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00:00Hey, where'd you get that?
00:11You made it yourself?
00:12No way!
00:14Dear Tim and Moby,
00:16I heard about this guy who invented a million things with peanuts.
00:20Can you tell me about him?
00:21Curious, Eddie.
00:23George Washington Carver did some pretty amazing things with peanuts.
00:27During his career, he used them to create over 300 distinct products.
00:32But Carver's rise to fame as the Peanut Man is only a small part of his story.
00:39He was an agricultural scientist studying how soil chemistry affects crop yields.
00:43But he didn't just stay in the lab.
00:47He persuaded farmers around the country to adopt more scientific practices.
00:51And that makes him one of the most influential scientists of his day.
00:55His achievements are all the more impressive given the struggles he faced as an African-American.
01:02Carver was born into slavery in Missouri during the Civil War.
01:06His father died before he was born.
01:08Shortly after that, slave traders kidnapped his mother from the plantation.
01:13So the owners, Moses and Susan Carver, raised George themselves.
01:19As a child, Carver struggled with illness.
01:22Stuck indoors, he developed a close connection to Susan Carver.
01:26She taught him about herbal medicines, and young George quickly became fascinated with plants.
01:32His obsession grew into expertise.
01:35Neighbors began calling him the Plant Doctor.
01:37They came to him for advice on caring for the health of their gardens.
01:41Farmers were in awe of Carver's intellect and knowledge.
01:45But despite his brilliance, he was barred from attending the local school.
01:51Slavery had ended with the Civil War.
01:53But life in the post-war South was defined by segregation, the forced separation of races.
01:59African-Americans were often mistreated and not given the same opportunities as white people.
02:05In his teens, George left home in search of a formal education.
02:09He landed at Iowa State Agricultural College, where he was the first African-American student.
02:14He majored in botany.
02:16No, it's the study of plants.
02:21He earned his master's degree at Iowa and grew into a respected academic.
02:25That caught the attention of Booker T. Washington.
02:28Washington was the leader of the Tuskegee Institute, one of America's first black colleges.
02:34He invited Carver to head the Agricultural Department at Tuskegee.
02:39Even though the position paid far less, Carver took the job.
02:43He was excited to mentor African-American students.
02:47Carver also hoped his work could help farmers across the rural South.
02:52At the time, cotton was the main crop in the southern United States.
02:56It requires huge amounts of nitrogen to grow properly.
02:59Growing cotton year after year was draining the soil of the nutrient.
03:04Eventually, the fields couldn't grow much of anything.
03:08In response, Carver promoted the idea of crop rotation.
03:13He urged farmers to alternate their crops each growing season.
03:16Swapping in something like sweet potatoes kept the soil healthy.
03:20It prevented nitrogen depletion and led to a more diverse yield.
03:25Crop rotation had been around for centuries, but Carver helped refine it to a, well, a science.
03:32He conducted a series of experiments to figure out which plants had the strongest nitrogen-fixing properties.
03:38That is, which ones restored the most nitrogen to the soil.
03:42Two crops stood out, soybeans and peanuts.
03:47To help share his discoveries, Carver came up with the jessup wagon.
03:51It was an agricultural classroom on wheels.
03:54Carver taught farmers throughout the South about soil nutrition.
03:58By swapping in soybeans, peanuts, and sweet potatoes, they were able to keep growing cotton.
04:04There was just one little problem.
04:07Farmers weren't sure what to do with all those peanuts.
04:10Since peanuts weren't very widely used, farmers couldn't make much money from them.
04:16To boost demand, Carver developed hundreds of peanut-based products.
04:21Items like soap, paper, shaving cream, lotion, flour, and insulation.
04:27In a few years, the peanut market was booming.
04:31Carver didn't stop there.
04:33He also came up with new uses for sweet potatoes, like shoe polish and rope.
04:38Carver's inventiveness earned the admiration of world leaders and his fellow scientists.
04:44He helped auto manufacturer Henry Ford create...
04:48Uh, no.
04:49They collaborated to create a peanut-based replacement for rubber.
04:55Yeah, Carver's resourcefulness was an inspiration to millions of people.
04:59He improved the lives of farmers and boosted the Southern economy.
05:04Some even say he saved it.
05:08That's not a sports drink.
05:10You just poured peanut oil in a bottle.
05:14Don't be a goober.