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Speaker 1: Ridiculous crime. It's a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Hey it's Elizabeth.

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Speaker 3: Hey, it's Elizabeth Dutton. What's up, Burnette?

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Speaker 4: I got a question for you. And you're a cool

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Speaker 4: felliny t shirt. Do you know what's ridiculous?

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Speaker 3: I do know it's ridiculous.

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Speaker 2: What shack shack diesel shack jackfu.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, Eel O'Neill. He's one of those celebrities.

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Speaker 4: Shoe well, yeah, that's what my friend's dad always says

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Speaker 4: us every year.

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Speaker 2: Sequel. He's like a good Irish name. He's Irish. Yikes.

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Speaker 3: He he's one of those celebrities that's just like everywhere.

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Speaker 3: We'll do an ad for anything. Oh yeah, yeah, you know,

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Speaker 3: there's a handful of them.

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Speaker 2: If you can write the check to him and he

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Speaker 2: can see that it clears. Huh.

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Speaker 3: So we got word that there was this thing called

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Speaker 3: a shack pack shack pack, which then when I googled it,

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Speaker 3: that was originally something that was called that was like

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Speaker 3: a burger king deal.

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Speaker 2: That's what I thought, Yeah, in the early aughts.

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Speaker 3: It's like a sour dough burger. Shaquille O'Neill apparently endorsed,

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Speaker 3: was particularly fond of so anyway, But now there's this

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Speaker 3: new shack pack and it is a mash up, well

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Speaker 3: but not.

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Speaker 2: Really was like a cryptocurrency, that's how bad it is.

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Speaker 3: No, it's it's a product. It's Icy Hot. You know

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Speaker 3: he does.

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Speaker 2: Icy I mean, this.

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Speaker 3: Isn't that surprising. It's not truly a mash up. It's

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Speaker 3: just a celebrity endorsement, okay, until until they go too far.

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Speaker 3: So there's like a limited edition roll on Icy Hot

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Speaker 3: for when you're curtain and a yeah, and then this

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Speaker 3: is what the packaging looks like. So it kind of

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Speaker 3: looks like a PEZ dispenservice that but the head is

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Speaker 3: Shaquille O'Neill's giant.

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Speaker 4: Head that like removed from their body PEZ and.

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Speaker 3: It's totally going to go up someone's tutor holding it

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Speaker 3: larger than I thought it would be. But so yeah, anyway,

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Speaker 3: it's just kind of hideous and take.

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Speaker 2: That related is perfectly good. No, not really, I'm not saying, yes,

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Speaker 2: you know.

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Speaker 3: He does what is it? The general all sorts of

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Speaker 3: other ads and is long and so anyway, yeah, we

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Speaker 3: got that from a few people on Instagram, thank you,

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Speaker 3: and I think one of them, let me see, one

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Speaker 3: was where's the email? That I got Scott Nelson. Scott

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Speaker 3: his profile picture is some really cute dogs. So Scott,

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Speaker 3: that's why we're going to pick you as the refer

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Speaker 3: on this one.

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Speaker 2: Look you Yeah.

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Speaker 3: He also sent us a great picture that the interns

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Speaker 3: forwarded me of Shilah boof doing gang science. So yeah,

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Speaker 3: you know all around. Yeah, shock pack. I'm going to

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Speaker 3: get one. It's limited edition. I didn't really look into

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Speaker 3: how one would go about securing such a thing.

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Speaker 4: You should, I don't like, should get a pair of

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Speaker 4: those shorts that have hot pocket pockets. Eric Buckolts sent

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Speaker 4: me a thing on Blue Sky about that we talk

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Speaker 4: about the hot pocket pockets.

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Speaker 3: I feel like we might have talked.

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Speaker 2: I'm trying to use this as a shield a defense.

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Speaker 2: I'm holding this up here.

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Speaker 3: Trying to block my mash this like.

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Speaker 2: A magic cards like I don't know I'm gonna play.

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Speaker 3: It's not a real mashup though. It's just like a weak,

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Speaker 3: weird promotional thing.

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Speaker 4: Yeah you know, I want saw Shaquille O'Neil outside of

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Speaker 4: a restaurant in Beverly Hills the night before the season

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Speaker 4: started at two am. It gets out of his like beautiful,

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Speaker 4: like uh Bentley or no, yeah, Bentley. And he gets

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Speaker 4: out and and I'm like, I'm walking out with this

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Speaker 4: guy with a good friend of mine. Uh, and we

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Speaker 4: both look up as this man unfolds from this car

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Speaker 4: right in front of us. I mean like we're walking

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Speaker 4: out round the sidewalk and he's parked right there, getting

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Speaker 4: out of the valet, and he just goes stretches, and

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Speaker 4: I don't even know what to say. I just look

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Speaker 4: at him and my head's going up, like I'm watching

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Speaker 4: like Jack and the bean sprout stretch. And he gets

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Speaker 4: up and he's just a full height. He's like seven

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Speaker 4: three or whatever, maybe seventy five.

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Speaker 2: Of shoes on.

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Speaker 4: And he says like I'm like, he's like hey, I'm like, hey, shack.

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Speaker 4: He's like, yo, push past me. I think he might

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Speaker 4: have been self medicated.

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Speaker 3: So you know, it's like, how like, don't Lales have

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Speaker 3: like the slowest heart? That's how he that.

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Speaker 2: It was really impressive, and.

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Speaker 3: You went on to write about him and for mel magazine.

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Speaker 2: Right wrote in the Size of the Little Shack.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, it's one of my red stories of all time.

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Speaker 2: I still get emails about it. Anyway, enough about already.

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Speaker 3: Too many ridiculous things abound.

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Speaker 2: Elizabeth, I got a story for you today. Okay, it's ridiculous.

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Speaker 4: My research into wigjackers, Yeah, led me down a different

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Speaker 4: rabbit hole.

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Speaker 2: What I'd like to tell you about today.

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Speaker 4: Yes, specifically, yes, the story of the great trans Saharan

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Speaker 4: Ostrich heist.

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Speaker 5: Oh yeah, this is ridiculous crime.

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Speaker 4: My podcast about absurd and rageous capers, heists and cons.

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Speaker 4: It's always ninety nine percent motor free, that's right, and

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Speaker 4: one hundred percent ridiculous.

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Speaker 2: You know that, that's right, Elizabeth Sarren. If I asked you,

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Speaker 2: what would you say is your favorite bird?

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Speaker 3: My favorite bird, I would have to say I like

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Speaker 3: redtail hawks.

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Speaker 2: Good answer.

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Speaker 3: In my backyard every afternoon there's a fight between crows

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Speaker 3: and a red tail.

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Speaker 2: That's dope.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's pretty cool stuff.

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Speaker 2: Good entertainment too.

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Speaker 3: Oh my gosh.

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Speaker 2: You just go out there and they do it.

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Speaker 4: They do, they signal you do, they let you know

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Speaker 4: it's on or you have to go out at a certain time.

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Speaker 3: Well, one of the mocking birds comes and taps on

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Speaker 3: the windows.

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Speaker 2: Like Lizbeth, it's happening.

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Speaker 3: You better get out here.

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Speaker 2: I'm okay, good defeat this lapping.

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Speaker 4: It's happening. Well, I got a second question. Yes, what's

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Speaker 4: your third favorite bird?

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Speaker 3: My third favorite bird? Oh? I got a great barn

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Speaker 3: owl out in the tree outside my place too, so

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Speaker 3: I can hear them on some night.

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Speaker 2: There's a lot of birds in your life.

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Speaker 3: I really. Do you have that Merlin app on your phone? Yeah?

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Speaker 2: You told me about them.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: Sometimes I'm out there and I.

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Speaker 2: Just bird identify somehow.

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Speaker 3: Dude, I just go out there and I hit record, yeah,

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Speaker 3: and just watch it. Rack them up, rack them all

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Speaker 3: these lists of birds, bush tits, baller bush tits.

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Speaker 2: There is that recent the do fine?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a recent one. But you know something, I

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Speaker 3: don't know nothing about birds.

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Speaker 2: Okay, good news for you.

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Speaker 3: What's your favorite bird?

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Speaker 2: I'm not answering that question, a cop. What would you

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Speaker 2: say is the weirdest bird?

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Speaker 3: What is even happening right now? The weirdest bird? What

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Speaker 3: is that one with that giant bill that looks all crazy? Oh?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, like the stork thing. Yeah, but it's like huge

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Speaker 4: and it has a clacking bill. It looks like a

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Speaker 4: dinosaur illustration. Yeah, I don't know what that bird is.

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Speaker 3: Called the weird looking big bill bird.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that answer is incorrect.

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Speaker 4: The correct answer that we were looking for is ostriche.

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Speaker 4: The answer was ostrich. Elizabeth, what do you know about ostriches?

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Speaker 3: Long leg They stick their head in the ground.

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Speaker 2: That's true, they do. Yeah.

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Speaker 4: Now, if like me, you thought ostriches come from Australia,

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Speaker 4: you would be wrong. They are not from down Under.

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Speaker 4: I totally thought they're from down Under. Oh yes, a

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Speaker 4: lot of those birds. Yeah, we'll get into that in

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Speaker 4: a second. Turns out they're transplants. They're the common ostrich

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Speaker 4: was brought to Australia, so you'll see a lot of

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Speaker 4: them there and being bad asses, they caped captivity, they

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Speaker 4: got free, got busy and created an enormous feral colonizers.

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Speaker 2: They're not native, sure, they were brought there, you know.

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Speaker 4: Now factually speaking, ostriches are criminals. No, they are not criminals. Well,

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Speaker 4: they're free living, but they're they're from Africa, then they're

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Speaker 4: There are two main species, the common ostrich from West

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Speaker 4: and North Africa, and then there's the Somali ostrich, which

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Speaker 4: is like from the horn. Now there's the subspecies, the

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Speaker 4: rednecked ostrich aka the North African ostrich aka the Barbary ostrich.

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Speaker 4: Now I learned a whole lot about ostriches for this,

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Speaker 4: so that way I could talk with some like at

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Speaker 4: least the conviction of an eight year old with a

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Speaker 4: new obsession.

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Speaker 3: So you didn't know this going into it, No, I

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Speaker 3: didn't know most of this.

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Speaker 2: Love the research for the show.

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Speaker 3: This knowledge with you.

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Speaker 2: It's a gift I gave myself.

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Speaker 3: Beautiful, you.

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Speaker 2: Can't you damn right now.

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Speaker 4: The Ostrich Elizabeth is considered the largest living retit, and

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Speaker 4: that is it was a new word for me. That's

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Speaker 4: a term for the species of tall flightless birds. So

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Speaker 4: EMUs are a tie It looks like it would be

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Speaker 4: pronounced retight.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, but it's a red tit now.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, so this includes is his EMUs castawerries the rahah.

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Speaker 3: I just shifted way down into power nerd. Now I'm

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Speaker 3: like trying to figure out like the word origin exactly.

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Speaker 2: It was all new to me. I was like, well,

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Speaker 2: I've never been heard this reference.

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Speaker 3: What does it come from?

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Speaker 2: Well, ostro whatever, I'll look look up.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, they're the big daddies of the red tit family.

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Speaker 4: The common ostrich stands nine feet tall. Dang, that weighs

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Speaker 4: about three hundred and fifty pounds. Did you know that

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Speaker 4: ostriches can run up to forty three miles an hour.

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Speaker 3: Wait, they're like shack exactly.

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Speaker 4: On two legs, it can run faster than a horse

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Speaker 4: can on four what, Yeah, like a lot faster, like

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Speaker 4: thoroughbreds running like thirty one miles an hour, So thirty two,

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Speaker 4: you know, like they're running forty three.

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Speaker 3: I imagine it's pretty funny looking too.

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Speaker 2: Oh totally. And what ostrich run?

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Speaker 4: One single stride can be about six feet wide and

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Speaker 4: from point to point.

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Speaker 2: Wow, exactly.

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Speaker 4: Ostriches are the largest heaviest bird on the planet, so

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Speaker 4: heavy that they cannot fly.

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Speaker 2: They're like chickens.

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Speaker 4: They can kind of sort of hub or fly for

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Speaker 4: a second, but instead ostriches run and like I said,

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Speaker 4: faster than a horse, Elizabeth, they can also kick ass.

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Speaker 3: I'm going to I'm going to take one into the

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Speaker 3: Kentucky Derby.

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Speaker 2: Right on the back of an ostrich. That would be dope.

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Speaker 4: The ostriches have these crazy strong legs and at the

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Speaker 4: end of the of these clawed feet, which is two

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Speaker 4: intense claws that can disembottle a full grown man.

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Speaker 3: This is perfect for the derby, right.

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Speaker 4: Exactly have you ever seen an ostrich like up close,

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Speaker 4: like at a petting zoo or I.

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Speaker 3: Feel like I may have seen one at a zoo,

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Speaker 3: but I'm kicking myself for not paying closer attention.

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Speaker 2: We saw one. We crossed country that time.

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Speaker 4: We stopped at the farm and like Arizona, and they

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Speaker 4: had remember the eyelashes, how crazy long eyelashes were, huge

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Speaker 4: eyes the memories.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I know, I forgot.

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Speaker 4: Their eyes are two inches across. They have the biggest

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Speaker 4: eyes of any land animals.

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Speaker 3: And honey, they pop, they do.

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Speaker 2: Mean, they're just stunning. Now.

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Speaker 4: Also their eyes are decorated, as they said, with these

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Speaker 4: super long eye lashes. That's like reduce glare. But also

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Speaker 4: because they're running at the speed of like an old

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Speaker 4: Honda Civic, right, so they need to be able to

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Speaker 4: see everything. Now, do you know about their eggs?

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Speaker 2: They're big, big ones, big ones, so they have these Okay,

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Speaker 2: also let me I'll reverse it.

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Speaker 4: I'll tell you this. The adult male ostriches, they're covered

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Speaker 4: in black feathers. That's who usually mean to see a drawing,

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Speaker 4: it looks like that. Now for an accent, they have

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Speaker 4: those little white wings a little tough to white legs.

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Speaker 4: And then for they have the white tail fleather plumage,

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Speaker 4: and then their legs are kind of pinkish.

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Speaker 2: You notice.

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Speaker 4: Okay, so the adult female ostriches they're not so striking.

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Speaker 4: They have gray brown feathers instead of black covering them.

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Speaker 4: There's a reason for this, these two feather colors. This

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Speaker 4: isn't about mating selection. It isn't like, oh, the female

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Speaker 4: ostriches prefer this. No, they've worked this out as an

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Speaker 4: evolutionary advantage. It helps with egg protection. Ostriche daddies are

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Speaker 4: super involved because they sit over the guard of the

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Speaker 4: nest during the night, so they're black. The females sit

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Speaker 4: guard over the nest during the day, so they're brown

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Speaker 4: like the savannah. So the black feathers disappear against the

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Speaker 4: night sky. Brown feathers dis against, disappear against totally. And uh,

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Speaker 4: you know, have you ever seen an ostrich egg up close?

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Speaker 4: They're absolute units?

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Speaker 3: Are they the ones that the eggs that if you like,

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Speaker 3: hard boil it.

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Speaker 2: It's clear I do not know. It sounds right, I

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Speaker 2: did not, bigg I wish I knew the answer to that.

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Speaker 3: No. Yeah, there's one of them where if you had

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Speaker 3: to hard boil it comes to crack it open. The

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Speaker 3: egg white is actually clear.

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Speaker 4: That's cool, so the albumin doesn't turn like that.

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Speaker 3: Just imagine eating that is a double egg.

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Speaker 4: Well they came in China, would they age them and

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Speaker 4: then the paper wrap almost clear?

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Speaker 3: But the would be like if someone's messing with you

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Speaker 3: with like a jello. Yeah, ostrich could you imagine eating

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Speaker 3: and ostriche deviled egg?

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Speaker 4: Yes, six inches long, five inches across. Hell, yeah, that's

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Speaker 4: a meal for days. They weigh on average three.

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Speaker 2: Pounds three pounds.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, it's by far the largest egg of any bird

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Speaker 4: or reptile on the planet. Not only did they lay

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Speaker 4: the largest eggs, right, but these are the largest eggs

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Speaker 4: since the days of the dinosaur, from the days of

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Speaker 4: your Yeah, and they overlap with the days of dinosaur,

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Speaker 4: but we'll get to that in a second. Yeah, they

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Speaker 4: lay like seven to ten eggs at a time. Ten

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Speaker 4: of those bad boys come out of your.

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Speaker 3: Twenty one pounds eggs exactly.

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Speaker 4: And each one of those eggs, if you were to

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Speaker 4: eat them, like if they did, do your thing like

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Speaker 4: boots cook them up, that's the equivalent protein to twenty

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Speaker 4: four chicken eggs.

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Speaker 2: Each one is twenty one each egg twenty four chicken.

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Speaker 3: Eggsli, you have to very cool hand looke.

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Speaker 4: Does the price of eggs have you down? Have you

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Speaker 4: considered ostrich? I also learned ostriches are, in your word, quirky.

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Speaker 4: I mean they're poly like as they're into polygamy. They

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Speaker 4: have unicorns and group dates. No, I'm kidding, they don't,

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Speaker 4: but they are polygamous. Like the male will keep a

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Speaker 4: bruta hens and then they'll like so then because of

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Speaker 4: the egg laying issue, they pile all their eggs into

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Speaker 4: one communal nest of all of his females, which is

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Speaker 4: like the dominant female makes a nest and then the

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Speaker 4: I guess subdominant females. They put their eggs in her

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Speaker 4: nest and then he sits on them. They got like

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Speaker 4: a whole arrangement.

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Speaker 2: They're interesting exactly.

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Speaker 3: They're like, we're vegan.

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Speaker 2: Have you read Stacey, she's new to our ostrich.

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Speaker 3: They're annoying me. Now back out of this, put it

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Speaker 3: into reverse.

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Speaker 4: I remember how he said the closest living relative to

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Speaker 4: ostriches or the cassawaies and the Rayas and the EMUs,

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Speaker 4: but they're all from Australia. I remember I said the

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Speaker 4: red Hits. That's the name of the family. That's the

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Speaker 4: name for that whole species group. But Australia and Africa

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Speaker 4: are far apart. So how did like ostriches get there?

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Speaker 3: And there's a little thing called Pangaea.

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Speaker 4: Good quote, it's actually Gondwana. I didn't know about this,

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Speaker 4: the super continent of Gondwana. Are you familiar with the

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Speaker 4: super continent? I mean, I have to met. It's been

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Speaker 4: a while since.

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Speaker 2: I've been reading up on super continents.

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Speaker 4: I'd forgotten more than I remembered about old deer Gondwana.

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Speaker 4: The super continent of Gondwana was composed of four of

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Speaker 4: the present continents, one the mostly submerged continent, and two

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Speaker 4: subcontinents all together. So the four continents were Africa, Australia,

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Speaker 4: South America and Antarctica. They were all pressed together. Now,

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Speaker 4: the once submerged continent was Zeelandia New Zealand, and then

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Speaker 4: the two sub continents were India and Arabia the peninsula.

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Speaker 4: So they all get pushed up and but Australia and

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Speaker 4: Zeland stay down and then South America on it just

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Speaker 4: jets over to the side. Now, as you might expect,

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Speaker 4: this various geographical regions which are now separated by oceans

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Speaker 4: still share to this day many of the same flora

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Speaker 4: and fauna aka same plant and man animal life. Sure

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Speaker 4: back to ostriches, their ancestors diverged evolutionary back in this

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Speaker 4: period of Gondwana land. So when they separated, this was

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Speaker 4: like in the Cretaceous period days of the dinosaur.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, like t rex in the days of yours exactly. Now.

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Speaker 4: Then when Gwendana broke up, ostridges they become this evolutionary

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Speaker 4: cul de sac in Africa and Arabia. But they split

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Speaker 4: into a few subspecies. But they're more like an evolutionary

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Speaker 4: planned community, right with one way in, one way out.

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Speaker 2: So one in Florida, Yeah.

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Speaker 4: Exactly, the glade, you know, the what is it called

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Speaker 4: the something, the something something.

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Speaker 2: They always have golf golf parts they drive around. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: I do not know.

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Speaker 4: I should point out that the ostriches have been around

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Speaker 4: for roughly, if I put it, numbers sixty six million years.

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Speaker 3: Sixty six That's.

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Speaker 2: Why there's so wild looking. They are old.

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Speaker 4: It also means they're evolutionarily a super success. They're like sharks,

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Speaker 4: like we got this down, don't mess with us. Sharks

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Speaker 4: have survived the ecological collapse that took out the dinosaurs,

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Speaker 4: so did ostriches.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and then came humans.

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Speaker 4: While the other predators of the African savannah may like

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Speaker 4: to snack on an ostrich when they can catch them,

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00:17:05,320 --> 00:17:09,520
Speaker 4: humans are their real primary predator, so we have been

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Speaker 4: since we emerged on the savannah, so for the last

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Speaker 4: like two hundred thousand years or so.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, no, I mean, like, look at them.

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Speaker 4: They're tall. They can't fly and escape us. They can

365
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Speaker 4: run like hell.

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Speaker 3: Right, I can shredge it with them totally.

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Speaker 4: With the two towls, but with some planning, most of

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Speaker 4: that can be overcome. And plus, their eggs are equivalent

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Speaker 4: to two dozen chicken eggs, and they lay intended a

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Speaker 4: time in a nest.

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Speaker 2: Oh man, that's eat for days for.

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Speaker 4: The trus Now, if you can catch a full grown adult,

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Speaker 4: that's food for weeks.

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Speaker 2: So this is how we began.

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Speaker 3: To ordering wings at a restaurant.

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Speaker 2: I want the leg, give.

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Speaker 4: You the leg at like a medieval time totally held

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Speaker 4: up ostrich drumstick.

379
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Speaker 2: Just work on that. You got a turkey leg.

380
00:17:56,240 --> 00:17:58,080
Speaker 4: I needed the I need a whole table for my

381
00:17:58,119 --> 00:18:01,840
Speaker 4: ostrich leg. So one point we found their skin made

382
00:18:01,880 --> 00:18:04,000
Speaker 4: good leather, like then the Egyptians they.

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00:18:03,880 --> 00:18:06,080
Speaker 2: Figured that out. Yeah, They're like, oh, this is dope.

384
00:18:06,119 --> 00:18:09,840
Speaker 4: And then we began to associate ostriches and specifically ostrich

385
00:18:09,880 --> 00:18:13,639
Speaker 4: feathers with the god Matt. That's the Egyptians. Yeah, and accordingly,

386
00:18:13,760 --> 00:18:17,040
Speaker 4: so this becomes like divine justice. It also becomes symbolized

387
00:18:17,040 --> 00:18:20,320
Speaker 4: with ostrich feathers, so now they're associated with the divinity.

388
00:18:20,720 --> 00:18:23,720
Speaker 4: And then the pharaoh war II ostrich feathers in their crown,

389
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Speaker 4: so it's divine god given authority over men and women.

390
00:18:26,960 --> 00:18:29,199
Speaker 4: Ostriches start to really have a come up, right this

391
00:18:29,680 --> 00:18:33,960
Speaker 4: time keeping it Mediterranean over in ancient Greece, they're freaks

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Speaker 4: for the ostrich egg, right, they start offering them up

393
00:18:36,240 --> 00:18:37,040
Speaker 4: to gods as.

394
00:18:36,960 --> 00:18:39,440
Speaker 2: A worthy form of devotion, like here, please have an egg.

395
00:18:39,480 --> 00:18:40,840
Speaker 2: This will feed your family for day.

396
00:18:41,240 --> 00:18:41,480
Speaker 3: Yeah.

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00:18:41,520 --> 00:18:44,400
Speaker 4: The Turks of the Ottoman Empire also keeping it Mediterranean,

398
00:18:44,520 --> 00:18:47,960
Speaker 4: my dudes, right, They would hunt ostriches. It was considered

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Speaker 4: great sport to them because think about it, you got

400
00:18:50,280 --> 00:18:53,240
Speaker 4: a nine foot tall flightless bird that can run faster

401
00:18:53,320 --> 00:18:53,840
Speaker 4: than a horse.

402
00:18:54,000 --> 00:18:56,400
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's good sports, that is, I guess right.

403
00:18:56,560 --> 00:18:56,679
Speaker 6: Well.

404
00:18:56,720 --> 00:18:59,040
Speaker 4: After anyway, after a successful hunt, the ostrich feathers and

405
00:18:59,080 --> 00:19:01,679
Speaker 4: the plumage with sometimes be worn as a prize of

406
00:19:01,720 --> 00:19:05,520
Speaker 4: the hunt. So once again it's now designer bravery and accomplishment.

407
00:19:05,800 --> 00:19:08,520
Speaker 4: And so this is about the time Ostrich feathers become

408
00:19:08,600 --> 00:19:11,440
Speaker 4: a fashion statement, not from the Ottoman Turks. But once

409
00:19:11,480 --> 00:19:14,359
Speaker 4: again it comes down to one person, one specific woman.

410
00:19:14,520 --> 00:19:17,280
Speaker 4: You want to guess who Elizabeth. No, if you said

411
00:19:17,280 --> 00:19:23,159
Speaker 4: Marie Antoinette, you were correct. Ostrich feathers are basically associated

412
00:19:23,160 --> 00:19:25,240
Speaker 4: with royalty, dating back as I said to the pharaohs

413
00:19:25,240 --> 00:19:28,600
Speaker 4: of Egypt, and this tradition continues through the Renaissance, when

414
00:19:28,680 --> 00:19:31,440
Speaker 4: kings of queen and Europe they opted to use ostrich

415
00:19:31,520 --> 00:19:32,760
Speaker 4: feathers to show their.

416
00:19:32,600 --> 00:19:36,080
Speaker 2: Associations with the previous divinity. They're like, oh, we're like

417
00:19:36,080 --> 00:19:38,080
Speaker 2: the fare just like that old stuff.

418
00:19:38,080 --> 00:19:40,439
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, give me some Ostrich feathers, you know. At

419
00:19:40,480 --> 00:19:43,600
Speaker 4: the same time, ostrich feathers also become mundane. They become

420
00:19:43,640 --> 00:19:46,800
Speaker 4: the simple tool to express oneself. Ostrich feathers they become

421
00:19:46,880 --> 00:19:50,640
Speaker 4: quills to write on parchment paper. So now the durability

422
00:19:50,680 --> 00:19:53,399
Speaker 4: of Ostrich feathers also means that quills last longer, so

423
00:19:53,440 --> 00:19:57,960
Speaker 4: people start writing longer letters, longer court documents. This commoner's

424
00:19:58,000 --> 00:20:01,160
Speaker 4: technology lends itself to the creation of literature of the era.

425
00:20:01,480 --> 00:20:03,879
Speaker 4: So the Renaissance is this is a huge part because

426
00:20:03,920 --> 00:20:07,639
Speaker 4: of Ostrich. Right, anyway, let's take a little break. Can

427
00:20:07,680 --> 00:20:09,959
Speaker 4: I get back. We're gonna get back to my girlme

428
00:20:10,040 --> 00:20:12,679
Speaker 4: Marie Antoinette, and connect this to the big wigs I

429
00:20:12,720 --> 00:20:35,960
Speaker 4: told you about earlier, Yes, Elizabeth.

430
00:20:35,440 --> 00:20:39,280
Speaker 3: Arin, but no, before you begin, Yes, I did a

431
00:20:39,320 --> 00:20:41,119
Speaker 3: little bit of work during the ads.

432
00:20:41,520 --> 00:20:42,280
Speaker 2: That's what you were doing.

433
00:20:43,359 --> 00:20:47,879
Speaker 3: You went to sleep. I did the responsible thing and

434
00:20:47,920 --> 00:20:50,520
Speaker 3: I went to work. And number one, the place in

435
00:20:50,600 --> 00:20:51,960
Speaker 3: Florida is called the Villages.

436
00:20:52,119 --> 00:20:55,199
Speaker 2: Oh right, like a horror film, Yes, very much so.

437
00:20:55,680 --> 00:20:58,480
Speaker 3: And then the clear Egg that's the penguin.

438
00:20:58,680 --> 00:21:03,080
Speaker 2: Oh, double down. That's why I was like, can't fly?

439
00:21:05,160 --> 00:21:09,800
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, you can't fly, Clear Egg, never lose. Go ahead.

440
00:21:10,760 --> 00:21:13,680
Speaker 4: Well I returned into uh and I say this loosely

441
00:21:13,800 --> 00:21:17,359
Speaker 4: my girl Marina's one night she was looking to find

442
00:21:17,359 --> 00:21:20,280
Speaker 4: some new visual shock to signify her elevated status, and

443
00:21:20,359 --> 00:21:25,400
Speaker 4: so she grabbed this brilliant, curling Ostrich feather. She shoved

444
00:21:25,440 --> 00:21:28,480
Speaker 4: it into her big ass wig and she pairs it

445
00:21:28,520 --> 00:21:32,119
Speaker 4: with his peacock feather. The look becomes instantly iconic. And

446
00:21:32,200 --> 00:21:33,919
Speaker 4: this is in the air still when everybody's doing the

447
00:21:33,920 --> 00:21:37,200
Speaker 4: big wig. So, as we covered before, so went Paris,

448
00:21:37,359 --> 00:21:40,320
Speaker 4: so went the world's fashion. So this look, for whatever reason,

449
00:21:40,359 --> 00:21:42,080
Speaker 4: I guess they just did like a lithograph of it.

450
00:21:42,119 --> 00:21:43,840
Speaker 4: I don't know how it passed around and everyone's like, oh,

451
00:21:43,840 --> 00:21:46,920
Speaker 4: you got to soon enough. Ostrich feathers. They're the look

452
00:21:46,920 --> 00:21:50,080
Speaker 4: of the day. And that day lasted and lasted and

453
00:21:50,280 --> 00:21:53,840
Speaker 4: lasted into the nineteenth century, into the twentieth century. Ostrich

454
00:21:53,960 --> 00:21:58,120
Speaker 4: feathers remained of the rage in women's fashions on both

455
00:21:58,160 --> 00:22:01,040
Speaker 4: sides of the Atlantic. It was crazy that meant the

456
00:22:01,119 --> 00:22:05,479
Speaker 4: price paid for these fine, eye arresting architectural ostage feathers.

457
00:22:05,680 --> 00:22:08,480
Speaker 4: Skyrocket's Elizabeth. Yeah, And by the end of the eighteen hundreds,

458
00:22:08,480 --> 00:22:13,240
Speaker 4: from hats to funerals, Ostrich feathers are the thing. Okay,

459
00:22:13,359 --> 00:22:15,399
Speaker 4: and as we've covered, this coincided, but they fall and

460
00:22:15,440 --> 00:22:17,640
Speaker 4: the wigs is a mainstay and look for the rich

461
00:22:17,720 --> 00:22:19,560
Speaker 4: of the you know, rich and decade and they're like, oh, no,

462
00:22:19,600 --> 00:22:22,800
Speaker 4: I'm not doing wigs anymore. I'm all into big stupid hats.

463
00:22:23,200 --> 00:22:25,600
Speaker 3: Oh and those are those are very popular for big

464
00:22:25,600 --> 00:22:26,440
Speaker 3: stupid hats.

465
00:22:26,359 --> 00:22:27,439
Speaker 2: Exactly as you know.

466
00:22:27,560 --> 00:22:29,160
Speaker 4: So now we get the elaborate hats of the days

467
00:22:29,280 --> 00:22:31,399
Speaker 4: they're like, yeah, you should put some striking plumage in

468
00:22:31,440 --> 00:22:35,760
Speaker 4: this fanciful exactly. So by beginning of the twentieth century

469
00:22:35,960 --> 00:22:36,919
Speaker 4: you get these hats.

470
00:22:37,359 --> 00:22:40,800
Speaker 5: Oh, it's crazy decade in that's lovely.

471
00:22:41,000 --> 00:22:42,119
Speaker 2: Yeah, I thought you'd like that.

472
00:22:42,520 --> 00:22:44,439
Speaker 4: The one of the women there that I'm showing you

473
00:22:44,480 --> 00:22:46,800
Speaker 4: on the right is Lillian Russell, the American actress.

474
00:22:46,840 --> 00:22:48,800
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm not sure if you recognize that name.

475
00:22:49,200 --> 00:22:51,919
Speaker 4: Yeah, but anyway, as his cultural craze goes and the

476
00:22:51,920 --> 00:22:56,199
Speaker 4: wealthy folks are exorbitant prices to outdo their peers, we

477
00:22:56,280 --> 00:22:57,480
Speaker 4: both know what that means, don't we.

478
00:22:58,520 --> 00:22:58,800
Speaker 5: Crime?

479
00:22:59,160 --> 00:22:59,520
Speaker 2: Crime.

480
00:23:00,320 --> 00:23:05,120
Speaker 4: So that starts off the Great ostrich Heist of nineteen eleven,

481
00:23:04,920 --> 00:23:09,920
Speaker 4: the Ostrich Yes, great Trans Saharian Ostrichized of nineteen eleven.

482
00:23:09,640 --> 00:23:12,360
Speaker 3: As opposed to the Great Northern.

483
00:23:12,720 --> 00:23:15,480
Speaker 2: The Trans Siberian, or the Transvall.

484
00:23:15,680 --> 00:23:18,479
Speaker 4: There's a lot of transd be very specific about when

485
00:23:18,480 --> 00:23:21,480
Speaker 4: you're talking about your Ostrichized steamroller.

486
00:23:21,560 --> 00:23:24,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, you can't just cross anything. This is Transaharan.

487
00:23:24,119 --> 00:23:25,600
Speaker 4: So I got a question for you, if you had

488
00:23:25,600 --> 00:23:29,040
Speaker 4: to guess when Ostrich feathers were at the peak premium price. Okay,

489
00:23:29,320 --> 00:23:30,680
Speaker 4: how much do you think they were worth? You want

490
00:23:30,680 --> 00:23:32,960
Speaker 4: to take a guess a pop, Yeah, I'll give you price.

491
00:23:32,960 --> 00:23:34,840
Speaker 4: This is eighteen eighty two the feather trade.

492
00:23:35,160 --> 00:23:37,040
Speaker 3: It is eighteen eighty two dollars.

493
00:23:36,680 --> 00:23:39,920
Speaker 4: As an all feathers sold, including ostrich feathers in eighteen

494
00:23:39,920 --> 00:23:41,280
Speaker 4: eighty two. I'm not going to ask you to do this.

495
00:23:41,600 --> 00:23:43,600
Speaker 4: I'm going to put some frame on this for you.

496
00:23:44,560 --> 00:23:48,200
Speaker 4: The whole feather trade was bringing in five million dollars

497
00:23:48,280 --> 00:23:51,840
Speaker 4: a year. That would be roughly worth fifteen point seven

498
00:23:52,000 --> 00:23:55,040
Speaker 4: billion dollars a year today with it being just for

499
00:23:55,080 --> 00:23:57,720
Speaker 4: the global feather trade. The feather industry at the time

500
00:23:57,800 --> 00:24:02,000
Speaker 4: was more lucrative than oil and gold. Wow, the second

501
00:24:02,200 --> 00:24:04,320
Speaker 4: only to the Kimberly diamond mine.

502
00:24:04,880 --> 00:24:05,240
Speaker 3: Wow.

503
00:24:05,440 --> 00:24:08,399
Speaker 4: So by nineteen thirteen, which is like, you know, right

504
00:24:08,440 --> 00:24:10,840
Speaker 4: around the point that this story takes place, at the

505
00:24:10,880 --> 00:24:13,520
Speaker 4: height of their value, ostrich feathers were worth how much

506
00:24:13,680 --> 00:24:15,240
Speaker 4: per pound do you think per pound?

507
00:24:15,320 --> 00:24:15,800
Speaker 2: Per pound?

508
00:24:15,880 --> 00:24:17,600
Speaker 3: Oh, gosh, there's a lot in the pound.

509
00:24:17,800 --> 00:24:18,600
Speaker 2: Yes, it's a lot.

510
00:24:19,200 --> 00:24:19,679
Speaker 3: I don't know.

511
00:24:20,119 --> 00:24:23,440
Speaker 4: One thousand dollars, good, guess, five hundred dollars okay, which

512
00:24:23,520 --> 00:24:26,440
Speaker 4: if you convert. That would be sixteen thousand, two hundred

513
00:24:26,480 --> 00:24:28,200
Speaker 4: and thirty five dollars for a pound of feathers.

514
00:24:28,520 --> 00:24:31,800
Speaker 3: Father, isn't that like this is not too far away

515
00:24:31,800 --> 00:24:34,400
Speaker 3: from the time. Remember that guy that you talked.

516
00:24:34,160 --> 00:24:36,359
Speaker 2: About wrist, Yes, a feather thief.

517
00:24:36,359 --> 00:24:39,399
Speaker 3: Feather thief that was all autubond.

518
00:24:39,000 --> 00:24:42,480
Speaker 2: Yes, exactly the same feathers, overlapping feather.

519
00:24:43,680 --> 00:24:45,760
Speaker 3: So like everyone was all about the feathers.

520
00:24:46,119 --> 00:24:48,560
Speaker 4: They loved the feathers and they were so worthwhile and

521
00:24:48,560 --> 00:24:50,520
Speaker 4: people they also liked it because they could go tramping

522
00:24:50,520 --> 00:24:53,200
Speaker 4: off into exotic places. Yeah, exploit them, take the feathers

523
00:24:53,200 --> 00:24:54,879
Speaker 4: and go back to where they're very valuable, you know.

524
00:24:55,200 --> 00:24:57,359
Speaker 3: Just as a quick aside, my nephew when he was

525
00:24:57,520 --> 00:25:02,600
Speaker 3: maybe two, Sure he see feathers that have these pillows

526
00:25:02,600 --> 00:25:06,080
Speaker 3: on my sofa that are down filled. And if a

527
00:25:06,080 --> 00:25:08,679
Speaker 3: little feather came out of it and he noticed it,

528
00:25:08,760 --> 00:25:11,439
Speaker 3: he'd pick it up and say, oh, my hair, and

529
00:25:11,480 --> 00:25:15,360
Speaker 3: then tuck it back into his hair. He thought he's

530
00:25:15,359 --> 00:25:16,000
Speaker 3: a smart kid.

531
00:25:16,320 --> 00:25:18,639
Speaker 2: Now totally get this. He is a smart kid, but

532
00:25:18,720 --> 00:25:20,320
Speaker 2: he thought that that's my hair. I don't know what

533
00:25:20,320 --> 00:25:21,960
Speaker 2: I'm doing my hair like this.

534
00:25:22,119 --> 00:25:23,000
Speaker 3: Let me put it back here.

535
00:25:23,040 --> 00:25:23,760
Speaker 2: Sorry, for the mess.

536
00:25:23,800 --> 00:25:26,080
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I always think about that with people tucking

537
00:25:26,119 --> 00:25:27,080
Speaker 3: feathers in their hair.

538
00:25:27,880 --> 00:25:29,680
Speaker 2: My hair, my hair, Oh, my hair.

539
00:25:30,160 --> 00:25:34,240
Speaker 4: So you can imagine if these are so valuable that speculators,

540
00:25:34,280 --> 00:25:36,920
Speaker 4: investors as well as smugglers and thieves would get into

541
00:25:36,960 --> 00:25:40,840
Speaker 4: the ostrich feather industry. Right now, the most valuable ostrich

542
00:25:40,880 --> 00:25:43,440
Speaker 4: feathers were from the Barbary ostriches. Those are the North

543
00:25:43,480 --> 00:25:47,440
Speaker 4: African subspecies. They were known to have the thickest, most luxurious,

544
00:25:47,560 --> 00:25:49,480
Speaker 4: resplendent plumage Elizabeth.

545
00:25:49,680 --> 00:25:53,359
Speaker 2: Yeah, it just curling, yes, really good body.

546
00:25:53,720 --> 00:25:56,359
Speaker 4: Now, far more valuable than the ostrich feathers that were

547
00:25:56,359 --> 00:25:59,400
Speaker 4: collected from the South African ostrich which.

548
00:25:59,160 --> 00:26:01,720
Speaker 2: Were more numerous numbers. So there were more of those

549
00:26:01,960 --> 00:26:03,120
Speaker 2: ostriches in South.

550
00:26:02,880 --> 00:26:06,600
Speaker 4: Africa, yes, right, So the South Africa is responsible for

551
00:26:06,720 --> 00:26:09,600
Speaker 4: eighty five percent of the ostrich feather market.

552
00:26:10,160 --> 00:26:11,000
Speaker 2: Eighty five percent.

553
00:26:11,280 --> 00:26:13,480
Speaker 4: Now, if you wanted to get the more lucrative ostrich

554
00:26:13,520 --> 00:26:16,239
Speaker 4: feathers from the Barbary region of North Africa, you had

555
00:26:16,280 --> 00:26:19,240
Speaker 4: to rely on camel trained caravans that were bringing the

556
00:26:19,280 --> 00:26:24,000
Speaker 4: feathers through the Sahara crossing. This vast trans Sahari trade ride.

557
00:26:25,160 --> 00:26:27,919
Speaker 4: It totally dating back to antiquity. So you got proven

558
00:26:27,960 --> 00:26:31,320
Speaker 4: nons and you got history. Now, due to this camelbacked

559
00:26:31,400 --> 00:26:35,800
Speaker 4: nature of the Barbary ostridge feather distribution networks, Elizabeth, they

560
00:26:35,800 --> 00:26:38,359
Speaker 4: were far more rare in the market and their quality

561
00:26:38,480 --> 00:26:40,520
Speaker 4: obviously was still more coveted. So you have these two

562
00:26:40,560 --> 00:26:43,320
Speaker 4: factors that are causing the price to be valuable. But

563
00:26:43,400 --> 00:26:46,119
Speaker 4: in South Africa, the British overlords down there, who just

564
00:26:46,119 --> 00:26:49,360
Speaker 4: supplanted recently the Dutch Borer ethnic group as the main

565
00:26:49,440 --> 00:26:52,560
Speaker 4: exploiters in the country, they were cuckoo for the ostrich

566
00:26:52,680 --> 00:26:53,360
Speaker 4: feather industry.

567
00:26:53,400 --> 00:26:54,960
Speaker 2: They're like this guy like.

568
00:26:54,920 --> 00:26:57,600
Speaker 4: Basically, imagine one British fellaw said to another British fellow

569
00:26:57,800 --> 00:27:00,240
Speaker 4: if these ostriches are so valuable, why don't we follow them?

570
00:27:00,280 --> 00:27:02,480
Speaker 2: And the other fellaws like rdio what they're.

571
00:27:02,359 --> 00:27:05,120
Speaker 3: Like, No, but people want scrubbed table, they don't want

572
00:27:05,160 --> 00:27:08,199
Speaker 3: factory farms ostriche.

573
00:27:08,680 --> 00:27:10,000
Speaker 2: Dude, have you ever had ostrich meat?

574
00:27:10,400 --> 00:27:12,480
Speaker 4: No, I mean all the weird meats, like if you

575
00:27:12,480 --> 00:27:14,399
Speaker 4: can make a burger out of it, I've probably probably

576
00:27:14,400 --> 00:27:15,080
Speaker 4: probably tried it.

577
00:27:15,200 --> 00:27:17,840
Speaker 3: Really, Oh yeah, well I don't.

578
00:27:18,040 --> 00:27:20,720
Speaker 4: I don't think it's it's like turkey, It's very similar.

579
00:27:20,800 --> 00:27:24,560
Speaker 4: You know, kind of a dry like gray meat, you know,

580
00:27:24,600 --> 00:27:26,600
Speaker 4: like a cross between like a red and a white meat.

581
00:27:26,640 --> 00:27:27,480
Speaker 2: It's like a gray meat.

582
00:27:28,080 --> 00:27:31,160
Speaker 4: So at this point, ostrich ranches become a big deal

583
00:27:31,240 --> 00:27:34,520
Speaker 4: in South Africa, right, So South African ostrich farms start

584
00:27:34,600 --> 00:27:37,439
Speaker 4: to dominate the global market, and that's how they corner

585
00:27:37,480 --> 00:27:41,800
Speaker 4: the supply maximizer profits with subpar ostridge feathers. Yeah, of course,

586
00:27:41,840 --> 00:27:44,479
Speaker 4: so this bothers the ostrich farmers, so their feathers are

587
00:27:44,480 --> 00:27:45,400
Speaker 4: considered subpar.

588
00:27:45,440 --> 00:27:46,760
Speaker 2: They're like, what's what's wrong with the arms.

589
00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:49,640
Speaker 4: We dominate the market, so they start to covet these

590
00:27:49,720 --> 00:27:52,560
Speaker 4: barbary ostriches. They're like, we only get our hands with

591
00:27:52,560 --> 00:27:56,320
Speaker 4: those North African birds. However, the South African ostrich farmers,

592
00:27:56,320 --> 00:27:59,080
Speaker 4: they you know, basically resent the fact that also there's

593
00:27:59,119 --> 00:28:03,439
Speaker 4: this slippery truth to the ostrich feather market, which is

594
00:28:03,800 --> 00:28:06,840
Speaker 4: the feathers passed through so many hands in middlemen and

595
00:28:06,880 --> 00:28:10,040
Speaker 4: going across the desert, it's really hard to know on

596
00:28:10,080 --> 00:28:12,680
Speaker 4: their way either to the European or the American markets,

597
00:28:13,040 --> 00:28:18,000
Speaker 4: what is the real provenats are the exactly, So oftentimes

598
00:28:18,000 --> 00:28:19,840
Speaker 4: people didn't know where the feathers were. They only cared

599
00:28:19,880 --> 00:28:22,880
Speaker 4: about the quality which means if they could get their

600
00:28:22,920 --> 00:28:25,320
Speaker 4: hands on some of these North African birds, bring them

601
00:28:25,320 --> 00:28:28,440
Speaker 4: down to South Africa, put them on their farms. Yeah, done, deal.

602
00:28:28,520 --> 00:28:30,439
Speaker 4: It's not about where they're from. This is not like

603
00:28:30,560 --> 00:28:32,919
Speaker 4: tear war for like, you know, we need to have

604
00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:34,359
Speaker 4: them standing on the right soil.

605
00:28:34,560 --> 00:28:36,399
Speaker 2: Or maybe maybe.

606
00:28:36,119 --> 00:28:37,879
Speaker 4: So they say to themselves, what if we set up

607
00:28:37,920 --> 00:28:40,600
Speaker 4: a couple of blokes up north, have them grab some

608
00:28:40,680 --> 00:28:43,760
Speaker 4: barbary ostriches, We bring them back down to South Africa,

609
00:28:43,840 --> 00:28:46,160
Speaker 4: set up a couple of breeding pairs, breed our own

610
00:28:46,320 --> 00:28:53,600
Speaker 4: luxury line of ostrich feathers. It yeah, something Victoria.

611
00:28:53,360 --> 00:28:55,760
Speaker 3: These are wild ostriches they're going to catch.

612
00:28:55,960 --> 00:28:59,200
Speaker 4: Yeah. So in nineteen ten, South Africans they hear word

613
00:28:59,240 --> 00:29:02,400
Speaker 4: from the Brits, who they've just are. They're getting spun

614
00:29:02,440 --> 00:29:05,000
Speaker 4: off right, They're like, oh, you're on your own now, Union.

615
00:29:04,720 --> 00:29:05,760
Speaker 2: Of South Africa. Good luck.

616
00:29:05,880 --> 00:29:06,080
Speaker 3: Yes.

617
00:29:06,200 --> 00:29:08,440
Speaker 4: But so there's all these Brits are every where, and

618
00:29:08,440 --> 00:29:10,120
Speaker 4: so the Brits are telling them like, oh, we heard

619
00:29:10,120 --> 00:29:12,680
Speaker 4: in the council office in Tripoli that we heard a

620
00:29:12,720 --> 00:29:16,120
Speaker 4: location of where you can find the barbary ostrich is located.

621
00:29:16,680 --> 00:29:19,080
Speaker 4: Because they don't have like they're not really flying it.

622
00:29:19,080 --> 00:29:19,880
Speaker 2: It's nineteen ten.

623
00:29:19,960 --> 00:29:22,200
Speaker 4: There's no way to see the desert unless you go

624
00:29:22,360 --> 00:29:24,680
Speaker 4: marching out there. So they get there's like word that

625
00:29:24,720 --> 00:29:26,840
Speaker 4: there is we know where a flock of a big

626
00:29:26,880 --> 00:29:29,240
Speaker 4: flock of these birds are eaten away from the world

627
00:29:29,280 --> 00:29:31,959
Speaker 4: in an oasis near the sands of the Sahara. So

628
00:29:32,080 --> 00:29:35,719
Speaker 4: specifically these it was the high value ostriches. So everyone's like, oh,

629
00:29:35,720 --> 00:29:38,560
Speaker 4: where they're like, oh, and in Southern Sudan, which is

630
00:29:38,880 --> 00:29:42,000
Speaker 4: interestingly not the Sudan we would think of because okay,

631
00:29:42,280 --> 00:29:43,960
Speaker 4: by this way, so you think of South Sudan, that's

632
00:29:44,000 --> 00:29:48,200
Speaker 4: like below Egypt, right, yeah, okay, below Sudan, that's not this.

633
00:29:48,440 --> 00:29:52,000
Speaker 4: Southern Sudan was the name for the French colonial holdings

634
00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:55,880
Speaker 4: of West Africa, okay, and so the nations of Mali, Niger,

635
00:29:56,200 --> 00:29:58,560
Speaker 4: that's what we're talking about, Okay.

636
00:29:58,040 --> 00:30:00,000
Speaker 2: Chad, that area. So this is yeah.

637
00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:01,960
Speaker 4: Anyway, So the Brits in the Triple Embassy, they say,

638
00:30:02,080 --> 00:30:04,480
Speaker 4: basically directly south of us, on the other side of

639
00:30:04,520 --> 00:30:07,040
Speaker 4: the Sahara is where there's all these birds, and so

640
00:30:07,080 --> 00:30:09,480
Speaker 4: they'd go only tell their confederates in South Africa. The

641
00:30:09,520 --> 00:30:12,880
Speaker 4: South African ostrich industry started small, but it quickly grew

642
00:30:12,960 --> 00:30:16,080
Speaker 4: under a juggernaut. Right, so, but it basically it takes

643
00:30:16,120 --> 00:30:18,800
Speaker 4: them about ten years from eighteen sixty five, the industry

644
00:30:18,840 --> 00:30:21,840
Speaker 4: starts with like eighty ostriches. A decade later they've got

645
00:30:21,880 --> 00:30:25,960
Speaker 4: thirty two thousand. Oh they're kicking right so again still

646
00:30:26,040 --> 00:30:28,360
Speaker 4: subpar varieties. They're like, okay, once we get our hands

647
00:30:28,400 --> 00:30:30,520
Speaker 4: on this, we can take our skills. We now know

648
00:30:30,560 --> 00:30:32,920
Speaker 4: how to farm them. They're not dying off like at

649
00:30:32,920 --> 00:30:36,480
Speaker 4: the beginning. So they're like, okay, problem was there was

650
00:30:36,520 --> 00:30:39,640
Speaker 4: a whole law about you cannot go, if you're British

651
00:30:39,720 --> 00:30:42,560
Speaker 4: into French territory and just go grabbing our birds. It

652
00:30:42,600 --> 00:30:45,760
Speaker 4: would be a crime. It would be like a real

653
00:30:45,800 --> 00:30:48,640
Speaker 4: treaty violation. It could lead to a war just to

654
00:30:48,640 --> 00:30:51,920
Speaker 4: get these ostriches. Because right now the Brits, in the French,

655
00:30:52,000 --> 00:30:54,840
Speaker 4: in the Germans, they're all fighting over Africa. They're very

656
00:30:54,880 --> 00:30:57,360
Speaker 4: quickly descending and throughout the end of the nineteenth century

657
00:30:57,360 --> 00:30:58,040
Speaker 4: carving it up.

658
00:30:58,080 --> 00:31:00,280
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, so deciding guess what all of you don't

659
00:31:00,320 --> 00:31:01,280
Speaker 3: know each other. You're a nation.

660
00:31:01,440 --> 00:31:03,000
Speaker 4: Yeah, we drew a map here it is you guys

661
00:31:03,040 --> 00:31:06,160
Speaker 4: are now Togoland. So quick plug, there's this great coverage

662
00:31:06,160 --> 00:31:08,560
Speaker 4: of this story from Atlas Obscura. I recommend the story

663
00:31:08,680 --> 00:31:11,840
Speaker 4: and were largely that website. Great website, fantastic. So the

664
00:31:11,840 --> 00:31:15,080
Speaker 4: man who gets selected to lead this daring trans Saharan

665
00:31:15,120 --> 00:31:17,840
Speaker 4: Ostridge heist that they have planned and they're discussing down

666
00:31:17,880 --> 00:31:20,840
Speaker 4: in South Africa is this guy Russell Thornton. He's like

667
00:31:20,880 --> 00:31:23,840
Speaker 4: a British adventurer type. He knows the area since he

668
00:31:23,880 --> 00:31:26,240
Speaker 4: was a veteran of the Boer War and he had

669
00:31:26,280 --> 00:31:28,320
Speaker 4: won the region for the Brits. Is South Africa I'm

670
00:31:28,320 --> 00:31:30,640
Speaker 4: talking about. So he selects for his team two other

671
00:31:30,680 --> 00:31:33,160
Speaker 4: experts a fourth man who he trusted with his life,

672
00:31:33,200 --> 00:31:35,320
Speaker 4: and he goes, this is my heist team. We're gonna

673
00:31:35,320 --> 00:31:38,960
Speaker 4: go up there and get them birds. The two experts

674
00:31:38,960 --> 00:31:41,240
Speaker 4: that he pick were a pair of Ostrich ranchers. He's like,

675
00:31:41,280 --> 00:31:43,080
Speaker 4: they know birds, they'll be able to tell me. Grab

676
00:31:43,120 --> 00:31:44,280
Speaker 4: that one. He looks like a goer.

677
00:31:44,400 --> 00:31:48,440
Speaker 2: Yeah, guys names are Frank Smith and J. M. P. Bauker.

678
00:31:48,960 --> 00:31:51,320
Speaker 2: Fourth man, the one he trusts with his life is

679
00:31:51,360 --> 00:31:52,280
Speaker 2: his brother Ernest.

680
00:31:52,440 --> 00:31:53,920
Speaker 3: Okay, that makes sense right now.

681
00:31:53,920 --> 00:31:56,480
Speaker 4: So the two experts they travel up from South Africa

682
00:31:56,560 --> 00:31:59,120
Speaker 4: to meet him in London to plan their adventure with

683
00:31:59,160 --> 00:32:02,239
Speaker 4: the team leader Russell Thornton. They outfit themselves with all

684
00:32:02,280 --> 00:32:05,440
Speaker 4: the various gear they'll need for their African adventures.

685
00:32:05,520 --> 00:32:07,840
Speaker 2: Yes, very Royal Society helmets.

686
00:32:07,960 --> 00:32:11,560
Speaker 4: Yes exactly. They're going around shopping for this. Imagine that, right,

687
00:32:11,600 --> 00:32:16,200
Speaker 4: going around London, and they decide they need outfits for

688
00:32:16,280 --> 00:32:18,960
Speaker 4: cold weather, warm weather. They need gear for the desert

689
00:32:19,040 --> 00:32:21,760
Speaker 4: in the savannah. Right, so the ostriches that they're gonna

690
00:32:21,760 --> 00:32:24,800
Speaker 4: be going after, they're located in a semi arid region,

691
00:32:25,000 --> 00:32:27,200
Speaker 4: but they're gonna have to start like in Nigeria and

692
00:32:27,200 --> 00:32:29,120
Speaker 4: go north. So they're like, it'll be hot and then

693
00:32:29,080 --> 00:32:31,320
Speaker 4: it'll be cold and be aired. So we need clothing

694
00:32:31,320 --> 00:32:33,240
Speaker 4: for everything. We're gonna needed trunks of clothing.

695
00:32:33,400 --> 00:32:35,920
Speaker 3: And in their minds they have the montage of the travel.

696
00:32:36,040 --> 00:32:36,840
Speaker 2: Yes exactly.

697
00:32:36,880 --> 00:32:39,200
Speaker 3: You know you have to have like a nice dress

698
00:32:39,200 --> 00:32:39,760
Speaker 3: shirt totally.

699
00:32:39,840 --> 00:32:42,840
Speaker 4: If they need to get invited to dinner, yeah, I go,

700
00:32:44,000 --> 00:32:47,080
Speaker 4: doctor Livingston, I presume would you like drinks? So the

701
00:32:47,080 --> 00:32:49,440
Speaker 4: two experts they travel to London, they planned their adventure

702
00:32:49,560 --> 00:32:52,360
Speaker 4: and uh, at this point, the year is nineteen eleven, right,

703
00:32:52,400 --> 00:32:55,200
Speaker 4: so this same year, there's a rumor that blows across

704
00:32:55,280 --> 00:32:58,400
Speaker 4: the Atlantic and worries these folks. They in both South

705
00:32:58,440 --> 00:33:01,520
Speaker 4: African contingent and in great The rumor is that there

706
00:33:01,600 --> 00:33:04,880
Speaker 4: is this trader who's been spotted in America. Talk is

707
00:33:05,080 --> 00:33:08,160
Speaker 4: he's working with the Americans. And to assume this traders

708
00:33:08,240 --> 00:33:11,880
Speaker 4: telling the Americans about the location of the Barbary ostriches.

709
00:33:12,320 --> 00:33:14,000
Speaker 4: They do that the American gets their hand on it.

710
00:33:14,040 --> 00:33:17,000
Speaker 4: Done deal, They'll just put them in Texas, in Arizona

711
00:33:17,080 --> 00:33:18,480
Speaker 4: and California.

712
00:33:17,880 --> 00:33:21,280
Speaker 2: And be creating these beautiful things. Yeah, handover fist.

713
00:33:21,640 --> 00:33:25,280
Speaker 4: Also, the American market is the biggest market for ostrich plumage.

714
00:33:25,320 --> 00:33:27,160
Speaker 4: This is where they're selling the stuff to the hats

715
00:33:27,200 --> 00:33:30,920
Speaker 4: in New York. The ladies in Washington, d C. Philadelphia, Baltimore,

716
00:33:30,960 --> 00:33:34,520
Speaker 4: you name it. They want these things. Even the River

717
00:33:34,600 --> 00:33:38,200
Speaker 4: City Elizabeth They the Victorian ladies they want the plumage.

718
00:33:38,280 --> 00:33:40,440
Speaker 4: Is how they tell people I'm rich and I'm important.

719
00:33:40,640 --> 00:33:43,000
Speaker 3: I just feel like Europe would have a much like

720
00:33:44,000 --> 00:33:45,600
Speaker 3: deeper bench in mark. Oh do they do.

721
00:33:45,760 --> 00:33:47,800
Speaker 4: But the Americas is just so many of them. And

722
00:33:47,840 --> 00:33:50,800
Speaker 4: they're also the nouvau riche, so they're they're willing to

723
00:33:50,880 --> 00:33:53,560
Speaker 4: signal and to buy and also the prices because they.

724
00:33:53,560 --> 00:33:55,120
Speaker 2: Oh, we had to bring this over and then they

725
00:33:55,160 --> 00:33:57,120
Speaker 2: just tell them about their berber to trade did they

726
00:33:57,120 --> 00:33:58,680
Speaker 2: have to deal with They're like, oh, here's more money,

727
00:33:59,520 --> 00:34:01,800
Speaker 2: So they're they're not smart buyers anyway. So all this

728
00:34:01,880 --> 00:34:04,600
Speaker 2: means is big bucks if if the Americans get their

729
00:34:04,640 --> 00:34:06,760
Speaker 2: hands on it, or big bucks that they'll be losing

730
00:34:06,760 --> 00:34:08,400
Speaker 2: out if the Americans get their hands on it.

731
00:34:08,520 --> 00:34:08,719
Speaker 3: Yeah.

732
00:34:08,920 --> 00:34:12,120
Speaker 4: The trader who's talking with the Americans is allegedly a

733
00:34:12,160 --> 00:34:15,359
Speaker 4: man from the South African Ministry of Agriculture. So he's

734
00:34:15,400 --> 00:34:18,359
Speaker 4: in the no yeah, motivated by an abundance of fear

735
00:34:18,400 --> 00:34:20,360
Speaker 4: and concern that they're about to be beat out on

736
00:34:20,400 --> 00:34:23,480
Speaker 4: all these huge profits by the Americans. The South African

737
00:34:23,520 --> 00:34:26,560
Speaker 4: Parliament holds a vote and they authorize the secret mission

738
00:34:26,600 --> 00:34:27,680
Speaker 4: of Thornton and his team.

739
00:34:28,080 --> 00:34:28,440
Speaker 3: Secret.

740
00:34:28,680 --> 00:34:30,640
Speaker 4: Yeah, they're supposed to head to the saw hell and

741
00:34:30,719 --> 00:34:33,560
Speaker 4: come back with the ostriches. It wasn't just business now,

742
00:34:33,560 --> 00:34:34,080
Speaker 4: it's war.

743
00:34:35,040 --> 00:34:35,239
Speaker 2: Yeah.

744
00:34:35,520 --> 00:34:38,280
Speaker 4: So the trouble was that the alleged trader was Russell

745
00:34:38,320 --> 00:34:42,799
Speaker 4: Thornton's own brother, Ernest, the man he trusted with his life. Yes,

746
00:34:44,000 --> 00:34:47,280
Speaker 4: he'd been invited along h ostrate adventure.

747
00:34:47,360 --> 00:34:49,160
Speaker 3: I wonder waiting for him to.

748
00:34:49,120 --> 00:34:51,000
Speaker 4: Get to London. He's over there in New York going

749
00:34:51,200 --> 00:34:52,560
Speaker 4: by the way, I got the maps. You want to

750
00:34:52,560 --> 00:34:55,720
Speaker 4: point me outs? So they he Then he turns around

751
00:34:55,800 --> 00:34:58,840
Speaker 4: he set sale, you know, from America back to London.

752
00:34:59,320 --> 00:35:02,640
Speaker 4: Now South Africans are so worried, and their confederate British

753
00:35:02,680 --> 00:35:03,720
Speaker 4: allies are so worried.

754
00:35:03,760 --> 00:35:05,719
Speaker 2: They also have to hope.

755
00:35:05,440 --> 00:35:07,920
Speaker 4: That none of this gets back to the nosy French

756
00:35:07,920 --> 00:35:09,640
Speaker 4: that they're planning on sneaking into their.

757
00:35:09,560 --> 00:35:12,799
Speaker 2: Colonies and stealing their births, and can the Americans keep

758
00:35:12,840 --> 00:35:13,640
Speaker 2: a secret? You know?

759
00:35:13,680 --> 00:35:15,720
Speaker 3: And they're like, I don't think so.

760
00:35:15,719 --> 00:35:18,320
Speaker 2: So the team leader's brother, right, it's over there in America.

761
00:35:18,320 --> 00:35:19,160
Speaker 2: They're worried about that.

762
00:35:19,320 --> 00:35:21,319
Speaker 4: It looks like their secret plans are ruined before they

763
00:35:21,320 --> 00:35:24,080
Speaker 4: even get started. But at this point, the Californians and

764
00:35:24,120 --> 00:35:26,920
Speaker 4: the Arizonans are the ones they hear about rumors of

765
00:35:26,960 --> 00:35:29,120
Speaker 4: talk of some ostrich thing. They send people to New

766
00:35:29,200 --> 00:35:32,560
Speaker 4: York to hear about this. It's getting crazy, right. Their fears, though,

767
00:35:32,600 --> 00:35:35,479
Speaker 4: aren't well founded, because it turns out Ernest baby brother

768
00:35:35,560 --> 00:35:38,160
Speaker 4: of team leader, travels back to England and he goes

769
00:35:38,280 --> 00:35:42,319
Speaker 4: a subterfuge worked perfectly he'd gone to America as a

770
00:35:42,320 --> 00:35:45,120
Speaker 4: double agent to find out what the Americans knew. He

771
00:35:45,200 --> 00:35:48,160
Speaker 4: told them nothing of the Barbary Ostriches. He's purely on

772
00:35:48,200 --> 00:35:51,360
Speaker 4: affect funding mission, very British. And then also it's to

773
00:35:51,440 --> 00:35:54,560
Speaker 4: scare the South Africans into approving their adventure, so they

774
00:35:54,560 --> 00:35:58,960
Speaker 4: get want brilliant right. So the problem though is that

775
00:35:58,960 --> 00:36:01,279
Speaker 4: the French territory does begin to hear whispers, and so

776
00:36:01,360 --> 00:36:03,680
Speaker 4: there is that one problem. But now at this point

777
00:36:04,120 --> 00:36:06,840
Speaker 4: they are told, you know, with their official orders to

778
00:36:06,920 --> 00:36:08,680
Speaker 4: sneak into French territory and.

779
00:36:08,640 --> 00:36:10,200
Speaker 2: Go do crimes.

780
00:36:10,280 --> 00:36:13,560
Speaker 4: Right, and they're basically like privateiers on the Spanish main right,

781
00:36:13,560 --> 00:36:16,520
Speaker 4: but they're ostriche thieves traveling the seas of sand of

782
00:36:16,560 --> 00:36:19,360
Speaker 4: the Sahara. Now, before they head off to the Sahel

783
00:36:19,440 --> 00:36:22,360
Speaker 4: for their Ostridge heights, the team travels to Paris. This

784
00:36:22,400 --> 00:36:24,000
Speaker 4: would be a key stop on their track.

785
00:36:24,080 --> 00:36:26,200
Speaker 3: Well that's just thumbing their nose at the French.

786
00:36:26,320 --> 00:36:28,640
Speaker 4: Well they needed because the French are like big because

787
00:36:28,640 --> 00:36:30,480
Speaker 4: I remember they have a lot of the North African colonies,

788
00:36:30,640 --> 00:36:32,040
Speaker 4: so they're big in the to this trade and a

789
00:36:32,080 --> 00:36:34,799
Speaker 4: lot of the stuff comes through Tripoli. So the team

790
00:36:34,840 --> 00:36:36,600
Speaker 4: travels to Paris to talk to people who are in

791
00:36:36,680 --> 00:36:38,800
Speaker 4: the know, and then they need to win over the

792
00:36:38,840 --> 00:36:41,640
Speaker 4: trust of one man in particular. They travel from London

793
00:36:41,640 --> 00:36:44,120
Speaker 4: to Paris to attend a top secret meeting with this

794
00:36:44,280 --> 00:36:48,719
Speaker 4: mysterious feather merchant named Hassan. The meeting, of course, was

795
00:36:48,719 --> 00:36:51,560
Speaker 4: about their planned ostrich adventure in Africa. But rather than

796
00:36:51,560 --> 00:36:53,400
Speaker 4: tell you about Elizabeth, I'd like you to close your

797
00:36:53,400 --> 00:36:56,040
Speaker 4: eyes and I'd like you to picture it.

798
00:37:03,800 --> 00:37:05,520
Speaker 2: Paris, France, nineteen eleven.

799
00:37:06,080 --> 00:37:08,279
Speaker 4: Elizabeth, at the moment, you are working in the home

800
00:37:08,320 --> 00:37:12,160
Speaker 4: of Isaac Hassan, from the Hassan family of international feather merchants.

801
00:37:12,560 --> 00:37:13,439
Speaker 2: A deal went bad.

802
00:37:13,600 --> 00:37:16,200
Speaker 4: You wound up owing the family a rather sizable amount

803
00:37:16,200 --> 00:37:18,799
Speaker 4: of money. The resolution of this debt requires that you

804
00:37:18,880 --> 00:37:22,280
Speaker 4: now work for the Hassan family as their personal assistant.

805
00:37:22,600 --> 00:37:25,719
Speaker 4: The French say valet. The britsay valette. I say, we

806
00:37:25,760 --> 00:37:28,399
Speaker 4: call the whole thing off anyway. You're a valet working

807
00:37:28,480 --> 00:37:32,080
Speaker 4: in an impressive, established Parisian manner. At the moment, you're

808
00:37:32,120 --> 00:37:35,240
Speaker 4: carrying a silver tray with a jostling tea service setup

809
00:37:35,360 --> 00:37:38,480
Speaker 4: balanced atop the tray. You make your way into the

810
00:37:38,520 --> 00:37:41,560
Speaker 4: grand seating room and set down the tea service tray.

811
00:37:41,760 --> 00:37:45,040
Speaker 4: Seated like an emperor on his decorative couch, is the host,

812
00:37:45,440 --> 00:37:49,640
Speaker 4: Isaac Hassan. He's busy discussing business with his guests, a

813
00:37:49,680 --> 00:37:52,719
Speaker 4: pair of brothers named Thornton, Russell, and Ernest, and a

814
00:37:52,719 --> 00:37:56,160
Speaker 4: pair of rough around the edges South African ostrich farmers

815
00:37:56,560 --> 00:37:59,120
Speaker 4: named Smith and Baker. You didn't catch their first names.

816
00:37:59,480 --> 00:38:02,680
Speaker 4: You know how mister Hassan likes his tea, so you

817
00:38:02,760 --> 00:38:05,719
Speaker 4: prepare his tea cup first. For pouring the hot contents

818
00:38:05,719 --> 00:38:08,880
Speaker 4: into the delicate bone china teacup, You add a splash

819
00:38:08,920 --> 00:38:11,600
Speaker 4: of milk a touch of honey. You add a teaspoon

820
00:38:11,600 --> 00:38:13,760
Speaker 4: to the saucer and hand the tea to mister Hassan

821
00:38:14,080 --> 00:38:16,680
Speaker 4: in mid speech. He accepts the tea with barely a glance,

822
00:38:16,719 --> 00:38:19,840
Speaker 4: old habit as he addresses his guest. You ask Russell

823
00:38:19,880 --> 00:38:22,799
Speaker 4: Thornton if he'd like tea. He nods in the affirmative.

824
00:38:23,040 --> 00:38:25,200
Speaker 4: You pour his and you ask if he'd care for

825
00:38:25,280 --> 00:38:26,040
Speaker 4: milk or honey.

826
00:38:26,520 --> 00:38:28,879
Speaker 2: He says both. As you add the splash of.

827
00:38:28,840 --> 00:38:32,800
Speaker 4: Milk and a teaspoonful of honey, you overhear the most salient.

828
00:38:32,360 --> 00:38:33,520
Speaker 2: Points from their conversation.

829
00:38:33,680 --> 00:38:36,160
Speaker 4: You don't know it, but these men have come to

830
00:38:36,239 --> 00:38:39,800
Speaker 4: have a top secret meeting with your boss, prominent feather

831
00:38:39,840 --> 00:38:43,600
Speaker 4: trader Isaac Hassan. Obviously, being in the feather business yourself,

832
00:38:43,640 --> 00:38:46,479
Speaker 4: you do know that Hassan is a notable Parisian feather

833
00:38:46,560 --> 00:38:49,600
Speaker 4: merchant who hails from a distinguished family of feather merchants

834
00:38:49,680 --> 00:38:53,560
Speaker 4: dating back for at least a century, generations of Hassans

835
00:38:53,560 --> 00:38:56,480
Speaker 4: have traded feathers in the markets and stalls of Paris.

836
00:38:56,680 --> 00:38:59,840
Speaker 4: Over that time, the family has developed personal connections to

837
00:39:00,080 --> 00:39:03,680
Speaker 4: trade networks that extend from North Africa across the Sahara

838
00:39:03,800 --> 00:39:07,200
Speaker 4: Deep into the French territories of Sub Saharan West Africa.

839
00:39:07,360 --> 00:39:10,440
Speaker 4: After you hand Russell Thornton his tea, you hear mister

840
00:39:10,480 --> 00:39:13,440
Speaker 4: Hassan boast for his guests that over the century of

841
00:39:13,440 --> 00:39:17,520
Speaker 4: his family's involvement in their lucrative international feather trade, the

842
00:39:17,600 --> 00:39:21,359
Speaker 4: Hassans have watched as the trade that once passed through

843
00:39:21,440 --> 00:39:25,520
Speaker 4: countries and territories controlled by the Ottoman Empire have witnessed

844
00:39:25,560 --> 00:39:30,240
Speaker 4: this once vast empire crumble into independent satellite nations, now

845
00:39:30,440 --> 00:39:34,080
Speaker 4: ripe for the European powers to pick over all. Very

846
00:39:34,200 --> 00:39:35,920
Speaker 4: sad you ask, Ernest.

847
00:39:35,640 --> 00:39:38,200
Speaker 2: Thornton if he'd care for tea? He shakes his head.

848
00:39:38,320 --> 00:39:41,399
Speaker 4: You step to the veteran South African ostrich farmers who

849
00:39:41,520 --> 00:39:44,960
Speaker 4: wear their dirty leather boots in the sitting room. You

850
00:39:45,080 --> 00:39:47,720
Speaker 4: know you're going to be cleaning up dried mud clumps

851
00:39:47,719 --> 00:39:51,200
Speaker 4: from god knows where later today. You politely smile and

852
00:39:51,239 --> 00:39:54,319
Speaker 4: ask if the ostrich farmers would care for tea. They

853
00:39:54,360 --> 00:39:56,879
Speaker 4: both nod in the affirmative. As you pour the tea,

854
00:39:56,920 --> 00:39:59,800
Speaker 4: You listen to mister Hassan continue his boasts as he

855
00:39:59,880 --> 00:40:02,680
Speaker 4: just describes how the Hassan family of feather merchants still

856
00:40:02,719 --> 00:40:07,080
Speaker 4: operate their trade network with the help of North African officials,

857
00:40:07,120 --> 00:40:09,319
Speaker 4: but the trade through Tripoli has fallen off, and now

858
00:40:09,400 --> 00:40:12,239
Speaker 4: they must deal with the layer of French bureaucracy and

859
00:40:12,280 --> 00:40:15,719
Speaker 4: a layer of bribes for those same bureaucrats. This is

860
00:40:15,719 --> 00:40:18,839
Speaker 4: all eating into the family's once great profits and they

861
00:40:18,840 --> 00:40:21,920
Speaker 4: would like to move on from the international feather trade.

862
00:40:21,920 --> 00:40:25,400
Speaker 4: Times have changed. You ask mister Smith, the ostrich farmer

863
00:40:25,680 --> 00:40:30,400
Speaker 4: milk honey. He nods violently, Your boss. Mister Hassan continues

864
00:40:30,440 --> 00:40:32,839
Speaker 4: to sing the praises of his family. They're savvy, as

865
00:40:32,880 --> 00:40:35,440
Speaker 4: it explains that the Hassan family plans not only to

866
00:40:35,440 --> 00:40:37,479
Speaker 4: get out of the feather trade, but to sell out

867
00:40:37,800 --> 00:40:39,759
Speaker 4: to get out while the getting is good. Do you

868
00:40:39,800 --> 00:40:42,400
Speaker 4: think that should have been my choice? You concentrate on

869
00:40:42,440 --> 00:40:44,719
Speaker 4: handing the tea to mister Smith. Next you begin to

870
00:40:44,840 --> 00:40:48,440
Speaker 4: approach mister Boucher with tea as Isaac Hassan tells this

871
00:40:48,640 --> 00:40:51,640
Speaker 4: gathered heist team that he is fully prepared to help

872
00:40:51,680 --> 00:40:55,680
Speaker 4: the South Africans with their African ostriche adventure.

873
00:40:55,920 --> 00:40:58,279
Speaker 2: For a price. He tells him he is prepared to

874
00:40:58,280 --> 00:41:00,560
Speaker 2: sell what he knows he will arrange safe.

875
00:41:00,360 --> 00:41:03,960
Speaker 4: Passage thanks to the family's network of contacts across North

876
00:41:04,000 --> 00:41:07,719
Speaker 4: and West Africa, but again for a price. Then he

877
00:41:07,800 --> 00:41:10,759
Speaker 4: dangles the best he has to offer. He promises to

878
00:41:10,800 --> 00:41:14,239
Speaker 4: connect these adventures with the Emir in the land, a

879
00:41:14,280 --> 00:41:17,799
Speaker 4: powerful man who will provide them protection, and promises that

880
00:41:17,880 --> 00:41:20,840
Speaker 4: if he can find and buy ostriches, they can safely

881
00:41:20,880 --> 00:41:23,520
Speaker 4: get them out of the country. Because finding and buying

882
00:41:23,520 --> 00:41:26,080
Speaker 4: them is only half the challenge. The harder part will

883
00:41:26,080 --> 00:41:29,560
Speaker 4: be the ostriche drive from North central Africa south to

884
00:41:29,600 --> 00:41:32,560
Speaker 4: the rail lines and onto the coast, he says the bandits,

885
00:41:32,600 --> 00:41:36,200
Speaker 4: he tells them, the raiders African highwaymen, nomads. They will

886
00:41:36,239 --> 00:41:39,440
Speaker 4: all pose challenges. The protection of the Emir will be

887
00:41:39,520 --> 00:41:43,919
Speaker 4: most necessary. And again for a price. You hand mister

888
00:41:43,960 --> 00:41:46,400
Speaker 4: Baker his tea, but he's not looking in your direction. Instead,

889
00:41:46,840 --> 00:41:50,320
Speaker 4: he's focused on Isaac is Shan and his cheshire cat Grin.

890
00:41:50,520 --> 00:41:53,760
Speaker 4: The irritated South African ostrich farmer is short tempered, apparently

891
00:41:53,800 --> 00:41:54,680
Speaker 4: also kind of cheap.

892
00:41:54,960 --> 00:41:56,879
Speaker 2: He asks how much is all this going to cost?

893
00:41:56,920 --> 00:42:00,520
Speaker 4: And he gesticulates wildly, hitting the tea cup you're offering.

894
00:42:00,520 --> 00:42:03,680
Speaker 4: The teacup goes flying. The hot, milky sweet contents hit

895
00:42:03,760 --> 00:42:06,080
Speaker 4: you right in the moomoo.

896
00:42:06,000 --> 00:42:08,200
Speaker 2: Because you're wearing a very tasteful silk and mumoo.

897
00:42:08,760 --> 00:42:11,160
Speaker 4: Now there's a hot stain blooming right in the center

898
00:42:11,200 --> 00:42:13,160
Speaker 4: of your chest, and the ostrich farmer sees this. He

899
00:42:13,160 --> 00:42:16,560
Speaker 4: doesn't even apologize. Instead, he starts to laugh. That makes

900
00:42:16,600 --> 00:42:18,799
Speaker 4: the other ostrich farmer start to laugh, which makes the

901
00:42:18,840 --> 00:42:21,000
Speaker 4: other two from the heightst team also burst into up

902
00:42:21,080 --> 00:42:21,800
Speaker 4: Rorya's laughter.

903
00:42:22,080 --> 00:42:25,440
Speaker 2: You stand there wondering what have you done to deserve

904
00:42:25,520 --> 00:42:26,040
Speaker 2: your fate?

905
00:42:26,280 --> 00:42:28,279
Speaker 4: You try to make a little money in the international

906
00:42:28,280 --> 00:42:32,200
Speaker 4: feather market, and now look at you. So there you

907
00:42:32,239 --> 00:42:34,640
Speaker 4: go Elizabeth, the taste dore we have in store for us.

908
00:42:34,920 --> 00:42:37,239
Speaker 4: Take a little break and after this we will get

909
00:42:37,400 --> 00:42:54,560
Speaker 4: to Africa.

910
00:42:58,120 --> 00:42:58,759
Speaker 2: Elizabeth.

911
00:42:59,320 --> 00:43:03,880
Speaker 4: After tessful meeting with the mysterious feather merchant, your former boss,

912
00:43:03,920 --> 00:43:07,240
Speaker 4: Isaac Cassan, and after they meet his price, the great

913
00:43:07,280 --> 00:43:10,000
Speaker 4: Ostridge heightst team is now ready for their raid. The

914
00:43:10,040 --> 00:43:12,480
Speaker 4: team set sail for the coast of West Africa. They

915
00:43:12,560 --> 00:43:15,759
Speaker 4: arrive in the British colony of Nigeria. From there, they

916
00:43:15,800 --> 00:43:20,759
Speaker 4: travel north on a riverboat, Very Colonel Kirks, It's a

917
00:43:20,800 --> 00:43:23,719
Speaker 4: five hundred mile trek up the Niger River. After that

918
00:43:24,080 --> 00:43:26,200
Speaker 4: arduous leg of their adventure, they step off in this

919
00:43:26,200 --> 00:43:28,799
Speaker 4: little town of Borrow at the river's edge. From there

920
00:43:28,840 --> 00:43:30,919
Speaker 4: they board a train and they travel to a city

921
00:43:30,960 --> 00:43:33,960
Speaker 4: called Kano. It's a major trading point for the mini

922
00:43:34,080 --> 00:43:36,600
Speaker 4: trans Saharan camel caravans that are crossing.

923
00:43:37,040 --> 00:43:39,040
Speaker 3: So do you think they just have like trunks and

924
00:43:39,200 --> 00:43:40,160
Speaker 3: trunks of stuff.

925
00:43:40,400 --> 00:43:43,279
Speaker 4: I think they do, so picture that just like a

926
00:43:43,320 --> 00:43:46,840
Speaker 4: camel caravan behind them. So when they arrive, Russell Thornton

927
00:43:46,840 --> 00:43:49,919
Speaker 4: starts inspecting the local ostridge feathers on offer to see

928
00:43:49,960 --> 00:43:51,560
Speaker 4: if any of them are close to the quality he's

929
00:43:51,600 --> 00:43:55,080
Speaker 4: looking for, and he recorded in his journal those from

930
00:43:55,239 --> 00:43:57,960
Speaker 4: Zinder are the right type. According to all evidence, the

931
00:43:58,040 --> 00:44:00,960
Speaker 4: right type of feathers are from the French territory. So

932
00:44:01,000 --> 00:44:03,200
Speaker 4: he finds out that the ones being traded and filtering

933
00:44:03,239 --> 00:44:05,920
Speaker 4: into this area from further north over the line in

934
00:44:05,960 --> 00:44:09,359
Speaker 4: French territory are perfect. They have confirmation, right, Yeah, they

935
00:44:09,400 --> 00:44:11,919
Speaker 4: got that good good. So, emboldened by this, he sends

936
00:44:11,960 --> 00:44:14,840
Speaker 4: word back to his bosses in South Africa. He reports

937
00:44:14,840 --> 00:44:18,080
Speaker 4: that their trek has found success. They ask for official

938
00:44:18,120 --> 00:44:21,160
Speaker 4: permission to sneak over the border into the French territory

939
00:44:21,360 --> 00:44:25,120
Speaker 4: and steal these prize barbary ostriches, and then they wait

940
00:44:25,239 --> 00:44:27,640
Speaker 4: for word from the folks back home in South Africa.

941
00:44:28,440 --> 00:44:30,879
Speaker 4: Now at this point, they're languishing right on the edge

942
00:44:30,880 --> 00:44:33,640
Speaker 4: of the French colonial border, hoping nobody hears about them,

943
00:44:33,640 --> 00:44:35,880
Speaker 4: and they're killing time in the top of Nigeria and

944
00:44:35,920 --> 00:44:39,240
Speaker 4: British territory, yeah right, and buying up ostrich feathers, trying

945
00:44:39,239 --> 00:44:41,440
Speaker 4: to lay low and not let anyone find out about.

946
00:44:41,280 --> 00:44:44,920
Speaker 3: Their true Everybody knows they're there, like the word has

947
00:44:45,000 --> 00:44:45,960
Speaker 3: to have spread.

948
00:44:45,760 --> 00:44:48,120
Speaker 2: Oh totally. I mean, they stick out like the preferbial

949
00:44:48,160 --> 00:44:49,200
Speaker 2: sword thumb Yeah, yeah.

950
00:44:49,080 --> 00:44:51,359
Speaker 4: And their pith helmets walking around going anybody have any

951
00:44:51,400 --> 00:44:54,319
Speaker 4: ostrich feathers now. Thornton and his team, as I said,

952
00:44:54,360 --> 00:44:56,920
Speaker 4: they're chilling, trying to keep busy, and they're buying up everything,

953
00:44:56,960 --> 00:44:59,879
Speaker 4: so they're kind of marks. But after six weeks of this,

954
00:45:00,680 --> 00:45:03,480
Speaker 4: their impromptu shopping spree INDs because they get word from

955
00:45:03,480 --> 00:45:06,279
Speaker 4: the South African officials they are approved for.

956
00:45:06,280 --> 00:45:10,640
Speaker 2: A clandestine operation into French territory. They're told that they're

957
00:45:10,640 --> 00:45:13,719
Speaker 2: operating budget is seven thousand pounds sterling. That's estimated to

958
00:45:13,719 --> 00:45:15,759
Speaker 2: be enough to buy a flock of one hundred and

959
00:45:15,920 --> 00:45:20,440
Speaker 2: fifty high quality barbary ostriches if need be, otherwise grabbed them.

960
00:45:20,600 --> 00:45:21,120
Speaker 3: Yeah right.

961
00:45:21,480 --> 00:45:24,400
Speaker 4: The South African authorities also informed Thornton that if he

962
00:45:24,800 --> 00:45:27,759
Speaker 4: or any of US heist team are caught in French territory,

963
00:45:27,840 --> 00:45:30,760
Speaker 4: the mission will be disavowed and the government will disavow.

964
00:45:30,480 --> 00:45:35,040
Speaker 2: Them as well. Oh wow, it's very ostriche based mission. Impossible, Yeah,

965
00:45:35,120 --> 00:45:35,520
Speaker 2: real to.

966
00:45:36,160 --> 00:45:39,840
Speaker 3: Something like It's really something like that, the impossible mission family.

967
00:45:41,280 --> 00:45:44,240
Speaker 4: Now it's co time, Elizabeth. So the expedition, they sneak

968
00:45:44,239 --> 00:45:46,759
Speaker 4: over the French colonial border. They travel one hundred and

969
00:45:46,800 --> 00:45:50,839
Speaker 4: fifty miles more north into the semi arid landscape right

970
00:45:50,840 --> 00:45:53,319
Speaker 4: below the Sahara Desert. They arrive at a place called

971
00:45:53,400 --> 00:45:55,719
Speaker 4: Fort Zender. This is now basically in Niger, what we

972
00:45:55,760 --> 00:45:58,440
Speaker 4: would think of his niche. They pretend to be ranchers

973
00:45:58,440 --> 00:46:01,319
Speaker 4: who've heard about ostriches and just innotantly looking to buy

974
00:46:01,320 --> 00:46:03,880
Speaker 4: a few for their place back home. And yes we

975
00:46:03,960 --> 00:46:07,560
Speaker 4: are English. The French authorities hear about these strangers looking

976
00:46:07,680 --> 00:46:08,320
Speaker 4: by ostriches.

977
00:46:08,320 --> 00:46:08,960
Speaker 2: They zoom over.

978
00:46:09,080 --> 00:46:11,200
Speaker 4: Now, this could be big trouble for them, obviously, because

979
00:46:11,400 --> 00:46:14,680
Speaker 4: they're gonna be disavowed. The Ostrich heist team gets lucky

980
00:46:14,880 --> 00:46:17,160
Speaker 4: the French authorities. They don't arrest them, which they could

981
00:46:17,160 --> 00:46:20,280
Speaker 4: have done. Instead, they just tell the prospective Ostrich farmers,

982
00:46:20,480 --> 00:46:24,799
Speaker 4: no get going. So the French is already they're rightly suspicious, right,

983
00:46:24,880 --> 00:46:28,160
Speaker 4: They just tell these like Ostrich appreciators beat it now.

984
00:46:28,200 --> 00:46:30,480
Speaker 4: The Ostrich high team they get turned away without their

985
00:46:30,480 --> 00:46:33,320
Speaker 4: coveted flock of one hundred and fifty ostriches. They're forced

986
00:46:33,320 --> 00:46:36,080
Speaker 4: to leave French territory. They literally like take them back.

987
00:46:36,080 --> 00:46:38,120
Speaker 4: They're like get out, yeah, and they're turned back. They

988
00:46:38,160 --> 00:46:41,640
Speaker 4: have to march south to British territory with French spies

989
00:46:41,680 --> 00:46:45,400
Speaker 4: following them whole time. They may and possibly there's rumors

990
00:46:45,400 --> 00:46:47,640
Speaker 4: that American spies are also following them, trying because they've

991
00:46:47,640 --> 00:46:50,040
Speaker 4: been kidding, they're piggybacking the operation, trying.

992
00:46:49,880 --> 00:46:50,960
Speaker 2: To find them ahead of them.

993
00:46:51,000 --> 00:46:53,360
Speaker 4: So there's also American spies that are shadowing them the

994
00:46:53,360 --> 00:46:53,839
Speaker 4: whole time.

995
00:46:54,120 --> 00:46:56,320
Speaker 3: If they're not traveling incognitio.

996
00:46:56,880 --> 00:46:58,920
Speaker 4: There's like groups of white men following each up to

997
00:46:58,920 --> 00:47:03,359
Speaker 4: the ground. Central Africa. Yeah, in the arid areas where

998
00:47:03,360 --> 00:47:05,520
Speaker 4: there's nothing on the horizon until you just see like

999
00:47:05,680 --> 00:47:08,520
Speaker 4: just out of the heat that's dissipating. All of a sudden,

1000
00:47:08,520 --> 00:47:09,000
Speaker 4: people on.

1001
00:47:08,960 --> 00:47:12,400
Speaker 3: The show up with this caravan of all their stuff.

1002
00:47:12,640 --> 00:47:14,719
Speaker 2: Exactly a train of stuff.

1003
00:47:14,360 --> 00:47:16,080
Speaker 3: Buying up Ostrich feathers.

1004
00:47:16,120 --> 00:47:18,759
Speaker 2: If they're lucky that bandits just don't rob them every day.

1005
00:47:18,840 --> 00:47:22,399
Speaker 3: Talk an Ostrich everywhere exact rather than being like I'm sorry,

1006
00:47:22,440 --> 00:47:24,000
Speaker 3: what is that. No, I'm not familiar with that. I

1007
00:47:24,040 --> 00:47:26,520
Speaker 3: don't know her, and then you just go about your

1008
00:47:26,520 --> 00:47:28,120
Speaker 3: business and then zoink he grab some.

1009
00:47:28,520 --> 00:47:31,480
Speaker 4: Frenchworn legion runs them out of the country. So somewhere

1010
00:47:31,480 --> 00:47:33,880
Speaker 4: along the way, the Ostrich ized team they do manage

1011
00:47:33,920 --> 00:47:36,360
Speaker 4: to score some ostriches, not the flock they wanted, but

1012
00:47:36,360 --> 00:47:38,799
Speaker 4: at least they don't come away empty handed as far

1013
00:47:38,840 --> 00:47:40,759
Speaker 4: as what they get. The flock they came away with.

1014
00:47:40,920 --> 00:47:44,840
Speaker 4: Many suspect that their business partner Hassan coordinated with contacts

1015
00:47:44,880 --> 00:47:47,440
Speaker 4: with the local emir. Yeah, to sneak around and get

1016
00:47:47,480 --> 00:47:49,239
Speaker 4: some barbary ones. And it's like, don't worry you guys

1017
00:47:49,239 --> 00:47:50,319
Speaker 4: messed up, I'll take care of it.

1018
00:47:50,480 --> 00:47:52,359
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's the idea, right, so.

1019
00:47:52,520 --> 00:47:54,279
Speaker 3: And then they would owe him big yeah.

1020
00:47:54,320 --> 00:47:57,480
Speaker 4: But apparently it was sketch getting back, because there are

1021
00:47:57,520 --> 00:48:00,680
Speaker 4: reports in letters home from like one of the expert

1022
00:48:00,719 --> 00:48:04,640
Speaker 4: ostrich farmers, they one named Smith Totally. He rides back

1023
00:48:04,640 --> 00:48:07,120
Speaker 4: to his family like, dearest Emily, I survived the raids

1024
00:48:07,160 --> 00:48:10,240
Speaker 4: into French territory and then racing back to British territory

1025
00:48:10,280 --> 00:48:12,520
Speaker 4: with our legal ostriches. We were set upon by no

1026
00:48:12,640 --> 00:48:15,799
Speaker 4: mad tribes, possibly the Berbers, I'm not quite sure. And

1027
00:48:15,840 --> 00:48:18,359
Speaker 4: then he also mentions conflicts with the French army. They

1028
00:48:18,360 --> 00:48:21,440
Speaker 4: were shooting at them. Apparently whatever did happen as they

1029
00:48:21,480 --> 00:48:24,080
Speaker 4: made their raids and snuck back and forth across the border,

1030
00:48:24,080 --> 00:48:25,640
Speaker 4: because apparently that's what they had to do.

1031
00:48:25,840 --> 00:48:28,399
Speaker 2: The Ostrich team eventually procures.

1032
00:48:27,880 --> 00:48:30,880
Speaker 4: All the ostriches thereafter, and once they have their birds,

1033
00:48:31,120 --> 00:48:34,720
Speaker 4: they take this ostridge drive and trek hundreds of miles

1034
00:48:34,760 --> 00:48:37,920
Speaker 4: south back to Nigeria. So imagine a cattle drive, but

1035
00:48:38,000 --> 00:48:39,040
Speaker 4: it's all ostriches.

1036
00:48:39,200 --> 00:48:40,080
Speaker 3: Oh god, right.

1037
00:48:40,440 --> 00:48:43,360
Speaker 4: Now I have to remind you ostriches can run faster

1038
00:48:43,520 --> 00:48:46,440
Speaker 4: than horses. Yeah, so you have to imagine that was a.

1039
00:48:46,560 --> 00:48:49,360
Speaker 2: Crazy ostriche drive to back to Nigeria.

1040
00:48:49,600 --> 00:48:52,480
Speaker 3: Who's like, did they pick up a local?

1041
00:48:53,600 --> 00:48:54,200
Speaker 2: They definitely had some.

1042
00:48:54,239 --> 00:48:57,400
Speaker 4: Look the long sticks beating the earth and going not

1043
00:48:57,440 --> 00:48:58,359
Speaker 4: that way, not that way.

1044
00:48:58,400 --> 00:49:01,760
Speaker 3: Imagine pick up you know, some sheep dogs.

1045
00:49:01,800 --> 00:49:02,640
Speaker 2: You definitely need some better.

1046
00:49:02,719 --> 00:49:06,360
Speaker 4: You can't just rely on two South African Ostrich farmers.

1047
00:49:07,200 --> 00:49:09,359
Speaker 4: So so we do know it was this whole thing's

1048
00:49:09,360 --> 00:49:12,520
Speaker 4: fraught with challenges, right because also heist team leader Forton,

1049
00:49:12,680 --> 00:49:14,319
Speaker 4: he gets cut down by malaria.

1050
00:49:14,400 --> 00:49:16,920
Speaker 2: So now he can't walk, he can't ride a horse,

1051
00:49:17,160 --> 00:49:17,719
Speaker 2: he can't do it.

1052
00:49:17,840 --> 00:49:18,960
Speaker 3: Hes to be carried.

1053
00:49:19,160 --> 00:49:20,480
Speaker 2: So now they got to get more people.

1054
00:49:20,719 --> 00:49:23,520
Speaker 4: They PLoP them into a hammock and have to heft

1055
00:49:23,600 --> 00:49:26,680
Speaker 4: him hundreds of miles back to friendly British territory.

1056
00:49:27,280 --> 00:49:31,080
Speaker 3: Crazy everyone that's malaria. But like really, he's just tired

1057
00:49:31,080 --> 00:49:32,399
Speaker 3: of walking.

1058
00:49:32,719 --> 00:49:34,680
Speaker 2: I think I've turned my ankle. I'm gonna have to

1059
00:49:35,040 --> 00:49:35,839
Speaker 2: have a lie down.

1060
00:49:37,239 --> 00:49:40,000
Speaker 4: So the Ostrich's ized team they make it back over

1061
00:49:40,040 --> 00:49:43,399
Speaker 4: the border with their crazy Ostrich cattle drive and uh,

1062
00:49:43,520 --> 00:49:45,520
Speaker 4: we make it back into what's now Nigeria. They load

1063
00:49:45,600 --> 00:49:48,359
Speaker 4: up a flock of their contraband ostriches. They border train

1064
00:49:48,440 --> 00:49:50,719
Speaker 4: to Lagos. That's what the big port is. So the

1065
00:49:50,760 --> 00:49:53,759
Speaker 4: train cars are modified to carry these ostriches. I like

1066
00:49:53,800 --> 00:49:55,760
Speaker 4: to imagine it like a circus train where the ostriches

1067
00:49:55,800 --> 00:49:58,279
Speaker 4: are poking their heads out of the top right, just

1068
00:49:58,480 --> 00:50:00,880
Speaker 4: like a blossom of ostrich heads. So up the one

1069
00:50:00,920 --> 00:50:03,560
Speaker 4: hundred and fifty ostriches they set out with one hundred

1070
00:50:03,560 --> 00:50:07,640
Speaker 4: and forty survived the Ostriche cattle drive, the train ride

1071
00:50:07,719 --> 00:50:10,120
Speaker 4: to the coast, and then the ship voyage down to

1072
00:50:10,160 --> 00:50:10,680
Speaker 4: Cape Town.

1073
00:50:10,920 --> 00:50:11,200
Speaker 2: Not bad.

1074
00:50:11,200 --> 00:50:13,239
Speaker 4: One hundred and forty eight hundred put if you can

1075
00:50:13,280 --> 00:50:15,520
Speaker 4: believe it. When they arrive in South Africa, the ship

1076
00:50:15,600 --> 00:50:19,200
Speaker 4: is met and feted like the arrival of conquering heroes.

1077
00:50:19,719 --> 00:50:22,000
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, they had done it. They'd trekked off into

1078
00:50:22,040 --> 00:50:25,400
Speaker 4: unknown thens and come back with a flock of coveted ostriches.

1079
00:50:25,800 --> 00:50:28,160
Speaker 4: Everyone knows this marks the birth of a new wave

1080
00:50:28,239 --> 00:50:33,239
Speaker 4: of generational wealth for the South African ostrich industry. Except Elizabeth,

1081
00:50:33,520 --> 00:50:36,440
Speaker 4: life is funny, fun Just when you think you have

1082
00:50:36,480 --> 00:50:38,279
Speaker 4: it all figured out. You've done the hard thing, the

1083
00:50:38,320 --> 00:50:41,719
Speaker 4: illegal thing, the impossible task, you survive the trek, You've

1084
00:50:41,719 --> 00:50:45,520
Speaker 4: come home, the conquering hero, and then just two years later,

1085
00:50:45,920 --> 00:50:49,200
Speaker 4: the bottom drops out of the ostrich feather market and

1086
00:50:49,239 --> 00:50:53,279
Speaker 4: you'll lose everything. It's like a modern Creek myth, like

1087
00:50:53,320 --> 00:50:56,080
Speaker 4: a Paul Thomas Anderson Marietta. The twist of fate was

1088
00:50:56,120 --> 00:50:57,759
Speaker 4: there to be seen for those with the right eyes

1089
00:50:57,760 --> 00:51:00,839
Speaker 4: to see it, like Hassan getting out of the industry,

1090
00:51:01,120 --> 00:51:03,359
Speaker 4: or ears to hear it, you see, Elizabeth. At the time,

1091
00:51:03,400 --> 00:51:04,840
Speaker 4: there was a little something called the birth of the

1092
00:51:04,880 --> 00:51:09,400
Speaker 4: animal rights movement. Energy for the movement was the wholesale

1093
00:51:09,400 --> 00:51:12,239
Speaker 4: slaughter of birds around the world to power the wig

1094
00:51:12,320 --> 00:51:15,280
Speaker 4: and later hat industries with their brilliant and exact feathers.

1095
00:51:15,760 --> 00:51:19,320
Speaker 4: So whole bird populations were being extincted in pursuit of

1096
00:51:19,360 --> 00:51:23,200
Speaker 4: their fine feathers. So as a result, when photographic evidence

1097
00:51:23,239 --> 00:51:26,840
Speaker 4: to go gets published of this industrial scale bird slaughter

1098
00:51:26,920 --> 00:51:29,520
Speaker 4: that's happened now where people can't see it. The response

1099
00:51:29,600 --> 00:51:33,400
Speaker 4: from animal lovers and decent people is tremendous and it

1100
00:51:33,440 --> 00:51:36,960
Speaker 4: all comes down to this Australian ornithologist named Arthur Mattingly.

1101
00:51:37,400 --> 00:51:40,720
Speaker 2: He no relations to don He tramped into the wild.

1102
00:51:40,880 --> 00:51:44,480
Speaker 4: He photographs this widespread devastation that's occurring in the natural environment.

1103
00:51:44,520 --> 00:51:44,640
Speaker 2: Right.

1104
00:51:44,680 --> 00:51:47,360
Speaker 4: I've been talking like these feather hunters are just wrecking shop.

1105
00:51:47,560 --> 00:51:50,360
Speaker 4: And he photographs the slaughter of adult egrets and herons

1106
00:51:50,440 --> 00:51:51,759
Speaker 4: them in Australia.

1107
00:51:51,400 --> 00:51:55,480
Speaker 3: Like killing them and then pulling the feathers.

1108
00:51:55,680 --> 00:51:57,759
Speaker 4: The chicks don't have good feathers, so they leave all

1109
00:51:57,800 --> 00:51:59,480
Speaker 4: these chicks to die. So he has all these empty

1110
00:51:59,520 --> 00:52:02,040
Speaker 4: nests with the adults have been taken and it's just starving.

1111
00:52:03,200 --> 00:52:07,000
Speaker 4: Photos get published an article called Plundered for their Plumes.

1112
00:52:07,400 --> 00:52:10,400
Speaker 4: It's syndicated published around the world. Huge uproar in Europe,

1113
00:52:10,480 --> 00:52:14,720
Speaker 4: mainly in the UK, USA, France, Spain, Netherlands, Denmark responsor.

1114
00:52:14,800 --> 00:52:18,880
Speaker 4: The article it galvanizes a movement. It changes the opinion

1115
00:52:18,920 --> 00:52:21,720
Speaker 4: of these delicate beauty of the feathers. Yeah, they become

1116
00:52:21,840 --> 00:52:25,120
Speaker 4: like blood diamonds, is blood feathers.

1117
00:52:24,239 --> 00:52:26,600
Speaker 2: Or like a fur code totally exactly.

1118
00:52:26,640 --> 00:52:30,239
Speaker 4: It's very og furs murder. Yeah, right, So soon organizations

1119
00:52:30,320 --> 00:52:33,400
Speaker 4: are formed to protect birds. In particular, these two American women,

1120
00:52:33,680 --> 00:52:37,200
Speaker 4: Mental Hall and Harriet Hemanway, who founded the what Audubon

1121
00:52:37,360 --> 00:52:40,640
Speaker 4: Society you called it now, they led popular boycotts of

1122
00:52:40,680 --> 00:52:43,279
Speaker 4: feathers and the hats that people wear them. And they

1123
00:52:43,320 --> 00:52:46,840
Speaker 4: also had no imitation feathers, the whole thing. We're against

1124
00:52:46,880 --> 00:52:48,960
Speaker 4: it right right over in the UK they have the

1125
00:52:49,040 --> 00:52:52,200
Speaker 4: Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. They're together, working

1126
00:52:52,280 --> 00:52:54,840
Speaker 4: with both sides of the Atlantic. They lobby against this

1127
00:52:55,040 --> 00:52:58,680
Speaker 4: wholesale slaughter. The millinery industry and the wigmakers take it

1128
00:52:58,719 --> 00:52:59,560
Speaker 4: on the chinch.

1129
00:52:59,600 --> 00:52:59,839
Speaker 6: Sure.

1130
00:53:00,120 --> 00:53:04,040
Speaker 4: This leads to a wave of pamphlets, public lectures, magazine articles, books.

1131
00:53:04,040 --> 00:53:07,440
Speaker 4: The whole tide turns against them. Now remember the Transaharan

1132
00:53:07,480 --> 00:53:10,879
Speaker 4: Ostrich heist. Yeah, went down in nineteen eleven. Yeah, by

1133
00:53:10,960 --> 00:53:14,839
Speaker 4: nineteen thirteen, the international feather market is in free fall.

1134
00:53:14,880 --> 00:53:19,600
Speaker 4: Feather markets, yes, the feather markets are once huge, selling

1135
00:53:19,640 --> 00:53:22,680
Speaker 4: bird plumage. Right, like flower markets would sell flowers, they

1136
00:53:22,719 --> 00:53:25,240
Speaker 4: close up shop. You can't even find them happening anymore.

1137
00:53:25,440 --> 00:53:27,879
Speaker 4: The buyers just aren't there. The popularity is on the wane.

1138
00:53:28,120 --> 00:53:30,759
Speaker 4: But a couple factors other than the animal rights that

1139
00:53:30,840 --> 00:53:32,680
Speaker 4: killed it are all they all convene at.

1140
00:53:32,640 --> 00:53:35,080
Speaker 2: The right time. Because one year later, in nineteen fourteen

1141
00:53:35,160 --> 00:53:36,279
Speaker 2: World War One.

1142
00:53:36,480 --> 00:53:39,360
Speaker 4: All those big ornate, brightly feathered hats, they look really

1143
00:53:39,360 --> 00:53:42,120
Speaker 4: at it taste right, The splendor of a feather seemed

1144
00:53:42,120 --> 00:53:44,960
Speaker 4: at odds with the industrial horrors of trench warfare, mustard

1145
00:53:45,040 --> 00:53:45,720
Speaker 4: gas attacks.

1146
00:53:45,800 --> 00:53:45,960
Speaker 2: Right.

1147
00:53:46,239 --> 00:53:48,560
Speaker 4: Do you know what also became the big new bird

1148
00:53:48,600 --> 00:53:51,000
Speaker 4: based energy in the culture bird watching?

1149
00:53:51,400 --> 00:53:53,160
Speaker 2: This is when bird watching becomes a thing.

1150
00:53:53,200 --> 00:53:55,400
Speaker 4: People decide, rather than wear the beauty of the birds,

1151
00:53:55,400 --> 00:53:56,960
Speaker 4: why don't we tramp out into the wild, get a

1152
00:53:57,000 --> 00:53:59,560
Speaker 4: bit of a walk, experience it for ourselves, bring some

1153
00:53:59,640 --> 00:54:02,160
Speaker 4: binoc there's maybe a camera, record the beauty, share it

1154
00:54:02,239 --> 00:54:02,920
Speaker 4: with others.

1155
00:54:03,480 --> 00:54:06,000
Speaker 2: And so the people who did this becomes a thing.

1156
00:54:06,120 --> 00:54:06,239
Speaker 5: Right.

1157
00:54:06,600 --> 00:54:10,040
Speaker 4: Another cultural trend was all those crazy big Victorian era

1158
00:54:10,120 --> 00:54:13,839
Speaker 4: hats and the insane plumage. Yeah, well that gets killed

1159
00:54:13,880 --> 00:54:16,839
Speaker 4: off because of something with five wheels that goes beep beep.

1160
00:54:18,400 --> 00:54:22,360
Speaker 4: The advent of the automobile kills off Victorian fashions, tons

1161
00:54:22,400 --> 00:54:25,400
Speaker 4: of them, right, in particular, crazy big ornate hats you

1162
00:54:25,440 --> 00:54:27,719
Speaker 4: can rock around in your model tea or your open

1163
00:54:27,760 --> 00:54:31,560
Speaker 4: top Duzenberg with some stupid big hat. Another fashion trend

1164
00:54:31,600 --> 00:54:34,719
Speaker 4: that also kills off the feather industry, women decided to

1165
00:54:34,840 --> 00:54:37,640
Speaker 4: chop off their hair. So when the bob haircut becomes

1166
00:54:37,680 --> 00:54:41,600
Speaker 4: a thing in the nineteen teens, that left no purchase

1167
00:54:41,680 --> 00:54:44,840
Speaker 4: for those crazy big Victorian hats to sit. So between

1168
00:54:44,920 --> 00:54:47,839
Speaker 4: the Great War, the event of the car, and women

1169
00:54:48,000 --> 00:54:51,120
Speaker 4: changing fashions and hair and stupid big hats going out,

1170
00:54:51,239 --> 00:54:55,560
Speaker 4: and the feather industry just implodes in like two year's time.

1171
00:54:55,680 --> 00:54:57,520
Speaker 4: And so you know what, who's left holding a very

1172
00:54:57,640 --> 00:55:00,520
Speaker 4: expensive bag? That's right at the South afric agains who'd

1173
00:55:00,560 --> 00:55:04,160
Speaker 4: launched their trans Saharan ostroch type to corner the ostrich

1174
00:55:04,280 --> 00:55:07,840
Speaker 4: feather market. Oopsies and now of the original flock of

1175
00:55:07,960 --> 00:55:12,279
Speaker 4: contraband smuggled ostriches that some survived in South Africa for

1176
00:55:12,400 --> 00:55:14,640
Speaker 4: another two and a half decades. The last one, an

1177
00:55:14,680 --> 00:55:17,840
Speaker 4: old male, died during World War Two. It's reported he

1178
00:55:17,920 --> 00:55:20,560
Speaker 4: died some time between nineteen thirty nine and nineteen forty four,

1179
00:55:20,920 --> 00:55:23,240
Speaker 4: and it's also reported he was killed by a lightning strike.

1180
00:55:23,760 --> 00:55:25,960
Speaker 4: I love that they know the cause of death really clearly,

1181
00:55:26,200 --> 00:55:28,520
Speaker 4: but the time of death five year window park. Yeah,

1182
00:55:28,560 --> 00:55:30,080
Speaker 4: we're like, hey, look, there was a war on and

1183
00:55:30,320 --> 00:55:32,480
Speaker 4: we were not doing the best of keeping records on

1184
00:55:32,680 --> 00:55:36,080
Speaker 4: the deaths of our awn. Yes, yes, I think we

1185
00:55:36,200 --> 00:55:39,160
Speaker 4: remember that one. So those highly sought after ostriches that

1186
00:55:39,280 --> 00:55:43,040
Speaker 4: were near Fort Zinder and what's now modern Niger. The

1187
00:55:43,200 --> 00:55:45,319
Speaker 4: French authorities who never really gave a feather a fig

1188
00:55:45,360 --> 00:55:48,359
Speaker 4: about them. Apparently they'd blocked the raiders and the speculators,

1189
00:55:48,400 --> 00:55:50,080
Speaker 4: but they didn't safeguard the ostriches.

1190
00:55:50,160 --> 00:55:51,600
Speaker 2: So the flock died off.

1191
00:55:52,080 --> 00:55:56,200
Speaker 4: Dude over like habitat loss and over hunting. Thanks to colonialism,

1192
00:55:56,360 --> 00:55:57,680
Speaker 4: this once prized flock is.

1193
00:55:57,719 --> 00:56:00,839
Speaker 2: Now no more. It's extinct. Oops. So this whole story

1194
00:56:00,920 --> 00:56:02,600
Speaker 2: is very much Have I ever told you about my

1195
00:56:02,680 --> 00:56:03,960
Speaker 2: time in the dark court of Africa?

1196
00:56:04,120 --> 00:56:07,960
Speaker 4: You know it just reads of colonialism, exploitation, international games

1197
00:56:08,040 --> 00:56:11,040
Speaker 4: being played in far away places. Yes, exactly, and so

1198
00:56:11,280 --> 00:56:14,319
Speaker 4: ends our story of the great transaharent ostracized.

1199
00:56:14,560 --> 00:56:16,600
Speaker 2: What's the ridiculous takeaway, hey, Elizabeth, it's.

1200
00:56:16,480 --> 00:56:19,040
Speaker 3: You know, you mentioned blood diamonds, and you think about,

1201
00:56:19,160 --> 00:56:22,800
Speaker 3: like how you can grind this feather industry to a

1202
00:56:22,920 --> 00:56:27,879
Speaker 3: halt by showing images of starving chicks, and you can

1203
00:56:28,160 --> 00:56:31,480
Speaker 3: you know, grind the fur industry to a halt with

1204
00:56:31,680 --> 00:56:34,879
Speaker 3: the imagery for that, but we really haven't done enough

1205
00:56:34,960 --> 00:56:39,359
Speaker 3: to grind the diamond industry. And it's like those are

1206
00:56:39,480 --> 00:56:41,919
Speaker 3: children that they're sending in there, and when you read

1207
00:56:42,120 --> 00:56:44,960
Speaker 3: like accounts of it and you see photos and you know,

1208
00:56:45,040 --> 00:56:48,520
Speaker 3: it's so affecting, but it's you know, we're all I'm

1209
00:56:48,560 --> 00:56:50,520
Speaker 3: guilty of it too. Where I don't like to watch

1210
00:56:50,600 --> 00:56:53,640
Speaker 3: movies where the dog dies. We're a soft touch with

1211
00:56:53,840 --> 00:56:57,640
Speaker 3: it when it comes to animals, but the human beings

1212
00:56:57,719 --> 00:57:00,279
Speaker 3: and kids, you know, people are able to kind of

1213
00:57:00,520 --> 00:57:01,800
Speaker 3: abstractify things.

1214
00:57:02,600 --> 00:57:04,719
Speaker 4: We have all these animal rights activists working looking for

1215
00:57:04,719 --> 00:57:07,560
Speaker 4: animal animals at this time while children are working in

1216
00:57:07,600 --> 00:57:08,680
Speaker 4: factories losing their fingers.

1217
00:57:09,080 --> 00:57:12,279
Speaker 3: Yes, exactly exactly. But you know, we like, we like

1218
00:57:12,400 --> 00:57:16,160
Speaker 3: kids in theory. I find when it actually comes to

1219
00:57:16,560 --> 00:57:18,360
Speaker 3: saving a kid, not so much.

1220
00:57:19,480 --> 00:57:21,960
Speaker 2: Take away, Oh, Elizabeth, I feel so refreshed. Man, I

1221
00:57:21,960 --> 00:57:25,960
Speaker 2: can't believe me. Ask my ridiculous takeaway is fashion? Man,

1222
00:57:26,000 --> 00:57:30,280
Speaker 2: it's a killer. Huh, that's good. I just kind of

1223
00:57:30,320 --> 00:57:31,240
Speaker 2: find it really amazing.

1224
00:57:31,280 --> 00:57:34,040
Speaker 4: I was, you know, I went from one rabbit hole

1225
00:57:34,160 --> 00:57:36,800
Speaker 4: or one you know, wormhole or whatever holes to another

1226
00:57:37,360 --> 00:57:39,440
Speaker 4: of like fashion crimes, and I think I found a

1227
00:57:39,480 --> 00:57:41,320
Speaker 4: couple others while I was doing this research. I'm not

1228
00:57:41,360 --> 00:57:43,760
Speaker 4: going to immediately jump on them, but like it's just amazing,

1229
00:57:43,880 --> 00:57:45,480
Speaker 4: like once something has value.

1230
00:57:46,680 --> 00:57:49,360
Speaker 2: Yeah, so that's why I just don't trust crypto. So

1231
00:57:49,480 --> 00:57:49,880
Speaker 2: there you go.

1232
00:57:51,640 --> 00:57:55,560
Speaker 4: Yes with you anyway, it's the feather market right now.

1233
00:57:56,920 --> 00:57:58,720
Speaker 4: So do you in the mood for a talkback?

1234
00:57:58,920 --> 00:57:59,120
Speaker 3: Yes?

1235
00:57:59,760 --> 00:58:01,440
Speaker 2: Can you favorites with one? Please?

1236
00:58:05,760 --> 00:58:06,040
Speaker 5: Oh?

1237
00:58:06,480 --> 00:58:06,760
Speaker 3: God?

1238
00:58:10,520 --> 00:58:18,600
Speaker 6: Hell, Hi Elizabeth, Saraen, and Dave. This is your friend

1239
00:58:18,680 --> 00:58:23,680
Speaker 6: Renee thinking about your episode on Parkour. I've been watching

1240
00:58:23,840 --> 00:58:28,200
Speaker 6: Vertico today and the first scene teaches us that Jimmy

1241
00:58:28,280 --> 00:58:32,520
Speaker 6: Stewart is really really bad at Parkour. Hope you guys

1242
00:58:32,560 --> 00:58:33,760
Speaker 6: are doing good bye bye.

1243
00:58:37,720 --> 00:58:41,520
Speaker 3: It is it is. That is the lesson every Windows

1244
00:58:41,560 --> 00:58:45,160
Speaker 3: cock wanted us to know. Yes, yes, yes, yes, so

1245
00:58:45,600 --> 00:58:46,200
Speaker 3: as always.

1246
00:58:46,320 --> 00:58:48,720
Speaker 4: Yeah, you can find us online at Ridiculous Crime on

1247
00:58:48,840 --> 00:58:51,040
Speaker 4: the social media, it's mostly Blue Sky and Instagram.

1248
00:58:51,120 --> 00:58:54,720
Speaker 2: I think we also have a Ridiculous Crime pod on YouTube.

1249
00:58:54,840 --> 00:58:57,280
Speaker 2: Go check that out. They're dope. They're animated. You can

1250
00:58:57,360 --> 00:58:58,240
Speaker 2: listen and it's fun.

1251
00:58:58,600 --> 00:59:02,000
Speaker 4: And we have a website, ridicular Crime dot com, which

1252
00:59:02,320 --> 00:59:05,280
Speaker 4: just won I believe an award from Willie Nelson for

1253
00:59:05,360 --> 00:59:08,720
Speaker 4: the best certified pot on offer on the Internet.

1254
00:59:08,800 --> 00:59:12,000
Speaker 2: You're kidding, Yeah, we beat Willie's reserve. We beat his

1255
00:59:12,120 --> 00:59:15,960
Speaker 2: own pot. Yeah. Yeah. We can't sell itator anywhere, but

1256
00:59:16,360 --> 00:59:18,800
Speaker 2: we just offer it. You come over there, we'll give

1257
00:59:18,840 --> 00:59:19,920
Speaker 2: you some exactly. So.

1258
00:59:20,200 --> 00:59:22,680
Speaker 4: Also, we love your talkbacks emails if you'd like it,

1259
00:59:22,760 --> 00:59:24,880
Speaker 4: Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com and as far as

1260
00:59:24,920 --> 00:59:27,160
Speaker 4: the talkbacks, go to the iHeart app downloaded. If you

1261
00:59:27,200 --> 00:59:29,840
Speaker 4: don't know about it, Yeah, you can record a talkback

1262
00:59:29,880 --> 00:59:31,680
Speaker 4: and maybe hear your voice here. And if you don't

1263
00:59:31,720 --> 00:59:33,880
Speaker 4: know about gmails, you just go there and you type

1264
00:59:33,920 --> 00:59:36,800
Speaker 4: in ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com and whatever email

1265
00:59:36,840 --> 00:59:38,400
Speaker 4: app you use and just send us letter.

1266
00:59:38,440 --> 00:59:40,760
Speaker 2: But start it out, do you. Producer d thank you

1267
00:59:40,840 --> 00:59:49,240
Speaker 2: for listening. We will catch you next crime. Ridiculous Crime

1268
00:59:49,360 --> 00:59:52,560
Speaker 2: is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton, that's her and Zaron Bennette.

1269
00:59:52,720 --> 00:59:56,400
Speaker 4: Let Me, produced and edited by the Trans Siberian Orchestra

1270
00:59:56,520 --> 00:59:59,840
Speaker 4: Heist team leader Dave Kustin and starring an Alis Rucker

1271
01:00:00,040 --> 01:00:03,440
Speaker 4: as who did research is by Less of a bird Watcher,

1272
01:00:03,560 --> 01:00:06,320
Speaker 4: More of a bird Listener Marissa Brown. Our theme song

1273
01:00:06,440 --> 01:00:10,240
Speaker 4: is by Our House band Feather and the Hunters aka Thomas.

1274
01:00:10,080 --> 01:00:11,120
Speaker 2: Lee and Travis Dutton.

1275
01:00:11,480 --> 01:00:14,840
Speaker 4: The host wardrobe provided by Botany five hundred guest tarn,

1276
01:00:14,880 --> 01:00:19,760
Speaker 4: makeup by Spartacle Shot and mister Andre. Executive producers are Ben.

1277
01:00:20,200 --> 01:00:22,400
Speaker 4: I used to sell feathers at the seashore until that

1278
01:00:22,560 --> 01:00:25,360
Speaker 4: Gal Sally with the Seashells muscled me out of the market.

1279
01:00:25,720 --> 01:00:28,200
Speaker 2: Bowling and no, you know I don't believe you.

1280
01:00:28,760 --> 01:00:39,880
Speaker 3: Brown, Why say it one more time? We cry?

1281
01:00:41,000 --> 01:00:44,360
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio four more podcasts.

1282
01:00:44,480 --> 01:00:47,640
Speaker 1: My heart Radio visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

1283
01:00:47,680 --> 01:00:49,440
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.