Pod Insights Noble Blood The Mind of Émilie du Châtelet (Part 2) About this episode Part two of our episode on Émilie du Châtelet, the brilliant female mathematician and physicist who helped to redefine our understanding of how the world works..
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1:35 Dana Schwartz? Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Mankey. Listener discretion advised. Hi, this is Dana Schwartz, and just one quick personal note before we begin. If you are listening to this episode on its release day, next Tuesday, May 19, is the release of my newest book, The Arcane Arts. It's called The Arcane Arts. It's by pseudonym, nom de plume, S.D. Coverly, because I co-wrote this book with my friend Dan Fry. We all ...perspectives. I wrote the female point of view. He wrote the male point of view. We went back and forth. It's a very fun novel. It is about a elite graduate school,
2:20 Dana Schwartz? a murder mystery, a secret society, sexy forbidden magic. It is slightly sexier. So if you are a younger reader, this is not the book for you. But adult readers, I really think you will enjoy The Arcane Arts. I definitely enjoyed writing it. And after today's episode, there will be a preview of the audiobook of The Arcane Arts. So you can just listen, see if you think it's something you'll like. Thank you so much for your support and letting me be a writer for a living, which means the world to me. Let's jump into today's episode.
3:01 Dana Schwartz? One evening, sweating in the early summer heat of the French countryside, Emily Duchatlay was observing the fire in the estate's massive iron furnace. By her side was Voltaire, her lover, collaborator, and full-time house guest. This was not a romantic outing for the couple while they gazed into the fire. Instead, they were attempting to recreate the experiments of the Dutch scientist Peter van Moeschenbroek to discern the nature of fire, although perhaps that was their idea of a date night. The two had instructed the
3:45 Dana Schwartz? iron master to melt various metals. They took notes as hundreds of pounds of lead and iron transformed before their eyes. For Voltaire, their experiment clearly proved Newton's theory that fire was matter and therefore subject to gravity. Emily, however, was shocked that they could look at the same results and reach such different conclusions. She noted the experiment produced disparate outcomes.
4:20 Dana Schwartz? While melted iron maintained its essential nature and weight when cooled, lead became a powder and gained weight. We now understand this process as calcination. The lead was converted to an oxide at the temperature of the furnace. But such a concept had not yet entered the 18th century lexicon. The shifts in weight, Emily argued, were not due to fire possessing its own weight and being added to the metals, but rather due to the inherent qualities of the materials being burnt.
5:01 Dana Schwartz? To her, it was clear that fire did not share the same defining characteristics of other forms of matter. Today, we understand fire as a chemical reaction rather than a distinct state of matter. While Emily did not actually reach that conclusion, she was correct in rebutting Newton and Voltaire's assessment. She must have tried to convince Voltaire of her perspective, but he was stubborn in his belief and continued to attempt various experiments that he believed would prove him right. He needed to be correct because his results would form the basis of his entry to the
5:44 Dana Schwartz? Royal Academy of Sciences 1738 Essay Competition. Voltaire had been long snubbed by the Royal Literary Society and was perhaps turning to the sciences for more recognition that he felt he deserved. The topic that year for the competition was the nature and propagation of fire, and the competition was the reason the pair began their experiments in the first place. Originally intending to act solely as Voltaire's assistant, Emily was so determined to communicate the true results
6:26 Dana Schwartz? that she decided to write her own entry. She later confessed to a friend that she only began writing her paper two weeks before the deadline and included a modest disclaimer at the end of the entry. Quote, "I hope that my love for the truth will stand for me in place of eloquence, and that the sincere desire that I have to contribute to knowledge will gain forgiveness for my faults," end quote. She submitted her entry anonymously and only told Voltaire that she submitted at all after the winner was announced. They both lost. Though she feared he might react negatively,
7:11 Dana Schwartz? he was seemingly quite pleased, campaigning for both of their papers to be published despite losing. "Born for the arts of pleasing," he once wrote of her, "she prefers the truth." Emily's paper, "Dissertation on the Nature and Propagation of Fire", was published in 1739 for its intellectual merit. It became the first work the academy published by a woman. Emily still insisted on anonymity, although the author would have been clear to those in the right circles. The essay was ultimately attributed to, quote, "a young lady of high rank."
7:56 Dana Schwartz? By the time her essay was published, Emily was already finishing work on what is now considered her magnum opus, "Institutions de physique." Well, part one of this two-part series introduced you to Emily. Part two will explore in more depth her short but impactful intellectual career before she tragically passed away in 1749.
8:22 Dana Schwartz? Famous during her time, lost behind Voltaire's shadow in history, and now honored once again, Emily's legacy ultimately belongs to her achievements. As described by the Academy, she was "a young woman of the first condition who honors our sciences by the taste she has for them." I'm Dana Schwartz, and this is Noble Blood. When we last left Emily, it was the summer of 1735, and she had made the decision to leave Paris to join Voltaire at Siert, the Duchesne Estate in Champagne outside of the
9:07 Dana Schwartz? city. Voltaire, if you recall, had gotten into trouble with the government yet again, and Emily and her husband were given the right to sequester him outside of the city in sort of a glamorous house arrest. Emily was known to follow her own path, but she still worried about both public opinion and the opinion of her husband in making such an unorthodox choice in joining her lover. While her husband, the Marquis, was not known to be jealous and had just recently used his status to advocate for Voltaire, Emily was moving in with another man.
9:50 Dana Schwartz? Writing to a mutual friend, she asked him to assuage her husband's potential doubts. Quote, "Just speak to him of Voltaire, but with interest and affection, and above all, try to insinuate that it would be crazy to be jealous of a wife with whom one is content, that one esteems, and who conducts herself well." Emily Duchesne, a pioneering woman in philosophy, and considering that Voltaire was in fact her lover, gaslighting.
10:25 Dana Schwartz? Her husband agreed with her assessment. When he began to deliver his wife’s manuscripts from Siret to Parisian publishers, he did the same for Voltaire’s. On leave from a campaign, her husband spent the winter of 1738 in Siret, cohabitating with his wife and her famous lover. Despite his lack of showmanship, he participated in the plays and operas the couple frequently staged for friends. As for the public’s opinion, newspapers painted the pair as “artists and muse,” which was a more acceptable arrangement than extramarital paramours.
11:10 Dana Schwartz? Gossip, of course, still persisted. A year after Emily arrived at the estate, she wrote to the Italian philosopher Francesco Agorati, saying, “My kingdom of Siret is not of this world.” This was true in multiple ways. Siret, for better and for worse, isolated her from society. Voltaire acknowledged that she made a sacrifice when she chose to live by his side, writing that she was “someone who had done everything for me, who, for me, left Paris, all her friends, and all of the charms of life.”
11:54 Dana Schwartz? While Emily no longer had access to the pleasures of society, she also was free from many of society’s restrictions. There were inevitable trade-offs. Emily had more time to devote herself to her studies than she would have in Paris, but she was now also responsible for overseeing a country estate and its tenants. Siret, as a home, was in disrepair, needing constant expensive upkeep. She bemoaned the sort of housework that had been designated to women, in this case specifically wealthy women who owned estates, writing of “the pointlessness of life she could have avoided,
12:39 Dana Schwartz? if I had been a man.” That was in a letter to her tutor Montmartre. At least at Sire, she no longer had to wait for him outside of mail-only cafes for philosophical discussion. At the estate, he would come to her. Sire, the estate, became Emily's intellectual haven. In her words, "mon academy." She meant that, semi-literally, Sire began to host fellow intellectuals, such as Montmartre, who stayed for extended periods of time to work on his own projects. As a hostess, Emily did not play the role of the traditional noblewoman.
13:22 Dana Schwartz? Guests were expected to fall into her and Voltaire's established routine. For less intellectually-inclined visitors, such as the marquis's cousin, Madame Graffignay, this could be intimidating. Graffignay noted she studied Locke in preparation for her stay. According to her, guests were summoned in the morning to Voltaire's rooms, where he or Emily would read aloud for an hour and a half. One morning, Emily read a book that proposed the inhabitants of Jupiter must be as large as King Og of the Old Testament,
14:06 Dana Schwartz? based on distance and light. Graffignay was "astonished" when she noticed the book Emily was reading from was in Latin. Emily had been translating the text out loud into French on the spot and was making her own calculations in real time to describe the size of the mythical giant. Thanks to visiting friends making deliveries, Emily and Voltaire began to build their library. For Emily, this was an opportunity to pursue studies in new fields, to discover the knowledge that had been denied to her through a lack of secondary education.
14:50 Dana Schwartz? "I have a very pretty library," she wrote to Al Garati. "Voltaire's is all anecdotes, and mine is all philosophy." In this letter, she was enticing the Italian philosopher to "spend the winter philosophizing with us," and he accepted the invitation. It was during his six-week stay that he worked on his "Newton for the Ladies," an introduction to Newton's work portrayed as a conversation between the author and a woman who took some inspiration from Emily herself. More on this Italian philosopher later.
15:33 Dana Schwartz? Cire's growing library, its collection of Locke and Newton in particular, was responsible for Emily's growing interest in natural philosophy. While it was surely Voltaire who acquired Mandeville's Fable of the Bees, it was Emily who devoured the text. She finished her translation in October 1736, transforming the book through, in her own words, "my own reflections on the material I was working on," including her thoughts on women's education quoted in the first part of the series.
16:13 Dana Schwartz? While Emily thought Mandeville's work was brilliant, she was not as cynical as he was, and she added her own nuance to his perception of vice and virtue. Emily's commentary was made distinct from the original text through quotation marks. In the book's preface, she told readers she found literal translations "dry" and preferred "lively turns of phrase and animated expressions that render the force and grace of the original."
16:49 Dana Schwartz? At the same time, Emily collaborated with Voltaire on his work. His unpublished treatise on metaphysics, which took on little topics like God, society, and human nature, was believed to have been written at Emily’s request and with her assistance. She would be more involved in his next project, “Elements of the Philosophy of Newton,” for which she is credited as a co-author in its introduction. Inspired by Agorato’s translation of Newton for an Italian audience, it was the first published introduction to Newton in French. It was also Voltaire’s first foray into the world of science.
17:32 Dana Schwartz? While he believed in Newtonian theory, he was not as mathematically minded as Emily was, and he sometimes struggled with even basic calculations. Emily, by contrast, found herself thriving in the scientific work. It was she who filled pages of notes with commentary on the movement of the planets, the relativity of motion, and the weight of air and water. It is clear which sections of the publication were written by Emily because the same ideas show up later in her own works. Her writing style was also distinct from Voltaire’s, neat and full of real-world applications.
18:17 Dana Schwartz? In the book’s dedication addressed to Emily, Voltaire writes, “Your solid study of many new truths and the fruits of so meritorious an application are what I now offer the public for your own and the glory of your sex.” In the front piece of one edition, Voltaire sits at his desk, dressed as an ancient philosopher. Two figures are depicted as gods above him. Newton, on the left, sits atop a cloud and gazes at a ray of light descending from the heavens.
18:56 Dana Schwartz? Emily, on the right, holds a mirror to reflect the light down upon the page Voltaire is writing. While the engraving acknowledges her presence in the work, it's also somewhat demeaning. She is portrayed with one breast bare, and she simply reflects the light rather than creating something of her own. The muse. Voltaire, while ultimately supportive of Emily's work, both publicly and privately, was still a man in the 18th century. In letters to male friends, we see him use subtly mocking nicknames, such as "my lady Emily Newton",
19:41 Dana Schwartz? that were thus passed around in the intellectual circles of Parisian men that Emily was excluded from. While seemingly pleased with their collaborations, Emily had a greater drive for scientific discovery than Voltaire did. Following their experiments for the Royal Academy's essay competition, Emily became obsessed with learning through experimentation, working day and night. Her preferred strategy for staying awake was to put her hands in ice water, walk around the room, slapping them on her arms, and then return to her writing. R.I.P. Emily,
20:24 Dana Schwartz? you would have loved a lemon lime Celsius. Physics became a focal point for her. While she waited on the results of the essay competition, she asked Voltaire's bookseller in Paris to procure for her her own copy of Newton's Principia, to be covered in Russian leather with gold tooling, as well as, quote, "all the books of physique that you will find come your way." Another book Emily was particularly excited about was the new release of Al Garrote's Newton for the Ladies, which he had promised to dedicate to her, which we had mentioned earlier. Emily had even been learning more Italian
21:09 Dana Schwartz? and, quote, "training myself in the art of translation", with the idea of writing a French version of the book. When she got her hands on a copy in May of 1738, however, she was shocked at what she saw. For one, it was not actually dedicated to her. Then there was the matter of the character allegedly inspired by her. Al-Gharati belittled her intelligence and wrote their conversations about Newtonian principles as often devolving into sexual jokes and metaphors. One particular joke about a famous calculation annoyed Emily so much that she mentioned it in Letters
21:53 Dana Schwartz? to Friends on three separate occasions. Voltaire rose to her defense, declaring that she knew more than Al-Gharati, despite the fact that he, Voltaire, likely contributed to the way that people perceived Emily as frivolous, thanks to his little nicknames. It was not long, however, before Emily's own work was recognized and published by the Academy. She was evidently quite proud of that particular accomplishment. Amongst her papers catalogued following her death was the notarized receipt of submission, signed by the secretary of the Academy, Fontenelle, whom she had known since childhood. He likely had no idea whose
22:38 Dana Schwartz? entry he was signing off on at the time, given that she had submitted it anonymously, wanted it evaluated for its intellectual merit.
22:51 Dana Schwartz? With formal recognition from the scientific community, Emily's next step was to write her own treatise on natural philosophy. The publication of her work on fire had given her great confidence. It was her first step towards her "glory," as described in her posthumously published Discourse on Happiness. Her 1740 work, Institutions de Physique, was originally intended as foundational teaching material for her then-10-year-old son, Florent Louis. The text would contain, in her words, "truths which I want to engrave on his soul."
23:34 Dana Schwartz? The work evolved, however, to cover what she called a “vast terrain,” far beyond her lessons for her son or even her previous work with Voltaire. The text introduced readers to the foundations of Newton, but also combined philosophy and physics to attempt a “unified theory,” which would describe not only how things happen in the universe, but why they happen in the particular way they do. She presented Newtonian ideas, yes, but also the ideas of Descartes and those of the German philosophers, Wulff and Leibniz.
24:18 Dana Schwartz? At this time, all students of philosophy would have been familiar with the 1717 correspondence between Leibniz and the Newtonian Samuel Clarke, which popularized the belief that their calculations were fundamentally opposed. Emily looked beyond this binary to see the value in both perspectives. Some scholars believe her viewpoint paved the way for the one developed by Immanuel Kant later in the century. A great source of her inspiration came from time she spent in Brussels,
24:59 Dana Schwartz? where in 1739, she, her husband, and Voltaire all briefly moved to claim a duchéle property there that was being contested. It was in Brussels she took lessons from a tutor who had studied under the German philosopher Wulff. In her opinion, “When it concerns a book of physique, one must ask if it is good, not if the author is English, German, or French.” Emily was not afraid to question, even sometimes reject, the conclusion of the “great men,” Aristotle, Galileo, Newton, Descartes, you name them.
25:41 Dana Schwartz? Her criticism of these figures, combined with her reverence for them, is what makes her work so unique. It would be another year and a half before her book was published, notably, under her own name. She sent the first copies to Frederick of Prussia, to her tutor Montmartre and her other intellectual correspondents. The prominent Journal de Savant published a positive review, which was likely an enormous confidence boost. One recipient of an early copy, the new secretary of the academy following Fontenelle's retirement, was not as pleased.
26:24 Dana Schwartz? If you recall the introduction to Part 1 of the series, Emily's book featured an accurate disavowal of "the calculation that force is proportional to velocity." In his first public act, the new secretary of the academy published a pamphlet attacking her argument. Far from his intention, the publication only further established Emily's legitimacy. What other woman had the academy deigned to acknowledge, let alone engage in public academic debate with? The secretary, Moraine, was shocked when Emily fought back
27:06 Dana Schwartz? with a 37-page response of her own. She picked apart his letter, paragraph by paragraph, and matched his condescending sarcastic tone. "However the public decides," she wrote, "I hold myself honored always to dispute against a person of your merit." It seems this was not just polite posturing. She wrote in private letters to friends that she was excited to have such an adversary. Still, she "wanted to pierce him to the soul." "The conclusions that you have drawn were always false
27:49 Dana Schwartz? because that which implies contradiction can never become true."
27:54 Dana Schwartz? She notes that she could break down exactly why his claims were false again, but only “if I had wanted to bore my readers.” The secretary did not issue another response. In Parisian circles, it was decided that Emily won the debate handedly. “His has succeeded very badly,” she wrote to her tutor. “It has had three-quarters of the success of mine.” Her book was a great success, partly fueled by the publicity of the debate, and it received much public praise from academics.
28:34 Dana Schwartz? As Emily found new success, her relationship with Voltaire became strained. For one, he deemed himself no longer capable of sex due to his various chronic illnesses. Voltaire never had a large sexual appetite, which Emily accepted, but abstinence altogether was difficult for her. At the same time, he became increasingly upset over her diverging views. So dedicated to Newton, he deemed Emily’s book a Leibnizian work, despite its fusion of multiple viewpoints. Voltaire began to mock Emily more frequently in his letters,
29:17 Dana Schwartz? and even published a critical review of her work. To be fair, this was something Emily had also done in earlier years, though in better spirits. Most pedally, in his revised 1741 edition of Elements, he cut down his dedication, erasing his praise and diminishing Emily’s contributions. It is perhaps worth noting that Emily’s book was better received than Elements.
29:48 Dana Schwartz? Over the past few years, Emily's book "Institutions" "was translated into both Italian and German." Emily was elected to the Bologna Academy of Sciences, where she chose the name "Uranii," the poetic name Voltaire had once given her, as her honorific. She was especially excited to not be the only woman in the room. The Newtonian Laura Bossi, a lecturer at the University of Bologna, was another member, and she used Emily's book as material in her classes. "It was 'an encouragement for persons of my sex,' Emily wrote,
30:31 Dana Schwartz? 'to engage in and cultivate the sciences from which prejudice had up to the present appeared to exclude them.'" In Germany, it was likely that it was the philosopher Wolf himself who arranged for the translation. Despite his initial disbelief that the work was actually written by a woman, he came to accept Emily as a "phenomenon," appreciating "the clarity with which she can talk about the subtlest things." In the summer of 1744, Emily had the idea for her largest project yet: a translation and commentary
31:13 Dana Schwartz? on Newton's notoriously difficult "principia." She embarked on this project during the busiest time of her life. "I lead the life of the world's most disordered. I pass my days in the antechamber of the Minister of War to obtain a regiment for my son. I go to bed at four in the morning, and I work when I have the time, spoken like a real woman trying to have it all." She had recently relocated from Surrey to Louis' court in favor of the advancement of her son, as well as to support Voltaire's ambitions to join the Academy.
31:57 Dana Schwartz? And Emily struggled to balance the lifestyle of the intellectual with the lifestyle of the courtier. In her day, no other physicist or philosopher had undertaken even a partial translation of Newton's Principia, but Emily intended to translate all three volumes. The work was so complicated that many contemporaries, including her tutor Morpétu, acknowledged that they found it hard to follow. It was not just a simple translation either. She had to choose which mathematician's interpretations of the work to include and
32:37 Dana Schwartz? add her own calculations, even if they contradicted Newton's. While she was on course to have the translation published in 1746, she had to pause in 1745 following a revelation. Voltaire, it appeared, had regained his sexual appetite, only not for Emily. She had discovered a collection of letters between Voltaire and Marie-Louise Denis, a 33-year-old widow and Voltaire's own niece.
33:15 Dana Schwartz? Though rumors circulated, Emily did not go public with the scandalous betrayal, and details were only uncovered after the letters were sold at auction in the 1950s. She wrote about her reaction to the discovery, withholding specific details, in her posthumously published book. In their years without a sexual relationship, Emily believed, quote, "I was loving for two. I spent all my time with him and my heart, free from suspicion, delighted in the pleasure of loving and in the illusion of believing myself loved.
33:57 Dana Schwartz? But now, quote, 'I have lost this happy state, and this cost me many tears.'"
34:04 Dana Schwartz? They eventually rekindled their friendship. Voltaire's place in her life as a collaborator and friend was ultimately more important to Emily than his place as a lover, despite their 10 years spent together. She wrote, quote, "Terrible shocks are needed to break such chains. The wound to my heart bled for a long time. I had grounds to complain, and I have pardoned all," end quote. Once recovered from heartbreak, Emily returned to Newton. She transported her books, her notes, and her drafts to the court at Lunville, where
34:46 Dana Schwartz? she joined her family and settled in to work. It was during this time, however, that a new lover entered her life. Jean-François de Saint-Lambert was 10 years younger than she was, an officer of the King's Guard and a novice poet. He was no intellectual match for Emily, or Voltaire for that matter, but that wasn't important to her at the time. Their courtship was swift. She wrote to him, "You are the only one who has made me feel that my heart is still capable of loving." Over the next few years, they built a relationship, but her lover was fickle, sometimes accusing
35:28 Dana Schwartz? Emily of loving him too much, sometimes accusing her of not paying enough attention to him. She, in turn, accused him of not understanding the importance of her work. She wrote to him, "This book is awaited, promised, begun two years ago. My reputation depends on it." But Emily was not only due a book, but also a baby. In January or February of 1749, Emily realized she was pregnant. At 41, she was considered long past childbearing years. It's very likely she and Saint-Lambert didn't believe pregnancy was a possibility. We don't know how her husband or
36:13 Dana Schwartz? Saint-Lambert reacted to this news, but court gossip obviously had a field day. There had been long whispers of the affair between Emily and her young lover. No one believed the baby was her husband's. Despite this, in another demonstration of his character, the marquis claimed paternity to protect his wife and excitedly told courtiers of his hopes for another boy. Despite his poor performances in Voltaire's little plays, apparently the man had convincing enough acting prowess.
36:51 Dana Schwartz? From February to June of 1749, despite her state, Emily recommitted herself to, quote, "my Newton." She moved back to Paris, isolating herself in her apartment, and she was determined to stay in Paris until her work was finished. Part of her determination to finish the project stemmed from fears surrounding her pregnancy. In a letter to Saint-Lambert, she explained that she must see to her affairs before the birth. Quote, "I want to leave them in order and take measures about my papers." She followed through on this desire, neatly binding important documents and leaving a
37:36 Dana Schwartz? letter for her husband, only to be opened in the event of her death. Emily spent the last three weeks of her life devoted to translating Newton. She was often joined by Voltaire, who had returned to Paris, and by a mathematical correspondent who checked her calculations. Her routine was once again grueling. She rose at eight or nine and worked straight through to three in the afternoon. She took an hour break for coffee and then began again at four. She took dinner at 10, followed by conversation with Voltaire or her mathematical correspondent.
38:19 Dana Schwartz? She then worked through the night and into the early morning hours, from midnight until 5:00 a.m. She acknowledged to her lover that this required, quote, "a mind and body of iron," but that finishing the book was a frightening need.
38:36 Dana Schwartz? Before the birth, she returned to court where she was joined by a number of female friends, as well as by Saint-Simon and Voltaire, her current and previous lover. At four in the morning on September 4, 1749, Emily gave birth to a daughter. Over the next few days, she was expected to remain in bed, where she likely continued to finish work on Principia's translation. In that time, she finished correcting the printer's proofs, packaged up all the papers of her commentary, and sent them to the Royal Librarian.
39:16 Dana Schwartz? A day or two later, she developed a fever, then a violent headache. She had developed a blood clot that had cut off her breathing. The Royal Physician was called, but within 10 minutes, as her lover cried out, Emily was no more. She was 42. The Gazette de Hland in her obituary called her "the sappho moderne" and noted her various scientific writings, including her then-yet-to-be-published translation of and commentary on Newton's Principia. It was a decade after her death, when the return of Halley's Comet sparked a public
39:57 Dana Schwartz? excitement for scientific phenomena, that Principia was published. It became an integral text for French physicists of the era, and remains the only French translation of the work to this day. But we know how the story goes. Voltaire became Voltaire, the idol of the revolution, and Emily was reduced to a footnote in his story, overshadowed by proximity to his famous greatness.
40:29 Dana Schwartz? Her work gradually disappeared from shelves, but in recent years, scholarship surrounding Emily has increased, and her individual accomplishments are recognized by many. A crater on Venus is named after her. An opera depicts her final moments. Duke University presents an annual Duchatelet Prize in Philosophy of Physics. Their 2025 topic was Physics in the Writings of Women, 1700 to 1900. Hopefully, the winner brought another forgotten woman to light.
41:12 Dana Schwartz? That's the second part of our two-part series on Emily Duchatelet, but keep listening after a brief sponsor break to hear a little bit more about Emily's legacy in popular media.
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43:57 Speaker 06 Hey, it's Niall Rogers, host of Before the Moment, a Lincoln original series. I'm driving across the country, meeting some of today's most fascinating artists. We're exploring the stories before the moment that changed everything. This week, I'm joined by my friend, John Ledge. How does music actually enter your mind?
44:19 Speaker 07 I'm not sure why or how the music comes to me, but I think people who love music and write music, our brains are just filled with music. Like, we have listened to so much music, we've been a part of so much music. I think of the story that I want to tell, the mood that I want to create with the music, start playing chords, see where they lead me.
44:40 Speaker 06 Sometimes I'm just not even thinking about music, right? And I hear this little thing and I go, oh, that could be this.
44:50 Speaker 07 You know, you just have to be ready for when the inspiration hits.
44:53 Speaker 06 And it comes.
44:54 Speaker 07 Yeah.
44:54 Speaker 06 Experience Before the Moment, a Lincoln original series on the iHeartRadio app, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.
45:06 Dana Schwartz? In 2023, a new play received its New York premiere off Broadway. Emily La Marquiste Chatlet defends her life tonight. In the play, Emily finds herself having slipped through the space-time continuum, lingering between life and death. Her unfinished business is quantifying her legacy. Did her work matter, and how? Emily watches her own life play out before her eyes, all while trying to determine what it meant. The playwright Lauren Gunderson shared, "She's a scientist, so she needs proof, even though it's impossible to quantify a life's meaning."
45:48 Dana Schwartz? In the end, she is met by two realizations: her science did matter to the world, she was right about squaring speed, and that the only person who needs to believe that she mattered is herself.
46:09 Dana Schwartz? And now, keep listening for a sneak peek of the audiobook of my newest book, The Arcane Arts.
46:19 Speaker 05 From store.lspith2, Rollins DAA. Subject: Your Arcane Mechanicals Course.
46:31 Speaker 05 Hi, Professor. First, let me apologize for writing an email to you at all, given that I'm sure with classes just starting, you're incredibly busy. And I'm also sorry for beginning said email with "hi," when you might find that incredibly overly familiar and unprofessional. Please be assured that I went through several drafts of initial salutations. Dear felt informal and strained, to robotic to the point of rudeness, and so I'm left with "hi." Hi.
47:06 Speaker 05 A bit about me. I graduated from St. Andrews, first-class honors, with an independent study in Augury under Professor Arthur Binder that received the Flint-Marxey Prize for undergraduate achievement. I spent the fall of last year living in London while studying for the Arcanus, planning on applying to graduate programs in the spring. Unfortunately, my plans were derailed by life circumstances that I would be happy to discuss more in person. But suffice it to say, with an incomplete Arcanus score, I was well aware that I would not have merited any significant consideration had I sent in a formal application to the graduate program for admission this term. Which is why I am writing to you now, in the hope that a personal appeal might be the best way forward.
47:51 Speaker 05 Please be sure, I am well aware of how competitive the DAA program at Newlin is, with only a small group of hand-selected students each year. But I know I would be an asset to the department. And, as I said, I would be happy to offer an explanation of the extenuating circumstances around my Arcanus, and convince you why that result is not at all reflective of my passion or my natural predisposition for mechanicals.
48:19 Speaker 05 Here is where I should offer another apology. I snuck into your introductory lecture yesterday morning and borrowed your email address off the syllabus. If you happened to notice a twenty-something girl in a red sweater a few sizes too big, looking like a child on Christmas morning, that was me. I've never seen anyone talk about arcane mechanicals the way you did. In the past, when I heard teachers discuss conservation of matter and the rudimentary mechanicals, they made it sound so sterile. You made it sound like we were conductors in a symphony, like the strings of reality are ours to be teased out at will and played in harmony. That is not to say I don't appreciate
49:03 Speaker 05 the incredibly rigorous mathematics required to study arcane mechanicals, because I do. I'm attaching my transcript below in case you're curious, and in case this email hasn't already wasted enough of your time. And if you find yourself curious, please be sure to check my undergraduate coursework in differential equations and multivariables. Top of the class in both. I know, traditionally, you wouldn't accept students into your program once the semester has already begun. And I realize this is an incredibly unorthodox request. But, seeing as I don't have access to a genie, time travel, or a fortunatus vivori ritual, there's only one course of action left to me. You.
49:46 Speaker 05 If there were ever a chance you could make an exception, I can promise you will never teach a student more willing to work hard than me. I've already taken up too much of your time, and so... I'm sorry, again. Best. How is that? Elizabeth Storer.
50:07 Speaker 06 From Rollins DAA to Storer dot Elizabeth. Subject: Read your RK Mechanicals course.
50:20 Speaker 06 Miss Stoller.
50:23 Speaker 06 Many a young applicant has felt improperly represented by her Arcanist score. But often that indignation arises from a misunderstanding of the test itself. The exam does not seek only to measure intellectual capability, but is an instrument intended to assess holistic fitness for the rigors of this study and the responsibilities of its practice. If the face I vaguely recall connected to that unfortunate red sweater is any indication, you are quite young, and as such she may lack the self-awareness to soberly judge your own shortcomings.
51:00 Speaker 06 Evidently, I am in a procrastinatory mood and avoiding the quizzes piled upon my desktop because many words have now been written, and perhaps one would suffice. No. Best of luck with your studies. TM Rollins, DAA.
51:21 Dana Schwartz? Noble Blood is a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Manke. Noble Blood is hosted by me, Dana Schwartz. Writers for Noble Blood are Hannah Johnston, Hannah Zwick, Paul Jaffe, Natasha Lasky, and me, Dana Schwartz. The show is edited and produced by Jesse Funk and Gomes Griffin with supervising producer Reema Ilkayali and executive producers Aaron Manke, Trevor Young, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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