0
SPEAKER_01
I m David Farrier, a New Zealander accidentally marooned in America, and I want to figure out what makes this country tick.
0
SPEAKER_01
Now, since going to Florida, I haven t been able to stop thinking about buckies.
0
SPEAKER_00
Oh, Buc-ee s is crazy.
0
SPEAKER_00
And the thing of it is, you walk into them, and they re always packed.
0
SPEAKER_01
More specifically, I ve been thinking about the Buc-ee s logo, that smiling beaver with its buck teeth and red cap, staring off hopefully into the distance.
0
SPEAKER_01
The Buc-ee s logo is iconic in the South, branded all over t-shirts and caps and key rings, making the gas station a load of money.
0
SPEAKER_01
But where did that Buc-ee s beaver come from?
0
SPEAKER_05
Well… IPANA PRESENTS!
0
SPEAKER_05
Bucky Beaver Space Guard!
0
SPEAKER_01
Back in the 1950s, Bucky Beaver was the mascot for Ipana Toothpaste, a brand that saw America fall in love with the beaver, with his cries for kids to brusha brusha brusha their teeth.
0
SPEAKER_01
Bucky Beaver was such a hit, he ended up in the 1978 film Grease, the line sung by Jamie Donnelly who played Jam.
0
SPEAKER_05
Hey look it s Jam!
0
SPEAKER_05
Brusha brusha brusha, get the new Ipana, with a brand new flavor, it s daddy for your teeth!
0
SPEAKER_01
The more I thought about beavers, the more I realised how they re baked into America s DNA.
0
SPEAKER_01
With around 15 million of them all across North America, beavers are the largest rodent in the United States, growing up to 3 feet long.
0
SPEAKER_01
And that s not including their ridiculous tail that looks like it s been run over by a truck.
0
SPEAKER_01
The beaver is the state animal of Oregon and New York.
0
SPEAKER_01
A much-loved creature that feels like God ran out of ideas, slapping various mismatched animal parts together to make the beaver.
0
SPEAKER_01
The webbed hind feet of a duck.
0
SPEAKER_01
The five front fingers of a raccoon.
0
SPEAKER_01
The face of a bear.
0
SPEAKER_01
The whiskers of a cat.
0
SPEAKER_01
Unlike humans, beavers  teeth grow non-stop during their life, so they whittle them back as they chop down trees.
0
SPEAKER_01
And it s that tree chopping and damming of waterways, along with their incredibly warm and waterproof pouts, that have literally seen beavers alter the course of American history.
0
SPEAKER_01
I wasn t joking when I said beavers are built into America s DNA.
0
SPEAKER_01
So, get ready to chop down some trees and dam up those waterways.
0
SPEAKER_01
Because this, is the Beavers episode.
0
SPEAKER_01
It s my mission in this episode, and I know I tend towards animal episodes.
0
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, we ve had a lot.
0
SPEAKER_01
We have had a lot.
0
SPEAKER_01
Animals are great though.
0
SPEAKER_01
I d like a break.
0
SPEAKER_01
But they re the best.
0
SPEAKER_01
My job in this episode is to convince you that the beaver has been so transformative to America that you ll never look at a beaver in the same way ever again.
0
SPEAKER_04
Wow, that s a big ask and you should know I m at a zero and you re trying to get to a hundred.
0
SPEAKER_01
I m going to get you to a hundred.
0
SPEAKER_04
Wow.
0
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
0
SPEAKER_01
When you think beaver.
0
SPEAKER_04
Yeah.
0
SPEAKER_01
Because to be honest, until I started looking into it, I watched some nature documentaries at school as a kid.
0
SPEAKER_01
They built dams, they dam up waterways, they ve got those teeth, blah, blah, blah.
0
SPEAKER_01
What do you think about when I say beaver?
0
SPEAKER_04
That s what I think about.
0
SPEAKER_04
I think about dams and bushy tails.
0
SPEAKER_01
They don t have bushy tails.
0
SPEAKER_04
Oh, fuck.
0
SPEAKER_01
They ve got sort of flat, they ve got flat like a paddle, because that s how they paddle along.
0
SPEAKER_04
But is it a bushy paddle?
0
SPEAKER_01
No, not bushy.
0
SPEAKER_04
Oh my God.
0
SPEAKER_01
Okay.
0
SPEAKER_04
So apparently I know nothing.
0
SPEAKER_04
And then also, of course, the thing we re only going to say it once on this episode, that it s a euphemism for a woman s vaginal region.
0
SPEAKER_01
It is.
0
SPEAKER_01
I ve got a couple of facts about that so we get out of the way at the top.
0
SPEAKER_01
Okay.
0
SPEAKER_01
It s British slang for vagina that was first come up with in 1927 and it came from an earlier meaning of a bearded man or the appearance of a split beaver pelt.
0
SPEAKER_04
What s a split beaver pelt?
0
SPEAKER_01
So you get pelts from beavers to make hats and various things back in the day.
0
SPEAKER_01
We re going to get into that in the documentary, but beaver pelts are sort of hairy and then you split it.
0
SPEAKER_01
But wait, but a beaver pelt looks like a vagina.
0
SPEAKER_04
Rewind.
0
SPEAKER_04
What is a pelt?
0
SPEAKER_01
A pelt is when you skin a beaver, which we ll get into in the documentary because this is how it starts to transform America is the pelts of a beaver.
0
SPEAKER_04
Okay, so you skin it and then- You skin it, you make a little hat.
0
SPEAKER_03
Pelt any animal though that you skin.
0
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, pelt of a deer, pelt of a sheep.
0
SPEAKER_04
Oh, so it s just a piece of the skin.
0
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, you could skin me and it would be a David Farrier pelt.
0
SPEAKER_04
Ew, and then they make a little incision in the middle or like a slit.
0
SPEAKER_01
I gotta be honest, you re cutting it off.
0
SPEAKER_03
to peel the skin off.
0
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, so to get the skin off a beaver, you ve got to cut the skin off.
0
SPEAKER_04
Oh, I see.
0
SPEAKER_04
So is a pelt like when it s flattened out?
0
SPEAKER_04
Yeah.
0
SPEAKER_04
Got it.
0
SPEAKER_01
Thank you, Rob.
0
SPEAKER_01
And there s a limerick.
0
SPEAKER_01
I don t like that.
0
SPEAKER_01
This is the last thing I m gonna talk about it in relation to vagina.
0
SPEAKER_01
There s a limerick from 1927.
0
SPEAKER_01
Sing it.
0
SPEAKER_01
Which is when it got, I m not gonna sing it.
0
SPEAKER_01
Sing it.
0
SPEAKER_01
Which when it was popularized as meaning vagina.
0
SPEAKER_01
And it goes like this.
0
SPEAKER_01
There was a young lady named Eva who filled up a bath to receive her.
0
SPEAKER_01
She took off her clothes, from her head to her toes, then a voice at the keyhole yelled, beaver.
0
SPEAKER_04
What?
0
SPEAKER_01
Essentially, there s a guy looking through the keyhole as she strips naked, awful, and he decides to yell out beaver when he sees, I suppose, her naked body.
0
SPEAKER_01
And that solidified, certainly in British culture, which then transferred to the United States, the use of the word beaver to mean vagina.
0
SPEAKER_04
What s your favorite word for vagina?
0
SPEAKER_04
Let s try to get you canceled.
0
SPEAKER_01
Always the worry with the podcast.
0
SPEAKER_01
Just always talking, blabbing away, something s going to get... I m not going to answer that.
0
SPEAKER_01
No, I m trying to think now.
0
SPEAKER_03
I know yours.
0
SPEAKER_03
Yours is the C word, probably.
0
SPEAKER_03
Oh.
0
SPEAKER_03
But maybe not for a vagina.
0
SPEAKER_01
No, no, not.
0
SPEAKER_01
You just like that word, though.
0
SPEAKER_01
It s like for... In New Zealand and Australia, the C word, whilst still offensive, is kind of used in a much more light-hearted way.
0
SPEAKER_01
Like, it s a good C word.
0
SPEAKER_01
But for vagina, look, I just, vagina, just call it a vagina.
0
SPEAKER_01
That s a great vagina.
0
SPEAKER_04
That s kind.
0
SPEAKER_04
Do you know the difference between a vagina and a vulva?
0
SPEAKER_01
I look, can we not get into all of this?
0
SPEAKER_04
No, you decided to do an episode on beavers.
0
SPEAKER_01
I wanted to get this out of the way at the top.
0
SPEAKER_01
I just wanted to get the point across that beaver can be used for vagina.
0
SPEAKER_01
But I think we should move on.
0
SPEAKER_04
Thanks for telling us.
0
SPEAKER_01
That s okay.
0
SPEAKER_03
Did you watch the show Three Angry Beavers?
0
SPEAKER_03
Ever?
0
SPEAKER_04
No, is it a vagina show?
0
SPEAKER_03
It was a Nickelodeon show when we were kids.
0
SPEAKER_04
Oh wait, that does sound, no.
0
SPEAKER_03
Two Angry Beavers.
0
SPEAKER_04
You sure it s not just Angry Beavers?
0
SPEAKER_04
I think it s the... What happened?
0
SPEAKER_04
Is it a cartoon?
0
SPEAKER_03
It is Angry Beaver.
0
SPEAKER_03
Yes!
0
SPEAKER_03
It s a cartoon.
0
SPEAKER_04
I do know it.
0
SPEAKER_01
What happened in the show?
0
SPEAKER_04
They drew all these vaginas and then they were animated.
0
SPEAKER_03
One was like dopey and one was a little angry one.
0
SPEAKER_03
It was a cartoon.
0
SPEAKER_01
Oh, that s so cute.
0
SPEAKER_01
I didn t even know that.
0
SPEAKER_01
Some other Beaver facts.
0
SPEAKER_04
Okay.
0
SPEAKER_01
The second largest living rodent after the capybara.
0
SPEAKER_04
The what?
0
SPEAKER_01
The capybara is the largest rodent in North America.
0
SPEAKER_01
Capybaras are those cute things you see.
0
SPEAKER_01
They always have other animals sitting on them, like a monkey.
0
SPEAKER_01
You see monkeys riding them, frogs, all sorts of things ride on capybaras.
0
SPEAKER_04
OK.
0
SPEAKER_04
Are you saying kookaburra?
0
SPEAKER_01
No, no, I m not.
0
SPEAKER_01
I m saying capybara.
0
SPEAKER_04
Actually, I don t even think I knew a beaver was a rodent.
0
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, crazy, right?
0
SPEAKER_01
It s a rodent.
0
SPEAKER_04
I think I just thought it was a regular mammal.
0
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, no, rodent specifically.
0
SPEAKER_01
The longest dam a beaver has built that humans know about is 2,790 feet.
0
SPEAKER_04
Wow.
0
SPEAKER_01
Big dams.
0
SPEAKER_01
So these are big things they re building.
0
SPEAKER_04
How many beavers does it take?
0
SPEAKER_04
Sounds like a joke.
0
SPEAKER_01
Cracking yourself up already?
0
SPEAKER_04
To build a dam.
0
SPEAKER_01
It depends how big the dam is.
0
SPEAKER_04
David, did you do any research?
0
SPEAKER_01
No, that s the little tiny dam.
0
SPEAKER_04
Yeah.
0
SPEAKER_01
I mean, another fact here that I found out, four beavers have been observed rolling a hundred pound boulder.
0
SPEAKER_01
So four beavers rolling a boulder, that boulder could dam something up.
0
SPEAKER_01
And so maybe four s your answer.
0
SPEAKER_03
Do you want the real answer?
0
SPEAKER_03
Yeah.
0
SPEAKER_03
All right.
0
SPEAKER_03
So there s no set number, but it can hold anywhere from a pair of beavers to 10.
0
SPEAKER_04
Okay.
0
SPEAKER_04
To make a dam.
0
SPEAKER_03
Well, they live in the dam, so I would assume the ones that are living in are making it, so yeah.
0
SPEAKER_01
They digest their food twice, so when they finally do a little poo, it poos out sawdust.
0
SPEAKER_04
Whoa.
0
SPEAKER_04
I like that.
0
SPEAKER_04
I wish we had that.
0
SPEAKER_01
Human poo is one of the worst things.
0
SPEAKER_04
I know.
0
SPEAKER_01
Only worst thing is probably dog or cat poo.
1
SPEAKER_00
but human poo is pretty bad.
1
SPEAKER_00
Horse poo?
1
SPEAKER_00
Ew.
1
SPEAKER_00
Horse poo doesn t smell.
1
SPEAKER_00
Like it doesn t smell.
1
SPEAKER_00
Yes it does.
1
SPEAKER_00
It smells, but it doesn t smell like a human poo or a cat poo or a dog poo.
1
SPEAKER_00
It smells awful.
1
SPEAKER_00
Horse manure is terrible.
1
SPEAKER_00
I disagree.
1
SPEAKER_02
And like if you re walking down, you know, in New York when they have the carriages and then they just have huge poops.
1
SPEAKER_02
It s not great.
1
SPEAKER_00
It stinks.
1
SPEAKER_00
I agree, it s stinky.
1
SPEAKER_00
But if a dog poo was that big, it would stink even worse.
1
SPEAKER_00
eating meat.
1
SPEAKER_00
I feel like horses are eating grass and stuff and hay.
1
SPEAKER_00
It s not the pungent, meaty, disgustingness of a carnivore, you know?
1
SPEAKER_00
Maybe.
1
SPEAKER_00
It s all opinions, though.
1
SPEAKER_02
It sure is.
1
SPEAKER_02
It s subjective.
1
SPEAKER_00
And also, some of the oldest animal effigies, things humans build to pay tribute to an animal, are beavers.
1
SPEAKER_00
The earliest human carving, 11,500 years old, was carved using a beaver jaw.
1
SPEAKER_00
Ooh, okay.
1
SPEAKER_00
And ancient beavers used to be the size of a cow, two meters long, huge.
1
SPEAKER_00
And they used to roam what is now North America.
1
SPEAKER_02
I would like to see a huge cow-sized beaver.
1
SPEAKER_00
If they still existed, I would get you one immediately.
1
SPEAKER_00
And it would be a comedy, it would be you and the giant beaver living together.
1
SPEAKER_00
It d be a sitcom and all of America would watch it.
1
SPEAKER_00
Okay, so you re starting to go wow the beaver?
1
SPEAKER_00
They re shooting out sawdust.
1
SPEAKER_02
That I like.
1
SPEAKER_00
They used to be the size of a cow.
1
SPEAKER_00
That s cool.
1
SPEAKER_00
Humans have always loved them.
1
SPEAKER_02
I know, but these were great facts, but I m not to why this is important to America.
1
SPEAKER_02
I m still at zero there.
1
SPEAKER_00
Okay, well look, let s roll the documentary because I ve been working very hard on this.
1
SPEAKER_02
Oh god, okay.
1
SPEAKER_00
When it comes to America, it s hard not to think about rodents.
1
SPEAKER_00
I still remember my surprise when I first saw a gopher head emerging from a hole in the ground while I was at the park.
1
SPEAKER_00
It was like a cartoon, as it gawped up at me as I ate a bag of crisps.
1
SPEAKER_00
I remember my first rat in New York City, giving exactly zero shits while it scurried down the tracks of a subway tunnel.
1
SPEAKER_00
Officials estimate the rat population of New York currently sits at about 2 million, spread out across 90% of the city.
1
SPEAKER_00
For me, rodents are personal, too.
1
SPEAKER_00
My run-in with the biting end of a squirrel led to my first encounter with the US healthcare system.
1
SPEAKER_00
A rodent had declared an act of war, and the casualty was my ego and bank account.
1
SPEAKER_00
The simple, unescapable fact is that rodents rule America.
1
SPEAKER_00
And one rodent, the biggest one, rules the roost.
1
SPEAKER_01
My name s Leila Phillip, and I really have fallen for beavers.
1
SPEAKER_00
Yes, Leila Phillip really has fallen for beavers, America s biggest rodent.
1
SPEAKER_00
She spent years writing a book about them called Beaverland.
1
SPEAKER_00
It s the best book about beavers I ve ever read.
1
SPEAKER_00
To be completely honest, the only book about beavers I ve ever read.
1
SPEAKER_01
It was a kind of fever dream that just went on until it was done.
1
SPEAKER_01
But when it was done, it took so long.
1
SPEAKER_01
I spent six years on it.
1
SPEAKER_01
I thought, well, really, I m done with beavers.
1
SPEAKER_01
But I just finished writing a long piece about what the beavers are doing right now near my house.
1
SPEAKER_01
So I guess I m not done with beavers after all.
1
SPEAKER_00
Leela lives right up the top of America in New England, and some beavers are rebuilding their broken dam near her house.
1
SPEAKER_00
They re following her, or she s following them.
1
SPEAKER_00
She s got beavers on the brain.
1
SPEAKER_00
That s because in writing her book, she discovered just how intrinsic beavers are to the United States, how they shape the country, and how they may well help shape its future.
1
SPEAKER_01
I had no idea about any of this when I started.
1
SPEAKER_01
I didn t set out with a thesis like, I m going to tell the story of how beavers made America.
1
SPEAKER_01
I really started following beavers and researching them and learning about them.
1
SPEAKER_01
And then six years later, I figured out what the story was.
1
SPEAKER_01
And then I was like, holy cow, beavers made America.
1
SPEAKER_01
You know, really?
1
SPEAKER_01
I m not kidding.
1
SPEAKER_00
There are a few ways beavers shaped the United States.
1
SPEAKER_00
And I m not just talking about the toothpaste or backies.
1
SPEAKER_01
The first multimillionaire in this country, John Jacob Astor, got his start trading beaver fur on the wharfs of Manhattan.
1
SPEAKER_01
And that s why the first seal of Manhattan has a beaver on it.
1
SPEAKER_00
I Google the seal of Manhattan, and there in the middle, under an eagle, and between a settler and a Native American, is a beaver.
1
SPEAKER_00
And not just one beaver.
1
SPEAKER_00
There s two beavers.
1
SPEAKER_01
I mean, if you think about beaver fur at that time,
1
SPEAKER_01
And a beaver hat was actually a valuable item.
1
SPEAKER_01
It was the Gore-Tex of its day.
1
SPEAKER_01
A beaver hat was not just fashion.
1
SPEAKER_01
It was the most durable, warm, rain-resistant gear you could get.
1
SPEAKER_00
Now before John Jacob Astor became the first multi-millionaire in the US, he was a German immigrant who wanted to start a music business in Manhattan.
1
SPEAKER_00
It was 1984 when he boarded a ship from Germany to the US armed with seven flutes.
1
SPEAKER_00
Yes, flutes.
1
SPEAKER_00
He was a flautist.
1
SPEAKER_00
Or is it flutist?
1
SPEAKER_00
Who knows?
1
SPEAKER_00
Soon, he wouldn t care much about flutes anymore either.
1
SPEAKER_01
But on board the ship, he overheard traders talking about this item that they could get very inexpensively in North America and trade in London for a markup of something like 800, 900%.
1
SPEAKER_01
And he listened and listened.
1
SPEAKER_01
And then he figured out they were talking about beaver fur.
1
SPEAKER_01
So as quick as he could, when he got to Manhattan, he sold those flutes.
1
SPEAKER_01
just forgot about that music business and started buying furs.
1
SPEAKER_01
And very quickly, he became a fur trader of note.
1
SPEAKER_01
He started trading furs up the Hudson River, and then he went west toward the Great Lakes.
1
SPEAKER_01
And at that time, if you wanted to be a fur trader, you had to get up to Canada and start trading furs with the big fur companies like Hudson s Bay Company that were already
1
SPEAKER_01
established up in Montreal.
1
SPEAKER_01
So as soon as he makes it in Montreal, he knows he s made it and he establishes the American Fur Company.
1
SPEAKER_00
John Jacob Astor was a brilliant businessman.
1
SPEAKER_00
Soon the flutes were in the bin and his dreams of starting a Manhattan music school were long gone too.
1
SPEAKER_00
But as well as being a brilliant businessman, John could also be described using words like duplicitous and completely scurrilous, which Lila does.
1
SPEAKER_01
He was duplicitous and completely scurrilous.
1
SPEAKER_00
Now my brain tunes out when it comes to history, but stick with me.
1
SPEAKER_00
Back in 1805, President Thomas Jefferson commissioned the Lewis and Clark Expedition, a mission up the Missouri River to explore and map out newly acquired land.
1
SPEAKER_00
Jefferson wanted to spread democracy while exploring the west of the Mississippi and all the new territories.
1
SPEAKER_00
He did it, but it was expensive.
1
SPEAKER_01
After the Lewis and Clark expedition, the new government doesn t have enough money to go set up trading posts.
1
SPEAKER_00
Inter-American fur company head honcho, beaver mogul, John Jacob Esther.
1
SPEAKER_01
So he pretty much dupes Jefferson.
1
SPEAKER_01
Astor says, oh, I will go with my new company and we will spread democracy.
1
SPEAKER_01
Of course, that isn t what happens.
1
SPEAKER_01
Astor s company is on paper only, sets up a monopoly all the way to the Pacific.
1
SPEAKER_01
And he founds the very first trading post
1
SPEAKER_01
on the Pacific coast in Oregon and names it, of course, Astoria, after John Jacob Astor.
1
SPEAKER_01
And he sets up a global trading empire.
1
SPEAKER_01
It s brilliant.
1
SPEAKER_01
It s extraordinary.
1
SPEAKER_01
And it s ruthless.
1
SPEAKER_01
And there are no anti-monopoly laws at that time.
1
SPEAKER_01
But if there were, it would have been illegal.
1
SPEAKER_01
Anyway, what happens is, by the time he sets that up, we re talking 1811 when he founds Astoria,
1
SPEAKER_01
In about 10 years, they ve trapped out all the beaver, because the exploitation of the beaver is so ruthless.
1
SPEAKER_01
And the beaver are gone, but Astor doesn t care, because he s got a global trading route established.
1
SPEAKER_01
He s got control of all the trading centers, and he just trades other things, and he invests in real estate, and his empire is built.
1
SPEAKER_00
And evidence of the empire he built still remains.
1
SPEAKER_00
Hundreds of thousands of massacred beavers in their pelts paving the way for a New York real estate tycoon.
1
SPEAKER_01
So the New York Public Library in New York City is funded with Astor money, and you have Astoria Queens in New York City, and the Astor Place subway stop still has a beaver mural on it.
1
SPEAKER_01
So, you know, the rest is history.
1
SPEAKER_01
But it is a fascinating history.
1
SPEAKER_01
It s before coal.
1
SPEAKER_01
It s before oil.
1
SPEAKER_01
The first great wealth came from beaver fur.
1
SPEAKER_00
America s first multimillionaire, all because of the beaver.
1
SPEAKER_00
Stay tuned for more Flightless Bird.
1
SPEAKER_00
We ll be right back after a word from our sponsors.
1
SPEAKER_00
Flightless Bird is brought to you by Better Health.
2
SPEAKER_00
Now, I don t know about you, but most of my week is spent interviewing people and researching for this show, as my own sanity slowly fades into the background sometimes.
2
SPEAKER_00
I think most of us are like this, spending so much time on work and family and friends and other people, and not so much on ourselves.
2
SPEAKER_00
Obviously, there needs to be more balance.
2
SPEAKER_00
I m making a conceded effort to check in on myself a lot more, to figure out how I m doing, because when I m in a good mental space, everything else tends to fall into place much more easily.
2
SPEAKER_00
A good way to keep yourself in check is through therapy.
2
SPEAKER_00
Recently I ve found it super helpful in learning more about my attachment style, which is a whole other topic for another day, but it s been a bit of a revelation.
2
SPEAKER_00
If you re thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try.
2
SPEAKER_00
It s entirely online, it s designed to be convenient, flexible and suited to your schedule.
2
SPEAKER_00
Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist, and you can switch therapists at any time for no additional charge.
2
SPEAKER_00
The online interface and app also makes it really easy.
2
SPEAKER_00
Find more balance with BetterHelp.
2
SPEAKER_00
Visit betterhelp.com slash bird today to get 10% off your first month.
2
SPEAKER_00
That s betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash bird.
2
SPEAKER_00
So yeah, it s bat shit, right?
2
SPEAKER_03
Hold on, hold on, before we move on.
2
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_03
I have a question.
2
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, I m always scared of this because I m like a slight expert by the end of these documentaries, but also incredibly clueless.
2
SPEAKER_03
Okay, is John Jacob Astor, John Jacob Jingleheimer Smith, his name is my name too?
2
SPEAKER_00
I don t know what the fuck you just did.
2
SPEAKER_00
I feel like I m having a stroke.
2
SPEAKER_00
Do that again.
2
SPEAKER_03
John Jacob Jingleheimer Smith, his name is my name too.
2
SPEAKER_00
Can you please explain what s happening?
2
SPEAKER_03
That is a nursery rhyme or fable or talking point that when you re a kid you do.
2
SPEAKER_03
And limerick and tongue twister, yeah.
2
SPEAKER_03
And I ve never heard the name John Jacob before, so I feel like John Jacob Jingleheimer Smith, his name is my name too, is based off John Jacob.
2
SPEAKER_03
Aster.
2
SPEAKER_00
That would not surprise me, because it s insane, his footprint in the United States.
2
SPEAKER_00
All his Beaver Empire money, he transformed into real estate.
2
SPEAKER_00
Astoria is called Astoria, after his surname.
2
SPEAKER_03
Is the Waldorf Astoria?
2
SPEAKER_00
Probably.
2
SPEAKER_00
Probably.
2
SPEAKER_00
It s not like all over New York.
2
SPEAKER_00
Like once you hear it, you can t even see it.
2
SPEAKER_00
Like the library.
2
SPEAKER_03
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_00
Like it s all him.
2
SPEAKER_00
And that was just because he saw the beaver.
2
SPEAKER_00
He s like that beaver pelt can make me millions.
2
SPEAKER_00
He tricked a president into letting him spread democracy, but he was just setting up trade posts.
2
SPEAKER_02
Wow.
2
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_00
He also died on the Titanic.
2
SPEAKER_02
What?
2
SPEAKER_03
What?
2
SPEAKER_02
What?
2
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_02
This is fucking insane!
2
SPEAKER_02
John Jacob Astor.
2
SPEAKER_03
Wait, which one?
2
SPEAKER_03
Astor or James Althimer Smith?
2
SPEAKER_02
John Jacob Astor was an American business magnate.
2
SPEAKER_02
He died in the sinking of the Titanic.
2
SPEAKER_00
Rob, you chip in with some good shit.
2
SPEAKER_00
This is the best thing you ve ever done.
2
SPEAKER_03
Oh my God.
2
SPEAKER_00
So I don t know.
2
SPEAKER_00
They need to make a movie out of him.
2
SPEAKER_03
Well, they made Titanic.
2
SPEAKER_03
That was a huge movie.
2
SPEAKER_00
They focused on the wrong person.
2
SPEAKER_00
It s like a minor point as he like sanctions the ocean at the end.
2
SPEAKER_03
Oh my God.
2
SPEAKER_03
He s probably one of the rich people who just were eating their caviar as the boat is crashing.
2
SPEAKER_03
They refused to like acknowledge it.
2
SPEAKER_03
Probably was.
2
SPEAKER_03
Wow.
2
SPEAKER_00
Insane.
2
SPEAKER_00
It also makes me think of Lois and Clark, The New Adventures of Superman, because of the Lois and Clark expedition.
2
SPEAKER_00
I wonder if that was related at all.
2
SPEAKER_00
Probably not.
2
SPEAKER_03
This is very fascinating.
2
SPEAKER_03
I m up.
2
SPEAKER_03
I m up to 70.
2
SPEAKER_03
I think I knew about the beaver at the subway station.
2
SPEAKER_00
What I hope with this, because I m going to New York to make a pizza episode soon, because it s like one of those things, once you know it, you just start to see beavers everywhere, which is kind of amazing.
2
SPEAKER_00
There s also this indigenous story I came across about the great beaver, which is this story.
2
SPEAKER_00
told in a lot of different indigenous communities, but this relates to America and Massachusetts.
2
SPEAKER_00
According to Native American myth, Sugarloaf Mountain is the carcass of a human-eating giant beaver who lived in a lake now occupied by the Connecticut River.
2
SPEAKER_03
So I think this is about aesthetics, why we haven t embraced the beaver more, because they re not the cutest.
2
SPEAKER_00
I get into this a little bit in the next part of the documentary, because despite their amazing engineering skills, they re one of the least studied animals.
2
SPEAKER_00
And it s because essentially, I think you re right, they re not cute.
2
SPEAKER_03
They re not cute and cuddly.
2
SPEAKER_00
They re a mess.
2
SPEAKER_00
It s like they re bits of other animals.
2
SPEAKER_03
This makes me sad for all of the ugly people.
2
SPEAKER_03
I mean, it s like a metaphor.
2
SPEAKER_03
It s a metaphor.
2
SPEAKER_00
Beauty rises to the top.
2
SPEAKER_00
Cute animals are taken over anything else.
2
SPEAKER_00
You re completely right.
2
SPEAKER_00
Beautiful people rise to the top.
2
SPEAKER_03
Despite what they have going on versus somebody else who s
2
SPEAKER_03
a great engineer.
2
SPEAKER_00
I like how you pointed at me when you said that.
2
SPEAKER_03
I was actually pointing to your hat because you are wearing a Buc-ee s hat right now with a beaver on it.
2
SPEAKER_00
And I also feel like we even don t think about the beaver that much.
2
SPEAKER_00
Some people see the Buc-ee s logo and don t even really go, oh, that s a beaver.
2
SPEAKER_00
I love the beaver.
2
SPEAKER_00
They re like, that s a Buc-ee s thing.
2
SPEAKER_03
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_00
All right.
2
SPEAKER_00
Are you ready for part two?
2
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_00
You re at 70% of America s being influenced by beavers.
2
SPEAKER_00
Yep.
2
SPEAKER_00
Let s get you to 100.
2
SPEAKER_01
major cities and universities have beavers in their seals, etc, etc.
2
SPEAKER_01
I mean, I did a study of this, it s on more roads and cutouts and schools and mascots than any other animal.
2
SPEAKER_01
But we kind of have taken the beaver for granted.
2
SPEAKER_00
Maybe we take the beaver for granted because they re out of sight, out of mind, scooting around underwater with their mismatched but somehow perfect body parts.
2
SPEAKER_01
They are weird.
2
SPEAKER_01
They ve got these beautiful bear-like faces and these nimble fingers.
2
SPEAKER_01
I think their tail is quite extraordinary.
2
SPEAKER_01
It s this strange flattened expanse, but it has so many blood vessels in it that in the summer it helps cool them.
2
SPEAKER_01
In the winter, it helps them because the tail is a big repository of fat.
2
SPEAKER_01
So that s where they store fat and they live off that.
2
SPEAKER_01
So it s their like refrigerator in the wintertime.
2
SPEAKER_01
And then we believe that it s one of the ways they re able to sense water pressure.
2
SPEAKER_00
Beavers need to know water pressure because they need to know what the water level s doing.
2
SPEAKER_00
Their job is to keep their dams dammed.
2
SPEAKER_00
The second a leak starts, and the water level changes, a beaver s there to repair it.
2
SPEAKER_00
The dams need to keep the water locked in, and their lodges, what you call a beaver house, need to have their watery entranceways maintained.
2
SPEAKER_01
One of the facts about the beaver that I find really wonderful is the baby beavers, their blood chemistry is such, they re so full of oxygen that they can t dive.
2
SPEAKER_01
And so they actually can t get out of the lodge, which I think is kind of just so amazing.
2
SPEAKER_01
So they re stuck in the lodge, and until they re old enough to dive and swim properly, they can t get out, which means it s sort of like a built-in babysitting system.
2
SPEAKER_00
If individual beavers are amazing, groups of beavers are a revelation.
2
SPEAKER_00
There s a reason their faces appear on the logos of engineering schools in California, Massachusetts and Alberta.
2
SPEAKER_00
They re amazing engineers.
2
SPEAKER_00
Their dams work better at water management than any human dam.
2
SPEAKER_00
But the thing is, we don t really know quite how they do it.
2
SPEAKER_00
Beavers don t have a central authority, they re not hierarchical like bees.
2
SPEAKER_00
There s no alpha beaver, there s no boss beaver.
2
SPEAKER_00
We re not exactly sure how they organise themselves when they build these complex dams.
2
SPEAKER_01
There is a kind of collective intelligence that they manifest that might be more like termites or ants or bees where they follow simple rules that are initiated by environmental cues.
2
SPEAKER_01
So there s a kind of collective intelligence and they can do really amazing things that are more than the sum of one individual.
2
SPEAKER_00
The reason so much mystery still exists about them is probably our long history of treating beavers like a rodent.
2
SPEAKER_00
As in, like a pest.
2
SPEAKER_00
Leela tells me that while more charismatic animals like wolves or bears or lions get studied, beavers were never at the top of the list.
2
SPEAKER_00
But more recent studies are starting to show that beavers  behaviour is certainly more complex and nuanced than the termite.
2
SPEAKER_01
More recently, we have begun to discover that, for example, rescue beavers in captivity will discriminate between objects that they play with and objects that they work with.
2
SPEAKER_01
So that s really interesting.
2
SPEAKER_01
So it s not just instinct.
2
SPEAKER_01
They don t just take any old thing and start building a dam with it.
2
SPEAKER_01
So there s like this rescue beaver that s getting a lot of attention and they give her balls and she plays with them.
2
SPEAKER_01
She loves them.
2
SPEAKER_00
The beaver s name, by the way, is Nibby.
3
SPEAKER_02
But if they try to give her a ball in her dam building area, she gets really upset.
3
SPEAKER_02
She s like, no, that s for playing with.
3
SPEAKER_02
Sticks are for building with.
3
SPEAKER_02
You know, she really gets mad.
3
SPEAKER_02
And it s really interesting.
3
SPEAKER_02
So she s got in her mind, she s got a clear division between what is what.
3
SPEAKER_02
And that s not just like an algorithm of pick up a stick and put it here, which is sort of what a termite might do.
3
SPEAKER_02
It s a lot more sophisticated than that.
3
SPEAKER_02
So I think beavers are going to show us a lot more about who they are and what they are.
3
SPEAKER_02
Once we really start studying them, we just haven t.
3
SPEAKER_01
Leila says this lack of scientific interest has been sad for her to see, because we as humans can probably learn a few things from the beaver.
3
SPEAKER_02
I m actually reading this 18th century Mexican Jesuit humanist, Rafael Landovar, who wrote this beautiful poem where he sees beavers kind of the way Virgil saw bees.
3
SPEAKER_02
Virgil saw bees as this ideal republic.
3
SPEAKER_02
this model society.
3
SPEAKER_02
The thing that Landovar saw in beavers and that he thought was so amazing about them is that they work with this extraordinary lack of aggression and ability to cooperate.
3
SPEAKER_02
And increasingly, I was thinking, we are so brilliant.
3
SPEAKER_02
We have so many ways of solving our problems.
3
SPEAKER_02
We have all the technology we need, but we can t seem to get along.
3
SPEAKER_02
So maybe we just need to be more like beavers.
3
SPEAKER_01
And while we may not have the beavers back, they tend to have owls.
3
SPEAKER_01
Beavers are what scientists call a keystone species.
3
SPEAKER_01
A species that has a really big effect on the environment despite their relatively small population.
3
SPEAKER_01
They re also ecosystem engineers, building like the busy beavers they are.
3
SPEAKER_01
Historically, beavers have been good to humans, and not just because of their pouts.
3
SPEAKER_01
They create wetlands, a natural barrier for out-of-control wildfires that tend to ravage parts of America.
3
SPEAKER_01
A piece in Scientific American recently pointed out that beavers are so good at fighting megafires that some researchers have urged the U.S.
3
SPEAKER_01
Forest Service to switch mammal mascots from Smokey Bear to Smokey Beaver.
3
SPEAKER_02
You know, every beaver pond we need to think about as an aquatic basin with a huge sponge underneath.
3
SPEAKER_02
So a beaver pond holds almost three times as much water underneath it as it does the visible water on top.
3
SPEAKER_02
So that s a crazy amount of water everywhere.
3
SPEAKER_02
So that really changes, I think, the way we start to see the land.
3
SPEAKER_01
When beavers were made nearly extinct due to hunting, entire ecosystems got wrecked.
3
SPEAKER_01
As Leela writes in Beaverland, before the 1600s, a great deal of America, from west to east, had stretched out as one great beaverland, complex waterlands under the control of beavers and their dams.
3
SPEAKER_01
They helped make America what it was, shaping the land around them.
3
SPEAKER_02
Beavers really shaped the land.
3
SPEAKER_02
The hydrology of this country relies on beavers.
3
SPEAKER_02
And this is why they re so cool and why they re so important to us now.
3
SPEAKER_02
Because the problems that we re facing with climate change, drought, and wildfire, and flood, all have to do with water.
3
SPEAKER_02
And beavers manage the water in our continent.
3
SPEAKER_02
and they are historic river keepers.
3
SPEAKER_02
So when we wiped out the beaver through the fur trade, it was really one of the first great environmental devastations on the continent that geomorphologists now call the Great Drying.
3
SPEAKER_02
So we really need these beavers to come back and help us.
3
SPEAKER_02
So we really need to stop thinking about them as pelts and pests and think about them as highly trained engineers, really, out there.
3
SPEAKER_01
Thankfully for the beaver, pouts don t go for what they used to.
3
SPEAKER_01
They re about $20 each these days.
3
SPEAKER_01
No one s making millions out of them.
3
SPEAKER_01
But trappers still make a humble living, helping out homeowners who don t want ponds and waterways encroaching on their land.
3
SPEAKER_01
But there s still land in America not covered in people, and Leela hopes beavers are encouraged to return more.
3
SPEAKER_01
And more than that, to live alongside humans, too.
3
SPEAKER_02
We have a lot of bits and bobs of open land throughout the country that beavers could be in working and not creating problems for humans.
3
SPEAKER_02
It s just people haven t thought about how to put them to work or let them coexist because they haven t valued what they do.
3
SPEAKER_02
People haven t really thought it through.
3
SPEAKER_02
So that s part of why I get so kind of passionate about the subject and why I have so much fun talking about this book now,
3
SPEAKER_01
She s not just talking about it in the book, she s talking about it with anyone who ll listen.
3
SPEAKER_01
Me, you, and her neighbours as well.
3
SPEAKER_01
Those beavers near her house, the ones rebuilding their dam, they re doing that because a neighbour wrecked their dam.
3
SPEAKER_01
Not out of a hatred of beavers, more out of not knowing how complex they are, and how to deal with them.
3
SPEAKER_02
Well, you know, it s common practice here in New England because beavers bring water.
3
SPEAKER_02
I mean, this landowner was legitimately worried about their road.
3
SPEAKER_02
It s just that they didn t understand that there are other ways to manage the problem.
3
SPEAKER_02
And I actually reached out to them and spoke to them.
3
SPEAKER_02
And going forward, they ve agreed to deal with the problem in a different way.
3
SPEAKER_02
So actually, they were open.
3
SPEAKER_02
So I think a lot of times beavers suffer just because people don t think it out.
3
SPEAKER_02
You know, it s not necessarily bad intentions.
3
SPEAKER_02
Sometimes it is.
3
SPEAKER_02
But we have a long history of thinking about them as pelts and then pests.
3
SPEAKER_02
We don t really have a long history yet of valuing them for what they can do for us.
3
SPEAKER_01
After talking to me, Lila says she s going to go on a walk to see how the Beavers engineering project is doing, their rebuilding project.
3
SPEAKER_01
She says Beavers have fundamentally changed the way she views our relationship with the natural world, and how she views the United States, and she hopes that with her book, others will start seeing Beavers in a new light too, certainly more than a Bucky s logo, or an old toothpaste commercial.
3
SPEAKER_02
So the beavers that I m watching restore this section of the river near my house.
3
SPEAKER_02
It s just incredible what they re doing.
3
SPEAKER_02
Now when I watch them, I m just in a state of awe.
3
SPEAKER_02
I love beavers now.
3
SPEAKER_01
There s some amazing aerial photographs of areas in America that have been taken out by wildfires, and there ll be all this burnt out area, and then there ll be an area that has beavers in it, and it s just lush, green forest that s still there.
3
SPEAKER_01
Wow.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, like they re this amazing fire blocker and that s something I d never ever thought about.
3
SPEAKER_03
Never.
3
SPEAKER_03
Oh my god, they are so underappreciated.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, they are.
3
SPEAKER_01
So Beaverland s her book.
3
SPEAKER_01
I haven t been this enthusiastic about a book in so long.
3
SPEAKER_01
I didn t give a shit about beavers.
3
SPEAKER_01
I read Beaverland and I m like, holy mac.
3
SPEAKER_01
What I ve talked about I feel like is about 5% of cool beaver shit.
3
SPEAKER_03
That is really fascinating.
3
SPEAKER_01
Also, you did a little gasp at the description of a fatty beaver tail, because it is kind of disgusting.
3
SPEAKER_01
Apparently boiled beaver tail, which I don t encourage anyone to do, tastes like cod.
3
SPEAKER_03
Oh.
3
SPEAKER_01
And Catholics used to eat the paws and tail every Friday.
3
SPEAKER_01
Oh my god.
3
SPEAKER_01
That s a little fun fact for you.
3
SPEAKER_00
An update on Jacob Astor.
3
SPEAKER_03
Okay.
3
SPEAKER_00
So it was his great-grandson that died in the Titanic.
3
SPEAKER_00
But he was the richest man on the Titanic.
3
SPEAKER_00
So that money came.
3
SPEAKER_00
It came right through.
3
SPEAKER_00
Very generational.
3
SPEAKER_03
Yes.
3
SPEAKER_01
So when they made the movie, maybe that could be the end.
3
SPEAKER_01
There s a scene of him drowning on the Titanic and he s like, oh man, I wish I d spent more time with my great grandpa.
3
SPEAKER_01
And then it flashes back and the story pivots and it s about the making of America s first multimillionaire.
3
SPEAKER_03
Wow.
3
SPEAKER_03
OK, so we re going to have to take back that that was the best thing you ever said.
3
SPEAKER_01
It s the worst thing you ever said.
3
SPEAKER_01
No, it s still really good.
3
SPEAKER_01
I mean, I couldn t believe it.
3
SPEAKER_03
Wow.
3
SPEAKER_03
Well, first of all, while we were recording, you said you wanted to fuck a beaver.
3
SPEAKER_03
And I just want to out you for that.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, I was just, I guess I was hot.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, there was a part in the documentary where I sounded a bit horny for the beaver.
3
SPEAKER_01
Also, there was a beaver researcher who got really ignored at the time, but scientists are now looking at her findings and going, Oh, you are probably right.
3
SPEAKER_01
Dorothy Richards.
3
SPEAKER_01
In the 1930s, she founded the first beaver sanctuary and she lived with 15 beavers in the house.
3
SPEAKER_01
And there are like amazing photos of her at her dining room table.
3
SPEAKER_01
I don t recommend doing this today.
3
SPEAKER_01
And she d be eating her dinner at one end of the table.
3
SPEAKER_01
And this beaver would be sitting on a chair, eating their dinner at her table.
3
SPEAKER_03
Do they bite?
3
SPEAKER_01
Look, I don t know.
3
SPEAKER_01
I mean, they do bite trees.
3
SPEAKER_01
I think if you probably like shoved your hand into a beaver lodge.
3
SPEAKER_03
Oh God, David Farrier style.
3
SPEAKER_01
Just to give them a little scratch.
3
SPEAKER_03
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_01
I think they would absolutely bite you.
3
SPEAKER_03
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_01
Also find that fact about the babies having more air and oxygen in their blood.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yes.
3
SPEAKER_01
To keep them buoyant.
3
SPEAKER_01
The beaver lodge is in the dam and it s completely dry.
3
SPEAKER_01
But to exit, you ve got to dive down through the water.
3
SPEAKER_03
Right.
3
SPEAKER_01
And they try and do that and they ll just be floating, which is so frigging cute.
3
SPEAKER_03
It s so cute and so smart evolution.
4
SPEAKER_01
I mean, I m pretty angry right now because I don t think beavers were on the sentientanimals.org list.
4
SPEAKER_00
Seriously?
4
SPEAKER_01
I don t think so.
4
SPEAKER_01
And they should have been.
4
SPEAKER_01
Definitely on that list.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, like number one.
4
SPEAKER_00
There are so many amazing facts about them.
4
SPEAKER_00
I m just surprised none of us have sort of clocked it.
4
SPEAKER_00
I mean, I saw nature documentaries, they build dams and you re kind of like, that s amazing, but you don t really think about it anymore.
4
SPEAKER_00
But yeah, they re also the best conservationists on the planet, but we just don t realize that.
4
SPEAKER_01
Stereotypes.
4
SPEAKER_01
Well, I very much enjoyed this.
4
SPEAKER_01
I learned a lot.
4
SPEAKER_01
Great.
4
SPEAKER_01
I m at 95.
4
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_01
No, I m at 100.
4
SPEAKER_01
I ll give it to you.
4
SPEAKER_00
The shit about how New York real estate, that great big fucking library wouldn t exist without a beaver, insane.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, that is really cool.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yay.
4
SPEAKER_01
Yay, you did it.
4
SPEAKER_00
Thank you.
4
SPEAKER_00
I feel like I ve come much more American than I have.
4
SPEAKER_00
I ve been going backwards a little bit lately.
4
SPEAKER_00
I think I m on the up.
4
SPEAKER_01
I do too.
4
SPEAKER_01
Thank you.
4
SPEAKER_01
You re at 4.8.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I don t want to fuck a beef, I was just trying to be funny.
4
SPEAKER_00
I don t.
4
SPEAKER_01
Okay, you said it.
4
SPEAKER_00
That would be illegal.
4
SPEAKER_00
I know.
4
SPEAKER_00
Not in Florida though.
4
SPEAKER_01
Ding, ding, ding.
4
SPEAKER_01
All right.
4
SPEAKER_01
Okay.
4
SPEAKER_01
Bye.