July 29, 2025 • 7 mins
What do glowing humans, thinking octopus arms, and a hidden basketball court have in common with 2 kidnapped black albino brothers? This episode uncovers the unbelievable true story of the Muse Brothers--plus 3 random facts you'll never forget!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
What's hat didn't know it all? Welcome to another episode
of I didn't know? Maybe you didn't either. I'm your
host b Dots And I dropped my phone in Lake
Norman as I was jet skiing earlier today. That's always
fun hersh You get that immediate panic the phone. Then
it's super wet. You try to dry it off on
(00:22):
your wet shorts. That doesn't help. You know there's no
rice around, so you just accept fate. Eventually you do
put it in rice and guess what that hack actually works.
It draws out the phone just enough to cut on,
but there's been so much water damage that it doesn't
recognize the battery, so the battery won't hold the charge.
(00:43):
That phone is dead. As Hawk Hogan and Black folks
didn't give a damn by hawk Hogan, did they? I mean,
after them comments in twenty fifteen, I didn't really give
a damn about hawk Hogan either, But I did have
to acknowledge the fact that he made me very patriotic
when I was a wee lad, had me getting disciplined
from ripping my shirts so off thinking I was a
real marricane. Like when it comes to wrestling, Hawk Hogan
(01:06):
is on my Mount Rushmore, it's Hawk Hogan the rock
Rick Flair, and then it's a toss up between Brett
Hart and' sting. I really don't know. I just shouldn't
have shared my perspective, cause folks was mad at me
and my comments. Do you hear me? I mean hot
them folks in my comments was hotter than Hawk Hogan
finding out that his daughter was dating a black man. Hot.
(01:29):
But I digress. As I sit here and wait for
my eye message to sink to my iPad, I might
as well give you an episode. And to kick off
the episode, I'm gonna give you three of the most
useless facts you'll never need, never, not a day in life.
Up first, did you know there was a basketball court
on the top floor of the US Supreme Court Building? Yep,
(01:51):
it's nicknamed the highest court in the land, no cap
And I wonder that they'd be up there hooping in
their robes with nothing underneath, like they say Jamie Fox
parties be I don't know if it's fact. I'm just
sharing the rumors. You're sucking useless fact. Now, y'all know
how much I'll love octopuses. I still don't know if
I'm supposed to say that it feels crass octopuses, it
(02:16):
might be OCTOPI. Nevertheless, I love them. I've shared with
you that they don't even have eight arms. They got
six arms and two legs. But for today's useless fact,
did you know that their arms can taste and think
for themselves. Yes, each arm and leg has its own
mini brain and can operate semi independently from the central brain.
(02:38):
But they can all do their own things individually. They're
basically eight thinkers in one hoodie. And your third useless facts,
y'all knew we'd be glowing, just not enough to see it. Yes,
humans us, our bodies. Our bodies let off a faint
light called bioluminescence. I had to say it's slow like that,
So like I said, it correctly bioluminescence. But it's a
(02:59):
thousand times two weeks for our human eyes to see it.
You shining dog, and you ain't even know it. Those
have been your three useless facts. There's a basketball court
on the top floor of the US Supreme Court building
called the highest court in the Land, and Barack Obama
used to dunk on cats in there. Please do not
fact check that last line. About Barack Obama, Octopus arms
(03:21):
can taste and think for themselves, and humans glow in
the dark, just not enough for us to actually see it.
But those have been your three useless facts. Do with
them as you will. Make sure you're following us on
social media. IDK Myde with an underscore before it and
at the back of it you did what I'm saying.
(03:44):
And we also have two weeks left for my mister
Alumni campaign at Winston Salem State University. I've been seeing
a couple of the dollars coming in and Folks put
in the subject line IDK Myde that let me know
Folks is listening and contributing to the group economics that
are by way of scholarship for future rams. And I
appreciate that. I really appreciate that. If you would like
(04:07):
to donate your dollar to my dollar in a dream
campaign for mister alumni at Winston Salem State University, just
send that dollar to cash app mister Alumni twenty twenty
five dollar sign mister Alumni twenty twenty five. We got
to August eighth on that, but know it alls for
today's episode. Did you know that two black boys from
(04:28):
Virginia was kidnapped and told they was from Mars. Because
I didn't I didn't know. Maybe you know, I didn't know.
I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know. I
didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know. Gather around,
gather around. This is a true story, real life. I'm
(04:50):
not talking about soci fi. Their names were George and Willie.
Muse m us look it up. They were black, but
they were albina talented musicians and the victims of a
story that I can see Jordan Peele making this into
a movie that's part circus act and part horror movie.
(05:10):
See in the early nineteen hundreds, they was just little
boys when a white talent scout saw him playing outside
in Truevine, Virginia. Next thing you know, gone snatched up
into the world of traveling side shows and freak exhibitions,
goofy circuses and carnivals. But to the crowd, wasn't no
(05:33):
more George and Willie. Now they were Echo and Echo,
the sheep headed men because again they're albinos, so their
hair is white. Sometimes they were the ambassadors from Mars.
Sometimes they was from a lost tribe in Africa. They
were told they mama was dead and that their names
didn't matter. They toured the country for decades under circuses
(05:55):
like guess who you guessed that Ringland Brothers and Barnum
and Bailey. Crowd loved them. I mean they was the
men from Mars. Money flowed, but of course not to them.
You ever heard of mandolin sing the blues? Willie played
it with soul. George played the guitar. They didn't just
stand around. They performed, but behind the curtains they were prisoners.
(06:18):
Now right before you let that tear fall, wait, unclench
your fists. Could this when it get powerful? Could they?
Mother Harriet Muse, she never stopped looking for her babies.
Every town the circus came through, she asked questions, she
asked better questions, And one day, in Roanoke, Virginia, she
heard the music. She knew the sound. She fought her
(06:42):
way into that tent, and she saw her sons on stage.
Decades later. Can you imagine that, after decades of searching
for your boys, you still know their sound, You still
can feel their presence as soon as you see them,
You know exactly who they are. Echo and echo my ass,
that's Georgia and Willie Muse the'm my boys. And she
(07:03):
ain't just reclaimed her boys. She took the circus to court.
She got them their freedom, back, pay and recognition. Because
a mother's love what it don't fade, No, it fights.
Their story inspired a book called Truevine by Beth Macy,
but even more than that, it inspired the whole conversation
around exploitation, race, dignity. So, yeah, I didn't know two
(07:28):
black albino brothers from Virginia were stolen and forced into
a life under the Big Top. And I definitely didn't
know that they mama was gonna pull up like a
superhero and get justice. Maybe you didn't either,
What's hat didn't know it all? Welcome to another episode
of I didn't know? Maybe you didn't either. I'm your
host b Dots And I dropped my phone in Lake
Norman as I was jet skiing earlier today. That's always
fun hersh You get that immediate panic the phone. Then
it's super wet. You try to dry it off on
(00:22):
your wet shorts. That doesn't help. You know there's no
rice around, so you just accept fate. Eventually you do
put it in rice and guess what that hack actually works.
It draws out the phone just enough to cut on,
but there's been so much water damage that it doesn't
recognize the battery, so the battery won't hold the charge.
(00:43):
That phone is dead. As Hawk Hogan and Black folks
didn't give a damn by hawk Hogan, did they? I mean,
after them comments in twenty fifteen, I didn't really give
a damn about hawk Hogan either, But I did have
to acknowledge the fact that he made me very patriotic
when I was a wee lad, had me getting disciplined
from ripping my shirts so off thinking I was a
real marricane. Like when it comes to wrestling, Hawk Hogan
(01:06):
is on my Mount Rushmore, it's Hawk Hogan the rock
Rick Flair, and then it's a toss up between Brett
Hart and' sting. I really don't know. I just shouldn't
have shared my perspective, cause folks was mad at me
and my comments. Do you hear me? I mean hot
them folks in my comments was hotter than Hawk Hogan
finding out that his daughter was dating a black man. Hot.
(01:29):
But I digress. As I sit here and wait for
my eye message to sink to my iPad, I might
as well give you an episode. And to kick off
the episode, I'm gonna give you three of the most
useless facts you'll never need, never, not a day in life.
Up first, did you know there was a basketball court
on the top floor of the US Supreme Court Building? Yep,
(01:51):
it's nicknamed the highest court in the land, no cap
And I wonder that they'd be up there hooping in
their robes with nothing underneath, like they say Jamie Fox
parties be I don't know if it's fact. I'm just
sharing the rumors. You're sucking useless fact. Now, y'all know
how much I'll love octopuses. I still don't know if
I'm supposed to say that it feels crass octopuses, it
(02:16):
might be OCTOPI. Nevertheless, I love them. I've shared with
you that they don't even have eight arms. They got
six arms and two legs. But for today's useless fact,
did you know that their arms can taste and think
for themselves. Yes, each arm and leg has its own
mini brain and can operate semi independently from the central brain.
(02:38):
But they can all do their own things individually. They're
basically eight thinkers in one hoodie. And your third useless facts,
y'all knew we'd be glowing, just not enough to see it. Yes,
humans us, our bodies. Our bodies let off a faint
light called bioluminescence. I had to say it's slow like that,
So like I said, it correctly bioluminescence. But it's a
(02:59):
thousand times two weeks for our human eyes to see it.
You shining dog, and you ain't even know it. Those
have been your three useless facts. There's a basketball court
on the top floor of the US Supreme Court building
called the highest court in the Land, and Barack Obama
used to dunk on cats in there. Please do not
fact check that last line. About Barack Obama, Octopus arms
(03:21):
can taste and think for themselves, and humans glow in
the dark, just not enough for us to actually see it.
But those have been your three useless facts. Do with
them as you will. Make sure you're following us on
social media. IDK Myde with an underscore before it and
at the back of it you did what I'm saying.
(03:44):
And we also have two weeks left for my mister
Alumni campaign at Winston Salem State University. I've been seeing
a couple of the dollars coming in and Folks put
in the subject line IDK Myde that let me know
Folks is listening and contributing to the group economics that
are by way of scholarship for future rams. And I
appreciate that. I really appreciate that. If you would like
(04:07):
to donate your dollar to my dollar in a dream
campaign for mister alumni at Winston Salem State University, just
send that dollar to cash app mister Alumni twenty twenty
five dollar sign mister Alumni twenty twenty five. We got
to August eighth on that, but know it alls for
today's episode. Did you know that two black boys from
(04:28):
Virginia was kidnapped and told they was from Mars. Because
I didn't I didn't know. Maybe you know, I didn't know.
I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know. I
didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know. Gather around,
gather around. This is a true story, real life. I'm
(04:50):
not talking about soci fi. Their names were George and Willie.
Muse m us look it up. They were black, but
they were albina talented musicians and the victims of a
story that I can see Jordan Peele making this into
a movie that's part circus act and part horror movie.
(05:10):
See in the early nineteen hundreds, they was just little
boys when a white talent scout saw him playing outside
in Truevine, Virginia. Next thing you know, gone snatched up
into the world of traveling side shows and freak exhibitions,
goofy circuses and carnivals. But to the crowd, wasn't no
(05:33):
more George and Willie. Now they were Echo and Echo,
the sheep headed men because again they're albinos, so their
hair is white. Sometimes they were the ambassadors from Mars.
Sometimes they was from a lost tribe in Africa. They
were told they mama was dead and that their names
didn't matter. They toured the country for decades under circuses
(05:55):
like guess who you guessed that Ringland Brothers and Barnum
and Bailey. Crowd loved them. I mean they was the
men from Mars. Money flowed, but of course not to them.
You ever heard of mandolin sing the blues? Willie played
it with soul. George played the guitar. They didn't just
stand around. They performed, but behind the curtains they were prisoners.
(06:18):
Now right before you let that tear fall, wait, unclench
your fists. Could this when it get powerful? Could they?
Mother Harriet Muse, she never stopped looking for her babies.
Every town the circus came through, she asked questions, she
asked better questions, And one day, in Roanoke, Virginia, she
heard the music. She knew the sound. She fought her
(06:42):
way into that tent, and she saw her sons on stage.
Decades later. Can you imagine that, after decades of searching
for your boys, you still know their sound, You still
can feel their presence as soon as you see them,
You know exactly who they are. Echo and echo my ass,
that's Georgia and Willie Muse the'm my boys. And she
(07:03):
ain't just reclaimed her boys. She took the circus to court.
She got them their freedom, back, pay and recognition. Because
a mother's love what it don't fade, No, it fights.
Their story inspired a book called Truevine by Beth Macy,
but even more than that, it inspired the whole conversation
around exploitation, race, dignity. So, yeah, I didn't know two
(07:28):
black albino brothers from Virginia were stolen and forced into
a life under the Big Top. And I definitely didn't
know that they mama was gonna pull up like a
superhero and get justice. Maybe you didn't either,
Host
Brian "B Daht" McLaughlin
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