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Speaker 1: Welcome to steph you missed in History class from how

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Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm Holly Frying and I'm Tracy V. Wilson, and today

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Speaker 1: we are going to talk about a subject that was

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Speaker 1: requested by listener Nathan. Uh. And this is a story

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Speaker 1: that will come up. You'll see it kind of been

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Speaker 1: online article sometimes as this tale of gluttony that's, you know,

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Speaker 1: just amazing, and it is that, but really at its heart,

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Speaker 1: it's a medical mystery and it's really quite tragic at that. Uh.

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Speaker 1: Some of this, also, we should warn you feature some

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Speaker 1: gross ish bodily function stuff, so be warned. Uh. There's

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Speaker 1: also a little bit that might be tricky if you

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Speaker 1: are sensitive to animals being harmed. I know I am.

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Speaker 1: So we're not gonna get to graphic with it and

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Speaker 1: we're not going to linger on that, but we are

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Speaker 1: going to mention the details of it in that regard.

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Speaker 1: But if you are very, very squeamish, this may not

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Speaker 1: be the episode for you. And before we start talking

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Speaker 1: about the actual person will be discussing, we're going to

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Speaker 1: talk for just a minute about polyphagia. So this is

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Speaker 1: sometimes also called hyperphagia, which is basically terms I mean

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Speaker 1: excessive hunger or excessive eating or really markedly increased appetite.

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Speaker 1: These can be, uh regardless of which term you're using,

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Speaker 1: an indicator of diabetes because the body isn't properly converting

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Speaker 1: glucose into energy, so the body remains hungry and it

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Speaker 1: keeps seeking the energy it needs from additional sustenance, so

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Speaker 1: you you eat more and more you have a ongoing

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Speaker 1: insatiable appetite. But that is not the only thing that

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Speaker 1: polyphagia is linked to. It can also be um part

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Speaker 1: of any number of other triggers and bigger issues, including

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Speaker 1: stress and depression, hyper thyroidism, as well as medical conditions

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Speaker 1: such as Kleine Levin syndrome and Praytor Willie syndrome. But

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Speaker 1: some cases of this are really extreme. So we're not

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Speaker 1: talking about eating a lot because you've started really working out,

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Speaker 1: or eating a whole pie because you are upset about something.

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Speaker 1: These are really cases where the person's hunger can never

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Speaker 1: be stated in the volume and the nature of the

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Speaker 1: things that the person is eating really become pretty mind boggling.

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Speaker 1: So we are talking today about tore or tarre if

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Speaker 1: you want to english it up a little bit more.

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Speaker 1: Who was a French gentleman and most of the information

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Speaker 1: that we have about him is from an eighteen o

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Speaker 1: five publication of geenal de medicine in a piece entitled

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Speaker 1: Memoir la poe uh and this case study was written

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Speaker 1: by Pierre Francois Percy, who examined her are several times

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Speaker 1: throughout the man's life. So just to give a little

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Speaker 1: bit of background, because I mean, often when we're reading

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Speaker 1: old medical papers sometimes there's some questionable stuff in them

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Speaker 1: from before the days of evidence based medicine. So we

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Speaker 1: just want to establish this guy's credentials are a little

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Speaker 1: bit Pierre Francois Percy was this respected surgeon in France

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Speaker 1: and the late eventeen hundreds and early eighteen hundreds. He

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Speaker 1: served as an army surgeon starting in seventeen eighty two,

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Speaker 1: and he invented a trolley that would carry medical supplies

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Speaker 1: and nursing staff directly onto battlefields for treatment of wounded

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Speaker 1: soldiers without having to take them away to another location.

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Speaker 1: He also invented the surgical quiver, so this was a

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Speaker 1: carrying kit that held a tourniquet and eleven different surgical

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Speaker 1: instruments which a surgeon could wear on his shoulders, free

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Speaker 1: up his hands, have all that stuff easy to access. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I wanted to find a picture of one, and I

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Speaker 1: didn't manage to do so. I'm sure there's gotta be

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Speaker 1: one out there, but I would love to see it. Uh.

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Speaker 1: Percy was made an Officer of the Legion of Honor

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Speaker 1: in eighteen o four, and he only left his military

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Speaker 1: medical career when he developed chronic eye inflammation that just

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Speaker 1: made it not really feasible to stay basically on active

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Speaker 1: duty as a doctor. Uh. He then went on to

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Speaker 1: oversee health inspection services and to teach at the Faculty

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Speaker 1: of Medicine in Paris, and after his death he was

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Speaker 1: called the father of military surgeons. And thanks to Monsieur Prescy,

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Speaker 1: we have medical notes on the man known as Tarar,

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Speaker 1: but we still have huge gaps in our knowledge on

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Speaker 1: this unusual patient's background. Tarar was born in Lele, France

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Speaker 1: in the seventeen seventies, and we don't know his name

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Speaker 1: at birth or really anything about his family, because he

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Speaker 1: left home when he was very young. This allegedly was

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Speaker 1: because his parents were unable to provide food for him

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Speaker 1: and they turned him out of the family home. The

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Speaker 1: apocryphal story of the origin of his name suggests that

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Speaker 1: it's basically a nickname after a sort of an amato

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Speaker 1: poetic phrase that was used in France at the time,

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Speaker 1: which kind of went and that referred to a big

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Speaker 1: explosions to sort of like saying kaboom uh. And the

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Speaker 1: explosions in this explanation were his constant bursts of flatulence.

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Speaker 1: So to survive on his own as a boy, Tarar

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Speaker 1: would beg He would sometimes even steal, but he was

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Speaker 1: really never able to gather enough food to key uh

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Speaker 1: himself filled up. He was from a very young age,

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Speaker 1: could never really meet his appetites needs, and by the

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Speaker 1: time he was seventeen, he weighed barely a hundred pounds

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Speaker 1: or forty so very lean. He could also at this

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Speaker 1: point allegedly eat as much as a quarter of beef

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Speaker 1: in a day at this point, so that is literally

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Speaker 1: one quarter of the beef animal. If you purchase a

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Speaker 1: quarter of beef today, it's usually estimated as being somewhere

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Speaker 1: between a hundred and twenty and a hundred and fifty

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Speaker 1: pounds that's fifty four to sixty eight ms. So once

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Speaker 1: you lose some of that weight to the inedible sections

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Speaker 1: like the bone, etcetera. He was basically capable of eating

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Speaker 1: just about the equivalent of his own weight in a

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Speaker 1: given day. Eventually, he joined up with a group of

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Speaker 1: traveling entertainers and he was able to put his unending

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Speaker 1: hunger to work. As part of the show, he would

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Speaker 1: challenge spectators to basically beat him enough to be false,

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Speaker 1: so he ate huge quantities of apples and mere minutes.

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Speaker 1: He would even consume things that weren't food, like corks

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Speaker 1: and flints. And he enlisted as a soldier with the

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Speaker 1: French revolution Army during the War of the First Coalition

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Speaker 1: against Austria and Prussia, and in an effort to ensure

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Speaker 1: that he was getting enough food, Tarar would do all

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Speaker 1: of the work of his fellow soldiers in the battalion

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Speaker 1: in return for portions of their rations, usually quite a

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Speaker 1: lot of them. But it simply wasn't enough, and his

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Speaker 1: energy really lagged. He became very weak and ill, and

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Speaker 1: he was eventually admitted to a military hospital in suits.

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Speaker 1: The medical staff at this military hospital immediately increased his

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Speaker 1: rations fourfold, and while he was in the hospital, he

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Speaker 1: would also eat any food that other patients had been

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Speaker 1: unable or unwilling to eat. He managed to get some

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Speaker 1: kitchen scraps as well. But even though none of this

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Speaker 1: was enough, he continued to be hungry all the time,

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Speaker 1: so much so that he would break into the hospital

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Speaker 1: pharmacy and eat anything that he could get his hands on.

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Speaker 1: And we're going to talk next about some additional treatment

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Speaker 1: that he had at the military hospital and how his

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Speaker 1: examination by doctor actually led to a strange and rather

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Speaker 1: brief career move. But first we're going to have a

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Speaker 1: word from one of our sponsors. Going to get back

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Speaker 1: to our story. It was during this treatment at a

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Speaker 1: military hospital that Sir met, among other doctors, Baron Percy.

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Speaker 1: And this is the man who serves as the primary

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Speaker 1: source of information about him. He penned he being Dr

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Speaker 1: Percy penned a very thorough and pretty unsettling description of

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Speaker 1: the patient in his memoirs on the case, and it

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Speaker 1: reads his cheeks were sallow and furrowed by long and

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Speaker 1: deep wrinkles. On distending them, he could hold in them

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Speaker 1: as many as a dozen eggs or apples. His mouth

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Speaker 1: was very large, He had hardly any lips. He had

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Speaker 1: all his teeth. The muellers were much worn away, and

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Speaker 1: the color of their enamels streaked like marble. The space

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Speaker 1: between the jaws, when they were fully separated, measured about

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Speaker 1: four inches. In this state, with the head inclined backwards,

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Speaker 1: the mouth and esophagus form erectilinear canal into which a

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Speaker 1: cylinder of a foot in circumference could be introduced without

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Speaker 1: touching the palate. He often stanked to such agree that

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Speaker 1: he could not be endured within the distance of twenty paces.

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Speaker 1: He was subject to a flux from the bowels, and

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Speaker 1: his dejections were fetted beyond all conception. When he had

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Speaker 1: not eaten copiously within a short time, the skin of

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Speaker 1: his belly would wrap almost around his body. When he

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Speaker 1: was well satiated with food, the vapor from his body

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Speaker 1: increased his cheeks and his eyes became a vivid red.

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Speaker 1: A brutal somnolence, and a sort of habitude came over

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Speaker 1: him while he digested. He was in this state troubled

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Speaker 1: with noisy belchings, and made in moving his jaw some

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Speaker 1: motions like those of dead lutition. Another quote from stere

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Speaker 1: of Percy about Tara goes like this, let a person

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Speaker 1: imagine all that domesticated and wild animals, the most filthy

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Speaker 1: and ravenous are capable of devouring, and they may form

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Speaker 1: some idea of the appetite as well as the wants

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Speaker 1: of Terrara. And this likening of Tarar's tastes to the

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Speaker 1: most filthy and ravenous animals is due to the fact

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Speaker 1: that he developed a fondness for both rotten meat and

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Speaker 1: very very fresh meat. This is where it gets a

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Speaker 1: bit difficult for animal lovers in the crowd, including frankly,

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Speaker 1: both of us. So great and voracious was this man's

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Speaker 1: appetite that he eventually took to eating live animals in

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Speaker 1: an effort to sustain himself. He is said to have

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Speaker 1: eaten a live cat in front of an army physician

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Speaker 1: named Dr Laurence, and much in the way that a

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Speaker 1: wild animal would was the way he approached eating this cat,

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Speaker 1: and then afterward he produced a hairball of the cat's fur,

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Speaker 1: and as part of his uh treatment there at the hospital,

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Speaker 1: they were kind of testing what sort of things he

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Speaker 1: would eat, so cats were not his only live diet.

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Speaker 1: He also would eat dogs, snakes, eels, and lizards. He

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Speaker 1: was apparently very fond of serpents, swallowing them whole without chewing.

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Speaker 1: There's one description that describes him as sort of crushing

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Speaker 1: the head with his jaw and then swallowing the whole thing.

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Speaker 1: The doctors at the military hospital were so completely fascinated

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Speaker 1: with Tarar that they concocted massive meals to feed him,

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Speaker 1: as they observed he was once spent a feast besides

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Speaker 1: that you might prepare for more than a dozen men,

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Speaker 1: and he devoured it all in its entirety. At one meal,

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Speaker 1: he downed four gallons of milk in addition to two

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Speaker 1: full sized meat pies. You ever heard about challenges or

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Speaker 1: people try to chug a single gallon of milk in

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Speaker 1: one go. You know, it's incredibly difficult and frankly dangerous,

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Speaker 1: so please don't try it. So four at once on

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Speaker 1: top of a very substantial meal is truly astonishing. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's kind of one of those moments where, when you

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Speaker 1: really think about it, it kind of can turn your stomach,

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Speaker 1: So don't think too hard on that. Uh. And when

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Speaker 1: he would eat these immense portions, Tarar's belly, all that

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Speaker 1: skin that Percy had written could wrap around him. When

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Speaker 1: he hadn't eaten, would become distended, and he would, as mentioned,

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Speaker 1: sleep for a while, very very deeply as he digested.

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Speaker 1: This is one of those things that seems so far

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Speaker 1: fetched that like part of me wonders, this is a

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Speaker 1: giant hoax perpetuated by like multiple physicians at the same time.

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Speaker 1: But like, there's so much primary source documentation describing him

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Speaker 1: that that seems like it would have been a colossal feat. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I mean, we don't have a ton compared to some things,

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Speaker 1: but for medical issues of an era, for one patient

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Speaker 1: to have so many people kind of involved in commenting

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Speaker 1: on it, it's fairly substantiated and completely horrifying. But uh, yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's I can't imagine what it would have been like

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Speaker 1: for a bunch of doctors to be puzzling out what

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Speaker 1: the heck is going on with this person and trying

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Speaker 1: to come up with ways to test it. Yeah, especially

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Speaker 1: given how relatively especially given where we were in medical

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Speaker 1: history basically so, Sarra's unique condition unsurprisingly intrigued both the

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Speaker 1: doctors and the military quite greatly. They tested and steadying him,

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Speaker 1: and eventually it was determined that he might have potential

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Speaker 1: as a smuggler or a courier. He was given a

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Speaker 1: wooden box that contained a message and instructed to swallow it,

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Speaker 1: and once the box had been swallowed, he was sent

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Speaker 1: across the border into Prussia on his first mission, disguised

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Speaker 1: as a peasant. The idea was that he would pass

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Speaker 1: the box and then handed off to an imprisoned French

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Speaker 1: colonel that the Prussians had captured. Once the colonel had

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Speaker 1: read the message, he was send a reply back to

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Speaker 1: France in the exact same way by putting it in

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Speaker 1: the box, which Tarar would then swallow. And for a

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Speaker 1: quick contextual aside on the war of the First Coalition,

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Speaker 1: uh in June of King Louis the sixteenth and his

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Speaker 1: family had attempted to flee France and they were captured

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Speaker 1: near the Austrian border. In September of that year, Austria

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Speaker 1: and Prussia issued the Declaration of Pilnitz, which formally proclaimed

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Speaker 1: support for King Louis the sixteenth in the revolution and

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Speaker 1: was a move against the revolutionaries of France. So at

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Speaker 1: that point that's sort of how this war came about.

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Speaker 1: There are some problems with this plan of using terror

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Speaker 1: to move sensitive information, though he could easily consume almost

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Speaker 1: anything and smuggle it, but that really didn't translate into

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Speaker 1: making him a good spy. He could only speak French

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Speaker 1: and did not speak any Germans, so he really wasn't

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Speaker 1: able to smoothly navigate Prussia by himself. He also drew

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Speaker 1: a lot of attention to himself by reacting strangely when

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Speaker 1: people tried to talk to him. He wasn't particularly stealthy.

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Speaker 1: People actually called on military authorities to report him because

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Speaker 1: he was acting so strangely. So he wound up being

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Speaker 1: captured outside of Londo, and initially it seemed as though

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Speaker 1: Tarar might actually have some fortitude for espionage, despite not

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Speaker 1: having maybe the skills to move about in a foreign land.

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Speaker 1: In his first any four hours as a captive, he

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Speaker 1: gave up no information despite the fact that he was

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Speaker 1: being whipped and threatened with death repeatedly. But eventually he

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Speaker 1: was broken and he unfurled this bizarre tale of the

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Speaker 1: secret document that was lurking somewhere in his digestive tract.

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Speaker 1: Once he passed the box in exactly the natural way

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Speaker 1: that you're probably thinking, it was seized by the Prussian

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Speaker 1: forces who had been waiting for it since their captive

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Speaker 1: told them the story. It turned out that this first mission, though,

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Speaker 1: had really just been a test of whether it was

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Speaker 1: a viable way to move information. There was nothing of

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Speaker 1: value in the message in the box. The failed spy

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Speaker 1: was sent back to France, but not until after he

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Speaker 1: had been beaten several more times and even put in

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Speaker 1: a noose as though they were going to hang him.

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Speaker 1: This is basically the end of his spy career. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: the whole news thing was apparently a big joke, Like

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Speaker 1: Prussian officers stood there laughing while they watched this man

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Speaker 1: panic thinking he was going to die. Uh so this

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Speaker 1: is a failed failed mission all around. Um. And then

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Speaker 1: the next thing, we're going to talk a little bit

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Speaker 1: about Tarar's desperate hope that someone could finally cure him

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Speaker 1: of his constant hunger. But before we do, we're going

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Speaker 1: to pause for another word from a sponsor to get

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Speaker 1: back to the life of Tarar. The next significant event

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Speaker 1: in that life took place a few years later. He

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Speaker 1: was once again in a hospital for study, and during

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Speaker 1: this time he was visited again by Mr Percy. His

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Speaker 1: appetite was as intense as it had ever been, and

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Speaker 1: he had started eating this gross turns my little stomach

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Speaker 1: a little bit to say it. He had started eating

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Speaker 1: used bandages to try to stay full. It is gross

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Speaker 1: and it's one of those things that when I was

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Speaker 1: doing the research, my first thought was look, and then

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Speaker 1: I was like heartbreaking just to reach this point where

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Speaker 1: you will consume anything because you are so tired of

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Speaker 1: being hungry. And this is, as you can imagine, the

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Speaker 1: point where Tarar was really exhausted at trying to keep

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Speaker 1: pay with his own appetite, and he wanted desperately to

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Speaker 1: be cured of this affliction. So just about any theory

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Speaker 1: or idea that anyone could come up with to try

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Speaker 1: to treat him and get rid of this problem was tested. First,

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Speaker 1: he was dosed with opium that turned out to be

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Speaker 1: no help, and then a combination of tobacco pills and

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Speaker 1: sour wine was administered, but once again, his appetite was unabated.

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Speaker 1: And then a diet of boiled eggs was prescribed. Though

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Speaker 1: the patient was dubious of that plan, he did try it,

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Speaker 1: but it didn't again seem to help in any way.

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Speaker 1: In the meantime, he was supplementing the food that the

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Speaker 1: doctors were giving him on his own. He would sneak

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Speaker 1: out of the hospital and run roam the streets to

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Speaker 1: try to find more food. He ate scraps from butcher shops,

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Speaker 1: he picked through garbage, He allegedly competed with street dogs

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Speaker 1: and rats for sustenance, and even when he stayed inside

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Speaker 1: the hospital, he was still constantly looking for opportunities to

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Speaker 1: eat because they just could not get him to a

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Speaker 1: point where he could be comfortable or not just plagued

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Speaker 1: by this reminist sensation. So, in addition to the bandages

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Speaker 1: mentioned a moment ago, he was reported as having been

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Speaker 1: caught drinking blood that had been drained from patients through

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Speaker 1: vents section and more. Workers claimed that they found him

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Speaker 1: eating corpses on multiple occasions. Throughout all of this, Parcy

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Speaker 1: was attempting to treat Tarar and even fighting against other doctors.

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Speaker 1: He felt really strongly that he really needed to be

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Speaker 1: in an asylum, but nothing ever worked. Things continued in

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Speaker 1: this pattern of unsuccessful treatment, with tar Are getting in

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Speaker 1: trouble with the hospital to hospital staff, and Parcy advocating

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Speaker 1: on his behalf, until accusations were eventually leveled against tar

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Speaker 1: Are that his doctor just could not save him from

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Speaker 1: So an infant went missing at the hospital, and this

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Speaker 1: was a baby just fourteen months old, and the child

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Speaker 1: simply vanished. And while there was no evident that Tarrar

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Speaker 1: had been involved in this baby disappearing, all of his

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Speaker 1: bizarre behavior before this incident culminated in the doctors and

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Speaker 1: staff believing that the only possible explanation was that their

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Speaker 1: insatiable patient had eaten a helpless baby. And he was

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Speaker 1: never formally accused of any crime, but he was chased

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Speaker 1: away from the hospital, his treatment was abruptly halted, and

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Speaker 1: Mr Percy lost touch with his patient. Four years after

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Speaker 1: Tarrar was run out of military hospital, us A paracy

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Speaker 1: once again got word about his on again, off again patient.

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Speaker 1: This time the doctor was contacted by the chief surgeon

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Speaker 1: of a hospital in Versailles. Tarar, he was twenty six

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Speaker 1: at this point, was gravely ill. He had been admitted

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Speaker 1: to the hospital and he had immediately begun asking for

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Speaker 1: his former doctor. And we don't really know what he

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Speaker 1: was up to in those four years between when he

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Speaker 1: had been chased away from the military hospital and when

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Speaker 1: he turned up in Versailles. But when Percy arrived at

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Speaker 1: the hospital to see the patient in Tarar told him

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Speaker 1: that he had swallowed a golden fork that he had

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Speaker 1: stolen two years prior, and that he believed that this

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Speaker 1: fork was still lodged somewhere in his intestine and was

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Speaker 1: the cause of his illness, and he begged his doctor,

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Speaker 1: Monsieur Percy, to give him something, some sort of laxative,

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Speaker 1: anything that might force this obstructive utensil out. However, Sinsiere

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Speaker 1: Precy determined that whether or not there was a fork

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Speaker 1: trapped inside of this man, the real issue was that

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Speaker 1: he had contracted tuberculosis. Even though he had always had

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Speaker 1: this insatiable hunger, he had always appeared more or less

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Speaker 1: healthy in appearance, although quite thin, it was evident that

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Speaker 1: he was really at this point wasting away. Soon after

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Speaker 1: his doctor's arrival, Tarar was stricken with a very persistent diarrhea,

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Speaker 1: and he died within a matter of days, and his

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Speaker 1: corpse began to decompose at an unusually rapid rate, so

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Speaker 1: much so that while all of the doctors at the

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Speaker 1: hospital were fascinated with his case, most were unwilling to

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Speaker 1: even getting near his body, let alone examine it through dissection,

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Speaker 1: and eventually a Monsieur Tessier, who was the chief surgeon

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Speaker 1: that had contacted Percy and told him that his patient

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Speaker 1: was there at Versailles, undertook the task in an effort

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Speaker 1: to uncover clues about the deceased's unique biology. The findings

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Speaker 1: of the autopsy were not particularly surprising given what we

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Speaker 1: already know about Tarar. His gullet was unusually wide, so

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Speaker 1: wide that when Monsieur Tessier opened his jaws he could

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Speaker 1: see directly down into Tarar's stomach. Monsieur Percy later wrote

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Speaker 1: of Tarar's body, based on the findings of Monsieur Tessier quote,

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Speaker 1: his body, as soon as he was dead, became a

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Speaker 1: prey to a horrible corruption. The entrols were putrified, confounded together,

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Speaker 1: and immersed in pus. The liver was excessively large, void

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Speaker 1: of consistence in in a putrescent state. The gall bladder

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Speaker 1: was of considerable magnitude, the stomach in a lax state,

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Speaker 1: and having ulcerated patches first about it, covered almost the

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Speaker 1: whole of the abdominal region. They did not find the

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Speaker 1: fork that he had been sure that he had swallowed

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Speaker 1: and was still in his body. And the rapidly decaying

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Speaker 1: bodies odor became so intense that the dissection could not continue.

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Speaker 1: And the story of Tarar is one that, as we

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Speaker 1: mentioned earlier, when you initially hear some of the more

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Speaker 1: fantastic details, like the huge meals and the spy mission,

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Speaker 1: it's compelling and it's fascinating, and it's even funny in

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Speaker 1: some ways, in the way that gross things or bodily

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Speaker 1: functions can sometimes elicit laughter. But as you look at

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Speaker 1: the details of this man's really quite short life, it

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Speaker 1: takes on a much more tragic air. For example, it

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Speaker 1: appears that even though he didn't suffer from pico, which

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Speaker 1: is a disorder characterized by the compulsion to eat objects

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Speaker 1: that aren't food, just the same he was often driven

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Speaker 1: in desperation to eat things like hospital bandages in order

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Speaker 1: to simply address the fact that he was ceaselessly hungry. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's one of those stories that just the more I

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Speaker 1: think about it, the more sad I find the whole thing.

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Speaker 1: And I can't imagine what a life like that would

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Speaker 1: be like you're kind of held hostage at that point

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Speaker 1: by your medical condition. Yeah, And I didn't because after

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Speaker 1: after you sent the outline to me, I was like,

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Speaker 1: this is so strange. I wonder if there are theories

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Speaker 1: about what was going on, and I really didn't find

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Speaker 1: like you'll you'll find medical speculation of you know, did

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Speaker 1: such and such really kill so and so person. I

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00:22:28,160 --> 00:22:31,040
Speaker 1: didn't really find a lot of that with him. But

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Speaker 1: it seems clear that he has to have had some

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Speaker 1: kind of like metabolic or digestive system disorder, something serious

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00:22:38,600 --> 00:22:41,280
Speaker 1: going on that wasn't treated because let me know what

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00:22:41,320 --> 00:22:43,600
Speaker 1: it was or how it is a thing that some

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00:22:43,800 --> 00:22:48,399
Speaker 1: modern doctors will speculate on. Particularly um, you know, there

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00:22:48,480 --> 00:22:51,840
Speaker 1: hints that he had some sort of overclocked metabolic situation,

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00:22:52,720 --> 00:22:55,840
Speaker 1: especially since his body seemed to continue to be kind

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00:22:55,880 --> 00:22:59,360
Speaker 1: of overburning even after he had died, as evidenced by

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00:22:59,359 --> 00:23:03,119
Speaker 1: his rapid deck composition. But again, we never really sussed

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Speaker 1: out what the problem was there. Uh so he remains

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Speaker 1: a medical mystery probably forever. I have good news, Tracy.

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Speaker 1: Is it some listener mail that is not tragically sad.

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00:23:14,960 --> 00:23:18,600
Speaker 1: It's listener mail that is not tragically sad, and it

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00:23:18,680 --> 00:23:21,920
Speaker 1: is utterly delightful and as a cool example of people

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Speaker 1: combining art and technology. Are you ready? I am? Okay,

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00:23:26,800 --> 00:23:29,000
Speaker 1: hold on, I gotta pull something up on my phone

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Speaker 1: to read it, and you'll understand why in a second.

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Speaker 1: So this comes from our listener, Carl, and he says,

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Speaker 1: Dear Holly and Tracy, listening to your podcast episode about

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Speaker 1: the history of knitting finally prompted me to combine two

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Speaker 1: of my artistic passions and send you real live mail.

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00:23:45,160 --> 00:23:46,840
Speaker 1: I've emailed you a couple of times to thank you

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00:23:46,880 --> 00:23:49,200
Speaker 1: for all you do, particularly in terms of highlighting issues

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00:23:49,200 --> 00:23:51,399
Speaker 1: of race and gender in the stories you present, but

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00:23:51,440 --> 00:23:53,600
Speaker 1: I felt that it was time to do something more concrete.

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00:23:54,320 --> 00:23:56,920
Speaker 1: I've been knitting for about ten years now, and I've

424
00:23:56,960 --> 00:23:59,199
Speaker 1: told people things about the history of knitting that I

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00:23:59,200 --> 00:24:01,480
Speaker 1: have now learned a completely false. From now on, I

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00:24:01,520 --> 00:24:04,160
Speaker 1: will direct people who ask about it to your podcast episode.

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00:24:04,840 --> 00:24:07,520
Speaker 1: The postcard I'm sending you has a simple stock in

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Speaker 1: itt panel on the front, knitted with a self striping

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00:24:10,400 --> 00:24:13,200
Speaker 1: yarn called Unforgettable. The back is a stock in it

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Speaker 1: and shell lace in a white yarn that was gifted

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Speaker 1: from a friend. Since I know how much you love sewing,

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00:24:18,359 --> 00:24:20,679
Speaker 1: I stitched the address block to the piece using a

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00:24:20,680 --> 00:24:24,040
Speaker 1: blanket stitch. I'm actually showing this to Tracy now. This

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00:24:24,119 --> 00:24:28,439
Speaker 1: is the first she is seeing it. It's amazing, but

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00:24:28,480 --> 00:24:32,439
Speaker 1: this is where it gets really cool. Uh So I

436
00:24:32,480 --> 00:24:35,000
Speaker 1: will finish reading his letter, and then I will tell

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00:24:35,000 --> 00:24:38,520
Speaker 1: you about my hilarious reaction when I got it, only

438
00:24:39,080 --> 00:24:41,359
Speaker 1: because it was filled with wonder. He says. This is

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00:24:41,400 --> 00:24:42,800
Speaker 1: not the first piece of art I have made to

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00:24:42,840 --> 00:24:45,080
Speaker 1: send through the mail. A friend in Atlanta named Michael

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00:24:45,160 --> 00:24:47,480
Speaker 1: got me into it a few years ago. I've mostly

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00:24:47,520 --> 00:24:49,880
Speaker 1: sent collages and drawings, so I did send a crochet

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00:24:49,960 --> 00:24:52,719
Speaker 1: piece to a librarian friend. Once you can see images

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00:24:52,760 --> 00:24:55,320
Speaker 1: of some of the pieces I've sent online. Mail art

445
00:24:55,359 --> 00:24:57,440
Speaker 1: is an interesting practice that grew out of the Fluxus

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00:24:57,520 --> 00:25:00,960
Speaker 1: movement of intermedia artists in the nineteen fifties in nineties sixties,

447
00:25:01,280 --> 00:25:03,359
Speaker 1: which was in turn influenced by data is M and

448
00:25:03,400 --> 00:25:06,720
Speaker 1: the work of John Cage and Marcel Duchamp. Fluxus might

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00:25:06,720 --> 00:25:10,760
Speaker 1: make for an interesting podcast topic. I concur that's my interjection,

450
00:25:11,600 --> 00:25:13,480
Speaker 1: he says. I'm hoping that this reaches you in good shape.

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00:25:13,480 --> 00:25:15,240
Speaker 1: But part of the joy of mail art is seeing

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00:25:15,240 --> 00:25:17,480
Speaker 1: what happens to a piece in transit. If you could

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00:25:17,520 --> 00:25:19,760
Speaker 1: take photos of it and send them to me, even better,

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00:25:19,800 --> 00:25:22,240
Speaker 1: I'm going to post them on social media so everyone

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00:25:22,280 --> 00:25:24,160
Speaker 1: can see. I would really appreciate it, and he says,

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00:25:24,160 --> 00:25:25,920
Speaker 1: as always, thank you from the bottom of my heart

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00:25:25,920 --> 00:25:28,199
Speaker 1: from all you do with missed in history. Listening to

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00:25:28,240 --> 00:25:30,160
Speaker 1: the two of you is honestly one of my greatest joys.

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00:25:30,200 --> 00:25:33,480
Speaker 1: Be well, okay, Carl, this is amazing. And so here's

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00:25:33,520 --> 00:25:35,359
Speaker 1: what happened. It came in an envelope, but one of

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00:25:35,359 --> 00:25:40,000
Speaker 1: those clear envelopes that like reveals the whole thing. And

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00:25:40,040 --> 00:25:42,320
Speaker 1: I got it, and our wonderful office manager, Tomika, was

463
00:25:42,400 --> 00:25:44,880
Speaker 1: with me, and I was like, what the heck is this?

464
00:25:45,040 --> 00:25:47,040
Speaker 1: Like how do this is really cool looking? But I

465
00:25:47,080 --> 00:25:50,320
Speaker 1: don't know, And then I realized that Carl, that brainiac

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00:25:50,400 --> 00:25:54,960
Speaker 1: had implanted a QR code. Why it's printed out. It's

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00:25:54,960 --> 00:25:57,359
Speaker 1: not knitted into it, which should just be extra mind blowing.

468
00:25:57,520 --> 00:25:59,600
Speaker 1: It's printed out, and it's stitched on with a blanket

469
00:25:59,680 --> 00:26:03,560
Speaker 1: stick along with our address. And then when I pulled

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00:26:03,560 --> 00:26:06,520
Speaker 1: out my phone and activated the QR reader, it took

471
00:26:06,520 --> 00:26:08,680
Speaker 1: me to that wonderful letter, which is on the Internet

472
00:26:09,119 --> 00:26:13,320
Speaker 1: and not anything that came through the mail. That's awesome, Carl.

473
00:26:13,440 --> 00:26:17,040
Speaker 1: I love you because I love stuff like it's one

474
00:26:17,520 --> 00:26:22,040
Speaker 1: his network. It's gorgeous, it's insanely beautiful, like it's perfect

475
00:26:22,600 --> 00:26:26,760
Speaker 1: um and too. It's just the coolest way to engage

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00:26:26,760 --> 00:26:30,040
Speaker 1: someone in a piece of art. And I will treasure

477
00:26:30,080 --> 00:26:34,480
Speaker 1: this forever. It's amazing. Yeah, I'm my mind was pretty

478
00:26:34,480 --> 00:26:36,119
Speaker 1: blown by it, and I have had it sitting on

479
00:26:36,160 --> 00:26:37,879
Speaker 1: my desk ever since, and I keep looking at it

480
00:26:37,880 --> 00:26:40,200
Speaker 1: and I'll just reach out to touch it in a

481
00:26:40,240 --> 00:26:42,119
Speaker 1: way that I can't even describe what I'm doing or

482
00:26:42,119 --> 00:26:43,720
Speaker 1: what I'm trying to get out of it. Like it's

483
00:26:43,760 --> 00:26:45,439
Speaker 1: not like I'm like, oh, it's not it's I just

484
00:26:45,520 --> 00:26:49,120
Speaker 1: want to touch it because I have this amazing piece

485
00:26:49,160 --> 00:26:50,960
Speaker 1: of living art sitting on my desk. And when Tracy

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00:26:51,000 --> 00:26:53,280
Speaker 1: comes back to Atlanta next time, she will get to

487
00:26:53,320 --> 00:26:54,879
Speaker 1: have it on her desk for a little while too.

488
00:26:55,080 --> 00:26:59,959
Speaker 1: I won't be greedy, but it is cool. It's so Carl,

489
00:27:00,080 --> 00:27:04,680
Speaker 1: It's so cool. I love it. Um not a listener mail,

490
00:27:04,760 --> 00:27:06,840
Speaker 1: but I did want to give a shout out to

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00:27:07,520 --> 00:27:09,000
Speaker 1: all of the people that I met. I was just

492
00:27:09,080 --> 00:27:12,199
Speaker 1: in Anaheim for the tinker Bell half marathon weekend, and

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00:27:12,280 --> 00:27:15,080
Speaker 1: I met a variety of lovely fans and really had

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00:27:15,240 --> 00:27:17,639
Speaker 1: just a delightful time talking to all of them. It

495
00:27:17,720 --> 00:27:19,840
Speaker 1: was so sweet whenever someone would come up and say hi,

496
00:27:20,359 --> 00:27:23,399
Speaker 1: and I just loved it. Um, so thank you to

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00:27:23,440 --> 00:27:26,840
Speaker 1: everyone who said hello, and a couple hung out with

498
00:27:26,880 --> 00:27:28,400
Speaker 1: me here and there. It was just a great time,

499
00:27:28,440 --> 00:27:29,960
Speaker 1: so thank you for that. If you would like to

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00:27:29,960 --> 00:27:32,119
Speaker 1: write to us, you can do so at History Podcast

501
00:27:32,200 --> 00:27:34,439
Speaker 1: at how stuff Works dot com. You can find us

502
00:27:34,440 --> 00:27:36,919
Speaker 1: a Facebook dot com slash missed in History, on Twitter

503
00:27:36,960 --> 00:27:40,280
Speaker 1: at missed in History, on Pinterest at pinter dot com

504
00:27:40,280 --> 00:27:42,920
Speaker 1: slash mist in History. We are on Instagram at mist

505
00:27:42,920 --> 00:27:45,840
Speaker 1: in History. Basically any of the social things. You can

506
00:27:45,840 --> 00:27:48,680
Speaker 1: find us at miss Industry. If you would like to

507
00:27:48,760 --> 00:27:50,520
Speaker 1: just do a little research for yourself, you can go

508
00:27:50,560 --> 00:27:52,439
Speaker 1: to our parents site, how stuff Works, or you can

509
00:27:52,520 --> 00:27:54,480
Speaker 1: visit us at our site, which is missed in History

510
00:27:54,480 --> 00:27:56,560
Speaker 1: dot com, where you can find show notes for every

511
00:27:56,560 --> 00:27:58,760
Speaker 1: episode that Tracy and I have worked on, as well

512
00:27:58,800 --> 00:28:01,680
Speaker 1: as an archive of every single episode of Stuffy Missed

513
00:28:01,680 --> 00:28:03,800
Speaker 1: in History class ever of all time, from way back

514
00:28:03,800 --> 00:28:05,960
Speaker 1: in the beginning when they were very short three to

515
00:28:06,040 --> 00:28:09,159
Speaker 1: five minutes segments up to the present day. We encourage

516
00:28:09,160 --> 00:28:11,000
Speaker 1: you come and visit us at mt in history dot

517
00:28:11,000 --> 00:28:18,000
Speaker 1: com and how to works dot com for more on

518
00:28:18,040 --> 00:28:20,480
Speaker 1: this and thousands of other topics. Because it how staff

519
00:28:20,520 --> 00:28:33,320
Speaker 1: works dot com,