Speaker 1: Morning, Geraldine. Hey, have you been using that jade roller
Speaker 1: I got you as a white elephant gift at the
Speaker 1: holiday party? You look fantastic. Hm hmm. Then maybe it's
Speaker 1: your lagoon based diet. Maybe circus peanuts are good for
Speaker 1: the skin. I'll have to try it. It look great.
Speaker 1: Do you have the script for today? Thank you? Now
Speaker 1: let's see here. Wait, this script is just me talking, Geraldine.
Speaker 1: I'd be lying if I said this wasn't my biggest
Speaker 1: dream come true. But where's all the Elliot's lines? Oh
Speaker 1: that's right, I'm going to host our backpack from the
Speaker 1: past super cut. Well, he's at that calligraphy conference for
Speaker 1: Elliot's with two t s. There's a shocking number of them.
Speaker 1: I mean there's more Elliot's into calligraphy than Leslie's into ceramics.
Speaker 1: And trust me, that's a lot of Leslie's. That would
Speaker 1: be a good band named Geraldine. Hey, and speaking of music, Eric,
Speaker 1: please play that theme song here we go? What do
Speaker 1: you think you know about the faints from this study?
Speaker 1: Before the game is on? To get some energy and
Speaker 1: buckle up in your brain, because it's time to play
Speaker 1: It's the worst podcast, Because it's time to favorite Fast,
Speaker 1: Who Live from Tong valand or so called so Cow
Speaker 1: Los Angeles. It's Who Was? A history quiz show that
Speaker 1: for today is gonna be back to back to back
Speaker 1: Backpack from the Past. I'm your announcer, be and for
Speaker 1: today I'm also your host. Yes, welcome to the beta
Speaker 1: version of the show. Today's episode is a collection of
Speaker 1: one of our favorite games, Backpack from the Past. Backpack
Speaker 1: from the Past, baby Now. The real for Backpack from
Speaker 1: the Past are simple. Elliott or I will dig into
Speaker 1: our backpack from the past, a back filled with personal
Speaker 1: objects from famous figures throughout history. Will describe those objects
Speaker 1: for our contestants, who will then tell us what the
Speaker 1: object represents. It's kind of like a historical show and
Speaker 1: tell that's heavy on the tail. Sometimes our famous figures
Speaker 1: will be the one sharing their own items from the backpack,
Speaker 1: like this first episode featuring Harriet Tubman. You'll hear her
Speaker 1: voice along with mine and Elliott's. Yeah, this is one
Speaker 1: of my favorites to Geraldine. Let's listen in and hear
Speaker 1: Harriet and THEO and Charlie are contestants for this episode.
Speaker 1: We're all that game back from the best. All right,
Speaker 1: Dear here is the first object. It's a quilt. What
Speaker 1: is the story behind this quilt? Um? So, Harriet Tubman
Speaker 1: actually married a man named John and I think they
Speaker 1: were gonna move. Uh. She showed a quilte that took
Speaker 1: her a very long time, and that was her most
Speaker 1: prized possession, and when she was escaping her enslavement, she
Speaker 1: actually gave that quote to one of the ladies that
Speaker 1: helped her. Oh my gosh, add ten percent. That is
Speaker 1: corrat way to go to you that. Thank you. I'm
Speaker 1: very impressed to you. You are absolutely right. I made
Speaker 1: this quilte from my first marriage to John Tubman. After
Speaker 1: we married, I told John I was escaping from slavery,
Speaker 1: and he told me he wasn't going to leave with me,
Speaker 1: even though he was a free man. I left without
Speaker 1: it and gave this quilte as a gift to a
Speaker 1: Quaker woman who helped me escape. Charlie Europe, I'm holding
Speaker 1: here a few plants. They are water lily and craigs bill, Charlie,
Speaker 1: Why does Harriet have these plants in her backpack? Okay?
Speaker 1: So Harriet also became a nurse and a lot of
Speaker 1: people were feeling sick at the time, and so she
Speaker 1: used some plants that she had learned from her mother
Speaker 1: and use them to heal people. That is right. I
Speaker 1: learned from my mother and my father. They taught me
Speaker 1: how to use roots and plants to cure diseases. When
Speaker 1: I was a nurse in the Union Army, I helped
Speaker 1: cure dysentery using those plants. Oh my, this bag is
Speaker 1: getting a little heavy heavy. That's weird. It's just a
Speaker 1: backpack with what is it? What's in that bag? Whoa,
Speaker 1: it's a full sized fishing boat. Up rudder. Sorry, that's THEO.
Speaker 1: Don't worry about how Harriet managed to fit a full
Speaker 1: sized fishing boat into this very tiny backpack. Just tell
Speaker 1: us why does Harriet have a full sized fishing boat
Speaker 1: in her very tiny backpack? Um, I'm not exactly sure,
Speaker 1: but there's a couple of reasons why she might. But
Speaker 1: one of the reasons I think why it might be
Speaker 1: a fishing boat is because she helped her sister's family
Speaker 1: escape from enslavement and they sailed down the river in
Speaker 1: the fishing boat. But there's another part where she used
Speaker 1: the boat to like attack Confederate basis. Um, during the
Speaker 1: Civil War, you're pretty much on the right track theo
Speaker 1: As one of the missions for the Underground Railroad, I
Speaker 1: helped my sister Mary and her family escaped slavery by boat. Okay,
Speaker 1: now the next item, Huh, this last subject is really obscure.
Speaker 1: Why don't what do you mean by obscure? What do
Speaker 1: you mean by that? It's the North Star? The North
Speaker 1: Star in a backpack. Now I've seen everything. Okay, So
Speaker 1: she's the North Star in her backpack because when she
Speaker 1: was trying to escape from slavery, runaway slaves would follow
Speaker 1: the North Star because they knew it leads them north.
Speaker 1: And in the north northern parts of America, um slavery
Speaker 1: was banned, so they were safe there. That's right, Charlie.
Speaker 1: My father taught me how to fine the North Star.
Speaker 1: He said the star, which was right next to the
Speaker 1: Big Dipper, was a guiding light for enslaved people to
Speaker 1: lead them north to freedom. And you know what, my
Speaker 1: backpack is empty, so that means the game is over.
Speaker 1: The baby. What a g eight day for me. I
Speaker 1: got to meet Harriet Tubman and had like four handfuls
Speaker 1: of mint and three ginger roots for dinner that night.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't even my birthday. Next up, we're about
Speaker 1: to find out what objects were in the backpack for
Speaker 1: Napoleon and see if contestants Nola and Desmond can tell
Speaker 1: us how they relate to his life. Roll that tape, Barrick,
Speaker 1: all right, I'm going to take out the first item
Speaker 1: from the backpack. Oh, it's two pieces of bread. One
Speaker 1: is soft white bread and the other is old, hard
Speaker 1: brown bread. Does this have something to do with a
Speaker 1: Napoleon's dream of opening a bakery? Or be the food
Speaker 1: Napoleon eight when he was young or see I don't know,
Speaker 1: maybe he was gluten intolerant. B That's right. The answer
Speaker 1: is be. Even as a boy, Napoleon wanted to grow
Speaker 1: up to be a soldier, so he would trade food
Speaker 1: with a real soldier, exchanging his mother's soft, fresh baked
Speaker 1: white bread for the soldier's hard, army brown bread. He
Speaker 1: told his mom, if I'm going to be as soldier,
Speaker 1: I must get used to eating soldier spread. Oh, great
Speaker 1: French accent there, thank you in French. Whatever that is.
Speaker 1: The next item is for Desmond. B what's in that backpack?
Speaker 1: It's a snowball with a rock in the center of it.
Speaker 1: It's amazing that it stayed frozen for two hundred years.
Speaker 1: But you know that's the who was backpack historical closet
Speaker 1: is very cold, Desmond. What does this have to do
Speaker 1: with Napoleon Bonaparte? Was he a involved in a big
Speaker 1: snowball battle? Be a master snowman builder or see afraid
Speaker 1: of the cold? That's right. A. When Napoleon was fourteen
Speaker 1: years old, he led his classmates in a huge snowball
Speaker 1: war that went on for weeks. It was Napoleon's first
Speaker 1: big battle. So it ended in a draw when the
Speaker 1: teachers made them stop because they were putting rocks in
Speaker 1: the snowballs. Listeners, don't do that at home. Napoleon is
Speaker 1: a trained snowball professional, Nola. The next question is for you,
Speaker 1: Oh wow, it's the crown, and hey it fits me.
Speaker 1: Be Please don't try on other people's crowns. That's how
Speaker 1: you get lice. Okay, Nola. What's this crown doing in
Speaker 1: Napoleon's backpack? Did he a kill a king? B have
Speaker 1: his birthday party of burger king? Or see have himself
Speaker 1: crowned king? That's right. See. In seventeen ninety nine, Napoleon
Speaker 1: took control of the French government and in eighteen o
Speaker 1: four he was officially crowned Emperor of France. Pretty impressive
Speaker 1: for a kid who used to give away good bread
Speaker 1: and put rocks in his snowballs. Okay, there's just one
Speaker 1: item left in the backpack, Desmond. This one is for you.
Speaker 1: It's a postcard. There's a picture of an island and
Speaker 1: it says, Elba, wish you weren't here. What would that
Speaker 1: mean to Napoleon? Was he a vacationing on Elba? Be
Speaker 1: imprisoned on Elba? Or see bought a time share on Alba,
Speaker 1: but you know he never got around to using it
Speaker 1: because he was too busy invading countries. That's right. B
Speaker 1: In eighteen fourteen, a group of countries teamed up to
Speaker 1: defeat Napoleon after he tried to conquer Ussia. They sent
Speaker 1: him away to the island of Elba, where life was
Speaker 1: really boring. Ten months later, Napoleon came back took over
Speaker 1: France again, but then he lost the Battle of Waterloo
Speaker 1: and Scott sent to an even smaller island, where he
Speaker 1: spent the last five years of his life gardening. Typical
Speaker 1: retiree behavior. And now it's time to retire from this game.
Speaker 1: From the Beast Magnifico. We've got a lot more items
Speaker 1: in the backpack, so don't go anywhere. We'll be right
Speaker 1: back after this short break. Hey, who was Her? Want
Speaker 1: to make a shout out to your own favorite person history,
Speaker 1: famous or unfamous? Do you think your sour dough recipe
Speaker 1: is better than ours? Would you like to tell us
Speaker 1: your craziest dream? What I'm trying to say is we
Speaker 1: want to hear from you, so send us an email
Speaker 1: or voice memo at the Who Was Podcast at gmail
Speaker 1: dot com. Welcome back to the Who Was Podcast? Backpack
Speaker 1: from the past. Super cut addition, and now here's your host, B.
Speaker 1: Thank you, B. I must say you put on one
Speaker 1: heck of a show. Who Why? Thank you Be. I
Speaker 1: guess it's something I picked up from the subject of
Speaker 1: our next episode, p T. Barnum. Oh wow, B. I
Speaker 1: can't wait to see what was in his backpack? I know,
Speaker 1: right be. Our contestants, Declin and Josie did an amazing job.
Speaker 1: You could even call this episode the greatest show on Earth.
Speaker 1: Let's hear it. I found a d to some land.
Speaker 1: It says this land, known as Ivy Island, now belongs
Speaker 1: to my grandson Phineas Taylor Barnum. What is this about?
Speaker 1: Is it a prank pts grandfather played on him? Or
Speaker 1: be codes for how to get to a secret island
Speaker 1: on the third level of Super Mario Brothers three D World.
Speaker 1: What do you think, Josie, it's a that's right. The
Speaker 1: answer is a A young PT. Barnham learned a lesson
Speaker 1: in building up anticipation in a hub for an event when,
Speaker 1: at an early age, his grandfather got the whole town
Speaker 1: of Bethel, Connecticut to tell pet that he was going
Speaker 1: to inherit a beautiful island, but it turned out to
Speaker 1: be a dry, tiny piece of land. Got your grandson, Okay?
Speaker 1: The next object is for declan, Oh wow, it's a
Speaker 1: cool old sign that says this way to the egress.
Speaker 1: He might find a sign like this in t g
Speaker 1: I Fridays today. But what did PT use it for?
Speaker 1: Was it a a trick he played so customers would
Speaker 1: buy two tickets to his museum? Or be Egress is
Speaker 1: the neighborhood he lived in in New York City known
Speaker 1: as the Eighth Borough. Um, You're right, the answer is a.
Speaker 1: Egress is just a fancy word for exit, and it
Speaker 1: sounds like the name of like a cool bird or something.
Speaker 1: Pet used this to get customers to leave his museum
Speaker 1: when they didn't realize they were looking for the exit,
Speaker 1: and then charge them for another ticket to get them
Speaker 1: back in. I guess that's how he got his nickname
Speaker 1: the King of the Humbugs. Pet was not above duping anyone. Now,
Speaker 1: let's see if this next object will dupe Josie. This
Speaker 1: object smells pretty terrible and oh my, it's really gnarly looking.
Speaker 1: It's like the head of a monkey with some kind
Speaker 1: of fish tail. What is this object? Is it a
Speaker 1: Pet's favorite lunch, the monk fish, which he first tasted
Speaker 1: in Europe? Or be the Fiji Mermaid? Um, be the
Speaker 1: Fiji Mermaid. That's right, the answer is be the fabled
Speaker 1: Fiji Mermaid. This was not a real mermaid, but he
Speaker 1: advertised and ran stories about mermaids to build up excitement
Speaker 1: so people would buy tickets to see it. Yes, long
Speaker 1: before bieber fever ever existed, Pet created mermaid fever and
Speaker 1: made a celebrity out of this. As he put it,
Speaker 1: dried up old thing. Oh my, apologies, Fiji Mermaid. I
Speaker 1: didn't realize you were listening or alive okay, decline, This
Speaker 1: next object is for you. Oh everybody, look out, get
Speaker 1: out of the way. There's a train barreling straight out
Speaker 1: of this back back. Oh why is everyone okay? Josie decline,
Speaker 1: you're right, Yeah, you're okay, okay, good Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1: Well this backpack is pretty strong to hold a train.
Speaker 1: But why is there a train in P. T. Barnum's backpack?
Speaker 1: Is it a from the traveling he did while campaigning
Speaker 1: for president or B it's the train he used to
Speaker 1: move the circus, making transporting the circus easier than the
Speaker 1: old horse and wagons that used to be used. That's correct.
Speaker 1: The answer is B. Having circuses travel by train was
Speaker 1: just one way PT revolutionized circuses. The other way is
Speaker 1: by expanding the one ring circus into three rings, which
Speaker 1: is still in use today. Unless you mean circus, which
Speaker 1: everyone knows happens in the middle of Celine Dion's biggest shows.
Speaker 1: We love you, Selene back from the past. Awesome. Now,
Speaker 1: everyone listening at home, remember do not try to fit
Speaker 1: a train in your backpack. We cannot be held responsible
Speaker 1: for any ruined backpacks or smosh trains. Now, before we
Speaker 1: make our own egress, We've got one more backpack from
Speaker 1: the past moment to share. The next game is from
Speaker 1: our episode featuring who was King Tut and who was
Speaker 1: Queen Elizabeth are royally awesome? Contestants Gwen and Lindsay tried
Speaker 1: to decipher the importance behind all the objects we found
Speaker 1: for King Tut. Let's hear it, Gwen, this first object
Speaker 1: is for you, all right, Well, I shouldn't be surprised
Speaker 1: to find this in a backpack. It's paper, but it's
Speaker 1: not like regular paper. It was rolled into a scroll
Speaker 1: and it's tougher than the paper I use for grocery
Speaker 1: lists and love notes. Glen, what's your guest, what is
Speaker 1: this paper? Yeah? What do you think this paper in
Speaker 1: my backpack from the past could be? It's like that wept. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's papyrus. Yeah, very very similar, although papa paper sounds delicious,
Speaker 1: the recursor to a modern paper that Egyptians developed as
Speaker 1: early as three thousand BC. And now I will pull
Speaker 1: from the backpack another object from ancient Egypt. Okay, it's
Speaker 1: a very long, very thin object with a curved hook
Speaker 1: on the end. Lindsay, what do you think this thing
Speaker 1: is and how does it relate to King Tutt when
Speaker 1: back then, when fair Hose would die, they would take
Speaker 1: a hook, and the genet think their brain was that important,
Speaker 1: so they would go up in the nose and take
Speaker 1: their brain out and then just throw it away. Oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, right in the nose, I mean, right on
Speaker 1: the nose. It is a brain hook. And you're right.
Speaker 1: Egyptian priest would remove the brains from den people before
Speaker 1: mommifying because Egyptians didn't really think the brain did so much,
Speaker 1: so we wouldn't need in the afterlights. All right, my
Speaker 1: turn to pull from the backpack. And this one is
Speaker 1: for Gwen. Oh my goodness. It's a big heavy stone
Speaker 1: with a bunch of hieroglyphics on it, along with Greek
Speaker 1: and another language. But I can't tell what this other
Speaker 1: language is, Gwen, what is this big heavy stone? What
Speaker 1: is this? I can't remember the name of a Can
Speaker 1: you tell us? Can you tell us about it? If
Speaker 1: you can't remember the name. There's three languages that those
Speaker 1: great on it. There's that high of graphic and there's
Speaker 1: another one and it's like it took a while for
Speaker 1: everyone to decipher them. But I can't remember the name
Speaker 1: of it. I think we should give this a half
Speaker 1: point partial credit. I think, okay, we're reaching into the
Speaker 1: half point bag. This is a special bag. Wee people
Speaker 1: of half points, and we're gonna give you a half
Speaker 1: credit for that. The name of the stone is the
Speaker 1: Rosetta Stone, but you're right, it has three languages on it,
Speaker 1: and eventually the Frenchman Jean franc Fais Champoon was able
Speaker 1: to decode hieroglyphics by comparing those languages, but it took
Speaker 1: thousands of years for people to realize what those languages
Speaker 1: were together. It took fourteen years of research for Jean
Speaker 1: Frances Champolon to be able to do it. Bonus point alert, Gwen, Okay,
Speaker 1: this for these are for bonus points. For five bonus points,
Speaker 1: can you tell me what the other language on that
Speaker 1: stone was. This is a tough one. That's why it's
Speaker 1: five points. Demotic. You got it, that's what is. It's demotic.
Speaker 1: That's amazing. That's right. It was demotic. Was this other
Speaker 1: language that was kind of like Greek, not exactly Greek,
Speaker 1: and kind of like hieroglyphics, not exactly hiero glyphics. They
Speaker 1: figured it out. Okay, for another five bonus points. This
Speaker 1: is gonna be a double bonus point A lord, lindsay,
Speaker 1: can you tell me which pharaoh the hieroglyphics on the
Speaker 1: Rosetta stone were praising? Who are they talking about? Huh?
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say the first woman pharaoh? Pharaoh if only,
Speaker 1: if only, if only the Rosetta stone had had was
Speaker 1: commemorating that landmark. Uh No, it was the pharaoh told me,
Speaker 1: which is you know, a hard named to remember for
Speaker 1: a pharaoh. So that is okay, no problem. That is
Speaker 1: five points for Gwen for her bonus question, and unfortunately
Speaker 1: no extra points for Lindsay, but she's doing great already. Anyway.
Speaker 1: The actually, let's see what the last object is in
Speaker 1: this backpack. It's not as heavy, okay. Interesting it's a
Speaker 1: scale and on one side is a feather and on
Speaker 1: the other side it's a human heart. Lindsay, what is this?
Speaker 1: Why would it be in King Tut's backpack? When somebody
Speaker 1: would die, they would they would put like different parts
Speaker 1: of their body in a jar. But I don't think
Speaker 1: this is the answer. But like the end of it,
Speaker 1: they would take the heart yourself. Okay, yeah, you're very close.
Speaker 1: It has to You're right that it has to do
Speaker 1: with when ancient Egyptians would die, when pharaoh's would die.
Speaker 1: You know what, I'm going to give you partial credit
Speaker 1: for that one. I'm gonna give you a half point,
Speaker 1: because yes, they would remove their heart and they put
Speaker 1: it in what was called a conoptic jar, a jar
Speaker 1: that would hold the pharaoh's organs so they could use
Speaker 1: them again in the afterlife. We were The scale itself
Speaker 1: is something that would happen in the Egyptian afterlife. They
Speaker 1: thought that when you died, your heart would be weighed
Speaker 1: against a feather, and if the feather weighed more than
Speaker 1: the heart, then you were good and you would cross
Speaker 1: over into the afterlife. And if you're heart weight more
Speaker 1: than the feather, you'd get eaten by a big monster.
Speaker 1: So we'll give you half credit for that one, because
Speaker 1: you've got it right. It's about dead Egyptian hearts from
Speaker 1: the beast. Well, that's been our show for today. It
Speaker 1: was a whole lot of knowledge packed into a tiny
Speaker 1: amount of space, much like the backpack from the past itself.
Speaker 1: Thanks for the support, Geraldine. You're the best cheerleader, elephant
Speaker 1: or otherwise that a b could ever wish for. Join
Speaker 1: us next week. When we'll be back with a regular
Speaker 1: episode to find out who Was two more amazing figures
Speaker 1: from history. Until then, I'm beat and we're history. Got
Speaker 1: a question for any of our famous figures, Send us
Speaker 1: a voice memo at the whos Podcast at gmail dot com.
Speaker 1: It might just end up on the show. The Who
Speaker 1: Was Podcast is produced by Radio Point, I Heart Media
Speaker 1: and Penguin Workshop and is based on the US selling
Speaker 1: who h Q series published by Penguin, Hosted by Megan
Speaker 1: O'Neill as b also starring Elliott Kaylin as Elliott, Eric
Speaker 1: Shackney as Eric, Jane Baker as Jane, and Lekendra Tooks
Speaker 1: as Harriet Tubman. Executive producers are Richard Corson, Alex Boch,
Speaker 1: Elliott Kaylin, Megan O'Neil, Daniel Powell, and Houston Snyder. Executive
Speaker 1: producer for Penguin Workshop is Francesco Citita. Executive producer for
Speaker 1: iHeart Media is Lindsay Hoffman. Written by Megan O'Neil, Elliott Haylen,
Speaker 1: Zack Timpson and Jane Baker. Produced by Bernie Kaminski and
Speaker 1: Taylor Kowalski. Our talent producer is Jane Baker. Our theme
Speaker 1: song and music is composed and performed by Eric Shackney,
Speaker 1: edited and mixed by Brematan and Kate Moldenhauer. Recorded by
Speaker 1: Joanna Samuel's Special thanks to Zach Timpson, Charlotte Danda, Daniel Goodman,
Speaker 1: and Michael Lewis Howard. The Who Was Podcast was recorded
Speaker 1: at the Art Studios in Los Angeles, California. Sound services
Speaker 1: provided by Great City Poets, Worst Podcast because it's standardbooks.
Speaker 1: Who