# Episode 102 - Band of Boys, Queen of Sweden & Offices of State

An episode of [Are You Quizzing Me?](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1663104901), 19 May 2025, 1 h 05 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/d7afa960/podcast/play/102879078/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-4-19%2F2b044b45-5e14-c531-32b0-ec2ac2f16b8d.mp3

Do you know which boy band achieved stardom in 1989, an achievement listed on Rolling Stone's "Top 25 Teen Idol Breakout Moments"? Do you know which song was performed as a tribute for Queen Silvia when she married the King of Sweden? Do you know which are the four Great Offices of State in the UK government? Tune in to find out!! You can reach us at Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/areyouquizzingme/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/areyouquizzingme Email: areyouquizzingme@gmail.com Subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/areyouquizzingme Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@areyouquizzingme/podcasts

## Transcript

[0:00] Welcome to Are You Quizzing Me. I am Vineet Nair with my Co host
[0:04] Aditya Kashyap. This is a quizzing trivia
[0:07] podcast show. Join us as we dive deep into
[0:10] history, science, pop culture and so much more.
[0:14] Let's get quizzing and we're back for episode #102 of Are You
[0:23] Quizzing Me? Your favorite quizzing and
[0:25] trivia podcast show. Aditya and I are back for
[0:28] another round of quizzing, and without further hullabaloo,
[0:32] let's go into the meat of the matter and let's start off with
[0:35] the audience question. This is a question I ask at the
[0:37] beginning of every episode, and the answer to which I will
[0:40] reveal at the end of it. So the question for today.
[0:45] White Knights is an 1848 short story by Fyodor Dostoevsky which
[0:51] has been adapted into Bollywood three times.
[0:54] The first was a loose adaptation starring Raj Kapoor in 1960
[0:59] directed by Manmohan Desai called Chaliya.
[1:02] The 2006 movie was a lesser known but critically acclaimed
[1:07] movie starring Abhay Deol and Sohali Khan by the name of
[1:10] Ahista Ahista. I want you to tell me what the
[1:13] third and more well known movie released in 2007 was.
[1:18] Let me repeat the question for you.
[1:19] White Knight is an 1848 short story by Fyodor Dostevsky which
[1:23] has been adapted into Bollywood three times.
[1:25] The first was a loose adaptation starring Raj Kapoor in 1960
[1:29] directed by Manmohan Desai called Chandiya.
[1:32] The 2006 movie was a lesser known but critically acclaimed
[1:35] movie starring Abedeol and Sohali Khan by the name of
[1:38] Ahesta. Ahesta named the 3rd and more
[1:41] well known movie released in 2007.
[1:44] And let me do do credit to where it is due.
[1:48] This question was sent in to us by Arjun Srikumar.
[1:51] Thank you, Arjun. I'm repurposing one of your
[1:54] questions as our audience question.
[1:56] And hopefully our audience will be able to figure this answer
[1:59] out. And Aditya will also figure the
[2:00] answer to this by the end of today's episode.
[2:04] Now that we've got that out of the way, let's start with a
[2:06] regular round of quizzing. And I will start off today's
[2:09] proceedings with a question. Aditya, Are you ready?
[2:12] This is a long one. Hit me.
[2:15] OK X is an American band from Dorchester, MA.
[2:21] The band consists of brothers Jonathan and Jordan Knight, Joey
[2:24] McIntyre, Danny Wood and YY being the band member.
[2:30] Y was originally accompanied by his brother Z or Z for a few
[2:36] months before Z left to form his own musical act.
[2:40] Formed in 1984, Eck. The band achieved stardom in
[2:44] 1989, an achievement listed as #16 on Rolling Stones Top 25
[2:50] Teen Idol Breakout moments. The group disbanded in 1994.
[2:56] In 2007, the group reunited to record an album and mount a
[3:01] concert tour in 2008. Since then, the group has
[3:04] released two more studio albums and have continued to tour.
[3:08] The modern K Pop audition and trainee system owes its
[3:13] inception partly due to the popularity of the band X in
[3:18] Korea in the 1990s. So let me recap the question for
[3:22] you. X is a band formed in 1984 from
[3:25] Dorchester, MA. The band members were Jonathan
[3:29] and Jordan Knight, Joey McIntyre, Danny Wood and YY was
[3:34] accompanied by his brother Zedd for a few months before Zedd
[3:38] left to form his own musical act.
[3:40] So which band am I talking about and whose popularity in Korea
[3:45] basically set the foundation for the modern day K pop audition
[3:48] and trainee system? This K pop thing, I remember one
[3:55] of the videos I was watching about the history of K pop, it
[3:58] spoke of a Korean band which which started off the trend and
[4:02] this was a boy band in Korea. But since you mentioned it's an
[4:05] American band so I'm guessing that's not the answer, no?
[4:10] So I'm not talking about K pop in general.
[4:12] The idol system and the K pop, the thing has been there since
[4:16] the 1930s and 40s. There have been idols from the
[4:18] very early ages of the limit to the 20th century.
[4:22] I'm talking about the auditioning of people for bands,
[4:27] forming the bands, putting in a trainee system, training them in
[4:30] dance and other things, and making a band out of them.
[4:33] That particular concept was inspired by the popularity of
[4:38] this particular band in Korea in the 90s.
[4:40] OK, the name Joey McIntyre somehow also rang a bell.
[4:46] Oh yeah, that's that, that that's my clue.
[4:49] That's that's a clue. Isn't he an actor as well?
[4:52] Yeah, he has acted, but not so much.
[4:54] I think mostly he's had how do I put this guest roles in sitcoms
[4:59] and other thing. He was a guest role guest star
[5:02] in Psych, one of my favorite shows, which I've mentioned many
[5:05] a time on this podcast. But yeah.
[5:07] OK, interesting because I thought that was probably a lead
[5:12] in but I can't picture this person so I.
[5:17] Yeah, that was like, that is a giveaway, if you know which I
[5:20] mean, like if you know Joey McIntyre really well, the answer
[5:23] is obvious. And then everything else just
[5:25] kind of falls into place. That's why I was, I debated on
[5:28] whether to keep that in. But then I was like, there's no
[5:30] point in asking you to guess Joey McIntyre.
[5:32] So I kept in Joey McIntyre and I left out somebody who you would
[5:36] know better. I am currently a little lost, a
[5:43] boy band which disbanded by the 1994 you said.
[5:47] Yes. Since you grew up also in the
[5:51] Middle East, I would say that this band was very, very popular
[5:55] among the youth. And they like, if you remember,
[5:58] Khalid Times had this youth, the magazine called Young Times.
[6:01] Yeah. Yeah, Young Times.
[6:04] There was so many posters of this band on Young Times and
[6:07] when they were like in their peak, every kind of issue had
[6:12] something or the other to do with this particular band.
[6:16] There was something they would mention very popular.
[6:20] I'll give you one more clue. This is a giveaway.
[6:22] Have you heard the song Summer Girls by the band LFOI?
[6:27] Think so? Yeah.
[6:28] Summer Girls sounds familiar. Yeah?
[6:30] OK, this band's name is literally the first word, first
[6:34] set of words in the Summer Girls.
[6:36] The song Summer Girls start with the name of this.
[6:38] Band. OK?
[6:39] No, I don't remember that song that well.
[6:41] So were they named after the song or did the song come after
[6:45] the band? Basically, they are paying
[6:48] tribute to the band by including them in the lyric.
[6:50] LFO I'm talking. About OK, so the song came after
[6:53] the yeah because again 1994 and all the boy bands I can think of
[6:59] like your Backstreet Boys and saying quest like which all
[7:02] disbanded also. All of them came way after this.
[7:06] These guys were the OG. The OG before your Backstreet
[7:12] Boys. I'm I'm perhaps a victim of my
[7:16] age right now because those are the the boy bands that I
[7:20] remember. Yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm a little.
[7:23] I mean not by a little. I mean a lot older than you.
[7:25] So then I remember this band at their headache.
[7:27] Interesting. Like, they were disbanding by
[7:29] the time I started actually absorbing popular culture.
[7:34] But I mean, like, you know, the Middle East in the 90s, we were
[7:38] still catching up with the 80s a lot for a lot of the early 90s.
[7:41] So this was still playing on the radio stations.
[7:45] They were still popular. Records were still available.
[7:47] Interesting. OK, let's let's let's ask you
[7:52] for another hint. We need give me one more hint
[7:54] maybe? OK, so another hint I can give
[7:57] you is why who I'm talking about Y&Z currently are known more or
[8:06] known less for their musical talent nowadays and are known
[8:08] more for their acting talent. OK.
[8:12] Yeah, Why especially has been part of a very, very popular
[8:16] movie franchise. Why is the brother who left or
[8:21] why is the brother who stayed? No, no.
[8:22] Why is the why is the person who's in the band who's still in
[8:25] the band? Basically now, even after they
[8:27] came back together, he's still in the band.
[8:30] And he was in a movie franchise. Oh yeah, Very, very popular
[8:33] movie franchise. Giving me the name of the
[8:36] franchise would be a giveaway. Maybe he's in.
[8:40] Let me just say he's in three of the movies in that franchise.
[8:44] Alright, that's that's. He's in three of the movies.
[8:48] Tough one. And he's also part of AI think
[8:51] it ran for 14 seasons. There was a a very, very, very
[8:55] popular TV drama which ran for 14 seasons and he was part of
[8:59] that as well. Oh, and he said his brother is
[9:05] an actor as well. Oh yes.
[9:07] Z is an actor as well. Two brothers who are actors.
[9:12] Z actually became famous as a model and a singer, but now the
[9:19] present generation, current generation wouldn't even
[9:21] remember that he used to be a rapper.
[9:24] Oh OK, that always sounds like Will Smith to me.
[9:26] But Will Smith does not have a brother.
[9:28] The other brothers, I can think of the Wilsons, but I don't
[9:33] think either of them ever had a singing career.
[9:34] I don't think Owen Wilson with his nasal voice would.
[9:39] He would be a very distinctive singer, but not.
[9:43] OK, let me put it this way, the franchise I was talking about of
[9:47] which why he was a part, he didn't appear.
[9:49] He's like he's there in three of the movies, not more There OK
[9:52] has around 10 installments in that particular franchise. 10
[9:56] Installments 10 and that's not like not spin offs instead of
[10:02] like proper 10 installments in that.
[10:04] Yes, proper 10, proper 10, the name is there like the name of
[10:09] the franchise is there in every one of those.
[10:11] Interesting. So there are very few like that
[10:13] there is the Fast and the Furious.
[10:15] There is there are some horror franchise which have had that.
[10:19] Interesting. Fast and the Furious, No, I
[10:22] don't think anybody is. There has been a singer.
[10:25] No, that's not true. There have been, but none that I
[10:29] can think of in this context. Let me see, horror franchise,
[10:33] any of the Freddy Krueger Halloween.
[10:37] OK, give me something else, some other, because I think the film
[10:40] and the acting career might lead me to it.
[10:41] Something some acting clue with Wire Z?
[10:44] OK Z, the brother who initially was in the band of Who Left, has
[10:51] collaborated with the filmmaker Peter Berg for a number of
[10:56] films. Peter Berg.
[10:59] Yeah. Peterburg has made a lot of
[11:01] action films, right? I think he's made some action
[11:03] films. Yes, Peterburg did a lot of
[11:05] action films. Yes, so.
[11:06] This guy's an action star. Who is it?
[11:11] The brothers? Mark Wahlberg, Donnie Wahlberg?
[11:14] Mark and Donnie Wahlberg. Ha ha.
[11:16] Yes. So it is Mark Wahlberg and Tony
[11:19] Wahlberg. Tony.
[11:19] Wahlberg was in SAW was in SAW, Yes, OK.
[11:22] Yes, he was in SAW, Yes. Donnie Wahlberg's band, which
[11:26] Mark Wahlberg was a part of. And then he quit.
[11:30] Oh, Donnie Wahlberg was this one.
[11:35] The boys, The boys in the hood. The boys in the hood.
[11:41] No, that's not it. No, no.
[11:43] Something like that. I am so close to this.
[11:51] I'm, I'm going to give it to you.
[11:52] You've got like maybe a little bit of it.
[11:55] It's new Kids on the Block. New Kids on the Block.
[11:57] NKOTB. Yes, New kids on the block.
[12:00] All right, Right, right, Right. Now, as they are now known, now
[12:03] known their NKOTB. But let me just put everything
[12:06] together for you. New kids on the block.
[12:09] Donnie Wahlberg and Mark Wahlberg were part of the
[12:12] original lineup. But then Mark did not think it
[12:15] was edgy enough. So then he went on and formed
[12:18] his own musical act, Marky Mark, followed by the infamous Calvin
[12:22] Klein modeling and and then he became a big movie star, Tony
[12:27] Wahlberg. The show I was talking about was
[12:30] Blue. Bloods.
[12:30] Blue bloods. He was on Blue Bloods for I
[12:32] think around 14. I was 14.
[12:33] I think seasons and not right. But.
[12:35] New Kids on the Block was a huge phenomenon in the 80s and the
[12:39] early 90s, and the tribute paid to them was in the song Summer
[12:44] Girls by British techno group LFO.
[12:47] You remember the song now that I've told you it's New Kids on
[12:49] the Block. Summer.
[12:51] No, I can't remember. Recall the song right, I think.
[12:53] Yeah, the song, the song starts off the first photos of the
[12:55] first verse of the song goes New Kids on the Block had a bunch of
[13:00] hates, Chinese food Makes me sick and I had to get fly when
[13:03] it goes by for the summer, for the summer, perfect.
[13:07] And it goes on. It's a very catchy song, very
[13:09] 90s, very catchy song. Should definitely go ahead.
[13:11] You should have a full version of that from you one day.
[13:13] Oh no, no, no, no, no, no. OK, just another piece of
[13:16] trivia. The Commonwealth of
[13:18] Massachusetts, particularly former former Massachusetts
[13:21] Governor Michael Dukakis, declared April 24th, 1989 as New
[13:25] Kids on the Block Day. That's funny.
[13:29] OK, I love that. OK, a little bit of a story I
[13:32] told you in the beginning, this is going to be a long 1, so a
[13:34] little bit of a story behind this.
[13:35] In the early 1990s, a man named Maurice Starr discovered Pop RnB
[13:39] quintet New Edition and guided their early success.
[13:43] After he was fired by New Edition for embezzling funds,
[13:46] Star and his partner decided to create a white counterpart.
[13:50] Act 15 year old Donnie Wahlberg impressed Star with his rapping
[13:55] skills, becoming the group's first member.
[13:58] He was originally joined by his younger brother Mark, who left
[14:01] the group after only a few months.
[14:03] Donnie then recruited his school friends Jamie Kelly, Jordan
[14:06] Knight and Danny Wood to join the group.
[14:09] Knight was followed into the group by his older brother
[14:10] Jonathan Knight and Kelly left the group early on when a search
[14:14] was made to find a Michael Jackson esque singer to replace
[14:18] Kelly. Starr recruited 12 year old Joey
[14:21] McIntyre who initially struggled to fit in with the group.
[14:25] With the final lineup in place, Starr rehearsed the boys after
[14:28] school and on weekends and eventually secured the Group A
[14:32] recording, contracted Columbia Recording.
[14:35] Now, when NKOTB became a huge hit in Korea, like, the story
[14:39] came out, like, this is how the band was made.
[14:41] Like, you know, these people came in, they auditioned and
[14:43] they trained them to become pop stars.
[14:46] Like, this wasn't a group of friends who got together in a
[14:49] garage or jammed out to music and made their own band.
[14:51] This was a manufactured band. So SM Entertainment Company
[14:57] Limited was a South Korean multinational entertainment
[14:59] agency established in 1995 by Lee Suman.
[15:04] It's currently one of the largest entertainment companies
[15:06] in South Korea, and it's been responsible fostering of and
[15:08] popularizing the careers of many K pop stars.
[15:12] He basically got the inspiration from this for this from New Kids
[15:18] on the Block. Right, I think I've read this
[15:20] also in the history of K pop. Now that you see, it makes
[15:24] sense. I went down a huge K pop rabbit
[15:27] hole after Jenny like Jenny released.
[15:29] I mean, you can't avoid that song.
[15:31] That song is everywhere. Actually, I think this explained
[15:35] series on Netflix, one of their episodes was K Pop.
[15:38] That's where I remember reading about this.
[15:39] So yeah, pop culture recommendation in the middle and
[15:42] explained series, The explained series, which is a collaboration
[15:45] between Vox, the YouTube channel which I have recommended in the
[15:47] past, and Netflix. And they released the explained
[15:51] series and they have some mind explained, which is a spin off
[15:54] as well. So they have a couple of those
[15:56] shows and episodes, so check all of them out.
[15:59] But lovely piece of trivia, New kids on the block.
[16:01] I mean, how could I have said Boys in the Hood?
[16:03] NKOTB, Yeah. Fun piece of throwback right
[16:10] there. Thank you so much for that
[16:12] because I'm going to go on a binge of new Kids on the Block
[16:14] songs now, but I feel like I can't really recall the songs
[16:18] off the top of my head and I'm gonna listen to some of them.
[16:21] Yeah, neither can I I remember one of their comeback songs,
[16:25] which was what was it to do, is come figure out a remix.
[16:29] I like the remix, baby. OK.
[16:31] One of the comeback songs when they were reformed in the early
[16:35] twenty 20s. They had a early 20 tens.
[16:38] I think they had a song called I like the remix.
[16:40] Right. Well, something for all of us to
[16:44] listen to, I guess. Yeah.
[16:46] And since New Kids on the Block were all about bucking the
[16:51] system, I don't know, this is just the worst segue ever.
[16:54] No, no, no, absolutely not through the.
[16:57] Establishment and they came up with their own way of doing
[17:00] things. They did not.
[17:02] They were. They were saccharine sweet
[17:04] teenage pop boys. OK, so things that pop, I guess.
[17:09] I don't know. This is just the worst segue.
[17:10] Let's let's assume that I had something clever to say.
[17:13] Yeah. And the question that brings me
[17:15] to is a list actually. OK.
[17:19] Currently has only two entities on it.
[17:22] Yeah. Then it's not a list.
[17:24] This list at some point had various other entities too.
[17:27] Oh, OK. Right now the two are Madagascar
[17:31] and Mauritania. OK.
[17:34] I would assume that you roughly know where these two countries
[17:38] are, both in Africa? The Indian Ocean, right?
[17:42] Yeah. Mauritania is on the coast.
[17:43] And the singers in India Island on the Indian Ocean?
[17:47] Yeah. Also a very famous movie
[17:49] franchise. Yeah, so.
[17:52] Oh, please don't remind me. I've tired of hearing.
[17:55] I like to move it. Move it.
[17:56] My son is obsessed with that song.
[17:58] Hey, that's better than having to listen to Coco Melon.
[18:03] Coco Melon. Oh yeah.
[18:05] You know, he went through that phase.
[18:06] Trust me. He's just stuck on this now.
[18:09] Progress. I guess so currently there's
[18:12] Mauritania and Madagascar on that list.
[18:15] OK. There have been other entities
[18:17] on this list as well. I'll give you some of the other
[18:20] famous ones. There was the United Kingdom at
[18:24] some point, Switzerland, then CM, now Thailand.
[18:30] Portugal was on it at some point.
[18:32] Poland was on it as well. The Ottoman Empire, Japan, Iran,
[18:38] India was actually on it as well.
[18:40] Yeah, France. So quite a few countries,
[18:44] empires, various aggregations of land, I guess at various points
[18:51] of time. Do you want to tell me what is
[18:54] the thing that connects or what list what this list is off that
[18:58] today only contains two countries, Mauritania and
[19:01] Madagascar? Absolutely nothing comes to
[19:03] mind. OK.
[19:05] I know that Madagascar was a Portuguese colony.
[19:08] At one point you told me that Portugal was also on the list,
[19:12] but then the UK doesn't make sense.
[19:13] So because otherwise India also had like Portuguese colonies.
[19:17] I don't know which whether if Portugal had a colony in
[19:21] Mauritania, but I'm guessing no. No.
[19:25] So in this case, that's not what we're looking at.
[19:28] So this is a tough question at the outset, but my 2 following
[19:32] hints might lead you to it. So my first hint is another
[19:35] entity on this list was the Eurozone and the Eurozone was on
[19:39] it for a brief file before certain laws or or let's say
[19:45] certain processes came into place or were established in the
[19:48] Eurozone. So for a brief file from its
[19:50] establishment till certain things are solidified, Eurozone
[19:53] was on this list as well. OK, I don't something.
[20:00] Oh I'm I'm completely clueless here.
[20:02] OK. Doesn't also help that I'm not
[20:05] exactly sure what the Eurozone is.
[20:07] Interesting, So do you know what the difference between the EU
[20:11] is, the Schengen is and the Eurozone is?
[20:14] Oh yeah, no, no, not really. I know the Schengen there's a
[20:19] Schengen visa, so I'm guessing they're subsets of the EU in
[20:24] some form. OK, So perfect.
[20:26] So you're somewhere on there. And of course, there are like
[20:29] 1000 technicalities in this. Let's just delve a little bit
[20:31] deeper into this because the EU obviously a political entity
[20:36] which is meant to, to facilitate a bunch of things including
[20:39] trade and free movement of people and goods and also I
[20:42] think military and all of those things, right?
[20:45] In the EU there is a subset which is the Eurozone and
[20:50] Eurozone only has 20 member states.
[20:52] There are 7 non eurozone members of the EU.
[20:57] Let me give you those seven members.
[20:59] Let me see if that leads you to what the Eurozone is.
[21:01] If it doesn't, I'll tell you what it is.
[21:03] Seven non euro zone members of the EU are Bulgaria, Czech
[21:06] Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Sweden.
[21:11] Monarchies, but no, then Monaco and a few others will be part of
[21:16] that. No, I have no clue.
[21:17] OK. By the way, Schengen, not that
[21:19] that's relevant to this conversation, but Schengen has
[21:21] to do with the visa which allows for.
[21:24] Easier tourism? Yeah, that's what I've heard of
[21:26] the Schengen. Visa very prominently has
[21:29] Switzerland in it, whereas Switzerland is not part of the
[21:34] EU. OK.
[21:37] Anyways, so, yeah. And then there are some places
[21:40] which are part of Eurozone, but not necessarily part of EU, and
[21:45] these are Andorra, Monaco, San Marino, Vatican City.
[21:48] OK, But let's get into a little bit more specifics after a
[21:50] while. But I'll give you the second
[21:52] clue here and that might lead you to the answer.
[21:55] So there are some fictional entities also in this list.
[22:00] OK, so I said there are two entities on it right now, but
[22:03] the fictional ones I guess can be included in it whenever you
[22:07] want to. So the Harry Potter universe is
[22:10] part of it. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the
[22:14] Galaxy. That particular fictional
[22:16] universe is part of it. What?
[22:23] That doesn't make any sense. The Earth explodes at the
[22:25] beginning of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
[22:27] You know when Harry Potter has no Earth explosions in it?
[22:30] And Star Trek Deep Space 9 is also part of this.
[22:36] What Deep space 9? OK, this is a very weird list
[22:43] and you have a history of making very weird list, but I don't
[22:48] think there's been a weirder one ever.
[22:50] This is just wow. I have no clue.
[22:53] OK, absolutely. What's coming back to Eurozone,
[22:56] which should hopefully lead you to the answer the Eurozone.
[23:00] The only distinction between the countries which are part of EU
[23:02] and not part of Eurozone is that those seven countries, Bulgaria,
[23:06] Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Poland, Romania and
[23:08] Sweden continue to use their own national currencies.
[23:12] Oh OK, so these are countries which use a common currency.
[23:16] The euro then? So the euro is only common to
[23:19] the 20 member states of the Eurozone.
[23:23] Oh OK. Eurozone is a currency union,
[23:26] basically. Oh OK, it's a currency union.
[23:29] Nice. So the Eurozone was on this
[23:32] list, but is no longer. The eurozone was on this list
[23:37] for a while and then when certain rules regarding the
[23:41] currency were fixed and that's when it came off the list.
[23:47] Is it the gold standard or something?
[23:50] No. Are these currencies on the gold
[23:52] standard? No.
[23:53] I I believe every country in the world was using the gold
[23:55] standard or something at some point.
[23:56] At some point, yeah. So the US would have been on
[23:59] this list as well, but I don't think the US was ever.
[24:01] That's what came to when you said the Harry Potter universe
[24:03] they use gold coins. So do you remember a little bit
[24:10] more specific details about the Harry Potter universe and its
[24:13] currency? OK, Sickles, Nuts.
[24:18] Galleons and there's absolutely no sense as to how things like
[24:25] it always bugged me. Their currency consisted of gold
[24:28] coins but my and his parents were able to afford everything.
[24:33] Like where's the exchange? Like where do they go to
[24:36] exchange muggle money for wizard money?
[24:40] Yeah, there must be some Ministry of Magic department
[24:42] which does just that and which is ridiculous because they could
[24:45] probably magic up any amount of currency they wanted to.
[24:48] Exactly. Yeah, so but.
[24:52] Those don't last, right? I think it's there in the 4th
[24:55] book, the one with the Quidditch Quidditch World Cup.
[24:58] They're disappearing gold coins, but I I meant they could magic
[25:01] up the they could magic up dollar notes.
[25:04] I guess that shouldn't that sounds in the realm of
[25:07] possibility. Yeah, no, but I don't think they
[25:08] would be able to have the consistency to create like
[25:11] proper dollar notes because everything in the visiting world
[25:13] is really weird, right? No, we, we, we have digressed
[25:17] quite. A bit we have digressed, but you
[25:20] were close when you mentioned the galleon, the sickles and the
[25:23] nuts. OK, that's silver and bronze.
[25:28] Nuts of bronze. Galleons were gold.
[25:32] Sickles were silver. What?
[25:33] I don't know man what you said. Deep Space 9.
[25:37] Deep Space 9 Yes. Star Trek Deep Space 9 also has
[25:40] this. I don't remember anything in
[25:42] Deep Space 9 about currency. II came off this list.
[25:48] I think India might help you. India came off this list in
[25:50] 1957. 1957 Wait, are these countries where the the currency
[25:59] is linked to the dollar, where it goes one to one with the
[26:01] dollar? No, no, no.
[26:04] One of the first times that demonetization happened in
[26:07] India. OK.
[26:09] So it's so. This is a country which is never
[26:12] D These are the only two countries which are never
[26:14] demonetized. Oh, that's actually a fun guess.
[26:17] But no, then Eurozone would not make sense, right?
[26:19] Eurozone was on it for a brief. OK I am so swimming in a pond of
[26:24] confusion right now I I can't get out of my head how you got
[26:28] deep space 9 on it. OK, Deep Space 9 by the way has
[26:35] bricks of gold press latinum which is the currency used
[26:40] there. So basically this has to do with
[26:42] the. Ferengi, the Ferengi the Ferengi
[26:44] user. Platinum is used by the Ferengi.
[26:46] You know, the goblin like creatures.
[26:48] They have their traders and generally considered
[26:52] untrustworthy. The Hitchhikers Get to the
[26:55] Galaxy has the trigalic poo. It sounds like a ridiculous name
[27:00] for a currency, but yes. Yeah, I get all of that.
[27:02] These are currencies, but what do they have in common with
[27:06] Monitanian? Currency and the Madagascarian
[27:11] currency. No clue what is.
[27:14] It OK, I feel like I've I've tormented you enough.
[27:17] No, but I'm, I'm now I'm like, I really have to get this.
[27:21] This is ridiculous. This is.
[27:24] Does it have to do with denominations?
[27:26] Oh yes, yes, yes, very close, very close.
[27:28] What about denominations specifically?
[27:32] These are currencies which don't follow a base 10 denomination.
[27:37] The perfect the non decimal currency.
[27:40] These are all non decimal currencies.
[27:43] OK. So a decimal currency is a
[27:48] currency where the subunit subunit obviously being rupee
[27:51] and pesos, dollars and cents, EUR and cents.
[27:55] All of these are subunits or cents or the subunit or rupesse
[27:58] at the subunit. These are not in the power of
[28:03] 10. So not not divided by like 10 of
[28:07] base 10 basically not ten of something makes the the full
[28:11] unit or 100 of something makes the full unit, which obviously
[28:14] is the case in passe and cents. So coming back to our list in
[28:19] Mauritania, and I'm going to butcher this pronunciation, but
[28:22] one Ogia, which is their currency, one Ogia is equal to 5
[28:28] Combs and in Madagascar one Aryari is equal to 5 Iran
[28:35] Bilania. Oh my Lord, this is.
[28:39] Yeah, OK. So those are the only two
[28:42] currently the only two countries right now which have non decimal
[28:46] currencies as. Legal tender like you said, the
[28:50] how do you how do you pronounce it, Ogia?
[28:52] Oh, go yeah. Oh, go.
[28:54] Yeah. Oh.
[28:55] Go, yeah, is 5 something? That's right.
[28:59] But then that's obviously then you you can decimalize that,
[29:02] right? Five will be .2.
[29:04] Technically you can decimalize anything because decimal is just
[29:08] division representation of fraction and as long as it is
[29:12] divisible it should be fine. But no, in this case the
[29:16] specific scenario is that it's not ten or a power of 10.
[29:20] So 1000 thousand or a power of 10, OK.
[29:24] Exactly. Exactly.
[29:26] Which also, by the way, technically you can decimalize
[29:28] even the Anas, which is what happened in India, the ₹1.16
[29:32] Anas, which was initially the case, or 64 paise.
[29:36] It used to be 64 paise or 192 paise and that eventually
[29:40] changed in 1957 when India decimalized its currency and it
[29:46] just became 100 paise at that point.
[29:49] Making things a lot easier. Yeah, I met other places that I
[29:52] mentioned. Let me give you some more
[29:54] examples. Ottoman Empire, It had one
[29:56] kurus, which were 40 paras or 120 oxy.
[30:01] Jesus Christ, what are these words?
[30:05] Poland had one zloty, which was equal to 30 Grossi.
[30:09] Portugal, I think you should start.
[30:10] Poaching languages, right? One real in Portugal was equal
[30:15] to 840 DIN heroes, which sounds so so torturous.
[30:22] Why would you make anything 840? That just is painful.
[30:26] Really. Really.
[30:27] Why would you have a yard then? What is a mile?
[30:30] Oh, that brings me to the United Kingdom and a lot of the
[30:34] countries which are formerly part of the British Empire,
[30:35] where 1 LB is 4 crowns, 20 shillings, 240 pence, 960
[30:39] farthings. And these were all acceptable
[30:43] numbers You. You think that is bad?
[30:45] the United Kingdom still in many places uses stone as a form of
[30:50] measurement. And for our audience who may or
[30:53] may not know this, a stone is roughly around 6.3 or 6.4
[30:58] kilograms, right? So when you say that somebody,
[31:02] oh, that kid weighs 2 stone, you're basically saying that
[31:06] kids weighs like 13 kilograms. It's an arbitrary, I don't
[31:10] understand how you come to 6.3 of anything.
[31:12] I've just This is just ridiculous right now.
[31:15] Well Harry Potter has one gallon which is equal to 17 sickles
[31:18] which is equal to 493 nuts and that is ridiculous as well.
[31:23] JK Rowling has been cancelled for a lot of things.
[31:25] I think this is one of the things that she should be
[31:27] cancelled for. Where the hell is it?
[31:29] 17 sickles and 490? Three, no, I I will actually die
[31:33] on that hill that that actually tells us that Wizards don't
[31:39] exactly think in terms of linear.
[31:41] They don't think linearly in any aspect.
[31:44] Look at you making sense out of these fictional universes.
[31:48] Love that. Love that.
[31:51] Yeah. And Star Trek Deep Space 91
[31:53] brick of gold pressed latinum is equal to 20 bars of 400 strips
[31:57] of 40,000 slips. In A Hitchhiker's Guide to the
[32:01] Galaxy, a trigonic poo is subdivided into 8 mingis.
[32:06] So yeah, there are all of these examples of non decimal
[32:10] currencies and that was the list in question.
[32:15] A nice one that was a very that was very illuminating to say the
[32:19] least, but very confusing at the same time.
[32:23] And we all had the privilege of hearing Aditya butchered foreign
[32:27] languages. Always worth it.
[32:30] Goodwin OK, so moving on from money, which is not of the base
[32:38] 10 to a song that was literally money.
[32:44] Oh. Not literally money, I'm just
[32:46] this is like money as in it made a lot of money.
[32:48] OK, fine. So not literally, literally, not
[32:50] literally. Literally, not literally.
[32:53] On June 18th, 1976, a now famous Euro pop song saw its first live
[32:59] performance when it was televised during a gala in honor
[33:03] of Carl 16th Gustav. Not Carl Gustav the 16th Carl 16
[33:09] Gustav and his soon to be bride Sylvia Somerlath, who were
[33:15] married the next day. What is the title of this song?
[33:19] So when was? This this was in 18th June 1976.
[33:25] Oh wow, 1976. So for those who don't know,
[33:32] Carl 16th Gustaf is the king of Sweden.
[33:36] Oh yeah, I don't know that. Yeah, so he's the king of Sweden
[33:41] and he was just about to marry Sylvia Somerlaf.
[33:48] This is in the 1970s, right? 70s euro pop song Song in the
[33:54] honor of Karl. 16th Gustaf The 16th Gustaf, Who was a Karl?
[34:01] This was So was the song created in honor of the the No.
[34:05] It was not created in honor, but it was performed in honor of the
[34:11] soon to be bride and groom and it's a very apartment name.
[34:16] Oh, a lot of love songs would fit the bill.
[34:25] The 70s yes is. Rolling Stones is not the
[34:31] soundtrack of the 70s. Right, most of the 60s, but I
[34:36] forgive you. But again, I would stress
[34:39] certain aspects of this question and hopefully you can get to the
[34:42] answer. I would stress that Carl 16th
[34:46] Gustav is the king of Sweden. Sweden.
[34:51] Oh, that means ABBA. Aha, OK.
[34:54] AB Dancing Queen. This would have to be Dancing
[34:57] Queen. Very good, very good.
[34:58] Yes, it is Dancing Queen. So it was performed live for the
[35:02] first time in a gala in honor of Carl, 16, Gustaf and soon to be
[35:06] bride Sylvia Somerlath, who would then become the Queen of
[35:09] Sweden the very next day. And this song is very aptly
[35:14] Dancing Queen. Nice.
[35:15] Well done. Very cool.
[35:17] Very. Cool, now it's your turn to
[35:19] stump me. OK, since we were talking about
[35:23] the 70s, this is something that started in 1960.
[35:28] Well, 8 but sure, close enough to the 70s.
[35:33] Do you know the director whose career started in 1968 with the
[35:39] film Fade In? And the most latest entry in his
[35:45] filmography is Anatar in 2023? So the first film was Fade in
[35:51] 1968 and Anatar in 2023. OK Anatar I have no clue.
[36:03] Never heard of that movie paid in.
[36:05] Not heard of that either. Is are these movies which are
[36:08] like very famous for some reason?
[36:13] Let me give you some more clues. Then there is a Meet Joe Black,
[36:18] the Insider Heat. Meet Joe Black.
[36:22] OK? Now keep going.
[36:24] Keep going. Scent of a woman.
[36:27] OK. These are movies on this
[36:30] particular director's list. Why do I know that this are
[36:33] these names all belong on a list?
[36:34] I, I, I know this for some reason.
[36:39] Give me a few more. Give me a few more.
[36:41] OK so I gave you the 1st and the most recent films.
[36:44] So first one was Fade In in 1968 and the most recent one was
[36:48] Anatar in 2023. Both of them probably not the
[36:51] more famous examples in this filmography.
[36:54] So let me give you the more famous examples in this
[36:57] filmography. There is Dune, the 1984 version,
[37:02] but not the recent version. Obviously.
[37:04] There is Heat in 1995 version. There is Meet Joe Black.
[37:10] There is the insider who is the director of these films.
[37:15] No, I know for a fact that Dune was directed by David Lynch.
[37:20] Very famously directed by David Lynch and Heat.
[37:23] Damn you and Damn you to Hell was directed by the great
[37:26] Michael Mann. So whoever you're talking about,
[37:29] this is definitely not Michael Mann, because it's not David
[37:33] Lynch. I know for a fact that this is
[37:34] Michael Mann and David Lynch. OK, but these are movies in the
[37:39] filmography of this director, Vineet.
[37:40] I don't know what to tell you You.
[37:41] Know I reject your reality and substitute my own.
[37:46] I I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree, but I in this
[37:50] case I am right and I will have to point out that you are also
[37:54] right, but in a twisted, roundabout way, I am more right
[38:00] or I'm differently. Right.
[38:02] No, no, no, no. Facts.
[38:05] See this is this. Just because Trump is president
[38:08] doesn't give you the right to, you know, just say whatever you
[38:11] want. Apparently does.
[38:15] I know for a fact. Wait, the insider was also
[38:18] Michael Mann. What are you talking about?
[38:20] The Insider. The 1999 version is Michael
[38:25] Mann, Yeah. Yeah, it's Michael Mann.
[38:27] It's a thing. What?
[38:29] Russell Crowe and Al Pacino movie.
[38:32] Yeah, but no, it's not. What are you talking about?
[38:36] It's not. I don't know what to tell you,
[38:38] really. This These are movies on the
[38:40] filmography of this director. These are movies like me, Joe
[38:44] Black, frankly speaking, not a great movie, but it's a it's a
[38:50] like an iconic 1 Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins.
[38:52] Brad Pitt plays death. Spoiler alert.
[38:55] Death of a Gunfighter in 1969. Twilight Zone the Movie in 1983.
[39:01] Death of a Gunfighter that that's also, that's a pretty
[39:05] famous film, right? I don't I don't know who
[39:09] directed Death of a Gunfighter but dude I I I really don't know
[39:14] what you're asking me because all the movies that you
[39:17] mentioned I know are a fact for a fact are not directed by the
[39:22] same person. OK, so OK, let me tell you this.
[39:26] OK, you are right. I'm not denying the reality that
[39:29] you you so adhere to Michael Mann did direct the insider.
[39:35] It's reality. It's a.
[39:37] Fact. Michael Mann did direct The
[39:39] Insider, but a version of The Insider of the same movie was
[39:45] under the filmography of another director.
[39:48] Version of the. The version that was edited for
[39:52] television. Oh, OK, OK, I know this.
[39:56] I don't, I don't. I don't know what the name is
[39:58] called, but there's a pseudonym. That is when they like after
[40:03] directing a movie, if the studio butchers it for some reason, the
[40:08] director some size says that I don't want my name attached to
[40:10] it, so they put some kind of pseudonym on it.
[40:12] Is that the thing? Alan Smithy is the name of the
[40:17] the pseudonym. Yes, you are right.
[40:19] But again, I watched Heat like a couple of months ago on OTT and
[40:24] it still said directed by Michael Mann.
[40:27] So on OTT it probably is the original director's cut.
[40:30] There was a version that was edited for TV.
[40:33] Oh, OK. And that probably maybe it cut
[40:36] down on the violence. I'm not sure what it was that it
[40:38] was different but that the re edited TV release.
[40:42] The credit is to Alan Smithy. OK, OK, so Alan Smithy was is
[40:49] the pseudonym for whenever a director wanted to say that
[40:54] this. Movie is not to be credited for
[40:55] it. Yeah, OK.
[40:56] June The 1984 one directed by David Lynch.
[41:00] The name Alan Smithy was used only for the version as extended
[41:03] and edited for broadcast television again.
[41:05] Oh, OK, yeah. And in addition to the Smithy
[41:09] directing credit for the broadcast version, Lynch's
[41:12] screen writing credit goes to Judas Booth, a reference to
[41:16] Judas Iscariot and John Wilkes Booth.
[41:20] Oh, that's really not like that TV version.
[41:26] So some very famous directors have used it over the years.
[41:28] Stuart Rosenberg, Masato Harada, Dennis Hopper, Michael Gottlieb,
[41:34] William Fred Kane, all of these directors who have made a bunch
[41:36] of films, they have chosen to not take the credit for certain
[41:40] versions of the films or the final product of the films.
[41:43] Now interestingly, the first time this was used because
[41:46] before 1968, the DGA rules prohibited the Directors Guild
[41:50] of America rules prohibited from a director using any other name,
[41:55] using a pseudonym. But what happened was in The
[42:01] Death of a Gun Fighter, a famous film actually and pretty decent
[42:04] film from whatever I've read, was released in 1969.
[42:07] During it's filming, the lead actor Richard Widmark was
[42:11] unhappy with the director Robert Totten and arranged to have him
[42:15] replaced by Dawn Siegel. So the lead actor did not like
[42:18] his director had him replaced by another guy.
[42:21] The new guy later estimated that he had spent 9 to 10 days
[42:24] filming and Totten, the first director, had spent 25 days.
[42:29] So even though roughly at the final edit, they both had a
[42:32] similar amount of footage. The guy who replaced Don Segal,
[42:37] he was very adamant of the fact that he only directed kind of
[42:41] continuing the original director's vision, so he didn't
[42:44] deserve the full credit for the film.
[42:45] And then finally, they took this to the DGA panel who heard the
[42:49] dispute because Segal did not want to take credit and Totten
[42:53] also refused to take credit in his place.
[42:55] So when DJ Palin heard the dispute, they're like, you know
[42:57] what? This doesn't represent either of
[42:58] the directors create a vision. So we are OK with the pseudonym
[43:01] coming in place. And that was what led to Alan
[43:04] Smithy. Interestingly enough, The New
[43:06] York Times commented on the film saying it was, quote, sharply
[43:10] directed by Alan Smithy, who has an adroit facility for scanning
[43:14] faces and extracting sharp background detail.
[43:17] What? Roger Ebert also commented,
[43:19] saying director Alan Smithy, a name I'm not familiar with,
[43:22] allows the story to unfold naturally.
[43:26] So when people did not know who Alan Smithy was, they thought
[43:28] this was some new kid on the block.
[43:31] Oh, reference. Oh yeah, yeah, reference,
[43:33] reference. And that's how the name Alan
[43:36] Smithy, which is a pseudonym used by multiple directors, came
[43:40] into being. Interestingly enough, a lot of
[43:42] TVTV stuff that has been directed has also led to the
[43:46] name being use over there as Alan Smithy.
[43:49] Some music videos and some other stuff like comic series, comic
[43:55] strips, some first person shooter games and stuff as well.
[43:58] There's a lovely list on Wikipedia, go check it out.
[44:04] Which also leads me to give you a pop culture recommendation.
[44:08] If I've never mentioned again before, Eat by Michael Mann is
[44:12] one of the definitive action movies of the 90s.
[44:16] If you ever watched The Dark Knight, the fantastic opening
[44:19] sequence of The Dark Knight was inspired from heat and the bank
[44:25] robbery scene. The shootout after the bank
[44:27] robbery is so good that I if I if I remember correctly, FBI
[44:33] agents are taught it at Quantico.
[44:35] They are shown that video at Quantico as a textbook example
[44:39] of how to retreat from a fixed position while in a gunfight.
[44:44] Michael Mann did such a great job.
[44:47] True, true, true that that gunfight scene is insane and the
[44:50] sound design of it is. Exactly, the sound design it
[44:54] just you could hear the gunshots kind of echoing of the buildings
[44:57] around it which just gives it a viscerality that you don't get
[45:01] it. And it doesn't hurt that it's
[45:03] got like 2 unknown actors in the lead role.
[45:05] One guy called Al Pacino and another one called Robert De
[45:09] Niro. Who are these guys?
[45:11] I don't know, but they've done a decent job.
[45:13] Some nobodies. Yeah, there's a restaurant scene
[45:16] where they kind of, you know, say a few things and you may
[45:20] remember, you know, a few lines. Definitely not iconic enough for
[45:24] the first time for these actors to be facing each other on
[45:26] screen despite having been in films before that together,
[45:30] never having shared a scene. Yeah, nobody cares about that.
[45:33] Nobody has has has had cinematic orgasms watching this scene.
[45:38] Yeah, definitely not. Yes.
[45:41] And Michael Mann. I mean like getting to direct
[45:43] those two guys itself is just, I'm like that movie.
[45:49] I'm obsessed with Heat every time I watch it.
[45:52] And the Al Pacino gives us sometimes an unhinged
[45:55] performance. You know what I'm talking about.
[45:58] That is, I know this is an insanely good movie.
[46:02] Anybody who hasn't watched it needs to do it.
[46:04] ASAP. Now that I'm on it, I'll just
[46:07] read off a few of my favorite Microman movies as pop culture
[46:11] recommendations. The Insider, which is about the
[46:15] whistleblower from big tobacco. Russell Crowe plays a very good
[46:19] role in that. Then there's Collateral, Tom
[46:23] Cruise, and Jamie Fox. Fantastic, Fantastic movie and
[46:27] recently watched one of his other older movies, Miami Vice.
[46:33] He directed Singer of Miami Vice, which I feel is an under
[46:36] appreciated movie in man's filmography.
[46:39] So yeah, should definitely go check it.
[46:41] And he also has a bunch of other movies which I may have
[46:43] forgotten, which you should definitely definitely watch.
[46:47] Alright, very cool. OK, before I wrap up this
[46:50] question and hand it back to you, I will tell you one more
[46:52] little fun piece of trivia. OK, and this has to do with the
[46:55] 1977 TV series. Logan's Run was so heavily
[46:58] rewritten, screenwriter David Gerald was credited as Noah
[47:03] Ward, which sounded like Noah Ward.
[47:08] I get that, I get that. That's a nice.
[47:10] One you wanted his credit to change to Noah Ward.
[47:13] All right, so Vineet back. To you OK, so if you remember
[47:17] this episode we had with Gary from New York, Gary prolific and
[47:24] fantastic quizmaster from New York, and he asked us a bunch of
[47:28] questions about the American government, the American system,
[47:33] and we were we were able to answer quite a lot of them,
[47:36] right. And that got me thinking the
[47:39] other day that, you know, everybody is so exposed to
[47:41] American culture that we instinctively know a lot of
[47:45] things about it. We were able to talk we.
[47:47] But I think if you go back and listen to that episode, dear
[47:49] listeners, you'll listen to us rattle off the lines of
[47:53] succession if the president of the United States was
[47:57] incapacitated for some reason. But all of that is so true.
[48:01] And I was just wondering, how much do we really know about
[48:05] other countries like the UK? The UK ruled us for good 90
[48:12] something years, right? 90 more than that, I mean,
[48:15] technically, yeah, under the crown we were for a short, but
[48:17] not. It was post 191857.
[48:19] Before that it was a company. We were literally a corporate
[48:22] asset. We came under the Queen and the
[48:26] government of the UK after the 1857.
[48:28] Revolt, Yeah. So coming back to that simple
[48:32] question, in the UK government, what are the four great offices?
[48:37] Of state. Oh, this is an actual term.
[48:40] The four great offices of state, Yes.
[48:43] OK, let's see. I'm going to start with the
[48:48] Prime Minister. Oh, very good.
[48:53] I think they have a home secretary or a.
[48:56] Very, very good. Yes, a home Secretary.
[48:59] Pretty sure the others are very fancy sounding things knowing
[49:02] the UK. Oh yeah.
[49:06] No, there are the two. I'll think I'll need a hint.
[49:09] The Deputy Prime Minister is that one.
[49:11] No, not Deputy Prime Minister. Then I'll need.
[49:16] A hint? Think about what Jay Shankar
[49:21] does for us. That's a giveaway clue.
[49:23] But. International affairs.
[49:26] Something to do with the? No, So what?
[49:27] What would it? What would be the English stuff?
[49:30] Oh, Lord, what is it called? Is it the foreign secretary?
[49:36] Foreign Minister A. Foreign Secretary, yes.
[49:39] So, so you've got three of those, right?
[49:42] Like you've got the Prime Minister, you've got the Foreign
[49:44] Secretary, you've got the home Secretary, So which is the 4th?
[49:50] Oof. OK.
[49:53] I'm just going to take a while because finance Minister.
[49:57] What is the English term? Oh, this is what I meant.
[50:00] They probably have some fancy name for this, don't they?
[50:03] The the the banking Lord No. No, even no.
[50:10] Technically they are the second Lord of the Treasury, which is
[50:14] the concurrent government office, but that's not the
[50:16] primary office. OK, money.
[50:20] Bags No Madam Moneybags. No.
[50:24] No. OK.
[50:26] That's moneybags to you. Sir Moneybags.
[50:32] No, I have no clue. You'll have to give me the name.
[50:34] And that I don't know. OK, I don't know what clue I can
[50:37] give for this. I'm just going to give you the
[50:39] answer. The answer is Chancellor of the
[50:40] Exchequer. Of course it is The Chancellor
[50:43] of the Exchequer probably even don't spell exchequer like a
[50:47] normal person and like like. No, it's QUER.
[50:51] See exchequer could just be CHECKER what no you know, make a
[50:54] QER there for no reason. Yeah, no, that's what I mean.
[50:58] Like you, you would automatically remember the
[51:01] Secretary of State or the Speaker of the House when it
[51:05] comes to America. It just shows how much America
[51:07] has achieved by exporting it soft, its culture and its kind
[51:11] of soft power it has, which now Donald Trump is doing a very,
[51:14] very good job of destroying utterly.
[51:17] But yeah, so these are the four great offices.
[51:21] Of. The UK Government, the great
[51:25] offices of State, are the senior offices of the UK Government.
[51:28] They are the Prime Minister, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the
[51:31] Foreign Secretary and the Home Secretary.
[51:34] And at the time of this recording, we have the Right
[51:37] Honourable Sir Kir Starmer as Prime Minister, the Right
[51:41] Honourable Rachel Reeves MP as the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
[51:45] we have the Right Honourable David Lammy MP as the Foreign
[51:50] Secretary and the Right Honourable Yvette Cooper as the
[51:53] Home Secretary. You know, we have a slight delay
[51:57] between when we record our episodes and when we release it.
[51:59] Yeah. And in recent episodes we have
[52:01] actually taken a little bit of a break.
[52:02] So I'm not even sure when this episode will come out.
[52:05] In the case of UK prime ministers, there's a very high
[52:08] trust our information will be outdated.
[52:12] No case Thomas, you know, kind of been in office for eight a
[52:15] month. So hopefully this is he'll he'll
[52:19] go the distance. I don't know if you paid
[52:21] attention to when there was the whole hullabaloo happening about
[52:24] these prime ministers coming in and going out left, right, so.
[52:27] We had list trust I. Believe it was List trust.
[52:32] List Trust's prime ministership was being was competing with a
[52:37] head of lettuce if you remember this, and they were trying to
[52:40] see what goes out, what goes bad faster to put it in the simplest
[52:45] way as possible. And list trust went out before
[52:47] the head of lettuce got was spoiled completely.
[52:49] So the head of lettuce won that race.
[52:53] Or, or to put it more likely, more in in the terms of a
[52:57] podcast listener list, Trust lasted exactly 4.1.
[53:01] Scaramouches. Yeah, yeah, something along
[53:06] those lines. If you don't get that reference,
[53:08] my dear audience, please go listen to the podcast.
[53:11] The rest is Politics US Edition, which is hosted by Kathy Kay and
[53:17] Anthony Scaramucci. Anthony Scaramucci, who very
[53:19] famously was Donald Trump's communications director in his
[53:24] first term and he lasted for a very, very short amount of time.
[53:28] So now it's become a unit as to if a politician or somebody in
[53:32] office last for a very small amount of time.
[53:34] They basically say, you know, how many Scaramucci's did he
[53:37] last? So Let's trust lasted for 4.1
[53:39] Scaramucci's. Embarrassing, embarrassing.
[53:43] Let's trust. OK, All right.
[53:47] I'm going to take over from this establishing of of the countries
[53:54] outside of the US as also important, and I'm going to go
[53:58] outside, as outside as one can get, and you'll know when you
[54:01] figure out the answer. So, OK, There is a sculpture
[54:04] created by the Belgian artist Paul Van Hoen Donk Donk.
[54:09] Wow, this is as Belgian a name as a guest I guess Paul Van Hoen
[54:13] Donk. OK.
[54:16] I want to specify the spelling is HOEYDONCK donk like this donk
[54:22] there at the end. OK, let's just say Paul.
[54:26] Paul, we'll call it Paul. Let's call it Paul, OK?
[54:29] David Scott placed this particular instalment, the
[54:34] sculpture, the statue and its current spot on August 2nd,
[54:40] 1971. OK.
[54:44] It contained the names of many people, of around 14 people, and
[54:50] these are the names that are on it.
[54:51] Theodore Freeman, Charles Bassett, Elliot C, Virgil
[54:56] Grissom, Roger Shafi, Edward White, Vladimir Komarov, Edward
[55:01] Givens, Clifton Williams, Yuri Kagurin, Pavel Bellyav, Giorgi
[55:07] Dobolsky, Viktor Patsayev, and Vladislav Volkov.
[55:14] OK. What is the statue or sculpture?
[55:17] OK, I was. I thought you were going to ask
[55:19] where the circus sculpture is, because once you read the list
[55:23] and you read the name of Virgil Grissom, I knew exactly what
[55:27] this was. This was Virgil Grissom, also
[55:31] known as Gus Grissom. Then nobody called him Virgil.
[55:34] He was known as Gus Grissom, who was a pilot who was part of the
[55:38] Mercury missions, who died in a fire in the Apollo 1 capsule
[55:43] while it was on land. It was a horrific accident. 3
[55:46] astronauts, if I'm not mistaken, died in it, and I know for a
[55:50] fact that a list of these fallen astronauts was part of an art
[55:56] installation which I don't remember which Apollo mission,
[55:59] but one of the Apollo missions placed on the moon.
[56:02] You know what? Just take it.
[56:03] Take it you. You got it all.
[56:04] You got it all. You in fact said the words as
[56:06] well. This is called the fallen
[56:07] Astronaut. It's actually, yeah.
[56:10] And it is basically something that was placed on the moon by
[56:14] astronaut David Scott when he completed his work for the
[56:18] Apollo 15 mission on August 2nd, 1971.
[56:22] He secretly placed it, so it wasn't something that was
[56:25] publicly known at that point. And Scott photographed the
[56:29] memorial but waited for post mission press conference to
[56:32] disclose its existence. And he also noted that two names
[56:35] are missing, Valentin Bondarnko and Grigory Nule Bov.
[56:41] The Western world was unaware of the deaths because of the
[56:43] secrecy surrounding the Soviet program at the time.
[56:45] This was why it was not there. I would definitely recommend
[56:50] that you watch this mini series called From the Earth to the
[56:53] Moon, which describes the space race, especially from the
[56:58] American side of it. And one of the episodes does
[57:01] feature the horrific fire on the Apollo 1 capsule.
[57:07] And this is one of the things that kind of sticks in your mind
[57:10] like this huge tragedy that happened.
[57:11] And Gus Grissom is a name that's prominent during the first few
[57:14] episodes. You will never forget him.
[57:17] Interesting. If you had not mentioned that
[57:19] list, I would have been a little stumped.
[57:22] I know I'd I'd considered not mentioning it, especially I
[57:24] would not have gotten it at Virgil Grissom or Gus Grissom,
[57:26] but I would have figured out at Yuri Kagnet.
[57:29] But yeah, you caught that very quickly.
[57:31] Well done. Well done, you.
[57:32] All right, so that is the fallen astronaut statue for Lester
[57:37] Planco. Check it out.
[57:38] It's it's a little beautiful, special little thing that was
[57:42] placed by astronauts from the Apollo 15 mission on the moon.
[57:46] And it exists there, by the way, Mr. Paul Paul van Hoen Doink.
[57:51] OK, you pronounce it differently every time.
[57:55] Personal Dong, then donk, then Dong.
[57:57] Tiny bit annoyed at Paul Van Hocky Donkey because dude
[58:01] attempted to sell up to 950 copies of the figure later and
[58:06] and he was forced to not do that when NASA put a lot of pressure
[58:11] on him because they have a strict policy against commercial
[58:13] exploitation of the US government space program.
[58:16] Oh really? Yeah, that is funny.
[58:19] Knowing what? Exactly what?
[58:21] SpaceX does now so. But yeah, at some point they
[58:25] were ethical about it. I guess so Balwan honey buns was
[58:30] was being a little greedy and but eventually he did the right
[58:35] thing. So I'll say his name right Paul
[58:37] van Oindong, or as right as I could probably pronounce it.
[58:42] OK, so that is the fallen astronaut and I should also
[58:46] mentioned, since you mentioned from Earth to the moon.
[58:49] My knowledge a lot of it as as it might be corrupted but comes
[58:53] from first Man, the movie starring Ryan Gosling.
[58:57] He plays Neil Armstrong in that and the movie Hidden Figures as
[59:00] well. Also a very good.
[59:01] Movie. Yes, one of my favorite recent
[59:04] movies about the American space mission.
[59:06] Taraji P Henson does a fantastic job in that and Glenn Powell he
[59:13] plays. John Glenn, yes.
[59:17] He plays John Glenn, which was a very, very well portrayed John
[59:21] Glenn. I actually really like the Jim
[59:24] Parsons in that movie as well in a rather negative role.
[59:28] Yeah, quite anti anti Sheldon. Yeah, exactly.
[59:31] I enjoyed seeing that version of Jim Parsons.
[59:34] So that has some movie recommendations and a fun little
[59:37] piece of trivia. I think that's all the time we
[59:40] have for today's episode. Let's start winding up.
[59:45] And let me first ask this question, which I'd ask for the
[59:49] audience. This question, let me remind
[59:51] again, was sent to us by Arjun Srikumar.
[59:53] Thank you Arjun. The Question is White Knights is
[59:56] an 1848 short story by Fyodor Dostoevsky which is adapted into
[1:00:01] Bollywood three times. The first was an adaptation by
[1:00:03] Raj Kapoor in 1960 directed by Manmohan Desai called Chaliya.
[1:00:07] The second was a 2006 movie starring Abhaya the Old and
[1:00:11] Sonali Khan by the name Ahista Ahista, which is the third and
[1:00:16] more well known movie released in 2007.
[1:00:19] This has to be white Knights, which is Savariya.
[1:00:23] Oh, very good, Very good, yes. So the answer is Sabaria.
[1:00:27] If you do not know, it was based off a Dostovsky short story
[1:00:31] called White Knights, and famously I think the Dance of
[1:00:38] ballet version of it featured Mikhail Baryshnikov when he was
[1:00:44] in Russia before he defected. So.
[1:00:46] Interesting, interesting. So what are your pop culture
[1:00:49] recommendations other day you've already mentioned?
[1:00:51] We both mentioned quite a few but.
[1:00:53] So I'm just going to recap those for our listeners.
[1:00:56] The first one I mentioned was the explained series on Netflix,
[1:00:58] which is a collaboration between Vox, a YouTube channel I've
[1:01:01] recommended, and Netflix. So check out the explained
[1:01:03] series. They have a few spin offs as
[1:01:05] well. I believe Vineet recommended
[1:01:07] some Michael Mann movies including his The Insider and a
[1:01:10] bunch of others. So go check out all of his
[1:01:12] filmography. He also mentioned From Earth to
[1:01:14] the Moon and that is a mini series I believe which.
[1:01:17] Yes it is a mini series. It is available on OTT in India
[1:01:21] but it escapes my mind which one exactly it is.
[1:01:24] But it is available on OTT so you can watch it legally.
[1:01:29] Perfect. That's something worth checking
[1:01:31] out. And the last thing that I
[1:01:33] mentioned was Hidden Figures and the movie First Man.
[1:01:36] So all of these are pop country recommendations already
[1:01:38] mentioned. So I'm not going to add on too
[1:01:40] many more. I'm just going to mention one
[1:01:41] thing, and that is something maybe you've heard a lot of.
[1:01:44] It has shown up a lot on ads for some reason.
[1:01:47] The movie, The Substance. Oh wow, What a film.
[1:01:52] What an absolute cinematic journey that film was, yes.
[1:01:58] Just don't watch it with family. You know what, I I don't even
[1:02:01] know if you should watch it with anybody at all.
[1:02:03] Like it's, I think it's best enjoyed by yourself because it
[1:02:05] just takes you through a roller coaster and it stars 2 very
[1:02:09] talented and if I may say so, attractive actors Demi Moore and
[1:02:13] Margaret Quali. And the part that they are
[1:02:15] attractive features heavily in the film, which is why I
[1:02:17] mentioned it and the movie it, it makes their attractiveness
[1:02:22] such a central point in it. And then by the end of the film,
[1:02:26] it has gone completely bonkers. And my immediate reaction at the
[1:02:30] end of the film was, my God, it could have ended 15 minutes
[1:02:32] earlier and I would have been fine.
[1:02:34] But after sitting there for a while, I was like, you know
[1:02:36] what? I get what the director was
[1:02:37] going for. He needed to make those last 15
[1:02:40] minutes, what he made of it. Just that we, we yeah, we suffer
[1:02:46] through it. And I love that.
[1:02:48] Yeah, she made that film. It's corally forget it's a woman
[1:02:52] who made it. Makes a lot more sense.
[1:02:53] Yeah. It has to be a woman who made
[1:02:55] that film. And if you've if you watch the
[1:02:58] Oscars this year, Conan O'Brien's opening bit is from
[1:03:03] this movie. Yes, I did see that.
[1:03:05] Yeah. So Dennis Squid also plays a
[1:03:08] very fun role in it. Absolutely.
[1:03:10] Just fun cinematography. It is just, and I said this for
[1:03:12] challenges, I believe it is a director having a lot of fun
[1:03:15] with what they're making. So the substance, you could tell
[1:03:18] that the director was really into what they were doing, what
[1:03:21] she was doing. So the substance is my pop
[1:03:24] culture recommendation for the week.
[1:03:26] OK, we've been around memory lane too much for this episode.
[1:03:30] So that all for this episode. Thank you for listening in.
[1:03:33] We hope you enjoy the show. Learned something new.
[1:03:35] If you liked what you heard, please consider subscribing to
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