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1:09

Joy.

1:10

Hey, Joy. Are you home? I'm in

1:12

my room. Follow

1:14

the sound of my voice.

1:16

Hey, Elsa. Thanks

1:19

so much for coming over. I need your

1:21

help organizing my room. Whoa.

1:23

Joy. a lot

1:26

going on in here.

1:27

Is that a

1:29

giant golden cupcake? Oh,

1:31

yeah. It's a trophy. I won the US

1:33

cupcake eating contest back in o eight, but

1:36

I won't bore you with the details. Here, I'll just

1:38

throw that in my closet.

1:40

What

1:40

about that

1:41

thing. That's the magical

1:44

flute I used to lure all the squirrels out

1:46

of my chimney a few years ago. So

1:48

many squirrels. I

1:50

won't bore you with the details, but I can't get

1:53

rid of it.

1:55

Joy,

1:58

is

1:58

that what

1:59

I think it is? Oh, yeah.

2:01

That's her me, my baby elephant. I won't

2:04

bore you with the details. Yeah. Here.

2:06

You get on that side, and I'll get on this side,

2:08

and we'll just

2:09

In

2:13

the closet.

2:15

Joy, how

2:17

are you able to fit? all

2:19

of this stuff in your closet. Oh,

2:22

I've always been able to throw things in there that

2:24

couldn't go anywhere else. Haven't

2:26

you ever wondered what's in there? I

2:28

mean,

2:29

maybe sometimes.

2:31

Come on. Let's just

2:33

take a little peeky poo.

2:35

Just the peaky

2:36

poo. Just a

2:39

little peaky poo.

2:46

Where

2:49

are we? What's so

2:51

dark in here? Oh, shoot.

2:53

I forgot. I threw a black hole in

2:55

my closet. You did

2:57

what? I had to put it somewhere

3:00

else. Oh, look my fuzzy

3:02

unicorn one z. Mhmm. It's

3:04

so cozy. Wait. You've

3:07

been throwing all your stuff

3:10

into a black hole in your

3:12

closet. It's perfect.

3:14

A black hole is a place in space that

3:16

has so much gravity that nothing

3:19

can get out, not even light

3:21

or herbie.

3:21

It's the

3:24

perfect storage closet.

3:26

Joy.

3:29

If nothing can get out.

3:31

How are we supposed to? Don't

3:34

worry about it. I've got an anti gravitational

3:36

transporter ray somewhere in here.

3:39

We just gotta find it. and

3:41

look,

3:42

a bag of peanuts for her me.

3:52

Welcome to forever ago from APM

3:54

Studios. I'm Joy Dolo. And

3:57

I'm Elsa. Today, we're

3:59

stuck in

3:59

a black hole with a baby elephant

4:02

and about five hundred pounds of

4:04

old junk.

4:05

Excuse me. My collection

4:07

of limited edition presidential snow globes

4:09

is not junk. And this is

4:12

exciting. Who would have thought we'd

4:14

spend the afternoon and potentially the rest

4:16

of our

4:16

lives trapped in space. I

4:19

mean, sure. I was supposed take my

4:21

pet wrap to the vet today and get

4:23

my car fixed. Oh, and

4:25

give a toast at my cousin's wedding. Oops.

4:28

Don't forget. We're

4:29

Also supposed to talk about the history

4:32

of women astronauts today. Oh,

4:34

that's right, but we can still do it.

4:36

I mean, we are in space after

4:38

all. Elsa, what do you know

4:40

about astronauts? Well, I know that

4:42

they have a very brave and daring job. and

4:45

you have to have a lot of

4:47

mental and physical abilities. Yeah.

4:49

And the training process is

4:52

really difficult cool. Oh, yeah. I've heard that too. Like, I wonder

4:54

if I could even do it because, like, when I was in school, we

4:56

used to do, like, track and field day. Mhmm. And I had to do,

4:58

like, you know,

4:58

run the mile or whatever. And I was always,

5:00

like, middle last. Very Middle

5:03

middle middle last. That's about where I am. You

5:05

too? It's hard. It's physical, so we

5:07

gotta respect that profession. Have

5:09

you ever dreamed about what it'd be like to

5:11

go to space?

5:12

Well, I when I was

5:14

in, like, kindergarten

5:15

to first grade,

5:17

I loved space. Oh.

5:19

I really wanted to be an astronaut for a

5:21

period of time. Mhmm. But now,

5:23

like, one of my greatest fears is

5:26

being alone, and I feel like

5:28

in space just thinking

5:30

about how lonely you

5:31

would be and how small

5:33

you are and just like seeing

5:35

the whole like, galaxy

5:37

around you. That's just

5:38

it's it's pretty intimidating.

5:40

It is pretty intimidating. Yeah.

5:42

Do you have a favorite fact or anything that you

5:44

like specifically about space? Well,

5:46

what I like about space is

5:48

that there's zero

5:50

gravity. Yeah. So, like, if you're,

5:52

like, if

5:54

you're not a great dancer, if you're not really

5:56

flexible, you can, like, totally,

5:59

I guess, jump around, do cartwheels,

6:01

and, like, have fun jumping around

6:03

in space. I would totally wanna do

6:05

that. I think I would do that. Do you have a cool look at like a

6:07

trampoline in space? Oh, like, do like crazy

6:09

flips

6:09

and stuff? So today,

6:12

we're talking about women astronauts and

6:15

wait. Hold off, Joy. I

6:17

can barely see where you are. Before

6:19

we start, can we get some light in

6:21

here?

6:21

Here. What if I just Oh, sorry.

6:24

Sorry. Oh, I think there's

6:26

something spiky. Oh, that's that's that's okay.

6:28

That's my old banana. That's for my, like, that's something

6:30

I got middle school. Oh, that's crazy.

6:32

How did we go how did you just

6:34

go over behind you? I'm gonna go behind you.

6:36

I think

6:39

There. I knew I had a campfire

6:42

in here somewhere. Much

6:44

better. The

6:46

story of the first American woman to

6:48

go to space is pretty well known. Yeah.

6:51

Sally Ride was a physicist who flew

6:53

on the Challenger Space Shuttle

6:55

in nineteen eighty three. and

6:57

it was a really big deal.

6:59

And ripped off. ripped

7:02

off of

7:02

SPS seven in America's first

7:05

eleven

7:05

astronaut.

7:06

Hey. Where did that little TV come

7:09

from? Oh, I put it in here so Hermes can

7:11

watch his favorite nature documentaries. He's

7:13

such a David Attenborough fanboy. Anyway,

7:17

it was a groundbreaking moment in history

7:19

when Sally Ride went to space. A

7:21

Russian woman named Valentina Terishkava

7:24

had already gone to space before her.

7:26

But what you might not know is that

7:28

before either of them, a group

7:30

of bold courageous women almost

7:32

made it there. They were part

7:34

of a super secret astronaut testing

7:37

program for women. They

7:39

called themselves the flats.

7:41

Flats stands for fellow lady

7:43

astronaut trainees. And today,

7:45

we're telling their story. Yeah.

7:48

They spent years training and

7:50

making a case for why women should be

7:52

allowed to become astronauts just like

7:54

men. And by pushing for change, they

7:56

helped build a foundation for generations

7:58

of women came after them.

7:59

To really tell their story, we have to

8:02

go back to the nineteen fifties.

8:05

Technology was advancing really

8:07

quickly around this time. The microwave oven

8:10

had just been invented. Computers

8:12

were so huge. They took up

8:13

entire rooms. and people

8:16

were obsessed with outer space.

8:18

At this point, humans had only

8:20

ever seen space through a telescope and

8:23

there was still so much we didn't

8:25

know about it. So people spent a

8:27

lot of time imagining what it was like.

8:29

There were books and comics and even a

8:31

bunch of TV shows all about space.

8:33

Here, hand me that remote.

8:41

Today,

8:41

the famous Kraft TV

8:43

camera man focuses on all

8:46

her space or another

8:48

exciting adventure

8:49

in the world beyond tomorrow.

8:52

But space

8:54

fever was just getting started.

8:56

In nineteen fifty seven, the world's

8:58

first human made satellite was

9:00

launched into orbit.

9:01

Sputnik one,

9:03

and it was built by a country called the

9:05

Soviet Union.

9:07

The Soviet Union used to be this

9:10

massive nation that spanned Eastern Europe

9:12

and included Russia.

9:13

Eventually, it would break up into a bunch separate

9:15

countries a few decades later, but at the

9:17

time it was super powerful.

9:20

And building the Sputnik satellite

9:22

was a big accomplishment for

9:24

them. It was about the size of a

9:26

beach ball and could circle the

9:28

entire planet in just

9:30

over an hour and a half. Nowadays,

9:32

there are thousands of satellites circling the Earth

9:34

day and night, but Sputnik was

9:36

the very

9:37

first, and its launch marked the start

9:39

of something big. the space

9:42

race.

9:44

It

9:44

sounds kind of like a really long

9:46

marathon in outer space. Yeah. Or

9:48

rushing to get as far away

9:49

from other people as possible. Like,

9:51

out of my way, people, give me some

9:54

space.

9:55

The actual

9:56

space race was even more

9:59

intense. It was

10:01

this decade long competition, which

10:03

the US and the Soviet Union to

10:05

see who could be the first to get to outer

10:07

space. A few

10:08

months after sputnik goes up, the AMER can

10:10

to send their own satellite into

10:13

space, a tiny one the size of a

10:15

softball. The rocket lifts

10:17

just a few feet into the air and

10:19

then crash onto the launch pad

10:21

exploding into a fireball. Whoa.

10:25

Talk about a phle optic.

10:27

More than stay but Nick. Am I

10:29

right? But eventually

10:32

NASA scientists figure

10:33

out the cakes and send the

10:35

first American satellite into space,

10:38

then another,

10:40

and another.

10:44

Oh,

10:44

you think your satellite is

10:47

fancy? Look at our American

10:49

satellite. It's super shiny

10:52

and it has a cosmic ray

10:54

detectors.

10:55

Well, we just sent a dog

10:57

into space in hours. Oh,

11:00

yeah. Well, we're

11:02

gonna send two monkeys into space.

11:04

Even

11:06

as the

11:08

two countries are launching satellites

11:10

into orbit, and constantly

11:12

one upping each other, they have their

11:14

sights set on something much

11:17

bigger. The moon.

11:18

Yeah.

11:20

I know herbie. Oh,

11:22

wait. He just

11:22

wants another peanut.

11:27

The

11:27

Americans and the Soviets both really wanted to

11:30

be the first to land on the moon. In

11:32

nineteen sixty one, president John f

11:34

Kennedy set a pretty ambitious goal

11:36

Hermes, what's that remote? I

11:39

believe that this nation should commit

11:41

itself to achieving the goal

11:44

before this decade is out

11:46

of landing a man on the moon and

11:48

returning him safely to the earth.

11:51

President Kennedy said

11:52

the US would try to put an American

11:54

astronaut on the moon by the end of

11:56

the nineteen sixties. And that

11:58

really turned up the heat on NASA to make

12:00

it happen. Build the space shuttles,

12:02

train the astronauts, all of it.

12:04

Alright,

12:04

everyone. You heard president Kennedy.

12:07

We have to work faster from now

12:09

on new rule. No more walking around

12:11

NASA headquarters. To save time, we're

12:13

gonna run from room to room.

12:15

starting now. At

12:18

this

12:18

point, there weren't any rules saying

12:20

that women

12:21

couldn't become astronauts. But

12:23

NASA did require all astronaut applicants

12:26

to be military test pilots.

12:28

And that was a job that was

12:30

not open to women at the time.

12:32

because women were not allowed to be in

12:34

military combat

12:35

roles. So

12:36

women in the US were automatically excluded

12:39

from becoming astronauts. even women who

12:41

were highly trained pilots with years of

12:43

flying experience. Like Jerry

12:45

Cobb. Jerry grew

12:47

up in Oklahoma in the nineteen

12:49

thirty. She started flying small

12:51

planes with her dad when she was about twelve

12:53

years old. And from the beginning, she

12:55

was hooked. She got her solo pilots

12:58

licensed when she was sixteen. And by the time

13:00

she was twenty, she had her private

13:02

and

13:02

commercial pilots license. All

13:04

she wanted was to get a job flying planes.

13:07

But at first, no one would hire

13:09

her because she was a woman.

13:12

Today there

13:12

are laws saying you can't skip over

13:14

someone for a job. because they're a woman or

13:16

a person of color, have a different

13:18

religion from you or have a disability. But

13:20

back then, employers did this a

13:23

lot. and for women that meant they didn't

13:25

get a lot of jobs. But

13:26

after applying and

13:29

applying, and

13:32

applying, Jerry finally

13:34

landed a job as a co pilot in

13:36

Florida. But when she showed up for her first

13:38

day of work. Well, let's just say

13:40

things didn't go as planned. You

13:43

put Jerry on your application?

13:46

So we thought you were a man.

13:48

How were we supposed to Nigeria

13:50

short for Geraldine? Sorry,

13:53

ma'am. but women just don't belong in the

13:55

cockpit. Don't worry though,

13:57

I'm sure someone around here needs a secretary.

14:00

But

14:00

Jerry didn't give up. She

14:03

kept applying for jobs and eventually

14:05

she got one. Working as

14:07

a pilot for company that delivered

14:09

airplanes all over the world,

14:11

including b seventeen bombers.

14:14

You know what? I think I

14:16

have one of those in here. Join.

14:20

You put a

14:21

bomber plane in your closet

14:23

black hole Do I

14:25

even wanna know? Oh, you can

14:27

find anything at a garage sale.

14:29

Uh-huh.

14:29

Anyway, Jared's

14:32

new job was dangerous. She flew

14:34

back and forth to South America

14:36

over jungles and through the Andes

14:38

mountains. One time, she was even

14:40

arrested in Ecuador because officials

14:42

there thought she was a

14:44

spy.

14:48

And while she was doing all

14:50

of this, She was also smashing

14:52

world records. This

14:54

hotshot lady pilot just

14:56

can't be stopped. Folks, I'll tell you, she's

14:58

a really subject to watch. Ish, comes

15:00

right now. She's -- Oh. -- look

15:02

out. In

15:04

nineteen fifty nine, the year she turned

15:06

twenty eight. Jerry broke two

15:08

world records the record for

15:10

longest nonstop flight and

15:12

the fastest ever

15:14

flight. That year she was named pilot

15:16

of the year by the National Pilots

15:18

Association.

15:19

By this point, she had spent seven

15:21

thousand hours flying

15:23

planes. And it's around this time that

15:25

she meets doctor William Randall

15:27

Loveless.

15:29

He's

15:29

a scientist that NASA hired

15:31

to help test and select the first

15:34

seven American astronauts.

15:35

They recalled that the Mercury seven

15:38

and they were all

15:40

men. Which is not surprising

15:42

because, like we mentioned earlier,

15:44

NASA required all astronauts at

15:46

the time to be military test pilots,

15:49

a job that was not open to

15:51

win it. But doctor Loveless has a

15:53

that women might actually make better astronauts

15:55

than men if given the chance.

15:57

On average, he figured women

15:59

are smaller than men he thought they

16:01

would consume less food in oxygen,

16:03

which would be a big advantage on cramped

16:05

space flights. So

16:07

in nineteen sixty, doctor

16:09

Loveless starts a top

16:11

secret testing program at his

16:13

research center in New Mexico.

16:16

only for women who are interested in

16:18

becoming astronauts. Jerry

16:20

is the first to sign up.

16:23

Top secret so cool.

16:25

It's like James Bond, but

16:27

in

16:27

space. Jane Bond,

16:30

double o lady pilot, The

16:31

testing program for female astronauts is

16:34

totally under the radar. It's

16:36

not an official NASA program.

16:39

Yeah. It's funded with private donation

16:41

but the testing is the same as what the

16:43

male astronauts went through. And

16:45

it's designed to be really

16:47

hard The doctors have Jerry

16:49

swallow a rubber tube longer

16:51

than a baseball bat so they

16:53

can test her stomach acid. They

16:56

put her on a spinning table to past

16:58

her blood circulation. And they

17:00

shoot ice water into her ears to make

17:02

her feel dizzy and unbalanced, a feeling

17:04

that astronauts experience in space.

17:06

Jerry

17:07

passes every test.

17:09

And not only that, she

17:11

does better than almost all of the

17:13

men who had been tested before her.

17:15

Doctor

17:16

Loveless wonders, are all

17:18

women this good? Or is there just something

17:20

really special about Jerry? So

17:22

he recruits another twenty four female pilots to

17:24

go through the test The oldest Jane Hart

17:26

is forty one years old, a skilled

17:29

pilot. As a teenager, she had

17:31

been the first woman in the state

17:33

of Michigan to get her license.

17:35

She also happens to be the wife

17:37

of a US senator. The youngest

17:39

is Wally Funk, She's

17:42

only twenty one, so she has to get special

17:44

permission to take the tests. Like

17:46

the others in the group, Wally

17:48

started dreaming of becoming a pilot when

17:50

she was just a kid. she'd carve

17:52

airplanes out of wood and hang them from the ceiling

17:54

of her bedroom. Wally's working

17:56

as a flight instructor when she hears about the

17:58

astronaut testing. She

18:00

writes to the program right away to ask how she can

18:02

get involved. And later, she's

18:04

shocked to be selected. Wally's

18:07

so excited. Here she is talking

18:09

about that moment many years later

18:11

in twenty seventeen. I get

18:13

a call, said, do you wanna be a

18:15

astronaut? I said, oh my gosh.

18:17

Yes. and he said, be here

18:19

on Monday to take these

18:21

tests. Doctor Loveless starts

18:23

putting Wally and the other new recruits through

18:25

the same grueling tests. that

18:27

Jerry went through. The rubber tube, the ice

18:30

water in the ears, all of it.

18:32

I had needles stuck in every

18:34

part of my body tubes

18:36

running up my bottom. Shall I went

18:38

along with it? It didn't bother me. And

18:40

the recruits do really well. Another

18:42

twelve female pilots past their astronaut tests

18:45

with flying colors, including

18:48

wally. While all of this is happening,

18:50

the US and the Soviet Union

18:52

are still battling it out. trying

18:54

to be the first to get to outer space.

18:56

And in April nineteen sixty one,

18:58

it happens. The Soviet

19:00

Union puts the first ever human

19:03

into space. a pilot named Yuri Gagarin.

19:06

Extra,

19:06

extra read all about it,

19:08

soviets, and man to space.

19:11

returns to Earth safe and sound.

19:15

Joy, why

19:16

is there an old tiny kid

19:19

selling newspapers in your closet.

19:21

He must have wandered in here by accident

19:23

at some point. I really have

19:25

to organize this closet. I'll

19:27

say. Anyway, a few months after

19:29

the Soviets send the first man to

19:32

space, the fellow lady astronaut

19:34

trainees finish all of

19:36

their tests. And the women are getting

19:38

ready to go through the second round of testing

19:40

in Florida when the US government

19:42

finds out what doctor Loveless is up to

19:44

and pulls the plug on the

19:46

program. And

19:46

everything comes to a screeching

19:48

halt. Don't

19:50

worry,

19:50

Hermes. The story isn't over yet.

19:53

How about we take a break and make

19:55

some intergalactic marshmallow sandwiches

19:58

over the Camp Fire? Marshmallow

20:00

Oh, you mean,

20:03

Smores. I've always

20:05

wanted to eat Smores in space. While we

20:07

wait our marshmallows to get nice and

20:09

toasty. Let's play

20:16

That's the game where we try to guess the order things

20:18

came in history. Today, we're looking at

20:21

famous firsts in women's history.

20:24

They are. First woman to reach the peak of Mount

20:26

Everest, first female millionaire,

20:28

and first woman to win a Nobel

20:30

Peace Prize. What do you

20:32

think came first? which came second

20:34

and which came most recently in

20:37

history. Elsa, which one

20:38

is the oldest in your mind.

20:41

In my

20:42

mind, I feel

20:45

like

20:45

the oldest would

20:49

what do I think the oldest would be? I think the oldest

20:52

would be the

20:54

Nobel Peace Prize. Nobel Peace Prize? Wait.

20:56

No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. We'll

20:58

take that Let's take that back.

21:00

I think the oldest would be a

21:02

woman millionaire. Oh, yeah. Why

21:04

do you think that?

21:05

I think because I

21:07

mean, obviously, money has been a

21:09

thing going around for years and

21:11

years and years. So that's a that seems

21:13

like the oldest in my brain at least. That's a

21:15

good that's a good And

21:19

then

21:19

I would say so

21:21

we

21:22

got the first woman to reach the peak of Mount

21:25

Everest -- Mhmm. -- and then first

21:27

one to win the

21:27

Nobel Peace Prize? I would

21:29

say the Nobel Peace Prize would

21:32

be second

21:34

oldest. Okay. Nobel Peace Prize.

21:37

And then I would say

21:39

Mount Everest. And then Everest.

21:41

Yes. Okay. So we have the order of

21:43

millionaire Nobel Peace Prize in

21:45

Mount Everest. Why do you think Nobel Peace Prize Second and Mount Everest

21:47

third? I think Mount

21:49

Everest was

21:51

later because Well,

21:53

I feel like a lot of women didn't really have

21:55

that on their mind at the time. Oh, you might feel

21:57

like Nobel Peace Prize because it's such

21:59

a general general area. Mhmm. Like,

22:02

I mean, it's

22:05

a it's a very, like,

22:07

important award. So I

22:09

mean, obviously, anyone would be honored

22:11

to get that. And I feel like it it's

22:13

been going on for quite a bit of time. I think

22:15

so too. Yeah. So I would I think I

22:17

would put that one second and

22:19

Mount Everest third. Yeah. You know what I was thinking too.

22:21

Mount Everest, like, you need all these, like,

22:23

equipments and stuff to climb it. Like, I can't just, like,

22:25

walk up it. So I'm

22:27

thinking maybe tools can maybe a little later for that. Yeah. because that always

22:29

seems like extreme sport and,

22:31

like, you know I don't know. That's

22:32

my guess. So

22:34

just to recap, will you think the first

22:37

female millionaire -- Mhmm. -- and then the first

22:39

female to win Nobel Peace Prize, and then the

22:41

first female to climb, Mount

22:43

Everest. We'll get to the answers in just

22:45

a bit. And if you have ideas for

22:47

first things first or topics you'd

22:48

like to hear us cover on the show, please

22:50

send them to us. go

22:52

to forever ago dot org slash

22:55

contact. History is

22:57

everywhere. What do you want to explore?

22:59

Tell us, Again, that's forever ago

23:01

dot org slash contact. Thanks

23:03

so much to all our listeners for sending in

23:06

suggestions.

23:06

We'll be right back. Did

23:09

you

23:10

know that before modern

23:13

refrigeration, some people

23:15

kept milk from spoiling with

23:18

frogs. Today,

23:20

we keep many food products refrigerated

23:22

to prevent bacteria from spoiling

23:25

them warmer temperatures allow bacteria to

23:27

grow at a faster rate, which in

23:29

milk cannot only turn it

23:31

sour and chunky, but

23:33

can also make a dangerous to

23:35

drink. But before refrigeration was

23:38

available, people living in Russia had a

23:40

different strategy, dropping

23:42

a frog in their bucket

23:44

of milk. While it's not

23:46

clear how this tradition started and

23:48

it might seem totally

23:51

nuts, it might have actually

23:53

worked. In twenty twelve, scientists

23:55

in Moscow reported that Russian

23:57

brown frogs who use bacteria

23:59

fighting compounds called peptides

24:01

from their skin.

24:17

Okay.

24:18

Alright. I'll

24:20

let's reveal which of our first things first

24:22

is actually the

24:25

oldest. No.

24:26

no

24:27

way. Has anyone ever said that

24:30

you're the smartest person alive? Really?

24:32

You're the smartest person alive.

24:34

You've got it. I've got all of them.

24:36

You've got

24:36

them all. first woman to become a self

24:39

made millionaire was madam c j

24:41

walker. She was the first to earn more

24:43

than a million dollars. She was

24:45

born Sarah breed love in eighteen

24:47

sixty seven. was an African American entrepreneur who

24:49

founded a hair and skin care industry

24:50

specifically for black

24:52

women. Madam Walker saw that while the

24:54

cosmetics industry was booming,

24:57

almost no products specifically for

24:59

black hair and skin. She developed

25:01

formulas based on remedies she had

25:02

used for her own dandruff and other skin

25:04

issues. Madam Walker made sure that

25:06

the

25:06

business staff she assembled gave black

25:08

women opportunities. She was also an

25:10

activist and philanthropist throughout her life,

25:13

often travel to give lectures on political

25:14

and social matters to large audiences. You

25:16

know, that's so funny. I knew about madam c

25:18

j walk. Yeah. Yeah. But it doesn't

25:20

come to

25:21

mind when you're thinking about this right now. Right. And

25:23

she was black too. Like, that's awesome.

25:25

Second, we have first woman to

25:27

win a Nobel Peace Prize. Baronis

25:29

Bertha Sophie Felicita von

25:32

Suttner was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

25:34

in nineteen o five for her work

25:36

against war and violence. She

25:38

wrote one of the influential books of the nineteenth century, an

25:41

anti war novel called lay down your

25:43

arms, arms as in weapons, not the

25:45

limbs attached to your shoulders. which

25:47

was published in eighteen eighty nine. She

25:49

eventually became friends in Pen pals with

25:51

Alfred Noble, the dynamite manufacturer

25:54

and weapons dealer turned peace

25:56

seeker and they exchanged many letters over the

25:58

years about war and peace. She is

25:59

thought to have influenced Nobel's

26:02

decision to give his fortune to fund an

26:04

award for World peace. the Nobel Peace

26:06

Prize, and then last but not

26:08

least. The first

26:09

woman to reach the

26:11

peak of Mount Everest That

26:13

is the most recent in history. June Cotabe

26:16

was a Japanese mountaineer who was the

26:18

first to set foot on the peak of Mount Everest

26:20

in nineteen seventy five. She

26:22

had climber for years, but kept getting told that women

26:24

should be raising children instead. That

26:27

makes sense. Taube went on

26:29

to climb the highest mountain on every continent.

26:32

which means that she was also the first woman to complete the

26:34

seventh summit's challenge. She said of

26:36

her ever's climb that she wanted to be remembered

26:38

as the thirty sixth person to reach

26:41

the peak. not just the first

26:43

woman. In November two thousand nineteen,

26:45

a mountain range on Pluto was named

26:47

after Tabay in recognition of her

26:49

mountaineering accomplishments. on

26:51

Pluto. So she's in space too.

26:53

Oh, wow. She's everywhere. So

26:55

what do you think about that? I think that's

26:58

really cool. any of this information, like, new to you? Like, the Nobel Peace

27:00

Prize and any of that? That the Nobel Peace

27:02

Prize is totally new to me.

27:04

Yeah. I I would have never it

27:06

was just an educated

27:07

guess. That was a very

27:09

good guess. You did a very good job. Yeah. And

27:11

then Tabay, that was interesting, like, you know, that

27:13

thing of, like, women should be raising children --

27:15

Yeah. -- and, like, not going to climb

27:17

mountains and stuff. That is a common rhetoric that

27:19

sometimes you still hear today, but it's so cool how

27:21

you could see different women doing all these different

27:23

things and it's not so far

27:26

away. It's it's not so forever

27:28

ago. One would say. Do you see how I

27:30

did that? I put that I did see how into

27:32

them. Yes. Cool. Alright. Moment ride

27:34

along.

27:35

We're trapped

27:38

in

27:38

my closet black hole today.

27:41

the perfect opportunity to talk about

27:43

the amazing women who went through a secret

27:45

astronaut testing program in the

27:47

nineteen sixties. All

27:48

of the women were highly trained pilots with

27:50

thousands of hours of flying experience.

27:53

And thirteen of them

27:54

passed the first round of

27:56

testing. Afterwards, they're supposed to go to

27:58

the US naval base in

27:59

Pensacola, Florida for their next round

28:02

of testing. But then, someone

28:04

contacts NASA and basically says,

28:07

hey, did you know there are women training

28:09

to be astronauts? Did you

28:11

authorize this testing? And

28:13

NASA came back and said,

28:15

what testing? We haven't authorized

28:17

any. And then at that point, the

28:19

Navy said, well, without authoring nation we're

28:21

not going to continue. That's

28:23

our friend Loretta Hall. She's a

28:25

writer who spent years researching

28:27

and writing about the history of

28:29

women in space. Just like that,

28:32

Loretta says the testing is

28:34

canceled. The program shuts

28:36

down. It's a huge blow for the

28:38

women who have spent months

28:40

preparing.

28:40

ring So some

28:41

of them really were quite

28:43

shocked that they were not going to

28:45

be allowed to become viable

28:48

candidates for astronauts. But

28:51

by now, word of the secret

28:53

testing program has gotten out.

28:55

Life magazine

28:56

publishes an entire article

28:58

all about Jerry Cobb with the headline,

29:00

a lady proves she's fit for

29:02

space flight. It includes full page

29:04

photos of her taking her astronaut tests.

29:08

women and girls from across the

29:10

country start writing device president

29:12

Linden b Johnson to ask about

29:14

the program.

29:15

Dear mister Johnson. I

29:16

think the United States should send a

29:19

woman in space. Let the women who

29:21

are willing have a chance to help in the

29:23

progress of our country. The

29:25

intelligence, patriotism,

29:27

initiative, and creative

29:29

ability of women is the

29:31

most wasted resource in this country.

29:34

Mister vice president, unless we do

29:36

something very soon, the Russians will be

29:38

the ones to put the first woman

29:39

in space. But the

29:42

vice

29:42

president is not convinced.

29:44

Remember, this is the space race.

29:46

His goal is to put an American on

29:48

the moon as quickly as possible.

29:51

And he believes training women

29:53

to be astronauts will throw a

29:55

wrench in the whole thing. It

29:56

was just going to, in his

29:59

mind, open

29:59

an enormous

30:01

kind of worms

30:03

that was going to slow

30:05

things down incredibly. And

30:07

so he just he wanted to nip it in

30:09

the bud. He decides

30:11

it's time to put an end to this idea.

30:13

So at the bottom of a letter written

30:15

to a NASA official in nineteen sixty

30:17

two, The vice president writes,

30:19

let's stop this now in big

30:22

letters. But the women in the training

30:24

program aren't going to give up without

30:26

a

30:26

fight. That

30:27

same year, Jerry and another one of

30:29

the flats. Jane Hart go to

30:31

Washington and speak to Congress in

30:33

front of a large crowd.

30:35

They argue that women

30:38

can make important contributions to space

30:41

exploration and ask Congress to restart the

30:43

testing program for female astronauts.

30:45

they

30:45

were genuinely trying

30:49

to accomplish something

30:51

for their group

30:53

of women. they

30:53

were not taken seriously. The

30:55

committee decides the women aren't qualified

30:57

to become astronauts even though

30:59

they have thousands of hours of flying

31:02

experience and had passed the same

31:04

tests as the men. The following

31:06

year, the Soviet Union sensed the first

31:08

woman into space

31:09

I

31:14

know Hermes. It's a really

31:17

intense space race. have a

31:19

peanut.

31:19

Hermes,

31:21

you

31:21

have to calm down so we can

31:23

finish our story. Toy. Look

31:26

behind you. My

31:28

pet band

31:28

symbols from middle school.

31:32

We have the gift of

31:35

music.

31:38

But

31:41

hey, but

31:42

I don't know

31:44

behind the symbols. It's the

31:46

anti gravitational transporter

31:49

ray. We

31:49

can get out of here. You're right,

31:51

Hermes. Let's finish our story and then

31:53

we'll blast out of this black hole.

31:56

comes it fire will have some more peanuts.

31:58

So

32:00

not long after the flats were told

32:03

women couldn't be astronauts, big

32:05

changes started happening in the US.

32:08

Activists in the civil rights movement began

32:10

pushing for racial equality and helped

32:12

ensure that black people have the same rights as

32:14

white people, like their right to

32:16

vote. And there was a movement that

32:18

fought for equal rights for

32:20

women. This movement helped politicians to pass

32:22

new laws to keep employers from discriminating

32:24

against women. Like when

32:26

those airlines wouldn't hire Jerry as

32:29

pilot because she was a woman. These laws

32:31

helped pave the way for women to eventually

32:33

become astronauts because

32:35

discriminating against them was now

32:38

illegal. And over the years, women have

32:40

led space walks, become commanders,

32:42

and lived on the International Space

32:44

Station.

32:46

Totally Hermes. These were all

32:48

big accomplishments for women astronauts.

32:50

To this day though, no

32:53

woman or a person of color has ever set

32:55

foot on the moon. But

32:56

NASA plans to change that. The Artemis

32:58

Space Program hopes to send the first woman

33:00

and person of color to the moon by

33:02

twenty twenty five. And

33:04

even though the thirteen women who went through

33:06

the Secret

33:06

Testing Program

33:08

never became astronauts, Loretta

33:09

says they were proud of the achievements of

33:12

the women who came after them.

33:14

In nineteen

33:14

ninety five, when Aileen Collins became the

33:16

first woman pilot of a US space

33:18

shuttle, the surviving members of

33:20

the Mercury thirteen traveled to Florida

33:22

to watch the liftoff together. Wally

33:25

Funk, the youngest member of the

33:27

Mercury thirteen, was there to celebrate.

33:30

And during that launch, as

33:33

the launch vehicle was

33:35

leaving the launch pad, Wally

33:37

was standing. They're punching the

33:39

air, saying, go aileen, go for

33:41

all of us. It

33:42

was not just

33:45

a personal goal, but it was

33:47

a communal bonding experience.

33:50

It was an achievement

33:52

for women, not just one individual.

33:55

And

33:55

Wally also had a special achievement of her own.

33:57

She went to space last year on

33:59

a

33:59

private spacecraft.

34:02

She was eighty two at the time, making her the

34:04

oldest person to ever go to space.

34:06

She was just so delighted that

34:08

her dream finally came true. I

34:11

mean, she would have preferred to be

34:14

the pilot of the spacecraft.

34:16

She would have preferred to go into

34:18

orbit for a couple of

34:20

weeks. But by golly,

34:22

she made it into space, and that's what

34:24

she'd been striving for for

34:25

so long. She was

34:27

just

34:28

totally thrilled. The

34:38

fellow lady astronaut trainees were an extraordinary group

34:40

of women who spent years making a case

34:42

for why women are just as qualified to

34:45

become astronauts as men. They

34:47

didn't become astronauts themselves.

34:50

But by pushing for change, they

34:52

helped blaze a trail for

34:54

generations of women who came

34:56

after them. In the US, it's now illegal to discriminate

34:58

against women, people of color, and other

35:00

groups.

35:00

Yeah. They've become astronauts,

35:02

commanders, and gone on spacewalks.

35:06

And pretty soon, women and people of color

35:08

will visit the moon too.

35:10

Elsa, it's time for us

35:12

to blast out of this closet. Hear

35:15

me? You coming home with us? Of

35:17

course. I wanna

35:18

leave joy. Let's blow this

35:21

popsicle stand. You've been

35:22

able to talk this whole time.

35:32

This episode was written by Sheila Farzan.

35:34

We had help from

35:36

Manukah William, Tom Weber, and a Gold

35:38

field sand

35:40

and tauten, Molly Bloom, Nico Gonzalez Whistler, Otter

35:42

and Waldislasi, Rosie DuPont, Ruby

35:45

Gaffrey, and Anna Weigle. Sound

35:47

designed by Rachel Breeze, theme music by

35:49

Mark Sanchez, Beth Pearlman is our

35:51

executive producer, with

35:54

engineering help from

35:56

Derek Ramirez, The executives in charge of APM studios are Chandra

35:58

Cavati, Joanne Griffith, and Alex

36:00

Schafford. Special thanks to

36:02

Story Corp for sharing their interview with

36:04

Wally Funk. and many thanks

36:06

to Brent Miller and Nate Schneider.

36:08

Have a

36:08

topic that you're itching to know the history of?

36:10

Send it to us at forevergo dot

36:13

org slash contact. Yeah. We love

36:15

hearing your ideas. We'll be back next

36:17

week with our last episode of the

36:19

season, all about the history of

36:21

braids. See you next time,

36:24

and

36:26

thanks for

36:30

listening.