1 00:00:00,560 --> 00:00:03,760 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you missed in History class from how 2 00:00:03,800 --> 00:00:12,639 Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. In celebration of the reopening of 3 00:00:12,720 --> 00:00:15,840 Speaker 1: the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum and the former 4 00:00:15,880 --> 00:00:19,440 Speaker 1: president's eighty five birthday, we sat down with Nobel Laureate 5 00:00:19,520 --> 00:00:22,280 Speaker 1: Jimmy Carter to talk about the highlights of his presidency 6 00:00:22,440 --> 00:00:28,040 Speaker 1: and his hopes for the Carter Center. Well, thank you 7 00:00:28,120 --> 00:00:30,320 Speaker 1: so much for the opportunity to speak with you today. 8 00:00:30,400 --> 00:00:33,879 Speaker 1: Were so excited to ask you many questions because you've 9 00:00:33,880 --> 00:00:36,320 Speaker 1: been so active in your post presidency and there's so 10 00:00:36,360 --> 00:00:38,800 Speaker 1: many things we want to know. But the one where 11 00:00:38,840 --> 00:00:41,720 Speaker 1: most curious about is your work with guinea worm disease. 12 00:00:42,520 --> 00:00:45,680 Speaker 1: And we know that this remarkable project is the effort 13 00:00:45,720 --> 00:00:48,680 Speaker 1: to eradicate it, and we're wondering why you picked that 14 00:00:48,800 --> 00:00:53,920 Speaker 1: as a cause. The Carter Center is basically premises to 15 00:00:54,000 --> 00:00:57,400 Speaker 1: deal with things that no one else wants to touch. Oh, 16 00:00:57,480 --> 00:00:59,640 Speaker 1: that are so difficult that nobody thinks that can be 17 00:00:59,640 --> 00:01:05,360 Speaker 1: succeed usful and guinea worm challenge fulfill Both those were crammins. 18 00:01:06,600 --> 00:01:10,000 Speaker 1: We found guinea worm and twenty three thousand, six hundred 19 00:01:10,080 --> 00:01:14,039 Speaker 1: of the most isolated villages on Earth. They didn't have 20 00:01:14,080 --> 00:01:17,200 Speaker 1: any aspect of running water and no wells, but just 21 00:01:17,280 --> 00:01:20,480 Speaker 1: got their drinking water out of what we would call 22 00:01:20,520 --> 00:01:24,040 Speaker 1: a mudhole that filled up in the rainy season and 23 00:01:24,080 --> 00:01:28,160 Speaker 1: then dried out. And within that stagnant water, the guinea 24 00:01:28,200 --> 00:01:31,880 Speaker 1: worm eggs breed and when people drink the water, which 25 00:01:31,880 --> 00:01:33,440 Speaker 1: they have to do they don't have any other source, 26 00:01:34,800 --> 00:01:39,000 Speaker 1: their egg goes into the human body and twelve months 27 00:01:39,080 --> 00:01:43,880 Speaker 1: later it evolves into a worm about thirty long, and 28 00:01:43,959 --> 00:01:48,720 Speaker 1: it stings inside of the epidermis of skin. It makes 29 00:01:48,720 --> 00:01:53,120 Speaker 1: a horrendous sol that's so beauty. It destroys muscles and 30 00:01:53,200 --> 00:01:57,280 Speaker 1: as the guinea worm egg emerges the female, if the 31 00:01:57,320 --> 00:01:59,440 Speaker 1: people wade out into the water to get another drink 32 00:01:59,480 --> 00:02:02,360 Speaker 1: of water or to ease the pain, then the guinea 33 00:02:02,360 --> 00:02:06,320 Speaker 1: worm lays hundreds of thousands of new eggs. So that's 34 00:02:06,360 --> 00:02:10,079 Speaker 1: the process. And we have been in all twenty three 35 00:02:10,120 --> 00:02:14,000 Speaker 1: thousand six d villages and I think twenty one nations, 36 00:02:14,240 --> 00:02:16,880 Speaker 1: three in Asia and the rest of them in Africa 37 00:02:17,480 --> 00:02:21,280 Speaker 1: to teach the local villages what causes the disease and 38 00:02:21,320 --> 00:02:28,960 Speaker 1: how to prevent its its repetition. Luckily, guinea worm has 39 00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:32,480 Speaker 1: to go through the human body each year. It can't 40 00:02:32,600 --> 00:02:35,720 Speaker 1: be survived by going through goats or cattle or sheep, 41 00:02:36,160 --> 00:02:38,359 Speaker 1: has to go through human body. So if we can 42 00:02:38,360 --> 00:02:43,880 Speaker 1: teach the humans how to interrupt that cycle by never 43 00:02:43,960 --> 00:02:46,200 Speaker 1: waiting out into the water when you have guinea worm 44 00:02:46,280 --> 00:02:49,760 Speaker 1: coming out of your body, or by filtering the water 45 00:02:49,840 --> 00:02:56,600 Speaker 1: through a very fine, permanent nation filter cloth, then if 46 00:02:56,600 --> 00:02:59,920 Speaker 1: they do that for a whole year in an entire village, 47 00:03:00,280 --> 00:03:05,520 Speaker 1: than guinea worm it's gone forever. So we hope and 48 00:03:05,600 --> 00:03:10,480 Speaker 1: expect that we'll soon have guinea worm completely eradicated from 49 00:03:10,480 --> 00:03:13,519 Speaker 1: the face of the earth. I had a report yesterday 50 00:03:13,600 --> 00:03:18,240 Speaker 1: and they've only found uses of guinea worm in all 51 00:03:18,240 --> 00:03:22,600 Speaker 1: the world, uh compared to three point six million cases 52 00:03:22,600 --> 00:03:26,400 Speaker 1: when we first started. So now we know every case 53 00:03:26,400 --> 00:03:30,040 Speaker 1: of guinea worm that exists, and we are trying very 54 00:03:30,120 --> 00:03:33,040 Speaker 1: hard to contain those cases and to make sure that 55 00:03:33,040 --> 00:03:35,640 Speaker 1: the people that have guinea worm don't spread it on 56 00:03:35,840 --> 00:03:41,320 Speaker 1: for the next generation. And I'm wondering, because guinea worm 57 00:03:41,400 --> 00:03:44,600 Speaker 1: is mentioned in ancient texts and even the Bible, It's 58 00:03:44,600 --> 00:03:47,960 Speaker 1: obviously been around for quite a long time. Why did 59 00:03:48,000 --> 00:03:49,880 Speaker 1: it take so long for someone to take us up 60 00:03:49,920 --> 00:03:53,840 Speaker 1: as a cause. I think that it's only been in 61 00:03:53,880 --> 00:03:57,280 Speaker 1: the last i'd say thirty years that people have known 62 00:03:57,360 --> 00:04:01,160 Speaker 1: for sure what cause guinea worm. The cycle of the 63 00:04:01,400 --> 00:04:05,400 Speaker 1: that I've already described, and also the people that have 64 00:04:05,440 --> 00:04:08,440 Speaker 1: getting worm were so widely scattered quite uphen there are 65 00:04:08,440 --> 00:04:10,440 Speaker 1: in tiny little villages at the end of a road 66 00:04:10,720 --> 00:04:13,320 Speaker 1: or in the betrayal, and the only way you get 67 00:04:13,360 --> 00:04:16,240 Speaker 1: there is by walking down a narrow trail. So it 68 00:04:16,360 --> 00:04:21,000 Speaker 1: was just an almost insurmountable problem to go to every 69 00:04:21,080 --> 00:04:25,920 Speaker 1: village in a country and make sure you had of 70 00:04:26,160 --> 00:04:28,960 Speaker 1: the people acquainted with how to get rid of it. 71 00:04:29,640 --> 00:04:31,880 Speaker 1: But we decided to undertake that, and we've had a 72 00:04:31,880 --> 00:04:35,360 Speaker 1: lot of help, of course along the way, uh, and 73 00:04:35,400 --> 00:04:40,760 Speaker 1: we've now been successful. Sometimes it was not easy in 74 00:04:40,800 --> 00:04:45,159 Speaker 1: the village because the the witch doctors i'll say, made 75 00:04:45,160 --> 00:04:49,080 Speaker 1: a living treating getting worm cases and they didn't want 76 00:04:49,120 --> 00:04:53,360 Speaker 1: their living interrupted by having getting worm eradicated. And then 77 00:04:53,360 --> 00:04:55,479 Speaker 1: they would tell the chief of the village that the 78 00:04:55,520 --> 00:04:59,159 Speaker 1: courter center was just lying to the folks that it 79 00:04:59,320 --> 00:05:03,160 Speaker 1: wasn't the fault of that beautiful little pond where they 80 00:05:03,200 --> 00:05:05,520 Speaker 1: got the water. If it hadn't been for the pond, 81 00:05:05,560 --> 00:05:08,880 Speaker 1: the village wouldn't have been there. The ancestors wouldn't have lived, 82 00:05:09,920 --> 00:05:12,520 Speaker 1: and so they looked upon the village pond whether the 83 00:05:12,560 --> 00:05:16,080 Speaker 1: guinea worm came from, as sacred, and we were violating, 84 00:05:16,920 --> 00:05:19,360 Speaker 1: you know, their religious beliefs by going in and heppen. 85 00:05:19,680 --> 00:05:22,839 Speaker 1: But so we've had overcome those kind of impediments, and 86 00:05:22,920 --> 00:05:26,400 Speaker 1: sometimes the guinea worm has existed in places in the 87 00:05:26,480 --> 00:05:31,120 Speaker 1: country that had a civil war. Going home or sometimes 88 00:05:31,240 --> 00:05:33,960 Speaker 1: no mads would go from one village to another during 89 00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:39,400 Speaker 1: the agricultural season and we could eliminate the guinea worm 90 00:05:39,440 --> 00:05:42,600 Speaker 1: in one village, and then new agricultural workers would come 91 00:05:42,640 --> 00:05:45,000 Speaker 1: in and had guinea worm, and they would wait out 92 00:05:45,000 --> 00:05:47,120 Speaker 1: in this into the water and started all over again. 93 00:05:47,160 --> 00:05:49,040 Speaker 1: So we've had to overcome all those kind of problems, 94 00:05:49,040 --> 00:05:52,400 Speaker 1: but we've done it successfully. Be short. Tune in every 95 00:05:52,400 --> 00:05:55,679 Speaker 1: Wednesday in September for more of our interview with President Carter. 96 00:05:56,200 --> 00:05:58,560 Speaker 1: To learn more about the Carter Center and its mission 97 00:05:58,600 --> 00:06:02,479 Speaker 1: of waging peace by getting disease and building help, visit 98 00:06:02,640 --> 00:06:07,000 Speaker 1: www dot Carter Center dot org and, as always, for 99 00:06:07,080 --> 00:06:09,960 Speaker 1: moral miss and thousands of other topics, visit how staff 100 00:06:09,960 --> 00:06:13,599 Speaker 1: works dot com.