Speaker 1: You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope
Speaker 1: and iHeartRadio. Guess what gave?
Speaker 2: What's that mango?
Speaker 1: Do you know that? And apossum and apossum are two
Speaker 1: completely different animals.
Speaker 2: That didn't even sound like two different words.
Speaker 1: I know, I actually thought that as I said it,
Speaker 1: But for a long time I thought it was the
Speaker 1: same animal. It was just like a regional dialect difference.
Speaker 1: Like depending on where you live, a groundhog is also
Speaker 1: called a ground pig, or a marmot, or a woodchuck
Speaker 1: or even a land.
Speaker 2: Beaver land beaver. I don't know about some of those,
Speaker 2: Like how much wood does a ground pig chuck? That
Speaker 2: it doesn't have the same ring to it now?
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, like trying to determine how much more
Speaker 1: winter there is based on whether land beaver saw its
Speaker 1: own shadow, right, Like, some words just work better than others,
Speaker 1: even if it's the same animal. But back to possums
Speaker 1: and opossums, it turns out they are different words with
Speaker 1: different pronunciations, and they refer to two totally different animals.
Speaker 2: Okay, And which one is it that keeps knocking over
Speaker 2: my trash cans? Because you know, I want to address
Speaker 2: them properly, you know, when I yell out the window
Speaker 2: at them tonight.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So that would be a possums. And those are
Speaker 1: the ones that you and I are familiar with, right,
Speaker 1: like those stumpy little mammals with grayish fur rat like
Speaker 1: tails and pointy white faces that you sometimes see rooting
Speaker 1: through your garbage. And apossums are native to the America's
Speaker 1: and they actually got their name from Captain John Smith,
Speaker 1: the English soldier who helped establish the Jamestown colony in Virginia.
Speaker 2: Wow, so John Smith named the apossum. I don't think
Speaker 2: that that was in my elementary.
Speaker 1: School history books mine either, But in sixteen oh eight,
Speaker 1: Smith wrote the first known English description of the creature,
Speaker 1: and he explained that the local tribes called it an apossum,
Speaker 1: which was his own phonetic approximation of this Algonquin word
Speaker 1: meaning white animal.
Speaker 2: And so what about possums, like, where do they live?
Speaker 1: Apparently they live in Australia, But surprise, surprise, their name
Speaker 1: also ties back to European exploration. So more than a
Speaker 1: century after John Smith encountered a possums in the forests
Speaker 1: of Virginia, a totally different group of British explorers made
Speaker 1: their way to Australia and also to New Guinea, and
Speaker 1: one of them was this naturalist. His name was Sir
Speaker 1: Joseph Banks, and during his travels he came across an
Speaker 1: animal that resembled the descriptions of American apossums. You know,
Speaker 1: it wasn't a perfect match, right, Like the ones in
Speaker 1: Australia were smaller, they had less pointed snouts. They also
Speaker 1: had big furry tales with no white on their faces.
Speaker 1: So Banks just kind of adjusted the name just a
Speaker 1: little bit, like ever so slightly and called them possums.
Speaker 2: That is so bizarre, Like, let's keep most of the name,
Speaker 2: but we'll just we'll just tweak it a little bit
Speaker 2: so that, you know, Will and Gabe and Mango can
Speaker 2: clarify the differences between the animals on a podcast two
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty years later.
Speaker 1: I know, it really is impressive and I feel honored
Speaker 1: that Sir Joseph Banks teed it up for us to
Speaker 1: educate the world two hundred and fifty years later. But
Speaker 1: the strange thing is that they are in fact related,
Speaker 1: Like you know, they are very distant branches of the
Speaker 1: same family tree. That said Australian possums are actually much
Speaker 1: more closely related to kangaroos than they are to a possums,
Speaker 1: And on today's episode, we're actually shining a light purely
Speaker 1: on a possums because these little neighbors of ours are
Speaker 1: full of weird surprises and we found nine incredible facts
Speaker 1: about them, so let's dive in. Hey, their podcast listeners,
Speaker 1: welcome to part time genius. I am Monga's articular aka Mango,
Speaker 1: and Will cannot be here today. We miss you will,
Speaker 1: but stepping in to replace them is my good friend,
Speaker 1: researcher for the show, writer for the show, all around
Speaker 1: personality for the show gave Lucy a Hey gave Hi Mango.
Speaker 1: And on the other side of that soundproof glass hanging
Speaker 1: upside down from a pull up bar, that is our
Speaker 1: friend and producer Dylan Fagan. And I should note that
Speaker 1: Dylan hasn't actually done a pull up yet, so I'm
Speaker 1: guessing this is some kind of tribute to the way
Speaker 1: that apossums hang upside down from their tails, right GiB.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they have those prehensile tails that let them hold
Speaker 2: on to things, typically tree branches, not pull up bars.
Speaker 2: But it's really only the baby apossums that hang from
Speaker 2: their tails like that. Adult males can weigh up to
Speaker 2: fourteen pounds, so you know, their little tails wouldn't support
Speaker 2: them for very long. So come to think of it,
Speaker 2: maybe they should be doing pull ups.
Speaker 1: That is so weird. I feel like we've been lied
Speaker 1: to by balds cartanists.
Speaker 2: Yeah no, sorry to disappoint. Adultapossums mostly use their tails
Speaker 2: to stay balanced, to grip onto tree branches and carry
Speaker 2: nesting materials. And while Australian possums also have big, fuzzy,
Speaker 2: prehensile tails, they don't hang upside down at all, even
Speaker 2: as babies.
Speaker 1: You think you know a guy, right, So, Gabe, where
Speaker 1: do you want to start today?
Speaker 2: Why don't we talk about one fact that I sometimes forget,
Speaker 2: which is that a possums are not rodents. Instead, they
Speaker 2: belong to that special class of mammal where the female
Speaker 2: carries and nurses her young in an external pouch on
Speaker 2: her abdomen. You know who I'm talking about, marsupials.
Speaker 1: You know. I always felt like we were cheated as
Speaker 1: kids because it felt like America didn't have its own
Speaker 1: marsupial right, like they were all in Australia. Or whatever else.
Speaker 1: But but like it is really cool that we actually
Speaker 1: have one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know, yeah, it feels like when you learn
Speaker 2: about marsupials in grade school. Australia really does have the
Speaker 2: monopoly on all the cool critters koalas, wombats, kangaroos, a
Speaker 2: whole bunch of others I can't remember. And you know,
Speaker 2: apossums are kind of this weird outlier because you know,
Speaker 2: they aren't over there. They are actually more than one
Speaker 2: hundred different species of them spread across South and Central America.
Speaker 2: And they've been there for a long time too. Because
Speaker 2: apossums are basically living fossils, they coexisted with the dinosaurs
Speaker 2: and they've changed very little in all that time. I know, again,
Speaker 2: you think you know a guy. But here in North
Speaker 2: America we have a species of our own, and that's
Speaker 2: the Virginia apossum.
Speaker 1: So why does North America have just one species.
Speaker 2: Because so far that's the only species, the only marsupial
Speaker 2: that has managed to north of Mexico on its own.
Speaker 2: The Virginia possum is technically a tropical species, just like
Speaker 2: its southern cousins, but for whatever reason, these little guys
Speaker 2: have pushed further and further north over the last few centuries.
Speaker 2: They were already well established in the southeastern US by
Speaker 2: the seventeenth century, as John Smith showed, and today Virginia
Speaker 2: possums are found as far north as New England, the
Speaker 2: Upper Midwest, and even parts of Canada.
Speaker 1: So I love that tenacity, and it also feels very
Speaker 1: on brand for America's marsupial.
Speaker 2: No, yeah, very much. They get around. And also Virginia
Speaker 2: possums are scrappy and not very particular. They'll make a
Speaker 2: den just about anywhere, in trees and burrows or even
Speaker 2: in abandoned buildings, and they'll eat just about anything plants, insects,
Speaker 2: kitchen trash. That adaptability is allowed the species, you know,
Speaker 2: to go places where a marsupial really doesn't belong.
Speaker 1: I am curious, like, where don't they belong?
Speaker 2: I mean pretty much anywhere with harsh winters, right, because again,
Speaker 2: these are tropical mammals. They really aren't built for cold
Speaker 2: temperatures like raccoons or foxes. A possum fur is thin
Speaker 2: and sparse, and their tails and ears are completely hairless,
Speaker 2: which you know, we find kind of gross. You know,
Speaker 2: if you ever see an apossum in the springtime with
Speaker 2: a stumpy tail. Cut him some slack because he just
Speaker 2: survived a rough winter and he has the frostbite scars
Speaker 2: to prove it.
Speaker 1: Well. Hopefully my next fact can drum up even more
Speaker 1: goodwill for the Virginia apostlem because it's my absolute favorite.
Speaker 1: Did you know that apossums have thirteen nipples?
Speaker 2: That is news to me?
Speaker 1: I should think you might be, Ah, you might know that.
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna admit it in public.
Speaker 1: But this is the one thing I like absolutely remember
Speaker 1: from mental floss. And also I remember that all those
Speaker 1: nipples are arranged in a circle.
Speaker 2: Oh, that is so weird.
Speaker 1: Why I do want to get to the why. But
Speaker 1: they also have more teeth than any other land mammal
Speaker 1: in North America, which is why those brilliant smiles of
Speaker 1: theirs are, you know, so spectacular and also scary. They
Speaker 1: have fifty teeth all stuffed into a really small mouth,
Speaker 1: and that's eight more teeth than wolves actually have.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: But I'm going to move off teeth back to nipples.
Speaker 1: How many animals have you heard of with an odd
Speaker 1: number of nipples? Zero?
Speaker 2: But I'm sure it makes wearing a bikini trickier, right,
Speaker 2: and where would you even keep a spare nipple? Like,
Speaker 2: they're all just arranged in a circle, you said, even
Speaker 2: the thirteenth.
Speaker 1: One, well, twelve are laid out in a circular pattern,
Speaker 1: kind of like the numbers on a clock, and the
Speaker 1: thirteenth is actually in the center, which is obviously a
Speaker 1: very strange arrangement. But also the only reason the circle
Speaker 1: arrangement works is because of that external pouch, you know,
Speaker 1: the one that holds those infants all snugly in place
Speaker 1: even when their mom is on the move. Basically, the
Speaker 1: thirteen newborn apossums, which are only about the size of honeybees,
Speaker 1: wedge into that pouch and latch on from all the directions.
Speaker 2: I mean, you gotta admire the efficiency, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but it does have a downside. So unlike baby
Speaker 1: placental mammals, which can move around independently between feedings, apossums
Speaker 1: basically remain attached to their mothers for several weeks until
Speaker 1: they're old enough to wean. So even though they have
Speaker 1: litters of twenty or thirty Joey's at a time, and
Speaker 1: I think it's cool that they're called Joey's as well,
Speaker 1: the most that can ever survive? Are those lucky thirteen? Oh?
Speaker 2: That? I mean, that's that's pretty sad when you think
Speaker 2: about it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is sad. But to make up for it,
Speaker 1: I'm going to give you a vocab gift, which is,
Speaker 1: you know, how we show our love on the show.
Speaker 1: Apparently a group of living, thriving young apossums is called
Speaker 1: a passel.
Speaker 2: A passel of apossums. I like that. But since you
Speaker 2: raise this, you know, very grim specter of apossum death,
Speaker 2: I think now seems like a good time to talk
Speaker 2: about the species knack for pretending to be dead. We've
Speaker 2: all heard the expression playing possum, which refers to someone
Speaker 2: feigning death in order to trick an opponent, and I
Speaker 2: guess in this case it should actually be called playing apossum.
Speaker 2: But here's the thing. Apossums aren't trying to deceive anybody
Speaker 2: because they can't actually choose when they play dead. It's
Speaker 2: a completely involuntary response called thanatosis or tonic immobility, and
Speaker 2: it's basically their body's last ditch effort to avoid being eaten.
Speaker 1: I like that you're clearing up the fact that they're
Speaker 1: actually very honest creatures and they're not going to trick anyone,
Speaker 1: but work exactly because you know, you think a better
Speaker 1: strategy would be to like just fight or race away,
Speaker 1: you know, pretty much anything but going limp right.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean it works in the apossum's case because
Speaker 2: many of its natural predators, like hawks and snakes, prefer
Speaker 2: to feed on live prey, and they tend to lose
Speaker 2: interest when one of their targets, you know, suddenly keels
Speaker 2: over with its tongue hanging out, and when dealing with
Speaker 2: bread who don't mind a bit of scavenging, like foxes,
Speaker 2: the apossum goes a step further to repel them. It
Speaker 2: actually voids its bowels and excretes a foul smelling mucus
Speaker 2: so that other animals will think it's gone rancid.
Speaker 1: I discuss that is so gross and so clever.
Speaker 2: I guess right, yeah, I mean, it's definitely an effective
Speaker 2: defense system, you know, whether the apossum knows it or not.
Speaker 2: But it's also kind of risky. For instance, an a
Speaker 2: possum's catatonic state can last up to four hours, which is,
Speaker 2: you know, more than enough time for a less picky
Speaker 2: predator to find them. Not to mention there are lots
Speaker 2: of unlucky ones that play dead in the middle of
Speaker 2: the road, and the odds of them waking up before
Speaker 2: a car comes along or slimmed to none. And that's
Speaker 2: a big reason why Virginia apossums only live about two
Speaker 2: years in the wild on average versus ten years in captivity.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, it is sad to think about, but
Speaker 1: I bet a lot of people are mostly familiar with
Speaker 1: the possums as roadkill, right, Dylan, Actually, before this episode,
Speaker 1: pitch me on making a PTG bumper sticker that says
Speaker 1: true patriots break for America's only native marsupial. I didn't
Speaker 1: know what he was talking about before, but now I
Speaker 1: feel like I would slap that sticker on my car
Speaker 1: for sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that reminds me. Have you heard the old
Speaker 2: Southern joke about planked possum aka possum treat? I mean,
Speaker 2: I'm from Delaware, so no, Yeah, fair enough, So that's
Speaker 2: a no.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: So this joke is basically, you know, plays on the
Speaker 2: idea that a possum meat isn't that tasty to most people.
Speaker 2: MU probably relate, And it's basically this long winded recipe
Speaker 2: about how to roast an apossum on a wooden board.
Speaker 2: So it goes through all these detailed steps like how
Speaker 2: to make a special glaze and how to parboil this
Speaker 2: like hyper specific yam from East Texas. You gotta get
Speaker 2: that yam. And then the last step, you know, which
Speaker 2: is also the punchline, is that you throw out the
Speaker 2: apossum and eat the board instead.
Speaker 1: Oh, the whole switch through. I got it. Whatever apossum's
Speaker 1: lack and tastiness, they more than makeup for in other ways.
Speaker 1: For instance, did you know that they have secret powers
Speaker 1: of immunity or that one of them was pretty enough
Speaker 1: to be issued an official pardon by a North Carolina governor.
Speaker 1: We're going to be talking about both of those after
Speaker 1: a quick break, so don't go anywhere.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to Part Time Genius, where we're talking about
Speaker 2: nine reasons why apossums are more awesome than you think.
Speaker 2: We've got five facts left to go, But if you
Speaker 2: dig the show so far, help us out and subscribe
Speaker 2: on your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a
Speaker 2: fellow animal lover. We also love hearing from you, so
Speaker 2: let us know if you have a question or idea
Speaker 2: like us to look into you can give us a
Speaker 2: call at three oh two four oh five five nine
Speaker 2: two five, email us at high Geniuses at gmail dot com,
Speaker 2: or come find us on blue Sky and Instagram at
Speaker 2: part time Genius.
Speaker 1: I mean, there are a million ways to get in touch,
Speaker 1: so it feels like people have no excuses, right, I know, just.
Speaker 2: Pick your favorite and uh yeah reach out all right
Speaker 2: and I goo, let's go back to your teas. Before
Speaker 2: the break, you said a possums have some crazy kind
Speaker 2: of immunity. So what are we talking here? Diplomatic tribal?
Speaker 1: What do they got? So what I was talking about
Speaker 1: actually is this incredible adaptive immunity that makes the possums
Speaker 1: kind of unaffected by animal venom. There is a special
Speaker 1: protein in their blood that completely neutralizes toxic components, and
Speaker 1: it allows an a possum to survive a bite or
Speaker 1: a sting that might otherwise kill an animal its size.
Speaker 1: The trait is especially useful when squaring off against dangerous
Speaker 1: snakes like copper heads and water moccasins, but it is
Speaker 1: also handy for warding off the venomous stings of things
Speaker 1: like honeybees or scorpions.
Speaker 2: That is a much cooler trick than like pretending to
Speaker 2: be dead.
Speaker 1: And oozing goo.
Speaker 2: Yeah, completely, But how did they become immune to venom
Speaker 2: What was it? Because they were, you know, attacked all
Speaker 2: the time by venomous snakes or something.
Speaker 1: I mean, that definitely is one theory, but researchers aren't
Speaker 1: completely sure. Somethink that possums immunity is actually more about
Speaker 1: offense than defense, and in that scenario, they would have
Speaker 1: evolved immunity for the sake of expanding their diet. Right, So,
Speaker 1: despite what you might think of possums, you know, they're scavengers,
Speaker 1: but they also eat a lot of rattle snakes, honey bees, scorpions,
Speaker 1: so it kind of makes sense.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I mean that definitely works in our favor too, right,
Speaker 2: Like always nice to have fewer rattle snakes and scorpions
Speaker 2: prowling around the neighborhood.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And possums are a big help with things like
Speaker 1: population control, not just with venomous species. They're also great
Speaker 1: for like clearing out past like garden slugs or cockroaches ticks.
Speaker 1: They help beautified landscape by eating things like rotten fruit.
Speaker 1: They're essentially living vacuum cleaners for cities and suburbs and
Speaker 1: they really will just hoover up just about anything.
Speaker 2: Didn't you write a poem about or two in apossum
Speaker 2: a few years back, like some kind of owed to
Speaker 2: the apostlem, you remember, Yeah, it was for a show
Speaker 2: I did called Humans Growing Stuff.
Speaker 1: And this was way back in COVID lockdown. It was
Speaker 1: like three am in Brooklyn, and Lizzie and I heard
Speaker 1: this weird shuffling outside and we were like, is that
Speaker 1: a big cat or a person? There's a sound on
Speaker 1: this little balcony that's above our bedroom, right, so so
Speaker 1: like you could hear this like clomping around, and then
Speaker 1: it sort of quietly, not so quietly, came down these
Speaker 1: metal outdoor stairs, and so it kind of felt like
Speaker 1: we were in this bad horror movie. And you know,
Speaker 1: we'd both been startled and we didn't know what it was.
Speaker 1: And it's three am, so I'm just kind of tracking
Speaker 1: the sounds, and then I peeked out the window with
Speaker 1: my light and I just saw this goofy looking like
Speaker 1: pretty big possum with all these pointy chompers, and I
Speaker 1: was definitely taken.
Speaker 2: Aback, I bet, but Mango, there's no getting away from it.
Speaker 1: The poem please, Yeah, so on the show, I presented
Speaker 1: this with hand drums, sort of beat poetry style. I
Speaker 1: think I called it poetry corner, but I just pulled
Speaker 1: up the text of this. So this poem is called
Speaker 1: quote an apology to the apossum in my garden who
Speaker 1: made me shriek today loudly at three am in the morning,
Speaker 1: And I'm gonna read it for you now. I'm sorry
Speaker 1: that when I saw you, I screamed and showed you away.
Speaker 1: But now that I know you feast on slugs, please
Speaker 1: help yourself to the buffet.
Speaker 2: Thank you, beautiful, beautiful, I'm gonna snap so dumb, does
Speaker 2: your garden have a lot of slugs?
Speaker 1: I mean when it rains like it actually has so
Speaker 1: many of them. I've never experienced anything like it. And
Speaker 1: I also never assumed, like of all places will be
Speaker 1: slug filled, but you end up with like beautiful birds
Speaker 1: coming through as a result, and I guess also possums.
Speaker 1: But before we move on, I want to mention one
Speaker 1: other possum trait that we should all be grateful for,
Speaker 1: and that is its low body temperature. So as marsupials,
Speaker 1: the possums run a little bit cooler than other mammals.
Speaker 1: So while the normal body temperature for a human ranges
Speaker 1: between ninety seven and ninety nine degrees fahrenheit, and the
Speaker 1: possums can be as low as ninety four degrees fahrenheit.
Speaker 2: And why is that something to be thankful for?
Speaker 1: Apparently, the difference of a few degrees makes it much
Speaker 1: harder for an apossum to contract rabies, which you know,
Speaker 1: it's kind of remarkable. The virus just can't survive for
Speaker 1: that long and a body that cold, and that means
Speaker 1: it's extremely unlikely that you'll ever cross paths with an
Speaker 1: infected apossum. That said, if you do encounter a wild apossum,
Speaker 1: you should still keep your distance. You know, they aren't
Speaker 1: aggressive by nature, but they're safe than than sorry.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, a good reminder not to go out and
Speaker 2: hug an apossum, no matter how cuddly they look, even
Speaker 2: though you know you might want to. After I tell
Speaker 2: you about the apossum's trademark display of affection, which is
Speaker 2: something called slubbing. Have you heard of it?
Speaker 1: I mean, I try to keep up on all the
Speaker 1: new apossum lego, but I've never heard of slubbing, So
Speaker 1: tell me about it.
Speaker 2: Well, The word itself is short for slobber rubbing, and
Speaker 2: that pretty much tells you all you need to know.
Speaker 2: Opossums will lick an object or sometimes a person that
Speaker 2: they like, and then forcefully rub against it with their chin.
Speaker 2: If you ever see this in action, it is gross
Speaker 2: and funny and oddly charming. There are plenty of videos
Speaker 2: out there, but keep in mind you will come across
Speaker 2: titles like quote apossum can't stop slubbing his mom and
Speaker 2: just you know, go ahead and click through. It's not
Speaker 2: what you think.
Speaker 1: So I'm both grateful for the link and for the warning,
Speaker 1: but I'm curious you said this was a show of affection.
Speaker 1: Sounds more like it's marking territory.
Speaker 2: It's a bit of both, really wild. The possums might
Speaker 2: slub to mark their territory and leave behind their scent
Speaker 2: for potential mates, while the possums in captivity generally slub
Speaker 2: their favorite toys or caregivers. In either case, slobber rubbing
Speaker 2: is a way for a possums to claim something they
Speaker 2: like as theirs, and when you think about it, the
Speaker 2: behavior isn't that unusual. Cats do something very similar called bunting,
Speaker 2: which is when they rub their faces on things to
Speaker 2: claim ownership and express affection. The apossum version just involves
Speaker 2: you know, way more saliva.
Speaker 1: Well, speaking of ways to show affection, I want to
Speaker 1: circle back to this other story. It teast earlier and
Speaker 1: it's the one about the apossum who was pardoned by
Speaker 1: a governor. So this story starts back in nineteen seventy
Speaker 1: when a male apossum named Slowpoke won the Prettiest Possum
Speaker 1: Award at the National Hollerin Contest in Spivey's Corner, North Carolina.
Speaker 2: What a sentence and prettiest possum I love that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well that's how the day starts. But the main
Speaker 1: event that day was the second annual Field holler In Contest,
Speaker 1: where local farmers competed to give the best yell or yodel.
Speaker 1: But back to the prettiest possum. So slow Poke just
Speaker 1: cruises to victory, right, just eases right in there, because
Speaker 1: you know, slow Poke, he is unusual. He's got this
Speaker 1: all white coat and it's impressive. He's got a fourteen
Speaker 1: inch tail that is just too much to compete with. Right,
Speaker 1: he is a butte and as a prize, he and
Speaker 1: the other human contest winners get this private meet and
Speaker 1: greet with North Carolina's governor, Bob Scott.
Speaker 2: Feels like slow Poke, you know, probably would have preferred
Speaker 2: a bag of crickets or something to a meet and greet,
Speaker 2: But okay.
Speaker 1: You know, it also would have been a better idea
Speaker 1: to give him crickets because Bob Scott was an unapologetic
Speaker 1: possum eater. Now one of the other winners, the newly
Speaker 1: crowned possum Queen, Margaret and Wilkes, happened to mention that
Speaker 1: she had never tasted a possum. So the governor said
Speaker 1: he would remedy that by hosting a banquet for her
Speaker 1: at the executive mansion, with poor little slow Poke being
Speaker 1: served as the main course.
Speaker 2: No, and everyone was okay with that, like serving up
Speaker 2: the prettiest possum on a plate.
Speaker 1: No, not really so. For weeks after the plan had
Speaker 1: come out, people wrote angry letters to their local newspapers
Speaker 1: insisting that the Democratic governor call off his twisted dinner party.
Speaker 1: And the backlash wasn't just from private citizens and employed.
Speaker 1: The state Department of Conservation and Development also registered his disapproval, wrote, quote,
Speaker 1: Slowpoke has been subjected to such inanimal like treatment as
Speaker 1: being given a bath every other day in certified milk
Speaker 1: and having his toenails polished. And I might add that
Speaker 1: unless Governor Scott comes up with a substitute meal, I
Speaker 1: fear our entire street will vote Republican in the next election. Wow. Anyway,
Speaker 1: after more than a month of public pressure, the governor
Speaker 1: finally holds this press event in Capitol Square. He announces
Speaker 1: that slow Poke would not be eaten and would instead
Speaker 1: receive a full, unconditional pardon.
Speaker 2: So let me get this straight. Slow Poke's crime was
Speaker 2: winning a beauty contest, and he was pardoned from being
Speaker 2: eaten by the governor.
Speaker 1: Yeah. But Governor Scott was quick to double down after
Speaker 1: the ceremony, telling reporters I shall not be thwarted in
Speaker 1: my appetite from bossalom. I just want to let everyone know.
Speaker 1: And then a few years later he followed through on
Speaker 1: that by serving possum at a black Tide dinner. Wow,
Speaker 1: but you will be happy to hear that slow Poke
Speaker 1: did not wind up on the Governor's dinner table. He
Speaker 1: got to live out the rest of his life in
Speaker 1: peace and quiet at Raven Rock State Park. No One
Speaker 1: painted his toenails ever again, and he died a free,
Speaker 1: unroasted possum.
Speaker 2: All right, here's the slow poke, and you know, interestingly enough,
Speaker 2: Governor Scott was not the only American politician to proudly
Speaker 2: feast on possum meat. Multiple presidents were known to sample
Speaker 2: the dish at one time or another, but the most
Speaker 2: frequent offender in that regard was our old buddy William Taft,
Speaker 2: who famously attended a possum and Tater's feast two months
Speaker 2: before his inauguration. The event was hosted in early nineteen
Speaker 2: oh nine by the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, and the
Speaker 2: main course was requested by Taft himself. His choice of
Speaker 2: possum was basically a nod and a plea to the
Speaker 2: Southern States, which had voted overwhelmingly against him. It's unclear
Speaker 2: how many new supporters he won that night, but if
Speaker 2: nothing else, Taff seemed to enjoy the meal. According to
Speaker 2: the Associated Press quote, after several helpings to the dish,
Speaker 2: mister Taft received a message from a doctor sitting nearby
Speaker 2: telling him to be careful, but he paid no attention
Speaker 2: to the warning. Soon there was only a shattered wreck
Speaker 2: remaining of the eighteen pound Billy possum that was toted
Speaker 2: up to mister Taft's table.
Speaker 1: That is insane. Eighteen pounds is a lot of meat,
Speaker 1: let alone possum meat. But uh, who named this possum Billy?
Speaker 2: Well, that's the thing. Billy Possum was a nickname for
Speaker 2: William Taft. The hunting exploits of his predecessor, Teddy Roosevelt
Speaker 2: had inspired the creation of the Teddy Bear, and in
Speaker 2: the lead up to Taft's Possum Supper, a cartoonist named
Speaker 2: Lewis Greg joke that Teddy bears would now be supplanted
Speaker 2: by Billy possums as the nation's new favorite toy.
Speaker 1: That's amazing, and I always love when someone tries to
Speaker 1: capitalize on someone else's more authentic trend. But I mean,
Speaker 1: I feel like the Teddy Bear was named that because
Speaker 1: Roosevelt supposedly like spared the life of a bear, but
Speaker 1: in task case, he devours this eighteen pound namesake and
Speaker 1: a fancy dinner party that is not endearing in the least.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's not the same thing, And that's sort of
Speaker 2: the joke Greg was trying to make. Wouldn't it be ridiculous?
Speaker 2: If kids started cuddling up with stuffed possums just because
Speaker 2: the new An eight one. And you know, since the
Speaker 2: cartoon was published just five days before the banquet, it
Speaker 2: was still on everybody's mind that night, so much so
Speaker 2: that Taft was actually presented with his very own Billy
Speaker 2: possum stuffed animal after the meal. Again, it was meant
Speaker 2: as a joke, but once word got out, there was
Speaker 2: this mad dash among toy companies to capitalize on what
Speaker 2: they assumed would be the hot new craze. So by
Speaker 2: the end of the month, the newly formed Georgia Billy
Speaker 2: Possum Company was cranking out thousands of stuffed to possums
Speaker 2: in three different sizes, And by that summer, the German
Speaker 2: toy company Stife, which had popularized the Teddy Bear, had
Speaker 2: hopped on the bandwagon and released its own Billy possum.
Speaker 1: That's interesting that the company behind the Teddy Bear I
Speaker 1: got on board. So did this whole thing take off?
Speaker 2: No sales were abysmal, and the whole thing was deemed
Speaker 2: a failure by late July. Richard Stife, the nephew of
Speaker 2: the company's founder, later admitted that they never actually had
Speaker 2: faith in the product, saying, quote, I don't believe in
Speaker 2: mixing toys and politics, but they kept at me to
Speaker 2: make the Billy Possum, and then nobody wanted it. The
Speaker 2: American youngster instinctively turns away from what is ugly or grotesque.
Speaker 2: That was the trouble. It was too ugly an animal.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I guess they never met Slopo, who was
Speaker 1: obviously a supermodel of the species. From everything I've read about.
Speaker 2: It, that's right, prettiest possum. But don't feel too bad
Speaker 2: for old Billy. He lived on throughout Taff's presidency and
Speaker 2: songs and postcards, and because his toy was produced in
Speaker 2: such low numbers, even one in rough shape is worth
Speaker 2: thousands of dollars today. So even though he did not
Speaker 2: prove a worthy successor to the Teddy Bear, he still
Speaker 2: has his fans.
Speaker 1: Well, I am one of them. And since this episode
Speaker 1: is all about celebrating the misunderstood majesty of these little
Speaker 1: underdogs or under possums, I want to close us out
Speaker 1: by spotlighting a town that does exactly that each and
Speaker 1: every New Year's Eve, and Gabe as a somewhat southern gentleman,
Speaker 1: I mean Maryland, Tennessee, etcetera. Accounts as the South. Right. Sure,
Speaker 1: I assume you're familiar with the annual possum drop that
Speaker 1: takes place in Tallipalooza, Georgia. Right.
Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, I highlighted on my year. Yeah no, no, no,
Speaker 2: I've never heard of it.
Speaker 1: Is Well, first of all, it's really more of an
Speaker 1: a possum lowering than a possum drop, and the animal
Speaker 1: in question has actually been dead for decades.
Speaker 2: I don't think you're really selling this.
Speaker 1: Maybe not, but it's definitely not as bad as it sounds.
Speaker 1: So Tallapoosa was originally known as Possum Snout, and this
Speaker 1: was because of its abundance of a possums. And now
Speaker 1: the town celebrates that possum rich history every year by
Speaker 1: lowering a taxidermy to possum named Spencer from the roof
Speaker 1: of a local law office. And it is kind of
Speaker 1: have a sweet take on the New Year's Eve ball drop, right,
Speaker 1: And I guess the tradition started in the mid nineteen nineties.
Speaker 1: This is when the town officials decided to create their
Speaker 1: own New Year's Eve event, inspired by the town's old name. Now,
Speaker 1: the organizers asked the town's residential taxidermists Bud and Jackie
Speaker 1: Jones if they had mounted apossums that they could spare,
Speaker 1: and not surprisingly, they did so. The couple had found
Speaker 1: the poor little dead guy on the side of the
Speaker 1: road many many years ago and had taken to calling
Speaker 1: him Spencer in honor of Ralph Spencer, one of the
Speaker 1: towns founding businessmen. Now, the inaugural Possum Drop was attended
Speaker 1: by only about forty people, but it since expanded into
Speaker 1: a city wide event. It has live music carnivalized. The
Speaker 1: estimated crowd at last year's drop was well over thirteen
Speaker 1: thousand people, which is more than four times the town's population.
Speaker 1: People actually come from all over the country to watch
Speaker 1: Spencer's yearly descent in his lighted countdown ball. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think we should think about going next year. But
Speaker 1: while Billy Possum didn't win over the people's hearts and minds,
Speaker 1: Tallapoosa's stuffed apossum certainly has.
Speaker 2: I love that. And you know, twenty twenty six is
Speaker 2: technically the year of the Horse, right according to the
Speaker 2: Chinese zodiac. But after that story, I'm thinking we should
Speaker 2: buck the system and declare it the year of the Apossum.
Speaker 1: What do you think you with me? Since you introduced
Speaker 1: us to Billy Possum and the wonders of slubbing. I
Speaker 1: am going to give you today's trophy.
Speaker 2: And look at that. You got it engraved and everything.
Speaker 2: Gabe Lucy a Possum Queen twenty twenty six. This is
Speaker 2: going right up on the mantle. Thank you, Mango.
Speaker 1: Well, that is it for today's episode. We have a
Speaker 1: question for you out there. If you want to hear
Speaker 1: more of my ridiculous fact poetry like the Apossum poem,
Speaker 1: send us an email, send us a fact you want
Speaker 1: us to write about, or reach out on Blue Sky
Speaker 1: or Instagram. We are at Part Time Genius. We'll be
Speaker 1: back next week with another brand new episode in the
Speaker 1: meantime from Will, Dylan, Gabe, Mary, and myself. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for listening. Part Time Genius is a production
Speaker 1: of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. It is hosted by my good
Speaker 1: pal Will Pearson, who I've known for almost three decades now.
Speaker 1: That is insane to me. I'm the other co host,
Speaker 1: Mangeshatikular aka Mango. Our producer is Mary Phillips Sandy. She's
Speaker 1: actually a super producer. I'm going to fix that in post.
Speaker 1: Our writer is Gabe Lucier, who I've also known for
Speaker 1: like a decade at this point, maybe more. Dylan Fagan
Speaker 1: is in the booth. He is always dressed up, always
Speaker 1: cheering us on, and always ready to hit record and
Speaker 1: then mix the show after he does a great job.
Speaker 1: I also want to shout out the executive producers from
Speaker 1: iHeart my Good Pals Katrina and Norvel and Ali Perry.
Speaker 1: We have social media support from Calypso Rallis. If you
Speaker 1: like our videos, that is all Calypso's handiwork for more
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Speaker 1: or tune in wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 1: That's it from us here at Part Time Genius. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much for listening.