WEBVTT - SYMHC: Q & A 0:00:01.280 --> 0:00:04.320 Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, A production 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:13.320 of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 0:00:13.360 --> 0:00:17.239 I'm Tracy B. Wilson and I'm Holly fry Back. At 0:00:17.239 --> 0:00:20.280 the end of May, we talked about how we're probably 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:22.120 not going to go on a tour with a live 0:00:22.160 --> 0:00:28.240 podcast this year because of the ongoing pandemic. We're gonna 0:00:28.280 --> 0:00:33.560 tour my living room no yet, to an audience of cats. Yeah. 0:00:33.600 --> 0:00:35.320 We've had a couple of people ask if we have 0:00:35.440 --> 0:00:39.760 considered doing like some kind of virtual live show, and uh, 0:00:39.960 --> 0:00:44.320 we did have an incredibly brief conversation that was basically like, 0:00:44.360 --> 0:00:46.760 what if we did a virtual thing, how would that work? 0:00:46.840 --> 0:00:49.120 And then we both got so swamped with just keeping 0:00:49.159 --> 0:00:52.360 the show going that we have not explored that further. 0:00:53.280 --> 0:00:58.640 It's not impossible, but like it also can't really predict anything. 0:00:58.640 --> 0:01:00.880 But anyway, the point the win is one of the 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:06.120 best things about touring really is talking to listeners, answering 0:01:06.240 --> 0:01:09.080 questions about things people are curious about about the show, 0:01:09.120 --> 0:01:11.640 and that kind of thing. So we put out a 0:01:11.680 --> 0:01:15.319 call for listeners submitted questions for a Q and A 0:01:15.400 --> 0:01:20.880 episode and here that episode is, Um, I pulled this, uh, 0:01:21.080 --> 0:01:24.240 this together. We got a lot of questions, UM, and 0:01:24.240 --> 0:01:26.640 in pulling it together, I paired down some of the 0:01:26.720 --> 0:01:30.480 longer questions for length, and there were definitely cases where 0:01:30.480 --> 0:01:33.360 we got a whole lot of similar questions about the 0:01:33.400 --> 0:01:36.400 same thing, and I kind of merged those things together. 0:01:36.520 --> 0:01:40.160 I hope I got everyone. I'm very sorry if I 0:01:40.240 --> 0:01:43.800 missed anyone. As we go through these questions to be answered. 0:01:44.240 --> 0:01:47.480 So first off, we get a lot of questions always, 0:01:47.520 --> 0:01:50.040 and we got a lot of questions with this query 0:01:50.280 --> 0:01:53.320 about our research process, how long it takes to make 0:01:53.360 --> 0:01:56.280 a typical episode, how we managed to do it so quickly, 0:01:56.360 --> 0:01:59.520 and how detailed our notes are. And these questions came 0:01:59.560 --> 0:02:01.760 from us, did people? I hope I pronounced all these 0:02:01.840 --> 0:02:13.480 names properly Lydia, Alison, Andrew, Harma, Hack, Amberley, Asaki, Jin Elizabeth, Rose, Susan, Carol, Sarah, Lee, Molly, Zenia, Jessica, 0:02:13.680 --> 0:02:18.960 Justine and gin So Tracy. Yeah. How do we do this? UM? 0:02:19.000 --> 0:02:20.560 I think this is one that every Q and a 0:02:20.639 --> 0:02:23.080 session that we do, someone asked something along the lines 0:02:23.120 --> 0:02:27.120 of this UM, and we have similar but not identical processes. 0:02:27.880 --> 0:02:32.320 I think each of us does a preliminary Google search. 0:02:32.400 --> 0:02:34.800 Mine is is to just make sure is there going 0:02:34.840 --> 0:02:37.440 to be enough to do this, because sometimes there's not 0:02:37.639 --> 0:02:40.919 enough enough information to do that. And then I go 0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:46.480 through a whole process of UM, a lot of searching 0:02:46.600 --> 0:02:52.120 through Google, bookmarking things that are from UM Academic, incredible sources, 0:02:52.440 --> 0:02:55.520 a lot of stuff from j Store. Very lucky to 0:02:55.560 --> 0:02:59.639 have some very good, robust J Store access. Uh. There 0:02:59.639 --> 0:03:03.880 are requests from the library. With the pandemic happening, those 0:03:03.880 --> 0:03:07.800 are only reachable right now if they're digitally available, which 0:03:07.880 --> 0:03:10.280 is has been very handy that I'm married to a 0:03:10.400 --> 0:03:13.560 university librarian. UM. When it comes to getting some of 0:03:13.560 --> 0:03:16.960 these materials, I go through all of that. There's a 0:03:17.000 --> 0:03:20.480 whole phase where I have like twenty seven tabs and 0:03:20.560 --> 0:03:25.320 fifteen different PDFs open on my computer, and I make 0:03:25.360 --> 0:03:27.120 all these notes from that and then try to work 0:03:27.160 --> 0:03:29.800 it into a narrative that has the beginning, a middle, 0:03:29.840 --> 0:03:35.120 and an end. Yeah, I do a similar thing. I 0:03:35.120 --> 0:03:38.000 think my process probably would feel a little more frantic 0:03:38.120 --> 0:03:41.839 to Tracy UM because I tend to like, I look, 0:03:41.880 --> 0:03:43.400 I do the same thing where I look and I'm like, 0:03:43.480 --> 0:03:46.080 is there really enough material that I can get access 0:03:46.120 --> 0:03:49.080 to for this? And then I try to find one 0:03:49.240 --> 0:03:53.840 really good comprehensive article, again from like a good credible source, 0:03:53.880 --> 0:03:56.839 and I just read through it to familiarize myself with it, 0:03:56.920 --> 0:04:01.160 and I try very hard to us and intuitively to 0:04:01.240 --> 0:04:04.720 my gut that goes, wait, is that is there part 0:04:04.840 --> 0:04:07.240 left out here? Is this? It seems like there could 0:04:07.240 --> 0:04:09.360 be more there um, And I write out an outline 0:04:09.480 --> 0:04:13.120 based on that, and then I kind of chuckle. I'm like, 0:04:13.160 --> 0:04:16.560 just twenty seven tabs because I have a tab problem. 0:04:16.600 --> 0:04:19.160 And if you ask r I T person, they will 0:04:19.240 --> 0:04:23.240 roll their eyes and be like, holly um, because I 0:04:23.240 --> 0:04:25.680 I tend to have a cajillion open and then I 0:04:25.839 --> 0:04:29.200 sort of always liken it to piecing together a puzzle 0:04:29.320 --> 0:04:33.479 where and I also, lately, like the last probably seven 0:04:33.480 --> 0:04:36.200 to eight months, I've gotten really into always wanting a 0:04:36.279 --> 0:04:38.599 book in the mix, which adds a whole other layer 0:04:38.640 --> 0:04:42.479 of like juggling and confusion because then I often have 0:04:42.560 --> 0:04:44.320 like a book spread out on a table with me, 0:04:44.360 --> 0:04:46.200 and I'm paging through that and pulling from that at 0:04:46.200 --> 0:04:49.160 the same time I'm I'm pulling from articles, and I'm 0:04:49.240 --> 0:04:51.360 kind of can tell where I'm at in the process 0:04:51.440 --> 0:04:54.760 by how many tabs I've closed, because as I exhaust 0:04:54.760 --> 0:04:57.200 a source, I note that source usually, and I close 0:04:57.279 --> 0:04:59.599 that tab, and and I can kind of, over the 0:04:59.600 --> 0:05:03.800 course of of my writing process see where I'm at. 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:06.880 It means I I never reboot my computer again to 0:05:07.040 --> 0:05:11.800 the bane of our I t people. That's more or 0:05:11.880 --> 0:05:15.400 less how mind does, although lately there have often been cases, 0:05:15.760 --> 0:05:17.880 especially I think this happens to you too, Tracy, when 0:05:17.920 --> 0:05:20.680 you travel and you'll stumble across something that is of 0:05:20.720 --> 0:05:23.800 interest and maybe pick up a book or something along 0:05:23.880 --> 0:05:27.800 the way, and then you know, I'll be reading that 0:05:28.000 --> 0:05:30.560 or what not about whatever place I have visited, And 0:05:30.600 --> 0:05:34.200 sometimes that kind of seeds an episode that goes much 0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:37.480 more quickly when the writing actually happens. Yeah, because I've 0:05:37.560 --> 0:05:39.600 kind of lived with that content for a little bit 0:05:39.600 --> 0:05:43.200 longer and in a different sort of way. Yeah, Lately, 0:05:43.240 --> 0:05:45.520 I've also gotten into this thing where I've I've picked 0:05:45.560 --> 0:05:48.400 some topics that I thought were going to be relatively straightforward, 0:05:48.400 --> 0:05:49.880 and then they've turned out to just be a lot 0:05:49.920 --> 0:05:53.720 more complicated, and in the like later writing steps, I've 0:05:53.720 --> 0:05:57.440 gotten into this thing where I've been trying to simultaneously 0:05:57.560 --> 0:05:59.840 fact check stuff to make sure it's it's correct and 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:02.440 also fill in holes that I didn't really realize I 0:06:02.480 --> 0:06:04.520 had until I started the writing process. And it's like, 0:06:04.560 --> 0:06:08.880 I'll get a browser open with so many tabs in 0:06:08.960 --> 0:06:12.080 it that there's not even a letter visible in terms 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:15.000 of what the label on each tab is. That many 0:06:15.040 --> 0:06:17.640 tabs open, and then I'll be like, this is too 0:06:17.680 --> 0:06:20.440 many taps, and I'll just open a whole new browser window. 0:06:21.400 --> 0:06:23.000 They gets more, and then I'm like, what is wrong 0:06:23.040 --> 0:06:30.359 with me? That seems absolutely correct me. Um. On a 0:06:30.480 --> 0:06:34.719 similar note, both Evie and Jackie asked where do you 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:37.599 you get your ideas and your topics for podcasts and 0:06:37.640 --> 0:06:41.039 how do you pick between them? All over the place? Yeah, 0:06:41.080 --> 0:06:43.640 all over the places. Right. We have a listener suggestion 0:06:43.720 --> 0:06:45.960 list that has more than a thousand things on it, 0:06:46.440 --> 0:06:48.560 and that's that's not a made up number. It's more 0:06:48.720 --> 0:06:52.599 more than a thousand, um, And so that if like, 0:06:52.640 --> 0:06:54.120 that's a go to place a lot of times, and 0:06:54.160 --> 0:06:56.200 I'm like, I'm not really feeling anything on my short 0:06:56.200 --> 0:06:59.800 list because my short list in quotation marks has like 0:06:59.800 --> 0:07:03.360 a hundred things on it, which is two years worth 0:07:03.400 --> 0:07:07.280 of my episodes. So uh, it's not a very short 0:07:07.320 --> 0:07:10.160 short list. Um. And in terms of picking between them, 0:07:10.160 --> 0:07:11.960 there's a lot of stuff that I feel like I'm 0:07:12.000 --> 0:07:13.760 trying to do, Like I want to try to make 0:07:13.760 --> 0:07:17.640 sure that we get a broad range of places and 0:07:17.800 --> 0:07:22.160 time periods and people and races and ethnicities and religions 0:07:22.160 --> 0:07:25.600 and all this different stuff. Um. And so sometimes I'll 0:07:25.640 --> 0:07:29.000 look back at what we've been doing, uh recently and 0:07:29.120 --> 0:07:31.400 been like, Okay, this has been a whole series of 0:07:31.440 --> 0:07:33.800 things that were all in the nineteenth century, and there's 0:07:33.840 --> 0:07:35.800 like there's a reason it was all related to the 0:07:35.800 --> 0:07:38.960 pandemic in some way, but like, let's let's break out 0:07:38.960 --> 0:07:41.440 of that. And like, that's one of my deciding factors 0:07:41.480 --> 0:07:45.000 in trying to make sure that we have, um a 0:07:45.080 --> 0:07:48.240 broad selection of things on the show. Uh Yeah, I 0:07:48.240 --> 0:07:53.280 mean I try to keep my brain open to ideas 0:07:53.440 --> 0:07:57.280 as they appear before me in the world. Um. For example, 0:07:57.400 --> 0:08:00.280 I have an idea for an upcoming episode which I 0:08:00.320 --> 0:08:03.120 won't say what it is, but I was reviewing a 0:08:03.200 --> 0:08:06.560 script for another podcast that I'm executive producing, and it's 0:08:06.600 --> 0:08:09.920 a fiction podcast, but it makes reference to a historical 0:08:09.920 --> 0:08:12.000 figure that I had never thought about before, and there's 0:08:12.040 --> 0:08:16.720 some salacious events that happened in that person's life that 0:08:16.800 --> 0:08:19.520 are just casually mentioned in this other script and I 0:08:19.600 --> 0:08:21.560 was like, oh, is that real? And then I looked 0:08:21.560 --> 0:08:23.120 it up and it is. And then I was like, well, 0:08:23.160 --> 0:08:26.400 that goes down the list. Yeah, this happens to me too. 0:08:26.800 --> 0:08:29.560 I have even when I'm on vacation, like it's on 0:08:29.680 --> 0:08:32.480 my phone from when I was just on vacation pleasure 0:08:32.520 --> 0:08:34.640 reading something and there was a side reference to some 0:08:34.760 --> 0:08:37.960 historical event and like I make a note for later, 0:08:38.160 --> 0:08:41.760 like look at this, what was this about? Uh? Yeah, 0:08:41.840 --> 0:08:44.360 And then I'd have a similar thing to Tracy. I 0:08:44.400 --> 0:08:50.479 have my own little short list that seems like a misnomer, uh, 0:08:50.520 --> 0:08:53.400 and I try to figure out, you know, what's going 0:08:53.440 --> 0:08:57.640 to feel right for that week. I also sort of 0:08:57.679 --> 0:09:02.800 am always compiling a list of October episodes, always, all day, 0:09:02.840 --> 0:09:07.440 every day forever. This dovetails This next question dovetails on 0:09:07.480 --> 0:09:10.400 all of that, which is, how do you go about 0:09:10.440 --> 0:09:13.400 even finding missed in history topics from outside of the 0:09:13.440 --> 0:09:16.360 Western world. What is your process to start looking for 0:09:16.400 --> 0:09:19.360 interesting people or events? How do you handle research or 0:09:19.440 --> 0:09:22.600 resources about these topics events, people that may be very 0:09:22.640 --> 0:09:27.600 Western centric or have been strongly shaped by or Western influenced. Um. 0:09:27.640 --> 0:09:30.480 That is from Marissa. We also had a very similar 0:09:30.559 --> 0:09:36.160 question from Melanie's. It is it's really hard, uh. And 0:09:36.200 --> 0:09:38.920 it's one of those things where, you know, we talked 0:09:38.920 --> 0:09:40.480 about it on the show all the time. When we 0:09:40.520 --> 0:09:45.480 reference an event that happened in another place, that one 0:09:45.600 --> 0:09:50.280 we're probably reading something written by either a native English 0:09:50.320 --> 0:09:55.240 speaker or a white European that got translated into English. UM. 0:09:55.320 --> 0:09:58.440 And so like that has inherent bias to it, and 0:09:58.480 --> 0:10:01.160 we try to always acknowledge agen note that as we're 0:10:01.160 --> 0:10:05.840 going along in the the show. Yeah, some of this UM, 0:10:06.559 --> 0:10:11.880 I have relied on listeners suggestions for um because like 0:10:11.960 --> 0:10:15.200 it's it's not possible for any one person to have 0:10:15.280 --> 0:10:18.640 a thorough historical knowledge of everything in the entire world. 0:10:18.760 --> 0:10:22.920 Like that's just not feasible. It's not how the human 0:10:22.960 --> 0:10:25.400 mind works, and it's not how history works. History is 0:10:25.400 --> 0:10:31.000 is infinite and lifetimes are finite. UM. So whenever we 0:10:31.080 --> 0:10:33.600 have asked for listeners suggestions, like one of the things 0:10:33.640 --> 0:10:36.000 that we've said a lot of the times is, hey, 0:10:36.040 --> 0:10:38.080 we would really love to hear about things that were 0:10:38.120 --> 0:10:41.959 are outside of these areas that we have been talking 0:10:41.960 --> 0:10:45.080 about a lot um, And sometimes we'll get responses back 0:10:45.120 --> 0:10:46.840 that are are sort of along the lines of I'd 0:10:46.840 --> 0:10:48.640 love it if you did more African history, and it's 0:10:48.679 --> 0:10:53.040 like we would too. But when that's the starting point, 0:10:53.120 --> 0:10:55.160 it's not like finding a needle in a haystack. It's 0:10:55.160 --> 0:10:57.160 more like it's all, hey, and you've got to figure 0:10:57.200 --> 0:11:01.320 out which, Hey, is there enough information about that's in 0:11:01.400 --> 0:11:04.920 English available to us and not written from a racist, 0:11:04.920 --> 0:11:09.160 colonial perspective, which is just really challenging. It is. And 0:11:09.200 --> 0:11:12.400 that's like one of those things that's like a shortcoming 0:11:12.440 --> 0:11:15.480 that we recognize in ourselves and our education and the 0:11:15.640 --> 0:11:19.360 society as a whole um that like we work to 0:11:19.600 --> 0:11:22.440 try to balance out. But um, in a lot of ways, 0:11:22.520 --> 0:11:26.760 they're uh, it's it's that has challenges through the whole 0:11:26.880 --> 0:11:30.400 entire process. Well, one of the challenges we don't i 0:11:30.400 --> 0:11:35.439 think often talk about in that is that the turnaround 0:11:35.520 --> 0:11:39.439 time on episodes is quick. Yeah, right, Like if we 0:11:39.440 --> 0:11:42.000 were like I'm setting aside the next six months to 0:11:42.160 --> 0:11:46.120 find out about this part of you know, history in 0:11:46.120 --> 0:11:49.679 a place that is not an English speaking country and 0:11:49.760 --> 0:11:53.160 really fair it out like the best possible resources that 0:11:53.240 --> 0:11:56.040 are not, like you said, from a biased or colonial perspective, 0:11:57.080 --> 0:12:01.000 that would be cool, But we're doing two a week. Um, 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:05.680 so the turnaround is so fast that from a research perspective, 0:12:06.679 --> 0:12:09.160 it makes those harder and harder. And sometimes we both 0:12:09.160 --> 0:12:11.480 have ones that kind of bubble along in the background 0:12:11.520 --> 0:12:15.440 that we're working on. But even so, like we never 0:12:15.480 --> 0:12:17.920 get a chance to just dedicate weeks and weeks at 0:12:17.960 --> 0:12:20.920 a time to one topic that really would benefit much 0:12:20.920 --> 0:12:23.800 more from that the format that we have, which is 0:12:23.840 --> 0:12:26.400 a little bit quicker. I also always have the question 0:12:26.400 --> 0:12:28.640 in my mind of like, do I even have the 0:12:28.640 --> 0:12:31.280 cultural competence to talk about this at all? And if 0:12:31.280 --> 0:12:35.280 I don't, uh, like, is there someone that we might 0:12:35.320 --> 0:12:37.960 have on the show as an interviewee, like somebody who's 0:12:37.960 --> 0:12:39.680 written a book about something. So it's like we we 0:12:39.800 --> 0:12:44.080 have tools to to offset the fact that you know, 0:12:44.120 --> 0:12:48.160 we are too human beings with the education and background 0:12:48.160 --> 0:12:51.600 that we have. Um, but still it's the whole, it's 0:12:51.600 --> 0:12:55.680 the whole process. Uh. I love this next question. It 0:12:55.720 --> 0:12:58.439 has a very easy answer. It's from Ian who asked, 0:12:58.520 --> 0:13:00.199 have you ever had a topic that you were told 0:13:00.240 --> 0:13:03.200 you couldn't do? I wasn't thinking of something scandalous, but 0:13:03.280 --> 0:13:06.559 more of someone your bosses, editors, whatever the title is 0:13:06.600 --> 0:13:08.920 of person above you in the company, thinking that isn't 0:13:08.960 --> 0:13:13.880 really of interest to anyone in his way? Too obscure. Um, No, 0:13:13.880 --> 0:13:18.239 no one has ever told us we can't do anything. Uh, 0:13:18.240 --> 0:13:21.400 we are show at this point. We have been working 0:13:21.400 --> 0:13:23.920 at it while it has been owned by multiple different companies, 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:27.600 and we have been extraordinarily fortunate to just have creative 0:13:27.600 --> 0:13:32.960 control over it. Um that whole time. Yeah, I think, Uh, 0:13:33.200 --> 0:13:38.360 it would be weirdly I am suddenly one of our 0:13:38.400 --> 0:13:42.880 bosses it was like, hey, I mean we don't even 0:13:42.880 --> 0:13:45.000 tell them ahead of time normally what we're working on. 0:13:45.080 --> 0:13:49.400 We have a lot of autonomy, which is really nice. Um, yeah, 0:13:49.400 --> 0:13:51.880 it would be super strange. I would literally be like, 0:13:51.960 --> 0:13:55.600 what is what is going on? Uh? If that kind 0:13:55.600 --> 0:14:00.240 of dialogue were introduced? Where this come from? Are you 0:14:00.400 --> 0:14:03.920 very concerned about my future and the future of the 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:07.120 It would be super weird. The next one is do 0:14:07.240 --> 0:14:12.480 you have a time period or type of episode like biographies, battles, uprisings, etcetera, 0:14:12.640 --> 0:14:15.400 that you find yourself biased towards or against? If so, 0:14:15.520 --> 0:14:18.120 what are they? That's from Olivia? I feel like I 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:21.840 know your answer. Well, I mean, I definitely love biographies. 0:14:21.960 --> 0:14:25.280 I always talking about how I'm I love Queen Victoria 0:14:25.600 --> 0:14:31.520 complicated and wrong. She's not. Uh, their problems with Queen Victoria, 0:14:31.960 --> 0:14:34.200 But I mostly just love the Victorian era. It was 0:14:34.240 --> 0:14:36.880 such an exciting time in human history. And of course, 0:14:36.920 --> 0:14:41.120 like give me that, gave me that eighteenth century France 0:14:41.120 --> 0:14:46.320 all day. Um. I'm trying to think if I have 0:14:46.360 --> 0:14:50.160 any that I'm biased against. Well, I feel like that 0:14:50.360 --> 0:14:54.200 I do, know, Yeah, okay, I feel like a lot 0:14:54.240 --> 0:14:57.760 of our our biases toward include things that a lot 0:14:57.800 --> 0:14:59.920 of times are not talked about as much. So we 0:15:00.120 --> 0:15:02.880 talk about a lot of social history, and a lot 0:15:03.000 --> 0:15:05.840 of reformers and a lot of writers and artists and 0:15:05.880 --> 0:15:08.840 folks like that who Um, at least when you and 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:11.400 I were growing up, we're not the focus of history classes, 0:15:11.680 --> 0:15:15.400 which does mean that we're not necessarily doing biographies of 0:15:15.560 --> 0:15:21.000 people we might classify as like great European generals, right 0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:25.080 that was? Which is funny because when we get review 0:15:25.120 --> 0:15:28.840 copies of books from publishers, um, often it is a 0:15:28.920 --> 0:15:33.920 gigantic stack of generals and presidents and kings um. And 0:15:33.960 --> 0:15:35.560 those are just not the ones that we do the 0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:38.960 most often. Um. I have I ever told you about 0:15:38.960 --> 0:15:44.040 the game we play in the office. So the fabulous 0:15:44.080 --> 0:15:46.120 colleague that sits next to me these days because we've 0:15:46.120 --> 0:15:48.920 shuffled around a little bit. Mike and I have this 0:15:49.040 --> 0:15:51.920 game and uh Sam, one of the people from marketing, 0:15:52.160 --> 0:15:54.440 where when I come back in particularly if if I 0:15:54.480 --> 0:15:57.040 have been traveling a lot, which I normally do during 0:15:57.120 --> 0:15:59.880 normal times, and I come back and there's literally, like 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:02.120 my first day back, always a pile of books on 0:16:02.160 --> 0:16:04.640 my desk, And we play this game that are from publishers, 0:16:04.960 --> 0:16:10.280 and we play this game called Um Hitler Churchill General, 0:16:10.640 --> 0:16:15.160 And so we have to guess just based on the 0:16:15.240 --> 0:16:20.320 exterior packaging, which of those topics it's gonna be UM, 0:16:20.360 --> 0:16:24.960 and we keep like a very casual rolling tally of 0:16:25.000 --> 0:16:28.600 our success. Last year was a big Churchill year. Everybody 0:16:28.640 --> 0:16:30.920 wanted to write about Churchill. So that's why that that 0:16:30.960 --> 0:16:33.360 became a category. I'm just gonna put it out there. 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:36.040 We we get a lot of like automated emails, like 0:16:36.120 --> 0:16:41.640 mass distribution emails from publishers and publicists and folks like that, Um, 0:16:41.800 --> 0:16:47.480 if you represent authors of color or queer authors or 0:16:47.560 --> 0:16:52.840 authors from outside the United States and Europe and Canada, 0:16:53.280 --> 0:16:56.200 and folks that are writing about history that is the 0:16:56.320 --> 0:17:00.520 history of people of color and queer people and women. Um, 0:17:00.560 --> 0:17:05.520 if you rep these authors, feel free you pitch them 0:17:05.600 --> 0:17:11.159 to us, because overwhelmingly, when we have had anybody on 0:17:11.200 --> 0:17:13.520 the show as an interview subject who was not white, 0:17:14.320 --> 0:17:18.679 like that's somebody we hunted down the publicist ourselves. Not 0:17:18.720 --> 0:17:20.920 a hundred percent of the time, but like significantly yeah, 0:17:20.960 --> 0:17:24.359 a lot of the time, which I mean we're happy 0:17:24.400 --> 0:17:26.560 to do. But like, also we're way more aware of 0:17:26.560 --> 0:17:29.560 the stuff that actually shows up in our inbox than 0:17:29.600 --> 0:17:32.919 the ones that we have to go don a quest 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:37.719 to see, like who's publishing books this week? Do you 0:17:37.720 --> 0:17:41.320 have bias against any time periods? I don't know, but 0:17:41.680 --> 0:17:43.879 apart from the whole general's thing, not like not a 0:17:43.880 --> 0:17:46.600 time period that I can think of, see, I feel 0:17:46.600 --> 0:17:50.439 like there is this thing that goes on where the 0:17:50.520 --> 0:17:52.879 time period I'm kind of shruggy about is one that 0:17:52.960 --> 0:17:56.440 you're into. So it covers our basis. Oh yeah, yeah, 0:17:56.480 --> 0:18:00.680 I don't really love researching medieval stuff, Okay, I don't. 0:18:00.840 --> 0:18:02.800 It's not like I have like dislike of it. I 0:18:02.840 --> 0:18:05.040 don't have active dislike. It's just not the thing that 0:18:05.200 --> 0:18:08.560 usually like sparks my excitement, even though there's a lot 0:18:08.560 --> 0:18:12.280 of cool stuff in there. Um, my proclivities lean in 0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:15.720 other directions, so I'm always kind of excited when you're like, 0:18:17.840 --> 0:18:26.359 here's here's a Tyler like great. Um, next we have 0:18:26.400 --> 0:18:28.960 a question from Tyler, who says your audio sounds so 0:18:29.000 --> 0:18:30.959 crisp and clear, it almost makes me think you two 0:18:31.000 --> 0:18:34.720 are together recording. What software or devices do you use 0:18:34.800 --> 0:18:38.240 to help with the clean audio quality? Um? I don't 0:18:38.240 --> 0:18:40.639 think we can speak as much to the software because 0:18:40.640 --> 0:18:43.520 our amazing producer and editor, Casey, is the person who 0:18:43.560 --> 0:18:46.920 does the actual audio editing. But we do both have 0:18:47.680 --> 0:18:53.080 like the same microphone, which is a professional microphone plugged 0:18:53.080 --> 0:18:57.159 into a digital recorder. Um. Previously, before the pandemic, you 0:18:57.200 --> 0:19:00.199 were recording in a studio and our offices, and then 0:19:00.240 --> 0:19:02.240 I was recording in a home studio. But still we 0:19:02.280 --> 0:19:05.720 had like the same microphones so that our sound would 0:19:05.720 --> 0:19:08.800 sound the same. Yes, Um, and now we have them 0:19:08.840 --> 0:19:13.640 and I'm in a shoe closet. Yeah. Right after the 0:19:13.640 --> 0:19:16.880 pandemic started, there was a brief window where like I 0:19:16.920 --> 0:19:19.080 was on this mic and you were on a USB mic, 0:19:19.200 --> 0:19:24.320 and UM, probably like very finely tuned audio people could 0:19:24.400 --> 0:19:27.679 hear that a little bit like here the difference, but UM, 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:30.080 like it was not. It was not like it sounded 0:19:30.119 --> 0:19:32.840 like I was in a studio and you were sitting 0:19:32.840 --> 0:19:35.000 in front of a fan on a beach with an 0:19:35.000 --> 0:19:38.760 echo chamber around you. Or well, and Casey too will 0:19:38.800 --> 0:19:42.119 like run filters that kind of normalize the sound and 0:19:42.200 --> 0:19:45.920 makes them sound similar to one another. So there isn't 0:19:45.960 --> 0:19:51.040 that discordant weirdness to it. Um specific filters I would 0:19:51.040 --> 0:19:55.600 not know a last are. The next question is are 0:19:55.600 --> 0:19:58.040 there any subjects or topics you absolutely will never do 0:19:58.119 --> 0:20:00.760 a show on for any reason? So alarly, is there 0:20:00.760 --> 0:20:02.560 a topic you want to do a show on that 0:20:02.640 --> 0:20:05.400 you haven't been able to? Um? That is from Brianna. 0:20:05.560 --> 0:20:09.200 Karen asked a similar question to the last part of that. Uh, 0:20:09.280 --> 0:20:14.359 you usually say the Quints, right, Yeah, there's the dion Quints. Who. 0:20:14.680 --> 0:20:17.320 Um We've mentioned this on a show. I can't remember 0:20:17.359 --> 0:20:22.160 which episode it was on, but um, the dion Quints 0:20:22.160 --> 0:20:26.000 a set of five quintuplets. Uh what obviously because they 0:20:26.000 --> 0:20:29.440 were quints, um, two of them as of the last 0:20:29.440 --> 0:20:31.119 time I checked, we're still living and have really just 0:20:31.160 --> 0:20:33.920 said they want their privacy and part of their whole 0:20:33.960 --> 0:20:36.679 story is that their privacy and their freedom was totally 0:20:36.680 --> 0:20:39.440 stripped from them because of the fact that they were 0:20:39.480 --> 0:20:45.119 a set of five babies who survived, which um was 0:20:45.119 --> 0:20:46.920 an enormous charity. I think we talked about it in 0:20:46.960 --> 0:20:50.639 the episode about the incubator Baby side shows that seems correct. 0:20:51.320 --> 0:20:56.320 Another thing on the same line of thought is Henrietta Lacks, 0:20:56.800 --> 0:21:01.320 which we've actually gotten an uptick and Henrietta Lacks questions lately. UM. 0:21:01.400 --> 0:21:04.920 Henrietta Lacks was a Black woman who died of cancer 0:21:05.040 --> 0:21:08.440 and the cells in her cancer became a cell line 0:21:08.480 --> 0:21:10.800 that was used in pharmaceuticals. UM. And it is a 0:21:10.880 --> 0:21:14.560 super important story, but it's also a story that involves 0:21:14.560 --> 0:21:18.000 a lack of consent and an invasion of her privacy. UM. 0:21:18.680 --> 0:21:22.800 And that just feels weird for us to dive into, 0:21:23.040 --> 0:21:25.960 especially because what we would mostly be doing is kind 0:21:26.000 --> 0:21:30.240 of a synopsis of Rebecca sclutes book, The Immortal Life 0:21:30.280 --> 0:21:32.159 of Henrietta Lacks. And so like that's the case to 0:21:32.440 --> 0:21:35.960 like go to that source, Like Rebecca Sclute worked with 0:21:36.000 --> 0:21:39.960 the family, she did all that primary research her on 0:21:40.040 --> 0:21:43.479 her you know, for her book, UM, and and like 0:21:43.760 --> 0:21:46.600 it would just be us, it would be a book report, 0:21:46.840 --> 0:21:49.959 it would be a book report. UM. So like we 0:21:50.040 --> 0:21:52.919 absolutely agree that that is an important story that's worth telling. 0:21:53.400 --> 0:21:56.320 And in more recent years her family has has talked 0:21:56.359 --> 0:21:59.240 about like wanting people to understand what happened with that history, 0:21:59.280 --> 0:22:01.600 but like that that is a case where someone else 0:22:01.680 --> 0:22:04.600 did all the work, um, and that is the person 0:22:04.640 --> 0:22:07.959 who's work should be showcased. I'm trying to think if 0:22:08.000 --> 0:22:11.040 there's anything that we wanted to do a show on him, 0:22:11.040 --> 0:22:14.159 we haven't really been able to. Uh, those tend to 0:22:14.200 --> 0:22:17.400 fall over to six impossible episodes. Yeah, they get into 0:22:17.440 --> 0:22:20.680 six impossible episodes a lot. Um, So I I perpetually 0:22:20.720 --> 0:22:22.600 have a list of things that I don't feel like 0:22:22.640 --> 0:22:26.600 I have quite enough information for that are over on 0:22:26.680 --> 0:22:28.880 that little Maybe one day it's a six impossible episodes. 0:22:30.640 --> 0:22:34.000 Amy asks, what's the craziest thing you've done in the 0:22:34.080 --> 0:22:36.159 name of research? Was there a time you found yourself 0:22:36.240 --> 0:22:38.959 chasing a bit of history somewhere so unexpected that by 0:22:39.000 --> 0:22:41.199 the end you thought, how did I get here? Or 0:22:41.240 --> 0:22:44.399 what have I done? Um? My answer to that is 0:22:44.480 --> 0:22:47.560 from while we were still technically working the same job, 0:22:47.600 --> 0:22:51.200 but before we had the podcast. Um. Because like as 0:22:51.359 --> 0:22:54.959 as we said earlier, like our our show and previously 0:22:55.040 --> 0:22:58.040 are like website employer has been sold a series of times. 0:22:58.640 --> 0:23:01.720 I was working on an article when we were still 0:23:01.760 --> 0:23:03.800 part of How Stuff Works, part of that website, and 0:23:03.840 --> 0:23:07.120