Stuff You Should Know - Girl Scouts: More than cookie sellers

Episode Date: May 20, 2021

We put our research to the test and it turns out the Girl Scouts is a great organization. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey, I'm Lance Bass host of the new I heart podcast frosted tips with Lance Bass Do you ever think to yourself? What advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do you've come to the right place because I'm here to help and a different hot sexy teen crush Boyband or each week to guide you through life tell everybody you Everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen. So we'll never ever have to say bye bye bye Listen to frosted tips with the Lance Bass on the I heart radio app Apple podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts I'm Munga Shatikler and it turns out astrology is way more widespread than any of us want to believe you can find in major league Baseball international banks k-pop groups even the White House

But just when I thought I had a handle on this subject something completely Unbelievable happened to me and my whole view on astrology changed whether you're a skeptic or a believer Give me a few minutes because I think your ideas are about to change too Listen to skyline drive on the I heart radio app Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts Welcome to stuff you should know a production of I heart radio Hey and welcome to the podcast, I'm Josh Clark and there's Charles W. Chuck Bryant And there's trooper Jerry Rowland out there somewhere Her scout

Stuff you should know Be prepared. I am Prepared ish. Yeah, I wonder if Jerry. Well, I wonder if Jerry was a girl scout. I Know we didn't get a chance to ask because it's all business with hers. She's just busy busy busy I know she had to leave to go to a meeting but my guess is that What do you think? Well, it's wager. I think yes I think there's actually a one in three chance that she was because Chuck that is the stat the astounding stat That one in every three American adult women were a girl scout at some point in time

Yeah, I think they're currently around the 2.6 million level and It varies between two and a half to three million kind of depending what's going on And I think in recent years, it's numbers have gone down a little bit And they're always trying to get those numbers up So but but what I what I've seen is that it is remarkably steady though It's it hovers around that same that same amount and I've seen that that's the total number of girl scouts I've also seen that that includes the adult volunteers and that at any given time There's about 1.7 million girl scouts active girl scouts in the United States

And that they usually hang in there for about four years is the average length of time Which is pretty good. That was longer than my Boy Scout or Cub Scout run. I can tell you how long was your run. I Think it was here Okay, I had a real problem and a young age of the idea of giving respect to elders just because they were old Like I was like, no, I feel like there's a lot of old jerks out there Who don't really deserve to be treated particularly special? So sure that was my big issue with it The problem is is my dad was the den leader and he decided to be a good role model and stick it out Without you yes, but with me watching TV like in the house at the same time when they were having

Yeah, so the upshot of all this long story short is my dad doesn't really like me, right? That's the upshot of most of your stories My Cub Scouting lasted one meeting That was my tenure because I went to a Cub Scout meeting and I guess I went during The candy drive and literally at the first meeting They were like, here's a bunch of candy. You got to go sell this stuff, right? And I kind of was just like what I don't want to I don't want to do this Like I don't even know what's going on yet. Yeah, I'm not working for you

That's got to be an odd time to jump in feet first, you know, you kind of want to ease into it a little more I guess so but it I didn't do it my and you know, maybe we'll do one on the Boy Scouts at some point too But my nephew Noah who is now a grown adult who is getting married next weekend actually. Oh, hey, congratulations Noah Yeah, Noah and Ellie are getting married, which is great, but he is now an adult college graduate But he scouted he went all the way through and I was sure I always thought that was very cool And that really shows a stick tuativeness whether you're a Boy Scout or a Girl Scout To go all the way through the whole process. He's so Noah is Scott's son, right? Correct. Yes. Yeah, I'm not at all surprised that Noah made it

Eagle Scout because also I'm sure that like when Scott was born they were like just give this guy the Eagle badge now Well, he didn't he didn't Boy Scout either. He didn't need to he was an Eagle Scout by birth Well, and we also you know, my dad raised us camping so he was always just sort of like You guys don't need to do that stuff because we do all that stuff anyway Right, right. Yeah, and plus also there's some dues money. You know what I mean? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that was sort of the thing I think Girl Scouts dues money is 25 dollars annually They do a financial assistance and then you have to pay for some other You know program stuff along the way, but that is a very low fee and we'll get to this

But the reason is low is because those Girl Scouts can print money with those cookies Yeah, I was not familiar with the Girl Scout cookies until I started researching this episode. Oh, man They print money man they make like Four or five hundred million dollars a year off that thing. My friend the gross revenue think last year was $800 million year. I'm sorry in 2019 2020 off here 500 net I think five or six. Okay. Yeah, and that's why those dues are so low because they they actually stay with the local councils Which we'll talk more about that but speaking of Girl Scout cookies. I want to give a shout out

to a couple of troops one in particular troop 1492 because my friend Annabella King is a Girl Scout a junior Girl Scout in that troop and yes, she is the daughter of Yumi's very close friend Weezy and She actually wrote a little bit about what it means to her to be a Girl Scout if I could share a couple of passages I think it really gets the point across I would love to hear it So Annabella says and she's been doing this for years by now She said she's working on her star or her silver award

Which there's bronze silver and gold and these are like very prestigious awards for a Girl Scout to go after So she said she's working on the silver one right now and in parentheses It's something really good to have on your resume by the way That's but she says that Girl Scouts is a great opportunity for greater jobs in life It gives a pathway to pioneering your own business. They train you to be an entrepreneur in the early stages of life And here's that cookie thing selling the cookies is the way they examine your skill and take note of the abilities You may have it is also showing you what real-life situations may be like for example When having a cookie stand out and advertising that you are selling something you have to put in some enthusiasm

You can't just stand there and wait for others to come walking by if interested you have to grab their attention She is an up-and-coming person. She also says that back when she was younger, so she's in the seventh grade She was saying that to her before she was in the scouts that Girl Scouts were just annoying little girls selling cookies and stealing your money But I have to say that is probably what a lot of people think as well But Girl Scouts is something that impacts the community. It brings people together. I love that I've also got a quote from our good friend John Hodgman who was a Girl Scout Uh-huh, and he said a Yale man never talks about the Girl Scouts That's a great like all-purpose quote from Hodgman

Yeah, and you know what that'll that's a joke that'll be lost on many people because it's a callback to our Ivy League episode In 3d that not many people probably even got through because it was in 3d. So yeah, yeah I guess we're seeing Chuck. Yeah, sorry about the 3d episode everybody. We have made sure that that will never ever ever happen again All right, should we go back to the early days of Girl Scouting? We should but while we're at it. I want to give one more shout out to another Girl Scout crew. I'm affiliated with two I want to shout out Troop 17107 that is my niece Mila the movie stars troop. Oh, that's great I like to call it Troop Beverly Hills Is Shelly Long the leader or not Shelly Long? Yeah, Shelly Long and she is actually the leader. Yeah

That's wonderful. Yeah All right, so let's go back in time and congratulations to both of those young ladies for pursuing this because what I learned from researching the Girl Scouts is That it is a pretty great organization. Yeah, they have you know, I tried to dig into controversies and stuff like that But and I'm not disparaging the Boy Scouts. They're great too or Scouts USA But they they have certainly had a little more controversy over the years in the Girl Scouts Well, one of the the reason that the Girl Scouts tend to be controversial is because they're inclusive Yeah, exactly. That's the problem that people have with Girls Scouts. Good. You can't let that other human being in They're a little different than the other human beings in this troop. That's the controversy that comes up typically

Yeah, they have always been more inclusive. I think in the 1950s the Girl Scouts Desegregated and it took all the way to 1975 and a lot of pressure from the NAACP for the Boy Scouts to do so And also of note Chuck is by the time the Boy Scouts fully integrated their troops The Girl Scouts were already on their first African-American president So that's right And progressive from the outset and then even though it took to the 50s. I guess to integrate they were inclusive of girls with disabilities too because the woman who founded the Girl Scouts Juliette Gordon Lowe

She was deaf. She became deaf after an accident So she made sure that girls with disabilities were included from the get-go. That's right And we want to shout out by name Gloria D. Scott first African-American president of the Girl Scouts in 1975 But let's go back in time to Juliette Gordon Lowe who was a southern gal from Savannah Georgia. Yeah No, it sounded like a cross between Andy from the office doing a southern thing and Kevin Spacey in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil Oh boy, that was not good all the way. Yes Juliette Gordon Lowe's from Savannah. She was raised in the south and

You know had it came from I don't think it was like a rich family or anything But a family that was doing well enough to where she got a really good education compared to some of her peers and she ended up getting involved in a marriage that wasn't so great a husband that was An alcoholic and a gambler and a philanderer and their whole Marriage and divorce saga lasted many many years because it was a time where Getting a divorce wasn't super easy and then he had a stroke and she thought she maybe should stay with him But he had a mistress who he left his money to he eventually died during divorce proceedings

but long story short she ended up a widow and Went to London where she had a very fateful meeting at a luncheon party one day with Sir Robert Baden Powell Yes, and this guy is the guy who co-founded the scouts the Boy Scouts and the Girl Guides if you are a At least back in the day if you were a girl scout over in the UK You were a member of the Girl Guides, but they're all affiliated under a single umbrella basically a whole bunch of different scouting groups around the world and at first Juliette Lowe her nickname was Daisy by the way

She was a scout leader a troop leader for Girl Guides over in England But when she moved back to the United States full-time She said I'm gonna set up my own shop basically based on my experience that's there And she set up the the first Girl Scout troop meeting in March of I believe 1912 And it included 18 girls and the first registered Girl Scout was her niece Daisy Gordon who I take it was named after her That's wonderful, and I think they were even called the Girl Guides at first. Oh, is that right? I think so, okay, but I should have had that

Down cold, but I'm pretty sure that I saw that but regardless they either were Girl Scouts initially or became Girl Scouts and You know she just the whole thing appealed to her teaching girls How to be self-sufficient how to know their way around a campfire how to Be meaningful to their community is a lot of community service involved that really all spoke to her and These days you can get involved in the Girl Scouts if you're between 5 and 17 and they are broken down thusly Daisy Scouts, which I guess comes from Juliette's name, right her nickname. Yes Daisy Scouts are the littlest the most adorable I imagine cute

Brownies I never knew that I thought brownies was the first step in so daisies come before brownies Then you have your junior Scouts and then Girl Scouts Rounded out with 11 to 17 year olds and I believe they used to be cadet seniors and ambassadors, but Now those are the names that they take I've seen them referred to still as cadets Ambassador seniors on the Girl Scout site. So okay, so they still use that some I guess so but yeah Once you once you reach a certain age, I guess 11 they lump you in together with all of the older girls That's right. The daisies are five and six like I said, and they meet with a couple of adult leaders They earn pedals learning pedals, which is super super awesome and sweet

I mean this whole thing is overflowing with just you know sugary goodness. Well, yeah, and those pedals too they're based on the ten points of the the Girl Scout law which are things like you know be considerate and caring. So that's a pedal Courageous and strong as a pedal honest and fair Responsible for what you say and do so it's like some pretty great, you know character development from a very young age Yeah, and those ten laws are also represented by the the Girl Scout dime. Isn't that right? Yes, so you can get a free dime just by becoming a Girl Scout because one of the ceremonies is done

The ceremony of the dime and that dime ten cents represents the ten points of the Girl Scout law and the Girl Scouts are like Wait a minute. I just gave you $25 They're like you just learned your first life lesson chump. Welcome to the Scouts But regardless of which group you are on you are earning these pedals these badges these patches in Various ways a lot of times it's by completing a craft project Sometimes an older group may like present the American flag at a professional baseball game Sometimes there's a lot of STEM activity these days. Yes You know it started out sort of with more, you know as as you would think back in the 1930s things like cooking and stuff like that

And I think they still don't shy away from that but these days it's all about STEM and getting girls into science technology engineering and math and And you know, they're doing full-on coding and stuff like that. So they really kind of rolled with the times Yeah, and a lot of that develops over time. So like if you're a daisy, they'll start introducing you to that STEM stuff Where it's like, you know, this is a car draw a picture of a car and it's kind of like Automotive engineering is just the very beginnings of it But then by the time you're like a brownie you're like building prototypes of a car that's of your own design So it starts to progress pretty quickly. And then yeah, coding is a really big one, too

So there's like a foundation of those kind of things But it just gets a little more advanced as the girl goes through the scout ranks Yeah, and I got to say, you know, it really struck me today how brilliant the badge idea is for Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts and Giving kids something to work for and like seeing them through to an end point of a goal So they can earn something because kids really Love to earn a little prize for accomplishing something. It's really meaningful. Yeah They aside from these individual things that they can earn. There are also group service projects for the whole troop

Where they you do a lot of community service They might collect food and clothing for a homeless shelter or they might decorate a nursing home Over holidays and stuff like that and the older they get, you know, the more the more advanced these things are and the more not autonomy necessarily, but Just just the more advanced these projects are that they can bite off. Yeah, and as they get older They're expected to do projects on their own community service projects. They go they do what are called journeys Where they learn about a new thing And they that my friend Annabella says that this past winter or no this coming winter

They'll they will likely buy a bunch of clothes and presents for two or three families who do not have enough money We will then wrap the gifts and someone brings it to that family. This is just great example Sure as they progress and you know by the time they're in that final group of Girl Scouts from 11 to 17 they start to focus on Potential careers and what these girls are interested in and what they might want to do and then steering them toward that whether it's Ecoaction and and environmentally friendly and cleaning up parks and stuff like that. Yes but all of these service projects and all of this stuff is really all about just Building skills as well as building confidence

absolutely absolutely and independence and self-reliance and Also, just kind of being like a generally good person too, you know not self-reliance or independence by taking advantage or Exploiting others weaknesses, but becoming independent and self-reliant while also being like a person of character and somebody you can trust It's important. The second part is important, too. Yeah, that's tech bro camp that you were talking about right Farmer bro camp. Oh boy. Let's take a break on that one and discuss whether we'll even edit that out. No, let's leave it Okay, we'll be right back everybody

Hey, I'm Lance Bass host of the new iHeart podcast frosted tips with Lance Bass The hardest thing can be knowing who to turn to when questions arise or times get tough or you're at the end of the road Ah, okay. I see what you're doing. Do you ever think to yourself? What advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation if you do? You've come to the right place because I'm here to help this. I promise you. Oh god Seriously, I swear and you won't have to send an SOS because I'll be there for you Oh, man, and so my husband Michael. Um, hey, that's me. Yep We know that Michael and a different hot sexy teen crush boy band or each week to guide you through life step by step

Oh, not another one. Mm-hmm kids relationships life in general can get messy You may be thinking this is the story of my life. Just stop now. If so, tell everybody ya Everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen. So we'll never ever have to say bye bye bye Listen to frosted tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app Apple podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts I'm Mangeh Shatikler and to be honest, I don't believe in astrology But from the moment I was born, it's been a part of my life in India It's like smoking you might not smoke But you're gonna get second-hand astrology and lately

I've been wondering if the universe has been trying to tell me to stop running and pay attention Because maybe there is magic in the stars if you're willing to look for it So I rounded up some friends and we dove in and let me tell you it got weird fast Tantric curses major league baseball teams canceled marriages K-pop But just when I thought I had a handle on this sweet and curious show about astrology My whole world can crash down situation doesn't look good. There is risk to father And my whole view on astrology It changed

Whether you're a skeptic or a believer I think your ideas are gonna change too. Listen to skyline drive and the iHeart radio app Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts I'm still laughing at that. That's good. That's a good sign Chuck So Yes, there's a lot of focus on STEM careers now or just even interest in STEM hobbies like coding But there's also like still a very large emphasis on being outdoorsy, you know Which is one of the original things that the Girl Scouts were into back when Juliet Gordon Lowe was The founder and still active and she like poured herself into this by the way

This is like we really breezed past her biography, but she was a very interesting Oh, yeah, very worthwhile human being with very little of that, you know When you're talking about somebody from a hundred years ago, you're like and then Well, let's just kind of glaze over this because she was a proctor for a time No, she was a very progressive person who would fit in quite well today. I think and she she was just a good person but She emphasized things like outdoorsy-ness in addition to you know, learning how to cook and run a home That kind of stuff. So that that whole emphasis is still around today with things like camping

That's still a big part of being a Girl Scout is spending time at camp and spending time outdoors, too Yeah, brownies. I think by the time you were brownie and then a junior and then a full-on Girl Scout You definitely go on camping trips. You go on overnight trips. Sometimes they're at Established camps. Sometimes it's a little more rustic kind of style camping. Yes Sometimes the scout leaders can kind of bite off all of their responsibility if they're comfortable with that and sometimes they go To places where they have what's called a core staff who are kind of doing meals and stuff like that There's really no exact set way it can go down But the point is is to get these girls out in the woods

adventuring building campfires rock climbing doing crafts making s'mores Just something that really speaks to me and that I really believe in of course because I grew up doing that stuff And by the way, if you like s'mores like I do I like s'mores anything sure me too You can thank the Girl Scouts for that because they are the ones with the first recorded recipe for s'mores Did they even s'more? Yes back at I don't know if they invented it But they told everybody else about it back in 1927 There was a Girl Scout handbook that had the first printed recipe for s'mores. It was so old-timey. They were called some Mores they wasn't it wasn't turned into a contraction until the

70s. I never knew that's what it's said for I never thought about it. What? I don't know. I just always just call them s'mores and never thought about the fact that it was a contraction It stands for some more s'mores. Yeah, because once you have one you want some more. Yes But apparently in this 1927 article it says that while they're called s'mores just one is plenty filling basically I'm paraphrasing I Got a level-up recommendation for your s'more game. Okay, and I'm a s'more traditionalist I don't like to get too fancy, but I have lately started I'll get the the Ghirardelli Dark chocolate caramel squares nice instead of a regular old Hershey

I'll throw one of those dark chocolate caramel s'mores squares in there Yes, and it's really pretty good the addition of the caramel is nice Yeah, basically, and I'm so sorry to the good people of Pennsylvania, but the Hershey chocolate is is Basically anything is a level up from that as long as it's not like the generic store-brand version of chocolate It's not really good chocolate to tell you I know I know there's so much better chocolate out there especially if you travel eastward across the Atlantic all The chocolate over there is amazing and then if you keep going east and you hit Japan all of their chocolate is amazing

And then you come back around you're like, oh We're back to Hershey again Although you hit Ghirardelli square first and then you keep going eastward and you hit Pennsylvania and things get sad Is Japan has good chocolate. Oh, yes, Meiji chocolate products They make a chocolate covered almonds chocolate covered macadamia nuts and you can get them here in the States Just I'll get you some and you can thank me forever. Okay. Oh by the way I should tell everyone you you very sweetly sent a postcard to me With the Fred Rogers stamp and here to start your stamp collection. Yes. Yeah, I'm glad I got it man

We should also mention quickly that if you do not have a Girl Scout troop near you or if you just would rather freestyle it You can become a Juliet named after Juliet obviously and that is just sort of a it seems like in something you do on your own Maybe with your parents help you can still earn badges and stuff like that right and just pay a smaller fee But you're not I think officially part of a troop No, but you're part of a council and so we we should we should say that the Girl Scout organizations are divided into councils Which I think there's by my count literally I counted I went on the Wikipedia page and counted all the councils And it's like a hundred and thirty

Can't believe I didn't write down the exact number after going to that trouble But it's like a hundred and thirty councils around the United States that includes like Puerto Rico And a couple of other areas, but there's a hundred and thirty councils and then the councils are further divided into troops and The I don't remember what you said that made me think about to start talking about councils and troops the Juliet's Oh, yes But if you're a Juliet if you're basically a solo Girl Scout you can do all the same things that a Girl Scout does with an adult mentor But remember of the council you're just not a member of a troop but like when the troops get together for like a jamboree or

They go to camp you might be affiliated with the troop or something You're just you've lived too far away to go to like the weekly meetings basically But and boy, I hope those Girl Scouts are nice to those Juliet's I hope so too It kind of made my stomach a little upset thinking about yeah, what am I feeling like for Juliet I was thinking that a Juliet that takes a leadership position at like a council meeting or something like that Deserves like double the patches because you know, you could really easily be like a shrinking violet in the situation like that I know I would you have like that kind of like tenacity and self-confidence to to you know be yourself in

Front of a group that like hangs out with one another every week It seems like you know hats off to the Juliet's I guess is what I'm saying Yeah, I like the idea of Josh Clark going around the country to these meetings and just saying Raise your hand if you're a Juliet Double that girl's patches and there everyone's like who is this guy? Who is that dude? I don't think he's allowed here. Yeah, I Didn't actually see that are there is it exclusively female leadership as far as the troops go or can dads do it? I was reading a handbook by the River Valley Council

I'm not quite sure what what area they are in charge of but They had a handy handbook about you can be a male Girl Scout leader That's great. You can you can rely on the fact that there will always be a female Co-leader present right with you. They would never leave you alone with the girls. Yeah, that's good I wasn't sure but I figured there are plenty of dads who would want to be involved, especially if you're a single father You wouldn't want to be shut out of something like that that kind of fun activity That's great. Yeah, they're so well known for being inclusive that they're like no, we can do this. There's there's a way to do this, you know That's great. They wear their these days and I think for a long time. They have their

Uniform which I think it used to be more of a full uniform kind of head to toe And now you kind of wear your regular clothes and you might have a sash or a vest or something or scorts as this house Stuff works That's such an ugly word to hear but seeing it written down. It's even worse somehow It is there was one other thing. I'm sorry I want to give another shout out to a different sentence in this how stuff works article because it is so like 2010 era how stuff works So that it's talking about how one of the traditions of Girl Scouting is to take ashes from a campfire and save it until the next

Time you build a fire and then you put those ashes in that fire So there's this continuous kind of chain of fires no matter where you build the fires or when and then it says If more than one scout collects ashes, they're pooled before adding them to the campfire As if there anyone would have even thought about what might happen if more than one scout collected ashes as if they would say no No, no, no, don't do that is much more good-looking and popular than you your ashes are you just dump them on the ground right now We're going to put only Jenny's ashes in yeah, we don't want your garbage ashes I know I mean that was us. Yeah, I don't I might have written this You did I don't think I did I don't think I did either so

speaking of inclusivity the Latina population by 2031 in three girls in the United States will be Latina and It is a really growing population in the Girl Scouts of America recognized this they've created Spanish language website They have bilingual camps. They try to incorporate some of the the culture into their meetings and in I think from 2011 to 2016 Anna Maria Chavez has served as the CEO as the first woman of color and Today that is Judith baddie who was the CEO who was the first African-American woman She is a former scout herself from Nassau County, New York

Which is just great and I think a lot of times if you scouted when you were young you grow up and Try and pass along that tradition to your children and at least try to get them involved and then serve as a scout leader Yeah, I think some some really high number like 25% of former Girl Scouts end up volunteering for scouts when they have kids That's right And then you said that Judith baddie was the first African-American CEO People are probably like what a minute you guys mentioned a woman named Gloria back in the 70s She was the first African-American president Relatively new position for Girl Scouts. I think in the 21st century it was created

Can we talk about these cookies? Have we taken a second break yet? No, we should take a second break because I need to go gather some cookies to fortify myself before we start talking about cookies for like 10 minutes All right, go get a cookie everybody Hey, I'm Lance Bass host of the new I hard podcast frosted tips with Lance Bass The hardest thing can be knowing who to turn to when questions arise or times get tough or you're at the end of the road Okay, I see what you're doing. Do you ever think to yourself what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this Situation if you do you've come to the right place because I'm here to help this I promise you Oh, God, seriously, I swear and you won't have to send an SOS because I'll be there for you

Oh, man, and so my husband Michael. Um, hey, that's me. Yep We know that Michael and a different hot sexy teen crush boy band or each week to guide you through life step by step Oh, not another one kids relationships life in general can get messy You may be thinking this is the story of my life. Just stop now. If so, tell everybody yeah Everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen. So we'll never ever have to say bye. Bye. Bye Listen to frosted tips with Lance Bass on the I heart radio app Apple podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts I'm Mangeh Shatikler and to be honest, I don't believe in astrology, but from the moment I was born It's been a part of my life in India. It's like smoking you might not smoke

But you're gonna get second-hand astrology and lately I've been wondering if the universe has been trying to tell me to stop running and pay attention Because maybe there is magic in the stars if you're willing to look for it So I rounded up some friends and we dove in and let me tell you it got weird fast Tantric curses major league baseball teams canceled marriages K-pop But just when I thought I had a handle on this sweet and curious show about astrology My whole world came crashing down situation doesn't look good. There is risk to father And my whole view on astrology

It changed Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, I think your ideas are gonna change too Listen to skyline drive in the iHeart Radio app Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts Okay, I'm ready cookie time like you said 800 million in sales I have from 2018. What and it was about the same in 2019. I think yeah, my friend That is more than Oreo generates in a given year. That's amazing and this idea goes way way back in 1917 a Girl Scout troop bake some cookies

Troop from Muskogee, Oklahoma shout out the high school cafeteria as their service project and then in 1922 in their Publication the American girl they gave out the recipe and they basically said right away Hey, listen, we're gonna make some money off these because they're crazy for these You can make six or seven dozen of these for a little more than a quarter up to 35 cents And we're gonna sell them for that amount per dozen. Yeah, and they were like this is how we're gonna fund our organizations and People loved them. I mean it's become a part of American tradition is the Girl Scout cookie drive Because that's the only place you can get these exact cookies and people love them including me

Yeah, so yeah, they're good cookies, of course obviously without question The tag alongs are the best of the best by far. That is my number two. Oh, you're kidding. What is number one? The dosy dough is my favorite, which is the peanut butter sandwich. I I always find those hard to find are they are they out every year? Yeah, they're the Third most popular. Maybe I'm just like no, I'm set on the tag alongs and I've always skipped over the dosy Does I'll have to try those those are your number one, huh? Number one is a dosy a dosy dough tag along is my number two and then I will rock a Samoa even though I'm not the biggest coconut fan. I will still rock up Samoa. Okay, so one of the things you'll see about Samoa's which were introduced in

1974 by the way They are Frequently called caramel delights depending on where in the country you are because there are two bakeries in the in the country In the world, I guess that are licensed to make Girl Scout cookies every year and depending on the bakery They're either producing caramel delights or Samoas and I guess the bakery decides what they want to call them and people will say That's the only difference. Those people are liars liars liars There is actually a very big difference between Samoas and Carmel delights Samoas are made with dark chocolate Carmel delights are made with milk chocolate, which means having only ever had Samoas

I have not truly lived yet because I can imagine a Samoa with milk chocolate rather than dark chocolate is probably Exponentially better unless the milk chocolate they use as Hershey's. Oh, you would rather have the milk chocolate. Yes Oh interesting. Yeah, totally. You're a dark chocolate guy, huh? I mean, I like all chocolate. I'm a chocolate lover, but I do like dark chocolate I've developed a real taste for it in the past 15 or years or so. Okay. Yeah, I mean like I would I just wouldn't even go near it When I was a kid I think cuz I ate some bakers chocolate once And like I learned a harsh lesson even though it was the wrong lesson Um, but yeah, I think it's an adult thing like you don't like scotch when you're eight

But you love scotch when you're 30, you know. Yeah when you're eight you're totally a beer person. Sure. I Think by popularity thin mints are Lead the way with 25% of sales Samoas are number two at 19% dosy does or number three at 16 and then tag alongs come in at 13 And then you've got your your tree foils at number seven or I'm sorry with seven percent And those are the shortbread cookies, but they're still such a staple that I believe tree foils are one of the Leading ones in production at least So tree foil or trefoil if you've ever wondered what that means that's actually foil

It's it's I think both work, man. Okay, the the that I was just gently trying to put out the alternate print. Yeah, so It's actually referring to the shape of the cookie and remember we talked about in the adidas versus Puma episode The adidas logo is a trefoil and has three lobes Well that that three lobes shape it actually looks like four But the bottom one's supposed to be kind of like a point It refers to a clover that was part of the original logo for the Girl Scout cookies That was turned into it was kind of blown up and really kind of turned into this minimalist icon by a very famous and incredibly prolific

Logo designer named Saul Bass. Oh, yeah, he did the Hitchcock posters Oh, he did everything opening credits. He did the shining poster the very famous the shining poster Mm-hmm. He did Minolta, Warner Brothers, Kleenex, Dixie Cup, the Hanna-Barbera Star, AT&T, United Way I mean basically everything and one of the signature things about Saul Bass's logos is The ones that he created in the 70s are still in use today Like they may have, you know, made them like three-dimensional or change the color slightly But it's basically the same thing that guy was that good But he came up with this

this this new updated trefoil version of the Girl Scout logo back in 1979 and they're still using it today and if you look closely it is the the three-lobed clover That was part of the original logo makes up the hair of the girls and there's three girls The middle one is a girl of color the other two are white and they're all smiling and looking to the right toward the future Which is pretty cool if you think about it. I love that. I got one something. I want to play for you real quick. Okay Trefoil. All right I'm sure I could find one that's a truck foil. Go find one then. I'll give you a minute. I'll find a robot that says truck foil You'll build a robot. I know you you won't be defeated

So there I was looking at one other thing about cookies real quick I was looking at the At like all of the cookies they ever came out with and there were not a bunch that I was said to miss But I did see two that escaped my attention that I wish I had eaten one were apple cinnamon's It was out from 1997 to 2001. Don't that sound good? Love apple cinnamon and then another one were Savannah smiles Which I just missed because I wasn't paying attention But they are lemon coolers that were out from 2012 to 2019

So if we have any clout with the Girl Scouts whatsoever after this episode I want to put in a personal request to bring back apple cinnamon's yeah bring back Savannah smiles And what if they just sent you a VHS copy of the movie Savannah smiles from 1980 something I be okay ish with it Here's the kind of neat thing about the Girl Scout cookie drive is they can earn Badges the cookie connection badges cookie biz badges dough charms they can earn things, but it's not by Selling the most which is what happens at farm a bro camp like the biggest markup and the most sales is what gets you your badges there it is for

Setting a goal and accomplishing that goal whatever it is It could be for making a really great advertisement or poster or maybe putting an advertisement in the local paper It could be writing a story about the the sale and getting that published or something There are all kinds of cool ways to earn those cookie badges that don't and I don't think any of them include Well, we sold the most Right. No, it's it's it's the local press that that hops on who sold the most or you know But the Girl Scouts themselves. They're like, yes, we you go out and sell it, but the point is Setting goals reaching goals learning like they have a digital

Like it's basically like sales force But for Girl Scout cookies called digital cookie and these little girls are learning how to like run that kind of stuff It's more of a focus on entrepreneurship than anything else and for a long time I was very critical of Girl Scout cookie drives I wasn't to the level where I was like complaining that like the Girl Scouts had set up on a public sidewalk or That that like there that somebody was selling their kids cookies for him at the office I would never it wasn't to that level or anything like that I but I thought I was under the impression that the Girl Scouts of America was basically

Sell it but sending these kids out to basically send all the money back to the central Like group and that's just another case. Yeah, apparently almost all of it stays with the councils And that money goes back into the local troops that it's really like a self-funding thing And I didn't really fully grasp that and I also didn't realize how inclusive the Girl Scouts were but now I mean like I'm just I'm gonna buy all the cookies all the time. You thought Queen Tag along just sat on her throne of money No, no, no 70% goes to the councils 30% goes back to the bakeries And then about 12 to 17% go to the actual individual troops from the council and that's why those annual dues are so low $25 is you know, most families can swing something like that a year, right?

But they still do have financial assistance if you can't which is which is wonderful. I mean just It's off, you know So the Girl Scouts like we said and again, we're not trying to disparage Boy Scouts But they have always been more inclusive. They have always had policies of non-discrimination from very early on and Like you said some of the controversy comes from people Of a certain political persuasion perhaps that think the Girl Scouts are too independent and feminist oriented and They're run by militants and lesbians and this the worst things that you could possibly say About like a really good about a really great group like this, right in the 70s

They had Betty for Dan our old friend who we've spoken about before Very much a noted feminist she sat on the board of directors, which was a great thing But of course that didn't assuage any fears that it was a feminist organization because that was back when that was a dirty word Now, you know, and are we in the third wave of feminism? I Honestly, don't don't know. I mean the third wave definitely Come about but I don't know if we've reached the fourth or not by now The well, we'll do a show on that at some point and we'll figure out all the waves, but the Girl Scouts have always been behind Supporting

legislation relevant to women stuff like Title IX which we've talked about Which is equal funding for female? sports activities and stuff like that in colleges and It's just always encouraged young girls to be independent and to do their own thing because that's what it takes to succeed in the world And I don't think they tagged that as feminism necessarily But they just said these are great traits to learn so you can be an independent woman in America Or all over the world because they do have troops all over the world We should mention. Yeah, and they're usually like raked over the coals whenever, you know, they they salute or they support

Like a feminist leader a feminist activist often pro-choice activists They're usually one in the same or very often one in the same And so, you know, the the far right will just like go crazy over that and say the Girl Scouts are like this brainwashing machine for producing, you know leftist agenda kids, right? Yeah, and that's just doesn't seem to be the case whatsoever I think really what it is is the

the far right seems to Think of groups like that like the Girl Scouts as Having some sort of agenda and not realizing that the groups like the Girl Scouts like have the values that they have which tend to be counter Far right because mainstream America doesn't share the same values as far right and these are fairly mainstream things like inclusivity equality Female independence like those are pretty mainstream ideas and I

Guess that's all I have to say about that And and for those of you that want to write in note Josh is saying far right. He's not saying all Republicans. It's a big difference Thanks for that. But this is 2021 and 2020 was also basically the beginning of 2021 and that the left jumped all over the Girl Scouts for tweeting out a Congratulations to Amy Comey Barrett for becoming I think the fifth Woman Supreme Court Justice in history. Yeah, that's all that they even like put the other women on there it was like a Twitter card with all of the women Supreme Court Justice's pictures on there, but

Everybody on the left jumped all over them. So I think just like the ACLU if both sides are mad at you You're doing you're right. You're doing everything right then Yeah, the Girl Scouts is a non-religiously affiliated secular group, but they do have the my promise and my faith pin Which they say compliments existing religious kind of recognitions and allows girls to further strengthen the connection between their faith and Girl Scouts and There is the phrase on my honor I will try and serve God in my country, but the official policy now

For the GS USA is that you can swap the word God out if you want and you can just say serve the community or serve others or serve Humanity serve my country or you can just drop it all together if you want again in the spirit of inclusivity You can also it's they also ruled. It's okay to swap out my country for the Socialist agenda Which I mean some people on the far right we're like see see had a problem with that Also that gold award is did you say that your Yumi's friend's daughter is going for that gold award or the silver she is working on her silver I will be surprised if she doesn't go for the gold Well only five point five percent of Girl Scouts who are eligible even get that gold

So it is very prestigious indeed. So let's hope she that she can get there Yeah, let me I want to wrap up with a couple of words from her She said that she got to read one of her essays about Going to see wicked on Broadway on Broadway and she said I can now say that I was literally on Broadway Ha ha she said I didn't win the competition But out of all the girls who submitted their essays I got in that trip will stay with me forever It is these small moments that will stay in my mind forever girl scouts will always stay with you You make friends and you learn new things in life. It is so fun and amazing

amazing amazing And I guess my last thing is I want to shout out some famous girl scouts. I was listening to the podcast the other day with Jason Bateman and Shawn Hayes and Smart learn it smart less and they had Amy Cedariss on who is Is one of my favorite humans and she was talking about being a girl scout, which is no surprise So Amy Cedariss is a veteran and by the way one great Instagram follow if you don't follow her Sally ride Venus Williams Carrie Fisher. Yeah

Hillary Clinton Michelle Obama Taylor Swift Nancy Reagan Gloria Steinem Lucille Ball Natalie Merchant Martha Stewart Cheryl Crow Katie Couric Laura Bush Dakota Fanning and many many many more Yeah, you and I saw the same good housekeeping slideshow apparently No, it took so long to get there. Did you say Natalie Merchant? She's got to get a shout out. Yeah, she was in there Okay, good. I used to be a big 10,000 maniacs fan. How could you not be? I'll bet they're one of those bands where if you went back and listen to him now You'd be like what they're even better than I liked or than I realized back then. I still listen. Okay

Well, there's a little tip for all you girl scouts out there and boy scouts, too Don't be shy start listening to 10,000 maniacs and see what you think agreed and thank you very much to our special guest Annabella from troop 1492 in Maryland. I hope we earned you a badge of some sort for this double her badges. I say Double the badges stranger. I said double the badges. It's time for listener mail This is Kiva plug, you know, many many many years ago. I think we started our team in 2007 I'm looking now. Yes, it was okay. Oh, no, no 2009 We started a Kiva team and for those who you don't know Kiva is a microlending website

They are not perfect, but they do a pretty good job Where you can donate some very small amounts of money to entrepreneurs and developing nations and all over the world that not even developing nations exclusively anymore To help people out give them a leg up and it's called microlending because ideally they repay this money and most of the loans do get Repaid and we started our team many many years ago and let me read this email first Hey guys Hey guys recently decided to start the catalog from the beginning again Nice and reach the 2009 episode who are the first Americans where we plug the Kiva team for the first time

I thought it'd be a good enough reason to write in and request that you plug the team again Because it's been a while there may be a lot of new listeners who discovered the podcast since since then and aren't aware of the Kiva team And this is from Lee Rondorf in Minnesota. So I appreciate the nudge Lee we I am very proud to say This is amazing dude. I haven't been to the site in a while. The stuff You should know Kiva team since its inception has loaned 9 points almost 9.3 million dollars 341,000 loans almost 12,000 members and about 30 loans per member that is spectacular that beats my number

I got to tell you it's amazing and I got the reminder that a real loan had about a hundred bucks in there sitting there And my account that's how it works. They'll give you the money back It'll be in your account and then you can go relend that money and I'm still working off that first deposit I made many many years ago. That's nice I've got to go look at my account and and it's been a while I stopped getting those nudge emails because they really work like when they come out like oh, yeah I need to go re-blend that so I got to go check it out and also figure out what why I'm not getting those emails anymore That's right

So we should encourage people to look into Kiva if it's something you feel like you want to support you can start with just a $25 loan to get your account started and Let's let's get this thing well over 10 million Yeah dollars and I meant to tell you to I refreshed our page a little bit I oh nice we had some terrible old picture of us like in the video studio Yeah, I remember that picture. So I updated that with a picture of us that we like to use and I also Just changed the name of the team to stuff you should know and not stuff you should know from house tough works.com Oh, wow Chuck very nice. It's all modern eyes and stream

Well, if you want to join our Kiva team go to Kiva org slash team slash Stuff you should know, right? Yeah, and although it does have underscores between stuff you should know But you can just go search teams for stuff you should know and make sure you do it through our team So we're all collected together. It's kind of nice and we don't discriminate whoever you are We're as inclusive as the Girl Scouts are so join up and if you want to send us an email in the meantime We always like to hear from everybody you can send it off to stuff podcast at I heart radio dot com Stuff you should know is a production of I heart radio for more podcasts my heart radio visit the

I heart radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows Hey, I'm Lance Bass host of the new I heart podcast frosted tips with Lance Bass Do you ever think to yourself? What advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands? Give me in this situation if you do you've come to the right place because I'm here to help and a different hot Sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life tell everybody yeah, everybody About my new podcast and make sure to listen So we'll never ever have to say bye. Bye. Bye. Bye Listen to frosted tips with Lance Bass on the I heart radio app Apple podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts

I'm Munga Shatikler and it turns out astrology is way more widespread than any of us want to believe you can find in major league Baseball international banks k-pop groups even the White House But just when I thought I had a handle on this subject something completely Unbelievable happened to me and my whole view on astrology changed whether you're a skeptic or a believer Give me a few minutes because I think your ideas are about to change too Listen to skyline drive on the I heart radio app Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts