July 18, 2024 • 31 mins
As the torch makes its way to the Seine for the Opening Ceremony, Matt and Bowen discuss the Olympic flame. Despite its dark origins and the mishaps along the way, the flame remains the enduring symbol of the Olympic spirit as the best athletes from around the world come together in sporting competition.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Ring, ring, ringing.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Five rings, Two guys say, in five.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
Rings, you know Arina Grande has a song called seven Rings,
but five is just in the goldilocks.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Zone for me. Absolutely, just rights just right. Seven's too much.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
That's too much, too much Arianna your opulent lifestyle. But
you know what else is opulent The Olympics. And that's
really what we're here to celebrate. On Two guys, five Rings,
the podcast that talks Olympics. I'm Matt Rogers, that's my name.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
And I'm Bow and Yang and we're the two guys,
wouldn't you say passing back and forth the torch. That
is conversation. That is how podcasts do work.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
And episode six of this podcast is going to talk
all about the Olympic flame and torch.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Okay, two separate things, and one thing needs the other
in order to I didn't.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Actually know that the carrying of the torch around the
world was real. Oh yeah, and then you really do
understand that this is the spirit stick, but for real,
like if this Olympic flame were to be extinguished or
hit the ground like this would be true chaos and
Olympic fashion.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
I think it's like world building. I know we're using
that term a little bit too much now, but there's
a world building there. It makes you go, oh the flame.
It's like very like Game of Thrones when.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
You say, absolutely well, it symbolizes the coming of the
games and spreading peace and friendship along the route. So
it's less Game of Thrones in that that was more
like competition for supremacy and this is more like love
and peace, but definitely fire, certainly, that's what the Olympics
and Game of Thrones haven't the common.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
For certain for certain Now, have you ever carried a
torch for someone?
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Matt?
Speaker 4 (01:55):
Oh, God, haven't I haven't I. We all have a
story of, you know, the time when we just have
feelings and couldn't find a where to put them. I
remember I was in high school, you see, and I
carried a torch for my best friend, and sometimes, you know,
(02:17):
I would go hang out with him and his girlfriend
and I would sit on an AOL Instant Messenger while
they hooked up behind me in his bed, and I
would be in the room and I'd be on AOL
Instant Messengers or talking to my friends, hanging out with
my friends. And one day I said to them, Hey,
do you guys ever not want me to be around,
and they go, no, we love hanging out with you.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Then you make us laugh. I said, okay, So I
continued to hang out with them. Mothery sort of hooked
up in the room with me in it, and I
would just not turn around. So, yeah, I've carried torches before.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
I was gonna say, I was gonna get be like backup, backup.
So they would be like macing on each other while
you were on the computer.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Like imagine me. I would be on the computer, I
think when I was like fifteen, and I would be
on the computer sort of on aim, just like talking
to my friends, like trying to make plans for the
weekend or later, and they would be behind me, like
messing around. Fully well that and I always was like,
I wonder how far it's going, But I thought, well,
(03:17):
that would be uncool for me to ask, as if
it wasn't uncool for me to be there in the
first place.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Not uncool.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Maybe they liked to be watched.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
They want they liked how I was a little voyeur,
but I wasn't a danger of me being able to
turn around.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
It's so funny.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
I rarely even think about that. How weird that was
but that was a thing that probably happened between five
and six times. Is I would just sit there and
they would hook up behind me, and then I was like,
did you guys ever know want me to come? And
the excuse was like no, no, no, you gotta be there. Wow,
I'm a kink.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
You are a kink and you will never be shamed.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
You can't be ashamed for wanting me president when you
guys hook up, and by you guys, I'm talking to
you the listener when if you ever want to hook
up and have me just around, I'm so used to it.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
It's not that you like to watch, it's more it's
more for them. It's for their kink. It's not a
kink for you, it's a kink for them.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Have you ever carried a torch?
Speaker 3 (04:18):
I was going to say that, I've literally said the
words I think I've been carrying a torch for you
for too long. And then that was my way of
sort of like and of like release of dropping the
torch as it were, of being like, I can't do
this anymore, I can't do this kind of dramatically. I
wish people could see the release. We're sort of dramatically
(04:43):
releasing our torches. I really I encourage all of you
to tell the person you've carried a torch for to
say the words, I've carried a torch for you, and
it's time for me to drop.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
It because it's of some kind.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Oh my god, I mean. We are recording this after
the Culture Awards, where in which we gave Mandy Moore
a Lifetime of Culture Award, and one of the clips
that I forgot about that I is now constantly playing
in my head as her and want to remember telling
Shane West, I.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Do not need a reason to be angry with God.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
I do not need a reason to be angry with God.
Is an amazing line, and she delivered it. I do
not need a reason.
Speaker 5 (05:25):
To be angry with God.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Incredible.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
The key to acting is to barely allow noise to
come out while you're talking. That's the key to emotional actors.
To be quiet, literally.
Speaker 5 (05:41):
Barely give anything. You can understand everything feeling, even if
they don't make us up.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
You are so good.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
I'm comply, girl. No, you are the dramatic genom. No.
Watch Fire Island now. If you're listening to this podcast,
turn it off. Watch Fire Island net watch me shed.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
A tear to a perfume genius song to a perfume
genius needle drop.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
You know who would be so happy? Greg Luganis. I
met Greg Luganis saw Fire Island in my day.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
I don't think he knows the best thing.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
It has bone Yang, it has gaze and has Fire Island,
It has water, it has everything that everyone loves. I
just know he watches us and out with his partner
and says I love him. I think he's so funny.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
I know it.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
I can't be sure.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Well, we'll have to find out. Maybe I'm placing the
breadcrumbs for Greg Luguinis to come on the podcast grag.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
We would love to have you.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
We would love to meet gregor invited Invite.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Nashley once said.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Yeah, and how did that song end? It was Bennette
you'll r s V P.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Oh Yeah, yeah, were you a Mariicante?
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Nashley fam well through my sister and she got all
the Mary Kate national videos from the library.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Chelsea also liked it.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
My sister, Oh my god, My sister bought the Sister
of the Traveling Pants and I stole it from her shelf.
And read it in my own bed and then hid
it under the bed because they didn't want anyone to
find out that I was reading a girl book. Did
she ever find it? I think she did good, But
I like want I could just all the girls at
school were reading it and loving it, and I was like,
(07:31):
I really want to read that.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
I know. This is before the movie came out.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
That's how I was with the show One Tree Hill.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
It was like a closet thing for you because like, don't.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Remember when the OC was out and everyone liked the OC,
but not only everyone in high school.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
No boys.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
I don't know. I got away with watching the OC
for sure. I don't know what it was about. Maybe
it was like cool California culture, but One Tree Hill
there was something like girls only about it.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Chad Michael Mary was only for girls.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
It was only for girls. Like you couldn't watch Chad
Michael Murray as a boy that age and be like, yeah,
I like to show because I'm a fan of his acting.
It's like, no, you loved his appetizer plate size nipples
and he lit off a fire alarm and you're growing
and speaking of fire, the symbolic flame. Let's just chat
about the Olympic torch and the flame just a little bit, okay.
(08:19):
The first time a symbolic flame made its appearance at
the Olympic Games was for the nineteen twenty eight Amsterdam Games.
The main purpose of this fire, placed in a large
bowl on top of a slender tower named the Marathon
Tower overlooking the Olympic Stadium, was to indicate for miles
around where in Amsterdam the Olympic Games were being held.
A similar flame appeared once more in Los Angeles four
(08:40):
years later, this time at the top of the gateway
to the Olympic Stadium. So fire is life. It's very survivor,
it's very desperate span life in this game, fire is
your life. In this instance, fire is where the Olympics happened.
But you get it. The fire, if you see it
shining tall, shining bright, you know you had that way
for excellence and excitement.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
When they cut to the torch a flame during the games,
you know, like you'll be watching beach volleyball and then
they will cut to in broad daylight the stadium. That
makes me go, this is once again about the human spirit,
about human accomplishment, and that's what the Olympics are about Oh,
(09:24):
I could relish this forever.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Here's another factoid, Okay. The nineteen thirty six Berlin Games
were the first in which an Olympic torch relay was used.
Chief organizer of the Games proposed the idea two years
earlier to link antiquity and modernity. The original relay took
twelve days and passed through seven countries Greece, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria,
Czechoslovakia and Germany. A lot of pop stars come from
(09:49):
that area. I would say three thousand and seventy five
kilometer relay was completed solely by runners in Yugoslavia over
approximately twenty five kilometers. However, certain torches showed signs of
weakness and threat to go out before the end of
the expected combustion duration. Thus, in order not to take
any risks, the torch bearers were taken to the next
stage more quickly by car shooters. So this is once
(10:11):
again linking ancient times to the modern.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Era of the Olympics.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
The Olympic flame for Berlin was lit with the aid
of a parabolic mirror reflecting the sun's rains, which is
a time honored method that guarantees the purity of the flame.
The lighting of the flame takes place in front of
the ruins of the Temple of Hera and Olympia, Greece
every Olympics. I believe now the dark origins of the
(10:39):
relay has to do with Nazi propaganda. As we said,
this was in the nineteen thirty six Berlin Games.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
I'm sorry about that, guys, but it's sorry, just true.
It's just true, y'all.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
The Nazis didn't invent fire. No, it's fine, Okay. Fire
is further for everybody.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
They use the original torch relay for propaganda purposes. The
Olympic Torch relay now is used to signal the Olympic
Game are coming into spread a message of peace and
friendship along the route. So decidedly at nastic stuff. Now
you don't have to be worried. Whenever you see the flame,
be in a past. Okay.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
When you look at the flame, you should think Central Perk.
You should think Ross, Rachel, Phoebe Chandler, Monica and Joey.
You should think friendship. You should think harm of national harmony.
You should think at world peace. You should think of
mister congeniality, the film light slapstick, Light slapstick, light fare overall,
(11:31):
but for serious reasons, which is an occasion to bring
the countries of the world together in the name of sportsmanship.
You think the Goblet of Fire was inspired by the
Olympic torch?
Speaker 2 (11:43):
I do you know? Because it never goes out? Right?
Is that the part of the deal with the Goblet
of Fire? I don't know, the whole sports and fire thing. Yeah,
of course it was, of course.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
The Olympic, the Triwizard tournament, that is the Olympics.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
I ask if it never goes out because our Olympic flame,
the acrid fire, is never extinguished in the event of
a problem.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Did you know this?
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Several emergency backup flames exist, but they are kept secret
as the protocol also dictates the flame can only be
rekindled with an emanation of the original flame, so this
is serious. When it is not being carried by an
Olympic torch, the flame is sheltered and especially modified security
lamp similar to a miner's lamp. Every eight hours, the
lantern is filled with liquid kerosene and the wick is
(12:28):
also changed about every two weeks, and at nighttime, the
flame is kept in a special cauldron. So this is
the fire. When you see the Olympic fire, just know
that's the doll.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Is it the same flame as nineteen twenty eight Amsterdam Games?
Speaker 2 (12:42):
That would be completely insane.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
Do you think we'll never know?
Speaker 2 (12:48):
We'll never know. I think it's one of the those
things we can ever know. And also, by the way
it kind of says here like if there's if something
happens like low key, that there's a backup flame, it exists.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
I'm saying like the continuity of the flame is a
big part of the flame's lore.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Yeah, but lie, people lie all the time, going this
is Hollywood, it's smoked, emarrass you though the Olympics. Ultimately,
at the end of the day, it's a show.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
This is Hollywood. It's we're in Paris, Mama.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
To tell the show peak behind the curtain.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
This is all entertainment earlier, so confusing.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Sometimes talk about the use of technology when it comes
to the torch, Well.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
I'll say that it's integral. As the torch must be
able to stand up to difficult weather conditions, including wind, rain,
extreme temperatures, and snow. It must also be capable of
burning longer than the amount of time anticipated for each
leg of the relay. In the event of problems along
the route, they have really thought through every scenario. The
(13:53):
first torch relay, German manufacturer Krupp, created a steel cloud
torch featuring a magnesium burning all that was designed to
stay lit regardless of weather conditions. Over the years, many
other products such as gunpowder, resin and olive oil have
been used to feel the Olympic flame. These days we're
talking gas cartridges in the body of the torch. That
(14:14):
is usually the most popular thing. Interestingly, the type of
gas can influence both the intensity of the flame as
well the color from white to yellowy red now white.
A white flame is, as we know, the hottest color.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Well, isn't the blue the hottest flame?
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Blue is the warmest color. But white.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
You know when someone says white hot, that means it's
the hottest kind of hot.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
WHOA Can I ask you what your favorite type of
fire is? We've never had this conversation, like what is
your favorite fire?
Speaker 1 (14:46):
To see?
Speaker 3 (14:47):
When I'm at the Korean barbecue restaurant and I see
the blue flame lighting my table, I go, that is
that is? I'm thinking of hades. I'm thinking of James
wood goods as hades.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Great performance, bad Man, bad.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Man, a great performance. I'm thinking just like Sleigh color,
what about you?
Speaker 2 (15:12):
I think blue flame is amazing. I'm very attracted to
the phrase white hot. But you know when I go
to the club, I like to hear these club classics
and for me, fire is yellow, fire is yellow, like
it just is.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
M Yeah in the movies, fire is yellow and red.
I feel the sun is yellow. It's really a goodness
gracious a great ball of fire.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
By the way, justice for one of the greatest pop
songs of all time. Goodness, gracious, great balls of fire.
I am telling you listen to it again. It goes off.
That is such a goodness mollfire. Who ever wrote that
(16:00):
the Greg luganis of songwriting, the greatest of all time?
And gay. I just went to a show and someone saying, goodness, gracious,
grape balls of Fire, and I was like, hold on
a second. This is a hit and a half. It
sounds like Chapel Roone.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
It sounds like Chaperone.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Absolutely, goodness, gracious, grape balls Bowen. I'm telling you listen
to it. After we record this, you'll listen to it
three more times. Right after you will be in you
love the way you look at you to know me,
you don't know me. Second time you said this, I
do know you. I know you well. So you know.
Speaking of the flame and the great balls of fire
(16:36):
and et cetera, as it relates to the Olympics, there
have been some mishaps. There have been some flame and
cauldron mishaps. Despite the safeguards taken to prevent the flame
from being extinguished, it has happened. In nineteen seventy six
during the Montreal Games, an unexpected violent thunderstorm the worst
douse the flame at the Olympic Stadium. No eventure taking
(16:56):
place at the time. The only people on site were workers.
One of them rushed up the steps of the platform
holding the Olympic cauldron, using a cigarette lighter to light
some pieces of newspaper and the cauldron. When the Olympic
officials learned to the situation, the makeshift flame was extinguished
because it was you know, terrible, terrible flame. Fake fire imposter,
(17:18):
A light and the back of torches were used to
relight the flame. A similar incident occurred before the twenty
fourteen Winter Olympics in Sochi in Russia, with a security
officer reportedly re lighting the flame with a lighter after
it had gone out at the Kremlin in Moscow. This
is just these people are. They're trying their best, like
they don't want anyone to know that it was on
their watch that it went out, so they whipped the
(17:38):
lighter out.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
But that's listen, there are safeguards in place for when
that exact scenario happens. Please, if you're handling the Olympic
flame in the future, don't use your little, big lighter.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
The torch deserves the real flame, and there are backup
torches and flames in place and available. Bick, please, big please.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Faulty burners have caused flameouts too, but beyond weather related
and mechanical issues, there are some instances cause purposely it
just insane by individuals seeking to maic political or social statements.
In two thousand and eight, protesters decrying China's history of
human rights abuses managed to extinguish the flame multiple times.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Slay they That is a movie I want to see, Yeah, extinguishers, Extinguishers?
Should that be our film? Yes, extinguishers.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
It's about two gays who want to put out the
fire of the Olympic torch just cause, for attention.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
For attention and likes.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
They do it for the likes. They do it for
the shares. They did it for the reels.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
This is kind of slay. At the twenty ten Vancouver
Winter Games, they had four pillars kind of meaning up
towards the center to light the torch. One of the
pillars failed to light from the stadium floor. The trap
door was faulty and froze prior to the cauldron lightning,
even though it had worked fine early in the ceremony.
This is why, let's not get too stunty with the
(19:08):
flame lighting. Okay, let's just have it be you light
the fuse or whatever, and it travels all the way
up and then it lands in the bowl. That's all
we want to see. Let's not get too innovative with fire,
is all we're saying.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Keep it simple.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Keep it simple, because if you want to get all
stunty with fire, you're gonna be sorry for whatever reason.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
Well, one mishap had lasting implications bo in since nineteen twenty,
so this has been a thing for years and years
and years. Since nineteen twenty, doves had been released at
the Olympic Games opening ceremonies to symbolize world peace. So
for the nineteen eighty eight Soul Games, the one where
Luganis Slade, birds had been trained for a year in
(19:50):
preparation of the event. They were supposed to fly around
the stadium in circles until they reached the rim, and
then fly off in five different directions. Unfortunately, of the
birds landed on the Olympic cauldron as it was being lit.
Although the call for world peace remains a part of
the opening ceremony, the public outcry from the nineteen eighty
eight Soul Games led to the permanent replacement of live
(20:12):
birds with inanimate objects or human actors. And then we
literally do have a picture here in this document of
what looks to.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
Be all these doves perched on the rim of the
bowl and one unfortunately flying right into the flame, about
to get toasted and roasted. Bye sister, By sister, you
had one job. You can train birds as much as
you want. There's still going to be There's a reason
why they call it bird brain very small. Hey, I
(20:41):
don't like saying it. As a new birdwatching enthusiast, I
really don't like seeing a bird die.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Certainly not you want to see a bird fly.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
I want to see a bird fly. And these will
always be a symbol of peace. This is two bad
things coming together, trying to manipulate fire and trying to
manipulate animals. Yeah, just don't ever ever have the two
converge into one thing.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Just everyone, just keep the fire away from the birds.
Please please wait. Speaking of bird watching, did I tell
you I just saw a bald eagle in person?
Speaker 1 (21:14):
I sent you the video.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
I must not have watched it yet, Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
I sent you a lot of videos from my vacation.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
They're scary birds, aren't they. They are huge, the bald eagles.
They're majestic, but they're scary up close. Well did you
hear that the bald eagle population has actually skyrocket as
of wait, skyrocketed. Rather, there are tiktoks out there of
these bald eagles. Hordes of bald eagles just like munching
(21:40):
on trash at landfills. And I'm like, oh, y'all are
ruining the image.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
I mean, the America eat in trash? Yeah, absolute, one
hundred percent. Can I say something? They're still birds, Like
you can look at a bald eagle and think dignified.
The bitch is eating trash, okay at the end of
the day. But apparently, yeah, the population of bald eagles
is up, up, up, because they made certain pesticides that
were killing the birds illegal, so that's the reason why.
(22:07):
But they're still quite endangered. But you know, if you
see a whole bunch of bald eagles showering down on
your trash, just tuesday, Just Tuesday.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Let's talk through some memorable moments of lighting in the cauldron.
We have Barcelona ninety two. Antonio Rabilio, Spanish Paralympic archer
lit the cauldron for the ninety two Games by shooting
a flaming arrow over the cauldron and knighting the gas.
Catinus Everdeen found not even born yet, so Catinus of him,
had she been born, had she been born? Two thousand
(22:49):
Sydney Games. Track and field superstar Aborigine Australian Kathy Freeman,
wearing a white bodysuit, stepped into a pool of water
and touched the torch to the cauldron. With the water,
a ring a fired circle tar cauldron rose from the
water as sending to the top of the stadium. I
remember this. I was but a child of nine. Yeah,
and I went, wow, that was cool.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
That was really cool. That was definitely one of the
fire moments I remember the most. Like that was pretty epic.
Anytime water is on fire, To be honest with you,
I'm kind of gagged.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
Well, this is the only exception that we are throwing
out there when dealing with fire, they're better be more
water than fire involved.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Oh yes, and this was.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
Definitely the case. It's very Poseidon's Adventure, very what else
like free Willy, Free Willy. Also fantasmic. Oh yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
I mean you can't talk about fire and water together
without talking about fantasmic and really all the Water World
show at Universal Studios Hollywood. Have I ever taken you
to that?
Speaker 1 (23:49):
I think you have.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
It's pretty fabulous. It's pretty spectacular, a lot of high
optane energy. It's really really it's stunt driven and there's fire.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
On the water for sure.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
Two thousand and eight, I remember this Beijing Games decorated
Olympic gymnast leaning lifted into the air on strings, very
crouching tiger, very Wusha film style.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
He then flew ran a lap atop of the rim
of the stadium before lighting the cauldron, and then that
itself traveled throm and lit the cauldron that was perched
on I'm going to say the word rim one more
time on the rim of the stadium. Leaning is sort
of like the Michael Jordan of China. He has his
own very popular clothing line. He's sort of like the
(24:33):
symbolic Chinese athlete who was able to parlay that into
a huge thriving apparel business.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Go off.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
So we celebrate Leaning go off, Sir.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
The ninety ninety six Atlanta Games, the greatest Muhammad Ali
gets the honor of lighting the cauldron. That was a
moment in time. And you know, of course we've got
our key figures from the upcoming twenty twenty four Paris
Games because you know, we have to always bring it
back to Paris.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
We always have to bring it back to Paris.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
The flame arrived in France via boat across the Mediterranean
Sea from Greece on May eighth.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
The relay will span sixty eight days only on French territory.
I think that's kind of she keep it in the borders.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Keep it within borders, keep it very French.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
Sixty five territories involved, including six overseas Territory, Guadaloupe, French Guyana, Martinique,
French Polynesia, New Caledonia, and the Island of Reunion.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Hmmm. The relay will go more through more than four
hundred cities. So are they going to get like all
of France's best to like carry this? Like, are we
gonna get some celebrity sightings.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
We're gonna get Charlotte Gainsborg, We're gonna get Mari Uncle Tillard,
We're gonna get Natalie Portman's children who grew up.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
In Paris, Benjamin Milpier, ex husband, ex husband, you know
they met doing Black Swan. That's right, that's just the
Natalie Portman history. I'm made of that stuff. I'm just
a peek behind the curtain. For all the Olympics facts.
We need the Google doc that we use. But if
you ask, like, what's the name of Natalie Portman's ex
(26:07):
husband who she has French kids with, Benjamin miller Pier
and they met during Black Swan, there you go, Natalie Hirschlog. Wow,
Natalie Hirschlog, that is her real last name. You know,
I saw her once in a CVS tiny.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
I saw her once smoking a cigarette outside of a
Broadway theater tiny.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Were you seeing the same show as her?
Speaker 3 (26:27):
No, she I think she was like in rehearsals and
she was like out like this was like my first
year in New York. This is like two thousand and eight.
And I was like, oh my god, Natalie Portman. And
then she did bring her kid to SNEL one time
and we said hello, and she looked so normal style
like I'm a mom my kid wants to come to
SNL to see the musical guest.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
She's very sweet.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
I am excited to hear that. Oh she was so
fish and she said high back. She said high back,
and then that was like I didn't want to say
anything else. I was just like kind of like, oh
my god, Hello, she was like hi.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
And then that was it. I was like, this is
all that needs to have. Ben. I am truly startstrawing.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
I've told you about when I was walking. I think
I was walking remember that old when we were in NYU,
there was that bar called Forum. Yeah, it was on
like third ave. It was like a third ave in
right by fourteenth or maybe like twelfth and third. I
was walking by it one day and up you know
how whenever they're shooting something in New York or wherever
they have those like posters up to prohibit parking. It
(27:23):
was like, we are shooting a movie and I asked someone,
I'm like, what are they shooting and they were like, oh,
it's a new Natalie Portman movie.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Called Black Swan.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
They were shooting the scene with Natalie and Mila with
a then unknown Sebastian Stan.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Oh my god, it was.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Happening right in Forum. And then when I watched the
movie later, I was like, oh my god, that is Forum.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
What like the strobe lights kind of go crazy.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Yes, like, well now it's not there anymore at something
else now. But at the time I was like, Wow,
that really is that bar, And they really were shooting
this scene that night. And it was around that time
that I saw in the CVS two blocks away tiny
as hell.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
Well, let's hope that she gets to be one of
the torch relad people.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
Well, you know what's funny is it's like Black Swan,
Like that is such an athletic thing she had to
do to accomplish playing her role in that film. And
I think that's really what brings it back to Paris. Absolutely,
we have so many people that are not only working
hard to make sure that their performance in the Athletic
(28:24):
Games and the Olympic Games themselves are on ten. But
we've got people who are so dedicated to seeing this
fire make its way all the way to the Olympic Games,
still a light from its origin, and I think that
is to be commended. And I think if we're going
to give a gold, silver, and bronze medal today, we
have to give the gold medal to everyone carrying the
(28:47):
torch throughout history. Throughout history, if you carried the torch
gold medal from.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
Us except for the people who use their big lighters
to light a sham flame.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Y'all don't get metal.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
You should have just owned up.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
To it and said, hey, I'm sorry, there was a
literal thunderstorm happening and that's why they And imagine that
the flame went out. Can we get the backup in?
Can we fly in the backup? Simple as that. That
is your job.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Who gets the silver metal here today?
Speaker 3 (29:21):
Silver metal? I would say, I'm gonna give it to
the continuity of the flame. The protocols that are put
in place are really admirable. This is another testament to
the human will, the collective human drive to preserve something
something like the Olympic Flame. Humans can do amazing things
(29:41):
when they come together and figure out a way to
put meaning into something.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
And that is what continuing the flame is all about.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Yeah, And speaking of perseverance and excellence, the Bronze Metal
is going to fantasmic. Yes, it continues to push the
boundaries of how much fire can be on water, how
fun a show can be.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
How much it can inspire Kathy Freeman.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
I mean, let's just say that without Fantastic, we would
have no Kathy Freeman lighting the water on fire.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
And that's on period, and that's on truth, and that's
on truth. Well, Matt, I've had such a wonderful time
discussing the Olympic Flame with you.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
I always have such an amazing time discussing anything with you.
And this is a testament to the human spirit.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
I keep saying that, but I really am so inspired
by the Olympics, and I talk about you know, they
are an arena for all kinds of human history to happen.
You have, you know, all the crazy conversations that I'm
sorry to get political, that we have about trans athletes
that's been happening in the at the Olympics since the
(30:53):
early twentieth century. Like the Olympics are the place where
all of this, where like humanity comes together. This is
why I love the Olympics, honesties.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Though it's a place for legends, the legends is a
place for legends. And you can watch every moment of
the twenty twenty four Paris Olympics beginning July twenty sixth
on NBC and Peacock And for the first time, you
can stream the twenty twenty four Paris Games on the
iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
And we close every episode with that amazing Olympics melody.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
Dude.
Speaker 5 (31:35):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
If only podcast or a visual medium, you can see
the plane. You know what, if you're at home listening
flight something on fire and look at it. Thanks guys,
talk to you next time.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
Bye.
Ring, ring, ringing.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Five rings, Two guys say, in five.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
Rings, you know Arina Grande has a song called seven Rings,
but five is just in the goldilocks.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Zone for me. Absolutely, just rights just right. Seven's too much.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
That's too much, too much Arianna your opulent lifestyle. But
you know what else is opulent The Olympics. And that's
really what we're here to celebrate. On Two guys, five Rings,
the podcast that talks Olympics. I'm Matt Rogers, that's my name.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
And I'm Bow and Yang and we're the two guys,
wouldn't you say passing back and forth the torch. That
is conversation. That is how podcasts do work.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
And episode six of this podcast is going to talk
all about the Olympic flame and torch.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Okay, two separate things, and one thing needs the other
in order to I didn't.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Actually know that the carrying of the torch around the
world was real. Oh yeah, and then you really do
understand that this is the spirit stick, but for real,
like if this Olympic flame were to be extinguished or
hit the ground like this would be true chaos and
Olympic fashion.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
I think it's like world building. I know we're using
that term a little bit too much now, but there's
a world building there. It makes you go, oh the flame.
It's like very like Game of Thrones when.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
You say, absolutely well, it symbolizes the coming of the
games and spreading peace and friendship along the route. So
it's less Game of Thrones in that that was more
like competition for supremacy and this is more like love
and peace, but definitely fire, certainly, that's what the Olympics
and Game of Thrones haven't the common.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
For certain for certain Now, have you ever carried a
torch for someone?
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Matt?
Speaker 4 (01:55):
Oh, God, haven't I haven't I. We all have a
story of, you know, the time when we just have
feelings and couldn't find a where to put them. I
remember I was in high school, you see, and I
carried a torch for my best friend, and sometimes, you know,
(02:17):
I would go hang out with him and his girlfriend
and I would sit on an AOL Instant Messenger while
they hooked up behind me in his bed, and I
would be in the room and I'd be on AOL
Instant Messengers or talking to my friends, hanging out with
my friends. And one day I said to them, Hey,
do you guys ever not want me to be around,
and they go, no, we love hanging out with you.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Then you make us laugh. I said, okay, So I
continued to hang out with them. Mothery sort of hooked
up in the room with me in it, and I
would just not turn around. So, yeah, I've carried torches before.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
I was gonna say, I was gonna get be like backup, backup.
So they would be like macing on each other while
you were on the computer.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Like imagine me. I would be on the computer, I
think when I was like fifteen, and I would be
on the computer sort of on aim, just like talking
to my friends, like trying to make plans for the
weekend or later, and they would be behind me, like
messing around. Fully well that and I always was like,
I wonder how far it's going, But I thought, well,
(03:17):
that would be uncool for me to ask, as if
it wasn't uncool for me to be there in the
first place.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Not uncool.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Maybe they liked to be watched.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
They want they liked how I was a little voyeur,
but I wasn't a danger of me being able to
turn around.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
It's so funny.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
I rarely even think about that. How weird that was
but that was a thing that probably happened between five
and six times. Is I would just sit there and
they would hook up behind me, and then I was like,
did you guys ever know want me to come? And
the excuse was like no, no, no, you gotta be there. Wow,
I'm a kink.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
You are a kink and you will never be shamed.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
You can't be ashamed for wanting me president when you
guys hook up, and by you guys, I'm talking to
you the listener when if you ever want to hook
up and have me just around, I'm so used to it.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
It's not that you like to watch, it's more it's
more for them. It's for their kink. It's not a
kink for you, it's a kink for them.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Have you ever carried a torch?
Speaker 3 (04:18):
I was going to say that, I've literally said the
words I think I've been carrying a torch for you
for too long. And then that was my way of
sort of like and of like release of dropping the
torch as it were, of being like, I can't do
this anymore, I can't do this kind of dramatically. I
wish people could see the release. We're sort of dramatically
(04:43):
releasing our torches. I really I encourage all of you
to tell the person you've carried a torch for to
say the words, I've carried a torch for you, and
it's time for me to drop.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
It because it's of some kind.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Oh my god, I mean. We are recording this after
the Culture Awards, where in which we gave Mandy Moore
a Lifetime of Culture Award, and one of the clips
that I forgot about that I is now constantly playing
in my head as her and want to remember telling
Shane West, I.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Do not need a reason to be angry with God.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
I do not need a reason to be angry with God.
Is an amazing line, and she delivered it. I do
not need a reason.
Speaker 5 (05:25):
To be angry with God.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Incredible.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
The key to acting is to barely allow noise to
come out while you're talking. That's the key to emotional actors.
To be quiet, literally.
Speaker 5 (05:41):
Barely give anything. You can understand everything feeling, even if
they don't make us up.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
You are so good.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
I'm comply, girl. No, you are the dramatic genom. No.
Watch Fire Island now. If you're listening to this podcast,
turn it off. Watch Fire Island net watch me shed.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
A tear to a perfume genius song to a perfume
genius needle drop.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
You know who would be so happy? Greg Luganis. I
met Greg Luganis saw Fire Island in my day.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
I don't think he knows the best thing.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
It has bone Yang, it has gaze and has Fire Island,
It has water, it has everything that everyone loves. I
just know he watches us and out with his partner
and says I love him. I think he's so funny.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
I know it.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
I can't be sure.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Well, we'll have to find out. Maybe I'm placing the
breadcrumbs for Greg Luguinis to come on the podcast grag.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
We would love to have you.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
We would love to meet gregor invited Invite.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Nashley once said.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Yeah, and how did that song end? It was Bennette
you'll r s V P.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Oh Yeah, yeah, were you a Mariicante?
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Nashley fam well through my sister and she got all
the Mary Kate national videos from the library.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Chelsea also liked it.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
My sister, Oh my god, My sister bought the Sister
of the Traveling Pants and I stole it from her shelf.
And read it in my own bed and then hid
it under the bed because they didn't want anyone to
find out that I was reading a girl book. Did
she ever find it? I think she did good, But
I like want I could just all the girls at
school were reading it and loving it, and I was like,
(07:31):
I really want to read that.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
I know. This is before the movie came out.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
That's how I was with the show One Tree Hill.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
It was like a closet thing for you because like, don't.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Remember when the OC was out and everyone liked the OC,
but not only everyone in high school.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
No boys.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
I don't know. I got away with watching the OC
for sure. I don't know what it was about. Maybe
it was like cool California culture, but One Tree Hill
there was something like girls only about it.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Chad Michael Mary was only for girls.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
It was only for girls. Like you couldn't watch Chad
Michael Murray as a boy that age and be like, yeah,
I like to show because I'm a fan of his acting.
It's like, no, you loved his appetizer plate size nipples
and he lit off a fire alarm and you're growing
and speaking of fire, the symbolic flame. Let's just chat
about the Olympic torch and the flame just a little bit, okay.
(08:19):
The first time a symbolic flame made its appearance at
the Olympic Games was for the nineteen twenty eight Amsterdam Games.
The main purpose of this fire, placed in a large
bowl on top of a slender tower named the Marathon
Tower overlooking the Olympic Stadium, was to indicate for miles
around where in Amsterdam the Olympic Games were being held.
A similar flame appeared once more in Los Angeles four
(08:40):
years later, this time at the top of the gateway
to the Olympic Stadium. So fire is life. It's very survivor,
it's very desperate span life in this game, fire is
your life. In this instance, fire is where the Olympics happened.
But you get it. The fire, if you see it
shining tall, shining bright, you know you had that way
for excellence and excitement.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
When they cut to the torch a flame during the games,
you know, like you'll be watching beach volleyball and then
they will cut to in broad daylight the stadium. That
makes me go, this is once again about the human spirit,
about human accomplishment, and that's what the Olympics are about Oh,
(09:24):
I could relish this forever.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Here's another factoid, Okay. The nineteen thirty six Berlin Games
were the first in which an Olympic torch relay was used.
Chief organizer of the Games proposed the idea two years
earlier to link antiquity and modernity. The original relay took
twelve days and passed through seven countries Greece, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria,
Czechoslovakia and Germany. A lot of pop stars come from
(09:49):
that area. I would say three thousand and seventy five
kilometer relay was completed solely by runners in Yugoslavia over
approximately twenty five kilometers. However, certain torches showed signs of
weakness and threat to go out before the end of
the expected combustion duration. Thus, in order not to take
any risks, the torch bearers were taken to the next
stage more quickly by car shooters. So this is once
(10:11):
again linking ancient times to the modern.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Era of the Olympics.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
The Olympic flame for Berlin was lit with the aid
of a parabolic mirror reflecting the sun's rains, which is
a time honored method that guarantees the purity of the flame.
The lighting of the flame takes place in front of
the ruins of the Temple of Hera and Olympia, Greece
every Olympics. I believe now the dark origins of the
(10:39):
relay has to do with Nazi propaganda. As we said,
this was in the nineteen thirty six Berlin Games.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
I'm sorry about that, guys, but it's sorry, just true.
It's just true, y'all.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
The Nazis didn't invent fire. No, it's fine, Okay. Fire
is further for everybody.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
They use the original torch relay for propaganda purposes. The
Olympic Torch relay now is used to signal the Olympic
Game are coming into spread a message of peace and
friendship along the route. So decidedly at nastic stuff. Now
you don't have to be worried. Whenever you see the flame,
be in a past. Okay.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
When you look at the flame, you should think Central Perk.
You should think Ross, Rachel, Phoebe Chandler, Monica and Joey.
You should think friendship. You should think harm of national harmony.
You should think at world peace. You should think of
mister congeniality, the film light slapstick, Light slapstick, light fare overall,
(11:31):
but for serious reasons, which is an occasion to bring
the countries of the world together in the name of sportsmanship.
You think the Goblet of Fire was inspired by the
Olympic torch?
Speaker 2 (11:43):
I do you know? Because it never goes out? Right?
Is that the part of the deal with the Goblet
of Fire? I don't know, the whole sports and fire thing. Yeah,
of course it was, of course.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
The Olympic, the Triwizard tournament, that is the Olympics.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
I ask if it never goes out because our Olympic flame,
the acrid fire, is never extinguished in the event of
a problem.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Did you know this?
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Several emergency backup flames exist, but they are kept secret
as the protocol also dictates the flame can only be
rekindled with an emanation of the original flame, so this
is serious. When it is not being carried by an
Olympic torch, the flame is sheltered and especially modified security
lamp similar to a miner's lamp. Every eight hours, the
lantern is filled with liquid kerosene and the wick is
(12:28):
also changed about every two weeks, and at nighttime, the
flame is kept in a special cauldron. So this is
the fire. When you see the Olympic fire, just know
that's the doll.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Is it the same flame as nineteen twenty eight Amsterdam Games?
Speaker 2 (12:42):
That would be completely insane.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
Do you think we'll never know?
Speaker 2 (12:48):
We'll never know. I think it's one of the those
things we can ever know. And also, by the way
it kind of says here like if there's if something
happens like low key, that there's a backup flame, it exists.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
I'm saying like the continuity of the flame is a
big part of the flame's lore.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Yeah, but lie, people lie all the time, going this
is Hollywood, it's smoked, emarrass you though the Olympics. Ultimately,
at the end of the day, it's a show.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
This is Hollywood. It's we're in Paris, Mama.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
To tell the show peak behind the curtain.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
This is all entertainment earlier, so confusing.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Sometimes talk about the use of technology when it comes
to the torch, Well.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
I'll say that it's integral. As the torch must be
able to stand up to difficult weather conditions, including wind, rain,
extreme temperatures, and snow. It must also be capable of
burning longer than the amount of time anticipated for each
leg of the relay. In the event of problems along
the route, they have really thought through every scenario. The
(13:53):
first torch relay, German manufacturer Krupp, created a steel cloud
torch featuring a magnesium burning all that was designed to
stay lit regardless of weather conditions. Over the years, many
other products such as gunpowder, resin and olive oil have
been used to feel the Olympic flame. These days we're
talking gas cartridges in the body of the torch. That
(14:14):
is usually the most popular thing. Interestingly, the type of
gas can influence both the intensity of the flame as
well the color from white to yellowy red now white.
A white flame is, as we know, the hottest color.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Well, isn't the blue the hottest flame?
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Blue is the warmest color. But white.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
You know when someone says white hot, that means it's
the hottest kind of hot.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
WHOA Can I ask you what your favorite type of
fire is? We've never had this conversation, like what is
your favorite fire?
Speaker 1 (14:46):
To see?
Speaker 3 (14:47):
When I'm at the Korean barbecue restaurant and I see
the blue flame lighting my table, I go, that is
that is? I'm thinking of hades. I'm thinking of James
wood goods as hades.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Great performance, bad Man, bad.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Man, a great performance. I'm thinking just like Sleigh color,
what about you?
Speaker 2 (15:12):
I think blue flame is amazing. I'm very attracted to
the phrase white hot. But you know when I go
to the club, I like to hear these club classics
and for me, fire is yellow, fire is yellow, like
it just is.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
M Yeah in the movies, fire is yellow and red.
I feel the sun is yellow. It's really a goodness
gracious a great ball of fire.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
By the way, justice for one of the greatest pop
songs of all time. Goodness, gracious, great balls of fire.
I am telling you listen to it again. It goes off.
That is such a goodness mollfire. Who ever wrote that
(16:00):
the Greg luganis of songwriting, the greatest of all time?
And gay. I just went to a show and someone saying, goodness, gracious,
grape balls of Fire, and I was like, hold on
a second. This is a hit and a half. It
sounds like Chapel Roone.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
It sounds like Chaperone.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Absolutely, goodness, gracious, grape balls Bowen. I'm telling you listen
to it. After we record this, you'll listen to it
three more times. Right after you will be in you
love the way you look at you to know me,
you don't know me. Second time you said this, I
do know you. I know you well. So you know.
Speaking of the flame and the great balls of fire
(16:36):
and et cetera, as it relates to the Olympics, there
have been some mishaps. There have been some flame and
cauldron mishaps. Despite the safeguards taken to prevent the flame
from being extinguished, it has happened. In nineteen seventy six
during the Montreal Games, an unexpected violent thunderstorm the worst
douse the flame at the Olympic Stadium. No eventure taking
(16:56):
place at the time. The only people on site were workers.
One of them rushed up the steps of the platform
holding the Olympic cauldron, using a cigarette lighter to light
some pieces of newspaper and the cauldron. When the Olympic
officials learned to the situation, the makeshift flame was extinguished
because it was you know, terrible, terrible flame. Fake fire imposter,
(17:18):
A light and the back of torches were used to
relight the flame. A similar incident occurred before the twenty
fourteen Winter Olympics in Sochi in Russia, with a security
officer reportedly re lighting the flame with a lighter after
it had gone out at the Kremlin in Moscow. This
is just these people are. They're trying their best, like
they don't want anyone to know that it was on
their watch that it went out, so they whipped the
(17:38):
lighter out.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
But that's listen, there are safeguards in place for when
that exact scenario happens. Please, if you're handling the Olympic
flame in the future, don't use your little, big lighter.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
The torch deserves the real flame, and there are backup
torches and flames in place and available. Bick, please, big please.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Faulty burners have caused flameouts too, but beyond weather related
and mechanical issues, there are some instances cause purposely it
just insane by individuals seeking to maic political or social statements.
In two thousand and eight, protesters decrying China's history of
human rights abuses managed to extinguish the flame multiple times.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Slay they That is a movie I want to see, Yeah, extinguishers, Extinguishers?
Should that be our film? Yes, extinguishers.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
It's about two gays who want to put out the
fire of the Olympic torch just cause, for attention.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
For attention and likes.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
They do it for the likes. They do it for
the shares. They did it for the reels.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
This is kind of slay. At the twenty ten Vancouver
Winter Games, they had four pillars kind of meaning up
towards the center to light the torch. One of the
pillars failed to light from the stadium floor. The trap
door was faulty and froze prior to the cauldron lightning,
even though it had worked fine early in the ceremony.
This is why, let's not get too stunty with the
(19:08):
flame lighting. Okay, let's just have it be you light
the fuse or whatever, and it travels all the way
up and then it lands in the bowl. That's all
we want to see. Let's not get too innovative with fire,
is all we're saying.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Keep it simple.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Keep it simple, because if you want to get all
stunty with fire, you're gonna be sorry for whatever reason.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
Well, one mishap had lasting implications bo in since nineteen twenty,
so this has been a thing for years and years
and years. Since nineteen twenty, doves had been released at
the Olympic Games opening ceremonies to symbolize world peace. So
for the nineteen eighty eight Soul Games, the one where
Luganis Slade, birds had been trained for a year in
(19:50):
preparation of the event. They were supposed to fly around
the stadium in circles until they reached the rim, and
then fly off in five different directions. Unfortunately, of the
birds landed on the Olympic cauldron as it was being lit.
Although the call for world peace remains a part of
the opening ceremony, the public outcry from the nineteen eighty
eight Soul Games led to the permanent replacement of live
(20:12):
birds with inanimate objects or human actors. And then we
literally do have a picture here in this document of
what looks to.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
Be all these doves perched on the rim of the
bowl and one unfortunately flying right into the flame, about
to get toasted and roasted. Bye sister, By sister, you
had one job. You can train birds as much as
you want. There's still going to be There's a reason
why they call it bird brain very small. Hey, I
(20:41):
don't like saying it. As a new birdwatching enthusiast, I
really don't like seeing a bird die.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Certainly not you want to see a bird fly.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
I want to see a bird fly. And these will
always be a symbol of peace. This is two bad
things coming together, trying to manipulate fire and trying to
manipulate animals. Yeah, just don't ever ever have the two
converge into one thing.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Just everyone, just keep the fire away from the birds.
Please please wait. Speaking of bird watching, did I tell
you I just saw a bald eagle in person?
Speaker 1 (21:14):
I sent you the video.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
I must not have watched it yet, Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
I sent you a lot of videos from my vacation.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
They're scary birds, aren't they. They are huge, the bald eagles.
They're majestic, but they're scary up close. Well did you
hear that the bald eagle population has actually skyrocket as
of wait, skyrocketed. Rather, there are tiktoks out there of
these bald eagles. Hordes of bald eagles just like munching
(21:40):
on trash at landfills. And I'm like, oh, y'all are
ruining the image.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
I mean, the America eat in trash? Yeah, absolute, one
hundred percent. Can I say something? They're still birds, Like
you can look at a bald eagle and think dignified.
The bitch is eating trash, okay at the end of
the day. But apparently, yeah, the population of bald eagles
is up, up, up, because they made certain pesticides that
were killing the birds illegal, so that's the reason why.
(22:07):
But they're still quite endangered. But you know, if you
see a whole bunch of bald eagles showering down on
your trash, just tuesday, Just Tuesday.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Let's talk through some memorable moments of lighting in the cauldron.
We have Barcelona ninety two. Antonio Rabilio, Spanish Paralympic archer
lit the cauldron for the ninety two Games by shooting
a flaming arrow over the cauldron and knighting the gas.
Catinus Everdeen found not even born yet, so Catinus of him,
had she been born, had she been born? Two thousand
(22:49):
Sydney Games. Track and field superstar Aborigine Australian Kathy Freeman,
wearing a white bodysuit, stepped into a pool of water
and touched the torch to the cauldron. With the water,
a ring a fired circle tar cauldron rose from the
water as sending to the top of the stadium. I
remember this. I was but a child of nine. Yeah,
and I went, wow, that was cool.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
That was really cool. That was definitely one of the
fire moments I remember the most. Like that was pretty epic.
Anytime water is on fire, To be honest with you,
I'm kind of gagged.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
Well, this is the only exception that we are throwing
out there when dealing with fire, they're better be more
water than fire involved.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Oh yes, and this was.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
Definitely the case. It's very Poseidon's Adventure, very what else
like free Willy, Free Willy. Also fantasmic. Oh yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
I mean you can't talk about fire and water together
without talking about fantasmic and really all the Water World
show at Universal Studios Hollywood. Have I ever taken you
to that?
Speaker 1 (23:49):
I think you have.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
It's pretty fabulous. It's pretty spectacular, a lot of high
optane energy. It's really really it's stunt driven and there's fire.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
On the water for sure.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
Two thousand and eight, I remember this Beijing Games decorated
Olympic gymnast leaning lifted into the air on strings, very
crouching tiger, very Wusha film style.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
He then flew ran a lap atop of the rim
of the stadium before lighting the cauldron, and then that
itself traveled throm and lit the cauldron that was perched
on I'm going to say the word rim one more
time on the rim of the stadium. Leaning is sort
of like the Michael Jordan of China. He has his
own very popular clothing line. He's sort of like the
(24:33):
symbolic Chinese athlete who was able to parlay that into
a huge thriving apparel business.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Go off.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
So we celebrate Leaning go off, Sir.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
The ninety ninety six Atlanta Games, the greatest Muhammad Ali
gets the honor of lighting the cauldron. That was a
moment in time. And you know, of course we've got
our key figures from the upcoming twenty twenty four Paris
Games because you know, we have to always bring it
back to Paris.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
We always have to bring it back to Paris.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
The flame arrived in France via boat across the Mediterranean
Sea from Greece on May eighth.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
The relay will span sixty eight days only on French territory.
I think that's kind of she keep it in the borders.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Keep it within borders, keep it very French.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
Sixty five territories involved, including six overseas Territory, Guadaloupe, French Guyana, Martinique,
French Polynesia, New Caledonia, and the Island of Reunion.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Hmmm. The relay will go more through more than four
hundred cities. So are they going to get like all
of France's best to like carry this? Like, are we
gonna get some celebrity sightings.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
We're gonna get Charlotte Gainsborg, We're gonna get Mari Uncle Tillard,
We're gonna get Natalie Portman's children who grew up.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
In Paris, Benjamin Milpier, ex husband, ex husband, you know
they met doing Black Swan. That's right, that's just the
Natalie Portman history. I'm made of that stuff. I'm just
a peek behind the curtain. For all the Olympics facts.
We need the Google doc that we use. But if
you ask, like, what's the name of Natalie Portman's ex
(26:07):
husband who she has French kids with, Benjamin miller Pier
and they met during Black Swan, there you go, Natalie Hirschlog. Wow,
Natalie Hirschlog, that is her real last name. You know,
I saw her once in a CVS tiny.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
I saw her once smoking a cigarette outside of a
Broadway theater tiny.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Were you seeing the same show as her?
Speaker 3 (26:27):
No, she I think she was like in rehearsals and
she was like out like this was like my first
year in New York. This is like two thousand and eight.
And I was like, oh my god, Natalie Portman. And
then she did bring her kid to SNEL one time
and we said hello, and she looked so normal style
like I'm a mom my kid wants to come to
SNL to see the musical guest.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
She's very sweet.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
I am excited to hear that. Oh she was so
fish and she said high back. She said high back,
and then that was like I didn't want to say
anything else. I was just like kind of like, oh
my god, Hello, she was like hi.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
And then that was it. I was like, this is
all that needs to have. Ben. I am truly startstrawing.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
I've told you about when I was walking. I think
I was walking remember that old when we were in NYU,
there was that bar called Forum. Yeah, it was on
like third ave. It was like a third ave in
right by fourteenth or maybe like twelfth and third. I
was walking by it one day and up you know
how whenever they're shooting something in New York or wherever
they have those like posters up to prohibit parking. It
(27:23):
was like, we are shooting a movie and I asked someone,
I'm like, what are they shooting and they were like, oh,
it's a new Natalie Portman movie.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Called Black Swan.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
They were shooting the scene with Natalie and Mila with
a then unknown Sebastian Stan.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Oh my god, it was.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Happening right in Forum. And then when I watched the
movie later, I was like, oh my god, that is Forum.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
What like the strobe lights kind of go crazy.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Yes, like, well now it's not there anymore at something
else now. But at the time I was like, Wow,
that really is that bar, And they really were shooting
this scene that night. And it was around that time
that I saw in the CVS two blocks away tiny
as hell.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
Well, let's hope that she gets to be one of
the torch relad people.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
Well, you know what's funny is it's like Black Swan,
Like that is such an athletic thing she had to
do to accomplish playing her role in that film. And
I think that's really what brings it back to Paris. Absolutely,
we have so many people that are not only working
hard to make sure that their performance in the Athletic
(28:24):
Games and the Olympic Games themselves are on ten. But
we've got people who are so dedicated to seeing this
fire make its way all the way to the Olympic Games,
still a light from its origin, and I think that
is to be commended. And I think if we're going
to give a gold, silver, and bronze medal today, we
have to give the gold medal to everyone carrying the
(28:47):
torch throughout history. Throughout history, if you carried the torch
gold medal from.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
Us except for the people who use their big lighters
to light a sham flame.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Y'all don't get metal.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
You should have just owned up.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
To it and said, hey, I'm sorry, there was a
literal thunderstorm happening and that's why they And imagine that
the flame went out. Can we get the backup in?
Can we fly in the backup? Simple as that. That
is your job.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Who gets the silver metal here today?
Speaker 3 (29:21):
Silver metal? I would say, I'm gonna give it to
the continuity of the flame. The protocols that are put
in place are really admirable. This is another testament to
the human will, the collective human drive to preserve something
something like the Olympic Flame. Humans can do amazing things
(29:41):
when they come together and figure out a way to
put meaning into something.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
And that is what continuing the flame is all about.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Yeah, And speaking of perseverance and excellence, the Bronze Metal
is going to fantasmic. Yes, it continues to push the
boundaries of how much fire can be on water, how
fun a show can be.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
How much it can inspire Kathy Freeman.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
I mean, let's just say that without Fantastic, we would
have no Kathy Freeman lighting the water on fire.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
And that's on period, and that's on truth, and that's
on truth. Well, Matt, I've had such a wonderful time
discussing the Olympic Flame with you.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
I always have such an amazing time discussing anything with you.
And this is a testament to the human spirit.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
I keep saying that, but I really am so inspired
by the Olympics, and I talk about you know, they
are an arena for all kinds of human history to happen.
You have, you know, all the crazy conversations that I'm
sorry to get political, that we have about trans athletes
that's been happening in the at the Olympics since the
(30:53):
early twentieth century. Like the Olympics are the place where
all of this, where like humanity comes together. This is
why I love the Olympics, honesties.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Though it's a place for legends, the legends is a
place for legends. And you can watch every moment of
the twenty twenty four Paris Olympics beginning July twenty sixth
on NBC and Peacock And for the first time, you
can stream the twenty twenty four Paris Games on the
iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
And we close every episode with that amazing Olympics melody.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
Dude.
Speaker 5 (31:35):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
If only podcast or a visual medium, you can see
the plane. You know what, if you're at home listening
flight something on fire and look at it. Thanks guys,
talk to you next time.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
Bye.
Hosts And Creators
Matt Rogers
Bowen Yang
Popular Podcasts
40s and Free Agents: NFL Draft Season
Daniel Jeremiah of Move the Sticks and Gregg Rosenthal of NFL Daily join forces to break down every team's needs this offseason.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.