Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Hello and Happy Friday. I'm Tracy V. Wilson
Speaker 1: and I'm Holly Frye. We are back from our trip
Speaker 1: to Baha mar Yes in Nasau. Yes, as we discussed,
Speaker 1: I had been looking for a topic that was somehow
Speaker 1: thematically or geographically related to where we were wound up
Speaker 1: with the Flying Gang. The other thing I really thought
Speaker 1: about doing, and I don't think I said this in
Speaker 1: the actual episode for the week, it was the raid
Speaker 1: on Nasau in seventeen seventy six during the Revolutionary War.
Speaker 1: Long story short, the Americans needed gunpowder. There was gunpowder
Speaker 1: in Nasau. The end, they took some boats and raided
Speaker 1: NASA and got the gunpowder and left. And that it
Speaker 1: was the first amphibious landing for the US Marines, which
Speaker 1: sounds really notable until you think about the fact that
Speaker 1: the US Marines was a brand new entity at that point. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean it is still notable and cool, but sure
Speaker 1: different Marines than we think of today. Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: And it it was such a straightforward thing that I
Speaker 1: did not think it was going to wind up feeling
Speaker 1: as fun and interesting as pirates were going to be
Speaker 1: and then I also was a little tired of the
Speaker 1: Revolutionary War, having done multiple Revolutionary War episodes. Yeah, in
Speaker 1: the weeks leading up to taking this trip, in a
Speaker 1: weird coincidence, as we were preparing for this trip and
Speaker 1: I was preparing the episode, my friend Jim texted me
Speaker 1: and said, Sassin's Creed Black Flag Recinct is out and
Speaker 1: you should buy it. He had tried to convince me
Speaker 1: to play the original game a while back because I
Speaker 1: had never played it when it first came out, and
Speaker 1: I was trying to play it on Steam and I
Speaker 1: had a stealth mission that I could not successfully complete.
Speaker 1: I kept getting caught and I bounced off of it
Speaker 1: really early in the gameplay, and so I bought it
Speaker 1: and started playing it after this whole episode was written,
Speaker 1: but like the weekend before we got on a plane
Speaker 1: to fly to NASA, and I was like, Wow, Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: this game is all of the stuff that I just
Speaker 1: wrote about for the podcast, and also other pirates who
Speaker 1: we have talked about on the show previously. So I've
Speaker 1: been enjoying that game. I'm only laughing because I remember
Speaker 1: you telling me while we were still at Bahamar about
Speaker 1: Black Flag, and I was like the punk band, Like
Speaker 1: my brain couldn't get anywhere else. I was just on
Speaker 1: the struggle bus, like, yes, how are they related to that?
Speaker 1: It's a different black Flag? How dare Yeah? I can
Speaker 1: only handle one one thing having one name right right,
Speaker 1: which is funny because so many things do have the
Speaker 1: same name. It's true. Yeah, I'm like, what else do
Speaker 1: I have to say about pirates this week? It's been
Speaker 1: so long since we recorded the episode. We typically record
Speaker 1: behind the scenes immediately after recording the episode, and for
Speaker 1: reasons of time, that is not what we have done
Speaker 1: this time. Yeah, and so a full week has passed
Speaker 1: between recording the episode and doing the behind the scenes,
Speaker 1: and so now I'm like, what what was I even
Speaker 1: what a week ago? What did happen? What happened there?
Speaker 1: I don't know if we had ever really talked about
Speaker 1: how much piracy was interconnected with greater struggles between nations.
Speaker 1: I mean, we've talked about a number of pirates on
Speaker 1: the show before, and some of them that caused international incidents,
Speaker 1: like Henry every when he decided that he was going
Speaker 1: to attack a convoy that belonged to the Mughal Empire.
Speaker 1: But It was really when working on this one that
Speaker 1: I got a bigger sense of how much the rise
Speaker 1: in piracy had to do with things that did not
Speaker 1: actually have that much to do with the Caribbean and
Speaker 1: were more about various European powers fighting with one another
Speaker 1: and needing more sailors and having more privateers and then
Speaker 1: cutting all those people loose for various reasons. And then
Speaker 1: also the Jacobite movement and the Jacobite Rising. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: read a couple of papers that were just that was
Speaker 1: the whole topic, was looking at how many pirates were Jacobites,
Speaker 1: and if not, like hardcore Jacobites, were at least nominally
Speaker 1: open to the idea of replace the king with someone else,
Speaker 1: and some of them more where Jacobites is a way
Speaker 1: to express it a more anti current British monarchy attitude
Speaker 1: more generally not so much wanting a different king, but
Speaker 1: being opposed to the king overall. Yeah, I always go
Speaker 1: back to that that I'm going back a little bit
Speaker 1: to what you were talking about a moment ago, in
Speaker 1: terms of the interconnectedness with politics of the idea that
Speaker 1: you know, growing up as you learn about pirates, that
Speaker 1: stuff tends to be very stripped out, But when you
Speaker 1: actually start studying it and you realize, like the whole
Speaker 1: concept of like the Golden Age of piracy really is
Speaker 1: one of those instances where, you know, huge institutions set
Speaker 1: up a system and then abandon that system and then
Speaker 1: criminalize it. Yeah, and it's just like, I guess we're
Speaker 1: just setting the tone for the next two hundred years. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're a civilian and we want you to attack ships,
Speaker 1: but not those ones, only these other ones. Oh, when
Speaker 1: we don't want to be involved in this sticky business anymore,
Speaker 1: we're done. So right, you're on you own. Yeah. It
Speaker 1: really struck me as we were going through this one.
Speaker 1: Just maam, same thing, different century. Yeah. Yeah, man, we
Speaker 1: know we have set things up where you are going
Speaker 1: to depend financially on a system that involves us paying
Speaker 1: you to do this behavior, which is the only behavior
Speaker 1: you have ever learned because that's been your trade. But
Speaker 1: now we're done, that trade is over. I guess you've
Speaker 1: got to figure out another way to get money. And
Speaker 1: it's like they don't. There really weren't a lot of
Speaker 1: options at that point, so right anyway, anyway, piracy, yeah, piracy,
Speaker 1: do you want to talk about Thomas Huxley let's do
Speaker 1: talk about Thomas Huxley. Thomas Huxley is like a balm
Speaker 1: to my soul. He's the antidote to Charles Goodyear. Yeah,
Speaker 1: who I found infuriating Thomas Huxley. I love you, man.
Speaker 1: We all need a Thomas Huxley as a friend. I
Speaker 1: love the fact that Darwin was like, I know my
Speaker 1: ideas are controversial, I don't want to fight about it,
Speaker 1: and Huxley's like, oh, I'll fight about it. I will. Yes,
Speaker 1: let's do this. I will. I will any takers, I will.
Speaker 1: I'm ready to defend your ideas, and he did so
Speaker 1: so eloquently. We talked in the episode about you know,
Speaker 1: what a great writer he was, but he is also,
Speaker 1: you know, incredibly well spoken. His turn of phrase is
Speaker 1: so charming and elegant, even as verbose, as like the
Speaker 1: standard writing of the day was. I feel like his
Speaker 1: just really sings compared to a lot of other writers.
Speaker 1: I love it. I have imagined and dreamt of that
Speaker 1: Wilberforce debate. Oh yeah, ever since. I just loved the
Speaker 1: idea of him just smacking somebody down and being like,
Speaker 1: that's fine. Yeah, I would rather be related to an
Speaker 1: ape that be somebody like you. Yeah, it's such a
Speaker 1: good burn. Oh what a good burn. I feel like
Speaker 1: if Thomas Huxley were alive today, he might be King
Speaker 1: of Jubilee. You know that he'll just debate anybody. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I just love him. I also love you know. We
Speaker 1: set up the episode this way that he made this
Speaker 1: big blunder, and this is what led me to And
Speaker 1: I was looking for marine biology things because I didn't
Speaker 1: want to do anything super like related to the I
Speaker 1: just wasn't in the mood for stuff related to like
Speaker 1: the political history of the area or whatever. And I
Speaker 1: ended up in a marine biology thing that wasn't super
Speaker 1: duper about, you know, being in the Caribbean. But I
Speaker 1: really like that he made this big stupid mistake and
Speaker 1: was totally confident enough to go, Wow, that was a
Speaker 1: big stupid mistake. Yes, sorry, I'm going to rectify this
Speaker 1: at every opportunity, Like anytime I find a pocket of
Speaker 1: someone who doesn't know that I have retracted this and
Speaker 1: it's a big stupid mistake, I'm going to let them
Speaker 1: know and I'm going to inform them of what the
Speaker 1: reality was. I love everything about that because it shows
Speaker 1: incredible strength of character. Right, everybody is embarrassed by making
Speaker 1: mistakes in public. And that was a big one because
Speaker 1: it really shifted, Like you know, it was at a
Speaker 1: time when everyone was so excited about the concepts of
Speaker 1: like we have gotten to this place scientifically where we
Speaker 1: can figure out the origins of life, of not just
Speaker 1: humankind but all life. And how you know, for him
Speaker 1: to think he had it and then be like whoops,
Speaker 1: without being sheepish about it, but right explaining like here
Speaker 1: is how I came to this incorrect conclusion. I just
Speaker 1: love it. I love it. Yeah, yeah, I wanted Thomas
Speaker 1: Huxley in my corner all day, every day. What a dream,
Speaker 1: the delight of a human I had another thing, and
Speaker 1: now I forget it. I'm still back on just imagining
Speaker 1: Wilberforce blushing and getting really curious and running out. I
Speaker 1: do love that they named that room where the debate
Speaker 1: happened after Huxley a just like the burn never stops,
Speaker 1: it just keeps going. I do really also love we
Speaker 1: didn't talk about it a whole lot, but of course,
Speaker 1: obviously like the idea that this was a person who
Speaker 1: was all of these noble and you know, strength of
Speaker 1: character type things. We have been discussing that. On top
Speaker 1: of all of that, he was like, you know what,
Speaker 1: everybody has the right to an education, everybody, And I'm
Speaker 1: going to do whatever I can with my power, with
Speaker 1: my platform to reach down and help people up the ladder.
Speaker 1: Because he you know, he came from not a wealthy family.
Speaker 1: I just I love that about him. I love that
Speaker 1: He's like, how can we do how can we demystify science?
Speaker 1: How can we make science accessible for people who think
Speaker 1: science is not for them, that it's for people in
Speaker 1: academia and in you know, the hallowed halls of the
Speaker 1: scientific world. How can we make them understand that science
Speaker 1: is for them too, And how can we make women
Speaker 1: have more opportunities and education. What a historical dreamboat. Thomas Huxley.
Speaker 1: I love them. I love them so much. Uh yeah,
Speaker 1: that's uh. It was very funny because I was talking
Speaker 1: about him with my beloved, you know, and the way
Speaker 1: that you just kind of dated, dump up whatever you're
Speaker 1: working on in our research. And this was actually not
Speaker 1: until today a week later in the car on the
Speaker 1: way to the veterinarians just had a vet appointment, and
Speaker 1: I was talking about him because he was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I don't even know what you guys recorded last week.
Speaker 1: And we were talking and I was telling him about
Speaker 1: Thomas Huxley, and he goes, wait, Alvis Huxley, and I
Speaker 1: was like, that is fact his grandson, and I was
Speaker 1: just ready to go. I was excited. Yeah. When I
Speaker 1: got your email with the outline in it, and I
Speaker 1: didn't know what you had been working on, and it
Speaker 1: just said Huxley, that was my first thought. Also interesting,
Speaker 1: also interesting. You know, Brave New World cracked my brain
Speaker 1: open in new ways when I read it. I think
Speaker 1: I was sixteen when I read it. It was good stuff.
Speaker 1: That's good stuff. What a legacy, what a familial legacy.
Speaker 1: I was trying to remember what Thomas Huxley's grandson, Andrew,
Speaker 1: had won the Nobel Prize for. As I was having
Speaker 1: this chat with my husband while I was driving, and
Speaker 1: then I came home and I reread what we had read,
Speaker 1: which was a quote because I knew I couldn't parse
Speaker 1: what that science was. And now I'm like, oh, I
Speaker 1: don't know why I thought I would have remembered that, right, Great, yeah, great,
Speaker 1: I'm off the hook. Yeah. Just a phenomenal dude, And
Speaker 1: what a delight to get to talk about him in
Speaker 1: our very unique recording space. Last week. That was a
Speaker 1: wild one. It was super fun. But they're just as
Speaker 1: a peak behind the curtain for our listeners. The studio
Speaker 1: there is like windows on two of the four sides
Speaker 1: and so, and it is in the middle of a
Speaker 1: big resort, so there are people just strolling by and
Speaker 1: sometimes peeking in, and which obviously I found kind of
Speaker 1: charming and hilarious. There's a cafe back there, yeah, so
Speaker 1: we would occasionally see somebody just walking by with their
Speaker 1: ice cream. If there are glints for anyone watching on Netflix,
Speaker 1: if there are glints of envy in our eyes at
Speaker 1: various points, it is because I'm like, that looks delicious.
Speaker 1: There were a couple of times where somebody would be
Speaker 1: doing I don't know, just just goofing off in some
Speaker 1: way through the window, and I would get kind of
Speaker 1: distracted and be like, hey, hey, you need to pay
Speaker 1: attention to you. You're working, You're on the clock, you're
Speaker 1: at work right now. It's I mean, I get distracted
Speaker 1: while I'm at work all time. It just happens. I
Speaker 1: hope if this is your weekend coming up, I hope
Speaker 1: you could escape somewhere beautiful and hang out and get
Speaker 1: ice cream if that's your jam. If you don't like
Speaker 1: ice cream or it doesn't agree with you, I hope
Speaker 1: you find something else super delicious to eat. I hope
Speaker 1: if you can't run away, that you at least get
Speaker 1: some relaxation and do something super fun and restorative. Still
Speaker 1: eat whatever the delicious thing is. If you can't, if
Speaker 1: you have obligations, like maybe your schedule is such that
Speaker 1: you actually work on the weekends, or you have a
Speaker 1: family that has a lot of errands that need to
Speaker 1: be run. Maybe you've got to take your kids to
Speaker 1: soccer practice, maybe you've got to do any number of things.
Speaker 1: I hope that even while you're doing all those things
Speaker 1: or working your job, that you still find moments of
Speaker 1: joy for yourself and perhaps even ways to make joy
Speaker 1: for other people. That's very fulfilling. And I hope that
Speaker 1: everybody is cool to each other because we all need it.
Speaker 1: Right now. We will be right back here on Monday
Speaker 1: with a brand new episode. We will also be right
Speaker 1: back here tomorrow with a classic Stuff You miss in
Speaker 1: History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts
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