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Speaker 1: Cool Zone Media.

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Speaker 2: Hello, and welcome to Cool People Pitted Cool Stuff. You're

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Speaker 2: a weekly reminder that when bad things are happening, there's

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Speaker 2: people trying to do good things, and sometimes the things

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Speaker 2: that they do is invent things in the middle of

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Speaker 2: a crisis. I'm your host, Marra Kilchray and my guest

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Speaker 2: today is the one and only mangsh Hedaicoder who brought

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Speaker 2: the world Mental Floss and as the host of the

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Speaker 2: show Part Time Genius and runs the production company Kaleidoscope.

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Speaker 2: And I just learned right before we started recording, did

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Speaker 2: a podcast on astrology that I have to hear.

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Speaker 1: It's called stylin Drive. I highly recommend it.

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Speaker 2: I got told that you wouldn't tell me what it

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Speaker 2: was about ahead of time, but now we're on air,

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Speaker 2: so you have to. Eh, you could.

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Speaker 1: Give the elevator pitch mango.

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Speaker 2: I was just really curious and so this is a

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Speaker 2: good way to pressure you into it. Hi, Welcome to

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Speaker 2: my show.

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Speaker 3: The whole thing for me was growing up Indian. You know,

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Speaker 3: astrology was such a joke in the US in a sense,

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Speaker 3: but in indiots take so seriously and for me the

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Speaker 3: idea was like, I don't believe in astrology. But it

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Speaker 3: keeps happening to me in the fact that, like my parents,

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Speaker 3: they were introduced to each other as you know, an

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Speaker 3: arranged marriage, and so they were given lots of options.

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Speaker 3: They were only introduced to one another because their charts

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Speaker 3: matched up. And so like, my mom couldn't have a

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Speaker 3: mother in law because like her chart basically like would

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Speaker 3: indicate bad health for the mother in law. And my

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Speaker 3: dad his mom passed away when he was like one

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Speaker 3: or something, and so like that's part of the reason,

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Speaker 3: and the other elements of their chart match up too.

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Speaker 3: But it's one of these things that whether or not

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Speaker 3: you believe in astrology, there's so many other people that

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Speaker 3: believe in astrology that the world is affected by it,

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Speaker 3: and so it was kind of an exploration of that.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, No, it's really interesting to me because I'm really

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Speaker 2: interested in the idea that if you create a structure,

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Speaker 2: you can create meaning out of a structure. You know,

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Speaker 2: I don't know, I'm I'm excited to listen to your show.

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Speaker 3: I think that's absolutely true. And I also think, like

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Speaker 3: you know, for Indians in particular, there's this joke that

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Speaker 3: like it's okay to to be a psychiatrist, but not

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Speaker 3: see a psychiatrist. Right, That's so funny and so like

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Speaker 3: astrology like provides similar space for grief and for dealing

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Speaker 3: with problems and trying to understand or cope, and so like,

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Speaker 3: it makes sense why it's such an important part of

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Speaker 3: Indian culture.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I like that that it creates this pocket to

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Speaker 2: actually talk about things that, like you can't otherwise talk about.

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Speaker 2: But what we're gonna talk about today is normally the

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Speaker 2: show is very serious. That's not always true, but currently

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Speaker 2: I've been on this like string of very serious episodes.

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Speaker 2: But I woke up this morning and read the news.

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Speaker 2: And by this morning, I mean two days ago when

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Speaker 2: I wrote this part of the script. I woke up

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Speaker 2: this morning, I read the news, which was a mistake.

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Speaker 2: And it's funny because it would have been even more

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Speaker 2: of a mistake today as we deal with a whatever.

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Speaker 2: So the news wasn't particularly good this morning or the

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Speaker 2: morning when I wrote this script. And if you're listening

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Speaker 2: to this in the future, you're probably gonna be like, well,

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Speaker 2: that could have been any morning in twenty twenty five.

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Speaker 2: I've noyede what you're talking about, Margaret, And so I'm

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Speaker 2: not going to clarify. Usually, I rise to the occasion

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Speaker 2: of dire news and try my hardest to make the

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Speaker 2: show's topics specifically relevant to the modern world. And I've

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Speaker 2: been doing this whole series about the rise of the

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Speaker 2: modern protest movement for months now, and I am not

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Speaker 2: doing that today. Today I'm going to do something slightly different.

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Speaker 2: I was listening to this tiny niche podcast called Behind

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Speaker 2: the Bastards.

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Speaker 1: Have never heard of it?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, no, it's a show about bad people. Why would

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Speaker 2: anyone listen to a show about bad people that doesn't

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Speaker 2: make anything idea? I like that show a lot. And

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Speaker 2: I was listening to the fact that a fascist invented

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Speaker 2: stand up comedy, and I thought, well, our side has

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Speaker 2: invented a bunch of really weird things too. Yeah, so

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Speaker 2: today I'd rather talk about table soccer than fascism.

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Speaker 1: I love that. That's what you got from the Frank Fame episode.

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Speaker 1: You were like, that's us. What about good inventions?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so today and Wednesday we're gonna talk about two

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Speaker 2: different things invented by two different people, and people who

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Speaker 2: were involved in fighting for a better world who also

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Speaker 2: invented some stuff. And I want to start with table soccer, foosball.

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Speaker 2: You ever played table soccer?

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Speaker 3: I have? But before that, can I just say like,

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Speaker 3: I've been thinking a ton about inventions recently, Okay, like

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Speaker 3: it's just been on my mind because I'm trying to

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Speaker 3: make some new shows for Kaleidoscope. And one of the

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Speaker 3: things I used to watch as a kid was between cartoons.

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Speaker 3: Sometimes they had this show with this guy named doctor

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Speaker 3: Fad who had invented I don't know if you remember

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Speaker 3: this or if you're too young, but there was like

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Speaker 3: a wacky WallWalker, which was this like spider, this globby

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Speaker 3: spider that you would throw at at glass and it

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Speaker 3: would slowly walk. Yeah, yeah, And so he made like

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Speaker 3: millions of dollars on this. He used to come in

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Speaker 3: like cereal boxes and stuff like that the prize, and

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Speaker 3: then he had this inventions show on Saturday mornings, and

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Speaker 3: so like he'd tell you like the history of the

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Speaker 3: skateboard or like these other things, and then he'd bring

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Speaker 3: on kid inventors.

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Speaker 2: One of our subjects today was a kid inventor.

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Speaker 1: I remember doctor Fad.

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Speaker 3: He was so cool, but it made me and my

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Speaker 3: friends try to make like a Rube Goldberg machine that

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Speaker 3: would fry an egg for us, and you know, we

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Speaker 3: just broke a lot of eggs. But it was just

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Speaker 3: like fun. And you know, today like every kid wants

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Speaker 3: to be like a coder or they're like vibe coding

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Speaker 3: or whatever. Influence and stuff like that versus like like

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Speaker 3: actually putting things together and playing and making things and

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Speaker 3: so like, I've been thinking about inventions a lot, so

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Speaker 3: I love that this is the topic.

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Speaker 2: I'm so glad because when I was a kid, I

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Speaker 2: loved the little weird books that were like wacky inventions.

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Speaker 2: And it's the guy who invented the hat where it

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Speaker 2: doffs itself so that if you see something, if a

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Speaker 2: doff your cap but you're holding your groceries, you can

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Speaker 2: like nod in your hat doffs you know, I remember

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Speaker 2: that one really clearly.

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Speaker 3: That's so great.

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Speaker 2: That's basically we're talking about about the anti fascist version

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Speaker 2: of this. There was this long list that I could

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Speaker 2: have gotten to. There's like weird connections to all kinds

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Speaker 2: of things, including the the technical, like a if you

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Speaker 2: put a machine gun in the back of a pickup truck.

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Speaker 2: This was invented by anarchists in Ukraine during the Russian

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Speaker 2: Civil War. It's called the tachanka. Oh we're not covering

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Speaker 2: that one. I had this whole long list and then

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Speaker 2: there was like negative ones that like our side invented,

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Speaker 2: like the car bomb, but instead I went with table

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Speaker 2: soccer airmail. Just to spoil the second one.

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Speaker 3: Well, I have played table soccer. I really love it,

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Speaker 3: and so I'm excited to hear about the origin.

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Speaker 2: Hell yeah, I didn't play it a lot as a kid,

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Speaker 2: but when I would spend time in like squats in Europe,

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Speaker 2: it was a big deal, a very serious thing. People

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Speaker 2: took it very seriously, and unfortunately I sort of lied

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Speaker 2: when I said I wasn't gona talk about fascism this

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Speaker 2: week because the reason we have table football, and I'm

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Speaker 2: gonna call it table football from here on out, because

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Speaker 2: I've spent enough time in the not United States that

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Speaker 2: football is clearly the appropriate word. I hate to be like, no,

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Speaker 2: it's Barcelona, but like, I hate to be that way,

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Speaker 2: but football is clearly the right word for the game

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Speaker 2: that the entire rest of the world plays, where you

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Speaker 2: kick the ball with your feet.

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Speaker 3: I like the idea that for the rest of this transcript,

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Speaker 3: all the words will have extra use in the.

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Speaker 2: Yeahs, Yeah, I'm gonna talk about Napoli instead of people.

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Speaker 2: But it's football, it's table football, perfect. Fine, How would

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Speaker 2: you even make a table football of American football would

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Speaker 2: be terrible. So the reason we have table football is

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Speaker 2: because of anti fascism, and the reason we have anti

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Speaker 2: fascism is because Mussolini went and invented fascism. And unfortunately,

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Speaker 2: if we're going to acknowledge all the shit that the

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Speaker 2: left invented, I'm gonna be brutally honest here for a

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Speaker 2: second and say that that list includes fascism. Fascism is

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Speaker 2: not a left wing ideology. It is not. It has

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Speaker 2: always been a right wing ideology. It's just the thing

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Speaker 2: that distinguishes fascism from traditional conservatism is that it takes

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Speaker 2: revolutionary ideas and strategies from the left and applies it

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Speaker 2: to right wing politics. This is what Mussolini was doing.

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Speaker 2: And Mussolini was raised a leftist and spent the early

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Speaker 2: period of his life a leftist. His parents were involved

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Speaker 2: in Italian nationalism, which was a left wing cause, and anarchism,

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Speaker 2: which was a left wing cause. Mussolini himself became a socialist.

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Speaker 2: I oh, just to warn you, I really like context

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Speaker 2: in this show so in order to talk about table soccer,

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Speaker 2: I have to talk about the invention of fascism. But

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Speaker 2: we'll get to table soccer. Oh no, I said, I'd

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Speaker 2: call it football.

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Speaker 1: Fuck already, fucking it up, magpie already.

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Speaker 2: I can't do it.

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Speaker 1: In America too long.

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Speaker 2: I know, I know, it's like born here or something.

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Speaker 2: And so Mussolini was a socialist for a long time,

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Speaker 2: but he realized he liked all the fiery rhetoric of socialism,

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Speaker 2: but he hated all that everyone should take care of

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Speaker 2: each other and be nice and equal and all that stuff.

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Speaker 2: So he invented fascism. That was the little domino that

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Speaker 2: gets pushed over to the big important domino of foosball

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Speaker 2: at the end of the chain. Right, that's the main

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Speaker 2: thing that happened with fascism because one guy who liked

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Speaker 2: fascism and was a dictator of Spain was named Francisco Franco.

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Speaker 2: And it's worth knowing that if you name your kid

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Speaker 2: Francisco Franco, I just why would you give your kid

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Speaker 2: the same name twice? Why would you name your kid

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Speaker 2: John Johnson. I don't know. It just doesn't seem like

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Speaker 2: you're setting them up for success. I don't think that

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Speaker 2: this is why Franco turned out the way he did.

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Speaker 1: But one of the greatest people I knew was named

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Speaker 1: Mark Markuson.

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Speaker 2: Oh really, yeah, I feel like, what's wrong with your parents?

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Speaker 1: I think they named him William, but he went by Mark,

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Speaker 1: so it was a self choice. Oh okay, Oh, but

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Speaker 1: he was Mark Markerson and he was a wonderful man

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Speaker 1: and he was very kind to my father.

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Speaker 2: So I guess I am a big believer and you

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Speaker 2: can name yourself whatever you want. I am too, So

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Speaker 2: all right, I take it back. Franco's problem is that

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Speaker 2: he's a fascist.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, nothing is.

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Speaker 2: The same name. Twice, take it back. You ever heard

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Speaker 2: of the Spanish Civil War? This is the trick question

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Speaker 2: of the show.

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Speaker 3: Basically, tell me, okay, tell me all about it. I'm

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Speaker 3: here for all right.

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Speaker 2: Spanish Civil War I've covered I have more times on

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Speaker 2: this show than I should should have because it's one

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Speaker 2: of the most important fascist versus anti fascist fights in history.

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Speaker 2: It's like the little precursor to World War Two in

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Speaker 2: a lot of ways, and it is remarkably relevant today.

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Speaker 2: I'm sad to say the way in which the Spanish

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Speaker 2: Civil War played out and the shortest version is that

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Speaker 2: Spain had a brand new republic. It had democracy and

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Speaker 2: all of that, and the far right wasn't happy about that.

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Speaker 2: So this general named John Johnson, sorry Francisco Franco, tried

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Speaker 2: to stage a coup and he was like, all right,

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Speaker 2: I'm taking over. We can't have all this democracy nonsense.

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Speaker 2: I'm in charge now again irrelevant to today, and he lost.

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Speaker 2: Franco lost this coup because scrappy militias made out of

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Speaker 2: a narcosyndicalists and the local cops basically worked together. No

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Speaker 2: one likes to admit that particular team up, and they

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Speaker 2: stopped the coup in its tracks. The workers were armed

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Speaker 2: and they stopped the coup. It became a long drawn

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Speaker 2: out civil war with a revolution nestled inside of it,

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Speaker 2: and basically organized labor delayed fascism for years, and I

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Speaker 2: think that is a thing worth looking at as we

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Speaker 2: look at the modern world. One of the big parts

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Speaker 2: of the civil war is that the capital city, Madrid,

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Speaker 2: was under siege by fascists for years. This is the

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Speaker 2: context that's going to lead to foosball. Madrid is under

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Speaker 2: and a bunch of people lived in Madrid, including a

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Speaker 2: strange teenaged poet named Alejandro Fistade. His last name, which

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Speaker 2: he picked for himself, means the end of the world,

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Speaker 2: which is a name that goes hard. He also picked

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Speaker 2: it because he's from a town called Finistade, so it

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Speaker 2: wasn't like a I'm still here for when people name

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Speaker 2: themselves the end of the.

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Speaker 3: World, right right.

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Speaker 2: Alejandro was an anarchist communist. He was also a businessman.

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Speaker 2: He was an inventor. He was an adventurer. He was

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Speaker 2: an anti fascist spy. He was an exile. He was

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Speaker 2: a hijacker. He was the emperor of poetry publishing according

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Speaker 2: to a bunch of people by the end of his life.

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Speaker 2: And he is just a fucking interesting man. I went

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Speaker 2: into this being like, oh, yeah, the guy I'm been

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Speaker 2: a table soccer I've like heard him.

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Speaker 3: You know, that's unbelievable.

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Speaker 2: At some point he's gonna have a monopoly on slot

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Speaker 2: machines in a country. But we'll get there. There is

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Speaker 2: not a ton about al Jhanna thrown English, and some

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Speaker 2: of what is available in English is contradictory, and so

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Speaker 2: I'm relying on several article length biographies, like his obituary

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Speaker 2: in the Guardian as well as machine translations of various

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Speaker 2: Spanish sources, which is not usually what I do. So

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Speaker 2: I just kind of want to admit that there's gonna

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Speaker 2: be some machine translated sources, and those sources that people

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Speaker 2: can look at, well, they don't have to look at

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Speaker 2: the machine translations. That if you speak Spanish better than

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Speaker 2: I do, you can just read it. But this is

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Speaker 2: the best I can stitch together about this interesting man's life,

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Speaker 2: that every version of it is contradictory to every other version.

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Speaker 2: And the first thing that happened in this man's life

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Speaker 2: was that he had to go to ads. It happened

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Speaker 2: as soon as he was born, just immediately upon being born,

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Speaker 2: immediate ad break. He had an ad break, yep, just

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Speaker 2: like us. And so in honor of that pivotal moment

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Speaker 2: of his life, his baptism as it were, into now,

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Speaker 2: this guy wouldn't have been a podcaster. He would have

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Speaker 2: been a poetry pot podcaster and no one would have listened.

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Speaker 2: So funny, there's probably poetry podcasts anyway, here's ads and Rebecca.

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Speaker 2: Alejandro was born Alejandro Campas Ramirez on May sixth, nineteen nineteen.

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Speaker 2: He was one of ten kids, which is to say

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Speaker 2: that Spain is a Catholic country, and he was raised

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Speaker 2: by a lighthouse keeper in Galicia, which is in the

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Speaker 2: northwest of Spain, up there above Portugal. The lighthouse was

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Speaker 2: in a town called Finnistade the end of the World,

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Speaker 2: and his family was apparently well to do. His father

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Speaker 2: was a radio operator for the lighthouse, and it was

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Speaker 2: like this like hard to get job. His father, the

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Speaker 2: lighthouse keeper, decided to become a shoemaker. Also, maybe he

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Speaker 2: comes from a long line of shoemakers, but some of

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Speaker 2: the articles are literally like, we don't understand how this

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Speaker 2: can be true. Anyway, whatever, he's a shoemaker and a

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Speaker 2: lighthouse keeper and a radio operator and they move into

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Speaker 2: the city when Alejandro's five. His father, I believe, is

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Speaker 2: fairly conservative and once turned his kid in to the

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Speaker 2: police for stealing a gold bracelet. I can't imagine turning

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Speaker 2: my kid into the police.

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Speaker 3: But also I know that feels traumatizing.

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Speaker 2: I know watching this kid turns out fine, So I'm like,

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Speaker 2: it doesn't you know this was like a Mastard's episode.

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Speaker 2: You'd be like, and that's where it all went. No, like,

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Speaker 2: it turns out great. When Alejandro is fifteen, he went

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Speaker 2: to Madrid to study basically the equivalent of high school,

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Speaker 2: but his father's business goes bankrupt. The shoemaking shoes aren't shoemaking,

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Speaker 2: and in order to stay in school, he has to

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Speaker 2: start working as a teacher's assistant in the school, he's

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Speaker 2: like grading younger kid's papers. He also works as a bricklayer.

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Speaker 2: He works as a type setter and a tap dancer.

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Speaker 2: Because I didn't even mention that this man is going

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Speaker 2: to write ballets and do ballet.

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Speaker 1: It's amazing.

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Speaker 2: This man is one of the most jack of ball.

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Speaker 2: I think a lot of inventors are jack of all trades.

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Speaker 2: If you're a jack of all trades, are stuck being

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Speaker 2: a writer, a podcast or an inventor. I think the

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Speaker 2: other thing he does for money is he starts a

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Speaker 2: literary journal and sells copies of poetry magazines, which I'm

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Speaker 2: you know, honestly, that probably actually was better business one

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Speaker 2: hundred years ago. He starts a literary journal alongside this

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Speaker 2: major literary figure in Spain who is not yet a

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Speaker 2: major literary figure in Spain, and an anarchist named Leon

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Speaker 2: Felipe and another friend, and they're selling copies of a

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Speaker 2: paper called Paso a la Juventud Step to Youth, and

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Speaker 2: I think it's I actually can't figure out what it means.

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Speaker 2: I tried several times to figure out exactly what they

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Speaker 2: mean by that, but it's a paper like a like, hey,

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Speaker 2: step up, let's be radicals. He's part of this radical,

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Speaker 2: you know, art movement that's going on, and he's mostly

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Speaker 2: remembered for inventing table soccer. But his own recollection of

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Speaker 2: his life is about poetry, and it's actually not about

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Speaker 2: his own poetry. He's very like I'm a mediocre poet.

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Speaker 2: He's really into promoting other people's poetry. And then the

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Speaker 2: war breaks out, that whole coup thing, right, and he's

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Speaker 2: and he's living in Madrid and the fascists are trying

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Speaker 2: to seize Madrid. It's the capital, it's the place to seize.

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Speaker 2: And the fascists have tens of thousands of trained armed soldiers,

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Speaker 2: mostly from the colonies, and they've got Nazi tank units

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Speaker 2: and they've got Nazi bombers and all this shit. And

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Speaker 2: the Republicans, the people who want the republic to continue

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Speaker 2: with democracy and all of that. I love the Spanish

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Speaker 2: Civil War because literally every definition is just like the

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Speaker 2: opposite of you know, the Republicans are the leftists. The

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Speaker 2: Republicans holding the city have the numerical advantage, but it's

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Speaker 2: mostly cops and labor unions, and they're mostly armed with rifles,

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Speaker 2: and the labor unions are mostly anarchists. They're in the

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Speaker 2: CNT and they only got armed very very recently because

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Speaker 2: the government for some weird reason didn't want to give

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Speaker 2: out tens of thousands of rifles to anarchists. This is

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Speaker 2: the weirdest war. I can't find confirmation that Alejandro was

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Speaker 2: part of the fighting. Everything about the story always implies

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Speaker 2: that he was, and everything about his personality and his

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Speaker 2: actions I believe he was. He was only seventeen, so

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Speaker 2: who knows. The fighting when they try to take Madrid,

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Speaker 2: it's later going to be a long drawn out siege,

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Speaker 2: but when they just like try to storm and take it.

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Speaker 2: The fighting goes on for eleven days in November nineteen

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Speaker 2: thirty six, from November eighth to November nineteenth. And this

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Speaker 2: is some of the most cinematic dramatic war fighting I've

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Speaker 2: ever heard about. You have well trained soldiers being driven

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Speaker 2: back by this scrappy and unlikely coalition that keeps falling

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Speaker 2: apart to infighting because it's leftists. At one point, the

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Speaker 2: Republican general like all the troops are like failing and

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Speaker 2: starting to run away, and the Republican general just like

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Speaker 2: walks out with a pistol in his hand and he's like,

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Speaker 2: I'm going to stand here and die, you know. And

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Speaker 2: so everyone rallies and they push out the Nazis while

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Speaker 2: the fascist the Nazis are well, the Nazis are there too, actually,

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Speaker 2: and they push them back and they win. Along the way,

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Speaker 2: nineteen hundred internationalist forces from all over the world show

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Speaker 2: up to boost morale, including plenty of German socialists who

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Speaker 2: are like, we don't like the whole Nazi thing. We

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Speaker 2: are absolutely here to fight against the Nazis. And you've

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Speaker 2: got people from all sorts of countries fighting on both

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Speaker 2: sides of this battle. There's like a whole thing that

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Speaker 2: doesn't get talked about enough that I want to do

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Speaker 2: more about. Where like a lot of the nationalist forces

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Speaker 2: were like African forces from the colonies, but then there

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Speaker 2: were also like African forces in the Republican side, and

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Speaker 2: they don't get talked about as much, and like it's

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Speaker 2: it's so messy. This is my no one who's listening

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Speaker 2: to surprise by this, this is my like Roman Empire thing.

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Speaker 3: I mean, it's fascinating. Why were people so invested from

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Speaker 3: the rest of the world.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, this was the first war against fascism. So you

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Speaker 2: have this where basically everyone expects the Western democracies to

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Speaker 2: step up and go fight, right, France, England, the UK,

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Speaker 2: Oh sorry France, the UK and America. People are like, oh, well,

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Speaker 2: of course, we're not going to let fascism take over, right,

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Speaker 2: We're going to defend the republic. And instead the only

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Speaker 2: two countries that send material aid are the USSR in

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Speaker 2: Mexico and the USSR Stalin. So he does it really

390
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Speaker 2: badly and he tries to control everything. And so you

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Speaker 2: have all of these socialists that like, you've just had

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Speaker 2: this Popular Front government elected in France, where basically the

393
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Speaker 2: entire left, from liberals to progressives to everyone is like,

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Speaker 2: we just don't want fascism, so we will vote It's

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Speaker 2: like the blue no matter who, only it's much it's

396
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Speaker 2: not Democrats, you know, it's like much more radical. And

397
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Speaker 2: everyone's like, we're going to stop fascism by whatever means.

398
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Speaker 2: And so we have this popular Front government in France.

399
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Speaker 2: Everyone's like, of course that we're going to go fight,

400
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Speaker 2: and instead what they do is that the Western powers

401
00:21:03,440 --> 00:21:05,760
Speaker 2: put an embargo on Spain where they're like, no one

402
00:21:05,800 --> 00:21:09,840
Speaker 2: can help either side, and that means helping the fascists.

403
00:21:10,480 --> 00:21:15,360
Speaker 2: And everyone was really disappointed. So thousands of people, including

404
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Speaker 2: George Orwell's kind of the most famous English language person.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I remember like driving an ambulance or something, right, or.

406
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Speaker 2: Like Hemingway wrote it, drove an ambulance Hemingway or Well

407
00:21:26,720 --> 00:21:30,960
Speaker 2: through grenades at fascists. It got shot through the neck. Oh,

408
00:21:31,040 --> 00:21:34,040
Speaker 2: him and his wife had to escape Spain because the

409
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Speaker 2: Stalinists were after them in the end. And this is

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Speaker 2: part of why this man hated the USSR, is that

411
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Speaker 2: he went to go kill fascists and had to flee

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Speaker 2: the communists.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that's crazy.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. So when nineteen hundred internationalist forces show up, everyone's like,

415
00:21:51,760 --> 00:21:55,399
Speaker 2: it's not enough troops to change the tide, right, But

416
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Speaker 2: it's like we're not alone, you know, even though we're

417
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Speaker 2: cut off from the rest of the world, you know,

418
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Speaker 2: here we are. And then the last unit to show

419
00:22:04,520 --> 00:22:07,000
Speaker 2: up to try to break this siege was four thousand

420
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Speaker 2: anarchists from the Drudi column. Who is this anarchist general

421
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Speaker 2: and former bank robber Buenaventuida Deruti, And he's killed in

422
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Speaker 2: the fighting, possibly by friendly fire, possibly he was assassinated

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Speaker 2: by the communists. People will argue about this until the

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Speaker 2: sun devours the earth, and either way is honestly possible.

425
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Speaker 2: So all these people show up to help break the

426
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Speaker 2: siege and they defend the city, and the fascists fail

427
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Speaker 2: to take Madrid, which means that the civil war and

428
00:22:33,280 --> 00:22:35,879
Speaker 2: the anti fascists are right when they come together to

429
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Speaker 2: fight in Spain, because this drags the civil war out

430
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Speaker 2: for years, which means by the time that Franco takes power,

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Speaker 2: just as World War two is about to kick off,

432
00:22:46,119 --> 00:22:50,520
Speaker 2: Spain is fucking wrecked by war. So Franco is all

433
00:22:50,600 --> 00:22:52,360
Speaker 2: the incentive in the world to stay the fuck out

434
00:22:52,359 --> 00:22:55,000
Speaker 2: of World War Two. He's like, yeah, I no, I

435
00:22:55,040 --> 00:22:57,040
Speaker 2: get it. I don't want to lose any more than

436
00:22:57,080 --> 00:23:00,439
Speaker 2: I already have, which means, in an indirect way, I

437
00:23:00,520 --> 00:23:03,840
Speaker 2: really like drawing grand conclusions about butterflies flapping their wings

438
00:23:03,840 --> 00:23:07,120
Speaker 2: and then saving the world from fascism. In this indirect way,

439
00:23:07,240 --> 00:23:10,159
Speaker 2: the people who defended Madrid for eleven days in November

440
00:23:10,280 --> 00:23:14,080
Speaker 2: nineteen thirty nine, helped every single one of us who

441
00:23:14,119 --> 00:23:17,000
Speaker 2: isn't living under Nazi control right now. The reason I

442
00:23:17,040 --> 00:23:19,000
Speaker 2: like thinking about that is that I like thinking about

443
00:23:19,040 --> 00:23:21,000
Speaker 2: how we all have this role to play, even if

444
00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:24,480
Speaker 2: it's just like I don't want my town to be

445
00:23:24,560 --> 00:23:28,320
Speaker 2: taken over by fascist forces, which again only happened in

446
00:23:28,359 --> 00:23:30,560
Speaker 2: the nineteen thirties, but like, if it were to happen now,

447
00:23:30,560 --> 00:23:33,560
Speaker 2: it would probably be important for people to prevent that from happening.

448
00:23:34,560 --> 00:23:37,840
Speaker 2: Fights that seem smaller opten much larger than we realize

449
00:23:38,000 --> 00:23:40,080
Speaker 2: is the thing that I like about reading about this

450
00:23:40,160 --> 00:23:40,959
Speaker 2: battle in Madrid.

451
00:23:41,440 --> 00:23:43,800
Speaker 3: I like that too. I like the idea of people's

452
00:23:43,960 --> 00:23:47,879
Speaker 3: fights and struggles like meaning something right, there's something really

453
00:23:47,960 --> 00:23:48,720
Speaker 3: nice about that.

454
00:23:48,720 --> 00:23:51,639
Speaker 2: And you never know what it's going to be, you know,

455
00:23:51,920 --> 00:23:56,160
Speaker 2: you never know, Like every single political struggle that I've

456
00:23:56,160 --> 00:23:57,800
Speaker 2: covered in the show, you have all of these tiny

457
00:23:57,880 --> 00:24:01,760
Speaker 2: little things, and sometimes they're like the thing that matters,

458
00:24:01,800 --> 00:24:06,120
Speaker 2: you know. So the fascist fail to take Madrid, and

459
00:24:06,680 --> 00:24:08,639
Speaker 2: so instead of being like, all right, find whatever, I

460
00:24:08,680 --> 00:24:11,040
Speaker 2: guess you don't want fascism, No, they just bomb the

461
00:24:11,040 --> 00:24:12,679
Speaker 2: shit out of the city. And it's one of the

462
00:24:12,680 --> 00:24:17,640
Speaker 2: first like aerial bombardments of a civilian population in history

463
00:24:18,080 --> 00:24:20,960
Speaker 2: is the bombing of Madrid. I'm willing to bet because

464
00:24:20,960 --> 00:24:23,000
Speaker 2: the thing I read said one of the first. I'm

465
00:24:23,000 --> 00:24:25,760
Speaker 2: willing to bet that that means that probably Western democracies

466
00:24:25,760 --> 00:24:28,639
Speaker 2: did that to colonies before that. That's my assumption, but

467
00:24:28,720 --> 00:24:31,879
Speaker 2: I don't know. And so Nazi planes are dropping bombs

468
00:24:31,920 --> 00:24:34,800
Speaker 2: over every part of the city except the richest neighborhoods

469
00:24:35,520 --> 00:24:39,120
Speaker 2: where more of the fascist sympathizers live, so they don't

470
00:24:39,119 --> 00:24:42,120
Speaker 2: bomb that area, and they bomb everywhere else. And this

471
00:24:42,400 --> 00:24:46,280
Speaker 2: I believe is when our seventeen year old poet who

472
00:24:46,640 --> 00:24:50,840
Speaker 2: tap dances and is trying to go to school, his

473
00:24:50,960 --> 00:24:52,280
Speaker 2: house falls on top of him.

474
00:24:52,640 --> 00:24:54,000
Speaker 1: Oh my god.

475
00:24:54,240 --> 00:24:56,439
Speaker 2: Yeah, it could have been earlier in the fighting, but

476
00:24:56,560 --> 00:24:59,480
Speaker 2: he is crushed by the rubble of his own house.

477
00:25:00,680 --> 00:25:03,320
Speaker 2: And the most likely moment is the four days of bombing.

478
00:25:03,720 --> 00:25:10,040
Speaker 2: He survives a fucking house falling on him, which is impressive, unbelievable. Yeah, yeah,

479
00:25:10,119 --> 00:25:12,080
Speaker 2: I would be seventeen. Again. I don't know. I mean,

480
00:25:12,080 --> 00:25:16,240
Speaker 2: it's also just luck, but like he's very badly wounded

481
00:25:16,680 --> 00:25:20,040
Speaker 2: and he's taken first to I've tried so much to

482
00:25:20,080 --> 00:25:25,080
Speaker 2: figure out how the siege affected getting medical refugees out

483
00:25:25,119 --> 00:25:27,760
Speaker 2: of the city, and I don't know, and I'm frustrated.

484
00:25:27,760 --> 00:25:29,439
Speaker 2: But there's so many books written about this conflict, and

485
00:25:29,440 --> 00:25:31,920
Speaker 2: I've only read so many of them. So he's taken

486
00:25:31,960 --> 00:25:34,280
Speaker 2: it first to Valencia on the coast, and then further

487
00:25:34,440 --> 00:25:37,240
Speaker 2: up into Catalonia, which is the northeastern part of Spain,

488
00:25:37,280 --> 00:25:39,280
Speaker 2: although if you live in Catalonia you're mad that I've

489
00:25:39,280 --> 00:25:41,840
Speaker 2: called it part of Spain, because it does not want

490
00:25:41,880 --> 00:25:45,760
Speaker 2: to be part of Spain. Catalonia is an anarchist hands

491
00:25:45,760 --> 00:25:48,600
Speaker 2: at this point, the CNT the labor unions have taken

492
00:25:48,680 --> 00:25:52,040
Speaker 2: over the region and are trying to run things basically

493
00:25:52,160 --> 00:25:54,520
Speaker 2: from each according to ability, to each according to need,

494
00:25:55,680 --> 00:25:59,159
Speaker 2: and theoretically the decisions are being made democratically from the

495
00:25:59,160 --> 00:26:03,880
Speaker 2: bottom up. There's whatever a revolution. So this is where

496
00:26:03,920 --> 00:26:07,560
Speaker 2: he shows up, and he's now in revolutionary Catalonia, recovering

497
00:26:07,600 --> 00:26:10,360
Speaker 2: in a hospital I believe for wounded children because he's

498
00:26:10,359 --> 00:26:14,920
Speaker 2: seventeen years old, and he looks around and he goes

499
00:26:16,320 --> 00:26:19,040
Speaker 2: all of these kids, they just wish they were out

500
00:26:19,040 --> 00:26:24,520
Speaker 2: playing football and they can't because they're wounded. So he

501
00:26:24,600 --> 00:26:29,919
Speaker 2: invents football in table football. Little guys on rods on

502
00:26:29,960 --> 00:26:32,359
Speaker 2: a table that kick a ball when you spin the rods.

503
00:26:33,119 --> 00:26:34,119
Speaker 3: That is incredible.

504
00:26:34,280 --> 00:26:37,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, he does it within like a month of showing

505
00:26:37,080 --> 00:26:41,240
Speaker 2: up there because he's wounded in November, and by Christmas

506
00:26:41,240 --> 00:26:47,640
Speaker 2: they're all playing fucking foosball together. And there's a bunch

507
00:26:47,680 --> 00:26:50,600
Speaker 2: of different versions of table soccer, and some of them

508
00:26:50,640 --> 00:26:52,720
Speaker 2: came before his, but his is the main one that's

509
00:26:52,720 --> 00:26:56,000
Speaker 2: around today. When he's trying to invent this thing, he

510
00:26:56,000 --> 00:27:00,240
Speaker 2: gets another refugee, a Bosque carpenter named Francisco Javier Altuna,

511
00:27:00,280 --> 00:27:03,919
Speaker 2: to make the table and the figures, and then Alejandro

512
00:27:04,080 --> 00:27:07,320
Speaker 2: patents it at the start of nineteen thirty seven, which yeah,

513
00:27:07,520 --> 00:27:09,720
Speaker 2: means that he's invented it enough to patent it within

514
00:27:10,359 --> 00:27:14,439
Speaker 2: two months of getting his own house. I believe dropped

515
00:27:14,440 --> 00:27:17,959
Speaker 2: on him and it was the local leader of the CNT,

516
00:27:18,320 --> 00:27:21,159
Speaker 2: the labor union who encouraged him to patent it. And

517
00:27:21,240 --> 00:27:23,680
Speaker 2: all the kids who were disabled by war get to

518
00:27:23,680 --> 00:27:27,360
Speaker 2: play football together. And it wasn't even the first thing

519
00:27:27,359 --> 00:27:31,680
Speaker 2: he invented in the hospital. But yeah, so another invention

520
00:27:31,760 --> 00:27:33,080
Speaker 2: that he made a bunch of money off of his

521
00:27:33,240 --> 00:27:36,800
Speaker 2: entire life when he's seventeen, he had a crush on

522
00:27:36,800 --> 00:27:41,600
Speaker 2: one of the nurses named Nuria, and Nuria was a pianist,

523
00:27:41,840 --> 00:27:45,159
Speaker 2: and so he invented the first foot operated page turner

524
00:27:45,200 --> 00:27:47,960
Speaker 2: for sheet music in order to impress her.

525
00:27:52,840 --> 00:27:55,880
Speaker 3: That's amazing, I know, and I.

526
00:27:55,840 --> 00:27:59,800
Speaker 2: Have no idea like that is I want a movie

527
00:28:00,280 --> 00:28:04,959
Speaker 2: this guy so badly, and this is the start of

528
00:28:05,000 --> 00:28:06,560
Speaker 2: his fucking life.

529
00:28:06,800 --> 00:28:10,800
Speaker 3: So it's also insane that, like at seventeen, he's done

530
00:28:10,800 --> 00:28:13,640
Speaker 3: all this stuff right, Like he started a poetry magazine

531
00:28:13,720 --> 00:28:17,160
Speaker 3: or whatever, revolutionary like all these things and.

532
00:28:17,440 --> 00:28:20,560
Speaker 2: Helped save the world from fascism potentially. I actually again

533
00:28:20,680 --> 00:28:22,400
Speaker 2: did not know whether he fought one way or the other.

534
00:28:22,440 --> 00:28:24,480
Speaker 2: But he is going to be fleeing from the fascists

535
00:28:24,480 --> 00:28:26,159
Speaker 2: the rest of his life, so like, well, actually he

536
00:28:26,200 --> 00:28:30,080
Speaker 2: outlives them, which is cool. But Franco wins the war

537
00:28:30,119 --> 00:28:32,720
Speaker 2: in nineteen thirty nine and all the Republicans and the

538
00:28:32,760 --> 00:28:35,080
Speaker 2: anarchists and the communists are forced to flee on foot

539
00:28:35,160 --> 00:28:38,120
Speaker 2: over the Pyrenees Mountains to get to France. We've covered

540
00:28:38,120 --> 00:28:40,000
Speaker 2: this a bunch before on the show. They were all

541
00:28:40,000 --> 00:28:42,880
Speaker 2: put into a French concentration camp before the Nazis took

542
00:28:42,920 --> 00:28:45,800
Speaker 2: over France. Some of them continued to cross back and

543
00:28:45,840 --> 00:28:49,320
Speaker 2: forth into Spain, trying to assassinate Franco and continue the fight.

544
00:28:50,080 --> 00:28:53,680
Speaker 2: Others knuckle down and become partisans fighting against the Nazis.

545
00:28:54,040 --> 00:28:56,959
Speaker 2: It's Spanish anarchists who roll the first tanks into Paris

546
00:28:57,000 --> 00:29:02,040
Speaker 2: to liberate it from the Nazis. Alejandro crosses the mountains

547
00:29:02,080 --> 00:29:04,880
Speaker 2: on foot, despite the fact that his leg never fully healed,

548
00:29:06,160 --> 00:29:07,760
Speaker 2: and one version of the story is he did it

549
00:29:07,760 --> 00:29:09,720
Speaker 2: as soon as Franco took power, and another is that

550
00:29:09,760 --> 00:29:12,800
Speaker 2: he did it years later. And I don't fucking know.

551
00:29:12,880 --> 00:29:16,600
Speaker 2: I think he might have done it multiple times, I whatever.

552
00:29:17,360 --> 00:29:20,120
Speaker 2: While he's crossing the mountains, he says, all I had

553
00:29:20,160 --> 00:29:23,960
Speaker 2: with me was a can of sardines, the patent papers

554
00:29:23,960 --> 00:29:28,480
Speaker 2: on my inventions, and two plays he had written again,

555
00:29:28,720 --> 00:29:32,200
Speaker 2: probably seventeen years old, or he doesn't flee until nineteen

556
00:29:32,240 --> 00:29:37,680
Speaker 2: forty seven. I've read both. In France, he writes ballets,

557
00:29:37,960 --> 00:29:40,960
Speaker 2: most of them are based on Galician folklore. He becomes

558
00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:44,959
Speaker 2: a fairly famous folklorist during his time in France, and

559
00:29:46,280 --> 00:29:47,840
Speaker 2: the story is about what happened to him in the

560
00:29:47,920 --> 00:29:50,800
Speaker 2: nineteen forties. This is the most contradictory part it seems

561
00:29:50,800 --> 00:29:53,040
Speaker 2: that he went to France, he came back because he

562
00:29:53,160 --> 00:29:56,320
Speaker 2: was broke. He was conscripted into the Francoist army in

563
00:29:56,360 --> 00:29:59,360
Speaker 2: the colonies, but he served four years in prison in

564
00:29:59,440 --> 00:30:04,000
Speaker 2: Morocco rather than actually serve in the military. Somewhere along

565
00:30:04,040 --> 00:30:06,480
Speaker 2: the way, he marries a woman, has a kid, The

566
00:30:06,600 --> 00:30:09,360
Speaker 2: kid dies young, and by the end of the nineteen

567
00:30:09,400 --> 00:30:14,600
Speaker 2: forties he's back in Paris. In France, one of his

568
00:30:14,640 --> 00:30:17,400
Speaker 2: old friends from the hospital had sold table soccer to

569
00:30:17,440 --> 00:30:21,800
Speaker 2: a French company. So Alejandro is actually, actually I patented that.

570
00:30:21,800 --> 00:30:24,840
Speaker 2: That's why it's so important that, oh the rain destroyed

571
00:30:24,840 --> 00:30:27,000
Speaker 2: his patent papers. I don't remember if I said that,

572
00:30:27,840 --> 00:30:30,080
Speaker 2: Oh no, that's crazy. So he's crossing and he's like,

573
00:30:30,080 --> 00:30:34,120
Speaker 2: oh the rain destroyed it, or he's a liar. I

574
00:30:34,160 --> 00:30:36,000
Speaker 2: actually believe him about all this shit.

575
00:30:36,880 --> 00:30:40,040
Speaker 1: I kind of love when you're like or maybe.

576
00:30:39,600 --> 00:30:43,360
Speaker 2: Anyway, here's the problem with researching historical men is that, like,

577
00:30:43,400 --> 00:30:44,800
Speaker 2: you get all the way down and then you'll be like,

578
00:30:44,800 --> 00:30:47,960
Speaker 2: wait a second, this man's a liar. But I actually

579
00:30:48,560 --> 00:30:51,680
Speaker 2: I think that this because he wasn't self aggrandizing as

580
00:30:51,680 --> 00:30:52,400
Speaker 2: far as I can tell.

581
00:30:52,560 --> 00:30:56,560
Speaker 1: Can I give a disclaimer it's not just historical men.

582
00:30:57,520 --> 00:31:03,520
Speaker 2: What what? But we've had both feminism and me too.

583
00:31:03,600 --> 00:31:04,240
Speaker 1: Why howdy?

584
00:31:04,720 --> 00:31:09,160
Speaker 2: Oh well that I need some time to think about that. Yeah,

585
00:31:09,280 --> 00:31:12,040
Speaker 2: why don't we listen to ads and then when we

586
00:31:12,120 --> 00:31:20,920
Speaker 2: come back, we'll have solved patriarchy and we're back. All right,

587
00:31:21,280 --> 00:31:24,520
Speaker 2: Everyone have their notes about what's going to destroy patriarchy. Mango,

588
00:31:24,560 --> 00:31:27,320
Speaker 2: you can go first. Oh wait, no, you shouldn't have

589
00:31:27,360 --> 00:31:31,920
Speaker 2: to go first. You shouldn't go first anymore. That's right, Yeah, Sophie.

590
00:31:31,840 --> 00:31:33,600
Speaker 1: That's going to destroy patriarchy.

591
00:31:33,920 --> 00:31:35,880
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, we all join the ads. We ought to

592
00:31:36,160 --> 00:31:37,160
Speaker 2: solve this problem.

593
00:31:37,120 --> 00:31:39,720
Speaker 1: For some reason, because we're talking about sport things. The

594
00:31:39,760 --> 00:31:42,040
Speaker 1: first thing that came to my mind was Cocoa golf.

595
00:31:42,720 --> 00:31:45,040
Speaker 1: She's going to destroy patriarchy. You don't know who that is, No,

596
00:31:45,120 --> 00:31:45,400
Speaker 1: I have.

597
00:31:45,360 --> 00:31:48,280
Speaker 2: No idea, but I'm excited that she's going to destroy patriarchy.

598
00:31:48,440 --> 00:31:50,480
Speaker 1: She's a really awesome women's tennis player.

599
00:31:50,880 --> 00:31:53,120
Speaker 3: I think you're right, though, Sophia. I think women's sports

600
00:31:53,200 --> 00:31:56,800
Speaker 3: might be the key. I mean, like watching the liberty here,

601
00:31:57,040 --> 00:32:00,200
Speaker 3: like play, and like the excitement around. I mean we

602
00:32:00,240 --> 00:32:03,400
Speaker 3: were going a couple of years ago before, like tickets

603
00:32:03,400 --> 00:32:06,120
Speaker 3: were as expensive and they only have like the first

604
00:32:06,320 --> 00:32:08,800
Speaker 3: like tier available, and then they left the rest of

605
00:32:08,800 --> 00:32:11,600
Speaker 3: the stadium empty. But like, I never would have imagined that,

606
00:32:11,720 --> 00:32:16,400
Speaker 3: like my son would know all the like women basketball players,

607
00:32:16,440 --> 00:32:21,400
Speaker 3: like you know, and and your favorite. He really loves.

608
00:32:21,920 --> 00:32:24,360
Speaker 3: There's a new I forget what her name is. There's

609
00:32:24,360 --> 00:32:26,960
Speaker 3: like a new point guard that came. He also likes

610
00:32:27,160 --> 00:32:34,360
Speaker 3: Brianna Stewart. Yes, Stuart Stewie is Cloud Natasha Cloud.

611
00:32:34,560 --> 00:32:38,720
Speaker 1: Oh yeah yeah, yeah, like Sabrina. I love Sabrina.

612
00:32:38,920 --> 00:32:39,960
Speaker 3: Yeah, I like Serrina too.

613
00:32:40,160 --> 00:32:40,600
Speaker 1: So cool.

614
00:32:40,960 --> 00:32:45,520
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think that women's sports is the answer, and

615
00:32:45,560 --> 00:32:47,240
Speaker 2: I actually think tennis is a big part of it,

616
00:32:47,280 --> 00:32:50,400
Speaker 2: because isn't there something where like almost all men who

617
00:32:50,560 --> 00:32:53,160
Speaker 2: are surveyed think that they could score a point against

618
00:32:53,200 --> 00:32:57,840
Speaker 2: like the world's best like woman tennis player. Yes, well,

619
00:32:58,160 --> 00:33:03,680
Speaker 2: once they all lose, and then the ones who feel

620
00:33:03,800 --> 00:33:06,000
Speaker 2: really strongly about it, they can do the thing where

621
00:33:06,000 --> 00:33:07,920
Speaker 2: they think that they would win a fight against a bear,

622
00:33:09,400 --> 00:33:11,200
Speaker 2: and maybe all men who think that they would win

623
00:33:11,200 --> 00:33:14,200
Speaker 2: a fight against a bear have the opportunity. And I

624
00:33:14,240 --> 00:33:20,840
Speaker 2: think that would solve a lot of problems issues. I think, yeah, yeah, well,

625
00:33:21,680 --> 00:33:26,680
Speaker 2: I'm glad we solve that. During the ads, there see

626
00:33:26,920 --> 00:33:28,400
Speaker 2: people are like, why do you have ads, and like

627
00:33:28,760 --> 00:33:33,200
Speaker 2: major world issues solved, like my ability to have a

628
00:33:33,200 --> 00:33:38,120
Speaker 2: salary and feed my dog that too. So he gets

629
00:33:38,120 --> 00:33:40,760
Speaker 2: this money not from ad revenue but instead from patent

630
00:33:40,800 --> 00:33:43,320
Speaker 2: revenue from having a mentaled table football, which I tried

631
00:33:43,320 --> 00:33:45,080
Speaker 2: to do, but it turns out someone had already done it.

632
00:33:45,640 --> 00:33:45,960
Speaker 1: Wow.

633
00:33:46,400 --> 00:33:48,480
Speaker 2: He uses the money to move to Ecuador, and then

634
00:33:48,480 --> 00:33:53,080
Speaker 2: he heads to Guatemala and he starts working selling foosball tables.

635
00:33:53,120 --> 00:33:56,000
Speaker 2: He's working with indigenous folks to produce hand card versions

636
00:33:56,040 --> 00:33:58,920
Speaker 2: of the game he improves upon the original design. He

637
00:33:58,960 --> 00:34:02,200
Speaker 2: famously plays table soccer with Jae Gavara a bunch of times.

638
00:34:02,720 --> 00:34:05,320
Speaker 2: He mostly is into publishing a poetry journal. This is

639
00:34:05,440 --> 00:34:07,920
Speaker 2: the main thing he does instead of he's like, yeah, yeah, yeah,

640
00:34:07,960 --> 00:34:11,400
Speaker 2: sometimes I play foosball with Jegavarro. But he publishes a

641
00:34:11,400 --> 00:34:14,320
Speaker 2: poetry journal. Some articles say that it publishes mostly the

642
00:34:14,360 --> 00:34:18,759
Speaker 2: Spanish exiles, but I find another source more believable that

643
00:34:18,800 --> 00:34:20,759
Speaker 2: says that each issue focused on the poets from a

644
00:34:20,760 --> 00:34:24,759
Speaker 2: different country, and that I think maps much more with

645
00:34:25,160 --> 00:34:28,160
Speaker 2: what I understand about him. But he's involved in the

646
00:34:28,200 --> 00:34:33,320
Speaker 2: Republican diaspora from Spain. More directly because so many people

647
00:34:33,360 --> 00:34:35,720
Speaker 2: had to leave Spain. Franco had said, I am willing

648
00:34:35,760 --> 00:34:38,680
Speaker 2: to kill half of Spain to rule the other half. Wow,

649
00:34:39,480 --> 00:34:41,200
Speaker 2: which means that if you're the half, you gotta get

650
00:34:41,239 --> 00:34:46,120
Speaker 2: the fuck out of there. In the early fifties, Guatemala

651
00:34:46,160 --> 00:34:48,840
Speaker 2: was one of the countries that recognized the Spanish Republic

652
00:34:49,080 --> 00:34:51,719
Speaker 2: as the legitimate government in Spain, so they had an

653
00:34:51,760 --> 00:34:55,200
Speaker 2: ambassador still from the Spanish Republic, and at one point

654
00:34:55,280 --> 00:34:58,560
Speaker 2: Alejandro is like doing spy shit, transporting papers for him

655
00:34:58,600 --> 00:35:03,520
Speaker 2: to Mexico along the way. He's also apparently a businessman

656
00:35:04,040 --> 00:35:07,960
Speaker 2: who makes slot machines and is about to bid successfully

657
00:35:08,160 --> 00:35:13,280
Speaker 2: on the state monopoly on slot machines for the country.

658
00:35:16,520 --> 00:35:21,160
Speaker 2: So he's just such a like he's this total lefty,

659
00:35:21,239 --> 00:35:24,920
Speaker 2: but he's also this like go getter, like entrepreneur asshole.

660
00:35:25,040 --> 00:35:26,759
Speaker 2: I love him. I love him so much.

661
00:35:27,880 --> 00:35:29,919
Speaker 3: I know because you had me thinking he just has

662
00:35:29,960 --> 00:35:33,920
Speaker 3: his like heading the clouds when he's not playing table football,

663
00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:36,239
Speaker 3: he's like dreaming poetry and just.

664
00:35:36,440 --> 00:35:40,960
Speaker 2: No, this man's a steamer that he's scheming completely. Yeah,

665
00:35:41,000 --> 00:35:43,080
Speaker 2: And part of his scheming is how do I spy

666
00:35:43,480 --> 00:35:45,920
Speaker 2: for the Republic against the Francoists, and part of it

667
00:35:45,960 --> 00:35:51,040
Speaker 2: is like, all right, slot machines, let's go that's amazing.

668
00:35:51,120 --> 00:35:52,839
Speaker 2: Oh that would have been where I should have done

669
00:35:52,840 --> 00:35:55,439
Speaker 2: my ad. Oh well, so it goes.

670
00:35:56,080 --> 00:35:57,880
Speaker 1: I just really I just really want every time you

671
00:35:57,920 --> 00:35:59,719
Speaker 1: say slot machine for there to be like a.

672
00:36:03,040 --> 00:36:03,640
Speaker 2: Can you add that?

673
00:36:03,680 --> 00:36:06,839
Speaker 1: Can we have like a magpie coaching sound effect? Yeah,

674
00:36:06,880 --> 00:36:13,239
Speaker 1: it just seems so funny to me slot machine.

675
00:36:13,640 --> 00:36:16,359
Speaker 2: The CIA is in the US at the time, well,

676
00:36:16,360 --> 00:36:18,399
Speaker 2: they were kind of everywhere, and they're rubbing its hands.

677
00:36:18,400 --> 00:36:20,279
Speaker 2: It's rubbing its hands together, and it's like, I wonder

678
00:36:20,280 --> 00:36:23,480
Speaker 2: if we could overthrow democracy in Guatemala and institute a

679
00:36:23,560 --> 00:36:27,320
Speaker 2: right wing dictator, And unfortunately the answer to that question

680
00:36:27,440 --> 00:36:30,759
Speaker 2: was yes. In nineteen fifty four, there was a coup,

681
00:36:31,239 --> 00:36:34,799
Speaker 2: which means that Alejandro is on fascist takeover of a

682
00:36:34,800 --> 00:36:39,160
Speaker 2: country at least number three in his life, possibly more,

683
00:36:39,760 --> 00:36:42,520
Speaker 2: but at least three countries he has lived in have

684
00:36:42,800 --> 00:36:47,839
Speaker 2: fallen to the far right Spain, France, and Guatemala, and

685
00:36:47,880 --> 00:36:52,120
Speaker 2: Francoists decide to kidnap him, and most sources say this

686
00:36:52,160 --> 00:36:54,279
Speaker 2: is because he was working for the Republican government as

687
00:36:54,320 --> 00:36:57,399
Speaker 2: a spy. But I found one source that was like nah.

688
00:36:57,440 --> 00:37:03,360
Speaker 2: They wanted that slot machine money, and it was just

689
00:37:03,520 --> 00:37:05,359
Speaker 2: like the way to get rid of him was like

690
00:37:05,480 --> 00:37:09,239
Speaker 2: turn him into the francoists. And so they try to

691
00:37:09,320 --> 00:37:11,800
Speaker 2: kidnap him and they fail, and then they try to

692
00:37:11,880 --> 00:37:16,080
Speaker 2: kidnap him again and they succeed the second time. So

693
00:37:16,120 --> 00:37:19,160
Speaker 2: they have him on a plane to Spain and he's like, fuck, fuck,

694
00:37:19,200 --> 00:37:21,080
Speaker 2: fuck if I go back to Spain, Franco's just like

695
00:37:21,200 --> 00:37:24,400
Speaker 2: killing people left and right. Well, no left, he's killing

696
00:37:24,440 --> 00:37:30,239
Speaker 2: people to the left. And so Alejandro goes into the

697
00:37:30,280 --> 00:37:34,120
Speaker 2: bathroom of the plane, takes a bar of soap, wraps

698
00:37:34,160 --> 00:37:37,480
Speaker 2: it in tinfoil, comes back out and it's like, I

699
00:37:37,520 --> 00:37:40,399
Speaker 2: have a bomb. I'm going to kill all of us

700
00:37:40,520 --> 00:37:43,200
Speaker 2: if you take me back to Spain. I'm a refugee.

701
00:37:43,520 --> 00:37:47,399
Speaker 2: I'm being kidnapped. And the people on the plane are like, well,

702
00:37:48,440 --> 00:37:50,839
Speaker 2: we like you and we don't want to blow up,

703
00:37:51,280 --> 00:37:55,400
Speaker 2: So that sounds fine, and apparently it's a fairly peaceful hijacking.

704
00:37:55,440 --> 00:37:57,719
Speaker 2: They land the plane in Panama and let him out.

705
00:37:58,280 --> 00:38:05,400
Speaker 2: What he doesn't go to Spain. He foils the kidnapping attempt.

706
00:38:05,960 --> 00:38:13,759
Speaker 2: That foils this is like some fucking Dillinger carving a

707
00:38:13,800 --> 00:38:18,040
Speaker 2: gun out of soap bullshit. It's like literally even involved soap,

708
00:38:22,120 --> 00:38:25,360
Speaker 2: and Okay, one thing that's annoying is that this is

709
00:38:25,360 --> 00:38:27,120
Speaker 2: not his fault. This is the way the history is written.

710
00:38:27,680 --> 00:38:30,040
Speaker 2: I think he's still married and she's like in these

711
00:38:30,040 --> 00:38:33,359
Speaker 2: countries with him too, and I don't know. I think

712
00:38:33,400 --> 00:38:37,680
Speaker 2: he walks to Mexico. It was phrased marches to Mexico.

713
00:38:38,040 --> 00:38:40,600
Speaker 2: I suspect he might have gotten on a bus or something.

714
00:38:41,840 --> 00:38:43,920
Speaker 2: And I believe his wife meets him there. But again,

715
00:38:44,320 --> 00:38:47,919
Speaker 2: his personal life not covered so much. So he moves

716
00:38:47,960 --> 00:38:51,840
Speaker 2: to Mexico and he hooks back up with the poet

717
00:38:51,920 --> 00:38:55,719
Speaker 2: Leon Filippe, whose old mentor, and when Felipe dies and

718
00:38:55,800 --> 00:38:59,480
Speaker 2: I think the sixties, Alejandro becomes his literary executor of

719
00:38:59,480 --> 00:39:03,680
Speaker 2: this like fame miss Spanish poet. Alejandro writes some poetry,

720
00:39:03,719 --> 00:39:05,560
Speaker 2: but he doesn't see himself as a poet. He's a

721
00:39:05,560 --> 00:39:09,400
Speaker 2: publisher and a person who makes poetry happen. He wrote quote,

722
00:39:09,800 --> 00:39:14,759
Speaker 2: I published what was forgotten by commercial publishers. And he

723
00:39:14,920 --> 00:39:17,840
Speaker 2: visits Spain here and there during the Franco years. I

724
00:39:17,840 --> 00:39:19,880
Speaker 2: think at some point it becomes kind of safe for

725
00:39:19,960 --> 00:39:22,960
Speaker 2: him to go there, but not to stay there. But

726
00:39:23,920 --> 00:39:26,360
Speaker 2: since he publishes a lot of shit, like he specifically

727
00:39:26,400 --> 00:39:28,560
Speaker 2: published a bunch of shit that called Franco a toad.

728
00:39:29,360 --> 00:39:31,440
Speaker 2: He gets arrested when he goes back to Spain at

729
00:39:31,440 --> 00:39:33,880
Speaker 2: one point, and he gets arrested and he gets sentenced

730
00:39:33,920 --> 00:39:35,880
Speaker 2: to a year in prison for the shit he's writing

731
00:39:35,880 --> 00:39:43,680
Speaker 2: against Franco. But this man is so lucky. Franco dies

732
00:39:44,719 --> 00:39:48,680
Speaker 2: and Alejandro serves five days of his sentence before Franco

733
00:39:48,800 --> 00:39:55,399
Speaker 2: dies and he's released. Oh wow, incredible, Yeah, that is unbelievable.

734
00:39:56,239 --> 00:39:57,719
Speaker 3: Yeah.

735
00:39:57,760 --> 00:40:00,000
Speaker 2: So he moves back to Spain after half a century

736
00:40:00,200 --> 00:40:03,240
Speaker 2: mostly exile, and lives out the rest of his days

737
00:40:03,320 --> 00:40:08,160
Speaker 2: outliving the fucking fascists and may we all outlive them.

738
00:40:08,360 --> 00:40:10,400
Speaker 2: He marries a second time, I do not know what

739
00:40:10,440 --> 00:40:13,920
Speaker 2: happened to his first wife, and he spends the rest

740
00:40:13,960 --> 00:40:16,640
Speaker 2: of his days going back and forth between Spain and Mexico.

741
00:40:17,360 --> 00:40:19,839
Speaker 2: He lives to the age of eighty seven. He died

742
00:40:19,880 --> 00:40:23,319
Speaker 2: on February ninth, two thousand and seven, and one of

743
00:40:23,320 --> 00:40:27,160
Speaker 2: the last things he wrote was I believe in progress.

744
00:40:27,560 --> 00:40:31,200
Speaker 2: There is a human drive towards happiness, peace, justice and love,

745
00:40:31,680 --> 00:40:35,480
Speaker 2: and that world will one day arrive. And that's Alejandro

746
00:40:36,600 --> 00:40:37,000
Speaker 2: that is.

747
00:40:36,920 --> 00:40:39,280
Speaker 3: An incredible story, an incredible life.

748
00:40:39,719 --> 00:40:42,920
Speaker 2: I know when he's seventeen, he invented foosball, and that's

749
00:40:42,960 --> 00:40:47,400
Speaker 2: the only I'd be almost annoyed at seventeen, You're like,

750
00:40:47,600 --> 00:40:49,080
Speaker 2: it's like being a one hit wonder.

751
00:40:49,400 --> 00:40:51,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, what a cool weird little guy.

752
00:40:52,320 --> 00:40:55,239
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, he's the inverse of weird little guy.

753
00:40:55,320 --> 00:40:59,239
Speaker 1: Yeah he's a cool weird little guy. Yeah, I'm a fan.

754
00:41:00,400 --> 00:41:03,359
Speaker 2: And yeah, and on Wednesday, I will tell you about

755
00:41:03,400 --> 00:41:07,160
Speaker 2: the socialist hippie from the eighteen hundreds who revolutionized photography,

756
00:41:07,200 --> 00:41:09,480
Speaker 2: was obsessed with hot air balloons, showed the world its

757
00:41:09,520 --> 00:41:12,719
Speaker 2: first aerial photograph, an invented airmail.

758
00:41:14,040 --> 00:41:15,200
Speaker 1: Okay, brag.

759
00:41:18,280 --> 00:41:20,520
Speaker 3: I really really loved the story though. It made me

760
00:41:20,600 --> 00:41:21,120
Speaker 3: so happy.

761
00:41:22,320 --> 00:41:23,440
Speaker 2: Also, like the taft.

762
00:41:23,320 --> 00:41:31,520
Speaker 3: Dancing, it's insane writing ballets, folklorists. Who also is into

763
00:41:31,880 --> 00:41:34,760
Speaker 3: slot machines, Like, just unbelievable.

764
00:41:34,600 --> 00:41:36,400
Speaker 1: Macpie, what have you invented?

765
00:41:38,040 --> 00:41:39,720
Speaker 2: Nothing to this scale?

766
00:41:40,000 --> 00:41:43,520
Speaker 1: That's true, Mango? Did you invent something?

767
00:41:46,000 --> 00:41:50,120
Speaker 3: As a kid, I tried to invent a heated driveway

768
00:41:50,239 --> 00:41:51,480
Speaker 3: so that I wouldn't have to shovel.

769
00:41:52,280 --> 00:41:55,880
Speaker 2: Oh shit, yes, how'd you do it?

770
00:41:54,400 --> 00:42:01,080
Speaker 3: It was more theoretical, Yeah, I couldn't actually figure out

771
00:42:01,120 --> 00:42:01,759
Speaker 3: how to make it work.

772
00:42:01,920 --> 00:42:05,880
Speaker 1: Yeah, the only thing I invented relates to podcasting. And

773
00:42:05,920 --> 00:42:07,719
Speaker 1: it's not that interesting when you.

774
00:42:07,760 --> 00:42:09,880
Speaker 2: Invant relates to podcasting the podcast.

775
00:42:10,239 --> 00:42:12,800
Speaker 1: No, I invented all these different ways to like import

776
00:42:12,800 --> 00:42:16,360
Speaker 1: from feed to feed and like create like many miniature

777
00:42:16,400 --> 00:42:19,160
Speaker 1: playlists for things, so that downloads go to one thing

778
00:42:19,239 --> 00:42:22,080
Speaker 1: and count to other things. And it's not that interesting,

779
00:42:22,160 --> 00:42:26,400
Speaker 1: but it's helped me in my career and my friends shows.

780
00:42:26,600 --> 00:42:29,120
Speaker 2: I mean, that's the thing about like most inventions is

781
00:42:29,160 --> 00:42:32,800
Speaker 2: most inventions are like specific niche needs that only affect

782
00:42:32,840 --> 00:42:33,680
Speaker 2: like one industry.

783
00:42:33,800 --> 00:42:36,600
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know how if you listen to Cool Zone

784
00:42:36,640 --> 00:42:38,319
Speaker 1: Media book Club, you can listen to it and they

785
00:42:38,320 --> 00:42:40,440
Speaker 1: could have to hear feed or the cool People Feed.

786
00:42:40,840 --> 00:42:43,799
Speaker 1: You're welcome, Thank you. That was me.

787
00:42:44,880 --> 00:42:49,000
Speaker 2: Okay, well you got anything you want to plug here

788
00:42:49,000 --> 00:42:49,439
Speaker 2: at the end.

789
00:42:50,040 --> 00:42:52,239
Speaker 3: Yeah. Part Time Genius is the show I do, and

790
00:42:52,280 --> 00:42:54,239
Speaker 3: I really love it, and I feel like it has

791
00:42:54,280 --> 00:42:56,839
Speaker 3: some of the similar spirit of finding people who are

792
00:42:56,840 --> 00:43:00,200
Speaker 3: just fascinating and crazy and wonderful and so I and

793
00:43:00,400 --> 00:43:02,480
Speaker 3: this felt very akin to my sensibilities.

794
00:43:02,480 --> 00:43:05,000
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, and I really like your co host.

795
00:43:05,520 --> 00:43:08,920
Speaker 3: Yeah, I co host it with my friend Will who

796
00:43:09,080 --> 00:43:12,600
Speaker 3: used to live next to me in college, in the

797
00:43:12,680 --> 00:43:15,040
Speaker 3: room next to me through college, and we co founded

798
00:43:15,120 --> 00:43:17,040
Speaker 3: Mental Flaws together, and we still get to make a

799
00:43:17,040 --> 00:43:18,360
Speaker 3: show together, which is pretty awesome.

800
00:43:19,000 --> 00:43:20,800
Speaker 1: He's also he's also my boss.

801
00:43:21,760 --> 00:43:25,919
Speaker 2: It's like a cool version of the like the thing

802
00:43:25,960 --> 00:43:29,160
Speaker 2: that you do when you're young actually sets up like

803
00:43:29,600 --> 00:43:30,560
Speaker 2: the rest of your life.

804
00:43:30,800 --> 00:43:31,719
Speaker 1: Yeah you know.

805
00:43:31,880 --> 00:43:33,719
Speaker 3: Yeah cool, Yeah, it's pretty fun.

806
00:43:34,560 --> 00:43:38,040
Speaker 2: Well, why do I have to plug? Listen to Weird

807
00:43:38,080 --> 00:43:41,719
Speaker 2: Little Guys? It's a podcast that's like the inverse of

808
00:43:41,719 --> 00:43:44,680
Speaker 2: this one. There's only one podcast that's in verse of

809
00:43:44,719 --> 00:43:46,640
Speaker 2: this one. It's Weird Little Guys. I can't think of

810
00:43:46,680 --> 00:43:47,520
Speaker 2: any others.

811
00:43:47,360 --> 00:43:49,880
Speaker 1: No, no idea.

812
00:43:50,840 --> 00:43:52,840
Speaker 2: It's funny to make that joke. I don't know.

813
00:43:52,880 --> 00:43:54,040
Speaker 1: Why can I plug a thing?

814
00:43:54,560 --> 00:43:55,200
Speaker 2: Yeah?

815
00:43:55,320 --> 00:43:58,560
Speaker 1: Yeah, I wanted to plug Sean Mahlan's book, The Podcast Pantheon,

816
00:43:58,600 --> 00:44:00,759
Speaker 1: which is available for pre order now, one hundred and

817
00:44:00,840 --> 00:44:03,200
Speaker 1: one podcast that change. Shall we listen? It's a feel

818
00:44:03,239 --> 00:44:06,440
Speaker 1: proprietor now. It's out in September. Where we get books

819
00:44:06,480 --> 00:44:07,759
Speaker 1: behind the Bastards, isn't it?

820
00:44:07,960 --> 00:44:09,520
Speaker 2: I was about to ask if any cool zone got

821
00:44:09,520 --> 00:44:09,839
Speaker 2: into it?

822
00:44:09,880 --> 00:44:10,399
Speaker 3: Fuck you? Yeah?

823
00:44:10,520 --> 00:44:14,320
Speaker 1: Yeah. He wrote nice things, which I appreciate. But yeah,

824
00:44:13,760 --> 00:44:16,600
Speaker 1: it's this is really a cool book. Cool book, and

825
00:44:16,640 --> 00:44:19,480
Speaker 1: it like is like, you know, a book so I

826
00:44:19,480 --> 00:44:22,319
Speaker 1: can show my friends and family that, yes, my job real,

827
00:44:23,440 --> 00:44:24,640
Speaker 1: I'm my job real.

828
00:44:25,400 --> 00:44:28,879
Speaker 2: Isn't it funny that like the number of people who

829
00:44:28,880 --> 00:44:31,080
Speaker 2: are going to no offense to that book, the number

830
00:44:31,080 --> 00:44:33,360
Speaker 2: of people are going to read that book, yeah, versus

831
00:44:33,400 --> 00:44:36,680
Speaker 2: listen to the podcast in that book. Like, but books

832
00:44:36,719 --> 00:44:39,800
Speaker 2: are so meaningful, Like the fact that I have books

833
00:44:39,800 --> 00:44:44,000
Speaker 2: out is like the anchor of my like credibility. It

834
00:44:44,080 --> 00:44:46,080
Speaker 2: is not the majority of the people who I mean,

835
00:44:46,120 --> 00:44:48,560
Speaker 2: everyone reads my books. I'm the most best selling author.

836
00:44:48,640 --> 00:44:50,439
Speaker 1: Yeah, you are the world. Well here's the thing. Here's

837
00:44:50,440 --> 00:44:52,920
Speaker 1: the thing. The one time, this is before the pandemic,

838
00:44:52,960 --> 00:44:55,000
Speaker 1: that my brother and his wife, my brother the doctor,

839
00:44:55,280 --> 00:44:57,560
Speaker 1: his wife the lawyer, came to visit me at the

840
00:44:57,600 --> 00:45:01,160
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio podcast studio in Los Angeles. There was only one

841
00:45:01,200 --> 00:45:03,120
Speaker 1: other person there and they were asleep on the couch.

842
00:45:03,840 --> 00:45:07,000
Speaker 1: So my job it looked like I had like, you know,

843
00:45:07,640 --> 00:45:11,120
Speaker 1: you fake job, rented a fake office, and that I

844
00:45:11,160 --> 00:45:12,919
Speaker 1: did not actually have real job.

845
00:45:13,640 --> 00:45:15,040
Speaker 2: So there's a book.

846
00:45:15,160 --> 00:45:17,560
Speaker 1: Now, there's a book. You best believe I ordered them

847
00:45:17,560 --> 00:45:21,560
Speaker 1: a copy.

848
00:45:21,680 --> 00:45:22,040
Speaker 2: Thank you.

849
00:45:22,080 --> 00:45:25,040
Speaker 1: Sean. Yeah, that's what I wanted to plug.

850
00:45:25,400 --> 00:45:28,120
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, all right, I will see you all Wednesday.

851
00:45:28,640 --> 00:45:32,600
Speaker 1: They Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff is a production

852
00:45:32,719 --> 00:45:35,960
Speaker 1: of cool Zone Media. For more podcasts and cool Zone Media,

853
00:45:36,080 --> 00:45:39,319
Speaker 1: visit our website Coolzonemedia dot com, or check us out

854
00:45:39,440 --> 00:45:42,799
Speaker 1: on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get

855
00:45:42,840 --> 00:45:44,040
Speaker 1: your podcasts.