September 6, 2025 • 29 mins
Now, let's be honest. Rudyard Kipling was a cartoonishly problematic guy. Yet his work made a permanent impression on global literature -- and, to a surprising degree, he based a lot of his writing on real-world events. In today's Classic episode, Ben and Noel ask: What inspired Rudyard Kipling to write The Jungle Book? Join the guys as they explore the real-life, tragic stories of feral children abandoned by their human parents, adopted by animals and raised in the wild.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Folks.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
We've talked about Rudyard Kipling before in the past. Old
Ricky Ticky Tappy, the author of one of our favorite poems.
If also in Boots Boots Boots again.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Yeah sorry, I'm very twenty eight days later trailer coded.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Oh I love it. Also Ridgy Kipling. Just to be clear,
not a great dude as a but he did write
a bunch of stuff, one of the best young adult
spy novels out there, Kim. In this classic episode, we
also talk about his inspiration to write a little something
(00:38):
called the Jungle Book.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Yeah, you may have heard of it. It turns out
that the story of Maugli was in fact inspired by
some very sad tales of feral children who were abandoned
by their human parents and actually, for all intents and purposes,
raised by wolves, or the very least raised in the wild.
Let's jump. I am.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Now.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
This is the law of the jungle, as old and
as true as the sky, and the wolf that shall
keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break
it must die. That is part of the law of
the Jungle. Roderi Kipling, Ben you know what I thought
you were gonna do. What do you think I was
gonna do?
Speaker 1 (01:46):
You thought you were gonna do? Now, this is a
story all about how my life got flipped turned upside down.
Let me take a minute. Just sit right back on
the bell air. I think you nailed it.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
I guess if we wanted to do lyrics would be
like now, this is a story all about how my
parents left me in the woods across town. Like to
take a minute, just sit right there. Tell you how
I grew up with a cat and a bear. You
know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
That's good, that's that's not I pulled up to. I
don't know. This is your bag, Ben, you did a
good job. Yeah, Because we're talking about we're talking about
sort of a slice of history, a type thing that
encompasses a couple of different periods. At the base of
our story today is one particular faral child that was
(02:34):
found in India and likely served as the basis for
one of your favorite racist works of fiction, Ben, He's
one of my my favorite I'm doing favorite and quotation fingers.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Yeah, well it is. The Jungle Book is an amazing story.
It's almost as amazing as our super producer Casey Pegram,
But you're right, Noel. The story of Dina Sanitchar not
his real name. As far as we know, our story
takes us to a part of India called Uttar Pradesh,
(03:06):
which I may be mispronouncing. It's sort of like northern
central India, on the border of Nepal And. In eighteen
seventy two, there was a group of hunters who encountered
a pack of wolves bounding through the forest. But not
just any ordinary pack of wolves, right, no.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
No, they say, what ho, I've sight hed a man
cub yes on all fours scamperings as though he were
a member of the pack. And then they proceeded to
smoke the wolf pack out of their cave, kill the wolves,
and bring this man cub to like a local orphanage,
(03:46):
because you know, he clearly couldn't possibly be happy living
in the woods, free and naked and with his animal brethren.
I feel like you've got a personal steak in this blood.
Oh right, you're right back, I just think, you know,
I mean, it's so sad. They literally there's different accounts
of the story that they killed all of the wolves,
or that they at least killed the mother wolf and
(04:08):
again smoke them out of the cave. But you know,
it's such so presumptuous to me. He was like, what
six years old?
Speaker 2 (04:15):
I want to say, Yeah, he was six.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
I guess. I guess they felt like they were doing
their their Christian duty.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
They probably did. But you know, the wolves most likely
attacked them because first off, they set a fire and
then they were actively intruding into Like if unless a
wolf is threatened or starving, it doesn't care what you do. Human.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Would these have been white hunters been or would these
have been Hindi like people from the region. Is this
during colonialism or is this a little bit before. This
is during the British Raj, So it's not clear if
these were white hunters or if these were local men
and not that really matters, but we'll get to that.
So the boy is brought to town, to the village
(04:57):
and to a mission run orphanage that's run by a
priest by the name of Father Earhart, who is very
much trying to convert the local population to his type
of his way of thinking, right, yeah, which is Catholicism.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
He's a missionary, right, And he says he actually gives
the kid his name the kid doesn't have a human
name yet, and so he names him Dina and Sonni
Char and Sonny Char means Saturday.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
It's right, which is the day of the week that
he was delivered to this guy.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Which I think that checks out. It's not a huge
burst of creativity. But I also think I also this
is just a personal aesthetic, Noel. But I think it's
really cool when people have names. There are days of
the week like Wednesday, Adams. I thought that was great.
That is cool somebody's last name is Saturday. They just
feel kind of fun to me.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Yeah, And I like the idea of his girl Friday,
you know.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
And also mister Wednesday from American Gods.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Yes, yes, mister Wednesday. I don't know any I don't
think I know anyone named Tuesday. If you're listening and
you happen to be named Tuesday or after any day
of the week, or after any day of the week,
we don't want to discriminate.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Yeah, let what happens next.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
So what happens next is that Father Earhart says some things.
We have a quotation from him that I think encapsulates
the condescending attitude so prevalent at the time, he says
that he thinks Sona Char is undoubtedly what he called pagal,
meaning idiotic or slow. But he says, despite this, Santa
(06:32):
Char still shows signs of reason and sometimes actual shrewdness.
But what we know now with the benefit of retrospect,
is that Sona Charg's behavior had a lot in common
with the behavior of other case similar cases of feral children.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Yeah, and that's the thing, the most important takeaway from
this and the interaction with some we'll talk about some others,
but they there's a window, very crucial window for language development,
and this child had soundly missed that window. So it
basically means that developing any kind of spoken in language
or being assimilated into speaking with you know, the folks
(07:15):
in the village, was going to be nigh on impossible. Right.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
That's that's the problematic part. You're absolutely correct about this,
not just this concept of language learning or language acquisition,
but also the concept of certain other behavior acquisitions. So
Santa Char allegedly would not express himself in ways that
seemed innately human. For instance, for a long time, we
(07:43):
as a species assumed that smiling or laughter were innate things,
sort of how like people used say all babies are
born knowing how to swim.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
I thought you were gonna say swear all babies are
born knowing how to swear.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
And if look who's talking, is any indication?
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Right? Right? A fantastic series of documentaries. But the problem
with Santa Char is that he did not seem to
laugh or smile, and he didn't seem to bond with people.
With one notable exception, he would only bond with animals.
There was a kid that he bonded with, which was
(08:22):
another fairal child who came to the same orphanage. By
this time, Santa Char had learned to wear human clothing.
He could reportedly dress himself quote with difficulty, and keep
track of his cup and his plate. But he showed
this younger kid. They would hang out, and he showed
him how to drink from a cup.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Yeah, and apparently he also became quite the chainsmoker. Yes
later in life.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Yeah, that was his uh, that was his one big
human habit he picked up, right, Yeah, what a what
a one to pick up? That's you know, it's it's
heartbreaking when you think about this because in other case
or other alleged cases, we should say, because we can
get into the the science of this a little bit later.
In many other cases where something like this is alleged
(09:10):
to have occurred, there's not a way to fix it.
You can mitigate some of the some of the issues,
but you can't repair them. This, this guy, Santa char
was likely incapable of, you know, going on to become
a priest himself or make a ted talk.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Here's my question for you, Ben, this is why I
had such an axt to grind at the top of
the show, with these horrible, horrible men smoking out the
lovely wolf and family that had raised this young lad.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
I think I know where you're going.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Yeah, wouldn't Eve has been better off frolicking in the forest,
free and naked with the wolf pack.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Rather than the Seicandra mission orphanage.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Yeah, it's a good question, like stuck between two worlds? Right,
he can't fully be human and he can't fully be
an animal. It's it's just it's really heartbreaking if you
think about it.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Yeah, you know, And we have to ask ourselves what
is the ultimate priority? Is a quality of life?
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Is it?
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Because our civilization is doing something that are we conflating
living the way we do with living the correct way,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
That's right. I think it's a I think there's an
inherent judgment call at play here. Is it about protecting
the life of the child? I don't know. Obviously, a
six year old orphan running around with a bunch of
wolves probably isn't the most safe thing in the world.
But I'm not sure. Man, I'm of two minds of it.
It's clearly causing me some conflict internally.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
There are arguments on both sides. You know what when
you see pictures of the guy, because there are actual
photographs of Dina Sano chart, which is why we can
put some more weight into this story in comparison to
other stories like Romulus and Remus raised by a wolf
that's mythology, there are any photographs of them. This guy, though,
(11:01):
when you look at the pictures, it's heartbreaking. Man. He's
clearly uncomfortable having to wear these clothes. He doesn't look
like he's super comfortable standing on two feet, no, stand
on two legs.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Rather, and apparently he continued like he did learn to
eat from a plate, like you said, but he continued
to prefer raw meat to anything else. And he would
still sniff it before eating it up until he passed away,
I believe at a pretty early age, if I'm not
mistaken from what's thought to have been tuberculosis. Why don't
(11:38):
we talk a little bit more about some other famous
feral children throughout history, Ben, and kind of do a
little contrast and compare.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Sure, Yeah, uh, let's go with Let's see, do you
wanna where don't we start with children who had also
been quote unquote raised by other animals? How's that sound?
Speaker 1 (11:58):
That does sound good to me? Ben?
Speaker 2 (11:59):
All right, Well, we have that, we have that other
feral child that was found and brought to the same
mission orphanage. But then we have we have examples such
as the Lobo wolf Girl from eighteen forty five to
eighteen fifty two. In eighteen forty five, she was seen
running in Mexico on all fours with a pack of
(12:21):
wolves attacking herd of goats. A year later, she was
seen with the wolves eating a goat. People tried to
capture her. She was captured, but she escaped, and then
she was seen in eighteen fifty two suckling two wolf cubs,
at which point she ran into the woods and was
never seen again, and I just.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Want to backtrack just slightly. India in particular has a
history of producing these feral children. In addition to Santa
Chier there and his buddy who was at the orphanage,
over the years, there have been several other cases including
wolf children, panther children, dog children, chicken children, and even
(13:00):
gazelle children. So this this is kind of mythology that RUDYERD.
Kipling would continue to kind of inject into the minds
of the West. There was some truth to it.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Yeah, this is this is where we get into a
little bit of a speculative thing. But I believe it's
safe to speculate here. Rudery Kipling was aware of the
story of Dina and he then went on to write
The Jungle Book with a character of Mowgli.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Now did we talk about We kind of alluded pretty
harshly to Kipling's imperialist leanings and his kind of inherent
not greatness. What was he trying to communicate with the
story of the man Cub beyond just the kind of
lighthearted story of a of a boy, you know, connected
(13:52):
back to nature.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
It's an interesting question. So this guy is most well
known for things like the Jungle Book, maybe that Mongoose story,
the poem if, which is a wonderful poem. But he
is also the author of a poem called the white
Man's Burden, and this was not a sarcastic comment on
(14:16):
his part or a sarcastic statement. When he is writing
the Jungle Book, he is writing in a context of
rampant othering and rationalization. So British forces at this time
are thinking the implicit problem is you cannot subjugate people
(14:41):
in entire culture and then say, oh, they are equal
to us. We're just doing it because we want resources
and we're you know, we're no better than robbers. You
have to say that we are somehow better, we are
somehow more human, for lack of a better statement.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
So the white Man's Burden is that like the inherent
harness of the white man and their mission to kind
of indoctrinate anyone that they see as being lesser.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Yeah, that's that's the idea. It's that they are somehow
ideologically freeing people who've existed thousands of years before.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
With that being backward or something that right.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Right, bringing them forward, awakening to them to what they
thought was the true religion. Which would be something like
the aristocracy, Christianity, capitalism, kind of all in its marass,
in its own mix, uh, and then over time making
them a little less bad. Never white, never as good
(15:40):
as the British, just a little less bad. Right, And
this theme resonates in some of the ideas of things
that would would be depicted in the US as well,
the concept of the noble, the quote unquote noble savage.
You've heard that, you know, on touched by the fetters
(16:02):
of true civilization.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Which is kind of what Mogli is meant to be.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Mowgli is kind of this innocent babe in the woods
who has this nobility, but of course, at the end
of the story pursues his destiny in the world of men.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Because it's inevitable, because that's what you're supposed to do.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
And this leads us to some other stories. You had
mentioned that India seem to have a higher frequency of
feral children. There was one named Mdioh in nineteen seventy two,
which is pretty recent, right.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Yeah, he was.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
About four years old. He was found in forest in
India playing with wolf cubs. Apparently his skin was very dark.
He had long hooked fingernails. I don't know how much
of this is true, because they also say as sharpened teeth,
which feels a little out there for me. But he
had callouses on his palms, elbows, and knees. He never talked,
He learned sign language. He also was eating raw meat.
(17:00):
He was admitted to Mother Teresa's Home for the destitute
and died in luck. Now who was renamed Pascal. He
died in nineteen eighty five, A lot of times after
being apprehended, at least in these stories. Feral children don't
do well in society. Like you said, I really appreciate
you bringing up that praisnal. They don't fit in to
(17:23):
either world completely. They're in this what's called a liminal space.
They're on the border between the world of humanity and
the world of animals that raise them. We also know
that there's a what we call tantalizing science about feral children.
There's not as much research on them as there should be.
While there are several confirmed cases, there are a lot
(17:45):
of speculative ones. And look, this is kind of dark,
ridiculous historians, but it needs to be said. Sometimes when
children appear to be feral, they may have run away
because they experienced severe abuse or trauma. A girl in
the Ukraine whose parents were very very serious alcoholics. Her
(18:07):
name was Axanda Malaya. In nineteen ninety one, she was
found living with dogs in a kennel. She was eight
years old. She had been living with the dogs for
six years because her parents left her outside one night
and she crawled in with the dogs. Oh wow, So
that's something that And just like we mentioned earlier with
the language acquisition window, she ran on all fours pant
(18:29):
with her tongue out, communicated like a dog. She only
knew the words yes and no, and she was luckily,
with intensive therapy, able to learn some basic social verbal skills.
Now or at the last report, she lives in Odessa
and works with farm animals under the supervision of her caretakers.
So that is a happy ending. But we have to remember,
(18:52):
as easy as it is to romanticize this idea of
someone raised with animals and having this innate bond with them,
this kind of bond can occur because of some very
terrible things.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Absolutely, absolutely we don't know where the boy who would
go on to be called Dina, what his story was,
but surely I mean it sounds like he spent enough
time with these creatures and they did not eat him,
and he developed their traits that he was relatively safe.
I don't know. I keep beating the drum for this
hole let the kid live in the forest line of thinking.
(19:28):
And I'm probably going to get some people yelling at
me about that, But I stand by my position.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
I think it's good to have a position. I could
see the validity of the argument. You know, it's weird
because this is not a perfect comparison. But back when
I lived in Central America, there was this huge epidemic
of stray dogs in particular, and they were running packs,
they had you know, matted hair, they had all the
(19:53):
problems that you would have if you were a stray dog.
You didn't go to the vet, and you were outdoors
all the time. And I was talking to another ex
pat and I asked them, you know, what do you
think about all these dogs? Should they round them up?
Do people adopt dogs the way they do in the US?
And all this other stuff? And he said it used
to really bother me, but look at them. There's so
(20:14):
much more free than they would be in a kennel
or something, and their lives are hard, but they're still
their lives.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
You know.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
I'm still conflicted about that, you know what I mean?
Because are their lives that good?
Speaker 1 (20:28):
You know?
Speaker 2 (20:28):
How? First off, how long would he have lived like
this in the woods if those hunters hadn't intervened, He
would have lived longer than the wolves, who would have
ultimately been alone.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Again, that's very true, and I do see all that.
So it's hard to say.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
I don't know. Yeah, it's tough to say which life.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Is better, I guess, is what I'm getting at what
I'm struggling with.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Yeah, and I'm right there with you, man, Although you
know what, I think we should mention. You mentioned gazelle,
the gazelle kid. You did that. Yeah, So this gazelle child.
The story comes from someone named Jean Claude Alger who's
an anthropologist and was traveling across the Spanish Sahara in
nineteen sixty when he met some nomads who told him
(21:06):
that there was a wild child living a day's journey away,
so he followed their directions. Next day, he sees this
naked kid galloping in gigantic bounds along with a quote
long cavalcade of white gazelle's. The boy walked on all fours,
sometimes assumed an upright gate, but he twitched his muscle,
(21:28):
scalped nose and ears like the rest of the herd
eight desert roots. He appeared to be herbivorous, and his
teeth were level like that of an herbivore. But he
lived this way for at least another six years. People
tried to catch him in a net suspended by helicopter,
but unlike so many other paral children, according to this story,
(21:53):
he was never removed from his companions.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Good.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Yeah, so he liked that story. That's a happy and
he lived life as a gazelle. But you know, I always,
even from a young age, I always thought the life
of something like a gazelle or a deer must be so.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Oh rife with panic in the paranoia and just you know,
death around every corner. So you know what, maybe I'd
take it back. Running with the wolf pack might have
been safer.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Yeah, like befriending and some tigers, although that could you
have to work pretty hard to stay on their good side. Right,
Very true, And just to clarify, there was more than
one gazelle boy. And there's also a rumor The gazelle
(22:42):
stories are interesting because there are rumors that the entire
thing was a hoax made by board reporters.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
I see.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
So I don't know because it sounds it sounds kind
of unusual, right.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
It really does.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
So what are some what is? Were there any examples
that really stuck out to you of children raised by animals?
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Yeah, there were a few, But I do want to
take an opportunity to point something out, and it's more
of me pointing out that I'm kind of a dummy
when it comes to this. I did not realize that
Noam Chomsky was like this pre eminent linguist. He kind
of like wrote the paper that figured out about that
window of language acquisition that we were talking about earlier.
(23:23):
I only knew him from his political talks and his
you know, anti government rhetoric, but apparently early on in
his career he was this like incredible linguist. Generative grammar, yeah,
generative grammar.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Yeah. Chomsky doesn't always get the credit he deserves, at
least in that field, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
I feel like it's not something that was super out there,
but it's fascinating if you look into his work in
that field. He did some really important stuff. So moving
on to some of my favorite feral children, I got
one that stood out to me at least it kind
of and it sort of falls in line with what
you were talking about earlier, Ben, about how you'd want
to befriend some lions and definitely more likely than being
(24:07):
a gazelle boy. We've got Leopard Boy, who was supposedly
taken in by a leopardess in nineteen twelve and lived
with her for three years. Of course, surprise, surprise, Matt
anders the picture and kills the leopard and found her offspring,
one of which was this boy who is now five
(24:27):
years old, and they found his family. And again this
was in India and is very very similar to the
wolf boy where he was most comfortable running around in
all fours. He had callouses to the point of almost
like paw pads on his hands and feet, and he
(24:50):
had a very tough hide just from you know, can
you imagine scampering through the woods and getting nicked by
tree branches and I'll call manner of ruffage, you know,
I mean, you would have to really develop some thick
skin literally.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Right, crawling up trees as well, right yep.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
And he was a bier and a fighter, as you
might have to be, and he would eat live chickens
from around the village.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Straight up seahorse teeth, My man.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Big time, you're bringing it back.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
I'm bringing it back.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
I knew you would.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
One of us had to if we did, in case,
he would probably have jumped in right before the end.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
But this story is so sad. He actually apparently gradually
lost his sight due to cataracts, but that was just
a coincidence, had nothing to do with his upbringing or
his jungle days. So you know, I put it to you,
would he have been better off hanging out with the
leopard family in the jungle? I see how a man
hadn't swooped in and murdered his mother.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Yeah, it's a philosophical question at this point. You know, now,
what were there any other ones that really stuck out
to you?
Speaker 1 (25:52):
I think we mentioned a chicken boy.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
We did, we should follow, we should deliver on that.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
This particular chicken boy came from Fiji and he was
dubbed Sujeit's Kumar, the Chicken Boy of Fiji, and was
found in nineteen seventy eight. And this is one of
the sad ones like you had mentioned earlier, very very sad.
In fact, he had a very tragic, dysfunctional childhood. His parents,
as punishment locked him in the chicken coop, and his
(26:18):
mother took her own life, and his father was killed,
and apparently his grandfather, who sounds like a terrible twisted man,
kept him in the chicken coop and was there for
eight years. He was found in the middle of the road,
clucking and flapping his arms and pecking at his This
(26:39):
is dark, dude. I don't want to end on this one.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Well, it does have a happy ending because he got out. Yeah,
then he has human assistance, and you.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
Know, according to everything that I've found, he's still living
and he is cared for by the woman who rescued
him from the home, a woman named Elizabeth Clayton. So
good good on her. Is dark one though, Well.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
I'm just saying nowadays, were I out in the wilderness
and I saw a dirty, naked kid running around with
any sort of animal, I would feel responsible. I feel
like I have to call the authorities, yes, in case
the kid had been lost or separated from their parents.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
It's true, it's true, Ben, I don't know why I've
got says n next to grind about this. I think
a lot of it has to do with just man
thinking he knows best.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
Now. But here's the thing. I mean very age just
about this, because if I walked out and I saw
somebody our age running around naked with some wolves or whatever,
I would just say, keep going, man, more power to you,
you know what I mean. They've clearly made their choice.
But let us know what you think would Age matter
if you saw somebody running naked through the woods with
(27:51):
some animals with the type of animal matter you know,
And we want to hear your stories of any feral children,
whether you think they're anecdotal or whether you think they
are backed up by evidence, because as we were looking
through this, we found a lot of these were either
I hate to say, sensationalized, but maybe exaggerated in some cases.
(28:12):
Sure you know, in some cases there were some actual
i'll call them con jobs in Europe in days of yore.
But we as always want to hear from you. You
can find us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter. We especially like
to recommend our community page, Ridiculous Historians, which has really
been cooking with gas.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Really has, so please join us over there. We'd like
to thank our super producer Casey pegram as always for
being straight. Seahorse tea our favorite new expression. We gotta
use it like once an episode. Now now we don't want to.
We don't wanna.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
We don't want to, we don't want to burn out.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
I don't want to wear it thin. We'd like to
thank our buddy Alex Williams who composed our theme, our
research associates Christopher Eves and Gabe and.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
I would like to thank you NOL because I've been
sneak eating Dorito's this entire episode. Try not to be rude.
I just haven't eaten.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
To spoiler alert? Wasn't that sneaky brown? Oh?
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Could you hear it?
Speaker 1 (29:07):
I can smell the dust.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
Well, hopefully it doesn't translate to the to the podcast.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Let us know. Did you hear Ben sneak eating? Shame him?
Speaker 2 (29:16):
Did you congratulate me?
Speaker 1 (29:18):
Here you go?
Speaker 2 (29:18):
You always have to be you know, it's better to
be positive.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Very true, Ben, very true. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
Folks.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
We've talked about Rudyard Kipling before in the past. Old
Ricky Ticky Tappy, the author of one of our favorite poems.
If also in Boots Boots Boots again.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Yeah sorry, I'm very twenty eight days later trailer coded.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Oh I love it. Also Ridgy Kipling. Just to be clear,
not a great dude as a but he did write
a bunch of stuff, one of the best young adult
spy novels out there, Kim. In this classic episode, we
also talk about his inspiration to write a little something
(00:38):
called the Jungle Book.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Yeah, you may have heard of it. It turns out
that the story of Maugli was in fact inspired by
some very sad tales of feral children who were abandoned
by their human parents and actually, for all intents and purposes,
raised by wolves, or the very least raised in the wild.
Let's jump. I am.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Now.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
This is the law of the jungle, as old and
as true as the sky, and the wolf that shall
keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break
it must die. That is part of the law of
the Jungle. Roderi Kipling, Ben you know what I thought
you were gonna do. What do you think I was
gonna do?
Speaker 1 (01:46):
You thought you were gonna do? Now, this is a
story all about how my life got flipped turned upside down.
Let me take a minute. Just sit right back on
the bell air. I think you nailed it.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
I guess if we wanted to do lyrics would be
like now, this is a story all about how my
parents left me in the woods across town. Like to
take a minute, just sit right there. Tell you how
I grew up with a cat and a bear. You
know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
That's good, that's that's not I pulled up to. I
don't know. This is your bag, Ben, you did a
good job. Yeah, Because we're talking about we're talking about
sort of a slice of history, a type thing that
encompasses a couple of different periods. At the base of
our story today is one particular faral child that was
(02:34):
found in India and likely served as the basis for
one of your favorite racist works of fiction, Ben, He's
one of my my favorite I'm doing favorite and quotation fingers.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Yeah, well it is. The Jungle Book is an amazing story.
It's almost as amazing as our super producer Casey Pegram,
But you're right, Noel. The story of Dina Sanitchar not
his real name. As far as we know, our story
takes us to a part of India called Uttar Pradesh,
(03:06):
which I may be mispronouncing. It's sort of like northern
central India, on the border of Nepal And. In eighteen
seventy two, there was a group of hunters who encountered
a pack of wolves bounding through the forest. But not
just any ordinary pack of wolves, right, no.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
No, they say, what ho, I've sight hed a man
cub yes on all fours scamperings as though he were
a member of the pack. And then they proceeded to
smoke the wolf pack out of their cave, kill the wolves,
and bring this man cub to like a local orphanage,
(03:46):
because you know, he clearly couldn't possibly be happy living
in the woods, free and naked and with his animal brethren.
I feel like you've got a personal steak in this blood.
Oh right, you're right back, I just think, you know,
I mean, it's so sad. They literally there's different accounts
of the story that they killed all of the wolves,
or that they at least killed the mother wolf and
(04:08):
again smoke them out of the cave. But you know,
it's such so presumptuous to me. He was like, what
six years old?
Speaker 2 (04:15):
I want to say, Yeah, he was six.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
I guess. I guess they felt like they were doing
their their Christian duty.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
They probably did. But you know, the wolves most likely
attacked them because first off, they set a fire and
then they were actively intruding into Like if unless a
wolf is threatened or starving, it doesn't care what you do. Human.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Would these have been white hunters been or would these
have been Hindi like people from the region. Is this
during colonialism or is this a little bit before. This
is during the British Raj, So it's not clear if
these were white hunters or if these were local men
and not that really matters, but we'll get to that.
So the boy is brought to town, to the village
(04:57):
and to a mission run orphanage that's run by a
priest by the name of Father Earhart, who is very
much trying to convert the local population to his type
of his way of thinking, right, yeah, which is Catholicism.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
He's a missionary, right, And he says he actually gives
the kid his name the kid doesn't have a human
name yet, and so he names him Dina and Sonni
Char and Sonny Char means Saturday.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
It's right, which is the day of the week that
he was delivered to this guy.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Which I think that checks out. It's not a huge
burst of creativity. But I also think I also this
is just a personal aesthetic, Noel. But I think it's
really cool when people have names. There are days of
the week like Wednesday, Adams. I thought that was great.
That is cool somebody's last name is Saturday. They just
feel kind of fun to me.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Yeah, And I like the idea of his girl Friday,
you know.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
And also mister Wednesday from American Gods.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Yes, yes, mister Wednesday. I don't know any I don't
think I know anyone named Tuesday. If you're listening and
you happen to be named Tuesday or after any day
of the week, or after any day of the week,
we don't want to discriminate.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Yeah, let what happens next.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
So what happens next is that Father Earhart says some things.
We have a quotation from him that I think encapsulates
the condescending attitude so prevalent at the time, he says
that he thinks Sona Char is undoubtedly what he called pagal,
meaning idiotic or slow. But he says, despite this, Santa
(06:32):
Char still shows signs of reason and sometimes actual shrewdness.
But what we know now with the benefit of retrospect,
is that Sona Charg's behavior had a lot in common
with the behavior of other case similar cases of feral children.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Yeah, and that's the thing, the most important takeaway from
this and the interaction with some we'll talk about some others,
but they there's a window, very crucial window for language development,
and this child had soundly missed that window. So it
basically means that developing any kind of spoken in language
or being assimilated into speaking with you know, the folks
(07:15):
in the village, was going to be nigh on impossible. Right.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
That's that's the problematic part. You're absolutely correct about this,
not just this concept of language learning or language acquisition,
but also the concept of certain other behavior acquisitions. So
Santa Char allegedly would not express himself in ways that
seemed innately human. For instance, for a long time, we
(07:43):
as a species assumed that smiling or laughter were innate things,
sort of how like people used say all babies are
born knowing how to swim.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
I thought you were gonna say swear all babies are
born knowing how to swear.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
And if look who's talking, is any indication?
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Right? Right? A fantastic series of documentaries. But the problem
with Santa Char is that he did not seem to
laugh or smile, and he didn't seem to bond with people.
With one notable exception, he would only bond with animals.
There was a kid that he bonded with, which was
(08:22):
another fairal child who came to the same orphanage. By
this time, Santa Char had learned to wear human clothing.
He could reportedly dress himself quote with difficulty, and keep
track of his cup and his plate. But he showed
this younger kid. They would hang out, and he showed
him how to drink from a cup.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Yeah, and apparently he also became quite the chainsmoker. Yes
later in life.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Yeah, that was his uh, that was his one big
human habit he picked up, right, Yeah, what a what
a one to pick up? That's you know, it's it's
heartbreaking when you think about this because in other case
or other alleged cases, we should say, because we can
get into the the science of this a little bit later.
In many other cases where something like this is alleged
(09:10):
to have occurred, there's not a way to fix it.
You can mitigate some of the some of the issues,
but you can't repair them. This, this guy, Santa char
was likely incapable of, you know, going on to become
a priest himself or make a ted talk.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Here's my question for you, Ben, this is why I
had such an axt to grind at the top of
the show, with these horrible, horrible men smoking out the
lovely wolf and family that had raised this young lad.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
I think I know where you're going.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Yeah, wouldn't Eve has been better off frolicking in the forest,
free and naked with the wolf pack.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Rather than the Seicandra mission orphanage.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Yeah, it's a good question, like stuck between two worlds? Right,
he can't fully be human and he can't fully be
an animal. It's it's just it's really heartbreaking if you
think about it.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Yeah, you know, And we have to ask ourselves what
is the ultimate priority? Is a quality of life?
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Is it?
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Because our civilization is doing something that are we conflating
living the way we do with living the correct way,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
That's right. I think it's a I think there's an
inherent judgment call at play here. Is it about protecting
the life of the child? I don't know. Obviously, a
six year old orphan running around with a bunch of
wolves probably isn't the most safe thing in the world.
But I'm not sure. Man, I'm of two minds of it.
It's clearly causing me some conflict internally.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
There are arguments on both sides. You know what when
you see pictures of the guy, because there are actual
photographs of Dina Sano chart, which is why we can
put some more weight into this story in comparison to
other stories like Romulus and Remus raised by a wolf
that's mythology, there are any photographs of them. This guy, though,
(11:01):
when you look at the pictures, it's heartbreaking. Man. He's
clearly uncomfortable having to wear these clothes. He doesn't look
like he's super comfortable standing on two feet, no, stand
on two legs.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Rather, and apparently he continued like he did learn to
eat from a plate, like you said, but he continued
to prefer raw meat to anything else. And he would
still sniff it before eating it up until he passed away,
I believe at a pretty early age, if I'm not
mistaken from what's thought to have been tuberculosis. Why don't
(11:38):
we talk a little bit more about some other famous
feral children throughout history, Ben, and kind of do a
little contrast and compare.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Sure, Yeah, uh, let's go with Let's see, do you
wanna where don't we start with children who had also
been quote unquote raised by other animals? How's that sound?
Speaker 1 (11:58):
That does sound good to me? Ben?
Speaker 2 (11:59):
All right, Well, we have that, we have that other
feral child that was found and brought to the same
mission orphanage. But then we have we have examples such
as the Lobo wolf Girl from eighteen forty five to
eighteen fifty two. In eighteen forty five, she was seen
running in Mexico on all fours with a pack of
(12:21):
wolves attacking herd of goats. A year later, she was
seen with the wolves eating a goat. People tried to
capture her. She was captured, but she escaped, and then
she was seen in eighteen fifty two suckling two wolf cubs,
at which point she ran into the woods and was
never seen again, and I just.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Want to backtrack just slightly. India in particular has a
history of producing these feral children. In addition to Santa
Chier there and his buddy who was at the orphanage,
over the years, there have been several other cases including
wolf children, panther children, dog children, chicken children, and even
(13:00):
gazelle children. So this this is kind of mythology that RUDYERD.
Kipling would continue to kind of inject into the minds
of the West. There was some truth to it.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Yeah, this is this is where we get into a
little bit of a speculative thing. But I believe it's
safe to speculate here. Rudery Kipling was aware of the
story of Dina and he then went on to write
The Jungle Book with a character of Mowgli.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Now did we talk about We kind of alluded pretty
harshly to Kipling's imperialist leanings and his kind of inherent
not greatness. What was he trying to communicate with the
story of the man Cub beyond just the kind of
lighthearted story of a of a boy, you know, connected
(13:52):
back to nature.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
It's an interesting question. So this guy is most well
known for things like the Jungle Book, maybe that Mongoose story,
the poem if, which is a wonderful poem. But he
is also the author of a poem called the white
Man's Burden, and this was not a sarcastic comment on
(14:16):
his part or a sarcastic statement. When he is writing
the Jungle Book, he is writing in a context of
rampant othering and rationalization. So British forces at this time
are thinking the implicit problem is you cannot subjugate people
(14:41):
in entire culture and then say, oh, they are equal
to us. We're just doing it because we want resources
and we're you know, we're no better than robbers. You
have to say that we are somehow better, we are
somehow more human, for lack of a better statement.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
So the white Man's Burden is that like the inherent
harness of the white man and their mission to kind
of indoctrinate anyone that they see as being lesser.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Yeah, that's that's the idea. It's that they are somehow
ideologically freeing people who've existed thousands of years before.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
With that being backward or something that right.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Right, bringing them forward, awakening to them to what they
thought was the true religion. Which would be something like
the aristocracy, Christianity, capitalism, kind of all in its marass,
in its own mix, uh, and then over time making
them a little less bad. Never white, never as good
(15:40):
as the British, just a little less bad. Right, And
this theme resonates in some of the ideas of things
that would would be depicted in the US as well,
the concept of the noble, the quote unquote noble savage.
You've heard that, you know, on touched by the fetters
(16:02):
of true civilization.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Which is kind of what Mogli is meant to be.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Mowgli is kind of this innocent babe in the woods
who has this nobility, but of course, at the end
of the story pursues his destiny in the world of men.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Because it's inevitable, because that's what you're supposed to do.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
And this leads us to some other stories. You had
mentioned that India seem to have a higher frequency of
feral children. There was one named Mdioh in nineteen seventy two,
which is pretty recent, right.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Yeah, he was.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
About four years old. He was found in forest in
India playing with wolf cubs. Apparently his skin was very dark.
He had long hooked fingernails. I don't know how much
of this is true, because they also say as sharpened teeth,
which feels a little out there for me. But he
had callouses on his palms, elbows, and knees. He never talked,
He learned sign language. He also was eating raw meat.
(17:00):
He was admitted to Mother Teresa's Home for the destitute
and died in luck. Now who was renamed Pascal. He
died in nineteen eighty five, A lot of times after
being apprehended, at least in these stories. Feral children don't
do well in society. Like you said, I really appreciate
you bringing up that praisnal. They don't fit in to
(17:23):
either world completely. They're in this what's called a liminal space.
They're on the border between the world of humanity and
the world of animals that raise them. We also know
that there's a what we call tantalizing science about feral children.
There's not as much research on them as there should be.
While there are several confirmed cases, there are a lot
(17:45):
of speculative ones. And look, this is kind of dark,
ridiculous historians, but it needs to be said. Sometimes when
children appear to be feral, they may have run away
because they experienced severe abuse or trauma. A girl in
the Ukraine whose parents were very very serious alcoholics. Her
(18:07):
name was Axanda Malaya. In nineteen ninety one, she was
found living with dogs in a kennel. She was eight
years old. She had been living with the dogs for
six years because her parents left her outside one night
and she crawled in with the dogs. Oh wow, So
that's something that And just like we mentioned earlier with
the language acquisition window, she ran on all fours pant
(18:29):
with her tongue out, communicated like a dog. She only
knew the words yes and no, and she was luckily,
with intensive therapy, able to learn some basic social verbal skills.
Now or at the last report, she lives in Odessa
and works with farm animals under the supervision of her caretakers.
So that is a happy ending. But we have to remember,
(18:52):
as easy as it is to romanticize this idea of
someone raised with animals and having this innate bond with them,
this kind of bond can occur because of some very
terrible things.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Absolutely, absolutely we don't know where the boy who would
go on to be called Dina, what his story was,
but surely I mean it sounds like he spent enough
time with these creatures and they did not eat him,
and he developed their traits that he was relatively safe.
I don't know. I keep beating the drum for this
hole let the kid live in the forest line of thinking.
(19:28):
And I'm probably going to get some people yelling at
me about that, But I stand by my position.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
I think it's good to have a position. I could
see the validity of the argument. You know, it's weird
because this is not a perfect comparison. But back when
I lived in Central America, there was this huge epidemic
of stray dogs in particular, and they were running packs,
they had you know, matted hair, they had all the
(19:53):
problems that you would have if you were a stray dog.
You didn't go to the vet, and you were outdoors
all the time. And I was talking to another ex
pat and I asked them, you know, what do you
think about all these dogs? Should they round them up?
Do people adopt dogs the way they do in the US?
And all this other stuff? And he said it used
to really bother me, but look at them. There's so
(20:14):
much more free than they would be in a kennel
or something, and their lives are hard, but they're still
their lives.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
You know.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
I'm still conflicted about that, you know what I mean?
Because are their lives that good?
Speaker 1 (20:28):
You know?
Speaker 2 (20:28):
How? First off, how long would he have lived like
this in the woods if those hunters hadn't intervened, He
would have lived longer than the wolves, who would have
ultimately been alone.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Again, that's very true, and I do see all that.
So it's hard to say.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
I don't know. Yeah, it's tough to say which life.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Is better, I guess, is what I'm getting at what
I'm struggling with.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Yeah, and I'm right there with you, man, Although you
know what, I think we should mention. You mentioned gazelle,
the gazelle kid. You did that. Yeah, So this gazelle child.
The story comes from someone named Jean Claude Alger who's
an anthropologist and was traveling across the Spanish Sahara in
nineteen sixty when he met some nomads who told him
(21:06):
that there was a wild child living a day's journey away,
so he followed their directions. Next day, he sees this
naked kid galloping in gigantic bounds along with a quote
long cavalcade of white gazelle's. The boy walked on all fours,
sometimes assumed an upright gate, but he twitched his muscle,
(21:28):
scalped nose and ears like the rest of the herd
eight desert roots. He appeared to be herbivorous, and his
teeth were level like that of an herbivore. But he
lived this way for at least another six years. People
tried to catch him in a net suspended by helicopter,
but unlike so many other paral children, according to this story,
(21:53):
he was never removed from his companions.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Good.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Yeah, so he liked that story. That's a happy and
he lived life as a gazelle. But you know, I always,
even from a young age, I always thought the life
of something like a gazelle or a deer must be so.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Oh rife with panic in the paranoia and just you know,
death around every corner. So you know what, maybe I'd
take it back. Running with the wolf pack might have
been safer.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Yeah, like befriending and some tigers, although that could you
have to work pretty hard to stay on their good side. Right,
Very true, And just to clarify, there was more than
one gazelle boy. And there's also a rumor The gazelle
(22:42):
stories are interesting because there are rumors that the entire
thing was a hoax made by board reporters.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
I see.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
So I don't know because it sounds it sounds kind
of unusual, right.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
It really does.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
So what are some what is? Were there any examples
that really stuck out to you of children raised by animals?
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Yeah, there were a few, But I do want to
take an opportunity to point something out, and it's more
of me pointing out that I'm kind of a dummy
when it comes to this. I did not realize that
Noam Chomsky was like this pre eminent linguist. He kind
of like wrote the paper that figured out about that
window of language acquisition that we were talking about earlier.
(23:23):
I only knew him from his political talks and his
you know, anti government rhetoric, but apparently early on in
his career he was this like incredible linguist. Generative grammar, yeah,
generative grammar.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Yeah. Chomsky doesn't always get the credit he deserves, at
least in that field, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
I feel like it's not something that was super out there,
but it's fascinating if you look into his work in
that field. He did some really important stuff. So moving
on to some of my favorite feral children, I got
one that stood out to me at least it kind
of and it sort of falls in line with what
you were talking about earlier, Ben, about how you'd want
to befriend some lions and definitely more likely than being
(24:07):
a gazelle boy. We've got Leopard Boy, who was supposedly
taken in by a leopardess in nineteen twelve and lived
with her for three years. Of course, surprise, surprise, Matt
anders the picture and kills the leopard and found her offspring,
one of which was this boy who is now five
(24:27):
years old, and they found his family. And again this
was in India and is very very similar to the
wolf boy where he was most comfortable running around in
all fours. He had callouses to the point of almost
like paw pads on his hands and feet, and he
(24:50):
had a very tough hide just from you know, can
you imagine scampering through the woods and getting nicked by
tree branches and I'll call manner of ruffage, you know,
I mean, you would have to really develop some thick
skin literally.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Right, crawling up trees as well, right yep.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
And he was a bier and a fighter, as you
might have to be, and he would eat live chickens
from around the village.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Straight up seahorse teeth, My man.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Big time, you're bringing it back.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
I'm bringing it back.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
I knew you would.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
One of us had to if we did, in case,
he would probably have jumped in right before the end.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
But this story is so sad. He actually apparently gradually
lost his sight due to cataracts, but that was just
a coincidence, had nothing to do with his upbringing or
his jungle days. So you know, I put it to you,
would he have been better off hanging out with the
leopard family in the jungle? I see how a man
hadn't swooped in and murdered his mother.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Yeah, it's a philosophical question at this point. You know, now,
what were there any other ones that really stuck out
to you?
Speaker 1 (25:52):
I think we mentioned a chicken boy.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
We did, we should follow, we should deliver on that.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
This particular chicken boy came from Fiji and he was
dubbed Sujeit's Kumar, the Chicken Boy of Fiji, and was
found in nineteen seventy eight. And this is one of
the sad ones like you had mentioned earlier, very very sad.
In fact, he had a very tragic, dysfunctional childhood. His parents,
as punishment locked him in the chicken coop, and his
(26:18):
mother took her own life, and his father was killed,
and apparently his grandfather, who sounds like a terrible twisted man,
kept him in the chicken coop and was there for
eight years. He was found in the middle of the road,
clucking and flapping his arms and pecking at his This
(26:39):
is dark, dude. I don't want to end on this one.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Well, it does have a happy ending because he got out. Yeah,
then he has human assistance, and you.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
Know, according to everything that I've found, he's still living
and he is cared for by the woman who rescued
him from the home, a woman named Elizabeth Clayton. So
good good on her. Is dark one though, Well.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
I'm just saying nowadays, were I out in the wilderness
and I saw a dirty, naked kid running around with
any sort of animal, I would feel responsible. I feel
like I have to call the authorities, yes, in case
the kid had been lost or separated from their parents.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
It's true, it's true, Ben, I don't know why I've
got says n next to grind about this. I think
a lot of it has to do with just man
thinking he knows best.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
Now. But here's the thing. I mean very age just
about this, because if I walked out and I saw
somebody our age running around naked with some wolves or whatever,
I would just say, keep going, man, more power to you,
you know what I mean. They've clearly made their choice.
But let us know what you think would Age matter
if you saw somebody running naked through the woods with
(27:51):
some animals with the type of animal matter you know,
And we want to hear your stories of any feral children,
whether you think they're anecdotal or whether you think they
are backed up by evidence, because as we were looking
through this, we found a lot of these were either
I hate to say, sensationalized, but maybe exaggerated in some cases.
(28:12):
Sure you know, in some cases there were some actual
i'll call them con jobs in Europe in days of yore.
But we as always want to hear from you. You
can find us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter. We especially like
to recommend our community page, Ridiculous Historians, which has really
been cooking with gas.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Really has, so please join us over there. We'd like
to thank our super producer Casey pegram as always for
being straight. Seahorse tea our favorite new expression. We gotta
use it like once an episode. Now now we don't want to.
We don't wanna.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
We don't want to, we don't want to burn out.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
I don't want to wear it thin. We'd like to
thank our buddy Alex Williams who composed our theme, our
research associates Christopher Eves and Gabe and.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
I would like to thank you NOL because I've been
sneak eating Dorito's this entire episode. Try not to be rude.
I just haven't eaten.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
To spoiler alert? Wasn't that sneaky brown? Oh?
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Could you hear it?
Speaker 1 (29:07):
I can smell the dust.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
Well, hopefully it doesn't translate to the to the podcast.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Let us know. Did you hear Ben sneak eating? Shame him?
Speaker 2 (29:16):
Did you congratulate me?
Speaker 1 (29:18):
Here you go?
Speaker 2 (29:18):
You always have to be you know, it's better to
be positive.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Very true, Ben, very true. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History News
Hosts And Creators
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
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