episodes, and we're we're very, very appreciative of it, because we are ridiculous. I, in particular, am very ridiculous. So thank you for listening to my nonsense for this long. Hopefully you'll continue this journey with us, because there's so many more time travel movies to talk about.
Ansel Burch 49:04
Check out our letterbox. Let us know which ones you want to see. Because, yeah,
Ben Silverio 49:08
yeah, on and on that note, you can find us on the internet. I'm at B Silverio 20, wherever I want to be,
Ansel Burch 49:15
and I am at the indecisionist on all the meta properties and blue sky. You can check us out on letterbox to see all the movies that we have watched and all the movies we plan to watch, an evolving list on that side. Do let us know which ones you think we should watch in the near future. And I do want to put in a quick plug as well for my new podcast, which started dropping in February. The world builders society available from indecisionist pod Productions is a exploration into storytelling through world building. So we talk through the process of building a new world for specifically for TT RPGs, although we are also talking about, you know, plays and books and movies and other endeavors. Is where a new world is needed, and after we complete three episodes of the podcast, that same world is then taken over onto the reflect games Twitch stream, where you can watch a game get played in that world. So it is a cool series with a bunch of different moving pieces video from the Twitch streams is available on the reflect games YouTube as well, so you can watch past episodes of which there are already some head on over there. There's plenty to check out, and more to come. Yeah, it's been very, very cool.
Ben Silverio 50:37
Hell yeah. Play along friends.
Ansel Burch 50:40
Yeah. This has been an indecisionist production. Special thanks to April maralba for our podcast art and to Marlon longitud of Marlin and the shakes for our amazing theme song.
Ben Silverio 50:51
And another incredible debt of gratitude goes out to the Enigma Aaron Klein for wouldn't be here with that with us? Yep, thanks for being there at the beginning. Thanks for being here with us. Now. Tune in next week, because we're about to, you know, dive in a little bit deeper with Aaron Klein, thanks for our new format. Hope you like it. We'll see how it goes, friends, you know, yeah, we're all on a journey here until next time, make like a tree and get out of here. Okay, and be excellent to each other
Ansel Burch 51:29
and party on dudes.
