We’ve all done it: you really need to pee, so you buy a muffin you don’t even want… just to get the bathroom code.

In this episode, Sam and Warren uncover why public restrooms are in such short supply in cities, starting at Awaken Cafe in downtown Oakland, where one small business has quietly become the de facto public restroom for a whole slice of the city (including City Hall’s backyard, which is a little wild when you think about it). They sit down with Cortt, Awaken’s founder, to talk about what it actually means to run a “public restroom” without the public funding, the emotional labor, the conflict management, and the literal missing chunks of porcelain.

Then we hop to Berkeley for a conversation with Jess Heinzelman, co-founder of Throne, about why public bathrooms got so scarce, why they've been so damn expensive, and what it looks like to build a restroom system around dignity, design, and real operations. We get into the not-so-glamorous realities: loitering fears, vandalism, “bathrooms turning into homes,” and why “just install one” is never the end of the story. Plus: how tech, sensors, cleaning logistics, and behavioral design can make a public restroom feel more like a hotel lobby and less like a punishment.

This is a very funny episode. It’s also a serious one. Because some cities have made our sidewalks the most rational option for defecation. We know (and even more so after this episode), that this doesn't have to be the case.

We cover:

• The “bathroom code economy”
• When small businesses become emergency responders
• Why cities agree on restrooms...until it’s time to place one
• Pit Stops, Portland Loos, maintenance realities, and implementation chaos
• Why design changes behavior and why “prison cell bathrooms” backfire
• Throne’s approach: off-grid siting, data, cleanliness, and accountability
• What to ask your city councilmember if you want this to change

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Watch full vids of our episodes (more fun!) on youtube.