Why did France give us a Statue of Liberty?

Part-Time Genius

iHeartPodcasts and Kaleidoscope

Society & Culture

4.6 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 14 November 2024

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Look, we love Lady Liberty as much as the next patriot. But why on Earth did France give America a massive and exoribitant gift that wasn't on our registry? Will and Mango dig into the bizarre Parisian dinner party that led to the idea, the mathematical word problem of a way the statue was built, why it competed with a walrus for early tourists' attention, and why Brigham Young, Ulysses S. Grant and Gustave Eiffel from Eiffel Tower fame all have more to do with it than you'd think!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	You're listening to Part-Time Genius, a production of kaleidoscope and IHeart Radio.
0:11.6	Guess what, Will? What's that, Mango? Did you know that Ellie, The Elephant, who is the mascot of the WMBA team here, the New York Liberty?
0:20.2	Did you know she has two stylists?
0:22.8	Two style. I'm definitely familiar with Ellie the elephant and it has been so much fun to see how much
0:28.0	buzz she's gotten over the past year or so, but I did not think about a mascot needing a stylist.
0:34.2	Well, you know, Ellie isn't just any old mascot. She twirks. She goes to childish Gambino
0:39.4	concerts, and she is a fashion trendsetter. And in the 2024 WMBA season, she was spotted carrying
0:47.2	a $420 purse. She's even been featured in vogue for her style. I don't know. It makes me feel
0:53.8	sort of sorry for Mr.
0:55.0	Met. He just seems pretty, pretty normcore at this point, but I can't say that I remember seeing
1:00.8	Ellie, like, way back when. Like, how long has she actually been representing the Liberty?
1:05.9	Yeah, I was actually wondering about this, too. Apparently, she only debuted in 2021, but she has obviously made quite an
1:13.1	impression, and it makes sense considering she's kind of a tribute to so much New York history.
1:18.7	Like what? The fact that she's an elephant for one, I'm not sure if you remember this, but P.T. Barnum
1:24.4	brought 21 elephants and 17 camels over the Brooklyn Bridge in 1884, and that was to help
1:31.2	prove it was really sturdy. And then there's her name, Ellie, which is an obvious name for an elephant,
1:37.7	but also a nod to Ellis Island. And of course, she wears a crown that looks just like the
1:43.4	Statue of Liberties. But watching
1:45.6	Ellie's rise to fame and the Liberty becoming WMBA champions this year, it had me thinking more
1:51.9	about the Statue of Liberty itself. And, you know, it's kind of easy to take it for granted as this
1:57.0	ever-present symbol of freedom and immigration. but it got me to wondering, why did the
2:02.6	French give this thing to us? And how do we get it here? So why don't we dive in?
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from iHeartPodcasts and Kaleidoscope, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of iHeartPodcasts and Kaleidoscope and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.