Two In The Think Tank - 523 - NASA's Hidden Figures

Episode Date: October 29, 2025

This week's episode is about the human computers of NASA, focussing on the main three featured in the book Hidden Figures, heading deep into NASA's history along the way! This is the fifth most voted for topic for Block 2025!This is a comedy/history podcast, the report begins at approximately 7:55 (though as always, we go off on tangents throughout the report).For all our important links: https://linktr.ee/dogoonpod Check out our other podcasts:Book Cheat: https://play.acast.com/s/book-cheatPrime Mates: https://play.acast.com/s/prime-mates/Listen Now: https://play.acast.com/s/listen-now/Who Knew It with Matt Stewart: https://play.acast.com/s/who-knew-it-with-matt-stewart/Jess Writes A Rom-Com: https://shows.acast.com/jess-writes-a-rom-comOur awesome theme song by Evan Munro-Smith and logo by Peader ThomasDo Go On acknowledges the traditional owners of the land we record on, the Wurundjeri people, in the Kulin nation. We pay our respects to elders, past and present. REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING:Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterlyhttps://www.nasa.gov/katherine-johnson/https://www.nasa.gov/history/mary-w-jackson/https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/langley/dorothy-j-vaughan/https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-story-of-nasas-real-ldquo-hidden-figures-rdquo/https://aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org/features/aircraft-production-in-world-war-ii-should-inspire-us-today/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/history-human-computers-180972202/https://www.nasa.gov/history/65-years-ago-nasa-selects-americas-first-astronauts/https://www.historyvshollywood.com/reelfaces/hidden-figures/https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/nasas-early-stand-womenhttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-35428300 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi everyone, Dave here to let you know that our 2025 Australia and New Zealand tour rolls on, and this weekend, October 31st and November 1st, we are in Canberra and Sydney. Now, Canberra was sold out for months, but the venue has moved us to a bigger room, so we've added a few last-minute tickets. After Sydney the next night, all the other shows of the two are sold out, so we've added extra shows in Perth, Brisbane, Auckland and Wellington. For details of these shows, head to our website do go onpod.com. to see you there.

Hello and welcome to another episode of Do Go On. My name is Dave Warnocky and, as always, I'm here with Matt Stewart. Oh my gosh, David is so good to be here with you. It is Block. It's Block and Jess Perkins. Oh, my God, David is so good to be here with you. It's Block! It is Block!

Sorry, I read Matt's line. Oh, sorry. from the top. Do you want, don't at least leave me this one. Are you all ready to block and roll? Yeah. I couldn't have delivered that. No, that's true, actually.

I'll do my response. Hell yeah, brother. Hell yeah, brother. Dave, do you want to explain what block is? Block is the most magical time in the do-go-on calendar where every year, I think this is the eighth one we've worked out now since the show's been going. We've been counting down the biggest, most requested topics of the year.

First, it was Blockbuster. But then we annexed November to be Blovember. So now we're doing the top nine. Of the year, Matt put together a poll of a couple hundred of the most requested topics that were whittled down through thousands of votes. And we are up to the fifth, I believe, are in the top five now most requested topic of the year. Yes, normally, you know, this being the last Wednesday of October, this would normally be the number one. But now, with November annexed, we still have four to come after today. This is actually like a celebratory, but somber time because it's the longest time between the next block and now.

But now where the most in block you can. can be right in the heart of block do you kind of feel like now if we were to go back to block just being october it would feel so empty and shit call a blip tober probably if you have blip to blip oh yeah welcome back to blip okay oh we're so what are you guys doing for blip this year oh i don't even bother i go so quickly yeah just a blip but no this this time we're right in the halfway mark it's halloween this week and this is not a spooky topic though but it is a good topic. I'm easily scared, though.

Yeah, there's... I'll find a way. Okay. This might be one of the least scary topics we've ever done. Okay, well, I think I'll find a way. Is it spooky to remind everyone that we're in Canberra and Sydney this weekend. That's spooky. Reminding, because I'm thinking of doing a Halloween special.

I'm in Canberra. Fun. Which I believe is sold out, but Sydney tickets available. Yeah. I think Canberra might have been sold out months ago. That's right. But Sydney, still not sold out. Which is spooky.

And not months ago. Yeah. And not now. That's spooky. It's spooky because now we'll probably next to go back to Canberra and not Sydney. That's spooky. The nation's capital. Never would have thought I'd be saying that.

No way. They pull their weight. They really do. Now, I mean, the venue is a lot more. Bill, let's not get bogged down in that. To get on a topic, we normally ask a question. And each episode's about a different topic. The topic reporter goes away, researches.

It brings that information back. Oh, I'm doing the report this week. My question is, and I was, like, and I do this often, I think probably, because Dave is just such a trivia nerd. But can we give Jess first dibs on this, Dave? Because you probably will know it. Fine, and just hopefully you get it. And then I can just say, I did know it even though I did it.

Well, I think Jess is a chance. I wouldn't know it. But what does NASA stand for? National. Yes. You can, in any order? Aerospace? Well, let's move to the F.

Oh. Yeah. Space. Yes. So is the other one aeronautical? Aeronautics, I'll pay it. Aeronautics, space. Association?

Academy. A bit more, a bit more boring. Oh, alleyway. Like when you've got to bogged down and something. Yeah, when you've got to, like, you've got to, like, tick off some chores on the weekend. You've got to... Administration. Yeah!

Okay, that shows how different we are, because I love a bit of admin. Yeah, I love chores. Most exciting time of your week. Administration. The woo, it's admin time. Fill it out of spreadsheet. So, yes, we're talking this week about the human computers of NASA. Oh.

Focusing in particular on the three featured in the book and film, Hidden Figures. Yeah. I've seen that film. I haven't seen it. It's a good film. I liked it. The trailer always looks really good. I watched it last night.

And I watched it after reading all about it. So I was being annoyed the whole way through. That's not what happened. That happened to a different person. I'm actually, that's completely out of order. What the heck? They've conflated multiple people here. They're nearly, like, the majority of the main characters, apart from the three women who were featured in it, a lot of the other characters are just, you know, what did you call them?

Conflations. Yeah, and were there any steely-eyed missal men or women? Yeah, well, I guess the women. Sheldon's in it. Sheldon's in it, his character's not real. Paul. He's basically, he's the embodiment of, like, you know, racist and sexist attitudes from the day. Oh, okay.

Is John Glenn in this story? John Glenn is in the story, yes, and he's real. Yes, he is real. John Glenn, what a name. That's a name you're like, that's too exciting to being made up. Played by Glenn Powell. Yeah, yeah. In that movie.

Who we've all agreed, too hot to have that name. Oh, I haven't agreed on that. Well, what do you think? Do you not watch clips that I put up if you're not in them? Yeah. No, I don't know if I watch clips at all unless I have to. That's fair. But I

You don't like to watch videos of yourself? Not really, but I I always thought I'm surprised that he's so big To me he feels like The lead in a hallmark Christmas Yeah, his eyes are two close together Would I don't know about that

Would I make out with him? Yes! I like he's hot, but he's hot in a He's, you know, working at the ranch And a high-powered attorney's come to town The car broke down And they ended up, you know, spending Christmas together

helps her see the softer side of life. Yeah. Oops, subscribe. He's that, he's that kind of actor. But he's become, somehow became a Hollywood stuff. Can I just ask, is the hallmark of a hallmark movie for you, just, someone whose eyes are too close together? Yeah.

Yes. His eyes are too close together. We were all like, huh? Huh? Yeah. Yeah, but now you won't unsee it. But I was thinking about, because Dave's dog, Humphrey's in today, and I think that's true of Humphrey as well.

His eyes are too close together. Do you think Humphrey could be in a hallmark movie? He'd kill. Oh my God His eyes They're too close together They're basically one He's a cyclops

He can Will have been killed To look like this man Yeah Yeah And by the way Look at that Oh my god

Too close together Gorgeous man I tell you what I don't know What to climb! Are they eyes too close together Then if he's gorgeous I never said eyes too close together

It was a bad thing Too close Uh huh That's That implies Matt you're looking too sexy today. Is that a bad thing?

Yeah, it's over the top. Oh, this is... I think too close together is it... That's, like, there's a strong implication that that is a negative. If David said it, you'd say nothing about it. Well, only because, you know... That's all I'm saying. Are my eyes too close together?

No, not close enough. Maybe if Glenn and I... I'd say, yeah, you're the other side. Too far about, so if Glenn and I came together, we would create the most beautiful boy ever seen. A perfect man. So, yes, but the movie really jumps into the story halfway through. So I'm going to take it back.

The book starts on earlier, and I'm working more off that and other things. Like the NASA website, quite a good resource. Resource. Now, this was only suggest why one person, Stella Peterson from Brisbane, Australia, but it was suggested in the patron group and it blew up with a lot of likes, and that's how it ended up in this poll. All right, so I'm going to go back a little ways. So before NASA was a thing called NACA.

No. N-A-C-A. Well, apparently it wasn't really pronounced N-A-C-A. It was normally pronounced N-A-C-A. But I like that the audio book of Hidden Figures does, she says knacker, which I like. It just doesn't work in our accent. NACA. Yeah, it's like your knackers.

Exactly. Oh, I was absolutely knackered last night. Oh, good-day, knackers. Yeah. You've ever been called knackers? No. Yes. Yeah, that actually tracked.

You're not a knackers, you're a little buddy. Hey, champ. Hey, chief. How are you, mate? Yeah. Good on your pal. Have you a high five? Yeah.

To go and men ask you for high fives? Yeah, yeah, yeah. NACA stands for, or stood for, the National Advisory Committee for aeronautics. This is a long time before, this is more planes than rocket ships. Yeah. When the outbreak of World War I in 1914 occurred, the US started taking aeronautics more seriously. Up until that point, they'd seen it as more of like a bit of a hobby, a bit of a folly. Oh, yeah.

Got up in your little planes. Yeah, like flying kites. Yeah, yeah, I play frisbee. Similar. Yes. We all have hobbies. Yeah, a bit of fun. But, yeah, they'd kind of been left behind a bit by some of the big European powers of the time.

According to the NASA website, or I might pronounce it NACA sometimes. I think both are acceptable. NACA. of the NACA website which was NACA or NACA or NACA But that doesn't happen for a few decades

Dave so just We're still NACA Still NACA But the website NACA didn't have a website I'm reading from the NASA website Right Could we get in and get NACA.com

I assume so I assume most websites are probably still free Awesome Anyway NASA Right several European nations saw the potential military applications of airplanes and invested heavily in aircraft, research and development in the years leading up to the war.

It was reported that at the onset of World War I, France possessed 1,400 airplanes, Germany, 1,000, Russia, 800, and the US, 23. So they really, you know, weren't putting a lot of time or effort into it. So then, NACA was established in 1915 to rectify this. It's crazy that they were the first ones to fly.

Oh, we got the Wright brothers and they went, oh, well. Well, actually, one of the Wright brothers ended up on the Nacca's board in 1920. That makes sense. Yeah. So that's the big guns. Obviously, when they decided to get into it, they went into it big. And you'll hear those, some numbers that prove that in a second. That same year, 1920, the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Lab was opened.

At first, there were just four engineers, 11 technicians and a rudimentary wind tunnel. But according to NASA, by 1925, Langley had over 100 employees in the world's first pressurized wind tunnel. Over the following years, increasingly complex tunnels were built, as were new planes for flight testing. This is huge. Basically, it's like, we're testing planes by flying them, and people are dying a lot. So this is more of a controlled thing. We can blow wind at these planes to see how they'd react. Yeah, and we can put a mattress on the floor.

Yes, exactly. fall out, good to go again. Oh, I thought it was for the plane. Yeah, yeah, the plane bounce of the dress. Close the plane falls. By 1939, America was producing 2,000 planes a year, quite a jump from the 23 that were producing 25 years earlier. Obviously, 1939, you're probably aware of this, is also the year that World War II

commenced. Though America did remain neutral, I assume, because they weren't able to get a good read on Hitler and the Nazis. I assume, I don't know. Too far away. I assume they'll probably go on like, let's see where he's. he goes with this. We're not going to jump in.

Yeah. Like, he's not going to become, you know, the poster boy for evil. No. So, yeah, I assume that's what they were thinking. Well, they put him on the cover of Time magazine. Yeah, they're like, well. We'll see. Yeah, we'll see how it goes.

But then, on the 7th of December 1941, the Empire of Japan bombed the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu, Hawaii. Is that how you say it, Papa? That's where you went, right? uh finally bringing the mighty old uncle sam into the war yeah they were like okay okay we don't mind it when you do another things but when you do it to us no no no though airplanes were first uh i mean i'm being hard on america their first sort of job i don't really know the scenario there but i think it's pretty funny to be like oh oh yeah not not sure hitler's worth fighting

America? Is that funny? It's just pretty grim. Yeah. But it also, I'm like, what do you need to get motivated? Hitler! But I guess he wasn't Hitler at the time. Exactly, you're looking at it through a modern lens where we know, you know. Hindsight, am I right?

Hindsight Hitler. So, anything? That sounds like a German word, right? Heimlich maneuver. Wasn't there like a Nazi called Heim. Heimrich Himmler? Heimler. Hindsight Himmler.

Okay. So pretend I said that. And that will make perfect sense. Yes, yes, yes. Great. So, airplanes were used in the First World War, but they were way more important in World War II. Firstly, because they were like, you know, World War I,

that was like, you know, one-on-one. Oh, that was the aces. Dog fights and that sort of stuff. World War II, they can carry multiple people and bombs and all sorts of other things. And, yeah, so this is when America, there's airplane manufacturer really boomed when they entered the war. Like I was saying, they produced 2,000 total aircraft in 1939, the year the war started.

Then according to Aerospace America, in 1942, their first full year of the war, production soared to 47,000 aircraft. Wow. Yeah. That is wild. And then the year after that, 85,000. Wow. So it just went, you know, almost like a plane taking it off.

Yeah. War's not that bad, you know? Well, yeah, no, that's what... People are always like, oh, the military-industrial complex. Yeah, gets things built. Yeah. To, you know, to kill and distract. We have heaps of really cool stuff now that we wouldn't have

if we'd never gone to war and killed each other senselessly. For example, we wouldn't have atomic weapons. And where would we be without atomic weapons? How would I've gotten to work today without atomic weapons? Yeah, I guess you probably wouldn't have, you know, songs like Atomic Dog by... Yeah. Parliament or whoever sang that.

And you wouldn't have like t-shirts with like a mushroom cloud on it. Yeah. And they look cool. They look so sick. Yeah. That's a dope t-shirt I say to those people. Yeah, that's dope. I say, whoa, dope tea, king.

And they say, thanks, Queen. And you say up top. Yeah. And we have a five little buddy. All right. So, yeah, I was saying I've listened to Margot Lee Shetterly's great book about this topic Hidden Figures. I think it's fair to say that if it wasn't for this book,

this story would be a lot less known, really brought light to it and the movie even more so. I think it was even nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. Nice. But watching it, like, straight out, I'm like, oh, this is classic Oscar bait. Period piece, America, driving an old Cadillac or some shit through the dirt road or whatever.

Yep. Old cop comes up. I'm like, oh. Here we go. All right. Who, how do I vote? That was like, it came out nine years ago. I said, oh, and they said, you're not on the academy.

me. Oh, what? Did I let my registration slip or something? No. Damn it. Not again. What do you is it? What is it?

What's the way? What's it going on? I'm not, don't tell me I'm not Stephen Spielberg anymore. What's happened? But yeah, it's a good book. I enjoyed it. It's also, it delves into a, you know, a lot of the civil rights movement of the time as well, which I'm not going to go into so much, even though it's all wrapped in together.

But I figure. We will individually keep putting up Martin Luther King as a topic for people to vote on. And one day they will let us learn about that guy. I think it's because Americans know his story so well. True. You know, a third or whatever of our audience is American. They're like, we don't need to hear Australians sort of fumble their way through one of our great figures of history. But we want to know.

We want to know. Let us learn. Yes. So I also, I found a version of the book that have been adapted for school, for school kids. I'm like, this is so good. Because basically I figure like a big part of what we do is we find big texts and then try and like summarize it down into easily digestible stuff. Unless it already done that for you. I'm like, I guess that's what, you know, when we're quoting articles on biography.com or Britannic or whatever, they've sort of done that.

But, yeah, I found this book, and it's the whole book, which I listened to was great, but it's like just the important bits, put in a slightly plainer language. It's like a slide show PowerPoint style. I'm like, this is sick. So when I'm referencing Shatterley, often it will be from that version of the book. Like in that version of the book, she writes, designing and testing planes needed millions of calculations. Langley needed mathematicians and new employees could be men or women, black or white.

They just had to be excellent at maths. I mean, this is at a time as well, the walls on, you know, a lot of white guys are away fighting. Yeah. So, like, no, we actually are really equal opportunity workplace. It's not just because a lot of the people we'd normally employ aren't here. Yeah, it's not because we need a lot of people quickly, and we've sent away a lot of people. So, like, it turns out that Hitler guy, he's pretty bad. He's not good.

We've read a little more. Yeah, we've worked out. He's trying to take over the entire. world and that's not good so we need people I guess we'll let women lurk yeah and then America came in and just sort of went all right well we're here now

you can keep fighting and it was like I will and like all right all right well shit oh shit all right well I really just honestly you are gonna save a lot of lives if you just quit now we will beat you

or Uncle Sam look at my hat Yeah. It's tall. I've got a tall hat. Just notice that, Uncle Sam, in my head. Mm-hmm. He's kind of just like a comic version, comic book version of Abraham Lincoln, isn't he? You know?

Take Abraham Lincoln and give him the secret serum. Yep. He takes a top hat and beard. I feel like it's like take Abraham Lincoln and mix it in Foghorn, leghorn. Oh. A big chicken? Oh, yeah. No, he does have a Lincoln about him.

And does he have a Foghorn and Leghorn about it? I'd say. Yeah, thanks. You're calling Uncle Sam chicken, Dave? No, I'm calling him. Oh, rooster. Ready to go. Good looking rooster.

Good looking rooster. Oh, that's a good looking rooster there. Hey? Look at him strut about this big, beautiful rooster. I'm calling him Cock of the Walk. Yeah. Hey, Uncle Sam, you big hunk. Uncle Sam, what I did?

Uncle Sam. Hey, we're having a lot of fun here today. Who's your dream man? Probably hunkle-send. You know, after the serum. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's jacked.

He's absolutely Ross. Scrawny chicken Sam. No, thank you. People go, how did they CGI? That's real. Whoa.

Yeah. You train with a guy that train the rock. So, so, yeah, Langley, I'll mention Langley a lot. That's where the whole story

basically takes place. That's the base. That's NACA. Nasser in the future. Before those Texans come in, I'll mention that briefly how it ended up in Houston. But anyway, jump in quiet now.

Oh, where's Langley? Langley. Is that Virginia? Is it in Virginia? Yes, thank you. That comes up in movies a lot too, doesn't it? Like, is NCIS based at Langley? Oh, maybe.

Or is that? Quonico. Maybe that's all one thing. Conoco, that's FBI, right? Quantico? That's fun. I know that from the X-Files. But, yeah, Virginia,

apparently Virginia and West Virginia, there's a big difference. Because one of the main characters from this, one of the main women from the movie, we'll get to her. But she was from West Virginia, and she would always say, I'm from West Virginia, not Virginia, very different. West Virginia's got the hills, the mountains. Virginia, very flat and racist. Oh, okay.

But that was back down or whatever. But apparently, I think West Virginia was part of the union or whatever, and Virginia was part of the, you know, the ones who like slavery. yeah confederacy I was yeah anyway if Americans were like I don't want to hear

Australians thumbing through I know if you don't even know the kick and I'm like yeah you know the the ones with the yeah it's tedious NCIS headquarters is located

at the Russell Knox building on Marine Corps base Quantico Virginia there you go oh so it's all in there though interesting but that I think that's the the full top top brass

right I don't know if I think the TV show seems to be Washington, D.C. Anyway, which is not that far away. Anyway, we're not from America. I'm so sorry. So, yeah, Shadley continues. So she's saying they need these calculations, they need mathematicians.

They'll take anyone. Open the doors to anyone. Just had to be excellent at maths. Great. And although... So I'm in. Although... Yeah, number one.

Who else you got? It's like, well, if we could pick others, but I guess they're all going to be on the bench. problem is, we can only count to one. That's our problem. Yeah, which is digital, ones and zeros. Yeah. She can do both of those. Although it was nearly 100 years since the end of slavery, black Americans were a long way from equality with white Americans. In southern states like Virginia, whites and blacks were segregated in all areas of life. White people didn't share schools, restaurants, toilets, buses, or even drinking water with black people. This is still shatterly.

Workplaces were segregated too. But with the war on, black workers, were in a strong position. Give us well-paid war jobs, too, they said to the government. I like a lot of this. She puts words in, like, a movement's mouth and stuff. President Roosevelt and even, like, other characters and things, like, you weren't there. How did you know this whole conversation?

And then he said, no, you shut up. And then she said, you're so beautiful when you... Tapping on her chin, she said, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, you're really painting a picture that you've made up here in this non-fiction book. I love it. I love this fictional picture in this non-fiction book. So President Roosevelt knew that they were right, she says. Teddy?

Teddy. Or the other one? FDR. Yeah. JFK. I'm going to say Teddy. Yeah, Teddy for short. Teddy, my best people call him John. Some people call him Jack.

Yes. Some people call him President Kennedy, but Jess calls him Teddy Kennedy. Which, confusingly, is another one. Oh, my God. Yes. Anyway, what's this one, FDR? Is that right? That's what this Roosevelt is, in 41?

Yeah. Anyway, 1941, he signed a new law, and from then on, supposedly, all jobs were open to anyone, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, anyone can have any job, and then anyone tries to apply for that job, and funnily enough, does not get that job, but they, they're welcome to it. By law, they can.

Still with Shetley, Langley wanted to employ black women as mathematicians, but Langley was in the state of Virginia, where, even after 1941, black and white people were not allowed to live or work together. Wow. Langley's answer was an office away from the other buildings. It was called the West Area, and in 1943, the first female black mathematicians arrived. So, yeah, there was the West area that was all black women, and there was the East area,

all white women. Technically, they're all working together. They're just segregated into different offices. Still, there's some bathrooms, the cafeteria and stuff. and in a lot of ways at the time this probably felt like a really great step yes well that's right it was huge like these these women were educated beyond where they'd been able to be educated previously yes yeah it's it's wild looking at it through a modern lens and being like fuck you know yeah but it is like it's i think it's important it's good it's good to look back

and see how far have come and how we don't want to really don't want to go back to that do we? No. Right? Yeah. Maybe even, you know, people are worried about us going too far forward. They're pulling us back. Yeah.

I'd rather keep moving forward. I'd love to hear their ideas on that. I think some of those people are still like, let's see what this Hitler guy does. I don't think he's got some good ideas. They might be saying. See, now I'm using that as a thing. Yeah. Tap in their chin.

Maybe he'll is not so bad after all. Don't don't say that. I know, I'll be taken out of context. I got me in trouble. And that's not quite what I said. You said, what you said was much worse than I still had months of memes. Years. Years of memes.

People would be enjoying that flashback. People have been with us for a while. So the position was actually called computer. Yeah. As Clive Thompson writes for the Smithsonian. I'd love to be a computer now. Just before the digital age emerged. You'd be filled with porn.

Computers were humans. I already. Was that your mind? Computers were humans, sitting at tables and doing math laboriously by hand. I'm going to go on a bit of a detour now into the idea of human computers. This is about the word from the BBC's The Vocabularist. Computer comes from the Latin putaire, which means both to think and to prune. Computer, com meaning together, also meant calculate.

English has used compute for centuries in 1660 Samuel Pepys wrote of a morning quote computing the 30 ships pay and it comes to 6,538 pounds. I wish I had the money, he said. That's funny stuff from Pepys. That's funny. I love the work of Pepys. Peppers Lapu.

A computer used to be a person who did calculations in 1731. The Edinburgh Weekly Journal advised young married women to know their husband's income and quote, Be so good a computer as to keep within it. It's like, women, be good computers, keep within the budget. Because, you know, women be shopping. Yeah, come on. I think that's what they're saying.

Hey, let's make sure we've got enough milk and bread before we're adding some skirts and panty hose. Yeah, okay. And don't go into Papa's beer fund, all right? I'm not telling you again, Jess. Sorry. Take your finger off my mouth, please. Sorry, you, Papa? You felt, well, if I'm mummy, or are you pepies?

Peppies. Mummy and pepies. This is still from BBC. It was very common for companies and government departments to advertise jobs as computers, right up to the time when the word was used for early electronic devices, and in some cases until the 1970s. Gordon-Thompson, the rise of human computers began in the early hunt for Haley's comet.

The astronomer admin Halley had predicted that the celestial body would return, and that the laws of gravity could predict precisely when, but those calculations would be too complex and brutal a task for any single astronomer. So the French mathematician, Alexis Gleu de Gleu, decided to break the work up by dividing the calculations among several people. That was honestly some of his best.

That was so good. In 1757, he sat down with two friends, the young astronomer, Geron Joseph Laloon, and Nicolairein Lapal. a clockmaker's wife with a ponchant for numbers after arduous weeks of cranking away

and then also working on the numbers I'm sure are you going to clear the mind the trio predicted that the comet's closest approach to the sun would be between March 15 and May 15 the next year that was slightly off the comet rounded the sun on March 13 two days early but it was the most accurate forecast yet and the age of human computers began

I kind of thought you were going to be like They were, almost had it. It was 42 years later. Several decades after they all died. And we go, okay, but, you know. Closest yet. Yeah, pretty good. But they were, they had it within a couple of days.

That's very impressive. But that's annoying because no one would have been ready for it. So no one's out there was a telescope. You want to be out. Yeah. Because they gave it two month. Yeah, but then they're like, oh, shit, they're at, oh, no. Well, another eight decades, whatever it is.

Yeah, so slightly interesting through line with human computers. Women have long played a prominent role. One of the trio there was a woman, which is nearly half of the three. One of a trio? Yeah. Yeah. If you have any trio, great trio, the female member, always good at maths. Yes.

And always plays the role of about half. Yeah, exactly. As in she's only putting about half the effort? Uh, no, half of the hole. I make up for a fourth person. Yeah, me and Dave a half, you're a half. Okay. And very good at maths.

I just need you to say it as well. And you're very good at maths. What's six sounds five? Sorry, Matt's talking. Thompson writes, by the 19th century, scientists and governments were beginning to collect reams of data that needed to be processed. Processed. It needed to be processed.

Procession of data. That's how I say that. And you say it beautifully. I've always said it like that. I don't even know where you're bringing it up. I agree. I love you. Processed.

Yes. So they began breaking their calculations down into tiny basic math problems and hiring gangs of people to solve them. I imagine street tufts. The work wasn't always hard, though it required precision and an ability to work for long hours. Mostly the computers were young men, though. But by the late 19th century,

some scientists realized, you're going to love this, Jess, that hiring women could reduce the cost of computation. So when the Harvard Observatory decided to process years of astronomic data, it had gathered using its telescope, but assembled one all-female team of computers. For the Scientific American, Elizabeth Howell writes, these women made discoveries still fundamental to astronomy today. For example, William Mina Fleming is best known for classifying stars based on their temperature. And Annie Jump Cannon! What a name?

What, Jump Cannon? I tell you what, I did not notice that when putting this together. Annie Jump Cannon. And is that her surname? Annie Sit. Annie Jump Cannon. Annie Roll over. Good Annie.

Good Annie. An Annie Jump Cannon, that's three words. Wow. No apostrophe. No dash. What do you call it? Hifon. So, yeah, Annie Jump Cannon developed a stellar classification system still used today.

From coolest to hottest stars, OBA, F-G-K-M. We all know that system. Of course. Despite this groundbreaking work, Thompson Wright, But they could be paid as little as less than half of what men got, which was noted by David Alan Greer, author of When Computers Were Human. This just really sounds to me like a short educational film that Troy McClure would have done. I was going to say, an episode of Doctor Who.

Yeah, well, same same. So opportunities came about, for a bit of a bummer of a reason, you could say for women as computers. Yeah, you do this for equality? No. I need to make that. And I wouldn't have even been quiet about it. No, I need to make this clear. It's just because you're cheaper. But yeah, women proved to be able to do the job pretty much as good as men.

I wonder if... If not better. Yeah, that tracks. I wonder if... Because obviously the women are getting paid significantly less because they don't have families to support. They have husbands for that. so this is just like hobby play money for them they're being selfish if they want the same but I'm wondering if and I don't know if you have this Matt but were the black women paid less than white women or roughly all the same if you don't have that's okay I just kind of I don't have it but I think I I think they got paid the same yeah at NACA yeah I think

you know it is like you were saying at the time NACA it was actually being quite progressive yeah yeah but I don't know how progressive and you wouldn't be surprised based on, you know, they had to sit in a certain spot in the cafeteria and that sort of stuff. Yeah. Because that, basically because the state they were in was like, we don't care what the federal government has done here with equality laws. We've still got segregation laws and we, that, they're the rules we stick to.

So even if they wanted to that, to do some of that stuff, which is pretty grim. Thompson continues, during World War I, the Army hired a small group of women to calculate artillery trajectories. In the 1930s, the work's progress administration began hiring its own human calculators to support engineers. Women were welcome as computers, partly because the work was viewed as dull, low status, dull and low status. Men with elite educations generally wanted no part in it.

Yeah, because, I mean, it's not like in stuff like space travel, the numbers are important. No. And like getting things precise and accurate. It's like, yeah, so what? Yeah, that's not a sexy job, you know. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you do the calculating and then we'll, we'll, we'll. do the sexy job writing reports, engineering things.

I'm going to, I'm going to design a rocket. Yeah. That is actually quite sexy. And apparently, so this is going back, we're way before rocket ships, but still planes at the time, like aeroplanes was just like magic. But yeah, so the uni-educated men didn't want any part of it. But Thompson writes, not only were women hired, but so were black people, polio survivors, Jewish people and others who were routinely iced out of job opportunities.

Ma Hicks, a historian and author of Programmed Inequality, writes that while the pre-electric computer jobs were feminized, as they were seen as rote and deskilled, but in a lot of cases, the women doing these computation jobs had to have pretty advanced math skills and math training, especially those doing very complex calculations, obviously. On top of the math skills required, they also needed immense stamina as the work they would work full day solving equations over and over. It was just like mental concentration. Yeah.

I just could, I couldn't even begin to think about doing that. Concentrating. Concentrating all day on very similar sums. And trying to keep track of where out. Yeah. Wow. In World War II, the nude, the need for computation exploded. Over 200 women were hired at the University of Pennsylvania's

more school of electrical engineering, creating artillery trajectory tables for the army. By 1994, as Greer documents, about half of all computers were women. Women in the job were so common that the language started to become more gendered. According to Thompson, one contractor of the applied mathematics panel used the term kilogirl to refer to a thousand hours of female calculation work. That would probably take a couple of killar girls. And what's the conversion between a killer girl and a killer boy? Yeah, a man-out-law.

Another astronomer apparently talked about girl years of work. How many girl years is that going to take? What are we dogs? Oh, yeah, but in girl years. You know they're always really applying lipstick. It's interesting, though, because it is like they're just talking about how many years of calculations, whereas, like, why does that have to be? How many years?

Yeah. But I guess it is probably man hours was probably, they do talk about man hours spending how long it would take to work on something. But yeah, man hours and girl years. But that's not specifically about like how long it would take a man to do. I know, it's so weird. It's a weird. But I think it's just, it comes like, comments like that are made by, you know,

back in the day or by old people still. And you kind of go, I think it's just that this is so foreign to you that, But you're imagining, okay, this is going to take this many hours of computing, and the computing is done by women. So, what? I don't know. You have to have to put a gender on it or make it different? It's like, it's okay.

It's going to take a thousand hours. That's fine. There's definitely, it seems like, there was definitely, like, men feeling emasculated by, well, if this is a women doing this, we need to sort of make it sound like it's not. not as impressive as it is or whatever. Anyway, the idea was that, for the most part, women would be computers and mathematicians or whatever all the way up until marriage.

And then obviously, you know, they'd start their home life, their real job. Pompin' out babies. Not a job, obviously. Not a job. Hardest job in the world, I'd say. You get married and then you just forget how numbers work. Yeah.

Yeah, well, you lose it. You need to worry about new numbers. Yeah. Children, yes, that's right. How many? One, two, three, four, five maybe. Yeah, you need to know how many children you have, but beyond that, no other numbers need to exist. Well, no, you've got to keep within your husband's budget.

Oh, and you've got to, like, measure things for baking. That's true. Yeah, how many girl hours will it take to bake this cake? Sean and L.J. Comrie wrote in 1944, and in 1944 Mathematical Gazette article entitled Careers for Girls, in which he declared that female computers were useful, quote, in the years before they, or many of them, graduate to married life and become experts with the housekeeping accounts.

It's graduating. 100%. Hardest job in the world. Being a wife. I could not agree more. How do you do it? Having graduated, poor boy, everything changes. That's what they don't tell you.

Oh, the change. Has this been the toughest year of your life so far? year of my life so far. See, it has wild. You woke up one morning in Vegas. Yeah. A free woman. Having a wonderful time.

Woke up the next and I said, darling, what's the household budget? I must stay within it. And he said, I don't know. I don't know. You manage the budget. Yeah, well, there you go. You slip right on the road in you.

Yeah, yeah. All right, let's get back to the story at hand. Hidden figures focus on three women and women. I said it like a New Zealander. It focuses on three women. So let me introduce. introduce them to you. Firstly, let's talk about Dorothy Vaughn, who was born, Dorothy Jean Johnson, mainly talking

about the names that ended up, you know, they're married names, they're real names. Exactly. They're forever names. Yes. Who cares about the before name? But also Dorothy Johnson, one of the other three women becomes a Johnson. So it just becomes a lot more confusing. So I'll use their first or last name, but Dorothy Vaughn was the, she's the eldest of the three

and she was the first one to get to Naka. This is from NASA's biography of her. Vaughn was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and at an early age, her family moved to Morgantown, West Virginia. After receiving her full tuition scholarship, she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics at the age of only 19 from Wilberforce University in Ohio. Wow.

So, like, these three women are all, like, geniuses, by the way. And this is a time where, you know, most people didn't get university degrees. The majority of the people who did were white men, and the numbers went down after that. Black women was a small percentage, and the majority of them would become teachers at black schools. Of course. How bizarre. Which is, like, in this book, it's like a lot, it's sort of grading for a while.

Like, yeah, it's like a black school in, you're like, it's a funny time where it is like that is, needs to be said. Shelly writes, she was then offered a place at Howard University in Washington, D.C., the top university for black students. It was bad timing for Dorothy, however, as it was 1929, the year of the Wall Street crash, and, of course, the Great Depression followed soon after. To help pay the family's bills, she didn't continue her math studies to this prestigious college. Instead, she trained to become a teacher so she could earn money faster. I think she got a job paying like two grand a year for teaching, which seems like a crazy idea now, but it probably wasn't, it was something.

Back to NASA's bio. After graduation, she became a mathematics teacher at Robert Russo-Morton High School, the African-American High School in Farmville, Virginia. Is Farmville, Virginia, one of the games you play? Farmville. And then in 1932, she married Howell. Howard Vaughn Jr.

And the couple had six children. That's obviously what she became Vaughn from there. That's how she became a math genius. She had to count six. Yeah. Yeah. That's tricky. Yeah.

So you can probably already see that Vaughn was different from the average computer. It was just crunching numbers while they waited for a man to make an honest woman of them. She was married with six kids already. And, yeah, her family needed cash. Which, there was a, you know, war had broken out, that sort of stuff. She was taking on extra jobs apart from the teaching. One of those jobs she did in the holidays, school holidays, was for the army sorting laundry. And this apparently paid better than teaching.

Wow. I mean, what you have to remember is everyone in the army wears camouflage. Yes. So it's very difficult to sort. That's right. And then you've got to find the clothes. Oh, where are there? And then you're going to be like, who's is this?

And what is it? Did a shirt? How do you match the socks? So it's a really tricky stuff Yeah, that would be really tricky Yeah Dave, I want you to know that was quite funny Thank you for not laughing

Yeah, I stared at you though, didn't I Well done holding it in Thank you Yeah, I'm working on that Because people say, Jess, your laughter It's obnoxious It's obnoxious And instead of me laughing with it

I just, I find it It immediately kills a laugh for me I hate it, I hate you Uh huh, you're the worst Yeah, this is just text messages from Matt. Yeah. Oh, you can read those. I can read.

I thought I was just putting them in my thought diary. An hitting send. I follow them under the name that of the person I'm thinking about, and I press send in another thought diary. That way, when I want to go back and look at all the horrible things I think about, so why I can just throw all there, categorize. I'm very organized. Sometimes I think it's AI, but sometimes I get replies from like, you know, AI Jess saying, why?

Please stop. Oh, my feelings. Yeah. Uh, anywho. So she's, she's working nonstop, also got six kids at home. Just, I, you know, I'm exhausted reading about it. Yeah. Wow.

Uh, Shirley rides, Dorothy never had a free moment and she never turned down a chance to put money in the bank. Even on Sundays, she earned money by playing the piano at a local church. And, like, you, that's a great loophole because back then, you can't work on Sundays because it's church day. You have to go to church. It's wild that you got paid to play piano at the church back then. Oh, if you have to pay me. Just be able to take a, take a, you get first dibs of the collection plate. Yeah, yeah, you take any of the big notes.

Take what you can carry. First dibs. I think I'm going to take the hundred. It's like, you're lucky dip it. Yeah. Oh, that really felt like a hundy. Oh, that's a dollar. That's a piece of, it's a piece of paper.

It's an I.O.U. I know you gold. Now what, now I owe gold? Oh. Will that be an I-O-G, do you reckon? Yeah, I think so. Capital G. So then in December of 1943, she saw an ad.

She was always looking for a new job opportunity. It's just a hustler, you know. Incredible. Like, I mean, other people go, I only use this little break for sleep. Yeah. She's like, I could squeeze another job into here. Yeah.

And putting all the money back into the family. Apparently, there was a line, I think it was, I think it was a Shetley saying that she didn't go to her further educate that opportunity because her sister was, they needed money for her to go to uni. So she sort of had to step aside. So, yeah, she's just putting money back into the family. And then she sees this opportunity she hears about it. It's like, Naka at Langley is accepting black women.

She's like, oh, I'll apply and she got the job. To do math. And I'm good at math. Yeah. That's me talking. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, well, you, I mean, she could have said almost something very similar. similar while tapping her chin.

NASA writes, she reported to the segregated West Area Computer Unit, which we talked about before. This group was responsible for mathematical computations for engineers conducting aeronautical experiments. Shelly writes, Dorothy had never been on a plane, but the question of flight now had her full attention. Scientists still had a lot to learn about flight. They had to come up with new ideas, do the maths, try out their ideas and be lucky. In the early days, pilots could only test new ideas by flying, which is what we talked about before. Many died, and now the NACA had wind tunnels, which offered testing without the danger. What about a third wing?

Third wing and a third mattress on the ground. The wind moving over the plane was similar to the plane moving through the air at speed. Langley built a number of wind tunnels, each testing a different part of the flight. One of the tunnels was large enough to hold a full-size plane. The wind tunnel was never exactly the same as flying through the air. of Dorothy's first jobs was to calculate the difference between the two, and this was key to the Nacca's success. The tunnels ran all night as the engineers pushed the machines for answers to their questions. Sounds like they're torturing them. Tell us everything you know.

Give me back my son. Waterboarding the planes. Then the drips noot. The drips, yeah. It's like, I'm just watching you. That's funny. Shaddeley continues, on top of their six-day-week. The new girls took a course in aerodynamics twice a week after work, plus a two-hour session in a wind tunnel and four hours homework. Their teachers were some of the best physicists in town. So they're like really learning the Prack as well. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And then they put them in the plane. Now you've got to practice flying the plane. Yeah. Now we're going to send you to space. These were the first astronauts.

They talk about how like their whole life is numbers really. So like, Heading home, the numbers are just to be swimming across their eyes, but you can imagine, yeah. Do you ever play a game on your phone so much that when you close your eyes, you can see that game? I got in a Tetris a few years ago, and that did happen. Yeah. Going to sleep. I read that it was a good thing to do before sleep to get your brain into this sort of, it's almost like a meditation. Yeah.

And then it would do do do do do do. You're solving it all night. Never missing either. No, occasionally you'd miss one. Just to, okay. Oh, yeah. Oh, solved with the next one. Perfect shape.

Otherwise, you're like, oh, flat line, flat line. Yeah. Flat line. Flat line. One. One, a full row. Full row. There's a full row.

There's a full row. It's less boring going to all the time. I cannot be stopped. So despite the segregation while working at their desks, apparently the women felt equal. You know, to them, they're outside these walls, the world's still pretty focused. in here we're doing our jobs we're being respected for it uh in the movie it made it seem like they were probably getting less respect than what the women have said since um but yeah outside the office there were still these uh there were these problems like in the cafeteria they're only

allowed to sit at one specific table same went for toilets apparently there was only one sign in the whole Langley cafeteria, and that sign read, colored computers, and that was at one table. You guys sit in this back corner. Wow. It's the only sign in the whole place. One table, there's a few of them. 20 in the west room. There wasn't another sign saying jocks or anything like that.

Yeah, nerds, goths. Everyone else could just pick their seats. AV geeks. But every teen high school move ever seen, they do a tour of the school and they point out all of the different cliques and they're all in assigned areas. Yeah, I don't think they put signs out for them though. It's sort of like, they're unwritten signs. That's even harder to remember.

Yeah, like, are you a goth or a jock? Third from the left. Is that goths? I don't know. You've got to get a read from them because not all of them you can tell like, oh, they're the ones that really good at maths, but it's like not like they, you can't look like you're good at maths unless you're in a teen movie.

Then you will have tape on your glasses, pocket protector. And you'll say something. Oh, hello. Oh, salutations, my lady. You'll say something like that. Like Dave. Hey, sorry, I was just about to recite pie to the thousands of place. The number is seven.

They do. They play on that slightly with in the movie, the Hidden Figures movie with Johnson. She's, yeah. Catherine Johnson always pushing her glasses back of it. I'm like, I'm guessing the actor went, I need a little thing to keep me in this character. or whatever.

I'm going to go with an 80s trope. Sorry, I think you'll find. There's something about the movie as well. Do you reckon Kevin Costner just feels like he's in the 1960s? Yeah. We haven't got up to his time and he's not a real person anyway, but... What? Kevin Costner's not real?

Not in this movie. He's a composite character. But there's something about his hair and his look. Yeah. That makes him just feel like he makes sense. In a 1960s NASA scenario. I do like to see, I see it a little bit on TikTok sometimes where they're like, this actor cannot be in a period movie

because they just look like they know what an iPhone is. And then there's other actors like, yeah, you can put them in the good old, in the medieval times, and it works. Yeah, you say like Jim Parsons. Yeah. He's in it and you're like, yeah, he's got a look of a guy who existed in the past. Yeah. Right. One of the nerds.

Yeah. Yeah. Is this Paul? Paul. That you hated. It's not real. Paul sucked. Fuck you, Paul.

But he comes around at the end, he gives one of the black women a coffee. And you're like, wow. Because I said it up earlier that the white guys wouldn't even drink from the same machine, coffee machine. And then at the end, he gives her a coffee. He's like, oh, my God. Wow. He just figured out she's a human being. That's crazy.

I don't know if others noticed that because I do have a bit of an eye for cinema. And it was a subtle, it was a really subtle moment. Yeah. A small motif. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And you're an empath. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So you feel so much stronger than the rest of us. I feel, yeah. Yeah, you'd read the script and go, that's a call back to earlier. Whereas I'd miss that. Through a full circle moment. Yeah, I often say to the writer, I'm like, this is nice, and I assume not intentional,

but it's a nice, you're sort of tying a bow here, which is nice. Because earlier, he wouldn't even drink that coffee. Is that intentional? Is that an accident? I'll say, I assume it's an accident, but if you really, you know, zoom in on the hand, as they're passing it over, that could really...

Slow-mo. And then have a flashback to the scene before where they weren't drinking, just to make it really clear. Drive the point home. Yeah. Oh my God, yeah. Yeah. You've been learning from me for a long time, and I think you're starting to get it.

Under your tutelage. And could you maybe have him say, sorry about before? Has the answer a coffee? Before when I wouldn't drink from the same. And then if he says something like, can you put that in the bin for me? Yes. Or he could say something like, I think of you as human now

I think that would be a nice touch just for in case anyone missed the subtlety Or he says like have a good weekend Dorothy like says her name Yeah the first time he says the name Wow

Oh my God Can he remember a colleague's name Dreambo Dave still doesn't know my name Dorothy So yeah There's this sign in the cafeteria Says Coloured Computers

And Shetterly writes The sign wasn't unusual for the time, but because people were employed at Langley for their math skills, it seemed especially unnecessary. The women pushed the sign away while they were eating, pretending it wasn't there. In the office, the women felt equal, but when they went to the cafeteria or the toilets, the signs made it clear that not everyone felt that way. One West Area computer, Miriam Man, finally decided it was too much. Miriam was not very tall, but she had a big personality. she simply put the sign in her handbag her friends laughed but they were worried for miriam and after a week a new sign appeared it quickly disappeared into miriam's bag again

sounds like my mum the sign gets slightly bigger and then so does the handbag yeah yeah i was surprised i didn't use this felt like a classic sort of comic little light moment in the movie they didn't bother put that in the movie i don't think so was it written by a proper screenwriter they put in but they invented moments instead like Like, I think at one point, Catherine's, they think she's a cleaner or something. She's like, no, I'm a computer. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, similar sort of idea.

A classic thing of like, get us a coffee, would you sweetheart? Or, like, I just build something in there. Can you fix it up? And she's, like, on the way to the bathroom or something. She's like, oh, no, I'm actually just calculating, you know, how much thrust the rocket needs to take off. Yeah. He's like, just get some Kleenex. Okay.

I don't need you hear your life story. Yeah, yeah. I just took a disgusting. and somebody else to clean it up put a bit of thrust in a bit of elbow grease I'm going to be me I make the mess I don't clean up the mess

I honestly it's a bomb sign in there all right so here's an example of shatterly creating a conversation great so she says that so Miriam's husband

finds out about the signs that she's been taking And he says, you're going to lose your job over that sign, Miriam. And Miriam replies, fine, I'll just have to find another job. Whoa. That's great, but we're not sure that actually happened. Well, it probably didn't happen, but, you know, the vibe of it happened. Well, you think a husband spoke to his wife at some point? Yeah.

Yeah, no, I'm not buying that. I haven't spoken to Eden in a year. Particularly about your work. No, God, no. Shelly writes, before the war was over, Miriam put the sign. into her handbag for the last time and no new sign appeared. It was one small victory

on the road to equality. So Langley was absolutely awash with scientists and engineers from across America and apparently the township just outside didn't know what to make of them. What's these nerdlingers?

All of a sudden now... Oh, excuse me, grosser. I was wondering if you had any fresh broccoli. But your town just becomes fuller nerds. It's really funny. I love this paragraph from Shedd Leach, she writes. The salespeople in local garages and electrical shops would hide when someone from Langley came in

because they asked impossible questions about how a new car or a new television worked. So they're like, oh shit. They know more about your products. They're going to ask a question. I have no freaking idea. Yeah. Does this car come with the fixated auto compressor? Oh!

I have to go to the bathroom. They jump out of window. And apparently locals started calling them. The knacker nuts. Nacka nuts. Here comes a knacka nut. A couple of nut on the way. Which is, that's a tautology, isn't it?

A knacker is a nut, if you think about it. Isn't it? Your knackers? Oh. Oh, sorry, with you, yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a tautology. That was too clever for me.

Yeah, me too. I forgot that knacker meant that. Well, La Trobe, right? Yeah. Yeah, you're La Trobe, you're Deacon. Deacon, Monash, so. Yeah. It makes sense.

I bow down. Yeah. It's only when a Melbourne university person in the room that I'm outranked. Yeah. That's absolutely fair. I've got a cousin who went to Melbourne. I've also got a cousin. Whoa. Oh, okay.

Well, I didn't know that. Now, if it's like poker, I went to La Trobe, but I've got a cousin. Get in the back of the line. I'm only joking. You didn't go. Listen, I know you know I'm joking. You're only joking. You didn't get him on action.

He faked his degree. I went there. I went there. Then Shetterly writes at 703 on the evening of the 15th of August, 1945, just don't know if this date rings a bell. Everyone came out onto the streets. Shopkeepers closed their doors for the day. People cried and laughed and held hands with strangers.

Bands played and children danced around cars. Churches filled and people gave thanks. What day was it? The end of World War II? That's right. Would you know what we call it? We call it something different of America, apparently. We call it VP Day.

They call it VJ Day, which is a bit of fun. Oh, is that victory over Japan Day? Which you've never seen a VJ. No, certainly not out of a day dedicated to it. I've seen a BVJ. My mouth turned into a record scratch. What? I don't know why that shocked you so much.

Matt was clearly saying before he's never seen. Never seen one. He's never seen a VJ? No. VJ Dave, very fun. Do you think that Australian politicians are like, our people can't handle this? We'll, we can't take this soon. Let's say Pacific.

So, yeah, when the war was over, many workers in America lost their jobs, Shutterly riots, which is wild. A lot of people celebrating, other people are like, oh, shit. That's not good for my career. Yeah. Two million American women, both black and white, lost their jobs before the end of August. Wow, in like two weeks. Yeah.

Wow. Many of the jobs were given to returning soldiers. For some women, the war had changed the way they saw their lives and they refused to go back to the kitchen and child care. Many husbands will return home to find strong, independent women, wrote one journalist. Oh, what a terrible thing to come home to. I don't think you meant it like that. Those poor, poor men.

But yeah, that is like, wait, what? We left the place for a few years. And what, you've survived and functioned? And thrived? Yeah. Um, but yeah, I mean, it meant there was a big clashes, culture clashes coming up. Thompson writes, after the war ended, the space race was on. And it had a ravening need for computation.

I don't think that's ever been written as a sentence by anyone else. A ravening need for computation. I feel the need. The ravening need. Oh, I must compute. Nackahires. said several hundred women as computers at its Langley base in Virginia, the historian Beverly Golemba estimated.

Nacker and NASA were relatively progressive employers, paying the young women far better than they'd get in other forms of office works. They even employed marry women with children, as we've discussed. What? Despite the West area being exclusively black computers, the section heads of the West were always white in the movie, a composite character played by... Kirst and Dunst? Kirsten Dunn, sort of.

Although, actually, when the movie starts, there's no head. And that's what, um, right. That's what Dorothy keeps talking about. It's like, how long are you leaving this vacant? Because she's kind of doing the job. She's not entitled or pay. But yeah, but... Sort of like supervising all the others.

And that was true. It did become vacant. And it was sort of after the war. I imagine some of the white women just went back to our housewives or stuff. Their partners had come back and I started to pop out. babies and whatnot. And, yeah, so the position was vacant. They didn't really bother to give anyone the job.

Even though Vaughn, who was most qualified for the job, she basically, like we said, did the role and was kind of given it temporarily. And Shatterly writes, there were no black managers at the NACA and certainly not any black women managers. Vaughn was clearly the only person for the job. But Langley was worried about upsetting white people in the town. They waited two years, and then they quietly made Dorothy head of West computing. Yeah, which was like, it's a big job, but it's so funny.

They're like, what were the people in the town saying? Why don't they even know? They run away at the side of them. Yeah, exactly. They're warning you like the plague. They don't work here. Yeah. They don't know.

The people of the town? So, yeah, I've told you a bit about Dorothy Vaughn. She's the first of our trio. Now let me tell you about Mary Jackson born Mary Winston. Nassarites Mary Jackson was born in Hampton, Virginia, and attended the all-black George P. Fennix Training School, where she graduated with honours. She graduated from Hampton Institute in 1942

with a Bachelor of Science degree in both mathematics and physical sciences. In college, she became a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, the first sorority founded by African-American women. I want to know what physical science is Oh, it's just boning Fuck, yeah This is where When I'm giving the tour of my home

That's where I point in the bed That's where I get up to my physical sciences Is where the physical science happens Yeah, call that the laboratory It's the study of non-living systems Focusing on matter and energy Oh, that's actually a bit more accurate About the bedroom

It's like non-living People just go, do you just not have a desk Just doing your homework in there? Yeah Yeah Truly, I do, I wrote most of this report sitting in my bed. We can see that from your question. That's where all the magic happens, writing reports.

Writing reports, yep. After graduation, she worked in multiple jobs, including teacher receptionist and bookkeeper. In the movie, she's played by Janelle Monet. Yes. And I'll be interested to know how accurately she is to the person because something they don't all in the movie is that she was a Girl Scout's League. or girl guides leader for 30 years. But in the movie, she's like a, she's sort of like a, more like a party animal vibe.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I can't remember. The main sort of plot point I remember of her character is that she wants to be an engineer. Yes. Which is true. Right. But you know, you know the bit in the movie where Johnson,

yeah, Johnson, who we haven't talked about yet, she asked where the toilets are and a white woman laughs and like, why would I know that? That actually happened to Mary Jackson. Oh, I see. Which I'll tell you about in a second. It kind of spurs on her story a bit. So, yeah, she was bouncing around doing a few different jobs.

And according to Shetterly, in 1944, she married Levi Jackson from Alabama. This gives a bit of an indication of the kind of character. She refused to wear an all-white floor-length dress for her wedding. Instead, she wore a short white dress with black gloves and shoes and a red rose. Fuck, yeah. Sounds cool. Then after the birth of their son, she took a job at NACA in 1951,

working in the segregated West area under none other but supervisor Dorothy Vaughn. Cool. Shetterly writes, one morning in 1953, Dorothy sent Mary over to do a job on the east side, working next to several white computers. Later that day, Mary asked a white computer, could you tell me where the toilet is? and the white girl looked at her friends and they laughed rudely. And then, of course, we get a bit of the conversation here. Why would we know where the coloured toilets is?

The white woman said, and Mary left the office angrily. Later that day, still angry, she met Kaz Chanensky, who's, I think he's played in the movie or a version of him. So she bumps into this guy on the way back. And he'd worked at Langley since 1939 after getting a degree in aeronautics from Alabama. a university. Apparently, you know, I'll say how she's going. And shatterly writes, black women usually hid their anger from white men. They put on a face to protect themselves and their jobs, but Mary couldn't hold back. She told Kaz all about the women on the east side. Caz listened and

replied, why don't you come and work with the engineers, he said. And she did. She got this gig working with him. In the movie, the guy's like, you know, she's like, can I, can I? You know, she's got a bit of self-doubt. And he's like, you know, I'm a, I'm a Jewish guy and my parents died in the concentration camps. I'm not really, I'm not the kind of guy who is going to be, like, looking through colored, you're racist glasses or whatever. Yeah. But I don't know how accurate that was. Or if he, was that, well, he seemed to be.

Do you have the same name? Uh, I can't remember. But that he seemed to be very encouraging of her. Yes. And I think that was true that he was a bit of a mentor for her. Right. And she actually became an engineer I wasn't working just

She starts working with him And that's the goal I mean I could spoil it for if you like That's the goal Sounds good Sounds good I'd hate for you to be heartbroken this early I'll say that for later

Oh they call him Carl Zelensky in this Right Yeah so it's But it seems like they've gone It's basically him We've tweaked a few things I guess Because some of it I read that yeah

Some of the characters They just weren't able to get their life rights from So that's why they have to make up characters which is an interesting idea. You say wild that they can be like, we can either get your life rights or make a name that sounds pretty similar, like Dean Warner. It's like Ricky Ponting cricket.

Close enough. Remember that? Where it was all just off versions of the Australian cricket team names. Really? Ricky Ponting was there. He was there. He sold his rights. And then everyone else was like, you know, G. Longer,

instead of J. Langer and so that. G. Longer. hathew maiden yeah which is a great name for a cricketer if he was a bowler anyway um so yeah cas asked mary to join his group which ran a supersonic wind tunnel and suggested that she take the langley engineer training program this happens in the film the problem was the classes took place at the whites only hampton high school mary could get a job as a cleaner at the high school

but she couldn't go through the door as an engineering student. NASA rides never one to flinch in the face of a challenge. She requested and received permission to attend the classes. She completed the courses, earned the promotion, and in 1958 became NASA's first African American female engineer. Oh my gosh, she did it. She did it. I mean, that must have been pretty difficult to walk in there probably the first days anyway.

I imagine people didn't make it that easy for it. There's so many scenarios through this. whole story where it's just like, well, that would have been difficult. And it's just head hell hard. And these people are just pushed through. Amazing. Yeah. The first hurdle, I just go, I don't worry about it.

Oh, sorry about that. Yeah, totally. I know I think so many people would. I'll go home. You didn't know with the toilet's half? I'll just shit myself. That's fine. You don't know.

Yeah, why would you? I'm going to go shit myself at a corner. See you later. See you later. See you later. See you lunch. Don't see next to me. I'm smelling shit.

Because I've already started. Oh, he wants to next me anyway, because I have to sit in the corner of it. Yeah, no worries. NASA continues. Her engineering speciality was the extremely complex field of boundary layer effects on aerospace vehicle configurations at supersonic speeds. That same year, she co-authored her first report, effects of nose angle and mark number on transition on cones at supersonic speeds.

No further questions, please. Oh, my gosh. Matt, I have one. Okay. The fuck was that? He's so cute. No, no. Yeah, flying a little over my head.

Nearly all those words. If people understand any of that, I can read that report and go, oh yeah, I see. I'm like, what the hell? Yeah. Yeah, so she's writing reports. Awesome. Now, it's another thing that I do in the movie a bit,

and I don't know how accurate that was, but the next character, the final of the three, Catherine Johnson were about to talk about, who was born Catherine Coleman. Yeah, she keeps trying to, she's doing, like, the bulk of the work on these reports with Paul.

And she's writing Paul and me. Yep. And he gets the report, having done very little, you know, at least as the movie shows it, and he always rips off the cover page. Computers don't write reports.

kept saying that. She's like, it's crazy because I've written the fucking report. Yeah. That's crazy. Oh, okay. Oh, yeah. Oh, I'll leave it to you then. So, yes.

Paul. There's a, but don't worry, did she get a coffee at the end as well? Yeah, well, she's the one who gets the coffee. Okay, that's good. That's good then. So everything's okay. Yeah. Yeah.

I love Paul. I love you, Paul. I think Paul gets it now. Oh my God, Paul's actually the best character in the whole thing. Yeah. And the whole time, I'm just like, it's, It's not even like Sheldon at all. Is he the hidden figure that the movie is referring to at the time?

Yes. Because they have this show. He seems like an horrible racist, but at the end, he shows his softer side by giving a coffee. And then, because the whole movie, like 95% of it, it's just a tight shot on his face. And then they show you his figure at the end. And you go, whoa. Oh, my God. But what do they hit that?

Too erotic. He's nude. And, like, if you haven't said it, we're talking about. Like, his character is clearly, like, very bigoted and whatever. But he's not, like, he's not yelling out slurs and stuff. He's just cold-shouldering her, making things difficult at every turn. Yeah, yeah. You know, the insidious sort of, yeah, exactly.

Really just kind of like, the fuck are you doing here, but she is actually very good. Yeah, and proves it over and over again. Exactly right. Like, she does this big, she really goodwill huntings it on the blackboard. Something they couldn't figure out. Who did this? And then he tries to get her in trouble because she knew some stuff that had been redacted.

I don't know if this is true either. It's a bit of a fun thing from the movie. And Kevin Costa's like, wait, how did you figure this out without all the information? Like some of that was redacted. And she's like, well, I figured it out. You know, I knew enough that I could figure out the rest. And then they kept going back and forth.

He's like, wait, there's no way you could have known this. So how did you know this? And she's like, oh, I just held the report up to the lot. And you could see through the black. text over that. And then like one of the lackey guys who hardly has a line on he walks out of the room last little light moment holds up to the light before walking out of the shot.

Bit of fun. Bit of fun. I'm like, they were like, we obviously needed a little lightness here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Quite literally. If you're ever, next time you're on a plane, it's a good plane movie. It's a just good movie. But I think I watched it on a plane. You're right. You always remember your first. My first plane trip. Your first hidden figures viewing on your first plane. That's right. It's a big day for me.

All right. So Shatterley actually wrote this bio on the NASA website. World's Colliding. This is about Catherine Johnson, me, Catherine Coleman. Although she's also Catherine Gerbil at one point, but, you know, whatever. Catherine. Catherine. So Catherine was born in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia in 1918, and her intense curiosity and brilliance with numbers has vaulted her head several grades at school.

In the film, the South All starts out. She's a child prodigy. That's right. She just sees numbers and shapes and everything. She makes them dance. Whoa. By 13, she was attending the high school on the campus of historically black West Virginia State College.

At 18, she enrolled in the college itself, where she made quick work of the school's math curriculum and found a mentor and math professor W.W. Sheffelin Claytor, the third African American to earn a PhD in mathematics. Wow.

She graduated with highest honours in 1937 and took a job teaching at a black public school in Virginia. This is like, say, every, like, the schools are all noted as being black or what. Yeah. Or at least being black. Mm-hmm. Yeah. When, because apparently at, like, Langley, the tallest had no signs on them.

They were for white people. Oh, right. That's the, quote-unquote default. Exactly right, yeah. Oh. I know. It's yuck, isn't it? Uh, when, well, don't worry, the fictitious, uh, Kevin Costner eventually takes a, uh, a, uh,

like a sledgehammer, no, a, yeah, a hammer of some kind. And he just takes it down. Catherine has to keep running to the other side of the fucking, which wasn't, that one, that's not based on truth. No, I think, oh, this is the one clip I've seen at that side of the trailer online. She's gone for several minutes, or ages, because she has to run so far to get to the one, and he's like, where the hell were you late or whatever, and then she tells him the truth. He tells him, and then he goes and smashes the sign.

Yeah, and she really, she fires up, which I don't think she would have done. Like, yeah, she seems like she was more, oh, everything's great. Yeah, yeah. She seems real chill, but, and I don't think she had to run across the courtyard to go to the bathroom in real life, I don't think. But it's a great part of the film. Yeah, you know, it's a movie. They're not real. But, you know, the heart of the story.

It's based on real. The heart of the story's up there. Yeah. Oh, it's there. There's just no Paul. There's no Paul. There's no Kevin Costa. So, she graduated with highest honours in 1937 and took a job teaching at a black public school in Virginia.

When West Virginia decided to quietly integrate its graduate schools in 1939, West Virginia State's president, Dr. John W. Davis, selected her and two men to be the first black students offered spots at the state's flagship school, West Virginia University, which obviously this is another one of the main three walking into an all-white scenario where the locals don't necessarily want that to be happening. Although this is West Virginia, which I think was maybe slightly more ahead of the time than Virginia. I mean, to the point that West Virginia actually changed the rules, I think Virginia might have had to have that more forced upon it. Was it Virginia?

There was some, one of those states had, was blocking black kids from going to the school. So like the federal government sent in army to let them be escorted in and they're having things piffed at them and stuff. Awful. Waffle. Yeah, some people want to go back to that. I'm not one of them. Me either.

Me either Just awful Awful stuff Dave Too slow Me either Not me Seriously She's hopefully

AJ had to sound that gap For a while We had to We had to stare at it Right I think he's zoned out for a bit Let the video show That I was zoned out

For a second But I snapped in Snapped in pretty quick smart Please AJ Uh Shatterley Continues So she gets into this

school, but after the first term, semester or whatever, she decided to leave school to start a family with her husband, James Goebel. She returned to teaching when her three daughters got older, but it wasn't until 1952 that a relative told her about open positions at the all-black West Area Computing section at the NACA Langley Lab, which of course was headed by fellow West Virginia and Dorothy Vaughn. Catherine and her husband moved the family to Newport News, Virginia. So it's such an interesting name for a town. Assume it was started as a newspaper?

Newport News. And there she started work at Langley in 1953. And within two weeks, she'd impressed so much that her temporary role had become permanent. She was like, she's kind of the star of the movie. She's just math genius. She's seen numbers. She's making them dance. She felt entirely at home.

She hadn't really right. She couldn't believe that. someone was paying her to do maths, the thing that came most naturally to her in the world. And Catherine Johnson, tie in with the idea of calling her Kjo. Carjo? Just got it, Catherine, I reckon.

Catherine, I don't like Carjo. Hmm. I think Carjo's good. Okay. Catherine. Dave also really quiet on that one. I'd probably say Kjo if I had to pick one. Or Catherine.

I'll go to Catherine for now. Let's see how we go. You can call her Kajor if you want. So she was just as brilliant as she'd been throughout her life with maths work at NACA. This is Kajo. Kjo, that's right. Shadilly writes, the skies were becoming more and more crowded with aircraft and safety was a growing problem. A small plane had fallen out of the sky and crashed and Catherine's first job was to work out why.

She spent months checking the maths to understand the final movements of the plane. She discovered that a much larger plane had passed through the same place half an hour before, leaving a path of rough air behind it. Half an hour, wow, that's incredible. Rough air. Yes. What is this? The ocean?

What's it like up there? Oh, I don't like it. When the small plane... Is that what turbulence is? A bit of rough air? Well, in this case, that's what it was. Oh, the other plane farted and now I'm feeling anxious on a plane. Oh, the big plane farted.

Now I'm in the small plane, snuffing it up. I'm scared. So that, and that's what happened. Half an hour later, the smaller plane goes through. It's rough air. the pilot loses control and stacks crashes. And apparently nobody knew until then that it took so long for the air to return to normal.

No, I knew till then, and we didn't know till now. No, half an hour. I would have said like if it's within a couple of minutes maybe, but surely it just sort of settles down. Imagine a fart wafting for that long. Wow. I don't know why I can only think about it in farts. So I think about butterfly wings flapping.

Yeah, so her work led to changes in air traffic rules from now on the time and space between flight paths was more carefully calculated. In the 1950s, electronic computers arrived. These are like non-human computers. It's hard to get your head around, but that's a wacky sort of new thing. What do you mean? Like they'd use like a machine instead of a person? Yeah.

Do you mean a calculator? Sort of. Yeah, sort of. If that helps you understand it, it's like a. Like a calculator. Oh. Okay. That helps me.

Can you write boobies on it? Yes. Great. You can see boobies on it. What? Really? Um, I guess. I can't.

So they're all blurred out. Um, even the numbers, the numbers 8-0-085, blurry to me. Wow. Can't see those numbers. Um, so yeah, these computers arrived, they were huge. IBM computers. Size of a room. Very funny scene in the movie.

Very funny stuff. thought to measure the size of the thing, they had to smash the door bigger. Couldn't frit it in. That's funny. Is that Kevin Costa again? Kevin Costa again, yeah. My God, does he just walk everywhere with a sledgehammer? I think it was a crowbar the other one.

This one was a sledgehammer. But he's destructive man. Yeah, he's very destructive and he's also like apparently in charge of everything. Yeah. Well, he's an amalgamation of everyone. He's the builder. He's the salesman. Yeah.

The candlestick maker. computers are coming in and you know that they sort of saw that coming and like Vaughn saw that coming Dorothy Vaughan and she just started learning computing it's like well you know that's the future that's really smart and like in the movie and probably I suppose in truth she was sort of like well if these come in and replace the need for us then I'm going to be across how to use this machine so that, you know, I can keep a job. Very smart. We should do that.

We should do that. Do what? Learn. Learn a skill. You know, AI podcasting or something. We should do AI podcasting? No, we should learn that. We should learn that.

We should learn AI podcasting. Oh. Doing the AI. Yeah. That's good. So, like, we could just sit in a room and talk for like an hour and a half, two hours. Yeah. And put that out as a podcast.

Yeah. Oh, that's good. He's so down again. Yeah. It's like a conversation. Not me. Shock or not. What did you say?

He's just like your eyes glow. He's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. Sadly, in 1958, Catherine, Kjo, as Dave and I call her. Yeah, we're trying to make that happen. Catherine. Her husband, Jimmy, died suddenly. He had, like, a tumour at the base of his brain. It was inoperable.

Real brutal. But she forged on with her work, even though she was now a single month. mother. You know, I think just... They're like four kids or something, don't they? I think it's three kids. Yeah, I wanted to throw in an extra hurdle. Yeah.

She hadn't, you know, hadn't jumped enough. Yeah. It's been a smooth run. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. She's like, not enough barriers. Yes, yes, yes, yes.

To my success. Uh-huh. Haven't had to prove myself enough. No. Yeah. I'd like to throw another challenge in there. Yeah. So, we're entering the space age.

What? Yeah. Like now, like... Oh, no, we're already... Oh, yeah, but you've been in the report. I thought you were just, like, talk about something new that's happening in the world. No, remember right at the beginning, hours ago, I asked you what does nasa, or NASA, as some people pronounce it, stand for? Right.

And that's what we're, you were thinking, oh, it's going to be all about space, but so far it's really been about, mainly planes. Yeah. Within, you know, like, inner space, I guess. Yeah. Is that what we're in? I guess where... Is outer space where in inner space? Are we in space?

Are we in space? because then it's outer space. So are we space? Oh, that's a good point. Sort of like we're in a suburbs of Melbourne now. Yes. So we're in a, so the city is Melbourne or space. Yeah.

And we're sort of like, what are we around in the stratosphere here? What are we like, mercury or something? And then you get to, what, Balan? Yeah. I guess that's sort of right on the edge of Colzmos. That's probably like Uranus or something. Yeah, I guess so. I guess.

I guess. Like if you think about like that. I was seeing a Wallen anyway, but yeah, Balan. Sorry. Bland's out of Melbourne. Wollan, Wollan. Wollan. Oh, sorry about that. In a space, outer space, okay.

So they should have called it the outer space race. Yeah, because we're already in space. Technically speaking. And I think we can say that with some authority. We're scientists. Are we? In some way. Yeah.

Kind of like, you know, in high school I did technically do a science in V.C. because I did psychology. Did you ever host with Dr. Carl? No. No. Honestly, I love Dr. Carl. I got to meet him. He's a delight.

But that segment is just a logistical pain in the ass. A lot of buttons to push. I'm glad I never got to do it, you know? But he would have called you Dr. Jess. I know. How exciting would that have been. That would have been really exciting. Got to see whatever crazy shirt he was wearing that day.

Oh, my God. The man wears a shirt like no other. I did call in an ask a car. question one time well you would have got a dr jess then i believe i probably did do you remember your question yeah it was about how a migraine medication i was on at the time made um soft drinks taste weird and kind of flat like i couldn't couldn't get that good crisp of a of a of a fizzy drink and did he did he answer or did he blow you off he answered it and i forgot the answer he said i've got to go to the toilet next caller okay hang on a second are you taking the next call in the toilet

Dr. Carl, you can't take the microphone into the toilet. That's weird. Well, he probably could. He could. He's Dr. Carl. We've worked out a system, a radio wireless system, just built one. He's got a headset on. Yeah, in the John.

Oh, the dream. So, I'm taking it a year back before Jimmy passed. On the 4th of October, 1957, the USSR launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial Earth satellite. Shatterley writes, when Radio Moscow announced its launch, President Eisenhower, try to pretend it was nothing. Say, it's a small ball in the air. Who cares? Did you really say that?

Yeah. It's a small ball. That's a small ball. Whatever. I'm going to the toilet. Yon. And he starts juggling. Look, I've got two balls in the air right now.

Easy. Give me a third. Yeah. Juggling's not as easy as people think it is. No, as in how I made a full of himself that day. He thought he could try and just get it the first time. Yeah, he's like, how hard could it be? Clowns can do it.

I'm the president. The shatterly continued. She's not the president of clowns. The American people disagreed. And I like this, like we're talking about. Shatterly will put words in a people's mouth. Yes. She'll put words in a conversation she couldn't have been there for.

She'll imagine that. But she'll also, you know, just she said, America disagreed, saying together, it's a technological, it's a technological Pearl Harbor, they said. The Soviets were first in a space. And the space race had begun. The whole nation said that. The whole nation.

All together in units and it was actually quite spooky. It was a hive mind sort of thing. I reckon no one has ever said those words out there before you just did. It's a technological Pearl Harbor. I've said it now. Let's all say together. It's a technological Pearl Harbor, they said. That's what happened.

Everyone's eyes kind of glazed over. It was terrifying. Yeah, that's what I mean. That was more in sync than I thought we could do. What do you mean? I think we're very in sync. Anyone, not just us. You know what I mean?

Anyone. You thought... I thought, I reckon we harmonised better to boys to men themselves. Couldn't think of a better harmonise. I was one of their worst songs. It's a technological bra. Did I tell you when I was a kid? Santa gave me boys to men too.

Uh-huh. And my uncle at the Christmas party, Bramley Christmas party, asked me what I got for Christmas. And I said, oh, I got the CD, Boys to Men 2. And he goes, oh, any songs on it, I'd know? And I go, um, and so I was like, you know, I was like six or something. So it's funny to think backer of like... Okay, so if you were six, it was a tape.

Yeah, it was a tape. It was probably one of those things with a big horn, you know. Yes, a... A grammar phone. Gramophone. I got a grammar phone. You know, like one of those old cylinders. Yeah, I got a cylinder.

Yeah. But he goes, oh, any songs you know? And I go, um... Oh, I'll make love to you, uh, down on bended knee. And he said, that sounds difficult. I'll make love to you down on bender knee. Two songs. He turned that into a bit that I only got many years later.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I had no idea what those words meant. That sounds difficult. He's like, okay, I have to go now. He's going on a swing. Do you imagine being another adult over hearing him say that to a six-year-old and be like, dude? Shut the fuck up. That sounds difficult, high-fiving other else around him.

Yeah, that is awesome. I'll be like, he has no idea. That little virgin, look at him. No idea. That little virgin. Little freak! Okay, so space race has become, and Langley became the epicenter for America's tilt at the space race,

and while Johnson, Catherine, wanted to be in the room with the engineers, she was flatly refused. Of course. She's like, so the women were seen as the computers. Yeah. The men were the engine. years.

Shatterly writes, men did the thinking. Women did the calculations. Men did the orders. Women took the notes. But Catherine wanted more than that. Catherine showed every day that women were equal to men, and she was probably the best mathematician in the room. And again, I love her when she's put together a little script here.

This is how she saw it going down. I think she's condensed it. This would have happened over a lot of time, but she's condensed it in a one back and forth Love that. Is there still, like, a character playing all of America in this? No, it's just, this is, well, no, it actually is a hive mind of the engineers. Okay, Dave and I will play The Engineers. Okay, so it might be like, you know, 30 of you.

Great. Great. So you two can play 15 inch. Easy. And I'll play Catherine. Great. Why can't I go to, so this is in the school version of the book, by the way. I'm sure, I think the adult version of the book was longer than this.

I know, but, you know. A bit more profanity. And it's good that there was something that you. you could comprehend. Yes. Why can't I go to the meetings? She asked the engineers. The engineers replied,

Girls don't go to the meetings. Girls don't go to the meetings. Said the engineers. Is there a law against it, she asked? It's not personal, they said. It's not personal, they said. It's just the way we do things. It's just the way we do things.

It's always been like that. It's always been like that. Why can't I go to the meetings? asked again. I'm afraid we already answer that question. No, no, no. You really flip on a dime here. You say, great. Okay. Okay, sorry. Ask again. Ask again. Ask again. Why can't I go to the meeting? She asked again. Okay. They finally said, you can go. You can go. Now Catherine was part of the space program. Yeah, I reckon in the adult version, that went a bit longer. I think you might be good instincts there

that that probably was over quite a span of time not one conversation where she went Why can't I go? They said, it's always been that way And then she went, why? They went, okay. Then, uh, good call. Good call.

I'm bored. Nobody's doing any computing if you'll steady here chatting at me. Honestly, the meeting, you'll find they're also really boring. So come on in. Well, honestly, we're trying to save you a lot of time and effort.

In the movie though, So the first meeting she goes into, Paul, the guy from Big Bang Theory, he did not want her in there. Kevin Costa's like, well, who cares? If you give her in, bring her in, whatever. And then Math's question comes up and Kevin Costner goes, Paul. And Paul's like, and Costner goes, Johnson? And she's like, cracks the knuckles, goes up to the blackboard, bangs it out. butta bing,

but a bang. She's like 17 sits back down. Yeah. That's how many people are in this room. I think Paul couldn't do that. One, two, fuck, stop moving. And that astronaut was in the room in that scene.

John Glenn. John Glenn. Hold on. Honestly, man with two first names, can you trust it? John Glenn played by. Glenn Powell. John Glenn Power is a really confusing thing.

Yes, it is. John Glenn Power. John Glenn Power. John Glenn Power. In May of 1958, the West Area office was closed with the electronic computers kind of taken over a lot of the work they could do. They were a lot faster. Still made mistakes, probably made more mistakes than the humans.

But, you know, they were improving all the time. And they were only the size of a room. Yeah. So pretty compact. And people are like the size of two rooms. Yeah. If you have two rooms worth of people. You know what I mean?

Yeah. Yeah, then in October of 58, the government consolidated, that's the American government. You might have been thinking, why is the Australian government getting involved here? Guys, back off. Yeah, this isn't really your purview. I say that as an Australian. Yeah. Back off.

Yeah. But it's an American government. Yeah, American government. I should have said that. I know whenever you hear anything, like the national asser, you're thinking, Australian? Yeah. I think the first A is Australian. Yeah, I guess so.

The national Australian. Space. Space. Administration. I hear CIA, I think, Central Intelligence, Australia. Yeah. Yeah. We do have a bit of a, you know, like an issue where we center ourselves a whole lot.

But that, hey, we're working on it. Yeah, the first step is acknowledging it. There you go. So, thank you for clarifying it's the American government. I obviously care less now, but I'll still listen. Yeah. Oh, America is a country in North America. Technically, if you say the whole thing, it's the United States of America.

And that's referring to the fact that it's made up of states that came together to form... Like a united... A united country. They federated. Sort of like Australia did. Australia? When the colonies of Australia... Yes.

Federated in 1900. 901. Oh, did America say, yes, do that and they thought we should do it. America did a version of that. After. Yeah, I think they were inspired us. They did it before us. But I think, you know, they're inspired by what they could see.

As they could see the direction we were heading. Yeah. They'd just pipped us. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. I think that lines up. So this is the US government.

This is the US government. Okay. And they consolidated all their space operations into one umbrella, known as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Or perhaps you'd know it better as NASA. What? Yeah. Big reveal. What?

Oh, like the question you asked at the start. That is so clever. So Naka became Natha. Wow. And what happened to Naka? Naka got knackered. And not just the balls were cut off, all of it. They don't do planes anymore?

No, they're gone, I think. I think it's sort of just evolved into that. They were like, no one's doing places. It was all about rockets. I haven't seen planes in America. When I was traveling there last year, they were all rocket ships. Yeah, we traveled exclusively via rocket ship.

Yeah, all the suburbs were on the moon. No, no, you just go up and then back down. Yeah. They call it Denver, but I'm pretty sure that's just in the sea of tranquility. Yeah. Oh, it's a hub, is it? Oh, yeah. On the moon.

Oh, yeah. Great. Well, I guess we'll stop over there if it'll save us $50. $1.30? I'll put a B on dollars there. Ah, yes. The satellite rights, so this is, they've all been, it's NASA's here, and it's satellite rights, the NASA scientists and engineers,

we're no longer knack-a-nuts, now, remember the locals called them, macanuts. I guess they would now call them NASA-nuts, but no, now they were the leaders of the space age. We're getting respect. Okay, finally. America was behind and they're like, come on, boys. Yeah, because remember they saw the Sputnikers, the technological Pearl Harbor. Yes, well, they honestly, like.

The whole country. I think a lot of America was like, oh, shit, are we not world leading this? I thought we were going to be putting the balls in space. Yeah. Yeah. We're the world champions of everything. Yeah. Why do we call this thing NACA if we can't put a ball in space?

NACA is a term for a ball. Yep. Is that right? I don't know. I don't have balls. And you don't know what you can't feel in your pants. That's right. Yeah.

Bit of work for AJ I feel this week. Can we all feel a little silly? Yeah. We've come in silly. So, yeah, they're no longer the knack-a-nuts, according to Shaddeley. Now they're the leaders of the space age. And Catherine's office became the space task group, the STG. In the film, this is where she moves into Kostner's office.

Oh, yeah. But, yeah, as we know, it's all amalgamations, and it's movie-making. Yeah, you know, it's not a documentary. We also know that documentaries, you know, They're all put together by a person with an idea and a storyline. Yeah. You know what I mean? Totally.

If you weren't there in the room, don't trust anything. Yeah. Man never landed on the moon. Yes. Fuel can't melt steel beams. I think the saints have won many more premierships than is on the public record. That's right. Even though I've been at three grand final losses.

I saw those with my own own, but I didn't see other ones with my own eyes. How could you? Grand finals we weren't even in. I didn't see them. Maybe we were there. And then in posts, they painted on other teams' colours. You know what I mean? Yeah, absolutely I know what you mean.

I think this goes at the top. Of which government? Oh, I think Lizard. Lizard government, got it. Yeah, the big one. Yeah. What are they called again, Dave? Your guys?

My guys. The real world leaders. Oh, new world order. The W stands for Warnocky. The new water queue order. I just have a lot more money than I do, I think. Jess has had a sip, it did it. A very bad time.

Oh, really, you haven't swallowed that yet. It wasn't a sip. It was like a really big mouthful, too. Oh. You son of a bitch. You son of a gun. So the plan, the new plan here, Space Age, America. NASA, we're going to orbit the Earth, and we're going to figure out if humans can live in space,

and we're also going to figure out if they can come back again and still keep living on Earth, and we're also going to figure out if we're going to bring the space back, space craft back, and we're going to call the project, Project Mercury. Ooh. Named after the god. Really? Yeah, because it's not Freddy. Oh, he's a god to me.

I don't think Freddie had really made his mind. Mark, yeah? Oh, well. Some of us got on early. Yeah. But don't you think the planet had made its mark? So, you know, you're going, oh, we're naming after the God. If it's a space thing.

Yeah. And you're naming after a planet. People are thinking of the planet. Yeah. I would have bet my life on that. But I did. But was the planet named after the God? Yes.

What came first? Oh, my God. God. Yeah, that's quite clear. Really? Yeah. I'd waited that that planet's quite old. True.

Oh. Yes, that's true. Ooh. And it, you know, its parents would have named it pretty soon. Sometimes I'll wait a few days if they really need to think it over. Yeah, they're still settling on the details. They're like, oh, we've got to figure out his personality.

We've got to yell it out of the park. That's what happens. Oh, that's a mercury. Here, Mercury. Merkey. Merkey. That's nice. Oh, Yuri.

Oh, Yuri Geller. That's nice. Yuri Gagarin. Gagarin, that's who I was thinking of. Uri Geller. Uri Gala spent spoons. Uriga Garan is about to be mentioned. Oh.

In a little bit. So NASA was a lot more demanding than NACA, the old 9 to 5 made way for much longer hours, apparently... 10 to 6. Even longer. 6 to 9? Nice. No, but it was more like, you know, they're leaving at 10 or so.

Oh. Which is funny again, and I should stop referring to this movie that is only based on the true story, but they're like, Kevin Costa's like, If you're not now willing to work into the night after the USSR sort of got the jump on him, he's like, I'll say thank you for your work. Basically, you can't work here anymore unless you're going to work longer hours for the same pay. But I reckon that's a bit dumb because surely it's, you know, some people can stay,

but surely it's better to have more people working on it for a good chunk of the day. And then some have to leave, but others can stay on. Yeah, it was an interesting tactic. Yeah. I think no, I think everyone took it on. Well, look, because they're men. But then the interesting thing was, Jess, I don't know if you watched a while ago. Yeah.

But the rest of the movie is a lot of Kevin Costner and Catherine Johnson buy themselves at night time in the office. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did anyone actually, I'm like, obviously, maybe the real thing, they all work longer hours, but in Hollywood, it's expensive to pay all those extras all that time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the Big Bang Theory go, you know, it doesn't come cheap. He was probably still, was he still filming with Big Bang Theory during the evenings? Probably, I guess so. He had to go.

Yeah. That's true. I've got to go be Sheldon or whatever. Yes. Is that him? Yeah. Oh, yeah. And then he was like, I think they de-aged him and he played Little Sheldon.

God, he's a great actor. He's a great actor. Yeah, same actor. Not a lot of people don't know that. They shrunk him as well. Yeah, it's very impressive. It was around this time as well, things heating up, that Catherine, I think a couple years after her husband, uh, Jim died.

She met a man named Jim, uh, Johnson. And they soon. Marion, that's why she's known to history is Catherine Johnson. At least she doesn't have to change the gym tattoo she had. Yeah, that's true. Oh my gosh. Yeah, which was a pretty fun pun, Jim Junkie, spelled J-I-N. Oh, that's good.

And I'm like, Catherine. This is only backing that up. Yeah, that's fantastic. She's addicted to gyms. Go get enough. Go get enough of these guys. Oh, yeah. And yeah, he was a tall, handsome army returning soldier.

Oh, I'd like a gym. Oh, yeah, sign me up. And apparently in the book, she says that the priest, apparently, or the reverend or whatever, is like, oh, it's returning man, Jim Johnson, and yeah, ladies, he's available. Oh, wow. And apparently they dated very soon afterwards, but it's so weird that your reverend's wingmaning you like that. But when you're as hot as Jim.

Yeah. I mean, did he need it? Yeah. Ladies, just to save your little time, I know you're all about to ask me afterwards, so I'll tell you all right now, uh yeah. Uh yeah. He's unattached. Okay.

Okay. So, uh, form a line, ladies. Behind me. I call dips. Uh, Project Mercury needed someone to fly the space craft, obviously. You know, they wanted to test if humans could go out and come back. They needed people for that role. Uh, so they put together a process in place to select a team that ended up being whittled down

to just seven who are known as the Mercurricular. Mercury 7. Let's see if we could qualify. Here are eight of the stipulations. Mercury 7 now, this is named after the god as well. All right. So, say out once you're out. Less than 40 years old, out. In. In. That's true, canonically and in real life for you. Yeah. Well, and truly both ways. One more than the other. So we're still in. Yes. Less than five feet, 11 inches or 1.8 meters. Out again.

In, baby. He, 170. 1170. Well, I've found out recently, slightly less than that. I'm like two centimetres over. Oh, no, I'm so tall and old. Shut up. But back then, I would have been under 40.

True. Oh, no, I wouldn't have been. No, you wouldn't have. Can I just say? Certainly the 50s. You know, I assume who else is out. John Glenn Powell. Oh.

That guy, he's got to be more than six. No, actors are always little. Actors are fucking tiny. He's a tall guy, that guy, though. No, we're on it. What's his name, John Power. Glenn Powell. John Glenn Powell.

High. 183 he's out oh you're right what's that what's 183 is that six foot six even i think we're just over glennie another tick in your box there glen another tick in your box have a ticking one correct we've got two things going on we're in for the program we're also in for glen power you still in for glen power i'm in for glen power okay me too three in excellent physical condition i'm out in i'm showing the red marker is out big time I have multiple chronic illnesses. Never been more in.

With a bachelor's degree or equivalent? Oh, yeah? Yes. Back in, in. I'm going to say I'm healthy for this one because health is subjective. Exactly. They were all smoking like 50 packets a day back then. Yeah, by their standards.

I only smoke one packet of days. As long as I can take my migraine meds with me into space, I should be fine. Now, I guess this is open to interpretation. You might find a way around this. A graduate of test pilot school. In. I've been on like heaps of planes. And TV pilots?

Yeah. You've been, you've done some test pilots. No, not really. I've played, you know, web series.

I don't do pilots. I'm on Sammy P. You've been on Sammy P's pilots. True. I'm back in. Back in. Okay. Well,

we were in for quite a long time. This one is harder. Well, let's see how you get your way around this. Qualified jet pilot. Oh, okay. And last one, and I think this rules both of you about a man.

Dave being a boy. Dave is a boy and I. So is it a man's man's man? Oh, yeah. A man's boy. There's got to be like a spot on the, on the aircraft where it would be really helpful to have a small man, aka a boy.

Yeah. Yeah. Can you clean or something. Yeah, that's true. You could be, you know, you got the mop-out. You could get into the nooks and cranny. Yeah, you can take your fingers to like get into the back of the engine and sort of scrub it a bit.

I like that it starts with like, you're just got to be, you know, not too tall. Not too old. Not too old. A bachelor's degree would be good. And we're like, okay, yeah, we have arts degrees. Like, yep, sure. And then it gets to like, you have to be a jet pilot.

And I'm like, okay, well, just fucking say that then. But can I just say, most jobs when you apply for them, they put out 10 criteria. If you're hitting like six or seven, they usually will give you a shot. Yeah. An interview maybe. Yeah. So I would just say, not a qualified pilot, but I tick everything else. Yeah.

Yeah. I'd say, is it? Dan learn on the job. I'd just be like, yep, I'm up for it. A couple of questions. Is there a pharmacy? on board. Okay.

Yeah. I do require a fair bit of medication. Sorry, we're packing like a thousand tampons if that's what you mean. Yeah, for a three days of years. Yes. And the astro,

she was like, is this a joke? Well, do you plan on sending me out there for the rest of my life? So no, no chicks allowed. I don't think it was actually written in,

but it, because at the time, you couldn't become a qualified jet pilot for a woman. Yeah. It was basically saying. Yeah. Dudes only

And this is interesting A few years later Linda Halpern A school kid Wrote to the president Asking about If she could You know

She dreams of being an astronaut And he said It's no big deal It's just a rocket It's just a ball in space Who cares There's a new president now though Who's a new president now

I'm afraid JFK's on now I hear a pretty pro-spose Margaret A Vita Camp writes for the National Air Air and Space Museum in 1962 young Linda Halpern decided to fulfill a school assignment by inquiring about how she could pursue a dream. Required to write a letter for a grade school class, Ms. Halpin addressed her to President John F. Kennedy, previous block topic, asking what she

would need to do to become an astronaut. And the reply that came from NASA was not terribly encouraging. This is what the letter replied. Didn't say you've got to be a man. It just said, thanks but no, thanks, but no, thanks, basically. Dear Miss Halpin, President Kennedy has asked this office to thank you for your recent letter. Your willingness to serve your country as a volunteer woman astronaut is commendable. However, while many women are employed in other capacities in the space program, some of them in extremely important scientific posts, as we've talked about, we have no present plans to employ women on space flights

because of the degree of scientific and flight training, and the physical characteristics, no further explanation, which are required. Tits. Can't have tits. We appreciate. They take up too much space. Exactly. Yeah. And there's not a lot of that out there. Okay. But, you know, like, why, why doesn't they just say, no big, busty babes? Just say that. Just say flaties allowed. Any bitty-titty committee members? Sure. Says, we appreciate your interest in and support of the nation space program. Yeah.

Is that from the president? No, that's from O.B. Lloyd Jr., Director, Office of Public Services and Information. So, yeah, but he said, Kennedy asked me to pass this on. But yeah, it is interesting. To a child. To a child. What? Surely it's like, hey, yeah, just keep your grades up. You know all that nonsense they took? Yes.

Yeah. We don't know what the future holds and it would be so excited. What's so weird I'm afraid Missy You're like Eight years old It'll never happen

For you You'll never make it Yeah So weird I remember being in Last years of high school And one of the teachers Talking to us

You know about like Because there's so much pressure On the score You get at the end of year 12 And stuff like that And she was like So many of you There was a percentage she gave us

She's like So many of you Will end up working in jobs That don't exist yet You know Like that's true of me Yes And it's true

Like it's true So true now, right? Who knows what their next jobs are going to be? That kid's like eight years old. Who knows what 20 years in the future is going to look like? Yeah. Ten years. It's crazy.

Kids now are all going to end up being like AI correction. They're all going to be going to be going to be going to be. The kids these days are going to be robots. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, they're just going to insert their brains in a robot. It's going to be great. Like they go around vacuuming and stuff.

Yeah, what a weird thing to be like, oh, if this was a letter from a little boy, I'd be very encouraging, but girls can't go to space because of obvious reasons like science. Yeah, that is the, you know, because of the degree of scientific and flight training. Women can't do this flight training because we've never allowed them to even try. So it's not possible for them to do it. This article I don't go into did, there was theories that women would be better astronauts because they're generally, they're smaller. And there was a bunch of reasons.

So they did train up a group, and they were doing really well, and then they cut that program. Yes. And one of them went to Congress to plead the case, and it got shot, as being like discriminatory. Yes. And but there wasn't at that time any, like in law protections, I don't think, for equality in the workplace, maybe. Something like that. This is crazy. I've just started reading a book yesterday, and it mentioned exactly that.

Right. Because it's about space. There you go. What was the space book? Atmosphere by a Taylor Jenkins read. By the time this comes out, I've probably finished it. Yeah. What was it like?

So good. So the article goes on, Vita Camp, writes, Women would not become part of the US Astronaut Corps until 1978. One of the six women in that group of space shuttle astronauts was Dr. Sally Ride, who became the first American woman in space. and, you know, quite famous. And she didn't explode. No.

She went to space and the world continued to turn. It did. What about the science? What about the flight training? I think by this stage, you know, like computers were better. So she probably just had a computer. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She had a laptop with her.

Yeah. She had the internet on her, I imagine. They're like, okay, Dr. Sally, what would you know? A woman doctor, I've heard everything. Meanwhile, Halpern, the young girl, grew up to have a successful career as an attorney serving with distinction in the Texas Attorney General's Office. Sounds like the kind of person who might have been really good as an astronaut, I don't know. Yeah, sounds like a pretty...

You know, lawyers. Intelligent and driven person. But, you know, that's what I mean, all that. So, had a successful career. So in 1983, when Riley Ride flew into space aboard STS 7, Helpern was working as a trial attorney for the US Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., and she sent NASA's letter that she received to Dr. Ride to let her know that she was fulfilling so many young girls' long-deferred dreams of spaceflight

and Dr. Ride kept that letter in her files for the rest of her life. Wow. And when the National Air and Space Museum took over all her archives, yeah, they have now got that letter in the museum. So that's why we really know about it in particular. Yeah, it actually kind of gave me tingles when I was reading that out about her sending it on to Rod. Oh, man. I love that.

You imagine Sally Ride, probably, if she was human, which I think she was. Prove it. You know, a woman, astronaut, human, barely. I mean, astronauts are like, they seemingly are very sort of driven and dull people. Yeah. I don't want to meet one. No. No.

I mean, did it? Like, because the brain space is full of other stuff. The training sounds just so intense. Yes. Yeah. Oh, amazing. Yeah, I think it's like the like 0.00% of people would be able to get through any of that, right? You couldn't, even if I was the perfect specimen to go to space, which again, chronic illness, you could not pay me enough.

I don't think period pain can be counted as chronic illness. It's chronic illness. Half the people in the world suffer from it. And I think they should just shut the fuck up about it. As a famous as I can say that. Have you seen videos of men being connected to period pain simulators that they can't get past level two? They're like, ah!

It is incredible. It's fun stuff. It proves two things that it is like it's an awful thing to go through. And that like when men complain about sicknesses, it is true that we just don't deal with it very well. Because we're not built well for pain. But you are built for space. Yes.

That we can say for sure. And science. Yes. I would also like to welcome new listeners who don't know sort of a bit of a backstory history. We've built up that makes me feel comfortable saying such accurate things. True things, yes. Speaking of truth. But yeah, that feels like that's something we could do for a YouTube video.

I love that. Dave on a period pain. machine. Thanks for volunteering me. Well, Jasmine, you're the one who bangs on about, you know, sodgy stuff. You're the sod. You're the one who probably needs to learn by doing. Feel the pain.

Was it level two? Was it out of two? All right, let's get back to those seven Mercury fellas. Enough about the Sheila's. Which was a question on a New York Times, a crossword recently. a young woman in Australia and it took me a while to get it but it was Sheila

that's funny you don't hear that much anymore no but I also don't I wouldn't have necessarily thought Sheila was a young woman specifically just a woman what I think of young woman I think Jess Perkins did you try that

did you try Jess Perkins I did too many letters Perko Perko yeah yeah Will Perko a little skipper so So, this is NASA on the 7, the Mercury 7.

On the 9th of April, NASA formally introduced the men to the nation and the world, and the astronauts took their seats at a long table on a makeshift stage, and NASA administrator T. Keith Glennon introduced them in alphabetical order. This is the 7, Malcolm S. Carpenter. This sounds like a random Malcolm S. Carpenter. They always, they love a middle initial, don't they? All the NASA articles include middle initials.

It's because you don't want a normal Malcolm Carpenter on the street being like, yep, that's me. Yeah, it's astronauts and serial killers over there. They always get the middle name or middle initial treatment. Leroy G. Cooper. John H. Glenn. John Glenn. The H is for hot.

Virgil I. Grissom. Walter M. Schirer. Alam B. Shepard. and Donald K Slayton Donald K Slayton After a brief photo session So I'm only going to talk about two of those again John Glenn and Alan Shepard

John Glenn is not hot No Well They're Hollywood at him Yeah I'm looking Oh back in the day Yeah fine Dude give us a look

Oh yeah Yeah he looks great in a helmet Looks great in a helmet Very good Bit of a buzz cut Put it in the helmet Yeah You don't need to see the dome

You know who should have played him? The guy who played Wolverine's brother in one of the movies. Sabre 2. No, not Sabre 2. No, not Sabre 2. I saw that and I thought Woody Harrelson. I was thinking, what's that guy's name? You know what I'm talking about?

I don't, but I've derailed us. It's got like a German name or something. Who played... Wolverine's brother. Last thing I googled was Glenn Powell Hight. How hot Leave Shreiber Oh I can see a bit of

A little bit of Shrive about him Yeah I can see the Shrive When he's got the shaved head Hmm So They're announced They say Everybody welcome

The nation's Mercury astronauts Woo You were a say You were a say You're ready for gland It comes out And they were instant rock stars. So that's rocking out of the space suit.

Yeah. Everyone's collected the baseball cards. They had a photo session. Then for the next 90 minutes, they did a Q&A with media. 90 minute photo session. How many positions can you get seven people into? Well, let's find out.

So this was for most of them the first time meeting the press and having, you know, the media interested in them. Yeah. You get used to it in time, but it is pretty intimidating that first time. Hey, welcome to the big leads, fellas. Yeah, I can't walk down the street, Matt. I hit myself in the tooth just then. Can't walk down the street without getting hit by a car.

You haven't mentioned that in all. Yeah, it's just had the two-year anniversary. Oh, happy anniversary. Thank you so much, yeah. My ribs still hurt sometimes from when I got hit by car. Oh, thank you. Why don't the driver ever thinks of you? I hope so.

I hope he's listening. Yeah, I hope he was a fan And learning And if he was a fan I'm glad he didn't say anything at the time As I was screaming Oh my God, I love your podcast Can I get a selfie?

For 90 minutes So then This is what NASA writes By the end of the event They clearly sensed that their lives Had changed forever With public attention As much a part of their jobs

As training for and flying in space They reported for work at Langley On the 27th of April Back to Langley Which is where our main characters are from Johnson, Jackson, and Vaughn. Now, they did get to meet the astronauts. Like in the movie.

When Catherine Johnson was asked that, she later said, we did get to meet the astronauts. They weren't as excited as we were, and we just looked at them in awe. I guess it makes sense they weren't as excited as they were. We're computers. I mean, now I'd be like, what? Yeah.

I'd just be like, five times eight, you know, and they'd be like, that's actually insultingly easy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'd say, yeah, I agree. Yeah. I agree. Well, you got my joke then. Ha ha ha ha ha.

Project Mercury's first flight would be manned. Yeah, I meant man. I didn't, but that's what I have written. He's bold and underlined the word man. Man, not if I'd have my way. Yeah, that this flight would have been womaned. I should also say, what man? by astronaut Alan Shepard in the Freedom 7 capsule.

The trip would be suborbital with Shepard traveling into space and straight back down. Catherine Johnson, K. Joe, was key to calculating the flight path. Shatterley writes, to work out the trajectory, Catherine had to think about the Earth's gravity, the fact that the Earth is not perfectly round, and the speed at which the Earth turns. Completing a report in October of 1959, it then went through 10 months of meetings, changes and checks before it came out in September of 1960. So they were very thorough.

Yeah. As Americans would say thorough. Thorough. They're very thorough. Like, we say thorough. Thara. Yeah, we're pretty thorough here. Yeah.

We don't use many of the letters in the written room. We start with the TH, we go, I think we got it from here. Oh, Tara. Thera. I love our language. Thore. I love Australian. I think we sound very intelligent when we speak.

Yeah, funnily enough, we're not very thorough. When we're saying that word, are we? Yeah. Bit ironic, isn't it? The electronic computers were the new sexy thing. Obviously, could process way more calculations than a human. And Dorothy Vaughn could see the writing on the wall. According to Shaddley, Vaughn was 50, and she looked to the future, not the past.

She trained again, learning how to program. Her job was to turn the engineer's calculation questions into the computer language for Tran. I don't know what that's drawn you interested in one that's not is that like like a toxic message board these days that's fun that's for chan I see fun bit of fun yeah no you don't have to it's I believe you that it's a computer language I know computer languages ones and zeros et cetera zero's et cetera zeroes and ones what since when when do they bring that in stop it you heathen yeah i don't i don't show if you can hear us we don't care you asked if we cared we said no

it's apparently it's short for formula translation okay actually sure that's good because of your act out yeah but i still want to be very clear that we don't care okay yeah because it's obviously it's also probably a computer language from 50 plus years ago yeah it's a it's a dead language i don't fucking care oh do you want me to teach you some latin no no thanks Fortiest quo fiducius.

I know the frickin ones and zeros, I'm good. Okay, in Latin. Huh? NASA rights, she joined, this is Vaughn, she joined the new analysis and computation division, a racially and gender integrated group on the frontier of electronic computing. Mary Jackson was also continuing to do important work

as Shatterly writes in the early 1960s. Of all the black employees at Langley, only five were engineers, and only 16 had the job title mathematician. Langley needed more engineers, and this time they sent teams out to the black colleges in the southern states. Greater numbers of black scientists began to arrive, many taken under the wing of Mary Jackson, NASA's and America's first female African American aeronautical engineer. What a legend. Yeah, so not only was she like out the front, but she was doing the opposite of pulling up the ladder.

She was dropping the ladder down and going, come with me, everybody. I got you. So cool. It's a really strong ladder It's a great ladder You can trust it I'm an engineer So I can guarantee

This ladder safety I did the maths on it So Shatterley writes Mary helped everyone She brought students From Hampton's public schools to Langley for tours

To see the engineers at work And to meet an astronaut If they were lucky This is like She's working a full-on job And these are just Extra volunteer bits She's sort of done around

Yeah She invited a white female engineer to give a joint lecture with her to an all-black group of high school girls. The girls saw it was possible for an exciting workplace to include a woman who looked like them. Mary found places for new members of the team to live, and she invited them to their house for dinner, a place they could go if they miss home. So apparently, like, very regularly her and her husband were having out-of-town kids who were just trying to, you know, they were homesick or whatever,

come have a family meal with us. That's so nice. What a great person. Yeah, real gun. in the movie played by Janelle Monnet. Yeah. Beautifully. Yes.

Great performance. Real fun. Yeah. I wonder if the, she sort of plays it with a real sass kind of energy. And you don't get a lot of the come around for dinner at my place, part of the personality. Yeah. Meanwhile, Hollywood, you know.

Oh, yeah. Don't have time for home-cooked meals. Jeez. It's all go, go, go. It's all cater. Yeah. It's all catering. Don't look me in the eyes, you know what I mean.

Extras sit at your table Yes I sit in my trailer I'm glad pal Ironic the ones being extras The Stars Hey is that Should I write that?

That's good That's good stuff Got to try stand up Meanwhile Project Mercury was still grounded And frustration was building From the lack of progress When

The astronauts are sitting in the rock I'll be like Come on Go It's made a red light Am I right Come on let's go There's no one

even there. What am I waiting for? I could be home now. There is this idea that they're like, they're constantly training, they're ready to go staying in peak fitness nonstop, like, we're waiting whenever you're good to go. You don't want to miss your peak window. You don't need a timer. And the people at NASA are also like, we really want you to not explode. So we really want to get this right. And I think they're like, yeah, but I'm kind of getting sick of the gym. Yeah. And 40 is coming. The clock is ticking. I'm 39 and 6 months.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's the background. They're feeling like it's a bit slow. They're also crossing their eyes, don't the tease, remembering that Johnson's report took 10 months of checks and balances. Oh, man. And then on the 12th of April, 1961, Russia scored another historic first when cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin

became the first person in space, as well as the first person at orbit the Earth. So this was another confidence blow to NASA and America as a whole. I don't know. What would they have said? If you two were America speaking together, what do you think they might have said after Gagarin made it into orbit? Oh, fuck.

Yeah, I think that's about right. You guys are in sync. Thank you. Our cycles have synced. I mean, why don't we call you Justin Timberlake and one of the others? Because you two are in sync. Joey for tone. Joey for time.

Thank you. Plant, space or bass. Now, did you do an episode on Gagarin at some point? Yes. So people want to hear that story. Do you remember that, Jess? Of course! Why don't you might not have been there?

Because I think Naomi Higgins is on the episode. Oh, thank God. So I can't, I'm not sure. I think I was there. So maybe Jess, you weren't there. Yeah, let's say I wasn't there. Of course I did. Or if I wasn't there, I listened back.

Right. And if I was there, I was listening. Yes. That's always true. I'm always listening in the moment. moment. Yeah. I agree, yes.

But... Have you checked out the Saints episode yet? No. Can't bring myself to. I've had people in Brisbane, a guy came up to me and said, love that episode on the Saints. That's probably the episode that gets mentioned more than any other to me.

Yeah, right. But I think it might be a, I've either listen and loved it or I've skipped it and not even thought about it again. I think, um, you know what? I've got a... Everyone who listened loved it, though, that implies. I'm probably, I think I'm going to be dry, to Sydney for Christmas this year.

The pod's going on. Okay, great. Do you think we could get like merch, like a badge that says, like, I survive listening to episode of a minute? That's not bad. That's not bad at all. Write that down.

Write that down. So, yeah, it really rocked America's confidence, Gagarin getting up there in space. But less than a month later, Shatterley writes on the 5th of May, 1961, NASA was finally ready. Live on television in front of 45 million Americans, US astronaut Alan Shepard, one of the seven,

went into space for the first time. And can we say what they said collectively, the nation? They said, Fuck yeah! The flight, okay, let me know what they said at the end of this paragraph. The flight lasted just 15 minutes and 22 seconds, 187.5 kilometers above Earth, covered 487.3 kilometers.

All of this was nowhere near Gagarin's achievement. I reckon they said, still pretty good. Half of them were saying that, half of them were laughing. You know, no, but it's the whole nation of America, so that we're probably saying, we're number one. You know? We did it faster.

We did it faster. That's true, more efficient. World champs at space. President Kennedy was confident about his team at NASA. The world champs at space. Saying, I believe, well, yeah. My jokes are real thinkers, aren't they? Yeah, I thought, that's funny.

Because they did, like, they are the, they are the. country that started the Miss Universe page. That's right, that's right, which is... And I have the World Series. Yeah, the NBA World Champions. Yeah, yeah. Well, I think Canada is in that as well. I just realized...

Okay. I think the World Series baseball this year is a Canadian team versus an American team. Who will be the world champion? Yeah. I think it's probably fair to say... Oh, no, like Japan's got some great teams, don't they? I was going to say, it's probably wouldn't. make a difference if all the teams around the world weren't in anyway. Cuba's got some

teams. I think Australia's national team might be an okay team against like, no, probably not because those teams are hectic. Like the best player of all times plays them for LA at the moment. Apparently, he just played almost the perfect game, pitched out nearly everyone and then hit three homers. Wow. Is that the Japanese guy that they spent like three points? Yeah, yeah. It's like $30 billion. I mean, it's not that minute, but like a lot of money. Yeah, yeah. Like it was a $700 million contract or something? Wild. Wow.

$700 million. That can't be true. Nobody, that's not a real amount of money. Look it out. Look at him out. That's fucked. And we're here fucking doing this for less than 700 mil. Less.

And there's three of us. I know. There's only one of him. We would happily split 700 mil. Is that fair to say? Yeah. 700 mil. Okay, $750 would be easier to split.

Okay. Nothing less than $7.50. All right, that's fair. Well, there's a player for the New York Mets called Juan Jose Soto Pacheco, who signed a $15-year $765 million deal. Whoa. Fifteen years? Wow.

He's going to be playing to these... How old? I think he can play pretty old in baseball. Yeah, baseball. But you can't go to space old. I think... It's so high O-Tani? Yeah, O-Tan.

money, that's him. Dodgers, 10 years, 700 million. Wild. Yeah, so the other guy got a bigger overall contract, but not by year. And you got to remember inflation, by the time those contracts ends, he's probably getting minimum wage. Oh, he's also 31. Yeah, right. I just want to, because you were Googling that man, I just want to double check if we were offered 750 mil, but we had to split it. Would that be okay with you? Yeah. That's right? Yeah. Okay. Dave put it up to 750. because it's easier to split three ways.

Okay. Yeah. I was happy to take 700. Dave split up. I like to negotiate. I understand. I know my worth. If they've got 700, they've got another 50 mil.

Do you know what I mean? That's change. Yeah. In game four of the NL National League, I think, championship series on Friday, Otani became the third player ever to hit three homers in a game in which he was the starting pitcher. He also became... That's crazy.

He also became a... only person since at least 906 to reach double digit in both total bases at the plate 12 and strikeouts on the mountain 10. So he pitched an awesome game and it hit like a perfect pretty good. I don't really understand baseball but I know that these are good numbers. That sounds really good. Actually what? Because my team, my boys, the Tigers. Yes. They made the playoffs and they won a series. And I watched their final game that knocked them out was tied so winner took out the series

and it was tied and they keep playing until it's over I guess and it was up to like 17 innings Oh my God It's in the one day or they come back? Yeah yeah it was all just like just a real long match Anyway good on the boys

Love you boys They tried They tried How did we get on to that? I don't know Okay Oh yeah Miss Universe

Yeah yeah yeah I said they were the world champions of space Tell me, did he do go on? Do go on, please, Matt. So, yes, President Kennedy, he was confident, despite them seemingly lagging behind. Publicly, he's going, we got this, NASA's the best, we're going to do it, and he said,

I believe we should go to the moon. That's not a very good Kennedy. Dave, do a good Kennedy. I believe we should go to the moon. I say, we should go to the moon. Is that better? That's great good. Why am I asking, Dave?

Just as the best Bostonian. Sorry, I need a word to get into the Bostonian. Harvard. Harvard. I say we should go to the mode, Harvard. Yeah. That was, I think, I think that was easily the best of three. Easily. Wait till the Americans check in. Should also say, of course, Americans are the most nervous that we're going to offend Americans. But I think most Americans aren't offended by that sort of stuff.

And the kind of Americans who are offended by that sort of stuff probably aren't listening to this show. Well, I might be wrong. Let me know. Let me know if I'm in a show. up about, uh, it's just, you know, the center of the universe. I think, yeah, I think we're more insulted when, when they talk about us, you know, because we're just this tiny little piece of shit over on the side. Like, we need this. Come on. And they're like, oh, they all say no, and we're like, no, we don't. I love when they say that. What I don't like is when they say, we don't have great alleyways

and we don't have great coffee culture. And that our weather doesn't change four seasons in one day. I think you'll just find that, um, a barista from the actual coffee roasters has just taken out the world championship of coffee making. Okay. Again. Okay. And what is the first bit mean? Axel, is that an Australian thing?

It's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a A for Axel Australian. It's like a chain. There are coffee roasters and there's cafes around. Yeah. They do good coffee. We did it. We did it. My boys.

We followed closely. Okay. We got the best coffee. And John Sino was interviewed and he said Melbourne does the best coffee. And they have great drivers who let him cross the road in front of them. He said that. Yeah. He said that.

I drove Which is interesting It was awesome Especially after what a driver did to you I don't know if you brought that up At the time yeah At the window I said You're actually very lucky

I'm letting you go Because I was not so lucky myself But I was on the side of the road I'd been hit and I said This ends with me I will not be passing on This change Also John Santa would have totaled your car

Your car would have come off worse He is built like a brickshed house. And this is my old car, too, I'm pretty sure. Oh, yeah. Was it? No, it must be my car. What was your old car's name? Joshua or something?

Colin. Colin. Joshua. Okay, so Kennedy says, I believe. Joshua. I believe we should go to the moon. Yes. And he wanted to land a man on the moon and return him safely to Earth in the next 10 years.

And all the women are like, just leave him up there. Hey, take them all up there, just leave him on the moon. We'll have a good time down here. Leave all the man on the moon. We might be from Venus, but leave all the men on the moon. So NASA was like, what? They were like, oh, shit. They're watching going, this was not mentioned.

We have not been briefed on this, but this is good news. Like, they'd be like, oh, they must have thought part of it might be like, is he going to shut it down? We lost. They're going on, oh, no, shit, he's fucking more money. We're getting more funding, yeah. Yeah, because they're like, we haven't done any of this, but, yeah. And he kind of says, like, he almost, if I remember correctly from the JFK speech,

he sort of puts a time limit on it, like by the time, the end of the decade, yeah, yeah. And they're like, fucking, yep. Oh, that's a spoiler, isn't it? What? Nothing. Forget what I just said. It's not a spoiler. I didn't hear you.

I don't listen to them. It's a lie. Wake up sheeple. Sorry, I'm so sorry about that. See the little sheep. Bah, that's you. I'm a bad little boy. So it was positive news for the organisation,

but it also meant that NASA had probably outgrown at Slangley Base, which is where nearly all of our story so far has occurred. Shadilly writes, powerful Texans in the government wanted the Space Center in Texas, and Houston won the day. That's why it's in Houston. That's why it's Houston we had a problem. It's because there were big moves and shakers in the government at the time or from Texas.

Oh, right. It's not like it's strategically good there. The satellite gets best reception there. I mean, I'm sure they had some of those arguments, but those arguments was like, yeah, bring it to where we're from. Where, yeah. We're cool. We're cool.

And we're cashed up. Chalely really makes it sound like she thinks Texas is a bit of a shithole because she puts it like the NASA employees have this really tricky choice, basically between sticking with the job they love, their dream job, but that means I have to live in Texas. Like that's, she makes it sound like, that's like, a hard decision. She goes, should they stay in their lovely home by the sea with its warm winters and delicious seafood?

That's at Langley. Or should they move to be with the work that they've lived for? Nothing about Texas apart from that. That's just where the work is. Well, it's got warm winters and beautiful seafood. Yeah. Or Texas. Or Texas, where NASA is.

Yeah. I think a lot would go, yeah, I'll go where my dream job is. Well, Catherine did not. She stayed, which is, sorry, that says something about those warm winter. Oh, yeah. But also, she's a family. Family in her life was there. And Langley didn't fully shut down.

She was able to, you know, she kept working there for a while. And her work wasn't done. The next Mercury mission was to send astronaut John Glenn, played by Glenn. Pau. We love you, John Glenn. Up for the first manned American orbital flight in a Mercury Atlas 6 capsule named, what do you think about this name? Gladys.

The Friendship Seven. What's that named after? I don't know, but I don't like it. What happened to the original friendships? Yeah. It doesn't bodeball, does it? You're my seventh best friend, as in like top seven? No, no, no, I've had six other best friends.

They all died. Yeah, you go, okay. Okay. Yeah, friendship's not good. I think they've taken the seven from the Mercury seven. Because the last ship, or maybe not, maybe it's coincidence. The last ship was the Freedom Seven. But friendship.

And it is like a pun on the ship. I guess. No, I don't think they're going for punny at NASA. I think they're going for sincere, which is gross. Either way, it's a little. Well, I think about the Australian version. It would be the mate ship. The mate ship seven.

Do you get the wrong person in charge? That is definitely happening in Australia. Yeah. The Australian Space Center. Yeah, we're calling this program, mate. Yeah. We're calling this program, old-school Australian values. I'm going to call it.

never leave a mate behind. And we don't call it a lift-off. We call it Hooroo. What? What? Three, two, one. Ho-ro. Ho-ro.

Yeah, they call blast off. They call it Pop-in-off. Off you pop. U-Roe. So she's... True Blue Hero. True Blue would be... We're a true blue hero here in Wogga-Wonga.

This is True Blue 7. It would take off. It'd be true blue seven. Where would our base be? Yeah, wogger's good. Wogga, wager. Yeah, wager. There are some sort of bases, like satellite bases and stuff.

Where's the dish? Parks. Parks. Parks, we got a bloody problem here, man. We've got a probo here, mate. I've got a little bit of a probo here, Parks. So, this flight, John Glenn, John Glenn Powell was due to go up in Friendship Seven on the six.

16th of January, 1962. But weather said otherwise. It was just the weather wasn't right and it was delayed over a month until finally on the 20th of Feb. It was blast off time. It was Huru time. An IBM computer produced the orbital path that he would follow, but Glenn, a pilot in the Korean War, didn't trust new school computers and wanted the best human computer to crunch the numbers before blasting off. Specifically, Glenn is quoted as saying, quote, get the girl. If she says the numbers are good, then I'm ready to go.

I think they like, yeah. They're not fully quotes it in the movie. Get the girl. I haven't committed her name to memory yet. I don't value her as a human, but I value her as a computer. But it's funny, that quote comes from Catherine. Catherine recounts it.

Yeah, right. So he probably, she's probably adding a bit of flavor to it. I imagine he would have said, get my most respected confidant Misses My best friend My best friend in the world Mrs. Catherine

It pains me to say it Not pal, I mean not Glenn Paints me to say it Catherine Johnson I wish I've asked The Dream But she said your name is not Jim And I've got the Jim Junkie tattoo

I cannot stray from that Unless you're happy to start going by Jim I know it's not a common nickname from John. But it's, you've got the J, it could work. It's just so crazy, it could work. Give me a chance. It was really sad. And then that scene, you know, it was sort of like Titanic,

Catherine on the door. Yeah. And Glenn floating out of space. That's why I just have a tattoo of the alphabet and just whatever hot piece of us I'm with at the time. I just circle the letter. You circle it. Hot piece of ass.

Do you circle both? Do you just circle a letter? It's like A. That's for you, baby. That's yours. You're welcome. And then that just wipes off with my bit of soap. So Glenn wants the girl.

And Catherine steps up. Shelly writes, for a day and a half. Catherine worked through every minute of Glenn's flight. At the end of the job, every number in the papers on her desk matched every number from the electronic computer. And John Glenn was. Ready to go. Shetterly continues. The mission was successful. John Glenn was the first American in orbit and became an American superstar. He met the president and appeared on the front pages

of papers around the world. The black community celebrated Catherine's part in the mission as well and her photograph appeared on the front pages of black newspapers like the Pittsburgh Courier. But she all played it all down. She's like humble the whole way through saying, I'm just doing my job. Yeah, well, your job is fucking impressive. So is he. So is he. Yeah. He's just doing his job, yeah. It's funny because she's like, when she met the astronauts, that was so excited.

It's like, that's how people, like not astronauts, but normal people would be meeting you. Yeah. Which I think she did spend a lot of the rest of her life experiencing that sort of stuff. Wow. Especially, yeah, especially once the movie came out. Oh, yeah. So, yeah, she finished the job and then turned her attention to the next job,

the Apollo Space Program and landing on the moon. National Geographic Rights said in 1963, the Soviet Union scored another first ahead of the US, sending the first woman into space. This was Valentina Tereshkova, who orbited Earth on the Soviet Vostok Sixth mission, as discussed. Not too long ago, it was another 20 years before NASA finally sent the first American woman in space, Sally Ride, who flew into space on the Space Shuttle Challenger on the 18th of June 1983. And since Sally Ride's first mission, they've really up their game, NASA. more than 50 women have flown on NASA space missions, space missions. Space mission. Space mission.

We've talked about the Apollo missions in the past. I think we've talked, we had two episodes dedicated to it. Maybe one was even a block episode. Yeah, it was Apollo 13 block. I think it might have been. Apollo 11 the moon one. That was really early. Yeah, that was like in the first 10 or 20.

Yeah. So, yeah, I think a lot of this has been talked about, but I'll let Shatterley's book for children. break it down. Thank you. Book for children and kind of dumb adults. Yeah. Oh, 100%.

Yeah. This is exactly what we need. Oh, I need that for every book. It's ever been ready. Like, if every report I could do had like a school level breakdown of a thicker text, I'm like, I'll listen to the thick text and then I can read the little text. Yeah, I love that. In so many ways, that's what this podcast is trying to be.

Yeah, that's true. But we have to, like, we're not smart enough, Davies, but you and I aren't smart enough to break down the big text. Yes, and if I do, it takes so long. So long. I've done it in the past, and it's like, it takes weeks. Yeah. Because you've got to stop reading, transcribe across.

Yeah. Too much. You got to rewind, rewind, rewind 15 seconds, 15 seconds. Yeah, I'm no human computer, I'll tell you that. So, Shutterly Wright, A Great Sadness Hit the Space. Oh, sorry, I forgot this starts, Apollo 1's very grim. Great Sadness hit the space program in February of 1967,

when Apollo 1 was ready for a test launch at Cape Canaveral in Florida. Three astronauts were inside, and a sudden electrical fire destroyed the rocket in seconds, killing all three astronauts, and NASA was shaken to its heart. The men weren't thousands of miles away in space. They were on the ground, and the road to the stars was hard. That's good writing from Shatterley. The road to the stars was hard. I think that's really good.

I like that. I think kids can appreciate that. It's actually quite poetic. The engineers at NASA changed the design of the Apollo's, spacecraft and checked everything again and again over the next nine Apollo missions. And then came Apollo 11. I should also say that I think Shatterley didn't actually put this into kids' book form. Someone else did, but she does still have the, you know, the author credit.

So there could be an unnamed person who actually did that beautiful line. The Road to the Stars was hard. If we did episodes with a quote, like you do on how I, how I wrote a porno. Jess writes a rom-com. People don't know. Some people don't know that yet. Jessica has got a new podcast called Jess writes a rom-com

where she's given herself the task of writing a rom-com and she gets funny guests on each week who are talented in different ways, mainly writing and making things. And they talk about a classic rom-com each week, the guest's favorite often. And then the end goal is to use all this knowledge Jess's putting together to actually write her own rom-com which may, you know, we don't, we don't know.

Jess doesn't know where it's going to get it. I know where it's going to know. I almost said we don't know, but I know. You know? Hollywood's going to make a movie. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, gosh, you'll be rich. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And probably the leading actor. Well, you know. Yeah. I'll play the funny friend or something. Yeah. I'll have a cameo for sure. Camio and... A lot of when the writer has a cameo.

Yeah, and director? Oh, we'll see. I watch North by North... If Spielberg isn't available. I watch North by North by North. Northwest this week, and it's a Hitchcock film, which I don't think I've ever really watched many of his films, but I like Carrie Grant. Oh, yeah.

And, yeah, Hitchcock's in it, I didn't realize, but I think that was, he was that kind of guy, gives himself a cameo in every movie. Yeah. He's in it, like, right at the start. Right. Bit of fun that film. A bit of fun. I think he was that famous thing where he had to start, he started putting himself

earlier because people were distracted looking for him and not really watching the movie. Is that him? Is that him? That's what a funny thing to do. The people want to see me. Yeah. Let's start the film with me. Let's get it. Let's get it out of the way.

Or you could just stop putting yourself in it all together. But then they'll be going, I was just a double boff. I'll say for the end of the credits because he must be at that. Apparently, awful guy too. Apparently. But if we were naming episodes after quotes, it would be the road to the stars was hard. Nice. Also, it could be a great name for the porn parody of this episode.

Oh, Dave, can you turn the road to the stars was hardened? You don't have to do a lot. Rock hard. The Road to the Stars was rock hard. Go. Road to the porn stars was rock hard. He's so good at it. He's so talented.

He did it. Like, it was funny because as soon as I asked, he was waving it away. Yeah. Obviously it would be. It was beneath him. Yeah. It was too easy. He's so good.

Don't make me. I don't know how he does it. Well, he's just got a sick mind. That's right. It's just like, he lives it. Yeah. Yeah. I can't hear it.

a word without trying to make it sexual. Yeah. The man's a perve, head to toe. But I've made a great career out of it. His brain is rotten to the core. It's smut. It's pure smut in there. He's a smutty boy.

So, they keep going. Obviously, Apollo 2, Apollo 3, etc. The engineers at NASA changed the design of the Apollo spacecraft and checked everything again and again over the next nine Apollo missions and then came Apollo. 11, which is one of our very early episodes. I would love it if you just launched into the whole story of Apollo 11.

Neil Armstrong was born. Jess, you obviously don't know this, but I asked Dave to send me his report, and I will read it now. Shaddeley continues, the Apollo 11 spacecraft was designed to carry three astronauts. The plan was for two astronauts, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, to land on the moon while a third astronaut, Microcolon, circle the moon in the command module. I've seen Neil Armstrong's space suit. Whoa.

You went to Cape Cranavril or something? No, NASA? You went to Houston. I went to... Wait, wait, wait. No, it was in D.C. at the Space Museum. Oh, sick. Oh, is that maybe where that letter was.

Yeah, maybe I've seen that. I was unwell that day. Don't reckon someone about it. Like, I was there and I saw that letter. That's really cool. But if I went and saw it now, I'd be like, holy shit that's the letter

that I read about I talked about this letter which is I don't know why that changes Yeah I'm not sure why It's because I got a problem His suits there That's cool

You look out You go that was in fucking space That was on the moon Because that's like If you'd never heard Of the moon landing before You're going to like Oh

He's been no moon Who's the name? Because you've heard of it I've heard of the moon landing On the podcast On this podcast I'd never heard of it before No I loved the dish

So Oh yeah Puddy from Seinfeld. And the guy who ended up playing the guy ran in gumboots. Yep. Kevin? Yes. Harrington.

Well done. Great actor. Tom Long. Tom Long. Sam Neal? Sam Neal? Yeah. Yeah, I've done the same with Sam Neal.

I bring it up like you bring up that car accident. Oh, seven years today since I did that scene with Sam Neal. By that you mean Not enough Don't bring it up enough Don't harp on a battle enough No Very humble

Yeah Especially because I didn't have a line And I don't think we technically We're on the On camera at the same time But he'd remember you He'd remember me I remember me

Shetterly continues To be honest I probably don't need it We know the story of the Yes But Catherine Was a part of Figuring that out

Um, she, uh, she knew that basically, like for the two to connect back together, had to be precise and she, she was, um, like a big part of calculating all of that. That's awesome. Uh, she's like, if we fuck this up, they die in space. Yep, they're stuck on the moon. A little pressure. And all the women are like, good, leave them there. Uh, at least according to Shatterly, Catherine thought,

it must be less dangerous than a Sunday ride in the car. That's how precise she has to get it. I've got to make it so that you've got more chance of dying on a Sunday drive than that's how safe I'm going to make it. I reckon, yeah, Sunday drive probably is fairly dangerous. No, back then, hardly any cars on the road. On a Sunday? The Lord's Day, Jess, please.

Hmm. But there's other things that can kill you in the car. You know what I mean? Oh my God, spiders? Spiders. Big spider crawled out of my day. dash yesterday. No, don't say that.

And then it crawled into this crevice and you're like, there's not even a crevice there. Matt, you have to burn the car. So it got away before I could take a photo. It was a cool looking one too. It sort of has a leathery skin. I don't want to hear about it. I'm so uncomfortable.

They're more afraid of us than we are of them. Yeah, they're talking about it on their podcast right now. I saw this guy. He's trying to take a photo. I'm a fucking freak. So yeah, she worked hard on that doing 16 hour days. as well as, you know, being a mother. How many hours of the day?

Was she a mother? Oh, well, 24-7. Oh. Mother is the hardest job in the world. That's been said. Dave didn't say anything about that, so that's interesting. Well, he didn't correct me because he knows it to be true. Is that right, Dave?

Yep. I don't want to say the wrong thing. On the 16th of July, 196. nine it was very hot in Hampton too hot to sleep to think to do anything Catherine had given her best but was it good enough so she's like well I would that would be a really uncomfortable feeling heat or no heat how do you sleep when you're like man people's lives and everyone's watching and uh apparently she was among the 200,000 NASA employees and the 650 million people around the world who are watching Cape Canaveral on their TV screen

And at 937, a Saturn V rocket launched the Apollo 11 spacecraft with its three astronauts on their way to history. Four days after launch, the lander called the Eagle, left the Apollo command module. And astronaut Neil Armstrong thought that a 50-50 chance of landing on the moon the first time. That's it. Neil Armstrong's like, you know, he's a math guy as well. He's like 50-50. But Catherine, she's like, no, it's basically a sure thing. She was like, I'm real confident in the numbers.

Wow. The eagle landed on the moon at 817 on the 20th of July, 1969. It was the perfect landing. The world watched and waited. I don't know, like, the last, he had to like go manual the last few seconds? Yeah.

It was a crazy landing. I think it was perfect because he made it. Yeah. But it was really touching code. Yeah, yeah. And she's like, no, no, no, the math doesn't lie. It's like, sure, but people make mistakes. Yeah, you know, any, like,

one of those disastrous stories you told us about was an o-ring failed. Yeah, one thing. It's just one tiny little thing. Yeah. So, yeah, the world watched and waited, but as you probably talked about, it was hours before he actually opened the door and stepped onto the moon. The rest of the mission was also a success. The command module orbited the moon every 90 minutes. Armstrong and Aldrin successfully piloted their lander back to the mother ship.

They traveled back through space for three days, passing through the Earth's atmosphere and into the ocean below. As Catherine waited for the safe rescue of the Apollo 11 astronaut, from the Pacific Ocean, she was already thinking about Mars, and then why not Jupiter and Saturn? Catherine knew that once you took the first step, anything was possible. Wow. Very inspirational. So yeah, I mean, they're the main things you get working. I thought I'd just to finish, I'd give a little rundown of each of our main three women here. Of Dorothy Vaughn, Howell writes, Vaughn was an expert programmer in Fortran, not the website, it's actually short for

I can't remember foretelling transmissions no it's not a formula formula I think transactions translation transbobulated

transmations which is a prominent computer language of the day and also contributed to a satellite launching a rocket called Scout of the solid controlled orbital utility test. It's definitely one that they thought of the name first. The scout's so cute.

NASA writes, she retired from NASA in 1971 following a 28 year career. Her countless calculations supported NACA and NASA accomplishments and helped to achieve the nation's aerospace goals from the early days of World War II to the beginnings of the space age. Think

about it sometimes like our lifetimes how much the world has shifted and technology and stuff, but that happens a lot. Like, World War II to Space Age, that must have felt incredible. Yes. Oh, yeah. What?

Yeah. Yeah, like, you know, you talk about generations. Our parents' generations, some things are they're like, I can't keep up with this. Totally. But yeah, going from World War I where there's a couple of tiny planes to the 1960s and they're on the moon. You're like, whoa, that's happened pretty quick. Yeah, so 28-year career, amazing. After her retirement, when asked about working within the constraints of segregation and gender,

she remarked, I changed what I could, and what I couldn't, I endured. Dorothy Vaughn passed away on the 10th of November 2008 in Hampton, Virginia at the age of 98. Wow, what an inning. These three gals, yeah, long, amazing lives. But yeah, I mean, it's so sick. sad, but so stoic and strong that line. I changed what I could and what I couldn't, I enjoy. Of Mary Jackson, NASA writes, by 1975, she had authored and co-authored a total of 12 NACA and NASA technical publications.

Howell writes, after 30 years with NACA and NASA, at which point she was an engineer, as talked about, Jackson decided to become an equal opportunity specialist to help women and minorities. And we sort of, like, you didn't see this in the film, but this is kind of what we're talking about. was just like, she was making it a welcoming place for everybody. NASA continues saying she became Langley's federal woman's program manager. She worked hard to impact the hiring and promotion of the next generation of NASA's female mathematicians, engineers and scientists. Jackson retired from Langley in 1985.

Among her many honours were an Apollo Group Achievement Award being named Langley's Volunteer of the Year in 1976 and serving as a Girl Scout troop leader for more than three decades. Wow. I mentioned that before, but that's another, that side of her, like having people over for dinner, being a Girl Scout leader, they really seemed, I mean, in my reading of it, cut that part of her personality out of the, Janelle Monet's character altogether. But that's, imagine having too full of a life to be put on screen.

She has too many things happening. We've got to simplify this person. People at home will be like, what? That's one woman can't do all this. That's too much for one person. I mean, even watching the movie as it was, it's like, this. is a little far-fetch and normally you go to read and you're like oh yeah they've added a few things yeah yeah yeah they've taken a few things yeah they've had to um Mary Jackson passed

away in Hampton on the 11th of February 2005 at the age of 83 uh and then finally Catherine Johnson uh she said later in life mathematics is the basis of the whole thing you're either right or you're wrong that's what I liked about it Taraji Henson, who played her in Hidden Figures, said, Courage is just one of many words that describe this woman. Being the first woman in a room of all white men in a time that that was not popular, the courage to even walk into that room with your head held high. I don't think many people could do that.

Of Kaija, NASA writes, when asked to name her greatest contribution to space exploration, Catherine Johnson talks about the calculations that helped sink Project Apollo's lunar lander with the moon orbiting command and service module. I love that idea. If I had to pick, probably the way I helped. You know, connect. I don't know if you've heard of this, moon landing.

And they, I don't know if you knew this, the boys got back safe. Yeah. Yeah, it's probably that, probably that bit. I like, you know, the people who do have the conspiracy theory that didn't happen. Like, in their minds, she's in on it. Like, the amount of people that are in on it is so wild. She's just the best liar. Yeah.

She also worked on the space shuttle and Earth Resources Satellite and authored or co-authored 26 research reports. She retired in 1986 after 33 years at Langley, saying, I loved going to work every single day. Of the movie, which we've talked about maybe too much in this episode, History versus Hollywood writes, probably the biggest difference between the Hidden Figures movie and the true story, this is quoting Margo Shetterly you might get the indication in the movie that these were the only people doing those jobs

when in reality we know they worked in teams and those teams had other teams there were sections branches, divisions and they all went up to a director there were so many people required to make this happen but I understand you can't make a movie with 300 characters that's simply not possible

Yeah Thanks Captain obvious Well the main difference is It wasn't actually just three women. Yeah, no shit. No shit. Another big difference I noticed is what they achieved, it took like about 20 years, but the film only went for two hours.

Yeah. So there's a slight time difference there. Yeah, slight. Why don't they do it in real time? Like, Shadilly's book did talk about other great characters, you know, other people involved. So I guess that's her point. She's like, you know, there were other, like the woman we talked about who kept stealing the sign or something like that.

Like, I don't, I reckon, I was surprised they did. and just give that to one of the characters in the Yeah, and I didn't watch the movie and go, wow, just the three of them, huh? Yeah. You know, like, yeah. Yeah, three men on the moon, three women on the ground. Six people made this happen.

One for one. Yeah. Each of them swap numbers, in case in it happens. Of Catherine's opinion, Shetterly said, of the film, Catherine Johnson saw the movie and she really liked it. Just the idea that Catherine Johnson saw the movie to me is like, what? Yeah, because what year did the movie come out?

uh 2016 and she was born in 2008 uh 1918 wow wow whoa um yeah so shatterley said that she saw the movie and she really liked it and katherine herself uh told the daily press uh it sounded good it sounded very very accurate um which of course shatterley would have said remember remember there was actually more of you but yeah it's what it is wild to me yeah so i hope i'm still watching movies in my 90s yes about you about me oh a podcasting movie fascinating podcast the movie i think this is you would be the main character in podcast the movie i reckon yeah well the main girl yeah obviously i'd be the love interest yeah joe rogan and you do joe rogan character and you would so

We'd get married to the end. Adeliance? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, oh, we'd start by hating each other. Yeah. Be real enemies to lovers. And then I, and then... It'll be choosing between Mark Marin and Joe Rogan.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a love trying. It's a Bridget Jones type thing, yeah. And Will Anderson will be your funny friend. Yes. So it's just me and a bunch of old men. Well, the characters, they'll all be aged down. Yes.

And you'll be aged out, I guess. No, I'd be aged down. Women can't be 35 in movies. Yuck. Well, no, and it'll be talking about it. It'll be 10 years ago. It'll be set. Yeah, okay, great.

You know, at the birth of podcasting. That's right, 10 years ago. 10 years ago. NASA writes, in 2015 at age 97, Johnson added another extraordinary achievement to her long list. President Barack Obama. She ran the Boston Marathon. And won. In her division, I should say that.

She did the math and found a really good shortcut. Sorry. In the overall, she came up. third, but in the women's leg she took her out. No, President Obama awarded her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honor. To me, it's just funny, like, you go, how were those two people alive at the sector?

Totally. But not alive. So how was he president while she was still alive? Yeah. She did finally die, I'm sad to say, the 24th of February 2020. Wow. So she also got to see COVID. NASA administrator James Bridenstein said

Our NASA family is sad to learn The news that Catherine Johnson passed away this morning At 101 years old She was an American hero And her pioneering legacy will never be forgotten Yes, born in World War I died in COVID Far out, what a life Yeah, incredible

We'll never make it that far And I love you can There's lots of footage for her in interviews She's sick, I love hearing her talk Awesome. What an impressive three women and only three women. Yeah, just the three. No, but yeah, I understand for the sake of a film,

you've got to narrow it down, focus on a smaller group of people. Even in a book I read recently, that introduced too many characters too early, and I was like, wait, what? Who's Hank? It's too much. I don't want to see the cheat sheet. What's he do?

I mean, in Hollywood, you've got to remember. remember that the road to movies was hard. It was hard. Yes, that's the story. What do you think we should call it? I think in the vote, which got a big chunk of the vote, obviously. I can't remember exactly, 28% or something. It was down as the female computers of NASA.

I like that. The female computers of NASA in brackets, brilliant black women, because all of them had like a little breakdown based on the little descriptor. But yeah, that's... I think female computers of NASA is good. The female computers of NASA. Because if you're just like computers of NASA, I'm like, bored. Yeah, I know.

What? Huh? And then you see they're female and you're like, what does that mean? What does that mean? Then I'm listening. What are we talking about? Yeah. In what way are they female?

Tell me everything. How is a computer female? Oh, it's a person. Oh, I see. Oh. Oh, I'm less interesting. I work it out now. Oh, okay.

Yeah, no, I'm good. No, I don't go. That is interesting, but if you could see the picture out of my head briefly. Whoa. Whoa. Well, that brings us to everyone's favorite section of the show where we thank some of our brilliant Patreon supporters. If you want to be one of them, you can sign up on any level that you like. It's up to you.

I'm not going to make you choose a level in particular. I'm not doing it for you. Shut your eyes and have a go. At patreon.com slash dig on pod. Although I should say that the different levels have different rewards and features. The Dreamboat Cooper level or above, you get four bonus episodes. Yet the video versions of these podcasts, I'm pointing at the camera right now to the people who might be watching that. We've also voting on topics.

Can I point at your camera as well? Yeah. All right, you just keep going. Dave, anything else? No, no. Are you hear about live shows before anyone else? We'll get, got to get, just the camera here for a second. There we go.

Look at that. I'm just coming out of my camera now. Hello. Dave looks in your soul. That's what that clip will be called. That was awesome. Yeah, you can hear about live shows before anyone else. We are currently doing our Australian New Zealand tour, and people heard about that.

And the new extra shows that we've added in Perth, Brisbane, Auckland and Wellington. and they've got a discount code as well, so, you know, it pays. It works out. I'm just like, this is the top five. We're into the top five of block. I cannot believe it. It goes faster and faster every year. But if you want, yeah, if you want to be a supporter,

that's the reason why we're able to do this show, 10 years after we began, and the 10 year, actual birthday is coming up in a couple weeks, isn't it? Yes, so soon. November 11. Remember, remember. So, very, very, very, uh, good if you want to do that.

Very, very good. And that's how we've done this for 10 years. We are very, very good. The whole of America said that. So much so they lost their voice. Yeah, I'm back. The first thing we do is people on the Sydney-Shaunberg level or above, which is an even higher level than Dreamboat Cooper, if you can believe it.

They also get to give us a fact quota question and be involved in this section of the show, which is called Fat Quarter Question, which has a jingle go. Fact quote or question Always remembers the ding ding ding ding Always remembers the sing, sing, sing And the way this works is If you're on that level Or above, you get to give us a fact or quote or question

Bragg or suggestion or really whatever you like And then I'll read them out on the show I'll normally read two, three or four of them out This week it looks like I'm reading out Numero Duo Is this episode 523? Yes it is

So we've got two to read out this week And yeah like I say The submitters also get to give themselves a title. This week we've got one from Bob McBobbobbyton-Bobbington. Oh, I'm so sorry of mispronaged your name. I think they're Bob. Bob's giving themselves a title of Chief Sub-Officer in Training for trying to figure out what to cut to in order to get

under the 1,500 character limit. Oh, that's right. I think this section, I mean, I don't think many people are pushing towards the limit, to be honest. So, Bob, hey, that's an achievement in itself. Bob writes, or has a question writing, I've managed to give two facts mentioning 1996 without Matt bringing up a team that won some sort of competition in that year.

So here's something unrelated. Well, I should say now that you've brought up the year, 1966, Bob. That is unbelievably the only year that they've allowed the Saints to genuinely win the AFL-VFL, VFL, premiership. Obviously, it happened many other times, but that has been kiboshed.

It's been, what's the word, it's something like secluded, but it means like, it's not, it's got the vibe of secluded, but it means. Not secondent, of course. What are you trying to say, so? I zoned out. Don't worry about it. I don't know.

Segregated from the truth. Yeah, sure. Maybe it was a word I've made up, which makes it very hard for Dave to guess. There'll be people yelling at home, for sure. Doesn't matter. But yeah, it's been kiboshed. Edit around that so it's not annoying, AJ.

So, Bob goes on, what's the best gift you have given to or received from a partner? This includes any given as part of a proposal and could be, just be because of how it was given. As required, as we always ask, if you ask a question to answer it, as required, here's my answer. Neither my partner or I are particularly jewellery people. and if I had anything more than a watch I'd probably end up losing a body part in machinery. Okay. So when I proposed to the amazing woman who is currently my wife,

I did it by giving her a good quality sketchbook in a leather cover in which I'd had the question engraved in the back along with some preamble about how well for each other. I guess. He had to cut some words from the world camera. Yes, I think that someone went out there. I got her to go out into the garden with the excuse I needed to show her something, snuck it out behind my back, then gave it to her, and once she started reading, I got down on one knee.

Oh, this is good. She was mad enough to say yes. That was a couple of years ago. And now, for a cheeky request, could you ask my lovely wife to stop feeling it's too precious to use especially as the sketchbook itself is replaceable? And I even got her a spare. Yeah, she is an artist, so draws a lot, thanks. A to-lip, P.S. Oh, it was great seeing Matt and Swansea,

and our faces hurt for a while afterwards from all the laughter. We were the ones who turned up early in case Matt's memory is much better than mine. I do remember someone turning up early, but I also do remember that I didn't know when the show started. And then when I got to the venue, they were very relaxed. The guy there was very relaxed. He was kissing. Yeah. But it was great. It was great, but very relaxed. And me and him together made for a very relaxed environment. And I was like, yeah, I will start it this time. And it turned out the ticket site said half an hour later. So I'm like, oh, we'll wait until probably the advertised time to start. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a good idea. Yeah. But yeah, that was a fun night. That episode will come out in, I think it's due to come out in December on. the Who Knewit episode.

We should say. Use the sketchbook. Use the sketchbook. Come on. Come on. And if you want to like do a couple of, I don't know, relationship inspired images or something at the start of it to make it feel like it's special between the two of you or something.

Make it sexy. Really graphic. Leave out no detail. Can I also just say here, Bob, fantastic little humble brag. This whole thing is. I honestly, I was hoping Bob, you could have. just made this a brag you don't need to ask us a question i think it was just tell us about yeah i think we can re-badge that a brag for sure that's a bra and i love it also like that

the question was you'd give and or receive here's one i've given yeah yeah yeah bob love that love your energy love your energy remember that yeah that's a brag congratulations have you ever been given or taking someone or we're just going to take it as a brag i haven't i've never given or receive i've never given or what about dinner for two everyone's happy yeah how are you giving you receiving you receiving no i don't They do give good gifts actually, but they're usually in jokes, so that's tedious, including, like, customised trophies. Oh, that's fun. There was a...

I love Claire Hooper's customized trophy for her husband. Yes. Every birthday she gives him, it's the best in family each year, and she always gives it to Wade. That's nice. That's great. I didn't know that. And it's like got, you know, like a big award in each year, a little extra plaque. Oh, like a little shield or something. Yeah.

Awesome. I have wanted to do that because we have. an ongoing air hockey tournament, so I've thought about doing that and just whoever's the current winner of the Slater Cup. Slater Cup. I should do that. That's fun. It was also a time when Aiden was going through a phase of just doing a pretty good but

over-the-top Christopher Walken impression all the time, so for his birthday, gave a t-shirt with Christopher Walken on it. You know, fun stuff. That's great. That's fun. I didn't know anyone had cracked the code to do a Walken impersonation. Oh, yeah. Aiden could do it.

Really? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've got an answer. Yes. And I've got an announcement to make. Oh my God. For my birthday this year, I've kept it quiet. Oh, I got a dash cam.

Woo! A little asterisk there. Unfortunately, it didn't come with an SD card, so it took me six weeks to buy an SD card, and now it's taking me another six weeks. I haven't installed it yet. It's funny, Dave. But it will be great.

You wanted it so much. You were such a sooky little bitch about wanting one. It was funny because we knew about it before you, but it all fell apart. We were going to be a part of a ruse that was going to be a surprise, but someone was sick on the day. You and I were both sick. Oh, we were both sick on the day of your birthday.

Yeah, because it was recorded on August 28th, my actual birthday. Unfortunately for you, you had to have the day off. You had to have the day for your birthday. But I didn't get a dash cam on the day, did I? No. Oh, wait, you still didn't get it? No, because I had it. Oh, no.

I had the real thing. My wife had been in contact with you about. That's right. It all fell apart. So just went and picked it up. While sick. Yeah, thanks. I hope, uh, I feel like I was really holding that over day.

I hope that came up. Yeah, that came up. So sorry about that. But I appreciate it so much that you were going to make it into a fun bit. Yeah. Anyway, I'll put out a photo of me with my dash cam when I bother to install. I didn't realize, you know what the thing is you plug it in down below on the dashboard. Now I've got this big lead that's going up. Yeah. I've got to go to somewhere apparently to install it professionally. So it goes around and they put. What are you? You could probably just pull off the dash and I actually watch a YouTube video and then I went, that doesn't match my. car my car what the fuck's this car right and it turned out to be like it was a 747 yeah it's like mine doesn't have wings what the fuck there's two wheels let's have a wheel room on this thing it's better than mine i'll tell you that especially in the front half of the plane um uh thank you so much

bob macbobody yeah i can't think of that's pretty sad but i can't think of anything in particular no but i think that like any i've i was given by a cousin not a part of just to be clear just a cousin i was uh for herz something i was given a similar book she's like oh no you want to be a uh you know you like to write and stuff that's nice and i've never written a word in it because i and this would be literally 15 or 20 years ago yeah um she gave me that and a book by uh i think it was not ernest hemingway one of the classic writers and it was uh called why i write it was like a little penguin book by one of the one of the classics that I'm sure Dave has covered.

Do you know who wrote Why Aright? No, probably a few of them. Yeah, they wrote the, yeah, yeah. Why I write essay by George Orwell. George Orwell. I have done a couple of. Yes, we've done, we did pig farmers. Animal farm?

Animal farm. We did. 1984. Yeah, but I don't think I was on it. So, canonical I don't know if it counts. No, that's true. Thank you so much, Bob. That's on book sheet.

If you don't know, Dave does a show. about classic books tell you all about them you don't have to bother reading now the next uh fact quarter question coming jason jason thank you so much jason for starting to write the phonetic pronunciation of your name i reckon we would have butchered it in the past absolutely just on uh jason writes ruin of fun as the title oh no uh with a fact despite it being a popular well-known fact urine is actually not sterile Oh, you are ruining all the fun. Oh, what the fuck?

It contains bacteria naturally found within the body, but the levels should be relatively low if you are healthy. Some other quick urine myths. Peeing on a jellyfish sting could actually make it worse. Apparently, some people also believe you can cure athletes' foot with urine because most medicines for it contain urea. But the amount of urea in human urine is so low, it actually won't offer much benefit.

Oh, great. You ruin a lot of pissing. Are these, he's busting myths? Yes. I thought you said another couple of urine myths and then just made up something about urine. Oh, that'd be fun. These are saying that, okay.

These are more busted myths, I'm afraid, Dave. Damn it. So, yeah, put your dick away, mate. I'm not going to do any good here. I don't care. How big are jellyfish is on Jess's neck? I'm just looking, I've got a first aid app, and it doesn't have anything about jellyfish.

Oh. has some other types of bites or amputations or check out your piss app oh yeah i'll check the piss up instead uh thank you so much to jason and bob the next thing we like to do is shout out to some of other great patreon supporters on the shoutout level or above which i believe is called the ass prod or above but if you're on the dream boat or the shineberg you'll be shouted out on this one as well you're included jess you normally come up with a game do you have a game this week what their job is at nassar oh great I like it

I'm just going to see if there's a NASA job generator Because the alternative would be What kind of seven they're a part of Oh yeah But I don't know what that means Do we just come up with words Yeah that were the Mercury 7 So they'd be

We could do that if you want Instead of jobs No I don't think Well there'll be a I guess it could be any generator Would come up with a word Yeah word generator Random word

Or instead of the Friendship 7 We can name their What's their ship? What's their ship called? And then use a random word from Jess's word generator, whatever, seven. Or we could, I reckon we can come up with nine ourselves, which are just other words for friendship. Do you reckon? Oh, wow.

Yep. And no 3-H. Thesaurus is. No thesaurus is allowed. All right. Unless Jess pulls up, oh, is there a random friendship word generator? I'll just have a look. Shall I go first?

Yes. Okay. First up. As king of the friends. Oh no, I should say, and I sporadically, thank you so much, Jess, for calling me by my full title. I sporadically will remind you, if you haven't had your shout out and you believe you should have, DM me on Patreon, this first person did that, and they had slipped through the crack. So there's no stress.

I appreciate you, give me the opportunity to open up my spreadsheet, to be honest. We're never going to see that message and go, ugh. Yeah, not at all. Not at all. So please. So many other messages, that's exactly what we do. Yeah, if it starts with them, actually. So many other Facebook posts, comments.

We go, oh, fuck it, here we go. But not this. Not this one. No. So, thank you so much. I mean, technically from the, from the, where the moles is? Fortress. The fortress of the moles, technically.

But I know, and I hope I'm not doxing you here because you are a regular on who knew it. From Ireland, it's Ariane. The most, I think the most prolific. Yeah. Question, submitter of recent times. That's fantastic. And part of the camaraderie seven. Oh, love that.

And that's from the dome. No the theraurus. Straight from the dome. Only one I could think of. I'm fucked from here on out. I'll say this. Ariam's dad-deemed who knew it recently, saying that she got him into the pod

and how she was always chuffed when her questions get asked. And he's like, wouldn't it be lovely if her old man had a question on as well. I need written a question. And so I read that's on this week's episode as well. That's not. Beautiful. Yeah. Really? I'm like someone about that message, really. That's really nice. Well, just the cockles.

Thank you so much, Ariane. Next up from, I missed that as well, so we don't double up. What did you go with? Cameratery. Oh, that is, how did they not go with that? Cameradery 7. Yeah. From Royal Park in South Australia. Thank you so much, Bex.

The Super Pels 7. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's really good. Is that a Simpsons one? No, they've also the SS Friendship. Oh, you should have saved that. I mean, you could use on this next one, if you like.

But we're going for it. We've already got the Friendship, 7. Oh. We're going for other words. Yeah. Not Friend. True. And he did friend?

No, he did Pals. So it's fine, Jess. I'm going to kill you. That would be. quite a relief. For everyone. Yeah. Everyone would be okay with that.

Sweet relief. And finally for me from Tune Gable, which what a great name. Tune Gaby, sorry, from New South Wales and Australia. Thank you so much. Leah Gest. Leah guest, if I'm remembering right, and I hope I am, knitted me a monkey and gave it to be at the live Who Knewit in Sydney earlier in the year. Cool.

Yeah, so good. Very impressive. Remind me. Leah, we gave it a name and I've blanked on it. Please remind me. I think it was like Dick or something, Dickie, Knobby, something like that. Something like that. Other people there thought its hair on its head looked like a cock and balls. So I think it ended up getting named like Chodey or something like that. It wasn't that. Chodey's awesome.

Chody Foster. That's beautiful. Okay, I'm going to try to remember that. Chodefish, Rebecca. Chodefish Rebecca. Dave, can you remember that next time everyone who knew it? That's good to go. So do we have a word for Leah? Oh, this is up to you, Matt.

Oh, okay. Comratery, pals. I feel like you... Mate ship seven. Mate ship seven. Okay, that's beautiful. Yeah. All right, Jess, you want to read out a few?

Yes. Did you do three? Uh-huh. Wow. Ariane, Bex and Leah. That went so fast. I would love to thank from Missoula in... What's MT?

Montana. Montana. Oh, big sky country. How is it? Where is it? Is it, it's Montana, Montana, Missoula, Montana, Soren Thompson. Sorin Thompson. And actually, that's where Kevin Costner lives when he's in Yellowstone role.

What would they say there? What's a cowboy sort of thing? Partner. Partner. The howdy partner seven. Oh, that's beautiful. That's nice. Partner seven, okay, the orgy.

Save orgy, save orgy. Yeah, that's a good one. From Stahl in Victoria, it's Veronica Pascal. Veronica Pascal. That sounds a bit French to me, Dave. Yes. What's French for friend? Oh, the mon ami.

The mon ami. One two, twas, can't, six, sit. Sat. Monomis said. Mani me said. Gee, this is like Poirot just walked into the room. I was literally quoting because in maybe death on the Nile, something happens and he goes,

mona me book And I thought it was really cute And from Cheltenham in Great Britain Ellie Oh great Britain The Lads The Lads 7 All right lads seven

All right lads That's good stuff That's good stuff Dave You ready to bring us home I'd love to from Do you've also done three I just yeah That's wild

I was like, this idiot skipped Bex, but you hadn't. I had zoned out. It's crazy. Now, if you have a Bex and Lie Down, you will zone out. Hey, that's fun. I don't really know what a Bex is, what I've heard. I've heard, like, English comedians say that. I'd have a Bex and Lie Down.

Or maybe not comedians. It's not the beer? The beer? Oh, I don't know. Have a Bex and Lie Down. Yeah, Google that. That's important. It's not a tagline for that, the European beer.

The phrase, have a bex and lie down is an Australian beer. Australian idiom from the 20th century suggesting someone should relax and ease up. It originates from an advertising slogan for Bex Powder is a popular analgesic. Analgesic pain killer that contained aspirin, fanasetin and caffeine. The slogan was stressful day. What you need is a cup of tea, a Bex and a good lie down. That's great. Well, there you go.

It's Australian. analgesic. Anyway, Dave, do you want to thank some people? From a beautiful state that did get chat on by the fantastic writer on our episode, but I love it. I love the state. Katie in Texas. Yes. It's Ruby Ortiz. Oh, Ruby Ortiz. I, yeah, I've only been to Austin there, but I had a great week. I had a good time. Loved Austin. Now, friends. Oh, so Austin. I know this isn't. Austin Powers. You just, you know what you're thinking.

Oh, I was thinking weirdos. Oh, waitos. Oh, stay weird. Yeah. The Weirdo 7. The Weirdo 7. I'll take it. That's our group.

What would you call a group? Yeah, oddball, weirdo, yeah, weird. How do you make that a group? Weirdos. Weirdos. Okay. The thing I said. But I think we went full circle there.

No bad ideas. I'm glad we workshoped that one. You don't want to leave anything on the table. Yeah, I needed your help there, and I'm glad I got it. We're both writing a name on that one. That's a co-author that one, right there. I think my name goes first, reverse alphabetical. And, of course, women don't get their names on these things,

so we'll just leave it there. On your Ruby. That's such a good name, Ruby Ortiz. I love it. From our location that is unknown to us, probably deep into the fortress of the moles, hello, and thank you to Jean Ojean van der Brock. Jeanne, Jeannie, Jeanne Vanderbrook.

All right, I'm trying to, you know, what's like a, you know, a high school group of gals, you know, sleep overnight, what do you call that? Girl pals. Can gal pals work? Sure. I don't know if that is what, I'm thinking like babysitters club. Okay. Is that a thing? Do you remember the books?

Yes. Club. Club. Clubhouse, club. Clubhouse seven. Oh, that sounds like a great book. by Kurt Vonnegut. Yeah.

A sequel to the Sort of House 5. Another book cheat topic. That's right. Jean Van Brock, thank you so much. And finally from us, another location unknown to us.

Thank you to Brendan. Thank you, Brendan. Can I read the phrase? I'm actually, this weekend I'm going away for a bit of a boozy trip with old schoolmates. I don't care. We're doing a thing right now. I don't know why you're talking about this right now.

Sorry, yeah, go on. I was just trying to think. Oh, like, what's the group called? What about the group chat seven? Yeah, the group chat seven. That's nice. So, yes, Brendan and the group chat seven. That's good.

Where your name ends up being something like, what's mine and ours at the moment? Oh, I don't, I think it's got anal in it, though. Yours is Mr. Anal. Mr. Ainal. And Dave's, oh, I've forgotten, Dave's is Cockerlorum. Oh, yeah, that's, that was from, you. the cheerful, fearful who knew it, which will come out down the line. Yeah.

And mine's still snappy little fecker, which just feels right. Yeah. It's just, it can't be perfection. Thank you so much to Brendan, Jeannie or Jean or Jean, Ruby, Ellie, Veronica, Serene, Leia, Bex, and Ariane. And the last thing we need to do is welcome some people into the Triptitch Club. Now, what is the Triptage Club to you, Dave? it is a perfect place but I've had to define it a little bit further

it's like a Hall of Fame slash clubhouse hangout zone a place where people who have been supporting the show on the shoutout level or above for three consecutive years they've never dropped off so we're going to give them an extra what would you say reward

extra kudos by welcome them into the club and once you're inside you can never leave but what would you want to do because there's food drinks entertainment games there's a this week we've got some visiting penguins Oh my gosh Yeah That's perfect With all those

Ice Tabletop Hockey tables Yeah Frozen solid I feel good on those And works really well Because the dinner special I was going to serve as penguin

So that's perfect Perfect Yeah Perfect Visiting penguins They'll never leave Well They'll leave

In our tums Yeah And through the sewerage system That's right And the toilets are fixed Well The one that got destroyed by an unnamed person that has been fixed but two more are down actually

really yeah any reason the plumber is on retainer okay surely we've got a plumber in here yeah surely but you don't want to work once you're in I guess yeah but if you wouldn't mind helping out that'd be great there's a lot of us now and um the toilets keep going yeah come on we all need to shit really badly uh Jess you also always provide food drink yes penguin Great. Yes. Penguin. Oh, drink.

Yes. How would we feel that blood of penguin? I'd be okay. Probably the visiting penguins wouldn't be that cool with it. Yeah, Dave, they're one and the same, mate. We're going to eat the penguins. Oh. Oh, no.

I mean, I knew that. I was trying to make him feel. He's supposed to be the smart one. Well, that's great. I always book a band. Yes, that's true. You never going to believe for it. What?

Because obviously, I've been booking it. band's in for many, many months. I've got, um, you're never going to believe who I've got. I've got computer, the band. What? That's right. Math, rock and Midwest emo band that doesn't require a music theory to appreciate. Their songs balance technical elements with emotional accessibility. Wow. It's computer. Huge. Looking forward to welcoming computer. Quite a few people to welcome into the Tripitch Club as well. My goodness. It's, uh, so long list. Oh, wow. Yeah. I think quash, maybe quash was what I was thinking about before.

But that's nothing like the word I said it was like, is it? That's where you went this whole time. Yeah. Quite a lot of people are welcome in. Let's do it. Let's get him in. I do like our Dave could pick any band at all. He could, I'm like, I reckon he's going to do Radiohead playing OK computer here or something like that.

No, he picks, he can't help but pick emo bands. Oh, no. He's got, he cut the. bangs off a while ago but they're still there phantom bangs that's right what do you think i can just email tom yorking will come today because i've just found out about what the topic is no i've been emailing this manager yeah for about 18 months now yeah i've been listening to them on spotify along with 226000 other people yeah very much they're pretty popular

sorry i don't i lashed out and it was irresponsible and maybe next week tom will write back to my email okay but for now he's left me on red that fucker that fucker all right so you're ready so you're Dave to welcome these people in with a bit of weak wordplay. Dave's on stage. Them seeing the night. He's hyping everyone up. There's a thousand people in here already.

A thousand's blossom blooming. I'm not going to spend any more time on it. I'll punch folks for less. I'll punch folks in the mouth for us. And Jess is hyping up Dave. Dave's hyping up the new inductees with some weak word play. And I'm just trying to be supportive. but it's hard because Dave

really brings the pot and the district people. Okay, that's enough. What the fuck is this going to do? He cut his mic. I could offer some, I could offer some punch-up tips if it requires. Oh, and he always does and it just like ruins the flow.

So let's just get going. First up, uh, on my list here if you hear your name, jump on in and hear Dave hype you up and then me probably punch it up a little bit. From Leopold here in Victoria, it's Julia Sarandopoulos. Julia, top of the Sarandopoulos.

Oh, fuck. I want to, I was really, no, that was awesome. I was actually really confident about that one. That was very good. Please don't dare yourself on that one.

Never day yourself. That was amazing. Whatever you did on that one, keep doing that. Yes. Top of the Sarantopoulos. No, no, the first one you said. Great, go, go, go, go, go, go. Second up from Luscombe in Queensland here in Australia.

It's Stacey Whitlock. Stacey Whitlock, you've got the key to my heart. Yes. Oh my God, Dave. Just don't, don't, don't, just keep doing this, whatever it is. From Pascoval here in Melbourne, it's Maria Woolford. I haven't been to Woolford with you, but I really want you to go in there and have a drink. Oh, Dave.

Oh, my God. Is this so normal, Dave? This feels like a whole whole new day. I know. From New York, New York. Uh, it's Stephanie Futch. I don't give a fudge. I want you to go in.

I want you to go in. You ever did a bit of a Jerry Sampson. I don't give a much. Uh, from Edmonton in Alberta, I reckon in Canada. It's Jaden Hain. I don't want to be highness, but, um, your royal highness. Yes. Yes.

Whoa. Matt, are you weirdly turned on? I can't believe what he's done. doing he's incredible he's using words like they're paints on a canvas he's an artist i'm loving this from ashford in south australia welcome in jeremy gleason jeremy uh great to glee your son that is wild that jeremy gleason's in today because i've met him before and he reminds me of leave shriver who i brought up today what are the odds of that i don't think of leave shriver that much not enough uh from west ride in new south wales

Big week for Australian entries here. It's Frank Draper. Look, I've never read a scientific paper, but I have read a scientific draper. What has he done there? How does he do it? I can see how he ends up with the moves. It doesn't make any sense.

And finally from South, South Elgin, Illinois in the United States. Welcome in Riley Ness. I'd be having a Cryley if you weren't here, Riley. Woo! A perfect one. Thank you. Perfect week. How did he do that?

Welcome in, Riley, Frank, Jeremy, Jaden, Stephanie, Maria, Stacey and Julia. That brings us to the end of the episode. Jess, anything we need to tell people before we go home? I'm going to throw this coaster at the camera. See how close I can get to you. It's pretty good. Got it in one. If the people are not watching the video, he got it in one.

He absolutely nailed it. The only thing to tell all people is that once a block is over, we're back to regular episodes, baby, and most are taken from your suggestion. So if you wanted to suggest a topic, you can. Especially, like coming up to Christmas. There's a, in the hat, you can select Christmas topics, I think. Yeah, absolutely. And, yeah, one of us is going to be doing a Christmas topic coming up.

So why not suggest one? You can also find us on social media at Do Go on Pod or Do Go on Podcast on TikTok. And the only other thing is that we love you. We love you. Oh, and I'm in Geelong this Thursday. Tomorrow night. Come see me at the Jolong Comedy Festival with Sarangio Amana. Nice.

Nice. Dave, boot this baby home. We'll be back next week with another episode, but until then, I'll say thank you so much for listening and goodbye. Later. Bye.

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