Do Go On - 541 - The Freedom House Ambulance Service

Episode Date: March 4, 2026

This week we hear the incredible story of some of the earliest paramedics, and the battle they faced in order to just do their jobs. This is a comedy/history podcast, the report begins at approximatel...y 06:07 (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:https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/20/us/freedom-house-ambulance-service-congress.htmlhttps://www.wqed.org/freedomhouse/https://teamrubiconusa.org/news-and-stories/freedom-house-ambulance-service-a-legacy-of-life-saving-care/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_House_Ambulance_Servicehttps://99percentinvisible.org/episode/405-freedom-house-ambulance-service/https://magazine.atavist.com/2019/the-first-responders-paramedics-pittsburgh-civil-rights-emshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pGFo0OmfwY&t=3s Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Melbourne and Canada, we've got exciting news for you. And we should also say this is 2026. Jess, what year is it? 2026. Thank God you're here. Right now, I'm in Melbourne doing my show with Serenji Amarna 630 each night at the Cooper's Inn Hotel, having so much fun. We'd love to see you there. Canada, we are visiting you in September this year.
Starting point is 00:00:20 If you've somehow missed the news, we are heading up Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Toronto for shows. That's going to be so much fun. Tickets for all this stuff, I believe, are online. And I'm here too. Hello and welcome to another episode of Do Go On. My name is Dave Warnacky and as always I'm here with Jess Perkins and Matt Stewart. Hooray! It's so good to be here in the podcast.
Starting point is 00:01:00 It's wild. I'll try not to think about it too much. Because we're in a podcast. We're in a podcast right now. Someone is somewhere, you know, in Saskatchewan or something and they're listening to us. Yeah. I don't, like if I think about that too much, it'll freak me out. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:01:14 Don't think about it. I'm not going to think about it. Just be in the moment. I'm going to try and be in the moment with my two friends. Thank you. Jess and the boy. Yeah. Thank you.
Starting point is 00:01:23 Greg. I want to say Greg. I want to say Greg. Yes. So I will. I think I've got Greg energy. I think so. I said this to you recently that I think you could be a Stephen.
Starting point is 00:01:34 Probably not a Steve, but a Stephen. Yeah. Would it be like a Gregie or just a Greg? Just a Greg, I think. If you were a Greggy. We wouldn't be hanging out. Yeah. Gregi.
Starting point is 00:01:47 You'd be probably, you know, at the UN or something. Yeah. Yeah. You'd be too powerful as a Greggie. You're kidding me? So, yeah. I mean, it's so sweet of you to think that you'd still hang out with us if you were a Greggie. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:01:59 I mean, you are zooming in from our nation's capital, and we don't really know what you're there for. We assume political business, but you told us not to ask. You said need to know basis. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You said that's... And you said, you don't need to know. You said, you don't have. clearance for that and we thought, hmm, that's weird. And then I heard him as he was walking away.
Starting point is 00:02:17 He was on his phone and he said, oh, I've got diplomatic immunity. Yeah, I heard him say that too. Which, what does that mean? I don't know. I'm trying a lot of different accent work up here. Anyway, Dave, from our nation's capital, can you explain how this show works? Yes, what we do here is taking in terms to report on a topic which is often suggested to us by one of our dear listeners. We go away, do a bit of research on the topic, watch it doco, do some reading, write up a report about it and bring it back to the group and it is Jess's turn to report on a topic. Always start with a question. Jess, do you have a question? I do. My question to you two is, what is the largest vehicle you've ever driven? Oh, okay. I do have a sort of, I've got a station wagon type car. It's
Starting point is 00:03:06 pretty big. It's pretty big, yeah? Yeah, I don't know. Probably wouldn't be. It Only something that I could legally drive. True, you don't have a special license. I don't have any special license. So it would just be like a van or something. Like what about the car we had on one of our UK tours? That was quite big. That was pretty big.
Starting point is 00:03:24 It was a people over. Yeah, yeah. That was a small bus, really. Yeah. But I mean, Dave and I didn't drive it. We sort of corralled inside of it. Yeah, I sort of. Correined, I meant to say.
Starting point is 00:03:38 Correined. We were careening mainly. And then just took the wheel. and just said, oh, it feels like I'm driving a little beep beep barina or something. Oh, Zippy, what's this little smart car? Yeah. I did a lot of drive by feel in that car. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:03:51 And I was feeling everything. Yeah. Bump, bump, bump, every other car on the road. Yeah. And in a parking lot. I might have, I can't remember if I maybe had it. I actually, for a beer pioneer, I drove a camper van. Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 00:04:06 That would have been bigger. That's pretty big. That was, you know, basically a big rig. Now, I'm wondering if Jess is bringing up this question Because you've got a sick answer Like you've driven a tank or something Well, can you have a think And try and think of the biggest vehicle I've driven
Starting point is 00:04:23 Last year Okay Oh, an ambulance? An ambulance Oh my God, you were driving ambulances, of course Yeah, yeah, yeah Which we haven't spoken about And we won't
Starting point is 00:04:35 No, but... Just stole an ambulance I stole an ambulance That's why I was missing for a few weeks last year Yeah. I made the news, I never caught her. So we're going to say allegedly. And I think that keeps us in the clear.
Starting point is 00:04:49 I don't bring it up to brag, but today is about the Freedom House Ambulance Service, which is kind of the first of its kind, the first of the modern ambulance services. Either have you heard of Freedom House at all? No. No, news to me. It's a pretty great story. And it's been suggested by a few people. It's been suggested by Daniel English from Brunswick,
Starting point is 00:05:14 Ariane from Ireland and Alan from Dublin. And it's been on my list for a little while of one that I wanted to look into a bit more. And I'm excited to get stuck into it. Is it going to be Irish? It's not Irish. Whoa, two out of the three suggestions are, though. What could it mean? That they've heard of things from outside their own country.
Starting point is 00:05:34 I don't know. It seems like a bit of a coincidence. But how? But how? Crazy stuff. I should I explain why I was driving an ambulance or does it just seem I think people would be able to figure that out yeah you're an ambulance driver an ambulance driver last year I did a course in non-emergency patient transport so
Starting point is 00:05:53 driving ambulances and and treating people in non-emergency settings right it's not that interesting but I was driving an ambulance and that was pretty sick you're not allowed to put the lights and sirens on so obviously I quit but um This is a non-emergency siren, okay? You just have to yell that. No, not emergency. It's not a big deal. Don't get out of the way or anything.
Starting point is 00:06:20 Just wanted, yeah, just wanted to chuck it on. Yep. You're not allowed to have them on in school zones, and I said, but I can if it's not an emergency, siren. Yeah. So. Not emergency. I blasted it around hospitals and schools.
Starting point is 00:06:33 I don't know how to turn this off. Help me. Okay. So, Freedom House. So a little bit of background. So prior to the mid-1960s, if you had a medical emergency in the United States, your best option for help was the police
Starting point is 00:06:50 or a local funeral home, which is bleak, isn't it? Did you say 1960s? Yeah. I assumed that they've been around for a lot longer than that. I was picturing horse and car ambulances. Totally. And they did exist. And I even looked into, like I wanted to look into Australia's,
Starting point is 00:07:09 history of ambulances, but it's kind of like broken down a lot by state because they're all kind of different state run. But yes, late 1800s, even in Australia and in the US, there were ambulances. They existed, but they were quite basic. So yes, it was horse and cart for a long time. Then it was a car, but they were staffed by, like, and I'll get to it. I'll explain it a bit more. Depended on the state, but, you know, like, Queensland had wallabies staffing them. Yeah. You know, Victoria had possums.
Starting point is 00:07:43 That's right. We don't have as many wallabies down south. Yeah, western ashire had dingoes. That sort of stuff. Black swans. Quokers. Yeah, quackers. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:07:52 Quokers would get in there and CPI, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it wasn't so much for medical attention, but it was more like a lift to the hospital. They had ambulances, but they were incredibly bare bones. it was basically just like a stretcher and that's about it. And even the emergency departments at the hospital looked pretty different as well. From 99% Invisible, which does a great podcast about this as well,
Starting point is 00:08:20 they say Richard Clancy is the president of the EMS Museum and a trained paramedic and he says that when he started an emergency care in the late 50s, there wasn't really any infrastructure in place created with emergency medicine in mind. In my early days in EMS, for example, emergency rooms weren't open 24 hours a day. You'd have to go to a hospital and ring a bell, and the security guy would have to come down to the door, open up the emergency room, then you'd have to get a doctor to come into the hospital. Yeah, sort of like you're staying at a caravan park and you arrive after hours. Yeah, after 5pm. You've got to call an after hours number.
Starting point is 00:08:58 Yeah. Darren will come down. He's like, okay, yep. He's in his pidgeies. I've just, yeah, I was actually just got to bed, but I'll come down. Yeah, yeah. No, no, it's fine. It's all part of the job.
Starting point is 00:09:10 Yeah. Most people arrive within the operating hours, but sometimes it's out of our hands. You didn't mention anything in the booking form to suggest you might be an after hours arrival. Yes. So I had already lit some candles and poured my wife a glass of wine, but that's okay. We were both getting into the bath. Yeah. I won't go into it too much further than that.
Starting point is 00:09:33 There were rose pedals. We are trying for a baby. In the bath. But don't worry. I'm imagining Darren to be late 60s as well, so this is kind of funny. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we've not been having a lot of luck. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:09:47 Someone suggested a bathtub is a romantic place, so I thought I'll give it a go. Sure thing. Our bathtub is not of an appropriate size. It's a big bucket. We're inside a bar. We used to wash the dogs. We are having a lot of trouble here. And honestly, it needs all my focus, but that's okay.
Starting point is 00:10:05 Because the Perkins family didn't quite get onto the highway at the right time. So don't worry about me and my seed and my generations to come. This is one here. How many does that lead to? Maybe you've just killed the next Einstein. well done or Hitler or Hitler well okay well done well done change of tone there
Starting point is 00:10:38 hopefully conveys the change of my message anyway you guys are on site 402 so you're going to go down this road now that I think about it it's there's just a code I'll give that to you now 7.3-4 yeah have a good one anyway back to rogering my wife Oh, Darren. Anyway, so back in the day, emergency departments, not 24 hours,
Starting point is 00:11:05 you'd have to wake up a doctor to come and help you. I wonder how often they had to keep waking up doctors before they decided, you know what, we'll just have someone here. This happens every night. This feels like, and like multiple people need help. It's like, I didn't actually realize that medical emergencies can happen at any time, not just sort of within business hours. It's ridiculous he got shot after midnight.
Starting point is 00:11:26 What are you doing? What's going on? I went when I did go to the hospital, sorry to bring this up again after I got hit by a car. It was like just after five by the time we got to the hospital. And the guy at the like triage desk was like, yes, gotten quite busy at the moment. I'm like, yeah, all the GPs are closed. There's nowhere else to go. First day, mate.
Starting point is 00:11:51 Yeah, I was like, I tried and the GP said, I reckon go to the hospital. I wouldn't have put that together. but I feel like he probably should. He should go. This happens like every day. Every day we get a bit busier after like other services are no longer available. It's the weirdest thing. Anyway, I remember having a thought of like, am I in the right place?
Starting point is 00:12:15 But he was not the doctor. He's closing at five is pretty. Oh yeah, wild stuff. Wild as well. Yeah, yeah. It was a Wednesday. Maybe they're open later different days. Maybe they think nothing happens on a Wednesday.
Starting point is 00:12:23 Hump day. Sorry, the way you said that really. implied there was going to be more to that. So that's on us for not jumping in this. The Zoom on my end, pause at the perfect time, it just went, hump day, and then he froze for a second
Starting point is 00:12:40 and then I realized, oh, I don't think he was frozen. He didn't freeze. That was the point, hump day. That was a real life freeze, yeah. I mean, the implied was, am I right? I know, yeah. So if I could just give a tiny bit of feedback. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:12:53 So what you said was hump day, where I think maybe the tone could have been, hump day. Okay. Do you hear the different? It is very subtle, but that's, I think, where Dave and I would have got that, Jess. Okay.
Starting point is 00:13:06 I really appreciate you thinking that I have that kind of tonal control. You do. Australian is a tonal language. Oh, sure. I just, I was only born with one. It's very sad. That is sad. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:13:19 Yeah, I'm sorry. Sorry to bring that up. Your son has mono tone. You're crying. Uh-huh. That's also him when he's happy though. Oh, he's having a good time. Oh, when he's in the bath.
Starting point is 00:13:35 The happy cry. We're trying for one. Anyway, so emergency services weren't really there to provide treatment at the scene or even necessarily on the way to the hospital. They were just about getting you to the hospital. Throw you into the car park and they're gone. Kind of. It also wasn't clear whose responsibility it was to rush to the scene of the accident.
Starting point is 00:14:00 Oftentimes firefighters were first to respond and they were expected to deal with health treatment themselves. In other areas, the responsibility for transporting patients often fell, like I said, to local funeral homes because they would maybe have a vehicle big enough. You know, like you'd use like something for the morgue or a mortuary. You could bring in others, you know, like delivery trucks. Yep. What about like the school bus? School bus Like a local dad with the trailer?
Starting point is 00:14:32 Oh yeah Oh you go down to Bunnings So we're going to hire the trailer Yeah You had a Ute for a while there when you were in industrialisedment I could have been on call Easily Would you get your fast too
Starting point is 00:14:44 It was a V8 Poo! I've hardly got any speeding fun since Just take it off from the lights I would speed in that thing. Yeah, yeah. Just thinking about it. So, yeah.
Starting point is 00:14:57 People go, ah, you, someone said to me, I drove them to a gig and they're like, oh, I kind of expected you to be in a different car. It's a very sensible automobile. That's why, you know. They were saying that about the Ute? No, about my current car. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're like, oh, you don't seem like you'd have a sensible automobile.
Starting point is 00:15:19 Thank you. Yeah, but they sort of made it sound like. Like they were expecting it to be a, you know, like a piece of shit. Yeah, yeah. Like an old, like, you know, some from the 70s or something. We can't open our doors at the same time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. How do you feel about that comment?
Starting point is 00:15:37 I don't know. I don't feel good about it on your behalf. And when we're done, I want you to tell me who that was. I'm pretty sure it wasn't a compliment. But I also am like, I would love a car from the 70s. Totally. I'm just unfortunately not. super mechanically minded.
Starting point is 00:15:54 I know. You'd have to know what you're doing with a car like that. You know what I was looking up the other day? Volkswagen Beatles. Oh, yeah. Dream car. Like old ones? Well, like, I love...
Starting point is 00:16:03 They're all old ones, Dave. I love the new ones. I know, they don't make it anymore. The new ones are like 20 years ago. No, they stopped in like 2019 or something. Sorry, Jess, I meant to say the Nazi ones. I'd love a Nazi one. It's a very...
Starting point is 00:16:21 We'd take that up. The context clip that. Great. Yeah, I was looking at the old ones. I'm like, oh, I'm like, oh, a bit. But they're so expensive. If they're, like, well-looked after. Oh, yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:16:32 Like tens of thousands, whereas you could buy a 2013 one for about $4,000. Oh, right. They're like, you have it. But the oldies are like, oh, it's a dream. Just why they'll be making them again soon. I hope so. Bring them back. Volkswagen, if you're listening, I assume you are.
Starting point is 00:16:48 Please just make me one. Thanks. Okay. So anyway. Make it in Jess mustard. Oh, or like a sage green could be nice. I don't really wear mustard that much anymore, but I love that you still associate that color with me.
Starting point is 00:17:02 I've made it through about three sentences. I'll shut the fuck up. No, no, no, just I'm just giving some background. No, that's fine, I'll shut the fuck up. That's okay. I don't mind. I'll shut the fuck up. What I like is now all new listeners giving us a try,
Starting point is 00:17:17 they've gone. We've annoyed them all away. and the people who are still with us now get to hear the story. That's right. The ones who persevere, who deserve it, they earn the story. So one of the original Freedom House ambulance guys, try that again. I'm going to try that again. This is what you get for sticking around.
Starting point is 00:17:47 A man named John Moon is interviewed a lot. He was, we'll hear about one of the originals, but it says John Moon, this is from an article, John Moon can still remember what the emergency services provided by the police were like in Pittsburgh in the 1960s. The public was faced with swoop and scoop, which meant you'd call the police and they'd pick you up, throw you in the back of a paddy wagon and rush you off to hospital. They could do little more than offer patients basic first aid, a canvas stretcher, a half-empty oxygen tank and a pillow, which often only served to choke off your airway. Sounds a bit for one.
Starting point is 00:18:21 Why they put it on your face? Yeah, that's not where that goes. Why specifically half full? Tank of oxygen. Maybe it's just kind of, maybe the writer is sort of just trying to say that they're not very well, they're not well equipped. Okay. Oh, I just think they need to use their words a little more. And you said half full, but I had read half empty.
Starting point is 00:18:41 I think that really does say something, doesn't it? Isn't that so interesting? That's really interesting. And so, like, I would never have expected you to have such a positive attitude. Or such a sensible car. You're only just starting to get to know me, Jess. Thanks for finally letting me in. The real me is sensible and positive.
Starting point is 00:19:00 That's right. That's right. I wish you'd bring more of that to the podcast. Okay. And on top of that, says Moon, both officers got up front. So basically the patient was left to fend for themselves in the back of the police fan. If you stopped breathing in the back seat, there was no one there to assist you. So it was very different to modern ambulances and modern paramedics.
Starting point is 00:19:18 But very similar to modern police. wagons. Yeah, chuck them in the back. Chuck them in the back. Hope they make it. And if they stop breathing. Well, that's on them. But if Pittsburgh's services were typical of the country at the time, the emergency care provided in the largely black Hill District was even worse. Pittsburgh's mostly white police force was often slow to respond to emergencies in the
Starting point is 00:19:39 hill, while many black residents were reluctant to even call the police to begin with. Is this a racist thing? They're saying they're slow because they're white? There's some great white athletes. Name one. Oh, well, it's a question without notice. Quick ones. Matt Shervington. It's the only one we could all think of.
Starting point is 00:20:03 I was thinking Thorpey. Thorpey. Oh. Fast on water. Okay. He is Jesus in the pool and on the pool. Is this an amphibious ambulance? It's a submarine ambulance.
Starting point is 00:20:17 Oh, my God. That's not true. That's a fun twist. That would be fun. But I would never talk. about that because that's ridiculous. So no one wanted to get in the exact same police van. The cops had threatened to throw them in yesterday. So there was like, it's obviously, it's the 50s and 60s in the US. Racial tensions are high and the white police are not real,
Starting point is 00:20:37 they're dilly deli-dying on their way to calls to black neighborhoods. So it's not just that the police aren't adequately trained in emergency medical care, but they are the wrong people for the job in terms of their relationship with the community. From 99, percent invisible again. In 1966, the federal government published a paper that reported as many as 50,000 deaths a year could be attributed to pre-hospital care. According to the paper, not only were ambulance crews providing poor care in the streets, but also in the sheets. The paper didn't say that. I just wanted to be clear. That would have been good for the paper. That would have been pretty funny. Just wondering how many Einstein's could have been in that 50,000, but also how many
Starting point is 00:21:17 Hitler's. Exactly right. They were providing poor care, but too often there wasn't a hospital within driving distance capable of handling a critical patient. The fatality rate for people suffering from gunshot wounds in the US was even worse than those in the Vietnam War. Jess, can I ask as a critical patient, so I was like, oh, really? In this van? You're going to wear those scrubs? I bet that thing's only half full.
Starting point is 00:21:41 Half empty, more like. So, okay, so you were more likely to die from a gunshot wound in the US than in Vietnam during the war. Right. That's not a good stat. No, and I think I saw a different stat, but it was like, yeah, you had a better chance of surviving the Vietnam War than a car accident. Okay, that's not a good stat.
Starting point is 00:22:07 But, I mean, it makes some sense that they're going to be pretty good at treating gunshot wounds in Vietnam, whereas it really doesn't sound like the system set up well at all. The system's not great. I don't know if that's sort of a point you're trying to. Make here, but from an outside perspective, it sounds like it's a real mess. Yeah, it's not adequate enough. And these sort of facts kind of shamed the government into providing money for EMS development on a local level.
Starting point is 00:22:35 So a guy called Phil Hallen, who was a former ambulance driver and came to Pittsburgh in the early 60s where he was heading up the civil rights organisation called the Maurice Falk Medical Fund. The organisation focused on health disparities due to institutional racism. and he immediately focused his attention on Pittsburgh's pitiful emergency services. Is that where Pittsburgh gets its name? Pitiful. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:23:00 Yes. Also, M-Folk, it's the M-F-M-F, that's pretty cool. Yeah, if you think about it that way. If you think about it that way. What is that, Maurice Falk? Yes. Maurice Falk, Medical Foundation. Medical Fund, yeah.
Starting point is 00:23:16 M-F-M-F. This motherfucker sounds awesome. All right, a bit of fun. Now, let's keep it going. I'd be to go on. Alternative time. Yeah. Should we change?
Starting point is 00:23:28 Let's keep it going. Let's keep it going. Let's keep it going. Hey guys, let's keep it going. I'm sorry, everybody. So it was clear to Helen that there was a lack of proper training and resources for medical emergencies and that this was effectively a public health crisis that was disproportionately affecting black neighborhoods. He'd heard of a black operated jobs training program based in the Hill District called Freedom House
Starting point is 00:23:50 and knew of their program that was like a mobile grocery store, which used a truck to bring fresh produce to struggling communities, and he thought maybe something similar could be done to provide medical transportation. From Wikipedia, which is a really great website, kind of all about ambulances. Oh, okay. Yeah, pretty cool. The severity of the situation in Pittsburgh was brought home when the former governor of Pennsylvania and former mayor of Pittsburgh,
Starting point is 00:24:16 David L. Lawrence, suffered a heart attack and was transported to a local hospital by police. Lawrence had no brain activity when he arrived at the hospital and died after being removed from life support, a death that could have been avoidable with adequate pre-hospital care in the view of the physician who treated him, Dr Peter Safer. Saffer. It sounds like it was more Peter. Safe as a bit of a bit of a unsafe this time. Yeah. But yeah, so it needed to be an important white guy for things to change. Is that what you're saying? Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:24:50 Grim. Yeah. And Saffer ends up reaching out to Phil Hallen when he heard that Helen is working to improve ambulance services in Pittsburgh. So a quick side note here to give some backstory on Peter Saffer because he's pretty impressive. He was born in Vienna in 1924 to a Jewish family and both of his parents were doctors. Both were fired under the Nuremberg laws, which were a set of anti-Semitic and racist
Starting point is 00:25:12 laws brought in by the Nazi party. Sounds like he's still a Nappo baby either way. I think it's important to point that out. Yeah. I don't care what he achieved. Yep. I just think it's important to point out that he had a head start when both of his parents were doctors. I missed the next bit.
Starting point is 00:25:30 Nuremberg what? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's fine. But it is important to acknowledge that, like, how would you even think of being a doctor if you didn't have doctor parents? That's right. I didn't even know doctors existed. That's right. Well, they opened doors as well.
Starting point is 00:25:45 Doctors open doors. Well, a lot of hospitals now have automatic doors. but back then there would be a doctor there. To open the door? If you knew a doctor. Especially if one of your parents was. No, they're definitely, they know the ins and outs. It's like me.
Starting point is 00:26:00 I could have been a teacher easy because both my parents are teachers. Yeah, yeah. I could have been a salesman. I'm an app. Well, I was nearly an EPO baby. Yeah. Because you thought about doing a dip head and your dad said, well, don't get into teaching as a fucking bump. Teaching's not a backup player, mate.
Starting point is 00:26:16 That's a good advice. Yeah. That's offensive to my art. Anyway, so Saffer ultimately, he escaped the Holocaust and graduated from the University of Vienna in 1948. He moved to Hartford, Connecticut for surgical training at Yale. And he then completed training in anesthesiology at the University of Pennsylvania in 1952. Most importantly, he is credited with pioneering CPR. He is considered like the father of CPR and he redefined important steps like the head.
Starting point is 00:26:49 tilt and the chin lift maneuver to open the airways of an unconscious victim as well as mouth to mouth breathing. He's responsible for mouth to mouth to mouth. Bloody hell. Yeah. Absolutely huge. I doubt. I'm CPR. That is important. Yeah, again, now it did seem like that was going to... A bit of feedback on that one, Dave, set the tone there.
Starting point is 00:27:13 I think you stopped because Matt was talking and you were trying to be polite, but to us you just sort of went, that is important. Oh, no. I was trying to do a joke, but yeah, there was a bit of a bit of. lag there, I'm afraid, that I really ruined. You said that he was responsible for mouth to mouth. Obviously, it's important, but it sounds also really creepy out of context. If you don't know what mouth to mouth is. Or just, yeah, I actually... He's responsible for mouth to mouth.
Starting point is 00:27:36 Yeah, he didn't realize that there was going to be any sort of medical benefit to it at first. Yeah. But he was really firm on needing to figure out if there could be. Create a firm seal around the mouth. Don't worry, I'm the father of... CPR. Do you know what CPR stands for? Do you know what CPR is?
Starting point is 00:27:58 What stands for? Combustion. Yep. Pairs, personal. Yes. Righteousness. That's correct. God, he's good.
Starting point is 00:28:08 I don't know if I know. Cardio pulmonary resuscitation. Oh yeah, that sounds right. I reckon that's probably right, Jess. Do you think so? If you gave me a list of four medically sounding ones. Yeah. Would you have picked that one?
Starting point is 00:28:21 I don't know. I would have to probably... We'd have to probably... We'd work our way through it. Yeah. So cardio, meaning heart. Yes. Pulmonary is your lungs.
Starting point is 00:28:30 Bill. Bill Pullman. Bill pulmonary. Think about Bill pulmonary. I'm a bil pulmonary. He's got lungs. Think about it like that way. And then resuscitation.
Starting point is 00:28:38 So it's restarting the heart and the lungs. Yeah. So that makes sense. Anyway, there's a really... I tell you what, who's pretty suss. This guy. Yeah. Sissing her mouth to mouth.
Starting point is 00:28:48 Yeah, resus. but AJ if we could have a little trim Actually go back through this episode with a fine tooth cone There's been a few moments there where I felt a deep shame I'm serious AJ cut that bit out What bit? The whole bit about us talking about CPR Why? People need to know
Starting point is 00:29:12 Well you can explain it now What you said I don't want them to It's the only way you'll learn Remember Will Anderson listens to this sometimes He can't hear me like that He has respect for me I don't know if that's true
Starting point is 00:29:29 No it's not true Nah don't worry about it Sorry sorry I'm just I'm looking straight down the bat of the camera Will I'm so sorry he said that We know it's not true Well no it was like a fun idea to put it out there But no one was buying it
Starting point is 00:29:42 No There's a really great article It's linked in the show notes It's written by and you'll love this the guy's name is Kevin Hazard. That is sick and is it a real name? Isn't that amazing? Anyway, so he writes,
Starting point is 00:29:56 the medical establishment initially disagreed with his notion that the method could, maybe even should, be taught to private citizens. To prove them wrong, Sappha paralyzed volunteers with Curare, the compound used by Amazonian tribes to make poisoned, tipped arrows, and trained Boy Scouts,
Starting point is 00:30:14 and trained Boy Scouts kept them breathing using only mouth to mouth. So he used a poison that shuts down your lungs and all the muscles required to breathe. And then he trained up a bunch of Boy Scouts and kept these people alive using just mouth-to-mouthed Who were these people? They volunteers? Yes. Right.
Starting point is 00:30:36 For cash. So not really. They were probably getting cash for it, were they? I don't know. I think America doesn't, they just pay for all those sort of things. Yeah. So I don't think they really know what violence. volunteering means. That's just a weird job.
Starting point is 00:30:49 Well, I don't know if these people were paid. You've assumed. They pay you for your jizz over there. They pay for your blood. They pay for your blood. They pay for jiz? Yeah, yeah. I'm just giving blood and plasma for free, like a fucking pleb over here. Yeah. You're rich in America.
Starting point is 00:31:05 Well, jokes on them because last time I tried to donate, it failed and they said you'll have to come back another day. Imagine that being in America and you're like, you spend your time giving blood and they say, sorry. Sorry. This lot isn't worth cash. Oh yeah, that would suck. Sorry. That's not what happened. No.
Starting point is 00:31:23 They just couldn't get anything out of me. Yeah. Same with me at the Jizz Hospital. They said there's a lot of it, yes, but the quality is bad. And we can't get to it. At the Jiz Hospital. I can't get to it. No, Jay, it's very important to hear this.
Starting point is 00:31:41 Leave that in. It's important. Everyone hears it. Yeah. Anyway, so gradually across America, ordinary people began learning CPR. He wrote the book ABC of Resuscitation in 1957, which established the... That's confusing. There's a C in there, but there's no A or B. Airways, breathing, compression.
Starting point is 00:32:03 I see. And it sort of established the basis for mass training of CPR. And just, I just want to mention as well, his other achievements included the, establishment of the United States first intensive care unit in 1958 in Baltimore City Hospital. And his lifelong goal was to save the hearts and brains of those two young to die and to improve the life-saving potential in disasters. Save him so good to smooch him. He's just got like a room full of brains and hearts.
Starting point is 00:32:31 He's the most amazing. Oh, no, I'm sorry. Do you know what he's listening? He's definitely listening. From heaven. Yeah. I will just... Yeah.
Starting point is 00:32:41 You've been jumping in. I just want to save you for. from future embarrassment, don't jump in on this one. Okay. So Safa's young daughter Elizabeth had died of an asthma attack following transportation to the hospital without provision of care on route. And this, along with the work that he had been doing on emergency pre-hospital care, like improving CPR, meant he had ideas on how a new standard of care
Starting point is 00:33:02 could be provided by a new ambulance service. Okay, I really wish I'd let you get that sentence out before we were jumping in there. Well, that's why I said don't jump in. And you didn't. So everyone's fine. It was too late. It was too late. I'd already said he was a perv.
Starting point is 00:33:20 I'll take it back. I love that man. I've just been talking about the impressive things this man did. It's not my fault you guys were jumping in calling him a perv. That's all like this whole show's based on that. Exactly right. That's the whole thing. There's a whole thing.
Starting point is 00:33:33 Well, one of us will talk about an impressive or a bad person or a good person or a medium person. And the other two will sort of play around with them like they're a cartoon character. You're like, oh, I wish you had, I wish, I wish you told us this guy was impressive. Well, who cares? Do your job. Do your job and jump in and fuck around. I just thought, don't laugh at this bit because you'll feel bad because his daughter died. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:33:57 Justice saved us. Yeah. So Phil Helen and Peter Safa kind of, there was a lot of conversations. They both had a lot of ideas. Phil contacted Freedom House Enterprises to help recruit paramedics for the new ambulance service. At that time, Freedom House Enterprises worked on civil rights projects like voter registration and offering job training and assistance with job searches for black members of the community. But nonetheless, Freedom House agreed to partner on the
Starting point is 00:34:30 ambulance program. So, in 1967, the first group of recruits consisted of 25 men from the Hill district, a low-income, predominantly black neighborhood. At the time, local media referred to residents of the neighbourhood as the unemployables. Several of the man had suffered long-term unemployment for a range of reasons. Half of the recruits had not graduated from high school, some of them had criminal records and other were Vietnam vets. Kevin Hazard writes, after undergoing a battery of tests, including psychological evaluations and interviews with various medical professionals, the recruits embarked on Safa's 32-week paramedic course, the first of its kind in the world. They learned about anatomy, physiology, CPR, advanced first aid, nursing, and even defensive driving, a must when
Starting point is 00:35:15 piloting an ambulance. They completed internships at Pittsburgh's morgue with anesthesiologists in surgical settings and in emergency rooms. And those who hadn't completed high school were also helped to complete their GEDs. So this is like a huge undertaking and a really big opportunity for these people who have, you know, not been employed or have really struggled with employment for a really long time. Dr. Saffer worked with Dr. Ron Stewart. Unkey Ron? Unkey doctor.
Starting point is 00:35:52 Whoa. I have an uncle that's a doctor? I don't, I didn't know of any doctors in the family. That's exciting. Yeah, pretty cool. And Dr. Paul Paris. That's a great name too. To create a training curriculum that would soon shape paramedicine across the globe.
Starting point is 00:36:06 Dr. Saffer would soon meet a young and ambitious doctor, Dr. Nancy Caroline, who, while completing her medical schooling, would assist Saffa, Stuart and Paris in compiling the new curriculum for Freedom House paramedics. So they go through all their training. In the first two years, nearly 50 recruits completed the program and began working from a base of operations at Presbyterian University Hospital. But before they'd even officially hit the streets, their skills were called upon after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, which led to a base of. massive riots in cities all over the US, including Pittsburgh. According to Valerie Amato, writing for EMS World, when the riots of April 1968 broke out in Pittsburgh, the crew wasn't ready to hit the street because their ambulances were still being designed. However, with resources lacking and the Freedom House members having the most emergency medical
Starting point is 00:36:55 training, the city assigned them to ride with police, two per paddy wagon, equipped by a Presbyterian to provide care to people injured during the riots. So they're already, and they've just finished their training, they're not even officially out there, they're already the most highly qualified people in that setting, which is wild. So once their two ambulances were ready, they hit the streets. And so again, like ambulances existed, but they were pretty bare bones just like a van,
Starting point is 00:37:26 whereas they have two, but they're like properly equipped with actual medical equipment, oxygen tanks that have oxygen in it. Full. Well, you know, mostly. Yeah, they must have seemed like just like hospitals on wheels almost. Which is nowadays kind of what an ambulance is. It's crazy. And it's still like they've obviously come a really long way.
Starting point is 00:37:53 I mean, to be a paramedic in Australia, you need a three-year degree. Like they're even more highly skilled now, but this was already a big jump. So Freedom House Ambulance Service responded to almost 5,800 calls in their first year and transported more than 4,600 patients, primarily in African American neighborhoods in Pittsburgh. Dr. Safa collected data about the patients and concluded that 200 lives were saved in the first year. Because remember, not every patient that goes in an ambulance dies. No. That's an important thing to remember.
Starting point is 00:38:23 If you're ever in an ambulance, does not mean you're going to die. And also, not everyone is going to die. Yeah, like you. And but also not everyone's going to survive. True. So, you know, these numbers are meaningless. So what, 5,800, Dave, what's that daily? For new listeners, Dave's a human computer.
Starting point is 00:38:51 Human capital, I should say. 15 a day. So I wouldn't have, I wouldn't have known where to begin with that. And 46, they transported 4,600. So they're probably going out to calls where people don't require transportation. They just need it. They're just like, couldn't get a cab. Couldn't not get a cab.
Starting point is 00:39:07 Could you drop me at the library? We can only take you to the hospital. All right, take me to the hospital nearest to the library. Is that okay? Is that right? I'll walk the rest. Okay. But if there's a red light and I could jump out of the library.
Starting point is 00:39:20 You know? Yeah. You don't lock these doors down. In years prior, the police had been really slow to respond to calls in the the black neighborhoods. Freedom House had a response time of less than 10 minutes in most neighborhoods. That's awesome. Often like that, yeah, much shorter. It's such a grim story with a sort of like, you know, very positive moving in a really nice way. Yes. But it started in a pretty sad spot. It's wild,
Starting point is 00:39:47 isn't it? Yeah. Fewer than 2% of Freedom House's patients died before they reached the hospital. So it wasn't just about their advanced medical training, which was obviously hugely important. And like we've said, unheard of at the time. But it was also largely, about the relationship with the community and the trust that the community had with them. Oh, they'd actually call them. They, exactly right. So from Wiki, Freedom House Paramedics had compassion for the community. They told, they said when you walk into a person's home, you're a guest.
Starting point is 00:40:18 That's the number one thing they brought to the table. They cared. They addressed everybody by their names. They respected them and they asked permission before providing treatment. So yes, it became like, for, A lot of people in that district, which is like a lower socioeconomic, it's a poor area. It's predominantly African American. They wouldn't, like there was no point in calling the police for help in an emergency because they would take too long to come.
Starting point is 00:40:50 It was the same cops who were threatening you yesterday. Yeah, they arrive and make it worse. Exactly right. Whereas now they actually had faith in calling for help. The other thing that's probably holding me back from wanting to join up and work for these guys is having to talk to everyone by their name. Yeah. Like, first thing you're, all right, I've got like five people's names.
Starting point is 00:41:12 Now you've got to repeat it back to it. And you're the mother. What was your name? Sorry? She won't even say it. And I've got to say her name. And you're the father, sir? What's your name?
Starting point is 00:41:23 Yes, I am the father. Thank you. Oh, my God. This is a nightmare. Yeah. How am I meant to remember the name? I won't even give them to me. Here's what's crazy.
Starting point is 00:41:31 And this is what I learned in my patient transport course is you can write it down. Okay. Yeah. So yeah, you've got, you know, blood on your hands. Yeah. You're going on. Where's my pen? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:41:44 And then you go, I could write it in the blood. Right it in blood. I just see your arms just got like names. Mum equals Tessa. Dad. Something like Bubba. He had a mouth full. Of meatloaf.
Starting point is 00:42:01 Everyone's called him with Bubba. I'm Brubber. Why is he eating right now? It seems inappropriate. Hey, it would be a waste. Bubba said it would be a waste or two. Anyway, so in 1974, Dr. Nancy Caroline that I mentioned before,
Starting point is 00:42:19 she became the medical director of Freedom House. She arranged ongoing training for the paramedics in such unprecedented areas such as intubation, cardiac care and IV drug administration. The training Dr. Caroline provided would become the basis for the first paramedic curriculum written by her and adopted by the federal government the next year in 1975. She literally wrote the book called Emergency Care in the Streets, which is still used to train paramedics today.
Starting point is 00:42:45 Who wrote emergency care in the sheets? Anyway, so Dr. Nancy Caroline, she's a medical director now. So it's a groundbreaking program. It's having real impact on their community. The article written by Kevin Hazard for the avatest magazine, it's super thorough, it's an amazing read. He goes into a lot of detail about Dr. Caroline's impact on the organisation. But to summarise it a little bit, her medical peers didn't really understand why she was taking the position with the Freedom House Ambulance Service, as many white doctors didn't exactly take them all that seriously. A quote from Kevin, when the operations manager announced her hiring, the men were incredulous.
Starting point is 00:43:25 This is the staff. ambulance, the paramedics, that a woman, a white woman, would be in charge, didn't make sense or seem fair. What could she teach them? They wondered if she could possibly understand the racism and condescension that stood in Freedom House's way. But her goal was to prepare Freedom House to win the federal grant that would allow it to make a medical history and hopefully save the service from closure because the local government is giving them some money, but nowhere near enough. and people are, as I'll get to, people are, like if you call an ambulance or an ambulance comes and helps you, you pay the bill, but these are really poor areas.
Starting point is 00:44:08 So if it's a choice between feeding your kids or paying that bill, you're probably just going to feed the kids, you know what I mean? So they're not, they're struggling financially, so they need as sort of as much help and federal grants as they can possibly get. So she's just trying to like really polish this place, like make it really tight, make them even more efficient. So it's undeniable how useful they are. So she joined crews in the ambulances.
Starting point is 00:44:34 She listened to radio calls. She instituted weekly briefings where medics had every detail of a case questioned and reviewed. And it wasn't about chastising them, but it was about polishing and honing their skills and making them better medical professionals. Over time, she earned their respect and organized for them to frequently receive extra training in various procedures and equipment. But she was very hands-on, like she was in it, and that's kind of how she earned their respecters.
Starting point is 00:45:00 They're like, okay, she's walking the walk. Jamison Kahn's rights for EMS World. Many of the paramedics of Freedom House used the program as a springboard to receive a general education or more advanced medical training. Yet it was the change in how these men were perceived in the community that made the position engaging. All the Freedom House paramedics cherished their new identities and the empowered roles in which they were embraced rather than shunned.
Starting point is 00:45:27 So, yeah, it's sort of like their position in the community was now much more valued. Yet their backgrounds also defined their profession. During a particularly lethal heroin epidemic, the paramedics were able to reach out to local drug dealers and teach them the signs and symptoms of an overdose and assure them that they and their clients would not face legal repercussions if they called 911. They're like, we're not snitches,
Starting point is 00:45:51 if someone's having an overdose or someone needs medical care, you call us and we're not, you know, we're not going to look into it or we're just here to help. So that resulted in the frequency of fatal heroin overdoses plummeting in Pittsburgh, just because they were able to actually connect. That's also good for the drug dealers because, you know, you need those clients to stay alive and keep buying. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:46:14 That's right. A dead client's not a good client, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, that's right. So it's win-win. So all industries are sort of benefiting here. Everyone's benefiting. Yeah. Kevin Hazard writes,
Starting point is 00:46:29 The city's safety director called the service excellent. But still it was forced to beg for public funding. It was tricky because nobody understood what it were doing, Helen said. Pittsburgh offered some money, but not enough to keep the service running. So Hallen turned to the private sector. When a contract at the Ford Foundation expressed confusion in a phone call about what Freedom House was,
Starting point is 00:46:49 Hallen packed a few trainees into one of the ambulances, drove north to the Foundation's New York City office and parked just outside its 43rd Street entrance. All day, people climbed in and out of the ambulance and looked around. The trainees gave a CPR lesson. The road trip proved worthwhile. Freedom House got the money Hallen wanted. And about 10,000 people died in Pittsburgh that day
Starting point is 00:47:12 because there was one ambulance less than normal. But, you know, worth it. worth it. Is that how many people they saved a day? 10,000 a day. Yeah, per ambulance. Yeah. No, that's correct. God, see, and you said Dave was the one who's good at math. Well, I think it's starting to rub off on me.
Starting point is 00:47:32 Dave's rubbing off on you. Yes. He's not denying it. Okay. I think on this show we praise perves, so. We're pro-perve here. We're pro-pur. Not only did this impressive and successful health service have to rustle up funds themselves,
Starting point is 00:47:47 it probably won't surprise you that the Freedom House Paramedics often face racism from hospital staff and patients, as well as discrimination by the city government. On several occasions, the paramedics were assumed by hospital staff to be orderlies and were told to mop the floor. They're there with a stretcher with a patient on it. How are you confused as to who they are? My God.
Starting point is 00:48:07 And white patients would be skeptical of the paramedics. Some would just outright refuse to be touched or helped by them. So they're just facing battle after battle. Our man Kevin, once again, writes, Despite its early success, Freedom House had struggled. It was undermanned and underfunded. The paramedics still weren't working across the whole city. Pittsburgh would allow them to serve only those neighborhoods they'd started out in,
Starting point is 00:48:32 and the service ran the majority of its calls in the hill, a fact that elicited complicated emotions among the paramedics. They were bringing medical care to people in need, many of whom they'd grown up with or gone to school with. These paramedics had escaped the cycle of violence, drugs and poverty that racked the hill, but now they were present for the darkest, sometimes final moments of people who had not. Freedom House charged $25 to $50 per run, but made very few collections. Like I said before, people were struggling to buy daily necessities,
Starting point is 00:49:01 so they tended to ignore ambulance bills, and the paramedics weren't about to chase them down. Management had to decide where to spend money, or rather where not to spend it. Ambulance repairs were one of the last on the priority list, so brakes and steering regularly locked up. doors fell off their hinges. One crew reported that the bolts securing the passenger seat had jiggled loose and the seat and the passenger had toppled over. Okay.
Starting point is 00:49:26 At least once, an engine caught fire. And then the door blew open. Yeah, it's not great. But they just don't have any money. Well, it does seem like, I mean, they want funding, but it sounds like they're a mess. Why would anyone fund something with such, you know, poor outcomes? You know what I mean? The poor outcomes being the car needing matters?
Starting point is 00:49:52 Yeah, the lack of funding. Why would I fund something with such poor funding? I want to back a winner. You know what I mean? Yeah. That's why you approached Steve Jobs just last year and said, hey. I said, Stevie boy. Bobby.
Starting point is 00:50:07 Bobby. I like what you're doing here. I want to invest. I want to help you out. Yeah. Yeah. Apples, is it? I want to get you off the ground.
Starting point is 00:50:17 I've heard one of you a day. Yeah. You know what I mean? Keeps the doctor away. You can think of me as an angel, because I'm investing in you here at the ground floor, if that's what I understand, is what that means. Yes.
Starting point is 00:50:32 I said to him. And what he said? Well, it turned out, has been dead for quite a while. So he stayed relatively mum, so to speak. And, yeah, couldn't get a word out of him. Absolutely deceased man. Absolutely deceased, man. It really got me, that's very funny.
Starting point is 00:51:00 Absolutely deceased. Absolutely. Anyway, so they need funding. Initially, the city had agreed to contribute $100,000 a year and to direct emergency calls that came into the police from three designated neighborhoods to Freedom House. Then, in 1970, a new mayor took office. Pete Flaherty was tall and broad-shouldered,
Starting point is 00:51:22 the son of Irish immigrants. Oh, another Nepo baby. I'm losing control of what that means. Yeah. Do you think a Nepo baby is just someone with parents? Well, I mean, is this guy also an Irish immigrant? I guess he probably isn't. He's, no, he's the son of Irish immigrants.
Starting point is 00:51:43 He's gone its own way. Because if he grew up to be an Irish immigrant, then I think he's used an unfair immigrant. Now it sounds like I'm, I don't know what I'm, I'm not making a point here. Oh, you rarely are, though. Sorry. I'm often making really well. Sorry. Did you ever think you were making a point?
Starting point is 00:52:02 Dave, can you think of a time he's made a point? I think I'm often being satirical in a way that makes a point. And, you know, if you dig a couple layers down, sometimes I am. It's usually a freak accident. Yes. But it can happen. It has been known to happen. Right.
Starting point is 00:52:20 But that was not now. Not this time. Not now. I'm not, I think, you know, the whole Nepo baby thing, I just think right now I'm enjoying the term nepo baby. Sure. Sounds good. It's a funny sounding term.
Starting point is 00:52:32 You're not wrong. And I think it is also funny, and I've tried this in stand up, and it turns out it isn't funny, but I think it's funny. So here we go. To, to, I think it's funny to talk about nepo babies outside of, you know, business and entertainment. Right. Talk about it like,
Starting point is 00:52:55 huh, yeah, went to school with a Napo baby, got the job at his dad's plumbing business? No, didn't even have to do an interview. I'd try that as a bit of the crowd. I was so confused. Or just like,
Starting point is 00:53:06 that's not what a Napo baby is. And he is still going and working for his dad and not needing an interview. Because he got the job, his dad's a plumber, he got a job at his dad's company. Yeah. The company's called Smith and Son.
Starting point is 00:53:19 I think there's something funny in Nepo Plummer. Napo Plummer. Maybe. Yeah. This is an EPO plumber. Yeah. Maybe. Okay.
Starting point is 00:53:28 I'll go back to the drawing board. But yeah, I can understand why the audiences didn't piece themselves at that one. I was a few years ago and they had an Adelaide fringe, maybe two, three years ago or something. And I just remember them all staring back at me. Yeah. Going, what? What are you talking about? You know, as they do over in Adelaide?
Starting point is 00:53:48 They do say that. What are you talking about? Good news is they get another opportunity. Should I try it again this year? Yeah. Yeah. Maybe they've... Because sometimes you've got to wait for the audience to come to you.
Starting point is 00:54:00 That's right. You were too... Maybe I was too ahead. And we got onto this because of the new mayor in town. Ah, yes, the Nepo baby. Pete Florida. As a city councilman, he challenged his own party's mayoral candidate and broke from the Democratic machine that had crowned every mayor since the Great Depression.
Starting point is 00:54:20 labeling self nobody's boy the 45 year old was a small government fiscal conservative who lowered taxes and trimmed who lowered taxes and trimmed the city's payroll I'm gonna tell you Jess a slogan like nobody's boy really speaks to the fact he was aware that the napo baby criticism was out there yeah he's like I'm nobody's boy yeah so don't listen to that napo baby stuff nah I'm nobody's boy I've never belonged to anyone I'm nobody's boy I'm an orphan um he strongly opposed public-private partnerships like Freedom House. Oh.
Starting point is 00:54:55 Phil Helen later stated that he believed racism was also a factor in his opposition to the service, but publicly he was saying, no, no, no, I just don't like it when, you know, these public, like this should be something that's funded by the city and they're taking private money. It's because you're not giving them enough public money. You're giving them fuck all, actually. Oh, dear. Opeds printed at the time accused the mayor of trying to eliminate the ambulance service to pander to the police. Police Union. Dr. Saffer echoed this view stating racial prejudices with white police officers
Starting point is 00:55:26 eager to maintain control of ambulances citywide with a cause of efforts to end Freedom House's ambulance service in the city. Such a strange thing to want to keep control of. We want to keep control of this thing that we're unequipped to do. The mayor? The police. Oh yeah. We want to say control of the ambulances. Yeah. Why? Well, because we do it poorly. Yeah, exactly. And we've got other things to do. Well, we're incredibly busy and this service has taken something off our plate and actually are doing it much better. Yeah. Yeah. We want it back. We want it back. We want to do it our way. Hey, how dear you? Let us just throw people in a van and let them die in the back. Like it should be. Yeah. So despite this strong record, the Freedom House Ambulance Services request to expand their
Starting point is 00:56:09 contract with the city to cover more locations was denied by the mayor. This denied them the chance to serve more affluent neighborhoods in which they would likely have been able to collect the fees for the ambulance service. So hopefully generating a bit of money, being able to service or ambulances, train more people, service more area, save more lives. From Wiki, during Florida's time as mayor, the city began providing payments for the ambulance contract late and cut its portion of the ambulance service operation budget by 50%. So they're just sort of like slowly fucking them over.
Starting point is 00:56:43 This guy sounds like a dog. Yeah. What's his name? Say it again. Flarity. Yeah, a piece of shit. Flarity, you're a dog. You're nobody's boy. Certainly not my boy, Flarity.
Starting point is 00:56:57 You piece of shit. Dave, just want to give you an opportunity with the leg here if you want to jump in on Flarity at all. Flourity, providing clarity about what a piece of shit he is. Nice, nice. He added a little rhyme there. I think that could have cut through. I think so.
Starting point is 00:57:13 If Dave runs against him. Yeah. But he just spins it and he's like, yeah, providing clarity. And he uses it and it becomes even more popular. Yes. Oh, good, do it. He's such a piece of shit. My tagline would be everybody's boy.
Starting point is 00:57:32 That's nice, actually. That's really nice. Yeah. Unfortunately, your name in the group chat is currently plug, which is still funnier than everybody's boy. Otherwise, I'd be changing it. But plug is. What about everybody's?
Starting point is 00:57:44 Everybody's. He's plug. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'll just get on that. And can I be Nepo plumber? Yes.
Starting point is 00:57:54 He could also be nepo plugger. Well, that's funny. I'm actually sitting in front of a book with plugger on it right there. You say that, Dave? Okay, well, my... That's beautiful. That's a great pop. Oh, I'm thick freak, so I'll stay as is.
Starting point is 00:58:11 Thank you, yeah. Yeah. Okay, anyway, so Flaherty, he's screwing them over. He also signed an ordinary. barring the use of ambulance sirens in the downtown area, citing noise complaints as the reason. That's insane. Right, because without the use of sirens,
Starting point is 00:58:25 traffic wouldn't move aside for them, which meant that police officers, who were still allowed to use their sirens, got to the patients first. This is bizarre. It's crazy. And the police sirens weren't annoying anyone. They went to you.
Starting point is 00:58:40 No, nobody made any noise complaints about police sirens. Is the cops making cash out of this? Why are they? What's the racket? it here. I don't understand it. It's that it's a group of black men. That's it's just, it's not even like, it's not even that they're just being dodgy with cash. It's just pure racism. Well, yeah, like, you made the point before of these guys have come in and are doing a portion of the police job better and safer. Seems like real win-win stuff. Correct. But it's a group of black men,
Starting point is 00:59:10 so that's unacceptable. Like, mate, I don't know. I don't know if they're being paid like the ambulance service has a bill for it. I'm not 100% sure. So maybe there's a financial reason as well. I don't think they will be getting paid because they keep delivering corpses to hospital. And a corpse can't pay a bill. No, rarely.
Starting point is 00:59:31 I can jingle some coins out of their pockets. Yeah, you go through their pockets. Hang it upside down. Maybe that's it. The cops are like, oh. Now we can't shake down the corpses. We can't shake down any corpses anymore. Because the people keep living.
Starting point is 00:59:43 Because they're getting adequate care. You can't shake down. down a living corpse. Oh, okay. Which is what we call just alive humans. Yeah, great. They restarted that guy's heart now. I can't shake down his pockets.
Starting point is 00:59:53 Great. A person is just a corpse. It hasn't died yet as far as I'm concerned. And we're around. It's normally not too far away. Just around a couple of tight corners. There were also, like, there were rumors that started circulating around about the Freedom House paramedics, that they were running craps games in the back of the ambulances.
Starting point is 01:00:11 They were selling drugs. That $25,000 had gone missing from Freedom House. budget, which a couple of them were like, $25,000 was like a million dollars to us. Like, they had so little money for equipment, for repairs. They're like, I think you'd notice if $25,000 weren't missing. Playing craps at the back. Yeah. It's so funny.
Starting point is 01:00:33 It's absurd. So despite the lack of support from the mayor and the city officials, no one could deny the impact the Freedom House was having on the medical community. Other cities saw the success of Freedom House's model, and they copied it. cities like Miami, LA, Jacksonville, Florida, but it wasn't enough that they were inspiring others. I read and I didn't include it because the article by Kevin Hazard is so good. It's a long, really detailed piece, lots of interviews, and he talks a lot about Dr. Caroline and sort of the impact she had.
Starting point is 01:01:08 But one thing that, and I was like reading it, I'm like, oh, that's got to go in, that's got to go in. I was like, I have to like call it somewhere. But I did see that there was like a, for one of the better word, a conference, a medical conference in town. And she set up like a demonstration of the ambulances and what they do on scene. And so they rehearsed and they practiced and they did it. And they'd like cleared, let's say they simulated a car accident and there was like a number of actors or people being victims. And all of these medical professionals are watching. To poison them with South American darts?
Starting point is 01:01:44 They did. They did indeed, yes. And they said, look how we can keep them breathing. But they did a demonstration of like what they do on the scene and all the actual, it's not just like picking these people up off the floor and chucking them in the car. It's actually treating them and caring for them. And it, like, everybody watching was stunned and so impressed. And so it started to like. By the performances.
Starting point is 01:02:11 By the performances. That was so convincing. I believed you. I believed you were in an accident. I believed you were hurt. Are you okay? Oh my God. You have a long career ahead of you.
Starting point is 01:02:23 You're fantastic. Wonderful performance. The reviews in the New York Times were rave. Absolutely stunning. It was a smash. A car smash. It was on Broadway by the next week. So they're really like they're inspiring others
Starting point is 01:02:41 and in the medical community, they're absolutely seeing the worth of these paramedics, but the city was just not supporting them. Did they use white actors? Because that could have... That could have made them care more. Yeah. No, the doctors still care.
Starting point is 01:02:59 The city didn't care. Because you did say some of the doctors and hospitals were also a bit racist about it. Oh, yeah. I mean, yeah. Of course. Oh, of course. Yeah, yeah. Sorry.
Starting point is 01:03:12 Yeah. Of course. It's crazy. Racism existed then. I think it's gone now. It's been well. It was solved. Yeah, we solved it.
Starting point is 01:03:19 It is so good living in utopia. So. It's definitely better. I think it's definitely better than that though, right? Oh, yeah. We're just more subtle about it now. Oh, okay. You know, it's microaggressions now.
Starting point is 01:03:35 That's the hot new thing in racism. You know, generally speaking, I prefer to keep the aggressions micro, you know? Sure. Oh, they noticed it was just a microaggression. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and it was just one, I assume. That's the thing about microaggressions. It's just one.
Starting point is 01:03:50 You might come across one every now and then. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not that it slowly chips away at you. Yeah, yeah, exactly right. You experienced one in your life and you go, huh. Yeah, that was. You know, it could have been worse, you said. You used to be macroaggressions.
Starting point is 01:04:02 And then you go about your perfect life. Yeah. So, that's good. So in 1974, the mayor announced a plan to institute a citywide emergency care system complete with state-of-the-art ambulances staffed by paramedics. And rather than absorb the groundbreaking company of black paramedics, he proposed training police officers. He's like, don't worry about the paramedics we already have
Starting point is 01:04:26 that are already highly trained, best in the world. We're just going to train up the cops we have, the white cops. I mean, these cops are desperate to do any other job than be a cop, right? Yeah. They just want to get out of it. Yeah. So facing some resistance, and people protesting a little bit,
Starting point is 01:04:44 he graciously agreed to allow the funding of Freedom House until the end of 1975, at which time he announced the creation of a citywide ambulance service to be staffed by non-police paramedics. So at first he was like, no, no, no, guys, we're just training up the police. And then once he'd properly closed down Freedom House,
Starting point is 01:05:02 he said, fantastic, now we're going to make paramedics. Oh. Isn't that fucked? What is going on? It's wild. So the Freedom House Ambulance Service closed in October of 1975. The new city ambulance service initially hired all white staff. Then the previous medical director of Freedom House, Dr. Nancy Caroline,
Starting point is 01:05:26 she accepted a position as medical director of the new city ambulance service on the condition that the Freedom House paramedics and dispatches were also hired and that Freedom House ambulance crews would be kept together. Because she was so highly trained, she was a real leader in this industry. So she's a great person to be the medical director of this job. So naturally they want her. So she's like, okay.
Starting point is 01:05:48 And she's white. So they want her. Yeah, but she's a woman. Oh, true. So they probably offered it to a few other people first. But she agreed to take it. But then she thought, okay, well, this is my opportunity to bring everybody with me. So the Freedom House paramedics were hired, but their crews were broken up.
Starting point is 01:06:10 Okay. Those with criminal records were fired. The new City Ambulance Service introduced pass-fail exams, which covered materials that the Freedom House paramedics hadn't been taught, so many of them were dismissed that way. Most of those remaining were reassigned to non-medical or non-essential work, nearly always placed in a position below a white employee who had far less experience than them. Of the 26 Freedom House employees who joined the City Ambulance Service,
Starting point is 01:06:36 only half remained a year later, ultimately only five remained with the city ambulance service and only one was promoted into a leadership position. Not even Caroline was immune. City officials quietly pushed her towards the door and she left the job as medical director in 1976. So she joined to try to like, she's like, all right, I can't do anything about you closing down Freedom House
Starting point is 01:06:58 but I can take all the training and everything that we've created and I can take these people with me. And they've got rid of them all. Right. And then they sort of just sort of used her experience for a year and then pushed her out as well. Yep. Grim. Caroline went on to write the first textbook on EMS training.
Starting point is 01:07:18 She moved to Israel in 1977 and founded that country's National Ambulance Service. She flew medical relief missions to Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Sudan and Ethiopia, then returned to Israel to start its first palliative care program. In 2002, she was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. She spent her final days in her online. hospice centre, where she died at the age of 58. She maintained a close friendship with Safra until the end. He died the following year at age 79 after being nominated for the Nobel Prize in
Starting point is 01:07:46 Medicine three times. So just like, I mean, that's a pretty, obviously bleak. I'm talking about the end of their lives, but both of them went on to do lots of very impressive things in the medical field and Nobel Prize three times. So the story of the Freedom House Ambulance Service was almost forgotten to history, and in fact, it still isn't as known as it should be. A couple of documentaries have been made about it. Only in the last few years.
Starting point is 01:08:12 One came out in January of 2023. The Pittsburgh local television station WQED released a documentary called Freedom House Ambulance at the First Responders. Several of the paramedics are interviewed, which is really cool. And Heroes on Call is another one that only came out in February of last year on a local streamer. I watched The First Responders. on YouTube. I thought it was very interesting the number of comments on YouTube that said they'd only heard about Freedom House because of an episode of the TV show The Pit.
Starting point is 01:08:45 Ah, right. Which the first season came out last year. There's a patient named Willie. He's an 81-year-old man with dementia. And while they're working on him, he's like, he's making little comments about things that they're doing or equipment they're using. And they're like, what's going on here? you got medical background and they find out he was one of the original Freedom House ambulance medics and the told you they were good actors great actors they're still getting work still getting work all these years later all these years later and then Dr. Robby's Noah Wiley's character explains to some of the younger interns what Freedom House was and that they were the first paramedics in the
Starting point is 01:09:25 country and so a lot of people have really only heard about them as a brief mention in the pit, which is so interesting and wild, but at least their story's finally getting told, I guess. So it's not so much, it's not really the happiest story, obviously, but it's also really impressive that the first sort of modern paramedics were a group of black men from a very poor area who were given an opportunity by Jewish doctors, trained them up, and then they've just been really overlooked by history. And I just think it's a very cool, but obviously not the happiest ending, but a very cool story about an advancement to, I don't know, medical treatment and an emergency care.
Starting point is 01:10:15 It's very cool. Or not. Oh, sorry. David and I didn't realize you'd finish your sound. It just sounded the way you said it like you were in the middle of a sentence. Could I have some feedback on it? Yeah, well, just a tonal thing. Okay.
Starting point is 01:10:30 If you speak only in the one tone all the time, that should get rid of most of the confusion. Okay, gotcha. Sorry, that's on me. So, yeah. But yeah, that's my report on the... I thought you did a really good job. Thanks so much. I'm just wrapping it up.
Starting point is 01:10:42 That's my report on the Freedom House Ambulance Service. Fantastic. Really good stuff. Like you said, Jess, it's super impressive. And I think we were all hoping for the happy ending, but it's really, really good. Yeah, amazing that they pioneered all that stuff. And that fucking present. Flannery.
Starting point is 01:11:02 Flarrity. Flarity. I don't even, I'm not committing his name to memory. Yeah, who cares? Fuck him. Don't worry about him. But remember Freedom House. And yeah, there's several, all the resources I used to write this linked in the show notes,
Starting point is 01:11:16 but a couple of them are really, really in-depth, really great articles I'd recommend going and reading it because the paramedics are interviewed about sort of their experiences and it's really, like it's fascinating. And just the layers to it, like the sense of purpose they felt from being given the opportunity to do something so impactful with their lives. It's really cool. It's amazing. Well, we've said goodbye today, mainly because his internet connection was so poor. But we say hello to everyone's favourite section of the show, the Patreon section, where we thank some of our great Patreon supporters who've been supporting us and really keeping the show a lot.
Starting point is 01:11:59 yeah, this show doesn't exist without them. And if you want to be one of them, you can go to patreon.com slash do go on pod. Is that right? Yep. Yeah, I'm on autopilot. And that's okay. Because I've got a pain in the neck. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:12:14 A pain that you deal with all the time, but I've had it for the first time and I want to end it all. Yeah. Now, hopefully, does that explain some of my shit attitude? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I feel. I feel like I want to be a really mean person right now. I understand.
Starting point is 01:12:34 But yeah, the way this works is, I'm feeling good, I should say. I was just playing it up. I don't want the listeners to feel like I'm not having a great time. You don't want them to know that you're a human being who experiences pain just like them? I don't want them to know that. Okay, yeah, great. We'll edit that out. Okay, thank you.
Starting point is 01:12:53 So, yeah, this section of show, we go through a bunch of different things, talking mainly about our great patrons and how, you know, they lift us up. They're the wind beneath our wings. That's right. And the first thing we like to do is the fact quote a question section, which is for the Sydney Schaenberg level supporters or above. And this section actually has a jingle, go somewhere like this. Fact quote or question. Ding. I always remembers the ding and she always remembers the sing. And the way this works is, if you're on the Sydney-Shonberg level or above,
Starting point is 01:13:29 you get to give us a factor quote or a question, or a brag or a suggestion or really whatever you like. And then, yeah, I read them out without pre-reading. No pre-reading done here at all. And the first one this week comes from Paul McNally. And you're also getting yourself a title. I don't know if I mention that. Paul's title is Chief of Delivering of Shady Side Eye
Starting point is 01:13:51 to wildly. incorrect statements. Oh. And Paul is offering a trivia question writing, Hello, folks. Thought I'd try a trivia question for you all for something a little different. I think this is maybe the first. Yeah, I don't know if we've had a trivia.
Starting point is 01:14:09 I love this. Might even spark a little theme going forward. Fingers on buzzers, please. Okay. Can any of you find a common thread between these songs? Not like us by Kendrick Lamar Do Hast by Ramstein Don't stop to get enough by Michael Jackson
Starting point is 01:14:29 Gimmy, Gimme a Man After Midnight by Abba The Imperial March from Star Wars Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes Never Gonna Give You Up by Rick Astley Highway to Hell by ACDC Jolene by Dolly Pardon Teenagers by My Chemical Romance Tubthumping by Chubb
Starting point is 01:14:46 Chubba And finally Baby Shark by Pink Frog. Can you find a common thread between that incredible array of, dare I say, fantastic songs? Some of them are like, they were definitely memes? Were they all different memes? Or could they all, then I was thinking maybe they have all been sampled. Like, Gimme, Gimme, Gimmy was sampled in a Madonna hit.
Starting point is 01:15:15 Yep, yep. But, yeah, what? That's great. That's a pretty broad range of songs and over a lot of time as well. Do they give us the answer? Or are we going to be tortured until their next question? Let me read on. You don't have an answer?
Starting point is 01:15:35 I don't. No, I can't think of anything. I don't have an answer. Let's find out what it is. With beats of between 100 and 120 beats per minute, all of the above songs are the perfect rhythm for CPR. What are the odds of that? That is crazy. What are the awards?
Starting point is 01:15:53 I mean, not that I would have put it together, but 9 to 5 is one. So that's my go-to for CPR. Which is interesting because Jolene was the one listed here. Yeah. Because staying alive is like the famous one, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, and you know what else is, but don't sing it out loud. Another one bites the dust. Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 01:16:13 Probably don't sing that out loud when you're... Bit of them. Another one bites the dust. Yeah, keep that in your head. But I go straight to Dolly 9 to 5. Pink Pony Club is also one for younger people. That is quite incredible that that question came up today. That's wild.
Starting point is 01:16:30 That's so cool. These have been allocated based on, you know, just timing a long while ago. As soon as he said 100 to 120, I was like, oh, no, oh, no. That's wild. Imagine doing the Imperial March. That's pretty funny. Is that one? Yeah.
Starting point is 01:16:49 Don't, yeah. Paul goes on to say, so if you're ever learning CPR, you can choose your favorite. There's even a Spotify playlist called inappropriate CPR songs, but I don't think anyone would like to be revived to smack that by ACON.
Starting point is 01:17:08 Do learn CPR people. It's genuinely the most important piece of first aid you can learn, and it's not hard. You might end up being the single most important person in someone's life one day. Keep up the great content, as always, all the best, Paul. I can't believe that that's happened on this episode where we talked about the pioneer of CPR.
Starting point is 01:17:29 That's wild. Incredible. That's so cool. Let's see if the next two are equally coincidental. Yeah. We are recording. Yes. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:17:40 When Dave's not here, it's the kind of question we're going to ask ourselves. Yeah, no, I've been watching and it's definitely, I can see. Which is a bit ironic because last. time we found out something that wasn't recording. Who was it? Dave. Dave. Yeah. Well, so I shouldn't be so hard on us. But now we have to make sure that we're doing it perfectly because if then then we can keep giving him shit for the one time he made a mistake. If we also made the same mistake, we'd have to like be nice to him. And I simply refuse. I mean, technology is really not his go. He literally can't figure out how to get back online right now. That's why he's not
Starting point is 01:18:15 here with us. He can't figure it out. So why do we do. trust him with recording our podcast. I don't think we should from now on. Agreed. If we ever hear from him again. Yeah, he's gone. He's gone. He's very busy in Canberra doing something not suss or mysterious.
Starting point is 01:18:31 No. Nothing to do with the feds. He's certainly not ratting us out, he kept saying. It's like, we never said you, we never suggested you were ratting us out, Dave. We also never done anything wrong. Yeah. Good luck riding out two perfect angels. I was going to say princesses, but I meant angels.
Starting point is 01:18:48 What a funny You can be a perfect princess if you want Yeah but I think most princesses have Imperfect Yeah They've got things to answer for The next one in the fact quote of question Comes from Katie Shannon Sharp
Starting point is 01:19:01 Okay Emeritus is that how you said Emeritus Professor of Dugoon Amaritis David no One of those classic words I've seen written down for sure Now Katie's asking a question writing doesn't get easier.
Starting point is 01:19:20 Hey, tre bien, trie bien, three. Tre bien, three. But you're so good at French. Oh, oh, French, sorry, let me have it going. There you go. I was wondering. Oh, no, I could do that. I was wondering who you imagine you are talking to when delivering a report.
Starting point is 01:19:41 Is it just the to the other two in the room, or do you imagine a large listening audience? Or maybe a smaller audience of people you know. I can't really answer my own question, which we always encourage question asks us to do. The closest thing I've done to podcasting would be an online Zoom lessons that I gave a bunch of teens
Starting point is 01:20:00 who had their cameras turned off. Not quite the same thing. I'll say, I can answer. I'm just talking to yesterday. Yeah, same. I'm not thinking about an audience at all. No offense. I'm thinking about you and I'm writing it
Starting point is 01:20:14 in terms of like, oh, that's a funny bit, or that'll be a fun reveal or something like that. But in the room, I'm just talking to Matt and Dave. Yes. I think it would, yeah, I don't know what would happen if I was picturing all the people listening. Was it, were up to seven? Seven or eight. Geez, I don't know that way, are we?
Starting point is 01:20:31 Maybe not. But, yeah, I mean, the live shows, obviously. Yes, that's different. I'm delivering that to, again, to people in the room. But that is more audience, but. Yes. That feels like a performance. the live shows, these don't feel like a performance.
Starting point is 01:20:47 No. If that makes sense. Yeah, I do. Occasionally I remember that Will Anderson might be listening and I feel a deep shame. Yes. I'm like, oh, I wish he wasn't hearing me like this. Yeah, occasionally I say something about my dad and then I go, I hope he's not listening. But yeah, I don't know if that would be a surprising answer.
Starting point is 01:21:04 I would be curious to hear what Dave had to say, but I'm guessing probably be the same as us. Oh, I'm usually thinking about other than live shows, like that something, about the audience. The rest of my days, I'm thinking about Matt and Dave. Like I'm making toast. I'm thinking about Matt and Dave. I'm going to bed. I'm thinking about Matt and Dave. Yes. That's why you only, our group chat is always going off because it's often our south thoughts. I don't think of you. Yeah. And then I heart react to that. Go for a walk thinking of you. Yeah. That sort of stuff. Are you guys going for a walk? It's almost like we're going for a walk together. Should we go for a walk together? Should we go for a walk together?
Starting point is 01:21:42 Doesn't matter. I'll talk to you later. Yeah, sorry, I finished my walk. I'm sorry if you wanted to come. I'll go on another one if you want to go on a walk, you know. Yeah. Stuff like that. Thank you so much for that question, Katie. The last one this week comes from Paul Meller,
Starting point is 01:21:55 aka commandant of terrible jokes. And Paul's listed his category as shit joke. Okay, we'll see. We'll see. Paul Wright, tell you guys, so a few years ago on a team building event with work, we had a game of each telling the group a shit joke. There was alcohol involved, but still no excuse for mine.
Starting point is 01:22:21 Here is the one I told. Question. What is white with a tartan scarf and stands in the corner of the kitchen? Answer, Rupert the fridge. He said, like I said, it is shit. I think I heard it when I was but a boy. Do you guys have any shit jokes? Oh, and thank you for all the last.
Starting point is 01:22:46 in 2025, often I find myself giggling out loud. And it is when you guys are on a riff about something silly on the pod. Your energy has been amazing recently. All the best for 2026 and Carnus Saints, Paul. I think it's because we finally started to get to know each other and, dare I say, like each other. Jeez, that was a lucky realization. Yes, right? Because some people you meet them and you like them immediately.
Starting point is 01:23:14 And others takes a good 9, 10 years. But here we are very much in like and really hitting a good stride. Yes. Now, what do you think of the joke? I think I agree with shit. I don't get it. Yeah, so I think it is shit. So Rupert the Bear was a cartoon character who wore a tartan scarf.
Starting point is 01:23:33 Okay. Now, that's in context I didn't have. Okay. That is, that is, well, it's not as shit as I had originally thought, but it's still a shit joke. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Do I have a shit joke for you? No. Unfortunately, I've spent a good eight years as a professional stand-up comedian. Yeah, they're all really good. So I don't know bad jokes. And if I've ever heard them, I've immediately deleted them from my brain. So unfortunately, I only know very, very good jokes. Matt, you'd know a few shitty ones, though. Yeah, well, I mean, I think I already told one this episode about the Napo baby plumber.
Starting point is 01:24:12 Yep. I mean, is it even a joke? I don't know. I think the shitters jokes, you're like, is that a joke? Yeah, was that funny? Yeah. I can't. My favorite joke's the ones you have to immediately explain.
Starting point is 01:24:25 I think that makes it very funny. Bad joke. I'll just steal one from the internet. Yeah, first thing you see that says bad joke. It says readers digest, 171 bad jokes. But I'll just read the first one. Why do you need that many bad jokes? Oh my God.
Starting point is 01:24:44 I've heard. I've heard of the. the first two. Great. Okay, well, it's a classic. Knock knock. Who's there? Interrupting cow.
Starting point is 01:24:54 My favorite. Interrupting cow. No. Yeah, that's genuinely one of my favorite jokes. Yeah. I just think it's so dumb. Yeah, it is. It's like if you're an American when you go to the bathroom,
Starting point is 01:25:04 an American when you come out, what are you in the bathroom? European. That feels very just coded, actually. Because it's about piss and I love piss. In brackets. Compliment. Yeah, oh no, I took it as one. That's why I faced it this.
Starting point is 01:25:20 It's just a bit, it's just a cute joke. It's just cute. It's a bit of fun. Thank you so much, Paul, Katie and Paul. Oh, Paul sandwich. Katie sandwich. Paul's the bread. Yeah, you're not talking like, you know what I'm having a bread sandwich.
Starting point is 01:25:32 Sorry, fucking idiot, Jess. I'm not. Oh, so stupid. What am I thinking? All right, so that brings us to where we thank a few of other great Patreon supporters. Now, Jess, you normally come up with a game based on the topic? You've got any thoughts this week? I have pulled up a random vehicle generator.
Starting point is 01:25:53 Oh, great. This is the vehicle, because I've driven an ambulance, this is the big vehicle they've driven. And if it ends up being a small thing, but it's actually a big version of it. What do you think, though, about as a tweak to that, it's the biggest vehicle they've driven, but it's also the one they're starting their own ambulance service with. You know what we?
Starting point is 01:26:11 Love it, yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, great. All right. So, which makes sense. they've just picked the biggest vehicle they've driven to be their ambulance. And the ambulance service these days have helicopters. It's not just the classic sort of sprinter van style now. You know, you can get, like, this is what a paramedic taught me, and I've never fact-checked it.
Starting point is 01:26:33 But he says, you know, the two places you can get a blood transfusion in Australia, it's the hospital and the helicopters. Really? The helicopters, they're like micro-paramedics, and then they have like extra-traumans. on top of that. They're like some of the most highly trained medical professionals. And they can fly a chopper. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:26:51 Well, there was a pilot, hopefully. What happens if they can't find a pilot? They must also know how to fly if they got to. I think it's more that the pilots are pretty well trained in their first aid stuff rather than that paramedics are trained in the piloting. So it's sort of like the Armageddon conundrum. Yes. Do you train the drillers?
Starting point is 01:27:12 Yes. How to be astronauts or the astronauts how to be drillers. Yeah. Similar. Drilling is the harder task there. Yeah, like Ben Affleck said in the... And the directors cut the DVD extras. He made a good point.
Starting point is 01:27:28 Just like that. Anyway, it's a fun fact that might be wrong. I'll give you the place and name of these people, and you'll give them an automobile. I'm ready. First up from Address Unknown, can only shoot from deep within the fortress of the miles. Thanks so much for your support.
Starting point is 01:27:42 Jake T. Jake T is introducing the ambulance that is a 12, 2022, Accura, Arrx-O-6 race car. Don't be confused by race car. It is, in fact, a train. What? Yeah, I know. I'm going to Google.
Starting point is 01:27:55 That is, when you said random, I mean, that's random, bro. Thank you so much, Jake T. Next up from Leighton Buzzard. No, it is a race car. There's some reason the picture is a train. From Leighton Buzzard in Great Britain. Thank you so much. T.
Starting point is 01:28:14 Marston. A semi-trailer. Oh, yeah. A Volvo F-H-16. Yeah, you could move. You could move a few corpses and that. Oh, yeah, yeah. I made living corpses.
Starting point is 01:28:28 Living corpses. Like the cops call them. It's less for really emergency stuff because we could obviously carry so many people. Yes. So it's just sort of like, just wait. We'll get to the hospital eventually, but it will be about eight hours from now.
Starting point is 01:28:41 From, again, address, I know, can only assume from deep within the four. Portrait of the Moles. Please, welcome and thank you, Sarah Elizabeth Harnie. A 2010 Holden Cruise. Oh. Just a great sedan. Yeah, it's pretty compact for a sedan.
Starting point is 01:28:57 Yeah. You know. But it'll get there faster, weave through traffic. Don't know how, are they, they got a good reputation, the cruise? Next up, I have a feeling they don't, but I don't want to get sued by Holden. No. You know, a great Australian brand. I don't want to be sued by Holden.
Starting point is 01:29:16 No. So let's move on. Again from Address I know, another mole person. Thank you so much to Poopie Butte McGeerson on McGregerson. Poopin butt McGregerson. Pooby but McGregerson. A 1978 Jeep Waggoner. Oh, now we're getting, I think that's a great option.
Starting point is 01:29:34 Yeah. And in the picture, it's like driving across some sandy dunes and I think like, because we're, you know, accidents happen anywhere. Yeah. That's great stuff. That's really handy to have poopy butt. Again, address unknown. What's their go with people who signed up whatever day this was
Starting point is 01:29:53 and not wanting to give away their address? This is early in 2026 these people signed up. Well, another mole person, but are they a mole? Are they a different kind of whole dwelling animal? It's James Fox. Oh, that was great. Thank you so much. Considering you're not feeling your best, that was quite sharp.
Starting point is 01:30:14 Thanks, but. And James is going back to the old school because he is bringing in a 1904 Oldsmobile runabout. One of these little fancy doodads. Not a lot of space for a patient nor to be working on said patient. But you could just sort of lie in the side. Instead of the saura, he'll have that hauga, hauga, like honking horn. I wrote a wuga in a message to Dave yesterday and he said I heard that in your voice. And I thought, thank you so much.
Starting point is 01:30:43 Can you put it in your voice now? A huga. You do that. Sounds very well. Thank you so much, James Fox. From Cumberland Forside in M.E. Maine, maybe. No, it doesn't matter.
Starting point is 01:31:00 In the United States. Thank you so much. Maureen Fitzgerald. Maureen's like, I want to help people who are sick and also bushfires. They got a Lockheed C-130 Hercules. Oh my God. Now that's going to be the pick so far. It's not quite as maneuverable like a Holden cruise,
Starting point is 01:31:21 which I've just been told by our lawyers is a fantastic automobile. Available at your local Holden dealer. MEE does seem to be Maine. Maine, okay. Sorry I doubted you. Sorry you doubted you and I didn't back you up. Well, it just feels like it shouldn't be. I guess I've taken the first and last letters of it, but that's confusing.
Starting point is 01:31:42 Yeah. The problem is they've picked so many state names to being with M. There might be eight of them. Too many. Too many. Come on, guys. You've got 50 states, eight of them, so with M. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:31:52 It's a real problem. Use some other letters. Have you used Q? They haven't. There's no Q. Before we use another M. Do you want to mean? They haven't even used B.
Starting point is 01:32:02 Oh, come on, guys. There's not a single B state from memory. How many letters are there in the alphabet? 26. Right. So you've got a nice even spread. You could have two per letter. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:32:10 You could have Q, A. NQB, two states. Cuba. Cuba. You could have Cuba. Don't give them ideas. They're annexing things left front and centre at the moment. Don't worry about it.
Starting point is 01:32:23 Anyway, from, I should say, Maureen, thanks so much. Thank you, Maureen. And thank you for your help during the bushfires. Beautiful spot up in Maine. I believe it never been. Never been. It looks like it from photos. Looks beautiful.
Starting point is 01:32:36 Yeah. From Houston, Texas. Thank you so much to Becky May. This one might actually be kind of helpful. A Chrysler P.T. Cruiser. Oh, yeah. You know? Yeah.
Starting point is 01:32:48 Almost looks like a hearse. It's like a, it's a classic looking car. It's sort of got the oldmobile vibe of an old car, but it's been updated. That's right. To have like a roof and stuff. Take the back seats out. There you go. You got yourself plenty of space for paramedics to luxurier.
Starting point is 01:33:02 You know, cruising for corpses. That's right. Living corpses. Yeah. Thank you so much, Becky. From Brentwood in New York in the United States. Thank you so much. Mike Riley.
Starting point is 01:33:14 Mike's gone for a front heavy vehicle instead of a back heavy one. Oh, Penny Farthing. Gone for a Buick Skylark. Buick Skyluck second guess. Yeah. Can I have a look at how that's front heavy? Yep. Oh.
Starting point is 01:33:27 Big nose on it. That's a, oh man, that's a fucking sexy car. Holy shit. Yeah. Could I have that once you're done with it, Mike? I don't know. No, because the way you're talking about it makes me feel like you're going to do something weird. You think I'm going to fuck that car?
Starting point is 01:33:39 I think you're going to try and fuck that car. Yeah. Okay. Oh yeah, no, I just wanted to make sure that we were all on the same page. Yeah, okay, I guess. It's up to Mike, but... I wouldn't. I wouldn't. I'd treat that, I'd treat that car just right. You can fuck a car respectfully. No, I know, but that's like, if it wants me to. Great. You're both having a good time. And I don't think a car can really give consent like that.
Starting point is 01:34:02 So you better not then. I think so. Yeah. Let's assume it's a no, then. Yeah. If it's not an enthusiastic yes, then it's a no. Yeah. And that's an important lesson. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:34:11 I think that's a really well-made point. I think we should send this clip out to universities where that message really needs to get. And I would say, even if you've changed your car's horn to have a like a novelty sound saying, yes, a please. Or go, go, go, or anything like that.
Starting point is 01:34:39 That doesn't count. No one's like, do me, daddy. I do me daddy Do me daddy Do me daddy You see how like It wouldn't have been as funny If I'd said it
Starting point is 01:34:48 I think it would have been No because there'd be some perves on the internet Who would like that Oh yeah There's definitely some perils I realised after I said I was insulting you Not on purpose
Starting point is 01:34:58 I mean I think we all accept that That's not turning anyone on Me saying Do me daddy Okay I need you to stop You started it I'm getting really turned on And it's not appropriate
Starting point is 01:35:10 It works And that means finally again, another mole person from address unknown, it's Miyamu. And coming in at $350 for the Lego, McLaren, MCL 39 F1 car. Yeah, I thought it'd be pretty funny. I googled Lego race cars, but $350 for it. That's an expensive automobile. You could buy a real car for less than that. It wouldn't be good, but it would be more effective as a car.
Starting point is 01:35:41 But I mean Lego people need ambulances as well. Oh, that's true. Is there a Lego ambulance? There's got to be. There's got to be many. I want to get one. That's cute. While you're looking that up, I'm going to say thank you so much to Miami or Miyamu,
Starting point is 01:35:55 Mike, Becky, Maureen, James, Poopi Butt, Sarah T and Jake. Now, what have we got left? I actually think I looked ahead. We don't have any triptage inductees this week, but we do have a triple triptage. inductee interestingly. So Triptage Club, if you don't know, that's people who have been on the shoutout level or above for three straight years.
Starting point is 01:36:23 The triple triptage club is actually for people who've been on the shoutout level or above for nine straight years. Absolutely crazy. And we have one inductee this week. Now, the way this works is, I believe Dave normally gives them a salute. So I'll do the salute this week. And Jess, you give them something as well.
Starting point is 01:36:43 A kiss. A kiss. And I also give them a, what am I thinking, Jess? You give them custodianship, is that the right word? That's right. Of an episode. That's right. Okay.
Starting point is 01:36:58 A very important role that we hope they take very seriously and take good care of that episode. Yes. There's an idea suggested by Martin Drabbock, Hampshire. And I'll eventually stop thanking you for your idea, Martin. I apologize. This is an ongoing thank you. Yeah. If you need the thank you all the time, Martin, it's like, who did you do this for?
Starting point is 01:37:20 I would also... You or for the people? I would also say that Martin's never asked to be thanked. Who are you doing this for, Martin? Are you doing it for the greater good, for the do-go-one community? Or are you doing it for you, Martin? Something to think about, Martin. Marty, look at us.
Starting point is 01:37:39 Martin, thank you so much for a fantastic suggestion. Thank you so much for that great. We really appreciate it, yeah. But I'd have a look in the mirror. Yeah. And then, yeah, if it's okay with you, I might start to forget to do that. Maybe every now and then, bring it up, but yeah, don't. Maybe I want.
Starting point is 01:37:53 I've got your name and your message on this spreadsheet, but I just don't always understand. At some point, we're going to have to use that cell for something else. You know what I mean? That's our spreadsheets work. Yeah, exactly. They get filled up if you're doing it right. Hey, yo. Do me daddy.
Starting point is 01:38:08 Do me daddy. See, no, gross when I do it. All right, so let me welcome in to the triple tripditch club. It's actually a secret door from inside the triptych club. It's a golden door. And once you're in there, like Leonardo, Da Vinci and DiCaprio, sort of tag team you. And however, I mean in painting. Yeah, they each have a brush.
Starting point is 01:38:34 Oh, beautiful. Yeah, I don't know why. that wasn't clear when I said they tagged me. I was just, would you all bind in a weird place? Or if you hear someone say these two people tag team you, you think immediately you don't think about painting? Wishfully, I was thinking of something else.
Starting point is 01:38:50 Okay, well, I'm afraid not. From those two stone cold hoddies? That's true. And, yeah, so we got one person who's getting the key to the door right now. He is from Minneapolis. in Minnesota in the United States, the rightful owner of the MN state code. You can see that.
Starting point is 01:39:15 That one makes sense. Welcome into the club. Leon. Well, your surname isn't on there. It's only in your email address. I don't want to docks you. But it starts with an L. Leon L.
Starting point is 01:39:29 Now, you're going to do this salute? A compliment and a salute. You have fantastic head. Salute. I was going to say hair. I'm like, I don't want to... I'll say hair.
Starting point is 01:39:46 You have fantastic head. Do you see how I, like, how quickly I was able to... Yeah, pivot. You have fantastic hair. Salute. You have fantastic hair. I don't think the camera caught the kiss. It did, it did, it did, you sure.
Starting point is 01:40:05 And you have now got the custodianship of episode 14. Triple J's Hottest 100. Whoa. Which is now 10 years out of date. And seven years after, almost to the day that that came out, I hosted the hottest 100. So cool. Isn't that crazy?
Starting point is 01:40:25 So cool. I'll never get over it. And you can't make me. Try though. Do me daddy. Are there just only for the patrons who can watch, I'm pushing the horn. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do me, daddy.
Starting point is 01:40:43 I'm perfecting the voice. Can you do it a bit more like a Swedish chef? Do my daddy. Is that more like a sweetest chef? Because it has to like for it to be like a horn. Yeah. Do me daddy. Do me daddy.
Starting point is 01:40:59 Do me daddy. I don't like it as much. I liked it before when it was. Do me daddy. Ooh. I want to stop now. Yeah, that's a good idea. Welcome into the club.
Starting point is 01:41:10 Leo, make yourself at home. Say hello to. the two Leo's and yeah. Enjoy. They'll look after you. Oh yeah, they will. Now, Jess, is there anything we need to tell people before we go? They can suggest a topic.
Starting point is 01:41:25 You can do that. There's a link in the show notes. It's also on our website, which is dogoonpod.com. And you can find us on social media, which is at do go on pod or dogo on podcast on TikTok. Yes. Please, follow us. Like and subscribe. Sign up to our mailing list.
Starting point is 01:41:40 So that we can come to a city near you. Yeah, which we would really love to do. And hopefully we'll have some exciting news soon. Dave has been working away in the background, talking to a few venues in cities we've never been before. I know. Very exciting. I'm so pumped.
Starting point is 01:41:55 So stay tuned for that. But if you want to be involved, yes, I'm up to that mailing list. Dave really does use the data. Yeah, I was going to be too gross to say the data. But no, you did. And you know that I think of them as people, not numbers. I think of this as a business, not a community. Well, I'm almost the opposite of that.
Starting point is 01:42:16 I like to crunch the numbers. Yeah, you do love to crunch. And I ignore the people. I say, get out of my way, you pleb. Give me your money and fuck off, I say. Yeah. I'm a capitalist pig. You are.
Starting point is 01:42:28 You're a capo pig. Always a pleasure, Jess Perkins. Great report today. Such an inspiring story. Let's see that on the big screen. Oh my God. It does feel cinematic, doesn't it? And, yeah.
Starting point is 01:42:41 So cool that it was like you've got the direct link to that as well. It feels like you're going to end up with more qualifications than anyone in the world. I just collect them. Yeah. I collect them. I love that. I've got an interest in like, I reckon I'll end up somewhere vaguely medical at some point. Anyway.
Starting point is 01:43:01 Jizz hospital. Probably into the Jiz Hospital and you'll be like, I don't know, the last nurse couldn't get it out of me. And I'll say, well, that's what they send me in, bud. Yeah, I'll get that. I'll get that jizz out of you. No worries. And you just put punching, like boxing gloves on? Yeah.
Starting point is 01:43:15 And I punch you in the dick. So hard. You punch it out. I'll punch it out for you, mate. All right. Anyway, let's the end of the episode. We need Dave. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:43:25 You boot his baby home. Thanks, what does he say? Thanks so much for joining us, everyone. We'll see you next week here at Dugo with another great report. Until then, I'll say goodbye. Later. Bye! I think we did just fine without him.
Starting point is 01:43:39 Don't forget to sign up to our tour mailing so we know where in the world you are and we can come and tell you when we're coming there. Wherever we go, we always hear six months later, oh, you should come to Manchester. We were just in Manchester. But this way you'll never, will never miss out. And don't forget to sign up, go to our Instagram, click our link tree, very, very easy. It means we know to come to you and you'll also know that we're coming to you. Yeah, we'll come to you, you come to us.
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