WEBVTT - Selects: How Charles Darwin Worked 0:00:00.720 --> 0:00:01.359 Hi everyone. 0:00:01.440 --> 0:00:05.680 Chuck here on a Saturday to introduce this week's select episode, 0:00:05.720 --> 0:00:09.000 a curated best of, and this is all about old 0:00:09.080 --> 0:00:13.039 Chucky Darwin. It's called How Charles Darwin Worked. He's a 0:00:13.080 --> 0:00:17.400 great person, had a lot of great ideas, and it's 0:00:17.440 --> 0:00:19.919 pretty groundbreaking stuff. So I hope you guys enjoyed listening 0:00:19.960 --> 0:00:22.239 to this one, either for the first time or all 0:00:22.280 --> 0:00:29.680 over again. Welcome to Stuff you should know, a production 0:00:29.920 --> 0:00:33.640 of iHeartRadio. 0:00:36.840 --> 0:00:39.199 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark and 0:00:39.200 --> 0:00:42.440 there's Charles w Chuck Bryant. So this is stuff you 0:00:42.440 --> 0:00:46.000 should know. That's right, unless I forget. Jerry's over there. 0:00:46.680 --> 0:00:47.360 She's over there. 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:50.560 You know, we went like five years. I went five 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:53.720 years of this podcast with just mentioning us once in 0:00:53.720 --> 0:00:57.480 a while mentioning Jerry. But I mean, like, I can't 0:00:57.520 --> 0:01:01.760 imagine the podcast without Jerry too. Now after five years, finally, 0:01:01.760 --> 0:01:03.800 I'm like, I guess she should stay on. 0:01:04.120 --> 0:01:05.000 She's earned her place. 0:01:05.160 --> 0:01:07.040 Yeah, at least she keeps quiet. 0:01:07.319 --> 0:01:07.800 That's right. 0:01:09.959 --> 0:01:10.520 How you doing. 0:01:10.760 --> 0:01:11.200 I'm great. 0:01:11.240 --> 0:01:15.360 How are you I'm good? Yeah, I'm like low key calm, 0:01:15.720 --> 0:01:16.800 I'm fine. 0:01:16.400 --> 0:01:18.720 That's good. I'm a little smelly, which we talked about. 0:01:18.840 --> 0:01:21.160 I know, but you keep talking about it, which makes 0:01:21.200 --> 0:01:22.040 the smell worse. 0:01:22.880 --> 0:01:26.880 What is it about someone's own special sweet tang of 0:01:26.920 --> 0:01:28.120 a scent that they're. 0:01:28.000 --> 0:01:31.160 Drawn to like you're drawn to your own tang? Yeah? 0:01:31.200 --> 0:01:33.880 Man, everyone I think like secretly smells their own shoe 0:01:33.920 --> 0:01:35.600 and their own armpits when they get a little ripe. 0:01:35.880 --> 0:01:38.520 Maybe we all deep down want to mate with ourselves. 0:01:39.000 --> 0:01:42.000 Maybe so that's not true because I'm disgusted with myself. 0:01:42.319 --> 0:01:44.880 Yeah, but I see you looking at your armpit, eyeing 0:01:44.959 --> 0:01:47.000 it like that. I know what two on do to 0:01:47.040 --> 0:01:47.440 that thing. 0:01:47.720 --> 0:01:50.640 Yeah. I've slipped out twice to day just to smell them. 0:01:52.360 --> 0:01:53.480 There's a little on your notes. 0:01:53.640 --> 0:01:54.000 Gross. 0:01:54.520 --> 0:01:57.400 Uh so, Chuck, you're doing good. I'm doing good. We'll 0:01:57.480 --> 0:02:00.680 just assume Jerry's doing good. And we're all doing good 0:02:00.960 --> 0:02:05.720 because we're fairly fit. You know why we're fit, Because 0:02:05.720 --> 0:02:09.560 we're alive. We are evolving as we speak. We are 0:02:09.680 --> 0:02:15.520 part of this huge, long, natural procession of change forced 0:02:15.560 --> 0:02:21.320 by scarcity, competition, the ravages of nature, and we as 0:02:21.400 --> 0:02:24.000 humans have climbed to the top of the food pyramid 0:02:24.040 --> 0:02:27.560 of the evolutionary chain and said we own this planet. 0:02:28.440 --> 0:02:29.840 That's why we're doing good today. 0:02:29.800 --> 0:02:32.800 Yeah, it's one of my most favorite notions. 0:02:34.080 --> 0:02:34.560 Evolution. 0:02:34.919 --> 0:02:35.840 Yeah, natural selection. 0:02:35.880 --> 0:02:38.160 I think it's like one of the most beautiful things 0:02:39.360 --> 0:02:41.239 that we've been able to figure out. 0:02:41.400 --> 0:02:43.760 Yeah, evolution gets all the spot like. I'm a big 0:02:43.840 --> 0:02:45.480 natural selection fan myself too. 0:02:45.560 --> 0:02:46.120 Yeah, you know. 0:02:46.320 --> 0:02:51.840 Oh yeah, so divergence. That stuff turns me on that 0:02:51.919 --> 0:02:53.440 and your smell intellectually. 0:02:54.280 --> 0:02:58.280 So let's talk about this. You can't have evolution without 0:02:58.360 --> 0:03:02.520 natural selection again, even though evolution gets all the spotlight. Yeah, 0:03:02.639 --> 0:03:05.080 at the very least, there's no evolution on Earth without 0:03:05.160 --> 0:03:10.160 natural selection, right, And the idea of natural selection of 0:03:10.200 --> 0:03:15.560 evolution in general, the idea that God didn't create everything 0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:19.720 exactly the way we see it now is a fairly 0:03:19.800 --> 0:03:24.520 recent notion, despite how tremendously widespread it is. You know 0:03:24.840 --> 0:03:26.560 Bill Nye, the science guy. 0:03:27.160 --> 0:03:28.360 Yeah, are you talking about his debate? 0:03:28.600 --> 0:03:31.079 Yeah, he got in a debate with ken Ham, just 0:03:31.440 --> 0:03:34.240 totally off the cuff, not planned at all. They just 0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:37.160 both happened to be in the same auditorium. I watched 0:03:37.200 --> 0:03:39.040 the whole thing, did you the whole two hours? 0:03:39.080 --> 0:03:41.280 Yeah? Man, I couldn't pull myself away from it. 0:03:41.400 --> 0:03:45.640 So I'm guessing that you suspect Bill Nye won the debate. 0:03:46.720 --> 0:03:49.680 Well, I mean, are there winners and losers. 0:03:49.360 --> 0:03:53.000 So don't be shy. There are. Okay, there is a 0:03:53.000 --> 0:04:00.360 British religious website that pulled its its guests. Yeah, because 0:04:00.360 --> 0:04:02.480 you know, people who go to websites are called guests. 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:05.440 But in England there and said who won? 0:04:06.280 --> 0:04:11.160 And I think ninety two percent said Bill Nye won? 0:04:12.120 --> 0:04:15.160 And the reason why is because in the comment section 0:04:15.240 --> 0:04:18.560 it was revealed that most of these people said, yeah, 0:04:18.560 --> 0:04:21.560 we believe in God, but evolution is still real and 0:04:21.600 --> 0:04:25.440 to deny evolution outright is pretty silly. 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:27.920 I think when you say things like dragons, you might 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:28.640 lose people. 0:04:29.000 --> 0:04:31.159 Did he say dragons? I didn't see it. Yeah, he 0:04:31.240 --> 0:04:32.120 mentioned dragons. 0:04:32.240 --> 0:04:35.400 Well, I mean that's some people. And like you said, 0:04:35.560 --> 0:04:38.400 religion and science co exist for a lot of religious folk. 0:04:38.680 --> 0:04:41.360 Oh yeah, but there are some that are very literal 0:04:41.400 --> 0:04:43.200 and strict in say that you know how to explain 0:04:43.240 --> 0:04:44.400 dinosaurs while they may have been. 0:04:44.400 --> 0:04:49.760 Dragons, gotcha, And I don't. That doesn't explain anything. Then, well, 0:04:49.800 --> 0:04:53.800 I think the dragons are in the Bible. Oh yeah. 0:04:54.160 --> 0:04:56.920 If I'm getting this wrong, I'm going to really get killed. 0:04:56.960 --> 0:05:00.839 We should pause you for a second. Yeah, Like the 0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:04.120 point of this episode is not to stomp on anybody's beliefs. 0:05:04.279 --> 0:05:04.440 No. 0:05:04.839 --> 0:05:08.880 I think science can be just as dogmatic as religion. Sure, so, 0:05:09.560 --> 0:05:11.800 like that's not what we're doing. No, Like, if you 0:05:11.880 --> 0:05:15.360 believe in creationism, to each his own, Like, we're not 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:19.560 gonna pound our beliefs into you or you know, vice versa. 0:05:19.560 --> 0:05:22.200 I've never understood that, Like who cares? Just right, it's 0:05:22.279 --> 0:05:26.000 postuletizing either way. Yeah, you know, it's like convert to 0:05:26.080 --> 0:05:28.320 my way of thinking, yeah, or else you are just 0:05:28.400 --> 0:05:32.760 so wrong it's mind boggling. Yeah, but that's not the 0:05:32.760 --> 0:05:34.680 point of this. No. I think we should just see 0:05:34.680 --> 0:05:36.880 away with that because that's not what we're Like. There's 0:05:36.880 --> 0:05:38.719 some people who don't always listen, maybe this is their 0:05:38.760 --> 0:05:42.800 first episode. Welcome. We are not those kind of guys. 0:05:42.920 --> 0:05:46.599 No, And specifically with this episode, it's on Charles Darwin 0:05:46.680 --> 0:05:49.240 the man right and kind of what made him who 0:05:49.320 --> 0:05:52.760 he was not? And we'll tackle are we committing to 0:05:52.760 --> 0:05:53.960 go ahead and doing natural selection? 0:05:54.040 --> 0:05:55.680 I think we shall to pair with this. As a 0:05:55.720 --> 0:05:57.160 matter of fact, we'll have this one come on on 0:05:57.200 --> 0:05:59.720 a Tuesday. We'll do natural selection on a Thursday. 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:02.000 At that, all right, I agree, let's do it. 0:06:02.680 --> 0:06:03.719 Let there be like. 0:06:04.400 --> 0:06:09.000 But Darwin was a fascinating dude though, so yeah, which 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:10.039 his own show. 0:06:10.160 --> 0:06:13.720 Yeah, because you can't really overstate the idea that he was, 0:06:14.040 --> 0:06:16.640 As Robert Lamb puts in this fine article, I have 0:06:16.680 --> 0:06:20.599 to say one of his best. I agreed that Charles 0:06:20.680 --> 0:06:24.320 Darwin was the fulcrum by which, or on which the 0:06:24.760 --> 0:06:29.800 entire sea change from a religious worldview to a scientific 0:06:29.800 --> 0:06:32.400 worldview took place. It was on this man's shoulders. 0:06:32.839 --> 0:06:33.119 Yeah. 0:06:33.160 --> 0:06:35.440 Even though oddly enough, he wasn't the only person to 0:06:35.480 --> 0:06:36.839 come up with natural selection. 0:06:37.320 --> 0:06:39.640 No, and we'll get to that. He wasn't the first 0:06:39.800 --> 0:06:40.360 or the last. 0:06:41.760 --> 0:06:44.240 But it turns out he was the most thorough in 0:06:44.279 --> 0:06:46.640 his research. 0:06:46.360 --> 0:06:48.200 Right, and had the most social breeding. 0:06:48.400 --> 0:06:48.760 Yeah. 0:06:49.080 --> 0:06:49.839 And inbreeding. 0:06:50.360 --> 0:06:52.799 Yeah, man, this is the ultimate ease. 0:06:52.920 --> 0:06:55.680 It is. So let's get started, Chuck, Let's talk about Darwin. 0:06:55.760 --> 0:06:59.120 He didn't. He wasn't born with a Bunsen burner in 0:06:59.160 --> 0:06:59.960 a flask in his hand. 0:07:01.160 --> 0:07:01.760 No, he was not. 0:07:02.839 --> 0:07:07.680 He was born, if anything, with a stethoscope in his hand. 0:07:07.760 --> 0:07:13.200 Because his father, doctor Robert Waring Darwin, had designs on 0:07:13.680 --> 0:07:17.760 little Chuck being a doctor like him, right, because he 0:07:17.880 --> 0:07:19.360 was you know, they had some dough that he was 0:07:19.360 --> 0:07:22.280 an English gentleman. They weren't poor by any means. 0:07:22.360 --> 0:07:26.080 No, Apparently his grandfather a massed of vast fortune in China, 0:07:26.280 --> 0:07:28.480 and not the country, but the porcelain. 0:07:28.560 --> 0:07:31.720 Oh really yeah, interesting, So it'd be incorrect to say 0:07:31.760 --> 0:07:33.080 he had a Chinese fortune. 0:07:33.280 --> 0:07:34.800 He had a China fortune, okay. 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:39.400 But little Chuck was not into anatomy. He was definitely 0:07:39.400 --> 0:07:43.760 not into surgery on humans. It freaked him out. I 0:07:43.800 --> 0:07:46.160 think he was a little queasy as a person. 0:07:47.320 --> 0:07:47.880 It seems like. 0:07:48.040 --> 0:07:51.480 Yeah, but he was way into the natural sciences and 0:07:52.480 --> 0:07:54.280 was just fine with dissecting a frog. 0:07:55.280 --> 0:07:57.440 Yeah, you know, he was cool with biology. As long 0:07:57.480 --> 0:08:00.160 as you weren't human, he'd cut you, that's right. 0:08:00.640 --> 0:08:04.000 So he was sent to several schools, first when he 0:08:04.080 --> 0:08:07.520 was going to be a doctor, to the Anglican Shrewsbury School, 0:08:07.680 --> 0:08:10.720 then to Edinburgh University, and finally his dad was like, 0:08:10.720 --> 0:08:12.120 all right, you don't want to be a doctor, so 0:08:12.640 --> 0:08:15.040 the only other option for you is to be a 0:08:15.080 --> 0:08:16.000 man of religion. 0:08:16.320 --> 0:08:17.480 Yeah, parson in the country. 0:08:17.560 --> 0:08:19.240 Yeah, so I'm going to send you to christ College 0:08:19.240 --> 0:08:20.640 in Cambridge. 0:08:20.120 --> 0:08:21.720 Which is I mean, if you're going to go be 0:08:21.760 --> 0:08:25.120 a country parson. You could do a lot worse, agreed. 0:08:25.240 --> 0:08:27.840 You know, the fighting padres. 0:08:27.800 --> 0:08:31.520 Is that there go padres. 0:08:32.320 --> 0:08:36.960 So he was very well educated and had been exposed 0:08:36.960 --> 0:08:38.920 to all kinds of science, so he was he was 0:08:38.960 --> 0:08:42.760 a very smart guy from early on, and way into 0:08:42.840 --> 0:08:46.600 natural science, like I said, but not into the religion 0:08:46.640 --> 0:08:50.319 thing as much. He was agnostic from a pretty early age. 0:08:50.080 --> 0:08:53.240 Right, and he seemed like he was going to follow 0:08:53.520 --> 0:08:55.640 the path that his father was laying out for him, 0:08:55.760 --> 0:08:59.160 I guess it. Anyway, he was very domineering. Yeah, and 0:08:59.240 --> 0:09:02.560 Charles Darwin was a pretty great thinker, pretty all around 0:09:02.559 --> 0:09:05.480 good guy. But he also was a bit of a 0:09:05.520 --> 0:09:08.880 panting waste. It seems like, you know, he was like 0:09:09.040 --> 0:09:12.920 really really affected by stress. Site. He had a lot 0:09:12.920 --> 0:09:18.000 of psychosomatic symptoms from stress pretty much throughout his whole life. 0:09:18.679 --> 0:09:23.080 Despite that, though, he took a very brave course in life. 0:09:23.400 --> 0:09:26.320 And it started when he was twenty one and he 0:09:26.440 --> 0:09:28.559 was on his way to becoming that country parson that 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:31.679 his father had decided he would be, and he got 0:09:31.720 --> 0:09:35.119 an invitation to go on a tour of the islands 0:09:35.440 --> 0:09:39.800 off South America from a guy named Robert Fitzroy who 0:09:39.840 --> 0:09:43.200 was twenty six years old. He was an aristocrat and 0:09:43.520 --> 0:09:47.000 he liked Darwin. He said, hey, you're good at conversations. 0:09:47.440 --> 0:09:50.520 When I get bored, I suffer abouts of depression. I'm 0:09:50.559 --> 0:09:53.040 about to go on this boat called the HIMS Beagle 0:09:53.120 --> 0:09:56.040 for god knows how long. So why don't you come 0:09:56.080 --> 0:09:58.920 along and we can chat and I won't get depressed. 0:09:59.000 --> 0:10:01.640 And Darwin said, you know what, what, let's do this. 0:10:02.280 --> 0:10:04.720 That's right, which is a that's a pretty bold move. 0:10:04.920 --> 0:10:07.840 Yeah, he was for someone who was a would you say, 0:10:07.840 --> 0:10:09.560 a panty waste, Yeah, panty waste. 0:10:09.600 --> 0:10:11.120 It's sort of surprising that he was up for that 0:10:11.200 --> 0:10:11.880 kind of adventure. 0:10:12.480 --> 0:10:15.679 Yes, a milk toast. You could also call him a 0:10:15.720 --> 0:10:19.120 milk toast. Maybe we'll call him that, all right. Uh 0:10:19.160 --> 0:10:20.880 So this was an eighteen thirty one. 0:10:20.960 --> 0:10:23.760 He boarded the HMS Beagle, which I, for some reason 0:10:23.800 --> 0:10:24.520 just cracks me up. 0:10:24.760 --> 0:10:27.600 You know, our buddy Joe from Forward Thinking just adopted 0:10:27.640 --> 0:10:32.080 a dog. It's part beagle and his name's Darwin. Huh 0:10:32.240 --> 0:10:35.360 because of that association, I would imagine, Yeah, that would 0:10:35.559 --> 0:10:39.000 And Joe said he looks like Darwin head on, like 0:10:39.080 --> 0:10:40.040 bushy eyebrows. 0:10:40.160 --> 0:10:43.600 That's funny, all right. So he boarded the HMS Beagle. 0:10:44.080 --> 0:10:45.000 What'd you say, how old was he? 0:10:45.040 --> 0:10:45.480 Twenty one? 0:10:45.640 --> 0:10:47.439 Yeah, and they. 0:10:47.360 --> 0:10:50.680 Took a five year voyage around South America. The purpose 0:10:50.720 --> 0:10:54.200 for Fitzroy was to chart the waters of South America, 0:10:54.320 --> 0:10:57.200 the coastlines and that kind of thing. But Chuck was like, 0:10:57.800 --> 0:11:01.679 I'm into natural stuff and species that I don't know, 0:11:02.120 --> 0:11:06.160 So what better thing to do than spend like most 0:11:06.200 --> 0:11:08.280 of my time not on the boat but on land 0:11:08.679 --> 0:11:09.720 just researching stuff. 0:11:09.760 --> 0:11:12.520 I'm sure he got pretty good at rowing. Oh yeah, 0:11:12.559 --> 0:11:15.000 from the ship too, shore back and forth. Yeah. He 0:11:15.080 --> 0:11:19.120 was basically Paul Bettany's character and master and commander. 0:11:19.600 --> 0:11:22.000 Well, which is ironic because Paul Bettany play Charles Darwin. 0:11:22.440 --> 0:11:24.360 Did he really in that movie Creation? 0:11:25.559 --> 0:11:26.959 Oh yeah, I never saw that, but I know what 0:11:27.000 --> 0:11:27.640 you're talking about. 0:11:27.679 --> 0:11:28.720 That's funny. You'd had no idea. 0:11:28.840 --> 0:11:30.840 Huh No, you stepped right into that one. I wonder 0:11:30.880 --> 0:11:32.000 if he recognized that. 0:11:32.800 --> 0:11:33.200 I don't know. 0:11:33.320 --> 0:11:36.720 It's a good movie, that Creation, You should check it out. 0:11:37.080 --> 0:11:38.960 Details a lot of the struggles of his life that 0:11:39.000 --> 0:11:40.800 we're going to go over here, and mainly is about 0:11:40.800 --> 0:11:45.599 his anxieties of what he was doing in his relationship 0:11:45.600 --> 0:11:46.800 to his Christian wife. 0:11:47.520 --> 0:11:49.200 Oh yeah, I'll bet that was kind of a sore 0:11:49.280 --> 0:11:51.800 spot big time. We'll get to that now in a second. 0:11:52.360 --> 0:11:55.000 So okay, So they head off to South America. Yes, 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:57.880 he's spending two thirds of the voyage. Of this five 0:11:57.920 --> 0:12:01.160 year voyage, he spends on land. One of the most 0:12:01.160 --> 0:12:04.439 famous places he visited was the Galapagos, which are still around. 0:12:04.920 --> 0:12:07.920 Yeah, and that apparently was really overstated. He was only, uh, 0:12:08.360 --> 0:12:09.080 what it's still around? 0:12:09.160 --> 0:12:09.679 Is that a joke? 0:12:10.080 --> 0:12:11.559 The Galapagos they're still around? 0:12:11.840 --> 0:12:15.400 Okay. I thought I was missing on something because you 0:12:15.440 --> 0:12:17.360 looked at me like you're missing a joke. 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:18.480 No, that's this look. 0:12:18.640 --> 0:12:22.160 Oh okay, what was that one? Is you smell? 0:12:22.920 --> 0:12:24.720 Yeah? That was my eyes of water. 0:12:26.000 --> 0:12:30.000 So the Galapagos apparently was a little overstated significance wise. 0:12:30.880 --> 0:12:32.679 He was only there for about five weeks out of 0:12:32.720 --> 0:12:37.280 the five years, and historians think it's been overstated because 0:12:37.360 --> 0:12:40.120 it was so exotic and people wanted to point to 0:12:40.200 --> 0:12:44.160 some like kind of fantastical birthplace of all these ideas. 0:12:44.280 --> 0:12:47.040 Yeah, I mean it stuck. 0:12:47.400 --> 0:12:50.520 Yeah, I mean for sure, and he you know, collected 0:12:50.880 --> 0:12:53.200 all kinds of different specimens from the Galapagos, but it 0:12:53.240 --> 0:12:54.280 wasn't as big a deal. 0:12:54.440 --> 0:12:56.559 Have you ever seen the size of the turtles there are? 0:12:56.559 --> 0:12:59.200 The tortoises are the huge, dude, They're like the size 0:12:59.240 --> 0:13:04.959 of VWBO. They're enormous, crazy and apparently like they'll hang 0:13:05.000 --> 0:13:05.400 out with you. 0:13:06.880 --> 0:13:09.480 What else are they going to do? Run away slowly? 0:13:09.640 --> 0:13:12.960 Okay? Yeah, they have no choice, they have agency. They 0:13:13.000 --> 0:13:15.080 could be like I don't want to be here around you, 0:13:15.200 --> 0:13:16.959 I'm going to go this way. They just it wouldn't 0:13:17.000 --> 0:13:20.720 work very well or very quickly. Yeah, okay, so where 0:13:20.760 --> 0:13:22.120 are we? Man? We are? 0:13:22.280 --> 0:13:24.360 I was just poopooing the Galapagos. Yeah. 0:13:26.000 --> 0:13:28.080 But what he did while he was gone was he 0:13:28.679 --> 0:13:30.600 did a lot of great work and made a real 0:13:30.679 --> 0:13:33.840 name for himself and kind of came back a well 0:13:33.880 --> 0:13:34.800 known scientist. 0:13:34.960 --> 0:13:37.360 Scientist because the whole time he's making all these findings, 0:13:37.360 --> 0:13:40.880 he's finding new species of animals that like Europeans didn't 0:13:40.880 --> 0:13:45.000 even know existed, Like entire types of animals. He's sending 0:13:45.040 --> 0:13:47.880 back specimens, which means he killed a lot of animals 0:13:47.880 --> 0:13:50.400 while he was on these islands. Yeah, mailed them back 0:13:50.400 --> 0:13:53.480 to Europe, mailed back some of his findings. He's basically 0:13:53.480 --> 0:13:58.600 writing papers as he's doing this this journey, so back 0:13:59.280 --> 0:14:05.559 in the jolly Old England there basically becomes this celebrity. Yeah, 0:14:05.640 --> 0:14:08.360 and he was, you know, like before he even returned. Yeah, 0:14:08.400 --> 0:14:08.800 he was. 0:14:08.760 --> 0:14:11.600 Looking at he had the idea of natural selection, but 0:14:11.760 --> 0:14:13.920 it was, like we said, it was already out there. 0:14:14.280 --> 0:14:17.920 It was known as the Mystery of Mysteries or transmutation. 0:14:18.080 --> 0:14:22.440 And he called his his research at first the Transmutation Notebooks. 0:14:23.200 --> 0:14:24.160 So is that right? 0:14:24.280 --> 0:14:26.480 Yeah, he wasn't, you know, He's researching stuff that he 0:14:26.520 --> 0:14:27.200 had heard about. 0:14:27.440 --> 0:14:28.520 It was a working title. 0:14:29.080 --> 0:14:32.960 It was a working title actually what would later become 0:14:33.040 --> 0:14:34.560 On the Origin of the Species, of course. 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:37.720 Yeah, And he and another guy will talk about a 0:14:37.720 --> 0:14:41.880 little bit, were also inspired. Both were inspired by Thomas Malthus, 0:14:42.320 --> 0:14:44.160 who we've talked about, who came up with the idea 0:14:44.200 --> 0:14:48.560 of caring capacity and basically introduced the idea that scarcity 0:14:49.080 --> 0:14:54.520 and competition forces adaptation and change. And then Darwin and 0:14:54.560 --> 0:15:01.840 the guy Alfred Wallace Russell or Alfred Russell Wallace both 0:15:01.880 --> 0:15:03.760 read this and said, well, wait a minute, I wonder 0:15:03.840 --> 0:15:08.320 if that adaptation and change that's forced by scarcity is 0:15:08.680 --> 0:15:12.480 what creates the change in species that we're seeing here. 0:15:12.640 --> 0:15:15.640 Yeah, that was definitely the book was called Essay on 0:15:15.920 --> 0:15:19.520 Principle of Population and that was like a super game 0:15:19.600 --> 0:15:22.600 changer because it really gave him like the notion that 0:15:23.240 --> 0:15:26.720 by studying any species death you can kind of study 0:15:26.840 --> 0:15:27.320 its life. 0:15:27.640 --> 0:15:30.320 Yeah, and it was it wasn't just biology that it 0:15:30.400 --> 0:15:37.400 gave rise to. It gave rise to economics largely. Yeah, 0:15:37.440 --> 0:15:41.280 a lot of anthropology, a lot of ecology. Like it was, 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:43.360 like you say, a game changer. 0:15:44.040 --> 0:15:47.880 Thomas mouthis, go back and listen to our population podcast. 0:15:48.000 --> 0:15:49.160 Is that where he appears. 0:15:50.040 --> 0:15:51.680 I think he appears a few times, But that was 0:15:51.720 --> 0:15:55.280 a good one. Yeah, it's an oldie, but a goodie. So, 0:15:55.400 --> 0:15:57.400 like we said, he came back sort of a celebrity 0:15:57.400 --> 0:15:59.880 of sorts, and he came back with a lot of 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:06.320 information and settled in at the Downhouse in Kent, and 0:16:06.680 --> 0:16:10.440 this place was he spent the next forty years there 0:16:10.680 --> 0:16:14.160 studying his property essentially, like he didn't need to go anywhere. 0:16:14.240 --> 0:16:17.200 He had plenty of nature there. Apparently there were forty 0:16:17.240 --> 0:16:20.720 different species per square meter on his property. 0:16:21.920 --> 0:16:23.360 He had ten kids and he. 0:16:23.360 --> 0:16:27.520 Used them as sort of a little laboratory experiment because 0:16:27.960 --> 0:16:30.280 three of them died. And he was fascinated with why 0:16:31.440 --> 0:16:34.160 things and people survive and some don't. So it was 0:16:34.200 --> 0:16:37.960 all sort of part of his It was just everything 0:16:38.040 --> 0:16:39.080 was part of his laboratory. 0:16:39.120 --> 0:16:39.480 Essentially. 0:16:39.520 --> 0:16:43.240 He had people sending him samples from all over the world, 0:16:43.360 --> 0:16:46.640 and there are some theories that if the postal service 0:16:46.640 --> 0:16:49.080 hadn't have been so good, he may have never been 0:16:49.080 --> 0:16:53.880 able to write Origin of the species because he relied 0:16:53.880 --> 0:16:56.200 on people sending him stuff in due time. 0:16:56.320 --> 0:16:59.480 Oh yeah, and also he was really big on corresponding, 0:16:59.520 --> 0:17:04.800 which to help develop his his ideas, flesh him out 0:17:04.840 --> 0:17:08.080 even further. Was he was huge on correspondence. 0:17:08.359 --> 0:17:08.600 Yeah. 0:17:08.600 --> 0:17:11.240 He had an area on his property called the Sandwalk 0:17:11.280 --> 0:17:13.680 that he had built. It was basically just a loop 0:17:13.840 --> 0:17:18.000 path through the woods and he would just spend like 0:17:18.359 --> 0:17:21.880 countless hours just walking this path and thinking and looking 0:17:21.960 --> 0:17:23.440 at everything. 0:17:24.600 --> 0:17:28.320 Everything right, nothing escaped his eyes. One of his favorite 0:17:28.920 --> 0:17:32.879 subjects was earthworms. Remember our Earthworm podcast. Yeah, there was 0:17:32.920 --> 0:17:37.760 a quote from him in there where he said, it 0:17:37.800 --> 0:17:40.400 may be doubted whether there are many other animals which 0:17:40.440 --> 0:17:42.760 have played so important a part in the history of 0:17:42.800 --> 0:17:45.840 the world as these lowly organized creatures. So he was 0:17:45.880 --> 0:17:49.080 down with earthworms, down with earth worms and orchids very 0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:49.840 famously too. 0:17:50.280 --> 0:17:52.320 Yeah, he was he was active. He wasn't just looking 0:17:52.359 --> 0:17:52.720 at things. 0:17:52.720 --> 0:17:56.280 He raised orchids, He was a beekeeper, he raised pigeons, and. 0:17:56.160 --> 0:17:58.760 Like it was all just in the name of study, right. 0:17:58.960 --> 0:18:03.040 One of the things though, he married his first cousin, 0:18:03.359 --> 0:18:08.280 his wife. Yeah, and at the time they didn't really 0:18:08.320 --> 0:18:12.159 know much about the troubles with inbreeding, and he was 0:18:12.160 --> 0:18:14.720 one of the people who discovered the troubles with inbreeding, 0:18:14.840 --> 0:18:17.120 and it apparently had a really big effect on him, 0:18:17.119 --> 0:18:21.320 Like he felt kind of guilty and weird and wondered 0:18:21.359 --> 0:18:26.280 if maybe his kid's early deaths had to do with that. Yeah, 0:18:27.560 --> 0:18:30.040 which has to be kind of startling if you're the 0:18:30.040 --> 0:18:35.440 guy who discovers the problems with inbreeding and you've imbred, Yeah, 0:18:35.720 --> 0:18:37.600 you know, Yeah, it's got to be a little jarring. 0:18:37.760 --> 0:18:38.080 Sure. 0:18:39.240 --> 0:18:43.440 Emma Wedgwood was his wife's maid name. And one thing 0:18:43.480 --> 0:18:45.920 that happened when he married her was he got more 0:18:45.960 --> 0:18:48.480 money because she was also in the family fortune. Right, 0:18:48.920 --> 0:18:51.600 So they were set up pretty nicely. And like I said, 0:18:51.600 --> 0:18:55.560 she was Christian and she was amazing though, like the 0:18:55.600 --> 0:18:59.240 Creation movie really like it's a great love story despite 0:18:59.240 --> 0:19:01.560 the fact that they had he was Agnostic and she 0:19:01.680 --> 0:19:05.160 was Christian. She spent her life caring for him because 0:19:05.160 --> 0:19:08.920 he was a very sickly man. Yeah, may have had 0:19:08.960 --> 0:19:12.199 some sort of viral disease. His entire life is maybe 0:19:12.240 --> 0:19:13.600 that he picked up in South America. 0:19:13.720 --> 0:19:15.160 So he wasn't a pennywys. 0:19:15.359 --> 0:19:17.120 No, he was a penny waste on top of that kid. 0:19:17.359 --> 0:19:21.879 So he was just fraught with anxiety, and she cared 0:19:21.880 --> 0:19:24.480 for him and all the kids, and her life's worry 0:19:24.640 --> 0:19:27.919 was are we going to spend eternity together in the afterlife? 0:19:28.000 --> 0:19:30.840 Yeah, that was her big concern. Yeah. Which he didn't 0:19:31.000 --> 0:19:31.760 buy that stuff. 0:19:31.920 --> 0:19:35.560 No, And he was, you know, religious ish when he 0:19:35.600 --> 0:19:37.920 was younger, but as he grew older and the lord 0:19:37.960 --> 0:19:42.200 and atheist. No, the more he exposed himself to these 0:19:42.280 --> 0:19:46.520 ideas of evolution and natural selection, the less religious, the 0:19:46.600 --> 0:19:50.000 less he bought into it. And it's funny that that 0:19:50.080 --> 0:19:53.320 divide first occurred in him and then it just kind 0:19:53.359 --> 0:19:57.639 of grew out from him to create this divide throughout 0:19:57.640 --> 0:20:00.680