The Fascinating History of Dandelions

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Hi, it's Joe Interestine,

host of the spirit daughter podcast, where we talk about astrology, natal charts, and how to step into your most vibrant life. And today, I'm talking with my dear friend, Crystal Williams.

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I'm Bailey Taylor, and this is Icarol. This podcast is all about going deeper with the women shaping culture right now. Yes, we will talk about the style and the success, but we are also talking about the pressure,

the expectations, and the real work behind it all.

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Unless you like to puff the little seeds off of Dandelion, you probably don't think very highly of Dandelions. They're weeds, after all. But what is a weed other than an unloved plant? You know, you might have a different opinion

of these teeth of the lion after hearing this episode. And come to think of it. I feel like we're really laying a bridge of understanding between humans and our garden past with this playlist. So gratifying.

Welcome to Stuff You Should Know,

a production of iHeart Radio. Hey and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's puff ball chuck, and there's blue ball jerry, and I like to call me Mon's head,

and this is Stuff You Should Know. Did you get those references? Uh, sure. Okay, well, we should probably explain them to everybody else, because they probably think it's an in joke,

but it's not at all. Number one, because we're about to share it with you. Number two, it's not really a joke. Number three, those are alternate names for Dandelions. That's right, and we're going to be exalting the Dandelion

from say a lot of times how great we think it is. Yeah, sorry if you hate Dandelions. Yeah, how it's unfairly maligned. And we want to thank Sarah Andrews from Idaho, because Sarah is a listener who sent this in.

Nice, very nice. Thanks a lot, Sarah. Every time I hear Idaho, I'm reminded of that silly t-shirt, that said Idaho, you to ho. Do you remember that one?

I never saw that one. What was that one? There was a company called like Dangerous T-shirts or something like that, and they had like, I mean, they were killing it with the crazy t-shirts for a while, and like the early 2000s.

“Was that like, instead of saying Coke, it would say, you know, Coke?”

Or cocaine? Yeah, yeah, that kind of thing. Yeah, kind of sometimes more original than that, but yeah. They were coveted for a little bit among people who liked incubates and stuff like that. I couldn't name and then give a song, so there's not me.

Okay, so let's get back to Dandelions. I don't know how we ever get off track. It's kind of strange, but it happens from time to time. And it just happened Chuck. So let's stop it from happening right now.

Right, because Dandelions, as you will see, have had a long rich history that we're going to talk about in depth as a medicinal plant, as an edible plant, as a wonderful pollinator. And it was recast as a villain, as a weed to get rid of. But you need only look at the history of the Dandelion.

And the fact that it was brought to North America by colonists to kind of underscore the fact that we wanted the Dandelion here. Right, and it's important to say that they brought it here on purpose. I saw somebody point out, like this, it wasn't, it didn't hit your ride.

recent development, especially compared to how long people valued Dandelions. I just find that fascinating. For sure.

“This thing is about 30 million years old, native in sort of Atlantic Europe,”

all the way to Siberia. And in the northern hemisphere, you're going to know a Dandelion because between March and October, you're going to see these beautiful yellow flowers. You'll see some, what's called a rosette, which are these very short

level ground stems that grow in a circular pattern. And then these little slender green hollow stalks, you know, two to 20 inches, but usually, at least around here, the Dandelions are, I don't know, like, eight inches. Yeah, that seems about right.

That's my experience as well. Yeah. So one of the other really impressive things about the Dandelion is if you look really closely at the flower, each individual petal has a little, what becomes the part of the puff ball when the flower seeds.

It already is attached. And that thing is called the papas. And at the bottom of the papas is the seed.

“And the papas itself is like this, like parachute, essentially,”

that keeps the seed aloft. And research into, I saw a papai, but I like papas as the plural. Ooh, I love papi. So it's found that they're actually phenomenal at keeping the seeds aloft, like they create a kind of vortex that until it was seen when they

started testing papi was thought to be impossible. Yeah. And that vortex and not only makes it, you know, travel up and out in a way in such a way that if it was shaped any differently, it wouldn't do that. But if that little thing lands on water that same vortex is going to

reach x is going to form a little air bubble around it and protect it. Yeah. One of my prize possessions is this, um, uh, dandelion puff ball in encased in resin. And it's like the real deal.

And I've never understood how it worked, but it turns out that if you actually

take a dandelion puff ball and actually not just put water in a book, submerge it in water, the puff ball does not. It doesn't collapse. Isn't that nuts? It's amazing.

I think so too. So that's just one of the many amazing things we're going to reveal. Today on stuff you should know that. Did I wander into the wrong show? No.

Well, we should tell everybody it's 10 a.m. And we usually refer to it as one. So I'm a much different person at 10 a.m. You're a news anchor, apparently. So I mentioned yellow.

They're not always yellow.

They can be orange. They can be white. They can be kind of purply peach. They open in the morning and close in the evening, which is given them the name the Sheppards clock.

And they do that to preserve pollen and keep that pollen safe for the next day, which also makes it. And this is one of my favorite words. A photo nasty. Oh, that's a great word.

Yeah. If plants open and close with the setting and rising of the sun, it's called photo nasty. I saw a, like, a time lapse. I actually wasn't a video. It was just a series of photos of the dandelion flower opening and closing over the course of the day.

I found, I ran across a word from researching this that I'd never heard before that I absolutely love.

Dandelions, like you said, are edible. They're used in cooking. They're culinary plant, which makes them a pot herb. One word, a pot herb. And then awesome. What a great homey little, like I just imagined, you know,

hobbits using that word. Yeah, hobbits in my wife. Oh, does she call a pot herbs you've heard that before?

“Oh, yeah, yeah, she's, I mean, that's what we're talking about.”

Dandelion today and she was just like, oh, are you going to talk about this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this. All right. She's like, oh, the famous pot herb. It's also another kind of clock. You know, already mentioned the Sheppards clock, because opening and closing it,

the sunrise and sunset, but those little seed heads, they're called Dandelion clocks. And that is from the old, you know, you can make a wish when you blow the Dandelion, and you scatter those seeds as sort of a long-rich childhood tradition. But apparently the number of puffs it takes to empty that thing is what time it is. So it can, I haven't tested this out. I don't know if this is rock solid science.

But that's a sort of a thing. Hmm, it's pretty neat. Yeah. And one other thing about those, um, patpuses and the seeds that are attached to them. There's a long-standing, um, I guess kind of urban legend or maybe rural legend,

um, that they can travel up to 100 kilometers, 62 miles.

absolutely everywhere, including some legitimate places, but, um, Kyle helped us with this or British buddy. Um, and he found that a 2003 study, which is the most recent you can find, on this, is that, um, just one in 7,000 pappuses travels more than one kilometer. So just leave 100 kilometers out of the whole equation.

Yeah, and Kyle told us that because he's from England, but, uh, for our North American listeners, we're talking 327 feet, if it's 100 kilometers and about 3.5 feet, uh, 4 meter. Yeah, and apparently 99 and a half percent of all pappuses land just within 30 feet of the parent plant, which is also 10 meters. Um, so, yes, if you ever hear that a pappus can travel 100 kilometers,

you can be like, that's wrong. What you just said is wrong.

“I think like one did and they, they framed that.”

Maybe that's the one you have in Amber. Yeah.

It's like that first dollar bill you make as a business. You put it in the Amber.

Yeah. Uh, there's also a cool adaptation where after they flower, that little hollow stalk that the flower sits upon goes limp on the ground, and is just sort of hiding there away from birds and stuff. And when they ripen up, they jump back up again, and they're like, here we are. That's pretty cool. I think so too.

Do you want to take a break and come back and talk about where they got their name? Let's do it. Hi, this is Joe Winterstein, host of the spirit daughter podcast, where we talk about astrology, natal charts and how to step into your most vibrant life.

And I just sat down with a mini driver. The Irish travel is said when I was 16, you're going to have a terrible time with men. (laughs) After storyteller and unapologetic aquarium visionary.

Aquarius is all about freedom loving and different perspectives. And I find a lot of people with strong placements in Aquarius, like our misunderstood, a son and Venus in Aquarius in her 7th house, spark her unconventional approach to partnership. He really has taught me to embrace people sleeping in different rooms

on different houses and different places, just an embracing of the isness of it. If you're navigating your own transformation or just want a chart-side view into how a leading artist integrates astrology, creativity, and real life,

this episode is a must listen. Listen to the spirit daughter podcast, starting on February 24th on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcast. In 2023, former bachelor star Clayton Eckard,

found himself at the center of a paternity scandal. The family court hearings that followed revealed glaring inconsistencies in her story. This began a years-long court battle to prove the truth.

“You doctor this particular task twice in selling stretch?”

I doctor the test once. It took an army of internet detectives to crack the case. I wanted people to be able to see what their tax dollars were being used for. Some like the greatest disinfectant. They would uncover a disturbing pattern.

Two more men who'd been through the same thing. Break a recipe and I could manage any. My mind was blown. I'm Stephanie Young. This is LoveTrap. Laura Scott's new police.

As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences.

Ladies and gentlemen, breaking news at America, for County as Laura Owens has been indicted on fraud charges. This isn't over until Justice has served in Arizona. Listen to LoveTrap podcast on the iHeart Radio app. Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Bailey Taylor, and this is It Girl. You may know me from my It Girl series. I've done on the streets of New York over the years. Well, I've got good news. I am bringing those interviews and many more to this podcast.

Yes, we will talk about the style and the success. But we are also talking about the pressure, the expectations, and the real work with the women shaping culture right now.

As a woman in the industry, you're always underestimated.

“So you have to work extra hard and you have to push the narrative in a way”

that doesn't compromise who you are in your integrity. You know, I like to say I was kind of like the silent ninja. Each week, I have unfiltered conversations with female founders, creatives and leaders to talk about ambition, visibility, and what it really takes to build something meaningful in the public eye.

Because being an integral isn't about the spotlight. It's about owning it. I think the negatives need to be discussed and they need to be told to people who maybe don't do this every day. Just so they know what's really going on.

I feel like pulling the curtain back is important. Listen to It Girl with Bailey Taylor on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

So Chuck, I've never stopped and considered why it was called that.

“But it turns out that the line at the end is actually a giveaway”

for where the name came from. It's French for Lions Tooth, didn't duly on. Pretty neat. I love that. The reason they call it that is it's a reference to the

deeply serrated jagged leaves. I guess somebody was like, that looks like a Lions Tooth, and they lived in France, and that's where they got the name down at Lion. Yeah, and it's also, if you look at the botanical name,

it really gives a good indication of what it was being used for back then. The genus name is Teraxacum, and there are a couple of explanations here.

I kind of like the second one.

The first one is a Greek word for disorder, which is Attaxia. But it's also could have come from Arabic for bitter herb, which is Teraxiagog. And then when you combine bitter herb with the species name, which is, how'd you say that?

Officially? Officially? I don't know. Officially? That is a word for monastery store room.

So a bitter herb, and a monastery store room, basically is telling you, hey, we use this plant in a very productive way. Yeah, the whole disorder thing is totally insensible if you ask me. Yeah, I agree. So one of the other great things, so humans use dandelions,

as we'll see in a lot of different ways and have for a very long time, but our animal friends love dandelions too. Those flowers, even though they look kind of flimsy, if you think about it, they're rich in nectar, packed with it. So bees butterflies, basically any kind of pollinators, love dandelions.

Like you said, the reason the stalk falls to the ground after flowering and as the seed heads are developing, that's because birds love the little dandelion seeds. And one of the other things that's important about them too, is they basically flower and seed almost around like the whole year,

depending on where you live. So at times where there's not a lot of food sources for birds and pollinators, the dandelions there to kind of keep them going through them, say, you know, late fall.

“Yeah, yeah, and I think it's one of the first guys to get going in the spring too,”

so yeah. So we're going to get more in detail about, you know, how it's been eaten, but actually let's save all that. Let's just tease it then and say, it has long been eaten as now being eaten again, due to the sort of foraging movement happening in the culinary world.

I think that kind of kicked off in COVID, when people are like, well, I can't go to the store. What can I eat that's in my backyard?

I do not know if I can get the right dandelions of always wondering what it tastes like.

Later. So yeah, nice. So I think we said probably a couple of times that people have been using dandelions for all sorts of reasons, not just as potterbs for a long time. One of the earlier mentions we can find was in the Arabic world, a couple of physicians named Razi's in Avasena, both wrote about some of the properties of dandelions and dandelion roots,

back in the 10th and 11th centuries. And most of what they were talking about was it's used as a diuretic, and, additionally speaking, that's probably the most famous property that dandelions have. As they make you pee, and in fact, there's a couple of names that refer to that depending on where you are, four dandelions that refer to the fact that they make you pee, right?

Yeah, that's right. In France, they're called apparently more than they're called dandelion. They're called the pissin' lit, which means, you know, pee pee in the night, and a folk name in England is a pissabed. For the same reason? Yeah, and, you know, apparently it's all the potassium in there that's going to stimulate your nation,

and, you know, because of that, a diuretics are used for a lot of things,

“and, you know, medicinally now and historically, if you want to work something through your system”

and pee it out, dandelions is a good way to make that happen. Yeah, and very famously, in the American Midwest, they're called PP weeds. Oh. That's totally made up. I should say.

Oh, that's not true either. No, I just made it up. Oh, okay. I got you back for the, what was the lateral gene transfer gospel group that you got me with? Oh, geez, I don't even remember now.

It was that.

The score is Josh 3000. Oh, man.

There was a 16th century book too.

What was the name of that one? People call it garden of health because the full title of it is containing the sundry, rare and hidden virtues of all kinds of symbols and plants together with the manner of how they are used and applied in medicine for the health of man's body against diverse diseases and infermities, most common against men gathered by the long experience in industry,

a William Langham practitioner of physics. That's the actual title of that book, which is why there is, like, we're just going to call it garden of health. I mean, garden of health really says what that says. I know.

He didn't need all that. Yeah. That's like the introduction.

“I think he put the introduction in the title.”

Yeah, that's a little did it say the end at the end.

Pretty much. This is from, like I said, the 16th century and it talked a lot about, you know, all kinds of things they thought it could help back then to fake speakers, depression, even baldness. But they also talked about growing it alongside other vegetables and herbs in

the garden and you duck up this kind of cool fact. It's ethylene gas that they release. So if you actually grow dandelions or have dandelions growing near brooding plants like tomatoes, they're going to ripen faster. Yeah.

And that neat, super cool. Yeah. We're going to cover a lot of actually pretty cool little benefits, I guess, that they provide.

But let's keep going with the tradition of using them medicinally.

Shall we? Sure. There's a guy named John Gerard who wrote a book in the 1630s. And he's like, hey, I want to contribute to this too. I've found that dandelions drink things the weak stomach,

and which is important because actually if you use the roots of a dandelion, it contains a lot of inulin, which is an important prebiotic for gut health. So John Gerard wasn't just whistle and dixie. No, not at all. It turns out they have more vitamin A than spinach, more vitamin C than tomatoes.

They've got a ton. We already mentioned potassium, but also a lot of calcium, a lot of iron. And then a lot of words that I can barely pronounce that you've found that it's packed with, starting with flavonoids. That's the only one I've had heard of.

It has tri-terpeens, sesquiterpeens, phenolic acids, sterals, and cumerins. And they bestow things like antibacterial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, hepatoprotective, and anti-tumor properties.

“And you dug up a lot of ways that they actually help health, right?”

Yeah, so we can talk all day about the ways that people thought it would help you back in the 16th century, but people might poo poo something like that. But there have been modern studies. I'll just give you a few examples. There was a study from 2015 in Canada that reported that dandelion extract

can block ultraviolet UVB radiations when applied to the skin. It can also irritate the skin. And so don't necessarily just take dandelions and start rubbing them all over yourself at the pool. Those are who running 16 review of studies from a university in Denmark

that suggests that dandelion extracts actually stimulate its pancreatic cells produce insulin, so it could potentially help control blood sugar, right? And what about those one on the liver, too, right? Yeah, I said it was hepatoprotective, which means it helps the liver and actually it goes in and just kicks butt in your liver.

It slows the progression of fibrosis, which is scarring of the liver. And the extract actually inactivates the cells that cause fibrosis in the liver and essentially your liver, as everybody knows it can regenerate itself, once the dandelion extract is gone in and stop the fibrosis, the liver can heal. So it's incredibly helpful with protecting the liver from damage.

I mean, that's nuts. It's almost like it was designed to do that from the liver. It's that effective. I do want to mention the cancer one because Emily had a very, very Emily line.

“There was a 2020, I mean, what do I do that lately?”

2020, 12, I did that. I did that a lot. Yeah. What is happening? I don't know.

It's a study from the University of Windsor in Canada about dandelion root extract that can induce apoptosis, which is cell death and pancreatic and prostate cancer in test tube and their cells in the test tubes, potentially preventing their spread. So this is something Emily knew in this morning. She was like, yeah, it's so like modern American, the very least,

to take something that could actually help fight cancer and spray chemicals on it to kill it. It caused cancer. Yeah, she stormed out of the room sometimes we have to learn the hard way, but it is,

You know what I mean?

Yeah, I feel like people are getting a little more eyes open to stuff like that.

Yeah, they're getting on board the dandelion train. So one thing about those studies that you, you said, like they're, they're essentially confirming to our modern tastes what the Chinese knew all the way back in 659 CE people like Nicholas Colpepper knew in the 18th century. All these people wrote about this stuff and just how effective it was.

And then now science is going in and saying, these people were right and here's how it is effective. I think that's pretty cool. And apart because of that, the dandelion is being rehabilitated.

“But first I think we need to mention, you said that it came by North America.”

I piped up on purpose, I think more than once even I was so excited about that. And it's possible it was actually on the Mayflower, it arrived that early. And they think that because of plant migration as we talked about before, the dandelion may have spread ahead of Europeans as they entered further and further

into the North American continent.

And so Native Americans that they encountered may have already been using dandelions in some of their medicines. Oh yeah, absolutely. They were drinking it in tonics. They were boiling it with fatty meats, which is just disgusting.

It does. It really does fatty meat. Unless you're talking about something like collards with like ham hawks or something. That sounds okay, but in this case, I imagine a pot of boiling water with a skin of fat just bubbling at the top and some dandelion leaves floating around in it.

And we'll talk about more ways you can eat it, but it's long been used in like corgeals and beers, like the dandelion root. You can grind it up and use it as like a coffee substitute, kind of like Chickery. So, you know, people were using it for medicine. They were using it for old kinds of folk remedies and foods and things.

Largely because again, it was everywhere. It grows in not very good soil. They can it's considered a perennial because they can live well. Well, because like you said, they're going to grow in year round, but they can live for more than 10 years. Yeah.

I don't mess with them. I mean, they can kill them, yeah. Yeah, I think that's pretty cool too. One of the other things I saw, there is a book called The Economic All Housewife from the 1850s

that it might be the first recipe for dandelion wine.

And people still make that today. And it's actually super easy. You just take some dandelion flowers, some water, eventually you add some sugar and some lemon. Let it sit for a couple of weeks. Straighten it out and then let it sit for another week in age.

And you've got yourself some dandelion wine. And it's deliciously easy or maybe easily delicious. One of the two. But I'd love to try.

“Have you ever had dandelion wine or dandelion beer or anything like that?”

No, not at all. I mean, it's definitely thing. Ray Bradbury had a novel called dandelion wine from 1957. So it's something that's been enjoyed all over the world. And France, they use it sometimes.

They'll take the leaves and blanch them and spread them with bread and butter. Like, it sounds like if there's not a Brooklyn restaurant serving dandelion toast at this point. Yeah. And what is happening in our house? I don't know.

It sounds like very toast. Like the Australian love. But with dandelion leaves instead. Yeah. It's also, you know, just a salad, a salad green component.

And like we said, it is very bitter. But it's used in all kinds of salads. Sometimes it's the only kind of leaf used in a salad. Sometimes it can be mixed in with other things. But in France, they have one called a salad de piss and lits from that original name.

That's got bacon in it and dandelion leaves. It just, you know, sounds pretty good to me. Yeah.

“Apparently that was a common dish during the depression in America too because it was just cheap, you know?”

Yeah. Yeah. And it sounds delicious too. I say we take a break and we come back and talk about another surprising use of dandelion that I hadn't heard of until this. But you probably did because of Emily.

No. I delighted her with that fact as well. So we'll be right back. Hi. This is Jill Winterstein, host of The Spirit Dutter podcast where we talk about astrology,

natal charts and how to step into your most vibrant life. And I just sat down with a mini driver. The Irish traveler said when I was 16, you're going to have a terrible time with men. After storyteller and unapologetic aquarium visionary. Aquaries is all about freedom loving and different perspectives.

And I find a lot of people with strong placements and Aquarius like are misunderstood.

He really has taught me to embrace people sleeping in different rooms on different houses and different places.

“But just an embracing of the isness of it.”

Oh, if you're navigating your own transformation or just want a chart side view into how a leading artist integrates astrology, creativity and real life. This episode is a must listen. Listen to the Spirit Dutter podcast starting on February 24th on the iHeart Radio app Apple podcast or wherever you listen to your podcast. In 2023, former Bachelor Star Clayton Eckard found himself at the center of a paternity scandal. The family court hearings that followed revealed glaring inconsistencies in her story.

This began a years-long court battle to prove the truth. Dr. This particular test twice in selling stretch. I doctor the test once. It took an army of internet detectives to crack the case. I wanted people to be able to see what their tax dollars were being used for.

Some like the greatest disinfectant. They would uncover a disturbing pattern. Two more men who'd been through the same thing. Greg Olespie and Michael Marancini. My mind was blown.

I'm Stephanie Young. This is LoveTrap. Laura, Scott State Police. As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences. Ladies and gentlemen, breaking news at America, for County as Laura Owens has been indicted on fraud charges.

This isn't over until Justice has served in Arizona. Listen to LoveTrap podcast on the iHeart Radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Bailey Taylor and this is It Girl. You may know me from my It Girl series. I've done on the streets of New York over the years.

Well, I've got good news. I am bringing those interviews and many more to this podcast. Yes, we will talk about the style and the success. But we are also talking about the pressure, the expectations, and the real work with the women shaping culture right now.

As a woman in the industry, you're always underestimated.

“So you have to work extra hard and you have to push the narrative”

in a way that doesn't compromise who you are in your integrity. You know, I like to say I was kind of like the silent ninja. Each week I have unfiltered conversations with female founders, creatives, and leaders to talk about ambition, visibility, and what it really takes to build something meaningful in the public eye.

Because being in It Girl isn't about the spotlight, it's about owning it. I think the negatives need to be discussed and they need to be told to people who maybe don't do this every day, just so they know what's really going on. I feel like pulling the curtain back is important. Listen to It Girl with Bailey Taylor on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. Okay girl. [music] Alright, so Josh said that he hadn't heard of this cool fact. I hadn't heard of it.

Emily hadn't heard of it. And I think it may be the fact of the podcast. But Dandelions are a source of natural rubber. Pretty cool. I would will stop.

I would take issue with that.

“I think it has to do with the vortices over the papy,”

or the fact that they're potterbs. Alright, this one's good. It's up there.

Maybe they're all tied for first.

I don't know. But hey, that means we got a good topic if they're several competitors. Yeah. And so not just any Dandelion produces rubber, or latex that can be turned into rubber, a specific type of Dandelion.

They figured out the Kazakh Dandelion, which is native to the Eurasian steps. How do you like that? It's also called the Russian Dandelion here in the United States. That specific one puts out enough latex

that it gave rubber trees a run for their money during World War II, which we've talked about many times. America and Britain were like, we need more rubber for the war effort and the Japanese control essentially all of the rubber supply.

Where at war with the Japanese, so we better come up with something else quick. Yeah. So they literally started screening like thousands and thousands of plants. And then I guess they're like, hey,

if the rubber tree can grow rubber, there's got to be something else out there. The Soviets are the ones who said, try this Kazakh Dandelion. Yeah.

And because of shortages during the wars, they said, here, here's a bunch of seeds. And they sent a bunch of those Kazakh seeds, the Soviet allies at the time in the 1940s.

And ultimately we use some of it.

Russians, Americans, and Germans did produce rubber from Dandelions. It's very hardy.

depending on what kind of disease.

“But also grows everywhere and serves as a pollinator.”

And it doesn't deforest things. So the big problem though, and I know where it looks like I'm a guy. It's just the miracle we've all been hoping for with rubber. It just doesn't yield as much as the Russians said it did.

And so it's not economically viable as long as the real rubber tree is right. They released some paper that overstated how much rubber can be gotten from the Dandelion because they wanted to sound like big shots. Yeah. So the reason why we didn't just keep going with Dandelion rubber research

and trying to figure out how to increase yields is because in the meantime, people figured out we could make synthetic rubber from petroleum. It was almost as good as natural rubber. It certainly was a good enough substitute. And we could just make batch after batch after batch,

rather than have to try to yield it from Dandelion. So that fell to the wayside. And then by the time the World War II ended, we had access to natural rubber supplies from the southeast, southeast Asia, I should say.

And so all that kind of put Dandelion rubber on the back shelf. But in the, but 80, almost 100 years, since World War II, I remember when that was just like, that was firmly like 40 to 50 years in the past. And it just keeps getting further and further away.

It's really awful. But we've kind of figured out in the interim that synthetic rubber, it's useful, but there's nothing that can match natural rubber for like grip, heat dissipation, all sorts of other properties. So we're starting to go back to look at sources for natural rubber,

including ones that are more sustainable than the rubber trees,

which require you basically deforest and then plant the rubber trees

to create a plantation with Dandelion. You don't have to do that stuff. No, you got a big field. You can have Dandelions. And like I said, it grows.

And you didn't have to be great soil. You can grow it hydroponically without soil at all. You can grow it in the air, which is aeroponically.

“It's pretty amazing. And I think it's one of the things where like,”

anytime you have a monoculture plant like that, like the rubber tree, it makes people a little bit nervous. Besides a deforestation, like if anything ever happened, like some kind of weird blight and the rubber trees were just not a candidate anymore.

You got Dandelions kind of waiting on deck with their bat. Right. So it's kind of surprising that it went from this really prized plant in so many ways to a heated weed, especially in Europe in the United States.

And you hit upon why it became a heated weed. Use the word monoculture. And the largest monoculture here in the United States are people's lawns. And for part of the aesthetic of the lawn,

you cannot have Dandelions breaking up that perfect, unbroken sea of green grass. You got a Dandelion popping up.

All things ruined basically.

That's the way people think of Dandelions and lawns these days or have since about the 50s essentially. That beautiful yellow flower. Stop it. Dig it up.

But yeah, that's what happened. We've gone over this before, but just sort of as a quick overview. This is the kind of thing that came over from England starting in the 17th century is when British aristocracy really started to get into these perfect sort of

croquet-playing lawns. I guess it's what you would call them. And then in America, it was post-World War II when suburbanization really took hold. Lawnmores really came into their own.

Everyone was like, hey, we've got these great new chemicals that will kill everything except and make the grass grow really, really well. And it's just modern and tidy and good looking. That really kind of transformed the United States. Keep up that lawn.

“Make a perfect green lawn if you want to keep your property value up.”

Right, that's a big one. Kyle also dug up another reason, too, that once the Cold War rolled around, conformity was equated with safety. So if you weren't keeping your lawn trimmed like everybody else,

what's going on with you, you're making me feel a little bit nervous because you're not conforming, you must be a red spy

hiding out in suburbia, basically.

And I think that's a really important kind of overlooked driver for things like perfectly manicured lawns and everybody having the same kind of thing. Yeah, and speaking of driver, the other, I don't think we've ever mentioned contributor to this.

It was in the 1950s, golf started being televised. In 1957, you got golf on television for the first time and people look at Augusta National in these golf courses

to the eye and they were like, hey, I can need to get some of that in my front yard. Maybe I can practice chip and some balls around in my front yard. Also, if you're sitting there thinking like, wow, I really love hearing these guys talk about grass,

but I'd love to hear them have a dispute over it.

“You should go listen to how our grass works episode.”

It's actually a pretty good, it's a classic stuff you should know episode. It totally is, but anyway, all that preamble about us poopoing lawns and why America did that brought us to this, which is weeds became enemy number one and dandelions were maybe even near the top of that list.

Yeah, there's a lot of reasons why. For all the reasons that they're valuable to pollinateers and other kinds of plants and that they can grow in marginal lands

and basically everywhere is it makes them an enemy

as a weed if you're trying to create a monoculture lawn, right? So they can regenerate from like a one inch section of root, which means that if you cut a dandelion off at the, even below ground level, it's like good, you know, good tripe pal,

but it just sprouts right back up. You have to dig them up. And even after you dig them up, you might not get them. Because one of the things that I didn't know about dandelions is I knew they grew from a tap root.

You have to get that tap root up or else it's just feudal. Yeah. But that tap root can grow depending on the age of the dandelion. Over a dozen feet, meters, four meters into the ground.

Yeah. And that makes it really hard to get rid of. And so if you're like a grounds keeper

for a golf course or something like that,

“you have to really keep up with the dandelions”

because they'll spread really fast and they're really hard to get rid of once you do start trying to get rid of them. Yeah. For sure.

I got to say this last fact from Kyle, because it goes back to the lawns, but this really kind of drives it home about how not great a perfect green lawn is for our society. Those studying 2005,

residential lawns in the United States make up 2% of the land, but require more irrigation than any domestic agricultural crop. I've got one to piggyback on that.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service says that homeowners use up to 10 times more pesticides per acre

than farmers use on their crops.

So we're using this stuff over using it and we're using it on stuff that's not productive land just to keep up with the Joneses so they don't think we're communists spies. Yeah.

You know, I walked Gibson in the mornings and there are the only lawns that he ever would like rubs his face in are the most perfect green ones.

And I know that it's because they have recently been sprayed and he's smells it and it's trying to rub all in that stuff and it drives me bonkers. Yeah. It's like I would love to just let my lawn

and you me too. Just go to like wildflowers, go to weeds. You know, just mow it. You keep it mowed but at a higher height. But yeah, you just let this stuff grow

and we would be completely, we would stick out like a sore throat from the rest of the neighborhood. So much of their neighbors would be mad at us.

“That's how that's how entrenched the idea”

of having a perfect lawn is still in the United States depending on where you live. Yeah, for sure. And like no one around there even does like permaculture and other options besides just letting it grow

wild and crazy. No, it's not. So we definitely draw a line. So we're like, okay, we'll keep up with the lawn to touch the, you know, the shrubbery,

the perennials, the garden essentially, right? But people will hire the same company to like treat their lawn with chemicals to spray their bushes and spray their gardens with chemicals to kill off the bugs.

And then they have to go in and try to recreate this stuff that the bugs are doing for free, the services they're providing because you've killed off the bugs. It's insane to me.

So we definitely don't, don't, we don't cotton the bad. Yeah. There was speaking of bugs. There was a scientific review in 2019 that found that the global massive insects

is falling at a rate of about two and a half percent per year. And Dan Delions is a high high on the list of pollinators, caterpillars love, and munchin' on them, munchin' on them, and all those bees and butterflies love doing their thing on them.

So even, you know, I'm not trying to chain people, but let's say you do like your lawn and everything. Even waiting in the spring, like longer to cut it, even cutting it higher, letting the Dan Delions grow up a little bit before you start whacking them down.

Even that minimal amount will help out a little bit. What's interesting is a non-chemical way

is to let your grass grow longer than you have been,

“like cutting it at a higher, lower height.”

Because as we talked about Dan Delion, leaves are so low-growing that the grass will shade out and out-compete the Dan Delions. So if you really do want to get rid of Dan Delions, but you don't want to use chemicals,

that's a pretty good way to do it from what I've seen. Yeah, totally. Some states have actual programs, just want to Minnesota, a call of lawns to Legumes,

which is a great title. They launched that in 2019 where they just basically incentivize people to say get rid of that lawn, put in flowering plants, put in beds.

You can have a rebate if you have a pollinator, friendly, native wild flower scene at your house. Yeah, I didn't look up the amount, but I would guess at a minimum,

the rebate is worth a million dollars.

That'd be my guess. You think so? A couple other things that I found that Dan Delions, I don't know if you looked at it or not, that they kind of provide services

to the plants growing around them, including grass, because as we mentioned those tap roots, they grow really deep. And as they're growing deep,

they're actually accessing nutrients that other plants around them, again, including grass, the roots of those plants can't reach, because it's too deep,

and it brings those nutrients up towards the surface, and as the Dan Delion dies off, the other plants get to eat those nutrients, that they otherwise wouldn't have had access to, and those same roots also aerate

and loosen compacted dirt too, which makes it easier for the plants around the Dan Delions to grow. Amazing. Is there anything Dan Delions can't do? I don't know.

I mean, they're not super fragrant. No, that's true. They're pretty much useless in that. But they can't grant a child a wish. They sure can, man.

They sure can. I remember doing that so many times. I keep trying to do that with my Dan Delion, puff head in resin, and it's not working.

I don't have anything else, so I'm kind of looking over the list here. I know we were kind of all over the place, but it's just sort of one of those episodes where, it's like, well,

here's a list of 100 amazing things,

and so sometimes those are a little tougher to organize. But they can be pretty fun, too. I had fun at least so much. I did too. And that rubber thing?

You kidding? Since neither one of us has anything else about Dan Delions, and we're going to call it quits on this episode, which means we've just activated listener mail. You know,

no listener mail today, 'cause what we're going to do is something we haven't done in a while is help support and bring some attention to a great cause. Our friends from the Cooperative for Education,

aka CoEd, who's mission it is to break the cycle of poverty, and Guatemala through education, and we've been working with them for 15 years, and we got a new thing coming up with them, right? Yes, we do.

So first, let me just explain, over $1.3 million in contributions have been made to CoEd,

“thanks to our partnership with them at stuff you should know for 15 years.”

That's really good, if you ask me. That's incredible. Which means that 160 kids have been given a huge leg up to escape poverty, and create like break intergenerational poverty,

and create literally like a new life for their entire family from that point on. That's right. You know, we went down there, I guess, 15 years ago,

when they invited us, very early on in stuff you should know, Canon? Yeah. In our history,

and we went down to Guatemala, and those shows we did some shows on that trip and that visit, where we get to actually hear Jerry speak, which is pretty exciting. And they're just great.

We've been working with him ever since, and the fact that the stuff you should know are me is raised $1.3 million for them over the past 15 years is going to be a real proud part of our legacy,

but we have a call to action, right? Yes, so you can join, we're starting to drive, essentially right now. That's right.

You can join the cooperative, which is a program of theirs for $20 a month, and you'll collectively sponsor

“students in the rise youth development program, right?”

That's right. And so it's going to get spread out. You're going to be helping a bunch of kids at once, so you can feel good like five times over with each monthly donation,

and then in 2025, more than 1,100 students will be able to start school in rural Guatemala, which will be their biggest class ever. They need help to make that happen,

which is why we're saying, doing the cooperative. That's right. And as an incentive, if this is for you,

if you set up your gift by Tuesday, December 3rd, then you are signed up for a chance to do a virtual hangout with Josh and I. We do this every year,

around the same time.

It's always a lot of fun.

We hang out with, I don't know,

And they get to just ask us questions

and tell us that we're cooler, dumb, or whatever.

“It's your chance to really hand it to us”

if that's what you're after. Right? Yeah, hopefully don't do that, but sure. I guess if you've given to COVID,

and you deserve to do whatever you want to with. That's right. So just go to cooperative4education.org. That's the word cooperative.

F-O-R education.org/s-y-s-k.

And start giving now. It's a little bit goes a long way down there. Yes. And in the meantime, while you're looking up cooperative

for education.org/s-y-s-k, you can also send us an email. Send it off to [email protected]. [Music]

“Stuff you should know is a production of iHeartRadio.”

For more podcasts, my heart radio, visit the iHeartRadio app. Apple podcasts are wherever you listen to your favorite shows. [Music] Hi.

It's Show Interesting, host of the Spirit Jodder podcast, where we talk about astrology, natal charts, and how to step into your most vibrant life.

And today, I'm talking with my dear friend, Christa Williams. It can change you in the best way possible. Dance with the change, dance with the breakdowns,

the embodiment of Pisces in tuition, with Capricorn power moves.

“Just so I'm like delusionaly proud of my chart.”

Listen to the Spirit Jodder podcast, starting on February 24th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Ready for a different take on Formula One?

Look no further than no grip. A new podcast tackling the culture of motor racing's most coveted series. Join me, Lily Herman, as we dive into the under-explored pockets of F1, including the story of the woman who last participated

in a Formula One race weekend, the recent uptick in F1 romance novels, and plenty of mishab scandals and sagas that have made Formula One a delightful, decadent dumpster fire for more than 75 years.

Listen to no grip on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Bailey Taylor, and this is Icarol. This podcast is all about going deeper

with the women shaping culture right now. Yes, we will talk about the style and the success, but we are also talking about the pressure, the expectations, and the real work behind it all.

As a woman in the industry,

you're always underestimated,

so you have to work extra hard in a way that doesn't compromise who you are in your integrity. You know, I like to say I was kind of like a silent ninja.

Listen to Icarol with Bailey Taylor on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This isn't IHeartPodcast. Guaranteed Human.