Iowa author explores Mary Shelley’s life beyond Frankenstein

0:00It's Talk of Iowa from IPR News, I'm Charity Nebby. Later this hour, we'll meet sled hockey player Kevin McKee. He is heading to his fourth Paralympic Games and hoping to win his fourth gold medal. But first, even if you've never read it, you know something about the novel Frankenstein. It is more than 200 years old, but it explores themes that continue to make it relevant today. The dangers of humans playing God, the traumas of parental abandonment, the costs of rejection by society. What makes this groundbreaking novel even more incredible is that it was written by a 19-year-old woman, Mary Shelley. Amy Weldon is the head of the English Department at Luther College and her latest novel Creature, a novel of Mary Shelley and Frankenstein, brings Mary Shelley and her creature to life. Amy Weldon is on the line with me now. Hello, Amy. Hi, Charity. Thank you so much for inviting me to be here today and thanks in advance to all the listeners

1:04and the readers for the gift of their attention and their time as well. I'm super thrilled to be here. Well, it's wonderful to talk to you. I want to go back in time, not more than 200 years, but in your life, do you remember when you first read Frankenstein? You know, it's funny, Charity. I don't actually remember it. As you mentioned in your intro at the top, it's one of those stories that enters the cultural bloodstream. I think pretty much as soon as Mary Shelley produces it. But so I had always, of course, like a lot of people heard of and thought of Frankenstein's monster, quote unquote, although creature is really the preferred name for him. But I don't really remember engaging with the novel in depth until I got to graduate school when I was studying Mary Shelley and studying some of her other works of which she has several in addition to Frankenstein. But I just became increasingly fascinated by this remarkable woman and by her story and

2:09by the fact that she has so many more interesting things and life changes and tragedies and triumphs going on in addition to writing a book that literally changed the culture in the world for good after its publication. Right. I mean, it's often considered to be the first science fiction novel ever. And it is, you know, it's clearly a horror novel. But it just raises so many profound themes that are so relevant. They were relevant when it was written and it feels like it almost gets more relevant with time. Do you feel that way? I do. And it's a bit uncanny, I would say, how eerily prescient Mary Shelley is. When I teach this novel to my students who are 19, there's so many different places and ways that readers can connect with this book, depending on where they are in their own

3:12lives, depending on what else they may be thinking about or what else they may be noticing. I think a first and most obvious place to connect is probably perhaps with the creature himself, which I would argue is probably the first and deepest level of identification that many of us feel, including perhaps me, here's a being, which is the scholar Nick Groom's preferred word for him, which I think also works pretty well. Here is a being who is thrust into a world he did not ask to be born without knowledge or consent and essentially left by his father, quote unquote, or creator, to find his own way and make his own way. And at some level, I think we all kind of feel that way in the world as people and students in college starting to get their academic careers underway, exploring identity, figuring out their lives, they see a lot of themselves in the creature, they really like him.

4:13I would also say that as I'm preparing my next book now, which essentially it's called Reading the Romantics in a World on Fire, it's about why the great romantic writers matter now. The major point of pressience that I'm finding with Mary Shelley is what I really believe and implanted to argue in my chapter on her. She really predicts what I would argue are the three major issues with AI in the way that the creature is built in the way that his actions and consequences were foreseen or not. I would argue that among the many miracles of this novel in the many ways it's so prescient and relevant is that if you read this book thinking about AI, you will see warnings about AI and dangers of AI, I would argue everywhere. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, I want to talk about Mary Shelley because again, I mean, everybody thinks they know

5:16something about Frankenstein and I urge you to read the book if you've only ever seen movie adaptations because the book is so radically different from any adaptation that I have ever seen and it will be part of our talk of AI with Book Club this year in October, so that's a great time to read it. But I want to talk about Mary Shelley because I think that the book only becomes more remarkable when you learn that it was written. I mean, she was 18 and 19 years old during the creation of this novel, but let's not start there. She was, she already had a very unconventional childhood and she was the child of two radical philosophers. I want to talk about her mother. Tell me about her mother. Oh, boy. So Mary Shelley's mother is another one of my personal heroes, frankly. And another of the many great figures from literary history who just capture the imaginations

6:23of students when they learn about her. She was the great English feminist Mary Wollstonecraft who was by some measures among the first to articulate the principle which now seems pretty uncontroversial to us, but at the time in the late 18th century was pretty remarkable that a mind's capacities and the souls capacities are not limited by the gender of the body into which the mind and the soul are born. In other words, women, women are every bit as inherently capable as men of doing whatever it is they decide to do the big difference between women and men is their social training and the opportunities they're given rather than any innate capacities. And Wollstonecraft who had this very tumultuous personal life, relatively late late in life finds love with William Godwin who was another very, very radical political philosopher.

7:26They fall in love, Mary Shelley is conceived slightly outside of wedlock, both were somewhat opposed to marriage as a repressive institution, but they said, well, you know, it is going to be a little bit easier on this baby if we get married. So they get married, Wollstonecraft dies in childbirth, essentially as a result of childbirth as a result of an infection sustained because the doctor who came to attend her did not wash his hands. So Godwin as a grieving widower was deeply in love with Wollstonecraft is left very unexpectedly with a toddler who was Wollstonecraft's daughter from the previous relationship, Fannie M. Lay. And then this infant baby, little Mary Shelley, he remarries his second wife, brings more children to the relationship. So Mary Shelley grows up in the sort of threadbare intellectual household where there are lots

8:30of books, but there's never any money. And there are eventually five children, no two of whom have the same two parents. And she sort of her mother's anointed successor in many ways, but her mother, I would argue when this is a very big part of the novel, left at her death a manuscript in which her female narrator, who is a mother separated from her infant daughter, again, the euriness and the predictions just multiply, Mary Wollstonecraft's narrator advises her infant daughter from whom she has separated, quote, gain experience, gain it while experience is worth having for it includes your utility by a direct path for what is wisdom, but the owl of the goddess who sits moping in a desolate at heart, unquote. And I would, and I argue and explore in the book that essentially Mary Shelley, everything she does is about taking her mother's advice.

9:33Right, so she, she never knew her mother, but her mother's words guided her in incredibly powerful ways. And that's the relationship that really sparked your imagination. That's what turned into this novel. Tell me, tell me what connections you made that made you think I want to write about this. Yes, well, first of all, I think any historical novelist loves being activated by the fascinating images of the past, by the fascinating people of the past, but I think that the issues of women and our mothers and our daughters and the relationships among the generations, those are so incredibly powerful. And I'm far from being the first historical novelist to explore those. I'm thinking about Tony Morrison's immortal beloved, just to name one, but there is so much emotional richness to that. There's so much longing. There's so much beauty to that in a way.

10:40And one of my readings of Mary Shelley is that at one level, perhaps consciously, perhaps not, she's thinking very often about how she can fulfill her mother's words. Even though this is in a time when women, especially broke young girls whose fathers are these bread bear widowers, don't really have that many options available to them, but she's determined by hook or by crook. I would argue in my imagining her to forge her own path, which again, I think is something that is common to a lot of young people. And we only have about 30 seconds left before the break, but we do know things about her life because of course she also did wind up in a relationship with a man who Percy Shelley, who his poetry lives on as well. So we do have these records of her life.

11:42So you were guided by what was left behind, but you also had to really fill in a lot of this with your imagination. And we'll talk a lot more about that when we come back from our break. Amy Weldon is the head of the English department at Luther College. Her latest novel, Creature, a novel of Mary Shelley and Frankenstein brings Mary Shelley and her creature to life. Mary Shelley was only 19 years old when she wrote the novel Frankenstein that was more than 200 years ago. More in a moment, this is Talk of Iowa. Iowa Public Radio is 100% community supported. And so is this podcast. If you love listening, join the IPR community and making a gift to keep this going. Donate now at ipr.org slash donate. It's Talk of Iowa from IPR News. I'm Charity Nebi coming up in 20 minutes. I will talk with

12:45sled hockey player Kevin McKee. He is originally from Davenport. And he is headed to his fourth pair Olympic Games. He is also hoping to win his fourth gold medal. Right now we are talking about the novel Creature, a novel of Mary Shelley and Frankenstein. It brings Mary Shelley and the creature she created to life. It was written by Amy Weldon, the head of the English department at Luther College. And again, Mary Shelley was only 18 and 19 years old when she wrote Frankenstein, a novel that endures in so many ways, more than 200 years later. And I mentioned before the break, Amy, that you do have these sort of biographical details that have been left behind, because Mary Shelley hung out with some pretty famous people. I think we should probably talk about the romance that really launched this journey that led her to Frankenstein. Tell me

13:49about her encounters with Percy Shelley. Oh boy. Well, the shortest version, Charity I would say, is that Percy Shelley shows up in Godwin's house as essentially one of his fanboys and political disciples. Unfortunately, he is already married with one child and another on the way. When he cast his eyes to Mary Shelley, he is very young. She is very young. And in short order, after only a couple of months, they allope together to the continent, essentially run away from home. It's a little bit of teenage and young adult love affair, but there's very, very little doubt in my mind, especially having studied her whole life in the arc of her whole career. She really does love him. He really does love her. He was a complex man. And I can hear my

14:55romanticist colleagues, any of them may be listening to this, nodding their heads going, but there's very little doubt in my mind that their relationship was troubled, marked by five pregnancies until Percy Shelley Browns and the Gulf of Spatia in 1822, marked by five pregnancies, only one of which resulted in a child who lived beyond the age of five. Lots of tragedy, lots of sadness, but they really were at one level great partners, great literary collaborators. Percy Shelley worked with her on Frankenstein, and although some scholars would say those edits are a little controversial, I would say that looking at others of them, they're actually pretty good. So it's a complex but really, really significant relationship that I do believe is based on a very

15:57deep love. They lived in exile largely. They floated on loans that Percy Shelley was able to take out against his inheritance. He was basically disowned by his family. She was disowned by hers. So they really, really digged struggle. They also had another unconventional friend who they spent a lot of time with, who also had a whole lot of money, and that was Lord Byron. That brings us to that moment of creation. This is the story that if anybody knows anything else about Frankenstein, they've heard this story, that this was the moment with an evening with Lord Byron and Percy Shelley and Mary Shelley where she had the idea. What did you want to convey about that moment of conception? Essentially, what I wanted to convey about that was the story,

17:01as I heard it as an undergraduate, made it sound much simpler than I believe, in fact, it really would have been. First of all, a volcano had erupted in the South Pacific the year before creating essentially an international climate crisis. 1816 becomes known as the year without a summer because there's a giant ash cloud blocking out the sun all over Western Europe and parts of North America. So this group of very bright, bored, creative young people who had planned on sailing and boating and hiking and having a wonderful Alpine summer in Geneva found themselves stuck inside in a giant rented house, the Villa de Adotti, which I did visit with my students over January term on my Frankenstein themed study abroad course. So it is still standing and it can be viewed. So they're stuck in this house with very, very little to do. They

18:02started entertaining one another by making up ghost stories and especially in my rendering of it, which I do think was likely to have happened. Byron picks up because he's very, very sensitive to other people's weaknesses, other people's needs and likes to manipulate people, likes to play with him a little bit. And so he picks up on the fact that Mary Shelley is suffering from a little bit of performance anxiety. And he's sort of like, come on Mary, daughter of Godwin and Wollstonecraft, the famous intellectuals, where's your story? And so she freezes up a bit. It takes her a moment to think of something. But then, and this is the other very famous part of the story, she wakes up in the middle of the night with the sunlight, the moonlight rather shining through her window from a nightmare or dream that includes what literally becomes the first image of the novel, which is the creature coming to life. The creature also comes to life in your novel.

19:02Why did you want the creature to be a character? Well, because as I mentioned, I think in a strange way, the creature is the character that I and I guess about 99% of the students I've ever got like the most. He's oddly endearing even though he also has great capacities for violence and for anger. And it is through the creature as a narrative device that I was able to show and talk about a lot of things that we know are part of Mary Shelley's story, but that otherwise she would have had no direct access to and she would not have been able to see. Plus, I had so much fun when I tried writing a scene from the creature's perspective that I just couldn't let that idea go and I was bound and determined to find a way to get him into the novel and his own right somehow. Would you read a little bit from the creature's

20:05first appearance in your novel, introduce us to the creature? Yes, I'd love to, charity, thank you. So here we go. The creature stumbles down the winding stairs of the laboratory chasing the father who's left him behind. The whole rickety structure echoes with his flight. The mice flinching as he ricochets against the thin lap and plaster and sagging floorboards behind which they nest and nurse and dream. And then he's in the street. His skin is sticky, his eyes wide, his footsteps wobbling and unstoppable. Wags of clothing float from him like sails from the mass of a ruined ship. The door is open and he's free. No reason he should ever turn back to that room with its clutter of wires and vats and knives. He only knows the forward urging hunger of the question that has not yet shaped itself in the speech. Father, wait, why not here with me? For now, he's

21:11alone in the street. There's a hospital down the block and a tavern nearby with attic rooms where the medical students sleep, stained and avid and exhausted. Beyond that is a great cattle market where the morning's business of slaughter is commencing, all hollow and bald and bud. Beyond that is some great non-human force. The creature can't see, although we can feel it silvery-insistent aliveness, casting up a constant rushing song. Only later will he be able to name it. River. Under his bare feet, something slick and cold squishes in the gutter. His mouth squares to howl. Then some breeze shifts the clouds and he's caught by the glitter of dawn sun on a window. A square of pink shot with gold. He lumbers across the street to stand before it. Behind that glass are objects shadowed and roosting. Rectangular things, some with heart edges and some with soft, some with glossy brown coats and some with grayish white made of something that

22:15looks even to the creature's unhealed eyes like his own skin. A sharp hunger spikes in him in twists. If he could touch those objects, he could confirm what he suddenly suspects. They'd leap to his palm and nest there. They'd abide in his giant empty paws and he'd feel the answering touch of something he can't yet name, companionship against his stitch together and aching heart. He touches the square of sunlight. It coats his bruised hand with pink and gold. There's something here he needs. That is Amy Weldon, reading from her novel Creature, A Novel of Mary Shelley and Frankenstein and so much of what became this novel, as I've said, is inspired by history and this is a history you have been teaching students for many years. You've been taking students abroad to really walk in the footsteps of Mary Shelley and the other important people in this story.

23:21When you teach Frankenstein and when you teach the life of Mary Shelley, what do you hope your students take away from that? I guess I would say I use the word Aliveness in the passage that I just read and I guess I would say that I hope my students take away the aliveness of the past, the aliveness of words, the way that particularly but I would argue not exclusively when you actually go to these places, you can still feel those presences there waiting to be seen, waiting to be listened to, waiting to be heard and when you read those writers words, you can still feel them there with you. I've had students say we just returned from our Frankenstein related course in January term at Luther, which goes to London, to Geneva, to Venice, to Florence, into Rome in that order with the

24:25Keats Shelley Circle. The students have said over and over, they read the book before we start, they read Daisy Hayes, wonderful book, Young Romantics, which is another book I would strongly recommend anyone who wants to learn more. They say, I really can feel like maybe Mary Shelley is here, maybe Lord Byron is here, laughing, and I'm like, yeah, if Lord Byron is here, he's probably definitely laughing affectionately, fondly, but aliveness is the main idea that I would say I hope students take away. These words are alive. You also, I mean, we talked about Mary Shelley's mother, Mary Wilson Kraft, who many people describe her as the first feminist, and it does strike me in looking at Mary Shelley's life and her story. She accomplished so much against the odds,

25:25but she tried to embrace sexual freedom. She tried to embrace her mother's philosophy, that she, as a woman, was equal to men and could navigate the world, but she could not achieve that at that time. I mean, the world was against her in so many ways, and you mentioned five pregnancies without birth control. I mean, she couldn't be free. Yeah, I guess I would say though, and this was one reason it was really important to me to write a novel. I feel about five, six hundred God even beyond that, thousands and thousands of years of women crowding around me, patting me on the shoulder, saying, tell it sister, someone tell it. If you look at women's history, I would argue, what you might see over and over again,

26:27among many other things, is the pattern of women trying, doing, achieving remarkable things, perhaps failing to be recognized in the moment. Byron's publisher John Murray rejected Frankenstein when it was first submitted to him. Frankenstein, one of the most important novels ever written by human was rejected. Let that be good news to all the writers out there. You might not win the first time you try, but if you're playing the long game, and Mary Shelley certainly was, you win. I mean, you know, and winning and winning can be a complex thing. It can be a mixed thing in some ways, but we are still talking about Frankenstein and Mary Shelley's other novels, like the last man, which is an incredible pandemic apocalypse novel. We are still talking about a 19-year-old

27:32girl who took a risk, and I love that. I and my students find that really and nobling and inspiring. Mary Shelley's work is very different from Jane Austin's work, but I do know that we are talking about two women who lived in Georgian times. Mary Shelley, you know, was a little bit later more in the Regency period, but two extraordinary women who wrote books that we can't stop making movies about. We can't stop reading. We can't stop talking about. And again, against all odds because they lived in a society that did not value their minds. Can I say just a little bit about Jane Austin real quick? I'm so glad you brought her up. Austinians might want to hold on to your hats a little bit. I'm about to say something holly or holly or reticle, which is that I personally don't think pride and prejudice is Jane

28:37Austin's best novel. I'm writing about Jane Austin in my book as well. If someone asks me, Amy, what's your favorite Jane Austin novel? I say instantly persuasion, which is Jane Austin's last novel, which is the novel I would argue to some degree unlike pride and prejudice about what it is like to be a grown-up woman in a world that does not always wish you will in a world where you do find obstacles, including some created by your own doubts and your own self your own anxieties. And there's a happy ending in persuasion, but it feels realistic and earned. I would argue that perhaps in a way pride and prejudice does not. I'm a huge, I'm on team persuasion. No, no question. So I would say if anyone is looking to go a little deeper with Jane Austin, especially since we just celebrated the 250th anniversary of her birth, I would say definitely

29:43give persuasion a look. And it's interesting, too. I would argue to read Frankenstein and persuasion together and just see what you notice. All right. Well, Amy Weldon, thank you so much for talking with me today. I really, really enjoyed the book. Thank you. I had such a blast. This was great. Amy Weldon is the head of the English department at Luther College. Her latest novel creature, a novel of Mary Shelley and Frankenstein brings both Mary Shelley and her creature to life. Coming up on Talk of Iowa, I'll talk with sled hockey player Kevin McKee. He's from Davenport and he is heading to his fourth Paralympic Games. He already has three gold medals. This is Talk of Iowa from IPR News. Every day, Iowa Public Radio brings you the latest local news and perspectives, relevant information you need for the moment, fresh music and classical performances from a stage near you, and the good, interesting, and sometimes odd things that shape Iowa culture. Your news,

30:52your music, your Iowa, it's your IPR. It's Talk of Iowa from IPR News. I'm Charity Nebby. The Olympics are over and now it's time to get excited about the Paralympics. Opening ceremonies are Friday evening in Milano Cortina and for Kevin McKee of Davenport. These will be his fourth Paralympic Games. He is a sled hockey player and he already has three gold medals. He is with me now. Hello, Kevin. Hey, how's it going? Great. Thank you so much for talking with me. I want to start at the beginning. You have been in a wheelchair your whole life. You were born with caudal regression syndrome, so you were unable to walk from childhood. When did the idea of playing wheelchair sports? Enter your mind.

31:55When did that begin for you? I mean, growing up in my neighborhood, I had a pretty good group of friends. They did a lot. I played a lot of wheelchair basketball and I made them get on like my main way of transportation when I was a kid in the neighborhood. It was on a skateboard. And it's kind of funny that I ended up playing sled hockey because I did like the same most of my hands scooting around. So I had a really good group of friends and they pretty much did. I would make them get on skateboard and do it with me. So I was always in this sports. And then like when we played football or something like that, I would be all time quarterback. And then when I got a little bit older, when I got about 10 years old, that's eight 10 years old. That's when I found sled hockey. My sister was a figure skater at the vocal rank. She saw a flyer for a tri-sled hockey event that was starting and just went out and tried it. And yeah, I fell in love with the sport because it was another piece of equipment that I could get out of my wheelchair. And I felt real free when I played and I loved the speed of it. So I think a lot of people have not watched sled hockey. So describe how it works for me.

33:01Basically, the sled is configured into like you have two normal skate hockey blades underneath the steel under there. They're about anywhere from like an inch to an inch and a half apart. So you got to have a lot of balance on there. And then we sit in these buckets at least on like Team USA, we have custom ones. So they're the flag bucket. It's like molded to you. So it's basically the shape of your butt. But you have the balance on that. And then you have two hockey sticks left in a right curve. And on the end of those, there's metal picks. So that's what you dig into the ice. And yeah, those sticks are about like three feet tall. It just depends on your height. Everyone's different. And then you kind of the way I explain it to people, they understand cross country skiing. So it's kind of that motion to propel yourself forward. And then you have to use your hand to balance to be able to do turns. And as you get better, you're able to do it without using your hand on the ice. But you use that and then pump the outside. And then yeah, you have that

34:01left and right curve on those sticks. And you have to what makes this sport so hard is like, you have to use your hands to not only skate, but then to puck handle past shoot and also maneuver. So you don't get your head taken off when people are trying to hit you. So it's a really fun sport. There's a lot of takes a lot of practice to get good at it. And like we kind of explain, it's kind of like bumper cars and cross country skiing and and then hockey all together. So I mean, and hockey, of course, is an incredibly physical sport. We certainly see people get their teeth knocked out and all kinds of things happen. You're you're doing hockey with way more blades, which sounds more dangerous to me. But tell me about the physical aspect of it, because you guys do not spare each other. Yeah. So I mean, I would almost say this is more physical because I mean, not only do we just we love to hit a lot more, but you have that metal frame. So it's a little bit more dangerous. And then also you, I mean, on the end of those sticks to dig into the

35:05ice or metal picks and are really sharp. And you get stabbed on accident and on purpose a lot. And you sometimes put it to yourself. There is an extra rule we have in sled hockey that's called T-boning. So the way I explain it to people is it's like a car accident. So basically I can't take the front of my sled and run into someone straight on and use it as like a a weapon basically. I have to adjust and turn my body and go body to body or else it's a penalty. Wow. So I mean, you talked about that feeling of freedom on the ice. And of course, that was when you were just beginning. You're obviously much, much better at this now. What do you love about sled hockey? How does it make you feel? I think now, longer in my career, I enjoy just like the team aspect and the camaraderie. I love like the locker room stuff and all that. I mean, those are the memories I'm never going to forget. And then for on the ice, I mean, it's just hockey for us, but it's like, I mean, make a great outlet pass or something like that or give it like I have more joy out of making a cool pass

36:08that someone scores on and personally scoring myself. And then obviously like I said, I love how physical it is because I play other adaptive sports. And to me, there's no other sport that's as physical as sled hockey in the Paris sport world. As someone who has lived your entire life with a disability being in a wheelchair, is there something about playing a sport that is really physical where people are not being careful with you or around you? Is that something you really like? Yeah. And I think also like in the disabled community, I mean, just in general when we're all with each other, whether it's sled hockey, basketball or whatever, we're all comfortable with each other. And then we're all competitors, especially at this level, like we all want to be there. And it's tough to be to make these teams and stuff like that. So you don't really have that as much as the coddling like you do with a lot of parents when they have disabled children when they're younger. Personally, my dad wasn't like that. I'm really happy it wasn't. He was always like a figured out attitude and kind of give me an idea. But then was like, you got to figure it out

37:13because someday I won't be here. So also athletes who are out there, I mean, we don't do any of that. Maybe doing some sports in the beginning when you're just trying to get someone to join. You're nice to them. But then once they figure it out, everyone's a fair game and we're all there to have fun and play. So the last time I talked to you was right before your first Olympics, you're headed to your fourth Olympics. But take us back to that first Olympics. Now even at that point, you had already competed on the international level. You had been traveling the world to play sled hockey. But the Olympic Games is something that, I mean, it's almost mythological. It's such a big deal. What did that feel like to go to your first Olympics? It was really exciting. I was really young, new on the team. I think just I was happy to kind of be there at that time. And proud that I made the team, I guess, and had been on it. I guess I would have been my fourth year on the team. And then to have the family and friends there was awesome. So yeah, the first one was a lot of excitement and all that. And then as I've been, I mean, now four Paralympics, each time I go,

38:18I want to just like do something to contribute. Like I'm just all about the team now winning and keeping that success. So yeah, that's kind of what I'm I'm trying to do now later in my careers. Just do whatever I can for the team. If that means I got to be a locker room guy, that's fine. Or if I got to go out there and just I'm not going to score goals. I'm just going to hit people then that's fine. I'll do whatever it takes. So that's kind of how it's been over the last eight years or so. And you have three gold medals. All right, you're going for your fourth. The team is going for the fifth. What kind of pressure does that put on you? Honestly, I didn't think there was a whole lot probably in the last like a year or so. But like now that USA hockey, I mean, I'm the women one, the men one. Yeah. So like always in the past, it was like one of them would kind of blow it. And it was like, well, the sled team, you know, we know that I mean, unfortunately, our sport's pretty much a two to four team sport right now. That really compete for medals.

39:20But, you know, we're always kind of up there. So, you know, at least they know we have a shot at it. And now, yeah, now that the men and women both won, I mean, I kind of feel a little bit of pressure because it's like, hey, like the executive director of USA hockey, you know, we had dinner with them on Colorado. And he was like, you know, our goal obviously is to have the men win, the women win. And then you guys, so after they won, I was like, oh shoot, well, there's two out of three. Now we got to do our part. So I have absolute faith in you. Yeah. So there's a little bit of pressure, but I think it'll be good to because I don't think our teams had that kind of pressure. At least in our last like four, four years, I mean, we've been pretty dominant at the world level. So looking back at your three Paralympic games that you've competed in. Is there a highlight? Is there just sort of a pinnacle Paralympic moment that stands out in your mind? Yeah. 2018 was probably my favorite Paralympic gold medal game. I kind of was more the line I was playing with. We were kind of leaned on to score a lot. We'd had a really good year, the year before

40:25they put us together and they kept us together for a year. And one of the kids I kind of hoped back in Chicago. I mean, he made the team his about six years younger than me, but we were playing together and then another guy from Chicago, they put us together. We put a lot of fun playing together and that game, I mean, I don't know if you've looked it up, but we were down one, nothing like the whole game. They scored early in the first and I just remember they pulled their goalie. I was on the ice and the kid was coming down the wall with the puck and I swore, heard my teammates say that I got him, I got him, I got him, like he was going to take him. And then he said no, no, no. And then I watched the kid go right by me and I was watching him go and I was like, he's going to make this empty now. We just lost school medal. And he missed. He hit the post. And I mean, he wasn't even like eight feet away and he somehow missed and went to the corner. Then we have like a crazy rush going back. There's only 37 seconds left and

41:28Brody ended up passing to me right in the middle and I literally remember it like in slow motion that it rolled off my stick because I was like, oh, I got it. I'm going to shoot this and it rolled off my stick and then out of nowhere. Declan picks it up and my teammate and scored. And it was like the most exciting game and part I've ever been and he tied, we tied it up and then went into overtime and Declan ended up scoring again about three minutes and over time and that one by far I will just never forget that game and yeah, that's been my favorite one so far. Wow. Yeah, it was, it was nuts. So I want to ask you about your wife who is also a sled hockey player, Eric and the key. So did you guys meet through sled hockey? Yeah. So I kind of knew over and then we met and played together for a little bit on the USA development team. At that time, it was co-ed. It was called the under 20 team. So we played together for like about a year or two and then I was actually going to school at University of Illinois for wheelchair basketball.

42:30So I moved down to champagne and she invited me to play on her local team in Chicago. She was just from Chicago. So it was about two hours away. So I was driving up two, three times a week and then started hanging out with her more than obviously that I kind of fell in love because not were married. But so then that summer, whatever my freshman year, I ended up making the USA the national team for sled hockey. So I kind of knew wheelchair basketball. I was never going to go to the national level of the USA team. I just wasn't talented enough to make that team and so I ended up moving to Chicago and and they had a way better sled hockey program up there and and I went there to just train and get ready for this so she year in 2014 and then. And now I'm married. Is it frustrating that women's sled hockey is not a Paralympic sport? Yes, yeah it is. And I mean, I've literally pretty much known her since she's gone through it. There's been great

43:32movement not only in able body, but in the sled world too. But you see that the able body level that it's starting to get way more recognized. You know, they got a professional women's league now for hockey. Basketball is getting out there, you know, especially with the Katelyn Clark and that whole effect. And I mean, it's just it's great. And I actually heard that ESPN's going to now do a thing with women's sports on Sunday nights. So that'll be good. So yeah, it's just tough because I see her, you know, going through it and she's literally was the reason why they started the team in the US and it's getting better and better. But then, you know, there's peaks and then all of a sudden they throw something new at them. And like, oh, nope, you're not going to go. Like, I thought for sure in 22, there was a chance that they were going to at least send four teams or whatever four countries and let them be to get it out there. I thought for sure that was going to happen. And then it's just like, nope, they said no to that. The last four years has been a lot of build up again when the world championships finally was a sanctioned thing last year, which was awesome. I told her you're going no matter what, it doesn't matter how old you are.

44:36This again is your fourth games. You're coming off an injury. You weren't entirely certain that you were going this time around. How are you feeling now? Well, now I kind of drove around and said I made a steal. But yeah, this season is literally made of steel. Yeah, because I added more into my body. So we're good to go now. Squeeze lots of bolts. So we're good. Yeah, it was pretty scary because I've been fortunate enough to not really have an injury like that. I've never broken any bone in my body before. And it was just kind of a freak accident that happened 30 minutes, some of the first practice of the year and the Czech Republic. And yeah, it was very nerve-wracking just because I mean, it's barely the year. So I was very scared. I was like, I don't know if I'm going to be able to come back. Obviously, they were telling you like, I don't tell me anywhere from eight to 12 weeks. Then they're like, well, technically, you wouldn't fully be recovered for six months. I'm like, what the heck? I'm like, this is nuts. And I don't know. I mean, I just, I tried to keep basically my spirits up. I basically didn't let it stop me and just, I mean,

45:41I was working out five days after surgery. So I basically like, it's all the doctor. I was like, well, it's my leg. I don't need my legs. I'm in a wheelchair. What's the difference? I was like, basically, it was just a healing thing. There's nothing I can really do. Just make sure you don't, you know, step on it weird. So I mean, I just did everything I could to keep my upper body strong and ready to go. And then when the heal, when I got cleared for, to be able to practice by myself and get back in the slide, I went right out, right away. So. And then, yeah, kind of going in. I don't know if you know, but we were the last two months. We were in Colorado training for, for the Paralympics. We do that every, every quad. So it's our residency program. So the coaches were pretty fair. We had a couple of other guys that were injured. And basically what they did is they gave five guys the first two weeks of residency to battle for the last three spots. So probably the most nerve-racking time because I just had no idea because it sports and anything could happen. And the young guys that stepped in our spots,

46:45like they did pretty well. So you just never know. And, but luckily, they gave me a call and said I made it again. Oh, that's, that's amazing. And we are so excited to watch you. And I think that this will be the most visible winter Paralympic games ever because of streaming services. We will get to watch you in action. Yep. Yeah. I think it's going to be really good. The Paralympics is getting more and more media coverage and getting out there. I mean, there's a lot of a couple guys on our team got sponsors and I've been seeing their commercials over the last like month and a half. And it's just like, this is awesome because in 22 we, it was COVID year and we didn't get near as much coverage. And also it was no fan. So it was, it just, it was the worst one. We still won. That was awesome. But it just, it was weird. It was eerie going out there skating with no one watching. And yeah, I mean, I'm excited for our rookies too to get that feeling. Basically, the guys in 22 now feel what it feels like because we'll have

47:4510,000 plus still. Yeah. Well, we will be cheering for you. I hope you have an amazing Paralympic games. Kevin, thank you so much for talking with me. Yeah, thank you very much. Thanks for having me. Kevin McKee is a Paralympian gold medal sled hockey player and he's heading to Milano, Cortina for his fourth Olympic Games. The Paralympic Games run from March 6th to the 15th. Those in the United States can watch on NBC and peacock. This episode of Talk of Iowa was produced by Caitlin Trautman and Samantha McIntosh. I'm Charity Nebby.