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Below are the notes/script for Season 2 Episode 4 of the Who’d a Thunk It? Podcast.

• The Great Green Wall
• The world’s human population has been growing exponentially for as long as our history books can remember.
  • The human race hit it’s first recorded 1 Billion mark during the year 1804. It took thousands of years of innovation and reproduction to reach this milestone.
  • Then, just over 100 years later in 1927, we reached 2 Billion.
  • And after that, the rate of growth accelerated at an alarming pace, 3 billion in 1959, 4 billion 1974, 5 billion 1987, 6 billion 1999, and in October of 2011 we reached 7 Billion…. and the number just keeps rising
    • That’s a lot of mouths to feed
  • The 2020 census revealed that the continent of Asia makes up about 60% of the world population
  • Africa coming in at a not-so-close second at 17%. But That is expected to change

• The rate of Africa’s current population growth is the highest in the world today. It is believed that Africa will increase to over 40% of the world’s population just within 100 years.
  • Africa is facing a massive population boom and this is just the beginning.
  • World leaders and local rulers alike have been making plans to smooth Africa’s transition into the heaviest populated continent on Earth.
  • This episode is about one of those plans. This is about the Great Green Wall.

• Let me start with a definition: Desertification
  • Oxford defines Desertification as the process by which fertile land becomes desert, typically as a result of drought, deforestation, or inappropriate agriculture.
  • I define it as an area losing all its life-sustaining water by various means.
  • It is important to note: Once an area has succumbed to desertification, there is virtually nothing we as humans can do. It takes thousands of years for massive geological events to occur that might transform a desert landscape into a region capable of retaining water.
• So let’s talk about how desertification has impacted humans: Everyone knows about the Great Pyramids of Giza, But how about the countless ancient ruins and entire ecosystems buried beneath the Sahara?
• Harry Pettit from the UK’s DailyMail writes: How humans created the Sahara desert: Farming transformed the grassy plain into an arid wasteland 8,000 years ago. The Sahara desert is known today as a vast, arid plain that is exposed to punishing temperatures and little rainfall. But just a few thousand years ago it was grassy and dotted with lakes.
  • Today, entire Ancient cities lie beneath the Sahara’s sands because of the desertification of Northern Africa. One of the most advanced ancient civilizations farmed the region in an unsustainable way and now it is a dead region. Those ancient Egyptians didn’t know how to stop the expanse of this desert and likely had no clue they were the cause of it.
  • Desertification was devastating to the Ancient Egyptians, and now it is doing the same to modern Africans.

• LEON USIGBE from the UN’s Africa Renewal project: The Lake Chad “Basin” that covers almost 8% of the continent, spreads over seven countries: Algeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Libya, Niger, and Nigeria. The water body has diminished by 90% since the 1960s due to overuse and climate change effects.
  • That Lake Chad, once one of Africa’s largest freshwater bodies and a source of livelihood for about 30 million, is vanishing fast is no longer breaking news. What is new is the unique and complex humanitarian crisis around the basin, which is among the most severe in the world.
  • “The widespread violence has left 10.7 million people across the Lake Chad region in need of emergency assistance. Most of these people were already contending with high poverty rates, poor provision of basic services like education and healthcare, and the devastating impact of climate change.
  • So desertification isn’t simply solved by having people move away from the desert. The loss of water causes mass chaos. When resources are scarce, war erupts, and water is the most valuable resource to all life on earth.
  • This isn’t just a problem for farmers, it is problem for society as a whole… a problem for all life.
• Side note: I try to stay neutral on political topics on this show, but when it comes to the environment… I am not afraid to say that I am all for protecting the natural world that we as humans have been destroying at alarming rates.
  • I don’t pretend to know all the science behind climate change and what all factors into the cause of it, but it IS happening. Climate change is real, and it is speeding up desertification around the globe at much faster rates than before industrialization. Now more than ever, we must address desertification. Why not start with the biggest case, the Sahara!

• The Sahara Desert covers 9.2 Million Square Kilometers OR 3.6 Million Square Miles
  • From Coast to Coast along Northern Africa, the Sahara spans over Three Thousand miles
  • It is the largest hot desert on Earth.
• The Sahara is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean on the west, the Red Sea on the east, the Mediterranean Sea on the north and the Sahel Savannah on the south. The enormous desert spans 11 countries:
  • The Great Green Wall is the idea to plant a MASSIVE wall of trees at the southern edge of the Sahara desert to stop desertification. It is a GIGANTIC international project.
  • Here’s what the UN had to say: The Great Green Wall is a symbol of hope in the face of one of the biggest challenges of our time – desertification. Launched in 2007 by the African Union, this game-changing African-led initiative aims to restore Africa’s degraded landscapes and transform millions of lives in one of the world’s poorest regions, the Sahel. Once complete, the Wall will be the largest living structure on the planet – an 8,000 km natural wonder of the world stretching across the entire width of the continent.
  • The Great Green Wall is now being implemented in more than 20 countries across Africa and more than eight billion dollars have been mobilized and pledged for its support. The initiative brings together African countries and international partners, under the leadership of the African Union Commission and Pan-African Agency of the Great Green Wall.
  • By 2030, the ambition of the initiative is to restore 100 million hectares of currently degraded land; sequester 250 million tons of carbon, and create 10 million green jobs. This will support communities living along the Wall.
• If you are confused by how this all works, well so was I.
  • At first, I was just imagining teams of laborers trying to plant trees in the middle of the sun-bleached Saharan sands. Which makes no sense, because trees wouldn’t survive that and it would be much too expensive to even try.
  • But the Great Green wall isn’t going to be planted out where the desert has fully taken hold of the environment. The trees will be planted in an area known as the Sahel.
  • I’m simplifying things here, but the Sahel is a region in between the fertile savannahs of Africa and the barren landscape of the Sahara. It’s an area where desertification has started but hasn’t fully set in yet.

• The Trees planted by the Great Green Wall help by:
  • keeping the soil in place where it used to be eroded by wind
  • providing compost from fallen leaves
  • increase humidity in the surrounding areas
  • provide shade so less water is needed for crops
  • and the tree roots retain water in the soil
    • formerly dry wells along the Sahel region have filled up with water again
• The project is planting Drought Resistant Acacia Trees so they have a greater chance of survival.
• The first countries started working on the project as early as 2008. Communities all along the Great Green Wall have seen major improvements in their standard of living.
  • The Great Green Wall provides jobs, not just for tree planters, but because the soil retains more water, farming and gardening jobs are more widely available.
  • New communities have sprung up along the Great Green Wall and old communities have been reinvigorated. The GGW has made produce more available so people are getting better diets, and school attendance has been increasing.

• Conclusion: Africa’s human population is growing at an alarming rate. The problems that the continent has faced in the past, are only going to become more difficult to fix due to this population boom.
  • Desertification, a threat dating back thousands of years, is now endangering more lives than ever, and its impact is irreversible.
  • To solve this problem, a massive international project is currently underway and it is called the Great Green Wall.
  • This massive project is one of hope, not just for Africa, but for all of humanity.
  • I wanted to make you all aware of it to give you some hope in humanity today.
• The accompanying blog post is in this podcast’s description. There you will find images that enhance this information as well as show all my sources.
  • I have also included a link where you can contribute to the Great Green Wall.
  • I am not sponsored by The Great Green Wall. This is simply a project I feel very passionate about. It is a very beneficial project for saving the natural world and bringing nations together in the face of adversity. If any of you feel the same way, please help any way you can.
• WANT TO DONATE?
  • Click here: Great Green Wall — Donate

Credit:

• The Great Green Wall Initiative | UNCCD
• Why is Africa building a Great Green Wall? BBC News – YouTube
• Africa’s Desert Problem: How to Stop the Sahara – YouTube
• How humans created the Sahara desert 8,000 years ago | Daily Mail Online
• A dynamic simulation model of desertification in Egypt – ScienceDirect

• Human VS Robot
• Virtually everyone listening to this has played a game against a computer at least once in their life time.
  • Whether it be a simple game of checkers or a high definition $60 video game you have been trying to beat for weeks. Humans play computers all the time. And we’ve been doing it for decades.
  • At first, we humans marveled at our ability to defeat our own creation on whatever game we chose.
  • But we kept improving our computers and that make playing against them more challenging and entertaining.
  • This trend continued until a pivotal moment occurred back in 2017
• GO: Now allow me to shift your attention to a game you may never have heard of: Go.
  • The game GO is a much older creation of mankind than computers. So old that it’s origins are unknown, but it is believed to be over 2,500 years old. With the earliest written account dating back to 548 BCE in China.

• It is an elegant game. They say the rules are so simple, it could probably be taught to intelligent alien life. But that doesn’t mean it is easy
  • Go is the most complex game devised by mankind. It has 10 to the power of 80 possible outcomes.
    • For a reference, some games much more familiar to western listeners:
      • Checkers has 10 to the power of 20 possible outcomes
      • And the game of chess only has 10 to the power of 40 outcomes.

• In multiple Asian countries Go Officials test young children’s aptitude at the game. If a child shows enough promise, they are taken to special institutes where the children study and play Go as a full time career.
  • Professional Go players may become state sponsored and can be payed handsomely for their prowess.
  • This game has had entire cultures dedicate countless lives to becoming better at playing it for hundreds of years.
  • After thousands of years, millions of players, and possibly the most effort spent to perfect any kind of game play by humankind….

• In May of 2017, an AI called AlphaGo was pitted against the world champion GO player.
  • The 19 year old Kie Je from Go’s Birthplace, China, was defeated 3 games in a row by an Artificial Intelligence created by Google.
  • Thousands of years of human knowledge was accumulated by a computer in a matter of days. Then that computer executed that knowledge flawlessly to beat the best human Go player in history.

• Google’s Deep Mind project created AlphaGo to learn. They taught the AI the rules to the game and then made it play against itself millions of times all at once. After a few short days of learning how to play Go from scratch (no institutes, no ancient techniques) AlphaGo had become the greatest player of the game.
  • The Chinese Government was so infuriated by the fact that their champion was being defeated by a product from an American company, that they banned the live stream after the first game.
  • But China wasn’t the only culture to be shocked by the outcome. To many in the Go Community, this was a devastating blow. The game itself has lost many players. The collective human motivation to keep playing Go took a hit.
  • In the years since Kie Je’s loss in 2017 there has been a drop in the number of people willing to practice the game.

• If a computer program can beat arguably the greatest player of all time after just a few days of existing, then what is the point?
  • Why waste any more resources on a battle that human kind will surely lose? What if they let AlphaGo practice for months or years?
  • As humans, We’ll never be able to catch up.
• But playing a game isn’t always just about winning or losing.
  • As I said earlier, Although AlphaGo was the most interesting event in Game AI history, it definitely was not the first time humans used computers to play games.
  • A man who calls himself Tom Seven created a much less sophisticated AI than AlphaGo for a research paper he was writing.

• Tom Seven’s AI named SIGBOVIK 2013 was designed to play Nintendo Entertainment System (or NES) games like Super Mario. With all the games the NES had, there were a lot of different scenarios that SIGBOVIK 2013 ran through.
  • You can watch his videos on YouTube and watch this algorithm work its way through different games through trial and error, trying every single option it could. It is intriguing to watch.
  • The most notable scenario for me was when SIGBOVIK was tasked with playing Tetris.

• ====Audio clip 1===Top Seven said :”Playing Tetris well requires some thinking ahead and this algorithm does not think very far ahead.”
  • Then SIGBOVIK tested out the Pause feature in the middle of a game.
• ======Audio clip 2=== “there it was pausing the game for no reason”
  • SIGBOVIK 2013 realizes it cannot win. It is a learning AI, but it isn’t as advanced as what Google’s Deep Thought Project can create. SIGBOVIK 2013 cannot win this game of Tetris. So what does it do?
• ======Audio clip 3=====”Fast Forward a bit to see how this all ends. It’s not good. So now it is almost done and it pauses the game. Because as soon as he un-pauses he will lose, and really the only winning move is not to play. Thank you.”
  • SIGBOVIK 2013 decided that instead of losing, it would just pause the game indefinitely. It gave up. It quit instead of going on.

• Some saw this as comical that the poor little AI just decided to give up, but I saw it as tragic.
  • Morbid even.
  • And while human beings have done their fair share of giving up, we also have something called hope.
• When AI is given a task like Tetris or Go, and is then told Win=Good and Lose=Bad, it will show great intelligence in accomplishing a win.
  • But when the odds are stacked so that an AI cannot win, the AI simply pauses the game, refusing to play. It gives up.
• THAT is the difference between Human intelligence and Artificial Intelligence.
  • Some players of Go may have given up their dream of being the next best player of the most complex board game, but there are many other players who continue to perfect their play style regardless of AlphaGo’s shocking accomplishment.
  • We have hope. Humans will keep trying even in the face of unsurmountable adversity.
  • Humans may find an unforeseen opportunity in the face of the impossible to overcome an obstacle.
  • Where an AI will simply give up.
• Kie Je made a statement after he lost his match with AlphaGo: “With AlphaGo, I think my understanding of not only the game of Go, but life, has changed.”

• His words are left up to interpretation, but I like to think it means he isn’t giving up.
• Hope you enjoyed my nerdy pep talk there. I’ve included the accompanying blog post in the description if you prefer to read this podcast. I’ve also included my sources there.
  • Thanks for listening Who’d a Thunkers! Until next week.
• Credit
  • Short Video about AlphaGo: Google’s AI AlphaGo Is Beating Humanity At Its Own Games (HBO) – YouTube
  • Google’s article about it: AlphaGo | DeepMind
  • The AI that quits: The only winning move is not to play – YouTube
  • Tom Seven’s Website: learnfun and playfun: A general technique for automating NES games (tom7.org)

Episode 43: Falung Gong Part II

• Welcome back Who’d a Thunkers to the second half of my Falun Gong story. Last week I went over how I came across this story via Reddit and the rabbit hole it took me down. I also went over ABC’s report on Falun Gong. But this episode, this half of the story, contains all the juiciest bits.
• Remember: Falun Gong is also referred to as Falun Dafa.
• The next source I want to cover is from the Falun Gong themselves, the Falun Dafa Information Center Youtube Channel. They posted a video of their own practitioners being interviewed about their “spiritual movement” as they call it. In the interviews they said:
  • the exercises made them experience unique energy in their bodies.
  • One woman said her first exercise made her feel very relaxed and afterward she felt her footsteps were lighter sort of like a floating sensation
  • They said they weren’t asked for money, nor were they pressured to come back for the next exercises. No one asked for their contact info, rather they found the practitioners to be laid back and welcoming.
  • One of the recurring themes in their interviews is that everyone in Falun Gong is very kind and that is due to the practice’s requirement that all practitioners better themselves and put others before their own self interests.
  • I must say this video was sort of compelling. It made me want to try their exercises, but then

• The Practitioners talked about the opposition their faith is up against, namely the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
  • One woman said that she and her husband set up an advocacy project (she didn’t elaborate on what kind of project), but it was for Falun Gong. They invited a number of other followers to come to their house to meet and discuss the project. Later that night they found a VM on their landline. The VM was an audio recording of their meeting. They soon realized that everyone at the meeting got a similar VM. This couple called the FBI (). They explained the situation to the FBI who promptly asked if the married couple had any children. They responded by saying NO, and the FBI agent said: “good, because you are going up against a giant.”
  • The practitioners say the Falun Gong movement protests in peaceful ways only.
  • And that the CCP used anti-Falun Gong propaganda to discredit and shame them. This propaganda was everywhere for a long time and was used to justify the CCP’s arrest and detention of bus loads of Practitioners in broad daylight.
• Keep in mind, during this video, the interviewer and interviewees were both members of Falun Gong.
  • There video ended with this message: For the past 20 years, the Chinese Communist Party has conducted a global campaign to silence and demonize Falun Gong around the world. – Millions of people who practice Falun Gong have been imprisoned, tortured, and even killed in China. – Despite the atrocities and abuse, tens of millions continue to practice Falun Gong throughout China, and in over 90 countries around the world, upholding its core tenets of; Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance.
• Lastly I’d like to explain JJ McCullough’s take on Falun Gong and China:
  • He describes this as a propaganda war that involves the public itself. In this propaganda war, there is no land being fought over. As a war of ideologies, our public opinion is the battle ground.
  • JJ says this conflict is “morally ambiguous and anyone who tells you otherwise is lying.”
  • The reason I liked JJ’s opinion the most was because he didn’t choose sides. He starts his video by pointing all the reasons he doesn’t like the Chinese Communist Party (their handling of Covid-19 Pandemic, oppression of Hong Kong, support of Regimes like North Korea, and their oppression of their own people).
  • But then JJ says “Falun Gong is not a good guy either. [They] are a cult straight up.”

• JJ went in to detial about Falun Gong’s spiritual beliefs:
  • Master Li is an interdimensional being with super natural powers
  • He placed a magical force inside all of our abdomens called the Falun. It is represented as the image used for this episode. It is a circular symbol with a Swastika in the middle and surrounding the Swastika are yin and yang symbols.
  • Before you go connecting Falun Gong with Nazis, let me tell you that in the ancient Indian language of Sanskrit, swastika means “well-being”. The symbol has been used by Hindus, Buddhists and Jains for millennia. Nazi’s stole the Swastika symbol… they didn’t create it.
  • The Falun allows humans to harness all of the universe’s energy which is known as Gong.
  • Depending on how the Falun rotates in our stomachs, the positive energy of the universe, the Gong, is either being absorbed by us, or is being given by us.
  • In order for people to properly harness this Gong energy, they must do the meditation and breathing exercises.
  • Master Li shows his practitioners how to do these exercises via his many books, videos, and mandatory 9 day seminars…
  • And the Master promises his followers super-human levels of happiness, health, and wealth if they prove their dedication to Falun Dafa.
  • Master Li is waited on hand and foot at his 400 acre compound in upstate NY. His followers basically believe he is god.

• His followers even allow Master Li to pick who they will be married to… but no gay love is tolerated.
• Now I am fascinated by cults, as I think most people are. I’ve heard all about Scientology, NXIUM, etc. .. but why haven’t I ever heard about Falun Gong?
  • Well apparently that is due to Master Li’s vast propaganda infrastructure. Like a lot of cults, Falun Gong uses its most devoted followers as free labor. This free labor is put to use creating the Epoch Times, China Uncensored, Edge of Wonder, and other propaganda/media outlets to obscure Falun Gong’s public image and to sway public opinion.
  • I’ve already said that Master Li and Falun Gong hate the Chinese government because China kicked them out of their country, but that’s not the only reason. I said how Master Li hates “race-mixing” already, but that applies to entire governments.
  • The idea of a communist china offends Master Li because he believes that every race (Caucasian, African, Asian, Latino, etc.) was created by a different god. Therefore the idea of a European political ideology being implemented in an Asian country is evil and offensive to Master Li…
  • Master Li is very xenophobic. He believes that all the races of the world should stay completely separate and never cross-contaminate with each other. That’s why he doesn’t like mixed race people. He was quoted in 1996 saying that mixed race people are “physically and intellectually incomplete.”
  • He and his practitioners believe that in the afterlife, all races will go to our own planets and be a lot happier than we are here on earth, all intermingling.
  • Master Li believes the rulers of the Chinese Communist Party are demons from Hell sent to disrupt the universe. He believes the ideal china is one that is devoid of all foreign ideologies… that includes modern medicine, and modern science.
  • One of the main themes surrounding Falun Gong’s propaganda is that the Chinese government captures Falun Gong practitioners to kill them and harvest their organs. I don’t know if this is true, as China has had some sketchy stories come out about them harvesting death row inmates organs, but regardless, Falun Gong’s stance on the organ harvesting has become a conspiracy theory type stance…
• I know. This story has Cults, oppressive regimes, AND conspiracy theories…. it is like the Jackpot of Who’d a Thunk it episodes.
  • The Falun Gong believe that their meditation and breathing exercises make their organs extra strong and that is why the Chinese Government targets them…
  • To their credit, Falun Gong did in fact suffer under the Chinese Communist Party. The imprisonment and torture of Falun Gong practitioners is well documented. They aren’t making that up.
  • But the organ harvesting conspiracy theory hasn’t been proven nor has it been investigated by any reputable source. So chances are that it is not true.
  • Just as a little tip, if you are reading an article about China and you see something about systemic organ harvesting. That is a dead give away that what you are reading is just cult propaganda, or most likely so.
  • Their propaganda is making such progress in western countries, namely the USA because the Falun Gong message of Communism is bad and China is a force for evil in the world syncs up nicely with conservatives.
  • But the issue is that Falun Gong don’t believe the CCP is bad because they’ve objectively analyzed their political policies, but they literally believe the CCP is bad because it is being run by Evil Demons sent from hell to send the world in to Chaos….
  • So please, to my conservative friends out there: don’t be duped by cult propaganda. They honestly believe the people in the Chinese Government are demons, therefore Falun Gong’s standard for evidence in the “news” they spew out is very low… Just because they are pro-trump and anti-china doesn’t mean you share all the same views.
  • the latest conspiracy theory the Epoch Times has pushed on their readers is that China created Covid-19 on purpose as a weapon. These stories and a documentary they made had so little evidence to back their claims and included so many debunked theories that Facebook flagged them as misinformation.
  • Also, Falun Gong sees Trump as a divine angel sent from heaven to destroy Communism. They think he is the last nail in the communist coffin.

• In Canada, the Epoch Times has gone so far as to deliver news papers to people who didn’t sign up for it and didn’t want it….

• JJ concluded by saying that the idea of Conservative Americans being swayed by an Asian cult sounds bonkers, but there is actually precedence for it. In the 1970’s a cult known as the Moonies came to America. Lead by Reverend Moon who was cast out of North Korea, the Moonies swayed right-wing America on policy. Reverend Moon was a big supporter of Nixon, gun rights, and anti-communism. Western civilization allied with the Moonies because they were both anti-communism, but that was a mistake. The Moonies were an oppressive cult that sexually and physically abused their followers. And the Reverend Moon was found out as a financial crook.
• So we as the public have heard a lot about China over the past couple of decades because they are quickly becoming the next world power. And that is in direct conflict with the current world power that being The USA. But now our news about china is being muddled down with propaganda from a cult that doesn’t bother to find the truth. Their rationale is that the Chinese Government are demons so why bother with the truth… That’s why I think it is SO important for you all to be educated on this subject. Know the difference between actual news on China and what this self proclaimed God wants you to believe.
• Falun Gong is weaseling their way in to the conservative mindset, particularly in the US. Even though I don’t consider myself in line with the Liberal or Conservative side of the country, I do recognize they are the two major powers governing our country and I hate seeing either side getting in to bed with a delusional cult. The enemy of my enemy is not always my friend.

That is the end of my Falun Gong story, but remember this is ongoing, so keep an eye out for how this all plays out. If you prefer to read my stories I have included the link to the accompanying blog post in the description.

Thanks for listening Who’d a Thunkers. Until next week.

• CREDIT:
• Who are the Falun Gong? | Foreign Correspondent – YouTube – ABC’s Foreign Correspondent
• This Chinese Cult is Not Your Friend – YouTube – Canadian youtuber
• Falun Gong – In Their Own Words – YouTube – Falun Gong’s own video

Below are the notes from Episode 42 of my Who’d a Thunk it? Podcast.

• Episode 42: Falun Gong– AKA Falun Dafa
• This topic lead me down a unique rabbit hole. Most episodes of this podcast is me finding a topic I find interesting.
  • usually something non-divisive like the song Rainbow Connection or at least something in the past like stories from WW2 that aren’t currently up for debate
• Then, to turn that topic in to a podcast I research… I watch YouTube videos, read Wikipedia, and a few articles from reputable news sources about that topic. That’s it. That is the recipe I use for the Who’d a Thunk it Podcast…. But this topic, for this episode is different… this topic is current and is on-going.
• Now, I follow a reddit page that is all about Hong Kong’s struggle against the Chinese Communist Party. I saw a post that talked about the 3 T’s (Tibet, Taiwan, and Tiananmen – 3 Events, 3 stains on the Chinese Communist Party’s reputation and history that they will not talk about). I recognized all 3 T’s and understood why they would be protested by the Chinese Government. But In the comment section someone mentioned the 2 C’s (I found out they stand for Cults and Criticism).
• Now I understand why Criticism would be on the list of things China doesn’t allow with China’s president banning something as trivial as Winnie the Pooh because someone pointed out that he held a resemblance to Disney’s honey eating bear…. , but CULTS?! What story is behind the connection between the CCP and cults? Those are like two of my favorite things to gossip about: Oppressive Communist Regimes and Cults. Now on this Reddit post I’m finding out the two are connected via China?! !!! I had to dig deeper.

• First I watched a 30 minute ABC news story that was interesting, but something in the back of my head said they were tip toeing around something. Like they were afraid to go deeper.
  • So next I watched a video from Falun Gong themselves titled “In Their Own Words.” I thought: alright, sounds like they are trying to give an un-edited type of perspective on their own group. I’ll give it a shot. It featured people from New York saying how nice the practice is, how much it made their lives better, and how evil the CCP is… but there was ZERO talk about the group’s spiritual beliefs and of course, it had that propaganda stench to it… like they all were pushing something on the viewer.
  • Then, unsatisfied that I had NOT gotten to the meat and potatoes of the subject::: the source I typically look for, that being the the unbiased, yet, interested perspective… , I started reading article after article. Each story either tried telling me how innocent the Falun Gong people were and how evil CCP was OR, every other article just told me how crazy Falun Gong was and how China isn’t that bad…. it was obvious I had stumbled upon something rather big. I stumble upon a battle of sorts that had permeated the internet. The worlds news source was riddled with mostly biased stories, and hardly any middle-of-the-Road takes on the Falun Gong VS Chinese Communist Party’s debacle.
  • That’s when I clicked on the 19 minute long YouTube video that looked the least professional… Titled: “This Chinese Cult is Not Your Friend” – by J.J. McCullough – He is this Canadian guy, like full-on Canadian with the “A-Boot” pronunciation and everything. J.J. McCullough’s opinion on Falun Gong and the CCP most aligned with my own, and it turns out he works for the Washington Post.
  • I just wanted to share this process in particular because it was a VERY different experience from most of of the episodes that I do. This episode is about an on-going Propaganda war between a successful international Cult and a communist government quickly becoming the next world power…
  • Normally I would arrange the information I got from each source in any order I saw fit, as to construct a narrative. But because this topic is ongoing (because history hasn’t yet etched this story’s narrative in to stone yet, with a nice ending everyone can agree on), I’ve decided to just give the information in the same order as I consumed each news source. There won’t be a set narrative. This won’t be a nice story with a beginning and end, and I chose to do that so you the listener can form your own opinion.
• First let me begin with Google’s definition of a Cult:
  • a system of religious veneration and devotion directed toward a particular figure or object. –
  • a relatively small group of people having religious beliefs or practices regarded by others as strange or sinister.
  • a misplaced or excessive admiration for a particular person or thing.
  • I bring up this definition because Falun Gong is widely regarded as a Cult.
• The ABC’s Foreign Correspondent report gave a good background on the Falun Gong:
  • Started in China in 1992 – based on traditional meditation and breathing exercises called Qi Gong. (chee – gong).
  • When I was Looking in to the exercises myself, I thought: I’d be willing to try them. They seem beneficial and are an ancient practice pasted down by generations to help heal people. I imagine they help alleviate stress… But Falun Gong is different from the Qi Gong exercises.
  • The leader of Falun Gong added a supernatural layer to the Qi Gong meditation.
  • The Leaders name is Li Hongzhi (Lee Hong-Shuh) promises his followers will be able to return to heavenly kingdoms where they once existed before and supposedly teaches his followers how to levitate.
  • By the end of the 1990’s Falun Gong had 10’s of millions of followers. The Chinese Communist Party saw that Li Hongzhi’s movement/cult was commanding more power from the Chinese people than the government and basically tried to shut down Falun Gong.
  • The Chinese Government took 10’s of thousands of Falun Gong members and placed them in to “Re-Education camps” where they were locked up indefinitely. The CCP wanted all members to renounce their new faith.
  • The Chinese Government labeled Falun Gong as an evil mind-controlling cult and to combat it…. they locked Falun Gong practitioners all up in camps, demanded they all act with complete obedience toward the government, and basically the Chinese government acted like a cult themselves…Those are ABC’s words.
  • When the Chinese government started cracking down on his movement, Li Hongzhi got the heck out of dodge. In 1997 he became a US citizen and in 1998 moved to New York State.
  • Master Li got to work setting up a retreat in a rural area; Deer Park, NY. It has been over 2 decades since the Falun Gong leadership moved to the US
  • Today you can see practitioners meditating/exercising in parks, usually with yellow shirts and coats on in Upstate New York. They Believe that this meditating/exercising improves health of the mind and body.
  • BUT One of the main criticisms of Falun Gong is that it encourages its practitioners to rely solely on its exercises and leader for their health. Some practitioners are convinced they don’t need western medicine, and therefore they find themselves in an early grave.
  • ABC interviewed an Australian family who’s mother passed away from a stroke due to high blood pressure. Her mother was on medication, but when she joined Falun Gong she stopped the medication. Her daughter said “it would have taken 2 tablets a day and she would still be with us now.”
  • ABC interviewed Falun Gong’s VP who stated that going to the doctor is not a forbidden thing within their Spiritual Movement. If someone doesn’t go to the doctor, that is their own choice.
  • However, former members of Falun Gong described a social pressure not to seek out Western Medicine, as it was shamed within the Falun Gong community.
  • Personally I understand the VP of Falun Gong’s logic: each individual’s actions are their own choice. That keeps them out of legal trouble. … but
• Let me read another definition:

• Other former members described the atmosphere at Falun Gong compounds like Dragon Springs in upstate NY, as oppressive.

• There is a Belief that Master Li can read everyone’s minds at all times and that he “knows” aliens walk among us.
  • Master Li also Believes that “race mixing” humans is an Alien plot to drive humanity farther from the gods. So therefore, to Falun Gong, bi-racial people are demons, or at the very least inferior.
• Then ABC went in depth on Falun Gong’s political connections. Namely their support for the Trump Administration.
  • Donald Trump has been famously tough on China. That has been a major theme in the Trump administration. Falun Gong therefore sees Trump as an ally, as they see CCP as the ultimate evil.
  • To support the Trump Administration, Falun Gong has been connected to media outlets like The Epoch Times, Honest Paper, and Pure American Journalism

• Officially Falun Gong and Epoch Times deny any connection between each other, but ABC interviewed a former employee of Epoch Time’s Australian division who says that is a lie, and that virtually everyone who works for The Epoch Times is a Falun Gong practitioner.
  • And you probably have heard of Epoch Times in the form of an Ad because Falun Gong has spent millions of dollars funding social media campaigns for them.
  • The fact finding website Snopes.com has been investigating Epoch Time’s activity on Facebook and found that a network linked to Epoch Times called “The BL (or the Beautiful Life)” have been creating fake Facebook groups and accounts that support the Trump administration.
  • They took pictures from the internet of random people to create these fake accounts. They were sloppy enough to use a picture of the very famous actress Helen Mirren for one of their fake posts.
  • When snopes exposed The BL, they began to use AI generated images as profile pics for their fake account. But AI technology isn’t quite up to the task yet. These had distorted faces with black eyes and drooping eye brows. That shows the lengths the Epoch Times and allegedly Falun Gong will go to in order to sway public opinion.

• Because getting Trump re-elected was of cosmic importance to them.
  • Facebook Banned the BL and Epoch times from advertising further in August of 2019. Facebook estimated they spent $9.5 Million in ads and reached 55 Million users.
  • Snopes found that the BL network was being run out of Vietnam by former Epoch Times employees, but Epoch Times denied any connections. Once again, that sort-of sounds like Plausible Deniability to me.
  • What does Falun Gong say about all this political meddling? Their Vice President stated that from an organizational point of view they don’t have any policy on how their members should vote. There is no written rule.
  • Although “Master Li” hasn’t been on camera for years, ABC showed a clip of him from 1999 saying: “I only teach people to be good, to be free of disease and do exercises, and to reach higher moral standards. I make people’s hearts better.”
  • In conclusion to what ABC had to say about Falun Gong. They lightly touched on the the supernatural beliefs of Falun Gong, and explained their new shady political involvement (namely their support for Donald Trump and conservative America). ABC also talked to a few families who suffered tragedy at the hands of Falun Gong’s growing movement, and went in to great detail on how they have been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party

That is all the farther I’ll go for this episode. I like to keep my episodes under 20 minutes if possible. But I’m not done with this topic. I have a lot more to say. I consider this topic fascinating and a goldmine of information. Tune in next week to hear the second half of my story on Falun Gong.

In the meantime, I have posted the written accompanying Blog post, the written version of this podcast, on WordPress.com. I’ll leave a link in the description.

• Credit:
• Who are the Falun Gong? | Foreign Correspondent – YouTube – ABC’s Foreign Correspondent
• This Chinese Cult is Not Your Friend – YouTube – Canadian youtuber
• Falun Gong – In Their Own Words – YouTube – Falun Gong’s own video

BELOW ARE THE NOTES I USED TO CREATE EPISODE 38 OF MY WHO’D A THUNK IT? PODCAST

These notes are not grammatically correct. They are notes. But I thought I might start posting the notes simultaneously as the audio podcasts are released. This way I can use visual elements and include links to my sources. This also gives me a chance to show what kind of research goes in to each episode. Enjoy!

• Tarrare
• How’s it hangin’ Who’d a Thunkers?!?! Welcome back to the variety Show-&-Tell that is my podcast.
• I took last week off from everything: work, this podcast, and the greater Pittsburgh area. It was sorely needed. But now I’m back and I’m delighted to get back to this wonderful podcast that I enjoy so much.
• This week’s episode is about another weird topic from history.
• —-
• In 1772 a baby boy was born to a poor farming family in the country of France.
• FUN FACT: I actually have a French Minor from college that I don’t put to use,, nearly as much as I should.
• Anyway, this Baby boy’s name was Tarrare and he was a Bon-a-fide freak of nature.
• He ate A LOT – like a disgusting amount
• By his teenage years he could eat a quarter of an entire cow… but instead of being a big obese dude as one might expect, Tarrare only weighed 100 lbs. when he was 17 years old.
• His mouth was absurdly large. He looked like a Canadian character from South Park.

• It was said Tarrare could fit a dozen eggs in his cheeks all at once. Plus his teeth were gnarly with cracks and stains all over them…. gross
• His stomach was very elastic. You may have heard of a muffin top, well, Tarrare had the THEE muffin top.
• If he was full, his stomach was a giant ball jutting out of his tiny 100lbs. body, and if he was hungry, his stomach reverted to a big flabby mass of drooping skin around his mid-section. People said he could wrap his excess stomach flesh around his waist like a belt.
• Mark Oliver from AllThatsInteresting.com writes: “When he ate, he would blow up like a balloon, especially in his stomach region. But shortly after, he would step into the bathroom and release nearly everything, leaving behind a mess that the surgeons described as “fetid beyond all conception.” – FETID mean smelling extremely unpleasant.
• And even though most peasants in 18th century France smelled rather ripe… Tarrare apparently smelled god-awful in amongst these already smelly people.
• -lol—-This guy is sounding like one heck of catch ladies… lemme tell ya!—
• Tarrare’s flabby belly and cheek skin made him resemble cartoon, but what really sold the look was the visible stench wafting off of his person at all times. Because he subjected his body to so much food all the time, it gave off a great amount of heat. Tarrare was hot to the touch. This made him sweat profusely. This constant sweat made Tarrare smell like an open sewage system and this made him unbearable to be around.
• This guy was such a burden on his family that they kicked him out. They couldn’t afford to feed their little demonic glutton troll of a son.
• So after scavenging through piles of trash for awhile, Tarrare realized he could make a profit off of his disgusting appetite. He became a street performer.
• Tarrare joined a roaming band of performers… they were actually prostitutes and thieves that would put on a show (or perform sexual acts) on people throughout France… then steal from their audience/ sexual partners when their attentions were elsewhere.
• Our boy Tarrare was one of the main attractions.
• People gave him baskets and buckets full of apples, eggs, and even wine corks… Tarrare just shoveled it all in to his degusting gullet.
• Tarrare became famous in Paris for his art of …. packing his obscenely large mouth full of any trash a passerby might be willing to give him to eat. Then he’d gladly swallow all of that unwanted rotten food and garbage, collected their money, and continue to ask people on the street for anything that remotely resembled sustenance so he could eat that too.
• Tarrare’s street performing reminds me of another performer that I consider nothing short of a hero.. He’s a professional wrestler you may have heard of. Here… listen for yourself:
• ======TRASH MAN AUDIO======
• I’M THE TRASHMAN – YouTube If you are reading this, feel free to VIEW for yourself.
• ===========================

• Tarrare’s street ART (if you can call it that) worked well until one time Tarrare got an intestinal blockage. He was taken to the hospital where he was given a powerful laxative… this treatment ended in what I can only imagine as an explosive poo.
• In 1792, Tarrare joined the FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY ARMY.
• There he was given FOUR TIMES the rations of a regular soldier… but still was seen rummaging through the garbage. People saw him shoving fists full of trash in his mouth from gutters.
• Tarrare had joined the Army (probably with the promise of free food), but the Army didn’t want him. Like parents, Tarrare’s fellow soldiers couldn’t take his horrible stench and didn’t appreciate how much food he sucked up.
• Due to his metabolism, if he wasn’t eating or sleeping, Tarrare was tired all the time. This wasn’t just an end of the day kind of tired that you and I experience. He was feeling the full extent of the medical anomaly that was his digestive system hit his energy levels.
• Tarrare must have passed out a few too many times, because the French army sent him far behind the lines where Physicians Baron Percy and Dr. Courville could examine the other-worldly like specimen that was Tarrare.
• The doctors subjected him to a series of tests:
• 1 – They fed him an absurd amount of food which consisted of curdled milk and hard pudding left over from a dozen German laborers. = Tarrare scarfed down the food like it was no problem.
• 2 – They gave him a live eel to see what he would do. Apparently he really enjoyed the flesh of serpents. Tarrare crushed the eel’s head with his troll teeth and then swallowed the eel whole…

• 3 – Tarrare was observed capturing a live house cat and biting in to its stomach to disembowel it. From there, he drank all of the cat’s blood and continued to swallow the cat’s carcass whole. A few minutes later, Tarrare spit up the bones, skin, and fur of the cat just like an owl regurgitating a pellet left from its prey.
• While all these tests on Tarrare were being done in the name of medical research, he was still technically a soldier in the French Revolutionary Army. No one in the Military was able to find a suitable job for Tarrare, until one French General by the name Alexandre de Beauharnais—- (Bow-ARE-nay) —-had the idea to use him for espionage.
• The idea was to have Tarrare swallow a wooden box that contained a message inside, written on paper.
• Tarrare was brought before a number of French Generals, just after finishing another experiment where he consumed 30 pounds of pork liver and lungs. General Beauharnais asked Tarrare to swallow the wooden box. In return, Tarrare was promised a wheelbarrel full of bull organs.
• Two days after the experiment began, Tarrare “passed” the wooden box with the message intact. He was given his reward of a small wagon load of bull organs, which he scarfed down promptly, then his “talent” was put to use.
• The French sent Tarrare in to Prussia after making him swallow classified information. Now he was an official spy delivering an important message to an imprisoned French Colonel behind enemy lines. Except Tarrare made for a poor spy. He couldn’t speak the enemy’s language of German, and he stuck out like a sore thumb… because you know… all the trash gargling, ungodly stench, and absurdly large troll mouth.
• The Prussians captured Tarrare, stripped him down, searched, whipped, and tortured him for a full day before he finally broke. Knowing the message was in his stomach, the Prussian chained Tarrare to a disgusting military latrine for hours until the message box was “passed.”
• Finally Tarrare laid his golden egg of a message. A Prussian general read it and found that this mission was just another test. The message just requested Tarrare’s contact to relay whether he had delivered the message successfully. In a fit of rage, the Prussian general ordered Tarrare be hanged.
• Standing at the gallows, noose around his neck, Tarrare started to shamelessly sob. By this time, the Prussian general’s rage had subsided and the sight of his prisoner weeping gave him a change of heart.
• The Prussian general ordered for Tarrare’s life to be spared, and after more torture, he was set free.
• Upon his return to France, Tarrare begged Doctor Percy to cure his Polyphagia, so that he could go about life as a normal man.
• Dr. Percy tried everything he could think of: Tobacco, vinegar, and even opium pills, but nothing was working.
• Tarrare’s demonic appetite lead him to hangout behind the local butcher where he was seen fighting off stray dogs and wolves for scraps of discarded meat.

• Back in the late 18th century medicine was still under the impression that bleeding someone would cure certain ailments. This was called bloodletting and it didn’t work. In fact this only made patients more ill. Turns out our blood is pretty important for human life!
• This bloodletting was being performed at the hospital where Tarrare was being treated. In his downtime, Tarrare was known to seek out the patients undergoing bloodletting so he could…. drink their blood to satiate his hunger. He was even caught in the hospital’s morgue devouring body parts of the deceased.
• This behavior was tolerated by the hospital staff for unknown reasons. Perhaps Tarrare was such a rare medical specimen that they were willing to let demonic human body feasting slide…
• But it seems the hospital staff had their final straw when a 14 month old infant went missing from the hospital. There was no proof that Tarrare ate the boy, but rumors were circulating and Dr. Percy thought it best to kick him out all the same.
• Fours years passed with Tarrare fending for himself in France. There is no record of this time in his life, but with his appetite, I doubt Tarrare had much time to do anything but eat, sleep, and defecate.
• Once those 4 years ended, Tarrare appeared at a hospital in Versailles with a severe case of tuberculosis.
• Dr. Baron Percy caught wind that the rarest patient he had ever treated was dying so he fled to Versailles to see him one last time alive. Percy was with Tarrare when he died in 1798 at the age of 26.
• He wrote that even though Tarrare wreaked to high heaven while alive to the point where the fumes were visible… nothing prepared him for the stench that came shortly after Tarrare’s death.
• It is quite common for a person’s body to evacuate stool, urine, and saliva shortly after death. This can be alarming when a normal human being dies, but when Tarrare died it was basically hell on earth for everyone’s olfactory senses within a 1 mile radius.
• Dr. Baron Percy began an autopsy on Tarrare, but had to stop halfway through. He and the other doctors couldn’t stand the stench.
• What they found during his autopsy, before giving up, was horrifying.
• Tarrare’s jaw huge and although all of his teeth remained, “the color of their enamel streaked like marble,” and “the molars were much worn away.”
• With Tarrare’s head tilted back, “the mouth and esophagus formed a rectilinear canal, into which a cylinder of a foot in circumference could be introduced without touching the palate.” Meaning Tarrare’s mouth, throat were gaped to over a foot in circumference all the way down to his stomach… Sounds like he really did look look like a Canadian character on South Park.
• His abdomin was severely deformed. Tarrare’s digestive system dominated the vast majority of abdominal cavity.
• The London Medical and Physical Journal – states: “The entrails were putrefied, confounded together, and immersed in pus; the liver was excessively large, void of consistence, and in a putrescent state; the gall-bladder was of considerable magnitude; the stomach, in a lax state, and having ulcerated patches dispersed about it, covered almost the whole of the abdominal region.”
• Although Tarrare’s actions were at time immoral, and almost always disgusting. The autopsy helped show that he wasn’t just an evil person obsessed with consuming… he was plagued by a freak medical condition.
• I started looking in to Tarrare’s life with hopes of coming away with a disgustingly comical story to tell on my podcast and blog, but I soon found myself pitying this man.
• He was born this way, and his family abandoned him for it. He had this hellish appetite and need to consume virtually all that was around him.
• In summarizing Dr. Percy’s observations, the London Medical and Physical Journal writes: “The young Tarrare was almost devoid of force and ideas. When he had eaten to a moderate extent, and his hunger only appeased, he was quick and active, he was heavy and sleepy only when he had eaten to excess.”
• As if to say, for most of his life, he was either tortured by awful hunger pains, and when he had eaten his body used so much energy for digestion that his mind went blank, incapable of any real thought. There were only glimpses of who he really was in those rare occasions when Tarrare’s “hunger [was] only appeased.”
• His story is a tragic one. The only people who cared about Tarrare were only invested in him as a specimen to be observed. No one cared what kind of person he was or what personality he processed.
• and yeah… I’m just going to leave it on that depressing note.
• I’ve covered the main points on this podcast, but if you’d like to learn more about Tarrare, I have included an accompanying blog post where you’ll find a script of this episode plus images and links to my sources.
• I did a similar blog post for episode 10 “The Sacred Band of Thebes.” I think I will publish my notes more often. Link to my blog will be in the description.
• Until next week Who’d a Thunkers!

Below are the official medical records used to create this podcast/blog.

In 1896 Doctors George M Gould and Walter Pyle wrote;

Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine

In it, they wrote of Baron Percy, a man whom met Tarrare, and his impression of the greatest known Glutton the World has ever seen.

“He ate a quarter of beef in twenty-four hours. He was fond of the most revolting things. He particularly relished the flesh of serpents and would quickly devour the largest. In the presence of Lorenze he seized a live cat with his teeth, eventrated it (disembowled), sucked its blood, and ate it, leaving the bare skeleton only. In about thirty minutes he rejected the hairs in the manner of birds of prey and carnivorous animals. He also ate dogs in the same manner. On one occasion it was said that he swallowed a living eel without chewing it; but he had first bitten off its head. He ate almost instantly a dinner that had been prepared for 15 vigorous workmen and drank the accompanying water and took their aggregate allowance of salt at the same time. After this meal his abdomen was so swollen that it resembled a balloon. General-in-chief had seen him devour thirty pounds of raw liver and lungs. Nothing seemed to diminish his appetite. He waited around butcher-shops to eat what was discarded for the dogs. He drank the bleedings of the hospital and ate the dead from the dead-houses. He was suspected of eating a child of fourteen months, but no proof could be produced of this. He was of middle height and was always heated and sweating. He died of a purulent diarrhea, all his intestines and peritoneum being in a suppurating condition.”

– Percy also was quoted saying

“The dogs and cats fled in terror at his aspect, as if they had anticipated the kind of fate he was preparing for them.”

“Let a person imagine, all that domestic and wild animals, the most filthy and ravenous, are capable of devouring, and they may form some idea of the appetite, as well as the wants of Tarrare.”

The London Medical and Physical Journal, Volume 42 goes in to Polyphagism, or polyphagia, and how Tarrare was the most severe case in recorded history.

Polyphagia, also known as hyperphagia, is the medical term for excessive or extreme hunger. It’s different than having an increased appetite after exercise or other physical activity. While your hunger level will return to normal after eating in those cases, polyphagia won’t go away if you eat more food.

This last source isn’t an official one, but I still enjoyed watching it. *Language Warning* Tarrare, the Hungriest Man in History – YouTube

Born 1887 in the Prague Indian Territory – Oklahoma (some sources say 1888)

Born and raised in a 1 room cabin in Indian Territory by his Father Hiram Thorpe and Mother Charlotte along with his Twin Brother Charlie

Hiram was 6 foot 4 and a terror to the town (according to his grandson Jack Thorpe)

Thorpe’s birth and Native American name was Wa-Tho-Huk, meaning “Bright Path,” but he was later christened Jacobus Franciscus Thorpe.

At the age of Two, the Native American territory was sold off as part of the Oklahoma Land rush. Jim Thorpe Grew up in the midst of Two Very different cultures clashing

At the Age of 6 Hiram sent his twin sons to the Sac and Fox Boarding School

By the age of 8 Jim had run away from boarding school many times, just to have his father bring him back to the school 23 miles away. One time he found his twin brother Charlie had passed away from a pandemic.

After Charlie’s death, Hiram sent Jim to the Haskell Indian Institute. this was much farther away

But when Jim heard his father had fallen deathly ill, he walked the 280 miles home in just 2 weeks.

When Jim returned he found his father had recovered, but shortly after his mother Charlotte died from giving birth to her 11th child.

Jim then went to Texas where  he made a living breaking horses

He was proud of his ability to break any wild horse he was pitted against

1904 Hiram sends Jim away again to the Indian Industrial school in Carlisle PA at the age of 17

Hiram’s last words to his son “You are an Indian. I want you to show other races what an Indian can do.” then Hiram died 2 months later.

The Carlisle school was social experiment that took Native American children and tried to transform them into Modern Americans.

Once enrolled these kids were not allowed to leave for 5 years.

Hundreds died of disease, and thousands ran away. Out of the 10,000 that were enrolled, only 761 graduated

Jim was known for being rebellious and was punished many times by being locked out in the guard house

Through the schools Outing system, Jim was sent to live and work on a White Family’s farm so he could learn how to live as a white man.

He was paid half that of a white farm hand and was treated as an outsider by the family

He promptly ran away, but with no family to turn to, Jim returned in 1907 at the age of 20

At this time, Glen “Pop” Warner, the athletic Director at Carlisle notice Jim’s athletic ability at track practice. Where other students struggled to high jump over the 5’8″ bar, Jim Thorpe leaped over the pole with inches to spare.

He quickly stood out as a track star. but Jim was known for being almost too good of a sport. His son Jack Thorpe explained that the many times his father would be far out ahead of his competitors he would stop short of the finish line as to not embarrass his opponent. He only wanted to win, not humiliate them.

Jim decided track wasn’t enough and found American Football more his speed. (keep in mind this was before pads or even leather skull caps)

Jim became accustomed to the perks of being a Jock at the Carlisle Indian School. He and his teammates got a separate kitchen with ample meat and potatoes, a billiard table, and their coach Glen Warner was known to break the rules by paying his players cash for each successful play.

1908 football season started with Jim scoring 5 touchdowns in the first game. His team went on to beat every college team in the east, except for Harvard who they lost to 17 to 0.

That summer Jim decided to play baseball for the rag tag North Carolina League. He did this to make some extra money, but playing for any amount of Money got you banned from playing in any college team.

It is important to note the NC League was hardly professional. Rules were bent or flat out broken by tampering with equipment to gain advantages, players frequently switched sides to get more money, and by the end of that season, 3 different teams claimed they were the champs. The league president quit stating it was a laughing stock.

Jim Played baseball for 2 seasons. During those years of 1909 and 1910, Jim didn’t return to Carlisle as he knew he wouldn’t be accepted since he played for $

However, Glen Warner’s team was suffering massive losses without their star player and promised Jim he would turn a blind eye to his baseball days if he would return

In 1911 Football season started off with blow out after blowout. Jim Thorpe was back in Carlisle and made sure the Eastern Division knew about it. The Pittsburgh Dispatch wrote how Thorpe would punt the ball down the field then run fast enough to pick up the ball himself. They wrote he was a “Host in himself. He appeared to be impervious to injury.”

When it came time for the Harvard game, this time Carlisle won 18 to 15. Jim, as the half back and kicker scored every point. 1 touch down and rest by field goal

June 1912, Jim and a fellow teammate qualified for the US Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden

This time in Olympics, only Amateurs could compete.

The London Amateur Athletic Club defined an Amateur as a Gentleman forbidden to work as a mechanic, artisan, or laborer since the average workman has no idea of sport for its own sake. Their idea of the only people allowed in the Olympics were white men who did not need to work for a living.

However, the USA did not share the same definition. They defined Amateur as anyone who did not receive pay for playing. USA included an African American to run track, Hawaiian Pacific Islander on the swim team, and a working NYC Cop =throwing shot put. Not to mention our boy Jim Thorpe and his fellow native American Teammate Tewanima

Jim entered in to the Pentathlon, based on the ancient Greek Event. It  consisted of 5 different events with the winner being determined by an overall score

1. Running Broad Jump: Jim Thorpe 1st with 23 feet 2.7 inches’
2.  Javelin Throw:  Jim Thorpe 3rd place 153 feet, 2.9 inches.
3. Note: Jim had not competed in Javelin until right before the Olympics
4. Discus Throw: Jim Thorpe 1st Place, 116 feet, 8.4 inches
5. 200 Meter Dash: Jim Thorpe 1st Place
6. 1500 Meter Run: Jim Thorpe 1st place 4 minutes, 48.8 seconds

Jim also entered in the Decathlon which included all the events of the Pentathlon, plus 5 more:

1. 100 Meter Sprint
2. Hurdles
3. 400 Meter Run
4. high Jump
5. Pole Vault

Out of the first 9 events, Jim came first in only 2. But he still had a shot at Gold if he won the final event… the 1500 meter run

Drunk History: 

Comedy Central’s show Drunk History shined a light on the legendary story of Jim Thorpe at the 1912 Olympics.

Another member of the American Team that year by the name Avery Brundage was pegged to be USA’s big winner.

After the first day of the Decathlon (5 of the 10 total events), it was clear Brundage was being overshadowed by Thorpe

The next day in the locker room Thorpe’s professional grade track shoes had gone missing. (many blaimed Brundage).

But Thorpe didn’t seem to mind. He picked two random leather shoes out of the trash.

One of the shoes was too big for Thorpe so he simply put on a 2nd sock to even things out… How did Thorpe do that day, especially in the final even the 1500 meter run?

Beating his own time and the world record by 4 seconds, Jim came in 1st with 4 minutes 40.1 seconds

Jim Thorpe did what no athlete had ever done before when he won the Pentathlon and Decathlon

When presenting the awards, Sweden’s King Gustaf said “Sir, you are the greatest athlete in the world.” In reply Jim said “thanks King.”

Jim’s return to the USA consisted a ticker tape parade in NYC and scientists taking 46 measurements of his body in an attempt to catalog the perfect human form.

Despite all the professional sport opportunities, Jim went back to Carlisle to play 1 more year at Glen Warner’s request.

That year, 1912, the Carlisle was pitted against the US Military’s football team at West Point. These were the sons and grandsons of the men who fought the Native Americans.

One of the Cadets was Dwight D Eisenhower, future Supreme Allied commander in WW2 and President of the USA

The Carlisle Indians beat West Point 27 to 6

The New York Times wrote “West Point’s much talked of defense was like tissue paper before the Indians. Thorpe simply ran wild. It was like trying to catch a shadow.”

1913 a newspaper revealed Jim Thorpe had played Baseball for money in NC. This disqualified him from his Olympic medals.

Despite his loyalty to Glen “Pop” Warner and the Carlisle Indian Institute, Jim was coerced in to signing a pre-written confession so Jim could take the fall all on his own.

However, having his amateur title taken away, there was nothing keeping Thorpe from playing in Professional Sports.

He promptly signed a 3 year long $6,000 a year contract with the NY Giants

Despite his athletic ability, Jim Thorpe, as a Native American, was treated as second class citizen and teammate.

When the Giant’s manager called Thorpe a “Dumb Indian” for missing a signal, Jim snapped. He picked the manager up and shook him like a rag doll. That was the end of Thorpe’s career with the Giants.

Jim married, bought a house, and had his first son. Despite his father being known as the town jerk, Jim was known as gentle and loving father/ family man.

Sadly in 1918 Jim Thorpe Jr became one of the first victims of the influenza outbreak

It caused Jim to hit the bottle hard and after 9 years of marriage, his wife Iva asked for divorce. Jim went on to marry 2 more times in his life and father 8 children in total.

By now Jim was 36 years old playing Pro Baseball in Spring and Summer, then Football in the Fall

He was the first president of the American Professional Football Association (later known as the NFL)

Jim also played as star player of the Canton Bulldogs out of Ohio.

In 1929 at the age of 41, Jim Thorpe played his last Pro Football game and in October of the same year, the Great Depression hit

Like Millions of his fellow American’s Jim had trouble finding work, he was spotted refereeing for a dance in NYC

Thorpe then went to Hollywood where he found some work as a Native American actor. He fought for equal pay for his fellow Native American Actors

He received awards and gave speeches all across America. One speech showed his respect for his roots: ” I have never forgotten I am an Indian. No Indian can forget it. We settled this country long before the white people ever came to these shores. But red men are wards of the Government. The Indian should be permitted to shed his inferiority complex and live like a normal American Citizen.”

in 2005 evidence showed Jim even played professional Basketball

Jim died in 1953 at the age of 66 from a heart attack.

In 1982 the international Olympic committee restored his gold medals.

1999 – Joint Resolution of Congress decided the greatest American Athlete of the 20th Century was Jim Thorpe

Some regard him as “Jim Thorpe, World’s Greatest Athlete”… the name of his biography.

Credit:

1. 1 hour biography on Thorpe I found on Youtube:
   1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJIIHgap2xI
2. Comedy Central’s Drunk History:
   1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCG-iozFx8k