Selects: Wetlands! Wetlands! Wetlands!

It’s time to get jazzed up for some Earth science of the waterlogged variety. Join Chuck and Josh in this classic episode as they tour some of the most interesting ecosystems on the planet and learn why we need to stop destroying them post haste. See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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  so passionate about banking with Capital One. If he were here, he wouldn't just tell you about no fees or minimums. He'd also talk about how Capital One cafes are open seven days a week to assist with your banking needs. Yep, even on weekends. It's pretty much all he talks about, in a good way. What's in your wallet? Terms apply. See capitalone.com/bankguy. Capital One, N-A, Member FDIC. Hi, everybody. Chuck here, Saturday of 2026, but in COVID time, it's September 10th, 2020. And this is our episode called Wetlands, Wetlands, Wetlands, with exclamation points at the end of each of those words. It had to be Josh that came up with that title because it's as Josh Clark a title as you can ever get.

• 2:06Speaker 01

  So this is about wetlands, wetlands, wetlands. And I think I picked this one because I just recently took a hike through Dolls Head Trail here in Atlanta. It is an urban trail that is decorated with the trash that was formerly in that part. It's sort of an industrial, like the forest next to an industrial part of Atlanta still is. And it was kind of a dumping ground. So artists cleaned it up, forged a trail, and took that trash, a lot of dolls heads and dolls and kids' toys, and they made it into art in a public statement against littering. And it's pretty great. And not only is Dolls Head Trail great, and I highly recommend if you live in Atlanta and haven't heard of it, it's just down Moreland Avenue, past the Starlight Drive-In, just

• 2:50Speaker 01

  there off the road, like in a, like I said, in a weird industrial part of town. But it's got wetlands, wetlands, wetlands. It's got some swamps and some bogs and some small ponds and boardwalks that go through it all. And it's really great. You can always see some, you know, egrets and herons and turtles and all sorts of animals. Just the other day, I saw a deer kind of peeking through, right, right there off of a main busy kind of grocery road. So check out this episode from September 10th, all about wetlands.

• 3:22Speaker 02

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

• 3:32Josh Clark?

  Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh and there's Charles and Jerry's over there, and this is Stuff You Should Know, the dripping wet edition.

• 3:43Speaker 01

  In these wetlands.

• 3:48Josh Clark?

  What?

• 3:48Speaker 01

  I knew that you would not get that.

• 3:50Josh Clark?

  Is that a Seeger reference?

• 3:52Speaker 01

  Oh, gosh. Why do you have to say Seeger when you always mean Springsteen?

• 3:56Josh Clark?

  Was that Springsteen?

• 3:58Speaker 01

  Yeah, Badlands.

• 4:00Josh Clark?

  Oh, okay. Maybe these wetlands were born to run?

• 4:04Speaker 01

  Sure. Run water.

• 4:06Josh Clark?

  I don't, I don't like myself anymore. Run water. That was a great save, Chuck.

• 4:11Speaker 01

  Thanks.

• 4:12Josh Clark?

  So we're talking wetlands. I have to say, we have to give a shout out to Tom Peterman, the foul-mouthed wetland biologist who keeps asking us to do this episode.

• 4:23Speaker 01

  Oh, is that where this came from?

• 4:24Josh Clark?

  Mm-hmm. It was Tom Peterman's suggestion, although I'd already wanted to do it anyway, so.

• 4:30Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, we love our earth sciences, man. This one was, I was just smiling from ear to ear researching this.

• 4:36Josh Clark?

  Can you imagine watching a blacksmith forge something in a wetland, in a flooded woodland?

• 4:44Speaker 01

  No. I'd just, that's Nirvana right there.

• 4:47Josh Clark?

  It really is. So we're talking wetlands, everybody, and Dave Ruse helped us put this one together.

• 4:54Speaker 01

  It was a good one.

• 4:55Josh Clark?

  And Dave likes to pop in jokes every once in a while, and he said,

• 4:58Speaker 01

  He does.

• 4:59Josh Clark?

  He said, "What makes a wetland wet? Water." And then he says, "In all seriousness," that's basically it, "that the water has to be largely present at least some parts of the year in the soil in such amounts that you would call something wetland." I mean, think of the name, wetland. It's about as earthy a term as science gets.

• 5:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, and he front-loaded this with a few stats, and I won't go through all of them, but I'll go through a few that kind of are instructive as to why I love wetlands so much. Here's one. Although wetlands make up only 5% of the land surface in the United States, they are home to 31% of our plant species.

• 5:44Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 5:44Speaker 01

  Not bad. One-third of America's threatened or endangered species, species live only in wetlands.

• 5:51Josh Clark?

  I would propose that that's slightly misleading. I think they're endangered because they live in wetlands, and wetlands are endangered, as we'll see.

• 5:58Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 6:00Josh Clark?

  Mm-hmm. Think about it, Chuck.

• 6:01Speaker 01

  I don't know. I took it more as...

• 6:04Josh Clark?

  Like they're all hiding out in the wetlands? Because it's a terrible place to hide out.

• 6:07Speaker 01

  No, it's not bad because it's got 31% of the plant species. I mean, it's a pretty rich, biodiverse area to live in if you're an endangered species.

• 6:16Josh Clark?

  For sure.

• 6:18Speaker 01

  All right. You said tomato, I say tomato.

• 6:20Josh Clark?

  Well, we'll have to hear from Thomas Peterman, the foul-mouthed wildlife or wetland biologist, who can let us know.

• 6:27Speaker 01

  What does he say? Like, "Do effing wetlands already?"

• 6:30Josh Clark?

  Yes.

• 6:31Speaker 01

  That kind of thing?

• 6:31Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 6:33Speaker 01

  I like this guy.

• 6:34Josh Clark?

  I think that's an exact quote.

• 6:36Speaker 01

  Yeah, he's my kind of dude.

• 6:38Josh Clark?

  So another stat that I thought was pretty interesting that will, will just kind of needs to form the basis or the undercurrent of this whole episode is that, so we keep talking about the US. There's wetlands found all over the world of different types and varieties and different climates and different, different continents, every continent except Antarctica. But in the United States in particular, we have a long history of filling in and, and draining wetlands for other purposes.

• 7:04Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:05Josh Clark?

  So much so that, let's see, I believe, I don't know how much we've lost, but in the 1600s, the lower 48 states were covered with 220 million acres of wetlands, which is 11% of the total surface area of the lower 48 states. And I think, starting in the 50s, we were doing away with wetlands at a rate of about 60,000 of those acres per year.

• 7:29Speaker 01

  Yeah, and it's gotten better since then, but yeah, in the, boy, up until the Clean Water Act, it was just like, hey, you know what would look great there? A, a resort.

• 7:39Josh Clark?

  Right.

• 7:39Speaker 01

  With like three golf courses and a bunch of tennis.

• 7:42Josh Clark?

  That's been such a driving force. Like, it's, it's like looking at land or ecosystems and being like, are humans making money off of it? No? Well, then drain it and repurpose it, set it on fire and repurpose it, stop it from burning and repurpose it. Like, if we can't make money off of it, it can't possibly be useful. And luckily, since the environmental movement really started in the 70s, we've realized that that's not necessarily true, that even if you are just a heartless dummy, there's still a lot of benefits that humanity's given from things like wetlands that seem problematic or nonproductive, you know?

• 8:17Speaker 01

  Yeah, that was one of Dangerfield's big lines in Caddyshack, is Al Servick, was, "Golf courses and cemeteries are the two biggest wastes of prime real estate."

• 8:29Josh Clark?

  That's a good one.

• 8:30Speaker 01

  So let's talk about wetlands. He said that they are only some of...

• 8:34Speaker 04

  Some are only wet for short periods, sometimes when there's snowmelt or just rain.

• 8:38Josh Clark?

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

• 8:41Speaker 04

  It's a great term. Some are wet all the time. And the key parts of being a wetland, or the key characteristic, is that it's either permanently or periodically flooded or wet. And that the soil is, uh, got, it's called hydric soil and is dominated by anaerobic processes, meaning it loves water and the plants there love water.

• 9:05Josh Clark?

  Which is weird because you used another word that shouldn't really jibe with plants, and that's called anaerobic, which means there's very little to no oxygen present. And we'll explain why later, but the fact that there are plants means that those plants have adapted to the wetlands.

• 9:20Speaker 04

  Yes, and it makes them

• 9:20Josh Clark?

  Those anaerobic conditions.

• 9:21Speaker 04

  Hydrophytic, and we'll talk about those plants later. It's another, another thing I love about wetlands is just that it really underscores the remarkable evolution that something will go through to survive.

• 9:33Josh Clark?

  Very cool stuff.

• 9:34Speaker 04

  Very, very awesome.

• 9:35Josh Clark?

  Yep, so, um, there's also, so you hit upon something, like, they're not necessarily wet year-round.

• 9:43Speaker 04

  Right.

• 9:43Josh Clark?

  Right? So there's a whole bunch of different types of wetlands or wetland environments that fill those, that check those boxes. One of the ones that most people think of when they think of wetlands are coastal wetlands, like marshes. And a marsh is basically like this area between inland and the ocean. It's like a transition zone, a buffer zone. And because it's, because of its proximity to the ocean, it's usually salty, or at least brackish, which is a mixture of saltwater and freshwater. And one of the, one of the ones that really comes to mind, if you're thinking coastal wetlands, you're thinking marshlands, and you're thinking tidal marshlands probably, especially if you're a Pat Conroy fan.

• 10:28Speaker 04

  What was the name of, uh, her character that he repeats over and over in a whisper?

• 10:34Josh Clark?

  I think I remember, Chuck. It was Bobby Jim. Bobby Jim.

• 10:39Speaker 04

  This is one of those scream at the, uh, at the pod player moments. I'm sorry, everyone.

• 10:44Josh Clark?

  Was it in the Prince of Tides?

• 10:45Speaker 04

  Yeah. Lowenstein, was that it? Lowenstein.

• 10:49Josh Clark?

  You're sure it wasn't Bobby Jim?

• 10:51Speaker 04

  I think it was Lowenstein.

• 10:52Josh Clark?

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

• 10:55Speaker 04

  Yeah, Babs.

• 10:56Josh Clark?

  Okay, yeah, I don't remember.

• 10:58Speaker 04

  I think it was Lowenstein. Uh, all right, so anyway, tidal marshes, yes, Prince of Tides. They, uh, obviously, it's because they're tidal, they're gonna come in and out with the high and low tide. And like you said, they're generally saltwater. And the salt marshes are very nutrient-rich, and they do have a lot of diversity, but obviously, only the kind of things that can tolerate the salt, um, as far as plants and animals go.

• 11:23Josh Clark?

  Which is a pretty short list, really, because salt is not conducive to life. Uh, instead, there are some plants that have figured out how to deal with salt. But most of the time when you're looking at salt marshes, you're looking, the plant life is, is basically grasses of some sort.

• 11:40Speaker 04

  Right.

• 11:41Josh Clark?

  There's also freshwater tidal marshes, which, um, they are either connected to the saltwater marsh, but they're far enough inland that the saltwater doesn't make its way in there. Um, so it's a freshwater marsh, but it's still affected by the tides. And then, I had no idea about this. Um, and I used to vacation on Lake Erie, but apparently the Great Lakes are so big that they have tides themselves.

• 12:07Speaker 04

  You didn't know that?

• 12:08Josh Clark?

  I had no idea.

• 12:10Speaker 04

  I even knew that, and I'm a dumb-dumb when it comes to the Great Lakes.

• 12:13Josh Clark?

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

• 12:16Speaker 04

  Well, in this case.

• 12:17Josh Clark?

  Because I could know a million other things about the Great Lakes, and if you knew that one thing and I didn't, you had me beat.

• 12:22Speaker 04

  Yeah, I knew that, and, uh, so that means that they do have those tidal marshes. Uh, the Florida Everglades are another good example. Um, and boy, Florida, just, there's a lot of different types of wetlands in Florida.

• 12:35Josh Clark?

  Well, there's a lot of coastline.

• 12:37Speaker 04

  Yeah, a lot of coastline and a lot of interior, um, wetness.

• 12:41Josh Clark?

  Yeah, we have a lot of wetlands around our place in Florida, for sure. And there's mangroves and all sorts of stuff that we'll talk about.

• 12:49Speaker 04

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

• 12:51Josh Clark?

  So mangroves,

• 12:53Speaker 04

  Beautiful.

• 12:53Josh Clark?

  I think they at least deserve a short stuff, because they're one of the most amazing plants of all time. But they're, they're a, they're a type of coastal, um, coastal wetland themselves, a mangrove forest. Where if you've never seen a mangrove forest, they're these kind of, um, they have a, a growth habit for their, the shrubbery on top of like the hair that Oompa Loompa has in the original, the original Willy Wonka, the good one. And they're, the, the trunks split out into these cool, like, long roots and legs that stick up out of the water. And they form this huge tangle, this riot of like shrub, woody shrub.

• 13:36Josh Clark?

  Um, and they do all sorts of amazing things to help the, the aquatic life and us humans as well up on land, just by being present.

• 13:45Speaker 04

  Yeah, they're really cool-looking, uh, and this is another good one, sort of like the origami that, if you're able and you're sitting still to look up a lot of these things as you go. Because these mangrove forests, it looks like, it looks like a shrub that's like, I really wanna be a shrub, but I don't wanna get wet. So I'm, I'm just gonna dip my legs in a little bit.

• 14:06Josh Clark?

  Yeah, that's really great.

• 14:07Speaker 04

  It's just very cool-looking, and, and again, just the adaptability that these mangroves really wanna live where they live, even though it's not very suited for them. And they've become suited for it.

• 14:19Josh Clark?

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

• 14:24Speaker 04

  Well, that's a t-shirt if I ever heard one.

• 14:25Josh Clark?

  Yeah, that's a, it could use a little work, but there's, there's the beginnings of one in there.

• 14:30Speaker 04

  Uh, you also got your inland wetlands. These are not coastal. In this case, we're talking about swamps and marshes and bogs and fen, F-E-N. And marshes, uh, a lot of these, you'll find near rivers, near streams, uh, lowland depressions, and they might periodically fill up depending on rain, uh, what's going on, or, or different types of flooding that might happen. And they can be a few inches deep, they can be several feet deep.

• 14:57Josh Clark?

  Yeah, they're, most of the non-tidal inland marshes are ephemeral wetlands.

• 15:03Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 15:04Josh Clark?

  So they're dry a lot of the year. They might fill up seasonally, they might fill up with the rains, they might fill up with the nearby river flooding.

• 15:12Speaker 04

  It's like my backyard.

• 15:14Josh Clark?

  And they, um, oh, really? Is that right?

• 15:16Speaker 04

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

• 15:19Josh Clark?

  Okay, to you, it's a problem. To nature, it's wonderful. Because we like things that drain really quickly and dry, and then we can walk on them and the grass is fine. But there's a lot of like benefits to things that take their time, like, um, uh, there's something called a vernal pool, uh, which is a kind of, uh, non-tidal marsh, an ephemeral wetland. And it's basically just like, say, a stretch of woods that has, that's a little bit depressed there, so that when it rains or a river floods, it fills with water. And because the underlying bedrock or clay is not very porous, it takes a while for that water to go through. But that water's also not going further downstream, so it prevents flooding from being as bad as it could, because a lot of the water collects and stays there.

• 16:02Josh Clark?

  And it also slowly recharges the groundwater. And because it does get dry, it can't sustain fish, which makes it a really great nursery for things like newts and salamanders and frogs, um, things that, that fish eat their eggs. But since there's no fish, this is like a really great place for them to, to get a, a, a good foothold and a, a brand-new life.

• 16:26Speaker 04

  Uh, you've also got your prairie potholes. Uh, this is one you should definitely look up. These are usually in the upper Midwest of the United States. The Dakotas, Minnesota maybe, Wisconsin. And these are where glaciers, ancient glaciers left these big depressions in the landscape. And they fill up sometimes during rain, during, uh, the spring, during snowmelt. And they're not small, like I heard prairie pothole and I got a vision in my head, but if you look it up online, they're, uh, beautiful and just, they're very large, though, and they're kind of interconnected. Just these big round holes scattered through like a big open area full of water. And these are great for, um, migrating birds, because

• 17:07Speaker 04

  that could be a stopover that they might not have had, had those, uh, potholes not been there.

• 17:13Josh Clark?

  And when they're flying over the Dakotas, they say, "Look, I see Van Nostrand's house."

• 17:19Josh Clark?

  Our buddy, Van Nostrand. Um, and then there's also, we said that, that wetlands occur in all different kinds of climates. They also occur in the desert. There's something called playa lakes, which are these depressions that apparently no one has any idea exactly how they formed. It could have been from erosion, it could have been from an ancient sinkhole. But there are depressions that are deep enough that when the, the seasonal rains come, the water is held in there. And just like the, the prairie potholes, it's very useful for migratory birds to stop over at, um, can, really plays a huge role in this ecosystem where there's almost no water. And now all of a sudden, there's water, and it's in this nice little lake, so let's all go gather there and have a social hour. But, but, but responsibly, six feet apart.

• 18:04Speaker 04

  That's right.

• 18:04Josh Clark?

  Okay.

• 18:05Speaker 04

  Uh, I think we should take a break, and we will talk a little bit about inland swamps, right after this.

• 18:25Josh Clark?

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  First thought is like, wow, how are we going to do all this?

• 19:28Josh Clark?

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• 20:18Josh Clark?

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• 20:30Josh Clark?

  Sure.

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• 20:41Josh Clark?

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• 21:31Speaker 01

  All right, so inland swamps, we promised to talk about that. These are, for my money, some of the coolest areas in the country, because I think I talked about it at some point, but I took a very special, fun trip many, many years ago to the Okefenokee Swamp and did one of those canoe trips where you have to rent, you know, there's no place to stop in the Okefenokee Swamp. If you're like, I think I'll camp here, it's like in the water.

• 21:58Josh Clark?

  Right.

• 21:59Speaker 01

  So they had these camping pads built up, essentially just decks that are like six feet above the water, and you have to reserve those. They're not just wide open for anyone, because there's nothing else out there. So you have to reserve them for specific nights on these specific pathways or, you know, paddleways. And me and a couple of buddies did it one year, and we canoed from deck to deck, and

• 22:24Josh Clark?

  Very cool.

• 22:24Speaker 01

  It was amazing, like one of the coolest trips I've ever taken.

• 22:28Josh Clark?

  That is very cool. Was Ned Beatty with you?

• 22:30Speaker 01

  No, but you do wake up surrounded by alligators. It's a little creepy.

• 22:35Josh Clark?

  Yes, alligators are very creepy.

• 22:37Speaker 01

  Like, you wake up on that pad and pee off the dock, and they're growling at you.

• 22:42Josh Clark?

  Yeah, and you do not want to get too close, because they can move faster than you think.

• 22:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, they can. It was a lot of fun, though. But not for the faint of heart, because, you know, you don't realize till you get out there, A, how bad the sun is going to beat you up, because there's no shade, and B, how tough it is to paddle all day long without like, you know, let me get out and stretch my legs.

• 23:05Josh Clark?

  Right.

• 23:05Speaker 01

  I mean, there is no getting out. You just, you just go and go and go. And by the time you finally reach that janky deck, it is like, might as well be the Plaza Hotel, you know?

• 23:16Josh Clark?

  Oh, nice.

• 23:17Speaker 01

  But what I'm talking about in the case of the Okefenokee, I thought it was a forested or a bottom, bottomland hardwood swamp.

• 23:24Josh Clark?

  You'd think.

• 23:25Speaker 01

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

• 23:30Josh Clark?

  Right.

• 23:31Speaker 01

  And that is a forested swamp that fills up from non-river sources, basically rain or groundwater.

• 23:37Josh Clark?

  Right, right. So what would make a forested swamp, like a bottomland hardwood swamp, is a proximity to a river that floods its banks or that is just so, so big it kind of spills over into some of the surrounding land, and that surrounding land is swamp.

• 23:53Speaker 01

  I want to look that up, though. I'm not quite sure Dave's right.

• 23:55Josh Clark?

  Oh, well, it's, okay. So it's either river-fed or groundwater-fed or precipitations-fed. And if you're talking bottomland hardwood swamps, or a river-fed swamp, there's usually also a shrub swamp, which is a transition or buffer zone between the forested swamp and, you know, somebody's backyard, which is, it's just dominated by shrubs, but it's all the same thing. It's all a freshwater swamp.

• 24:21Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think, I bet you anything the Okefenokee has several different types of these, would be my guess. Because there were full-on lakes that we paddled through.

• 24:29Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 24:31Speaker 01

  So that would be my guess. And I also think if I had a country band, we would be the Bottomland Hardwood Swamp Rats.

• 24:37Josh Clark?

  Oh, that's a good one.

• 24:38Speaker 01

  Not bad.

• 24:38Josh Clark?

  That sounds like an all-star band, you know?

• 24:40Speaker 01

  Oh, sure, yeah.

• 24:42Josh Clark?

  So another kind of wetland that you're going to find all over the place, especially in Europe, which, when I think of bogs and fens, I think of Europe, but apparently

• 24:50Speaker 01

  Same here.

• 24:51Josh Clark?

  plenty of them in the United States, too. But bogs and fens are kind of their own thing. Bogs in particular are very unique as far as wetlands go, because not only are they anaerobic, which by definition, a wetland is anaerobic soil, they're like very little nutrient and very high acidity. I've heard like the kind of acid that is put out by the peat that's created in the bog has the same acidity roughly of vinegar.

• 25:23Speaker 01

  Oh, wow.

• 25:23Josh Clark?

  It's like, yeah, it's really, really acidic stuff, and yet some plants prefer it. Like, you can grow cranberries and blueberries in a bog.

• 25:31Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 25:32Josh Clark?

  You can preserve a body from the Iron Age forward in a bog.

• 25:36Speaker 01

  Did we ever cover that, the bog bodies? I feel like we did. Maybe it might have been one of our video things on YouTube.

• 25:43Josh Clark?

  Maybe mummies, because I think, if I remember correctly, our mummy episode covered more than just Egyptian mummies. I think it covered like Inca mummies and

• 25:51Speaker 01

  The bog people.

• 25:52Josh Clark?

  I'm sure we did. We saw some, and when we went to, on our UK trip, we got to visit some of those cats like firsthand, like right there in that, in that glass. Right, like, you know, all you have to do is smash it with a hammer and it's yours.

• 26:06Speaker 01

  And you got a bog person.

• 26:07Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 26:08Speaker 01

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

• 26:11Josh Clark?

  Right, it just crumbles in your hand. But I was like, I was like, okay, why, why are the bog so great for preservation? Part of it, from what I understand, is that acidity, that the bodies are actually pickled. But another part is the aerobic life is so devoid there. There's just anaerobic bacteria, and they don't decompose nearly as well as aerobic bacteria. So the decomposition doesn't set in, and the remains are pickled. So like, you can preserve a body in a really great state.

• 26:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 26:45Josh Clark?

  For a very, like, Tolan Band, his whiskers are still intact on his face.

• 26:50Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 26:51Josh Clark?

  Like, that was the level of preservation, and he was sacrificed into a bog, which is a very specific kind of wetland.

• 26:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, and a fen, like I said, it's F-E-N. It's sort of like a bog in that it is a peat, peaty wetland. But they're a little bit different than bogs. The water supply doesn't come primarily from rain, and it comes from the ground. So it's not, it's going to be less acidic, because I don't think we mentioned, I know it's partially because of the peat, but the acidity also comes from the fact that there's acid and rain that gets filling up, that fills up these bogs.

• 27:27Josh Clark?

  Right.

• 27:28Speaker 01

  But not the case in a fen.

• 27:29Josh Clark?

  No. No, because that groundwater is able to kind of dilute it a little bit. So they're much more nutrient-rich than a bog is. So they're going to have a much wider, diverse range of plants and animal life.

• 27:42Speaker 01

  Yeah, and this, I love that this next section from Dave was called "Other Fun Types of Wetlands."

• 27:47Josh Clark?

  Yeah, mud flats.

• 27:49Speaker 01

  Yeah, you got your mud flat. It's another good country band.

• 27:52Josh Clark?

  My favorite are seeps. These are just gorgeous little pieces of nature, if you ask me. It's, if you have a spring that comes up out of the ground, it spills over into the ground, so the surrounding ground is a wetland, and it's called a seep.

• 28:05Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 28:06Josh Clark?

  It's where gnomes like go and shower.

• 28:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, and it's not, like you said, it's a spring, so it's not like a creek.

• 28:14Josh Clark?

  No.

• 28:14Speaker 01

  It's actually coming up from the ground. You ever drink from a natural spring?

• 28:20Josh Clark?

  I did when I was a kid, and I think my mom fired the babysitter that like took us to drink from a spring. Yeah, she was like, what are you doing? It was either a spring or like a river in Ohio, and either way.

• 28:32Speaker 01

  Two very different things. If it was like the Coyoga River, then you're in bad shape.

• 28:36Josh Clark?

  It was on fire while we were drinking.

• 28:38Speaker 01

  But, I mean, we have creeks. If you're listening, you've never been to Atlanta. Atlanta has creeks all over the place. Like, all of the in-town neighborhoods just are riddled with creeks. They're just sort of out of view. But like, we have a creek, you know, 120 feet from our house.

• 28:53Josh Clark?

  Sure.

• 28:53Speaker 01

  Which might have something to do with our drainage, who knows?

• 28:56Josh Clark?

  And it's spring-fed?

• 28:58Speaker 01

  No, it's just, you know, just a part of the Atlanta, probably all comes from the Chattahoochee at some point.

• 29:04Josh Clark?

  Sure. So Chuck, if that creek behind your house started meandering in a different direction and left a body of water where it originally flowed, it would be an Oxbow Lake. But if you were in Australia and you were calling it this proper Aboriginal name, you'd call it a Billabong.

• 29:22Speaker 01

  A Billabong.

• 29:23Josh Clark?

  Which I had no idea. What does that have to do with surfing?

• 29:26Speaker 01

  Oh, I think they just probably co-opted the name and it became. More associated with surf and surf gear than its true meaning.

• 29:35Josh Clark?

  That doesn't seem right.

• 29:36Speaker 01

  No, let's take it back.

• 29:38Josh Clark?

  But that's what an Oxbow Lake is in Australia. Among the Aboriginals, it is a billabong, which is great.

• 29:45Speaker 01

  A billabong, that was some, like, along with OP was one of the prime T-shirts to have when you were a kid in the 80s.

• 29:53Josh Clark?

  Oh, yeah.

• 29:53Speaker 01

  If you were cool.

• 29:54Josh Clark?

  I had this amazing OP long-sleeved blue shirt that I wore with my parachute pants.

• 30:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, those were the best.

• 30:01Josh Clark?

  My British Knights.

• 30:02Speaker 01

  I remember those long-sleeved OP shirts.

• 30:05Josh Clark?

  Yep, they were good.

• 30:06Speaker 01

  Gorgeous.

• 30:07Josh Clark?

  So Chuck, one of the things we've been talking about is the kind of, the characteristics that make a wetland, a wetland. And it's not just the fact that the soil table or the ground is either flooded or almost completely flooded up to the surface level with water. That's, that's not the entirety of it. Like, different wetlands are characterized by, by how that water gets to it. Like we said, you know, some kinds of swamps are fed by groundwater, others are fed by precipitation, some are tidal. So there's a whole group of scientists out there that are called wetland hydrologists. And what they study is how that water gets into a wetland to create a wetland, what happens to it while it's

• 30:52Josh Clark?

  there, and then where it goes, and how all these things kind of interact to form this very unique ecosystem.

• 30:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, and we talked early on about the kind of soil, hydric soil, is saturated with water. And so if it's saturated with water, it's not going to have nearly as much oxygen. And usually, oxygen and soil are in these little tiny air pockets.

• 31:15Josh Clark?

  Remember, we talked about it in our soil episode?

• 31:17Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly. And in the case of a wetland, then those air pockets are going to be filled with water or just collapsed altogether. And then you've got your anaerobic condition. But if you're a plant, you need CO2 and oxygen. And you'll get a little bit of that from photosynthesis in the leaves, but the roots are like, what about me down here? I need oxygen too. And if it was an aerobic soil, like we talked about in the, in the soil podcast, the roots can get it from those air pockets. But in wetlands, they have to really, really adapt to become hydrophytic or water-loving plants in some pretty amazing ways.

• 31:54Josh Clark?

  So I just have to say that this is like a lifelong mystery solved, and solved in like the simplest way possible. Like, it's anaerobic because there's water there instead of air. The air can't be in there because the water's there. Ipso facto, anaerobic. I just, I just think that's brilliantly simple.

• 32:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 32:12Josh Clark?

  Did you get that intuitively? Because I never did. I always thought it was something mysterious. Like, we're talking about a whole different type of soil or something else.

• 32:21Speaker 01

  No, I think I got it.

• 32:22Josh Clark?

  Okay, well, it was, I've been around for 44 years and wondered it until just now.

• 32:28Speaker 01

  Well, I'm 49, so I might have wondered that in the last five years.

• 32:30Josh Clark?

  So the plants that we're talking about, like, they, like you said, the roots still need oxygen. So they've said, okay, well, I really like it here. I like this wetland area. This is a pretty amazing place to live. I'm going to change so that I can stay here. And some of the ways that plants have, have adapted, well, one good example is a cattail, right? Cattails are pretty much synonymous with marshlands. Yeah, they're beautiful. They're that long, thin stem with like a big fat thing on top, like a hot dog that's ready to be roasted on the fire.

• 33:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, I grew up with those. I don't know if it was a southern thing, but they can be decorative items in the home. And I grew up, I feel like, with a lot of cattails in vases and stuff.

• 33:13Josh Clark?

  Okay, so that and wasps' nests?

• 33:16Speaker 01

  Yeah, hornets' nests, yeah.

• 33:19Josh Clark?

  So cattails have this thing called arinichema. No, I've got it. Arinichema. Arinichema. I think I got it. Anyway, they're like these, these channels that basically direct air from the leaves and the stem and every other part of the cattail down to the roots. It says, here you go, roots, here's some oxygen, fresh from the leaf.

• 33:46Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 33:47Josh Clark?

  So that, that cattail can have as much roots as it wants down in this anaerobic soil. It doesn't matter because it's getting its oxygen from the air through the leaves.

• 33:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, one of my favorites is the speckled alder. You just look up a picture of that, and they have these enlarged pores called lenticels. And they allow for the passage of oxygen directly into that wood. And if you look up a picture and you see those, you go, oh, that's what those are. That's what those are for. They look like someone took a knife, and they're just tiny little horizontal slits all up and down the alder.

• 34:20Josh Clark?

  I got you.

• 34:21Speaker 01

  And it's, they're breathing, basically.

• 34:23Josh Clark?

  Yeah, that's creepy as heck, but it's really neat.

• 34:27Speaker 01

  Little mouths, little slitty mouths.

• 34:29Josh Clark?

  So the, the grasses that we talked about growing in salt marshes, just like an iguana sneezes out excess salts as part of digestion, things like cord grass that grow in these salt marshes, they actually excrete salts through their leaves. So they, they can sit there and intake all the nutrients they need from this salinic environment and still not get overloaded with salt. It's just pretty amazing that they can do that.

• 34:58Speaker 01

  Yeah. And then to me, maybe the most amazing, and this is where the mangroves kind of come back in, although the mangroves apparently utilize all these to stick around. But the bald cypress, they grow in those forested swamps where there's always water. And they are deciduous conifers, and they grow this root structure that they call a knee. It's a pneumatophore, but like a knee on your leg is, is how it's spelled. And they just sit above the waterline and take in oxygen. And that's what those, I guess mangroves, mangroves. There's a Soul Train joke in there somewhere.

• 35:33Josh Clark?

  Yeah, it struck me as like a terrible jam band's name.

• 35:36Speaker 01

  The Mangroves?

• 35:37Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 35:37Speaker 01

  God, you're right.

• 35:38Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 35:38Speaker 01

  That, that plays somewhere in Florida, probably.

• 35:41Josh Clark?

  Probably.

• 35:41Speaker 01

  Uh, but the mangrove uses, like I said, a lot of these tricks. And I think certainly when you see those roots, they're using those knees.

• 35:51Josh Clark?

  Yeah, which is basically, it's a, it's a, it's a way to get oxygen from the surrounding air down to the roots. The mangroves do it, the bald cypresses do it. Mangroves have all those adapt, adaptations, different species. They can do things like excrete salt, they can draw oxygen in from the environment, they have channels where they can pump oxygen from one part of the plant to the other. The one that gets me, though, I'm just fascinated by bogs. So we said that there, it's an acidic, anaerobic, nutrient depleted environment. And yet, there's still plants that live there. And one of those plants, or one kind of plant is carnivorous plants. They get their nutrients not from like the soil, but from eating bugs.

• 36:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, those are cool.

• 36:35Josh Clark?

  So they can just live there, like a pitcher plant or a Venus flytrap or something like that.

• 36:39Speaker 01

  Yeah, those are neat, nature.

• 36:41Josh Clark?

  Wasn't Venus flytrap one of the DJs on WKRP?

• 36:45Speaker 01

  That's a great DJ name.

• 36:46Josh Clark?

  Yeah. Well, he was a great DJ.

• 36:49Speaker 01

  Uh, all right. So let's take our final break, and we'll talk about why wetlands are important and what you can do to help them do their thing, right after this.

• 37:10Josh Clark?

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• 37:20Speaker 01

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• 37:33Josh Clark?

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• 37:48Speaker 01

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• 38:13Josh Clark?

  Everyone has a story to tell. What's yours? The moment you met your partner, landed that promotion? For people living with a rare disease, life can feel divided into before the diagnosis and all the after moments that follow. On Voices of VivGart, VivGart is also known as its generic name, Fgart Tigamod Alpha F Cab. You'll hear powerful stories from people facing challenges and embracing a life with a rare disease.

• 38:36Speaker 01

  Join host Andra Stratten as she guides listeners through honest conversations about life after diagnosis. You'll hear how each guest worked with her care team on their treatment plan, as well as their personal challenges, setbacks, progress, and moments of connection.

• 38:49Josh Clark?

  These stories reveal that life is bigger than a moment, a condition, or a tough day. Listen to Voices of VivGart on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 39:06Josh Clark?

  Hey Chuck, YouTube Premium has become one of those things that makes your everyday YouTube experience a little better, especially if you're a dog owner. Because if you wanted to go find out more about how to train your dog, all you have to do is go onto YouTube Premium, type in "dog training videos," and sit back and learn.

• 39:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, between Gibson and Momo, we're constantly looking up something dog-related, like when Gibson suddenly decided barking at the mailman was his full-time job.

• 39:31Josh Clark?

  Yeah, or Momo likes to chew things a lot. And sometimes it's not always things that she should be chewing.

• 39:37Speaker 01

  Yeah, so naturally YouTube is one of the first places someone might use for training tips. Everything from stopping barking and jumping to getting maybe a little bit better at walking on a leash.

• 39:45Josh Clark?

  But what about dog nutrition, too? You gotta know about that these days. And there's an endless world of videos about dog nutrition on YouTube Premium. What foods are actually safe? Is homemade dog food a good idea?

• 39:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, look at this one right here. This is veterinarian-approved. And look at this lady, her name is Dr. Wolf. Are you kidding me?

• 40:04Josh Clark?

  So YouTube has a ton of creators, not just Dr. Wolf, who can help you learn a lot more and make everyday pet parent decisions feel a little less overwhelming.

• 40:12Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, that's where YouTube Premium really comes in. It takes something you already love, which is YouTube, and makes it even better because you get an enhanced, supercharged YouTube experience. It's got benefits that make it easier to enjoy the content and creators that you're into whenever and wherever you need them. Well, and now here we are, watching guilty dog videos, which is my guilty pleasure. Look at these guys.

• 40:31Josh Clark?

  Yeah, I know. I feel guilty watching them, but you just can't look away. It's too adorable and sad.

• 40:37Speaker 01

  I know, poor buddies.

• 40:39Josh Clark?

  And since YouTube Premium has ad-free viewing, we can watch guilty dog videos uninterrupted. Plus, background play means we can keep listening to those poor guilty dogs with our screen locked, which is pretty handy when you're walking the dog, right?

• 40:52Speaker 01

  That's right. And with offline downloads, you can save videos ahead of time, which is awesome, and access them even when you don't have Wi-Fi. So if you like YouTube, you'll love Premium. Whether you're figuring out the latest weird dog behavior or looking for something useful for your next walk, or maybe just indulging in your guilty pleasure, guilty dog videos, YouTube Premium makes the whole experience more seamless.

• 41:11Josh Clark?

  Sign up now for your free trial. Terms and conditions apply.

• 41:28Josh Clark?

  Okay Chuck, so just the fact that wetlands are as amazing as they are means that they should be saved.

• 41:37Josh Clark?

  But there's also like a lot of benefits that we figured out. Like you said, the 50s to the 70s were a really rough time for wetlands in the United States because we were filling them in for cropland, for real estate. And even previous to that, we filled in a lot of marshland in the US and built cities over them. Like DC was built largely on marshland. The fact that mosquitoes tend to live in wetland areas kind of justified filling in a lot of the wetlands because we were dealing with malaria at the time. So it made a lot of sense. Get rid of the mosquito's habitat, you get rid of the mosquitoes. And it worked, but we've paid a heavy price for it because over time we've realized these wetlands provide some really important benefits

• 42:19Josh Clark?

  to the local ecosystems and in turn, humans who live around them.

• 42:24Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, helping flood conditions is a big one. They are big, big natural sponges when it comes down to it. And flooding would be way, way worse. And we still have floods, obviously, but it'd be way worse if we didn't have wetlands. They'd be far more destructive if they weren't around to soak in that excess water and then kind of slowly trickle it to the water table below. And the same is obviously true of hurricanes and big storm surges. The wetlands basically operate as big storage tanks for water.

• 42:57Josh Clark?

  Yeah, I saw somewhere, I can't find it now, but like, oh, there it is. An acre of wetlands can hold up to about a million and a half gallons of water.

• 43:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 43:05Josh Clark?

  Just, just one acre. So you gotta think, like, that water's staying put there and it's not flooding some human habitation instead, which is a good reason to keep wetlands around just for that, that buffer area or to slow down the surge, like you were saying. I also saw that we found out the same thing goes for beaver dams that they build. They're like a temporary, artificial wetland, and they provide a lot of the same functions that natural or other, I guess, naturally occurring or growing wetlands provide too. And I think we should do a whole episode on beavers, okay?

• 43:39Speaker 01

  Oh, totally. I'm way into beavers.

• 43:42Josh Clark?

  So water filtration is another... Is it... I'm getting you back for the origami thing.

• 43:51Speaker 01

  Yeah, alright.

• 43:51Josh Clark?

  So water filtration is another big service that wetlands provide. I don't remember where we talked about this, but we talked about it recently, where the water... Oh, I think it was water treatment plants.

• 44:04Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 44:05Josh Clark?

  The water's brought in and it's got all this sediment and gunk and muck, and it's cloudy and turbid. And then it slows down. They slow it down, like running it through some grates or whatever. And as it slows down, the sediment that is making the water turbid and polluted and everything has a chance to settle to the bottom. Well, wetlands provide that same function naturally. So when you have a bunch of like polluted water basically come through there, it slows down when it hits all those mangrove roots or tree trunks or whatever it is. And it gives it a chance for that sediment to fall to the bottom. It gets sucked up by the tree roots and stored in the trees. Or the microbial life can break a lot of that stuff down, too.

• 44:49Josh Clark?

  And there's definitely a limit to where you can very easily overload the wetland's ability to filter the water. But if you, if you gave it like a manageable supply, that is a major service that it does, is it cleans our water. They call wetlands the kidneys of the earth.

• 45:06Speaker 01

  Yeah, and they, they've even done studies where they tried to, I guess, sort of monetize what an area of wetland might do if it were a treatment plant. And there's one in South Carolina called the Congaree Bottomland Hardwood Swamp. These are just all country bands.

• 45:23Josh Clark?

  For sure.

• 45:24Speaker 01

  Is, they said that that is basically equivalent to about a $5 million water treatment plant just sitting there being a wetland, doing its thing.

• 45:34Josh Clark?

  Thank you, nature.

• 45:36Speaker 01

  Pretty amazing.

• 45:37Josh Clark?

  I saw that beavers provide the dams that they build that end up being temporary wetlands. Somebody estimated it's worth about 100 grand if a human tried to build an artificial one, which we do. If you just let beavers do their thing, they will, they will do the same thing for free.

• 45:57Speaker 01

  That's right, you don't have to pay them 100 grand.

• 45:59Josh Clark?

  Nope. There's also, because there's so much going on in a wetland, there's so much life, they kind of form like these metropolises for all sorts of different types of animals on all the way up the food chain, including plants, animals, microbial life, worms, fish, larger predators like dolphins and alligators. And all of them are sitting there providing food for us. If you like Gator Tail, buddy, you better preserve those wetlands.

• 46:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's, Dave points out here that the commercial fishing industry in the US, 75% of the fish and shellfish harvested here had fish that at least had a temporary home in the wetlands. And that recreationally, if you're a recreational fish person, fisher person, then 90% of the US fish catch is at least the breeding ground lies in the wetlands for those fish.

• 47:00Josh Clark?

  And the same thing goes for birds, too. They're enormously important habitats for birds, some permanent, but also migratory, too. Because if you're flying along and you're a bird and you are a water bird and you need a place to land, not only are you looking for water, but you might really enjoy a swamp because it offers protection from predators, it offers a port in the storm. It's just an all-around valuable thing for birds, too.

• 47:26Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, imagine flying from Canada to Texas and you're going over Oklahoma and you're a little tired. You look down and you see one of those, which ones were those? The prairie plies?

• 47:41Josh Clark?

  The, no, the prairie potholes.

• 47:43Speaker 01

  Prairie potholes?

• 47:44Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 47:45Speaker 01

  Oh, man. What a sight.

• 47:47Josh Clark?

  Aren't you describing a scene in Jonathan Livingston Seagull?

• 47:51Speaker 01

  Probably so.

• 47:53Speaker 01

  So the point is, we need to take care of our wetlands because they are a threatened, diverse, very useful place all over the world, especially here in the United States. And if they are threatened and if things happen, there are going to be all kinds of bad things, vegetative damage, the plant life just being maybe whitened out, wiped out altogether.

• 48:20Josh Clark?

  Storm surges being way worse, flooding being way worse. It especially helps to see the value in them if you consider them a buffer zone between us and the hardest ravages of nature.

• 48:33Speaker 01

  Yeah, and like you mentioned, pollution, there is a limit, but they do absorb and mitigate levels of water pollution and they just can't take too much of us, you know?

• 48:44Josh Clark?

  Right, exactly, which, man, if there's anything that characterizes humans of the 20th and 21st centuries, it's too much of us.

• 48:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 48:53Josh Clark?

  You know what I mean?

• 48:54Speaker 01

  What can we do, though?

• 48:55Josh Clark?

  Well--

• 48:56Speaker 01

  Besides donating to wetland projects, we can definitely do that.

• 48:59Josh Clark?

  You can definitely do that, there's some good ones out there. I believe Ducks Unlimited is one of them, the Wetlands Initiative, Natural Resources Defense Council, Wetlands International. But apparently, in the United States, something like 75% of wetlands are on privately owned property. And in the United States, we have, I mean, private property is one of the fundamental tenets of American society, so if you say, "I want to fill in this wetland and kill off these beavers," you're allowed to do that. Whether that's a good idea and whether that's going to affect other people, that's a different story. So if you own private property with a wetland on it and you're doing just fine with that wetland, leave the wetland alone.

• 49:44Josh Clark?

  It's very important.

• 49:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, I guess this is where it gets a little tricky in definitions, because in plenty of places, there are restrictions on building near water like this.

• 49:57Josh Clark?

  Sure.

• 49:58Speaker 01

  I guess I just don't know, like, you can't build in a flood zone, you can't, I mean, it depends on where you are, but in Atlanta, you can't. And then with these, all these creeks and streams in Atlanta, they have what's called stream buffers.

• 50:10Josh Clark?

  Sure.

• 50:11Speaker 01

  50 foot, 75 foot, 100 foot, and I think 25 is the lowest. And for these, you have to get variances to do anything, which your neighborhood has to approve. And I talked to a guy, that apparently anything over, anything under 75 feet is pretty tricky to get approved. So I don't know if they're wetlands or not, but there are restrictions on stuff like that.

• 50:33Josh Clark?

  Okay, so that brings up the next point of what you and I and everybody else can do, which is vote for people, to local elected office, who part of their platform is protecting wetlands.

• 50:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 50:44Josh Clark?

  Like, all of those buffer zones, all those variances and all those prohibitions, those came from Atlanta city councils over the years that decided that wetlands needed protecting. You don't find those everywhere, but once they get put in place, they usually don't get repealed very easily. So if you make preserving wetlands part of what you're voting for, that would have an impact, for sure.

• 51:07Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 51:08Josh Clark?

  And whatever you're voting for, just vote, okay? Vote.

• 51:12Speaker 01

  Especially locally.

• 51:13Josh Clark?

  Let's just take a second to say that.

• 51:14Speaker 01

  I know everyone, the presidential elections are always the big sexy votes, but the local politics matters even more, almost sometimes.

• 51:22Josh Clark?

  Yeah, vote for all of it. Take an interest in your society.

• 51:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 51:27Josh Clark?

  Okay? Well, you got anything else about wetlands?

• 51:30Speaker 01

  Nope.

• 51:31Josh Clark?

  I don't either. This is a good one, I'm pretty happy with it. And since I said that, everybody, it's time for listener mail.

• 51:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'm going to call this the first SY5K.

• 51:45Josh Clark?

  Oh, yeah.

• 51:46Speaker 01

  Did you see these?

• 51:47Josh Clark?

  Yes, man, congratulations to everybody who took part.

• 51:50Speaker 01

  Yeah, so what happened was, some Stuff You Should Know listeners got together and put together a 5K, Stuff You Should Know 5K, and we got periodic updates from Aaron Huey Mizell, or Mizell, not sure how you pronounce it.

• 52:05Josh Clark?

  I'm going with Mizell.

• 52:06Speaker 01

  Mizell, but this is, this is the final email about how it went. "Hey, guys, want to let you know that the SY5K is over. It was so nice to look at everyone's pictures and hear what episodes of Stuff You Should Know they listened to," because that was the idea, I imagine some people might have fudged that and listened to Marc Maron or whatever.

• 52:25Josh Clark?

  That's not, like, they're disqualified.

• 52:27Speaker 01

  "I think a lot of us have suffered from a lack of human connection at this time, and the silly little virtual event gave us something to bond over. I don't think I would have tried this with any other group of people. The Stuff You Should Know Army is wonderful and it speaks volumes in regard to you guys. The tone that you set in your podcast, interesting and funny, carries over into your fanbase and has created a little lovely corner of the internet." I totally agree, Aaron, and the same can be said of the Movie Crush page, very, very good people, not snipy or rude and going after each other on Facebook, which is kind of what Facebook seems to be all about.

• 53:02Josh Clark?

  Oh, yeah, it's like a garden paradise over there on the SYSK Army page.

• 53:08Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's great. Now, I'm not suggesting that you made these people wonderful, but the average Stuff You Should Know Army member is like that, interesting, funny, and willing to participate in a virtual 5K with a complete stranger.

• 53:18Josh Clark?

  And they love stroopwafels.

• 53:20Speaker 01

  "I even bought 13 Stuff You Should Know stickers to send out to some people as prizes. It's just a little thing, but everyone that I've been in touch with has been exceedingly kind. This is what we need right now, these small human connections, a podcast to listen to and laugh with, a walk-run bear chase to do virtually with a bunch of near strangers, and a Stuff You Should Know sticker to put in your fridge or on your laptop. If you get a chance, go to the event page and scroll through some of the posts, they're delightful, like the woman who did our 5K at three months postpartum and crushed it."

• 53:49Josh Clark?

  Nice.

• 53:50Speaker 01

  "Or the dad who pushed his adorable daughter in her stroller on the 5K while listening to his favorite episode, which was Spam. We had first timers--

• 53:57Josh Clark?

  That was a good one.

• 53:58Speaker 01

  Yeah, that was a good one. "We had first timers, people recovering from injury, runners and walkers, so many smiles and Stuff You Should Know t-shirts. Sign off for now, but just writing to tell you this is a success. We might even do it again with love," and that is, again, from Aaron Huey Mizell. And that is great, Aaron, thank you for doing this, and that really does speak to the quality of our listeners in every single way.

• 54:20Josh Clark?

  Indubitably, yeah, thanks a lot, Aaron, it's good to hear from you. And to everybody who participated in the SY5K, you are the champions, our friends--

• 54:33Speaker 01

  Even if you listen to Marc Maron.

• 54:36Josh Clark?

  But maybe not what Chuck just said. That's it. Okay, well, if you want to get in touch with us like Aaron did and do something interesting, we want to hear about it, you can write to us in an email to [email protected].

• 54:56Speaker 02

  Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts, iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

• 55:09Josh Clark?

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• 56:38Josh Clark?

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• 56:50Speaker 00

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