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CLASSIC: How Big Bill Speakman Fought Off North Korea With Beer Bottles · Ridiculous History

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Fellow ridiculous historians, we are returning to you just all
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: twitter painted to tell you a weird story about a
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: long time obsession. You guys, remember the Democratic People's Republic
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: of Korea DPRK or North Korea?
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: How could I forget those upstarts, those scamps?
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Right? Yeah? Yeah? The Kim dynasty is a continuing force
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  Speaker 1: in the world today and there have been a lot
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  Speaker 1: of terrifying, very strange situations. There's a lot of ridiculous
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  Speaker 1: history to the DPRK or North Korea. But this week's
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  Speaker 1: classic episode concerns a guy named Bill Speakman spelled like
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  Speaker 1: it sounds, who got into a situation in North Korea
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  Speaker 1: and had to throw beer at people or beer bottles,
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  Speaker 1: empty bottles, like you do? Is that what you do?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah? Man, someone displeases me, you throw an empty beer bottle? Absolutely,
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  Speaker 2: Sometimes I smash it and then brandish the broken end
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  Speaker 2: at them.
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  Speaker 1: You don't even drink beer. Where are you getting all these.
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  Speaker 2: Books talking about I like beer. I'll have a beer.
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  Speaker 2: I'll down a beer with the boys at the pub
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  Speaker 2: of a night out.
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  Speaker 1: And so this guy Bill's Speakman, as you know what,
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  Speaker 1: I don't even want to spoil it. Let's just roll
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: the tape. Ridiculous History is a production of iHeart Radio.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of iHeart Radio. On Young Hazio. Everybody,
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: welcome to Ridiculous History. I'm Ben Mushi Moushi. My name
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: is Nol and yes, this is indeed Ridiculous History. And
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  Speaker 1: I know that was the incorrect greeting. You set up
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: the theme correctly with your greeting, and you said it beautifully.
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  Speaker 2: Ben on Young Asio, I said it terribly. Oh did
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  Speaker 2: I say it better? No, no, nosh. It turns out
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: that neither of us speak Korea, and that's true. Is
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  Speaker 2: that gonna be a problem for today's episode.
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  Speaker 1: It shouldn't be. It shouldn't be. Did I tell you
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  Speaker 1: that story of the last time I was in Korea?
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  Speaker 1: I went, so, I was walking around, right, and I'm
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  Speaker 1: in Soul and everybody is very everybody's very friendly. Walk
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  Speaker 1: into a shop and well dressed. I hear as well, right, right,
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  Speaker 1: and yes, very much so. And people with shop owners
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  Speaker 1: or shop employees when you walk in, they greet you,
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  Speaker 1: they say hello on Young Hasio, and they say it
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  Speaker 1: usually in a loud, strident tone. And I thought I
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  Speaker 1: was saying whatever The proper response was, so I walk in,
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  Speaker 1: these people would say hello, and then I would say
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  Speaker 1: I would do my bit in Korea, which I do
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  Speaker 1: not speak, and then they would switch to English and
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  Speaker 1: ask me, you know, if I needed help, if it
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  Speaker 1: needs to look for anything, And I thought, okay, sure,
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  Speaker 1: My Korean's admittedly garbage. It wasn't until I was driving back,
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  Speaker 1: or I was riding back to the airport when the
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  Speaker 1: cab driver asked me had I learned any Korean? And
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  Speaker 1: was like, oh, yeah, yeah, I know this, and I
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  Speaker 1: know this and when people say hello, I say this
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  Speaker 1: and he stops and he goes, oh, man, you.
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  Speaker 2: Haven't been like doing that, have you?
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  Speaker 1: He said, do you know what that means?
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  Speaker 2: So what?
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  Speaker 1: And he said it means where am I? So I
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  Speaker 1: was walking in, people were saying hello, and I was
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  Speaker 1: waving at them and going where am I?
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  Speaker 2: And that's why they switched you Like this man has
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: had an af fugue state of some sort. He is
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  Speaker 2: confused and stumbling around and doesn't know what's going on.
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  Speaker 1: But what an adventure. And despite our mutual lack of
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  Speaker 1: fluency in the Korean language, We're still going to have
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  Speaker 1: a great time with today's story. Oh, we should also
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  Speaker 1: mention super producer Casey Pegram.
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  Speaker 2: Is here always.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know why I did that, like a late
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: show intro. We've got a great show for you today, folks.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly. I love it. He's always here. He's a staple.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: When he's not here, I dialute.
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  Speaker 1: Inside a little each time when he cries.
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  Speaker 2: Yes.
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  Speaker 1: So, no, we're mentioning Korea. Not for nothing. We're mentioning
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  Speaker 1: Korea because it is part of our story. Today's story
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  Speaker 1: is about a war hero, right, Yeah, can I say
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  Speaker 1: badass on air?
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  Speaker 2: I think he can? Then, Okay, I think you can.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: We think you just did.
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  Speaker 1: We've been going back and forth off air before about
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  Speaker 1: whether we can say the three we agreed on if
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: I remember what were they? So there was ass?
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  Speaker 2: Oh mean we're gonna just lay them all out? Huh damn?
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: And hell? Shall we save those? Well?
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: I mean, I don't know those I think are approved.
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: But when you say him all in a row like that,
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: it seems a little blue. Ben seems a little blue.
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  Speaker 2: Oh I'm sorry, Yeah, we went blue. We went blue.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: You never go blue. Once you go blue. We should
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: just do the episode. So yeah, it's about a kind
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: of an unconventional war hero, a badass, and his particular
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  Speaker 2: flavor of badassery involved single handedly, largely single handedly, fending
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  Speaker 2: off a wave of Chinese forces that were coming at
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  Speaker 2: him with all they had, with all their mind.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, the story of William Speakman, known as Bill to
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  Speaker 1: his friends, Big Bill to his close friends. Big Bill Speakman.
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  Speaker 1: Big Bill Speakman was born on September twenty seventh, nineteen
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  Speaker 1: twenty seven, in Cheshire. He was one of those kids
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  Speaker 1: who always wanted to grow up and be a soldier,
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  Speaker 1: and growing up, a lot of us, regardless of where
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  Speaker 1: we live in the world, a lot of us have
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  Speaker 1: known children like that. When he was a teenager, he
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  Speaker 1: was watching the British forces in the Allies take on
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  Speaker 1: Axis powers. This inspired him. He joined the army in
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  Speaker 1: nineteen four, which means that he just barely missed the
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  Speaker 1: conflicts of World War two.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. He was also part of an admittedly like Game
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  Speaker 2: of Thrones esque sounding order called the Black Watch Royal
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  Speaker 2: Highland Regiment, and then, as was his wish, he ended
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  Speaker 2: up joining the King's Own Scottish Borderers, and that is
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  Speaker 2: the outfit that he served with in Korea.
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  Speaker 1: The King's Own Scottish Borderers. Does sound like a band name, really,
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  Speaker 1: does you know? So Bill Big Bill goes to the
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  Speaker 1: Korean Peninsula to take part in the Korean War. What's
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: the Korean War? Great question? The Korean War is this
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  Speaker 1: back and forth struggle that has not yet officially ended.
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  Speaker 2: Which is crazy to me. It was a ceasefire, right
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  Speaker 2: and they have you know, they have consistently not fired,
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  Speaker 2: but there was no formal peace treaty. And it was
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  Speaker 2: a war that had so many ideological you know, underpinnings
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  Speaker 2: because it was essentially this conflict between communism and capitalism,
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  Speaker 2: and the United States gun involved because it was they
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  Speaker 2: looked at it as very much a war against the
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  Speaker 2: forces of communism, this ideological war. And then the in
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  Speaker 2: China has always been a staunch supporter of North Korea.
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  Speaker 2: And even though that makes for some funny bedfellows with
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  Speaker 2: us in China and our relationship with them, and that's
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  Speaker 2: one of the reasons we can't just go in to
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  Speaker 2: North Korea and mess things up because that would totally
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  Speaker 2: torpedo our relationship with China and we can't have that.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, this was a proxy war also called a limited war,
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  Speaker 1: wherein the superpowers of the world picked a third country
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  Speaker 1: so that they weren't waging actual war on each other's soil,
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  Speaker 1: and they fought their war there. Terrible, terrible thing for
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  Speaker 1: the people who live in that third country.
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  Speaker 2: Right.
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  Speaker 1: So this war began June twenty fifth, nineteen fifty, and
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  Speaker 1: it went back and forth for a time. The South
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  Speaker 1: Korean forces were on the precipice of losing this struggle.
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  Speaker 1: In October of nineteen fifty, hundreds of thousands of Chinese
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  Speaker 1: soldiers entered the border, and the capital of Korea, Seul,
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  Speaker 1: would change hands what four times during the struggle?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, And what is the thirty eighth parallel, ben That's
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  Speaker 3: a great question. The thirty eighth Parallel existed originally as
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  Speaker 3: the boundary between the Soviet and American occupation zones in Japan,
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  Speaker 3: but in nineteen forty eight it also became the boundary
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  Speaker 3: between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea DPRK aka North
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  Speaker 3: Korea and the ROK or South Korea. At the time,
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  Speaker 3: as you know, they both claimed to be the legitimate
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  Speaker 3: governments of the entire peninsula. And this changed a little
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  Speaker 3: bit when they signed their armistice agreement in nineteen fifty three.
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  Speaker 1: Well, we'll get into that later. The important part is,
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  Speaker 1: as we've established that the thirty eighth parallel is where
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  Speaker 1: things reached stalemate.
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  Speaker 2: That's right.
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  Speaker 1: Enter Big Bill Speakman. He's twenty four years old. He's
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  Speaker 1: full of vim vigor, bright eyed, bushy tailed, and thirsty
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  Speaker 1: to serve his country. So, as we said, he volunteers
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  Speaker 1: in Korea. And when he is volunteering to engage in
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  Speaker 1: this conflict, it's still very much anyone's game. It's going
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  Speaker 1: back and fourth Soul is being captured, recaptured, and he
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  Speaker 1: transfers to what was the name of that group you
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  Speaker 1: mentioned earlier, the King's own Scottish Borderers, So he transfers
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  Speaker 1: to them expressly to join the fight in Korea. He
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  Speaker 1: wants to see actual field service.
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  Speaker 2: And boy does he ever, because in nineteen fifty one,
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  Speaker 2: Speakman's battalion was up defending a posi on Maryang San
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  Speaker 2: in Korea, and that is when six thousand Chinese soldiers
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  Speaker 2: laid siege, and we're trying to remove them from that
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  Speaker 2: position and take over.
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  Speaker 1: So let's set the stage. It's the early hours of
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  Speaker 1: November fourth, the defending battalion is coming under increasingly aggressive
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  Speaker 1: and dangerous mortar fire and artillery. And that is followed
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  Speaker 1: by a wave of Chinese troops advancing from their positions.
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  Speaker 1: They attacked the Commonwealth trenches and by a little bit
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  Speaker 1: before six in the morning, five forty five or so,
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  Speaker 1: the sides have entered Malay hand to hand combat.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm confused about this. So why were they doing
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  Speaker 2: hand to hand combat? Why weren't they shooting at each other?
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  Speaker 1: Because they got close enough to So the mortar fire
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  Speaker 1: and the artillery, it's smacking the tar out of the
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  Speaker 1: Commonwealth troops, got it. And while they're on the defensive,
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  Speaker 1: the soldiers are getting close enough to This is trench warfare.
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  Speaker 2: It's essentially like that going over the top kind of situation,
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  Speaker 2: right right.
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  Speaker 1: So they couldn't shoot from you know, from like a
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  Speaker 1: rifle position, an individual walking position, you can't shoot into
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  Speaker 1: the trench easily.
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  Speaker 2: That makes sense. So when we say hand to hand,
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  Speaker 2: we are talking largely about I mean just that there's
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  Speaker 2: fists involved, there's hand grenades involved, knives, knives, there's chucking
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  Speaker 2: anything that you can get your hands on involved, and
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  Speaker 2: that that becomes a big part of the story.
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  Speaker 1: So Private Big Bill Speakman is prepping hand grenades when
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  Speaker 1: he hears a message over the radio saying that two
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  Speaker 1: groups have been overrun two platoons and that the ridge
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  Speaker 1: may fall into enemy hands. So he gets the band
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  Speaker 1: back together. He gathers up whomever's closest to him, hands
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  Speaker 1: out grenades and says, let's go.
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  Speaker 2: And there's this quote in an article from The Independent
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  Speaker 2: that has Speakman describing the scene like this. He says,
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  Speaker 2: it was hand to hand. There was no time to
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  Speaker 2: pull back the bolt of the rifle. It was November,
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  Speaker 2: the ground was hard, so grenades bounced and did damage.
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  Speaker 2: It makes you think of like a video game called
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  Speaker 2: border Lands, where you could get different mods for your grenades,
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  Speaker 2: and one of them made them like bouncing grenades, so
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  Speaker 2: they would like literally bounce off of things and then
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  Speaker 2: explode continuously. I know this is not the kind of
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  Speaker 2: sci fi situation that's going on here, but what would
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  Speaker 2: why would a bouncing grenade do more damage? I'm trying
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  Speaker 2: to picture that because it only blows up once.
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  Speaker 1: So I guess we're speculating when't say that the bounce
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  Speaker 1: puts it in a different position, you know, sort of
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  Speaker 1: like hitting hitting a cool trick shot on a pool table.
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  Speaker 2: Maybe it gets it makes it go farther too. You
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  Speaker 2: could literally bounce it off because the ground is cold
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  Speaker 2: and frozen. You could bounce it off and then it
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  Speaker 2: would go farther. Yes, and if you're just fucking tons
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  Speaker 2: of them, then it would just create absolute havoc.
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  Speaker 1: So he's got his group of six men who have
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  Speaker 1: joined him in collecting piles of grenades and throwing them
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  Speaker 1: right at the enemy forces. It's important to say that
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  Speaker 1: speakman does this on his own initiative. He's not ordered
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  Speaker 1: to do so. He gets hit in the leg because
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  Speaker 1: war is an ugly, nasty, dangerous thing, but he keeps fighting,
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  Speaker 1: and he holds back the Chinese forces long enough for
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  Speaker 1: those platoons that were overrun to evacuate their wounded, and
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  Speaker 1: he keeps going. We'll never know how long he would
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  Speaker 1: keep going. He didn't stop until he was directly ordered
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  Speaker 1: to get his leg looked at.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, But in the meantime, when they ran of grenades,
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  Speaker 2: he started just grabbing whatever he could get his hands on.
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  Speaker 2: And in these days, the troops were allowed to have
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  Speaker 2: some beer, so they had a whole kind of pile
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  Speaker 2: of empty beer bottles, and he was able to kind
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  Speaker 2: of created diversion just by hurling beer bottles at the
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  Speaker 2: oncoming opposition, and probably didn't actually kill anybody or hurt
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  Speaker 2: anybody too badly, but it certainly would have been annoying
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  Speaker 2: and certainly would.
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  Speaker 1: Have caused a distraction, right, I mean, it's the thought
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  Speaker 1: that counts right.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely reminds me of that story we did about the
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: Americans throwing potatoes at a U boat.
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  Speaker 1: Yep, Yep, that really happened. It was perhaps exaggerated in
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: later retellings, but it did happen. There's a great article
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  Speaker 1: of war history online by Jeff Edwards about this story
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  Speaker 1: about Big Bill's speakman, and it confirms that he did
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: indeed throw these beer bottles. This story gets a little
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: bit exaggerated sometimes because you'll hear people say that he
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: just started throwing everything he could hand grenades, beer bottles,
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  Speaker 1: empty ration tens, pencils, small woodland creatures, kitchen silverware, cricket bats,
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  Speaker 1: and his own well, well will edit this for the air,
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: his own blank meaty fist that comes from the great
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: website Badass of Theweek dot com, which I highly highly
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: highly recommend. He did throw more than grenades and more
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: than beer bottles too. They threw ration tons, they threw stones,
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  Speaker 1: and this did work. The press loved this, by the way.
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  Speaker 1: They started calling Bill Speakman the beer bottle VC. And
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: I don't know if I don't know if you saw
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: this partneral. He hated that nickname.
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: What does VC mean? That's a big part of the
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: story too. That's the Victorian Cross.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: Ah, yes, the Victorian Cross. Tell us a little bit
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: about that.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. The Victorian Cross is the highest military honor in
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: the United Kingdom. It is awarded for unparalleled bravery in
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: the heat of battle and was first awarded in eighteen
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  Speaker 2: fifty seven by Queen Victoria. She presented them to sixty
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  Speaker 2: two soldiers in front of about one hundred thousand people
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  Speaker 2: at Hyde Park and it has gone on to remain
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  Speaker 2: the highest military honor that one can receive. And Bill
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  Speaker 2: Speakman got it right away because the story caught the
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  Speaker 2: public's imagination. He really was incredibly brave. And to hear
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  Speaker 2: him talk about it, he's like, nah, you know, it
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  Speaker 2: was just doing what I was trying to do.
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  Speaker 1: So yeah, it's rarefied air. Indeed, the medal's been awarded
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: one thousand, three hundred and fifty eight times, but only
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: fifteen medals have been awarded since World War Two.
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  Speaker 2: And if I'm not mistaken, this would have been the
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: first VC to be awarded by the current Queen Elizabeth
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: the second.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's correct. So he loved his country, loved being
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: a VC recipient. He did not care in any shape,
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: form or fashion to be referred to as the beer
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  Speaker 1: bottle VC because he thought it made the army look bad.
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  Speaker 1: He thought the implication people would get from this was
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: that he and his colleagues were drinking on the job
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  Speaker 1: and they weren't weird. Fact, you know what they used
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  Speaker 1: the beer for? No, they used it to cool down
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: gun barrels.
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  Speaker 2: Apparently I didn't know that.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: I did not know that either, and I still. I mean,
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: if you are listening and you were one of your
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: relatives was in the Korean War or associated with it,
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: let us know if that's true, because it sounds like
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: a convenient excuse, you know what I mean. Oh sorry, Serge,
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: we're not This beer isn't for drinking. These guns just
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: get so gosh darn hot.
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: Well it's true, though, Ben, they do get pretty hot.
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  Speaker 2: And you know, these kind of situations require thinking on
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: your feet and using what you have around as evidenced
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: by this whole situation, which made him one of the
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: like a national hero basically. And he returned back to
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: his home town of Altrinsham in Cheshire, and he was beloved.
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  Speaker 2: There was a parade for him before he got home home.
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  Speaker 2: People had like cleaned his house for him, and he
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: was treated very differently and he didn't particularly care for it.
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: He did not adjust very well to life as a civilian,
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: and he re enlisted pretty quickly.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, yep. He went on to serve in the army
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  Speaker 1: until nineteen sixty seven. He served in the Indonesia Confrontation,
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: the Aiden Emergency, the Malayan Emergency. In twenty fifteen, he
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: made a return trip to South Korea along with other
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: veterans of the war, and when he was there he
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: donated his Victoria Cross to South Korea. He believed it
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: started there and he thought it was sensible to.
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: Leave it there and believe he had a replica made
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: that he gave to North Korea.
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: Did the yeah, yeah, right, yep, because you know, you
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: want to be fair. What's interesting here is that the
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: Victoria Cross he donates to South kore is not a replica,
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: but it is a replacement, you see. Like so many
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: veterans of wars Speakman was lauded at the beginning, but
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: later fell on financial hardship right, and he sold his
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: original Victoria Cross, using the money to put a new
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: roof on his house and only later was given a
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: genuine replacement.
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  Speaker 2: Not to mention that in nineteen sixty eight he was
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: actually given an absolute discharge from the service because he
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: was arrested in Edinburgh for stealing one hundred and four
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: pounds from a woman's purse. And it was likely only
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: his lauded military career that kept him out of jail, right.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: And he was never really comfortable with this, this heroic image.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: He wasn't comfortable being a walking icon. We've got a
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: quote from an interview he did with the BBC around
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: the time he went to Korea. He said, it started
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: to dawn on me as the days went by, stopping
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: in the street. No matter what where you went in Altrincham,
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: people were trying to do things for you. I didn't
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: realize why it's got the VC really because I only
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: did what the other guys did. We fought and that's
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: what we were trained to do. So he wasn't into
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: the you know, the ego boost the hero worship stuff,
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: and he didn't want people to think that he was
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: some raging, violent, drunk now carousing and careening throughout the
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: Korean War. He was a guy with a job and
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: he did it as seriously as he could, even when
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: that involved throwing rocks and stones and ration tins, which technically,
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: depending on whether the tens were empty or full, could
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: make this a food fight.
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: That's very true. He only just recently passed away in
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: June of twenty eighteen at the age of ninety. He
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: had immigrated to South Africa several times and come back,
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: but then ultimately returned to the UK, to Chelsea, which
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: is where he passed away at the Royal Hospital in Chelsea.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: Yes, it's a retirement home and nursing home for around
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: three hundred veterans of the British Army. And with the
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: passing of Bill Speakman, we see the end of his story,
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: his part, his small part of the Korean War, which
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: as we record this episode today still technically continues. The
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: two countries sharing that peninsula in East Asia have not
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: made peace, but it is an eternal hope for the
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: people and the governments of both sides. That was like
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: the safest, most diplomatic way to say it.
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: I think that's very smart to keep it. You know,
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: diplomacy is key here, Ben, diplomacy is key. And you've
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: been to South Korea twice.
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I am probably going back later this year.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: Actually really, yeah, it's the thing now, big fan, all right,
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: I mean you just find yourself in situations.
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: Well, I guess so we'll make sure to bring me
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: another hat. That's become our tradition. Now.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm glad you appreciate it. I did, yeah, very much.
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: So you got to go sometime if you get the chance,
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: I'll say it. I know this is the most square
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: thing to say about visiting a place. But the food
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: is amazing.
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it looks like it every time you guys go.
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: I can't look away from the Instagram stories so much
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: delicious Korean barbecue.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: There's a new Korean barbecue place in Decatur as well,
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: down the street from where we record this podcast.
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: Is it legit?
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's legit. Cool, it gets the stamp. What's it
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: called D ninety two? No idea where the name comes from.
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: Well, I'll have to check it. Out. I love a
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: good Korean barbecue and Ben, by the way, unrelated food related,
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: Happy National Burrito Day.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: Thank you, You're welcome. I didn't want to have to
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: remind you, so I'm glad that you're saying it.
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: And thank god We've got leftover Chipotle in the office
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: today so I can honor this holiday with Gusto.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: Yes, yes, and we also work down the street from
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: a restaurant called.
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: Gusto and a restaurant called Chipotle.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: At a restaurant called Chipotle, Casey, Pegram are you are
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: you a fan of burritos?
• 23:07
  Speaker 4: Love a good burrito?
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 23:09
  Speaker 4: What would be your ideal burrito? I'm pretty weird about britos.
• 23:13
  Speaker 4: I do not pack my burrito with much of anything
• 23:17
  Speaker 4: other than guy. Yeah, exactly. I get like steak, rice, cheese,
• 23:21
  Speaker 4: and that's that's it.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: I'm good. No beans, no no.
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: Beans, bean free, Casey, no beans, Pegrim on the case.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: So this concludes our This concludes our episode, but not
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: our show. Thank you so much for tuning in. We
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: would like to hear your stories of unorthodox, strange, or
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: fascinating events in times of conflict. You know, whether from civilians,
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: whether from soldiers, whether your first hand experience a story
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: from one of your relatives. Hit us with it. You
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: can find us on Facebook. You can find us on Instagram.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: We're also on in a stunning plot twist Twitter. It's
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: not really a stunning plot twist. That's kind of required, right, Yeah, yeah,
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: it's a standard operating procedure.
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: I don't really mess with Twitter. There's a whole language
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: and vocabulary surrounding Twitter that I am just blissfully ignorant to.
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: I am an Instagram kid, and you can follow me
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: if you'd like at Embryonic Insider.
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: You can find me and my various misadventures getting kicked
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: in and kicked out of countries around the world on
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: Instagram at Ben Bollan. You can see me on Twitter
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: at Ben Bolan HSW. Most importantly, you can see our
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: favorite part of the show, you are fellow listeners, live
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: and direct on our Facebook page, Ridiculous Historians.
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: Thanks as always to our super producer Casey Pegram, Thanks
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: to Alex Williams, who composed our theme. Thanks to our
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: research associate Gabe Lucier.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: Thanks to Bill Speakman, thanks to Christopher Haciotis, thanks to
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: whomever invented the burrito, and thanks to you, nol.
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: Hey Ben, thanks to you too, and thanks to our
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: next episode, which you can join us for talk about
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: weird Chinese cult surrounding a certain Jesus of Nazareth. Fellow
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah cults?
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: Oh uh wait, are you thanking our episode?
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: I am in advance.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: Okay, well, let's make it good.
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: See you next time, folks. For more podcasts from my
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: you listen to your favorite shows. For more podcasts from
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: wherever you listen to your favorite shows,