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Episode 34: The Life of Dr. James Still
61 Plays1 year ago
Happy Monday Guys!
Today is another short one, Ellie tells Lana about the life and history of James Still.
Join us next Monday for more BONKERS stories!
Also, let us know on Instagram @Scaredbutcuriouspod if you like more history focused stories!
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Transcript
Introduction & Podcast Welcome
00:00:04
Speaker
Hey guys, I'm Lana. And I'm Ellie. And welcome to Scared But Curious. Happy Monday. Happy Monday. I had to make sure I was unmuted before I started talking. Just oh crap. You guys don't know, but there are so many times that I start talking. Oh yeah.
00:00:31
Speaker
Yeah, my bad. I'm supposed to say things. So, how have you been?
Ellie's Vacation Recap
00:00:38
Speaker
Oh, no, I'm asking first. Oh, okay. Well, I am good. I am back from my vacation. I'm back from my traveling now. It wasn't really vacation. It was constantly doing stuff all week. But yeah, I'm back from my vacation traveling thing. I am
00:00:58
Speaker
I'm here. It was tiring and I'm glad to be back home where I don't have to talk to people as much anymore.
00:01:10
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, it's, and it was really nice is that I came home, and it's been like 60s. Like, I almost said heavy, heavy 60s is what I always just said. It's been high, it's been high 60s since I got home. And so I have like windows open and it's gorgeous outside. It's so nice.
00:01:32
Speaker
Hey, our weather's been similar for like a little bit, then it snowed yesterday for a little bit, then it was sunny, and then overcast, and then it tailed a little bit ago, and now it's overcast
Weather Talk in Washington
00:01:46
Speaker
again. Not really sure what's going on. Yeah, it's supposed to be really sunny until this weekend, and then it's supposed to rain, so welcome to Washington.
00:01:57
Speaker
But yeah, it was like 67 or 68 yesterday. And the day before me and my husband had a bonfire and we had like kebabs and we roasted pineapple on the fire. I'm so jealous of that pineapple. It was so good, I'm not gonna lie. When it caramelizes like that. I was like, damn, I forget how much I love it out here. Damn, I love it. But yeah, so what story do you have for me today?
Introduction to James Still's Story
00:02:27
Speaker
Well, I have the ghost of James still. That's what I'm going to be talking to you about. I don't know about this. I shouldn't just say the ghost. That's kind of what we get to at the end because he is a ghost. Because he is a ghost. This is from the 1800s. So he's definitely not around anymore.
00:02:53
Speaker
And as honestly, we've had so many true crime. It's almost like we're a true crime podcast or something. Oh my god, why? I felt like we might need to mix it up a little bit. Okay, let's let's bring something else. And this is kind of like a historical spooky ooky we got today. Oh, I love those. I mean, you know, me and anybody who actually knows me in real life knows that I am a
00:03:16
Speaker
history nerd. Oh, me too. I love it. Give me some information and I'm here for it. Actually, I'm reading this really good book right now. And again, because I'm a history nerd, and it's a it's a compilation of different women's journals from going west. Oh, it's like from the women's perspective of doing like with the wagons and stuff like that. You know what that reminds me of?
00:03:45
Speaker
um the game the organ trail highway women oh that too oh yeah but the the song the highway women like uh that's that's what that reminds me of me too it is such a anyone who doesn't know that go look up highway women by the highway women um and it has brandy carlisle in it very very very powerful message yes it is such a good song even i was gonna say even my husband likes it but my husband likes any music so i mean
00:04:12
Speaker
Yeah, he's pretty open. He's pretty open, yeah. But no, it is such a good song. And also, yeah, so it's just a really good story. And I think it's funny because I'm either reading right now, like on the plane, I was reading a book about how corpses
00:04:28
Speaker
how would you explain it? Like how corpses are used in research and medicine and stuff? Or I'm reading about women on the western, you know, going west. So I mean, welcome to my life. Welcome to me.
00:04:45
Speaker
If I'm honest with you, that's very similar. Like I'm looking at like the spooky ooky stuff and I'm like, ooh, or I need to balance it out and just go pure history where we're not like we're going for for facts because I'm like, okay, if I just give myself facts, I can't scare myself later. So
James Still's Early Life
00:05:08
Speaker
Okay, so but James still who is this guy? Well, he was a medical doctor But now when I say medical doctor, it's not what you guys were thinking when you hear medical doctor He kind of had to go rogue
00:05:23
Speaker
to become who he was. And it'll make sense as I go, I promise. He's also an herbalist. We could we could say that as well. So we focused more on like the natural aspect of medicine. Was he witchy? Witchy in the 1800s. That's just normal medicine. True. I don't think I don't think he was I don't think he had room to push it if I'm honest with you. Okay, okay. If he wasn't who he was.
00:05:50
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, if he was maybe, um, you know, it'll make sense as I go. I'm not even going to go into it. I think it'll give away too much. Okay. So he was born in Burlington County, New Jersey, which is not super close to me, but not super far either, because anyone who knows New Jersey, you could like drive through it in like, what, two, three hours. It's ridiculous. Anyway, now get this. He was one of 18 fricking kids. There's 18 of them. Holy shit.
00:06:20
Speaker
Sorry, I heard myself. I heard myself in your thing, but literally, no, I was so loud that I heard myself. Like that's how crazy that was. Sorry, that was really loud. It's all good. I think when I yelled 18 freaking kids, I heard myself too. Sorry about that. I just got, I was expecting you to say eight. And then you said there was a teen in there and I was like, what the fuck?
00:06:48
Speaker
Honestly, when I was reading that, I thought it was a typo. I didn't think when I read 18, I was like, no, they accidentally hit a one. And I'm like, wait a second, the one and the eight are not next to each other. They didn't accidentally say 12. So this man was born to a leaven and charity still. She was also known as Sydney still, not 100% sure when or how that changed, but or who maybe her name was both and she just switched between the two. Not sure.
00:07:18
Speaker
but same person, it's the mom.
00:07:22
Speaker
Now, Levin and Charity or Sydney, they were two formally enslaved people who actually escaped to the New Jersey Pine Barrens to hide so that they didn't get captured and sold back into slavery because humans suck. Our history is so fucked. But it's important to be aware that that was a thing. There were people, which at one point we will get into it. There's a woman who I wish I could remember her name right now, but I can't off the top of my head.
00:07:49
Speaker
She had a gang, essentially, that they would just go out of their way to find any person of color or anyone that can be sold into slavery, really. Even if they weren't a slave, they would go kidnap them and bring them to slavery. Because that was legal. That was the crazy thing, is that was legal. Because you could. Yeah, you just had to get from one place to another. So for example, you would go to New Jersey
00:08:17
Speaker
grab maybe not the pine barons because that's for those of you who don't know the pine barons are kind of like a giant forest. There's not much out there. Except for the Jersey Devil. That's true. And which we'll talk about that at some point as well.
00:08:33
Speaker
But they would essentially get money to live themselves by ruining other humans' lives because they just had to get them to Virginia and there you go. They didn't care where you got this human being because it wasn't a human being the moment you entered Virginia. Exactly. It's gross.
00:08:51
Speaker
Anyway, they were hiding from that. And the Still family, unfortunately, because of it, lived in poverty. The children periodically attended school and had some of their own textbooks. And what do you think these textbooks would be? Nothing. I didn't know they had textbooks back then. I don't know what they would consider a textbook for, like, back then.
00:09:13
Speaker
Well, once I tell you what they are, it might make you feel it or one of them's a spelling book. Okay. So like, oh, I would guess like an alphabet, you know, you get, you get words put together. A consonant E makes A say its name type things, right? And the New Testament, of course. Oh, yeah. Oh, they didn't have textbooks. No.
00:09:35
Speaker
No. Well, the spelling book, you know. But anyway. The spelling book, there we go. So you can read the New Testament. Exactly. You need the spelling book in order to read the second one, so. And now that we've gotten that far, that's all you need. You're fine. Exactly. I don't know what you're talking about. What do they say? Give it to God? Isn't that a thing? Yeah. Apparently. So he grew up with an extreme Methodist of a mother. If you didn't gather, the religion was important to at least one of the parents.
00:10:05
Speaker
while the father was actually said to be more of a free spirit, accepting an understanding of a lot more than just Christianity. So it seems like he kind of had the best of both words. Words, worlds. Best of both words. Oh, good. Best of both words.
00:10:31
Speaker
Why? Oh, goodness. Oh, God. So, now what we're going to talk about is the best of both words, and it is that... What motivated James? Why is this man motivated to be who he became? Because he didn't know that America needed it, I don't think to the extent, because
00:11:01
Speaker
He's very influential and you'll see. Now, when he was three years old, he went to a Philadelphia physician by the name of Dr. Fort, came to their house because he was giving house calls, which is very nice of him considering that he went to the New Jersey Pine Barrens and they didn't really have much to offer. He seems like a pretty solid doctor. He administered vaccines to the children and that was the spark that James needed for his lifelong
00:11:30
Speaker
obsession, so to speak. Just before he turned 18, he was voluntarily hired out as an indentured servant by his father. And he served three years of servitude. But while he was serving, he was reading absolutely anything and everything that he could get his hands on about medicine and botany. He went as far as learning absolutely all that he could from all the Native Americans in the area. Which... That's so... I love that.
00:12:00
Speaker
Right? Once still was released from his servitude on his 21st birthday, which is in 1833 now. He was given $10, which today is $335. Wow. Okay. Still not that much, but a new suit. That's enough.
00:12:18
Speaker
Oh, okay. Yeah. And I mean, nowadays, that would be more, I think a new suit would probably cost more than $335. But who knows what it was like back then, because everyone was wearing suits. It was like a staple jeans, dungarees were not a thing really yet. They were not in style. So he went to Philadelphia.
00:12:54
Speaker
Oh God, he went to Philadelphia right away and unfortunately
00:13:00
Speaker
his lack of funds, and the color of his skin had shown to be a factor that made him kind of ineligible for medical school. Because back then, if you were a black man, med school was not an option. And that's fucked.
00:13:17
Speaker
But anyway, nonetheless, that didn't stop him. He continued building on his medical knowledge and he did not let any of this racial bullshit stop him. He was like, I don't care that you're a racist piece of shit. I'm still gonna go and do what I'm good at. Go fuck yourself.
00:13:36
Speaker
I may have sounded like that too. I'm over here and they kind of do anyway. Along with reading all that he could, he would also find work at menial jobs just to support himself. Because ultimately his life goal was to practice some sort of medicine and to help people. But it seemed that he couldn't get a medical degree.
James Still's Medical Journey
00:13:57
Speaker
So what is he going to do?
00:13:59
Speaker
So as he matured, he studied the healing powers of herbs and plants and developed medical processes based on his own observations. And in some areas, he would just treat like burns and syphilis.
00:14:13
Speaker
Because he didn't agree with the Mercury that they were giving for a lot of these things. He thought it was too harsh on the body. So he was thinking a little bit more progressive than his formerly trained colleagues, which is, you can imagine how that would be. I mean, if you think about it nowadays, when someone thinks a little bit outside the box, how you're greeted with that, let alone a black man in the 1800s.
00:14:38
Speaker
who is obviously smarter than half the people he's going to be there. He's a little uphill battle, but he said, watch me. But he said, hold my beer, I got this. I love him already. If y'all find out that my new son, I don't know, I'm not pregnant. But if I ever have kids and my son's name is James, you know who it's named after.
00:15:02
Speaker
still married Angelina Willow in 1836 and they had a daughter. Her name was a hard one for my brain to read, okay? Beula? I'm pretty sure it's Beula. Okay, that's a name.
00:15:18
Speaker
Um, Ambula was born the same year, 1836, and for a hundred dollars, still purchased a plot of land, of brush land that's near the crossroads. And I know, is that not the craziest thought ever? A hundred bucks. I, a hundred bucks gets you, it might be shitty land, but it's land. Right. Well, it's brush land. So it just is a bunch of.
00:15:45
Speaker
like sagebrushy, nastiness. Yeah, but once you clear the brush though, it's yeah, you're good. Which I mean, I think that's pretty fucking dope still. Okay, anyway, I digress. Okay, from like, from like a standpoint of me and my husband are looking at, I mean, we're always kind of looking at houses because that's what you do as a homeowner, you're never happy with the house you have. We're looking at property and stuff like that. And it's more than 100. It's, you know,
00:16:13
Speaker
Oh, double, double, double thousands. And you're like, zeros to that. Yeah, yeah. And that's considered cheap is when it's soon it's only a couple thousand. And you're like, I know. I remember the excitement of the 100 and what $68,000 plot of land that I was like, Oh, this is nice. This is completely and affordable.
00:16:40
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Oh, inflation. Anyway, so Angelina died, his wife of tuberculosis in 18. Okay. Who's the next second? Okay. It was just so, like they have this really great family. They brought, they got a house and some acreage and then she died. Like, oh, okay.
00:17:03
Speaker
It's very 1800s of it all, isn't it? Yeah. But she did make it. She got to live for a little bit. She died in 1838. So two years later. That's sad. One year later, still married Henrietta Thomas from Vincent Town. I'm not 100% sure where Vincent Town is. I didn't look. But three days after their marriage,
00:17:26
Speaker
Honestly, I don't know where I am so much of the time. It's not even funny. You can blink, look at your GPS, and you've gone through a township. It's insane. You've got to be careful. But three days, three days after their marriage, Still's daughter Beulah died.
00:17:44
Speaker
That's really sad, but also, Henrietta, what did you do? I have written right here. That's weird. That's suspicious. Anyway, that's weird. Okay. They even had seven children of their own. So I was thinking Henrietta came and said, I think Henrietta maybe said, Oh no, Beulah fell. I don't know how she died to be completely honest with you.
00:18:15
Speaker
She really could have just gotten bronchitis and died because that's just how it is. That is a little suspicious. Your wife dies three days after. One year after the wife died is when he found his new wife. There was a year between that. Then the three days after. That's a little suspicious. Your new wife? Your wife dies and then a year later your daughter dies after you get married.
00:18:43
Speaker
That's a little... I don't think James had anything to do with it. No, not at all. I think it was all Henrietta. Watch Henrietta be this amazing fucking person and she just died of natural causes and we're like, that bitch Henrietta.
00:19:00
Speaker
In 1843, James purchased a distilling device from William Jones of Mount Holly. And from Jones, he learned the process of extracting oils from roots and herbs, particularly sass, frass, and peppermint. He began earning a modest income by regularly selling his homemade oils, tinctures, and essences. He went to a Philadelphia druggist, Charles and William Ellis.
00:19:26
Speaker
On one trip to Philadelphia, Still purchased a book of medical botany from Dr. Thomas Cook. He became so fascinated by the subject that he returned to Dr. Cook's shop two weeks later to purchase the second volume. Because apparently he was so into it, he finished the entire medical textbook.
00:19:44
Speaker
So the reason that he had purchased the second volume is because it actually had, he had said it gave instructions for making pills, powders, tinctures, salves, and liniments. Never heard of the witchy one and I've never heard of that. Let's define the word liniment. A liquid or lotion, especially one made from oil or rubbing on the body to relieve pain.
00:20:12
Speaker
Okay, that's cool. We're learning a lot here, aren't we? Okay, look at me!
00:20:17
Speaker
I love that we, out of anyone, I love that we are like, oh my God, that's so cool because we are the nerds. We are the healthcare dirt nerds. After that, Still began practicing medicine somewhat by accident of all things, agreeing to treat a sick man for exchange of some of sassafras because he was making his tinctures and oils and stuff out of sassafras. She was like, hey, I'll help you.
00:20:45
Speaker
you give me this," and slowly he found that he was distilling less and healing more now. It wasn't even something he tried to do, just people were like, hey, this is actually helping. I can give you some peppermint if you help me with this. So it turned into a thing. I want to know what it was helping with. Oh, I don't know. I'm sure if it was peppermint.
00:21:08
Speaker
It's probably headache or toothaches. It's a lotion. I'm sure it'd help with joint pain if they're working all day and just physical labor. That's true. That kind of stuff interests me so much because I'm a nerd. It's very cool because it kind of is the foundation of the medicine we have today. This is where it started. So it's very interesting.
00:21:35
Speaker
And like also being with a witty, I very much am all I am that with I am the witchy of that's cool, but still go to the doctor. I'm not gonna have that cure my bronchitis. So exactly peppermint does not cure COVID.
00:21:54
Speaker
No one could see me, but I was pointing at her as I was drinking water. It does not cure COVID. About 1845, Doctor, still at this point, stopped distilling and focused entirely on his medical practice. Doctor still stopped distilling. That's amazing. Anyway, I just like to acknowledge the fact that I was able to fucking say that. I'm so proud of you.
00:22:20
Speaker
Still's popularity and effectiveness as a self-educated physician arouse the envy and resentment from a lot of the formerly educated medical practitioners because, you know, that's threatening. He's not only is he a black man, because you know that these formerly educated doctors are white men.
00:22:43
Speaker
So the fact that there is a black man who is able to actually treat people, and he trained himself because he went for it, because, you know, truly, that's what you do is you read a lot of books. Quote, they laughed, wrote New Jersey historian Henry Charlton Beck, quote, as still went along in his rough carriage, a cigar box, his medicine chest,
00:23:07
Speaker
Then they laugh no longer, but took measures to make his business stopped. He was practicing, they said, without a license, but still had been careful, accepting only what people thought they ought to give him. So there had been no fixed rates. Still consulted an attorney and found that he could circumvent the law by charging merely the delivery of the medicine." End quote.
00:23:32
Speaker
So essentially what he was doing is they're not paying me for services. I'm not practicing medicine without a license. I'm merely giving them the medicine that they are choosing to give me back whatever they choose. I'm not fixing any rates. I'm not asking. They're giving me what they think I deserve. Smart. And I'm only making them pay, so to speak,
00:24:01
Speaker
for delivering it. That's all. Not the medicine itself. Exactly. Yep. Pretty much they're only paying for gas. Yeah, it's a loophole, really.
00:24:10
Speaker
still disdained many than popular medical treatments, including the use of mercury and calomel. He exclusively used preparations made from roots, herbs, and vegetables. Quote, it seems to me that vegetable medicine is all that is needed for the restoration of health, he wrote. Quote, the voice of the medical faculty to the contrary notwithstanding.
00:24:34
Speaker
end quote, which, if I'm honest with you, that's a lot to say, just normal medicine doesn't agree with this.
Legal Challenges in Medicine
00:24:44
Speaker
His various remedies, internal and external, as chronicled in his book, included soda water, lye, catnip tea, vinegar, salts, epikak, saffron, camphor, Virginia snake root,
00:25:02
Speaker
get this, opium, blood root, cream of tartar, cloves, comfrey root, whorehound tops, skunk cabbage, jallop root, or halop root, not sure how that said, tincture of labelia, and there's a lot more, but I figured that I kind of got the idea at this point.
00:25:25
Speaker
He was very frugal, honestly, because as you can imagine, he just needed to grow half these things. It's not like he was, you know, and because he was so frugal in his life, he was also kind of a square. Unfortunately, he expected everyone else.
00:25:43
Speaker
to also be one. So like, no drinking, gambling, no going out on benders, which of course, obviously, yeah, those aren't really the best for you. But you know, moderation shouldn't, you know, what doctor do you know that's like, yeah, bitch, let's go on a bender. Yeah, bidders. No, benders are definitely bad for you. But like, no drinking and gambling. I think, you know, if you want to have fun, that's fine. But moderation, be safe. Exactly. Yeah. Still continue to practice into his 60s.
00:26:14
Speaker
Despite advancing age and declining health, he was still going. He's like, you know what? Fuck this. Aging is for pussies. It's a word for quote. Oh, no. Wow, what a fucking poet. He has such a way with words.
00:26:52
Speaker
Now, in 1872, he found himself much more broken down and being overtasked with business and concluded to give up his outside practice and continued practice only that which came into his office, hoping to regain his former health. Now, I paraphrased a quote. In August of 1872, Still and his wife vacationed for four days in Long Branch, New Jersey.
00:27:17
Speaker
As soon as he was dropped off at home, he said that, quote, five or six persons joined me to go up to the office for medical attendance. When I reached the house, I found that my office full waiting for my return. End quote.
00:27:33
Speaker
This demoralized stem as he realized that the community demands would not allow him to reduce his workload. Quote, I continued as best as I could with the office work. He wrote, suffering continuously from great prostration. God, why do they talk like this? Okay.
00:27:52
Speaker
This physical condition continued for more than two years." He became too ill to see many patients, and even felt his own departure would be coming soon. However, he eventually recovered and once again expressed a desire to cut back office hours. In this, I was disappointed, he wrote. As soon as it was known that I was about to again, I was fairly besieged with patients."
00:28:19
Speaker
That's actually really okay. It sucks because he's stressed and he's like, yo, I need to take a step back. And they're like, Oh, you said I'll only see people in the office. Well, now we're all in the office. And I'm like, Oh, like it's one of those words, like you're doing so good, but also I get it. Like you're doing the Lord's work literally, but also like, I get it. You need a break. Yeah. Yeah. Everybody needs a break.
00:28:46
Speaker
And he's a good person who is like, there's no one else that'll do it. Exactly. Yeah.
00:28:55
Speaker
now still published his 274-page autobiography in 1877. In addition to his Life Chronicle, this book contains moral instructions, recipes for treating fevers, and many other maladies, political opinions, family vignettes, and a travelogue of his visit to New Jersey's centennial expeditions.
00:29:23
Speaker
Still felt compelled to offer encouragement by example to members of his recently emancipated, but historically disadvantaged race. In his book of instructions, Still wrote that,
00:29:38
Speaker
I hope this book may be a stimulus for some poor, dejected fellow man, who most hopelessly sits down and folds his arms and says, I know nothing and can do nothing. Let me say to you, study nature and its laws, the source of which these mighty truths are drawn. Great minds are not made in schools.
00:30:02
Speaker
I am speaking to men whose pecuniary circumstances are such to prevent them from being partakers in the blissful privileges." Which is just a really nice way of saying just because you're poor and just because you have these disadvantages that these other people don't have, that does not mean that you are not able to do it. You can do it still, right?
00:30:27
Speaker
still died, unfortunately, but he didn't die until 1882.
Legacy of James Still
00:30:32
Speaker
And he survived one stroke. So the second stroke got him. Dang. Yeah. Especially a stroke in 1880 something like or 1870 something like damn good for you. Mm hmm. And on the first stroke, unfortunately, caused him to stop working. He is buried in Coleman Town Cemetery in Mount Laurel, New Jersey.
00:30:57
Speaker
So you can still visit his gravestone today. When I come do your road trip, we should go visit him. Let's do it. Let's go see still. We'll send pictures posted on our Instagram. Yeah.
00:31:10
Speaker
Still's Life was chronicled by Henry Charlton Beck, whose book was published in 1936. Forgotten towns of southern New Jersey in a chapter entitled The Doctor of the Pines, much of Beck's knowledge of Still's Life, originated from Still's little-known 1877 self-published autobiography. According to Beck, this book was largely overlooked and forgotten and may have actually remained lost.
00:31:36
Speaker
However, a surviving copy was discovered in his personal effects of Still's only daughter, Lucretia, upon her death in 1930. The work is now in a public domain and can be reprinted by several independent publishers. Now Dr. Still's stately home in Medford, New Jersey was torn down in 1932.
00:31:56
Speaker
but his modest next-door office building was purchased for preservation by the state of New Jersey in 2006. Today, it is the Dr. James Still Historic Office Site and Education Center. Now, James had a brother named William Still, and William Still was an abolitionist writer, activist, historian, and conductor of the Underground Railroad, which helped fugitive slaves reach states where slavery had been outlawed.
00:32:23
Speaker
for those of you who don't know what the Underground Railroad is. Following in James' kids, following in his father's footsteps, James Thomas still was the third African American to graduate the Harvard Medical School in 1871. Talk about some lineage of greatness, man. Yes, dude, we love that. And to even make matters
00:32:51
Speaker
I mean, I think even more wholesome to just reiterate how much of a great person James is and was, still is obviously, is that he cared so much for the community that he has been said to be seen just wandering with his cigar box through the pine barons, offering help to any of those who get lost or get hurt in the pine barons. And I believe there was even a story of like a little girl who was lost and she was brought back
00:33:22
Speaker
to her family. And the kid was like, oh yeah, that man over there helped me. And there was no man. And when she went to later describe it, she described an African American man who had a cigar box. It was really sweet. I'm gonna cry. I'm gonna fucking cry. He is still offering care.
00:33:45
Speaker
and help to those that are in need, even in the afterlife. He's still not done, even though it- This man was too wholesome for this world. Oh my God. Seriously. And if it wasn't for him, he was one of the, he was like one of the first African-American doctors. Like he straight up was like, I don't care that you aren't letting me. I'm going to do it anyway. He had to like claw his way into that profession. Yeah.
00:34:12
Speaker
He literally walked so that... Exactly! Oh my god, I love this man! Right? And that's my story of Dr. James still. I love him! I'm so... I love him. Right. He's a good bean. We need more people to actually... He's such a good bean.
00:34:39
Speaker
Right. And like, I'm so happy that New Jersey was like, I'm so glad that New Jersey was like, Oh, like we need to save this thing so that people will remember him. Like I'm glad he has something of remembrance so that he's not forgotten. And if you think about it,
00:34:57
Speaker
He probably wasn't even called a doctor in his life. No. No. He probably wasn't even acknowledged as a doctor until much, much later in history. He was probably seen as an African American quack, you know? Yeah. Oh, someone who tried healthcare. He was just, we don't talk about that. But yeah, no, he was an amazing healthcare worker who really opened the doors and
00:35:24
Speaker
He really found alternatives that were something that anyone could do. He didn't make it so not everyone could have health care. He made it so everyone could. We're still fighting that today.
00:35:38
Speaker
I just, this man has my whole soul. Like, why can't, okay, he said aging is for pussies. Yeah, then why'd you die? No, he didn't. We need you now. He didn't say that. That was totally me saying that. I know. Okay, I just wanted to make sure that that was no. Usually 1800s him. He's like aging is for pussies. No, I know aging is for pussies. Yeah. All right. Well, I think that's it.
00:36:09
Speaker
There's one last thing to say. SBC out. SBC out, bitch. All right, thank you so much for listening.
Podcast Conclusion & Call to Action
00:36:26
Speaker
And remember to follow us on Instagram at Scared But Curious Pod. And we have a Twitter. Follow us at Scared Curious on Twitter X and join our Scared But Curious Facebook group.
00:36:38
Speaker
And if you're listening on Spotify, please rate us. Five stars, please. And if there are any stories or cases you would love to hear us cover or anything you don't hear enough about, please don't hesitate. Email us at scared but curious pod at gmail.com.