How Gypsies Work

There was this one really classic scene where um he meets Share in a restaurant, but he thinks it's like a shared drag queen impersonator, Right, so he calls her like Mr. Sister and like starts giving her porters on how to do a good share. Yeah, he always does the hair flip. Right. I love that show. It's a good show. It's it holds up. It's in reruns now it's just as good. Yeah. But yeah, I had this that horrible Share song in my head like while I

was um studying, and it just wouldn't go away. So I listened to it and now I'm like, no, it just got worse. Uh. Is there a modern PC version that's Roma Tramps and Thieves? No, but in my head, you can also say gypsies, Franks, and beans, and it's like kind of neutral. It's better than tramps and thieves. Good point. But the term gypsy is that a good point. It's a terrible point. Don't patronize me gypsies though. The word itself, we're gonna try not to use because it's

it's a pejorative term. It is, at the very least, it's now considered an ethnic slur uh. And it's in part because it's associated with the concept of being jipped. Like if somebody doesn't give you a fair deal or something like that, or rips you off or something like that, you've been jipped. It's it's short for gypsied. You've been you've been dealt with somebody, right, not the other way around. Right,

because we believe it came from Egypt. Right, it was a miss misapplication, misunderstanding in the Greek Isles by Josh Clark, romance novel. All right, so let's let's get into this. We're not gonna say gypsies like you said, Actually that's not entirely true. We're probably going to forget once in a while because we were both raised on shell Silverstein.

Do you remember you may reminded me of this one, The Gypsies are Coming, which is it's very difficult to find the original version of the Gypsies are Coming, which is a poem of shell silversteins and where the sidewalk ends.

Because before his death, and I believe that sometimes in the nineties or early two thousand's, it was that long ago, but yeah, I remember he changed it from the Gypsies are Coming to the Googis or the Googies because he felt that it was mean towards Gypsies, and it kind of is because it's about child stealing Gypsies, which is a rumor um that's been attached to Gypsies forever. Yeah, they steal children and use them as props in making

in pickpockets schemes. Yeah, there are a lot of, um, I guess, rumors about the culture, and a lot of them are founded and a lot of them are unfounded. Yeah, none of it's just like black and white one way or the other. The Gypsies aren't just some completely kicked around put upon ethnic group. And and at the same time they're not just a bunch of like thieving violin

playing marauders, you know. Yeah, So anyway, to get to the point, we'll say Roma as much as we can roma or romany, and we'll even explain why we call them Roma. Shortly it sounds good. Well, we just missed. International Roman Day was on April eight man and that's been around and John Carey, Secretive of State carry came out and that's some nice words to say about, uh, you know, celebrating the rich Romanic culture and give him

a break, Yeah sort of, you know. But um, I didn't know there was a International Roma Day, So I don't know if it's sticking in like the mass public. Well, you know, it takes a little time to gain traction. It's been a while. It has been since the seventies. The seventies were like a big era of um ethnic and minority group like saying hey, we're here and like we're standing up for our rights and you can't kick us around anymore. You know, good for them, we're owning

our identity and the Roman did it too. But yeah, it's been a little while. Uh. These days there are around twelve million Roma. And when we say scattered, they are scattered. And that's what they're known for, is not dropping down permanent roots and moving along and one reason is because they've often been forced through the centuries to move along until today. Yeah, there's a there's a basically, the Roma sociologists, the the authority on Romanic culture and people,

Dr Romani, Dr finessca Isabella finnesska Um. She basically points out, like tell me another group that just willfully picks up steaks and leaves all the time because they just feel like it at the at their whim She's like that that doesn't exist. They move largely mostly because they've been forced to time and time again. I think humans desire to route down. That's sort of what we've based our success on is people. Yes, is staying one place and

fortifying and you know sedentary nous. I don't know about sedentary, but like getting couch locked exactly. That's your new favorite term. Yeah, so, uh yeah, they they are kind of spread all over the EU. They're scattered to the way. Then they do move quite frequently. But it's like you said, it's it's um, it's not necessarily because they're nomadic. They are nomadic people, but not necessarily because they want to be. But the problem is is where wherever they go. Virtually everywhere they

go in the European Union. Um, they are kind of forced out eventually at some point. Yeah, I sent you that article today and it is literally in today's news how Paris those elite note from the chief of police in Paris that said, on the orders of his superiors, police are to day and night locate Roma families living in the street and systematically evict them, even though that is supposedly illegal in France. And uh it is and it's a chic area of Paris, and they don't want

um people in poverty. And a lot of the Romantic people are still living in poverty pretty much, all of them are. I'm not saying that makes it right. All all of the Romani except for the gypsy kings the band are having in poverty pretty much. They are actual Gypsies that look, I thought they were from Mexico. No, I thought so too, man, They're from Andalusia, Spain, and their parents were all Romani that were basically kicked out

of Spain by Franco. And so they're like legitimate Roma people the band and the only ones with any money right pretty much. And I'm like, wonder what they do, Like, are they still they still have that Roma thing? To them or are they just like to see you guys later. I think from what I've read, they the Roman people are are, you know, embrace their heritage. It seems like it, I mean to to, almost to a detrimental degree. Well.

Last September um Manuel Valls Uh, the Interior minister at the time in France, declared that Roman Gypsies were incompatible with the French way of life and should return home. Yeah. Europes really going crazy lately, Like the Dutch are forcing all of their Um immigrants to learn Dutch or get out. Basically, did they realize how hard Dutches Yeah? Uh, maybe that's the point, you know, um. Yeah, And apparently there was like a huge push in the Sun newspaper in Britain,

um get rid of Gypsy beggars from the street. Um. And yeah, the Roma in particular are have kind of been the butt of all this stuff. It's not just France. I saw an article where in Rome Um to Rome to Roma camps in Rome were rated. All of the people were dragged out taking to the airport put on a plane to Bosnia, and a couple of them were underage kids whose parents weren't in the group at the time.

So imagine if you come home from a day of trading cars and your kid is in Bosnia because the cops just rounded them up because they didn't want you to live on the street there any longer. Trading cars. Yeah, that's what they're into big time. They still trade horses too, Yeah, but among them they also trade cars too. They'll go to like Germany and buy a car for cheap and then take it to Romanian sell it for a little bit of premium and they make some money. That one

that's called Craigslist, buddy, kind of romani Craigslist. Good for them. Uh. So the point is there, wherever they go in the EU, they end up getting the bombs rush basically. Yeah. I mean it's called they call it the gypsy problem still to this day in the European Union. So, and the one place that they can kind of call home is Romania. Yeah, and I think Transylvania too has a pretty robust, fairly settled population. You want to understand, I'm sure they do.

And they were led there actually by a purchase by a guy named vlad dra Cool in the fifteenth century. I think I've heard of that guy. Yeah, So let's talk about how the Roma ended up in their adopted homeland of Romania where they come for originally, because apparently even they aren't certain. Well, no, that's the one thing

they're certain about, apparently is where they come from. But that's about it because they there's a high illiteracy rates, so there's not a lot of record keeping, a lot of not a lot of genealogy throughout the years, so a lot of a lot of it's just kind of lost to history. Um. But I think they did settle on the fact that they came from India, Josh, which knew, right, you're being coy, That is true, and it took a very long time. Um, So the Romans say, we're from

India and they know that. Now, no one knew whether that was correct or not. They were called gypsies because people thought they were from Egypt. Um, they were in Romania, but they crossed the Balkans. Um. It was really just very confusing. They were just basically this nomadic group of dark skinned people who spoke their own language and didn't

practice the prevailing religions, so everybody just hated them. Well, finally, in the eighteenth century, Uh, a Hungarian scholar theologian I believe, decided he wanted to kind of dig into Romani language and figure out what the deal was with it, and he found quite surprisingly that a lot of it contained Sanskrit. Yeah,

so that's gonna put you in northern India. And then they did some genetic testing to kind of get that stuff confirmed and basically came up with the fact that they migrated out of India about But the dates get a little hazy for sure. Well, some people think that as seven D. This as far back as I think

anyone's willing to go. But then I think a lot of historians agree that they're actually descended from a specific group who were ejected from northern India because of raids from Persia around a thousand to a thousand D. Now, was that with the spread of Islam, Yeah, Mohammad of Gosni, Yeah, he wanted to spread Islam around and so he brought in. Uh. Well, the Hindus organized a group of people to fight that, obviously, to fight the Muslims, and they had an army called

the raj Puts. I think that's as good as any or as the the j silent are a Jput No, uh No, It's like Maharaja maybe, yeah, that sounds better, uh, and they defeated the army. Um, I'm sorry, they were defeated and then taking captive and then another group from Persia came along the se and they conquered them and then took the raj Puts out of Northern India and into what is now Turkey, right, and they basically the DSPOR has started then supposedly, yeah, that was where they

think the Romani originally came from. They were displaced Indians fighting to protect their homeland. And they basically when they were ejected from uh, Northern India, Yeah, by Mohammed of Gosni and his people, they became slaves. And then when Mohammed of Gosney was defeated by the Celjics, they became slaves for the Celjics. Turkey pretty much put upon from the get go, right, So they were slaves, servant class um laborers for many centuries and they finally made it out.

I guess once the um. Once the Ottomans defeated, Now what's the Christians? I guess when in during the Crusades and defeated the Turks and Istan Bull was converted from Constantinople the um Rajputs, who were by now the Roma, were moved from Turkey across the Balkans into present day Transylvania Wallachia, and a large number of them were purchased by Vlad dreck Cool, also known as Lad Tepish or Vlad the Impaler or Count Dracula. He owned some of

the first Romani people. How many across I think like five hundred or five thousands or something like that. Yeah, and they suffered tremendously. Anyone who worked for Vaude suffered tremendously. Well, lets to do an episode on him. He hated dust on the shelves. He did, may fly into a rage. Um. It's interesting, though to see their religion these days of Roma, like it's it's kind of all over the map. There are some Christians, um, there are some Muslims, right, and

some Hindu. I don't know. Yeah, I think there's not like a a single religion for for an ethnic group. Well,

I guess it's not the weirdest thing. Well no, but I mean I think what what happened was there was a group of them, and then the group became further and further fragmented, and so you can take all of the language and the religious police and all of this this stuff that is Romani culture, and you're probably gonna find some similar elements that you can all trace back to about at a d when they crossed over into

the Balkans and then started to spread from there. Yeah, but I think that makes a lot of sense though, because apparently even the tribes today speak different versions of the same language. So it's they don't have like a codified language, even though they're pushing for that, right they are,

they think that might help. So they're in Romania right what's now present day Romania, UM, And for the next four hundred years they are slaves in Romania until Romania abolishes slavery, and even now that's still that basically their home base. Romania is like, okay, we'll take care of you guys, sorry about the last four centuries, UM, And no one else in the EU will. But Romania does provide for their Romani population more than any other country there.

But they were subjugated there too, weren't they, or at least discriminated against. Yeah, there were slaves for four years they well, I mean after that though, weren't they like they had a hard time they weren't served in stores, and oh yes, it still goes on today in Romania. Okay, I thought they were a little like more accepting. No, I think that's like kind of them. I think that's the That doesn't mean that Romania is just like um Roma loving, right, They're just they treat them slightly less

badly than the rest of your slight Roma tolerant. Okay, let's settle on that. Um. But because of the fact that they weren't um allowed service in stores and that maybe they had low literacy and they couldn't get jobs, no one wants to hire them. It was sort of this cyclical thing where they had to resort to thievery and deception. And it's just how do you get build yourself up as a people when you can't work. You

still need to eat, So how do you eat? You maybe steal something, and so it's just sort of the constant cycle that to this day they haven't been able to break out of. You know, Yeah, it's it's kind of a self perpetuating thing. Like they have a bad reputation in part because they do behave badly, and they behave badly in part because they have a bad reputation, so they can't get lag up like thousands of years.

It's it's unbelievable. Yeah, and there's I think one of the probably the hallmarks of um Romanic culture is it's um. It just won't assimilate. Like they just don't assimilate into whatever culture there and their their visitors, their guests there um or parasites or leeches depending on you know where you live and how you feel about them. Um, but they are not interested in becoming part of your culture where you live. Yeah, they seem pretty private and like

only concerned about their tribe, right. And the thing is the problem with that is that tends to make the majority of a culture very nervous. Yeah, well, why aren't you like eating our liberty cabbage and freedom fries? Like what's your problem? Well, you know, I bet they love cabbage. Well, like, why why don't you want to like work nine to five? And you know that kind of stuff. So when when any group won't assimilate and exists on the fringes seemingly,

you know, by their own accord, that's UM. That definitely raises a lot of suspicion in the majority culture. Unless you live in Montana, yeah, it's true, so maybe they play well, there have friends in Montana. They know I'm kidding. So right for this message break, we're going to talk about some of the atrocities they suffered during World War two. Yeah, alright,

it's World War two. The Nazis are doing their thing, and they are not just persecuting Jewish people, they are persecuting anyone that is a minority that they don't agree with. In the Roma were some of the first ones that they targeted, and by um what's the word, by percentage or of their total population maybe even suffered more than the Jewish people as far as like like half of the Roman people or something were executed. I think it was half of a million were in Germany or in

the in the lands that Germany conquered. Yeah, and they you know, they were. There's a documentary apparently out and I read an article on it, but they didn't even give the name of it. But it's uh, these filmmakers in Toronto, Jewish filmmakers made a documentary about um, the Romani Holocaust because it's just not a story you ever hear. But the filmmakers Tom Raski and Lynn Binder, like I said,

we're Jewish Holocaust survivors, children of Holocaust survivors. And the director and uh them Roma musician actually helped make it so they are still the musical people, not just the Gypsy kings. And we said, we don't know the name of the documentary. I couldn't find. It's a terrible article. It was terrible. Um. So, Yeah, during World War Two, the Roma and the Jews were the only two ethnic groups that were targeted because of their ethnicity by the Nazis.

Um And yeah, they suffered tremendously. And they have a word for it, um. It means the great devouring. It's a poor amos port amos. Yeah, it means the great devouring. Yeah. It could also mean rape apparently, which kind of puts a button on that experience. Uh. And I didtle more reading about it too. Apparently they really annoyed the s S as well, because they would not go quietly like they would say. They would have them dig their own graves, stand naked in front of them just so they could

chew them and push them in. And uh, he said that they wouldn't just stand there and like take their death gracefully. They would yell and scream and run around and try and dodge bullets, and I guess it was pretty sensible. Well yeah, exactly, but I guess that's part of the you know, the survivor in them, because they've been booted all around. You know, they gotta do what

they can. So like this guy's pointing a gun at me, I'm gonna try and get out of here, even if I'm naked, sad, And the rest of the majority of culture was like, no, you just stand still, right, what's wrong with you? Unbelievable. So one of the more shameful but also telling things about the Roma Holocaust was the

way it was treated afterwards. It was basically unmentioned at the Nuremberg trials, um, which you know, we're to address the Holocaust as a whole, you know, and just kind of ignored like this one whole thing because well it was the Roma apparently. And then, uh, one s S officer in history has was ever persecuted or prosecuted for crimes against Roma during World War Two, just one person,

even though half a million Roma died. So why, my friend, we I don't think we posted the question, Uh, why did they think they came from eagypt To begin with oh, yeah, well apparently it was just a complete accident. Yeah. Well, um, they came from northern India originally, and a lot of Roma have a dark complexion um and look the part

maybe a little to uh to an untrained eye. Um. And they ended up settling in the Greek Isles for a little bit or some at some point some Roma did and around there the place where they settled, there was a place where they came from along the Adriatic had been known as Little Egypt. To the people in Peloponnesia thought oh, well, they're Egyptians, so they started calling them gypsies clearly because they live in Little Egypt and

they have dark complexions. That's interesting. So what about these days? It's interesting history. But these days they still, like we said, have a lot of are still musicians. A lot of them still uh pick up camp and move. Some of them still trade horses. Uh. They're known for being metal workers and uh, well a lot of them have trades that were learned as slaves in Romania that have been

passed down and are still practiced today. So like, for example, some group that was that were copper workers as slaves in Romania. Their ancestors were the groups today do scrap metal. That's what they deal with, so they know what they're doing with with metal. Like, there're a lot of the trades that a Roma clan does for a living. Yeah, um is passed down from their their days of slaves

in Romania. Yeah, and the fact that they're still musicians today is definitely one of those because they found they could make a few bucks by even appearing trying to appear more exotic and do performances and look at us where the weird exotic Roman people or the Gypsies. Look how colorful our clothes are exactly And I'm playing my finger tambourine while you're getting your pocket picked perhaps out.

That's that's something that happened. So was it? Because apparently the media is totally cool with just perpetuating lies and untruths about the Roma and as not to be trusted anymore than they purport. The Roma should shouldn't be the media the media reports like um. I read that in that article I read in The Guardian by Dr Finnesska, the Auroma authority, she points out that I want some British paper said that a Roma woman who they named like by name named her son Lucifer, which is apparently

wholly untrue. But this is in like the nineties that that papers were printing this, So apparently the Roma have always been this group that you can kick around and everybody's cool with basically with you kicking him around. So media reports of the stuff that they do are should be taken with a grain of salt. Yeah, I think so, because they're very often conflated. Yeah, but the point this article makes, this is by Kristen Konger of Stuff Mom

Never Told You. She does make the point that a lot of it is reputation, but a lot of it has earned reputation because again, they were kind of force from town to town, and they were poverty stricken, and so they may have had to pick some pockets here and there to put food in the mouths. You know, I'm just saying, don't read, don't believe everything you're read

in the papers. Um. Sociologically speaking, the EurOMA constitute what's called the middleman minority, which is a group that refuses to assimilate UM and but still it is discriminated against, but still maintains enough UM communication or contact with the larger culture that they can benefit economically from that, Like they can still sell you a car, trade you a car. Uh. They're paternalistic, so it's um super old school, like the women are expected to stay home and work the else

and the men may or may not work at all. Uh. Young girls, they still have arranged marriages even to this day. Um. Getting their daughters matched up with another another person of the Romanic cultures is important to them. And apparently teenagers as well. Yeah, like as young as twelve. It's a little weird, is that right? Yeah? Um, and they because of the literacy rate. I think it's especially hard on

young women. They don't care very much about educating them, right. Um. And then employment is just kind of a side thing you do when you need money. For the most part. Part of that is that's just kind of part of Romani culture. But it asks the question, uh, you know, do they is that part of Romani culture because they haven't been able to get a job, or do they just not work? And that's part of Romani culture, right? You know, which which side of the coin has actually

created this this situation. But they apparently we're giving jobs under communism in Eastern Europe. Uh, and went to work in factories and things like that for a little while, but then after Communism disintegrated, the the Romo were fired. First apparently they were the persones out the door. Yeah, they're like the bosses no longer the boss. You're fired. I'm firing you. Yeah. And then of course from that rose more complaints of stealing and thievery and uh a

lot of it too. Isn't just uh illegal activities, but a lot of begging and panhandling and stuff that apparently in cheek districts in Paris is unsightly. So it sounds like from this description that Romani women are they do almost all of the work, especially around the household. They do,

and then men may or may not even have jobs. Yeah, but they're they're these they do existing clans, and these clans do have tribunals to handle disputes, and the men kind of run all that off, like the government of the of the village or group. Yeah, whereas the women are like running the household stuff. But the men are apparently totally clearly dominant. Yeah. Ah, I think that's true.

And unless it's just something we read, that's not because I read one of the filmmakers for that documentary said, you know, we're told that they aren't even that nomadic anymore. I'm like, but that flies in the face of everything I've read so well, it's in this article as well. It says like a lot of them want to settle down and are trying to make um, trying to establish

roots in places, but they get kicked out eventually. I think they fared pretty well here in the States apparently, so I don't know about like, I'm not saying they're they're rising to CEO positions or anything, but I think they haven't been h like kicked around like they have been in the EU at least. Well, America loves it's traveling romanticize thing, you know, yeah, the the open road. Yeah, yes,

that kind of thing. So anybody who's on the open road is you know, romanticized a little bit more here,

I think than in Europe. I think you're right, Um, this this takes a toll though, all the all the poverty and the moving around and the lack of education is going to take a toll on on any ethnicity, and it's definitely happening with the Romani because they apparently um compared to similar populations in Slovakia, Ireland, Czech Republican Bulgaria die about six to ten years earlier, and infant mortality rates are double and triple of those in surrounding

ethnic groups, which is disturbing. Which you can say, oh, that's right, Well, their poverty stricken. Uh, they don't eat the most nutritious meals around because their poverty stricken. They don't have easy access to healthcare. On the other side of the coin, apparently, um, they also typically shunned um local medicine in favor of their own medicine, which is

often homeopathic apparently. And so for example, tuberculosis is just like a it's like a fatal disease, even though if you step outside of camp into town, it's not right if you just go to that hospital right there, yeah, it's not Uh. Yeah, here's the illiteracy rate of romani girls can't read. Yeah, and apparently most romantic kids have

either gender don't complete high school. So all of this, the fact that they are poverty stricken, that they have lower life expectancy, higher informortality rates, lower education, higher literacy rates, it's tough to get a leg up, especially when the entire world basically looks at you like you are never to be trusted. Yeah, so what do you do? I will tell you what you do after this tam break. I'm dying to know a solution. Yeah, well, you know

it's it's a long run. We already talked about the solution. But you organize, you get together and you say, hey, we are this group of people. We um we have a history, we have a past. Because Dr finnessca Isabella Finnesska points out quite rightly, I think the easiest way to dehumanize people is to strip them of any context, any history, and that means that the Roma are right for exploitation when it comes to that dehumanization, because they

really don't have a history. Like historians think maybe that they came out of northern India thousand a thousand years ago. They probably did, but it's not entirely confirmed. Right. Can I read this quote by her? Yeah, it's like the saddest thing I've ever read, and this is by Finesska. The Roma have no heroes, no myths of origin of a great liberation, of the founding of a nation, of

a promised land. And that's like pretty much puts the Jerry on topic, right, since pretty much every other culture on the planet does have that. It makes them appear shiftless, aimless, lazy, like so lazy they don't even care about their own culture, so how can anybody else care about their culture? Well, finally, some Roma got together in the seventies and said, we're

gonna start being Roma Romani activists, Like we're misunderstood. And I think from this interaction inside and out and the separation between us and the rest of the world, there's a this misunderstanding is creating some self prophecies, self fulfilling prophecies, self perpetuating myths. And they got together and said, okay, we come from Northern India, India. We want you to sponsor like a congress, and they did in Yeah, it

was very awesome, the first World Romanic Congress. And uh there were Romani from fourteen different countries and they picked out a flag and an anthem, which just sounds so weird that you would have to do that in the seventies. I'll bet it's exuberant. I'm sure it was. And um oh you think, I'll bet the Gypsy can can play it really well and it probably sounds like Beirut, you know that band. He sounds like yeah, um m, yeah,

uh so it was. You know, it was a big unifying moment and a rare unifying moment for the people in and because they had the sponsorship of India though uh the u N had to they had to maybe they really wanted to officially recognized them as an ethnic group in So that was a victory seven years later. Yeah, wouldn't you say, well, what's um, what's sad though? Is it? I guess the one of the more prevalent proposals for getting Romani like a leg up is for them to

assault assimilate culturally. Apparently nothing's ever really going to change until they are willing to assimilate culturally. Um. And that's kind of like the crux of the matter. The problem is is if if you, um, if you you start to assimilate, you lose your culture. Yeah, which is happening somewhat. You know. They they're already having a hard time holding onto their dialect because of its fractured nature with the

different tribes. But like you said, assimilation it's a bit of a sad thing, you know, let go of your own past that's already checkered. So uh, I don't know, that would that mean the end of the Romani. Well, I mean you you can also make the case that, you know, the Chinese have been um uh middlemen might no already, Jewish people have been middleman minority in different places. Um Any group that comes to a new place and settles and then just kind of maintains its ethnic identity

for a while is a middleman minority. And you can look around and say, well, you know, Chinese have assimilated into the US pretty fully, but you still understand there's such a thing as you know, Chinese ethnic and cultural identity not dead Chinatown in most major cities. So I don't know, maybe they'll be like Romani Town in San Francisco a hundred years from now. In San Francisco, the

president will be Romani. You know, you know who knows, But it won't happen apparently, I guess that's the best. That's the the deal that's on the table. Yeah, we'll take care of you, but you have to stop being outside fringe dwelling weirdos. Well and until there, like this whole Paris deal. That the reason why they're shuffling him out of this one district, it's because they were shuffled out of another district. That's yeah. And it happens on a macro scale as well. Yeah, like not just within

the city, within Europe as a whole. Well, and one of the I can't remember the ladies name, but one of the French UM bureaucrats said, we we we just need to get them back to where they came from, back to Romania. Oh well yeah, it's like really he just said that, you know. Yeah. Well, plus also shows a little bit of historic I literacy. Um, but do you want to talk about other terms for him depending on where they are. So in the UK they call

him travelers. Uh. In Rome and Spain they're called gitanas, So the Gypsy Gypsy Kings are technically gaitanas. Um. Let's see. In Germany and Italy they call him Sinto. I can't believe I thought the Gypsy Kings were from Mexico. That's pretty ignorant. No, No, I think most people thought that. Who aren't like into world music, you know? But I heard of the Gypsy Kings or whatever. You know, it's they see they play huge guitars. Okay, thank you, you know I'm with you on now. I just didn't want

to be the white guy. It's like their Mexican right. I don't think it's like that. Uh so that's the Gypsy Kings. You got anything else on gypsies on Roma? Man? I'm sorry, I know, but the title of the article is how Gypsies work. And I think it'll attract listeners because people. I don't think a lot of people understand what the heck it is. I didn't what Roma. Well, it makes you think, like, well, they're from Rome. Yeah, Romania. No, I wonder if that means that Romania is from Rome.

This is one of the more confusing episodes we've done. As it turns out, if you want to learn more about the Roma or Romani, don't take those words. Type gypsy into the search bar at house to works dot com and it will bring up this article. And I said, search bars means it's time for listener mail. Uh. This is a question post to us from Josh Roberts of Washington,

d C. Hey, guys, I'm a big fan. I found the podcast last year and downloaded a few episodes, but it caught my interests and ended up going back to the beginning and I've listened to every episode on iTunes. Josh, I don't know if you know this, but we have a lot more episodes than that, my friend, Yeah, I know that. Are you talking to just the Josh Roberts, it's not Josh Clark. Yeah. We have a whole page now with all of our episodes on our website that

stuff dot com. iTunes features the most recent three one episodes. Yeah, and we have like six d and thirty something episodes. So he may know that, but maybe not go back on list of the old ones that they're pretty funny. There is some good ones in there, not the real old ones, but you know, after maybe fifty they really started to get good, talking so fast and like it's it's a total jackass. And we left the cave that we recorded in the can uh Okay. So he's writing

because he has an important question to ask. Imagine that time travel is real, and you and go to any time place in all of history, and you could bring one thing with you. My question is where would you go and what would you bring. I've been asking people this question since I was sixteen. Now I'm forty two years old, and I've had many interesting and some disturbing answers about our money making ploys like the old back

to the future, bringing a sports almanac. Many people talk about going back to Mozart Beethoven's time to bring and bringing a recording device, and then of course, other notable answers include shooting Hitler, stopping the murder of JFK. R. M Olk. My favorite answer is going back to the late fourteen hundreds with a battleship and making sure the Europeans never reached the America's Yeah, so we have to

answer this now. My question to Josh Roberts is is this something that are you gonna go come back to present daytime? Because you know, what good would it go due to go record Beethoven if you're stuck there or the recording of Beethoven there's a caveat so if you can come back to present daytime. I've thought about this, I haven't had the benefit of thinking. Just keep thinking. I think I might go back to the time of Jesus and biblical times because well documented my constant struggle

with my religious upbringing over the years. He's going and I'm gonna go to the source, and I'm taking a video camera with unlimited amounts of you know, recording space, let's say, yeah, a bunch of them and I can bring this back, And I think it would I think it would delight everyone. I think Christians would be delighted because you have real footage of a sermon on the mount and these I think delighted might be understating the reaction you would get. It would be over the moon

about having original recordings of Jesus doing this thing. I would think so. And I think it would also be helpful to just sort of sort out what the deal was and uh say, you know what are these stories out glory? Are they? Did they really happen? Am I going to go back and see people walking on the water and come back and say, hey, you know what, it's all absolutely true everyone. I think it would be like the greatest discovery and religion that has had such

an impact on world history. So that's my boom, That's what I'm doing. That's a good one. Thanks. Um. Uh. Let's see, I should have sent this to you ahead of time. I feel bad for springing it on you. Well, I'll just give a cursory one. I would I would go to um. I would go to probably some place that's kind of an exotic locale, now, but like sixty years ago when it was super exotic. Not so. I would say, you know what, I would go to, like um, Polynesia or Cuba. Yeah, in okay, and I realized they

were nowhere near the same thing. But I would go to I would go to Cuba in nine and the thing I would take would be interesting. So you just go for a vacation forever vacation. Yeah all right. See, I would recommend you go back even further to Cuba before there was anyone there with like a big gun, and then you own Cuba. I don't want to own Cuba. And like I like the local flavor, you know what I mean, Like I like the local flavor. That's like not been Uh there's not like an old navy anywhere

near this local flavor. It's like, gotcha, totally local flavor. But they also have you know, mohitos already. Okay, So you would go get away from the things of man back in the day with your wife where they have alcohol served. Yes, it's a great answer. Thanks. I love it. It was off the cuff and just I can just picture you and you me kicking it in nineteen twenty and Cuba, Cuba. Yeah, very one of those shirts to be one of those guys who were Cuban shirts. Yeah,

what are those called the Cuban shirts? Yeah, there's noth name. I can't remember. I'm sure it's like the Cruiseware right, yeah, but with two pockets and the unnecessary seams and there's the same somewhere. John Hodgman and Jesse Thorner a going we can't hear you all right, Well that was it for Romani. If you want to hang out with me and Chuck outside of this podcast, you can. You can find us on Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook. You can just look up Stuff you Should Know s Y, s K,

Josh and Chuck on your favorite web browser. We're gonna bring up all that stuff. You can send us an email to Stuff Podcast at Discovery dot com and hang out with us on our website Stuff you Should Know dot com for more on this and thousands of other topics. Is it how Stuff Works dot com