Speaker 1: Guess what, mango?
Speaker 2: What's that?
Speaker 3: Will?
Speaker 4: So have you heard that mothers and babies can actually
Speaker 4: synchronize their heartbeats just by smiling.
Speaker 1: At each other?
Speaker 2: Mm hmm.
Speaker 4: This is from Gizmoto. But apparently and they were researchers
Speaker 4: in Israel, and they were looking at mothers and their children,
Speaker 4: and they had the mothers interact with their three month
Speaker 4: olds in various ways. So they were monitoring their cardiac
Speaker 4: output as they did this, and when they gazed at
Speaker 4: each other and smiled, they quote coordinated their heart rhythms
Speaker 4: within lags of one second.
Speaker 1: Isn't that wild? That's insane.
Speaker 4: I mean, you know, other animals can do this through contact,
Speaker 4: but humans, and specifically mothers and infants, seem to be
Speaker 4: the only ones who can sync up just by looking
Speaker 4: at each other affectionately. But today's Nine Things is a
Speaker 4: Mother's Day tribute, including a few of history's best moms,
Speaker 4: why we love them so much, and what makes them
Speaker 4: so special?
Speaker 1: So let's dig in.
Speaker 4: Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm
Speaker 4: Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good
Speaker 4: friend Mangesh hot Ticketter and sitting behind the soundproof glass
Speaker 4: reading his copy of Yo Mama's So Extraordinary, A Treasury
Speaker 4: of Yomama Compliments. That's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. Now,
Speaker 4: i'd not seen this book before, Mango.
Speaker 1: Have you seen this?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a pretty great and he was actually reading
Speaker 3: some earlier and they are way better than Yo Mama
Speaker 3: jokes actually really yeah, because they're all compliments. But it's
Speaker 3: all like your mama is so extraordinary, right right. The
Speaker 3: only joke about moms that I ever really remember isn't
Speaker 3: like a standard joke, but one that our old boss,
Speaker 3: Felix Dennis made and he both loved and was terrified
Speaker 3: of his mom. And when he was describing her to us,
Speaker 3: I don't know if you remember this, but he said
Speaker 3: she looks and acts like Margaret Thatcher without any of
Speaker 3: the soft bits.
Speaker 1: I just tried to remember that.
Speaker 3: Ye. Yeah, But today's show is obviously a celebration of moms,
Speaker 3: and I know that we used to say that when
Speaker 3: we first started Metal Floss the only people who subscribed
Speaker 3: were your mom, my mom, and two hundred of our
Speaker 3: mom's friends.
Speaker 2: And it sounded like a joke, but it wasn't really
Speaker 2: a joke.
Speaker 1: It wasn't at all.
Speaker 3: And we obviously have so much to thank our own
Speaker 3: moms Paula and Lalita for well.
Speaker 4: And of course we have wives who are wonderful mothers
Speaker 4: as well, So lots of moms and our lives to
Speaker 4: be grateful for.
Speaker 1: But let's kick this off.
Speaker 4: So I started the show with a quick fact about heartbeats.
Speaker 1: So where do you want to take it from there?
Speaker 3: Sticking with the science theme, here's the fact I learned
Speaker 3: from Sithsonian about teenage drivers. Now, apparently kids drive much
Speaker 3: safer when their moms are nearby, which I guess makes sense.
Speaker 3: And basically, the test was set up so that kids
Speaker 3: would be on this simulation and then they'd drive up
Speaker 3: to a yellow light, and when their moms were around,
Speaker 3: they tend to stop for the red, but if they
Speaker 3: were alone, they'd punch the accelerator and race through. But
Speaker 3: what's interesting about the experiment is how their brains were
Speaker 3: rewarding them for their driving. So when they were alone,
Speaker 3: scans shown that the brain's reward center actually lit up
Speaker 3: when they ran the yellow light, but when they were
Speaker 3: with their moms, the same thing happened if they hit
Speaker 3: the brakes.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, that's pretty interesting.
Speaker 4: Well, you know, our brains are actually rewarding us when
Speaker 4: we listen to our moms or do the things we
Speaker 4: think will impress them. Well, since we're talking so much
Speaker 4: about the science of moms, here's one fact that comes
Speaker 4: from The Guardian, and it covers the scientific reason why
Speaker 4: moms hear their babies cry before others do.
Speaker 3: So. I don't know if this is where you're going
Speaker 3: with us, but my wife and I used to fight
Speaker 3: about this when Henry and Ruby were babies, because I'm.
Speaker 2: Actually not a very heavy sleeper.
Speaker 3: But when our kids were infants, Lizzy used to accuse
Speaker 3: me of like never getting up or never hearing the
Speaker 3: babies like little muse, especially when they were tiny.
Speaker 2: Maybe that was true.
Speaker 3: I was also surprised, like I couldn't hear them as well,
Speaker 3: because she's not.
Speaker 2: That light a sleeper.
Speaker 3: But I'm excited to go home and settle some long
Speaker 3: simmering arguments if your science is in my favors, so
Speaker 3: I'm going to let you go on.
Speaker 4: Well, as you've probably read, ox level spike in a
Speaker 4: mother's brain after she gives birth, but studies from NYU
Speaker 4: show that this actually affects the way the brain processes
Speaker 4: and interprets auditory signals and will make a mom much
Speaker 4: more sensitive to a baby's cries.
Speaker 2: That's pretty fascinating.
Speaker 3: So does oxytocin give you like superheroing if you inject
Speaker 3: some into a mail as well?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm not sure about that. But the scientist did
Speaker 4: inject the oxytocin into virgin mice, and they saw their
Speaker 4: mothering instincts kick in. Not only did they respond quickly
Speaker 4: to baby mice squeals, but they had an urge to
Speaker 4: help them, often carrying them to their nest on their backs.
Speaker 3: Well I like that, and let's move off science for
Speaker 3: a second and talk about Mother's Day itself. Now, you
Speaker 3: might know that Mother's Day was launched in America at
Speaker 3: least by Anna Jarvis. And you might have also heard
Speaker 3: that by the end of her life she hated Mother's
Speaker 3: Day and had turned against it. But I actually didn't
Speaker 3: remember the details about this, so here are a few of them. Basically,
Speaker 3: Anna's mom, an was a Civil War nurse, and she
Speaker 3: cared for soldiers on both sides of the divide, and
Speaker 3: she even tried to orchestrate this peace day between moms
Speaker 3: of soldiers. It was called Mother's Friendship Day, and so
Speaker 3: it was supposed to unite people from the Union and
Speaker 3: the Confederate side. But when she passed, Anna was struck
Speaker 3: by the number of cards and notes she got about
Speaker 3: her mom, and she actually decided to celebrate her mom
Speaker 3: and all moms by creating a day for them Mother's Day.
Speaker 3: But what's interesting is sort of the derision she got
Speaker 3: from senators and all this pushback, and this is according
Speaker 3: to Jonathan Mullnix's research. But one Colorado senator, this guy
Speaker 3: named Henry Moore Teller, he called the day puerile, absolutely absurd,
Speaker 3: and he declared, every day with me is a Mother's Day.
Speaker 3: So he was annoyed by this, and then he actually
Speaker 3: had support from this New Hampshire senator who was also
Speaker 3: insulted by the day, and he complained as though the
Speaker 3: memory of my late mother could only be kept green
Speaker 3: by some outward demonstration on Sunday May tenth.
Speaker 4: Goodness, I mean, obviously there was a lot of resistance.
Speaker 4: So how did she make Mother's Day a thing?
Speaker 3: Basically, she got florists on her side. She also had
Speaker 3: the backing of Sunday schools and other organizations too. So
Speaker 3: the resolution finally swept through Congress when I went through
Speaker 3: in nineteen fourteen, but she was sort of in the
Speaker 3: pocket of Big Flower, and they ran with it, like
Speaker 3: not only did they have her talk at conventions and
Speaker 3: on a speaking tour, but they actually started marketing white
Speaker 3: carnations as a tribute to mom's who'd passed away, and colorful,
Speaker 3: bright ones for your mom if she's alive. But you know,
Speaker 3: as the day became more and more commercialized and less
Speaker 3: about this respectful and also reflective day for thinking about
Speaker 3: your mom, Anna Jarvis got more and more incensed, and
Speaker 3: eventually she wished she could take the day back. In fact,
Speaker 3: there's this one great scene where she's at Wanamaker's department
Speaker 3: store in Philly and she ordered a Mother's Day salad
Speaker 3: because she saw it on the menu and it was
Speaker 3: just like a typical salad. When she got it, she
Speaker 3: was so angry. She stood up, she dumped it on
Speaker 3: the floor, threw her money down, and then huffed out.
Speaker 3: And wow, it was like any little commercial use of
Speaker 3: Mother's Day, especially the dumb ones like a Mother's Day salad,
Speaker 3: would just set her off for.
Speaker 1: The I just love a good Mother's Day salad.
Speaker 4: You know, I can't tell if she would have liked
Speaker 4: or hated Tristan's Yomama So extraordinary book. I'm guessing she
Speaker 4: probably would have hated it. But you know what's funny,
Speaker 4: I didn't realize there are so many other Mother's Days
Speaker 4: around the world, Like not everyone celebrates it on the
Speaker 4: same day, let alone the same month.
Speaker 2: That is pretty interesting. So do you have any favorites?
Speaker 4: You know, maybe Bolivia's because it has such an unusual origin. Apparently,
Speaker 4: when Bolivia fought for independence in the early nineteenth century,
Speaker 4: all the men were caught in the fighting. You know,
Speaker 4: many were dying or injured on the battlefields. But in
Speaker 4: coach Obamba, the moms wanted to do something. So on
Speaker 4: May twenty seventh they united to fight on Cornea Hill.
Speaker 4: And while hundreds of them died in battle, that day
Speaker 4: that the heroines of Cornea took on the Spanish army
Speaker 4: is known in Bolivia as Mother's Day.
Speaker 3: So here's a mom I wouldn't trust, but who I'm
Speaker 3: sure made her boy proud, and that's Jesse James's mom, Zerelda.
Speaker 3: So after James passed away, all these travelers used to
Speaker 3: come to at the outlaws grave, and often they'd give
Speaker 3: condolences to Jesse James's mom, and that's where she smelled opportunity.
Speaker 3: So Zerelda would pretend to be so touched by their actions,
Speaker 3: like they're coming all this way to pay their respects,
Speaker 3: that she'd offer to sell them Jesse's gun along with
Speaker 3: a note of authenticity. And of course this was a
Speaker 3: huge scam, like she used to get these neighborhood boys
Speaker 3: to scavenge and steal guns for her, and then she'd
Speaker 3: just resell them. But as legend of the scam grew,
Speaker 3: the fake guns got their own reputation and they were
Speaker 3: called Zerelda's and now they're highly prized collectibles in their
Speaker 3: own right.
Speaker 4: All right, Well, here's the fact I thought was interesting,
Speaker 4: and especially in light of Prince Harry's getting married. But
Speaker 4: Princess Diana once took the boys to Disney World and
Speaker 4: actually made them stand in lines.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine this?
Speaker 4: So she really tried to instill a sense of normalcy
Speaker 4: in their lives, and reportedly she'd take them for burgers
Speaker 4: and McDonald's, let their kids wear jeans and baseball hats.
Speaker 4: And this all tends to break protocol with what's allowed
Speaker 4: for a young prince uruse. What's less reported is that
Speaker 4: when they were at Disney, they rented out the entire
Speaker 4: tenth floor of the Grand Floridian and had to use
Speaker 4: the underground tunnels at Disney to get around because.
Speaker 1: They'd get mobbed by the paparazzi, you.
Speaker 4: Know, kind of like when we go and we have
Speaker 4: to reach the whole tenth floor. But anyway, Diana's making
Speaker 4: her kids wait in line for the roller coasters and
Speaker 4: rides was really part of her attempt to keep her
Speaker 4: kids grounded.
Speaker 2: That's pretty amazing.
Speaker 3: Well, we still got a few more facts for you,
Speaker 3: but first a quick break. Welcome back to Part Time Genius,
Speaker 3: where we're talking about moms, So Will. There are obviously
Speaker 3: so many great stories and facts about moms. Mister Rogers'
Speaker 3: mom knit all the sweaters on the show that he
Speaker 3: used to wear, which is just, you know, the most
Speaker 3: Mister Rogers fact ever. And supposedly bonobo moms will shake
Speaker 3: their heads no at their baby chimps when the baby
Speaker 3: chimps play with their food. But I do want to
Speaker 3: know what's your last mom fact that you're going to
Speaker 3: lay on us.
Speaker 4: Well, I want to share this fact about Nancy Edison,
Speaker 4: who was Thomas Edison's mom, And there's this wonderful story
Speaker 4: that Thomas came home with a letter one day when
Speaker 4: he was seven, and this was from a teacher saying
Speaker 4: that he was aduled and wasn't bright enough. But when
Speaker 4: his mom read the letter, she instead said out loud
Speaker 4: that Thomas was a genius and the school was too
Speaker 4: small for his intellect and that he'd have to be
Speaker 4: homeschooled instead. And then the story goes on that Thomas
Speaker 4: grew up believing that and only found out the real
Speaker 4: contents of the letter when he was an adult after
Speaker 4: his mom had passed away. Now the truth is a
Speaker 4: little less glamorous. Thomas Edison was in fact dyslexic and
Speaker 4: getting in trouble at school, and the teacher used a
Speaker 4: leather belt for discipline, and Thomas might have been on
Speaker 4: the wrong end of it a few times. But when
Speaker 4: his mom realized the school wasn't right for him and
Speaker 4: that he had a learning disability, she pulled him from
Speaker 4: the school and educated him herself. As he put it,
Speaker 4: my mother was the making of me. She was so true,
Speaker 4: so sure of me, and I felt I had something
Speaker 4: to live for someone I must not disappoint.
Speaker 3: And then he went on to make the first cat
Speaker 3: boxing video, right.
Speaker 4: And the light Bulb BANNGO had a million other things.
Speaker 1: So, anyway, what's your last?
Speaker 2: Pat Well?
Speaker 3: I like that Nancy Edison stood up for her son,
Speaker 3: but I don't think anyone stood up for their children
Speaker 3: the way Isaiah Thomas's mom, Mary has so. In nineteen
Speaker 3: sixty six, Mary was a single mom and mother of
Speaker 3: nine and she was at her home in Chicago when
Speaker 3: the Vice Lords, who is this notorious gang, came up
Speaker 3: to her front door and told her they were recruiting
Speaker 3: her sons. And this is according to the New York Times.
Speaker 3: The leader said, we want your boys. They can't be
Speaker 3: walking around here and not being a gang. And Mary Thomas,
Speaker 3: who was five to four and one hundred and ten
Speaker 3: pounds so she's like a tiny woman, she just faced
Speaker 3: off against this guy and said there's only one gang
Speaker 3: here and that's the Thomas Gang. And I lead that.
Speaker 3: It's just amazing, right, And then when they didn't leave,
Speaker 3: she went to their back of her high got a
Speaker 3: shotgun and said, get off my portrait. I'll blow you
Speaker 3: across the expressway.
Speaker 1: No way, it's nuts, and.
Speaker 3: For some reason they stopped their recruiting efforts. But by
Speaker 3: all accounts, she was a really tough woman, and when
Speaker 3: people would tell her that gangs were facing off, she'd
Speaker 3: actually just walk in between them and settle the disputes.
Speaker 3: Apparently she was the only mom Bobby Knight was ever
Speaker 3: afraid of. But all her kids actually graduated school as well,
Speaker 3: which in itself was amazing. I was reading about Isaiah
Speaker 3: and that he actually had to ride ninety minutes to
Speaker 3: school every day. He had to take two transfers on
Speaker 3: trains and buses just to get to high school, and
Speaker 3: she made sure he was there always.
Speaker 2: And she also made him.
Speaker 3: Sign a contract that he'd finished his college degree, and
Speaker 3: even though he left early for the NBA, he honored
Speaker 3: that and secretly went back to school just to make
Speaker 3: her happy.
Speaker 2: So she's just kind of a remarkable woman.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I think i'd actually heard they refer to
Speaker 4: their mom as deer, right, which was short for mother deer.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean, there's tons of praise for Isaiah Thomas' mom,
Speaker 3: But who do you think she'd win this week's Nine Things?
Speaker 4: You know what, I want to make sure both of
Speaker 4: our moms stay proud and happy. So I think maybe
Speaker 4: both of us should get it. What do you think,
Speaker 4: or Tristan or do you know what Tristan? And is
Speaker 4: your mom's jokes, So maybe we'll give it to Tristan.
Speaker 4: I think our moms will understand. But a happy Mother's
Speaker 4: Day to our moms, to our sisters, to our grandmoms,
Speaker 4: to all the other moms out there, and of course
Speaker 4: the other mother figures out there.