Smokey The Vampyre? NO! Just Smokey Vampyre

Tangents abound! Hids takes a look at a Smokey Bear, the iconic and longest running public service announcement campaign in US History! Wildfires are a very real threat across the US and the world, and Smokey has been a voice for prevention and safety for over 81 years!

Jess takes a look at something slightly creepier than bears…vampires! Specifically the rise of the current ‘romantic’ vampire depiction from the Victorian era and a brief look at some of the earliest mentions of vampirism. We’ll definitely be looking forward to future episodes and deeper dives into this topic!

Hids’ Sources:

SmokeyBear.com

https://www.adcouncil.org/campaign/wildfire-prevention/spread-the-word

https://smokeybear.com/#tips

https://youtu.be/Myz93sXW66Y?si=kMshDXgnU7o7aYqk 

Jess’ Sources:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/how-popular-culture-changed-our-view-of-the-vampire

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Paole

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petar_Blagojevi%C4%87

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England_vampire_panic

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:05

She's not happy. She's not happy.

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Love you though.

SPEAKER_02 0:09

But I got the meows. Hello. Hi. How are you? I'm great. How are you? I'm good. That's a typical ADHD answer, can we not? The typical neurodivergent. How are you? I'm good. How are you?

SPEAKER_00 0:31

Good, good, good, good, good, good, good, cool.

SPEAKER_02 0:33

Anyway. Welcome to episode 15 of season two.

SPEAKER_01 0:41

Wait, I have 14 on my list. It's 15.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Okay. I'll change it. It's definitely 15. 15. Changed.

SPEAKER_01 0:54

I don't know what happened. I lost an episode somewhere in there.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

Episode uh 15 of what? Jess and Hits make a podcast.

SPEAKER_02 1:03

I'm Jess. I'm Hits. And we made a podcast. We're still making it. Yeah. It's crazy crazy. Twice a month. Yeah. So um what's new?

SPEAKER_01 1:22

I'm looking around the room trying to think. I've got this new little goblin.

SPEAKER_00 1:25

It's been two whole weeks. Look at this. Isn't he adorable?

SPEAKER_02 1:30

He is cute. This is great for an audio.

SPEAKER_00 1:33

You ask me what's new, and this is what's new. Okay. He needs a name. I got nothing.

SPEAKER_02 1:39

I got nothing. Um two weeks since the last time we have spoken to our audience.

SPEAKER_01 1:44

I know.

SPEAKER_02 1:44

It's weird. Yeah. Uh what has happened in the last two weeks? I had a birthday. You did? Yeah. Level up. Yep. Well done.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 1:55

Good job, you. What else? Um We went on a hike. We did a little Silvo therapy.

SPEAKER_02 2:03

We did. It was great. It was great.

SPEAKER_01 2:07

It was it was nice because like we were there, it was sunny and not too hot and not too windy. And then the next three days it rained and got cold, and then the wind came.

SPEAKER_02 2:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:17

And it's been windy ever since.

SPEAKER_02 2:19

We picked a good day to go out and be outdoors. And it was great because we walked around a lake and we had fry bread.

SPEAKER_01 2:26

Oh, the fry bread was so good.

SPEAKER_02 2:30

So good.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

It was a good day.

SPEAKER_02 2:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:33

And we also had ice cream at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_02 2:35

Oh yeah, we did.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

Really good ice cream. Uh-huh. So that was nice. Yeah. We should do that again. We should. Except the wind will not stop blowing now. Yeah, now that the window season.

SPEAKER_02 2:45

Yeah. And there's a little Shen. Shen update. She's doing good on for her on her medication. Um She has a recheck Friday. Yeah. So we'll see how she's blood next episode.

SPEAKER_01 3:04

Yeah. We'll see how everything goes and if she needs any adjustments.

SPEAKER_02 3:07

But today she has been very, very lethargic. And I'm trying not to be worried. But that is a side effect. But yeah. Seems more so than usual. Like drowsiness is the side effect of the medication, but today she's just been in the same place sleeping all day. Yeah. Yay. But it's okay. We're getting her checked out again in a couple days. So it's gonna be good. Yeah.

unknown 3:34

It's good.

SPEAKER_01 3:37

Um so do we want to just immediately dive in? My topic is is uh I like my topic, but it is short. I will say that I have a short topic today.

SPEAKER_02 3:50

Mine is short too. It could have been a lot longer. But I I mean I'll I'll explain it when I actually talk about my topic. Okay. You've been like teasing about it. Stop it. I love you. Sweet Kate. Sorry, Cake was licking really loud and it was gross.

SPEAKER_01 4:12

Cake makes a lot of weird mouth noises and uh it drives us crazy. But we adore her. We do. We put up with a lot from her.

SPEAKER_00 4:21

Um yeah, I don't have much else. She does. She does.

SPEAKER_02 4:25

Like, you know, telling her not to listen to. Stop doing everything you're doing all the time.

SPEAKER_01 4:30

Aw. But we love here. Poor little cake. Um, yeah, I don't I don't really have much else. We do have our scavenger hunt still going, so there's plenty of time. Um you still have 16 days to do the scavenger hunt, and uh you should drop drop over to jessinhits.com slash merch and grab that. Um, I've been seeing some submissions come in, they're really fun. Yeah. And uh we have a scavenger hunt channel in our Discord server that people are sharing some pictures on and talking about scavenger hunt, so it's fun. So yeah, if you want to do that, uh pop over here to the website and grab it. My chair is super squeaky and I'm sorry. It's fine. It's just I just realize I'm like moving around, I can't get comfortable, and I'm like, wow. Yeah. It's really noisy. Anyway, um scavenger hunt, that's that's the only big thing that I have. I feel like I'm missing something, but that's it.

SPEAKER_02 5:31

Um our TTRPG games are free this month. So if you want to sign up, go to patreon.com slash Jess and Hids and look for the most recent schedule post. You'll find the the sign-up form link on there. Also the link to our Discord and uh I think that's it. Oh, our website. Our website. Also, it's all there.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

It's all there.

SPEAKER_02 5:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:59

We've just been like, I feel like I've just been kind of chill for a little bit because we we went to every other week recording and it felt like, oh, I could just be chill for a little bit. Even though like all the other stuff is still going crazy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:16

But it yeah, it's it's been nice.

SPEAKER_01 6:18

It was nice to be able to like not feel like I had to rush to Yeah, like cra like, oh, we just recorded, oh, we gotta record again and do all the research. But yeah, it it was nice. I do want to eventually get back to our our weekly because but it is nice. We've got a ton of new downloads.

SPEAKER_02 6:35

Oh, what I know a new thing that we can talk about. What we both might potentially be going back to school. Oh, I forgot about I try not to think about that because it's stressing me out. But yeah, so for a long time I've been thinking about uh getting certified as a massage therapist, as a therapeutic massage person. Um, I don't know why I felt the need to say that both ways. Uh, but there you are. I think it's because every time I look for the program on this college's website, I think massage therapy in my head, but it's actually called therapeutic massage. So I have to look under the T's and not the M's.

SPEAKER_03 7:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:16

It's weird. So I like I had to, I don't know. I whatever. Anyway, so I'm I have applied and I'm waiting to hear back, and financial aid is necessary, so I also have to wait for that, but I have applied for that as well. And yeah, maybe be able to start school, which is weird to say when I just turned 39. But you know, well, I've been thinking about it for a long time. Like even back in my, you know, uh late teens, early twenties, I was like, I should go into massage therapy, and then I just didn't.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

Um speaking as someone who gets uh therapeutic massage every other week, uh I'm here for this. And okay. I like I think no, like I'll be your practice, no. Um no, I I think massage therapy is great. I have zero wrist uh I have wrist injuries, or I would consider it, but okay. I mean, we don't always have to do the exact same thing with our I have thought about massage therapy before as well, but I have I worked in the tile uh installation industry and destroyed my wrist. So it's hard to do anything that requires a lot of pressure. So what are you thinking about doing? Um I've been looking at a few different things and I looked at um pharmacy technician. Yeah. Cause I did like I when I used to work in the vet, I did a lot of uh medication things involved with that, like filling prescriptions and like helping people work through their stuff, you know, under the doctor's control. What is it? Oversight. I don't know what it's called. Supervision. Supervision, that's the word I was looking for. Thank you. Um, but yeah, so I'm looking at that. There's a program at the local community college, so I thought I might might try that.

SPEAKER_02 9:15

Yeah. So we're looking at like maybe if we both had higher paying jobs, we wouldn't be so stressed out all the time working, you know, for many of them.

SPEAKER_01 9:27

I mean that it's the story of of the and I've I don't know. It's nice I don't know. It's nice to have a thing, like I would love to do welding, but again, that's a it's a more physical thing. Like I like I've welded off and on through my life because my dad did cars and all that, so it's always something I've loved to do, but physically I don't think I'm really there for it as a like as a job. Yeah. Day every day.

SPEAKER_02 9:57

And you gotta think about like the practicality of it, because like where around here are you gonna find like an actual There's actually I did look.

SPEAKER_01 10:05

There, there's a lot of construction companies in the area. And is it seasonal though? No. I found there I actually did find several and I was like, oh look, there's a lot of uh there are are actual jobs in the area.

SPEAKER_00 10:17

Well, there I go, assuming that there wouldn't be.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

Yeah. It's well it's I think like when I my first initial thing is welding, I'm like, big giant, you know, big jobs, big this, but there's actually like a lot of different practical uses for it in in a lot of different things. But again, physicality of that is yeah. I could do it, but it would just be a hobby if I took it, and that's kind of you know. I have enough hobbies, I have plenty of hobbies. I don't need any more, I don't need to pay for a certificate to have a hobby. To know how to do all yeah, I'm just like no no no. If I'm gonna if I'm gonna go to school, it has to be, you know, something. So yeah. Something that I could actually do. But yeah, so yeah. Going back to school at and a a slightly older than you is uh interesting, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:13

Yeah, I'm I was never a good student, so we'll see how this goes. I don't know. My ADHD, I need structure, but I hate structure, and I need spontaneity, but also I have to be prepared. And yeah, it's that that whole thing. So you know, yep. But I I want to do it. So hopefully that drive will still be there when I actually am taking classes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:44

That's that's the thing. Like I started, I did start um back in 2013. I started getting classes for um dental tech, dental technician or yeah, dental technician. And um, I was enjoying it, and then I, you know, destroyed my back by sneezing and had to drop out. I'm a college dropout. I'm so proud of myself.

SPEAKER_02 12:09

I'm a college dropout too. It's okay. I never finished. I was two classes away from finishing an associate's degree.

SPEAKER_01 12:14

I was the first person to go to college in my family and I dropped out. So I'm now well once again you started college, so technically. Yeah. Once again, I'm gonna I'm gonna do it again. So here we go. Yeah. Hopefully it'll be better this time around. Yay. So we'll keep you posted on that.

SPEAKER_02 12:31

Yeah. I wish I could go to school in my topic today. That'd be I do you know what is there?

SPEAKER_01 12:39

I wish I could in this topic that I'm gonna talk about. Well, sideline to the topic that I'm gonna talk about. Okay. It's something I've always, always wanted to do and never ever was gonna be able to do.

SPEAKER_02 12:53

You know what I am currently trying to decide?

SPEAKER_00 12:56

What?

SPEAKER_02 12:57

Do I want to use the the card that I drew last week to make you go first? Or do I just want to risk going first? We'll see. I might hold on to that. I might hold on to it. Play it when you least expect it. Yeah. Can't talk about it. I had forgotten. You could have done it, and I would have been like, oh, dang! Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:18

I completely forgot you did that.

SPEAKER_02 13:20

Well, I you would see me pull it out of a drawer and be like, I have this, I have this, I'm using it. Okay. Okay. Okay, let's draw these Uno cards. I have one. You have to you have to actually like play it. Oh, I gotta draw two. What is a draw two? Um use a draw two card to make the other person draw another one and take the lower card. Well, wait. But what are you taking? So I guess I have to draw again.

SPEAKER_00 13:48

I don't know. I didn't think these rules through. Again, once again.

SPEAKER_01 13:53

Well, there's a two on your card, so does that mean that I have to draw one to to wait, or you go first? I don't understand the rules. I don't either.

SPEAKER_02 14:01

I I originally said that like before the cards are drawn, if you have a draw two, you can use that to make the other person draw again. Yeah. But then like I drew the draw two. So do you just hold on to it? Yes. Okay. And because I get to hold on to a cool card, do I draw again then? Probably. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, let's do that. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 14:25

We should figure out the rules for it. No, I got a three. I got a nine. So you're going first. I don't like this game. Give me my dice back. I like my dice game better. We'll switch to dice. Um for season three, for season three.

SPEAKER_02 14:40

Man, that's a whole or come up with a whole different game. Like that's I think we said that last week too. Just draw last draw straw. Rock, paper, scissors. Rock, paper, scissors, lizard, spok is what we're doing.

SPEAKER_01 14:52

I never remember all the rules on that one. Let's just stick to the basic three. I know, I know. Okay. Okay, what's your what are you talking about? So I last week when or la two weeks ago, when I drew my card and I went, hmm, hmm. And I started doing some research, and I realized it was a very broad topic, and I was struggling to get it narrowed down. But then some synchronicities happened that made me pick this topic instead. And and one of the synchronicities was that we had um some costumes come into work, and then we were talking with your mom on our walk in the forest about um Smokey. So I'm gonna talk about Smokey Bear. Smokey Bear. Aww. So I was like, oh, Smokey Bear. And then I was on Instagram and Smokey Bear came up, and I was just like, there he is. I'm just gonna follow him. So I'm following Smokey Bear now. Oh, cool. So tell me about Smokey Bear. Smoky Bear, like I said, this is gonna be we're just gonna talk. So I don't have a ton of kind of what we do.

SPEAKER_02 16:12

Yeah, it is. I mean, we just do.

SPEAKER_01 16:13

We're just gonna talk. Yeah, we're just gonna talk about Smoky Bear. What do you what do you know about Smokey Bear? What can I tell you? What can I teach you, nude? Do you know anything?

SPEAKER_02 16:20

I know Smokey Bear was an actual bear who was rescued from a wildfire.

SPEAKER_01 16:25

Right. Do you know where?

SPEAKER_02 16:27

Uh no. Well, I should because you you have been to that museum. Is it somewhere on the way to Texas?

SPEAKER_01 16:36

It's uh in Capitan, New Mexico. Okay, yeah. There's a Smoky Bear whole park and little museum that you can go to, and Smokey Bear is the original Smoky Bear is actually buried there. Aww. We'll get to that though later. Okay. Do you know uh the Smoky Bear is the longest running public service announcement in uh US history.

SPEAKER_02 17:00

That's cool. Isn't that cool? Has it always been only you can prevent forest fires? The slogan?

SPEAKER_01 17:08

The first signature phrase was remember, only you can prevent forest fires. Wow. But that came three years after the program started. Okay. And Smoky Bear, the bear, came uh also came in 1950. So the campaign started the mascot. Yeah. Uh the campaign started in 1944, um, which the USDA Forest Service, the National Association of State Foresters, which is what I would like want to do as a job.

SPEAKER_02 17:44

I would love to be a park ranger or forest ranger, but I was wondering when you were gonna tie that into that you wanted to you want to be Smokey Bear?

SPEAKER_00 17:51

No, oh, I would love to be Smoky Bear.

SPEAKER_02 17:53

You can try on those costumes when we get them at work.

SPEAKER_00 17:56

I would love to be Smokey Bear.

SPEAKER_01 17:58

That would be so cool.

SPEAKER_02 17:59

Um no, like the person wearing the suit.

SPEAKER_01 18:05

But like going and and yeah, it would be fun. But I would also like want to be a park ranger. Miserable. Yeah.

unknown 18:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:12

There's that too. Yeah. Also, I saw a clip of Smoky Bear dancing with some uh beaver mascot for at the banana Savannah Banana ball game. And I was like, No, I'm not gonna do that. But I will have um some information at the end of well, in the show notes. I'll have the smokey bear.com website. And if you want to have Smokey come talk to people, you can sign up and get them to come to your whatever your school, your um book club. I don't know. Book club. He goes to a lot anywhere you want to talk about fire prevention, you can get Smokey probably. Probably I'm gonna caveat that there were some things. Um so okay, back to my information. I'm just gonna keep randomly going off on tangents, but that's okay.

SPEAKER_00 19:02

What in this podcast?

SPEAKER_01 19:04

What do you mean? We never do that, I know, but okay, where was I? The US Day Forest Service, the National Association of State Foresters, and the Ad Council partnered with the advertising agency Foot Cone and Belding to create the Smoky Bear campaign in 1944. To this day, uh FCB advertising agency continues to create the Smoky Bear campaign on a pro bonus basis. Oh, which I think is wonderful.

SPEAKER_02 19:36

They do it full fui.

SPEAKER_01 19:37

They do it for free. I love that. I think it's awesome. So 80 uh it was 81 years in August last year. Wow. Um, that this has been running. It's the longest running PSA in America.

SPEAKER_02 19:48

So um cool. You said that was two, three years after the actual Smokey Bear um was found?

SPEAKER_01 19:58

1944 was when the campaign started. Yes. And the uh it was not until 1950 that Smokey Bear was rescued from the fire in New Mexico. Oh, so So the yeah, the program was actually going on.

SPEAKER_00 20:13

The program was there.

SPEAKER_02 20:15

The slogan was there.

SPEAKER_01 20:16

And Smokey Bear, the the mascot that you see, the the iconic bear with the blue jeans and the four park ranger hat has been around way longer than six years longer than the the actual Smoky Bear mascot.

SPEAKER_02 20:32

I thought I thought the actual bear was what sparked all of it.

SPEAKER_01 20:37

Me too. Wow. Me too. I had no idea. I was like, what? That's crazy. I thought they found the bear and were like, you know what? He would make a good mascot. We should start, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:46

You know, it would be cool. The little bear cub, let's use him to promote, you know, fire safety. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:51

Yeah. But Smokey Bear was already there. Wow. So the little bear cub, since we're talking about him, we'll go, we'll, we'll bounce ahead to 1950. Um, there was a wildfire in the Capitan Mountains of New Mexico, and the crew kind of got, they had seen this little bear cub while they were fighting the fire, and they were like, okay, he's he's wandering off in the direction away from the fire. He's gonna uh go find his mom and be okay. And then the fire like turned and they got trapped kind of in this canyon um for a while and then were rescued, and then they also found the same little cub, and he had been burned, and and it was just it was so sad. His little picture, he's just like little scrawny little bear with little bandages on him. Um, so they they scooped him up and took him back, you know, to uh their little ranger station and gave him first aid, and then he was actually sent to the National Zoo in Washington, DC. Um, but they named him Smokey after the Smokey Bear, the campaign. That's been around for six years. Um, and he became kind of the living symbol of of the campaign. And he lived in the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. Um, until he retired in 1973. So for 23 years. Umpe, I'm wrong. That was the guy who was his caretaker retired in 1973. Sorry, my notes got a little twisty. Um let me go find my little uh I gotta go find okay, here we are. I gotta show you this picture of this little sweet little tiny bear with his little beadages.

SPEAKER_00 22:52

Oh, he's so cute. He's so cute. He's like smaller than Xirin.

SPEAKER_01 22:57

I know, he's super tiny. I was like, oh my gosh, he's so little. And it was in the spring, so he was probably like pretty newborn, which is just like, oh no. Um so yeah, he was rescued and uh taken to um the New Mexico like Department of Game and Fish. And uh a pilot named Ray Bell heard about him and flew him to Santa Fe, where they the veterinary treated him and bandaged his barns and everything. And he took him home for a while, and his wife and daughter helped nurse him back to health, which I'm like, oh, I want to be, I want a baby bear. Um and then like the news spread, and people were like, Oh, let's, you know, look, talk about this little bear that was rescued, and he kind of became this like the symbol of the of the icon, you know, this iconic little bear. Yeah. And then that's when he got sent to uh the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. He lived there for 25 years and retired in 1975, not 1973. Um, and he passed away in 1976.

SPEAKER_02 24:13

Uh.

SPEAKER_01 24:13

And then he his remains were sent home, and he is buried at the Smoky Bear Historical Park in Capitan, New Mexico. And I've been there and saw his little grave. I was like, oh. Um, in 1962, he had a friend join him, um, a bear named Goldie, who was also also an orphan. Um, and then later on, there another little uh orphan cub from the Lincoln National Forest in southern New Mexico, and uh they all he was dubbed Smoky the Two. Oh Smokey Two. Little Little Smokey or Smokey Two.

SPEAKER_02 24:56

Little Smoky is like the little smoke. Little Smoky, I know.

SPEAKER_01 24:58

Oh, I want some little Smokies. We've got some in the fridge. Oh, we need to we need to get some.

SPEAKER_00 25:02

Yeah, we need to we ha we have some.

SPEAKER_01 25:05

I mean, no, tomorrow. Okay. When I get off work tomorrow, I'm gonna pop them in the crock pot with some barbecue sauce. Yum. Okay, sweet. Done. Um uh Smokey 2 was stayed at the national roll at our national roll. Bread roll. Sorry. I should maybe maybe I need to eat some more. I don't know. Um Smoky 2 was the next kind of symbol and mascot of the Smokey Bear campaign, and he stayed um at the National Zoo until August of 1990 when he passed away. And there's not been another smoky bear, like actual bear. Yeah. Um, since then. I'm like, good. I know you're like, no more orphan bears.

SPEAKER_02 26:02

Then it just kind of becomes uh I don't know, having a a real a real animal mascot seems I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 26:11

I'm I always feel weird. Like when I go to like I mean Carolina Panthers used to have a Black Panther that they would bring out and home at certain home games, yeah, for a little while. Not not often, but I do remember it and I'm just like, I don't know how I feel about that. Yeah, there's a word I'm looking for. It might be exploitation. Exploitation, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:32

But also I mean like I don't know. Yeah, I mean, I'm all for um rescuing bears and 100%.

SPEAKER_01 26:38

Yeah. And like I know some people are very anti-zoo. I am I am pro-zoo because a lot of animals species have been saved by being in zoos because they're extinct in the wild. And yeah. Um a lot of zoos are also rehabilitation for the one we do the race in in November. Yeah. They have a a really big rehabilitation program for chimpanzees and I think the howler monkeys too. Oh yeah. So that was that's really cool. Yeah. So in in that aspect, I am I am pro-zoo for for good zoos. Pro-ethical zoos. Pro-ethical zoos, yeah. Yeah, I don't know how I feel about um animals being kind of trotted out, but I also like like our friend Kate works in a wildlife.

SPEAKER_02 27:27

And presentations and stuff. So like those those are cool too. Educational purposes. I I like that. Yeah. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:36

As long as the animal's healthy and happy and well cared for and has a good living environment.

SPEAKER_02 27:40

And it it seems like all of those shows, this is sorry, this tangent is just gonna keep going just for a little bit longer. Um, all of the shows that I've seen that are like, come and see the animals, and they do like little uh tricks and things, like the falconry you've seen. Um they all the the handlers always talk about like the actual animal them themselves and where they come from and why they're currently in this facility. And it's usually, you know, they're you know, just now learning how to hunt and how to fend for themselves. You know, it's things like that.

SPEAKER_01 28:13

It's yeah. And a lot of times the, you know, they're they're there as part of these programs until they can be released, or because they can't be released back into the wild, because you know, they maybe they were um, I know, like maybe like the an eagle had been shot or trapped or something and they can't fly and like they can't go out in the wild because they will die a terrible death of you know, they won't be able to take care of themselves. So, you know, in that case, I'm like, okay, let's have them here where we can go and be like, oh my gosh, there's an eagle like two feet away from me. This is so cool. And I'm learning about it and you know, like what I can do to make their life easier and like avoid their nest or that sort of thing. Which also another tangent, we need to go up and see if the eagle pests are there.

SPEAKER_02 28:59

Yeah. There's a as soon as it stops being windy.

SPEAKER_01 29:03

No, as soon as it stops being windy. There's a um not far from where we live, like just within a mile or two, there's a little hiking path and there's a stand of trees and and eagles nest there. Yep. Which I think is just the coolest thing. Yeah. So yeah. I mean, I grew up in the 80s when like eagles were endangered. So I was like, like, oh my gosh, it's an eagle. This is the coolest thing. They're not anymore. They're still in the they're still protected. But they are no longer endangered. Do you know how that was recent, right? That's very recent. Yeah. As an 80s child, I am like, oh, awesome. Oh, fun fact. Neat little thing. Sperm whales are also off the Endangered Species Act. I want to say But they're still protected. Pandas as well. Pandas as well. Yeah. Neat. However, the rice whale is very dangerously endangered, so let's um, you know, work on them the way we work. The rice whale? The rice whale. I have never heard of that before. They live in the Gulf of Mexico. Oh. Yep. That's cool.

SPEAKER_00 30:01

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 30:02

I'm gonna have to look it up. Look it up. It's very problematic right now because stuff is happening in the Gulf of Mexico with oil. And um, yep. So let's talk about rice's whale. Rice's whale. Oh, I just called him rice whale. Oh, and I want to make like rice of rice.

SPEAKER_02 30:23

A little rice sculpture. A whale.

SPEAKER_01 30:25

Yeah, a whale made out of rice. Okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 30:28

Ha.

SPEAKER_02 30:30

Okay, smoky bear. The only year-round resident baleen whale of the Gulf of Mexico.

SPEAKER_01 30:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 30:38

It was recognized as a distinct species in 2021.

SPEAKER_01 30:42

Oh wow, I didn't realize that. Very recent. Very recent. Yeah. That's so cool. Anyway, that's a whole that's a whole other I can talk about whales. Maybe I'll just talk about whales in one episode. Whales. Two. They're so cool. I know. Okay, bucket list. I want to go whale watching somewhere. Maui. Okay. You can just sit on the beach and watch. Maui, yet another bucket list. So I cannot two things at once. Yeah. Totally should do that. Uh-huh. Okay. Put that down. We're going to do that. Okay. Write that down. Make it happen. We're manifesting. Yep, here I go. Write it down. You're not. No, I'm not. Okay, okay. I'm going to try not to laugh. Um Smokey. Is it Smokey Bear or Smokey the Bear? It's Smokey Bear. Do you know why people say Smokey the Bear? Because Winnie the Pooh? No. Why? Because in 1952, there was a song written called Smokey the Bear. And they had to they added this the in because musically needed to hit the beat. They needed to hit the beat. Um, so yeah, so uh everybody goes, but it's Smokey the Bear. It's like, no, but yeah, there's just uh he's Smokey Bear officially. And um the the is only for the song. If you're singing the song, you can say Smokey the Bear.

SPEAKER_00 32:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:09

And I have the video, but it's not in public domain, so I can't play it, but I'll I'll link it. Aw, okay. Nothing of Smokey's will ever be in public domain. Because it's still being represented by that ad agency. And it is uh in 1952 there was an act of Congress that established it as being under the Secretary of Agriculture, and it will never uh it has been removed from public domain and it will re it will always be um belong to Smoky and the and the forestry parks and all of that. That's cool. Which I think is very cool. Yeah. Um, because it also allows for all royalties and proceeds and fees collected off of any licensed products to be used to continued for uh for continued wildfire. Wow. I'm looking at it and it I'm reading it and it doesn't work. Um continued. Continued wildfire prevention education.

SPEAKER_00 33:08

Still couldn't get the word out.

SPEAKER_01 33:11

You know what I'm saying. Education to not burn down the forest that we need so desperately. Also, it's wildfire season right now, so and we had a really, really dry winter.

SPEAKER_02 33:25

I don't know about other parts. Well, I'm pretty sure other parts of the world have too, because we were just talking about a friend in Cal Colorado who was saying they also had a dry winter, and it is fire season there too. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:37

What can you do? Careful, careful, careful. What can you do to prevent forest fires?

SPEAKER_02 33:43

Well, I don't know, but I know only I can do it.

SPEAKER_01 33:47

Only you, Jeff.

SPEAKER_02 33:49

Because that's what Smoky said.

SPEAKER_01 33:50

Only you fill in your blank if you're listening to this. Fill in your name. Only you can prevent forest fires. So if you go to smokeybear.com, they have a page of wildfire prevention tips. And it's three big things. And the biggest one, like you know, when we're driving around here. Don't be stupid. Don't be stupid. That should be like the biggest one. Don't be stupid. Um, but the biggest thing we see it on uh signs around here a lot drown, stir, drown, feel. So you dump if you have a campfire. I don't think I've ever seen that on a sign before. Well, you should see it's all over if you there's one on the road to Sholo. Nope. I'm sorry, on the road to uh Heber. There's a it's the little hand, it's got the little fire, a shovel, and a little hand, and then a bucket of water. Okay. So you drown it in water, and then you stir it up, and then you drown it in water again, and then you feel it. If it's too hot to touch, it's too hot to leave, so drown it again. Yeah. Because even a little ember can sit there and smolder and spread and spread and spread, and then you have a fire again.

SPEAKER_02 35:05

Which is sort of the theme we go for with the war members, but like in a good way. Like our war members are good war members that can spread much like a wildfire, but in its spreading happiness and not destruction.

SPEAKER_01 35:23

I know. I think about that every time we say, Oh, war members, spread your war members, share your fire. Oh, but not the actual thing. The actual fire. Yeah, our war members are unless you're like lighting a candle, then that's fine. Yeah. But don't put it too close to fabrics or anything. Yeah. Like be smart with your fire, people.

SPEAKER_03 35:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:42

Um one other thing which I think a lot of people don't think about is driving or parking on dry grass. Yeah. Because you're the underpart of your car. What was that? Oh, something outside. Yeah. I just heard a burn. I was like, speaking of cars. Somebody's growling at me. Yeah. Um But yeah, the underside of your car gets very, very hot. And if you drive in tall dry grass, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:08

Combustion happens.

SPEAKER_01 36:09

It could ignite. And if you if you're towing things, make sure your chains are up off the ground. If you've got anything dragging in your car, just you don't want sparks. Yeah. It just takes a little bit. Especially in dry, dry weather. So yeah, there's also on the um on the website, you can it talks about making a defensible space around your home. So like clearing back trees away from your home so that you know yeah, we like to live in a shady spot, but if that tree catches fire, then your house is catching a catch fire. It's yeah, it's a mess. Yeah. So that's just me saying, be safe, be smart, and um you guys gotta be careful because uh the forestry service is is struggling right now. Um, a lot of forest people have been laid off and their jobs have been uh dismantled. So don't start fires. Yeah. Nine out of ten wildfires are started by humans. Yeah. That's terrible. Yeah. Because there is a good fire. Like fires happen naturally.

SPEAKER_02 37:22

Yeah. Well, I mean, there's a reason they do uh prescribed burns, prescribed burns, and controlled burns. But yeah, it if left uncontrolled, it can be devastating. Terribly devastating. Which like I mean back in well, when was the radio rodeo chettisky? The they were it started as two big old huge fires in Arizona. And well, I it covered it covered other states too. But it was the rodeo fire and the Chedisky fire, merged into one big fire, and it took a a really long time to contain that fire, and it it destroyed so much of natural wildlife and you know, hip habitable space, I guess. A lot of homes were also evacuated and lost, and yeah, it was crazy.

SPEAKER_01 38:15

It is it's very devastating. Like coming from the east coast, uh I don't have I don't have the experience of we didn't we didn't have like a fire season. It's a very yeah, there's a lot of damp. There's a East Coast, like at least where I was in North Carolina in the foothills, there were a lot of prescribed burns on a regular basis. It was a it was a big deal. And people would do it around your own homes. Like you would have woods, you'd go and clean up the underbrush and fall and stuff and and take care of it. Um, but in like the big fire in that area in 2016, I had I just had to look it up because I couldn't remember the year, um, Gatlinburg in Tennessee and Pigeon Forge, it's a resort area. Yeah, beautiful, beautiful forest land on on fire. And it was two kids on walking through, throwing matches into the grass on Instagram. Wow, they were tried as adults, thankfully. I haven't um gone in and to see what all was going on, but I just was just like, How are you so stupid? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:20

I'm just like, oh my gosh. And I I want to say both of the rodeo and the cheddar sky fires were started by humans as well, but I'm not 100% sure.

SPEAKER_01 39:29

Probably. Yeah. I mean, nine out of ten.

SPEAKER_02 39:32

Unattended campfires.

SPEAKER_01 39:34

Yeah, things just left and and not properly, you know, put your fires out, take care of it, make sure it's cold. Yeah. You know, no warm embers, nothing. Just cold, cold, cold.

SPEAKER_02 39:46

Um my dad used to um volunteer for the Helitech crew in the BLM.

SPEAKER_01 39:51

I know you've talked about that, and I'm just like, ha ha, that's so cool. Yeah. I d I've I've said it before. I don't like I know I've told you before, but anybody who's willing to go and fight a fire is a hero because I don't think I could do it. I know I can't. I thought my house caught on fire one time. I freaked out. Yeah. I was like, 911, and my dog's out of the house, and I am never setting foot in that house again. Oh man. And then like 20 firefighters showed up, and I was like, you are all angels and wonderful humans, and I love you forever. And they're all like volunteer, like the high school kids and stuff, but they're all in their big uniforms with their acts and their hats and their heat detection things. And I'm just like, you guys are so cool. Wait, are you going back in the house? It's full of smoke. What are you doing? I'm just like, it was it was crazy. But I got way off track.

SPEAKER_02 40:47

I know, yeah, we kind of did. We did.

SPEAKER_01 40:49

It's okay. It's okay. Fires are scary, and you guys gotta be careful. That's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_02 40:55

Let's go talk a little bit about Smokey Bear. You didn't expect to get lectured today, did you?

SPEAKER_01 41:00

You just, you know, it's a problem. Be careful. It's a terrible, terrible thing.

SPEAKER_02 41:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:06

So, I mean, I think also remember like the California fires that wiped out whole neighborhoods. Oh, yeah. California gets it bad. So bad. I mean, just was it last year, Palisades? Yeah. Or two years ago. Oh gosh, was it two years? Has it been? I don't I don't know. Time is going weird. Time has no meaning anymore. I don't even know what dates are happening. I'm just like, whatever. If it's not on my calendar, it doesn't exist. I'm just like, I don't know. Um I got a few more little fun, little, neat little things about Smokey. Sweet. And then um I'll I'll have links in the show notes so everybody go learn how to prevent forest fires. Yeah. Somebody has to do it.

SPEAKER_02 41:47

I should actually start putting the links in the show notes of the podcast description again because I have not been putting them on the this is one leak.

SPEAKER_01 41:54

Smokeybear.com. It's really easy. Oh, good. All your information is right there. Smokybear.com. Remember it. Also, you should follow Smokey Bear on Instagram. So smokeythebear.com. No, Smokey Bear.com. I bet if you type in Smokey the Bear, you'll find it too, but Smokey Bear.com. Okay. Um Smoky Bear is the only person other than the president who has their own zip code.

SPEAKER_02 42:28

So like for mailing letters.

SPEAKER_01 42:30

Okay. Smokey Bear got so many letters that in 1964 he was given his own personalized zip code. So you can write Smokey Bear a letter at Smokey Bear, Washington, DC 20252.

SPEAKER_02 42:48

That's awesome. We should write Smokey Bear a letter.

SPEAKER_01 42:50

I want to write Smokey Bear a letter. Yeah. Tell him how awesome he is. Yeah. And then and that we clean his uniform. We clean you, Smokey, every every couple of months.

SPEAKER_00 43:01

We for several different departments. We have multiple different Smokey Bear costumes that come in.

SPEAKER_01 43:08

It always just makes me happy too. I'm like, oh Smokey. I'm helping Smokey.

SPEAKER_02 43:13

Yeah, we also cleaned an Easter bunny costume that was creepy. You cannot make a cute Easter bunny costume. I'm sorry. I've never seen one that exists. Don't like them. They're hideous and scary.

SPEAKER_01 43:24

I don't like them. They're creepy. I wish did it finally leave? No. No, it's still there. It's in the box now, though. It's in the box, but the head's poking out of it. So I think that might be like where I'm I'm doing the t-shirts or the shirts where I press the shirts. I can't see it because that uh the counter's in the way, and I'm so happy.

SPEAKER_00 43:44

Yeah. Because every once in a while I would walk by and be like, ugh it was creepy little.

SPEAKER_02 43:49

You just cannot make a cute Easter bunny costume for a human to wear. Just don't do it.

SPEAKER_01 43:54

Stop doing it.

SPEAKER_02 43:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:55

Smokey bear though is cute. So you can make all the Smokey Bear costumes that you want. Yeah. Anyway, um I don't know what else I have to talk about.

SPEAKER_02 44:07

I thought you had some f neat little things.

SPEAKER_01 44:09

Oh yeah, my neat little things. Okay, Smokey Bear has his own zip code, which is very cool. Um Smokey Bear has been to space. What in 2012 he went to the International Space Station um with Joe Akkaba, um, the NASA astronaut and some Russian cosmonauts? They spent 123 days aboard the space station as the flight mascot and the zero gravity indicator. Did you see Ryze, the zero gravity indicator for the Artemis II? No. He's so cute. He's just a little, little uh moon. Aww. Or I think he's a moon. Oh, I said that and I immediately felt that it was wrong.

SPEAKER_02 44:52

So in what uh form did Smokey Bear as a little small plush.

SPEAKER_00 44:58

As a little small plush. Okay. Oh yeah. It is the little there's Rise.

SPEAKER_01 45:02

He's a little moon plush with a little hat. That's adorable. It's very cute. Yeah. Anyway. So normally uh they get the zero gravity indicators get left behind when after the spacecraft does its little splash landing, they get left in there. But the um I forgot which one. Oh, here it is. One of the astronauts uh grabbed him on his way out of the capsule. Smoking no rise, rise. I'm sorry. We just went to the moon for the first time in 16 years, and it's really cool. My my news feed was for the past two weeks has been all Artemis 2, and I've just been happy for that. Okay, anyway, that was my let me let me get off that uh tangent. I'm gonna close that. Um my other neat little thing. I had one more neat little thing. Um, because I've already talked about the Smokey Bear Act. Smokey Bear has met almost all of the US presidents since uh 1944 and attends speaking of Easter, often attends the White House Easter egg role. Cool, which is fun.

unknown 46:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:24

Um the Smokey Bear campaign, a lot of celebrities and athletes have kind of joined in with that and done uh little promotional things with Smoky Bear. Uh-huh. Um Bean Crosby, Roy Rogers, Betty White, Dolly Parton, who I adore, Leonard Nimoy, Ray Charles, Joe Montana, and Brian. Why can't I Tyree Henry? Sorry. My brain just pushed all those into one word, right? Brian Tyree Henry what? Brian Tyree Henry. I don't know who I think he's a sports guy. Okay. I'm gonna look him up real quick. And the Beach Boys uh mention Smokey Bear in one of their songs. Oh Tyree Oh, Brian Tyree Henry is an actor.

SPEAKER_03 47:13

Okay, okay, okay.

SPEAKER_01 47:15

He was in the Eternals. Okay, okay, cool, cool, cool. I recognize his face. I had to look at him. Yeah, I had to look at him. I was like, okay, okay. I don't he's one of those guys I don't know the name very well, but I when I saw his face, I did. Okay. What other little s what other little snippet do I have for you? Went to space, joined Facebook in 2008, and you can uh go follow him on Instagram. He joined Facebook a year before I did. I don't know when I joined Facebook forever ago.

SPEAKER_02 47:52

Probably around that time. I was a holdout among all my friends.

SPEAKER_01 47:57

I only joined because I was following a uh uh cross-country rider. Cool. And that was I don't even remember her name. I didn't even have a MySpace account. I just I had a MySpace account for about all of five minutes, and I was like, well, no, this is not me. And I deleted it. I had it for like literally like maybe five or ten minutes. I was like, no, I'm gone. Bye. Sorry, Tom. You're my only friend on MySpace. What, Tom? Tom was everybody's friend on MySpace.

SPEAKER_02 48:34

I don't know what you're talking about. I didn't have MySpace.

SPEAKER_01 48:38

Tom was the guy, I think, that like made MySpace or something, and he was everybody's friend. Like he was always your first friend when you joined MySpace. That's hilarious. Anyway, that is my little snippet of Smoky Bear. I don't have anything else to talk about, except he's a really cool little bear, and I love him, and we need to not uh burn down the forests because we need them.

SPEAKER_02 49:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:08

Yeah, yeah, we do.

SPEAKER_02 49:10

If you do someone, please talk about something else. If you want to know why we need the forests, refer back to our previous episode about Sylvotherapy. Yeah. There you go.

SPEAKER_01 49:19

Oh, that was my other synchronicity is that you talked about forest and I was gonna talk about smoky bear.

SPEAKER_02 49:23

That is cool.

SPEAKER_01 49:27

Okay, I'm done talking now. Okay. I'm gonna be quiet and you talk. No, you're not.

SPEAKER_02 49:33

I'm not even gonna get through my first bullet point before you're gonna have something to say. Okay, cool. I guarantee it.

SPEAKER_01 49:39

Cool. Well, that's the point of this, right? Yeah. Okay. We we got banter. It's okay.

SPEAKER_02 49:45

So the card that I drew, I drew it and I was like, what does this mean? So you drew yours and you said it was very broad. Mine is weirdly specific, but also I don't know. I don't know. I have no I have no idea. I don't, it's one that you put on the list.

SPEAKER_00 50:05

Okay. Do you have an idea now that you've done the research? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:09

I mean because that would be awkward if you didn't have a clue what you were gonna talk about.

SPEAKER_02 50:14

Stuff to talk about, but I don't know if it was what you meant when you put it on the list.

SPEAKER_01 50:18

Okay, I put it on the list. What did I put on the list?

SPEAKER_02 50:20

Victorian vampire media.

SPEAKER_01 50:22

Oh, ooh, that is broad.

SPEAKER_02 50:25

It is broad, but also very specific. Very specific. In terms of vampires. Yes. It's like a blip. Oh, but it's off the blip. But it's also well, it's it's okay. Let's I'll just get into it. So like I Googled Victorian vampire media, and a lot of things that kept popping up in my searches was how pop culture warped the original concept and myths and beliefs surrounding vampires. So that's what I'm talking about.

SPEAKER_01 50:58

Okay. Is it pop culture of today or pop culture of the Victorian era? Victorian era. Okay. That is why I put it on the list. Oh, good. So you nailed it. Okay. So happy. I'm so happy for this.

SPEAKER_02 51:10

So vampire or vampire esque stories and folklore have been around for a while in a ton of different cultures. Cultures like the Mesopotamians, Hebrews, Ancient Greeks, Manipuri, Manipuri? I don't know. And Romans, they all had tales of demons and spirits, all considered precursors to vampires as we know them, like the blood-sucking, only go out at night, shape-shifting people. Okay. And someday I think it would be really cool to talk about all of that. Yes. But yeah, for now, for now, this little vampire history lesson is gonna begin in 1725. I'm excited. In Serbia. In Serbia, okay in Serbia. Uh Pedar Blagoj. Blogojevic, it's a J, so it's a yeah, right. Yes. Blogojevic. Uh he lived in a small village called Kisilova. He died in 1725, and his death was followed by a slew of other sudden deaths in his same village. Okay. Within eight days, nine people perished.

SPEAKER_01 52:22

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 52:22

On their deathbeds, the victims allegedly claimed to have been throttled by Pater at night. Also, his wife stated that he had visited her and asked her for his shoes at some point after his death. And she even ended up moving to another village because that freaked her out so much.

SPEAKER_01 52:44

I mean, understandable.

SPEAKER_02 52:46

In other sort of local legends, they say it's said that uh that Pater came back to his house demanding food from his son. And when the son refused, Pater brutally murdered him, probably by biting and drinking his blood.

SPEAKER_01 53:02

Were they sure that Pater actually died initially in the beginning? Are they sure about that? Or did they just like Unsure.

SPEAKER_02 53:10

There are theories that he may have been prematurely uh buried.

SPEAKER_01 53:14

Yeah, that happened a lot.

SPEAKER_02 53:16

Yeah. And like a lot of cases of this whole vampire craze um are because of just very common things like that. Well, common at the time. It's not it's no longer common to be buried alive, thank goodness.

SPEAKER_00 53:31

But yeah, thankfully that's a yeah.

SPEAKER_02 53:34

So anyway, the villagers decided to disinter the body and examine it for signs of vampirism, such as growing hair, beard and nails, and the absence of decomposition. So they dug them up and found that yes, indeed, the characteristics associated with vampires in the local belief back then were all there. The body was undecomposed, the hair and beard had grown since his death, there were new skin and nails, while the old ones had peeled away, and blood can be seen in the mouth. When they saw that, the villagers staked the body through the heart, and when they did, a great amount of completely fresh blood flowed through the ears and the mouth of the corpse.

SPEAKER_01 54:19

How long after death was this?

SPEAKER_02 54:22

It was something like uh I don't know. I actually don't know. There is another case that said like 40 days that's gonna be similar. This is the one I'm talking about next. But like this one, I think there was a quicker um like this one said within eight days nine people perished. So it was probably soon after that that they decided to exhume him. So like, yeah, after that, they burned the body. They were like, yeah, this dude was a vampire and he's been killing people. They burned the body. Take him out. So at this point, um, there were already there was already lore about vampires, which is something else I find super fascinating because at this time in Serbia there was a lot of uh political unrest between the Turkish Empire and the Ottoman Empire. Okay. I think I've heard of both of them. And the Ottoman Empire is who Vlad the Impaler was fighting off of his his territory, his land. So like Vlad the Impaler, I didn't go into his I He's his own topic. He's his own topic for sure, and that's why I didn't really put him in my notes. But it's believed that Bram Stoker based Dracula off of Vlad the Impaler. There are debates about whether or not that was actually true among scholars today, but like that's a whole that can be a whole different thing. But like the political unrest, I think, is fascinating when you think about the possibility of it giving rise to these specific isolated incidents in villages, because the next one that I'm going to talk about, um, it was a year later. Uh nope, sorry. There there was a case that happened a year later that's probably the most famous, but then it was several years after that that involved people that had come over from the Ottoman Empire, and they were like the victims of the vampire. Oh, so like it all kind of ties into the political unrest at the time. In terms of like yeah. But anyway, that was um off of my notes. No, that's just trying to remember the things that I read that I like I would eventually love to read to do another episode about this. Yeah, the actual historical factual things that happened that also gave rise to the whole vampire fear.

unknown 56:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 56:58

In addition to part two, the folklore and the legends and the cryptids that are somewhat related to vampires. And like there's there's like a whole other we should just make vampires a recurring card.

SPEAKER_01 57:09

Okay, then.

SPEAKER_02 57:10

Yeah. Okay. So a year later, uh, after Pater, uh, a similar event happened. This one also in Serbia, but in a different village. Arnold Paole. P-A-O-L-E.

SPEAKER_01 57:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 57:26

I don't know if you're supposed to pronounce the E on the end, but there we go. Um this guy often mentioned that he had been plagued by a vampire at a location named Gosowa, but that he had cured himself by eating soil from the vampire's grave and smearing himself with its blood. Which later became sort of the legend of how one turns into a vampire. Don't smear yourself with the vampire's blood, otherwise you're gonna become a vampire. So like at the time he was like, I'm gonna protect myself from this vampire by smearing the blood.

SPEAKER_01 58:02

So, like, did he dig him up to do that? Or was he like this is just the story the guy was telling? Okay. I Arnold got you.

SPEAKER_02 58:11

Yeah, he he supposedly had been known for telling stories like that. Okay, Arnold, got you. And Arnold died from a broken neck in 1726. Within 20 or 30 days after Arnold's death, four people complained that they had been plagued by him at night, and they all died shortly after. The villagers dug him up and found all the indications of what they thought at the time was vampirism. And excuse me. I have a quote from an Austrian physician who wrote a report on all of this a few years later, uh, and he was there during the exhumation.

SPEAKER_01 58:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 58:55

And this, because of what this guy wrote and his observances of this case and several cases uh all within a few years, it's it's why this case is so famous and is probably um a lot of scholars say that the case of Arnold Paule was the like the birth of the modern day vampire.

SPEAKER_01 59:21

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 59:22

So the uh the quote says, his veins were replete with fluid blood, and that fresh blood had flowed from his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears, that the shirt, the covering, and the coffin were completely bloody, that the old nails on his hands and feet, along with the skin, had fallen off, and that new ones had grown. Further, his body was red, his hair, nails, and beard had all grown again, concluding that Paula was indeed a vampire. The villagers drove a stake through his heart, to which he reacted by a frightful shriek, as if he were alive, groaning and bleeding. That done, they cut off his head and burnt the whole body. They then disinterred Paula's four supposed victims and performed the same procedure to prevent them from becoming vampires as well. So all of those things we know now are very common. Decomp. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:19

Yeah, and they're not embalmed and it's just decomposition.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:22

Yeah, it's just the natural decomposition of the human body. And then the fact that uh in this case it was uh 40 days later, they exhumed the body. Serbia is very cold. This guy died in the winter. Uh. And so like it takes a body longer to even start decomposing because of the cold temperatures. Yeah. And I I'm pretty sure it was the same case with the the other guy with Pater. Uh another thing to consider about all of the deaths that come after that, disease runs through small villages. Yeah. Also, um, another scholar speculated that when you are around death, if somebody in your close, tight-knit village dies, it creates a sort of psychological effect. Like death isn't an easy thing to witness. Right. Even, you know, back in the 1700s, when it was probably more common, especially in winter months in, you know, rough villages to live in, uh, it it leaves a mark and it can leave people having nightmares about seeing the dead's person the dead person's face or just feeling very um melancholy.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:45

Yeah. Well, I mean, there's stages of grief. And yeah, you know, like n now we do have more kind of mental health support. And yeah, that was not a thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:55

And so, like the supposed victims that reported being terrorized by these, you know, in both of these cases by these vampires, supposed vampires, they may have just been having nightmares about seeing a person die horrifically. Like in Pater's case, he broke his neck by falling off a wagon. Um, Arnold or did Arnold break his neck?

SPEAKER_01 1:02:16

Arnold, I think you said broke the neck.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:19

Yeah, I mean that's I don't know how Pater died. That's that makes perfect sense. I mean, like you you would have I mean, if you've if someone you love died just in natural causes, you you have those dreams, you have memories, you have moments where you know grief hits you and affects you differently. But if you saw someone die in an accident, unexpectedly, you're unprepared for that, and then you don't have, you know, someone who a support group or any kind. You're just like, well that sticks with you. Arnold died, let's uh keep going, carry on, you know. Very sad. Anyway, you know. Um I just that just popped in my head the whole um this is random tangent. I'm sorry. I watched the I Like Me, the um oh my gosh, John Candy story. It's a it's a really good little documentary, it's kind of like a memorial type thing.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:18

But his father died when he was very young, and it was the time period when you were just like you know, I think he was like six or eight years old, and it's like, okay, yes, very sad. Go to school, go about your day. Oh no, no, we don't talk about sad things, you know. And like he we was never allowed to really grieve. Like you could be sad at the funeral, okay, funeral's done, move on. And that is, you know, that was the mindset. Like that was how you you didn't talk about these things. That messes up your mind. And it you you need to, like, you need to talk about things and you need to get your emotions out and process through them. And so, like, yeah, I could see these people, like Arnold fell off the wagon and died, and people some people were probably there, and they were like, Oh gosh, you know, it's he's dead now, and then you have he you knew this guy, it was a small village, everybody knew everybody, yeah, and and then suddenly he's gone. So, yeah, I could definitely see the the trauma coming out as like, oh, he tortured me in my dreams, and then I died, you know, a week later or whatever. Yeah. Probably because I had a heart attack or something, you know, just grief or or disease.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:30

So Serbia wasn't the only place vampires were thought to be plaguing people. There is the New England vampire panic. It was the reaction to an outbreak of tuberculosis in the late 18th and 19th centuries. So consumption, also called tuberculosis, was thought to be caused by deceased by the deceased consuming the life of their surviving relatives because it ran through families. Bodies were exhumed and internal organs ritually burned to stop the diseased vampire from attacking the local population and to prevent the spread of the disease.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:10

And I'm just like, stop digging up diseased bodies, please. I know, we're spreading like, oh, let me dig this up. I'm not wearing any kind of gloves or mask or anything.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:19

The burning, I guess, is fine, but like just leave it there. Just leave it in the ground. It'll be so my gosh. So every time I hear the word consumption, this is a whole other random tangent. What? Uh I knew a guy in college who um liked the movie Moulin Rouge, and uh the main character dies of consumption. Oh, spoilers, I have never seen it. Sorry, but it's fine. Doc Holliday also died of uh consumption. But like um we were talking about it one night, and I think I don't know how it came. Because I don't even I wasn't even a huge fan of that movie, but like um he was saying uh consumption was drinking too much alcohol. Oh that's what he thought consumption was. So I was like, oh no, it's it's tuberculosis. And he's like, no, no, no. Consumption is drinking too much alcohol. I mean, I guess he was transplaining to me. Oh. And I was like, okay, okay. You're dormant. Okay. I'm just gonna Okay. Okay. Anyway, I just think about that every time. Every time that's hilarious. Consumption and tuberculosis, same thing. Same thing. Consumption does not mean too much alcohol.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:40

Yeah. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:41

Yeah. Hmm. Anyway, by the 19th century, the myth of vampires had progressed from folklore into literature. One of the first known printed references to vampires in the English language is in an 1813 poem by Lord Lord Byron called The Gower. G-I-A-O-U-R.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:06

G-I-A-O-U-R. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:11

But it was the 19 the 1819 publication of a short story by a British writer, John William Polidori, called the Vampire, V-A-M-P-Y-R-E, that contributed to the rise of the romantic vampire genre that we know today. So scholars and historians say that the actual real life cases of Pater and um well, you're making a face.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:42

I just looked up that word, the Lord Byron poem. It's a not it's a derogatory slur. Oh no, I'm sorry. Yeah, I did not know that. It's out of use. It's a archaic use, but wow.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:56

Okay, Lord Byron. Wow. Calm down. Um what is it? Derogatory slur?

SPEAKER_01 1:08:02

A disparaging term historically used by Turkish speakers to describe a non-Muslim, particularly a Christian, often implies a religious slur. So denoting one outside the Islamic faith. I don't know why I guess G-I-G-I-G-I-A-O-U-R. Yeah, that's it.

unknown 1:08:25

Huh. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:27

Infidel. Oh, because it was former Ottoman Empire. So that was probably okay, vampire Ottoman. Okay, it's all coming together. Okay, but we're not gonna say that word anymore. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:39

Yeah, I'm sorry. It's okay. I didn't know either. Yeah. Uh okay, so short story by John William Polidori called The Vampire. That uh yeah, that's oh no, I already said that. So like yeah, we have these real life cases that possibly inspired literature and all of that. Um and it was this book who that uh sort of gave rise to the whole romanticized vampire.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:18

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:20

Neat little thing originally Lord Byron was credited, I should say took credit for the short story, but John William Polidori was Lord Byron's physician, and he wrote it. So typical of Byron. I don't know much about Lord Byron, but what I do know about him, yeah. I just I have not been impressed.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:46

Every time I hear about Lord Byron, I'm just like okay, like liking you less and less. Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:54

Yep, same. Uh we'll see. Maybe we'll do we'll do an episode about him someday. I he might be on the list. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:02

I don't think he is.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:03

None of us would put him on the list.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:05

No, I have not. Uh okay, yeah, sorry. Carry on.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:11

Okay. So uh Sir Christopher Fraling is a broadcaster and cultural historian and the author of Vampire Cinema, The First 100 Years. He says, talking about the short story, um, this leads to a huge craze in the 1920s of operas, ballets, plays, and burlesques all under, sorry, the 1820s, not 1920s. 1820s. We're in Victorian times. Victorian times. Okay. Um, of operas, ballets, plays, and burlesques all under the theme of the vampire. Out of those come all the cliches of vampirism, the seductive aristocrat, debauched young men, high society, cloaks and evening dress, and all that other famous iconography.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:56

That just blows my mind.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:59

Yeah. I mean, you probably thought it was Dracula, huh?

SPEAKER_01 1:11:02

Yes. I thought that Dracula was the kickoff of all of that, but this was pre-Dracula.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:08

We'll talk, we'll talk about uh Brown Stoker's Dracula.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:11

Um, so where the early vampires of Eastern Europe were seen as scrawny, deplorable creatures creeping around in graveyards or like digging up from graves every night to go prey on family members, um the new vampire were oh, also early vampires of Eastern Europe, it's interesting to note, were often former members of the working class or soldiers. Uh-huh. Um the modern vampire, as we know now, are charming, seductive, silver-tongued, usually aristocrats. Wealthy, wealthy, yeah. Yep. Yeah. So there's some commentary to be had there. Uh but let's talk about Count Dracula. Okay. So 1897, that's when Bram Stoker publishes Dracula, and we get the most famous vampire of all. So 1897.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:12

So this kind of romanticized thing took kicked off in the 1820s. Yeah. Wow, okay. I didn't realize it was like until like almost the 1900s.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:23

Yeah. Yeah. That's wild. I didn't know that. But like Count Dracula has become the most famous vampire. Um and I have an excerpt from the book. It's the scene where Jonathan Harker first sees Dracula. Uh Bram Stoker uses this weird mix of creepy repulsion and charm. And I'm curious to know what you make of this.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:52

Uh his face was a strong, a very strong aquiline with high bridge of the thin nose and peculiarly arched nostrils, with lofty domed forehead and hair growing scantily around the temples, but profusely everywhere else, or elsewhere. His eyebrows were very massive, almost meeting over the nose, and with bushy hair that seemed to curl in its own profusion. The mouth, so far as I could see it under the heavy mustache, was fixed and rather cruel looking, with peculiarly sharp white teeth. These protruded over the lips, whose remarkable ruddiness showed astonishing vitality in a man of his years. For the rest, his ears were pale and at the tops extremely pointed. The chin was broad and strong, and the cheeks firm, though thin. The general effect was one of extraordinary pallor. Can you even picture that in your mind? I actually can. Do you know okay? It's weird, right? It's a weird mix of creepy and but like what? But yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:59

Cause like, I mean, usually when you see like an aquiline nose is usually a like a oh yeah, it have aquine features. And like it's a it's a pretty I can't. It's it's a strong a good term. I can't think of the word. Um but yeah, like you're like, oh yes, he was handsome, uh these figures, uh, you know, the nice cheeks, the ruddy lips, but then you have these like white fangs and the pallor. I can s I can picture this guy. I wish I could draw what's in my head right now, because I could picture this.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:32

The the s strong eyebrows sort of suggest broodiness, and then like, yeah, you uh I just immediately am picturing the guy from Hotel Transylvania, his dad, the old dad.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:45

Oh my gosh. Because he had the big eyebrows and the nose. Oh my gosh. Oh man. Okay, sorry.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:51

And there's the difference. There you got the guy in living in a cave with his bats, creepy, hunched over old guy, and the biggest. The rich guy, yeah. Yeah. Um so yeah, it's it's kind of a confusing description, but you can totally picture it. And it's a perfect, like it's so well perfectly described, you can see it.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:11

Yeah. Unless you have effantasia.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:13

Okay, uh, that's true. Yeah. Um, according to that historian, uh Christopher Fraling, sir Christopher, sorry, that weird mix of repulsion and fascination is what keeps us hooked on vampires. They're alluring yet dangerous. Um, he also says, bringing it back to the political element um about why we like vampires, uh, and I have a quote, it says, Vampirism plays to middle class resentment about entitlement and aristocrats behaving badly. Which pretty much sums it up. Like we've we've morphed into vampires being these deplorable, usually working class people into aristocrats doing horrible things. And yep. Uh there's there's so much about vampires that I really, really, really want to dive into someday.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:07

I I've I have typed Vampire's recurring card in our podcast topic list, and I will make a card for it.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:13

I read um a few articles in my research. I actually deleted a lot of articles from my uh sources. I know you were over there. Delete, delete.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:21

I was like, what do you, why, why? Yeah, it's a part two.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:24

Because it could be a whole separate thing. So I read a few articles talking about like different cultures, beliefs, and like folkloric origins of modern vampires. And like I mentioned like cryptid-like vampires, like the chupacabra would be like a modern vampire because it's a blood sucker. Um I also read like a few articles about the actual medical things that could have been attributed to vampirism like back in the Middle Ages, like rabies, or yeah. It's it's crazy. Like there's there's a lot of stuff, and then like there's pre-death diseases. Um, there is the thing about you know being allergic to the sun and breaking out in blisters every time you're in the sun. People thought you were a vampire. And then there's the after-death things like the the decomp that we talked about. Like these are just natural, it's a natural process of decomposition. Um, but we're gonna call you a vampire.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:28

We dug you up 40 days after you died, and OMG, you were gross. Yeah. So we stabbed you and burned your body.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:38

Because it was really gross.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:39

There's also like so many other things, even in pop culture, which is what I specifically covered today, but I wanted to focus on like the Victorian times and like the rise of that, the vampire as we know it today. But like this guy, Christopher Fraling, he he wrote that book. Um, what was it, like a hundred years?

SPEAKER_01 1:18:01

Oh gosh, you told me it was 100 years of cinema? 100 Years of Vampire.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:06

Okay, vampire cinema, the first one hundred years. There you go.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:09

I had all the words just in all the wrong orders.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:12

All the words are there. Uh, but yeah, I I'm kind of curious to get that book and read up on all the different takes of vampires. I did not. Okay. But like just from the movies and stuff that I've seen, there are so many different takes on vampires. There's you have, you know, the classic Dracula style of vampire. You have the movie Dracula Untold, which is about Vlad the Impaler fighting the Ottoman Empire. You have um uh anything like from Hotel Transylvania to uh interview with I Am Legend.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:50

Yeah. And like one of my I don't like one of my favorite is um it was a indie film, uh Only Lovers Left Alive with uh Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston and John Hurt.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:04

That would be the romanticized vampire, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:19:07

It's well I think so, but it's like it's kind of um I call it kind of a day in the life, like a vampire having to live in today's world and not get caught and having to deal with the fact that the blood supply, like everybody is sick and carries diseases and stuff, and they're like, Do you know how hard it is to get clean blood and not get a disease? You know, that sort of thing. So it's I I really like the that movie for the take that it gave on on the on vampires. I th I thought it was really good. Yeah. Plus this John Hurt, too. He's only in there a little bit, but Okay. I like him. Anyway. Also Tom Hiddleston. Also Tom Hiddleston. Tilda Swinton. I mean, it's like everything that's great. No. Um, but yeah, it that was a good one. I really liked it. We should watch it. I haven't watched it in a while. I have never seen it. Oh yeah. You should watch it. It's good. It's a different vampire vibe. Uh-huh. It's also got that I think the girl who played Alice in in Wonderland, Mia. Oh yeah. She's in there. Really? Yeah.

unknown 1:20:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:20

She was also in that other. Like they did a bunch of movies together there for a little bit, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:26

Okay, go ahead. Sorry. I'm sorry. I've put the book in our cart.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:30

Okay, cool. But uh that's that's all I'm gonna talk about today. Oh, okay. But I do have one more quote from Christopher Fraling about why we tell these stories and why they have uh such an appeal. Um, he says, I think we need gothic stories, the fantastical, the magical, the fairy tale, the fable, and the fear. These stories can carry taboo subjects in interesting ways. Which I think is what we like about them. In the case of vampires, it's well, in in the case of sort of the modern vampire, it's dangerous, but we're attracted to it. You know, you have this this smooth talking, sexy vampire who just wants to spend time with you. He just wants to spend a lot of time with you. It's fine.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:25

It's not true.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:25

And we know we should, but he's so nice. Yeah. And so like that's that's kind of a taboo subject. Nobody wants to admit that they're sort of into danger.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:35

Yeah, yeah. And it's it is interesting, and also like there's the whole like the blood drinking, like yeah, obviously taboo. Yeah. Um, and so there's that too.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:46

And then that's another thing that we can cover in in a future episode is the actual subculture of vampirism that exists today, like of people drinking blood. But that's more of like a that leans to the fetish side of it and is kind of unrelated to any of the legends and the folklore and all of that. But inspired by it for sure.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:06

Oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah. There was, I feel like there was like an old CSI episode on that. I'm having like a random memory of seeing you know, I think Castle also did an episode about that. I feel like that it's like it's one of those things, it's like this weird little taboo subculture. Yeah. And every once in a while a popular show will be like, Yeah. Yeah, this is a good one. Let's do an episode about that. This is happening. Yeah, there you go. But yeah, it's uh it's always it is interesting what we don't mind reading, but we like if faced with it, we'd probably be like, nah, I'm good. Yeah, no. Go away, creepy.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:46

I'm good.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:46

Go away, you creeper, stop looking at me. Why are you hanging out my window?

SPEAKER_02 1:22:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:50

But like throw garlic at you or something.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:52

A lot of the stories that we like, the gothic, the fantastic, the magical, the fairy tale, the fable, and the fear, it's they address these taboo subjects, and these are ways that are palatable to us because they're not real.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:05

Yeah. It's really interesting. Like Okay, uh for time travelers, um, come back now and tell me what it's like what what what the future is like as far as myths and legends. Like Yeah. It's interesting because because some things that were incredibly taboo in the 1800s, you know, showing your ankle, are commonplace now, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:32

Um I still don't show my ankles, but only because I never shaved my legs.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:41

Oh my gosh. Um sorry, was that to you? I don't care if you guys know it's fine. Totally up to you. I don't care. Um but like Women, am I right?

SPEAKER_01 1:23:50

Right? Yeah. Anyone seriously who yeah, anyway. Um, but like, you know, there are there were so many things that were tabooed then that aren't now. And what is that going to do to the myths and legends that come about now that will be told in a hundred years or two hundred years?

SPEAKER_02 1:24:10

Like fantastical stories. Will they be talking about cell phone etiquette?

SPEAKER_01 1:24:16

Yeah. I don't know. Yeah, like, oh you you had to carry your cell phone, like was it just in your thumb or something? I don't know. Like, you know, just one of those weird, but yeah, like I I want to time traveler, come pick me up. I want to go the future. I want to know.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:33

I wish I had come up with something funnier to say than cell phone etiquette. That's not even a taboo subject. But it might be later.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:39

I mean, it might be later. Yeah. I mean, there was a time when it was when people did not talk on their phone in public. And now, like Oh goodness.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:51

Yeah. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, it was kind of rude to answer your phone if you were with a group of people having a conversation.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:59

And now you're talking to the people you're with on your phone.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:02

I do that to you of like text you while I'm sitting here.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:04

Yeah. I mean, it's just, yeah. But think, yeah, it I would like to know what what what's gonna be the creepy stuff from the future. I mean, I have a I could probably list a few things, but I don't want to go into that.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:21

Future monsters.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:22

Future monster. Hmm. Anyway.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:28

It's interesting to think about.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:29

Smoky bear will still be here. Oh, yeah, for sure. Preventing forest fires. Yeah. With your help. Yeah, because only you can do it. Smokey bear's a vampire.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:38

Oh, Smokey the vampire. No, Smokey Vampire. Sorry. That's the name of the episode. Smokey vampire. Smoky vampire. You know, it's probably supposed to be pronounced the same way when you spell it with the Y instead of the I. But I like to say vampire.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:58

I do too. I knew when you said it, I was like, it's got a Y in there. Yeah. But it's pyre because pyre, P-Y-R-E is pyre, but you don't say peer. Anyway. You could though, though.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:09

You could find it would be. But then people would get confused and be like, the peer. What are you talking about? Why? P-I-E-R? No. No.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:17

But I do like to say vampire too.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:19

Yeah. Vampir.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:20

You have to do the vampire.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:25

Well, okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:26

Um cards. Yeah. I I want to know I want you to do part two, vampires. I just do like a whole vampire series. I could do that. Because I think it's fascinating. Oh, these are your cards.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:40

Yeah, those are my Uno cards. We don't. If we draw that for our topic, we're going to be talking about um numbers.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:46

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Eleven, twelve. Today's episode is brought to you by the electric company. Oh, Schoolhouse Rock. Sorry, that's the one. Oh, I need to tighten my mic so it doesn't turn at all.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:06

I did it again. I'm so sorry. If you want to support our show, both shows actually, you can go to our Patreon. Patreon. Both shows. Both shows. Yes. We have another podcast. There's only one episode out right now because we're only releasing it once a month on the first of every month. But uh you weren't supposed to draw your card yet. You're supposed to wait. Hids drew the card and is now cracking up laughing.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:38

It's the same, it's the same card I drew last week, but apparently I put it back in the pile. Well, I'm glad you drew it. What the heck? How did that even happen? I don't know, man. That's so weird. Okay, I'm sorry. Go to patreon.comslash Jeff and Hid.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:59

We do have another podcast. Podcast, it's it's uh actual play DD podcast. It's called A Tale of Two Kobalds. Look it up, listen to our first episode. We get introduced to my character, Fizz, the cobalt. Um, she's cool. Next episode is gonna be an introduction to Bang, which is Hidd's character.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:16

He's cool too.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:18

Yeah. Uh patreon.com slash Destin Hids. That is all. I'm gonna draw a card now. You need to help us.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:24

I'm gonna draw a an actual card, not the one I drew last week. So weird. Okay. Oh cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:33

I don't know. Okay, I'll figure it out. I will figure it out. That is that's a long it's a long word followed by a word that I do recognize, but I have no I don't know I don't know what the uh the first word is.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:52

Well, do you want to tell me? No. Okay. Good. Because I want to know it is when you surprise me next time we record.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:04

So weird.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:05

Unless I continue the vampire thing. I'm gonna I'm gonna have that in my back pocket.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:09

The vampire thing is really cool. Yeah. I'm here for I'm I'm fascinated by that uh like genre.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:17

Yeah, same. It's very cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:19

Yeah. My first introduction to vampire stories was the goosebumps book that I read. I think that was the first one. Well, it probably wasn't the first one. Like Dracula lives everywhere in Halloween, and like everybody knows vampires, but like the first one that I like remember was that one Goosebumps story about the dude's grandpa being a vampire, I think. I don't remember.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:47

I think I saw like one of those original old black and white vampire movies, um, you know, from the 50s.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:58

Uh the Bella Logosi one, because that's that's the imagery we have today.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:02

Yes, that is that is who I couldn't think of his name, and I'm like, what is his name? It is the that was Hammer Films. Yes. Uh-huh. I just looked him up and I'm like, that's the face. That's the one I know. Yeah, I um I didn't know Bella Logosi was Hungarian. Why didn't I know that? Hungarian American. I don't know.

unknown 1:30:24

Cool, cool, cool.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:25

Um, yeah, that's that's where I was introduced to Vampire. So, like in my head, that is your iconic that is the black cape.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:33

The icon I mean, that's where the imagery comes from of the whole um like widow's peak hair and big thick eyebrows and the black cape. Piercing eyes. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's Bella Lagosi's Dracula. I love him. Yeah. He's cool.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:48

He was born October 20th. We almost share birth. Almost our birthday. Neat. That is very cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:55

Yeah. The thing you the more you also have Hungarian ancestry.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:59

I do. Oh, wouldn't it be wild if I was like somehow weirdly related? That'd be cool. Somebody do an ancestry thing on me, please. I mean. I'm not good at that sort of thing. I get bored really quick.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:12

I try. If you can't tell me the names of your grandparents, I can't help you out.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:15

I can't. I can tell you my I think. I can tell you my grandmother's name.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:22

Uh anyway, so we have our our topic so we're going to be able to do that. Now I'm gonna go to Ancestry Doc. We have to go uh share our warm embers.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:30

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:32

Warm embers. Do you have one on hand ready to go? I have a strange warm ember that I'm I'm not actually sure what to think about it, but I think you'll agree with me. We have had a slew of downloads. I was literally going to say the same thing from weird countries, and it's great, but like Buzz Sprout, our podcast host, they automatically filter out like bots, downloads from bots and stuff, and they don't show up in your stats.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:05

But like every day we've been getting m multiple downloads, like an uptick in in our usual amount, and uh and repeat downloads from the same places, so it's not like just a one and done. We have we do have some one and duns um in some like really like weird, obscure places on the map. But we're getting like we're getting a lot in um uh South America, yeah. Venezuela, shout out Venezuela, yeah. Thank you, Argentina, also thank you. Um, and a lot of uh Korea, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:41

We've got Zap Zapopan Jalisco Jalisco? Jalisco? It's yeah, it's with a J.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:50

Did you say Jalisco? Did you just say that's in the well I don't know what color is Jalisco? I don't know. It's uh I didn't know that. Oh, it's uh Jalisco is the um that's where Puerto Vallarta is.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:04

Oh, okay. We also had one in Dublin recently. We've got Mendoza.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:10

Mendoza is in also in Mexico, I believe.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:14

We've got Naucalpan, which is also in Mexico, Mexico. Um, Mendoza is Argentina. And those are just the top four that are showing up in new locations.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:25

Yeah, and like we saw that we started to see this uptick and we were worried, like, oh you know, it's like it's just bots, like, I don't know, doing something with our I don't know what you would do. We don't have that many followers or downloads. But um we did like look into it because there are certain metrics that you can make sure are attached to your podcast that do not count bot downloads.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:48

Um, and Buzz Sprout has those built in, like you said, so we feel good about these downloads, that they're legitimate downloads, so yay.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:59

It's just kind of weird that we're getting them in so many other countries. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:04

It is weird, but I'm I'm also like it's cool. Yay! Yeah, we're listening to us.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:08

So if you're listening to us and you're legitimately listening, thank you for listening.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:12

We really appreciate you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:14

So that's my war member.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:16

I that's funny because I was just gonna say the same thing. I was like, I love all these downloads that we're getting. Sweet. And then we're getting um several of the same countries have downloaded the new podcast too. So I'm like, Yeah, oh sweet, yay! So we're like, hopefully, we're getting some crossover. Like we're growing, which is fun. Um, and yeah, and now we get to um finish preparing our recording for our next kobold adventure. Yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited. I have to practice my voice for bang and um get ready to see where his little adventure is gonna go.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:58

Yeah. Yay! I've gotta come up with some stuff too, because I'm the DM. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:05

Um, I have been dropping a little bit of uh fizz art in our Discord. Uh so if you want to see that, join our Discord server. You could find the link on patreon.com slash Jess and Hids. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:18

Also, if you have any ideas for future podcast topics for this podcast, email them to jess andhids at gmail.com. Yay! Yep. I think that's all. I think that's it. Yeah. Okay. Thank you so much for listening. Spread the word about us. Um if you'd like to leave a good review and a good rating. Um because those what else do you do with podcasts?

SPEAKER_00 1:35:44

You you share, share them, you like, review, subscribe, all the things. Subscribe.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:49

That's the thing.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:51

And and join our Patreon. Yeah. Because we would love that.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:54

Yes. We have a fun little community. Yeah. That's it. Until next time. Yeah, talk to you next time. Bye.