Episode #205 — Air Card Safety Design

I have a confession to make — I love to make lists. It doesn’t matter what sort of list it is: grocery, to do, the pros and cons of dating Rachel Green … it satisfies some sort of weird need to exert control in an increasingly chaotic world. Or else I have crippling OCD and something terrible will happen to a loved one if I forget to buy Mrs. Meyers hand soap at Target. (Ha! Just kidding. My OCD would never let me forget to buy hand soap!)

And although my thorough lists don’t keep me from submitting my weekly blogs late sometimes, they do help me keep other things in my life organized. I think I might have gone too far now, though, and I’ve ventured into elderly person behavior. Quick caveat: there is nothing wrong with behaving like an elderly person. They have a lot of things figured out. Naps are good, it’s great to have other people drive for you, if you want dinner at 4:30 there’s no judgement … these are all good things. I’m just not ready to consider myself elderly yet. I’ve barely come to terms with the fact that Gen X isn’t equated with youth anymore. (Though I’d like to point out I’m a young Gen Xer. I was barely in high school in the 80s and was too young to relate to any of the characters in “The Breakfast Club” … you know what? I don’t care what you think. John Bender 4 eva!)

What I’m trying to say is that I just made a huge list of TV shows currently streaming that I want to watch. This goes far beyond a Netflix queue because there are so many streaming services and so many good (or hilariously bad) shows waiting to be watched — including many for which the cultural moment has probably passed. Looking at you, seasons one of “Bridgerton,” “Ted Lasso,” “Hacks,” and “Peaky Blinders.” (It should be noted here that Heidi and Luke are more up to date on their stories and would never wait that long to watch “Ted Lasso.” Not sure why they’re still friends with me.)

Who knows? Maybe one day soon I’ll be stuck on a long flight and Season 3 of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” will be on; then another show can be crossed off the literal list. But after listening to this week’s episode, I might be too busy looking at the air safety cards to focus on the inflight entertainment. This week’s guest is Brock Fisher from Air Safety Art International, a company that creates designs for the safety cards you find in airplanes for a number of airlines and clients with private jets. (In other words, if you’ve had the good fortune to see Brock’s work in person, you’ve probably flown on a private jet — maybe more than once. Well done, you!)

Showing how to don and inflate a life vest, open an emergency door or window, and safely secure an oxygen mask are all incredibly important things to know on an airplane, and Brock filled us in on how to depict these activities as quickly and accurately as possible. After all, you don’t want to be distracted by an unusual clothing choice in the art when you have about 90 seconds to deplane. We also learned what kind of research goes into creating these air safety cards, how long they take to produce, how these cards have changed through the years, and just who the art in those cards is based on.

Air Safety Art International is a family endeavor, so Brock’s family has been keeping us all safe since his grandfather started illustrating these cards many years ago. Check out this week’s episode to find out the backstory of these air safety cards and whether really famous people have conspicuous private jets — with cards to match. For more information, check out the company website. If you have a private jet, you’ll need safety cards. And room enough to fly us to Ibiza. Don’t worry about the return trip; we’ll catch a flight back on Robert Plant’s jet.