1 00:00:01,320 --> 00:00:04,280 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 2 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:15,000 Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Hello and Happy Friday. I'm Tracey V. Wilson, 3 00:00:15,080 --> 00:00:19,120 Speaker 1: and I'm Holly Frye. We talked about George Washington Williams 4 00:00:19,239 --> 00:00:21,960 Speaker 1: this week, and I'm going to start with the sad 5 00:00:22,079 --> 00:00:25,200 Speaker 1: part of behind the Scenes, and then we're gonna move 6 00:00:25,239 --> 00:00:28,720 Speaker 1: on to stuff that's much funnier. Alrighty uh. Basically, this 7 00:00:28,800 --> 00:00:32,239 Speaker 1: episode made me sadder than anything I have worked on 8 00:00:33,159 --> 00:00:37,599 Speaker 1: in so long. I was so sad about George Washington 9 00:00:37,600 --> 00:00:41,839 Speaker 1: Williams dying at the age of forty one. And I 10 00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:46,800 Speaker 1: don't know if the trajectory of the Congo Free State 11 00:00:46,920 --> 00:00:51,239 Speaker 1: would have been different if he had lived and had 12 00:00:51,280 --> 00:00:54,920 Speaker 1: been able to bring more attention to it. It could have, 13 00:00:55,280 --> 00:00:57,360 Speaker 1: don't really know, but the fact that he did so 14 00:00:57,560 --> 00:00:59,760 Speaker 1: much and that his life was so short made me 15 00:00:59,760 --> 00:01:05,000 Speaker 1: so sad. And then I was also sad that it 16 00:01:05,200 --> 00:01:08,440 Speaker 1: was really thanks to the work of one other person 17 00:01:08,600 --> 00:01:12,280 Speaker 1: that we know anything about him, that person being John 18 00:01:12,280 --> 00:01:14,920 Speaker 1: Hope Franklin. I'm not sad that he did that work. 19 00:01:15,040 --> 00:01:19,040 Speaker 1: I'm just sad that Williams fell into so much obscurity 20 00:01:19,480 --> 00:01:22,760 Speaker 1: before he did. John Hope Franklin did like literally four 21 00:01:22,800 --> 00:01:25,280 Speaker 1: decades of work, work that went until the end of 22 00:01:25,319 --> 00:01:27,400 Speaker 1: his life. And then I was also sad that he 23 00:01:27,480 --> 00:01:29,360 Speaker 1: died in two thousand and nine, so I couldn't like 24 00:01:29,400 --> 00:01:31,440 Speaker 1: ask him about this or thank him for doing all 25 00:01:31,440 --> 00:01:33,880 Speaker 1: of this words. There's like just layers of sadness. And 26 00:01:33,920 --> 00:01:38,200 Speaker 1: then my absolute total coincidence, I started working on this 27 00:01:38,280 --> 00:01:42,640 Speaker 1: episode on the first anniversary of the death of a 28 00:01:42,720 --> 00:01:46,560 Speaker 1: dear friend who died at forty two of pancreatic cancer, 29 00:01:46,640 --> 00:01:49,920 Speaker 1: so like that added an awful layer. And then the 30 00:01:49,960 --> 00:01:53,160 Speaker 1: next day I said, Hey, you know who I think 31 00:01:53,200 --> 00:01:57,160 Speaker 1: would really be into this episode is my old college 32 00:01:57,160 --> 00:02:00,400 Speaker 1: friend John Mott, who I would characterize as a friend 33 00:02:00,440 --> 00:02:02,160 Speaker 1: of the show. He and I mostly kept up with 34 00:02:02,200 --> 00:02:05,280 Speaker 1: each other on Twitter. A lot of the conversations that 35 00:02:05,320 --> 00:02:07,800 Speaker 1: we had were about the podcast, and he was always 36 00:02:07,880 --> 00:02:12,120 Speaker 1: referring other people to the podcast, and I had not 37 00:02:12,480 --> 00:02:15,480 Speaker 1: kept up with him since I left Twitter, so I 38 00:02:15,520 --> 00:02:18,600 Speaker 1: went to see how he was doing, and I learned 39 00:02:18,639 --> 00:02:21,440 Speaker 1: that he had died in November, and that was just 40 00:02:21,560 --> 00:02:25,880 Speaker 1: two of the deaths that were part of my world 41 00:02:26,560 --> 00:02:30,560 Speaker 1: last week working on this and it all came together 42 00:02:30,680 --> 00:02:33,840 Speaker 1: and just like, man, this is I'm not even going 43 00:02:33,880 --> 00:02:35,680 Speaker 1: to get into the details of the others, but it 44 00:02:35,720 --> 00:02:38,120 Speaker 1: was a rough week and it was a very sad, 45 00:02:39,040 --> 00:02:43,280 Speaker 1: sad topic to be working on that I just sort 46 00:02:43,280 --> 00:02:47,160 Speaker 1: of wanted to acknowledge all of that before moving in 47 00:02:47,840 --> 00:02:53,800 Speaker 1: to the funny part, which is that when I do research, 48 00:02:53,880 --> 00:02:55,680 Speaker 1: I go and I bookmark a whole bunch of stuff, 49 00:02:55,720 --> 00:02:58,520 Speaker 1: meaning to come back to it later. And I bookmarked 50 00:02:58,639 --> 00:03:05,480 Speaker 1: this like a blog post type thing called What Tarzan 51 00:03:05,639 --> 00:03:10,640 Speaker 1: taught Me about Ohio History by someone called Todd Book, 52 00:03:10,680 --> 00:03:12,800 Speaker 1: And I was like, that's weird. I wonder why this 53 00:03:12,880 --> 00:03:16,440 Speaker 1: came up in the search results, And I just bookmarked 54 00:03:16,480 --> 00:03:17,960 Speaker 1: it and came back to it later, and then I 55 00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:22,000 Speaker 1: was reading it and I'm just gonna read a couple 56 00:03:22,040 --> 00:03:25,600 Speaker 1: sentences from it. Quote. That all changed when I was 57 00:03:25,919 --> 00:03:29,239 Speaker 1: thumbing through the movie channels and stumbled on the Legend 58 00:03:29,280 --> 00:03:33,720 Speaker 1: of Tarzan twenty sixteen. As I watched a George Washington 59 00:03:33,760 --> 00:03:37,600 Speaker 1: Williams played by Samuel L. Jackson, introduced himself to Tarzan. 60 00:03:38,080 --> 00:03:41,560 Speaker 1: He informs Tarzan of his desire to expose the evil 61 00:03:41,600 --> 00:03:45,160 Speaker 1: deeds that King Leopold the Second of Belgium is inflicting 62 00:03:45,200 --> 00:03:49,120 Speaker 1: on the Congolese in search of profits. He educates Tarzan 63 00:03:49,720 --> 00:03:52,760 Speaker 1: that the Congo is threatened and that Tarzan must join 64 00:03:52,880 --> 00:03:58,280 Speaker 1: him to expose this injustice to the world. I felt 65 00:03:58,360 --> 00:04:02,400 Speaker 1: like my brain was melting. I was like, is this 66 00:04:02,480 --> 00:04:10,080 Speaker 1: a real movie? Am I dreaming? A's Like what this? 67 00:04:10,480 --> 00:04:13,040 Speaker 1: It just seemed so wild to me that like somebody 68 00:04:13,120 --> 00:04:17,400 Speaker 1: had made a Tarzan movie about King Leopold in the 69 00:04:17,440 --> 00:04:19,679 Speaker 1: Congo Free State. So then I went and I read 70 00:04:19,720 --> 00:04:23,880 Speaker 1: the Wikipedia synopsis of the plot of this movie, which 71 00:04:23,960 --> 00:04:28,960 Speaker 1: starts with the Berlin Conference and the scramble for Africa, 72 00:04:29,040 --> 00:04:33,680 Speaker 1: and I was like, my face, I was involuntarily like 73 00:04:33,760 --> 00:04:39,120 Speaker 1: making a face of absolute confounded bafflement that this is 74 00:04:39,200 --> 00:04:43,560 Speaker 1: really a movie that got made. I could feel my 75 00:04:43,640 --> 00:04:47,839 Speaker 1: face kind of contorting itself. Uh. And then I was like, 76 00:04:47,960 --> 00:04:52,000 Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm gonna have to watch this movie, like, oh, 77 00:04:52,080 --> 00:04:54,520 Speaker 1: did you watch it? I did? I did? Did you 78 00:04:54,520 --> 00:04:57,640 Speaker 1: watch a whole thing? I watched the entire thing? And 79 00:04:57,960 --> 00:05:00,400 Speaker 1: I watched an entire the entire thing, like sort of 80 00:05:00,480 --> 00:05:02,760 Speaker 1: in the midst of a very crappy week, and I 81 00:05:02,800 --> 00:05:04,640 Speaker 1: was like, I don't actually think this movie is gonna 82 00:05:04,680 --> 00:05:07,240 Speaker 1: be good. And I feel like if I watch it now, 83 00:05:07,279 --> 00:05:09,760 Speaker 1: while I'm having a very crappy week, at least I'm 84 00:05:09,800 --> 00:05:12,480 Speaker 1: not spending time that could have been spent on something 85 00:05:12,640 --> 00:05:15,799 Speaker 1: fun on a movie that doesn't turn out to be great, 86 00:05:16,040 --> 00:05:24,000 Speaker 1: and it is a strange film. It's quite a task 87 00:05:24,640 --> 00:05:31,840 Speaker 1: to attempt to make an anti colonial Tarzan movie. There's 88 00:05:31,880 --> 00:05:35,039 Speaker 1: just a lot going on there. It's also kind of 89 00:05:35,080 --> 00:05:39,600 Speaker 1: a choice to cast Samuel L. Jackson, who was almost 90 00:05:39,680 --> 00:05:42,080 Speaker 1: seventy at the time, in the role of somebody who 91 00:05:42,120 --> 00:05:47,760 Speaker 1: died at the age of forty one. And I did 92 00:05:47,800 --> 00:05:51,520 Speaker 1: not appreciate how many times George Washington Williams was made 93 00:05:51,520 --> 00:05:55,200 Speaker 1: the butt of the joke. I did not really like 94 00:05:55,240 --> 00:05:59,200 Speaker 1: that at all. So yeah, I don't think I could 95 00:05:59,279 --> 00:06:04,000 Speaker 1: really wreck amend this movie to anyone, but the fact 96 00:06:04,040 --> 00:06:09,440 Speaker 1: that somebody did make a Tarzan movie involving George Washington Williams, 97 00:06:09,520 --> 00:06:12,440 Speaker 1: I would rather just have a George Washington Williams movie, 98 00:06:12,839 --> 00:06:17,120 Speaker 1: to be honest, you're making a face, well, because yes, 99 00:06:17,200 --> 00:06:21,400 Speaker 1: I get that, but I think probably, like if that 100 00:06:21,600 --> 00:06:24,520 Speaker 1: movie got made, nobody would go see it. Yeah, I 101 00:06:24,520 --> 00:06:30,000 Speaker 1: think this logic is probably if we put Alexander Scarsguard 102 00:06:30,040 --> 00:06:32,359 Speaker 1: in a loincloth, a lot of people will come and 103 00:06:32,400 --> 00:06:34,960 Speaker 1: then we can be like a hah, it's really a history 104 00:06:35,040 --> 00:06:42,560 Speaker 1: movie about colonization. There is a pretty a scene I appreciate. 105 00:06:42,600 --> 00:06:46,039 Speaker 1: It is a scene where Tarzan gets a herd of 106 00:06:46,120 --> 00:06:51,680 Speaker 1: Wi wildebeasts to just stampede through, you know, a Belgian 107 00:06:51,720 --> 00:06:56,159 Speaker 1: colonial town. It does not make it seem like people 108 00:06:56,240 --> 00:07:00,560 Speaker 1: are injured, but they do cause all the buildings to collapse. 109 00:07:03,120 --> 00:07:05,120 Speaker 1: That was a more fun bit to watch. But I 110 00:07:05,160 --> 00:07:09,240 Speaker 1: still am just like that. What a combination of things 111 00:07:09,400 --> 00:07:12,120 Speaker 1: to put in a movie. That's an interesting and ambitious 112 00:07:12,160 --> 00:07:17,640 Speaker 1: approach to it. Ultimately, you know not Yeah, the person 113 00:07:17,760 --> 00:07:20,560 Speaker 1: who wrote this, I don't know anything about this person, 114 00:07:20,640 --> 00:07:24,840 Speaker 1: Todd Book who wrote a post about this, but apparently 115 00:07:25,000 --> 00:07:28,920 Speaker 1: was doing so from the George Washington Williams Room at 116 00:07:28,920 --> 00:07:32,560 Speaker 1: the Ohio Statehouse, so there is a room named after 117 00:07:32,640 --> 00:07:37,880 Speaker 1: him at the Ohio Statehouse. There was also one quote 118 00:07:38,040 --> 00:07:43,880 Speaker 1: that I really loved from George Washington Williams written in 119 00:07:44,360 --> 00:07:45,920 Speaker 1: History of the Negro Troops in the War of the 120 00:07:45,960 --> 00:07:49,560 Speaker 1: Rebellion eighteen sixty one to eighteen sixty five that summed 121 00:07:49,640 --> 00:07:55,000 Speaker 1: up why our same reasons for not talking about events 122 00:07:55,000 --> 00:07:57,320 Speaker 1: on the show that are super duper recent in history 123 00:07:58,480 --> 00:08:02,640 Speaker 1: and he was writing that book roughly twenty years after 124 00:08:02,680 --> 00:08:05,760 Speaker 1: the end of the Civil War, and he wrote, quote 125 00:08:05,800 --> 00:08:09,240 Speaker 1: in writing of events within living memory, it requires both 126 00:08:09,280 --> 00:08:13,440 Speaker 1: fortitude and skill to resist the insidious influence of interested 127 00:08:13,520 --> 00:08:18,040 Speaker 1: friends and actors, to separate error from truth with an 128 00:08:18,080 --> 00:08:22,120 Speaker 1: even and steady hand, to master the sources of historical information, 129 00:08:22,440 --> 00:08:25,480 Speaker 1: to know where the material is, to collect and classify it, 130 00:08:25,920 --> 00:08:29,160 Speaker 1: and to avoid partisan feeling and maintain a spirit of 131 00:08:29,240 --> 00:08:33,000 Speaker 1: judicial candor. I was like, man, I've seen so many 132 00:08:33,320 --> 00:08:36,040 Speaker 1: people who work in the field of history make these 133 00:08:36,080 --> 00:08:40,040 Speaker 1: exact same points about how there's sort of a moment 134 00:08:40,160 --> 00:08:44,280 Speaker 1: when you can have enough historical remove from something that 135 00:08:44,400 --> 00:08:46,960 Speaker 1: happened to really look at it in a more analytical way. 136 00:08:47,520 --> 00:08:52,199 Speaker 1: And he was making that point, you know, when history 137 00:08:52,320 --> 00:08:58,600 Speaker 1: as a modern source based field was in its infancy. Yeah. So, yeah, 138 00:08:58,640 --> 00:09:01,160 Speaker 1: he's complicated, and so much stuff happened in his life, 139 00:09:01,960 --> 00:09:04,600 Speaker 1: which was just so tragically short. He was a very 140 00:09:04,600 --> 00:09:09,000 Speaker 1: busy bee, incredibly busy at so many different things, a 141 00:09:09,000 --> 00:09:13,800 Speaker 1: lot of gear changes, so many gear changes. Yeah. I 142 00:09:12,480 --> 00:09:15,760 Speaker 1: had brunch over at a friend's house and I was 143 00:09:15,800 --> 00:09:20,960 Speaker 1: talking about having watched this movie and one of the 144 00:09:21,000 --> 00:09:23,800 Speaker 1: friends was like, wait, who's George Washington Williams? And as 145 00:09:23,840 --> 00:09:26,200 Speaker 1: I was just kind of reciting all of the things, 146 00:09:26,240 --> 00:09:29,320 Speaker 1: I was like, this is so many different things in 147 00:09:29,320 --> 00:09:42,720 Speaker 1: one lifetime. Oh, John Mitton esquire, I don't think I'd 148 00:09:42,720 --> 00:09:48,840 Speaker 1: ever heard of this person. Well, probably because he would 149 00:09:48,840 --> 00:09:52,319 Speaker 1: make you real mad. Yeah, it's found him frustrating. I mean, 150 00:09:53,559 --> 00:09:55,559 Speaker 1: do you know what I think of when I read 151 00:09:55,559 --> 00:09:59,520 Speaker 1: his entire story? What's that Mama Odie from Princess and 152 00:09:59,559 --> 00:10:02,560 Speaker 1: the Frog Okay, who at one point says, y'all ain't 153 00:10:02,559 --> 00:10:05,560 Speaker 1: got the sense you were born with? Yeah? Kind of 154 00:10:05,600 --> 00:10:09,280 Speaker 1: how I feel about him. I like, so we we 155 00:10:09,320 --> 00:10:12,319 Speaker 1: talked about having an accidental theme. Neither of us remembered 156 00:10:13,440 --> 00:10:16,360 Speaker 1: for sure, like how specifically we became aware of this 157 00:10:16,440 --> 00:10:19,280 Speaker 1: person slash why they wound up on the list to 158 00:10:19,320 --> 00:10:24,240 Speaker 1: do an episode. Both of them had such short lives, 159 00:10:24,320 --> 00:10:28,120 Speaker 1: George Washington, Williams and John Whitton, But like the tenor 160 00:10:28,240 --> 00:10:33,560 Speaker 1: of that lifetime is very different. For yes, yes, yes, yes, 161 00:10:34,760 --> 00:10:39,040 Speaker 1: I am very fascinated by the Nimrod biography. And here 162 00:10:39,120 --> 00:10:44,720 Speaker 1: is why if that biography, which is very frank about 163 00:10:44,720 --> 00:10:49,600 Speaker 1: how much he loved this man, but if he has 164 00:10:50,440 --> 00:10:54,320 Speaker 1: pulled out details he seems to have not pulled out 165 00:10:54,360 --> 00:10:56,480 Speaker 1: a lot of details that would that would paint his 166 00:10:56,520 --> 00:10:58,360 Speaker 1: friend in a bad light. He seems to have been 167 00:10:58,720 --> 00:11:01,240 Speaker 1: pretty frank. If he did pull out details that man 168 00:11:01,360 --> 00:11:07,000 Speaker 1: was insufferable. But he's pretty open about how bad things got, 169 00:11:07,160 --> 00:11:09,920 Speaker 1: especially at the end, like it really sounds like Apperly 170 00:11:11,000 --> 00:11:15,680 Speaker 1: and Mitton's mother and some of their other friends, like 171 00:11:15,720 --> 00:11:18,120 Speaker 1: when he describes what he went through, because he was 172 00:11:18,200 --> 00:11:22,800 Speaker 1: kind of like on full time watch with him in France, 173 00:11:22,920 --> 00:11:24,559 Speaker 1: and it was his idea to take him out to 174 00:11:24,640 --> 00:11:28,880 Speaker 1: the country and like sober him up and get him 175 00:11:28,920 --> 00:11:31,839 Speaker 1: eating a good diet and like getting fresh air. And 176 00:11:31,880 --> 00:11:34,120 Speaker 1: how well he started to do. And he's like, that was, 177 00:11:34,679 --> 00:11:36,520 Speaker 1: you know, my idea, and it seemed like it was 178 00:11:36,559 --> 00:11:38,960 Speaker 1: going great until we realized like all he was trying 179 00:11:38,960 --> 00:11:41,600 Speaker 1: to do was get away from us, all right. He's 180 00:11:41,679 --> 00:11:44,760 Speaker 1: pretty frank about how ugly the whole situation was and 181 00:11:44,920 --> 00:11:49,320 Speaker 1: how like you could not talk reason to him because 182 00:11:49,320 --> 00:11:51,680 Speaker 1: he didn't want it. And sometimes he talked about like 183 00:11:51,720 --> 00:11:53,400 Speaker 1: they would say like if you keep living like this, 184 00:11:53,440 --> 00:11:54,920 Speaker 1: you're gonna die, and he'd be like, I don't care. 185 00:11:55,760 --> 00:11:58,560 Speaker 1: And so they were for a time, you know, kind 186 00:11:58,600 --> 00:12:00,880 Speaker 1: of keeping an eye on him. He was going to 187 00:12:01,000 --> 00:12:04,840 Speaker 1: end his life, but he also seemed so irrational they 188 00:12:04,840 --> 00:12:06,720 Speaker 1: didn't even know if that was really what he wanted 189 00:12:06,800 --> 00:12:08,400 Speaker 1: or if he was just kind of like in a 190 00:12:08,440 --> 00:12:12,800 Speaker 1: state of madness. Right. It's not a pretty picture at all, 191 00:12:12,920 --> 00:12:15,679 Speaker 1: So I it makes me tend to think like he 192 00:12:15,760 --> 00:12:19,440 Speaker 1: probably wasn't whitewashing a lot of the rest of it. 193 00:12:19,920 --> 00:12:23,200 Speaker 1: If anyone is wondering, because I know I did. And 194 00:12:23,240 --> 00:12:26,959 Speaker 1: if you're very worried about hearing animal things, don't listen 195 00:12:26,960 --> 00:12:28,319 Speaker 1: to the next minute and a half. But I will 196 00:12:28,360 --> 00:12:30,640 Speaker 1: account for what happened to the bear and the monkey. Okay, 197 00:12:31,200 --> 00:12:35,600 Speaker 1: because the bear, he did not have the bear put 198 00:12:35,679 --> 00:12:38,240 Speaker 1: down after it bit him through the leg and kind 199 00:12:38,280 --> 00:12:42,480 Speaker 1: of maimed him for life. But sometime down the road, 200 00:12:42,520 --> 00:12:45,160 Speaker 1: the bear went after another person and at that point 201 00:12:45,200 --> 00:12:47,080 Speaker 1: they determined that the bear was not safe to have 202 00:12:47,160 --> 00:12:51,000 Speaker 1: in the house, and so she was euthanized at that point, 203 00:12:51,200 --> 00:12:55,360 Speaker 1: which also sounded like it went horribly the monkey. This 204 00:12:55,520 --> 00:12:58,680 Speaker 1: is really awful. He let the monkey drink. Oh no, 205 00:13:00,080 --> 00:13:03,200 Speaker 1: the monkey was kind of an alcoholic, but that is 206 00:13:03,200 --> 00:13:05,640 Speaker 1: not what killed it. At one point, the monkey drank 207 00:13:05,960 --> 00:13:09,000 Speaker 1: a bottle that looked like alcohol that was poison like. 208 00:13:09,080 --> 00:13:12,000 Speaker 1: It was like a household chemical. It wasn't intended to 209 00:13:12,000 --> 00:13:14,480 Speaker 1: be poisoned, but uhuh it drank something and they died 210 00:13:14,480 --> 00:13:19,560 Speaker 1: from it. So that's a skid. It's uh irresponsible animal care. 211 00:13:19,720 --> 00:13:24,000 Speaker 1: I this is only tangentially related. Sometimes the TikTok algorithm 212 00:13:25,040 --> 00:13:29,439 Speaker 1: will show me a video of someone having an encounter 213 00:13:29,559 --> 00:13:34,439 Speaker 1: with a bear and they dress I'm not talking about 214 00:13:34,440 --> 00:13:37,240 Speaker 1: the hiker sees a bear and does the appropriate things. 215 00:13:37,800 --> 00:13:41,240 Speaker 1: I'm talking about somebody allows the bear to come up 216 00:13:41,240 --> 00:13:44,920 Speaker 1: on their porch with their cubs and starts making friendly 217 00:13:45,000 --> 00:13:48,040 Speaker 1: noises to the bear, and they stress me out so much. 218 00:13:49,200 --> 00:13:52,440 Speaker 1: And this episode is kind of an example of like 219 00:13:52,520 --> 00:13:59,760 Speaker 1: why having wild animals in this way is like not okay. Yeah, 220 00:14:00,200 --> 00:14:02,640 Speaker 1: you know, listen, I understand the impetus to go, oh 221 00:14:02,640 --> 00:14:06,200 Speaker 1: my god, hi, you're so cute. Yeah, but I also 222 00:14:06,360 --> 00:14:08,880 Speaker 1: I've tried to be very very diligent with myself and 223 00:14:08,920 --> 00:14:11,280 Speaker 1: not letting myself behave that way towards wild animals to 224 00:14:11,440 --> 00:14:16,640 Speaker 1: visit our house because also it's you're harming them, but 225 00:14:16,800 --> 00:14:19,480 Speaker 1: they don't need to get used to you. Yeah, it's 226 00:14:19,520 --> 00:14:21,880 Speaker 1: not just that they are in danger to humans. It's 227 00:14:21,920 --> 00:14:23,920 Speaker 1: that humans are a danger to them, and if you 228 00:14:23,960 --> 00:14:27,320 Speaker 1: accustom them to being around humans, you are probably going 229 00:14:27,320 --> 00:14:29,400 Speaker 1: to put them in a position where later their judgment 230 00:14:30,040 --> 00:14:33,080 Speaker 1: is flawed. Yeah. Have I don't remember if I've talked 231 00:14:33,080 --> 00:14:35,160 Speaker 1: on the show about a book called A Libertarian Walked 232 00:14:35,160 --> 00:14:37,240 Speaker 1: into a Bear. I think that's the name of it. 233 00:14:37,280 --> 00:14:38,760 Speaker 1: Is that what it's called. One of my other friends 234 00:14:38,840 --> 00:14:42,480 Speaker 1: was just discussing this the other day and I was like, Oh, 235 00:14:42,520 --> 00:14:45,240 Speaker 1: I know this book. Yeah. It's a book about a 236 00:14:45,280 --> 00:14:47,600 Speaker 1: group of libertarians who like try to take over a 237 00:14:47,640 --> 00:14:52,440 Speaker 1: town and make it a libertarian paradise, intertwined with basically 238 00:14:52,560 --> 00:14:58,120 Speaker 1: people habituating bears to human presence and letting feeding the 239 00:14:58,120 --> 00:15:00,800 Speaker 1: bear's donuts on purpose. Things like that. Yeah, don't do that. 240 00:15:01,200 --> 00:15:04,480 Speaker 1: And it's a book that I really liked in a 241 00:15:04,520 --> 00:15:07,200 Speaker 1: lot of ways. It does have some stuff about animals 242 00:15:07,200 --> 00:15:10,360 Speaker 1: in it that's really upsetting. But there are two people, 243 00:15:10,400 --> 00:15:13,280 Speaker 1: if I remember in correctly, who are like seriously harmed 244 00:15:13,320 --> 00:15:16,680 Speaker 1: by a bear, and they had nothing to do with 245 00:15:16,800 --> 00:15:19,880 Speaker 1: any of the feeding bear's donuts, right. It was like 246 00:15:20,040 --> 00:15:26,000 Speaker 1: they were the victims of other people's inappropriate treatment of 247 00:15:26,120 --> 00:15:39,120 Speaker 1: these animals. Yeah, it's not good Yeah, there are so 248 00:15:39,160 --> 00:15:42,040 Speaker 1: many more stories about him than we could include where 249 00:15:42,040 --> 00:15:45,400 Speaker 1: you're just like you dang dong. Like at one point, 250 00:15:45,440 --> 00:15:48,280 Speaker 1: as he was having to start selling his stuff off, 251 00:15:48,760 --> 00:15:50,760 Speaker 1: I don't know if it was his solicitor or like 252 00:15:50,840 --> 00:15:54,040 Speaker 1: one of his advisors was like, you know, if you 253 00:15:54,200 --> 00:15:56,720 Speaker 1: just cut back and for like the next several years, 254 00:15:56,760 --> 00:15:59,280 Speaker 1: you could live off of six thousand pounds a year, 255 00:16:00,160 --> 00:16:02,680 Speaker 1: you're gonna be fine. You will be able to like 256 00:16:02,720 --> 00:16:04,240 Speaker 1: we can get all your stuff in order, you won't 257 00:16:04,280 --> 00:16:06,040 Speaker 1: have to sell your things. You'll be fine. And he 258 00:16:06,120 --> 00:16:08,680 Speaker 1: was like, I'm not interested in living that way. And 259 00:16:08,760 --> 00:16:13,280 Speaker 1: for clarity, six thousand pounds at this point was like 260 00:16:14,200 --> 00:16:19,360 Speaker 1: several several hundred thousand pounds in today's dollars. Yeah, there are. 261 00:16:19,440 --> 00:16:21,680 Speaker 1: It's very interesting because we talk all the time about 262 00:16:21,680 --> 00:16:25,200 Speaker 1: how it is really hard to convert currency through time. 263 00:16:25,840 --> 00:16:29,400 Speaker 1: But I have noticed we mentioned that the National Archives 264 00:16:29,440 --> 00:16:32,200 Speaker 1: of Britain has a converter in the episode, but also 265 00:16:33,000 --> 00:16:35,040 Speaker 1: is it the Bank of England that does like a 266 00:16:35,080 --> 00:16:39,720 Speaker 1: conversion thing on their site? And I'm like, oh, I 267 00:16:39,800 --> 00:16:43,400 Speaker 1: guess if your country has been around for a long 268 00:16:43,440 --> 00:16:46,960 Speaker 1: time and people have family property that's probably been profsh 269 00:16:47,200 --> 00:16:49,680 Speaker 1: past like you might actually need to be trying to 270 00:16:49,720 --> 00:16:52,280 Speaker 1: do this in a more real way than we would 271 00:16:52,280 --> 00:16:56,160 Speaker 1: ever know. But yeah, I mean it's like basically going, 272 00:16:56,240 --> 00:16:58,680 Speaker 1: I can't live on seven hundred thousand dollars a year. 273 00:16:58,760 --> 00:17:02,200 Speaker 1: That's no life. I would rather lose it all and 274 00:17:02,360 --> 00:17:06,399 Speaker 1: keep living in my incredibly extravagant and weird ways. And 275 00:17:06,480 --> 00:17:09,359 Speaker 1: I think we can all agree that is ding dongri. Yeah. 276 00:17:09,440 --> 00:17:13,000 Speaker 1: I also feel like this is a historical person that 277 00:17:14,119 --> 00:17:18,159 Speaker 1: it's tempting to want to armchair diagnose. Oh yeah, but 278 00:17:18,359 --> 00:17:24,520 Speaker 1: beyond just the obvious like excess alcohol consumption, right in 279 00:17:24,640 --> 00:17:30,879 Speaker 1: some other way, and I try to resist doing that. Yeah, 280 00:17:30,960 --> 00:17:33,920 Speaker 1: I mean, he definitely had impulse control issues, but that's 281 00:17:33,960 --> 00:17:38,080 Speaker 1: also not a diagnosis. That's just kind of acknowledging what's 282 00:17:38,119 --> 00:17:41,160 Speaker 1: going on there. I mean, it sounds like he would 283 00:17:41,200 --> 00:17:43,000 Speaker 1: be really fun to be around if you were his friend. 284 00:17:43,080 --> 00:17:46,920 Speaker 1: His friends adored him, and the people that lived in 285 00:17:46,960 --> 00:17:51,439 Speaker 1: his area who were not wealthy friends seemed to adore 286 00:17:51,520 --> 00:17:55,440 Speaker 1: him because he was so generous and like they kind 287 00:17:55,440 --> 00:17:57,359 Speaker 1: of knew they could be taken care of if something 288 00:17:57,400 --> 00:18:02,600 Speaker 1: went wrong by his his estate or his you know himself. 289 00:18:04,359 --> 00:18:08,480 Speaker 1: But also like, oh dude, you could have done so 290 00:18:08,600 --> 00:18:11,280 Speaker 1: much more actual good if you could just like focus 291 00:18:11,280 --> 00:18:15,399 Speaker 1: it up and like use rational thought for a minute. 292 00:18:15,640 --> 00:18:17,840 Speaker 1: But if you're not interested in that, you're not interested 293 00:18:17,880 --> 00:18:20,199 Speaker 1: in that. And I know I can't travel back in 294 00:18:20,200 --> 00:18:22,240 Speaker 1: time and fix him. He's another one, though, where I 295 00:18:22,240 --> 00:18:27,080 Speaker 1: feel like, because he had such a gumption and you know, 296 00:18:27,960 --> 00:18:32,560 Speaker 1: such a kind of like iron constitution, and he had 297 00:18:32,600 --> 00:18:35,360 Speaker 1: some impulses that seemed pretty good, I'm just like, man, 298 00:18:35,400 --> 00:18:41,280 Speaker 1: if you could have just been like assisted or molded inside, yeah, 299 00:18:41,320 --> 00:18:44,080 Speaker 1: that you didn't die very young, you could have actually 300 00:18:44,119 --> 00:18:47,560 Speaker 1: been like such a high achiever. You know, he had 301 00:18:47,600 --> 00:18:49,800 Speaker 1: all of the resources on earth and did nothing with them. 302 00:18:49,840 --> 00:18:52,080 Speaker 1: People were like, you should start breeding programs with your 303 00:18:52,080 --> 00:18:54,800 Speaker 1: horses and your dogs. You'd be like, oh no, Like 304 00:18:54,920 --> 00:18:58,080 Speaker 1: he could have sustained himself probably just doing either one 305 00:18:58,119 --> 00:19:00,800 Speaker 1: of those things and not have had it all fall apart. 306 00:19:00,880 --> 00:19:04,160 Speaker 1: But you know, you can't. You can't make a person 307 00:19:04,200 --> 00:19:06,040 Speaker 1: do what they're not going to do. He apparently was 308 00:19:06,080 --> 00:19:10,879 Speaker 1: also really really resistant to advice of any kind, Like 309 00:19:10,960 --> 00:19:14,440 Speaker 1: even if his most trusted friends and or advisors said 310 00:19:14,760 --> 00:19:19,280 Speaker 1: things like, hey, you know, maybe don't do that, and 311 00:19:19,760 --> 00:19:21,440 Speaker 1: he would be like, I'm gonna do it ten times harder. 312 00:19:21,480 --> 00:19:26,200 Speaker 1: Look out for me like he just didn't anyway, Listen, 313 00:19:26,280 --> 00:19:29,240 Speaker 1: I understand I fight these impulses in myself all the time. 314 00:19:32,960 --> 00:19:35,600 Speaker 1: But don't be like Minton. Just just be a little 315 00:19:35,640 --> 00:19:40,440 Speaker 1: more focus. He really is a hogarth engraving even though 316 00:19:40,720 --> 00:19:43,760 Speaker 1: he lived. Maybe he used those as like a roadmap 317 00:19:43,880 --> 00:19:46,199 Speaker 1: instead of the cautionary tale they were intended to be, 318 00:19:46,359 --> 00:19:49,440 Speaker 1: like the Rake's progress. He's like, I could do that. Yeah, 319 00:19:52,440 --> 00:19:58,560 Speaker 1: h he wrote a bear into a party. Don't do 320 00:19:59,000 --> 00:20:02,679 Speaker 1: his writing habit. So many reasons you should not do that. 321 00:20:04,640 --> 00:20:07,119 Speaker 1: Don't do that. If this is your weekend coming up, 322 00:20:07,160 --> 00:20:10,000 Speaker 1: don't write a bear. If it's not your weekend coming up, 323 00:20:10,080 --> 00:20:12,960 Speaker 1: don't ride a bear. I hope that if you have 324 00:20:13,040 --> 00:20:16,320 Speaker 1: time to yourself that it is, however, is the most 325 00:20:16,359 --> 00:20:19,600 Speaker 1: productive and restorative for you. Sometimes those things are the same. 326 00:20:20,280 --> 00:20:21,800 Speaker 1: If it's not your time off, I hope you get 327 00:20:21,800 --> 00:20:25,000 Speaker 1: a little time to yourself where you can rest and 328 00:20:25,080 --> 00:20:28,000 Speaker 1: relax and have some joy. We will be right back 329 00:20:28,040 --> 00:20:30,919 Speaker 1: here tomorrow with a classic episode, and then on Monday 330 00:20:30,960 --> 00:20:38,879 Speaker 1: with something brand new. Stuff you Missed in History Class 331 00:20:38,960 --> 00:20:42,960 Speaker 1: is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, 332 00:20:43,119 --> 00:20:46,720 Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen 333 00:20:46,760 --> 00:20:47,760 Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.