Nikola Tesla & George Washington Carver

B and light blight. You may want to rethink that name. But beat, do you have any experience with electronics or wiring or no? But hey, even Tesla had to start somewhere. So here, put the sunglasses on. I'm going to flip the switch. I'm not sure there is Oh wow, it's a peanut. It's so bright and getting brighter. Huh, Well, I guess now it's a roasted peanut. I'll get the fire extinguisher. Eric, please play us in here we go. What do you think you know about the rates from

this study? The game is on. To get some energy and buckle up your brain, because it's time to play the podcast, because it's time to play. Live from Tom Bland or so called SoCal, Los Angeles. Welcome to Who Was, the history quiz show that gives contestants the chance to win mega prizes and podcast glory. I'm your announcer, be and I'm all announcer hardly knewer. And now here's your host, a man who was born wearing socks. It's Elliot Galin. Thank you so much. Be Yes, it's true. It was

a medical miracle. And welcome everyone. So the Who Was? Podcast? This show it's like Jeopardy, only with surprise guests, silly games, and more explosions. Thank you. Our contestants were sent Who Was books about two great figures from history. Now they're here to show off their knowledge in the hopes of

winning fantastic proses. Today we're talking about the engineer and physicist Nicola Tesla and the scientist George Washington Carver, two inventors whose work is probably hanging out in your kitchen right now, unless you have a peanut allergy or are a raw foodist, which is fine now, it's fine, Yeah, that's there's no problem with that. Let's go meet our contestants, all right. First, up, we have Ellie. Ellie, please introduced yourself. Hi. I'm Ellie and I'm ten years old. I didn't thanks

off bost since I was three years old. Wait, since you were three years old. I don't even think I could walk when I was three years old. That's amazing. Yeah, let alone walk the basis. So um, Ellie, have you ever hit a home run? Yes? Will you tell us? But that felt like it felt really good? Did you

really make the most of it? Like you walked the vases and you were waving to everybody and you were like blowing kisses to people and doing cart wheels and really showing off and like maybe dancing from third to home. Did you do it that way? I so just job because I'd be a little bit disrespectful. But then after I got into the dug out sided dancing and okay, I really I really like that you were respecting the other team that was really good at you. Yeah. Not

only is she a winner, she does it gracefully. Thank you so much, Ellie. And also with us today we have Kinsley. Kinsley, please introduce yourself. Hi, my name is Kinsley and I'm ten years old and I've been doing gymnastics since I was five years old. Oh okay, And what is your favorite events when it comes to gymnastics. My favorite event and gymnastics is floor okay. And if you have a routine, like, what's your dream song for

your floor routine? Um? Probably rewrite the Stars, Rewrite the Stars. I don't know that song. It's from the Greatest Showman. Oh okay, now we get it. That's great gymnastics music and the Greatest Showman. Yeah, that's fantastic. Yeah, I love it. You know, I knew someone once named Jim Nastics and he was very clumsy. All right. I went to high school with the gymnastics. Thank you Ellie, thank you Kinsley,

thanks for joining us. And thank you also to Eric, our musician, for providing that lovely live Meet the Contestants music. You know, today's episode is especially exciting because Ellie and Kinsley have the same teacher, Mr Bruno. Mr Bruno is here with us right now. Mr Bruno, what words of encouragement do you have for these two star students. They're they're definitely stars, and uh, just good luck to you.

I think you're doing a great job. Okay, and Mr Bruno, if you were a gambling be I mean a gambling man. Which contestant would you tell your bookie to pit fifty on and let it ride large? You know, hypothetically speaking, Mr Bruno, I'm gonna I'm gonna jump in here and say, our lawyers have requested that I ask you to not tell us which child you would gamble on in this scenario. We yeah, that is a very small our decision. So that's who is. Now, Let's find out who was George

Washington Carver with four fast facts Prospects. George Washington Carver lived from eighteen sixty four to nineteen forty three. He was an accomplished painter and showed paintings at the World's Fair. Carver's book on How to Grow the Peanut and On Five Ways of Preparing It for Human Consumption revolutionized the peanut and the peanut industry. He was the first Black American to have a national park named after him. Prospects,

and how's that for working for peanuts? I feel I need to smooth something out and let people know that George Washington Carver did not create peanut butter, but he did help popularize it. Okay, well, it sounds like you're advocating for smooth peanut butter. There, I'm a crunchy gal myself. Why I'm not surprised You've always seemed kind of crunchy to me. Ellie, what's your stance on peanut butter? Do you like it smooth crunchy? What's or none? What's your preferred? Uh?

Smith is definitely smooth, Kinsley, What about you? Do you prefer smooth peanut butter or crunch of peanut butter or no peanut butter or I guess those are all the options. Um, I don't really care, but I would prefer smooth peanut butter. We've got to smooth smooth criminals here, smooth operators to smooth peanut butter criminals. Now that we're all buttered up, it's time to move on to our first game. True or false? True, false? It is false? Is a false?

Or is a true? It's a true that it is false? It was true or true? True or false? Thank you Eric for this game. The will read a statement. You will then let us know if the statement is true or false, just like the title of the game. Now, this is our first game, so each question is worth one point each. The first question goes to Ellie. Take it away, being though we know him as George Washington Carver. For most of his early life, George went by the

name Carver's George. Is this true or false? True? That's right. It's true. He was born to parents who had been enslaved by Moses and Susan Carver and did not have the last name of his own, whose slavery was abolished when he was a baby. He still went by Carver's George until about the age of thirteen, when he, like many formerly enslaved people, took the surname of his former owners.

The next question is for Kinsley Highland College, where George was accepted after completing high school, was the first educational institute that turned him away because he was black? Is this true or false? False? That's right, it's false. As a young child, George was also turned away from his local school because it was for white children only. He had to travel many miles to a neighboring town to

attend the school that was for black students. George would end up doing this several more times over the course of his early life. He never let it get in the way though, of his thirst for education and knowledge. The next question is for Ellie. The Tuskegee Institute, a historically black college and vocational center in Alabama where George Todd, was established by another famous Black American whose initials are the same as the acronym for by the way bt

W or BT dubs false. I'm sorry, that's true. The B t W is Booker T. Washington, a leader in the black community, later advised several presidents. George decided to leave his life in Iowa to go teach at the new Tuskeee Institute because it felt it could do the most good for his community there. The next question, this is the last one for the round, goes to Kinsley.

George is best remembered for his work as being the patron Saint of peanuts, but another name he could have earned was Sir Sweet Potato, because of his work encouraging farmers to grow sweet potatoes. Is that true or false? I think it's false. I'm sorry that was true. George wanted to help southern farmers improve their soil and their incomes, encouraged them to stop focusing on cotton and instead grows

sweet potatoes, cowpeas, sweet beats, rice, soybeans, and alfalfa. And those are the ingredients for a great salad, which we can now eat because it's the end of the round salad time, everybody, true, true, true, great rounds and thank you all. You're both doing fantastic. Let's touch base now with our producer Jane for the scorers, Jane Wary right now, Oh, Elliott, funny should ask we are tied up at one a piece. Ellie and Kinsley both have one. Thank you, Jane. Close game.

It's a tie game already. That's contratty, but it's it's still anyone's game because there's a lot more game to get to. Well, Elliott, technically could not be my game or your game, but it could go to Ellie or Kinsley. That's true. I guess there's billions of people all over the world who this game could not go to. So really it's not anybody's game. It's either Ellie or Kinsley's game.

Will be more precisely my wording, thank you specially. I'll keep that mind as we come back after this short break, Eric play us some nut music if you would. Th nuts are not nuts? M H. Welcome back to the Who Was Podcast. Today we're learning all about who was George Washington Harbor and who was Nicola Tesla? And now back to your host, Elliott Calein in thank you be. Our scores as we enter this next round are Ellie

one and Kinsley one. They both got one. These are fierce competitors, so let's get right to finding out more about Nicola Tesla, the man who inspired an electric car brand with four fast facts. Tesla was a Serbian born in Croatia and lived from eighteen fifty six to ninety three. He improved electricity by engineering the alternating current, the way we still get power in our homes to this very day. One of his early jobs, digging ditches, led him to

find backers for his research. Only after his death did he get credit for his pioneering work with radio waves, which paved the way for television and the Internet. You know, when you really start digging into his work, no pun intended, because he dug ditches, at one point you really realize how many things we still use today that we're all started by Nicola Tesla. Yeah. I mean, if it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have all these unanswered emails and

text messages and group chats that I'm like sixty responses behind. On. So thanks a lot, Tesla. Yeah, thanks Tesla for get everything nice we said about him. But let's move on to our next game, something we call invention or deception. In this game, we list an invention that Tesla made and gave a reason as to why he invented it. If the reason is correct, the contestant will say invention. If the reason we give is incorrect, the contestant says deception.

And this this is our second game. Each question is worth two points. Kinsley her up first. Nikola Tesla made his own candles when he was just a little boy so he could stay up as late as he wanted to and read invention. That's right, invention. He was always an ingenious person who would cover up his keyhole and shove sheets under the door. Snow light would escape and he could read until the wee hours of the morning. Luckily, his whole life he didn't need very much sleep. He

only slept for a couple of hours a night. We assume he was spending that time reading who was books? Perhaps this next question is for Eli. Tesla designed the Tesla Coil because originally he wanted to compete with Slinky and find a toy that could go downstairs and get its own theme song, like everyone knows it's Tesla deception. That's right, deception. He invented the Tesla coil as a way to turn low voltage into high voltage, which was

then released as a spark. The next question goes to Kinsley. Tesla pioneered controlling a toy boat with radio way so his friend, a mouse named Stuart Little, could have joy rides through the ponds of New York City. Deception. Yes, that's right, deception. He did use the boats as a way to demonstrate how radio waves worked by traveling through the air. Stuart Little is, of course a fictional character, so it would be hard for him to beat friends

with him, but you never know, maybe he was. I could. I would love to be friends with a fictional mouse anyway, or a real life mouse. Mice. If you're out there listening, take the cheese. I'm friendly. Yeah. If there're any mice listening to this and you're in bees house, go for it. She's just trying to be friends. She's not trying to trap here. Now. The patent for radio technology first went to Tesla's rival Google O Marconi, but the Supreme Court

overturned those patents shortly after Tesla's death. Oh so close, too late for Tesla to make any money off it. The next question goes to Ellie Nicola built the warden Cliff Tower, named after the town of warden Cliff, Long Island, where he hoped to send power and signals wirelessly to the citizens or wardens of Wardencliffe and the world beyond invention. Yes, you're right, invention. Sadly this plan didn't work out for Tesla and get to shut down warden Cliffe, a tragedy

for the people of Long Island. This was somewhat the beginning of the end for Tesla. He spent much of the rest of his life feeding pigeons around New York City, even bringing them back to live with him in hotels, which, now that I know he was friends with the pigeons, it makes it much more likely he could have been friends with a mouse. And that was invention or deception. That was a great game, everybody. Okay, let's go to Jane with the scores. I can't wait to find him out.

Oh well yet and be You're not gonna believe this, but we are tied yet again, each contestant having five points. You know, be h. Both Nicola Tesla and George Washington Carver they were so focused on their work that they lived alone most of their adult lives. I wonder if they ever got lonely. Yeah, I mean personally. I know no amount of pigeons can replace human interaction. I do,

I know that personally. And Nicola did tell a newspaper that he never married because having a partner would take away too much attention from his work, but that it was a pity for sometimes we feel so lonely. And George Washington Carver talked about feeling lonely after his brother died. If only George Washington Carver and Tesla could have helped each other to feel less lonely, or even being friends

with each other. Oh sorry, wait, Elliott, it says here we've got a new sponsor that can solve those problems. Then what are we waiting for? Eric, Please play us that we've got a new sponsor jingle, We've got a new girl. Are you a work obsessed scientist in Turn of the century America? My name is George Washington Cobble. I thought I'd never make a friend who wasn't a pig nut. My name is Nicola Tesla. I thought I never have a pal who understood why I worked for

twin the hours straight every day for a year. Then we try a science. E Science is the number one social network for lonely scientists. We match brilliant geniuses who have real chemistry, even if they are chemists. Okay, all right. With E Science, you'll finally find someone who understands your special childhood. Okay, not to brag, but as a kid, I fixed the town fire hose. Now that's cool. But did you have a nickname like the plant doctor? Because

that's what people called me. Someone with whom you can share your strangest secrets. Anything made out of peanuts? Well, I only eat milk, honey, bread, and vegetable juice, and only at eight ten p m. Here's to highly specificate nebits. You'll be surprised at how much you and your new science friend have in common. You died in ninety three. I died in nineteen forty three. Now what are the arts? And who knows with his new friendship might lead. Okay, okay,

maybe this is crazy, but what about electric peanuts? Sir? I'm listening thanks E Science because unraveling the mysteries of the universe doesn't have to me unraveling your social life. Wow, what a great sponsor, and we'll find out what else these two amazing scientists had in common. After this short break, Eric plays some electric peanut music. Please this is La rooms are on fire? Sally, Who was there? Marie Curie?

You may remember me from winning multiple Nobel crisis or perhaps from my episode of the Who warst podcast where I played myself. I wanted to take a moment to read one of my favorite reviews about the Who Was podcast. This is from Shaken Bay and it reads loved this Me and my little sister love this show more. Please.

Our faith is ariet Toman. If you want to hear your review right on the air, make sure to subscribe, like and review to the worst podcast in the I Heart Radio Up or wherever you give your podcasts Revoir or should I say Abbia. We're back on the who wast podcast. When we last left up, Ellie had five points and Kinsley had five points. Now back to your host, Elliott Galin, Thank you be. It's been a great game today and it's going to continue to be a great

game as we go onto our last game. Which will also be great. It's called converge of greatness. In this multiple choice game, we'll explore how inventors George and Nicola connect, overlap, or converge. And because we're in the third round, each question is worth three points. Big points on these questions. Ready, Ellie, Ready, Kinsley, Okay, great. The first question goes to Ellie be take it away,

all right, Ellie. Both George Washington Carver and Nikola Tesla suffered from childhood illnesses that affected the course of their lives. While George had about a whooping cough, Nicola caught which of the following illnesses after completing high school A polio, B, cooties or see cholera see color. That's right. The answer to ce cholera. He had to stay in bed for nine months after catching cholera. When we returned home, his

parents feared he would not survive. That's obviously different from cooties, which everyone knows at the time required at least twelve months of bed rest. They had yet to invent the cooty shot, which luckily science now knows is just circle, circle dot dot. Kinsley, This next question is for you. Both Nicola and George were raised with religion as a big part of their lives. George felt spiritually connected to a higher power through plants and nature, but Tesla felt differently,

even though he had this role at his church. Was it a bell ringer be orthodox priest? Or see an usher a bell ringer? That's right, he was the ringer of the bells there. Tesla rang the bells at church as a young boy, but he wasn't necessarily a spiritual person. His father wanted it to become a priest. But once when Tesla was very sick, he told his dad the only way he would get better is if he could go to school to become an engineer, and his father said, okay,

I'll allow it. Drama, drama, drama at the Tesla household. Okay. The next question is for Ellie. Both Nicola Tesla and George Washington Carver were invited to work with famous inventor Thomas Edison, but only Tesla ended up working with Edison. Why did Tesla eventually stop working for Thomas Edison? Was it a Edison refused to give Tesla a bonus he was promised b Tesla bought Edison's company or see Edison

stopped inventing and took up blind dancing. Hey, that's right, the answers a Edison refused to give Tesla the bonus that he promised them. Edison said he would pay Tesla a fifty thou dollar bonus to redesign his generators. So Tesla worked nineteen hours a day every day for a year, but after a successfully updated the generators, Edison was all that was a joke. That bonus was a joke. Likes like, so thankfully Edison was an inventor, not a stand up comedian,

because it's not a very good joke. It feels like more of a prank than a joke. It was part of Thomas Edison's prank show light Bulb, which was it was a lot of light bulb based pranks and just surprising people with light bulbs in different places. It was and there was no TV at the time, so no one could watch it. So I really don't know why

he was doing it. Okay, the next question is for Kinsley, All right, Kinsley Nicola Tesla was known for holding big parties full of celebrities and giving grand speeches about his work. George Washington Carver famously gave a speech that was only supposed to last ten minutes but ended up going on for hours. It wasn't at a dinner party. But who was he talking to? Was it a congress b his plants or see the Royal Society of Arts in London.

I believe it's a congress. That's right, it's a He gave a riveting talk to Congress that helped him pass legislation to help the peanut industry. George was honored by the Royal Society of Arts in London though, And if he didn't talk to his plants, he was most definitely what you would call a plant whisperer. And that's stirring heavenly music means it's the end of the game, which means it's almost the end of the show. Before we get to the very very very end of the show,

James gonna tell you the points. And while she's doing that, I'd love to hear from our contestants. What's something that you were really surprised to learn about Tesla or Carver, or something that really stuck with you that you thought was really cool, Ellie, was there something that stuck out to you about either one? So Nico Tesla knew about like Internet. He already had that like in his head that it's going to happen in the future. And I

thought that was really cool because it had it already happened. Yeah, it's that amazing. It was like the nineteen thirties and forties, and he was telling people someday you're gonna have a machine in your pocket that you can look up any information on the world or talk to anybody through and nobody and what did they do that? They were they like, yeah, you're right, Tesla, that's going to happen. Yeah, they laughed at him, right, but they were wrong. And now Tesla

is the one doing the laughing. That's right. Pigeons, Yeah, yeah, and his pigeon buds are just laughing at the rest of us. Yeah, that was really cool. Yeah. I think that also speaks to the way that they talked about Nicola's sort of like mind and the way that it worked that he could just see things so clearly in a way that other people couldn't. Yeah, that he could invent machines in his mind and test them in his

mind because he could visualize them so clearly. Kimsley, was there anything about either Nicola, Tesla or George Washington Carver that really jumped out of it, that made you really go, oh, that's amazing. It's that he like already had the picture in his mind and like he just knew how to build it already. He was just like, oh, I can

build this because he had a good picture. It's mine. Yeah, I I even I have trouble thinking of like what I'm gonna wear during the day in my mind, and he could to put together an entire machine just in his head. Mr Burna, what about you, Is there anything about either of these historical figures that really stuck out to you? Yeah? Read Tesla got his big break digging ditches and the foreman heard I'm talking about some motors, and so he's out there digging ditches and they got

a job. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. You always got to be very verbal about your passions and dreams. Yeah, yeah, that's true. The Tesla was really not one to hide his light under a bushel. He would talk to anybody and everybody about what he was interested in doing, and Carver was the same way too. They were both excited about sharing what they were interested in and it brought their lives toward Let's go to the big moment. Jane, can you please announce our winner for today? Oh? Yeah, I wish

I could, but we don't have a winner. We have two winners. Kelly and Kinsley have tied to the Love Come Teach Well Fantastic fantastic. It's a super tie. Okay, great playing both of you. Since you're both the winners of each of you is gonna get ten seconds to kind of give shoutouts and thank whever you want to thank. Kinsley, do you want to go first? Who would you like

to thank for your shared victory today? Um? I would like to take my mom, my dad, and one of my friends named Eva, who's going to be on another podcast that spetastic Ellie. Who would you like to shout out? Probably my mom and my dad and Kinsley because she also helped me. Um, we like quizzed each other on the books and stuff. You know what, Now I feel now I feel like there are even more than two winners because that's the greatest thing I've ever heard, So

I feel like a winner now. The real winner today was friendship. That's my fantastic. Well, our winners and their library of choice are going to receive a selection of who was books, and I'm going to give a shout out here at the end of the show to intern Zach, to Jane, to Eric, to Joshua, John Baptises for being our George Washington Carver and Zach for being article the tesla, Zach Kimpson and to be And a big thank you to both of our contestants who play a fantastic game today.

Thank you at home for listening. And next week come back to us. We're gonna find out about two more fantastic, fascinating figures from history. Until then, this is Elliott, Sir, Sweet Potato Calin saying we're history. Thanks everybody, goodbye. Got a question for any of our famous figures, Send us a voice memo at the Who Was Podcast at gmail dot com. It might just stand up on the show.

The Who Was Podcast is produced by Radio Point, I Heart Media and Penguin Workshop, based on the best selling Who h Q series published by Penguin, Hosted by Elliott Calin with co host Megan O'Neill as b also starring Jane Baker as Producer, Jane, Eric Shackney as Eric, Joshua Jean Baptiste as George Washington Carver, and Zach Timpson as Nicola Tesla. Executive producers are Richard Gorson, Alex Bach, Elliott Calin, Megan O'Neil, Daniel Powell, and Houston Snyder. Executive producer for

Penguin Workshop is Francesco Sadita. Executive producer for iHeart Media is Lindsay Hoffman. Written by Megan O'Neil, Elliott Calin, Kennie Mobley and Jane Baker. Produced by Bernie Kaminski. Talent producer is Jane Baker. Theme song and music composed and performed by Eric Shackney, Edited and mixed by Kate Moldenhower, Recorded by Joanna Samuels and special thanks to Zach Timpson, Charlotte Dianda, Daniel Goodman, and Michael Lewis Howard, who was podcast was

recorded at the iHeart Studios in Los Angeles, California. Sound services were provided by Great City Posts Podcast because it's standard fabok