Speaker 1: How to everyone. It's Chuck here on Saturday. I thought
Speaker 1: I would brighten everybody's day with this selection from June thirteenth,
Speaker 1: twenty seventeen. How the Beagle Brigade works. Oh boy, just
Speaker 1: get ready for cute overload. Welcome to Stuff you Should Know,
Speaker 1: a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh close Ark,
Speaker 2: There's Charles w Chuck Bryant, Jerry Jerum Rowland's over there.
Speaker 2: So this is Stuff you should know, the Beagle Brigade edition.
Speaker 1: Yes, another I guess we covered drug sniffers, yeah, but
Speaker 1: not or did we do Seeing Eye Dogs as well?
Speaker 2: We did, remember, because Seeing Eye Dogs is actually your
Speaker 2: brand name. It's one of those oh like a band aid, yeah,
Speaker 2: Kleenex or something. That one was that was a great one.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So I mean, is this the last job that
Speaker 1: dogs have?
Speaker 2: And we we didn't cover dogs that serve as pack animals.
Speaker 1: Yet, so oh that's right, yeah, like herders.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that'd be good. Are lumberjack dogs.
Speaker 1: Oh that's true, that's right. Or dogs that are sous chefs.
Speaker 2: Right. So yeah, we've got a big, big long suite coming.
Speaker 1: I thought it was done.
Speaker 2: Sorry, no, no, but this one might be the most
Speaker 2: adorable of all of them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and this one was. I was always confused. I
Speaker 1: always thought the beagles at the airport because as you
Speaker 1: will learn, Atlanta is they're they're trained here outside of Atlanta.
Speaker 1: But I thought that that the beagles were. I just
Speaker 1: thought they were drug sniffers, really did everything sniffers.
Speaker 2: Oh I see. No, you could have a big old
Speaker 2: suitcase full of cocaine and walk right past that.
Speaker 1: Dog and be like, well, that's good to know, you know.
Speaker 2: Sure for the next time you're smuggling cocaine suitcase. Yeah,
Speaker 2: once you make a past a beagle, you're home free.
Speaker 1: But don't have a head of lettuce.
Speaker 2: No, because those beagles will pounce on your neck and
Speaker 2: chew your throat out. Or don't have that train to do.
Speaker 1: Don't have a whole hog. Can you believe that story?
Speaker 2: Totally?
Speaker 1: So this one was, uh, I think it was in
Speaker 1: Atlanta at Hartsfield Jackson Airport.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And there was a woman traveling from Peru to the
Speaker 1: United States with a roasted pig, an entire roasted pig
Speaker 1: in her bag, and I mean it was very sweet.
Speaker 1: You know, she was just trying to bring home a
Speaker 1: holiday meal for her family.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was Thanksgiving, I think right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, she smuggled in a roasted pig. Yeah, and it
Speaker 1: was a little little you know, it was big.
Speaker 2: Well, they have pigs tend to be. I mean, it
Speaker 2: didn't say a suckling pig, A pig. I assumed it
Speaker 2: was a big old pig.
Speaker 1: No, it was a picture of it.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's right, but it was. It was a
Speaker 2: good sized pig.
Speaker 1: Yeah. The guy Rob Brisley, public affairs officer, said the
Speaker 1: right steps had to be taken to confiscate and destroy
Speaker 1: the item, and then the Senate stopped. But I imagine
Speaker 1: he said, with our.
Speaker 2: Mouths right, with extreme vengeance.
Speaker 1: So anyway, I mean that's just one example.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we should we should probably say exactly what we're
Speaker 2: talking about for those people who haven't been to an
Speaker 2: international airport in the United States. But there is a
Speaker 2: group of working dogs that are exclusively beagles, hence the
Speaker 2: name the Beagle Brigade from what I understand, although I
Speaker 2: did see reference that they do use labs sometimes, but
Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure it's almost exclusively beagles, if not exclusively beagles.
Speaker 2: And these dogs have a job. They're actually federal agents
Speaker 2: with the the U. S d A, the Department of Agriculture,
Speaker 2: no or not the DEA either, but their federal their
Speaker 2: federal agents, and they are their whole job is to
Speaker 2: sniff out agricultural products. And the whole point of all
Speaker 2: of this is that the US has a pretty extensive
Speaker 2: agriculture infrastructure, right, And if something comes through, say that's
Speaker 2: a pest, right, like a bug that eats what do
Speaker 2: we grow here, cotton, cotton, weavil, but from another country, right,
Speaker 2: So a non native pest or non native plant, or
Speaker 2: diseased bat, it could wreak havoc not just on our
Speaker 2: agriculture system, but if if the wrong kind of thing
Speaker 2: comes through, Like there's there's procedures in place for for
Speaker 2: food to come in the United States, you supposed to
Speaker 2: carry it in your luggage because it has to be inspected,
Speaker 2: it has to come from a trusted source. We have
Speaker 2: to know that it doesn't have something like hoof and
Speaker 2: mouth disease or ebola or something like that. Right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it says in here in our own
Speaker 1: article that it's a one trillion dollar industry, our own
Speaker 1: agricultural agricultural product industry, right, And that's import, export, eating it,
Speaker 1: producing it. An invasive species can be one hundred. It
Speaker 1: says about one hundred and thirty six billion dollars in
Speaker 1: agricultural lost revenue? Is that annually? I believe so, man, So,
Speaker 1: I mean, that's that's a lot of economy at stake here,
Speaker 1: So they take it very seriously.
Speaker 2: Right, So there's this group, So the USTA, the Department
Speaker 2: of Agriculture here in the US has a subgroup called APHIS,
Speaker 2: which is the Animal, Plant, Animal and Plant Health Inspection
Speaker 2: serve this and they're the ones who are tasked with
Speaker 2: basically creating this virtual border, this virtual barrier to stuff
Speaker 2: coming in the US to protect agriculture in the US.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, like the notorious Romanian cotton weavil.
Speaker 2: Right exactly the most insidious of all, and specifically at
Speaker 2: international airports, working in conjunction with the Customs Bureau CPB
Speaker 2: Customs and no CBP, right, customs and border patrol. You've
Speaker 2: got these cute, adorable little beagles who are trained to
Speaker 2: sniff this stuff out from people who are trying to
Speaker 2: smuggle whole pigs into the into the country when they're
Speaker 2: not supposed to.
Speaker 1: God bless that lady. I felt bad for you know, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I get it, sure, but you know.
Speaker 2: I mean, there's no way she did not cry when
Speaker 2: the agriculture inspector took her whole pig She's going to
Speaker 2: feed to her family.
Speaker 1: What a waste of food.
Speaker 2: She worked so hard on that chuck.
Speaker 1: I know, it might have been like her favorite family
Speaker 1: pig that she was waiting.
Speaker 2: It was babe. Babe gave his life.
Speaker 1: So you want to talk a little bit about these
Speaker 1: the history here, because it did not agricultural agriculture dogs
Speaker 1: or agricultural detection did not start in the US. It
Speaker 1: actually started in Mexico. Yeah, I guess was probably the
Speaker 1: early seventies.
Speaker 2: I could not find when it started, but yeah, we
Speaker 2: know it's definitely prior to the seventies because based on this,
Speaker 2: I guess it was a USDA training manual that was
Speaker 2: referencing it. It picks up then in the late seventies
Speaker 2: that the USDA started this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then up until nineteen eighty three, we used
Speaker 1: we use big dogs, you know, like typically and I
Speaker 1: think we covered this in a lot of the other
Speaker 1: like drug sniffers like German shepherds and labs are certainly good,
Speaker 1: but they are labs aren't so intimidating, but German shepherds
Speaker 1: can be, even though I love them, I grew up
Speaker 1: with them. Sure, a lot of people the side of
Speaker 1: a German shepherd coming at them in an airport is
Speaker 1: a little scary.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean some people have sinophobia, which is a
Speaker 2: fear of dogs specifically, in which case even the smallest
Speaker 2: dogs going to scare you. But even people who don't
Speaker 2: have an actual phobia dogs aren't going to be scared
Speaker 2: of certain breeds, and that definitely includes German shepherds for sure.
Speaker 1: So it started in Mexico and then finally in nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty four, the USA USDA started at lax Started, which
Speaker 1: is probably a pretty good airport to pick for a
Speaker 1: pilot program. Yeah, not a airplane pilot program, although I'm
Speaker 1: sure they had those. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Did you hear about the King of the Netherlands. Uh.
Speaker 2: They found out that he has been secretly undercover moonlighting
Speaker 2: as a KLM airline pilot for fun for like the
Speaker 2: last like once a week, for like the last twenty something.
Speaker 1: Years, and has been flying.
Speaker 2: Yeah he's Yeah, that's what I'm saying, Like he's been
Speaker 2: undercover flying, not as the King of the Netherlands, just
Speaker 2: trying to have a life of his own.
Speaker 1: I thought, you meant, like Leo DiCaprio, didn't catch me
Speaker 1: if you can. He just pretended to be a pilot.
Speaker 1: Oh no, geta and fake checks.
Speaker 2: You're a king, you can't be a pilot.
Speaker 1: Wow. So was he did he come clean or was
Speaker 1: he outed?
Speaker 2: I guess he was outed. And he said from time
Speaker 2: to time somebody would recognize him, but he'd just have
Speaker 2: them kidnapped. Yeah, kidnapped and killed rendered extraordinarily.
Speaker 1: Wow, that's pretty crazy. Yeah, well, good for him. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they should just let him fly, you.
Speaker 2: Know, I think, I think so. They're going to work
Speaker 2: it out, probably, I hope. So if not, that guy's
Speaker 2: one outlet has been taken away from.
Speaker 1: Well, so his pilot PROGRAMM did is maybe failing. But
Speaker 1: the pilot program in nineteen eighty four LAX worked great.
Speaker 1: And they this is a big deal at the time too.
Speaker 1: It was a big change from any kind of detection
Speaker 1: programs that they had at the time. I don't know
Speaker 1: why it took that long, but because dogs are you know,
Speaker 1: obviously well known sniffers to the tune of I mean,
Speaker 1: compared to humans, how many millions of old factory nerves
Speaker 1: the dogs have.
Speaker 2: I know it varies, so somewhere somewhere in the middle
Speaker 2: is the docs and I didn't see the beagles specifically,
Speaker 2: but supposedly beagles are about average as far as scenting goes,
Speaker 2: which is surprising to me. But the docs and has
Speaker 2: one hundred and twenty five million olfactory receptors amazing, and
Speaker 2: humans have five million on average.
Speaker 1: And I know the dogs even the size of their
Speaker 1: nose can make a difference. So I was a little
Speaker 1: surprised they picked beagles. But one of the big reasons
Speaker 1: is a the Navy had used them previously to great success.
Speaker 1: And be like you said, you know, they're they're little,
Speaker 1: they're cute, so they're not going to scare anyone at
Speaker 1: the airport. Uh, And they can. They're agile. They're because
Speaker 1: they're small, and they can jump around on a conveyor
Speaker 1: belt like nobody's business. Yeah, to find that Romanian cotton weavil.
Speaker 2: Right, Sometimes they'll find just enough fruit that they'll make
Speaker 2: a little head dress out of it, like Carmen Miranda. Yeah,
Speaker 2: nothing cute, that's a a beagel in one of those.
Speaker 1: Well. The other cool thing about the dogs and there
Speaker 1: their sniffing abilities is uh, it's like you can't disguise
Speaker 1: something like if you if you have of course, uh
Speaker 1: I was about to say drugs again. But if you have,
Speaker 1: Let's say you want to sneak in that cotton weavil okay,
Speaker 1: and you think I'm going to hide in and a
Speaker 1: can of coffee. Actually that might be you might not
Speaker 1: be able to bring in coffee either, now that I
Speaker 1: think about it. I was just trying to think of
Speaker 1: something with a strong odor.
Speaker 2: Bottle of perfume.
Speaker 1: Okay. The dog will be able to pick that out
Speaker 1: of that perfume, right, will be able to almost geolocate it,
Speaker 1: because they don't they don't get confused like we do.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you know how like a dog can when
Speaker 2: you when you watch a dog on a scent, it's
Speaker 2: just kind of like sniffing back and forth in the
Speaker 2: air as it moves. So what it's doing is it's
Speaker 2: basically the same thing with our vision. Right, the information
Speaker 2: is getting from one nostril and the other nostril, its
Speaker 2: brain is putting together to create basically like a three
Speaker 2: D map of where that smell is coming from, just
Speaker 2: like the information from one eye compared to the information
Speaker 2: coming into our other eye gives us an idea of
Speaker 2: like depth, right, or perspective, that kind of thing. So
Speaker 2: it's basically the same thing, but with their old factory sense.
Speaker 2: And put on top of that is the fact that
Speaker 2: they can distinguish sense. Like this article this USDA Manuel said,
Speaker 2: when you walk into a kitchen and you smell chili,
Speaker 2: you smell chili, right, chili's cooking. Put it all together,
Speaker 2: it's chili. That's how you smell. Is the sum of
Speaker 2: all the parts.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, if you're good, you might be able
Speaker 1: to pick out a thing or two.
Speaker 2: Maybe, like you know, like do I detect Yeah, some cuman.
Speaker 2: But a dog will walk in there and smell every
Speaker 2: single one of the ingredients separately, right, Which is why
Speaker 2: you can't just take something and try to overpower the
Speaker 2: smell of it with something else. The dog will smell
Speaker 2: the thing that you're using to try to overpower it with,
Speaker 2: but it'll also smell the other scent. Apparently they can
Speaker 2: smell this thing says they can smell table salt in
Speaker 2: a dilution of one part to ten million parts.
Speaker 1: That's amazing.
Speaker 2: Isn't that crazy?
Speaker 1: That is crazy. That's also why if you've ever taken
Speaker 1: your dog to a new like a new really new
Speaker 1: environment that they've never been to, like the beach, for instance,
Speaker 1: when I took and I think a couple of years ago,
Speaker 1: we did a beach vacation and took our dogs and
Speaker 1: they were going crazy, Like we walked them down to
Speaker 1: the beach and it was just nose in the air
Speaker 1: because you know, there's always a good breeze or usually
Speaker 1: a good breeze on the beach, and I can imagine
Speaker 1: they were just they were smelling these just hundreds and
Speaker 1: hundreds of things that they'd never smelled before. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: it's pretty neat to see, and you kind of wonder
Speaker 1: what's going on in that lunkhead of theirs, you know,
Speaker 1: m in my case, one luckhead and one smart one.
Speaker 2: I've seen before that when a dog is sniffing at
Speaker 2: a tree, what you're watching them do is sniff, you know,
Speaker 2: the tree itself, but also every single insect in that tree,
Speaker 2: every bird in that tree, everything that's in that tree
Speaker 2: right then that dog is smelling that.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And I think it definitely varies because obviously some
Speaker 1: dogs are better, like hunting dogs and such and my
Speaker 1: new dog Nico, we think maybe part plot hound.
Speaker 2: What's that?
Speaker 1: Just like a you know, a hound, Okay, I mean
Speaker 1: you can look up plot hound and it looks like
Speaker 1: my dog, okay, but like a mix of a plot hound.
Speaker 1: But I think that they're like really good scent dogs too,
Speaker 1: because she, more so than other dogs I've had, is
Speaker 1: really driven by her nose and when you let her out,
Speaker 1: she's got her nose to the ground like for quite
Speaker 1: a while.
Speaker 2: I was reading today about scent tracking, and apparently it's
Speaker 2: something like some people like to do agility stuff with
Speaker 2: their dog, or other people do like obedience like competitions
Speaker 2: and stuff, and then other people and apparently this also
Speaker 2: is a really good thing to do. If you found
Speaker 2: your your dog is like no good at obedience, right,
Speaker 2: they might actually love scent tracking because unlike the obedience
Speaker 2: stuff or the agility stuff, when you're when you're scent tracking,
Speaker 2: the dog is totally in charge. You're basically following the dog,
Speaker 2: but you're doing it together, especially during training as well.
Speaker 1: Well. You know, they'd say if your dog has behavioral problems,
Speaker 1: and a lot of times that means they have a
Speaker 1: job that they're not being they're not allowed to do.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 1: You know, like if you have a herding dog that
Speaker 1: doesn't have a herd, then that might be a big
Speaker 1: pain in your butt until you can find a way
Speaker 1: to kind of let them. I don't know if they
Speaker 1: can not necessarily word part time as a herder, but
Speaker 1: do something that acts as a herder, you know.
Speaker 2: Might as well make some money off of it.
Speaker 1: You want to take a little break, all right, We're
Speaker 1: gonna take a break and get back to the beagles
Speaker 1: right after this.
Speaker 2: Fish. All right, Chuck, So we're back. So we were
Speaker 2: talking basically about dogs in general, but since nineteen eighty four,
Speaker 2: the USDA has been training beagles for its Beagle Brigade, right,
Speaker 2: which is this frontline covering America's agricultural infrastructure.
Speaker 1: That is correct.
Speaker 2: So I was very heartened to learn from researching this
Speaker 2: that the Beagle Brigade, specifically with the USDA, all of
Speaker 2: them come from shelters. They're all shelter animals.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know what, it kind of makes sense.
Speaker 1: At first, I just thought it was out of the
Speaker 1: kindness of their heart that they wouldn't like support the
Speaker 1: dog buying industry, but they a lot of times just
Speaker 1: get problem dogs, these beagles that are so like, you know,
Speaker 1: up in the business in your pantry or your refrigerator,
Speaker 1: or sniffing out your shoes so they can chew them up.
Speaker 1: People will you know, well, I have opinions on this,
Speaker 1: but people will turn that dog back in or whatever
Speaker 1: to be adopted, hopefully from a no kill shelter.
Speaker 2: Right. So then that's a big point that this USDA
Speaker 2: spokesperson makes in the House to Works article, is like
Speaker 2: a lot of people are saying, I'm not quite sure
Speaker 2: how I feel about this. You guys are using these
Speaker 2: dogs as tools basically, yeah, And I don't know, I
Speaker 2: don't think dogs should be used that way. And the
Speaker 2: USDA's response is, well, a lot of these dogs would
Speaker 2: would basically be put down if it weren't for us,
Speaker 2: you know, they would be euthanized because they can't they're
Speaker 2: too hyper to live with a family. But that's exactly
Speaker 2: the kind of temperament we need for what we're having
Speaker 2: them do. So actually it's win win for everybody.
Speaker 1: Well. Yeah, and as much as I love my dogs
Speaker 1: laying around in bed with me, a happy dog, it's
Speaker 1: a dog that's working and exercising and then at the
Speaker 1: end of the night they get to relax. But you know,
Speaker 1: it's easy to and we cover some of this and
Speaker 1: seeing eye dogs and stuff, it's easy to be like,
Speaker 1: oh man, that dog doesn't get to have fun all day,
Speaker 1: and that's just not true at all. These dogs have
Speaker 1: a purpose and they they're good at what they do.
Speaker 1: So don't don't think of it as like using this
Speaker 1: dog is a tool in a bad way, you know, right.
Speaker 2: And then on the other end of it, if the
Speaker 2: dog is brought into the program and they find out
Speaker 2: that the dog doesn't have what it takes, maybe it
Speaker 2: doesn't work very well amidst chaos like an airport always has,
Speaker 2: or perhaps the the the dog just seems unhappy. They say,
Speaker 2: if the dog seems unhappy, they'll retire it early. Yeah.
Speaker 2: At any rate, they have apparently a record of adopting
Speaker 2: out their beagles, and there's a waitlist right now sure
Speaker 2: to adopt these beagles that have worked for you know,
Speaker 2: several years, or or didn't work, didn't make it, but
Speaker 2: you know, entered into the program. They don't return them
Speaker 2: to shelters, they don't euthanize them. They adopt them out
Speaker 2: and apparently the USCA has one hundred percent adoption record
Speaker 2: on that, which is pretty outstanding.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and as with a lot of service dogs, their
Speaker 1: first their handlers given first right of refusal for adoption, right,
Speaker 1: which a lot of times they do, so, you know, but.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would guess so too, because apparently when the
Speaker 2: dog and the handler are paired up together as a team,
Speaker 2: they stay a team for the dog's whole career.
Speaker 1: It's like like Rigs and Myrtal.
Speaker 2: Right, or Turner and Hooch.
Speaker 1: Actually it's not like Riggs and Myrtal because they were
Speaker 1: paired at the very end of Danny Gloverer's career. So
Speaker 1: that was a bad announce. Oh that's right, that's true
Speaker 1: because he's too old for that crap. Yes, that's a
Speaker 1: big line.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was a great line.
Speaker 1: Isn't that a TV show? Now?
Speaker 2: I don't think it is anymore.
Speaker 1: Jerry's nodding, but that probably means you're both right, short lived.
Speaker 2: I think so. I haven't seen any ads for it lately.
Speaker 1: What a dumb idea, like, hey, let's dust this thing
Speaker 1: off for years ago.
Speaker 2: They do that with everything like twin Peaks even, It's like,
Speaker 2: how how come on. How are you going to pick
Speaker 2: that back up?
Speaker 1: Let's just well, stid of mind that, because that's just
Speaker 1: more greatness from David Lynch.
Speaker 2: Is it any good I've heard? Not necessarily.
Speaker 1: I think it's great. I mean it's I mean, I'm
Speaker 1: a fan of anything David Lynch does. It doesn't sure,
Speaker 1: I didn't expect it to be exactly what Twin Peaks was.
Speaker 1: It just feels like a new TV show from David
Speaker 1: Lynch to.
Speaker 2: Me, Oh gotcha? Really? Okay?
Speaker 1: You know, yeah, I could be down with that, all right,
Speaker 1: So let's get into this. You mentioned handlers.
Speaker 2: We've been dancing around this the whole time.
Speaker 1: You mentioned handlers, and this, like we said earlier, this
Speaker 1: takes place at a place called the National Detector Dog
Speaker 1: Training Center, the nd DTC, right here in Lovely Noonan, Georgia.
Speaker 1: Which is that west?
Speaker 2: I think it's south west, southwest, like just down eighty
Speaker 2: five after it splits off a seventy five eighty five.
Speaker 1: Edge of my own home state is pretty poor. If
Speaker 1: I haven't camped there, and it's outside of Atlanta, I
Speaker 1: probably don't know exactly where it is. I'm pretty sure
Speaker 1: I'm right, okay, southwest then let's go with that, okay,
Speaker 1: and they start training, Like with most service dogs, they
Speaker 1: do that initial testing to just sort of see are
Speaker 1: they healthy, do they have the right temperament, how's their behavior?
Speaker 1: And that initial screening is where the first lot gets
Speaker 1: weeded out. And one of the biggest parts of that
Speaker 1: initial weeding out is they have to have a high
Speaker 1: food drive. And that's not that doesn't mean how hungry
Speaker 1: are they. That means your dog has just been fed.
Speaker 1: Those little beagles just eaten, right, they still have a
Speaker 1: high desire to get to where the food is.
Speaker 2: It's like bacon, bacon.
Speaker 1: Basically, that's what you're looking for. Yeah, and you make
Speaker 1: a lot of noise and you have crowds around and
Speaker 1: you just you're testing their focus. And this is all
Speaker 1: just the like I said, the initial screening to say,
Speaker 1: all right, little Henry the beagle here has.
Speaker 2: What it takes, right, we think, yeah, well, yeah, that's
Speaker 2: just a start. Can he also learn to differentiate? That's
Speaker 2: the big one. That's the next big step, right, So
Speaker 2: I think there's like a one or two week like
Speaker 2: evaluation process. They also like give the dog a full
Speaker 2: like veterinarian inspection. I believe they spay and or newter
Speaker 2: I guess not and or specifically not and or in
Speaker 2: that case, or they spay or new to the dog.
Speaker 2: A lot of times the dogs come in not very
Speaker 2: good shape because they're shelter dogs. Yeah, they probably weren't
Speaker 2: taken very good care of early in their life, so
Speaker 2: they may need some sort of treatment or checkups or whatever.
Speaker 2: But then after that happens, the training actually starts and
Speaker 2: the dogs are trained to scent. I guess, starting out
Speaker 2: from what I saw five basic restricted sense.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I didn't expect these, would you know?
Speaker 2: It's it's rando.
Speaker 1: Oh is it?
Speaker 2: No? No, it's random.
Speaker 1: Oh I thought they were. I thought there were five sents.
Speaker 2: No, there are, and I'm saying that's a pretty random assemblage.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, I got you, man, you'd think after nine
Speaker 2: years together.
Speaker 1: But I mean, if you were to have picked five cents,
Speaker 1: I probably would have definitely picked beef, pork and citrus.
Speaker 1: Those make sense.
Speaker 2: I guess I would have picked like monkey, bat and
Speaker 2: probably pig too. Yeah, but I mean those are in
Speaker 2: there so well. The monkey and the bat aren't, but beef, pork, citrus,
Speaker 2: the mango.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's where you threw me, what was the other one? Apple?
Speaker 2: Apple? Turn with apple. I didn't even know they grew
Speaker 2: apples outside of the United States. He was trying to
Speaker 2: smuggle an apple into the US.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: We got the best ones here, buddy, Just leave them
Speaker 2: at home.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would love to know why those are the
Speaker 1: five basic scents, if someone has more information than because
Speaker 1: I could not find out.
Speaker 2: I could not either. There's a real dearth of information
Speaker 2: on this stuff. I even emailed the Customs and Border
Speaker 2: Protection today because I could not, for the life of
Speaker 2: me find the name of that first beagle that started
Speaker 2: out at lax in nineteen eighty four. Cannot find it anywhere.
Speaker 2: Expect that somebody forgot to write it down, so no one.
Speaker 1: Knows you're being tracked now.
Speaker 2: Probably, Oh yeah, I've been looking up like, you know,
Speaker 2: restricted items, agriculture and vasive species, stuff like that. I'm
Speaker 2: sure I'm on a list, all right.
Speaker 1: So they teach them those well, this is, you know,
Speaker 1: towards the end, is when they know those five basic
Speaker 1: sense At first, they're just basically teaching them how to
Speaker 1: sniff through bags and suitcases and boxes and making sure
Speaker 1: they can. You know, they'll throw a they'll throw a
Speaker 1: goat's head and a suitcase and send it through in
Speaker 1: noonan and you laugh. But one of them found a
Speaker 1: coat heead not too long ago, I know. So it happens,
Speaker 1: and they just make sure they can do that, and
Speaker 1: they eventually and then of course they have to differentiate,
Speaker 1: like there's a lot of things that are scented, like
Speaker 1: those things that are just fine, like an orange perfume.
Speaker 2: Right. Well, that's another that's gotta be kind of tough
Speaker 2: to learn for a dog too, is the difference between
Speaker 2: you know, orange scented stuff or things that are made
Speaker 2: with like say, orange essence, like a candy or a
Speaker 2: lip balm or something like that. Yeah, and an actual
Speaker 2: orange because the lipbalmb no problem. Actual orange, you got
Speaker 2: a problem.
Speaker 1: That's right. And once they've done this, this is about
Speaker 1: a a few months, probably ten to thirteen weeks. And
Speaker 1: this is and they're being trained in regular like how
Speaker 1: to paw at stuff and alert and sitting responses like
Speaker 1: all of this is one big learning period and the
Speaker 1: handler's getting trained as well obviously, right. But at the
Speaker 1: end of this is when they finally do graduate to
Speaker 1: those five basic scents. And I guess see what I
Speaker 1: don't get it from the basic sense. Is is it
Speaker 1: from those sense that they can smell anything?
Speaker 2: No, that's crazy. That's what I thought too. That's that's
Speaker 2: what it implies. Like if you put together apple and
Speaker 2: pig and mango, you've got like bat that's not the case,
Speaker 2: Like each thing has its own scina. I don't know
Speaker 2: if those are like the most commonly smuggled ones. Possibly maybe,
Speaker 2: so those are the ones they need to start out with.
Speaker 2: Maybe they're the easiest ones. I don't know, but I yeah,
Speaker 2: if you put those things together, especially if a dog
Speaker 2: smells in layers right and differentiates between sense, it's not
Speaker 2: gonna smell the combined center those things. It's gonna smell
Speaker 2: each thing. So I'm not sure why those are the
Speaker 2: five basic ones. Can't find out. Yeah, well hope this
Speaker 2: one was a stone wall. I mean, like we're professional
Speaker 2: researchers here, and like we really ran into a wall. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Who would have known that the beagle brigade is what
Speaker 1: would throw.
Speaker 2: Us, it would break us.
Speaker 1: Uh. So they've they've learned all these since they've learned
Speaker 1: how to alert, they're getting treats or getting positive reinforcement
Speaker 1: along the way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a big one too. The entire training is
Speaker 2: strictly positive reinforcement.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they don't beat these dogs down if they're not
Speaker 1: smelling correctly.
Speaker 2: They have like they spend ten grand a month on
Speaker 2: newspapers to roll up teach these dogs lessons.
Speaker 1: The puppy bounder. So once they've once they've gone through
Speaker 1: all of that, everyone knows I'm joking, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, and if you're new to the podcast and
Speaker 2: don't just don't even bother emailing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're great animal lovers here. So once they've they've
Speaker 1: gone through this whole training process, they finally graduate. They
Speaker 1: get their little diploma, their little hat and their little robe,
Speaker 1: and they graduate from Noonan and they get to move
Speaker 1: to the big city with the Atlanta or anywhere any
Speaker 1: international airport, but Atlanta certainly has a large one for sure.
Speaker 2: And so once they get to their home base airport
Speaker 2: that they're going to be working at, they're still evaluated
Speaker 2: and trained for another sometimes ten to thirteen weeks.
Speaker 1: Yeah, training is kind of ongoing from what I saw too,
Speaker 1: like the whole career, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's not like the okay, stop learning dog. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know too much. But I think the initial training period.
Speaker 2: They're basic training still can go on for another ten
Speaker 2: to thirteen weeks after they get to the airport, and
Speaker 2: even once they get to the airport, that doesn't necessarily
Speaker 2: mean that they're going to stay in the program again.
Speaker 2: Once they're finally introduced to the chaos of an international airport,
Speaker 2: that dog might just be like, this is not for me.
Speaker 2: Send me back to noonan.
Speaker 1: Yeah you know, I mean, you can try and duplicate
Speaker 1: that chaos in nounan, but yeah, good luck.
Speaker 2: You just can't. I mean, even you just can't. There's
Speaker 2: nothing like a busy airport. You can't recreate that. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so some dogs are fine with it, some dogs are not.
Speaker 2: But again, one of the main reasons why they're choosing
Speaker 2: beagles is because it is so chaotic, and these dogs
Speaker 2: are their whole thing is they're not there at like
Speaker 2: a male processing facility. They're not there at like a
Speaker 2: border crossing. They're there at a busy airport, and they're
Speaker 2: they're meant to be able to kind of weave in
Speaker 2: and out of this the crowd while also being non
Speaker 2: threatening and also being lovable too. Like that's not by
Speaker 2: accident that they chose these incredibly adorable dogs. The USDA
Speaker 2: says that the Beagle Brigade is basically like a walking,
Speaker 2: lovable advertisement for what they're trying to do, which is
Speaker 2: protect agriculture here in the US.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they have a little vest, it says Beagle Brigade. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and everyone oohs and ahs and some people. If you're not,
Speaker 1: this is probably how they do it. If you're not
Speaker 1: actively ooing and eyeing, and you're standing there sweating heavily,
Speaker 1: then the dog keys in on you. So I'd be
Speaker 1: in big trouble.
Speaker 2: And I don't know if you said it. If you did,
Speaker 2: I didn't catch it. But the dogs are trained to
Speaker 2: walk up to locate a contraband item and sit at
Speaker 2: a bag.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah they I thought they attacked the person first.
Speaker 2: It's called the passive indicating Yeah, but rather than I
Speaker 2: saw in this article it says they pawed it. Everywhere
Speaker 2: else I saw that they just sit and kind of
Speaker 2: look at the person like shame on you.
Speaker 1: Exactly. It's a very passive aggressive way to out somebody
Speaker 1: for a goat's head in their two case.
Speaker 2: Right, So we want to oh, yeah, man, you read
Speaker 2: my mind.
Speaker 1: All right, we're gonna do that and we're gonna finish
Speaker 1: up here with a big old brigade.
Speaker 2: Fish.
Speaker 1: All right, So what happens at the end of a
Speaker 1: long day, Josh the dog.
Speaker 2: Most beagles enjoy a good pipe, maybe a scotch.
Speaker 1: In an easy chair, perhaps a cigar.
Speaker 2: They sure they tend to watch CNN. I'llough if you
Speaker 2: watch Fox News and they fall asleep a little drunk.
Speaker 2: That's what they do every night. It's their routine. And
Speaker 2: that's what beagles like.
Speaker 1: Oh no, that's our routine at our clubhouse where we live.
Speaker 1: I know, weirdly, and this kind of surprised me. I
Speaker 1: guess it's not weird now they've seen the explanation, but
Speaker 1: I was surprised to learn that they are kindled. I
Speaker 1: thought that they thought. I guess I thought they lived
Speaker 1: with their handler.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because canine police dogs live with their handler.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I thought it was weird too.
Speaker 1: But they're kindled. They have a facility near the airport.
Speaker 1: Some people have asked, like, can I just keep this
Speaker 1: dog at night and then take them to work every morning?
Speaker 1: And they say no, They said this is actually best
Speaker 1: for everyone. They need their rest. I imagine they have
Speaker 1: a good play together. I doubt if they just like
Speaker 1: drive them straight there and put them in the crate,
Speaker 1: you know, there's probably a little social scene going on.
Speaker 2: I hope, So, yeah, I hope they don't like get
Speaker 2: scolded for making eye contact with the other working dogs
Speaker 2: they live with.
Speaker 1: No, they put in their eight hours, they come home,
Speaker 1: they probably play a bit, and then they're kinneled overnight. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and they said that they you know, they need this
Speaker 1: rest time in order to do their job successfully. And
Speaker 1: like I said, a happy dog is a dog that
Speaker 1: feels good about its work.
Speaker 2: And you said, Chuck, some people ask if they can
Speaker 2: take them home. Sure you should specify, like that's not
Speaker 2: the agents.
Speaker 1: Asked to like people at the airport, I know.
Speaker 2: Like, can I just take them home for the night
Speaker 2: and you guys can come get on tomorrow or all
Speaker 2: of them bring them back. I don't only live like
Speaker 2: forty five minutes away.
Speaker 1: Yeah, sure that we'll just get you give me your
Speaker 1: cell phone number. That sounds great.
Speaker 2: So it does make sense that, yeah, they are left
Speaker 2: to just kind of rest and I'm sure that they
Speaker 2: actually live at the airport. Which is funny. It's like
Speaker 2: that movie Terminal with Tom Hanks.
Speaker 1: It says in nearby facility. You think it's actually there?
Speaker 2: I'm sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Did you know that that movie Terminal with Tom Hanks
Speaker 2: is based on a real life thing? Yeah, and the
Speaker 2: guy was like living there for a decade or something
Speaker 2: like that. And then Charles de Gaulle, Yeah, did you
Speaker 2: see that movie? No, I just read the article of
Speaker 2: movies based.
Speaker 1: On Yeah, it's not very good. Unfortunately I got that impression. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was a bummer.
Speaker 2: Oh really it doesn't end well.
Speaker 1: Well, no, it was just a bummer that it wasn't
Speaker 1: good because I was like Spielberg and Tom Hanks and sure,
Speaker 1: I think my hopes were high, yep, But yeah, I
Speaker 1: didn't care for it.
Speaker 2: No, such luck, Charles.
Speaker 1: So the beagle brigade is a very closely guarded secret
Speaker 1: just how many beagles are brigading. So they can say
Speaker 1: though that there are one hundred and sixteen CBP agricultural
Speaker 1: canine teams with the dogs and the handlers, that every
Speaker 1: international airport in the country has a beagle brigade there
Speaker 1: right doing their job.
Speaker 2: So they can tell you a lot.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean you want to tell some stories here.
Speaker 2: Yes, So there was this one dog called Murray. Murray
Speaker 2: was he was at a shelter in North Georgia, and
Speaker 2: apparently some dummies decided they wanted a hunting dog and
Speaker 2: didn't want to spend any money, but they wanted a
Speaker 2: doctail and ears and everything. So they tried it themselves
Speaker 2: and it didn't go very well for poor Murray. So
Speaker 2: they dropped him off at a shelter, probably knowing the state.
Speaker 2: They probably dropped him off on a dirt road and
Speaker 2: somebody else found him and took him to a shelter,
Speaker 2: and Murray was rescued by a group called Alcovy Pet Rescue,
Speaker 2: and I guess Alcovy has a direct pipeline to the
Speaker 2: Beagle Brigade. Handlers at donn in Noonan said, Hey, we
Speaker 2: think we got one for you. This guy is so
Speaker 2: food driven it's crazy. It's got a lot of love.
Speaker 2: He just needs a little bit of attention. He's missing
Speaker 2: part of his ear, but we can get past that.
Speaker 2: And at age two or three, he became an agent
Speaker 2: for the USDA at Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson International Airport.
Speaker 1: That's great. The only way that story could have ended
Speaker 1: better is if those original people had part of their
Speaker 1: ear cut off. Yeah by a dog. Yeah, what about Jasper.
Speaker 2: So Jasper he worked at JFK.
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, this was late last year. Jasper retired
Speaker 1: after an eight year career, and during this career, Jasper
Speaker 1: seized over seventeen thousand items. The goat's head was Jasper,
Speaker 1: like I mentioned. Yeah, whale meat, Yeah, whale meat, ainoceros skin,
Speaker 1: cooked bat really what else anything else crazy like that?
Speaker 2: No, not that I saw.
Speaker 1: And a lot of Romanian cotton weavils.
Speaker 2: Right, and his handler Amanda Tipple or Triple is it
Speaker 2: Tipple or Triple Triple. She said that she was interviewed
Speaker 2: with Modern Farmer magazine, which I didn't realize existed until
Speaker 2: last week.
Speaker 1: And now you have a subscription.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they did an interview with her, and she was
Speaker 2: saying that that he could very easily work longer, but
Speaker 2: that the mandatory age of retirement is eight because they
Speaker 2: want the dogs to have some years of just chilling out,
Speaker 2: not having to work, and that she's going to take
Speaker 2: him home. She's adopting him, or she did adopt him.
Speaker 2: I think the article was from last year and he
Speaker 2: was on the verge of retirement when they interviewed him,
Speaker 2: but he went and apparently this is fairly normal. Went
Speaker 2: from something like fifteen to thirty hits twenty to thirty
Speaker 2: hits a day, wow, but had declined to about ten
Speaker 2: to fifteen. Yeah, everybody was very disappointed in him.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, that's a good retirement age if they're eight, like,
Speaker 1: barring some very sad health concern. You know, a dog
Speaker 1: that size can live to be you know, thirteen fourteen
Speaker 1: years old, right, so many years ahead of them hopefully, Yeah,
Speaker 1: in retirement.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and once she takes them home, you know, she
Speaker 2: gets another dog that she's going to partner with.
Speaker 1: So I wonder how that'll go over.
Speaker 2: You know, we'll Jasper be like, I know where you've
Speaker 2: been today, and I just want to tell you again,
Speaker 2: I'm not happy with this.
Speaker 1: Well I bet Jasper. I bet Jasper and all retired
Speaker 1: dogs have to deal with that transition, you know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Like I imagine there's something the handlers have to do
Speaker 1: with them on a daily basis, like, you know, probably
Speaker 1: a lot of long walks. I imagine the dog isn't
Speaker 1: just like all right and now I'm gonna rest right now,
Speaker 1: like they're used to that activity.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, yeah, I was wondering that as well. I
Speaker 2: wonder too if they get them when they're young, so
Speaker 2: they're super hyper, and then maybe by the time they're
Speaker 2: eight they've mellowed a little bit. Sure, at least comparatively speaking. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: I think a mellow beagle is still pretty hyper compared
Speaker 2: to a normal dog.
Speaker 1: I've never been around beagles.
Speaker 2: Actually, Oh, they they'll pull yeah, yeah, and they bay
Speaker 2: and everything. They're super cute, but they can be rambunctious
Speaker 2: for sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I've never known anyone with a beagle, so I
Speaker 1: don't even know if I've ever touched a beagle now
Speaker 1: that think about it.
Speaker 2: No, but if you've been touched by a beagle, have
Speaker 2: you'll never forget it.
Speaker 1: Chuck a couple of stats for you. Last year alone,
Speaker 1: in twenty sixteen, the brigade inspected twenty three million passengers,
Speaker 1: seven hundred and forty one thousand pieces of freight, and
Speaker 1: they alerted to total in the United States to more
Speaker 1: than one point seven seven million seizures of illegal materials.
Speaker 1: That's a lot. That's about what like seven eight percent
Speaker 1: of people bringing stuff in that have been caught.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I saw also that there is a there's
Speaker 2: an even more specialized group of dogs that are typically
Speaker 2: jack Russell terriers that work on Guam to root out
Speaker 2: specifically brown tree snakes. Yeah, that's crazy, which are an
Speaker 2: invasive species that got introduced to Guam and have killed
Speaker 2: off like a lot of indigenous bird species, and they're
Speaker 2: basically trying to protect Hawaii as much as they can.
Speaker 1: I didn't know Hawaii didn't have snakes until this article.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like Ireland over there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it made sense, of course, but I
Speaker 1: just figured, I mean, there's all kinds of invasive species,
Speaker 1: so I just thought that I just figured snakes would
Speaker 1: be one of them.
Speaker 2: Yeah. No, Hawaii takes their their like the Agriculture Defense
Speaker 2: very seriously.
Speaker 1: Yeah. The snake thing is yeah.
Speaker 2: Well they'll just beat you up before they even take
Speaker 2: you to jail. They catch you.
Speaker 1: Well, I read an article because I was like, what
Speaker 1: is that real? And which is I guess a great
Speaker 1: comfort to backcountry exploring and explorers if you're scared of snakes.
Speaker 1: But I read an article and there was there there
Speaker 1: were a couple of them found last year that you know,
Speaker 1: people had managed to sneak in. And one was a
Speaker 1: boa constrictor that was dead in the road like five
Speaker 1: feet long, and the guy oh Man saw it and said, like,
Speaker 1: there's a snake, and everyone in the car was like,
Speaker 1: there are no snakes in Hawaii. They're like, no, that's
Speaker 1: a snake.
Speaker 2: He's like, oh, I'm just a total idiot. I guess.
Speaker 1: I'm sure their legs under there just a big lizard.
Speaker 2: Hate you guys.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was that was news to me, so very interesting.
Speaker 2: Supposedly the ever Glades down in Florida have a huge
Speaker 2: problem with Burmese pythons and like a couple of different
Speaker 2: kinds of pythons that in all of them were pets,
Speaker 2: and now they're just taking over and getting to be
Speaker 2: like twenty feet long or just crazy. Yeah, eating wild
Speaker 2: bores and things like that.
Speaker 1: Because idiots get them and then they grow and they
Speaker 1: say this snake is too big, yeah, and they just
Speaker 1: put it out in the swamp.
Speaker 2: I just wanted a puppy snake.
Speaker 1: So here's a good example too. Like, you know, it's
Speaker 1: easy to like the goat head and the cooked pig
Speaker 1: gets a lot of attention, but usually this stuff is
Speaker 1: it's not nefarious, you know, It's like this one lady
Speaker 1: in February of this year, actually, there was a beagle
Speaker 1: named gadget that sees. And this is just one seizure
Speaker 1: from one person. A potted tamarin plant, two live trees,
Speaker 1: forty two packages of seeds, twenty pieces of palm tree plantings,
Speaker 1: chickory seed, rice, millet, and fresh garlic, and.
Speaker 2: A note from God.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's a lot of stuff, but this is
Speaker 1: what happens. Like someone goes to another country and they
Speaker 1: want to bring back like seeds to plant something. It's
Speaker 1: not like they're awful people, but it can. They can
Speaker 1: innocently wreak havoc on agriculture here by doing so, you know.
Speaker 2: Right, So the process from what I gather is that
Speaker 2: you declare anything you have on you and then if
Speaker 2: they can let you bring it through, then they'll let
Speaker 2: you bring it through. But if not, they'll just take
Speaker 2: it and be like, sorry, we got to take this.
Speaker 2: Then they'll shoot it in front of you. If you
Speaker 2: don't declare it and they catch you with it. Thanks
Speaker 2: to the Beagle Brigade, you can be fined up to
Speaker 2: something like one thousand dollars for your first offense. And
Speaker 2: if it's clear you're like a straight up smuggler, yeah,
Speaker 2: you will probably go to jail.
Speaker 1: Well, this person did declare that had all that stuff
Speaker 1: chocolate in an apple, So I guess she thought maybe
Speaker 1: if I declare something, I won't be a suspicious I
Speaker 1: don't know.
Speaker 2: Right, but I mean, if you're a CBP agent and
Speaker 2: you're looking at that, and you have the discretion of
Speaker 2: whether to arrest that person or not, you may very
Speaker 2: well be like, no, you're you were definitely trying to
Speaker 2: smuggle this stuff, So I'm going to make an example
Speaker 2: out of you, lady.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And then Gadget's just sitting there just like judging, what.
Speaker 2: Have I done? Yeah, And the lady as they're hauling
Speaker 2: her off to jail, she's like, I would have gotten
Speaker 2: away with it if it hadn't been for your meddling dogs.
Speaker 1: You got anything else I do?
Speaker 2: I have one more thing. I ran across this article,
Speaker 2: I think it was on courts and it said like
Speaker 2: bush meat illegal bush meat could be the cause of
Speaker 2: the next big global pandemic.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: There's apparently a major market for bush meat, which is
Speaker 2: any wild animal meat. Most people think of it as
Speaker 2: like monkey or bat or something like that, but it
Speaker 2: also is like elk or caribou, any illegal meat that's
Speaker 2: basically just being smuggled around. Yeah, there's huge markets for
Speaker 2: it in New York, in London, in Mayland, Europe, and
Speaker 2: people just smuggle it in and a lot of them
Speaker 2: make it through. And these things just get sold behind
Speaker 2: the counter at butcher shops in some cities. And all
Speaker 2: that's going to take is one of those things to
Speaker 2: have a bola and maybe a mutant strain that is
Speaker 2: transmitted a little more easily than a bola light or whatever.
Speaker 2: We have now, and you got a pandemic on your
Speaker 2: hands and we can say thanks a lot. I hope
Speaker 2: you really enjoyed that monkey leg that killed off three
Speaker 2: quarters of the population of humanity of Coross.
Speaker 1: That what those two words? I don't like it.
Speaker 2: I know, I know that's pretty rough. So I guess
Speaker 2: you're done then too.
Speaker 1: Huh, I'm done, sir.
Speaker 2: Okay, Well, if you guys want to know more about
Speaker 2: bush meat or the Beagle Brigade or anything like that,
Speaker 2: type those words in the search bar at HowStuffWorks dot com.
Speaker 2: And since I said search bar, it's time for listener mail.
Speaker 1: I'm going to call this one sad yet happy email. Hey, guys,
Speaker 1: my name is Sam. I wanted to send you an
Speaker 1: email thanking you for your show. The podcast is actually
Speaker 1: a rediscovery for me. My dad used to play it
Speaker 1: back in two thousand and nine when we would drive
Speaker 1: up to the mountain to go skiing. Very fond memories
Speaker 1: of laughing and nerding out with my dad and brothers
Speaker 1: after a great day on the slopes. Can't believe you
Speaker 1: guys are still going strong after eight plus years. There
Speaker 1: is a little more to my rediscovery of your show, though,
Speaker 1: that I wanted to share. It's been four and a
Speaker 1: half years since one of my brothers, who was an
Speaker 1: amazing skier, died tragically to suicide. Since I was in
Speaker 1: college at the time, it didn't have enough time to
Speaker 1: properly grieve. Recently, I've been mulling through many painful memories
Speaker 1: that I ignored in those first three years. However, your show
Speaker 1: unexpectedly brought back really happy ones. It is reminded me
Speaker 1: of the fun adventure in learning our family enjoyed while
Speaker 1: listening to your show when we are skiing. I remember
Speaker 1: laughing hysterically with my family your jokes rolling my eyes
Speaker 1: when my brothers and dad would try to comment on
Speaker 1: your show to sound smart because it was so creepy.
Speaker 1: One of your favorite episodes of ours was the one
Speaker 1: on cannibalism. Being a high schooler at the time, I
Speaker 1: also really liked the show on flirting, so I thought
Speaker 1: I could put it into practice. Needless to say, it
Speaker 1: didn't really work. Now what. This month, I went home
Speaker 1: for a week to visit my parents, and I went
Speaker 1: skiing with my mom and dad, but the first time
Speaker 1: since my brother died. It was very painful, but also
Speaker 1: unimaginably special. When my family and I are on the mountain,
Speaker 1: I feel like I can encounter my brother as he
Speaker 1: was when he was healthy and full of life. Could
Speaker 1: picture him diving down a slope that was way too
Speaker 1: steep with the most enormous grin on his eager face.
Speaker 1: All in all, it was a great day. So I
Speaker 1: just want to say thank you but the hard work
Speaker 1: and providing interesting topics to fill my time, making me laugh,
Speaker 1: but also inadvertently helping me cherish a special time in
Speaker 1: my life.
Speaker 2: I am that was heavy.
Speaker 1: That is from Sam and sends hugs.
Speaker 2: Sam. That is fantastic. Thank you very much for letting
Speaker 2: us know. We appreciate that and our best to your
Speaker 2: whole family. Absolutely, if you want to get in touch,
Speaker 2: with this like Sam did, you can send us an email.
Speaker 2: The Stuff podcast at HowStuffWorks dot Com has always joined
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