Good Job, Brain! - 152: Follow the Leader

Episode Date: May 15, 2015

Kneel and bow before trivia about those who are leaders of the pack! Take Chris' quiz on business leaders who name their famous companies after their own swagga self. Why we call sport team leaders "coaches" and the traditions among different sports. Leaders with animal names, and the intriguing origin of Rastafarians and their holy leader. Why would anyone be in the lead of a race and then disappear?! The weird world of rabbit runners who get paid to run fast, and drop out of a race. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast. Hello, flipping flawless flash bulbs, flaunting flavors. Welcome to Good Job, Bring your weekly quiz show and Offbeat Trivia podcast. This is episode 152, and of course, I'm your home. Humble host, Karen, and we are your flock of flame-throwing flamingos flabbergasted by floutas and flan. I'm Colin. I'm Dana. And I'm very hungry after that.

But mostly I'm Chris. You dip the flouta right in the flound. It's like the fries in the milkshake. Oh, yeah. It actually is very similar to that. It just blew my mind. A custard rito or some custard rito. Yep.

I have a quick shout out. This is from Josh. his fiance, Nicole, Nicole was the one who wrote in and requested a comic book theme quiz that birthed X-Men House. Oh, yes. That was a long time ago. That was like two years ago. And they are a couple days away from their wedding.

And I just want to give a cool shout out. Congratulations. Josh and Nicole. And all right, without further ado, let's jump into our first general trivia segment, pop quiz, hot shot. And you guys have your Barnyard buzzers. they're back. All right. Random card.

Here we go. Here we go. Oh, random trivial pursuit. Oh, yeah, many different types of trivial pursuit cards. We don't know what's going to come out. Truly random. 90s. Okay.

All right. Okay. Okay. All right. 90s Trivial Pursuit card. Here we go. I keep hoping for baby boomer, but 90s. Or Star Wars.

Or Star Wars. No. No. No. All right. 90s. Here we go. Blue Edge.

Who was the only cast member of the Larry Sanders show to cop and Emmy Collins I've never watched the show so I've never again Was that Jeffrey Tambor? Incorrect I have no idea

It's not Gary Shannon or Larry Sanders Yeah maybe we should all guess Gary Shanling Just because No no It's I won't take a second by it No please do it Was it Rip Torn? Rip Torn

Oh He's great He's great Oh, my God, he's a, if you can dodge a wrench, you can, if you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball. Yeah, and one, he's also the jack's boss at GE on 30. Yeah, he's like in every everything. Okay, all right. Pink Wedge.

Who was hit with a $9 million lawsuit for backing out of a deal to play an armless, legless woman in Boxing Helena? Oh, which is a movie. Yes. I guess about an armless legless woman. All right. This is a guess. Was it Kim Bessinger? Kim Bessinger.

Oh. Yes. And it was Charlene Fenn, I think, took the role. Was it really? Armless and Legless? She was. It was a strange movie. It was a weird movie.

Art Garfunkel was in that as well. Really? Yes. Wait, the musician? Yes. Yellow Wedge, who became Britain's longest continuously serving prime minister of the 20th century? Chris. Margaret Fats.

Correct, Margaret Thatcher. The 90s. The 90s. Purple Wedge, what hip-hop term? Do some fly boys trace back to, quote, physically attractive or, quote, pretty hips and thigh? Fats. Yes. Oh, yeah.

Physically attractive. Hips and thighs. Those are background names. Oh, yeah. Green Wedge, what NBA team won 72 out of a year? 82 games in the 1995-96 season. I'm going to let you guys answer that. Wait. Okay. The Bulls.

Correct. Yeah. Chicago Bulls. Yeah. This is 90s and basketball. Michael's Jordan. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, Colin. He wasn't playing baseball. That is still the record, by the way. Best record in the season. Yeah. 72 and 10. All right. Last question of our 90s card. What giant internet outfit scooped up Netscape in a bid to corner the browser

market. Wow, 90s. Dana. Yahoo? Incorrect. What Netscape. What giant internet outfit Scooped up Netscape. Scooped up. Scooped up. Scooped up netscape. Oh, is that a clue? Not Mozilla? I believe it's AOL. Correct. America Online.

America. Giant internet outfit. Wow. Those are some words I have heard in a A really long time. 90s. Good job, Brain. The 19 years. So today's episode, I usually talk about what inspired me to pick the topic. This was weird.

I had a dream. I had a dream about we were recording, and I made a quiz pairing up actors who played presidents and vice presidents. Like, I would give you the pair. Whoa. And then you guys guessed. Like, I dreamt that. And then I was like, I woke up. I was like, that's a good quiz.

That should be a good episode about leaders, world leaders, leadings. And did you do the quiz? I did not write the quiz. That was a good quiz. That was a good quiz. I know. I'll do it next time. That's the ironic thing.

Karen. I get it. I got as far as Paris and Ford and Glenn Close. And then that was like it. And I was like, no, I'm going to talk about some of the else. So today's episode is not only on world leaders, but also sports leaders leading the pack. And so this week, follow the leader. episode, Karen. You were like, Colleen, you're not going to do a sports topic, so I felt

obligated. So I want to talk to you a little bit about the leaders in sports. We call them coaches or managers, at least for the North American pro sports. Wait, heard of those. What do they call them elsewhere? So I'm going to start, I have some photos here. I'm going to show you guys. And these, these are, you know this is a podcast. Dear listener, don't worry. Like an audio podcast. Don't worry. He's just trying to like make us look. No, no, no. This is, I'm going to, I'm going to, you know, I'm going to, you know, You guys are going to sort of talk through the intro to this segment here. So I'm going to start by showing you a photo here of this is coach Tom Landry,

legendary coach of the Dallas Cowboys in the 1970s. Yes, good old Tom Landry, square jaw, hat. That man means business. Yeah, it's the name of the school and King of the Hill. Yes, Tom Landry Middle School. There you go. There you go. All right.

And here I have a photo of coach. Pat Riley, from his days coaching the Los Angeles Lakers in the Showtime era. These are tall dudes. Well, you know, I mean, he was a former basketball player, Pat Riley, so he's going to be on the tall side. You know, there's Pat and his trademark Armani suit and slicked back hair. And lastly, I'm going to show you a photo of Joe Torrey. Famously managed the New York Yankees in the 90s and the 2000s won some championships along the way. Now, looking at these three photos, I want you guys to sort of talk through what sort of

So what's different among these three photos here? Now, I should say these are all, these men are all on the job. This is Joe Torrey during a baseball game, Tom Landry during a football game, Pat Riley during a baseball. Baseball. Baseball managers wear the uniform that the players wear. They all sit there in the uniform in the dugout together. Why is that? Why do baseball managers wear the uniform?

Because the football, Pat Riley and the other dude, they're wearing suits and stuff. Yeah, and I'll give you a little hint here. It's sort of related to the reason that in Major League Baseball, we call them the manager. Yeah, not the coach. As opposed to the coach. I'm guessing that the manager originally was a player on the team. In the original days of professional baseball and even semi-pro clubs, the person that we now called a manager would have been a player on the team. They would have called him usually like captain.

Yeah. Yeah. He would have been a player on the team, not just making the decision of, you know, who's pitching, what's our batting lineup. but also actually getting out on the field and playing when he wasn't in the dugout. Wow. Now, there were teams, even going back into the 1800s baseball teams where the person who made those decisions would not have been a player as well, in which case he would just wear street clothes. So it was really only that case of if you're a baseball team and the manager is a player, he wears the uniform.

Now, it has been years, decades, it has been a long, long time since there has been a team where... MLBs. Right. Actually had a manager who would play. But is that possible? So most teams, it's funny, you know, most pro sports teams these days, it would actually be really complicated because there's collective bargaining agreement rules about contracts. It would be a really easy way around salaries. You could say like, oh, no, we're just paying the superstar $5 as a player. We're paying $30 million to be our coach. You know, and you could circumvent salary caps and things like that. It also just makes more sense to just devote all of your effort to have real players, 100% focused on playing, and have one person 100% focused on running the team. Are the managers, they tend to be older, right? They do tend to be older. And, you know, I mean, in most sports, not just in America, in most sports, the coaches and managers tend to have been ex-players, generally, generally speaking. Yeah, yeah. So why is it manager, you know, as opposed to coach?

And in the original days, like, the baseball manager was kind of like a band manager. You're like, this was the person like, you know, scheduling lineups and, you know, you know, I mean, you got to, you know, like, oh, yeah, we'll come and travel and play you guys making arrangements. And that would have been the manager. It does sound annoying. Okay. All right. So, why do we call the person in charge of a basketball, football team? Why is it coach?

What's the origin of coach? Coach, yeah. Like a coach car? It is related to the stage coach and the coach or a traveling coach. Yeah. I looked into this. And apparently, the word coach first arose on, like, university campuses, meaning, like, a tutor, essentially. You would have a private tutor.

And the- They'd go along with you to- The imagery is they're coaching you, meaning they're transporting you. They're carrying you through to success in your academic endeavors. And it, you know, you can see pretty quickly how it would leap from, like, an academic tutor or coach to a sports coach. Wow. Yeah, and that, I found that really interesting.

That is poetic. It is kind of poetic. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So there's always that moment. Someone watching baseball is like, wait, why is he wearing a uniform? Like, I always wish that, I don't know, I kind of wish I could see basketball coaches wearing the same, yeah, the shorts and the tank top and all that.

It would look a little silly. So every company has a founder or founders, people who establish. A company that may go on to do great things. And many of those people, when looking for a name for their company, may look only as far as themselves. And we'll name their company after themselves. And so this is a quiz about companies that are named for the founders of that company. Okay. There also, there is an overarching, there is another thematic thing going on.

There is another theme that is beyond the boundaries of the theme that I was just suggested, which is the, right, yes. So as you're, there's a meta theme. There's another theme. So as we're going through, try to, yeah, there's a pattern. It's a pattern. Okay. Busing in? We are buzzing in.

This restaurant was opened in Lodai County. California in 1919 by Roy Allen and Frank Wright. Colin. That's A&W. That is A&W. Yes, Roy Allen and Frank Wright. A. Allen, right. Yeah.

California ice cream shops, Burton's ice cream, and Snowbird ice cream, merged in 1953 to form a new ice cream place named after the two founders. Oh, is it Baskin-Robbins? It is Baskin-Robbins. Burt Baskin and Irv-Robbins. Oh, I see them, not a theme. Maybe. Maybe you don't.

Maybe you do. This guy named his company after himself. He founded that company after he initially purchased the magazine publisher, Vogue. Karen. Condé Nass? Conday Nass. Yes. From whom all my paychecks

I was just going to write Condé Nast that is a guy His name was Condé Nast Really? Yeah First name Condé Condé First name Condé

Last name Nast Yep At the end of the movie Hannibal The title character Is seen eating foie gras Purchased at this upscale Very upscale chain of grocery stores

Which was initially opened in New York City Oh Karen I've never watched the movie Dean and DeLuca It is, Dean and Dolica, yes. There were additional hints in there. Yeah, right, well done.

It's crafted in such a way. Yes. The founder's name is often dropped when this camera company is mentioned, but it's really in there, or it's supposed to be in there. Column. Is it Eastman Kodak? Eastman Kodak is still to this day the actual proper name of the, yes. Is it two guys? No, just the guy's name is Eastman.

He made up the word Kodak. Oh, okay, okay. Ah, is the, is the theme you thought was the theme, not the theme? Not the theme. The nickname, I guess I did. The nickname of this car company's founder was Il Commendatory. Uh, Colin. El commendatory.

Okay, he's Italian. Ferrari? Yes. Enzo Ferrari was known as Il commendatore. This company was named for its founders, Gary Burrell and May, Min cow. Gary Borell and Karen. K-B-T-T-Y-T-Y-N-N-E-R-E-L-L and Min-C-A-O-N-C-E-R-E-L and Min-C-A-O.

Yeah, K-B-T-E-T-E-O. B-K-B-K-E-B. They use their first names. Oh. And they made a nice little portmanteau of them. Garmin? Garmin. Whoa, the GPS manufacturers.

That's right, yep. Whoa. Wow. This company, this founder named company, which Ken Jennings knows very well, is rather unique in that most of its employees work only four months out of the year. Oh, geez. Karen. H&R. Block. H&R. Block.

That's the question that Ken Jennings went out on. Yes, that ended his jeopardy streak. This retail store was founded by a guy named Ingvar Comprad. Everybody. IKEA. Yes, it's an acronym of Ingvar Comprad and the family farmer he was born, Elm Tarud, and a nearby village, Aguinaris. Sounds accurate.

Yeah, very Swedish. IKEA. Finally, finally, and sticking with names I can't pronounce, James L-I-A-O-T-A-U-D, L-I-A-U-D, L-I-O-T-A-O-T-O-D, James La-Tode, founded this fast-growing sandwich shop in 1983. Yes, remember? Jimmy John's?

Oh. That's James. He doesn't go by James. He goes by Jimmy John. Oh, that's a sandwich place. It's a sandwich place. Yeah. Yeah, they're growing fast.

They are growing fast. They are growing fast. So, just as a recap, that's A&W, Baskin-Robbins, Condé Nass, Dien DeLuca, Eastman, Kodak, Ferrari, Garmin, H&R Block, Ikea, and Jimmy Johns. They're enough of that order. They're enough of that quarter. Okay. Well, done. Well, thanks, thanks, thanks.

Wow, the Garmin one blew me away. Yeah, that's a good one. Yeah, I really like that one. When I saw that one, I was like, oh, that's nice. Yeah. Not a lot of first names. That's elegant. Not a lot of first names, yeah.

Yeah, that's true. Jimmy Johns. Well, yeah, that's like nickname. Right, right. Childhood nicknames. Fast-growing sandwich chain. It was like Subway. Yeah, that's why I was like,

Quist note. Yeah, it's his name. Togos. James. Togothi. Yeah. I go by Togo. So, yeah, I didn't prepare the vice president, president.

You said, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I'm real disappointed. I'll bring it back I'll bring it back So everybody Don't spoil yourself It wasn't my dreams

Okay I'll come back So we are recording this podcast Right now The day before Boston Marathon By the time you're going to hear this It's going to be a couple of weeks

After that So congrats to whoever wins tomorrow Congrats to for winning the Boston Marathon Great job What a surprise Yeah

I always knew that Lily Zeta isa could do it Yeah Just great Just a lot of running A lot of moving Just one foot after the other I mean

I've been running recreationally for years But only started racing Like actually attending registering for races For the last five years So I haven't been a racer For that long And even though I'm plugged into running

More than your usual average bear I still have a lot to learn So I read I would flip through running magazines And one of the magazines a couple years ago I flipped through was Runner's World

and they had this article and I had no idea that this existed but let me set the stage set the scene New York City Madison Square Garden 2011

people in the crowds were basically on their toes right now watching the fastest two men booking it as they race the final two laps of the Wanamaker mile

very climatic a very big race and so by that time there's a guy called Matt Sher He's just standing inside the track, like, you know, in the oval part inside the track, just kind of watching. He's super sweaty. And the guy next to him is kind of looking at Matt.

I was like, why is he puffing? Why is he panting? Why is he sweating? It's almost as if he was running the race. They're watching right now. Uh-huh. Well, he was. Welcome to the very, very weird world of rabbiting.

What? A rabbit in the running world is basically a patient. setter, when I really boil it down, they're paid to run the first portion of a race and then drop out. They're paid to drop out.

So is rabbit like in a greyhound race? Is that the illusion? Yes, the illusion is like in a dog race. They have that little fake rabbit. Why? Why? Yes. Why? Why would anybody do this? And why is this good? And why why does this practice exist?

So basically, a rabbit is hired to accurately lead the early part of a race in a very specific time, in a very specific pace. So they're also known as pace-setters or pacer's. He or she is a visual embodiment of time. Okay. That person is running at a steady internal clock. Like, I need to hit this and this and this. So other runners who are actually competing know how they're doing. Yeah, how they're doing.

Oh, sure. If they're behind the guy or they're in front of the guy, they can just look and be like, I'm too, I've been running for 22 minutes. Yes. Right. Because right now, I mean, you know, a lot of the runners, even though we have all these fancy gadgets that tell us how fast we're, when you're running a big race. Yeah. You just, you know, you're just going. You're just going. Yeah.

So in the recent years, almost every middle distance to long distance, like marathons, all the world records. have been made possible because of the help of rabbits or pacers. They serve the role as being something tangible on the track. They are not allowed at World Championship or Olympic competition. And this is why there are not a lot of world record performances at the Olympics. So if you think about it, the pacemaker is helpful for the runners. They can estimate their effort. They can estimate their time.

Yeah, it's like, oh, I should pour it on right now. Yeah. Or I'm burning too hot. I need to slow down a little bit. Yeah, I need to ease up. And physiologically, it is easier to run from behind than to run in front. A good estimate is that it takes about 15% less effort to run behind somebody. Second of all, of course, it's psychologically.

It's easier to run from behind because you're not the target. You're following a target. You see a target and you're running towards it. The odds of you winning a race if you're leading from start to finish is so slim, slim to nine. Because you're the target. Everybody's going after you. But if there's a guy in front of you, that's who everybody's looking at. There's a lot of mental pressure.

I can see that. Yeah. Just the psychological pressure of being in first is like, am I running faster than I need to? How close are they? Could I slow down and still stay in first? What if I'm really in last? Yeah. Sometimes that happens in March.

Is this the right day with the race today? And then you're in third. Almost all current world records are made happen in various distances because of pacemakers, because of rabbits. That makes so much sense. But, however, you know, as much as they're helpful for athletes to break records, purists argue that hiring these rabbits kind of, you know, takes the competitive nature of running away. Um, some races hire rabbits, uh, such as Berlin Marathon and London Marathon, and they're usually the marathons that you see world records being broken because they have these rabbits in place.

However, a New York Marathon and Boston Marathon do not use rabbits. And who hires rabbits? Uh, sometimes it's the runners who want to break the record. Sometimes it's the race, you know, the race would hire rabbits just so, to help collectively runners as a whole. It really is kind of a tricky issue. Yeah, it's also good if you, you know, if you're running a race, if somebody breaks a record at that race, it gets you publicity. So, like, you have...

Good PR for the race. Yeah, right. I think, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, most of these rabbits are anonymous because they get paid to run a certain amount at a certain amount of time, and then they just walk off. Are people hiring rabbits to help them out on the sly? Yeah. Like, are they, they're having rabbits. Like you're my buddy in the race.

Yeah. I'll just make it worth your while to disappear. So this happens, even if, you know, a lot of races don't allow rabbits, it still happens. You can, I mean, maybe it could be a friend or maybe it's a teammate. Maybe at cross-country meets, actually, that's part of the strategies for a lot of relay runners or for a lot of team runners. One person will rabbit for one day at the meet and then another teammate will rabbit for another. And it helps the team.

Yeah. If a race does not allow it. But you have to do it secretly. So these rabbits, they're like, they're world-class runners, though, right? They're running as fast as the people who are about to set a record or do they enter later? So rabbits only are in charge for the first part of the race. So they only have to run for a while. They only have to run for like, say, half of a distance.

And then they can drop off. So it is possible for, I mean, they have to be good runners to begin with. But they can, they can pour it on. Yeah, they don't have to exert as much effort because they don't have to finish the race. Right. And that is what makes a good rabbit is they have a good internal clock. When the race director or what they're hired for, their gig is to say you run this amount at this time, at this pace, you do it. There is a guy, Paul Pilkington, he was the designated rabbit at the 1994 Los Angeles Marathon.

And he did a good job the year before. And so the race director contacted him and was like, oh, please rabbit again. So he was paid about $3,000 for rabbiting and an extra $3,000 to hit his time. Oh, yeah, sure. Yeah. Well, the extra incentive to do a great job. Exactly. That day was really, really hot.

For that race, there weren't a lot of elite runners, like professional runners. So Paul asked the race director, well, you know, they're not a lot of elite runners. What happens if no one follows me? And the race director goes, you know, just hit the time that you're supposed to hit. You know, just, and that's the thing. They're hired to hit the time And they sometimes have to make decisions on the fly But usually you just got to hit your time

You're like a human metronome So Paul told everybody Like I want to finish the race Because most rabbits just drop off And they don't finish the race He's like oh I want to finish race I'll slow down for the second half After I hit my time

So it was a really really hot day And he's running Paul's taking off doing a really good time rabbiting very very on track And he hit the halfway point No one was near him So he kept going And still no one challenging him

He thought maybe oh someone will Will pass me by Yeah Because now he just started Do too too Yeah he's like do too I don't have to run as fast And you know

He hit his time He made his 3,000 plus 3,000 And then now he can slow down And you know Enjoy the race and finish At the 22 mile mark There was still no but there was still no one You're four miles away from the finish line

And he's like Do do do do And then he won Now Yeah So the thing is, all the runners know, for summarizes, all the runners know who is the designated rabbit. And he was, he was entered in this race. Yes, he was entered.

He was officially. He had a number. Okay. Yeah. They're all official. They're all official. Yeah. A runner from Italy came in 39 seconds later and crossed the finish line.

Yes, I won. L.A. Marathon. I'm first place. No, wait. So 39 seconds. Okay. So people were, they were not like super, super far. But 39 seconds is a lot.

39 seconds is a long time. Yeah. And then it's like, oh, you're silver medal winner. And he was so mad. The Italian runner's like, wait, how come? I thought the rabbit dropped out. Yeah. So he wasn't pushing harder. But he didn't.

But he did it. And it's not like he was pumping it. Oh, that's interesting. I do kind of feel bad for the Italian guy. He's like I maybe would have run harder if I knew the rabbit was ahead of me or something. Yeah. If Paul was the rabbit and he was that far ahead and then he mysteriously dropped out. That's even shadier.

He would look like an idiot. Right, right. To be 39 seconds ahead and be like, you know what? Yeah. Probably way more than 39 seconds because he slowed down a lot after. Good point. Exactly. And so people are like, wait, what happened to that guy?

Yeah. So, I mean, this is, here's the debate. Great for World Records, which means Berlin or London for some of the, these races, which makes for, it makes for boring, uh, race watching. For the spirit of running, you don't have like, oh, head to head this runner versus this runner. If they're all trying to gun with rabbits to break a world record, the race is actually kind of boring to watch. There is no, it's almost like all the runners are playing the course instead of racing each other. Exactly. Exactly. I mean, that's, that's kind of the debate. Huh. Well, what do you think,

Karen? You are, I mean, hands down, you were the only serious runner. I'm not going to us. I mean, what do you because like my take is they're just different like I don't I don't I don't I don't I would say like yeah without a rabbit seems maybe more pure but they're just different I don't know what do you think well I think hitting world records is a very very hard thing to do and whatever can help you that's not cheat it's not cheating I think this is I think they are a visual embodiment you know I think they should get more credit than than they're given these rabbits are mostly anonymous nobody even knows they exist you know for for non run They get paid okay. This is a great job for a lot of former professional runners. They pick up the job as a pacer. They can rabbit for a lot of races, make some money, and they still enjoy running, and they help out other people. So I don't think it's that bad.

I mean, do I really want to see, you know, of course you want to see everybody succeed? That's my take. Yeah. So, yeah, it's kind of cool. Being the leader of the pack, and then whoop, drop out. I bet technology, like when VR gets better or augmented reality, it'll be like you have a rabbit the whole time you're like a hologram runner yeah you're like oh there's that per okay I can pass them oh yeah yeah and we're on the ground like a track yeah yeah yeah well

like like like like be like oh at this point I need to be faster so you program it so it'll start going faster yeah yeah yeah here we go yeah well they do that like when they show it on the Olympics they'll show you here's the world record timeline but but they can't see it yeah yeah and I feel like a lot of the sport is their internal clock the rabbits are good not because like they got all these gadgets, it's because they know exactly this is this pace, this pace. Actually, the L.A. Marathon guy, they usually have a range. At the halfway mark, he was asked to run to the halfway to hit between one hour in five minutes and one hour, five minutes, and 15 seconds.

Wow. His window is 15 seconds to get that extra $3,000. Wow. He hit it in 105.10. Yes. Man. So that's how good they are. That's really impressive.

Yeah. That's so crazy. A 15-second window and he hit it. Yes. Wow. I had no idea. All right. Let's take a quick break. A word from our sponsor. This is Jen and Jenny from Ancient History Fan Girl. And we're here to tell you about Jenny's scorching historical romanticcy based on Alarica the Bissigoths, enemy of my dreams. Amanda Boucher, best-selling author of The Kingmaker Chronicle, says, quote, this book has everything. high-stakes action, grit, ferocity, and blazing passion. Julia and Alaric are colliding storms against a backdrop of the brutal dangers of ancient Rome. They'll do anything to carve their peace out of this treacherous world and not just survive, but rule. Enemy of my dreams is available wherever books are sold.

History never says goodbye. It just says. See you later. Edward Galliano was right when he said that. Events keep happening over and over again, in some form. And that's the reason I produced the podcast. My History Can Beat Up Your Politics. What is it?

We take stories of history and apply them to the events of today to help you, perhaps, understand them better. We are also part of Airwave Media Network. I've been doing the program since 2006. That's a long time, and the show has a long name. My history can beat up your politics. Find me wherever you get podcasts. You're listening. Good job, Brana.

This week, we're following the leader. All right, I have a grab bag kind of quiz for you guys. These are leaders who also have animals in their names. Oh. Are there that many? I guess. There are some. It's grab back.

So it's leaders who have animals in their names or like animals that are related to leaders or ruling or something like that. So leaders, animals, basically. Yeah. So the answer will probably. Animal leaders and leader animals. Yeah. Chairman Yetie. So we'll start off.

Chairman of the boar. Oh, that's good. That's not funny. No. Don't laugh at that. I didn't laugh. I'm telling her listeners. Start with some soft balls.

This San Francisco giant, or former San Francisco giant, was known as the Kung Fu Panda. Karen. Oh, why did I? Pablo Sanival. Yeah. Oh, my God. Getting those sports questions. This is a famous coach and player of a basketball team.

It was in prominence in the 90s. Larry Byrd. I was going to say Jason Kidd, like the kid of a girl. That's key I beat. Is he a coach? Yeah? Oh, that's right. Yes.

He coaches the Milwaukee Bucks now. Oh. Another random one. Two inside baseball. Who is the Teton Dakota Indian chief who united the Sioux tribes? Chris. Sitting bowl. Sitting bowl.

Yes. I knew it was. Dances with wolves. Buffalo, something, yeah. This king of England was known as the Lionhearted, or the Lionheart. Colin. That's Richard. The third?

Okay. The first. The first? Yes. Richard the first. Richard the Lionheart. He was in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves. Yes.

Who was also in dances with wolves. Just bringing it back. Good job. Wait, really? Via Kevin Costner. He's a TV producer of the Law and Orders. Dick Wolf, rest his soul. He's dead?

He did. He passed away. When? Maybe two years ago. Oh. Wait, I don't know. He's dead. He's not dead.

What? He's still alive. For goodness. Sorry, there you go. Fact chance. Oh, that one. So, yeah, and he's still alive. He is, for sure.

There's one thing that's for sure. He's a lot. Yes. Still producing quality TV shows. Many of them. So many. All right. This jazz musician was a leading figure in the development of Bebop.

And this was his nickname. Or his nickname was Bird, yard bird. Charlie Bird, Parker. Yes. Now we'll get into a little bit more grab baggy. Both Scotland and whales have mythological creatures as their national animals. What are they? Karen

Griffin No Oh Dragon Yep One is a dragon Yeah And Scott

Camara Wait no Medusa Medusa No No It's a unicorn What really

For Wales No for Scotland Yeah A unicorn Yes Wow How do you remember that Hmm

Well Well Whales is a dragon Yeah It's the other one I thought was a Griffin

Yeah, there's a bunch of countries that have mythological creatures as, like, their national animals, including Portugal, North Korea, Indonesia, Hungary, Greece. Guess what Greece's mythological creature is? Oh. Chris. Batman. Wait, on their flag? No, it's their national animal. They're spirit animal.

Is it not Medusa? She's not an animal. No, no. Wargon. Not an animal. No. Greases. Pegasus.

Oh, that would have been good. But no. That would have been good. It's a phoenix. Oh, wow. I was like, that's cool. And Czech Republic also has it, and so does Bhutan. I was like, that's interesting.

That's a cool animal. Pretty cool. Yeah. So the Albanian flag has a two-headed eagle on it. Yes. What does the two-headed eagle mean? What does that stand for? Oh.

Okay. So it's like black and red, right? The flag? Yeah. And one has an eye and one. doesn't and one is looking to the past and one is looking to the future. Oh, that's interesting. Yeah.

No. No, sorry. I think that's... Think about it. In the context of leadership. One of them is looking left and the other is looking right. Yeah. But they're both the same eagle.

It's a two-headed eagle. Right. There's connected. It encompasses the entire political spectrum in one. Oh, left and right? Yeah. The left wing and the right wing. Oh, like actual ways of

That's pretty good Thank you Thank you Sounds like a good Made up answer It's a Nice present and present One of them is the eagle

Of truth And the other is the eagle of flat Equality Again they're the same eagle It just has two heads So one represents One head is the head of Religion

And one is the head Of secular Government Having dominion over both The religion and the secular. That's not separation of church and state. No.

That's the combination of church and state to one terrifying creature. It's a common symbol in that area of the world. Yeah. Anyway, I thought that was interesting. Yeah. That is interesting. Our 10 other answers are equally as interesting.

Yeah. All of our... Added up. They were less correct. Yeah. They were all 100% untrue. Yeah. I want like a big mouth billy bass,

but it's a two-headed eagle. And it's like, br-b-b-b-b-h-h-h-h-h-h-h. No, it seems, no, it seems quite like an eagle. And then the other head, and the other head, they face each other, and they face away. They lean out, right?

They lean out. Bye, by, back, and they're creepy. They still sell those? Yes. Of course, they still sell those. What am I saying? Hello, this is Matt from the Explorers podcast. I want to invite you.

to join me on the voyages and journeys of the most famous explorers in the history of the world. At the Explores podcast, we plunge into jungles and deserts, across mighty oceans and frigid ice caps, over and to the top of Great Mountains, and even into outer space. These are the thrilling and captivating stories of Magellan, Shackleton, Lewis, and Clark, and so many other famous and not so famous adventures from throughout history. So come give us a listen, we love to have you. Go to Explorespodcast.com, or just look us up on your podcast app. That's the Explorers podcast.

All righty, Colin, follow the leader, I'm following you because you're taking us home. I will. Also, you're a camp, you used to be a camp counselor. You're very good at leading. I did. Well, you know, and here's the trick about being the camp counselor. You got to walk backwards a lot. Oh, yeah. You do that all the time.

Oh, but not only that, but on like, on like rocky terrain, too. Like on uneven footing. And always kind of counting. Constantly. Counting, yeah, make sure. One of the first times, like, because Carl and I used to work together, we were out to lunch and we're walking, and he is walking backwards. I caught myself.

I was like, what are you doing? It's like, I can't help, but I'm a camp camp. I'm hurting you guys. And I was doing the head count, yeah. Yeah, you're like a human corgi. Yeah. Sometimes you have one extra kid, you know, and I mean, like, I guess that's better than, yeah. I have a story about leaders for you that involves music and biblical prophecies.

and mysterious deaths. All right, have I got your attention now? Yes. Okay. I'm a big fan of Jamaican music, in particular ska music, and early reggae. If you listen to Jamaican music, in particular reggae, long enough, it will not be very long until you hear about, learn about, read about the Rastafari movement. Now, it's not a coincidence that Rastafari is so closely tied to music. because I think it's safe to say that probably the most famous member of the Rastafari movement ever is probably Bob Marley, Bob Marley, yes. What is it?

I'm glad you asked. Yeah, well, let's, how would you describe the, if I said, like, someone's Rasta? What does that mean to you? I know, it's just a style. Mm-hmm. A lot of people, I mean, and I did certainly, you know, before I learned about it, I thought it was more just a culture, a lifestyle. Well, I mean, definitely, most people, if you know about Rastafari movement, it's, you know, okay, well, it's associated with Jamaica. You know, I know that.

The Rastafari movement is a religion. It is not just a lifestyle or culture. It is a religion. Specifically, it's an Abrahamic religion, like Judaism, like Christianity, like Islam, among others. Those are certainly the three largest ones, meaning that all of these religions can trace their origins and their belief systems back to Abraham. Bible, Big A, Abraham. The other thing to point out very quickly here is people in the movement do not at all like the term Rastafarianism. You know, one of the main sort of undercurrents of Rastafari belief is they're against isms in particular.

And you'll hear this in a lot of reggae music. They want to be sort of anti-dogmatic in that sense, that, you know, you're a Rasta, Rastafari, the way it makes sense to you. We're not going to tell you this is the way. way to do it. So the Rastafari movement started in Jamaica, duh, in the 1930s, and, you know, it largely had its roots in the Back to Africa movement. Okay. Now, if you know anything about the Back to Africa movement of the 1920s and 30s, Marcus

Garvey, probably the father of that movement certainly identified as such. So Marcus Garvey, who was Jamaican, he was actually hugely influential in setting the course of Rastafari movement, or Rastafarians, if you will. They believe that their Messiah, okay? So the holy figure, the god of the Rastafari movement, is highly Salasi. He was the emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 until he was overthrown in 1974, and his family and his lineage goes all the way back to Solomon. Okay, again, biblical, big ass Solomon, yes.

So he claims do have been the last sort of in that direct descendant of rulers of Ethiopia. Now, Haile Selassi was his coronation name. Okay, so, you know, much the way that like when the Pope comes into office, it's not his given name, he'll take on a new name. The same was true for Haile Selassi. Now, his pre-coronation name and title was Raz Tafari Makonan. Oh. Okay. So Raz, in this case, is like a title.

And now I had mentioned Marcus Garvey earlier. So leading up to the birth of the Rastafari movement, Marcus Garvey was a big, big deal, very influential, especially among poor people and disenfranchised people in Jamaica, and really part of starting pan-Africanism, the idea of our destiny is back in Africa. You know, we were scattered around the world through slavery and other means and really trying to get back there. And among people who are part of the Rastafari movement, now a lot of them will consider him a profit, that Marcus Garvey wasn't just. a charismatic man and a leader, he was a prophet. In 1927, Marcus Garvey is said to have said, look to Africa, for there a black king shall be crowned. And indeed, just three years later, Ross Tafari Makonan was crowned emperor of Ethiopia. Now, in the eyes of many, many Jamaicans, this was a prophecy being fulfilled. This was the king of kings, emperor in Ethiopia. And not only that,

he was in many ways sort of the one legitimate king of Africa at that time. I mean, outside of Liberia, Ethiopia at the time was the only country in Africa free of colonial influence at that time. And he was, you know, considered a peer among the kings and queens around the world, the other royalties. So this was a big deal. And virtually overnight, the movement was booming. So, I mean, the name comes directly from his name.

Yes, Rastafari Makonan. We are the Rastafari movement. So this is episode. This is about leaders, right? Now I want you just to think for a moment. Like, imagine you're highly salasi on, you've assumed the throne in Ethiopia. And someone comes to you and says, all right, well, there's a nation, thousands and thousands of miles away from here. And there are thousands and thousands and thousands of people there who believe you're the Messiah. That's a lot to swallow, right? I mean, you know, we think we hear of, you know, messias and prophets. And we think it's hundreds and hundreds of thousands of years ago. This is like our modern era, you know, like. like, my grandpa was alive at this time. Now, to his credit, he was always very respectful in how he handled this. Oh, was he going to shut them down? You could go a lot of different directions with this at that point. So, highly Celassi, he was Christian.

You know, he definitely understood all of his connections to the biblical world and the ancient world and his connection, potentially to prophecies. So he could have just come out and say, nope, you got the wrong guy. It's not sorry, not me. That's, you got somebody else. But no, he didn't. I mean, he was very respectful. He understood that, wow, this is a nation. This is a big deal. And he was, in fact, very sympathetic to the idea of a pan-Africanism movement. And he was, at least he said he was very sympathetic to the idea of repatriating blacks around the world back to Africa. You know, logistically, this could be a problem. In 1961, the Jamaican government, they sent a delegation of Rastafari and other, you know, leaders to come say, hey, can you kind of help us out? Are you on board with this? And to his credit, he said, he used your magic powers. Right. That's right. That's right. You know, I mean, keep in mind, like, this is a man who, if you are a true adherent of Rastafari, this is God.

Like, you're talking. It's as if, like, a Christian, went to have an audience with Jesus, you know? Yeah. And he said, I'm willing to help. I'm down with the cause, basically. So, Jamaica got independence the following year, okay, in 1962. A few years later, in 1966, Haileas Selesi went to Jamaica. Okay. So he flew there, basically, to, you know, hold court and talk to people. this day is considered the second holiest day in the Rastafari movement. I mean, the first holiest day would be his coronation. Of course.

But in the Rastafaray movie, you call about Grownation Day. Literally, the day that our Messiah came to our ground, touched ground in Jamaica. And here's where I think this is a deft act of logistical statesmanship. You know, he came to Jamaica. And his message was basically, I believe in the back to Africa movement. I am committed to helping you, but I think you need to focus on liberating your brothers and sisters in Jamaica first, and then we can focus on repatriation. You know, and that is. That sort of became the goal of liberation before repatriation. Again, you know, keep in mind there are a lot of very poor people, a lot of, as I say, very disenfranchised people in Jamaica at the time who made up the early core of the Rastafari movement. That's where they sort of left it is, okay, we're going to get our stuff in order, get all of our brothers and sisters.

lift it up, and then we will focus on getting back to Ethiopia. He was eventually, as I say, overthrown in 1974. He was said to have died in 1975, sort of the ex-leader. Now, the official story is that he died

from respiratory failure. There are a lot of people who believe he was killed for political reasons. You know, I say there was overthrothed and... You know, there are... Your Messiah has to get killed, right? Yeah, well, that's true. There are people, there are people in the Ostafari movement

who doubt that he ever died at all, you know, certainly at the time. If he were still alive today, that would be quite an achievement. He would be well, well over a hundred years old. But that was sort of how it ended with his time on earth. And so to this day, the Rastafari movement, he is their Messiah. He is their divine being that was on the earth with us for a very long time. And just the rule of having leader thrust upon you, that's a lot to carry. Emperor in and of itself.

Wow. Geez, I'm emperor now. This is really crazy. It's like, oh, hey. What's going on? This whole country thinks your deity almost. That is the birth of the name and the man from which Rastafari movement takes its name. I really thought it was just the way of life, like being chill.

Yeah. Being cool to people. I mean, and, you know, I guess that's related. Yeah. Like being cool to people. It is related. You know, there are, I mean, every religion's a little bit different, but, you know, the focus in, it is on, like, that we're all united by the same life force. The golden rule, treat people the way you want to be treated.

This is, you're describing Jedi, I guess. The Jedi, however, do not have marijuana as a sacred herb as part of their practices. That is absolutely true. The use of marijuana, it's, again, it's, you might think, oh, sure, it's reggae music. It's, you know, party, me. No, like, marijuana is a holy, a holy herb. to people who follow Rastafarian, yeah. All right, and that is our show.

Thank you guys for joining me and thank you guys, listeners, for listening in. Hope you learned a lot of stuff about leaders, Rastafarians, and one day I promise I will bring my dream quiz to make it happen. You guys were there, too. Like, you guys were all there. We enjoyed it. And you were there. And you were there.

You can find us on iTunes, on Stitcher, on Saturday. SoundCloud and on our website, good job brain.com. Thanks to our sponsor, Audible. And we'll see you guys next week. Bye. so you can actually, you know, be productive. But you can start your morning off right

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