WEBVTT - Part Two: Helen Keller Was a Socialist But Also Complicated 0:00:00.800 --> 0:00:03.160 Hello, and welcome to Cool People Did Cool Stuff or 0:00:03.360 --> 0:00:08.240 cpw DCS. If you're feeling an acronymy, which I said 0:00:08.360 --> 0:00:09.760 just to bring out the pedants who want to correct 0:00:09.760 --> 0:00:11.240 me to say that it's not an acronym unless it 0:00:11.240 --> 0:00:15.800 spells a word. But let me tell you, pedance language 0:00:15.800 --> 0:00:21.119 is socially constructed. That's what we're gonna talk about. Anyway. 0:00:21.360 --> 0:00:24.200 I'm your host, Margaret Kildrey, and with me this week 0:00:24.200 --> 0:00:26.760 it's Samanth McVay. Samantha, how you ry? 0:00:27.000 --> 0:00:29.960 I'm great. I'm so excited to be on talking about 0:00:29.960 --> 0:00:30.760 Helen Keller. 0:00:31.000 --> 0:00:34.240 Yay, yay. Sophie's our producer. 0:00:34.280 --> 0:00:35.199 Wait did I just spoil that? 0:00:35.840 --> 0:00:38.239 No? No, this is part two. Everyone who doesn't okay, okay. 0:00:38.360 --> 0:00:40.240 Also it's in the title. Now you are the only 0:00:40.240 --> 0:00:42.240 way who came into it not knowing last time everyone 0:00:42.240 --> 0:00:43.800 else was talking about. 0:00:44.120 --> 0:00:47.440 Yeah, I'm always the last one. Why it's just you? 0:00:47.479 --> 0:00:50.040 Actually, I tell all the other guests, rude, that's. 0:00:49.840 --> 0:00:52.640 What I feel like, this conspiracy conspiracy theory. I'm like, 0:00:52.800 --> 0:00:55.440 you're setting me up. I know you're setting me up, 0:00:55.440 --> 0:00:55.760 aren't you? 0:00:56.000 --> 0:01:01.320 But I'm ling, how you doing? Sophie? You know, let's 0:01:01.400 --> 0:01:05.240 do it Okay, okay, our audio engineers ian our theme 0:01:05.319 --> 0:01:07.560 music was written for us by unwomen. And this week 0:01:07.600 --> 0:01:10.039 we are talking about Helen Keller, about deaf blindness, about 0:01:10.080 --> 0:01:13.240 how history discusses her all wrong, and we're talking about 0:01:13.240 --> 0:01:18.720 social construction of disability. So if you've paid attention to 0:01:18.760 --> 0:01:20.600 theory in the twenty first century, you'll realize we're talking 0:01:20.640 --> 0:01:23.800 about more and more things is being socially constructed rather 0:01:23.840 --> 0:01:27.880 than like objective facts, it's scare quotes. The one that 0:01:27.920 --> 0:01:31.080 gets talked about the most is gender. What is a 0:01:31.120 --> 0:01:36.039 woman is socially constructed and therefore mutable, and therefore can 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:39.000 be understood to include, for example, a trans woman like myself, 0:01:39.080 --> 0:01:43.120 as well as this woman like you all. And I 0:01:43.120 --> 0:01:44.560 don't really want to get into the gender thing too 0:01:44.680 --> 0:01:47.800 much right now, but one of my favorite examples of 0:01:47.800 --> 0:01:51.760 social construction, maybe this is a weird one. Okay. If 0:01:51.760 --> 0:01:53.640 you gave a map of the world to a kid 0:01:53.680 --> 0:01:57.160 and ask them how many continents there were, they're not 0:01:57.240 --> 0:02:01.600 going to say seven. They're going to say six if 0:02:01.640 --> 0:02:04.560 they get convinced that Australia is big enough to count, right, 0:02:05.360 --> 0:02:08.679 because you've just taught the kid that the continent is 0:02:08.720 --> 0:02:11.160 a land mass right, and so then they'll say six 0:02:11.200 --> 0:02:13.600 not seven. Because it is social construction that gives us 0:02:13.639 --> 0:02:17.880 Asia and Europe. This is my theory. Someone might tell 0:02:17.919 --> 0:02:18.800 me I'm wrong at some point. 0:02:20.040 --> 0:02:22.320 Now, somebody will definitely tell you you're wrong at some point, 0:02:22.400 --> 0:02:24.320 but that's just because that person's an asshole. 0:02:24.840 --> 0:02:28.079 Yeah, yeah, fair enough, that's true. So in general, the 0:02:28.120 --> 0:02:32.600 social construction of disability seeks to remove barriers for participation 0:02:32.720 --> 0:02:36.079 in society versus the medical model, which seeks to medically 0:02:36.120 --> 0:02:41.160 solve disability. In the social model, the impairment is the 0:02:41.160 --> 0:02:44.760 medical condition that sets someone up for disability, whereas disability 0:02:44.800 --> 0:02:47.760 itself is the result of the interaction between people living 0:02:47.760 --> 0:02:52.120 with impairments and the barriers in the physical, attitudinal, communication, 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:55.359 and social environment. Shout outs to the group people with 0:02:55.400 --> 0:03:01.960 Disability Australia for that definition. In the social constructive disability, 0:03:01.960 --> 0:03:04.519 it's not a disability until barriers are put up by society. 0:03:05.360 --> 0:03:08.720 And this model has been in people's minds one way 0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:10.280 or another for a very long time, but it was 0:03:10.320 --> 0:03:12.200 in the seventies and eighties that it kicked in more 0:03:12.240 --> 0:03:14.600 and got its name and stuff, at least as I've 0:03:14.600 --> 0:03:17.079 been able to find in nineteen seventy five, a UK 0:03:17.280 --> 0:03:22.239 organization called the Union of Physically Impaired Against Segregation said, 0:03:22.520 --> 0:03:25.959 in our view, it is society which disables physically impaired people. 0:03:26.360 --> 0:03:29.160 Disability is something imposed on top of our impairments. By 0:03:29.160 --> 0:03:32.519 the way, we are unnecessarily isolated and excluded from full 0:03:32.560 --> 0:03:37.800 participation in society. In nineteen eighty three, a disabled academic 0:03:37.920 --> 0:03:41.640 named Mike Oliver gave this name, gave this the name 0:03:41.840 --> 0:03:46.200 the Social Model of Disability. And to me, it's not 0:03:46.240 --> 0:03:48.880 a coincidence that this movement started around nineteen seventy when 0:03:48.960 --> 0:03:54.720 just about everything in American society was changing, well, Western society. 0:03:54.800 --> 0:03:56.280 A lot of this comes from the UK as well. 0:03:57.440 --> 0:03:59.600 The more I read about late sixties and early seventies 0:03:59.600 --> 0:04:01.120 in the US, the more it feels like we actually 0:04:01.200 --> 0:04:03.440 kind of did have a revolution, not as complete as 0:04:03.440 --> 0:04:06.560 one of we would have liked, but modern feminism, anti racism, 0:04:06.600 --> 0:04:10.440 bodily autonomy, decolonization, queer liberation, disability rights, just fucking all 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:13.400 of it and pouring in because of people fighting really 0:04:13.440 --> 0:04:17.000 really hard with everything from sit ins to rifles. And 0:04:17.920 --> 0:04:19.719 I bring this up because I think we owe everything 0:04:19.720 --> 0:04:21.440 to the prisoners who are still in fucking prison from 0:04:21.440 --> 0:04:23.120 that time, because there are still people in prison from 0:04:23.120 --> 0:04:27.160 these struggles. The other thing about that model is it's 0:04:27.160 --> 0:04:28.880 a really good lens with which to understand some of 0:04:28.880 --> 0:04:32.560 the problems in capitalist society, or really productivity is the 0:04:32.680 --> 0:04:38.320 end goal society. Author Susan Wendell, in an essay called 0:04:38.320 --> 0:04:42.599 the Social Construction of Disability, said, when the pace of 0:04:42.640 --> 0:04:45.400 life in a society increases, there is a tendency for 0:04:45.480 --> 0:04:48.560 more people to become disabled, not only because of physically 0:04:48.600 --> 0:04:52.080 damaging consequences of efforts to go faster, but also because 0:04:52.120 --> 0:04:55.560 fewer people can meet the expectations of quote normal performance. 0:04:56.160 --> 0:04:58.880 The physical and mental limitations of those who cannot meet 0:04:58.920 --> 0:05:02.160 the new pace become concer aspicuous and disabling, even though 0:05:02.200 --> 0:05:06.320 the same limitations were inconspicuous and irrelevant to full participation 0:05:06.440 --> 0:05:10.120 in a slower paced society. That one kind of like, 0:05:10.160 --> 0:05:12.880 mind blew me a little bit when I like, just 0:05:12.920 --> 0:05:16.200 like this idea that it's like, yeah, you can see 0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:20.000 that we are suddenly disabled because more is expected of us, right, 0:05:21.200 --> 0:05:24.880 so fewer people are meeting that bar. The other thing 0:05:24.920 --> 0:05:26.400 that she said in there that I think is worth 0:05:26.400 --> 0:05:30.760 pointing out, quote two things are important to remember about 0:05:30.760 --> 0:05:34.039 the help that people with disabilities may need. One is 0:05:34.080 --> 0:05:37.440 that most industrialized societies give non disabled people, in different 0:05:37.440 --> 0:05:40.520 degrees and kinds, depending on class, race, gender, and other factors, 0:05:41.120 --> 0:05:43.719 a lot of help in the form of education, training, 0:05:43.800 --> 0:05:49.000 social support, public communication and transportation facilities, public recreation, and 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:52.880 other services. The help that non disabled people received tends 0:05:52.920 --> 0:05:55.440 to be taken for granted. It is not considered help 0:05:55.560 --> 0:05:58.440 but entitlement because it has offered to citizens who fit 0:05:58.520 --> 0:06:02.039 the social paradigms, who definition are not considered dependent on 0:06:02.080 --> 0:06:04.960 social help. And so just pointing out that like literally 0:06:05.000 --> 0:06:08.880 everyone gets help from society, you know, and that absolutely 0:06:09.400 --> 0:06:11.960 able body people or not disabled people get more help 0:06:12.160 --> 0:06:16.719 in a lot of ways, you know. And Mora Lee way, yeah, totally. 0:06:18.960 --> 0:06:21.760 So almost on talking about the social conceptions of disability. 0:06:21.760 --> 0:06:24.839 But because being me, I spent a while reading about 0:06:24.839 --> 0:06:27.599 medieval conceptions of disability, because I like that branding, and 0:06:27.680 --> 0:06:29.599 because anything that might have a sword in it is 0:06:29.640 --> 0:06:30.719 just like cooler, right, you. 0:06:30.760 --> 0:06:31.440 Could go for it. 0:06:31.720 --> 0:06:35.120 Yeah, I think seeing how social constructs change over time 0:06:35.200 --> 0:06:39.520 is incredibly useful to our modern conceptions. Medieval conceptions of 0:06:39.560 --> 0:06:44.080 disability were radically different from our own, and they weren't 0:06:44.200 --> 0:06:48.760 the medical model. They weren't good, but they weren't They're 0:06:48.800 --> 0:06:52.160 just different, right, I'm still learning about this. Medieval studies 0:06:52.200 --> 0:06:57.440 is very complicated because medieval studies is like millions of 0:06:57.480 --> 0:07:00.279 different cultures over like a thousand years, all like cramped together, 0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:02.240 is like you know, and usually it means like the 0:07:02.320 --> 0:07:05.560 Christian West, but even then there's like all of these things. Anyway, 0:07:06.120 --> 0:07:09.159 the medieval Christian world was a world full of where 0:07:09.600 --> 0:07:12.840 where things were judged by morality first and foremost, as 0:07:12.840 --> 0:07:16.000 compared to currently where we're judged by like productivity. Right, 0:07:16.640 --> 0:07:18.640 So in the current world, you're not disabled until you 0:07:18.640 --> 0:07:21.520 can't be productive to society. In the medieval world, at 0:07:21.600 --> 0:07:24.200 least in some places, and in some societies, you weren't 0:07:24.200 --> 0:07:28.240 disabled except by moral failing. Physical impairment wasn't always enough 0:07:28.280 --> 0:07:33.760 to count. That said, there were complicated prejudices against impairment. 0:07:34.080 --> 0:07:37.040 It seems like some people were like, Oh, you're judged 0:07:37.040 --> 0:07:39.160 by God as a sinner and that's why you look 0:07:39.280 --> 0:07:43.000 like that. And other people were like, no, you're living 0:07:43.000 --> 0:07:45.960 closer to God, living out purgatory in this life. You'll 0:07:45.960 --> 0:07:49.040 get to heaven sooner. Neither one of these is good. 0:07:49.680 --> 0:07:53.160 Right, but you know you're made to suffer. Yeah, you 0:07:53.160 --> 0:07:54.600 can get the rewards when you die. 0:07:55.000 --> 0:07:55.840 Yeah. 0:07:56.000 --> 0:07:56.680 Thanks. 0:07:56.960 --> 0:07:59.600 I like the current method, the social construction model, that 0:08:00.120 --> 0:08:06.040 the one that. 0:08:03.680 --> 0:08:07.360 But so can we add the somehow add a saying 0:08:07.400 --> 0:08:10.400 about swords to help out that other one to make 0:08:10.440 --> 0:08:11.520 you like it better somehow? 0:08:12.880 --> 0:08:13.160 Well? 0:08:14.280 --> 0:08:16.240 I really like the Tarot card the Nine of Swords 0:08:16.240 --> 0:08:18.240 where it's like the woman sitting in bed with nine 0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:20.560 swords on the wall, and I just it's like, it 0:08:20.600 --> 0:08:23.000 couldn't be me. Could you imagine waking up and having 0:08:23.120 --> 0:08:26.520 nine swords and being sad? I can't? 0:08:26.800 --> 0:08:27.360 I could? 0:08:27.600 --> 0:08:27.920 I could? 0:08:28.240 --> 0:08:31.480 I think they're yeah, because like what if there's there's 0:08:31.640 --> 0:08:33.840 why why does she have the swords? What are the 0:08:33.840 --> 0:08:36.480 swords for? Is it for her? Or is it like 0:08:36.640 --> 0:08:38.040 against her? Like? What? What? 0:08:38.240 --> 0:08:38.560 Right? 0:08:38.880 --> 0:08:39.080 Right? 0:08:39.160 --> 0:08:41.079 I get? Okay, Okay, I see what you're saying. 0:08:41.960 --> 0:08:44.160 I'm a sad sag. You can't ask me questions like that. 0:08:44.880 --> 0:08:46.600 I'll find sad anywhere. 0:08:48.400 --> 0:08:50.240 I got this. Let me bestimistic. 0:08:51.880 --> 0:08:56.600 I really fixed my last name too soon. By like 0:08:56.720 --> 0:08:58.880 mid twenties, I was like, I kill Joyce. Who I am? 0:08:59.200 --> 0:09:03.079 I'm like literally professional optimist at this point basically try 0:09:03.120 --> 0:09:04.640 and telling. 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:07.440 To be constantly smiling, and they're talking about happy people. 0:09:07.559 --> 0:09:09.080 I'm like, this doesn't make sense. 0:09:10.760 --> 0:09:13.440 I try to be really outgoing in my twenties, and 0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:17.040 that's why I was a kilt choice. My social battery 0:09:17.120 --> 0:09:21.520 was constantly drained, so I was always fair crouchy. All right, 0:09:21.559 --> 0:09:25.760 that's fair. So back to Alec briefly, we're almost done 0:09:25.800 --> 0:09:26.120 with Alex. 0:09:26.160 --> 0:09:28.280 Oh my god, we're still talking about Alex LESCo. 0:09:29.880 --> 0:09:32.800 Okay. He left a legacy that people argue about to 0:09:32.840 --> 0:09:35.640 this day. Why is this important? Because he was close 0:09:35.720 --> 0:09:38.680 friends with Helen Keller and her entire life her over 0:09:38.720 --> 0:09:40.560 her entire life. It was a huge inspiration for her 0:09:40.559 --> 0:09:45.280 positions on many things, including almost certainly her position on eugenics, 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:48.480 which we will get to. She dedicated her first book 0:09:48.480 --> 0:09:51.679 to him, and both of his brothers died of tuberculosis, 0:09:51.720 --> 0:09:53.720 which has nothing to do with this episode. I just 0:09:53.800 --> 0:09:56.720 tracked TV's body count in all my episodes because there's 0:09:56.720 --> 0:09:59.160 something wrong with me, and we're up to four at 0:09:59.160 --> 0:09:59.680 this point. 0:10:00.280 --> 0:10:01.360 Wait, only four? 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:03.560 Yeah, I mean that I found in that. 0:10:03.720 --> 0:10:06.920 Yeah, you've done so many episodes. 0:10:07.880 --> 0:10:14.080 This episode only in this episode, that's okay, It's like, yeah, yeah, well, 0:10:14.080 --> 0:10:15.800 that's you've only. 0:10:15.559 --> 0:10:18.240 Found four the entire time you've been on for over 0:10:18.240 --> 0:10:18.640 a year. 0:10:18.800 --> 0:10:19.040 Yeah. 0:10:19.240 --> 0:10:22.320 No, it's just the fact that someone dies of TB 0:10:22.440 --> 0:10:26.280 in every episode I do. In this episode, yeah, yeah. 0:10:26.240 --> 0:10:29.600 Do you for the entirety of the seasons? 0:10:29.960 --> 0:10:32.840 No, because some of them are you need to, Although 0:10:33.360 --> 0:10:35.120 I keep bringing this up because I'm just really excited 0:10:35.160 --> 0:10:39.240 about it. The first a Manda get the first trans 0:10:39.240 --> 0:10:41.960 man to get gender firming surgery in the United States, 0:10:41.960 --> 0:10:45.040 and like at all that we know of, went on 0:10:45.080 --> 0:10:48.000 to save millions of people from TB by revolutionizing the 0:10:48.040 --> 0:10:50.720 way that we screened for TV. Name was Alan Hart, 0:10:51.360 --> 0:10:56.079 cool with fewer caveats. Alan Hart was just great, all right, 0:10:56.280 --> 0:10:59.199 so I like it. Alec Bell he starts hanging out 0:10:59.200 --> 0:11:02.720 with young Helen Keller and she's like seven something. Sorry, 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:04.240 not even seven yet, I think at this point, and 0:11:04.280 --> 0:11:06.640 he's like, Hey, go talk to the Perkins Institute for 0:11:06.640 --> 0:11:08.600 the Blind. That's where you're going to find your answers. 0:11:09.160 --> 0:11:12.520 So Bridgman, Laura Bridgeman is still there, she lives there, 0:11:12.600 --> 0:11:17.000 she's hanging out and the school Perkins was like, oh, 0:11:17.080 --> 0:11:19.359 we have this twenty year old student who just graduated. 0:11:19.360 --> 0:11:23.440 Anne Sullivan she could go help you, and this started 0:11:23.480 --> 0:11:26.120 a fifty year friendship between Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan. 0:11:26.640 --> 0:11:30.080 Anne considered not taking the job because of Helen's family's 0:11:30.080 --> 0:11:35.480 connections to, you know, treating humans like chattel, but she 0:11:35.559 --> 0:11:37.840 ends up taking the job and the world is probably 0:11:37.920 --> 0:11:42.400 better off for that. Helen refers to March fifth, eighteen 0:11:42.440 --> 0:11:45.560 eighty seven as her soul's birthday. When Anne showed up, 0:11:46.400 --> 0:11:50.000 immediately she started teaching Helen words by writing them in 0:11:50.040 --> 0:11:52.960 her hand, and the first thing she handed Helen was 0:11:52.960 --> 0:11:55.640 a doll and then spelled out the word doll in 0:11:55.679 --> 0:12:00.800 her hand. This didn't work right, the first attempt, of 0:12:00.840 --> 0:12:04.559 course didn't work. But a thing that makes me happy 0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:07.520 about this is that I know at some point Helen 0:12:07.520 --> 0:12:09.640 wound up with a doll from Laura Bridgeman, with clothes 0:12:09.640 --> 0:12:13.439 that Laura herself had hands sewn for the doll. And 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:16.240 so I really like the idea that seven year old 0:12:16.240 --> 0:12:20.800 Helen's first words that she was shown was the representation 0:12:20.880 --> 0:12:22.600 of this gift of love from someone who had been 0:12:22.600 --> 0:12:25.360 through it before her, right, And it just like makes 0:12:25.400 --> 0:12:26.120 me happy. 0:12:26.720 --> 0:12:29.120 It does. But you know what I keep thinking about 0:12:29.360 --> 0:12:31.120 is the people who would gouge out the eyes. 0:12:32.320 --> 0:12:37.200 Yeah, of their dolls. I'm sorry, no, no, it's a 0:12:37.280 --> 0:12:41.720 really striking image. I'm sorry, No, it's it's. 0:12:41.960 --> 0:12:48.680 I'm never gonna be invited. Whoa. Yeah, Like that's so sweet. 0:12:48.679 --> 0:12:50.280 But I keep thinking about the bad people. 0:12:50.760 --> 0:12:55.079 Yeah, I mean the children right here, and you're just 0:12:56.000 --> 0:13:02.920 me that. 0:13:01.760 --> 0:13:04.520 I just go real dark. Anyway, keep it alight, let's go, 0:13:04.640 --> 0:13:05.000 let's go. 0:13:07.040 --> 0:13:10.520 So it took her about a month for this to 0:13:10.760 --> 0:13:13.760 for her to get it to go from like mimicry 0:13:13.800 --> 0:13:16.480 to understanding. And this breakthrough event has been made famous 0:13:16.480 --> 0:13:19.000 everywhere in the world. And which is that she spelled 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:22.120 out the word water while running water from a fountain 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:26.000 over Helen's hand, and basically, you know, Helen Keller's like, 0:13:26.320 --> 0:13:29.640 oh shit, this is a thing that represents this other thing. 0:13:30.200 --> 0:13:33.199 Fuck yeah, teach me all the things that represent other things. 0:13:33.920 --> 0:13:37.240 And she just hits the ground running. There's a there's 0:13:37.280 --> 0:13:39.800 a statue at the US Capital of Helen at the 0:13:39.800 --> 0:13:44.720 water fountain, and I don't know, it's like, it's funny 0:13:44.760 --> 0:13:46.640 to me because she's this revolutionary socialist and there's a 0:13:46.640 --> 0:13:48.679 statue of her at the Capitol that said she did 0:13:48.760 --> 0:13:52.439 meet every US president She's just actually that fucking famous, right, 0:13:53.480 --> 0:13:57.520 And this is how people ignore her life is that 0:13:58.000 --> 0:14:00.760 she is immortalized in bronze in the US capital when 0:14:00.760 --> 0:14:04.240 she's seven years old, when she first learns how to speak, 0:14:04.600 --> 0:14:07.080 not what she learned how to say to most of 0:14:07.120 --> 0:14:09.080 the world. Her story stops as soon as she can 0:14:09.120 --> 0:14:11.760 read and write and communicate. The cool thing is done. 0:14:11.840 --> 0:14:14.960 Story over. Little girl overcomes adversity through hard work and friendship. 0:14:15.040 --> 0:14:18.080 National hero No notes, what people don't like talking about 0:14:18.080 --> 0:14:20.800 is what she actually said. And there's another problem with 0:14:20.840 --> 0:14:23.040 stopping the story of Helen Keller when she was a child. 0:14:23.760 --> 0:14:27.760 People in fantilize people with disabilities fucking constantly. I want 0:14:27.760 --> 0:14:31.400 to quote a black disability, writes lawyer named Haben Germa 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:35.560 from an interview that she did with Time magazine. Quote. 0:14:35.920 --> 0:14:38.720 Since society only portrays Helen Keller as a little girl, 0:14:39.120 --> 0:14:42.600 a lot of people subconsciously learn to infantilize disabled adults. 0:14:43.160 --> 0:14:46.120 And I've been treated like a child. Many disabled adults 0:14:46.160 --> 0:14:48.680 have been treated like children. That makes it difficult to 0:14:48.680 --> 0:14:50.720 get a job, to be treated with respect, to get 0:14:50.720 --> 0:14:54.480 good quality education and healthcare as an adult. So yeah, 0:14:55.640 --> 0:14:58.760 the story does not stop when she's seven or eight years. 0:14:58.600 --> 0:15:02.680 Old, and that story that we know really just kind 0:15:02.680 --> 0:15:08.120 of highlights and Sullivan more than Helen Keller's achievements, as 0:15:08.200 --> 0:15:10.400 well as the fact that thinking about the fact that 0:15:10.440 --> 0:15:13.720 she learned a language like that in a month, Yeah, 0:15:13.760 --> 0:15:17.600 that's incredible. Yeah, I'm trying to relearn a language now 0:15:17.680 --> 0:15:20.120 and it's not working well. 0:15:20.160 --> 0:15:23.360 She she learned that language was what was happening in 0:15:23.400 --> 0:15:25.360 a month, right, But the. 0:15:25.280 --> 0:15:27.240 Fact she could really get into it, the fact that 0:15:27.360 --> 0:15:30.080 there's like this correlation that it actually happened, and of 0:15:30.120 --> 0:15:33.280 course she builds up, but this whole level is like, yeah, 0:15:33.480 --> 0:15:36.320 as a child, I remember trying to learn English and 0:15:36.400 --> 0:15:38.480 it took me six months, and I you know, with 0:15:38.520 --> 0:15:40.920 all of the different things, like she had an incredible 0:15:40.960 --> 0:15:44.200 achievement and she was they do they make it. They 0:15:44.240 --> 0:15:47.280 set it up to be as if she was incapable 0:15:47.280 --> 0:15:49.800 to begin with, and that whole level again they being 0:15:49.840 --> 0:15:52.800 the story right right, the story. Yeah, but then you 0:15:52.840 --> 0:15:56.600 look at the levels like, wow, this is more than 0:15:57.120 --> 0:16:00.280 just your typical of like I taught something to this 0:16:00.600 --> 0:16:02.720 and this person was so great that they were able 0:16:02.720 --> 0:16:05.520 to teach them. It was her abilities to do that. 0:16:05.600 --> 0:16:07.880 It's like that that takes away from her story a 0:16:07.920 --> 0:16:08.240 little bit. 0:16:08.280 --> 0:16:10.520 I feel like, no, that makes a lot of sense, 0:16:10.560 --> 0:16:13.320 and it also weirdly also leads out leaves out the 0:16:13.400 --> 0:16:16.160 larger context of because when it gets presented as like 0:16:16.600 --> 0:16:18.880 the first deaf blind person to learn to communicate, which 0:16:18.920 --> 0:16:22.360 is a lie, one of the things that gets left 0:16:22.360 --> 0:16:28.240 out is literally this lineage where Laura like lived with Anne, 0:16:28.400 --> 0:16:31.720 you know, and like it's like we stand on the 0:16:31.720 --> 0:16:35.440 shoulders of giants, like we create things because we as 0:16:35.440 --> 0:16:38.200 a society learn things. And and I don't mean to 0:16:38.240 --> 0:16:40.960 take away from Helen's achievements by saying this, you know, 0:16:40.960 --> 0:16:46.000 it's like it's all of this stuff. And so yeah, 0:16:46.240 --> 0:16:48.240 when she was seven or eight, not long after Anne 0:16:48.240 --> 0:16:50.640 showed up, the two moved up north and Helen attended 0:16:50.680 --> 0:16:53.560 the Perkins Institute for the Blind, then bounced around to 0:16:53.600 --> 0:16:56.080 a couple of schools for the deaf. She went to 0:16:56.080 --> 0:16:57.760 New York for a minute for a school to the deaf, 0:16:58.480 --> 0:17:00.000 Then she went to a regular high school for a while, 0:17:00.280 --> 0:17:02.480 as I can tell, And then she did the this 0:17:02.560 --> 0:17:04.400 was when I was speed running a little bit this part. 0:17:05.880 --> 0:17:07.760 Then she did the thing that she's famous for, which 0:17:07.800 --> 0:17:12.320 is go to Harvard. Well, I mean, I don't of 0:17:12.359 --> 0:17:14.600 you knew this, but you can't have girls studying at 0:17:14.600 --> 0:17:19.840 Harvards shes a Radcliffe, the women's annex of Harvard. 0:17:20.560 --> 0:17:26.520 Okay, I'm trying to, like because the storylines and what 0:17:26.640 --> 0:17:30.320 I know versus what like they don't match. I'm like, oh, oh. 0:17:30.119 --> 0:17:32.000 No, tell me, tell me. I'm curious. 0:17:32.119 --> 0:17:35.320 No no, no no no, meaning like because of the way 0:17:35.359 --> 0:17:38.320 that it's framed, you think it's so far back past, 0:17:38.760 --> 0:17:40.600 but it really and then at the same time, like 0:17:40.640 --> 0:17:43.320 it my timeline is off, is what I'm. 0:17:43.240 --> 0:17:47.600 Like, Oh I see yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. She goes. 0:17:48.600 --> 0:17:50.639 She goes to Radcliffe, which is the women's annex of 0:17:50.640 --> 0:17:54.760 Harvard where they quarantine all the cooties. And the rich 0:17:54.800 --> 0:17:58.320 philanthropist guy who paid for her education was someone that 0:17:58.359 --> 0:18:01.320 she met through her good pal Mark Twain. I can't 0:18:01.320 --> 0:18:03.439 remember what episode we talked about Mark Twain on. He 0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:07.280 is complicated. She's very good at being friends with complicated folks. 0:18:08.240 --> 0:18:11.120 The rich guy, his name is Henry Huddleston Rogers. He's 0:18:11.119 --> 0:18:15.439 an oil magnate who invented the oil pipeline. Thanks Henry 0:18:15.480 --> 0:18:20.240 Huddleston Rogers. He was half evil capitalist and half progressive reformer, 0:18:21.160 --> 0:18:23.840 and not just with having paid for Helen. He like 0:18:24.720 --> 0:18:28.480 did a lot of work of I can't remember where 0:18:28.480 --> 0:18:30.760 they funded. I can't remember what he funded. He funded 0:18:30.760 --> 0:18:33.960 a bunch of stuff. I don't know they were good stuff. 0:18:34.119 --> 0:18:36.640 Now he's fucking he invented the oil pipeline. Was a millionaire, 0:18:37.800 --> 0:18:39.520 cool people he is not. 0:18:40.000 --> 0:18:42.679 So Yeah, did Helen not come from a rich family. 0:18:42.800 --> 0:18:45.440 Oh, she came from a rich family, but I think 0:18:45.480 --> 0:18:48.359 that there's probably like rich family money. Like Also, some 0:18:48.400 --> 0:18:50.440 of the ways it's described is that her family wealth 0:18:50.520 --> 0:18:52.480 was like kind of shot by the fact that they 0:18:53.119 --> 0:18:56.120 got their asses kicked by trying to have an unjust war, 0:18:56.760 --> 0:18:56.960 you know. 0:18:57.200 --> 0:18:59.720 Okay, so I know they didn't lose a lot, but 0:19:01.359 --> 0:19:05.560 apparently it wasn't enough to get not a lot lot okay, okay, 0:19:06.240 --> 0:19:08.840 yeah a lot, not a lot lot, and I feel 0:19:08.960 --> 0:19:13.600 not enough. Yeah, they still had money, yeah, instead. 0:19:13.240 --> 0:19:15.120 Of like giving it all to the people who had 0:19:15.160 --> 0:19:16.080 literally built all. 0:19:16.000 --> 0:19:19.880 Of their wealth, right, I mean, they didn't get in prison, 0:19:20.000 --> 0:19:21.040 they still had their land. 0:19:21.480 --> 0:19:25.000 I know exactly. They did fucking fine. They did a 0:19:25.000 --> 0:19:31.040 little too fine. They were fine. Yeah, so yeah, no, 0:19:31.200 --> 0:19:33.560 so so Helen Keller goes to college, becomes the first 0:19:33.560 --> 0:19:37.480 deaf blind person to get a bachelor's degree, and her 0:19:37.480 --> 0:19:39.360 time at Harvard in like one version of the story. 0:19:39.400 --> 0:19:40.880 There's so many versions of the story and a lot 0:19:40.880 --> 0:19:42.760 of At this point you get into multiple versions of 0:19:42.760 --> 0:19:46.520 the story that are all kind of true. Although before 0:19:46.520 --> 0:19:48.840 we get into those stories, I want to tell the 0:19:48.920 --> 0:19:52.399 story about the person who didn't have any goods or 0:19:52.440 --> 0:19:54.600 services and was very sad. 0:19:56.280 --> 0:19:58.600 And then I need these goods and service like. 0:19:58.600 --> 0:20:02.639 A yeah, like a shiny city on the hill. There 0:20:02.680 --> 0:20:05.399 were goods and there were services, and they were offered 0:20:05.440 --> 0:20:13.080 at competitive prices. God, all right, there's some advertisement. Yes, thanks, 0:20:18.520 --> 0:20:22.679 and we're back. And Margaret is dealing with the complexity 0:20:22.720 --> 0:20:24.560 of having to come up with some other clever way 0:20:24.600 --> 0:20:28.760 to point out the complexity of pointing out ads. Oh yeah, 0:20:28.880 --> 0:20:29.800 four times a week. 0:20:29.920 --> 0:20:32.840 Perfect, So we just ignore them. 0:20:33.440 --> 0:20:36.359 No, that's completely fair. I kind of like, like, I 0:20:36.400 --> 0:20:39.760 just think it's like funny to be like, eh, you know, yeah, 0:20:40.080 --> 0:20:42.080 roun here come the ads. I don't know whatever. 0:20:42.160 --> 0:20:46.680 I feel like y'all have a lot more space, I guess, 0:20:46.680 --> 0:20:50.080 freedom to do with the ads than we do, because 0:20:50.480 --> 0:20:52.480 I don't know if I've ever told you this, Sophie. 0:20:52.520 --> 0:20:55.400 After I got done with Behind the Bastards, and we 0:20:55.480 --> 0:20:59.119 know how Robert likes to introduce the ads, and he 0:20:59.240 --> 0:21:02.920 got an email from a listener who came to listen 0:21:02.920 --> 0:21:05.840 to our show was criticizing her for not doing the 0:21:05.880 --> 0:21:09.320 same thing as a Robert for the ad breaks. And 0:21:09.359 --> 0:21:11.600