WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.419 Welcome back. It's so great to have you joining 00:00:03.419 --> 00:00:05.719 us for another deep dive today. Really glad to 00:00:05.719 --> 00:00:09.419 be here. So today we are taking a phrase that, 00:00:09.480 --> 00:00:12.800 I mean, you have probably used a hundred times, 00:00:12.820 --> 00:00:15.179 maybe even today when you were, I don't know, 00:00:15.199 --> 00:00:17.000 leaving a restaurant or heading out to your car. 00:00:17.039 --> 00:00:19.280 Absolutely, yeah. We are looking at the phrase, 00:00:19.620 --> 00:00:22.719 let's roll. And our mission for this deep dive 00:00:22.719 --> 00:00:26.370 is to basically unpack the incredible... multi 00:00:26.370 --> 00:00:29.329 -layered journey of these two really simple words. 00:00:29.370 --> 00:00:31.850 Two words, yeah. Right, exactly. We are going 00:00:31.850 --> 00:00:35.490 to explore how a completely mundane, everyday 00:00:35.490 --> 00:00:38.890 colloquialism transformed almost overnight into 00:00:38.890 --> 00:00:42.490 one of the defining battle cries and really cultural 00:00:42.490 --> 00:00:45.130 touchstones of the 21st century. Because, you 00:00:45.130 --> 00:00:47.409 know, language is never static. It's this living, 00:00:47.450 --> 00:00:50.009 breathing thing. And the goal today is to look 00:00:50.009 --> 00:00:51.729 at not just when this phrase was used throughout 00:00:51.729 --> 00:00:53.450 history, but why it matters to you and really 00:00:53.450 --> 00:00:55.850 to... All of us. Yeah. When you look closely 00:00:55.850 --> 00:00:57.609 at the source material we are working with today, 00:00:57.689 --> 00:00:59.530 which gives us a really comprehensive historical 00:00:59.530 --> 00:01:01.990 and cultural breakdown of the phrase, you see 00:01:01.990 --> 00:01:04.349 how language actually acts as a mirror. It really 00:01:04.349 --> 00:01:07.629 does. Right. It reflects a society's resilience, 00:01:08.150 --> 00:01:12.370 its collective grief, its shifting culture, its 00:01:12.370 --> 00:01:15.829 history. We are essentially tracing the life 00:01:15.829 --> 00:01:18.549 cycle of an idiom today. OK, let's unpack this. 00:01:18.629 --> 00:01:20.790 Yeah. Because the central premise here is that. 00:01:21.159 --> 00:01:23.599 A phrase we just casually toss around has this 00:01:23.599 --> 00:01:26.939 hidden, heavy, and incredibly profound history. 00:01:27.480 --> 00:01:31.299 It perfectly illustrates how human events basically 00:01:31.299 --> 00:01:34.319 force language to evolve. Now, going into this, 00:01:34.359 --> 00:01:36.620 I assume the phrase was a product of maybe the, 00:01:36.659 --> 00:01:39.319 I don't know, the 1980s or 90s action movies. 00:01:39.319 --> 00:01:40.680 Well, that's what most people think, yeah. But 00:01:40.680 --> 00:01:42.859 it goes back way further than that. How did this 00:01:42.859 --> 00:01:44.819 actually start? So you have to picture the American 00:01:44.819 --> 00:01:47.959 West in the 1800s. You had these massive wagon 00:01:47.959 --> 00:01:50.120 trains getting ready to cross the frontier right. 00:01:50.719 --> 00:01:52.680 The leaders at the head of the train would literally 00:01:52.680 --> 00:01:56.280 shout wagons roll to get the journey start. I 00:01:56.280 --> 00:01:57.840 mean, think about the actual mechanics of the 00:01:57.840 --> 00:01:59.959 time. The wheels had to physically literally 00:01:59.959 --> 00:02:03.180 roll to move that immense weight forward to get 00:02:03.180 --> 00:02:05.420 through the mud and dirt. Exactly. It was all 00:02:05.420 --> 00:02:07.840 about overcoming physical inertia. Yeah. And 00:02:07.840 --> 00:02:10.280 from there. The terminology naturally became 00:02:10.280 --> 00:02:12.560 a bit less formal. People shortened it. They 00:02:12.560 --> 00:02:14.599 adapted it. That's really the beginning of the 00:02:14.599 --> 00:02:17.520 transition from a literal command about wooden 00:02:17.520 --> 00:02:20.099 wheels to a metaphorical command about starting 00:02:20.099 --> 00:02:22.300 a collective mission. So we start with wagons 00:02:22.300 --> 00:02:25.639 pushing across the frontier. How does it make 00:02:25.639 --> 00:02:28.979 the leap from pioneers into the broader cultural 00:02:28.979 --> 00:02:31.479 lexicon? Did people just start using it in cities? 00:02:31.759 --> 00:02:34.460 It actually sneaks into the broader culture through 00:02:34.460 --> 00:02:36.719 the military first. Yeah. And then through fiction. 00:02:36.900 --> 00:02:40.639 Oh, interesting. Yeah. As early as 1908, the 00:02:40.639 --> 00:02:43.139 phrase pops up in a military cadence song. It's 00:02:43.139 --> 00:02:45.520 the one we now know as the army goes rolling 00:02:45.520 --> 00:02:47.819 along. Oh, sure. I know that one. Right. And 00:02:47.819 --> 00:02:50.060 the sources note that this usage likely extended 00:02:50.060 --> 00:02:52.319 into how early tank crews and artillery units 00:02:52.319 --> 00:02:55.229 communicated with each other. A great example 00:02:55.229 --> 00:02:57.310 of this is the phrase's connection to the role 00:02:57.310 --> 00:02:59.050 of the caissons. Okay, let's pause there for 00:02:59.050 --> 00:03:01.229 a second because I think a lot of people, when 00:03:01.229 --> 00:03:02.969 they hear the word caisson, they picture something 00:03:02.969 --> 00:03:05.669 vaguely military but might not know exactly what 00:03:05.669 --> 00:03:08.009 it is. Right, a caisson is essentially a highly 00:03:08.009 --> 00:03:10.930 reinforced chest on wheels. It's used to carry 00:03:10.930 --> 00:03:13.330 artillery ammunition. Got it. So when you are 00:03:13.330 --> 00:03:16.009 moving heavy, dangerous... explosive equipment 00:03:16.009 --> 00:03:19.250 with horses or early trucks, rolling isn't just 00:03:19.250 --> 00:03:21.729 about simple movement. It's life or death. Exactly. 00:03:21.870 --> 00:03:24.689 It's about keeping a massive, unstoppable rhythm 00:03:24.689 --> 00:03:28.629 going across a chaotic battlefield. That unstoppable 00:03:28.629 --> 00:03:32.409 momentum is the core DNA of the phrase. Which 00:03:32.409 --> 00:03:34.669 explains why writers who focused on military 00:03:34.669 --> 00:03:37.330 or gritty subjects picked it up later on. You 00:03:37.330 --> 00:03:39.469 see it bleed into fiction around the mid -20th 00:03:39.469 --> 00:03:42.560 century, right? Precisely. In 1940, the legendary 00:03:42.560 --> 00:03:45.419 sci -fi writer Robert A. Heinlein wrote a story 00:03:45.419 --> 00:03:47.900 called The Roads Must Roll. Classic. Yeah, and 00:03:47.900 --> 00:03:50.060 in that story, he references a reworded version 00:03:50.060 --> 00:03:53.000 of those old military cadences, calling it the 00:03:53.000 --> 00:03:55.919 road songs of the transport cadets. Then a decade 00:03:55.919 --> 00:03:58.539 later, in 1950, Ernest Hemingway adopts it. And 00:03:58.539 --> 00:04:00.340 Neymar, of course. Right in his novel Across 00:04:00.340 --> 00:04:02.580 the River and Into the Trees, the protagonist 00:04:02.580 --> 00:04:05.620 is Colonel Dick Cantwell. Now, Cantwell was actually 00:04:05.620 --> 00:04:07.560 based on a real World War II commander named 00:04:07.560 --> 00:04:10.340 Charles Buck Lanham. Hemingway has Cantwell use 00:04:10.340 --> 00:04:14.060 the phrase, let's roll. when giving a direct 00:04:14.060 --> 00:04:16.620 no -nonsense command to his driver. Having a 00:04:16.620 --> 00:04:18.839 gritty, battle -hardened Hemingway character 00:04:18.839 --> 00:04:21.920 use it really solidifies the phrase association 00:04:21.920 --> 00:04:24.759 with moving forward with serious purpose. And 00:04:24.759 --> 00:04:27.220 it anchors it. Yeah, but what is so wild about 00:04:27.220 --> 00:04:29.620 the timeline is that while the military and these 00:04:29.620 --> 00:04:32.160 intense literary figures were using it with all 00:04:32.160 --> 00:04:34.759 this gravity, everyday industries and pop culture, 00:04:34.959 --> 00:04:37.600 were adapting it for entirely different, much 00:04:37.600 --> 00:04:40.120 lighter reasons. Yeah, mid -century American 00:04:40.120 --> 00:04:42.420 culture was becoming completely obsessed with... 00:04:42.569 --> 00:04:45.149 speed industry, and forward momentum. You start 00:04:45.149 --> 00:04:47.529 to see military jargon turn into upper -class 00:04:47.529 --> 00:04:49.930 slang. Give me an example of that. A perfect 00:04:49.930 --> 00:04:52.670 example is the 1937 supernatural comedy film 00:04:52.670 --> 00:04:55.389 Topper. Okay. You have Cary Grant playing this 00:04:55.389 --> 00:04:57.810 suave protagonist. He turns to his wife, played 00:04:57.810 --> 00:05:00.689 by Constance Bennett, and says, let's roll. He 00:05:00.689 --> 00:05:02.910 isn't commanding a tank or starting a wagon train. 00:05:03.050 --> 00:05:05.129 He just wants to indicate that they should immediately 00:05:05.129 --> 00:05:08.029 escape their friend's incredibly stuffy office 00:05:08.029 --> 00:05:10.449 and go find a cocktail. That is the ultimate 00:05:10.449 --> 00:05:13.009 contrast. And it wasn't just actors saying it 00:05:13.009 --> 00:05:14.790 on screen, right? It was happening behind the 00:05:14.790 --> 00:05:17.310 camera, too. Right. The whole industry. The entire 00:05:17.310 --> 00:05:20.230 film and audio recording industry adopted the 00:05:20.230 --> 00:05:23.329 verb roll to signal the beginning of a recording. 00:05:23.490 --> 00:05:26.589 I mean, you hear directors shout rolling on movie 00:05:26.589 --> 00:05:29.589 sets to this very day. If we connect this to 00:05:29.589 --> 00:05:31.829 the bigger picture, whether it is Cary Grant 00:05:31.829 --> 00:05:33.990 trying to get a drink, an audio engineer starting 00:05:33.990 --> 00:05:36.569 a tape reel, or a tank commander moving out. 00:05:36.910 --> 00:05:39.430 The word inherently implies that a state of rest 00:05:39.430 --> 00:05:43.350 is ending. Action is beginning. That built -in 00:05:43.350 --> 00:05:45.850 subconscious meaning of collective action is 00:05:45.850 --> 00:05:49.029 exactly what made it the perfect vehicle for 00:05:49.029 --> 00:05:51.170 the much heavier meaning it would take on decades 00:05:51.170 --> 00:05:54.209 later. Which brings us to September 11th, 2001. 00:05:54.610 --> 00:05:56.889 And I want to shift the tone here because the 00:05:56.889 --> 00:05:59.389 events we are about to discuss are incredibly 00:05:59.389 --> 00:06:02.769 heavy. But they also represent a story of unimaginable 00:06:02.769 --> 00:06:05.089 courage. They absolutely do. We are looking at 00:06:05.089 --> 00:06:07.110 the events aboard the hijacked United Airlines 00:06:07.110 --> 00:06:09.970 Flight 93. This is the defining moment. It changed 00:06:09.970 --> 00:06:12.209 not just the country, but how this specific phrase 00:06:12.209 --> 00:06:14.250 will be remembered for the rest of history. When 00:06:14.250 --> 00:06:16.389 you look at the events of that morning passenger, 00:06:16.670 --> 00:06:19.420 Todd Beamer was on that flight. In the midst 00:06:19.420 --> 00:06:22.759 of this terrifying, chaotic situation, he tries 00:06:22.759 --> 00:06:25.779 to place a call to his family using one of the 00:06:25.779 --> 00:06:28.000 seat back earphones. Right. But the phone system 00:06:28.000 --> 00:06:30.819 is so overwhelmed or he misstyles in the stress 00:06:30.819 --> 00:06:33.980 of the moment and the call doesn't go where he 00:06:33.980 --> 00:06:37.279 expects. He actually gets routed to a customer 00:06:37.279 --> 00:06:40.139 service representative first, who then passes 00:06:40.139 --> 00:06:42.759 him on to a supervisor in Chicago named Lisa 00:06:42.759 --> 00:06:45.160 Jefferson. Put yourself in Lisa Jefferson's shoes 00:06:45.160 --> 00:06:47.540 for a moment. You are sitting at a customer service 00:06:47.540 --> 00:06:50.079 desk. And suddenly you are on the line with an 00:06:50.079 --> 00:06:53.199 ordinary citizen who is communicating vital real 00:06:53.199 --> 00:06:56.399 time intelligence during a completely unprecedented 00:06:56.399 --> 00:06:59.480 national crisis. And Beamer remains incredibly 00:06:59.480 --> 00:07:02.220 clear headed as he gathers and reports this intel. 00:07:02.399 --> 00:07:04.600 He tells Jefferson that one passenger has already 00:07:04.600 --> 00:07:06.480 been killed. He relays that a flight attendant 00:07:06.480 --> 00:07:08.740 informed him both the pilot and the co -pilot 00:07:08.740 --> 00:07:10.639 had been forced from the cockpit and that they 00:07:10.639 --> 00:07:12.699 might be gravely injured. Just horrifying to 00:07:12.699 --> 00:07:14.899 hear. He is on the phone with Jefferson narrating 00:07:14.899 --> 00:07:16.879 the events when the plane makes a quick, violent 00:07:16.879 --> 00:07:19.959 turn. He is experiencing the hijacking in real 00:07:19.959 --> 00:07:22.879 time, effectively acting as the eyes and ears 00:07:22.879 --> 00:07:26.240 for the ground at a moment when the entire nation's 00:07:26.240 --> 00:07:29.100 airspace was in total confusion. Crucially, the 00:07:29.100 --> 00:07:31.980 passengers on Flight 93 were communicating with 00:07:31.980 --> 00:07:33.879 people on the ground, so they eventually learned 00:07:33.879 --> 00:07:35.500 about what had happened at the World Trade Center 00:07:35.500 --> 00:07:37.860 and the Pentagon. They pieced the puzzle together. 00:07:38.160 --> 00:07:40.360 They did. They realized this wasn't a traditional 00:07:40.360 --> 00:07:42.220 hostage situation where the plane would just 00:07:42.220 --> 00:07:44.100 land at an airport and demands would be made. 00:07:44.420 --> 00:07:47.339 They realized it was a suicide mission. Beamer 00:07:47.339 --> 00:07:49.740 tells the operator that he and some of the other 00:07:49.740 --> 00:07:52.800 passengers are formulating a plan. They're going 00:07:52.800 --> 00:07:55.480 to attack the hijackers and try to regain control 00:07:55.480 --> 00:07:57.709 of the aircraft. It is an extraordinary. an air 00:07:57.709 --> 00:08:00.230 pivot. They recognize the terrible reality of 00:08:00.230 --> 00:08:02.649 their situation, and they make a collective, 00:08:02.750 --> 00:08:05.470 immediate decision to fight back to save the 00:08:05.470 --> 00:08:08.110 lives of unknown people on the ground. The moment 00:08:08.110 --> 00:08:10.649 of action arrives. According to Lisa Jefferson, 00:08:10.790 --> 00:08:12.829 the supervisor on the other end of that air phone, 00:08:13.129 --> 00:08:16.149 Todd Beamer's last audible words before dropping 00:08:16.149 --> 00:08:19.430 the phone to storm the cockpit were, are you 00:08:19.430 --> 00:08:22.329 ready? Okay, let's roll. What you are witnessing 00:08:22.329 --> 00:08:25.389 here linguistically, aside from the sheer breathtaking 00:08:25.389 --> 00:08:28.459 bravery of the act. is a profound transformation. 00:08:28.899 --> 00:08:32.179 A casual phrase, something used to leave a boring 00:08:32.179 --> 00:08:35.059 conversation or to cue a film camera, was instantly 00:08:35.059 --> 00:08:39.399 transfigured. In that single breath, let's roll. 00:08:39.870 --> 00:08:41.889 became an immortal statement of extraordinary 00:08:41.889 --> 00:08:45.470 courage and sacrifice spoken by ordinary people 00:08:45.470 --> 00:08:47.710 facing the unthinkable. It left that airplane 00:08:47.710 --> 00:08:50.070 and entered the national consciousness in a way 00:08:50.070 --> 00:08:52.289 no one could have ever predicted. It became this 00:08:52.289 --> 00:08:54.690 massive rhetorical shift for the entire country. 00:08:55.090 --> 00:08:58.049 How quickly did it move from a private phone 00:08:58.049 --> 00:09:00.909 call into the public sphere? Almost immediately. 00:09:01.169 --> 00:09:03.110 But I want to be very clear before we look at 00:09:03.110 --> 00:09:05.370 how the phrase was adopted politically and militarily. 00:09:05.590 --> 00:09:07.590 It's really vital to look at this strictly as 00:09:07.590 --> 00:09:09.820 historians. Okay. Regardless of where anyone 00:09:09.820 --> 00:09:11.899 falls on the political spectrum, left or right, 00:09:12.019 --> 00:09:15.000 we are not endorsing or validating any specific 00:09:15.000 --> 00:09:17.720 political viewpoints here. Of course not. Watching 00:09:17.720 --> 00:09:20.320 how quickly a phrase moves from a tragic flight 00:09:20.320 --> 00:09:23.639 into presidential addresses simply shows how 00:09:23.639 --> 00:09:26.360 desperately the nation was searching for a unifying, 00:09:26.460 --> 00:09:29.820 active rallying cry in the face of profound trauma. 00:09:30.340 --> 00:09:32.799 We are neutrally observing how political figures 00:09:32.799 --> 00:09:35.720 and institutions utilize the immense cultural 00:09:35.720 --> 00:09:39.169 weight of this newly minted battle cry. And the 00:09:39.169 --> 00:09:41.330 timeline shows that President George W. Bush 00:09:41.330 --> 00:09:43.970 invoked Beamer's words very shortly after the 00:09:43.970 --> 00:09:46.330 attacks. In an address from the World Congress 00:09:46.330 --> 00:09:48.389 Center in Atlanta, Georgia, on November 8th, 00:09:48.389 --> 00:09:52.049 2001, President Bush told the crowd, quote, Some 00:09:52.049 --> 00:09:54.149 of our greatest moments have been acts of courage 00:09:54.149 --> 00:09:56.190 for which no one could have been prepared. But 00:09:56.190 --> 00:09:58.450 we have our marching orders. My fellow Americans, 00:09:58.669 --> 00:10:00.970 let's roll. He elevated it from a moment of civilian 00:10:00.970 --> 00:10:03.809 bravery to a national directive. He used it again 00:10:03.809 --> 00:10:06.110 a few months later in the 2002 State of the Union 00:10:06.110 --> 00:10:08.879 address. The source quotes him saying, For too 00:10:08.879 --> 00:10:11.100 long our culture has said, if it feels good, 00:10:11.179 --> 00:10:13.980 do it. Now America is embracing a new ethic and 00:10:13.980 --> 00:10:16.899 a new creed. Let's roll. By positioning the phrase 00:10:16.899 --> 00:10:19.860 as a new ethic and a new creed, the government 00:10:19.860 --> 00:10:22.279 was essentially taking a deeply personal moment 00:10:22.279 --> 00:10:25.379 of sacrifice and turning it into a unifying national 00:10:25.379 --> 00:10:28.860 doctrine for the ensuing war on terror. Language 00:10:28.860 --> 00:10:31.580 operates as a coping mechanism, and the nation 00:10:31.580 --> 00:10:34.000 needed a phrase that implied fighting back. The 00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:36.889 military took that doctrine very literally. The 00:10:36.889 --> 00:10:39.429 sources show that in early 2002, the United States 00:10:39.429 --> 00:10:41.970 Air Force Chief of Staff General John P. Jumper 00:10:41.970 --> 00:10:45.590 issued a highly specific order. This is a fascinating 00:10:45.590 --> 00:10:48.549 detail. He mandated that one airplane in every 00:10:48.549 --> 00:10:51.950 single USAF squadron, plus all the USAF demonstration 00:10:51.950 --> 00:10:55.450 planes, had to bear a specific image. It was 00:10:55.450 --> 00:10:57.929 an eagle on an American flag accompanied by the 00:10:57.929 --> 00:11:01.809 words, Let's Roll and Spirit of 9 -11. That nose 00:11:01.809 --> 00:11:03.710 art was ordered to remain on the planes until 00:11:03.710 --> 00:11:06.129 the first anniversary of the attack. Notice the 00:11:06.129 --> 00:11:08.309 full circle moment there. The phrase started 00:11:08.309 --> 00:11:11.049 with literal military usage tanks and horse -drawn 00:11:11.049 --> 00:11:14.149 caissons in 1908, and almost a century later 00:11:14.149 --> 00:11:16.230 it is painted on the side of supersonic fighter 00:11:16.230 --> 00:11:18.950 jets. Except this time it isn't just a cadence, 00:11:19.070 --> 00:11:21.639 it is a memorial to civilian bravery. Here's 00:11:21.639 --> 00:11:23.759 where it gets really interesting to me, because 00:11:23.759 --> 00:11:25.919 it didn't just stay in political speeches or 00:11:25.919 --> 00:11:29.240 or painted on military bases. The explosion of 00:11:29.240 --> 00:11:32.120 this phrase into pop culture is staggering. It's 00:11:32.120 --> 00:11:34.740 saturated the media landscape, crossing over 00:11:34.740 --> 00:11:37.940 into incredibly diverse platforms. Society was 00:11:37.940 --> 00:11:40.320 trying to process an enormous collective trauma. 00:11:40.840 --> 00:11:43.559 And because this phrase perfectly captured the 00:11:43.559 --> 00:11:46.539 transition from victimhood to action, it became 00:11:46.539 --> 00:11:49.120 the primary tool for processing that grief across 00:11:49.120 --> 00:11:51.519 almost every creative medium. The sheer variety 00:11:51.519 --> 00:11:53.820 of musical genres that adopted the phrase is 00:11:53.820 --> 00:11:56.480 wild. Just two months after the attacks in November 00:11:56.480 --> 00:11:59.379 2001, rock legend Neil Young released an immediate 00:11:59.379 --> 00:12:02.919 visceral single simply titled Let's Roll, which 00:12:02.919 --> 00:12:05.000 later ended up on his album Are You Passionate? 00:12:05.059 --> 00:12:07.519 A classic songwriter having a real -time reaction 00:12:07.519 --> 00:12:10.350 to a historical event. But it wasn't just legacy 00:12:10.350 --> 00:12:12.690 rock artists. Not at all. The next year you see 00:12:12.690 --> 00:12:14.730 it everywhere. The hard rock group L .A. Guns 00:12:14.730 --> 00:12:16.850 put out a track called OK Let's Roll on their 00:12:16.850 --> 00:12:18.889 album Waking the Dead. Then you have the country 00:12:18.889 --> 00:12:21.029 music duo the Bellamy Brothers releasing Let's 00:12:21.029 --> 00:12:23.149 Roll America on their album Redneck Girls Forever. 00:12:23.429 --> 00:12:25.830 Think about the emotional and spiritual need 00:12:25.830 --> 00:12:28.210 of the country at that time. Different genres 00:12:28.210 --> 00:12:30.490 serve different psychological purposes for their 00:12:30.490 --> 00:12:32.909 listeners. That is perfectly illustrated by the 00:12:32.909 --> 00:12:35.710 Christian rock group DC Talk. They were actually 00:12:35.710 --> 00:12:38.529 on an extended hiatus at the time. They broke 00:12:38.529 --> 00:12:40.850 their hiatus specifically to record and release 00:12:40.850 --> 00:12:44.629 a single entitled Let's Roll. Breaking hiatus 00:12:44.629 --> 00:12:47.509 to release one specific song speaks volumes about 00:12:47.509 --> 00:12:50.049 the cultural weight the phrase carried. For a 00:12:50.049 --> 00:12:52.649 religious music group, the phrase likely represented 00:12:52.649 --> 00:12:55.450 a form of spiritual processing, framing Todd 00:12:55.450 --> 00:12:58.590 Beamer's actions as a definitive example of laying 00:12:58.590 --> 00:13:00.889 down one's life for others. And it kept going 00:13:00.889 --> 00:13:03.009 over the next few years, touching genres you 00:13:03.009 --> 00:13:06.200 just wouldn't expect. In 2003, the Montreal indie 00:13:06.200 --> 00:13:08.580 walk band The Stills included a song with the 00:13:08.580 --> 00:13:11.080 title on their debut album. You had electronic 00:13:11.080 --> 00:13:13.539 artist Johnny L releasing a track that actually 00:13:13.539 --> 00:13:16.299 sampled President Bush's 2002 State of the Union 00:13:16.299 --> 00:13:19.559 address. Wow. Yeah. In 2004, the country and 00:13:19.559 --> 00:13:22.059 novelty artist Ray Stevens released a self -penned 00:13:22.059 --> 00:13:24.360 song called Let's Roll that directly referenced 00:13:24.360 --> 00:13:26.519 Todd Beamer in the lyrics. He ended up putting 00:13:26.519 --> 00:13:28.440 that track on multiple albums over the years. 00:13:28.620 --> 00:13:30.940 It is a fascinating cross -section of artistic 00:13:30.940 --> 00:13:34.610 intent. You have artists like Ray Stevens using 00:13:34.610 --> 00:13:37.730 the phrase as a direct literal tribute to Beamer, 00:13:37.809 --> 00:13:40.690 while electronic artists are using it to sample 00:13:40.690 --> 00:13:42.590 and reflect the political rhetoric of the era. 00:13:43.039 --> 00:13:45.159 We can't forget Melissa Etheridge either. Her 00:13:45.159 --> 00:13:48.019 2004 song Tuesday Morning was written in honor 00:13:48.019 --> 00:13:50.879 of another Flight 93 passenger, Mark Bingham, 00:13:50.980 --> 00:13:53.399 and she consciously concludes that song with 00:13:53.399 --> 00:13:56.759 the phrase, let's roll. It became an undeniable 00:13:56.759 --> 00:13:59.799 cultural touchstone in music, but it also entered 00:13:59.799 --> 00:14:01.799 other areas of public life where the integration 00:14:01.799 --> 00:14:04.879 wasn't always as smooth. especially in sports. 00:14:05.179 --> 00:14:07.039 This is where we run into the inherent tension 00:14:07.039 --> 00:14:09.440 of commodifying tragedy. Yeah. When a phrase 00:14:09.440 --> 00:14:11.960 holds that much sacred weight, utilizing it for 00:14:11.960 --> 00:14:14.080 entertainment purposes becomes ethically fraught 00:14:14.080 --> 00:14:16.299 very quickly. The sources point out that even 00:14:16.299 --> 00:14:18.080 though the phrase was in common use long before 00:14:18.080 --> 00:14:20.919 September 11th, many people soon tried to lay 00:14:20.919 --> 00:14:22.860 claim to it as a trademark after the attacks. 00:14:23.120 --> 00:14:25.799 In the 2002 college football season, the Florida 00:14:25.799 --> 00:14:27.980 State Seminoles decided to use let's roll as 00:14:27.980 --> 00:14:30.639 their official team slogan. it immediately caused 00:14:30.639 --> 00:14:32.820 a massive uproar. You can entirely understand 00:14:32.820 --> 00:14:35.980 the backlash there. Taking a phrase born from 00:14:35.980 --> 00:14:38.340 the realization of imminent death to save others 00:14:38.340 --> 00:14:40.879 and pasting it onto a college football season 00:14:40.879 --> 00:14:45.000 to hype up a defense, it clashes harshly with 00:14:45.000 --> 00:14:47.100 the reverence people felt for the sacrifice on 00:14:47.100 --> 00:14:51.539 Flight 93. They misjudge the raw emotional recency 00:14:51.539 --> 00:14:53.600 of the event. The conflict was eventually resolved 00:14:53.600 --> 00:14:55.700 when the Todd M. Beamer Foundation officially 00:14:55.700 --> 00:14:58.769 licensed the trademark to the team. The foundation 00:14:58.769 --> 00:15:00.970 had actually been granted a trademark for uses 00:15:00.970 --> 00:15:03.350 of the phrase specifically regarding audio and 00:15:03.350 --> 00:15:06.549 music, like pre -recorded CDs and tapes. That 00:15:06.549 --> 00:15:09.590 licensing step is incredibly telling. It highlights 00:15:09.590 --> 00:15:11.850 the family and the foundation attempting to maintain 00:15:11.850 --> 00:15:14.929 some level of stewardship over the phrase. They 00:15:14.929 --> 00:15:16.769 were trying to ensure that even as it exploded 00:15:16.769 --> 00:15:19.210 into pop culture and commercial ventures, its 00:15:19.210 --> 00:15:22.039 origin wasn't entirely... diluted or disrespected. 00:15:22.259 --> 00:15:25.340 Once that precedent of respectful usage was set, 00:15:25.500 --> 00:15:27.940 it popped up in other sports as a genuine tribute 00:15:27.940 --> 00:15:30.700 rather than just a hype slogan. NASCAR driver 00:15:30.700 --> 00:15:33.639 Bobby Labonte drove a 9 -11 tribute car with 00:15:33.639 --> 00:15:36.519 the words, let's roll, painted on the hood at 00:15:36.519 --> 00:15:39.460 Dover. Detroit Red Wings goaltender Jimmy Howard 00:15:39.460 --> 00:15:41.899 had the inscription, let's roll, put on the back 00:15:41.899 --> 00:15:43.600 of his goalie helmet as a reference to Flight 00:15:43.600 --> 00:15:46.679 93. Those examples feel much closer to the military 00:15:46.679 --> 00:15:48.940 jets we talked about earlier. They are quiet. 00:15:49.370 --> 00:15:52.159 personal acts of memorialization. Beyond music 00:15:52.159 --> 00:15:54.879 and sports, the phrase just completely permeated 00:15:54.879 --> 00:15:57.860 screen media. Lisa Beamer Todd's Widow published 00:15:57.860 --> 00:16:01.100 a book in 2003 titled Let's Roll Ordinary People, 00:16:01.299 --> 00:16:03.779 Extraordinary Courage. There was a dramatized 00:16:03.779 --> 00:16:06.059 film reconstruction of the events called Let's 00:16:06.059 --> 00:16:08.700 Roll the Story of Flight 93. It even made its 00:16:08.700 --> 00:16:11.179 way into blockbuster sci -fi. Optimus Prime says 00:16:11.179 --> 00:16:13.740 it in the 2009 movie Transformers Revenge of 00:16:13.740 --> 00:16:16.440 the Fallen. From a hijacked airplane to a blockbuster 00:16:16.440 --> 00:16:19.600 movie about giant robots. It proves how deeply 00:16:19.600 --> 00:16:21.679 the phrase had woven it. itself into the fundamental 00:16:21.679 --> 00:16:24.139 fabric of American hero speak. I want to talk 00:16:24.139 --> 00:16:25.940 about one of the most surprising inclusions in 00:16:25.940 --> 00:16:28.440 the sources, because it captures the final stage 00:16:28.440 --> 00:16:31.320 of how a culture processes a heavily saturated 00:16:31.320 --> 00:16:35.779 concept dark humor. I am talking about HBO's 00:16:35.779 --> 00:16:39.019 Curb Your Enthusiasm. Ah, yes. Season four, episode 00:16:39.019 --> 00:16:42.139 nine, The Survivor. This is a perfect milestone 00:16:42.139 --> 00:16:45.419 in the linguistic lifecycle. It is such a classic 00:16:45.419 --> 00:16:47.860 Larry David setup. Larry and his wife are getting 00:16:47.860 --> 00:16:50.039 ready to go out and renew their vows, and Larry 00:16:50.039 --> 00:16:53.200 inadvertently says to his rabbi, Let's roll. 00:16:53.399 --> 00:16:56.159 The rabbi gets instantly offended. He snaps at 00:16:56.159 --> 00:16:58.179 Larry saying, you knew my brother -in -law died 00:16:58.179 --> 00:17:00.120 on September 11th. How dare you say something 00:17:00.120 --> 00:17:02.440 like that? The rabbi automatically assumes Larry 00:17:02.440 --> 00:17:04.339 is making light of the tragedy, specifically 00:17:04.339 --> 00:17:06.980 because of the inescapable cultural connection 00:17:06.980 --> 00:17:09.460 to the phrase. But Larry being Larry, he takes 00:17:09.460 --> 00:17:11.559 issue with the rabbi's outrage. Because as Larry 00:17:11.559 --> 00:17:13.720 points out, the rabbi's brother -in -law wasn't 00:17:13.720 --> 00:17:16.059 killed in the terrorist attacks. He died on September 00:17:16.059 --> 00:17:17.680 11th because he was hit by a bike messenger. 00:17:17.859 --> 00:17:19.480 It was a complete coincidence of the calendar. 00:17:19.779 --> 00:17:21.980 When a tragedy's rhetoric can be referenced in 00:17:22.000 --> 00:17:24.039 In an HBO comedy, without canceling the show, 00:17:24.319 --> 00:17:27.900 it signifies a cultural milestone. It means the 00:17:27.900 --> 00:17:30.200 phrase has fully integrated into the broader 00:17:30.200 --> 00:17:33.019 complex linguistic landscape. It's evolved again. 00:17:33.220 --> 00:17:36.400 Exactly. If we synthesize this sprawling list, 00:17:36.559 --> 00:17:39.259 from Neil Young's immediate grief to Florida 00:17:39.259 --> 00:17:41.839 State's sports hype to Optimus Prime and finally 00:17:41.839 --> 00:17:44.720 to Larry David's satire, it shows you the entire 00:17:44.720 --> 00:17:48.220 life cycle of collective trauma processing. Society 00:17:48.220 --> 00:17:51.160 uses language first for heartfelt tribute, then 00:17:51.160 --> 00:17:53.900 for motivation, and eventually it processes that 00:17:53.900 --> 00:17:57.000 intense saturation through dark humor. So what 00:17:57.000 --> 00:17:58.880 does this all mean when we look back at the whole 00:17:58.880 --> 00:18:01.420 journey? We started this deep dive looking at 00:18:01.420 --> 00:18:03.759 wagon trains dragging heavy wooden wheels west. 00:18:04.220 --> 00:18:06.440 We looked at the suave Cary Grant trying to escape 00:18:06.440 --> 00:18:09.240 a boring conversation in the 1930s and rugged 00:18:09.240 --> 00:18:11.980 Hemingway characters barking orders. We watched 00:18:11.980 --> 00:18:14.079 that very same phrase get picked up by Todd Beamer 00:18:14.079 --> 00:18:16.599 on Flight 93, resulting in his ultimate selfless 00:18:16.599 --> 00:18:19.259 sacrifice. From there, it became a ubiquitous 00:18:19.259 --> 00:18:21.380 cultural, political, and musical symbol that 00:18:21.380 --> 00:18:24.000 dominated an entire decade of American life. 00:18:24.259 --> 00:18:26.900 It serves as a powerful reminder to you, the 00:18:26.900 --> 00:18:29.160 listener, that the words you use every single 00:18:29.160 --> 00:18:32.000 day are alive. They aren't just sounds you make 00:18:32.000 --> 00:18:35.000 to get through your routine. They carry the immense 00:18:35.000 --> 00:18:37.940 weight of history. They absorb the courage, the 00:18:37.940 --> 00:18:41.039 politics, the grief, and the media of the generations 00:18:41.039 --> 00:18:43.559 that speak them. And I want to leave you with 00:18:43.559 --> 00:18:47.160 a thought to mull over. The next time you casually 00:18:47.160 --> 00:18:49.950 tell a group of friends. Let's take a second 00:18:49.950 --> 00:18:52.630 to ask yourself, what other ordinary phrases 00:18:52.630 --> 00:18:55.470 in your vocabulary are secretly carrying the 00:18:55.470 --> 00:18:59.069 ghosts of monumental historical events just waiting 00:18:59.069 --> 00:19:01.430 to be uncovered? I love that. I am definitely 00:19:01.430 --> 00:19:02.950 going to be paying way more attention to the 00:19:02.950 --> 00:19:05.369 things I say without thinking. Thank you so much 00:19:05.369 --> 00:19:07.690 for joining us on this deep dive. Keep questioning 00:19:07.690 --> 00:19:09.769 the everyday world around you. Keep looking for 00:19:09.769 --> 00:19:11.789 those hidden histories, and we will catch you 00:19:11.789 --> 00:19:12.210 next time.