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Speaker 1: Fellow ridiculous historians, We're back with a classic. I'm Ben Bullin.

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Speaker 1: Our colleague Noel Brown is Our Adventures will be returning

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Speaker 1: soon and look I got to show you out, super producer,

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Speaker 1: mister Max Williams. You and I were talking off air,

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Speaker 1: as we do pretty often, about just how bizarre World

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Speaker 1: War two was.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it's honestly become kind of a pet

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Speaker 2: interest of mine, and it's fun from working on the

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Speaker 2: show about you know, and well in you know, the

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Speaker 2: European theater, there was actual fighting and land on each

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Speaker 2: other's country and stuff like that. But when it became

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Speaker 2: of the United States and Japan, there was never really

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Speaker 2: fighting on either continental land between these countries. So there

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Speaker 2: was a lot of really weird ideas they had throughout

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Speaker 2: the years of how to either attack the other one

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Speaker 2: or defend from an attack. So like, you know, we

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Speaker 2: have the episode, most recent one I'm pretty sure about,

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Speaker 2: like them building fake towns on bomber factories, like them

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Speaker 2: fighting like battles on Worthless, like frozen hundred Islands in

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Speaker 2: the North Pacific, or obviously the balloon bomb episode, which yeah,

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Speaker 2: before this, and so then like reading this, it's like

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Speaker 2: World war two bat bombs, Okay, they kept trying.

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Speaker 1: Look, war is a huge driver of horror and also

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Speaker 1: scientific and medical innovation. So if you go to your

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Speaker 1: average doctor's office or to your average space launch center,

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Speaker 1: as I'm sure we all do, then a lot of

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Speaker 1: the amazing technology you see is directly descended from the

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Speaker 1: atrocities of warfare. Really, most modern war is a war

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Speaker 1: of tiny edges, right, It's a war of seeking any

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Speaker 1: possible advantage. Everything can go on the drawdrawing board, even

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Speaker 1: if we understand that most of the stuff will never

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Speaker 1: leave that drawing board because they're frankly desperate and stupid ideas.

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Speaker 1: So this involves, of course, a long running obsession of

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Speaker 1: our sister shows stuff. They don't want you to know

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Speaker 1: the idea of weaponizing animals, right. Ever, since Empires of

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Speaker 1: old just ran over enemy forces with elephants, people were

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Speaker 1: trying to figure out how to leverage the natural world

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Speaker 1: to military advantage. And it is true, Uncle Sam, once

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Speaker 1: upon a time spent millions of dollars trying to take

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Speaker 1: bats like little bats, not baseball bats, the animals, the

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Speaker 1: mammals bats, and strapping explosive devices on them and then

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Speaker 1: launching them en mass across Japanese cities. Now again, this

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Speaker 1: is a drawing board idea, but as we'll learn in

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Speaker 1: this classic episode from twenty nineteen, it might have actually worked.

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Speaker 1: So how close do we get? We'll tell you in

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Speaker 1: this classic episode. Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: No no, no no no no no no no no no,

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Speaker 1: no no, no bat bombs. Welcome to the show, Ridiculous Historians.

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Speaker 1: What the heck are we talking about? Well, we're about

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Speaker 1: to tell you hello, my name is Ben.

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Speaker 3: My name is done Ben. You know we did that

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Speaker 3: before with knife Man.

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Speaker 1: Yes, it's just a great it's a great musical device.

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Speaker 3: It really is.

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Speaker 1: Goes into anything with two syllables.

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Speaker 3: I'm into it.

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Speaker 1: Oh and I'm also into our super producer, Casey Pegram.

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Speaker 1: We were off air today, just about to jump into

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Speaker 1: the studio and Casey, I don't know. Have you ever

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Speaker 1: heard of batbombs?

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Speaker 3: I have not. No, I have no idea what this

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Speaker 3: episode is about. Unless it's guano. That's the only bat

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Speaker 3: bomb I can think of. Hey, that was good, Yeah, no,

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Speaker 3: and funny enough. I think guano is actually quite flammable

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Speaker 3: and could be potentially used in explosives.

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Speaker 1: And guano is also quite valuable. Right, We did an

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Speaker 1: episode for a different show on a cannibal cave. You

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Speaker 1: can find a ce teca. We did an episode on

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Speaker 1: cannibal cave that was discovered because of some unscrupulous guano miners.

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Speaker 1: Bats have actually played a surprisingly influential role in US

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Speaker 1: history at various times. And also, bats are one of

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Speaker 1: those creatures that are up close. A lot of bats

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Speaker 1: that I've run in two are pretty gross, but they're

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Speaker 1: still just from a biological perspective, amazing.

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Speaker 3: They are amazing. And there is a YouTube video or

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Speaker 3: an Instagram video or one of those videos where someone's

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Speaker 3: like handling a bat and it's a particularly cute bat.

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Speaker 3: So they have the potential to be both terrifying and adorable.

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Speaker 3: Is it a fruit bat? It must have been.

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Speaker 1: So there's so many different types of bat. And today

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Speaker 1: we are talking about a type of plan that the

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Speaker 1: US made with bats. This is okay, So we have

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Speaker 1: to go in two different directions here, right, and maybe

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Speaker 1: tie them together as we continue. First, it's no secret

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Speaker 1: to any fan of history or to anyone who's perused

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Speaker 1: the Adventures of the US military that the US military

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Speaker 1: like many other militaries has kind of a spaghetti at

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Speaker 1: the wall approach to developing new stuff, and most of

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Speaker 1: the time it doesn't work out.

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Speaker 4: You know.

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Speaker 3: You know, this reminds me of been It's sort of

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Speaker 3: like the Hollywood studio system, where you might just have

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Speaker 3: some intern in an office just pitch some crazy idea

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Speaker 3: that an executive happens to year and he's like, you

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Speaker 3: know what, that's just crazy enough to work.

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Speaker 1: That's a good point. This reminds me of a clip

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Speaker 1: that we cannot for legal reasons play in full for you,

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Speaker 1: but we can tell you what it is and go

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Speaker 1: check it out on YouTube. After this show, John mullaney

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Speaker 1: has a great bit about how Back to the Future

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Speaker 1: became a film.

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Speaker 3: Did you ever see that?

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Speaker 1: No?

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Speaker 3: I don't think I did. Know.

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Speaker 1: Oh man, Okay, well, we can't stop the show. I

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Speaker 1: wish I could just play this for you. Now google it,

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Speaker 1: I'll send you the link. Is it is exactly what

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Speaker 1: you were talking about, and that is a very good

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Speaker 1: comparison to the approach that the military has taken at times. Today.

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Speaker 1: Our story starts well, it really gets running toward the

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Speaker 1: end of World War Two, thanks to a guy named

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Speaker 1: doctor Little Adams or Litel Adams.

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Speaker 3: I'm gonna go with little gotta be Little. You got

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Speaker 3: Little Adams l Y T l E.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I think if that's why, I'm giving him space

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Speaker 1: to be Litel Adams too, just in case, because I

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Speaker 1: don't know, Like, would you want to be walked around

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Speaker 1: called Lil Brown? Yeah, you would be into.

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Speaker 3: That, absolutely. I support that wholeheartedly.

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Speaker 1: So doctor Adams doesn't begin life as a mad scientist

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Speaker 1: for Uncle Sam. He starts life in Irwin, Pennsylvania, and

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Speaker 1: for a long time he works as a dentist.

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Speaker 3: Before that, presumably as a baby.

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Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, no, he began life as a middle aged dentist.

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Speaker 1: That's crazy common medical condition. That is that like Benjamin

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Speaker 1: Button sort of Yeah, Benjamin Button is is loosely based

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Speaker 1: on the Adventures of the dentist Doctor Adams.

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Speaker 3: Now the Adventures of Little Adams. That sounds like a fun,

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Speaker 3: rollicking good time. It sounds like a real rom doesn't it.

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Speaker 1: So here's what happened in real life, Doctor Adams. And

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Speaker 1: you might not see this unless you watch the director's

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Speaker 1: cut of Benjamin Button. Doctor Adams is driving home from

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Speaker 1: a vacation at Carl's Bad Caverns, in New Mexico, and

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Speaker 1: while he's driving home, he is haunted by this vision

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Speaker 1: that he saw this amazing spectacle. He watched bats leaving

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Speaker 1: the caves of Carlsbad caverns. And we've seen those clips

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Speaker 1: of bats leaving mass right right right, a little round

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Speaker 1: twilight or so, like a.

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Speaker 3: Hive mind operating on some kind of crazy psychic connection.

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Speaker 1: And he watched millions of these bats fly out, And

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Speaker 1: as he was driving, he was thinking, Wow, that was

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Speaker 1: such an amazing thing. There were so many bats. I

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Speaker 1: had no idea the sheer magnitude of nature and all

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Speaker 1: its glory. And he probably we're speculating a little here,

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Speaker 1: but he probably goes, all right, well, it's long drive

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Speaker 1: from New Mexico to Pennsylvania. I'm going to turn on

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Speaker 1: my car radio. I'm going to get the news. Here's

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Speaker 1: some tunes. And that's when he hears the terrible news.

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Speaker 1: He's listening on December seventh, nineteen forty one, that's when

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Speaker 1: he hears the terrible news that Japan has just attacked

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Speaker 1: Pearl Harbor.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and much like you and I remember likely where

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Speaker 3: we were when the attacks on September eleventh took place.

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Speaker 3: Everyone in this country likely does very similar experience to

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Speaker 3: Pearl Harbor. When people first heard that news, it was

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Speaker 3: a like a slap in the face. It was a

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Speaker 3: real emotional response that people had to this event. And

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Speaker 3: that was the case for doctor Adams, and he kind

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Speaker 3: of oddly combined that emotional response with the vision of

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Speaker 3: swarming bats that he had just seen.

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Speaker 1: Kind of you a Bruce Wayne esque way when he

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Speaker 1: discovers the cave right below Wayne manor that's a little

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Speaker 1: bit of a spoiler for anybody who has ever heard

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Speaker 1: words or seeing comics.

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Speaker 3: It's true.

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Speaker 1: So we have to imagine how insane this drive must

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Speaker 1: have been. It's not a short drive home, So is

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Speaker 1: it any wonder that who was left alone with his

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Speaker 1: thoughts and just kept combining and recombining his recent experiences.

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Speaker 1: Either way, it doesn't take him long to take action.

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Speaker 1: He combines this vision, as you said, of these bats

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Speaker 1: and this desire for revenge into a coherent plan, and

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Speaker 1: less than a month later, mid January January twelfth, nineteen

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Speaker 1: forty two, he sends his plan to the White House.

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Speaker 1: What does he say? What's the pitch?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, he thinks it'd be a swell idea to strap

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Speaker 3: tiny bombs to bats release them and in the hopes

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Speaker 3: that they will roost in the eaves and in various

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Speaker 3: locations of Japanese cities, at which point they would be detonated,

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Speaker 3: causing chaos across the land. But real quick. This was

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Speaker 3: not the first such idea that doctor Adams hat. He

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Speaker 3: actually came up with in nineteen thirty nine, an idea

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Speaker 3: for a plane that could do male pickups mid air.

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Speaker 3: And so he was kind of had a history of

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Speaker 3: being something of a tinkerer, even though his trade was

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Speaker 3: in the dental profession.

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Speaker 1: Yes, that's a really good point. This is not a

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Speaker 1: once in a lifetime innovation or bright idea for him.

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Speaker 1: He has several ideas that would seem at the very

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Speaker 1: least unorthodox right to mainstream humanity.

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Speaker 3: Yeah big. Bringing it back to Batman, this mid air

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Speaker 3: pickup idea was very similar to Operations Skyhook in the

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Speaker 3: I Believe Batman Begins movie. Is that right? It is

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Speaker 3: in the Dark Night, Dark Knight, that's right when they

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Speaker 3: sort of extract Bruce Wayne from a Japanese high rise

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Speaker 3: with this hook and they pull him out with this wire.

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Speaker 3: And he came up with this idea while serving in

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Speaker 3: the Navy during World War One consisted of these two

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Speaker 3: kind of vertical walls that made a V shape at

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Speaker 3: the narrow end of which a weighted cable was trailing.

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Speaker 3: And this is underneath the airplane and as it passed

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Speaker 3: it would engage in an object to be picked up

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Speaker 3: and then lifted and extracted, So very similar to skyhook.

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Speaker 1: Actually, he also, I believe, depleted a lot of his

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Speaker 1: own fortune and personal savings pursuing this until he met

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Speaker 1: Richard DuPont of the DuPont DuPonts, the DuPont DuPonts. Yes,

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Speaker 1: and it wasn't that it wasn't it designed to never land?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly because he figured there was. This wasn't like

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Speaker 3: a completely unique idea, But the notion was that a

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Speaker 3: lot of time and effort was wasted when the planes

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Speaker 3: were landing and they had to refuel. So this system,

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Speaker 3: in theory, would allow it to refuel in the air,

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Speaker 3: pick up fuel reserves from the ground or even from

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Speaker 3: a passing train. They could coordinate and specifically for long

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Speaker 3: distance mail pickups and freight and things like that. I

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Speaker 3: don't know, I know it was patented, but it certainly

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Speaker 3: never hit in the way that he hoped it would.

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Speaker 3: But fast forward to World War Two. Let's go back

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Speaker 3: to the pitch. How was he able to get an

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Speaker 3: audience with the White House in the first place. He

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Speaker 3: was not exactly like he didn't work for them. He

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Speaker 3: was just kind of a regular joe who was a

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Speaker 3: tinkerer on the side. And this whole you know, mid

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Speaker 3: flight refueling mail pickup scheme never really gained too much momentum,

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Speaker 3: so he didn't really have a reputation as being someone

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Speaker 3: the government should like turn to during times of war.

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Speaker 1: Would you say it never got off the ground?

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Speaker 4: I would say that, man, Oh, but you said it first.

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Speaker 4: Oh sorry, sorry, no joke left untold. He did manage

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Speaker 4: to shout above the din the cacophony of people with

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Speaker 4: unsolicited suggestions, plans, and schemes. We have to imagine, of course,

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Speaker 4: how many people would be writing directly to the White

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Speaker 4: House saying, here's what we do, and it may be

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Speaker 4: worth our time in another episode to look at some

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Speaker 4: of the most unorthodox World War two revenge schemes. But

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Speaker 4: Adams had an edge. He had a very important friend.

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Speaker 1: That's right. This is somewhat a story about nepotism. You

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Speaker 1: see Adams happen to know a woman by the name

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Speaker 1: of Eleanor Roosevelt. He had flown her to check out

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Speaker 1: his airmail scheme previously, right, and because they had this

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Speaker 1: previous relationship, historians speculate that's the way he was able

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Speaker 1: to get his voice heard and his idea, his pitch, right,

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Speaker 1: the one that you established earlier, and all about dropping

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Speaker 1: these bats in Japanese cities. It made more sense than

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Speaker 1: it might sound at first, blush, because of Japanese architecture.

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Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, tell us more about that, Ben. It's not

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Speaker 3: something I'd quite considered, because I was wondering how were

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Speaker 3: to get into all of these little nooks and crannies,

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Speaker 3: if you know, it seems like it would take time

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Speaker 3: for them to work their way into the eaves of

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Speaker 3: homes as we know it. But I believe the architecture

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Speaker 3: in Japan was a little more open and possibly more

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Speaker 3: accessible to these small creatures. And they were quite small.

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Speaker 1: They were quite small. Yes, So this pitch hinged on

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Speaker 1: some stereotypes about Japan at the time. One of those

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Speaker 1: concerned in the architecture. In the mind of many Americans,

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Speaker 1: policymakers and civilians alike, Japan was a country composed of

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Speaker 1: crowded cities filled with houses and factories made of paper

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Speaker 1: and wood, and that's their vision of traditional Japanese architectures.

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Speaker 1: So the argument there might be that flying bats with

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Speaker 1: small andcendiary devices into a city where most things are

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Speaker 1: built of stone or concrete, that won't do much, right,

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Speaker 1: It takes an enormous amount of heat today image that

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Speaker 1: stuff but paper and wood could catch fire with a

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Speaker 1: relatively small amount of flame.

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Speaker 3: But also wouldn't it have something to do with how

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Speaker 3: easy and quickly it might have been for the bats

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Speaker 3: to work their way into these structures. They weren't like

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Speaker 3: sealed air tight quite in the way we would think

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Speaker 3: of a traditional American home.

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Speaker 1: Right, Well, they thought that would fly into those like

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Speaker 1: picture of traditional Japanese tile roof right, they thought they

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Speaker 1: would fly into the eaves of those roofs, and that

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Speaker 1: this would this would get them close enough to the

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Speaker 1: paper walls, and wouldn't make sense. So we have a

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Speaker 1: quote from him, Think of thousands of fires breaking out

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Speaker 1: simultaneously over a circle of forty miles in diameter. For

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Speaker 1: every bomb dropped, Japan could have been devastated, yet with

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Speaker 1: small loss of life which doesn't really make sense because

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Speaker 1: when cities catch on fire, a lot of people die.

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Speaker 3: So I guess he was maybe he was talking about

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Speaker 3: America in lives.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's probably, that's that's unfortunately, it sounds very accurate.

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Speaker 3: Because I mean, obviously the bats were on suicide missions here,

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Speaker 3: so that's you know, I don't imagine Peter would approve

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Speaker 3: this plan today.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, let's take a second maybe and talk about

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Speaker 1: the bats.

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Speaker 3: What do you say? Let's do it all right.

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Speaker 1: So once the project gets the green light, and again

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Speaker 1: please listen to that John Mullaney, back to the future bit,

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Speaker 1: it's worth it won't ruin it for you. Once the

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Speaker 1: project gets the green light, somehow, doctor Adams gathers a

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Speaker 1: team of naturalists from the Hancock Foundation University California, and

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Speaker 1: they start investigating likely sites where they could gather large

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Speaker 1: quantities of bats. As we know, bats are mostly found

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Speaker 1: in caves, but a ton of them roost in attics, barnes, houses, bridges,

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Speaker 1: anywhere they can get it infitted, right.

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Speaker 3: That's right, it's funny. Casey and I actually at ten

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Speaker 3: did to capture a mass exodus of bats like this

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Speaker 3: on video in Austin, there's this bridge that's referred to

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Speaker 3: as the bat Bridge, where every night, at a certain time,

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Speaker 3: all of these bats that nest under this bridge or

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Speaker 3: they kind of just hang out there during the day

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Speaker 3: go out to feed at night because they're nocturnal animals.

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Speaker 3: But we waited there for an awful long time and

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Speaker 3: they never emerged. So I cannot offer a first hand

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Speaker 3: account of this, but I have been told that it

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Speaker 3: does happen.

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Speaker 1: Yes, it's true. I don't know if I have revealed

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Speaker 1: this to you guys, but years and years ago, one

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Speaker 1: of my childhood homes actually did have a bat infestation

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Speaker 1: in the attic, and I happened to live in a

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Speaker 1: room that adjoined the attic, and I was surprised to

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Speaker 1: find that, at least here in Georgia, you cannot kill

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Speaker 1: the bats. You have to essentially wait for them to

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Speaker 1: leave or compel them to leave whatever area they're roostine legally.

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Speaker 1: Yeah really yeah, And you then find whatever heidi holes

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Speaker 1: or ingress egress points they're using, block those, with the

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Speaker 1: hope being that vampire rules they'll find a new place

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Speaker 1: to sleep before dawn.

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Speaker 3: That's terrifying. I didn't know that, so that you can't

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Speaker 3: treat them like you would like any other household infestation.

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Speaker 1: No, no, no, no no, because they're so good for

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Speaker 1: the ecosystem.

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Speaker 3: It's well interesting. I had no idea about that.

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Speaker 1: So they go atoms, not the bats that I used

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Speaker 1: to live with. They go around scouring these areas to

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Speaker 1: find the best possible large quantity of bats suitable for

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Speaker 1: this project. According to Adams, they visit a thousand caves

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Speaker 1: and three thousand mines, and Adams says speed was so

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Speaker 1: imperative that we generally drove all day and night. When

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Speaker 1: we weren't exploring caves, we slept in cars, taking turns

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Speaker 1: of driving one car. And our search team covered three

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Speaker 1: hundred and fifty thousand miles. And then they started cataloging

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Speaker 1: the types of bats they found, and they were looking

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Speaker 1: for the ideal combination of bat size which would dictate

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Speaker 1: the amount of explosive the bat could carry versus back quantity.

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Speaker 1: How many bats of that type could they find, because

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Speaker 1: you know, if you found like twelve bats that were

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Speaker 1: large enough to carry eight pounds of dynamite, you know,

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Speaker 1: good for those bats, but that's not really going to

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Speaker 1: do anything to a Japanese city on a large scale

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Speaker 1: the way they were hoping.

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Speaker 3: That's very true. And just a little detail here. These

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Speaker 3: were Mexican free tailed bats. They decided on because of

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Speaker 3: their size and their availability. And so in March of

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Speaker 3: nineteen forty three, this is backtracking just a little bit,

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Speaker 3: the US Air Force decided they wanted to investigate this.

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Speaker 3: There was a letter that was drafted to formally, you know,

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Speaker 3: announce the pursuing of this, like a memo, and it

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Speaker 3: was called Test of Method to Scatter Incendiaries. It was

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Speaker 3: also referred to as Project X ray.

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Speaker 1: Way cool name uses Mexican free tailed bats. The other

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Speaker 1: bats they tried were things like the mastiff. The massive

356
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Speaker 1: bat is huge as a twenty inch wingspan. It can

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Speaker 1: carry one pound of dynamite. But the problem was they

358
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Speaker 1: couldn't find enough of these bats. And then they found

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Speaker 1: another bat, the mullard or common palid bat, that could

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Speaker 1: carry three ounces. But naturalists said, there's no way these

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Speaker 1: guys will survive the strange process we're going to subject

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Speaker 1: them to. And when they found the free tailed bat,

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Speaker 1: the main reason they went with it is because it

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Speaker 1: could travel with a one ounce bomb over a relatively

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Speaker 1: short distance, even though it only weighed a third of

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Speaker 1: an ounce, and they found twenty to thirty million of

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Speaker 1: them in a cave in Nay Cave near Bandera, Texas.

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Speaker 1: And it was so large. This kind of ties into

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Speaker 1: the adventure that Noel, you and Casey had in Austin.

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Speaker 1: It was so large that when these bats left the cave,

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Speaker 1: it took five hours for them to all leave out

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Speaker 1: of the cave, flying in a dense stream fifteen feet

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Speaker 1: in diameter and so closely packed that they could barely

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Speaker 1: lap their wings.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I can imagine. I mean, obviously, these must be

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Speaker 3: very powerful creatures in terms of their ability to like

377
00:22:06,440 --> 00:22:08,879
Speaker 3: like ants. They always say they can carry ten times

378
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Speaker 3: their body weight or whatever. This must be a similar case.

379
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Speaker 3: Although they had to take the weight into consideration when

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Speaker 3: they figured out which bats to use and what amount

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Speaker 3: of incendiaries would pack the most punch. And I'm guessing

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Speaker 3: that it was all considered. Like you said, it wouldn't

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Speaker 3: take a whole lot. They weren't. They weren't going to

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Speaker 3: level a building with these bats. They were going to

385
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Speaker 3: start a little flame that was then going to catch

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Speaker 3: on fire, and they were going to do them all

387
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Speaker 3: at once. But Ben, did you catch anywhere in your research.

388
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Speaker 3: How they were planning to detonate these bat bombs, like

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Speaker 3: all at once or was it on a timer or timer?

390
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Speaker 3: It was on a timer. Yeah, that makes the most sense.

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Speaker 1: That's probably that's the best way to do it, you know,

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Speaker 1: that is the best way to do it.

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Speaker 3: So they finally settled on these Mexican free tail bats,

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Speaker 3: and there was a lot of consideration for various stages

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Speaker 3: of this process, right like the questions we were just asking,

396
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Speaker 3: how to transport them, how to deploy them, etc. What

397
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Speaker 3: were some of the things that they sort of figured

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Speaker 3: out during this process?

399
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Speaker 1: Man, sure, sure, So this project when it gets a

400
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Speaker 1: cool name, the Army says, wait, we want projects with

401
00:23:11,720 --> 00:23:14,600
Speaker 1: cool names. So the project is transferred to the army

402
00:23:14,800 --> 00:23:18,160
Speaker 1: and they start capturing these thousands and thousands of Mexican

403
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Speaker 1: freetail bats the caverns all around the southwest United States.

404
00:23:23,080 --> 00:23:27,320
Speaker 1: They wanted to figure out how to get these things

405
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Speaker 1: from the location where they are attached to these bombs,

406
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Speaker 1: these incendiary devices, and then transport them without blowing anything up,

407
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Speaker 1: and then deploying them so that they don't blow up

408
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Speaker 1: until they're supposed to. The first thing they had to

409
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Speaker 1: figure out was how to keep the bats calm, and

410
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Speaker 1: that is when they decided to induce hibernation in the bats.

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Speaker 1: This is interesting, this is this is something that might

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Speaker 1: surprise some people. Bats actually do hibernate, which makes it

413
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Speaker 1: a little bit less inhumane, you know what I mean.

414
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Speaker 1: Bats hibernate from late fall until spring, so October, November

415
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Speaker 1: to March and April. And I'm just realizing this now.

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Speaker 1: No bats are listening to this podcast, Yeah right now.

417
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Speaker 3: It's probably better that way. Yeah, this could be triggering.

418
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Speaker 1: Until summer spring. Yes, so we know that they will

419
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Speaker 1: hibernate typically in the same environments in which they roost,

420
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Speaker 1: but they roost in caves and mines and attics and

421
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Speaker 1: stuff like that. So how do you strap an explosive

422
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Speaker 1: device to them or in scendiary device and then convince

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Speaker 1: them to hibernate on a plane. What they ultimately decided

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Speaker 1: to do was to stick the bats in ice cube trays. Again,

425
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Speaker 1: these are very small, the only way about the way

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Speaker 1: less announced.

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Speaker 3: But surely not the kind of ice cube trays you

428
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Speaker 3: and I are used to. I mean that's way too small.

429
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Speaker 3: One little compartment in an ice cube tray that would

430
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Speaker 3: go in our freezer.

431
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Speaker 1: All my ice cube trays are specifically designed to fit bats.

432
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Speaker 1: That's fair, It's pretty unfair to the bats.

433
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Speaker 3: But would would the explosives be strapped to them already

434
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Speaker 3: at this point or would they have to like put

435
00:25:07,600 --> 00:25:10,280
Speaker 3: them on after they woke them up. This whole thing

436
00:25:10,320 --> 00:25:12,720
Speaker 3: seems like a logistical nightmare, and that seems like stuff

437
00:25:12,720 --> 00:25:14,560
Speaker 3: that they didn't consider up front when they said, hey,

438
00:25:14,760 --> 00:25:15,800
Speaker 3: this guy's onto something.

439
00:25:15,840 --> 00:25:17,840
Speaker 1: Well, it seems like a lot of bats probably died

440
00:25:18,359 --> 00:25:22,119
Speaker 1: in the process of figuring out the best way to

441
00:25:22,320 --> 00:25:22,760
Speaker 1: do this.

442
00:25:23,800 --> 00:25:26,159
Speaker 3: Well, ultimately, these were suicide bats anyway, so they were

443
00:25:26,160 --> 00:25:28,160
Speaker 3: all destined for death. Right.

444
00:25:33,560 --> 00:25:35,600
Speaker 1: They also had to figure out how to release these

445
00:25:35,640 --> 00:25:39,960
Speaker 1: bats in mid air. So they thought, we'll have a

446
00:25:40,000 --> 00:25:45,080
Speaker 1: cardboard container that automatically opens and releases the bats. And

447
00:25:45,119 --> 00:25:47,160
Speaker 1: they were trying to figure out how to do this.

448
00:25:47,359 --> 00:25:49,920
Speaker 1: They spent a lot of time working out the perfect

449
00:25:50,240 --> 00:25:54,840
Speaker 1: order of operations, and then they took it to real testing.

450
00:25:54,960 --> 00:25:57,879
Speaker 1: They took it off the drawing board into the world,

451
00:25:58,520 --> 00:26:02,040
Speaker 1: and they found out that there was a lot of

452
00:26:02,080 --> 00:26:03,320
Speaker 1: stuff they needed to work on.

453
00:26:03,440 --> 00:26:05,639
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, a lot of kinks. There's an article in

454
00:26:05,680 --> 00:26:08,600
Speaker 3: the Atlantic called Old Weird Tech The Bat Bombs of

455
00:26:08,640 --> 00:26:12,040
Speaker 3: World War Two by Alexis C. Madrigal, and in this

456
00:26:12,200 --> 00:26:16,960
Speaker 3: article she talks about some of the unfortunate mishaps that

457
00:26:17,000 --> 00:26:20,400
Speaker 3: occurred when they really started doing real world testing, one

458
00:26:20,480 --> 00:26:25,399
Speaker 3: of which involved a general's car that was exploded, basically burned,

459
00:26:26,040 --> 00:26:32,040
Speaker 3: and also an airplane hangar that sustained some pretty serious damage.

460
00:26:32,440 --> 00:26:35,800
Speaker 3: They did pass this off to the Marine Corps and

461
00:26:35,960 --> 00:26:37,199
Speaker 3: the testing continued.

462
00:26:38,359 --> 00:26:41,640
Speaker 1: Yeah, so when they passed it to the Marine Corps

463
00:26:41,680 --> 00:26:46,680
Speaker 1: in December of nineteen forty three, the operation was moved

464
00:26:46,720 --> 00:26:50,680
Speaker 1: to the Marine Corps air Station El Centro, California. The

465
00:26:50,760 --> 00:26:55,920
Speaker 1: definitive test was carried out after several experiments on what

466
00:26:55,960 --> 00:26:58,199
Speaker 1: they called a Japanese village. It was a mock up

467
00:26:58,560 --> 00:27:02,480
Speaker 1: of a Japanese city built by the Chemical Warfare Service

468
00:27:03,080 --> 00:27:06,640
Speaker 1: at their Dougway Proving Grounds test site in Utah, and

469
00:27:06,760 --> 00:27:12,960
Speaker 1: this test produced not terrible results. So the chief of

470
00:27:13,160 --> 00:27:17,400
Speaker 1: incendiary testing at Dougway wrote, a reasonable number of destructive

471
00:27:17,440 --> 00:27:20,520
Speaker 1: fires can be started in spite of the extremely small

472
00:27:20,560 --> 00:27:23,240
Speaker 1: size of the units. Those are the bats. The main

473
00:27:23,280 --> 00:27:25,640
Speaker 1: advantage of the units would seem to be their placement

474
00:27:25,680 --> 00:27:28,880
Speaker 1: within the enemy structures without the knowledge of the householder

475
00:27:29,040 --> 00:27:32,959
Speaker 1: or fire watchers, thus allowing the fire to establish itself

476
00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:35,399
Speaker 1: before being discovered. So what they're saying is when they

477
00:27:35,440 --> 00:27:38,560
Speaker 1: get into these attics and these eves, it is highly

478
00:27:38,640 --> 00:27:42,560
Speaker 1: unlikely that somebody will notice this very very tiny, tiny,

479
00:27:42,640 --> 00:27:46,600
Speaker 1: tiny furry creature, and they probably won't notice the fire

480
00:27:46,760 --> 00:27:48,120
Speaker 1: until it's too late.

481
00:27:48,760 --> 00:27:51,520
Speaker 3: My question, though, is, we know the way bats behave,

482
00:27:52,359 --> 00:27:55,760
Speaker 3: wouldn't they all go to one place like what was

483
00:27:55,800 --> 00:27:57,280
Speaker 3: causing what was leading them to.

484
00:27:57,480 --> 00:27:58,680
Speaker 1: Go to disperse?

485
00:27:58,760 --> 00:28:01,159
Speaker 3: To disperse, because it doesn't seem that's what bats typically do.

486
00:28:01,240 --> 00:28:02,960
Speaker 3: It seems like they kind of like have that hive

487
00:28:03,000 --> 00:28:04,840
Speaker 3: mind quality to it. I was joking when I said

488
00:28:04,840 --> 00:28:07,040
Speaker 3: they have, you know, psychic connections or whatever. But sometimes

489
00:28:07,040 --> 00:28:10,640
Speaker 3: when you see flocks of birds or bats or any

490
00:28:10,720 --> 00:28:12,880
Speaker 3: kind of creatures like that migrating or moving in these

491
00:28:12,960 --> 00:28:17,000
Speaker 3: tight patterns together, I just don't know, it seems very random.

492
00:28:17,080 --> 00:28:18,680
Speaker 3: They would not. Obviously, they wouldn't have been able to

493
00:28:18,720 --> 00:28:21,280
Speaker 3: control where they went. They would just hope that they

494
00:28:21,320 --> 00:28:24,520
Speaker 3: went enough different places that this had actually caused them

495
00:28:24,800 --> 00:28:27,760
Speaker 3: significant damage over a large area.

496
00:28:28,160 --> 00:28:32,080
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's a good question. Maybe there's an argument

497
00:28:32,119 --> 00:28:35,199
Speaker 1: that the bats would be so disoriented, just waking up

498
00:28:35,200 --> 00:28:38,720
Speaker 1: from hibernation, that they're just seeking a shelter. Yeah, you know,

499
00:28:39,400 --> 00:28:42,920
Speaker 1: for now, it looks like the answer to that is

500
00:28:44,280 --> 00:28:48,080
Speaker 1: still unclear in the modern day. Oh, we do have

501
00:28:48,160 --> 00:28:52,120
Speaker 1: to mention also, people called this the Atoms Plan in

502
00:28:52,280 --> 00:28:55,240
Speaker 1: common conversation when you know, when they weren't referring to

503
00:28:55,280 --> 00:28:58,000
Speaker 1: it officially's Project X ray. But one of the things

504
00:28:58,040 --> 00:29:00,520
Speaker 1: that they thought would be another great advantage was that

505
00:29:00,560 --> 00:29:03,160
Speaker 1: the use of bats would be demoralizing, so there was

506
00:29:03,200 --> 00:29:07,320
Speaker 1: some psyop here as well. All in all, there's a

507
00:29:07,400 --> 00:29:11,720
Speaker 1: total of thirty demonstrations of this technology, of this plan

508
00:29:12,240 --> 00:29:16,640
Speaker 1: and two million dollars spent over the period of development,

509
00:29:17,040 --> 00:29:22,280
Speaker 1: with full scale bomber bat test planned for August nineteen

510
00:29:22,640 --> 00:29:26,200
Speaker 1: forty four. However, Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King, who at

511
00:29:26,200 --> 00:29:29,280
Speaker 1: the time was Chief of Naval Operations, learned that the

512
00:29:29,360 --> 00:29:32,600
Speaker 1: bats would not be ready for combat until mid nineteen

513
00:29:32,800 --> 00:29:35,520
Speaker 1: forty five. Well that's not going to five, right, He

514
00:29:35,800 --> 00:29:41,840
Speaker 1: abruptly canceled the operation, and needless to say, doctor Adams

515
00:29:42,040 --> 00:29:45,600
Speaker 1: was disappointed. There's also a little bit of interesting historical

516
00:29:45,680 --> 00:29:50,080
Speaker 1: speculation here too, because there was another even more secret

517
00:29:50,680 --> 00:29:54,320
Speaker 1: perhaps even more ambitious and insane project that Uncle Sam

518
00:29:54,440 --> 00:29:56,880
Speaker 1: was pouring a ton of resources into.

519
00:29:57,200 --> 00:30:00,400
Speaker 3: Yeah, unlikely needed every last penny. And that was the

520
00:30:00,440 --> 00:30:05,360
Speaker 3: atomic bomb, which ultimately and tragically was used to end

521
00:30:05,360 --> 00:30:07,440
Speaker 3: that conflict and then never again.

522
00:30:07,800 --> 00:30:12,000
Speaker 1: The most powerful explosive device ever created at that time,

523
00:30:12,320 --> 00:30:14,200
Speaker 1: which different from several thousand pets.

524
00:30:14,320 --> 00:30:14,520
Speaker 3: Right.

525
00:30:15,440 --> 00:30:20,600
Speaker 1: So doctor Adams, obviously this was a real bummer for

526
00:30:20,720 --> 00:30:21,880
Speaker 1: a Pennsylvanian dentist.

527
00:30:22,040 --> 00:30:24,320
Speaker 3: Yeah, and he was understandably disappointed because this would have

528
00:30:24,320 --> 00:30:29,280
Speaker 3: been his second big idea that seemed to be going

529
00:30:29,360 --> 00:30:33,360
Speaker 3: somewhere and then ultimately didn't quite hit in the way

530
00:30:33,400 --> 00:30:35,920
Speaker 3: that he wanted it to write, Ben Oh, yeah, because

531
00:30:35,960 --> 00:30:36,600
Speaker 3: of air pickup.

532
00:30:36,960 --> 00:30:40,120
Speaker 1: But this was these two ideas were not his only

533
00:30:40,160 --> 00:30:43,160
Speaker 1: two ideas. Yeah, some other stuff, right.

534
00:30:43,080 --> 00:30:46,360
Speaker 3: And then progressively I would say, you know, the bat bomb,

535
00:30:46,440 --> 00:30:48,400
Speaker 3: between the bat bomb and the air pickup bat bomb

536
00:30:48,440 --> 00:30:51,280
Speaker 3: was way more on the surface crackpot, even though it

537
00:30:51,400 --> 00:30:54,520
Speaker 3: did have some function to it. But these these last

538
00:30:54,520 --> 00:30:56,040
Speaker 3: ones that we're going to talk about are a little

539
00:30:56,040 --> 00:30:59,280
Speaker 3: bit more on the kooky side. But you have clearly

540
00:30:59,320 --> 00:31:00,240
Speaker 3: a forward thinking.

541
00:31:00,680 --> 00:31:03,800
Speaker 1: And clearly has a thing about aviation and the power

542
00:31:03,840 --> 00:31:07,080
Speaker 1: of flight. So he had this he later has this

543
00:31:07,200 --> 00:31:13,880
Speaker 1: plan to use bombers to distribute seeds across the prairie

544
00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:20,160
Speaker 1: land in hopes of revolutionizing agriculture. Right, that's that's pretty ambitious.

545
00:31:20,640 --> 00:31:23,720
Speaker 1: It's also way less destructive. It's kind of the same

546
00:31:23,800 --> 00:31:26,920
Speaker 1: thing as bombing places with bats, that's true.

547
00:31:27,280 --> 00:31:29,840
Speaker 3: And then he had another idea, non aviation related.

548
00:31:29,840 --> 00:31:30,719
Speaker 1: This is my favorite one.

549
00:31:30,800 --> 00:31:33,360
Speaker 3: Yeah, where he thought it would be a good idea

550
00:31:33,400 --> 00:31:37,280
Speaker 3: and people would flock to a fried chicken vending machine.

551
00:31:37,320 --> 00:31:40,480
Speaker 1: I absolutely would, But how would you keep it fresh?

552
00:31:40,800 --> 00:31:43,440
Speaker 1: It has to be like fried on demand. You would

553
00:31:43,520 --> 00:31:47,320
Speaker 1: have to hit the button to make your request, and

554
00:31:47,360 --> 00:31:49,880
Speaker 1: then it would have to be able to automatically fry.

555
00:31:50,040 --> 00:31:52,080
Speaker 3: So it would be sort of like those coke machines

556
00:31:52,080 --> 00:31:54,320
Speaker 3: where it picks up the bottle with like a little thing,

557
00:31:54,400 --> 00:31:56,640
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, it up and then drops it, only it

558
00:31:56,640 --> 00:31:58,400
Speaker 3: would be like a hole. You get to watch your

559
00:31:58,520 --> 00:32:00,520
Speaker 3: chicken being fried, and you have to are at one

560
00:32:00,560 --> 00:32:02,640
Speaker 3: piece at a time. I want to know more about

561
00:32:02,920 --> 00:32:04,000
Speaker 3: the logistics of this.

562
00:32:04,160 --> 00:32:07,720
Speaker 1: Well, I want to tell you that someone has made

563
00:32:07,760 --> 00:32:11,440
Speaker 1: this dream a reality. What yes, doctor Adams, If you

564
00:32:11,480 --> 00:32:16,600
Speaker 1: are listening from the Eternal Hibernation of Death, this is

565
00:32:16,640 --> 00:32:19,720
Speaker 1: something that hopefully will warm your heart. There is a

566
00:32:19,800 --> 00:32:23,800
Speaker 1: vending machine that serves fried chicken in Japan. I don't

567
00:32:23,800 --> 00:32:25,600
Speaker 1: know how it would feel about it, but it is

568
00:32:25,640 --> 00:32:29,000
Speaker 1: in Japan. I mean obviously, of course all cool vending

569
00:32:29,080 --> 00:32:32,600
Speaker 1: machines in Japan, and we know they love fried chicken too, yes,

570
00:32:32,800 --> 00:32:37,680
Speaker 1: especially around Christmas. A Japanese convenience chain name Looston Incorporated

571
00:32:37,800 --> 00:32:40,880
Speaker 1: is testing this machine out, or they were as of

572
00:32:41,040 --> 00:32:44,560
Speaker 1: December of twenty eighteen. So this is breaking news. This

573
00:32:44,600 --> 00:32:49,440
Speaker 1: comes to us through technobob and this is in Shinagawa

574
00:32:49,600 --> 00:32:53,840
Speaker 1: Ward in Tokyo. The machine has technology that allows it

575
00:32:53,920 --> 00:32:57,440
Speaker 1: to fry chicken in a little bit over a minute.

576
00:32:57,600 --> 00:33:00,960
Speaker 1: But somehow they prepare the chicken and keep it warm

577
00:33:01,040 --> 00:33:04,400
Speaker 1: until someone orders it to me. That's where it breaks down,

578
00:33:04,760 --> 00:33:07,680
Speaker 1: because fried chicken, it's like French fries. It's like most

579
00:33:07,720 --> 00:33:10,080
Speaker 1: fried food. You got to eat it when it's fresh.

580
00:33:10,320 --> 00:33:13,400
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's true. That's why nobody wants gas station fried

581
00:33:13,480 --> 00:33:15,760
Speaker 3: chicken sitting under that like hot lamp for god knows

582
00:33:15,760 --> 00:33:17,880
Speaker 3: how long. No, No, it's got to be fresh and

583
00:33:17,920 --> 00:33:19,440
Speaker 3: crispy and juicy and delicious.

584
00:33:19,520 --> 00:33:22,880
Speaker 1: So we want to hear from you, fellow ridiculous historians

585
00:33:23,000 --> 00:33:26,280
Speaker 1: out there in Japan, especially if you're in this area

586
00:33:26,320 --> 00:33:31,800
Speaker 1: of Tokyo, because this trial only operated from I guess

587
00:33:32,000 --> 00:33:36,800
Speaker 1: mid December to December twenty eighth, twenty eighteen. So right now,

588
00:33:37,040 --> 00:33:40,880
Speaker 1: the good folks at Lass and Incorporated, we can only imagine,

589
00:33:41,320 --> 00:33:46,720
Speaker 1: are studying the results of their fried chicken experiment, and

590
00:33:46,960 --> 00:33:49,000
Speaker 1: you know what, I hope it works out. I am

591
00:33:49,040 --> 00:33:51,080
Speaker 1: a big fan of venue machines and I would give

592
00:33:51,120 --> 00:33:54,120
Speaker 1: it a shot. Even though if you look at the photo,

593
00:33:54,600 --> 00:33:57,440
Speaker 1: there is one photo of this fried chicken from a

594
00:33:57,520 --> 00:34:00,560
Speaker 1: vending machine, they look more like chicken nuggets then, you know,

595
00:34:00,640 --> 00:34:02,320
Speaker 1: like a two piece or three piece. I don't know

596
00:34:02,320 --> 00:34:04,120
Speaker 1: about you, ma'am, but I like my chicken bone in

597
00:34:04,400 --> 00:34:05,160
Speaker 1: really yeaheah.

598
00:34:05,160 --> 00:34:08,239
Speaker 3: I'm a fan of boneless fried chicken, but you know,

599
00:34:08,640 --> 00:34:13,520
Speaker 3: you can't quite beat a freshly fried bone in bird.

600
00:34:13,920 --> 00:34:16,200
Speaker 1: That's true. I wonder if we should do the history

601
00:34:16,239 --> 00:34:18,759
Speaker 1: of vending machines as an episode. Wouldn't that be cool?

602
00:34:19,000 --> 00:34:21,000
Speaker 3: I would love to hear about that. I have a

603
00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:25,040
Speaker 3: feeling it started like on the boardwalks and the Carnie Times,

604
00:34:25,120 --> 00:34:27,440
Speaker 3: you know, things like that. This is just speculation on

605
00:34:27,520 --> 00:34:29,600
Speaker 3: my part, but I think that's a great idea, Ben.

606
00:34:29,680 --> 00:34:31,759
Speaker 1: I don't wonder where I would start, because there were

607
00:34:31,840 --> 00:34:34,840
Speaker 1: some places in We may have talked about this in

608
00:34:34,920 --> 00:34:37,560
Speaker 1: previous episode Noo, but I know there were some places

609
00:34:38,040 --> 00:34:42,000
Speaker 1: in England centuries and centuries ago where it was like

610
00:34:42,040 --> 00:34:44,319
Speaker 1: a manual vending machine. You would walk up to a

611
00:34:44,400 --> 00:34:47,080
Speaker 1: wall and then you would knock or slide a penny

612
00:34:47,160 --> 00:34:49,520
Speaker 1: or something across, and then someone would just hand you

613
00:34:49,680 --> 00:34:51,040
Speaker 1: I think a small cup of gin.

614
00:34:51,360 --> 00:34:55,799
Speaker 3: Nice. According to Doctor Internet, the first vending machine came

615
00:34:55,800 --> 00:34:58,600
Speaker 3: out in the eighteen eighties in London and it was

616
00:34:58,840 --> 00:35:02,920
Speaker 3: for purchasing post guards and it was invented by Percival Everett.

617
00:35:03,160 --> 00:35:05,440
Speaker 3: But you know, there's a long and story history of

618
00:35:05,520 --> 00:35:08,719
Speaker 3: vending machines as they evolved over time. How we came

619
00:35:08,760 --> 00:35:10,960
Speaker 3: from back bombs to vending machines. I guess we're talking

620
00:35:10,960 --> 00:35:15,000
Speaker 3: about forward thinking, innovative types, you know. Yes, yes, let's

621
00:35:15,080 --> 00:35:16,960
Speaker 3: let's definitely do history of any machine episodes.

622
00:35:17,040 --> 00:35:19,680
Speaker 1: Let's definitely do it. Let us know about your favorite

623
00:35:19,760 --> 00:35:23,040
Speaker 1: vending machine, let us know about your favorite seemingly crackpot

624
00:35:23,200 --> 00:35:28,800
Speaker 1: military scheme, because oh buddy, this is only scratching the surface.

625
00:35:29,440 --> 00:35:32,799
Speaker 1: The US military and other militaries have attempted to use

626
00:35:32,960 --> 00:35:38,160
Speaker 1: dolphins for wartime efforts, cats for spying. I think rats

627
00:35:38,200 --> 00:35:39,080
Speaker 1: as well for something.

628
00:35:39,120 --> 00:35:40,120
Speaker 3: We did an episode on this.

629
00:35:40,480 --> 00:35:40,920
Speaker 1: We did an.

630
00:35:40,840 --> 00:35:44,520
Speaker 3: Episode here on this, oh about the skinner boxes and

631
00:35:45,680 --> 00:35:50,440
Speaker 3: a sideshow kind of carnival TV show. Yeah, there was

632
00:35:50,440 --> 00:35:52,239
Speaker 3: like a whole farm where they took these animals that

633
00:35:52,280 --> 00:35:54,800
Speaker 3: they had trained for military purposes and like made money

634
00:35:54,840 --> 00:35:56,040
Speaker 3: with the chicken that would peck the.

635
00:35:56,480 --> 00:35:57,279
Speaker 4: Yeah or whatever.

636
00:35:57,680 --> 00:35:59,520
Speaker 1: How time flies really does?

637
00:35:59,560 --> 00:36:01,799
Speaker 3: We've been doing for like over a year now, have we?

638
00:36:02,120 --> 00:36:04,759
Speaker 3: I don't think we ever acknowledged the year anniversary, but

639
00:36:04,800 --> 00:36:05,600
Speaker 3: it is coming gone.

640
00:36:05,840 --> 00:36:09,080
Speaker 1: Making a show like this is sort of like in

641
00:36:09,160 --> 00:36:14,279
Speaker 1: all those classic cartoons where Elmer Fudd or Wiley Coyote

642
00:36:14,360 --> 00:36:17,719
Speaker 1: or you know, Daffy Duck or Bugs Bunny when they

643
00:36:17,760 --> 00:36:21,800
Speaker 1: walk off the cliff and they just keep walking until

644
00:36:21,800 --> 00:36:23,640
Speaker 1: they look down. Just don't look down.

645
00:36:23,840 --> 00:36:26,600
Speaker 3: I call it critical mass. Critical mass. You know, you

646
00:36:26,640 --> 00:36:29,200
Speaker 3: do something you just kind of like have this trajectory

647
00:36:29,200 --> 00:36:31,040
Speaker 3: and you just never look back, And as long as

648
00:36:31,080 --> 00:36:32,759
Speaker 3: you don't look back, you kind of forget what's going

649
00:36:32,800 --> 00:36:33,960
Speaker 3: on or how time passes.

650
00:36:34,280 --> 00:36:38,720
Speaker 1: Now we're going into philosophy as well, but well said

651
00:36:38,840 --> 00:36:41,440
Speaker 1: and we hope that you enjoy this episode. We do

652
00:36:41,520 --> 00:36:44,000
Speaker 1: want to hear these answers. I will look at pictures

653
00:36:44,120 --> 00:36:46,919
Speaker 1: of your favorite vending machines or the most unusual vending

654
00:36:47,000 --> 00:36:54,200
Speaker 1: machines until the stars collapse and the universe meets its end.

655
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Speaker 1: In the meantime, Thank you so much for tuning in.

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Speaker 1: Thanks to our super producer Pegram.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, thanks to Alex Williams who composed our theme. Thanks

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Speaker 3: to our research associate Gabe, and we're gonna try a

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Speaker 3: new thing. Hey, if you want to check out me

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00:37:07,840 --> 00:37:12,440
Speaker 3: and Ben's individual exploit. Since our show Instagram account is

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00:37:12,520 --> 00:37:14,480
Speaker 3: not the most fascinating in the world, you can check

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00:37:14,520 --> 00:37:18,440
Speaker 3: me out at Embryonic Insider on Instagram.

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Speaker 1: And you can find me at Ben Bullen on Instagram. Yes,

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Speaker 1: in a burst of creativity, folks, The newest thing that

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Speaker 1: I have up is maybe the Saturn five wago replica

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Speaker 1: that I built this weekend, which is huge, very impressive.

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Speaker 3: It's weird.

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Speaker 1: You can find us on our respect to Instagram. You

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Speaker 1: can find us on Twitter. You can also find us

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Speaker 1: on Facebook. Perhaps most importantly, you can find your fellow

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Speaker 1: Ridiculous historians on our Facebook community page, Ridiculous historians.

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Speaker 3: And please tune into our next episode where we talk

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Speaker 3: about the ridiculous origins of state name, specifically Idaho. We'll

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Speaker 3: see it m