October 20, 2017 • 9 mins
History is beautiful, brutal and, often, ridiculous. Join Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown as they dive into some of the weirdest stories from across the span of human civilization in Ridiculous History, a podcast by HowStuffWorks. Here's a preview of our upcoming episode "Butter: Protestantism's Secret Ingredient?"
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Welcome to the show. I'm Ben, I'm Nolan. It's not
really a show. It's sort of a mini show, pre show.
It's a preview show. That's what they call in the
podcast parlance. Episode zero, right before episode one, the prequel,
if you will, a prelude to a podcast called Ridiculous History. Yes, yes, sir,
(00:45):
that is us, and every week you and I dive
into some of the strangest, most unusual, just weirdest stories
from the yester years of humanity. I'm really more of
a toe dipper. I'm being honest, I've never really been
much of a diver. I leave that to you and
I'll just kind of, you know, I'll be your wingman.
I'm all about delving. We can wing this together. Okay,
(01:07):
that's cool. What should we wing our way into a clip? Yeah,
because people are hearing this wondering what what are these
guys actually talking about? What do they actually do on
the show together, you and I found out something incredibly
strange and ridiculous, not just about the Protestant Reformation, but
(01:27):
about one of the things that fueled it. Yeah, butter,
which as we know, is not only delicious but uh
fantastic way of cooking your food, and it became really
important in aiding the Protestant Reformation when the Catholic Church
banned it, essentially forcing starvation on folks in regions that
(01:49):
didn't have access to um acceptable cooking oils like olive
oil or fish oil. So here's a preview from our
episode on butter. Butter is not just a tiny huh. Well,
look at that kind of detail in this story. In fact,
(02:11):
if not for this band on Butter, there might have
been a much slower growth rate of the Protestant movement.
So if we look at this first, I guess the
best way for us to start is to consider fast days.
Should we travel back in time to medieval Europe. I
think that's a wonderful idea. So here we are medieval Europe. Dude,
(02:37):
it's kind of weird here. It's really dark and gloomy,
and everyone looks really bummed out. Yes, yes, yes, you'll
you'll also notice that there are a lot of people
who look hungry. Watch out for that poop. Oh you slipped,
That's fine, it's my poop. I was here earlier. Gross,
(02:58):
I know, I know, I was just really feel in
the moment that skinny guy in the stocks over there.
He looks pretty malnourished. That's also plague, So don't touch him.
I think I've driven this bit into the ground. Well,
luckily we're riding it out still, because now that we're
in this environment, we can note that there are some
(03:19):
obvious traditions that are different from our own in the
modern day. Right. Let's see, look at that. See that
monk man sure does have a shiny head. Yes, yes,
he has a ton shore. Ah my eyes, So what
a ton shore? That's a tantra is the word for
that type of haircut where they shave the top of
(03:40):
their head. I thought it was just called a bowl cut.
It's it's like the opposite of a bowl cut. It's
like the fringe around a bowl cut, minus the part. Yeah, okay,
you learned something new every day. These monks that we're
hypothetically looking at are living in a system of fairly
rigid and exacting rules dictating both their um, their religious practices,
(04:04):
and their day to day behavior. And one of the
big things about this we're drawing a lot of this
from a book called Butter, a Rich History by Elaine
Coast Sulva. Uh. One of the big things about this
was the the sort of food you could eat. And
if it were a Wednesday, if it were a Friday
or a Saturday, then these monks the way this tradition started,
(04:27):
could not eat any animal products. They were vegan three
days out of the week. They were really ahead of
a curve on that one, no kidding. And then in
lent the forty day period leading up to Easter, they
also couldn't eat animal products, so they were vegan functionally
for like forty days or their version of that. Yeah,
and what's wild and did occur to me until looking
(04:48):
into this stuff is it was accounted for something in
the neighborhood of like half of the calendar year. We
added it all up together. And that's if you don't
well we'll get to indulgences and how they play in here.
But yeah, you're absolutely right. That really adds up. And
that makes me appreciate every fully cheese steak I have
(05:09):
ever eaten or will ever do you do that? The
cheese whiz version, You know, I'm not loyal enough. That's
the clastic they say, Yeah, but I like the provolon,
you know, like a good provolone. You ever eaten cheese
whiz out of the can. Yeah. Man, Yeah, we've all
had dark times in our lives. I mean, I'll do
whip cream out of the can. But cheese whiz is
it's like, it's not it's not a food. It's not
a food. It's essentially like the powder that comes in
(05:32):
the Kraft Macaroni and cheese boxes, just like an aerosol form.
Don't they have to call the cheese food product? I
think so American cheese slices. But the thing that's cool
too about this is, um, a lot of this stuff
really hinged on region. We take for granted the idea
of importing and exporting and are the availability of like anything,
and like we don't really have to limit our food
(05:54):
intake based on where we live. If we want strawberries,
we can get strawberries. If we want some you know,
tropical fruit that's not grown anywhere near us, we can
get it because of like, you know, refrigeration. But back
in these days that was not a thing, and your
diet was dictated pretty much exclusively on what was available
in your region unless you were super wealthy and even
(06:17):
and even then it would be incredibly rare, you know,
or be incredibly expensive for instance, to get certain spices
even like peppercorns. So now we've got we've got our
monks who about half the year just can't eat meat
or dairy and is also coincidentally believed to fuel lust.
(06:40):
Any animal product is thought as like essentially an afrodisiac
of sorts. This tradition became becomes intensely problematic when the
Catholic Church extends these fast Day rules to all Christians.
So for not just monks, anybody who is a Rishian
(07:01):
has to skip meat, milk, eggs, animal fats, or butter
on Wednesday's, Friday's, Saturdays, and all during Lent. And this
is where we really see the problem of geography that
we mentioned coming into play, because the Roman Catholic Church
isn't is it in southern Europe? Right, It's based in Rome.
(07:22):
It's in charge ideologically of a lot of Europe, but
it's based in Rome, and they had access to like fish,
a lot more fish, you know, fresh fish, and also
things like olive oil that were alternatives to butter, because butter,
you know, as as we know, is delicious to just
spread directly on things, but it's also a really great
(07:44):
way to cook things, and it infuses pretty excellent flavor
into things that you cook with it. Olive oil is
also fantastic. I would argue it doesn't quite add the
same you know, some kind of mom kind of you mommy,
same kind of kick as Butter does. So that so
that's it. We're cutting it off their noal, This is
just a preview. What a cliffhanger. I know people have
(08:05):
to listen to the whole episode. I don't even remember
what happens next, but you can find out for yourself,
friends and neighbors. All you have to do is tune in.
Subscribe to Ridiculous History. You won't just learn about Butter.
One of the episodes we have in the camp is
on this thing that happened in Russia between the nineteen
Fouries and the nineteen sixties, where folks were bootlegging music
(08:28):
by etching them onto discarded X ray press. Yeah yeah.
And then we also answered the question about why British
lawyers wear wigs. Why some British lawyers wear wigs. We've
got one on Pablo Escobar's hippo problem that he introduced
into the ecosystem of Columbia, rain making supervillains and more.
(08:49):
Tune in and find us. We are Ridiculous History. Look
for new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday on Apple Podcasts,
or anywhere else you download your favorite audio content. See
you there, Sa,
Welcome to the show. I'm Ben, I'm Nolan. It's not
really a show. It's sort of a mini show, pre show.
It's a preview show. That's what they call in the
podcast parlance. Episode zero, right before episode one, the prequel,
if you will, a prelude to a podcast called Ridiculous History. Yes, yes, sir,
(00:45):
that is us, and every week you and I dive
into some of the strangest, most unusual, just weirdest stories
from the yester years of humanity. I'm really more of
a toe dipper. I'm being honest, I've never really been
much of a diver. I leave that to you and
I'll just kind of, you know, I'll be your wingman.
I'm all about delving. We can wing this together. Okay,
(01:07):
that's cool. What should we wing our way into a clip? Yeah,
because people are hearing this wondering what what are these
guys actually talking about? What do they actually do on
the show together, you and I found out something incredibly
strange and ridiculous, not just about the Protestant Reformation, but
(01:27):
about one of the things that fueled it. Yeah, butter,
which as we know, is not only delicious but uh
fantastic way of cooking your food, and it became really
important in aiding the Protestant Reformation when the Catholic Church
banned it, essentially forcing starvation on folks in regions that
(01:49):
didn't have access to um acceptable cooking oils like olive
oil or fish oil. So here's a preview from our
episode on butter. Butter is not just a tiny huh. Well,
look at that kind of detail in this story. In fact,
(02:11):
if not for this band on Butter, there might have
been a much slower growth rate of the Protestant movement.
So if we look at this first, I guess the
best way for us to start is to consider fast days.
Should we travel back in time to medieval Europe. I
think that's a wonderful idea. So here we are medieval Europe. Dude,
(02:37):
it's kind of weird here. It's really dark and gloomy,
and everyone looks really bummed out. Yes, yes, yes, you'll
you'll also notice that there are a lot of people
who look hungry. Watch out for that poop. Oh you slipped,
That's fine, it's my poop. I was here earlier. Gross,
(02:58):
I know, I know, I was just really feel in
the moment that skinny guy in the stocks over there.
He looks pretty malnourished. That's also plague, So don't touch him.
I think I've driven this bit into the ground. Well,
luckily we're riding it out still, because now that we're
in this environment, we can note that there are some
(03:19):
obvious traditions that are different from our own in the
modern day. Right. Let's see, look at that. See that
monk man sure does have a shiny head. Yes, yes,
he has a ton shore. Ah my eyes, So what
a ton shore? That's a tantra is the word for
that type of haircut where they shave the top of
(03:40):
their head. I thought it was just called a bowl cut.
It's it's like the opposite of a bowl cut. It's
like the fringe around a bowl cut, minus the part. Yeah, okay,
you learned something new every day. These monks that we're
hypothetically looking at are living in a system of fairly
rigid and exacting rules dictating both their um, their religious practices,
(04:04):
and their day to day behavior. And one of the
big things about this we're drawing a lot of this
from a book called Butter, a Rich History by Elaine
Coast Sulva. Uh. One of the big things about this
was the the sort of food you could eat. And
if it were a Wednesday, if it were a Friday
or a Saturday, then these monks the way this tradition started,
(04:27):
could not eat any animal products. They were vegan three
days out of the week. They were really ahead of
a curve on that one, no kidding. And then in
lent the forty day period leading up to Easter, they
also couldn't eat animal products, so they were vegan functionally
for like forty days or their version of that. Yeah,
and what's wild and did occur to me until looking
(04:48):
into this stuff is it was accounted for something in
the neighborhood of like half of the calendar year. We
added it all up together. And that's if you don't
well we'll get to indulgences and how they play in here.
But yeah, you're absolutely right. That really adds up. And
that makes me appreciate every fully cheese steak I have
(05:09):
ever eaten or will ever do you do that? The
cheese whiz version, You know, I'm not loyal enough. That's
the clastic they say, Yeah, but I like the provolon,
you know, like a good provolone. You ever eaten cheese
whiz out of the can. Yeah. Man, Yeah, we've all
had dark times in our lives. I mean, I'll do
whip cream out of the can. But cheese whiz is
it's like, it's not it's not a food. It's not
a food. It's essentially like the powder that comes in
(05:32):
the Kraft Macaroni and cheese boxes, just like an aerosol form.
Don't they have to call the cheese food product? I
think so American cheese slices. But the thing that's cool
too about this is, um, a lot of this stuff
really hinged on region. We take for granted the idea
of importing and exporting and are the availability of like anything,
and like we don't really have to limit our food
(05:54):
intake based on where we live. If we want strawberries,
we can get strawberries. If we want some you know,
tropical fruit that's not grown anywhere near us, we can
get it because of like, you know, refrigeration. But back
in these days that was not a thing, and your
diet was dictated pretty much exclusively on what was available
in your region unless you were super wealthy and even
(06:17):
and even then it would be incredibly rare, you know,
or be incredibly expensive for instance, to get certain spices
even like peppercorns. So now we've got we've got our
monks who about half the year just can't eat meat
or dairy and is also coincidentally believed to fuel lust.
(06:40):
Any animal product is thought as like essentially an afrodisiac
of sorts. This tradition became becomes intensely problematic when the
Catholic Church extends these fast Day rules to all Christians.
So for not just monks, anybody who is a Rishian
(07:01):
has to skip meat, milk, eggs, animal fats, or butter
on Wednesday's, Friday's, Saturdays, and all during Lent. And this
is where we really see the problem of geography that
we mentioned coming into play, because the Roman Catholic Church
isn't is it in southern Europe? Right, It's based in Rome.
(07:22):
It's in charge ideologically of a lot of Europe, but
it's based in Rome, and they had access to like fish,
a lot more fish, you know, fresh fish, and also
things like olive oil that were alternatives to butter, because butter,
you know, as as we know, is delicious to just
spread directly on things, but it's also a really great
(07:44):
way to cook things, and it infuses pretty excellent flavor
into things that you cook with it. Olive oil is
also fantastic. I would argue it doesn't quite add the
same you know, some kind of mom kind of you mommy,
same kind of kick as Butter does. So that so
that's it. We're cutting it off their noal, This is
just a preview. What a cliffhanger. I know people have
(08:05):
to listen to the whole episode. I don't even remember
what happens next, but you can find out for yourself,
friends and neighbors. All you have to do is tune in.
Subscribe to Ridiculous History. You won't just learn about Butter.
One of the episodes we have in the camp is
on this thing that happened in Russia between the nineteen
Fouries and the nineteen sixties, where folks were bootlegging music
(08:28):
by etching them onto discarded X ray press. Yeah yeah.
And then we also answered the question about why British
lawyers wear wigs. Why some British lawyers wear wigs. We've
got one on Pablo Escobar's hippo problem that he introduced
into the ecosystem of Columbia, rain making supervillains and more.
(08:49):
Tune in and find us. We are Ridiculous History. Look
for new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday on Apple Podcasts,
or anywhere else you download your favorite audio content. See
you there, Sa,
Ridiculous History News
Hosts And Creators
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.