Episode 101

Guardians of the Purple Heart - Our interview on the Cover Down podcast

🎙️

Scott and Jenn were guests on the Cover Down podcast...run by a Veteran support organization called Guardians of the Purple Heart.

We discuss the profound impact of history on both an individual and societal level, featuring discussions with Scott and Jen from the Walk with History YouTube channel, and insights into the Guardians of the Purple Heart organization. It covers the inception and significance of the Purple Heart Medal, personal ties to history, and the importance of preserving historical narratives.

We explore our desire to visit and share stories of historical sites worldwide, from ancient temples in India to the landscapes of Europe.

This is an overall interesting AND fun interview that all history fans are sure to enjoy.

Support Guardians of the Purple Heart


00:00 The Significance of the Purple Heart Medal

01:02 Guardians of the Purple Heart: Making a Difference

01:41 Diving into History with the Cover Down Podcast

02:10 Exploring the Depths of History and Its Impact

02:38 The Personal Journey into History with Scott and Jen

05:45 Unveiling the Fascination with History and Its Heroes

13:58 The Art of Storytelling in History

15:24 Exploring Personal Connections to History

25:43 The Power of Narrative History Telling

36:56 John Wayne and the Influence of Military Service on Storytelling

43:43 Paying Tribute through Military and Historical Stories

44:08 Sharing Medal of Honor Stories

45:35 Favorite Pizza Debate: Pineapple or Not?

47:50 The Power of Evergreen Content

50:38 Exploring the History of the Purple Heart

53:12 Doc Holliday and the Wild West

56:56 Genealogy and Personal History Connections

01:00:29 Launching 'History or Die' Merchandise

01:04:19 Dream Destinations for History Episodes

01:16:00 Reflecting on the Conversation and Future Plans

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⬇️ Help us keep the show going and explore history with us! ⬇️

🧳 Get free travel resources in your inbox.

TheHistoryRoadTrip.com

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📧 contact: talkwithhistory@gmail.com

Transcript
Scott:

The Purple Heart Medal is presented to service members who have

Scott:

been wounded or killed as a result of enemy action while serving in the U.

Scott:

S.

Scott:

military.

Scott:

A Purple Heart is a solemn distinction and means a service member has greatly

Scott:

sacrificed themselves or paid the ultimate price while in the line of duty.

Scott:

According to the National Purple Heart Hall of Honor, more than 1.

Scott:

8 million Purple Heart Medals have been presented to service

Scott:

members since the award was created in 1782 by George Washington.

Scott:

It started off as the badge of military merit and eventually evolved into

Scott:

the Purple Heart Medal we know today.

Scott:

The Purple Heart is the oldest military award still presented to American

Scott:

service members and was one of the first military medals given to all ranks.

Scott:

This is why we were honored to join some of the leaders of an organization

Scott:

called the Guardians of the Purple Heart.

Scott:

The Guardians of the Purple Heart is a group of veterans, family members, and

Scott:

spouses who want to make a difference for the combat wounded servicemen and

Scott:

women in the state of Connecticut.

Scott:

In 2016, the organization helped their first Purple Heart recipient,

Scott:

Vietnam vet Clarence Hook.

Scott:

From there, the organization and concept took flight.

Scott:

The Guardians of the Purple Heart is a 501c3 non profit that specializes

Scott:

in obtaining items or services for Connecticut and Rhode Island, and

Scott:

Combat wounded vets that are not being met by other organizations.

Scott:

They recently asked us to be guests on our podcast titled cover

Scott:

down on the cover down podcast.

Scott:

They talk to fellow veterans, discuss the progress of their organization

Scott:

and keep things honest and authentic.

Scott:

We were honored to join them and wanted to share our conversation with our audience.

Scott:

If you enjoy the host as much as we did go check out the cover down podcast

Scott:

on YouTube or anywhere you listen.

Seth:

Now, today we're going to learn all kinds of fun facts about history.

Seth:

Like for instance, uh, why the Roman empire split because of a pair of Caesars.

Seth:

Roll the intro.

Seth:

I'm not going to lie.

Seth:

It wasn't my best joke, but I liked it.

Seth:

I liked it.

Seth:

Let's get everybody in the room real quick.

Seth:

How's it going guys?

Scott:

Good.

Scott:

Good.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

Thank you so much for having us on tonight.

Seth:

Yeah, no, it's a, it's an absolute pleasure.

Seth:

For so, for, for, uh, Our audience who doesn't know, um, this is Scott

Seth:

and Jen from an amazing YouTube channel called Walking with History.

Seth:

Um, I love history.

Seth:

I grew up around it.

Seth:

Uh, it is part of my DNA and actually a really close bond I have with my dad.

Seth:

Uh, so naturally I gravitate to kind of stuff like that.

Seth:

I think his channel is awesome.

Seth:

Um, And yeah, it's, it's been a lot of fun getting to talk about some cool

Seth:

stuff, getting to know you guys and have our audience, you know, come and

Seth:

hopefully watch some of your content.

Seth:

Um, especially since we're talking to fellow veterans.

Seth:

Right on.

Seth:

That's right.

Seth:

So that's pretty awesome.

Seth:

Doug, uh, how's, uh, how's your history?

Seth:

Is it, is it

Doug:

good?

Doug:

So I'll be honest, history was never my strong suit.

Doug:

It was never, it was one of those subjects in class that I was just

Doug:

like, all right, let's get on with it.

Doug:

It's nothing as exciting here, but I will have to say wholeheartedly the way that

Doug:

you describe History it, it's intriguing.

Doug:

Like I'm actually paying attention and learning stuff.

Doug:

And I was like, man, I'm actually, I'm getting smarter now.

Doug:

Seth is going to love this one.

Scott:

So, so Doug, I mean, I'll have to, I'll have to be honest.

Scott:

So for your audience, for those who don't know us, I'm

Scott:

Scott and this is my wife, Jen.

Scott:

So, so Jen's the historian.

Scott:

I met, I married into like the history nerddom in this, in this house.

Scott:

And my goal kind of, and I'm the producer editor, you know,

Scott:

extraordinary behind the scenes for, for the vast majority of our videos.

Scott:

Um, and so I'm actually learning while I'm making it because I am

Scott:

not a history buff whatsoever.

Scott:

I was much like you, Doug, when I was in high school, like history

Scott:

wasn't, I had, I had one great history teacher, shout out to Mr.

Scott:

Beck in San Dimas high school.

Scott:

Um, but, uh, you know, it was not my, my cup of tea.

Scott:

This one right here is the one who kind of, you know, kind of get got this off

Scott:

the ground and we team up together.

Jenn:

Yeah, I kind of grew into it, guys.

Jenn:

So, you know, I was in the Navy.

Jenn:

And, you know, going over to the Middle East for the first time,

Jenn:

I wanted to know more, right?

Jenn:

Like, what's going on?

Jenn:

Why do these?

Jenn:

Why are people these deep rooted?

Jenn:

Hostilities going on.

Jenn:

I wanted to understand more of it.

Jenn:

And every time we pulled into port to it became my job to kind of put out the brief

Jenn:

to the whole crew of where we were going.

Jenn:

What's the history of the area?

Jenn:

What kind of money do they use?

Jenn:

What kind of tours do you want to see here?

Jenn:

So I kind of got immersed in that kind of history.

Seth:

That would have been nice for me to have.

Seth:

I just got told the places I wasn't allowed to go.

Seth:

Yeah.

Seth:

That's probably

Scott:

what you heard.

Scott:

And I'm, I'm, I'm pretty confident.

Scott:

They probably said some other things.

Scott:

You just heard all the places you weren't allowed to go so

Scott:

that you could go there later.

Jenn:

You

Seth:

might be right on that one.

Jenn:

Yeah.

Jenn:

Oh yeah.

Jenn:

Believe me.

Jenn:

I've, I've walked into a couple of establishments and I'm like, Oh,

Jenn:

there's my guy right over there.

Jenn:

Yes.

Jenn:

So then coming back, uh, after deployment and after getting out

Jenn:

of the military, I used my GI bill because I hadn't had kids yet.

Jenn:

So I hadn't given it to them.

Jenn:

And I went back to school to get a master's of history.

Jenn:

I wanted to understand how do people study this?

Jenn:

How do people, you know, quantitate it?

Jenn:

Cause you know, talk about science and math.

Jenn:

I knew that, but how do you, how did, how does something in history

Jenn:

gain fact, gain truth, have merit?

Jenn:

And so I went back to grad school and, uh, I graduated 20 years after my undergrad.

Jenn:

I felt like the old lady there.

Jenn:

But it was, it was, it was great.

Jenn:

I actually went back to school and I got the master's degree of history.

Jenn:

And then what do you do with that?

Jenn:

Right.

Jenn:

You're married to an active duty officer.

Jenn:

We move around every three years.

Jenn:

It's hard to keep a job.

Jenn:

So why not do a YouTube channel?

Jenn:

It moves around, right?

Jenn:

It kind of, it's it fit.

Jenn:

And so we move around and so then our radius can change.

Jenn:

We can take you there.

Jenn:

And like you said, Doug, why I try to emphasize, why does this matter to you?

Jenn:

Right?

Jenn:

What's the point?

Jenn:

Why am I telling you this story?

Jenn:

Because history will impact you, whether or not you realize it, right?

Jenn:

It's having an impact on you.

Jenn:

So I try to do that.

Jenn:

I try to connect the dots.

Jenn:

So why should you care about this and tell interesting stories along the way,

Jenn:

motivational stories, a lot of like unsung heroes of Gettysburg or civil

Jenn:

war, things like that, things that we can kind of, you know, aspire to

Jenn:

or hear about and, and as a patriot, kind of like, what are we defending?

Jenn:

Right.

Jenn:

Who has defended before us?

Jenn:

What have they done before us?

Jenn:

And what are we defending now and looking forward into the future?

Seth:

That's awesome.

Seth:

Doug, you think you can get on board with that?

Doug:

Maybe like it's gonna, it's gonna take, it's gonna take a little bit.

Doug:

Cause I mean, Like I said, it was just, and I think you hit the nail on the head.

Doug:

Like I was sitting there in class and I was like, what is the point of this?

Doug:

Mm-Hmm.

Doug:

, you know, I was 38 when I went back to college.

Doug:

Mm-Hmm.

Doug:

. I walked, I was older than probably about 90% of my professors.

Doug:

And I'd walk in a class and it'd be this old crusty dude

Doug:

teaching, you know, history.

Doug:

And I'm just sitting there like, why do I have to take this?

Doug:

Mm-Hmm.

Doug:

. This isn't interesting whatsoever.

Doug:

Now I'll admit there was certain points where I was like, oh, okay, that's.

Doug:

That's kind of cool.

Doug:

But at the end of the day, I was like, this is just draining for me.

Jenn:

I know.

Jenn:

And it shouldn't feel that way.

Jenn:

It should feel invigorating.

Jenn:

It should feel exciting.

Jenn:

I try to make it fun.

Jenn:

And like, we're here, we're standing where George Washington

Jenn:

stood where he touched that.

Jenn:

Like I stand on Jimmy Stewart's porch.

Jenn:

I'm like, I'm on Jimmy Stewart's porch.

Jenn:

And

Seth:

that's cool stuff.

Seth:

I mean, so my, my biggest thing in life was the areas of the

Seth:

world that I wanted to travel to.

Seth:

I wanted to travel to ancient places.

Seth:

I wanted to travel to places with that were very old.

Seth:

And growing up in New England, specifically, uh, in York, Maine.

Seth:

All right.

Seth:

We're pretty old there.

Seth:

All right.

Seth:

But you're only ever going to be like two, 300 years old, you

Seth:

know, in the night United States.

Seth:

Right.

Seth:

So unless you start really going back further and actually in York,

Seth:

Maine, we have a world treasure that most people don't know about.

Seth:

I'll go to that in a second, but, um, Yeah, just having all that history around.

Seth:

And so naturally when I was in the Navy and I would hit a port, like two on

Seth:

France, I was lucky enough to have a buddy that could speak fluent French.

Seth:

Uh, I was walking through this, uh, beautiful stone archway that

Seth:

kind of looked like a bridge, but it didn't really go anywhere.

Seth:

And there was a plaque on the side and asked him to read it.

Seth:

And he said that this is where Napoleon marched through to retake France.

Seth:

And I lost it.

Seth:

I'm like, I'm staying, I'm standing where Napoleon Bonaparte.

Seth:

Marched his army back through from, from Italy, if I can remember correctly.

Seth:

And I just thought that was the coolest thing in the world.

Seth:

And so for me, it was, if I can go to places that have

Seth:

history, the older, the better.

Seth:

So I'd love to go to places like Egypt.

Seth:

You know what?

Seth:

I'll go to any country that has like the, what are the, the UNESCO

Seth:

world heritage sites, right?

Seth:

Those, those things where it's like, we'll never demolish these in the world

Seth:

because it's part of human history.

Seth:

Those places are fascinating to me.

Seth:

And I just, I would love to go.

Seth:

But you have a.

Seth:

specific, um, uh, kind of wheelhouse and then it's American history.

Jenn:

So that's, I got my masters in that because if you do world history,

Jenn:

you have to speak a foreign language.

Jenn:

And if you know me, I barely mastered English.

Jenn:

So there's no way I'm speaking another language.

Jenn:

You should see me.

Jenn:

Even when we go to France, thank God, Scott can read French.

Jenn:

I try to read it phonetically.

Jenn:

I look like the biggest, Moron.

Jenn:

So I do not even try to open my mouth.

Jenn:

Um, so I did American history because it made it easy.

Jenn:

I only have to know English.

Jenn:

So that's kind of why I centered on that mostly.

Jenn:

Now you can't really study American history without knowing

Jenn:

world history too, because you're going to be impacted, right?

Jenn:

Like even Napoleon is impacting America.

Jenn:

Uh, you know, America's impacting other countries at the same time.

Jenn:

So you have to really understand world history at the same time.

Jenn:

You're just not emphasizing it as much.

Jenn:

I mean, Frederick

Seth:

Bastier, I think was his name, was a lot French philosopher

Seth:

and writer that we based a lot of our, the, the sense of our laws.

Seth:

Yeah.

Seth:

Around some of his work wasn't American.

Jenn:

Nope.

Jenn:

The enlightenment was, yeah, it was basically coming from the French.

Jenn:

And so you, so you're, it's America is really is studying world history.

Jenn:

It is impacted by it.

Jenn:

So even though I, I emphasize the American and even our channel is

Jenn:

mostly in 80th anniversary of D Day.

Jenn:

So I'm going to be in Normandy, so, and I'm going to hit Paris.

Jenn:

So we do venture out a little bit.

Jenn:

If we can get out there, uh, it does still connect to America.

Jenn:

So, but I do try to get in other places, but really we do, we do, uh,

Jenn:

really center on American history.

Seth:

That's awesome.

Seth:

Doug, what was the, what was the oldest place you went America or abroad?

Seth:

I

Doug:

have to say it was, um, when I was in Baghdad, Iraq and, uh, yeah, I

Doug:

did, uh, visited the, the cross swords.

Doug:

So I will say on the history aspect, it's kind of cool to know that.

Doug:

You know, in years to come when, when, uh, school kids are reading

Doug:

about like the, uh, the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and, and all that.

Doug:

Uh, and they, and even to this day, when I see on Facebook, like people

Doug:

posting pictures of the cross swords and everything, and I'm like, man, I was

Doug:

there, like I climbed up the top and, and I, I looked down from the handle

Doug:

and whatnot, it's cool to know that you are a part of that and to, you know,

Doug:

to Place your feet like right where like Saddam Hussein was and not saying

Doug:

that he was great or anything But just knowing that you were there in the same

Doug:

spot I mean, that's kind of cool, but that's the oldest spot that I've been to.

Jenn:

Oh, yeah That's one of the oldest beginnings of

Jenn:

civilization Middle East, right?

Jenn:

And and

Scott:

for me, that's that's Kind of a future goal is like Seth, like

Scott:

you were saying, is, is for us to be able to do more world travel, right?

Scott:

You know, I've, I've got plenty of time, you know, hope, knock on wood

Scott:

left, left in the, in the Navy.

Scott:

Um, but you know, we're building this channel now to kind of build it into a

Scott:

little bit of a business so that I can hopefully make, make some money and,

Scott:

and supplement retirement so that when our kids are out of the house, then

Scott:

we can run off and kind of do this.

Scott:

You know, as for retirement, you know, with supporting it with some income,

Scott:

we've got some other stuff that we're kind of, kind of slowly building

Scott:

on the side and stuff like that as part of this kind of history thing.

Scott:

So,

Seth:

well, I'm 100 percent for a, for a history channel campaign.

Jenn:

Yeah.

Seth:

Well, I mean, you guys, you guys, one, you definitely

Seth:

got the, uh, the cadence.

Seth:

Right.

Seth:

And the voices for it and the knowledge.

Seth:

And I think that the, the duo thing is awesome.

Seth:

Yeah.

Seth:

So I don't see why they wouldn't pick it up.

Seth:

Honestly.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

What we, we, we joke all the time with, with our subscribers and we do it more

Scott:

on our podcast, talk with history, but we say, Hey guys, we're only, you

Scott:

know, the YouTube channel is only like.

Scott:

10.

Scott:

5 million subscribers away from beating the history channel.

Scott:

Like, let's pick up the pace.

Scott:

We're only 10, 11 million subscribers and we're coming after you history channel.

Scott:

Like let's bring history back to the history channel.

Jenn:

Bring history back to the history channel.

Jenn:

Yeah, right.

Seth:

Yeah.

Seth:

Can we get rid of ancient aliens and pond stars and all the conspiracy shows?

Seth:

It's like, you don't believe in

Doug:

aliens.

Seth:

All right.

Seth:

We're not done.

Seth:

They're a part of history in front of my friends.

Seth:

It's

Jenn:

some history, right?

Jenn:

Area 51.

Seth:

It's true.

Seth:

Blue book.

Seth:

Right.

Seth:

Very true.

Seth:

That is very true.

Seth:

Um, so a little bit for myself because, um, like the Doug said, he's never

Seth:

been a humongous fan of history, but fully understand because the things

Seth:

he's our fans of, he educates me on.

Seth:

Um, what would that be?

Seth:

Besides pizza?

Seth:

Pizza.

Seth:

Pizza.

Seth:

Well, you educate me on how someone can consistently believe there's

Seth:

no dinosaurs or the earth is flat

Doug:

telling

Seth:

you all my evidence

Doug:

is stacked and you just can't argue in a

Seth:

hoodie.

Seth:

My friend, I'm telling you just can't

Doug:

argue it, son.

Doug:

That's what that's what you get annoyed with is that you try to be the smart

Doug:

one and then I drop knowledge on you.

Doug:

And you're just like, I have nothing because he's right game set match aliens.

Doug:

Yeah,

Seth:

this is Doug.

Seth:

Um, so for myself, history has been, has been kind of a huge part of my life.

Seth:

Um, one of the fondest memories I have is, uh, my dad sharing me, sharing

Seth:

with me the story of Leonidas and the 300 and the battle of Thermopylae.

Seth:

Um, Before I even knew that Frank Miller wrote a comic about it and eventually

Seth:

gets turned into a movie, right?

Seth:

So he would tell me all these, these, these stories of, of

Seth:

ancient Rome and ancient Greece.

Seth:

And, uh, cause he was a big ancient history buff and I

Seth:

would find them fascinating.

Seth:

So like when you're a little boy and you're hearing all these crazy battles,

Seth:

you know, how, 300 Spartans, you know, fended off the entire Persian army.

Seth:

And then you come to realize it'd be like, well, the Persian army had wicker

Seth:

baskets as shields that I don't want to count, you know, but regardless,

Seth:

you know, it, it, it was a lot of fun.

Seth:

And so I started to gravitate more towards that.

Seth:

I still have a book.

Seth:

That's like three inches thick.

Seth:

He gave me about the history of Rome.

Seth:

And then I would start to notice things around my hometown of York, Maine.

Seth:

That were very historical, like, uh, I think we have the oldest

Seth:

schoolhouse and the oldest jail house or one of the oldest jail houses.

Seth:

Um, we have a crazy statue that's been there since 1906.

Seth:

That has a lot of folklore around it, that it was a confederate soldier

Seth:

statue that was mixed up in transit.

Scott:

Oh, interesting.

Seth:

Yeah.

Seth:

Um, and that, uh, when we asked to get ours back, the South had destroyed

Jenn:

ours.

Jenn:

Yeah.

Seth:

And, but we erected ours anyways.

Seth:

Now, like I said, it is folklore, but there, there's certain things about

Seth:

the sculpture and the uniform of the soldier, which really was supposed to

Seth:

be dedicated to the, uh, the soldiers and sailors, uh, from that town that

Seth:

make it look somewhat Confederate, but it's not, but it's still fun folklore.

Seth:

Yeah, sure.

Seth:

And then I didn't even know this until two years ago, but apparently

Seth:

we've had a Viking ship under the beaches at short sands beach in

Seth:

York, Maine for hundreds of years.

Jenn:

Oh yeah.

Jenn:

No way.

Seth:

Yeah.

Seth:

So every once in a while, um, I think the last time was like 40

Seth:

years ago, a big storm will come in and wash away all the sand.

Seth:

And it'll actually, um, show the remnants of this Viking ship, how cool, and this

Seth:

code, and they never remove it because obviously it'd be too costly to sit there

Seth:

and so they just take the time to research as much as they can, and then they

Seth:

fill it back up and they let it go and they wait for another storm to come in.

Seth:

So I would find all kinds of stuff like that.

Seth:

Um, and it, it just kind of grew from there and I've loved history ever since.

Seth:

And yes, yes, in fact, I did get a, I did get a D in history, you know,

Seth:

but that was just because I either one wasn't there or two, I, I, uh, I just

Seth:

wasn't doing my homework, but I just.

Seth:

It's such a great example for me and everything I, I like the materialistic

Seth:

things that I have that I kind of treasure the most all have history

Seth:

with it, uh, in some form or fashion.

Seth:

I actually have a really good example right in front of me.

Seth:

I'm a giant nerd.

Seth:

If you can't notice from my background, I have this wonderful comic book.

Seth:

It's super rare, but it's called something called Grenada.

Jenn:

Yeah.

Jenn:

Oh yeah.

Seth:

All right.

Seth:

The only way you would ever got this book is if you were in Grenada because the

Seth:

CIA dropped thousands of copies of it.

Seth:

Uh, as propaganda, uh, under a, what was it?

Seth:

Uh, it was a company called voice, which was the victims of

Seth:

international communist emissaries.

Seth:

So like still it's a comic books, but that is, that is a piece of history, right?

Seth:

Yeah,

Jenn:

absolutely.

Seth:

And so I, I, yeah.

Seth:

I loved it.

Seth:

I gravitated towards it and I wanted to have, um, so that's kind of

Seth:

just been my thing here and there.

Seth:

And I agree.

Seth:

I'd love to see you guys on the history channel instead of half

Seth:

the stuff that I see nowadays.

Seth:

What happened in documentaries?

Jenn:

Exactly.

Jenn:

Or just, I mean, you probably got a D in history because history a lot

Jenn:

of times is rote memorization, right?

Jenn:

People expect you to memorize things.

Jenn:

Dates and times and battles and the names, name me the first 20 presidents.

Jenn:

They made it for, you know, like it's hard, but if you make that stuff kind of

Jenn:

fun and you want to remember, okay, what's leading into this, what's leading into

Jenn:

this, what's influencing this next battle influencing this, like we just talked

Jenn:

about the death of Meriwether Lewis.

Jenn:

Mary, Mary, Mary, where the Lewis decides to travel across land instead

Jenn:

of down to New Orleans and get on a ship because he's afraid of impressments.

Jenn:

And the British, this is 1810, right?

Jenn:

That's what's going to pull us into the war of 1812 is the British keep

Jenn:

impressing our sailors into their Navy.

Scott:

And this is like Lewis of Lewis and Clark, Lewis

Jenn:

and Clark.

Jenn:

So that's influencing him.

Jenn:

So if you think about that, and then he dies in 1809, like.

Jenn:

You can memorize dates if you understand how things are connected

Jenn:

and influencing each other.

Jenn:

And that's how you make history fun.

Jenn:

It's like, Oh, because these people aren't just operating in a vacuum.

Jenn:

Like they're influenced by the time as well.

Jenn:

So it's very interesting to see how things are just connected, especially

Jenn:

American history, how all of our heroes and things we learn, they're kind

Jenn:

of connected together with a string.

Jenn:

And if you kind of pull that string, you can understand how it's all connected.

Jenn:

working together.

Jenn:

Um, and I think that's what a good history.

Jenn:

teacher does.

Seth:

Yeah.

Seth:

My, my thing is, is that history is not black and white.

Jenn:

No, absolutely.

Jenn:

It

Seth:

is very, very gray.

Seth:

And it's one of those ones where you're like, well, what, what caused this?

Seth:

So you start to pull the string and then you shortly realize you, you're

Seth:

going to never stop pulling that

Scott:

string.

Scott:

Yeah.

Seth:

Like it just goes on and on and on.

Seth:

It's continual chain reactions.

Scott:

The context that's there behind anything.

Scott:

Like we all have the stuff we learned in high school or that

Scott:

we didn't learn in high school.

Scott:

Um, you know, in my case or maybe your guys case as well.

Scott:

But the, One of the things is, is you get back into it or you start

Scott:

learning about a particular topic and you just kind of dive down the rabbit

Scott:

hole, whether it's on the internet or reading a book or whatever that is.

Scott:

Um, we just interviewed, in fact, actually we'll give you this

Scott:

preview to our next week's video.

Scott:

We, we interviewed, um, someone from the original cast of

Scott:

the Broadway play Hamilton.

Scott:

So the guy who played George Washington, Christopher

Scott:

Jackson, um, we interviewed him.

Scott:

And so he, he talks about how.

Scott:

You know, with history, even he is, is learning and he, when he was researching

Scott:

Hamilton and George playing the role of George Washington, um, what he

Scott:

learned and kind of brought back to the surface, you know, he said that

Scott:

history is history as we learn it is something that kind of set out and

Scott:

it's just kind of dried out in the sun.

Scott:

And it's kind of our job as historians or Jen's job or Uh, you know, somebody

Scott:

else's job to kind of bring that back to life, sprinkle some water

Scott:

on it and bring it back to life.

Scott:

So you can learn more of that context because a lot of times

Scott:

we can learn a subject matter and just assume it is what it is.

Scott:

But when there's so much more layer and depth, and like you

Scott:

said, you keep pulling that string, you're just going to keep pulling.

Doug:

Yeah, I will have to say like, so.

Doug:

I listened to, um, you were talking about Lewis and Clark.

Doug:

I listened to that, that episode.

Doug:

And just to give you an idea of just how, how well you teach it.

Doug:

Uh, I listened to the entire thing and it was anticipating what was coming next.

Doug:

And then, As I was sitting there listening to it, I was like, in this 9 to 12

Doug:

minutes of listening to this video, I have learned more in 9 to 12 minutes

Doug:

than I did in 4 years of high school.

Doug:

Like, I didn't know he shot himself in the head and in the stomach, and

Doug:

then he was still alive and begging for water and all this other stuff,

Doug:

and I'm like, I'm like, Why are we not talking about this kind of stuff?

Doug:

Yeah, that's the stuff that I would remember,

Scott:

right?

Scott:

Yeah, absolutely.

Scott:

I that's the best part of some of these.

Scott:

Like you said, it's the story.

Scott:

It's the story.

Scott:

They're like, that's a crazy story.

Doug:

Yeah.

Doug:

And it takes a very unique person to be able to deliver a story

Doug:

like that, but then deliver it to where you're You're intrigued and

Doug:

anticipating like what's coming next.

Doug:

So kudos to you.

Doug:

Um, you have this very, what is it kind of like news broadcaster

Doug:

vibe, but like an interesting

Jenn:

one.

Jenn:

Yeah.

Doug:

It's like you watch all the newscasters and

Doug:

they're like today at seven.

Doug:

And we're like, I'm like, shut up.

Doug:

I don't care because you're going to spit nothing but garbage.

Doug:

And then you come on and all of a sudden it's your intro.

Doug:

So.

Doug:

To what you're going to be talking about.

Doug:

I little, no lie.

Doug:

I got goosebumps and I was like, okay, something's going on here.

Jenn:

Yeah.

Jenn:

I mean, so that was the biggest thing I took from history because

Jenn:

again, I went back to school, not even, but five years ago.

Jenn:

Right.

Jenn:

And I am, I consider myself a centralist, but I lean on the conservative side.

Jenn:

And when you talk about history, it's very left leaning and I.

Jenn:

Could hold my own actually graduated 4.

Jenn:

0.

Jenn:

I could hold my own and still make the argument because my whole stance was,

Jenn:

I don't want to tell you what to think.

Jenn:

That's not my job.

Jenn:

My job is to tell you how, how do historians come up with this?

Jenn:

How do historians say that this is the fact?

Jenn:

This is the primary source.

Jenn:

This is what a person who was there who said this, what

Jenn:

are you pulling out of this?

Jenn:

Like, that's what I do.

Jenn:

That's what a historian does.

Jenn:

A good historian presents you with all of that information.

Jenn:

And then you decide what to think.

Seth:

Yeah.

Seth:

It only works like at cert with certain groups though.

Seth:

My daughter was asking me the other day.

Seth:

Yeah.

Seth:

Cause she, she was interested in that, the going ons of Israel and Palestine.

Seth:

She's asking me like, well, why is this happening?

Seth:

And I'm sitting there and go, well, I could tell you about the Balfour

Seth:

declaration, or I could just say they don't like each other and we can

Seth:

talk about this later, you know, but, but it goes back to the same thing.

Seth:

Like you can, you can pull that string extremely far and

Seth:

you're never going to stop.

Jenn:

Yeah.

Jenn:

But

Seth:

to kind of harken off what, what Doug was saying on how you

Seth:

can really Captivate an audience.

Seth:

Um, not just from, um, what you write for your script, but, but

Seth:

actually how, how you display it.

Seth:

So, so kudos to the producer.

Seth:

Um, but

Jenn:

there's

Seth:

a, there's a term, uh, it's called narrative history telling.

Seth:

Are you familiar with that?

Seth:

Probably.

Seth:

One of the things that I love the most, um, there's a, there's a gentleman

Seth:

that I listened to as well, or he said that there's, you can only learn

Seth:

so much from digging up pots, right?

Seth:

Yeah.

Seth:

But if you can put yourself in a region of the world in one time period, like

Seth:

say you were going to put yourself, I don't know, in Venice, Italy in 1410,

Jenn:

what

Seth:

would most likely be your occupation and when, depending

Seth:

on what your occupation is, who are you most likely trading with?

Jenn:

And

Seth:

if you're trading.

Seth:

You know, what kind of other stuff's coming there?

Seth:

So you can actually start to build a story, a narrative around simply.

Seth:

Uh, starting somewhere.

Seth:

What would it, what would it be like to, to live in a Roman outpost in Britannia?

Seth:

You know, I just, I found that fascinating and it, it kinda was like, Oh, I, I

Seth:

have, I have a new way to learn history.

Seth:

You know, I don't have to score over all these books, you know, or search

Seth:

for an interesting documentary.

Seth:

I have people that are willing to tell a fictional story.

Seth:

That's really, really interesting.

Seth:

Factually based and, uh, and, and just tell the facts, you know,

Jenn:

and

Seth:

that's simply it.

Jenn:

Yeah.

Jenn:

And I find, you know, another thing is, is we try to take our giants of

Jenn:

history and kind of put them in a box.

Jenn:

Yeah.

Jenn:

Yeah.

Jenn:

Right.

Jenn:

Like, and I try to always open up.

Jenn:

I'm going to tell you about these amazing heroes, and I'm going to tell

Jenn:

you about these evil, terrible people.

Jenn:

And sometimes they're going to be the same person.

Jenn:

And I want people to understand that these are humans.

Jenn:

I want to humanize these people because they are going to do amazing things.

Jenn:

And then they're going to do terrible things, just like any other person.

Jenn:

They're going to make good decisions and they're going to make bad decisions.

Jenn:

But I don't want to hide from either of those things.

Jenn:

Right.

Jenn:

And I think that's also what a good historian does.

Jenn:

I remember being at the Battle of the Bighorn and standing

Jenn:

there and trying to tell people, this is what people are seeing.

Jenn:

They're seeing Crazy Horse right out in front and he's

Jenn:

not getting hit by any bullets.

Jenn:

And it's so motivating for the rest of the American Indians to keep

Jenn:

going because it's, think of George Washington riding out in front.

Jenn:

This is their leader and he's out there and he's, it seems divine.

Jenn:

That he's escaping all the bullets.

Jenn:

It just, to them, it seems like a sign.

Jenn:

And I want people to, to stand there and feel that what that feels like, but we

Jenn:

don't, sometimes we don't talk about those people in history because we don't want to

Jenn:

put them in those places, but they deserve to be there because they did do that.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

And, and.

Scott:

And that's been one of the fun things about the YouTube channel, too, because,

Scott:

you know, being in the military, right, you don't have too many artistic outlets,

Scott:

right, you know, former ship, former ship guy, you know, not, you know, I'm

Scott:

sitting on a ship all day, you know, now, now I'm doing more desk stuff.

Scott:

And, uh, this has been fun because, you know, While she's kind of pulling the

Scott:

facts and doing the research and saying, Hey, this is kind of what we're looking

Scott:

at at the same time over the past couple of years, we've learned that storytelling

Scott:

craft and we, you know, just through the process of putting out a video and seeing

Scott:

what works and seeing what before and all the feedback that you get from just, Hey,

Scott:

I'm going to hit publish and we're going to see how it goes and and all the stuff.

Scott:

You, you learn that.

Scott:

And so it's been fun for both of us, right?

Scott:

She's gotten a lot better on camera over the past couple of years.

Scott:

I've gotten better with, you know, my amateur videography or editing and

Scott:

kind of that storytelling narrative and how to use music to transition and

Scott:

kind of give you the feel for it and everything, because it brings context.

Scott:

And, and, uh, texture to that story.

Scott:

And it really draws you in, like, like you were saying, Doug with Meriwether

Scott:

Lewis, because you're, you're there.

Scott:

And so you're kind of like, Oh, it feels like I'm walking from behind this bush

Scott:

over towards the house where the guy shot himself and, and all that stuff.

Scott:

You feel like you're watching, you feel like you're there kind of drawn into it.

Scott:

It's captivating.

Scott:

It's, and that's, what's been super, super fun, you know,

Scott:

especially doing it together.

Doug:

Yeah.

Doug:

The music definitely does sell it though.

Doug:

Like your background music.

Doug:

It was not only do you feel the story, but you also feel like you're immersed in the

Doug:

story because the, the music just kind of brings you right back to that time period.

Doug:

And then next thing you know, your 12 minutes is up.

Doug:

And I'm just like, okay, what's the next video we're going to watch?

Doug:

Cause I need to learn something else now.

Doug:

Yeah.

Scott:

Finding the right music is one of my favorite things was one of my, I

Scott:

mean, editing for me takes, takes a while.

Scott:

Like that video probably took me.

Scott:

Six to seven hours, you know, just sitting on my couch on a Sunday, you

Scott:

know, to, to edit, but finding the music is probably one of my favorite parts of

Scott:

the, of the process, because once you find the right one, you're like, oh my

Scott:

gosh, yeah, it makes a huge difference.

Scott:

Like this is going to be my main one and I'm going to find as many Similar songs

Scott:

as I can, you know, unless you're kind of going from dark to light or whatever,

Seth:

after a while, you probably see me throwing in like the girl from

Seth:

Iponema, you know, behind Pearl Harbor.

Seth:

And it doesn't really make any sense.

Seth:

Like I said, I'm not, I'm not the producer.

Jenn:

That's how I feel.

Doug:

Um, so Scott, let me ask you a question.

Doug:

Um, you, you've admitted that you weren't like a real history buff person.

Doug:

So like, I have to know what, at what point were you sitting there

Doug:

at, were you like editing or were you just like, okay, Now I'm getting it.

Doug:

Was there like a certain story that just kind of slowly brought you

Doug:

into where you started expanding your, your knowledge base?

Doug:

Or did you just kind of just get used to it?

Scott:

So, so honestly, for, for me, it's been, it's been kind of story by story.

Scott:

I won't lie.

Scott:

Like certain, certain stories for me are just less interesting, right?

Scott:

Um, because it's, it's, it's niche or something like that.

Scott:

And some are just over the top.

Scott:

Oh my gosh, this is such an amazing story because here's what this historic.

Scott:

Figure did, um, but for me, when we started the channel, I

Scott:

knew that it would take me time.

Scott:

I knew right up front because I had done some family stuff.

Scott:

I had messed with YouTube a little bit since, like, 2018, and we started this

Scott:

in 2021, um, and so I knew right away that there would be kind of conflict

Scott:

between the two of us, and there still is.

Scott:

Sometimes I'll try to cut stuff out.

Scott:

And she'll see like, Hey, I talked about this, I talked about this,

Scott:

this, and this story left it all out.

Scott:

I was like, but it was boring.

Scott:

Um, and so I, so we, I mean, we had that argument about, you know,

Scott:

something, you know, just the other day and she usually wins those.

Scott:

Um, but, uh, But through that, again, what she's also gotten better at

Scott:

with the storytelling aspect of it is crafting those facts to, to fit

Scott:

a good, like a, a story narrative.

Scott:

Because when you're telling that, that historical event, or you're

Scott:

talking about that person, if you kind of have a mental map, it makes

Scott:

telling that story so much easier.

Scott:

You, I kind of call it like you're almost reeling the fish.

Scott:

You're constantly kind of casting a little bit, you're giving

Scott:

them a taste of what's coming.

Scott:

But then you're coming back.

Scott:

And you're walking them towards what they know is, is, is kind of coming.

Scott:

And so that storytelling aspect of we've both of us together have really grown.

Scott:

And I joke sometimes that my goal is to make a history video that I

Scott:

would watch as a non history nerd.

Scott:

If I could watch all the way through and find it interesting,

Scott:

then that's, that's my bar, right?

Scott:

So if I can watch it, then the history nerds should really love it.

Scott:

Um, and so that's, that's kind of the goal there.

Scott:

So it took me some time because we kind of had to, even just, even though

Scott:

we'd been married, married for a while.

Scott:

It took us a while to kind of find each other's cadence.

Scott:

And when she's saying this, does she, what does she mean?

Scott:

And sometimes it takes her even today, it'll take her doing a couple of takes.

Scott:

She'll spit the facts out early on in the day in the filming, then she'll, she'll

Scott:

put them out again in a later clip and she'll have said it a couple of times.

Scott:

So she'll, she'll be better later because it's smoother.

Scott:

So it's all some of the, Um, editing stuff.

Scott:

And then we do a follow up, you know, our, our podcast talk with history

Scott:

is kind of a follow up to that.

Scott:

So we go deeper in depth and because I've already made the video, I only, I,

Scott:

you only usually make the podcast until I made the video first, because then I

Scott:

know enough of the story and I can speak.

Scott:

You know, intelligently to it.

Scott:

Um, but it took some time and to be perfectly honest, like I'm still

Scott:

not really, I don't go seeking out history videos on YouTube.

Scott:

Um, I, I, I, I honestly don't.

Scott:

Some, sometimes I do just to be like, Hey, this, a friend of ours, who's another

Scott:

history creator, their video exploded.

Scott:

Okay.

Scott:

I'm going to watch and go see what he did to tell the story.

Scott:

I'm more interested in.

Scott:

How do they tell the story and maybe I'll kind of look at their subject

Scott:

matter or something like that research purposes, research, but I'm just, you

Scott:

know, I like watching the tech stuff or I like watching the producer side of

Scott:

things or the, some of the travel stuff.

Scott:

Like that's, that's what I'm interested in.

Scott:

Um,

Jenn:

we're so lucky because of that.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

We, we, cause I know

Jenn:

nothing about that.

Jenn:

I wouldn't even know how to start editing anything.

Jenn:

I would be so lost.

Jenn:

So I, we are so lucky.

Jenn:

I'm really, it, I, it feels like a great combination.

Scott:

But yeah, I mean, and really Doug, it's, we both kind of, at

Scott:

a certain point, we both kind of realized like story is King.

Scott:

Story is King.

Scott:

Story is King.

Scott:

Story is King.

Scott:

If you have an interesting story and interesting historical event,

Scott:

But you don't tell the story well, or it's not presented well.

Scott:

And we've done that before.

Scott:

I look at some of our old videos and we're like, Oh my gosh, like,

Jenn:

Yeah, that's boring.

Jenn:

I hope

Scott:

nobody goes back and finds it.

Scott:

But, uh, so story is king, even with those, those historical events.

Scott:

I think

Seth:

when you use, when you use that storytelling method, Not only one, is it

Seth:

gonna, it is gonna make it a little bit more interesting for people who can't

Seth:

just sit there and, and read textbooks.

Seth:

And like, I I, I will go and read a hundred year old news

Seth:

articles to like Mm-Hmm.

Seth:

To figure out the pulse of the culture at the time.

Seth:

Sure.

Seth:

That, that's just me.

Seth:

But I can still go back and watch your video and be thrilled.

Jenn:

Right.

Seth:

And, and, and just find it fascinating and very captivating.

Seth:

Um, but one, it'll, it'll help people kind of remember, but

Seth:

it'll help them understand more.

Seth:

Yeah.

Seth:

My opinion, because they're like, okay, I kind of, I kind of see, I see how

Seth:

that person came to that decision, you know, um, cause yeah, there's, there's

Seth:

so much context and like we had stated before history is not black and white.

Seth:

Um, I heard, uh, I heard a comment the other day I was watching, I was

Seth:

watching something on the, the cold war.

Seth:

And so the cold war starts directly after world war two.

Seth:

And, uh, they made the comment that said Hitler was the worst, uh, was

Seth:

the worst of mankind's creations.

Seth:

But they were very specific when they said mankind's creation was like,

Seth:

well, something had to create that man.

Jenn:

So what

Seth:

did, you know, and, uh, it makes you want to go back and be like, okay,

Seth:

well, what are the conditions that created this one, this one event.

Seth:

And within the world, like, you know, why was Constantinople

Seth:

constantly being conquered?

Seth:

And you know, what's so important about it, you know, you can

Seth:

go back and do that stuff.

Seth:

Uh, but let's talk about favorite, favorite topics.

Seth:

I hear, I hear John Wayne.

Seth:

Oh, yeah.

Jenn:

I'm a huge, okay, dudes.

Jenn:

I mean, come on guys.

Jenn:

Like I tell you, I was a pilot in the Navy, right?

Jenn:

I'm so used to hanging around dudes.

Jenn:

It's like, not even funny.

Jenn:

My call sign was Yoko because I broke up the band, right?

Jenn:

First female in the squadron.

Jenn:

And my, I, my father was a high school football coach.

Jenn:

My father was a cop, right?

Jenn:

I have a brother who played football.

Jenn:

Like I'm raised on John Wayne.

Jenn:

I love John Wayne.

Jenn:

That's like, I, I, I, I'll go to my grave.

Jenn:

The searchers is the best Western of all time.

Jenn:

, like, I, I cannot wait to talk about that and talk about the anti-hero.

Jenn:

Yeah, I think it's John Wayne's best performance.

Jenn:

We have a couple more.

Scott:

John Wayne Media is coming and that's awesome.

Jenn:

And that is kind of what started the channel because I was on my treadmill.

Jenn:

And it was COVID.

Jenn:

And I was looking up John Wayne Museum.

Jenn:

And then I was like, has anyone been to Marina O'Hara's grave?

Jenn:

Because most people do not know that she's buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Jenn:

Marina O'Hara is one of John Wayne's great co stars, right?

Jenn:

She was in the Quiet Man.

Jenn:

She's in, uh, McClintock.

Jenn:

You know, it's really the red head, right?

Jenn:

The fiery red head.

Jenn:

And she was married to a brigadier general in the air force.

Jenn:

And he died in the seventies a long time before her.

Jenn:

And she outlived him.

Jenn:

But so most people kind of forget, but she's buried in Arlington and no

Jenn:

one had visited her grave on youtube.

Seth:

No.

Seth:

Well, a lot of people don't understand that.

Seth:

That the spouses of the service members that are barely acknowledged

Seth:

and can be buried with them.

Seth:

Yes.

Seth:

Yes.

Seth:

Unfortunately, my, my grandmother recently passed away, but my, my

Seth:

grandfather is buried in Arden.

Seth:

So she had the opportunity, however, she denied it because she said that that's,

Seth:

that's where our heroes go to go to lay.

Seth:

And so she wanted to keep that there for him, but I had no

Seth:

idea that she was buried there.

Seth:

That's crazy.

Jenn:

Yeah.

Jenn:

Yeah.

Jenn:

So I'm.

Jenn:

That's one of our first videos from Arlington.

Jenn:

That was

Scott:

kind of our first positive signal that we were doing something right.

Scott:

As I

Jenn:

would visit Marie Ann Mino Hera, and that took off because

Jenn:

a lot of people didn't know that.

Jenn:

A lot of people like her.

Jenn:

She's connected to John Wayne.

Jenn:

And so to go to her grave and to talk about her, I kind of found this really

Jenn:

great I don't know if it's a niche, but I did other people in Arlington that way.

Jenn:

I did the Gunny, right?

Jenn:

I could go to their grave and sit with them.

Jenn:

Uh, Charles Durning, people who were a part of the entertainment industry, but

Jenn:

are now in Arlington National Cemetery.

Jenn:

So it was so great to tell their story with them and a great way to honor them.

Jenn:

And I, it, for me, it was just a really great experience.

Jenn:

And so then as a.

Jenn:

As a veteran and to be there and talk about what Arlington means to me.

Jenn:

And then I could visit some people.

Jenn:

We knew I could talk about people who influenced my

Jenn:

military career, who were there.

Jenn:

So it was really, that was one of our first videos and probably the

Jenn:

first video to really take off.

Scott:

Yeah, that was, that was person really take off.

Scott:

And now we've been back, you know, back there a bunch of times.

Scott:

And,

Jenn:

but John Wayne is huge.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

John, John Wayne's a good one.

Scott:

We

Jenn:

compare the two, two grit movies.

Jenn:

That is a huge video.

Jenn:

Yeah,

Seth:

that's awesome.

Seth:

Let's, let's, let's talk, let's talk about, you know, service for a second.

Seth:

Um, I know for myself, all right, as a Navy guy, especially as a

Seth:

submariner, fourth generation, right.

Seth:

History is a big deal for our culture and it has a tendency to be a big deal

Seth:

for just the military members in general.

Seth:

Um, do you, do you feel like, like your time in the service or your current time

Seth:

in the service and what you're learning there and knowing that you, you're part

Seth:

of a long history of something kind of inform you or help you along or inspire

Seth:

you more to, to do what you're doing or

Jenn:

I'd say, you know, Um, for me guys, it's not a lot

Jenn:

of women who do this, right?

Jenn:

There's not a lot of women pilots period.

Jenn:

Right.

Jenn:

And so I feel, and maybe it's the confidence that comes out, but I feel

Jenn:

very confident and what I do, I think the education helped me be more confident in

Jenn:

what I say and then being out there to represent, I really take that seriously.

Jenn:

Uh, there was another pilot named Jennifer was a helicopter pilot who went down in

Jenn:

Iraq and she was, she was killed there.

Jenn:

So I think about.

Jenn:

A bunch of people that didn't make it home and I take the risk

Jenn:

and I take the chance for them because they can't and I try to go.

Jenn:

I'm going to live my life as much as I can because they can't.

Jenn:

And sometimes if I would have been more timid and I'm not going to try that.

Jenn:

I'm like, no, I'm going for it because I can't.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

And I think it's You know, in some sense, it's probably similar to why, you know,

Scott:

Doug, you probably helped start stand up the gardens of the purple heart.

Scott:

And it's like, you know, if there's something I want to do, I'm going,

Scott:

I'm going to give myself the mission and I'm going to attack, right.

Scott:

I'm going to, I'm going to move towards that mission, whatever that mission is.

Scott:

And for us, when we finally, we joke that we've, yeah, after 15 years, we

Scott:

finally found something that we enjoy doing together and that's the YouTube

Scott:

channel, um, but for, for us, it was.

Scott:

It kind of put everything together.

Scott:

And then it also, again, that confidence of like, we have no

Scott:

idea what we're doing, but we're just going to go and do it anyways.

Scott:

And we're going to figure it out along the way because that's what we do.

Scott:

And that comes from, and I think I'm preaching to the choir here, you know,

Scott:

that comes from being in the military when, when your commanding officer or

Scott:

your boss or whoever it is says, Hey, you kind of just need to figure this one out.

Scott:

And you're like, okay.

Scott:

Let's go.

Scott:

And, uh, and so I think that's what gave us the confidence to start the

Scott:

channel, you know, with history, with, with her background and me

Scott:

wanting to kind of do the production side and enjoying that piece of it.

Scott:

And then, you know, again, me just kind of doing all the research

Scott:

on, like, how do we need to do this and how does it all set up?

Scott:

And then, okay, now we're going to drag the kids along with us and

Scott:

everything that kind of comes with that.

Scott:

And then, you know, You know, like anything else, I think anytime you talk

Scott:

to fellow vets, a lot of us have that perspective that a lot of folks who hadn't

Scott:

had the opportunity to serve, even though we've met plenty of people who said, Oh,

Scott:

I wish I could have, or this, that, and the other, you just get a perspective that

Scott:

not a lot of people get, whether it's from deployments or from what you're doing.

Scott:

You've seen, you know, just, you know, in your few years or a full career or

Scott:

whatever that is, um, and so when you have that perspective, when you're

Scott:

talking about stories in historical context, and that just helps, it kind

Scott:

of helps you as, you know, the artist crafting that story, paint the picture

Scott:

a little clearer, hopefully, um, and I think a lot of that stems from that.

Scott:

Yeah.

Seth:

And

Scott:

you

Seth:

guys, you guys are really, I mean, you pay a wonderful respect to a

Seth:

lot of aspects of history, but as well as, as some military stuff, you guys

Seth:

recently did a, a medal of honor video.

Jenn:

Yes.

Jenn:

So I was asked by a fellow, uh, history creator on Instagram, To

Jenn:

visit that grave because they were doing a story and because I am, I'm

Jenn:

very much on location historian.

Jenn:

That's kind of what sets me apart, right?

Jenn:

As I go to the location and tell you about it.

Jenn:

And I was going to Arlington anyway, and I told him absolutely.

Jenn:

So I looked him up and I His story and I sat there with

Jenn:

the Medal of Honor recipient.

Jenn:

I told his story and then it coincided with their, they did a

Jenn:

long form video of their story.

Jenn:

So that was

Scott:

Instagram.

Scott:

And then we had done another Medal of Honor when I think it was

Scott:

the, um, who is the local Carney?

Scott:

Oh yeah.

Scott:

Sergeant Carney.

Jenn:

Sergeant Carney is from the civil war.

Jenn:

You remember in the movie glory.

Jenn:

He's kind of played by Denzel Washington and, uh,

Scott:

carries the flag, carries

Jenn:

the flag.

Jenn:

Yeah.

Jenn:

So he's the first African American to be awarded the medal of honor.

Jenn:

He didn't receive it first because someone else got the actual physical

Jenn:

medal before he did, but his action preceded that other person action.

Jenn:

So he was the first one to receive it.

Jenn:

So yeah,

Scott:

he's buried here in the Norfolk area.

Scott:

So we visited his grave and there's a marker, you know, we found his

Scott:

marker and, you know, kind of, kind of tried to tell that story.

Scott:

So,

Seth:

yeah, that's, that is.

Seth:

I love that.

Seth:

Yeah.

Seth:

Thank you for doing that.

Seth:

I think that's pretty awesome.

Seth:

Uh, I mean, cause there's stories that shouldn't, shouldn't kind

Seth:

of fade to history, right?

Seth:

Yes.

Seth:

They should continue to be told.

Seth:

Yeah.

Seth:

It's, yeah, it's some crazy stuff you guys are doing.

Seth:

Doug.

Seth:

Yeah.

Seth:

You got another question to add in there?

Seth:

I, like I said, I got a, I got my homework.

Doug:

No.

Seth:

Okay.

Doug:

I mean, not history related, but I mean, I always have to know

Doug:

just because I, I just love it.

Doug:

But what's your guys favorite pizza?

Doug:

We'll go completely off topic here.

Scott:

Pizza for me, my, my favorite piece is probably pretty controversial.

Scott:

I know.

Scott:

At least people have, people tend to have strong feelings.

Jenn:

We get, we get people mad at us.

Jenn:

So

Scott:

I'm a big pepperoni and pineapple guy.

Scott:

I like pineapple on pizza.

Scott:

Some people I've, I've literally had friends who didn't, who didn't like it.

Scott:

Yeah, it's

Jenn:

so good because it's the sweet with the spicy.

Jenn:

I've, I've had like

Scott:

close friends that didn't know that I like that.

Scott:

They'll, they'll, that topic comes up and they'll be like, if you

Scott:

like, if you like pineapple on your pizza, don't ever talk to me again.

Scott:

We cannot be friends, et cetera, et cetera.

Scott:

I'm jokingly.

Scott:

But, uh, so, so for me, that's, that's honestly my favorite.

Scott:

And

Jenn:

I can eat that too.

Jenn:

Actually, when we used to do a lot of like, Climbing and

Jenn:

stuff and you're so exhausted.

Jenn:

That was a really good treat, but I, I'll try to send your

Seth:

rock climbers.

Seth:

This

Jenn:

guy did El Cap.

Jenn:

He's done the nose of El Cap twice.

Jenn:

He did the face of half dome.

Jenn:

This guy is a big wall rock climber.

Seth:

That's no joke out there pulling on some rock.

Jenn:

He was a Naval Academy gymnast.

Jenn:

So.

Jenn:

He's the real deal.

Scott:

Wow.

Scott:

I know.

Scott:

That's what I said.

Scott:

I don't usually bring, I don't usually bring that up with random strangers

Scott:

that I just met on the internet.

Scott:

But it's okay.

Scott:

I'll let, I'll let her bring it up.

Scott:

It's impressive though.

Seth:

It's a, it's a definitely, definitely a fun, fun sport.

Seth:

To get into, we actually, we, we got a family membership to a

Seth:

central rock gym, uh, here and the whole family fell in love with it.

Seth:

I'd done it multiple times before and then gone out to

Seth:

actually climb a couple of times.

Seth:

But, uh, I was like, well, let's just go do it.

Seth:

And sure enough, they all fell in love with it.

Seth:

Especially when they're a bunch of little kids that climb on everything anyways.

Seth:

So it's, yeah, it's, it's perfect for them.

Scott:

I actually, I tried to start a climbing gym, uh, when I,

Scott:

I actually got out of the Navy, uh, for about a year or two.

Scott:

Um, that's what I, that's what I tried to do.

Scott:

But 2010 after the great recession was not a great time to start a business.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

I tried to start a book, start a comic book store.

Scott:

So try,

Seth:

try selling picture books to big kids.

Seth:

Yeah.

Seth:

But, um, so you, you mentioned.

Seth:

Well, you mentioned multiple times.

Seth:

You're the traveling historian, the on the on scene historian, but I've heard the

Seth:

phrase, uh, evergreen used a few times.

Seth:

Can you, can you explain that?

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

So, so that's a, that's a concept, um, that I actually got from, there's a,

Scott:

there's a podcast out there, dusty Porter.

Scott:

He has the YouTube creators podcast, right?

Scott:

Um, and he basically just kind of talks to other creators.

Scott:

Creators and talks about what they learned building a YouTube channel.

Scott:

So I listened to that for a while.

Scott:

Like anything else, I'm researching the hell out of, you know, how do I

Scott:

make a successful YouTube channel?

Scott:

And he talked about evergreen content and evergreen content is something

Scott:

that you could listen to it today.

Scott:

You could listen to it three years ago.

Scott:

You could listen to it in 10 years and it's, it's still the same story.

Scott:

It's still relevant.

Scott:

You know, it, it lasts no matter what, if we're sitting here talking

Scott:

about the most recent Text stuff.

Scott:

Well, in a couple of years, that's going to be out of date, but if we're talking

Scott:

about history and that's why I knew when she brought this up, she said, Hey, I want

Scott:

to start a history channel in my head.

Scott:

I was like, ding, I know for a fact that that will work.

Jenn:

Um,

Scott:

and so that's that evergreen content.

Scott:

Like if you tell it right, um, and you don't kind of try to interject

Scott:

too much modern day, uh, kind of context and comparisons, you

Scott:

can keep that story evergreen.

Scott:

So that again, if you tell it properly, In five years, someone could watch

Scott:

the video we just published the other day on Meriwether Lewis, and

Scott:

it's going to be the same story.

Scott:

It's going to be the same engaging story.

Scott:

He's been

Jenn:

dead since 1809.

Jenn:

So if you're telling the same story, think of it as a great rerun, right?

Jenn:

It holds its syndication, right?

Jenn:

So you don't have to, the content is good.

Jenn:

Someone could watch that same video.

Jenn:

10 years from now.

Jenn:

And the, all the information is still the same.

Seth:

I can watch.

Seth:

I love Lucy till the day I die.

Seth:

Oh my gosh.

Seth:

Yep.

Jenn:

Right.

Jenn:

Cause it's still relevant.

Jenn:

You're

Seth:

right.

Seth:

We, we had a, a video that we put up, um, that we were toying

Seth:

around with the idea of doing medal of honor recipients as well.

Seth:

And we did a master sergeant, uh, was it Roy?

Seth:

Was it Roy Benavides?

Seth:

Yeah.

Seth:

Um, and, and his story and like that did just kind of did quite well for

Seth:

itself, you know, for a small channel, but I was like, all right, well, that

Seth:

shows that people are interested.

Seth:

People care.

Seth:

Um, there wasn't anything special.

Seth:

It was literally just his speech, you know, I think it was, uh, I think

Seth:

Reagan might've been speaking at the time or, or someone, but, uh, yeah.

Seth:

Yeah.

Seth:

It's true.

Seth:

They are.

Seth:

They are evergreen things.

Seth:

I think I've gone back and I've listened to tides of history's

Seth:

podcast, entire catalog twice by now, but it's the same thing.

Seth:

It's that narrative history telling that I love so much and you guys

Seth:

are a great addition to that.

Seth:

Um, so now, now we have some questions about history.

Seth:

Yes.

Seth:

Um, we are the guardians of the purple heart.

Seth:

That's so cool.

Seth:

Anything that's fun.

Seth:

You can tell us about the Purple Heart Award.

Seth:

Well,

Jenn:

George Washington is on the Purple Heart and George Washington

Jenn:

originated the, the medal, but it wasn't, wasn't what it is today when

Jenn:

he first started it, I think the first Purple Heart that actually was a Purple

Jenn:

Heart came out during the civil war.

Jenn:

for being injured and during combat or injured during battle.

Jenn:

I think for George Washington, his Purple Heart, he was giving it to

Jenn:

people who had just, who had served.

Jenn:

And so it kind of took a transition between the Revolutionary War to

Jenn:

the Civil War to what it is today.

Jenn:

Uh, if you are a Purple Heart recipient, your name is in a book in Mount Vernon.

Jenn:

You can go ask to see it.

Seth:

I didn't know that.

Jenn:

Yes.

Jenn:

Yeah.

Jenn:

And so if you are a Purple Heart recipient, you go to Mount Vernon.

Seth:

Really bad for not knowing that.

Jenn:

You can ask to see your name in the book.

Jenn:

It's on the second floor of Mount Vernon.

Jenn:

So you will be allowed your, your family, whoever you're allowed to

Jenn:

go up there and look and see your name in the book, the Purple Heart.

Jenn:

We might

Doug:

have to take a trip.

Jenn:

Yeah, those are the things I know about it.

Doug:

We might, we might have to, I mean, I think the whole book idea is, is really,

Doug:

I mean, it's awesome because you're like, your name is, is kind of like edged in

Doug:

history forever and having that it's, I would say it's kind of cool, but then

Doug:

again, on the, I would have to say on like the psychological side of things,

Doug:

I look at it and go, I wouldn't want to see my name in a book and reminding me.

Doug:

Of the day that I possibly almost died, right?

Doug:

It's like, I, I have, you know, I've been through multiple surgeries, um,

Doug:

because of my injuries overseas and.

Doug:

Everyone tells me wear them as a badge of honor that, you know, you made it through.

Doug:

And yeah, I do.

Doug:

But at the same time, it's, it's that constant reminder too.

Doug:

So I'd have to say on the psychological side of things, I could see how it would

Doug:

be a little bit troublesome, but I mean, either way, I still think that's awesome.

Doug:

We need to take a

Jenn:

trip.

Jenn:

Yeah.

Jenn:

Well, your name is in a book in Mount Vernon and I think it's

Jenn:

reminiscent of George Washington.

Jenn:

So I think that is the kind of what.

Jenn:

They're trying because his face is on the heart and your name is in his house.

Seth:

So my, my question, um, is just fun.

Seth:

Uh, can you tell me anything about, uh, Doc Holliday?

Scott:

Oh man.

Scott:

So pe people keep recommending to us, so we're gonna have to compare.

Scott:

That's, I love tombstones.

Scott:

We're gonna have to compare the two movies.

Scott:

You were just watching it the other night.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

We're gonna have to compare

Jenn:

the two movies because people, because people love

Jenn:

the True Grit comparison.

Jenn:

Mm-Hmm.

Jenn:

. We're gonna have to Doya, Earp and Tombstone.

Jenn:

Yeah.

Jenn:

We've been to Deadwood.

Jenn:

It was super cool.

Jenn:

Recommend going, uh, I think Val Coer played him better.

Jenn:

Uh, do what did we just learn about Big Nose Kate the other day?

Jenn:

That was neat.

Jenn:

That something was named after her and most people don't know

Jenn:

it was named after so big nose.

Jenn:

Kate is doc holidays.

Jenn:

I like better where his girlfriend, uh, he is a doctor.

Jenn:

He's a doctor of dentistry.

Jenn:

That's what he's a doctor of.

Jenn:

And I'll tell you, I'll tell you

Scott:

what, just from like a traveling around the United States perspective, I

Scott:

was so surprised at South Dakota, that part of South Dakota where, where dead

Scott:

wood is right, right near Mount Rushmore.

Scott:

It's gorgeous out there.

Scott:

It's like hilly and like.

Scott:

Not almost mountainous, depending on what you're kind of comparing,

Scott:

you know, as, as mountains, but just that, that part of the country, I

Scott:

can 100 percent understand why people were just flocking out there because

Jenn:

it is

Scott:

beautiful country.

Scott:

We went out right when she said, when we went out there,

Scott:

we just whole Western road trip.

Scott:

And so it took the kids and I mean, we drove 6, 000 plus miles over

Scott:

the course of a couple of weeks.

Scott:

Yeah, we were, we were hitting it hard.

Scott:

Um, but, uh, We were out there.

Scott:

We stayed in South Dakota for a couple of days for a family reunion.

Scott:

Cause I've got family in Montana and Colorado and California.

Scott:

And so we all kind of met, you know, semi in the middle.

Jenn:

Yeah.

Jenn:

Like I said, doc holiday had tuberculosis.

Jenn:

I know that.

Jenn:

And when we were in Deadwood, do you know what, um, The Dead Man's Hand is with

Jenn:

Wild Bill Hickok was holding when he died.

Doug:

Oh,

Seth:

yeah.

Seth:

Ace, eight.

Seth:

I don't remember the hand, but I know.

Seth:

There you

Jenn:

go.

Jenn:

Aces over eights.

Jenn:

Aces over

Scott:

eights.

Scott:

Aces over eights.

Scott:

And one thing.

Scott:

Yeah, that's the Dead Man's Hand.

Scott:

Um, where was the OK Corral shootout?

Seth:

Was that the, uh.

Seth:

Arizona.

Seth:

Yeah.

Seth:

I'm still hung up on the fact that you gave me that doc was a dentist.

Jenn:

Yeah.

Seth:

Yeah.

Seth:

Which was interesting 'cause I believe during that time period, dentists were

Seth:

also often barbers or it was Barbers

Doug:

were often dentists.

Doug:

No, barbers were also surgeons.

Doug:

I think it was because that's where something like, so if you look outside

Doug:

the barbers, see maybe I'm gonna teach you a little bit of history, so, oh,

Jenn:

the spinning my lottery

Doug:

ticket, y'all.

Doug:

I'm ready.

Doug:

Is it that spinning thing?

Jenn:

Mm-Hmm.

Jenn:

with the red and the white.

Doug:

Yep.

Doug:

It's because they used to put, um, the bloody rags on the, the thing, the

Doug:

white, the white pole, and it would spin around and then it would, they

Doug:

would use it to dry them out that way.

Jenn:

Yes.

Doug:

Oh, interesting.

Jenn:

But, but surgeons could pull teeth.

Jenn:

You can kind of, you can kind of put them both together, the teeth pulling.

Jenn:

And so, I can see that

Seth:

either way.

Seth:

Um, I just, I just love tombstone and I love that character.

Seth:

So

Scott:

he's so good.

Scott:

It's all cameras.

Scott:

So good.

Scott:

So where was, was the tombstone in the city?

Scott:

Was that Arizona?

Jenn:

It's in Arizona.

Jenn:

So it's Arizona.

Scott:

So wasn't it, uh, Lisa that we were talking to?

Scott:

So, um, our friend Lisa, she's got a, um, Pretty big Instagram channel.

Scott:

Historical USA.

Scott:

So her family's from the Arizona area and her, was it her great grandmother?

Scott:

Yeah, it was there.

Scott:

Was actually at the shootout at the O.

Scott:

K.

Scott:

Corral.

Jenn:

She was there.

Scott:

Wow.

Scott:

Really?

Scott:

Yeah, yeah.

Scott:

So she was from Arizona, um, lived a hard life, but that was something

Scott:

that was passed down in her family.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

She was there at the, at the actual shootout.

Jenn:

Another cool thing about history, genealogy, right?

Jenn:

People want to know who they're connected to in history.

Jenn:

Yeah.

Seth:

I have that for music history in my family, oddly enough.

Doug:

Yes.

Doug:

Speaking of wits, my fiance is, um, she has direct ties with Abraham Lincoln

Doug:

and like a part of, um, I forget who in her family, like they were there

Doug:

in the theater when he was shot.

Doug:

And she has like all this memorabilia of like letters and stuff like that, like

Doug:

hanging up downstairs in our living room.

Doug:

But.

Doug:

I mean, that part is kind of, that's kind of interesting.

Doug:

That's cool.

Doug:

Yeah, I have.

Doug:

I am.

Doug:

Yes.

Scott:

Han Solo did shoot first.

Doug:

Yes, right.

Doug:

It's fact.

Doug:

A fact.

Doug:

I'm not, I'm not a Star Trek fan.

Doug:

Fact.

Jenn:

Princess Leia is the hero of that movie.

Jenn:

Don't get her

Seth:

startled.

Seth:

All right.

Seth:

So for my, for my wife and I, uh, our, our individual families that, uh, the

Seth:

sharps and then, uh, One of the sides of her family, the Maxwell's very deep

Seth:

Scottish roots, hers more so than mine.

Seth:

All right.

Seth:

So like the Maxwell clan has a castle in Scotland.

Seth:

It's this beautiful, awesome triangle castle with a moat around it.

Seth:

Um, The leader of the Maxwell clan was one of like, I think the 22 clan and, um,

Seth:

uh, leaders that signed the equivalent of Scotland's declaration of independence

Seth:

as a letter to the Pope at the time.

Seth:

Um, which it's cool to show my children, be like, this, this is your heritage.

Seth:

You know, your, your family name is attached to a country existing.

Seth:

Yeah.

Seth:

Where mine is the only reason why I can, I know my ancestry is because Scotland

Seth:

prisons have really good prison records.

Seth:

So the joke is, is that I married up, um, that her family owned the castle and

Seth:

my family was probably in the jail cell.

Seth:

We were always caught stealing horses or food.

Seth:

It's, yeah, it's cool.

Seth:

Like the, the genealogical.

Seth:

Mm-Hmm.

Seth:

, uh, history as well.

Seth:

My, my grand, my great-grandparents, uh, met at the Hoover Dam

Seth:

while it was being built.

Seth:

Oh, shit.

Seth:

Uh, my great grandfather was a foreman, uh, there after he got out of the service.

Seth:

That's cool.

Seth:

And, uh.

Seth:

He would have, uh, you know, back then when you have giant projects

Seth:

like that, there's just small towns that pop up around the projects.

Seth:

Right.

Seth:

Uh, so they would have big chow halls and stuff and people would come in,

Seth:

move in from all over the United States to go to go to work there.

Seth:

And my great grandmother was one of the cooks in this, in this chow hall.

Seth:

So my grandfather every day would go to make sure that his guys were getting fed.

Seth:

Well, um, Goes down there, sees that they're all happy and laughing.

Seth:

They're enjoying great food, goes to talk to the cook to, to, to thank

Seth:

her and is just floored by her.

Seth:

And so every day he would come back to check, check, check on his guys

Seth:

and make sure they were being fed.

Seth:

Eventually the, the two fell in love and they got married.

Seth:

They all kind of built around the Hoover dam and a giant

Seth:

thing for the United States.

Seth:

Right.

Seth:

So that genealogical history, my, my grandfather was part of the USS Torsk,

Seth:

which was the submarine that was, uh, part of the Naval blockade, uh,

Seth:

during the Cuban missile crisis, the Russian submarine that actually had a

Seth:

nuclear torpedo pointed right at us.

Seth:

Wow.

Seth:

So it, yeah, to, to, to be, to know, like your family is part of history

Seth:

and stuff that you kind of realize that history isn't just facts.

Seth:

It's, it's who we are,

Jenn:

you

Seth:

know, um, you have a really cool.

Seth:

Piece of merchandise.

Seth:

I'm going to share it here.

Seth:

I love it.

Seth:

It says history or die.

Jenn:

I'm wearing it.

Jenn:

Yeah.

Seth:

We just came up with that one.

Seth:

I love it.

Seth:

I absolutely love it.

Seth:

And there's, and the bumper sticker that's next to it that

Seth:

says I break for historic markers.

Seth:

A couple of years ago I had bought my wife, um, uh, like a big GPS for her car.

Seth:

Cause I didn't have one.

Seth:

And so I set it all up for, and when I started.

Seth:

I realized that there's history channel logo logos all over the map.

Seth:

And apparently the version that I got was contract with history channel

Seth:

shows all the historical spots that are around you, wherever you are.

Seth:

I still, I don't need a GPS.

Seth:

I still have this thing.

Jenn:

Well, I love that, that bumper sticker, because I was really doing that.

Jenn:

Like we were driving and I would be like, slow down the horse, dark

Jenn:

marker, I want to read it real fast.

Jenn:

And I told Scott that we should make a bumper sticker to warn people.

Jenn:

Because we're slowing down to read these.

Jenn:

And so he's like, I'll make it.

Jenn:

So that was kind of funny.

Jenn:

The history or die, uh, we were going out somewhere and he had a

Jenn:

shirt on that said, join or die.

Jenn:

And I was like, wouldn't it be great if we could wear this with the channel

Jenn:

and it said history, and he's like, I'm going to make it right now.

Seth:

Hey, you know, I, I had, uh, I had the saying like for my entire

Seth:

life, which was stay heavy, stay metal.

Seth:

I grew up in a heavy metal family and, uh, we, we turned it into our Our

Seth:

kind of our sign off the stay proud.

Seth:

Stay grateful.

Seth:

Yeah.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

And uh, the, the, the fun thing with the history of die, we're

Scott:

actually kind of trying to do some kind of history content, community

Scott:

content, uh, support behind that.

Scott:

So if you, um, We're starting a website, actually history or die dot org.

Scott:

It's kind of in a soft, soft launch kind of phase right now.

Scott:

But what we're trying to do is bring on, you know, basically

Scott:

make it like a place for people to go find good history creators.

Scott:

And then from there, kind of go off to their channel.

Scott:

So we just kind of started reaching out to the people we knew.

Scott:

And then I just, I literally went on YouTube and started finding some of the

Scott:

biggest history content creators I could.

Scott:

And I just.

Scott:

Email them blind, right?

Scott:

And just said, Hey, I'm starting to say that.

Scott:

Yeah, exactly.

Scott:

And I basically just said, Hey, you know, the, the concept is

Scott:

a rising tide lifts all boats.

Scott:

And so we're hoping that no cost to you.

Scott:

I made a Google form.

Scott:

They fill it out in five, 10 minutes and I just kind of create a profile

Scott:

page for them and then I, I asked them, Hey, you know, The concept

Scott:

behind history or die is it's kind of a nod to that, um, join or die, which

Scott:

is that that call for unity, right?

Scott:

Hey, we're trying to get together to learn history because it's important.

Scott:

Same thing with the join or die that Ben Franklin put out in May of 15,

Scott:

Um, so he, so he put it out then and it was like, Hey, we need to

Scott:

stay together because if we don't, then, you know, we're going to die.

Scott:

And so that's, that's the concept is, is that call of.

Scott:

Hey, you know, good quality history content is really going

Scott:

to, it can only help, right?

Scott:

Um, it'll keep us together.

Scott:

And so, um, I'm working on some stuff.

Scott:

I'm just, we're getting busy cause I'm PCSing soon and, uh, uh, trying to,

Scott:

trying to get some of the big channels to promote the site, which will bring up the

Scott:

smaller channels because we'll get lots of people there and kind of just build it.

Scott:

And so any history or die stuff that's bought off of our, off of

Scott:

our walk with history gift shop actually goes towards that site.

Scott:

Um, and we try not to put ourselves out front.

Scott:

This is kind of a community thing.

Scott:

Um, think of it

Jenn:

as the history channel.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

So that

Jenn:

has real history.

Jenn:

I love

Seth:

it.

Seth:

I think it's

Scott:

fantastic.

Jenn:

Yeah,

Seth:

but

Scott:

yeah, that's, that's one of my favorite shirts we, we made recently.

Scott:

That's, that's a cool one.

Seth:

Well, Doug, you got anything left?

Seth:

I just need to

Doug:

know

Seth:

tank

Doug:

over there.

Doug:

Out of, out of all the places that you've been, what is like the number one place

Doug:

that you want to go and do an episode on?

Doug:

So like, so it'd be like your dream vacation of a history episode.

Doug:

Your bucket

Seth:

list.

Doug:

Yeah.

Doug:

Oh, like

Jenn:

the big bucket list.

Jenn:

Yes.

Doug:

Yeah.

Jenn:

What did we, probably the Monument Valley of the searchers.

Scott:

I mean, for me, so I'd say within America, it's definitely

Scott:

going out to Monument Valley.

Scott:

In Utah, trying

Jenn:

to recreate some of those scenes from the searchers, right?

Jenn:

When he's like looking over the valley and I want to

Scott:

retire

Jenn:

in Utah.

Jenn:

Yeah.

Jenn:

It's so beautiful.

Jenn:

I'd

Scott:

say here in America, that's definitely like highest on our list

Scott:

for, for me personally, if I was going to do, I could go anywhere, right.

Scott:

The budget budget, no price.

Scott:

Um, I've always wanted to go to Switzerland because I just think that

Scott:

the country is just as a kid, right.

Scott:

Purely there and I'm sure there's history there like there's the Matterhorn and

Scott:

stuff like that right being a climber There's plenty of history there When it

Scott:

comes to that kind of kind of realm and I would love to go see like Setha you were

Scott:

saying some of those Just truly ancient.

Jenn:

Yeah

Scott:

sites like if we were gonna do a world travel for a year for the channel

Scott:

That's kind of what I'd probably start with is some of those truly ancient sites,

Seth:

right?

Seth:

Go, go into Istanbul and going into the cathedral there and seeing Viking

Seth:

graffiti up on the wall, Petra,

Jenn:

I'd like to go to Petra, you see the

Scott:

pyramids.

Scott:

Even though I know a lot of that stuff, there's touristy stuff around

Scott:

it now, like, um, but I would love to.

Scott:

To do that stuff.

Scott:

And then I'm sure you give me enough time.

Scott:

I'll find some places that are off the beaten path and then

Scott:

then I'll really be in my element kind of away from the crowds.

Scott:

Yeah, let's go.

Jenn:

I wanna go to Jerusalem and find the Holy Grail.

Seth:

Right?

Seth:

Right.

Seth:

And there's I mean, there's a lot of places around the world where

Seth:

you just, you know, if you get an opportunity to go see him, you should.

Seth:

Yeah, they won't always be there.

Seth:

Even if they're natural ones like me.

Seth:

I was, I grew up with, uh, what was it?

Seth:

Uh, the old man in the mountain up in New Hampshire, right?

Seth:

No longer there.

Seth:

Yeah.

Seth:

Um, it's, uh, I mean, we'll, we'll look at China for instance.

Seth:

Um, China during the fifties and the sixties lost a large portion

Seth:

of, of its, uh, heritage sites.

Jenn:

Yeah.

Seth:

Italy was

Jenn:

doing that too during World War II.

Seth:

Yeah, Italy, Italy as well.

Seth:

And it's such a shame.

Seth:

But I would love, I would love to set foot in just ancient

Seth:

Greek, you know, and Roman areas.

Seth:

Yeah.

Seth:

You know, I just, take me there, please.

Seth:

Yeah,

Jenn:

I would too.

Jenn:

I would like to see some Greek.

Jenn:

We were in, um, I think it was Italia Turkey, uh, with the Navy.

Jenn:

And I was sitting in a Coliseum eating a sandwich and they were like,

Jenn:

this has been around since 1500 BC.

Jenn:

And I'm just sitting there eating a sandwich going, I'm sitting here

Jenn:

where people sat and watched and it's been around since before Christ.

Jenn:

Like it's just, it's hard to me to even fathom, right?

Jenn:

And I'm just sitting

Seth:

the entire score from the gladiator.

Seth:

Yeah, inside the Roman Coliseum.

Seth:

I was like, how, how you get better than that?

Seth:

Doug, where, where would you

Scott:

go if you could, if you go anywhere?

Scott:

Anywhere but Connecticut.

Doug:

No, I'm kidding.

Doug:

Um, I really don't know.

Doug:

Like I'm, I'm a, Huge.

Doug:

Um, like I'm really big into, uh, the Renaissance, so I really

Doug:

would love to visit like England and Scotland and all that.

Doug:

I think the, that countryside is just absolutely gorgeous.

Doug:

Switzerland is, I mean, I agree with you.

Doug:

It's absolutely like you look at the pictures and stuff and it just

Doug:

seems like a magical place to go to, but I don't think I have a.

Doug:

Like number one place that I would like to go, because I mean, and then this

Doug:

is going to sound kind of cheesy and cliche, but it, I look at, I drive down

Doug:

the road, even if I drive an hour away from my house, like I'm thankful enough

Doug:

just to be able to visit that area.

Doug:

Because like you said, there's people who don't have that opportunity.

Doug:

So.

Doug:

I mean, I get excited when we drive down to Long Island for a weekend.

Doug:

So it's like the only person I'm joking.

Doug:

Yeah.

Doug:

I mean, I would definitely love to do like the Switzerland, Ireland, Scotland,

Doug:

London, all that, all that stuff.

Jenn:

So we did Ireland and Scotland.

Jenn:

We didn't know we were pregnant with our first and I drank Guinness like every day.

Jenn:

So I always say our first was swimming in Guinness.

Jenn:

We went to Kong Ireland when they filmed the quiet man, the John

Jenn:

Wayne movie, we stayed in Ashford castle where the whole cast stayed.

Jenn:

And we walked like a lot of the scenes of the quiet man.

Jenn:

We walked and did all of them.

Jenn:

It was, that was cool to do.

Jenn:

And we watched the quiet man pretty much every St.

Jenn:

Patrick's day.

Jenn:

So it was neat to actually be there and to see it.

Jenn:

And, uh, if you watch our top 10, John Wayne, like it's, it's in there for me.

Jenn:

It's it's coming.

Jenn:

That

Scott:

video is coming.

Scott:

And

Jenn:

that was like his, my top 10, that's his youngest role.

Jenn:

And I think he's 45 in it, but I think that's like John Wayne

Jenn:

at his, his almost his best.

Seth:

I can't, I can't remember the name of it.

Seth:

It's a, it's a temple in India.

Seth:

Um, and the only aspects that I remember of it is, is that.

Seth:

monks would go live their entire lives there.

Seth:

And the point of the temple is that it's built like a ziggurat, right?

Seth:

So you wind around it all the way to the top and the entire pathway, there

Seth:

are carvings, they're independent of each other and there's lessons

Seth:

to be learned from every carving.

Seth:

So monks would spend their entire lives meditating in front of a carving,

Seth:

trying to like, the divine, the deep meaning of what's there and slowly work

Seth:

their way up all the way to the top.

Seth:

When you get there, the, the view is so alien almost that it's like

Seth:

you've actually reached nirvana.

Seth:

And that was the whole point of it.

Jenn:

It

Seth:

was that by then, if you, if you have sussed out the meanings

Seth:

of each one of these things, then you have become enlightened.

Seth:

And then this is that place for you.

Seth:

And I just found that fascinating.

Jenn:

That is cool.

Jenn:

Well, you're a very visual guy, comic books, you know, like,

Seth:

yeah.

Jenn:

And I mean, if you're walking a tower and you're not looking out because

Jenn:

you're staring at the The carving, and you're not looking the other way,

Jenn:

then when you finally get to the top is the first time you're looking, then

Jenn:

yeah, it probably would seem awesome.

Seth:

Right?

Seth:

But that's what I'm talking about.

Seth:

Places like

Scott:

those.

Jenn:

Yeah, that's neat.

Jenn:

That is neat, though.

Scott:

Yeah, that's one of the places I had actually tried to go.

Scott:

was Nepal.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

We wanted to do the hike to ever space camp to Kevin.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

And, uh, when I, when I got out of the Navy at the time, it was off limits.

Scott:

Um, so I couldn't go.

Seth:

Well, I think, uh, I think that's what we'll call it for the day.

Seth:

I could sit here all night and talk about history with you guys.

Seth:

I love people that I can learn from.

Seth:

Um, and it's fun.

Seth:

Yeah, it is.

Seth:

It is.

Seth:

And especially like, like Doug and I were talking about the way that you

Seth:

guys deliver, um, Uh, the history makes you want to know more, makes you want

Seth:

to know more about, you know, American history, history in general, um, and it

Seth:

can sometimes spark that thirst for it.

Seth:

Yeah.

Seth:

Uh, which is, which is great.

Seth:

I think you guys do.

Seth:

An amazing service to, to the history itself and a service to everyone

Seth:

else, uh, by continuing to teach it.

Jenn:

Yeah.

Seth:

Um, I agree.

Seth:

So yeah.

Seth:

And also I agree.

Seth:

Thank you for your service.

Seth:

for your service.

Seth:

Even the

Jenn:

army guy,

Seth:

Doug's, Doug's hating this.

Seth:

You got no chance to go by.

Seth:

There's more Navy guys, bunch

Scott:

of Navy folks on this.

Scott:

You got no chance.

Doug:

I'll admit before we cut out, I will admit, so I work for the fleet

Doug:

and family support center at our.

Doug:

At our submarine base here in Connecticut.

Doug:

Oh, yeah.

Doug:

Okay.

Doug:

Oh, since I've started working for them, I've said the, the army and the

Doug:

Marines, they're, they're there to just like mess stuff up the Navy and the

Doug:

air force are definitely the smarter of the branches because it's like some of

Doug:

these people I talk to, I mean, granted, a lot of them are nukes and they just,

Doug:

you They have to just like dissect everything, but it's, I will admit, I am

Doug:

outnumbered in the smart department here.

Doug:

No, it was great.

Doug:

It was,

Scott:

this, this, this was, this was super, super fun guys.

Scott:

And we'll, I will absolutely make sure that we, we share this, uh,

Scott:

you know, a bunch, whenever you guys kind of end up getting it posted.

Scott:

So thank you for what you do.

Jenn:

Guys, I

Scott:

hope that anybody watching, especially anybody from our audience,

Scott:

um, that they may come over here and watch this and make it to this point.

Scott:

Like, you know, support the, your guys guardians of the purple harp foundation.

Scott:

That's awesome.

Scott:

Yeah, that's really awesome.

Scott:

Appreciate

Doug:

it.

Doug:

Thank you.

Scott:

Appreciate that.

Seth:

I'm going to close this tab, uh, how to sound smart at history.

Seth:

So, yeah, so real quick, before we close out, um, Tell us

Seth:

where we can find you guys.

Seth:

Um, I know you got the merchandise, which, you know, we brought up there.

Seth:

I'm absolutely getting one of these and one of these, the

Seth:

shirt and the bumper sticker.

Seth:

I love it.

Seth:

Um, I break for historic markers.

Seth:

I love it so much.

Seth:

And then we have our YouTube channel and we can find you on, I'm assuming Spotify.

Seth:

Yeah.

Seth:

So,

Scott:

so our walk with history stuff, obviously on YouTube.

Scott:

Um, The probably easiest place to find everything that we're doing, um, is

Scott:

our main website, which you can get to that main link on our YouTube channel,

Scott:

but it's walk with history dot net.

Scott:

Um, so walk with history dot net.

Scott:

Um, you'll you'll find links to our podcast, which is talk with history.

Scott:

Um, I try.

Scott:

A newsletter.

Scott:

I'm not very good at being consistent about it.

Scott:

So it went from monthly to by month by monthly.

Scott:

Um, but uh, but yeah, so pretty active on Instagram.

Scott:

If you're kind of for daily stuff, if you really want to interact with

Scott:

us, um, Instagram walk with history, uh, Jen's very, very active on there.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

Community is growing pretty fast.

Jenn:

Let us know where you're going to be.

Jenn:

I saw your booths and stuff.

Jenn:

I would love to come out and.

Jenn:

Collaborate and make a reel.

Jenn:

I like doing Instagram, like daily things.

Jenn:

There are some people who are much more into the daily Mm-Hmm.

Jenn:

quick bites of history.

Jenn:

And there's people who like the longer form videos, so.

Jenn:

Well,

Seth:

I'll tell you what, I'll, I'll, I'll promise you this as I

Seth:

go throughout my travels 'cause I'm always looking for fun history stuff

Seth:

I stumble across anything good.

Seth:

I'll make a post for it and I'll, I'll tag you guys.

Seth:

Perfect.

Jenn:

Perfect, perfect.

Seth:

Alright.

Seth:

It's gonna be awesome.

Seth:

Um, so yeah, we and you guys get

Scott:

your Patreon.

Scott:

I believe as well.

Scott:

We do have our Patreon.

Scott:

You know what?

Scott:

I love when people go over there.

Scott:

Um, in the future when I actually am not working full time and getting ready

Scott:

to move and all that stuff, I will invest more time into, into being able

Scott:

to put more out exclusive content.

Scott:

Um, really, if you, if you find our YouTube channel or if you find our

Scott:

podcast, um, those are the two places that, that we point people to the most.

Scott:

Patreon is great.

Scott:

Um, but, but I definitely don't, I don't push it out there too much because

Scott:

that's not the primary goal right now.

Scott:

The primary goal is for us to inspire people to get out there

Scott:

and go find historic places.

Scott:

So,

Seth:

well, you've successfully inspired over 22, 000 people to watch your channel.

Seth:

So yes, in 2001.

Seth:

I love it.

Seth:

There we go.

Seth:

Okay.

Seth:

Yeah, we are.

Seth:

We are.

Seth:

I subscribed on my personal account and the show's account.

Jenn:

Thank you.

Seth:

Absolutely.

Seth:

All right, folks.

Seth:

Well, it has been an absolute pleasure having you on the show.

Seth:

Um, and, uh, if we want to do this again, if you ever guys, whenever I

Seth:

come back on, all you gotta do is ask.

Seth:

Awesome.

Jenn:

Definitely

Seth:

once you definitely come into the fold of the Guardian family, you,

Seth:

you're here to stay as long as you want.

Seth:

Um, if you're in the area you wanna come out to event, I'm, I'll be there.

Seth:

I'm kidding.

Seth:

. Um, uh, yeah, if you're in the area at any point in time you wanna

Seth:

come out to an event that we're having, you're more than welcome.

Seth:

You can be our guest honor.

Seth:

Um, maybe we can actually get you in the studio.

Seth:

If that's ever the case.

Seth:

I don't expect some surface sailors to make it up to Connecticut.

Seth:

. Scott: Be a, be a little tougher for, for me.

Seth:

I'll, I'll leave, uh, gentle leave you with this.

Seth:

Um, I have two German shepherds that are named Maverick and goose.

Jenn:

Nice.

Jenn:

You guys are going to love this.

Jenn:

My maiden name before I married Scott was Mitchell.

Jenn:

So I was Lieutenant Mitchell and I heard all the jokes that my

Jenn:

name wasn't the best in the Navy.

Seth:

Yeah.

Seth:

Um, uh, Top Gun is, is Nick, our producer and our president for the

Seth:

Connecticut chapters and mine's favorite movie followed very,

Seth:

very closely by Wayne's world.

Jenn:

Hey, they're both great.

Doug:

Yeah.

Doug:

And you happen to forget that my ride name in the motorcycle

Doug:

community happens to be goose.

Seth:

So, all right, folks, we'll, we'll close it down here.

Seth:

Um, guys, thank you so much for coming on.

Seth:

But, uh, we greatly appreciate it.

Seth:

Uh, if you're watching at home, uh, make sure you subscribe

Seth:

to a walking the history.

Seth:

Uh, and if you're.

Seth:

Watching us for the first time.

Seth:

Be cool if you subscribe to us as well, you know, um, but they got a cooler show.

Seth:

We'll take it home from here.

Seth:

Um, as usual, thanks for watching, uh, share, like subscribe and,

Seth:

uh, stay proud, stay grateful.

Seth:

We'll see you next time,

Seth:

Joaquin, with history.

Seth:

That was awesome with history, Joaquin with history.

Seth:

Oh my God, , I'll do my outro.

Scott:

I hope you enjoyed our conversation with the Cover Down podcast.

Scott:

If you wanna support the Guardians of the Purple Heart, there are links in our

Scott:

show notes, or you can do a quick search for a Guardians of the Purple Heart.

Scott:

Thank you, and we'll talk to you next time.

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About the Podcast

Show artwork for Talk With History: Discover Your History Road Trip
Talk With History: Discover Your History Road Trip
A Historian and Navy Veteran talk about traveling to historic locations

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About your hosts

Profile picture for Scott B

Scott B

Host of the Talk With History podcast, Producer over at Walk with History on YouTube, and Editor of TheHistoryRoadTrip.com
Profile picture for Jennifer B

Jennifer B

Former Naval Aviator turned Historian and a loyal Penn Stater. (WE ARE!) I earned my Masters in American History and graduate certificate in Museum Studies, from the University of Memphis.

The Talk with History podcast gives Scott and me a chance to go deeper into the details of our Walk with History YouTube videos and gives you a behind-the-scenes look at our history-inspired adventures.

Join us as we talk about these real-world historic locations and learn about the events that continue to impact you today!

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Thank you to everyone who supports the show and keeps us up and running. Doing this with your support means that we can continue to share history and historic locations for years to come!
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Larry Z $25
Caught with every podcast. Discovered after learning about them through Pin-Ups For Vets when Jenn became an ambassador. WW II content my favorite.
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Jack B $5
Thank you for the great podcasts and for sharing your passion! Love hearing about the locations you visit.