Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to Sorta Sophisticated with Pete and Amanda.
So, question.
[00:00:06] Speaker B: Amanda, answer.
[00:00:07] Speaker A: Peter, do you know how many Nobel Prizes there are?
[00:00:11] Speaker B: So there's like, one every year?
[00:00:12] Speaker A: One?
[00:00:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:00:14] Speaker A: No, not one. Guess again.
[00:00:16] Speaker B: There's more than one Nobel Prize every year.
[00:00:18] Speaker A: There is? Yes.
[00:00:19] Speaker B: Are there categories for this?
[00:00:20] Speaker A: There are. There are categories. Want to guess again?
[00:00:23] Speaker B: Ten.
[00:00:24] Speaker A: Ten. Too high. Okay. Five. Six.
Six. There are six. So I was with you, and I thought there was one.
[00:00:32] Speaker B: Right? Because I always hear, oh, they won the Nobel Prize. Not like.
[00:00:36] Speaker A: Right. Not well, but then, Nobel Peace Prize.
We've heard of that. Right? So that's what tipped me off to be like, hold on a second.
[00:00:43] Speaker B: Not the same.
[00:00:43] Speaker A: Not the same. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So anyway, like, I learned all this when I was in Norway because, remember, I went to Norway a few weeks ago, and I was like, huh? Because they were talking about how the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo, and I was like, I didn't even know there was more than one. So apparently there are six.
[00:01:00] Speaker B: Six.
[00:01:00] Speaker A: Yes. Cause naturally, as soon as something weird like this comes up, I have to learn everything there is to know about it. So five of them are awarded in Sweden. Stockholm, Sweden. That's like the birthplace of the Nobel Prize. And then one, the Peace Prize, is awarded in Norway. And then I was like, why does. Why? Why? Nor, like, what is this fascination?
[00:01:19] Speaker B: So I also didn't even know that these were awarded in these countries and
[00:01:23] Speaker A: how many they had and all the things and everything. So I sat down and said, this is podcast episode worthy.
[00:01:29] Speaker B: Okay. It is. Because I have so many questions.
[00:01:31] Speaker A: That's what we're doing. We are.
[00:01:32] Speaker B: Besides, how do you win? How are you nominated?
[00:01:35] Speaker A: We're doing all the things.
[00:01:36] Speaker B: What are the six categories?
[00:01:38] Speaker A: We're getting into it all.
[00:01:38] Speaker B: Besides piece.
[00:01:39] Speaker A: Yeah. So, official title today. The Strange Story behind the Nobel Prize Prizes.
[00:01:46] Speaker B: Got it.
[00:01:46] Speaker A: Behind the Nobel Prizes. Okay, here's our promise so you don't bail on me, because I got to make sure you're hooked.
There isn't just one Nobel Prize. Like we said, there's six. And one of them wasn't even in the original plan. Thank you very much. We'll talk about that. To the actual honest to God, kind of insane story, to the one man behind this whole thing and how a newspaper's mistake may have changed the entire legacy of the Nobel Prize. Insane. That's gonna be wild. And three, the most famous prize in the world doesn't work the way you think it does. There are no committees. There are no voting something weirder on how they Figure all this out. It's a big deal. You're gonna love this. Okay. Welcome back to Sort of Sophisticated, the podcast where culture, curiosity, and chaos collide. I'm Pete, and Amanda's across from me, already looking at me like she thinks this is going to be a homework episode. I can tell. You don't look happy. Are you excited?
[00:02:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:02:37] Speaker A: I'm not buying your bullshit right now. You look like you're like, I don't really want to talk about this. What would you rather talk about on today's episode than the Nobel Prize?
[00:02:44] Speaker B: No, I'm actually super curious because I, again, know nothing. That is the trend in our partnership.
[00:02:50] Speaker A: This is how this is starting. Damn it.
[00:02:51] Speaker B: I don't know anything.
[00:02:52] Speaker A: Okay, fine.
[00:02:52] Speaker B: Except for the fact. Except I feel like it's sometimes controversial, right? Like, sometimes people are like, it is. Why did so and so get, like, the Academy Awards?
[00:02:58] Speaker A: Totally.
[00:02:59] Speaker B: But you said there's no voting.
[00:03:00] Speaker A: There's no voting.
[00:03:00] Speaker B: There's no committee.
[00:03:01] Speaker A: There's no committee.
[00:03:01] Speaker B: So is it just like a Put everyone's name in a hat and draw one?
[00:03:04] Speaker A: Maybe a lot. Maybe there's a little bit of a committee. We'll get into it. Okay, Word of the week, and then we'll go.
[00:03:07] Speaker B: Okay, let's go.
[00:03:08] Speaker A: Word of the week. Corey Bantic. Cory Bantic.
[00:03:12] Speaker B: Do they banter? Is like banter.
[00:03:13] Speaker A: No, I don't know what this is. Cory Bantic means wild, frenzied, or completely out of control.
[00:03:20] Speaker B: It's like, you on caffeine.
[00:03:22] Speaker A: Yeah, me all the time, but yes. Me on caffeine. Yes. Corybantis. It comes from the Greek Corybantis. I guess those were ancient priests who worshiped the goddess Cybele. Cybele. I don't know. C Y, B, E, L, E. By beating drums, dancing, and working themselves into these absolute ecstatic frenzies. Imagine if, like, Coachella and a religious ceremony, like, had a baby. All right, that would be Cory Bantek. That's how wild these priests were. Okay.
[00:03:48] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:03:49] Speaker A: You got this.
[00:03:49] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, I know. This is gonna be very interesting.
[00:03:52] Speaker A: Work it in.
[00:03:53] Speaker B: We're gonna try. So you're gonna tell me everything I need to know to be sort of sophisticated about the Nobel Prize.
[00:03:58] Speaker A: Let's start with the basics. Okay, first, if you like what you're listening to, hit subscribe. Follow us. Leave us a review. We need more reviews. We have, like, 22 reviews or whatever. It's a good amount of reviews, but I feel like we need, like, we have 100. We should be shooting for 100. Reviews. People who want 100 reviews review us. Well, only if they're five star. If they're shitty reviews, don't put them on there for us. Thank you very much. But DM us and tell us our show sucks, in which case then I can make it better.
So, ready? There are six, like we said. Physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, peace, and economics.
[00:04:27] Speaker B: Interesting.
[00:04:28] Speaker A: Yes. But here's a twist. One of those wasn't the original. Do you want to guess which one wasn't the original?
[00:04:32] Speaker B: Probably economics, right?
[00:04:34] Speaker A: Bingo. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Got added in 1968. Yep.
[00:04:37] Speaker B: All right.
Just because it seems like one of those things that is like a little outlier. Yeah. Modern.
[00:04:43] Speaker A: I would have thought peace, to be honest, because economics at least goes with some of the other levels.
[00:04:46] Speaker B: I feel like we've always fought for peace.
[00:04:48] Speaker A: Maybe. Okay, whatever. Fine. Yeah. So with five of those, physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, peace, those came straight from Alfred Noble's, like, actual will, like his document. That's where this all started from. Yeah.
[00:04:59] Speaker B: There was a guy who started this.
[00:05:00] Speaker A: Alfred Nobel. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Economics sort of showed up later, like 70 years later. Just. I guess they figured it was super important.
[00:05:08] Speaker B: I'm sorry, did you just say that this started because of his will?
[00:05:12] Speaker A: So, like, he put in his last will and testament? Yes.
[00:05:14] Speaker B: So in his legacy plan, he said, I want my money to fund this.
[00:05:20] Speaker A: Yeah, a shit ton of money.
[00:05:21] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:05:21] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:05:22] Speaker B: Some people donate it to, like, college or charity. He created a whole movement.
[00:05:25] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:05:26] Speaker B: No, all right.
[00:05:27] Speaker A: Absolutely. He did.
[00:05:27] Speaker B: But he didn't list economics.
[00:05:29] Speaker A: No, he did not.
[00:05:30] Speaker B: He only had five.
[00:05:31] Speaker A: No, Some other yahoos decided economics was later.
[00:05:33] Speaker B: Yeah, we had five. He wanted five. He picked the five topics.
[00:05:37] Speaker A: He did. He picked the five topics. Done and done. And economics was. What do you call it? An in Memoriam prize. What do they do with. With when. When somebody dies in Academy Awards? Yeah, It's. They get like an in memoriam or legacy, whatever. So. Same thing. But it's called the Sveriges Risk Bank Prize in Economic Sciences. I butchered that. I have no idea. In memory of Alfred Nobel, which nobody says, so we just call it the Nobel Prize for Economics because that's way easier to say. But yeah. Nobel family, nothing to do with it. That was just a total adder. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
[00:06:07] Speaker B: Okay. So who was this guy? Okay, no, but I know nothing about him.
[00:06:10] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, he was a pretty cool dude, Alfred. He was. Nobody knows much about him. Pretty much everybody's exactly like you, so. Remember our episode on Benjamin Franklin?
[00:06:18] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:06:19] Speaker A: Yes. Okay.
What was the word polymath. Yes, we said he was a polymath. This guy. Same exact as Benjamin Franklin. I don't know why he doesn't get airtime like Benjamin Franklin. Or we're just idiots and we don't know enough because we just heard of Benjamin Franklin. Because he's part of our history and Alfred Nobel wasn't part of. I have no idea. Whatever.
[00:06:35] Speaker B: Swedes know him.
[00:06:36] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm sure. Well, duh, right? So this is a moment for me as a American. American. I'm having. Yeah, yeah. Okay. He was officially an inventor, a chemist, an engineer, an entrepreneur, and an industrialist. Do you even know what an industrialist does? I don't know what industrial means. Whatever. He was unofficially the most interesting man in the world. That's probably what they did. That Dos Equis commercial. Probably should have been about him instead of that guy. Right? Okay. Anyway, he's born in 1833 in Stockholm, Sweden. But then his family picks up and moves to St. Petersburg, Russia, when he's little. Cause his dad was also a genius engineer who landed this huge gig building weapons and mines for the Russian military. So, like, his dad was like a somebody.
[00:07:12] Speaker B: Okay, I don't know how I feel about this, okay?
[00:07:14] Speaker A: Oh, if you already don't know how you feel about it, you're pissed in about five minutes. Trust Spoiler. This is going to not go good. Okay, Anyway, so Alfred grows up, like, rich. Like, rich af. Bilingual. Not even bilingual. What is it when you know more than two languages? Trilingual, but triangle. Like multilingual.
[00:07:30] Speaker B: Multilingual linguist. Or there's another.
[00:07:33] Speaker A: He speaks in tongues.
Okay, let's just say that. Okay, he knows a lot. He. Five languages, I think. Five languages. I counted. That's how many he knew and never went to regular school on his own. Home school. Just like you and your kid. Dude, you might have an Alfred Noble in your, like, little brood.
Okay, whatever. Chemistry, physics, literature, the whole nerd package. He was being taught by his mom and dad when he was a teenager. His parents shipped him off the United States. Didn't know that. And then finally he ended up in Paris for more, quote, unquote, advanced training. Like super classical education. And when he was in Paris, he met a guy who actually invented nitroglycerin.
[00:08:09] Speaker B: Huh?
[00:08:09] Speaker A: Like the shit they use in dynamite.
[00:08:12] Speaker B: Okay, okay.
[00:08:12] Speaker A: Yeah. So Alfred spends the next, I don't know, umpteen years experimenting with this nitroglycerin. Cause he's fascinated by it because of physics and chemistry. So Alfred was trying to harness nitroglycerin and guess what he does?
[00:08:24] Speaker B: Blows it up.
[00:08:25] Speaker A: No. In 1876, he invented dynamite.
[00:08:28] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. I wasn't expecting that.
[00:08:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:31] Speaker B: Okay, so Nobel is the founder of dynamite.
[00:08:35] Speaker A: Absolutely. Tnt claim to kaboom, claim to fame. He patents dynamite and then literally the whole thing blows up. Like, ha, ha, pun intended. Overnight into this massive global empire for Alfred Noble. Like weapons? What? I know this took you a while to get there, right? Weapons, oils, explosives and everything.
Builds like 90 factories in over 20 countries. I looked all this shit up. 350 patents.
[00:09:00] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:09:01] Speaker A: By the time he died, I feel he's like.
[00:09:02] Speaker B: Yes, Elon of the time.
[00:09:04] Speaker A: He's. I mean, he's better than Elon. Well, I don't know.
[00:09:06] Speaker B: I don't know, right?
[00:09:07] Speaker A: Elon at least invented Tesla. This guy invented dynamite. Maybe. Okay, jury's out. I don't know.
[00:09:11] Speaker B: But yes, they both like to make things a boom.
[00:09:13] Speaker A: He invented a bunch of shit. Yes. Made a gazillion dollars, gets uber famous in his life. This is an in your life kind of guy, right? Never had any kids, still never heard
[00:09:21] Speaker B: of him, but okay.
[00:09:22] Speaker A: Never got married, no kids. Died alone in San remo, Italy, in 1896. And guess what?
[00:09:28] Speaker B: What?
[00:09:29] Speaker A: Blowing himself up.
[00:09:29] Speaker B: No, he didn't.
[00:09:30] Speaker A: He did.
[00:09:30] Speaker B: What?
[00:09:31] Speaker A: Just kidding. I don't know. From a stroke. It was a stroke.
[00:09:34] Speaker B: Could he have just taken his pills?
[00:09:36] Speaker A: Oh, my God. Right? So nitroglycerin pills that you use for, like, angina patients. Like, that's the whole. That's the good. Why didn't.
[00:09:44] Speaker B: Well, that's the good that came from.
[00:09:45] Speaker A: Why didn't. No, no, why didn't he do the good part? Why did he do the dynamite part? Nitroglycerin is used to help people. Why is he using it to kill people? He's kind of a dick like that. I don't know. Jerry's out on this guy. So anyway, I had to look up how it could be used for two completely opposite things.
[00:10:01] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:10:01] Speaker A: And what I could gather is this. I'm gonna go super sophisticated and read this shit right now. Basically, when it goes inside your body, it breaks down into something called nitric oxide, which relaxes vascular smooth muscle and dilates the coronary arteries.
What the fuck is that? So anyway, that bomb in your body, that's how it helped him, apparently. But in dynamite, the same molecular instability, the nitrate instead groups violently together like this and releases energy all at once. And that's what makes dynamite detonate instead of dilate the arteries. So in your body, it dilates with dynamite. It Detonates. There you go.
[00:10:37] Speaker B: And he came up with the peace prize.
[00:10:40] Speaker A: So here we go. Here's the weird prize.
[00:10:41] Speaker B: Did he have, like, this consciousness of guilt?
[00:10:46] Speaker A: So he. Did you remember what I said? How this newspaper article might have changed history?
[00:10:49] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:10:50] Speaker A: Okay. This is the crux of this whole. This was the best part when I was doing this research. This was the greatest. Okay? So the story goes, his brother Ludwig. He has a brother. His brother Ludwig dies in 1888.
I don't know, eight years before Alfred dies. And this French newspaper, in a rush to cover this story, mixes them up accidentally and runs the obituary about Alfred. Okay, not about Ludwig. Total mistake.
[00:11:14] Speaker B: So it was one of those, like, out of body experiences where he's reading
[00:11:17] Speaker A: Realization with death or reading his own obituary. Okay. And the headline reads, the merchant of death is dead. Right.
[00:11:24] Speaker B: So it wasn't as if they just had a typo on the brother's name, like they legit thought Alfred died.
[00:11:30] Speaker A: Oh, total. Oh, completely and totally. So they were writing about how this guy who invented dynamite and subsequently then killed all these people and got rich. Like af.
He had a minute with this whole thing. Like, it was. It was. It was a huge deal. So full disclosure, that's probably not the entire story because I'm sure there's, like, a little bit more to it than that.
[00:11:48] Speaker B: Yeah, well, we're only sort of sophisticated, so it's fine.
[00:11:50] Speaker A: Thank you for that. That's very good. So basically, after he reads the obituary, he smoked a joint, sat there for a while, reflecting on his life, his legacy. This whole thing gets all deep and philosophical and everything, and starts thinking about how history is going to remember him as the Merchant of Death.
[00:12:04] Speaker B: I mean, sounds about right.
[00:12:06] Speaker A: Right.
[00:12:07] Speaker B: But he didn't like it.
[00:12:08] Speaker A: No, he's not okay with this. So the next day, literally wakes up, takes out a pen, rewrites his will, and decides to leave his entire fortune. Almost his entire fortune. I mean, basically, Amanda, like.
[00:12:17] Speaker B: Well, because he didn't have kids, he
[00:12:18] Speaker A: didn't have a wife, so we're gonna say, like, 92.6% of his entire fortune in today's dollars. I looked this shit up. Was like a few hundred million dollars in today's money. Okay? So this is serious shit to create prizes that would honor people that would, like, do the most good for humanity in the areas of what he studied, physics, chemistry, literature, medicine, and then peace that would go on forever and ever in perpetuity.
[00:12:42] Speaker B: Talk about, like a full circle moment
[00:12:44] Speaker A: for the Nobel Prizes.
[00:12:46] Speaker B: Crazy. So what do people get when they Win the Nobel Prize.
[00:12:49] Speaker A: I don't know. They get a little award, like a little thing.
[00:12:51] Speaker B: That's it. Do they. There's no, like, cash or there's no.
[00:12:53] Speaker A: Oh, my God, I have no idea.
[00:12:55] Speaker B: Well, I mean, like, he donated so much money. I feel like it has to be funding something.
[00:12:58] Speaker A: Some sort of little Oscar. I don't even know. Look that up. We need to know. Oh, now I want. Now I want to know. I'm intrigued.
[00:13:05] Speaker B: So, yes, Nobel Prize winners, they get a gold medal, a personalized diploma, a gold medal and a large cash award.
[00:13:13] Speaker A: It doesn't say how much.
[00:13:14] Speaker B: 11 million Swedish kroner.
[00:13:17] Speaker A: Oh, my God.
[00:13:17] Speaker B: Which is like $1.2 million US.
[00:13:19] Speaker A: Oh, so serious.
[00:13:20] Speaker B: Right? And if there's multiple, then it's split amongst multiple.
[00:13:23] Speaker A: Yeah, because they've had multiple. Okay, Makes sense. Look at that. Yeah, that's wild. The more you know.
[00:13:29] Speaker B: Yeah. This whole story about Nobel is really corybantic.
It's a little chaotic, it's a little crazy. Like, who would have thought?
[00:13:40] Speaker A: Wild and friendly. You're so dumb. Fine, you got it. You win.
[00:13:43] Speaker B: But this guy who, like, spent his whole life creating dynamite, blowing people up. Yeah, like, I know. And then turns around, has an epiphany, and then creates this fund to create these prizes that actually you do get money from. But like, we just talked about how you get that money in Swedish dollars.
But you had mentioned only five of them are awarded in Sweden. But one's awarded in Norway.
[00:14:05] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:14:06] Speaker B: Why are not all six of them decided in Sweden?
[00:14:08] Speaker A: Okay, that's a good question. We'll get there. But now I want. I want to have an opinion piece right now.
[00:14:12] Speaker B: An opinion piece?
[00:14:13] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:13] Speaker B: You have a moment?
[00:14:14] Speaker A: I want to know what you think about Alfred Noble. He invented dynamite.
Think of what dynamite did to our world. What is the opinion you and I are supposed to have on this man?
[00:14:22] Speaker B: I think it's the same opinion that we would have on any of the revolutionaries that have created.
[00:14:27] Speaker A: Okay, what do we think about Adolf Hitler? Well, I mean, we don't love him.
[00:14:30] Speaker B: No.
[00:14:31] Speaker A: Okay. But this guy did good things at the end.
[00:14:33] Speaker B: Like, this is a strange. So was he a narcissist, though? Did he create all of these things?
[00:14:38] Speaker A: This is what I'm asking. I don't know. I'm asking for your opinion.
[00:14:41] Speaker B: And have a legacy.
I mean, you would say that one was trying to. He was trying to atone for his bad deeds.
[00:14:48] Speaker A: But it's like Oppenheimer. Do you remember Oppenheimer created the bomb? And what are we gonna use it for. Yeah, this is like. This is the same thing, dude. It's kind of a big deal.
[00:14:55] Speaker B: I think inventors, like, they just want to create, they want to invent and sometimes I don't think they understand the use or the repercussions. Right.
[00:15:03] Speaker A: He made millions and hundreds of millions of dollars. He knew what he was doing.
[00:15:08] Speaker B: I mean, he might have not think about it though.
[00:15:09] Speaker A: Not when he invented it.
[00:15:10] Speaker B: But if we didn't have dynamite, we wouldn't have railroads. How would they have been able to blast through all the mountains?
[00:15:16] Speaker A: I understand.
So are you saying that by him doing this with the Nobel Prizes, he.
[00:15:22] Speaker B: I don't think it atones.
[00:15:23] Speaker A: No, it doesn't. Okay. Because he knew full well what he was selling it for and. Okay. And I understand there's good stuff for dynamite. Like I get the whole. It's just really weird when you think about how to hold this person.
[00:15:33] Speaker B: But that's kind of the. I think our world in general today. Right. Two things can be true at once.
[00:15:39] Speaker A: Yeah, I guess.
[00:15:40] Speaker B: And I guess it could be a total.
[00:15:41] Speaker A: Yeah, no, I guess you're right. It's easier to look backwards and like decide historically on someone who's dead than it is to like in the moment. Okay. Anyway, sorry, what was the question you asked me something about Norway and Sweden. That was it. Okay, five in Sweden obviously makes sense because that's Stockholm, Sweden. That's where he was born. Okay, then the one in Norway, as far as I could figure out, is when he wrote his will in 1895. Sweden and Norway were one unified kingdom then. So same king, two countries, but joined together.
[00:16:08] Speaker B: Yeah, we talked about that last week.
[00:16:09] Speaker A: Right, so in his will he specifically said the Peace Prize goes to Norway.
[00:16:14] Speaker B: But why?
[00:16:14] Speaker A: Right, okay, I'm getting there.
[00:16:16] Speaker B: Switzerland.
[00:16:16] Speaker A: Right, right, right. So we don't exactly know there wasn't like some special shit written in his will. Nothing left behind. But here's. I got some theories.
[00:16:23] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:16:23] Speaker A: Okay. Found some weird ass theories and some Reddit threads. Okay. That's what you pay me for, people. Okay, so the first theory is that Norway was seen as less militaristic than Sweden, like always.
And since it was the Peace Prize, it made sense to have it in a less militaristic country. I don't even know if that's a word, I just made it up. But that's tracks. Okay, two, Norway's parliament was considered more independent and a lot less, I guess you would say, caught up in monarchy politics than Sweden. So having the Peace Prize in Norway, historians are saying Forced everyone sort of to back off and not fight over it. Okay, that's second theory. Third theory is that historians think Norway was just seen as generally better suited for peace oriented work. I don't know what the fuck that means. That's it. Those are the three theories. Either way it doesn't matter because Alfred wrote that shit in his will. And so that's what they have to do. It's in Norway. Done and done. Deal with it.
[00:17:19] Speaker B: Interesting.
[00:17:19] Speaker A: Peace prize in Norway. Nobody knows.
[00:17:20] Speaker B: I still have so many questions, but I'm gonna let you go. I think hopefully your next point is gonna be like how they even pick the people for these prizes.
[00:17:28] Speaker A: It can be. I mean, I really don't care what order we go. What do I know?
[00:17:31] Speaker B: I think we need to. Because who picks what so changes? Like, is it even matter that five are in Sweden and one's in Norway?
[00:17:36] Speaker A: No, no, no, no, no, no, it doesn't.
[00:17:39] Speaker B: How do they pick it?
[00:17:41] Speaker A: Six awards, six different committees. Here we go. I said there were no committees.
[00:17:44] Speaker B: Yeah, you lied to me.
[00:17:45] Speaker A: I did a little bit. Right. How about this? There's no one governing body that oversees this. There's not like the academy.
[00:17:51] Speaker B: But in education.
[00:17:51] Speaker A: Yes, that's exactly. So for physics, chemistry and economics, when it got added later, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences decides. You have to be in that academy to decide. For medicine, the. The Karolinska Institute decides. And then for literature, the Swedish Academy. Not for sciences, this one's just a different one. For language, it's called the Swedish Academy, they decide. And then for peace, it's the Norwegian committee appointed by the Norwegian Parliament. So we got 1, 2, 3, 4 different committees or bodies, I guess, deciding on who wins. Bunch of different people. And fun fact, the nominations are actually kept secret for 50 years after the award's given out. So you know who wins the award every year. You don't know who is nominated?
[00:18:39] Speaker B: How does one nominate somebody?
[00:18:41] Speaker A: Uh huh. This season gets weirder. Okay, you just nominate yourself. It's pretty much it. Like I've nominated myself every year for the Nobel Peace Prize. I haven't won once, but that's as simple as that.
[00:18:50] Speaker B: You cannot nominate yourself.
[00:18:51] Speaker A: You cannot. Absolutely not. Okay, but you can nominate a friend. I did figure that out. You can't nominate yourself. You can nominate a friend. But this is how it really works. You have to be something called a qualified nominator. Like you have to.
[00:19:02] Speaker B: It's like there's that criteria.
[00:19:03] Speaker A: Yeah, well, you have to like the same. We get licenses. Right? You have to get your licenses for all your financial shit, right. Or you need your CPA license or whatever you need to become what's called a qualified nominator. It's, like, not open to the public. It's super hard to do. You have to usually be a sitting member of a national government or formal laureates. University professors in relevant fields could get in there, maybe heads of certain international organizations or other institutes like that. People that are, like, already made. People that are in this area of research and academia. It's not a secret. They know if they're qualified nominators. But you have to, like, already be in that world for umpteen years and then be asked to be a qualified nominator. Does that make sense? It's invisible to us. But if you're in that. Yes, but if you're in the world. Right, like, whatever. I'm making it up. The president of usc, you know, or like UCLA Medical, say, you know, if they're in the right circle, they. Maybe they're one of the people that sit on the committee. Right. We don't. We won't know that.
[00:20:03] Speaker B: Right, but.
[00:20:03] Speaker A: Yes, but in their circles, they all know that. Does that make sense?
[00:20:06] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:20:06] Speaker A: So that. That's sort of what I got on, like, the committees that decide it and how you become even a committee member in the first place. I mean, there's not much to it. It's kind of secretive, and we're not really allowed to know a lot of stuff.
[00:20:15] Speaker B: So there has to be some good, like, controversies or.
[00:20:19] Speaker A: Oh, there's controversies. Oh, there are many controversies. Yes, there's a bunch of them.
[00:20:24] Speaker B: If you don't know who's being able to nominate, I'm sure there's, like, you
[00:20:26] Speaker A: want to know the biggest controversy? Should I just go straight to the biggest one?
[00:20:29] Speaker B: Okay, go.
[00:20:30] Speaker A: Gandhi.
[00:20:31] Speaker B: What?
[00:20:31] Speaker A: Gandhi.
[00:20:32] Speaker B: Why? Gandhi never won.
[00:20:34] Speaker A: Never won no Nobel Peace Prize. Wouldn't you think Gandhi.
Isn't that the first person you think of?
[00:20:38] Speaker B: He's a little controversial, isn't he? Wow.
I mean, I don't know much, but okay.
[00:20:44] Speaker A: He should have won a Nobel Peace Prize.
[00:20:46] Speaker B: Well, who else has won a Nobel Peace Prize?
[00:20:48] Speaker A: Martin Luther King.
[00:20:48] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:20:49] Speaker A: If Martin Luther King won one, you would think Gandhi should have won one. Obama, one. One.
[00:20:54] Speaker B: Yeah, well, that's okay, but.
[00:20:55] Speaker A: Okay, okay, my point exactly. Biggest snub.
[00:20:57] Speaker B: Maybe they didn't like Gandhi.
[00:20:58] Speaker A: Gandhi, duh. Somebody had it out for him. Okay, do you know who won, like, instead of Gandhi? Like, I looked this up because I was very pissed off. This guy named Lord Cecil of Chelwood So.
[00:21:09] Speaker B: Some Brit, right?
[00:21:10] Speaker A: Thank you. Okay. Yeah. That's how this all happens. You know what he did? Mr. Chelwood. Lord Chelwood. League of Nations. You remember the whole, like, how the UN got started?
It was like the League of Nations was the precursor to the un. Yes. So Lord Cecil of Chelwood was the instrumental guy behind the League of Nations. So it was him against Gandhi. We know that now because they released the information and he won. And then the next year, Gandhi was assassinated. And they can't give it to somebody post humiliate, humulously. How come I can't say that word post humulously? I don't even know. They can't give it to someone who's dead.
So that's it. Gandhi Condi didn't get one. Totally sucked.
Lord Chelwood got it.
[00:21:53] Speaker B: Wait, hold on. How do you even measure a piece? Because I feel like it's immeasurable.
[00:21:57] Speaker A: Right. This is.
[00:21:59] Speaker B: Is this, like, what good works? What good deeds? What things you did?
[00:22:02] Speaker A: Good works, Good deeds, All those things.
Obama's behind a controversy on this whole. How do you define this? Because when I was down the same rabbit hole as you were, I was like, wait a second. How do people decide all this stuff? So in 2009, when Obama won it, he was only one year into his first term.
[00:22:18] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:22:19] Speaker A: And so it was like, sort of a big deal. And I went back, I found a bunch of articles on this shit that they feel like they, the public feel like it was given to Obama too early because of what he was representing and what he was wanting to accomplish, not what he already. Right. Not what he already accomplished. So.
[00:22:40] Speaker B: But usually it's for what you've accomplished.
[00:22:42] Speaker A: That's my personal opinion. But because this is so secretive and we don't know, they get to decide whatever they want to decide. So Obama's was actually pretty riddled with debate and controversy. Like, totally was.
[00:22:53] Speaker B: I really want to know who's on the committee, though, man.
[00:22:55] Speaker A: Now I want to know. Well, it probably changes all the time, but they, like, kind of screw up a lot. Like, not that they screwed up with Obama. I don't want to say they screwed up with Obama. But like, controversy, other ones who didn't. So what did I tell you already? Gandhi, Leo Tolstoy, the guy who wrote War and Peace, didn't win for literature. If you know one book in the world, you know War and Peace and he didn't win for literature. What's that all about? Okay, I know you won't know this name, but you're going to freak out when you hear this. So a guy named Dmitri Mendeleev, you're like, yeah, who's that? He literally invented the periodic table for chemistry. The thing we all have to memorize in chemistry class in high school. Dimitri invented it and did not win for chemistry. Yes. I think that's also one that super big stuff.
Stephen Hawking never won for physics. Black hole, the whole thing. Stephen Hawking died and they didn't give him anything. Einstein, he did win one, but he did not win for his theory of relativity, which everybody knows. And because they screwed up, my take on this whole thing is years later they gave him one for his discovery of the photoelectric effect. Effect.
What is that?
Like, that's, that's like a makeup for snubbing him on the theory of relativity.
[00:24:08] Speaker B: It's one the none. Just saying.
[00:24:10] Speaker A: Yeah. All I know is there's just a ton of controversies, right? Like, whatever. However they decide, it's all behind the scenes. You don't even know what's going on. I mean, I could go on forever, literally. Amanda, People winning and then doing some bad. Like the opposite of what like Nobel was all about, or people winning and then refusing the award altogether. It's like really cloak and dagger bullshit.
[00:24:25] Speaker B: But do you get to, like, turn down the nomination?
[00:24:27] Speaker A: Yeah, people turn down the nomination all the time.
[00:24:28] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:24:28] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah. Because they don't like what it stands for.
[00:24:31] Speaker B: So famous one, you're like notified that you're a nominee before you're.
[00:24:34] Speaker A: Yes. And then, well, you're notified you won and then you could decide what. How you want to do with it. Yeah. Yes. So super famous one, 1973, Henry Kissinger and Lee Duck, though. So this one is about Vietnam, what was going on in Vietnam at the time. So they both win, but Lee Duck, though, refuses it, saying peace had not been achieved yet, so how could he accept the award?
And then Kissinger decides, okay, I'll take it. So he wins it, and then a few years later decides to, if you remember, secretly bomb Cambodia and Laos and kill a bunch of people. So then everybody was like, okay, did we just give this guy a Nobel Peace Prize? And then he went and.
[00:25:08] Speaker B: Yeah, so how do you, like.
[00:25:10] Speaker A: Right. You can't take it back. So you just, you just. No, that's my. Like, this is why. It's like, I think you should wait till you're dead.
They don't give it to you. Post humorously. I can't say the word, but I think maybe they should change it to that. Because there's all sorts of examples of people doing bad shit afterwards. And you're like, well, I don't know. You did something good, but then you did something bad. Because we're all just flawed individuals. You know what I mean?
[00:25:35] Speaker B: I can see that.
[00:25:35] Speaker A: We need more fruitcakes in this world, less bakers. We need people who care. Okay, whatever.
[00:25:39] Speaker B: My brain's swirling at the moment. Okay, wait, let me just see if I maybe remotely grasped what you kind of, like, spitballed there.
[00:25:45] Speaker A: Yeah, I was all over the place. I went down too many rabbit holes. Sorry.
[00:25:48] Speaker B: But I think it's all relevant, right. To this whole process and what it is, so just make sure. There was, like, five. Or six. Ish different committees. They all gather together, they decide who should be nominated for the year, and then they pick one person to be the winner for this year. For that category.
[00:26:06] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:26:06] Speaker B: But if they get it wrong and this person goes off the rails, oh, well, they can.
[00:26:11] Speaker A: They did the best.
[00:26:12] Speaker B: They could still have a Nobel Prize.
[00:26:14] Speaker A: And so far, you. They can't take them back.
[00:26:18] Speaker B: All right.
[00:26:18] Speaker A: I don't know. Maybe they can take back the $1.2 million. Who knows?
[00:26:21] Speaker B: All right, well, if you were to win a prize, which one would you want to win?
[00:26:23] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:26:26] Speaker B: It's like you're a science y guy.
[00:26:27] Speaker A: Back to opinion. If I could win a prize. Okay, wait, what are they? They're physics, chemistry, literature, medicine, economics, or peace.
This would be interesting. First of all, literature would be fascinating because I think literature affects so many people. Like, I think of, like, Harper Lee and To Kill a Mockingbird. Or like, there's certain things that just connect with me, but I can't write for shit. So.
[00:26:50] Speaker B: So you wouldn't win an award there.
[00:26:51] Speaker A: I did. Well, let's start with rule out physics. Rule out chemistry. Not interested. Not interested. Rule out economics. Not interested. So I have medicine, literature, and peace. Left medicine. No, I'm not. It's peace or literature. I would have. I couldn't decide.
What about you?
I narrowed it down to two. I did good.
[00:27:10] Speaker B: I'm not good at any of those things.
[00:27:12] Speaker A: I'm not saying good at. I'm not good at either one. You think I'm a peace activist. I'm a piece of shit. You just said, which one would you want to win? Like, be known for, like, my legacy. So, like, just think leg.
[00:27:21] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:27:21] Speaker A: Like what. What would you. You don't have to be good at it.
[00:27:24] Speaker B: Yeah, I guess. I mean, which one has the most impact? I guess peace. Yeah. Yeah, I think Peace is. Because it's.
[00:27:30] Speaker A: I think it's the most important.
[00:27:31] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:27:32] Speaker A: Like, out of all. Like, I. I understand the others are important. They're all critically important. But, like, peace for some reason has a heaviness to it. Where I just.
[00:27:39] Speaker B: Yeah, I think where science is like. Yeah, no, that's innovation. That's growing. That's great.
[00:27:43] Speaker A: And I mean, no, shame on Sweden. Don't get me wrong, but I mean, I'd rather win it in Norway. You know what I mean?
[00:27:46] Speaker B: What do you do they get flown to Sweden or Norway to accept the.
[00:27:50] Speaker A: Oh, like a big deal, dude. Yeah.
[00:27:52] Speaker B: Didn't Trump get, like, a Nobel Prize?
[00:27:54] Speaker A: Oh, my God. Did he?
[00:27:55] Speaker B: Oh, I don't know.
[00:27:56] Speaker A: Oh, no. Now, no. We can't just leave that fucking matzah ball hanging out there.
Did he?
[00:28:01] Speaker B: I think so. Hold on, hold on.
[00:28:03] Speaker A: We need to look this up. This is terrible. Did he really.
He didn't win a Nobel Peace Prize. There's no way.
[00:28:08] Speaker B: Okay, no, he did not win one. But he was given one. He's been formally nominated multiple times. But in January of this.
[00:28:14] Speaker A: Wait, how do we know? First of all, we're not supposed to know he was nominated.
That's bullshit.
It said 50 years. Okay, so already we've got WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks. This is bullshit. Okay, fine. Wait. Finish what you're saying.
[00:28:25] Speaker B: Oh, but Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Machado presented him with her physical Nobel Peace.
[00:28:33] Speaker A: Oh, she gave it away to him.
[00:28:34] Speaker B: She did what? Yeah.
[00:28:37] Speaker A: What did she try. Is Venezuela's trying to get in good with it.
[00:28:39] Speaker B: I mean, I think it was. It's when, you know, he. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:28:43] Speaker A: This is bs. Okay, fine.
[00:28:44] Speaker B: Fascinating. Look, I came up with a fun fact all on my own.
[00:28:46] Speaker A: You did?
[00:28:47] Speaker B: Didn't even know.
[00:28:47] Speaker A: You just started. Fun facts. Fun facts, fun facts. Can we just do fun facts? Because that's all I got for Nobel Peace Prize.
[00:28:52] Speaker B: Please do.
[00:28:53] Speaker A: I've bored myself with Nobel Prize number one. Here we go. Okay, so we talked about patents all the way back at the beginning. He had like 350 patents or something like that. It was crazy. Okay. 355, to be exact. The greatest, of course, being dynamite, but a few other really cool ones. Are you ready?
[00:29:07] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:29:08] Speaker A: To show how far ahead of his time he was, this guy. Alfred Nobel, visionary. Yes. Rocket launch camera for surveying land from the sky. Like, original drone idea, like back in the 1800s. Okay, but Rocket launch, of course, because that was all technology. Artificial silk. Patent for artificial silk. So we wouldn't depend on the silkworm anymore.
[00:29:28] Speaker B: Okay. Uh huh.
[00:29:29] Speaker A: Not bad. And an early sound and recoil suppressor for firearms like the silencer, so you could kill people quieter.
[00:29:36] Speaker B: Oh, oh. See?
[00:29:38] Speaker A: So dynamite and the silencer. Yeah, he had a one track mind. Okay, good old Nobel number two. Hey, no judging here, but you know.
[00:29:47] Speaker B: No, fair enough judging. No judging. I love you. You know him for the Nobel Peace Prize.
[00:29:53] Speaker A: You know him for dynamite.
[00:29:54] Speaker B: He now. I do, but like before.
You know what I'm saying? So like, he accomplished his mission.
[00:29:59] Speaker A: All right, well, if we were to call dynamite something Nobel.
[00:30:02] Speaker B: That's true.
[00:30:03] Speaker A: Right. Okay. Number two. Although the Peace Prize is usually awarded to individuals, it has also been awarded to organizations. In a few cases, in fact, the Red Cross has won it three separate times, more than any single person. Twice in 1917 and 1944 for aiding wounded soldiers and POWs during World War I and World War II, and then again in 1963 for their work on the Geneva Convention. So the only three time winners, the Red Cross number three, the youngest Nobel laureate ever. You might have heard of her. So it was a book. Malala Yousafasi. I can't say that well. Yousafasi, Malala, who won the Peace Prize in 2014 at 17 years old for her advocacy for girls education after surviving being shot by the Taliban.
[00:30:41] Speaker B: Do you remember that?
[00:30:42] Speaker A: For going to school? Yeah, I read her book. No, it was remarkable.
Number four, Marie Curie is still the only person in history to win Nobel prizes in two different sciences. What a badass. Physics in 1903 for her work on radioactivity. And chemistry in 1911 for discovering the elements of polonium and radium. And the kicker, she did all of it carrying around vials of radioactive material in her pockets because nobody understood radiation exposure yet. Her research notebooks are still so radioactive today that you have to sign a waiver and wear protective gear just to read them in the French archives where they sit.
[00:31:17] Speaker B: That's wild.
[00:31:18] Speaker A: Super fun fact.
[00:31:18] Speaker B: That's sobriety. What is it? Sobrietal. What is it?
[00:31:22] Speaker A: That is sobrietal.
[00:31:22] Speaker B: No. What is that?
[00:31:23] Speaker A: That is Cory Bantic.
[00:31:24] Speaker B: That's Cory Vantic.
[00:31:25] Speaker A: Good for you. Twice in one. Let's go. A twofer.
[00:31:29] Speaker B: Choosing it wherever I put chaos.
[00:31:30] Speaker A: Marie Curie was a twofer. And you were just a twofer. Job well done. Okay, last one. Nobel medals. We were talking about the medals, right? And then the $1.2 million that comes with it. They're made from 18 karat green gold, plated with 24 karat gold. So technically, the most famous prize in the World isn't even solid gold. It's gold plated. Kind of perfect. Honestly, they made it that way on purpose because the 24 karat gold would be too soft to engrave in. So that's really it. Otherwise they would have done it that way. That's all I got.
[00:32:00] Speaker B: That was fascinating.
[00:32:01] Speaker A: It's a very, very new info. My very Cory Bantic episode. Right? We're two Cory Bantic and crazy guys.
[00:32:08] Speaker B: Will people want to learn more or continue on the little path?
[00:32:11] Speaker A: There's nothing more to learn about the Nobel Prize. I think we pretty much butchered this whole thing.
[00:32:14] Speaker B: No, there has to be more.
[00:32:15] Speaker A: A little bit more. Not really. I don't even know. You want to dig a little deeper?
[00:32:18] Speaker B: Yeah, sure.
[00:32:19] Speaker A: Then DM us on Instagram, for crying out loud. Okay, we'll send you the fun facts. We'll send you all this summary shit and whatever you want. There, right there. It's on the line for you. Let's go.
There's a biography. It's called A Man and His Prizes, which explains the history of the whole thing like way better than we just did because I just terrorized this whole thing. You can get on Amazon or audible whatever you get your book fixes. Another thing you could do is read his will. How about that? You can read his actual will. Yes. It's super short. Kind of wild. Read the original document that started the whole phenomenon in the first place. You can find it on the official Nobel Prize site, nobelprize.org under the Alfred Nobel section.
[00:32:55] Speaker B: I'm actually going to do that. That sounds interesting.
[00:32:57] Speaker A: Super short. Go do it. And then just follow along when they announce the winners this year in early October. It's coming up. And then watch the ceremonies. If you've never. If you've never done the ceremony. Yes. December 10th. Super cool. Watch it. For sure. That's all I got.
[00:33:08] Speaker B: All right, well. And if you don't want to miss any of that, just remember these details. It seems sort of sophisticated. First, there isn't one Nobel Peace Prize. There are six categories. Physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, peace and economics. Though, folks, though economics wasn't even part of the original five and was added 70 years later.
Second, Alfred Nobel made his fortune inventing dynamite. And as the story goes, reading his own mistaken obituary, which called him the Merchant of Death, is part of what pushed him to redirect his fortune towards these prizes, changing his legacy and what he was known for.
This guy. Third, the Peace Prize specifically is awarded in Norway, not Sweden. And historians still don't know exactly why Nobel made that call, but yay, Norway.
Fourth, there's no single committee deciding all six prizes. Five different institutions decide six different categories, and nominations stay sealed for 50 years afterwards.
[00:34:04] Speaker A: Except in the case of Donald Trump. Evidence, right?
[00:34:06] Speaker B: We don't actually know. And finally, from Gandhi never winning to Einstein winning for the wrong discovery, the prize's biggest controversies all come back to the same unanswered question.
Can you actually measure something like peace, genius, or impact? We're gonna let you decide.
[00:34:22] Speaker A: There you have it. Dear listeners, we came in today thinking the Nobel Prize was just an award for smart people.
I mean, kind of was. We're leaving knowing it's actually a mirror. It's humanity's attempt to decide out loud once a year what actually matters to us. And if we did our job today, you're walking away thinking about this a little differently. Not who's the smartest person alive, but what does the world actually choose to reward? And why do they choose to, as always, hit subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a friend who still thinks it's just one shiny medal for one genius a year. Because they're way off. Until next time, stay curious, stay sophisticated, and remember, the world doesn't just crown its winners, it decides them.
