0:00

This is the BBC. Has

0:30

your mother never showed you enough love as a

0:32

child? Whoa, easy there. Yeah. That's

1:00

amazon.com/ad-free podcasts to catch

1:03

up on the latest

1:05

episodes without the ads.

1:31

This is shortcuts. Every

1:36

star in the sky resonates with

1:38

its own tone. Brief

1:41

encounters, true stories, radio

1:44

adventures and found sound. Air

1:47

Canada says it has accepted

1:49

2300 reservations for flights to

1:51

the moon in the past

1:53

five days. Today,

1:57

Constellation. We

2:01

are looking up to a clear

2:03

night sky, searching

2:06

for familiar arrangements of stars,

2:08

our oldest tool for finding

2:11

a way through the darkness. It's

2:18

deep, outside

2:24

our range of hearing. Every

2:31

star in the sky resonates

2:34

with its

2:38

own tone,

2:41

perhaps even music. I

3:00

teach my four-year-old son to draw a

3:02

star. We

3:10

draw a map with six stars. One

3:16

for each chemotherapy session I

3:19

will receive. Star

3:33

maps have guided human navigation

3:36

since time beyond memory. The

3:43

oldest celestial charts appeared

3:46

in Asian-Egyptian astronomy more

3:49

than 3,500 years ago. The

3:59

map is still in place. do not reveal the

4:01

internal life of Asta. Mom,

4:19

why are you lying here enjoying yourself? I

4:25

lie in my bed. I've just had

4:28

my second treatment. We

4:33

need to take off another star. We

4:38

find the star map. My

4:43

son chooses a turquoise pencil and

4:47

marks off a star. Yeah.

4:51

High five. I'll

4:55

just take off all the

4:57

stars at once, he says. Then

5:04

we don't need to do it again and again and again. That

5:07

would be cheating. The

5:11

star map is our way of navigating my

5:13

treatments. I

5:19

would be happy if there were seven stars.

5:21

I like taking off stars. The

5:35

tone of a star cannot

5:37

travel through the vacuum of space. But

5:42

scientists can measure it. They

5:45

call the technique astrocysmology. The

6:00

sound waves that move through the

6:02

body of a star unveil

6:04

its inner structure, like

6:07

stiller quakes. In

6:11

this way, sound tells us

6:14

about light. We

6:41

line the bed beneath the window. My

6:46

son is telling a story about love.

6:56

Love is when the heart is really happy.

7:02

Would you like to hear more? If

7:05

not, just say stop. Do

7:16

you remember our star map? I ask.

7:26

We forgot to take off the last

7:28

star, but we don't need

7:30

the map anymore. What

7:36

should we do with the drawing? He

7:38

asks. I'll

7:42

just keep it as a memory. My

7:48

son is drifting off to sleep. Outside,

7:56

the night sky. space,

8:03

and countless

8:06

inaudible tones.

8:19

Star map was made for us

8:21

by Nana Hauger-Christensen and featured

8:23

her son Ferdinand Hauger-Leth with

8:26

music by Kirstine Lindemann created on the

8:28

recorder. Whilst

8:32

researching this documentary, Nana

8:34

had read that the vibrations in

8:37

stars are akin to the resonances

8:39

in wind instruments. Next

8:48

we're venturing out further into space on

8:50

a voyage to the moon with

8:53

the astronauts on the Apollo 11 mission

8:55

in 1969. Whilst

8:58

they made their way to their historic

9:00

landing, Neil Armstrong, Buzz

9:02

Aldrin and Michael Collins were

9:04

able to receive news from Earth

9:06

each morning. T-minus

9:10

15 seconds, guidance is internal.

9:13

Twelve, eleven, ten,

9:16

nine, ignition sequence starts.

9:19

Six, five, four,

9:22

three, two, one,

9:25

zero, all engines running. Lift

9:28

off, we have a lift off. Lift

9:31

off on Apollo 11. Tower cleared.

9:37

This is Apollo Control. At 22

9:39

hours, 49 minutes ground elapsed time. Crew

9:41

has been awake for some time according to

9:43

the surgeon. Apollo

9:46

11, Apollo 11, this is Houston. Over.

9:50

Morning Houston, Apollo 11. Roger, Apollo 11, good

9:52

morning. You're interested in the morning news. I've got

9:55

a summary here from PA. Over.

10:00

Okay, we're all listening. Okay.

10:02

Washington, UPI, Vice President ROT Agnew has

10:04

called for putting a man on Mars

10:10

by the year 2000, but

10:12

Democratic leaders replied that priority must go

10:14

to needs on Earth. Laredo,

10:18

Texas, AP, immigration

10:20

officials in Nuevo Laredo announced

10:22

Wednesday that hippies will be refused

10:24

tourist cards to enter Mexico unless they take a bath and get

10:26

haircuts. London,

10:30

UPI. The House

10:32

of Lords was assured Wednesday that

10:34

a Midget American submarine would not

10:36

quote, damage or assault, unquote, the

10:39

Loch Ness Monster. Over. Roger,

10:43

thank you. This

10:52

is Apollo Control at 53 hours 20 minutes. Apollo

10:55

11's distance from Earth is 171,293 nautical miles. I've

11:04

got the morning news here if you're interested. Over.

11:07

Yeah, we sure are. We're ready to copy and

11:09

comment. In Corby,

11:11

England, an Irishman, John Coyle,

11:13

has won the World Harwich

11:15

Eating Championship by consuming 23

11:18

bowls of instant oatmeal in

11:20

a 10-minute time limit from a field

11:22

of 35 other competitors. Over. I'd

11:26

like to enter Aldrin in an oatmeal eating

11:28

contest next time. See, pretty

11:30

good at that. He's 20, sir, up here. Let's

11:33

see, you all just finished a meal not

11:35

long ago, didn't you? Absolutely.

11:39

He's on his 19th bowl. Roger.

11:48

This is Apollo Control. It's 72 hours 7 minutes. Apollo

11:50

11 is 9,761 nautical miles from the moon. Okay,

11:58

yeah. First off, it looks like it's going to be a

12:00

little bit of a surprise. it's going to be impossible to

12:02

get away from the fact that you guys are dominating all

12:04

the news back here in Earth. Even

12:06

Pravda and Russia is headlining a mission

12:08

and called Neil Bizar of

12:10

the ship. I think maybe

12:12

they got the wrong mission. West

12:15

Germany has declared Monday to be Apollo

12:17

Day. School children in Bavaria have been

12:19

given the day off. And

12:21

in Italy, Pope Paul VI has arranged for

12:24

a special color TV circuit at his summer

12:26

residence in order to watch

12:28

you, even though Italian television is still black

12:30

and white. Back here

12:32

in Houston, the kids at camp

12:34

got in the news when Mike

12:36

Jr. was quoted as replying, yeah,

12:39

when somebody asked him if his daddy was going to

12:41

be in history. Then after a

12:43

short pause, he asked, what

12:45

is history? This

12:49

is Apollo Control. Ninety-four hours, twenty-one minutes,

12:52

ground elapse time. After having

12:59

breakfast, the crew will have a rather

13:01

busy day today, including the first man

13:05

landing on the moon.

13:07

Apollo 11, Houston. Among

13:09

the large headlines concerning Apollo this

13:11

morning is one asking

13:14

that you watch for a lovely

13:17

girl with a big rabbit. An

13:19

ancient legend says a beautiful Chinese

13:21

girl called Chang'o has

13:24

been living there for four thousand years.

13:27

It seems she was banished

13:29

to the moon because she stole

13:31

the tale of immortality from

13:33

her husband. You

13:35

might also look for her companion, a large

13:38

Chinese rabbit, who is

13:40

easy to spot since he is always standing

13:43

on his hind feet in

13:45

the shade of its cinnamon tree. The

13:47

name of the rabbit is not reported. We're

14:00

breathing again. Thanks a lot.

14:08

That's one small step for man.

14:11

Unofficial time on the first step, 109-2420. Columbia

14:16

and Eagle now reunited to become

14:19

Apollo 11. This

14:23

is Apollo control at 132 hours, 15 minutes. We

14:27

heard on the news today, 11, that yesterday

14:29

after you made your landing, New York Times

14:31

came out with the largest headlines they've ever

14:33

used in the history of the newspaper. Sam,

14:36

it's a copy. I'm glad to hear it

14:39

was fit to print. It was great. People

14:43

around the world had many reasons to be

14:45

happy about the Apollo 11 mission. The

14:48

Italian police reported that Sunday night was the

14:50

most crime-free night of the year. And

14:53

in London, a boy who had to face to

14:55

bet $5 with a bookie

14:57

that a man would reach the moon before 1970

14:59

collected $24,000. Pretty

15:04

good odds. This

15:09

is Apollo control at 148 hours, 21 minutes. At

15:13

the time, the spacecraft crossed

15:15

from the moon's sphere of influence to

15:18

the Earth's. Apollo 11

15:20

still dominates the news around the world.

15:24

Only four nations, communist China and

15:26

North Korea, North Vietnam and Albania,

15:29

have not yet informed their citizens of your flight

15:31

and landing on the moon. On

15:33

the sports front, last night in

15:36

New York, the Baseball Writers Association

15:38

of America, named Babe Ruth

15:40

the greatest ball player of all time. Joe

15:43

DiMaggio was named the greatest living ball

15:45

player. This

15:49

is Apollo control at 173 hours, 18 minutes. There

15:53

are virtually no flight plan activities

15:55

scheduled at this time. Apollo 11,

15:58

Houston, over. I

16:01

just wanted to make sure you fellas hadn't gone

16:03

back to sleep again. And I also have a

16:05

little bit of late news here if you'd like

16:08

to find out what's happened in the last 12,

16:10

14 hours. Over. Okay, go ahead. Oh,

16:13

if you don't, hot off the press here,

16:15

we find in Memphis, Tennessee, a

16:18

young lady who is

16:20

presently tipping the scales at eight

16:22

pounds, two ounces, was named a

16:24

module by her parents,

16:26

Mr. and Mrs. Eddie Lee McGee. It

16:29

wasn't my idea, it said Mrs. McGee, it

16:31

was my husband. Oh,

16:35

you hear a few chuckles coming from that direction. This

16:43

is Apollo Control at 190 hours, 10

16:46

minutes. Apollo 11's distance from the Earth,

16:48

36,956 nautical

16:52

miles. Apollo 11, good

16:54

morning from Houston. Over. Good morning,

16:56

11. Hi, Roger. We saw

16:58

you were up to turn around, and

17:00

while you're eating your breakfast there, I've

17:02

got the maroon bugle all standing by

17:04

here to give you the morning news.

17:06

I was proud to hear it. President

17:09

Nixon surprised your wives with a phone call

17:12

from San Francisco just before he boarded a

17:14

plane to fly out to meet you. Air

17:18

Canada says it has accepted

17:20

2,300 reservations for

17:22

flights to the moon in the past five days.

17:25

It might be noted that more than 100 have

17:28

been made by men for their mothers-in-law.

17:32

And finally, it appears that rather than

17:34

killing romantic songs about the moon, you

17:36

have inspired hundreds of songwriters. Nashville,

17:40

Tennessee, which probably houses

17:42

the largest collection of recording companies

17:45

and song publishers in the country, now

17:47

reports it is being flooded by moon songs.

17:50

Some will make it. Morning

17:53

bugle out. Thank

17:55

you very much. That

18:07

was made for us by the

18:10

audio producer and space enthusiast

18:12

Mika Golubowski. We're

18:17

ending with a constellation of small

18:19

voices reaching out into the

18:21

darkness, hoping to be heard. The

18:26

audio producer Inga Osterhoff came across

18:28

this story because she once read

18:30

a small detail in her school book

18:32

on American history, which

18:34

said that homesteaders would write very

18:36

personal letters to mail order companies because

18:38

they ordered all of their things from them

18:41

and it was often their most intimate relation

18:43

to the outside world. She'd

18:46

been looking for proof of this claim for about 10 years

18:49

when she found Evan Gregg's blog. The

18:52

first recording you'll hear is an

18:54

interview with Evan's grandmother, Werner. When

18:59

did you get the job at Montgomery Works?

19:01

Well I got out of high

19:04

school in 1932 that summer I

19:06

couldn't get a job and

19:09

then I must have gone out

19:11

to Wardson applied because there

19:14

were quite a few of my friends

19:16

from high school

19:18

that got jobs out there. Their

19:23

main business was the mail order business

19:25

at that time. That was where

19:27

they mailed things out. Sometimes

19:30

they couldn't fill an order or something for

19:32

some reason that would come back down to

19:34

us to find out what the

19:36

trouble was. But then

19:39

after a while I got to be

19:41

what they called a correspondent and

19:44

I got all the complaint letters. Any

19:47

complaint letters? Any kind

19:49

of complaint. Only

19:51

the complaint letters came to me. satisfied.

20:01

It is broken. Will you do

20:03

something about it? My girlfriend has the

20:05

same kind of a bed. Hers

20:07

has been used a lot more than mine,

20:10

and it is still in good condition.

20:12

Dear friends, I am not

20:14

satisfied with the corset. I

20:16

look like an expecting mother if I sit down and I

20:18

do not want that. It slips up above

20:21

my belly. I want a

20:23

different one or my money back. What

20:25

is the matter with Montgomery Ward anyway?

20:28

I ordered a 32 volt electric churn,

20:30

and what do I get? A lawnmower.

20:33

Now what can a fellow with a lot of cream do

20:35

with a lawnmower? I'm

20:42

pretty sure I found the letters when I was looking

20:45

for my dad's release papers

20:47

from Vietnam because he had passed away and we

20:49

had to find stuff for the for the VA.

20:51

And so I was going through

20:53

my parents storage, and I just started going through boxes

20:55

trying to find this stuff had been lost

20:58

and some of these boxes had just been untouched for

21:00

30 years. My

21:02

grandpa used to take them out at parties New

21:06

years and things like that and social gatherings

21:08

and read them for a good laugh. But

21:12

dad always got a kick out of them. I just had

21:14

them in a hunk of paper, you know. Loose

21:17

and then he came home one day with this black

21:19

notebook with my name on the front of it, you

21:22

know. And then I

21:24

sat down and typed up a

21:26

lot of them after that. Dear

21:34

sir, I have tried every way I

21:36

know of to make the horse collar that you sent

21:38

me work on my model T Ford, but it don't

21:40

seem to fit right. I'm

21:42

returning it at your expense and will you kindly

21:45

send me the carburetor at the same price? Which

21:47

is after all what I ordered in the

21:50

first place. Gentlemen, ordered

21:53

two dresses from your sales catalog

21:55

and your Chicago house sent me

21:57

two just alike. same

22:00

pattern and same color. The

22:03

dresses are okay, but to have two

22:05

just the same, I'm afraid

22:07

my husband will say this is grounds for divorce if

22:09

he has to see me in the same dress for

22:11

two or three years, would exchange

22:13

for a cheaper dress if need be. Dear

22:16

sirs, mother and I have

22:18

decided that the man in the overcoat

22:20

on page 257, the brown coat at

22:22

the top of the page, would make

22:24

me a good husband. I know

22:27

he would be good to me. How can I

22:29

get him? If you can

22:31

send him to me, I will be

22:33

glad to pay the postage. Yours truly,

22:35

Miss Martha Medford. I

22:42

had never heard anything about her working at

22:44

Montgomery Ward before I found

22:47

these letters. I kind of expands on my

22:49

understanding of who she was as a person because I

22:51

was 10 when she died. So you

22:54

know, I only have that kid perspective. I never knew

22:56

her as myself as an adult. And

22:59

I didn't really think to ask her a

23:01

whole lot of questions as a

23:03

kid. Mostly what I found out was just from

23:05

the interview that my uncle did with

23:07

her. I can

23:11

remember one fellow wrote

23:13

and said that he'd he'd

23:16

bought an engagement ring and

23:19

his girl

23:21

broke up with him. And

23:24

so he had to return the engagement ring.

23:28

Gentlemen, with this letter,

23:30

I am returning a diamond ring I purchased

23:33

from your mail order store the 17th of

23:35

March. The diamond is satisfactory

23:37

in every way, but the

23:39

girl isn't. The short

23:41

of it is that I have no use for

23:44

an engagement ring when I am not engaged and

23:47

do not anticipate any such action for some

23:49

time. For a long

23:51

time, I have wished that I could

23:54

afford a radiophonograph. Thus,

23:56

the whole matter boils down to the fact that

23:58

I wish to exchange my ring. for

24:00

a radio. The rain costs

24:02

exactly the same, so even

24:05

Steven. I

24:07

wish and hope that you can make this

24:09

deal and I could have a radio to

24:11

fill the long winter hours. Enclosed,

24:13

find the regular five dollars for the

24:16

monthly payment on my account. I am

24:19

sorry this is late, but the breakup has been going

24:21

on for the last two weeks and I haven't

24:24

known what to do. And

24:27

I can remember writing a sales letter to

24:29

this fellow and telling

24:32

him we were so sorry that thing worked

24:34

out the way they did. He would suggest

24:37

that he buy this such-and-such a

24:39

radio to fill his lonely hours.

24:41

I can remember that writing that

24:43

one line. I

24:47

really wish I could ask her more about like why

24:49

did you save these certain ones. There's

24:51

nothing in the interview about that. She just kind of, they're

24:54

her favorites. I mean it's so

24:56

much about the little like turns of phrase that

24:58

are just like the accidental poetry of that I

25:00

love so much. It's very,

25:03

very personal and so many details

25:05

of of their lives

25:07

and sometimes more than they

25:09

probably needed to. Dear

25:12

Wards, can you

25:15

send me some medicine so you can get rid

25:17

of it if you are in a family way?

25:20

I am in a family way and I would like to get

25:22

rid of it. So please

25:26

send me some medicine so I can get rid of it. It

25:29

is about two months and

25:32

I want medicine guaranteed to help and not

25:34

to spoil my blood. So please send it

25:36

COD. I pay it, but I

25:38

want it to help. I

25:40

will order everything from you and I'll help you

25:43

get more customers. Send it

25:45

as soon as possible. Send

25:47

me an instruction along. Yours

25:50

truly, Mound City, South

25:52

Dakota. Yeah,

26:03

that's the toughest letter by

26:05

far. I

26:07

think the most about why my grandma saved that

26:09

letter. I thought that was an interesting one to

26:11

save. For

26:24

me it's about finding a descendant. That's the

26:26

first goal. I'd really like to find somebody

26:28

for the letters that I have names for.

26:31

I'd like to find a descendant to share them with them because I

26:33

would want to know. I

26:35

feel this sort of little bit of

26:37

a responsibility to at least try to find people

26:39

that might want to read them. I've

26:41

had some successes so far and people who I

26:43

have connected have been really appreciative of finding them.

26:46

I know that she'd get a real kick out of the fact that people

26:48

would still read them. I know she would love that definitely

26:50

because she kept them for a reason. She

26:53

wasn't just keeping them to read a party. She kept

26:56

them because she saw something in them that she

26:58

thought should be saved. That

27:15

was made for us by Inge Osterhof and

27:17

you heard the voices of Evan Gregg and

27:20

Werner Sylvia Gregg, interviewed by John

27:22

Gregg. The letters were read

27:24

by Lindel Hart, Sheryl

27:26

Renee Childs, Bailey Cords,

27:29

Amanda Sharp, Marina Goldman,

27:32

Reynolds Waylon and Laurie Holmes-Clark.

27:35

To learn more about the letters you can visit

27:38

dearmisterward.com which is Evan Gregg's

27:40

website. Inge sent

27:43

us one more letter that she loved but

27:45

she wasn't able to include so I'm going to read it for you

27:47

now. She says, may I

27:49

make a complaint and may I also say

27:51

I am speaking for 89,734,612 red-blooded Americans.

27:58

This thing has been on my mind for years. for years, but because

28:00

I am a very tolerant man, I have

28:03

been able to hold this thing back until

28:05

this minute. Here is the

28:07

scratchy problem. It seems

28:09

that the paper in your general

28:11

catalog is getting harder, stiffer, glossier,

28:14

more polished and less absorbent in every

28:16

issue that you put out. If only

28:18

you knew to what use 99.44% of your

28:20

catalogs are put to after their

28:25

intended usefulness has been achieved. Did

28:28

it ever occur to you that

28:30

you might be able to avert a major civil

28:32

or even an international war by working

28:34

on a more tissue-like paper in your

28:36

catalog? Why can't your catalogs

28:39

serve two useful and pleasant

28:41

purposes? Oh, you say there

28:43

are commercial products for just such a need,

28:45

but do you know country people? Yours

28:49

for a softer paper. AAW,

28:52

President of the Society for the Prevention

28:54

of Cruel to Men. And

28:58

that's the kind of men's rights movements we should

29:00

have had. Thank

29:24

you for listening to today's episode of Shortcuts. I

29:26

really hope you enjoyed it. And

29:28

I hope that if you've been outside, you're not too

29:30

chilly because I remember the first time I saw the

29:32

Orion into meteor shower with my boyfriend at the time,

29:34

we were absolutely shivering. So I hope

29:36

that you can go inside, get yourself a

29:39

little mug of cocoa and think about the

29:41

wonders of

29:43

the...space. Hello.

29:51

Hello. And welcome to Nature Bang. I'm Becky

29:53

Ripley. I'm Emily Knight. And in this series

29:55

from BBC Radio 4, we look to the

29:57

natural world to answer some of life's big...

30:00

questions. Like how

30:02

can a brainless slime mold help us

30:04

solve complex mapping problems? And

30:06

what can an octopus teach us

30:08

about the relationship between mind and

30:11

body? It really stretches your understanding

30:13

of consciousness. With the

30:15

help of evolutionary biologists... I'm actually

30:18

always very comfortable comparing us to

30:20

other species. Philosophers.

30:22

You never really know what it could

30:24

be like to be another creature. And

30:26

spongiologists. Is that your job title? Are

30:28

you a spongiologist? Well, I am in

30:31

certain spheres. It's science meets storytelling with

30:33

a philosophical twist. It really gets to

30:35

the heart of free will and what

30:37

it means to be you. So if

30:39

you want to find out more about

30:41

yourself via cockatoos that dance, frogs that

30:43

freeze and single-cell amoebas that design border

30:45

policies, subscribe to Nature Bang. From BBC

30:48

Radio 4, available on BBC Sounds. Hey,

31:20

it's Nora McNerney, host of The Head Start Embracing the

31:22

Journey. This

31:32

is Season 2 and if you're new

31:34

here, these are real conversations with real

31:36

people living with chronic migraines. This is

31:39

a show that creates a little more

31:41

space for empathy and understanding around asking

31:43

questions and asking for help. So

31:46

don't wait, jump into the conversation and

31:48

learn a little more about life with

31:50

chronic migraines. Listen to The Head Start

31:52

Embracing the Journey on the iHeart Radio

31:54

app or wherever you listen to podcasts.