January 6, 2014 • 28 mins
Time for something completely different! There are a few questions that we get asked over and over. Today, we answer four of the most-common queries posed to us in our listener mail.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how
Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Tracy Wilson and I'm Holly Fry, and we're going
to do something a little different today. This early in
the New Year podcast episode, we get a lot of
(00:23):
listener mail. We discussed this. We try really hard to
answer at all, and we mostly fail most of it.
I fall into that trap where I'm like, I'm going
to answer this when I have ten minutes to really
think about an answer and not just dash something off
when I don't have time to check my facts or
like really think through a good response, and then a
farting more emails come in ten minutes. Never happened. So
(00:45):
I really don't mean to slate anybody. Yeah. We get
a lot of emails that are on sort of the
same theme. We get ones that are like, have you
ever thought about doing an episode on such and stuff?
And that answer a lot of times is either yes
or no, like it's not actually a satisfying answer. We
have thought about it, yeah, or We get a lot
of can you do an episode on? Or will you
(01:06):
do an episode on? And that answer is pretty much
always maybe, unless unless we happen to be actually in
the process of researching that right now. Uh. That answers
pretty much always maybe, But there are some other ones
that we really get the same question over and over
and over again, and some of them are things that
people are specifically asking us to talk about. So today
(01:27):
we have a selection of these frequently asked questions that
we get from our listeners, UH, and we're just going
to answer all of them so that we can point
people to this podcast in the future when we continue
to get these same questions. How does that sound, Hollie,
That sounds delightful to me. I could probably be more
fulfilling to the people that we never answer. I hope,
I hope UM, and I will because a lot of
(01:49):
these are questions that I have answered, Like I've sent
basically the same email a whole lot of times, and
and so I can tell it's one that there's some
legitimate interest in. UM. This first one, this particular email
is from Heather, but it is a question that we
get a whole whole lot of times. And she starts
off by suggesting several different episode topics, and the last
(02:11):
thing she says is, lastly, I'm wondering if you would
ever consider recording a podcast about your podcast, specifically, how
you do the research for your stories? Are there certain
websites that you can recommend to those of us who
want to do research on our own, What type of
libraries do you use, how do you get started, how
long does the research take for any given podcast, and
(02:32):
most importantly, how do you fact check yourself? I think
I'm not the only listener that would be interested to
hear about what you do behind the scenes. That last
part is definitely true. We get so many emails asking
is how we prep and do our research? Yeah. I
think we start with figuring out what to talk about,
and sometimes that is a laborious task. It really is sometimes.
I mean the bottom line is that, uh, we have
(02:54):
long lists, both of us. We have one big list,
and then we each have our own individual lists. I think,
uh um, and I survey mind and I try to
find a thing that is going to pop out and
just grabs me that week. And it just because something
doesn't grab me one week doesn't mean it won't be
next week. But in any given week, Yeah, I really
got to be pretty interested because you're gonna be spending
(03:15):
a lot of time with the topic well, and usually
when I write something on the list, I'm so excited
about it, and then when I actually have the chance
to la, when you go back, you may not have
the same fire. He isn't striking me quite as much anymore.
So one of the things I also do to kind
of narrow it down, and sometimes that the opposite happens,
is to look at what we've talked about recently and
try to think of something that's different from that, so
(03:37):
that we're not covering the same subjects over and over. Yeah,
I do the same so that it's not all Victorian
underwear every week, as much as that would be awesome,
be a very natural day to day thing for me.
But well, and sometimes we do have little patterns where
one thing will lead us to another thing will lead
us to another thing. Like the recent episode that we
had about the Hessians kind of led me into something
(04:01):
that we're recording in this session today about the Battle
of Hastings because I just discovered that I enjoyed talking
about the battle and I want to talk about another one.
So we do have little patterns that emerge, But trying
to find something that we haven't just talked about is
another part of it. Once I have a subject, it's
time for Google. Yes, And I think you and I
do a pretty similar thing here where we do a
(04:23):
quick Google search initially, right, and for me, I'd kind
of end up writing out usually in pen and paper.
It's not even a type thing, like a quick four
to six point I don't even want to call it
an outline because that makes it sound way more structured
than it is. But like kind of the the points
that I feel like have to be hit in that story,
(04:45):
and then that guides the rest of the research. That's
I don't do that, maybe I should because what happens
to me is I sort of google and Google is
kind of a gut check for me of is there
enough information about this person out in the world, Because
sometimes it's clear as as I Google that there's a
Wikipedia page and nothing else, uh, and that that's probably
not gonna work. So if if Google makes it clear
(05:08):
that yes, I'll be able to find information, then it's
time for Google scholar. Uh. The University of Georgia system
has a database of stuff that you can get to
with your library card if you're a Georgia resident. UM.
I use that to look at a lot of academic papers.
I sometimes will get books, depending on if there are
books that are in print and in our budget. Yeah,
(05:29):
I am. One good thing about the fact that we
do a lot of history is that often places, uh
like Amazon or Barnes and Noble will have e books
that are free because they're basically either public domain or
they're just elderly enough that they're really not. Yeah, but
those all get delivered right to my phone and I
can be reading them on the train commuting. I get
(05:50):
archive dot org, your project getting burger, things like that. Um. Also,
sometimes it really depends. Sometimes we're able to get something
from inter library loan. I know I did that with
the Hessians because you could only find one really good
book that you wanted. Yeah, it was way too in
Georgia had it. Yeah, there's pretty much one copy of
the book and all of Metro Atlanta that they sent
(06:11):
to me. So I spend a lot of reading and
rereading and synthesizing stuff into notes. Sometimes at this point
it goes completely off the rails and I realized I've
made a terrible mistake and I have to start over.
We have both been in that vote. Yes, sometimes I
am in that vote multiple times in one week. I
don't end that. I don't either. I don't want it
(06:31):
to happen ever, but it'll be like I'll get to
a point and I'll just realize, like this, there's no
story here, Like it's just kind of you know, it's
facts and figures, which can be great, but if that's
all you have and there's no more meat to it,
it's not really very engaging. And if it's not engaging
to me in the research phase, there's no way it's
going to be engaging as a discussion. Yeah, after the
(06:55):
Red Wedding episode of Game of Thrones and everyone was
asking us to talk about the massacre at Glenco and
the uh, what was the other one? The Black Dinner,
I think was what the other event was. People were
talking asking me to talk about that. So many people
were talking about it that I thought, I don't really
have anything new to add to everyone is talking about
right now, And I thought about doing an episode that
(07:16):
was on the history of hospitality, which sounded really cool
to me because when you have so many um cultures
that are are based on really extreme climate or being
kind of a migratory culture, the idea of hospitality tends
to be really entrenched in the culture and really important.
And I was like, I'll do the history of hospitality.
(07:37):
That will be awesome. And within an hour I had
there was a whole Like I had this giant stack
of papers, and it became immediately clear to me that
that was not gonna work. I had to pick something else. So, yeah,
sometimes it does become start over territory. Yeah, sometimes you
end up on this raft of tons of general information
(07:58):
and there's there's no clear path to make an actual
thing out of it. Right, That was the problem with that.
It was never going to be soup. It's just gonna
be some water and one bully on cube and like
a sad carrot. That's exactly what it was. Once I
have all that stuff, I start taking notes and working
the notes into the story, and reading and rereading the
(08:20):
synthesized copy of notes to to try to get it
into something that's going to be cohesive and have a
beginning in the middle of an end, and all of
that kind of thing. Making sure I got my facts right. Yeah.
I do a thing that drives uh, my husband. I
keep people anyone with a lick of sense crazy, Which
is it for all of my online resource, like I
(08:41):
get all of my resources open at the same time.
Me too, And like if I have books, I will
have books laid out at the same time. I may
have a thing pulled up on my phone at the
same time. I will have literally thirty tabs open in
a browser, and then I try to incorporate I'll review
it because usually have read it all before, and then
(09:01):
I'll review it, and as I feel like I'm done
with this item, I will close it. And so I
can kind of get a constant visual of where I'm
at in terms of my progress on prepping by how
many how many big messy sources are still open versus
how much I whittled down. Yeah, I we get a
lot of questions about whether we use like ever note
(09:23):
or something to keep up with our research, and I
do not. I don't either. I started at how stuff
works in two thousand and five, and a lot of
the tools that exist today weren't either weren't there yet
or weren't quite ready for prime time yet, and so
I just developed the system of bookmarking things and opening
all my bookmarks in tabs, which is still what I do,
(09:44):
even though there are much more sophisticated research tools. Now
that works for me and not as what I do.
Once I have this thing, the last thing that I
do is the pronunciation check. Yeah, there's a lot of
time spent on pronunciation checking, which I think there are
are naysayers who think that we do not ever do
we do. We're not always good at it, and then
(10:05):
it comes back out of our mouths. We do check it,
we yes. I remember with the Stay Shanna Go in episode,
I was watching Japanese language things with subtitle to make
sure that I got the words correctly, and then I
sent every proper name and the entire thing to the
boyfriend who speaks Japanese and has lived in Japan and
(10:27):
and and like synthesized all of the andy into a
comprehensive and I think we only really messed up one
word in that one, which made me happy that with
all of that Japanese we only made one complete mess up. Um.
I also do it's almost uh fact check e gut checks,
(10:48):
laugh dress rehearsal where I will data dump kind of
the story on either of my husband or a close friend,
and the questions that they bring up are ones where
I'm like, oh, I need to do more. That is, yes,
I do that sometimes to you and bless the humans
that have to put up with me doing that. And
sometimes even after we're done with the podcast, I want
(11:09):
to keep talking about it, and they get those two.
So all the people close to me in my life,
I'm so sorry. I've told you there was an incident
at Dragon Conrad dream about Clyde Tomba during a panel
and woke up quick, nothing to do with what was
going on, and then I really wanted to talk about it.
It's okay. The very last thing that I do sometimes,
(11:29):
as I'm seriously sitting here at the microphone, is figuring
out what listener mail I'm going to read and and
what article on how staff works are gonna talk about.
That's the thing number last. Yep, that's basically the process
for me as well. That end point we recorded on
microphones are wonderful producer Nol who's very tolerant and sweet. Yes,
(11:50):
our previous podcast, which is called pop Stuff, we pretty
much came in and sat down and recorded it in
one take. That is not how this podcast works at all. No,
there's it's too easy to flow up um fact or
a year or somebody's name, and you don't want that.
For as much as we do it, it would be
really long and boring for people to listen to us
go whoops and have to fix it again. There's lots
(12:13):
of fixing. So yes, that is the question of how
we make our podcast. Thank you everyone who has asked that. Yeah,
I did not think it would be enough to make
an entire episode about it, which, looking now how long
we've talked about it, is totally true. I think you
have one I do. This is a sample, but we
get many on this particular subject. So anytime we're talking
(12:34):
about something that is more than two thousand years old.
From our listener Richard, and he says, dear friends, I
was so enjoying the podcast on ice cream until at
seven minutes and two seconds one of you referred to
a date at C and I wanted to gag. I'm
glad I wasn't eating ice cream me too, because that
would be unpleasant, both the ice cream and for Richard.
(12:55):
Real historians don't use these made up designations. B C
and A D or universally understood and do the job
quite nicely. Thank you. B C E and C E
are just obskaters that serve no valuable purpose. Uh. I
love the podcast, but would love it a lot more
if you'd stick to more authentic designators of your reference.
Using accurate terms to avoid using offensive and formerly common
(13:16):
ones is great and to be encouraged, for example, Asian
African American marriage equality, etcetera. But political correctness for the
sake of political correctness is so last decade. Let's get
with it. Thank you for listening to me. And this
one's a real pet peeve of mine. We get this
one a lot, we do. We're not the only ones
to do that. No, So that's actually a standard that
we moved to on how stuff works as a website
(13:38):
after many years of following the Associated Press style standard
of using BC and a D when talking about dates. So,
if you're unfamiliar with all these what all these things
stand for? Bc BC stands for before Christ. A D
stands for Anno domini, which means the year of our Lord.
And you will also hear people say after death, which
(13:59):
is not what it means, but that's kind of their
um shorthand version of it. Yes, that's also why when
you look at dates, it's the the a D part
is supposed to come before the date, because it's like
the year of our Lord, not the year of our Lord.
So H B, C E, and and c E stand
for before the Common Era and Common Era, and there
(14:22):
sometimes people will say that C stands for various other things,
but the general UH accepted notation is that it's before
the Common Era and Common Era. And the whole idea
is to be more inclusive of non Christian people. When
we were using BC and A d is a web
a website standard, we did periodically get very kind and
(14:42):
gracious emails from people who would sort of remind us
that our visitors to the website are many, many of
them not from the United States, from other nations where
the predominant religion is not Christianity. I know that most
still the majority of people in the United States identify
with Christianity as in some form as their religion, but
(15:05):
that is really not a case in the whole world.
So we made this decision thoughtfully after some pretty extensive
consideration UH, in order to be more inclusive and to
recognize the fact that our audience is a global audience
and not just an American audience. UM so beast. The
number one UM thing. Number two is that usually when
we get these emails, the flavor of the question, UH
(15:29):
seems to assume that that B C, E, and C
are like a brand new thing that we just thought
of within the last couple of years to try to
be politically correct, which's not the case at all. That
isn't really not the case at all, um, get ready,
because they're shockingly elderly. Well, just at the more in
the more recent time, when I was in college, most
(15:50):
of my history and humanities and literature textbooks used B, C,
E and ceotation and that at this point was at
least fifteen years ago that I was reading them, which
meant that they were pub lished and and edited and
things like that prior to that. Um. But really, the
idea of common era goes all the way back to
the seventeenth century, and it was widely used in Jewish
(16:11):
scholarship by the eighteenth century. And then B C has
existed since at least eighteen eighty one, so this is
a much older notation then people give it credit for. Uh.
The other thing that we're giving people credit for is
the ability to figure things out from context. UM. I
pretty much trust listeners to be able to figure things
(16:31):
out from context and and to not need to define
every single thing that we talk about. So, while I
get that it might throw somebody for a loop the
first time they hear somebody use BC and CE instead
of BC and a D, I pretty much stressed that
people can figure out what that means, and if they
are still confused, can go, well, look, get up. But
(16:52):
now we have the definition right here, ind of for
anyone who would like to have it. Yeah, and it's
it's one of those things I get, like everybody's got
a peeve. I have tons of them, but at the
end of the day, that's my peeve to live with them.
And it's it's definitely a decision that we made to
be more inclusive of everyone, not to exclude Christians, which
(17:14):
seems to be sometimes sometimes. No, it's definitely an attempt
to be more broad in who we are speaking to
you rather than more narrow. So, hey, Tracy, yes, Before
we get to the next one, which is incidentally also
kind of a criticism, Uh doon to dake a moment
talk about our sponsor. Let's do now we will move
(17:37):
on to you. Another somewhat critical question that we get
pretty often. This is from Donna, who says are you guys.
Even looking at the iTunes feedback for the History podcast,
I'm sorry to say, but the current one's voices are
very tough to take. I've always loved the History Podcast
up until they started this year, but I just can't
handle their voices. Please put some nice voices back on.
(17:57):
Thank you. I'd I really hard not to look at
our iTunes reviews. Yeah I don't. I mean, there's there's
only so much it will accomplish other than making either
of us feel self conscious or creddy. Yeah, um, that's
what you got. I sometimes check in on our iTunes
(18:18):
reviews to see if the like if the tide of
iTunes has turned uh and and the answer at this
point is like it has shifted a tiny bit for
when we came up on the podcast, but just a
tiny bit. If according to our iTunes reviews, like this
podcast is circling the drain with listeners leaving in droves
(18:38):
because you and I have terrible voices, and that is
not the case by any other metric that we have.
And I don't want to discount people that don't care
for me. That's fine, You're totally entitled to not like me.
They're certainly people, um, celebrities and radio personalities and just
(19:00):
people that I'm not wild about. Everybody's got that, but
I don't. That seemed to be playing out in terms
of like our download numbers or so. We had a
record breaking month in October for the entire podcast, which
was just a hooray thanks to our listeners. Uh. The
(19:20):
one of the things that comes up pretty often is
they don't have voices for radio. And I think the
people who say that aren't listening to the same radio
that I'm listening to, because I hear all kinds of
voices on the radio and all kinds of voices in podcasts,
because they're real humans. It's not people that have been
like my golden life is to be a DJ or
(19:41):
to be a talk radio host. We're here because we're
into history, and that's pretty much you know the jam. Yeah.
I always take comfort in uh an interview I heard
with Ira Glass once or he talks about how often
he gets people that talk about how horrible his voice
is and they cannot bear to live into his various
foibles and his you know, throat catching in his arms
(20:04):
and right. But I just kept going, yeah, and I
adore I Red Glass Glass definitely has a very distinctive voice,
as does Sarah Vowl. Oh. I I mean to me,
she's always going to be violent incredible. But even though
I have seen her speak about Lincoln and other historical things,
in my head, it's always highlight incredible. Yes. So for
(20:28):
people who wonder, yes, we occasionally look at our IT
teams reviews, do not be concerned. We are not losing
listeners in droves in spite of what you may be there. Yeah,
and I you know, I worry sometimes that there's always
this ongoing thing of like where people went and did
(20:50):
people still think that we fired Sarah and or Doablina
and took over, which couldn't be further for the truth.
We both love them. Let's just dispel this right now.
Zero people have ever been fired from stuff you missed
in history class. Yeah, It's always been a case of people,
you know, moving on in their careers wanting to take
on new challenges. Uh. Some people have taken new challenges
(21:10):
at How Stuff Works or Discovery, and some people have
taken on new roles at other companies, and pretty much
I've supported every one of those decisions. Yeah, and we're
still all pal. I was texting it to Blinan last
night about horrible television that we both love. So yeah,
I I don't. I'm saddened when people think it's somehow
(21:31):
it cover up and we're sneaky, and I think bad
has happened to those girls. They're good and I still
love them both. Yeah. Well, and everyone from before Katie also,
and uh and Candice also and Jane also. I'm like, yeah,
people from before my time after work. We've had this
podcast for a really long time, and consequently, as happens
(21:55):
in jobs, sometimes people go to work somewhere else. Uh.
This last one that I have is actually something that's
really near to my heart. And that's why I keep
typing out the same long, long answer every time someone
asks me. Uh. And so this is from Kelsey. Kelsey says, hello, ladies.
I adore your podcast. I've been listening since they were
(22:16):
five minutes long, which is back in the Josh and
Kansas the way early. Um. Anyway, I'm reading a book
in my college English class, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lax.
I'm only halfway through and can see ten different podcast
subjects that I think you all would enjoy. Henrietta Lax
is responsible for the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, and
so much more that I mentioned. She was a poor
(22:37):
black woman who died in ninety one. This woman better
known as HeLa, and her cells stolen by John Hopkins
Hospital when she went in for cervical cancer. Her cells
are still alive, but Henrietta remains unknown and her family
didn't know about the cells until recently. People made million
millions on her cells and her family can't even afford
health insurance. The immortal life of Henrietta Lax as race relations,
(23:00):
power and privileged struggles and so much more. I hope
you guys can do a podcast on her. Kelsey Henrietta
Lacks is probably the most requested podcast subject, followed closely
by the Quints, followed closely by the Deon Quints. And
these two stories have something really important in common, which
is that they are all people who their their story
(23:21):
and their place in history involves having their privacy fundamentally
violated by people who are in a position of power.
Right so, Henrietta Lacks her privacy was fundamentally violated when
her cells were removed from her body without her knowledge
or consent and then used to make lots of money. Yeah. Um,
the Dion Quints were removed from their parents. These are
(23:43):
a set of quintuplets who were born sometime in the past.
I don't remember the exact year, but they were removed
from their parents and basically brought up in this sort
of laboratory situation as almost test subjects. Um. Fundamentally, their
privacy was invaded by before they could have even had
a consciousness or not. They could not they were uh.
(24:06):
And so in the case of Henrietta Lack, she has
kin who are still alive. In the case of the
Dion Quintucklets, there are at the last time I looked
two of them still living. I am not disparaging any
work anyone else has done on any of these people,
and even of the other angles on the story that
UM with Henriette Lacks, that people have housed at house
to works have done. Like we have an article on
(24:26):
HeLa cells, we have other podcasts that have been on
HeLa cells. For the purpose of this podcast, though, I
am much more inclined to allow Henriette Lacks to have
her privacy in her death, especially since there are so
many other readily available materials usually accessible for her That's
(24:48):
kind of my thing, is that we've reached a point
where what more are we going to add to the discussion? Yeah,
and there isn't really anything that doesn't already exist. And
both of these stories have been publicized a great deal, uh,
you know, certainly because the book came out about Henrietta Lacks. Yeah, well,
and her life story is is pretty much out there,
(25:09):
it really and the book is a global best seller
that's been translated into like a double digit numbers of languages.
It's not like a secret book nobody knows about. It's
definitely super dip there. And one of the reasons we
get so many requests because so many people are reading it,
which is great, And any episode that we would do
would essentially be rehashing right that story and and that's
(25:35):
really not what I want to do in in that
kind of a circumstance. I think if you were interested
in the life of Henrietta Lacks, you can get that
book from the library or you can buy in a store.
There's also an audio book version of it. There is
a movie deal in the works that Oprah win Oprah
Winfrey is involved in, so that wouldn't naturally have access
(25:56):
to a lot more than we could really do. Um.
And if you're looking for something that's more podcast like,
there is an episode of All Things Considered from NPR
that you can listen to you on the web for free.
So there's lots and lots out there on Henriettle Axe
and for a number of not something that is not
discussed and needs to be unearthed and examined. Yeah, yeah,
(26:17):
the the any examination we would be doing is actually
a retelling of an examination that someone else has already done.
And I would much rather let that person's work, which
is Rebecca Salute um, stand on its own. Uh. And
with the quints, it's kind of the same thing. Yeah,
They've been covered in books, certainly, on television, certainly on
(26:38):
in various periodicals and other publications. We're not going to
add a lot to that that isn't pretty readily available
to most people. It's not like we're going to magically
find some pattern recognition that exposes some element of the
story that no one else has thought of before. It's
all been covered pretty thoroughly. I keep agreeing with you.
(27:01):
I often just agree with you, so hooray for that.
So yeah, we sometimes when I write that letter back
to people they are kind of angry and say, well,
but her, her family wants her story to be down
and I am I am okay with that, And you know,
I'm not trying to speak for a family. I'm just
trying to speak for us, and uh and and what
(27:22):
we I wanted to be able to put into the
podcast versus what already stands pretty well on tome, which
to me that work really does. So since we're doing
this all about listener mail, yeah, we're not going to
read listener mail. Yeah, we don't have a separate listener
mail at the end of this episode. But if you
would like to write to us about any of these
(27:43):
questions or anything else, you can. We're at History Podcast
at Discovery dot com. We're also on Facebook at Facebook
dot com slash History class Stuff, and on Twitter at
missed in History. Our tumbler is missed in History dot
tumbler dot com, and we are on Interest. If you
wouldn't to learn more about Henrietta Lacks, who I know
many many many of you do. We have an article
(28:05):
on the website, which is one of the many things
that I do feel pretty comfortable about. And if it
were a science podcast that we were on we might
do that, and that is the HeLa cells that came
about as a result of her medical treatment. You can
come to the website. You can search Heila h E.
L A cells and you will find how HeLa Sales Work,
which is an article about the cells that came from
(28:26):
Henrietta Lacks. You can do all that in a whole
lot more at our website, which is how stuff works
dot com for more on this and thousands of other
topics because it how stuff works dot Com.
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how
Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Tracy Wilson and I'm Holly Fry, and we're going
to do something a little different today. This early in
the New Year podcast episode, we get a lot of
(00:23):
listener mail. We discussed this. We try really hard to
answer at all, and we mostly fail most of it.
I fall into that trap where I'm like, I'm going
to answer this when I have ten minutes to really
think about an answer and not just dash something off
when I don't have time to check my facts or
like really think through a good response, and then a
farting more emails come in ten minutes. Never happened. So
(00:45):
I really don't mean to slate anybody. Yeah. We get
a lot of emails that are on sort of the
same theme. We get ones that are like, have you
ever thought about doing an episode on such and stuff?
And that answer a lot of times is either yes
or no, like it's not actually a satisfying answer. We
have thought about it, yeah, or We get a lot
of can you do an episode on? Or will you
(01:06):
do an episode on? And that answer is pretty much
always maybe, unless unless we happen to be actually in
the process of researching that right now. Uh. That answers
pretty much always maybe, But there are some other ones
that we really get the same question over and over
and over again, and some of them are things that
people are specifically asking us to talk about. So today
(01:27):
we have a selection of these frequently asked questions that
we get from our listeners, UH, and we're just going
to answer all of them so that we can point
people to this podcast in the future when we continue
to get these same questions. How does that sound, Hollie,
That sounds delightful to me. I could probably be more
fulfilling to the people that we never answer. I hope,
I hope UM, and I will because a lot of
(01:49):
these are questions that I have answered, Like I've sent
basically the same email a whole lot of times, and
and so I can tell it's one that there's some
legitimate interest in. UM. This first one, this particular email
is from Heather, but it is a question that we
get a whole whole lot of times. And she starts
off by suggesting several different episode topics, and the last
(02:11):
thing she says is, lastly, I'm wondering if you would
ever consider recording a podcast about your podcast, specifically, how
you do the research for your stories? Are there certain
websites that you can recommend to those of us who
want to do research on our own, What type of
libraries do you use, how do you get started, how
long does the research take for any given podcast, and
(02:32):
most importantly, how do you fact check yourself? I think
I'm not the only listener that would be interested to
hear about what you do behind the scenes. That last
part is definitely true. We get so many emails asking
is how we prep and do our research? Yeah. I
think we start with figuring out what to talk about,
and sometimes that is a laborious task. It really is sometimes.
I mean the bottom line is that, uh, we have
(02:54):
long lists, both of us. We have one big list,
and then we each have our own individual lists. I think,
uh um, and I survey mind and I try to
find a thing that is going to pop out and
just grabs me that week. And it just because something
doesn't grab me one week doesn't mean it won't be
next week. But in any given week, Yeah, I really
got to be pretty interested because you're gonna be spending
(03:15):
a lot of time with the topic well, and usually
when I write something on the list, I'm so excited
about it, and then when I actually have the chance
to la, when you go back, you may not have
the same fire. He isn't striking me quite as much anymore.
So one of the things I also do to kind
of narrow it down, and sometimes that the opposite happens,
is to look at what we've talked about recently and
try to think of something that's different from that, so
(03:37):
that we're not covering the same subjects over and over. Yeah,
I do the same so that it's not all Victorian
underwear every week, as much as that would be awesome,
be a very natural day to day thing for me.
But well, and sometimes we do have little patterns where
one thing will lead us to another thing will lead
us to another thing. Like the recent episode that we
had about the Hessians kind of led me into something
(04:01):
that we're recording in this session today about the Battle
of Hastings because I just discovered that I enjoyed talking
about the battle and I want to talk about another one.
So we do have little patterns that emerge, But trying
to find something that we haven't just talked about is
another part of it. Once I have a subject, it's
time for Google. Yes, And I think you and I
do a pretty similar thing here where we do a
(04:23):
quick Google search initially, right, and for me, I'd kind
of end up writing out usually in pen and paper.
It's not even a type thing, like a quick four
to six point I don't even want to call it
an outline because that makes it sound way more structured
than it is. But like kind of the the points
that I feel like have to be hit in that story,
(04:45):
and then that guides the rest of the research. That's
I don't do that, maybe I should because what happens
to me is I sort of google and Google is
kind of a gut check for me of is there
enough information about this person out in the world, Because
sometimes it's clear as as I Google that there's a
Wikipedia page and nothing else, uh, and that that's probably
not gonna work. So if if Google makes it clear
(05:08):
that yes, I'll be able to find information, then it's
time for Google scholar. Uh. The University of Georgia system
has a database of stuff that you can get to
with your library card if you're a Georgia resident. UM.
I use that to look at a lot of academic papers.
I sometimes will get books, depending on if there are
books that are in print and in our budget. Yeah,
(05:29):
I am. One good thing about the fact that we
do a lot of history is that often places, uh
like Amazon or Barnes and Noble will have e books
that are free because they're basically either public domain or
they're just elderly enough that they're really not. Yeah, but
those all get delivered right to my phone and I
can be reading them on the train commuting. I get
(05:50):
archive dot org, your project getting burger, things like that. Um. Also,
sometimes it really depends. Sometimes we're able to get something
from inter library loan. I know I did that with
the Hessians because you could only find one really good
book that you wanted. Yeah, it was way too in
Georgia had it. Yeah, there's pretty much one copy of
the book and all of Metro Atlanta that they sent
(06:11):
to me. So I spend a lot of reading and
rereading and synthesizing stuff into notes. Sometimes at this point
it goes completely off the rails and I realized I've
made a terrible mistake and I have to start over.
We have both been in that vote. Yes, sometimes I
am in that vote multiple times in one week. I
don't end that. I don't either. I don't want it
(06:31):
to happen ever, but it'll be like I'll get to
a point and I'll just realize, like this, there's no
story here, Like it's just kind of you know, it's
facts and figures, which can be great, but if that's
all you have and there's no more meat to it,
it's not really very engaging. And if it's not engaging
to me in the research phase, there's no way it's
going to be engaging as a discussion. Yeah, after the
(06:55):
Red Wedding episode of Game of Thrones and everyone was
asking us to talk about the massacre at Glenco and
the uh, what was the other one? The Black Dinner,
I think was what the other event was. People were
talking asking me to talk about that. So many people
were talking about it that I thought, I don't really
have anything new to add to everyone is talking about
right now, And I thought about doing an episode that
(07:16):
was on the history of hospitality, which sounded really cool
to me because when you have so many um cultures
that are are based on really extreme climate or being
kind of a migratory culture, the idea of hospitality tends
to be really entrenched in the culture and really important.
And I was like, I'll do the history of hospitality.
(07:37):
That will be awesome. And within an hour I had
there was a whole Like I had this giant stack
of papers, and it became immediately clear to me that
that was not gonna work. I had to pick something else. So, yeah,
sometimes it does become start over territory. Yeah, sometimes you
end up on this raft of tons of general information
(07:58):
and there's there's no clear path to make an actual
thing out of it. Right, That was the problem with that.
It was never going to be soup. It's just gonna
be some water and one bully on cube and like
a sad carrot. That's exactly what it was. Once I
have all that stuff, I start taking notes and working
the notes into the story, and reading and rereading the
(08:20):
synthesized copy of notes to to try to get it
into something that's going to be cohesive and have a
beginning in the middle of an end, and all of
that kind of thing. Making sure I got my facts right. Yeah.
I do a thing that drives uh, my husband. I
keep people anyone with a lick of sense crazy, Which
is it for all of my online resource, like I
(08:41):
get all of my resources open at the same time.
Me too, And like if I have books, I will
have books laid out at the same time. I may
have a thing pulled up on my phone at the
same time. I will have literally thirty tabs open in
a browser, and then I try to incorporate I'll review
it because usually have read it all before, and then
(09:01):
I'll review it, and as I feel like I'm done
with this item, I will close it. And so I
can kind of get a constant visual of where I'm
at in terms of my progress on prepping by how
many how many big messy sources are still open versus
how much I whittled down. Yeah, I we get a
lot of questions about whether we use like ever note
(09:23):
or something to keep up with our research, and I
do not. I don't either. I started at how stuff
works in two thousand and five, and a lot of
the tools that exist today weren't either weren't there yet
or weren't quite ready for prime time yet, and so
I just developed the system of bookmarking things and opening
all my bookmarks in tabs, which is still what I do,
(09:44):
even though there are much more sophisticated research tools. Now
that works for me and not as what I do.
Once I have this thing, the last thing that I
do is the pronunciation check. Yeah, there's a lot of
time spent on pronunciation checking, which I think there are
are naysayers who think that we do not ever do
we do. We're not always good at it, and then
(10:05):
it comes back out of our mouths. We do check it,
we yes. I remember with the Stay Shanna Go in episode,
I was watching Japanese language things with subtitle to make
sure that I got the words correctly, and then I
sent every proper name and the entire thing to the
boyfriend who speaks Japanese and has lived in Japan and
(10:27):
and and like synthesized all of the andy into a
comprehensive and I think we only really messed up one
word in that one, which made me happy that with
all of that Japanese we only made one complete mess up. Um.
I also do it's almost uh fact check e gut checks,
(10:48):
laugh dress rehearsal where I will data dump kind of
the story on either of my husband or a close friend,
and the questions that they bring up are ones where
I'm like, oh, I need to do more. That is, yes,
I do that sometimes to you and bless the humans
that have to put up with me doing that. And
sometimes even after we're done with the podcast, I want
(11:09):
to keep talking about it, and they get those two.
So all the people close to me in my life,
I'm so sorry. I've told you there was an incident
at Dragon Conrad dream about Clyde Tomba during a panel
and woke up quick, nothing to do with what was
going on, and then I really wanted to talk about it.
It's okay. The very last thing that I do sometimes,
(11:29):
as I'm seriously sitting here at the microphone, is figuring
out what listener mail I'm going to read and and
what article on how staff works are gonna talk about.
That's the thing number last. Yep, that's basically the process
for me as well. That end point we recorded on
microphones are wonderful producer Nol who's very tolerant and sweet. Yes,
(11:50):
our previous podcast, which is called pop Stuff, we pretty
much came in and sat down and recorded it in
one take. That is not how this podcast works at all. No,
there's it's too easy to flow up um fact or
a year or somebody's name, and you don't want that.
For as much as we do it, it would be
really long and boring for people to listen to us
go whoops and have to fix it again. There's lots
(12:13):
of fixing. So yes, that is the question of how
we make our podcast. Thank you everyone who has asked that. Yeah,
I did not think it would be enough to make
an entire episode about it, which, looking now how long
we've talked about it, is totally true. I think you
have one I do. This is a sample, but we
get many on this particular subject. So anytime we're talking
(12:34):
about something that is more than two thousand years old.
From our listener Richard, and he says, dear friends, I
was so enjoying the podcast on ice cream until at
seven minutes and two seconds one of you referred to
a date at C and I wanted to gag. I'm
glad I wasn't eating ice cream me too, because that
would be unpleasant, both the ice cream and for Richard.
(12:55):
Real historians don't use these made up designations. B C
and A D or universally understood and do the job
quite nicely. Thank you. B C E and C E
are just obskaters that serve no valuable purpose. Uh. I
love the podcast, but would love it a lot more
if you'd stick to more authentic designators of your reference.
Using accurate terms to avoid using offensive and formerly common
(13:16):
ones is great and to be encouraged, for example, Asian
African American marriage equality, etcetera. But political correctness for the
sake of political correctness is so last decade. Let's get
with it. Thank you for listening to me. And this
one's a real pet peeve of mine. We get this
one a lot, we do. We're not the only ones
to do that. No, So that's actually a standard that
we moved to on how stuff works as a website
(13:38):
after many years of following the Associated Press style standard
of using BC and a D when talking about dates. So,
if you're unfamiliar with all these what all these things
stand for? Bc BC stands for before Christ. A D
stands for Anno domini, which means the year of our Lord.
And you will also hear people say after death, which
(13:59):
is not what it means, but that's kind of their
um shorthand version of it. Yes, that's also why when
you look at dates, it's the the a D part
is supposed to come before the date, because it's like
the year of our Lord, not the year of our Lord.
So H B, C E, and and c E stand
for before the Common Era and Common Era, and there
(14:22):
sometimes people will say that C stands for various other things,
but the general UH accepted notation is that it's before
the Common Era and Common Era. And the whole idea
is to be more inclusive of non Christian people. When
we were using BC and A d is a web
a website standard, we did periodically get very kind and
(14:42):
gracious emails from people who would sort of remind us
that our visitors to the website are many, many of
them not from the United States, from other nations where
the predominant religion is not Christianity. I know that most
still the majority of people in the United States identify
with Christianity as in some form as their religion, but
(15:05):
that is really not a case in the whole world.
So we made this decision thoughtfully after some pretty extensive
consideration UH, in order to be more inclusive and to
recognize the fact that our audience is a global audience
and not just an American audience. UM so beast. The
number one UM thing. Number two is that usually when
we get these emails, the flavor of the question, UH
(15:29):
seems to assume that that B C, E, and C
are like a brand new thing that we just thought
of within the last couple of years to try to
be politically correct, which's not the case at all. That
isn't really not the case at all, um, get ready,
because they're shockingly elderly. Well, just at the more in
the more recent time, when I was in college, most
(15:50):
of my history and humanities and literature textbooks used B, C,
E and ceotation and that at this point was at
least fifteen years ago that I was reading them, which
meant that they were pub lished and and edited and
things like that prior to that. Um. But really, the
idea of common era goes all the way back to
the seventeenth century, and it was widely used in Jewish
(16:11):
scholarship by the eighteenth century. And then B C has
existed since at least eighteen eighty one, so this is
a much older notation then people give it credit for. Uh.
The other thing that we're giving people credit for is
the ability to figure things out from context. UM. I
pretty much trust listeners to be able to figure things
(16:31):
out from context and and to not need to define
every single thing that we talk about. So, while I
get that it might throw somebody for a loop the
first time they hear somebody use BC and CE instead
of BC and a D, I pretty much stressed that
people can figure out what that means, and if they
are still confused, can go, well, look, get up. But
(16:52):
now we have the definition right here, ind of for
anyone who would like to have it. Yeah, and it's
it's one of those things I get, like everybody's got
a peeve. I have tons of them, but at the
end of the day, that's my peeve to live with them.
And it's it's definitely a decision that we made to
be more inclusive of everyone, not to exclude Christians, which
(17:14):
seems to be sometimes sometimes. No, it's definitely an attempt
to be more broad in who we are speaking to
you rather than more narrow. So, hey, Tracy, yes, Before
we get to the next one, which is incidentally also
kind of a criticism, Uh doon to dake a moment
talk about our sponsor. Let's do now we will move
(17:37):
on to you. Another somewhat critical question that we get
pretty often. This is from Donna, who says are you guys.
Even looking at the iTunes feedback for the History podcast,
I'm sorry to say, but the current one's voices are
very tough to take. I've always loved the History Podcast
up until they started this year, but I just can't
handle their voices. Please put some nice voices back on.
(17:57):
Thank you. I'd I really hard not to look at
our iTunes reviews. Yeah I don't. I mean, there's there's
only so much it will accomplish other than making either
of us feel self conscious or creddy. Yeah, um, that's
what you got. I sometimes check in on our iTunes
(18:18):
reviews to see if the like if the tide of
iTunes has turned uh and and the answer at this
point is like it has shifted a tiny bit for
when we came up on the podcast, but just a
tiny bit. If according to our iTunes reviews, like this
podcast is circling the drain with listeners leaving in droves
(18:38):
because you and I have terrible voices, and that is
not the case by any other metric that we have.
And I don't want to discount people that don't care
for me. That's fine, You're totally entitled to not like me.
They're certainly people, um, celebrities and radio personalities and just
(19:00):
people that I'm not wild about. Everybody's got that, but
I don't. That seemed to be playing out in terms
of like our download numbers or so. We had a
record breaking month in October for the entire podcast, which
was just a hooray thanks to our listeners. Uh. The
(19:20):
one of the things that comes up pretty often is
they don't have voices for radio. And I think the
people who say that aren't listening to the same radio
that I'm listening to, because I hear all kinds of
voices on the radio and all kinds of voices in podcasts,
because they're real humans. It's not people that have been
like my golden life is to be a DJ or
(19:41):
to be a talk radio host. We're here because we're
into history, and that's pretty much you know the jam. Yeah.
I always take comfort in uh an interview I heard
with Ira Glass once or he talks about how often
he gets people that talk about how horrible his voice
is and they cannot bear to live into his various
foibles and his you know, throat catching in his arms
(20:04):
and right. But I just kept going, yeah, and I
adore I Red Glass Glass definitely has a very distinctive voice,
as does Sarah Vowl. Oh. I I mean to me,
she's always going to be violent incredible. But even though
I have seen her speak about Lincoln and other historical things,
in my head, it's always highlight incredible. Yes. So for
(20:28):
people who wonder, yes, we occasionally look at our IT
teams reviews, do not be concerned. We are not losing
listeners in droves in spite of what you may be there. Yeah,
and I you know, I worry sometimes that there's always
this ongoing thing of like where people went and did
(20:50):
people still think that we fired Sarah and or Doablina
and took over, which couldn't be further for the truth.
We both love them. Let's just dispel this right now.
Zero people have ever been fired from stuff you missed
in history class. Yeah, It's always been a case of people,
you know, moving on in their careers wanting to take
on new challenges. Uh. Some people have taken new challenges
(21:10):
at How Stuff Works or Discovery, and some people have
taken on new roles at other companies, and pretty much
I've supported every one of those decisions. Yeah, and we're
still all pal. I was texting it to Blinan last
night about horrible television that we both love. So yeah,
I I don't. I'm saddened when people think it's somehow
(21:31):
it cover up and we're sneaky, and I think bad
has happened to those girls. They're good and I still
love them both. Yeah. Well, and everyone from before Katie also,
and uh and Candice also and Jane also. I'm like, yeah,
people from before my time after work. We've had this
podcast for a really long time, and consequently, as happens
(21:55):
in jobs, sometimes people go to work somewhere else. Uh.
This last one that I have is actually something that's
really near to my heart. And that's why I keep
typing out the same long, long answer every time someone
asks me. Uh. And so this is from Kelsey. Kelsey says, hello, ladies.
I adore your podcast. I've been listening since they were
(22:16):
five minutes long, which is back in the Josh and
Kansas the way early. Um. Anyway, I'm reading a book
in my college English class, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lax.
I'm only halfway through and can see ten different podcast
subjects that I think you all would enjoy. Henrietta Lax
is responsible for the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, and
so much more that I mentioned. She was a poor
(22:37):
black woman who died in ninety one. This woman better
known as HeLa, and her cells stolen by John Hopkins
Hospital when she went in for cervical cancer. Her cells
are still alive, but Henrietta remains unknown and her family
didn't know about the cells until recently. People made million
millions on her cells and her family can't even afford
health insurance. The immortal life of Henrietta Lax as race relations,
(23:00):
power and privileged struggles and so much more. I hope
you guys can do a podcast on her. Kelsey Henrietta
Lacks is probably the most requested podcast subject, followed closely
by the Quints, followed closely by the Deon Quints. And
these two stories have something really important in common, which
is that they are all people who their their story
(23:21):
and their place in history involves having their privacy fundamentally
violated by people who are in a position of power.
Right so, Henrietta Lacks her privacy was fundamentally violated when
her cells were removed from her body without her knowledge
or consent and then used to make lots of money. Yeah. Um,
the Dion Quints were removed from their parents. These are
(23:43):
a set of quintuplets who were born sometime in the past.
I don't remember the exact year, but they were removed
from their parents and basically brought up in this sort
of laboratory situation as almost test subjects. Um. Fundamentally, their
privacy was invaded by before they could have even had
a consciousness or not. They could not they were uh.
(24:06):
And so in the case of Henrietta Lack, she has
kin who are still alive. In the case of the
Dion Quintucklets, there are at the last time I looked
two of them still living. I am not disparaging any
work anyone else has done on any of these people,
and even of the other angles on the story that
UM with Henriette Lacks, that people have housed at house
to works have done. Like we have an article on
(24:26):
HeLa cells, we have other podcasts that have been on
HeLa cells. For the purpose of this podcast, though, I
am much more inclined to allow Henriette Lacks to have
her privacy in her death, especially since there are so
many other readily available materials usually accessible for her That's
(24:48):
kind of my thing, is that we've reached a point
where what more are we going to add to the discussion? Yeah,
and there isn't really anything that doesn't already exist. And
both of these stories have been publicized a great deal, uh,
you know, certainly because the book came out about Henrietta Lacks. Yeah, well,
and her life story is is pretty much out there,
(25:09):
it really and the book is a global best seller
that's been translated into like a double digit numbers of languages.
It's not like a secret book nobody knows about. It's
definitely super dip there. And one of the reasons we
get so many requests because so many people are reading it,
which is great, And any episode that we would do
would essentially be rehashing right that story and and that's
(25:35):
really not what I want to do in in that
kind of a circumstance. I think if you were interested
in the life of Henrietta Lacks, you can get that
book from the library or you can buy in a store.
There's also an audio book version of it. There is
a movie deal in the works that Oprah win Oprah
Winfrey is involved in, so that wouldn't naturally have access
(25:56):
to a lot more than we could really do. Um.
And if you're looking for something that's more podcast like,
there is an episode of All Things Considered from NPR
that you can listen to you on the web for free.
So there's lots and lots out there on Henriettle Axe
and for a number of not something that is not
discussed and needs to be unearthed and examined. Yeah, yeah,
(26:17):
the the any examination we would be doing is actually
a retelling of an examination that someone else has already done.
And I would much rather let that person's work, which
is Rebecca Salute um, stand on its own. Uh. And
with the quints, it's kind of the same thing. Yeah,
They've been covered in books, certainly, on television, certainly on
(26:38):
in various periodicals and other publications. We're not going to
add a lot to that that isn't pretty readily available
to most people. It's not like we're going to magically
find some pattern recognition that exposes some element of the
story that no one else has thought of before. It's
all been covered pretty thoroughly. I keep agreeing with you.
(27:01):
I often just agree with you, so hooray for that.
So yeah, we sometimes when I write that letter back
to people they are kind of angry and say, well,
but her, her family wants her story to be down
and I am I am okay with that, And you know,
I'm not trying to speak for a family. I'm just
trying to speak for us, and uh and and what
(27:22):
we I wanted to be able to put into the
podcast versus what already stands pretty well on tome, which
to me that work really does. So since we're doing
this all about listener mail, yeah, we're not going to
read listener mail. Yeah, we don't have a separate listener
mail at the end of this episode. But if you
would like to write to us about any of these
(27:43):
questions or anything else, you can. We're at History Podcast
at Discovery dot com. We're also on Facebook at Facebook
dot com slash History class Stuff, and on Twitter at
missed in History. Our tumbler is missed in History dot
tumbler dot com, and we are on Interest. If you
wouldn't to learn more about Henrietta Lacks, who I know
many many many of you do. We have an article
(28:05):
on the website, which is one of the many things
that I do feel pretty comfortable about. And if it
were a science podcast that we were on we might
do that, and that is the HeLa cells that came
about as a result of her medical treatment. You can
come to the website. You can search Heila h E.
L A cells and you will find how HeLa Sales Work,
which is an article about the cells that came from
(28:26):
Henrietta Lacks. You can do all that in a whole
lot more at our website, which is how stuff works
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