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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio.

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

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Speaker 2: and Jerry's here too, and we're just hanging out in

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Speaker 2: the South here on Stuff you Should Know. Yep, that's right.

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Speaker 3: And today everybody, we're gonna be talking about something I've

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Speaker 3: wanted to do an episode on for a little while,

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Speaker 3: but I forgot about it.

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Speaker 4: But now keeping a better list.

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Speaker 3: And this was farmed out to Dave Ruz who helped

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Speaker 3: us with this one about kudzoo, which if you're from

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Speaker 3: the United States, you probably know what it is. If

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Speaker 3: you're from the American South, you definitely know what it is.

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Speaker 4: But if you don't.

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Speaker 3: It is a perennial vine that very much thrives in

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Speaker 3: the American South and it is known as the vine

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Speaker 3: that ate the South because it is an invasive plant

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Speaker 3: from Japan that has really, really, really thrived in the

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Speaker 3: American South.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's taken on monstrous proportions as far as legend

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Speaker 2: and rumor and just how people walking around the South

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Speaker 2: generally think about and talk about kudzuo. Yeah, it's become

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Speaker 2: kind of a part of Southern identity. Better for worse.

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Speaker 2: But yeah, we'll get into it because recent scholarship has

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Speaker 2: found scholarship on kudzu who'ld have thought has found like

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Speaker 2: we actually don't think kudzoo's nearly as prevalent as you

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Speaker 2: guys say. Yeah, and yeah, the South is just kind

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Speaker 2: of ignoring that stuff for now, Yeah, because it's ours. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: but originally, like you said, it was Japan's and China's

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Speaker 2: I think it was. Actually it's native to China, and

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Speaker 2: it's scientific name is phou Aria montana, which makes it

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Speaker 2: really confusing because it's not from Montana.

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Speaker 4: Neither is Hannah.

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Speaker 2: No, turns out she's from Tennessee.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, that's right.

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Speaker 3: It is a part of the boy I always forget

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Speaker 3: and someone always tells us when it ends in ce

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Speaker 3: A E, what is it, say F A B A

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Speaker 3: C E A E family, which means it's a legome,

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Speaker 3: just like a pea or a soybean. They are all

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Speaker 3: nitrogen fixers, which we're going to get to in a

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Speaker 3: little bit. But it's it's a good thing that it's

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Speaker 3: a nitrogen fixer because it helps soil fertility and it's

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Speaker 3: the kind of thing that can grow in the peak

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Speaker 3: of summer when things are really hot and humid and

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Speaker 3: rainy and steamy. I can grow a foot a day,

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Speaker 3: is what you usually hear. And I think that's probably

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Speaker 3: confirmed or about you know, forty to sixty feet through

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Speaker 3: a growing season, and because southern winters are not so harsh,

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Speaker 3: they almost you know, if you're a mature kadsoo vine,

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Speaker 3: you're going to live through that winter and just keep

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Speaker 3: on growing.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and grow and grow and grow. And the way

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Speaker 2: that they grow, they have hairs on them like poison

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Speaker 2: ivy does, but it doesn't help them climb. Instead, the

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Speaker 2: very ends, the very tippy tops of the kudzu vine

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Speaker 2: is like long and thin tendrils, and it will wrap

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Speaker 2: those tendrils around anything it can possibly get its hands on.

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Speaker 2: It loves fences, It loves guy wires that hold up

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Speaker 2: telephone poles. Yeah, it loves tree limbs. Anything that it

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Speaker 2: can use to support itself, it will and it just

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Speaker 2: eventually overwhelms and takes over whatever it's attaching itself to,

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Speaker 2: whether it's a barn, whether it's some poor unfortunate tree

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Speaker 2: who's like, what did I do? It just spreads and

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Speaker 2: covers everything. And that's one of the reasons. The way

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Speaker 2: that it grows is one of the reasons why the

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Speaker 2: South is just like see kudzuo. It's everywhere. It just

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Speaker 2: takes over. It's gonna kill us all one day.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, can't even see that billboard anymore.

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Speaker 2: Nope, which is a shame because if you can't see

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Speaker 2: a billboard, how is life forth living?

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Speaker 4: I know?

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Speaker 3: All right, So if you wonder, oh yeah, but what

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Speaker 3: about this nasty eroded soil that's just like barren.

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Speaker 4: Nothing can grow there. Cuds you can grow there.

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Speaker 2: You're wondering that.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, And the reason cuds you can grow there are

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Speaker 3: One of the reasons is not because it just climbs

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Speaker 3: so fast and grows so fast, but it has an

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Speaker 3: energy store via this humongous tap root. A mature kudzu

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Speaker 3: root can be like twelve feet long and weigh four

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Speaker 3: hundred pounds. And these things are underground. Just it's almost

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Speaker 3: like the engine like lying beneath this vine.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, or the gas tank even I guess sure, all right,

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Speaker 2: one of the two, maybe both, maybe a gas tank

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Speaker 2: engine in one.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, though in a catalytic converter in your business.

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Speaker 2: So one of the things about kudzou vines one of

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Speaker 2: the reasons they're so stable as far as once they

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Speaker 2: start growing they're hard to get rid of is because

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Speaker 2: every once while, I think every foot or so, when

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Speaker 2: the vine touches the ground, it sends out roots and

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Speaker 2: it establishes what are called root crowns, and that's where

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Speaker 2: it eventually grows from. Once the new root crown is established,

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Speaker 2: it starts sending out more vines and more and more

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Speaker 2: and more. And when you have all these root crowns

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Speaker 2: sending out vines, they become tangled. They get tangled. Matt, Yeah,

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Speaker 2: a thicket of kudzu vines that can be meters deep, essentially,

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Speaker 2: like you could get lost in one of these things.

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Speaker 4: Yeah. Have you ever tried to get rid of kudzu

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Speaker 4: for any reason.

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Speaker 2: Not kudzu but other pernicious vines? Yes, yes, right, never

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Speaker 2: tried my hand at kutsu sounds hard.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's hard, but you know, I think any pernicious

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Speaker 3: vine is pretty tough.

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Speaker 4: So sure you probably know what it tastes like, you know,

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Speaker 4: but not literally.

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Speaker 3: Although what a time to talk about that, because if

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Speaker 3: you want to go back to kudzu's roots in China,

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Speaker 3: literal roots did not even mean that it has been

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Speaker 3: a part of Chinese traditional Chinese medicine for a couple

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Speaker 3: of thousand years. They call it co or koshu, and

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Speaker 3: that root they make root tea out of it. And

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Speaker 3: in Japan they eat this stuff like not only has

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Speaker 3: it been used for medicine, but that root powder that

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Speaker 3: they can make is used in a lot of different

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Speaker 3: foods in Japan.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a thickener. So if you've had mochi, it's

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Speaker 2: possible that they use kudzu powder kudzu starch to make

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Speaker 2: make it the thick little delicious treat it is, or

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Speaker 2: they'll use it to make noodles with. It's also used

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Speaker 2: in traditional Japanese and Chinese medicine. They'll use tea for

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Speaker 2: things like colds and digestion. And then also because there's

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Speaker 2: actual like health benefits or at least it contains flavonoids

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Speaker 2: that have been shown to have health benefits, they use

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Speaker 2: it for things like inflammation, cardiovas, vascular disease, osteoporosis to

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Speaker 2: protect against those things, not to cure them or anything.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and while I mentioned that it's koshu and China,

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Speaker 3: it is kuzu in Japan.

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Speaker 4: And you might have heard various stories.

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Speaker 3: If you're in the South, you know there's It's not

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Speaker 3: like we're sitting around talking abou kudzu all the time.

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Speaker 4: That's a bit of an outdated trope.

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Speaker 3: But at some point, if you, like literally were raised

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Speaker 3: in here and lived here your whole life, you might

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Speaker 3: have heard someone at some point say something about like

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Speaker 3: how cuds you got here? And I remember hearing a

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Speaker 3: story that it was brought over as part of a

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Speaker 3: like a World's fair or something, and it had to

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Speaker 3: have been this story from eighteen seventy six when it

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Speaker 3: was brought over from Japan on display at the Philadelphia

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Speaker 3: Centennial Exposition. But that is a bit of a false

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Speaker 3: rumor because they actually destroyed all of those plants, and

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Speaker 3: that's not when kudzu literally took root here.

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Speaker 2: No, And then within a few decades the people who

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Speaker 2: were at that exposition and saw apparently fell in love

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Speaker 2: with it. Kudzu display was a huge hit, and so

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Speaker 2: within a couple decades you could order seeds kudzu seeds

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Speaker 2: to plant at your house. And now, yeah, and people

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Speaker 2: would plant it as an ornamental vine because it has

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Speaker 2: purple flowers. They smell it smells like grape candy and lavender.

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Speaker 2: It can be pretty I could see how old timey

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Speaker 2: turn of the century people were like, this is great.

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Speaker 2: But even then with people planning the stuff at their

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Speaker 2: houses across the South, that still wasn't when kudzu invaded,

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Speaker 2: because they were mostly growing it upright on trellises on porches,

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Speaker 2: and kudzu is easily controlled in that situation. It's when

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Speaker 2: it's on the ground as a groundcover that it spreads

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Speaker 2: like crazy and it is really hard to get rid of.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure, when it really came in earnest was

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Speaker 3: in the nineteen thirties, and it was very much purposeful.

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Speaker 4: This was the time when the.

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Speaker 3: I guess Oklahoma and Kansas and you know, other areas

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Speaker 3: nearby were being killed by the dust Bowl. In the

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Speaker 3: Deep South, we didn't have the dust Bowl, but we

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Speaker 3: had a pretty bad agricultural scene after decades and decades

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Speaker 3: of monoculture farming with corn basically tobacco and cotton. And

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Speaker 3: so we've talked about monocultures before and how that's not

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Speaker 3: the best way to take care of your land. And

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Speaker 3: eventually that soil is not going to be great. It's

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Speaker 3: going to erode, it is going to be depleted of nutrients,

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Speaker 3: and Kudzoo was looked at by the Soil Erosion Surface

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Speaker 3: Service Surface Service, which later became the Soil Conservation Service

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Speaker 3: as the answer in nineteen thirty three.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, because so, first of all, it grows vigorously. Everybody

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Speaker 2: knows that about kudzoo, and it doesn't matter how terrible

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Speaker 2: the soil is, it will grow in it. And then

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Speaker 2: as it's growing in it, you said that it's a

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Speaker 2: nitrogen fixing superstar, and it is nitrogen fixing plant. All

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Speaker 2: plants fix nitrogen. They bring sugars to their roots, they

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Speaker 2: feed microbes that eat the sugars, and then the microbes

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Speaker 2: convert nitrogen from the atmosphere into usable nitrogen that the

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Speaker 2: plants then take up. So all plants have that relationship

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Speaker 2: with microbes. It's just nitrogen fixing. Plants are such powerhouses

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Speaker 2: and have such thriving microbial communities that they put out

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Speaker 2: way more nitrogen into the soil than they use themselves.

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Speaker 2: So as they grow, they restore the soil with nutrients

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Speaker 2: that have been depleted. And that's what kudzu was initially

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Speaker 2: used for.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, so they're like, hey, this is great, it'll slow

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Speaker 4: your erosion. You're going to fix that soil so good,

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Speaker 4: it's gonna get fixed up. And they said, here's what

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Speaker 4: we're gonna do.

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Speaker 3: We're gonna create a government program because those always work

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Speaker 3: out great, and we're gonna encourage people to grow these things.

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Speaker 3: They had millions of kadzu seeds brought in and they

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Speaker 3: grew those into little seedling plants, and they paid farmers

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Speaker 3: in the South eight bucks an acre to plant kudzoo,

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Speaker 3: and by the mid nineteen forties there were about three

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Speaker 3: million acres of purposefully planted kud zoo growing on southern farms.

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Speaker 3: That's on the farms. You also had the Civilian Conservation Corps,

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Speaker 3: which was an FDR program with a new deal. When

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Speaker 3: we talked about it before, when they were like, hey,

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Speaker 3: if you're unemployed, come work for the Civilian Conservation Corps,

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Speaker 3: and you know, we'll put you to work doing things

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Speaker 3: like this, like hey, just go plant an anywhere along

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Speaker 3: the roadway where you see a washed out gully, or

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Speaker 3: if we're clearing out land for roadways and it's just

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Speaker 3: a barren, dirty mess, like plant this kudzoo and you'll

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Speaker 3: be doing America a favor.

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Speaker 2: Same with the railroads, Like, you don't want your the

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Speaker 2: bed that your railroad's built on to wash out. So

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Speaker 2: if you plant kudzu on every side, it'll keep it

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Speaker 2: from eroading. Plus it looks prettier than a bunch of gravel. Right,

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Speaker 2: So yeah, this stuff started getting planted everywhere. And in

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Speaker 2: addition to the government saying you guys want to plant this,

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Speaker 2: go ahead, we'll pay you. There were some evangelists. Evangelists

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Speaker 2: is like the best word to describe them. And one,

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Speaker 2: the guy who's probably most prominently cited as a kadzoo

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Speaker 2: evangelist is a guy named Channing Cope.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, maybe we should take a break and Cliff haanging

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Speaker 4: that one.

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Speaker 2: I'll hang it.

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Speaker 3: Everyone who the heck is Channing Coke gotta know, I

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Speaker 3: gotta know, guys, you're gonna have to wait, all right,

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Speaker 3: we'll be right back.

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Speaker 1: Well, now we're on the road, driving in your truck.

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Speaker 1: I want to learn a thing or two from Joshuck.

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Speaker 1: It's stuff you should know, all.

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Speaker 2: Right, So, Chuck, you really messed with everyone's mind. I'm

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Speaker 2: going to fulfill their wishes and tell them that Channing

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Speaker 2: Cope was a farm editor for the Atlantic Constitution newspaper

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Speaker 2: farm editor.

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Speaker 4: What's that?

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Speaker 2: So it was a guy who would edit farms and

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Speaker 2: then the paper would take pictures of him editing the

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Speaker 2: farm and they would publish it. That was, from what

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Speaker 2: I understand, what the farm editor did back in newspaper times.

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Speaker 2: Oh okay, and this is the nineteen forties. And this

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Speaker 2: guy was a really from what I could tell, I

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Speaker 2: didn't do any deep research on him, but he seems

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Speaker 2: to have been a very, at least outwardly likable fellow.

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Speaker 4: Yeh.

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Speaker 2: He had a huge jovial personality. He was super homespun.

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Speaker 2: He had a radio show in addition to his column,

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Speaker 2: Channing Cope's Almanac, and it was really popular. He would

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Speaker 2: just riff. He broadcasts live from his front porch and

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Speaker 2: it was unprepared and he would fill a half hour

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Speaker 2: an hour just talking about farm stuff and people loved it.

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Speaker 2: But in these in his column and on the radio show,

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Speaker 2: he would invariably talk about how amazing Kudzu was.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, he said that, and reform. We need some reform

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Speaker 4: in our government.

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Speaker 2: Right.

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Speaker 3: So he's doing this radio show, he's beaten the drum

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Speaker 3: for Kudzu, basically saying everything that we've been saying, which

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Speaker 3: is like, hey, it's going to rebuild your soil. Your

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Speaker 3: cattle can graze on it. You just rotate that cattle

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Speaker 3: around your fields and they're going to be so full

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Speaker 3: from kudzu and so happy, and that kudzu is going

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Speaker 3: to grow back so fast and they're going to have

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Speaker 3: so much more food and you're just going to be

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Speaker 3: sitting pretty basically. He actually started a Kudzu Club of America,

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Speaker 3: which had eventually twenty thousand members and said this is

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Speaker 3: the what's going to bring the South back basically is

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Speaker 3: kudzoo And about oh what less than twenty years later, oh,

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Speaker 3: actually about ten years later, Southern farmers were like, we're

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Speaker 3: in big trouble here because the cattle are eating this

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Speaker 3: stuff and if they eat too much of those leaves,

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Speaker 3: they're dying off because they're not matured yet.

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Speaker 2: The vines are yeah, cattle, they're.

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Speaker 4: Not mature cattle. They can't handle it.

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Speaker 3: And if they try to cut it back or something,

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Speaker 3: because it's you know, starting to invade other parts of

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Speaker 3: their farm and like bail it up, like hey, like

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Speaker 3: I don't think I don't know if we're getting through

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Speaker 3: what a twisted mess this stuff is like it'll wrap

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Speaker 3: itself around any machinery you have and just make a

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Speaker 3: fool of modern machinery.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Just I mean, if you aren't familiar, just look

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Speaker 2: up kudzoo and abandoned houses or something like that, and

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Speaker 2: it will. It will just immediately deliver the impression you

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Speaker 2: need on what it can do and how much it

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Speaker 2: can take over. And so you had a bunch of

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Speaker 2: farmers in the fifties who'd planted this stuff on purpose,

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Speaker 2: and stories are starting to come out like these guys

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Speaker 2: like their farms are just being overrun, Like not only

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Speaker 2: is it getting out of their fields, it's starting to

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Speaker 2: climb up their house, the farmhouse, their tractor. If they

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Speaker 2: leave it sitting for more than half an hour, it'll

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Speaker 2: get eaten up by the kudzu. Like this is when

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Speaker 2: the kudzu legend really started to take off. And again

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Speaker 2: it was it was based in a very real fact

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Speaker 2: that kudzu had gotten out of hand and everyone had

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Speaker 2: a problem. But it also was the rural Southerners who

295
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Speaker 2: were talking about this, so it was immediately spun into

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Speaker 2: yarns left and right.

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Speaker 3: Basically, Yeah, I mean, it would you know, if it

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Speaker 3: got into the forest it would the timber industry was affected,

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Speaker 3: so it was genuinely causing problems. And then starting in

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Speaker 3: nineteen fifty three, over the next about forty ish years,

301
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Speaker 3: the government just kind of one at a time started

302
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Speaker 3: saying things about kudzu, Like initially in fifty three the

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Speaker 3: USDA said, it's not an improved cover crop, and then

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Speaker 3: nine years later in sixty two, the Soil Conservation Service said,

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Speaker 3: you know what you can you don't even plant this

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Speaker 3: stuff unless it's in a really remote location. Nineteen seventy

307
00:17:02,240 --> 00:17:04,080
Speaker 3: comes along and they say, all right, we're gonna go

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Speaker 3: ahead and call a weed a weed, and this is

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Speaker 3: a weed. And then finally in ninety seven they said

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Speaker 3: that's not even good enough. It is on the Federal

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Speaker 3: noxious weed list.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it joined the sorry likes of goats, roue, velvet, fingergrass,

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Speaker 2: giant fogweed, bidenhair, creeper, turkey berry, turkey berry, tropical soda apple.

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Speaker 2: That's just like three words strung together.

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Speaker 4: That's actually delicious.

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Speaker 2: It sounds like it, but it's a noxious weed as

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Speaker 2: far as the USDA is concerned. With a little gin

318
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Speaker 2: and ice, though it does sound pretty good. Yeah, So

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Speaker 2: one of the big problems is not just that, like

320
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Speaker 2: farmers were having trouble with this, Eventually they figured this out,

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Speaker 2: they stopped planning it, they were able to kill it

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Speaker 2: off after you know, some years of difficulty, and then

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Speaker 2: it mainly got left to abandoned areas those railroad tracks

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Speaker 2: along the edges of highways, like the forests along the

325
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Speaker 2: edge of a highway. That's basically where kudzoo was left

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Speaker 2: to just kind of go crazy. And that's not really

327
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Speaker 2: great either, because during the last glacial maximum in North America,

328
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Speaker 2: the ice sheets came down and stopped just above Georgia,

329
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Speaker 2: just above Tennessee, just above the South, let's just call

330
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Speaker 2: it that, and a lot of animals migrated southward and

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Speaker 2: stopped where the ice sheets stopped and stayed after the

332
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Speaker 2: ice sheet retreated, And as a result, the South has

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Speaker 2: one of the most biodiverse ecosystems in North America, and

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Speaker 2: when you add something like an invasive plant species, it

335
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Speaker 2: affects all of that. So it actually is a big

336
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Speaker 2: deal that kudzoo is so pernicious and so fast spreading,

337
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Speaker 2: because it does affect that biodiversity and reduces it tremendously.

338
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Speaker 3: Well, yeah, and you were talking about it being a

339
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Speaker 3: nitrogen fixer, which is a good thing when you need

340
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Speaker 3: your nitrogen fixed. The problem is is there was so

341
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Speaker 3: much kudzoo, I think more acreage in the south than

342
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Speaker 3: even soybeans, so more than any other legume which are

343
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Speaker 3: the other nitrogen fixers. Is the point it can actually disrupt.

344
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Speaker 3: It can fix so much nitrogen that can disrupt the

345
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Speaker 3: normal nitrogen cycle because when excess nitrogen comes back into

346
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Speaker 3: the atmosphere, it comes back as two things, nitric oxide

347
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Speaker 3: and nitrogen dioxide, and these are pollutants. So if you

348
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Speaker 3: have an abundance of kudzuo, eventually you're going to have

349
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Speaker 3: an abundance of lung inflammation and asthma.

350
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Speaker 4: It's just it's not good for the air.

351
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Speaker 2: So I looked into that and I could find articles

352
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Speaker 2: on one twenty ten study and they were all around

353
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Speaker 2: the same time and no follow up whatsoever. And the

354
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Speaker 2: most recent study I could find was from twenty twenty

355
00:19:58,720 --> 00:20:03,680
Speaker 2: three and it said essentially the opposite that Japanese kudzu

356
00:20:03,800 --> 00:20:07,920
Speaker 2: growing along roadways actually traps a lot of the car

357
00:20:07,960 --> 00:20:12,600
Speaker 2: emissions on that road in its dense vegetation and prevents

358
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Speaker 2: air pollution in some ways. So it's possible. Yeah, it's

359
00:20:16,840 --> 00:20:19,320
Speaker 2: possible the twenty ten study was right. It's possible that

360
00:20:19,400 --> 00:20:23,960
Speaker 2: twenty twenty three study was right. They're not mutually exclusive necessarily,

361
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Speaker 2: but yeah, I didn't see any follow up whatsoever on

362
00:20:27,200 --> 00:20:30,840
Speaker 2: that twenty ten study. And herein we have one of

363
00:20:30,880 --> 00:20:35,200
Speaker 2: the big problems with talking about kudzu. People just say

364
00:20:35,240 --> 00:20:39,679
Speaker 2: stuff about it and no one says, are you sure

365
00:20:39,840 --> 00:20:43,720
Speaker 2: about that? That doesn't sound quite right, or where'd you

366
00:20:43,720 --> 00:20:46,320
Speaker 2: get that fact from? You know, like it's it's just

367
00:20:46,440 --> 00:20:49,320
Speaker 2: that's how the South talks about kudzu because it's, in

368
00:20:49,359 --> 00:20:55,399
Speaker 2: some really strange way, very proud that it has this strange,

369
00:20:55,480 --> 00:20:59,080
Speaker 2: unique problem that nowhere else in the world has. So

370
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Speaker 2: I don't think South really wants to know that kudzuo's

371
00:21:02,280 --> 00:21:04,160
Speaker 2: not as big of a problem as it's man saying

372
00:21:04,200 --> 00:21:06,480
Speaker 2: all these decades, you know, yeah, because.

373
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Speaker 3: Then we wouldn't be able to walk around and talk

374
00:21:07,760 --> 00:21:10,639
Speaker 3: about kudzu to people that could care less.

375
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Speaker 2: Yeah, and we wouldn't be able to wear those shirts

376
00:21:13,840 --> 00:21:17,560
Speaker 2: that are dyed green from kudzu very proudly outside of

377
00:21:17,640 --> 00:21:20,440
Speaker 2: the South at like family reunions, I may say, ask

378
00:21:20,560 --> 00:21:22,680
Speaker 2: me about my kudzuo dyed shirt.

379
00:21:23,040 --> 00:21:23,880
Speaker 4: Oh is that a thing?

380
00:21:25,080 --> 00:21:27,640
Speaker 2: Not that part, but yes, the dyeing a shirt green

381
00:21:27,680 --> 00:21:30,520
Speaker 2: with kudzu to kind of show your Southern bona fides.

382
00:21:31,000 --> 00:21:33,280
Speaker 2: Never that was a thing. That's super nineties. They also

383
00:21:33,359 --> 00:21:37,800
Speaker 2: sold one that was a horrible color orange. It was

384
00:21:37,920 --> 00:21:42,919
Speaker 2: dyed with red Georgia clay. These are not things that

385
00:21:42,960 --> 00:21:45,280
Speaker 2: anybody should have been wearing, but it kind of goes

386
00:21:45,320 --> 00:21:47,679
Speaker 2: to show like these are the weird things that Southerners

387
00:21:47,960 --> 00:21:49,159
Speaker 2: take some sort of pride in.

388
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Speaker 3: Yeah, and when I was a kid, I remember seeing

389
00:21:52,240 --> 00:21:54,239
Speaker 3: the h and probably in some parts of Georgia they

390
00:21:54,240 --> 00:21:55,800
Speaker 3: still have these shirts and bumper stickers.

391
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Speaker 4: Lee surrendered, Robert E. Lee, Lee surrendered. I did not.

392
00:22:00,560 --> 00:22:02,000
Speaker 2: I'm it's so not surprised.

393
00:22:02,160 --> 00:22:04,000
Speaker 3: It never occurred to me as a kid. I was like, well,

394
00:22:04,040 --> 00:22:06,520
Speaker 3: what what are they saying? Like there are they still

395
00:22:06,520 --> 00:22:09,640
Speaker 3: fighting the Civil War? Like they didn't surrender.

396
00:22:10,119 --> 00:22:13,480
Speaker 2: I saw a check once from a guy this is

397
00:22:13,520 --> 00:22:17,560
Speaker 2: not a joke, and he wasn't. This wasn't ironic. His

398
00:22:17,760 --> 00:22:22,840
Speaker 2: address said for the state, the occupied state of Georgia.

399
00:22:23,119 --> 00:22:24,800
Speaker 2: This was in the twenty first century.

400
00:22:24,960 --> 00:22:27,760
Speaker 4: Who's it occupied by the Yankees?

401
00:22:27,920 --> 00:22:33,120
Speaker 2: Yankees? Yeah, the Union, the Federal government. Ah boy, I'm

402
00:22:33,160 --> 00:22:35,600
Speaker 2: not kidding and now serious about it too.

403
00:22:37,280 --> 00:22:42,480
Speaker 3: So a couple of other problems with kudzuo is money.

404
00:22:42,960 --> 00:22:47,639
Speaker 3: Utility companies spend, literally, spend hundreds of millions of dollars

405
00:22:47,680 --> 00:22:51,320
Speaker 3: annually hundreds of millions of bucks trying to keep kudzu

406
00:22:51,400 --> 00:22:56,240
Speaker 3: from overtaking their utility systems. The Highway doesn't spend quite

407
00:22:56,240 --> 00:22:58,840
Speaker 3: as much, but they spend millions of bucks trying to

408
00:22:58,920 --> 00:23:02,080
Speaker 3: kill kudzu along the highway. And then there's the matter

409
00:23:02,119 --> 00:23:06,960
Speaker 3: of the kudzoo bug, which is a stink bug. It's Japanese,

410
00:23:07,800 --> 00:23:10,920
Speaker 3: first spotted here in two thousand and nine. They're good

411
00:23:10,920 --> 00:23:14,080
Speaker 3: in one way because they they eat the kudzoo and

412
00:23:14,119 --> 00:23:17,040
Speaker 3: they can kill a mature kudzoo stand in two or

413
00:23:17,040 --> 00:23:20,879
Speaker 3: three years sometimes, but they are invasive. They are stink bugs,

414
00:23:20,920 --> 00:23:23,200
Speaker 3: and they eat other things and they're stink bugs.

415
00:23:23,640 --> 00:23:26,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, And you can't really say stink bugs enough. They

416
00:23:26,960 --> 00:23:29,880
Speaker 2: are stinky, and that oil will stain your clothes. And

417
00:23:30,320 --> 00:23:32,480
Speaker 2: when it gets cold out, they like to go into

418
00:23:32,520 --> 00:23:35,119
Speaker 2: the warmth of your house and sometimes they'll just stay

419
00:23:35,800 --> 00:23:39,280
Speaker 2: even after it gets warm outside. Again, it's not something

420
00:23:39,320 --> 00:23:41,719
Speaker 2: you want. And they're fairly new they showed up. They

421
00:23:41,760 --> 00:23:44,000
Speaker 2: think one of them or some of them hitched a

422
00:23:44,040 --> 00:23:47,520
Speaker 2: flight or hitched a ride on some flight back in

423
00:23:47,560 --> 00:23:50,840
Speaker 2: the early two thousands. And they were first described in

424
00:23:50,840 --> 00:23:54,440
Speaker 2: two thousand and nine in the South. And at first

425
00:23:54,440 --> 00:23:56,159
Speaker 2: people are like, this is awesome, They're gonna get rid

426
00:23:56,200 --> 00:23:59,119
Speaker 2: of the kudzoo. And then somebody smelled one of them

427
00:23:59,200 --> 00:24:02,520
Speaker 2: and was like, oh no, still again something else.

428
00:24:03,200 --> 00:24:07,280
Speaker 3: Yeah, I see stink bugs around but our house, But

429
00:24:07,480 --> 00:24:09,800
Speaker 3: I don't think they're kuds you bugs.

430
00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:13,520
Speaker 2: These look like an overfed tick in a lot of voice,

431
00:24:13,560 --> 00:24:17,280
Speaker 2: same color, same shape and size. Yeah, you could see

432
00:24:17,520 --> 00:24:20,080
Speaker 2: very easily mistaking it for a huge tick.

433
00:24:20,400 --> 00:24:23,680
Speaker 4: Yeah, totally a blood and gorge tick.

434
00:24:24,040 --> 00:24:25,679
Speaker 2: Yeah, those are the worst.

435
00:24:26,040 --> 00:24:27,119
Speaker 4: Should we take another break?

436
00:24:27,440 --> 00:24:28,639
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's all right.

437
00:24:28,640 --> 00:24:30,199
Speaker 4: We'll take a break and we'll talk a little bit

438
00:24:30,200 --> 00:24:34,160
Speaker 4: about what Josh was talking about. Is kudzu overblown? Right

439
00:24:34,160 --> 00:24:34,520
Speaker 4: after this?

440
00:24:48,720 --> 00:24:52,520
Speaker 1: Well, now we're on the road, driving in your truck.

441
00:24:52,800 --> 00:24:56,920
Speaker 1: Want to learn a thing or two from Joshuck, It's

442
00:24:56,960 --> 00:25:04,639
Speaker 1: stuff you should know, all right.

443
00:25:04,320 --> 00:25:07,960
Speaker 3: All right, if you have or not from the South

444
00:25:08,000 --> 00:25:10,119
Speaker 3: and you've like road trip to the South or something,

445
00:25:10,600 --> 00:25:12,800
Speaker 3: and you've heard of kudzoo and you're driving along the

446
00:25:12,840 --> 00:25:17,600
Speaker 3: interstate and you see the kudzoo that is just you know,

447
00:25:17,720 --> 00:25:22,800
Speaker 3: swallowed up a billboard or a telephone line or something.

448
00:25:23,040 --> 00:25:25,680
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you just think to yourself, the poor, poor South,

449
00:25:25,760 --> 00:25:27,359
Speaker 2: What did it ever do to anybody?

450
00:25:28,040 --> 00:25:28,359
Speaker 4: I know?

451
00:25:28,440 --> 00:25:30,280
Speaker 3: But if you drive around, you might think, oh, my god,

452
00:25:30,359 --> 00:25:33,240
Speaker 3: that stuff really is everywhere. One of the reasons you're

453
00:25:33,240 --> 00:25:35,360
Speaker 3: seeing it a lot there is because it really thrives

454
00:25:35,359 --> 00:25:38,600
Speaker 3: along interstates and stuff, these like big, wide open areas

455
00:25:38,640 --> 00:25:40,480
Speaker 3: where they can get plenty of sun and stuff like that.

456
00:25:41,040 --> 00:25:43,280
Speaker 3: So it's not like because you're driving down the highway

457
00:25:43,320 --> 00:25:45,000
Speaker 3: and you see a ton of you know, something eating

458
00:25:45,080 --> 00:25:47,960
Speaker 3: up in exit sign that is just like that everywhere.

459
00:25:48,640 --> 00:25:50,399
Speaker 3: And like you said, there's a lot of sort of

460
00:25:51,760 --> 00:25:55,960
Speaker 3: hinky stats around how much kudzoo there actually is, right, Yeah.

461
00:25:55,760 --> 00:25:59,760
Speaker 2: For sure. I think in the nineties, very frequently cited

462
00:25:59,800 --> 00:26:04,040
Speaker 2: it'sistic was that kudzu covered seven million acres of the South.

463
00:26:04,760 --> 00:26:09,040
Speaker 2: That is an enormous amount of land. But I was

464
00:26:09,040 --> 00:26:12,040
Speaker 2: reading a Smithsonian article by a naturalist named Bill Finch,

465
00:26:12,560 --> 00:26:15,600
Speaker 2: and he said that it seems that those stats came

466
00:26:15,640 --> 00:26:20,080
Speaker 2: from a Garden Club guide, a kudzu craft book, and

467
00:26:20,119 --> 00:26:24,199
Speaker 2: a culinarian healing guide. Yeah, and we have it that like,

468
00:26:24,560 --> 00:26:27,800
Speaker 2: just like with everything else with kudzu, the academic community

469
00:26:27,880 --> 00:26:33,880
Speaker 2: cited that statistic without any incredulity at all, and that

470
00:26:33,960 --> 00:26:36,600
Speaker 2: it just spread like kudsu essentially.

471
00:26:37,160 --> 00:26:39,400
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think more reasonable stats.

472
00:26:39,800 --> 00:26:42,800
Speaker 3: The US Forest Service says that they they are about

473
00:26:42,800 --> 00:26:45,919
Speaker 3: two hundred and twenty seven thousand acres of kudzu in

474
00:26:45,960 --> 00:26:49,560
Speaker 3: the forest. That does not count roadsides and stuff, so

475
00:26:49,600 --> 00:26:52,080
Speaker 3: it's certainly a lot more. But I do think that

476
00:26:52,200 --> 00:26:55,600
Speaker 3: seven million was just one of those sort of errant

477
00:26:55,840 --> 00:26:58,240
Speaker 3: stats that was thrown out and then copy pasted.

478
00:26:58,680 --> 00:27:01,680
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean these things are being discussed among people

479
00:27:01,760 --> 00:27:06,679
Speaker 2: who are have like friends of their cousins friends have

480
00:27:06,800 --> 00:27:10,080
Speaker 2: done some amazing stuff over and over again.

481
00:27:11,040 --> 00:27:11,879
Speaker 4: Yeah.

482
00:27:12,280 --> 00:27:15,800
Speaker 2: So, like you said, one of the reasons why kudzu

483
00:27:15,840 --> 00:27:18,359
Speaker 2: seems to be taking over everything is just where it grows.

484
00:27:18,400 --> 00:27:20,879
Speaker 2: So I think, Chuck, that would be selection bias.

485
00:27:21,560 --> 00:27:21,960
Speaker 4: Yeah.

486
00:27:22,640 --> 00:27:26,480
Speaker 2: So yeah, if you just it's where you are, But

487
00:27:26,560 --> 00:27:28,920
Speaker 2: if you were in the forest, you'd be like, oh,

488
00:27:28,960 --> 00:27:31,600
Speaker 2: this is this is fine. I mean, eventually the kudzu

489
00:27:31,680 --> 00:27:34,320
Speaker 2: would eat through a forest, I guess, because it's eating

490
00:27:34,359 --> 00:27:38,080
Speaker 2: the outside part and killing off the trees and then

491
00:27:38,080 --> 00:27:40,240
Speaker 2: it would need the next stand of trees to grow on.

492
00:27:40,840 --> 00:27:43,520
Speaker 2: But I don't see anywhere that that's a huge problem.

493
00:27:43,600 --> 00:27:47,560
Speaker 2: It seems that it's just not as big an issue

494
00:27:47,560 --> 00:27:50,320
Speaker 2: as anybody says that it's really not a huge problem.

495
00:27:51,080 --> 00:27:54,160
Speaker 3: Yeah, apparently in Alabama there's way more. If you're talking

496
00:27:54,160 --> 00:28:00,359
Speaker 3: about invasive species, there's way more Chinese privet and uh oh,

497
00:28:00,680 --> 00:28:01,600
Speaker 3: have you had a problem with that?

498
00:28:02,520 --> 00:28:06,280
Speaker 2: Dude? Have you ever had a Chinese privet problem?

499
00:28:06,320 --> 00:28:08,359
Speaker 3: I definitely haven't, but I'm now looking it up to

500
00:28:08,359 --> 00:28:09,679
Speaker 3: see if I even recognize it.

501
00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:12,119
Speaker 2: A lot of people just treat them like shrubs because

502
00:28:12,160 --> 00:28:16,000
Speaker 2: they're just so prevalent, and it's they're not exactly bad looking,

503
00:28:16,080 --> 00:28:18,520
Speaker 2: but if you don't want them there, they're a problem.

504
00:28:18,640 --> 00:28:20,920
Speaker 2: They're hard to get rid of, and they're sturdy. They

505
00:28:20,920 --> 00:28:21,760
Speaker 2: grow really thick.

506
00:28:22,640 --> 00:28:24,400
Speaker 4: Interesting. I like the white flowers.

507
00:28:24,840 --> 00:28:26,840
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like I said, some people are just like whatever,

508
00:28:26,960 --> 00:28:30,080
Speaker 2: I have this this like shrub that I didn't ask for.

509
00:28:30,119 --> 00:28:31,560
Speaker 2: But now I'm just gonna keep yah.

510
00:28:32,320 --> 00:28:35,720
Speaker 3: H Japanese honeysuckle is the other one in Alabama at

511
00:28:35,800 --> 00:28:37,240
Speaker 3: least is like way way more.

512
00:28:37,280 --> 00:28:37,760
Speaker 4: I think.

513
00:28:39,240 --> 00:28:42,120
Speaker 3: Honeysuckles three about three million acres Chinese privets about a

514
00:28:42,120 --> 00:28:45,360
Speaker 3: million acres in kudzu in Alabama is only about sixty

515
00:28:45,400 --> 00:28:46,800
Speaker 3: thousand acres in the forest.

516
00:28:47,000 --> 00:28:50,360
Speaker 2: Yeah, so in the United States, I think you said

517
00:28:50,520 --> 00:28:53,560
Speaker 2: two hundred and twenty seven thousand acres of forest land, right,

518
00:28:54,240 --> 00:28:57,720
Speaker 2: but that's just counting the forest land. Yeah, so we

519
00:28:57,760 --> 00:29:00,560
Speaker 2: don't really know how much kudzuo there is. But again

520
00:29:00,600 --> 00:29:04,400
Speaker 2: that now the most recent scholarship. People actually looking into

521
00:29:04,440 --> 00:29:07,160
Speaker 2: it or don't seem to be particularly worried about the

522
00:29:07,160 --> 00:29:10,560
Speaker 2: whole thing. But if you have kudzu in your yard,

523
00:29:11,080 --> 00:29:13,200
Speaker 2: there's actually some things that you can do to get

524
00:29:13,280 --> 00:29:14,920
Speaker 2: rid of it if you want to get rid of it,

525
00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:17,840
Speaker 2: and you probably do if it's anywhere near your yard,

526
00:29:17,880 --> 00:29:20,800
Speaker 2: because it'll eventually become a problem if it's not already.

527
00:29:21,520 --> 00:29:26,520
Speaker 3: Yeah, we have a kudzu issue at the Eastlake Garden

528
00:29:26,520 --> 00:29:31,600
Speaker 3: that Emily operates. There's a's sort of an island of

529
00:29:31,680 --> 00:29:34,680
Speaker 3: kudzu and it's almost like a swale, like a depression

530
00:29:35,080 --> 00:29:36,960
Speaker 3: where there's like trees and shrubs and stuff, and the

531
00:29:37,000 --> 00:29:40,240
Speaker 3: kadzu is only in there. And I think we have

532
00:29:40,360 --> 00:29:43,160
Speaker 3: both decided that trying to eradicate it from there is

533
00:29:43,200 --> 00:29:46,080
Speaker 3: like not even worth the time, but we're trying to

534
00:29:46,240 --> 00:29:48,760
Speaker 3: keep it there and not let it creep. So so far,

535
00:29:48,880 --> 00:29:53,040
Speaker 3: so good with that, kudzuo. But I have English ivy

536
00:29:53,400 --> 00:29:58,440
Speaker 3: that I purposely grew along one of my yard fences,

537
00:29:58,440 --> 00:30:01,840
Speaker 3: my privacy fence, and it looks great. It's like Wrigley

538
00:30:01,840 --> 00:30:03,400
Speaker 3: Field out there, and I'm so proud of it. But

539
00:30:03,560 --> 00:30:06,080
Speaker 3: it is stacking up so high on this fence. I

540
00:30:06,120 --> 00:30:08,840
Speaker 3: know that's not good for the fence because it's been

541
00:30:09,400 --> 00:30:10,840
Speaker 3: you know, I used to manage it a lot better

542
00:30:10,920 --> 00:30:12,120
Speaker 3: now it's been a couple of years.

543
00:30:12,160 --> 00:30:14,040
Speaker 4: And it's also a mosquito haven, I think.

544
00:30:14,280 --> 00:30:17,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it locks in moisture in that you know

545
00:30:17,760 --> 00:30:20,160
Speaker 2: behind it, which is where the fence is. So if

546
00:30:20,200 --> 00:30:22,520
Speaker 2: it's a wood fence, it'll live bit yeah, rot it faster,

547
00:30:23,120 --> 00:30:26,160
Speaker 2: Yeah it can. Also it can also take over trees too.

548
00:30:26,600 --> 00:30:28,880
Speaker 2: English ivy can be a problem in the South as well.

549
00:30:29,160 --> 00:30:29,360
Speaker 4: Yeah.

550
00:30:29,360 --> 00:30:32,760
Speaker 3: You cut those at the bottom of the tree and

551
00:30:32,920 --> 00:30:33,920
Speaker 3: watch them die.

552
00:30:34,280 --> 00:30:37,440
Speaker 2: Yeah. So's there's an extra step that I've found. I

553
00:30:37,520 --> 00:30:39,600
Speaker 2: don't know the vines that I was dealing with, but

554
00:30:39,680 --> 00:30:42,320
Speaker 2: they are serious vines and they're hard to get rid of.

555
00:30:42,400 --> 00:30:45,400
Speaker 2: But I have found one of the methods of killing

556
00:30:45,480 --> 00:30:49,240
Speaker 2: kudzoo also works for say like ivy or these vines

557
00:30:49,280 --> 00:30:52,400
Speaker 2: that I'm working with, which is you cut the thing off,

558
00:30:52,720 --> 00:30:56,600
Speaker 2: like you find a thick like part of the kudzou

559
00:30:56,680 --> 00:31:00,360
Speaker 2: vine nice and mature, cut it off very close to

560
00:31:00,400 --> 00:31:03,440
Speaker 2: the ground, and then you paint it with the herbicide,

561
00:31:03,480 --> 00:31:06,160
Speaker 2: like using one of those cheap wooden disposable brushes.

562
00:31:06,520 --> 00:31:06,720
Speaker 4: Yeah.

563
00:31:06,720 --> 00:31:10,480
Speaker 2: And the herbicide I've found works really well is Crossbow.

564
00:31:11,120 --> 00:31:14,520
Speaker 2: It's a Southern egg product, and you just paint it on,

565
00:31:15,000 --> 00:31:17,840
Speaker 2: let it dry, paint on another coat, let it dry,

566
00:31:17,960 --> 00:31:20,760
Speaker 2: maybe do three times. It will it will work. It

567
00:31:20,800 --> 00:31:23,880
Speaker 2: will kill that that vine or that weed or whatever

568
00:31:23,920 --> 00:31:26,960
Speaker 2: it is you're trying to kill pretty quick and it's

569
00:31:27,000 --> 00:31:29,640
Speaker 2: not going to come back. I did last time I

570
00:31:29,680 --> 00:31:36,240
Speaker 2: painted on crossbow in the woods behind my yard. It

571
00:31:36,320 --> 00:31:38,640
Speaker 2: was probably two three years ago, and the stuff that

572
00:31:38,680 --> 00:31:39,960
Speaker 2: I killed is not grown back.

573
00:31:41,120 --> 00:31:42,320
Speaker 4: Yeah, it does it.

574
00:31:42,680 --> 00:31:44,280
Speaker 2: I don't know if you can tell this or not.

575
00:31:44,440 --> 00:31:45,800
Speaker 2: I'm kind of proud of that one.

576
00:31:46,000 --> 00:31:47,440
Speaker 4: You should be. You killed it.

577
00:31:48,000 --> 00:31:51,400
Speaker 2: I killed it dead and then I ate its babies.

578
00:31:52,440 --> 00:31:53,040
Speaker 4: Oh my god.

579
00:31:54,000 --> 00:31:55,760
Speaker 3: By the way, if you want to, Emily started an

580
00:31:55,800 --> 00:31:58,520
Speaker 3: Instagram page for that garden that I've mentioned before. It

581
00:31:58,600 --> 00:32:02,320
Speaker 3: is East Underscore Lake Underscore Garden. You want to learn

582
00:32:02,320 --> 00:32:06,240
Speaker 3: a little bit more about the story of her cultivating

583
00:32:06,400 --> 00:32:09,240
Speaker 3: and sponsorship of this nice little piece of land right

584
00:32:09,240 --> 00:32:10,120
Speaker 3: here in the middle of town.

585
00:32:10,480 --> 00:32:11,240
Speaker 2: Very nice.

586
00:32:11,960 --> 00:32:14,720
Speaker 3: But if you want to keep talking talking about killing

587
00:32:14,760 --> 00:32:16,480
Speaker 3: kadso you know, I'll get her to put a picture

588
00:32:16,520 --> 00:32:17,160
Speaker 3: of the kudzoo up.

589
00:32:17,160 --> 00:32:19,040
Speaker 2: So oh yeah, you definitely should.

590
00:32:19,840 --> 00:32:21,800
Speaker 3: But one thing you can do if it's on the ground,

591
00:32:21,880 --> 00:32:24,040
Speaker 3: if it's not growing up things yet, is you can

592
00:32:24,080 --> 00:32:26,840
Speaker 3: just mow the heck out of it. Because you know,

593
00:32:27,200 --> 00:32:29,720
Speaker 3: like the cow's eating those leaves could kill a not

594
00:32:29,800 --> 00:32:33,680
Speaker 3: quite mature vine. If you cut those leaves off, it's

595
00:32:33,720 --> 00:32:36,120
Speaker 3: eventually going to die. If it's like super super mature,

596
00:32:36,120 --> 00:32:38,360
Speaker 3: it's gonna be a lot harder. But you just got

597
00:32:38,360 --> 00:32:41,120
Speaker 3: to keep getting in there and keep mowing low and

598
00:32:41,880 --> 00:32:44,160
Speaker 3: just mowing it down and maybe it'll take a year

599
00:32:44,240 --> 00:32:46,320
Speaker 3: or two, but that will also take care of it.

600
00:32:46,640 --> 00:32:49,880
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. You can also dig up the roots,

601
00:32:49,880 --> 00:32:53,480
Speaker 2: remember those root crowns that grow. Yeah, it's gonna be

602
00:32:53,480 --> 00:32:56,280
Speaker 2: a pain, but luckily you just need to dig up

603
00:32:56,320 --> 00:32:59,240
Speaker 2: the root crowns which are fairly shallow. You can leave

604
00:32:59,280 --> 00:33:03,320
Speaker 2: those giant four hundred pound tubers behind because they're an

605
00:33:03,440 --> 00:33:06,560
Speaker 2: energy store. They're not necessarily what it's growing from. So

606
00:33:06,600 --> 00:33:08,920
Speaker 2: if you get rid of the crowns, that tuber will

607
00:33:08,920 --> 00:33:11,640
Speaker 2: eventually die off too. And it's a pretty good way

608
00:33:11,680 --> 00:33:14,360
Speaker 2: from what I can tell. It's a very effective way

609
00:33:14,360 --> 00:33:17,160
Speaker 2: to get rid of your kudzu immediately is digging up

610
00:33:17,160 --> 00:33:19,880
Speaker 2: the root crowns if you are dedicated and digging them

611
00:33:19,880 --> 00:33:20,400
Speaker 2: all up.

612
00:33:21,120 --> 00:33:24,840
Speaker 3: Yeah, or if you want to really go the next level,

613
00:33:25,400 --> 00:33:29,000
Speaker 3: dig up that route and use that thing you can.

614
00:33:29,520 --> 00:33:31,680
Speaker 2: I don't know why this bothers me, but I find

615
00:33:31,720 --> 00:33:33,760
Speaker 2: this really bothers them for some reason.

616
00:33:34,080 --> 00:33:37,440
Speaker 4: That people would use this plant for good things.

617
00:33:38,040 --> 00:33:41,320
Speaker 2: And yeah, I guess so in the South in particular.

618
00:33:41,880 --> 00:33:44,720
Speaker 4: Oh do you I mean, is there any reason behind

619
00:33:44,720 --> 00:33:45,040
Speaker 4: it or.

620
00:33:45,080 --> 00:33:47,040
Speaker 2: Do you know? Like I said, I can't put my

621
00:33:47,080 --> 00:33:49,800
Speaker 2: finger on it. It's something about it bothers me. It's

622
00:33:50,760 --> 00:33:54,400
Speaker 2: I just don't understand why. But the idea of chefs

623
00:33:54,440 --> 00:33:58,920
Speaker 2: like employing kudzu and Southern you know, new Southern cuisine

624
00:34:00,000 --> 00:34:03,840
Speaker 2: thinking crafts out of kudzu. I don't know why, but

625
00:34:03,880 --> 00:34:07,040
Speaker 2: I just it bothers me. And it doesn't matter like

626
00:34:07,160 --> 00:34:10,520
Speaker 2: go ahead and do whatever you want. But me personally,

627
00:34:10,960 --> 00:34:13,160
Speaker 2: I'm gonna think about it and maybe one of these

628
00:34:13,239 --> 00:34:15,239
Speaker 2: days I'll figure it out. But it bothers me.

629
00:34:15,800 --> 00:34:18,240
Speaker 4: Okay, Well, I love it. I think it's great.

630
00:34:18,600 --> 00:34:20,719
Speaker 3: I think if that stuff is there, like sort of

631
00:34:20,719 --> 00:34:23,879
Speaker 3: with a foraging that's so popular these days, just going

632
00:34:23,880 --> 00:34:26,920
Speaker 3: out and using what's in the earth to put on

633
00:34:26,960 --> 00:34:29,399
Speaker 3: your plate. I think it's a great thing. And there

634
00:34:29,440 --> 00:34:32,399
Speaker 3: are Southern chefs getting into that. Like you mentioned, there's

635
00:34:32,440 --> 00:34:34,760
Speaker 3: a lot of you know, like you said, weird pride

636
00:34:34,800 --> 00:34:38,279
Speaker 3: around it. There have been poems written about kudzu by

637
00:34:38,360 --> 00:34:43,520
Speaker 3: very prominent poets. It's been you know, mentioned in countless.

638
00:34:43,080 --> 00:34:44,080
Speaker 4: Books and movies.

639
00:34:44,280 --> 00:34:46,840
Speaker 3: It was if you're a we have to mention the

640
00:34:47,000 --> 00:34:48,960
Speaker 3: ram Murmur album cover.

641
00:34:50,280 --> 00:34:51,600
Speaker 4: If you're a music.

642
00:34:51,360 --> 00:34:54,840
Speaker 3: Fan and you're from this South, you're probably super into

643
00:34:54,920 --> 00:34:57,239
Speaker 3: the fact that the Murmur album cover is one of

644
00:34:57,280 --> 00:35:02,920
Speaker 3: those train trestles completely eaten up by kudzoo. And the

645
00:35:02,960 --> 00:35:04,920
Speaker 3: fun little story about that is is that thing had

646
00:35:04,960 --> 00:35:09,319
Speaker 3: gotten so you know, sort of rotted out. I guess

647
00:35:09,400 --> 00:35:13,040
Speaker 3: after years and years of the kudzoo eating it. It

648
00:35:13,160 --> 00:35:15,560
Speaker 3: was try to be saved. A bunch of times. There

649
00:35:15,560 --> 00:35:19,400
Speaker 3: were efforts over the years. Finally in twenty twenty they

650
00:35:19,400 --> 00:35:21,480
Speaker 3: were like, and this is, you know, outside of Athens.

651
00:35:22,640 --> 00:35:24,839
Speaker 4: They said, we're gonna have to take this thing down.

652
00:35:25,920 --> 00:35:26,560
Speaker 4: So they did.

653
00:35:26,920 --> 00:35:29,960
Speaker 3: But cherry on top of this story or I guess

654
00:35:29,960 --> 00:35:33,120
Speaker 3: silver lining rather. It is now part of the Firefly Trail,

655
00:35:33,160 --> 00:35:36,359
Speaker 3: a very popular outdoor hiking and walking trail, and they

656
00:35:36,400 --> 00:35:39,640
Speaker 3: built a replica of the train trestle that you can

657
00:35:39,719 --> 00:35:42,640
Speaker 3: now walk over as a bridge that opened just last

658
00:35:42,680 --> 00:35:44,720
Speaker 3: year in twenty twenty three, So it's back again.

659
00:35:45,120 --> 00:35:47,160
Speaker 2: Great, but the Kudzuo's gone.

660
00:35:47,400 --> 00:35:49,000
Speaker 4: Yeah, not covering Kutsy though.

661
00:35:49,200 --> 00:35:53,400
Speaker 3: But people make you know their pilgrimage, the part insider

662
00:35:53,520 --> 00:35:57,719
Speaker 3: joke to look and get their picture taken or in

663
00:35:57,760 --> 00:36:00,719
Speaker 3: the South you'll get your picture made where that train

664
00:36:00,760 --> 00:36:01,319
Speaker 3: trestle is.

665
00:36:01,719 --> 00:36:03,839
Speaker 2: And then what was while you're there, you also want

666
00:36:03,880 --> 00:36:07,520
Speaker 2: to go to what was the soul food restaurant that

667
00:36:08,120 --> 00:36:11,080
Speaker 2: just said automatic for the people was like their slogan.

668
00:36:11,520 --> 00:36:15,000
Speaker 3: We were D's right behind there for a year, so good,

669
00:36:15,480 --> 00:36:17,360
Speaker 3: yeah go there, go to Weaver D's and then the

670
00:36:18,160 --> 00:36:20,480
Speaker 3: church steeple where Arim played their very first show. They

671
00:36:20,480 --> 00:36:22,880
Speaker 3: tore down the church, but they left that steeple is

672
00:36:22,880 --> 00:36:24,280
Speaker 3: now a historical monument.

673
00:36:24,520 --> 00:36:26,640
Speaker 2: Yep if you open it up, you let out the

674
00:36:26,640 --> 00:36:30,120
Speaker 2: people too, right, that's true. I feel like we need

675
00:36:30,120 --> 00:36:32,840
Speaker 2: to close with a poem as we normally do close

676
00:36:32,920 --> 00:36:34,279
Speaker 2: stuff you should know episodes.

677
00:36:34,600 --> 00:36:35,640
Speaker 4: Hey, please read it.

678
00:36:36,480 --> 00:36:38,880
Speaker 2: This is a poem by James Dickey, who was a

679
00:36:38,920 --> 00:36:42,680
Speaker 2: poet but also a novelist. He wrote Deliverance right and

680
00:36:42,760 --> 00:36:45,520
Speaker 2: in nineteen sixty three this poem was published in the

681
00:36:45,560 --> 00:36:50,800
Speaker 2: New Yorker. It's called Kudzu. Japan invades far Eastern vines

682
00:36:50,880 --> 00:36:53,319
Speaker 2: run from the clay banks. They are supposed to keep

683
00:36:53,400 --> 00:36:57,480
Speaker 2: from eroding up telephone poles, which rear half out of leafage,

684
00:36:57,760 --> 00:37:00,520
Speaker 2: as though they would shriek like things smother by their

685
00:37:00,560 --> 00:37:05,440
Speaker 2: own green, mindless, unkillable ghosts. But in Georgia, the legend

686
00:37:05,480 --> 00:37:08,279
Speaker 2: says that you must close your windows that night. You

687
00:37:08,640 --> 00:37:11,600
Speaker 2: can keep it out of the house. Okay, dot dot dot.

688
00:37:14,560 --> 00:37:18,400
Speaker 2: Yeah it's a good poem and I read it like amazingly.

689
00:37:19,000 --> 00:37:21,719
Speaker 4: Yeah, maybe we should get Jerry dads some like, you know,

690
00:37:21,920 --> 00:37:23,200
Speaker 4: like a stand up base.

691
00:37:22,960 --> 00:37:31,040
Speaker 2: And yeah like this when I finished. But yeah, okay, uh,

692
00:37:31,160 --> 00:37:32,960
Speaker 2: maybe Jerry will let's find.

693
00:37:32,719 --> 00:37:35,080
Speaker 4: Out or maybe that she can just sample me doing

694
00:37:35,120 --> 00:37:37,200
Speaker 4: that and just loop it.

695
00:37:37,680 --> 00:37:40,000
Speaker 2: There you go. That's a great idea. That's an even

696
00:37:40,040 --> 00:37:43,000
Speaker 2: better idea. All right, Uh, well, we are done with

697
00:37:43,080 --> 00:37:47,080
Speaker 2: Kudzu right right. That means it's time for listener meal.

698
00:37:49,280 --> 00:37:51,760
Speaker 3: I'm gonna call this Brooklyn nine nine follow up. Hey guys,

699
00:37:52,280 --> 00:37:54,239
Speaker 3: I was listening to the Tom Slick episode and you

700
00:37:54,320 --> 00:37:58,400
Speaker 3: guys were talking about Andy Samberg and tangentially Adam Sandler,

701
00:37:58,840 --> 00:38:01,040
Speaker 3: and Josh said that he had never been or maybe

702
00:38:01,040 --> 00:38:02,560
Speaker 3: it was me, actually you said he had never been

703
00:38:02,560 --> 00:38:05,880
Speaker 3: in Brooklyn nine nine as far as I was aware. Actually,

704
00:38:06,239 --> 00:38:08,520
Speaker 3: he had a cameo in one episode that was quite funny,

705
00:38:08,760 --> 00:38:11,200
Speaker 3: and I've included a link to enjoy.

706
00:38:11,480 --> 00:38:12,319
Speaker 4: Which I'm gonna watch.

707
00:38:12,440 --> 00:38:14,120
Speaker 3: I also want to say thanks for the insane amount

708
00:38:14,120 --> 00:38:17,160
Speaker 3: of entertainment and education you guys have brought to the world.

709
00:38:17,160 --> 00:38:18,919
Speaker 3: Have been listening for a few years and love learning

710
00:38:18,920 --> 00:38:21,800
Speaker 3: while being entertained. And you guys have the perfect combination

711
00:38:22,239 --> 00:38:24,960
Speaker 3: for back and forth style. Always feels like normal conversation

712
00:38:25,040 --> 00:38:29,840
Speaker 3: with friends because it is random, unrelated information and asides included.

713
00:38:30,320 --> 00:38:34,319
Speaker 4: And that is from Victor And I'm gonna check out

714
00:38:34,360 --> 00:38:34,680
Speaker 4: that clip.

715
00:38:34,680 --> 00:38:36,400
Speaker 3: You can go on YouTube and probably just type in

716
00:38:36,440 --> 00:38:38,319
Speaker 3: Adam Sandler Brooklyn nine nine if you want to see

717
00:38:38,320 --> 00:38:38,680
Speaker 3: the clip.

718
00:38:38,880 --> 00:38:42,120
Speaker 2: Very nice. Thanks a lot, Victor, much appreciated. Thanks for

719
00:38:42,200 --> 00:38:45,000
Speaker 2: the link and for all the kind words. And if

720
00:38:45,080 --> 00:38:46,600
Speaker 2: you want to be like Victor and get in touch

721
00:38:46,600 --> 00:38:48,759
Speaker 2: with this, you can send us an email too. Send

722
00:38:48,760 --> 00:38:54,239
Speaker 2: it to stuff podcast at iHeartRadio dot com.

723
00:38:54,440 --> 00:38:56,719
Speaker 4: Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio.

724
00:38:57,200 --> 00:39:00,359
Speaker 3: For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio up

725
00:39:00,600 --> 00:39:03,480
Speaker 3: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

726
00:39:09,680 --> 00:39:10,160
Speaker 2: Mm hmm