Chapter 1: What unusual historical event is the episode centered on?
I got a Rivian right now. Brag. Is Rivian a brag? Yeah. Mad respect, bro. You couldn't be more of a dad when a Rivian SUV is a brag. It's not like I'm driving a Porsche. I'm like, dude, I got a car that can fit six kids, luggage, and a dog. And you go, Jesus, you're winning. It doesn't go fast. And I will say it's not that much fun to drive, but the storage in that baby.
This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. Over the last couple years, didn't we learn that the folding chair was invented by Black people because of what happened in Alabama? This Black History Month, the podcast Selective Ignorance with Mandy B unpacks Black history and culture with comedy, clarity, and conversations that shake the status quo.
The Crown Act in New York was signed in July of 2019, and that is a bill that was passed to prohibit discrimination based on hairstyles associated with race. To hear this and more, listen to Selective Ignorance with Mandy B from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 1969, Malcolm and Martin are gone. America is in crisis.
At a Morehouse College, the students make their move.
These students, including a young Samuel L. Jackson, locked up the members of the Board of Trustees, including Martin Luther King Sr. It's the true story of protest and rebellion in Black American history that you'll never forget. I'm Hans Charles.
I'm Menelik Lumumba. Listen to The A Building on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It's me, Brandon Kyle Goodman, but you can call me Messy Mom because on my podcast, Tell Me Something Messy, my fantastic guests are bringing their mess like singer-songwriter Duran Bernard suggesting we reinstate adult sleepovers with friends.
Here's the thing. Get a group that's mature enough not to be putting your hand in warm water and tickling you.
You know what I'm saying? I mean, granted, I might be doing it, but you know what I'm saying? Listen to Tell Me Something Messy on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Welcome to Snafu, the show about history's greatest screw-ups. I'm Ed Helms, and today I am joined by a prolific actor, comedian, writer, and director.
He co-hosts the podcast We're Here to Help with fellow funnyman Gareth Reynolds. But you likely know our guest as the voice of Peter Parker in Spider-Man, Into the Spider-Verse, as Doug in The Minx, or as the beloved Nick Miller from the now-modern classic hit New Girl. He was, of course, also my hilarious co-star in the film Tag. Please welcome Jake Johnson. Thanks, Ed. Nice to see you, pal.
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Chapter 2: Who was Joseph Dombey and why is he significant?
Three to four minutes of hard applause. Yeah, exactly. Standing ovation and sound effects.
Yeah!
Jake Johnson's here. Yes. We, of course, became acquainted on the movie Tag, which was just a goddamn delight. How fun was that? I mean, we had our ups and downs on the production, but it was a hell of a lot of fun. Apart from Renner breaking both his arms during a stunt. Oh, my God. Remember that crazy day in the church? Of course. I remember that. Insane. Okay. So just for the listener.
We're doing this scene where Jeremy Renner is chasing us, and he does that Fred Astaire chair move where you stand on the back of a chair and then let it fall down, and then you keep going. Only the sort of bit was that this was a stack of like 30 chairs. So it was like 20 feet tall. Yeah, it was high up. And he sort of falls down, but in a controlled way.
Off on this stack of chairs and then keeps running. But and he was wearing a harness to make the fall smooth and not harmful to his body. This there was some malfunction. He landed on both his arms. Both of his arms broke. Yes. And he went to the hospital and was back on set that afternoon. Shocking. Still shooting. Do you remember that?
And I'll tell you, we've talked about this, but there are certain things you've said that are not for Jake. Breaking your arms and returning to shoot a scene in tag, not for Jake. If I break my arms. Not for Jake. I'm holed up for a while. I'm in a hospital room. I'm expecting visitors. I'm expecting a lot of you were so brave for doing that.
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Chapter 3: What challenges did Dombey face during his journey?
I'm not going back to work. And then do you remember he has to throw coffee? I think at me. Yeah. Where I run by him and he throws, but he had to use his broken arm. And I was like, I would like to complain about the fact that I need to slide on the ground, but I can't do that because he's throwing something at me. Because he's doing another stunt with broken arms. With broken arms.
That to me was really wild. Do you remember the scene in the church also when it was you, me, Hannibal, and probably Ham, but I'm not sure. And Hannibal farted on camera and then got upset with us when we laughed as if he were the ones not being professional.
Yeah.
And said, come on, man, stay in it. I do.
And I said, I can't.
You can't. That's impossible to do. I do remember that. That was pure sabotage. Oh, my God. There were so many hard laughs on that set. So many ridiculous experiences. And then this is like. We'll probably cut this because this is like some celebrity whining. But I remember being so excited because they're like, hey, we got a jet for the whole cast.
And that's how we're going to travel on this press tour. So we're all flying together. And I'm like, oh, this is great. We get private airports, luxury jet. It was like a battered old like a school bus. With wings, literally. It was like a 1970s Southwest retired airplane. And it was such a piece of junk. It was like, I mean, okay. Please don't cut that, Ed. I remember that was so good.
Oh, yeah. There's his tag. Just the disappointment. It's like we're getting to the ā oh, we're at a private airport.
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Chapter 4: How did pirates impact Dombey's mission?
Like this is going to be so great. It's so fun and great. And then we get on and it's like ā Oh, the seats are torn. There's rats running around in this airplane. I would rather be on a Greyhound. It smells like cigarettes. It was a Greyhound of the sky. This plane hadn't been cleaned since people smoked on planes. It was a Greyhound. It was a Greyhound airplane is what it was. That's great.
I do. That's great. Great stuff, man. Okay, so we have to get into the story. This is a really, this is a fun one. It's pretty arbitrary how you wound up doing this story. I don't have, usually I try to connect the guests in some way. In this case, I was like, this is just kind of a funny story and I think Jake will like it. So I hope this story is for Jake. I love it.
Today, we're heading back to the age of musket powder and doodle dandies. This story takes us to the late 1700s when America was but a mere toddler and growing pains were all but expected. Wildly enough, one of the most intriguing political stalemates of the time revolved around measurements for distance and weight.
Yes, today we're diving into the embattled and complex history of the United States' relationship with the metric system. Sounds boring. But it is not. It is not. Trust me on this. More specifically, we're diving into the tragic story of French scientist and explorer Joseph Dombey. And you will understand why very shortly. There's obviously the metric system and the imperial system.
Here in the United States, we use the imperial system. There are two other countries that still use that. The rest of the world is all metric. Do you know those other countries? I mean, I would be amazed if you do. Liberia and Myanmar. Never would I have guessed those.
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Chapter 5: What was the fate of Dombey's metric artifacts?
Never.
No, of course not. Gun to my head, I couldn't have found those two. And I'm not disappointed in you. I didn't expect you to know those things. Okay, I'll take it. So we're the only three. Yeah. So now, if it were up to Thomas Jefferson, we would have incorporated the metric system long, long ago.
However, according to legend, the fault lay at the feet of neither Jefferson nor Joseph Dombay, but pirates. All right, before we go any further, here's why measurement standards actually matter. A shared system of measurement is the quiet backbone of civilization. It's how trade functions, science agrees on reality, and buildings don't mysteriously end up a few inches too short.
Historically, though, measurements were a mess because they were often based on local customs, a king's body part or whatever some royal person thought a foot should be that year. Back in 1495, King Henry VII of England tried to bring some order to the chaos by standardizing units like the bushel, peck, gallon and court.
That would eventually become the imperial system that we use today, feet, pounds and all that stuff. Fast forward a few centuries and the 13 colonies. win their independence from Great Britain, but they still need Britain as a trading partner. So America stuck with the imperial system. The problem was everyone used it differently. A foot in Williamsburg might not match a foot in Philadelphia.
And New York is like doing its own thing there. They have the Dutch system. It's just like a total mess. In 1790, Across the Atlantic and in the middle of their own revolution, France's National Assembly turned to their Academy of Sciences and basically said, please invent a measurement system that can survive chaos.
That's cool.
Which means try to deduce an invariable standard for all measurements and weights, et cetera. This is like how ā the enlightenment worked, right? This is sort of peak enlightenment thinking. The idea was that nature is impartial. Kings get beheaded, governments collapse, but the planet is constant. It keeps spinning.
So if you base your measurements on nature itself, they will outlast wars and revolutions and very bad political decisions. And that's how we arrived at The meter, which was named after the Greek word metron, meaning measure, standard, or rule. This was, again, France's National Assembly. They defined the meter as 1 10 millionth of the distance from the North Pole to the equator.
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Chapter 6: Why did the U.S. fail to adopt the metric system?
And this was really badass. Like this system worked. It was very simple. And this got Thomas Jefferson really excited. So on July 4th, 1790, he brought the concept of metrication to Congress. Massive spoiler alert. Congress was like, nope, no thanks.
Right.
Pass. Hard pass. Pass. Don't fully get it. Pass. You're a smart guy, TJ, but it's a pass for us. We are going toāthey sound like executives. Congress was Hollywood executives when you tried to pitch original IP. Pass. We're big fans of you, and we also love this idea. We think this idea has legs, and we honestlyādo you ever get this one? Can't wait to see that movie.
I can't wait to see that movie. That's what they said to Thomas Jefferson. Yeah. Yeah, we've got something too similar. We can't do... It's like... No, no, no. You guys don't get it. The metric system replaces the... Yeah, but does it? This is a brilliant idea. Honestly, the people above me are a no, but I'm a yes. But let's just think of another.
Come back in a couple weeks with something new, but let's just keep this one as is.
Welcome to the A Building. I'm Hans Charles. I'm Menelik Lumumba. It's 1969. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. have both been assassinated, and Black America is at a breaking point. Rioting and protests broke out on an unprecedented scale. In Atlanta, Georgia, at Martin's alma mater, Morehouse College, the students had their own protest.
It featured two prominent figures in Black history, Martin Luther King Sr.
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Chapter 7: What are the implications of using the imperial system in America?
and a young student, Samuel L. Jackson. to be in what we really thought was a revolution. I mean, people were dying. 1968, the murder of Dr. King, which traumatized everyone.
The FBI had a role in the murder of a Black Panther leader in Chicago.
This story is about protest. It echoes in today's world far more than it should, and it will blow your mind.
Listen to The A Building on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
I'm Brandon Kyle Goodman, the host of the Tell Me Something Messy podcast. I wanted to create a safe, comfy place for all of us to talk about sex, relationships, and what it means to be human and baby. My fantastic guests are bringing their mess to share with the class. Like singer-songwriter Duran Bernard suggesting we reinstate adult sleepovers with friends.
Here's the thing. Get a group that's mature enough not to be putting your hand in warm water and tickling you.
You know what I'm saying? I mean, granted, I might be doing it. But you know what I'm saying? And I think it's important for those examples of that, of us just being gentle with one another because the world and the people in it are already finding brand new ways to whip our ass every single day. 1,000%. So the least we can do is make strides to handle each other in a way that is... With care.
Yeah, that's with care and a bit more mindful. Listen to Tell Me Something Messy on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Segregation in the day. Integration at night.
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Chapter 8: How does the story of Dombey relate to modern measurement systems?
County has been called in to help. Within days, tips started flooding into the Sheriff's Department. The rumor around the drug scene was that a deputy was taken care of. Is this the story of a man who just got lost in the desert? Or of a cover-up inside the nation's largest sheriff's department?
A homicide captain saying, detective, do not find out if this guy's guilty or innocent. Who does that?
Do you have any advice for us while looking into this disappearance?
I wouldn't do it alone.
Listen to Valley of Shadows on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Congress said no to Jefferson, but he didn't give up. He had friends in high places. And as the former ambassador to France, he noticed that their system really seemed to be clicking along pretty well. So by 1793, the history gets a little fuzzy. It's unclear whether Jefferson officially placed the order or if France was simply eager to export their own shiny new system abroad.
But what is clear is that France sent one of their brightest minds, physician and botanist and overall badass explorer, Joseph Dombey, carrying two precious artifacts to the United States. A metal rod measuring exactly one meter. This was like a standard that could then be used as a sort of master standard. And a small copper cylinder weighing precisely one kilogram, also to be a standard.
But as Dombey will soon learn, nothing invites disaster quite like crossing the Atlantic with priceless objects and a calm sense of optimism. Well, this comes to the pirates. Oh, yeah. It's about to get piratey. That's cool. So Joseph DombƩ set sail for Philadelphia in January of 1794 from the port of Le Havre off the northern French coast.
He was aboard a brig owned by a merchant stationed in New York, Joseph Lepine. We should have a picture of Joseph DombƩ. Let's take a look. That guy wasn't striking at 20. I feel like he's distinguished. I'm just worried he's not wearing any clothes. I feel like it was his choice. I know this as a fact.
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