Episode Transcript
📍
Welcome back to sort of sophisticated people, uh, or in Spanish. Amanda, I believe it's, can I say that? Is re still fist located?
Yeah.
Not really.
I mean,
all right. Whatever. Well, you get to drill, I mean, to our three Spanish listeners.
Love you. But seriously, I, you know, thinking about like our listeners, I don't think I thank our listeners enough. Well, I mean, you do. I certainly don't. Right? Like,
I don't know if I ever really think them, but you're right, we should appreciate them a little
more. But you always say hello to us.
You're like, like, I'm, you
say hello,
I'm spouting shit out, and you're like talking to him and being like kind-hearted and stuff. Oh. I don't know, whatever. I just want to say, shout out to our listeners and I would like to say listeners right up front, right from the get go. We need help, man. We need you to spread the word.
Spread it. Well, I should think of another way of saying that, but anyway, spread the message, spread anything you can about, sort of sophisticated, we need your help. So do all the things that we normally say, like at the end of the podcast, like leave a review and share it with your friends, like. Do that all like first, like do it right now, like I have an idea.
I mean, I have an idea. Stop recording right now. Okay. We go dead air while everybody, right. All of our listeners right now are just gonna send this to three of their best friends.
Okay.
Done. Okay. Done. All right. Good.
I hope somebody has like a best friend that was Taylor Swift, just so she can like relive.
Oh, then it would you saying that asking people to spread it like her song,
let's go.
That's all I'm saying.
Yeah, that's, well that's me and that's me and tea. Right? Um, that was Amanda. Everybody, you know Amanda. So say hello to the audience please. Young. Hello. How are I Love the way you say you, you like, you get me excited every week.
You're like, hello, let's go. It's like the pick me up that I need.
Great. It's gonna be some fun, right?
I feel like it's gonna be. Uh, sort of fun.
Can we, so real quick, before we dive into whatever the new topic is, I do wanna say thank you to you for, um, educating
for me.
Yes.
Wait, what?
Yeah. For educating myself and all.
Hold on
you guys. I
think we're in the upside down. I don't even know what's happening.
No. So I was at tar, wait, sorry. I went to Target and. I was just looking through clothes for the girls and all of a sudden there was this white sweatshirt and it was the Grand Ole Opry and I freaked out at Target, had a moment because I wouldn't have even known what it was.
Thanks to we not thanks to our app.
Done the app. Yeah.
So what would you have thought it was, I
don't know, just a brand
it had a cowboy boot on it and it said like. Home of country music. Um,
grand
old Opry. Yeah. Yeah. But I wouldn't, I would not have known, I would've like, huh, that's an interesting question. And like, put it back. But look
at that. I love it.
Yeah. So thank you for educating all of
us.
Well here we're, you know, here we're, we're just being so excellent to each other. Look at us. Just a bunch of people being nice to each other today. Okay. You wanna know what you're gonna learn about today?
Yes, I do. Do
you have any idea?
No.
Alexa does. Alexa does, she listens
all the time.
She does, uh, today.
Amanda, we are traveling halfway around the world, maybe even more. I don't even know, like six or seven, like thousand miles away. I just did that. I just did six. I just did six, seven. For all of you listening at home, you're welcome, uh, all the way to China. Do we know how far away China is? I'm gonna say six or 7,000 miles.
China? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Where we're gonna learn everything you ever wanted to know and probably shit that you don't even really want to know about the Silk Road. Oh. Where? Where the world. First went viral, the Silk Road. Do you know anything about Silk Road?
I should. Okay. But I don't
strap it on. This is happening.
All right. This was literally the OG internet. Okay. Okay. Listen to this. Okay. Over 5,000 years ago, it connected all of the empires across the continent way before anybody figured out what the hell was going on and how powerful it really even was. Okay.
So are you saying the Silk Road was basically like the Etsy?
For silk.
Oh, what, what? I
dunno, but maybe that's not a analogy.
Oh my God, you Way too
Good analogy. Sophisticated for
me.
So this road? Yes. Connected everything.
Yes it did.
In order to pedal silks.
It did, yes.
Okay.
Yeah. Yeah. Except like in Yeah. Instead of like digital platform stuff, it was like merchants and monks and all that kind of, yeah, same, same exact concept.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Alright. So by the end of this episode, I should be at cultured and know how to dress better.
Okay.
But I also have a fun fact about dressing better with silks
talk. Do you wear silk?
No. No. So when we were, um, on our little adventure, right? Yeah. This year to all of the national parks.
Okay.
Yeah.
Um, the fact that a bunch of the indigenous people. Silk was like a big thing to them, but it was because that's what they would trade with. Yes. But that's how,
look
at this, you knew their elevated status anyways.
I mean like, so the fact that it is still alive 5,000 years later and you're still learning about it is remarkable.
Yeah. And that is thanks to the Silk, the Silk Road.
All right, well, before we go viral, like literally, what is our word of the day?
Alright, word of the day.
You ready? Yes. Uh, homologate,
homologate.
Homologate.
God bless you. I got nothing.
Okay. Homologate is actually a verb. A verb. A verb, yes.
Okay.
Yes. It's an action. It means to approve or confirm or ratify. Oh, it comes from the 16th century, medieval, Latin, homo. How about homolog, which means.
From the Greek homolog to confess. So like to agree to confess,
I had to like get real close on that word. Yes. To make sure that
homologate Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Homologate.
Yeah. Like to acknowledge.
Okay.
To acknowledge.
Acknowledge.
But today, but knowledge is gonna be hard. Today we're gonna use like, approve or confirm.
Okay. Okay. We're going to, anything that uses, approve or confirm it's where IN Okay.
Alright.
Alright, fine.
So we're basically gonna do a lot of homolog today.
Oh, we're gonna do a lot of
homolog. Okay.
Let's be honest. I do a lot of Homolog on this podcast all the time.
Fair.
I admit I have a stylist. You do, I do. A lot of admitting It's true. There's a lot of weird admitting on this podcast.
Like a therapy session. Yeah. Yeah. That's So Is therapy homolog?
It is. Okay. Very, very much so. Here we go.
Alright, so where are we starting this thing? I mean like the Silk Road has to have a beginning.
I'm assuming you're gonna give us the history.
Oh, this one's all about history.
Oh man.
You're gonna fall asleep. Okay. And I am gonna tell the long, luxurious story of the Silk Road. Ready?
I'm ready.
Um, full disclosure, I already a level seven. Lied. I
mean, I think you do every episode.
Yeah. So I just kind of like come to expect it. But would you lie this time about
So it technically wasn't really just like one long road.
Oh, okay.
Like, it was a lot of like. It was like hundreds of road. It was like thousands of little roads, like all connected into one. Is this kinda
like how like
Maine thoroughfare road?
So like there's like a road and then there's like arms that branch off. So like a
cave, like, like tributaries if you will. Yes. Like a cave or like a river system.
Okay.
Very similar. Yeah. Yeah. So it starts in China on the one end, all the way in the east, and then all the way on the west. It ends with a Mediterranean sea.
Like,
oh, okay.
Relatively speaking west. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because you know it didn't cross oceans.
Yes, yes.
Right. But you get the idea. Right. So it all started during China's Han Dynasty, your people, right? Back in the day.
I mean, I don't know from, from the Han, but Sure.
Do you know who you're from?
Mm. I'm gonna look it up.
Okay. Look that up. I wanna know. This is gonna be fabulous. Okay, so it's around one 30 bc. So we're before Christ one 30 BC. China basically woke up one day and figured out they had something the rest of the world really wanted. Do you wanna take a guess what that was?
No
Silk.
Oh,
that wasn't, that wasn't very complicated. Okay,
so I'm looking up. Can't multitask.
I literally set you up for that. Okay, fine. It's actually a pretty funny story. Check this out. You keep looking up where you came from. I don't, I don't wanna bore you with all my history. Continue with whatever it is you are doing over there, because that's so important.
Wanna see where it aligns with my people.
Okay. That's all. At first, like for the first like hundreds or maybe even thousands of years, like before this, China didn't even know anybody even wanted their silk. Okay. So like, I mean, China's been around for like 5,000 years, right? So like for like, I don't know, 3000 years, they didn't even know anything,
they just kept it all. The secret, the whole idea of raising silkworms, weaving silk was actually state controlled, if you believe this or not, and punishable by death if you tried to smuggle silk out of China. Well, yeah, it was kind of a big deal
because they like wanted to keep it all to themselves.
Right. Except, yeah, but they weren't selling any of it. They didn't like, they were just, it was like this secret.
Well, for the, but wasn't it just like for royalty?
It was, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
It was
so, I mean, like
didn wanna share it was super, super secret.
Okay. But who figured out how to silk?
How to silk?
Yeah.
Like how to do, how
to do the silk
adjective here.
Yeah. Okay. That's fine. Okay. I had to look that was a rabbit hole because I wanted to know the same thing. So I was like, wait a second, I gotta figure this shit out. Okay. This process is kind of wild and a little gross. I'm not gonna lie to you. Okay, so we know silk comes from the cocoons of silkworms, okay?
Which are basically like these caterpillars of a very specific kind of moth that I did not know. I thought it was like, right? Okay.
It's called the bomb Bikes, Maurice Silkworm. And when the worms are about to like transform, they spin this single strand of thread around themselves made from the proteins they produce. I didn't know it was from the proteins they produce.
I didn't know what that was. Like the cocoon thing. They like spin around. Yeah. Yeah. It's made from all the proteins. I didn't know. It's been measured at over a half a mile long. Half a mile long.
Dang,
that's really long. I know. So best I could figure out, legend has it, and legend we already know is right all the time must.
Okay. Right. Somewhere around 2,700 BC a Chinese empress named Lazo was sitting in her garden having tea when a silkworm cocoon fell out of a tree right into her teacup. Just splat, boom. And when she tried to get it out, it started unraveling into this long thread. Then she realized that this cocoon was made out of that
like one continuous thread thing that I told you about that was like a half a mile long. Yeah. And supposedly started experimenting with boiling the cocoons. Right. 'cause it had fallen into her hot tea. So she starts boiling all these cocoons and weaving all of these single half mile threads together and subsequently invented silk
interest.
That's fascinating.
There it, yeah. So Empress Lazo,
even if it is not,
did she invent it? Really, I mean, I guess you found, she found it.
She invented the process.
She learned. Yeah. Okay. She learned.
She learned.
What were you gonna say?
Um, even if it, like you say, it's a legend right's, so it, whether or not it's true or not true.
I mean,
it's, it's legit. You could find the shit on the internet and everybody knows, the internet knows everything.
It's always true, right? Um, but regardless, the happenstance of coming about making this silk from like a cocoon, was it? Never discovered before? No. Like is the silkworm just
no
indigenous to China?
Right. Yeah. So I had the same question.
Apparently they were, these bombex, Maurice Silkworms were only native to China.
Huh?
Right. 'cause I thought they'd be like everywhere else in the world. But no.
So then how did they get out? I mean, they make silk everywhere now.
Okay, okay. Shit. So
we like,
no. So that's a whole no
worms.
Yeah. So sort of that's a whole nother story. Let me finish history and I'll go back 'cause that story by itself is like, like we, you're gonna love the story.
It's excellent. 10 outta
10. I guess I also have like another, I know you're pinning it, but
another rabbit hole
go. So when, so is China the only one allowed to distribute silkworms is really my question.
So they were.
Oh, interesting.
So yes, we're gonna talk about this. Yes, yes, yes. Okay.
History first.
All right.
History,
focus.
Okay. Where was I? I don't even remember where I was. Um,
I don't know where. Maybe like second century BC ish.
One 30 bc. Okay. Thank you. Yes, that's where I was. Okay. So the Honda Dynasty back to your people. Okay. Yeah. So they were getting in all these little wars or like, I don't know, battles, skirmishes, I don't know.
Right. With all the tribes in the area. 'cause they all were just tribes back then, which was pretty typical for the time. a bunch of nomads would just like go try to steal all their shit all the time. So. They wanted to figure out a way to sort of get rid of all those people once and for all and fight back better, I guess.
So they send out a few messengers along with some traders or whatever to go west and figure out who's out there that can help them. Okay. So this is all based on like protection and military shit.
So they're looking for mercenaries?
They're literally, yes. They're literally looking for mercenaries. Okay.
Okay.
So they're technically trying to bribe them. That's why they brought the traders along and give them silk in exchange for help. 'cause they had all this silk, huh? And let's say, uh, it worked.
Okay.
Okay? Because not only did they get the protection, but everybody lost the damn minds.
Okay?
Lost their minds.
'cause remember, nobody outside of China had seen anything like this before. It was like this soft, luxurious, like super, super awesome fabric and think all these other places and nomadic tribes were going bonkers for this shit.
Well, I mean it sell. Come on now.
Well, yes. Obviously
that
attracts, we love I got my silk sheets.
I know. I mean, I love it.
It's actually great for you to sleep on a silk pillow. It's for your
Yes. I wear my silk underwear. I, God, I use silk condoms. Right? I mean, like, it's okay. So of course, so listen, so word gets back to China that everybody highly
not functional, but continue.
Okay. We're, we're gonna push through that.
Okay. All these sudden, these merchants start. Like showing up literally in droves. Like in droves, Amanda, with all their carts loaded down with whatever they brought, like whatever they had to trade. Okay. Silver and gold and frankincense and meh and all that. Well, maybe not yet. I don't even 'cause that was, well, no, probably around the same, yes, probably they were trading all that stuff.
'cause it was Jesus time.
Okay.
Yes. Okay. Got it.
But not to Jesus. He didn't
get, no, not Jesus, but they all just wanted silk. Okay. Jesus. Just like the drummer boy. That's all he wanted. The little drummer playing the drum form. You know,
that sounded horrible.
Play my drum.
Oh, Jesus. One was little drummer,
whatever that, yeah, that came on.
Okay, so I'm moving on. So then the Chinese government catches on, right? Han Dynasty again. Right. Catches on. They decide it's time to officially manage the trading. 'cause up to this point, they won't really like managing anything. Oh,
okay.
Right. And all the trade routes that were being okay. Like we're gonna create some trade routes, they wanna make sure they get in on this shit.
I, you know what they did?
What did they do?
You know, they, they all got in a room and homologated together.
Oh my God.
They did, they, they approved that. They ratified that shit.
Just that word in and of itself. It feels like you could have so many meanings. Anyways,
continue. They all ho they all homologated. You know what? Jesus homologated with the drummer boy. Okay. How do you like that? Okay, listen. So those literally like, okay, bear with me.
Blasphemy.
I know. Terrible. Those first initial routes that they all homologated on became Yes.
The backbone or the, like the beginnings of
the Silk Road
said Silk
Road. Okay. Makes sense.
Yes.
I mean we, it's crazy to think about, but how it all just kind of fell into place. But
wait, there's more here.
Oh, okay.
I'm not even done.
Okay.
I'm still going. I'm on myself. Okay. Okay. So even though China's trading silk, right, they did keep this whole thing a secret.
'cause remember how, like they knew how to manufacture it. Nobody else did. They had the silk worms, right? Da, da, da. The whole thing. So by the time the silk reaches Rome, which was. Other end of the Silk Road. Yes. The train sea. Yes. Rome. That's what we're call the other end the Silk Road. Yeah. I was doing my research.
I read somewhere that the Roman government was so pissed off at all of their soldiers who were spending all their money on trying to obtain silk for all their, like girlfriends and wives and stuff that the Roman government said. It made their society quote unquote weak and uncultured and tried to ban it.
But then they realized it was way too cool and couldn't do it. 'cause I mean, they're Italian 📍 and they need to look good in all their suits, you know, because, you know they're Italian.
You gotta look at that.
Evidently. Yes.
They got the ma, lots of the whole mafiosos over there. Right, right, right. Got it. Yeah. Okay. All right. So I mean, yeah, so like, after the Italians, well, I guess like. Or the Romans. right. So they get in on it, but then like, so does everybody else. So it's not just China. China had the silk, China had porcelain and a bunch of other stuff that they were starting to sell, but India started trading.
So they started trading the spices and all their different gemstones that they were mining. And then the Middle East gets in on this whole thing and starts doing the glass and the perfumes and all sorts of other textiles. Okay. Not just silk, like all other like, you know
Sure.
Clothing things and fabrics.
Yeah. Whatever.
And as a result of all these people trading with each other. All of a sudden, sort of a little unintended consequence, all these people in regions had to pretend to be nice to each other and be sort of civilized with each other,
right? I mean, if you're gonna trade with other people, you kind of have to be civilized, right?
And you have to not be barbaric.
So go all the way back to what China was trying to do, which was find protection by default, starting this whole trade route, made people. Less
aggressive
warlike.
Oh, okay.
Yes.
Yeah.
So it was sort of, I, I mean, I don't wanna say it was the beginning of politics, but like. It sorta was like,
you know what?
I'm like curious about,
talk to me
how they all,
are we being, wait, you're being cultured and curious right now.
Yeah. How they all communicated because by, at this point in time, there wasn't a lot of interaction.
Lot
of, or cross
a lot of sign language, mingling a lot of sign language.
Of
countries. That's interesting.
That's, go back and listen to our sign language episode. That's where it all started. Just kidding. But my guess would be yes. No. So I have a fun fact about that actually. Okay. Okay. That's where a lot of, uh, translators made a lot of money.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah. So there were peeps that started learning about all that.
You know what's fascinating?
I'm saving that fun fact
as another
shit. I'm taking that fun fact, and I'm, what else? What else am I saving? I was gonna tell you Oh, about the worms. The worms, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
But what's fascinating also to me is the fact that. How different jobs are created and launched.
Like I know with AI and the power of the internet, we have careers now, right? Podcasting like, yeah. Things that never would've been thought about or imagined, you know, a hundreds of years before. But to be a translator,
I know
I'm sure was like.
Wasn't even a thing. I'm, I'm
linguistic, I got the scale
right now.
All of a sudden it's a thing. I don't know. It's
amazing.
It's amazing. Okay. Um,
and the fact that capitalism's like unhinged, but that's just a side.
But that's the beauty. That is the beauty of capitalism.
It's, yeah.
It's why we choose to live in Merca and Merca,
But anyway, like, so with all the good stuff, right? You were just talking about capitalism, all the good stuff. Right? There's bad stuff. Okay. So of course, yes. So here we are.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So not just silk and gold and all the fun, shiny stuff we're talking about, but like trafficking slaves, sex slaves. Oh wow. Concubines. All this weapons, drugs, not like drugs, like cocaine, drugs, but like opium was huge. So that was going in the, on, on the Silk Road. Dude, people were crazy.
Like bribing was everywhere to get your stuff moved through the, so think about like, I mean,
greed takes apart right? Once
was steps in. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And that, and therein lies the problem, right? So you had the underground silk road, you had the Silk Road, you had like two things going on at the same time, you had to start, it got corrupt. You had to start paying all these people to move your goods. So even if you had legitimate goods, you were trying to move now you had to pay people. Yeah. Yeah. So,
so then at what point in time did the government come in and take it all over?
It's, it's, it sorta, it sort of got terrible.
Um, they were involved the whole time. So
the governments are all corrupt.
Yes. The government, yes. There was a lot. Yes.
Lots of corruption across the board.
Yes.
Got it. Okay. We have silk worms, so with they fall into the cup, realize it's thread, they harvest the worms, they create silk, and then that leads to trade systems.
Yes.
Good.
Good trade systems.
They were good. And then we were reaping the benefits across the board amongst different countries and then corruption sets in. Yep. And, and it's still,
but it's still going because there's still good stuff and bad stuff going, so it's not terrible.
Yeah. Also on bad stuff. Yeah.
Yeah. Do they also start like spreading disease kind of like lot of, you know when like,
well, I mean there was sex, we
inhabited
sex slave and concubines. How could their. I mean, I mean,
but those are sexual diseases, like other diseases, you know?
Oh, the, oh, okay. Scary. Sexual or non-sexual diseases. You're swapping fluids.
There's gonna be diseases. Okay. Right. It's everywhere. I mean,
plagues
a lot of plagues.
Okay. Okay.
Lot of plagues. Yeah. So I was. I was reading about the plagues. I think this is quite funny because the plagues were all named after like the emperor who was in charge back then. So like they had something called uh, the Antoine Plague.
Oh, that was a big one back then. Like, that was the second, second century. Okay. So a couple hundred years after it was already going, uh, estimated to have killed 10 million people. Wow. Yeah. Uh, so then they had in the sixth century, silk road's still going strong. Okay. They had something called the Justinian Plague 'cause he was the emperor.
Yep. Killed about 40. Million people. Well, I don't quite understand the whole,
that's a lot of people.
I don't understand why they have to name it like, so, so COVID, should COVID have been like the, the Biden, the Ian, but, or, or the Trumpian? Wait.
Oh, that's right. Trump. Trump. Trump was in office, I guess, yeah, when it,
yeah,
in 2020.
But, but that was America, but it came from China. So it would be the, what was his name?
He's still
Jing Jinping. Jin Pian. I think it's Jinping. Yeah, it'd be the Jin Pian. Okay. Yeah. What, that's what we should have called it.
Blame,
blame whoever. The church, the worst one. I digress. The worst one was the bubonic Plague.
That was the only
plague that I know
in the 13 hundreds. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And then actually came from the Silk Road
Black Death, huh? Yes. Yes. Wow. On the low side, do you wanna know how many people killed? I know I'm, I'm going down a rabbit hole here.
Yep. You are
a hundred million people.
That's a
lot of people.
A hundred million people.
That's a lot of people.
So, so add those up real quick. Uh, what did I say? 10 million? 40 million. A hundred million. All on the low side. 150 million people died 'cause of the Silk Road. Thank you.
Wow. Yeah. That's not depressing or anything.
No, I know.
Okay.
It was totally depressing.
Well, on that note, are we done with history? 'cause that, uh. Took a deep dark turn.
No, no, no. I'm not. I'm not even close. I'm not.
Oh, you're not done. Okay.
No, I'm not even close, dude. I got more good stuff. We were talking bad stuff. I'm
gonna 50 plus million people die.
I'm gonna bring it back to good stuff.
Okay.
I promise you.
And then
we're gonna, so
after all these people die,
subject change, we're gonna talk about changing from like goods. To like ideas. So now we're gonna talk about the fun, philosophical side of the Silk Road.
Okay.
You with me?
Nope. But I'm gonna get there. Go ahead.
Human connection stuff like culture.
Okay. So around 250 years after the Silk Road started, okay. And like everybody's trading somewhere around the second century ad when that plague was happening, that first plague, a couple of Buddhist monks start a pilgrimage along the Silk Road to share their teachings from where they lived in India, all the way over to Eastern China.
And that sort of kicked off a whole new exchange of ideas. 'cause up to that point they were only trading goods. Right.
Okay.
And services, things like that. Yes. Okay. So once people started talking about it a couple hundred years later, 'cause it takes a while to like figure out what's going on. Right. A bunch of Muslim scholars from the Middle East start doing the same thing.
They leave and they start heading over to, uh, central Asia and start teaching math and science. Okay. Concepts that central Asia wasn't like. A part of or understanding yet. Okay. And then of course, Christian missionaries have to jump on this whole shit. So they go from the west, they're like over in Rome, uh, and they start spreading Jesus.
Okay. And all the Jesus stuff. So it score sort of like clash to the titans. Like everybody thought they were right. Everybody was bringing their ideas until sort of they weren't right? 'cause like Indian math, okay, met like Greek geometry and like Persian astronomy met like Chinese inventions and food and music and everything.
So it was like. This, this sh You know what it was? It was a smorgasborg of ideas. That's what it was. Flat earthers. It was flat earthers against conspiracy theorists. And we didn't even have flat earthers and conspiracy theorists back. Aren't they like
the same?
I know. Are they? They kind of are. I
feel like they weren't the same.
Okay. Whatever. You get my point. It was like people against each other didn't even know what the hell they were talking about, but they were really smart. But then they figured out the other people were smarter sometimes, so it was like, holy crap. There was a lot of stuff going on.
Okay.
A lot. You know what it reminds me of?
It reminds me of about what Alexander De Great was trying to do. You remember what Alexander did? Great. Back in like three 30 BC. Yeah. When he was like conquering all the places. Right. Trying to bring it all together and trying to bring culture. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Except he killed a bunch of people. So instead, plagues killed a bunch of people.
Yep. That so same.
So what you're saying is
people
have to die deviation and meshing.
Yes. People have to die for Look, I like I,
okay, so what you, I
just, I report on the history.
Fair. Perfect.
Okay. So I'm not right in the history.
So I think what you're trying to say is that the Silk Road really was more like a culture road because it like brought people together, brought through ideas, brought, brought, innovation, brought, brought, we should make a
song about it.
Yes.
Okay. Yes.
I'll take the Silk Road. It's a culture road. I've been on this highway for years. Okay. Um, you know what, it brings me up.
I don't know
a lot of movie references. What was Finding Nemo? The, the, the turtle. I'm finding email. Oh, the, um, what's that thing called? The
East Australian Ec,
right? How does he, the East Australian current dude.
Yeah, but I don't know why I'm talking like that, but it's like EC What was his name? What was that? Turtle's name?
Crush.
Crush. Oh my god. It was crush. Let's go. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's exactly what it was. But like, okay.
So when you're talking about all of these different cultures bringing things together, yeah. I know you like diverted to like Australia, which I don't think was part of this route, but, or like road, but
it's the East Australian current.
My point was that's like the same concept.
Sure, sure, sure.
It's how Nemo got back to Marlin. I mean, it's, it's all, whatever.
I, I think I get your analogy.
Thank you.
Please. But, but my question, what more so is
what?
So, because all of these cultures have now like integrated, they have and um, meshing.
Yes.
Does this affect
a lot of concubines
there? Art and there,
this affects all this stuff.
Culture.
It affects everything in and of
itself.
Yes. It's why Chinese art has naked pictures now because of the Greek people. The Greeks like brought their naked art, and then Chinese people started naked. Naked art. Okay. Right. Or it's kind of how like Persian carpets ended up in like Rome or like Greece or wherever it is like fun fact.
Hmm.
I have a fun fact actually. Okay.
Yeah.
Uh, noodles. Do you know where noodles came from?
China.
Oh. Okay. You just killed my fun fact. Yes. So
what
was here? I was so stupid. I thought it was pasta and it came from Venice or from Rome. Yes. It dates back 4,000 years of China. Yeah. And then thank you very much to the Silk Road.
That is how it got to Rome,
and this is the
one we have to
thank
for pasta. Italians started, started changing it and making pasta. So it was, it's not even theirs, it's Chinese. I should have known you knew that. No, that's pretty. But anyway, I
mean it's my, it's like my favorite food group, so I don't dunno what you expected there.
It's kind of funny. Alright, whatever.
Okay, hold on.
What
are we done with history?
Yeah, I think I'm done with history.
Okay, so then we can talk about the worms.
Okay. Back to the worms.
Yes, the worms.
What was I supposed to tell? 'cause
it's whole thing.
Don't what thought I was tell you about the worm. What was it gonna tell you about the worms?
How like, China had monopoly on the silk worm and they were the only ones who could export and distribute them because only
to
China.
Oh yes. It was how they get outta China. Okay. Got got, yeah. Okay. So
how did the jail break?
Yeah, they, it was a very slow process. They inched their way out. Okay. Alright.
Sorry. So whatever it was 150 BC or a hundred, I don't know. Okay. Um, so for like six or 700 years, to literally, I think it was like the sixth century or something. It didn't leak out, so they, they strangle held that thing like,
okay,
like maniacal, it was somewhere during Justinian's Reign. The guy running the Eastern Roman Empire at the time. Um, he got a bug up his butt, like, I mean,
not a worm.
Well, okay, maybe just it would tickle. But anyway, yeah. So he wanted to get in on this whole silk thing.
No, check this out. This is amazing. Right. So he wanted to start making money, so he was getting pissed that like he had to buy all the stuff. He wanted to do it for himself. So he sends these two sneaky Byzantine monks to China, like undercover, pretending to spread religion. This is some fucked up stuff saying like.
Go spread the good news of the gospel. Okay. Or whatever it is, right? But he was really more like, find me the fucking silk words. Alright? Yeah. Yes. Yeah, yeah. Alright. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Seriously. So they head over to Central Asia, spread the religion, meet all these people, gain their confidence. Like this is a whole thing.
This is some,
okay,
we can make a movie.
The missionary hustlers. What?
Yes, I, I think this would be a great movie. They subsequently learn the process. On how to make silk because, okay, like every, they're endeared themselves to everybody there. And then the best part, before they left, uh, these two old men hollowed out their canes, their walking sticks.
Shove a bunch of silkworm larvae. Is that larvae, larva eggs,
larvae,
larvae, larvae, eggs. Inside Cap that shit off. Walk right outta China, straight through the mountains, right back to Constantinople, where Justinian waiting for them with the, uh,
to harvest.
To harvest the, all the silkworm people. And, and they officially knew how to make it and had eggs.
That is how Silk has now penetrated into the,
this is, this is it. This is exactly what happened with Jurassic Park people. If you haven't seen Jurassic Park,
it's true.
It was, you know what it was, it was frigging Newman from Seinfeld. It was that A hole in Jurassic Park that screwed up Jurassic Park for everybody.
Thank you. Newman. Was
this how the plague started?
It's, yeah. No, just a Yes. Just kidding. But that was just, same guy.
Same guy. But I mean like, yeah.
So he got, he has a, they
smuggles
silk
worms and then it was
carrying points. No, I'm just saying he was a total asshole because he had the plague named after him.
He killed 50 min. Well, he didn't, but you get the point. Yeah. And then he also smuggled the silk. I mean, look, it was gonna have one way
more. That way it's like contribution back to his society of like,
yeah, let's go just bringing
silk. I'm just
saying I don't look, we'd have to do a podcast episode on Justine.
I don't know. I, he might have been a great guy. No idea. But yes, same guy. Right.
Okay. So then
what?
China no longer had the monopoly on silk.
Right. Which actually, if you think about it, was a really good thing, right? 'cause like. Up until that point, like people were getting pissed off at China 'cause they were a powerhouse.
Right. And like, I mean you need balance. So Justinian really pulled the balance of power. Sort of. It made it even again. Sure. Yeah. So we just even shit out and made it like sort of east and west now on the same level playing field. 'cause if you think about it, what if that happened today, like in today's society we'd be fucked.
You do need a balance of power. So anyway, for as fucked up as it was for China, good on the world, good on globalization. How's that? Yay. Go Silkworm.
But but then did it like
Go Monks, did it Onet for the monks,
did it ultimately then like Disb and ruin the Silk Road? I mean, I would assume the Silk Road.
No, that was a Black death. That was the 13 hundreds. Like,
'Cause we're still in the sixth century. So what? It did start making the whole thing fall apart though.
Yes. Okay. Like, 'cause we were talking about corruption
earlier. Well, sorry, sorry. The, the, taking the worms out is what started disbanding the Silk Road.
It was part of it. Okay. I mean, it was already corrupt. Yes. The worms got out. Yes. So, but the Silk Road was good for so many other reasons. It kept it going.
It was just not as, just not
necessarily for silk.
Yes. Just not, uh, yes.
Okay.
There, there you go. Right. So then I dunno, another 600 years go by we're like the 13th century now. And it makes this whole big resurgence. Uh, thanks to a none other than good old Genis.
Kahan. Good old
like Kahn from Mulan.
You remember Genis. Con. Okay. Everyth. I love the fact that everything is a Disney movie too. That is excellent. Um, and actually
education provided
to you for Disney
fact?
Genis Kahan was not, I learned this when my kids were growing up and I was like, that was only based on Genis Kahan.
It wasn't actually him.
Oh, interesting.
Yeah. So it actually, Milan was actually set. Wait, earlier ge I didn't know any of this. Okay. But they used that as like the model character or whatever. But anyway. Okay. That's a whole nother story. Okay.
Fair.
Um, so anyway, back to the real gang. Is con wait, should for anybody playing at home, should we like, give them a, I'll give a quick background on who Genghis Kahan was. Refresher,
like real quick.
Yeah. Okay, fine. He was the guy who united all the nomadic , tribes in Central Asia in the 12 hundreds, and basically made like the biggest land grab in all of history.
Good old, good old gangas, like murdered, killed a bunch of people, but brought a bunch of people together. Okay.
I love, I was like murdered. A bunch of people
murdered, but it, it's okay. But he's Genis. I mean he's a badass. Okay. And besides, I'm on a first name basis with Anus. Okay.
Okay,
go ahead. So, so naturally he looks at the whole Silk Road and goes like, hold on a second, I can make some money people, I can exploit the shit out of this thing.
So
Awesome.
He basically kills all the bad guys 'cause he's in charge of everything during that time.
So he becomes ultimate bad guy.
Yes. Cleans everything up. Sets up some guards, makes travel safe again for everybody. You just gotta pay a tax. That's really all it is. Oh,
interesting.
Right. Okay. So
historians made a name for it. So during that time that he was in charge of it.
Mm-hmm.
, It's called Pax Mango. Or the time of Mongol peace. '
cause
you remember he was in charge of all the Mongols? Yes. Yeah. So he sort of brought peace to this area, even though he had to pay a tax to use the Silk Road.
At least it was like one tax, he got rid of all the corrupt bad guys, and he was just one main corrupt, bad guy.
Sure. So he was the one who burned down half of Asia.
But then, so that only went on for like a hundred years. Right.
Okay.
And then finally you were right, like how did it all end? Bubonic Plague? Yeah. So 13 hundreds, I don't know. Yeah, I'm close. So a hundred years later, bubonic plague comes, kills everybody.
Um, but also, it wasn't just that it was boats when I was looking up and reading. I mean, we didn't have airplanes. Technology
advanced.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, boat and, and we had a bunch of boats, but like cargo boats, like the whole idea. Right.
We
started shifting, realizing how, how much faster it and it was way safer.
Yeah. So, uh, so that sort of ended up like,
I mean, way faster than going on a horse donkey. Yeah.
Yeah. Way faster than, well, not a horse and donkey.
Oh, is that the same?
A horse and carriage.
Oh,
right. Way faster than going on a horse and carriage.
Oh. But not like, uh, okay.
I mean, you could say way faster than going on a donkey.
I dunno if you'd say a horse and a donkey.
Oh, okay.
I don't know.
Can we get back on track?
Okay, so the road's gone, somehow it died, bubonic, plague, boats, shit happened. Is it still something that is used today?
I, I mean no, I mean, you could still like go visit
Where it happened.
Where it happened. Yeah. Right. But it so technically
like they, you said as like a route for cars.
Okay. So No, not anymore.
No, no, no, no
freeway. Or
it's like Route 66 probably. I mean, there's probably little parts like that that where you could go stand there and say I was on the Silk Road, but Fun fact. You want another fun fact?
Sure. '
cause I thought this was amazing. So 700 years go by from 1300 to two thousands.
Okay. Nothing goes on Silk Road's. Done and done. Recently in 2013. China decides to spend all this money and reboot the whole thing like 12 years ago.
Oh, okay.
They call it the Belt and Road Initiative. You can look this shit up on the internet. This is legit, legit stuff. It's a thing. Yes. It's Silk Road 2.0, but instead of camels, it's all fiber optic cables and shit like that.
Yes.
Wait, what are you talking about?
So listen, China is spending a shit ton of money building infrastructure across basically. All of Asia, all of Africa, all of Europe. I mean, Amanda, I'm talking ports. Highways, the team
over the world.
Okay. Power plants. Yes. Everything on purpose. And the idea was to put China back at the center of global trade.
It's super brilliant, super strategic.
But
it's, it's it, but
it's technology.
It's, yeah. Yes. It's
tech. They're growing their tech.
They're growing their tech connecting. They're calling it Silk Road 2.0. Okay. It's just like, sort of based on their culture and their background. Right. But this is a, i I, it's not even a 30 year project, 40 year, 50 year project.
They have projects planned out through two thou. When I was looking this up, 2045, 2050, I mean, they're literally. Literally trying to build the shit out of everywhere they can. So people are wanna trade with them, wanna do business with them, are indebted to them, right? Wanna help service China.
So
basically what you're saying is that the Silk Road is now gonna be the tech web infrastructure that links. The world to even an nth degree with China in charge.
Yes. I mean, China did all this, uh, 3000 years ago and they're doing it again.
I mean, it's amazing and terrifying all at the same
time. I it is
Alright, well, I don't know if that's another depressing way to kind of like end it because the thought of China having a monopoly by 2050 is very soon.
No, it's like, but first of all, like, who doesn't love Chinese food? Okay. You gotta love Chinese.
Oh my God, you're crazy.
So I'm fine.
You're so dumb.
And I'm not gonna be around this way. Done. It's not my problem. I'm not gonna be here.
You're gonna be dead
by 2050. Close. It's 25 years. I don't have that much time, Amanda. I don't know.
Oh,
what do you
think? I think I can guess we'll be alive.
All right, we'll see.
All right,
well, fun facts. Now 📍 lift my spirits
on that sour note. Why don't we talk about some fun facts? Oh, you're gonna love these fun facts.
Okay, I'm ready.
You are gonna love them. These are 10 out of 10. I promise. Okay. These are that good.
I mean, you already gave two.
Wait, did we use homo? Yeah, we use Homologate three.
We did. We did it. Okay. Um, prepared to get your mind blown.
Ready,
prepared. Here we go. The world's first travel influencer. Travel influencer. You know what travel influencer Yes. Is? Yeah. You watch your little tiktoks. Yeah. It was a monk. Was a monk, huh. So check this out. I mean, I know the whole Silk Road thing was a thing like already for trading goods and everything, like we said, but in the seventh century.
A Chinese Buddhist monk named Schwan Zong traveled 10,000 miles from China to India. Wow. And back to collect sacred texts along the way and share scripture philosophy, ideas. He wrote a 600,000 word travel log that mapped his routes, described kingdoms, and basically invented the travel blog 1300 years before Instagram.
Wow.
First guy on record to share his ideas. Thank you. Just
not photographed
Schwan song, right?
Just not photographed.
Oh well. We love him. Okay. Number two, camels were the original shipping container.
Yeah.
Camels just
pels all high. Right? That's how you can go.
So a single. Bact Tree and Camel. The two hump kind.
Yep. Can carry, are you ready for this? 600 pounds of cargo. Dang. 600 pounds and walk 30 miles in one day.
That's crazy.
Caravan leaders literally measured distance, not in miles, but in days by camel.
Wow.
It was DB, C. That's crazy days. How many, how many DB, C is this? This is a day by camel. Yeah. Uh, if a route took 120 camels, you knew it was gonna be like a really long journey.
Right. Like, 'cause a camel could walk 30 miles a day. So that's how you, you, if it's 300, what was that, 3,600 miles? Well, it's going, it's gonna take 120 camels.
That's crazy.
That's insane. Okay. Number three, ice cream came from the Silk Road
ice cream.
Yeah. Ice cream.
Did it come from the camels?
Not really.
I'm level four lying here. Who? That would be gross. Oh, okay. Um, actually, ice cream's, ancestors came from the Silk Road. So listen to this. So I guess these traders in Persia were making a frozen dessert called fall Luda. You could Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You could look it up. You okay. Made from these thin noodles and some rose water and crushed ice, and they started sharing it with the rest of the world through.
The Silk Road. Here we are. It's one of the earliest recorded cold sweets on record and through trade, it is believed to inspire later frozen desserts all over Europe and Asia, including gelato.
Interesting. Again, innovation.
Yeah. Again,
take one thing and
make
it something. D different. Italy pretending had all these cool ideas,
they just got it
right.
Italy should be very thankful for the Silk Road.
Yes, they really should. All right. , Number four, the Silk Road developed the first international mail system. Well, that makes sense. Oh, so check this. So the Persians and Mongols both built relay post stations at very specific points along the Silk Road with horses and riders stationed every few miles, always ready to go.
So they were the first group to be able to send message literally thousands of miles in just a few weeks instead of months, because they always had fresh horses and fresh riders ready at to keep it moving and never stop. Okay, so ki so kind of wild stuff for
sure. And now we just have text messaging.
Two seconds. Crazy. We have Snapchat Crazy right there. Gone crazy and 10 seconds later it's gone. Uh, and finally, last one, the whole concept of a brand knockoff, right? The brand knockoff started on the Silk Road. So you know, like Louis Vuitton knockoff, right? Okay, yeah, yeah. Like writer, like so luxury Chinese silk was in such high demand that Roman and Persian merchants before, like the soap worms got out Yeah, right.
Started making and selling fake silk made from whatever materials they could find that sort of mimicked the feel of silk.
Oh, interesting.
Then they dyed it, polished, it pretended it was real.
Okay.
Bunch of crooks. Wow. Went to make a buck. Whatcha gonna do?
That's a lot.
That's all I got.
I mean, again, when you bring a bunch of cultures together and innovation together, I guess that's what you get.
Crooks.
You gotta love the crooks
corruption. I'm just kidding.
Maybe I should be a crook. Maybe that's what I did wrong.
Your next career move.
I think that is
okay.
I think on, I think on Tuesdays I will be a crook.
Alright.
Yes.
You lemme
We gonna reserve it for one day a week. It'll be Tuesday. Just don't get
arrested.
Yeah.
Okay. No more podcasts if you do.
Yeah.
Okay. So why don't you go ahead and sum up the episode then, um, and give our listeners just a few resources. Maybe if they wanna learn more about the Silk Road and maybe not such A-A-D-H-D fashion, you know. People who like structure.
We'll do that. Let's do that.
But let's bring it all back to, Hey listeners, our wonderful, wonderful listeners. Please send these episodes to anybody. I don't even care if they're your friends or your enemies. The idea is to get the word out.
Fair enough.
We're trying to build a base here, so if you don't like listening to Amanda and I, because I mean who we can, I don't even like listening to myself really, and Amanda hates listening to me, but maybe somebody else.
Does wanna listen to us. So it's your duty, it's your obligation to share this.
You're not a good one today,
the rest of the world. Okay, are we ready? I'm so,
I'm, I am.
Okay. So if we like this episode, do you wanna dig deeper?
Yeah.
Who wouldn't wanna dig deeper into the Silk Road? Let's go read the book, the Silk Roads, A New History of the World by Peter Frank Pan.
It's literally the story of how global trade started. But told through like a long adventure story. Oh, okay. So kind of cool. Totally worth it. I did love it. It's well written. Okay. And sort of gives you a good balance of real history and like good storytelling. Uh, if you wanna watch something, there's an older but like really good documentary series called the Silk Road.
It's a PBS. You have to look it up on PBS, you can find it on YouTube, but just look up the PBS version. I watched it. There's, it's a few episodes. I watched it to make this like
Oh,
okay. To be able to do my research. Yeah, yeah. Or you could just go to, uh, UNESCO's Silk Roads website and research it all yourself.
Oh, it's got a bunch of good info maps and pictures and short articles that give you like more depth. I used it 'cause. It helped me see where all the maps, like visual, visual cues, visual were way better. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. And then, uh, just remember these relevant details to seem sort of sophisticated.
And one up, Amanda, at your next party, people. All right, here we go. Number one, the Silk Road wasn't just one road. It was an ancient web of trade routes that connected China to the Mediterranean, moving not just silk and spices, but also ideas, cultures, and diseases across the world where camels were the delivery trucks and merchants were the influencers.
Number two, it made the world's first global economy, spices from India, glass from the Middle East, or gold from Rome. If it was valuable, it moved on the Silk Road. It literally forced ancient empires to play nice because everybody wanted goods. Number three, ideas traveled faster than camels, Buddhism, astronomy, math, and even pasta made their way across the continents.
Thanks to the Silk Road, and finally, china kept silk a secret For more than 2000 years, the Maix, Maurice silk worm only existed in China, and smuggling eggs or cocoons out was punishable by death
until two sneaky byzantine monks hid them in bamboo canes and brought them to the Byzantine Empire. No patent is safe people, protect it with your life. That's all I got.
Alright, well there you have it. Dear listeners, the Silk Road and all its chaotic camel packed glory. We went from Roman soldiers blowing their paychecks on silk robs to empires swapping math, religion, and the occasional plague along the way.
When you boil it down, the Silk Road wasn't just an ordinary road.
It was the world's first global network, the OG internet connecting people power, and of course a few germs and people died. Um, but here's hoping we've
only, only 150 million people died
only. Only only,
oh, just a few.
📍 So here's hoping we've shared just enough information to make you either a flaming nuisance or a little more sophisticated to your fellow humans.
Uh, sorta. Don't forget to subscribe as Pete has been bashing you over the head about, uh, follow and leave us a review, or better yet, in the spirit of Silk Road and exchanging ideas, bring up sort of sophisticated next time you're out on your next adventure and spread the word.
Or here's the fun thing. Maybe you buy a silk pillow for someone and be like, here's a silk pillow. I have a story and listen.
Right.
You should listen.
Listen up people.
So until next time, stay curious, stay cultured, even if it's from your couch.
