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Ridiculous History

That Time a Baboon Worked for the Railroad

Ridiculous History

iHeartPodcasts

History, Society & Culture

4.24.7K Ratings

🗓️ 16 November 2021

⏱️ 39 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When a horrific accident left railroad signalman James Wide without the use of his legs, he was desperate to maintain his livelihood -- an effort that may well have been futile were it not for a chance encounter with a highly intelligent baboon named Jack. Jack began by assisting James with simple tasks, and gradually became competent enough do James Wide's job for him. In today's episode, the guys explore the strange circumstances that led to Signalman Jack becoming an actual railroad employee.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hi, I'm Natalie Emanuel.

0:03.3

From Ramsey in Fast and Furious to the Sunday Game of Thrones,

0:07.1

I love playing roles of women whose resourcefulness, intelligence and inner strengths are pushed to the limit.

0:12.8

Now, for the first time, we listen to a new podcast that brings you the stories of the fearless, powerful women leaders, war queens.

0:20.4

Join the Dautafire History Team of Emily and John Jordan every week.

0:24.8

Listen to War Queens on the IHOT Radio App, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

0:30.1

Hey there, I'm Scott Rank, host of the podcast History Unplugged.

0:33.3

Now, it really is a dream come true to get paid to talk about history without all the stress while still being able to make a living.

0:39.3

And I did it with Speaker from IHART.

0:41.7

Not only do they make it super easy to monetize my podcast, but ad revenue is three to four times higher with Speaker than with any other host I've worked with.

0:49.6

So if you want to turn your passion into a podcast and give this a try, visit speaker dot com. That's sparr eakr dot com.

0:58.0

Get paid to talk about the things you love.

1:00.8

Ridiculous history is a production of IHART radio.

1:27.6

Welcome back to the show Ridiculous historians. Thank you as always so much for tuning in.

1:33.2

Let's hear it for our one and only super producer, Mr. Max Williams.

1:37.0

You know him. You love him. He's live and direct.

1:41.2

I'm Ben and Noel. I got to tell you, man, this by way of tangent.

1:47.6

One of the first things I thought about when we were diving into today's story is how you and I and our colleague Matt has spent so many years.

1:57.6

Trying to get work to pay for us to ride Amtrak.

2:00.9

Yeah, we were trying to do it for a tour we did for us.

2:04.8

The thing I want you to know and then that being more expensive than just like renting a car.

2:08.4

It is a great way to travel though.

...

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