WEBVTT - 9 Grandmas You Should Meet! 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:06.439 You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope 0:00:06.640 --> 0:00:07.640 and iHeartRadio. 0:00:11.760 --> 0:00:13.200 Guess what Mango? What's that? 0:00:13.320 --> 0:00:13.560 Will? 0:00:13.920 --> 0:00:16.000 So? I was thinking about Carol Burnett the other day, 0:00:16.079 --> 0:00:17.960 and actually, you know, I think about her often. 0:00:18.120 --> 0:00:20.000 I admitted before the episode. 0:00:20.520 --> 0:00:23.000 She was one of my first crushes, which might come 0:00:23.040 --> 0:00:24.680 as a surprise to many, but she was just so 0:00:24.840 --> 0:00:26.960 fun and we used to love watching her show, The 0:00:27.000 --> 0:00:29.760 Carol Burnette Show in the evenings. But anyway, one of 0:00:29.800 --> 0:00:31.840 the things I was thinking about recently was how she 0:00:31.960 --> 0:00:34.639 used to tug her ear to say hi to her 0:00:34.680 --> 0:00:37.080 grandmother on air. Now, actually, did you watch the Carol 0:00:37.080 --> 0:00:37.720 Burnette Show. 0:00:38.040 --> 0:00:40.520 Yeah, it's it's actually one of my earliest memories of TV, 0:00:40.720 --> 0:00:43.280 like watching that and also the Muppet Show because my 0:00:43.360 --> 0:00:46.800 parents loved both of those. Also, have you watched Pamroll 0:00:47.080 --> 0:00:50.159 I have not yet. No, it is so fun. It's 0:00:50.200 --> 0:00:53.080 like soaphi it but she's in a coma and somehow 0:00:53.120 --> 0:00:55.400 she's still funny. Like she's funny even when she's in 0:00:55.440 --> 0:00:58.840 a coma, like do these minor little actions and stuff, 0:00:58.840 --> 0:00:59.720 she can still get a laugh. 0:00:59.720 --> 0:01:01.520 It's like he was the best of the best. 0:01:02.560 --> 0:01:05.240 But I was thinking about this whole ear tugging story, 0:01:05.240 --> 0:01:07.640 and I decided to look into it a little bit more. 0:01:07.680 --> 0:01:10.480 And apparently the first time she was on TV in 0:01:10.480 --> 0:01:13.240 New York, her grandmother says to her, why don't you 0:01:13.280 --> 0:01:15.120 just turn to the camera and say hello to me 0:01:15.200 --> 0:01:18.160 when you're on TV? And Carol's response was, of course, 0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:20.160 I had to explain to her that we're not allowed 0:01:20.200 --> 0:01:23.200 to just say hi, nanny on television, And so they 0:01:23.200 --> 0:01:26.000 came up with this secret signal that's now famous, where 0:01:26.000 --> 0:01:28.959 she would pull her ear lobe, and according to Carol Burnett, 0:01:29.040 --> 0:01:31.720 it meant HI, I'm fine, your check is on the way. 0:01:32.120 --> 0:01:34.680 That's ridiculous. I think I've heard they were close because 0:01:34.680 --> 0:01:36.360 Burnette was raised by her grandma. 0:01:36.480 --> 0:01:38.039 Right, That's exactly right, you know. 0:01:38.080 --> 0:01:39.920 And part of the story that I thought was really 0:01:39.920 --> 0:01:43.679 funny is that this writer from Life magazine actually measured 0:01:43.720 --> 0:01:46.319 her ear lobe and found that she'd stretched it from 0:01:46.400 --> 0:01:49.040 pulling it so much over the years, and that her 0:01:49.080 --> 0:01:52.120 ear lobe was noticeably longer because of all the time 0:01:52.200 --> 0:01:54.120 she turned to the camera and let her grandma know 0:01:54.320 --> 0:01:55.640 that she was thinking about her. 0:01:56.160 --> 0:01:58.440 I mean, that is both really sweet and I feel 0:01:58.440 --> 0:02:01.200 like it's real love, like giving up your symmetrical face 0:02:01.280 --> 0:02:02.120 for your grandma. 0:02:02.600 --> 0:02:04.320 That's a real, real sacrifice. 0:02:04.320 --> 0:02:06.560 But you know, in the interview, Carol Burnett did want 0:02:06.600 --> 0:02:08.880 to clarify that she only pulled her ear when she 0:02:09.000 --> 0:02:09.520 was on TV. 0:02:09.720 --> 0:02:11.680 She didn't go around pulling her ear just for the 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:12.280 heck of it. 0:02:13.080 --> 0:02:16.160 But with Thanksgiving holiday right around the corner, we thought 0:02:16.160 --> 0:02:18.120 it might be the perfect time to do a little 0:02:18.160 --> 0:02:42.400 tribute episode to Grandma's So let's dive in. Hey, their 0:02:42.440 --> 0:02:45.320 podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson, 0:02:45.400 --> 0:02:47.600 and as always I'm joined by my good friend Mangesh 0:02:47.639 --> 0:02:50.520 Hot Ticket and sitting there behind the big booth glass 0:02:50.560 --> 0:02:55.400 wearing a vintage Charlotte hornets Larry Johnson basketball jersey. 0:02:55.680 --> 0:02:58.079 Probably a lot of our younger listeners are saying, who 0:02:58.120 --> 0:03:02.080 the heck is Larry Johnson? Amazing basketball player. This is 0:03:02.120 --> 0:03:03.560 a real deep cut here, Dylan. 0:03:03.600 --> 0:03:05.160 I love it when he goes for the deep cuts, 0:03:05.680 --> 0:03:08.600 making a throwback joke to those Grandmama commercials. 0:03:09.000 --> 0:03:11.440 Yeah, he's nodding his head back there and just. 0:03:11.440 --> 0:03:14.600 Smiling once again. That is our good friend and producer, 0:03:14.680 --> 0:03:15.359 Dylan Fagan. 0:03:16.120 --> 0:03:18.799 You know, I watched this interview with Larry Johnson where 0:03:18.840 --> 0:03:21.320 he was talking about why he signed with Converse and 0:03:21.440 --> 0:03:24.560 did those Grandmama commercials. Yeah, and he said it was 0:03:24.600 --> 0:03:27.600 a total bait and switch. Like he was fresh out 0:03:27.639 --> 0:03:29.760 of college. He was the number one NBA draft pick, 0:03:29.880 --> 0:03:32.960 and Converse was like, we've got the perfect ad for you. 0:03:33.080 --> 0:03:37.240 It's Larry Bird and Magic Johnson wearing surgeons gear and 0:03:37.480 --> 0:03:41.360 they've created this perfect basketball player, right, and they're just 0:03:41.360 --> 0:03:43.280 deciding what to name him, and Larry Bird's like, let's 0:03:43.280 --> 0:03:45.840 call him Larry, and Magic is like, let's call him Johnson. 0:03:45.880 --> 0:03:49.880 And they're fighting like Larry Johnson, Larry Johnson, and as 0:03:49.880 --> 0:03:54.200 they're arguing, he just kind of rises up like Frankenstein's mom, right. 0:03:54.720 --> 0:03:57.880 And so of course Larry Johnson is young, he's all in. 0:03:58.040 --> 0:04:00.240 He's so sold by this idea. Also, I had a 0:04:00.240 --> 0:04:02.480 million dollars to give him, so he was happy to 0:04:02.520 --> 0:04:04.600 take that. And he went off and bought his mom 0:04:04.680 --> 0:04:08.520 a house with the money. Okay, and then Converce called 0:04:08.600 --> 0:04:10.520 him up and was like, Magic and Larry don't want 0:04:10.520 --> 0:04:12.160 to do the commercial, So we've got another idea. 0:04:13.240 --> 0:04:14.120 You're gonna be a grandma. 0:04:14.240 --> 0:04:16.560 I feel like a grandma, and you're gonna dominate the 0:04:16.560 --> 0:04:19.640 basketball court, and he was like, man, I wish I 0:04:19.720 --> 0:04:23.919 hadn't fought that house. Yeah, but barely. You ended up 0:04:23.920 --> 0:04:24.760 having a lot of fun with it. 0:04:24.920 --> 0:04:26.800 I mean, it was a it was a pretty great 0:04:26.880 --> 0:04:27.520 series there. 0:04:27.520 --> 0:04:30.120 But Menguel, you're already getting a soft track. We are 0:04:30.160 --> 0:04:32.760 doing a show that is a tribute to our grandma's 0:04:32.880 --> 0:04:35.760 And I know you knew my mamma and really loved her, 0:04:35.800 --> 0:04:37.640 and she loved you, and I think later in her 0:04:37.680 --> 0:04:39.919 life she actually thought you were one of her grandkids. 0:04:39.960 --> 0:04:43.000 And I remember meeting your grandma in college when she'd 0:04:43.000 --> 0:04:45.359 come to visit from India, and you know, it was 0:04:45.440 --> 0:04:47.919 just always the sweetest visits to see how much she 0:04:48.040 --> 0:04:49.599 meant to you, and it was it was just a 0:04:49.600 --> 0:04:51.880 lot of fun that she actually came to college knocking 0:04:51.880 --> 0:04:53.920 in your dorm room one time, and she was actually 0:04:53.920 --> 0:04:55.560 just lying there on the bed like she was one 0:04:55.600 --> 0:04:56.200 of our friends. 0:04:56.240 --> 0:04:59.120 It was she was small, she was lying on it horizon. 0:05:00.600 --> 0:05:02.440 I wasn't going to say that, but actually I think 0:05:02.480 --> 0:05:05.000 she was there one time with one of your aunts 0:05:05.040 --> 0:05:07.640 and they were both lying there as far as that's 0:05:07.960 --> 0:05:09.160 you know, these tiny women. 0:05:09.200 --> 0:05:10.240 But it was fantastic. 0:05:10.400 --> 0:05:13.719 But anyway, I know this holiday season, we're both missing 0:05:13.720 --> 0:05:15.760 our grandmothers a lot, and I thought it might be 0:05:15.839 --> 0:05:17.520 nice to do a nine things. 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:20.159 In honor of them. So this one is for Nadine 0:05:20.240 --> 0:05:20.920 and Soushila. 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:24.159 Mm hmmm, that's so wonderful. So I'm going to start 0:05:24.200 --> 0:05:27.920 with a story about a group of grandmas in Zimbabwe. 0:05:28.440 --> 0:05:31.400 And this story actually begins with a young psychiatrist. His 0:05:31.520 --> 0:05:35.479 name is Dixon Chibanda. So Zimbabwe apparently has been dealing 0:05:35.520 --> 0:05:38.240 with an incredible shortage of mental health professionals over the 0:05:38.279 --> 0:05:41.000 past few decades. And the story comes from the Boston 0:05:41.000 --> 0:05:44.400 Globe and they say that Chibanda was actually only one 0:05:44.440 --> 0:05:49.160 of fifteen psychiatrists in the country of sixteen million people. 0:05:49.440 --> 0:05:51.960 It isn't that stunning, But this starts with a really 0:05:52.000 --> 0:05:54.640 sad story. So Chibanda had a patient who was unable 0:05:54.640 --> 0:05:57.000 to visit him because she couldn't afford the fifteen dollars 0:05:57.000 --> 0:06:00.200 bus fare to travel this insanely long distance to see him, 0:06:00.720 --> 0:06:03.400 and she ends up taking her own life, and chibond 0:06:03.520 --> 0:06:06.000 is just devastated by this. He's like, we need to 0:06:06.000 --> 0:06:08.839 be giving people more care, making the access easier. So 0:06:08.880 --> 0:06:11.800 he starts exploring all these different ways to recruit and 0:06:11.880 --> 0:06:15.960 train more mental health practitioners, but it is just really, 0:06:16.000 --> 0:06:18.800 really difficult. There are a lot of hurdles to jump 0:06:18.839 --> 0:06:21.719 to make it happen. And what he realizes is that 0:06:21.800 --> 0:06:25.600 there's actually already this incredible core of whys and empathetic 0:06:25.640 --> 0:06:28.960 caregivers who have a lot of life experience and a 0:06:28.960 --> 0:06:30.920 lot of time on their hands. And so, of course 0:06:30.960 --> 0:06:34.440 we're talking about grandmothers here. So he pilots this program 0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:37.560 with fourteen grandmothers in her are and he gives them 0:06:37.600 --> 0:06:40.560 the tools to better listen, right. He helps them make 0:06:40.600 --> 0:06:44.600 people feel heard, He helps them give people a sense 0:06:44.600 --> 0:06:47.800 of belonging and confidence, and he also teaches the grandmothers 0:06:47.800 --> 0:06:50.560 to empower people to tackle their own problems. Right. It's 0:06:50.600 --> 0:06:53.800 a little tutorial he does. But instead of putting these 0:06:53.800 --> 0:06:57.000 grandmas in crowded clinics or hospitals, they come up with 0:06:57.040 --> 0:07:00.400 this totally novel approach. They set up these benches that 0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:03.880 are in the open, that feel like you're just having conversations, 0:07:03.920 --> 0:07:09.000 so there's no shame around the treatments and no negative perception. Initially, 0:07:09.040 --> 0:07:12.800 Schibanda wanted to call these benches mental health benches, but 0:07:12.840 --> 0:07:15.440 the Grandma's actually pushed back on that branding and suggested 0:07:15.440 --> 0:07:18.640 calling them friendship benches instead. Nice and so then this 0:07:18.720 --> 0:07:21.400 idea of the friendship bench was born, and honestly, the 0:07:21.440 --> 0:07:25.360 results have been incredible. The grandmas don't use psychiatric terms, 0:07:25.440 --> 0:07:28.520 so instead of talking about depression or anxiety, they use 0:07:28.640 --> 0:07:33.400 gentler Shona terms. There's actually one called Kufunga Sisa, which, 0:07:33.440 --> 0:07:37.120 as The Globe points out, translates as thinking too much. Right, 0:07:37.160 --> 0:07:40.240 You're just thinking too much. And they're just very warm. 0:07:40.320 --> 0:07:43.280 They're really colloquial and today there have been over one 0:07:43.320 --> 0:07:47.320 hundred peer reviewed studies about these benches. According to one study, 0:07:47.360 --> 0:07:51.040 after six months, participants who interacted with these friendship benches 0:07:51.040 --> 0:07:53.680 were better off in terms of all types of indicators, 0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:57.000 including their fear head lessen, their anger head lessen, and 0:07:57.040 --> 0:08:00.680 they actually had improved sleep patterns. And in fact, the 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:04.280 grandmas have helped over sixty thousand people in Zimbabwe to date. 0:08:04.800 --> 0:08:06.920 But the best part is that it's also great for 0:08:06.960 --> 0:08:10.000 the grandma's self esteem, like they feel like they're being 0:08:10.120 --> 0:08:14.040 useful again and they're contributing to the health of this country, 0:08:14.080 --> 0:08:15.520 which is just kind of amazing. 0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:16.720 I was thinking the same thing. 0:08:16.800 --> 0:08:19.480 This is definitely one of those perfect scenarios where I 0:08:19.480 --> 0:08:22.720 think everybody walks away from it feeling a little bit better. 0:08:22.800 --> 0:08:25.200 Yeah, that is amazing. 0:08:25.240 --> 0:08:27.480 I would totally go to something like that too, if 0:08:27.520 --> 0:08:28.960 there was just a grandma, you know, it would be 0:08:28.960 --> 0:08:30.680 sitting on a bench and you could go sit next 0:08:30.680 --> 0:08:33.680 to or chat for a bit. But you know, I 0:08:33.800 --> 0:08:36.400 was thinking about the image that we have of, you know, 0:08:36.440 --> 0:08:40.199 the stereotypical grandmother. When you think of grandma's hanging out, 0:08:40.200 --> 0:08:43.920 you're probably picturing them I don't know, playing bridge or majog. 0:08:43.640 --> 0:08:45.679 Or something, tea party or something like that. 0:08:45.679 --> 0:08:48.720 That's exactly right, But you're probably not picturing them with 0:08:48.840 --> 0:08:52.000 cans of spray paint, right, Like tagging a wall with graffiti. 0:08:52.080 --> 0:08:52.640 Is that something that. 0:08:52.600 --> 0:08:56.160 Comes to mind for you. But that's exactly what's happening 0:08:56.160 --> 0:08:59.680 in Lisbon, Portugal, where the world's most lovable graffiti gang. 0:08:59.520 --> 0:09:01.839 Has come together. I love this so much. 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:06.280 The group is called Lata sixty five and Lota refers 0:09:06.360 --> 0:09:09.560 to an aerosol can and sixty five because it's open 0:09:09.600 --> 0:09:13.000 to anyone who's sixty five or older. So, according to 0:09:13.040 --> 0:09:15.840 one of the group's co founders, Lara Rodriguez. She was 0:09:15.920 --> 0:09:19.960 watching Lisbon come alive through this incredible graffiti movement, and 0:09:20.000 --> 0:09:23.599 as she puts it, quote decaying cement walls were transformed 0:09:23.600 --> 0:09:27.800 into a kaleidoscope of colors and shapes. Abandoned factories breathe 0:09:27.880 --> 0:09:31.400 new life, and water cooler conversations moved to walls that 0:09:31.520 --> 0:09:34.800 told stories. But while she was seeing this thriving art 0:09:34.840 --> 0:09:37.880 scene all around her, she was noticing something else. She 0:09:37.960 --> 0:09:41.120 was having conversations with older people in her community, and 0:09:41.200 --> 0:09:43.080 she picked up on this sense that they felt like 0:09:43.120 --> 0:09:45.640 a burden. There was this one seventy one year old 0:09:45.640 --> 0:09:48.520 grandmother who told her art is for the care free, 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:52.360 the creative, and the sensitive. I'm just a grandmother. And 0:09:52.400 --> 0:09:54.960 so Laura got this sense that these incredible women saw 0:09:55.040 --> 0:09:59.200 themselves as simply caretakers, or even worse than that, like 0:09:59.320 --> 0:10:02.040 nonexist from time to time. So she put this call 0:10:02.080 --> 0:10:04.520 out to anyone who wanted to give graffiti a try, 0:10:04.920 --> 0:10:07.480 and as she tells it, the youth were numb and 0:10:07.559 --> 0:10:10.880 bored to my outreach, but elders actually wanted to jump 0:10:10.880 --> 0:10:14.640 in and participate. The response was actually overwhelming from this 0:10:14.800 --> 0:10:18.760 and ever since, the Grandma Graffiti Gang has totally taken off. 0:10:19.120 --> 0:10:22.040 So today these artsy grannies wander into the city's most 0:10:22.040 --> 0:10:25.640 neglected neighborhoods and they brighten them up with these vibrant 0:10:25.679 --> 0:10:29.040 and rebellious works. Actually, just talking about it doesn't do 0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:31.160 it any justice. I want to share a few photos 0:10:31.200 --> 0:10:33.600 with you right here, so you know it's like the 0:10:33.640 --> 0:10:38.000 sweetest vandalism you'll ever see. Like their smiles are so big. 0:10:38.040 --> 0:10:40.480 They're painting the town red and you know, lots of 0:10:40.480 --> 0:10:41.240 other colors too. 0:10:41.280 --> 0:10:42.320 But look at these pictures. 0:10:42.480 --> 0:10:44.360 Oh, I love them so much. I kind of want 0:10:44.400 --> 0:10:47.160 my mom to join a graffiti Grannis group. It looks 0:10:47.200 --> 0:10:51.480 so fun. So here's kind of a quirky one. One 0:10:51.520 --> 0:10:53.120 of the first things I looked up when we decided 0:10:53.120 --> 0:10:55.480 to do this episode on Grandma's was if there was 0:10:55.520 --> 0:10:59.520 any scientific research on grandmothers, and there's actually lots of it. 0:10:59.520 --> 0:11:02.200 There's stuff fun how a grandmother's brain lights up when 0:11:02.240 --> 0:11:05.360 they see a photo of their grandchildren. There's also research 0:11:05.480 --> 0:11:09.400 on how grandmothers have actually helped us evolutionarily, and how 0:11:09.520 --> 0:11:12.680 menopause may be linked to caring for younger kids because 0:11:12.840 --> 0:11:16.439 it actually gives women more energy for that, which is interesting. 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:19.520 But the most fun paper that I encountered was one 0:11:19.600 --> 0:11:23.880 about the dead grandmother exam syndrome, and this was recapped 0:11:23.880 --> 0:11:27.840 in a special education issue of the Annals of Improbable Research. 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:31.720 But in nineteen ninety nine, a professor named Mike Adams 0:11:31.760 --> 0:11:36.000 of Eastern Connecticut State University noticed an interesting phenomena happening 0:11:36.000 --> 0:11:38.920 in his classes. So he wrote the Definitive Analysis on 0:11:38.960 --> 0:11:42.480 what he calls the grandmother exam syndrome, in which he writes, quote, 0:11:42.720 --> 0:11:45.720 the basic problem can be stated very simply. A student's 0:11:45.720 --> 0:11:48.360 grandmother is far more likely to die suddenly just before 0:11:48.360 --> 0:11:50.600 the student takes an exam than any other time. Of 0:11:51.200 --> 0:11:54.320 what I guess, people were constantly giving this as an 0:11:54.360 --> 0:11:57.480 excuse in his class, ye, And so he decided to 0:11:57.480 --> 0:11:59.240 make a point by writing a paper. 0:11:59.000 --> 0:12:00.599 That is ridiculous. 0:12:01.320 --> 0:12:03.840 All right, Well, here's a strange one about this awesome 0:12:03.880 --> 0:12:07.320 grandma who refused to be scammed. So there's this seventy 0:12:07.320 --> 0:12:10.600 three year old grandmother, Jean Ebert, and she's living in 0:12:10.600 --> 0:12:12.840 Long Island, and she gets this phone call where a 0:12:12.840 --> 0:12:16.160 scammer is posing as her grandson who claims he's been 0:12:16.320 --> 0:12:18.880 in an accident. And actually, I remember my grandmother getting 0:12:18.880 --> 0:12:22.400 a similar kind of call, like it's a common scam 0:12:22.440 --> 0:12:24.640 of types of people calling and claiming to be their 0:12:24.640 --> 0:12:27.600 grandson or somebody also those lines, and I know this 0:12:27.640 --> 0:12:29.600 shouldn't be funny, but she would say, like you talking 0:12:29.600 --> 0:12:32.240 about will are you talking about and started naming her grandson. 0:12:32.240 --> 0:12:33.360 She's like, yeah, yeah, of course. 0:12:33.640 --> 0:12:37.400 So anyway, he says he's been charged with a dui 0:12:37.520 --> 0:12:40.120 and he needs money urgently to get him out of bail. 0:12:40.240 --> 0:12:43.560 But Jean's grandkids are in elementary school and they're not 0:12:43.720 --> 0:12:46.600 driving and they're definitely not drinking, so she knows that 0:12:46.640 --> 0:12:49.400 this is a scam. Also, she's a retired nine to 0:12:49.440 --> 0:12:52.200 one one dispatcher, so she knows how to work a phone, 0:12:52.520 --> 0:12:55.840 and she decides to play along. So the fake grandson 0:12:55.920 --> 0:12:58.680 says he needs eight thousand dollars and he needs it 0:12:58.720 --> 0:13:00.800 soon because he doesn't want to be stuck in jail and 0:13:00.840 --> 0:13:04.040 he's really laying it on thick in this story, but 0:13:04.160 --> 0:13:07.000 she keeps stringing him along. She offers to venmo him 0:13:07.040 --> 0:13:09.360 the amount, but he says he really needs it in cash, 0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:12.200 so she asked him to call back, and she obviously 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:15.160 needs the time to get the money, and in the meantime, 0:13:15.240 --> 0:13:16.200 she calls the police. 0:13:16.360 --> 0:13:16.960 They come over. 0:13:17.080 --> 0:13:19.640 They actually listen in on the follow up calls, and 0:13:19.679 --> 0:13:22.720 eventually the scammer says he's sending a bail bondsman over 0:13:22.760 --> 0:13:24.480 to her front door in ten minutes. 0:13:24.880 --> 0:13:27.599 So when this guy arrives, she opens the door. 0:13:27.679 --> 0:13:30.160 Hands him an envelope stuffed with paper towels so it'll 0:13:30.160 --> 0:13:32.800 look like it's this fat wad of cash. And then 0:13:32.840 --> 0:13:36.640 as he pockets the money, the officers yell surprise, jump 0:13:36.679 --> 0:13:38.280 out and arrest the guy. 0:13:38.360 --> 0:13:38.920 I love him. 0:13:39.360 --> 0:13:41.280 They actually yelled the prim Now they. 0:13:41.200 --> 0:13:44.960 Totally were like, surprise, you're going to jail. But the 0:13:45.000 --> 0:13:47.960 whole incident was captured on Jean's ring cam and it 0:13:48.040 --> 0:13:51.079 wasn't long before the conman were thrown in jail. And 0:13:51.160 --> 0:13:53.959 as for Jeans, she's now Internet famous as the granny 0:13:54.000 --> 0:13:55.559 who scammed the scammers. 0:13:55.679 --> 0:13:58.720 Oh, I like that. I also love that a lifetime 0:13:58.720 --> 0:14:00.880 of nine one one calls makes her super calm in 0:14:00.920 --> 0:14:04.239 like any phone call situation. Yeah, you have so much practice, 0:14:04.960 --> 0:14:07.520 so I know that I couldn't do an episode on 0:14:07.559 --> 0:14:10.319 Grandma's without talking about my favorite group of old women, 0:14:10.600 --> 0:14:12.880 the divers in South Korea known as. 0:14:12.760 --> 0:14:15.600 Henyo, which I did not look into because I knew 0:14:15.800 --> 0:14:18.640 you would be doing something here, so. 0:14:18.720 --> 0:14:20.680 You might remember this from when I commission a photo 0:14:20.760 --> 0:14:23.560 essay for mental phloss about those years ago. But the 0:14:23.600 --> 0:14:26.080 hen you are famous because they dive off the coast 0:14:26.240 --> 0:14:31.360 of the Jaju Island to harvest mollis, abalony, octopus, seaweed 0:14:31.400 --> 0:14:34.480 and other tasty sea life. Right. But the society is 0:14:34.520 --> 0:14:38.360 particularly special because, unlike the rest of South Korea, it's 0:14:38.400 --> 0:14:41.880 a matriarchal community, and people don't exactly know how it 0:14:41.920 --> 0:14:44.080 came to be this way and how the women took 0:14:44.080 --> 0:14:47.000 over the diving, but it's been this way for centuries now, 0:14:47.520 --> 0:14:50.880 and the work is really dangerous. They dive between thirty 0:14:50.880 --> 0:14:54.760 to sixty feet. They free dive actually into icy waters. 0:14:54.800 --> 0:14:59.760 They brave sharks and hypothermia, among other things. And you know, 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:03.000 it might be that this diving culture started because men 0:15:03.080 --> 0:15:05.880 went off to war and the women took over. It's 0:15:05.920 --> 0:15:08.960 also thought that the women have more body fat, so 0:15:09.000 --> 0:15:10.800 they're better at dealing with the. 0:15:10.880 --> 0:15:11.760 Very cold water. 0:15:12.280 --> 0:15:15.560 But whatever the reason, it's led to the society that 0:15:15.680 --> 0:15:20.440 really values women and considers women more powerful than the men. Apparently, 0:15:20.480 --> 0:15:22.480 husbands stay home to watch the kids and they do 0:15:22.560 --> 0:15:25.920 the domestic chores. And unlike other parts of Asia, where 0:15:26.600 --> 0:15:29.120 you know, having a son is really valued, having a 0:15:29.200 --> 0:15:32.760 daughter here is really celebrated in the community because women 0:15:32.840 --> 0:15:35.880 bring in money. And what's really interesting is that a 0:15:35.880 --> 0:15:38.960 young woman often begins practicing these diving skills between the 0:15:39.000 --> 0:15:41.800 age of eight to ten. We're often trained by your mother, 0:15:42.240 --> 0:15:45.280 but they're not considered experts until they reach their forties. 0:15:45.680 --> 0:15:48.320 And then women will keep diving well into their eighties, 0:15:48.560 --> 0:15:51.840 which is why you see these beautiful, mermad grandmothers still 0:15:52.000 --> 0:15:53.080 keeping this traditional live. 0:15:53.160 --> 0:15:56.240 It's amazing, like it's just wild that they're willing to 0:15:56.280 --> 0:15:59.640 do that for me. If it's below seventy degrees and 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:02.640 further than like five or six feet, I'm not trying 0:16:02.680 --> 0:16:03.400 to do it like. 0:16:03.320 --> 0:16:04.560 It's it's too much. 0:16:04.600 --> 0:16:08.360 But I love these stories about these Korean grandmas, and 0:16:08.400 --> 0:16:09.920 as I mentioned, at a feeling you were going to 0:16:09.920 --> 0:16:12.760 do a fact on them. So I also looked up 0:16:13.080 --> 0:16:16.200 a group of Austin diving grandmas, and I found a 0:16:16.200 --> 0:16:18.000 group from a slightly different part of the world. It's 0:16:18.000 --> 0:16:20.920 an island called New Caledonia, which is in the Pacific Ocean. 0:16:21.240 --> 0:16:23.040 So if you're trying to get your bearings here. New 0:16:23.040 --> 0:16:27.040 Caledonia is east of Australia and north of New Zealand. 0:16:27.480 --> 0:16:30.240 So the story starts with these two researchers who are 0:16:30.240 --> 0:16:34.160 in New Caledonia and they're studying sea snakes. Now, in particular, 0:16:34.200 --> 0:16:37.480 they're looking at this harmless, small turtle headed snake that 0:16:37.720 --> 0:16:41.200 primarily exists there. But while they're researching, they end up 0:16:41.200 --> 0:16:44.720 seeing these much larger sea snakes that are super venomous. 0:16:44.960 --> 0:16:47.120 And these things are scary, like they're five feet long 0:16:47.200 --> 0:16:49.920 and lethal, but you know, it turns out they're also 0:16:50.160 --> 0:16:53.040 really shy. So the scientists who are in this area 0:16:53.160 --> 0:16:55.960 studying for about three years, only end up seeing a 0:16:56.000 --> 0:16:58.360 couple dozen of these snakes and they can't get a 0:16:58.360 --> 0:17:01.360 handle on their behavior. Ayway, there isn't much research on 0:17:01.400 --> 0:17:05.000 these venomous snakes. But then in twenty seventeen, a group 0:17:05.040 --> 0:17:08.840 of grandmas who by the way, call themselves the Fantastic Grandmothers, 0:17:09.320 --> 0:17:12.399 hear about this, and they're in their sixties and seventies 0:17:12.400 --> 0:17:15.480 and they decide they want to help out because it 0:17:15.560 --> 0:17:18.000 turns out this area where the sea snakes have been 0:17:18.040 --> 0:17:22.800 spotted happens to be the snorkeling turf of these grandmothers. 0:17:23.040 --> 0:17:25.280 This is just where they've been swimming for a good time, 0:17:25.359 --> 0:17:27.640 and they didn't know there was any danger lurking there. 0:17:27.720 --> 0:17:31.359 So they asked the researchers, or rather tell the researchers 0:17:31.400 --> 0:17:34.200 that they're going to lend a hand and photograph any 0:17:34.240 --> 0:17:37.560 sea snakes when they see that they're out and about. Anyways, 0:17:37.600 --> 0:17:40.640 one of the researchers told Mental Flaws quote, as soon 0:17:40.680 --> 0:17:43.280 as the grandmothers set to work, we realized that we 0:17:43.400 --> 0:17:47.280 had massively underestimated the abundance of greater sea snakes in 0:17:47.320 --> 0:17:50.480 the bay. So apparently the work was this huge boon 0:17:50.520 --> 0:17:54.359 to the researchers because over a short period, these grandmothers 0:17:54.359 --> 0:17:57.520 identified over two hundred and forty nine of the venomous 0:17:57.520 --> 0:17:59.320 sea snakes while managing. 0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:00.640 Not to get didn't. 0:18:01.160 --> 0:18:04.120 Also, they shed light on their breeding habits and offspring. 0:18:04.560 --> 0:18:08.320 So today the Fantastic Grandmother's project is regularly cited as 0:18:08.359 --> 0:18:10.879 a way that communities and scientists can work together to 0:18:11.000 --> 0:18:13.080 advance the understanding of animal life. 0:18:13.400 --> 0:18:15.760 That's really cool. So I know we've got two more 0:18:15.800 --> 0:18:17.800 facts to go, but before we do, why don't we 0:18:17.800 --> 0:18:34.439 take a quick break. Welcome back to Part Time Genius, 0:18:34.440 --> 0:18:37.280 where we're talking all about grandma's So will what do 0:18:37.359 --> 0:18:39.080 you want to do for your last fact? 0:18:39.280 --> 0:18:41.000 All right, Well, I know we kicked this off with 0:18:41.080 --> 0:18:43.679 a Carol Burnett story, but I want to talk a 0:18:43.720 --> 0:18:47.040 little bit about another luminary who was raised and influenced 0:18:47.080 --> 0:18:50.520 by his grandmam, and that's Willie Nelson. And I guess 0:18:50.560 --> 0:18:53.080 I didn't realize how hard his life has been. But 0:18:53.119 --> 0:18:55.800 they rarely had money to buy food off and lived 0:18:55.800 --> 0:18:58.840 off of soup bones. And well, his grandmam had a 0:18:58.920 --> 0:19:01.280 job in a school lunch. She had a lot of 0:19:01.320 --> 0:19:04.000 odd jobs to just feed the family, and she often 0:19:04.040 --> 0:19:06.680 took him with her. And so, as he writes, quote, 0:19:06.920 --> 0:19:09.919 I started picking cotton alongside my grandmother when I was 0:19:09.960 --> 0:19:12.159 maybe five or six years old. Wow. I had a 0:19:12.200 --> 0:19:14.119 little bit of cotton sacks she made for me, and 0:19:14.200 --> 0:19:16.520 some knee pads so I could crawl along beside her. 0:19:16.920 --> 0:19:19.760 I learned a lot about what hard work farming is. 0:19:20.600 --> 0:19:22.879 So this is probably why he's devoted so much of 0:19:22.920 --> 0:19:25.000 his effort to farm mate, if you think about it. 0:19:25.040 --> 0:19:28.359 And apparently those days in the field really shaped him musically. 0:19:28.800 --> 0:19:31.080 There were a lot of black farm workers, he says, 0:19:31.240 --> 0:19:34.320 Mexican farm workers, a lot of guys like me, little 0:19:34.320 --> 0:19:36.439