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Hey, Wowzer fans, Mindy here.
And before we start the show, I gotta let you know that this November, with a special new episode featuring our friends at Circle Round and Terrestrials on Radiolab for Kids,
And don't miss when Elmo from Sesame Street stops by Wow in the World to make us all belly laugh on November 24th.
Oh, but that's not all, Reg.
On December 1st, we are sharing our 250th episode of Wow in the World with all of you.
We think this one is going to be music to your ears.
Literally.
Did I mention it's a musical?
And if you're a member of the World Organization of Wowzers...
Oh boy, do I have a surprise for you.
You can listen to our 250th episode early with me and other members from around the world on Saturday, November 22nd, at 7 pm.
Eastern.
That's right, we are throwing another listening party.
Join us as we dance along to our new songs.
React to the episode with other members in the chat and more.
Grownups.
If you want your wowzer to join this members-only listening party, you can sign up to become a member today at Tinkercastcom.
Slash wow.
Already a member?
Well, you can find the link and password to join the event when you sign in at Tinkercastcom.
Slash wow.
That's it.
It's going to be a November to remember.
But for now, let's get on with the show.
Woo!
It's Wee Wow Week.
Behold the rolling thunder of wow and wonder.
Mindy?
It's Wow on Wheels, wowing through your town.
Mindy?
Attention, Guy Raz.
Please report to the Wow on Wheels immediately.
Mindy, you pulled over right next to me.
Just roll down the window.
So glad I ran into you.
Come here.
I want to smell you something.
You mean you want to tell me something?
No, I want to smell you something.
I have something I want you to smell, Guy Raz.
I'm afraid of conversations that start like this.
Here, smell my hands.
What do you smell?
Soap?
Well okay technically yeah, it's soap, but I am inventing a new line of Mindyodorant products and I'm starting with smelly soaps.
So, what does it smell like?
Um, fruit?
Right, but what kind of fruit?
Um, blueberry.
Close.
It's Blazawberry.
Uh, I don't think that's a thing, Mindy.
Yeah, it is.
It's blueberry, raspberry, and strawberry all mixed together.
Blazah berry.
What?
No boysenberry in there?
Where am I going to find boysenberries at this hour?
I just want to invent some soap for my hands.
They're always so sticky.
Well, I can see how sticky hands can lead to inspiration.
Oh, yeah.
Inspiration.
I do a lot of that when I exercise.
That's why I want to make mindyodorant products.
No, I said inspiration, not perspiration.
And actually, this reminds me of somebody.
Have you heard of Madam C.J.
Walker?
Nope.
Well, she was an inventor and the first self-made female millionaire in America.
Oh, well, in that case, I like her already.
Do we have to go somewhere to meet her?
Because despite the soap, my sticky hands still kind of smell weird.
No, you have everything you need to get to know her right there in the Wowmobile.
I do?
You do.
Here, unlock the door so I can get inside.
Oh, sure.
Yeah.
Even better, Mindy.
She's in a podcast.
Oh, is she in that podcast, How I Built This?
Because, you know, that host sounds a lot like you, Guy Raz.
Okay, first of all, that is me.
And second... Good one, Guy Raz.
The podcast where you'll meet Madam C.J.
Walker is Who, When, Wow.
Oh, Who, When, Wow with Rebecca Shearer?
Yes, incredible stories about real people who beat the odds to help shape everything from sports to politics, to innovation.
Well, see if you can find Who and Wow on your guy phone, Guy Raz.
I'll connect it to the Wowmobile speaker so we can have a listening party.
Yes, just got to find the right episode here.
Aha!
Madam C.J.
Walker.
It's how I built this.
I'm Guy Raz, and I'm the show play.
Sorry, wrong one.
Here we go.
In the early 1900s, a woman by the name of Sarah Breedlove was working as a laundress, washing other people's clothing in a big wooden washtub.
Ooh, check out the stench on these socks.
Did their owner dip them in skunk spray?
Eek!
But stinky socks were the least of Sarah's problems.
As a single mom, she was working crazy hours to support her young daughter.
She was totally stressed out.
And at the age of 38, she made the alarming discovery that her hair was falling out.
Oh, my.
Look at the clumps of my hair in this brush.
It's even more than yesterday.
Now, it turns out Sarah wasn't alone.
At the start of the 20th century, many of her fellow African-American women were dealing with hair loss.
Indoor plumbing wasn't yet a widespread thing, so they couldn't wash their hair often.
And when they did, most hair care products were made for white women and were harsh and drying on black women's hair.
Sarah Breedlove was losing hair and losing hope until one night in 1905 when she had a dream.
The way she described it, a, quote, big black man appeared with the cure to her woes.
Sarah, in order to stop your hair from falling out and to make it grow back all soft, healthy and strong, you must mix together the following ingredients
First, petrolatum.
That's the thick, greasy, yellow stuff we call petroleum jelly.
The second ingredient...
That's the yellow mineral that smells like rotten eggs when you mix it with hydrogen.
The third is beeswax.
The fourth is coconut oil.
And the fifth is violet extract.
When Sarah Breedlove woke up, she tracked down the ingredients the man had listed, then mixed them on her stove.
No wonder the man in my dream recommended violet extract.
This sofa smells like rotten eggs.
And when she rubbed the mysterious concoction into her scalp?
Well, here goes nothing.
It worked like a dream.
Before long her hair was growing back all soft, healthy and strong, just like the man had promised.
And with that one of the most extraordinary rags-to-riches stories in United States.
History was set in motion.
A story that would introduce the world to Madam C.J.
Walker, the first woman in America to become a millionaire, thanks to her own hard work and her belief that there's nothing you can't achieve when you follow your dreams.
I'm Rebecca Shear, and this is Who, When, Wow.
Who, When, Wow.
Important details have slipped away In our spectacular share.
It's Mindy and Guy Raz here from Wow in the World.
Mindy and I have some brand new Wow in the World toys out in the world just in time for the holidays.
Made for the kids who love science and for the ones who don't yet.
From our 100 experiments, that Wow kit to the telescope and astronomy kit.
Our Wow in the World toys help your Wowzer learn about their world through play.
Play?
You can hear exclusive audio content from me and Guy Raz to help your wowzer discover even more wows.
Grownups.
Give the gift of wow and wonder this holiday season with our latest Wow in the World toys designed with your curious wowzer in mind.
You can shop our Wow in the World toys at Tinkercast.com slash toys.
That's Tinkercast.com slash toys.
A woman who would eventually wow the world as Madam C.J.
Walker was born Sarah Breedlove on December 23, 1867, in rural Louisiana.
Sarah's parents had been slaves.
Now that the Civil War was over, they were free.
But they couldn't afford to leave their former master's plantation.
So they stayed on, chopping and picking cotton.
Sarah and her sister and brothers farmed the fields, too.
Their parents needed the help.
Sarah!
Lavinia!
Boys!
Give us a hand, won't you?
Plus, it wasn't like the kids could go to school.
Schools for African-American children were hard to come by in the rural South, so young Sarah didn't learn to read or write.
By the time she was seven, both Sarah's parents had gotten sick and died.
She moved to Mississippi with her older sister Lavinia, and Lavinia's husband Jesse, who was not a nice guy.
Sarah?
By the time I get back from the corner store, I want you to clean the floors.
And make the beds.
And wash the dishes.
And cook dinner.
And... Okay, that's enough, Uncle Jesse.
We get the idea.
So, by the time Sarah was a teenager, she was ready to escape.
She married at age 14.
Had a baby at age 17.
And when she was widowed at age 20... she decided to leave the South.
Discrimination and violence against African Americans was still rampant in that part of the country, and Sarah wanted more opportunities for her and her child Lelia.
So in 1889, mother and daughter hopped a riverboat north to St.
Louis, Missouri.
Sarah found a tiny, unheated apartment in a poor part of town.
And while Lelia attended an all-Black elementary school, Sarah earned 150 a day as a washerwoman doing laundry for well-to-do white people.
She worked back-breaking 14-hour shifts six days a week.
And by the time Lelia graduated from high school, her 36-year-old mother had saved enough money to send her to an all-black college in Tennessee.
I'm so proud of you, baby.
The first person in my family to go to university.
I couldn't have done it without you, Mama.
But now that Lilia was flying the coop and moving on to bigger, better things, Sarah wanted bigger, better things too.
So she enrolled in night school, where she finally learned how to read and write.
She also started paying more attention to influential Black leaders like Booker T Washington, a former slave whose autobiography Up from Slavery encouraged African Americans to take charge and improve their lives.
I have begun everything with the idea that I could succeed.
And I never had much patience for the multitudes of people who are always ready to explain why one cannot succeed.
I have learned that success is not to be measured so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.
But you may recall that by 1905, one of the obstacles Sarah Breedlove was facing was hair loss.
The way Sarah saw it... Hair is power.
You can't imagine what it's like to lose it.
And she wasn't being vain when she said that.
With the racism and sexism of the early 1900s, it was hard enough being a black woman.
But a black woman with bald spots?
For Sarah, hair meant confidence and pride after generations of oppression and slavery.
So then, she had that fateful dream.
Sarah, in order to stop your hair from falling out...
And to make it grow back all soft, healthy and strong, you must mix together the following ingredients
And now she knew she could do something to help her fellow black women.
Something that would change their lives and change her name.
Wow, who knew hair could be such a... hairy business.
See what you did there, Guy Raz.
There is so much we can learn from Madam C.J.
Walker, Mindy.
Not just about inventing, but about working and living.
And there's still more to her story.
In fact, we'll play the rest of the episode tomorrow.
Oh, man, we have to wait?
Okay, fine.
In the meantime, hand me my megaphone, Guy Raz.
Uh, okay.
Here you go.
Thank you.
Just a teensy little reminder that you and your grown-ups can listen to this or any episode of Who and Wow, wherever you get your podcasts.
Just click on the three dots in the top right corner of your screen and choose follow show.
Nice.
And meet us back here tomorrow so that we can finish the Madam C.J.
Walker story together.
Until then, who wows?
Hey, Roz, who wows?
I don't know.
Why are you looking at me?
We wow!
Oh, right.
We do wow.
Grownups, if you like wow in the world, you can listen early and ad-free right now on Wondery Plus.
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