Laura: Hello and welcome to an extra special episode of Lex Education, the comedy science podcast that keeps the woke firmly in science and the comedy also firmly there.
Laura: And the science we're not that fussed about it, where me comedian Laura Lex tries to learn woke comedy science from her woke as f*** brother woke.
Laura: Ron hi.
Laura: Woke boy.
Laura: Yeah, they yeah, it's real woke here.
Laura: I had a mothering first this afternoon.
Ron: Ron oh, yeah.
Laura: I went to a soft Play, the.
Ron: Band previously known as Slaves.
Laura: Did they change their name to Soft Play?
Ron: Yeah, they did.
Laura: That's arguably worse than the concept of slavery.
Ron: Yeah, they issued a statement about it.
Laura: They were like, I remember that happening, but I'd never heard of them at that point.
Laura: And I did think that that was overkill, needing to change the name of that band.
Laura: We've started on contentious subjects, haven't we?
Ron: Look at us, woken about yeah, actually, I just want to take a second.
Ron: I am so surprised and impressed you got that as a joke.
Ron: Just like that, you'd heard of them.
Ron: I thought that was going to be a joke for about three listeners.
Laura: Do you know what?
Laura: I'd only heard of it because that was around the time of the George Floyd and the Big Rethink on Race Matters, wasn't it?
Ron: I think it was more recent than that, but I might be wrong.
Laura: Oh, I thought it was around then.
Laura: I remember seeing it on Instagram, like their statement.
Laura: But anyway, I went to a soft play and it was all right.
Laura: It was not bad.
Ron: What was it called?
Laura: Paradise park in New Haven.
Ron: That sounds like a hospice, but okay.
Laura: Yeah, well, it's massive.
Laura: I'll take you next time you're down.
Laura: Ron there's three separate bits of soft play.
Laura: One for, like, Teeny People, one for Medium People, one for what was meant to be six to eleven year olds.
Laura: Obviously, a child of the podcast only went on that one.
Laura: Oh, God.
Laura: Okay, fine.
Laura: Crack on.
Laura: And there's like a whole dinosaur expedition.
Laura: Like, to get in there, you go through a whole long thing, which is all about the evolution of the world.
Laura: We could do like a national Treasures meets Lex education day trip there.
Laura: Ron and Record on a day out, looking at the evolution of the world.
Laura: And then there's a garden center.
Laura: You know, I love a garden center.
Laura: Already got a lot of Christmas tat in it, which is getting me excited for the Christmas feels.
Ron: Ron I'm very excited about Christmas this year.
Laura: Christmas tat in garden centres is the only thing squashing down my crushing climate anxiety at the fact that it's still T shirt weather in early October.
Ron: It's not T shirt weather in Bristol anymore.
Laura: Oh, really?
Ron: That makes you feel better?
Laura: Yeah, it's like 20 degrees and blazing sunshine here.
Ron: I've gone on to my autumn spring jacket.
Laura: Oh, maybe I need to move to Bristol.
Ron: You should move to Bristol.
Ron: Bristol's legit.
Laura: Well, cut that bit.
Laura: Rom, how are you?
Laura: What have you been up to?
Ron: I'm good.
Ron: My heart is very full of love today.
Laura: Why?
Ron: Doing the research for this episode was very nice.
Ron: I've had a good time.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: I sacked off work for a large persuade of the afternoon.
Laura: I did think you were texting me a lot this afternoon.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: I feel very passionate about this, so I've had a good day doing that.
Ron: Otherwise I'm good.
Ron: I'm swamped with Hobbies for the first time in a long time yesterday.
Ron: I just relaxed in the evening on my own without wanting to make plans with anyone else.
Ron: I watched Darjeeling Limited by Wes Anderson and was just comfortable in my own company for several hours.
Ron: And that's really nice.
Laura: Who are you and what have you done with Ron?
Ron: I know, right?
Laura: I went out for dinner last night with Tom.
Ron: Oh, date night.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: And COTP.
Laura: No, we got a babysitter and we went out.
Ron: Was it like a surly teen?
Ron: Did you have to give them 20 quid for pizza?
Laura: I did joke about that on the way home and I was like, who's going to drop the babysitter home?
Laura: No, it's a friend who goes to our toddler group.
Laura: So I'm having her child of her non podcast.
Laura: She doesn't have a podcast.
Laura: She just has a child, I suppose.
Laura: I'm having her child in a couple of weeks for an event.
Laura: So she came over and sat downstairs while I was slept.
Laura: It feels like a waste of money, though.
Laura: She don't wake up.
Laura: I'm like, God, I wish it was the could just leave her because what's the point?
Ron: God d***.
Laura: Those McCans, right, went out for dinner.
Ron: And had demons go to what's it called?
Ron: Pinocchios?
Laura: No.
Ron: Did you go to Red Snapper?
Laura: No.
Ron: Did you go to Moshimo?
Laura: No.
Ron: Wow, you guys are pushing the boat out.
Ron: Tell me.
Laura: We went real fancy.
Laura: We had there were only two of us.
Laura: The bill was 195 pounds.
Ron: D***.
Laura: But do you know what?
Laura: It's our first night out since Charter.
Laura: The podcast arrived.
Laura: It was both of our birthdays in the last couple of weeks.
Laura: We just wanted to treat ourselves and be a little bit spoiling ourselves.
Laura: I had oysters for the first time, Ron.
Ron: Oh, how did you find them?
Laura: I liked it.
Ron: Yeah.
Laura: Like, here's the thing, though, that me and Tom were discussing that oysters were really nice.
Laura: They were really lovely.
Laura: I said to him, though, if I walk into a party and they've got like, silver bowls full of fancy foods like, oh, caviar and little dishes or oysters or just really, really nice French fries, I would always be happier with really nice French fries than any other food.
Ron: I'm with HOTP on this one.
Laura: You'd prefer it to be oysters or caviar?
Ron: Now, you've presented kind of a split.
Laura: Dichotomy there because you've said fancy foods, aren't they?
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: But they're not the only fancy foods.
Ron: And I'm not saying I would, actually, I probably would because I don't get to eat those very much, but bowls.
Laura: And bowls of really good French.
Ron: Wait, okay.
Ron: You're saying bowls and bowls?
Ron: I thought you meant just like a French fry versus an oyster.
Ron: No, I mean, you know, I don't that much.
Ron: You're talking to the wrong choir.
Ron: I don't know what the metaphor is, but French fries?
Laura: Are you're going wrong if you can still recognize that a French fry was a potato point?
Laura: That is not the point of a French fries.
Ron: But I don't really like chips that much.
Laura: Oh, God, I forgot how much I despise you.
Ron: Yeah, we haven't chatted much recently.
Laura: No, we haven't.
Laura: No.
Laura: Oh.
Laura: Fun news, though.
Laura: So, on Friday, patrons will have heard our PE episode where firstly, we talk about deep breathing.
Laura: Secondly, you explain the rules of rugby to me.
Laura: By the time this episode goes out, I will have gone to see a live rugby match.
Laura: Ron OOH.
Ron: Which one are you going to see?
Laura: Bath Rugby.
Ron: Oh, cool.
Ron: What?
Ron: In bath.
Laura: Yeah, at the Rip, Saturday.
Ron: Oh, nice.
Laura: Yeah, that's fun.
Ron: Who are you going with?
Laura: Yeah, I'm going on a hen party.
Ron: Oh.
Laura: And I have to go and see a rugby match.
Ron: Rugby's a lot of fun.
Ron: I went to see the rugby at the weekend.
Laura: Yeah, you went to see Scotland versus.
Ron: Romania with sports correspondent Max, who has agreed to do a segment with us if we want to do that.
Ron: Yeah.
Laura: Oh, Max.
Laura: I will do that with him in exchange for one invitation to his.
Ron: So you're going to ask him for two?
Laura: Yes.
Laura: Yes.
Laura: Or he can replace that wily fox Noah in the Patreon.
Ron: So, gentle boy of the podcast who offered to join the Patreon despite the fact he's not a listener.
Laura: Mark came to the live show, but.
Ron: Came to the live show, listened to the intros and outros that you featured in, and then said to me at the gym the other day, I really liked it, I might just listen to the intros and outros from now on.
Ron: I think they're the best bits.
Laura: I agree.
Laura: They're certainly my favorite bit of this s***** doughnut.
Laura: The middle bit just feels stressful.
Laura: But not today, because today's a special episode.
Ron: Today is a special episode.
Ron: Yeah.
Laura: So I'm going to see a rugby match.
Ron: Fun.
Laura: That's very exciting.
Ron: Bath.
Ron: I'm nominally a bath supporter.
Ron: I was a Bath supporter when I was a child.
Laura: Let me have a look.
Laura: Bath rugby fixtures.
Laura: Oh, they're playing exeter.
Laura: Oh, that's a local derby, basically.
Ron: Oh.
Ron: Exeter chiefs.
Ron: That's a good game.
Ron: That'll be fun.
Laura: Are they still called Exeter chiefs?
Ron: As far as I know.
Ron: I don't know if that's, like, a Native American thing.
Laura: Well, looking at their logo, it oh.
Laura: But yes, they are still called the Chiefs by the look of this logo.
Laura: Interesting.
Laura: Hey, don't our cousins support bath rugby?
Ron: I'm pretty sure that's why I was a fan, because Auntie Sue of the podcast bought me a shirt when I was a kid.
Laura: Well, I'm going to see them on Saturday and I'll report back as to whether I understand it so much more having had RPE lesson.
Ron: Nice.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: The Wreck's a good ground as well.
Ron: That's where I saw my first ever game of rugby.
Laura: Maybe I'll start playing too, Ron.
Ron: Do.
Ron: It's a really fun sport.
Laura: I won't.
Ron: No, you won't.
Laura: I would hate to play rugby.
Laura: It looks horrible.
Laura: I don't want anything to bash up my beautiful, beautiful face.
Laura: Tom should play rugby.
Ron: Yeah, he'd be a good second.
Laura: Yeah.
Laura: Yeah.
Laura: In the scrum.
Ron: In the scrum, yeah.
Ron: What else, what else?
Ron: What else?
Ron: My band booked our first gig when it's the Christmas party at a National Trust property.
Ron: Yes.
Laura: Oh.
Laura: What?
Laura: Date Ron?
Ron: I don't know yet, but a friend of mine works there and then they wanted a band and she was like, oh, my friend's in a band.
Ron: And then she was like, oh, do you want to play this gig?
Ron: Do you want to play the Christmas party?
Ron: And I was like, yeah, but we don't really want to learn a bunch of Christmas songs or covers.
Laura: Why not?
Ron: Don't want to be like a function band.
Ron: Like, we played songs that we've written and then she was like, Hang on, I'll go ask.
Ron: And then they were like, yeah, that's cool.
Ron: So it's going to be us just playing a bunch of quite heavy rock music to what I presume is going to be a room full of mainly people, 60 plus.
Laura: But is it a work due at a National Trust place?
Laura: Like, have they hired the National Trust place or is it the National Trust putting?
Ron: It's the National Trust's work?
Laura: Yeah, mate, please, just learn Jingle Bells, all right, learn a rocky cover of Jingle Bells.
Ron: But I think it'll be fun and we'll at least get some good videos and photos out of it because it should be scenic, right?
Laura: Yeah, it's beautiful there.
Laura: So matt noise next door.
Laura: Matt, he did a couple of years of being one of the actors.
Laura: They have, like, Christmas themed actors around that time and he lived there for six weeks for a couple of years.
Laura: That's cool.
Laura: Yeah, and I went to visit him when he was doing that.
Laura: It's beautiful.
Ron: I keep on meaning to go, but everyone else went when I wasn't living in Bristol, so I can't find anyone to go with.
Laura: I'll go with you, Ron.
Ron: Yeah, we'll go.
Laura: Let's have a Christmas date.
Ron: Sack off this hen.
Ron: Maybe not that.
Ron: Sack off this hendoo and let's go at the weekend.
Ron: If you're in the West Country, but you're here on Sunday.
Laura: Oh, I could come and see you on Saturday.
Ron: No, you're at a hendoo, Laura, and we'll see each other on Sunday.
Laura: So you're coming over Sunday?
Ron: Yeah.
Laura: What time?
Ron: Just whenever I feel like it.
Ron: Really.
Laura: Oh, well, why don't I just drive you when I'm done at the Hemp party?
Ron: What time will that be?
Laura: Like lunchtime?
Laura: I'm going to leave.
Ron: Oh, yeah.
Laura: Going to the spa in the morning and then I was going to get.
Ron: In the car and go, that would be great.
Laura: Bath is you'd have to come to Bath.
Laura: Can you just get the train across to Bath?
Ron: Yeah, I can do that.
Laura: Cool.
Laura: Yeah, I'll drive you.
Ron: Oh, nice.
Ron: I thought you were going to be back late.
Laura: No, I will be done by then.
Laura: I don't know anyone going except the henna and I haven't seen her for about a decade, so I'm not good at small talk with strangers.
Ron: That is fair, that's very fair.
Laura: There's a good chance I'll ring you Saturday night and come and stay at yours.
Ron: Yeah, you're very welcome.
Laura: Anyway, Ron, what are we doing today?
Laura: It's the end of Gentle Boy of the podcast's favourite bit and it's time for the episode.
Ron: Yeah, f*** off, Shizzy.
Laura: Get out of here, you gentle little man.
Ron: It's been a horrible week in the news.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: The Conservative, who I regret voting for now, I regret every time I voted for them and all those kisses I give my posters of List Trump.
Laura: Yeah.
Laura: Why do I keep falling?
Laura: Like every time they say they're different and I go, Go on then, one more general election lads have.
Laura: Oh, you trickled me again.
Ron: See, I've got faith in them, though, because the first 13 years of my life, I was nothing.
Ron: I was boring and ugly.
Ron: And then when I hit 14 through now look at maybe this is just.
Laura: Their puberty era then.
Ron: Yeah, that's why they're stroking out.
Laura: They're getting a bit old voting for them.
Laura: Just keep voting for them.
Ron: Well, yeah, got to back them.
Ron: Got to back the lads.
Laura: Yeah.
Laura: Who else are we going to back?
Laura: Other people?
Ron: I mean, like, let's be real, I'm not f****** backing Kia Starmer either, but I love him.
Ron: I don't.
Laura: He's basically one of them, but he's another option to vote for them, isn't he?
Ron: One of them.
Laura: But just pasty looking.
Laura: Yeah.
Laura: Less sure of himself.
Laura: That's good, that's nice, I like it.
Laura: Anyway, did you volunteer for the Greens in the end?
Ron: They are still trying to work out what they want to do with my skill set.
Laura: Kiss it.
Ron: Which is frustrating because I do want to help.
Laura: I've eaten so much chocolate, Ron.
Laura: I feel alive.
Ron: Yeah, I feel alive too.
Ron: Anyway, Laura, Laura, I'm trying to introduce.
Laura: The episode 34% hazelnut.
Ron: Yes, that is grand.
Laura: That's a lot of hazelnuts.
Laura: Yes, hazelnuts refreshes your breath naturally.
Ron: So, yeah, it's been a horrible week in the news.
Ron: Conservative Party conference has been an absolute clown shower of s***.
Ron: So we decided, a, as it's pretty scary and it's Halloween month, and B, as it's episode pretty 69, which is pretty gay.
Ron: We were going to do an episode on LGBTQ, plus, people in science yeah.
Laura: They tell us that are going to cut the woke out of science.
Laura: We say, Science isn't about chasing down an ideology, you morons.
Laura: It's about just going with the facts.
Laura: Even if they feel wrong and probably are wrong, you have to say yes to them.
Laura: To Ron in the quiz.
Ron: I'm not going to hang my hat on that, but I thought that was.
Laura: A pretty good summation.
Laura: Science changes.
Ron: Science does change.
Ron: Woke is a good thing.
Ron: Let's not and what we learned at prime and also be all and end.
Laura: All of all the facts.
Laura: It was a summary of basics.
Laura: No, but I think for children, I.
Ron: Think what you'll be surprised about here is how long ago a lot of this stuff was, because science has always been woke.
Laura: Yeah.
Laura: Remember when they killed Galileo?
Ron: Yes.
Laura: Yeah.
Laura: Was he woke or just right.
Laura: They called him woke, but now look at us, thrilled with him.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: Woke.
Ron: Earth going around the sun.
Ron: Yeah.
Laura: Woke ideas.
Laura: Galileo.
Laura: That's what they probably said to him.
Ron: Very nice.
Ron: Very nice.
Ron: Okay, so the first person that we're going to talk about today, Laura, is hang on.
Laura: Sorry, I think I interrupted what we were going to be doing.
Laura: Do you want to set the scene?
Ron: You interrupted me consistently for about seven minutes, then interrupting.
Laura: I will be quiet for two and a half minutes.
Ron: What more do I need to say?
Laura: What are we doing?
Ron: We're going to talk about LGBTQ, plus people in science and their amazing contributions to the woke s*** brigade that apparently science is now.
Laura: Okay.
Ron: Drum roll, please.
Ron: Oh, no.
Ron: That's not going to come out till after this.
Ron: Now ignore those youngs.
Ron: Okay, first person on the list laura, why are you frowning at me?
Ron: First person on the list, a name I knew, but I had no idea what he did.
Laura: Marco Pierre White.
Ron: No.
Ron: I know very well who Marco Pierre White is.
Laura: Tracy Chapman.
Ron: I know very well who Tracy Chapman is.
Laura: Franz Ferdinand.
Ron: I know.
Ron: Both franz Ferdinand's.
Laura: Chris Akabusi.
Ron: I don't know who Chris Akabusi is, but I've heard that name.
Ron: No, it's not.
Ron: It's George Washington Carver.
Ron: Oh, you ever heard that name before?
Laura: Yes, but only in the context of being at a dinner party with the late president and offering him a sparkling nice.
Ron: Very nice.
Laura: I'm very formal when I'm waitressing.
Laura: George Washington Carver.
Ron: So George Washington once nearly got into.
Laura: A fight with Tedy Roosevelt because I said, Teddy Roosevelt.
Laura: Brute.
Laura: And he slapped me with his glove.
Laura: But I said, It's merely a fizzy drinks.
Ron: You should have quit while you were ahead.
Laura: I never will.
Ron: So GWC.
Laura: You should have been there when Ronald Reagan said that he was actually anti seco.
Ron: Can we do some of the content?
Laura: Yes.
Ron: George Washington Carver.
Ron: He was a chemist and a botanist.
Ron: Laura.
Laura: He loved bottoms.
Ron: You've eaten too much chocolate.
Laura: I was in such a bad mood.
Laura: Ron it really was this or absolute fury.
Ron: No, this is exactly the kind of energy we need.
Ron: Keep this up for a bit because we've got to blow through some sad stuff.
Ron: So george Washington Carver, born around 1860.
Ron: He didn't know when he was born because he was born into slavery and had a very tragic childhood where he, his sister and his mum were all kidnapped one time.
Ron: The enslaver that he lived with sent some people to go after them, only found him.
Ron: So he kind of grew up on his own.
Ron: And his dad died when he was very young, too.
Ron: But despite all of these hardships and he wasn't allowed to go to public school because of his race either.
Ron: He still learned how to read and write on his own.
Ron: Ended up basically carrying himself through.
Ron: He joined several universities.
Ron: At one point, he was accepted into Highland University in Kansas.
Ron: Then when he turned up, they were like, oh, s***, wait, you're black, and then didn't let him in.
Ron: Yeah, but, yeah, he went through all of this.
Ron: He ended up founding like, the because.
Laura: You'Re talking like, another hundred years before they had coed schools.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: This was in, like, the 1890s.
Ron: Fun little snippet about him is that his name was just George Carver and he moved to a town at one point.
Ron: And then he kept on receiving letters for a different George Carver that lived in the town.
Ron: So he just randomly inserted a W into his name.
Ron: And then at one point, because George Washington, someone joked with him, oh, what's the W for Washington?
Ron: And he just went, I don't know.
Ron: Yeah, sure.
Ron: And then went by that for the rest of his life.
Laura: Stop asking me stupid questions.
Laura: I've got bottoms to look at.
Ron: So, as you might imagine at the time so he lived in Kansas.
Ron: Right.
Ron: Lots of do you know what the main export of that area of the world would have been at the time?
Laura: Kansas.
Laura: Gold?
Ron: No.
Laura: Oil?
Ron: No.
Ron: What were all the slaves doing?
Laura: Laura oh, cotton.
Ron: It was cotton, yes.
Ron: So you had all of the farmland around there getting rinsed for cotton.
Ron: Right.
Ron: What George Carver sort of nailed down the science for was crop rotation and why we have to do.
Laura: Nutrients back in the soil.
Ron: One specific nutrient.
Ron: Do you know?
Laura: Nitrogen.
Ron: It is nitrogen, yeah.
Ron: So humans have been doing put it back in peas.
Ron: Yeah, peas do, yeah.
Ron: Legumes are really good for it.
Laura: I know things.
Laura: Ron yeah.
Ron: You're good at plants and that humans have been doing this for thousands of years.
Ron: There's evidence of Egyptians doing it like 6000 years ago in the book I'm.
Laura: Reading at the moment, set in well, now it's the 13th century.
Laura: A 14th century, sorry.
Laura: They have just started doing that in feudal farming.
Ron: But nobody really knows why.
Ron: They just know that it does help.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: So George Washington Carver basically worked out why that helps.
Ron: Plants need nitrogen.
Ron: Nitrogen helps them make amino acids.
Ron: Amino acids help them make proteins.
Ron: And then certain plants, when you're in the wild, it's a nice mix of all the plants.
Ron: Right.
Ron: So it's getting taken out and put into the soil at basically equal rates.
Ron: When you have a field, you have what is called a monoculture, where it's.
Laura: Just one basically a desert.
Ron: No, it's a monoculture.
Laura: A desert.
Ron: Why would that be a desert?
Laura: Because that's a monoculture of sand.
Laura: And this is a monoculture of just one thing, one plant.
Ron: Stop nodding.
Ron: I'm shaking my head.
Laura: Shaking your head.
Ron: Stop it.
Ron: No, but then you have a monoculture and you have a plant like cotton, which is just taking nitrogen out of the soil.
Ron: Soil's going to get real f***** up.
Ron: Yeah.
Laura: It's going to get bullied.
Ron: So he basically formalized all of this.
Ron: And he was getting people to rotate in sweet potatoes and especially peanuts.
Ron: He was very associated with the peanut.
Laura: Like Jimmy Carter.
Ron: Yeah.
Laura: He was the peanut farmer before he was president.
Ron: Probably down to GWC at some point.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: He worked out that you need to sub these things in, which had loads of knock on effects.
Ron: Right.
Ron: So it meant less of the agricultural land in the area.
Ron: Had to be taken up with farming cotton, which is obviously just a luxury product.
Ron: Some of it was taken up with farming other luxury products.
Ron: So then it boosted the economy.
Ron: Roche but it also just meant that they could just grow more food in the area.
Ron: And especially because the crops that they were having to weave in to then boost the cotton were all nutritious, delicious foods.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: Just really helped the nutrition in the area had a really wide reaching effect in the community.
Ron: And he had loads of different accolades.
Ron: He was like in 1916, he was honored by the I think it was the Royal Institution in the UK.
Ron: Like he was one of the few Americans to ever be.
Laura: I'm glad he got recognition in his lifetime, then.
Laura: Yeah, that's cool.
Laura: That's better than nothing.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: Overall, very good bloke and yeah, got to see that.
Ron: He obviously stopped sort of working.
Ron: He founded a bunch of institutions and has probably raised a lot of people out of food poverty because of the stuff that he did.
Ron: And yeah.
Ron: Got to live the rest of his life happily.
Ron: He was one of these sort of confirmed bachelors, but lived the last decades of his life with the person is presumed to have been his lover.
Laura: Yay.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: We like George Washington Carver.
Laura: Big fan of the GWC.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: Good guy.
Ron: Good guy.
Ron: The next person that we're going to learn a little bit about Laura is a woman called Sarah josephine Baker.
Laura: Different from Josephine Baker, I assume.
Ron: Who's Josephine Baker?
Laura: Wasn't Josephine Baker, the fruit dancing lady?
Ron: Maybe it's different to sure.
Laura: Josephine Baker was that cool woman that she was French and she danced and like the famous she was a famous dancer yeah.
Ron: Of fruit hat fame, right?
Laura: I think so, yeah.
Ron: I know who you're talking about.
Laura: I'm pretty sure that was Josephine Baker.
Laura: Yeah, I think I'm right.
Laura: She's gorgeous.
Laura: Yeah.
Laura: She was like an activist and no, not but this is a different one.
Ron: This is a different lady called Sarah Josephine Baker, who was a Quaker.
Laura: Oh, I've googled her.
Laura: I would find her less sexy dancing.
Laura: She looks more like a librarian.
Ron: I mean, she was a doctor, so not a million miles away.
Ron: Basically, she was born a Quaker in 1873.
Laura: What is a Quaker?
Laura: I love their oats.
Laura: I don't really I know what they are.
Ron: They're just like a religious order.
Laura: Oh, like Christianity.
Ron: Yeah, of Christianity.
Laura: Cool.
Laura: When I was little, I used to call Quaker Oat Crunchies crop up.
Laura: Crunchies.
Laura: They were one of my favorite breakfasts and start.
Laura: Can't get start these days.
Laura: Don't make it.
Laura: Bastards.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: It's woke to start when she was a teenager.
Ron: Her brother and father died of typhoid, so with no men around, she had to go get a bloody job.
Laura: Bloody h***, Harry.
Ron: And without a strong male role model, she decided to become a doctor.
Ron: She didn't know that that was a man's job.
Laura: You nearly said a strong rail mole model.
Laura: And I was thinking of this hench Fat Controller mole.
Ron: Someone draw that, please.
Ron: We'd like to see that in the Socials very soon.
Laura: A strong rail mole model, she is.
Ron: Quoted with saying, and I imagine in one of those sort of early 19 hundreds, sort of panatlantic accents, the way people keep dying from disease, it struck me suddenly, was to keep them from falling ill.
Ron: Healthy people don't die.
Ron: Sounds like a completely witless remark, but at that time, it was quite a startling idea.
Laura: Yeah.
Laura: Champagne glasses getting dropped in.
Laura: Surprise.
Laura: Oh, heresy.
Laura: Bun the witch.
Ron: So she studied to become again, Ron.
Laura: To hark back to this book that I'm reading at the moment, set in the 14th century.
Laura: They're going through the plague at the moment, and one of the nuns is just trying to persuade them all to wear masks on their faces.
Laura: And everybody's going, no, we're not going to wear masks.
Laura: It's ridiculous.
Laura: Like the stick in the mud, monks and stuff.
Laura: And she's got this thing about, like, there should be two separate areas of the hospital, one for the plague and one for all the other stuff going on, because I think it's airborne.
Laura: And they're all going, no, it's the humors.
Laura: It's nothing to do with that.
Laura: And it's very telling to nowadays.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: I think people back I don't know if anyone was quite that advanced in their thinking of it back then, but they did think it was passed on by bad like diseases could be passed on by bad smells.
Ron: So when you see those plague doctors with the beaky noses, those beaky noses were full of potpourri to get rid of the smell.
Laura: And I'm assuming that this is based on some sort of factual accuracy, but the reason that the church were anti a lot of the learnings like that, like the wearing masks and stuff.
Laura: Like in this case, the characters learned it because she knows somebody that a tradesperson that's come from Italy and brought news of how they're coping with it in Italy.
Laura: But then the Church are like, no, because the Italians are doing it based on Muslim teachings.
Laura: So we're not going to do it because it's all heresy.
Laura: But I think the early it's so.
Ron: Good, people don't worry about all of that stuff anymore.
Ron: They just kind of take good ideas and run with them.
Laura: But I think some of the Islamic scholars, like, starting to think about the spread of infectious diseases, but they thought it was energy from the eyes.
Laura: If you looked at a sick person that the way you saw was like beaming out energy from your eyes was how you saw.
Laura: And so you could pass on diseases by looking at someone if you were ill because your energy would leave your eyes.
Ron: Interesting.
Laura: Yeah.
Laura: I'm assuming that's based in some sort of historical realism.
Laura: Yeah, I don't know, but yeah, it's been a really interesting book to read, given like everybody being like, I will not wear a mask.
Ron: When was it?
Laura: Literally 25 years ago along?
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: I was just wondering if it was that thinly veiled about COVID No, it's.
Laura: Way older than that.
Ron: That's cool.
Ron: But anyway SJB sarah Josephine Baker.
Ron: Bit of Sarah Jessica Parker energy to that name, actually.
Laura: Jessica Barker.
Laura: Sure.
Laura: I know someone with a dog called Sarah Jessica Barker.
Ron: Anyway, maybe you do.
Ron: So she went to work in an area called Clinton in Manhattan, which at the time was known as the h*** as H***'s Kitchen because so many people were dying there all the time.
Ron: It was considered the worst slum in New York.
Laura: Slum in New York.
Ron: Hey, I'm dying here.
Laura: Yeah, I got the typhoid.
Ron: 4500 people dying every week.
Laura: Bloody h***, Harry.
Laura: That's a lot.
Ron: 1500 of them babies.
Ron: Oh, yeah.
Laura: Is Typhoid the badger one?
Ron: No, that's tuberculosis.
Ron: More on that later.
Laura: What's Typhoid?
Laura: Typhoid Mary.
Laura: Is that a thing?
Ron: Hold that f****** thought, Laura.
Ron: Okay, we'll come on to that in a second.
Laura: My brain rears like a jumble of soupy words.
Laura: One floats to the surface.
Ron: AlphaBetty spaghetti.
Laura: Hang on.
Laura: It's like convening with the spirit world.
Laura: I'm like, Hold on, something's coming through.
Laura: I've got a name.
Laura: It's typhoid mary.
Laura: Is that connected?
Laura: Does anybody know?
Ron: It's more like when you're typing something into Google.
Ron: Did you mean this?
Ron: Did you mean that?
Ron: No, I didn't.
Ron: Let me finish my sentence.
Ron: Most of the deaths for infants were caused by.
Ron: Dysentery, although obviously dysentery is caused by unhygienic conditions.
Ron: So a lot of this was very preventable and just down to the fact that nobody you'd have a kid at probably like twelve or something in those days and nobody's teaching you how to do it.
Ron: So that's kind of what she focused on and really pioneered the way for is preventative medicine stopping people from ever getting ill and then they don't die.
Ron: The thing that she's really well known for is she taught mothers how to properly care for their babies.
Ron: She invented formula for babies so that mothers could support their families and stuff, aside from just having t***, and that made people a lot healthier.
Laura: And I suppose if you've got a high death and childbirth rating, then formula is integral for babies that survive the birth and the mother doesn't being able to continue even if you can't get a wetness or somebody.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: So lots of good stuff there.
Ron: And early this is directly from Wikipedia.
Ron: Early in her career, Baker twice helped to catch Mary Mallon, also known as Typhoid Mary.
Laura: Yeah, I said about her.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: I didn't know that Typhoid Mary was a real person.
Ron: I thought it was like a saying.
Laura: Typhoid Mary Celeste.
Ron: So do you know anything about Typhoid Mary?
Laura: No.
Ron: Mallon was the first known healthy carrier of typhoid and she was a cook in New York.
Ron: So she started several outbreaks because she presented no symptoms, was completely healthy herself, but was infectious.
Ron: And there were a couple of people they found like this, but she was the first one.
Ron: And then when they found her, she just had to live in isolation for the rest of her life.
Ron: Oh, no.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: Which is why she was famous, because she was just like around living on her own all the time because she just had typhoid.
Laura: What is typhoid?
Ron: Let's find out.
Ron: I bet it's just a is it.
Laura: Like a lung disease?
Laura: It feels like a coughing thing.
Ron: Yes, it feels like people still get it.
Laura: Yeah.
Laura: But then I don't know if I'm convincing.
Laura: Tuberculosis is the one where you start coughing up blood, isn't it?
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: That's sateen in rouge.
Ron: Typhoid fever is caused by a salmonella bacteria.
Laura: Oh, like a food poisoning.
Ron: So it's a fever.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: So it's sweating in a bed, someone with a cold towel.
Laura: But now we just have antibiotics for it.
Ron: I imagine so, yeah.
Ron: Or has it been eradicated?
Ron: I don't know.
Laura: I thought only one disease had.
Ron: No.
Ron: Yeah, we got a vaccine for it now.
Ron: Yeah.
Laura: Only one thing's ever been eradicated, hasn't it?
Laura: Completely.
Ron: I don't know.
Laura: I'm sure I heard.
Laura: Why can I only ever remember half a fact?
Ron: Polio has been well, although polio is coming back now because antivaxxers are dicks.
Laura: Smallpox has been eradicated.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: And I think polio largely has as well.
Laura: I think it largely has, but I believe smallpox has been like fully eradicated.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: Which is banging.
Ron: To be fair.
Laura: Eradicated is a good word, isn't it?
Ron: It is used in this.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: Okay, so that's Sarah Josephine Baker.
Ron: How do we feel about her?
Laura: Sazzles, I'm loving your work.
Laura: I love a practicalness.
Laura: I love it when women in history, in sciences and things that they've largely been told not to be in, get cool and practical and down to the actual nitty gritty of everyday life.
Laura: Instead of being, like, thinking up all the learner doctoring, they just go like, what's actually happening on the street that I can practically intervene and crack on with a lot.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: Cool.
Ron: The next person we're going to learn about is Alan L Hart.
Laura: Alan l Hart.
Laura: Oh, he was Two Face in Christopher Nolan's Batman, I think.
Ron: Very nice.
Ron: He was a physician, radiologist and novelist.
Laura: I hope that L stands for lion.
Ron: I can't remember what the L stands for.
Ron: Born in Kansas, 1890.
Laura: They're all from bloody Kansas, aren't they?
Ron: It was a very gay place.
Laura: What's going on?
Laura: Kansas.
Laura: Oh, was Sarah a lesbian, then?
Ron: Yeah, think so.
Ron: I don't really care that she was on a list of influential LGBTQ.
Ron: Plus, scientists love it.
Ron: Alan l Hart.
Ron: So you mentioned the other big lung disease of the time.
Ron: Tuberculosis.
Laura: Tuberculosis.
Ron: So Alan pioneered using X rays to find the early signs of tuberculosis, because for a long time, tuberculosis can just live in your lungs.
Ron: And it forms like plaques isn't the right word, but something like plaques.
Ron: And then you die a little while.
Ron: Well, you start coughing, you satine it.
Laura: Up, find out about it, and by the time you show symptoms, it's too late.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: Come what may and then you die.
Laura: Come.
Laura: She faints and you're like, is it the corset?
Laura: No, it's the Burkels.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: He pioneered using X rays to discover that by the time antibiotics were introduced, which was in the 40s, like during the Second World War, using the techniques that he developed, tuberculosis deaths were a 50th of what they were beforehand.
Ron: And it was previously the biggest killer in America.
Laura: Jeez.
Laura: Well done, Alan.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: He was also a successful novelist.
Ron: Wrote a bunch of books.
Ron: No.
Laura: If you're smart enough to be curing diseases, you can't be writing novels as well.
Laura: You need to focus your mind.
Laura: Leave novel writing for those of us that can't be helpful.
Ron: Yeah, well, yeah, well, I mean, he was helpful there, too, because he wrote novels and wrote about a lot of queer characters in medicine and wrote yeah, wrote a semi autobiographical book called The Undaunted in 1936, which was about a gay radiologist who faced discrimination in the workplace.
Laura: Sorry, I got distracted thinking of the word gadiologist.
Ron: Gadiologist.
Ron: Well, continue semi autobiographical, because actually, Alan L Hart was the first person to transition via surgery in the US.
Laura: Oh, gender transition.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: So in 1918, went under gender god, I can't think of the word.
Laura: Gender assignment.
Ron: Gender assignment.
Ron: Surgery.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: And it was very interesting reading about his life before that because he would summer with his grandparents where they just completely accepted it.
Ron: So presented male in the summers, had male friends there and hung out with them all the time and then would go back to their other life the rest of the time.
Ron: And their grandparents were completely just accepting of it over 100 years ago, which.
Laura: Is weird because it only started to exist, like, in the last ten years, and nobody even pretended to accept it at all until all these woke idiots started teaching.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: Really weird how they've edited his grandparents obituaries to change the pronouns and stuff.
Ron: And also really villainized the obvious hero of the piece, which was Alan's mother, who was not friendly about it.
Ron: But yeah, very, very cool person.
Laura: Yeah.
Laura: 50th.
Laura: That's mad.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: Saved f*** knows how many lives.
Ron: Really cool.
Ron: So next up, we have Sophie Wilson, commander of the British Empire.
Laura: What an unassuming name.
Laura: Sophie Wilson.
Ron: Yeah.
Laura: That feels like a little girl that loses her welly boots in an Alfie book.
Laura: Sophie Wilson had curly hair.
Laura: Mummy said some people have curly hair and some people don't.
Ron: No.
Ron: Sophie Wilson was rather and they're still alive is a no nonsense computer scientist crack on.
Ron: Soph so likelihood is that most large proportion, if not most of the people listening to this podcast are using something that Sophie Wilson created.
Laura: Ears.
Laura: No, Sophie Wilson invented ears.
Ron: Sophie Wilson.
Laura: Sophie wilson invented SIM cards.
Ron: Closer.
Ron: So Sophie Wilson worked at a company called Acorn Computers.
Laura: Acorn used to have those at yeah, yeah.
Ron: Sophie Wilson was a big part in building those.
Ron: They developed something called the Acorn risk Machine.
Ron: Risk RISC fifth person that used the.
Laura: Computer just had their fingers blown off.
Ron: No, you had to draw a bunch of cards.
Ron: And then, oh, cool, I got cam catcher.
Ron: And then you put a guy there.
Laura: Nice.
Ron: No.
Ron: Risk stands for reduced instruction.
Ron: Set computer.
Laura: He's already started with four places in Australasia.
Ron: The game's basically his three cannons.
Ron: She.
Ron: I've got no idea what this does.
Ron: It's called an Arm, but essentially, as of 2012, 95% of smartphones in the world use it.
Laura: Whoa.
Ron: Yeah.
Laura: What do the other 5% use?
Ron: Something else.
Ron: In 2011, she was named number eight in a list of the 15 most important women in tech history.
Laura: And that's the one that catches the ball out of the scrum.
Ron: Number eight.
Laura: Come on, Ron.
Laura: I can't remember what the number eight actually does, but no, I think that's.
Ron: What the number eight does.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: Well done.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: 8th most important woman in tech history underwent gender reassignment surgery in the 90s.
Ron: Acorn computers don't exist anymore, but she loves theater and is in charge of the costumes at her local theater and sounds like a lovely woman.
Laura: Yeah.
Laura: I'm picturing the same theater that I picture when I read the Boggart by Susan Cooper.
Laura: Read by David Rintel.
Ron: I don't know the story of the boggot.
Laura: What?
Laura: Did you never listen to the boggot?
Ron: Did, but so young.
Ron: I don't remember any of it.
Laura: Emily and Jessup.
Ron: I remember something about megatharium or is that five children in it?
Laura: That's not the boggot.
Ron: Yeah, that might be five children in it.
Ron: What's a megatharium giant sloth?
Laura: No, that's not in the okay.
Ron: And then the last person that we're going to go into in some detail is Nurgis Mavalvala, who is an astrophysicist, who now I'm going to have to just read this verbatim because I understand f****** nothing about what she helped discover.
Ron: But basically, she is part of the team of scientists that first observed gravitational waves from the collision of two black holes.
Ron: Gravitational waves?
Ron: Extremely faint ripples in space time were previously unproven phenomena predicted by Einstein in his theory of general relativity.
Ron: It is set to revolutionize the way that we see and understand the universe, including direct observation of dark matter sounds.
Laura: We should give Dara a ring and just double check that with him.
Ron: Yeah, he's probably met her or something.
Laura: Interviewed her for a Nobel Peace Prize.
Ron: Yeah, because they only did this in 2015, so she's still very relevant.
Ron: I think.
Ron: She is Pakistani born and is a gay rights activist as well on the.
Laura: Side, because I think all scientists are straight white men from England.
Ron: Well, yeah, but she's not a real scientist.
Ron: She just kind of makes the tea while the straight white men do science, obviously.
Laura: I think so.
Laura: That's what I understand, anyway.
Ron: Yeah.
Laura: And I think it's important to listen to people that can't even put a train line where they said they were going to put a train line.
Ron: You don't understand, Laura.
Ron: There are train lines already there between Birmingham and Manchester.
Ron: HS Two is just going to use those.
Ron: It's exactly the same.
Laura: Sure.
Laura: Okay.
Laura: Well, sounds good to me.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: And then we've just got time for some honorable mentions at the end.
Laura: What about dishonorable mentions?
Ron: That's what the news is for.
Ron: Alan Turing.
Laura: Yes.
Ron: Father of computing.
Ron: Basically helped the allies win World War II.
Laura: Treated disgustingly.
Ron: Yeah, treated disgustingly.
Ron: Deserves so much more from this nation.
Ron: But I thought he'd been covered.
Ron: Quite.
Ron: Everyone knows about Alan Sheeran.
Ron: John Maynard Keynes, who there was a.
Laura: College named after him at my university.
Ron: He was a very fundamental economist, which is maths, but not really science, so I didn't include him, but also thought Tories should like him because he was an economist.
Laura: I didn't know that he was LGBT.
Ron: Yeah, a guy called Magnus Hirschfeld was very, very cool.
Ron: He was a sexologist and an LGBTQ plus activist.
Ron: I loved this one.
Ron: Robert D.
Ron: McPherson and Mark Grewski, who are both mathematicians who work mathematicians.
Ron: Mathematicians, they do like to mash.
Ron: They founded a new mathematical theory and then fell in love.
Ron: And now they've lived together since the 80s after founding a new branch of maths together.
Laura: Oh, my God, I bet they're so boring.
Laura: But I'm so glad that they're happy.
Ron: You just know that they're just doing sudokus and armchairs every day of the week.
Laura: True love and maths worth.
Ron: Sally ride astronaut.
Ron: Sally Ride was the youngest ever astronaut at 32, and the first American woman in space.
Laura: Yes, I think I've seen pictures of her.
Laura: She pops up in memes sometimes.
Laura: That's how I do my learning.
Ron: And then audrey Kang is also a computer scientist.
Ron: The only reason she didn't make it into a proper big spot on the list is because I ran out of time and she was at the bottom of the list that I got most of these things from.
Laura: D*** you all.
Ron: She is very cool.
Ron: She's an open source hacker who uses ethical hacking to make the online world a better place, including she invented a way that videos of protests could get shared around Taiwan, even though the Chinese government were trying to crack down on that sort of thing.
Laura: God, I'm so glad I live somewhere where there isn't a government sort of actively trying to crack down on freedom of rights and stuff.
Ron: Yeah, but freedom of speech, man.
Ron: You can say whatever you want as long as it's not dissenting at a party conference.
Laura: Yeah.
Laura: Which is the way it should be.
Laura: Say what you like, but just like saying the right stuff.
Ron: Exactly.
Laura: Yeah.
Laura: And.
Ron: That'S the people I found.
Laura: Ron, I've had the time of my life here.
Laura: Thank you for telling me about all these fictional people in science that are in no way real and you won't.
Ron: Be hearing about from next.
Laura: Didn't impact on the world at all.
Ron: So just if everyone listening, the takeaway from this is that Tories aren't allowed to use computers, spit tuberculosis into them, and dirty their babies because they don't deserve any of this.
Laura: Boo.
Laura: Class affirmed.
Laura: Class and dismissed.
Laura: Ron say class dismissed.
Ron: Sorry, I thought that was antsy.
Ron: Class dismissed.
Laura: I need to click leave the call, then I need to stop recording, not just walk away.
Laura: Hang on.
Ron: Hey, everybody, this is Ron.
Ron: Hope you enjoyed that episode.
Ron: We just wanted to drop in a quick note to say that if you are an LGBTQ plus listener and you're looking for a safe little cuddly corner of the Internet hiding, drop us a message either at lexeducation@gmail.com or you can find us on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram or anything.
Ron: And you are very welcome to join our Patreon discord channel, usually only for patrons, but just let us know, and you're very welcome.
Ron: We love.
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