Bobby Edwards - Squatty Potty Inventor & CEO

Disability, gender and sexuality, politics of public space, and intersectional accessibility. Some enchanted conference, across a crowded plate of beans at Sheffield Hallam University, Dr. Charlotte Jones and Dr. Jen Slater discovered a shared passion for poop. One year later, “Around the Toilet” was born, performing collaborative arts-based research on bathrooms as places of inclusion and/or exclusion. Shawn Shafner (The Puru) sits down with the dynamic doo-o to discuss how restrooms can become inaccessible because of age, gender, ability, religion, profession and more, plus the online tools, videos, and corrugated cardboard water closets they created to entice designers towards innovation. Pushing past the "one-stall-fits-all" model, we imagine a compassionate world where every deuce can be dropped with dignity. 

Also mentioned in this episode:

Edinburgh Scotland, Sex Drugs and Activism, PrEP (Pre Exposure Prophylaxis), sex categories, gender binary, disability studies, Alison Kafer, Feminist Queer Crip, overlapping identities, oppression, Arts and Humanities Research Council, Norbert Elias, Civilizing Process, Changing Places, Barbara Penner, bladder leash, Victorian toilets, toilet tourism, London Loo Tours, Broadway theater, muslim, truckers lorry drivers, NYU Bobst Library.

Human-centered design, dignified aid, and internet innovation for water / sanitation. Engineer, mother, and communications expert Esther Shaylor introduces Shawn Shafner (The Puru) to the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (SuSanA), a network of WASH stakeholders and online resources for all. Esther explains how market-based solutions are changing development practices, and we discuss the perils and virtues of Wikipedia, storytelling’s primal power, and why a batch of tasty biscuits is worth its weight in gold.

Also mentioned:

Backpacking, humanitarian, parenting, #MeToo, gender pay gap, engineering, market based approaches, refugee crisis, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, World Toilet Day, World Water Day, L’oreal, WSUP, The Bottom Line game, WaterAid, Pookemon Go, gamification, e-learning, Policy and Practice, virtual reality

Taboo-breaking comedy, toilet knives, wiping stones and Jewish perspectives on poop. Celebrities are just like us! Director Aaron Feldman’s new film POOP TALK finally proves it, as Kumail Nanjiani, Eric Stonestreet, Dr. Drew and more divulge the contents of their colons. In this hour with Shawn Shafner (The Puru), Feldman explains how his own sensitive stomach inspired the film, why colon cancer specialists are praising its creation, and how a silly film about poop might also be a profound meditation on our common humanity. Finally, Mama Feldman has reason to be proud. 

Also mentioned:

Sustainability, taboo, comedians as anthropologists, relationships, dating, handling discomfort, Sklar Brothers, Sammi Edelson, Dr. Drew Pinsky, Adam Carolla, Paul Provenza, Penn & Teller, Jewish geography, summer camp, Ramah Conover Wisconsin, Comedy Dynamics, Sephardim, Ashkenazi, chulent, taboo hinders research, Alexander Kira, Reginald Reynolds, Cleanliness and Godliness, Norbert Elias, David Inglis, Microbiome, Stercurius, Seedbed: Soil Symposium UCSC, Confronting Vulnerability: The Body and the Divine in Rabbinic Ethics by Jonathan Wyn Schofer, Gemara, David Walter Taos, Origin of the Feces, Milorganite, Milwaukee, SOIL, Sasha Kramer, container based sanitation, Bill Gates

Business for social change, avoiding burnout, effective altruism, ineffective development practices, and the UK’s first luxury mobile toilet. The average person spends 80,000 hours working. Water / sanitation engineer Andy Narracott tells host Shawn Shafner how a near-death experience helped shift his 80k hour goals from making money to making change. Andy also hands out pro tips for social entrepreneurs and everybody else gleaned from his podcast Finding Impact. To start: find out your “why.” Hint: it’s probably not to gain more money and buy the latest phone.

Also mentioned:

India, Posh & Bex, Rider cup, Tiger Woods, Gary Glitter, London Fashion Week, Nicaragua, University of Pennsylvania, Center for Social Impact, Global Social Impact House, fulfillment, David Goldberg, Scott Roy, social media, sales, listening, effective giving, charity, Buddhism, mindfulness, givewell.org, The Life You Can Save by Peter Singer, Christmas Cracker

Community Led Total Sanitation as colonial hangover, how to poop while on the trail, shoehorning sanitation inside other sectors, and the importance of sunblock. Shawn “The Puru” Shafner spends an hour with anthropologist and Emory University PhD candidate Jennifer Barr. Jennifer spent 13 months living in Delhi and writing case studies of NGOs including Sulabh, India’s toilet-building monolith, and Safai Karmachari Andolan (SKA), a grassroots organization dedicated to the liberation and rehabilitation of all persons engaged in manual scavenging. It left her wondering: do current international development practices put human dignity and wellbeing at the center of their work? Where might colonial history and modern biases be skewing our attempts to do good? Hear Jennifer’s findings PLUS reasons why NGOs should use the word “shit,” and why the wise stop trying to “change the world” and instead focus on making small, human-centered improvements with gentleness, compassion and love. More from Jennifer on Twitter: @jenniferabarr

Also mentioned in this episode

Stakeholders, diarrheal disease, environmental enteropathy, malnourishment, stunting, CARE International, nutrition, sanitation, UNICEF, MHM, menstrual hygiene management, India Habitat Center, The Great Stink, sanitary revolution, CLTS, roundworm, outhouses, bullying, open defecation, David Inglis, Sociological History of Excremental Experience, Bezwada Wilson, Dalit, caste system, Untouchables, Mierle Ukeles, Rose George, The Big Necessity, World Toilet Summit, Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, Rajasthan, Alwar

What happens when you take a bunch of artists and put them together in a beautiful house in rural Vermont with a shared schedule dedicated to creativity? The Art Monastery Project. While in-residence at the monastery, Shawn Shafner (The Puru) hosts a roundtable of “Artmonks” at their finest. St. Francis, King Solomon, Buddha and a bunch of Rabbis all appear, alongside bat guano, bugs, and indigenous wisdom. Plus Abbess and co-founder Betsy McCall passes on a blessing to say when peeing on the planet. Core member Raphael Sacks explains why he's been sprinkling coyote urine on the garden. Voice doula Kaitlin June sings the blessings of our odor-free dry toilet, and chef Emma Wyman pitches in to thank the Muse. Holy shit? You bet your art.

Also mentioned:

Anaya Cullen, costume designer, Neva Cockrell, Gerry McCulloch, Goldsmith’s University, pirkei avot, physical theater, alternative lifestyle, spiritual practice, community living, painting, video, Aberdeen Farm, maple syrup, plant genetics, beer, sausage, Eco Institute at Pickards Mountain, Diogenes of Sinope, ascetic, urinal, pee recycling, urine diversion, humanure, humus, hummus, Rich Earth Institute, Kim Nace, Abe Noe-Hays, tangaryo, menstruation, Joel and Michelle Levy, Integratron, Mojave Desert, urine as fertilizer, Nitrogen, woodchuck repellent, nun’s cap, Carol Steinfeld, Mathew Lippincott, Bootstraps, Earthdance Massachusetts, contact improv, race, class, transforming the shit, purity, impurity

Legalizing green sanitation, kite safety through cartwheels, coming back from serious crisis, and all the ways your shower can kill you. In this special live episode, polymath Mathew Lippincott enlightens Shawn Shafner (The Puru) with his encyclopedic knowledge of everything. A designer who creates future technologies influenced by history, Mathew tells us how he helped create Portland’s emergency sanitation protocol, worked with RECODE to make compost toilets a legal option, and takes us under the leach field to see why most septic tank users are pooping straight into their aquifers. PLUS Shawn tells stories of his travels in Nicaragua, reveals the origins of “justify your existence,” we redeem the value of outside defecation, and learn why it might be best to hold your breath the next time you visit a PortaPotty.

Also mentioned in this episode:

West Side Story, lunar colony, industrial design, University of Pennsylvania, Center for Social Impact, Global Social Impact House, Nicaragua, crisis, Joseph Campbell, hero’s journey, the origins of justify your existence, privilege, poverty, El Porvenir, Public Lab, crowdsource data, Deepwater Horizon, presence, safety, Kite Man, Portland, Oregon, airline travel, REN Project, Wayne RESA, curriculum development, Michigan, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Guerilla Science Group, Oregon Eclipse Festival, shower, sink, low-flow toilet, design object, Victor Papanek, Design for the Real World, basic human needs, consumer society, James Hennessey, How Things Don’t Work, unbalanced mixer valves, pressure valves, intentional community, bucket toilet,Molly Jean Winter (née Danielsson), sepsis, Art Monastic Laboratory, bucket system, majority world country, libraries, ARPANET, OhioLINK, apocalypse, interlibrary loan, Clara Greed, Alexander Kira, Joel Tarr, Carnegie Mellon, Cloacina, Cloaca, Rome, portable compost toilet, Henry Moule, Australia, Natural Event, Pootopia, Hamish Skermer, green, sustainability, Adam Rome, Bulldozer in the Countryside, primary treatment, scum, leach field, aquifer, laminar flow, Pacific NorthWest College of Art, Neighborhood Emergency Training, Portland Bureau of Emergency Management, emergency sanitation, citizen science, Uniform Plumbing Code, Rich Earth Institute, 20/20 Engineering, Greywater Action, Laura Allen, Watershed Management Group, John Grey, Interface Engineering, Nicole Cousino, Nature’s Commode, International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO), Green Supplement, American National Standards Institute (ANSI), WE Stand (Water Efficiency), public domain, NorthWest Permaculture Convergence, open defecation, family restroom

Sustainable menstruation management, exploding the privilege to pee standing up, queering the country through relocation, and how to make money with minimal misery. In this episode, Shawn Shafner (The Puru) communes with Krista Eickmann, whose passion for menstrual cups and urine diverters once had her proselytizing these products straight from her purse to friends, family, and strangers on the bus. Reduce waste, remove the threat of toxic shock, and pee through your pants’ fly without removing layers of clothes or dropping full trou in the middle of the woods? They practically sold themselves. And now, thanks to the internet and The pStyle Company, anyone can go online and share Krista’s love for “plastic crotch devices.” Join in for a generous hour detailing the genesis of menstrual devices, rapidly bleeding into the economics of reuse, how much is “enough,” and why everyone deserves a range of options to express themselves and expel their bladders. So come on out of whatever closet you’re in, grab a stranger, and stand up (or sit down) for an hour in your power.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Trash, waste, environment, sustainability, shame, environmental, activist, keeper, Leona Chalmers, tampon, pads, consumerism, disposable, zine, allergy, Joseph Gayetty, toilet paper, Scott, Waldorf, period, counterculture, Lou Crawford, Tassaway, SASE, Walmart. Rite-Aid, vagina, cunt, vulva, pussy, Tennessee, goat milk, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, South, transgender, FTM, identity politics, community, cisgender, Miki Agrawal, Thinx, Luna Pads, misogyny, feminist, excess, freelax, pissoir, urinal, bourdalou, Indiegogo, penis envy, hypospadias, Standing Up, manneken pis, Marie-Anne Gillet, Isabelle Gilboux, Transhealth conference, Sex for Smart People, S. Ryan Johnstone, genderful, BBC, human right, Rich Earth Institute, Vermont, dirt, transphobia, racism.

Got some peanut shells, banana peels, and old newspapers? Then you might also have the power to generate renewable enegy, fight coastal erosion, control heavy metals, increase civic participation, create nourishing soil, and much more. That’s the magic of compost! Join Shawn Shafner (The Puru) and Sashti Balasundaram, eco-educator and entrepreneur behind WeRadiate, for a bewitching episode that explains how recycling our food scraps can reduce landfill loads, create green jobs, and save all of us money. Just in time for International Compost Awareness Week (May 7-13), this episode offers everything you need to start your own bin. So start saving those shells; it’s time to save the world.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Ecological consciousness, waste management, compost, recycling, “farm to table”, India, pondicherry, Life of Pi, Yann Martel, French, Tamil, NGO, “non-governmental organization”, Shuddham, cleanliness, food scraps, worm bin, soil amendment, cycle, rats, Department of Health, decomposition, planting, community garden, farmer, scientist, science, Carl Mehling, American Museum of Natural History, AMNH, puppet, scientific method, temperature, moisture, nitrogen, carbon, sugar, microorganisms, energy, thermometer, Vermont, greenhouse, animal pens, Rwanda, Pivot Works, biochar, methane, bokashi, Department of Sanitation, NYC, New York City, landfill, Freshkills, Staten Island, horticulture, chemical fertilizer, anthropogenic, aerobic, anaerobic, entrepreneur, raised beds, Rich Earth Institute, pharmaceuticals, compost tea, 462 Halsey Street Garden, human poop, humanure, vermicompost, Flush, Karina Mangu-Ward, biosolids, pathogens, dirt, soil, libertarian, hyper=local loop, green jobs, GrowNYC, Lower East Side Ecology Center, Milorganite, vermicasting, red wrigglers, Jim’s Worm Farm, litterlist.co, ILSR, Institute for Local Self Reliance, NYC Compost Project, Brooklyn Botanical Garden, Queens Botanical Garden