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Tracey CB Wilson
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Holly Fry
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Holly Fry
welcome to Stuff you missed in history Class, a production of iHeartradio.
Tracey CB Wilson
Happy Friday. I'm Tracey CB Wilson.
Holly Fry
And I'm Holly Fry.
Tracey CB Wilson
We returned to the world of Supreme Court cases. Again, I try to space out the Supreme Court cases, but as soon as the random algorithm showed me this clip, it was an audio clip with, you know, a picture in the background of Sotomayor and Sauer having this conversation about Thinned. I was like, oh, yeah, I want to talk about thind right now. Because a lot of people had seen that clip, and I was not sure how many people had any idea what was being discussed in terms of thind. Right. So, yeah, also, I know the last time we had a Supreme Court episode, I said I was going to do one on Elk vs Wilkins, and I haven't done that yet. How dare. How dare I still might at some time. The first time I ever heard about this case was back in 2017 on a series from the podcast seen on radio. And it was their Seeing White series, which was on the sort of development of whiteness as a concept and the impact that concept has on life in the US Today. And I had since that time, almost a decade now, would periodically return to the idea of talking about this case on the show, and then never made it up until now. I re listened to that one episode of Seeing White just because I was like, I want to refresh my memory on what exactly they said that made me think, huh, maybe my show should talk about this eventually. And Bhagat Singh, then's son, was interviewed on that. And he apparently, like, this was not something that his father ever really talked about. He knew his father as a spiritual teacher. He really didn't know anything about this at all. And when they got into the. The kind of ways that Thind and other people from India would talk about their own race and talk about race in general while making the argument that they were white so that they could become citizens. There was just. There was a lot of racism involved in those conversations. And he was like, that does not sound like my father to me. He did not think of his father as someone to make those kinds of arguments. And there are a number of other podcasts besides ours that have spent sort of more time looking at that part of it on the sort of the interconnection between different groups of people trying to move to become citizens of live in the United States.
Holly Fry
Yeah.
Tracey CB Wilson
And the intersections of these different types of racism involved with that.
Holly Fry
Well, and there are also things that happen that we talked about in this Episode. Right. Where like within the legal framework that exists, you kind of have to go down a path that has racist tones to it and basically being like, I'm not black, you know what I mean? Like, there's inherently a racist element to that, but it's the only path available to somebody.
Tracey CB Wilson
Right? Yeah.
Holly Fry
Which stinks. And it kind of gets to that bigger picture that always comes up when people are talking about issues of control and race and marginalized or perceived lower class citizens that like part of the maintenance of power is turning people that don't have power against one another. And this is like kind of an elegant way that they managed to do it, which is. It's just troubling and heartaching. It's like there's no other way. There's no other path to walk. Which stinks.
Tracey CB Wilson
Yeah, we didn't use the word socially constructed in this episode anywhere, but this case is sort of an example of how the idea of race is socially constructed, not something that's biologically immutable. And while the court was not sort of making an argument about the social construction of racial categories. But that's basically what, you know, what the court was saying when the verdict was, well, he's not white. And a common person knows that. That was sort of the, what it boiled down to. Also the fact that this was part of a pattern of whether the US Government has viewed different people as white and how a lot of time that has had to do with like, whatever was most expedient with what the government wanted in that moment. Also the fact that the Supreme Court put out two different decisions and different, like in a couple of months of each other that were so contradictory. One of them being like, no, no, no, no, no, only Caucasians can be citizens. And then a couple months later, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Holly Fry
Not that kind of Caucasian.
Tracey CB Wilson
Caucasian. Actually, I, I read some, one of the articles that I read for all of this characterized it as judicial whack. A mole. It was like if there had been another case that had come before the court where someone had made a different argument and that was not somebody, then they would have come up with some other reason to like, knock out that one part of the definition.
Holly Fry
Yeah.
Tracey CB Wilson
One of the things that came up in research that we didn't mention is that Charles Sumner, who we spent three entire episodes when they were debating the new, the new naturalization law that, that extended the rights of naturalization to Africans and people of African descent. Charles Sumner was trying to get the law to just drop racial categories altogether.
Holly Fry
Right.
Tracey CB Wilson
And people were like, nah, man, you don't. You are. You're not in your right mind, thinking we can just drop racial categories altogether.
Holly Fry
Those are important to somebody.
Tracey CB Wilson
There's also a biography of Bhagat Singh Thind. It is called Dr. G. The Life, Teachings and Legacy of Dr. Bhagat Singh Thind. I did read the portion of it that is about his biography because it's more focused on the teachings.
Holly Fry
Right.
Tracey CB Wilson
I did read that doing research on the show and ultimately only used it to confirm things like dates and places, because it does not read like an impartial or probing account of someone's life. It is a lot more like a tagiography. It's very laudatory in how it talks about him. I think it was commissioned by his son, so that's not fully surprising. But if anyone went looking for more information and found that book, just wanted to put that out there. Yeah.
Holly Fry
Once again, in some ways, humans move so far. They evolve and change and learn and grow.
Tracey CB Wilson
And in others, it's the same thing again. Oh, yeah, yeah.
Holly Fry
An unpleasant noise I just made.
Tracey CB Wilson
Sorry.
Holly Fry
Kind of a growl and a sigh.
Tracey CB Wilson
A growl?
Holly Fry
I don't know.
Tracey CB Wilson
Well, I know what episode is coming next after this one, and it will not have quite the number of heavy themes that this one did.
Holly Fry
Huzzah.
Tracey CB Wilson
Yeah. We talked about the Carrington event this week.
Holly Fry
Oh, we did.
Tracey CB Wilson
After looking at the globe and where the places we are going. I didn't actually look at the globe. I. I looked at. At Google Maps, and then I was like, I still don't know what I'm looking at. And so I just started individually googling the, like, latitude and longitude of the places that we're going. And then I Googled, like, aurora chances at the places that we're going. And then I felt a little silly. I was like, oh, these places are not actually that much farther north than we are. But then I, you know, I reminded myself, the time that you saw the aurora, Tracy, you were at home, so. Yeah, I've only.
Holly Fry
I've only really seen it once. I was in Iceland. It was not our Iceland trip where we went Aurora hunting. I was there previous time in May, which is not normally the time you would see them.
Tracey CB Wilson
Yeah.
Holly Fry
But that was just a freakish good bit of luck that they were like, oh, the aurora's out.
Tracey CB Wilson
When we went to Iceland for our honeymoon, it was very end of April, beginning of May, and it was out while we were there, but we were in a place that it was overcast when it happened. And the next Night we were staying at a different place and they had this list at the front desk that was, put your name on the list, then if the aurora comes out, we will call you. And I was like, oh, I'm gonna put our names on this list, even though I know it's not very likely. And the person at the front desk was like, actually, they were out last night and they were really bright. And when people found out, they were angry that we didn't have the list out. And we didn't have the list out because, like, it's not the season anymore. Like, we had reached the point of the year where it is not fully dark in Iceland anymore. The darkest it is. Is Twilight at that point. So we missed it. But there was one time that it. It was pretty bright in a lot of Massachusetts. And I could see it a little bit with the unaided eye at my house. I could see it through my phone camera exceptionally well. And when we went back to Iceland on the trip that we took for the show where we actually had an aurora chasing scheduled, Patrick and I arrived a day early to try to get a little acclimated. And we were walking around Reykjavik at night trying to see if we could see the aurora. And it really did not look like we could. And it also did not look like we could through the phone screen. And it wasn't until I looked more closely at the pictures, I think even after we were home, that I was like, oh, wait, this is Aurora.
Holly Fry
There's a little something. Something.
Tracey CB Wilson
Yeah, a little something happening there that I could not see at all and could not see on the phone screen, but could see looking at the picture on the computer. So anyway, very much would be excited if we saw the aurora on the trip, but if we don't, that's fine.
Holly Fry
Yeah, it's just a good fortune thing.
Tracey CB Wilson
There is some speculation that Frederic Edwin Church's painting of the Aurora Borealis, which is the painting that we have used for the little artwork for the show on our Netflix, that that was inspired by this. He was in Newfoundland and Labrador that summer when it happened. And then he painted this in 1865. And I didn't have a good place in the episode itself to mention that.
Holly Fry
Just blurt it out like I did, that I went to Galileo's to just blurt it out.
Tracey CB Wilson
I do blurt some things out that,
Holly Fry
like, an aurora was a surprise to me. So I was not. Yeah, if you're in Santa Croce, which is a basilica in Florence. We went because we were on our art pilgrimage. And that is where Michelangelo is also buried. And we were there, but then we were walking along and I was like, is that Galileo? It's literally right there in the same place.
Tracey CB Wilson
Right there. That's true. Huge.
Holly Fry
Huge. Like, you know, big monument and whatnot. As well as Machiavelli. It's quite a gallery of people assembled there for their final resting place.
Tracey CB Wilson
Yeah, that's sort of like the Pantheon Parthenon. Pantheon Pantheon Parthenon. Which one is it gonna say the two words over and over? The one where all the French people are entombed.
Holly Fry
Pantheon.
Tracey CB Wilson
Yeah. So you could say it the French way and it will sound. I know that those are two different things and they are very dissimilar from one another.
Holly Fry
But I list those words all the time too, Greg.
Tracey CB Wilson
I feel less stupid.
Holly Fry
No, do not. Do not, do not. I also love that we had a shout out to Goddard Spaceflight in this episode.
Tracey CB Wilson
Yeah.
Holly Fry
Because I love them and have been lucky enough to go visit them.
Tracey CB Wilson
Yeah.
Holly Fry
Way back when we were still how stuff works and we're doing video content separate from this show. We went and did a bunch of space stuff there at one point and it was amazing. And I love that entire team. So I'm glad they got a little shout out here.
Tracey CB Wilson
Is that the trip where you stayed at a place that I would call an affordable motel experience and someone who was with you was unhappy? Um, yes.
Holly Fry
I don't know if they were unhappy about that.
Tracey CB Wilson
Okay.
Holly Fry
They were unhappy about a variety of things.
Tracey CB Wilson
Uh huh.
Holly Fry
That is all but the nice thing.
Tracey CB Wilson
And it wasn't.
Holly Fry
It's a hotel, but it's definitely not like a fancy pants unicorn hotel.
Tracey CB Wilson
And it's just the place that there is convenient to the nearby.
Holly Fry
Yeah, there's not a lot near there. But what we kind of lucked out with is that that was also the same place that all the people from Goddard do their monthly social hour.
Tracey CB Wilson
Oh, okay.
Holly Fry
Happened on the night we were staying there. So we got to hang out with them. Listen, one of my proudest moments in my life is that I taught a bunch of engineers and scientists that if you salt your napkin before you put your cocktail down, it won't stick to your drink. And they were astounded by this.
Tracey CB Wilson
I love it.
Holly Fry
And I was like, you are so smart about all the things, but I can teach you drinking tricks. And that's all I had to offer. Yeah. But what an incredible group. And I know it's been a little stressful for them in recent years. So yeah, I hope they are all keeping Their morale up as best they can.
Tracey CB Wilson
Yeah. If people are curious, the video game I was playing that suddenly referenced the Carrington event was the Long Dark, a game that I have played a lot over the last more than a decade. And in hindsight, that made total sense because one of the things that was introduced as part of that game was Aurora that cause electrical devices to work when they do not work in other circumstances. So, like radios that are in houses, you can turn the radio on and music will play when there's no power in any other circumstance in the new. I knew it's a few years old at this point. A dlc. There is a radio that is powered by the Aurora that you can talk to a trader and trade things with. And then the Aurora is beautiful. And then it also has effects that are a little different from reality. They make animals behave differently and be much more likely to kill you. And then. Yeah. There had been speculation for a long time that the Carrington event was going to have some kind of relation to the game.
Holly Fry
Oh, right.
Tracey CB Wilson
With its story mode, the last chapter of which just dropped, which was a controversial finale to the story mode of the game. And as is the case with so many fandoms that I have witnessed over my life, the response to it was disproportionate to anything.
Holly Fry
One, I'm slightly envious. I feel like I used to play video games at a rabid rate, and I can't do it anymore. I have to schedule time and be like, these two hours. I'm gonna play this game. Cause I just have a. I'm a busy bee. I have my hands and lots of eyes. However, the mention of animals behaving badly brings us to the confession that I mentioned. I would make if you are interested in hearing about my bad cat.
Tracey CB Wilson
Yeah.
Holly Fry
Okay. So as everyone knows, we adopted three new cats last year. One of them, Jessi, is like, kind of like, I always joke that she's me as a cat, right? She's kooky. Her noises are hilarious. She always sounds mad, even when she's happy. But I love her desperately. And she's also a big, beautiful woman. She's tipping close to 17 pounds. And she's also a large cat. So one of my best friends, who I also love, who is like a sibling to me, watches our cats when we travel. And she has mentioned a couple times, you know, I sometimes am a little afraid of Jesse, and I'm like, she's all talk. She's a big cuddler. Like, even when she's unhappy, she never Lashes out at all. She's like, super. You know, she's like, I don't like this, but she won't do anything wrong. And then I got sent a video of Jesse while we were away and I was mortified because I was suddenly that parent. You know, we've all known that parent whose kid is a little bit of a terror and genuinely mean. And they're like, not my baby. Not my precious baby.
Tracey CB Wilson
Yeah.
Holly Fry
My precious angel baby. Jezzy, who I love desperately, was not just yelling at our poor cat sitter. She was hissing, swatting, and lunging at her with bared teeth. And I was like, oh, what the heck is going on here? And we have done some testing since then.
Tracey CB Wilson
Uh huh.
Holly Fry
She just does not like that person.
Tracey CB Wilson
Aw.
Holly Fry
Which like, you know how people are like, trust the instincts of animals. Not this time.
Tracey CB Wilson
Yeah. Every.
Holly Fry
This is a person that stray dogs will run to for help. Like she is a cat whisperer. She is one of the kindest souls I've ever met. We had another friend of mine visiting right before I left for Italy. We went to Italy together and she flew here first. And so I was like, great, we can do an actual like control group situation test. Here's another person. This cat is not. Even though our friend that watch the cats is at our house a lot. She knows all of our animals. But I'm like, here's a person this cat isn't familiar with. She's met her before, but she's not here all the time. Cuddly as the day is long with her. And then our other friend walked in the room and the cat was like. And I'm mortified at my terrible child.
Tracey CB Wilson
Yeah.
Holly Fry
That is my confession. I have never. I don't know what's going on with her.
Tracey CB Wilson
I don't know.
Holly Fry
It's a jealousy jam. I don't know what's up. Yeah.
Tracey CB Wilson
This reminds me a bit of how I used to have a cat named Anastasia. This is many years ago.
Holly Fry
You're scaredy, baby.
Tracey CB Wilson
Well, no, Anastasia was. Anastasia was good. Sestina was scared of things. No, Villanelle was the most scared of things.
Holly Fry
Yes, I was thinking of Villanelle. Cause I had watched your cats a few times.
Tracey CB Wilson
Yeah, Villanelle hid from everyone all the time but Anastasia. So for a long time I had taken them to a cat only vet. And then I moved to Atlanta and asked some friends for vet recommendations. I was given a vet recommendation. I went to this vet one time, I think because I got there and I was like, I don't feel like this office. This office does not feel well maintained to me. And that makes me question other things. But then they were gonna get exams and shots and all of that. And the vet tech who was helping put on, like, the big gauntlets to handle my cat, and there had been no real indication from me ever that, like, any of the cats needed gauntlets to be examined.
Holly Fry
Right.
Tracey CB Wilson
And I think the fact that they were in a place that they could smell dogs.
Holly Fry
Yeah.
Tracey CB Wilson
Which was not usual for them. And then was being handled with these gauntlets by someone who clearly thought there was a need for gauntlets. Anastasia lost it, and I was like, I have never seen her behave like this in my life.
Holly Fry
It's a very high situation.
Tracey CB Wilson
And, like, at that point, she was a fully adult cat and had plenty of vet experiences under her belt and had never behaved like that. And I was like, this is not right. Not the vet.
Holly Fry
For me, we did have a cat that needed the gloves. And you know who I'm talking about.
Tracey CB Wilson
I absolutely do.
Holly Fry
Mr. Burns, the scourge of veterinary science.
Tracey CB Wilson
Yeah.
Holly Fry
The chillest cat I've ever met at home. But, man, he hated the vet's office.
Tracey CB Wilson
Yeah.
Holly Fry
He was so bad. He was so bad. He drew so much blood.
Tracey CB Wilson
Oh, goodness. You've told me many stories.
Holly Fry
I'm sure I've shown you the picture of the space helmet they had to put on him to keep him from biting people.
Tracey CB Wilson
Yeah.
Holly Fry
Which if you've ever had a cat that has to wear the space helmet at the vet, it's quite entertaining. But also bad. And he looks so mad.
Tracey CB Wilson
Yeah.
Holly Fry
And my beautiful, amazing vet is just looking at him with such a loving expression while he's like, I will kill you. Oh, it's the worst. The worst, the worst. Oh, so much beloved. Oh, cats and astronomy together.
Tracey CB Wilson
Cats and astronomy. Yeah. I think our previous episode this week, I talked about how I do know lawyers, that I could have asked technical questions about law. I also could have asked an astrophysicist.
Holly Fry
Yeah.
Tracey CB Wilson
But I did not ask any astrophysicists questions about the Carrington event. So hopefully we did not upset any astrophysicists with our layperson's explanation of things.
Holly Fry
In my experience, they're a pretty chill group.
Tracey CB Wilson
I agree. I agree. So whatever's happening on your weekend, if you love cats, I hope there are cats. If you want to see the aurora, I hope it shows up. If you just want to chill out and play some video games or read a book or do some other quiet inside thing, I hope that happens. And I hope everyone is great to you. And if you're working, I hope everyone is great to you at work. We will have a brand new episode on Monday. We'll be back tomorrow with a Saturday Classic. Stuff youf Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite show.
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Tracey CB Wilson
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Podcast: Stuff You Missed in History Class
Hosts: Holly Fry & Tracy CB Wilson
Episode: Behind the Scenes Minis: Bad Laws, Bad Cats
Date: May 15, 2026
In this behind-the-scenes "mini" episode, hosts Tracy CB Wilson and Holly Fry reflect on recent full-length topics, particularly the Bhagat Singh Thind Supreme Court case and the Carrington Event. The conversation explores the persistent impact of legal and racial definitions in American history and segues into lighter discussions about personal experiences with the aurora borealis—and with mischievous cats. The tone balances analytical insight with personal stories and camaraderie.
“Within the legal framework that exists, you kind of have to go down a path that has racist tones to it... there's inherently a racist element to that, but it's the only path available...” (05:26 – 05:53)
“A common person knows that. That was sort of what it boiled down to.” (06:30)
“Judicial whack-a-mole. It was like if there had been another case... they would have come up with some other reason to like, knock out that one part...” (07:44)
“People were like, nah, man, you ... can't just drop racial categories altogether.” (08:34)
“In some ways, humans move so far. They evolve and change and learn and grow.”
Tracy: “And in others, it’s the same thing again.” (09:49 – 10:03)
“I was there previous time in May, which is not normally the time you would see them... that was just a freakish good bit of luck...” (11:17)
“I was mortified because I was suddenly that parent... not my baby. Not my precious baby.” (19:27 – 20:32)
“The chillest cat I've ever met at home. But, man, he hated the vet's office... He drew so much blood.” (24:00 – 24:22)
“Cats and astronomy together.” (24:22)
“So whatever's happening on your weekend, if you love cats, I hope there are cats. If you want to see the aurora, I hope it shows up.” (25:07)
On legal strategies enforced by racist frameworks:
Holly: “Within the legal framework that exists, you kind of have to go down a path that has racist tones to it and basically being like, I'm not black, you know what I mean? ... it's the only path available.” (05:26 – 05:53)
On the subjective definition of whiteness:
Tracy: “Well, he's not white. And a common person knows that. That was sort of the, what it boiled down to.” (06:30)
On legal inconsistency:
Tracy: “Judicial whack-a-mole. ... they would have come up with some other reason to like, knock out that one part of the definition.” (07:44)
On the cycle of social change:
Holly: “In some ways, humans move so far. They evolve and change and learn and grow.”
Tracy: “And in others, it’s the same thing again. Oh, yeah, yeah.” (09:49 – 10:03)
Describing an awkward mom moment:
Holly: "I was mortified because I was suddenly that parent... Not my baby. Not my precious baby." (19:27 – 20:32)
Informal, warm, conversational, and occasionally self-deprecating. The hosts blend rigorous historical insight with humor and personal stories, making even complex and heavy topics approachable and engaging.
This episode is a great example of the Stuff You Missed in History Class "minis," where the hosts reflect on their research process, personal experiences, and behind-the-scenes tidbits. It offers both substantive discussion (on the Thind case and racial definitions in law) and relatable, lighthearted moments involving travel, art, science, and pet mischief.