Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you should know, a production of I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark,
Speaker 1: and there's Charles w Chuck Bryant, and there's Trooper Jerry
Speaker 1: Rowland out there somewhere their scout you know I'm talking about,
Speaker 1: and this is stuff you should know. Be prepared. I
Speaker 1: am prepared, Tosh. Yeah, I wonder if Jerry. I wonder
Speaker 1: if Jerry was a girl Scout. I know we didn't
Speaker 1: get a chance to ask because it's all business with hers.
Speaker 1: She's just busy, busy, busy. I know she had to
Speaker 1: leave to go to a meeting. But my guess is
Speaker 1: that what do you think? I think, Yes, I think
Speaker 1: there's actually a one in three chance that she was,
Speaker 1: because Chuck, that is the stat, the astounding stat at
Speaker 1: one and every three American adult women were a girl
Speaker 1: Scout at some point in time. Yeah. I think they
Speaker 1: are currently around the two point six million level, and
Speaker 1: it varies between two and a half to three million,
Speaker 1: kind of depending what's going on. And I think in
Speaker 1: recent years it's numbers have gone down a little bit, uh,
Speaker 1: and they're always trying to get those numbers up. So,
Speaker 1: but but what what I've seen is that it is
Speaker 1: remarkably steady, though it's it hovers around that same that
Speaker 1: same amount, and I've seen that that's the total number
Speaker 1: of Girl Scouts. Have also seen that that includes the
Speaker 1: adult volunteers, and that at any given time there's about
Speaker 1: one point seven million Girls Scouts active Girl Scouts in
Speaker 1: the United States and that they usually hang in there
Speaker 1: for about four years is the average length of time,
Speaker 1: which is pretty good. That was longer than my boy
Speaker 1: Scout or cub Scout run. I can tell you how
Speaker 1: long was your run. I think it was not a year.
Speaker 1: I had a real problem at a young age of
Speaker 1: idea of giving respect to elders just because they were old.
Speaker 1: Like I was like, no, I feel like there's a
Speaker 1: lot of old jerks out there who don't really deserve
Speaker 1: to be treated particularly special. So that was my big
Speaker 1: issue with it. The problem is is my dad was
Speaker 1: the den leader and he decided to be a good
Speaker 1: role model and stick it out so without you, yes,
Speaker 1: but with me watching TV like in the house at
Speaker 1: the same time when they were having Yeah. So the
Speaker 1: upshot of all this long story shorts my dad doesn't
Speaker 1: really like me, right, Uh, that's the upshot of most
Speaker 1: of your stories. Um My, cub Scouting lasted one meeting.
Speaker 1: That was my tenure because I went to a cub
Speaker 1: Scout meeting and I guess I went during the candy
Speaker 1: drive and literally at the first meeting, they were like,
Speaker 1: here's a bunch of candy. You gotta go sell this stuff.
Speaker 1: And I kind of was just like, what, I don't
Speaker 1: want to. I don't want to do this, Like I
Speaker 1: don't even know what's going on yet. Yeah, I'm not
Speaker 1: working for you. That's got to be an odd time
Speaker 1: to jump in feet first, you know, you kind of
Speaker 1: want to ease into it a little more. I guess so,
Speaker 1: but it I didn't do it my and you know,
Speaker 1: maybe we'll do one on the boy Scouts at some
Speaker 1: point too. But my nephew Noah, who is now a
Speaker 1: grown adult who was getting married next weekend. Actually, oh hey,
Speaker 1: congratulations Noah. Yeah, no and Ella are getting married, which
Speaker 1: is great, but he is now an adult college graduate.
Speaker 1: But he scouted. He went all the way through, and
Speaker 1: I was I always thought that was very cool and
Speaker 1: that really shows a stick tuitiveness, whether you're a boy
Speaker 1: scout or a girl scout. Um to go all the
Speaker 1: way through the whole process. He's so Noah is Scott's son, right, correct, Yes, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm not at all surprised that Noah made it an
Speaker 1: Eagle Scout because also I'm sure that like when Scott
Speaker 1: was born, there like just give this guy the Eagle badge. Now,
Speaker 1: he didn't. He didn't boy scout either. He didn't need to.
Speaker 1: He was an Eagle Scout by birth. Well, and we also,
Speaker 1: you know, my dad raised his camping, so he was
Speaker 1: always just sort of like, you guys don't need to
Speaker 1: do that stuff because we do all that stuff anyway,
Speaker 1: right right. Yeah, And plus also there's some dudes money,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? Yeah, exactly, Yeah, that's sort
Speaker 1: of the thing. I think Girl Scouts dues money is
Speaker 1: twenty five dollars annually. Uh, they do have financial assistance
Speaker 1: and then you have to pay for some other you know,
Speaker 1: program stuff along the way. But that is a very
Speaker 1: low fee. And we'll get to this, but the reason
Speaker 1: is low. It's because those Girls Scouts can print money
Speaker 1: with those cookies. Yeah. I was not familiar with the
Speaker 1: Girl Scout cookies until I started researching this episode. Oh min,
Speaker 1: they print money, man, They make like four or five
Speaker 1: million dollars a year off that thing. My friend, the
Speaker 1: gross revenue I think last year was eight hundred million
Speaker 1: dollars I'm sorry, in five hundred net I think five
Speaker 1: or six Okay, yeah, And that's why those dudes are slow,
Speaker 1: because they actually stay with the local councils, which we'll
Speaker 1: we'll talk more about that. But speaking of Girl Scout cookies,
Speaker 1: I want to give a shout out, um to a
Speaker 1: couple of troops, one in particular, TROOPO, because my friend
Speaker 1: Annabella King is a Girl Scout, a junior Girl Scout
Speaker 1: in that troop. And yes she is the daughter of
Speaker 1: Hum's very close friend. Uh wheezy and um. She actually
Speaker 1: wrote a little bit about what it means to her
Speaker 1: to be a Girl Scout. If I could share a
Speaker 1: couple of passages, I think it really gets the point across.
Speaker 1: I would love to hear it. So Annabella says, and
Speaker 1: she's been doing this for years by now. She said
Speaker 1: she's working on her Star or her Silver Award, which
Speaker 1: there's bronze, silver, and gold, and these are like very
Speaker 1: prestigious awards for a Girl Scout to go after. So
Speaker 1: she said she's working on the silver one right now
Speaker 1: and in parentheses it's something really good to have on
Speaker 1: your resume, by the way, But she says that Girl
Speaker 1: Scouts is a great opportunity for greater jobs in life.
Speaker 1: Gives a pathway to pioneering your own business. They train
Speaker 1: you to be an entrepreneur in the early stages of life.
Speaker 1: And here's that cookie thing. Selling the cookies is the
Speaker 1: way they examine your skill and take note of the
Speaker 1: abilities you may have. It is also showing you what
Speaker 1: real life situations may be like. For example, when having
Speaker 1: a cookie stand out and advertising that you are selling something,
Speaker 1: you have to put in some enthusiasm. You can't just
Speaker 1: stand there and wait for others to come walking by
Speaker 1: if interested. You have to grab their attention. She is
Speaker 1: an up and coming person. She also says that back
Speaker 1: when she was younger, so she's in the seventh grade,
Speaker 1: she was saying that um to her before she was
Speaker 1: in the Scouts, that Girl Scouts were just annoying little
Speaker 1: girls selling cookies and stealing your money. But I have
Speaker 1: to say that as probably what a lot of people
Speaker 1: think as well. But Girl Scouts is something that impacts
Speaker 1: the community. It brings people together. I love that I've
Speaker 1: also got a quote from our good friend John Hodgeman,
Speaker 1: who was a girl Scout, and he said, a Yale
Speaker 1: man never talks about the girl Scouts. That's right, that's
Speaker 1: a that's a great, like all purpose quote from Hodgeman. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you know what, that'll that's a joke that will
Speaker 1: be lost on many people because it's a call back
Speaker 1: to our Ivy League episode in three D that not
Speaker 1: many people probably even got through because it was in
Speaker 1: three D. So yeah, yeah, I guess sorry saying chuck, Yeah,
Speaker 1: sorry about the three D episode everybody. We have made
Speaker 1: sure that that will never ever ever happen again. All right,
Speaker 1: Should we go back to the early days of girl Scouting.
Speaker 1: We should. But while we're at it, I want to
Speaker 1: give one more shout out to another Girl Scout troupe
Speaker 1: I'm affiliated with two. I want to shout out Troops
Speaker 1: seventeen one oh seven. That is my niece Mila at
Speaker 1: the Movie Stars troupe. Oh that's great. I like to
Speaker 1: call it Troope Beverly Hills. Shelly Long the leader Long,
Speaker 1: Shelly Long, and she is actually the leader. Yeah, it's wonderful. Yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, So let's go back in time. And congratulations
Speaker 1: to both of those young ladies for pursuing this, because
Speaker 1: what I learned from researching the Girl Scouts is that
Speaker 1: it is a pretty great organization and they have, um
Speaker 1: you know, I tried to dig into controversies and stuff
Speaker 1: like that, but um, and I'm not disparaging the Boy Scouts.
Speaker 1: They're great two or Scouts USA, but they they have
Speaker 1: certainly had a little more controversy over the years in
Speaker 1: the Girl Scouts. Well. One of the reason that the
Speaker 1: Girl Scouts tend to be controversial is because they're inclusive. Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: it's the problem that people have with girls because let
Speaker 1: the other human being in there a little different than
Speaker 1: the other human beings in this troop. That's the controversy
Speaker 1: that comes up. Typically. Yeah, they have always been more conclusive.
Speaker 1: I think in the nineteen fifties the Girl Scouts desegregated
Speaker 1: and it's oh the way to nineteen seventy and a
Speaker 1: lot of pressure from the Double A CP for the
Speaker 1: Boy Scouts to do so. And also of note, Chuck
Speaker 1: is by the time I'm the Boy Scouts fully integrated
Speaker 1: their troops, the Girl Scouts were already on their first
Speaker 1: African American President so they have in progressive from the
Speaker 1: outset and then um, even though it took to the fifties,
Speaker 1: I guess to integrate. They were um inclusive of girls
Speaker 1: with disabilities too, because the woman who founded the Girl Scouts,
Speaker 1: Juliette Gordon Lowe, UM, she was deaf. She became deaf
Speaker 1: after an accident, so she made sure that girls with
Speaker 1: disabilities were included from the get go. That's right, and
Speaker 1: we want to shout out by name Gloria D. Scott,
Speaker 1: first African American president of the Girl Scouts in nineteen.
Speaker 1: But let's go back in time to Juliette Gordon Lowe,
Speaker 1: who was a Southern gal from Savannah, Georgia. Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: it's it sounded like a cross between Andy from the
Speaker 1: Office doing a Southern thing and Kevin Spacey and Midnight
Speaker 1: in the Garden of Good and Evil. Not good all
Speaker 1: the way. Yes, Julia Gordon lowis from Savannah. She was
Speaker 1: raised in the South, and um, you know I had
Speaker 1: came from. I don't think it was like a rich
Speaker 1: family or anything, but a family that was doing well
Speaker 1: enough to where she got a really good education compared
Speaker 1: to some of her peers. And she uh ended up
Speaker 1: getting involved in a marriage that wasn't so great, a
Speaker 1: husband that was um an alcoholic and a gambler and
Speaker 1: a philanderer, and their whole marriage and divorce saga lasted many,
Speaker 1: many years because it was a time where getting a
Speaker 1: divorce wasn't super easy. And then he had a stroke
Speaker 1: and she thought she maybe should stay with him, but
Speaker 1: he had a mistress who he left his money too.
Speaker 1: He eventually died during divorce proceedings. But long story short,
Speaker 1: she ended up a widow and went to London where
Speaker 1: she had a very faithful meeting at a luncheon party
Speaker 1: one day with Sir Robert Baden Powell. Yes, and this
Speaker 1: guy is the guy who co founded the Scouts, the
Speaker 1: Boy Scouts and the Girl Hides. If you are a
Speaker 1: at least back in the day, if you were a
Speaker 1: Girl Scout over in the UK, you were a member
Speaker 1: of the Girl Guides. But they're all affiliated under a
Speaker 1: single umbrella, basically a whole a bunch of different scouting
Speaker 1: groups around the world. And at first Um Juliette Low
Speaker 1: her nickname was Daisy by the way, Um, she was
Speaker 1: a Scout leader, a troop leader for Girl Guides over
Speaker 1: in England, but when she moved back to the United
Speaker 1: States full time, she said, I'm gonna set up my
Speaker 1: own shop basically based on my experience that is there.
Speaker 1: And she set up the first Girl Scout troop meeting
Speaker 1: in March of I believe nineteen twelve, um, and it
Speaker 1: included eighteen girls and the first registered Girl Scout was
Speaker 1: her niece, uh Daisy Gordon, who I take it was
Speaker 1: named after her. That's wonderful. And I think they were
Speaker 1: even called the Girl Guides at first. Oh is that right?
Speaker 1: I think so, And I should have had that down Cole,
Speaker 1: but I'm pretty sure that I saw that. But regardless,
Speaker 1: they either were Girl Scouts initially or became Girl Scouts.
Speaker 1: And you know, she just the whole thing appealed to her,
Speaker 1: teaching girls, um how to be self sufficient, how to
Speaker 1: know their way around a campfire, how to um be
Speaker 1: meaningful to their community as a lot of community service involved.
Speaker 1: It really all spoke to her. And these days you
Speaker 1: can get involved in the Girl Scouts if you're between
Speaker 1: five and seventeen and they are broken down thussly uh
Speaker 1: Daisy Scouts, which I guess comes from Juliette's name right,
Speaker 1: her nickname Daisy Scouts with the little list the most adorable.
Speaker 1: I imagine brownies. I never knew that. I thought brownies
Speaker 1: was the first step in. So Daisies come before Brownies.
Speaker 1: Then you have your Junior Scouts, and then Girl Scouts
Speaker 1: rounded out with eleven to seventeen year olds. And I
Speaker 1: believe they used to be Cadet, seniors and ambassadors, but
Speaker 1: um now those are the names that they take. I've
Speaker 1: seen them heard two still as Cadets and ambassadors on
Speaker 1: the Girl Scout site, so still use that some, I
Speaker 1: guess so. But yeah, once you once you reach a
Speaker 1: certain age, I guess eleven, they lump you in together
Speaker 1: with all of the older girls. That's right. The Daisies
Speaker 1: are five and six, like I said, and they meet
Speaker 1: with a couple of adult leaders. They earned pedals learning pedals,
Speaker 1: which is super super awesome and sweet. I mean, this
Speaker 1: whole thing is overflowing with just you know, sugary goodness.
Speaker 1: Well yeah, and those petals too. They're based on the
Speaker 1: ten points of them the Girl Scout Law, which are
Speaker 1: things like, you know, be considerate and caring. So that's
Speaker 1: a pedal courageous and strong as a pedal, honest and
Speaker 1: fair responsible for what you say and do. So it's
Speaker 1: like some pretty great, you know, character development from a
Speaker 1: very young age. Yeah, and those ten laws are also
Speaker 1: represented by the Girl Scout dime, isn't that right? Yes,
Speaker 1: so you can get a free dime just by becoming
Speaker 1: a Girl Scout because one of the ceremonies is time,
Speaker 1: the ceremony of the dime, and that dime ten cents
Speaker 1: represents the ten points of the Girl Scout law. And
Speaker 1: the girl Scouts are like, wait a minute, I just
Speaker 1: gave you. They're like, you just learned your first life lesson, chump,
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Scouts. But regardless of which group you're on,
Speaker 1: you are earning these pedals, these badges, these patches in
Speaker 1: various ways. A lot of times it's by completing a
Speaker 1: craft project. Uh. Sometimes an older group may like present
Speaker 1: the American flag at a professional baseball game. Uh. Sometimes
Speaker 1: there's a lot of stem activity these days. Yes, Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, it's just started out sort of with more
Speaker 1: you know, as as you would think back in the
Speaker 1: nineteen thirties, things like cooking and stuff like that, and
Speaker 1: I think they still don't shy away from that. But
Speaker 1: these days it's all about STEM and getting girls into science, technology, engineering,
Speaker 1: and math and uh, you know they're doing full on
Speaker 1: coding and stuff like that. So they really kind of
Speaker 1: rolled with the times. Yeah, and a lot of that
Speaker 1: develops over time. So like if you're a Daisy, they'll
Speaker 1: start introducing you to that STEM stuff where it's like,
Speaker 1: you know, this is a car, draw a picture of
Speaker 1: a car, and it's kind of like automotive engineering. Is
Speaker 1: that just the very beginnings of it. But then by
Speaker 1: the time you're like a Brownie, you're like building prototypes
Speaker 1: of a car that's of your own design. So it
Speaker 1: starts to progress pretty quickly. And then yeah, coding is
Speaker 1: a really big one too, So there's like a foundation
Speaker 1: of those kind of things. Um, but it just gets
Speaker 1: a little more advanced as the girl goes through the
Speaker 1: Scout ranks. Yeah, and I gotta say, you know, it
Speaker 1: really struck me today how brilliant the badge ideas for
Speaker 1: boy Scouts and Girl Scouts and giving kids something to
Speaker 1: work for and like seeing them through to an endpoint
Speaker 1: of a goal so they can earn something because kids
Speaker 1: really love to earn a little prize for accomplishing something.
Speaker 1: It's really meaningful. Yeah, they Aside from these individual rule
Speaker 1: things that they can earn, there are also group service
Speaker 1: projects where the whole troop where they you do a
Speaker 1: lot of community service. They might collect food and clothing
Speaker 1: for a homeless shelter, or they might decorate a nursing
Speaker 1: home over holidays, uh and stuff like that. And the
Speaker 1: older they get, you know, the more the more advanced
Speaker 1: these things are, and the more um not autonomy necessarily,
Speaker 1: but just just the more advanced these projects are that
Speaker 1: they can bite off. Yeah, and as they get older,
Speaker 1: they're expected to do projects on their own community service projects. Um.
Speaker 1: They go, they do what are called journeys where they
Speaker 1: learn about a new thing. Um, and they that my
Speaker 1: friend Annabella says that this past winter or no, this
Speaker 1: coming winter, they'll they will likely buy a bunch of
Speaker 1: clothes and presents for two or three families who do
Speaker 1: not have enough money. We will then wrap the gifts
Speaker 1: and someone brings it to that family. This is just
Speaker 1: a great example. Sure, as they progress, and you know,
Speaker 1: by the time they're in that final group of el
Speaker 1: Scouts from eleven to seventeen, they start to focus on
Speaker 1: potential careers and what these girls are interested in and
Speaker 1: what they might want to do, and then steering them
Speaker 1: towards that, whether it's um eco action and environmentally friendly
Speaker 1: and cleaning up parks and stuff like that. But all
Speaker 1: of these service projects and all of this stuff is
Speaker 1: really all about just building skills as well as building
Speaker 1: confidence absolutely absolutely and independence and UM self reliance and
Speaker 1: also just kind of being like a generally good person too,
Speaker 1: you know, not self reliance or independence by taking advantage
Speaker 1: or exploiting others weaknesses, but becoming independent and self reliant
Speaker 1: while also being like a person of character and somebody
Speaker 1: you can trust. It's important that second part is important too. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's tech bro camp that you were talking about, right,
Speaker 1: or farmer broke farmer brokemp. Oh boy, let's take a
Speaker 1: break on that one and discuss whether we'll even edit
Speaker 1: that out. No, let's leave it. Okay, we'll be right
Speaker 1: back everybody. I'm still laughing at that. That's good. That's
Speaker 1: a good sign, chuck. UM. So, yes, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of focus on STEM careers now UM or just even
Speaker 1: interested in STEM hobbies like coding, UM. But there's also
Speaker 1: like still very a very large emphasis on being outdoorsy,
Speaker 1: you know, UM, which is one of the original things
Speaker 1: that the Girl Scouts were into back when Juliet Gordon
Speaker 1: Lowe was uh, the founder and still active, and she
Speaker 1: like poured herself into this, by the way, says like
Speaker 1: we really breathed past her biography. But she was a
Speaker 1: very interesting, very worthwhile human being with very little of that.
Speaker 1: You know, when you're talking about somebody from a hundred
Speaker 1: years ago, you're like and then well, it just kind
Speaker 1: of glaze over this because she was a proctor of
Speaker 1: her time. Now, she was a very progressive person who
Speaker 1: would fit in quite well today, I think. Um, and
Speaker 1: she she was just a good person. But um, she
Speaker 1: emphasized things like outdoors nous in addition to you know,
Speaker 1: learning how to cook and run a home, um, that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff. So that that whole emphasis is still
Speaker 1: around today with things like camping. Um, that's still a
Speaker 1: big part of being a Girl Scout is spending time
Speaker 1: at camp and spending time outdoors too. Yeah, Brownies, I
Speaker 1: think by the time you were a Brownie and then
Speaker 1: a junior and then a full on Girl Scout, you
Speaker 1: definitely go on camping trips. You go on overnight trips
Speaker 1: sometimes there at established camps. Sometimes it's a little more
Speaker 1: of rustic kind of style camp thing. Uh. Sometimes they
Speaker 1: Scout leaders can kind of bite off all of their
Speaker 1: responsibility if they're comfortable with that, And sometimes they go
Speaker 1: to places where they have what's called a core staff
Speaker 1: who are kind of doing meals and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: There's really no exact setway it can go down, but
Speaker 1: the point is is to get these girls out in
Speaker 1: the woods, adventuring, building campfires, rock climbing, doing crafts. Making
Speaker 1: s'mores um just something that really speaks to me and
Speaker 1: that I really believe in, of course, because I grew
Speaker 1: up doing that stuff. And by the way, if you
Speaker 1: like smores like I do, I like s'mores anything, sure
Speaker 1: you can thank the Girl Scouts for that, because they
Speaker 1: are the ones with the first recorded recipe for smore
Speaker 1: yes um back. I don't know if they invented it,
Speaker 1: but they told everybody else about it. Back in there
Speaker 1: was a Girl Scout handbook that had the first printed
Speaker 1: recipe for s'mores. It was so old timey. They were
Speaker 1: called some moors. They wasn't It wasn't turned into a
Speaker 1: contraction until the seventies. I never knew that's what it's for.
Speaker 1: I never thought about it what. I don't know. I
Speaker 1: just I was just called them smores. I never thought
Speaker 1: about the fact that it was a contraction. It stands
Speaker 1: for some mores some mores, yeah, because once you have one,
Speaker 1: you want some more. Yes. But apparently in this article
Speaker 1: it says that while they're called some moors, just one
Speaker 1: is plenty filling. Basically, I'm paraphrasing, I got a level
Speaker 1: up recommendation for your small game. And I'm a small traditionalist.
Speaker 1: I don't like to get too fancy, but I have
Speaker 1: lately started. Um, I'll get the Garadelli dark chocolate caramel
Speaker 1: square instead of a regular old Hershey. I'll throw one
Speaker 1: of those dark chocolate caramel s'more squares in there, and
Speaker 1: it's really pretty good. The addition of the caramels nice. Yeah, basically,
Speaker 1: and I'm so sorry to the good people of Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1: But the Hershey chocolate is is basically anything is level
Speaker 1: up from that, as long as it's not like the
Speaker 1: generic store brand version of chocolate, not really good chocolate.
Speaker 1: To tell you, there's so much better chocolate out there,
Speaker 1: especially if you travel eastward across the Atlantic. All the
Speaker 1: chocolate over there is amazing. And then if you keep
Speaker 1: going east and you hit Japan. All of their chocolate
Speaker 1: is amazing, and then you come back around you're like,
Speaker 1: we're back to Hershey again, although you hit Gary Delli
Speaker 1: Square first, and then you keep going eastward and you
Speaker 1: hit Pennsylvania and things get sad. Is Japan has good chocolate.
Speaker 1: Oh yes, Maisie chocolate products. They make a chocolate covered almonds,
Speaker 1: chocolate covered bacadamia nuts, and you can get them here
Speaker 1: in the States. Just I'll get you something and you
Speaker 1: can take me forever. Okay. Oh, by the way, I
Speaker 1: should tell everyone you you very sweetly sent a postcard
Speaker 1: to me with the Fred Rogers stamp and you set
Speaker 1: here to start your stamp collection. Yes, yeah, I'm good,
Speaker 1: I got it. Man. Uh. We should also mention quickly
Speaker 1: that if you do not have a girl Scout troop
Speaker 1: near you, or if you just would rather freestyle it,
Speaker 1: you can become a Juliette named after um Juliette obviously.
Speaker 1: And that is just sort of it seems like in
Speaker 1: something you do on your own, maybe with your parents help,
Speaker 1: you can still earn badges and stuff like that and
Speaker 1: just pay a smaller fee. But you're not I think
Speaker 1: officially part of a troop. No, but you're part of
Speaker 1: a council, and so we we should we should say
Speaker 1: that the Girl Scout organizations are divided into councils UM,
Speaker 1: which I think there's by my account literally accounted. I
Speaker 1: went on the Wikipedia page and counted all the councils UM,
Speaker 1: and it's like a hundred and thirty. I can't believe.
Speaker 1: I didn't write down the exact number after going to
Speaker 1: that trouble, but it's like a hundred and thirty councils
Speaker 1: around the United States. That includes like Puerto Rico, UM,
Speaker 1: and a couple of other areas. But there's a hundred
Speaker 1: and thirty councils. And then the councils are further divided
Speaker 1: into troops and UM. The I don't remember what you
Speaker 1: said that made me think about to start talking think
Speaker 1: about councils and troops the Juliets. Oh, yes, but if
Speaker 1: you're a Juliet, if you're basically a solo Girl Scout,
Speaker 1: you can do all the same things that a girl
Speaker 1: Scout does with an adult mentor. But you're a member
Speaker 1: of the council. You're just not a member of a troop.
Speaker 1: But like when the troops get together for like a
Speaker 1: GM brie or um then go to camp. You might
Speaker 1: be affiliated with the troop or something You're just you've
Speaker 1: lived too far away to go to like the weekly
Speaker 1: meetings basically, but in boy, I hope those girl scouts
Speaker 1: are nice to those Juliets. I hope so too. It
Speaker 1: kind of made my stomach a little upset thinking about
Speaker 1: what it must like for Juliet. I was thinking that
Speaker 1: a Juliet that takes a leadership position at like a
Speaker 1: council meeting or something like that deserves like double the patches,
Speaker 1: because you know, you could really easily be like a
Speaker 1: shrinking Violet in a situation like that. I know, I
Speaker 1: would you have like that kind of like tenacity and
Speaker 1: self confidence to to you know, be yourself in front
Speaker 1: of a group that like hangs out with one another
Speaker 1: every week. It seems like, you know, hats off to
Speaker 1: the Juliets, I guess, is what I'm saying. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: like the idea of Josh Clark going around the country
Speaker 1: to these meetings and just saying, raise your hand if
Speaker 1: you're a Juliet, double that girl's patches. And there everyone's like,
Speaker 1: who is this guy who I don't think he's allowed here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I didn't actually see that. Are there Is it exclusively
Speaker 1: female leadership as far as the troops go, or can
Speaker 1: dadoum by the River Valley Council. I'm not quite sure
Speaker 1: what what area they are in charge of, but um,
Speaker 1: they had a handy handbook about you can be a
Speaker 1: male girl Scout leader. That's great. You can you can
Speaker 1: rely on the fact that there will always be a
Speaker 1: female co leader president with you. They would never leave
Speaker 1: you alone with the girls. Yeah, that's good. I wasn't sure,
Speaker 1: but I figured there are plenty of dads who would
Speaker 1: want to be involved, especially if you're a single father,
Speaker 1: that you wouldn't want to be shut out of something
Speaker 1: like that, that kind of fun activity. So that's great. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're so well known for being inclusive that they're like, no,
Speaker 1: we can do this. There's there's a way to do this.
Speaker 1: You know. That's great. Uh, they wear their these days,
Speaker 1: and I think for a long time they have their uniform,
Speaker 1: which I think it used to be more of a
Speaker 1: full uniform kind of head to toe, and now you
Speaker 1: kind of wear your regular clothes and you might have
Speaker 1: a sash or a vest or something or scorts, as
Speaker 1: this how stuff works are Oh it does scorts. Scorts.
Speaker 1: It's that's such an ugly word to hear, but seeing
Speaker 1: it written down it's even worse somehow, uh it is. Um,
Speaker 1: there was one other thing. I'm sorry. I want to
Speaker 1: give another shout out to a different um sentence in
Speaker 1: this how stuff Works an article, because it is so
Speaker 1: like two thousand ten how stuff Works, so that it's
Speaker 1: talking about how one of the traditions of girl scouting
Speaker 1: is to take ashes from a campfire and save it
Speaker 1: until the next time you build a fire, and then
Speaker 1: you put those ashes in that fire. So there's this
Speaker 1: continuous kind of chain of fires no matter where you
Speaker 1: build the fires or win. And then it says, um,
Speaker 1: if more than one scout collects ashes, they're pooled before
Speaker 1: adding them to the camp fire, as if there anyone
Speaker 1: would have even thought about what might happen if more
Speaker 1: than one scout collected ashes, as if they would say, no, no, no, don't.
Speaker 1: Scout is much more good looking and popular than you.
Speaker 1: Your ashes are you just dump them on the ground
Speaker 1: right now, We're going to put only Jenny's ashes in. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we don't want your garbage ashes. I know that. I
Speaker 1: mean that was us. Yeah, I don't think I have
Speaker 1: written this one. You did. I don't think I did.
Speaker 1: I don't think I did either. So Uh, speaking of inclusivity,
Speaker 1: the Latina population, by one in three girls in the
Speaker 1: United States will be Latina and it is a really
Speaker 1: growing population. And the Girl Scouts of America recognize this.
Speaker 1: They've created Spanish language website. Uh, they have bilingual camps.
Speaker 1: They try to incorporate some of the culture into their meetings. Uh.
Speaker 1: And and I think from a two thousand eleven to
Speaker 1: two thousand sixteen, Anna Maria Chavez served as the CEO
Speaker 1: as the first woman of color, and today that is
Speaker 1: Judith Batty who was the CEO, who was the first
Speaker 1: African American woman. She is a former Scout herself from
Speaker 1: Nassau County, New York, which is just great. And I
Speaker 1: think a lot of times, if you scouted when you
Speaker 1: were young, you grow up and try and pass along
Speaker 1: that tradition to your children and at least try to
Speaker 1: get them involved in then serve as as a Scout leader. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think some some really high number like pent of
Speaker 1: former Girl Scouts end up volunteering for Scouts when they
Speaker 1: have kids. That's right, um, And then all you said
Speaker 1: that Judith Batty was the first African American CEO. People
Speaker 1: are probably like, what a minute. You guys mentioned a
Speaker 1: woman named Glory back in the seventies. She was the
Speaker 1: first African American president CEO of the relative a new
Speaker 1: position for Girl Scouts. I think in the twenty one
Speaker 1: century it was created. Can we talk about these cookies?
Speaker 1: Have we taken a second break yet? No? We should
Speaker 1: take a second break because I need to go gather
Speaker 1: some cookies to fortify myself before we start talking about
Speaker 1: cookies for like ten minutes. Alright, go get a cookie, everybody. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm ready cookie time. Like you said, eight hundred million
Speaker 1: in sales I have from and it was about the
Speaker 1: same in twenty nineteen. I think, yeah, my friend, that
Speaker 1: is more than OREO generates into giving. That's amazing. And
Speaker 1: this idea goes way way back. In nineteen seventeen, a
Speaker 1: Girl Scout troop makes some cookies. Troop from Muskogee, Oklahoma
Speaker 1: shout out the high school cafeteria as their service project.
Speaker 1: And then in nineteen twenty two, in their publication The
Speaker 1: American Girl, they gave out the recipe, and they basically
Speaker 1: said right away, hey, listen, we're gonna make some money
Speaker 1: off these, because you can make six or seven dozen
Speaker 1: of these for a little more than a quarter up
Speaker 1: to thirty five cents, and we're gonna sell them for
Speaker 1: that amount per dozen. And they were like, this is
Speaker 1: how we're gonna fund our organizations. And people loved them.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's become a part of American tradition, is
Speaker 1: the Girl Scout cookie drive because that's the only place
Speaker 1: you can get these exact cookies and people love them,
Speaker 1: including me. Yeah, so yeah, they're good cookies, of course, obviously,
Speaker 1: without question, the tagalongs are the best of the best
Speaker 1: by far. That is my number two. Oh you're kidding?
Speaker 1: What is number one? The docy dough is my favorite,
Speaker 1: which is the peanut butter sandwich. I always find those
Speaker 1: hard to find? Are they? Are they out every year? Oh? Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're the third most popular. Maybe I'm just like, no,
Speaker 1: I'm set on the tag alongs and I've always skipped
Speaker 1: over the docy Does all have to try those? Those
Speaker 1: are your number one? Huh? Number one is a docio
Speaker 1: dosy do tag along is my number two? And then
Speaker 1: I will rock a Samoa. Even though I'm not the
Speaker 1: biggest coconut fan, I will still rock up Samoa. Okay.
Speaker 1: So one of the things you'll see about Samoa's, which
Speaker 1: were introduced in nineteen seventy four. By the way, um,
Speaker 1: they are frequently called Caramel d Lights depending on where
Speaker 1: in the country you are, because there are two bakeries
Speaker 1: in the in the country in the world I guess
Speaker 1: that are licensed to make Girl Scout cookies every year,
Speaker 1: and depending on the bakery, they're either producing Caramel Delights
Speaker 1: or Samoa's, And I guess the bakery decides what they
Speaker 1: want to call and people will say that's the only difference.
Speaker 1: Those people are liars, liars, liars. There is actually a
Speaker 1: very big difference between Samoa's and Caramel Delights. Samoa's are
Speaker 1: made with dark chocolate. Caramel Delights are made with milk chocolate,
Speaker 1: which means, having only ever had Samoa's, I have not
Speaker 1: truly lived yet, because I can imagine a Samoa with
Speaker 1: milk chocolate rather than dark chocolate is probably exponentially better,
Speaker 1: unless the milk chocolate they use as Hershey's, Oh you
Speaker 1: would rather have the milk chocolate? Yes? Oh? Interesting? Yeah, totally.
Speaker 1: You're a dark chocolate guy. Huh. I mean I like
Speaker 1: all chocolate. I'm a chocolate lover. But um, I do
Speaker 1: like dark chocolate. Developer will taste for it in the
Speaker 1: best fifteen years or so. Okay, Yeah, I mean like
Speaker 1: I I would. I just wouldn't even go near it
Speaker 1: when I was a kid. I think because I ate
Speaker 1: some Baker's chocolate once, like I learned a harsh lesson,
Speaker 1: even though it was the wrong lesson. Um. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it's an adult thing. Like you don't like
Speaker 1: Scotch when you're eight, but you love Scotch when you're thirty.
Speaker 1: You know, Yeah, when you're eight, you're totally a beer person. Sure.
Speaker 1: I think by popularity, thin mints are lead the way
Speaker 1: with sales. Summos a number two at nine, dosy does
Speaker 1: or number three at sixteen, and then tag alongs come
Speaker 1: in at thirteen, and then you've got your your tree
Speaker 1: foils at number seven. I'm sorry with seven percent, and
Speaker 1: those are the short bread cookies. But there's still such
Speaker 1: a staple that I believe trefoils are one of the
Speaker 1: leading ones in production at least, so tree foil or
Speaker 1: trefoil if you've ever wondered what that means. That's actually
Speaker 1: it's it's I think both work man um the the
Speaker 1: uh the I was just gently trying to put out
Speaker 1: the alternate so um. It's actually referring to the shape
Speaker 1: of the cookie. And remember we talked about in the
Speaker 1: Adidas versus Puma episode, the Adidas logo as a trefoil
Speaker 1: has three lobes. Well that that three lobes shape, it
Speaker 1: actually looks like four, but the bottom ones supposed to
Speaker 1: be kind of like a point. It refers to a
Speaker 1: clover that was part of the original logo for the
Speaker 1: Girl Scout cookies that was turned into It was kind
Speaker 1: of blown up and really kind of turned into this
Speaker 1: minimalist icon by a very famous and incredibly prolific um
Speaker 1: logo designer named Saul Bass. Oh yeah, he did uh
Speaker 1: Hitchcock posters, Oh he did. He did the Shining poster,
Speaker 1: the very famous the Shining Poster. Um, he did Minol,
Speaker 1: Warner Brothers, Kleenex, Dixie Cup, the Hanna Barbaras Star, a
Speaker 1: T and T United Way, I mean basically everything. And
Speaker 1: one of the signature things about Saul Bass's logos is
Speaker 1: the ones that he created in the seventies are still
Speaker 1: in use today. Like they may have you know, made
Speaker 1: him like three dimensional or chain the color slightly, but
Speaker 1: it's basically the same thing. That guy was that good.
Speaker 1: But he came up with this. Um this, this new
Speaker 1: updated trefoil version of the girl Scout logo back in
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy nine, and they're still using it today. And
Speaker 1: if you look closely, it is um The three lobed
Speaker 1: clover that was part of the original logo makes up
Speaker 1: the hair of the girls. And there's three girls. The
Speaker 1: middle one is a girl of color, the other two
Speaker 1: are white, and they're all smiling and looking to the
Speaker 1: right toward the future, which is pretty cool if you
Speaker 1: think about I love that. I got one something I
Speaker 1: want to play for you real quick, okay, trefoil, all right,
Speaker 1: I'm sure I can find one. This a truff foil.
Speaker 1: Go find one. Then you'll build a robot. I know you.
Speaker 1: You won't be defeated. So there I was looking one
Speaker 1: other thing about cookies, real quick. I was looking at
Speaker 1: the at like all of the cookies they ever came
Speaker 1: out with, and there were not a bunch that I
Speaker 1: was said to miss. But I did see two that
Speaker 1: escaped my attention that I wish I had had eaten
Speaker 1: one We're Apple Cinnamons, it was out from two thousand one.
Speaker 1: Done that sound good? And another one We're Savannah Smiles,
Speaker 1: which I just missed because I wasn't paying attention. But
Speaker 1: they are lemon coolers that were out from two thousand
Speaker 1: twelve to two thousand nineteen. So if we haven't any
Speaker 1: clout with the Girl Scouts whatsoever after this episode, I
Speaker 1: want to put in a personal request to bring back
Speaker 1: Apple Cinnamons and bring back Savannah Smiles. And what if
Speaker 1: they just sent you a VHS copy of the movie
Speaker 1: Savannah Smiles from nineteen eighties something I'd be okay ish
Speaker 1: with it. Uh. Here's the kind of neat thing about
Speaker 1: the Girl Scout Cookie Drive is they can earn um badges,
Speaker 1: uh the Cookie connection badges, cookie biz badges, uh, dough charms.
Speaker 1: They can earn things, but it's not by selling the most,
Speaker 1: which is what happens at Farm of Brocamp. Like the
Speaker 1: biggest markup in the most sales is what gets you
Speaker 1: your badges there. It is for setting a goal and
Speaker 1: accomplishing that goal, whatever it is. It could be for
Speaker 1: making a really great advertisement or poster or maybe putting
Speaker 1: an advertisement in the local paper. Uh, it could be
Speaker 1: writing a story about the sale and getting that published
Speaker 1: or something. There are all kinds of cool ways to
Speaker 1: earn those cookie badges that don't and I don't think
Speaker 1: any of them include well, we sold the most, Uh right, No,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's the local press that that hops on
Speaker 1: who sold the most or you know, but the girls
Speaker 1: got themselves. They're like, yes, you go out and sell it.
Speaker 1: But the point is setting goals, reaching goals, learning, Like
Speaker 1: they have a digital like it's basically like Salesforce, but
Speaker 1: for Girl Scout cookies called Digital Cookie, and these little
Speaker 1: girls are learning how to like run that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: It's more of a focus on entrepreneurship than anything else.
Speaker 1: And for a long time I was very critical of
Speaker 1: Girl Scout cookie drives. I wasn't to the level where
Speaker 1: I was like complaining that like the Girl Scouts had
Speaker 1: set up on a public sidewalker um that that like
Speaker 1: there somebody was selling their kids cookies for hum at
Speaker 1: the office. I would never It wasn't to that level
Speaker 1: or anything like that, but I thought I was under
Speaker 1: the impression that the Girl Scouts of America was basically
Speaker 1: selling sending these kids out to basically send all the
Speaker 1: money back to the central like group. And that's just yeah,
Speaker 1: apparently almost all of it stays with the councils and
Speaker 1: that money goes back into the local troops. That it's
Speaker 1: it's really like self funding thing. And I didn't really
Speaker 1: fully grasp that. And I also didn't realize how inclusive
Speaker 1: the Girl Scouts were. But now, I mean, like, I'm
Speaker 1: just I'm gonna buy all the cookies all the time.
Speaker 1: You thought Queen tag Along just sat on her throne
Speaker 1: of money pretty much no, no, no goes to the
Speaker 1: council's goes back to the bakeries, um. And then about
Speaker 1: twelve to seventeen percent go to the actual individual troops
Speaker 1: from the council. And that's why those annual dues are
Speaker 1: solo twenty five dollars. Is you know, most families can
Speaker 1: swing something like that a year, but they still do
Speaker 1: have financial assistance if you can't, which is which is wonderful.
Speaker 1: But I mean, just that's off, you know. So the
Speaker 1: Girl Scouts, like we said, and again we're not trying
Speaker 1: to disparage Boy Scouts, but they have always been more inclusive.
Speaker 1: They have always had policies of nondiscrimination from very early on.
Speaker 1: And UM, like you said, some of the controversy comes
Speaker 1: from people of of certain political persuasion perhaps that think, Um,
Speaker 1: the Girl Scouts are too independent and feminists oriented and
Speaker 1: they're run by militants and lesbians and this this the
Speaker 1: worst things that you could possibly say, uh about like
Speaker 1: a really about a really great group like this. UM.
Speaker 1: In the seventies they had Betty for dan are old In,
Speaker 1: who we've spoken about before, UM, very much a noted feminist.
Speaker 1: She sat on the board of directors, which was a
Speaker 1: great thing. But of course that didn't a squage any
Speaker 1: fears that it was a feminist organization because that was
Speaker 1: back when that was a dirty word. UM. Now you know,
Speaker 1: and are we in the third wave of feminism? I
Speaker 1: honestly don't don't know. I mean, the third waves definitely
Speaker 1: come about, but I don't know if we've reached the
Speaker 1: fourth or not by now. That Well, we'll do a
Speaker 1: show on that at some point and we'll figure out
Speaker 1: all the waves. But the Girl Scouts have always been
Speaker 1: behind UM supporting legislation relevant to women, stuff like Title nine,
Speaker 1: which we've talked about, which is equal funding for female
Speaker 1: UM supports activities and stuff like that in colleges, and
Speaker 1: it's it's just always encouraged young girls to be independent
Speaker 1: and to do their own thing because that's what it
Speaker 1: takes to succeed in the world. And I don't think
Speaker 1: they tagged that as feminism necessarily, but they just said
Speaker 1: these are rate traits to learn so you can be
Speaker 1: an an independent woman in America or all over the world.
Speaker 1: Because they do have troops all over the world, we
Speaker 1: should mention. Yeah, And they're usually like raked over the
Speaker 1: coals whenever you know, they they salute or they support UM,
Speaker 1: like a feminist leader of feminist activist, often pro choice activists.
Speaker 1: They're they're usually one and the same or very often
Speaker 1: one and the same UM. And so you know, the
Speaker 1: far right will just like go crazy over that and
Speaker 1: say the Girl Scouts are like this brainwashing machine for
Speaker 1: producing you know, leftist agenda kids, right, and UM, that's
Speaker 1: just doesn't seem to be the case whatsoever. I think
Speaker 1: really what it is is the the far right seems
Speaker 1: to to to think of groups like that, like the
Speaker 1: Girl Scouts, as as having some sort of agenda and
Speaker 1: not realizing that the groups like the Girl Scouts like
Speaker 1: have the values that they have which tend to be
Speaker 1: counter all right, because mainstream America doesn't share the same
Speaker 1: values as far right, and these are fairly mainstream things
Speaker 1: like inclusivity, UM equality, uh, female independence, like those are
Speaker 1: pretty mainstream ideas. Uh. And I guess that's all I
Speaker 1: have to say about that. And and for those of
Speaker 1: you that want to write in, note, Josh is saying
Speaker 1: far right, he's not saying all Republicans. It's a big difference.
Speaker 1: Thanks for that. But this is uh and was also
Speaker 1: basically uh the beginning of and the the the left
Speaker 1: jumped all over the Girl Scouts for tweeting out a
Speaker 1: congratulations to Amy Comy Barrett for becoming I think the
Speaker 1: fifth um woman Supreme Court justice in history. And they
Speaker 1: even like put the other women on there. It was
Speaker 1: like a Twitter card with all of the women Supreme
Speaker 1: Court justices pictures on there. But everybody on the left
Speaker 1: jumped all over them. So I think, just like the A. C.
Speaker 1: L U, if both sides are mad at you, you're
Speaker 1: doing you're you're right, you're doing everything right, then yeah,
Speaker 1: the Girl Scouts is a non religiously affiliated UM secular group.
Speaker 1: But they do have UM the my Promise in my
Speaker 1: Faith pin which uh they say, compliments existing religious kind
Speaker 1: of recognitions, allows girls to further strengthen the connection between
Speaker 1: their faith and Girl Scouts. And there is the phrase
Speaker 1: on my honor, I will try and serve God in
Speaker 1: my country. But the official policy now for the g
Speaker 1: s USA is that you can swap the word God
Speaker 1: out if you want, and you can just say serve
Speaker 1: the community, or serve others, or serve humanity, serve my country,
Speaker 1: or you can just drop it all together if you want. Again,
Speaker 1: in the spirit of inclusivity, you can also it's they
Speaker 1: also ruled it's okay to swap out my country for
Speaker 1: the socialist agenda, which I mean some people on the
Speaker 1: far right were like ce ce a problem with rainwashing machine. Um. Also,
Speaker 1: that gold award is did you say that your ey's
Speaker 1: friend's daughter is going for that gold award or the silver?
Speaker 1: She is working on her silver. I will be surprised
Speaker 1: if she doesn't go for the gold. Well, only five
Speaker 1: point five percent of Girl Scouts who are eligible even
Speaker 1: get that gold to it is very prestigious. Indeed, so
Speaker 1: let's hope that she can get there. Yeah, let me.
Speaker 1: I want to wrap up with a couple of words
Speaker 1: from her. She said that she got to read one
Speaker 1: of her essays about going to see Wicket on Broadway
Speaker 1: on Broadway, and she said, um, I can now say
Speaker 1: that I was literally on Broadway. Ha ha. She said,
Speaker 1: I didn't win the competition, but out of all the
Speaker 1: girls who submitted their essays, I got in. That trip
Speaker 1: will stay with me forever. It is these small moments
Speaker 1: that will stay in my mind forever. Girl Scouts will
Speaker 1: always stay with you. You make friends and you learn
Speaker 1: new things in life. It is so fun and amazing, amazing, amazing. Uh.
Speaker 1: And I guess my last thing is I want to
Speaker 1: shout out some famous girls Outs. I was listening to
Speaker 1: the podcast the other day with Jason Bateman and Shawn
Speaker 1: Hayes and Smart lit Arnett SmartLess, and they had Amy Saidarison,
Speaker 1: who is one of my favorite humans, and she was
Speaker 1: talking about being a Girl Scout, which is no surprise,
Speaker 1: so Amy Saidarris is a veteran and by the way,
Speaker 1: one great Instagram follow if you don't follow her, um
Speaker 1: Sally Ride, Venus Williams, Carrie Fisher, Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama,
Speaker 1: Taylor Swift, Nancy Reagan, Gloria Steinhum, Lucille Ball, Natalie Merchant,
Speaker 1: Martha Stewart, Cheryl Crow, Katie Curic, Laura Bush, the Code
Speaker 1: of Fanning, and many, many, many more. Yeah, you and
Speaker 1: I saw the same Good Housekeeping slide show. Apparently know
Speaker 1: it took so long to get there? Did you say,
Speaker 1: Natalie Merchant, she's got to get a shout out? Yeah,
Speaker 1: she was in there. I used to be a big
Speaker 1: ten Thousand Maniacs fan. How could you not be. I'll
Speaker 1: bet they're one of those bands where if you went
Speaker 1: back and listen to him now, you'd be like, what,
Speaker 1: They're even better than I liked, or then I realized
Speaker 1: back then, well I still listen. Okay, Well there's a
Speaker 1: little tip for all you girl scouts out there and
Speaker 1: boy scouts too. Don't be shy. Start listening to ten
Speaker 1: thousand Maniacs and see what you think. Agreed, and thank
Speaker 1: you very much to our special guest, Annabella from Troop
Speaker 1: in Maryland. I hope we earned you a badge of
Speaker 1: some sort for this double or badges, I say badges,
Speaker 1: and since I said double, the badges it's time for
Speaker 1: listener mail. UH. This is Kiva plug you know, many many,
Speaker 1: many years ago. I think we started our team in
Speaker 1: two thousand seven. I'm looking now, Yes, it was okay,
Speaker 1: oh no, no, two thousand nine, we started a Kiva team.
Speaker 1: And for those who don't know, Kiva is a micro
Speaker 1: lending website. UM. They are not perfect, but they do
Speaker 1: a pretty good job. UM where you can donate very
Speaker 1: small amounts of money to UH entrepreneurs and develop nations
Speaker 1: UH and all over the world that not even developing
Speaker 1: nations exclusively anymore, to help people out give him a
Speaker 1: leg up. And it's called micro lending because ideally they
Speaker 1: repaid this money and most of the loans do get repaid.
Speaker 1: And we started our team many many years ago. And
Speaker 1: let me read this email first. Hey, guys, recently decided
Speaker 1: to start the catalog from the beginning again and reach
Speaker 1: the two thousand nine episode who were the first Americans
Speaker 1: where we plugged the Kiva team for the first time.
Speaker 1: I thought it would be good enough for Reason to
Speaker 1: write in and request that you plugged the team again.
Speaker 1: Because it's been a while. There may be a lot
Speaker 1: of new listeners who discovered the podcast since since then
Speaker 1: and aren't aware of the Kiva team. Uh. And this
Speaker 1: is from Lee Rondorf in Minnesota, so I appreciate the nudge,
Speaker 1: Lee we Uh. I am very proud to say. This
Speaker 1: is amazing, dude. I haven't been to the site in
Speaker 1: a while. The stuff you should know. Kiva Team since
Speaker 1: its inception has loaned nine point almost nine point three
Speaker 1: million dollars uh threety loans almost twelve thousand members and
Speaker 1: about thirty loans per member. That is spectacular. That beats
Speaker 1: my number. I gotta tell you, it's amazing. And um,
Speaker 1: I got the reminder the ad relan. I had about
Speaker 1: a hundred bucks in there sitting there in my account.
Speaker 1: That's how it works. They'll give you the money back,
Speaker 1: it'll be in your account and then you can go
Speaker 1: reland that money. And I'm still working off that first
Speaker 1: deposit I made many many years ago. That's nice. I've
Speaker 1: got to go look at my account and and it's
Speaker 1: been a while. I stopped getting those nudge emails because
Speaker 1: they really work. Like when they come here, I'm like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: I need to go relind that. So I gotta go
Speaker 1: check it out and also figure out what why I'm
Speaker 1: not getting those emails anymore. That's right, So we should
Speaker 1: encourage people to look into Kiva. If it's something you
Speaker 1: feel like you want to support. You can start with
Speaker 1: just a twenty five dollar loan to get your account started.
Speaker 1: And uh, let's let's get this thing well over ten
Speaker 1: million dollars. And I meant to tell you too. I
Speaker 1: refreshed our page a little bit. Oh nice. We had
Speaker 1: some terrible old picture of us, like in the video studio. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I remember that picture, so I updated that with a
Speaker 1: picture of us that we like to use. And I
Speaker 1: also just change the name of the team to stuff
Speaker 1: you should Know and not stuff you should know from
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com. Oh wow, Chuck, very nice
Speaker 1: modernizing stream. Well, if you want to join our Kiva team,
Speaker 1: go to kiva dot org slash team slash stuff you
Speaker 1: should Know, right, Yeah, and all the does have underscores
Speaker 1: between stuff you should know, But you can just go
Speaker 1: search teams for stuff you should know and make sure
Speaker 1: you do it through our team. So we're all collected together.
Speaker 1: It's kind of nice, and we don't discriminate whoever you are.
Speaker 1: Were as inclusive as the girl Scouts are, so join
Speaker 1: up and if you want to send us an email.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, we always like to hear from everybody.
Speaker 1: You can send it off to Stuff Podcasts at iHeart
Speaker 1: radio dot com. Stuff you Should Know is a production
Speaker 1: of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit
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Speaker 1: to your favorite shows. H