Today starts our Women's History Month coverage! We remind you that nobody is perfect; women, like all genders, contain multitudes. Taylor starts off with the story of Helen Keller - from the disease that took her sight and hearing at 19 months - to an international superstar and advocate for disabled people, Socialism, and women. How did she go from her silent dark world to a graduate of Radcliffe and a prolific writer? She couldn't have done it without her Teacher, Anne Sullivan, who dedicated her life to working with Helen, even when her own eye issues eventually led to blindness. We recommend checking out the sources in our show notes - Helen played herself in a film in 1954 & we got to read our dear Lorena Hickock's book!
Today starts our Women's History Month coverage! We remind you that nobody is perfect, women, like all genders, contain mulititudes.
Taylor starts off with the story of Helen Keller - from the disease that took her sight and hearing at 19 months - to an international superstar and advocate for disabled people, Socialism, and women. How did she go from her silent dark world to a graduate of Radcliffe and a prolific writer?
She couldn't have done it without her Teacher, Anne Sullivan, who dedicated her life to working with Helen, even when her own eye issues eventually led to blindness.
We recommend checking out the sources in our show notes - Helen played herself in a film in 1954 & we got to read our dear Lorena Hickock's book!
Sources
Helen Keller Speaks out - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ch_H8pt9M8
Helen Keller - Her Story, 1954 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QODz_xciKY
The Story of Hellen Keller by Lorena Hickock - https://www.ebay.com/itm/185903962397
Hi Friends! Our transcripts aren't perfect, but I wanted to make sure you had something - if you'd like an edited transcript, I'd be happy to prioritize one for you - please email doomedtofailpod@gmail.com - Thanks! - Taylor
Welcome to Doomed to Fail. And I'm Taylor, joined by fars
>> Taylor: In the matter of the people of State of California vs. Orenthal James Simpson, case number BA097.
>> Farz: And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you.
>> Taylor: Ask what you can do for your country.
>> Farz: And we are back online and we are ready to give you people some precious, precious banter. Hi, Taylor.
>> Taylor: Hello.
>> Farz: Welcome. Doomfale.
>> Taylor: Oh, you do it. You go.
>> Farz: No, I was welcoming you to your.
>> Taylor: Podcast as you were doing our thing. Oh, thank you.
>> Farz: No, no, thank you.
>> Taylor: Thank you. Well, you welcome to you as well and everyone else. Welcome to Doomed to Fail. We bring you history's most notorious disasters, epic failures, et cetera, twice a week. And I'm Taylor, joined by fars, and.
>> Farz: We are here talking and sharing stories about our weekend and what we're up to. And, yeah, mostly busy, but good, I think, is the way I'd wrap up the details there.
>> Taylor: Everything. Yeah, yeah. This is my last. I've by some miracle, have no activities today besides this. I don't have any cookie booths. I don't have any softball games. All of that will change soon.
>> Farz: Enjoy it. Just enjoy the downtime.
>> Taylor: I will, I will.
>> Farz: cool. Well, we'll go ahead and. I just forgot. Did you already introduce us?
>> Taylor: I just did.
>> Farz: Thank you. Okay. Man. I'm, like, really distracted. I think it's the number of screens I have and the number of tabs open on each screen. It's like my brain's just kind of like it's playing ping pong.
>> Taylor: I'm, like, still frantically typing, and I'm thinking, like, maybe I should just dictate this to my. My outline instead of typing it, because my typing also is so bad because of my nails that, like, every other word is spelled wrong. But I'm, like, gonna try my best.
>> Farz: I, Can I see your nails again? Okay. Those aren't that bad. Like, okay. I mean that I've seen other women who have, like, ones that are like an inch or two off their fingers.
>> Taylor: Men are supposed to be there. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's hard.
>> Farz: Okay.
>> Taylor: They're. They're kind of. They're pretty long.
>> Farz: It seems like a hard thing to type with that.
>> Taylor: I know, but I love having them do this.
>> Farz: Can't see it, but Taylor's doing a little finger. You can hear it. well, if you're still typing, do you want me to go first today?
>> Taylor: No, I'm fine.
>> Farz: You're fine?
>> Taylor: Okay, I'm done.
>> Farz: We'll go with Taylor.
>> Taylor: Good enough, Good enough.
>> Farz: good enough. That's. That's our motto here. Do the film.
>> Taylor: Good enough.
March is officially Women's history month
so it's officially Women's history month. Happy March 1st. I hung up my women's suffrage flag outside. It's huge. and I'm very excited. And I know that you started your women's history stuff earlier this week. Last week.
>> Farz: Taylor, can I tell you something that just dawned on me when we. When you started talking?
>> Taylor: What?
>> Farz: That I said I was going to do a series of three, and I totally researched something different.
>> Taylor: Okay, well, never mind. For Paris, women's history, I will do mine. I will do four. I'll do four. Maybe five. but last year, as a reminder, I did Coco Chanel, who was a Nazi, Millie Earhart, Henrietta Lacks, the triangle, shirtwaist, factory fire, and Agatha Christie. So I did five last year. And this year, I'm going to start out with two classic women, in women's history that I know you know and have heard of. And I'm not even going to make you guess because I don't really know how I. Whatever. I'm going to talk about Helen Keller and her teacher, Ann Sullivan.
>> Farz: Oh, very cool.
>> Taylor: Yeah. So my children did not know who Helen Keller was, which, if the Department of education still exists. I'm going to write them a letter.
>> Farz: I think it'll get returned to sender.
>> Taylor: They're going to be like, your typing is terrible. Also, we don't exist. So thanks for.
>> Farz: Yes.
>> Taylor: So, but, I was. So I read them a book about Helen Keller, and guess who wrote that book. I feel like I've told you this, but you're never going to guess.
>> Farz: Never going to guess.
>> Taylor: Lorena Hickok, who is Eleanor Roosevelt's girlfriend, wrote a book. We're like young adults. So I read that book to children. I started to read a book about Ann Sullivan to the children, and Miles started to cry because her life was very sad. So I stopped reading that.
>> Farz: Man, your kids are going to be so interesting when they're adults.
>> Taylor: They are. They definitely are.
Helen Adams Keller was born deaf and blind in 1880 in Alabama
So Helen Adams Keller was born on June 27, 1880. She lived in Tuscumbia, Alabama. And that was the South. It is the south, but it was the south in the 1880s. So, just FYI, her parents. Helene is her dad. Catherine Kate is her mom. The family home was called Ivy Green. It was a house that they've had for a long time. And it was probably. We could describe it as a plantation because they definitely had enslaved people. And her dad was a captain in the Confederate army, and her grandpa was a general in The Confederate Army.
>> Farz: Can we just name our houses? Is that like just a thing that you can just choose to do?
>> Taylor: Yeah. My house is named Rancho Relaxo. You know that?
>> Farz: I guess you do name your house.
>> Taylor: I mine. My, my brother in law and his wife named their. They moved. But their first house they named Pembroke Manor for no reason. It was just great.
>> Farz: Okay, I'm gonna upload a picture of my house to ChatGPT and see if we can come up with the name.
>> Taylor: Oh, it's a good idea. It's a good idea. Yeah, you should definitely.
>> Farz: I'll share it with, I'll share with the audience at the end of this.
>> Taylor: Yeah, everyone name your house. It's a good idea. So she had four siblings, two half brothers from her dad's first marriage and then two siblings from her parents. They were part of the quote, slave holding elite. But things were rough post war, so they did not have a lot of money after the war was over, because they could no longer, you know, enslave people to make money. The. In her book when she kind of, she wrote many, many books, but in Helen's book when she talked about this, this part of her history, she said, quote, there is no king who has not had a slave ancestors and no slave who has not had a king among his. So I'm talking about history and all that. She is so smart. I'm going to get to that. So that's her past. She's lives in the American south post the Civil War. When she was 19 months old, she contracted probably meningitis or maybe scarlet fever. And that left her both deaf and blind. Which is the main thing that you might know about Helen Keller. She.
>> Farz: The only thing I know about Helen Keller.
>> Taylor: Right. The other thing I saw something, you know, with like that poor child this week who died of the measles in Texas and those measles outbreaks.
>> Farz: Yeah.
>> Taylor: So it's going to be like not just death for those kids. Some of those kids are going to end up like severely disabled like this, you know.
>> Farz: Yeah, it's like the, that we, we're talking about that guy who lives at the Iron Lung, one of those deals.
>> Taylor: Right. So it's not, it's not just death, it's other things as well. So she obviously that's terrible having a two year old who can no longer hear or see. Like it's really, really difficult to communicate with that child. And her family kept good care of her. Obviously. They kept, kept her learning the best that she could. They would do like tactile games with her where she could, like, you know, put different things in different holes and, like, touch things and, like, understand space and, like, under. She could tell who was coming by their footsteps, but she didn't really know who they were. But she could tell that it was, like, different people by their footsteps. She had about 60 homemade signs, so, like, things that she could do to be like, I want water or I want to eat or whatever. She would, like, make a movement and her family could understand her. She was able to communicate with their maid's daughter, which was a young, A young girl who was only, like, two years older than Helen. Her name was Martha Washington. And they were be able. They were able to, like, communicate, like, the way kids figured it out, with, like, a little bit of, like, touching and moving and, like, trying to figure out how to do things, but nothing, like, formal, if that makes sense, like, However you'd figure it out.
>> Farz: Sure.
>> Taylor: So it's kind of like, you know when you're a baby and you don't remember being a baby.
>> Farz: I totally remember.
>> Taylor: Yeah, see, you don't. And the reason you don't. One of the reasons you don't remember being a baby is because you didn't know what you were doing because you were a baby. So you didn't have words for things. So any memory you have of then is, like. Would be, oh, I have this, like, feeling. I can see this, like, other thing that kind of looks like me coming towards me and giving me food. But you don't know the word for food. You don't know the word for mom. You don't understand, like. You don't know what those things are. You're kind of, like, in your brain figuring it out, you know, and that happens to everybody.
>> Farz: It's like, if you're born deaf, like, you don't know what white is or blue is or.
>> Taylor: Right. Blind. But. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
>> Farz: Exactly what I say. Deaf.
>> Taylor: Deaf. Yeah.
>> Farz: Damn it.
Helen Keller is the first person to be both deaf and blind
>> Taylor: I did. In this. I was. I saw something else. I don't know if it was while I was researching this, but someone who was blind, they asked them what colors were, and they had, like, gone outside. And someone was like, that heat that you feel that is red, you know, and then, like, feel the grass and, like, the dew on the grass, and. And they, You know, when you feel a plant that's green and, like, you know, just to kind of get an idea of it, but you don't ever have the full idea of, like, what people see or hear, you know? So Helen's Life until she was, like, seven, was in that space that you're in when you're a baby, when you're like, I don't know what things are, you know, Like, I know that there's people who take care of me. I know there's, like, stuff I like to eat, but I don't know what the word eat means. You know, just so many. She doesn't have the concept of what those things are. It's all in her head, and it's like feelings. but a lot of the time she's really frustrated, too, because she can't communicate with anyone and they can't communicate with her. Obviously.
>> Farz: It has to be tremendously frustrating to be in a situation where, like, literally nothing understands you.
>> Taylor: Yeah. And, like, you don't even understand what's going on. You're sort of like, just at this consciousness and, like, this is silent darkness, you know?
>> Farz: God, so terrifying.
>> Taylor: That's so scary. I know. I know. So Helen is obviously not the first person in the world to be both deaf and blind. There are plenty of other people before, in the United States, a famous woman who was born, in 1829 was named Laura Bridgman. And she was a similar case. She had. She learned to communicate doing, using sign language and Braille, and she created beautiful art. She was a beautiful, like, lace maker, which is really cool. And Helen's mother, Kate, learned about Laura Bridgman from a book called American Notes by Charles Dickens. So Charles Dickens came to the United States and wrote some stories about people here that he met. And one of those people was Laura Bridgman. He. So Kate read the story, and she went to Baltimore to the hospital where Laura Bridgman had been, had been, like, evaluated. And she met a doctor named J. Julian Crissom. And that doctor was working with Alexander Graham Bell. And they had Alexander Graham Bell meet Helen. He's working with deaf children again.
>> Farz: Nobody existed in the world. Back in the old days, it was like every. Did you say Martha Washington was her, like, friend?
>> Taylor: Well, not the real Martha Washington.
>> Farz: Oh, that would have been, like, a hundred years after.
>> Taylor: Martha Washington was the name of the formerly enslaved daughter of the person that she.
>> Farz: Okay, got it, Got it.
>> Taylor: That makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. so she learned about this. Learned about this stuff. She met m. Alexander Graham Bell, and Alexander Graham Bell sent them to the Perkins School for the Blind, and that's where they met Anne Sullivan. So Ann Sullivan is the teacher. A lot of times in books, he's just called Teacher. And she's also The Miracle Worker. So all the movies about her are called the Mir Worker, like the one with Patty Duke. Do you know who Patty Duke is?
>> Farz: Nope.
>> Taylor: So she just to tell you and everyone else who Patty Duke is, she's an actress. She played, a psychologist in the Baby Jessica movie that I watched on tv. But more importantly, she had a TV show when she was like a young teen called the Patty Duke show, where she played herself and her cousin, and it was, like, about being identical cousins and, like, the stuff that could happen. She played both parts, and it was really cute. And then she played Helen Keller in the first Miracle Worker movie, and then later she played Anne Sullivan in the next one. So she played both parts.
>> Farz: How did you know all that?
>> Taylor: you know, also she's the mother of, the guy who plays Sam in Lord of the Rings, and she died recently.
>> Farz: So, anyway, there's so much stuff crammed in your brain. It's, like, good for you, I guess.
>> Taylor: Yeah.
Ann Sullivan was born in 1866 with very poor eyesight
So far, so useful.
>> Farz: Empty. Having an empty brain. I will. I will confess, having an empty brain is kind of nice because there's a lot of peace in there.
>> Taylor: There's no peace in my brain.
>> Farz: That's fairly fair.
>> Taylor: Yeah. So anyway, there's a lot of. About it. They're called the Miracle Worker. That's Ann Sullivan. She was born in 1866 in Feeding Hills, Massachusetts. When Ann Sullivan was young, she was really, really, really poor. And she got a disease called trachoma, which is a disease of your eyes that has to do with bad sanitary conditions. And essentially it, created, like, these hard modules on the inside of her eyelid, and it was. Her eyelids would scratch her eyes.
>> Farz: That is nightmare fuel.
>> Taylor: It's horrible. So in the book that I got one chapter in, before my son started to cry because it was too terrible, they were very clear that, like, the doctor didn't want to help her because she was poor. And he was like, oh, these poor immigrants, like, they can't take care of their kids because her family was from Ireland and all this stuff. So she never got the treatment that she could have gotten. And so for the rest of her life, she's going to be. Have very, very poor eyesight. And eventually she will be blind as well.
>> Farz: Why would you read this to Miles?
>> Taylor: It was a kid's book.
>> Farz: This, like, weird class social structure mixed with, like, torture.
>> Taylor: Like, we're learning history in this house. Did you not think that we were.
>> Farz: I, know. I know. It's just like that. Not everything has to be like, no, no, we separating.
>> Taylor: It but anyway, because she had a hard life. Her parents died young and then her brother went to an institution and then to like foster care. But she ended up at the Perkins School for the. Because they were able to help her. she's able to read braille and do things even though her eyesight would kind of go back and forth and it would always hurt her. She worked there, so. Ann. So yeah, so it was like scarring her eyelids, scarring her corneas. Super terrible. She would get actually a ton of surgeries on her eyes, which is terrifying to think of. Like late 1800s eye surgery.
>> Farz: I'd rather just leave it alone. Just leave it alone.
>> Taylor: I mean, you know how you've heard how like Lasix can be turn out. So.
>> Farz: So I want to do it today. I want to like I, I've been in situation where somebody's recommended back surgery. I'm not going to do it.
>> Taylor: No.
>> Farz: Like my back, my eyes. Like, I'm not doing any of that. Like just live through it.
>> Taylor: Yeah. So she went through several surgeries and at age 15, they were actually able to improve her, her vision so she could read books. she would later get more surgeries and like at some point toward like the end of her life, she would beg for more surgeries. She just wanted to see. She ended up one of her eyes. So it was bad for, for an. But she worked so well with Helen because she understood what it was like to not be able to see in at least some capacity. And she really wanted to prove that she was more than her disability and she wanted Helen to be able to prove that as well.
>> Farz: Wait, hold on one second. Taylor.
>> Farz: What year, when was this again?
>> Taylor: The late 1880s.
>> Farz: Okay, so they recently they discovered probably anesthesia 30 years earlier. I was imagining this woman being strapped down and then cutting into her eyes. Eyeballs.
>> Taylor: I don't think. Like, I feel like when you get Lasiks, dude, they don't numb your eyes, do they?
>> Farz: Oh God. So, well, well, I think what they do is the eye drops. Aren't they. They put eye drops in there? Oh yeah, probably, yeah. And exercises. Anesthesia, eyes. Your eyes.
>> Taylor: I mean, it's a miracle that they got her her eyesight better at one point in her life.
>> Farz: You know, she's probably lying. They probably stuffed a rock in her eye and said this is a replacement for your lens. No way. It worked.
>> Taylor: It worked, it worked. so she worked at the Perkins School for the Blind and she got assigned to work with Helen keller. So on March 5th, 1887, Ann came to Helen's house to stay and to, like, meet with them. So she was paid by the Kellers, but they often didn't have enough money to pay her. So she would do her work for free. And they would eventually have, like, benefactors and sponsors that would give them money, so that they could continue. Continue their work together. But when she got there, it was, like, really difficult.
Taylor: How do you teach somebody that is blind and deaf anything
You have this child who's, like, essentially, like, partly feral. Like, they. The family, you know, they took good care of her, but they're like, you know, Helen would have a dinner table. She would, like, walk around, just, like, grab food off people's plates. Like, she didn't really. She didn't know what was going on. You know, she just knew that she needed food. She knew that she needed to go to the bathroom, but she didn't really understand, like, what that was. And so, And, like, even in, like, the kids books about her, Ann was rough with her. She would like, slap her and be like, you have to sit and do this. And she would make her, like, sit at a chair. Wouldn't let her get up until she folded her napkin. And they would do that for, like, hours. And her parents would be like, I don't know if I can do this.
>> Farz: So here's the part, Taylor, that always interested me about the Helen Keller story, but that I never understood. How do you teach somebody that is blind and deaf anything? How is it impossible?
>> Taylor: Well, so a lot of it is pulling a napkin? Yeah. No, a lot of it is, like, repetitive things and, like, just movements that she can do, like, with her hands, so she can, like, learn how to do it. So she does learn. During this time, she learns, like, to crochet, because she can, like, do that over and over again and, like, make a long chain with a. With yarn. She learns how to, like, you know, clean things up and move things, different parts of the room, because her spatial awareness is great, a lot better than everybody else's because she needs that, you know, from, like, sound and touch and all things. So she's able to do that. she also learns the manual Alphabet, which is. Will probably officially later turn into American Sign Language, but she doesn't know what it means. So she can make the, you know, the Alphabet. I can do my name. She can make the Alphabet with her hands, but, she doesn't know what it means, but she can repeat it. You know, so if teacher likes. Puts in her hand, like, this is a doll. D, O, L, L, she can repeat that Back to her.
>> Farz: Oh, that's how they do it. You can put your. You put your hand on the hand of the person you're teaching, and then they see how your fingers move, and then they repeat that. But then how do you. How do they know what that thing is?
>> Taylor: Well, I'm gonna tell you in a second.
>> Farz: Okay, Sorry, I'm getting ahead. Go ahead.
>> Taylor: No, you're not. Like, that's a good. That's the question. You know, like, that's the thing. Like, she can continue to repeat it. She can do it. And like, when you watch. There's some movies that you can watch of Helen Keller when she's older doing it, and, you know, they do it very fast. They spell into her hand, but, like, that's the mo. The best way for her to get information. So they're doing that. So, like, Anne bought her a doll. So she's like, doll in her hand, and Helen can do it back, but she's like, I don't know what you want from me. Like, later, when she can express herself, she'll say, like, I didn't know what she wanted. I could spell the word doll, but I didn't know what it was. You know? Like, you want me to just repeat what you're doing? Like, I'll do that, but, like, I don't understand what we're doing. Just like you were saying, like, how do you. What do you do? and so. Oh, this is. This is actually a quote from Helen Keller. She said, I did not know that I was spelling a word or even that words existed. I was simply making my fingers go in a monkey, like, imitation. So that's what she's doing to start.
>> Farz: Wait, so how old Was she again?
>> Taylor: 7.
>> Farz: It's kind of like us, isn't it? Like, it's kind of like every other. Like, when your parents are speaking. We were too young to know anything, but when your parents are speaking to you, like, you don't know anything. It's not that different.
Helen wanted to learn more than just basic communication skills
Okay, well, you put in that context or. I did, but, like, still. I get it now.
>> Taylor: No, yeah, that's what. Yeah, that exactly. Like, you need to learn what words are. Everyone needs to learn what words are one way or another, you know? So eventually it clicks with one word. And you know what that word is?
>> Farz: Water.
>> Taylor: It's water. Correct, Correct. So they went out to the. To the, pump, which is like a water pump. Old timey water pump. And she's got a cup, and she has her hand. She has a cup and she's blowing cup in her hand. It's one cup in her hand, and Helen drops the cup. She's so mad, like, trying to figure it out. and then, quote from Helen. I stood still, my whole attention fixed upon the motions in her fingers. Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness, as of something forgotten, a thrill of returning thought. And somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me. I knew then that W A T E R meant the wonderful, cool something that was flowing over my hand. The living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, set it free. So I also think that, like, it's. She, did. The fact that she was able to see in here for the first 19 months of her life probably helped as well.
>> Farz: Can you hear the barking?
>> Taylor: No.
>> Farz: Okay, yes, I'm sure it helped.
>> Taylor: but so that. That was where the connection. So she was super excited, wanted to spell everything. Then she had to, like, learn sentences and, like, you know, learn to express herself. But she did eventually learn all those things. so that was super exciting. Her parents learned how to write in Braille, to write her. Her letters. They had. They learned how to do, the manual Alphabet, the sign language, to be able to talk to her. So she was able to, like, start to learn things and, like, actually, like, actually, you know, communicate and learn. But, Ann had to be with her the whole time. And so for the next few years, they would spend time at the Perkins School for the Blind, which is right outside of Boston. It still ex today, and they spend summers back home. And Helen wanted to. She wanted to go to school. She wanted to learn more than just, like, basic communication skills. And so when she was in school, it was hard because there were. There weren't schools for both deaf and blind like, that. There were schools for blind kids, schools for deaf kids, but not both. And so that was like, what, What challenge are they gonna. Are they gonna do? a lot of the books. Some are written in Braille, but not all of them. So when she went to school, Anne would. I mean. And this would hurt her eyes the entire time, but she would read books and spell them word for word into Helen's hand. And then Helen would. That's how. Then she would, like, write reports on a typewriter.
>> Farz: Wait, so what would happen if you were deaf? Plant and had no hands?
>> Taylor: I don't know.
>> Farz: Feet.
>> Taylor: You could probably figure that out.
>> Farz: Sorry, continue.
>> Taylor: No, that's a good question. I don't know.
>> Farz: It's not a good question.
>> Taylor: But thank you for trying, I hope. I, I don't know. That sounds terrible. Even Worse. Even worse than this.
Helen Keller learned Braille after all this hardship
so Helen learned Braille. She could type on a regular typewriter. She could also type in, like, a Braille typewriter. She learns at some point to read lips by touching them. So she could just put your hand in your mouth and know what you were saying. She would say that she could, like, feel music by touching a piano. And, like, you know, she could feel the vibrations and, like, try to understand. Understand those things from that. she is, by the way, super famous during this time. She doesn't really know it. They don't really tell her that, like, she's super famous. People all over the world know her story and are really inspired by the fact that she was able to learn to communicate after. After all this hardship. People who sent her letters. and eventually she moves to New York to go to a school for the deaf and then a finishing school in Massachusetts. And in 1900, she goes to Radcliffe, which is the ladies Harvard, because she wasn't allowed to Harvard because she was a lady, but she goes to Radcliffe. And she also, during this time, is very determined to speak. She does learn to speak, but it's very hard to understand her. I was like, maybe I could do it. and you can see her speak on YouTube. And it's hard.
>> Farz: yeah, but she's never heard the.
>> Taylor: Words, but she speaks. And then her companion is with her. Will kind of translate after she speaks. But it's super cool, you know, to see her. See her trying. she graduated in 1904 from Radcliffe, and, you know, she did things like her final exams. She would, like, sitting alone in a room with a typewriter and, like, type out the answers, you know, so that she would be able to, like, write her, like, final reports in, like, a way that was showing that she was doing it, you know.
>> Farz: Right.
>> Taylor: her college was paid for by the Standard Oil, family. They heard about her from their friend Mark Twain, and he asked them to pay for her college.
>> Farz: There's literally nobody in the world.
>> Taylor: It's just all the things. Yeah. So then her question was, like, what to do next? So she did write a book, kind of right away. Her first book was called the Story of My Life, and that was like, a bestseller. It's in a million languages all over the world. She had trouble, though, making money, and at first she turned down, but then later accepted a pension from Andrew Carnegie. So Andrew Carnegie paid her some money for the rest of her life.
>> Farz: It's gotta be a good, good hookup.
>> Taylor: Yeah. So in the night. So some of the things that happened to her. At one point, there's a story where, like, she. Her house catches on fire and she escapes because her dog warns her, which is really sweet. He, like, starts licking her like crazy, and she's like, what is going on? But she can't hear anything or see anything. And she eventually smells the fire and gets out. But her dog saved her life.
>> Farz: Dogs are amazing.
>> Taylor: Very cute. In, the 1910s, she traveled all around the US and she didn't just talk about disability advocacy. She also talked about women's right to vote, workers. Right, and socialism. So she was a socialist and would talk about equality and things like that all the time. Her eyes started to get actually infected because her eyes, like, still existed. And her left eye started to get very swollen. So in 1911, her eyes were replaced by glass eyes. So both of her eyes were taken out. she also did. She. Her and Anne would do vaudeville acts, which people were, like, feeling that that was, like, beneath her, but she was like, have to make money somehow. But she would crab around the country and get introduced as Helen Keller, and the audience would ask her questions, and then Ann Sullivan would spell them into her hand and she would answer them. And people loved it. They loved seeing her. They were really inspired that she was out there, out there working and having a job. She spoke all over the US and in over 25 countries. By the end of her life, she traveled all over the world. At one point, Ann married a dude named John Macy. He kind of disappears. I don't really know what happens to him. Like, they don't get divorced, but he disappears at some point and they find another person to. To join them. a woman named Polly Thompson in 1914. So Polly was from Scotland, and she was an immigrant, and she was just, like, excited to help. She didn't have any experience working with, the deaf or the blind or both, but she joined them and would stay with them for the rest of her life. In 1914, Ann got sick, and they sent her to Puerto Rico to help her feel better, which sounds great, but, it did not work, and she would go blind as well. And she died in 1936. So she was sick for, like, the last. The last bit of her life with, Helen by her side. There's one mention about Helen being secretly engaged to a reporter, but it didn't end in marriage. So she might have, like, had a. Someone who cared about her that way at one point in her life. but we don't. We don't know any details. So While Polly was there, who was the second girl came to take care of her. They traveled all over the world. In 1916, she spoke against war. She had a, speech called Strike Against War that condemned World War I. She hated Wilson, which is fair. She had an FBI file because of that, because of her like, anti war advocacy. she would travel around, and give speeches about how a lot of people who became blind became blind because of like, circumstances like, you know, living in a place where you could get a disease like Ann did. Or a lot of women in, you know, some places were or.
She urged the Lions Club International to take up blindness prevention
And men were blind because of syphilis. You know. So it's like these things that happened and made you blind, but it had to do with your status and like living in poverty. So she would talk about how to like help those people as well. she did a speech at a place called the Lions Club International and she urged them to take up the case of blindness prevention. And they still do that today. They are one of the leading, organizations in the world that helps screenings and help people with eye health, which is cool. eventually she would travel post World War II to Japan, and work with the blind in Nagasaki and Hiroshima because people, a lot of people were blinded by the bombs. So she would talk about how the government can help them and that kind of thing forward.
>> Farz: It's terrible.
>> Taylor: I know. she was. There's one kind of not. There's one not good thing that she supported eugenics basically. Like kids who were disabled. She thought we shouldn't waste our time spending, helping, them kids were like very disabled from birth. She was disabled, but not from birth. And like as a whole different.
>> Farz: Oh, come on.
>> Taylor: You're.
>> Farz: You're splitting hairs now.
>> Taylor: No, I'm not defending her. I'm just telling you. I'm, telling you that's what she, that's one of the things that she, that she had said. and that she also talked about like overpopulation, you know, and wanted people to have less kids. I don't know why that was something.
>> Farz: That she cared about like 17 people in the United States at that time.
>> Taylor: so there's that. And she also like became religious, you know, at some point with kind of her own. She was Baptist. Eventually she went. She called herself like a world citizen, like traveling around the world. When she was 75 in 1955, she, did a 4 40, 000 mile, five month tour of Asia. So all around, the Asian countries to talk to people there. She knew several languages, so she could read in, like, German and French as well as English. She wrote about 14 books, some of them about her life. and she played herself in a movie that you can watch on YouTube that is really cool. It's like just her showing you what she does, like, throughout the day and like, living with Polly. And like, she'll get up and she'll make the. She'll make the coffee and she'll bring a tray up to. Up to Polly's room and like, hand it to her and they'll do it together. And then they're like. At one point, like, Helen is like, like, polishing the silver at the table and Polly is doing the dishes. And then Polly knocks on the table and Helen gets up and starts drying the dishes. So they had like, a way to like, live together and be able to, like, do those things together. both the book by Lorena Hickok and the, movie about her in that she plays herself, they both end with her reading the Bible in bed, like in Braille, which is like, weird, but okay. That, that's like a big thing that they had at the end of that. and Helen would have a couple strokes in her in her later life in the 1960s. And she. As she got older, you know, she didn't travel anymore. She got the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Lyndon Johnson. And, she's in the National Women's hall of Fame. And she died in her sleep on June 1st, 1968, in Connecticut. Her home is called Arcan Ridge. If you want to know the name of her house. That was the name of it. she was 87.
>> Farz: A long life.
>> Taylor: Her ashes are buried at the Washington National Cathedral next to Ann Sullivan and Polly Thompson. So the three of them are together in dc.
>> Farz: Very interesting. yeah, that's a very. I'm, glad you told that story because I should know her story and I did not so know.
>> Taylor: It's cool. It's really interesting. It's interesting that she, you know, did more than most people do in her life.
>> Farz: She's definitely accomplished more than I ever will, you know.
>> Taylor: And like, even with, with all of that, I think, you know, she's. There was some other, a young man who had the same condition that she had raised money for at some point when she was younger. She was like, let's give this guy money. And they helped him, but, like, he was able to get a job at a cardboard box factory and like, live his life, like, very simply. And I'm like, that seems like most People, it's like the best case scenario, you know.
>> Farz: Yeah. There's, under any circumstance. Yeah, it's a bell curve.
>> Taylor: Yeah.
>> Farz: So, yeah, Helen Keller was on one side. Box man was on the other side.
>> Taylor: Yeah. I feel like he's, like, even in the middle and actually he's in the middle. Nothing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So she definitely, you know, went above and beyond for everything that, that had happened to her. And it's, it's cool. I recommend looking up her movies on YouTube because it's cool to see her, like, move around and she's always smiling and she's, you know, she looks like an old lady in, in the 50s and 60s, but, but she's Helen Keller, which is cool.
>> Farz: She lived later than I thought she lived. I would have assumed Helen Keller died in the 1800s, but. Yeah, you said 1968, I think.
>> Taylor: Yeah, 1968.
It's interesting to hear how she had opinions that were political
So, so, yeah, I, I, I. It's super interesting. It's interesting to hear how she even did anything, you know, and then, like, had opinions that were, like, you know, political and traveled around and did all those things. And, like, I think it's fun to think of her, like, in Japan trying sushi.
>> Farz: You know, I like that she's, like, anti war, but then also pro eugenics, because, like, I know. Oh, so she probably didn't want to go to war with Hitler.
>> Taylor: We contain multitudes. no, she didn't. She did want to go to war with Hitler, but she, you know, but I think that there's, like, she was like, a spectrum because she also, like, donated money to the NAACP and, you know, helps to found the American Civil Liberties Union, you know, so, like, it's all sorts of stuff like, we've always.
>> Farz: Discussed, like, there's no such thing as, like, pure good, pure evil. Like, there's.
>> Taylor: Exactly.
>> Farz: It's all a spectrum.
>> Taylor: Yeah, it's a spectrum. So, yeah, she, like, you know, I'm just like, kind of reading my notes and like, you know, her and Mark Twain were both considered to be, like, leftist radicals because they were socialists and things like that. So all sorts of. All sorts of interesting, complex things. When you, you know, when you live a whole life, when you write it all down, it's interesting.
>> Farz: I wonder. Yeah, I guess at that point, I guess their timeline, they never, they never saw socialism. So it's just like a thought experiment for them. Right.
>> Taylor: I don't know.
>> Farz: I don't know. either way, very cool. Very fun. Thanks for sharing that. And are you going to tell us who the rest of your stories are? Going to be about or not? Not quite yet. Okay.
>> Taylor: Not yet. Not yet, but I will, I will get to them.
>> Farz: Fair enough.
Any predictions for the Oscars? Are we watching it or. Um, I'm not. Why would you watch it
any predictions for the Oscars? Are we watching it or. I'm not.
>> Taylor: I don't. Why would you watch it? You just did a whole episode.
>> Farz: I know, I know. The second I said, I was like, no.
>> Taylor: but do you remember Sally, who we used to work with?
>> Farz: Oh, yeah.
>> Taylor: So she every year does an Oscars contest, and it's. I do it every year, so. And I never watch the movies, but you just, like, rank choice the ones that you like, and then m. You might win, but you don't win anything. It's just like, whatever. So it's like her and all for friends. And so I did fill out her email, form, and I just put, like, you know, I want this person to win because they're cute. Stuff like that.
Taylor: I saw the Monkey and it's funny. It's like Final Destination or Saw
>> Farz: speaking of movies, I saw the Monkey.
>> Taylor: Oh, did you. Tell me. Did you text me about that today?
>> Farz: I texted you about it today.
>> Taylor: Got it.
>> Farz: It is so fun, Taylor. It's fun, it's funny. It's like Final Destination or Saw in terms of, like, graphic violence, but, like, in a comedic way. It's executed very funnily.
>> Taylor: It's. I've read. Oh, my God, I don't know that Oz Perkins did it. I love him.
>> Farz: yeah, he did Long Legs, too.
>> Taylor: I know. I know I did Long Legs. He did my favorite movie. I am the pretty thing that lives in this house. I love him. I mean, I've read the. Obviously, I've read the Story of the Monkey by Stephen King.
>> Farz: Yeah. Yeah. This was, I'm absolutely gonna go see it again.
>> Taylor: Oh, my God. Elijah Witt is in it. That's cool.
>> Farz: He is a very, very brief cameo.
>> Taylor: cool. I definitely want to see it.
>> Farz: Sweet. alrighty. Cool. Anything to read out from the audience?
>> Taylor: Yes.
We got someone who asked us about our stickers. Why is that a big deal? We get asked 17 times a day
We got someone who asked us about our stickers.
>> Farz: Why is that a big deal? We get asked that 17 times a day.
>> Taylor: Oh, my gosh. Bless your heart. it's Rebecca, Is that right? Yes, Rebecca. Thank you so much. This email was so sweet. She was like, if they're all gone, it's totally fine. And I was like, girl, you are the first and only person to take us up on this free sticker offer.
>> Farz: Taylor, you gotta stop.
>> Taylor: That's what's stopping people. If people are like, no, I'm nervous because I don't. Because I'm afraid that you run out of them. we have not. We have not run out. If you'd like some Doom to fill stickers, send us your address. Doom M to Philpot gmail dot com. We have a lot of them.
>> Farz: You also get a personalized note.
>> Taylor: Yeah.
>> Farz: By Taylor. I was good. I messaged Taylor and was like, oh, I have some stickers. I'll mail one out, too. Like, how do you mail things? Like, do I use.
>> Taylor: You were like, do I use a stamp? I'm like, oh, my God. Just.
>> Farz: I was like, do I need to weigh the envelope? And then someone tells me how many stamps I put on the envelope. I'm not a mail things.
>> Taylor: Oh, my God. You're like the Weasleys. Remember that when the Weasleys do that?
>> Farz: No.
>> Taylor: In Harry Potter, the Weasley sends me to Harry Potter and they cover it in stamps because they don't know. They don't know how to use. It's like, really funny. And I think whenever I don't know what to do, I feel like a Weasley. I'm like, I don't know. I just put him. Just stamps on this. which is stupid. But, thank you, Rebecca. I appreciate you very much. And if anyone else with a sticker, send us email. I'll mail it to you.
>> Farz: Sweet.
>> Taylor: At nothing but time.
>> Farz: Yes, anything. Anything else, Taylor?
>> Taylor: No. All the Social is doomed to fail. Pod. Thank you, everyone. We appreciate you.
>> Farz: Sweet.
>> Taylor: Boom.
>> Farz: We appreciate you. See you in a few days. Bye.