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Slum Tourists: When Wealthy People Toured Chinatown ‘For Fun’ · Ridiculous History

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Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Ye,
0:27
Speaker 1: welcome back to the show, Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as
0:30
Speaker 1: always so much for tuning in. That's the one and
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Speaker 1: only Mr Max Williams. But he's not on a zoom call,
0:37
Speaker 1: is he. No, you're like pointing to it like corporeally,
0:41
Speaker 1: you know, Yes, that's right, Your your pals, your Ridiculous Historians,
0:46
Speaker 1: Noel Brown, Max Williams, me the one they called Ben.
0:50
Speaker 1: We are together physically in a room, and it's something
0:53
Speaker 1: that we can all appreciate now after all those zoom
0:57
Speaker 1: calls or Microsoft team call halls, riverside calls. Yeah, it's
1:04
Speaker 1: kind of funny how it's become like a novelty almost,
1:06
Speaker 1: you know, being in a room with people. But hey,
1:09
Speaker 1: is starting to ease up and become a little more normalized.
1:12
Speaker 1: And I love this to be a regular thing. I mean,
1:14
Speaker 1: we got the mood lighting here, you know, we had
1:17
Speaker 1: a vibe. We were just hanging out earlier because we're
1:19
Speaker 1: the only people in the office. Uh. Yeah. It was
1:23
Speaker 1: especially nice when I was recording some vo in a
1:25
Speaker 1: separate studio and Ben just kicked in the door, like Max,
1:27
Speaker 1: that needs you right now. Yeah, Yeah, I hope that
1:29
Speaker 1: makes it into the ephemeral episode you're working on. Were
1:32
Speaker 1: you hulking out, Ben? That's my secret, knowl I'm always
1:35
Speaker 1: kind of hulking out. We have a oh man, so
1:40
Speaker 1: spoiler alert. We're all excited here because we have a
1:44
Speaker 1: long weekend coming up. We're recording on a Friday. The
1:47
Speaker 1: reason we have a long weekend is because we get
1:49
Speaker 1: the day off for President's Day. Yeah, and I sort
1:52
Speaker 1: of like did a little like, is that is it
1:56
Speaker 1: George Washington's birthday? Is that what President's Day is? Between
1:59
Speaker 1: Abraham Lincoln and George Washington? I believe, I believe, or
2:03
Speaker 1: maybe there's a third one also, but I know it's
2:05
Speaker 1: like a date between all theirs. I don't think it's
2:07
Speaker 1: anyone's birthday, and particular which one was the one that
2:10
Speaker 1: definitely didn't cut down the cherry tree. Uh and probably
2:14
Speaker 1: did at some point deceive or lie to people. But
2:17
Speaker 1: I thought President's Day was officially George Washington's birthday. I
2:21
Speaker 1: thought so too, But what do I know? Well, you know,
2:23
Speaker 1: happy birthday George if you're here in this, uh, if
2:26
Speaker 1: you're hearing this later, uh. Today we are going to
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Speaker 1: talk about something that is near and dear to my
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Speaker 1: heart at least I suspect all three of us. And
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Speaker 1: that is New York's Chinatown. It's a really cool place
2:39
Speaker 1: Mulberry Street, you know. I mean there's a really cool
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Speaker 1: divide between Chinatown and like little Italy. That's interesting how
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Speaker 1: they can kind of coexist. But man, you can get
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Speaker 1: some really great, cheap, incredible food in Chinatown. You also
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Speaker 1: get some really prizy food in Chinatown. But like there's
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Speaker 1: I wish I could remember the name of the place.
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Speaker 1: There's a place in particular that I just love. It's
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Speaker 1: like absurdly but it's this like northern Chinese cuisine, I believe,
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Speaker 1: where the noodles lamb and the noodles are all very long.
3:06
Speaker 1: There's no separation. It's just like one big giant noodle.
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Speaker 1: You know. You have to kind of like cut it
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Speaker 1: with your teeth. Uh a k to it. I guess, yeah,
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Speaker 1: masticate if you want to sound fancy. Yeah, I was,
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Speaker 1: you know, I was telling you guys, I was just
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Speaker 1: in New York recently for Lunar New Year, and I
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Speaker 1: was all over China Town. They're probably sick of me
3:24
Speaker 1: by this point, isn't that what they do the thing
3:26
Speaker 1: with like the dragons and stuff, and they bang the
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Speaker 1: pots and pans. They're all kinds of cool celebrations. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: but this the Chinatown that you will see today if
3:35
Speaker 1: you travel to the Chinatown in Manhattan. It's come a
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Speaker 1: long way. It's it's very different, uh, in comparison to
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Speaker 1: the earlier China Town, but it still maintains a really
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Speaker 1: cool cultural identity, you know. I mean there's all these
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Speaker 1: like very interesting, authentic little hole in the wall spots
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Speaker 1: that you can check out. There's obviously lots of legacy
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Speaker 1: kind of grandfathered businesses that probably wouldn't exist if they
3:59
Speaker 1: did have rent control or like owned the buildings from
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Speaker 1: like generations back. You know, that's one thing that's neat
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Speaker 1: about New York. It's still parts of it maintain that
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Speaker 1: very authentic cultural atmosphere. And this, Oh I love these
4:12
Speaker 1: said that because this goes into one of the key
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Speaker 1: parts of today's story, the idea of authenticity versus performance. So, uh,
4:22
Speaker 1: this is a true story, folks, and it may be um,
4:26
Speaker 1: you know, you may be offended when you hear it.
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Speaker 1: We certainly were not impressed with some of the people
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Speaker 1: in this story. But travel back with us to the
4:34
Speaker 1: early twentieth century. And let's say you are You've got
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Speaker 1: some friends or family coming in from out of town,
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Speaker 1: and you're doing pretty well. You're up middle class, you know,
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Speaker 1: like your your brother, your sister and their families coming
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Speaker 1: and they're like, oh, you know, we're in New York.
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Speaker 1: What do we what should we do for fun? And
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Speaker 1: you're like, I have an idea. Let's go see how
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Speaker 1: the other half live. Let's go watch poor people for fun.
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Speaker 1: That's the real thing. I don't know if anyone's I mean,
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Speaker 1: I've I've heard this term for years and and and
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Speaker 1: like many terms like this, you sometimes don't even think
5:07
Speaker 1: to question the atomology of it. But the term slumming
5:10
Speaker 1: turns out it has a very rich, problematic past. Um.
5:14
Speaker 1: You know, when people say, are you you're slumming sort
5:17
Speaker 1: of implies that you're hanging out beneath your station or
5:20
Speaker 1: something like for a lark kind of that's exactly what
5:23
Speaker 1: it means. And it turns out that the idea of
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Speaker 1: slumming started with something called slum tourism, which it feels
5:30
Speaker 1: kind of inhumane, doesn't it. And your your spot on
5:34
Speaker 1: if you go to the Oxford English Dictionary. You'll see
5:37
Speaker 1: that slumming was added to the big canonical list of
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Speaker 1: spoken English in the eighteen sixties. And it means just
5:45
Speaker 1: what you describe nol to go into or frequent slums
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Speaker 1: for discredible purposes, to saunter about with a suspicion perhaps
5:54
Speaker 1: of it. Moor pursuits, sure, and that. Yeah, but we're
5:58
Speaker 1: talking about today, isn't even more weirdly sanitized version of that.
6:03
Speaker 1: Not You're not necessarily seeking the true immoral pursuits. You're
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Speaker 1: just hoping to catch a glimpse of it. You know.
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Speaker 1: Again for like your own amusements, hills and thrills. At
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Speaker 1: the next cocktails sware you can say, you know, rutherfood
6:17
Speaker 1: and I actually did go to China Tao and there
6:21
Speaker 1: was a bit of violence about a bit of a
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Speaker 1: Malay We so we consider ours somewhat authorities. But yeah,
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Speaker 1: this idea was not nor uh not originally us creation.
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Speaker 1: It came from well to do people in London who
6:38
Speaker 1: since the eighteen forties were like, do you know what
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Speaker 1: we should do? We should go see those rapscallions ned
6:46
Speaker 1: Wells at the East End. What a lock, What a
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Speaker 1: lock it would be? Got to do the love the
6:53
Speaker 1: upper class titters what I call that there it is.
6:55
Speaker 1: I love that. I like picturing that character is in
6:58
Speaker 1: all these scenes. It's just changeable. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It
7:03
Speaker 1: does become kind of a case of parallel thinking, though,
7:05
Speaker 1: because the the practical knowledge here is not necessarily that
7:10
Speaker 1: New Yorkers were copying what was going on in London.
7:13
Speaker 1: It's just sort of like a weird, gross facet of
7:17
Speaker 1: human nature to want to do weird stuff like this, right, yeah,
7:21
Speaker 1: And was this good for the people who actually did
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Speaker 1: have to live in these slums, you know, and spend
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Speaker 1: their days they're working well? Unfortunately, according to multiple articles
7:33
Speaker 1: for everything from Atlas Obscurity to the National Geographic and
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Speaker 1: The New York Times, apparently it didn't help them out
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Speaker 1: a lot. Like maybe someone would say, I was so
7:45
Speaker 1: moved by how bad things looked in the tenements that
7:49
Speaker 1: I think I can lobby my political friends to do
7:52
Speaker 1: something about it. But um, and there were also things Okay,
7:56
Speaker 1: I'm going somewhere with this. You remember how during the
7:59
Speaker 1: Pen Dimmock there was this big stink when a bunch
8:02
Speaker 1: of celebrities made a video I think they were singing.
8:06
Speaker 1: It was like a weird of the world. Yeah, there's
8:09
Speaker 1: Believe and Uh talking about how difficult it was to
8:13
Speaker 1: live in their mansions during the pandemic and every must
8:16
Speaker 1: be so hard for you, right right, poor poor guy.
8:20
Speaker 1: As well intentioned as that was, a lot of people
8:23
Speaker 1: found it offensive because they said, you know, we're out
8:25
Speaker 1: of work. I know someone who died. Your little Instagram
8:29
Speaker 1: video is not helping in danger of being ejected from
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Speaker 1: my apartment. Exactly, exactly, dude. So there there was something
8:37
Speaker 1: similar that happened with some of these slum tourism initiatives.
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Speaker 1: There were flower charities, so people would go to these
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Speaker 1: really poor parts of town and they would give flowers
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Speaker 1: two people who had terrible lives. Maybe like give the
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Speaker 1: money instead, or like food or something. What are they
8:55
Speaker 1: gonna do with the flowers? Yeah, give the give them
8:58
Speaker 1: access to healthcare and education. It's the show we care.
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Speaker 1: The Times said, what a pleasure it must be to
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Speaker 1: a sufferer in prison to one of these tenements to
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Speaker 1: receive a flower with its color and its green leaves
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Speaker 1: and stimm Are they being serious or are they being ironic?
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Speaker 1: They can't really tell. I hope ironic, but I think serious. Yeah. Also, guys,
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Speaker 1: I want to jump back in. I said, believe it's
9:24
Speaker 1: actually imagine, but I don't know. Those kind of sound
9:26
Speaker 1: the same to me. Imagine believe potato clamato exactly. Just
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Speaker 1: so so the American version. I like what you said
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Speaker 1: about parallel thinking, because the American version probably started in Manhattan,
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Speaker 1: and we found uh, we found you guys quoted pretty
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Speaker 1: often in this professor Chad Heap, who was an American
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Speaker 1: studies professor at George Washington University. He says it's not
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Speaker 1: clear that New Yorkers were copying things they read about
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Speaker 1: or heard about from London. While slummy manifested itself across
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Speaker 1: the American landscape, New York and Chicago were the pre
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Speaker 1: eminent places if you want to go. It's like if
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Speaker 1: you want to go gamble in the US, you want
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Speaker 1: to go to Vegas. Do you want to do some
10:12
Speaker 1: slum tourism, You're going to the Big Apple or Chicago. Yeah.
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Speaker 1: I love this guy's named Chad Heap. What it was
10:19
Speaker 1: a great name for someone exploring you know the heap,
10:23
Speaker 1: you know, the trash heap of human civilization, I mean
10:27
Speaker 1: nominative determinism. Indeed, he wrote a book called Slumming, Sexual
10:31
Speaker 1: and racial encounters in American nightlife. Eight. We'll get to
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Speaker 1: the kind of silver lining of all this, how it
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Speaker 1: did in some small way open up kind of more
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Speaker 1: progressive thinking around other cultures and you know, the idea
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Speaker 1: of people less fortunate or whatever. And also again, like
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Speaker 1: a lot of these people that were living in these
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Speaker 1: slums were disenfranchised, not only because of their race, because
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Speaker 1: of sexuality. You know, there were a lot of gay
10:56
Speaker 1: folks that were not allowed to exist within politesisty, and
11:00
Speaker 1: they were sort of relegated to these fringes and kind
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Speaker 1: of became oh, look, mommy are gay, you know, wow? Yeah,
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Speaker 1: like that there would be other exoticized, but they were
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Speaker 1: still wildly marginalized and disenfranchised. You shouldn't treat people like
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Speaker 1: zoo exhibits. Nope, I don't think that's a hot take, yea.
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Speaker 1: And this also goes hand in hand with another episode
11:23
Speaker 1: we did quite a while back about just generally this
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Speaker 1: weird racist and exoticization of Chinatown and Chinese people in
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Speaker 1: New York and the idea of these chop suey houses
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Speaker 1: that became kind of these Americanized, sanitized versions of like
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Speaker 1: real Chinese cuisine. Um, it was a way to make money,
11:44
Speaker 1: but it was also a way to like make it palatable,
11:47
Speaker 1: you know for Americans in not a pandery way, but
11:51
Speaker 1: in like this is what it's going to take for
11:52
Speaker 1: us to like survive and make money. And um, it's
11:55
Speaker 1: very very interesting. That's it's a good episode, I think
11:57
Speaker 1: if you want to go back and check that out.
11:59
Speaker 1: It gives a little more um contact to some of
12:01
Speaker 1: the things we're gonna talk about today. Yeah, yeah, you're right,
12:04
Speaker 1: and they're not entirely pleasant, but they are stories that
12:06
Speaker 1: do need to be told. So you can see the
12:09
Speaker 1: popularity of slum tourism. You can study it in the
12:13
Speaker 1: media of the day, like newspapers such as The New
12:16
Speaker 1: York Times would love to talk about how this was
12:20
Speaker 1: a fashionable London mania and slumming parties. We're going to
12:24
Speaker 1: be the rage in winter in New York like a
12:28
Speaker 1: like a tour, like a guided tour. Oh let's watch
12:32
Speaker 1: them freeze, shall we. It's like it's terrible. Oh no,
12:37
Speaker 1: it's fine. We're giving everyone a flower. So if you
12:41
Speaker 1: stitch enough of them together you can make a blanket. Yes, terrible.
12:47
Speaker 1: So the neighborhood, So what neighborhoods would they go to
12:51
Speaker 1: Lower Side was a big one. Yeah, Loris Side tenements
12:56
Speaker 1: also Harlem and also for our purposes today in a town.
13:00
Speaker 1: And the weirdest thing is, imagine this. If you've ever
13:04
Speaker 1: lived in an apartment, imagine if someone busted into your
13:09
Speaker 1: house and then looked around and told you you were
13:14
Speaker 1: an inspiration and they left the flower and then just
13:18
Speaker 1: beat me. Here Max fucked off. You can't press charges.
13:23
Speaker 1: These are well to do people in the city. You know,
13:25
Speaker 1: what are what are you gonna Historically people who are
13:29
Speaker 1: financially disadvantaged get not the best treatment from police. No um.
13:35
Speaker 1: And then to be verily, anyone was kicking down any doors.
13:37
Speaker 1: I think it was more like peeking in windows and
13:39
Speaker 1: things like that. They were creepy, but maybe not quite
13:43
Speaker 1: as extremely as just same. But here's the kicker. It
13:45
Speaker 1: became a known thing that this was very popular and
13:50
Speaker 1: people were expecting a certain kind of experience, right, they
14:00
Speaker 1: would not be happy if they didn't see, you know,
14:03
Speaker 1: a crime being committed, or like a sex worker being
14:07
Speaker 1: menaced by some sort of bemp you know, like, so
14:11
Speaker 1: what happens? Yeah, Like imagine I go back to that
14:14
Speaker 1: that horrible zoo comparison conservation wildlife thing, Like imagine you're
14:19
Speaker 1: on one of those trips or you're like on a
14:21
Speaker 1: whale watching thing, and then you say, this is malarkey.
14:26
Speaker 1: I can't believe I spent all afternoon in Harlem and
14:29
Speaker 1: I didn't see one crime. I want my money back.
14:35
Speaker 1: So these these scenarios started to become staged. Yes they
14:42
Speaker 1: did to an alarmingly theatrical degree. Yes. Yeah, a lot
14:46
Speaker 1: of what people saw was really like day in the
14:50
Speaker 1: life of people who lived in these areas. But some
14:54
Speaker 1: residents saw an opportunity and that this cottage industry arose
14:59
Speaker 1: where they said, hey, we're gonna make sure we keep
15:01
Speaker 1: people here, keep them interested, and that they keep spending money. Uh.
15:05
Speaker 1: A lot of people were unethical in this whole industry,
15:08
Speaker 1: Like I think we should mention part of what like
15:11
Speaker 1: one of the grips that slum tourists would do as
15:14
Speaker 1: they pretend to be charity workers and not actually help
15:17
Speaker 1: people anyway. This is the interesting part. They were like, Okay,
15:21
Speaker 1: these rich, very out of touch folks want to see scandal,
15:26
Speaker 1: they want to see something that reinforces the rampant sexual
15:30
Speaker 1: and racial stereotypes. Well, and they're already coming into our
15:33
Speaker 1: little bubble. I mean, let's let's not forget these areas
15:37
Speaker 1: rose up out of necessity because these people were marginalized
15:40
Speaker 1: and treated very poorly, so they kind of had to
15:43
Speaker 1: band together and create their own. You know, society is
15:46
Speaker 1: kind of like within the larger society. So to have
15:50
Speaker 1: all these outsiders just kind of trapesing through willy nilly
15:53
Speaker 1: and gawking, uh is offensive, patently offensive. So you know,
15:58
Speaker 1: why not take advantage of it and make a buck? Yeah,
16:01
Speaker 1: And the way you would make a buck is to
16:03
Speaker 1: open a authentic bar or restaurant, and it would stay
16:07
Speaker 1: open way later than it would if it were just
16:11
Speaker 1: for normal people in neighborhood. They've got to get up early,
16:13
Speaker 1: go to work, so things are going to close around
16:16
Speaker 1: dinner time, right, or people are going to eat at
16:19
Speaker 1: home because you can't afford a ton of stuff in restaurants,
16:22
Speaker 1: so they made these fake authentic things. And and Dr Heap,
16:27
Speaker 1: Professor Heap says a lot of these, especially in Chinatown,
16:32
Speaker 1: weren't even really owned by Chinese Americans or Chinese immigrants.
16:36
Speaker 1: That's right. And again we we mentioned the very close
16:39
Speaker 1: proximity of Little Italy to Chinatown, so there was you know,
16:44
Speaker 1: money to be made from folks that were in that
16:46
Speaker 1: adjacent community. So yeah, these chop suey houses that were
16:50
Speaker 1: kind of it's I think he is who described it
16:52
Speaker 1: as bastardized Cantonese cooking. You know, it was something that
16:57
Speaker 1: really catered to these sort of you know, maybe so
17:00
Speaker 1: what adventurous eaters, but also wasn't nearly the real deal
17:05
Speaker 1: as far as like what actual Cantonese cooking would have been. Um,
17:08
Speaker 1: it was palatable enough for them to try it, and
17:11
Speaker 1: it actually became wildly popular. We talked, we talked about
17:14
Speaker 1: that in the other episode more than we will today.
17:16
Speaker 1: But it's spread, you know, like wildfire. Um. But exactly
17:20
Speaker 1: in the same way that a lot of Americanized Chinese
17:22
Speaker 1: joints today aren't authentic at all. And a lot of
17:26
Speaker 1: those dishes, like I believe, like General so Chicken very
17:29
Speaker 1: much in American creation, in the same way that a
17:31
Speaker 1: lot of Indian dishes in the UK are very much um,
17:36
Speaker 1: English creations, right right. Yeah, there are fantastic videos you
17:41
Speaker 1: can watch. I think there's still up on YouTube of
17:43
Speaker 1: people who actually are from China or grew up in China.
17:47
Speaker 1: Trying American Chinese food for the first time. And it's
17:50
Speaker 1: not to say they automatically hated or anything. They're just like,
17:53
Speaker 1: what is this supposed to be? It reminds me of
17:57
Speaker 1: the character that Eugene Levy plays in Believe It's No,
18:01
Speaker 1: It's the Best Show. Now he's a travel agent, but
18:04
Speaker 1: he's never left the country. Yeah, I think he's waiting
18:06
Speaker 1: for guff member. They're at dinner and he's like, you know,
18:08
Speaker 1: I went to China and the food there it's just
18:11
Speaker 1: not as good. They don't make a sauce as as
18:13
Speaker 1: as sweet and tangy as they do over here. Exactly.
18:17
Speaker 1: That's exactly what happened. And so these slummers, when I
18:21
Speaker 1: say slummers, we're talking about the slum tourists. They would
18:25
Speaker 1: get fixers or guides, or they would join organized groups
18:29
Speaker 1: slump Yeah, the exactly unfortunately, yes, uh. And these fixers,
18:36
Speaker 1: these guides would have the would already have a plan
18:40
Speaker 1: or an itinerary, and they would take them to like
18:42
Speaker 1: the specialty restaurants. They also took them to bars and
18:46
Speaker 1: brothels that were especially for slumbers. They were accustomed to
18:50
Speaker 1: receiving that type of clientele because you know, let's let's
18:53
Speaker 1: get into like opium dens. You know, that was very
18:55
Speaker 1: much a thing. They were these particular types of bar
18:58
Speaker 1: kind of situations where people were smoking opium. But you
19:02
Speaker 1: wouldn't if you're proprietor of a place like that. You
19:05
Speaker 1: don't want some lookie lou popping in just to like
19:07
Speaker 1: gaulk it. You know, these like opium addicts that are
19:10
Speaker 1: all like passed out on the floor. You would be
19:13
Speaker 1: resentful of that, especially if they weren't like dropping down
19:16
Speaker 1: some cash to like, you know, get stoned out of
19:19
Speaker 1: their gourds exactly. And out of towners could get duped
19:25
Speaker 1: or ripped off with this. There's a quote from James
19:29
Speaker 1: Clarence Harvey in nineteen o five. He was a poet
19:31
Speaker 1: and he said slumming usually means paying a price to
19:35
Speaker 1: see others do things you wouldn't do yourself for the world,
19:39
Speaker 1: and which perhaps they wouldn't do except for the price
19:42
Speaker 1: you pay. So that's from that outlice obscure article, I
19:46
Speaker 1: think slumming Chinatown, New York history and fake opium dens,
19:50
Speaker 1: you know, and also let's not forget if you were
19:52
Speaker 1: really truly experiencing you know, the real deal and you
19:57
Speaker 1: were like one of these rich people, you would be
19:59
Speaker 1: a tar get, you'd be a mark. So you needed
20:02
Speaker 1: to work in, you know, groups that would ensure your
20:05
Speaker 1: safety in the same way like when you go on
20:07
Speaker 1: a safari in Africa, you you're you're behind some glass
20:11
Speaker 1: and like a jeep, you know, like and then people
20:13
Speaker 1: are like making sure that you're not going to get
20:14
Speaker 1: mauled by a lion. The same is true here because
20:17
Speaker 1: you don't have experience on the Savanta. That's the whole point.
20:20
Speaker 1: You know, you're inexperienced and like very green, and someone's
20:24
Speaker 1: kind of giving you the tour because they know a
20:27
Speaker 1: what you want to see. They want to give you
20:29
Speaker 1: that authentic experience that you're paying for and be they
20:32
Speaker 1: want to make sure that you don't get murdered or
20:33
Speaker 1: mug so that you can pay bad for business. He
20:37
Speaker 1: gets to get a rap if like, oh, this slum
20:39
Speaker 1: tourist like people you know, several people they went in
20:42
Speaker 1: and they never came out, you know. Yeah. And one
20:44
Speaker 1: of the big things, one of the breakout stars of
20:46
Speaker 1: these visits, in this faux lifestyle that was being portrayed
20:50
Speaker 1: to people was the idea of the opium dead, and
20:53
Speaker 1: the opium didn't as a concept was sold to the
20:57
Speaker 1: slum tourists as though it were the central focus of
21:03
Speaker 1: life for Chinese immigrants and Chinese Americans in New York.
21:06
Speaker 1: Would be like, everybody hangs out at the opium den,
21:09
Speaker 1: That's where you get the real slice of life, which
21:11
Speaker 1: was patently untrue because you know who hangs out at
21:14
Speaker 1: opium Den's people who sell or consume opium. That's why
21:18
Speaker 1: it's in the name. They're not like, I'm not an
21:20
Speaker 1: opium guy, but the Fanta here is top notch. No.
21:24
Speaker 1: It also didn't have fanta back. I don't think fanta
21:27
Speaker 1: wasn't that like a World War Two inventions because it
21:30
Speaker 1: was like the version of coke that they could make
21:32
Speaker 1: in Germany using apple scraps. It wasn't even originally like
21:35
Speaker 1: an orange drink. And we've talked about that. Yeah, I don't.
21:38
Speaker 1: I do want to chime in. There are some people
21:40
Speaker 1: in this world who will get offended if you call
21:42
Speaker 1: it fanta. They say it is fonta fonta wanna fanta,
21:47
Speaker 1: don't you wanna? I guess it's not. Whena Fanta somewhere
21:54
Speaker 1: in the Upper Midwest, Hey, you when a fanta. Yeah, yeah,
21:57
Speaker 1: a little bit farther north than where I'm from. Yeah,
21:59
Speaker 1: that's it's problem. So it's like, whanna pop Phantom? Yeah exactly,
22:05
Speaker 1: so good, save good, save bats. And so this opium thing,
22:09
Speaker 1: the opium den image, um, it takes off. And there
22:15
Speaker 1: was one fake opium den that got very, very popular.
22:18
Speaker 1: It was owned by a guy named Chuck Connors. He
22:22
Speaker 1: called himself the Mayor of Chinatown. He was not the Mayor. Nope.
22:29
Speaker 1: Usually when people give themselves titles like that, there's some
22:32
Speaker 1: weird megalomania playing there unless they're unless they're Emperor Norton.
22:36
Speaker 1: First of his name. That I was cool. I was cool.
22:40
Speaker 1: I think we all want to hang out with him.
22:42
Speaker 1: But yeah, yeah, So this guy would take out celebrities
22:46
Speaker 1: and titans of industry and show them around. They have
22:50
Speaker 1: slum tourism. And he was famous because he wrote a
22:53
Speaker 1: book called Bowery Life where he talks about I don't know,
23:00
Speaker 1: it's like talking about this fantasy of of a life
23:04
Speaker 1: that he probably didn't really live. And he took his
23:07
Speaker 1: when he took his tours to his tour groups, he
23:09
Speaker 1: would take them first to a restaurant and then he
23:12
Speaker 1: would take them to the Chinese theater. Then he would
23:14
Speaker 1: take him to a temple on Mott Street and uh,
23:18
Speaker 1: then he would take them to what the tourists thought
23:21
Speaker 1: was an opium den, and they would see these people
23:25
Speaker 1: of Chinese lineage hanging out, look frankly looking really hot, right,
23:32
Speaker 1: I mean, it's right, But it was all an elaborate ruse,
23:37
Speaker 1: you know. I mean these were actors lazing around looking
23:40
Speaker 1: like they were absolutely stoned out of their minds. But
23:44
Speaker 1: it was all just a total put on, exactly, And
23:47
Speaker 1: I love that you had pointed this out earlier. Think
23:50
Speaker 1: about it, and opium dead, go into a real opium den,
23:54
Speaker 1: like hello, I just want to see how everybody lives.
23:57
Speaker 1: And I've got some flowers for a few of you.
23:59
Speaker 1: It's that's where y'all smoke at the opium exactly, and
24:03
Speaker 1: that's there are real opium didn't But if people just
24:09
Speaker 1: showed up there and they weren't smoking, why would they
24:11
Speaker 1: be allowed at all? You know what I mean? So
24:15
Speaker 1: everyone again, they would be treated as a mark exactly.
24:18
Speaker 1: If they really were to saunt to wander into one
24:21
Speaker 1: of these places, they would either not be allowed in
24:23
Speaker 1: because it's clear what someone is like, you know, either
24:27
Speaker 1: you know the look of someone who's really got the
24:30
Speaker 1: itch and wants to get stoned on opium, chase the dragon.
24:33
Speaker 1: That's a very particular clientele. And if you're like some
24:37
Speaker 1: well scrubbed, you know, upper cruster, chances are they don't
24:41
Speaker 1: even want you to know about this place. You know,
24:43
Speaker 1: chances are you'd go back and tell one of your
24:45
Speaker 1: friends and the police about it, and then you'd get raided. Yeah,
24:48
Speaker 1: go back to Central Park, geez buddy, Yeah, that's okay.
24:52
Speaker 1: Just to give you a sense of how extreme this is,
24:54
Speaker 1: there was one case of a Chinese actor who would
24:59
Speaker 1: play it would play somebody really strung out on opium,
25:03
Speaker 1: and they would take advantage of the the old racist
25:07
Speaker 1: like yellow peril belief that that was you We mentioned
25:11
Speaker 1: this now earlier, the idea that these folks were like
25:13
Speaker 1: over sexed or something. Um, you know, the Chinese women
25:18
Speaker 1: were like, you know, promiscuous and all of this, and
25:21
Speaker 1: they were only you know, good for being sex workers.
25:24
Speaker 1: Just all of this crazy racist and sexist and misogynist
25:29
Speaker 1: way of thinking. Yeah, like, oh, if you're it isn't
25:33
Speaker 1: pure is driven snow white daughters beginning smoking opium they'll
25:38
Speaker 1: be taken, you know. Uh. And so this guy who
25:42
Speaker 1: was he was always seen with a white woman who
25:46
Speaker 1: was also really high, and they were like to hanging
25:49
Speaker 1: out together high on opium. But not only were they pretending,
25:53
Speaker 1: but they were also married. There was their job. Can
25:57
Speaker 1: you imagine. Okay, everybody's listen to this and thinking of
26:01
Speaker 1: their spouse or their loved wood. We already know it
26:04
Speaker 1: can be tough to work with people that you're in
26:06
Speaker 1: a relationship with, Right, what if you did that every day?
26:09
Speaker 1: Would that be awesome or would it be like I
26:12
Speaker 1: don't know, I could see it being passing to me.
26:15
Speaker 1: It reminds me of like, you know, going into a
26:17
Speaker 1: haunted house. Right. You know, people that circulate through they
26:21
Speaker 1: see the same thing over and over again because they're
26:24
Speaker 1: like cues. Right, and these this couple that you're talking about,
26:27
Speaker 1: they would repeat this bit over and over and over
26:30
Speaker 1: again for the new look you lose. They were coming through.
26:33
Speaker 1: I like, look you lose. I don't know, keep saying that,
26:35
Speaker 1: but it's fun to say. But it was. It was
26:37
Speaker 1: an act, you know, It was very much like they
26:39
Speaker 1: were um part of this production, you know. Yeah, and
26:44
Speaker 1: then so people buy this overwhelmingly by the way, like
26:49
Speaker 1: the Slums wrestling. But but people weren't wise to the
26:53
Speaker 1: fact that it was an act yet, whoa, we can't
26:56
Speaker 1: break kfebe. That's something Jonathan Strickland would say, I don't know,
26:59
Speaker 1: abe oh man, the same as Kay fed off air
27:06
Speaker 1: just because sex thing. No, no, no, it's um. It's
27:10
Speaker 1: the idea that, no matter what, wrestling must present itself
27:16
Speaker 1: as being authentic. Yeah, it's just like you know, it's
27:19
Speaker 1: it's obviously scripted. You know how it's going to end,
27:23
Speaker 1: but how you get there is up to the actors
27:26
Speaker 1: and the fighters. Well, and that adds an air of
27:29
Speaker 1: authenticity to it. And I'm sure there was some yes
27:32
Speaker 1: ending going on with these these actors too, honestly, probably
27:36
Speaker 1: just to make it less boring for them, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah,
27:39
Speaker 1: it's like a dinner theater improv. Oh great, they actually
27:42
Speaker 1: went to an improv theater disguise, or it's like the
27:45
Speaker 1: way they do Curb your enthusiasm, for example, where they
27:48
Speaker 1: have these sketches of you know what the end result
27:50
Speaker 1: of the scene needs to be, but how you get
27:52
Speaker 1: there is what makes it feel authentic and um, spontaneous. Yeah,
27:56
Speaker 1: and when you know that it makes curb your enthusias
28:00
Speaker 1: as I'm worth of rewatch. I had suspected for I
28:03
Speaker 1: had suspected when the first few seasons came out. It's like,
28:05
Speaker 1: are they improvising? Um? That was just amazed. Now when
28:10
Speaker 1: I watched him and these guys are really good, I
28:12
Speaker 1: want to do stuff with him. You got to have
28:14
Speaker 1: the right people, though, to really pull that off. You know,
28:16
Speaker 1: who can like play off of each other and keep
28:18
Speaker 1: the momentum going, you know which the three of us,
28:21
Speaker 1: I think we would be a fun improv group. I
28:23
Speaker 1: would add some other folks. Yeah, I want like I
28:27
Speaker 1: you know, I'm about every year or so, there will
28:31
Speaker 1: be a period where it's usually in the lead up
28:33
Speaker 1: to August, where I will try to convince nol and
28:37
Speaker 1: my good buddy are good buddy Matt Frederick too as
28:40
Speaker 1: a birthday present, because we all have August birthdays back.
28:43
Speaker 1: So I don't know if you know that as a
28:45
Speaker 1: birthday present, always try to convince them to do some
28:47
Speaker 1: improv classes with me. And now you're going to be
28:49
Speaker 1: on that list too. I don't think anybody will say yes.
28:52
Speaker 1: For the record, it's just a ritual for me to
28:54
Speaker 1: ask no. I mean, I'm gonna say no right now.
28:55
Speaker 1: If you're gonna say no right now, that's not how
28:57
Speaker 1: you yes, and you're back to being my missis again. Max.
29:01
Speaker 1: Let's see how long did it lasts this time? Boy?
29:03
Speaker 1: I can't stay mad at you. I know we do
29:06
Speaker 1: this every day. But the here's the thing. The show
29:10
Speaker 1: doesn't stop there. So people are saying, oh, wow, look
29:13
Speaker 1: at that. Opium is a real problem, you know uh,
29:17
Speaker 1: And then there were probably a lot of people were
29:20
Speaker 1: going there to double down on their existing stereotypes or
29:24
Speaker 1: prejudicial beliefs. So they would say, the threat of miss
29:27
Speaker 1: engineation is real and it's due to opium. But the
29:30
Speaker 1: show is not over yet a word, right, Isn't that
29:33
Speaker 1: like mixing of races? I mean that's a loaded, awful
29:37
Speaker 1: gross term. Yes, yet it very much is um. So
29:41
Speaker 1: they would leave and then say that's crazy, my first
29:44
Speaker 1: opium dead. And then a fight might break out on
29:48
Speaker 1: the street outside of the opium dead and it's like
29:50
Speaker 1: a real barn stormer of a fight. But it's like
30:00
Speaker 1: wrestling rules. It's like stomping and punching in the air,
30:03
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. It's like you have to
30:04
Speaker 1: have some like stage fighting chops to pull this stuff
30:07
Speaker 1: off and have it be believable because these people are
30:09
Speaker 1: yeah know they're a little clueless, but they're they're gonna
30:12
Speaker 1: know if it's totally funny, it has to have that
30:15
Speaker 1: air of realism. It's like the chair explodes when it
30:18
Speaker 1: hits somebody, but if you look at it really closely,
30:19
Speaker 1: it's like half a second before it explodes. But you
30:21
Speaker 1: can't just like you know, like like not hit the
30:24
Speaker 1: person with the chair. It takes serious skills and timing
30:27
Speaker 1: to be able to pull this kind of stuff off.
30:29
Speaker 1: That is true. You know, we are not this is
30:31
Speaker 1: not a tangential ding on. Wrestlers were not disguising wrestlers
30:36
Speaker 1: smear piece because they're hard work and they they're working
30:40
Speaker 1: hard and they can get injured, seriously injured. Why do
30:42
Speaker 1: you think so many wrestlers go on to become quite
30:45
Speaker 1: solid screen actor seen as excellent Peacemakers do that opening
30:51
Speaker 1: title sequence one of the best ever. It's like, if
30:56
Speaker 1: you guys haven't seen it, you just watch the title sequence.
30:58
Speaker 1: It will it will pull you in. It's like an
31:00
Speaker 1: incredibly choreographed dance number with all of the main characters
31:04
Speaker 1: in the show, and it is just a delight. Have
31:07
Speaker 1: you seen Peacemaker? Watch the opening time, the opening it's
31:12
Speaker 1: the Olympics. I'll have been watching curling like all the time.
31:17
Speaker 1: The curling that have to do with like Greek mythology,
31:21
Speaker 1: I don't understand. Uh, it is based on the work
31:24
Speaker 1: curling hair Timothy Oliphant sweep the ice. So yeah, so
31:30
Speaker 1: before we get curled out of this show, there's a fight.
31:32
Speaker 1: You walk out, you've just seen your first opium dead
31:35
Speaker 1: if you may have visited what you thought was a
31:37
Speaker 1: brothel and a legit, you know, saloon, and then all
31:40
Speaker 1: of a sudden, right weirdly enough, right as your group
31:44
Speaker 1: walks out, some other person on the streets exactly exactly,
31:50
Speaker 1: and you might see a standoff, you know between these
31:54
Speaker 1: two gangs, and people had a lot of there's a
31:57
Speaker 1: big fear culture because the newspaper Tabay's love to report
32:01
Speaker 1: on like tong wars and gang fights and which was
32:05
Speaker 1: a thing. I mean that there was real, you know,
32:07
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, we're talking about also like uh in
32:09
Speaker 1: the era of the like the gangs of New York
32:11
Speaker 1: and stuff. You know that you know, the five points
32:14
Speaker 1: and all of that. That was another area that was
32:15
Speaker 1: popular for slum tourists. Yes, yes, yes it is, and
32:19
Speaker 1: or yes it was, thankfully, and so people treated it
32:23
Speaker 1: like wrestling. They would actually get kind of mad. I'm
32:26
Speaker 1: sure it's just I love the hunted House example. I'm
32:29
Speaker 1: sure it's one of those things where, um, you know,
32:32
Speaker 1: let's say a couple goes out on this just terrible
32:34
Speaker 1: date and the girl is saying, I can't believe it.
32:38
Speaker 1: I thought we will was going to get robbed. You
32:41
Speaker 1: gotta wonder if there's a premium version of this too,
32:43
Speaker 1: where they get to like have some participatory quality. The
32:46
Speaker 1: man gets to save the damsel from some would be
32:50
Speaker 1: mugger and make it makes him feel like a big man,
32:53
Speaker 1: you know, and little does he know that it was
32:55
Speaker 1: all phony, you know, right, And it could have been
32:58
Speaker 1: something as simple as you walk out and all of
33:01
Speaker 1: a sudden you hear somebody screaming like uh, and then
33:05
Speaker 1: someone's running after them with a hatchet and there'd be gunshots,
33:09
Speaker 1: and you gotta wonder where they use in blanks, you know,
33:12
Speaker 1: like what how how far did this uh subterfuge extend?
33:16
Speaker 1: You know, we don't fully know, And there were obviously
33:18
Speaker 1: probably different groups that were better at it than others,
33:21
Speaker 1: you know, they were the real premium ones. Like, how
33:24
Speaker 1: come is it that if you hire this one slum
33:26
Speaker 1: tour group, you always get to see the craziest stuff happening,
33:29
Speaker 1: and the other ones maybe a little more low key? Right, Yeah,
33:32
Speaker 1: you gotta go with Fast, Dady. I've never seen I've
33:36
Speaker 1: never hung out with Fast day and not seen a
33:38
Speaker 1: gang fight. Like that's what they would recommend. And now
33:42
Speaker 1: the question becomes like people would leave disappointed if they
33:45
Speaker 1: didn't see these fights. Their expectations were there, But now
33:47
Speaker 1: the question becomes, no, next, where any of these people
33:51
Speaker 1: in actual danger? No? I don't think so. I mean
33:55
Speaker 1: that's the whole point right there. There was a level
33:57
Speaker 1: of like separation and protection that these people were getting,
34:01
Speaker 1: whether they knew it or not. And I think part
34:03
Speaker 1: of that has to do with the inherent naivety of
34:07
Speaker 1: thinking that you can just go into this leg world,
34:10
Speaker 1: this underworld and not be in danger. You know, they
34:15
Speaker 1: were just so clueless and disconnected that they didn't even
34:19
Speaker 1: realize that. Like, dude, if this is real, you probably
34:23
Speaker 1: would have been killed six times over, you know, I
34:27
Speaker 1: mean how often? I mean, were there people going on
34:29
Speaker 1: these things that were like, okay, this is ben stage,
34:32
Speaker 1: this is I think some probably would be okay with that.
34:35
Speaker 1: Even had a Futurama scene where it's like early Futurama
34:39
Speaker 1: where they're going, you know, to New York of yesteryear
34:42
Speaker 1: and fries are like, oh, that's great, and this guy
34:44
Speaker 1: comes up to them and he's like, hey, give me
34:45
Speaker 1: your wall, and it's like oh yeah, it's like I'm
34:47
Speaker 1: getting mugged. And the guy takes the wall and his
34:48
Speaker 1: runs off. Oh I actually got mugged. Yeah, yeah, I
34:51
Speaker 1: think that probably happened, um because people were so disassociated
34:56
Speaker 1: from the realities of life in these communities. Wh ask yourself,
35:00
Speaker 1: why are why isn't this happening today? Well, the craze
35:04
Speaker 1: did eventually die out San Francisco. I can't believe they
35:08
Speaker 1: had to make this law. San Francisco band mockery of
35:11
Speaker 1: the poor and they're like, all right, look, you have
35:15
Speaker 1: to be human at some point. And when The New
35:18
Speaker 1: York Times reported it, they didn't talk about like how
35:22
Speaker 1: worthwhile and egalitarian laws like that, where they said, and
35:25
Speaker 1: this is from an article, this is a heavy blow
35:29
Speaker 1: to Chinatown guides who have collected a fee of two
35:31
Speaker 1: dollars each, the opium smokers, gamblers, blind popplers, singing children
35:36
Speaker 1: and other curiosities. Singing children all hired. Yeah, there's thrown
35:40
Speaker 1: in there, the singing children and the blind beggars. I
35:43
Speaker 1: want to know more about the singing children. And he's
35:45
Speaker 1: like carol ers, Like what, I don't understand. I guess
35:48
Speaker 1: it was unusual thing for their supper kind of vibe
35:52
Speaker 1: Oliver twist kind of situation. Do they also do choreograph
35:55
Speaker 1: dance moves? I want to know more. Yeah, and uh,
35:59
Speaker 1: I want to know more about the people who saw
36:01
Speaker 1: those children. And then we're just like, oh, good luck
36:06
Speaker 1: with your life, young lad. So anyway, um, this stuff
36:12
Speaker 1: gradually starts to die off after World War Two, and
36:17
Speaker 1: Professor Heap says he believes part of that is because
36:20
Speaker 1: urban nightlife in general was less and less popular. Immediately
36:24
Speaker 1: after the post war, a lot of people were moving
36:27
Speaker 1: out to suburbs. This is the age of the suburban explosion.
36:31
Speaker 1: And this meant that the people who would have been
36:34
Speaker 1: living in a city where they could consistently go on
36:38
Speaker 1: slum tourism were now far removed from those places. But
36:42
Speaker 1: then he points to what I think is an even
36:44
Speaker 1: bigger thing television because now you don't have to travel there.
36:49
Speaker 1: You can get your voyeurism by staying at home and
36:53
Speaker 1: then um, you can vicariously experience that stuff. Also, there
36:59
Speaker 1: was there were there were moves to better people's lives
37:03
Speaker 1: in general in this country, welfare, social housing, and that
37:09
Speaker 1: lasted about until the eighties, nineteen eighties and nineteen nineties,
37:13
Speaker 1: when state support for people started to go back on
37:16
Speaker 1: the decline. UH, and slum tourism came back in the
37:20
Speaker 1: nineteen eighties. I can't believe that, uh, it had a
37:24
Speaker 1: more international flavor. You would see people going not necessarily
37:29
Speaker 1: in New York or whatever, but in like India, South Africa,
37:33
Speaker 1: the favela in Brazil, they would go tour this stuff. Totally. Yeah,
37:39
Speaker 1: it's again parallel thinking, Like I don't think anyone had
37:41
Speaker 1: to be given this idea. It's just sort of like,
37:45
Speaker 1: you know, it's like the most dangerous game. Let's like
37:47
Speaker 1: hunt a poor man, you know, for our own amusement.
37:49
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just sort of some weird demonic thing
37:53
Speaker 1: that's in humans that they want to like exploit other
37:56
Speaker 1: humans and almost like revel in their misfortune, right right,
38:01
Speaker 1: That is not me, and that means I am good. Right, Uh,
38:06
Speaker 1: that's exactly it. Now here we get to a thing
38:09
Speaker 1: that I think is worth us having conversation. But I'm
38:12
Speaker 1: I'm really interested to see what we all think. The
38:16
Speaker 1: resurgence of this stuff obviously sparked outrage with a lot
38:19
Speaker 1: of people. The opponents say it is a racist exercise
38:24
Speaker 1: and it is not helping these folks, But people who
38:27
Speaker 1: support it say this puts money into critically impoverished neighborhoods
38:31
Speaker 1: and it. Yeah, of course the tour operators make money,
38:35
Speaker 1: but the people who live there make money too, And
38:37
Speaker 1: there's an argument that it like raises awareness for the
38:40
Speaker 1: less fortunate, say about the less fortunate, and there are
38:43
Speaker 1: some people that might learn of these situations from this
38:47
Speaker 1: kind of thing and then actually do something about it,
38:50
Speaker 1: not just give them flowers. You know, you mentioned that
38:52
Speaker 1: at the very top of the show, and I think
38:54
Speaker 1: there's some merit to that sometimes gross things can lead
38:58
Speaker 1: to positive things. So yeah, no, that's a really good
39:01
Speaker 1: and optimistic point. I love that you made that point
39:03
Speaker 1: because I think it's something we should remember. And Professor
39:06
Speaker 1: heat might agree with you a bit there because he
39:09
Speaker 1: says slumming as weird and other e as it is.
39:14
Speaker 1: It promoted social mixing, and it started reshaping the sexual
39:19
Speaker 1: and racial landscape his phrase in this really stratisfied society. Otherwise,
39:24
Speaker 1: I think there was a mention earlier that we skipped um.
39:28
Speaker 1: I think it was from heat. But the idea that
39:31
Speaker 1: for some experiencing these marginalized communities, whether it big, trans um,
39:36
Speaker 1: l G whatever, they wouldn't call it at the time.
39:38
Speaker 1: They would have said something way more problematic like cross tressers.
39:41
Speaker 1: But the experiencing of that for some who maybe I
39:44
Speaker 1: haven't fully found their identity in that department, might actually
39:48
Speaker 1: be a positive thing where they'd be like, oh, this
39:50
Speaker 1: exists and and maybe this is me, you know, like
39:53
Speaker 1: that there's something to that. I think as well. Yeah,
39:56
Speaker 1: And then on some level, direct interaction when people is
39:59
Speaker 1: going to be a lot different from reading a headline
40:02
Speaker 1: about a crime. You can put a face on it,
40:04
Speaker 1: and that face is not so different from you, you know.
40:07
Speaker 1: And that's why Heap says in conclusion that slumming, as
40:12
Speaker 1: much as we might think it's a terrible thing today,
40:16
Speaker 1: slumming was in his opinion, somewhat positive in the context
40:19
Speaker 1: of the time, you know, because it's like literally a
40:22
Speaker 1: better than nothing situation, which is often how these things go,
40:26
Speaker 1: you know, Like I said, it's from gross things sometimes
40:29
Speaker 1: spring uh. You can almost call them like unintended positive outcomes.
40:35
Speaker 1: And so that brings us to a close today. Now,
40:40
Speaker 1: of course we have to mention that the three of
40:43
Speaker 1: us love love traveling. Traveling is one of the things
40:47
Speaker 1: in old you and I missed most about the pandemic.
40:50
Speaker 1: And there is no more profound experience, or no more
40:56
Speaker 1: profound way to learn about the world around you than
40:58
Speaker 1: physically visited and participating. But don't be condescending about it.
41:02
Speaker 1: Don't be a jerk if you're a strange man in
41:05
Speaker 1: a strange land or a strange person strange. I like
41:08
Speaker 1: strange man a strange land because of the rhyme. I think.
41:11
Speaker 1: If you're a strange man in strange land, then embrace it,
41:14
Speaker 1: and embrace it in a respectful way, you know what
41:17
Speaker 1: I mean, don't like. One thing that gets me in
41:20
Speaker 1: the modern day is you see you'll see travelers from
41:23
Speaker 1: wealthy countries go to a place to help. I'm leaning
41:27
Speaker 1: into these air quotes so hard, and their help is
41:30
Speaker 1: an Instagram picture of them with people, which is basically
41:34
Speaker 1: just a way of big upping their own profile and
41:37
Speaker 1: looking like some sort of like social justice warrior, white
41:41
Speaker 1: savior thing, which is I think I think the side
41:45
Speaker 1: has turned on that kind of thing where it's just like,
41:48
Speaker 1: you know, like the thing you're talking about earlier, the
41:49
Speaker 1: imagine or whatever. It's just not a good look. And
41:52
Speaker 1: I think for the most part everyone realizes that. I mean,
41:55
Speaker 1: I use that jumpinator. There's this thing circling around about
41:58
Speaker 1: this ad that played in the Super Bowl about like, oh,
42:02
Speaker 1: we donated a hundred thousand dollars to this foundation and
42:05
Speaker 1: the ad itself costs fifty million dollars to play. Okay,
42:11
Speaker 1: we got to end on a point. We did another
42:13
Speaker 1: episode earlier for stuff they don't want you to know
42:15
Speaker 1: about radioactive clean up and the idea that the government,
42:20
Speaker 1: you know, would spend two billion dollars to clean up
42:25
Speaker 1: poorly managed radioactive sites where they could have just done
42:29
Speaker 1: a better job in the first place, but instead they
42:31
Speaker 1: now have to allocate two billion dollars. But yet it's
42:34
Speaker 1: a tall order to you know, pay for children's educations
42:38
Speaker 1: and healthcare and you know, things that people need people
42:41
Speaker 1: in general. Geez, well, I mean, but this year, we
42:45
Speaker 1: took a dark again. We were trying the silver line
42:47
Speaker 1: we got because we're gonna head out for a weekend.
42:51
Speaker 1: We're gonna have a great time, right there, we go.
42:54
Speaker 1: We're not going to be slum tourists. We are also
42:58
Speaker 1: you know, in our lives off air, we're I think
43:01
Speaker 1: we're all pretty wholesome dudes. Uh. We also can't wait
43:06
Speaker 1: to learn more strange stories like this is stranger than fiction.
43:10
Speaker 1: In my opinion, it sounds kind of made up, but
43:13
Speaker 1: it really happened. Um, So it's something that I can
43:16
Speaker 1: see really taken to the nth degree by a very
43:20
Speaker 1: talented sci fi type right now, you know, I mean
43:23
Speaker 1: like you know, and we also remember we've done episodes
43:25
Speaker 1: in the past about human zoos. Remember that. Yeah, gosh, yeah,
43:29
Speaker 1: you're taking it dark again. That's true story. But that
43:32
Speaker 1: is a true story. But I also just want to
43:35
Speaker 1: reiterate we opened with this. I want to say it
43:37
Speaker 1: at the end. I think it would be awesome if
43:39
Speaker 1: we can make in person recording more of a regular thing.
43:43
Speaker 1: Does it does feel nice? It does feel nice. Well,
43:45
Speaker 1: it's a great way to end the week. Tis It's
43:47
Speaker 1: always nice being in room with you two, except for you. No, Well,
43:52
Speaker 1: especially small room like this where by the end of
43:55
Speaker 1: our recording we can all kind of smell each other. Yeah,
43:58
Speaker 1: I mean we're all just kind of smelled the same
43:59
Speaker 1: by the smells like the boys Town is just what
44:02
Speaker 1: who would colleague, as Christians Sanger, you used to always
44:05
Speaker 1: say that after like recording marathon recordis as he said,
44:08
Speaker 1: it smells like boys Town in the end. Well, I
44:11
Speaker 1: hope you're doing well if you're reading this, Christian. Christian
44:13
Speaker 1: is a fantastic author as well. He could He could
44:16
Speaker 1: probably write some do it good great comic book. Yeah,
44:18
Speaker 1: I mean in addition to fiction, of course. Yeah. So
44:21
Speaker 1: we are going to call it a day so we
44:23
Speaker 1: can open this door and get some fresh air. I
44:25
Speaker 1: hope the weather is lovely in your neck of the
44:27
Speaker 1: Global woods. Uh. And if you can get a chance
44:29
Speaker 1: to go outside adventure. Thanks as always, Mr Max Williams.
44:32
Speaker 1: Thanks to Mr Casey Pegram. No, I know we've got
44:35
Speaker 1: other people to thank, but I wanted to put you
44:38
Speaker 1: high on the list because this was really fun to
44:41
Speaker 1: hang up. It was always a pleasure, my friend. Thanks
44:43
Speaker 1: to you as well. We'll see you next time, folks.
44:52
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the I
44:54
Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to
44:57
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.