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Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Chuck here. Saturday of 2026, but in COVID time,

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Speaker 1: it's September 10th, 2020. And this is our episode called Wetlands, Wetlands, Wetlands!

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Speaker 1: With exclamation points at the end of each of those words.

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Speaker 1: It had to be Josh that came up with that

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Speaker 1: title because it's as Josh Clark a title as you

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Speaker 1: can ever get. So this is about wetlands, wetlands, wetlands.

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Speaker 1: And I think I picked this one because I just

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Speaker 1: recently took a hike through Doll's Head Trail here in Atlanta.

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Speaker 1: It is an urban trail that is decorated with the

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Speaker 1: trash that was formerly in that part. It's sort of

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Speaker 1: an industrial, like the forest next to an industrial part

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Speaker 1: of Atlanta still is. And it was kind of a

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Speaker 1: dumping ground. So artists cleaned it up, forged a trail,

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Speaker 1: and took that trash, a lot of Doll's Heads and

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Speaker 1: dolls and kids' toys, And they made it into art

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Speaker 1: in a public statement against littering. And it's pretty great.

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Speaker 1: And not only is Doll's Head Trail great, and I

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Speaker 1: highly recommend if you live in Atlanta and haven't heard

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Speaker 1: of it, it's just down Moreland Avenue past the Starlight Drive-In.

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Speaker 1: Just there off the road, like I said, in a

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Speaker 1: weird industrial part of town. But it's got wetlands, wetlands, wetlands.

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Speaker 1: It's got some swamps and some bogs and some small

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Speaker 1: ponds and boardwalks that go through it all. And it's

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Speaker 1: really great. You can always see some You know, egrets

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Speaker 1: and herons and turtles and all sorts of animals. Just

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Speaker 1: the other day, I saw a deer kind of peeking

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Speaker 1: through right there off of a main busy kind of

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Speaker 1: gross road. So check out this episode from September 10th,

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Speaker 1: all about wetlands. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a

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Speaker 1: production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's Charles,

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Speaker 2: and Jerry's over there, and this is Stuff You Should Know,

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Speaker 2: the Dripping Wet Edition.

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Speaker 1: In these wetlands. What? I knew that you would not

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Speaker 1: get that.

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Speaker 2: Is that a Seeger reference?

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Speaker 1: Oh, gosh. Why do you have to say Seeger when

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Speaker 1: you always mean Springsteen?

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Speaker 2: Was that Springsteen?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's Badlands.

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Speaker 2: Oh, okay. Okay. Baby, these wetlands were born to run. Sure.

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Speaker 1: Run water.

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Speaker 2: I don't like myself anymore. Run water. That was a

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Speaker 2: great save, Chuck.

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Speaker 1: Thanks.

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Speaker 2: So we're talking wetlands. I have to say, we have

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Speaker 2: to give a shout out to Tom Peterman, the foul-mouthed

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Speaker 2: wetland biologist who keeps asking us to do this episode.

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Speaker 1: Oh, is that where this came from?

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Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.

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Speaker 2: It was a Tom Peterman suggestion, although I had already

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Speaker 2: wanted to do it anyway, so.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, we love our earth sciences, man. This

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Speaker 1: one was, I was just smiling from ear to ear

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Speaker 1: researching this.

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Speaker 2: Can you imagine watching a blacksmith forge something in a

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Speaker 2: wetland in a flooded woodland? No.

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Speaker 1: That's nirvana right there.

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Speaker 2: It really is. So we're talking wetlands, everybody. And Dave

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Speaker 2: Ruse helped us put this one together.

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Speaker 1: It was a good one.

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Speaker 2: And Dave likes to pop in jokes every once in

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Speaker 2: a while.

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Speaker 3: He does.

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Speaker 2: And he said... what makes a wetland wet?

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Speaker 3: Water.

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Speaker 2: And then he says, in all seriousness, that's basically it,

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Speaker 2: that the water has to be largely present at least

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Speaker 2: some parts of the year in the soil in such

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Speaker 2: amounts that you would call something wetland. I mean, think

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Speaker 2: of the name, wetland. It's about as earthy a term

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Speaker 2: as science gets.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and he front-loaded this with a few stats, and

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Speaker 1: I won't go through all of them, but I'll go

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Speaker 1: through a few that kind of are instructive as to

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Speaker 1: why I love wetlands so much. Here's one. Although wetlands

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Speaker 1: make up only 5% of the land surface in the

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Speaker 1: United States, they are home to 31% of our plant species.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Not bad. One-third of America's threatened or endangered species live

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Speaker 1: only in wetlands.

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Speaker 2: I would propose that that's slightly misleading. I think they're

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Speaker 2: endangered because they live in wetlands, and wetlands are endangered,

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Speaker 2: as we'll see.

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Speaker 3: Hmm.

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Speaker 2: Think about it, Chuck.

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Speaker 1: I don't know. I took it more as.

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Speaker 2: Like they're all hiding out in the wetlands because it's

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Speaker 2: a terrible place to hide out.

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Speaker 1: No, it's not bad because it's got 31 percent of

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Speaker 1: the plant species. I mean, it's a pretty rich, biodiverse

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Speaker 1: area to live in if you're an endangered species.

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Speaker 2: For sure.

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Speaker 1: All right. You say tomato, I say tomato.

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Speaker 2: We'll have to hear from Thomas Peterman, the foul-mouthed wildlife

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Speaker 2: or wetland biologist who can let us know.

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Speaker 1: What does he say? Like, do effing wetlands already.

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Speaker 2: Yes.

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Speaker 1: That kind of thing? Yeah. I like this guy.

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Speaker 2: I think that's an exact quote.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, he's my kind of dude.

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Speaker 2: So another stat that I thought was pretty interesting that

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Speaker 2: just kind of needs to form the basis or the

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Speaker 2: undercurrent of this whole episode is is that so we

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Speaker 2: keep talking about the U.S. There's wetlands found all over

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Speaker 2: the world of different types and varieties and different climates

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Speaker 2: and different continents, every continent except Antarctica. But in the

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Speaker 2: United States in particular, we have a long history of

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Speaker 2: filling in and draining wetlands for other purposes.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: So much so that, let's see, I believe, I don't

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Speaker 2: know how much we've lost, but in the 1600s, the

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Speaker 2: lower 48 states were, We're covered with 220 million acres

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Speaker 2: of wetlands, which is 11% of the total surface area

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Speaker 2: of the lower 48 states. And I think starting in

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Speaker 2: the 50s, we were doing away with wetlands at a

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Speaker 2: rate of about 60,000 of those acres per year.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's gotten better since then. But yeah, boy,

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Speaker 1: up until the Clean Water Act, it was just like, hey,

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Speaker 1: you know what would look great there? A resort with

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Speaker 1: like three golf courses and a bunch of tennis.

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Speaker 2: That's been such a driving force. Like, it's like looking

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Speaker 2: at land or ecosystems and being like, are humans making

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Speaker 2: money off of it? No. Well, then drain it and

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Speaker 2: repurpose it. Set it on fire and repurpose it. Stop

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Speaker 2: it from burning and repurpose it. Like, if we can't

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Speaker 2: make money off of it, it can't possibly be useful.

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Speaker 2: And luckily, since the environmental movement really started in the 70s,

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Speaker 2: we've realized that that's not necessarily true, that Even if

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Speaker 2: you are just a heartless dummy, there's still a lot

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Speaker 2: of benefits that humanity is given from things like wetlands

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Speaker 2: that seem problematic or nonproductive, you know?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that was one of Dangerfield's big lines in Caddyshack,

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Speaker 1: as Al Cervic was, golf courses and cemeteries are the

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Speaker 1: two biggest wastes of prime real estate.

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Speaker 2: That's a good one.

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Speaker 1: So let's talk about wetlands. You said that they are only...

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Speaker 1: Some of them are only wet for short periods, sometimes

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Speaker 1: when there's snow melt or just rain.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, those are called ephemeral wetlands, which is a cool term.

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Speaker 1: It's a great term. Some are wet all the time.

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Speaker 1: And the key parts of being a wetland or the

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Speaker 1: key characteristic is that it's either permanently or periodically flooded

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Speaker 1: or wet. And that the soil is got– it's called

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Speaker 1: hydric soil and is dominated by anaerobic processes, meaning it loves–

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Speaker 1: water and the plants there love water.

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Speaker 2: Which is weird because you used another word that shouldn't

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Speaker 2: really jibe with plants and that's called anaerobic, which means

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Speaker 2: there's very little to no oxygen present. And we'll explain

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Speaker 2: why later. But the fact that there are plants means

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Speaker 2: that those plants have adapted to the wetlands. Yes. And

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Speaker 2: it makes them anaerobic conditions.

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Speaker 1: Hydrophytic. And we'll talk about those plants later. It's another

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Speaker 1: thing I love about wetlands is just that it really

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Speaker 1: underscores the remarkable evolution that something will go through to survive.

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Speaker 2: Very cool stuff.

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Speaker 1: Very, very awesome.

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Speaker 2: Yep. So, um, there's also, so, but you hit upon

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Speaker 2: something like they're not necessarily wet year round, right? So

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Speaker 2: there's a whole bunch of different types of wetlands or

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Speaker 2: wetland environments that fill those, that check those boxes. Um,

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Speaker 2: one of the ones that most people think of when

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Speaker 2: they think of wetlands or coastal wetlands, like marshes and

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Speaker 2: a marsh is basically like this area between inland and

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Speaker 2: And the ocean, it's like a transition zone, a buffer zone.

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Speaker 2: And because of its proximity to the ocean, it's usually

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Speaker 2: salty or at least brackish, which is a mixture of

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Speaker 2: saltwater and freshwater. And one of the ones that really

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Speaker 2: come to mind, if you're thinking coastal wetlands, you're thinking marshlands,

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Speaker 2: and you're thinking tidal marshlands probably, especially if you're a

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Speaker 2: Pat Conroy fan.

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Speaker 1: What was the name of... Her character that he repeats

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Speaker 1: over and over in a whisper.

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Speaker 2: I think I remember, Chuck. It was Bobby Jim. Bobby Jim.

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Speaker 1: This is one of those scream at the pod player moments.

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Speaker 2: Was it in the Prince of Tides? Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Lowenstein. Was that it?

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Speaker 2: Lowenstein. You're sure it wasn't Bobby Jim?

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Speaker 1: I think it was Lowenstein.

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Speaker 2: Was it his, oh, his shrinks? His shrink girlfriend's name?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Babs.

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Speaker 2: Okay. Yeah, I don't remember.

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Speaker 1: I think it was Lowenstein.

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Speaker 2: All right.

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Speaker 1: So anyway, tidal marshes, yes, Prince of Tides, they obviously,

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Speaker 1: it's because they're tidal, they're going to come in and

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Speaker 1: out with the high and low tide. And like you said,

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Speaker 1: they're generally saltwater. And the salt marshes are very nutrient rich,

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Speaker 1: and they do have a lot of diversity, but obviously

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Speaker 1: only the kind of things that can tolerate the salt

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Speaker 1: as far as plants and animals go.

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Speaker 2: Which is a pretty short list, really, because salt is

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Speaker 2: not conducive to life. Instead... There are some plants that

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Speaker 2: have figured out how to deal with salt. But most

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Speaker 2: of the time when you're looking at salt marshes, you're looking,

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Speaker 2: the plant life is basically grasses of some sort. There's

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Speaker 2: also freshwater tidal marshes, which they are either connected to

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Speaker 2: the saltwater marsh, but they're far enough inland that the

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Speaker 2: saltwater doesn't make its way in there. So it's a

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Speaker 2: freshwater marsh, but it's still affected by the tides. And

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Speaker 2: then I had no idea about this. And I used

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Speaker 2: to vacation on Lake Erie, but apparently the Great Lakes

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Speaker 2: are so big that they have tides themselves.

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Speaker 1: You didn't know that?

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Speaker 2: I had no idea.

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Speaker 1: I even knew that. I'm a dum-dum when it comes

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Speaker 1: to the Great Lakes.

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Speaker 2: Well, Chuck, I think you got me beat big time.

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Speaker 1: Well, in this case.

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Speaker 2: Because I could know a million other things about the

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Speaker 2: Great Lakes, and if you knew that one thing and

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Speaker 2: I didn't, you had me beat.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I knew that. And so that means that they

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Speaker 1: do have those tidal marches. The Florida Everglades are another

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Speaker 1: good example. And, boy, Florida just– there's a lot of

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Speaker 1: different types of wetlands in Florida.

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Speaker 2: Well, there's a lot of coastline.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, a lot of coastline and a lot of interior wetness.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we have a lot of wetlands around our place

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Speaker 2: in Florida for sure. And there's mangroves and all sorts

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Speaker 2: of stuff that we'll talk about.

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Speaker 1: Well, we're at mangroves. I love those things.

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Speaker 2: So mangroves– I think they at least deserve a short

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Speaker 2: stuff because they're one of the most amazing plants of

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Speaker 2: all time. But they're a type of coastal wetland themselves,

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Speaker 2: a mangrove forest. Or if you've never seen a mangrove forest,

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Speaker 2: they have a growth habit for the shrubbery on top.

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Speaker 2: of like the hair that Oompa Loompa has in the

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Speaker 2: original Willy Wonka, the good one. And the trunks split

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Speaker 2: out into these cool like long roots and legs that

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Speaker 2: stick up out of the water. And they form this

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Speaker 2: huge tangle, this riot of like shrub, woody shrub. And

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Speaker 2: they do all sorts of amazing things to help the

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Speaker 2: aquatic life and us humans as well up on land

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Speaker 2: just by being present.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, they're really cool looking. And this is another good one,

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Speaker 1: sort of like the origami that if you're able and

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Speaker 1: you're sitting still to look up a lot of these

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Speaker 1: things as you go. Because these mangrove forests, it looks

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Speaker 1: like a shrub that's like, I really want to be

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Speaker 1: a shrub, but I don't want to get wet. So

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Speaker 1: I'm just going to dip my legs in a little bit.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's really great.

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Speaker 1: It's just very cool looking. And again, just the adaptability here.

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Speaker 1: that these mangroves really want to live where they live,

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Speaker 1: even though it's not very suited for them. And they've

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Speaker 1: become suited for it.

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Speaker 2: Right. If you've been sleeping on mangroves, welcome to reality.

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Speaker 1: Well, that's a T-shirt if I ever heard one.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. I could use a little work, but there's the

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Speaker 2: beginnings of one in there.

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Speaker 1: You also got your inland wetlands. These are not coastal.

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Speaker 1: In this case, we're talking about swamps and marshes and

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Speaker 1: bogs and fens, F-E-N. And marshes, a lot of these

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Speaker 1: you'll find near rivers, near streams, lowland depressions, and they

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Speaker 1: might periodically fill up depending on rain, what's going on,

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Speaker 1: or different types of flooding that might happen. And they

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Speaker 1: can be a few inches deep. They can be several

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Speaker 1: feet deep.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, most of the non-tidal inland marshes are ephemeral wetlands. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: So they're dry a lot of the year. They might

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Speaker 2: fill up seasonally. They might fill up with the rains.

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Speaker 2: They might fill up with the nearby river flooding.

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Speaker 1: It's like my backyard.

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Speaker 2: And they, oh, really? Is that right?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it doesn't drain well. I've got a drainage problem.

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Speaker 2: Okay. To you, it's a problem. To nature, it's wonderful

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Speaker 2: because we like things that drain really quickly and dry

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Speaker 2: and then we can walk on them and the grass

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Speaker 2: is fine. But there's a lot of like benefits to

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Speaker 2: things that take their time. Like there's something called the

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Speaker 2: Vernal Pool. which is a kind of non-tidal marsh, an

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Speaker 2: ephemeral wetland. And it's basically just like, say, a stretch

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Speaker 2: of woods that's a little bit depressed there so that

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Speaker 2: when it rains or a river floods, it fills with water.

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Speaker 2: And because the underlying bedrock or clay is not very porous,

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Speaker 2: it takes a while for that water to go through.

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Speaker 2: But that water is also not going further downstream, so

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Speaker 2: it prevents flooding from being as bad as it could

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Speaker 2: because a lot of the water collects and stays there.

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Speaker 2: And it also slowly recharges the groundwater. And because it

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Speaker 2: does get dry, it can't sustain fish, which makes it

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Speaker 2: a really great nursery for things like newts and salamanders

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Speaker 2: and frogs, things that fish eat their eggs. But since

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Speaker 2: there's no fish, this is like a really great place

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Speaker 2: for them to get a good foothold and a brand

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Speaker 2: new life.

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Speaker 1: You've also got your prairie potholes. this is when you

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Speaker 1: should definitely look up. These are usually in the upper

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Speaker 1: Midwest of the United States, the Dakotas, Minnesota, maybe Wisconsin.

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Speaker 1: And these are where glaciers, ancient glaciers left these big

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Speaker 1: depressions in the landscape. And they fill up sometimes during rain,

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Speaker 1: during the spring, during snow melt. And they're not small,

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Speaker 1: like our prairie pothole. And I got a vision in

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Speaker 1: my head. But if you look it up online, they're beautiful.

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Speaker 1: And just they're very large, though. And they're kind of interconnected.

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Speaker 1: Just these big round holes scattered through like a big

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Speaker 1: open area full of water. And these are great for

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Speaker 1: migrating birds because that could be a stopover that they

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Speaker 1: might not have had had those potholes not been there.

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Speaker 2: And when they're flying over the Dakotas, they say, look,

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Speaker 2: I see Van Nostrand's house. Our buddy. and nostril. And

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Speaker 2: then there's also, we said that wetlands occur in all

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Speaker 2: different kinds of climates. They also occur in the desert.

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Speaker 2: There's something called playa lakes, which are these depressions that

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Speaker 2: apparently no one has any idea exactly how they formed.

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Speaker 2: It could have been from erosion. It could have been

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Speaker 2: from an ancient sinkhole. But there are depressions that are

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Speaker 2: deep enough that when the seasonal rains come, the water

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Speaker 2: is held in there. And just like the prairie potholes,

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Speaker 2: it's very useful for migratory birds to stop over at

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Speaker 2: and really plays a huge role in this ecosystem where

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Speaker 2: there's almost no water, and now all of a sudden

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Speaker 2: there's water, and it's in this nice little lake, so

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Speaker 2: let's all go gather there and have a social hour.

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Speaker 2: But responsibly, six feet apart.

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Speaker 1: That's right.

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Speaker 2: Okay.

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Speaker 1: I think we should take a break, and we will

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Speaker 1: talk a little bit about inland swamps right after this.

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Speaker 3: Music All right.

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Speaker 1: So inland swamps, we promised to talk about that. These are,

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Speaker 1: for my money, some of the coolest areas in the

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Speaker 1: country because I think I talked about it at some point,

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Speaker 1: but I took a very special fun trip many, many

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Speaker 1: years ago to the Okefenokee Swamp and did one of

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Speaker 1: those canoe trips where you have to rent, you know,

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Speaker 1: there's no place to stop in the Okefenokee Swamp. If

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Speaker 1: you're like, I think I'll camp here. It's like in

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Speaker 1: the water. So they had these camping pads built up,

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Speaker 1: essentially just decks that are like six feet above the water.

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Speaker 1: And you have to reserve those. They're not just wide

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Speaker 1: open for anyone because there's nothing else out there. So

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Speaker 1: you have to reserve them for specific nights on these

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Speaker 1: specific pathways or, you know, paddleways. And me and a

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Speaker 1: couple of buddies did it one year, and we canoed

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Speaker 1: from deck to deck.

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Speaker 2: Very cool.

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Speaker 1: It was amazing, like one of the coolest trips I've

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Speaker 1: ever taken.

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Speaker 2: That is very cool. Was Ned Beatty with you?

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Speaker 1: No, but you do wake up surrounded by alligators. It's

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Speaker 1: a little creepy.

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Speaker 2: Yes, alligators are very creepy.

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Speaker 1: Like you wake up on that pad and pee off

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Speaker 1: the dock, and they're growling at you.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and you do not want to get too close

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Speaker 2: because they can move faster than you think.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, they can. It was a lot of fun, though.

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Speaker 1: But not for the faint of heart because, you know,

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Speaker 1: you don't realize until you get out there, A, how

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Speaker 1: bad the sun is going to beat you up because

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Speaker 1: there's no shade. And B, how tough it is to

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Speaker 1: paddle all day long without like, you know, let me

355
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Speaker 1: get out and stretch my legs.

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Speaker 2: Right.

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Speaker 1: I mean, there is no getting out. You just go

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Speaker 1: and go and go. And by the time you finally

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Speaker 1: reach that janky deck, it is like might as well

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Speaker 1: be the Plaza Hotel, you know.

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Speaker 2: Oh, nice.

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Speaker 1: But what I'm talking about in the case of the Okefenokee,

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Speaker 1: I thought it was a forested or a bottomland hardwood swamp.

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Speaker 2: You'd think.

365
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Speaker 1: From reading this, but apparently it's called a non-riverine swamp forest.

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Speaker 2: Right.

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Speaker 1: And that is a forested swamp that fills up from

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Speaker 1: non-river sources, basically rain or groundwater.

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Speaker 2: Right, right. So what would make a forested swamp, like

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Speaker 2: a bottomland hardwood swamp, is a proximity to a river

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Speaker 2: that floods its banks or that is just so big

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Speaker 2: it kind of spills over into some of the surrounding land,

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Speaker 2: and that surrounding land is swamp.

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Speaker 1: I want to look that up, though. I'm not quite sure.

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Speaker 2: Well, okay. So it's either river-fed or groundwater-fed or precipitation-fed.

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Speaker 2: And if you're talking bottomland hardwood swamps or a river-fed swamp,

377
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Speaker 2: there's usually also a shrub swamp, which is a transition

378
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Speaker 2: or buffer zone between the forested swamp and somebody's backyard,

379
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Speaker 2: which is just dominated by shrubs. But it's all the

380
00:19:35,410 --> 00:19:37,250
Speaker 2: same thing. It's all a freshwater swamp.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I think, I bet you anything the Okefenokee has

382
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Speaker 1: several different types of these would be my guess.

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Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.

384
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Speaker 1: Because there were full-on lakes that we paddled through.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: So that would be my guess. And I also think

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Speaker 1: if I had a country band, they would be the

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Speaker 1: Bottomland Hardwood Swamp Rats.

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Speaker 2: Oh, that's a good one.

390
00:19:54,580 --> 00:19:54,909
Speaker 1: Not bad, huh?

391
00:19:54,920 --> 00:19:56,660
Speaker 2: That sounds like an all-star band, you know?

392
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Speaker 1: Oh, sure.

393
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Speaker 2: Yeah. So another kind of wetland that you're going to

394
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Speaker 2: find all over the place, especially in Europe, which when

395
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Speaker 2: I think of bogs and fens, I think of Europe,

396
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Speaker 2: but apparently there's plenty of them in the United States too.

397
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Speaker 2: But bogs and fens are kind of their own thing.

398
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Speaker 2: Bogs in particular are very unique as far as wetlands

399
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Speaker 2: go because not only are they anaerobic, which by definition,

400
00:20:21,430 --> 00:20:27,170
Speaker 2: wetland is anaerobic soil. They're like wetlands. Very little nutrient

401
00:20:27,230 --> 00:20:31,290
Speaker 2: and very high acidity. I've heard like the kind of

402
00:20:31,490 --> 00:20:34,730
Speaker 2: acid that is put out by the peat that's created

403
00:20:35,210 --> 00:20:40,210
Speaker 2: in the bog has the same acidity roughly of vinegar. Oh, wow. Yeah,

404
00:20:40,350 --> 00:20:44,429
Speaker 2: it's really, really acidic stuff. And yet some plants prefer it.

405
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Speaker 2: Like you can grow cranberries and blueberries in a bog.

406
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Speaker 1: Sure.

407
00:20:48,480 --> 00:20:51,600
Speaker 2: You can preserve a body from the Iron Age forward

408
00:20:51,660 --> 00:20:52,240
Speaker 2: in a bog.

409
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Speaker 1: Did we ever cover that, the bog bodies? I feel

410
00:20:55,680 --> 00:20:57,280
Speaker 1: like we did. It might have been one of our

411
00:20:57,500 --> 00:20:59,160
Speaker 1: video things on YouTube.

412
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Speaker 2: Maybe mummies. Because I think, if I remember correctly, our

413
00:21:02,859 --> 00:21:06,120
Speaker 2: mummy episode covered more than just Egyptian mummies. I think

414
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Speaker 2: it covered like Inca mummies.

415
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Speaker 1: And the bog people.

416
00:21:08,680 --> 00:21:10,719
Speaker 2: I'm sure we did. We saw some of them when

417
00:21:10,760 --> 00:21:14,480
Speaker 2: we went to our UK trip. We got to visit

418
00:21:14,530 --> 00:21:18,270
Speaker 2: some of those cats like firsthand, like right there in

419
00:21:18,290 --> 00:21:21,369
Speaker 2: that glass. You know, all you have to do is

420
00:21:21,410 --> 00:21:23,010
Speaker 2: smash it with a hammer and it's yours. And you

421
00:21:23,030 --> 00:21:23,869
Speaker 2: got a bog person.

422
00:21:23,950 --> 00:21:24,290
Speaker 1: Yeah.

423
00:21:24,310 --> 00:21:24,389
Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Or at least whatever you can grab, like a bog ear.

425
00:21:28,070 --> 00:21:32,270
Speaker 2: Right. It just crumbles in your hand. But I was like, okay,

426
00:21:32,390 --> 00:21:36,820
Speaker 2: why are the bogs so great for preservation? Part of it,

427
00:21:36,869 --> 00:21:39,700
Speaker 2: from what I understand, is that acidity, that the bodies

428
00:21:39,720 --> 00:21:45,899
Speaker 2: are actually pickled. But another part is the aerobic life

429
00:21:45,920 --> 00:21:50,290
Speaker 2: of is so devoid there. There's just anaerobic bacteria and

430
00:21:50,330 --> 00:21:53,429
Speaker 2: they don't decompose nearly as well as aerobic bacteria. So

431
00:21:53,470 --> 00:21:56,590
Speaker 2: the decomposition doesn't set in and the remains are pickled.

432
00:21:57,150 --> 00:22:00,060
Speaker 2: So like you can preserve a body in a really

433
00:22:00,119 --> 00:22:00,780
Speaker 2: great state.

434
00:22:00,859 --> 00:22:01,080
Speaker 3: Yeah.

435
00:22:01,640 --> 00:22:05,800
Speaker 2: For a very, like Tolland man, his whiskers are still

436
00:22:05,859 --> 00:22:06,879
Speaker 2: intact on his face.

437
00:22:06,940 --> 00:22:07,220
Speaker 1: Yeah.

438
00:22:07,680 --> 00:22:09,919
Speaker 2: Like that was the level of preservation and he was

439
00:22:09,980 --> 00:22:12,480
Speaker 2: sacrificed into a bog, which is a very specific kind

440
00:22:12,520 --> 00:22:13,000
Speaker 2: of wetland.

441
00:22:13,600 --> 00:22:16,400
Speaker 1: Yeah, and a fen, like I said, it's F-E-N. It's

442
00:22:16,680 --> 00:22:19,190
Speaker 1: sort of like a bog in that it is a

443
00:22:19,609 --> 00:22:24,230
Speaker 1: peaty wetland, but they're a little bit different than bogs.

444
00:22:24,609 --> 00:22:28,649
Speaker 1: The water supply doesn't come primarily from rain, and it

445
00:22:28,690 --> 00:22:30,880
Speaker 1: comes from the ground. So it's going to be less

446
00:22:30,910 --> 00:22:33,739
Speaker 1: acidic because I don't think we mentioned, I know it's

447
00:22:34,480 --> 00:22:37,940
Speaker 1: partially because of the peat, but the acidity also comes

448
00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:41,720
Speaker 1: from the fact that there's acid in rain that fills

449
00:22:41,780 --> 00:22:42,140
Speaker 1: up these bogs.

450
00:22:43,730 --> 00:22:43,930
Speaker 2: Right.

451
00:22:44,010 --> 00:22:45,570
Speaker 1: But not the case in a fin.

452
00:22:45,830 --> 00:22:49,149
Speaker 2: No. No, because that groundwater is able to kind of

453
00:22:49,630 --> 00:22:52,050
Speaker 2: dilute it a little bit. So they're much more nutrient

454
00:22:52,090 --> 00:22:53,830
Speaker 2: rich than a bog is. So they're going to have

455
00:22:53,930 --> 00:22:58,109
Speaker 2: a much wider, diverse range of plants and animal life.

456
00:22:58,810 --> 00:23:00,910
Speaker 1: Yeah. And I love that this next section from Dave

457
00:23:00,950 --> 00:23:03,730
Speaker 1: was called other fun types of wetlands. Yeah.

458
00:23:04,210 --> 00:23:04,910
Speaker 2: Mudflats.

459
00:23:05,170 --> 00:23:07,140
Speaker 1: Yeah. You got your mudflat. It's another good country band.

460
00:23:08,160 --> 00:23:11,119
Speaker 2: My favorite are seeps. These are just gorgeous little pieces

461
00:23:11,180 --> 00:23:13,859
Speaker 2: of nature, if you ask me. Um, it's, if you

462
00:23:13,900 --> 00:23:16,060
Speaker 2: have a spring that comes up out of the ground, uh,

463
00:23:16,880 --> 00:23:19,359
Speaker 2: it spills over into the ground. So the surrounding ground

464
00:23:19,420 --> 00:23:21,940
Speaker 2: is a wetland and it's called a seep. That's right.

465
00:23:22,359 --> 00:23:24,520
Speaker 2: It's where gnomes like go and shower.

466
00:23:25,300 --> 00:23:28,720
Speaker 1: Yeah. And it's not, uh, like you said, it's a spring,

467
00:23:28,760 --> 00:23:31,530
Speaker 1: so it's not like a Creek. No, it's actually coming

468
00:23:31,590 --> 00:23:34,010
Speaker 1: up from the ground. Uh, you ever drink from a

469
00:23:34,030 --> 00:23:34,570
Speaker 1: natural spring?

470
00:23:36,850 --> 00:23:38,730
Speaker 2: I did when I was a kid, and I think

471
00:23:38,770 --> 00:23:41,610
Speaker 2: my mom fired the babysitter that took us to drink

472
00:23:41,670 --> 00:23:44,250
Speaker 2: from a spring. She was like, what are you doing?

473
00:23:44,609 --> 00:23:47,230
Speaker 2: It was either a spring or a river in Ohio.

474
00:23:48,010 --> 00:23:50,960
Speaker 1: Two very different things. If it was the Cuyahoga River,

475
00:23:51,040 --> 00:23:51,899
Speaker 1: then you're in bad shape.

476
00:23:52,520 --> 00:23:54,200
Speaker 2: It was on fire while we were drinking.

477
00:23:54,800 --> 00:23:57,560
Speaker 1: But, I mean, we have creeks. If you're listening, you've

478
00:23:57,600 --> 00:24:00,080
Speaker 1: never been to Atlanta. Atlanta has creeks all over the place.

479
00:24:00,940 --> 00:24:03,619
Speaker 1: Like all of the in-town neighborhoods just are riddled with creeks.

480
00:24:03,660 --> 00:24:06,449
Speaker 1: They're just sort of out of view. But we have

481
00:24:06,490 --> 00:24:08,830
Speaker 1: a creek, you know, 120 feet from our house.

482
00:24:09,250 --> 00:24:09,450
Speaker 2: Sure.

483
00:24:10,010 --> 00:24:11,790
Speaker 1: Which might have something to do with our drainage. Who knows?

484
00:24:12,390 --> 00:24:13,190
Speaker 2: And it's spring fed?

485
00:24:14,400 --> 00:24:18,400
Speaker 1: No, it's just, you know, just a part of the Atlanta.

486
00:24:18,840 --> 00:24:20,820
Speaker 1: Probably all comes from the Chattahoochee at some point.

487
00:24:21,119 --> 00:24:24,419
Speaker 2: Sure. So, Chuck, if that creek behind your house started

488
00:24:24,480 --> 00:24:28,449
Speaker 2: meandering in a different direction and left a body of

489
00:24:28,530 --> 00:24:31,970
Speaker 2: water where it originally flowed, it would be an oxbow lake.

490
00:24:32,490 --> 00:24:35,419
Speaker 2: But if you were in Australia... And you were calling

491
00:24:35,460 --> 00:24:38,290
Speaker 2: it its proper aboriginal name. You'd call it a billabong.

492
00:24:38,380 --> 00:24:38,980
Speaker 1: A billabong.

493
00:24:39,730 --> 00:24:41,190
Speaker 2: Which I had no idea. What does that have to

494
00:24:41,210 --> 00:24:41,910
Speaker 2: do with surfing?

495
00:24:42,930 --> 00:24:45,930
Speaker 1: Oh, I think they just probably co-opted the name and

496
00:24:45,970 --> 00:24:49,330
Speaker 1: it became more associated with surf and surf gear than

497
00:24:50,350 --> 00:24:50,930
Speaker 1: its true meaning.

498
00:24:51,350 --> 00:24:52,210
Speaker 2: That doesn't seem right.

499
00:24:52,750 --> 00:24:53,760
Speaker 1: No. Let's take it back.

500
00:24:54,260 --> 00:24:56,820
Speaker 2: But that's what an Oxbow Lake is in Australia among

501
00:24:56,859 --> 00:25:00,980
Speaker 2: the aborigines. It is a billabong, which is great.

502
00:25:01,100 --> 00:25:03,699
Speaker 1: A billabong. That was some, like, along with OP was

503
00:25:03,780 --> 00:25:08,160
Speaker 1: one of the prime t-shirts to have when you were

504
00:25:08,180 --> 00:25:09,100
Speaker 1: a kid in the 80s.

505
00:25:09,500 --> 00:25:09,780
Speaker 2: Oh, yeah.

506
00:25:09,880 --> 00:25:10,460
Speaker 1: If you were cool.

507
00:25:10,940 --> 00:25:14,619
Speaker 2: I had this amazing OP long-sleeve blue shirt that I

508
00:25:14,660 --> 00:25:16,060
Speaker 2: wore with my parachute pants.

509
00:25:16,100 --> 00:25:17,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, those were the best.

510
00:25:17,460 --> 00:25:18,460
Speaker 2: My British Knights.

511
00:25:18,880 --> 00:25:20,700
Speaker 1: I remember those long-sleeve OP shirts.

512
00:25:21,119 --> 00:25:22,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, they were good.

513
00:25:22,220 --> 00:25:22,600
Speaker 1: Gorgeous.

514
00:25:23,480 --> 00:25:25,639
Speaker 2: So, Chuck, one of the things we've been talking about

515
00:25:25,920 --> 00:25:31,619
Speaker 2: is the characteristics that make a wetland a wetland. And

516
00:25:31,640 --> 00:25:34,820
Speaker 2: it's not just the fact that the soil table or

517
00:25:34,859 --> 00:25:39,960
Speaker 2: the ground is either flooded or almost completely flooded up

518
00:25:40,020 --> 00:25:45,020
Speaker 2: to the surface level with water. That's not the entirety

519
00:25:45,100 --> 00:25:48,920
Speaker 2: of it. Like different wetlands are characterized by how that

520
00:25:48,960 --> 00:25:51,100
Speaker 2: water gets to it. Like we said, you know, some

521
00:25:51,140 --> 00:25:53,600
Speaker 2: kinds of swamps are fed by groundwater. Others are fed

522
00:25:53,619 --> 00:25:57,660
Speaker 2: by precipitation. Some are tidal. So there's a whole group

523
00:25:57,700 --> 00:26:02,550
Speaker 2: of scientists out there that are called wetland hydrologists. And

524
00:26:02,740 --> 00:26:05,210
Speaker 2: what they study is how that water gets into a

525
00:26:05,250 --> 00:26:08,010
Speaker 2: wetland to create a wetland, what happens to it while

526
00:26:08,050 --> 00:26:11,270
Speaker 2: it's there, and then where it goes, and how all

527
00:26:11,330 --> 00:26:15,250
Speaker 2: these things kind of interact to form this very unique ecosystem.

528
00:26:15,990 --> 00:26:18,909
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we talked early on about the kind of soil,

529
00:26:18,950 --> 00:26:22,780
Speaker 1: hydric soil, is saturated with water. And so if it's

530
00:26:22,800 --> 00:26:25,060
Speaker 1: saturated with water, it's not going to have nearly as

531
00:26:25,119 --> 00:26:29,540
Speaker 1: much oxygen. And usually oxygen and soil are in these

532
00:26:29,580 --> 00:26:31,100
Speaker 1: little tiny air pockets.

533
00:26:30,700 --> 00:26:33,050
Speaker 2: That Remember we talked about it in our soil episode.

534
00:26:33,130 --> 00:26:37,060
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. And in the case of a wetland, then

535
00:26:37,100 --> 00:26:39,000
Speaker 1: those air pockets are going to be filled with water

536
00:26:39,119 --> 00:26:42,760
Speaker 1: or just collapsed altogether. And then you've got your anaerobic condition.

537
00:26:43,340 --> 00:26:46,860
Speaker 1: But if you're a plant, you need CO2 and oxygen.

538
00:26:47,680 --> 00:26:49,980
Speaker 1: And you'll get a little bit of that from photosynthesis

539
00:26:50,020 --> 00:26:51,540
Speaker 1: in the leaves, but the roots are like, what about

540
00:26:51,560 --> 00:26:54,960
Speaker 1: me down here? I need oxygen too. And if it

541
00:26:55,000 --> 00:26:57,440
Speaker 1: was an aerobic soil, like we talked about in the

542
00:26:57,480 --> 00:27:00,660
Speaker 1: soil podcast, The roots can get it from those air pockets.

543
00:27:00,720 --> 00:27:04,600
Speaker 1: But in wetlands, they have to really, really adapt to

544
00:27:04,640 --> 00:27:09,540
Speaker 1: become hydrophytic or water loving plants in some pretty amazing ways.

545
00:27:10,140 --> 00:27:12,360
Speaker 2: So I just have to say that this is like

546
00:27:12,420 --> 00:27:16,050
Speaker 2: a lifelong mystery solved and solved in like the simplest

547
00:27:16,109 --> 00:27:19,909
Speaker 2: way possible. Like it's anaerobic because there's water there instead

548
00:27:19,950 --> 00:27:21,690
Speaker 2: of air. The air can't be in there because of

549
00:27:21,730 --> 00:27:27,110
Speaker 2: the waters there. Ipso facto anaerobic. I just think that's

550
00:27:27,190 --> 00:27:28,050
Speaker 2: brilliantly simple.

551
00:27:28,330 --> 00:27:28,689
Speaker 1: Yeah.

552
00:27:28,850 --> 00:27:31,270
Speaker 2: Did you get that intuitively? Because I never did. I

553
00:27:31,470 --> 00:27:33,859
Speaker 2: always thought it was something mysterious. Like, we're talking about

554
00:27:33,900 --> 00:27:36,580
Speaker 2: a whole different type of soil or something else.

555
00:27:37,460 --> 00:27:38,240
Speaker 1: No, I think I got it.

556
00:27:38,600 --> 00:27:42,639
Speaker 2: Okay. Well, I've been around for 44 years and wondered

557
00:27:42,700 --> 00:27:44,000
Speaker 2: it until just now.

558
00:27:44,260 --> 00:27:46,139
Speaker 1: Well, I'm 49, so I might have learned that in

559
00:27:46,170 --> 00:27:46,850
Speaker 1: the last five years.

560
00:27:47,330 --> 00:27:51,250
Speaker 2: So... The plants that we're talking about, like you said,

561
00:27:51,270 --> 00:27:53,830
Speaker 2: the roots still need oxygen. So they've said, okay, well,

562
00:27:53,910 --> 00:27:56,210
Speaker 2: I really like it here. I like this wetland area.

563
00:27:56,250 --> 00:27:58,470
Speaker 2: This is a pretty amazing place to live. I'm going

564
00:27:58,490 --> 00:28:01,930
Speaker 2: to change so that I can stay here. And some

565
00:28:01,950 --> 00:28:05,770
Speaker 2: of the ways that plants have adapted, well, one good

566
00:28:05,810 --> 00:28:09,439
Speaker 2: example is a cattail, right? Cattails are pretty much synonymous

567
00:28:09,840 --> 00:28:13,820
Speaker 2: with marshlands. Yeah, they're beautiful. They're that long, thin stem

568
00:28:13,859 --> 00:28:17,020
Speaker 2: with like a big fat, thing on top like a

569
00:28:17,260 --> 00:28:19,340
Speaker 2: hot dog that's ready to be roasted on the fire

570
00:28:19,619 --> 00:28:20,420
Speaker 2: yeah i grew.

571
00:28:20,320 --> 00:28:21,580
Speaker 1: Up with those i don't know if it was a

572
00:28:21,619 --> 00:28:24,679
Speaker 1: southern thing but they can be decorative items in the

573
00:28:24,720 --> 00:28:26,960
Speaker 1: home and i grew up i feel like with a

574
00:28:26,960 --> 00:28:28,880
Speaker 1: lot of cattails and vases.

575
00:28:28,600 --> 00:28:33,090
Speaker 2: And stuff okay so um that and wasps nests yeah

576
00:28:33,910 --> 00:28:37,869
Speaker 2: hornets nests yeah so cattails have this thing called um

577
00:28:38,670 --> 00:28:50,070
Speaker 2: erinicum no i've got erinicum uh Aren-aren-a-chima. Aren-a-chima. I think

578
00:28:50,110 --> 00:28:54,310
Speaker 2: I got it. Anyway, they're like these channels that basically

579
00:28:54,370 --> 00:28:56,990
Speaker 2: direct air from the leaves and the stem and every

580
00:28:57,050 --> 00:28:59,450
Speaker 2: other part of the cattail down to the roots. It says,

581
00:28:59,470 --> 00:29:02,310
Speaker 2: here you go, roots. Here's some oxygen fresh from the leaf.

582
00:29:02,990 --> 00:29:03,230
Speaker 3: Yeah.

583
00:29:03,990 --> 00:29:06,440
Speaker 2: So that cattail can have as much roots as it

584
00:29:06,480 --> 00:29:09,000
Speaker 2: wants down in this anaerobic soil. It doesn't matter because

585
00:29:09,040 --> 00:29:12,080
Speaker 2: it's getting its oxygen from the air through the leaves. Yes.

586
00:29:12,620 --> 00:29:16,880
Speaker 1: Yeah, one of my favorites is the speckled alder. You

587
00:29:16,920 --> 00:29:18,890
Speaker 1: just look up a picture of that, and they have

588
00:29:18,910 --> 00:29:22,990
Speaker 1: these enlarged pores called lenticels, and they allow for the

589
00:29:23,030 --> 00:29:27,310
Speaker 1: passage of oxygen directly into that wood. And if you

590
00:29:27,330 --> 00:29:29,410
Speaker 1: look up a picture and you see those, you go, oh,

591
00:29:29,950 --> 00:29:32,350
Speaker 1: that's what those are. That's what those are for. They

592
00:29:32,370 --> 00:29:34,610
Speaker 1: look like someone took a knife, and they're just tiny

593
00:29:34,630 --> 00:29:36,490
Speaker 1: little horizontal slits all up and down the alder.

594
00:29:36,910 --> 00:29:37,600
Speaker 2: I got you.

595
00:29:37,860 --> 00:29:39,260
Speaker 1: And they're breathing, basically.

596
00:29:40,020 --> 00:29:43,280
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's creepy as heck, but it's really neat.

597
00:29:43,340 --> 00:29:44,840
Speaker 1: Little mouths, little slitty mouths.

598
00:29:45,620 --> 00:29:50,110
Speaker 2: So the grasses that we talked about growing in salt marshes,

599
00:29:51,150 --> 00:29:54,410
Speaker 2: just like an iguana sneezes out excess salts as part

600
00:29:54,450 --> 00:29:57,469
Speaker 2: of digestion, things like cord grass that grow in these

601
00:29:57,510 --> 00:30:02,410
Speaker 2: salt marshes They actually excrete salts through their leaves. So

602
00:30:02,450 --> 00:30:05,230
Speaker 2: they can sit there and intake all the nutrients they

603
00:30:05,270 --> 00:30:11,550
Speaker 2: need from this salinic environment and still not get overloaded

604
00:30:11,590 --> 00:30:14,150
Speaker 2: with salt. It's just pretty amazing that they can do that.

605
00:30:14,690 --> 00:30:17,400
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then to me, maybe the most amazing, and

606
00:30:17,440 --> 00:30:19,480
Speaker 1: this is where the mangroves kind of come back in,

607
00:30:20,160 --> 00:30:23,140
Speaker 1: although the mangroves apparently utilize all these to stick around.

608
00:30:23,640 --> 00:30:26,840
Speaker 1: But the bald cypress, they grow in those forested swamps.

609
00:30:27,360 --> 00:30:30,959
Speaker 1: where there's always water, and they are deciduous conifers, and

610
00:30:31,020 --> 00:30:34,560
Speaker 1: they grow this root structure that they call a knee.

611
00:30:34,620 --> 00:30:37,320
Speaker 1: It's a pneumatophore, but like a knee on your leg

612
00:30:37,740 --> 00:30:40,200
Speaker 1: is how it's spelled. And they just sit above the

613
00:30:40,240 --> 00:30:44,750
Speaker 1: waterline and take in oxygen, and that's what those, I guess, mangroves, mangroves.

614
00:30:47,110 --> 00:30:49,250
Speaker 1: There's a Soul Train joke in there somewhere.

615
00:30:50,010 --> 00:30:52,370
Speaker 2: It struck me as like a terrible jam band's name.

616
00:30:52,410 --> 00:30:52,890
Speaker 1: The mangroves?

617
00:30:53,350 --> 00:30:53,590
Speaker 2: Yeah.

618
00:30:53,690 --> 00:30:54,250
Speaker 1: God, you're right.

619
00:30:54,270 --> 00:30:55,130
Speaker 3: Yeah.

620
00:30:55,210 --> 00:30:56,780
Speaker 1: That play somewhere in Florida probably.

621
00:30:57,160 --> 00:30:57,640
Speaker 2: Probably.

622
00:30:58,310 --> 00:31:01,650
Speaker 1: But the mangrove uses, like I said, a lot of

623
00:31:01,690 --> 00:31:05,070
Speaker 1: these tricks. And I think certainly when you see those roots,

624
00:31:05,150 --> 00:31:07,000
Speaker 1: they're using those knees.

625
00:31:08,080 --> 00:31:12,340
Speaker 2: Yeah, which is basically it's a way to get oxygen

626
00:31:12,400 --> 00:31:16,050
Speaker 2: from the surrounding air down to the roots. The mangroves

627
00:31:16,110 --> 00:31:18,970
Speaker 2: do it. The bald cypresses do it. Mangroves have all

628
00:31:19,010 --> 00:31:23,650
Speaker 2: those adaptations, different species. They can do things like excrete salt.

629
00:31:23,690 --> 00:31:26,250
Speaker 2: They can draw oxygen in from the environment. They have

630
00:31:26,310 --> 00:31:28,590
Speaker 2: channels where they can pump oxygen from one part of

631
00:31:28,610 --> 00:31:31,760
Speaker 2: the plant to the other. The one that gets me, though,

632
00:31:31,930 --> 00:31:34,920
Speaker 2: I'm just fascinated by bogs. So we said that it's

633
00:31:34,960 --> 00:31:41,200
Speaker 2: an acidic, anaerobic plant. nutrient depleted environment. And yet there's

634
00:31:41,220 --> 00:31:44,060
Speaker 2: still plants that live there. And one of those plants

635
00:31:44,420 --> 00:31:47,300
Speaker 2: or one kind of plant is carnivorous plants. They get

636
00:31:47,340 --> 00:31:50,160
Speaker 2: their nutrients, not from like the soil, but from eating bugs.

637
00:31:50,200 --> 00:31:51,010
Speaker 1: Yeah. Those are cool.

638
00:31:51,270 --> 00:31:53,510
Speaker 2: So they can just live there like a pitcher plant

639
00:31:53,530 --> 00:31:55,750
Speaker 2: or a Venus flytrap or something like that.

640
00:31:55,910 --> 00:31:56,130
Speaker 3: Yeah.

641
00:31:56,250 --> 00:31:57,350
Speaker 1: Those are nature.

642
00:31:58,070 --> 00:32:01,470
Speaker 2: Wasn't Venus flytrap one of the DJs on WKRP?

643
00:32:01,570 --> 00:32:02,930
Speaker 1: That's a great DJ name. Yeah.

644
00:32:03,780 --> 00:32:05,000
Speaker 2: He was a great DJ.

645
00:32:05,500 --> 00:32:08,400
Speaker 1: All right. So let's take our final break and we'll

646
00:32:08,440 --> 00:32:10,550
Speaker 1: talk about why wetlands are important and what you can

647
00:32:10,570 --> 00:32:12,730
Speaker 1: do to help them do their thing right after this.

648
00:32:33,100 --> 00:32:37,100
Speaker 2: Okay, Chuck, so just the fact that wetlands are as

649
00:32:37,180 --> 00:32:40,440
Speaker 2: amazing as they are means that they should be saved.

650
00:32:41,960 --> 00:32:44,260
Speaker 2: But there's also like a lot of benefits that we

651
00:32:44,300 --> 00:32:47,070
Speaker 2: figured out. Like you said, the 50s to the 70s

652
00:32:47,110 --> 00:32:50,630
Speaker 2: were a really rough time for wetlands in the United

653
00:32:50,670 --> 00:32:52,870
Speaker 2: States because we were filling them in for cropland, for

654
00:32:52,910 --> 00:32:56,390
Speaker 2: real estate. And even previous to that, we filled in

655
00:32:56,450 --> 00:32:59,850
Speaker 2: a lot of marshland in the U.S. and built cities

656
00:32:59,950 --> 00:33:02,850
Speaker 2: over them. Like D.C. was built largely on marshland. Yeah.

657
00:33:03,750 --> 00:33:07,740
Speaker 2: The fact that mosquitoes tend to live in wetland areas

658
00:33:08,660 --> 00:33:11,040
Speaker 2: kind of justified filling in a lot of the wetlands

659
00:33:11,100 --> 00:33:13,920
Speaker 2: because we were dealing with malaria at the time. So

660
00:33:13,940 --> 00:33:15,060
Speaker 2: it made a lot of sense. Get rid of the

661
00:33:15,100 --> 00:33:17,660
Speaker 2: mosquitoes habitat, you get rid of the mosquitoes. And it worked,

662
00:33:18,060 --> 00:33:20,040
Speaker 2: but we've paid a heavy price for it because over

663
00:33:20,060 --> 00:33:24,650
Speaker 2: time we've realized these wetlands provide some really important benefits

664
00:33:24,770 --> 00:33:28,670
Speaker 2: to the local ecosystems and in turn humans who live

665
00:33:28,730 --> 00:33:29,150
Speaker 2: around them.

666
00:33:29,780 --> 00:33:32,510
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, helping flood conditions is a big one.

667
00:33:32,570 --> 00:33:35,990
Speaker 1: They are big, big natural sponges when it comes down

668
00:33:36,050 --> 00:33:39,310
Speaker 1: to it. And flooding would be way, way worse. And

669
00:33:39,330 --> 00:33:41,570
Speaker 1: we still have floods, obviously, but it'd be way worse

670
00:33:42,050 --> 00:33:44,880
Speaker 1: if we didn't have wetlands. They'd be far more destructive

671
00:33:45,480 --> 00:33:48,020
Speaker 1: if they weren't around to soak in that excess water

672
00:33:48,500 --> 00:33:51,500
Speaker 1: and then kind of slowly trickle it to the water

673
00:33:51,520 --> 00:33:55,900
Speaker 1: table below. And the same is obviously true of hurricanes

674
00:33:56,010 --> 00:34:00,070
Speaker 1: and big storm surges. The wetlands basically operate as big

675
00:34:00,130 --> 00:34:01,290
Speaker 1: storage tanks for water.

676
00:34:01,890 --> 00:34:04,490
Speaker 2: Yeah, I saw somewhere, I can't find it now, but like, oh,

677
00:34:04,490 --> 00:34:07,310
Speaker 2: there it is. An acre of wetlands can hold up

678
00:34:07,390 --> 00:34:10,230
Speaker 2: to about a million and a half gallons of water.

679
00:34:10,250 --> 00:34:10,850
Speaker 1: Yeah.

680
00:34:10,989 --> 00:34:13,430
Speaker 2: Just one acre. So you got to think like that

681
00:34:13,489 --> 00:34:17,930
Speaker 2: water staying put there and it's not flooding some human

682
00:34:17,989 --> 00:34:20,890
Speaker 2: habitation instead, which is a good reason to keep wetlands

683
00:34:20,930 --> 00:34:24,149
Speaker 2: around just for that buffer area or to slow down

684
00:34:24,210 --> 00:34:26,950
Speaker 2: the surge like you were saying. I also saw that

685
00:34:26,969 --> 00:34:30,260
Speaker 2: we found out the same thing goes for beaver dams

686
00:34:30,340 --> 00:34:33,719
Speaker 2: that they build. They're like a temporary artificial wetland and

687
00:34:33,760 --> 00:34:36,500
Speaker 2: they provide a lot of the same functions that natural

688
00:34:36,840 --> 00:34:41,180
Speaker 2: or other, I guess, naturally occurring or growing wetlands provide too.

689
00:34:41,200 --> 00:34:44,600
Speaker 2: And I think we should do a whole episode on beavers, okay?

690
00:34:44,780 --> 00:34:46,560
Speaker 1: Oh, totally. I'm way into beavers.

691
00:34:47,219 --> 00:34:54,399
Speaker 2: So water filtration is another... Is it water? I'm getting

692
00:34:54,440 --> 00:34:57,200
Speaker 2: you back for the origami thing. All right. So water

693
00:34:57,239 --> 00:35:02,239
Speaker 2: filtration is another big service that wetlands provide. I don't

694
00:35:02,260 --> 00:35:04,680
Speaker 2: remember where we talked about this, but we talked about

695
00:35:04,700 --> 00:35:08,420
Speaker 2: it recently where the water. Oh, I think it was

696
00:35:08,460 --> 00:35:09,440
Speaker 2: water treatment plants.

697
00:35:09,480 --> 00:35:09,700
Speaker 3: Yeah.

698
00:35:10,219 --> 00:35:11,880
Speaker 2: The water is brought in and it's got all the

699
00:35:11,940 --> 00:35:15,010
Speaker 2: sediment and gunk and muck and it's cloudy and turbid.

700
00:35:15,360 --> 00:35:18,330
Speaker 2: And then it slows down. They slow it down like

701
00:35:18,390 --> 00:35:20,890
Speaker 2: running it through some grates or whatever. And as it

702
00:35:20,930 --> 00:35:24,570
Speaker 2: slows down, the sediment that is making the water turbid

703
00:35:24,610 --> 00:35:26,750
Speaker 2: and polluted and everything has a chance to settle to

704
00:35:26,790 --> 00:35:31,109
Speaker 2: the bottom. Well, wetlands provide that same function naturally. So

705
00:35:31,150 --> 00:35:34,820
Speaker 2: when you have a bunch of like polluted water basically

706
00:35:34,880 --> 00:35:38,360
Speaker 2: come through there, it slows down when it hits all

707
00:35:38,380 --> 00:35:41,600
Speaker 2: those mangrove roots or tree trunks or whatever it is.

708
00:35:42,400 --> 00:35:44,719
Speaker 2: And it gives it a chance for that sediment to

709
00:35:44,780 --> 00:35:47,219
Speaker 2: fall to the bottom. It gets sucked up by the

710
00:35:47,280 --> 00:35:51,719
Speaker 2: tree roots and stored in the trees. Or the microbial

711
00:35:51,780 --> 00:35:53,879
Speaker 2: life can break a lot of that stuff down too.

712
00:35:54,080 --> 00:35:57,759
Speaker 2: And there's definitely a limit to where you can very

713
00:35:57,860 --> 00:36:02,330
Speaker 2: easily overload the wetlands ability to filter the water. But

714
00:36:02,370 --> 00:36:05,590
Speaker 2: if you gave it like a manageable supply, that is

715
00:36:05,650 --> 00:36:08,450
Speaker 2: a major service that it does is it cleans our water.

716
00:36:08,489 --> 00:36:11,410
Speaker 2: They call wetlands the kidneys of the earth.

717
00:36:11,969 --> 00:36:15,030
Speaker 1: Yeah, and they've even done studies where they try to,

718
00:36:15,050 --> 00:36:19,370
Speaker 1: I guess, sort of monetize what an area of wetland

719
00:36:19,450 --> 00:36:21,790
Speaker 1: might do if it were a treatment plant. And there's

720
00:36:21,950 --> 00:36:25,860
Speaker 1: one in South Carolina called the Congaree Bottomland Hardwood Swamp.

721
00:36:27,100 --> 00:36:28,360
Speaker 1: These are just all country bands.

722
00:36:28,680 --> 00:36:29,740
Speaker 2: For sure.

723
00:36:30,120 --> 00:36:33,759
Speaker 1: They said that that is basically equivalent to about a

724
00:36:33,760 --> 00:36:38,320
Speaker 1: $ 5 million water treatment plant. Just sitting there being a wetland,

725
00:36:38,440 --> 00:36:39,040
Speaker 1: doing its thing.

726
00:36:39,580 --> 00:36:40,680
Speaker 2: Thank you, nature.

727
00:36:41,300 --> 00:36:41,920
Speaker 1: Pretty amazing.

728
00:36:42,380 --> 00:36:46,220
Speaker 2: I saw that beavers provide the dams that they build

729
00:36:46,320 --> 00:36:50,430
Speaker 2: that end up being temporary wetlands. Somebody estimated it's worth

730
00:36:50,469 --> 00:36:53,210
Speaker 2: about 100 grand if a human tried to build an

731
00:36:53,550 --> 00:36:56,570
Speaker 2: artificial one, which we do. If you just let beavers

732
00:36:56,630 --> 00:37:00,830
Speaker 2: do their thing, they will do the same thing for free.

733
00:37:02,050 --> 00:37:03,230
Speaker 1: That's right. You don't have to pay them 100 grand.

734
00:37:06,460 --> 00:37:11,080
Speaker 2: There's also, because there's so much going on in a wetland,

735
00:37:11,100 --> 00:37:13,779
Speaker 2: there's so much life, they kind of form like these

736
00:37:13,880 --> 00:37:17,880
Speaker 2: metropolises for all sorts of different types of animals all

737
00:37:17,900 --> 00:37:24,980
Speaker 2: the way up the food chain, including plants, animals, microbial life, worms, fish,

738
00:37:25,580 --> 00:37:30,600
Speaker 2: larger predators like dolphins and alligators. And all of them

739
00:37:30,640 --> 00:37:35,279
Speaker 2: are sitting there providing food Food for us. If you

740
00:37:35,300 --> 00:37:38,739
Speaker 2: like gator tail, buddy, you better preserve those wetlands.

741
00:37:39,320 --> 00:37:42,680
Speaker 1: Yeah. Dave points out here that the commercial fishing industry

742
00:37:42,700 --> 00:37:46,450
Speaker 1: in the U.S., 75% of the fish and shellfish harvested

743
00:37:46,489 --> 00:37:49,830
Speaker 1: here had fish that at least had a temporary home

744
00:37:49,850 --> 00:37:53,130
Speaker 1: in the wetlands. And that recreationally, if you're a recreational

745
00:37:53,870 --> 00:37:57,720
Speaker 1: fish person, fisher person, then 90% of the U.S. fish

746
00:37:57,739 --> 00:38:03,989
Speaker 1: catch is commercial. at least the breeding ground lies in

747
00:38:04,010 --> 00:38:05,410
Speaker 1: the wetlands for those fish.

748
00:38:05,930 --> 00:38:08,930
Speaker 2: And the same thing goes for birds, too. They're enormously

749
00:38:08,969 --> 00:38:13,810
Speaker 2: important habitats for birds, some permanent but also migratory, too,

750
00:38:13,850 --> 00:38:17,250
Speaker 2: because if you're flying along and you're a bird and

751
00:38:17,290 --> 00:38:19,549
Speaker 2: you are a water bird and you need a place

752
00:38:19,590 --> 00:38:21,549
Speaker 2: to land, not only are you looking for water, but

753
00:38:21,610 --> 00:38:24,910
Speaker 2: you might really enjoy a swamp because it offers protection

754
00:38:24,989 --> 00:38:28,560
Speaker 2: from predators. It offers a port in the storm. It's

755
00:38:28,600 --> 00:38:31,219
Speaker 2: just an all-around valuable thing for birds, too.

756
00:38:31,400 --> 00:38:37,880
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, imagine flying from Canada to Texas, and

757
00:38:37,900 --> 00:38:41,620
Speaker 1: you're going over Oklahoma, and you're a little tired. You

758
00:38:41,640 --> 00:38:43,480
Speaker 1: look down and you see one of those, which ones

759
00:38:43,500 --> 00:38:45,020
Speaker 1: were those, the prairie playas?

760
00:38:47,160 --> 00:38:48,470
Speaker 2: No, the prairie potholes.

761
00:38:48,489 --> 00:38:49,250
Speaker 1: Prairie potholes?

762
00:38:49,550 --> 00:38:49,710
Speaker 2: Yeah.

763
00:38:49,969 --> 00:38:52,350
Speaker 1: Oh, man. What a sight.

764
00:38:52,890 --> 00:38:55,810
Speaker 2: Aren't you describing a scene in Jonathan Livingston Siegel?

765
00:38:55,950 --> 00:39:00,560
Speaker 1: Probably so. So the point is we need to take

766
00:39:00,600 --> 00:39:05,520
Speaker 1: care of our wetlands because they are a threatened, diverse,

767
00:39:06,080 --> 00:39:11,299
Speaker 1: very useful place all over the world, especially here in

768
00:39:11,320 --> 00:39:14,489
Speaker 1: the United States. And if they are threatened and if

769
00:39:14,510 --> 00:39:16,690
Speaker 1: things happen, there are going to be all kinds of

770
00:39:16,730 --> 00:39:21,890
Speaker 1: bad things, you know, vegetative damage, the plant life just

771
00:39:21,930 --> 00:39:24,590
Speaker 1: being maybe whitened out, wiped out altogether.

772
00:39:25,300 --> 00:39:29,750
Speaker 2: Storm surges being way worse, flooding being way worse. It

773
00:39:29,930 --> 00:39:32,310
Speaker 2: especially helps to see the value in them if you

774
00:39:32,350 --> 00:39:37,090
Speaker 2: consider them a buffer zone between us and the hardest

775
00:39:37,140 --> 00:39:38,160
Speaker 2: ravages of nature.

776
00:39:38,390 --> 00:39:40,440
Speaker 1: Yeah, and like you mentioned, pollution, there is a limit,

777
00:39:40,960 --> 00:39:44,600
Speaker 1: but they do absorb and mitigate levels of water pollution,

778
00:39:44,680 --> 00:39:48,759
Speaker 1: and they just can't take too much of us, you know?

779
00:39:49,489 --> 00:39:53,910
Speaker 2: Right, exactly, which, man, if there's anything that characterizes humans

780
00:39:53,950 --> 00:39:57,569
Speaker 2: in the 20th and 21st centuries, it's too much of us. Yeah.

781
00:39:58,110 --> 00:39:58,710
Speaker 2: You know what I mean?

782
00:39:58,870 --> 00:40:01,969
Speaker 1: What can we do, though? Well, apparently— Besides donating to

783
00:40:02,030 --> 00:40:04,069
Speaker 1: wetland projects, we can definitely do that.

784
00:40:04,410 --> 00:40:06,410
Speaker 2: You can definitely do that. There's some good ones out there.

785
00:40:07,210 --> 00:40:12,219
Speaker 2: I believe Ducks Unlimited is one of them, the Wetlands Initiative,

786
00:40:12,340 --> 00:40:17,590
Speaker 2: Natural Resources Defense Council, Wetlands International— But apparently in the

787
00:40:17,650 --> 00:40:21,310
Speaker 2: United States, something like 75% of wetlands are on privately

788
00:40:21,410 --> 00:40:25,109
Speaker 2: owned property. And in the United States, we have, I mean,

789
00:40:25,270 --> 00:40:28,049
Speaker 2: private property is one of like the fundamental tenants of

790
00:40:28,170 --> 00:40:31,509
Speaker 2: American society. So if you say, I want to fill

791
00:40:31,550 --> 00:40:35,110
Speaker 2: in this wetland and kill off these beavers, you're allowed

792
00:40:35,160 --> 00:40:38,140
Speaker 2: to do that. Whether that's a good idea and whether

793
00:40:38,160 --> 00:40:42,020
Speaker 2: that's going to affect other people, that's a different story.

794
00:40:42,100 --> 00:40:45,600
Speaker 2: So if you own private property with a wetland on

795
00:40:45,640 --> 00:40:48,620
Speaker 2: it and you're doing just fine with that wetland, leave

796
00:40:48,660 --> 00:40:52,339
Speaker 2: the wetland alone. It's very important. Yeah, I guess this

797
00:40:52,400 --> 00:40:52,719
Speaker 2: is where.

798
00:40:52,640 --> 00:40:56,320
Speaker 1: It gets a little tricky in definitions because in plenty

799
00:40:56,340 --> 00:41:01,620
Speaker 1: of places there are restrictions on building near water like this.

800
00:41:02,040 --> 00:41:02,259
Speaker 2: Sure.

801
00:41:02,760 --> 00:41:06,940
Speaker 1: I guess I just don't know. You can't build in

802
00:41:06,980 --> 00:41:09,290
Speaker 1: a flood zone. You can't– I mean, it depends on

803
00:41:09,310 --> 00:41:12,089
Speaker 1: where you are, but in Atlanta, you can't. And then

804
00:41:12,150 --> 00:41:14,250
Speaker 1: with all these creeks and streams in Atlanta, they have

805
00:41:14,330 --> 00:41:18,600
Speaker 1: what's called stream buffers. Sure. 50 foot, 75 foot, 100 foot,

806
00:41:18,680 --> 00:41:21,899
Speaker 1: and I think 25 is the lowest. And for these,

807
00:41:21,920 --> 00:41:24,560
Speaker 1: you have to get variances to do anything, which your

808
00:41:24,600 --> 00:41:27,460
Speaker 1: neighborhood has to approve. And I talked to a guy

809
00:41:27,480 --> 00:41:32,710
Speaker 1: that apparently anything over– anything under 75 feet is pretty

810
00:41:32,750 --> 00:41:34,940
Speaker 1: tricky to get approved. So– I don't know if they're

811
00:41:34,960 --> 00:41:37,790
Speaker 1: wetlands or not, but there are restrictions on stuff like that.

812
00:41:38,150 --> 00:41:40,089
Speaker 2: OK, so that brings up the next point of what

813
00:41:40,150 --> 00:41:42,150
Speaker 2: you and I and everybody else can do, which is

814
00:41:42,230 --> 00:41:46,410
Speaker 2: vote for people to local elected office who part of

815
00:41:46,430 --> 00:41:49,250
Speaker 2: their platform is protecting wetlands. Yeah. Like all of those

816
00:41:49,310 --> 00:41:52,759
Speaker 2: buffer zones, all those variances and all those prohibitions. Those

817
00:41:52,820 --> 00:41:56,100
Speaker 2: are those came from Atlanta city councils over the years

818
00:41:56,420 --> 00:42:00,340
Speaker 2: that decided that wetlands needed protecting. You don't find those everywhere.

819
00:42:00,700 --> 00:42:03,240
Speaker 2: But once they get put in place, they usually don't

820
00:42:03,480 --> 00:42:08,300
Speaker 2: get repealed very easily. So if you make preserving wetlands

821
00:42:08,340 --> 00:42:11,040
Speaker 2: part of, like, what you're voting for, that would have

822
00:42:11,080 --> 00:42:11,939
Speaker 2: an impact for sure.

823
00:42:12,340 --> 00:42:12,540
Speaker 1: Yeah.

824
00:42:13,540 --> 00:42:16,920
Speaker 2: And whatever you're voting for, just vote, okay? Vote.

825
00:42:17,120 --> 00:42:17,719
Speaker 1: Especially locally.

826
00:42:17,739 --> 00:42:18,480
Speaker 2: Let's take a second to say that.

827
00:42:18,700 --> 00:42:21,660
Speaker 1: I know everyone, the presidential elections are always the big

828
00:42:22,370 --> 00:42:27,050
Speaker 1: sexy votes, but local politics matters even more almost sometimes.

829
00:42:27,950 --> 00:42:30,220
Speaker 2: Yeah, vote for all of it. Take an interest in

830
00:42:30,820 --> 00:42:31,660
Speaker 2: your society.

831
00:42:31,840 --> 00:42:32,480
Speaker 1: Yeah. Okay?

832
00:42:33,920 --> 00:42:35,420
Speaker 2: Well, you got anything else about wetlands?

833
00:42:35,500 --> 00:42:35,700
Speaker 1: Nope.

834
00:42:36,660 --> 00:42:38,700
Speaker 2: I don't either. This is a good one. I'm pretty

835
00:42:38,739 --> 00:42:41,880
Speaker 2: happy with it. And since I said that, everybody, it's

836
00:42:41,920 --> 00:42:43,029
Speaker 2: time for listener mail.

837
00:42:46,170 --> 00:42:49,850
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm going to call this the first SY5K. Oh, yeah.

838
00:42:49,870 --> 00:42:54,509
Speaker 2: Did you see these? Yes, man. Congratulations to everybody who

839
00:42:54,590 --> 00:42:55,660
Speaker 2: took part. Yeah.

840
00:42:55,719 --> 00:42:59,150
Speaker 1: So what happened was some Stuff You Should Know listeners

841
00:42:59,190 --> 00:43:03,210
Speaker 1: got together and put together a 5K, Stuff You Should

842
00:43:03,230 --> 00:43:07,170
Speaker 1: Know 5K. And we got periodic updates from Aaron Huey

843
00:43:07,210 --> 00:43:09,940
Speaker 1: Mizell or Mizell. I'm not sure how you pronounce it.

844
00:43:10,340 --> 00:43:11,200
Speaker 2: I'm going with Mizell.

845
00:43:11,239 --> 00:43:11,620
Speaker 1: Mizell.

846
00:43:11,680 --> 00:43:12,319
Speaker 3: But this is.

847
00:43:13,860 --> 00:43:17,719
Speaker 1: The final email about how it went. Hey, guys, I

848
00:43:17,719 --> 00:43:19,660
Speaker 1: want to let you know that the SY5K is over.

849
00:43:20,760 --> 00:43:22,560
Speaker 1: It was so nice to look at everyone's pictures and

850
00:43:22,600 --> 00:43:24,660
Speaker 1: hear what episodes of Stuff You Should Know they listened to,

851
00:43:24,680 --> 00:43:26,819
Speaker 1: because that was the idea. I imagine some people might

852
00:43:26,840 --> 00:43:29,360
Speaker 1: have fudged that and listened to Marc Maron or whatever.

853
00:43:29,930 --> 00:43:32,110
Speaker 2: They're disqualified.

854
00:43:33,290 --> 00:43:34,710
Speaker 1: I think a lot of us have suffered from a

855
00:43:34,730 --> 00:43:37,090
Speaker 1: lack of human connection at this time, and this silly

856
00:43:37,150 --> 00:43:39,890
Speaker 1: little virtual event gave us something to bond over. I

857
00:43:40,650 --> 00:43:42,290
Speaker 1: don't think I would have tried this with any other

858
00:43:42,310 --> 00:43:44,690
Speaker 1: group of people. The Stuff You Should Know Army is wonderful,

859
00:43:44,750 --> 00:43:47,100
Speaker 1: and it speaks volumes in regard to you guys. The

860
00:43:47,140 --> 00:43:49,080
Speaker 1: tone that you set in your podcast, interesting and funny,

861
00:43:49,650 --> 00:43:52,190
Speaker 1: carries over into your fan base and has created a

862
00:43:52,250 --> 00:43:55,930
Speaker 1: little lovely corner of the Internet. I totally agree, Aaron.

863
00:43:56,210 --> 00:43:58,649
Speaker 1: And the same can be said of the Movie Crush page. Very,

864
00:43:58,690 --> 00:44:03,069
Speaker 1: very good people. Not snipey or rude and going after

865
00:44:03,110 --> 00:44:05,950
Speaker 1: each other on Facebook, which is kind of what Facebook

866
00:44:05,969 --> 00:44:06,729
Speaker 1: seems to be all about.

867
00:44:07,390 --> 00:44:11,570
Speaker 2: Oh, yeah. It's like a garden paradise over there on

868
00:44:11,630 --> 00:44:12,910
Speaker 2: the SYSK Army page.

869
00:44:13,030 --> 00:44:15,710
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's great. Now, I'm not suggesting that you made

870
00:44:15,750 --> 00:44:17,610
Speaker 1: these people wonderful, but the average stuff you should know

871
00:44:17,660 --> 00:44:20,480
Speaker 1: Army Bimmer is like that. Interesting, funny, and willing to

872
00:44:20,520 --> 00:44:23,360
Speaker 1: participate in a virtual 5K with a complete stranger.

873
00:44:23,880 --> 00:44:25,120
Speaker 2: And they love Stroopwafels.

874
00:44:25,880 --> 00:44:27,819
Speaker 1: I even bought 13 Stuff You Should Know stickers to

875
00:44:27,860 --> 00:44:30,160
Speaker 1: send out to some people as prizes. It's just a

876
00:44:30,180 --> 00:44:31,839
Speaker 1: little thing, but everyone that I've been in touch with

877
00:44:32,300 --> 00:44:34,969
Speaker 1: has been exceedingly kind. This is what we need right now,

878
00:44:35,030 --> 00:44:37,910
Speaker 1: these small human connections. A podcast to listen to and

879
00:44:37,950 --> 00:44:42,030
Speaker 1: laugh with. A walk, run, bear chase to do virtually

880
00:44:42,130 --> 00:44:44,850
Speaker 1: with a bunch of near strangers. And a Stuff You

881
00:44:44,870 --> 00:44:46,370
Speaker 1: Should Know sticker to put on your fridge or on

882
00:44:46,410 --> 00:44:48,600
Speaker 1: your laptop. If you get a chance, go to the

883
00:44:48,640 --> 00:44:50,740
Speaker 1: event page and scroll through some of the posts. They're delightful.

884
00:44:51,219 --> 00:44:53,140
Speaker 1: Like the woman who did our 5K at three months

885
00:44:53,180 --> 00:44:54,450
Speaker 1: postpartum and crushed it.

886
00:44:54,940 --> 00:44:55,100
Speaker 2: Nice.

887
00:44:55,200 --> 00:44:57,100
Speaker 1: Or the dad who pushed his adorable daughter in her

888
00:44:57,120 --> 00:45:00,060
Speaker 1: stroller on the 5K while listening to his favorite episode,

889
00:45:00,180 --> 00:45:02,320
Speaker 1: which was Spam. We had first-timers.

890
00:45:02,340 --> 00:45:02,840
Speaker 3: That was a good one.

891
00:45:02,980 --> 00:45:05,009
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was a good one. We had first-timers, people

892
00:45:05,050 --> 00:45:08,109
Speaker 1: recovering from injury, runners and walkers, so many smiles and stuff.

893
00:45:08,130 --> 00:45:10,170
Speaker 1: You should know t-shirts. Sign off for now. I'll be

894
00:45:10,210 --> 00:45:12,710
Speaker 1: just writing to tell you it was a success. We

895
00:45:12,750 --> 00:45:15,770
Speaker 1: might even do it again with love. And that is, again,

896
00:45:15,830 --> 00:45:19,779
Speaker 1: from Aaron Huey Mizzell. And that is great, Aaron. Thank

897
00:45:19,800 --> 00:45:23,069
Speaker 1: you for doing this. And that really does speak to

898
00:45:23,090 --> 00:45:25,009
Speaker 1: the quality of our listeners in every single way.

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00:45:25,630 --> 00:45:28,029
Speaker 2: Indubitably. Yeah, thanks a lot, Aaron. It's good to hear

900
00:45:28,110 --> 00:45:32,450
Speaker 2: from you. And to everybody who participated in the SY5K,

901
00:45:33,370 --> 00:45:38,260
Speaker 2: you are the champions, our friends.

902
00:45:38,820 --> 00:45:41,540
Speaker 1: Even if you listen to Marc Maron.

903
00:45:42,400 --> 00:45:46,600
Speaker 2: But maybe not what Chuck just said.

904
00:45:48,530 --> 00:45:48,950
Speaker 3: That's it.

905
00:45:49,610 --> 00:45:51,090
Speaker 2: Okay, well, if you want to get in touch with

906
00:45:51,170 --> 00:45:54,219
Speaker 2: us like Aaron did and do something interesting, we want

907
00:45:54,239 --> 00:45:56,940
Speaker 2: to hear about it. You can write to us in

908
00:45:57,020 --> 00:46:04,360
Speaker 2: an email to stuffpodcasts at iheartradio.com.

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00:46:04,780 --> 00:46:07,630
Speaker 1: Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For

910
00:46:07,670 --> 00:46:11,770
Speaker 1: more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

911
00:46:11,930 --> 00:46:13,710
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.