Behind the Scenes Minis: Whoopsy Whimsy

Summary

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Podcast Summary

Podcast: Stuff You Missed in History Class
Hosts: Holly Frey & Tracy V. Wilson
Episode: Behind the Scenes Minis: Whoopsy Whimsy
Date: February 20, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this relaxed "Behind the Scenes Minis" episode, Holly and Tracy discuss their recent historical deep-dives into drug use in military contexts—particularly the use of methamphetamines (notably Pervitin) during WWII—and the Lisbon Earthquake of 1755. The conversation is a mix of clarifying historical myths, sharing personal anecdotes, reflecting on media portrayals of stimulants, and exploring the whimsical or surprising side details uncovered in their research.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Methamphetamines & Military History

• Explicit Drug Discussion: The hosts note this episode went much deeper into drug history than usual, especially around how modern militaries have used stimulants (02:41).
• Myth-Busting Hitler Footage
  • Tracy clarifies: The often-circulated footage of Hitler "tweaking" at the 1936 Olympics is misleading.

    "1936 was before Pervitin was developed... He certainly was probably on some stimulants. Although it looks like that video is probably looped." – Tracy (03:10)

  • Hitler later used methamphetamine, but not at that time; footage is likely manipulated or misunderstood due to his Parkinson’s symptoms.
• Video Games & War
  • Tracy uses Call of Duty as a lighter parallel—wondering if its “Nazi zombies” aspect was inspired by the real history of Nazi stimulant use.

    "Was this game inspired by somebody reading about Pervitin use?... It made me think of video games, and that always helps." – Tracy (04:57)

• Research Frustrations
  • Tracy found German-language sources challenging and notes that some English-language material even gets basic facts wrong (like Fritz versus Friedrich Hochild) (07:16).

2. Personal Anecdotes: Accidental Stimulant Use

• Tracy’s Accidental Speed Experience
  • Tracy recounts the time she inadvertently took expired cold medicine (containing ephedrine) at work in the early 2000s.

    "About an hour later, I was just like, ah. Like, I was like Steve Brule. I was crazed." – Tracy (09:16)

  • Holly reassures: "I feel like that story is just 100% not your fault in any way." (10:09)

3. Stimulants on TV: “Very Special Episodes”

• Tracy asks Holly about 80s/90s TV shows that tackled amphetamine use, specifically episodes of Family Ties and Saved by the Bell.

  "All that fine work to memory. Here's what I will. If anybody in our listening audience is curious and is like, what? There was an episode of Family Ties..." – Tracy (15:59)

  • They discuss the fatphobia and didactic messaging common in these episodes, highlighting how societal attitudes were reflected and sometimes are cringeworthy in retrospect (16:59).
• Reflection on Media & Fatphobia
  • Holly notes how revisiting shows like Designing Women reveals casual fatphobia throughout (17:38).
  • Tracy: "That's the case with a lot of shows... When you go back and revisit them, you're like—like, I struggle with Maude... That's not feminism. That's just kind of being a mean spouse." (18:18)

4. Natural Disaster Response: Lisbon Earthquake

• Pivot to Lisbon Earthquake
  • Holly shares surprises from researching the Lisbon earthquake's ties to Morocco and how information was often sketchy or vague (20:13).
• Linguistic Whimsy
  • Holly delights in a mispronunciation ("catastrophe" as "catastrofe") from a lecturer (21:14).

    "And they described the catastrophe of this earthquake with the pronunciation catastrophe. And I was so delighted." – Holly (21:14)

  • The co-hosts riff playfully about this as a pet/character name ("Monsieur Catastrophe") and imagine an animated series (21:41).
• Kaiju Theory
  • Tracy muses about blending history and pop culture, wishing for an 18th-century Pacific Rim with the Lisbon quake as a Kaiju event (22:06).

    "Oh, I would so 100% watch an 18th-century Pacific Rim." – Tracy (22:39)

5. The Importance of Disaster Response

• Holly reflects on how a disaster turns catastrophic not just because of nature, but often due to leadership and governmental response:

  "But then also, what can turn it into a very horrific story is the response to that disaster." – Holly (24:01)

• They compare adequate, compassionate action post-Lisbon to, for example, the tragic government failures during the Irish famine.

6. Modernization & Portugal’s Post-Quake Perception

• Tracy notes how Portugal’s effective, modern response to the Lisbon earthquake shifted perceptions across Europe (26:55).

  "That really struck me that here's the country that the rest of Europe is like, 'Oh, Portugal’... and they're the ones that are like, 'We got this.'" – Tracy (26:55)

7. Historical Preservation Efforts

• Holly briefly shares that academics and scholars after the earthquake worked hard to recover lost records and piece together history from the rubble (26:04).

8. Lisbon Earthquake Museum

• The hosts discuss a dedicated museum in Lisbon, which presents both general and earthquake-specific history, and their own interest in visiting (27:24).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Myth busting viral Hitler footage

  "1936 was before Pervitin was developed...although it looks like the video is probably looped. It’s also worth noting that he had idiopathic Parkinson’s disease." – Tracy (03:10)

• Personal accidental stimulant story

  "About an hour later, I was just like, ah. Like, I was like Steve Brule. I was crazed." – Tracy (09:16) "I feel like that story is just 100% not your fault in any way." – Holly (10:09)

• On 80s TV:

  "If you ever go looking for this episode [of Family Ties] ... be forewarned that there is a lot of really, really cruddy fat phobia in it." – Tracy (16:59)

• Language whimsy:

  "And they described the catastrophe of this earthquake with the pronunciation 'catastrofe.' And I was so delighted." – Holly (21:14)

• Pacific Rim joke:

  "Oh, I would so 100% watch an 18th-century Pacific Rim." – Tracy (22:39)

• Reflections on disaster response:

  "[W]hat can turn it into a very horrific story is the response to that disaster." – Holly (24:01) "But then also, what can turn it into a very horrific story is the response to that disaster." – Holly (24:01)

• On Portugal’s innovation:

  "Here's the country the rest of Europe is like, 'Oh, Portugal,' and they're the ones that are like, 'We got this.' ... We have a bias for action." – Tracy (26:55)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Explicit Drug History & Hitler Footage: 02:41–04:33
• Call of Duty, Video Games, Pop Culture: 04:55–06:06
• Research Oddities (Fritz/Friedrich Hochild): 07:16
• Tracy’s Accidental Speed Story: 08:11–10:14
• 80s/90s Sitcom Drug Episodes ("Family Ties", "Saved by the Bell"): 15:03–17:00
• Retrospective on Fatphobia in TV: 17:38–18:44
• Lisbon Earthquake Research, Catastrofe Anecdote: 20:13–21:41
• Kaiju/Animated Series Riff: 22:06–23:05
• Disaster Response Reflection: 24:01–26:55
• Historical Preservation, Museum Mention: 26:04–27:42

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Tone & Final Thoughts

The conversation is thoughtful, candid, yet studded with the hosts' characteristic whimsical tangents and honest reflections. The hosts blend serious myth-busting and historical insight (especially on uncomfortable or misunderstood topics) with knowing asides about the challenges of historical research, TV nostalgia, and the occasional comic fantasy.

Listeners gain both a deeper understanding of the darker and more unusual corners of modern history (drugs and disaster response), as well as an appreciation for the quirky, surprising details that come up when you “miss” things in history class.

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Transcript

[Holly Fry]

This is an iHeart podcast.

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[Podcast Narrator]

In the middle of the night, Saskia awoke in a haze. Her husband Mike was on his laptop. What was on his screen would change Saskia's life forever.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I said, I need you to tell me exactly what you're doing. And immediately the mask came off.

[Podcast Advertiser]

You're supposed to be safe. That's your home. That's your husband.

[Podcast Narrator]

Listen to betrayal season five on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

1969. Malcolm and Martin are gone. America is in crisis. And at Morehouse College, the students make their move.

[Guest Narrator]

These students, including a young Samuel L. Jackson, locked up. The members of the board of trustees, including Martin Luther King Sr. It's the true story of protests and rebellion in black American history that you'll never forget. I'm Hans Charles, our menelik Lumumba. Listen to on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Does your dessert game need a makeover?

[Guest Narrator]

Scoop it or swirl it.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

That's the sound of an ice cream shop on your countertop. Ninja Creami turns almost anything into flawless ice cream. Sweet, indulgent or macro friendly treat. Repeat. Get your Ninja Creami today. Welcome to Stuff youf Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartrad. Hello and welcome to the Friday edition of Stuff youf Miss In History Class. I'm Holly Fry.

[Holly Fry]

And I'm Tracy V. Wilson.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

We talked about drugs this week.

[Holly Fry]

We talked. Yeah, we talked a lot more explicitly about drugs than we normally do on this podcast.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah, because it's such a. I mean, it's such a fascinating moment in history in terms of how much people are still learning about the various ways that militaries have deployed stimulant use. There is one thing that I want to myth bust a little right out of the gate.

[Holly Fry]

Okay.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

There is footage of Adolf Hitler at the 1936 Olympic Games that has been shown in a number of places with a number of people weighing in. And a lot of people are like, oh, he's 100% tweaking. He's on meth. At this point, that does not actually appear to be the case. Oh, yeah, Hitler was a mess in many ways. However, 1936 was before Pervitin was developed.

[Holly Fry]

Okay.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

He certainly was probably on some stimulants. Although it looks like that video is probably looped. It's also worth noting that he had idiopathic Parkinson's disease.

[Holly Fry]

Oh.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

So he had some uncontrollable movements anyway. And I think somebody picked up one of those and kind of looped it, and it very much like he is, you know, tweaking. It's a lot of him rocking and kind of like. Like a frenetic motion thing, repeating movements the way you would associate with someone that is is on methamphetamine. But while he did certainly take it later, that particular piece of footage at the Olympics, I think most historians do not think is actually showing that happening. Just FYI, if you see somebody saying that's what that is, fact check it. One of the things that I kept thinking about while doing this research, which was not enjoyable research, this was, like, hard. Aside from the fact that there's a lot of German language stuff to figure out.

[Holly Fry]

Oh, sure. It's just.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

It's yucky to hear about the things that people were going through. And I tried to not get super graphic in things that were happening in terms of side effects. But one of the things that kept my brain functional through all of this, in terms of, like, associating it with something lighter or more enjoyable. Did you ever play Call of Duty?

[Holly Fry]

No, not really.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

My husband loved it when it had first come out. And, you know, it has some very beautifully rendered in terms of historical war games, some really beautifully rendered for the time maps and whatnot that are in many ways quite accurate. But the funny thing was, you know, you kind of get to this point where there appear to be, like, zombies that are on the Nazi side, and I was like, was this game inspired by somebody reading about Pervitin use? And I don't know, but it made me think of video games, and that always helps. Sidebar Having nothing to do with Pervitin use. But just as a fun factoid for all of my movie people, and particularly movie soundtrack people. If you love the work of Michael Giacchino. He did the score for Call of Duty, I think, for two of those games. And they're beautiful. That's where we discovered him. I remember my beloved saying to me at one point, man, the score for this game is like, unnecessarily good. And it is. Which I find interesting. Anyway, I have a cockamamie. It's not even a theory. I have a cockamamie. I wonder if anybody's ever explored this.

[Holly Fry]

Okay.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

We mentioned in the episode that both east and West Germany had kind of stocked up on Pervitin.

[Holly Fry]

Mm.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

As their tensions, you know, went on forever. And that Pervitin was taken off the market in 1988. Like, that was when it stopped being manufactured, which seems so recent. I know that's a long time ago for many people, but, like, that's during our lifetimes. Yeah.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

That a methamphetamine was relatively easy to get with a prescription. But then I was like, the Berlin Wall fell a year after they stopped making it to the chill out.

[Holly Fry]

When, you know, I was reading the outline and you were talking about east and West Germany, and I was like, what. What year did the wall come down?

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Uh huh.

[Holly Fry]

So I had kind of a similar thought.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Well, I'm glad it wasn't just me then. Yeah, I'm glad it wasn't just me. I had one particular tricky bit early on in my research, which is that. And I say this in case anybody else starts to go looking at things. Some accounts, including, I mean, it's an older article, but including a Time magazine article, get Fritz Hochild's name wrong and they call him Friedrich.

[Holly Fry]

Huh.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

And it made the searching very confusing for a little bit.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

So if that happens, it's. It's Fritz.

[Holly Fry]

So it's not like his name was Friedrich and Fritz was a nickname or anything like that.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Not based on anything I saw.

[Holly Fry]

Okay.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I could be wrong, but everything I saw had his name only like, that was that really had accounts of his life or like pharmacological papers that talked about his life that gave his full name. I don't remember his middle name off the top of my head. It was always Fritz. No Friedrich. But I could be wrong. But it does create some confusion if you're searching. Have I ever told you about. I'm so. This is embarrassing, but it wasn't my fault. But it was hilarious after the fact about the time I accidentally Took speed at work.

[Holly Fry]

This is ringing a bell, but I don't remember the details.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

This is not at our work. In the long time we have worked together, it preceded this. And I was working at a company that I don't want to call out because I don't want anybody to think like that. They're lackadaisical. I think this is literally just an instance of things falling through the cracks because this company contracted with another company that would maintain and manage our first aid kits. Like, we had each break room had a big first aid kit on the wall that had all of your standard stuff, like things for actual emergency use, but also things like, you know,

[Holly Fry]

your

[Tracy V. Wilson]

basics, like your NSAIDs, you know, a little Tylenol, et cetera. And I listen, this was in the early 2000s, when you still went to work when you had a cold. Sometimes, I know that's not great, but it was definitely a job where I couldn't afford to take care a day off in what I was doing and the projects that we had going on at the time. So I had a bit of a cold and I went to work and I took cold medicine from the cabinet.

[Holly Fry]

Right.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

And about an hour later, I was just like, ah. Like, I was like Steve Brule. I was crazed. And I remember saying to my work husband at the time, I feel crazy. I'm. I'm. And he looked at my trash can and picked up the little packet, the single use packet, and he flipped it over and it was expired. It was from pre 2004, so it

[Holly Fry]

had ephedrine in it. Okay. Wow.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

So I just had to ride it out that day.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I felt so sweaty and weird all day long.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Did not enjoy it. Did not enjoy it. Listen, I did a lot of stupid things when I was very young, but as an adult, I'm so boring. I drink a lot of coffee and I like a cocktail, but I'm very boring.

[Holly Fry]

I feel like that story is just 100% not your fault in any way.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

No, it wasn't. But it was like I just had that thing of like, uh, oh, I'm working in a big corporation and I'm on speed. What if today's the day HR asked me a question?

[Holly Fry]

Oh, no.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah, because you get paranoid and I'm already a little anxious and it just triggered it in the biggest way. It was so funny in retrospect. But at the time I was like, I don't know how this one packet. And I mean, it was. If I had paid attention, which. This part's on me. You know if you've ever used one of those like big cabinets of meds?

[Holly Fry]

Yeah.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah.

[Holly Fry]

It's like a little tiny. It's like it's a little tiny thing just big enough to hold whatever tablet is in there with tiny, tiny print on it.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

But like in looking at it after the fact, I was like the other cold medicines in that cabinet were all very clearly newer, but it had just not occurred to me that I was taking a packet that looked a little long in the tooth. And so, so that's what happened. But again, I hope that never happens to anybody because it's not fun. Little surprise. Adrenaline is not enjoy. I'm not an adrenaline junkie to begin with. I'm like, lie down adrenaline. Let's all chill out. But that was not enjoyable. Unlike the people we normally talk about on the show, we are living in a time when Internet connectivity is a standard part of life for most people. And there is literally no way we could research and prepare our podcast without the Internet. If connectivity goes down for me, it can be really hard to make up that lost time. And for businesses, Internet connectivity is even more of a necessity. Spectrum Business keeps businesses of all sizes connected seamlessly with fast and reliable Internet, advanced wi fi, phone, TV and mobile services. Spectrum business offers 100% US based customer support and they do it 24 7. That means you can always stay up and running no matter what hours your business keeps. Spectrum Business also will tailor connectivity solutions just for you. They will put a package together that is built for your business budget. Millions of business owners rely on Spectrum Business to keep them connected. So visit spectrum.combusiness to learn more. Restrictions apply. Service is not available in all areas.

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[Podcast Narrator]

In the middle of the night, Saskia awoke in a haze. Her husband Mike was on his laptop. What was on his screen would change Saskia's life forever.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I said I need you to tell me exactly what you're doing. And immediately the mask came off.

[Podcast Advertiser]

You're supposed to be safe. That's your home that's your husband.

[Podcast Narrator]

So keep this secret for so many years.

[Holly Fry]

He's like a seasoned pro.

[Podcast Narrator]

This is a story about the end of a marriage, but it's also the story of one woman who was done living in the dark.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

You're a dangerous person who preys on

[Holly Fry]

vulnerable and trusting people.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

You're a predator.

[Holly Fry]

Michael Levengood.

[Podcast Narrator]

Listen to betrayal, season five on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

1969. Malcolm and Martin are gone. America is in crisis. And at Morehouse College, the students make their move.

[Guest Narrator]

These students, including a young Samuel L. Jackson locked up. The members of the board of trustees, including Martin Luther King Senior. It's the true story of protest and rebellion in black American history that you'll never forget. I'm Hans Charles.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I'm Menelik Lumumba.

[Guest Narrator]

Listen to the a building on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I also wanted to ask you if you are old enough to remember the episode of Family Ties where Alex P. Keaton starts taking speed.

[Holly Fry]

I said yes, really confidently because I think I thought you were gonna say a different thing. Oh. Because that was an era of very special episodes of television.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah.

[Holly Fry]

So I'm pretty confident I have seen that because I watched that show. But I'm also thinking about, well, what was the, what was the name of it? I don't, I'm blanking out on the name of this show that I watched. All of it is just not in my brain currently. But there was a whole plot line in one episode where one of the characters took a lot of some sort of stimulant in order to prepare for it.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Was it Saved by the Bell?

[Holly Fry]

It was saved. Thank you. It was Saved by the Bell. Thank you for saving me from losing my mind. Yeah. They also had one not remember Saved by the Bell. I mean, that's the best of us.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

All that fine work to memory. Here's what I will. If anybody in our listening audience is curious and is like, what? There was an episode of Family Ties. So the plot was that Alex needed to study for a big exam and he convinced his sister to get diet pills from her friend to give him an energy boost.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

And then he of course becomes addicted. Which is very funny because, like the, the concept if you never watch Family Ties was that their parents had been like these Berkeley hippies. And Alex P. Keaton was like this very straight laced, pretty right wing kid. Like, that was his form of rebellion. Super uptight. But the Parents did not. It took a long time for them to be like, oh, something's up with this kid. But if you ever go looking for this episode, be forewarned that there is a lot of really, really cruddy fat phobia in it.

[Holly Fry]

Oh, no. Yeah.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Because the deal that gets made is that this friend will give him diet pills if he will go out with her, and he doesn't want to go out with her because she's a fatty. Like, it's really gross. It's really gross. So just know that going in. But it is also, like, 80s television.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Which, you know, which was an era

[Holly Fry]

of incredibly obvious fatphobia on tv.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah. Very unkind. And, I mean, it comes up repeatedly throughout the episode where it's like, we got it. We got it. Anyway, all of this was top of mind this week.

[Holly Fry]

This is not about an amphetamine episode, but, like, that has reminded me of Designing Women, wound up on one of the streaming services. And I remembered loving that show so much and started watching it and was like, wow, this show is really fat phobic all the time. Like, all the time.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

[Holly Fry]

Continually. Which I just, you know, having grown up in an era that was steeped in. Had not really registered until 20, however many years later. 30, 40 years later. How many decades later? Oh, my goodness.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I mean, that's the case with a lot of shows that we loved growing up. When you go back and revisit them, you're like. Like, I struggle with Maude, which I loved as a kid, which probably says a lot about why I ended up who I am. And I love me some Bea Arthur, goodness knows. But, like, when I go back and rewatch it, she was so needlessly mean to her husband. A lot of the time, I'm like, that's not feminism. That's just kind of being a mean spouse.

[Holly Fry]

Like, that's right.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

But that was the guise of it anyway. Speed. Use methamphetamine. Right. In the military. I do marvel at how much it was. Like, we kind of know that people aren't, like, accurate about things, but they're so energetic. And I'm like, why is that?

[Holly Fry]

Okay,

[Tracy V. Wilson]

sure, I don't get it, but I'm not a person commanding Nazi troops. No. I don't know if they tried to explain it to me that I would get it any better, but, yeah, okay. It's kind of where I land. It does really, really freak me out that Conti is positioned sometimes without the context of who he really was. It really, really riles Me up. I'm like, don't make it sound like this dude was competent or, like, ethical in any way. Do not.

[Holly Fry]

Right.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Like, I feel like anytime you talk about it, you have to do what we did and make clear, like, no, no, please don't think. Because he was horrifying anyway. I know there's not always room for all of that context for everybody writing an academic article or a quick news article, but, man. No.

[Holly Fry]

We talked about an earthquake in Lisbon inspired by a trip to Morocco.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah.

[Holly Fry]

Which still feels a little weird. I thought as I started researching it that I might have more Morocco to talk about than I did.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah.

[Holly Fry]

Because even when I tried to find things that were specifically about Morocco and about this earthquake, they were vague and did not add a lot of substance.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah.

[Holly Fry]

One of the things that I watched was a video. It was a video lecture. Now, I'm not going to get into the specifics because I do not want to anyone to go harass this person. But the person who was speaking clearly did not speak English as their first language. And they described the catastrophe of this earthquake with the pronunciation catastrophe. And I was so delighted.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

That sounds beautiful, actually, about catastrophe.

[Holly Fry]

And it made me really appreciate all of the beautiful whimsy and delight that you can find when you just appreciate that it's fine for people to pronounce words differently. I knew exactly the word that was meant. The word that was meant was catastrophe. The pronunciation of catastrophe brightens my day a lot.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

That also would be a great pet or character name.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Monsieur Catastrophe is here for tea.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

And as he walks in, things just break all around him.

[Holly Fry]

I am just. There's a whole animated series spooling out in my head now. Catastrophe.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

It's funny that you mention animated series.

[Holly Fry]

Oh, yeah.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Because the whole time we were talking about this, I was wishing that someone would make maybe an animated series. Maybe a comic book, maybe a movie that's like a prequel. Prequel. Prequel. Prequel to Pacific Rim, where all of this is an unsettled Kaiju that happens to be in the Atlantic. Oh, I would so 100% watch an 18th century Pacific Rim.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I mean, you can't have the Jaegers. Cause there's no Jaeger program yet. But the rest would be. Listen, if Guillermo del Toro wants to make a movie, I'm showing up. That's all there is to it.

[Holly Fry]

Sure.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

And I loved Pacific Rim. But I did think about Kaiju a lot while we were talking about the various places that reported unusual seismic or oceanic activity during the kind of the surrounding months.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Well.

[Holly Fry]

And it makes sense that if you don't really know what has happened on the other side of the ocean, that you might attribute it to some other weird thing. But I did really like how clear it was that once people in other places that saw these effects knew that there had been an earthquake in Lisbon on that same day that they made the connection.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

It's Kaiju.

[Holly Fry]

And. Yeah.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Just rolling over. Or just rolling over in his sleep. It's all.

[Holly Fry]

Maybe it's two of them and they're babies and they're having an argument with each other.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

You got a whole fan fiction. I wasn't even ready for there.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah. I don't know. It just occurred to me.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Jim Henson's Kaiju babies be like Muppet Babies, only Kaiju. That's the joke. Okay? That's the joke. That's why I said, jim Henson's Kaiju babies.

[Holly Fry]

I didn't hear the word Jim Henson's over the sound of my own giggling. And so I missed the joke. So one of the things. The other things that I thought about a lot in this episode was just about what goes into a natural disaster. Like, there is the thing that happens, the event, the earthquake or the flood or the hurricane or the avalanche or whatever. There's that thing that happens. But then also, what can turn it into a very horrific story is the response to that disaster. Like, does a government take any kind of action? And what action is that? And we have had other episodes that have been about other events in history. Maybe not a thing that we would think of as a natural disaster, but where the response to it made everything so much worse. So, like, the great famine in Ireland was made so much worse by a lot of it. Government inaction. And some of that inaction being maintaining the status quo of food products being shipped out of Ireland because they had been raised to be sold, not to be food for the people who were living there.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah.

[Holly Fry]

And I just. I was. That. I kept thinking about stuff like that as I was working on this and seeing all the. All the steps that were taken to try to make things as undeadly as possible in the aftermath of this earthquake. Yeah.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I mean, as disaster response initiatives go, this one seems like it was led with concepts of kindness and genuine care, which theoretically should be how it always is, but isn't how it always is.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah. I would be willing to bet that if you really dug into things like who was prosecuted for looting, you would probably find trends there that would be reflective of society and prejudices within society.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Oh, yeah.

[Holly Fry]

But it Also definitely feels like there was just a coordinated effort to save as many people as possible, rebuild in as sensible a way as possible. We didn't really get into them, but there were definite efforts on the parts of academics and scholars to try to save as many records as possible from, you know, the rubble of buildings that had been destroyed or trying to piece together collections that had been lost from other collections that were unaffected. It was really across the whole spectrum. And this whole effort, like, what was thought of sometimes as, like, the first modern disaster response effort, also being a part of, like, the modernization of Portugal, which other countries thought Portugal was really behind on before this happened.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

That really struck me that here's the country that the rest of Europe is like, oh, Portugal. And they're the ones that are like, we got this. We have a plan. We're putting initiatives in place. We're moving very quickly. We have a bias for action. Like, that's the goal. It's an interesting juxtaposition. And I wonder. I'm sure there's been writing about how perceptions of Portugal changed in the wake of that.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah, it was alluded to and things that I read but not really talked about thoroughly. There is also a Lisbon Earthquake Museum about earthquakes in general and also this earthquake specifically. And I'm like, I kind of want to go to it.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Get in the car.

[Holly Fry]

Their website has lots of. Lots of helpful information, but also the museum itself looks really interesting to me. Nice. So, yeah, maybe someday in the future we will have a history trip to Portugal. Sounds good. I don't know.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Book it.

[Holly Fry]

Who can say?

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Book it.

[Holly Fry]

Who can say? I'm not sure if there are any spots still available in our upcoming trip this September, October.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I don't know.

[Holly Fry]

For Oktoberfest.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I checked in a minute. I know. We were getting pretty slim.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

On remaining spots.

[Holly Fry]

So we were sold out on single rooms, but there was still availability for double rooms. I'm looking.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I'm looking it up.

[Holly Fry]

You're looking. Holly's looking.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Sold out.

[Holly Fry]

Sold out. The trip is sold out.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

You can join a wait list if you are interested and didn't get in on it, because people do cancel sometimes and other people slide into those slots. Defined destinations will reach out to people, I presume, in the order in which they got on the wait list.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

But yes, right now it is listed. If you go to the main page, it says, like, few remain. But if you go to the actual booking page, they both say, sold out.

[Holly Fry]

It says sold out. Okay. Well, if anyone is curious about it, Want to see if maybe you want to get on the wait list, it is@guined destinations.com is the website where all that information is. And then I've already forgotten what the name of our tour is this time, since we've been talking about Morocco this whole time. Munich, Oktoberfest in Prague. Yes, that is the one where you will find the description of this and the place to get on the wait list if you would like to do that. Whatever's coming up on your weekend, I hope it's going to go as well as possible for everyone. And I hope, you know, if things are busy, if things are stressful, I know they're stressful for a lot of people that you're able to take a moment, some moments for yourself. We'll be back tomorrow with a Saturday classic and something brand new on Monday. 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 shows. This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.