Following on the heels of our scientific exploration of dirty dishes, this week’s episode is a second installment from the Stanford Storytelling Project’s recent look at “Community”.

This time we zoom out from the kitchen sink to a larger case study of the people who use it. It’s the story of a few idealistic students, a couple of frat boys, and their shared project of creating a common household together. Listen in as their dream delicately goes to $#!%.

This week we offer up an interview of Daniel Steinbock who “is taking on one of the biggest foes of community”: dirty dishes. Daniel has formulated a scientific theory of how and why dirty dishes pile up despite our best intentions. He also proposes a solution to what he terms the “Dirty Dish Dilemma.” Wait for it….

U + 1 = clean

After proving that the policy of “everyone clean your own dishes” is insufficient to prevent a dirty dish disaster, Daniel shows that a trivially small amount of altruism on everyone’s part is more than enough to save the day. The answer: 1. clean your own dishes (of course), and 2. if there are dirty dishes in the sink, clean one extra. U + 1 = clean. If everyone does this, the sink will stay clean, dishes won’t pile up, and – here’s the best part – most of the time, there won’t be any extra.

The interview is an excerpt from a recent Stanford Storytelling Project episode on the subject of “Community” and aired live on KZSU 90.1 FM on Tuesday, November 17th, 2009. The piece was lovingly produced by Charlie Mintz, who also hosted the episode on the air.