1 00:00:01,280 --> 00:00:04,320 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 2 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:14,000 Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 3 00:00:14,080 --> 00:00:17,520 Speaker 1: I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Holly Fry. I have 4 00:00:17,600 --> 00:00:20,079 Speaker 1: had Horace Fletcher on my to do list for a 5 00:00:20,120 --> 00:00:24,599 Speaker 1: podcast for forever. He is best known for starting a 6 00:00:24,720 --> 00:00:28,560 Speaker 1: food fad that came to be known as Fletcherism, and 7 00:00:28,640 --> 00:00:33,080 Speaker 1: this involved, uh largely, chewing your food a lot. There 8 00:00:33,120 --> 00:00:37,400 Speaker 1: were some other aspects to but chewing a lot, a lot, 9 00:00:37,440 --> 00:00:41,280 Speaker 1: a lot. There were a ton of food fattists in 10 00:00:41,320 --> 00:00:44,120 Speaker 1: the early twentieth century, and Fletcher was really one of 11 00:00:44,120 --> 00:00:47,159 Speaker 1: the most famous. He probably if you were ranking them, 12 00:00:47,200 --> 00:00:50,000 Speaker 1: he would come in second to John Harvey Kellogg, who 13 00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:54,280 Speaker 1: we've talked about on the show before. Kellogg called Horace 14 00:00:54,400 --> 00:00:58,880 Speaker 1: Fletcher the quote founder of a new and wonderful movement. 15 00:00:59,040 --> 00:01:01,640 Speaker 1: And if you've seen the movie The Road to Wellville 16 00:01:01,720 --> 00:01:04,959 Speaker 1: and you remember the scene where they sing a song 17 00:01:05,000 --> 00:01:08,520 Speaker 1: about chewing, there really was such a song. The song 18 00:01:08,560 --> 00:01:11,360 Speaker 1: in the movie not the real song. There doesn't seem 19 00:01:11,440 --> 00:01:14,920 Speaker 1: to be like a surviving copy of the actual song, 20 00:01:15,040 --> 00:01:17,560 Speaker 1: but there there was a song that they sang in 21 00:01:17,600 --> 00:01:22,840 Speaker 1: the dining room about chewing. Uh. So heads up. Uh, 22 00:01:22,880 --> 00:01:26,520 Speaker 1: this episode is about a food fad, so we're going 23 00:01:26,560 --> 00:01:29,120 Speaker 1: to be talking a lot about food and eating and 24 00:01:29,160 --> 00:01:32,319 Speaker 1: restrictive diets and weight loss and all that kind of stuff. 25 00:01:32,319 --> 00:01:37,840 Speaker 1: And then also when I described what Fletcherizing involved to 26 00:01:38,040 --> 00:01:42,000 Speaker 1: my spouse, he found it incredibly gross and insisted that 27 00:01:42,080 --> 00:01:46,280 Speaker 1: I needed to warn people about that too. Um. And 28 00:01:46,400 --> 00:01:49,680 Speaker 1: just to be incredibly clear, we are not advocating any 29 00:01:49,720 --> 00:01:52,280 Speaker 1: of these methods. In fact, we are not making any 30 00:01:52,360 --> 00:01:57,120 Speaker 1: dietary recommendations whatsoever in this episode. We are just talking 31 00:01:57,200 --> 00:02:01,840 Speaker 1: about them. Horace Page Fletcher was born August tenth, eighteen 32 00:02:01,920 --> 00:02:05,240 Speaker 1: forty nine, in Lawrence, Massachusetts. That's on the Merrimack River, 33 00:02:05,360 --> 00:02:09,280 Speaker 1: about thirty miles north of Boston. His parents were Isaac 34 00:02:09,360 --> 00:02:12,000 Speaker 1: and Mary Blake Fletcher, and he was the youngest of 35 00:02:12,040 --> 00:02:15,680 Speaker 1: their four children. A lot of his life sounds like 36 00:02:15,880 --> 00:02:19,280 Speaker 1: it must have been both fascinating and exciting, but most 37 00:02:19,320 --> 00:02:22,120 Speaker 1: sources repeat the same few points without a lot of 38 00:02:22,160 --> 00:02:27,120 Speaker 1: concrete detail. Like a very brief obituary of Horace's father, Isaac, 39 00:02:27,480 --> 00:02:31,040 Speaker 1: describes him as a stone contractor, a deacon at First 40 00:02:31,080 --> 00:02:34,640 Speaker 1: Baptist Church of Lawrence, and one of Lawrence's oldest citizens. 41 00:02:34,960 --> 00:02:37,239 Speaker 1: When he died in eighteen eighty five at the age 42 00:02:37,240 --> 00:02:40,640 Speaker 1: of seventy six. Other than that, we don't really know 43 00:02:40,760 --> 00:02:43,959 Speaker 1: much about the family or what their life was like. Yeah, 44 00:02:43,960 --> 00:02:46,480 Speaker 1: according to one person who wrote an obituary, he had 45 00:02:46,480 --> 00:02:50,480 Speaker 1: been working on an autobiography, and this obituary writer was like, 46 00:02:50,520 --> 00:02:53,079 Speaker 1: I sure hope that wasn't lost, But as far as 47 00:02:53,120 --> 00:02:57,480 Speaker 1: I know it was lost, that does still exist somewhere. 48 00:02:57,480 --> 00:03:01,960 Speaker 1: I wasn't able to find reference to it. We have 49 00:03:02,080 --> 00:03:05,680 Speaker 1: a pretty good sense though, that Horace always loved adventure, 50 00:03:05,919 --> 00:03:07,880 Speaker 1: and when he was nine years old he tried to 51 00:03:07,960 --> 00:03:11,440 Speaker 1: run away so he could go to See. He did 52 00:03:11,440 --> 00:03:13,720 Speaker 1: not go to see. Somebody caught him and brought him 53 00:03:13,720 --> 00:03:16,160 Speaker 1: back home, and then after that point he was sent 54 00:03:16,200 --> 00:03:19,960 Speaker 1: to school in New London, New Hampshire. Once he finished school, 55 00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:24,360 Speaker 1: he once again tried to go to See, this time successfully. 56 00:03:24,400 --> 00:03:26,960 Speaker 1: He found a position on a whaler that was bound 57 00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:29,720 Speaker 1: for Japan, and after this trip he had just a 58 00:03:29,760 --> 00:03:35,480 Speaker 1: lifelong fascination with Japan and more specifically with Buddhism. After 59 00:03:35,600 --> 00:03:39,320 Speaker 1: returning to the US, Fletcher enrolled in Dartmouth College, but 60 00:03:39,520 --> 00:03:41,880 Speaker 1: he only stayed there for a year before setting off 61 00:03:41,920 --> 00:03:45,560 Speaker 1: for more travels. He later described his life this way. 62 00:03:45,840 --> 00:03:49,119 Speaker 1: Quote four complete trips around the world, two of them 63 00:03:49,120 --> 00:03:53,720 Speaker 1: before the time of ocean steamship lines and continental railroads, 64 00:03:53,760 --> 00:03:57,440 Speaker 1: thirty six trips across the American continent by various rail, 65 00:03:57,560 --> 00:04:02,280 Speaker 1: water and stage routes. Six teen voyages across the Pacific Ocean, 66 00:04:02,640 --> 00:04:06,960 Speaker 1: and many across the Atlantic. Intermittent periods of residents in 67 00:04:07,040 --> 00:04:11,000 Speaker 1: many different countries of Europe, in China, in India, in Japan, 68 00:04:11,520 --> 00:04:14,800 Speaker 1: and in different localities in the Americas, as well as 69 00:04:14,920 --> 00:04:18,120 Speaker 1: visits to parts remote from the lines of travel, such 70 00:04:18,120 --> 00:04:21,720 Speaker 1: as South Africa, Yucatan, and the mountain regions of Mexico 71 00:04:22,040 --> 00:04:24,919 Speaker 1: and Central America. That are the types of all the 72 00:04:24,960 --> 00:04:28,800 Speaker 1: South American countries, and all of which residences and visits 73 00:04:28,800 --> 00:04:32,120 Speaker 1: have been chosen at times of greatest interest in each 74 00:04:32,160 --> 00:04:35,840 Speaker 1: locality in response to the invitation of the spirit of 75 00:04:35,880 --> 00:04:39,280 Speaker 1: adventure by which I have been led. These, together with 76 00:04:39,320 --> 00:04:43,400 Speaker 1: no less than thirty eight distinct occupations, embraced the sum 77 00:04:43,440 --> 00:04:48,400 Speaker 1: of my opportunities. So yeah, that reference to occupations. He 78 00:04:48,440 --> 00:04:50,919 Speaker 1: was not always just traveling for its own sake, Although 79 00:04:50,960 --> 00:04:54,040 Speaker 1: I'm sure some of those trips were mostly about pleasure. 80 00:04:54,080 --> 00:04:57,760 Speaker 1: He was also making money doing things like working aboard 81 00:04:57,880 --> 00:05:02,360 Speaker 1: ships and importing and exporting US goods. He also developed 82 00:05:02,360 --> 00:05:06,000 Speaker 1: a reputation as an athlete and a marksman. In eighteen 83 00:05:06,080 --> 00:05:10,520 Speaker 1: eighty he wrote a pamphlet called ABC of Snap Shooting, Sporting, 84 00:05:10,720 --> 00:05:15,040 Speaker 1: Exhibition and Military so along with describing how to raise, 85 00:05:15,200 --> 00:05:18,080 Speaker 1: point and fire a weapon all in one fast and 86 00:05:18,120 --> 00:05:23,400 Speaker 1: efficient and accurate movement, this pamphlet also described a Fletcher 87 00:05:23,560 --> 00:05:27,080 Speaker 1: ball bell that you could use as a throne target. 88 00:05:27,760 --> 00:05:31,480 Speaker 1: This was made from two metal hemispheres joined by a post, 89 00:05:31,560 --> 00:05:34,839 Speaker 1: which would make a very distinctive ringing sound if the 90 00:05:34,880 --> 00:05:39,360 Speaker 1: shooter hit it. He described at length why the Fletcher 91 00:05:39,480 --> 00:05:43,440 Speaker 1: bell ball was superior to other types of throne targets. 92 00:05:44,200 --> 00:05:47,400 Speaker 1: The back of this pamphlet also contained an advertisement for 93 00:05:47,440 --> 00:05:51,680 Speaker 1: a rowing machine patent applied for that Fletcher had designed, 94 00:05:51,720 --> 00:05:55,400 Speaker 1: which came in different configurations, including one's meant to be 95 00:05:55,520 --> 00:05:59,599 Speaker 1: used by rowing clubs. In eighteen eighty, so the same 96 00:05:59,680 --> 00:06:02,280 Speaker 1: year that he published that pamphlet, the thirty one year 97 00:06:02,320 --> 00:06:06,400 Speaker 1: old Fletcher was settled enough in San Francisco, California that 98 00:06:06,440 --> 00:06:10,599 Speaker 1: he actually registered to vote there, so presumably planning to 99 00:06:10,640 --> 00:06:13,000 Speaker 1: stay at least for a little while, and a year 100 00:06:13,080 --> 00:06:16,919 Speaker 1: later he married Grace Adelaide Marsh, who was twenty four. 101 00:06:17,520 --> 00:06:20,919 Speaker 1: Grace had a four year old daughter named Ivy, also 102 00:06:21,000 --> 00:06:26,039 Speaker 1: a one. Fletcher applied for another patents along with William 103 00:06:26,160 --> 00:06:32,200 Speaker 1: Rose Finch. This one was for improvements in breach loading firearms. 104 00:06:32,800 --> 00:06:35,760 Speaker 1: While living in San Francisco, Fletcher seems to have kept 105 00:06:35,839 --> 00:06:39,719 Speaker 1: up his habit of pursuing various interests. In addition to 106 00:06:39,760 --> 00:06:43,520 Speaker 1: the shooting manual in the rowing machine and those firearm improvements, 107 00:06:43,720 --> 00:06:46,880 Speaker 1: he made a printer's ink, and he established an import 108 00:06:46,920 --> 00:06:50,320 Speaker 1: business to bring in goods from Asia. He liked to paint, 109 00:06:50,680 --> 00:06:53,680 Speaker 1: and he exhibited his own work. He also was an 110 00:06:53,680 --> 00:06:57,240 Speaker 1: avid reader and autodidact. According to some accounts, he helped 111 00:06:57,320 --> 00:07:01,560 Speaker 1: establish the Bohemian Club that's an elite, invitation only men's 112 00:07:01,600 --> 00:07:05,400 Speaker 1: social club. But the Bohemian Club was established in eighteen 113 00:07:05,440 --> 00:07:08,919 Speaker 1: seventy two, when Fletcher was only twenty three, does not 114 00:07:09,160 --> 00:07:10,840 Speaker 1: seem to have been the time when he was living 115 00:07:10,880 --> 00:07:15,360 Speaker 1: in San Francisco. Yet eventually the Fletchers moved to New Orleans. 116 00:07:15,520 --> 00:07:18,760 Speaker 1: Later on, Horace was described as quote one of the 117 00:07:18,920 --> 00:07:23,640 Speaker 1: social and literary lights of New Orleans. This writer also 118 00:07:23,720 --> 00:07:27,360 Speaker 1: described him as a ripe scholar a charming gentleman and 119 00:07:27,560 --> 00:07:31,760 Speaker 1: a successful businessman. By eight nine two, he was managing 120 00:07:31,760 --> 00:07:34,440 Speaker 1: the New Orleans Opera House, although this seems to have 121 00:07:34,560 --> 00:07:39,400 Speaker 1: led to some financial trouble. Operas are expensive, and in 122 00:07:39,440 --> 00:07:44,240 Speaker 1: eighteen ninety four the Opera Guarantee Association filed suit against 123 00:07:44,320 --> 00:07:48,560 Speaker 1: him over ten thousand dollars an opera company debt. This 124 00:07:48,760 --> 00:07:52,200 Speaker 1: is debt that Fletcher was contractually obligated to pay off. 125 00:07:52,960 --> 00:07:55,720 Speaker 1: Other than that lawsuit, it really seems like Fletcher was 126 00:07:55,760 --> 00:07:58,400 Speaker 1: living a pretty good life, one in which he was 127 00:07:58,440 --> 00:08:01,360 Speaker 1: well liked and well respect and wherever he went, and 128 00:08:01,440 --> 00:08:04,520 Speaker 1: which was also full of travel and adventure and things 129 00:08:04,520 --> 00:08:07,080 Speaker 1: that he enjoyed. He had made a lot of money 130 00:08:07,120 --> 00:08:09,520 Speaker 1: and then used it to fund things like opera and 131 00:08:09,600 --> 00:08:12,880 Speaker 1: theater and art. But as he got into his mid forties, 132 00:08:13,280 --> 00:08:16,480 Speaker 1: he was also experiencing what we think a lot of 133 00:08:16,560 --> 00:08:18,760 Speaker 1: us do in our mid forties. He was feeling kind 134 00:08:18,760 --> 00:08:22,600 Speaker 1: of run down. He had persistent indigestion, and he also 135 00:08:22,640 --> 00:08:25,120 Speaker 1: came down with what he described as a case of 136 00:08:25,160 --> 00:08:30,240 Speaker 1: influenza about every six months around He applied for a 137 00:08:30,280 --> 00:08:33,560 Speaker 1: life insurance policy and he was turned down as an 138 00:08:33,640 --> 00:08:38,040 Speaker 1: unacceptable health risk. This was a wake up call. Fletcher 139 00:08:38,120 --> 00:08:42,560 Speaker 1: later described this experience this way quote. About ten years ago, 140 00:08:42,800 --> 00:08:45,960 Speaker 1: at the critical age of forty four, the author was 141 00:08:46,120 --> 00:08:49,480 Speaker 1: fast becoming a physical wreck in the midst of a 142 00:08:49,520 --> 00:08:53,760 Speaker 1: business club and social tempest. Although he was trained as 143 00:08:53,800 --> 00:08:56,440 Speaker 1: an athlete in his youth and had lived an active 144 00:08:56,480 --> 00:09:00,120 Speaker 1: and most agreeable life, he had contracted a degree of 145 00:09:00,160 --> 00:09:03,920 Speaker 1: physical disorder that made him ineligible as an insurance risk. 146 00:09:04,480 --> 00:09:09,559 Speaker 1: This unexpected disability, with such unmistakable warning, was so much 147 00:09:09,600 --> 00:09:12,640 Speaker 1: a shock to his hopes of a long life that 148 00:09:12,720 --> 00:09:16,120 Speaker 1: it led to his making a strong personal effort to 149 00:09:16,320 --> 00:09:20,920 Speaker 1: save himself. So he decided to stop what he was doing, 150 00:09:21,559 --> 00:09:23,960 Speaker 1: figure out what was causing all of these changes to 151 00:09:24,120 --> 00:09:27,600 Speaker 1: his body and health, and then fix it quote. The 152 00:09:27,679 --> 00:09:30,959 Speaker 1: study was taken up in a systematic manner, account of 153 00:09:31,000 --> 00:09:33,880 Speaker 1: which is too long to relate here. But the eager 154 00:09:33,960 --> 00:09:37,560 Speaker 1: auto reformer soon learned that his troubles came from too 155 00:09:37,640 --> 00:09:41,160 Speaker 1: much of many things, among them too much food and 156 00:09:41,200 --> 00:09:45,040 Speaker 1: too much needless worry. And realizing the danger ahead, he 157 00:09:45,160 --> 00:09:48,600 Speaker 1: sought a way to cure himself of his disabilities by 158 00:09:48,600 --> 00:09:53,200 Speaker 1: the help of an economic food supply, as did Luigi Cornaro. 159 00:09:53,280 --> 00:09:55,680 Speaker 1: But what is even more important. He found a way 160 00:09:55,720 --> 00:09:59,160 Speaker 1: to enjoy the smaller quantity of food much more than 161 00:09:59,200 --> 00:10:02,839 Speaker 1: any plethora luxury can give, and arrived at the method 162 00:10:02,920 --> 00:10:05,320 Speaker 1: by a route that showed a means of conserving a 163 00:10:05,320 --> 00:10:09,120 Speaker 1: healthy economy and an increased pleasure of eating at the 164 00:10:09,200 --> 00:10:13,320 Speaker 1: same time, in quite a simple and scientific manner that 165 00:10:13,520 --> 00:10:17,960 Speaker 1: anyone may learn and practice without any ascetic deprivation whatever. 166 00:10:18,840 --> 00:10:22,920 Speaker 1: So side note. Luigi Cornaro was a Venetian nobleman who 167 00:10:22,960 --> 00:10:26,760 Speaker 1: lived in the sixteenth century and credit a severe calorie 168 00:10:26,840 --> 00:10:31,079 Speaker 1: restriction with restoring him to physical health, and Fletcher brought 169 00:10:31,120 --> 00:10:34,640 Speaker 1: him up a lot in his writing. Fletcher later described 170 00:10:34,679 --> 00:10:37,520 Speaker 1: this as a five month process in which he assessed 171 00:10:37,760 --> 00:10:41,520 Speaker 1: how he was thinking, eating and just living and made changes. 172 00:10:42,080 --> 00:10:45,000 Speaker 1: And in his mind those changes were so successful and 173 00:10:45,080 --> 00:10:48,360 Speaker 1: so transformative that he needed to share them with others. 174 00:10:48,920 --> 00:10:51,240 Speaker 1: So soon he was writing books on the subject. And 175 00:10:51,240 --> 00:10:53,120 Speaker 1: we're going to get into all of that after we 176 00:10:53,160 --> 00:11:06,480 Speaker 1: pause for a sponsor break. Although Horace Fletcher's most famous 177 00:11:06,559 --> 00:11:10,640 Speaker 1: health advice was about chewing food, his first books didn't 178 00:11:10,679 --> 00:11:14,079 Speaker 1: really focus on that at all. His first two books 179 00:11:14,160 --> 00:11:18,640 Speaker 1: were Mental Culture or The Abc of True Living, published 180 00:11:18,640 --> 00:11:25,120 Speaker 1: in and Happiness as Found in Forethought Minus Fear Thought, 181 00:11:25,280 --> 00:11:28,680 Speaker 1: which came out two years later. I feel like that 182 00:11:28,720 --> 00:11:30,960 Speaker 1: could be published today and people would lap it up 183 00:11:30,960 --> 00:11:34,240 Speaker 1: with a spoon, for sure. A lot of the things 184 00:11:34,240 --> 00:11:39,000 Speaker 1: that he talks about in these books are very um 185 00:11:39,000 --> 00:11:42,080 Speaker 1: in line with things that you might read in various 186 00:11:42,320 --> 00:11:47,320 Speaker 1: self help or maybe kind of new a G books today. 187 00:11:47,440 --> 00:11:50,720 Speaker 1: So Mental Culture was expanded from a talk that Fletcher 188 00:11:50,760 --> 00:11:53,280 Speaker 1: gave a New Orleans to a group of what we're 189 00:11:53,280 --> 00:11:59,439 Speaker 1: called mental scientists that would have included psychologists, moral philosophers, behaviorists, 190 00:11:59,679 --> 00:12:02,640 Speaker 1: basedly anyone whose work was connected to the mind and 191 00:12:02,720 --> 00:12:06,000 Speaker 1: mental health at this relatively early point in the history 192 00:12:06,000 --> 00:12:09,960 Speaker 1: of psychology as a field. He mentioned humanity struggled to 193 00:12:10,040 --> 00:12:13,400 Speaker 1: treat disease until the development of germ theory, and in 194 00:12:13,559 --> 00:12:17,600 Speaker 1: Fletcher's view, mental illnesses had germs of their own, and 195 00:12:17,640 --> 00:12:21,360 Speaker 1: there were ways to get rid of those germs. Rs. 196 00:12:21,440 --> 00:12:25,679 Speaker 1: Fletcher stressed that this was not his own new discovery. 197 00:12:25,880 --> 00:12:30,920 Speaker 1: Quote Christ, Buddha, Aristotle, Omar Khyam, and many others have 198 00:12:31,080 --> 00:12:35,480 Speaker 1: all suggested that the elimination of the evil passions is 199 00:12:35,679 --> 00:12:39,320 Speaker 1: entirely possible. But my special analysis of them and the 200 00:12:39,440 --> 00:12:42,200 Speaker 1: easy method of defeat that I have found possible to 201 00:12:42,320 --> 00:12:46,120 Speaker 1: myself have excited such interests that I have been induced 202 00:12:46,200 --> 00:12:49,760 Speaker 1: to publish them without attempting to follow the subject beyond 203 00:12:49,800 --> 00:12:53,920 Speaker 1: the elementary stage. Long story short, all of those evil 204 00:12:54,000 --> 00:12:57,000 Speaker 1: passions were rooted in anger or worry, and if you 205 00:12:57,120 --> 00:13:00,200 Speaker 1: got rid of anger and worry, you could get rid 206 00:13:00,240 --> 00:13:06,559 Speaker 1: of all of their associated ills. That sounds great. Yeah, 207 00:13:06,640 --> 00:13:10,720 Speaker 1: he doesn't ever seem to engage with the idea that, 208 00:13:10,800 --> 00:13:14,320 Speaker 1: like a person could have a mental illness, that that 209 00:13:14,880 --> 00:13:18,839 Speaker 1: makes getting rid of worry and anger kind of outside 210 00:13:18,840 --> 00:13:21,720 Speaker 1: of their control in a lot of ways. Right, there's 211 00:13:21,720 --> 00:13:25,400 Speaker 1: a presumption of like a level playing field of everyone's 212 00:13:26,360 --> 00:13:29,040 Speaker 1: mental health. Yes, yeah, but you know, I have for 213 00:13:29,080 --> 00:13:31,760 Speaker 1: sure been in places or times in my life when 214 00:13:31,880 --> 00:13:34,720 Speaker 1: I was making a lot of my own misery by 215 00:13:34,760 --> 00:13:40,760 Speaker 1: my own uh like thought patterns, and you know, getting 216 00:13:40,760 --> 00:13:43,560 Speaker 1: out of those thought patterns changed things. So I mean, 217 00:13:43,760 --> 00:13:49,040 Speaker 1: that's that part of it is both appealing and problematic. 218 00:13:49,160 --> 00:13:52,160 Speaker 1: So anyway, he offered a prescription for how to do 219 00:13:52,240 --> 00:13:56,040 Speaker 1: this quote one grain of the assurance of Christ that 220 00:13:56,080 --> 00:13:59,280 Speaker 1: man is made in the image of God, one grain 221 00:13:59,440 --> 00:14:02,360 Speaker 1: of risk begged for the responsibility of the care and 222 00:14:02,440 --> 00:14:06,319 Speaker 1: culture of the divine essence with which we have been entrusted. 223 00:14:07,000 --> 00:14:11,040 Speaker 1: One grain of the command of Christ implying a possibility 224 00:14:11,320 --> 00:14:15,320 Speaker 1: be perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect. One 225 00:14:15,360 --> 00:14:18,720 Speaker 1: grain of the example of Buddha that a man can 226 00:14:18,760 --> 00:14:22,760 Speaker 1: grow to perfection through the elimination of anger and worry 227 00:14:22,840 --> 00:14:26,760 Speaker 1: and their brood of dependent passions. One grain of the 228 00:14:26,800 --> 00:14:30,560 Speaker 1: wisdom of Aristotle, which declared that the passions are habits 229 00:14:30,560 --> 00:14:32,680 Speaker 1: of the mind and can be gotten rid of as 230 00:14:32,720 --> 00:14:36,520 Speaker 1: physical habits are gotten rid of. One grain of the 231 00:14:36,560 --> 00:14:41,040 Speaker 1: assurance of Omar Khayam that Heaven and Hell are within ourselves. 232 00:14:41,520 --> 00:14:44,400 Speaker 1: One grain of the assurance of Christ that the Kingdom 233 00:14:44,440 --> 00:14:48,200 Speaker 1: of Heaven is at hand. One grain of common sense 234 00:14:48,280 --> 00:14:51,720 Speaker 1: applied to an analysis of mental handicaps and the discovery 235 00:14:51,760 --> 00:14:55,640 Speaker 1: of their limitations. One grain of the today experience of 236 00:14:55,680 --> 00:14:59,040 Speaker 1: the author that anger and worry are the roots of 237 00:14:59,080 --> 00:15:03,960 Speaker 1: all the passion which depress and can be eliminated. Sounds 238 00:15:03,960 --> 00:15:11,520 Speaker 1: great uh Fletcher's next book, Happiness as Found in Forethought 239 00:15:11,560 --> 00:15:15,080 Speaker 1: Minus Fear Thought, was quote written in answer to many 240 00:15:15,160 --> 00:15:19,520 Speaker 1: questions elicited by the publication of mental culture. He offered 241 00:15:19,560 --> 00:15:22,520 Speaker 1: further thoughts on anger and fear in getting rid of them, 242 00:15:22,560 --> 00:15:27,280 Speaker 1: and outlined various definitions of concepts like altruism and envy. 243 00:15:27,440 --> 00:15:31,280 Speaker 1: As an example, here is his definition of optimism quote 244 00:15:31,480 --> 00:15:37,320 Speaker 1: optimism is forethought. Christianity, pure and undefiled is perfect optimism. 245 00:15:37,440 --> 00:15:42,840 Speaker 1: Christ is the perfect optimist. And for pessimism, pessimism is 246 00:15:42,920 --> 00:15:47,760 Speaker 1: fear thought. Pessimism is the devil. He stressed the need 247 00:15:47,960 --> 00:15:51,800 Speaker 1: to stay focused on the present with such gems as 248 00:15:52,080 --> 00:15:55,160 Speaker 1: let us work together for a season in the now field, 249 00:15:55,960 --> 00:15:59,480 Speaker 1: which is one of the best sentences I have ever read. 250 00:16:01,360 --> 00:16:03,720 Speaker 1: We're just gonna work in the now field. He also 251 00:16:03,920 --> 00:16:07,600 Speaker 1: offered some aphorisms and rules for living, including don't be 252 00:16:07,640 --> 00:16:10,800 Speaker 1: a sewer, which I think that's some good advice. Do 253 00:16:10,880 --> 00:16:13,280 Speaker 1: not be a sewer. I used to have a dance 254 00:16:13,320 --> 00:16:15,240 Speaker 1: teacher that would say that all the time, and I 255 00:16:15,320 --> 00:16:17,320 Speaker 1: wonder if she knew this is where it came from, 256 00:16:18,520 --> 00:16:23,520 Speaker 1: don't be a sewer. In Fletcher published That Last Waif 257 00:16:23,640 --> 00:16:27,040 Speaker 1: or a Social Quarantine a brief. This was a call 258 00:16:27,120 --> 00:16:30,960 Speaker 1: for better treatment of children, especially orphaned and abandoned children, 259 00:16:31,280 --> 00:16:34,920 Speaker 1: and he donated the book's proceeds to that cause. He 260 00:16:34,960 --> 00:16:38,000 Speaker 1: gave in it an anecdote of seeing a child about 261 00:16:38,040 --> 00:16:40,840 Speaker 1: four years old living in poverty in New Orleans during 262 00:16:40,840 --> 00:16:44,400 Speaker 1: the Spanish American War and feeling moved to see such 263 00:16:44,480 --> 00:16:49,400 Speaker 1: children better cared for. This wasn't a purely altruistic impulse. 264 00:16:49,480 --> 00:16:52,280 Speaker 1: The hope was that this would protect these children from 265 00:16:52,360 --> 00:16:55,920 Speaker 1: bad influences and allow them to grow up into productive, 266 00:16:56,040 --> 00:17:00,720 Speaker 1: upstanding members of society. Fletcher proposed to do this by 267 00:17:00,920 --> 00:17:06,080 Speaker 1: establishing kindergartens that would act as a social quarantine, which, 268 00:17:06,080 --> 00:17:09,439 Speaker 1: in his words, meant quote, throwing a perfect cordon of 269 00:17:09,560 --> 00:17:13,800 Speaker 1: care around tender souls coming into a nation or community, 270 00:17:13,880 --> 00:17:17,840 Speaker 1: so that none shall escape contact with the wholesome suggestions 271 00:17:17,920 --> 00:17:22,359 Speaker 1: and adequate nourishment that are essential to growth and habit 272 00:17:22,440 --> 00:17:25,560 Speaker 1: forming according to the best intelligence of the science of 273 00:17:25,720 --> 00:17:30,560 Speaker 1: child life. In this publication, he included a long list 274 00:17:30,680 --> 00:17:34,119 Speaker 1: of recommended organizations that he thought should participate in this 275 00:17:34,280 --> 00:17:37,800 Speaker 1: kindergarten project, as well as committees that needed to be 276 00:17:37,920 --> 00:17:41,240 Speaker 1: established to carry it out. This work included a lot 277 00:17:41,280 --> 00:17:45,440 Speaker 1: of references to educator Sarah Brown Ingersoll Cooper, who had 278 00:17:45,480 --> 00:17:48,479 Speaker 1: been a prominent voice in the kindergarten movement until her 279 00:17:48,520 --> 00:17:51,879 Speaker 1: tragic death just a couple of years before this. If 280 00:17:51,880 --> 00:17:55,000 Speaker 1: you go looking for information about her, this death involved 281 00:17:55,040 --> 00:17:59,280 Speaker 1: a suicide, So be Aware um It reprinted some of 282 00:17:59,280 --> 00:18:02,480 Speaker 1: her work as part of the book. Shortly before publishing 283 00:18:02,520 --> 00:18:04,919 Speaker 1: The Last Wave, Fletcher also put out a pair of 284 00:18:04,960 --> 00:18:10,240 Speaker 1: pamphlets on eating and nutrition, What Sense or Economic Nutrition 285 00:18:10,400 --> 00:18:14,440 Speaker 1: and Nature's Food Filter or What and When to Swallow. 286 00:18:15,200 --> 00:18:18,320 Speaker 1: He combined and expanded on them in eight nine, and 287 00:18:18,359 --> 00:18:21,760 Speaker 1: the result was The New Glutton or Epicure, which he 288 00:18:21,800 --> 00:18:26,639 Speaker 1: revised again and republished in nineteen o three. So Mental 289 00:18:26,680 --> 00:18:30,480 Speaker 1: Culture and Happiness had detailed how he had improved his 290 00:18:30,560 --> 00:18:34,119 Speaker 1: mental health by getting rid of anger and worry, and 291 00:18:34,160 --> 00:18:37,240 Speaker 1: according to these works on food and nutrition, he had 292 00:18:37,280 --> 00:18:41,680 Speaker 1: improved his physical health by changing how he ate, primarily 293 00:18:41,920 --> 00:18:46,119 Speaker 1: by chewing a lot more. This was in the middle 294 00:18:46,160 --> 00:18:48,520 Speaker 1: of a ton of food fads that developed in the 295 00:18:48,600 --> 00:18:52,119 Speaker 1: late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. There was a big 296 00:18:52,160 --> 00:18:55,160 Speaker 1: cultural focus on what to eat and how much to eat, 297 00:18:55,520 --> 00:18:58,800 Speaker 1: and how that could affect a person's health. We talked 298 00:18:58,840 --> 00:19:02,080 Speaker 1: about James Salzburg and his meat based diet not long 299 00:19:02,119 --> 00:19:05,119 Speaker 1: ago on the show, and he started his research into 300 00:19:05,240 --> 00:19:09,280 Speaker 1: that in the eighteen fifties and sixties. Other people writing 301 00:19:09,280 --> 00:19:12,080 Speaker 1: around the same time took the opposite view that people 302 00:19:12,280 --> 00:19:15,280 Speaker 1: ate too much meat, and that a vegetarian diet was 303 00:19:15,320 --> 00:19:18,480 Speaker 1: really the way to go. Of course, there have been 304 00:19:18,560 --> 00:19:23,600 Speaker 1: vegetarians and people who primarily ate meat forever, but this 305 00:19:23,640 --> 00:19:26,080 Speaker 1: went a little further, with a lot of focus on 306 00:19:26,160 --> 00:19:29,480 Speaker 1: the supposed curative benefits of these kinds of food choices. 307 00:19:30,320 --> 00:19:34,959 Speaker 1: Raw foodists, fruititarians, and others took similar tax, arguing that 308 00:19:35,000 --> 00:19:39,240 Speaker 1: their specific diet was the key to perfect health. This 309 00:19:39,320 --> 00:19:42,639 Speaker 1: is a pattern we still see today, with various fad 310 00:19:42,760 --> 00:19:50,320 Speaker 1: diets promising to like cure everything. That time, so within 311 00:19:50,400 --> 00:19:53,840 Speaker 1: the scientific and medical communities there was also a lot 312 00:19:53,880 --> 00:19:57,960 Speaker 1: of discussion about how much people should eat, including how 313 00:19:58,080 --> 00:20:03,040 Speaker 1: much of which nutrients. The term vitamin hadn't been coined yet, 314 00:20:03,080 --> 00:20:06,439 Speaker 1: but various researchers were looking at things like sugar and 315 00:20:06,600 --> 00:20:10,600 Speaker 1: protein how much a person's body really needed to function. 316 00:20:11,480 --> 00:20:15,240 Speaker 1: In the second half of the nineteenth century, various researchers 317 00:20:15,240 --> 00:20:20,800 Speaker 1: started quantifying the energy in food as calories and developing 318 00:20:20,920 --> 00:20:26,359 Speaker 1: instruments to measure calorie content. So, while Fletcher's work was 319 00:20:26,400 --> 00:20:30,000 Speaker 1: based on pretty much his own experience and his own reading, 320 00:20:30,560 --> 00:20:32,719 Speaker 1: he was writing about it at a time when a 321 00:20:32,800 --> 00:20:36,239 Speaker 1: lot of different people were suggesting that different foods or 322 00:20:36,280 --> 00:20:41,800 Speaker 1: combinations of foods or nutrients or whatever could effectively act 323 00:20:41,880 --> 00:20:46,479 Speaker 1: as cure alls, and also studying the nutrients in food 324 00:20:46,560 --> 00:20:49,840 Speaker 1: more methodically and how they affected the body like in 325 00:20:49,880 --> 00:20:54,520 Speaker 1: a more scientific systemic way. During his months of examining 326 00:20:54,560 --> 00:20:57,600 Speaker 1: his own life and habits, Fletcher had decided that he 327 00:20:57,680 --> 00:21:00,159 Speaker 1: was eating too much and eating too fast, and that 328 00:21:00,440 --> 00:21:03,399 Speaker 1: this was true of most other people as well. But 329 00:21:03,480 --> 00:21:07,320 Speaker 1: he also came to some very erroneous conclusions about human 330 00:21:07,320 --> 00:21:12,199 Speaker 1: anatomy and physiology. He thought that most digestion happened in 331 00:21:12,240 --> 00:21:15,800 Speaker 1: the mouth, that the anatomy of the mouth, including anatomical 332 00:21:15,800 --> 00:21:19,359 Speaker 1: structures in the palate and throat, acted as a nutrient gait, 333 00:21:19,840 --> 00:21:24,680 Speaker 1: that indigestible foods became digestible only after being chewed thoroughly 334 00:21:24,840 --> 00:21:28,520 Speaker 1: and being mixed with saliva, And very importantly, that chewing 335 00:21:28,560 --> 00:21:32,520 Speaker 1: food sufficiently required you to keep chewing until the food 336 00:21:32,560 --> 00:21:35,040 Speaker 1: had lost all its flavor and had been rendered into 337 00:21:35,080 --> 00:21:38,359 Speaker 1: a nutrient liquid that would slide past that gate and 338 00:21:38,480 --> 00:21:43,880 Speaker 1: down the throat involuntarily. It would, in his words, swallow itself. 339 00:21:44,200 --> 00:21:51,800 Speaker 1: It makes me so sad. Yes, the food's taste offered 340 00:21:51,800 --> 00:21:55,040 Speaker 1: a clue to how long that chewing needed to go 341 00:21:55,119 --> 00:21:59,160 Speaker 1: on as long as there was a flavor present, there 342 00:21:59,160 --> 00:22:03,400 Speaker 1: were nutrient still needed to be extracted. In some of 343 00:22:03,560 --> 00:22:07,840 Speaker 1: his writing he kind of personifies this in the form 344 00:22:07,880 --> 00:22:10,520 Speaker 1: of doctor Taste, who tells you if you're ready to 345 00:22:10,640 --> 00:22:15,919 Speaker 1: swallow your food or not indigestible sediments meaning anything that 346 00:22:16,080 --> 00:22:19,040 Speaker 1: was not liquefied and remained in the mouth during that 347 00:22:19,119 --> 00:22:22,840 Speaker 1: involuntary swallow that was unnecessary, you could spit it out. 348 00:22:23,440 --> 00:22:26,280 Speaker 1: And if you were really chewing your food that thoroughly 349 00:22:26,440 --> 00:22:30,440 Speaker 1: and according to him, absorbing all the nutrients and spitting 350 00:22:30,440 --> 00:22:33,120 Speaker 1: out all the waste, then you would of course see 351 00:22:33,119 --> 00:22:35,600 Speaker 1: a big difference on the other end of the digestive 352 00:22:35,640 --> 00:22:40,240 Speaker 1: tract as well. He called feces digestion ash both because 353 00:22:40,280 --> 00:22:42,960 Speaker 1: of what he said it resembled when eating this way 354 00:22:43,160 --> 00:22:45,840 Speaker 1: and because he thought that the body had burned away 355 00:22:45,960 --> 00:22:49,440 Speaker 1: all of the nutritious substance as fuel and left only 356 00:22:49,560 --> 00:22:54,440 Speaker 1: ash behind. Some key misunderstandings about the whole thing. Yeah, 357 00:22:55,119 --> 00:23:00,320 Speaker 1: so this chewing process went way, way, way beyond the 358 00:23:00,400 --> 00:23:03,320 Speaker 1: idea of chewing each bite thirty two times, which I 359 00:23:03,359 --> 00:23:06,560 Speaker 1: think most of us have probably heard somebody say that before. 360 00:23:06,640 --> 00:23:10,960 Speaker 1: It's often attributed to British Prime Minister William Gladstone, I'm 361 00:23:11,000 --> 00:23:15,160 Speaker 1: not actually sure whether he really said that. Uh. Most 362 00:23:15,200 --> 00:23:17,480 Speaker 1: of the time when I tried to track it down, 363 00:23:17,960 --> 00:23:21,000 Speaker 1: stuff circled back to Horace Letcher. So I don't really 364 00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:25,960 Speaker 1: know how many times a person needed to chew a 365 00:23:26,000 --> 00:23:29,200 Speaker 1: bite of food. According to Fletcher, depended on the food. 366 00:23:29,560 --> 00:23:32,520 Speaker 1: He wrote, quote, some morsels of food will not resist 367 00:23:32,600 --> 00:23:38,520 Speaker 1: thirty two mastications, while others will defy seven hundred. The 368 00:23:38,640 --> 00:23:42,159 Speaker 1: author has found that one fifth of an ounce of 369 00:23:42,200 --> 00:23:47,159 Speaker 1: the midway section of the garden young onion, sometimes called 370 00:23:47,200 --> 00:23:51,679 Speaker 1: the chalet, has required seven hundred and twenty two mastications 371 00:23:51,760 --> 00:23:56,439 Speaker 1: before disappearing through involuntary swallowing. After the tussle. However, the 372 00:23:56,520 --> 00:23:59,880 Speaker 1: young onion left no odor upon the breath and joy 373 00:24:00,080 --> 00:24:02,240 Speaker 1: to the happy family in the stomach, as if it 374 00:24:02,280 --> 00:24:08,080 Speaker 1: had been of corn starch, softness and consistency. Fletcher also 375 00:24:08,160 --> 00:24:13,040 Speaker 1: applied his ideas to liquids. Quote, don't drink soup, don't 376 00:24:13,119 --> 00:24:17,840 Speaker 1: drink milk, don't drink beer, don't drink wine, don't drink 377 00:24:17,840 --> 00:24:21,800 Speaker 1: syrup sodas for the taste of the syrups. Sip everything 378 00:24:21,880 --> 00:24:25,239 Speaker 1: that has tastes, so that taste, can inspect it and 379 00:24:25,320 --> 00:24:28,119 Speaker 1: get the good out of it for you. Now you're 380 00:24:28,119 --> 00:24:29,760 Speaker 1: supposed to hold it in your mouth, and so you 381 00:24:29,800 --> 00:24:34,840 Speaker 1: didn't taste it anymore. Horace Fletcher claimed the eating and 382 00:24:34,920 --> 00:24:37,440 Speaker 1: drinking in this way allowed him to consume a whole 383 00:24:37,480 --> 00:24:41,679 Speaker 1: lot less without feeling deprived in any way. Quote the 384 00:24:41,720 --> 00:24:45,080 Speaker 1: author ate just what his appetite called for, as nearly 385 00:24:45,160 --> 00:24:49,159 Speaker 1: as circumstances of supply permitted. He ate all that his 386 00:24:49,240 --> 00:24:53,720 Speaker 1: appetite would allow, enjoyed a gustatory pleasure that had never 387 00:24:53,800 --> 00:24:57,080 Speaker 1: been equalled under old habits of taking food, and was 388 00:24:57,119 --> 00:25:01,760 Speaker 1: a distinct epicurean gainer by the economy learned and practiced. 389 00:25:02,480 --> 00:25:05,320 Speaker 1: He described himself as five ft seven inches tall and 390 00:25:05,359 --> 00:25:08,439 Speaker 1: two hundred five pounds when he started eating this way, 391 00:25:08,680 --> 00:25:11,639 Speaker 1: and said that about four months later he weighed a 392 00:25:11,680 --> 00:25:15,160 Speaker 1: hundred and sixty three pounds, and that his energy had returned, 393 00:25:15,600 --> 00:25:18,919 Speaker 1: along with his desire to do physical activity as he 394 00:25:18,960 --> 00:25:22,800 Speaker 1: had in his younger years. In some circles, all of 395 00:25:22,800 --> 00:25:25,840 Speaker 1: this really got on, and Fletcher wound up with some 396 00:25:25,960 --> 00:25:34,600 Speaker 1: very famous devotees. We'll get into that after a sponsor break. 397 00:25:39,760 --> 00:25:44,159 Speaker 1: Horace Fletchers, the new Glutton, or epicure included some of 398 00:25:44,200 --> 00:25:47,440 Speaker 1: the correspondents that he had had with other high profile 399 00:25:47,560 --> 00:25:51,760 Speaker 1: people in the world of food and health fads. One 400 00:25:51,880 --> 00:25:55,240 Speaker 1: was Edward H. Dewey, who was a proponent of fasting 401 00:25:55,840 --> 00:25:59,159 Speaker 1: and the author of a work called The No Breakfast 402 00:25:59,200 --> 00:26:03,159 Speaker 1: Plan and the Pasting Cure. Another was John Harvey Kellogg, 403 00:26:03,160 --> 00:26:07,200 Speaker 1: who we've talked about before, whose Battle Creek Sanitarium, nicknamed 404 00:26:07,240 --> 00:26:11,520 Speaker 1: the Sand, was renowned as a center for health and wellness. 405 00:26:11,560 --> 00:26:16,399 Speaker 1: Among other things, Kellogg advocated a bland vegetarian diet, and 406 00:26:16,480 --> 00:26:20,080 Speaker 1: for a time he also advocated Fletcherism at the Sand. 407 00:26:21,240 --> 00:26:24,280 Speaker 1: He was also a proponent of eugenics and one of 408 00:26:24,440 --> 00:26:28,720 Speaker 1: several people to introduce Fletcher's ideas into the eugenics movement. 409 00:26:29,400 --> 00:26:32,199 Speaker 1: In nineteen hundred, Fletcher and his family were staying at 410 00:26:32,200 --> 00:26:35,159 Speaker 1: a hotel in Venice, and Fletcher became friends with the 411 00:26:35,200 --> 00:26:40,040 Speaker 1: hotel physician Ernest van Somren. Van Somren became interested in 412 00:26:40,080 --> 00:26:42,800 Speaker 1: Fletcher's ideas, and in nineteen o one he read a 413 00:26:42,840 --> 00:26:47,520 Speaker 1: paper to the British Medical Association in which he summarized them. 414 00:26:47,600 --> 00:26:49,960 Speaker 1: He said that he had improved his own health by 415 00:26:50,040 --> 00:26:54,360 Speaker 1: chewing his food thoroughly and reducing his protein intake. Van 416 00:26:54,440 --> 00:26:58,720 Speaker 1: Summern said Fletcherism had allowed him to cure himself of gout, headaches, 417 00:26:58,880 --> 00:27:02,879 Speaker 1: frequent colds, exima, and other maladies, while also improving his 418 00:27:02,920 --> 00:27:06,960 Speaker 1: mental health and his outlook on life. Ernest van Summerin 419 00:27:07,080 --> 00:27:10,840 Speaker 1: also married Fletcher's stepdaughter, Ivy. That happened in nineteen o two. 420 00:27:11,920 --> 00:27:15,680 Speaker 1: Beyond Fletcher's published work and lectures on food and nutrition, 421 00:27:15,800 --> 00:27:19,000 Speaker 1: he also had money, and during these same years he 422 00:27:19,080 --> 00:27:23,520 Speaker 1: started trying to establish and fund a nutrition research institute. 423 00:27:24,640 --> 00:27:27,760 Speaker 1: This may have led some nutritionists to give him more 424 00:27:27,840 --> 00:27:32,360 Speaker 1: attention than they might have otherwise, since newly developed instruments 425 00:27:32,400 --> 00:27:37,639 Speaker 1: like respiration calorimeters were expensive. Sir Michael Foster of Cambridge 426 00:27:37,680 --> 00:27:40,720 Speaker 1: University heard about Fletcher's plans and invited him to come 427 00:27:40,720 --> 00:27:44,200 Speaker 1: for a visit. Although it seems like Fletcher's ideas did 428 00:27:44,240 --> 00:27:48,119 Speaker 1: get some support at Cambridge, the university eventually turned its 429 00:27:48,119 --> 00:27:52,440 Speaker 1: attention to funding from the Carnegie Institution was also providing 430 00:27:52,440 --> 00:27:55,280 Speaker 1: money for this kind of research and not advocating that 431 00:27:55,359 --> 00:27:57,600 Speaker 1: people choose their food until it was a tasteless pulp. 432 00:27:58,640 --> 00:28:02,160 Speaker 1: Fletcher visited the same in two and that same year 433 00:28:02,200 --> 00:28:05,160 Speaker 1: he carried out a publicity stunt meant to show off 434 00:28:05,200 --> 00:28:08,119 Speaker 1: his endurance, which he attributed to his way of eating. 435 00:28:08,840 --> 00:28:11,840 Speaker 1: He climbed to the top of the Washington Monument that 436 00:28:11,880 --> 00:28:15,480 Speaker 1: was eight nineties stairs without stopping, and then he ran 437 00:28:15,560 --> 00:28:19,280 Speaker 1: back down. This was not the first or the last 438 00:28:19,359 --> 00:28:22,480 Speaker 1: such display. For example, a few years before, for his 439 00:28:22,560 --> 00:28:26,320 Speaker 1: fiftieth birthday, he and thirty year old artist Edward W. 440 00:28:26,520 --> 00:28:29,160 Speaker 1: Redfield had set off on a two hundred mile bike 441 00:28:29,280 --> 00:28:32,480 Speaker 1: ride in France, although Redfield got cramps and had to 442 00:28:32,520 --> 00:28:35,959 Speaker 1: take a train back home, while Fletcher went on without him. 443 00:28:36,119 --> 00:28:40,000 Speaker 1: Fletcher also became connected to Russell H. Chittenden, who was 444 00:28:40,080 --> 00:28:44,280 Speaker 1: director of Sheffield School of Science at Yale University, who 445 00:28:44,360 --> 00:28:47,480 Speaker 1: wondered if Fletcher's methods might help him address some of 446 00:28:47,600 --> 00:28:51,760 Speaker 1: his own chronic health issues. Shouldn't then invited Fletcher to 447 00:28:51,800 --> 00:28:54,960 Speaker 1: the lab for a series of studies. He ran various 448 00:28:55,000 --> 00:28:59,480 Speaker 1: tests and experiments. This included analyzing exactly how much Fletcher 449 00:28:59,560 --> 00:29:02,239 Speaker 1: was eating, ing and of what, and having him do 450 00:29:02,400 --> 00:29:06,600 Speaker 1: various physical trials. It concluded that Fletcher was living on 451 00:29:06,800 --> 00:29:10,880 Speaker 1: less food than most people were believed to need, including 452 00:29:10,920 --> 00:29:14,240 Speaker 1: eating about a third of the recommended amount of protein, 453 00:29:14,960 --> 00:29:18,160 Speaker 1: all while maintaining what seemed like a steady weight, and 454 00:29:18,200 --> 00:29:21,880 Speaker 1: he also seemed to be physically healthy. Although Chittenden does 455 00:29:21,880 --> 00:29:24,800 Speaker 1: seem to have concluded that Fletcher was physically healthy while 456 00:29:24,840 --> 00:29:28,840 Speaker 1: eating a lot less food, he was also pretty selective 457 00:29:28,960 --> 00:29:33,760 Speaker 1: about which of Fletcher's ideas he really supported. He thought, really, 458 00:29:33,840 --> 00:29:37,360 Speaker 1: really thoroughly chewing food led to better digestion, and that 459 00:29:37,440 --> 00:29:40,200 Speaker 1: the reduced calorie and protein intake that was a natural 460 00:29:40,240 --> 00:29:44,040 Speaker 1: side effect of this extensive chewing was a good thing. 461 00:29:44,920 --> 00:29:47,520 Speaker 1: But he did not support Fletcher's claims that there was 462 00:29:47,600 --> 00:29:51,560 Speaker 1: some kind of physiological nutrient gait in the mouth, or 463 00:29:51,600 --> 00:29:56,640 Speaker 1: that the mouth included previously unknown digestive organs. Shouldn't then 464 00:29:56,680 --> 00:29:59,920 Speaker 1: published an article about his work with Fletcher and Popular 465 00:30:00,120 --> 00:30:03,440 Speaker 1: Science in June of nineteen oh three. It's set in 466 00:30:03,560 --> 00:30:06,680 Speaker 1: part quote the writer has had in his laboratory for 467 00:30:06,800 --> 00:30:10,880 Speaker 1: several months past a gentleman hf who has, for some 468 00:30:11,040 --> 00:30:13,640 Speaker 1: five years, in pursuit of a study of the subject 469 00:30:13,640 --> 00:30:17,680 Speaker 1: of human nutrition, practiced a certain degree of abstinence in 470 00:30:17,720 --> 00:30:21,880 Speaker 1: the taking of food, and attained important economy, with as 471 00:30:21,920 --> 00:30:26,040 Speaker 1: he believes, a great gain in bodily and mental vigor, 472 00:30:26,400 --> 00:30:30,120 Speaker 1: and with marked improvement in his general health. Under his 473 00:30:30,160 --> 00:30:33,080 Speaker 1: new method of living, he finds himself possessed of a 474 00:30:33,120 --> 00:30:37,280 Speaker 1: peculiar fitness for work of all kinds, and with freedom 475 00:30:37,320 --> 00:30:42,239 Speaker 1: from the ordinary fatigue incidental to extra physical exertion. And 476 00:30:42,320 --> 00:30:46,479 Speaker 1: using the word abstinence, possibly a wrong impression is given, 477 00:30:46,720 --> 00:30:50,080 Speaker 1: for the habits of life now followed have resulted in 478 00:30:50,120 --> 00:30:54,920 Speaker 1: the disappearance of the ordinary craving for food. In other words, 479 00:30:54,960 --> 00:30:58,280 Speaker 1: the gentleman in question fully satisfies his appetite, but no 480 00:30:58,360 --> 00:31:02,920 Speaker 1: longer desires the amount of food consumed by most individuals. 481 00:31:03,800 --> 00:31:07,440 Speaker 1: A lot of Horace Fletcher's writing was focused on feeling better, 482 00:31:07,640 --> 00:31:10,760 Speaker 1: both mentally and physically, but he also touched on more 483 00:31:10,800 --> 00:31:15,080 Speaker 1: economic ideas, like if poor people started Fletcherizing, they could 484 00:31:15,120 --> 00:31:18,760 Speaker 1: better afford to feed their families, and that aspect of 485 00:31:18,760 --> 00:31:22,640 Speaker 1: Fletcherism was really attractive to people who were responsible for 486 00:31:22,720 --> 00:31:26,640 Speaker 1: figuring out how to feed large groups like the U. S. Army. 487 00:31:26,840 --> 00:31:30,200 Speaker 1: The Army sent a medical team to Yale, reportedly some 488 00:31:30,240 --> 00:31:32,240 Speaker 1: of the same people who had been part of Walter 489 00:31:32,320 --> 00:31:35,560 Speaker 1: Reed's efforts to stop the spread of yellow fever, which 490 00:31:35,560 --> 00:31:39,040 Speaker 1: we recently had as a Saturday Classic. The Army wanted 491 00:31:39,080 --> 00:31:41,400 Speaker 1: to figure out if soldiers could cut down on the 492 00:31:41,480 --> 00:31:47,120 Speaker 1: rations that they needed by employing fletcherizing. Fletcher published another 493 00:31:47,160 --> 00:31:50,440 Speaker 1: book in h three called A B two Z of 494 00:31:50,480 --> 00:31:54,440 Speaker 1: Our Own Nutrition. Among other things, this described some of 495 00:31:54,480 --> 00:31:58,360 Speaker 1: the ongoing research that was happening at that point involving 496 00:31:58,400 --> 00:32:02,680 Speaker 1: soldiers at Gale. In it, Fletcher also proposed a series 497 00:32:02,720 --> 00:32:07,320 Speaker 1: of questions for readers to ask themselves. Some were pretty straightforward, 498 00:32:07,360 --> 00:32:09,840 Speaker 1: like the first question, which was how much do I 499 00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:14,840 Speaker 1: know about my own nutrition? Others were a little more fanciful, 500 00:32:14,920 --> 00:32:19,600 Speaker 1: including quote, were I an iron and steel automobile instead 501 00:32:19,640 --> 00:32:23,400 Speaker 1: of a flesh and blood automobile? Which I really am? 502 00:32:23,520 --> 00:32:26,240 Speaker 1: Could I get a license for myself as a chauffeur 503 00:32:26,360 --> 00:32:29,560 Speaker 1: to run myself with safety based upon my knowledge of 504 00:32:29,600 --> 00:32:32,840 Speaker 1: my own mechanism and the theory and development of my power. 505 00:32:36,960 --> 00:32:41,280 Speaker 1: I'm just gonna digest that concept for a moment. Fletcher 506 00:32:41,400 --> 00:32:45,120 Speaker 1: also placed a lot of moral and religious weight onto 507 00:32:45,120 --> 00:32:48,840 Speaker 1: eating decisions. As one example from this book, he wrote, quote, 508 00:32:48,880 --> 00:32:52,640 Speaker 1: how can I religiously ask a blessing upon food and 509 00:32:52,680 --> 00:32:56,360 Speaker 1: then immediately sin by treating it in a manner abhorrent 510 00:32:56,480 --> 00:33:01,240 Speaker 1: to the natural requirements? In nineteen War Chittenden was still 511 00:33:01,280 --> 00:33:05,880 Speaker 1: doing research at Yale, including one study involving three groups 512 00:33:05,920 --> 00:33:09,760 Speaker 1: of test subjects. There were brain workers, those were people 513 00:33:09,800 --> 00:33:13,440 Speaker 1: who had pretty sedentary jobs. There were members of the 514 00:33:13,560 --> 00:33:17,720 Speaker 1: Army Hospital Corps whose activity level was described as moderate, 515 00:33:18,400 --> 00:33:21,400 Speaker 1: and there were members of the Varsity crew at Yale 516 00:33:21,520 --> 00:33:26,160 Speaker 1: who were doing intensive athletic training. According to Fletcher, the 517 00:33:26,280 --> 00:33:30,280 Speaker 1: Army also distributed a set of instructions titled method of 518 00:33:30,320 --> 00:33:34,680 Speaker 1: Attaining Economic Assimilation of Nutriment, but the only places that 519 00:33:34,760 --> 00:33:37,520 Speaker 1: Tracy found that were in Fletcher's own writing and that 520 00:33:37,640 --> 00:33:41,440 Speaker 1: of people citing him. He did, however, serve on the 521 00:33:41,440 --> 00:33:44,280 Speaker 1: Committee of one hundred on National Health, as well as 522 00:33:44,320 --> 00:33:47,920 Speaker 1: on the other National Commission on Mental Hygiene. At one 523 00:33:47,960 --> 00:33:50,880 Speaker 1: point he was also vice president of the Food Reform 524 00:33:51,000 --> 00:33:56,240 Speaker 1: Society of England. Although people like Chittenden and various Army 525 00:33:56,400 --> 00:33:59,800 Speaker 1: leaders seemed to have been willing to at least invest 526 00:33:59,840 --> 00:34:03,120 Speaker 1: a gate Fletcher's claims, he was at odds with a 527 00:34:03,160 --> 00:34:06,280 Speaker 1: lot of other people in the evolving field of nutrition. 528 00:34:06,880 --> 00:34:10,799 Speaker 1: Fletcherism was nicknamed the Chow Chow cult, and even some 529 00:34:10,840 --> 00:34:14,280 Speaker 1: people who cautiously suggested that he might have a point 530 00:34:15,000 --> 00:34:18,760 Speaker 1: in terms of people needing to chew their food better. Uh. 531 00:34:18,800 --> 00:34:22,040 Speaker 1: They also noted that most of his support was from 532 00:34:22,080 --> 00:34:25,600 Speaker 1: people who just subjectively said that they felt better when 533 00:34:25,600 --> 00:34:32,759 Speaker 1: they were Fletcherizing their food anecdotes versus data. Meanwhile, Fletcher 534 00:34:32,840 --> 00:34:36,719 Speaker 1: was giving speeches and funding research and mailing samples of 535 00:34:36,800 --> 00:34:42,160 Speaker 1: his digestive ash to researchers. Famous people who reportedly attended 536 00:34:42,200 --> 00:34:46,040 Speaker 1: his lectures included John D. Rockefeller, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 537 00:34:46,160 --> 00:34:50,600 Speaker 1: and Upton Sinclair. Franz Kafka was reportedly a Fletcher right, 538 00:34:50,800 --> 00:34:54,239 Speaker 1: with his father hiding behind his newspaper during meals so 539 00:34:54,280 --> 00:34:56,920 Speaker 1: that he would not have to watch all that chewing. 540 00:34:57,960 --> 00:35:02,680 Speaker 1: Two prominent devotes were author Henry James and his brother, 541 00:35:02,800 --> 00:35:08,040 Speaker 1: philosopher William James. William discovered Fletcher's work first and sent 542 00:35:08,160 --> 00:35:10,200 Speaker 1: a copy of one of his books to his brother. 543 00:35:10,719 --> 00:35:13,240 Speaker 1: Both of them were really hoping that they could address 544 00:35:13,440 --> 00:35:18,399 Speaker 1: various health concerns through Fletcher's methods. For a time, their 545 00:35:18,560 --> 00:35:22,200 Speaker 1: letters to each other included a lot about Fletcher's ideas. 546 00:35:22,800 --> 00:35:27,640 Speaker 1: Henry in particular, was, in his own words, zealous, and 547 00:35:27,719 --> 00:35:32,160 Speaker 1: he advocated Fletcherism to his friends and literary colleagues, including 548 00:35:32,360 --> 00:35:36,080 Speaker 1: Edith Wharton Henry James wrote to Fletcher in nineteen o 549 00:35:36,200 --> 00:35:39,520 Speaker 1: five and told him that after adopting his methods, quote, 550 00:35:39,760 --> 00:35:44,480 Speaker 1: all my serenity and improvement return. William wrote to the 551 00:35:44,520 --> 00:35:47,680 Speaker 1: Harvard Crimson that same year to encourage students and staff 552 00:35:47,760 --> 00:35:51,520 Speaker 1: to attend one of Fletcher's lectures, but both brothers had 553 00:35:51,560 --> 00:35:54,400 Speaker 1: given up on Fletcherism by nineteen o eight and nineteen 554 00:35:54,400 --> 00:35:58,400 Speaker 1: o nine. Apparently Henry ultimately decided that living on so 555 00:35:58,560 --> 00:36:02,800 Speaker 1: little food was a miss ruble experience. By that point, 556 00:36:02,920 --> 00:36:06,480 Speaker 1: Fletcher had made another trip to Yale for another set 557 00:36:06,560 --> 00:36:09,880 Speaker 1: of studies and physical tests. In his own words, at 558 00:36:09,880 --> 00:36:11,520 Speaker 1: the age of fifty eight, he did a set of 559 00:36:11,560 --> 00:36:15,719 Speaker 1: trials under the observation of a doctor Anderson quote, I 560 00:36:15,800 --> 00:36:19,760 Speaker 1: lifted three hundred pounds dead weight three hundred and fifty 561 00:36:19,840 --> 00:36:22,920 Speaker 1: times with the muscles of my right leg below the knee. 562 00:36:23,440 --> 00:36:26,280 Speaker 1: The record of the best athlete was then one hundred 563 00:36:26,360 --> 00:36:30,080 Speaker 1: and seventy five lifts. So I doubled the world's record 564 00:36:30,200 --> 00:36:35,319 Speaker 1: of that style of tests of endurance just taking that in. 565 00:36:36,160 --> 00:36:39,720 Speaker 1: Russell H. Chitten then published another report in Popular Science 566 00:36:39,760 --> 00:36:43,840 Speaker 1: in n seven describing another battery of tests of strength 567 00:36:43,880 --> 00:36:46,959 Speaker 1: and endurance. It read in part quote why a man 568 00:36:47,000 --> 00:36:49,640 Speaker 1: of fifty nine years of age, without training should be 569 00:36:49,719 --> 00:36:53,040 Speaker 1: able to far surpass the record for endurance made by 570 00:36:53,160 --> 00:36:56,880 Speaker 1: young and vigorous athletes can only be surmised, but it 571 00:36:56,920 --> 00:37:00,200 Speaker 1: certainly seems plausible to assume that the explanation is to 572 00:37:00,239 --> 00:37:03,640 Speaker 1: be found in the careful dietary habits which this man 573 00:37:03,719 --> 00:37:07,960 Speaker 1: has followed for the past nine years. Still, other people 574 00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:12,320 Speaker 1: were not nearly as complimentary. In nineteen o nine, journalist 575 00:37:12,440 --> 00:37:18,080 Speaker 1: and theater critic Francis W. Crowninshield published Manners for the Metropolis, 576 00:37:18,120 --> 00:37:21,640 Speaker 1: An Entrance Key to the Fantastic Life of the four Hundred. 577 00:37:22,400 --> 00:37:25,680 Speaker 1: In this book, Crown and Shield wrote, quote, Fletcher rights 578 00:37:25,800 --> 00:37:30,120 Speaker 1: have lately added a new horror to dining out. These 579 00:37:30,160 --> 00:37:34,440 Speaker 1: strange creatures seldom repay attention. The best that can be 580 00:37:34,520 --> 00:37:38,239 Speaker 1: expected of them as the tense and awful silence which 581 00:37:38,280 --> 00:37:45,279 Speaker 1: always accompanies their excruciating tortures of mastication. For context, back 582 00:37:45,280 --> 00:37:49,279 Speaker 1: in ward, McAlister had told the New York Tribune that 583 00:37:49,360 --> 00:37:53,239 Speaker 1: there were only four hundred people in fashionable New York society, 584 00:37:53,640 --> 00:37:55,880 Speaker 1: and that had evolved into a list of who the 585 00:37:55,920 --> 00:37:59,799 Speaker 1: four hundred fashionable people were, and a few years After this, 586 00:38:00,040 --> 00:38:04,200 Speaker 1: Crown and Shield would become editor of Vanity Fair. In 587 00:38:05,400 --> 00:38:09,480 Speaker 1: Fletcher published Fletcherism, What It Is or How I Became 588 00:38:09,520 --> 00:38:13,120 Speaker 1: Young at sixty. In it, he wrote, quote, the first 589 00:38:13,239 --> 00:38:16,840 Speaker 1: role of Fletcherism is to feel gratitude and to express 590 00:38:16,920 --> 00:38:22,440 Speaker 1: appreciation for and of all the blessings which nature, intelligence, civilization, 591 00:38:22,560 --> 00:38:28,160 Speaker 1: and imagination bring to mankind. He also boiled Fletcherism down 592 00:38:28,160 --> 00:38:33,240 Speaker 1: to five rules. First, wait for a true earned appetite. Second, 593 00:38:33,680 --> 00:38:37,279 Speaker 1: select from the food available that which appeals most to appetite, 594 00:38:37,680 --> 00:38:41,640 Speaker 1: and in the order called for by appetite. Third, get 595 00:38:41,760 --> 00:38:44,319 Speaker 1: all the good taste there is in food, out of 596 00:38:44,360 --> 00:38:47,400 Speaker 1: it in the mouth, and swallow only when it practically 597 00:38:47,800 --> 00:38:52,200 Speaker 1: swallows itself. Fourth, enjoy the good taste for all it 598 00:38:52,320 --> 00:38:55,640 Speaker 1: is worth, and do not allow any depressing or diverting 599 00:38:55,680 --> 00:39:01,040 Speaker 1: thought to intrude upon the ceremony. Fifth, weight, take and 600 00:39:01,160 --> 00:39:05,399 Speaker 1: enjoy as much as possible what appetite approves. Nature will 601 00:39:05,440 --> 00:39:10,080 Speaker 1: do the rest. During World War One, Fletcher started working 602 00:39:10,080 --> 00:39:14,480 Speaker 1: with Herbert Hoover on food relief projects in Europe, although 603 00:39:14,520 --> 00:39:17,800 Speaker 1: in some accounts this was more like an honorary position 604 00:39:17,840 --> 00:39:23,000 Speaker 1: that Fletcher basically appointed himself to. Today, Herbert Hoover is 605 00:39:23,239 --> 00:39:26,359 Speaker 1: most known for having been US President at the start 606 00:39:26,360 --> 00:39:28,280 Speaker 1: of the Great Depression, and in a lot of ways 607 00:39:28,719 --> 00:39:32,800 Speaker 1: he has become a huge scapegoat for that entire financial crisis, 608 00:39:33,320 --> 00:39:37,240 Speaker 1: but at this point he was known as the great humanitarian. 609 00:39:37,840 --> 00:39:41,200 Speaker 1: Hoover had become a multi millionaire after being orphaned at 610 00:39:41,200 --> 00:39:44,120 Speaker 1: a young age, and he had retired from business to 611 00:39:44,239 --> 00:39:49,800 Speaker 1: focus pretty much exclusively on philanthropy. If Fletcher's ideas really 612 00:39:49,840 --> 00:39:52,719 Speaker 1: were sound, if a person really could live on about 613 00:39:52,760 --> 00:39:56,280 Speaker 1: a third of the recommended calories and protein and still 614 00:39:56,320 --> 00:40:00,319 Speaker 1: be healthy, that would of course be revolutionary to time 615 00:40:00,360 --> 00:40:03,600 Speaker 1: relief efforts. But a number of people pointed out that 616 00:40:03,640 --> 00:40:07,000 Speaker 1: there was a huge difference between Army recruits and Yale 617 00:40:07,080 --> 00:40:10,759 Speaker 1: athletes being studied in a lab having arrived at that 618 00:40:10,880 --> 00:40:14,360 Speaker 1: lab well fed and in good health, and people facing 619 00:40:14,480 --> 00:40:18,960 Speaker 1: years of malnutrition, deprivation, hardship, and violence during the war. 620 00:40:19,880 --> 00:40:23,120 Speaker 1: Fletcher claimed to have taught Fletcherism to eight millions starving 621 00:40:23,160 --> 00:40:26,520 Speaker 1: people in Belgium, But although Russell Chittenden was on the 622 00:40:26,560 --> 00:40:30,160 Speaker 1: advisory committee for some of this food relief, and Chittenden 623 00:40:30,280 --> 00:40:34,680 Speaker 1: had been researching Fletcher's methods for years, these relief projects 624 00:40:34,680 --> 00:40:37,880 Speaker 1: did not formally adopt those methods. Yeah. One of the 625 00:40:37,960 --> 00:40:39,600 Speaker 1: articles that I read about this kind of did a 626 00:40:39,600 --> 00:40:42,680 Speaker 1: whole thought exercise, like but what if? Actually, I think 627 00:40:42,680 --> 00:40:45,080 Speaker 1: it was a podcast hasn't too like but what if? 628 00:40:45,160 --> 00:40:48,919 Speaker 1: What if they had? How much differently with things have gone? 629 00:40:48,920 --> 00:40:51,840 Speaker 1: If people had been spending all of their time chewing 630 00:40:51,920 --> 00:40:57,240 Speaker 1: and and having way less food Anyway, Art Fletcher's story 631 00:40:57,640 --> 00:41:01,840 Speaker 1: has an abrupt end. He died on January nineteen, nineteen 632 00:41:01,880 --> 00:41:07,279 Speaker 1: in Copenhagen. One obituary described him as seventy years young, 633 00:41:07,480 --> 00:41:10,880 Speaker 1: although that same obituary also described him as having asthma 634 00:41:10,920 --> 00:41:14,560 Speaker 1: and rheumatism and being nearly blind from cataracts in both eyes. 635 00:41:15,280 --> 00:41:19,600 Speaker 1: He's buried in Bellevue Cemetery in Lawrence, Massachusetts. His wife, Grace, 636 00:41:19,800 --> 00:41:24,399 Speaker 1: lived on until nine, and his ideas pretty quickly fell 637 00:41:24,440 --> 00:41:27,759 Speaker 1: out of fashion after his death, Although there has been 638 00:41:27,840 --> 00:41:31,920 Speaker 1: various research since then about exactly how much chewing really 639 00:41:32,080 --> 00:41:34,600 Speaker 1: is the right amount and whether there was anything to 640 00:41:34,719 --> 00:41:40,919 Speaker 1: this whole idea. They've kind of had varying results. I'm 641 00:41:40,960 --> 00:41:44,239 Speaker 1: the healthiest person alive and now I am gone. Thank 642 00:41:44,280 --> 00:41:49,200 Speaker 1: you a wild one. Yeah, do you have listener mail 643 00:41:49,400 --> 00:41:52,120 Speaker 1: that doesn't involve a lot of chewing fingers cross I 644 00:41:52,239 --> 00:41:55,800 Speaker 1: do and it includes no chewing um. This is from 645 00:41:56,040 --> 00:42:00,239 Speaker 1: Rachel and Rachel wrote after our blood donation episode, dude 646 00:42:00,320 --> 00:42:02,799 Speaker 1: with a little p s A. Rachel said, Hi, there, 647 00:42:02,840 --> 00:42:05,000 Speaker 1: I just listened to your blood bank episode and behind 648 00:42:05,040 --> 00:42:06,920 Speaker 1: the scenes many and wanted to share a quick p 649 00:42:07,120 --> 00:42:10,719 Speaker 1: s A. I also haven't had good experiences donating whole 650 00:42:10,760 --> 00:42:14,160 Speaker 1: blood due to borderline anemia, but then I found out 651 00:42:14,200 --> 00:42:17,920 Speaker 1: about platelet donation after a friend of mine was battling limphoma. 652 00:42:18,040 --> 00:42:21,920 Speaker 1: She's doing great. Now. I'm not a science slash medical person, 653 00:42:22,000 --> 00:42:25,640 Speaker 1: but essentially, platelet donation involves taking whole blood out of 654 00:42:25,680 --> 00:42:28,800 Speaker 1: one arm, cycling it through a machine to remove the platelets, 655 00:42:28,840 --> 00:42:31,319 Speaker 1: and then returning everything else to the other arm. It's 656 00:42:31,360 --> 00:42:34,399 Speaker 1: a longer process, about two hours, but depending on your 657 00:42:34,400 --> 00:42:37,680 Speaker 1: platelet concentration, they can get up to three units percession, 658 00:42:37,800 --> 00:42:41,560 Speaker 1: and in my experience, the donor doesn't feel as faint afterwards, 659 00:42:41,600 --> 00:42:44,480 Speaker 1: since you're getting your red blood cells back. It has 660 00:42:44,520 --> 00:42:47,880 Speaker 1: to be done at specific locations. I eat not mobile 661 00:42:47,880 --> 00:42:50,720 Speaker 1: blood banks since the equipment is large, but they wrap 662 00:42:50,760 --> 00:42:53,600 Speaker 1: you in warm blankets while you watch TV, read or 663 00:42:53,640 --> 00:42:56,560 Speaker 1: even just sleep. Platelets have a wide use and are 664 00:42:56,600 --> 00:42:59,200 Speaker 1: often given to cancer patients, and since they are the 665 00:42:59,320 --> 00:43:02,440 Speaker 1: part of your blood that clots, they go bad quickly 666 00:43:02,520 --> 00:43:05,120 Speaker 1: and are needed often. And there's a link to the 667 00:43:05,120 --> 00:43:09,720 Speaker 1: Red Cross page about that. Um. Rachel says that Tracy, 668 00:43:09,800 --> 00:43:11,759 Speaker 1: I know you said you often give whole blood, so 669 00:43:11,800 --> 00:43:13,960 Speaker 1: you might not be interested in platelet donation. But I 670 00:43:14,040 --> 00:43:16,279 Speaker 1: also live in the Boston area and the m g 671 00:43:16,480 --> 00:43:19,200 Speaker 1: H Donation Center is top notch. Thank you for everything 672 00:43:19,239 --> 00:43:21,080 Speaker 1: you both do. I love your podcast and the new 673 00:43:21,080 --> 00:43:24,000 Speaker 1: behind the scenes many episodes. I've attached a short video 674 00:43:24,040 --> 00:43:27,399 Speaker 1: here of our mischievous cat, Penny, who loved opening our 675 00:43:27,480 --> 00:43:31,440 Speaker 1: cabinets at our old apartment and hiding among our snacks. 676 00:43:31,960 --> 00:43:36,040 Speaker 1: Cheers Rachel Um. That last bit reminds me of a 677 00:43:36,080 --> 00:43:38,320 Speaker 1: thing that was going around on TikTok for a while 678 00:43:38,400 --> 00:43:41,680 Speaker 1: about people needing a cabinet kitty. People would have a 679 00:43:41,680 --> 00:43:44,080 Speaker 1: little video and open the door and there would be 680 00:43:44,120 --> 00:43:47,120 Speaker 1: their cabinet kitty. Thank you so much for that, Rachel. 681 00:43:47,440 --> 00:43:51,239 Speaker 1: For me personally, I can walk on foot to a 682 00:43:51,600 --> 00:43:54,440 Speaker 1: drive where I can give whole blood, and going to 683 00:43:54,520 --> 00:43:58,320 Speaker 1: give platelets requires like either a twenty to thirty minute 684 00:43:58,320 --> 00:44:02,640 Speaker 1: car trip or much long her on public transportation for 685 00:44:02,800 --> 00:44:05,360 Speaker 1: where I live. There just for me personally, like it is, 686 00:44:05,400 --> 00:44:08,720 Speaker 1: I'm more able to fit a whole blood donation into 687 00:44:08,920 --> 00:44:12,480 Speaker 1: my schedule, but for other people for other reasons, plate 688 00:44:12,560 --> 00:44:14,160 Speaker 1: let's work a whole lot better. Well. And I think 689 00:44:14,200 --> 00:44:16,640 Speaker 1: I'm probably the person that mentioned that I always get 690 00:44:17,000 --> 00:44:20,960 Speaker 1: dinged for having a borderline anemia. And there is a 691 00:44:20,960 --> 00:44:24,279 Speaker 1: platelet donation place near me that is fairly new that 692 00:44:24,320 --> 00:44:27,360 Speaker 1: I I need to make time to go visit and 693 00:44:27,440 --> 00:44:29,880 Speaker 1: check out and see if if I'm a good candidate. 694 00:44:30,719 --> 00:44:33,240 Speaker 1: My thing with that is that it is very hard 695 00:44:33,320 --> 00:44:38,000 Speaker 1: for me to set aside three hours, yeah, where I 696 00:44:38,080 --> 00:44:44,920 Speaker 1: can't be doing seven other things. I was going to 697 00:44:45,040 --> 00:44:48,000 Speaker 1: fill in your sentence by saying, holding still for that long. 698 00:44:48,080 --> 00:44:51,640 Speaker 1: It's very hard for me. That's like the trick that's 699 00:44:51,640 --> 00:44:53,520 Speaker 1: like an anxiety inducer when I'm like, do you mean 700 00:44:53,560 --> 00:44:56,279 Speaker 1: I just sit? What if I have to peet? Like 701 00:44:56,320 --> 00:45:00,479 Speaker 1: I immediately go to this whole anxiety party train for sure, 702 00:45:00,560 --> 00:45:02,080 Speaker 1: But I'm gonna talk to them and see if there's 703 00:45:02,120 --> 00:45:04,759 Speaker 1: a way that even the Holly Fries of the world 704 00:45:04,520 --> 00:45:08,520 Speaker 1: can do it. Um, I don't know that this would 705 00:45:08,600 --> 00:45:12,840 Speaker 1: necessarily help, uh, because part of this is needing or 706 00:45:12,880 --> 00:45:15,759 Speaker 1: wanting to be up and around. But um, recently, when 707 00:45:15,760 --> 00:45:17,160 Speaker 1: I had a thing that was going to take up 708 00:45:17,160 --> 00:45:23,399 Speaker 1: a bunch of my time, I picked something to ben 709 00:45:23,600 --> 00:45:26,160 Speaker 1: Binge watch and put it on my iPad so that 710 00:45:26,239 --> 00:45:28,359 Speaker 1: I could just take the iPad with me wherever it 711 00:45:28,440 --> 00:45:30,480 Speaker 1: was that I needed to be and that helped a lot. 712 00:45:31,480 --> 00:45:34,160 Speaker 1: So anyway, thank you so much for that. P s A. 713 00:45:34,480 --> 00:45:36,399 Speaker 1: If you would like to send us a note about 714 00:45:36,400 --> 00:45:38,839 Speaker 1: this or any other podcast or a history podcast at 715 00:45:38,840 --> 00:45:41,720 Speaker 1: i heart radio dot com. We're all over social media 716 00:45:41,760 --> 00:45:44,360 Speaker 1: and missed in History that's what we'll find our Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, 717 00:45:44,400 --> 00:45:47,239 Speaker 1: in Instagram, and you can subscribe to our show on 718 00:45:47,320 --> 00:45:49,520 Speaker 1: the I heart Radio app or wherever you like to 719 00:45:49,560 --> 00:45:57,400 Speaker 1: get your podcasts. Stuff you Missed in History Class is 720 00:45:57,400 --> 00:46:00,600 Speaker 1: a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from 721 00:46:00,640 --> 00:46:04,000 Speaker 1: I heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 722 00:46:04,120 --> 00:46:07,040 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H