Endless Thread - Stick Nation

Episode Date: December 6, 2024

Anyone who has been a kid before knows that there are few joys in life like finding a really cool stick. That is the basis of Official Stick Reviews, a viral account on Instagram that has amassed 2.5 million followers in just a year and a half. But what is it about sticks that inspires this universal enthusiasm? In this episode, Amory and Ben join producer Frannie Monahan for a walk in the woods to look for answers, and some sticks of their own. Show notes: Official Stick Reviews (@officialstickreviews) Sticks. And the People Who Love Them. (NYT) Earliest Evidence of Wooden Construction Uncovered (Scientific American) Credits: This episode was produced by Frannie Monahan. Mix and sound design by Paul Vaitkus. It was hosted by Frannie Monahan, Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson.

Support for endless thread comes from Mathworks, creator of MATLAB and Simulink Software, to design and develop engineered systems, accelerating the pace of discovery in engineering and science. Learn more at Mathworks.com. Support for WBUR comes from Is Business Broken, a podcast from the Merotra Institute at Boston University that explores questions like, why is innovation in healthcare so hard? Is ESG just greenwashing? And, of course, is business broken? Listen, wherever you get your podcasts.

WBUR Podcasts, Boston. How are you? What's your dog's name? The other day, Ben and I took a trip to Franklin Park in Boston. We were there so that a human golden retriever, named Ben, could connect with other dogs. We're from WBUR in Boston. Oh, wow.

This is Marty. Marty? We're doing a segment about Stick Nation. Do you know what that is? I'm not sure. Is that to have to do with dogs? It's people reviewing sticks. Oh. Marty, are you part of Stick Nation? Hi, Marty. He's an elderly gentleman. Does Marty like a stick?

That is producer Frannie Monaghan. She is the reason we are today accosting elderly dog gentleman named Marty and asking them how much they like sticks. He's not so into sticks. No, he likes to sniff. He's really into just like... He's part of Sniff Nation. Sniff Nation, absolutely. But it's always adorable when you see a dog with a giant stick like that in their mouth. It's true. It's true. Trying to fit through doorways.

Well, thank you for letting us interrupt your walk. Yeah, no worries. That's a lovely day. It is. Bye, Marty. Bye, Marty. Nice to meet you. Yeah.

Good luck with Sniff Nation, Marty. Yeah. There you go. See? Snicking the microphone. I'm Ben Brock Johnson. I'm Amory Sebertson. And I'm Franny Monaghan. And you're listening to Endless Thread from WBUR in Boston. Today's episode?

Stick Nation. Do you guys understand the assignment for today, what we're doing? I believe it to be we are traversing into the woods to find sticks that catch our eye and make us excited to be alive. Can I look over your shoulder, will you doing the assignment? Because I didn't. I didn't.

I didn't read the assignment. Classic, classic, Ben. You've got most of the assignment down. We're going into the woods, and we are looking for sticks, and we are going to review these sticks. We are doing this because there has been a movement on the internet recently, a community on Instagram called official stick reviews.

They refer to themselves as Stick Nation, and... Substick Nation. Yes, Ben's got that part down. It really does. Hello Stick Nation from the jungle of Aramol, Goa. This is my stick. Hello Stick Nation.

I'm Aowin Sinclair from Hamilton, New Zealand. What's up, St. Nation? I'm here in Dalana in Sweden and this is my stick. Hello, Stick Nation. I'm from Indonesia and look. Look here what I found. A wonderful stick. Looks like a witch stuff.

I'm Dee from Kenya and I want to show you my stick that I found at the beach. Hi guys, hello from Greece. Look at my magic stuff. Hello, Stick Nation. I found this really cool stick at my Granddad's house. Over the last year and a half, there's just been this explosion of folks online going out into the woods, finding sticks and sharing their sticks that they found on the internet for people to kind of like give their own assessment.

Is it always a five-star system? No, not necessarily. Are we following anyone else's criteria other than our own, or it's just, it's five stars. If we say it's five stars as long as we explain thoroughly why. The metrics by which to judge a stick are purely in your heart and in your imagination. Cariability, pointability, nubiness, wizard-wis-wizardness, What else?

I'm usually looking at how well it will burn in a fire pit. That's my... Burnability. Burnability. Yep. That's what I want. Okay. Or a fun shape.

Shapeliness? Shape. Yep. Shapeliness. On Instagram, there's about 2.4 million people who are part of Stig Nation. Officially followers of this account. 2.4 plus 3. Plus the 3 of us.

And they also have a TikTok account, which is where I come in most contact with their content. But if you guys just look at the feed, can you just like describe what you see? There's a lot of different people in very different locations, holding very different sticks of all types. And it's cool because I was watching

some of these earlier today. It feels like it knows no age, knows no gender, knows no nation, actually. Even though it's called Stick Nation, it seems to be a global movement for sure. How did this start Annie? Yeah, so Stick Nation really just started as a bit, as a lot of viral things on the internet do. Its creators are a couple of dudes called Boone Hog and Logan Juggler.

That's extremely surprising. Psych. A couple of dudes with silly names. These are internet names, or these are real names? These are their names as listed in the New York Times. Yeah. Okay. But yeah, so this basically started as a bit. The guys were taking a hike, found a stick. Thought it would be funny to talk about a stick as if you would, like, an antique at an antique show or a dog at a dog show. And then it grew from there. And the internet just, like, took it and ran with it, basically.

Obviously, it's a scythe model. The only thing that's missing for me is this curve, I wish, had a little bit more to it. I'm going to go ahead and rate it about a six out of ten on the tennis and curve. I just really like the shape of it and it's a multi-purpose stick. So I've got a little bit of hand grip in this end. This end we can use for lifting a pot off of the fire. Good for poking at mushrooms and digging in the dirt and holding plants aside. Just a really good loyal stick.

There's a few different ways that people engage. You know, they make their own videos posted online. tag Stick Nation, official stick reviews, the actual account, and they repost or you can submit it on a Google forum. There's a lot of kids who submit videos, I know, so there's like a parental permission aspect of it. And then people in the comments assess the stick for their own and everybody kind of has their own metrics. But I want you guys to look at some of the comments and just sort of like the imaginativeness of them. But here is a stick review. Hello, Stick Nation. This is my coffee stirring stick.

Oh, she's stirring coffee with the stick. She stir the coffee, short and thin and beautiful. Here are some of the... Oh, this is cool. So this commenter, Fezan Cadri, says the name of the stick is the brew whisperer. Rarity, common, but irreplaceable. Type coffee stirring wand. Material, weathered birch.

Origin Nordic Forest. This is a very D&D description, I would say. Dungeons and Dragons description. It also has an aura. The brew whisperer carries a unique aura of calm mornings and crisp forest air. The faint, earthy scent embedded in its fibers adds an unspoken depth to every coffee it stirs. Wow. And stats, wow, it's got stats, balance, five stars, durability, three stars, cozy factor, five stars.

Skill, infusion of serenity. There's a lore written up around the stick. very detailed comment. Someone spent three times as long writing this comment as that woman did finding that stick. Yeah. But for the most part, most comments do just look like, hey, nice stick. Yeah. And like there are some people who are bound to chime in and be like, I don't know if that counts as a stick. I think it may be more of a log. Oh, stick versus log. Stick versus log versus still a live tree that you're chopping down right now versus twig. And some materials out there, you know, I've seen people use a palm front that's like all the way rolled up into a stick-like way.

Or this guy in Antarctica who doesn't have access to any sticks but has a huge icicle and people are like, hey, that counts as a stick, I guess, if it's a stick to you. So it really. Good to support the guy in Antarctica who's stuck in Antarctica. Don't tell that guy his icicle is not a stick. He's on thin ice, so to speak. It's funny that you say that because I was thinking about. you know, if the question is why sticks of all things? Sticks, unless you're in Antarctica, are everywhere.

It's like an equal opportunity thing to review. Because no matter what your socioeconomic status or background is, you can find a stick, usually. But not everyone has to be a part of Stick Nation. They could start rock or cloud or whatever nation. I did look at those Instagram accounts and they don't typically. have more than 10 or 12 followers. But those efforts are there and I think that people should go out and support them. But to this question, why sticks?

I was thinking about this a lot. I feel like a universal experience is like playing with a good stick as a kid. Like people have to be appreciating sticks elsewhere on the internet through time. I did also find the R-Stick subreddit from 2011, which is still active. Posts most days, people sharing sticks pretty much the same stuff and has about 40. 39,000 members. Whoa. I was thinking about this too, coming to this excursion. Like, why sticks? To me, it feels very primordial where it's sort of like, I wonder if you went all the way back. I think about this kind of thing all the time. If you went all the way back,

are sticks the first tool? Like, is that the first thing that like a monkey picked up and was like, I'm going to do something with this stick? Yeah. I was, it more rocks? So I was, I was looking into this little bit because dogs are not the only animal that love sticks. Monkeys also use sticks. Crows use sticks. Anteaters. Anteaters use sticks. They do?

I think so. Okay, fact-checked that one. Narrator, ant eaters do not use sticks. But anyway, if so many creatures of this earth can look at a stick and see a tool, right? We know that early humans were using stone tools, but wood would not last in the same way. And there is some evidence that I did find in a report from the Scientific American that says there is evidence of wood structures that hominids made predating Homo sapiens. So like that's us. So like more ancient ancestors were potentially using wood.

And that makes a lot of sense. Yeah, it does make a lot of sense. And so I just want to connect like this idea of the primordial love of sticks with sticknation and something that. I think is really evident of that is just how creative people get with the descriptions of their stick. People find sticks that look like animals. They find sticks that look like weapons. They find sticks that look like regular tools, a little ladder. I am partial to magical item sticks. I love it when people find a stick that is not shaped like a weapon or associated with a weapon immediately. But that said, the ability to like look at a stick and see anything, I think,

just this return to our roots. I don't, this is not what I wrote. Oh, I returned to our roots. That was not scripted, y'all. Well done, Franny. Cook, keep cooking, Franny. You're barking up the right tree, if you know what I'm saying. Aye, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I feel like you've set up a scavenger hunt for us. Yes, we should go look for some sticks. We need to find a stick that looks like a weapon. I mean, this is a shiv right here. That's very shiby. I could mess someone up with this. Yeah. We need to find,

One that looks like an animal. One that looks like a magical item. A magical. I don't really know what that means, but sure. The leaves. The leaves are going to make us work for it in finding good stick content, I feel like. I think deeper. Deeper.

Deeper. We go deeper into the woods in search of our Stick Nation sticks in a minute. At Radio Lab, we love nothing more than nerding out of. about science, neuroscience, chemistry. But we do also like to get into other kinds of stories. Stories about policing or politics. Country music. Hockey.

Sex. Of bugs. Regardless of whether we're looking at science or not science, we bring a rigorous curiosity to get you the answers. And hopefully make you see the world anew. Radio Lab, adventures on the edge of what we think we know. Wherever you get your podcasts. There is something powerful about the sound of the human,

voice. Beautifully produced audio has the unique power to connect and inspire. Tell your organization's story with a custom podcast from City Space Productions, the Creative Studio from WBUR's business partnerships team. Become a thought leader. Recruit new talent, reach new audiences, whatever your goal, we can help. Discover how the magic is made at WBUR.org slash creative studio. I don't feel like I've found my stick yet. Have you guys? I certainly have not, but I'm holding on to this. Yeah, it's just looking. Just because we encounter any, any ruffians, any pirates try to steal our sticks.

Ruffians. That's such a good word. Yeah. So did I tell you guys, my dad is very partial to a stick. And he and my mom, if they go on walks, even just around the neighborhood, he will pick up sticks as they walk. And he just likes to kind of fiddle with them or break them or, yeah, usually he's breaking them into smaller pieces. But my mom, who is a crafty lady, she sewed a little, a stick quiver for him. Whoa.

Which I don't think he actually uses, but it's adorable because he can take this little quiver to put his sticks in while they walk. That's lovely. Yeah. I just had to stop because there's an interesting site here. Oh, yeah. Where I was going to disturb this, not realizing that it was actually holding up two other sticks. But one thing that I was going to be looking for was a good slingshot. Yeah.

We should break that off. Yeah, is that allowed in stick nation to reshape a stick? No, probably not. I mean, it depends on your school thought. Yeah. Because some people, you know, will judge a stick based on its natureiness, and some people will carve a little design into it. stick. It really the modifications are.

I could break off this part and I would have a pretty good makings for a slings shot, but I'll leave it here. Y sticks are really good for lots of different things. You could also make a bed with Y sticks because you use those as the corners

and then you put sticks inside the Y sticks and then you lay sticks across those cross sticks. That makes sense. Sounds like you've done that before. Now I've just watched a lot of naked and afraid. Okay, onward. Okay.

Franny's got a really good specimen, I would say. Yeah, I think I found my stick, I got to say. I am trying to decide what it is because I see in it at once a thing that struck me was, like, I feel like this looks like some kind of weird bird creature trying to escape. Oh, yeah. Yeah, is it a stick if it's shaped, that's shaped kind of like... This is a stick in my heart, Amory. Oh, that's right.

In your heart. Okay. It's shaped kind of like Sicily or Iceland. It's the meeting of three sticks. Yeah. It is a jointed. It is the joint of a stick. Stick joint. It's very good. It's very wizened. It has some I am Groot vibes. I'm glad you found your stick. I don't think I've quite found mine. Although this, I will say, it is very strong.

Yeah. It's very pointy. But it's just a little too straight. I mean, it looks like a perfect pencil. I don't know, I'm saying that, but I'm falling more and more for this stick as I hold on to it. It was the first stick that caught your eye. My self-defense stick. Yeah, because it's so sharp.

Look at that. And it's really old, I can tell. This has seen some things. This has maybe killed some things, you know? Well, we lost Ben, which is not surprising. That's him? Yeah, that's it. He has something in hand.

I did find this kind of late, straight pine branch. Like you could do a martial art with this. Yeah, the balance is good. Yeah, the balance is good. You could twirl this over your head, you know? And you could throw it. You could whack a fool. Yeah.

Or a ruffian. I'm really, you can focus on rough. This one, I'm just going to hold on to this one. It's got a little curve to it. In some ways, it's a very basic stick. That's a wippy stick. A wippy stick. Yeah, what I would do with that is this.

Can I borrow it? Oh, it didn't work. Too dead. I would do that. Yes, okay, to get a whipping sound. I'm feeling really good right now on this little walk, and it's reminding me that another part of Stick Nation that I really love is like, Every time that one of those videos comes across my feed, I kind of feel like it's a little break from the rest of the world.

It's just like someone in nature sharing something ordinary, like a stick that they have decided is extraordinary. It feels like stick nation is like it's got some like harmless silly going on. And I feel like we all need some harmless silly right now. We really do. And, like, I think one thing that I really like about it is I feel like really overwhelmed a lot of the time. And everything feels really complicated, but sticks aren't complicated. No, Stick Nation's not complicated. I feel like your comment, though, Franny, about how rock nation or these other types of natural things that you might find

and the online presence for those items not being as strong, sort of disproves an inkling that I had that maybe Stick Nation is not really about sticks per se, as much as it is about connecting around something that is, in many ways, the antithesis to the internet and all of the bells and whistles and constant... Constant car alarm beeping and like... Yeah, right. It's something so simple. and so accessible to everyone that reminds us, just go pick up a stick and look at how amazing it is.

Look at how old and pointy and oddly shaped and sun-kissed and weathered and useful and simple it is. Now, I think that's definitely what it is. And I think, like, a part of it that makes me feel really good. Like what Ben was saying earlier is, like, Stick Nation is a country with no borders, you know, And it's a place where disagreements are silly and low stakes. More sticks. Sorry. Please go on.

I keep walking right into them. As one would with a stick potentially. Or a pole or a branch. But yeah, it's something low stakes in a moment where everything is, the stakes have never felt higher, you know. Yeah. Yeah. You mentioned a wizard in a tree, Frannie, and I feel like if we were going to see a wizard,

it would be inside of this tree that is ahead. So I just think we should walk to that tree and poke around for any other sticks. Did you say the wizard tree? I see the wizard. Whoa, the wizard tree. Okay, we're walking up to a tree. The base of it is hollowed out. and there's a stick in there next to the wizard.

Oh. And someone has drawn a wizard painted. It's hard to tell how they did that. Has drawn or painted a wizard's face inside of this tree. And there is a stick in there, although I feel like if I grab that stick, that's like grabbing the chalice or whatever it is in Temple of Doom, and I'm going to set off a gauntlet of things trying to kill us,

so I'm not going to do that. narrator it was not Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom it was not a chalice it was a golden idol at the beginning of Raiders of the lost arc this is very cool this is the wizard of Franklin Park got to take a picture producer Franie monahan thank you for introducing us to the world of stick nation thank you for joining me in stick nation and this beautiful squeaky forest. I'm a little concerned. Mixed to a big squeaky tree. What an end that would be to our Stick Nation episode.

Killed by a stick. Killed by a branch. The sticks come for us. Yeah. No, this was really lovely. We got out of the office. We got into the sunshine. Check.

We found some sticks. Now let's go back to the office, sit in front of our computers, and not talk to each other for the rest of the day. Okay, sounds good. That's going to be hard for me, but I'll try. This episode was produced by Franny Monaghan. It was co-hosted by Frannie Monaghan, Amory Sebertson, and Ben Brock Johnson. It was sound designed by our production manager, Paul Vikas.

Our managing producer is Summit to Joshi. The rest of our team is Dean Russell, Grace Tatter, and Emily Jenkowski. Endless thread is a show about the blurred lines between the classification of sticks versus logs and also Amory's fear of ruffians. If you've got an unsolved mystery, untold history, or an otherwise wild story from the internet, email us at endless thread at WBUR.org. Also, if you want to send us your weird or awesome stick, safe for work, people, we also accept stick picks. See you next week.