January 6, 2026 • 43 mins
Nowadays beef, chicken and pork are the most common meats in the US -- but, not so long ago, that could have all changed. Join the guys as they travel back to the early 1900s, when Louisiana congressman Robert Broussard proposed an unorthodox solution to the nation's crippling meat shortage: the introduction of African Hippopotamuses to Gulf Coast swamplands. What convinced Broussard that the world's deadliest land mammal could become America's next culinary craze? Tune in to find out.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Fellow ridiculous historians. We're returning and it's twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Happy new year. The future. Man, it's the year Blade
Runner was set. I think, no, maybe not, but it's
it's you know, relatively.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
It's you know, it's strange because just a few days
into twenty twenty six, I was already thinking, what a
year it's been.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
You know, it really really has been a year for sure.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Another one also to jump in real quick, Blade Runner
was set in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Dang uh, yeah, we were passed.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Later on, we're past the Jetsons, we're boldly going into
the future, and we still don't have widespread flying cars.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
It this the year and the Sprocket are still the
highest forms of technology that exists.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Right in this episode, though, we're we're returning to a
classic story about a time when Louisiana was different, when
people were thinking ahead through their troubled present and saying,
perhaps we could build a better future with the hippopotamus.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Let's do a pivot. Let's do a hippo pivot.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Hip hop hip ovid hip ovid.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
The hip hopopotamus, yeah rhymes is bottomless. So what were
they doing? They wanted they weren't. Weren't they breeding these
things for like meat? Sure?
Speaker 1 (01:23):
And that guy, that guy with the shaved head, Andrew Zimmerman, he.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Would have dug this. You mean you mean Bob Dylan. No,
I'm just kidding. His name was Zimmerman. I can't remember
what it was first, the bizarre eats guy, right, Yeah? Yeah,
for su ye, Yeah, I love some some wild meats. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
And nowadays in the US, we've talked about this in
the past, Beef, chicken, and pork are the most common
animal proteins you'll find. But if things went just a
little bit differently in the nineteen hundreds, your supermarket might
have ended up with hippo fhilets.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
You had a bit of a whiled meat period, didn't you, Ben? Oh? Sure?
Are you still in it? Yeah, we'll check this classic
episode out.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
There's one more classic to help us transition back into
the usual published schedule. So we appreciate y'all enjoying these,
and hope everyone had a lovely holiday.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Let's begin today's
(02:48):
show with some apparently irrelevant hippo facts that will come
into play later in the episode. Number one did you
know hippos cannot swim and they can float?
Speaker 2 (03:01):
What It's true. So when whenever you see a hippo
emerge from the murky waters in like an adventure type movie,
they're literally just walking on the on the bottom of
the body of water, It's true.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
They walk or stand on surfaces below the water like sandbanks.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Ben. That's fascinating information.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Thanks, Noel. They're also called land cows. Did you see that?
That was my favorite things.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
And they're also straight seahorse teeth.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
They are they are a straight seahorse teeth, much like
our super producer Casey Pegram.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Casey has the straightest teeth of anyone in this crew,
the most seahorse of teeth bigtime.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
So today we've got to we've got to set out
maybe a couple of disclaimers. First off, this one's on me.
I just got back into town. My body has no
idea what time it is.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Your arm's tired? Oh, what day it is? My left
arm's a little loopy.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Yeah, But overall, it might be a bit punchy in
today's episode, and I might see some things that are
largely irrelevant.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
That's okay, thanks. How is that any different than usual. Yeah,
I mean on either side. That's totally what I meant.
That's totally what's it's true.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Well, maybe it will be for the good of the show, hopefully,
but we have it usually is so far, let's the
streak continues. We also have a second disclaimer about today's episode.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Big one, massive disclaimer and not even a disclaimer, more
a pre recommendation. Our colleagues Holly Frye and Tracy V. Wilson,
who you know from stuff you missed in History class Fame,
have covered this very topic in a quite meaty two parter.
So stop what you're doing right now and listen to theirs.
This is a throwaway episode that we're about to do
(04:44):
for you.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Well, maybe listen to ours first, so we don't have
to follow that act.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
That's fair. Let's consider ours like the cliffs Notes version,
and there's like the Encyclopedia Britannica version.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, the primer I think we called it off,
that's right, or if you're British Primmer primer.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
So this is a crazy story. One of our first
episodes on Ridiculous History was also hippocentric.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
It was, wasn't it the first episode?
Speaker 1 (05:11):
It may have been the first episode the Wild Hippos
of Pablo Escobar, which is a which I think is
a fascinating story. And I did check, and those hippos
are still running.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Rampant makamuka muckamuck.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Yes, wreaking watery havoc wherever they can walk or stand
in a watery surface, because again, they neither swim nor flow.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
How did you happen upon this, this little tidbit about
the watery nature of hippos.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
I read a lot about hippos on the plane. Really, yeah,
because I was too cheap to pay for the WiFi,
and I had downloaded some articles beforehand, and.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
That's a long flight. You didn't pop for the Wi Fi?
Speaker 1 (05:48):
I eventually did not because the flight went by the
north Pole, at which point, even if you pay for
Wi Fi, there's no service.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Did you see the pole, that barber pole that marks
the spot?
Speaker 1 (06:00):
I did not yet I did not, So that's going
to be for the next trip if you want to go.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Have you revealed where you were traveling to or we
we mentioned it?
Speaker 1 (06:07):
I think we mentioned on previous episodes as possible. Let's
just double down Korea, Yeah, yeah, yeah, traveled to Korea.
For a week on my continuing quest to enter not
just the DMZ, but what's called the Joint Protection Area,
which is the blue building where you can walk across
into North Korea.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
That was and have you seen Conan without Borders the
travel at the convel. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
He goes into that room and there's like guards and
they're all wearing like sunglasses inside, and there's one side
of this room where you're in North Korea, one side
you're in South Korea. And him and Steven John from
The Walking Dead do.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
A funny little bit where they like broadcast the weather
from each side of the room, and surprise, surprise, it's
the same weather.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
You know, it's it's surprisingly, well, not surprisingly, it's tricky
to get into that area, and any number of people
or institutions can cancel it day of So I didn't
make it this time, but I had a wonderful time,
wonderful trip nonetheless, and will probably be returning until I
can finally get into that building.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
In the meantime, let's take some advantage of those that
hippo research time you have on that plane. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
what are we talking about. Let's do it today.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
We are talking about not just hippos or land cows,
but a enormously influential role they almost played in American
history and the American meat industry.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Cool boy, that's the whole thing onto itself. And it
was a thing unto itself at this point because there
just wasn't enough meat. It was the earliest of the
nineteen hundred nineteen oh one, and the United States was
in when the throes of a meat shortage, and you know,
I see that, and I immediately am like, well, why
didn't people just start eating more vegetables? Right right?
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Why don't we pursue a Michael paulinesque omnivore's dilemma approach? Right?
Speaker 2 (07:59):
It's funny because that actually does kind of figure into
this a little later, but for now, let's set the scene.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Yeah, So, the dawn of hippopotamus ranching, as we would
later come to call it, really peaks in nineteen ten,
and it starts in the early nineteen hundreds. It hits
the point of, hey, it's a great idea to practice.
Hippopotamus ranching really hit its peak in nineteen ten. There was,
(08:26):
as you said, an alarming shortage of meat. This is
a result of several factors these were peak years of immigration,
and cities were exploding in terms of population, and although
the meat industry itself was growing by significant leaps and bounds,
(08:48):
it was not growing fast enough to keep up with
all the new hungry people traveling to the US and
being born here.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
So consequently, beef prices were through the roof. That beef
bill was just astronomical.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
I know it was putting people out of house and
home just to keep their families beefed up, I guess.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
But like I said, though, there I don't see any
mention of seeking alternative. They doesn't even talk of like
eating dogs, like it was that bad. People just needed
their meat. And I'm like, was it Was it a
taste thing? Literally?
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Was it?
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Like we just really love the taste of meat over vegetables?
Like you think there would be more like urban farming
or something would have sprung up to kind of.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Fill that gap. But it was such a big deal.
It was dubbed the meat question. Yes, it was dubbed
the meat question. Part of it ties into the availability
of pasture right of land for these animals to graze them.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Right, because meat was already so popular that you know,
like we tend to do or we don't think ahead.
As a country, pastures had become overgrazed because you know,
to have beef cattle, they have to graze and feed
on grass in pastures. What happens when they're overgrazed.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Right, there's nowhere for the cattle to eat, and so
there's no opportunity to grow them into you know, delicious
hamburgers and ribs. We do have to bracket that idea
of vegetarianism just for a moment. But we will get
back to it.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
I will.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
We will, So into this fray, into the midst of
the meat question, come to very fascinating guys.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Super cool.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Yeah, one named Frederick Russell Burnham and one named We.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Might need a Casey assist on this one. Casey, We've
got a gentleman by the name of Fritz d u
q u E s n E. I'm picturing it as
a sort of Dufraine, like Andy Dufraine from the Shawshank Redemption.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
You Ken, dou ken, you can the ken you ken
something like that.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Yeah, Casey on the case, Casey on the case. And
it's funny because it's interesting to me how sometimes in
French you actually do pronounce those seemingly silent letters like
one version of that case. He was saying the s
a little bit.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
Well, the yes names especially have lots of weird exceptions,
and sometimes you literally just have to check. There's not
like a hard and fast rule that you can always
be assured is gonna work.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
So double casey on the case.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
So we have these guys, Frederick and Fritz. Let's examine
the life of Frederick Russell Burnham.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
First.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
This guy is quoted by some sources as being the
man with the most complete life ever lived. You'll hear
him refer to as the inspiration for Indiana Jones. You'll
hear that the Boy Scouts were created to mold young
men into a more Frederick Russell Burnham esque shape. Morally speaking,
(12:00):
the name alone just inspires me. Frederick Russell Burnham.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
It just sounds like a real magic man, a real wreconteur,
you know. And yeah, he was an outdoorsman. I guess
you could say an early form of something like a naturalist,
right m hm. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
He would be described as emphatically a man's man, able
active alert. He gave people an impression of force and
self control. In nineteen ten, Burnham was forty nine years old,
and in September nineteenth of that year, he visited the
Maryland Hotel in Pasadena, California.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
What happened then, then, I'm so glad you asked.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
He was there to address what was known as the
Humane Association of California at their annual convention. This group
was dedicated to the prevention of cruelty to animals. They
had quickly become one of California's the most powerful civic organization.
And Burnham, later on in his life, now you know,
(13:03):
he's middle aged. He is part of an eccentric brain
trust that was trying to launch their own innovative animal
project off the ground. They wanted to answer the meat question,
and they thought that the civic minded people, the philanthropist
of the Humane Association of California, would be really good
(13:25):
folks to have on their side. Burnham was doing this
with a very calculated air. It's proven that privately he
made fun of these sorts of organizations.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Like Oh, in his off time, he had no time
for that kind of flim flammery, that kind of pomp
and circumstance. He wanted to be out there in the wild,
communing with nature. Not behind a podium in front of
a bunch of stuff shirts delivering.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
A speech, and he thought their priorities were off, you
know what I mean. So he wanted to get their
support nonetheless for his idea, and was an idea that
was already circulating through the halls of DC in the
form of a bill introduced by a Louisiana congressman named
(14:13):
Robert Broussard. The pitch was this, we don't have enough
room for beef. We're we're not growing enough cattle.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
But we got all these swamps and we don't quite
know what to do with them. There's kind of mucky
and gross and nothing really grows there that we can use.
There's also these like invasive plants that are really mucking
up the ecosystem. What if, what if, mind you, there
was some sort of creature that couldn't really swim or float,
(14:43):
but could exist just fine, and some shallow water like
that and would graze on these invasive plants, which you
might be able to drop the name of ben the
water highescinth ah, yes, the pesky water high acenth.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
So there is such a creature, yes, yes, picture this
like a made for TV ad where Billy May says,
but wait, there's more. So there is such a creature.
It turns out a creature from the continent of Africa,
the creature known as the hippopotamus. The hippopotamus, which is gigantic,
(15:18):
is native to similar ecosystems, you know, shallow watery depths, right, wetlands,
marshy areas, vegetation, And so they said, close enough for
government work. Why don't we why don't we walk with
us here? Why don't we take some hippos, a breeding
population of hippos from their native environment and bring them
(15:43):
to Louisiana to fight the invasive water hyacinth, also turning
this marshland into something productive.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
And then we'll.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Eat hippos because they're delicious.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
As it turns out, maybe they might be. That's I mean,
that's the pitch. And it seems way less gross than
eating dogs, which we were totally considering doing.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
We were considering as a nation, eating a lot of atoms,
a lot.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Of animals, because we just had to have that sweet,
sweet meat.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
We're like antelopes, what else, ostriches, that's what we kind
of collectively refer to as bush meat. Kind of right,
it's like the stuff that we wouldn't really mess with,
But it's funny. Obviously they have not heard our podcast
about the hippos, the wild hippos of Pablo Escobar, because
then they would know that hippos can be an invasive
species in.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
And of themselves. Yes, very much so. But none of
this really came to pass ultimately, so they didn't get
a chance to realize what a can of worms they
were opening up by doing this. But there's more. There's
another Fritz. Let's talk about our boy Fritz. What does
he play into this?
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Yeah, let's psych about Fritz. So, Fritz is a bore,
and bores are the descendants of Dutch settlers colonizers in Africa.
This guy is super sketchy. He lives life. According to
John Muellum, this guy quote moves through life using a
(17:06):
variety of aliacies. He was a con man, and you
know how we love con artists here on Ridiculous History.
He fought against the British and the Second Boer War,
and similar to Burnham, he had spent some time as
a kind of a freelance spy. Burnham hated Fritz and
(17:28):
once called him the human epitome of sin and deception.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Whereas Burnham had been described as the most complete human
being who ever lived. So couldn't be more different these two,
And they ended up being quite the odd coupled, didn't they. Yes, Yeah,
because they're interests aligned, right, they're.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Interest the line.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
But previously on a previous episode of Fritz and Frederick,
and they have been specifically tasked to murder one another.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Yeah. I didn't find any more about that. I saw
that detail in the interview with this Wired writer Mulam.
But what happened with that I need to know more.
It sounded like they were maybe on the opposite sides
of some sort of conflict.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
It's true during the Second Boer War, Fritz was under
orders to specifically assassinate Frederick Burnham, and he was under Burnham,
I mean, was under a similar set of orders. It
did not come to pass.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Yeah, and then apparently they were able to let bygones
be bygones, or you know, death orders be something that's
nicer than death orders. I don't know. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
After the Boer War, Burnham remained active in counter espionage
for Britain, and apparently a lot of his job in
this post war environment was just keeping an eye on Fritz,
just specifically watching his activities and seeing what he was about.
(18:55):
So when we fast forward to nineteen ten, when Burnham
and this preview mentioned Congressman Robert Brossard are trying to
popularize the idea of hippos as livestock. Burnham and Brossard
found something called the New Food Supply Society. The idea
being that they'll import what they see is useful African
(19:16):
wildlife into the US to solve the meat question. And
Broussard needs some experts, and so he says, who would
be a good expert on African wildlife?
Speaker 2 (19:28):
These two men's men that have spent a lot of
time in Africa, and you know, the whole rivalry thing aside,
maybe they can figure out a way to get along
and work towards a common goal.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
And they ultimately kind of did.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
They formed essentially like a lobbying group.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Kind of yeah, yeah, they form the lobbying group. With
the New Food Supply Society, they were pushing something called
the American Hippo Bill, and the American Hippo Bill was
asking Uncle Sam for two hundred and fifty grand to
import hippos into the BIOS as a new food source
(20:06):
and then to control the other pre existing invasive species,
the water hyacinth. So just to emphasize and highlight the
logic here, they said, let's introduce another invasive species to
solve our original invasive species problem. This is similar in
some ways to that scene in Fantasia, which I know
(20:27):
I reference at nauseum, wherein the Wizard Mickey Mouse animates
one mop and then quickly gets over his.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Head, and then all the mops start going insane and
kind of mutate into some sort of violent mob.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
And this, despite this lack of knowledge of Disney films
on the part of Uncle Sam at this time, and
despite the just the weird, unorthodox nature of the proposal,
people are largely behind it. Even former President Theodore Roosevelt
backs the plan. Well, he was a man's man himself,
wasn't he? Yes, yes he was. And The New York
(21:05):
Times writes an article praising the taste of hippopotamus meat.
And I can't remember, did I say land cow in
the beginning?
Speaker 3 (21:13):
He did?
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Okay, it's lake cow. Lake cow.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Yeah, that's just a cow. But these are lake cows.
And the New York Times wanted to call this stuff
lake cow bacon. So Fritz provides expert testimony about hippos
as livestock to the House Committee on Agriculture, and the
bill is in action. For a second, it looks like
(21:38):
it has a real chance of passing.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
And then what it just fizzles. Doesn't get that nothing
like catastrophic happened. Like it just kind of seems like
it just the whole idea, I know what it was.
It was sort of on the edge of being able
to engineer some of those farmland, those you know, overgrazed
pastures into new environments.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Yeah, that's it exactly. This plan would have come to
pass had not other technological innovationstrial agriculture come into play
event of industrial agriculture. And so now we're in a
situation where we say, hey, we I guess we don't
need to import a huge population of hippos and try
(22:22):
to fundamentally reboot our livestock system. Now we can just
take what we were already doing to a new level
of scale.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
That's right. And this guy, this writer, John Mullham Hope
and produce his name right, please forgive me from mine.
He makes a point in an interview with Wired that
it was almost like starting to resemble the kind of
like local you know, locally bred and slaughtered kind of
like things that foody scenes are so big on, you
know nowadays, they were talking about importing ostriches and having
(22:53):
ostrich farms and any other kind of like animals like
they could get their hands on, like antelopes and anything
was really on the table, And it was this idea
of having an incredibly local, locally sourced food system even
though they were imported, they would be kind of bread
naturally locally and then slaughtered locally and everythings as opposed
(23:14):
to having everything like imported.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Yeah, kind of a farmed a table.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
That's the one I was looking for.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
It's weird when you consider this because we're at a
pivotal point in history, and it's incredibly tempting to speculate
how things would be in the modern restaurants of twenty
nineteen had this plan and similar propositions succeeded. You know,
(23:44):
would we be in a situation where food is more
regional or livestock is more regional. Would we be in
a situation where someone says, well, you have to go
to Nebraska to get a good hamburger, because that's where
we have cows.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Yeah, now that's certainly an absurd thought, you know, considering
the way things are done these days. It seems like
it now, right, it seems like it now.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
And you know, one of the things that mystifies a
lot of my friends who visit the US from out
of the country is just the abiquitous nature of food.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
You can get anything anywhere. Well, and if you think
about like in Japan, for example, like proper wygo beef,
isn't that very regional like that, like to actually get
it that where it's actually the real deal, because it's
obviously it's one of those things that can be thrown around,
like you even see it on the menu at like
Chili's or something, beef sliders or whatever. Right, it's true.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
And this is where we see Michael Pollen returning because
Michael Pollen, who writes quite extensively about the problem of agriculture,
the problem in industrial agriculture, he would argue that ultimately
it is better and more sustainate for us to pursue
(25:02):
as a species these sorts of regional models of food ways,
you know what I mean. He would say that had
the hippo industry taken off, it would have been ultimately
better for the planet. You know, that is not where
we are now.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Now.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
We are in a reality where we could the three
of us and you listening, we could all travel in
different directions in the Lower forty eight States, for sure,
and then pretty much order the same thing. We can
find the same thing anywhere.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Yeah, I mean, you know, there was a time where
the idea of getting seafood in a landlocked part of
the country would have been insane, you know, but not
not so much anymore, with like refrigeration technology here in Atlanta,
especially because we are near such a huge shipping hub,
with the airport's constantly flux and things coming through. You know. Yeah,
(25:55):
you can get genuine wygof beef here. That's probably true.
I'm sure it is. Yeah, I'm sure it is. I
really recommend there is behind a paywall, but that this writer,
John Mullam wrote a piece for the Adavist website called
American Hippopotamus, and I read it some excerpts from it,
and it's it's very very good. Right. He goes into
the backgrounds of these two very fascinating men in a
(26:16):
very deep dive way and talks through this whole problem
and situation and what ultimately came of him.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
It is also the source of it's the first time
I found this quote. It's the source of my favorite
quotation about Fritz Duking. He was described as not only
the human epitome of sin in deception, but get this
stole a walking, living, breathing, searing, killing, destroying torch of hate.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
WHOA.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
I don't think that made it into the congressional record.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
I don't think so either, but it made it into
the podcast record. And I think there's not much of
a better way to wrap this up than with that.
My friend, that's true. That's true. This ends our tale
of the would be hippopotamus livestock empire that never quite
came to pass and now is currently relegated to the
(27:08):
Hall of good but ultimately unsuccessful ideas such as giraffe
ranches and Ostrich farms. We hope that you enjoy today's episode.
Let us know what we are.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
It's oh, I've.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Been here the whole time, Jonathan Strickland, aka the quizter.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
It is true, you have been here.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
Yes, if you heard anything fact that you wouldn't acknowledge
my existence for half an hour really hurts.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
I'm sorry, man, if you heard any weird, labored, evil breathing,
that was Strickland on the mic.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
A couple of times he rolled his eyes so hard
that I'm pretty sure translated to audio. Listen, Ben, listen, listen, Ben, listen.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Listen.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
You're talking about my boy Fritz, and you're casting aspersions
left and right. I can't let this just go by.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Ben.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
Fritz is my boy.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
Here's something of a super villain.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
And let me tell you have not scratched the surface
of Fritz. Fritz was an insurance scam walking down the streets.
He was in the movie business. He worked for RKO Pictures.
He actually was arrested for insurance fraud.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
He sounds like he needs his own episode. He thought.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
He is amazing. And guess what. We're going to test
your knowledge about Fritz Duquan right now. Yes, ladies and gentlemen,
if you don't understand what's happening, I don't blame you.
I don't understand it myself, and I don't even have
the excuse of an international flight like mister Bolin. Now
what we are going to do is I'm going to
pose a scenario to these two gentlemen they will have
(28:59):
three minutes to discuss the scenario between the two of them,
and they may ask questions of me during those three
minutes to determine whether the scenario is in fact historical
or if I made it up seas and so this time,
as always, I have to come up with an arbitrary
rule for you to say or do before you ask
(29:20):
a question. This time because one of the many things
Fritz Dukan was known for was during both World Wars
he was a spy for the German government. So before
you ask any questions, you will have to preface it
with achtung.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Baby like that appreciated YouTube records.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
Really, that's why I was kind of it's both thematic
and we can bring some attention.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
I think it is. I think that's sort of considered.
They're one of their lesser works.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
I would thought I was really broken up about that.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
Anyway, I will give you your scenario and then we
will start the enormous Grandfather clock for its three minutes.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Yep, I'm stretching now.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
I've got to run all the way across this gigantic
shipping container.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
One of those twelve hour flights, and economies gonna do
that to you. All right, here we go, here's your scenario.
Fritz Ducan, as you've mentioned, was one of the experts
consulted for the Happy Pottus plan for Louisiana. That's what
I used to call hippopotamuses.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
No little tyke. That's adorable.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
Disney thought so too. But Ducan was hardly a reliable resource.
He was a con man, He was a self promoter.
He was a big game hunter. He actually went on
big game hunts with Teddy Roosevelt, and a spy for
the Germans with a real grudge against Britain. He had
two main rivals in his career. One you've already mentioned
(30:46):
the fellow hippo advocate Frederick Russell Burnham, whom I trust
you remember from literally moments ago. But his other rival,
which had a very similar story in some ways, was
an English spy named Vernon Hall. Hall had never crossed
(31:08):
paths with Duken, which is fortunate because like Burnham, Ducn
and Hall were pledged to kill one another. They each
had orders to kill each other. They were very similar
in a lot of ways except for one major one.
Du Can was a spy but loved attention and would
bring attention on himself all the time, even posing as
(31:30):
a supposed British soldier with the Australian Light Cavalry at
one point. But Hall was a master of blending in
and not being noticed, which is particularly fascinating considering the
fact that he had a wooden leg. Start to the timer.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
Oh okay, okay, I'm running, I'm running. Go okay? Are
you okay?
Speaker 3 (31:57):
Ben?
Speaker 2 (31:57):
I've you really took a running leap at that wall?
A little wind. You look a little flattened.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
I I you know what, I'll be good for the
three minutes it takes us to figure this out.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Oktung baby?
Speaker 3 (32:11):
Yes, mister Bolin.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
So are you saying that?
Speaker 3 (32:14):
Ver?
Speaker 2 (32:14):
Wait?
Speaker 1 (32:14):
Are you saying Fritz had a wooden leg? No, I'm
just saying Vernon Hall.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
Fritz loved attention. Vernon Hall was the opposite.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
Yeah, he loved his prosthetics.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
Okay, Oktung baby, Yes, give me like the log line
version of the entire question, all right?
Speaker 3 (32:31):
Was Fritz Duchan arch nemesies with not just one, but
two other spies, the second being Vernon Hall and English
spy active by the way, during World War Two.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
In addition to our other player in our in today's story.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
From the Boer War. So that was much, much, much earlier.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
So they were he was kind of an assassin. Yeah,
he had been.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
He had been tasked to assassinate more than one person.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
Okay, so then it's it does seem likely that he
I mean they they weren't necessarily mortal enemies because they
had beef with each other. They were mortal enemies because
they were assigned by someone higher than them than their
pay grade to do harm to one, at least initially initially.
So that being the case, it does seem likely that
(33:18):
that would happen more than once, or at least probably possible.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna you know what I'm gonna ask.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
I think I've made up my mind.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
I've cast him a lot, but I'm gonna ask another question,
just because I like the bit we're doing.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
I do too. I like saying it's it's got good mouthfeeling.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
Oktung baby, Yes, mister bullin, I just wanted to say it.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
That's fair.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Okay, you're thinking true. I'm thinking true. Man. Oh gosh,
we've been on such a good streak. I know I
hate to squander it, but I'm thinking true. Too, all right,
so we gotta lock it in.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
Let's do it all right, three two one.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
True, damn it, oh, mister Bolan, mister Bullen, you are
going to kick yourself.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
So very hard.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
First of all, Fritz Duken was it too.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
He's quite flexible.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
He was, in fact a spy during both world wars,
World War One and World War Two on behalf of
the Germans. He did have a very strong anti British
sentiment deep in his soul. He had been put into
prison and broke out numerous times, although he was eventually
caught and tried and eventually died in shortly after being
(34:27):
released because his health had gotten so poor while he
was in prison for fourteen years. But there was no
Vernon Hall. There was, however, a spy with a wooden
leg named Virginia Hall. Virginia Hall was an American spy,
mister Bolin.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Virginia that's dirty pool.
Speaker 3 (34:46):
Not only had a wooden leg, and while only was
a spy worked on behalf of the French resistance, was
an American spy working in France. There's an entire building
at the CIA named after her.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
Why do you keep saying last name? This way?
Speaker 3 (35:01):
I was I was a part of this too, because
mister Bullen in particular should know more about the sad
Hey now, hey, now, no no dosing here come.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
Wow, that's Ben's story. Ben, Now listen.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
I I called dirty pool because you literally just flipped
the gender. No no. I also said he was an
English spy, not an American. But I didn't give you
any details about what he did as his spy work
in World Wars. Okay, but my into our intuition of
the true truthishness of the story still held true. Well,
this just warns you that you can't necessarily believe anything
(35:38):
about Fritz.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
You can, Okay, that's that's well written. Yeah, we takeaway,
But I feel like.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
It also beats we can't necessarily believe anything you say.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
That's kind of the point that very But I feel
like I'm going to carry this off air with us.
Speaker 3 (35:54):
But but here's here's what I charge you both. I
charge you both to you should do two companion episodes,
one specifically about Burnham and the legendary exploits of Burnham,
and one specifically of Duquanes and the legendary some obviously
fictional exploits he really did pose as a British soldier
(36:17):
who had led an Australian Light Cavalry. He had created
an entire mythology, mythology including being bayonetted three times in
gas four times. Wait to what end? This was his
cover story, like because he liked the attention. He liked
dressing up in the cavalry uniform and having photographs taken
of him. There are famous photographs of him in that
(36:39):
in that outfit.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
I need to be caught would be a death sentence. Yes,
So he was just totally rolling the desk. He just
he just he.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
Relished the attention.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
But we've all been there, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (36:51):
It's true, super villainy.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
You get off work on a Friday. Next thing, you know,
it's Sunday, You're in a different country and you're dressed
like a member they're military.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
Stuff just happens.
Speaker 3 (37:00):
Yeah, so we know what happened in Korea.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
All right.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
Hey, speaking of segues, Jonathan strickladk the quiztor. It looks
like you've won the battle, but not the war. I'm
winning the war too, But come.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
On, man, And it just occurred to me.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
No, this is the first time in twenty nineteen that
we have had our friend slash Nemesis on the show.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
I really like this one. Usually this is the time
where I kind of low key snark at the clister here,
But now that was very well played, sir, and he
literally gave us two new episode topics. So I do
need to point something out real quick. I recently discovered something.
I'm a big fan, as I think we all are,
of Scott Ackerman and Comedy Bang Bang. The television show
(37:46):
Comedy Bang Bang, there is an episode wherein Tom Green
plays a character called the Quizzler, and it's utter parallel thinking,
very similar arch villain type character to you the Quist
Jonathan Striggle.
Speaker 3 (38:02):
But I just want to point out that this was
not lifted. This was just simply parallel thinking. And I
saw it with my buddy and he was like, wait
a minute. We we just know that brilliance sometimes comes
in pairs, you.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
Know, like like calculus exactly exactly. I just wanted to
put that out there real quick, lest anyone accuse us
of ripping off this segment. Quist is also a better name.
I agree to actively that tea in the middle kind
of throws it off.
Speaker 3 (38:26):
It's got a good mouthfeel, so just like octam Baby,
it's just like Octum Baby.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
So thank you so much for coming on the show.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
Quister. We will get you next time.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
As I'm shaking my fist at the air, we do
also have to we have to bring up one thing,
and I want to make.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
The show too long.
Speaker 1 (38:47):
Yeah, but off air, Jonathan, you learned second or perhaps
third hand about this show's checkered past with the musician
Chryl Crowe.
Speaker 3 (39:00):
Yes, something about Limericks popped up and I don't fully
understand what's happening.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
I don't remember the Limericks side.
Speaker 3 (39:09):
Yeah, that popped up on the on the.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
Group, the group the ridiculous Historians Facebook. What's what the
Cheryl Crow thing?
Speaker 2 (39:17):
She is our now you're you're our nemes.
Speaker 3 (39:21):
I'm your branded nemesis, as assigned by obligated. Every podcast
has one. It's I'm the only one who's allowed on mic.
Speaker 1 (39:29):
Yeah, it's like a Burnham Duquine thing, you know what
I mean, Like this rivalry, but we respect each other
and this is not the case with the popular musician
Cheryl Crowe, who we discovered is our primary critic online
and off.
Speaker 3 (39:47):
Really yeah, yeah, Cheryl Crow christized.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
Yeah, I mean no, no, no press is bad press,
I guess, but she is. She has got some harsh
barbs free boys personally. Yeah, and uh, you know, we're
we're glad.
Speaker 1 (40:01):
We're glad that she is around, because it turns out
that most of our subscription numbers do come from Cheryl Crowe.
Speaker 2 (40:10):
You know, every day's a winding road, Frank, Yes, yes,
so what you're saying, winding.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
Road the next concert tour, we should just be out
in the parking lot selling ridiculous history t shirts.
Speaker 2 (40:19):
That's right, all right, yeah, I gotcha.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
We just wanted to be transparent with you because we
know that you are such an ardent fan of Cheryl Crowe.
Speaker 3 (40:27):
Well now I'm growing more so every day.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
Oh wow, you guys should leak up, maybe.
Speaker 3 (40:34):
Have our own Injustice League. Excellent, I like it.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
Well, while you're waiting for that hellish combination to coalesce,
you can send us an email at Ridiculous at HowStuffWorks
dot com if you would like to send us any musings,
any thoughts about this or any other episode suggestions. We
love that. You can hit us up on our Facebook group,
The Ridiculous Historians.
Speaker 1 (40:56):
Yes, and you can also find our off air personal
ventures at our instagrams I am at Ben Bolan, I.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
Am at Embryonic Insider, And do you have any socials
you'd like to pitch.
Speaker 3 (41:09):
Plug at John Strickland, I post cute pictures of my dog, Timbleton.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
Yes, very cute dog. There's no h in the John there,
that's right. So you can also find more of Jonathan
working under his Clark Kent Alter ego at his show
Tech Stuff.
Speaker 2 (41:27):
Where how would you describe text.
Speaker 3 (41:29):
I'd say the tech Stuff. You got to drop the
whole twister thing here.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
Tech Stuff is tech.
Speaker 3 (41:34):
Text Stuff is just about It's about technology and about
culture and about how those two things intersect. So some
episodes are a little more technology focused, where we talk
about how a technology actually works. Sometimes we're talking about
how a technology has shaped our lives and how we
in turn have shaped the evolution of that technology. So
(41:54):
if you're interested in anything from an iPhone to a catapult,
I've covered it on Stuff.
Speaker 1 (42:00):
It's true, that's true. This show has been a decade. Yeah,
there's more than one thousand episodes, So get started now
for your next podcast binge opportunity tune into Tech Stuff.
We'd also like to thank, of course, our super producer,
Casey Pegram and Alex Williams who composed our track.
Speaker 3 (42:20):
And we'd also like to thank Gabe are amazing research associate.
And of course we'd like to thank you the listening public.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
Wow, that's a very clinical way of referring to our
friends out there in podcast land. I'll never do that again,
but seriously, the show wouldn't be anything without you. And
if you want to hang out with your fellow listeners,
check out that group you mentioned earlier, the Ridiculous Historians
on Facebook.
Speaker 1 (42:43):
I'm not looking forward to checking out our score with
the Twister.
Speaker 2 (42:47):
You know there's a score. Is there someone doing a spreadsheet?
Speaker 1 (42:51):
I don't know when there's a spreadsheet, but everyone knows we're.
Speaker 2 (42:53):
A couple behind. That's fair. I think I think we
evened it up last time, and now we're behind it.
We got close, We did get close.
Speaker 3 (42:59):
I think you were. I think you were one behind.
Speaker 1 (43:01):
Okay, yeah, because of course you're keeping count.
Speaker 2 (43:03):
No imagine that. All right, that's the show, See you
next time. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Fellow ridiculous historians. We're returning and it's twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Happy new year. The future. Man, it's the year Blade
Runner was set. I think, no, maybe not, but it's
it's you know, relatively.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
It's you know, it's strange because just a few days
into twenty twenty six, I was already thinking, what a
year it's been.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
You know, it really really has been a year for sure.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Another one also to jump in real quick, Blade Runner
was set in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Dang uh, yeah, we were passed.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Later on, we're past the Jetsons, we're boldly going into
the future, and we still don't have widespread flying cars.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
It this the year and the Sprocket are still the
highest forms of technology that exists.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Right in this episode, though, we're we're returning to a
classic story about a time when Louisiana was different, when
people were thinking ahead through their troubled present and saying,
perhaps we could build a better future with the hippopotamus.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Let's do a pivot. Let's do a hippo pivot.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Hip hop hip ovid hip ovid.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
The hip hopopotamus, yeah rhymes is bottomless. So what were
they doing? They wanted they weren't. Weren't they breeding these
things for like meat? Sure?
Speaker 1 (01:23):
And that guy, that guy with the shaved head, Andrew Zimmerman, he.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Would have dug this. You mean you mean Bob Dylan. No,
I'm just kidding. His name was Zimmerman. I can't remember
what it was first, the bizarre eats guy, right, Yeah? Yeah,
for su ye, Yeah, I love some some wild meats. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
And nowadays in the US, we've talked about this in
the past, Beef, chicken, and pork are the most common
animal proteins you'll find. But if things went just a
little bit differently in the nineteen hundreds, your supermarket might
have ended up with hippo fhilets.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
You had a bit of a whiled meat period, didn't you, Ben? Oh? Sure?
Are you still in it? Yeah, we'll check this classic
episode out.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
There's one more classic to help us transition back into
the usual published schedule. So we appreciate y'all enjoying these,
and hope everyone had a lovely holiday.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Let's begin today's
(02:48):
show with some apparently irrelevant hippo facts that will come
into play later in the episode. Number one did you
know hippos cannot swim and they can float?
Speaker 2 (03:01):
What It's true. So when whenever you see a hippo
emerge from the murky waters in like an adventure type movie,
they're literally just walking on the on the bottom of
the body of water, It's true.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
They walk or stand on surfaces below the water like sandbanks.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Ben. That's fascinating information.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Thanks, Noel. They're also called land cows. Did you see that?
That was my favorite things.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
And they're also straight seahorse teeth.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
They are they are a straight seahorse teeth, much like
our super producer Casey Pegram.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Casey has the straightest teeth of anyone in this crew,
the most seahorse of teeth bigtime.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
So today we've got to we've got to set out
maybe a couple of disclaimers. First off, this one's on me.
I just got back into town. My body has no
idea what time it is.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Your arm's tired? Oh, what day it is? My left
arm's a little loopy.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Yeah, But overall, it might be a bit punchy in
today's episode, and I might see some things that are
largely irrelevant.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
That's okay, thanks. How is that any different than usual. Yeah,
I mean on either side. That's totally what I meant.
That's totally what's it's true.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Well, maybe it will be for the good of the show, hopefully,
but we have it usually is so far, let's the
streak continues. We also have a second disclaimer about today's episode.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Big one, massive disclaimer and not even a disclaimer, more
a pre recommendation. Our colleagues Holly Frye and Tracy V. Wilson,
who you know from stuff you missed in History class Fame,
have covered this very topic in a quite meaty two parter.
So stop what you're doing right now and listen to theirs.
This is a throwaway episode that we're about to do
(04:44):
for you.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Well, maybe listen to ours first, so we don't have
to follow that act.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
That's fair. Let's consider ours like the cliffs Notes version,
and there's like the Encyclopedia Britannica version.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, the primer I think we called it off,
that's right, or if you're British Primmer primer.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
So this is a crazy story. One of our first
episodes on Ridiculous History was also hippocentric.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
It was, wasn't it the first episode?
Speaker 1 (05:11):
It may have been the first episode the Wild Hippos
of Pablo Escobar, which is a which I think is
a fascinating story. And I did check, and those hippos
are still running.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Rampant makamuka muckamuck.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Yes, wreaking watery havoc wherever they can walk or stand
in a watery surface, because again, they neither swim nor flow.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
How did you happen upon this, this little tidbit about
the watery nature of hippos.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
I read a lot about hippos on the plane. Really, yeah,
because I was too cheap to pay for the WiFi,
and I had downloaded some articles beforehand, and.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
That's a long flight. You didn't pop for the Wi Fi?
Speaker 1 (05:48):
I eventually did not because the flight went by the
north Pole, at which point, even if you pay for
Wi Fi, there's no service.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Did you see the pole, that barber pole that marks
the spot?
Speaker 1 (06:00):
I did not yet I did not, So that's going
to be for the next trip if you want to go.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Have you revealed where you were traveling to or we
we mentioned it?
Speaker 1 (06:07):
I think we mentioned on previous episodes as possible. Let's
just double down Korea, Yeah, yeah, yeah, traveled to Korea.
For a week on my continuing quest to enter not
just the DMZ, but what's called the Joint Protection Area,
which is the blue building where you can walk across
into North Korea.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
That was and have you seen Conan without Borders the
travel at the convel. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
He goes into that room and there's like guards and
they're all wearing like sunglasses inside, and there's one side
of this room where you're in North Korea, one side
you're in South Korea. And him and Steven John from
The Walking Dead do.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
A funny little bit where they like broadcast the weather
from each side of the room, and surprise, surprise, it's
the same weather.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
You know, it's it's surprisingly, well, not surprisingly, it's tricky
to get into that area, and any number of people
or institutions can cancel it day of So I didn't
make it this time, but I had a wonderful time,
wonderful trip nonetheless, and will probably be returning until I
can finally get into that building.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
In the meantime, let's take some advantage of those that
hippo research time you have on that plane. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
what are we talking about. Let's do it today.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
We are talking about not just hippos or land cows,
but a enormously influential role they almost played in American
history and the American meat industry.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Cool boy, that's the whole thing onto itself. And it
was a thing unto itself at this point because there
just wasn't enough meat. It was the earliest of the
nineteen hundred nineteen oh one, and the United States was
in when the throes of a meat shortage, and you know,
I see that, and I immediately am like, well, why
didn't people just start eating more vegetables? Right right?
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Why don't we pursue a Michael paulinesque omnivore's dilemma approach? Right?
Speaker 2 (07:59):
It's funny because that actually does kind of figure into
this a little later, but for now, let's set the scene.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Yeah, So, the dawn of hippopotamus ranching, as we would
later come to call it, really peaks in nineteen ten,
and it starts in the early nineteen hundreds. It hits
the point of, hey, it's a great idea to practice.
Hippopotamus ranching really hit its peak in nineteen ten. There was,
(08:26):
as you said, an alarming shortage of meat. This is
a result of several factors these were peak years of immigration,
and cities were exploding in terms of population, and although
the meat industry itself was growing by significant leaps and bounds,
(08:48):
it was not growing fast enough to keep up with
all the new hungry people traveling to the US and
being born here.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
So consequently, beef prices were through the roof. That beef
bill was just astronomical.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
I know it was putting people out of house and
home just to keep their families beefed up, I guess.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
But like I said, though, there I don't see any
mention of seeking alternative. They doesn't even talk of like
eating dogs, like it was that bad. People just needed
their meat. And I'm like, was it Was it a
taste thing? Literally?
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Was it?
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Like we just really love the taste of meat over vegetables?
Like you think there would be more like urban farming
or something would have sprung up to kind of.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Fill that gap. But it was such a big deal.
It was dubbed the meat question. Yes, it was dubbed
the meat question. Part of it ties into the availability
of pasture right of land for these animals to graze them.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Right, because meat was already so popular that you know,
like we tend to do or we don't think ahead.
As a country, pastures had become overgrazed because you know,
to have beef cattle, they have to graze and feed
on grass in pastures. What happens when they're overgrazed.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Right, there's nowhere for the cattle to eat, and so
there's no opportunity to grow them into you know, delicious
hamburgers and ribs. We do have to bracket that idea
of vegetarianism just for a moment. But we will get
back to it.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
I will.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
We will, So into this fray, into the midst of
the meat question, come to very fascinating guys.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Super cool.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Yeah, one named Frederick Russell Burnham and one named We.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Might need a Casey assist on this one. Casey, We've
got a gentleman by the name of Fritz d u
q u E s n E. I'm picturing it as
a sort of Dufraine, like Andy Dufraine from the Shawshank Redemption.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
You Ken, dou ken, you can the ken you ken
something like that.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Yeah, Casey on the case, Casey on the case. And
it's funny because it's interesting to me how sometimes in
French you actually do pronounce those seemingly silent letters like
one version of that case. He was saying the s
a little bit.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
Well, the yes names especially have lots of weird exceptions,
and sometimes you literally just have to check. There's not
like a hard and fast rule that you can always
be assured is gonna work.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
So double casey on the case.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
So we have these guys, Frederick and Fritz. Let's examine
the life of Frederick Russell Burnham.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
First.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
This guy is quoted by some sources as being the
man with the most complete life ever lived. You'll hear
him refer to as the inspiration for Indiana Jones. You'll
hear that the Boy Scouts were created to mold young
men into a more Frederick Russell Burnham esque shape. Morally speaking,
(12:00):
the name alone just inspires me. Frederick Russell Burnham.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
It just sounds like a real magic man, a real wreconteur,
you know. And yeah, he was an outdoorsman. I guess
you could say an early form of something like a naturalist,
right m hm. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
He would be described as emphatically a man's man, able
active alert. He gave people an impression of force and
self control. In nineteen ten, Burnham was forty nine years old,
and in September nineteenth of that year, he visited the
Maryland Hotel in Pasadena, California.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
What happened then, then, I'm so glad you asked.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
He was there to address what was known as the
Humane Association of California at their annual convention. This group
was dedicated to the prevention of cruelty to animals. They
had quickly become one of California's the most powerful civic organization.
And Burnham, later on in his life, now you know,
(13:03):
he's middle aged. He is part of an eccentric brain
trust that was trying to launch their own innovative animal
project off the ground. They wanted to answer the meat question,
and they thought that the civic minded people, the philanthropist
of the Humane Association of California, would be really good
(13:25):
folks to have on their side. Burnham was doing this
with a very calculated air. It's proven that privately he
made fun of these sorts of organizations.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Like Oh, in his off time, he had no time
for that kind of flim flammery, that kind of pomp
and circumstance. He wanted to be out there in the wild,
communing with nature. Not behind a podium in front of
a bunch of stuff shirts delivering.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
A speech, and he thought their priorities were off, you
know what I mean. So he wanted to get their
support nonetheless for his idea, and was an idea that
was already circulating through the halls of DC in the
form of a bill introduced by a Louisiana congressman named
(14:13):
Robert Broussard. The pitch was this, we don't have enough
room for beef. We're we're not growing enough cattle.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
But we got all these swamps and we don't quite
know what to do with them. There's kind of mucky
and gross and nothing really grows there that we can use.
There's also these like invasive plants that are really mucking
up the ecosystem. What if, what if, mind you, there
was some sort of creature that couldn't really swim or float,
(14:43):
but could exist just fine, and some shallow water like
that and would graze on these invasive plants, which you
might be able to drop the name of ben the
water highescinth ah, yes, the pesky water high acenth.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
So there is such a creature, yes, yes, picture this
like a made for TV ad where Billy May says,
but wait, there's more. So there is such a creature.
It turns out a creature from the continent of Africa,
the creature known as the hippopotamus. The hippopotamus, which is gigantic,
(15:18):
is native to similar ecosystems, you know, shallow watery depths, right, wetlands,
marshy areas, vegetation, And so they said, close enough for
government work. Why don't we why don't we walk with
us here? Why don't we take some hippos, a breeding
population of hippos from their native environment and bring them
(15:43):
to Louisiana to fight the invasive water hyacinth, also turning
this marshland into something productive.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
And then we'll.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Eat hippos because they're delicious.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
As it turns out, maybe they might be. That's I mean,
that's the pitch. And it seems way less gross than
eating dogs, which we were totally considering doing.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
We were considering as a nation, eating a lot of atoms,
a lot.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Of animals, because we just had to have that sweet,
sweet meat.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
We're like antelopes, what else, ostriches, that's what we kind
of collectively refer to as bush meat. Kind of right,
it's like the stuff that we wouldn't really mess with,
But it's funny. Obviously they have not heard our podcast
about the hippos, the wild hippos of Pablo Escobar, because
then they would know that hippos can be an invasive
species in.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
And of themselves. Yes, very much so. But none of
this really came to pass ultimately, so they didn't get
a chance to realize what a can of worms they
were opening up by doing this. But there's more. There's
another Fritz. Let's talk about our boy Fritz. What does
he play into this?
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Yeah, let's psych about Fritz. So, Fritz is a bore,
and bores are the descendants of Dutch settlers colonizers in Africa.
This guy is super sketchy. He lives life. According to
John Muellum, this guy quote moves through life using a
(17:06):
variety of aliacies. He was a con man, and you
know how we love con artists here on Ridiculous History.
He fought against the British and the Second Boer War,
and similar to Burnham, he had spent some time as
a kind of a freelance spy. Burnham hated Fritz and
(17:28):
once called him the human epitome of sin and deception.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Whereas Burnham had been described as the most complete human
being who ever lived. So couldn't be more different these two,
And they ended up being quite the odd coupled, didn't they. Yes, Yeah,
because they're interests aligned, right, they're.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Interest the line.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
But previously on a previous episode of Fritz and Frederick,
and they have been specifically tasked to murder one another.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Yeah. I didn't find any more about that. I saw
that detail in the interview with this Wired writer Mulam.
But what happened with that I need to know more.
It sounded like they were maybe on the opposite sides
of some sort of conflict.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
It's true during the Second Boer War, Fritz was under
orders to specifically assassinate Frederick Burnham, and he was under Burnham,
I mean, was under a similar set of orders. It
did not come to pass.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Yeah, and then apparently they were able to let bygones
be bygones, or you know, death orders be something that's
nicer than death orders. I don't know. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
After the Boer War, Burnham remained active in counter espionage
for Britain, and apparently a lot of his job in
this post war environment was just keeping an eye on Fritz,
just specifically watching his activities and seeing what he was about.
(18:55):
So when we fast forward to nineteen ten, when Burnham
and this preview mentioned Congressman Robert Brossard are trying to
popularize the idea of hippos as livestock. Burnham and Brossard
found something called the New Food Supply Society. The idea
being that they'll import what they see is useful African
(19:16):
wildlife into the US to solve the meat question. And
Broussard needs some experts, and so he says, who would
be a good expert on African wildlife?
Speaker 2 (19:28):
These two men's men that have spent a lot of
time in Africa, and you know, the whole rivalry thing aside,
maybe they can figure out a way to get along
and work towards a common goal.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
And they ultimately kind of did.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
They formed essentially like a lobbying group.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Kind of yeah, yeah, they form the lobbying group. With
the New Food Supply Society, they were pushing something called
the American Hippo Bill, and the American Hippo Bill was
asking Uncle Sam for two hundred and fifty grand to
import hippos into the BIOS as a new food source
(20:06):
and then to control the other pre existing invasive species,
the water hyacinth. So just to emphasize and highlight the
logic here, they said, let's introduce another invasive species to
solve our original invasive species problem. This is similar in
some ways to that scene in Fantasia, which I know
(20:27):
I reference at nauseum, wherein the Wizard Mickey Mouse animates
one mop and then quickly gets over his.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Head, and then all the mops start going insane and
kind of mutate into some sort of violent mob.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
And this, despite this lack of knowledge of Disney films
on the part of Uncle Sam at this time, and
despite the just the weird, unorthodox nature of the proposal,
people are largely behind it. Even former President Theodore Roosevelt
backs the plan. Well, he was a man's man himself,
wasn't he? Yes, yes he was. And The New York
(21:05):
Times writes an article praising the taste of hippopotamus meat.
And I can't remember, did I say land cow in
the beginning?
Speaker 3 (21:13):
He did?
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Okay, it's lake cow. Lake cow.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Yeah, that's just a cow. But these are lake cows.
And the New York Times wanted to call this stuff
lake cow bacon. So Fritz provides expert testimony about hippos
as livestock to the House Committee on Agriculture, and the
bill is in action. For a second, it looks like
(21:38):
it has a real chance of passing.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
And then what it just fizzles. Doesn't get that nothing
like catastrophic happened. Like it just kind of seems like
it just the whole idea, I know what it was.
It was sort of on the edge of being able
to engineer some of those farmland, those you know, overgrazed
pastures into new environments.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Yeah, that's it exactly. This plan would have come to
pass had not other technological innovationstrial agriculture come into play
event of industrial agriculture. And so now we're in a
situation where we say, hey, we I guess we don't
need to import a huge population of hippos and try
(22:22):
to fundamentally reboot our livestock system. Now we can just
take what we were already doing to a new level
of scale.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
That's right. And this guy, this writer, John Mullham Hope
and produce his name right, please forgive me from mine.
He makes a point in an interview with Wired that
it was almost like starting to resemble the kind of
like local you know, locally bred and slaughtered kind of
like things that foody scenes are so big on, you
know nowadays, they were talking about importing ostriches and having
(22:53):
ostrich farms and any other kind of like animals like
they could get their hands on, like antelopes and anything
was really on the table, And it was this idea
of having an incredibly local, locally sourced food system even
though they were imported, they would be kind of bread
naturally locally and then slaughtered locally and everythings as opposed
(23:14):
to having everything like imported.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Yeah, kind of a farmed a table.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
That's the one I was looking for.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
It's weird when you consider this because we're at a
pivotal point in history, and it's incredibly tempting to speculate
how things would be in the modern restaurants of twenty
nineteen had this plan and similar propositions succeeded. You know,
(23:44):
would we be in a situation where food is more
regional or livestock is more regional. Would we be in
a situation where someone says, well, you have to go
to Nebraska to get a good hamburger, because that's where
we have cows.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Yeah, now that's certainly an absurd thought, you know, considering
the way things are done these days. It seems like
it now, right, it seems like it now.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
And you know, one of the things that mystifies a
lot of my friends who visit the US from out
of the country is just the abiquitous nature of food.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
You can get anything anywhere. Well, and if you think
about like in Japan, for example, like proper wygo beef,
isn't that very regional like that, like to actually get
it that where it's actually the real deal, because it's
obviously it's one of those things that can be thrown around,
like you even see it on the menu at like
Chili's or something, beef sliders or whatever. Right, it's true.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
And this is where we see Michael Pollen returning because
Michael Pollen, who writes quite extensively about the problem of agriculture,
the problem in industrial agriculture, he would argue that ultimately
it is better and more sustainate for us to pursue
(25:02):
as a species these sorts of regional models of food ways,
you know what I mean. He would say that had
the hippo industry taken off, it would have been ultimately
better for the planet. You know, that is not where
we are now.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Now.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
We are in a reality where we could the three
of us and you listening, we could all travel in
different directions in the Lower forty eight States, for sure,
and then pretty much order the same thing. We can
find the same thing anywhere.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Yeah, I mean, you know, there was a time where
the idea of getting seafood in a landlocked part of
the country would have been insane, you know, but not
not so much anymore, with like refrigeration technology here in Atlanta,
especially because we are near such a huge shipping hub,
with the airport's constantly flux and things coming through. You know. Yeah,
(25:55):
you can get genuine wygof beef here. That's probably true.
I'm sure it is. Yeah, I'm sure it is. I
really recommend there is behind a paywall, but that this writer,
John Mullam wrote a piece for the Adavist website called
American Hippopotamus, and I read it some excerpts from it,
and it's it's very very good. Right. He goes into
the backgrounds of these two very fascinating men in a
(26:16):
very deep dive way and talks through this whole problem
and situation and what ultimately came of him.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
It is also the source of it's the first time
I found this quote. It's the source of my favorite
quotation about Fritz Duking. He was described as not only
the human epitome of sin in deception, but get this
stole a walking, living, breathing, searing, killing, destroying torch of hate.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
WHOA.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
I don't think that made it into the congressional record.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
I don't think so either, but it made it into
the podcast record. And I think there's not much of
a better way to wrap this up than with that.
My friend, that's true. That's true. This ends our tale
of the would be hippopotamus livestock empire that never quite
came to pass and now is currently relegated to the
(27:08):
Hall of good but ultimately unsuccessful ideas such as giraffe
ranches and Ostrich farms. We hope that you enjoy today's episode.
Let us know what we are.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
It's oh, I've.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Been here the whole time, Jonathan Strickland, aka the quizter.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
It is true, you have been here.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
Yes, if you heard anything fact that you wouldn't acknowledge
my existence for half an hour really hurts.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
I'm sorry, man, if you heard any weird, labored, evil breathing,
that was Strickland on the mic.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
A couple of times he rolled his eyes so hard
that I'm pretty sure translated to audio. Listen, Ben, listen, listen, Ben, listen.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Listen.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
You're talking about my boy Fritz, and you're casting aspersions
left and right. I can't let this just go by.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Ben.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
Fritz is my boy.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
Here's something of a super villain.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
And let me tell you have not scratched the surface
of Fritz. Fritz was an insurance scam walking down the streets.
He was in the movie business. He worked for RKO Pictures.
He actually was arrested for insurance fraud.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
He sounds like he needs his own episode. He thought.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
He is amazing. And guess what. We're going to test
your knowledge about Fritz Duquan right now. Yes, ladies and gentlemen,
if you don't understand what's happening, I don't blame you.
I don't understand it myself, and I don't even have
the excuse of an international flight like mister Bolin. Now
what we are going to do is I'm going to
pose a scenario to these two gentlemen they will have
(28:59):
three minutes to discuss the scenario between the two of them,
and they may ask questions of me during those three
minutes to determine whether the scenario is in fact historical
or if I made it up seas and so this time,
as always, I have to come up with an arbitrary
rule for you to say or do before you ask
(29:20):
a question. This time because one of the many things
Fritz Dukan was known for was during both World Wars
he was a spy for the German government. So before
you ask any questions, you will have to preface it
with achtung.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Baby like that appreciated YouTube records.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
Really, that's why I was kind of it's both thematic
and we can bring some attention.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
I think it is. I think that's sort of considered.
They're one of their lesser works.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
I would thought I was really broken up about that.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
Anyway, I will give you your scenario and then we
will start the enormous Grandfather clock for its three minutes.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Yep, I'm stretching now.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
I've got to run all the way across this gigantic
shipping container.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
One of those twelve hour flights, and economies gonna do
that to you. All right, here we go, here's your scenario.
Fritz Ducan, as you've mentioned, was one of the experts
consulted for the Happy Pottus plan for Louisiana. That's what
I used to call hippopotamuses.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
No little tyke. That's adorable.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
Disney thought so too. But Ducan was hardly a reliable resource.
He was a con man, He was a self promoter.
He was a big game hunter. He actually went on
big game hunts with Teddy Roosevelt, and a spy for
the Germans with a real grudge against Britain. He had
two main rivals in his career. One you've already mentioned
(30:46):
the fellow hippo advocate Frederick Russell Burnham, whom I trust
you remember from literally moments ago. But his other rival,
which had a very similar story in some ways, was
an English spy named Vernon Hall. Hall had never crossed
(31:08):
paths with Duken, which is fortunate because like Burnham, Ducn
and Hall were pledged to kill one another. They each
had orders to kill each other. They were very similar
in a lot of ways except for one major one.
Du Can was a spy but loved attention and would
bring attention on himself all the time, even posing as
(31:30):
a supposed British soldier with the Australian Light Cavalry at
one point. But Hall was a master of blending in
and not being noticed, which is particularly fascinating considering the
fact that he had a wooden leg. Start to the timer.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
Oh okay, okay, I'm running, I'm running. Go okay? Are
you okay?
Speaker 3 (31:57):
Ben?
Speaker 2 (31:57):
I've you really took a running leap at that wall?
A little wind. You look a little flattened.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
I I you know what, I'll be good for the
three minutes it takes us to figure this out.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Oktung baby?
Speaker 3 (32:11):
Yes, mister Bolin.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
So are you saying that?
Speaker 3 (32:14):
Ver?
Speaker 2 (32:14):
Wait?
Speaker 1 (32:14):
Are you saying Fritz had a wooden leg? No, I'm
just saying Vernon Hall.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
Fritz loved attention. Vernon Hall was the opposite.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
Yeah, he loved his prosthetics.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
Okay, Oktung baby, Yes, give me like the log line
version of the entire question, all right?
Speaker 3 (32:31):
Was Fritz Duchan arch nemesies with not just one, but
two other spies, the second being Vernon Hall and English
spy active by the way, during World War Two.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
In addition to our other player in our in today's story.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
From the Boer War. So that was much, much, much earlier.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
So they were he was kind of an assassin. Yeah,
he had been.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
He had been tasked to assassinate more than one person.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
Okay, so then it's it does seem likely that he
I mean they they weren't necessarily mortal enemies because they
had beef with each other. They were mortal enemies because
they were assigned by someone higher than them than their
pay grade to do harm to one, at least initially initially.
So that being the case, it does seem likely that
(33:18):
that would happen more than once, or at least probably possible.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna you know what I'm gonna ask.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
I think I've made up my mind.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
I've cast him a lot, but I'm gonna ask another question,
just because I like the bit we're doing.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
I do too. I like saying it's it's got good mouthfeeling.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
Oktung baby, Yes, mister bullin, I just wanted to say it.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
That's fair.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Okay, you're thinking true. I'm thinking true. Man. Oh gosh,
we've been on such a good streak. I know I
hate to squander it, but I'm thinking true. Too, all right,
so we gotta lock it in.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
Let's do it all right, three two one.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
True, damn it, oh, mister Bolan, mister Bullen, you are
going to kick yourself.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
So very hard.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
First of all, Fritz Duken was it too.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
He's quite flexible.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
He was, in fact a spy during both world wars,
World War One and World War Two on behalf of
the Germans. He did have a very strong anti British
sentiment deep in his soul. He had been put into
prison and broke out numerous times, although he was eventually
caught and tried and eventually died in shortly after being
(34:27):
released because his health had gotten so poor while he
was in prison for fourteen years. But there was no
Vernon Hall. There was, however, a spy with a wooden
leg named Virginia Hall. Virginia Hall was an American spy,
mister Bolin.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Virginia that's dirty pool.
Speaker 3 (34:46):
Not only had a wooden leg, and while only was
a spy worked on behalf of the French resistance, was
an American spy working in France. There's an entire building
at the CIA named after her.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
Why do you keep saying last name? This way?
Speaker 3 (35:01):
I was I was a part of this too, because
mister Bullen in particular should know more about the sad
Hey now, hey, now, no no dosing here come.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
Wow, that's Ben's story. Ben, Now listen.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
I I called dirty pool because you literally just flipped
the gender. No no. I also said he was an
English spy, not an American. But I didn't give you
any details about what he did as his spy work
in World Wars. Okay, but my into our intuition of
the true truthishness of the story still held true. Well,
this just warns you that you can't necessarily believe anything
(35:38):
about Fritz.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
You can, Okay, that's that's well written. Yeah, we takeaway,
But I feel like.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
It also beats we can't necessarily believe anything you say.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
That's kind of the point that very But I feel
like I'm going to carry this off air with us.
Speaker 3 (35:54):
But but here's here's what I charge you both. I
charge you both to you should do two companion episodes,
one specifically about Burnham and the legendary exploits of Burnham,
and one specifically of Duquanes and the legendary some obviously
fictional exploits he really did pose as a British soldier
(36:17):
who had led an Australian Light Cavalry. He had created
an entire mythology, mythology including being bayonetted three times in
gas four times. Wait to what end? This was his
cover story, like because he liked the attention. He liked
dressing up in the cavalry uniform and having photographs taken
of him. There are famous photographs of him in that
(36:39):
in that outfit.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
I need to be caught would be a death sentence. Yes,
So he was just totally rolling the desk. He just
he just he.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
Relished the attention.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
But we've all been there, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (36:51):
It's true, super villainy.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
You get off work on a Friday. Next thing, you know,
it's Sunday, You're in a different country and you're dressed
like a member they're military.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
Stuff just happens.
Speaker 3 (37:00):
Yeah, so we know what happened in Korea.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
All right.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
Hey, speaking of segues, Jonathan strickladk the quiztor. It looks
like you've won the battle, but not the war. I'm
winning the war too, But come.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
On, man, And it just occurred to me.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
No, this is the first time in twenty nineteen that
we have had our friend slash Nemesis on the show.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
I really like this one. Usually this is the time
where I kind of low key snark at the clister here,
But now that was very well played, sir, and he
literally gave us two new episode topics. So I do
need to point something out real quick. I recently discovered something.
I'm a big fan, as I think we all are,
of Scott Ackerman and Comedy Bang Bang. The television show
(37:46):
Comedy Bang Bang, there is an episode wherein Tom Green
plays a character called the Quizzler, and it's utter parallel thinking,
very similar arch villain type character to you the Quist
Jonathan Striggle.
Speaker 3 (38:02):
But I just want to point out that this was
not lifted. This was just simply parallel thinking. And I
saw it with my buddy and he was like, wait
a minute. We we just know that brilliance sometimes comes
in pairs, you.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
Know, like like calculus exactly exactly. I just wanted to
put that out there real quick, lest anyone accuse us
of ripping off this segment. Quist is also a better name.
I agree to actively that tea in the middle kind
of throws it off.
Speaker 3 (38:26):
It's got a good mouthfeel, so just like octam Baby,
it's just like Octum Baby.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
So thank you so much for coming on the show.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
Quister. We will get you next time.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
As I'm shaking my fist at the air, we do
also have to we have to bring up one thing,
and I want to make.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
The show too long.
Speaker 1 (38:47):
Yeah, but off air, Jonathan, you learned second or perhaps
third hand about this show's checkered past with the musician
Chryl Crowe.
Speaker 3 (39:00):
Yes, something about Limericks popped up and I don't fully
understand what's happening.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
I don't remember the Limericks side.
Speaker 3 (39:09):
Yeah, that popped up on the on the.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
Group, the group the ridiculous Historians Facebook. What's what the
Cheryl Crow thing?
Speaker 2 (39:17):
She is our now you're you're our nemes.
Speaker 3 (39:21):
I'm your branded nemesis, as assigned by obligated. Every podcast
has one. It's I'm the only one who's allowed on mic.
Speaker 1 (39:29):
Yeah, it's like a Burnham Duquine thing, you know what
I mean, Like this rivalry, but we respect each other
and this is not the case with the popular musician
Cheryl Crowe, who we discovered is our primary critic online
and off.
Speaker 3 (39:47):
Really yeah, yeah, Cheryl Crow christized.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
Yeah, I mean no, no, no press is bad press,
I guess, but she is. She has got some harsh
barbs free boys personally. Yeah, and uh, you know, we're
we're glad.
Speaker 1 (40:01):
We're glad that she is around, because it turns out
that most of our subscription numbers do come from Cheryl Crowe.
Speaker 2 (40:10):
You know, every day's a winding road, Frank, Yes, yes,
so what you're saying, winding.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
Road the next concert tour, we should just be out
in the parking lot selling ridiculous history t shirts.
Speaker 2 (40:19):
That's right, all right, yeah, I gotcha.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
We just wanted to be transparent with you because we
know that you are such an ardent fan of Cheryl Crowe.
Speaker 3 (40:27):
Well now I'm growing more so every day.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
Oh wow, you guys should leak up, maybe.
Speaker 3 (40:34):
Have our own Injustice League. Excellent, I like it.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
Well, while you're waiting for that hellish combination to coalesce,
you can send us an email at Ridiculous at HowStuffWorks
dot com if you would like to send us any musings,
any thoughts about this or any other episode suggestions. We
love that. You can hit us up on our Facebook group,
The Ridiculous Historians.
Speaker 1 (40:56):
Yes, and you can also find our off air personal
ventures at our instagrams I am at Ben Bolan, I.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
Am at Embryonic Insider, And do you have any socials
you'd like to pitch.
Speaker 3 (41:09):
Plug at John Strickland, I post cute pictures of my dog, Timbleton.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
Yes, very cute dog. There's no h in the John there,
that's right. So you can also find more of Jonathan
working under his Clark Kent Alter ego at his show
Tech Stuff.
Speaker 2 (41:27):
Where how would you describe text.
Speaker 3 (41:29):
I'd say the tech Stuff. You got to drop the
whole twister thing here.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
Tech Stuff is tech.
Speaker 3 (41:34):
Text Stuff is just about It's about technology and about
culture and about how those two things intersect. So some
episodes are a little more technology focused, where we talk
about how a technology actually works. Sometimes we're talking about
how a technology has shaped our lives and how we
in turn have shaped the evolution of that technology. So
(41:54):
if you're interested in anything from an iPhone to a catapult,
I've covered it on Stuff.
Speaker 1 (42:00):
It's true, that's true. This show has been a decade. Yeah,
there's more than one thousand episodes, So get started now
for your next podcast binge opportunity tune into Tech Stuff.
We'd also like to thank, of course, our super producer,
Casey Pegram and Alex Williams who composed our track.
Speaker 3 (42:20):
And we'd also like to thank Gabe are amazing research associate.
And of course we'd like to thank you the listening public.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
Wow, that's a very clinical way of referring to our
friends out there in podcast land. I'll never do that again,
but seriously, the show wouldn't be anything without you. And
if you want to hang out with your fellow listeners,
check out that group you mentioned earlier, the Ridiculous Historians
on Facebook.
Speaker 1 (42:43):
I'm not looking forward to checking out our score with
the Twister.
Speaker 2 (42:47):
You know there's a score. Is there someone doing a spreadsheet?
Speaker 1 (42:51):
I don't know when there's a spreadsheet, but everyone knows we're.
Speaker 2 (42:53):
A couple behind. That's fair. I think I think we
evened it up last time, and now we're behind it.
We got close, We did get close.
Speaker 3 (42:59):
I think you were. I think you were one behind.
Speaker 1 (43:01):
Okay, yeah, because of course you're keeping count.
Speaker 2 (43:03):
No imagine that. All right, that's the show, See you
next time. 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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