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How the ACLU Works · Stuff You Should Know

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to you Stuff you should know from House Stuff
0:04
Speaker 1: Works dot Com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
0:12
Speaker 1: Josh Clark. There's Charles to be, Chuck Bryant, Jerry's there.
0:15
Speaker 1: She just yawned. Yeah, this is stuff you should know. Yeah,
0:19
Speaker 1: if you like this, you can hang out with us
0:21
Speaker 1: on social media to chuck, they can. Yeah, we're on
0:24
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0:27
Speaker 1: which is exciting. We have our Twitter account of course,
0:30
Speaker 1: our venerable Facebook page, yeah, and our home on the web.
0:35
Speaker 1: Stuff you should do dot com where we have all
0:37
Speaker 1: sorts of cool context and you can find all that
0:39
Speaker 1: stuff by typing in s Y s K or Josh
0:42
Speaker 1: and Chuck or stuff you should know, and it'll bring
0:45
Speaker 1: up all that stuff. Fun, fun stuff. You know what
0:50
Speaker 1: else is fun? What? Freedom of expression? That's right, buddy? Yeah?
0:53
Speaker 1: You know why? Why? Because freedom can't protect itself? Is
0:58
Speaker 1: that right? I think that was the slogan at one point.
1:01
Speaker 1: It may still be. Oh yeah, American Civil Liberties Union.
1:05
Speaker 1: I thought it was get bent. It's funny. It is
1:11
Speaker 1: a controversial organization. So yeah, my heart goes out to
1:15
Speaker 1: them like I love them in the same way that
1:18
Speaker 1: I love the inflammation from my laceration, like I'm healing.
1:24
Speaker 1: I know it's good for me that, but it burns
1:27
Speaker 1: and hurts and it's bright red and raised. Right, I
1:30
Speaker 1: know what you mean, Like, sure, defend the Ku Klux
1:33
Speaker 1: Klan because there are Americans too. Yeah, yeah, what age
1:37
Speaker 1: did you realize it wasn't klu Klux Klan? I think
1:41
Speaker 1: I was thirty seven? Really, no, no, no, no, but
1:45
Speaker 1: I did used to think it was Clu Klux everybody did.
1:47
Speaker 1: It just rolls off the tongue more. But then you
1:49
Speaker 1: turn like ten or eleven or whatever, and finally your
1:51
Speaker 1: dad is like, it's Ku Klux Klan. And then shortly
1:54
Speaker 1: after that you realize they're just a bunch of rednecks
1:57
Speaker 1: with too much time on their hands. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
1:59
Speaker 1: I can't remember what episode we talked about, but we're
2:01
Speaker 1: like everybody hates the clan here in America. Just to
2:04
Speaker 1: let you guys who are listening internationally know you remember that. Yeah,
2:09
Speaker 1: I mean, that's one of the ones I feel safe about,
2:11
Speaker 1: like no one's going to write it and say, well,
2:12
Speaker 1: like what, I don't want to hear your opinions about
2:14
Speaker 1: the clan, you know, who may who the A c
2:16
Speaker 1: l U. That's a good point. Yeah, no, no, they
2:19
Speaker 1: will defend my right to say that, actually right, but
2:21
Speaker 1: they'll also defend the clans right to rally against you
2:25
Speaker 1: saying that I've actually done it before. What's the famous
2:28
Speaker 1: onion the headline, A c LU defends clans right to
2:32
Speaker 1: burn down a c l U building. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
2:34
Speaker 1: it's pretty funny. That's great stuff, all right. The onion
2:38
Speaker 1: I look to see if that was a Joe Randazzo joint,
2:40
Speaker 1: and unfortunate came about three years before Joe got there.
2:44
Speaker 1: Still good. Uh So, Chucky sent me a pretty interesting
2:48
Speaker 1: little article that I think kind of illustrates the bipolarity.
2:54
Speaker 1: Maybe have the A c l U, but as we'll find,
2:57
Speaker 1: they're really unipolar, although they seem too faced. Yes, we're
3:01
Speaker 1: gonna get to the bottom of all this. And again,
3:04
Speaker 1: like I like the A c l U. Al right,
3:06
Speaker 1: I don't care what anybody says, all right. Uh So,
3:09
Speaker 1: there's a little boy in um Cannon County, Tennessee, and
3:16
Speaker 1: he was part of the Reach after school program r
3:18
Speaker 1: E A c H. It's an acronym that I didn't
3:21
Speaker 1: bother to look up. Some kind of slack. It starts
3:23
Speaker 1: with reading. I bet I'll bet it does too. And
3:26
Speaker 1: it's an after school program. And this little boy UM
3:29
Speaker 1: was reading at this probably reading based after school program
3:32
Speaker 1: and he's reading his Bible and one of the staff
3:34
Speaker 1: workers said, you can't read that here. You can read
3:37
Speaker 1: anything else in the world that you want, you can't
3:40
Speaker 1: read your Bible. She said, or I was assuming is she,
3:43
Speaker 1: but he maybe said our program gonna be shut down
3:47
Speaker 1: because this is a state run program, state funded, and like,
3:51
Speaker 1: we can't have this intermingling between church and state. First
3:55
Speaker 1: of all, this is Tennessee that somebody's saying that. Secondly,
3:58
Speaker 1: they tried to take the boy's Bible away because he
4:01
Speaker 1: refused to put it up. He said, no, I'm reading this.
4:04
Speaker 1: This is what I want to read. And there was
4:06
Speaker 1: a big kerfuffle, and the A c l you stepped
4:09
Speaker 1: in and is defending this boy's right to read his
4:12
Speaker 1: Bible in church because it's in school, because it's freedom
4:15
Speaker 1: of expression. Yeah, the same A c. L U who
4:18
Speaker 1: is long um fought too not have state and school
4:24
Speaker 1: sponsored religious readings, even saying like God bless this, Uh,
4:29
Speaker 1: this class of two thousand fourteen, A C. L You
4:33
Speaker 1: would say, I would be like, yeah, give us some money. So, like,
4:36
Speaker 1: like you said, it seems like a contradiction, is actually
4:40
Speaker 1: not a contradiction because they were doing the same thing.
4:42
Speaker 1: They're fighting for someone's right to express something or read
4:47
Speaker 1: something on their own, you know, because there's a because
4:53
Speaker 1: it's guaranteed by the Constitution. It doesn't matter if it's unpopular. No,
4:57
Speaker 1: they're they're going to defend you as a minority of
5:01
Speaker 1: or in a single individual or a large group. It
5:03
Speaker 1: doesn't matter as long as somebody is saying like, no,
5:05
Speaker 1: you're not allowed to assemble, you're not allowed to say that,
5:08
Speaker 1: you're not allowed to think that, you're not allowed to
5:10
Speaker 1: do anything guaranteed by the Constitution or the Bill of Rights.
5:13
Speaker 1: The A c l U, by their charter will step
5:17
Speaker 1: in and defend you in your rights, whether they think
5:20
Speaker 1: you're the violence person on the planet or not. Yeah,
5:24
Speaker 1: and hold on, I want to defend myself. I wasn't
5:26
Speaker 1: saying bipolar in the sense of the mental disorder. Bipolarity
5:31
Speaker 1: can refer to all sorts of stuff. I didn't mean
5:33
Speaker 1: it in that sense at all. Okay, that's good to
5:35
Speaker 1: point out. Um, they're all over the map, But generally
5:39
Speaker 1: they handle cases of freedom of speech, freedom of religion,
5:42
Speaker 1: privacy rights. Um. But again they will take up and
5:46
Speaker 1: we'll see what kind of cases like how you can
5:49
Speaker 1: get your case taken up by the a c l
5:50
Speaker 1: You later on. But they handle about six thousand court
5:53
Speaker 1: cases a year. Uh. They are a nonprofit. They provide
5:58
Speaker 1: legal aid and are about five hundred thousand members, card
6:03
Speaker 1: carrying members and about two hundred full time staff attorneys.
6:08
Speaker 1: Not bad at this point. And there's a national UM chapter,
6:11
Speaker 1: and then there's state chapters. It's not state and localist
6:14
Speaker 1: a state right. Yeah, each state has its own organization
6:18
Speaker 1: and they don't often always agree with the national chapters,
6:22
Speaker 1: and they have to work it out, and the states
6:24
Speaker 1: are given the rights to work it out. So, Chuck,
6:26
Speaker 1: let's talk about this. Why why if the a c
6:29
Speaker 1: l U is defending people's rights that are guaranteed by
6:31
Speaker 1: the Constitution, everybody loves the Founding fathers, Democrats, Republicans, commies,
6:36
Speaker 1: everybody loves the Founding Fathers, right, and the Founding fathers
6:39
Speaker 1: created this great Constitution and then further created this wonderful
6:43
Speaker 1: bill of rights and everybody's happy about it. Um, Why
6:46
Speaker 1: would everybody hate the a c l U. If they're
6:49
Speaker 1: just defending people's rights as guaranteed by the constitution, well,
6:52
Speaker 1: because their their view is we have to defend everyone,
6:56
Speaker 1: not just pick and choose. So they end up having
6:58
Speaker 1: to defend Nazis and clansmen and religious zealots and pornographers
7:05
Speaker 1: and yeah, like people on the extreme fringes. They still
7:10
Speaker 1: have rights in this country. Yea unpopulars and maybe and
7:13
Speaker 1: the a c l U fights for those rights and
7:16
Speaker 1: a lot of people hate him because of it. Yeah,
7:18
Speaker 1: it's true. But as we'll see, some some people who
7:21
Speaker 1: hate them also love them when the a c o
7:23
Speaker 1: U comes around to their side to defend them when
7:26
Speaker 1: they get screwed over. Yeah, they're very polarizing. Yeah, it's
7:30
Speaker 1: pretty My again, my hat is off to this this
7:34
Speaker 1: um organization. It's hard to do something unpopular and to
7:38
Speaker 1: see you feel like it's right to walk a line
7:40
Speaker 1: to which it's walk this line and it's this line
7:44
Speaker 1: that it it it hears it's like um uh oh man,
7:48
Speaker 1: what is the guy the safety crusader? Yeah Nader. Yeah,
7:53
Speaker 1: he's like the a c l U. He he was like,
7:56
Speaker 1: this is right, this is the right course. And if
8:00
Speaker 1: we veer off of it, then we're wrong. If you're
8:02
Speaker 1: not on this line, you're wrong. And he used that
8:06
Speaker 1: kind of thinking to you know, get Seatbelts Institute and
8:08
Speaker 1: all this stuff. But he was very unpopular. Many times
8:12
Speaker 1: people who used to be colleagues and cohorts with him, um, like,
8:16
Speaker 1: when they stopped seeing eye eye with him, he would
8:18
Speaker 1: speak out publicly against him. And the a c l
8:21
Speaker 1: US very much like that. It's like, this is right,
8:23
Speaker 1: it's black and white. You are allowed to say this,
8:26
Speaker 1: and if somebody tells you can't, then we intervene on
8:29
Speaker 1: your behalf. Yeah, with the idea that if the government
8:32
Speaker 1: is allowed to restrict the rights of some group that
8:34
Speaker 1: they don't like, that could lead down the rabbit hole
8:37
Speaker 1: to restricting other groups, and you just can't allow that
8:40
Speaker 1: in a free country. That's precisely right. So, UM, I
8:43
Speaker 1: think we've gotten the point across about the this third
8:47
Speaker 1: time out, let's talk about the history of this organization. Yeah,
8:50
Speaker 1: it's pretty cool. Um. It started um during World War One.
8:54
Speaker 1: There was a group UM in New York called the
8:57
Speaker 1: Henry Street Peace Committee in nineteen steine and they were
9:01
Speaker 1: they were little sissy pacifists who didn't want to go
9:03
Speaker 1: to war, and they spoke out against it and form
9:07
Speaker 1: the American Union against Militarism. And um, we're talking newsletters, uh,
9:14
Speaker 1: magazine ads, leaflets, leaflets and newsletters. Yeah. Um, but that
9:19
Speaker 1: wasn't a popular thing back then, nor is it today.
9:23
Speaker 1: If you don't support wars, generally in certain circles, you
9:28
Speaker 1: were thought of to be unpatriotic. Yeah. It's a lot
9:31
Speaker 1: different today though than it was before. Like you know
9:34
Speaker 1: those people that that protested Peach Tree and fourt keeenth
9:37
Speaker 1: outside Colony Square every Friday, like that one of the
9:40
Speaker 1: Indigo Girls shows up once in a while, Like the
9:43
Speaker 1: people will honk in their support. They're not going to jail. Yeah,
9:46
Speaker 1: it is different in this in this era, these people
9:49
Speaker 1: who were put sending out leaflets, it sounds so innocuous.
9:52
Speaker 1: They went to jail. Yeah. The Palmer Raids in the
9:55
Speaker 1: United States less than a hundred years ago. If you
9:59
Speaker 1: say anything that was considered anti government or anti war,
10:04
Speaker 1: you went to jail for up to maybe twenty years sometimes. Yeah. Um.
10:09
Speaker 1: General Attorney General Mitchell Palmer in the nineteen in nineteen nineteen,
10:13
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty conducted the Palmer Raids, which basically rounded up
10:16
Speaker 1: and deported whoever they thought was a radical. Um thousands
10:20
Speaker 1: of people, no warrants, no due process. It was just
10:23
Speaker 1: sort of like you're coming with me, you anti war pacifists,
10:28
Speaker 1: commy and waiting. Yeah, And I mean, like that's a
10:31
Speaker 1: good point too, Like there was a lot of socialists,
10:33
Speaker 1: There are a lot of communists, there are a lot
10:35
Speaker 1: of anarchists, a lot of Marxists, a lot of people
10:38
Speaker 1: who were um advocating and agitating too for other economic
10:45
Speaker 1: and government models. Right, the pacifists weren't necessarily I mean,
10:49
Speaker 1: they may have had something in common with those people,
10:51
Speaker 1: and some of the pacifists might have been Marxists and
10:53
Speaker 1: vice versa. But the pacifists were just anti war. Some
10:58
Speaker 1: of them were like the U. S has no as
11:00
Speaker 1: this intervening, and what's what amounts to a European war.
11:03
Speaker 1: Other people say wars a terrible thing, and like I
11:08
Speaker 1: object to it outright on its basis. Their pacifists and
11:12
Speaker 1: the pacifists too would get rounded up and taken to jail.
11:17
Speaker 1: Um and like you said, without due process, without any
11:22
Speaker 1: kind of their rights were taken away. In nineteen seventeen
11:27
Speaker 1: and the nineteen eighteen with the Espionage Act first, and
11:30
Speaker 1: then the Sedition Act in in nineteen eighteen, where the
11:34
Speaker 1: US passed a law that said if you if you
11:37
Speaker 1: speak out against the government, against the war, against the
11:40
Speaker 1: war effort, if you say we shouldn't be producing as
11:43
Speaker 1: much rubber, well we need rubber for the war effort,
11:45
Speaker 1: So we can throw you in jail for up to
11:48
Speaker 1: twenty years. Man. And in twenty years, that's twenty years.
11:52
Speaker 1: Is different back then in twenty years in two thousand
11:54
Speaker 1: and twelve years, because that's like um in twenty years
11:58
Speaker 1: for the average lifespan was point to seven of your life. Yea,
12:03
Speaker 1: it was of your life. In that was cent of
12:08
Speaker 1: your life thanks to the flu epidemic. So that was
12:10
Speaker 1: a lot of years to like go to prison, you know.
12:14
Speaker 1: I mean, that's still a lot of years to go
12:16
Speaker 1: to prison. But I see what you mean. But it's
12:17
Speaker 1: in the context of this that these people were organizing
12:21
Speaker 1: and saying, no, we're not just gonna shut up. We're
12:24
Speaker 1: gonna keep doing what we're doing, and we're gonna come
12:26
Speaker 1: after you government that's using repression. So if like you
12:30
Speaker 1: admire the a c O You today for any sort
12:32
Speaker 1: of bravery, like if you take it back to the
12:35
Speaker 1: original organization that those these were genuinely brave people who
12:40
Speaker 1: are willing to face not just being unpopular, but going
12:44
Speaker 1: to prison for twenty years for fighting for what freedoms
12:48
Speaker 1: that are guaranteed in the constitution. Yeah, and fighting against
12:50
Speaker 1: war in general. A couple of those people are the founders,
12:54
Speaker 1: Crystal Eastman and Roger Baldwin. There are social workers and uh,
12:59
Speaker 1: big supporters of the labor movement, and they founded uh
13:02
Speaker 1: the a U A M UM that, like I said,
13:06
Speaker 1: the American Union Against Militarism and uh they started assisting
13:11
Speaker 1: legally with some of these cases, which was kind of
13:14
Speaker 1: the first uh steps of what would later become the
13:17
Speaker 1: a C l U was legal support, which is the
13:21
Speaker 1: key the Civil Liberties Bureau, which is like a subset
13:25
Speaker 1: of the UM a U A M where basically it
13:28
Speaker 1: was like if you got sent to jail for um
13:32
Speaker 1: handing out leaflets or something, they would come and assist
13:35
Speaker 1: you with your court case. Yeah. And that well, that
13:37
Speaker 1: wasn't Alongside that followed the a U A M split
13:41
Speaker 1: and then the n c LB arose in its place.
13:45
Speaker 1: I got which is good. Um Baldwin went to jail
13:49
Speaker 1: for a year for not complying with his draft notice,
13:53
Speaker 1: got released, set up a different n c LB, now
13:58
Speaker 1: called the American Civil Liberty Union. So in earnest it
14:01
Speaker 1: was born on January nineteenth, nineteen. Is it like the
14:04
Speaker 1: day he got out or something. I don't know if
14:06
Speaker 1: it's a day he got out, but it was basically
14:09
Speaker 1: just the restructured version of the National Civil Liberties Bureau. Yeah. So,
14:15
Speaker 1: and initially like they were thinking, well, we'll just keep
14:18
Speaker 1: up with the leaflets they seemed to be working. How
14:21
Speaker 1: about a newsletter to leaflets never worked, by the way, right,
14:24
Speaker 1: but also like staging protest strikes, just getting publicity to
14:28
Speaker 1: try to um have an impact on the prevailing American
14:32
Speaker 1: sympathies towards the idea of pacifism or whatever. Yeah, they
14:36
Speaker 1: weren't just suing people out of the gate. No. And
14:38
Speaker 1: the reason why they stayed out of the courts in
14:40
Speaker 1: general because because at the time the courts were overtly
14:43
Speaker 1: hostile to the idea of freedom of speech, especially but
14:47
Speaker 1: other constitutionally guaranteed protections. The Supreme Court would just say no,
14:51
Speaker 1: we we we don't like what you have to say,
14:55
Speaker 1: and uh, and the rest of America doesn't so no, yeah,
14:58
Speaker 1: you're we're upholding your conviction for saying that the war
15:01
Speaker 1: is bad. Yeah. It was weird. Like literally up until
15:04
Speaker 1: the nineteen twenties, most of the civil liberties granted us
15:10
Speaker 1: to us were not tested, even because the Screen Court
15:14
Speaker 1: would shoot it down. Like whenever they tried, they were
15:17
Speaker 1: just saying, no, no, you don't have those rights after all.
15:19
Speaker 1: You know something that I'm curious about. I wonder if
15:22
Speaker 1: there's a correlation, because this is also like the end
15:24
Speaker 1: of the guilded age, but there was also I mean,
15:27
Speaker 1: there were a lot of very like wealthy, powerful interests
15:30
Speaker 1: in The income gap was pretty substantial back then, and
15:34
Speaker 1: I wonder if, like it is now, um, with the
15:37
Speaker 1: income gap growing, if there's a correlation become between income
15:41
Speaker 1: and quality inequality and um, a repression of freedom of
15:45
Speaker 1: speech and privacy and things like that. I wonder if
15:48
Speaker 1: like the two are related. Sounds like a book in
15:51
Speaker 1: the making, my friend, No question, too much work. Um,
15:59
Speaker 1: All right, well, I guess we should talk about some
16:01
Speaker 1: of their most famous early cases. Let's do that, but
16:04
Speaker 1: let's take a little break first. Alright, So early on,
16:10
Speaker 1: like we said, um, the Supreme Court hadn't hadn't been
16:13
Speaker 1: challenged that much in cases like these, and when they did,
16:16
Speaker 1: they weren't too kind to free speech. It is weird
16:20
Speaker 1: to think of now, for sure. Um, but in the
16:23
Speaker 1: nineteen thirties is when the A C all you began
16:25
Speaker 1: to kind of make a little headway, um against kind
16:30
Speaker 1: of against the Supreme Court. Yeah. Well, they started to
16:35
Speaker 1: win smaller cases that you didn't have to go to
16:38
Speaker 1: the Supreme Court, and it was kind of like, um,
16:41
Speaker 1: death of repression by a thousand paper cuts, you know
16:44
Speaker 1: what I mean. So, like all those little cases started
16:46
Speaker 1: to add up where it was like, um, something in
16:50
Speaker 1: some change to the law in Louisville, Kentucky, didn't really
16:54
Speaker 1: have much effect in Missouri. But then they want a
16:56
Speaker 1: case in Missouri. And then if you started to step
16:59
Speaker 1: back and look at it on a map, you're like, oh,
17:01
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, this the balance is swinging the
17:04
Speaker 1: other direction. Yeah. But when they did win big Supreme
17:07
Speaker 1: Court cases, they were huge Supreme Court cases. I mean,
17:09
Speaker 1: like some of the most important cases of the twentieth
17:12
Speaker 1: century the a c. L Us either been directly or
17:16
Speaker 1: indirectly involved in, like the Scopes monkey trial that was
17:19
Speaker 1: a big one. Yeah, they And we've talked a lot
17:22
Speaker 1: about evolution lately, UM, and we didn't cover Scopes at all.
17:27
Speaker 1: But uh, in Tennessee there was a law banning teaching
17:29
Speaker 1: evolution in and so the a c LU went out
17:34
Speaker 1: and found a biology teacher named John Scopes, said hey,
17:37
Speaker 1: we would like you to teach evolution, and let's see
17:41
Speaker 1: what happens. And he was prosecuted and the a c
17:46
Speaker 1: l YOU got together with the famous attorney Clarence Darrow
17:49
Speaker 1: to defend him, and he was still found guilty, even
17:53
Speaker 1: though that verdict was overturned later because of a sentencing error.
17:56
Speaker 1: But so the a c l YOU lost, they lost,
17:59
Speaker 1: but it made big headlines and UM was really sort
18:03
Speaker 1: of one of the turning points and establishing like freedom,
18:06
Speaker 1: academic freedom in this country. Yeah, and I think not
18:09
Speaker 1: just as far as the A c l U goes,
18:10
Speaker 1: but any anyone who's kind of UM trying to make
18:13
Speaker 1: a change in the nation. I think one way to
18:16
Speaker 1: do that is to just get people talking about it,
18:19
Speaker 1: because I think a lot of people, especially if they're
18:21
Speaker 1: in the majority or they hold the majority view, make
18:24
Speaker 1: the oftentimes incorrect assumption that everybody else holds the same
18:28
Speaker 1: view too. And I think just if you're just confronted
18:30
Speaker 1: by an opposing point of view, just knowing that it's
18:33
Speaker 1: out there, whether you agree with it or not, can
18:35
Speaker 1: kind of make you reflect and think about the views
18:38
Speaker 1: you hold too, and why you hold them, and whether
18:40
Speaker 1: they're um good views or not. So I think that's
18:45
Speaker 1: the that the the impression I have of the cases
18:47
Speaker 1: that it got people talking, and it made people who
18:51
Speaker 1: agreed with not teaching evolution realize like, whoa were not
18:54
Speaker 1: everybody thinks the same way I do. Yeah, ideally, Uh
18:59
Speaker 1: so you know, you're oponents are going to say that
19:01
Speaker 1: the c U is defending U, their watchdog, protecting everyone's
19:04
Speaker 1: civil liberties, whereas people who poopoo it say no, they're
19:08
Speaker 1: really a left wing organization and they subvert the Constitution
19:12
Speaker 1: and they protect criminals, and they attack religion and they
19:15
Speaker 1: have an extremist agenda. Um, so those are sort of
19:18
Speaker 1: the two sides of the argument. The thing is, though,
19:20
Speaker 1: is like they if you go back over there, their history. Okay.
19:25
Speaker 1: This article points out the perfect example, which one the
19:28
Speaker 1: one where in the thirties and the nineteen forties the
19:31
Speaker 1: a c l U defended both the n double A
19:34
Speaker 1: CP and blacks rights to UM enfranchisement and just equal
19:39
Speaker 1: treatment and UM basically civil rights. And while at the
19:44
Speaker 1: same time, during these same years, the the a c
19:47
Speaker 1: l U is also defending the Ku Klux Klan and
19:50
Speaker 1: it's right to assemble and speak out against UM black rights. Yeah,
19:56
Speaker 1: that was the Skokie. Uh. Now, this is long before Skoki.
20:00
Speaker 1: This is like the thirties and forties. The Skokie was
20:02
Speaker 1: the Nazis. That was another big one. Yeah, well, I
20:05
Speaker 1: guess we can go ahead and talk about that, the
20:07
Speaker 1: Skokie free speech controversy. In the late seventies. Uh, a
20:12
Speaker 1: group of neo Nazis in Chicago wanted to uh have
20:16
Speaker 1: permission to go to Skokie, Illinois, not form a barbershop
20:20
Speaker 1: quartet UM, but hold a demonstration. And that was a UM.
20:26
Speaker 1: Skokie was famous for being um the center of a
20:30
Speaker 1: Chicago's Jewish community post Holocaust. A bunch of Jewish people
20:34
Speaker 1: settled there, and so of course the neo Nazis wanted
20:37
Speaker 1: to go to the heart of it all in protest um.
20:39
Speaker 1: They asked the a c LU for help and they
20:42
Speaker 1: got it, and we're granted permission even though they didn't
20:44
Speaker 1: use it. Yeah, because scote. When the Neo Nazis applied
20:48
Speaker 1: for a permit to assemble or um have a parade
20:52
Speaker 1: to Nazi parade, basically they Skokie City Council said, well,
20:57
Speaker 1: you know that you have to post a dollar bond,
21:02
Speaker 1: which is gonna cost you about a grand I just
21:04
Speaker 1: want to let you know about that first. And the
21:06
Speaker 1: new Nazis said, you are trampling our rights. And that's
21:09
Speaker 1: when they got in touch with the a c l U,
21:11
Speaker 1: and the a C l you said, yeah, they're trampling
21:12
Speaker 1: your rights, it sounds like. And they fought too for
21:15
Speaker 1: the Nazis right to assemble based on the idea that
21:18
Speaker 1: that thousand dollar basically fee to assemble was prohibitive and
21:24
Speaker 1: that you know, anybody who wanted to hold a parade
21:28
Speaker 1: or a protest or anything like that in Skokie it
21:32
Speaker 1: wouldn't necessarily be able to afford that, So protests shouldn't
21:35
Speaker 1: just be open to the people who can afford that
21:38
Speaker 1: thousand dollar bond. And therefore Skokie, I guess relented, But
21:42
Speaker 1: the Nazis never even came. Now, they never even held
21:45
Speaker 1: their protest. Yeah, and that's that's gonna make you unpopular.
21:48
Speaker 1: As an organization if you are campaigning for the rights
21:51
Speaker 1: of the Nazis, but the A c l U bites
21:54
Speaker 1: their tongue and say no, we have to Well, you know, um,
21:57
Speaker 1: you remember the part in the Blues Brothers. This is
21:59
Speaker 1: all um very famously dramatized. Remember the Illinois Nazis. I
22:04
Speaker 1: hate Illinois Nazis and they drive past him and make
22:08
Speaker 1: them jump into the river. Yeah. I guarantee that was
22:12
Speaker 1: because of the Skokie Skokie Nazi thing. It was all
22:16
Speaker 1: around the same time. Yeah, and they were Chicago as well. Yeah,
22:19
Speaker 1: and Chuck, have you ever seen you know the mall
22:22
Speaker 1: part where they drive through the mall? I made the
22:25
Speaker 1: slideshow UM nine abandoned malls around America, and that malls
22:29
Speaker 1: in there, it's like abandoned in in this total state
22:32
Speaker 1: of decay. The Dixie Mall, I believe it's what it's
22:35
Speaker 1: called Dixie Square. It's pretty cool. Well, the other one
22:38
Speaker 1: you have in there was Avondale Mall close to where
22:41
Speaker 1: I grew up, and that famously had the chase scene
22:45
Speaker 1: from Invasion USA. Oh yeah, Chuck Norris drove a truck
22:49
Speaker 1: through that mall. I did not know that. And the mall.
22:51
Speaker 1: It was kind of crappy, and I was a kid.
22:52
Speaker 1: I remember when it shot there and then they got
22:54
Speaker 1: like a full makeover because of the movie, and uh
22:58
Speaker 1: now it's to Walmart. They tore down. Yeah, that's kind
23:01
Speaker 1: of a crappy mall. Well, it looked pretty cool abandoned. Yeah,
23:04
Speaker 1: it looks very cool. Um. Another case back to the A. C.
23:09
Speaker 1: L U. West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnett
23:12
Speaker 1: in nt UH school board expelled two thousand students Jehovah's
23:18
Speaker 1: Witness students because they refused to recite the Pledge of
23:22
Speaker 1: Allegiance because it um their religion, forbade worshiping images including
23:27
Speaker 1: the U. S. Flag, and they won the case. Um,
23:30
Speaker 1: the Supreme Court said that you can't force someone to
23:34
Speaker 1: declare your belief in any religion or nation, which goes
23:38
Speaker 1: back to you know, it may be unpopular in certain circles,
23:42
Speaker 1: but you can't say you're a free country and then
23:46
Speaker 1: you can practice any religion you want, but then force
23:49
Speaker 1: people to contradict that religion. You know, if this is
23:54
Speaker 1: the land of the free, you have to allow You
23:56
Speaker 1: may not like it. I'm not saying everyone has to
23:58
Speaker 1: like this stuff, but it's a pretty slope if you
24:00
Speaker 1: start restricting these freedoms. Can you imagine telling some little
24:03
Speaker 1: Jehovah's witness kid like, Well, then you can't go to
24:06
Speaker 1: school here. If you're not going to say the Pledge
24:08
Speaker 1: of Allegiance, you have no right to educate. It's man,
24:12
Speaker 1: this country's got not so history. Um what else? Uh?
24:18
Speaker 1: Joseph Burston inc. Versus Wilson's one of my favorites. Well,
24:23
Speaker 1: basically there's this movie, uh released here in the U s.
24:26
Speaker 1: As The Miracle, but it was titled in Europe a
24:30
Speaker 1: More with an E on the INSA maybe a more
24:33
Speaker 1: A yeah, you know what. The deal with the movie
24:34
Speaker 1: was a lady who she had a mental illness and
24:39
Speaker 1: thought she was the virgin Mary. Well, she she had
24:41
Speaker 1: too much to drink. Oh, I read mental illness. Well,
24:44
Speaker 1: she was applied with with drink and then had sex
24:47
Speaker 1: with a vagabond she thought was St. Joseph, who was
24:51
Speaker 1: played by Federico Fellini, who co wrote it. I believe, yeah,
24:55
Speaker 1: but did not direct it and got pregnant and believed
24:58
Speaker 1: that was an immaculate concept. Right. So the Catholics in
25:02
Speaker 1: the fifties done. They did not like the movie, and
25:05
Speaker 1: they had a lot of cloud in New York at
25:07
Speaker 1: the time. And in New York, if you were a
25:09
Speaker 1: movie theater and you're planning on showing the Miracle, uh,
25:12
Speaker 1: the city said, well, we're just gonna take your your
25:15
Speaker 1: license to show movies in general. If you do that,
25:18
Speaker 1: do not show this movie. Some places in New York
25:21
Speaker 1: where like, this movie's banned. You can't even carry it
25:24
Speaker 1: into our city borders if you want to. Um. And
25:28
Speaker 1: they took it the A c. L. You stepped in
25:31
Speaker 1: and they took it to the Supreme Court, and the
25:33
Speaker 1: Supreme Court said, the state has this is a quote,
25:36
Speaker 1: the state has no legitimate interest in protecting any or
25:39
Speaker 1: all religions from views distasteful of them. So they said,
25:43
Speaker 1: you're right, A c. L. You. That was a big
25:45
Speaker 1: deal because at the time, religion was basically this kind
25:50
Speaker 1: of infallible institution that took precedent over everything else. The
25:54
Speaker 1: it was the the the moral attitude of the country
25:59
Speaker 1: where it was like, note, religions offended by it, it's bad. Sorry,
26:02
Speaker 1: whatever laws you've got that like protect this stupid little movie.
26:06
Speaker 1: Who cares, We're banning it because it's it offends a
26:10
Speaker 1: religion and because of that and many other things that
26:13
Speaker 1: Catholic League UH and its leader Bill Donahoe UM are
26:18
Speaker 1: huge critics of the a c l U, although he's
26:21
Speaker 1: also um praised the A c l You when when
26:24
Speaker 1: they've defended Catholic rights too well, Larry Flint, remember he
26:28
Speaker 1: thought some of these same battles, and his attorney famously
26:31
Speaker 1: was like, I think he's kind of a scumbag too,
26:34
Speaker 1: and I think that he's a smart peddler and this
26:36
Speaker 1: stuff is disgusting. Edward Norton. Yeah, Like, but you can't, uh,
26:40
Speaker 1: you know, you can't say he can't do it. Yeah,
26:43
Speaker 1: that was a great movie except for Corney Love. Everything
26:46
Speaker 1: of everything, but Corny Love was great in that movie.
26:49
Speaker 1: Although I did like her A Man on the Moon
26:52
Speaker 1: for some reason, I don't. I don't like her much period.
26:55
Speaker 1: I'm not a fan. Really, do you like Corney Love? Okay?
27:00
Speaker 1: Um No, but that if I did the A c
27:03
Speaker 1: l you would defend my right to like Courtney Love
27:06
Speaker 1: despite it being really unpopular. That is true. H Smith V.
27:13
Speaker 1: All Right, the a c l U. UM. Basically what
27:16
Speaker 1: was going on there was they had what we're called
27:20
Speaker 1: white primaries, UH, the Democratic Party for their elections, and uh,
27:25
Speaker 1: it was illegal because it denied blacks a chance to
27:28
Speaker 1: uh to vote and to participate. That is exactly what
27:31
Speaker 1: it'sunded like. And um, previous to this court said Long said,
27:36
Speaker 1: political parties are private organizations. They're not subject to these
27:39
Speaker 1: antidiscrimination laws. But the Supreme Court did the right thing
27:42
Speaker 1: and said, you know what, being able to participate in
27:46
Speaker 1: the voting primaries important in this country and if we
27:49
Speaker 1: want to remain a democracy, we need to not have
27:52
Speaker 1: things like white primaries. So we're going to reach into
27:55
Speaker 1: your protected enclave and say you can't do that any more. Yeah,
28:01
Speaker 1: because voting this that important. Yeah, which is kind of
28:04
Speaker 1: a radical view in and of itself because it overturned
28:07
Speaker 1: a precedent and custom. Yeah, I think we should do
28:10
Speaker 1: some more. Um. When I was in New York, I
28:12
Speaker 1: saw that play, The Cranston plays L B. J. And
28:16
Speaker 1: All the Way, and it covers the year the eleven
28:20
Speaker 1: months post Kennedy assassination to the his re election bid
28:25
Speaker 1: where he got the Civil Rights Act passed. And it
28:28
Speaker 1: was fascinating and did all kinds of research about it.
28:31
Speaker 1: Was Kranston good, He's great, like completely became the character
28:35
Speaker 1: like I forgot it was Cranston. And then after the play,
28:38
Speaker 1: you know, he becomes Brian Cranston again to thank everyone,
28:40
Speaker 1: and it's just like, it's weird just seeing an actor
28:42
Speaker 1: in front of your eyes, like morph back into the
28:45
Speaker 1: real person. It's pretty cool. But I want to definitely
28:49
Speaker 1: tackle some more civil rights issues because probably the darkest
28:53
Speaker 1: spot in our nation's history and been plenty of wasn't
28:57
Speaker 1: that long ago either. I can't remember who the person's name,
29:00
Speaker 1: but remember we were talking about Kent State and how
29:02
Speaker 1: that was like the darkest spot on our nation's history,
29:06
Speaker 1: and somebody wrote it was like that was pretty bad,
29:09
Speaker 1: but don't forget all of the strikes where you know,
29:12
Speaker 1: National Guard troops fired on and killed like a hundred
29:15
Speaker 1: striking workers just for striking in the twenties or whatever.
29:19
Speaker 1: So whoever that was, thanks for taking me to task,
29:21
Speaker 1: because that's absolutely correct. A lot of dark spots, a
29:24
Speaker 1: lot of dark spots, a lot of bright spots too,
29:27
Speaker 1: sure man. And with that cheery idea, let's take one
29:30
Speaker 1: more break. Okay, Sunshine, what do you got next? Uh? Well,
29:38
Speaker 1: I guess you talked about the Scopes trial or we
29:41
Speaker 1: did for a second. Um, some of the other most
29:42
Speaker 1: famous cases in this country's history. Like I know people
29:46
Speaker 1: that listen to our podcast on the Japanese and tournament camps. Yeah. Oh,
29:53
Speaker 1: and if you can't find it, just go to our
29:56
Speaker 1: archive page. We have an archive page now that has
29:59
Speaker 1: every single one of the six plus stuff you should
30:02
Speaker 1: Know episodes ever made, all in one place. Yeah. It
30:06
Speaker 1: took you know, six years to make that happen, but
30:08
Speaker 1: we're very proud of that. It's a stuff you should
30:10
Speaker 1: Know dot com slash podcast, slash archive, so you will
30:14
Speaker 1: find that one in there. Um, was it Japanese stragglers
30:16
Speaker 1: or do we do one on internment camps? We do
30:17
Speaker 1: one on internment Okay. That was when we FDR rounded
30:22
Speaker 1: up or ordered the government to round up people of
30:25
Speaker 1: Japanese descent, even some of whom were Americans, Like most
30:29
Speaker 1: of them were, Yeah, like natural born America enuane citizens
30:33
Speaker 1: to the relocation camps. And the a c l u
30:36
Speaker 1: UM jumped on this, and they were they were one
30:40
Speaker 1: of the only groups kind of standing up and saying
30:42
Speaker 1: this isn't right at the time. Yeah. They also had
30:45
Speaker 1: this whole campaign against calling French fries freedom fries, Like
30:50
Speaker 1: you can't call it that and everyone's like, boo, sit down,
30:53
Speaker 1: did they say that now? And then other famous cases
30:57
Speaker 1: like Brown the Board of Education and we Wade and
31:01
Speaker 1: Dobe Bolton. The a c l U was instrumental in
31:04
Speaker 1: all of these. Again, um, even though it's unpopular to
31:08
Speaker 1: some people. Fighting for the freedoms of the minorities. Yeah. Also, um,
31:13
Speaker 1: recently the the Communications Decency Act, which basically made it
31:18
Speaker 1: a crime to knowingly send pornography to minors or something
31:23
Speaker 1: like that. He said, Nope, that's you can't tell people
31:28
Speaker 1: they can't do that. That's freedom of speech. Yeah, it's
31:31
Speaker 1: like a Janet reno idea. And they got smacked down
31:35
Speaker 1: like overturned basically by the Supreme Court. Again, unpopular moves.
31:40
Speaker 1: They're not out to make friends though. No. And the
31:42
Speaker 1: one that I've got this is to me, the most
31:44
Speaker 1: despicable case that a c l U has ever taken.
31:47
Speaker 1: But take it however you want. Have you heard of
31:50
Speaker 1: Nambula the National man Boy there the North American Man
31:54
Speaker 1: Boy Love Association. So Namba Nambula is exactly what you think.
31:58
Speaker 1: It's basically a club for peders and their website is
32:02
Speaker 1: apparently it UH tutorial training Ground Forum chat room place
32:07
Speaker 1: to get tips on how to be a more effective
32:11
Speaker 1: pederast or pedophile. Uh. And these two guys um they
32:17
Speaker 1: are named Charles James and Salvator Sakari. They were convicted
32:22
Speaker 1: of murdering a couple's son, Jeffrey, and Um they basically
32:28
Speaker 1: said everything we needed to know we learned from Nambula,
32:32
Speaker 1: from the Nambula website. And so the Curlies, the people
32:35
Speaker 1: the couple whose son was murdered by these child murderers
32:39
Speaker 1: UH were went after Nambula and the a c l
32:43
Speaker 1: U intervened and said, Nambula is actually an unincorporated association,
32:48
Speaker 1: not a corporation, so it's allowed to extol illegal acts
32:52
Speaker 1: as long as it's not inciting people telling people to
32:56
Speaker 1: go do these illegal acts. It can still appreciate at
33:00
Speaker 1: these illegal accident if you look at their website, that's
33:02
Speaker 1: all they're doing. And the suit against NAMBLA has dismissed
33:06
Speaker 1: again not popular. You know, the l c c LU
33:10
Speaker 1: has to you know that they feel forced into some
33:13
Speaker 1: of these situations. Probably well, there's oftentimes been a lot
33:16
Speaker 1: of shakeups internally where people at the a c l
33:19
Speaker 1: You're saying, no, this is this is beyond the line,
33:23
Speaker 1: like they're there, this is just too wrong. What these
33:26
Speaker 1: people are saying is too despicable, and maybe we shouldn't
33:29
Speaker 1: be maybe they shouldn't be allowed to say it. And
33:32
Speaker 1: the a c l U as an organization has walked
33:35
Speaker 1: that line, lost a lot of members and a lot
33:37
Speaker 1: of supporters and a lot of employees, but it's stayed,
33:41
Speaker 1: you know, true to its vision and is still around today.
33:44
Speaker 1: All right, Let's say you want the a c l
33:46
Speaker 1: U to take up your cause. You have to write
33:48
Speaker 1: them a letter. You have to outline your problem, maybe
33:52
Speaker 1: provide a little evidence, build your case with them, and
33:55
Speaker 1: if it's not in modern language association accepted outline form,
34:00
Speaker 1: then they just won't even look at it. Probably so um.
34:04
Speaker 1: And they basically determine is it a civil liberties case
34:06
Speaker 1: that we should get involved with and how should we
34:09
Speaker 1: get involved? Um. They don't just go out and see everyone. Um.
34:12
Speaker 1: Most times they try to resolve the cases just by
34:16
Speaker 1: getting in touch with whoever the government agency and saying, hey, um,
34:21
Speaker 1: you might want to check out the constitution because it
34:23
Speaker 1: seems like what you're doing now isn't isn't so great
34:27
Speaker 1: and it might not even be Constitution Like it could be, Um,
34:31
Speaker 1: it could be like we we understand what you're saying,
34:33
Speaker 1: but recently there's some legislation passed and it's now law,
34:36
Speaker 1: and here's the code if you want to go look
34:38
Speaker 1: it up. But you can stop trampling this person's rights now,
34:42
Speaker 1: Like the the the staff member at the Reach program
34:45
Speaker 1: in Tennessee probably got a letter from the a c
34:48
Speaker 1: L year or the director did, saying, actually, it's within
34:52
Speaker 1: this child's First Amendment rights to read this Bible, so
34:55
Speaker 1: just let him read the Bible. And they were probably like,
34:57
Speaker 1: when we're not happy to let him read the bible's Tennessee.
35:00
Speaker 1: And there you go, and it was settled, you know. Yeah.
35:03
Speaker 1: Another way of looking at it, though, is the a
35:05
Speaker 1: c L you can just strong arm people into doing
35:07
Speaker 1: what it wants by simply writing a letter. Yeah, or
35:11
Speaker 1: if they, you know, think, don't get anywhere with the letter,
35:13
Speaker 1: that is when they either have a staff attorney or
35:17
Speaker 1: one of their pro bono volunteers take up the case. Um.
35:22
Speaker 1: Their headquartered in New York City. But like we said,
35:25
Speaker 1: every state has their own chapter and they do operate autonomously,
35:29
Speaker 1: and like we said earlier, they don't always agree with
35:31
Speaker 1: the federal chapter, and the federal chapter generally leads it
35:35
Speaker 1: up to the state to decide their own, like how
35:37
Speaker 1: they're going to raise their money, what cases are going
35:39
Speaker 1: to take um. But if it becomes a national like
35:43
Speaker 1: clearly a national issue, that's when the national organization steps
35:47
Speaker 1: in and get your like celebrity at turning into work
35:50
Speaker 1: pro bono. Yeah, dershu Witz, bob blah blaw. I guess
35:57
Speaker 1: we should talk about how they're funded. Because they're an profit. Um,
36:02
Speaker 1: they are generally funded by donations. The A CEL you
36:06
Speaker 1: Foundation is tax deductible, and that is the group that
36:09
Speaker 1: actually they're sort of split down the middle between the
36:12
Speaker 1: foundation and just the A c l U. The foundation
36:15
Speaker 1: is who litigates. The a c l U is uh
36:19
Speaker 1: focused on political lobbying, and that is not tax deductible. No,
36:23
Speaker 1: when you become an a C l you, remember you're
36:25
Speaker 1: actually contributing dues to the A c l U, and
36:29
Speaker 1: your dues are not tax deductible because you're contributing to
36:31
Speaker 1: their lobbying arm. If you contribute to the A C
36:34
Speaker 1: l YOU Foundation, then you can that is tax deductible. Yeah,
36:38
Speaker 1: And like supporting actual you know, court cases, they also
36:43
Speaker 1: maintain UM an endowment, so they have investments UM and
36:49
Speaker 1: most controversially, they're also supported through attorney's fees. Yeah. That's
36:54
Speaker 1: one of the big controversies for sure. Yeah. So the
36:56
Speaker 1: a c l U has a tactic where if they
36:58
Speaker 1: win a case, they to recover fees like many do. UM.
37:05
Speaker 1: And but when the a c l U does that, uh,
37:09
Speaker 1: it's often these fees can run into six figures fairly
37:12
Speaker 1: easily depending on the case. UM. And so if you're
37:15
Speaker 1: like a little town, you know in Cannon County, Tennessee, Uh,
37:20
Speaker 1: if you want to stand up to the a c
37:22
Speaker 1: l U, it could very easily mean the difference between
37:25
Speaker 1: being in the red and being in the black. UM.
37:28
Speaker 1: And if you are, you very well may just say, like,
37:33
Speaker 1: forget it, it's not worth it. We can't afford to
37:35
Speaker 1: fight this. So yes, let's we'll turn our back on
37:37
Speaker 1: our convictions because we want to still have a town
37:39
Speaker 1: after the a c LU comes through here. Yeah. And
37:42
Speaker 1: that's what critics point to, is that they use that
37:44
Speaker 1: UM card is a form of intimidation, Like they can
37:49
Speaker 1: just say that in that letter, Like, first of all,
37:51
Speaker 1: here's the legislation that proves our client is right. Secondly,
37:55
Speaker 1: if you want to take this to court, our estimate
37:57
Speaker 1: is that it's gonna cost you six thousand dollars if
38:00
Speaker 1: we win. Do you really want to spend six thousand
38:02
Speaker 1: dollars fighting this? Yeah? Think about it. Yeah, Huh get
38:07
Speaker 1: back to me. I've left three boxes, yes, no, or
38:10
Speaker 1: maybe please check one by E O D tomorrow well
38:14
Speaker 1: and then the other. The other criticism there, of course,
38:18
Speaker 1: is uh, that is government money. It's your tax banging
38:21
Speaker 1: dollars indirectly funding the a c l U through these cases. So, um,
38:27
Speaker 1: you know, if you hate the a c l U,
38:29
Speaker 1: you're gonna probably bang that drum. I mean, imagine if
38:32
Speaker 1: your town says, yeah, we're gonna fight you, and then
38:35
Speaker 1: they lose and they have to pay the A c
38:36
Speaker 1: l USE fees. Yeah, that that's not that's not coming
38:39
Speaker 1: out of the mayor's like savings. That's like your tax money.
38:42
Speaker 1: So you just paid this organization that you now probably despise. Yeah,
38:48
Speaker 1: let's say a c l you man, that's like that's
38:52
Speaker 1: classic a CLU right there. You know. So where did
38:56
Speaker 1: this whole card carrying member uh insult come from? Michael
39:01
Speaker 1: du Cacus? Of course, from what that's what the article
39:04
Speaker 1: said that he was the first person to probably proclaimed
39:07
Speaker 1: to be a card carrying member. Yeah, and it happened
39:09
Speaker 1: like just perfectly. It was du Caucus in an interview
39:12
Speaker 1: in The New Yorker talking about the a c l U. Yeah,
39:16
Speaker 1: come on, Uh so he says he's a card carrying member.
39:20
Speaker 1: He said proudly that he was a card carrying member
39:22
Speaker 1: of the a c l U to just basically to
39:24
Speaker 1: get across his liberal bona fides. Yeah, and conservatives said, hey,
39:28
Speaker 1: that's a great insult that we can use in the future.
39:31
Speaker 1: George H. W. Bush in particular, he basically said, he's
39:34
Speaker 1: a card carrying member the a c l U. Everybody
39:36
Speaker 1: hates the a c l U. They defend Nazis, and
39:39
Speaker 1: that was that. He's right, Yeah, they do defend Nazis. Yeah,
39:44
Speaker 1: or they have and they will in the future of
39:48
Speaker 1: some Nazis need help, Yeah, to the rescue. But they're
39:52
Speaker 1: also defending little boy and Tennessee, he wants to read
39:55
Speaker 1: his Bible. That's right. It's all over the map, yep.
39:57
Speaker 1: And that is called device. Uh yeah. If you are
40:03
Speaker 1: you anything else, I got nothing else. If you want to,
40:05
Speaker 1: I love this one. If you want to learn more
40:07
Speaker 1: about the A C L you you can type that
40:08
Speaker 1: word in the search part how stuff works dot com
40:11
Speaker 1: And I said search part. So it's time for the
40:13
Speaker 1: listener mail. I'm gonna call this converted fiance. Uh. And
40:18
Speaker 1: this is a gentleman from England who whose wife I'm sorry, fiance, Kathy,
40:23
Speaker 1: I did not want to listen. They're getting married in May. Um.
40:27
Speaker 1: So he talks a little bit about how much he
40:29
Speaker 1: likes the show and I will skip that part and
40:32
Speaker 1: get right to the meat. Um. I tried to get
40:35
Speaker 1: my fiance converted. It started with the JFK podcast, with
40:38
Speaker 1: no luck. She moaned and said it was weird, which
40:43
Speaker 1: I thought that was a very straight ahead podcast actually. Uh.
40:46
Speaker 1: Not being one to quit, I tried a few weeks
40:48
Speaker 1: later on Living Without a Fridge. Um. As soon as
40:51
Speaker 1: the intro began, she groaned, he's moaning and groaning. Has
40:55
Speaker 1: she ever heard us before? No, this is brand new
40:58
Speaker 1: to her. What's your deal, Kathy? She hate it, said, well,
41:01
Speaker 1: let me get to it. Um this time. Halfway through, though,
41:04
Speaker 1: she began commenting on some of the content, such as
41:07
Speaker 1: placing your onions in the fridge against all odds and
41:10
Speaker 1: next podcast saved on the playlist was man Hunts. As
41:13
Speaker 1: soon as she heard the topic, she shut me up
41:15
Speaker 1: from talking and listened intently. Not bad, I thought, I
41:19
Speaker 1: didn't even think that was one of our better ones. Well,
41:21
Speaker 1: she liked it. Uh. This morning, though, was the breakthrough.
41:24
Speaker 1: We were in the supermarket and wanted to purchase some avocados.
41:27
Speaker 1: None were ripe, and Cathy said we could do that
41:30
Speaker 1: thing that bloke suggested and put the avocados in a
41:32
Speaker 1: paper bag in a banana to help it ripen. She
41:36
Speaker 1: took your advice, so while I thought. Later in the
41:39
Speaker 1: morning she was reading about how time was running out
41:43
Speaker 1: to find the signal for the missing black Box from
41:45
Speaker 1: flight three seventy. She turned to me and asked why
41:48
Speaker 1: they couldn't find the signal, and I said, you know
41:51
Speaker 1: what stuff you should know has a podcast on that.
41:54
Speaker 1: And the next day, in the car ride to the
41:56
Speaker 1: cinema which is what they called Movies and England, which
42:00
Speaker 1: apparently are forty minutes drive away, she said, uh. She
42:05
Speaker 1: requested to actually play the black Box episode success. Well,
42:08
Speaker 1: this guy really knows how to manipulate his fiance, so
42:12
Speaker 1: he says, if any of your listeners have had trouble
42:14
Speaker 1: getting their partners into it. I would suggest you keep trying.
42:17
Speaker 1: Eventually you'll find an episode or two that will capture
42:20
Speaker 1: their interest and they'll be hooked. And that is from
42:22
Speaker 1: guy uh ben Venista in Horsham, UK. Nice name and
42:29
Speaker 1: city name, guy. So thanks Kathy for joining up to
42:33
Speaker 1: the to the club. Kathy soon to be ben Venista,
42:37
Speaker 1: Welcome to the party. Yes, I think Kathy's gonna keep
42:39
Speaker 1: herung man. Well, okay, Kathy, either way, as long as
42:42
Speaker 1: you're listening to stuff you should know, we don't care. Uh.
42:45
Speaker 1: If you want to let us know how you turn
42:47
Speaker 1: somebody converted them, or if they you just can't convert them,
42:51
Speaker 1: we'd be very interested to find out why. I agreed,
42:54
Speaker 1: Why why don't they like us? It's not like we
42:56
Speaker 1: care or anything, but you know, we just want to
42:58
Speaker 1: know you. Again. As I said, you can hang out
43:02
Speaker 1: with us on social media Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook. Just
43:07
Speaker 1: search your favorite web browser for stuff you should know
43:09
Speaker 1: s y, s K, Josh and Chuck something like that
43:11
Speaker 1: and it should all come up. You can send us
43:13
Speaker 1: an email to Stuff Podcast at Discovery dot com, and
43:17
Speaker 1: as always, hang out with us at our home on
43:18
Speaker 1: the Web Stuff you Should Know dot com for more
43:26
Speaker 1: on this and thousands of other topics. Is It How
43:29
Speaker 1: stuff Works? Dot com