The tomato traveled a long strange road of misunderstanding and admiration all the way from the New World to the old and back again. Why did it become the iconic pin cushion shape we all remember and how in the heck did it sprout a little strawberry off the side?
P.S. We had some recording issues–darn you COVID-19. The sound quality isn’t amazing, but the show is classic Amy and Trace.
During WWII, special super secret decks of playing cards were used to help American prisoners of war escape from Nazi camps.
Show Notes:
Check out the articles for some great pictures!
No one knows for sure how many decks were produced, but the only two known surviving decks are in the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C.. Plan your road trip and send us pictures!
POW Playing Cards Business Insider
wearethemighty.com POW Card Decks
Image Courtesy of the Bicycle Playing Card Company
Amazon has sold imitation decks:
Amy and Trace dug deep into their “this is too gross for a podcast” files and decided there was just too much quality disgustingness not to do it anyway!!!
WARNING! We aren’t kidding. This stuff is all about glowing mouse brains, stomach burrowing eels, maggots, and SO MUCH MORE. Listen if you dare.
Show Notes:
Live Science – Really Alarming Snake Eels Spiky, but ripping guys.
Factinate – Hagfish The grossest.
Pelicans yawning and debunking pelican spine memes.
The Action Lab and explaining microwaving ants
Beware not for the weak of stomach. Trace finds this video so so GROSS. Mango worms in Africa.
This hard to stop insect can shoot a caustic mix 212 degree chemicals out of it’s abdomen at 500 times a second. Seriously!
Trace shares some super cool facts about this little bug.
Great video of a variety of beetles using chemical warfare from BBC Earth!
Science Magazine: Japanese toad vs. Bombardier Beetle
Here’s a cool view of what’s happening INSIDE the Bombardier Beetle’s abdomen from A team of researchers at MIT, The university of Arizona, and Brookhaven Labs.
How did we go from no green spaces in city neighborhoods to the perfectly manicured lawn that defines American suburbia? It all comes down to Frederick Law Olmsted and properties in a housing development in 1860’s Illinois.
Show Notes:
The Duncan Gardens at Manito Park in our own beautiful Spokane-Designed by Frederick Law Olmsted
New York City and Charleston SC neighborhoods prior to Olmsted’s lawn movement.
This one is a listener request from my son Will, and my sister Ruth.
This article has a cool map of the development that Olmsted was called in to develop. BB Barns Olsmtead Lawns
Cannon Hill Park – the Olmsteds designed it.
Finch Arboretum – the Olmsteds conceived it.
Downriver Park – the Olmsteds suggested it.
Manito Park – the Olmsteds improved it.
Rockwood Boulevard – the Olmsteds plotted it.
Gorge Park – the Olmsteds dreamed of it, 100 years early.
