This is an I-Heart podcast.

You're listening to Part-Time Genius,

a production of kaleidoscope and IHeart Radio.

Guess what, Will?

What's that, Mingo?

So I was tracing the history of mascots this week, in particular, the furry, foam-headed ones we see at sporting events.

I'm glad that you just told me what a mascot looked like.

So what did you find?

It led me to the French opera, which is not what I think you'd expect.

Now, you might assume that the word mascot has something to do with the word mask, since so many mascots wear them.

But actually, mascot was derived from the French word for good luck charm.

The term first came to prominence thanks to an 1880 French operetta about a witch called La Muscat.

I have never heard of this. So tell me a little bit about this opera. What's it about?

So in the story, there's this young farm girl named Bettina who is born with a magical influence, and it brings

good luck to all the people around her. So the plot is mostly everyone just trying to take advantage

of that. Before this operetta, good luck charms in France had always been objects, but this operetta

posed the question, what if a person was a good luck charm? So Bettina was actually the first

modern mascot.

Now, unfortunately, she doesn't wear a goofy costume or even try to hype up the crowd with free t-shirts,

but she does represent the very beginning of these living good luck charms that we find everywhere

from pro sports to corporations to elementary schools.

And, you know, with fall sports just around the corner and starting to heat up,

...