0:16

Thank you for joining us today for armchair

0:19

historians. I'm your host

0:22

Ann Marie Cannon . Armchair historians

0:24

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member through Patrion. You can find links

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to both in the episode notes

0:57

today, you will be listening to part two

0:59

of my interview with Melanie Hamilton.

1:02

Melanie is a writer based in

1:04

Tbilisi, Georgia, not

1:07

Georgia, the state, but

1:09

Georgia, the country. I had to

1:11

Google it in 2018

1:14

Melanie chucked it all. She

1:16

quit her job and moved abroad to pursue

1:18

her passion, which meets at the cross

1:20

section of food, culture

1:23

and history. Melanie, who

1:26

is a native Texan, her

1:28

husband and dog child

1:30

in tow made temporary homes

1:32

in Catalonia, Valencia,

1:35

Comunidad, and Andalusia

1:37

. Before arriving in Tivoli C

1:39

to find out more about Melanie and

1:41

her exciting journey, go

1:44

to savor and jor.com.

1:46

I'll put a link in the episode notes

1:49

at saver and your you'll find stories

1:52

of history, war famine,

1:55

and the people at the forefront

1:57

who shaped the world. We know today,

2:00

you also learn about the food of

2:02

different regions, including

2:04

its history and culture. We

2:07

continue our conversation today with

2:09

Melanie talking about Ida B Wells.

2:11

We talk about her passion, project

2:14

saver and your , and much, much

2:17

more [inaudible]

2:26

In Thailand, gene campaigns and all the investigative

2:29

journalism that she did throughout the South for a few

2:31

years, she didn't even stop there.

2:33

I mean, she eventually moved to Chicago and started

2:35

a whole other chapter of activism.

2:38

So, I mean, from start

2:40

to finish, she went

2:42

a thousand miles an hour.

2:45

I did. Um , and it's surprising that she

2:47

didn't rise to the top

2:49

of the historical record.

2:52

Absolutely. How

2:54

was she able to continue doing

2:57

She did and yet flying under

2:59

the radar, you know, did she have, how

3:01

did she make her money? Did she make really good money

3:03

as a journalist?

3:05

So the free speech in headlight

3:07

that she ran in Memphis, she

3:09

continued to run that while she was traveling

3:11

across the South. And she did do

3:13

really well for herself. Um , she definitely wasn't

3:15

struggling in that sense.

3:17

Is there anywhere that we can find

3:20

Ida in pop culture?

3:22

To be honest, there really isn't

3:24

because when I was researching her, I love

3:28

being able to read

3:30

everything. I can listen to all the podcasts,

3:33

watch all the YouTube things, get the

3:35

documentary. If there's a movie about

3:37

it, I am going to watch it a million

3:39

times. And for her, unfortunately,

3:42

it's really just a lot of articles

3:45

and there are some YouTube videos too, but in terms of

3:47

a documentary really kind of

3:49

breaking down her life, there's nothing that's

3:51

recent that would be, you

3:53

know, on Netflix or easily accessible

3:57

to , to watch, which is really a shame

3:59

because what a story, right. And it's completely

4:01

real.

4:02

It has all the plot twists. I know

4:04

that we have only scratched the surface

4:06

in our conversation about her. There's so

4:08

much more to know , and there is,

4:10

you know , information out there. So I encourage

4:13

people to go look and of course she's written

4:16

it , was it one book or more than one book?

4:18

Oh, she wrote several books,

4:21

That's over a book . So you can read

4:23

about her through her own words too.

4:25

So , um, and sometimes

4:27

that's more compelling.

4:30

Yeah, absolutely. And my

4:32

hope is that with this movement,

4:34

that's going on right now that more people

4:37

like Ida are brought to the

4:39

forefront, you know, like Eugene Ballard, for

4:41

example, who I mentioned earlier first

4:43

black fighter pilot, hardly any information

4:46

about him. I mean, he does have a few documentaries

4:48

about him and stuff, but in general , uh

4:51

, he's kind of unheard of, and my hope is

4:53

that people

4:55

And our , our educational history

4:58

books, they should, we

5:01

should know the name. Like we know

5:03

the name, you know, George

5:05

Washington.

5:06

And just to kind of piggyback off what you were saying,

5:08

how you hope that these names are as

5:10

well known as George Washington, me

5:12

growing up in Texas , uh,

5:15

something that, and I also think this

5:17

is so relevant right now is

5:20

I hope that they're amplified, you

5:24

know, to the level of George Washington, but it also

5:26

makes me reflect on

5:28

my own education in elementary

5:30

school and in middle school, high school, and

5:33

how much I learned about

5:36

Robert E. Lee and how much

5:38

I didn't learn about Harriet

5:40

Tubman and people like her. And

5:43

that's just a whole, I mean, this just all goes back

5:45

to education and the subtle

5:48

and sometimes not so subtle racism there

5:50

and how people could be educated

5:53

about these figures from a young age,

5:55

if they were prioritized people

5:57

who are the heroes of the story

6:00

being prioritized, you know , and

6:04

I hope that

6:06

I hope that this only continues to gain momentum

6:09

with , with that. And I'm going to keep writing

6:11

about it. I'm very,

6:13

very motivated now to keep finding people

6:16

like this, who maybe stories

6:18

aren't as well told

6:20

and heard and that sort of thing. I

6:22

feel like I, I can't really

6:24

do much. I can't really say much. And I feel

6:27

like I'm , I don't

6:29

have the

6:31

right to have as big of an opinion

6:34

in terms of pain and things like that that

6:36

are going on. Uh, but what I can

6:38

do is try to amplify

6:40

these, these other people in

6:43

my own way, you know? So

6:45

I , I feel like that is something

6:47

that has become really important to me lately.

6:49

And of course you too , because you

6:51

found her ,

6:53

I'm trying , um , you know, I'm always

6:55

learning and , uh , I'm

6:58

going to get it wrong. And so I'm trying to

7:00

be open to the feedback that I get

7:03

from people of color

7:05

, uh, from the community,

7:07

from, you know, whatever

7:09

source it's brought to my

7:11

attention. So, and that's, that's

7:14

really all I can do. Anything else would be, I

7:16

feel contrived kind of like what you were

7:18

saying and you know,

7:20

who am I to have an opinion? I

7:23

will share one story. I dated

7:26

a gentleman . Uh, he

7:28

was a man of color. He lived

7:30

in Colorado, which was such a weird choice

7:32

for him out in the seriously,

7:35

out in the Plains , uh, you

7:38

know, kind of off the grid,

7:40

that type of thing. So , um, but I

7:42

remember we were going on a trip and,

7:44

you know, the relationship was fairly new

7:47

and, you know, I , I was still

7:49

pretty naive and he said

7:51

, uh, cause we were going, we

7:54

were going to Utah. And he said,

7:57

you know , um , I

8:00

don't know if I should drive your car cause we were using my car

8:02

and he's like, I dunno if I should drive your car because

8:05

you know, chances are, we'll get pulled over.

8:07

And I was like, what are you talking about? Right

8:09

. Me, you know, white woman

8:11

of privilege has no concept.

8:15

And I'm like, what are you talking about? And

8:17

I will tell you, we got over

8:19

state lines and we were pulled

8:21

over like,

8:23

Wow.

8:25

Yeah. You know, he wasn't shocked. He knew,

8:28

you know, he, and

8:30

I was like, Oh my God. And I keep

8:32

having throughout my life, I have these moments

8:34

where I have to check my privilege because

8:37

things like this happen. And , um

8:40

, it's not just the climate

8:43

of what's going on, but it's also the , just the

8:45

story that compelling stories and histories

8:47

we have of people like

8:49

Ida who have really, you

8:51

know, taken a

8:53

cause and moved it. And yet under

8:56

the radar, like I said, and I'm

8:58

, so I'm really grateful that you brought

9:01

this story to us, to armchair historians.

9:04

Is there anything else before we move on,

9:06

because I want to talk a little bit more about what you

9:08

do and uh , your blog

9:10

and , um , where people can find

9:12

you. So is there anything

9:14

else that we need to know about Ida that

9:16

maybe we haven't covered?

9:19

Yes. Yes. So I'll give you a fast

9:21

snippet. Uh, and it really

9:23

is just a snippet because I can only imagine

9:25

how colorful this chunk

9:27

of her life was after she'd

9:29

done all this amazing work. And she was kind

9:31

of able to settle down, quote

9:33

unquote. So Ida,

9:36

after she does all of this

9:38

investigative journalism, she dedicates pretty

9:40

much all of her twenties

9:42

and a big chunk of her thirties

9:45

too , to what we've been discussing this

9:47

entire time. But

9:50

eventually she makes it to Chicago

9:52

and she tries to kind of not start a new life

9:54

there, but continue her work in a different way.

9:57

And she tries to get into politics. And at this

9:59

point the suffrage movement is just starting

10:02

and she's really got her work laid out

10:04

for her. She has all of these new endeavors that

10:06

she's going after in terms of civil rights and

10:08

women's rights. And

10:11

she eventually meets a guy named Ferdinand

10:13

Barnett Barnett.

10:16

I believe Ferdinand Barnett, who

10:18

was a huge humanist at the time,

10:21

huge supporter of the women's suffrage

10:23

and black women's suffrage, especially. And

10:26

he was, I mean, just

10:29

a great match for her. I mean, he was way,

10:31

way ahead of his time in terms of what other

10:34

to this day and age. So she

10:36

meets verdant. They fall in love,

10:38

classic, beautiful love story.

10:41

And she marries him. She doesn't take his last

10:43

name , uh, which

10:45

is the li to me, it's the least interesting

10:47

part of her story, but it's also

10:50

very interesting because at that time, that was completely

10:52

unheard of. Even for women who

10:54

are very progressive and involved

10:57

in the suffrage movement, I'm not

10:59

taking a last name, was just men

11:04

Ted's exploded everywhere. They spontaneously

11:07

combust with the staff . So

11:10

she meets him and you may be

11:12

thinking, okay, this is where she

11:14

settles down. And they get a little apartment

11:17

that overlooks the park. Maybe they get a dog

11:19

or something, but that doesn't happen

11:21

at all. She continues

11:24

to fight until she dies.

11:27

She found, she

11:29

winds up bounding

11:31

. Why ends up founding what his words.

11:34

She why's that founding Chicago's

11:37

first black kindergarten , uh

11:39

, the first black suffrage organization

11:42

and the first black women's club.

11:44

And she runs for Senate.

11:48

She does it all. And at this point she's suffering.

11:51

She's having a lot of kidney problems at this time.

11:53

It's around 1925

11:57

to 27, somewhere around there, she's

11:59

having a ton of health problems and

12:01

she is not finished. So she runs

12:04

for Senate and

12:06

she loses. But to me that

12:08

doesn't matter at all because she just paved

12:10

the way for a lot of other,

12:13

not just women, but women of color to get

12:15

involved in politics and to put their hat

12:17

in the ring with these types of things.

12:20

Um , and she eventually passed away a few

12:22

years later in 1930, one of kidney

12:24

failure. But I

12:27

mean, she ran for Senate only two or three

12:29

years before she passed away. So

12:31

that's just, just you. Like I said earlier, from

12:33

the beginning, he

12:36

never stopped. She never

12:38

gave up. She went a hundred miles

12:40

an hour pedal to the metal the

12:42

entire time. And

12:45

to me what's the most fascinating

12:47

about her is that you can take

12:50

any one piece of her story. You can

12:52

take the train ticket, you can take her

12:54

being orphaned at 16. You can take her

12:56

running for Senate starting the first black

12:58

kindergarten, any one

13:00

of these things and make an incredible story out

13:02

of it. And they all come from the same

13:04

woman person , one person. And

13:07

to me, that's, what's the most inspiring.

13:10

I mean, it's got everything that a great story

13:12

should have. It's a love story that

13:14

, Oh, the civil rights, all the things,

13:16

I mean, she does, it's like my head

13:18

is spinning. I don't know how she did it. I

13:20

admire her. I can only try to

13:23

emulate a fraction of a fraction of

13:25

one of the things that she ever did in

13:27

her life. And , um , it's a beautiful

13:30

story. Wow.

13:33

Did she travel overseas or am I, I

13:35

think I'm getting her mixed up with Harriet.

13:39

She did eventually show , she went on

13:41

speaking tours all across the UK

13:43

and us advocating.

13:46

I mean, what did she do?

13:48

She basically,

13:51

Yeah, you've covered a lot of territory. We're

13:53

going to pivot the conversation to

13:56

talk a little bit more about you and who you

13:58

are and what you do and where you live

14:00

and how you pronounce the name of

14:03

the place that you live. Cause I'm

14:05

not sure how to do that.

14:07

Sure . It sounds great. So I

14:10

, um, like you mentioned, I'm originally

14:12

from Texas and

14:14

a few years ago , uh

14:16

, two years and some change, my husband

14:18

and I and our dog Oliver, we

14:21

moved from Texas and we decided

14:23

that, you know, we wanted to do the

14:25

whole, sell everything,

14:28

move abroad and chase your dreams

14:30

sort of thing. Thank

14:32

God it worked because we were really scared.

14:34

It wouldn't, but it did. And

14:37

we were in Spain for a while . Uh,

14:39

so that that's sort of , um , our

14:41

first home away from home, we lived all over

14:44

Spain, Barcelona, Granada, Valencia,

14:47

and a lot of small towns in between and

14:52

uh, where we live now, which is a town called tiddly

14:54

C and the Capitol .

14:57

Okay. The Tivoli

14:59

C . Okay.

15:02

He had a nice ring to it, but

15:05

we live in Tbilisi now, which is so

15:07

far from Spain and so far from Texas

15:09

and pretty much everywhere else

15:11

in the world. Uh, so it's in

15:14

the country of Georgia, which is in the caucuses

15:16

, um, over underneath

15:19

Russia. So,

15:23

you know, I don't know exactly, but I could drive

15:25

around three and a half hours and be there.

15:29

So it's about the size

15:31

of Scotland, which is

15:33

a really small country. Um,

15:35

but what led me here is

15:38

obviously I love history

15:40

and this place is the

15:43

same. So the history you have so

15:45

much Soviet history, that's there more recent

15:47

, um , more recent

15:49

history, which I'm very into post-Soviet travel

15:52

and Russian history as well. It's just fascinating

15:55

to me. And again,

15:57

I, I think I tend to gravitate

15:59

more toward these post Soviet areas

16:02

because also much like

16:04

the story that I was telling today, there are

16:06

so many unsung heroes within

16:09

, uh , Georgia and Poland Ukraine,

16:11

all these post Soviet countries when they

16:13

did not fit the Soviet mold

16:16

. So to speak during the Soviet era,

16:18

which only ended, you know, 20 years ago,

16:20

30 years ago, their stories were kind of completely

16:23

thrown away. So that , that was a big motivator

16:25

is just all the history to learn about hair

16:28

Soviet and otherwise, because Georgia

16:30

has millennia of

16:32

history way before Soviet occupation.

16:35

How far back does the history go?

16:38

The very first Europeans were found

16:41

in Georgia. They found the remains

16:43

that can be traced back millions of years.

16:46

Yeah. They found a couple who is now recognized

16:48

as the very first set of

16:51

Europeans from Africa.

16:53

But even before the Soviet era

16:55

, um, you know, Georgia was occupied

16:58

by the Russian empire. And before that they had

17:00

a Persian occupation. And before

17:03

that they had Turkish conflict and they

17:05

had all of these different conflicts that have been

17:07

kind of forgotten because of the Soviet era,

17:09

which is what everyone thinks about because it's the most

17:11

recent, but Georgian history and

17:13

Georgian culture especially goes way

17:16

far beyond that. So the history

17:18

was, it was a big piece of it because

17:20

it's so undiscovered and it's not a

17:22

place like France, where

17:25

everyone knows about the French revolution. Everyone

17:27

knows who Napoleon was. Um

17:29

, the heroes here and the history

17:32

here and the battles here and , and

17:35

all of these hardships that are still

17:37

, uh, wounds are

17:40

completely unknown outside of this

17:42

region. So that was a big pull for me. This

17:44

second thing is the food. This

17:47

food here is really, and

17:50

I couldn't believe

17:52

it when I was looking at all this stuff

17:54

about Georgian food and

17:57

food in the caucuses and stuff too, but

17:59

mainly Georgia and food it's because

18:02

Georgia , uh , the way that it's situated

18:05

typically see where I live is right

18:08

on the silk road. So

18:10

you have all of this Asian influence

18:14

from, you know , thousands of years ago, there

18:17

was a huge Asian influence on their

18:19

cuisine, but you also have a lot

18:21

of middle Eastern influence because of the silk

18:23

trade. And you have a lot of

18:25

Mediterranean influence because there were tons

18:27

of Greeks kind of coming and going. And

18:29

then of course you have loads of Slavic influence

18:31

just because they're neighbors with Russia. Right.

18:34

So there's all of these interesting

18:36

foods. And I mean, I

18:38

really could preach the gospel of this place forever.

18:41

Yeah .

18:41

I had to hear that. I didn't know anything about

18:44

it until I started talking to you. So

18:46

it's going to be amazing. So

18:48

how long ago did you , you know , check

18:51

everything and say, that's it we're going to hit the road

18:53

and

18:53

It was the beginning of 2018.

18:57

So do you work

18:59

remotely or how do you

19:01

, um, how do you pay for your

19:03

, your lifestyle? Which sounds amazing.

19:07

Totally fair question. So I'm

19:09

a freelance writer and I actually write

19:11

about food. I'm so

19:13

passionate about food. I really don't have food

19:16

and different cultures. So

19:18

really I'm a travel writer, but within

19:20

that, I tend to focus more on

19:23

customs, within cultures, traditions,

19:25

and practices, things like that. And

19:27

what makes a culture unique and

19:29

food? Food is a big thing, big

19:32

bird . Um , so yeah, obviously

19:35

that's been really, really

19:37

difficult in a coronavirus world.

19:39

I lost a lot of contracts. I

19:41

had a project with Matador that I

19:43

was working on. If you know them, I had a project

19:46

with lonely planet that I was working on, who

19:48

has since closed

19:50

two of their main publishing offices,

19:53

literally planted one of the biggest travel publications

19:56

out there. Um, so

19:58

that has just, that has been really,

20:00

really difficult. Um, and

20:03

then in my free time, I just work on my blog.

20:05

That's really kind of my, I call it

20:07

my passion project. Cause it's where I just share

20:09

all my food and history stuff that

20:12

I love.

20:14

How about , do you ever think about making a

20:16

book out of your blog?

20:18

I don't want to, that's a huge

20:21

dream of mine is to be an author, many

20:24

things I want to write about, Oh , thank you

20:26

,

20:27

Content. I think you could do that right

20:29

now, but what do I, I'm trying

20:31

, you know, I'm trying to pivot my business

20:34

model of what I do and the

20:36

it's the , um, podcast

20:40

is something that I've thought about for two years

20:43

and because I had all this downtime

20:45

and I lost my I'm freelance writer

20:47

as well. I lost my contract, my one

20:49

big contract. And

20:52

so, so

20:54

I've been able to, I'm

20:56

not making any money from the podcast. I'm

20:59

trying to figure out how to monetize it. If I

21:01

will. I don't know. I don't really want to put commercials

21:03

in the podcast.

21:05

I have been approved for one , um,

21:09

sponsor, you know, I

21:11

don't want to pollute my podcast with that

21:13

though. And so anyways,

21:15

that's another story, but so

21:17

one of the things I'm looking at is trying to,

21:19

I have a walking tour business that

21:21

obviously is not open.

21:24

And , um, I'm

21:26

doing research to try and figure out how to do a

21:28

virtual option where people can come

21:30

into town because I live in a tourist

21:33

town in Colorado, it's a national

21:35

historic landmark district.

21:37

We have over 240

21:39

Buildings in the district that are from the

21:41

18 hundreds in they're preserved, they're

21:44

protected. And so this is a

21:46

great place becoming history

21:48

tour, ghost tour. Uh

21:51

, so I'm trying to figure

21:53

out how to pivot into

21:56

doing all virtual tours one

21:59

way or another. And then I

22:01

don't know, it could end up being a positive thing

22:03

that I

22:06

learned how to do that technology.

22:08

And then I do the tours that are

22:10

on my, you know, my curated tours

22:12

that I do right now, here in town. Maybe

22:15

travel around the world and create other ones.

22:17

I don't know .

22:18

Yeah. I have to say,

22:20

I think the podcast is

22:22

amazing. Thank you

22:24

so jealous. I'm so jealous because

22:27

I have been wanting to start a podcast for the longest time

22:29

. You could totally do

22:34

Marriage of food and history. Those

22:36

two things in what you do is brilliant.

22:39

I love ,

22:40

Oh wow . Thank you so much because I

22:42

always wonder, do people really care about

22:44

both of those things? Like do people who like

22:47

history care about food and vice versa,

22:49

so I'm glad that they kind of seem

22:51

to be interchangeable.

22:54

Oh yeah. I definitely, I mean, you

22:56

have a nice potential niche

22:58

there. I think

23:00

Thank you.

23:02

It's really easy. And I'd be happy

23:04

to share any information that I've learned

23:06

along the way with you. Um,

23:09

Oh, I'd love any tips, but , but it's, so

23:11

it's so unique and especially with

23:13

history and stuff like that, I think people are starting

23:15

to look inward more and backward in

23:18

history. And so it's a

23:20

great time to talk about this stuff

23:23

into , to like you're not only

23:25

coming to terms with a lot of things, not

23:28

just you, but collectively

23:30

as people coming to terms with the

23:32

last things, but also telling amazing

23:34

stories, incredible

23:37

stories that may not be told otherwise.

23:39

I know. And you have some really amazing

23:42

stories that people have not heard of.

23:45

I will tell you this, everybody

23:48

and their brother and their sister

23:50

and their grandparents have started a podcast.

23:53

But , um , I believe

23:55

that , um,

23:58

you know, a lot of them are just kind of like, Hey,

24:00

what's happening and this what's going on today.

24:03

I think the ones that are gonna survive are the ones

24:05

that have this kind of content that people

24:08

are going to look for, you know, and

24:10

people are going to want to know about things. And I

24:12

think that what you do in the , what

24:15

you write about, which maybe tell us a little bit

24:17

about that, about your blog

24:19

and in what you write about and

24:21

, um, yeah. Your research

24:23

process, all that stuff.

24:26

Sure, sure. So I

24:29

savor in your is a

24:33

core about two things. So savor

24:36

that's the food section and

24:38

your, that is the history a

24:41

kind of perspective on things. And

24:43

when it comes to food, I usually do

24:45

a ton of research. I mean, I will try

24:47

all the recipe 5,000

24:50

times, realistically, maybe 10 times

24:53

before, before I put it

24:55

up and talk about the history of why the recipes

24:57

important to the culture and where it comes from

24:59

and what characteristics

25:02

cause I love eating, right. So I

25:04

know a lot about the flavors. So I'll

25:07

talk about the characteristics of the flavor and

25:09

what makes it special and different

25:11

from , um, you know, from

25:13

any other dish out there. Uh,

25:15

so I , I do put a lot of work into

25:17

that and I talk to, I try to be sure

25:20

to , if I'm not learning the recipe from a local,

25:22

if I'm not learning a family recipe from my

25:24

local , uh, whether they're Georgian,

25:26

Italian, Spanish, Mexican, or whatever

25:29

, uh, that I am asking,

25:31

going out of my way to talk to people

25:34

who are Georgian for example,

25:37

and asking them, what is

25:39

your favorite thing about this

25:41

dish? For example, I recently

25:44

did a big recipe on what's called a [inaudible]

25:47

, which is this it's a national

25:50

dish of Georgia. I mean, it's a favorite

25:52

and it's this big cheese

25:54

boat with a raw aircraft on top.

25:57

And it's special. It's very, very special and unique

25:59

to Georgia. Um, and

26:01

I asked so many friends

26:03

of mine who were Georgian and their relatives

26:06

and their relatives, relatives. What

26:08

makes us this specialty? What does this dish

26:10

make you think about? Um

26:12

, do you know the traditional way to make this dish

26:15

or do you always get it, you know , from a little

26:17

corner shop? Like what does

26:19

this dish mean to you? Uh,

26:21

so I do take the time to go

26:23

a little bit deeper instead of just

26:26

putting these are the ingredients that you mix together

26:28

and now you have delicious food. Um

26:31

, because food is very special to

26:33

me. And I think that the stories behind it

26:35

are what make it the most important

26:37

and most integral part of the

26:39

culture and the preservation of the culture.

26:42

So that's the sacred part . Okay.

26:44

So you are a part

26:47

And then in terms of your, I just, I

26:49

love history and unfortunately

26:52

in travel, writing what I was doing before this

26:54

whole coronavirus mess, a

26:57

lot of people don't don't care about

26:59

history and the publication

27:01

that I was writing for, which was incredible.

27:04

And I love them. So I did a little bit of freelance

27:06

work. Like I told you with Matador and

27:09

lonely planet, which those projects are on pause

27:11

right now. But I had one

27:13

main contract, which was the main

27:15

source of my income and kind of my first

27:18

real gig, you know, but

27:20

unfortunately that

27:23

part of travel is not

27:25

why people are traveling nowadays.

27:27

People are traveling to go somewhere and

27:29

take a picture and post

27:31

it and then go home. They're

27:34

not traveling to learn about the heroes and to

27:36

learn about the revolutionaries and all

27:38

of these really important people that

27:40

made this monument special enough to post

27:42

on Instagram. Um, so

27:44

I wasn't able, I haven't really been able to write

27:46

about that for publication. So I thought I'm

27:49

going to put this on my blog. And when I find a historical

27:51

figure that I really like, I'm going

27:53

to do an entire writeup on them and find their,

27:55

their whole life story. Um,

27:58

because I can write about, write about it here

28:00

because I want to, because it's mine and

28:03

I can tell their story how I want to,

28:06

which is just, it's really nice to me. And I think

28:08

that hopefully if there are other people that

28:11

like to travel that way, that, that

28:13

they will see that as a resource

28:16

when , when they do, when they do travel and think about

28:18

more than just , um, you

28:20

know, the red square, for example, in Moscow,

28:23

when, when people go there, they, they

28:25

see the pretty buildings and they see st Basil's

28:28

and all the candy colored

28:30

domes and all of this stuff. It's gorgeous. It's

28:32

beautiful. But nobody

28:35

even realizes that there have been so

28:37

many like Wars

28:39

and massive conflicts fought right in this

28:41

area and all of

28:44

the mess that went into making

28:46

that cathedral even come up. I mean, there was so

28:48

much conspiracy and

28:50

, uh, people were, I mean,

28:52

there's this legend that the architects

28:55

of Saint Basil's cathedral now I'm really

28:57

started really of bagels cathedral. We're

28:59

blinded afterward by Ivan

29:02

the terrible so that they could never reproduce

29:04

this anywhere else. You could never make something as beautiful,

29:07

so poetic. Right . Nobody

29:10

even knows that picture

29:13

and stuff. I don't know.

29:15

I really like to bring those

29:17

sort of little tidbits.

29:19

I see what you're talking about.

29:21

The people, me and my boyfriend

29:23

love to travel. We travel

29:25

for the history. That's why we travel, looking

29:29

for the underbelly of history.

29:32

Um, and so I think that your

29:35

followers will be more dedicated

29:37

because they're looking for that

29:40

kind of , um,

29:43

they're smart and

29:46

you know, you , how long have you been doing this?

29:50

Just a little over two years.

29:52

So you have two years of content

29:55

that you have been putting out there for the pure

29:57

love of it, but you should

29:59

, you need to look at, I mean,

30:01

I'm being bossy and telling you what

30:03

to do, but you need to look

30:06

at that as you

30:08

know, something that you could potentially

30:11

use as a book, you could

30:13

totally do a podcast. I would totally

30:16

listen to your podcast

30:20

Savor in your ,

30:21

Is that I love that name. Like

30:23

you have the podcast, you could have the book,

30:25

you could do a YouTube station.

30:28

I interviewed a gentleman named , um

30:31

, Julien MacDonald.

30:34

And he, I got , I call him a YouTube celebrity.

30:36

He's got a YouTube station, he's got 140,000

30:39

followers. We started watching him

30:41

because we were planning a trip to , uh,

30:43

England. England is, you know, my

30:46

go to country to

30:48

the UK and the

30:50

history goes, you know, so,

30:53

but what he does is he has the

30:56

stick and he goes through London

30:58

and does these tours, he dresses

31:00

up like, he's in a kind

31:03

of Victorian look , he's got a bowler hat.

31:05

He was a provide . And he says,

31:07

every tourist starts out, which he told

31:09

me, he regrets doing this. Every door starts

31:11

out with a pit PIP , tally ho.

31:14

And he says, I hate that. I did that

31:16

because now I'll be walking on the street

31:19

and I'll hear from all directions.

31:21

People say pit pit DeLeo

31:23

, and he's embarrassed about it, but he

31:26

does. And he only, he talks

31:28

about the characters in history that are

31:31

interesting to him. He talks to him and,

31:35

you know, I wait every week for his

31:37

videos to come out anyways, you

31:40

have a brilliant product that you've already

31:43

created. And so, you

31:46

know, I think you could leverage that. I mean, I

31:48

don't know how, I don't know what the answer would be, but I

31:50

totally I'm serious. I totally

31:52

can see that

31:54

So much. I really appreciate

31:56

that. You know, this is the motivation I needed

31:59

because I really have been thinking of doing

32:01

a podcast for the longest time, because I love

32:03

writing and I love taking photos and

32:05

all this stuff. Um, but

32:08

I really love talking to,

32:12

And I like talking, so this works

32:15

for me and I hope that you find

32:17

a way to do more of it.

32:21

Thank you so much. I really appreciate

32:23

that. And you too. I mean, like

32:26

I said, obviously I'm a huge fan of the podcast

32:28

and I just think , um , it

32:31

, not only is it really important and relevant

32:33

right now, it's , I mean, I

32:36

would argue that history is always important,

32:38

but right now it's especially

32:40

important. And , uh , I

32:42

think more and more people are looking for

32:44

this and they're looking for genuine

32:47

people to listen to, which is absolutely

32:50

you , because you can tell that you really care about

32:52

this. You care about the people that you're

32:54

talking about, the events and things that you're talking

32:56

about. Um , you're

32:58

actually invested in it , you

33:00

know , um , which is hard

33:05

From, with this is that, you

33:08

know, I'm not a scholar, I'm not,

33:10

you know, an academic and I

33:14

I've had the experience where I felt

33:17

shut out of history by that

33:19

group, you know, or

33:21

parts of that group. And

33:24

I want to be able to

33:28

talk about history because I love

33:30

it so much. I don't know how to

33:32

talk about every part of history, you

33:34

know, in the right way or whatever. And

33:36

it's just history for me is a jumping

33:39

off point. And it's, it's what

33:41

I want. I want people to come into

33:44

the stories that we tell and to get excited

33:46

about them and go and find out more for themselves.

33:49

We are not Sue and I are not the authority.

33:52

Me and my other guests are not the authority.

33:55

We , we prob, you know, some of my other guests,

33:57

we probably got it wrong, but you know what

33:59

I do that with the, and you probably

34:01

do this. If I watch

34:03

a historical series, I go

34:06

and I do research and find out, Oh,

34:08

well, maybe it didn't quite happen yet

34:10

And everything. Yes

34:12

.

34:14

Yeah. And I think, you know , that's

34:16

what this is about. It's about, let's just talk about

34:18

how excited we are about a story in history,

34:22

Worst case scenario. You inspire someone

34:24

to go dig deeper on it. Right.

34:29

Exactly. Yeah

34:31

, absolutely.

34:34

I I'm also , uh, I don't know

34:36

if you saw my other project that I'm working on,

34:38

it's called last train, leaving Belgium. It's a documentary

34:41

as well as a podcast. And

34:43

it's , uh , hopefully , Hopefully

34:47

it's going to come out by the end of the year. And it's really

34:49

, uh, the, the kind

34:51

of elevator one sentences

34:54

, uh, it's about children

34:56

caught in the crossfires of world war

34:58

II in Belgium. And so

35:01

I dunno why I'm talking about this, but

35:03

there was a reason there was going to be a connection,

35:06

but anyways , uh, so yeah,

35:08

it is, it's a story of

35:10

my mother, pretty much in her family

35:12

and their , um,

35:15

kind of the historical narrative from world

35:17

war one to world war II . And,

35:20

you know, it's a story of Belgium. It's

35:22

a story of Belgium and the people in Belgium

35:24

and, you know, their experience in

35:27

a matter of 25 years being invaded

35:30

by Germany. Right ?

35:32

Yeah. I

35:34

feel like there's so many untold stories

35:36

there too, because most of the focus is usually

35:38

on France and Poland. I mean, for people

35:41

who are just kind of , um , wanting

35:43

to know more about history and not really

35:46

go too far into it, I

35:48

mean, France and Poland, those are like the , the two

35:50

big places there , um , that

35:52

are brought up in world war II , which is awful.

35:54

I mean, there shouldn't be anything discounted about those

35:56

places, but there's so many stories elsewhere,

35:59

like Belgium, especially , uh , and

36:01

it's placed in world war one in world

36:04

war II , you know , so

36:08

I brought it up because what I'm seeing, you know,

36:10

over the past 10 years, since I've really

36:12

delved into writing and history and all

36:14

that , um, and curate , curate

36:16

exhibits and things like that, but yeah .

36:18

Oh, that's amazing.

36:20

Battery keeps repeating itself, you

36:23

know, it really does. And

36:26

you know, the only thing that I can do about that is

36:28

to keep bringing the focus back

36:30

to these stories. And

36:32

I think that , yeah ,

36:33

And then people can draw the parallels.

36:35

Right. Right. I don't need to. Yeah. I

36:38

don't need to tell you that this is the parallel,

36:40

but all's , you have to do is listen to the

36:42

story and make your own,

36:44

you know , conclusions. But yeah.

36:47

History is important. It's always been a big

36:49

part of who I am. I don't know why,

36:52

but I've always been drawn to it probably

36:54

like you . Yeah ,

36:55

Yeah, absolutely. Same here.

36:58

I didn't really know why. I mean, it's

37:01

just, I love having the

37:03

blog because like I said, it's a place where

37:05

I can write about the stuff that is more

37:08

difficult to write about otherwise. And I hope

37:10

that, like I was saying with the podcast

37:12

earlier, worst case scenario,

37:15

you just inspire someone to go look,

37:17

to go look into it and read

37:19

more about it. And then maybe they find someone else

37:22

that they want to learn about or find

37:24

out about another event that they want to learn about.

37:26

You know? So I think

37:28

it's just kind of that history

37:30

in itself is just a massive rabbit hole,

37:33

but all of these other little stories

37:35

, I mean, you can go on and on and on and they

37:37

just think branch out.

37:39

I wish that more people , um , all right

37:41

. My hope that more people continue

37:43

to, to gravitate toward

37:45

this and, and make the connection between

37:48

between back then. And now , now they're very,

37:51

very much the same.

37:53

Totally . I totally agree with that. My daughter, not so much

37:55

into history, although I think as she's getting

37:57

older, she's, it's more

37:59

on her radar than it used to be, but

38:02

I could never, I could never force feed it to

38:04

her. She wasn't having

38:06

anything to do with it. She's she's in her

38:08

thirties now. So hopefully

38:10

when I'm dead and gone, she'll be listening to my

38:13

podcast .

38:13

Yes .

38:15

That's what that was all about.

38:17

Let's see .

38:19

Anything else that we haven't

38:22

covered about what you do,

38:24

why you do it , uh , that you'd

38:26

like to talk about?

38:28

No, that's pretty much it. I mean food

38:30

and history, I'm just, I'm so passionate

38:32

about it. And I, I really,

38:35

it sounds

38:36

So cheesy. Don't vomit

38:38

guys, but I

38:40

really just want to share that with other people

38:43

that is it, passion , people

38:46

latch onto that passion, whether they're history,

38:49

lovers or not. It's like Pambula

38:51

moose. They're a great example.

38:53

I have to see if I could get one of them on my show,

38:57

but how they built

38:59

their business

39:01

based on their passion . It's such

39:04

an odd thing. People connect

39:06

to other people's passion. There's

39:08

a , um , and I talk about this a lot in

39:10

the podcast, but so

39:13

my kind of person that I try to

39:15

emulate in my interviews is Terry

39:18

Gross. Uh , she does fresh air. She

39:20

started that program on

39:24

public broadcasting. And

39:26

I just, I remember that

39:28

I was driving to Florida. I was listening

39:30

to NPR and Terry

39:33

Gross comes on and her show

39:35

that week is about a

39:37

guy who wrote a book about, put

39:40

your seatbelt on banana

39:42

blights. And

39:44

they add up the lights. And it was like the

39:46

most benign topic

39:48

that I had no interest in, but

39:51

she was able to,

39:53

she found this guy, she saw something

39:55

compelling in his story. And

39:57

it was one of the most interesting interviews ever

40:00

my life. And

40:02

it really had to do with both the person

40:04

who wrote the book and his passion

40:07

and Terry Gross his passion and

40:09

wanting to find out more about it. Right.

40:14

Yeah. It's infectious people together.

40:17

Yeah. Well, I can't thank you

40:19

enough for, you know , sticking with it

40:21

and joining me, we finally got together today.

40:24

Uh, I've really enjoyed talking to

40:26

you, Melanie Hamilton.

40:29

Thank you so much for being here.

40:32

Thank you so much for having me.

40:34

I can't tell you how much I appreciate it.

40:36

And it was such a great time. So

40:39

there you have it. Melanie Hamilton.

40:42

I had so much fun talking to

40:44

her. Sometimes I have

40:46

to pinch myself. I really love

40:49

What I'm doing.

40:50

I know more about Melanie, Ida

40:52

B, Wells and saver

40:55

. Yeah .

40:56

Check the episode notes.

40:58

Thanks for joining us. Have a great

41:00

week.