30. Alan Turing: Computer Daddy
History is Gay
Leigh Pfeffer
4.6 • 536 Ratings
🗓️ 15 July 2020
⏱️ 85 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode of History is Gay, Leigh and guest host Maren (@RygarBorgvoss) tackle the father of modern computing, and gay geek hero, Alan Turing! Whether he be sending love-struck letters about astronomy to his high school bestie, riding a bicycle in a gas mask, or completely revolutionizing mathematics and machinery, we're in awe of Alan. Listen as we talk about his successes and foibles, and how history did this code-breaking, number-crunching badass dirty.
Outline:
01:43 – Introduction
6:01 – Main Topic: Alan Turing: Computer Daddy
7:38 – Socio-Historical Context
11:53 – Who were they? Bio Time.
44:55 – 45:23 - Content warning: suicide mention
46:02 – Why do we think they're gay?
1:05:45 – Main Takeaways and Final Conclusions
1:05:49 – 1:08:41 - Content warning: suicide mention
1:19:27 – How Gay were They?
1:20:56 – Closing and Where to Find us Online
This episode is sponsored by Hank Green's new book, A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor. The book is out July 7th in physical, audio, and e-book wherever books are sold, or you can just go to hankgreen.com and that will get you where you need to go!
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, Queerlings. |
| 0:04.0 | Happy Wednesday. |
| 0:05.4 | Before we get into today's topic, I wanted to spend a few moments to tell you about surprise, our sponsor for this episode. |
| 0:14.4 | This episode is being sponsored by Hank Green and his new book, A Beautifully Foolish Endeavour. |
| 0:21.6 | Hank's first book, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, was released in 2018, the story of a young |
| 0:26.6 | woman thrown into and then growing her fame as the world suddenly has to deal with massive |
| 0:31.6 | changes in the form of contagious dreams and mysterious 10-foot-tall robots that have appeared |
| 0:36.1 | in every major city. |
| 0:42.8 | Well, now that novel is out in paperback or at your library, and also for cheap in audio forum, and the sequel and conclusion of the story, A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor, is out |
| 0:48.7 | to Sparkling Reviews. |
| 0:49.9 | The reason why you're hearing about this book on this podcast is because Hank wanted his publisher to sponsor a ton of small podcasts, but they said that that was too weird. |
| 0:59.1 | So instead, Hank took 5% of its advance from the book and did it himself because he loves podcasts and we love Hank. |
| 1:06.2 | Library Journal's starred review said, quote, throughout this adventurous, witty, and compelling novel, |
| 1:12.9 | Green delivers sharp social commentary on the power of social media and both the benefits and |
| 1:18.4 | horrendous consequences that follow when we give too much of ourselves to technology. |
| 1:23.3 | I think that sounds really rad. The book came out on July 7th in physical audio and e-book form |
| 1:29.6 | wherever books are sold, and you can also go to Hankgreen.com, and that'll get you where |
| 1:34.7 | you need to go. I hope you go out and read it. I hope you enjoy. I hope you enjoy this episode. |
| 1:43.1 | Hello, and welcome to History is Gay, a podcast that examines the underappreciated and overlooked queer ladies, gents, and gentle enbies that have always been there in the unexplored corners of history, because history has never been as straight as you think. |
| 1:59.9 | Music administrate as you think. |
| 2:24.1 | Hey folks, welcome back. History is gay is back. Thank you for giving us a, uh, a month of break. And I really hope that you took the opportunity to check out some of the podcasts that we recommended and listened to some really |
| 2:29.7 | wonderful voices. Uh, today I, Lee, hello, I'm Lee, I didn't even announce myself. I have a wonderful |
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