March 14, 2023 • 31 mins
If you've ever been stuck in traffic, you know turn signals are a vital part of safe driving (though not everyone seems to think so). But where did these nifty little blinking lights come from? Why didn't they come along until years after the invention of the automobile? Join Ben, Max and Noel as they explore the strange evolution of signaling, from the early days of on-the-road hand gestures all the way to modern, electronic turn signals.
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 (00:00):
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
(00:27):
the show, Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so much
for tuning in. Let's give it up for a superproducer,
mister Max Williams. Oh oh oh. Sometimes Turn, Turn, turn, Baby.
(00:47):
You ever noticed that sometimes like the sound of your
windshill wipers or the sound of your turn signal will
start to kind of have the sense of synchronizing with
your music, only for it to like, you know, drift,
of course, because it's just that golden moment where everything's
in alignment. But then entropy returns right and you might be, uh,
you might be on the road waiting to take a
(01:08):
left at a light and notice that your turn signal
is in time with the car in front of you.
That's a neat, little bit of synchronicity, a little cloud
Atlas moment for everybody in traffic. I'm Ben your Noll,
and we're continuing our a bit of an auto theme
in recent episodes because we are going to talk about
(01:29):
turn signals. Noel. In an earlier episode of Stuff They
Don't Want You to Know, I was I would say
pretty pretty forthright about the stereotype of BMW drivers and
you know, not using tone signal chronically. Yeah, I don't
think they know about them about I don't understand why
they in turn singles on BMW's at this point. Well, okay,
(01:52):
Devil's advocate here. Perhaps it's installed in an inconvenient or
out of the way location. Is that possible, fellas? Is
that maybe maybe I think I've been in a beam,
or it's in the same spot. It's maybe it's under
the spare tire in the trunk, you know. But we're
we're going to talk about turn signals today. You know,
(02:13):
depending on where you live in the world and what
your experience with cars is like, you may say, oh,
everybody uses turn signals, or you might say, hey, I
don't even think they're that necessary. We have strong opinions
about this, but as some of us might be surprised
to learn, electronic turn signals did not come around until
(02:36):
well after the invention of the actual car. People were
kind of just you know, gesturing, well, yeah, I mean
it's it's the same kind of system that cyclists use.
And I would argue, I don't know if this has
ever happened to you. You know, it is possible to
get cut off by a cyclist, okay, And I know
that they get the right of way and they have
their own land and everything, And I always try to
(02:56):
be very courteous and respectful to cyclists, but sometimes I'll
blast in front of me with their hand out, as
though I could have registered that as a warning. Because,
after all, a signal of any kind is meant to
imply intent and to communicate intent of what you're gonna do.
So it doesn't really work if you just kind of
blast past somebody with your signal on if they didn't
(03:17):
have a chance to clock which direction it was pointing.
Well said, because a signal, I love that you're pointing
that out. A signal is intent. A signal is not
making reality change according to your wishes. For more than
a hundred years, drivers a bicyclists have used hand signals
(03:38):
to indicate where they're at in life, where they're out
on the road. So if you look back at the
early twentieth century, we can see that the hand gestures
for signaling are still pretty much the same. You know,
stuff like raising your left forearm with your elbow bent,
and that means you're going to turn right. And I
think everybody who can who drives a car today probably
(04:00):
recognizes those hand signals, right, what about the rude signals? Man?
How far did those date back? Oh, they're they're they're ancient.
They're ancient, and they're well beloved. Also they're serious business
in some countries. Yep, Max is doing all the dirty
hand gestures. Well, did we do an episode on those?
(04:22):
I think I don't know if we did a whole episode,
but it's definitely something's come up. But I'm a little
rusty and and I'm having some trouble with this hotel WiFi,
so I can't see your video. Can you walk us
through real quick? Add add to add to these hand gestures,
some of the rude ones from throughout history. I would
love that so much. Yeah, for sure. So the okay
sign in the United States is very offensive. I think
(04:45):
in the Mediterranean, in Greece, the thumbs up sign is
aggressively offensive in Iran, I want to say. And then
the fig where you stick your thumb between your pointer
and your index, or your pointer in your middle finger.
That's like a middle finger. Everybody knows the old school
(05:05):
middle finger. Let's see what else? Oh, what about the
one where you do that with your chin? Like you
you flick your chin like, yeah, hey if afan gul
right like the Sopranos a while, and then there's the
old biting they're biting my thumb at you. It's just
a little less kind of lusted with lusters in Shakespeare's time,
but it's true. And I mean, you know, these early
cars were kind of open to the world, you know
(05:29):
that they were They were not convertible, they were just
like didn't have tops, right, so it was a lot
easier to see those kinds of hand gestures. You know,
you didn't have to you know, lean out the window
or something, right. Yeah, but these hand signals had some
problems even back when they were the main most common thing.
It's tougher to see people's hand signals at night, for instance,
(05:53):
if traffic's really bad, you know, and there's pouring rain,
you might miss the signal. And so you still have
to know how to use them today, right, you have
to be aware of them. But most people are going
to use electronic signals instead because they're on they should
be on every car, they should be working on every car,
(06:14):
and you have to You're only supposed to use the
hand signals in a vehicle Now, if something is wrong
with your turn signal, then I have an idea. Why
not just give them big goofy white Mickey Mouse gloves.
Then everyone will be able to see even in the
duck of nights. Oh, Man, tell me it wasn't so, Ben,
(06:35):
tell me it wasn't so. It was so. No. Thanks
to our research associate Jeff Barlett, we have learned from
the Japan Times that before trains and automobiles had automatic signals,
those at the controls had to use their hands to
signal their moves, and they started wearing white gloves to
make their hands easier to see. Wow, that's like forced
(06:58):
fashion choices, you know, because I've always found just the
gloved hand in general to be a pretty serious commitment.
You know, if you're wearing black leather driving gloves, that's
a look for sure. And then wearing them just kind
of around, you know, with maybe a top coat or something.
I can't not think of you in murdery ways, you know,
I just always think of the glove down is the
(07:19):
bringer of death. But white gloves makes me think of
a couple of things, and makes me think of like
Disney cartoons and Mickey Mouse and stuff and also kind
of creepy, like minstrel show vibes, you know those like
white gloves and like jazz hands and stuff. I don't know,
it just there's something about it that gives me the
creeps and feels a little off. I don't know why. Yeah, yeah,
(07:43):
you're you're hitting some really some really fascinating, kind of
disturbing tropes there. Last time I was in Japan, I
ran into several very fancy cab drivers and the white
glove thing is still a thing. Oh wow, Yeah, it
feels superficial. But also I feel like any white item
of clothing is a commitment, is a flex because it's
(08:04):
sort of like a guy who doesn't have it all
together himself. When I see somebody where, you know, white pants,
white gloves, I'm like, wow, it's It's the clothing version
of not having a case on your cell phone. You
know what I mean. You're living on the edge. You're
one puddle away. My friend and Max is also Max
(08:26):
is also wearing gloves today, black gloves, And I always
makes you think of the old expression. Maybe it's not old,
maybe somebody invented it more recently, but it's talking about
someone who's a real good salesman saying they could sell
a ketchup popsicle to a woman in white gloves. That
is a good one. That is a good one. Never that,
(08:53):
so we know it's not just in Japan. In October
of nineteen twenty, the Washington Harold said that the local
least captain requested all motorists in the city to buy
a pair of white gloves, expressly to wear them after
dark to make their hands easier to see. And you know,
it was an inexpensive solution. The captain said, these gloves
(09:16):
only cost ten cents a pair. For a quick inflation calculation,
that's a dollar fifty in today's money. And then they
also said, look, if you can somehow afford a car
but don't have a dime to kick in for gloves,
you can just buy one. We just need to have
one glove Michael Jackson style. That makes sense. You just
needed the one gloved signaling hands. M yeah, just the
(09:40):
action hand. And that is why, exactly, that's why Michael
Jackson's got is one glove. It's a shout out to
the early days of turn signals. True story, no in
fact check us and honestly, all that glitter on MJ's
glove probably just made it catch to light better and
make me mean for even more safe invisible hand signals. Right,
(10:02):
what if you like you favor of the other hand,
I guess you're always going to be signaling out of
the left the driver's side window no matter which hand
you favor, you would never like it wouldn't be safe
to lean over to the passenger side and do it.
So yeah, it'd be a bunch of left handed gloves,
a run on left handed gloves. Right, So how did
we get to how did we get from there to
(10:24):
the modern electronic turn signal? I think there's some there's
some folks we have to thank one in particular, right,
that's right? And what a what a name? This individual
hash Florence Lawrence. I don't know why. I just like rhyming.
It always makes me giggle. But that's This was an
individual whom was actually a big part of the women's
(10:47):
liberation movement of the nineteen twenties and the way cars,
oddly enough, kind of factored into that because cars were
sort of a symbol of freedom of being able to
get out there on the open road, and also a
symbol of autonomy because you could teach yourself. You know,
we know that cars of this era and more classic
(11:09):
cars are easier to work on. I mean easier, isn't
the right word? Was certainly more possible to work on
by individuals. So not only were women out there zipping
around in cars, they were taking it upon themselves to
learn how to repair their own cars. And Florence Lawrence
told a reporter in nineteen twenty this about how driving
kind of become the symbol of liberation for women. Quote,
(11:31):
the average woman does her own repairing. She is curious
enough to investigate every little creek and squeak of her
car and to remedy it. Pretty cool. She actually then
very cool. She started to do a little tinkering, didn't
she She did, she did. In nineteen fourteen, she developed
an early version of the turn signal, which she called
(11:51):
an auto signaling arm. It's the predecessor of the modern
turn signal, but it's very different from what you have
on a car today. You place down the back of
your fender and you could raise or lower it with
the push of a button. She was telling Green Book
magazine about this in an interview. And she also put
(12:12):
in some early safety measures because the signal that indicated
stop would pop up automatically whenever you pushed the brake.
So brilliant stuff. And also she's from a family of inventors.
We should mention that Florence Lawrence's mother patented a cleaning
device for windshields just a few years after that. So
(12:36):
brilliant people. Yeah, and then speysically automotively, you know. Minded.
I think that's so interesting about the break feature because that,
you know, it definitely makes sense, but it would have
kind of, you know, gone on to be improved where
instead of like hitting the brake killing the term signal,
just turning the wheel at a certain ratio, you know,
(12:56):
to the left or right kind of triggers the thing
to reset. But as you know, even in modern cars,
you'll sometimes have that signal on and you can't you're
on too straight of a path or like the turn
isn't isn't sharp enough and it won't reset. So even
that modern technology is imperfect almost the I guess there
could be drawbacks to having it tied to the break specifically,
(13:17):
but also there's some ways that I almost think that
might be better than the current system. Yeah, and Florence
was one of several people who were working on these concepts.
In nineteen oh nine, just a few years before, a
British guy named Percy Douglas Hamilton patented a literal set
(13:38):
of hands that were attached each side of the car
and they would light up the show when you were
moving and so like that. Why it's that creepy sounding,
It just seems like it would be odd and off putting.
Why they have to be hands, just lights would do. Yeah,
it's pretty weird. And according to John Heitman, a professor
at the University of Dayton who special wise, this an autohistory.
(14:02):
Even though people cite our pal Percy as being the
first patent for turn signals, nothing ever happened with it.
You don't have wonky cartoon hands on your car today,
And Professor Hyman says, it's pretty Yeah, it's pretty unlikely
that Florence Lawrence ever knew about this. She thought of
it on her own. She was an independent inventor, but
(14:24):
she didn't yet she did a little parallel thinking perhaps
one yeah, one hundred percent, which happens all the time.
You know, it's it's who gets to the patent first.
Oh yeah, but especially with an idea where it's just
kind of like the car was screaming out for something
like this, you know, just a matter of time, but
before somebody cracked it. But it's not in and of itself, well,
(14:48):
you know, certainly is unique. I guess for the first
person in the thought of it, it is something that
kind of the mind is naturally drawn to. Okay, we
need something better than these hands signals. Perhaps it'll be
a combination of a life or something there, you know
what I mean, Or you know, a weird cartoon hand. Okay,
maybe not that. Let's let's simplify a little bit here
(15:09):
and then not too far off from the modern you know,
the modern term signal at this point. Yeah, Or you know,
there were other ideas. Someone's like always have five or
six small goats in the back of your car and
just throw one in the direction that you're turning in. Uh.
But you know, that was a very different time. It
(15:29):
was possibly people where people were, people were just there.
There's all the excess goats, there's cluttering things up, cluttering
up the joint. You know, it was a real nightmarish time.
I'm really glad we got past that um again to no,
it was a straight sword seahorse teeth at all is
crooked seahorse teeth to the maximum. Um. But you know,
(15:53):
it's like I said, it wasn't too long before we
got to something that definitely resembled what we know as
the modern turn signal. Yes. Yes, so now we're cooking
with gas, right, or we've got high octane gas in
the tank. Of turn signal history. If you go to
a December nineteen eighty five issue of Popular Mechanics, you
(16:13):
learn about the Protects Safety Signal Company, And no, these
are the folks who introduced flashing turn signals in nineteen twenty,
right were they the first? Like pretty much the first ones?
I think that's right. The Protexts Safety Signal Company introduced
flashing turn signals in nineteen twenty. Really the first modern
(16:38):
turn signal, however, can be attributed to somebody else, So
not quite. I mean again, this is kind of like
a parallel thinking situation. A guy named Edgar A. Wals
Junior who in nineteen twenty five actually did get a
patent for one, and he tried to market it, but
I guess it just didn't take off because a lot
(16:58):
of times the marketing is just as if not more
important than the technology of the invention themselves. How do
you sell this thing to people? How do you convince
them and they need this in their lives? Folks just
weren't having it. So the patent actually expired after fourteen years,
and all the while inventors were trying to figure out
something that was a little more streamline perhaps, And the
(17:20):
Smithsonian actually in their collection has a handmade, one of
a kind signal that Oscar j similar created in nineteen
twenty nine. So this actually allowed for communication of several
types of moves right, not just the turning direction, but
also slowing down. You know. Essentially what we I guess
(17:43):
not today is like a break light and a signal
of a stop. I guess when the break in the
clutchroom of pressed at the same time. Yeah, cool stuff,
but still not on every car. Turn signals were not
offered to consumers until nineteen thirty nine, and they became
more and more widespread as the years wound on, Like
(18:05):
through the nineteen forties and back in this time, if
you had a car, you were far more likely to
be tinkering with it on your own time to add
your own kind of improvements, the stuff that you like
and a lot of times people had to do this
because the technology was still kind of new. It was
a little wonky to a lot of folks. So you
(18:27):
would have these kits that could convert different parts of
your automobile. And not all of them worked, not all
of them were successful, but some of these kits would
become standard features on later cars. And just like you said,
with the marketing, that's one of the key pieces here.
If we look at the nineteen thirty eight Buick, then
(18:49):
we see the first flashing turn signals sold to customers,
and it was called the flashway directional signal because it flash,
it was different directions. That sounds like a lot of fun.
I gotta have that in my life. I love this
idea of kits and about how like what we know
today is standard safety features, being kind of like you know,
(19:09):
accessories at the time. It's just it does make you
laugh and think a little bit and be grateful. In general,
as screwed up as things are in many parts of
American life, there are some standardizations of safety that we
can at least rely on. And those flashway directional signals
that you mentioned, Ben worked only on the backlights of
(19:31):
the cars. You can only really see it if you
were directly behind somebody. In nineteen forty, Buick changed around
the directional lights by extending it to the front lights
as well. Yeah, that would make sense. You know, if
someone's behind you and signaling and wanting to pass, you
would need to be able to see that from the
front and the back. Oh man, snail's pace. This stuff
(19:52):
is advancing out, but still we're getting there. This also
had kind of what we know of the modern self
canceling mechanism that I was describing, where you know, when
the wheel turns into a certain degree, the blinker will
just go off on. It's almost sure as hell. Doesn't
stop Honda Odyssees from riding in front of Ben for
miles at a time with their blinkers on interminably. No,
(20:15):
it does not. So what happens next We've got now
kind of stock, We've got kind of stock blinkers on,
you know, with the front and the back. Does it
start to spread to other brands? Yeah, yeah, it does,
like any other innovation, right, you don't want other cars.
(20:38):
You don't want a competitor's car to seem like it's
safer or cooler than yours. So in nineteen forty, these
things become standard on Cadillacs, Buicks, Hudson's, you name it, Chevrolet's, Ouldsmobile,
all the hits, all the good ones. And if you
had an older vehicle that did not have turn signals,
(20:59):
then you would go to places like the Lester Company
in Illinois that would have a kit and you could
take this kit and you could put it on whatever
vehicle you had, and it was guaranteed to work, quote
like factory installed models on those expensive cars. But Ben,
I mean nowadays you can get a ticket for just
(21:20):
having a break light out. At this point, the stuff
wouldn't have been legally you know, required, would it. Yeah,
the laws get a little bit unclear or you know,
they don't all occur at the same time. Like we
(21:42):
were talking about with crash test dummies. There was this
huge need to make the laws uniform so that you know,
driving in New York is hopefully the same legally speaking
as driving in Nevada. And to do that, you know,
ideally everybody has the same equipment. And blinkers do become
mandatory in the sixties, I think, right, I think that's right.
(22:05):
But that's also like, I mean, yes, yes, that's correct.
But also, I mean, we talked about this on a
recent episode in our Kind of Car series. I don't
think it was until the It wasn't until like the
fifties or maybe even the earliest. When was it the
driver's licenses were even required across the board? It was
shocking it was the thirties, but like twenty plus years
(22:28):
after the medal, two twenty plus years into the whole game. Yeah, exactly.
So it would not surprise me one bit if it
wasn't ntil the sixties that turn signals were legally, you know, required.
M Yeah, that makes sense, I mean, and even driver's
licenses were kind of state by state. I think the
first ones were Missouri Massachusetts in nineteen o three. They
were like, Okay, somebody's got to be qualified to do this.
(22:53):
But who knows, maybe it was maybe it started out
as a grift and they were like, hey, now we
can make a little more money off some folks. But
it's good that people have driver's licenses. You should have
to take a test to get behind the wheel of
a car, and it's good that these things are mandatory too.
We can go into the weeds on some of the
(23:14):
different types of approaches people took with turn signals. But
what you need to know is legislatures across the country.
We're kind on the fence in the sixties just for
a minute about whether or not you should have turn signals,
what kind of turn signals you should have, And eventually,
(23:37):
thankfully they aired on the side of caution and said, hey,
while we're moving at tremendous speeds, we should let each
other know where we're going. And I feel like that's
pretty reasonable, right, Yeah, And it's weird because what's being
touted is like a kind of a further innovation in
(23:57):
this you know, blinker tech Forward in twenty eleven introduced
something called the three blink function, which I guess it
is just like you click the blinker and it clicks
three times and then automatically turns off. But I mean
to me, that seems, you know, yeah, you don't want
someone writing with their blinker on all day, but you
also don't want it to be so hat so quick
(24:18):
that you missed it. Yeah, and that seems like three blinks.
I don't know if that if that really does the trick, agreed, Agreed.
And it's also weird when you think about people having
a turn signal on while you're waiting in traffic. This
is really a three blink and you miss it kind
of thing. So how much of an innovation is it?
(24:43):
Thank you that womp womp. I know you, I know
you're putting in. But but what what we're saying here,
what Nolan Maxiner're saying, is that this kind of research continues.
There's still improvements being made in pretty much any safety
oriented aspect of any automobile. Some cars now have turn
(25:06):
signals on their side mirrors, which is great for visibility.
And some cars have the side view camera and that's
that's neat, But that one takes them getting used to.
On my part, you know, I don't know if I
can trust the camera. I just I gotta get over it. Yeah,
I mean I have gotten to the point where, like
my my backup camera has like a solid line which
is like a good you know, maybe six inches of
(25:28):
clearance let's say, on the bumper. And then there's the
dotted line which I have measured and I have, you know,
I once you get comfortable with it, it it kind of
opens up some you know, superpowers in a way, because
I know that dotted line is Yeah, I can't go
any further than that, not even not even a click.
So once you get comfortable with those lines and that
feedback you're getting from those cameras, it can be really powerful.
(25:50):
But I know it definitely kind of weird some people out. Yeah. Yeah,
and I've got I've got you know, backup cameras that
I'm slowly learning to trust. But I'm still you know,
a turnaround, look over your shoulder, guy, which is probably
gonna make me look very old in about a decade.
No wait, who am I kidding? In a decade, people
won't be driving cars right all, be autonomous. Maybe you'll
(26:13):
still be turning over your shoulder and looking back while
your heart does it for you. Yeah, well that's because
he's look, he's looking for the guy in the in
the black suit is after him. Yes, yes, with the
gloves and uh and so it looks like does it?
Don't Gloves make your They make your fingers look creepy,
like white gloves. When you when you noodle your fingers
around like that, wearing white gloves, there's no way for
you not to look like a creep If I see
(26:36):
anybody wearing gloves in general, and it's not very cold outside.
I'm making some assumptions. I am man, I'm with you.
We're on the same page. Ree gloves, It's gonna be
the middle of July when I have my black leather
gloves on. It's gonna be so ridiculously hot. But for
this bit, I shall to do it. Yeah, especially if
you have a T shirt on, like just a T
(26:57):
shirt in the sleeve of shirts short shorts one. Yeah, Ben,
you might have you might have an answer to this.
And in terms of car innovations, how the hell do
those like high end cars have a view that lets
you have a bird's eye view down from above the car?
Is it? Is it magnets? It is its triangulation of stuff?
(27:19):
What is it? It's witchcraft, is what it is. I
don't like it. I like how we went in saying
cloud posse for a second though, Is it magnets? Maybe
it's magnets. The you know what I'm talking about. I
know what you're talking about, but I don't know how
it works well, and I would love I would love
to learn more about it. I also love for us
to do some more weird, ridiculous car history stories and
(27:43):
can't wait to get digging on those there's all sorts
of stuff we can talk about, like the way turn
signals evolved in Europe, and all sorts of weird names
for different devices like trafficators, which is just a more
primitive version of what Florence Laurence was doing. But but
I think we can. I think we can call it
(28:03):
a day today. I think in Atlanta we're all traffic haters,
Am I right? Gampwamp Yeah. And honestly, I mean the
name is really the funniest part about that innovation because
it really was kind of uh, just didn't quite hit
the mark as close to what Florence Lawrence came up with.
(28:24):
So thank you, Florence Lawrence. And now we're on the
heels of International Women's Day, so, you know, retroactively, happy
International Women's Day to you and yours, Florence Lawrence from
from beyond um. You know, a lot of times, it's
true women don't get credit that they deserve for innovations
like this, And it was certainly first for me hearing
the name Florence Lawrence, which is just still so funny
(28:46):
to say Florence Lawrence. It is, you know what I mean,
It's like a theater kid warm up Florence, Lawrence Florence,
New York, New York exactly. Yeah, wow, Yeah, that's a
shout out to our wonderful friends of the show and
guestos Laura Vogelbaum and Michael Alder June who did an
(29:07):
episode on Whether with You Max on whether a house
can be legally haunted? Do check that out and do
let us know what's on your mind with ghosts, with
turn signals, with weird auto history and folks. You can
find us on Ridiculous Historians on Facebook, but you can
find us online not just as a show, but as individuals.
(29:31):
It's true. You can find me. I'm pretty much exclusively
on Instagram at how Now Noel brown Man. I think
there's a couple of social media watering holes people can
find you in. Yeah, for sure, Farmers only. My space
zanga I'm just man Zanga is the best one. So
(29:56):
if you can't find the Zega page, you can follow
me on Instagram and a creativity I call myself at
Ben Boland Bowli in there. You can also find me
on Twitter at Ben Boland HSW and if you are
on Twitter right now, per Alon Musk. The most exciting
thing about that that whole platform is that you might
have a chance to find our own superproducer, mister Max Williams. Yes,
(30:19):
I am still technically on Twitter. You can find me
at at L underscore Max Williams. There will be a
Twitter page that technically exists until you get until you
get stripped of your your blue check mark you purchased,
you faker, your phony, your fraud. I'm thinking about king
at geospace. Oh yeah, bring it back, bring it back.
(30:41):
And then I don't know what's a good turn signal joke?
Do we want to end on a turn signal joke?
Did we already see turn? Turn? Turn? And we did
at the beginning? Okay, we turn, We'll see you turn
turn yourselves in. Okay, wait, here's a terrible one. Full disclosure.
We didn't write this, but let's see what you think.
(31:03):
It's really bad. Noel, if I was a cop, I
would be ticketing people for not using their turn signals
left and right. That's so bad. I just died a
little inside. But it wasn't yourself, Ben, I blame the Internet.
We'll see you next time, folks. For more podcasts from
(31:30):
my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows,
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
(00:27):
the show, Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so much
for tuning in. Let's give it up for a superproducer,
mister Max Williams. Oh oh oh. Sometimes Turn, Turn, turn, Baby.
(00:47):
You ever noticed that sometimes like the sound of your
windshill wipers or the sound of your turn signal will
start to kind of have the sense of synchronizing with
your music, only for it to like, you know, drift,
of course, because it's just that golden moment where everything's
in alignment. But then entropy returns right and you might be, uh,
you might be on the road waiting to take a
(01:08):
left at a light and notice that your turn signal
is in time with the car in front of you.
That's a neat, little bit of synchronicity, a little cloud
Atlas moment for everybody in traffic. I'm Ben your Noll,
and we're continuing our a bit of an auto theme
in recent episodes because we are going to talk about
(01:29):
turn signals. Noel. In an earlier episode of Stuff They
Don't Want You to Know, I was I would say
pretty pretty forthright about the stereotype of BMW drivers and
you know, not using tone signal chronically. Yeah, I don't
think they know about them about I don't understand why
they in turn singles on BMW's at this point. Well, okay,
(01:52):
Devil's advocate here. Perhaps it's installed in an inconvenient or
out of the way location. Is that possible, fellas? Is
that maybe maybe I think I've been in a beam,
or it's in the same spot. It's maybe it's under
the spare tire in the trunk, you know. But we're
we're going to talk about turn signals today. You know,
(02:13):
depending on where you live in the world and what
your experience with cars is like, you may say, oh,
everybody uses turn signals, or you might say, hey, I
don't even think they're that necessary. We have strong opinions
about this, but as some of us might be surprised
to learn, electronic turn signals did not come around until
(02:36):
well after the invention of the actual car. People were
kind of just you know, gesturing, well, yeah, I mean
it's it's the same kind of system that cyclists use.
And I would argue, I don't know if this has
ever happened to you. You know, it is possible to
get cut off by a cyclist, okay, And I know
that they get the right of way and they have
their own land and everything, And I always try to
(02:56):
be very courteous and respectful to cyclists, but sometimes I'll
blast in front of me with their hand out, as
though I could have registered that as a warning. Because,
after all, a signal of any kind is meant to
imply intent and to communicate intent of what you're gonna do.
So it doesn't really work if you just kind of
blast past somebody with your signal on if they didn't
(03:17):
have a chance to clock which direction it was pointing.
Well said, because a signal, I love that you're pointing
that out. A signal is intent. A signal is not
making reality change according to your wishes. For more than
a hundred years, drivers a bicyclists have used hand signals
(03:38):
to indicate where they're at in life, where they're out
on the road. So if you look back at the
early twentieth century, we can see that the hand gestures
for signaling are still pretty much the same. You know,
stuff like raising your left forearm with your elbow bent,
and that means you're going to turn right. And I
think everybody who can who drives a car today probably
(04:00):
recognizes those hand signals, right, what about the rude signals? Man?
How far did those date back? Oh, they're they're they're ancient.
They're ancient, and they're well beloved. Also they're serious business
in some countries. Yep, Max is doing all the dirty
hand gestures. Well, did we do an episode on those?
(04:22):
I think I don't know if we did a whole episode,
but it's definitely something's come up. But I'm a little
rusty and and I'm having some trouble with this hotel WiFi,
so I can't see your video. Can you walk us
through real quick? Add add to add to these hand gestures,
some of the rude ones from throughout history. I would
love that so much. Yeah, for sure. So the okay
sign in the United States is very offensive. I think
(04:45):
in the Mediterranean, in Greece, the thumbs up sign is
aggressively offensive in Iran, I want to say. And then
the fig where you stick your thumb between your pointer
and your index, or your pointer in your middle finger.
That's like a middle finger. Everybody knows the old school
(05:05):
middle finger. Let's see what else? Oh, what about the
one where you do that with your chin? Like you
you flick your chin like, yeah, hey if afan gul
right like the Sopranos a while, and then there's the
old biting they're biting my thumb at you. It's just
a little less kind of lusted with lusters in Shakespeare's time,
but it's true. And I mean, you know, these early
cars were kind of open to the world, you know
(05:29):
that they were They were not convertible, they were just
like didn't have tops, right, so it was a lot
easier to see those kinds of hand gestures. You know,
you didn't have to you know, lean out the window
or something, right. Yeah, but these hand signals had some
problems even back when they were the main most common thing.
It's tougher to see people's hand signals at night, for instance,
(05:53):
if traffic's really bad, you know, and there's pouring rain,
you might miss the signal. And so you still have
to know how to use them today, right, you have
to be aware of them. But most people are going
to use electronic signals instead because they're on they should
be on every car, they should be working on every car,
(06:14):
and you have to You're only supposed to use the
hand signals in a vehicle Now, if something is wrong
with your turn signal, then I have an idea. Why
not just give them big goofy white Mickey Mouse gloves.
Then everyone will be able to see even in the
duck of nights. Oh, Man, tell me it wasn't so, Ben,
(06:35):
tell me it wasn't so. It was so. No. Thanks
to our research associate Jeff Barlett, we have learned from
the Japan Times that before trains and automobiles had automatic signals,
those at the controls had to use their hands to
signal their moves, and they started wearing white gloves to
make their hands easier to see. Wow, that's like forced
(06:58):
fashion choices, you know, because I've always found just the
gloved hand in general to be a pretty serious commitment.
You know, if you're wearing black leather driving gloves, that's
a look for sure. And then wearing them just kind
of around, you know, with maybe a top coat or something.
I can't not think of you in murdery ways, you know,
I just always think of the glove down is the
(07:19):
bringer of death. But white gloves makes me think of
a couple of things, and makes me think of like
Disney cartoons and Mickey Mouse and stuff and also kind
of creepy, like minstrel show vibes, you know those like
white gloves and like jazz hands and stuff. I don't know,
it just there's something about it that gives me the
creeps and feels a little off. I don't know why. Yeah, yeah,
(07:43):
you're you're hitting some really some really fascinating, kind of
disturbing tropes there. Last time I was in Japan, I
ran into several very fancy cab drivers and the white
glove thing is still a thing. Oh wow, Yeah, it
feels superficial. But also I feel like any white item
of clothing is a commitment, is a flex because it's
(08:04):
sort of like a guy who doesn't have it all
together himself. When I see somebody where, you know, white pants,
white gloves, I'm like, wow, it's It's the clothing version
of not having a case on your cell phone. You
know what I mean. You're living on the edge. You're
one puddle away. My friend and Max is also Max
(08:26):
is also wearing gloves today, black gloves, And I always
makes you think of the old expression. Maybe it's not old,
maybe somebody invented it more recently, but it's talking about
someone who's a real good salesman saying they could sell
a ketchup popsicle to a woman in white gloves. That
is a good one. That is a good one. Never that,
(08:53):
so we know it's not just in Japan. In October
of nineteen twenty, the Washington Harold said that the local
least captain requested all motorists in the city to buy
a pair of white gloves, expressly to wear them after
dark to make their hands easier to see. And you know,
it was an inexpensive solution. The captain said, these gloves
(09:16):
only cost ten cents a pair. For a quick inflation calculation,
that's a dollar fifty in today's money. And then they
also said, look, if you can somehow afford a car
but don't have a dime to kick in for gloves,
you can just buy one. We just need to have
one glove Michael Jackson style. That makes sense. You just
needed the one gloved signaling hands. M yeah, just the
(09:40):
action hand. And that is why, exactly, that's why Michael
Jackson's got is one glove. It's a shout out to
the early days of turn signals. True story, no in
fact check us and honestly, all that glitter on MJ's
glove probably just made it catch to light better and
make me mean for even more safe invisible hand signals. Right,
(10:02):
what if you like you favor of the other hand,
I guess you're always going to be signaling out of
the left the driver's side window no matter which hand
you favor, you would never like it wouldn't be safe
to lean over to the passenger side and do it.
So yeah, it'd be a bunch of left handed gloves,
a run on left handed gloves. Right, So how did
we get to how did we get from there to
(10:24):
the modern electronic turn signal? I think there's some there's
some folks we have to thank one in particular, right,
that's right? And what a what a name? This individual
hash Florence Lawrence. I don't know why. I just like rhyming.
It always makes me giggle. But that's This was an
individual whom was actually a big part of the women's
(10:47):
liberation movement of the nineteen twenties and the way cars,
oddly enough, kind of factored into that because cars were
sort of a symbol of freedom of being able to
get out there on the open road, and also a
symbol of autonomy because you could teach yourself. You know,
we know that cars of this era and more classic
(11:09):
cars are easier to work on. I mean easier, isn't
the right word? Was certainly more possible to work on
by individuals. So not only were women out there zipping
around in cars, they were taking it upon themselves to
learn how to repair their own cars. And Florence Lawrence
told a reporter in nineteen twenty this about how driving
kind of become the symbol of liberation for women. Quote,
(11:31):
the average woman does her own repairing. She is curious
enough to investigate every little creek and squeak of her
car and to remedy it. Pretty cool. She actually then
very cool. She started to do a little tinkering, didn't
she She did, she did. In nineteen fourteen, she developed
an early version of the turn signal, which she called
(11:51):
an auto signaling arm. It's the predecessor of the modern
turn signal, but it's very different from what you have
on a car today. You place down the back of
your fender and you could raise or lower it with
the push of a button. She was telling Green Book
magazine about this in an interview. And she also put
(12:12):
in some early safety measures because the signal that indicated
stop would pop up automatically whenever you pushed the brake.
So brilliant stuff. And also she's from a family of inventors.
We should mention that Florence Lawrence's mother patented a cleaning
device for windshields just a few years after that. So
(12:36):
brilliant people. Yeah, and then speysically automotively, you know. Minded.
I think that's so interesting about the break feature because that,
you know, it definitely makes sense, but it would have
kind of, you know, gone on to be improved where
instead of like hitting the brake killing the term signal,
just turning the wheel at a certain ratio, you know,
(12:56):
to the left or right kind of triggers the thing
to reset. But as you know, even in modern cars,
you'll sometimes have that signal on and you can't you're
on too straight of a path or like the turn
isn't isn't sharp enough and it won't reset. So even
that modern technology is imperfect almost the I guess there
could be drawbacks to having it tied to the break specifically,
(13:17):
but also there's some ways that I almost think that
might be better than the current system. Yeah, and Florence
was one of several people who were working on these concepts.
In nineteen oh nine, just a few years before, a
British guy named Percy Douglas Hamilton patented a literal set
(13:38):
of hands that were attached each side of the car
and they would light up the show when you were
moving and so like that. Why it's that creepy sounding,
It just seems like it would be odd and off putting.
Why they have to be hands, just lights would do. Yeah,
it's pretty weird. And according to John Heitman, a professor
at the University of Dayton who special wise, this an autohistory.
(14:02):
Even though people cite our pal Percy as being the
first patent for turn signals, nothing ever happened with it.
You don't have wonky cartoon hands on your car today,
And Professor Hyman says, it's pretty Yeah, it's pretty unlikely
that Florence Lawrence ever knew about this. She thought of
it on her own. She was an independent inventor, but
(14:24):
she didn't yet she did a little parallel thinking perhaps
one yeah, one hundred percent, which happens all the time.
You know, it's it's who gets to the patent first.
Oh yeah, but especially with an idea where it's just
kind of like the car was screaming out for something
like this, you know, just a matter of time, but
before somebody cracked it. But it's not in and of itself, well,
(14:48):
you know, certainly is unique. I guess for the first
person in the thought of it, it is something that
kind of the mind is naturally drawn to. Okay, we
need something better than these hands signals. Perhaps it'll be
a combination of a life or something there, you know
what I mean, Or you know, a weird cartoon hand. Okay,
maybe not that. Let's let's simplify a little bit here
(15:09):
and then not too far off from the modern you know,
the modern term signal at this point. Yeah, Or you know,
there were other ideas. Someone's like always have five or
six small goats in the back of your car and
just throw one in the direction that you're turning in. Uh.
But you know, that was a very different time. It
(15:29):
was possibly people where people were, people were just there.
There's all the excess goats, there's cluttering things up, cluttering
up the joint. You know, it was a real nightmarish time.
I'm really glad we got past that um again to no,
it was a straight sword seahorse teeth at all is
crooked seahorse teeth to the maximum. Um. But you know,
(15:53):
it's like I said, it wasn't too long before we
got to something that definitely resembled what we know as
the modern turn signal. Yes. Yes, so now we're cooking
with gas, right, or we've got high octane gas in
the tank. Of turn signal history. If you go to
a December nineteen eighty five issue of Popular Mechanics, you
(16:13):
learn about the Protects Safety Signal Company, And no, these
are the folks who introduced flashing turn signals in nineteen twenty,
right were they the first? Like pretty much the first ones?
I think that's right. The Protexts Safety Signal Company introduced
flashing turn signals in nineteen twenty. Really the first modern
(16:38):
turn signal, however, can be attributed to somebody else, So
not quite. I mean again, this is kind of like
a parallel thinking situation. A guy named Edgar A. Wals
Junior who in nineteen twenty five actually did get a
patent for one, and he tried to market it, but
I guess it just didn't take off because a lot
(16:58):
of times the marketing is just as if not more
important than the technology of the invention themselves. How do
you sell this thing to people? How do you convince
them and they need this in their lives? Folks just
weren't having it. So the patent actually expired after fourteen years,
and all the while inventors were trying to figure out
something that was a little more streamline perhaps, And the
(17:20):
Smithsonian actually in their collection has a handmade, one of
a kind signal that Oscar j similar created in nineteen
twenty nine. So this actually allowed for communication of several
types of moves right, not just the turning direction, but
also slowing down. You know. Essentially what we I guess
(17:43):
not today is like a break light and a signal
of a stop. I guess when the break in the
clutchroom of pressed at the same time. Yeah, cool stuff,
but still not on every car. Turn signals were not
offered to consumers until nineteen thirty nine, and they became
more and more widespread as the years wound on, Like
(18:05):
through the nineteen forties and back in this time, if
you had a car, you were far more likely to
be tinkering with it on your own time to add
your own kind of improvements, the stuff that you like
and a lot of times people had to do this
because the technology was still kind of new. It was
a little wonky to a lot of folks. So you
(18:27):
would have these kits that could convert different parts of
your automobile. And not all of them worked, not all
of them were successful, but some of these kits would
become standard features on later cars. And just like you said,
with the marketing, that's one of the key pieces here.
If we look at the nineteen thirty eight Buick, then
(18:49):
we see the first flashing turn signals sold to customers,
and it was called the flashway directional signal because it flash,
it was different directions. That sounds like a lot of fun.
I gotta have that in my life. I love this
idea of kits and about how like what we know
today is standard safety features, being kind of like you know,
(19:09):
accessories at the time. It's just it does make you
laugh and think a little bit and be grateful. In general,
as screwed up as things are in many parts of
American life, there are some standardizations of safety that we
can at least rely on. And those flashway directional signals
that you mentioned, Ben worked only on the backlights of
(19:31):
the cars. You can only really see it if you
were directly behind somebody. In nineteen forty, Buick changed around
the directional lights by extending it to the front lights
as well. Yeah, that would make sense. You know, if
someone's behind you and signaling and wanting to pass, you
would need to be able to see that from the
front and the back. Oh man, snail's pace. This stuff
(19:52):
is advancing out, but still we're getting there. This also
had kind of what we know of the modern self
canceling mechanism that I was describing, where you know, when
the wheel turns into a certain degree, the blinker will
just go off on. It's almost sure as hell. Doesn't
stop Honda Odyssees from riding in front of Ben for
miles at a time with their blinkers on interminably. No,
(20:15):
it does not. So what happens next We've got now
kind of stock, We've got kind of stock blinkers on,
you know, with the front and the back. Does it
start to spread to other brands? Yeah, yeah, it does,
like any other innovation, right, you don't want other cars.
(20:38):
You don't want a competitor's car to seem like it's
safer or cooler than yours. So in nineteen forty, these
things become standard on Cadillacs, Buicks, Hudson's, you name it, Chevrolet's, Ouldsmobile,
all the hits, all the good ones. And if you
had an older vehicle that did not have turn signals,
(20:59):
then you would go to places like the Lester Company
in Illinois that would have a kit and you could
take this kit and you could put it on whatever
vehicle you had, and it was guaranteed to work, quote
like factory installed models on those expensive cars. But Ben,
I mean nowadays you can get a ticket for just
(21:20):
having a break light out. At this point, the stuff
wouldn't have been legally you know, required, would it. Yeah,
the laws get a little bit unclear or you know,
they don't all occur at the same time. Like we
(21:42):
were talking about with crash test dummies. There was this
huge need to make the laws uniform so that you know,
driving in New York is hopefully the same legally speaking
as driving in Nevada. And to do that, you know,
ideally everybody has the same equipment. And blinkers do become
mandatory in the sixties, I think, right, I think that's right.
(22:05):
But that's also like, I mean, yes, yes, that's correct.
But also, I mean, we talked about this on a
recent episode in our Kind of Car series. I don't
think it was until the It wasn't until like the
fifties or maybe even the earliest. When was it the
driver's licenses were even required across the board? It was
shocking it was the thirties, but like twenty plus years
(22:28):
after the medal, two twenty plus years into the whole game. Yeah, exactly.
So it would not surprise me one bit if it
wasn't ntil the sixties that turn signals were legally, you know, required.
M Yeah, that makes sense, I mean, and even driver's
licenses were kind of state by state. I think the
first ones were Missouri Massachusetts in nineteen o three. They
were like, Okay, somebody's got to be qualified to do this.
(22:53):
But who knows, maybe it was maybe it started out
as a grift and they were like, hey, now we
can make a little more money off some folks. But
it's good that people have driver's licenses. You should have
to take a test to get behind the wheel of
a car, and it's good that these things are mandatory too.
We can go into the weeds on some of the
(23:14):
different types of approaches people took with turn signals. But
what you need to know is legislatures across the country.
We're kind on the fence in the sixties just for
a minute about whether or not you should have turn signals,
what kind of turn signals you should have, And eventually,
(23:37):
thankfully they aired on the side of caution and said, hey,
while we're moving at tremendous speeds, we should let each
other know where we're going. And I feel like that's
pretty reasonable, right, Yeah, And it's weird because what's being
touted is like a kind of a further innovation in
(23:57):
this you know, blinker tech Forward in twenty eleven introduced
something called the three blink function, which I guess it
is just like you click the blinker and it clicks
three times and then automatically turns off. But I mean
to me, that seems, you know, yeah, you don't want
someone writing with their blinker on all day, but you
also don't want it to be so hat so quick
(24:18):
that you missed it. Yeah, and that seems like three blinks.
I don't know if that if that really does the trick, agreed, Agreed.
And it's also weird when you think about people having
a turn signal on while you're waiting in traffic. This
is really a three blink and you miss it kind
of thing. So how much of an innovation is it?
(24:43):
Thank you that womp womp. I know you, I know
you're putting in. But but what what we're saying here,
what Nolan Maxiner're saying, is that this kind of research continues.
There's still improvements being made in pretty much any safety
oriented aspect of any automobile. Some cars now have turn
(25:06):
signals on their side mirrors, which is great for visibility.
And some cars have the side view camera and that's
that's neat, But that one takes them getting used to.
On my part, you know, I don't know if I
can trust the camera. I just I gotta get over it. Yeah,
I mean I have gotten to the point where, like
my my backup camera has like a solid line which
is like a good you know, maybe six inches of
(25:28):
clearance let's say, on the bumper. And then there's the
dotted line which I have measured and I have, you know,
I once you get comfortable with it, it it kind of
opens up some you know, superpowers in a way, because
I know that dotted line is Yeah, I can't go
any further than that, not even not even a click.
So once you get comfortable with those lines and that
feedback you're getting from those cameras, it can be really powerful.
(25:50):
But I know it definitely kind of weird some people out. Yeah. Yeah,
and I've got I've got you know, backup cameras that
I'm slowly learning to trust. But I'm still you know,
a turnaround, look over your shoulder, guy, which is probably
gonna make me look very old in about a decade.
No wait, who am I kidding? In a decade, people
won't be driving cars right all, be autonomous. Maybe you'll
(26:13):
still be turning over your shoulder and looking back while
your heart does it for you. Yeah, well that's because
he's look, he's looking for the guy in the in
the black suit is after him. Yes, yes, with the
gloves and uh and so it looks like does it?
Don't Gloves make your They make your fingers look creepy,
like white gloves. When you when you noodle your fingers
around like that, wearing white gloves, there's no way for
you not to look like a creep If I see
(26:36):
anybody wearing gloves in general, and it's not very cold outside.
I'm making some assumptions. I am man, I'm with you.
We're on the same page. Ree gloves, It's gonna be
the middle of July when I have my black leather
gloves on. It's gonna be so ridiculously hot. But for
this bit, I shall to do it. Yeah, especially if
you have a T shirt on, like just a T
(26:57):
shirt in the sleeve of shirts short shorts one. Yeah, Ben,
you might have you might have an answer to this.
And in terms of car innovations, how the hell do
those like high end cars have a view that lets
you have a bird's eye view down from above the car?
Is it? Is it magnets? It is its triangulation of stuff?
(27:19):
What is it? It's witchcraft, is what it is. I
don't like it. I like how we went in saying
cloud posse for a second though, Is it magnets? Maybe
it's magnets. The you know what I'm talking about. I
know what you're talking about, but I don't know how
it works well, and I would love I would love
to learn more about it. I also love for us
to do some more weird, ridiculous car history stories and
(27:43):
can't wait to get digging on those there's all sorts
of stuff we can talk about, like the way turn
signals evolved in Europe, and all sorts of weird names
for different devices like trafficators, which is just a more
primitive version of what Florence Laurence was doing. But but
I think we can. I think we can call it
(28:03):
a day today. I think in Atlanta we're all traffic haters,
Am I right? Gampwamp Yeah. And honestly, I mean the
name is really the funniest part about that innovation because
it really was kind of uh, just didn't quite hit
the mark as close to what Florence Lawrence came up with.
(28:24):
So thank you, Florence Lawrence. And now we're on the
heels of International Women's Day, so, you know, retroactively, happy
International Women's Day to you and yours, Florence Lawrence from
from beyond um. You know, a lot of times, it's
true women don't get credit that they deserve for innovations
like this, And it was certainly first for me hearing
the name Florence Lawrence, which is just still so funny
(28:46):
to say Florence Lawrence. It is, you know what I mean,
It's like a theater kid warm up Florence, Lawrence Florence,
New York, New York exactly. Yeah, wow, Yeah, that's a
shout out to our wonderful friends of the show and
guestos Laura Vogelbaum and Michael Alder June who did an
(29:07):
episode on Whether with You Max on whether a house
can be legally haunted? Do check that out and do
let us know what's on your mind with ghosts, with
turn signals, with weird auto history and folks. You can
find us on Ridiculous Historians on Facebook, but you can
find us online not just as a show, but as individuals.
(29:31):
It's true. You can find me. I'm pretty much exclusively
on Instagram at how Now Noel brown Man. I think
there's a couple of social media watering holes people can
find you in. Yeah, for sure, Farmers only. My space
zanga I'm just man Zanga is the best one. So
(29:56):
if you can't find the Zega page, you can follow
me on Instagram and a creativity I call myself at
Ben Boland Bowli in there. You can also find me
on Twitter at Ben Boland HSW and if you are
on Twitter right now, per Alon Musk. The most exciting
thing about that that whole platform is that you might
have a chance to find our own superproducer, mister Max Williams. Yes,
(30:19):
I am still technically on Twitter. You can find me
at at L underscore Max Williams. There will be a
Twitter page that technically exists until you get until you
get stripped of your your blue check mark you purchased,
you faker, your phony, your fraud. I'm thinking about king
at geospace. Oh yeah, bring it back, bring it back.
(30:41):
And then I don't know what's a good turn signal joke?
Do we want to end on a turn signal joke?
Did we already see turn? Turn? Turn? And we did
at the beginning? Okay, we turn, We'll see you turn
turn yourselves in. Okay, wait, here's a terrible one. Full disclosure.
We didn't write this, but let's see what you think.
(31:03):
It's really bad. Noel, if I was a cop, I
would be ticketing people for not using their turn signals
left and right. That's so bad. I just died a
little inside. But it wasn't yourself, Ben, I blame the Internet.
We'll see you next time, folks. For more podcasts from
(31:30):
my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows,
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.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.