1 00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:02,440 Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Cool People That Did Cool Stuff, 2 00:00:02,480 --> 00:00:06,120 Speaker 1: the only history podcast. I'm your host, Margaret Kiljoy, and 3 00:00:06,240 --> 00:00:08,319 Speaker 1: with me today is a guest I'm super excited about. 4 00:00:08,680 --> 00:00:11,200 Speaker 1: It's Julie Holland. If you haven't heard Julie Holland's music, 5 00:00:11,320 --> 00:00:13,640 Speaker 1: you're living your life from How Are You Today? Julie. 6 00:00:14,840 --> 00:00:20,320 Speaker 1: I am super super extra psyched because I love this podcast. 7 00:00:20,520 --> 00:00:24,680 Speaker 1: I'm so happy here. Yeay yeah. I had a moment 8 00:00:24,680 --> 00:00:27,280 Speaker 1: where I was like kind of fan girl and when 9 00:00:27,280 --> 00:00:31,640 Speaker 1: I realized that Julie Holland followed me on social media. Um. 10 00:00:31,680 --> 00:00:34,360 Speaker 1: So our producer is the one and only Sophie Lijaman. 11 00:00:34,560 --> 00:00:37,559 Speaker 1: Hi Sophie, how are you? Hi? Magpie? I'm well, how 12 00:00:37,600 --> 00:00:43,640 Speaker 1: are you? You know? Life continues a pace. Our audio 13 00:00:43,680 --> 00:00:45,960 Speaker 1: engineers Ian. Our theme music was written for us by 14 00:00:45,960 --> 00:00:51,920 Speaker 1: a woman. So so today we're going to talk about 15 00:00:51,920 --> 00:00:55,120 Speaker 1: one of the most legendary gender benders in history. A 16 00:00:55,160 --> 00:00:58,240 Speaker 1: prolific writer who loved drinking and fucking, who's got to 17 00:00:58,240 --> 00:01:01,120 Speaker 1: complicated as fun childhood and a company gad his fun adulthood. 18 00:01:01,680 --> 00:01:03,800 Speaker 1: And I figured, if she's good enough to get name 19 00:01:03,880 --> 00:01:12,160 Speaker 1: dropped in a Jolie Holland song, she's good enough for me? Uh? 20 00:01:12,280 --> 00:01:18,000 Speaker 1: Whoa are you talking about the Isabel ever heard? The 21 00:01:18,600 --> 00:01:28,319 Speaker 1: nihilist writer? Yep, Isabel ever heard? Or Yeah, actually I'm 22 00:01:28,319 --> 00:01:30,760 Speaker 1: curious so how much. I don't want to put you 23 00:01:30,800 --> 00:01:32,800 Speaker 1: on the spot, but is this like are you already 24 00:01:32,840 --> 00:01:36,120 Speaker 1: like have you written biographies about her already? Or just 25 00:01:36,200 --> 00:01:40,560 Speaker 1: kind of like so clearly anyone who's listening. Um. One 26 00:01:40,600 --> 00:01:42,960 Speaker 1: of Jolie's songs, Old Fashioned Morphine has a line that says, 27 00:01:42,959 --> 00:01:44,760 Speaker 1: if it's good enough for Isabel ever heard, it's good 28 00:01:44,840 --> 00:01:47,400 Speaker 1: enough for me? Um, And I'm gonna curious your background 29 00:01:47,440 --> 00:01:51,800 Speaker 1: with Isabel ever heard? I think that I found a 30 00:01:51,960 --> 00:01:56,080 Speaker 1: book around the house and I lived with in a 31 00:01:56,240 --> 00:01:58,800 Speaker 1: big house in San Francisco where there were a bunch 32 00:01:58,840 --> 00:02:02,320 Speaker 1: of artists back before or the culture of San Francisco 33 00:02:02,440 --> 00:02:08,120 Speaker 1: was completely destroyed by tech bros. Yah. Yeah, that seems 34 00:02:08,160 --> 00:02:10,320 Speaker 1: like a good way to I don't know whether the 35 00:02:10,360 --> 00:02:12,760 Speaker 1: first time I ran across as a Harberhart was either 36 00:02:12,840 --> 00:02:16,400 Speaker 1: through you in that song, or whether it was through 37 00:02:16,919 --> 00:02:20,360 Speaker 1: Eberhart Press, which is a an anarchist publisher based in 38 00:02:20,400 --> 00:02:25,760 Speaker 1: the Pacific Northwest that uses her as a namesake. Um, 39 00:02:25,880 --> 00:02:30,440 Speaker 1: but that's what we're gonna talk about today and or 40 00:02:30,520 --> 00:02:32,000 Speaker 1: as she was known to many of her friends and 41 00:02:32,040 --> 00:02:38,720 Speaker 1: lovers see Mahmasati, because she was Muslim and dressed as 42 00:02:38,720 --> 00:02:41,240 Speaker 1: a man and had a man's identity as often as 43 00:02:41,240 --> 00:02:43,240 Speaker 1: a woman's identity. And we're going to talk about a 44 00:02:43,240 --> 00:02:47,320 Speaker 1: lot of how complicated and hard to map our current 45 00:02:48,120 --> 00:02:53,160 Speaker 1: understandings of gender onto her life is. She's practically a 46 00:02:53,200 --> 00:02:56,679 Speaker 1: saint to the middle class European traveler vagabond who does 47 00:02:56,720 --> 00:02:59,360 Speaker 1: so safely but in search of authenticity, that sort of 48 00:02:59,400 --> 00:03:03,079 Speaker 1: like going out to go backpacking, you know, instead of 49 00:03:03,160 --> 00:03:06,800 Speaker 1: going to college immediately, sort of person um. But that 50 00:03:06,919 --> 00:03:10,720 Speaker 1: wasn't that wasn't Isabelle's thing at all. She did not 51 00:03:10,800 --> 00:03:14,600 Speaker 1: embrace safety. She threw herself uncompromisingly into life, desperate for 52 00:03:14,680 --> 00:03:17,640 Speaker 1: meaning and adventure. And she didn't come up on short 53 00:03:17,760 --> 00:03:19,720 Speaker 1: on any of those things, while she came up short 54 00:03:19,720 --> 00:03:21,560 Speaker 1: on life actually in the end. But we'll get to that. 55 00:03:23,240 --> 00:03:25,080 Speaker 1: And she's got more than one side to her at 56 00:03:25,080 --> 00:03:28,200 Speaker 1: any given moment. She's got more than one name, she's 57 00:03:28,200 --> 00:03:30,120 Speaker 1: got more than one motive, more than one set of 58 00:03:30,160 --> 00:03:34,000 Speaker 1: loyalties and goals, and she's really hard to pin down. 59 00:03:34,639 --> 00:03:37,280 Speaker 1: Lots Before I've tried, and we're going to give it 60 00:03:37,320 --> 00:03:42,839 Speaker 1: a shot at pinning down Isabel everr heart excited. I'm 61 00:03:42,880 --> 00:03:47,920 Speaker 1: so excited this is Yeah. I've read a bit about 62 00:03:47,960 --> 00:03:53,160 Speaker 1: her and she I think she was the first person 63 00:03:53,200 --> 00:03:56,760 Speaker 1: who was raised nihilist that I learned about, and I 64 00:03:56,800 --> 00:04:02,640 Speaker 1: don't know like how much she continued to embrace that identity. Well, 65 00:04:02,640 --> 00:04:04,240 Speaker 1: that's what we're gonna A lot of what we're gonna 66 00:04:04,240 --> 00:04:09,080 Speaker 1: talk about is that is that her parents were anarchist nihilists, um, 67 00:04:09,160 --> 00:04:11,960 Speaker 1: and there's like interesting ways that that crops up throughout 68 00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:16,160 Speaker 1: her life, even though that isn't her identity. By the 69 00:04:16,279 --> 00:04:19,800 Speaker 1: end um spoilers, she's has quotes about how she's much 70 00:04:19,839 --> 00:04:23,560 Speaker 1: more Muslim than she ever was anarchist, or that she's 71 00:04:23,600 --> 00:04:25,640 Speaker 1: better at it, I think is the way. Whatever, there's 72 00:04:25,640 --> 00:04:27,359 Speaker 1: a direct quote that somewhere in the script that you 73 00:04:27,560 --> 00:04:31,920 Speaker 1: will hear, like a lot of the best history is 74 00:04:31,920 --> 00:04:34,640 Speaker 1: about Eberhart's family background. Sounds like some ship that's somebody 75 00:04:34,680 --> 00:04:38,920 Speaker 1: made up, and honestly like she did really amazing ship 76 00:04:39,120 --> 00:04:42,680 Speaker 1: and so did her parents. You've got her mom who 77 00:04:42,720 --> 00:04:46,159 Speaker 1: was born Natalie Eberhart, and she's aristocratic as fuck in Russia. 78 00:04:46,560 --> 00:04:48,600 Speaker 1: The ebber hearts had been hanging out in the circles 79 00:04:48,600 --> 00:04:51,160 Speaker 1: of the czars forever, and there's some stuff that I've seen. 80 00:04:51,360 --> 00:04:53,800 Speaker 1: She might have been an illegitimate child with a Jewish dad, 81 00:04:54,120 --> 00:04:56,040 Speaker 1: but if so, that's kept under wraps because she's in 82 00:04:56,040 --> 00:05:00,120 Speaker 1: the aristocracy and through rubbing noses with the rich os, 83 00:05:00,160 --> 00:05:04,360 Speaker 1: young Natalie meets her husband, who is forty three years 84 00:05:04,400 --> 00:05:08,680 Speaker 1: older than her. His name is Senator General Pavel Karlovitch 85 00:05:08,800 --> 00:05:13,440 Speaker 1: de Murder Mortar, by the way, means murderer in Germany. 86 00:05:13,480 --> 00:05:19,720 Speaker 1: That again, Margaret Murder. No, the entire name Senator General 87 00:05:20,040 --> 00:05:25,760 Speaker 1: Pavel Karlovitch de murder based. Yeah, well he sucks, but 88 00:05:25,800 --> 00:05:31,320 Speaker 1: it's a base name exactly, and it's like and nowhere 89 00:05:31,360 --> 00:05:34,239 Speaker 1: in any of the sources does anyone like point out 90 00:05:34,760 --> 00:05:37,360 Speaker 1: that his name means murderer, Like, you know, it's like 91 00:05:37,360 --> 00:05:40,200 Speaker 1: the Cooper's they make barrels and the smiths make like 92 00:05:40,360 --> 00:05:45,560 Speaker 1: stuff with out of iron and the murders. Anyway, So 93 00:05:46,240 --> 00:05:48,800 Speaker 1: this guy is a senior advisor to the czar, as 94 00:05:48,839 --> 00:05:51,200 Speaker 1: both a senator and a general, which is really rare. 95 00:05:51,240 --> 00:05:55,120 Speaker 1: He's like very high up, thus the title Senator General. 96 00:05:55,520 --> 00:05:58,279 Speaker 1: His brother tutored the czar. He's a widower, and he 97 00:05:58,360 --> 00:06:01,520 Speaker 1: marries the young Natalie and soon he's having a bunch 98 00:06:01,520 --> 00:06:04,560 Speaker 1: of kids with her. She is not happy, she's not 99 00:06:04,640 --> 00:06:08,040 Speaker 1: excited about what life has to offer her young Natalie. 100 00:06:08,440 --> 00:06:10,440 Speaker 1: So she does what rich people do when they're unhappy. 101 00:06:10,520 --> 00:06:13,520 Speaker 1: She retreats, retires to her country estate and spends her 102 00:06:13,600 --> 00:06:16,920 Speaker 1: days riding horses and sighing and letting the servants take 103 00:06:16,960 --> 00:06:20,480 Speaker 1: care of the kids. She also maybe does the unhappy 104 00:06:20,560 --> 00:06:23,360 Speaker 1: rich person thing that I wish more unhappy rich people did, 105 00:06:23,880 --> 00:06:29,279 Speaker 1: which was become an anarchist, militant class trader. And so 106 00:06:29,360 --> 00:06:33,280 Speaker 1: this tutor shows up, and his name is Alexander Nikolovitch Trufamosky, 107 00:06:34,480 --> 00:06:37,240 Speaker 1: and he's full of fire, and he's young, I mean 108 00:06:37,240 --> 00:06:40,279 Speaker 1: not actually, he's like more than a decade older than Natalie, 109 00:06:40,440 --> 00:06:43,760 Speaker 1: but that still leaves him thirty one years younger than 110 00:06:44,080 --> 00:06:48,640 Speaker 1: her husband, the Senator General. So you know, like the bars, 111 00:06:49,400 --> 00:06:53,039 Speaker 1: well the bar is not low, the bar is very high. Whatever. 112 00:06:54,000 --> 00:06:58,320 Speaker 1: He's really smart. He speaks Russian, French, German, Italian, Arabic, 113 00:06:58,400 --> 00:07:02,679 Speaker 1: and Hebrew, and he was Armenian, probably from a Turkish 114 00:07:02,720 --> 00:07:05,800 Speaker 1: and Muslim family background, though he was an Orthodox priest 115 00:07:05,839 --> 00:07:11,040 Speaker 1: immediately before he became an anarchist and a nihilist. And 116 00:07:11,040 --> 00:07:12,440 Speaker 1: and this part, I'm going to be kind of curious 117 00:07:12,480 --> 00:07:15,680 Speaker 1: your take on this, both of you all. So he's 118 00:07:15,720 --> 00:07:19,840 Speaker 1: a feminist in his way, like probably he's not faking 119 00:07:19,880 --> 00:07:22,640 Speaker 1: this to get into her pants. And he hates the 120 00:07:22,640 --> 00:07:26,440 Speaker 1: institution of marriage. For example, he left his wife and 121 00:07:26,520 --> 00:07:30,000 Speaker 1: kids because marriage is bad. And I don't know why, Right, 122 00:07:30,240 --> 00:07:33,160 Speaker 1: it could have been this like whoa babe, Marriage is 123 00:07:33,200 --> 00:07:35,520 Speaker 1: bad for women like gott to go have fun taking 124 00:07:35,520 --> 00:07:39,440 Speaker 1: care of the kids. But I actually feel more likely, 125 00:07:39,480 --> 00:07:42,320 Speaker 1: based on everything else that I've learned about him, I 126 00:07:42,400 --> 00:07:44,679 Speaker 1: think he had a major ideological break with his younger 127 00:07:44,720 --> 00:07:46,679 Speaker 1: life and it no longer suited him or his wife 128 00:07:46,680 --> 00:07:48,880 Speaker 1: to stay together, and she might have caught him out 129 00:07:48,880 --> 00:07:53,320 Speaker 1: of the kid's life and her life. So because he 130 00:07:53,360 --> 00:07:57,360 Speaker 1: went from Orthodox priest to anarchist, Orthodox priests were allowed 131 00:07:57,360 --> 00:07:59,160 Speaker 1: to be married as long as they were married before 132 00:07:59,200 --> 00:08:02,920 Speaker 1: their ordination. So for whatever reason, he has left his 133 00:08:02,960 --> 00:08:05,800 Speaker 1: wife and kids, and now he shows up as a 134 00:08:05,840 --> 00:08:10,920 Speaker 1: tutor in the house of this fabulously rich noble. And 135 00:08:11,000 --> 00:08:13,640 Speaker 1: for more background for anyone who's curious, we have an 136 00:08:13,680 --> 00:08:16,320 Speaker 1: episode about the Russian nihilists and all the conspiracies that 137 00:08:16,360 --> 00:08:17,880 Speaker 1: the anarchists were up to at the time and the 138 00:08:17,920 --> 00:08:19,320 Speaker 1: nihilists were up to at the time, which is like 139 00:08:19,320 --> 00:08:22,000 Speaker 1: a ven diagram, right, not all the anarchists or nihilists. 140 00:08:22,000 --> 00:08:24,600 Speaker 1: Not all the nihilists or anarchists. This man is both. 141 00:08:24,640 --> 00:08:26,640 Speaker 1: He has both of these identities. As far as I 142 00:08:26,680 --> 00:08:29,880 Speaker 1: can tell, Alexander is part of all of it. It's 143 00:08:29,920 --> 00:08:32,360 Speaker 1: possible that he found his way into tutoring the kids 144 00:08:32,400 --> 00:08:34,080 Speaker 1: of the Senator General as a plot, part of a 145 00:08:34,080 --> 00:08:37,480 Speaker 1: plot to kill the Senator General. And this makes me 146 00:08:37,600 --> 00:08:40,480 Speaker 1: very happy. And so he did funk up the Senator 147 00:08:40,559 --> 00:08:43,600 Speaker 1: General's life. Whether or not he killed the Senator General, 148 00:08:44,400 --> 00:08:48,040 Speaker 1: no one actually knows. There's people who claim he did, 149 00:08:48,320 --> 00:08:51,360 Speaker 1: and there's people who claim he didn't. He might have 150 00:08:51,440 --> 00:08:55,000 Speaker 1: just been really really good at his job. I know, 151 00:08:55,960 --> 00:08:59,960 Speaker 1: I know, And like that's what that's what you want, 152 00:09:00,160 --> 00:09:05,200 Speaker 1: you want, you want like nobody to know? Yeah, yeah, Well, 153 00:09:05,240 --> 00:09:07,640 Speaker 1: And and the fact that she gets raised into all 154 00:09:07,679 --> 00:09:10,600 Speaker 1: of this secrecy and plotting is not only a huge 155 00:09:10,640 --> 00:09:12,840 Speaker 1: part of her life, but it's a huge part of 156 00:09:12,880 --> 00:09:16,520 Speaker 1: trying to untangle her life a hundred years later, because 157 00:09:17,400 --> 00:09:20,840 Speaker 1: she was up to some ship, probably in the background 158 00:09:20,880 --> 00:09:23,880 Speaker 1: of everything we're going to talk about today, but no 159 00:09:23,920 --> 00:09:26,560 Speaker 1: one knows quite how much ship she was up to 160 00:09:26,760 --> 00:09:29,120 Speaker 1: at what given point. And I like conjectures, because of 161 00:09:29,120 --> 00:09:35,160 Speaker 1: course I do, but anyway the way, yeah, and and 162 00:09:35,480 --> 00:09:40,480 Speaker 1: like you're you're in a good position to imagine about 163 00:09:40,520 --> 00:09:46,559 Speaker 1: that more than other people. I have personally never been 164 00:09:46,640 --> 00:09:50,319 Speaker 1: part of a plot to assassinate high up Russian nobility. 165 00:09:51,160 --> 00:09:55,040 Speaker 1: I wasn't insinuating that her, to be perfectly clear, I 166 00:09:55,080 --> 00:10:00,880 Speaker 1: wasn't insinuating allegedary Yeah. No. That is actually something that 167 00:10:01,040 --> 00:10:03,440 Speaker 1: I find very frustrating about reading a lot of the 168 00:10:03,480 --> 00:10:05,360 Speaker 1: histories is that it's clear that the histories are written 169 00:10:05,400 --> 00:10:07,320 Speaker 1: by people who are excited about her as an adventurer 170 00:10:07,360 --> 00:10:09,640 Speaker 1: and as like a feminist icon, and they're going to 171 00:10:09,679 --> 00:10:13,640 Speaker 1: be doing certain types of work to recuperate her into 172 00:10:13,720 --> 00:10:16,880 Speaker 1: certain types of ways of thinking. And also specifically, like 173 00:10:17,040 --> 00:10:21,319 Speaker 1: don't really understand I don't totally understand anarchist nhilist politics 174 00:10:21,360 --> 00:10:23,160 Speaker 1: of the nineteenth century, but I think I understand them 175 00:10:23,160 --> 00:10:27,480 Speaker 1: better than the average historian of Isabel ever Heart. And 176 00:10:27,520 --> 00:10:29,480 Speaker 1: there's two ways that this could have happened. Him showing 177 00:10:29,559 --> 00:10:32,560 Speaker 1: up at the household, and the way it's like normally written, 178 00:10:32,679 --> 00:10:35,680 Speaker 1: he shows up, him and Natalie get close, then biblically close, 179 00:10:35,720 --> 00:10:38,720 Speaker 1: and then she converts to anarchism or nihilism or you know, 180 00:10:39,280 --> 00:10:42,400 Speaker 1: very few people actually talk about her mom and her 181 00:10:42,480 --> 00:10:46,480 Speaker 1: political leanings and beliefs. Oh yeah, that that tracks yeah 182 00:10:47,400 --> 00:10:53,240 Speaker 1: like this lady. Yeah. And and a lot of historians 183 00:10:53,240 --> 00:10:55,640 Speaker 1: are trying to take agency away from her and are 184 00:10:55,679 --> 00:10:57,679 Speaker 1: just like, I guess she got swept up by this 185 00:10:57,840 --> 00:11:00,560 Speaker 1: charming priest turn nihilist or whatever her And it's like, 186 00:11:01,120 --> 00:11:04,480 Speaker 1: I think it is just as likely that she's married 187 00:11:04,520 --> 00:11:09,400 Speaker 1: to a monster who is ruling Russia and shouldn't be. 188 00:11:09,760 --> 00:11:13,760 Speaker 1: And so she's like, yo, check it out, come over here, 189 00:11:13,960 --> 00:11:16,040 Speaker 1: let's steal his kids and murder him and take all 190 00:11:16,080 --> 00:11:18,839 Speaker 1: his money and give all the money to the movement. Yeah, 191 00:11:18,880 --> 00:11:24,280 Speaker 1: she intimately saw the fucking sausage being made. Yeah. Yeah. 192 00:11:25,559 --> 00:11:29,840 Speaker 1: Uh So, whether or not she converted ahead of time 193 00:11:29,840 --> 00:11:33,080 Speaker 1: and invited him, or whether she converted later, she stays 194 00:11:33,200 --> 00:11:37,199 Speaker 1: the entire rest of her life. UM, not necessarily specifically 195 00:11:37,200 --> 00:11:41,240 Speaker 1: ideologically annihilist or an anarchist, but not specifically not that 196 00:11:41,280 --> 00:11:45,360 Speaker 1: either actually um, And she's very committed revolution whole time, 197 00:11:45,880 --> 00:11:49,720 Speaker 1: so they're like, we can't stay here. This is not 198 00:11:49,800 --> 00:11:52,960 Speaker 1: a good idea where we will eventually get caught because 199 00:11:52,960 --> 00:11:55,800 Speaker 1: he is this anarchist with this background, and it's kind 200 00:11:55,840 --> 00:11:58,680 Speaker 1: of amazing that he got himself in as a tutor. Anyway, 201 00:11:58,720 --> 00:12:00,240 Speaker 1: it helps that he's like smart as hell and speak 202 00:12:00,240 --> 00:12:03,640 Speaker 1: seven languages or whatever. So they funk off, and in 203 00:12:03,720 --> 00:12:06,600 Speaker 1: eighteen seventy one they go to Geneva in Switzerland, which 204 00:12:06,600 --> 00:12:10,360 Speaker 1: is the cool anarchy place to be in one because 205 00:12:10,400 --> 00:12:16,120 Speaker 1: all the the Paris Commune ours cr episode about Paris Commune, 206 00:12:16,400 --> 00:12:19,520 Speaker 1: thank you. They're all taking refuge there and all the 207 00:12:19,520 --> 00:12:23,920 Speaker 1: cool lefties are there, and Natalie's like, oh, darling senator General, 208 00:12:23,960 --> 00:12:25,880 Speaker 1: who I'm totally not plotting to kill. I'd love to 209 00:12:25,920 --> 00:12:27,520 Speaker 1: stay around and like watch you get old and die 210 00:12:27,520 --> 00:12:29,560 Speaker 1: while oppressing everyone in the country. But I need gentler 211 00:12:29,600 --> 00:12:32,400 Speaker 1: climbs for my soft womanly immune system, so I have 212 00:12:32,480 --> 00:12:34,800 Speaker 1: to go to Geneva and bring the kids and the 213 00:12:34,840 --> 00:12:38,679 Speaker 1: hot tutor. That's what she does. I'm paraphrasing heavily here, 214 00:12:38,720 --> 00:12:40,040 Speaker 1: but she did say it was for her health that 215 00:12:40,120 --> 00:12:44,679 Speaker 1: she needed warmer climbs. She actually her whole family is 216 00:12:44,760 --> 00:12:47,720 Speaker 1: kind of sickly the entire time, including her Isabelle and 217 00:12:47,800 --> 00:12:51,120 Speaker 1: Natalie and her father and anyway, we'll get to that. Yeah, 218 00:12:51,160 --> 00:12:53,760 Speaker 1: and how how many kids does she have at this point? 219 00:12:54,200 --> 00:12:56,559 Speaker 1: So she's starting off with three, right, She has a 220 00:12:57,360 --> 00:13:01,160 Speaker 1: young Nicholas Natalie Jr. I don't think they used junior, 221 00:13:01,240 --> 00:13:03,360 Speaker 1: but that's how I'm going to distinguish Natalie Jr. From 222 00:13:03,600 --> 00:13:11,880 Speaker 1: Natalie Sr. And Vladimir, So of course, yeah, yeah, no, 223 00:13:11,880 --> 00:13:15,560 Speaker 1: totally yeah. So they get on some trains and they 224 00:13:15,559 --> 00:13:17,400 Speaker 1: get the funk out of the country, which is good 225 00:13:17,400 --> 00:13:19,560 Speaker 1: because this is our secret police were like probably just 226 00:13:19,640 --> 00:13:21,520 Speaker 1: about to be like, wait a second, this tutor is 227 00:13:21,520 --> 00:13:25,200 Speaker 1: an anarchist. And then nine months later, after she leaves, 228 00:13:25,280 --> 00:13:29,560 Speaker 1: Natalie has another kid. His name is Augustus Augustine. The 229 00:13:29,600 --> 00:13:31,480 Speaker 1: General comes down to Geneva and is like trying to 230 00:13:31,520 --> 00:13:33,760 Speaker 1: beg her back. It's like, babe, please come home, and 231 00:13:33,800 --> 00:13:37,240 Speaker 1: she's like no, but do you wanna do you wanna 232 00:13:37,360 --> 00:13:39,920 Speaker 1: accept this kid as as your kid and not your bastard? 233 00:13:40,520 --> 00:13:42,960 Speaker 1: And the General is like yeah, sure, fine, whatever, And 234 00:13:43,000 --> 00:13:45,680 Speaker 1: I think the General knows the Senator General knows that 235 00:13:45,720 --> 00:13:47,800 Speaker 1: Augustine is not his, but he's like willing to give 236 00:13:47,880 --> 00:13:52,720 Speaker 1: him the murderer name. So his name is Augustine de murder. Wow. 237 00:13:53,720 --> 00:14:00,800 Speaker 1: And so two years later her aged husband eyed seventy 238 00:14:00,840 --> 00:14:04,280 Speaker 1: eight years old and she inherits all his money. And 239 00:14:04,360 --> 00:14:08,720 Speaker 1: it's possible that Alexander had him poisoned. It has been alleged, 240 00:14:09,200 --> 00:14:11,520 Speaker 1: and I see no particular reason to doubt it. But 241 00:14:11,600 --> 00:14:14,679 Speaker 1: also he's seventy eight years old, it's the nineteenth century. 242 00:14:15,280 --> 00:14:18,320 Speaker 1: I don't know. So they're now in Geneva. They have 243 00:14:18,360 --> 00:14:20,520 Speaker 1: plenty of money, and they've got all of the fucking 244 00:14:20,520 --> 00:14:24,760 Speaker 1: nobilities kids with them. True to we don't believe in 245 00:14:24,840 --> 00:14:27,640 Speaker 1: marriage form Alexander and Natalie. They stay lovers, but they 246 00:14:27,680 --> 00:14:30,320 Speaker 1: get separate apartments and different parts of town, and they 247 00:14:30,360 --> 00:14:32,640 Speaker 1: spend like all of their time together. But they don't 248 00:14:32,640 --> 00:14:35,320 Speaker 1: like shack up, and they spend their time doing cool, 249 00:14:35,400 --> 00:14:38,000 Speaker 1: weird secret anarchy ship. Anarchists at the time and place 250 00:14:38,000 --> 00:14:41,440 Speaker 1: where obsessed with being in secret societies. So we really 251 00:14:41,480 --> 00:14:44,680 Speaker 1: don't know what they did besides maybe kill Natalie's husband 252 00:14:44,680 --> 00:14:50,320 Speaker 1: and the father of her children. Then eighteen seventy seven, 253 00:14:50,360 --> 00:14:53,360 Speaker 1: six years after they've moved, they have another kid, Isabelle, 254 00:14:54,200 --> 00:14:56,600 Speaker 1: Natalie's in her late thirties. At this point, Alexander's in 255 00:14:56,600 --> 00:15:01,560 Speaker 1: his early fifties. And they don't claim Isabelle as like 256 00:15:01,600 --> 00:15:05,520 Speaker 1: Alexander Trofinowski never claims any of the kids as his. 257 00:15:05,640 --> 00:15:08,320 Speaker 1: It's like not a good idea for a lot of reasons. 258 00:15:08,480 --> 00:15:11,920 Speaker 1: But they also don't tell the kids their own parentage. 259 00:15:12,280 --> 00:15:15,680 Speaker 1: But he is like not a fucking fly by night father. 260 00:15:15,840 --> 00:15:20,080 Speaker 1: He is very actively involved in their entire life. They 261 00:15:20,120 --> 00:15:22,480 Speaker 1: move out of the city out onto two different estates. 262 00:15:22,560 --> 00:15:24,720 Speaker 1: Natalie's family money bought them both, so this is a 263 00:15:24,760 --> 00:15:27,840 Speaker 1: continuing to like room of one's own vibe. Yeah, this 264 00:15:27,880 --> 00:15:32,760 Speaker 1: is this such a weird childhood. You know, she was 265 00:15:32,800 --> 00:15:36,520 Speaker 1: not going to grow up normal. That is, although some 266 00:15:36,600 --> 00:15:38,720 Speaker 1: of her kids, some of the kids tried to end 267 00:15:38,800 --> 00:15:43,440 Speaker 1: up normal. It kind of goes badly for everyone, honestly, right, 268 00:15:44,560 --> 00:15:47,360 Speaker 1: That's there's the classic like if you're raised in a 269 00:15:47,440 --> 00:15:53,600 Speaker 1: really wild scene, you you know, try to be really conservative. Yeah, 270 00:15:53,760 --> 00:15:57,560 Speaker 1: and that happens to about half the kids. It's kind 271 00:15:57,600 --> 00:16:02,760 Speaker 1: of interesting. So they get this a state. Alexander gets 272 00:16:02,760 --> 00:16:04,760 Speaker 1: really into gardening, and he just wants to spend the 273 00:16:04,760 --> 00:16:07,360 Speaker 1: rest of his life setting up an anarchy commune. But 274 00:16:07,360 --> 00:16:09,480 Speaker 1: no one is like into setting up an anarchy commune 275 00:16:09,480 --> 00:16:11,560 Speaker 1: with him, so he just doesn't help by himself and 276 00:16:11,600 --> 00:16:14,640 Speaker 1: like makes his kids help, and he's really into orchids 277 00:16:14,760 --> 00:16:23,680 Speaker 1: and cactuses us. My dad, Yeah, it's actually literally everybody's dad. Yeah, 278 00:16:24,080 --> 00:16:26,880 Speaker 1: it's just yeah, he's like, why want Why doesn't everyone 279 00:16:26,880 --> 00:16:28,800 Speaker 1: want to hang out and like work on cactuses with 280 00:16:28,800 --> 00:16:33,200 Speaker 1: me all the time? An exact text message I've received 281 00:16:33,480 --> 00:16:40,800 Speaker 1: from my dad. So he and he dotes on his kids, 282 00:16:40,880 --> 00:16:43,640 Speaker 1: especially as young daughter Isabel, who didn't know that she 283 00:16:43,800 --> 00:16:48,040 Speaker 1: was his daughter. I think I think that everyone suspected 284 00:16:48,080 --> 00:16:51,280 Speaker 1: and it was like I was gonna say, like allegedly 285 00:16:51,360 --> 00:16:54,080 Speaker 1: didn't know, but like, if somebody's taking that much of 286 00:16:54,120 --> 00:16:57,440 Speaker 1: an interest in you, you have to be somewhat aware, 287 00:16:58,400 --> 00:17:01,040 Speaker 1: and people have will make these alley Asians like directly, 288 00:17:01,720 --> 00:17:04,720 Speaker 1: but it will be part of politicking to get the 289 00:17:04,760 --> 00:17:07,320 Speaker 1: money back, because it turns out you actually can't rob 290 00:17:08,160 --> 00:17:10,800 Speaker 1: one of the richest and most powerful people in Russia 291 00:17:11,359 --> 00:17:15,800 Speaker 1: and steal three to four of his children and not 292 00:17:16,000 --> 00:17:22,520 Speaker 1: have it not have like continuing effects. But he tried. Okay, 293 00:17:22,560 --> 00:17:26,160 Speaker 1: so so so Alexander tried in his way to raise 294 00:17:26,200 --> 00:17:28,600 Speaker 1: his daughter's genderless as part of a feminist current in 295 00:17:28,640 --> 00:17:32,320 Speaker 1: anarchism at the time. Specifically, it wasn't about like keeping 296 00:17:32,320 --> 00:17:35,280 Speaker 1: women safe, girls safe by dressing up as as boys, 297 00:17:35,520 --> 00:17:38,280 Speaker 1: but instead about offering them the same opportunities that are 298 00:17:38,320 --> 00:17:40,840 Speaker 1: available to boys in terms of education, in terms of 299 00:17:40,880 --> 00:17:43,679 Speaker 1: like everything else. Is Basically it's a like this is 300 00:17:43,720 --> 00:17:46,920 Speaker 1: the this is the like feminist thing we're all trying 301 00:17:47,040 --> 00:17:50,639 Speaker 1: right now. So it meant cropping Isabelle's hair short and 302 00:17:50,720 --> 00:17:54,440 Speaker 1: her dressing as a boy. And I want to really 303 00:17:54,440 --> 00:17:58,119 Speaker 1: like this guy. He's complicated and will never exactly know 304 00:17:58,200 --> 00:18:01,320 Speaker 1: in what ways he had the kids stayed in his 305 00:18:01,400 --> 00:18:04,119 Speaker 1: walled villa wear their hair short, except the older daughter, 306 00:18:04,280 --> 00:18:08,560 Speaker 1: Natalie jr. Um. She refused to wear her hair short, 307 00:18:09,119 --> 00:18:11,879 Speaker 1: and he's like, that's fine. But it's funny because in 308 00:18:11,880 --> 00:18:13,840 Speaker 1: the biography would be like this tyrants who made her 309 00:18:13,880 --> 00:18:15,800 Speaker 1: cut her hair that she like was like, no, I'm 310 00:18:15,800 --> 00:18:21,159 Speaker 1: not going out, and he's like okay, um, so whatever, 311 00:18:21,400 --> 00:18:24,000 Speaker 1: but we'll get to the complicated there in a second. 312 00:18:24,720 --> 00:18:26,480 Speaker 1: And made them help in the gardens, the oldest to 313 00:18:26,800 --> 00:18:29,960 Speaker 1: their closest to their dad and the Russian aristocratic life right, 314 00:18:30,080 --> 00:18:32,080 Speaker 1: and they hated all of this, and they referred to 315 00:18:32,119 --> 00:18:37,040 Speaker 1: it as slavery to be raised by this guy and 316 00:18:37,080 --> 00:18:42,359 Speaker 1: be forced to work on cactuses and learn like six languages. Wow. Yeah, 317 00:18:42,400 --> 00:18:44,720 Speaker 1: I mean it's on on one hand, it's kind of 318 00:18:44,760 --> 00:18:47,800 Speaker 1: like growing up in a cult, So they might they 319 00:18:47,880 --> 00:18:51,600 Speaker 1: might feel that way about it because it it definitely 320 00:18:51,720 --> 00:18:56,399 Speaker 1: like isolates you from your peers. Yeah, And it's interesting 321 00:18:56,400 --> 00:19:00,480 Speaker 1: because it's like, I don't quite know if they're being 322 00:19:00,480 --> 00:19:03,880 Speaker 1: isolated from their peers. They might be. They're definitely being 323 00:19:03,920 --> 00:19:07,480 Speaker 1: isolated from their original upbringing and what it two of 324 00:19:07,520 --> 00:19:11,000 Speaker 1: them perceive as their heritage, which is to stomp the 325 00:19:11,080 --> 00:19:14,439 Speaker 1: Russian peasants into the dust. Well, it definitely isolates you 326 00:19:14,480 --> 00:19:19,080 Speaker 1: from mainstream culture totally, totally. But you know what else 327 00:19:19,119 --> 00:19:25,360 Speaker 1: will isolate you from mainstream culture is not buying. If 328 00:19:25,440 --> 00:19:29,760 Speaker 1: you want to be an occult, don't buy these products. 329 00:19:30,960 --> 00:19:34,080 Speaker 1: If you're reverse psychology, Margaret, Is that what we're doing? 330 00:19:34,520 --> 00:19:36,160 Speaker 1: I know, but I don't know whether my listeners actually 331 00:19:36,200 --> 00:19:37,479 Speaker 1: want to be an a cult or not, so it's 332 00:19:37,600 --> 00:19:40,040 Speaker 1: hard to know which way to go. It's really a 333 00:19:40,040 --> 00:19:42,359 Speaker 1: toss up. I actually think it's possible that whether or 334 00:19:42,359 --> 00:19:45,359 Speaker 1: not you support the people who support this podcast, I 335 00:19:45,480 --> 00:19:47,639 Speaker 1: actually don't think it's going to make any difference into 336 00:19:47,680 --> 00:19:59,600 Speaker 1: your called affiliation. So here's some advertisers and we're back. No, 337 00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:03,840 Speaker 1: it's it's absolutely true that there's this like, yeah, there's 338 00:20:03,880 --> 00:20:06,159 Speaker 1: this absolute tension, right and and you we see it 339 00:20:06,200 --> 00:20:08,080 Speaker 1: all the time. Yeah, you like raised by hippie parents, 340 00:20:08,080 --> 00:20:11,679 Speaker 1: and then you're gonna reject it all, you know. Isabel 341 00:20:11,720 --> 00:20:13,440 Speaker 1: and two of her siblings don't see it this way. 342 00:20:13,480 --> 00:20:16,560 Speaker 1: Her two oldest siblings absolutely see it this way. And 343 00:20:16,600 --> 00:20:21,000 Speaker 1: Trophomowski Alexander anarchy dad, he gets described as paranoid, and 344 00:20:21,040 --> 00:20:23,040 Speaker 1: I wonder whether he was paranoid or if he was 345 00:20:23,040 --> 00:20:25,160 Speaker 1: an anarchist conspiration in the nineteenth century he was trying 346 00:20:25,160 --> 00:20:27,080 Speaker 1: to overthrow state power and oppression and closely tied with 347 00:20:27,119 --> 00:20:29,720 Speaker 1: people were getting off for being that way, who had 348 00:20:29,800 --> 00:20:33,200 Speaker 1: stolen three or four children from Russian noble But he's, 349 00:20:33,320 --> 00:20:37,760 Speaker 1: oh yeah, he's he's in this like very complicated underworld. 350 00:20:38,880 --> 00:20:42,480 Speaker 1: And I can see how that would just look paranoid 351 00:20:42,720 --> 00:20:45,280 Speaker 1: to other people. And you know, maybe he was like 352 00:20:45,400 --> 00:20:50,080 Speaker 1: protecting his family from the details and we'll never know, no, 353 00:20:50,200 --> 00:20:51,800 Speaker 1: I know. And also I think a bunch of the 354 00:20:51,800 --> 00:20:54,159 Speaker 1: families in on it. Isabel ever heart was absolutely in 355 00:20:54,240 --> 00:20:56,560 Speaker 1: on it um and I reason to believe his wife 356 00:20:56,600 --> 00:21:01,159 Speaker 1: was in on it, Natalie. But you know, to everyone 357 00:21:01,200 --> 00:21:02,960 Speaker 1: in the outside, he's not going to be like, Well, 358 00:21:03,000 --> 00:21:06,360 Speaker 1: the reason I'm so reclusive is because the police are 359 00:21:06,400 --> 00:21:09,480 Speaker 1: after everyone I care about, you know, and they have 360 00:21:09,520 --> 00:21:11,840 Speaker 1: a bunch of visitors like this, and so they get 361 00:21:11,920 --> 00:21:14,320 Speaker 1: something of a worldly education. Most of the visitors are 362 00:21:14,359 --> 00:21:17,879 Speaker 1: other exiles, in particular Russians and Turks, and I really 363 00:21:17,920 --> 00:21:21,520 Speaker 1: want to know more, but don't about Turkish and Russian 364 00:21:21,520 --> 00:21:24,199 Speaker 1: relations as relates to anarchism and nihilism at this at 365 00:21:24,240 --> 00:21:29,040 Speaker 1: this point, because Russian means anywhere from the Empire, right, 366 00:21:29,200 --> 00:21:32,080 Speaker 1: which absolutely includes large chunks of what would be considered 367 00:21:32,240 --> 00:21:38,800 Speaker 1: Southwest Asia today, including Alexander's own background. Isabelle grew up 368 00:21:38,840 --> 00:21:42,000 Speaker 1: loving her time on secret dad's anarchy villain and she 369 00:21:42,040 --> 00:21:44,480 Speaker 1: grew up playing with animals and daydreaming and writing and 370 00:21:44,600 --> 00:21:47,119 Speaker 1: learning and meeting people from around the world. We're too 371 00:21:47,160 --> 00:21:51,760 Speaker 1: oldest siblings not so much. Their dad was the right 372 00:21:51,760 --> 00:21:53,440 Speaker 1: hand man of the god damn Zar, and they wanted 373 00:21:53,480 --> 00:21:56,199 Speaker 1: to get back at into well he means dead, but 374 00:21:56,480 --> 00:21:59,840 Speaker 1: you know this is their heritage from their point of view, right, 375 00:22:00,280 --> 00:22:04,560 Speaker 1: and I think I remember she rode a bunch of horses. 376 00:22:04,880 --> 00:22:08,280 Speaker 1: Did you did you come across that? There's like people 377 00:22:08,280 --> 00:22:10,639 Speaker 1: have talked about how she had the chance probably to 378 00:22:10,720 --> 00:22:13,520 Speaker 1: ride horses, but we don't necessarily have like super crazy evidence, 379 00:22:13,560 --> 00:22:16,280 Speaker 1: but yet almost certainly, and because horses are a huge 380 00:22:16,280 --> 00:22:19,120 Speaker 1: part of her life, but I don't know whether she's specifically. 381 00:22:19,320 --> 00:22:22,960 Speaker 1: I didn't find one of those storians I read talked 382 00:22:22,960 --> 00:22:25,159 Speaker 1: about how like we don't know if she was a 383 00:22:25,200 --> 00:22:30,560 Speaker 1: horse girl, but probably yeah, but we could. I think, Okay, 384 00:22:30,640 --> 00:22:33,040 Speaker 1: we'll just decide everyone else. I I don't know where 385 00:22:33,080 --> 00:22:37,600 Speaker 1: I got that. I'm sorry, no, no, I mean like yeah, Also, 386 00:22:37,760 --> 00:22:39,399 Speaker 1: like I still haven't read everything there is to know 387 00:22:39,400 --> 00:22:41,840 Speaker 1: about There's been so much written about his Isabhaba from 388 00:22:41,880 --> 00:22:44,200 Speaker 1: so many different positions, and it's always trying to pin 389 00:22:44,240 --> 00:22:47,360 Speaker 1: her down because she's so many different people to depending 390 00:22:47,400 --> 00:22:51,840 Speaker 1: on how you look at her. So older siblings, they're 391 00:22:51,840 --> 00:22:54,159 Speaker 1: piste off because he makes them read banned books like 392 00:22:54,200 --> 00:22:57,359 Speaker 1: a meal Zola. Older brother Nicholas, he fucks off back 393 00:22:57,400 --> 00:22:59,320 Speaker 1: to Russia. He runs away, he makes it, and he 394 00:22:59,359 --> 00:23:02,560 Speaker 1: returns to the a Murder family. The fifteen year old 395 00:23:02,600 --> 00:23:07,680 Speaker 1: brother Vladimir he's torn between these two worlds. Anarchy Dad's like, hey, Bud, 396 00:23:07,720 --> 00:23:11,320 Speaker 1: stay here, like grow some cactuses, and Nicholas is like, no, 397 00:23:11,520 --> 00:23:15,159 Speaker 1: come home to your true heritage as a nobility. And 398 00:23:15,200 --> 00:23:18,080 Speaker 1: so when he's fifteen, he tries to run away, and 399 00:23:18,280 --> 00:23:21,240 Speaker 1: anarchy Dad tracks him down, is like, talks him into 400 00:23:21,240 --> 00:23:25,080 Speaker 1: coming home, and then, un characteristically to a modern context, 401 00:23:25,480 --> 00:23:28,160 Speaker 1: the second time that the kid runs away, anarchy Dad 402 00:23:28,200 --> 00:23:29,920 Speaker 1: goes to the cops. It's like, my kid ran away, 403 00:23:29,960 --> 00:23:31,639 Speaker 1: and the cops helped track him down the kid and 404 00:23:31,640 --> 00:23:35,919 Speaker 1: they bring him back home. After that, Vladimir lives the 405 00:23:35,920 --> 00:23:40,040 Speaker 1: rest of his life on his villain happily working with plants. Wow, 406 00:23:40,119 --> 00:23:42,120 Speaker 1: sometimes unhappily. We'll talk about that in a little bit. 407 00:23:42,160 --> 00:23:45,280 Speaker 1: But he just gave he gave up trying to go 408 00:23:45,359 --> 00:23:50,040 Speaker 1: back to the von Murderers. Yeah, And I think it's 409 00:23:50,080 --> 00:23:52,600 Speaker 1: the best I can tell based on actually the end 410 00:23:52,640 --> 00:23:57,919 Speaker 1: of Vladimir's life is that it was like he was 411 00:23:58,000 --> 00:24:02,560 Speaker 1: being really actively like Nicholas's older brother is like, fuck, 412 00:24:02,600 --> 00:24:06,160 Speaker 1: you get the funk back here, right, And then anarchy 413 00:24:06,240 --> 00:24:08,240 Speaker 1: Dad was maybe also being like funck you get the 414 00:24:08,280 --> 00:24:09,800 Speaker 1: funk back here. I don't know, I don't know the 415 00:24:09,800 --> 00:24:11,880 Speaker 1: tone of him. I know the tone of Nicholas, which 416 00:24:11,920 --> 00:24:17,040 Speaker 1: was aggressive. Um, but so he was he was torn right. 417 00:24:17,800 --> 00:24:22,160 Speaker 1: Older sister Natalie Jr. She runs away to marry someone 418 00:24:22,160 --> 00:24:24,440 Speaker 1: who has close ties to Russia, also hates Alexander, and 419 00:24:24,480 --> 00:24:26,680 Speaker 1: they all star at part of this like massive conspiracy, 420 00:24:27,800 --> 00:24:29,520 Speaker 1: not even in like a negative way, right, Like there 421 00:24:30,320 --> 00:24:33,600 Speaker 1: like Alexander and Natalie Sr. Like robbed the family of 422 00:24:33,680 --> 00:24:37,240 Speaker 1: their inheritance and like pushed it into the anarchist movement instead, right, 423 00:24:37,800 --> 00:24:40,080 Speaker 1: And so there becomes this like massive conspiracy to like 424 00:24:40,280 --> 00:24:42,920 Speaker 1: get all of that money back and also like get 425 00:24:42,920 --> 00:24:45,080 Speaker 1: and that's part of why they like want Vladimir back. 426 00:24:45,640 --> 00:24:50,119 Speaker 1: I'm imagining this is like a really really beautiful period drama. 427 00:24:50,760 --> 00:24:55,240 Speaker 1: This would be so incredible, Oh totally. The most complicated 428 00:24:55,240 --> 00:24:58,920 Speaker 1: thing I know about anarchy Dad is that Natalie Jr. 429 00:24:59,119 --> 00:25:03,080 Speaker 1: Said while she was making when she ran away and 430 00:25:03,280 --> 00:25:05,680 Speaker 1: as she was making her way across, she said that 431 00:25:06,040 --> 00:25:10,159 Speaker 1: m Alexandra Trofamoski propositioned her for sex and that she 432 00:25:10,200 --> 00:25:13,879 Speaker 1: said no, And then also said that Alexandra Trofomoski had 433 00:25:13,880 --> 00:25:16,680 Speaker 1: poisoned her dad or conspired to get her dad poisoned, 434 00:25:17,400 --> 00:25:20,840 Speaker 1: and these things might be true. I have no I 435 00:25:20,880 --> 00:25:23,760 Speaker 1: like hate to doubt that kind of claim. It's entirely 436 00:25:23,800 --> 00:25:26,920 Speaker 1: possible that he did that. It's just as entirely possible 437 00:25:26,960 --> 00:25:29,680 Speaker 1: that she's like doing what she can to get back 438 00:25:29,720 --> 00:25:33,280 Speaker 1: to Russia. But he might But anarchy dad alexand Trofmouski 439 00:25:33,400 --> 00:25:37,280 Speaker 1: might have been a fucking creep like I don't know 440 00:25:37,359 --> 00:25:41,600 Speaker 1: that he might have been so like like um, sexually 441 00:25:41,680 --> 00:25:45,919 Speaker 1: liberated in the you know, the creepy senses that people 442 00:25:45,920 --> 00:25:51,280 Speaker 1: have had in the past. We really just don't know definitively. 443 00:25:51,520 --> 00:25:56,639 Speaker 1: So we can't really make a definitive claim here. No. So, 444 00:25:57,440 --> 00:26:00,479 Speaker 1: but Isabel elebr Heart grew up and she gets her 445 00:26:00,480 --> 00:26:02,959 Speaker 1: mother's maiden name eber Heart instead of Murder like all 446 00:26:03,000 --> 00:26:05,639 Speaker 1: of her siblings are de Murder. She grows up with 447 00:26:05,640 --> 00:26:08,840 Speaker 1: a love of learning languages and Islam. Actually she was 448 00:26:08,880 --> 00:26:11,879 Speaker 1: reading the Koran and Arabic with her dad, whose hatred 449 00:26:11,920 --> 00:26:15,280 Speaker 1: of organized religion as a as an anarchist was way 450 00:26:15,320 --> 00:26:19,879 Speaker 1: harder against Christianity than Islam by most accounts, and of 451 00:26:19,920 --> 00:26:22,160 Speaker 1: course from his background what we would now call Swanna, 452 00:26:22,240 --> 00:26:25,840 Speaker 1: Southwestern Asia and North Africa. Um, but they probably called 453 00:26:25,840 --> 00:26:29,560 Speaker 1: the Orient at the time that area. Swanna was more 454 00:26:29,640 --> 00:26:32,200 Speaker 1: familiar and more part of their world than Europe and 455 00:26:32,240 --> 00:26:34,879 Speaker 1: the West had been when when at least Dad was 456 00:26:34,920 --> 00:26:36,720 Speaker 1: growing up. And so the people who are coming and 457 00:26:36,800 --> 00:26:41,239 Speaker 1: visiting and stuff, um are much more from Swanna or 458 00:26:41,280 --> 00:26:46,159 Speaker 1: the Orient or whatever. An anarchy. Dad is rekindling his 459 00:26:46,240 --> 00:26:48,879 Speaker 1: interest in his Muslim his own Muslim background to his 460 00:26:48,920 --> 00:26:51,520 Speaker 1: atheism is tempered more and more with Islam. He starts 461 00:26:51,520 --> 00:26:54,439 Speaker 1: signing his letters in traditional Muslim ways. I think that 462 00:26:54,560 --> 00:26:56,840 Speaker 1: meaning peace be upon you. But I don't know if 463 00:26:56,840 --> 00:27:00,240 Speaker 1: he wrote in Arabic or Russian or whatever. I did. Um, 464 00:27:00,240 --> 00:27:02,199 Speaker 1: it just was like and signed it and you know, 465 00:27:03,480 --> 00:27:05,840 Speaker 1: traditional Muslim wise or whatever, and tried to look do 466 00:27:05,880 --> 00:27:08,959 Speaker 1: more work about that. He spends all of his time 467 00:27:09,000 --> 00:27:11,639 Speaker 1: talking about Jesus Christ, which is also funny and not 468 00:27:11,800 --> 00:27:15,520 Speaker 1: something that a devout Muslim wi necessarily do, but it 469 00:27:15,720 --> 00:27:18,720 Speaker 1: is what a grouty x orthodox anarchist from a Muslim 470 00:27:18,720 --> 00:27:22,440 Speaker 1: background would do. And and I just find this really 471 00:27:22,480 --> 00:27:25,159 Speaker 1: interesting that he's slipping more and more spiritualist as as 472 00:27:25,200 --> 00:27:29,760 Speaker 1: he gets older. Well, I mean, he was already a priest, 473 00:27:29,960 --> 00:27:35,480 Speaker 1: so he he had that like significant religious background, and 474 00:27:35,560 --> 00:27:38,560 Speaker 1: it's it's hard to get away from that language, even 475 00:27:38,600 --> 00:27:44,680 Speaker 1: if you are a straight up atheist that's your background. Yeah, yeah, 476 00:27:44,720 --> 00:27:46,200 Speaker 1: And I think that actually there's this thing that we 477 00:27:46,280 --> 00:27:48,840 Speaker 1: like talk about like the nineteenth century the left being 478 00:27:48,960 --> 00:27:52,359 Speaker 1: very like explicitly materialist and always atheist and stuff. But 479 00:27:52,400 --> 00:27:54,560 Speaker 1: even these people who are like calling themselves atheists are 480 00:27:54,560 --> 00:27:57,360 Speaker 1: still actually doing religioship all of the time. And like 481 00:27:57,880 --> 00:28:00,480 Speaker 1: we we always try to did not by it, but 482 00:28:00,560 --> 00:28:03,879 Speaker 1: it especially I think as people get older, Um, I 483 00:28:03,920 --> 00:28:08,240 Speaker 1: think that people tend to drop materialism and start engaging 484 00:28:08,280 --> 00:28:13,400 Speaker 1: more with religion as a well. Religion is also just 485 00:28:13,520 --> 00:28:19,680 Speaker 1: like such a powerful organizing tool and it's great if 486 00:28:19,720 --> 00:28:25,920 Speaker 1: you can use that language to the advantage of your movement. Yeah, totally. 487 00:28:26,920 --> 00:28:29,520 Speaker 1: And and Islam at this point in the late nineteenth 488 00:28:29,520 --> 00:28:34,240 Speaker 1: century is tending more radical radical in a positive way, 489 00:28:34,240 --> 00:28:39,440 Speaker 1: as I would describe it, um, the more like roughly 490 00:28:39,520 --> 00:28:43,160 Speaker 1: more socialist e direction. You've got this guy, his name 491 00:28:43,200 --> 00:28:46,280 Speaker 1: is Jamala than al Afghani, and he's an Islamic thinker, 492 00:28:46,280 --> 00:28:48,680 Speaker 1: and he's a leader who's trying to fight Western colonialism, 493 00:28:48,800 --> 00:28:51,120 Speaker 1: and he's also trying to introduce reforms into Islam to 494 00:28:51,160 --> 00:28:54,080 Speaker 1: make it more justin good he fights for Muslim Hindu 495 00:28:54,120 --> 00:28:56,920 Speaker 1: solidarity and driving the Brits out of India. And he's 496 00:28:56,960 --> 00:28:59,760 Speaker 1: just like extra cool and interesting because he wasn't drive 497 00:28:59,840 --> 00:29:02,920 Speaker 1: out Western powers by becoming conservative as fuck like say 498 00:29:02,920 --> 00:29:06,120 Speaker 1: Isis or the Taliban you know, largely try to do now, 499 00:29:06,440 --> 00:29:09,120 Speaker 1: but instead to seek political reforms that would help Islam 500 00:29:09,200 --> 00:29:11,480 Speaker 1: return to its as he would perceive it. It's real 501 00:29:11,560 --> 00:29:15,200 Speaker 1: roots of carrying injustice, not orthodoxy in law. And it 502 00:29:15,200 --> 00:29:18,960 Speaker 1: becomes super beautiful, I know, and he and he believed 503 00:29:19,000 --> 00:29:23,400 Speaker 1: that this was the path to um help Islam. Yeah, 504 00:29:23,760 --> 00:29:26,920 Speaker 1: drive out the colonists. And this guy keeps getting kicked 505 00:29:26,920 --> 00:29:30,160 Speaker 1: out of everywhere and he keeps helping plant assassinations, and 506 00:29:30,200 --> 00:29:32,280 Speaker 1: it's like, no wonder this Russian anarchist guy liked him 507 00:29:32,280 --> 00:29:34,000 Speaker 1: because he sounds just like the Russian anarchist. He's not 508 00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:36,720 Speaker 1: an anarchist, but he preaches love in resistance and he 509 00:29:36,760 --> 00:29:38,520 Speaker 1: gets kicked out of everywhere and he like tries to 510 00:29:38,600 --> 00:29:41,560 Speaker 1: murder people and he just keeps going. You know, it's 511 00:29:41,600 --> 00:29:45,959 Speaker 1: like very familiar. I think I want to learn more 512 00:29:45,960 --> 00:29:49,720 Speaker 1: about him one day. Unfortunately it was like outside aside 513 00:29:49,800 --> 00:29:53,040 Speaker 1: thing as I worked through this in her adult life, 514 00:29:53,080 --> 00:29:55,760 Speaker 1: Isabel is very much a Muslim. She holds that she 515 00:29:55,800 --> 00:29:58,320 Speaker 1: never converted to Islam because she was. She says she 516 00:29:58,400 --> 00:30:01,000 Speaker 1: was born a Muslim with muzz Russian father and a 517 00:30:01,080 --> 00:30:05,480 Speaker 1: Christian Russian mother, which is okay, so she's lying, but 518 00:30:05,600 --> 00:30:09,680 Speaker 1: she's she's also not about to say, like what what 519 00:30:09,920 --> 00:30:14,720 Speaker 1: did I miss? What? I want to interject and say 520 00:30:14,760 --> 00:30:19,480 Speaker 1: that the people who convert to Islam. I know of 521 00:30:19,600 --> 00:30:23,560 Speaker 1: two people who just say that. They're like, I didn't becommon, 522 00:30:23,800 --> 00:30:28,880 Speaker 1: I didn't become Muslim. I realized that I was interesting. 523 00:30:29,520 --> 00:30:32,440 Speaker 1: And so that is that is. I don't know like 524 00:30:32,640 --> 00:30:38,040 Speaker 1: how codified that is in terms of, you know, how 525 00:30:38,120 --> 00:30:43,000 Speaker 1: everybody converts to Islam, but that is absolutely what Shad 526 00:30:43,080 --> 00:30:47,480 Speaker 1: O'Connor said, and that's what another very dear friend of 527 00:30:47,480 --> 00:30:51,920 Speaker 1: mine said when she converted, because that's not the language 528 00:30:51,920 --> 00:30:57,360 Speaker 1: she uses when she recognized herself as a Muslim. So 529 00:30:57,440 --> 00:31:01,000 Speaker 1: that is, that's that's important. That's a thing to understand 530 00:31:01,240 --> 00:31:06,360 Speaker 1: coming from Christian culture, as we do know that that 531 00:31:06,840 --> 00:31:09,960 Speaker 1: or Judeo Christian. Yeah, that's interesting and it makes some 532 00:31:10,040 --> 00:31:11,720 Speaker 1: sense and I think that ties into it. But she's 533 00:31:11,760 --> 00:31:16,040 Speaker 1: also like she's claiming a specific existence of a specific 534 00:31:16,080 --> 00:31:19,760 Speaker 1: father who's a Turkish, sometimes a Muslim, Russian and sometimes 535 00:31:20,080 --> 00:31:24,240 Speaker 1: Turkish Muslim, and she's making this this character up. But 536 00:31:25,040 --> 00:31:28,080 Speaker 1: what's interesting is that she's like, because she doesn't officially 537 00:31:28,160 --> 00:31:31,840 Speaker 1: know who her dad is, she invents this Muslim father 538 00:31:31,880 --> 00:31:34,800 Speaker 1: in order to accept it. But her her father was 539 00:31:34,840 --> 00:31:39,520 Speaker 1: an Armenian from a Turkish Muslim background, So it's like 540 00:31:40,120 --> 00:31:42,520 Speaker 1: she's kind of claiming the truth by lying, and it's 541 00:31:42,560 --> 00:31:46,480 Speaker 1: like really weird way. But she also is absolutely someone 542 00:31:46,520 --> 00:31:50,800 Speaker 1: who's going to like take on identities and refused to 543 00:31:50,800 --> 00:31:54,080 Speaker 1: be getting kept about them, like because some of the 544 00:31:54,080 --> 00:31:56,160 Speaker 1: people who like her mother later is going to more 545 00:31:56,200 --> 00:32:01,400 Speaker 1: properly like sort of convert to Islam. But uh, as 546 00:32:01,440 --> 00:32:04,480 Speaker 1: she grows up, she's like, oh my god, I gotta 547 00:32:04,480 --> 00:32:06,760 Speaker 1: go to Magreb, which is the word for the Muslim 548 00:32:06,800 --> 00:32:10,120 Speaker 1: parts of North Africa. She starts fantasizing about it and 549 00:32:10,200 --> 00:32:13,480 Speaker 1: kind of classic exoticization ways. She's like, Wow, that's where 550 00:32:13,480 --> 00:32:16,320 Speaker 1: like the real stuff is happening, not like boring old Europe. 551 00:32:16,840 --> 00:32:19,480 Speaker 1: And she's like always talking about being like the beauty 552 00:32:19,600 --> 00:32:23,000 Speaker 1: of the wild Orient and all that kind of stuff. 553 00:32:23,640 --> 00:32:27,440 Speaker 1: Uh huh. In the meantime, she's eighteen nineteen years old. 554 00:32:27,480 --> 00:32:29,480 Speaker 1: She's spending time in town dressed like a sailor boy. 555 00:32:30,480 --> 00:32:32,400 Speaker 1: Books say her dad insisted she just like a man 556 00:32:32,480 --> 00:32:34,520 Speaker 1: to go into town, but everything implies that she's a 557 00:32:34,960 --> 00:32:38,000 Speaker 1: percent down with us. She dresses like a sailor, She 558 00:32:38,000 --> 00:32:40,080 Speaker 1: goes around, she gets drunk. She hooks up with Mary, 559 00:32:40,120 --> 00:32:42,120 Speaker 1: a married man who stoked about kissing a girl just 560 00:32:42,240 --> 00:32:47,440 Speaker 1: like a boy, because she doesn't change. On the other hand, 561 00:32:47,440 --> 00:32:49,280 Speaker 1: people that she tries to flirt with or like you, 562 00:32:50,120 --> 00:32:51,440 Speaker 1: I don't know if you're a boy or a girl, 563 00:32:51,520 --> 00:32:53,760 Speaker 1: or what race or nationality you are. So no, yeah, 564 00:32:53,800 --> 00:32:57,320 Speaker 1: that's gross. Whenever I read about women in history present masculine, 565 00:32:57,320 --> 00:32:59,720 Speaker 1: I always run across every guy observing them, like needing 566 00:32:59,720 --> 00:33:02,520 Speaker 1: to make it real clear, either like wow, they're so hot, 567 00:33:02,920 --> 00:33:06,640 Speaker 1: or like you, what an ugly bitch? Because nothing changes, 568 00:33:06,960 --> 00:33:09,960 Speaker 1: everything is exactly. Yeah, we need to we need to know, 569 00:33:10,360 --> 00:33:13,080 Speaker 1: you need to know what their dick thought about that. Yeah. 570 00:33:13,320 --> 00:33:15,719 Speaker 1: Wait till we get to the part where everyone conjectures 571 00:33:15,720 --> 00:33:22,960 Speaker 1: about isabel ever Heart's interest in anal sex so way 572 00:33:23,040 --> 00:33:26,040 Speaker 1: to not get pregnant. That is the conjecture that people 573 00:33:26,040 --> 00:33:31,840 Speaker 1: are making, yes, um so during this time, she's nineteen 574 00:33:31,880 --> 00:33:34,160 Speaker 1: years old, she's heavily involved in anarchism in the Russian 575 00:33:34,160 --> 00:33:37,040 Speaker 1: exile community. She uses her youth and disguise skills and 576 00:33:37,040 --> 00:33:39,560 Speaker 1: her family connections to move about. She referred to it 577 00:33:39,640 --> 00:33:42,240 Speaker 1: later as she was the secretary to the Central Council 578 00:33:42,280 --> 00:33:46,400 Speaker 1: of Russian Terrorists, And she might have been I know, right, 579 00:33:47,120 --> 00:33:49,400 Speaker 1: she was like probably trying to impress people when she 580 00:33:49,440 --> 00:33:53,640 Speaker 1: said that, but she also wasn't lying, you know what 581 00:33:53,720 --> 00:33:57,480 Speaker 1: a life. I know her dad was this big deal 582 00:33:57,520 --> 00:34:00,760 Speaker 1: and that like let's kill Russian autocrats movement. She doesn't 583 00:34:00,840 --> 00:34:03,480 Speaker 1: last too long in the anarchist movement though. Overall. Basically 584 00:34:03,520 --> 00:34:06,520 Speaker 1: she's like, it's too organized for me. She wants individual 585 00:34:06,560 --> 00:34:09,480 Speaker 1: freedom to just do whatever she wants, not solemnly work 586 00:34:09,520 --> 00:34:12,359 Speaker 1: in secret societies to make zars explode. And she wants 587 00:34:12,360 --> 00:34:15,080 Speaker 1: a different sort of adventure. She wants less duty, more romance, 588 00:34:15,160 --> 00:34:20,359 Speaker 1: less materialism, and more mysticism. So she starts writing at 589 00:34:20,360 --> 00:34:22,000 Speaker 1: this point. I think she's been writing in her whole life, 590 00:34:22,000 --> 00:34:24,480 Speaker 1: but she starts publishing at this point under the name 591 00:34:24,560 --> 00:34:27,839 Speaker 1: Nicholas put Alinski, and her first part, which is interesting 592 00:34:27,840 --> 00:34:31,160 Speaker 1: because it's her brother's name, Nicholas, the brother she doesn't like, 593 00:34:31,360 --> 00:34:35,799 Speaker 1: but Yeah, it's like ha ha suka taking the name 594 00:34:35,880 --> 00:34:39,400 Speaker 1: from you. Yeah, totally. Oh ship. There's that meme recently 595 00:34:39,440 --> 00:34:41,680 Speaker 1: about like non binary people or like trans people, how 596 00:34:41,760 --> 00:34:44,240 Speaker 1: they choose to name themselves and what d indie alignment 597 00:34:44,239 --> 00:34:47,080 Speaker 1: it makes them and the chaotic evil one is steal 598 00:34:47,200 --> 00:34:52,919 Speaker 1: someone else's name. M hm. So what is that coup 599 00:34:53,080 --> 00:34:56,800 Speaker 1: song that's like I forget, It's like I want to 600 00:34:56,880 --> 00:35:01,719 Speaker 1: drink a good looker and and fucking start a re Lucian. Yeah, 601 00:35:02,200 --> 00:35:07,520 Speaker 1: that is that is her and she's um. She's also 602 00:35:07,560 --> 00:35:13,640 Speaker 1: wants to write edge Lord fiction about necrophilia, which is 603 00:35:13,880 --> 00:35:18,960 Speaker 1: also a classic coup. No, probably not. Yeah, what is that? 604 00:35:19,200 --> 00:35:22,120 Speaker 1: Is that like part of the like different ideas about 605 00:35:22,200 --> 00:35:25,600 Speaker 1: like sexual liberation at the time. No, I think she's 606 00:35:25,680 --> 00:35:27,640 Speaker 1: just a weird god who wants to funck corps. Isn't 607 00:35:27,640 --> 00:35:30,840 Speaker 1: as obsessed with death. Her first published story, when she's eighteen, 608 00:35:31,040 --> 00:35:35,520 Speaker 1: is under the name Nicholas potlin Ski and it's called Infernalia, 609 00:35:36,560 --> 00:35:39,719 Speaker 1: and it's about a romantic and sexual attraction to the 610 00:35:39,800 --> 00:35:42,239 Speaker 1: dead as a way of understanding the death or within us. 611 00:35:42,280 --> 00:35:45,040 Speaker 1: All you know, you do, you do? You is able 612 00:35:45,080 --> 00:35:48,920 Speaker 1: ever heart and if you want to do you express 613 00:35:49,000 --> 00:35:56,960 Speaker 1: your individuality by buying lifestyle that's advertised to you by 614 00:35:57,840 --> 00:36:03,719 Speaker 1: the advertisers to the show, by into the culture of death. Yeah, 615 00:36:04,200 --> 00:36:11,080 Speaker 1: this show is sponsored by the culture of death. Maybe, Sophie, 616 00:36:11,880 --> 00:36:15,920 Speaker 1: just capital Isn't that just capitalism? Oh? That's true. But 617 00:36:16,000 --> 00:36:20,360 Speaker 1: what if we like made it cool, like make death good? Oh? 618 00:36:20,400 --> 00:36:21,920 Speaker 1: I thought you're gonna I thought you're gonna say, what 619 00:36:21,960 --> 00:36:25,360 Speaker 1: if we made capitalism cool? Like? It isn't that? It 620 00:36:25,400 --> 00:36:28,200 Speaker 1: isn't not this podcast. I think that's I think that's 621 00:36:28,239 --> 00:36:30,040 Speaker 1: what's happening. That's what the advertisers are trying to do. 622 00:36:30,160 --> 00:36:36,719 Speaker 1: Absolutely well, here's the people we're talking about, the advertisers, 623 00:36:41,480 --> 00:36:47,120 Speaker 1: and we're back. Hi. Hello, how did you enjoy those 624 00:36:47,200 --> 00:36:51,280 Speaker 1: products and or services? Usually when I listened to these podcasts, 625 00:36:51,320 --> 00:36:54,400 Speaker 1: I usually just get podcasts. I get ads about other podcasts, 626 00:36:54,560 --> 00:36:58,279 Speaker 1: which is pretty innocuous. What do you usually get? Yeah? 627 00:36:58,400 --> 00:37:02,600 Speaker 1: I get podcasts and um, you know, people with extremely 628 00:37:02,840 --> 00:37:07,880 Speaker 1: smartie voices selling things. It's just like it's all in 629 00:37:07,960 --> 00:37:11,040 Speaker 1: the tone. Even if it's like people whose voices I 630 00:37:11,160 --> 00:37:17,080 Speaker 1: like you, there's the smarminess. Yeah, I get complaints about 631 00:37:17,120 --> 00:37:22,960 Speaker 1: smartiness about every ad Ever, thank you for thank you 632 00:37:23,040 --> 00:37:26,000 Speaker 1: for taking all all that nonsense on. Even if they 633 00:37:26,080 --> 00:37:31,440 Speaker 1: like the ad still reads as a complaint. I mean, like, 634 00:37:32,520 --> 00:37:34,359 Speaker 1: I don't think anyone's like, man, you know it's really 635 00:37:34,400 --> 00:37:36,360 Speaker 1: cool is the fact that in order to do this 636 00:37:36,880 --> 00:37:39,400 Speaker 1: and spend the amount of hours it takes to research 637 00:37:39,480 --> 00:37:41,880 Speaker 1: one of these episodes, I need to get paid for it, 638 00:37:42,040 --> 00:37:45,400 Speaker 1: and therefore I need to get some capitalist institution to 639 00:37:45,440 --> 00:37:49,759 Speaker 1: interact with me. Like, no one's like that. Rules, Like, 640 00:37:49,920 --> 00:37:53,000 Speaker 1: of course the ads suck their ads, their ads, and 641 00:37:53,120 --> 00:37:56,719 Speaker 1: we have they're mostly all programmatic and we have no 642 00:37:56,880 --> 00:37:58,879 Speaker 1: idea what they are and have no saying and don't 643 00:37:58,920 --> 00:38:02,000 Speaker 1: have any approval were action on them. Yeah, the good 644 00:38:02,200 --> 00:38:05,480 Speaker 1: the goodness of potatoes is supporting us all. But we 645 00:38:05,600 --> 00:38:09,880 Speaker 1: still need dollars. Yeah, yeah, I think we all have 646 00:38:10,120 --> 00:38:13,120 Speaker 1: dogs mouths we need to feed. Okay, it's true that 647 00:38:13,280 --> 00:38:16,640 Speaker 1: is something we determined ahead of time before and and 648 00:38:16,760 --> 00:38:20,880 Speaker 1: dogs dogs dental bills. I've learned. I'm just brush my 649 00:38:20,960 --> 00:38:25,600 Speaker 1: dog's teeth, Margaret, Margaret learned so many things today. We're 650 00:38:25,640 --> 00:38:27,359 Speaker 1: gonna leave it at that and not tell anyone else 651 00:38:27,400 --> 00:38:32,399 Speaker 1: what I've learned. So she's anyway, Like we were talking about, 652 00:38:32,480 --> 00:38:34,839 Speaker 1: isabel Lebrhard she's not yet twenty and she's publishing fiction. 653 00:38:34,840 --> 00:38:36,719 Speaker 1: I don't see if I can do this normally. And 654 00:38:36,800 --> 00:38:40,000 Speaker 1: she's publishing translations of Russian No, I can't. Okay, So 655 00:38:40,040 --> 00:38:43,959 Speaker 1: it's not that that was a cool little bit. Yeah, thanks, 656 00:38:43,960 --> 00:38:48,560 Speaker 1: so totally okay. So she's publishing fiction, and she's publishing 657 00:38:48,600 --> 00:38:53,960 Speaker 1: translations of Russian poets and ship. Meanwhile, her older probably 658 00:38:54,040 --> 00:38:58,439 Speaker 1: full brother, Augustine, he's legally a de murder, probably Alexander's kid. Also, 659 00:38:58,840 --> 00:39:01,520 Speaker 1: he's the black sheep, which is impressive. It's hard to 660 00:39:01,560 --> 00:39:04,919 Speaker 1: be a black sheep and a family where one half 661 00:39:05,000 --> 00:39:08,920 Speaker 1: of the family has fucked off to um crush Russian 662 00:39:08,960 --> 00:39:12,560 Speaker 1: peasantry beneath their heels. And one of the other kids 663 00:39:12,640 --> 00:39:15,000 Speaker 1: is abe lebber Heart, like one of the most famous 664 00:39:15,080 --> 00:39:20,719 Speaker 1: drug ease in history. But the family funk up is Augustine. 665 00:39:21,239 --> 00:39:24,920 Speaker 1: They're morederm. How did he earn this? He just kind 666 00:39:24,960 --> 00:39:28,879 Speaker 1: of like he just got like drunk and hung out, 667 00:39:29,040 --> 00:39:31,800 Speaker 1: but he didn't like do anything cool with it, Like 668 00:39:32,080 --> 00:39:33,719 Speaker 1: if you're going to be like a drunk funk up 669 00:39:33,840 --> 00:39:36,600 Speaker 1: like go adventure. I guess it's the lesson anarchy. Dad 670 00:39:36,640 --> 00:39:38,840 Speaker 1: tries to get him into chemistry, school, but he was 671 00:39:38,880 --> 00:39:40,640 Speaker 1: more into drugs and hanging out on the street and 672 00:39:40,680 --> 00:39:43,520 Speaker 1: occasionally would come home to steal money. Um. But I 673 00:39:43,600 --> 00:39:46,400 Speaker 1: think the family was like, not mad, just disappointed about 674 00:39:46,400 --> 00:39:48,359 Speaker 1: all of this, like tried to help him out a lot, 675 00:39:48,600 --> 00:39:53,160 Speaker 1: because when I imagine Alexander, um, I don't imagine him 676 00:39:53,200 --> 00:39:55,640 Speaker 1: minding the stealing. He the villa was paid for by 677 00:39:55,719 --> 00:40:00,919 Speaker 1: money that he stole, you know. But Augustine black sheep brother, 678 00:40:01,840 --> 00:40:04,960 Speaker 1: her and Isabel were super close. It's possible that she 679 00:40:05,040 --> 00:40:07,640 Speaker 1: was sleeping with him as a teenager. Historians liked conjecture. 680 00:40:08,239 --> 00:40:11,120 Speaker 1: They corresponded a bunch and talked about remember those kisses 681 00:40:11,120 --> 00:40:13,160 Speaker 1: as we stole when no one was watching. Is all 682 00:40:13,280 --> 00:40:20,120 Speaker 1: very tragic and European nobility. I don't know. Yeah. At 683 00:40:20,200 --> 00:40:24,520 Speaker 1: one point Augustin joined the French Foreign Legion. Isabel applied 684 00:40:24,600 --> 00:40:27,919 Speaker 1: him for information about North Africa. Then he wanted to leave, 685 00:40:28,000 --> 00:40:30,759 Speaker 1: and Alexander had to intercede on his behalf. Basically he 686 00:40:30,880 --> 00:40:33,520 Speaker 1: was like, I'm such a funk up, I'm gonna go 687 00:40:33,600 --> 00:40:36,399 Speaker 1: join the French Foreign Legion. And then like the French 688 00:40:36,440 --> 00:40:38,239 Speaker 1: Foreign Legion had like a sign on the wall in 689 00:40:38,280 --> 00:40:41,600 Speaker 1: the recruitment office that was like, look, you're dead now, 690 00:40:41,800 --> 00:40:44,719 Speaker 1: and we're just going to decide where you die, which 691 00:40:44,760 --> 00:40:48,239 Speaker 1: is not a very positive thing for a recruitment office. Yeah, 692 00:40:48,320 --> 00:40:51,359 Speaker 1: that's terrifying. Yeah, So he's like, oh god, I think 693 00:40:51,400 --> 00:40:53,320 Speaker 1: he likes Soper sup And he's like, oh god, what 694 00:40:53,440 --> 00:40:58,279 Speaker 1: have I done? And Alexander Trofinovski anarchy Dad has to 695 00:40:58,320 --> 00:41:00,759 Speaker 1: intercede on his behalf and kind have threatened to make 696 00:41:00,800 --> 00:41:03,239 Speaker 1: it an international incident if the French Foreign Legion doesn't 697 00:41:03,280 --> 00:41:05,879 Speaker 1: kick him out and he doesn't show up and be like, hey, 698 00:41:06,040 --> 00:41:08,040 Speaker 1: I'm a super cool nihilist. I'll blow you up if 699 00:41:08,040 --> 00:41:09,880 Speaker 1: you don't let him go. Instead, he's like, that's a 700 00:41:09,920 --> 00:41:12,439 Speaker 1: day murder you got there. If you it's gonna get messy. 701 00:41:12,520 --> 00:41:15,759 Speaker 1: If you just just let him go, that's a that's 702 00:41:15,800 --> 00:41:21,880 Speaker 1: a good targeted message. So Isabel tries to get so 703 00:41:21,920 --> 00:41:24,160 Speaker 1: Augustin gets out. Isabel tries to get him to move 704 00:41:24,200 --> 00:41:26,000 Speaker 1: to Algiers or something so she can go hang out 705 00:41:26,040 --> 00:41:29,200 Speaker 1: there because she really wants to go to North Africa. 706 00:41:29,840 --> 00:41:32,440 Speaker 1: But instead he just like keeps doing drugs in Switzerland 707 00:41:33,320 --> 00:41:34,759 Speaker 1: maybe France. At this point, he might have moved to 708 00:41:34,760 --> 00:41:36,160 Speaker 1: Marseille at this point, I'm not sure. When he moves 709 00:41:36,160 --> 00:41:38,680 Speaker 1: to Marseilles, So she's like kind of drugs as he doing. 710 00:41:39,400 --> 00:41:43,200 Speaker 1: I don't know about him. I know there's alcohol. I 711 00:41:43,360 --> 00:41:47,120 Speaker 1: think it's not hashish. That's more what Isabel Blaba Heart's 712 00:41:47,120 --> 00:41:51,120 Speaker 1: getting really into. But I like don't know I would. 713 00:41:52,520 --> 00:41:54,759 Speaker 1: I'm trying to like drum up what I know about 714 00:41:54,840 --> 00:42:00,840 Speaker 1: like Victorian European drugs and like probably like morphine and 715 00:42:01,440 --> 00:42:07,160 Speaker 1: laudanum and right that stuff. Yeah, do you know, do 716 00:42:07,200 --> 00:42:12,920 Speaker 1: you have a good sense of Victorian? I remember this 717 00:42:13,040 --> 00:42:17,600 Speaker 1: little factoid that's just like so incredible to me, and 718 00:42:17,960 --> 00:42:21,040 Speaker 1: I will probably get this wrong, but um, this is 719 00:42:21,120 --> 00:42:26,239 Speaker 1: how I learned that the man who invented the syringe 720 00:42:26,800 --> 00:42:32,040 Speaker 1: his wife was the first Haroin addict that trucks. Oh 721 00:42:34,719 --> 00:42:39,680 Speaker 1: oh no, uh yeah, but that's yeah, for everything you named, 722 00:42:39,800 --> 00:42:45,839 Speaker 1: that sounds super plausible. I can't think of anything else. Well, 723 00:42:45,920 --> 00:42:48,040 Speaker 1: I do know that there was this like Victorian fat. 724 00:42:48,120 --> 00:42:49,880 Speaker 1: This might have been more English. It's fat for o 725 00:42:50,000 --> 00:42:55,160 Speaker 1: rangatang adrenaline. Good fucking god, I know. Which is just like, 726 00:42:55,280 --> 00:42:59,960 Speaker 1: how can we make drugs even more orientalists and involve 727 00:43:00,040 --> 00:43:03,279 Speaker 1: of oppressing various people in other countries? And the answer 728 00:43:03,360 --> 00:43:08,880 Speaker 1: is a rangatang adrenaline. Um, yeah, that's terrifying. Yeah, so 729 00:43:09,760 --> 00:43:14,160 Speaker 1: Isabel aber Heart, She's like, fuck it, you know, I'll 730 00:43:14,719 --> 00:43:18,320 Speaker 1: I'll go myself to North Africa. And so she starts 731 00:43:18,360 --> 00:43:20,160 Speaker 1: corresponding with a ton of people under a ton of 732 00:43:20,200 --> 00:43:23,760 Speaker 1: different names and personas. She would have fucking loved the Internet. 733 00:43:24,360 --> 00:43:27,680 Speaker 1: She's writing Islamic thinkers to ask questions about faith. She's 734 00:43:27,680 --> 00:43:30,279 Speaker 1: writing French soldiers and algiers to learn about what their 735 00:43:30,320 --> 00:43:33,920 Speaker 1: country is like. She's discussing like how to translate Russian 736 00:43:33,960 --> 00:43:39,120 Speaker 1: poetry into Arabic with people like all over the world beautiful. Yeah. 737 00:43:40,000 --> 00:43:46,000 Speaker 1: And so the family, like mom and sort of dad, 738 00:43:46,040 --> 00:43:48,120 Speaker 1: they've pulled off the caper of a lifetime. They've you know, 739 00:43:48,200 --> 00:43:50,239 Speaker 1: stolen the inheritance and the children. As they keep going 740 00:43:50,280 --> 00:43:54,359 Speaker 1: on about twenty years later, it looks like they might 741 00:43:54,400 --> 00:43:58,160 Speaker 1: be in trouble for that. Nicholas de Murder, the oldest son, 742 00:43:58,719 --> 00:44:00,960 Speaker 1: the one who would run away back to Russia. It 743 00:44:01,160 --> 00:44:05,120 Speaker 1: is his life's work to get revenge. Which fair They 744 00:44:05,200 --> 00:44:07,560 Speaker 1: might have killed his dad and then stolen him and 745 00:44:08,440 --> 00:44:11,080 Speaker 1: you know whatever, Like I'm on a side in this fight, 746 00:44:11,239 --> 00:44:15,319 Speaker 1: but it's like fair that the other side is fighting yea. 747 00:44:15,440 --> 00:44:20,439 Speaker 1: And the Vladimir, the middle brother, the one who would 748 00:44:20,520 --> 00:44:22,719 Speaker 1: halfheartedly run away from home, He's back at the villa 749 00:44:23,080 --> 00:44:25,560 Speaker 1: and Nicholas is pleading with him, like, hey, Bud runaway 750 00:44:25,680 --> 00:44:28,480 Speaker 1: joined despot family with me in Russia. And Vladimir is 751 00:44:28,520 --> 00:44:30,640 Speaker 1: not sure, and then Nicholas start sending him letters that 752 00:44:30,680 --> 00:44:33,160 Speaker 1: are like, you better get out because we're gonna funk 753 00:44:33,239 --> 00:44:34,960 Speaker 1: up the villa and everyone in it. And if you 754 00:44:35,000 --> 00:44:38,480 Speaker 1: don't get out, you're fucked. So the whole family is like, 755 00:44:39,440 --> 00:44:42,920 Speaker 1: maybe Switzerland isn't the place for us anymore, Maybe we 756 00:44:42,960 --> 00:44:48,280 Speaker 1: should go somewhere else. And Isabelle she's like, Algeria, Algeria, Algeria. 757 00:44:48,280 --> 00:44:50,240 Speaker 1: I'm totally obsessed with Algeria. We have to move to Algeria. 758 00:44:51,880 --> 00:44:55,120 Speaker 1: So the family moved to Algeria, at least isabel and 759 00:44:55,200 --> 00:44:58,160 Speaker 1: her mother, with one brother and dad remaining behind to 760 00:44:58,239 --> 00:45:02,120 Speaker 1: try and sell the villa to various cact enthusiasts. Wow, 761 00:45:02,920 --> 00:45:07,279 Speaker 1: they have trouble moving the cactus farm. People aren't people 762 00:45:07,280 --> 00:45:10,960 Speaker 1: aren't necessarily excited about buying the weird cult anarchy cactus 763 00:45:11,640 --> 00:45:18,160 Speaker 1: commune practuses are amazing. I mean, that's that's the Huntington's 764 00:45:19,360 --> 00:45:25,120 Speaker 1: gardens here it's just like some crazy rich person's incredible 765 00:45:25,280 --> 00:45:32,800 Speaker 1: cactus collection and that rules. It's so beautiful. I I 766 00:45:32,920 --> 00:45:34,960 Speaker 1: really appreciate that this is just a man with a 767 00:45:35,040 --> 00:45:37,440 Speaker 1: hobby and it matters to him as much as anything 768 00:45:37,480 --> 00:45:40,719 Speaker 1: else that's going on in his life. You know. Yeah, 769 00:45:40,880 --> 00:45:45,600 Speaker 1: I mean sometimes those collections, it really preserves like the 770 00:45:45,719 --> 00:45:50,319 Speaker 1: last of species. Yeah, yeah, I want to know more 771 00:45:50,400 --> 00:45:54,560 Speaker 1: about his Like it keeps basically referring to it as 772 00:45:54,600 --> 00:45:57,120 Speaker 1: like part of what's wrong with him, you know, is 773 00:45:57,160 --> 00:45:59,719 Speaker 1: that he's like obsessed with this stuff. But he likes 774 00:45:59,760 --> 00:46:01,400 Speaker 1: spent all of his days in his hot house with 775 00:46:01,600 --> 00:46:04,560 Speaker 1: cactuses and orchids, And I'm like, so he's clearly trying 776 00:46:04,600 --> 00:46:09,080 Speaker 1: to he's trying to do like hard gardening, you know, 777 00:46:09,160 --> 00:46:13,160 Speaker 1: he's trying to do gardening on hard mode and super. 778 00:46:13,840 --> 00:46:17,400 Speaker 1: It was like it was scientific at the time, but like, 779 00:46:17,680 --> 00:46:19,560 Speaker 1: I mean, they were wrong about hot houses. You don't 780 00:46:19,600 --> 00:46:24,359 Speaker 1: need a hot house for orchids. Oh interesting, Okay, yeah 781 00:46:24,400 --> 00:46:28,960 Speaker 1: they used to think, Well it was right, that's part 782 00:46:29,000 --> 00:46:33,440 Speaker 1: of it. Sophia is not an orchid? Is that an 783 00:46:33,520 --> 00:46:37,680 Speaker 1: orchid from your dad behind me? There? Yeah, Well there 784 00:46:37,719 --> 00:46:39,800 Speaker 1: aren't any orchids down here, but it is hard to 785 00:46:39,840 --> 00:46:42,279 Speaker 1: tell what things are behind me, but there are some. 786 00:46:42,560 --> 00:46:48,880 Speaker 1: I do have several Dad orchids upstairs. I'm I'm the 787 00:46:49,840 --> 00:46:52,439 Speaker 1: I'm the person in my circle of friends who gets 788 00:46:52,520 --> 00:46:57,040 Speaker 1: all the orchids that nobody wants to to funk with. Yeah. No, 789 00:46:57,280 --> 00:46:59,239 Speaker 1: that's my dad. That's like his main thing is like 790 00:47:00,280 --> 00:47:03,439 Speaker 1: this orchid that hasn't been showing you anything for seven 791 00:47:03,520 --> 00:47:08,359 Speaker 1: thousand years, look at the bloom and that's great for him. 792 00:47:09,680 --> 00:47:12,920 Speaker 1: That's really really sweet. Yeah, I mean, I'm I only 793 00:47:13,000 --> 00:47:16,319 Speaker 1: have one orchid right now, but it's uh it has 794 00:47:16,560 --> 00:47:19,920 Speaker 1: three stocks instead of the two that it had last year, 795 00:47:20,040 --> 00:47:23,200 Speaker 1: So I'm really excited. That's awesome and not easy to do. 796 00:47:24,680 --> 00:47:28,239 Speaker 1: As I've been told by my dad. I think it's 797 00:47:28,280 --> 00:47:31,239 Speaker 1: pretty easy if you just know what to do. They 798 00:47:31,320 --> 00:47:33,320 Speaker 1: just like to be I'm gonna be like, oh that 799 00:47:33,440 --> 00:47:37,399 Speaker 1: thing you brag about heart, it was easy. Sorry, maybe 800 00:47:37,400 --> 00:47:41,160 Speaker 1: get out of the hothouse. Uh they yeah, they like 801 00:47:41,320 --> 00:47:45,399 Speaker 1: to be ignored. Yes, they just need the right kind 802 00:47:45,440 --> 00:47:47,879 Speaker 1: of lighting. And while we're here, that myth that you're 803 00:47:47,880 --> 00:47:52,719 Speaker 1: supposed to put an ice cube into orchids, No, yeah, 804 00:47:52,880 --> 00:47:55,520 Speaker 1: that sounds I never did it because it just sounded 805 00:47:55,640 --> 00:47:59,000 Speaker 1: kind of cruel, like I wouldn't want um like an 806 00:47:59,080 --> 00:48:01,480 Speaker 1: ice cube on my feet, so I'm not going to 807 00:48:01,560 --> 00:48:11,200 Speaker 1: stick ice cube in my orchid yair so Algeria. Um, 808 00:48:12,440 --> 00:48:14,480 Speaker 1: it's in North Africa. The whole region is called mc 809 00:48:14,480 --> 00:48:16,799 Speaker 1: grab a lot of the time at this point, which 810 00:48:16,880 --> 00:48:19,800 Speaker 1: is means the West because it's the western part of 811 00:48:19,800 --> 00:48:22,640 Speaker 1: the Islamic world. Sometimes the area is called its called 812 00:48:22,680 --> 00:48:25,040 Speaker 1: the Barbary Coast in the nineteenth century because the Berbers 813 00:48:25,080 --> 00:48:28,600 Speaker 1: and indigenous people that region. Wow, okay, I needed to 814 00:48:28,680 --> 00:48:30,480 Speaker 1: know that. I've heard about the Barbary Coast and I 815 00:48:30,520 --> 00:48:32,360 Speaker 1: didn't know what it was. I know it sounds like 816 00:48:32,520 --> 00:48:34,600 Speaker 1: really it sounds like even more racist of a name 817 00:48:34,640 --> 00:48:36,800 Speaker 1: than like something else, because it sounds like a Barbarian 818 00:48:36,840 --> 00:48:40,319 Speaker 1: I guess exactly. Well, now, I like wonder I wish 819 00:48:40,320 --> 00:48:44,200 Speaker 1: I had looked up the etymology of Barbarian because I 820 00:48:44,200 --> 00:48:46,560 Speaker 1: wouldn't be shocked. Actually, you know what, I'm going to 821 00:48:46,640 --> 00:48:50,279 Speaker 1: look up the etymology, okay. So so I just looked 822 00:48:50,320 --> 00:48:54,240 Speaker 1: it up, and Barbarian means people who are foreigners, basically 823 00:48:54,360 --> 00:48:57,880 Speaker 1: from German and from Arabic. But it um, it's the 824 00:48:57,960 --> 00:49:00,839 Speaker 1: admology goes the other way the Berbers got their name 825 00:49:01,120 --> 00:49:08,719 Speaker 1: because of them being called Barbarians, so apparently, but at 826 00:49:08,760 --> 00:49:12,080 Speaker 1: least that's as of a really quick Internet search. And 827 00:49:12,160 --> 00:49:16,440 Speaker 1: if I'm wrong, I'm terribly sorry. So does Barbary Coast 828 00:49:16,520 --> 00:49:22,200 Speaker 1: mean like a Barbarian coast? But I think they get 829 00:49:22,280 --> 00:49:25,040 Speaker 1: called the Barbary Coast because of the Berber people. I 830 00:49:25,160 --> 00:49:29,560 Speaker 1: think it went. I think it went Barbarian means any 831 00:49:29,760 --> 00:49:34,040 Speaker 1: foreigner because they sound funny, and then the Barbers, the 832 00:49:34,280 --> 00:49:37,120 Speaker 1: Berbers got called that, and then the coast got called that, 833 00:49:37,480 --> 00:49:43,719 Speaker 1: I think. But the whole history of this area is 834 00:49:43,760 --> 00:49:48,080 Speaker 1: also a lot of crazy back and forth, because it's 835 00:49:48,160 --> 00:49:50,800 Speaker 1: the history of various empires and colonial forces conquering it 836 00:49:50,880 --> 00:49:52,880 Speaker 1: and trading it back and forth. In the period we're 837 00:49:52,920 --> 00:49:55,040 Speaker 1: talking about, You've got Algeria, which is first taken by 838 00:49:55,040 --> 00:49:58,279 Speaker 1: the French in eight but they didn't take it from 839 00:49:58,280 --> 00:49:59,799 Speaker 1: the indigenous people of the region. They took it from 840 00:49:59,840 --> 00:50:04,160 Speaker 1: the hi An Empire sort of, who since the hundreds 841 00:50:04,280 --> 00:50:08,160 Speaker 1: had in various levels of control, and the Ottoman Empire 842 00:50:08,360 --> 00:50:11,600 Speaker 1: took it from Spain again sort of. Spain kept trying 843 00:50:11,600 --> 00:50:14,960 Speaker 1: to control Algae's to various degrees of success before thirteen 844 00:50:15,000 --> 00:50:17,279 Speaker 1: O two was largely controlled by people were actually from there. 845 00:50:17,320 --> 00:50:19,279 Speaker 1: But if you go even back further, the Romans had it, 846 00:50:19,440 --> 00:50:23,880 Speaker 1: and honestly, just the history of the Mediterranean is a 847 00:50:23,960 --> 00:50:26,959 Speaker 1: lot of people coming and fucking with it. Mm hmm. 848 00:50:27,320 --> 00:50:31,160 Speaker 1: I have a really beautiful Tunisian rug here, this thing 849 00:50:31,440 --> 00:50:35,520 Speaker 1: with the carball on it. Nice, it's it's a twenty 850 00:50:35,560 --> 00:50:39,160 Speaker 1: years old and I got it off Craig's list. That's amazing. 851 00:50:39,840 --> 00:50:41,120 Speaker 1: How do you know it was a hundred twenty years 852 00:50:41,120 --> 00:50:45,440 Speaker 1: old because the dude was like a textiles collector that 853 00:50:45,640 --> 00:50:51,239 Speaker 1: specialized in North African stuff. It was it was cheap. Yes, 854 00:50:51,920 --> 00:50:54,200 Speaker 1: the light of my life at the time. It's so 855 00:50:54,320 --> 00:50:57,200 Speaker 1: happy to get it. Yeah. So this is the area 856 00:50:57,400 --> 00:51:01,479 Speaker 1: that this family wants to move is Algeria during French 857 00:51:01,560 --> 00:51:05,680 Speaker 1: occupation and Isabelle and Mom moved there as the advance guard, 858 00:51:06,239 --> 00:51:09,719 Speaker 1: and they're definitely doing an orientalism here. They're not moving 859 00:51:09,760 --> 00:51:12,399 Speaker 1: there in a colonial context because they're on the run 860 00:51:12,480 --> 00:51:14,320 Speaker 1: from the Empire. They're fighting the Empire, which is the 861 00:51:14,320 --> 00:51:16,320 Speaker 1: reason one of them is quote Russian at all, because 862 00:51:16,320 --> 00:51:20,239 Speaker 1: of you know, the Russian Empire stealing Armenia. But it's 863 00:51:21,239 --> 00:51:23,279 Speaker 1: it's also worth noting at this point French Algeria is 864 00:51:23,320 --> 00:51:26,880 Speaker 1: not just a colonial project but an orientalist romanticism. Napoleon 865 00:51:26,960 --> 00:51:28,839 Speaker 1: the Third, who had recently been in charge, had been 866 00:51:28,880 --> 00:51:30,400 Speaker 1: really into the idea of how like he was going 867 00:51:30,440 --> 00:51:33,280 Speaker 1: to kindly rule and be a good emperor these super 868 00:51:33,360 --> 00:51:38,560 Speaker 1: cool neat savages or whatever. And yeah, they're like frances 869 00:51:38,640 --> 00:51:42,520 Speaker 1: on like a gentler kindler colonialism kick um. And it's 870 00:51:42,560 --> 00:51:46,359 Speaker 1: specifically just ties into Orientalism in some ways, like makes 871 00:51:46,400 --> 00:51:48,319 Speaker 1: I mean ori Analism is like pretty old. But it's 872 00:51:48,360 --> 00:51:51,920 Speaker 1: like really big thing going on at this point. And 873 00:51:52,080 --> 00:51:54,920 Speaker 1: after all, says Napoleon the Third, what is northern Africa 874 00:51:54,960 --> 00:51:57,759 Speaker 1: but basically just France interrupted by a big and land sea. 875 00:51:58,239 --> 00:52:01,439 Speaker 1: And so it's like it's a alonial project that's meant 876 00:52:01,480 --> 00:52:03,960 Speaker 1: to be kinder as in like they're basically France as 877 00:52:04,000 --> 00:52:06,840 Speaker 1: compared to like that's the place we're just going to 878 00:52:06,880 --> 00:52:11,520 Speaker 1: go rob resources from it. Yeah, no, it's it's not 879 00:52:11,560 --> 00:52:14,439 Speaker 1: in any way. Better family moves there to a city 880 00:52:14,600 --> 00:52:16,719 Speaker 1: that was then called Bone and is now called Anaba, 881 00:52:17,160 --> 00:52:19,120 Speaker 1: and it's the third biggest city. It's in the northeastern 882 00:52:19,320 --> 00:52:22,200 Speaker 1: corner of the country. They issue the French areas. For 883 00:52:22,239 --> 00:52:24,840 Speaker 1: the Arab areas um people they have more culturally and 884 00:52:24,960 --> 00:52:27,960 Speaker 1: linguistically in common with, although I suspect they're still outsiders 885 00:52:28,000 --> 00:52:33,200 Speaker 1: in these areas. Isabelle continues her pseudonyms and dressing like 886 00:52:33,239 --> 00:52:36,360 Speaker 1: a man more and more. She s Mohmed Sadi, a 887 00:52:36,480 --> 00:52:38,439 Speaker 1: name that she's been using for a while at this point, 888 00:52:38,560 --> 00:52:40,520 Speaker 1: but it like stops being a penpell name and it 889 00:52:40,560 --> 00:52:43,440 Speaker 1: starts being like her name. When she goes about her 890 00:52:43,520 --> 00:52:47,080 Speaker 1: life and she refers to herself basically as a tomboy. 891 00:52:47,239 --> 00:52:48,880 Speaker 1: She talks about her own gender in a lot of 892 00:52:48,920 --> 00:52:51,160 Speaker 1: different ways at a lot of different times. It was 893 00:52:51,239 --> 00:52:53,600 Speaker 1: less that she always wanted to pass as a man, 894 00:52:53,840 --> 00:52:56,279 Speaker 1: but instead it was about being socially treated as a man, 895 00:52:56,960 --> 00:52:59,840 Speaker 1: and for the most part it worked. She'd often be 896 00:52:59,920 --> 00:53:03,040 Speaker 1: a mistaken for a man at first glance, but usually 897 00:53:03,120 --> 00:53:06,040 Speaker 1: not for very long, and then she would reveal herself 898 00:53:06,120 --> 00:53:07,919 Speaker 1: or be revealed as a woman and have the person 899 00:53:08,040 --> 00:53:10,400 Speaker 1: be like, Okay, that's true. I'll still just keep treating 900 00:53:10,480 --> 00:53:12,920 Speaker 1: like a man if that's what you want. And it 901 00:53:13,120 --> 00:53:16,480 Speaker 1: sounds really nice, I know, I know. And we're gonna 902 00:53:16,520 --> 00:53:19,799 Speaker 1: talk a bit more about how all of that. How 903 00:53:19,880 --> 00:53:21,440 Speaker 1: she gets away with that, and a lot of it 904 00:53:21,520 --> 00:53:23,440 Speaker 1: has to do with a lot of it has to 905 00:53:23,480 --> 00:53:25,000 Speaker 1: do with being in a Muslim country in the nineteenth 906 00:53:25,000 --> 00:53:28,560 Speaker 1: century versus being in Europe in the nineteenth century. Yeah, 907 00:53:28,680 --> 00:53:31,040 Speaker 1: I mean, I think so. I don't know a whole 908 00:53:31,120 --> 00:53:36,240 Speaker 1: lot about that that sort of thing in Islamic culture, 909 00:53:36,320 --> 00:53:41,160 Speaker 1: but I think about you know, as a musician, I 910 00:53:41,360 --> 00:53:44,759 Speaker 1: know a little bit about um kal Sum's life, and 911 00:53:44,840 --> 00:53:48,719 Speaker 1: I know that she dressed as a boy when she 912 00:53:48,920 --> 00:53:52,799 Speaker 1: was out singing with her father when she was a kid. 913 00:53:53,000 --> 00:53:56,640 Speaker 1: Who is this umkal Sum? She's like one of the 914 00:53:56,800 --> 00:54:03,920 Speaker 1: greatest singers in in Arabic okay, Egyptian singer. Absolutely astounding, 915 00:54:04,440 --> 00:54:08,600 Speaker 1: really really wonderful person. She she did a lot of 916 00:54:08,640 --> 00:54:15,400 Speaker 1: fundraising to try to create the nation of the independent 917 00:54:15,520 --> 00:54:19,280 Speaker 1: Nation of Egypt through her work as a as a singer, 918 00:54:19,960 --> 00:54:23,640 Speaker 1: and she worked with all these amazing modern poets, and 919 00:54:24,760 --> 00:54:31,719 Speaker 1: she's the first Egyptian composer to use electric guitar in 920 00:54:31,840 --> 00:54:40,680 Speaker 1: her work. She's absolutely astounding. Please check Kelsom out. Yeah, yeah, no. 921 00:54:40,760 --> 00:54:43,920 Speaker 1: And it's interesting because I've I've learned mostly about nineteenth 922 00:54:43,920 --> 00:54:48,880 Speaker 1: century conceptions of gender um in North Africa, and like 923 00:54:49,120 --> 00:54:53,000 Speaker 1: it's interesting to know how it does and doesn't relate 924 00:54:53,080 --> 00:54:57,720 Speaker 1: to more modern conceptions, you know. And and so basically 925 00:54:57,800 --> 00:55:00,120 Speaker 1: she goes around the city. She's fucking and drink and 926 00:55:00,239 --> 00:55:03,319 Speaker 1: smoking hashish, and she's just having a jolly good old 927 00:55:03,360 --> 00:55:05,479 Speaker 1: time of being twenty years old in the big city. 928 00:55:06,600 --> 00:55:10,719 Speaker 1: And she yeah, yeah, she's just sucking doing her life. 929 00:55:11,880 --> 00:55:14,040 Speaker 1: She makes her money writing about her experiences in the 930 00:55:14,080 --> 00:55:18,440 Speaker 1: life in Algeria and selling them in European magazines. Meanwhile, 931 00:55:18,760 --> 00:55:23,160 Speaker 1: her aging mother, Natalie de moder formally converts to Islam 932 00:55:23,200 --> 00:55:27,960 Speaker 1: and changes her name to fat Minobia. She's sixty, is 933 00:55:28,000 --> 00:55:30,759 Speaker 1: it Fatima? I believe it's Fatma, but I'm I'm not 934 00:55:30,960 --> 00:55:35,640 Speaker 1: entirely certain. She's sixty. Issue, she's ill health and not 935 00:55:35,800 --> 00:55:39,960 Speaker 1: long after she dies, and she so right before she 936 00:55:40,160 --> 00:55:42,960 Speaker 1: she dies. Basically, she converts to Islam. She cuts her 937 00:55:43,000 --> 00:55:45,319 Speaker 1: trader kids, Natalie and Nicholas, the two had gone back 938 00:55:45,320 --> 00:55:48,560 Speaker 1: to Russia, out of the will, and leaves the money 939 00:55:48,600 --> 00:55:51,040 Speaker 1: to her boyfriend and the remaining radical kids, which is 940 00:55:51,120 --> 00:55:53,799 Speaker 1: part of my whole Like she has agency and as 941 00:55:53,840 --> 00:55:56,719 Speaker 1: part of this massive grift to rob the Russian aristocracy 942 00:55:56,800 --> 00:56:00,360 Speaker 1: that she's from, you know, like on her deathbed, She's like, 943 00:56:00,440 --> 00:56:03,560 Speaker 1: this is still what matters to me. Well, the I mean, 944 00:56:03,600 --> 00:56:08,680 Speaker 1: the Russian aristocracy is it's just so shocking the kind 945 00:56:08,719 --> 00:56:12,000 Speaker 1: of wealth that they amassed, and it was by slavery. 946 00:56:12,200 --> 00:56:17,800 Speaker 1: It was completely horrific. I was over in Russia like 947 00:56:19,000 --> 00:56:25,600 Speaker 1: I don't know, like two thousand four or something, um 948 00:56:25,920 --> 00:56:27,759 Speaker 1: and just saw like all the some of the old 949 00:56:27,840 --> 00:56:31,759 Speaker 1: palaces have been turned into museums, and it's just it's 950 00:56:31,920 --> 00:56:37,160 Speaker 1: just completely obscene. Yeah, you don't become the the biggest 951 00:56:37,560 --> 00:56:41,600 Speaker 1: empire one of the Yeah, did you went around robbing people? Yeah? 952 00:56:42,239 --> 00:56:50,200 Speaker 1: And so Isabel's despondent after her mother dies and Alexander anarchy. 953 00:56:50,280 --> 00:56:53,040 Speaker 1: Dad rushes over from Switzerland to Bone when his lifelong 954 00:56:53,080 --> 00:56:57,160 Speaker 1: partner dies, and one older biographer, referencing a source that's 955 00:56:57,200 --> 00:57:01,120 Speaker 1: now lost, says that Isabel told Alexander her I want 956 00:57:01,160 --> 00:57:04,960 Speaker 1: to die with her, and Alexander very much the Russian 957 00:57:05,080 --> 00:57:08,120 Speaker 1: nihilist in this version of the story pulls out a 958 00:57:08,160 --> 00:57:09,880 Speaker 1: revolver and puts it on the table and says, go 959 00:57:09,960 --> 00:57:14,920 Speaker 1: ahead and handed her the choice. Basically, and this makes 960 00:57:14,960 --> 00:57:17,760 Speaker 1: a very dramatic statement and as very Russian nihilist, but 961 00:57:17,920 --> 00:57:20,040 Speaker 1: don't do this and I have no idea whether he 962 00:57:20,120 --> 00:57:23,600 Speaker 1: did this or not. Yeah, not a good idea, no, 963 00:57:23,920 --> 00:57:26,320 Speaker 1: But she she doesn't do it. She doesn't kill herself. 964 00:57:28,160 --> 00:57:29,720 Speaker 1: And you know it's good for getting you out of 965 00:57:29,800 --> 00:57:32,800 Speaker 1: some despondency. This isn't an ad transition. This isn't This 966 00:57:32,880 --> 00:57:34,880 Speaker 1: is a transition to what I actually wish I was advertising. 967 00:57:34,960 --> 00:57:40,280 Speaker 1: In the show Revolution, Machman gets caught up in a revolution. 968 00:57:40,880 --> 00:57:44,240 Speaker 1: Revolution is in the air. It's march. Muslim students are 969 00:57:44,240 --> 00:57:46,880 Speaker 1: starting to get real fucking pissed at the colonial administration 970 00:57:47,240 --> 00:57:50,640 Speaker 1: of their country. And Isabelle is like, damn, I hope 971 00:57:50,680 --> 00:57:52,560 Speaker 1: it doesn't come to violence, but if it does, And now, 972 00:57:52,600 --> 00:57:56,000 Speaker 1: instead of paraphrasing her, I'm gonna actually quote her. If 973 00:57:56,040 --> 00:57:58,920 Speaker 1: the fight becomes inevitable, I won't hesitate for a single instant, 974 00:57:58,960 --> 00:58:01,480 Speaker 1: because it would be cowardice. And that makes me smile. 975 00:58:01,680 --> 00:58:04,000 Speaker 1: Perhaps I shall be fighting for the Muslim revolutionaries like 976 00:58:04,040 --> 00:58:06,680 Speaker 1: I used to for the Russian anarchists, although with more 977 00:58:06,720 --> 00:58:10,080 Speaker 1: conviction and more real hatred against depression. I feel now 978 00:58:10,200 --> 00:58:11,960 Speaker 1: that I'm much more deeply a Muslim than I was 979 00:58:12,000 --> 00:58:16,800 Speaker 1: an anarchist. And so She's goes out at a demonstration 980 00:58:17,400 --> 00:58:20,080 Speaker 1: and the French police attack and the crowd fights back 981 00:58:20,160 --> 00:58:23,480 Speaker 1: with daggers and revolvers, and she's in it, and there's 982 00:58:23,480 --> 00:58:26,680 Speaker 1: some more quotes from her. My chest was pounding and 983 00:58:26,760 --> 00:58:29,960 Speaker 1: my head spinning deliciously. I saw Blifia in front of 984 00:58:30,000 --> 00:58:32,760 Speaker 1: me brandishing a truncheon. At every moment, it slashed into 985 00:58:32,800 --> 00:58:36,000 Speaker 1: the surrounding police, cracking into skulls and arms raised in defense. 986 00:58:36,360 --> 00:58:39,280 Speaker 1: Reba Bolifia seemed transfigured. He seemed to me to have 987 00:58:39,360 --> 00:58:45,640 Speaker 1: an ineffable mystical beauty. And well, I know, I guess 988 00:58:45,720 --> 00:58:49,919 Speaker 1: even better. I believe that this will mark the first 989 00:58:50,000 --> 00:58:53,480 Speaker 1: person I featured on this show to fight cops by 990 00:58:53,600 --> 00:59:02,520 Speaker 1: wielding a sword. Yeah, almost a year, but we got there. 991 00:59:03,880 --> 00:59:08,520 Speaker 1: Did she did she learn Like did she learn sword 992 00:59:08,760 --> 00:59:12,440 Speaker 1: in like a bougee context when she was like on 993 00:59:12,560 --> 00:59:16,000 Speaker 1: the family estate back in back in Russia, or like 994 00:59:16,240 --> 00:59:18,800 Speaker 1: do we know anything about that? I don't know about 995 00:59:18,840 --> 00:59:21,360 Speaker 1: how much fighting she's learned in her life. Um this 996 00:59:21,560 --> 00:59:23,760 Speaker 1: is There's going to be two moments in her life 997 00:59:23,880 --> 00:59:27,480 Speaker 1: that I'm aware of where she like reaches for a 998 00:59:27,600 --> 00:59:30,160 Speaker 1: sword and gets some sword involved in some fighting ship. 999 00:59:30,760 --> 00:59:33,720 Speaker 1: But I straight up don't know. Um, she's spends all 1000 00:59:33,720 --> 00:59:35,480 Speaker 1: of her time, like drinking and hanging out with sailors, 1001 00:59:35,520 --> 00:59:37,720 Speaker 1: so it wouldn't put it past her. And also she 1002 00:59:37,920 --> 00:59:42,960 Speaker 1: totally could have learned whatever the Russian air aristocratic fencing was. 1003 00:59:43,040 --> 00:59:46,880 Speaker 1: I have no idea. It's it's really great to hear 1004 00:59:47,120 --> 00:59:52,280 Speaker 1: a poet's voice from that moment, you know, yeah, totally, yeah, 1005 00:59:52,320 --> 00:59:54,760 Speaker 1: like talking about it, like my head was spinning deliciously, 1006 00:59:55,640 --> 00:59:58,320 Speaker 1: so yeah, and like she's like, oh, my comrade looks 1007 00:59:58,360 --> 01:00:02,120 Speaker 1: so beautiful right now. Right. So, her friend of a 1008 01:00:02,160 --> 01:00:04,600 Speaker 1: friend of hers is surrounded by cops and she's trying 1009 01:00:04,800 --> 01:00:07,240 Speaker 1: and he probably friends probably he is trying to hold 1010 01:00:07,280 --> 01:00:09,640 Speaker 1: them off with only a dagger. So she picks up 1011 01:00:09,640 --> 01:00:12,840 Speaker 1: a fucking sword and runs at the cops, saving her friend, 1012 01:00:13,600 --> 01:00:16,360 Speaker 1: and cut to black. I don't know what happened. I'm 1013 01:00:16,480 --> 01:00:18,520 Speaker 1: so annoyed. I don't know whether she fucked up a 1014 01:00:18,600 --> 01:00:21,240 Speaker 1: cop or she just scared the cops off. But by 1015 01:00:21,320 --> 01:00:24,800 Speaker 1: wielding a sword, she successfully defended her friend, who had 1016 01:00:24,840 --> 01:00:30,920 Speaker 1: only a dagger against forearm police officers and the students 1017 01:00:31,000 --> 01:00:34,600 Speaker 1: were outnumbered. They're driven back a ton or arrested. She 1018 01:00:34,760 --> 01:00:37,480 Speaker 1: flees through the alleys and the next day she flees 1019 01:00:37,520 --> 01:00:39,760 Speaker 1: the country on a steamer to France because the colonial 1020 01:00:39,840 --> 01:00:43,480 Speaker 1: police are extra alert for any foreigners helping the Muslim rebels. 1021 01:00:44,680 --> 01:00:46,840 Speaker 1: And that's where we're gonna leave it today. She's grown up, 1022 01:00:46,840 --> 01:00:49,360 Speaker 1: a radical, She's moved to Algeria, she stayed a radical, 1023 01:00:49,480 --> 01:00:51,520 Speaker 1: And when we come back, we'll get to see her 1024 01:00:51,720 --> 01:00:54,280 Speaker 1: more as history sees her as a vagabond, a mystic, 1025 01:00:54,360 --> 01:00:57,480 Speaker 1: a writer, and one complicated as fuck figure in the 1026 01:00:57,560 --> 01:00:59,800 Speaker 1: history of North Africa. Plus we get to meet her 1027 01:00:59,800 --> 01:01:06,400 Speaker 1: dog whoa Sophie smiled because I said dogs, I did. 1028 01:01:06,520 --> 01:01:10,760 Speaker 1: I smiled, really vague. That's exciting. Um do we do? 1029 01:01:10,880 --> 01:01:12,560 Speaker 1: We have anything we'd like to plug at the end 1030 01:01:12,640 --> 01:01:17,080 Speaker 1: here from either of you? Totally what you got going on? 1031 01:01:18,240 --> 01:01:20,480 Speaker 1: I have so many things going on. I'm doing a 1032 01:01:20,600 --> 01:01:24,320 Speaker 1: hilarious thing right now with my Patreon where I'm releasing 1033 01:01:24,720 --> 01:01:29,720 Speaker 1: a very sketchy recording of me playing Tom Waits covers 1034 01:01:29,840 --> 01:01:33,000 Speaker 1: every single Monday and then calling it the Waits Thon. 1035 01:01:34,120 --> 01:01:36,280 Speaker 1: But by the time this comes out, maybe The Waits 1036 01:01:36,360 --> 01:01:39,080 Speaker 1: Than will be all done. But anyway, my Patreon is cool, 1037 01:01:39,320 --> 01:01:42,160 Speaker 1: and um, I have a record coming out. I don't know, 1038 01:01:42,760 --> 01:01:46,280 Speaker 1: the summer, the fall. Who knows? It's hard to figure 1039 01:01:46,280 --> 01:01:50,360 Speaker 1: out with vinyl production, but that record will be called 1040 01:01:51,200 --> 01:01:55,760 Speaker 1: Haunted Mountain. And my wonderful friend Buck Meek, who is 1041 01:01:55,840 --> 01:01:59,240 Speaker 1: in the band Big Thief, is also releasing his solo record, 1042 01:01:59,560 --> 01:02:04,400 Speaker 1: also called Haunted Mountain because a bunch of songs together. 1043 01:02:05,840 --> 01:02:08,280 Speaker 1: Where can people follow you online so they can keep 1044 01:02:08,320 --> 01:02:11,600 Speaker 1: up with your music and other works? Thank you so 1045 01:02:11,760 --> 01:02:17,800 Speaker 1: much for asking. Uh Instagram, I'm Jolie Holland Music and uh, 1046 01:02:18,240 --> 01:02:22,120 Speaker 1: I think I'm the same on the Twitter, which I'm 1047 01:02:22,160 --> 01:02:26,800 Speaker 1: still at. Yeah, and Margaret, you have a book coming out, 1048 01:02:27,680 --> 01:02:31,560 Speaker 1: It's true you can still for another short moment of time, 1049 01:02:31,600 --> 01:02:33,360 Speaker 1: depending on when you're listening to this, pre order my 1050 01:02:33,480 --> 01:02:36,760 Speaker 1: upcoming book, Escape from Insul Island, which is published by 1051 01:02:36,800 --> 01:02:39,360 Speaker 1: Strangers and the Tangled Wilderness. And if you order it, 1052 01:02:39,440 --> 01:02:41,480 Speaker 1: it's a fun devella. If you have a short attention span, 1053 01:02:41,640 --> 01:02:45,080 Speaker 1: it's um you can read it in an afternoon. Novella 1054 01:02:45,160 --> 01:02:49,560 Speaker 1: means shortest book because I'm a writer who writes short things. 1055 01:02:50,840 --> 01:02:53,040 Speaker 1: And you can buy it and if you buy you 1056 01:02:53,080 --> 01:02:54,720 Speaker 1: get a poster and you can also follow me on 1057 01:02:54,800 --> 01:02:57,760 Speaker 1: the internet. I'm on Instagram at Margaret Killjoy and Twitter 1058 01:02:57,840 --> 01:03:03,320 Speaker 1: at Magpie Killjoy. What about you, Sophie. Oh, yeah, I 1059 01:03:03,360 --> 01:03:06,080 Speaker 1: know at cool Zone Media and all the things you 1060 01:03:06,160 --> 01:03:11,880 Speaker 1: can find out all the things from that, Margaret, Are 1061 01:03:12,000 --> 01:03:14,560 Speaker 1: you going to do an audiobook version of Escape from 1062 01:03:14,600 --> 01:03:18,120 Speaker 1: Insult Island? Yes, And I don't entirely know what the 1063 01:03:18,240 --> 01:03:21,560 Speaker 1: context will be of how it will be released, so 1064 01:03:22,560 --> 01:03:25,920 Speaker 1: I can't answer directly yet, but there will absolutely be 1065 01:03:25,960 --> 01:03:29,360 Speaker 1: an audio version of it. And I I consume most 1066 01:03:29,400 --> 01:03:32,479 Speaker 1: of my books by audio, like actually the history books 1067 01:03:32,480 --> 01:03:35,000 Speaker 1: I read for this book, I read well pacing around 1068 01:03:35,080 --> 01:03:37,080 Speaker 1: my living room when my dog paces with me. It's 1069 01:03:37,160 --> 01:03:41,000 Speaker 1: very nice. He started pacing with me recently. That's so nice. 1070 01:03:41,320 --> 01:03:45,360 Speaker 1: It's beautiful. But fiction I tend to read by listening 1071 01:03:45,440 --> 01:03:50,600 Speaker 1: to at this point. Yeah, and so we'll be back Wednesday. 1072 01:03:50,800 --> 01:03:56,880 Speaker 1: We are two who cool people Who Did? Cool Stuff 1073 01:03:56,960 --> 01:03:59,840 Speaker 1: is a production of cool Zone Media, but more podcast 1074 01:04:00,000 --> 01:04:02,680 Speaker 1: the Cool Zone Media. Visit our website cool zone Media 1075 01:04:02,800 --> 01:04:05,120 Speaker 1: dot com, or check us out on the I Heart 1076 01:04:05,160 --> 01:04:08,480 Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 1077 01:04:15,920 --> 01:04:15,960 Speaker 1: H