Our Geek Origin Stories

[00:00:16] Podcast Network.

[00:00:17] Hi everybody, welcome to the Sci-Fi Sisters podcast where we give you our point of view.

[00:00:36] We're proud members of the Trek Geeks Podcast Network and we are here today to bring you

[00:00:41] a great show.

[00:00:43] I'm Andrea Harper and I'm joined today by my sisters, Yvette Blackman-Tom.

[00:00:46] Hello.

[00:00:47] Sabrina Wood.

[00:00:48] Woop woop.

[00:00:49] And Fran T.

[00:00:50] As always, what's happening?

[00:00:51] What's happening, Fran.

[00:00:52] What's happening is that we got a great show because we got all my sisters and me

[00:01:01] together and we're going to talk about, I know right?

[00:01:05] It's been so long, right?

[00:01:06] It's been a minute.

[00:01:07] It's been a while.

[00:01:08] It's been a minute.

[00:01:09] It feels good.

[00:01:10] Reunite it.

[00:01:11] Okay.

[00:01:12] I'm paying somebody in a minute.

[00:01:14] Nope, nope.

[00:01:15] I said one word.

[00:01:16] Doses shaking his head.

[00:01:17] Okay.

[00:01:18] So today the topic of the show, we wanted to do something that spoke to us.

[00:01:25] So the topic of our show today is our little geeky origin stories, our personal

[00:01:31] geek origin stories.

[00:01:34] What sparked the flame for us?

[00:01:36] When did we realize that this was our jam, that we were little geeks like

[00:01:41] straight through and through.

[00:01:42] So we're going way back into our childhood.

[00:01:45] And we're going to see, there she goes again.

[00:01:50] Say it again, Fran.

[00:01:51] I say some of us further than others.

[00:01:54] Well, yeah, I think we're going to have to go back to the

[00:01:59] That's life.

[00:02:00] It's better than alternative.

[00:02:03] Isn't it?

[00:02:04] I've said that.

[00:02:05] So, okay.

[00:02:06] So we're going to be talking about what were the things that really

[00:02:12] sparked our first love of science fiction and fantasy and or fantasy.

[00:02:17] You know, so.

[00:02:18] I think we're going to see a lot of different things.

[00:02:21] So I think we're going to see a lot of different things.

[00:02:24] So we're going to see a lot of different things.

[00:02:26] So we're going to see a lot of different things.

[00:02:28] And I think that's the thing about science fiction and fantasy and

[00:02:33] or fantasy, you know, so.

[00:02:35] You know, because I know for me what it was.

[00:02:38] It was one.

[00:02:39] It was not all of the above.

[00:02:41] So, okay.

[00:02:42] But who wants to go first?

[00:02:45] You're the youngest. You go first.

[00:02:47] I don't want to go first.

[00:02:48] Yeah.

[00:02:50] Okay. We're going to take it in that order.

[00:02:53] Youngest to oldest.

[00:02:55] I don't have to. I just know I just said that.

[00:02:57] I know.

[00:02:58] She's so special.

[00:02:59] All right, fine.

[00:03:00] I'll go first.

[00:03:02] So my geeky life started when I learned how to read well.

[00:03:09] Like I was not a great reader.

[00:03:11] And then my parents got me a tutor when I was like in second grade.

[00:03:16] And next thing you know, ever since then, I've had a book in my hands.

[00:03:21] I've never been known up until recent life to ever be without a book since then.

[00:03:29] And one of the first books that changed my whole perception of everything, Sabrina, you named it the other day was Madeline Lengles, A Wrinkle in Time.

[00:03:42] Yeah, buddy.

[00:03:45] It was like, it just, I didn't know that anything could be so magical and so wonderful and take me on this journey to a completely other place.

[00:04:01] You know, like this whole world's that I just didn't know.

[00:04:04] And I'd never read anything that hit me like that.

[00:04:08] And I could really relate to those characters in the book so much.

[00:04:13] And, I mean, it just switched something in my head and I was like, and I just went looking for more like that.

[00:04:21] You know, if it was mundane and realistic and set in this world, I was immediately bored.

[00:04:33] Yeah, the Bob C twins didn't do it to you.

[00:04:35] No, the Bob C twins and people trust me.

[00:04:37] People gave me Nancy Drew, they gave me Bob C twins, they gave me all this stuff to read.

[00:04:41] And I was like, yep, no board.

[00:04:44] Nancy was okay.

[00:04:45] It wasn't to Nancy Drew but the Bob C twins and all that was like, wow.

[00:04:49] But then somebody gave me a Sherlock Holmes compendium.

[00:04:52] Who?

[00:04:53] And I was all about that.

[00:04:55] Like I guess it's like really again for me, it's lands far away or distant lands or things really different from my daily reality.

[00:05:06] Yeah.

[00:05:07] And that's where I love to be when I'm in my own head, when I have time, like I'm tired of this world often.

[00:05:15] And I think I was like that from a little girl.

[00:05:18] Like I have a few, I absorb a lot of other people's stuff all the time.

[00:05:26] And I think as a little girl you don't have the vocabulary to understand what's going on or the tools to know how to put up boundaries.

[00:05:38] Right.

[00:05:41] And adults are around you bombarding you with stuff.

[00:05:43] Right.

[00:05:44] And, and I've always been very sensitive and pretty emotional.

[00:05:48] So books were like once I found a wrinkle in time I found an escape.

[00:05:54] And I thought, huh, how about how old were you when you read it?

[00:05:58] I've been trying to remember that.

[00:06:01] I think I might have been about 10 maybe.

[00:06:07] So fifth grade.

[00:06:09] About there.

[00:06:10] Yeah, yeah, okay.

[00:06:11] You know?

[00:06:12] Yeah.

[00:06:13] Yeah, I think I was like in the fourth grade when I read a wrinkle in time and it was just, you know, Meg Murray.

[00:06:20] Number one, it had a female protagonist.

[00:06:23] Right.

[00:06:24] A young girl.

[00:06:26] Even though she was a young white girl, like she was a young girl.

[00:06:30] Like at that time I wasn't even seeing white, black.

[00:06:32] I'm like, she was a young girl.

[00:06:34] I knew all the emotions that she was going through.

[00:06:37] Oh, you know, the only, the only one that I could read that was realistic was Judy Blume.

[00:06:43] Oh yeah.

[00:06:44] Okay.

[00:06:45] Judy Blume.

[00:06:46] But the app side of that, forget about it.

[00:06:47] Yeah, that was our generation.

[00:06:49] I think everybody our generation.

[00:06:50] Give her a pass.

[00:06:51] Yeah.

[00:06:52] Read Judy Blume.

[00:06:53] I knew you were gonna say wrinkle in time only because, you know, we prepare for this show.

[00:06:57] We don't just do this off the copy, people.

[00:06:59] So did you know that she was rejected by 26 publishers?

[00:07:07] So all you writers out there, everybody that's thinking of writing, if you've got one or two rejection slips, keep going.

[00:07:14] She got rejected 26 times and they told her, for example, this is a quote from her, that it was too different and that it overtly dealt with the problems of evil and kids wouldn't understand it.

[00:07:28] Yeah.

[00:07:29] When was this written?

[00:07:31] 1962 it came out.

[00:07:34] Oh yeah, well.

[00:07:35] So yeah, so I was about six when it came out and I think I read it, you know, maybe two, three years later.

[00:07:39] I remember a librarian gave it to me.

[00:07:42] So all you Stephanie people, the librarian hand, I remember her handing it to me.

[00:07:48] I can remember the cover.

[00:07:50] I used to be one of those library kids that had to sit in the library and wait for my mother to get off work.

[00:07:55] And the librarian knew the situation and I had a little brother like, you know, Charles Lawrence.

[00:08:00] What was the good thing?

[00:08:01] Charles Wallace.

[00:08:02] Charles Wallace.

[00:08:03] Yeah.

[00:08:04] She was looking for her.

[00:08:05] She was with a little brother.

[00:08:06] So he and I were always together and that wrinkle in time like you, man, it was like, what is the Tesseract?

[00:08:12] They were talking about quantum theory?

[00:08:14] That's where I learned the word Tesseract.

[00:08:17] Yes.

[00:08:18] Yes.

[00:08:19] Yes.

[00:08:20] Tesseract.

[00:08:21] He's been with me since I was 10 years old.

[00:08:23] Thanks to Madeline Lengel.

[00:08:25] So when they started throwing it around recently, we were like, oh, we've been known about Tesseract.

[00:08:29] Right.

[00:08:31] I have to read this book.

[00:08:33] I don't know why I never read this book.

[00:08:35] I've never read it.

[00:08:36] Really?

[00:08:37] No.

[00:08:38] I mean, I've heard about it.

[00:08:39] Oh, sure.

[00:08:40] You know, but I didn't think it was like that.

[00:08:43] It was a deep book.

[00:08:45] And it dealt with, you know, it dealt with loss in so many ways.

[00:08:51] It dealt with change and people not being the people closest to you, not being who you expect them to be or doing something extremely painful and hurtful to you.

[00:09:03] You know, like betrayal.

[00:09:04] It dealt with betrayal.

[00:09:06] I mean, it was really, it was really a cool, a really great book.

[00:09:12] Yeah, it was a lot to do with this.

[00:09:13] She didn't talk down.

[00:09:15] You know, that was the thing.

[00:09:17] You're reading something that really felt like, you know, where the rest of the world, like you were a worthy human being, worthy of respect.

[00:09:28] You know, when the rest of the world always talked down.

[00:09:32] I did.

[00:09:33] Yeah.

[00:09:34] I raced to see the movie.

[00:09:35] I was okay.

[00:09:38] I was okay with the movies.

[00:09:39] I was like, oh, the movie.

[00:09:42] Like, no, it's all about the book for me.

[00:09:44] And the reason being that because like, you know, books leave so much room for your imagination to work.

[00:09:52] Exactly.

[00:09:53] You know, I don't like everything spelled out for me in a movie all the time.

[00:09:58] Sometimes my imagination is so much better than what people come up with that they want me to look at.

[00:10:04] Oh, yeah.

[00:10:05] Even now.

[00:10:06] Yeah.

[00:10:08] Although I thought the young woman that played Meg did a great job.

[00:10:11] Yeah, I thought she did a great job.

[00:10:13] I think she did a great job.

[00:10:14] She had a lot on her shoulders in that movie.

[00:10:16] I was underwhelmed by that movie overall.

[00:10:18] I thought like special effects, the VFX, like I was like, oh, it was so much better in my mind.

[00:10:24] It was a lot better in my mind.

[00:10:26] Like, I really didn't need to see any of that.

[00:10:29] Yeah, I'm going to read.

[00:10:30] I have to read this book.

[00:10:31] It made my little made my little child heart so happy, you know, because it was like I said, because it provided me space.

[00:10:40] And so after that, like it was always I was always looking for that that different world, you know, and I remember like I have more than one.

[00:10:52] So we have time.

[00:10:53] So I'm going to go, you know, and I remember because there's a straight trajectory from that moment in my childhood to when I read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

[00:11:06] Yes.

[00:11:07] By C.S. Lewis.

[00:11:09] And I was that book filled me with awe.

[00:11:13] And I think the character of Aslan and I did not make the connections, the Judeo-Christian connections at all.

[00:11:21] I mean, I was a child like I didn't care about that.

[00:11:24] I was being told a fantastical tale like adults have this capacity to just ruin so much fun.

[00:11:32] You know, you know, we really do.

[00:11:34] In time that one gets challenged all the time.

[00:11:36] Yeah.

[00:11:37] And I'm like, it's just fun for criminally sake.

[00:11:40] Like just let a kid just read it and give them other shit to read too.

[00:11:46] Like you know what I'm saying?

[00:11:47] Like just don't let that be the anyway.

[00:11:50] Anyway, so what?

[00:11:53] After The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, my mother had a big, big wardrobe where she kept like all the winter coats and furs and everything.

[00:12:01] And I used to like to sit in there because it smelled like her.

[00:12:04] Yeah. And when she would be gone for a long time, you know, at work or something, a long time like when you're little kids like all day, you know, I would she would find me in the bottom of that closet.

[00:12:14] But after I read that book, I never went in there again.

[00:12:17] Really? I went into the wardrobes constantly looking for Narnia.

[00:12:23] No, I did not want to go.

[00:12:26] I wanted to go to Narnia so bad.

[00:12:29] I was, oh my God, I was always in the bottom of a closet, like hoping that I could get to Narnia or the secret garden or something.

[00:12:37] Yeah.

[00:12:38] You know, I wish I was the same age as you. We were like friends and we could have been reading together.

[00:12:43] We're like 15 years apart. And I'm like, I need to go back in time.

[00:12:47] And you were up in Boston and I was doing this down in DC and Newport News, Virginia.

[00:12:52] And we were reading the same dag on books.

[00:12:54] Yeah.

[00:12:56] So like, yeah. So then there was the lion, the witch and the wardrobe.

[00:12:59] And that's when it was firmly cemented that I knew that I wanted to be in this magical world, you know.

[00:13:06] And then when I was a teenager, one of the most formulative books for me,

[00:13:13] like that really sent my geek heart, sent me really racing down the epic fantasy tunnel was The Mist of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley.

[00:13:24] Yes. Yes. I know, right? Yes.

[00:13:27] Why are you not my sister?

[00:13:30] It's the telling of King Arthur's Court from the perspective of the women.

[00:13:35] A coworker, a coworker gave me, she said, friend, you would really like this.

[00:13:42] We'll give you this. And I'm like, what are you talking about?

[00:13:45] She gave me the book and I'm like, oh my gosh, this is fantastic.

[00:13:50] I don't know why she, well after I read it, I realized why she gave it to me.

[00:13:57] She gave it to me as a gift and said, you would love this book.

[00:14:01] And I'm like, okay, I'll read it. And it was fantastic.

[00:14:05] It was fantastic. And it still stands the test of time as one of my all time favorite books. Period. End of discussion.

[00:14:13] I still have my original copy sitting right here on this bookshelf next to me.

[00:14:18] Wow. I don't know what happened to mine, but that was the book.

[00:14:23] It was a bomb, wasn't it?

[00:14:25] Because I saw like the whole, this whole, I had been reading all this fantasy up until that point.

[00:14:33] And it was all these white men telling the fantasies, right?

[00:14:36] Except for, except for Wrinkle in Time.

[00:14:40] And then I had read some Ursula Le Guin, but I was too young to understand her.

[00:14:44] Like I didn't get it. You know, I had to go back to it.

[00:14:47] So Mary and Zimmer Bradley took this whole story, turned it right on its head.

[00:14:54] I was like, it was a whole different perspective.

[00:14:56] And it was all these women driving the fate of this kingdom, you know?

[00:15:02] And I mean, I was never the same again.

[00:15:06] Wow. It was amazing.

[00:15:08] I was never the same again.

[00:15:09] Yes.

[00:15:11] She said yes.

[00:15:13] Yes, right? I mean, it's just like that. It's awe inspiring.

[00:15:16] You have to see the look that I'm looking at.

[00:15:20] I've never read this book, but these three women, they're, I wish we were on the live show so people can see your faces.

[00:15:29] You look like, you all look like little girls right now.

[00:15:32] Just so like, it was like, it was the best day ever.

[00:15:38] How awesome.

[00:15:39] I wondered, I was a grown woman when this woman gave me this book.

[00:15:42] And I'm like, why did she give me this book?

[00:15:46] I was definitely an adult when I read that book.

[00:15:51] I don't know when it came out actually, but I wasn't an adult when it came out.

[00:15:55] But I mean, everybody was reading it.

[00:15:57] I think it was 82.

[00:16:00] Let me look it up.

[00:16:01] 82? Yeah, that makes sense.

[00:16:02] 1983.

[00:16:03] Originally published 1982. Yep.

[00:16:06] I knew I wasn't in college or anything like that.

[00:16:09] But everybody was reading it. It was a very popular book when it came out.

[00:16:12] It wasn't just for geeks.

[00:16:13] A lot of women were reading it, people were on the subway, oh, Mr. Avalon, oh my God, girl.

[00:16:20] That's crazy.

[00:16:22] And so I read it as a teenager and then I remember constantly looking for that again.

[00:16:31] And so subsequently George R.R. Martin, I did not care about Game of Thrones.

[00:16:40] It didn't hold a candle to Marion Zimmer Bradley in any way.

[00:16:48] And the Tolkien, I went through a Tolkien phase.

[00:16:52] And I read all the Tolkien stuff and I think more of that was just being in love with the world.

[00:16:59] Not like any deep storytelling or being in love with any characters.

[00:17:05] I never connected with a single damn character in Tolkien.

[00:17:08] It was just like, oh, it's a cool world.

[00:17:13] And then so from Marion Zimmer Bradley, the most impactful after that was Octavia Butler.

[00:17:21] And then she changed my world again.

[00:17:24] So that's my geek origin story.

[00:17:29] I mean, as far as it was all due to fantasy.

[00:17:33] I mean, science fiction was on sometimes.

[00:17:37] Star Trek was on for sure.

[00:17:39] And I loved it.

[00:17:41] But I wasn't like this is my jam.

[00:17:43] Like I was in a book like Star Trek was the thing that I did on those times when my grandmother was like get up and go play.

[00:17:51] Yeah.

[00:17:53] And I was like, oh, OK, I'll move around a little bit.

[00:17:55] You know, look at that.

[00:18:01] You were too quiet.

[00:18:03] They would come and see what you were doing.

[00:18:05] You had been reading for hours and they'd make you go do something.

[00:18:09] Right.

[00:18:10] I'm just getting to a good part.

[00:18:12] Yeah, we can't even read.

[00:18:15] So Star Trek was always there.

[00:18:17] But during those ages, it wasn't my main go-to thing.

[00:18:22] That wasn't until TNG happened.

[00:18:25] But even then, it was a book first.

[00:18:28] Then I had started to branch out into science fiction as well as fantasy.

[00:18:33] But I was definitely a girl who lived in fantastical worlds.

[00:18:38] Yeah.

[00:18:39] And I don't blame myself.

[00:18:42] I don't blame you either.

[00:18:45] Sometimes you have to live in those worlds.

[00:18:48] You just have to.

[00:18:49] Yep, I agree.

[00:18:51] So that was mine.

[00:18:52] So, yeah, Yvette.

[00:18:55] Oh, that's right.

[00:18:57] So I was the one who wasn't really into this topic, mainly because I could not.

[00:19:05] I just didn't understand it.

[00:19:07] I think I didn't understand where I fell in this because I was trying to think what started me in this.

[00:19:14] Because I never thought of myself as a geek until I got older, until I had kids maybe.

[00:19:21] That's when.

[00:19:22] Oh no, wait a minute.

[00:19:24] You were talking about those Wonder Woman bracelets you had?

[00:19:26] Oh yeah, but I didn't think that was.

[00:19:29] But you didn't identify.

[00:19:30] I didn't identify as geeky.

[00:19:33] Wonder Woman was not being a geek to me.

[00:19:37] No, that in our generation.

[00:19:38] I read Wonder Woman my whole life.

[00:19:40] I loved Wonder Woman, but I just didn't think that was being a geek.

[00:19:45] I knew other girls who wanted to be, maybe not in the way that I wanted to be Wonder Woman.

[00:19:53] Believe me, I really thought I was going to have special powers and everything when I got stung by bees.

[00:20:01] It was crazy.

[00:20:03] But I didn't think that was being a geek.

[00:20:05] I just didn't identify that until I'm like, when you look back, you're like, yeah, I was kind of crazy about that stuff.

[00:20:13] But I read comic books my whole life.

[00:20:16] But all the boys read comic books.

[00:20:20] I was a tomboy.

[00:20:22] I didn't see myself as any different than them.

[00:20:24] I did everything they did, fighting, climbing trees.

[00:20:28] That didn't hit me that way.

[00:20:34] I fell out of a magnolia tree.

[00:20:36] But go ahead, you fell out.

[00:20:38] Yeah, I was a wild kid.

[00:20:41] But that stuff until now when I look back at it, I'm like, well, I've been doing this forever.

[00:20:47] But I think the thing that really when I it's never been fantasy.

[00:20:51] It has always been science fiction.

[00:20:54] When I went to see Star Wars, I was like nine and it was the first.

[00:20:59] It was the last last time I ever went to a movie with my parents or parents.

[00:21:05] You know, I think I'm pretty sure I went with my mother.

[00:21:09] And I and I remember I was like nine.

[00:21:12] I was nine years old because I had to be it says it's 77 and I don't you know, my birthday is way at the end of the year.

[00:21:18] So I had to be like nine.

[00:21:20] And just like what you said, all like, you know, I know everybody all my friends were talking about Luke Skywalker and all I was talking about was Princess Leia.

[00:21:31] You know, he was everything, you know, and it wasn't like I was obsessed with her.

[00:21:38] It's just I remembered her more than anything.

[00:21:43] And and like I was saying before, I have like so many it it kind of died there and I saw the rest of them.

[00:21:51] But then my life really changed. My home life got really, really scary.

[00:21:56] And, you know, so that wasn't important.

[00:21:59] You know, I I kind of left it, you know, but then I finally got stable.

[00:22:06] And I got you guys are talking about a TV in your room.

[00:22:10] I finally got it. I bought a TV like I work this job.

[00:22:13] I was a lifeguard. I was like 14, I think, maybe 13.

[00:22:18] It had to be 14 because I can't you can't work then.

[00:22:20] But I bought it. I got a TV in my room. Right.

[00:22:23] And I also got cable. Right. So it wasn't real.

[00:22:27] You were rolling girl. You were OK.

[00:22:31] You were really was HBO.

[00:22:34] And I don't know, maybe that's maybe empty.

[00:22:37] I don't think I don't think I got the basic channel.

[00:22:39] I think it was just HBO. It was cheap. Whatever. Right.

[00:22:42] Right. That and they play HBO played 2001 Space Odyssey every single day.

[00:22:51] They did. And I watched it every single day.

[00:22:55] I was obsessed with that thing.

[00:22:58] And I blew and then I just and then the space shuttle mission started.

[00:23:06] And that's what started everything for me.

[00:23:09] That's when I realized how much I was obsessed with space.

[00:23:12] And it wasn't like the movies.

[00:23:14] It was like Space Odyssey was there and that was the movie.

[00:23:18] But then we were going to space and that just but see, I didn't know.

[00:23:23] I didn't know I could try to be an if I knew that there was a possibility

[00:23:26] that I could try to be an astronaut, I would have been an astronaut.

[00:23:30] But I just never there was a bunch of white guys.

[00:23:33] I didn't know that was something I can do.

[00:23:35] And they were old. You know, I was they never tell us we can have.

[00:23:38] Right. Right. And so, you know, I was obsessed with the spatial,

[00:23:42] especially because the first one, you know, it crashed, you know, when it landed in it.

[00:23:48] So it was a thing. It was like, you know, it was part of our life.

[00:23:52] It was real time. It was real time.

[00:23:55] People died. It was it was a you know, you knew the people were it was on TV.

[00:24:01] You know, we talked about it in class.

[00:24:03] We talked about it with my friends, you know.

[00:24:06] And then the then the next one, I watched it explode on TV and school.

[00:24:13] Yeah. You know, that was devastating.

[00:24:16] That was devastating, absolutely devastating.

[00:24:19] It changed my whole world, you know.

[00:24:22] Even now talk about talk about moments that really affected affected the consciousness of the nation, like the psyche of the whole nation.

[00:24:33] You know, I mean, that was one of those pivotal moments that, you know, changed us as Americans.

[00:24:41] Really did we all watch that? Like all of us.

[00:24:44] Like, there's a lot of things we watch happen like 9-11.

[00:24:48] But most of it, most kids didn't watch that. Right.

[00:24:51] You know, like my children, I was as you know, I was there when it happened.

[00:24:56] My child, my child, my children, I had two children at the time.

[00:25:00] My two children were in school. And of course, you know, they did not watch it.

[00:25:04] No one told them about it.

[00:25:06] They I know they the school made let them come home and let their parents tell them.

[00:25:12] But when Challenger exploded, we were all watching it because there was civilians.

[00:25:19] Right. There were civilians on the on the flight.

[00:25:22] And everybody was watching it in all the schools across the country.

[00:25:27] That's what I'm saying. All the children of our nation were watching that.

[00:25:31] So we were all watching it together.

[00:25:35] And it's still like, it's still heartbreaking.

[00:25:40] You know, it's still heartbreaking.

[00:25:42] But it's what it's what fueled my my love of the future and space and science and just knowing want to know more.

[00:25:55] Like I was a kid that read the encyclopedia.

[00:25:57] Like I was a kid. I was a reader. You know, I read everything.

[00:26:00] I didn't read fantasy books, but I read everything.

[00:26:03] I read encyclopedia because we had like we had like we were cool because we had all the all the letters.

[00:26:16] And I read through them. I mean, that was my Google.

[00:26:18] You know, OK, wait, I'm sorry.

[00:26:20] Let me let me back up for those of you all who are younger than us.

[00:26:24] And encyclopedia is a book of knowledge that usually the things that you Google were all in this set of books.

[00:26:33] And you had this all through the letters of the alphabet.

[00:26:37] You had subjects.

[00:26:39] They was talking about you had a mark.

[00:26:42] Art Vark animatronics, you know, apples and it would tell you know, it would tell you all the right.

[00:26:51] All the things, all the information that you needed to know.

[00:26:54] Exactly. All right.

[00:26:56] Did you book reports?

[00:26:58] Yes, that's why I was a student.

[00:27:01] But no, that that was it.

[00:27:03] And it actually and of course, you know, Star Trek was always there because the people in my family watched it.

[00:27:10] I did not. As I said before, I did not like Star Trek when I was a kid.

[00:27:16] So. It was but it was there, you know, it was in the background.

[00:27:21] So my love of space and science was always going to be there.

[00:27:26] And but yet a space shuttle, you know, even now when I think about it, I know that's what fueled the way I raised my children.

[00:27:36] You know, just science and math, knowing that these things are so important to learn and just, you know.

[00:27:44] Just being being in that moment as a kid, you know, I think, you know, it's crazy how we've lived through all of these disasters in our lifetimes.

[00:27:55] You know, it's. But the moon landing was pretty exciting in sixty nine.

[00:28:05] Yeah, but I was one. I know.

[00:28:07] But the crazy thing about that, I was one and a half.

[00:28:12] You know, I was still around and the people in my life like black people.

[00:28:17] I remember them telling the stories I remember because we had a lot of family things that happened.

[00:28:23] They would talk about the moon landing and all that stuff.

[00:28:26] And it's just, you know, and I know I'm assuming that they all watched it together, you know, because that's just what we did.

[00:28:33] You know, we watched those things to watch TV together.

[00:28:36] Because there was only one TV.

[00:28:38] There was one damn TV.

[00:28:40] Exactly. Everybody.

[00:28:41] I got a TV in my room.

[00:28:43] We're watching the moon landing. Oh, there were three stations.

[00:28:46] It was one TV in the house and you were lucky if you had that one.

[00:28:50] Yeah. The only reason I had a TV.

[00:28:52] I worked really hard that summer because it had to be I was 14.

[00:28:57] I worked really hard that summer and I was doing really well in school.

[00:29:01] And, you know, I had a really before that life was really bad.

[00:29:06] And things were getting better at my aunt was like, if I wanted if I was going to buy it, I could go ahead and buy it.

[00:29:13] And I could have one in my room.

[00:29:15] So that was my thing. That was my reward.

[00:29:18] Yeah.

[00:29:19] And it was it was and I guess, you know, that's that that feels you.

[00:29:22] You know, that's part of it, too.

[00:29:24] TV, you know, your own TV.

[00:29:26] I can watch what I wanted to watch.

[00:29:28] Yeah. Right.

[00:29:30] And I got to pick 2001 Space Odyssey.

[00:29:33] Man, I watched that thing every single day and it would come on like all the time.

[00:29:39] Like two movies would come on and then it would come back.

[00:29:43] It would be like three babies maybe the next day.

[00:29:46] And I just watched it and watched it.

[00:29:48] I couldn't get enough of it.

[00:29:50] You know, I just love no one.

[00:29:52] There was no variety on HBO.

[00:29:55] It just repeated.

[00:29:57] Oh, you know, early in the beginning.

[00:30:00] Yeah. It'll be on again.

[00:30:02] Yeah.

[00:30:03] You never take anything.

[00:30:06] No.

[00:30:08] Oh, OK.

[00:30:10] So I guess I'm up and giving me a great segue event because all right.

[00:30:15] So I'm about 15 years older than you guys.

[00:30:19] So my origin into this, you got to remember, I'm the one that loves ship porn.

[00:30:25] Right. I love any kind of ship.

[00:30:27] If it's a ship involved, it's the end.

[00:30:29] It's really I was thinking about this when we decided this was going to be the topic.

[00:30:32] And I said, well, you know, my dad worked at the Boston Naval Shipyard.

[00:30:35] So we talked about ships all the time.

[00:30:39] So much sense.

[00:30:41] Now, like every ship he was working on, whichever ship was in dock.

[00:30:45] You know, I've been on the USS, you know, the Nautilus, the first atomic submarine.

[00:30:50] We went down and saw that.

[00:30:51] I've been on the watch.

[00:30:52] I've been on aircraft carriers.

[00:30:53] I've been on, you know, mine sweepers.

[00:30:55] I've been on everything because my father thought I was a boy, too.

[00:30:59] And you get to go down to the Navy Yard and have your life in your hands in this crazy place.

[00:31:04] But one of the things that really got me was in 1961 when you guys were talking about the moon landing.

[00:31:12] I'm talking about when Alan Shepard went up in Freedom 7, I distinctly remember that.

[00:31:18] We were totally involved.

[00:31:21] We don't talk about that a lot.

[00:31:23] Like we missed in all the stories.

[00:31:26] It was like we landed on the moon.

[00:31:27] But we often forget the steps that it took to get us there.

[00:31:31] To get there.

[00:31:32] Which and I can always bring it back to Star Trek is why I love.

[00:31:39] It's been a long road because Enterprise, they have that clip of Alan Shepard.

[00:31:46] And every time I see it, I cannot skip the intro because I want to give my little kudos to Alan, first American in space.

[00:31:56] Shepard, because I'm like, that's the man.

[00:31:59] And I know my dad was so excited.

[00:32:01] You were just like, oh, oh, my God, because you got to remember.

[00:32:04] I mean, people talk about the Cold War and all this stuff.

[00:32:07] But we are the kids friend, right?

[00:32:09] We were bomb shelters were, you know, we had like we had a subway and a roll down door.

[00:32:14] You know, we thought for sure the Russians were going to nuke us.

[00:32:17] We were sure.

[00:32:19] And our parents had lived through World War Two and bombs dropping.

[00:32:22] So this was a reality when Sputnik went up.

[00:32:25] We were scared to death.

[00:32:27] You want to talk about the psyche of America?

[00:32:29] Freak the frick out when that went up and they were like the rest are going to go into space.

[00:32:34] They're going to nuke everybody.

[00:32:35] They're going to nuke the planet.

[00:32:36] It's over.

[00:32:37] And so it was a it was a mad race.

[00:32:41] Everybody was learning math.

[00:32:42] I remember I remember like kids were getting slide rules.

[00:32:44] Everybody was like, who's the one that's going to figure out how to get to the moon?

[00:32:48] It was another sister wasn't me.

[00:32:50] It was another sister, but it was a sister.

[00:32:53] So that was so important.

[00:32:55] And I remember watching this whole thing with my dad in 61.

[00:32:57] And that was what really started with those Mercury seven astronauts.

[00:33:03] Not I know the Apollo astronaut.

[00:33:05] I know the Gemini, the Mercury seven men.

[00:33:08] That was like this.

[00:33:09] Oh, we didn't know what was going to happen.

[00:33:11] We thought for sure that thing was going to go.

[00:33:13] And then right after that came the crazy show that I love that these guys think is just so ridiculous.

[00:33:18] And it was this crazy British show that had these marionettes and there were three different three different shows.

[00:33:25] It was Fireball XL five.

[00:33:27] It was Thunderbirds are go.

[00:33:29] And it was Stingray.

[00:33:31] These shows were incredible.

[00:33:34] Now Thunderbird X Thunderbird are go with my show because they had all kinds of ships.

[00:33:40] They were the international rescue.

[00:33:42] They had a base on a private island in the South Pacific and they had rocket ships and a base station and they had this cargo thing.

[00:33:53] And I mean, they had all kinds of frickin hardware and anything blew up around the world.

[00:33:58] They went and saved them.

[00:33:59] All right. So this is being told by marionettes.

[00:34:02] Oh, yes.

[00:34:03] The whole frickin story.

[00:34:07] What did the ships look like?

[00:34:08] Did they have were those on wires too?

[00:34:11] Yeah. Oh, the whole thing was.

[00:34:12] Wow.

[00:34:13] It was incredible.

[00:34:14] It was like Punch and Judy goes to space.

[00:34:16] Oh, no, no, no.

[00:34:18] Okay.

[00:34:19] Let me just speak clear.

[00:34:21] They were electronic and their mouths were actually.

[00:34:27] I don't know how they did it, but they matched the dialogue that people would pre tape these marionettes were not so like stuck with cotton or anything.

[00:34:35] These guys are pretty, pretty intense.

[00:34:37] But the sets were crazy.

[00:34:39] The ships were to die for.

[00:34:40] And I mean, it was like Steve Tracy and the Tracy boys.

[00:34:44] They were five Tracy boys and they were all named after the Mercury seven astronauts.

[00:34:50] Let me just connect the dots with you.

[00:34:53] I was like, yeah, Virgil flew the big ship that I liked the best.

[00:34:59] Okay.

[00:35:00] That was the one.

[00:35:01] So this show was crazy and I loved it and I want to bring it back to Star Trek even even more so you're all going to go what.

[00:35:10] So they made a live action of Thunderbirds are go.

[00:35:13] And it was directed by the one and only Jonathan freaks.

[00:35:18] What?

[00:35:20] When did this happen?

[00:35:22] 2010 Mr.

[00:35:24] Freaks love Thunderbirds are going to Sabrina does.

[00:35:30] I did not know that until I was researching this stuff.

[00:35:34] Don't you wish we had known that when we talked to him the other night, I would have been embarrassed.

[00:35:39] I could not have been talking about the marionette and Supermarion nation.

[00:35:43] That was a mess.

[00:35:44] But Thunderbirds are go.

[00:35:46] That was my show.

[00:35:48] It was my show for sure.

[00:35:50] And then that came out in 66 and then right after that, you know, it was Star Trek.

[00:35:54] So I did read the books like I was saying to you.

[00:35:57] I did we wrinkle in time.

[00:35:58] I was reading all of that stuff, but it was more so, you know, my dad, he loved all kinds of mechanics.

[00:36:07] I mean, I come from a family of engineers.

[00:36:09] My dad, army engineer, my brother, army engineer, my grandfather, civil engineer.

[00:36:13] I wanted to be an engineer myself.

[00:36:15] But like you were saying that, you know, you know, if I if I thought I could be an astronaut, I thought I could be an astronaut.

[00:36:21] So I went into civil air patrol.

[00:36:23] I was I was a geek.

[00:36:25] Totally.

[00:36:27] And then I, you know, I had bad ears and bad eyes, so I could not I could not go.

[00:36:31] It was heartbreaking that I was not going to go because I took astronomy at MIT.

[00:36:36] I did all this geek.

[00:36:39] Wow.

[00:36:40] Unbelievable.

[00:36:41] And I was physics engineering going into college and and then I discovered boys and flunked out of school.

[00:36:46] But it's a long story. But I got back in school.

[00:36:49] But I think it was it was damn boys.

[00:36:53] I know it's like it's a long story.

[00:36:55] I'm like, it's a common story.

[00:36:57] It's another story.

[00:36:58] It's another story. I ended up being an accountant.

[00:37:00] I still get the numbers going.

[00:37:01] Don't worry about it.

[00:37:02] But yeah, I was like the ships and the you know, and we were talking about black people watching, you know, all of this space race and all of that stuff.

[00:37:13] And I was saying to you guys a little earlier in the week, one of the first time every time you ever saw people watching the astronauts or watching the ships go up or watching anything like that.

[00:37:23] It was always, you know, the school kids were watching those are white kids.

[00:37:28] And the first time I ever saw a depiction of black people being totally mesmerized and watching the space race, which we all did, was when we saw hidden figures.

[00:37:39] And this was that scene.

[00:37:41] And I didn't understand why that scene always hit me until we were talking about it the other day.

[00:37:46] And it's a scene where you know something is wrong or something.

[00:37:50] Yeah, they were holding.

[00:37:51] They were holding the flight.

[00:37:52] Yeah.

[00:37:53] And everybody was running to the TV.

[00:37:55] They and people that didn't have TVs, as we were saying, maybe or maybe they were just out in the street.

[00:37:59] They ran to the TV store and they were watching it through the window.

[00:38:03] And the first time I ever saw a depiction of black people concerned about the space race and involved in it.

[00:38:10] And I loved that scene so much.

[00:38:12] I love that movie so much because you know, my dad and I watched every single one.

[00:38:17] I remember I had modeled.

[00:38:18] I built a lamb.

[00:38:19] I mean, I was that kid.

[00:38:21] If there was something to send away for if you had to cut up some box top, we were eating cornflakes and sending them back.

[00:38:26] Yeah, they did the same thing for the shuttles.

[00:38:31] It was all the Kellogg's or Kellogg's box.

[00:38:35] You got a little model of Columbia or Challenger or something.

[00:38:41] Yeah, got that.

[00:38:42] Oh, yeah. Oh, the day they flew that shuttle over here to D.C., they were going to bring it to the museum.

[00:38:46] We were all standing on top of rooftops waving at the thing.

[00:38:49] They were waving at us. What time is it coming?

[00:38:52] Oh my God. If you have not been to the Air and Space Museum to see the shuttle, it's something you really need to do.

[00:38:59] Yeah, it's a great time.

[00:39:03] So cool.

[00:39:05] Yeah, the Air and Space Museum is awesome.

[00:39:07] It is.

[00:39:08] That was one of my favorites.

[00:39:10] That's how, you know, from dad to Alan Shepard and on to Thunderbirds and to Jonathan Frakes and Star Trek.

[00:39:18] So always get it back to Star Trek.

[00:39:22] Oh, wow. That's pretty cool.

[00:39:24] Yeah.

[00:39:26] I still have no idea what those shows are, but I guess I'll go look them up now.

[00:39:30] It's so cheesy.

[00:39:32] I need to see the marionettes.

[00:39:35] I was just watching them to get ready for the show.

[00:39:41] Oh, I mean, I was in hysterics.

[00:39:45] The imagination of the people who built those sets.

[00:39:52] I had to take my hat off to them.

[00:39:54] They had supersonic airplanes.

[00:39:56] They had, you know, they had all these things that were going to come true.

[00:40:00] And this was 66.

[00:40:02] And it was the British, which was very bizarre.

[00:40:05] Oh, and Lady Penelope in this has a pink Rolls-Royce.

[00:40:09] I just want to say, OK, I was done.

[00:40:11] I was done.

[00:40:13] Stop the madness and call her.

[00:40:15] She worked for Mary Kay.

[00:40:19] Was she pimping it up?

[00:40:21] I mean, like, that sounds pimple-licious.

[00:40:23] She was like working for M5 or something.

[00:40:25] But I didn't know that I was so inspired even back then to get a pink car.

[00:40:31] I mean, Lady Penelope.

[00:40:33] You don't know.

[00:40:35] I'm going to just let you have that pink.

[00:40:37] Jamal, Jamal, I know you're listening, Jamal.

[00:40:40] Back me up on this, my brother.

[00:40:44] Sabrina, didn't the Marionette's mouth only the bottom lip move, right?

[00:40:48] The top lip didn't move.

[00:40:50] Only the bottom lip moved.

[00:40:52] And they kind of, some kind of synced it all together, but it still was creepy looking.

[00:40:56] It was ridiculous.

[00:40:57] Y'all, if you could see the looks on this screen right now, especially from Yvette, who is like Marionette's, I'm out.

[00:41:05] Listen, you asked what the geek origin story was.

[00:41:08] I'm just trying to tell you what the geek origin story was.

[00:41:11] I still have a poster on my wall at this age that says Thunderbirds are Go.

[00:41:21] Red, please save me.

[00:41:23] OK, OK.

[00:41:24] I remember all that.

[00:41:25] I'm going to get kind of get Star Trek, if it's such a thing, out of the way.

[00:41:31] I looked at Star Trek not for the sci-fi.

[00:41:35] I looked at Star Trek for Miss Nichols.

[00:41:38] Right.

[00:41:39] That's why I looked at Star Trek.

[00:41:41] I didn't realize it was sci-fi.

[00:41:45] I mean, kind of knew it, but you know, it was she who was a beacon for me to look at the original Star Trek when I was a little girl.

[00:41:54] That's when it came out when I was a girl.

[00:41:57] My favorite and I read as a child, but it was no sci-fi, no fantasy.

[00:42:04] It was just books.

[00:42:06] The first time I remembered, which has nothing to do with science fiction, the first book I actually saw myself in was I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

[00:42:17] I saw myself.

[00:42:19] I saw myself.

[00:42:21] I'm like, oh, this is something.

[00:42:23] This happened like, you know, me and my brother, they had a scene in there where her and her brother was acting up, cutting up in church.

[00:42:29] And me and my brother, well, not my brother, but me, I cut up and caused him to cut up.

[00:42:34] So yeah.

[00:42:36] But my first TV show that I liked was The Time Tunnel.

[00:42:48] Hold up.

[00:42:49] Hold up.

[00:42:50] She is so sedate.

[00:42:53] Mary rather.

[00:42:55] Oh my God, y'all.

[00:42:56] There was a lie.

[00:42:57] It's a lie.

[00:42:58] It was Fran.

[00:42:59] Say it right.

[00:43:00] That is not the way you said it.

[00:43:02] That's not the way she said.

[00:43:03] Uh-uh.

[00:43:04] She's trying to ignore us and she's trying to keep talking, but I'm going to tell the real story.

[00:43:08] When we started talking about this the other day, we're all like, blah, blah, blah.

[00:43:13] Okay.

[00:43:14] Well, let's tell like, let's talk about this story.

[00:43:15] I think we're all like, oh my God.

[00:43:18] She's yelling at us.

[00:43:20] She's yelling at us over the zoom time tunnel.

[00:43:23] They're all scared.

[00:43:24] Ducking like what the fuck Fran?

[00:43:26] Because she was so excited.

[00:43:30] Now she's all calm and cool.

[00:43:32] They kind of, you know, it's this black and white thing and they would like be going in different places.

[00:43:38] And it was so dramatic how they had the people like almost falling into the thing and everything.

[00:43:43] But what drew me to that was there was a woman scientist on that show.

[00:43:48] Her name in real life was Lee Merriwether.

[00:43:52] I can't remember her character's name, but she was a scientist and she didn't, you know, she, um, she was smart, you know, and she, she looked at the computer, you know, big computers and stuff.

[00:44:06] And she gave her a piece in it and everything.

[00:44:09] And they listened to her and it was like, oh my gosh, there's a woman scientist, you know, and I loved it.

[00:44:17] My next show.

[00:44:20] When did Time Tunnel come on?

[00:44:23] Like what year was that?

[00:44:25] Time Tunnel came on 1966.

[00:44:28] Same year as Thunderbirds are Go.

[00:44:33] I like saying that title.

[00:44:35] He loves it.

[00:44:37] He loves it.

[00:44:38] You wish you were Thunderbirds are Go.

[00:44:40] And Time Tunnel.

[00:44:42] Time Tunnel.

[00:44:43] I'm telling you boy, mid-60s was the time.

[00:44:45] I told y'all it was going to come out.

[00:44:47] That's right.

[00:44:48] That's right.

[00:44:49] My next show.

[00:44:50] Remember when they would go in there, you remember it would spark?

[00:44:51] Like they would go in that tunnel and the spark would go off and it would spark.

[00:44:55] They would twist it and they would, oh smoke.

[00:44:57] Yeah smoke would come out.

[00:44:58] You were like Lord Jesus what is happening.

[00:45:00] Don't forget where they going to land that now and how they going to save something.

[00:45:04] So was it like a quantum leap type of situation?

[00:45:07] Yeah.

[00:45:08] Every week they landed in some horrible place.

[00:45:10] And they kept trying to get these people back and they could never get them back.

[00:45:13] It only lasted one season.

[00:45:16] Oh wow.

[00:45:17] That was a great season.

[00:45:19] Well because the whole premise was they were going to close the experiment down.

[00:45:24] The army was going to close it down.

[00:45:26] And then Tony played by James Darren.

[00:45:29] James Darren was in the time tunnel.

[00:45:32] He went and ran in there like okay yeah well I'm going to run in the tunnel before you close it down.

[00:45:38] He runs in the tunnel and it sparks smoke.

[00:45:41] They can't get his ass back.

[00:45:43] And they have to send the other guy after him.

[00:45:46] Yeah and it can't get him back.

[00:45:48] Can't get him back.

[00:45:49] So they both, their both asses all lost every damn where.

[00:45:52] Every year.

[00:45:53] Every year.

[00:45:54] Every time you turn around.

[00:45:55] And we married while there was turning dials.

[00:45:57] She was nothing.

[00:45:58] And smoke and sparks galore.

[00:46:02] Right.

[00:46:03] She had a crush on the guy that went in second.

[00:46:05] Yeah he was the you know.

[00:46:07] James Corbett I think his name was.

[00:46:09] Yes.

[00:46:10] See.

[00:46:12] I remember my other show was.

[00:46:15] Always to the bottom of the sea.

[00:46:18] That was the other show.

[00:46:19] The submarine.

[00:46:21] That one I've actually seen.

[00:46:23] Re-runs of.

[00:46:29] Get faster and faster.

[00:46:33] I love it.

[00:46:34] Oh my god you're killing me.

[00:46:36] I love this.

[00:46:38] Because that submarine dives.

[00:46:42] Dives.

[00:46:43] Man I'm telling you.

[00:46:44] Man.

[00:46:45] I'm telling you.

[00:46:46] It was something else y'all.

[00:46:47] And I was that little girl that would sit there.

[00:46:49] And look at.

[00:46:50] Boys to the bottom of the sea.

[00:46:52] And.

[00:46:53] Do.

[00:46:54] Do.

[00:46:55] Do.

[00:46:56] Do.

[00:46:57] Do.

[00:46:58] Do.

[00:46:59] You do a great sonar imitation.

[00:47:00] She really does.

[00:47:01] My father and I used to.

[00:47:02] That was 64.

[00:47:03] Boys to the bottom of the sea.

[00:47:05] And my dad.

[00:47:06] You saw.

[00:47:07] He would just go ballistic because he could not understand the glass.

[00:47:12] In the.

[00:47:13] Oh god damn it they had that much glass in the.

[00:47:16] You know that.

[00:47:17] He was giving you all the Boston Naval Shipyard reasons why that glass was going to pop.

[00:47:22] I said no dad it's deceiving you.

[00:47:24] You don't understand.

[00:47:25] He's like no baby girl you don't understand that ship ain't never gonna.

[00:47:28] But we were watching anyway.

[00:47:32] Wait for the giant squid to come.

[00:47:34] For the glass to crack.

[00:47:36] Sometimes didn't it.

[00:47:37] Did they once in twilight.

[00:47:39] Okay.

[00:47:41] And.

[00:47:42] Amber mentioned.

[00:47:44] Y'all.

[00:47:45] The twilight zone.

[00:47:47] Oh yeah.

[00:47:48] So good.

[00:47:49] So good to this day.

[00:47:50] Yep.

[00:47:51] Isn't it.

[00:47:52] I'll still look at.

[00:47:53] And that.

[00:47:54] I watched it an hour ago.

[00:47:55] In black and white.

[00:47:56] You all watched that.

[00:47:57] Yeah.

[00:47:58] Yeah.

[00:47:59] You know.

[00:48:00] I mean you talk about some good writing on that show.

[00:48:01] That was like.

[00:48:02] And then you know so many of those scripts came from short stories and you know that

[00:48:07] was just like when you know literature ruled a little bit more than it does now.

[00:48:12] You know but I mean that's how you know it was tight.

[00:48:15] But the stories that stand the test of time.

[00:48:18] There's still amazing stories today and they're they're literally timeless you know.

[00:48:24] Yeah.

[00:48:25] And you look at it and I didn't know it back then but my favorite.

[00:48:29] Yeah I'll say my favorite episode is the one.

[00:48:33] I have to be holder.

[00:48:35] What is the one with the what the woman who's gets the plastic surgery.

[00:48:39] Because she's so ugly.

[00:48:41] And they consider her so ugly.

[00:48:43] Actually they.

[00:48:44] Yeah.

[00:48:45] But they didn't they couldn't do they kept saying they couldn't do the plastic surgery

[00:48:49] because of her bone structure.

[00:48:51] Her bone structure.

[00:48:52] Right.

[00:48:53] But if you look at the whole thing it was all about conformity and segregation.

[00:48:59] Because she says he says well you would have a place if it doesn't come out this

[00:49:04] time 11 times you can't do it anymore.

[00:49:07] You can go to a place where people who look like you.

[00:49:11] You all live together she said you mean segregated.

[00:49:16] She said oh you want to send me to a ghetto for people that look like me.

[00:49:20] Wow.

[00:49:21] He was like you know but I didn't realize this at the time.

[00:49:25] But if you look at that that story has so many deep layers to it.

[00:49:30] Rod Serling was just such a genius he he talked about the Vietnam War all this

[00:49:37] stuff he did all this stuff.

[00:49:39] But the traveling the sign the sci fi and and the episode with Agnes Morehead

[00:49:45] and when she when she tore up those little astronauts that came from Earth.

[00:49:52] And she did that episode.

[00:49:54] Oh yeah.

[00:49:55] She didn't say a word in the episode.

[00:49:57] She didn't say not one word.

[00:49:59] Oh wow.

[00:50:00] However she was a giant compared because they the little spaceship came from Earth.

[00:50:06] She killed them all anyway.

[00:50:07] I did see that yeah I remember that one.

[00:50:10] But the one that you were talking the one that you started talking about was

[00:50:13] the name of it again.

[00:50:14] The Eye of the Beholder.

[00:50:16] Eye of the Beholder.

[00:50:17] I remember seeing that when I was super young.

[00:50:20] I was way too young to see that episode.

[00:50:23] It scarred me.

[00:50:24] I mean I think I was like seven or eight.

[00:50:26] You know something like that and had a television in my room at my grand

[00:50:34] mother's house at my grandparents house.

[00:50:36] Grandparents.

[00:50:37] By that point I mean this we're talking about in the 70s now like there's

[00:50:41] multiple televisions in the house.

[00:50:43] Oh yeah that's right.

[00:50:44] 70s.

[00:50:45] OK.

[00:50:46] Yeah and it was a little black and white TV up in the corner in the

[00:50:52] room and they were like are you going to bed when you're watching that

[00:50:56] show you always get scared when you watch this show.

[00:50:58] Like I'm fine.

[00:50:59] I can watch it.

[00:51:00] And it's when they showed that woman's face at the end they showed all the

[00:51:05] other people's faces.

[00:51:06] It scared me so bad and I went tired tearing down the hall to their

[00:51:12] room like what does the matter.

[00:51:15] I was like they were like OK you coming in here for five minutes.

[00:51:21] I was like oh my God.

[00:51:23] I'm sorry.

[00:51:24] I'm sorry.

[00:51:26] They were like OK you coming in here for five minutes and then getting back in

[00:51:31] your own bed.

[00:51:33] Because you know you didn't realize you didn't see the other people until

[00:51:37] the end of the episode.

[00:51:38] Until the end of that episode.

[00:51:40] But you know everything else you said about that episode is so true.

[00:51:45] That's one of my all time favorite episodes of that show as well.

[00:51:48] So it's just a really good one.

[00:51:50] Doing what science fiction does best.

[00:51:52] It does.

[00:51:53] It does.

[00:51:54] As they say it's all back to Star Trek.

[00:51:57] They tell the times that they do it in science fiction and fantasy but they

[00:52:02] tell what's going on at the time.

[00:52:05] You know Vietnam segregation ghettos all that stuff that you could write

[00:52:12] about it in science fiction and sneak it on in there.

[00:52:16] Gene Rodenberg did it well.

[00:52:17] Yeah.

[00:52:18] You know.

[00:52:19] I mean that's one of the reasons.

[00:52:21] I'm sorry.

[00:52:22] Go ahead.

[00:52:23] I'm sorry.

[00:52:24] But that's why reasons why like you know the midst of Avalon always stands

[00:52:29] out in my head because it was you know it was some of the first feminist

[00:52:33] literature that I had read you know ever.

[00:52:36] And that was squarely of the times.

[00:52:40] You know I mean you know I mean you think about it was published in 82 so

[00:52:44] she was writing it in the 70s you know and you know so absolutely

[00:52:50] it was a conversation with what was going on in the country in the world at

[00:52:56] that time.

[00:52:57] Yeah.

[00:52:58] And I'm wondering why my coworker gave me this book because y'all know I

[00:53:03] had a big mouth at work.

[00:53:05] I've never changed.

[00:53:07] Nothing's changed and I had you know I would talk about stuff and she

[00:53:11] said man I got a book I need for you to read.

[00:53:15] And I said OK let me you know give me the book I'll read it.

[00:53:19] And I was like oh my gosh this is fantastic.

[00:53:24] I've never read anything like this.

[00:53:26] I feel like I want to read it again.

[00:53:28] I know me too.

[00:53:29] I feel like I want to read it again.

[00:53:31] It's been so long since I read it.

[00:53:33] I was going through like reading like a you know refreshing and reading a

[00:53:37] summary and there was like this really detailed summary that I found and I

[00:53:41] was like oh my god that's right that did happen.

[00:53:44] And oh yeah I forgot she did feel like that.

[00:53:46] Oh my god.

[00:53:47] And we were just on Chapter one.

[00:53:49] You know and I was like oh my god.

[00:53:51] It was a big thick book.

[00:53:53] It's a thick ass book.

[00:53:54] Yeah.

[00:53:55] You know it's a tome.

[00:53:56] Oh no.

[00:54:00] You know but I mean it's so like I was like yeah I do need to go back

[00:54:03] and read this again.

[00:54:04] I was like I need to be and I wonder it would be great reading it

[00:54:07] again and wondering if it's still standing the test of time.

[00:54:11] You know.

[00:54:13] She's had some controversy.

[00:54:15] You're awesome.

[00:54:16] I did.

[00:54:17] I saw that.

[00:54:18] I never knew that until I looked that up and I'm not going to mention

[00:54:21] it here.

[00:54:22] And if you care about it you can go look it up.

[00:54:24] Yeah.

[00:54:25] It's like I'm going to just see that book.

[00:54:27] Yeah.

[00:54:28] It was like the book is the book you know and it's nothing along

[00:54:31] the is it would be great to read it now knowing what we know.

[00:54:36] Yeah.

[00:54:37] I enjoyed it.

[00:54:38] And I was well I mean I didn't I was a grown woman so you know

[00:54:42] another thing is I want to go back to voice to the bottom of the sea

[00:54:46] only because it was you know it was originally a movie we were talking

[00:54:51] about stories that they tell and you know what their things at the

[00:54:56] time.

[00:54:57] This was ahead of its time in 1961 when the original movie came out.

[00:55:01] I don't know if you remember did you ever go see if I saw this in

[00:55:03] the movie theater.

[00:55:04] No I know.

[00:55:05] No it's a great one if you have not seen the original.

[00:55:08] Voice to the bottom of the sea the movie.

[00:55:10] It was about global warming.

[00:55:11] And remember the sea view had to go to the North Pole to shoot off

[00:55:16] the missile at a certain time and it was going to bring them the

[00:55:20] rain because everybody was hot everybody was sweating like everybody

[00:55:24] was burning up and I hadn't seen the movie in so long and then when

[00:55:27] I watched it maybe three or four years ago you know they show it a

[00:55:31] lot now.

[00:55:32] I was like boy this movie is really on point.

[00:55:34] How did they get this like 50 years before we were talking about

[00:55:38] all of this.

[00:55:39] It was a lucky guess I mean what was it but if you have not seen voice

[00:55:43] to the bottom of the sea in any years take a look at it now.

[00:55:46] There's people interested in science doing what we do and forecasting.

[00:55:51] They were talking about global warming for a long time.

[00:55:54] Right.

[00:55:55] Oh this movie really gets you.

[00:55:57] Most disaster movies there's a scientist at the beginning of the

[00:56:00] movie we all know this telling these people don't do this.

[00:56:06] This is going to mess some shit up.

[00:56:08] Yeah.

[00:56:09] But we wouldn't have a good movie if anybody listened to right.

[00:56:13] Right.

[00:56:14] Let's do this in the movie all.

[00:56:16] Well yeah even in this movie they were fighting so hard like the

[00:56:19] different scientific factions didn't agree with what to do but there

[00:56:23] was only one shot at saving the earth and the sea view just said

[00:56:29] you know what we're just going okay I don't know catch me if you

[00:56:32] can but you know I know you can't.

[00:56:35] It's just one of the things that I love about science fiction and

[00:56:39] fantasy is the fact that you know we can address these issues that

[00:56:44] we have you know through a different lens like you know and it's

[00:56:48] always well trying to never mind.

[00:56:54] That's what I was going to say.

[00:56:56] I had to stop myself because it wasn't going to make sense.

[00:57:01] The voice of the bottom is he also has a Star Trek connection a deep

[00:57:04] Star Trek connection.

[00:57:06] What's that?

[00:57:07] Michael Osiris is in it plays.

[00:57:10] No can can can can can can can can can can can can can can can can

[00:57:16] voice to the bottom of the movie.

[00:57:18] Okay.

[00:57:19] Okay.

[00:57:20] And you know what I was thinking about when you guys talk about

[00:57:25] connections to Star Trek 2001 Space Odyssey reminds me a lot of

[00:57:33] Deep Space Nine with the space alien.

[00:57:36] Well they weren't really space aliens like he became like this

[00:57:40] like Star Trek always what like your next step as humans is this

[00:57:45] this non corporeal life form.

[00:57:48] Yeah.

[00:57:50] That's in there all the time.

[00:57:52] All the time.

[00:57:53] Just energy just energy, you know, and I would definitely was I got

[00:57:58] I'm actually going to watch that again.

[00:58:01] A lot of rewatching and rereading here.

[00:58:04] Yeah, that's that's the fun of like that's one of the reasons why

[00:58:08] I wanted to take a trip down memory lane, you know, it's like

[00:58:12] well also but I found two that's been really cool for me.

[00:58:16] I don't know about for you guys.

[00:58:17] But you know when you were talking about like you all look like

[00:58:20] little kids here like

[00:58:22] to be able to touch that little girl's heart again, you know,

[00:58:26] that's just like and the wonder that felt that's cool.

[00:58:30] And that makes me excited.

[00:58:32] Yeah.

[00:58:33] Yeah, I was just cheering for the Thunderbirds this afternoon.

[00:58:36] I was watching it.

[00:58:37] Thunderbirds.

[00:58:39] Those are those are nice uncomplicated times.

[00:58:44] They are.

[00:58:45] Yeah.

[00:58:46] They were.

[00:58:47] Yeah.

[00:58:48] Yeah.

[00:58:49] Yeah.

[00:58:50] It was a definite good guy and a definite bad guy.

[00:58:52] Always.

[00:58:53] Yeah.

[00:58:54] Hero always saved the day.

[00:58:55] Of course.

[00:58:56] And no one no one dies.

[00:58:59] They almost die.

[00:59:01] Yeah.

[00:59:02] But then the kids shows they don't die.

[00:59:04] No, no.

[00:59:05] Well, they died in our country.

[00:59:06] I was about to say, speak for your generation because by the time

[00:59:09] they got to us, they were dying left and right.

[00:59:12] They didn't die and also know it kind of got got hit in the

[00:59:15] shoulder and grab the shoulder.

[00:59:17] You knew they wasn't dying.

[00:59:19] Yeah.

[00:59:20] They was dying.

[00:59:21] And I haven't admitted yet.

[00:59:23] Somebody told me I had a partner that told me that I was a geek

[00:59:27] and I'm like, I'm not no geek.

[00:59:29] I don't know what the hell you talking about.

[00:59:31] I'm not a geek.

[00:59:32] And I wouldn't I wouldn't acknowledge what she said.

[00:59:36] And then I said, you know, then I had to realize, yeah,

[00:59:41] shit, I've been a geek since I can remember.

[00:59:46] I think that too is a generational thing.

[00:59:48] I mean, like, you know, it wasn't until I became an adult

[00:59:54] that people started to embrace the label, the title of geek.

[01:00:01] When all of us were growing up, it was not cool to be a geek.

[01:00:04] No.

[01:00:05] It had such negative connotations.

[01:00:07] Now geeks rule the world.

[01:00:09] Yeah, they do.

[01:00:10] They always did.

[01:00:11] Quite literally.

[01:00:12] They always did.

[01:00:13] You know, they just never.

[01:00:15] To the extent that they're ruling it now.

[01:00:17] I don't think.

[01:00:18] Well because of technology.

[01:00:19] Right. That's my point.

[01:00:20] Yeah.

[01:00:21] Yeah.

[01:00:22] But like, you know, like nobody wanted to be.

[01:00:24] I didn't want nobody called me a nerd or geek or like, you know,

[01:00:27] those were fighting words.

[01:00:29] Even bookworm was a, you know,

[01:00:31] it wasn't a happy thing they were calling you though.

[01:00:34] Right.

[01:00:35] They were making fun of you.

[01:00:36] Yes.

[01:00:37] Yeah.

[01:00:38] Yeah.

[01:00:39] They were making fun of you.

[01:00:40] Yep.

[01:00:41] You're such a bookworm.

[01:00:42] I was like, you know, where I grew up, you know,

[01:00:44] I grew up in the projects and going to the library was like,

[01:00:49] Like, you know, it was my safe haven.

[01:00:52] You know, it's like the place that I got some peace.

[01:00:56] And it wasn't peace where, you know,

[01:00:58] I was being abused or anything like that.

[01:01:00] It was peace from, I wanted to be me.

[01:01:03] Yeah.

[01:01:04] And that was my, that was my safe place.

[01:01:07] Maybe, maybe that's not the right word,

[01:01:09] but that was the place where I went into the library and I was like,

[01:01:12] Oh, I can go in here and just read what I want to read.

[01:01:16] And I read, I loved history.

[01:01:18] Like I said, I love things like Lepidia.

[01:01:21] I really love Lepidia a lot.

[01:01:23] You just read what you want to read.

[01:01:25] You just read what you want to read.

[01:01:26] Yeah.

[01:01:27] Yeah.

[01:01:28] And there was nothing like finding books that,

[01:01:30] you know, you're just looking all over it.

[01:01:32] Like my main library was the Boston public library,

[01:01:36] the Hopley square library, which is a famous library.

[01:01:39] And it's gorgeous.

[01:01:41] It's old and gorgeous.

[01:01:42] And my favorite room was the old newspaper room where they used to have newspapers on the roll.

[01:01:48] Yeah.

[01:01:49] Big chairs.

[01:01:50] You take the books from the kids section and they wouldn't bother you.

[01:01:53] You can go in there and read the book in there as long as you were quiet.

[01:01:56] And I would go in there and just just sit in among all these old leather chairs

[01:02:02] and the green lamp tables, you know, the lamps on the tables.

[01:02:06] And it kind of looked like my other favorite library, Library of Congress here in D.C.

[01:02:10] Yeah.

[01:02:11] I love that building.

[01:02:12] If you have not gone to the Library of Congress.

[01:02:14] Y'all please come visit the Library of Congress.

[01:02:17] It's beautiful.

[01:02:18] It was so amazing.

[01:02:19] I would pass out.

[01:02:21] You've seen it in a lot of movies.

[01:02:23] It's been blown up.

[01:02:24] There's been all kinds of things happening there, but not really.

[01:02:26] But it's a gorgeous place.

[01:02:27] Yes.

[01:02:28] And the library is a beautiful place.

[01:02:30] It's a beautiful place.

[01:02:31] And you can see the

[01:02:32] beautiful art work, the statues, just the rooms involved.

[01:02:36] It's a history of it.

[01:02:37] And they have a great movie series that they show great films there.

[01:02:41] So you can get on the newsletter and they will tell you if you're in

[01:02:45] this area, if you're in the DMV,

[01:02:47] you need to get on the newsletter and take a trip over to the

[01:02:50] library.

[01:02:51] It is your library.

[01:02:52] It's the people's library.

[01:02:54] And the library is the public library that's in Manhattan.

[01:02:57] It is absolutely amazing.

[01:02:59] And they have a movie series also.

[01:03:02] I guess I forgot about it because I don't have a New York

[01:03:07] City library card anymore because I don't live in New York City

[01:03:11] anymore.

[01:03:12] I haven't lived in New York City in quite some time,

[01:03:14] but I have the Westchester County, my town or whatever.

[01:03:19] During the pandemic, everybody was, if you lived in New York,

[01:03:23] you could go to all the libraries were online anyway.

[01:03:26] So they had a movie series that they had a virtual everything.

[01:03:32] It was just speaker series.

[01:03:34] Right.

[01:03:35] It was just great to have to go back to the libraries again,

[01:03:38] you know?

[01:03:39] And I totally forgot how great, you know,

[01:03:42] how much I loved going to libraries as a kid, you know,

[01:03:45] because I went to the Eden wall public library and it was,

[01:03:50] it was a little dinky little library.

[01:03:52] It was one floor.

[01:03:54] It wasn't, you know, it wasn't nothing.

[01:03:57] It was nothing famous about it.

[01:03:59] It was just this building that I went to that when you walked in,

[01:04:03] everybody said, you know, they were like, Hey,

[01:04:05] they knew my name.

[01:04:08] My books are always late.

[01:04:12] And I was like, Oh, I'm sorry.

[01:04:14] I'm sorry.

[01:04:15] I'm sorry.

[01:04:16] I'm sorry.

[01:04:17] I'm sorry.

[01:04:18] So that's one reason why,

[01:04:19] like I actually stopped going to the library here in DC.

[01:04:23] Oh yeah.

[01:04:24] Because I was like, I would end up stealing books.

[01:04:27] Like they would just become permanent fixtures in my book

[01:04:30] collection.

[01:04:31] And like, I mean, like I remember one point I had like this

[01:04:34] huge fine wrapped up.

[01:04:35] Like.

[01:04:37] I had to pay that sucker.

[01:04:38] That's when I realized that like,

[01:04:40] I don't need to go borrow books.

[01:04:42] I need to buy books.

[01:04:44] And I was like, okay.

[01:04:47] So the book thing is like a lot more serious.

[01:04:49] But libraries were.

[01:04:51] You know,

[01:04:52] they were part of my development though.

[01:04:54] Like, I mean,

[01:04:55] I remember that there was a small library.

[01:04:58] DC that I spent a lot of time in.

[01:05:00] In Woodley park.

[01:05:02] I was a little kid.

[01:05:03] And I was a little kid.

[01:05:04] And I was a little kid.

[01:05:05] And I spent a lot of time at the Woodley park library when I

[01:05:08] was younger, but.

[01:05:09] You know, once I realized that I didn't give books back.

[01:05:12] Yeah.

[01:05:13] Then I stopped going to libraries because I was now.

[01:05:16] I was now a danger to the library.

[01:05:19] I don't, I refuse to give books back.

[01:05:23] I mean, like once they, once I choose them, they're mine.

[01:05:26] Wow.

[01:05:27] You know, and then, so when I move.

[01:05:29] I'm like, oh, I'm going to give them back.

[01:05:31] I'm going to give them back.

[01:05:32] I'm going to give them back.

[01:05:33] No, I actually had.

[01:05:35] I used to have designs on having this huge science fiction and

[01:05:39] fantasy collection that,

[01:05:41] that I could then open up as a lending library.

[01:05:44] To people.

[01:05:45] But I quickly squashed that idea because people don't.

[01:05:49] Treat books well.

[01:05:53] And like, if you don't treat my books as good as I treat my

[01:05:56] people, I'm going to give them back.

[01:05:57] I'm going to give them back to you.

[01:05:58] I'm going to give them back to you.

[01:06:00] Like you will never get those books.

[01:06:01] But I had like certain books,

[01:06:03] especially like while I was a sales rep of, you know,

[01:06:07] I had like a lot of galley copies of books and that stuff.

[01:06:11] And I had like a lot of mass markets and stuff with some of

[01:06:14] my mass markets.

[01:06:15] That are some of my favorite books ever.

[01:06:17] Like they're out of print now.

[01:06:18] Yeah.

[01:06:19] You know, and like,

[01:06:20] so I don't want anybody touching those either.

[01:06:22] Like I said, like I, people, I,

[01:06:24] I look at collectors and people who collect all this stuff,

[01:06:28] like Star Trek stuff or like stuff from any other franchise.

[01:06:31] And I'm like,

[01:06:32] I only understand you because of books.

[01:06:36] Because I'm the same way with books, you know?

[01:06:39] And like, I really had to like, when I moved,

[01:06:42] it was devastating to downsize.

[01:06:45] Get rid of books.

[01:06:48] I lived in an apartment, in a one bedroom,

[01:06:51] in a row house basement apartment, right?

[01:06:54] Like in DC, it was a beautiful brick row house.

[01:06:58] It's a shotgun apartment.

[01:07:00] So straight from the back to,

[01:07:01] from the front to the back basement,

[01:07:04] literally one whole wall of that entire place of this

[01:07:09] beautiful room was bookshelves all the way from the

[01:07:12] front door to the back door.

[01:07:15] And they were, and I had them full.

[01:07:17] Plus I had books in other places.

[01:07:19] Like it was a lot.

[01:07:20] It was a lot.

[01:07:22] You have like double books,

[01:07:23] like you got the books in the back and then books,

[01:07:25] another set of books in front of it.

[01:07:26] Cause the bookshelf is too.

[01:07:28] But as a child, as a child, as a girl,

[01:07:32] as a teenager having a library card was like gold.

[01:07:36] It was worth more than money.

[01:07:39] I just, you know,

[01:07:40] I could just go in and show this card.

[01:07:43] Cause actually our library cards were golds,

[01:07:46] like yellow gold, but they were.

[01:07:49] And it was just,

[01:07:51] it was just my place that I felt safe too.

[01:07:55] And for different reasons than you,

[01:07:59] I needed to be feel safe in books and libraries and

[01:08:04] stuff like that.

[01:08:05] I need,

[01:08:06] I needed that to take me away from where I was.

[01:08:09] And I loved it.

[01:08:11] Absolutely loved it.

[01:08:13] My mother felt that we were safe leaving us there.

[01:08:16] She would, you know, she knew we were safe.

[01:08:19] We didn't have people taking care of us after school.

[01:08:22] And you know, we got out at two 30,

[01:08:24] she didn't get home until six and she would come from mass general

[01:08:28] where she worked and pick us up the Copley square.

[01:08:30] And then we'd walk home together and we would tell her all about

[01:08:33] the books we bed.

[01:08:37] Well guys, I just want to say thank you for, you know,

[01:08:41] for being willing to go down memory lane and,

[01:08:44] and it's so cool to hear all you guys' stories,

[01:08:48] you know,

[01:08:49] and the things that stood out to you and meant something to you

[01:08:52] and sparked your little geek hearts.

[01:08:54] Whether we wanted to call ourselves geeks or not at the time,

[01:08:57] like we know what we are now.

[01:08:59] Yeah.

[01:09:00] Big geeks.

[01:09:01] You know.

[01:09:02] Capital G.

[01:09:06] So thanks for going down memory lane and Yvette,

[01:09:09] if people want to tell us, you know,

[01:09:12] their little geek origin stories.

[01:09:14] Please.

[01:09:15] Yeah, please do. We'd like to hear them.

[01:09:17] We really would like, where can they do that?

[01:09:19] You can find us at sci-fi sisters.com.

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[01:10:44] We're going to thank sailor Marge, Karen Jeremera and

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[01:10:49] Baker.

[01:10:50] Excuse me.

[01:10:51] I said banker.

[01:10:52] Stephanie Baker.

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[01:11:21] That's the number one folks.

[01:11:23] And that's it for us.

[01:11:25] We are out of here.

[01:11:26] We love you guys.

[01:11:27] Peace, love and hair grease.