“Well-behaved women seldom make history.” Well, that is the embodiment of Imelda Marcos, the former First Lady of the Philippines, and Marie Antoinette, the last Queen of France before the French Revolution. You probably know these women’s stories, so you may not see it at first, but these women share a common narrative of luxury, influence, and eventual downfall. While they lived in different times and countries, their lives existed in a strangely coincidental parallel. Today on Found Objects, we will look at the lives and legacies of these powerful women in history and examine just how much their stories overlap.

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SOURCES:

Bicker, Laura. “Philippines Martial Law: The Fight to Remember a Decade of Arrests and Torture.” BBC News, BBC, 28 Sept. 2022, www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-63056898.

de Guzman, Chad. “How Imelda Became the Philippines’ Most Enduring Marcos.” Time, Time, 27 July 2023, time.com/6298212/here-lies-love-imelda-marcos-legacy/.

“Five Things to Know about Martial Law in the Philippines.” Amnesty International, 21 Sept. 2022, www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/04/five-things-to-know-about-martial-law-in-the-philippines/.

History.com Editors. “Marie‑Antoinette ‑ Children, Death & Husband.” History.Com, A&E Television Networks, 21 Aug. 2018, www.history.com/topics/european-history/marie-antoinette.

Malach, Hannah. “The Infamous Life of Imelda Marcos: The Bulletproof Bra, 1,000 Pairs of Shoes and Biographical Broadway Musical of the Philippines’ Former First Lady.” WWD, WWD, 21 July 2023, wwd.com/pop-culture/culture-news/who-is-imelda-marcos-1235749455/.

Ray, Michael. “Imelda Marcos.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., 22 Aug. 2024, www.britannica.com/biography/Imelda-Marcos.

“Research Guides: France: Women in the Revolution: Marie Antoinette.” Marie Antoinette - France: Women in the Revolution - Research Guides at Library of Congress, 2024, guides.loc.gov/women-in-the-french-revolution/marie-antoinette.

Swartz, Mimi. “The Autocratic Allure of Imelda Marcos.” The New Yorker, 12 Apr. 1998, www.newyorker.com/magazine/1998/04/20/imelda-marcos-tears-profile-philippines.

“‘Facts’ About Marie Antoinette That Weren’t True.” Weird History, YouTube, 10 Jan. 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJYCy4ypK7c. Accessed 19 Sept. 2024.

To this day, 5% of Americans believe that the Apollo Moon landings were faked - that’s more than 16 million people. How did this theory start? And why, even in the face of overwhelming evidence, do some still believe it? This & the Flat Earth conspiracy theory will be discussed today on Found Objects history podcast. Listen wherever you stream podcasts!

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SOURCES:

​​“Apollo 11 Mission Overview.” NASA, NASA, 17 Apr. 2015, www.nasa.gov/history/apollo-11-mission-overview/#:~:text=Armstrong%20and%20Aldrin%20spent%2021,at%20124%20hours%2C%2022%20minutes.

Baugh, L. Sue. “Flat Earth.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., 22 July 2024, www.britannica.com/topic/flat-Earth.

Burdick, Alan. “Looking for Life on a Flat Earth.” The New Yorker, 30 May 2018, www.newyorker.com/science/elements/looking-for-life-on-a-flat-earth.

Harvey, Austin. “Inside the Enduring Conspiracy Theory That the Moon Landing Was Fake.” All That’s Interesting, All That’s Interesting, 22 July 2024, allthatsinteresting.com/moon-landing-fake.

“How Do We Know That We Went to the Moon? | Institute of Physics.” Institute of Physics, 2024, www.iop.org/explore-physics/moon/how-do-we-know-we-went-to-the-moon.

“July 20, 1969: One Giant Leap for Mankind.” NASA, NASA, 20 July 2019, www.nasa.gov/history/july-20-1969-one-giant-leap-for-mankind/.

Launius, Roger. “Why Do People Persist in Denying the Moon Landings?” National Air and Space Museum, The Smithsonian Institute, 1 Apr. 2010, airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/why-do-people-persist-denying-moon-landings.

The Week Staff. “Apollo 11: The Moon Landing Conspiracy Debunked.” Theweek, The Week, 15 July 2019, theweek.com/102265/apollo-11-the-moon-landing-conspiracy-debunked.

Meet William James Sydis, the “smartest man who lived.” Sydis’ IQ score is estimated by some, to be somewhere between 50 and 100 points greater than that of Albert Einstein. By the time he was just 18 months old, Sydis was able to read The New York Times. At age 2, he taught himself Latin, and by age 6, he was fluent in eight languages, including Greek, French, Russian, German, and Hebrew. Sidis is not a household name, but he was an extraordinary individual whose brilliance often went unnoticed. Let’s explore the life of one of the most enigmatic and misunderstood prodigies of the 20th century, along with Albert Einstein, and the history of IQ testing. It’s a battle of the brains today on Found Objects podcast.

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SOURCES:

Albert Einstein – Biographical. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2024. Wed. 21 Aug 2024.

Anglis, Jaclyn. “The Surprisingly Tragic Story of the Smartest Man Who Ever Lived.” All That’s Interesting, All That’s Interesting, 2 June 2024, allthatsinteresting.com/william-james-sidis.

Barbas, Samantha. “The Sidis Case and the Origins of Modern Privacy Law.” Columbia Journal of Law & the Arts, 2012, pp. 21–69, https://doi.org/10.7916/D8M335S5.

Cherry, Kendra. “Why Alfred Binet Developed IQ Testing for Students.” Verywell Mind, 13 Mar. 2023, www.verywellmind.com/history-of-intelligence-testing-2795581.

Dombrowski, Stefan C. “The Dark History of IQ Tests.” TED, TED-Ed, 2020, ed.ted.com/lessons/the-dark-history-of-iq-tests-stefan-c-dombrowski.

NPR Staff. “Meet William James Sidis: The Smartest Guy Ever?” NPR, NPR, 23 Jan. 2011, www.npr.org/2011/01/23/132737060/meet-william-james-sidis-the-smartest-guy-ever.

Piccotti, Tyler, and Biography.com Editors. “Albert Einstein: Biography, Physicist, Nobel Prize Winner.” Biography.Com, 20 July 2023, www.biography.com/scientists/albert-einstein.

“William James Sidis.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 2024, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_James_Sidis.