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How MLK influenced Star Trek · Ridiculous History

0:24
Speaker 1: Captain's look studied zero nine zero six one nine six
0:29
Speaker 1: six point eight. We've entered another episode of things both
0:35
Speaker 1: ridiculous and historical. My name's Ben. Whoa that was? That
0:41
Speaker 1: was like a shatterer meets uh Rod Serling kind of thing.
0:45
Speaker 1: That was awesome. Well, that's very kind, that's very that was.
0:48
Speaker 1: I was in rapture to the point where I've almost
0:50
Speaker 1: forgotten my name, and it is, in fact Noel Brown.
0:54
Speaker 1: And I am not a trekky, right right I And
0:58
Speaker 1: I wouldn't describe myself as a tracky either, although I
1:01
Speaker 1: am a fan of sci fi, and you know, you
1:04
Speaker 1: and I don't particularly need a wealth of science fiction
1:09
Speaker 1: here because we have our own wizard every time we
1:13
Speaker 1: record a show, and that, ladies and gentlemen, is our
1:16
Speaker 1: long suffering super producer, Casey Pegro, who has turned into
1:19
Speaker 1: a can of soda. That's super producer. Sure is refreshing
1:28
Speaker 1: is And speaking of refreshing and segues, imagine yourself as
1:35
Speaker 1: a television viewer on September nine nine in Canada. I'm there. Wow,
1:41
Speaker 1: If you're there, you're very very lucky because you are
1:45
Speaker 1: watching that evening something that no one has ever seen before.
1:49
Speaker 1: The very first episode of Star Trek what the super
1:52
Speaker 1: fan community calls t O S or the original series.
1:56
Speaker 1: And this series was revolutionary when it first aired, which
2:01
Speaker 1: was originally I think in Canada and the later in
2:03
Speaker 1: the United States by a couple of days. In this series,
2:07
Speaker 1: viewers are treated to a more diverse cast than they
2:12
Speaker 1: are used to seeing, and that should go as an understatement. Right,
2:16
Speaker 1: you had green women, you had alien dudes with pointy ears. Oh,
2:21
Speaker 1: you mean diverse in terms of the actors, right, the people, right? Oh,
2:25
Speaker 1: and the characters as well. I mean there's a Russian,
2:27
Speaker 1: what in a Scotsman? Yes, there is a Scotsman. Yes.
2:34
Speaker 1: And there are also people of color on this show. Yeah,
2:38
Speaker 1: specifically a lovely actress by the name of Nichelle Nichols
2:43
Speaker 1: who portrayed the character of Lieutenant Uhura, And this was
2:48
Speaker 1: important for a lot of reasons. She was not only
2:51
Speaker 1: a person of color featured in the show very prominently,
2:54
Speaker 1: but she had a position of power in the organization
2:58
Speaker 1: of the Starship Enterprise. I believe she was the fourth
3:02
Speaker 1: in charge. Yes, that is absolutely correct, which also makes
3:07
Speaker 1: it a prominent progressive step for the role of women
3:12
Speaker 1: or female characters in these sorts of shows. Okay, so
3:15
Speaker 1: I'm a little Canadian boy in the mid nineteen sixties
3:19
Speaker 1: watching Star Trek. But what's happening at the same time then, right?
3:23
Speaker 1: The civil rights movement nothing good? I mean good, Yes,
3:27
Speaker 1: a lot of progress, but also a lot of horrible
3:31
Speaker 1: racist violence. Absolutely, We're talking protests abused by law enforcement
3:37
Speaker 1: officers and public moves toward non violence and pushes for
3:42
Speaker 1: equality alongside antagonistic forces who are pushing for the discriminatory
3:49
Speaker 1: status quo to remain the same. Gene Roddenberry, the creator
3:54
Speaker 1: of Star Trek, was very much aware of this, and
3:57
Speaker 1: he set out with the express aim of creating a
4:01
Speaker 1: show with a multi racial cast. And the show had
4:06
Speaker 1: a lot of fans right well, it also had a
4:09
Speaker 1: message of cooperation, working to solve problems between races and
4:14
Speaker 1: people of other galactic origins and and species and you
4:18
Speaker 1: know green women, right, the idea, the idea that in
4:23
Speaker 1: the future humanity will overcome the current problems or the
4:27
Speaker 1: contemporary problems of the age in which Star Trek was produced. Right, So,
4:31
Speaker 1: we had massive discrimination, We also had the threat of war.
4:38
Speaker 1: There was inequality and uh, you know, economic inequality, social inequality,
4:45
Speaker 1: and Star Trek presented a picture wherein human ingenuity and
4:49
Speaker 1: the inherent drive towards curiosity and drive towards self improvement
4:54
Speaker 1: created a world in which these problems were solved and
4:58
Speaker 1: that resulted in a lot of on most philosophical discussion,
5:02
Speaker 1: the show is not super heavy on on the action.
5:05
Speaker 1: A lot of it is almost diplomacy and conversations and
5:09
Speaker 1: kind of solving these problems without violence. And then of course,
5:12
Speaker 1: you know they'd end up on a planet and have
5:13
Speaker 1: to fight some dude in a monster suit and shoot
5:15
Speaker 1: him with their phasers or whatever. But the big message
5:18
Speaker 1: of the show was that we can solve these problems
5:20
Speaker 1: without resorting to violence. Because we're talking about the civil
5:24
Speaker 1: rights movement of the mid sixties. We're talking bombings at
5:29
Speaker 1: African American churches Stor's, when Birmingham UM, four young black
5:33
Speaker 1: girls were killed. Malcolm X, a very influential civil rights
5:38
Speaker 1: leader and activists, was assassinated. There was a divide and
5:43
Speaker 1: it was, you know, a powder keg kind of situation. Absolutely,
5:47
Speaker 1: this is one of those times where where people can
5:51
Speaker 1: feel the hinge of history as it swings and begin
5:55
Speaker 1: to wonder what direction it will go in. Here's the thing. Folks.
6:00
Speaker 1: It turns out that the Star Trek we are so
6:04
Speaker 1: familiar with today almost took a very different direction because
6:09
Speaker 1: the actor Michelle Nichols, who's playing this historically significant and
6:14
Speaker 1: profound role on television, almost quit. Yeah, it's true. Um
6:19
Speaker 1: she had a background in the performing arts in theater
6:24
Speaker 1: and got an offer to um play on Broadway in
6:29
Speaker 1: a satire about Hugh Hefner and his um kind of
6:33
Speaker 1: jet setting raunchy magazine Playboy entitled Kicks and co. And
6:39
Speaker 1: that she had been in this originally and then left
6:41
Speaker 1: to do Star Trek, but after the first season she
6:45
Speaker 1: was asked to return to that and it was going
6:47
Speaker 1: to be taken to Broadway, and she was like, Okay,
6:49
Speaker 1: this is what I want to do because I think
6:51
Speaker 1: the cultural impact of Star Trek and fully set in
6:55
Speaker 1: after one season at least, the fandom that we know
6:58
Speaker 1: today was not fully entrances. This is kind of like
7:00
Speaker 1: a well, I did one season of a kind of
7:03
Speaker 1: quirky sci fi TV show. I could take it or
7:05
Speaker 1: leave it. I'll maybe i'll maybe I'll move on and
7:07
Speaker 1: do something some more serious work, you know. But you know,
7:12
Speaker 1: as as fate would have it, thankfully, this ended up
7:15
Speaker 1: not being the case. Right when when Nichols said the
7:20
Speaker 1: version of you know, thanks so much for having him
7:23
Speaker 1: on the show, Gene Roddenberry, I like to head out
7:26
Speaker 1: and pursue, as Knowels said, more more serious or substant work,
7:30
Speaker 1: or just something different. Rockenberry didn't take it well and
7:34
Speaker 1: reputedly said, hey, don't rush out of this. Don't you
7:38
Speaker 1: understand what I'm trying to do here? And he told
7:41
Speaker 1: her take the weekend. Take the weekend and think it over.
7:45
Speaker 1: And during that weekend, Nichols went to a fundraiser in
7:50
Speaker 1: Beverly Hills where she was told there was a fan
7:55
Speaker 1: of this new fangled show star trek who really wanted
7:58
Speaker 1: to meet her. So yeah, based on some of these reports,
8:00
Speaker 1: I guess the term Trekky existed after one season. Um,
8:04
Speaker 1: which is pretty incredible. But as it turned out, this
8:07
Speaker 1: person that she was told about came walking up to
8:11
Speaker 1: her and it was Dr Martin Luther King Jr. And
8:15
Speaker 1: this is what he said to her. According to an
8:17
Speaker 1: NPR interview where Nichols recalls this this meeting, um, she says,
8:23
Speaker 1: and I turned and before I could get up, I
8:25
Speaker 1: looked across the way and there was the face of
8:27
Speaker 1: Dr Martin Luther King smiling at me and walking towards me,
8:31
Speaker 1: and he started laughing by the time he reached me.
8:33
Speaker 1: He said, yes, Miss Nichols, I am that fan. I
8:36
Speaker 1: am your best greatest fan. In my family are your
8:39
Speaker 1: greatest fans. As a matter of fact, this is the
8:41
Speaker 1: only show that my wife Kreta and I will allow
8:43
Speaker 1: our little children to watch, to stay up late to
8:45
Speaker 1: watch because it's past their bedtime, which is such a
8:50
Speaker 1: humanizing and important detail. I'm sure all parents will recognize.
8:54
Speaker 1: That's some rarefied air. So Nichols clearly is aware of
8:59
Speaker 1: Dr King, and King is saying that he admires her
9:03
Speaker 1: work on the show, and he admires that Gene Roddenberry,
9:08
Speaker 1: along with Nichols, has created a realistic character, right, not
9:15
Speaker 1: some sort of stereotype or object of derision or mockery.
9:19
Speaker 1: And she says thank you. But then she says something that,
9:23
Speaker 1: you know, it sounds very understandable from from her positions conversation.
9:28
Speaker 1: She says, you know, thanks and I'm glad you like
9:31
Speaker 1: the show, but I feel like I should be out
9:34
Speaker 1: there with you, out there, marching after out there, fighting
9:38
Speaker 1: for a quality, pursuing the ideals that people are putting
9:41
Speaker 1: their life in danger for. I read this quote earlier
9:45
Speaker 1: and then I I kind of immediately teared up for something.
9:48
Speaker 1: It just it just hit me in a very real way. Um.
9:51
Speaker 1: He said, no, no, no, no, you don't understand. We
9:54
Speaker 1: don't need you to march. You are marching. You are
9:57
Speaker 1: reflecting what we are fighting for. He said, don't you
10:01
Speaker 1: understand what this man, Gene Roddenberry, has achieved for the
10:05
Speaker 1: first time on television. We will be seen as we
10:08
Speaker 1: should be seen every day, as intelligent, quality, beautiful people
10:13
Speaker 1: who can sing and dance, but who can go into space,
10:17
Speaker 1: who can be lawyers and teachers, who can be professors,
10:20
Speaker 1: who are in this day. Yet you don't see it
10:22
Speaker 1: on television now. And this is during the part of
10:26
Speaker 1: the conversation where she says I'm going to quit the
10:29
Speaker 1: show and he is firmly against this, and he continues
10:33
Speaker 1: by saying, Gene Roddenberry has opened a door for the
10:36
Speaker 1: world to see us. If you leave, that door can
10:39
Speaker 1: be closed because you see, your role is not a
10:43
Speaker 1: black role, it's not a female role. He can fill
10:47
Speaker 1: it with anything, including an alien And this left Nichols speechless. Yeah,
10:52
Speaker 1: There's one more line from an A M A on
10:55
Speaker 1: Reddit that Nichols did, where she said that he said
10:59
Speaker 1: something along the lines of, if you leave, they can
11:01
Speaker 1: replace you with a blonde haired white girl and it'll
11:03
Speaker 1: be like you were never there. What you've accomplished for
11:06
Speaker 1: all of us will only be real if you stay.
11:09
Speaker 1: And and she said that got her thinking about, you know,
11:12
Speaker 1: really thinking about that audience, about how fans of color
11:15
Speaker 1: saw her and how it would feel if she left
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Speaker 1: the show. And and you know, it's just it's a
11:22
Speaker 1: TV show. You know, it seems even from the standpoint
11:25
Speaker 1: of someone that's in it, you could see how it
11:27
Speaker 1: could be perceived as being frivolous and like, why is this?
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Speaker 1: Why is this matter? But it does matter, especially in
11:34
Speaker 1: those days when when kids did not see themselves or
11:37
Speaker 1: a positive reflection of themselves in popular culture, and this
11:42
Speaker 1: was that thing absolutely And this changes Nichols thinking, right.
11:48
Speaker 1: And a few days later, she's talking with Roddenberry and
11:52
Speaker 1: she relays her conversation with Dr King and as as
11:58
Speaker 1: she recalls, uh, Rodenbury thought about it, looked at her
12:01
Speaker 1: for a second. He said, God bless Dr Martin Luther King.
12:04
Speaker 1: Somebody knows where I'm coming from. And so she decided
12:09
Speaker 1: to stay on the show, and the character of Tenant
12:13
Speaker 1: Uhura continues on for decades right, not just on the
12:16
Speaker 1: small screen, towards the world of phil and it also
12:20
Speaker 1: resulted in a very monumental moment, even if it's a
12:24
Speaker 1: little cheesy, but it was a thing that it was.
12:27
Speaker 1: It was important culturallyly speaking. It was the first interracial kiss,
12:31
Speaker 1: and that was between William Shatner's Captain Kirk and nichols
12:35
Speaker 1: Lieutenant Ahorah. And let's let's have that clip right now.
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Speaker 1: I'm thinking, I'm thinking all the times on the Enterprise
12:44
Speaker 1: when I was scanned ad in and I would see
12:50
Speaker 1: you so busy at chocolman, and I would hear your
12:54
Speaker 1: voice from all parts of the ship would fain. H
13:05
Speaker 1: I'm not afraid. I have not a right. And Uhura
13:25
Speaker 1: is a pivotal character on the show. This isn't one
13:28
Speaker 1: of those uh characters called and what are they called
13:31
Speaker 1: red shirts? You know, the disposable ones who are sent
13:34
Speaker 1: down to the planet. Yeah, she was number four man. Yeah,
13:37
Speaker 1: she was number four, fourth in line for the throne,
13:39
Speaker 1: the space throne. And she saw in her real life
13:49
Speaker 1: the effects of her character's presence in The Zeitgeist. She
13:52
Speaker 1: relays in the same interview that she met Whoopie Goldberg
13:56
Speaker 1: during the Next Generation, the follow up franchise for First
14:01
Speaker 1: Star Trek, and Whoopi Goldberg t right, who does have
14:05
Speaker 1: a role in the Next Generation. She told Nichols that
14:10
Speaker 1: she was nine years old when she saw Star Trek,
14:13
Speaker 1: and she would turn on the TV and she saw
14:15
Speaker 1: Lieutenant Uhura and ran through the house screaming, come quick,
14:19
Speaker 1: come quick, there's a black lady on TV. And she's
14:22
Speaker 1: not a mate. Yeah, And going back to that interracial
14:25
Speaker 1: kiss that first monumental, groundbreaking interracial kiss um that happened
14:32
Speaker 1: a mere seven months after Dr King was assassinated in
14:35
Speaker 1: nine and you know, and in that scene, it's a
14:39
Speaker 1: little hammy and then you look at you listen back
14:41
Speaker 1: to it now and the dialogue is a little overwrought,
14:43
Speaker 1: but there's real chemistry between Shatner and Nichols, and yeah,
14:48
Speaker 1: that she is a gent She's portrayed a least as
14:51
Speaker 1: far as I can tell. Again, I'm not I don't
14:52
Speaker 1: have a deep knowledge of Star Trek, but in the scene,
14:56
Speaker 1: whatever the circumstances are, there is a genuinemistry between them,
15:00
Speaker 1: and she has played as what could be a genuine
15:03
Speaker 1: love interest for this character, and you know that wasn't
15:08
Speaker 1: really a thing, you know, like you said, um, African
15:11
Speaker 1: American characters were often relegated to you know, tertiary or
15:16
Speaker 1: even lower types of roles like maids or or workmen,
15:20
Speaker 1: or a lot of times, um, even more horrible stereotypes
15:25
Speaker 1: like criminals and things like that. And while this sounds
15:29
Speaker 1: like a clear cut, you know, tidy story with a
15:34
Speaker 1: bow on top and everything, uh, the reality is a
15:38
Speaker 1: little bit different because behind the scenes, Nichols and Roddenberry
15:43
Speaker 1: and the show's writers were constantly budding heads with the studio,
15:48
Speaker 1: and the studio was a force of the status quo
15:51
Speaker 1: here at the time. For example, there is an episode
15:55
Speaker 1: wherein Lieutenant Uhura was written to assume the helmsman's position
16:00
Speaker 1: and because all the senior officers were on a planet,
16:03
Speaker 1: but the script was rewritten to exclude that action by
16:06
Speaker 1: Lieutenant Uhura, and Nichols raised Kane over it being written out,
16:11
Speaker 1: and then she, you know, her point was, when you're
16:15
Speaker 1: out in space in a dangerous situation, you're not going
16:17
Speaker 1: to have some female that goes, oh, Captain save me,
16:20
Speaker 1: save me. She was bound and determined not just too
16:25
Speaker 1: as an actor, not just to find a more prominent
16:28
Speaker 1: role for her character, but to find prominent roles for
16:32
Speaker 1: all female characters or or more to up the representation.
16:36
Speaker 1: And I misspoke. That was not the first interracial kiss
16:40
Speaker 1: on American television. That was in the Wild Wild West,
16:44
Speaker 1: and I Spy and I was between a white actor
16:47
Speaker 1: and an Asian actress, and that was in Those were
16:49
Speaker 1: both in n six, But it was the first scripted
16:53
Speaker 1: kiss between a black and a white actor. UM. And
16:56
Speaker 1: the only other one was an improvised kiss between Sammy
16:59
Speaker 1: Davis and your and Nancy Sinatra on Moving with Nancy,
17:03
Speaker 1: and that was in nineteen sixty seven. Um Nichols said
17:08
Speaker 1: that they got a really big response from the episode
17:12
Speaker 1: and that she received an insane amount of fan mail,
17:16
Speaker 1: all positive, UM, which you know, even in what we do, Ben,
17:20
Speaker 1: you know, every time we get an email, it's always
17:23
Speaker 1: like if we've gone on a limb on something, it's
17:26
Speaker 1: like are we gonna get totally shredded or are people
17:29
Speaker 1: going to be on board? And so when you really
17:30
Speaker 1: take a chance and do something like this, it's really
17:32
Speaker 1: nice to see that overwhelming outpouring of positivity, and that
17:37
Speaker 1: was also an important cultural touchstone because from their perspective,
17:41
Speaker 1: they hadn't offended anybody, and then you know, became less
17:45
Speaker 1: of an issue. Like you said, with those studio heads
17:47
Speaker 1: and the standards and practices types there we go, Yeah,
17:50
Speaker 1: the S and p s. Right. So what what we're
17:53
Speaker 1: seeing here is a fantastic and enormously important example of
18:01
Speaker 1: the role that art can play in a society. You know,
18:06
Speaker 1: And sometimes it's easy to dismiss works of fiction or
18:10
Speaker 1: works of art as largely symbolic, we're not addressing a problem.
18:16
Speaker 1: But we see that that is not the case. And
18:21
Speaker 1: because of a single conversation with one of the world's
18:27
Speaker 1: most well known civil rights icons, because of the single
18:31
Speaker 1: conversation at this party, history changed. Well. He he also
18:36
Speaker 1: saw the importance of pop culture because again I keep
18:40
Speaker 1: coming back to the idea of it being entertainment, of
18:42
Speaker 1: it being pure frivolous kind of you know, a way
18:45
Speaker 1: to pass the time. But my kid watches TV all
18:49
Speaker 1: the time. My kid has characters that she identifies with
18:53
Speaker 1: and that are important in shaping her view of herself
18:56
Speaker 1: and and feeling and getting a sense of like what's okay,
18:59
Speaker 1: what's not okay? What kind of behavior is acceptable? Kind
19:01
Speaker 1: of behavior is not? And she gets it for me too.
19:04
Speaker 1: As a parent, you know, I try to teach her
19:06
Speaker 1: well and what's right and to treat people with respect.
19:09
Speaker 1: But a lot of kids, what if they grow up
19:11
Speaker 1: and don't have good quality parents, don't have parents that
19:14
Speaker 1: are teaching them right from wrong, and they're getting that
19:16
Speaker 1: primary drive from pop culture. Then they see something like
19:20
Speaker 1: that that you can feel like you're a part of
19:23
Speaker 1: this too, this thing that makes you very happy, but
19:24
Speaker 1: that you have maybe up to that point, felt sort
19:27
Speaker 1: of left out of and King saw that. Yeah, and
19:30
Speaker 1: there's there's a doubly important part here too, because when
19:34
Speaker 1: people are seeing this and it speaks to them, they're
19:37
Speaker 1: not just seeing a show about you know, a show
19:41
Speaker 1: about life in a city in nineteen sixty six. They're
19:45
Speaker 1: seeing themselves in the future as well, you know, and
19:48
Speaker 1: that's powerful. That's a really good point. So the we
19:51
Speaker 1: would be remiss if we didn't mention another work that
19:55
Speaker 1: came out recently that I guess would also kind of
19:58
Speaker 1: qualify as science fiction, and that's the Black Panther film. Yeah,
20:02
Speaker 1: and I took my daughter to see that, and we
20:04
Speaker 1: both loved it on on the merits of it just
20:06
Speaker 1: being a badass, exciting, incredible film that is just a
20:11
Speaker 1: lot of fun. But it's blowing up box office numbers,
20:15
Speaker 1: which is something that you know, is a language that
20:18
Speaker 1: executives speak, and if you start making money on things,
20:20
Speaker 1: you're gonna see more of it. But it is it's
20:23
Speaker 1: such a different kind of film. What do you think then? Well, yeah,
20:27
Speaker 1: the the question is, you know, there's this genre that's
20:31
Speaker 1: encountering a huge moment in the sun right now, the
20:35
Speaker 1: superhero film or the comic film, and these films, like
20:39
Speaker 1: many other genres, have their own problematic issues. Typically, the
20:45
Speaker 1: protagonist is gonna be, you know, a white guy, right,
20:50
Speaker 1: and the other characters that exist are going to One
20:53
Speaker 1: of the criticism you read or they is that they're
20:56
Speaker 1: often these two dimensional foils for the protag gonness to
21:00
Speaker 1: bounce off of. Right. But in a in any well
21:05
Speaker 1: done film, which of course Casey can probably speak to
21:08
Speaker 1: or you can speak to more than I can. In
21:10
Speaker 1: any well done film, the characters must feel real. They
21:14
Speaker 1: must have their own dilemmas, their own motivations, right, And
21:19
Speaker 1: in Black Panther, not only are these characters fleshed out
21:25
Speaker 1: with realistic, understandable motivations, personal demons. Not only are they
21:30
Speaker 1: real people, but also, at least so far as film
21:34
Speaker 1: critics are arguing, also, it exists without what would be
21:39
Speaker 1: called the white lens, you know what I mean, like
21:42
Speaker 1: the the idea that there has to be a a
21:48
Speaker 1: whitewash for lack of a better term, Like the story
21:52
Speaker 1: doesn't need to have uh, all of a sudden this
21:56
Speaker 1: you know, this messionic figure was just white like in
22:01
Speaker 1: you know, like in uh Last Samurai, the Tom Cruise thing,
22:05
Speaker 1: any of that white savior stuff driving crazy. And I
22:08
Speaker 1: just want to point out that I understand the problematic
22:10
Speaker 1: nature of two white dudes whapsing rhapsodic about this stuff,
22:14
Speaker 1: but it does it is powerful, Like you know, as
22:17
Speaker 1: as a dad, um, seeing my kid grow up in
22:20
Speaker 1: in a world where there is so much more inclusivity,
22:24
Speaker 1: and she just doesn't see these things, doesn't see these
22:27
Speaker 1: lines and these divides at all. She just doesn't have it.
22:31
Speaker 1: It's not in her to have And that makes me
22:33
Speaker 1: feel really hopeful. And and so that's I'm gonna I'm
22:36
Speaker 1: gonna leave it there. But um, this story about Dr
22:40
Speaker 1: King and Star Trek. I was not expecting it to
22:43
Speaker 1: get me as much as it did. And when I
22:45
Speaker 1: read that quote about him saying no, no, no, no,
22:46
Speaker 1: you don't understand you are marching, You're you're doing it
22:50
Speaker 1: right now? Um that I I kind of started tearing
22:53
Speaker 1: up at my desk. I was not expecting that in
22:55
Speaker 1: a story about Star Trek. And this is one aspect
23:05
Speaker 1: right of Star Trek, just as it is one aspect
23:08
Speaker 1: of the civil rights movement, one that people may not
23:12
Speaker 1: be entirely aware of. And thanks so much for listening.
23:16
Speaker 1: We want to hear from you. Do you consider yourself
23:20
Speaker 1: a trekky? If so, please please go easy on us,
23:24
Speaker 1: right no, oh man, please where we're we're very dainty
23:28
Speaker 1: little baffodils and their ridiculous is so please please go
23:32
Speaker 1: easy on us, and let us know what other cultural
23:35
Speaker 1: impacts you believe came about via Star Trek. Also, let
23:41
Speaker 1: us know if you have other examples of ways in
23:43
Speaker 1: which fiction and culture in the arts moved culture as
23:48
Speaker 1: a whole forward. And speaking of examples, here a few
23:52
Speaker 1: examples of listener males that didn't hurt our feelings. All right,
23:59
Speaker 1: First we have one from two uh T O O
24:02
Speaker 1: and that and he said to pronounce it that way. Um,
24:04
Speaker 1: and the subject is an extra trivia for the Great
24:07
Speaker 1: Stink episode, which was a fun one to do for us.
24:10
Speaker 1: Dear been a noal warmest greetings from Malaysia. I'm a
24:12
Speaker 1: listener to the show since its inception and I've enjoyed
24:14
Speaker 1: the various topics you guys have put out so far.
24:17
Speaker 1: Your most recent episode on the Great Stick of London
24:19
Speaker 1: was definitely an interesting take on the matter, adding some
24:22
Speaker 1: depth and perspective for me on the subject since I
24:25
Speaker 1: last heard it being mentioned in another house Stuff Works
24:27
Speaker 1: podcast plug Stuff to Blow Your Minds episode on miasma
24:31
Speaker 1: theory and the Evil Air. We didn't talk about the
24:33
Speaker 1: evil air, but yeah, that miasma theory is a doozy.
24:36
Speaker 1: Both your show and stb y M covered the historical
24:39
Speaker 1: figure John Snow, while your show additionally covered the figure
24:43
Speaker 1: John Harrington. This is what I found to be a
24:46
Speaker 1: missed opportunity for you guys. Maybe a little trivial, he said,
24:49
Speaker 1: it was trivial. Um. Yet I can't help but mention
24:52
Speaker 1: that Kit Harrington, who portrays HBO's Game of Thrones character
24:56
Speaker 1: John Snow, at least according to the actor, himself, and
24:59
Speaker 1: then he gives us a link is a descendant of
25:02
Speaker 1: said John Harrington. What casey can we get a like
25:06
Speaker 1: a perfect He goes on right, he does go on, Um,
25:14
Speaker 1: he says, talk about coincidences. Perhaps you guys were aware
25:17
Speaker 1: but opted not to mention due to its triviality. No, sir,
25:20
Speaker 1: I can tell you we were not, as you just
25:22
Speaker 1: heard our minds being blown, and they are in fact
25:24
Speaker 1: all over the walls right now. But just in case
25:26
Speaker 1: you guys weren't aware, I thought you might find the
25:29
Speaker 1: little tidbit amusing at least. Anyway, Thanks a bunch of
25:31
Speaker 1: putting the show together. It's been a pretty cool addition
25:33
Speaker 1: to my podcast library that I listened to during my
25:36
Speaker 1: daily drive to work. Looking forward to more great episodes.
25:38
Speaker 1: Regards to thanks so much to his Reddit likes to say,
25:41
Speaker 1: today I learned, and we have one more listener mail here.
25:47
Speaker 1: We've been getting so many awesome listener males. It's difficult
25:50
Speaker 1: to choose just one. I know, it really is. So
25:53
Speaker 1: we're going to save all the butter Smugglers stuff for
25:55
Speaker 1: another episode. I agree. That's going to be a fun one.
25:58
Speaker 1: And there's great things about language. I gotta stop telling
26:01
Speaker 1: everybody about the emails. We're going to know listener male spoilers. Dude, Yeah,
26:05
Speaker 1: we'll just have your statute of limitations on that. We'll
26:07
Speaker 1: just it would be so great if somebody sent us
26:10
Speaker 1: an email five years before we did the show as
26:12
Speaker 1: time travel possible different episode. Here's an email from Jared P.
26:17
Speaker 1: Jared P writes, ahoy fellas, I'm a new fan of
26:20
Speaker 1: the show. I've been binge listening to catch up. You
26:22
Speaker 1: guys are great. Thank you, Jared uh. Jered continues, I
26:25
Speaker 1: lived in Japan for three years and my wife is Japanese.
26:28
Speaker 1: The KFC X Mess I choose to write X Mess
26:31
Speaker 1: out of sheer laziness and notes phenomenon has been around
26:34
Speaker 1: a long time, over twenty five years. Everything I know
26:37
Speaker 1: of it is that it caught on after a successful
26:40
Speaker 1: ad campaign. Most Japanese folks don't celebrate Christmas, and those
26:44
Speaker 1: that do enjoy it for the commercial side of it
26:46
Speaker 1: more than any religious connotations. Most Japanese people think of
26:50
Speaker 1: x Mess in American stereotypes, so doing something American on
26:54
Speaker 1: that American holiday, like eating fried chickens suddenly isn't so crazy.
26:59
Speaker 1: They also don't can whom fried chicken and burgers at
27:01
Speaker 1: the rate we do, so it's a bit of a
27:03
Speaker 1: special occasion to go to those fast food places. KFC
27:07
Speaker 1: was the first successful fast food chain in Japan, and
27:10
Speaker 1: it's still popular today. Kentucky, as it's known here, tastes
27:13
Speaker 1: like somehow less greasy, healthier fried chicken version of the
27:16
Speaker 1: American original, if that makes any sense. They offer rules,
27:20
Speaker 1: which is a bummer. If you're a biscuit fan, it's
27:22
Speaker 1: not bad. But if you're there and wanting to explore
27:24
Speaker 1: Japan's take on American fast food and McDonald's Terryaki Burger
27:28
Speaker 1: is where it's at. Get Terryaki Burger created, let's we
27:32
Speaker 1: should go. We should try it. Unrelated, he concludes, I
27:37
Speaker 1: love the teaser of sorts about North Korea making a
27:39
Speaker 1: Godzilla movie. Keep up the great show, and feel free
27:42
Speaker 1: to go down the Kim Jong Ill rabbit hole anytime.
27:45
Speaker 1: Cheers Jet. I'm still really gonna lean on my idea
27:48
Speaker 1: of a rapt name as being Kim Jong Ill, but
27:51
Speaker 1: dispelled like licensed to ill, you know, like I ll L.
27:54
Speaker 1: I think it'll be lost on years though. When you
27:56
Speaker 1: say it's me the rapper Kim Jong Ill. People like
28:00
Speaker 1: maybe taste maybe Kim Jong too ill. That's pretty good.
28:04
Speaker 1: Kim Jong too ill. I like that. Speaking of burger stuff,
28:07
Speaker 1: did you hear that Sonic is coming out with a
28:10
Speaker 1: burger that's fift beef and fifty percent mushroom And it's
28:14
Speaker 1: supposedly like this green thing that like the conservationists are
28:18
Speaker 1: praising them for. Really, I would try it. It sounds good.
28:21
Speaker 1: I love about good mushroom. I love a good burger. Uh.
28:25
Speaker 1: So you can probably tell by the you can probably
28:28
Speaker 1: tell folks by the uh. The theme of our conversation
28:32
Speaker 1: that it's time for us to take a lunch break,
28:35
Speaker 1: so we are going to head out now. We'd like
28:38
Speaker 1: to thank too. We'd like to thank Jared. Where would
28:41
Speaker 1: we be without Casey Pegram, So thanks to him, and
28:45
Speaker 1: also thanks to David Dennis for writing how MLK influenced
28:49
Speaker 1: the direction of Star Trek for how stuff works, and
28:51
Speaker 1: to our composer Alex Williams who wrote our theme. Most importantly,
28:55
Speaker 1: thanks to you. If you want to take a page
28:58
Speaker 1: from a Jet and two's book, go ahead and write
29:02
Speaker 1: to us with your suggestions, your reactions, your feedback on
29:07
Speaker 1: this and any other episode, and please do yourselves and
29:11
Speaker 1: us a favor and join us for our next episode,
29:14
Speaker 1: where we talk about animal spies. Come I'm just gonna
29:17
Speaker 1: leave it right there. Come see you guys later