Latest / Ridiculous History / Weird Ways People Used to Communicate, Part I: Only a Pigeon Away

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Weird Ways People Used to Communicate, Part I: Only a Pigeon Away · Ridiculous History

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: back to the show, Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: so much for tuning in. Let's give it up for
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: the man, the myth, the legend behind our audio. One
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: end two's Mr Max Williams. They called me Ben. Uh No,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: this is a special occasion for us. We're in person again.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: We were trying to do that more often, meeting each
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: other's gaze headlong. Oh weird, it's goind of creepy, and
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: he's having like this barrier of screen between us. How
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: you feel the attention to sexual Well, you know, I'm
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: I'm just going to explore its, explore it together, not alone.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: You can hear the other titters and their laughs laughs,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: unfamiliar laughs in the room. Yeah, yeah, that's true. This
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: is an extra special episode for us because you know,
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: we communicate a lot with each other. When we think
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: about communication, and we started wondering how people used to
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: communicate in the days of your before the internet and
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: you the days of oh why o R. Yeah. Uh.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Then we started saying, well, we shouldn't dive into this
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: with just you and Max and myself ridiculous Yeah. Well,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: still it's fun when we say that the name in
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: the show. We decided we had to go to the experts,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: our dear friends, the masterminds, the creators of the newest
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: member of the ridiculous franchise, Bill Whorley, Mark Kendall, the
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: creators of ridiculous news, amazing grazy topics. But the gonna
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: choose you and now do the answer. Pridiculous news. We
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: get us. The vials are working the rules of broadcast
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: and and all sorts. A while reports that he was
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: lapping were fun off brand, up beat journalism, the strange
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: and the usual stories, and well we did them. When
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: it's all about ridiculous news. Everywhere we tell about ridiculous
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: news over here. Guys, thank you so much for coming
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: to Oh my gosh, so excited to be here. Thanks
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: so many superlatives. Well, uh, Bill and Mark, you are
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: long time Uh you are long time communicators yourselves. You
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: are performers, you are writers, you are filmmakers. People have
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: seen a lot of your work, especially here in our
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: home state of Georgia. Noel and I were passing around,
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: uh some of the videos he did, the Marta one
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: is a huge hit here and we wanted to ask
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  Speaker 1: you guys about weird ways people communicate, Um, not just
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: you know, not just saying like a strange slang or
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: anything like that word word words words, because you know,
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: it turns out there was a time before podcasts when
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: people had to communic to define clever ways to communicate
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  Speaker 1: with each other. What what they what do they do?
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  Speaker 1: I don't know. We're gonna answer that question today sort
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: of a round robin style. Yeah, Mark and Bill are
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: we're gonna are we gonna answer the question? We have
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: some we have? Have we got some? We got some
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: backpockets stuff? Okay, okay, side pocket, corner pocket, a little
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: little jeans pocket? Is it for keys? For drugs? Classic
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: and used in it completely wrong? Classic levies? Yeah, so
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: what when you could you all maybe first before we
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: dive in, if you all tell us a little bit
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: about Ridiculous News because it's it's probably better for the
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: creators to talk about it than for Nolan and I
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: had to talk about it. So we do plug it. Great. Yeah,
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: so Ridiculous News New Podcasts with Bill and myself. Uh,
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: we do two episodes a week Monday Thursday. Monday's is
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: what we call our deep dive episode. Yeah. So we
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: we take a topic that we are really interested in,
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: we give it a little bit more time. So we
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: might be talking about like afro futurism, we might be
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: talking about potholes, we might be talking about Batman. Uh,
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: just whatever is going on in the world that we
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: feel is relevant, we feel is important. We give that
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: a little extra love on those Monday episodes. Then every
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: Thursday when you tune in, we do a weekly round up,
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: so that, uh, you know, is where we take news
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: stories that have caught our eye we feel are interesting.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: You know, we kind of give you the rundown of
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: things that we're interesting that popped up and aren't we
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: but also stuff that's sort of like, well you might
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: consider below the fold, and maybe it isn't necessarily gonna
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: pop up on everyone's news feed or you know, Fox
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: news feed or whatever. It might be exactly right. I mean,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: just this week, you know what I'm saying, they were
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: talking about a frog that is native to the south
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: some part of the continent, and you know, it's venoms
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: have some properties that make it helpful when people are
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: trying to you know, recover from PC or other things
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: like that. Right, great service, however that you know, the
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: the demand for that frog has gotten so high. You know,
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: people are like, what are we gonna do? Yeah, that
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: poor front. You tickle it under the chin, it spits
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: out some psychedelic material into your mouth, right into your mouth.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: You're doing it correctly, and unfortunately it's it's gotten real popular.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: So we're we're worried about the toads. So if you've
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: seen them, ship them in, seat them right, and you know,
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: tickling under the chin. Some people like it, the toads
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: don't the toads. So this is this is something that's
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: really special to us when you are creating the show.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: One thing that I love is that we are seeing
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: a more in depth examination of news and media because
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: you know, so much stuff is happening in the age
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: of ubiquitous information that we sometimes forget. It's it's not
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: the best way to explain things. It's telling somebody some
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: a story that is intergenerational and complex and doing it
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  Speaker 1: in four minutes before you know, you move on to
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: the next celebrity thing. It's tough. It's tough to really
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  Speaker 1: get a through understanding. So that's why I'm a big
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: fan of the Deep Dives, and I'm a big fan
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: of the stories that you all find. I did learn
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: the secret to fixing potholes from you guys. Brought it
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: up a casual conversation, uh, and then I did credit this,
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: and then um, I lost a little credibility when they said, Ben,
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: aren't you associated with that show? Why are you talking
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  Speaker 1: about it? I think it's important news to spread out there.
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  Speaker 1: I think that was a It's a very creative way
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: to get potholes fixed. Could you maybe communicate this to
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: the city administrators of Atlanta. You know you're not doing
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: a particularly good job. Potholes are a menace. You know
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: you're not alone, and those feelings and those thoughts. Uh.
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  Speaker 1: You know, if you if there's a pothole that you
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: really want fixed in Atlanta, one thing you might want
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: to try after calling, you know, your official elected officials.
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  Speaker 1: You might also want to try turning your pothole into
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: a hot tub, giving it a mural, perhaps painting a
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: phallic image around it. Something that gets attention. It needs
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: some attention if it's been there for a year, try
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: throwing at a birthday party. If I step into it
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: and break every bone in my body, it might give
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: it some attention. I think that you would just be hurt. Okay, yeah, yeah,
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: so only penis pictures, no bodily injury. Well, honestly, we
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: found several several stories of people drawing penises in or
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  Speaker 1: around the potholes in an effort to bring attention to
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: the potholes. Sometimes we're part of the of the penis
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: is the pothole, you know, I think it kind of
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: depends on the shape, and I think you can I
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: would assume that the testicles make a good round for
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: your typical boss, just the one. Though it's like, um,
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: you know what the creatives this isn't you know? I'm
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: but a meager podcaster and communicator. That's a different kind
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  Speaker 1: of communication too, though, right, It's like how do you
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  Speaker 1: get someone's attention? Like how That's what communicating is, is
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  Speaker 1: getting people's attention with relevant information that they need to keep,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: maybe from falling into holes in the ground. Maybe the
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  Speaker 1: fallic image also would catch someone's eye to the point
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  Speaker 1: where they would would not step directly into the pothole. Um.
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  Speaker 1: But I think this is a good jumping off point
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  Speaker 1: for today's topic. You know, the history of communication, Ben Chairman, Oh,
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: I leave I leave it to you who should go First,
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: we're just sitting at a rectangular table. Have you been
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: the chairman this whole time and told me it's just
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: because I I have a chair? Should we should we
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: congratulate you on being chairman. I didn't know this was
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: the thing. But well, no congratulation on Iron Chef as
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: an actor? Did you do that? The chairman on Iron
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: Chef as an actor? He was in the Double Dragon movie.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: He was Billy. I know I am chairman for today
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: because Max Nolan, I, uh, this is the one blazer
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: we own. We traded all. You're dressed like a chairman,
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: and and you always are dressed like a chairman band
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: you always have some Yeah, that blazer looks so much
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: better on me, just like so much better. It does
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: look better on Max. That's Max with the facts and
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: the just for you right now. That's that's a sound
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: also for everyone listening. This is totally my recording from
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: this actual session. This is not me you know, punching
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: this in like the weekend after, you know, so that
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: I could still be president. In the recording, I didn't
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: have to record on a microphone that didn't actually get
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: picked up on it. None of this stuff is put
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: in you know and post or anything like that. Just
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: just want to point that out right now. Yeah, but
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: but we have, but we have set the us up.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: We talked about this little affair. We each came up
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  Speaker 1: with a way that people throughout history communicated with each
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  Speaker 1: other before the dawn of the internet, before the dawn
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  Speaker 1: of you know, international phone lines. And one of the
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  Speaker 1: big questions people were trying to answer is how to
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  Speaker 1: communicate over distance. And I think when we talked about,
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: one thing that you were really excited about, Bill was pigeons. Yes,
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: carry your pigeons. These these amazing birds that you know,
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: we take for granted, at considered grimy, considered dirty. Sky rats.
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: Have heard sky rats absolutely, uh, And they're actually incredibly intelligent,
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  Speaker 1: incredibly useful birds. And they've been used for centuries since
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  Speaker 1: three thousand BC to deliver messages. And as I was
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: reading about them, one I felt very disrespectful towards pigeons,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: or just my attitude towards them. I've never chased a
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: pigeon beyond when I was maybe five or six years old,
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: but I do love that. Uh. They had such an
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: amazing purpose and throughout history they were used. One of
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: the cool uses is during the Olympics back in Roman times.
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  Speaker 1: That's how they announced the winners. They would send the
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  Speaker 1: pigeons back to the specific town where the winner was from.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: And one of the other crazy interesting things about them
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  Speaker 1: is that, uh, pigeons, they will return home. They can.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: They will go hundreds of miles. You can take them
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: and let them loose and they'll go home. And no
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: one knows why someone tells you this is how pigeons
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: are doing it. Don't believe them. They're full of crap. Six.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: It's something that can't really be measured. It's it's amazing,
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: And so people have theories. They're like, hey, are they
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: using the magnetic fields of the Earth, are they using
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: the sun? Right? Are they using their vision? Um? Just
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: landmark and scientists have kind of ruled out all of
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: these things. That's it's somewhat maybe it's a collection, depending
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: on where they are. They've even put frosted contacts on
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  Speaker 1: pigeons to see, Okay, is it the eyesight that's getting
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: them there? And it's it's that's the only thing that
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: used the eyesight for is the landing. Yeah, it's just
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: been amazing to kind of read about them and learn
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: more about them, and I hope that maybe after this
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: podcast we can use them more often. Yeah do okay,
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: So first question, we're talking about communication. I've always seen
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: I've never seen this in real life. I've only seen
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: it works of fiction. Uh. Is the message like tied
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: to the bird is? Yeah, it is, it's tied to
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: their leg. Um. That's the word, right, it's right there there,
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  Speaker 1: little leg and and you know these messages from who
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: was winning the Olympics to personal messages you know, three
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: thousand years ago. Um. The most famous pigeon that I
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: found was there actually used a lot in World War
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: One and World War Two. But in World War One, uh,
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: you know, they had they had other forms of communication
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: at these telegraph lines, but there was be cut a
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: lot or they would be blown up by different you know, artillery.
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: So pigeons were very reliable way to get messages across.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: And of course, once the Germans found out about this,
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: they would fire at pigeons. They actually had German hawks
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: that would attack the pigeons. Um, which is is just
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: so diabolical. I don't you know, sorry Germany, Um, that's
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: just thematically kind of on the nose. Yeah. Yeah, Well,
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: the most famous pigeon was Jeremy, which is a French
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: word for dear friend. And this epic pigeon during one
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: battle in World War One. Um, these American soldiers wore
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: pinned down on all sides by the Germans and they're
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: getting bombed by the Americans, and they had three pigeons
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: that they were trying to send out a message, Hey,
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: please stop killing us. Where this is where we are,
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: we need help. First pigeon goes out, the Germans have
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: a field day with it. It's down. Second pigeon goes out,
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: almost gets right above the top, the gassed it. Um.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: Finally Cheremy they let cheer me out, goes up, get shot,
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: falls down to the ground. Well, it turns out Cheremy
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: was not done. Jeremy, after losing its leg, losing its eye,
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: and getting a bullet through the chest, went back up,
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: flew and delivered this message and saved a hundred and
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: ninety four people's lives. Um, which you know, the first
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: time I read that story, I don't know why. I
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: got a little choked up. Dude, I'm getting it right now.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: A little little little guy. Yeah, what an amazing what
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: a troup. But didn't the give him a medal. They did,
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: they did he Uh, he received a gold medal um
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: and was awarded the French Cruel dig good with palm.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: That sounds delicious, Yeah yeah, and maybe some chocolate with
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: that palm. Uh. And he actually guys, if you want
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: to see him or anyone listening, he's in the Smithsonian Institute.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: He is the bird himself. He was stuffed and uh,
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: you can go see him without his leg and with
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: his missing eye. And I believe they even went so
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: far as to give him a little pig leg. Oh
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: for the Smithsonian. I mean, well it was still alive.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, you care that. I'm that. This is
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: actually mentioned in the article that I used for my
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: research as well today, and there's a section where they
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: talk about like they yeah, they didn't die, like they
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: took care of it and they equipped it with a
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: little tiny that's amazing. That's so cute. I don't know,
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: you know the picture I saw him the Smithsonian, which
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: is they must have pulled it off when they actually
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: mounted him, Jimmy, they maybe they replaced it with like
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: a you know, stand in pigeon leg like that's kind
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: of that's sort of silly. Women it makes it more
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: specialists when when pigeon with a wooden leg, Yeah, that
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: pigeon's got a story to tell. Yeah. Yeah, So this
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: is this is fascinating to me. I also wonder how, okay,
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: how common was this use of uh PMS, a pigeon
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: messaging service is what I mean? Like, would would the
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: average person say in I don't know, well, not average person,
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: average merchants say in France somewhere? Would they would they
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: be like, Okay, it's the end of the month, time
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: to send the accounting pigeon? Or like was it more
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: a military thing? Well, it depends on the age. I think,
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: you know, when you go back further, it was more
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: of an upper class thing that we're valued very highly
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: later on. Actually Routers was the first UH news agency
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: embroiders rather to use pigeons, So I think at that
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: point what journalists who are using they're probably a little
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: bit more accessible. Loves pigeons. Is Mike Tyson, Yeah, he's
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: a pigeon, big pigeon enthusiast. And it also makes me
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: think of there's a character you know that's a crime thing.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: It's in a lot of crime movies, but specifically I
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: believe and the Wire, there's a character who has a
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: pigeon coop and he uses them to do like drug
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: messaging the waterfront. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, So I guess
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: the four of us are the only people who aren't
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: using pigeons. Do you know my stands on? Yeah, I understand.
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: I will not send a pigeon to your house. What's
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: your stance. I don't care for them. They freak me out,
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: And birds in general, it's more they're like little weird velociraptors.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: I'm always afraid they're gonna come at me with their
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: weird flappy wings and there's little feet that you were mentioning,
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: legs and talents. What happened? What happened? I know, I've
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: I've I've I've been through a significant amount of regression
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: therapy UM, and I have discovered that when I was
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: a small boy, my grandpapa took me to the beach
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: and he scattered breadcrumbs around my tiny body and I
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: was swarmed by by seagulls. And then have forever been
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: traumatized by this memory. Yeah, I wake up screaming, sort
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: of like Batman in the bat Cave. You know I
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: did not use this, Uh, this trauma to form a
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: superhero alter ego. Um, but I have used it to
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: complain about birds every chame. It's still it's a serious thing.
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: One time I was eating a crumbly sandwich, you know,
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: like yours. Yeah, even the image. But we know that
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: we know that birds have played messaging role in like
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: you said, uh, the various points throughout ancient civilization. Also,
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: you know, ravens were sometimes used. But the pigeon, I guess,
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: became so common because it already is very like common bird,
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: and it has this ni inexplicable superpower, right, this homing superpower.
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: And and they're very they're very domesticate herble, you know,
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: they're they're they're very sweet, they're very highly they're easy
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: to train. Um, they make good pets apparently. Um So
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I not that I don't want to
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: crap on ravens, but maybe they'll crap on you. They'll
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: teach their kids to do it smart. They are very smart.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: They are very smart birds. But I think maybe pigeons
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: have a little bit more cuteness um and adorable going
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: for them over the raven pigeons do I mean? And
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: I'm just literally just googled this, but you can. It's
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: not that hard to train. Like you said, you literally
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: the one thing that comes up first and google is
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: you just gotta take it about a mile away from home.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: Question is where's home? And how do you know where home?
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: Is that? Like where they're born? Yeah? Who knows? Because birds,
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: you know, migrating all that. Again, not a pigeon expert.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: But then you just release them. And apparently if you
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: do this several times a week or daily, over time,
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: they will just kind of develop. This is like a
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: thing they just innately know how to do exactly for you. Yeah, exactly. Yeah,
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: And and so you know, they were used all throughout.
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: I think the coolest use of it to me was
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: just during wartime. Um, even on planes they would have
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: two pigeons in case the plane went down, and it
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: saved numerous people's lives. They're actually the most decorated animals
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: in military history. Um, so you know they for these
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: little birds that annoy us, they've got a lot of heart,
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: they got a lot of history. Yeah, maybe we should,
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: Maybe we should respect pigeons a little bit more. I
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: always trying to befriend them, do you I try? But
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: you know, it's usually in a weird city and I'm
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: just traveling for a little while, and city pigeons are
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: not impressed with me. I've been trying to be friends
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: Corvid's and it's still like Corvid's don't respect me at
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: my house, you know about this. Sometimes I'll just see
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: you with your arms spread and your head kind of
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: cocked back, like the birds just summoned to you, like
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: that guy from but the birds don't come yet. I
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: gotta figure it out. Yeah, I feel like pigeons, at
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: least the city pigeons that I've come to know from
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: a distance. Uh, you know, they're they're mostly just about
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: getting those crumbs. Yeah, they're not interested in you, you know,
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: don't tell you. It's like it's almost like they're the
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: cats of birds. We were just in Austin, Ben and I,
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: and in Austin they do have some pigeons, but they
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: mainly have these freaky birds called grackles. Do you guys
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: known about grackles. First of all, it sounds like a
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: Doctor Seuss creature, the grackle, you know, But they're these
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: kind of more like almost um, it's like a cardinal
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: if a cardinal was like iridescent black, like to the
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: point where if you look at it from different angles,
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: it kind of color changes like a hologram. But these
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: dudes will just get all up in your business. We
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: were eating tacos outside and one was just eyeing me
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: and I was visibly uncomfortable. It's not an act. They
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: also are. Each one of them is like an amazing
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: fully artist, you know, they're they're the kind of birds
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: who reproduce car Alarmat is very mimicry, kind of oriented,
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: and it's like, Dude, I don't want your mixtape. We're
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: trying to eat a taco. Please just know you don't
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: have to do the whole thing for us. I'll take
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: I'll take a link to a SoundCloud or something like that.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: That's a brilliant idea, actually that marketing would be coming
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: back or so, Bill, you've already kind of I think
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: surprised all of us with some pigeon facts, as some
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: things I certainly didn't know. It really stands out that
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: the most highly decorated military animal I would have assumed dogs,
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: and I have learned something about assumptions, you know. I
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: think that maybe because the amount of them that were
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: shot down, and I mean really anytime they were used
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: it was a life or death situation and not that
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: dogs they do that as well, but I don't think
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: they did that every time, you know, hopefully not. So.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: What are some other pigeon facts, some pigeon takeaways? Some
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: what recommendations do you maybe we all do this? What
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: recommendations do you have for the future pigeon communication? You know?
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: I think I think we should go back to it.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: Sometimes I don't. I don't know about y'all, but I'm
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: way too addicted to my cell phone, you know. And
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: how much more romantic or interesting would it be to
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: communicate with your friends or loved ones through pigeons, depending
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: if they like pigeons. It would be like a threat.
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: I would get a text that would just say, dude,
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: what's wrong? Are we okay? Like? Why did you send
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: this bird to my house? Guys? They're freaky looking, their
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: beady little eyes, they're weird beats and are flappy wind no,
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: don't careful, and they're super fast. I mean, really, that's
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: what I'm saying. Yeah, I appreciate the game, I appreciate
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: the hustle. I just don't want any part of it.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: Mark was really I thought I caught that diplomas mark
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: when you said, you know, I've I've seen some pigeons
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: from a distance, and I got I think that carried
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: the feelings across Well, yeah, no, I I feel like,
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: you know, if we were to continue to use pigeons
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: or go back to using pigeons, I feel like, you know,
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of messaging, a lot of texts. You know,
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: we don't need it every single day, you know, so
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: maybe like all your subscriptions, all your email subscriptions, what
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: about these sociopaths that leave read receipts on Who are
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: these people? I do not understand. I feel like you
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: guys have talked about this the way you laugh. I'm like, hey,
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: do they know? And if they do, what's their game?
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: What is their angle here? Right? I don't know. I
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: don't like this idea that you know. I think we're
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: all on the same page. I don't like this normalization
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: of a like the expectation of a reply. And you
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: know the past is defined by people leaving each other
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: on red because that's how letters work. Uh, And you know,
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: I don't know, I get it. I I don't understand.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: It feels like you're always on if your messages instantly
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: show a red receipt. Yeah, yeah, it's a little scary.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: It's a little bit intrusive. For that reason alone, I'll
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: go with pigeons if I could just add, uh, just
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: to wrap it up on my end um. They've been
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: used as recently as the seventies by the CIA pigeons. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: They attached these little cameras to them to take pictures
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: and they actually were sharper pictures than that they were
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: getting from planes and things like that as well. Um,
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: you know, the earliest kind of go pro. It's like
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: a pigeon go pro. It's pretty cool. It's like an
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: image of it on the side. I would say, I
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: tripoli the name of the as a whole article called
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: consider the pigeon a surprisingly capable technology because at the
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: end of the day, all the stuff we're talking about
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: here is technology. It is Technology is all about how
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: you employ a thing that exists for a given purpose,
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: you know, and pigeons are pretty effective, well, you know,
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: and thinking about beyond just delivering messages or QR codes
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: are scaring the crap out, no, I mean, they've been
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: used recently to to deliver drugs to prisons. That was
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: a kind of interesting use of them. Unfortunately, there in
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: Columbia there's a pigeon that couldn't scale a wall because
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: they weighed them down with too much weed. They didn't
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: give an amount that was too much. I'm not sure
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: how much they tried to get in there, but they've
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: been used for that. They've been used to deliver like ketamine.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: So what if you had two pigeons towing it on
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: a line I thought about that would be visible, The
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: guards would clock it. You, they might get kind that
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: razor wire. Those two pigeons carrying weed into the prison,
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: and it's like, what are you talking about? You're crazy?
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: You thought I was crazy? You need this jump suit? No,
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: I mean I see it. Do you want me to
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: take a picture of it? Well, well, I think if
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: we're being rational, we can't assume it's weak. They could
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: be carrying a couple of things like ketamine, um, other quails. Yeah,
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: I don't know if they could do a cell phone
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: to get a burner phone in there. That might be
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: a little bit too heavy. The DVD of the Cable Guy.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: The DVD of the Cable Guy related, but have you
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: guys heard about these tiny tiny phones that are designed
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: to like go up your butt in prison. Yeah, Like
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: it was like a Vice article. I thought it was
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: a joke because it came up on like stories on
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: Instagram and it was just just dude holding this tiny
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: little phone and that's just it's designed to go right
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: near old prison wall. That's a will Will Ferrell had
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: one of those on an sn L sketch and I
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: didn't realize that that's a real thing. Well, now that's
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: good to know for future because of the face that
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: I'll end up in prison when you know, it's funny
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: because before you got here, we were we were talking
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: about that, but in glowing ways. We were like, he's
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: gonna be great. He's gonna be like awesome with this.
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: So start a library. Start start a library. Get some
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: pigeons going, you know, bring in books. Uh, they'd have
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: to be small books to the pige I'm gonna be
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: thinking about this for a while. So Bill, before we
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: go to another weird way people used to communicate or
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: in your case still do community. Uh what what is
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: what is the takeaway here? So we know that this
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: technology is ancient theyllive you point out as technology and
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: we know that it is still something that people people use.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: You said you want to go back to pigeons. I mean, honestly,
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: for me, the big takeaway is just to respect these
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: animals that I think are really intelligent, are amazing, have
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: these amazing skills, and you know, there's a lot of
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: crazy stuff going on in the world. If we need
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: to go back to older ways to communicate sometime soon,
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: make sure you treat a pigeon nice, because they might
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: save your life. Hold the phone, or should we say
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: hold the pigeon. This is going to be a two
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: part episode because we learned so much from Bill's examination
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: pigeons as communication that lead need to spend the week
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: on this. You know, so Max, you and I listened
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: back and we I I learned a lot I don't
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: know about you, you know, oh yeah, so much, especially
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: because it's like, you know, you guys wouldn't let me
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: talk on the podcast, so I I all I could
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: do was just sit there and listen and then scream
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: at you guys. But know that no one else could
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: hear me screaming at you. Yeah, but we could hear
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: you in the headphones. Oh yeah, I know. I made
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: sure to be really loud the little episode. Yeah it was.
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: It was like being actively heckled, which which we all appreciated.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: So this is just the beginning, folks. Please tune in
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: later this Thursday for Part two of Weird Ways People
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: Used to Communicate. We'll have our returning guests Mr Mark
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: Kendall and Mr Bill Whorley from Ridiculous News joining us
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: and can't wait for you to hear uh. Here Noel's
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: masterclass on another way people used to communicate. He delves
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: into the fact versus fiction of a little something called
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: Smoked Signals. It's a literal smoke show. We can't wait
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: for you to hear it, and, as my good buddy
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: Nol likes to say, we'll see you next time, folks.
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the I
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: your favorite shows.