Speaker 1: Guess what will What's So, my father in law has
Speaker 1: this phrase that he uses every once in a while
Speaker 1: that I love. He'll hear a story like this, really
Speaker 1: wonderful story of someone pulling themselves up by their bootstraps,
Speaker 1: and he'll shake his head in awe and say, that's America.
Speaker 1: I mean, I love it when he says that. And
Speaker 1: I read a story this week that made me feel
Speaker 1: the same way. So this is from Hurricane Katrina in
Speaker 1: two thousand five. In the flood. There was his family
Speaker 1: in New Orleans cotton nine feet of floodwater. It's just
Speaker 1: rushing into their house. So this boy, Ashton Pruett, he's
Speaker 1: only fourteen and he just got his swimming badge from
Speaker 1: the boy Scouts a week ago. And Ashton he's ready
Speaker 1: for this. He creates flotation devices out of pants and
Speaker 1: hands them to his family. He comes up with a
Speaker 1: plan to swim everyone to safety. Like he swims them
Speaker 1: out of the house one by one. He gets a
Speaker 1: seventy two year old grandmother to the neighbor's roof, and
Speaker 1: then his blind brother, and then each member of his
Speaker 1: family and they sit there as the water rises to
Speaker 1: eighteen feet high and eventually they're rescued, but it's just incredible.
Speaker 1: So as I was reading this, I was struck by
Speaker 1: the story. Like a kid from the city tying knots
Speaker 1: and being resourceful, staying calm, using his scouting to save
Speaker 1: his family in what has to be the unlikeliest of circumstances.
Speaker 1: To be it's the true meaning of the word boy Scouts. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, that's amazing and almost as impressive as the
Speaker 1: Pinewood Derby car my son made in The Scouts. Maybe.
Speaker 1: So I heard that story and thought that's America. But
Speaker 1: the whole thing made me wonder, why are the Boy
Speaker 1: Scouts such an American institution and how did they conquer America?
Speaker 1: And that's what we're covering on today's show. Welcome to
Speaker 1: Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm
Speaker 1: joined by my good friend Manes Ticketer. We've got a
Speaker 1: super fun show for you Today. We're tackling a big question,
Speaker 1: how did the Boy Scouts conquer America? So we'll be
Speaker 1: digging into how the Boy Scouts one American hearts and
Speaker 1: became such an enduring institution, And as usual, we'll have
Speaker 1: a couple of ridiculous quizzes who are we putting to
Speaker 1: the test today? Mango? Well, we found a couple of
Speaker 1: former Scouts to answer our crazy questions. They're basically doing
Speaker 1: their good deed for the day by joining us, right,
Speaker 1: all right, well good, and we've got the incredible Chuck
Speaker 1: Brian and studio with us too. Chuck is the co
Speaker 1: host of the ridiculously popular Stuff You Should Know podcast,
Speaker 1: and he'll be checking in a little bit later. But
Speaker 1: why don't we dive into the topic at hand, Mango?
Speaker 1: Why are the Boy Scouts such an American thing? I mean,
Speaker 1: we have motherhood and apple pie and Boy Scouts really
Speaker 1: aren't that far behind, yeah, which is, of course ironic
Speaker 1: because none of those things are particularly American. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think it's safe to say motherhood was pretty solidly
Speaker 1: a thing before America existed, and apple pies were consumed
Speaker 1: by the Squeets in the Dutch long before it was
Speaker 1: baked state side. And the Boy Scouts they got most
Speaker 1: of their early momentum from the Brits. But the Boy
Speaker 1: Scouts feel so American, I know, and America definitely played
Speaker 1: a big part in the movement, but the biggest influence
Speaker 1: comes from one man, Lord Robert Baden Powell, who actually
Speaker 1: went by the name Stevie. Stevie yeah, or Stevie like.
Speaker 1: He was the guy who really launched the scouting movement
Speaker 1: and got it to catch on across the globe. But
Speaker 1: for him, it wasn't just campfires and pine cone art.
Speaker 1: It was about winning a war. But before we get
Speaker 1: into that, can we talk for a second about masculinity?
Speaker 1: Such a bad transition? All right, Mago, what do you
Speaker 1: want to say about masculinity? And please don't tell me
Speaker 1: this is just your way to slip in your favorite
Speaker 1: fact from a few years ago, which one you know,
Speaker 1: the one about the guinea pig who jumped the fence
Speaker 1: at the animal sanctuary in England and impregnated something like
Speaker 1: a hundred female guinea pigs. Yeah, that's another legendary brit
Speaker 1: The best part of that story is the guinea pigs
Speaker 1: name was Randy. That's right, Randy. No, this has nothing
Speaker 1: to do with guinea pigs. It's about boy Scouts. So
Speaker 1: it occurred to me as I was researching the Scouts
Speaker 1: that about every decade or so there's some big national
Speaker 1: panic about whether we're coddling our sons too much and
Speaker 1: how men aren't raised to be men anymore. I feel
Speaker 1: like you kind of hear echoes of it in the
Speaker 1: air right now. Like for the past few years, schools
Speaker 1: have made a big issue of curbing bullying, right, but
Speaker 1: there's also been a vocal backlash to it. I mean,
Speaker 1: you even hear people like Chris Rock half joking about
Speaker 1: how bullies and fist fights are really what we need
Speaker 1: to toughen up the next generation, and how if there
Speaker 1: weren't bullies, there'd be no comedians. Well who can imagine
Speaker 1: making an argument for bullying now. But yeah, that's a
Speaker 1: common knock against millennials too, that they're a generation that's
Speaker 1: suffered from too many participation prizes and all the helicopter parenting.
Speaker 1: So there's a worry that they're ill prepared for the future.
Speaker 1: And I know what you're talking about in terms of
Speaker 1: being cyclical. I remember back in the early two thousands
Speaker 1: when that book Dangerous Book for Boys became a bestseller,
Speaker 1: and it felt novel because it was telling kids to
Speaker 1: step away from their screens and go shoot a bow
Speaker 1: and arrow and make a ford and come back with
Speaker 1: bruises is and scrape knees. Right, And of course I
Speaker 1: love playing in the backyard and building forts too, and
Speaker 1: I think that stuff is super important for kids. What's
Speaker 1: interesting to me is that this worry about raising real
Speaker 1: men isn't a modern phenomena. What do you mean, Well,
Speaker 1: it's actually one of the biggest reasons the boy scout
Speaker 1: movement took off way back in the early nineteen hundreds.
Speaker 1: You know, it was the age of manufacturing and all
Speaker 1: these new time saving technologies, and as populations were growing
Speaker 1: in cities, there was a real fear of taking the
Speaker 1: boy off the farm and detaching him from the wilderness,
Speaker 1: which is crazy. I mean, we're talking about the early
Speaker 1: nineteen hundreds, right, It's not like all men were working
Speaker 1: in air condition offices. Most things were still done by hand, right,
Speaker 1: But even in the nineteen hundreds, Americans were looking back
Speaker 1: wistfully at the manly men of the past, like pioneers
Speaker 1: and men in the wild West, and the self sufficiency
Speaker 1: of Native Americans. Well, to put it in context, that
Speaker 1: was when called the Wild and White Fang came out
Speaker 1: and were immensely popular. Right when Jack London fueled the
Speaker 1: idea that real boys live in the wild. And at
Speaker 1: the same time you have Teddy Roosevelt in office, I
Speaker 1: mean boxing in the White House at vent Is, on
Speaker 1: the Amazon rough riding and all that. He was the
Speaker 1: poster child from muscular Christianity, absolutely, and all of that
Speaker 1: went into how the Scouts got started. Actually, do you
Speaker 1: want to explain what muscular Christianity was, Like? I read
Speaker 1: about it too, and it plays a big pardon being
Speaker 1: in Pal's life and why the boys got movement took off.
Speaker 1: But you know, it isn't exactly a household term. I
Speaker 1: know what makes me think of priests doing free weights
Speaker 1: at the gym, but that's not so far off. Actually,
Speaker 1: muscular Christianity was a reaction to Victorian gentleman being a
Speaker 1: little too genteel and the Anglican Church being considered to
Speaker 1: a feat But the time women were starting to play
Speaker 1: bigger roles in local churches. So it was partially a
Speaker 1: movement of men reclaiming their religion, but it was also
Speaker 1: this commitment to a more vigorous Christianity where people boxed
Speaker 1: and went to gym's and sweat their aggression out and back.
Speaker 1: Then all of that hitting the gym was about a
Speaker 1: philosophy of actively showing your Christian principles and a healthy
Speaker 1: body through good deeds and actions exactly. And what also
Speaker 1: gets mixed into that philosophy is patriotism, you know, like
Speaker 1: do your best for God and country. So in the
Speaker 1: early the air is thick with this concern that boys
Speaker 1: aren't becoming the right kind of men, and then up
Speaker 1: pop a few scouting groups that are trying to make
Speaker 1: men of boys. There's the Woodcraft Indians launch in nineteen
Speaker 1: two in Connecticut, and there's the Sons of Daniel Boone
Speaker 1: out of Cincinnati in five Like, both of those groups
Speaker 1: harkened back to the manly men of yesteryear. But the
Speaker 1: man who really kicks off the scouting movement in America
Speaker 1: is this millionaire publisher out of Chicago named W. D. Boys.
Speaker 1: As Boys is traveling to London, he gets lost in
Speaker 1: the city's legendary fog, and as he's trying to find
Speaker 1: his way, this kid approaches him and guides him where
Speaker 1: he's going. And when Boys tries to tip his guide,
Speaker 1: the boy refuses and says he's doing his duty as
Speaker 1: a boy scout. Well that's England. But Boys is so
Speaker 1: taken by this unknown scout that he looks up the
Speaker 1: Boy Scouts, which Baden Powell had launched a few years before,
Speaker 1: and Boys gets bidden Powell's blessing to use his manual
Speaker 1: on Scouting to spread the philosophy across America, and in
Speaker 1: the process he helps unite all these splinterd little groups
Speaker 1: of Scouts out there under this big banner, the Boy
Speaker 1: Scout Association. That's right. But before any of that, there's
Speaker 1: a South African war we have to talk about, and
Speaker 1: the first real Boy Scouts, a crafty group of kids
Speaker 1: who helped save a tiny British outpost from complete annihilation.
Speaker 1: Not your typical church basement group. But before we get
Speaker 1: into that, how about we break for a quiz. Our
Speaker 1: guest today is partially responsible for our decision to leap
Speaker 1: into the podcast world. He and his Stuff you should
Speaker 1: know co host have been producing one of the most
Speaker 1: popular podcasts in the world for nearly a decade now.
Speaker 1: But he's certainly one of our favorites and a big
Speaker 1: part of why we decided to come join the house
Speaker 1: Stuff Works family. Chuck Bryant, Welcome to part time Genius. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's right. I feel intimidated now. I didn't know I
Speaker 1: was responsible for this intimidating We can apologize to the nation.
Speaker 1: I know, we're kind of relieved that we're not recording
Speaker 1: in the studio next to us, which is the studio
Speaker 1: that you guys recording, because it would be a little
Speaker 1: bit weird to have you as a guest and your
Speaker 1: own studio, right guest in my own home. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: Plus it's tiny and small and a little stinky. This
Speaker 1: is much nicer. That's actually the main reason. So, you know,
Speaker 1: so josh One said that you guys are on this
Speaker 1: never ending quest to explain absolutely everything on planet Earth
Speaker 1: and beyond. So you guys are now approaching what a
Speaker 1: thousand episodes is that this this November, at some point
Speaker 1: it will be a thousand. We have a listener that
Speaker 1: uh is very sweet and makes a keeps up with
Speaker 1: a spreadsheet for us and since sends it to us
Speaker 1: every few months. I love that, And she told us
Speaker 1: that it would be a thousand in November. You guys
Speaker 1: gonna do anything to celebrate a thousand? Well, I think
Speaker 1: we have a special topic in the kitty for that,
Speaker 1: which I won't ruin now. Um and well, you know,
Speaker 1: we're not much into fanfare, so knowing us will probably
Speaker 1: just reference it, you know, out of the sides of
Speaker 1: our mouths and thank everybody, and that will be it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: or maybe bringing a brass band. I think that's I
Speaker 1: think that's the way to do it. We might plan
Speaker 1: to bring in a brass band. I know you love movies,
Speaker 1: And years ago, Chicago made this recommended reading list for
Speaker 1: the city and they put To Kill a Mockingbird on it,
Speaker 1: And I was curious, what movie you'd make recommended viewing
Speaker 1: for all of America? Oh wow, or movies. It doesn't
Speaker 1: have to be one recommended viewing because it's a little
Speaker 1: bit dicier than just your favorite movie. But I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go with one of my favorite movies and say Jaws. Yeah,
Speaker 1: everyone should see that movie. I think Jaws is uh,
Speaker 1: it's one of my favorite movies, not only just because
Speaker 1: I love the movie, but it's it's a perfect movie
Speaker 1: to me. Um if if you look at the story
Speaker 1: and the way it's played out, and the performances and
Speaker 1: just Spielberg at that age when he was young, and uh,
Speaker 1: I mean he's still great, but I just have not
Speaker 1: been as much into his movies here in the last
Speaker 1: you know, yeah, twenty years, it's Jaws really yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: basically last forty five years. Um. Yeah, it's kind of
Speaker 1: the perfect movie to me. So I think it's a
Speaker 1: great movie to recommend for just to to learn about
Speaker 1: the craft. Yeah, and you know, every kid should watch
Speaker 1: something that makes them terrified the ocean. It's true. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's true. Yeah, there's actually I saw Quirkbooks put out
Speaker 1: a book not too long ago that was about I
Speaker 1: forget the name of it exactly, but it was these
Speaker 1: terrible paperbacks that came out really as a response to
Speaker 1: something in popular culture, and it was talking about when
Speaker 1: Jaws came out that there's this immediate rush to put
Speaker 1: out other things like rabbits and like the scary animals, crabs,
Speaker 1: whatever it might be. Yeah, I think I remember, Well,
Speaker 1: that's an entirely different movie. I think I do remember
Speaker 1: a lot of Uh. I think that even John Sales
Speaker 1: wrote the great John Sales wrote one of the Piranha movies,
Speaker 1: I'm not mistaken. And then there were giant alligators and
Speaker 1: uh yeah, but those you know, they can't touch Jaws.
Speaker 1: So on. On a very different topic, I remember listening
Speaker 1: to your episode on Artificial Suite there's not too long ago,
Speaker 1: and it sounded like at least Josh changed many of
Speaker 1: his behaviors, or you guys talked about changing your behaviors
Speaker 1: after learning more about the effects of artificial sweeteners or
Speaker 1: at least the fears around those. Have there been other
Speaker 1: big episodes where you guys have either changed the way
Speaker 1: you thought about something significantly or even changed the way
Speaker 1: you know you lived based on what you've learned. That's
Speaker 1: a good question. UM. I think a lot of times
Speaker 1: little things inform my psyche and maybe have a little
Speaker 1: bit of a more subliminal undercurrent. Uh, maybe not so
Speaker 1: much a conscious a major conscious decision to do things differently,
Speaker 1: although sometimes like we did one on zoos a long
Speaker 1: time ago, and I had just never given much thought
Speaker 1: to zoos and um, but you know, zoos are great
Speaker 1: and zoos can be great. But you know, when you
Speaker 1: you do what we do, which is really digging and
Speaker 1: research all sides of something, UM, it really kind of
Speaker 1: made me think about whether I need to be supporting
Speaker 1: zoos and aquariums and these places that keep animals like elephants,
Speaker 1: and even though here in Atlanta, like it's a a
Speaker 1: great elephant enclosure, but it's tiny compared to what they need. Um.
Speaker 1: But then we heard from a lot of I mean,
Speaker 1: we didn't totally poopa um, but uh, we did hear
Speaker 1: from a lot of zoologists and zookeepers that said, like, guys,
Speaker 1: you know, I see where you're coming from. But we
Speaker 1: do really good work and there's so much research that
Speaker 1: goes on now and it's not the old days of
Speaker 1: animals and cages for the most part in the United States. Um,
Speaker 1: forget about zoos in some other countries like those are abhorrent.
Speaker 1: But um yeah, things like that really made me kind
Speaker 1: of look at like, all right, I really need to
Speaker 1: just at least give more thought two what I'm supporting here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so we probably won't see drinking a diet cokes throwing
Speaker 1: through the Atlanta zoos sometimes. Now, well, I do go
Speaker 1: to the zoo now though, because of a young daughter,
Speaker 1: and like I said, you know, there is a lot
Speaker 1: of great things and it's great to expose kids. You know,
Speaker 1: she sees elephants and picture books and giraffes and then
Speaker 1: for her to see one a person. Um, as a parent,
Speaker 1: you can't not want to exposure to that stuff. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So yeah, you just hope that they're doing the right thing,
Speaker 1: you know, and they are in Atlanta. My my family lives.
Speaker 1: I've got family in this tiny village in India and uh,
Speaker 1: and they have a local zoo there, and the zoo
Speaker 1: is basically filled with animals that used to be our
Speaker 1: family pets, some rabbits there, docks, just ridiculous. You should
Speaker 1: take your daughter sometimes. Right, this is the kiddycat Room.
Speaker 1: All right? Well, as you know, you've joined us for
Speaker 1: an episode on the Boy Scouts. We asked you if
Speaker 1: you had been a boy Scout as a kid. Um
Speaker 1: you said no, But then we asked you if you
Speaker 1: had heard of boy Scouts and you had, so we
Speaker 1: figured that qualified to uh to join us for today.
Speaker 1: So so what what what game is Chuck playing today? Mega?
Speaker 1: We're playing a game called Discontinued Merit Badge discontinued Billy
Speaker 1: Joel song And actually it's just Billy Joel songs, but
Speaker 1: it's more fun to say discontinued. That's right. You probably
Speaker 1: didn't know that I'm a huge Billy Joel. Yeah, it's uh,
Speaker 1: And people always kind of laugh at that because I'm
Speaker 1: Indie rock guy, but I have been a Billy Joel fan.
Speaker 1: It was the first record I ever bought, and I
Speaker 1: never was like, nah, that's not cool. Since I was
Speaker 1: thirteen years old, I've been a Billy Jewel. Pretty awesome. Well,
Speaker 1: you know what, let's reuse this in the Billy Joel episode.
Speaker 1: We've got planned so great? All right, So as an example,
Speaker 1: if I said cement work, you would say discontinued merit
Speaker 1: badge instead of discontinued Billy Joel song. Though clearly it
Speaker 1: would have gone you know, could have gone either way,
Speaker 1: I think so, So let's play. So we're playing discontinued
Speaker 1: merit badge or discontinued Billy Joel's song number one Traveling Prayer. Well,
Speaker 1: that's discontinued Billy Joel song and really good Billy Joel song.
Speaker 1: Bonus points if you happened to know the album since
Speaker 1: you're a big fan. I just thought i'd thrown out
Speaker 1: that's on piano, man. I believe, Okay, we have we
Speaker 1: have been person for this one. Okay. Question number two,
Speaker 1: nut Culture, that's a discontinued merit badge? Is that? Is
Speaker 1: that right? It was merged into the fruit and nut
Speaker 1: growing badge. I would love to get a nut culture
Speaker 1: badge though on eBay or something. Wear it on my
Speaker 1: hat it's totally worth it, alright. Number three Clerk, Uh
Speaker 1: discontinued Merit Badge. You got it, that's right, that's right
Speaker 1: it It only lasted a year in nineteen ten to
Speaker 1: nineteen eleven, so clerk, you'd have to reach bad for
Speaker 1: back for that one. So alright. Number four World Brotherhood,
Speaker 1: Uh discontinued Merit Badge. Wow, yeah, he's really good. There's
Speaker 1: only three left. He's four for four, alright. Number five
Speaker 1: Running on Ice, Uh discontinued Merit Badge. And and no
Speaker 1: way you know which album this is from? Oh no, no,
Speaker 1: I said, mayor Badge. Is that Billy Joel? It's actually
Speaker 1: a billy This was from a nineteen eighties six album,
Speaker 1: The Bridge. Oh well, that explains it. Yeah, The Bridge
Speaker 1: is probably my least favorite and least listen to album.
Speaker 1: Boy right now Running on Ice with a Badge. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's all right. You're you're you're four for five two left,
Speaker 1: all right? Question Number six Beef Production even home along
Speaker 1: to this tune to that. I so wish that was
Speaker 1: a Billy Joel song. If it's on the Bridge and
Speaker 1: be mad, I say Merit Badge, and you would be correct.
Speaker 1: This one lasted for about fifty years beef production and
Speaker 1: in all Right, last One Stalker. Uh, well, I don't
Speaker 1: know it is a Billy Joel song, but that would
Speaker 1: be a really weird merit badge. Yes, but sometimes this
Speaker 1: scuts the weird things. Yeah, I'm gonna go with Billy Joel.
Speaker 1: I wish it were, but it was a real merit badge.
Speaker 1: It got changed to the stock and then tracking. Oh
Speaker 1: it was. Of course my brain went to um ex
Speaker 1: girlfriend stalking, animal stalking, which leads to beef production. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so kind Yeah, you got five out of five out
Speaker 1: of seven bonus. So what has what has Chuck one? Well,
Speaker 1: you win the same prize that we give away every week,
Speaker 1: which is our Endless Admirations. I thought you're gonna say,
Speaker 1: a copy of the Bridge. Yeah, I think that might
Speaker 1: be and listen to that song. I'm so mad coming
Speaker 1: as well. So all right, Well, for those of you
Speaker 1: that have not listened to stuff, you should know. I
Speaker 1: don't know how that has possibly happened, but it is
Speaker 1: one of our favorite podcasts. Hope you guys will check
Speaker 1: it out. And Chuck, thanks so much for joining us. Hey, thanks,
Speaker 1: and welcome to the family, guys. Has been great Welcome
Speaker 1: back to Part Time Genius, where we're discussing how the
Speaker 1: boy Scouts conquered America. So remember how I said we
Speaker 1: have to rewind to a war in South Africa, right,
Speaker 1: but I have a bit of a tangent first, and
Speaker 1: I promise we'll get there. So, as you know, my
Speaker 1: parents are from India, and even though I was born
Speaker 1: in New Jersey and grew up in North Carolina and Delaware,
Speaker 1: I've always felt like I needed to learn for myself
Speaker 1: how things really get done in America. Like my parents
Speaker 1: were great for food and shelter and unconditional love and
Speaker 1: you know, help with homework, but they were a little
Speaker 1: clueless about how certain things work. What do you mean
Speaker 1: by that? Well, intentionally or not. I'm always trying to
Speaker 1: connect little things about how people get places. So things
Speaker 1: like the NBC Page Program. Sure, I mean, if you're
Speaker 1: a page at NBC, it's supposedly a real gold star
Speaker 1: if you're trying to work your way up at the networks.
Speaker 1: And the alums from it are incredible, people like Michael
Speaker 1: Eisner reis filled in Aubrey Plaza right. And there are
Speaker 1: other little pockets of this too, like how the Groundlings
Speaker 1: and Second City, or gateways to Sidurday Night Live, or
Speaker 1: I read somewhere that being on the little team that
Speaker 1: is some is the Harper's Index can actually open a
Speaker 1: huge career in magazines. That's where a bunch of big
Speaker 1: editors got their start. Okay, I get what you mean,
Speaker 1: But you do remember that this is a show about
Speaker 1: Boy Scouts, right, Yeah, and I promise we're getting there. See.
Speaker 1: I feel like being an Eagle Scout is another of
Speaker 1: these things that as an outsider, people don't really tell
Speaker 1: you about. But if I'd really wanted to get into
Speaker 1: politics or the military, or even be an astronaut, I
Speaker 1: think there's almost an extra level of perceived patriotism that
Speaker 1: comes with being a Boy Scout at the highest level,
Speaker 1: which is definitely grounded in Boy Scout history. I mean,
Speaker 1: the Boy Scouts are kind of officially patriotic. So just
Speaker 1: five years after being established in the States, the Boy
Speaker 1: Scouts got a charter from Congress in nineteen sixteen, which
Speaker 1: protected it as a patriotic institution from monopoly laws and
Speaker 1: help them consolidate Scout troops across the country. I mean,
Speaker 1: this was a huge deal. Other institutions with this charter
Speaker 1: from Congress include the Red Cross or the Future Farmers
Speaker 1: of America. Oh so, how they scored the Charter Well,
Speaker 1: the fact that Teddy Roosevelt, Mr. Muscular Christianity himself was
Speaker 1: a big booster really helped. And then the charity work
Speaker 1: the Boys did in their early years making sure July
Speaker 1: Fourth events across the country were safe, insane, selling bonds
Speaker 1: for the troops, planning gardens, collecting clothes in wartime. All
Speaker 1: of those things, combined with the fact that Norman Rockwell
Speaker 1: started illustrating covers for their magazine from the nineteen twenties on,
Speaker 1: that all cemented The Scouts is this very American thing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and the Eagle Scout is like achieving the ultimate American
Speaker 1: boys status. I mean, just take a look at some
Speaker 1: of the names of Eagle Scouts. Former New York City
Speaker 1: mayor and self made billionaire Michael Bloomberg is one. Sam
Speaker 1: Walton of Walmart's fame, Neil Armstrong. It's harder to get
Speaker 1: more American than Neil Armstrong. There's a really fun bit
Speaker 1: from the Astronaut Logs where Neil Armstrong, aboard the Apollo eleven,
Speaker 1: is on his way to the Moon and sends a
Speaker 1: shout out and best wishes to the boys at the
Speaker 1: National Scout Jamboree and Idaho. Can you imagine how psyched
Speaker 1: the Scouts must have been to hear this. I know
Speaker 1: it's such a great story. By the way, JFK was
Speaker 1: the first Boy Scout president. But do you know who
Speaker 1: the first Eagle Scout president was? Gerald Ford? That's right.
Speaker 1: He was so American. He had a dog named Liberty.
Speaker 1: Can I quickly tell you my favorite Gerald Ford's story? Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1: So David Gergen, you know, the political storian and Honda,
Speaker 1: had this story about Nixon and the White House and
Speaker 1: how Nixon of course needed a bigger, more important chair
Speaker 1: than anyone else at the conference table. But on the
Speaker 1: day Nixon resigned and Gerald Ford took office, Ford had
Speaker 1: that big chair at the table removed, so all the
Speaker 1: chairs were the same size. Gergan's point was that whatever
Speaker 1: you think of Ford as a president, he was a
Speaker 1: pretty good guy, sage boy Scout. But back to my
Speaker 1: Eagle Scout rent. So you have people like Bob Gates,
Speaker 1: who was the head of the CIA, or Rex Tillerson
Speaker 1: from Exxon who's now our Secretary of State, or Hank
Speaker 1: Paulson who was a Goldman. Saxon was also at the Treasury.
Speaker 1: Like they all talk about how they'll take a second
Speaker 1: look at job applications if you're an Eagle Scout. I mean,
Speaker 1: earning all those badges and doing good in your community
Speaker 1: can actually help you get a job even today. Well,
Speaker 1: another thing about those famous Scouts is that almost everyone
Speaker 1: you've named is white, which is the thing we'll talk
Speaker 1: about a little bit more later, but first let's get personal.
Speaker 1: Were you a Scout? Nope? So why not? So this
Speaker 1: sounds stupid, but I think by the time I was
Speaker 1: really interested, I'd seen copies of Boys Life at my
Speaker 1: friend's house and thought the advertisements for things in the
Speaker 1: back were awesome. And then I heard about making Pinewood
Speaker 1: Derby cars and going camping. These were all things that
Speaker 1: appealed to me. But I was turned off by the uniform.
Speaker 1: They just seemed so embarrassing to wear in public. And
Speaker 1: I mean I say this as a kid who wore
Speaker 1: a lot of villure in my earliers and I've seen
Speaker 1: the pictures. Well, you know what's funny is that the
Speaker 1: uniforms have always been a problem. Like there's this great
Speaker 1: quote from David McCloud's book about the Scouts, it's called
Speaker 1: Building Character and the American Boy and he talks about
Speaker 1: this in the town of Lockport, Illinois and the decade
Speaker 1: after b s A launched, And let me just find
Speaker 1: the quote right here. Basically, the mocking and whistling was
Speaker 1: so bad that quote, the Boy Scouts had to beat
Speaker 1: up several gangs of town tuffs before it was safe
Speaker 1: to appear alone in uniform on the street. And apparently
Speaker 1: it only got worse after the nineteen twenties, when the
Speaker 1: Boy Scouts of America started pushing teenagers to wear shorts
Speaker 1: instead of pants because they were cheaper, which makes you
Speaker 1: wonder why they pushed uniforms at all. Well, part of
Speaker 1: the reason the Boy scott started mandating uniforms early on
Speaker 1: was that it showed a commitment to the cause, and
Speaker 1: also because Boy Scout leaders wanted to make sure that
Speaker 1: boys in the woods were immediately recognized as part of
Speaker 1: an organization instead of, you know, just a bunch of
Speaker 1: delinquents up to no good. And I get it. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you saw my elementary school friends trying to start
Speaker 1: a fire with sticks, you probably called the cops. But
Speaker 1: the Boy Scouts have had to walk this very fine
Speaker 1: line of whether they were training boys to be in
Speaker 1: the military, because people were suspicious from the start, like
Speaker 1: the uniforms were certainly advantageous because they conveyed this respect
Speaker 1: and commitment to serving and protecting the community, and the
Speaker 1: Boy Scouts of America like that, they were admired by
Speaker 1: the military. At the same time, the organization wanted to
Speaker 1: court churches, so they secured funding from Andrew Carnegie, who
Speaker 1: McLeod points out was the staunch anti war supporter, and
Speaker 1: they went so far as to eliminate all talk of
Speaker 1: the military from their handbooks, which finally brings us back
Speaker 1: to the real origins of Scouting. Our good friend Robert
Speaker 1: Baden Powell, or as you call him, Stefy. That's right.
Speaker 1: So here's the quick story, or as quick as I
Speaker 1: can tell it, which probably won't be that quick. So
Speaker 1: Biden Pal's dad passed away when he was just a toddler,
Speaker 1: but his mom was like this proud and clever woman,
Speaker 1: and she was determined to make men of her boys.
Speaker 1: So one Pale was growing up, not only were her
Speaker 1: sons encouraged to be off in the wild, but for
Speaker 1: vacation she'd make them backpack incredible distances, like she'd packed
Speaker 1: them off from their home in London and planned to
Speaker 1: meet them in Wales. I know the boys would travel
Speaker 1: light and navigate on their own, and they'd catch and
Speaker 1: cook their own meals while setting up camp and canoeing
Speaker 1: along the way. It's incredible, yeah, and it's not really
Speaker 1: my idea of vacation, but her plan worked. They all
Speaker 1: ended up super capable, and Biden Powell really takes to
Speaker 1: this life, and so he joins the army. And I
Speaker 1: remember all along the way he's felt this loss of
Speaker 1: his father, so he's always looking for an older brother
Speaker 1: or father figure to guide him. So let's fast forward
Speaker 1: to eighteen nine. By this time, he's forty two and
Speaker 1: he's a decorated colonel posted in colonial South Africa. But
Speaker 1: he finds himself in a spot of trouble. He's in
Speaker 1: a region where the Dutch columnists the Bowers, want to
Speaker 1: seize the land from the British, and the British camp
Speaker 1: is seriously outnumbered, like they've got five hundred soldiers compared
Speaker 1: to the eight thousand Bowers surrounding them, and England doesn't
Speaker 1: want to send in reinforcements because they don't want to
Speaker 1: provoke a war, so bab Powell basically has to rely
Speaker 1: on his wits. He consolidates his troops inland at a
Speaker 1: town called maf King, trying to move the bowers away
Speaker 1: from the coast, and then he starts employing the manly
Speaker 1: art of stagecraft. What do you mean like theatrics exactly?
Speaker 1: So Biden Powell does all these things to make the
Speaker 1: area seem better protected than it actually is. He knows
Speaker 1: they're being watched, so he gets his men to act
Speaker 1: like they're ducking through barbed wire around the encampments when
Speaker 1: there actually isn't any and he gets his men to
Speaker 1: build gun turrets even though there isn't any artillery to use.
Speaker 1: He has this whole deception campaign. But one of the
Speaker 1: smartest things he does is to get a group of
Speaker 1: local boys as the maf King Cadet Corps to help
Speaker 1: him out. Decked out in khaki, these boys relay messages
Speaker 1: and watched the hospital and scouting patrol areas for him,
Speaker 1: and in the process he relieves the soldiers of these
Speaker 1: more mundane duties and frees them to fight. So how
Speaker 1: long does this last two hundred and seventeen days. I know,
Speaker 1: it's unbelievable. Like he builds artillery from scrap metal, and
Speaker 1: he keeps morale up while keeping the Boers at bay.
Speaker 1: And when the British finally send in troops and free
Speaker 1: the town Baden, Powell is declared a hero and becomes
Speaker 1: the youngest major general in the army. Oh and thirty
Speaker 1: eight of his young cadets, like those khaki wearing do gooders,
Speaker 1: they also get medals from Queen Victoria. That's great. But
Speaker 1: the craziest thing is that he was actually writing a
Speaker 1: book during the siege, Right wasn't he producing AIDS to
Speaker 1: scouting while he was down there? He was, people didn't
Speaker 1: think he's left. So, just like Teddy Roosevelt, he was
Speaker 1: worried that boys weren't coming into the army well equipped enough.
Speaker 1: So he wrote this book that talked about the training
Speaker 1: he received, and when he went back to England and
Speaker 1: was declared to war hero, the book became a best seller,
Speaker 1: and so he kind of becomes the godfather of scouting essentially. Right,
Speaker 1: so Aids the Scouting informs groups like the Woodcroft Indians
Speaker 1: and other proto Scouts, who then inspire him to do
Speaker 1: a revision of the book Scouting for Boys, which then
Speaker 1: becomes the official Boy Scout Manual. It's this virtuous cycle
Speaker 1: between the efforts in England and the States. But what's
Speaker 1: most interesting to me about Biden Powell is that while
Speaker 1: he's formed the Boy Scouts to instill morality and the
Speaker 1: sense of adventure and boys, what really comes through is
Speaker 1: that this is the group he wished he could have
Speaker 1: been part of in his childhood, growing up without a dad.
Speaker 1: He wanted to create a place where lost boys could
Speaker 1: learn life skills to become good men. Yeah, it's like
Speaker 1: two parts of mcgiver and one part Peter Pan, Right,
Speaker 1: And of course there's still the question of what's a
Speaker 1: good man and who's allowed to be a Boy Scout
Speaker 1: thinks the Boy Scouts of America will wrestle with for
Speaker 1: the next hundred years. But before we get into that
Speaker 1: meaty topic, why don't we take a break for a quiz. So, mago,
Speaker 1: who do having the line? Today? We've got two former
Speaker 1: Boy Scouts on the line. We've got Howard calling in
Speaker 1: from sunny California and Ryan in Maryland. All right, well,
Speaker 1: let's meet each one of them. Howard I hear that
Speaker 1: you became a Scout just because you wanted a subscription
Speaker 1: to Boys Life. Is this true? That is correct, and
Speaker 1: actually you can pay for subscription, But then I learned
Speaker 1: it joint Scouting, you get a subscription for free. So
Speaker 1: that was my main motivator. It's because the back of
Speaker 1: the boy's Life was always the coolest part you could buy,
Speaker 1: like smoke grenades with army knives that were like two
Speaker 1: inches thick, and plans for a hovercraft. But I avoided
Speaker 1: that one because the fine print said you needed to
Speaker 1: take a part of vacuum cleaner to build it. Wow,
Speaker 1: that's true scouting right there. Well, welcome to part time
Speaker 1: genius Howard and Ryan carrying on the boy Scout mission.
Speaker 1: I hear you started a hedge fund where the profits
Speaker 1: actually go to charity. Is this true? Yeah, so pretty
Speaker 1: pretty true. It's not exactly a hedge fun it's a
Speaker 1: student run investment group, but yeah, it's called the Urban
Speaker 1: Philanthropic Funds pretty up fun and it's missing. It's to
Speaker 1: bridge investment education with community service. So the idea is
Speaker 1: that starting in the fall, will be managing a pretty
Speaker 1: small investment portfolio and then using returns to finance nonprofit
Speaker 1: initiatives in New Haven, and in our investment team, we're
Speaker 1: going to have not just you know, undergrads, but also
Speaker 1: uh NBA candidates from the Yal School of Management and
Speaker 1: we're hoping to include some high school students from the
Speaker 1: New Haven community as well. UM and then our returns
Speaker 1: will be used to finance different nonprofit initiatives, but each
Speaker 1: year with a different focus issue. And our first years
Speaker 1: focus issue is going to be education including childcare and jobs,
Speaker 1: trading mango, what are what are we doing with our lives?
Speaker 1: Donate something? So alright, so where it's time to play
Speaker 1: our quiz for the day. What quiz are we playing today?
Speaker 1: We're going to play a quiz called boy Oh Boy,
Speaker 1: And that's because every answer has the word boy in it.
Speaker 1: So if we were to ask the question, uh, type
Speaker 1: of musical act in sync or one direction is? You'd answer?
Speaker 1: All right? So that seems appropriate since we've got a
Speaker 1: pair of boy scouts. So this is how it works.
Speaker 1: We'll pick one contestant, put thirty seconds on the clock,
Speaker 1: and then you'll try to answer as many questions as
Speaker 1: you can get through. And remember every answer has the
Speaker 1: word boy in it. Okay, Howard, are you ready to
Speaker 1: kick this thing off? Alright, so let's put thirty seconds
Speaker 1: on the official clock. Remember, each answer has the word
Speaker 1: boy in it. Here we go. Number one, the magazine
Speaker 1: Hugh Hefner used to edit the spokesperson for Pillsbury, is
Speaker 1: also known as what. Gandhi and Martin Luther King both
Speaker 1: advocated for this type of protest slogan on trucker hats
Speaker 1: used to read Jesus is my recent Richard link letter movie?
Speaker 1: Oh and times off? Times up? So how many did
Speaker 1: you get mango? He got four, which is really good answer.
Speaker 1: The last one was boyhood. Okay, al right, here we go, Yeah, alright,
Speaker 1: let's put thirty seconds on the clock. It's Ryan's turn. Ryan,
Speaker 1: are you ready? Alright? Ready, here we go. Number one
Speaker 1: nickname for Robin Batman's sidekick, right, person who clears tables
Speaker 1: at a restaurant, boy right. Type of toy Woody is
Speaker 1: in Toy Story Cowboy Chris Farley and David Spade movie.
Speaker 1: Um uh, I don't know, So how did Ryan do
Speaker 1: you mango? So? Ryan got three in a row, which
Speaker 1: is not bad at all. Um, and Howard was in
Speaker 1: with four. Okay, so what what what prize has Howard
Speaker 1: one today? So as always, first place wins a handwritten
Speaker 1: note from us to your mom or your boss, singing
Speaker 1: your praises, and this week that goes to Howard. And
Speaker 1: because we don't want Ryan's mailbox to feel lonely, will
Speaker 1: be mailing you a Horsemanship Merit badge, the cheapest Boy
Speaker 1: Scout badge we could find on eBay. Thank you, Thank
Speaker 1: you both for thanks. Guys, have a great one so much. Okay,
Speaker 1: I can see now how the Boy Scouts got their
Speaker 1: start and why they quickly became an American institution. I mean,
Speaker 1: the Boy Scouts actually give a report to the nation
Speaker 1: every year, and in two thousand and sixteen, troops across
Speaker 1: the country contributed an astounding fifteen point four million hours
Speaker 1: of service. It's stunning how much volunteer work they do.
Speaker 1: But what are some of the threats and opportunities Boy
Speaker 1: Scouts will face in the future. Well, one of the
Speaker 1: things that's been tricky for the Scouts is that if
Speaker 1: you're all about raising the American boy to be the
Speaker 1: all American man, and you have to reckon with who
Speaker 1: gets to be American, And that's some pretty thorny territory.
Speaker 1: You know, we were talking earlier about the way they
Speaker 1: were perceived as linked with the military and how Scouts
Speaker 1: had to downplay their uniforms at times. Recently, of course,
Speaker 1: the Boy Scouts have had issues with whether to allow
Speaker 1: gay scouts into the fold and whether gay adults can
Speaker 1: be part of the leadership. Part of this issue comes
Speaker 1: down to who sponsors troops. Like overt of the troops
Speaker 1: in the US were sponsored by the Mormon Church, and
Speaker 1: so the Boy Scouts of America are constantly trying to
Speaker 1: balance their more socially conservative base with the more progressive troops.
Speaker 1: And today, boys who identify as gay or in fact
Speaker 1: allowed to be Scouts and the parent organization of b
Speaker 1: SA refuses to discriminate, but individual troops can decide who
Speaker 1: their leaders are, right. This is sort of tricky terrain
Speaker 1: for the Scouts, and has also happened with issues like
Speaker 1: atheism and certainly with race before that. That's right, though
Speaker 1: the early Boy Scout text didn't discriminate against creator race,
Speaker 1: it was a little different in practice. I mean, the
Speaker 1: Boy Scouts were very middle class and upper middle class
Speaker 1: institution from the start, in part because of the money
Speaker 1: you needed, like JFK supposedly asked for his allowance to
Speaker 1: be up just so you could pay his scouting fees.
Speaker 1: And you know, canteens and camps don't come cheap. So
Speaker 1: initially at least Scouts didn't really try to recruit in
Speaker 1: lower class areas. But the Boy Scouts had a very
Speaker 1: I don't know whether you call it pragmatic or exceedingly
Speaker 1: cautious or sort of inept approach to race. While places
Speaker 1: like Camden and Philly and Buffalo had integrated troops from
Speaker 1: the early days, in the South, the b s A
Speaker 1: went with a kind of states rights plan. They had
Speaker 1: a provision that regional councils of b s A could
Speaker 1: vote whether to integrate its troops or not, and so
Speaker 1: they generally voted to keep the scouts white south of
Speaker 1: the Mason Dixon. Some of it was at least cloaked
Speaker 1: in a sense of caution, like in Memphis, the councilman warned,
Speaker 1: how can we allow black boys to be Scouts when
Speaker 1: adults here are still advocating for lynchings. And in Louisville, Kentucky,
Speaker 1: there were actually five black boy Scouts, which sounds progressive,
Speaker 1: but then I read that they also had a representative
Speaker 1: set up just to feel criticisms for the integration, and
Speaker 1: they weren't worrying about nothing. So the great historian John
Speaker 1: Hope Franklin was a boy scout in his native Oklahoma
Speaker 1: in the twenties. He tells a story of how he
Speaker 1: and his troop were groomed to do one good deed
Speaker 1: every day, and so when he saw an elderly blind
Speaker 1: woman on a street corner, he offered to walk her across.
Speaker 1: She gratefully accepted, and then they began. But and they
Speaker 1: got halfway across the street, she asked him if he
Speaker 1: was white or colored. He answered that he was colored,
Speaker 1: and even though they were in the middle of an
Speaker 1: intersection and she couldn't see, she shook him off, saying,
Speaker 1: get your filthy hands off of me. And, as he
Speaker 1: put it to his son, quote, this woman, who could
Speaker 1: not see and who was in desperate need of help,
Speaker 1: was not as interested in help as she was in
Speaker 1: being certain that a young black man did not touch her. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, that story is so heartbreaking. And there were
Speaker 1: regions where black scouts weren't allowed to wear uniforms for
Speaker 1: a while. It was really messy. But on the other hand,
Speaker 1: you have the Girl Scouts, who Martin Luther King singled
Speaker 1: out as a force for desegregation. It's funny. The Girl
Speaker 1: Scouts have been progressive on most issues, so when someone
Speaker 1: sued about using the word God and their oath, the
Speaker 1: Girl Scouts responded by allowing that girls could insert whatever
Speaker 1: word they wanted there. LGBT issues haven't been much of
Speaker 1: an issue. They allow transgender youth and have worked hard
Speaker 1: towards inclusivity. Well, we should do a whole different show
Speaker 1: on Girl Scouts, if nothing else, to talk about why
Speaker 1: cookies tastes different in different parts of the country. Like,
Speaker 1: I have some theory, I can't wait to hear this,
Speaker 1: but you're it's partially just in the organization's d n
Speaker 1: A while Boy Scouts were intended to look back to
Speaker 1: a romanticized past and turn these coddled boys into men,
Speaker 1: Girl Scouts were constantly fighting against type, teaching women to
Speaker 1: be independent and empowered and to fight for social justice
Speaker 1: in ways that the Boy Scouts were often wary, and
Speaker 1: their founder, Juliette Gordon Lowe was secretly suffragist. But back
Speaker 1: to Boy Scouts. Well, despite some of the challenges we've discussed.
Speaker 1: The Boy Scouts continue to do meaningful work in their
Speaker 1: communities and provide terrific opportunities for their members. I remember
Speaker 1: Scouts being about meetings and churches or schools and mainly
Speaker 1: being a thing where we talked about adventure. But in
Speaker 1: my experience as a parent, I've watched my son go
Speaker 1: on all sorts of fun outdoor adventures, even as a
Speaker 1: first grader, and he loves it. Oh. I agree, it's
Speaker 1: hard to dislike the Boy Scouts. They're so totally American,
Speaker 1: and in truth, the problems the institution is faced, they're
Speaker 1: really just problems that America has faced over the years.
Speaker 1: But I love that there are Scouts everywhere from Hawaii
Speaker 1: to Harlem now, and that there will be plenty of
Speaker 1: Scouts out there to help me cross roads and on
Speaker 1: my way through foggy London in the years to come.
Speaker 1: That's right. And while I'm sure people continue to debate
Speaker 1: what it means to be a man, and who knows
Speaker 1: where exactly those debates will lead, it's clear the Boy
Speaker 1: Scouts are an institution that's built to last. But before
Speaker 1: we get too deep into the future, how about we
Speaker 1: have a little fact off h here's something I didn't realize.
Speaker 1: Of the twelve American astronauts who have walked on the Moon,
Speaker 1: eleven of them were Scouts. That's incredible. Did you know
Speaker 1: Steven Spielberg was an Eagle Scott As an eleven year old,
Speaker 1: he made a movie with his friends called Last Gunfight,
Speaker 1: which he credits with spurring his interest in filmmaking. Oh
Speaker 1: and you got a photography badge for it. That's so great.
Speaker 1: You know who else was a boy Scout? Rothbero l
Speaker 1: Ron Hover. He has both both of them, but also
Speaker 1: Bill Gates and as you might imagine, he wasn't very
Speaker 1: good at hiking or cooking, but he claims he excelled
Speaker 1: in one badges for basket weaving and would carbon but
Speaker 1: the service component definitely made an impact on him. Did
Speaker 1: you know Boy's Life got this exclusive with or We'll
Speaker 1: write it was the only magazine he published his article,
Speaker 1: how I learned to Fly with Like that should have
Speaker 1: been with the New York Times, in the Sunday magazine
Speaker 1: or something. That's pretty good. So after September eleven, Scouts
Speaker 1: collected over a hundred and fifty thousand bottles of water
Speaker 1: for ground z or rescue workers and they placed handwritten
Speaker 1: notes of thanks and first responders hard hats. That's so good,
Speaker 1: like truly good you went this round. Oh and we
Speaker 1: forgot to nominate a part time genius this week. Who
Speaker 1: do you think it should go to? Wolves? Wolves? Yeah,
Speaker 1: Wolf Scout was supposed to be the ultimate honor for
Speaker 1: boy scouts her earned all their badges, but then it
Speaker 1: got rebranded Eagle Scout because it sounded more patriotic, and
Speaker 1: I think wolves deserve a little more do so I
Speaker 1: think we should send a certificate of genius to Atka,
Speaker 1: the Wolf Conservation Center's official wolf ambassador, to say thank
Speaker 1: you for being you. Well that's pretty ridiculous, but it
Speaker 1: works for me. And that's it for today's Part Time Genius.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for less Thanks again for listening. Part
Speaker 1: Time Genius is a production of how stuff works and
Speaker 1: wouldn't be possible without several brilliant people who do the
Speaker 1: important things we couldn't even begin to understand. Christian McNeil
Speaker 1: does the ending thing. Noel Brown made the theme song
Speaker 1: and does the MIXI MIXI sound thing. Jerry Rowland does
Speaker 1: the exact producer thing. Gabeluesier is our lead researcher with
Speaker 1: support from the Research Army, including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown
Speaker 1: and Lucas Adams and Eve Jeff Coo gets the show
Speaker 1: to your ears. Good job, Eves. If you like what
Speaker 1: you heard, we hope you'll subscribe, And if you really
Speaker 1: really like what you've heard, maybe you could leave a
Speaker 1: good review for us. Do we do we forget Jason?
Speaker 1: Jason who