WEBVTT - Tom Slick: Not the Cartoon

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Stuff you should know, a production of iHeartRadio.

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<v Speaker 2>Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh and there's

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<v Speaker 2>Chuck and it's just us today and we know from

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<v Speaker 2>experience that that's just fine. And this is stuff you

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<v Speaker 2>should know. This guy had his finger in a lot

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<v Speaker 2>of different pies. That stuff you should know s ten

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<v Speaker 2>episodes on edition.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah. I mean this is a interesting one because our

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<v Speaker 1>friend Chad, Chad did our TV show, and Chad is

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<v Speaker 1>doing a or has done a podcast, a highly fictionalized

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<v Speaker 1>scripted podcast. Yeah, for our company, for iHeart you know,

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<v Speaker 1>the company we own. Sure about Tom Slick. And when

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<v Speaker 1>he was telling me about this, Owen Wilson is voicing it,

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<v Speaker 1>and Sissy's is in it. I have a small part.

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<v Speaker 2>Uh oh really, I didn't know that.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah, I'll get to that.

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<v Speaker 2>I also read that Carlton Fisk is in it.

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<v Speaker 1>Uh, I don't think so. The baseball player.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, no, it's Sissy's basics daughter.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, Skyler Fisk.

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<v Speaker 2>Skyler Fisk guy always confused with Carlton Fisk, the old

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<v Speaker 2>white Sox player exposu.

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<v Speaker 1>I have white Sox, I think, among others. Uh, okay,

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<v Speaker 1>but anyway, Chad was like, Dude, this guy, like he's

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<v Speaker 1>the most interesting man that you've never heard of. And

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<v Speaker 1>I found when I was online researching, like outside of

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<v Speaker 1>San Antonio and maybe Texas in a broader sense, like

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<v Speaker 1>there aren't a ton of people who don't think that

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<v Speaker 1>Tom Slick is just the name of a cartoon that

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<v Speaker 1>has nothing to do with this guy.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, did you ever watch Tom Slick when you were younger?

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<v Speaker 1>Oh? The cartoon?

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah? Sure, I never did. Yeah, I watched a lot

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<v Speaker 2>of Rocky and Bullwinkle, but I'd never heard of Tom

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<v Speaker 2>Slick until I started researching this cat.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it was like a Georgia of the Jungle Partner

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<v Speaker 1>right show. But yeah, I just I mean it was

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<v Speaker 1>even I mean, it wasn't hard to find information online,

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<v Speaker 1>but it wasn't as easy as a lot of people.

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<v Speaker 1>And considering all the like kind of crazy extraordinary things

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<v Speaker 1>he did in his life.

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<v Speaker 2>I ran into the exact same issue where like, there's

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<v Speaker 2>a lot of stuff, I don't even want to say

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<v Speaker 2>a lot, but there's a substantial enough amount of articles

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<v Speaker 2>and sources about him online, but they all contain just

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<v Speaker 2>basically like one off anecdotes. Yeah, and it's like, wait,

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<v Speaker 2>I don't quite understand, like how did this incident like

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<v Speaker 2>help form his outlook on life, Like there's not a

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<v Speaker 2>complete picture of that dude. It drives me crazy, Yeah,

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<v Speaker 2>because I like to understand the whole thing, you know.

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<v Speaker 2>I love how the parts kind of make up a whole,

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<v Speaker 2>and I feel like with this guy, largely just have parts,

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<v Speaker 2>even though you know, if I put him together, he's

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<v Speaker 2>like a jigsaw with a bunch of missing places. But

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<v Speaker 2>I still can kind of see the picture, and it's

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<v Speaker 2>that he was a pretty cool and interesting dude and

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<v Speaker 2>seems to have been a genuinely good dude too.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah. Had Nicholas Cage pulled off the film adaptation of

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<v Speaker 1>his life, all your prayers may have been answered, my friend.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I heard that that one was canceled because he

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<v Speaker 2>was doing it so weird. Every time Tom Slick ran

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<v Speaker 2>into a problem or an issue and was upset, Nicholas

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<v Speaker 2>Cage would just go for like five minutes and it

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<v Speaker 2>took up. It added like a good forty five minutes

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<v Speaker 2>to the film. Oh and he refused to let them

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<v Speaker 2>cut a second of it.

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<v Speaker 1>I remember one of the funniest parts of the when

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<v Speaker 1>Andy Sandberg was doing Nick Cage on SNL.

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<v Speaker 2>One of the.

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<v Speaker 1>Lines really got me one week was he was on

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<v Speaker 1>the Weekend Update and they were talking about some movie

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<v Speaker 1>that came out that he was in, you know, and

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<v Speaker 1>he's in like fifteen movies a year, and it had

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<v Speaker 1>all the elements of the Nick Cage movie number one

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<v Speaker 1>it existed.

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<v Speaker 2>Also, Yeah, yeah, I like that guy a lot. Samberg,

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<v Speaker 2>Nick Catche Yeah, and Andy Samberg is great too. And

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<v Speaker 2>Tom Slick, Yeah, for sure. I like Andy Samberg, but

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<v Speaker 2>I hadn't seen I never really watched Brooklyn nine nine.

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<v Speaker 2>I saw the most work he did in That's My Boy,

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<v Speaker 2>which I actually loved. Like, I don't think there's a

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<v Speaker 2>Sandler movie out there that I don't at least.

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<v Speaker 1>Like I did not see that, And there are many

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<v Speaker 1>many Adam Sandler movies that have not seen.

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<v Speaker 3>I know.

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<v Speaker 2>It's the shame of the podcast.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, but I did watch the first couple of seasons

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<v Speaker 1>of Brooklyn nine nine and it's great.

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<v Speaker 2>Okay, Well, Adam Sandler wasn't on that as far as

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<v Speaker 2>I know, so that doesn't.

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<v Speaker 1>Count, I don't think. So.

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<v Speaker 2>So let's talk about Tom Slick.

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<v Speaker 1>Huh, Yeah, I mean one of the problems with Tom

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<v Speaker 1>Slick is separating fact from fiction because he's one of

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<v Speaker 1>these guys that lives sort of an extraordinary, curious, filled

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<v Speaker 1>adventurous life. And right off the bat, the fact that

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<v Speaker 1>he was born on either May six and I'll so

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<v Speaker 1>I saw May ninth. It just may have been the

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<v Speaker 1>way things were back then. This is in nineteen sixteen,

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<v Speaker 1>and he was a junior to Thomas Baker Slick Senior,

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<v Speaker 1>who was a guy that really rubbed off on his

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<v Speaker 1>son because he had the same sort of adventurous spirit

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<v Speaker 1>as an oil man.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, Tom Baker Slick Senior was king of the wildcatters,

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<v Speaker 2>and a wildcatter is somebody who goes around just drilling

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<v Speaker 2>oil wells in places where it's not at all clear

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<v Speaker 2>that there's going to be oil. They're just very hopeful prospectors, right, Yeah,

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<v Speaker 2>And that's how he spent like his early career and

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<v Speaker 2>then finally he just hit pay dirt. It was called

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<v Speaker 2>I think the Wheeler Won Well in Bristol, Oklahoma, and

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<v Speaker 2>it became one of the most productive wells in America

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<v Speaker 2>that was pumping out like over three hundred thousand barrels

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<v Speaker 2>a day.

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<v Speaker 1>I got another stat for you at the time, what

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<v Speaker 1>would become Cushing oil Field was responsible for two thirds

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<v Speaker 1>of the oil production in the Western Hymn sphere Man.

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<v Speaker 2>So, yes, I guess it goes without saying that Tom

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<v Speaker 2>Slick Senior made himself and his family rich beyond their

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<v Speaker 2>wildest dreams. And so Tom Slick Junior grew up a

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<v Speaker 2>rich kid, and that's a huge thing. That was a

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<v Speaker 2>huge like part of his formative upbringing. He was extraordinarily wealthy,

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<v Speaker 2>but he was a rare rich kid that took that

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<v Speaker 2>wealth and put it to good use and also used

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<v Speaker 2>it to just totally free himself from, you know, the

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<v Speaker 2>pursuit of making a profit or turning a dollar or whatever.

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<v Speaker 2>He did things because he was curious about stuff, and

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<v Speaker 2>because he wanted to help humanity.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, but you know, when you're working that much, obviously

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<v Speaker 1>you're not going to be around your family as much.

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<v Speaker 1>Tom had a couple of siblings, and you know, Dad

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<v Speaker 1>just wasn't around because they lived in Pennsylvania as a family. Obviously,

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<v Speaker 1>the oil is out west, so Pops was in Oklahoma

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<v Speaker 1>and Texas most of the time working these long hours,

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<v Speaker 1>and those long hours did him in when he died

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<v Speaker 1>at only forty six years old. Of a stroke, which

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<v Speaker 1>was a you know, a huge loss for young Tom

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<v Speaker 1>because he even though Dad wasn't around that much, I

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<v Speaker 1>get the feeling that he kind of idolized him and

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<v Speaker 1>really revered him.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, he definitely followed in his footsteps too in a

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<v Speaker 2>lot of ways.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, so he was fourteen years old at the time,

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<v Speaker 1>and you know, it was a huge loss.

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<v Speaker 2>It was. I also saw that he'd become so revered

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<v Speaker 2>and respected in Oklahoma that when he passed away, the

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<v Speaker 2>oil derek's in the Oklahoma City field, which is one

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<v Speaker 2>of the biggest fields in the country, they went silent

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<v Speaker 2>for an hour. So every oil man in Oklahoma who

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<v Speaker 2>had a Derek in this field stopped making money for

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<v Speaker 2>an hour out of respect for Tom Senior. I think

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<v Speaker 2>that says an enormous amount about him. Or maybe they

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<v Speaker 2>were just hungry, could have been I guess sure.

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<v Speaker 1>So after Dad dies, a mom did something that was

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<v Speaker 1>you know, pready common back then, or you know, not

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<v Speaker 1>more common than it feels like it is now, which

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<v Speaker 1>is marrying your dead spouse's brother or sister. Her brother

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<v Speaker 1>in law was Charles Erschall because he was married to

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<v Speaker 1>Tom's sister, Flow, who also died around the same time.

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<v Speaker 1>This is all just bad luck. Of course, nothing weird

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<v Speaker 1>went on, and they got together and got married.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, they had elaborate marriage, like we talked about in

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<v Speaker 2>the Widow's episode. So from what I can gather, Charles

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<v Speaker 2>Erschall was a good stepfather to Tom, and Tom was

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<v Speaker 2>happy to have him. I mean it was his uncle already, right,

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<v Speaker 2>so he was quite concerned. When he was seventeen, he

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<v Speaker 2>was home from Exeter, the boarding school for the summer

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<v Speaker 2>back at Oklahoma City. By this time, the whole family

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<v Speaker 2>had moved to Oklahoma City and was living in a mansion,

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<v Speaker 2>the slick Erschel family. And in July twenty second, nineteen

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<v Speaker 2>thirty three, while everybody's just kind of hanging out, machine

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<v Speaker 2>Gun Kelly came knocking on the door with a few

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<v Speaker 2>of his cronies and said, we are taking Charles Erschel

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<v Speaker 2>with us. Which one of you, two men is Charles

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<v Speaker 2>Erschael and Urschel's friend Walter Jarrett was did one of

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<v Speaker 2>the most stand up things a frank can do when

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<v Speaker 2>you're being kidnapped.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, he just stood silently and sort of nudged his

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<v Speaker 1>nose over towards Erschel.

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<v Speaker 2>His eyes are going like way left over here.

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<v Speaker 1>No one picked up on that, now I'm kidding. He

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<v Speaker 1>Neither one of them said anything. And you know, I

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<v Speaker 1>guess they were sort of together in this, and so

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<v Speaker 1>they took him both and that, you know, that's what happened.

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<v Speaker 1>They kidnapped both these guys. They would eventually find Jarrett's ID.

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<v Speaker 1>So they dumped him on the side of the road

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<v Speaker 1>and took Erschel to rural Texas, to a ranch and

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<v Speaker 1>demanded two hundred grand in ransom, which is close to

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<v Speaker 1>five million bucks today.

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<v Speaker 2>Yes, this was a hugely consequential event, right, so that

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<v Speaker 2>Tom Slick Junior tangentially involved in because when Charles Ershall

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<v Speaker 2>was being held, he really kept his head about him

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<v Speaker 2>and depending on who you ask e there, he noted

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<v Speaker 2>the time of day, the times of day that a

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<v Speaker 2>train passed by nearby, or that planes flew overhead to

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<v Speaker 2>try to get an idea of where he was. He

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<v Speaker 2>put his fingers on everything he could to leave fingerprints,

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<v Speaker 2>and he also counted the steps anywhere he went when

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<v Speaker 2>he was blindfolded. So when he was released, and thankfully

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<v Speaker 2>he was released unharmed for a two hundred thousand dollars ransom,

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<v Speaker 2>he was able to tell the FEDS like, hey, here's

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<v Speaker 2>everything you need to know about going and finding this

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<v Speaker 2>ranch where they took me, and they did. They found

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<v Speaker 2>it rather quickly.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, he was also timing how long the trains were

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<v Speaker 1>and if you know how many trains are passing in

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<v Speaker 1>a sort of general area, how big these trains are.

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<v Speaker 1>I think that allowed them to literally go to train

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<v Speaker 1>schedules in that part of Texas and figured this thing out.

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<v Speaker 1>So he was he was a very smart guy. And

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<v Speaker 1>there were you know, they arrested Machine Gun. Kelly fled,

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<v Speaker 1>but they arrested the other guys. They were able to

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<v Speaker 1>track down Kelly in Memphis and he went to Alcatraz

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<v Speaker 1>for the rest of his life.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, so not only did he go to Alcatraz, Machine

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<v Speaker 2>Gun Kelly did. But this is where we talked about

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<v Speaker 2>in the jaeg Or Hoover episode where G Men was

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<v Speaker 2>coined because they went to come get him and when

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<v Speaker 2>they busted in the door, he said, don't shoot g Men,

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<v Speaker 2>And that's where their nickname came from. Just like we

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<v Speaker 2>talked about in the Hoover episode, that happened from this.

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<v Speaker 2>So this is what I'm saying, Like Tom Slick, his

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<v Speaker 2>life really spreads out into a lot of different stuff

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<v Speaker 2>you should know episodes, and yet we'd still never ran

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<v Speaker 2>across him in our research, which is strange to me.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, he was a big backer of science. That's something

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<v Speaker 1>that you're gonna see that kind of pops up again

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<v Speaker 1>and again in his life right stemming from his just

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<v Speaker 1>natural curiosity. And he was a very very smart dude.

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<v Speaker 1>He went to Yale and was into genetics and was

0:12:02.280 --> 0:12:05.000
<v Speaker 1>really and this was a time when you know, in

0:12:05.040 --> 0:12:09.240
<v Speaker 1>the nineteen forties Repolice Believe it or Not magazine and

0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:13.840
<v Speaker 1>the idea of like cross breeding animals and cryptids and

0:12:14.000 --> 0:12:16.120
<v Speaker 1>all these things were just it was sort of big news,

0:12:16.720 --> 0:12:18.920
<v Speaker 1>or if not big news, something people were kind of

0:12:18.960 --> 0:12:22.720
<v Speaker 1>into at the time. And he supposedly kept a list

0:12:22.720 --> 0:12:25.040
<v Speaker 1>of like animals that he wanted to try and cross breed.

0:12:26.000 --> 0:12:29.880
<v Speaker 1>When he read about a hog goat that was a

0:12:29.960 --> 0:12:33.600
<v Speaker 1>hote that was living in Arkansas, he drove to Arkansas

0:12:33.679 --> 0:12:37.000
<v Speaker 1>and bought whatever it was. I don't even know if

0:12:37.040 --> 0:12:40.080
<v Speaker 1>it was like poor things or what he ended up with,

0:12:40.160 --> 0:12:42.280
<v Speaker 1>but whatever he brought home, he tried to breed it

0:12:42.320 --> 0:12:44.600
<v Speaker 1>on his own farm with no luck.

0:12:44.800 --> 0:12:48.120
<v Speaker 2>It was definitely not a hog goat because it's physically

0:12:48.200 --> 0:12:52.000
<v Speaker 2>and genetically and biologically impossible for them to reproduce. So

0:12:52.080 --> 0:12:53.920
<v Speaker 2>I didn't see what it was either, just that that

0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:56.360
<v Speaker 2>didn't exist. But that didn't stop him from trying.

0:12:56.800 --> 0:12:57.880
<v Speaker 1>Did you really look that up?

0:12:58.480 --> 0:13:00.240
<v Speaker 2>I mean, I was like, I got to see this

0:13:00.280 --> 0:13:04.480
<v Speaker 2>thing and there was nothing. Nothing hope, hog goat, hog

0:13:04.520 --> 0:13:09.200
<v Speaker 2>goat cross breeding, I know, but I thought like, surely

0:13:09.240 --> 0:13:12.160
<v Speaker 2>there's there's something that this way. I couldn't find any

0:13:12.200 --> 0:13:15.199
<v Speaker 2>reference to it. I also saw in some places that

0:13:16.400 --> 0:13:19.720
<v Speaker 2>he basically like went to go buy it and realized

0:13:19.760 --> 0:13:21.960
<v Speaker 2>that these people didn't even exist, and certainly the hope

0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:24.480
<v Speaker 2>didn't exist, but he went and tried it anyway because

0:13:24.480 --> 0:13:26.599
<v Speaker 2>he really liked the idea of it. And this was

0:13:26.600 --> 0:13:29.960
<v Speaker 2>when genetics was really new and cutting edge, and this

0:13:30.040 --> 0:13:32.240
<v Speaker 2>guy's into it while he's still at Yale, you know.

0:13:33.240 --> 0:13:36.720
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. So one of the things he successfully does cross

0:13:36.720 --> 0:13:41.320
<v Speaker 1>breed is cattle. He looked at the Scottish angus, which

0:13:41.400 --> 0:13:46.360
<v Speaker 1>is you know, prized for its excellent quality beef. They're very,

0:13:46.440 --> 0:13:49.320
<v Speaker 1>very fertile. And then he looked at the Brahmin cattle

0:13:49.360 --> 0:13:51.920
<v Speaker 1>from India and he was like, these things are great.

0:13:52.520 --> 0:13:56.000
<v Speaker 1>They're disease resistant, they're pest resistant, they are they do

0:13:56.080 --> 0:13:58.680
<v Speaker 1>well in drought, and they're very very maternal, much more

0:13:58.720 --> 0:14:03.680
<v Speaker 1>maternal than the angus. So let's get them together. Put

0:14:03.679 --> 0:14:06.640
<v Speaker 1>three aids Brahmin with five eighths angus. And this was

0:14:06.679 --> 0:14:09.200
<v Speaker 1>one of his big noted early successes. When he was

0:14:09.520 --> 0:14:13.040
<v Speaker 1>in his early twenties. He created the Brangus cattle breed

0:14:13.080 --> 0:14:15.680
<v Speaker 1>that is still around today and like highly sought after.

0:14:16.200 --> 0:14:19.960
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, I saw that that. People still love that,

0:14:20.160 --> 0:14:23.920
<v Speaker 2>and it helped introduce the angus cattle into Texas where

0:14:24.000 --> 0:14:26.000
<v Speaker 2>they would not have done very well before.

0:14:26.920 --> 0:14:29.360
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. But here's the thing though, Like this sounds cool

0:14:29.400 --> 0:14:31.720
<v Speaker 1>like and you think, oh, this guy's like a cattle guy.

0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:33.440
<v Speaker 1>Now he's a rich kid looking to make more money

0:14:33.440 --> 0:14:36.480
<v Speaker 1>on this cattle deal. He was doing it because he

0:14:36.560 --> 0:14:39.840
<v Speaker 1>wanted to introduce a breed of cattle that did better

0:14:40.000 --> 0:14:43.320
<v Speaker 1>in places where there was drought and there were pests

0:14:43.320 --> 0:14:46.320
<v Speaker 1>and disease. So one of his business partners was like,

0:14:46.360 --> 0:14:48.240
<v Speaker 1>he didn't care about making money on this. He just

0:14:48.440 --> 0:14:50.240
<v Speaker 1>he hoped it would help people in hot countries.

0:14:50.560 --> 0:14:53.080
<v Speaker 2>Not just he didn't care. He didn't give quote hoot

0:14:53.120 --> 0:14:55.520
<v Speaker 2>and hell about making money on brangus.

0:14:55.880 --> 0:14:56.880
<v Speaker 1>Well, I wasn't gonna say it.

0:14:57.720 --> 0:14:59.560
<v Speaker 2>I say, we take a break and come back, and

0:14:59.640 --> 0:15:02.080
<v Speaker 2>you meant and he's into cryptids. Let's talk about that

0:15:02.120 --> 0:15:02.640
<v Speaker 2>in a second.

0:15:02.680 --> 0:15:04.440
<v Speaker 1>Okay, all right, we'll be right back.

0:15:26.600 --> 0:15:28.560
<v Speaker 2>So I don't know if we said or not, but

0:15:28.680 --> 0:15:32.680
<v Speaker 2>Tom Slick got he developed a love of cryptids, with

0:15:33.040 --> 0:15:35.080
<v Speaker 2>that he shared with his father. His father passed on

0:15:35.200 --> 0:15:38.760
<v Speaker 2>like a love of stories about Locknus Monster, the Abominable Snowman,

0:15:39.040 --> 0:15:42.480
<v Speaker 2>all sorts of adventurous stuff like that, and like you said,

0:15:42.480 --> 0:15:45.640
<v Speaker 2>it really rubbed off on Tom Junior, and so at

0:15:45.680 --> 0:15:47.680
<v Speaker 2>a pretty early age I think. Yeah, he was still

0:15:47.720 --> 0:15:50.880
<v Speaker 2>at Yale and with some of his buddies, he packed

0:15:50.920 --> 0:15:55.280
<v Speaker 2>his red Buick onto a steamership and went to Europe

0:15:55.640 --> 0:15:58.560
<v Speaker 2>for a summer where they drove around Europe and one

0:15:58.600 --> 0:16:00.520
<v Speaker 2>of the top things on his list was to go

0:16:00.560 --> 0:16:03.440
<v Speaker 2>look for the Lochness Monster. And one of the things

0:16:03.480 --> 0:16:06.800
<v Speaker 2>you'll kind of notice about Tom Slick is that when

0:16:06.840 --> 0:16:09.880
<v Speaker 2>he's doing these things that today in retrospect seemed very

0:16:09.920 --> 0:16:13.720
<v Speaker 2>weird and flaky, at the time there was like a

0:16:13.840 --> 0:16:19.280
<v Speaker 2>lot of evidence that these things existed. This was nineteen

0:16:19.360 --> 0:16:22.960
<v Speaker 2>thirty seven. The next year, the Celacanth would be rediscovered.

0:16:23.000 --> 0:16:25.040
<v Speaker 2>Like it was just kind of in the air that

0:16:25.080 --> 0:16:28.200
<v Speaker 2>there were things out there that Sidnce hadn't identified yet,

0:16:28.200 --> 0:16:30.480
<v Speaker 2>and perhaps the Lockness monster was one of them.

0:16:31.120 --> 0:16:34.960
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and the very very famous picture of supposed NeSSI

0:16:35.080 --> 0:16:37.520
<v Speaker 1>was just three years prior to that, so it was

0:16:37.560 --> 0:16:42.200
<v Speaker 1>all the rage at the time. Personally, he got married

0:16:42.240 --> 0:16:47.160
<v Speaker 1>pretty quickly after Yale and got divorced even quicker to

0:16:47.240 --> 0:16:49.160
<v Speaker 1>his first wife, Betty. I guess long enough to have

0:16:49.200 --> 0:16:52.040
<v Speaker 1>a son named William, but really took after his dad

0:16:52.080 --> 0:16:55.480
<v Speaker 1>more ways than one because he was a very busy guy.

0:16:55.760 --> 0:16:59.480
<v Speaker 1>He was a workaholic. He did spend more time around

0:16:59.520 --> 0:17:02.520
<v Speaker 1>his family get the idea that his father did. But

0:17:02.800 --> 0:17:06.320
<v Speaker 1>if you know, the YETI came calling, he would go

0:17:06.480 --> 0:17:09.439
<v Speaker 1>find the yetti or try to find the yetti, or

0:17:09.480 --> 0:17:12.560
<v Speaker 1>if he wanted to open up a new scientific research center,

0:17:13.000 --> 0:17:16.200
<v Speaker 1>of which he opened geez, how many like five of

0:17:16.280 --> 0:17:19.840
<v Speaker 1>him while he was alive. Yes, then he would spend

0:17:19.840 --> 0:17:21.800
<v Speaker 1>his time doing that because it was he thought it

0:17:21.840 --> 0:17:23.119
<v Speaker 1>was very worthwhile and it.

0:17:23.040 --> 0:17:25.800
<v Speaker 2>Was the call of the Yetti. By the way, is er.

0:17:29.240 --> 0:17:32.520
<v Speaker 1>Nicolas Cage he played the Yetti and dump slick and

0:17:32.560 --> 0:17:35.919
<v Speaker 1>the singer right Yeah, it would have been like adaptation.

0:17:36.160 --> 0:17:40.960
<v Speaker 2>Yep, exactly. So you said that he was a little

0:17:40.960 --> 0:17:43.080
<v Speaker 2>closer with his kids than his father. I think one

0:17:43.119 --> 0:17:45.000
<v Speaker 2>of the ways he did that was on a lot

0:17:45.040 --> 0:17:47.560
<v Speaker 2>of his adventures, he'd bring his kids along with him,

0:17:48.080 --> 0:17:52.879
<v Speaker 2>and I know, at least his son Charles Chuck, even

0:17:53.160 --> 0:17:57.119
<v Speaker 2>Chuck like has very fond memories of going on adventures

0:17:57.119 --> 0:18:01.000
<v Speaker 2>with his dad. So yeah, he was definitely closer to

0:18:01.040 --> 0:18:03.760
<v Speaker 2>his kids, at least experience wise, than he was with

0:18:03.840 --> 0:18:04.359
<v Speaker 2>his father.

0:18:05.160 --> 0:18:08.760
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. So one big foray into the scientific side of

0:18:08.760 --> 0:18:14.680
<v Speaker 1>his life was Science City. It was this dream project

0:18:14.680 --> 0:18:16.320
<v Speaker 1>that he had had for a long time. It's very

0:18:16.359 --> 0:18:20.480
<v Speaker 1>sort ofeen mid nineteen thirty's name, I guess. So he

0:18:20.520 --> 0:18:25.000
<v Speaker 1>opens up Science City, gets the ball rolling. By nineteen forty,

0:18:25.200 --> 0:18:28.520
<v Speaker 1>they had moved to San Antonio, which is where you'll

0:18:28.760 --> 0:18:32.720
<v Speaker 1>find Tom Slick Park and Tom Slick Everything basically, which

0:18:32.720 --> 0:18:34.760
<v Speaker 1>includes a little NeSSI statue which is kind of cool.

0:18:34.960 --> 0:18:36.760
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, but you can totally tell it's fake.

0:18:37.560 --> 0:18:40.720
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yes, not the real thing. So he bought sixteen

0:18:40.840 --> 0:18:43.640
<v Speaker 1>hundred and two acres about eight miles west of San

0:18:43.680 --> 0:18:47.960
<v Speaker 1>Antonio that would eventually grow to about four thousand acres

0:18:48.520 --> 0:18:53.680
<v Speaker 1>for the S. Eessar Ranch, which is just a long

0:18:53.760 --> 0:18:57.000
<v Speaker 1>way of saying SR for scientific research. And he was

0:18:57.040 --> 0:18:59.199
<v Speaker 1>twenty four years old, and this is where all that

0:18:59.200 --> 0:19:00.000
<v Speaker 1>brang is stuff happen.

0:19:00.480 --> 0:19:03.800
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and you said that he founded five research facilities

0:19:03.840 --> 0:19:06.960
<v Speaker 2>in his twenties. Three of them are still around. One

0:19:06.960 --> 0:19:09.919
<v Speaker 2>of the first ones he established was the Foundation for

0:19:10.000 --> 0:19:15.600
<v Speaker 2>Applied Research far Faar or Fayre, depending on how you

0:19:15.640 --> 0:19:19.480
<v Speaker 2>say it, and that is still around. That's now the

0:19:19.760 --> 0:19:24.560
<v Speaker 2>Texas Biomedical Research Institute. And as we'll see, these things

0:19:24.560 --> 0:19:29.000
<v Speaker 2>have had like significant contributions to science in the world

0:19:29.680 --> 0:19:30.719
<v Speaker 2>since they've been around.

0:19:31.400 --> 0:19:34.280
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, for sure. And we're all those in his twenties.

0:19:34.720 --> 0:19:36.720
<v Speaker 2>From what I understand, this is all over like a

0:19:37.000 --> 0:19:38.000
<v Speaker 2>few year period.

0:19:38.080 --> 0:19:42.000
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, jeez, that's incredible. He tried to enlist in the

0:19:42.040 --> 0:19:45.280
<v Speaker 1>Navy after Pearl Harbor in nineteen forty one, but he

0:19:45.320 --> 0:19:47.480
<v Speaker 1>didn't have good eyesight, so they said, you are not

0:19:47.640 --> 0:19:51.919
<v Speaker 1>fit for wartime duty. So they commissioned him in nineteen

0:19:51.960 --> 0:19:56.240
<v Speaker 1>forty two as a lieutenant and right away said, all right,

0:19:56.480 --> 0:19:59.600
<v Speaker 1>you know what you're good at is running big operations.

0:20:00.440 --> 0:20:02.359
<v Speaker 1>Why don't you go work for the War Production Board

0:20:02.359 --> 0:20:05.680
<v Speaker 1>and kind of help this idea that we have of

0:20:06.200 --> 0:20:08.960
<v Speaker 1>changing over factories for making whatever they're making to helping

0:20:09.000 --> 0:20:12.760
<v Speaker 1>out with wartime production. From there, he went to DC

0:20:13.800 --> 0:20:17.600
<v Speaker 1>working for the Board of Economic Warfare, which was actually

0:20:17.920 --> 0:20:21.639
<v Speaker 1>in Santiago, Chile. And this is where things get a

0:20:21.640 --> 0:20:26.480
<v Speaker 1>little like who knows what happened because his letters and

0:20:26.520 --> 0:20:31.000
<v Speaker 1>diaries weren't around. The records from what he did in

0:20:31.080 --> 0:20:35.560
<v Speaker 1>Chile were destroyed, and we'll never know if or not

0:20:35.720 --> 0:20:38.919
<v Speaker 1>he was like a spy in South America, which a

0:20:38.920 --> 0:20:41.360
<v Speaker 1>lot of his family and other people said they thought

0:20:41.400 --> 0:20:41.720
<v Speaker 1>he was.

0:20:42.440 --> 0:20:44.240
<v Speaker 2>I think we know one hundred percent that he was

0:20:44.280 --> 0:20:48.560
<v Speaker 2>a spy in Chile at the time. Oh really, just

0:20:48.600 --> 0:20:50.160
<v Speaker 2>from the circumstantial evidence.

0:20:51.040 --> 0:20:53.720
<v Speaker 1>Oh okay, yeah, I thought you meant you found something

0:20:53.720 --> 0:20:54.440
<v Speaker 1>better a man.

0:20:54.680 --> 0:20:57.240
<v Speaker 2>You could write a book if you found that. But yes,

0:20:57.320 --> 0:20:59.560
<v Speaker 2>the family lore is that he was working in South

0:20:59.600 --> 0:21:05.320
<v Speaker 2>America as basically a Nazi catcher, helping local governments and

0:21:05.440 --> 0:21:10.320
<v Speaker 2>the US catch Nazis who'd escaped, which happened there. Yes,

0:21:10.480 --> 0:21:13.560
<v Speaker 2>that's the thing. It happened while he was there. That's

0:21:13.720 --> 0:21:16.840
<v Speaker 2>one of the operations that was going on in South America.

0:21:17.240 --> 0:21:20.560
<v Speaker 2>And he was just an American businessman, but he was

0:21:20.600 --> 0:21:24.000
<v Speaker 2>also in the Navy, and no one knows why he

0:21:24.119 --> 0:21:26.800
<v Speaker 2>was stationed there. He never talked about it or told anybody.

0:21:27.440 --> 0:21:31.119
<v Speaker 2>I would say that that's pretty much certain, because if

0:21:31.160 --> 0:21:34.159
<v Speaker 2>you combine that with another thing that he may have

0:21:34.240 --> 0:21:38.320
<v Speaker 2>been operative for or at least related to some operatives,

0:21:38.560 --> 0:21:41.040
<v Speaker 2>I think that it's pretty certain he was. That's my

0:21:41.119 --> 0:21:42.320
<v Speaker 2>two cents at least.

0:21:42.480 --> 0:21:46.840
<v Speaker 1>All right, So he got married again, this time in

0:21:46.920 --> 0:21:50.359
<v Speaker 1>nineteen forty seven to a woman twelve years younger. She

0:21:50.480 --> 0:21:52.800
<v Speaker 1>was eighteen at the time, and they had three kids.

0:21:53.320 --> 0:21:57.119
<v Speaker 1>They also got divorced. You know, again, he's not around

0:21:57.160 --> 0:22:00.479
<v Speaker 1>a lot and probably not the most attentive husband when

0:22:00.520 --> 0:22:04.000
<v Speaker 1>he has all these things going on, and he had

0:22:04.080 --> 0:22:05.879
<v Speaker 1>he you know, he's somebody I'd look up to in

0:22:05.920 --> 0:22:07.600
<v Speaker 1>a lot of ways after sort of finding out how

0:22:07.640 --> 0:22:11.320
<v Speaker 1>he worked, certainly not as a husband, but how he

0:22:11.400 --> 0:22:15.440
<v Speaker 1>worked as a curious person. He seems like the kind

0:22:15.440 --> 0:22:18.240
<v Speaker 1>of guy that he would read and read and read

0:22:18.320 --> 0:22:20.520
<v Speaker 1>just about everything that he could and just soak up

0:22:20.520 --> 0:22:23.120
<v Speaker 1>as much knowledge as he could. And when he came

0:22:23.160 --> 0:22:26.760
<v Speaker 1>across something that piqued his interest in a particular way

0:22:26.840 --> 0:22:30.000
<v Speaker 1>or that he couldn't figure out, he had the resources

0:22:30.000 --> 0:22:32.320
<v Speaker 1>and the money and the time to you know, if

0:22:32.359 --> 0:22:34.679
<v Speaker 1>not solve it, try to solve it by just saying like,

0:22:34.840 --> 0:22:38.320
<v Speaker 1>all right, pick up the phone, let me call whoever

0:22:38.400 --> 0:22:40.280
<v Speaker 1>I know, or write a letter to whoever I know

0:22:40.280 --> 0:22:42.280
<v Speaker 1>who might be able to help out with this. And

0:22:42.320 --> 0:22:44.719
<v Speaker 1>then depending on what they say, I might hire some

0:22:44.720 --> 0:22:46.359
<v Speaker 1>people to go to work and try and figure this

0:22:46.400 --> 0:22:49.639
<v Speaker 1>stuff out. I might work on it myself and whatever

0:22:49.680 --> 0:22:52.879
<v Speaker 1>the outcome. He was just about trying. He wasn't afraid

0:22:52.880 --> 0:22:55.560
<v Speaker 1>of failing. He was just trying to find out stuff

0:22:56.000 --> 0:22:58.240
<v Speaker 1>and made his best efforts to even if it didn't

0:22:58.280 --> 0:22:58.640
<v Speaker 1>work out.

0:22:58.920 --> 0:23:01.639
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, just finding out that no one seemed to know

0:23:01.680 --> 0:23:04.159
<v Speaker 2>the answer that was enough for him. You know, of

0:23:04.160 --> 0:23:06.080
<v Speaker 2>course he wanted to find the answer to the question

0:23:06.160 --> 0:23:08.080
<v Speaker 2>he was looking for. But yeah, he said, I don't

0:23:08.080 --> 0:23:10.320
<v Speaker 2>believe in failure, only outcome, like he said, And that's

0:23:10.400 --> 0:23:12.800
<v Speaker 2>just what a great motto, you know. I mean that

0:23:12.960 --> 0:23:15.840
<v Speaker 2>just ye completely transforms your outlook on life.

0:23:16.560 --> 0:23:19.239
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I mean, it's to be clear, it is a

0:23:19.280 --> 0:23:21.560
<v Speaker 1>motto that you can afford when you have that kind

0:23:21.560 --> 0:23:24.560
<v Speaker 1>of privilege, when you can just be like, hey, I'll fail,

0:23:24.680 --> 0:23:27.760
<v Speaker 1>Like what's the big rub? Sure, and he had that privilege,

0:23:27.760 --> 0:23:30.199
<v Speaker 1>but he you know, in his favor. He didn't use

0:23:30.240 --> 0:23:32.720
<v Speaker 1>that privilege to sit around on a beach and drink

0:23:32.760 --> 0:23:36.440
<v Speaker 1>coconut drinks like he was trying to better humankind.

0:23:36.960 --> 0:23:39.280
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and I mean, like, yes, that's a great point,

0:23:39.320 --> 0:23:41.080
<v Speaker 2>but I also think that you can apply it to

0:23:41.200 --> 0:23:43.280
<v Speaker 2>all sorts of different things in life, you know, not

0:23:43.320 --> 0:23:47.000
<v Speaker 2>necessarily just your success or your wealth or anything like that.

0:23:47.760 --> 0:23:48.440
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, for sure.

0:23:48.960 --> 0:23:52.240
<v Speaker 2>So there were a lot of things that he used

0:23:52.240 --> 0:23:56.160
<v Speaker 2>this technique for that came to fruition. Some things may

0:23:56.280 --> 0:23:58.240
<v Speaker 2>or may not exist, We're not one hundred percent sure.

0:23:58.480 --> 0:24:02.040
<v Speaker 2>But one thing that he definitely did in coinvent that

0:24:02.119 --> 0:24:04.760
<v Speaker 2>did have some consequence to it was what's called a

0:24:04.840 --> 0:24:09.760
<v Speaker 2>lift slab method of basically creating a concrete roof. Those

0:24:09.800 --> 0:24:12.760
<v Speaker 2>are very expensive to make. That's very difficult to create

0:24:12.800 --> 0:24:16.120
<v Speaker 2>them in place on the roof, and he basically figured

0:24:16.160 --> 0:24:18.240
<v Speaker 2>out a technique to make it on the ground and

0:24:18.280 --> 0:24:21.600
<v Speaker 2>then lift it into place. Sounds kind of basic and

0:24:21.640 --> 0:24:24.040
<v Speaker 2>low hanging, but apparently it saves a lot of cost

0:24:24.119 --> 0:24:26.560
<v Speaker 2>and it works. So that's a pretty good example of

0:24:26.640 --> 0:24:29.119
<v Speaker 2>him just kind of putting his mind to figuring a

0:24:29.119 --> 0:24:32.960
<v Speaker 2>better way out. It's boring, but it's still a good example.

0:24:33.680 --> 0:24:35.480
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I mean that wasn't just for roofs. It was

0:24:36.160 --> 0:24:38.720
<v Speaker 1>I mean feeble to ten story building. He would build

0:24:38.760 --> 0:24:43.240
<v Speaker 1>all ten floors on the ground and then hydraulic those

0:24:43.240 --> 0:24:44.000
<v Speaker 1>suckers up there.

0:24:44.119 --> 0:24:46.960
<v Speaker 2>That's man, what can't you do with hydraulics?

0:24:48.119 --> 0:24:50.760
<v Speaker 1>And we should also mention the lift slab. It was

0:24:51.040 --> 0:24:55.520
<v Speaker 1>simultaneously developed by another guy named Philip Utes. Tom Slick

0:24:55.560 --> 0:24:57.879
<v Speaker 1>got the patent and you know, gets all the glory

0:24:57.880 --> 0:25:00.000
<v Speaker 1>for that, but a lot of people still call it

0:25:00.240 --> 0:25:02.119
<v Speaker 1>the Ute's Slick method.

0:25:02.520 --> 0:25:03.080
<v Speaker 2>Beautiful.

0:25:03.880 --> 0:25:06.399
<v Speaker 1>He developed a breed of mice. This was early in

0:25:06.560 --> 0:25:11.240
<v Speaker 1>chemotherapy treatments that were very useful in testing. We mentioned

0:25:11.280 --> 0:25:16.440
<v Speaker 1>that Brangus. I think my favorite is that he had

0:25:16.440 --> 0:25:19.760
<v Speaker 1>a thing against cowls in your hair, so he invented

0:25:19.760 --> 0:25:22.480
<v Speaker 1>a hair tonic that could supposedly reverse those calys.

0:25:22.880 --> 0:25:28.600
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, in particular Brangus Cowlyx give me her cal stinkless skunks. Apparently.

0:25:28.640 --> 0:25:30.760
<v Speaker 2>Did you see anything about this? I couldn't really find

0:25:30.800 --> 0:25:31.520
<v Speaker 2>anything on that.

0:25:32.119 --> 0:25:32.959
<v Speaker 1>I found nothing on that.

0:25:33.000 --> 0:25:35.200
<v Speaker 2>I don't know if it just went beyond the idea stage.

0:25:35.480 --> 0:25:38.520
<v Speaker 2>One thing that definitely happened was one of his institutes.

0:25:38.560 --> 0:25:41.480
<v Speaker 2>It might have been the Southwest Research Institute or the

0:25:41.520 --> 0:25:44.800
<v Speaker 2>Texas Biomedical Institute, had a huge role in producing some

0:25:44.840 --> 0:25:49.560
<v Speaker 2>of the first oral contraceptives. That's fairly world altering, sure.

0:25:49.800 --> 0:25:52.240
<v Speaker 2>And then another one that did not come to fruition

0:25:52.520 --> 0:25:56.679
<v Speaker 2>was called We're artificial pecans pecans however you want to

0:25:56.680 --> 0:25:59.919
<v Speaker 2>say it. He decided that the trees were way too

0:26:00.119 --> 0:26:03.960
<v Speaker 2>water intensive, especially from the perspective of Texas, and so

0:26:04.040 --> 0:26:06.719
<v Speaker 2>he wanted to find a way to create pecans that

0:26:06.840 --> 0:26:10.240
<v Speaker 2>did not need to grow on trees. And like I said,

0:26:10.240 --> 0:26:12.760
<v Speaker 2>it didn't get anywhere. I cannot, for the life and

0:26:12.800 --> 0:26:15.639
<v Speaker 2>me find what the heck he made the artificial pecans

0:26:15.640 --> 0:26:18.240
<v Speaker 2>out of. But he definitely gave it a try.

0:26:18.760 --> 0:26:21.400
<v Speaker 1>So we've talked a lot about his, you know, work

0:26:21.440 --> 0:26:24.840
<v Speaker 1>as a funder of science and a believer in science

0:26:25.920 --> 0:26:28.679
<v Speaker 1>kind of maybe not weirdly, but he was also a

0:26:28.720 --> 0:26:31.879
<v Speaker 1>guy that really loved the unexplained and the mystical and

0:26:32.560 --> 0:26:37.000
<v Speaker 1>was not although he believed in science, he wasn't he

0:26:37.040 --> 0:26:42.120
<v Speaker 1>didn't necessarily think that those walls couldn't be explored beyond,

0:26:42.200 --> 0:26:45.320
<v Speaker 1>you know. So he went to India, as a lot

0:26:45.400 --> 0:26:48.280
<v Speaker 1>of people did in those days who were seeking enlightenment

0:26:48.320 --> 0:26:53.720
<v Speaker 1>in the fifties, saw people walking on hot coals, supposedly

0:26:54.880 --> 0:26:58.800
<v Speaker 1>saw Lamas and Tibetan monks levitating off the ground. This

0:26:58.840 --> 0:26:59.840
<v Speaker 1>is one of his claims.

0:27:00.080 --> 0:27:02.920
<v Speaker 2>He basically went to a Tony Robbins convention.

0:27:04.119 --> 0:27:05.480
<v Speaker 1>Does he levitate lamas?

0:27:05.960 --> 0:27:08.639
<v Speaker 2>He does all sorts of stuff like this that, yes,

0:27:08.760 --> 0:27:10.520
<v Speaker 2>he does pseudo scientific things like.

0:27:10.480 --> 0:27:12.840
<v Speaker 1>This, or maybe a David Blaine performance.

0:27:13.960 --> 0:27:14.680
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.

0:27:14.880 --> 0:27:17.840
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I tried to learn that method, but I did

0:27:17.840 --> 0:27:19.840
<v Speaker 1>it okay for a little while, but it wasn't great.

0:27:20.119 --> 0:27:24.080
<v Speaker 1>What levitating, well, the illusion that you're levitating, which is

0:27:24.080 --> 0:27:27.879
<v Speaker 1>what David Blaine did. It's a trick obviously, isn't it.

0:27:27.960 --> 0:27:30.920
<v Speaker 2>Essentially you're basically standing on your toes.

0:27:31.680 --> 0:27:34.000
<v Speaker 1>You're standing on one toe. You have people at a

0:27:34.080 --> 0:27:37.399
<v Speaker 1>certain angle where when you're raising all of your body

0:27:37.440 --> 0:27:41.240
<v Speaker 1>weight up on the one toe, you're blocking it in

0:27:41.520 --> 0:27:43.840
<v Speaker 1>with your other foot and like pant leg and so

0:27:44.240 --> 0:27:45.919
<v Speaker 1>it's all about the angle at which you see it.

0:27:45.960 --> 0:27:47.680
<v Speaker 1>So you can't see that that one toe is on

0:27:47.720 --> 0:27:50.240
<v Speaker 1>the ground, but it looks great if you can, if

0:27:50.280 --> 0:27:51.000
<v Speaker 1>you can do it well.

0:27:51.200 --> 0:27:53.720
<v Speaker 2>So I don't understand why you call it levitating. I

0:27:53.720 --> 0:27:57.040
<v Speaker 2>think you could just get as much awe out of

0:27:57.040 --> 0:28:01.080
<v Speaker 2>people as saying like, I'm standing on one toe right now. Everybody,

0:28:01.560 --> 0:28:02.439
<v Speaker 2>how nuts is that?

0:28:03.480 --> 0:28:06.960
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I'm a a tow bodybuilder. I've got the strongest

0:28:06.960 --> 0:28:07.640
<v Speaker 1>tow right.

0:28:08.600 --> 0:28:13.720
<v Speaker 2>So this is a really consequential time in Central Asia,

0:28:14.119 --> 0:28:21.000
<v Speaker 2>East Asia. In Tibet, the Dalai Lama had been oh,

0:28:21.040 --> 0:28:24.600
<v Speaker 2>I don't know the word, but basically found and identified

0:28:24.960 --> 0:28:27.639
<v Speaker 2>just several years before. This is the Dalai Lama as

0:28:27.640 --> 0:28:29.720
<v Speaker 2>we know him today. And around this time, he was

0:28:29.760 --> 0:28:33.320
<v Speaker 2>about twenty one, and China had invaded Tibet, and all

0:28:33.320 --> 0:28:35.479
<v Speaker 2>of a sudden, the Dali Lama found himself is like

0:28:35.920 --> 0:28:39.480
<v Speaker 2>the head of the Tibetan government. Everybody said, you're the guy,

0:28:39.760 --> 0:28:41.880
<v Speaker 2>what are you going to do about this? And there

0:28:41.920 --> 0:28:45.320
<v Speaker 2>was almost nothing he could do. There were Tibetan freedom fighters,

0:28:45.320 --> 0:28:49.960
<v Speaker 2>Tibetan resistance rebels, and they were just getting crushed left

0:28:50.000 --> 0:28:54.240
<v Speaker 2>and right by China. And Tibet was a place where

0:28:54.360 --> 0:28:57.479
<v Speaker 2>China had invaded. And so now anytime you saw an

0:28:57.480 --> 0:29:00.640
<v Speaker 2>American you can pretty much guess that if they were CIA,

0:29:01.040 --> 0:29:03.800
<v Speaker 2>they were backed by the CIA. They were giving information

0:29:03.880 --> 0:29:06.160
<v Speaker 2>to the CIA. The CIA had like a twenty year

0:29:06.200 --> 0:29:08.800
<v Speaker 2>program in Tibet, and one of the things they did

0:29:09.120 --> 0:29:11.480
<v Speaker 2>was help get the Dali Lama out when it became

0:29:11.600 --> 0:29:14.440
<v Speaker 2>clear that the Dalai Lama needed to get the heck

0:29:14.480 --> 0:29:17.440
<v Speaker 2>out and create a government for Tibet in exile, which

0:29:17.440 --> 0:29:22.520
<v Speaker 2>he still runs today. The CIA helped that happen, and

0:29:22.600 --> 0:29:25.280
<v Speaker 2>so did in some way, shape or form, Tom Slick

0:29:25.360 --> 0:29:26.840
<v Speaker 2>had some sort of hand in it.

0:29:27.320 --> 0:29:29.160
<v Speaker 1>All right, maybe we should take a break and sounds

0:29:29.160 --> 0:29:32.400
<v Speaker 1>like a good little cliffhanger and come back and talk

0:29:32.400 --> 0:29:35.400
<v Speaker 1>about why he may have been over there in the

0:29:35.400 --> 0:30:00.160
<v Speaker 1>first place. Right after this, all right, So where we

0:30:00.280 --> 0:30:03.760
<v Speaker 1>left off was a little tease about Tom Sluck potentially

0:30:03.800 --> 0:30:06.480
<v Speaker 1>maybe helping to get the Dali Lama out of Tibet.

0:30:07.600 --> 0:30:10.440
<v Speaker 1>Why was he there? He had met him already, so

0:30:10.520 --> 0:30:12.120
<v Speaker 1>that was a you know, before the break, we were

0:30:12.120 --> 0:30:15.000
<v Speaker 1>talking about a trip that he took over there. Tossed

0:30:15.000 --> 0:30:17.640
<v Speaker 1>that one aside. He goes home, starts living his life,

0:30:17.800 --> 0:30:19.760
<v Speaker 1>feels a little bit more enlightened, he can meditate a

0:30:19.800 --> 0:30:24.000
<v Speaker 1>little bit. Sure, worthwhile trip, but he, just like his father,

0:30:24.800 --> 0:30:29.120
<v Speaker 1>was fascinated by the idea of the Yeti, the Abominable Snowman,

0:30:29.200 --> 0:30:33.000
<v Speaker 1>and the Himalayas, And like you mentioned earlier, like this

0:30:33.160 --> 0:30:35.000
<v Speaker 1>was a time when you know, it's kind of right

0:30:35.000 --> 0:30:37.480
<v Speaker 1>in the middle of all these yetti sidings, there were

0:30:37.520 --> 0:30:42.720
<v Speaker 1>new species being discovered. And so he was like, hey, listen,

0:30:42.800 --> 0:30:46.760
<v Speaker 1>I'm not some some wacko who just you know, believes

0:30:46.800 --> 0:30:49.640
<v Speaker 1>in these weird cryptis he cryptids? He said, I think

0:30:50.000 --> 0:30:53.640
<v Speaker 1>there's something out there that maybe like the link between

0:30:53.800 --> 0:30:56.680
<v Speaker 1>man and animal. And I think there are at least

0:30:56.680 --> 0:30:59.560
<v Speaker 1>two species. There are the big, tall eight footers with

0:30:59.600 --> 0:31:04.080
<v Speaker 1>black hair. There were smaller red haired guys. And I

0:31:04.080 --> 0:31:07.760
<v Speaker 1>think it's like a pre human man that's been basically

0:31:07.960 --> 0:31:10.040
<v Speaker 1>hidden for thousands of years in the Himalayas.

0:31:10.560 --> 0:31:14.080
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and I mean Westerners have been trying to climb

0:31:14.120 --> 0:31:17.040
<v Speaker 2>the Himalayas for decades by this time, and as they

0:31:17.040 --> 0:31:19.719
<v Speaker 2>came back, they would bring stories from the locals about

0:31:19.920 --> 0:31:23.120
<v Speaker 2>the YETI, the abominable snowman, and so, like you said,

0:31:23.120 --> 0:31:25.560
<v Speaker 2>like it wasn't just totally like off the charts or

0:31:25.600 --> 0:31:29.640
<v Speaker 2>super fringe to mount an expedition for this, and he did,

0:31:30.040 --> 0:31:33.200
<v Speaker 2>and like he was looking for a missing link, remember

0:31:33.240 --> 0:31:38.240
<v Speaker 2>his fascination with hybridization. He felt like that that's what

0:31:38.440 --> 0:31:40.320
<v Speaker 2>those things were. They were a missing link out there.

0:31:40.320 --> 0:31:44.080
<v Speaker 2>They weren't some undiscovered animal. They were some human relative

0:31:44.120 --> 0:31:47.960
<v Speaker 2>that had somehow survived in the wilds of the Pacific

0:31:47.960 --> 0:31:52.400
<v Speaker 2>Northwest or the wilds of the Himalayas, and he wanted

0:31:52.400 --> 0:31:54.440
<v Speaker 2>to find one. I don't know if he wanted to

0:31:54.520 --> 0:31:56.840
<v Speaker 2>kill and stuff it because he was a hunter, but

0:31:57.880 --> 0:32:01.800
<v Speaker 2>he definitely wanted to at least or meet one, shake

0:32:01.880 --> 0:32:03.560
<v Speaker 2>his hand, buy him a steak dinner. I'm not sure,

0:32:03.760 --> 0:32:05.360
<v Speaker 2>buy him a Brangus steak dinner.

0:32:06.000 --> 0:32:10.720
<v Speaker 1>Pretty good. He actually did change the way that those

0:32:10.800 --> 0:32:16.160
<v Speaker 1>expeditions went down, because most of those had been kill

0:32:16.240 --> 0:32:19.240
<v Speaker 1>and catch or catch and kill expeditions for kind of

0:32:19.280 --> 0:32:23.080
<v Speaker 1>anything like that, and he changed it to more research

0:32:23.120 --> 0:32:25.160
<v Speaker 1>base and hey, let's see if we can get something alive.

0:32:25.400 --> 0:32:28.920
<v Speaker 2>Good. I'm glad so he did. He mounted three different

0:32:28.960 --> 0:32:31.200
<v Speaker 2>expeditions I think the first one was in the winter

0:32:31.280 --> 0:32:33.800
<v Speaker 2>of nineteen fifty six, which you're gonna go to the

0:32:33.880 --> 0:32:36.720
<v Speaker 2>Himalayas in the winter seems like poor planning to me.

0:32:37.880 --> 0:32:42.000
<v Speaker 2>And while he was there, he found a footprint thirteen

0:32:42.040 --> 0:32:46.160
<v Speaker 2>inch long, bare footprint, and he made a plaster cast

0:32:46.200 --> 0:32:48.520
<v Speaker 2>of it and became one of his prize possessions. He

0:32:48.520 --> 0:32:51.520
<v Speaker 2>actually kept it on his dining room table and like

0:32:51.560 --> 0:32:53.560
<v Speaker 2>if somebody wouldn't bring it up when they were a

0:32:53.560 --> 0:32:56.480
<v Speaker 2>guest at his house. He would just kind of quietly

0:32:56.560 --> 0:32:59.640
<v Speaker 2>nudge it over toward them until it was like in

0:32:59.720 --> 0:33:03.480
<v Speaker 2>their face, on their plate even sometimes, and they'd be like, oh, okay,

0:33:03.520 --> 0:33:06.680
<v Speaker 2>what is this? If I may ask, and he'd say, oh, well,

0:33:06.720 --> 0:33:08.720
<v Speaker 2>funny you should ask. Let me tell you about this

0:33:08.840 --> 0:33:10.520
<v Speaker 2>abominable snowman footprint.

0:33:11.160 --> 0:33:14.120
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, he actually got a few footprints, and a couple

0:33:14.160 --> 0:33:18.040
<v Speaker 1>of them were very noteworthy. I mean, they weren't yetty,

0:33:18.440 --> 0:33:20.840
<v Speaker 1>but they were noteworthy, and that every other footprint had

0:33:20.880 --> 0:33:24.120
<v Speaker 1>been snowfootprints, and he got a couple out of the mud,

0:33:24.160 --> 0:33:27.040
<v Speaker 1>which was I guess sort of a bigger deal, and

0:33:27.200 --> 0:33:31.640
<v Speaker 1>also supposedly brought back some hair samples. Again not a

0:33:31.720 --> 0:33:34.400
<v Speaker 1>yetty because there's no YETI but he didn't know that

0:33:34.440 --> 0:33:37.560
<v Speaker 1>at the time. No, give the guy break. He's trying

0:33:37.600 --> 0:33:40.360
<v Speaker 1>to find what's true and what's not true, just like us.

0:33:40.560 --> 0:33:42.880
<v Speaker 2>So two years after the first one he launched a

0:33:42.960 --> 0:33:47.160
<v Speaker 2>second expedition. This one was like fully kitted out. He

0:33:47.240 --> 0:33:49.840
<v Speaker 2>and a friend spent plunk down thirty grand in I

0:33:49.840 --> 0:33:53.760
<v Speaker 2>guess nineteen fifty eight money to fund this expedition. There

0:33:53.840 --> 0:33:58.560
<v Speaker 2>was a photographer, a documentary filmmaker. There were professional trackers.

0:33:58.880 --> 0:34:02.320
<v Speaker 2>They brought in a recons since plane. They had tranquilizer guns,

0:34:02.360 --> 0:34:04.560
<v Speaker 2>which supports your idea that this was not a catch

0:34:04.600 --> 0:34:08.080
<v Speaker 2>and kill. And then also he brought three blue tickhounds

0:34:08.440 --> 0:34:12.200
<v Speaker 2>tick bloodhounds, which are really well known as tracker dogs,

0:34:12.440 --> 0:34:15.520
<v Speaker 2>and he even put little snow boots on them to

0:34:15.600 --> 0:34:19.000
<v Speaker 2>help them through the snow, which I thought was very conscientious.

0:34:19.480 --> 0:34:22.680
<v Speaker 1>Totally, he didn't go on this one. He just you know,

0:34:22.719 --> 0:34:27.200
<v Speaker 1>helped fund it because he had bailed on a bus

0:34:27.480 --> 0:34:30.879
<v Speaker 1>on the previous expedition that had lost its breaks and

0:34:31.800 --> 0:34:34.440
<v Speaker 1>pretty much tore up his knees permanently from that point.

0:34:34.560 --> 0:34:37.040
<v Speaker 1>So there are some great pictures of him with his

0:34:37.640 --> 0:34:41.359
<v Speaker 1>knees all bandaged up, but he's still, you know, smiling away,

0:34:41.560 --> 0:34:43.719
<v Speaker 1>looking like he stepped out of a Banana Republic ad.

0:34:44.239 --> 0:34:45.359
<v Speaker 2>Is he giving the thumbs up?

0:34:46.360 --> 0:34:47.880
<v Speaker 1>There was no thumb when he had a cane in

0:34:47.880 --> 0:34:48.279
<v Speaker 1>his hand.

0:34:49.960 --> 0:34:53.520
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. So that second expedition was there for nine months,

0:34:54.239 --> 0:34:56.680
<v Speaker 2>came home empty handed, obviously, or else we would all

0:34:56.719 --> 0:34:58.560
<v Speaker 2>know that there was such a thing as the Yetti.

0:34:59.440 --> 0:35:02.319
<v Speaker 2>And the third and last expedition, this is where the

0:35:02.400 --> 0:35:07.320
<v Speaker 2>CIA business kind of comes in. He funded two brothers,

0:35:07.360 --> 0:35:11.000
<v Speaker 2>Peter Burn and Brian Burn, and Peter was a well

0:35:11.040 --> 0:35:15.120
<v Speaker 2>known outdoorsman hunter and he'd been searching for the Yetti

0:35:15.200 --> 0:35:18.359
<v Speaker 2>for a couple of decades by this time. So Tom

0:35:18.400 --> 0:35:21.880
<v Speaker 2>Slick financed a third expedition with these two brothers. And

0:35:22.239 --> 0:35:24.680
<v Speaker 2>here we come to yet another stuff you should know

0:35:24.719 --> 0:35:27.200
<v Speaker 2>episode I guess, the one on the Yetti or the

0:35:27.200 --> 0:35:32.520
<v Speaker 2>Abominable Snowman, where we talked about this story where a

0:35:32.640 --> 0:35:37.320
<v Speaker 2>Yeti thumb that was being on being displayed at Pangbosh Temple,

0:35:39.040 --> 0:35:43.239
<v Speaker 2>the Buddhist monk temple, was stolen, and it turns out

0:35:43.320 --> 0:35:46.120
<v Speaker 2>it was Peter and Brian Byrn who stole it on

0:35:46.280 --> 0:35:49.000
<v Speaker 2>behalf of Tom Slick, who asked them to steal it

0:35:49.080 --> 0:35:52.920
<v Speaker 2>on behalf of doctor Osmond Hill, a primatologist from the UK.

0:35:53.920 --> 0:35:56.160
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and this is this is probably the most famous

0:35:56.200 --> 0:35:59.920
<v Speaker 1>story about Tom Slick because of a certain coken sp

0:36:00.400 --> 0:36:04.759
<v Speaker 1>here that we're going to introduce. But he it was

0:36:04.800 --> 0:36:09.240
<v Speaker 1>actually a finger and a thumb. They gave these guys,

0:36:09.280 --> 0:36:13.280
<v Speaker 1>these brothers, like another finger to trade, or not trade,

0:36:13.320 --> 0:36:15.439
<v Speaker 1>but to swap out and hope no one would notice.

0:36:15.480 --> 0:36:18.520
<v Speaker 1>I guess and said here's you know, here's a thumb.

0:36:18.880 --> 0:36:22.440
<v Speaker 1>Take it over there, see if you can swap them out. Supposedly,

0:36:22.520 --> 0:36:26.600
<v Speaker 1>the Burn brothers talked about giving a big donation to

0:36:26.680 --> 0:36:29.680
<v Speaker 1>the temple. No one knows exactly what went down, but

0:36:29.960 --> 0:36:33.600
<v Speaker 1>they left with that yetti thumb and finger and what

0:36:33.640 --> 0:36:36.240
<v Speaker 1>they were told was a YETI scalp was another piece

0:36:36.280 --> 0:36:40.480
<v Speaker 1>of piece of YETI. I guess that they got. So.

0:36:40.680 --> 0:36:43.359
<v Speaker 1>I've seen this a couple of ways and stories. I've

0:36:43.360 --> 0:36:46.200
<v Speaker 1>seen that a certain Hollywood actor was in on this

0:36:46.239 --> 0:36:48.080
<v Speaker 1>from the beginning and it was all part of the plan.

0:36:48.520 --> 0:36:51.319
<v Speaker 1>And then I've also seen that after this happened, the

0:36:51.360 --> 0:36:55.640
<v Speaker 1>Burn brothers went to Calcutta and just had dinner with

0:36:56.320 --> 0:36:59.640
<v Speaker 1>Jimmy Stewart and his wife at the Grand Hotel and

0:37:00.080 --> 0:37:02.960
<v Speaker 1>were it from there got on board and just said,

0:37:03.760 --> 0:37:07.880
<v Speaker 1>and my best Jimmy Stewart, if you need help getting

0:37:07.880 --> 0:37:09.960
<v Speaker 1>the thumb across the border, I can. I can put

0:37:10.000 --> 0:37:11.480
<v Speaker 1>it in my wife's underwear bag.

0:37:12.120 --> 0:37:14.600
<v Speaker 2>That was great. I was really hoping you're gonna do

0:37:14.640 --> 0:37:15.439
<v Speaker 2>something like that.

0:37:15.960 --> 0:37:17.520
<v Speaker 1>It's okay. I used to do a decent one, but

0:37:17.600 --> 0:37:18.279
<v Speaker 1>it's been a while.

0:37:18.400 --> 0:37:23.000
<v Speaker 2>It's good, especially for being rusty. I think the way

0:37:23.000 --> 0:37:25.319
<v Speaker 2>we told it was that he happened to be there

0:37:25.360 --> 0:37:29.160
<v Speaker 2>and offered I don't remember knowing that he was supposedly

0:37:29.239 --> 0:37:30.120
<v Speaker 2>part of the whole thing.

0:37:30.440 --> 0:37:31.800
<v Speaker 1>It doesn't really matter, honestly.

0:37:32.000 --> 0:37:35.040
<v Speaker 2>No, he definitely smuggled what was thought to be a

0:37:35.280 --> 0:37:39.200
<v Speaker 2>Yetti thumb across the border out right out of India

0:37:39.320 --> 0:37:42.600
<v Speaker 2>and his wife's lingerie case back to the UK, where

0:37:42.600 --> 0:37:45.440
<v Speaker 2>he gave it to doctor Hill, and doctor Hill promptly

0:37:46.160 --> 0:37:49.399
<v Speaker 2>just stopped talking about it. I guess he probably did

0:37:49.440 --> 0:37:52.000
<v Speaker 2>some sort of examination and was like, yeah, this is

0:37:52.160 --> 0:37:55.040
<v Speaker 2>not a Yetti thumb and filed it away in the

0:37:55.160 --> 0:37:58.040
<v Speaker 2>archives of the Royal College of Surgeons in London, where

0:37:58.040 --> 0:38:02.120
<v Speaker 2>it was lost until I leave the twenty first century.

0:38:02.560 --> 0:38:06.480
<v Speaker 2>And then finally in twenty eleven, Edinburgh Zoo researchers did

0:38:06.480 --> 0:38:08.600
<v Speaker 2>a DNA test on it and they said this is

0:38:08.640 --> 0:38:11.880
<v Speaker 2>a human finger and thumb, and they made the little

0:38:12.000 --> 0:38:16.000
<v Speaker 2>finger gun for the photo that was published all over

0:38:16.080 --> 0:38:16.520
<v Speaker 2>the world.

0:38:17.440 --> 0:38:20.120
<v Speaker 1>Why do I get the feeling at the time if

0:38:20.160 --> 0:38:22.160
<v Speaker 1>they would have found that thing and thumb in the

0:38:23.680 --> 0:38:26.759
<v Speaker 1>wear bag at the airport, that she could have just

0:38:26.800 --> 0:38:29.080
<v Speaker 1>been like, stay out of that, that's my thumb, that's

0:38:29.120 --> 0:38:31.080
<v Speaker 1>my finger. Stay out of my underwear. They would have

0:38:31.120 --> 0:38:33.200
<v Speaker 1>just been like, oh my god, I'm so sorry, and

0:38:33.360 --> 0:38:34.640
<v Speaker 1>like just giving it back to her.

0:38:35.320 --> 0:38:37.080
<v Speaker 2>I can't remember where I read it. It was years

0:38:37.080 --> 0:38:39.160
<v Speaker 2>and years ago. We may have talked about it. But

0:38:39.280 --> 0:38:45.239
<v Speaker 2>when there's when there's a personal massager found in luggage

0:38:45.280 --> 0:38:48.680
<v Speaker 2>that's being searched in front of the person, like, I

0:38:48.719 --> 0:38:52.640
<v Speaker 2>think the TSA is instructed to just pretend it doesn't exist,

0:38:52.719 --> 0:38:54.080
<v Speaker 2>like they didn't see it.

0:38:55.360 --> 0:38:58.239
<v Speaker 1>I can't remember where we are, surely I definitely remember

0:38:58.320 --> 0:38:59.080
<v Speaker 1>us talking about that.

0:38:59.080 --> 0:39:01.759
<v Speaker 2>That was a while ago, so yeah, I think back

0:39:01.800 --> 0:39:04.239
<v Speaker 2>in the late fifties you could have done the same

0:39:04.280 --> 0:39:07.399
<v Speaker 2>thing with a yetti finger, considering it was in her

0:39:07.480 --> 0:39:08.280
<v Speaker 2>underwork case.

0:39:08.880 --> 0:39:11.040
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. The other thing that they brought back was that

0:39:11.160 --> 0:39:14.920
<v Speaker 1>YETI scalp. Obviously not a YETI scalp. It was a

0:39:14.920 --> 0:39:18.840
<v Speaker 1>type of Himalayan goat. So they struck out on all fronts.

0:39:19.840 --> 0:39:27.680
<v Speaker 1>Too bad, But perhaps perhaps and I saw definite confirmation

0:39:27.840 --> 0:39:30.719
<v Speaker 1>that Peter Burn at the very least was helping the

0:39:30.800 --> 0:39:33.920
<v Speaker 1>CIA get people in and out of Tibet. There was

0:39:33.960 --> 0:39:37.080
<v Speaker 1>a guy named George Patterson that was doing work like

0:39:37.200 --> 0:39:39.640
<v Speaker 1>undercover work, and he helped get him in and out.

0:39:40.080 --> 0:39:43.000
<v Speaker 1>So the idea is that sort of kind of closing

0:39:43.040 --> 0:39:45.719
<v Speaker 1>the loop on the Dali Lama. Is that because of

0:39:45.760 --> 0:39:48.680
<v Speaker 1>Peter Burn's work with the CIA getting people in and

0:39:48.719 --> 0:39:51.680
<v Speaker 1>out that the New York Times even wrote a story

0:39:51.680 --> 0:39:55.279
<v Speaker 1>in April of fifty seven called Soviet Cy's espionage in

0:39:55.440 --> 0:39:58.880
<v Speaker 1>US snowman hunt this YETI I don't know if it

0:39:58.920 --> 0:40:00.759
<v Speaker 1>was a complete front. I think the are also looking

0:40:00.760 --> 0:40:02.399
<v Speaker 1>for the Yetti, but they were like, well, since they're

0:40:02.400 --> 0:40:04.640
<v Speaker 1>over here, we'll do a little bit the CIA work

0:40:04.640 --> 0:40:06.279
<v Speaker 1>for the guys right exactly?

0:40:06.640 --> 0:40:08.719
<v Speaker 2>And I guess it's not definite. But I did see

0:40:08.719 --> 0:40:12.880
<v Speaker 2>in at least one source that Peter Burn had a

0:40:13.200 --> 0:40:16.040
<v Speaker 2>real hand in getting the Dolly lam out.

0:40:16.320 --> 0:40:18.239
<v Speaker 1>I love that maybe he offered him his literal hand.

0:40:19.400 --> 0:40:22.200
<v Speaker 2>He offered him a YETI thumb, come with me, big guy.

0:40:23.640 --> 0:40:27.840
<v Speaker 1>So YETI eventually became a bigfoot as far as Tom

0:40:27.840 --> 0:40:30.960
<v Speaker 1>Slick's passions went, because a little closer to home he

0:40:30.960 --> 0:40:32.840
<v Speaker 1>could take take the kids on that trip, didn't have

0:40:32.880 --> 0:40:36.640
<v Speaker 1>to go to the Himalayas. So he became a serious

0:40:36.640 --> 0:40:40.759
<v Speaker 1>bigfoot hunter, including like hooking up with people who are

0:40:41.400 --> 0:40:45.720
<v Speaker 1>until very recently, we're still big and noteworthy big foot hunters.

0:40:46.160 --> 0:40:49.719
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, one of them was Peter Burn. Peter Burn went

0:40:49.760 --> 0:40:53.279
<v Speaker 2>on to be one of the big well known big

0:40:53.280 --> 0:40:56.759
<v Speaker 2>foot hunters. When he went with Tom Slick, that's kind

0:40:56.760 --> 0:40:58.839
<v Speaker 2>of where he got the taste for it. And he's like, hey, Tom,

0:40:58.880 --> 0:41:01.400
<v Speaker 2>you go back home. I'm gonna to stay here. And

0:41:01.480 --> 0:41:04.239
<v Speaker 2>he even wrote a book called The Search for Bigfoot

0:41:04.880 --> 0:41:09.319
<v Speaker 2>Monster myth or Man. So I think that's a great

0:41:09.719 --> 0:41:13.080
<v Speaker 2>nineteen seventy six in particular title for a book on bigfoot.

0:41:13.480 --> 0:41:17.520
<v Speaker 1>Oh totally. So back to his private life, you know,

0:41:17.800 --> 0:41:20.279
<v Speaker 1>he got divorced that second time, and after that he

0:41:20.440 --> 0:41:22.520
<v Speaker 1>was like, you know what marriage is not for me,

0:41:23.560 --> 0:41:26.840
<v Speaker 1>but what is for me is being a millionaire playboy

0:41:27.520 --> 0:41:30.360
<v Speaker 1>and you know everything I saw said that he was

0:41:30.640 --> 0:41:35.120
<v Speaker 1>very upfront with the women that he coborted with and

0:41:36.520 --> 0:41:38.560
<v Speaker 1>was like, hey, I'm out to have a good time.

0:41:38.680 --> 0:41:41.080
<v Speaker 1>This is not going to get serious. It's kind of

0:41:41.080 --> 0:41:42.880
<v Speaker 1>a sort of a touchy way of saying. He had

0:41:42.880 --> 0:41:47.120
<v Speaker 1>a lot of girlfriends. At the same time, his niece

0:41:47.160 --> 0:41:49.839
<v Speaker 1>wrote a book about him and knew a lot about him,

0:41:49.840 --> 0:41:52.120
<v Speaker 1>and she said that at one point I found a

0:41:52.160 --> 0:41:54.759
<v Speaker 1>Christmas list from nineteen fifty eight and he would get

0:41:54.800 --> 0:41:58.279
<v Speaker 1>these lists together, like, hey, get these gifts for these

0:41:58.760 --> 0:42:02.239
<v Speaker 1>very specific women, send it to Nikit Neman Marcus and

0:42:02.280 --> 0:42:04.960
<v Speaker 1>like take care of him. So on the fifty eight

0:42:05.040 --> 0:42:09.320
<v Speaker 1>list he had Annette, Kathy, Cheryl, Cynthia, Irene, Jane, Jerry, Mary,

0:42:09.520 --> 0:42:14.120
<v Speaker 1>Nancy Nell, Sandra, Silvia, Tony, Topsy, and three Hellens, So

0:42:15.000 --> 0:42:18.839
<v Speaker 1>seventeen women scattered all over planet Earth. He was, you know,

0:42:18.960 --> 0:42:20.759
<v Speaker 1>he was having a good time.

0:42:20.840 --> 0:42:23.080
<v Speaker 2>It sounds like it sounded just now like you were

0:42:23.120 --> 0:42:27.560
<v Speaker 2>halfway through a shell Silverstein poem, especially when Topsy makes

0:42:27.560 --> 0:42:28.160
<v Speaker 2>an appearance.

0:42:28.200 --> 0:42:29.920
<v Speaker 1>You know, yeah, who's Topsy.

0:42:30.640 --> 0:42:32.839
<v Speaker 2>There's one other thing we need to mention about him

0:42:33.120 --> 0:42:36.120
<v Speaker 2>is that he wrote not one, but two books arguing

0:42:36.200 --> 0:42:40.759
<v Speaker 2>and laying out plans for world peace, which you know,

0:42:41.000 --> 0:42:43.879
<v Speaker 2>not everybody's got those under their belt. So I read

0:42:43.880 --> 0:42:47.840
<v Speaker 2>at least one review of it from the fifties and

0:42:47.880 --> 0:42:49.439
<v Speaker 2>they were like, this is actually pretty good.

0:42:50.160 --> 0:42:54.720
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I mean again doing like the good work. Sadly,

0:42:54.800 --> 0:42:57.920
<v Speaker 1>that good work in that life was cut very short

0:42:58.000 --> 0:43:00.759
<v Speaker 1>in a tragic way when a night teen sixty two,

0:43:01.600 --> 0:43:03.840
<v Speaker 1>he was coming back in a little plane after a

0:43:03.840 --> 0:43:08.560
<v Speaker 1>peasant hunting in Calgary with some friends and their plane

0:43:08.719 --> 0:43:12.920
<v Speaker 1>basically disintegrated in mid air and bad weather over Montana.

0:43:13.520 --> 0:43:16.080
<v Speaker 1>And he died at the same age as his father,

0:43:16.160 --> 0:43:19.399
<v Speaker 1>at just forty six years old, and is buried at

0:43:19.520 --> 0:43:22.640
<v Speaker 1>Mission Burial Park there in San Antonio.

0:43:22.840 --> 0:43:27.040
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and like we said, those science foundations that he

0:43:27.320 --> 0:43:30.360
<v Speaker 2>created went on to do some pretty amazing things. In

0:43:30.400 --> 0:43:37.359
<v Speaker 2>addition to oral contraceptives, vaccines for hepatitis A through c HIV, AIDS,

0:43:37.960 --> 0:43:41.440
<v Speaker 2>ebola virus. They had a big role in the COVID vaccine.

0:43:42.239 --> 0:43:47.240
<v Speaker 2>And they also another one develops things for NASA electric cars,

0:43:47.280 --> 0:43:50.480
<v Speaker 2>the oil and gas industry. They're the kind who, like

0:43:50.800 --> 0:43:53.600
<v Speaker 2>they don't make the stuff, they help other people make

0:43:53.640 --> 0:43:55.400
<v Speaker 2>this stuff through their research.

0:43:55.600 --> 0:43:56.720
<v Speaker 1>They make this stuff better.

0:43:56.920 --> 0:43:59.880
<v Speaker 2>What company is that, BASF. That's exactly what it is,

0:44:00.040 --> 0:44:00.440
<v Speaker 2>thinking you.

0:44:01.200 --> 0:44:05.480
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. Also again as another coda, he was a great

0:44:05.520 --> 0:44:10.160
<v Speaker 1>patron of the arts, one of the great art collections

0:44:10.200 --> 0:44:14.160
<v Speaker 1>of a private American citizen, most of which is at

0:44:14.200 --> 0:44:18.120
<v Speaker 1>the McNay Art Museum. And like we said, that movie

0:44:18.160 --> 0:44:23.000
<v Speaker 1>with Nick Cage didn't happen, But the podcast Tom Slick

0:44:23.120 --> 0:44:28.120
<v Speaker 1>colon Mystery Hunter is out now with Owen Wilson, Yeah,

0:44:28.280 --> 0:44:32.319
<v Speaker 1>playing Tom Slick and Skyler Fisk and Skyler Fisk and

0:44:32.640 --> 0:44:35.200
<v Speaker 1>her mom says he's basic, and Chad sent me a list.

0:44:35.200 --> 0:44:37.080
<v Speaker 1>I mean, it's just sort of a murderer's row of

0:44:37.120 --> 0:44:40.960
<v Speaker 1>great actors. And this was literally yesterday, and I was like, huh,

0:44:41.080 --> 0:44:45.400
<v Speaker 1>I would have loved to have done a voice. So he, yesterday,

0:44:45.880 --> 0:44:48.680
<v Speaker 1>like an hour after that, said he felt bad, and

0:44:48.680 --> 0:44:50.200
<v Speaker 1>I was like, oh man, I mean, don't feel bad.

0:44:50.239 --> 0:44:51.880
<v Speaker 1>I was just kidding, but I always want to do

0:44:51.960 --> 0:44:55.759
<v Speaker 1>dumb voices. And he about an hour later he said,

0:44:55.800 --> 0:44:57.759
<v Speaker 1>I got something for you. I was like, really. He

0:44:57.840 --> 0:45:00.560
<v Speaker 1>was like, can you do it today? He said you're

0:45:00.560 --> 0:45:02.719
<v Speaker 1>opposite Sissy Spacek and I was like, are we going

0:45:02.760 --> 0:45:04.480
<v Speaker 1>to zoom together? And he no, you just record your

0:45:04.480 --> 0:45:08.719
<v Speaker 1>lines and we marry them to hers. But technically I'll

0:45:08.760 --> 0:45:13.799
<v Speaker 1>be in a scene with Sissy Spacek playing seventy year

0:45:13.840 --> 0:45:18.720
<v Speaker 1>old former governor of Texas, Governor Nielsen, not a real person.

0:45:19.560 --> 0:45:22.200
<v Speaker 1>A lot of this is highly fictionalized. It's a you know,

0:45:22.200 --> 0:45:25.840
<v Speaker 1>it's a fun podcast. It's not like they stick to

0:45:25.840 --> 0:45:28.280
<v Speaker 1>the facts when they can, but it's it's an entertaining

0:45:28.400 --> 0:45:30.560
<v Speaker 1>kind of thing. So if you've never listened to a

0:45:30.560 --> 0:45:33.640
<v Speaker 1>scripted fictional show, give it a shot, because I listened

0:45:33.680 --> 0:45:35.640
<v Speaker 1>to a couple of episodes, and it's super cool. And

0:45:36.239 --> 0:45:39.160
<v Speaker 1>you can hear me doing my best kind of old

0:45:39.280 --> 0:45:41.440
<v Speaker 1>old school levon helm accent.

0:45:41.600 --> 0:45:42.200
<v Speaker 2>Can we hear it?

0:45:42.640 --> 0:45:45.919
<v Speaker 1>Yeah? I guess we could play a clip. Yeah, let's

0:45:45.920 --> 0:45:47.920
<v Speaker 1>do that, all right, here's a little clip of me,

0:45:48.040 --> 0:45:55.640
<v Speaker 1>you guys, finally, Governor Chlier. It's so lovely of you

0:45:55.880 --> 0:45:57.880
<v Speaker 1>to come to this little she big for dad.

0:45:58.239 --> 0:46:01.400
<v Speaker 3>Little I heard there might be some reveals about the

0:46:01.440 --> 0:46:05.000
<v Speaker 3>mysterious Tom Slick. As a kid, I always thought your

0:46:05.120 --> 0:46:09.279
<v Speaker 3>father lived a double life. Oh yeah, Claire, remember when

0:46:09.280 --> 0:46:13.080
<v Speaker 3>we had those sleepovers at your house, Sure and your dad.

0:46:13.120 --> 0:46:16.840
<v Speaker 3>He'd tell us these wild tales about mysteries the world

0:46:16.880 --> 0:46:21.480
<v Speaker 3>and never known holy men who could levitate a tunnel

0:46:21.480 --> 0:46:25.360
<v Speaker 3>on the Amazon line with diamonds, the abominable snowman that

0:46:25.440 --> 0:46:26.719
<v Speaker 3>he said roam the.

0:46:26.760 --> 0:46:27.600
<v Speaker 1>Roof of the world.

0:46:29.040 --> 0:46:32.319
<v Speaker 3>He told those tales like he lived them, So I

0:46:32.360 --> 0:46:34.400
<v Speaker 3>guess I thought he always.

0:46:34.040 --> 0:46:35.640
<v Speaker 2>Had way to go.

0:46:35.800 --> 0:46:40.000
<v Speaker 1>Chuck, Thank you. He was an old Texas guy like that.

0:46:40.280 --> 0:46:45.879
<v Speaker 2>Get off my claim, you varmit awesome? So where where

0:46:45.880 --> 0:46:47.799
<v Speaker 2>can you find this, Chuck? Where can you find this

0:46:47.880 --> 0:46:49.120
<v Speaker 2>podcast that you're starting in?

0:46:49.880 --> 0:46:52.040
<v Speaker 1>I mean, anywhere you can get your podcast.

0:46:52.040 --> 0:46:54.919
<v Speaker 2>I guess that's right, isn't that what they say? That's right,

0:46:55.239 --> 0:46:59.719
<v Speaker 2>it's called Tom Slick mystery Hunter. Right, yeah, awesome, Well

0:47:00.040 --> 0:47:02.840
<v Speaker 2>Duck I said, yeah, I was just mentioning a podcast

0:47:02.840 --> 0:47:06.919
<v Speaker 2>that he started in and we've fallen backwards into listener mail.

0:47:09.320 --> 0:47:09.640
<v Speaker 3>All right.

0:47:09.680 --> 0:47:12.320
<v Speaker 1>I'm gonna call this random fact because that's what Adam

0:47:12.360 --> 0:47:14.960
<v Speaker 1>called it when he wrote in in the subject line,

0:47:15.200 --> 0:47:18.520
<v Speaker 1>Hey guys on your Luddites episode, you mentioned some places

0:47:19.320 --> 0:47:23.960
<v Speaker 1>like Lancaster. Sure, that's the origin of the term sheriff.

0:47:24.160 --> 0:47:25.600
<v Speaker 2>I love this or this email?

0:47:26.200 --> 0:47:28.840
<v Speaker 1>Sure or Shire, I guess, just like in Lord of

0:47:28.880 --> 0:47:33.520
<v Speaker 1>the Rings County Reeve. So the county sheriff was originally

0:47:33.560 --> 0:47:38.520
<v Speaker 1>the shire reeve and was shortened to shere reef or sheriff.

0:47:39.080 --> 0:47:41.440
<v Speaker 1>All this info was bestowed upon me by a professor

0:47:41.440 --> 0:47:44.160
<v Speaker 1>of criminal justice at Atulmuss University in the early two thousands.

0:47:44.280 --> 0:47:46.799
<v Speaker 1>Go Rebels, I've been listening for several years. Look forward

0:47:46.800 --> 0:47:49.680
<v Speaker 1>every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Keep it cool, guys. That's

0:47:49.719 --> 0:47:50.240
<v Speaker 1>from Adam.

0:47:50.840 --> 0:47:53.279
<v Speaker 2>All right, thanks a lot, Adam. That's a great one.

0:47:53.320 --> 0:47:55.440
<v Speaker 2>I'd never heard that before in my life, and now

0:47:55.480 --> 0:47:57.920
<v Speaker 2>I know. And if you want to be like Adam

0:47:57.960 --> 0:48:00.120
<v Speaker 2>and let us know something we never knew before in

0:48:00.160 --> 0:48:03.279
<v Speaker 2>our lives but would be happy to know. Please send

0:48:03.320 --> 0:48:06.919
<v Speaker 2>it to us via email. It's stuff podcast at iHeartRadio

0:48:07.000 --> 0:48:10.760
<v Speaker 2>dot com.

0:48:10.920 --> 0:48:13.799
<v Speaker 1>Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For

0:48:13.880 --> 0:48:15.799
<v Speaker 1>more podcasts my heart Radio, visit

0:48:15.840 --> 0:48:19.120
<v Speaker 3>The iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to

0:48:19.160 --> 0:48:20.040
<v Speaker 3>your favorite shows.