S11.E4: Dreamers One and All

[Yeah No]

Episode premieres on PBS: 8 p.m. ET, Tuesday, January 28, 2025

Quote

Exploring the ancestry of actress Sharon Stone and model Chrissy Teigen includes traveling across Europe and Thailand.

 

[buckboard]

The examination of Stone and Teigen's ancestry didn't start until 15 after the hour and then Dr. Gates spent way too much time talking to them about how they felt, skipping over details of their ancestors.  He asked Teigen how she felt about her great-grandparents working in Thai rice paddies.  It might have been interesting to know how her grandfather became a teacher with parents who were farm laborers. 

Same with Stone.  Aren't you proud about your great grandfather who fought -- on the right side -- with the Union in the Civil War.  Then later, Sharon, you had an ancestor who was a slave owner in Connecticut -- but let's just mention that in passing -- and go to Wow!  Charlemagne was your 34 times grandfather!  

[Mermaid Under]

Gates seemed to take great joy in the fact that Tiegen was "Roma", which I know is a more politically correct term for Gypsy, and that Nazis persecuted the Roma people.  I guess even he likes to find something different from time to time. Is Roma considered an ethnicity? Wikipedia calls it Indo-Aryan, but I'm not going to believe the Internet. And exactly how much Roma did she have? They really breeze by those pie charts now.

As I've said before, how much I watch this program depends solely on the guest, since everything else is boilerplate. I expected Sharon Stone to be unappealing.  She was.  I expected to find Chrissy Tiegen slightly more appealing.  I didn't.

Edited Wednesday at 07:12 PM by Mermaid Under
clarity

[Raja]

1 hour ago, Mermaid Under said:

Gates seemed to take great joy in the fact that Tiegen was "Roma", which I know is a more politically correct term for Gypsy, and that Nazis persecuted the Roma people.  I guess even he likes to find something different from time to time. Is Roma considered an ethnicity?

I believe so, as there are distinct communities. As far as politically correct many of those communities hold on to Gypsy even if leaders voted to adopt Romani a couple of generations ago. A decade ago when sitting in with a musical group from France in a self named Los Angeles Gypsy church I had to remind myself not to throw out "you are not Gypsy but Romani" to them as I once did 20 years before in a similar situation with a Cambodian refugee.

[sempervivum]

I guess it was lucky Chrissy had some ancestors who were persecuted by the Nazis, since she was disappointed not to be Jewish. Really, her family thought they were Jewish because they were 'funny' and had a grandparent with the last name of Schaefer? 

11 hours ago, buckboard said:

Then later, Sharon, you had an ancestor who was a slave owner in Connecticut -- but let's just mention that in passing -- and go to Wow!  Charlemagne was your 34 times grandfather!  

Yeah, it was odd that tidbit was glossed over.

There was a previous guest (long time ago) they also had connected to Charlemagne, and I seem to recall reading a poster here saying that there are millions of people in the world who could claim Charlemagne as an ancestor. So pfft. 

[Driad]

18 minutes ago, sempervivum said:

there are millions of people in the world who could claim Charlemagne as an ancestor.

Yes, it's said that most people with European ancestry are descended from Charlemagne (a.k.a. Chuck the Prolific).  He had a lot of children and lived a long time ago, and records of high-ranking people were more likely to be made.

[Lugal]

9 hours ago, Mermaid Under said:

Gates seemed to take great joy in the fact that Tiegen was "Roma", which I know is a more politically correct term for Gypsy, and that Nazis persecuted the Roma people.  I guess even he likes to find something different from time to time. Is Roma considered an ethnicity? Wikipedia calls it Indo-Aryan, but I'm not going to believe the Internet. And exactly how much Roma did she have? They really breeze by those pie charts now.

The Roma people did come from India originally, and their language is Indo-Aryan.  Ironically, they had more right to call themselves Aryans than the Nazis.

[iMonrey]

20 hours ago, buckboard said:

Same with Stone.  Aren't you proud about your great grandfather who fought -- on the right side -- with the Union in the Civil War.  Then later, Sharon, you had an ancestor who was a slave owner in Connecticut -- but let's just mention that in passing -- and go to Wow!  Charlemagne was your 34 times grandfather!  

I groaned out loud when Gates zeroed in on the ancestor who fought in the civil war, because of course he would. Geez Louise this show cannot seem to get enough civil war stories can it? Never miss a chance to regale us with a story about some specific battle. Surely they've covered them all by now.

And Sharon? Don't feel too special being descended from Charlemagne. Seems like roughly 35% of the world's population is.

[Yeah No]

10 hours ago, iMonrey said:

I groaned out loud when Gates zeroed in on the ancestor who fought in the civil war, because of course he would. Geez Louise this show cannot seem to get enough civil war stories can it? Never miss a chance to regale us with a story about some specific battle. Surely they've covered them all by now.

And Sharon? Don't feel too special being descended from Charlemagne. Seems like roughly 35% of the world's population is.

I haven't watched this episode yet but thanks for the heads up about the Civil War. That's one of my rants about this show too. Judging from the comments here I'm going to endure a few more annoying moments in addition to that.

I once read that pretty much everyone with European ancestry is probably descended from Charlemagne.

[Suzn]

This season is starting off so lame. I wouldn't think that everything has been discussed multiple times but it is so very repetitive now.

One thing that seems different is the very lengthy discussion of the guest's career. There is no reason to go into depth - that's not what the show is about.

Sharon Stone was very cringy with wide eyes and gaping mouth about every bit of information and the shock about Charlamagne was nuts, since a large segment of European ancestry connects with him.  It was not an amazing revelation.

I love the subject of this show but it is really starting to lose me.