Warm-Up Video Scripts

UNIT 1
Capital Pool Checkers
Narrator: Not only do you enjoy the camaraderie of it, but you make long time friendships. We know
their family. We know their friends. We know what they do and how they travel in life. When people are
sick, we go by and check on them. When people can no longer get around, we check on them.
Man on screen: It’s good to know how to play checkers.
Narrator: This place is absolutely necessary for our life situation and carry on the traditions that
brought us through the rough times.
Narrator: I’m Tal Roberts and I came to DC in 1953. I’ve been playing checkers all of my life. At
eight or nine years old I hated everything in life. I hated school. I hated everybody. I couldn’t read, I
couldn’t write, but when I got on the checkerboard, I could see that if I moved in, moved here, I’d get
an advantage on them. And when I learned how to play checkers I learned how to communicate. So,
I went from a dunce to a halfway decent person and so checkers changed my life. Anybody playing
this game, it will change your life also. And checkers brings back a camaraderie that you will never
find anywhere in life again.
Hard Rock: My name is Curtis Brothers. You can call me Hard Rock because I’m the hardest
checkers player that you could ever meet.
The Z-Man: I’m Robert Mackie the Z-Man. From coast to coast they know the fame. The Z-man is
what they call him, Mr. Mackie’s name.
The Pressure Man: Donald Cunningham, better known as the Pressure Man.
Man: I do not have a nickname yet. I like to think that I’m waiting until I get good enough, that way it’s
actually a good nickname and doesn’t become just an insult or something like that.
The Stealer: He’s a friend of mine, but on the board, he wants to beat me bad. And of course, he gets
lucky every now and then.
The Z-Man: It’s a calculation thing. It’s a mind game.
Hard Rock: I lost one game today and the only reason I lost is because I felt sorry for him. I could
have just been undefeated.
The Z-Man: You remember games. Sooner or later you’ll figure him out. If you don’t, you’re going to
make a mistake and that’s what the game is won and lost on.
The Pressure Man: You know, sometimes you have to call 9-1-1 because there’s something heating
up, man, you know.
The Z-Man: You know, it could get heated and you let it go in that situation and that’s the whole show.
Man: He really beat himself.
Hard Rock: I think I joined this club about maybe fifteen years ago.
The Z-Man: I’ve been in the checkers club for, I don’t know, 20 years.
Man: You know I’ve definitely learned a lot over the last year. When I first came in, there was no way
I was going to win a game and now if it’s a good day, then yeah, I can win sometimes. And if it’s a
bad day, I’ll get laughed out of here. But I never found a community like this around a specific game,
and so I’ve really enjoyed not just the game, but the people who come together to play it. It’s also a
community that I think should be prioritized. That we keep these institutions alive in DC, in a city that’s
rapidly kind of gentrifying and becoming much richer that we don’t lose out on all the kind of historical
and cultural heritage that we’ve built.
Narrator: Not only is gentrification coming in, but modernization is coming in and, unless there’s a
dramatic change at some point in time, there will not be a checker club in Washington, DC. So it is
ultimately, it is primarily important, that we keep this game going and we keep our place right here in
the nation’s capital, such that we can carry on the tradition that has taken us throughout the life.
Off camera: Sing it for the crowd.

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Narrator: Well listen, this song is a spur-of-the-moment thing. Now the one song that comes into my
mind is the Old Smokey. On Top of Old Smokey. All covered with snow, I left my heart, in Toredo.
Nobody wants to hear that song sung.
Off camera: You sing it when you beat somebody bad right?
Narrator: Yeah, I sing it and I ring the bell. You see that bell over there? That’s it. That’s the bell that
we ring. Ring the bell over there.
Narrator: I use checkers with manual dexterity like a surgeon uses his scalpel. I do magical things on
the checkerboard. Yeah, I got a nickname. My nickname is the Razor.

UNIT 2
A Conference Call
Tripp: Tripp Crosby
AFV: has joined the meeting.
Beth: Beth
AFV: has joined the meeting.
Beth: Hello?
Tripp: Tyler?
Beth: No, this is Beth, from ICS.
Tripp: Oh, hey, Beth.
Tripp: How are you doing?
Beth: Oh, good, yeah. Just makin’ it, you know.
Tyler: Tyler
AFV: has joined the meeting.
Tripp: Alright, well, uhh, this is Tripp. Who’s here?
Tyler: Tyler’s here.
Beth: Beth’s here.
Tripp: OK, the purpose of today’s meeting is to discuss the—
John: Yeah, I’ll be able to do it in, like, thirty minutes. John
AFV: has joined the meeting.
Tripp: Hi, John.
John: Hi.
Tripp: I was just trying to go over the purpose of today’s meeting, which is to discuss the delivera—
Tyler: Tyler
AFV: has joined the meeting.
Tyler: Sorry, guys, I got cut off. Is Paul here? I sent him an invite.
Beth: Put in your access code!
John: No, no, no, that’s your PIN number!
Tripp: It should be a nine-digit number!
Tyler: Try pressing the pound key.
Paul: Paul
AFV: has joined the meeting.
Tripp: Any questions before we move on?
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Beth: Yes, this is Beth. What’s our best plan of attack for the second quarter?
Tripp: The question actually—
John: I think what we should do—
Tripp and John: Go ahead!
John: Well, I think what we should really do is diversify, because—
Tripp: Well, it actually depends on how you look at it, because the really com—
John and Tripp: Go ahead.
Beth: Well, given sales—
Tripp: Well, lemme just say that—
Beth: OK.
Tripp: That’s a great graph, John. Uh . . .Tyler?
Tyler: Well, my main concern with–– the projections for–– year–– was that they’re just insufficient. I
mean, they’re not even taking into account the—
John: Did we, did we lose Tyler again?
Tyler: Hello?
Tripp: John, are you guys taking distributions?
John: (no sound)
Tripp: John?
John: Oh, my bad. I was on mute. Let me— let me start over.
Tripp: So, I’ve prepared a presentation. I’m sharing it with all of you. You should be able to see it on
your screen right now.
Beth: Got it!
Paul: I don’t see a link anywhere.
John: It says I need to download a plug-in.
Tripp: We are all using Macs, I’m assuming?
Multiple people: Yeah. Yup.
Paul: How can you . . . Um.
Tripp: Finances are looking great. Paul, do you have any comments on staffing?
Paul: I was thinking about that, because if we get a few more contractor types in . . . Hold on, I’m
sorry. Rex, get down!
Beth: I don’t know. I feel like when I looked at the numbers from last quarter that you couldn’t really
tell a huge difference . . . so if you want to really tighten that up, and I . . .
Tripp: To me, staffing is a huge—
Beth: What is that?!
Tripp: Is that me?
John: That’s not me, I don’t think.
Tripp: I just want to go over a couple of details as we move into our next section here. We got three
new departments coming on—
Tyler: Breakin’ up a little bit, guys.
Tripp: . . . by the end of Q3 . . .
Tyler: Driving through a dead spot.
Tripp: . . . so I need everyone to give me detailed evaluations each month . . .

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Tyler: Sorry, guys.

Tripp: . . . so that we know . . .
Tripp: That’s it, guys. Beth, you’ll send out a recap email that could have basically taken the place of
this whole meeting, correct?
Beth: Yup! Always do.
Dave: Yeah, thanks for doing that, Beth.
Tripp: Dave! You’ve been here the whole time?
Dave: Yeah.
Tripp: Huh. Well, thanks everyone, once again. Oh, one more th—

UNIT 3
The Man, The Myth, The Cube
Narrator: There are 43 quintillion possible combinations. Now imagine you have no websites, no
books, and no one to show you how to solve it, because you invented it. But you didn’t invent the
Rubik’s Cube. This guy did.
Erno Rubik: My name is Erno Rubik. I was born here in this beautiful city of Budapest.
Narrator: It was 1974. Thirty-year-old Erno Rubik was just beginning his career in academia.
Erno Rubik: I was lecturing design and architecture. I was very similar in age with the students, I was
very ambitious to find new ways to teach them, especially about space and three dimension[s].
I made a cube as a teaching aid, and for myself to learn something from it.
Narrator: Once the physical cube was put together, Erno began hunting for its secrets.
Erno Rubik: The question was not “[Is it] possible to solve it?” But, the question was “[Is it] possible
to find a method to do that?” There are 26 small cubes. It looks the same, but in the structure of the
cube, they have different rules.
Narrator: Erno racked his brain for a strategy, twisting and turning the cube in his hands and his head
to unlock his creation.
Erno Rubik: After I started to understand the nature of the structure and the movements, I found a
way for a solution, it’s not a straight way.
Narrator: And after a month, he cracked the code. But the story doesn’t end there.
Erno Rubik: I had the feeling [of] the potential of the object. I found it very simple to manufacture,
and the result of that, it can be an object, which is available for everyone.
Narrator: In 1980, Erno would finally bring his cube to the world. And from there, it took off, becoming
one of the best-selling toys of all time.
Erno Rubik: Because of the content of the cube, the world discovered it’s not a gadget, it’s something
that is more valuable, [has] more long life.
Narrator: And after almost 40 years, Rubik’s Cube has seen a comeback, with hundreds of
competitions every year across the world. For Erno, the cube that bears his name is more than just a
toy: it’s a reminder to never give up.
Erno Rubik: There’s always a way for a solution. There’s always a way to find something else,
something new, something different, or find the result of your work. If today is not everything is good, it
doesn’t mean tomorrow cannot be better. Depends on you.

UNIT 4
Amber Case: Caring for your Second Self
Amber Case: My name is Amber Case. I’m a National Geographic Explorer and a researcher in the
field of cyborg anthropology.

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Anthropologists study human relationships. Cyborg anthropologists study humans and technology
and how technology effects culture.
But what is a cyborg?
Even though the word seems like it comes from the movies, the origin of the term actually comes from
a 1960 paper on space travel.
You are a cyborg any time you use a tool for the purpose of adapting to a new environment.
Just as a hammer is an extension of your fist and a knife is an extension of your teeth, a computer
could be considered an extension of your mind.
As humans, we can trade these tools out for other tools, and we can create new tools and techniques
to adapt to our environments or to share information.
The ways in which we communicate with each other and share information is very different to how it
was just a few years ago.
We all have email, but most of us also have multiple social media accounts as well. I have an account
that I use to post status updates, an account I use to post photos, and an account that I use to
connect with other professionals. I also have a blog and a professional website.
I use these different accounts to stay in touch with people, to keep my followers informed about my
work, to share exciting developments, and to conduct business.
Social media can be fun and exciting, but of course it can also create difficulties.
One reason is because of our second self.
Psychologist Sherry Turkle coined this term to describe the trail of data that contributes to our
digital selves.
We experience thousands of moments every day and only share a few of those moments online.
When we create a post, share a photo of ourselves, or retweet a news story, we are contributing to our
digital footprint and, just like the real-life version of ourselves that interacts everyday with people face
to face, we need to think carefully about how we present our second self. That’s because anyone,
including complete strangers, can discover a lot about us.
It’s important to manage this information. What if a post from a few years ago affects your chances of
getting into college? What if a status update stops you from getting that job you’ve always wanted?
Maybe you are a different person than you were a few years ago. But if you forget to make the
changes to your second self, that school or that employer can’t know that you’ve changed.
Some people have two accounts, a private and a public account, so that they can share specific,
unfiltered content with a close group of friends and more professional content with the wider world.
In the same way that you wake up, take a shower, and get dressed every morning, you need to learn
to do that for your second self.
Here are a few things you can do right now to maintain your second self.
First, check your privacy settings. Make sure that your posts aren’t visible to people you don’t know.
Second, take a look at your photos. Are there any photos you don’t want people to see? Similarly,
have a look through your posts and comments and ask yourself the same question.
Think about the future. If you want to continue using social media to post and share whatever you like,
you might consider creating a separate account that uses a nickname instead of your real name.

UNIT 5
Your Memory under Stress
Narrator: Take a look at your screen. Behind these cards are ten pairs of images. Here’s a sneak
peek. In a moment, you’ll have five seconds to memorize the location of each pair which should be
plenty of time. Ready? Go.
Now we’re going to flip over just one card. All you have to do is call out the number of the matching
card. You have three seconds. Ready? Go. Did you choose number eight? There’s the other wrench.

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If you missed it, don’t worry. You’ll have two more chances. Take a look at the objects one more time.
Ready for another? Here’s the next card. Did you pick one? There’s the football. Take one more look
at the board. Let’s do one more. Did you pick eighteen? There’s the other pair of headphones. If you
couldn’t locate all three pairs, don’t worry? You’re like 90% of the people we surveyed. But did you
notice some of the ways we made the game more stressful? By adding tight time constraints and the
loud noise of the ticking clock, we set off your brain’s alarm bells.
Narrator: It’s the same thing that happens to most people when they have to speak in public.
Narrator: And as comedian Ben Bailey knows, the physical symptoms can be dramatic.
Ben Bailey: You can’t remember what you’re going to say next. Then your heart starts pounding. Your
tongue feels so big it’s filling your entire mouth. You lose your train of thought. And you’re dead in the
water, right?
Man: That is exactly what happened.
Ben: Yeah, I know. I was talking about you. It doesn’t happen to me.
Narrator: Ben is right. And every stress response he just mentioned is triggered by your amygdala.
When you’re facing stress, the most primitive part of your brain, the amygdala, signals a flood of
hormones into your bloodstream that includes adrenaline and cortisol. These hormones cause your
breathing to quicken, your heart to pump faster and your senses to become sharper.
All in an effort to combat any perceived threat even if that threat is just a tough crowd or your daily
commute.

UNIT 6
A Thousand Words
(music only)

UNIT 7
The Story of Plastic
Narrator: Hopefully you know this already, but that’s a toothbrush. So are these. And the one thing
they have in common? They’re all plastic. But here’s something you might not know. This routine has
been around for a millennia and back then they used chewing sticks. Fast forward a bit to 1498,
China. They used a bamboo handle and some hog hair.
But here’s the thing. One estimate says one billion toothbrushes are ending up here every year in the
US and that sounds bad. But we might be able to change that.
This is Charlotte Fiell.
Charlotte: F-I-E-L-L and it’s pronounced fee-el.
Narrator: She’s a leading expert on design and has written a lot of books. Including this one on the
history of plastics.
Charlotte: It was a fascinating journey because I didn’t realize what an incredible history it had. In
the future we have to use plastics more thoughtfully. When you actually think about them, they are
incredibly noble, precious materials. There’s no reason why something that’s made of plastic can’t
last a lifetime.
Narrator: The answer: three to four months. At least according to the ADA. So, with 300 million
Americans that’s 1.2 billion toothbrushes being thrown away just in America. That’s enough to wrap
around the world four times. Now let’s look ahead.
Charlotte: If you are a designer, you have an absolute duty to design properly, especially, especially
if they’re using plastics because plastics might be cheap materials, but they actually have a very high
impact on the environment. They’re very expensive materials when you actually think of them in a
holistic way.

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Narrator: Ok so here are some options: We could use alternative materials. Bone, metal, recycled
plastic, or bamboo could work. There are toothbrushes with replaceable heads and then there’s
pig hair which biodegrades but it wouldn’t be an option for vegans and people with certain
religious beliefs.
Lastly, chewing sticks created from the Neem tree are a totally plastic free option. But that would be a
huge cultural shift. Change takes time and because we’ve been using the same toothbrush design for
about seventy years, maybe that time is now.

UNIT 8
Science Fiction Inspires the Future of Science
Recording: The wonders of the future. The marvels of the present.
Narrator: Science fiction and science innovation have been intertwined since sci-fi’s origins. From
video chat, to self-driving cars, to space flight. There’s the science fiction,
Neil Armstrong: That’s one small step for man,
Narrator: And the science reality.
Neil Armstrong: One giant leap for mankind.
Narrator: Sci-fi popped up in the 19th century during the industrial revolution when feats of
engineering were being achieved and widely used at lightning speed.
Man: All these are part of a modern age of machines powered by electricity.
Narrator: By taking existing technology a few steps beyond reality, science fiction has predicted and
inspired real science innovation.
Narrator: In French sci-fi pioneer Jules Verne’s 1865 novel, From the Earth to the Moon, members of a
gun club launch themselves in a projectile from a cannon to the moon. Because why not?
Man: Wahoo
Narrator: Verne attempted to do the actual math and work out what it would take to launch a vehicle
to the moon. As it turned out, he was surprisingly accurate. With striking similarities to NASA’s Apollo
11 command module, Verne’s fictional shell was hollow and made mostly of aluminum and was
crewed by 3 people. It launched from Florida and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, like the Apollo
11 command module would just over 100 years later, in July 1969.
Narrator: Verne’s sci-fi mission inspired science to reach for the moon. Back on earth, sci-fi turned
the telephone into a radical new way to connect.
As communication devices have dramatically changed, sci-fi has been a step ahead, imagining new
devices, and their effects on society for better . . .
Cartoon voice: Come in Dick Tracy.
Narrator: and for worse.
Modern Times: Hey! Quit stalling, get back to work!
Narrator: Mobile phones and tablets appeared in sci-fi years before we had them in real life. But what
we’ve wanted all along is face-to-face contact.
Man: Hey, Big M.
Narrator: Through a device
Announcer: Telephone TV, with callers able to see as well as hear.
Narrator: At least since the invention of the telephone, illustrators and authors envisioned combining
pictures with sound, like French author and illustrator George du Maurier’s Telephonoscope, which
looks like a combination video phone and flat screen tv. The video phone appeared in the first
episode of The Jetsons in 1962.
Jane: Mother!

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Narrator: When Jane Jetson had a chat with her mother. Various versions of video chatting appeared
in sci-fi TV and movies during the 20th century.
Man: Yes? What is it?
Narrator: Meanwhile, AT&T’s Bell Labs was developing a real-life picture phone.
Narrator: Sci-fi cartoons didn’t just predict new devices. They’ve even influenced modern
housekeeping. Sci-fi has long imagined a future with robots, but has often portrayed them as
one-dimensional, fully good
Lost in Space: Danger! No, Will Robinson, danger!
Narrator: Or fully evil. Early sci-fi robots sometimes tried to destroy humanity, but often they were
helpful assistants, doing menial chores for humans.
Announcer: Carpets a bit dirty? Leave it to Robert. He’s the perfect household help, all right!
Narrator: Like Rosie, the Jetson family’s housekeeper who cooked, cleaned, and helped the kids
with homework. Most homes today don’t yet have robot butlers, but in 2002 robotics company iRobot
introduced the Roomba, a robotic vacuum that could automatically clean floors. Colin Angle, co-
founder of iRobot, cites Rosie the robot as an inspiration for the Roomba. Thanks Rosie!
Narrator: Robots that move more like animals or humans have long been in development. Some even
exceed human abilities. Like that! Boston Dynamic’s robots can open doors, carry heavy objects, and
do parkour. Sci-fi has also imagined artificial intelligence inside machines that can think and problem
solve at a human-like level.
Narrator: Rosie led to the Roomba, and now we’ve got Alexa. But where are the cars sci-fi promised us?
Narrator: Sci-fi has long imagined that flying cars would zip around unencumbered by traffic.
Doc Brown: Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.
Narrator: In Star Wars, Blade Runner, and The Fifth Element, flying cars just seem right.
Announcer: Coming out of the garage, it’s an automobile, on its way to a hangar to become an
airplane.
Narrator: While flying cars once seemed inevitable, they haven’t quite caught on yet, even
though inventors have been trying for decades. Now companies like Uber are developing
airborne ride-sharing, but the infrastructure and regulations don’t yet exist to support it.
Narrator: Sci-fi also predicted self-driving cars, but didn’t quite explain how it worked.
Demolition Man woman: Self-drive on.
Computer voice: Self-drive engaged.
Kitt: May I suggest you put the car on the auto-cruise mode for safety sake?
Michael: No, you may not.
Narrator: The self-driving car may soon be a common reality. Google, Tesla, Ford, Uber, and others
have been developing self-driving cars for years. Cities including Paris and Beijing are testing self-
driving cars on the road. And Waymo has released a fleet of truly driverless taxis in Phoenix, Arizona.
The cars use sensors and complex algorithms to navigate and to avoid collisions.
Narrator: Science fiction creators have not only envisioned new technologies, but have prototyped
the worlds in which they exist, able to go where science has not yet gone.
Isaac Asimov: The true value of science fiction, to me, rests in the fact that it permits speculation,
and makes it respectable. Such speculation is important, today more than ever before, tomorrow more
than today. The science fiction writer can leap across chasms where no evidence has yet filled in
matters.
Narrator: As sci-fi’s imaginings become reality, they will again inspire real world innovations, which
will inspire new science fiction in a continuing loop.

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UNIT 9
What It Is Like to Live in a World Without Smells
Woman 1: I wish I had more of these dreams. I had one dream. I woke up so happy; it was so real! I
remember being in the kitchen and all of the sudden I smelled broccoli that I took out of the fridge. It
was just so real and when I woke up, I was happy.
Man 1: My friends would say things, like we would be near a movie theater and they would say “I
smell popcorn.” And I actually had no idea that what they were saying related to something they were
taking in through their senses from the environment.
Man 2: Riding the train to work in the morning, the train’s pretty crowded so you’re really close to the
person next to you. It was some older woman, her hair was inches from my face, it was touching my
face, and I was just grateful that I couldn’t smell what her hair might have smelled like.
Man 3: I went on believing for so many years that I had a sense of smell, but I had to learn how to use
it. It wasn’t until at least midway through elementary school that I said, “okay, this is a real thing that I
can’t do.”
Man 4: My father can’t smell, I have an uncle who can’t smell, my grandfather can’t smell. It’s just
sort of assumed that I would not have a sense of smell. My earliest memories are my mother sitting
down with me with scratch and sniff books, and I always just remember thinking, okay, everything just
smells the same.
Woman 2: As I was working in the kitchen, everything was about smell. It was the smell of veal stock
bubbling on the stove. It was the smell of butter melting in the pan. Smell gave flavor to all of the
different ingredients I was working with. Without a sense of smell, eating for me became like my world
had faded from color to black and white.
Man 1: I understand it’s very common for people without a sense of smell to not be able to taste, but
that’s not the case with me. I have a very vivid sense of taste.
Man 4: I can taste. I have true taste, which is bitter, sweet, salty, sour, but I don’t taste flavors.
So, between two bowls of ice cream I’m not going to be able to tell which is vanilla and which is
chocolate.
Man 3: There’s this new car smell that everyone talks about and they can’t describe it.
Man 5: My baby. I’d like to smell my baby. I heard new babies smell really nice.
Man 4: Barbecue. The grass.
Man 3: People come into my room and they’ll say, “Oh, this smells just like you,” and I don’t really get
that.
Man 4: I’ve heard people say, “It smells like it’s going to rain.” I just don’t— I can’t understand how it
can smell like the weather.
Man 2: Wintertime was always a— with the fireplaces on my block back home— it was always a good
smell growing up as a kid. I know summer’s going to come up and there’s going to be barbecues.
That’s something I’m going to miss, too. Just good times I liked with certain smells.
Woman 3: I realized that I was picking up a smell. Then it clicked and I was like oh my gosh that’s
the exhaust and the gas fumes from the bus. It was like someone cracked open the window and, you
know, I had that little bit of hope back.
Woman 2: Smell is linked to some of the most important parts of our lives. It’s linked to our memories.
It’s linked to our childhood. It’s linked to our past. It says a lot about what we eat, how we choose
to eat, where we like to go, what we like to put on our skin. It brings us closer to people. It makes
us recognize the people that we love. It’s complicated, and it’s not completely understood by the
scientific community. But we do know that it begins with a molecule and there are many different
stops and signals along the way.

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UNIT 10
Cows vs Crime
Man 1: Turning right onto Sipes, South-bound on Sipes Avenue. Oh, signal poor. Signal poor. Sipes
and Celery. Bail out. Driver’s bailing. Still got a passenger in the vehicle. South and east of you,
actually a large group of cows is following her. A good visual. It looks like they may attack her.
Man 2: [unintelligible] I’m going to give you my flashlight you can tell me where to go from here.
Man 1: Keep going southeast, she’s pretty far into the field now. If you see the large group of cows?
They’re literally following her and chasing her.
Man 2: [unintelligible]
Man 1: Alright we gotta let up.
Man 3: Taylor, Sambur, if one of y’all want to go east toward Celery, there’s a driveway that cuts to
south there, might help.

UNIT 11
The World’s Largest Wholesale Market
Scotty: This is, as far as I know, the largest wholesale market of its kind in the world. It’s 5.5 million
square meters, which is about 60 million square feet, it’s 7 kilometers long. So, I think we’ve got to go
inside. We’ve got to go find a map and come up with a plan here. Because there’s no way we’re going
to see all of this.
Collin: Yeah, without a doubt, we’ll need that plan.
Scotty: Should we jump into it?
Collin: I’m ready.
Scotty: OK. OK, let’s do it.
Scotty: They have every possible electric vehicle you could dream of here. Anything that’s got a
battery and a motor in it, it’s here.
Scotty: What is this thing? This is a crazy, crazy contraption. How much is this? 720 RNB?
Saleswoman: Yes.
Collin: Per unit?
Scotty: Yeah, per unit. So, like a hundred bucks, a little over a hundred bucks. It’s a what? A hover
bike?
Saleswoman: Yeah.
Scotty: A hover bike. Awesome.
Scotty: There’s a shop for everything here, a specialty shop for everything. Dude, this is so incredible.
It’s like, I think one of the things that this really hits home for me is like how specialized everything is.
Like, we saw a shop that sells nothing, but like saw blades, right?
Collin: Yeah, it’s crazy. We are at like, like the source of like the whole world. Like, when it comes to
like—
Scotty: Pretty much like everything is made here.
Collin: Like this is the building.
Scotty: Like everything that you buy in like your average retail shop, like a lot of it comes from here.
Scotty: Sorry, you were saying you’re a trader.
Trader: We’re traders.
Scotty: From where?
Trader: From Dubai. We just come here and we’ll see everything.

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Scotty: Yeah, what kind of things do you buy? What’s typical for you?
Trader: Door handles.
Scotty: What is it?
Trader: Door handles.
Scotty: Door handles.
Trader: Only one item.
Scotty: That is so specialized. So, you’re a door handle trader. Do you own a shop?
Trader: Yeah, we have—
Scotty: You own shops.
Trader: We have five shops in five countries, Qatar, Kuwait, Dubai—
Scotty: And only door handles.
Trader: Only door handles, one item.
Scotty: That’s amazing. We were just commenting how specialized each shop is here.
Scotty: So, we have finally made it to another district. We’re in District 1 now, bottom floor which is
toys. Should we go look at some toys?
Collin: Yeah.
Scotty: This is I think my favorite section.
Collin: It’s looking pretty wild here.
Scotty: Yeah, kids everywhere.
Now it looks like we’re in the floral section like flake flowers–flake flowers. We’re in the fake flowers
section which is, like, it’s all plastic. But it’s pretty. It’s very peaceful around here.
Scotty: I think we’ve made it to Christmas. It is Santa Claus everywhere, Christmas trees as far as the
eye can see, and tinsel around every corner.
Scotty: It’s like we’re walking through a Christmas shop, right?
Collin: Yeah, we’re at Walmart during the holidays.
Scotty: During Christmas.
Collin: Yeah. I probably had a fake tree in the past, as a kid, that has came from this market.
Scotty: I think that’s true. Supposedly 60% of all Christmas decorations come from Yiwu.
Collin: Yeah.
Scotty: Which is a crazy, crazy number.
Scotty: I don’t know. What are your takeaways from the day? This is your first time here.
Collin: It’s . . . a lot. A lot. Sensory overload for one. Kind of really puts everything into perspective.
Literally everything you see when you go buy things, they have it all here.
Scotty: It really changed my worldview about how I see stuff, and where does stuff come from, and
how is it made. It really changed a lot of things that I thought of like, oh, coming from a particular
place. No, a lot of it probably comes from here. We’ve just barely scratched the surface in this video.
I mean, it would take, I don’t know, 50 videos for us to really do it justice.

UNIT 12
To Scale: The Solar System
Wylie: If you look up an image of the Earth and Moon, you’re going to get a picture where they’re
quite close together. Something like that, but in reality the Earth and Moon are about that far apart.
That is the Earth and the Moon to scale. Taking the same concept but for the solar system, every

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single picture of the solar system that we ever encounter is not to scale. If you put the orbits to scale
on a piece of paper, the planets become microscopic and you won’t be able to see them. There is
literally not an image that adequately shows you what it actually looks like from out there. The only
way to see a scale model of the solar system is to build one.
Wylie: Welcome to Black Rock Desert.
Wylie: This is Alex, I’m Wylie. He’s gonna be behind the camera. I’m gonna be probably making a lot
of mistakes on camera. We have 36 hours to measure the distances, trace out the orbits, and set up
a time lapse shot from up on top of a nearby mountain. To create a scale model with an earth only as
big as this marble you need 7 miles of empty space. So that’s why we’re here.
Alex: Why did you guys come?
Man: I don’t have a job.
Wylie: At this scale, the Sun is a meter and a half, so about that big around. So, we are driving right
now to mercury. And we’ve arrived.
Wylie: Venus is the same size as Earth. I have the world in my pocket somewhere, and Earth. And this
is Mars. Got a couple of robots rolling around on that one. Once the time lapse is ready, we’ll drive
each orbit with a light. Hopefully, you’ll be able to tell just how big they really are.
Wylie: Onward to the outer planets. Jupiter.
Wylie: Saturn. That tiny light out there is our Sun just over a mile away. The Sun’s way, way out there
now.
Wylie: So, this is it. This is the edge of the solar system.
Alex: So, right now it’s about 7:00 a.m. We just woke up right before the sun’s about to rise. We are on
the Earth’s orbit. Wylie’s over there holding our Sun. Cue the dramatic sunrise music.
Wylie: So, if we’ve made our model correctly, your perspective from where earth is on the model will
match your perspective from standing on the real earth, so if you look back at the Sun, you will see
that the model Sun and the real Sun are the exact same size. And that’s how you can tell that the
proportions are correct.
Wylie: There are 24 people in the entire history of the human species—billions of people—who have
actually seen the full circle of the earth with their own eyes.
News: Following the breakfast the astronauts went to the suit room where they donned their space
suits.
Announcer: This is man’s attempt to get to the moon.
Radio: 2-1-0- We have lift off. Lift off at 7:51 . . .
Possibly Gene Cernan: In Earth orbit, the horizon is slightly curved. When you head on out to
the moon, the horizon slowly curves around and upon itself and all of a sudden, you’re looking at
something that is very strange but it is very, very familiar.
Astronaut: Oh my god, look at that picture over there. Wow, that’s pretty.
Jim Lovell: You can put your thumb up and you can hide the earth behind your thumb. Everything
that you have ever known, all behind your thumb.
Former Astronaut: Nothing bigger than that way up there.
Former Astronaut: It’s really beautiful. You can cry.
Wylie: That’s what I really wanted to try and encapture. We are on a marble floating in the middle of
nothing. When you sort of come face-to-face with that, it’s staggering.

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