Time is everything. It dictates our lives—when we go to sleep, when we wake up, and when we have to be at work. But what is it? According to the experts, its simply an illusion—a social construct that can change simply based on mass and gravitational pull. This week, we try to understand this theory by, among other things, fumbling through the theory of relativity. We also look at some books and movies about time travel, including our favorite, Back to the Future.
1. Topics
2. Additional Resources
3. Merchandise/Support the Show
4. Contact Us/Follow Us/Rate/Subscribe
New episodes every week!
Listen, rate, follow, and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts!
Follow us:
5. Credits
Time is everything. It dictates our lives—when we go to sleep, when we wake up, and when we have to be at work. But what is it? According to the experts, its simply an illusion—a social construct that can change simply based on mass and gravitational pull. This week, we try to understand this theory by, among other things, fumbling through the theory of relativity. We also look at some books and movies about time travel, including our favorite, Back to the Future.
1. Topics
2. Additional Resources
3. Merchandise/Support the Show
4. Contact Us/Follow Us/Rate/Subscribe
New episodes every week!
Listen, rate, follow, and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts!
Follow us:
5. Credits
This week, what time is it? We have no idea. Welcome to Subpar Talks. Hey everybody. Welcome to Subpar Talks where we have conversations about everything. I'm Jeff.
Chris:And I'm Chris.
Jeff:Thank you for joining us again for another episode. And before we get into this week's topic, you know what's coming, our standard disclaimer, listener discretion advised. We like to curse from time to time, maybe a lot depending on the episode. And depending on the episode, we will touch on some mature subject matter. And we inject humor into all of this stuff. There's really nothing off the table as far as our humor goes. So if that doesn't set well with you, then maybe this podcast is not for you. But for everybody else, get ready, because here we go with this week's topic. On our previous episode, we said we were gonna talk about time and space, and turns out we got only to space because there was a lot there.
Chris:There was not enough time.
Jeff:We just, yeah, there was a lot more there that we didn't get covered. So we figured we'd just leave time to its own episode. So, let's talk about time.
Chris:Well, it's a whole, it's a very baffling thing to me, and it always has been really. I remember as a little kid, you know, I could lay in bed and think, and this is just me, cuz I'm weird, but I would lay in bed and...
Jeff:Join the club.
Chris:Yeah. Like think about time passing and, and you know, going from one year to the next, and of course as a kid, a year is forever. Nevermind just getting through a, a few weeks or a month. But then as I got older and started to, to read more and learn more, understand more, it, it all just became this completely fascinating subject to me. Um, when I was in high school, I read Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time. And I was very into chemistry at the time, and physics, and so it, it really was an extremely difficult book to get through, but the only reason I did is because I was just so fascinated with it all, and that's never changed with me. I just think, the way we relate to time, just in our lives, but especially like we were talking about in the last episode with the idea that we could be looking back in time by seeing light emitted from the stars and, it is just a crazy idea.
Jeff:So, you and I have talked about this before, but you mentioned lying in bed and thinking about time. It used to freak me out when I was a kid, and I still don't like to think about it, but you go to sleep and then, what? Like, it used to freak me out that I'm gonna go to sleep and this time's gonna pass, but what's happening to me. Like, I'm not...
Chris:Yeah.
Jeff:Conscious of what's going on. And I used to freak myself so much out as a kid that I wouldn't be able to go to sleep And then...
Chris:Yes.
Jeff:I thought I was just really abnormal, and maybe that is abnormal, but you have the same thing. So at least I wasn't alone in that regard.
Chris:It may be abnormal, but it could certainly be genetic too.
Jeff:True.
Chris:I still think about that sometimes.
Jeff:Yeah. See, I try not to. I try to avoid it because I'll, I psych myself out.
Chris:Yeah. I try to just make sure I'm too tired to be able to think about it and then just kind of pass out.
Jeff:Yeah. So before, I'm sure we're gonna talk about Back To The Future on here, on this episode, it's appropriate. Before, Back To The Future, did you think about time travel?
Chris:I know I did, but very differently after that movie, for sure.
Jeff:Yeah.
Chris:Um, I think I, yeah, I'm sure I had questions about, the possibility of it. If it were possible, how would that be possible? But I was younger also, and so I didn't even know. I mean, it's not like I can talk intelligently about possibilities of time travel now either, but I could at least bring in a concept or two that I didn't even know when I was the age of Before Back To The Future. So...
Jeff:I'd never thought about it before that movie. Uh, and I was young when it came out, but since then it's been a topic that fascinates me.
Chris:Do you think it's possible?
Jeff:Well, alright, before we get there, in preparing for this episode, I looked up some things about time, related to time and all that. And of course I came across Einstein's Theory of Relativity, which I have read about, I don't know how many times, and I've had it explained to me, I don't know how many times, and if you ask me to explain it to you right now, it's not gonna happen.
Chris:Crickets?
Jeff:Crickets. Exactly. Can you explain it to me, not like I'm five, like maybe a two year old, to where I can grasp it? Because I read about it and I'm like, OK. All right. But then like if I am to relay what little I learned by reading about it, then... holy hell, you're holding up a book Relativity, by Albert Einstein. You have a book on it. So I'm gonna expect you to give me a really good explanation.
Chris:A clear, well, I haven't read the book, because you know, it's a book. It says, a clear explanation that anyone can understand.
Jeff:Well, they might be overestimating me. Well, maybe me too. So I have, I'm like you, I've, I've read about it, I've heard it explained multiple times. And when I read about it again, at least the general concept, I typically feel like. I can kind of grasp what I'm reading about. Mm-hmm. when it's the simpler explanation. But here's the problem. Where I know that I don't have that good of a grasp is can I turn around and explain it to someone else? Right. Yeah. That's me too. And, and further than that is, I have also seen multiple times where people. you know, because of Einstein's theory of relativity, we know this, and so they're using it as a foundation to extend to the next, as you know, kind of reasonable conclusion. I'm like, wait a minute. How'd you do that? Right, how did we go from this thing that I thought I might have a very basic understanding of? And you just, all you did is build on it, and I'm already lost. Yeah, same here. And it blows my mind, well, do we know Einstein's iq, don't we? I mean, it was something ridiculous. He was off ridiculous. So in that respect, I can understand why somebody like me doesn't get it, but he's operating on a whole other level and yeah. It's done so much for us, but I couldn't tell you exactly what it's done for us in term, for us in terms of grasping other concepts and principles and all that. I think that's just it. It's, it's, yeah, it's using that to understand kinda like I said, if we know this, then we also know that, and yeah, and it's been proven and reproven, so you can certainly use it as a. Here's an example that that I, that I do remember seeing is if, let's say that I'm standing still and a train is going by mm-hmm. then you've got a relative speed of the train. Compared to me. The train is moving at whatever speed it's moving. Let's say the train's going 60 miles an hour. Mm-hmm. well, because I'm standing still, it is moving at 60 miles per hour relative to me. Mm-hmm. But then I saw something about, let's say that there are people on the train playing ping pong. OK. So now you've got the ball going back and forth across the table. Mm-hmm. while the train's going down the track. Mm-hmm. Well, now you have two elements of there. And so the ball is, let me see if I can say this right, it's like the ball. is essentially standing still relative to the train because they're moving at the same speed. Yeah, right. The ball is going right 60 miles per hour along with the train, but then as the ball moves back and forth across the table mm-hmm. it has a different relative speed. Compared to the train. So there's the general theory of relativity and a specific theory of relativity. Yeah, and I think the general theory is kind of what I said in the first place. Like something is a general existence compared to something else. But then you got the specifics where you look at the the individual pieces and that's, I'm already starting to talk beyond what I can talk because it starts to not make sense. And you might need to edit that whole thing out. Well, no, it's, it's a good explanation. It's as good as anything I've read or anybody said to me before. For sure. Yeah. Might be wrong too. Oh, well, our listeners aren't gonna know what's the difference, not to belittle anybody's knowledge out there, but come on, this is not a physics podcast. Thank God. So, do you know what I, I've, I read about this years ago and I was reminded of it recently and looking something up for this episode. Do you know what time dilation is? It's also called Gravity Time Dilation. No, I don't, I didn't know the term, but you might know the, the, uh, the principle. But it is, it has to do with mass and. The stronger the gravitational pull of something means that time moves slower. OK. I do know that. I didn't know the term. Yeah. So, but here's what I don't understand is, and, and the example that I read about was, if you're standing at the top of the Empire State Building and somebody is standing at the bottom, Time is moving faster for the person at the top. And then what I read, they started relating it to Einstein's theory and that's when I lost it. I don't, I don't get it. I understand that. Well, no, I don't understand. I accept that it's true. That really, really smart people are telling me that time moves slower. The, the stronger the gravitational pull. So they started talking about mass and gravitational pull, and I lost it. See, that's one of those things that I have read more than once and, you know, from different people. So getting a, I mean, I guess a similar explanation, but maybe a little bit different words, whatever. and I feel like I grasp it when I re kind of like the relativity. I feel like I grasp it when I read it, but then after the fact, to be able to turn around and actually explain it is a whole different thing. And yeah, with you saying that, I'm familiar with the concept, but I can't tell you why. OK. This is a good explanation. This is from ask an astronomer.org. are you a frequent visitor to their website? No. I just quoted somebody on our last one about space from it. So that's the only time I even knew about it. All right, so somebody asked the question, does time go faster at the top of a building compared to the bottom? And uh, here's the answer. In principle, yes, time goes faster at the top of a building compared to the bottom. This is because time will go faster the farther you are from Earth's surface when you compare it to someone who is on the surface of the earth still. Oh, still like being still, I guess they're standing still. Uh, I thought it was like still as in, they are still on the surface. As opposed to the person who's not on the surface, nobody's ever accused astronomers of writing. Well. All right. This is something that Albert Einstein predicted when he developed his theory of general relativity. Relativity is it is an effect called gravitational time dilation. A brief explanation of Einstein's 1950 theory of general relativity is what we perceive to be the force of gravity comes from the curvature of space and. This can be hard to wrap your head around no shit. But in simpler terms, Einstein. Einstein suggests that space and time are two parts of space time, which is curved when gravity comes into play. See, I've already lost it. Curved. What the hell is that? Yeah, I'm, I'm familiar with that idea that space time is curved and there's a whole lot about it in that Stephen Hawking book. Mm-hmm. Einstein's theory of general relativity has been verified by many experiments throughout the years since he developed it. This is why we can comfortably use it to answer the question of whether or not time goes faster at the top of a building compared to the bottom. If we take the idea of a curved space, time into account again, dunno what the hell that is, and think about how objects with a great mask can create a strong gravitational field, then the answer becomes, The strong gravitational field around the object curves, space time causing time itself to change depending on where you are in the space time surrounding the object. The key word here is relativity. If a person were to stand on top of the Empire State Building and one other person to stand on the bottom, both people would experience time going by in the same way, but it is still. This is because the person on top of the Empire State Building does not necessarily know the exact passage of time occurring below them. They are oblivious to the change in space time causing the time around them to move slower than that of the person on the ground. If they had a way of seeing each other's wrist watches, the person on top of the building would see the person on the ground's watch moving more slowly. Whoa. Why I don't get that?
Chris:I don't know. but if that means it's observable, they're literally saying it's observable at a, I mean, that's a relatively small distance. Yeah, it is. You're talking about what, 1200 feet or something?
Jeff:Right. There are many things where, like Mount Everest.
Chris:Yeah. I don't know. That's
Jeff:That's pretty crazy. What Einstein called gravitational time dilation occurs when there is a difference between the strengths and gravity of two places. This can be a large or small difference. Even if you do a high jump, you are getting further from the Earth's surface and therefore occupying a different area with a different level of gravity. For a moment, the gravitational force on you would be weaker. This is not something you would notice significantly since we are accustomed to walking up flights of stairs and flying in planes, et cetera. but this difference has been detected by machines specifically made to do so, meaning that we know about fluctuations and gravitational force the farther you are from the Earth's surface. Well, there's more here, but I'm already lost. I just don't get it. Yeah,
Chris:I'm fat. But see, I'm fascinated by that. I'm fascinated by, by the fact. I, I guess I'm fascinated by people saying those things as facts and it makes me want to understand it. Right? Yeah.
Jeff:This is not some, I mean, I didn't get this from Reddit or, you know. No, it's not a theory
Chris:or anything. I mean, as a question, it's been proven.
Jeff:Yeah, exactly. It's been proven through experiments. I wish we could find out what those experiments were, but whatever. So I came across, I think I referred to this in our previous episode, but there's an NPR article. I'll post this in the episode notes. I'll post that Ask astronomer thing that I just read too. But the NPR article says, researchers say time is an illusion. So why are we so obsessed with. I read the whole goddamn article, and I don't really know anything more than I did when I started reading it because they're operating on another level too. And this is supposed to be written for the masses. This is just a, you know, mainstream publication. But they're interviewing these scientists at the, um, it's N I S T, national Institute of Standards and Technology, and they're talking about all this time. and how they're measuring time and the official government time. So the official time piece that the government uses to determine what time it is. Mm-hmm. Is, and I don't understand this, I think they explain it. Is it an atomic clock? It? Yeah, it's an atomic clock. But do you know how that work? Like what is that? I just
Chris:read something. So I actually read something about that not too long ago. It's that they figured out, and I don't remember which Adam it is, but they figured out that the electrons are moving within that ato. At a particular rate that is a, a constant rate, and that was what they were using to then measure, you know, fractions of seconds, seconds and so on.
Jeff:So at this N I S T, they've created a system. This blows my mind that can count the time to within one quadrillion of a second. That means that the government's clock can keep time to within a second over the course of about 30 million years. Wow. Yeah. seems about as exact as you can get
Chris:about as exact as you would need. I mean, right.
Jeff:30 million years. We're not gonna make it that long. No. Humans will be gone.
Chris:Us specifically, or generally
Jeff:It'll be somebody else keeping time. If that's even a thing in 30 million years, if Earth is even around. Yeah. When's the sun supposed to blow
Chris:up? It's longer than that. I, I think it's gonna be like into
Jeff:the. Is it billions? I
Chris:wanted to say that. Maybe Billions. Yeah. But OK. That, that reminds me when I was a kid in elementary school and just learning about the sun and you know, the gases and, and how the sun works and the very idea that our sun has been expanding, but then shrinking and the fact that it would eventually burn. Scared the shit outta me. Yeah. I was afraid that one day it was just gonna get dark. And what freaked me out even more is to know that if it got dark right now, the sun actually burned out eight minutes ago. it's already happened. Yeah, it's, it was over and I didn't know it until it was dark. and then what?
Jeff:Yeah. Then what did that keep you up at night too?
Chris:I don't remember if that kept me up at night, but it disturbed me during the day. I thought a lot about
Jeff:it. don't take sunlight for granted. Isn't that the truth? Yeah. So anyway, yeah, I'm, I'm fascinated by this time stuff, but I still don't quite get it. I don't quite get it and, I took the liberty of talking to our, our good friend chat, g p t. Mm-hmm. who's made a previous appearance on the show, and, uh, I guess I struck up I struck up a conversation. I told chat, chat, G P T, that I needed a time machine here was, its. I'm sorry, but as an artificial intelligence language model, I'm not capable of creating physical objects like a time machine. Time travel is currently not possible with our current technology and understanding of the laws of physics. And then it gave me some recommendations, not specific recommendations, but like books, movies, or whatever, however it went on to say, uh, it's impossible. Or not currently possible, whatever. However, there are several theories in physics such as general relativity and quantum mechanics that suggest that time travel may be theoretically possible under certain circumstances. For example, according to the theory of relativity, time can be distorted by gravity and motion, so time travel might be possible traveling at a very high speed or near a massive object. There are also theories that suggests that it might be possible to create worm holes or shortcuts through space. That could allow for time travel. OK. Do you know what a wormhole is? I know the concept. It OK. It lay it on me.
Chris:Well, exactly that. It's like a shortcut, right? Rather than having to go from point A to point B linearly, it's like a tunnel that can fast forward you through that rather than having to travel. that physical distance, which, you know, the physical distance would take a fixed amount of time. Mm-hmm. it's kinda like here on earth, if you're gonna travel 60 miles and you're going 60 miles an hour, then it's obviously gonna take you an hour. But if you could have like your own dedicated kind of tunnel between here and there that it, it could be a shortcut that'll get you there faster. Which might blast you at a higher speed than you could go if you were outside the tunnel or not being affected by other
Jeff:things. What would happen if it were possible to travel faster than the speed of light? I don't
Chris:know. I don't know how you wouldn't disintegrate I mean,
Jeff:you know what? So I'm like, can you imagine a physics profess. in a classroom and somebody asks that type of question, I just, they gotta be thinking, oh, fuck me. Do I really have to answer such a stupid question? But like, I don't know, assuming we're not gonna disintegrate, if that were possible, I don't know. It'd just be dark all the time, I suppose. Like, but what then, what then would time travel be possible then if you could travel faster than 186,000 miles a.
Chris:OK. So if you can go faster than the speed of light, then that means you could also escape gravitational poles because even light cannot escape, uh, a strong enough gravitational pole. You know a black hole, right? That's a black hole. Yeah. Yeah. Is actually black, except it's strong enough to suck light into. Yeah. So it has that strong enough gravitational pull that it sucks light in, and that's one of the things that I've heard is that near a black hole, time can almost stand still because that gravity is so strong. It's slowed time down so much. That time could almost stand still. Well then you could think the opposite could be true if you're going faster than the speed of light and therefore able to escape gravitational pull, which could otherwise slow you down. Could you not effectively like fast forward to the
Jeff:future possibly. I don't know.
Chris:So let's talk about back to the future then
Jeff:All right.
Chris:Two things in there. The car had to go 88 miles per hour, which I don't think there was ever any kind of explanation for that. It was just kind of random. Yeah. But the flux capacitor and, mm-hmm. by the way, I didn't know this at the time, but I learned later that on Earth. Um, there are, you have imaginary magnetic lines running between the north and south pole that are called flux lines. Oh, I didn't know that. And it is the, like the exchange of the positive and negative charges between the poles. Well, so when I learned that and I thought, OK, well they came, probably came up with this term of flux capacitor. For the movie because that would kind of, I don't know, be a call back to something that is using magnetic force or, or force in general. Mm-hmm. And it required plutonium, right? So the plutonium was supplying this massive charge of energy and I recently read some. Well, this was a, there's a fan page back to the future on Facebook. I'm sure there's a ton of them, but somebody said that a, a gigawatt, which actually I think is supposed to be gigawatt, but whatever is like enough energy to power a city for a certain amount of time, and that's why, you know, doc says, Like a bolt of lightning would be generating that kind of energy because it's massive. And so if you could, if you could harness there again, that's the whole idea when they had to send him from 1955 back to 1985, was harnessing that lightning to take enough energy to power the time machine. And it almost makes you wonder then. If you extend it beyond what was explained in the movie, you know, could you take that energy and blast the car using that energy faster than the speed of light, right? Or through a wormhole or something like that, that would actually allow that time travel. It's even that by itself is pretty amazing, but the whole concepts that they put out in that movie, and And tracking the different time periods. So entertaining and just, yeah, it is. How can that not make you
Jeff:think? I just sent you a text. Go ahead and take a look at it. Oh really? Can we get
Chris:one
Jeff:All right. Unfortunately, it says this item is not for sale, but the fact that they put it on their website is great. That's awesome. I'll post this in the episode notes, but on O'Reilly auto parts O'Reilly auto.com. They have a flux capacitor listed and unfortunately it says this item is not available for purchase, but the fact that they put it on there is hilarious.
Chris:That is hilarious. And reading the description,
Jeff:look at the part number right under where it says Flex Flex Capacit.
Chris:Oh 1 21 G. Yeah, Oh, and the line, like the product line is eb. What is that? That's Emmett Brown. Oh,
Jeff:wow. Dr. Brown. Yeah. Gigawatts 1 21. Material compatibility. Plutonium. Working speed. 88 miles per hour. Serious shit. That's hilarious. Yeah. That's good.
Chris:That is awesome. Flex Capacitor requires the stainless steel body of a 1981 to 1983. DeLorean DMC 12 to properly function
Jeff:That's great. That's great. Yeah. I love that movie. That's, that's top 10 movie for me for sure. I mean, of any genre. Top 10. Yeah. Great movie. Yeah.
Chris:Well, we talked about this before on an on another episode. I. The idea of people that, that are actors and actresses in particular movies that do such a good job, you can't imagine someone else playing those roles. Yeah, that's one of them. Every one of the people that, that were in their roles, I mean the major characters, obviously. Mm-hmm. is like nobody else. They were perfect. Everything about it was
Jeff:so perfect. They. There are. I've seen it. Who knows how many times and there are problems I have with it, but then I have to come back to, hello. It's a movie about time travel. Like, come on, cut'em some slack. One is, Do, do the parents not recognize the kid that they knew as Marty back in 1955? Do they not? Do they not realize that their son looks exactly the same as him? But that's never approached in the movie. That's always bothered me.
Chris:So it did. Me too. And I, this is the best explanation I've ever. And it was an explanation given by Robert Gail, I think he goes by Bob Gail, who's one of the people that wrote the screenplay for it. One of the creators, cuz he was asked that question and he said, if you are 40, uh, 47 years old, which is about what his parents would've been in the movie. Right, because it had been 30 years since then. And let's say they were junior and senior in high school. Mm-hmm. So if you're 47 years old and you have a teenage son, would you ever make a connection between that person that's your son and someone that you knew for one week in high school? It was a person who just showed up at your school? and yeah, you knew them, but then they disappeared. Well, what happened to them? I don't know. I just never saw them again. But you like the name, you like their name, and you go, oh, you know what? Years and years later. Yeah. I wanna name my son that I remember somebody had that name. But then that kid grows up as your kid, right? So they don't look like that person did until they're that age. and why would you ever think something
Jeff:about that? Yeah. OK. I guess I can buy that. They knew him for only a week. That makes sense. Yeah.
Chris:I had the same question you did and I, that's one of those things where, When they call it suspension of disbelief right? Like you have to kind of let it go. But I thought that was a pretty good explanation too.
Jeff:And I'm not big on science fiction. I just generally don't like science fiction stuff. But for whatever reason, that movie, it's just, it's one of my favorites. It's such a good movie. Yeah.
Chris:There's so much more to it though than that. like the science fiction was almost kind of the, the underlying part. It was all of the situations that that helped create. And the characters were so awesome in that movie.
Jeff:Yeah. Do you know, uh, so George McFly was played by Crispin Glover. Do I have his name right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Do you know anything about him? I know he is a
Chris:weird ass dude.
Jeff:Weird. Very weird. Yes. He
Chris:is a weird guy. And I know people were frustrated working with him. Mm-hmm. they couldn't, I, I can't remember if they tried to bring him back for the second and third and couldn't get it worked out, or they didn't even. because, so there's a, a series on Netflix called The Movies That Made Us, and we had talked about that before. Yeah. But one of them on there is Back to the Future. Mm-hmm. I've seen that. Yeah. And they, they discuss on there some of the creator people of how difficult he was to work with on that movie mm-hmm. and that he tried to have his own ideas. This character would want to say, this would want to walk over here. He wouldn't do that. And they're like, yeah, he would. And that's what we want you to do. Right. And that he wouldn't do those things. And at one point they actually showed some of the outtakes of this is he kept walking out of the scene. Because he thought that's what that person would be doing. They're like, oh my God, but we need you to stay here. And they actually built a little box on the ground. Yes, I remember that. Yeah. Do not leave this
Jeff:box. Mm-hmm. Yep. There's a reason I have director after my name, plug I'm the director. I tell you what to do. I remember I saw him on Letterman once, and this is one of the most bizarre interviews I've ever seen. He's just, I bet beyond Weird, strange, strange dude.
Chris:So I don't know if this was coincidence or not, but there was an episode of Family Ties that was like either 83 or 84 with him. So he is basically. um, Michael j Fox's age. Yeah. And so he was in an episode of Family Ties with him and I, before I knew that he was such a weird guy. I wondered if that was a recommendation of bringing him in or was that just a coincidence, but maybe, man, sounds like everybody had problems with him.
Jeff:Yeah. You like the second, back to the future better or the third? Hmm.
Chris:That's tough. That's r That's tough because I like the second one for everything that it sets up. Mm-hmm. and I mm-hmm. and I felt it was entertaining. You know, seeing, I remember when I saw the, the preview. Well, so it's what we called previews then. Right Now you say trailers trailer. Yeah. But I remember seeing that. Being so anxious to see how they had envisioned the future. Mm-hmm. like I wanted to see that part of the movie in particular. Um, but then I think what they did with it, not, not just, I think they did a cool job with their vision of the future, but what they did with the rest of it in terms of, hey, now we gotta go back to 1955 again. Mm-hmm. and. Now, hey, be careful because you've already been in 1955. Now you're gonna be there again, so you can't run into your other self yourself that's there. Yeah, I thought that stuff was just ingenious, um, and loving the way that all of that played out. But then the third one, I, I loved how they brought it. I think they, they did a good job, you know, for what the movie and it, it's kind of universe itself is, I think they did a good job for bringing it all to a close. For whatever
Jeff:reason, I did not see the second one in the theater. And I think, you know this. How long after the second one did the third one come out? It was just months. Wasn't.
Chris:Second to third. Yeah, it was like six months. Cuz they filmed them at the same time.
Jeff:Right. For whatever reason, I didn't see the second one in the theater. I did see the third one. I've always been partial to the third over the second, but mm-hmm. nothing comes close to the first, no,
Chris:the the first. The first will always be the best in those terms, but I feel. I mean, everything I just said about the second, I don't feel like it makes it a favorite over the third. I just feel like, I mean, it's obviously a necessity compared to the third for everything it sets up. Yeah. But I just kind of put the second and third in the same bucket. Mm-hmm. like the first one has gotta be above those. And the second and third just go, Hey, this is part of a package. It's, it's part one and part two of the sequel, and it, it's, Great
Jeff:all together. So in my time alone with chat g p t today, sounds like I'm lonely and desperate. I asked it, what are the best movies about time travel? So I figured I would roll through the, uh, the top five. Tell me if you've seen any of the, well, I know you've seen at least a couple. Number five is primer. Did you see Prime? No, I did. I don't remember much about it. I remember liking it and one of the reasons I wanted to see it is because it was filmed in Dallas. I don't even recognize that name. Yeah. It says low budget independent film explores the consequences of time travel and the ethics of using it for personal gain. I remember liking it, but again, I couldn't tell you just a lot about it. I remember I rented it at Blockbuster, so it's been a while. It's been a while. Yeah. Well, I'll have to check that out. Yeah, it's just primer. P R I M E R. Uh, interstellar 2014 Science fiction film follows a group of astronauts who traveled through a wormhole to search for a new home for humanity. Did you ever see that? I never did. I
Chris:didn't. I've heard it was good, but I have not seen it and I don't think I knew it was time
Jeff:travel. My wife really likes it, but again, it's sci-fi stuff and it's just not my thing. Number three, Groundhog Day. You've seen that, right? I've seen
Chris:that, yeah. Interesting to put that. Wow, that's interesting to put that in a time travel category. I get it.
Jeff:Yeah. Yeah. Do you like it?
Chris:I did. I, to me, it's entertaining. And I will say this, bill Murray is not typically one of my favorite actors. Same here, but I did, I do like the movie. Yeah. Yeah.
Jeff:Do you? Yeah, it was good. Yeah. I didn't actually see it until many, many years after it came out. Uh, but yeah, I thought it was good. Uh, number two is the Terminator. Have you seen that? I saw that. Yeah. I've never seen it. Really? Yeah, never have. It's, it's
Chris:interesting. It's a cool concept from a time travel perspective. The time travel is, I would say downplayed. I mean, it's, it's a necessary part of the, of the plot. But it's not a main part of the plot. Like back to the Future. The fact that they time traveled was huge. It's, it's a part of the plot that's necessary for Terminator, but it's not like they're focusing on it that much.
Jeff:Yeah. And the number one of course is back to the future. I figured that would be number one. C Chat G p T is pretty smart.
Chris:So there's a movie that is. I don't think as popular because I haven't heard a lot about it. I came across it one time. It's kind of accidentally, and I think I rented it too. Yeah, I definitely did. It would've been on video, and then I've seen it a couple of times since then. Called Somewhere in Time.
Jeff:Oh, I've heard of that. I've never seen it though.
Chris:Yeah, with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour. It's really
Jeff:good. She's the medicine woman. Oh,
Chris:that's right. She is. Or was
Jeff:Wait, is she still alive or does
Chris:she die? No, I think she's still,
Jeff:no, she's still alive. I thought we might have had a Kelly Preston moment there for a second.
Chris:All right, just pause. I'm looking her up now to make sure
Jeff:you're good.
Chris:Apparently she's still up. Yeah, she's 70.
Jeff:Oh wow. What's she looking like? Because I remember when I was a kid and she's like 50 years old, I thought, wow, 50. That's all right. Doing pretty well for 50. Those
pictures.
Chris:This picture's from 2019. Here, let me share my screen real quick and you can
Jeff:see,
Chris:all right, I mean, it's not bad, but she's aged. Oh yeah. I mean, you can definitely tell it's her. Yeah. She's not unattractive. Right? Oh, you know what? I saw her in, um, that's more recent. She was the mom in Wedding Crashers.
Jeff:Oh. I've only seen bits and pieces of that. That's a funny movie. Yeah. What I've seen. I, I thought it was funny for sure.
Chris:Yeah. You should check
Jeff:that one out. So what happens in, uh, whatever, some somewhere in time? Is that what you said? The name of the movie? Yeah.
Chris:So basically, um, he is an old woman, comes up to him at a play debut or whatever, gives him a, a pocket watch and says, come back to me. Mm-hmm. And that was it. He don't know who she is. Eventually goes and tries to find her, finds out she died the night that she did that. Mm-hmm. And he starts looking into her, who is she? All of this. And there's just some familiarity there. And he finds, he finds out that he was actually, actually knew. in their younger life and he finds that he had signed in on a hotel registry back in like 1912. Oh wow. And so he is trying to get himself back to that time. Hmm. And he goes and talks to a physicist at a, at the university and Hey, is time travel possible? And how could this be? Um, so he, he tries to transport himself. He does. And it's more of a mental energy kind of thing. Mm-hmm. it, it's not, I mean you say science fiction because we're talking about time travel, but it's not like, uh, not like any of the other things
Jeff:that we've talked about. Right. I also asked chat, G p T, what are the best books on time travel? I have heard of these. Never read any of'em of'em, but I'll go through these really fast. The End of Eternity by Isaac Asamov and this science fiction novel time travelers known as Eternals. Work to alter the course of history to improve humanity's future. Uh, number four, Outlander by Diana g. This historical fiction series follows a story of a nurse from the 1940s who travels back in time to 18th century Scotland and falls in love with a Highlander. I think that was made into a TV series. TV show? Yeah. OK. Yeah. Uh, did you watch any of it? No.
Chris:Nor
Jeff:have I read the book. obviously, obviously. Uh, number three, the time traveler's. By Audrey. All right. This is This is an uncomfortable last name, the Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. N I F F E N E G G E R. Jesus Christ. Wow. All right. Yeah, I bet that didn't cause any problems for No kidding. Uh, this novel follows the story of a man with a genetic disorder that causes him to time travel involuntarily. That doesn't sound good. And his wife who tries to build a life with him despite his unpredictable absences.
Chris:Yeah. So I saw there's, they made a movie out of that. I did see the movie. Oh, they did? Yeah. I saw the movie. It, I, I remember liking it. I don't remember a lot about it, but it was,
Jeff:it was, was it
Chris:a comedy?
Jeff:OK. Well, it's a drama. The premise sounds funny.
Chris:I know.
Jeff:number 2 11 22 63 by Stephen King and this novel, a high school English teacher travels back in time to prevent the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. That was made into a series on Hulu, right? You should check that out. Did you see it?
Chris:No, I knew it was a series. Is it still on? Is it.
Jeff:Uh, it was, I mean, it was a one time thing. It was like a seven part series or 10 or something like that. Episodes. Oh, really? Yeah.
Chris:OK. It was,
Jeff:I thought it was a recurring, it was really, really good. Like phenomenally good. I didn't read the book. The book is li and I'm not big on Stephen King anyway, but this is not typical Stephen King's. Mm-hmm. But the book's, like 600 pages or something. I was like, I'm not gonna read that. No I mean, I love the show, right, though. I love the premise. And then when I learned that it was gonna be a series, I was like, well, fuck that. I'll just wait for the, the series. But yeah, it's really good. And then number one, I've heard of this, but I don't know anything about it. The time machine by HG Well, This classic novel first published in 1895 tells a story of a scientist who builds a time machine and travels into the future. So there you go. Top five books according to Chat and G P T. All right, there you go. I think we had more questions in this episode than we did our previous episode. They just all kinda rolled together. Yeah, the well space and time, they're related. I've learned that. Yeah. And curved, and curved. Don't know what that means, but they're curved All right. If you like this stuff, you should follow us on whatever platform you listen to podcasts on. That way you'll get new episodes delivered to you automatically every single Tuesday. And while you are there, go ahead and rate us. We would be ever so grateful if you'd give us five stars. And while you're there, Just write something. It doesn't have to be a full on review. Just write whatever. Because the way these apps work, if you write something, it makes it easier for people to discover the show. We have a website that is Subpar Talks dot com. There you can email us. You can leave us a voicemail. Learn more about me or Chris. Everything related to the show, we are on social media. On Twitter, we are at subpartalks.com On Facebook, we are Subpar Talks. You can follow our personal Twitter accounts on there. I am at@independentjeff
Chris:and I am at Chris Bradford
tx,
Jeff:and we have other social media links on our website. You can check those out there. And finally, last but never least, share Subpar Talks with your friends, family, colleagues, acquaintances. Enemies, doesn't matter. Share it on social media. Just get the word out about Subpar Talks because the more people we have listening to this show, the easier it is for us to get this content to you each and every week and speak in a time our time is up. Although, according to that article from NPR that I didn't understand, time is an illusion. That's what the experts say. If we had
Chris:recorded this from the Empire State Building, it wouldn't have lasted quite as.
Jeff:Right. It would've been shorter somehow. All right. That's another episode, and until next week, so long.