Stuff You Should Know - How Whaling Works

Episode Date: April 17, 2012

Despite its embattled status as brutal and illegal, commercial whaling is a tradition that dates back 1,000 years and served as the economic engine of the Industrial Revolution. Join Josh and Chuck as they explore the whaling life then and now. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff stuff that'll piss you off Cops, are they just like looting? Have they just like pillaging they just have way better names for what they call like what we would call a jack move or be in Rob they call civil acid Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart radio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast I'm Langston Kermit sometimes. I'm on TV. I'm David boring I'm probably on TV right now David and I are going to take a deep dive every week into the most exciting groundbreaking and sometimes problematic black conspiracy theories

We've had amazing past notable guests like Brandon Kyle Goodman Sam J. Quinta Brunson and so many more New episodes around every Tuesday many episodes out on Thursdays where we answer you the listeners conspiracy theories Listen to my mama told me on the iHeart radio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff? You should know from how stuff works calm Hey and welcome to the podcast I'm Josh Clark. I can't believe we're doing this again. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant doing what again? Yes, the show. Yeah. Well, did you think we were done? I'm so tired. Are you so tired? I'm discouraged to know that you hate Tom Petty. Oh, I hate him

Mr. Petty, I'm sure you're a genuinely nice guy, but I can't stand your music. Oh, I love Tom Petty That's great. I hope you love him enough for both of us. I do That's fine. I'm just I'm not surprised because you don't dig a lot of that sort of classic rock stuff That's not true Born and raised 38 special fan, buddy. Are you really? Okay, I like plenty of classic rock except Led Zeppelin DC I don't hate AC DC. I just don't really whatever, you know

Uh, what else don't I like? Wait, let's do this the other way. Here's the classic rock. I do like okay the doors Me you're I just twitched did it. Yeah Jim Morrison does that to me. Um, let's see I guess that's about it the doors. Yeah, I used to like the Grateful Dead as you know, sure, but I don't anymore Well, this has been a scintillating start Do you want to record over this? No, no, I think this is good. So ahoy Chuck ahoy We're gonna be talking like that a lot Like a scurvy sea dogs. Yes, I'm not pirates. It's scurvy sea dogs big difference. Hey That was a Scotsman they've sailed

They definitely did um I have an intro. Let's hear it and it was a gift from you. So thank you for this Oh, the news recently. Yeah, good. Let's talk about that. So the Japanese Or very sad when they came back to Japan from Antarctica and said we only caught 267 whales Which is way less than the 900 we plan to catch this season catch and kill was what you mean. Yeah, yeah They left they left Japan in December and came back very recently At the beginning of March Because whale season was virtually over in Antarctica. Even though there's a couple of weird things here. Yeah

Antarctica is one of the places in the world where whales are protected internationally supposedly and number two Whale hunting's outlawed. This isn't like GB year zero. Yeah, where you can just go and whale commercially, right? Um instead It's 2012 and Japan still managed to kill 267 whales. Yeah now For people who are fans of whales. I'm a fan of whales. Isn't everyone? No, who's like stupid whales. They deserve it. I'm sure whalers

No, I think they just have a you know an industry that they're trying to keep going and I want to clarify When we say whaling mm-hmm, we're talking about whale killing expeditions not whale watching expeditions Just to clarify to people like my wife. Sure so The the Japanese whaling season ended prematurely Right, it packed up their harpoons and went home. Thanks to the efforts of a group known as sea shepherds Then a sea shepherds. Yeah, sea shepherds sell seashells by the seashore. They're a militant They're described as a militant environmental group. Have you seen their boats?

Are they the ones that are painted like death from above style? They have they have the logo Jolly Roger skull and crossbones But the one of the bones is a trident and the other is like a shepherd's hook That's pretty cool But even cooler it's painted on the side of boats that look like batmobiles Yeah, that's the ones I'm saying. Yeah, pretty cool. I believe they have a show on our parent mother company Discovery who keeps us warm in her embrace and suckles us from her teeth whale wars Yeah, that's gotta be it right. Yeah, that's them. I've never seen that

Don't say that I have loved that show. I know every night. Oh, I love that show too and all of its commercial sponsors So they show up they say we're gonna throw our ropes in your propellers and we're gonna launch stink bombs at your boat and To to to thwart your whole operation right in the Japanese retaliated using water cannons Throwing harpoons. Yeah grappling hooks bamboo spears like this in it out out there Yeah, but what's crazy is the sea shepherds? They came out on top. I mean there were at least 600 and change whales that didn't lose their lives this year. Yeah Because and the Japanese said they call them saboteurs not activists. Yeah

But because these they were harassed the whole time. Yeah, so it's working. That's a huge victory. Sure, but Wailing I I'm out there. I'm putting us out there dude because I think for most of our listeners in America There's a lot of sympathy for whales. This is in a wailing country. Although There is Wailing in the US by indigenous groups up Alaska way. Oh really? No, there's still a lot. Are they grandfathered in? Yeah? There's about 300 a year roughly is they take about 300 whales a year or no, I'm sorry less than a hundred I mean, I feel like a jerk saying that's not bad, but compared to the old numbers. That's really not bad

Right, exactly, which we'll get to right. Um, so I think there's a lot of sympathy for whales Yeah, apparently in Japan even the younger generation They're having a hard time talking them into being on board even though Japan which we'll talk about is is skirting some of these laws to continue. Yeah To whale and Japan is a wailing country has been a wailing country since the 17th century. Yeah So yeah, the idea of killing a whale has gotten more and more stomach turning over the year agreed So let's talk about how to do it Okay, uh, should we go the history first? I didn't talk to you about this beforehand like we normally do we

Sometimes we do so we talk we never do Yeah, we can talk about history. I think that's a good idea. Okay. Where did wailing start? It started in Spain and Northwest Spain and Southwest France by the Basques. Well, that's commercial wailing. Oh, well, you're you talking about just Uh, manook of the north out there with this harpoon. Sure. Yeah indigenous folks. Yeah, our sand took of the south. Yeah There's good whale and down an arctic away. What still is yeah But not just them the Norwegians have long been a wailing culture same with the Icelandic Yeah, true Russians and they still

Ice and Iceland in Norway, right? They're still at it. Yeah, Norway not so much these days Oh, really or they're at the very least getting a little more aware All right, so getting back to the Basques the first commercial wailing operations um As early as 1000 ad in the Bay of Biscay And then of course everyone else saw what was going on jumped on board England and uh In North America in the early 1600s

Japan 1675 the u.s. Finally off Nantucket 1712 So this this article kind of skirts over some really big stuff here Like it basically goes from Nantucket to Sven Foyne And when you jump make that jump You leave out the entire golden age of wailing 150 years. Yeah. Yeah, so when you reach Nantucket the You you encounter um, and there's this awesome kim burns like two-part series on um wailing if you're ever interested

Oh, yeah, it's definitely worth checking out. I like Kenny Burns. Um, you'll like this one But uh, Nantucket became like the Wailing capital of the world sure and thereby also became the commercial Engine of the world because wailing and whale oil Uh came about at a time when the industrial revolution hit And whale oil was to the world what fossil fuel oil is today. Yeah pre petroleum. It was petroleum Yeah, like it literally is what the world ran on and what we lit artificially our world with right, that's right so um new bedford specifically and Nantucket or like the what saudi arabia is today

And whales out there in the ocean were basically like Floating pieces of oil rich real estate that anybody with the ship could go claim Is that why that area is so still so uh Dollar heavy probably is that what got them going to begin with I wonder. Oh, definitely Yeah, and from like 1750 to 1850. It was like one of the richest places in the world. Wow. Yeah So you can't quite skip over that. No, it's definitely worth mentioning. That's right those cold, uh Atlantic waters up there Fertile ground for whales. I imagine yeah, and they started out by just um harvesting whales that washed up the shore

But um, that would have been a nice way to just keep it that way It was but then the industrial revolution hit and they're like, oh whale oil really burns well We can make candles out of it, right? If I dab some behind my ears I'll use as a perfume. I'll smell like a stinky whale. Right exactly. Yeah, but it isn't uh Perfume and cosmetics and stuff like that, right? Yeah, it is. I think it probably still isn't some in japan All right, so are we ready for spin? Sure the norwegian pioneer spin foin

Which is a great name He launched the first steam powered whaling ship in 1863 And then invented a little something that really changed everything called the harpoon cannon, which is uh Pretty awful that it not, you know, you harpoon a whale by hand up until that point right and then now all of a sudden you could chew To harpoon with a cannon that would explode Inside the whale, right? Crazy spin foin is pretty much single-handedly the reason why we have such

Depleted and endangered whale stock today And I guess it didn't mess up the whale too much with the explosion and Hopefully it was over because prior to that Um killing a whale is very difficult when you are hand throwing a harpoon, right? Sure. And that's how they did it Yeah, um, so you had a bunch of guys in little tiny boats like all throwing Spears yeah, not necessarily harpoons because the harpoon was used to tow the whale back once it was dead, right? but like a spear And the only way to kill it was to spear it in its gills, right?

So that eventually it was stabbed enough that it would um aspirate and choke on its own blood That's awful and it took a while and it would swim about pretty pretty heavily for a little bit It's called a flurry. Yeah, and then it would just go on its side fin up And that's how you knew the whale was dead and you harpooned it And all the whale boats towed it back to the boat for processing So hopefully it that explosion just killed it immediately, but all but it didn't yeah But at the very least it must not have messed it up for harvesting right processing. Yeah, they're also probably done it Yeah, um, well you mentioned that the threshing about uh, very dangerous job back then

Definitely, I imagine it still is to a certain degree. Sure, but back then on those little boats large whale much larger than your boat Uh, thrashing about it's going to capsize you you could drown You could slip on the boat with the blubber and the blood everywhere Yeah, because I mean well think about this you have a whale ship, right? And that's where like everybody lives and stays Yeah, but to go hunt the whale when you're actually killing the whale you're in a whale boat And that's basically like the size of a rowboat. Yeah, and that's what you're in with with the whale like get off of me Get exactly. Yeah, so lots of dudes died

Uh, and then there's the disease of course going to exotic and gross ports of call Tuberculosis what else yellow fever malaria pretty much I would imagine the whole gambit the whole gambit Everywhere for disease. Yeah scurvy rickets vd All right, let's get real. Yeah um, and like you said Svann had a direct hand in leading to the depletion of the population and

Starting in the early 1900s things really started going south for the whale. Yeah numbers wise Yep, you want to rattle off a few of these? Yeah, so Like this is Sven Foyne everyone. This is Sven Foyne's work. I'd lay this clearly at his feet in 1904 um 184 whales Uh, were killed off of the south atlantic island of south georgia. All right right within 10 years um It jumped to so 184 right within 10 years

Um, just blue whales alone 1738 were killed 4776 fin whales and 21,894 humpbacks were killed in that same area within one decade Yeah, and that's just in that one area and also you you will note that blue whales and fin whales used to be out of the reach of um Any kind of whale ship? Yeah, were they too fast? Yeah. Yeah, and they could outmaneuver and out outrun any ship That was chasing them until Sven Foyne introduced the steam powered whaling, right? So it was just the sperm whales at first. Is that right? Right and sperm whale also by the way is what they were looking for mainly because sperm oil was the

The best oil available burn the cleanest and the brightest and sperm whales also had something called sperm machete Which is like this waxy substance in their head that you could use to cut the whale oil into candles that worked really It was just like the the best stuff. It was also way more valuable than regular whale oil. Yeah How much uh, did they produce ahead this year? Oh, they had like um 25 to 40 barrels And there was like a whale oil per whale per sperm whale. Yeah, and that's like it was 31 and a half gallons. Yeah, so it's I did the math somewhere. Oh 1260 gallons per sperm whale. Yeah, well, and they would use every part of the whale We'll at least give them that it's not like

Shark fin soup where they cut off the shark fin and then dump the shark back in the water They would try to use every part of the whale for sustenance um So I guess we're going back to the beginning again Which is why did they do this to begin with? Yeah, because it couldn't grow veggies in a lot of these places So whale was like what they subsisted on. Yeah, I did on subsisted subsisted on subsided happened after they ran out of whale exactly um

So, you know, it's got a lot of protein iron niacin vitamins a dc Yeah, and that's like good stuff for them right and they figured out early on that they could burn the blubber too Right to light and heat their igloos. Yeah make sleds that would help making sleds and tools Yeah, out of a baleen whales teeth I guess I should make air quotes. Yeah teeth. Um, you can use it for all sorts of stuff imagine bones too. Yeah And this is back in the day though like before commercially and there's a long tradition of using all parts of the whale but

there's a huge difference between Even a massive commercial enterprise like that were like the ones that were launched off of nantucket that required sale power and hand thrown harpoons And then steam powered boats and harpoon guns with explosive tips There's a big difference. Yeah huge difference and then the global demand also just kind of changed everything too. Yeah, japan post war post war war two

Uh, they relied a lot on whales for for food. They were Um pretty poor at the time after the war trying to put the pieces back together and whales uh were A big part of that on the school lunch menu up into the 1960s even. Yeah Although it's not supposed to taste very good. Is it It's supposed to taste it says in this article like either reindeer or moose. Yeah, that's what got from slate tried it I guess. Yeah, and that's what he had to say. Yeah, and it's not heavily spiced out of tradition, right? Uh, that is in uh, norway iceland in alaska. Oh, okay. Yeah

In japan they spiced the heck out of it. I guess so. I'm sure they say serve it as sashimi Which wouldn't mean that they probably don't. Yeah. Yeah How's that new year's resolution coming along? You know the one you made about paying off your pesky credit card debt and finally starting to save for retirement Well, you're not alone if you haven't made progress yet roughly four and five new year's resolutions fail Within the first month or two But that doesn't have to be the case for you and your goals our podcast how to money can help That's right. We're two best buds who've been at it for more than five years now

And we want to see you achieve your money goals and it's our goal to provide the information and encouragement You need to do it We keep the show fresh by answering listener questions interviewing experts and focusing on the relevant financial news that you need to know about Our show is chock full of the personal finance knowledge that you need with guidance three times a week And we talk about debt payoff if let's say you've had a particularly spend thrift holiday season We also talk about building up your savings intelligent investing and growing your income no matter where you are on your financial journey How the money's got your back millions of listeners have trusted us to help them achieve their financial goals Ensure that your resolution turns into ongoing progress listen to how to money on the iHeart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts

ready Set slay Squirrel friends the official RuPaul's drag race podcast is taking you behind the scenes of RuPaul's drag race season 15 on mtv With me alec mappa and my co-host lani love alec and i will recap the latest episode the best and worst looks And we'll even be joined by some of your favorite queens along the way One thing's for sure There is no shortage of queens this season Because we are witnessing the biggest cast in RuPaul's drag race herstory

And the stakes are higher than ever with the largest cast prize in drag race herstory So make no mistake the competition is going to rev up watch season 15 of RuPaul's drag race every friday on mtv Then join us on the podcast right after the show to recap the episode deep brief on all the looks and more Listen to squirrel friends the official RuPaul's drag race podcast on the iHeart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts There's a lot of uh sh phoneme tongue twisters in this one for me You all right

No We'll persevere So we're no longer running on um any kind of uh our our economy doesn't run on whale oil any longer No, we're now raping the earth of petroleum But at least it doesn't you know Have babies. Yes, true Yeah, um, so uh, why are we still killing whales? Uh, well in japan they have a loophole

Under article eight of the international convention of the regulation of whaling That says that they are allowed to Kill for research purposes Technically anybody is yeah, but well, yeah, and japan's the only one taking them up on it saying yeah, well, this is for research Yes, but that is disputed. Yes, because really the only um use these days for whales is meat right, so japan um is Through this international convention. They're not the only ones who can use um

whale hunting For scientific research is a reason to kill whales, right? Um, but yeah, they're they're roundly criticized for it because there's other techniques that other countries use to study whale populations That don't require Um, the whale to die Well, I don't get that to begin with because what they're studying is What they're trying to prove is that there are actually more whales and People are saying that's one of the things they're saying one of the other things and I should say that that my source for this was green

piece right, but they said they were saying that japan routinely uses studies study samples of populations of like 500 whales from the same area, which is a terrible way to study like a species right um And they are examining their stomach contents to find out about whale diets And then they'll say oh, well these whales eat a lot of salmon and salmon's a very commercially important Fish, so we should kill more whales right right um Though if you look at the australians they study whale diets too, but they track whale feces And they also study whale habits by keeping them alive and get more data by keeping them alive by just tagging them

Yeah, and they're one of the countries that's come out hardest against japan. Yeah and condemning them, right? Yeah Yeah, yeah, the australians were like good. I'm glad you guys made it back safely and early from your whale hunting season this year Exactly. So the japanese are very much criticized for exploiting this but under international law they they can do this and um I guess the provision that allows scientific whaling says if you catch a catch and kill a whale for scientific purposes You have to use the whole whale. Sure. So they're saying well, we've got to sell this as food right right The the that's a huge loophole because it's basically like Yeah, if you say we're here's this here's this study we're carrying out you can just conduct commercial whaling, which is what they're doing

right so um In 1925 now they were start they already were processing Is that what you said earlier? They're already processing on board before 1925. Yeah, so what happened then? Did it just the factory ships made it even easier? They were just more outfitted with it. Yeah, they were kind of like diy Processing whales beforehand, but they were definitely doing it during like the golden age off an antucket Where like you would capture a whale harpoon it all of the guys who'd just been fighting this thing for like hours Yeah, would row it back to the ship

And they'd attach it with chains to the ship and then start skinning it like layer by layer Yeah, they said it's like peeling an orange skin And they would carve it up into blanket pieces. There were a ton a piece. Yeah, like some guys died from that That was one of the ways people died was getting crushed by like a slab of blubber Oh, sure a ton of whale blubber falling on you. That's not a good way to go Um, and then they would haul these blanket pieces up and then divide them into what they call horse pieces My guess is that that was about the size of a horse. Sure. Probably could still kill you. I imagine you die going Then they would boil

Boil out extract extracting the blubber the oil from the blubber And this is all done on board like with big iron pots and stoves. Yeah pretty gnarly. Yeah And um, there's blood everywhere. There's oily blubber everywhere. Yeah, so one of the one of the great um Dangers of the job was slipping on deck and falling overboard I'm sure you don't think that the waters around the ship while they were skinning the the um, Whale weren't just infested with sharks. Yeah, so that was a very dangerous part too Uh, so once they had the uh oil Um extracted from the blubber they would actually go ahead and put it in the casks

Stow it down in the hold. Yeah, try and clean up the mess even though there really is no cleaning up that mess No, apparently not and um, then they just start over again and like a whaling expedition dude was years long Oh, really? They went for years like they just go out there because they could do this all Um Abort their ship and what they just live on the whale the whole time They usually have provisions. I'm sure they would stop in Tortuga and pick up some provisions and some VDs or whatever Some beans and venereal disease to go with their whale and um, and then you know go on their way But like they would be away from home for years at a stretch

Yeah It was a crazy life. All right, so let's uh flash forward a bit. Um factory ships in 1925 were introduced which really ramped up the killing And uh, 60 years and the 60 years following that more than 2 million whales were killed in the southern hemisphere Yeah, so that's when people countries the league of nations specifically Sat up and said, you know what? In 1931 we should put together Some sort of legislation to regulate this. Yeah, it's pretty cool for

1931. Yeah, I think about it. Sure 26 countries got on board Um, except for japan, germany and russia Uh, then 10 years later Uh, in 19, I'm sorry five years later They established the international agreement for regulation of whaling And again, uh, japan said no, thanks and that year there was a record high Of 46,039 whales killed in the Antarctic alone. Yeah, it still is the record. Yep And you know, they've tried these different things over the years

But basically what I gather was there was never any enforcement. No, the the IWC has no teeth. They have baleen That's it So they can't really they can't do any that was off the cuff. Was it really? Yeah, okay. Um, well done They can't do anything like you can sit there and make up regulations all day. Yeah, but japan can just say no We're not gonna do it. I think it'd be like, hey, that would hurt our economy. Sorry We understand that you feel for the whales, but we're whaling. So what are you gonna do? And there they say, oh, yeah, we forgot. There's no sanctions that we can carry out against you We're gonna send them police. We can condemn it. Yeah, there's no whale police

Except the sea shepherds, but they're rogue Yeah, they do a good job Apparently whether or not you agree with their methods is one thing, but they certainly made a difference this year Uh, flash forward again to 1986 Um, when they banned commercial whaling altogether Again rejected by japan, norway and russia. Yeah but in that

In that convention, there was that loophole for scientific research. There's also I think always been exceptions for indigenous groups too, right? Um, but the uh, the the big loophole was the the scientific whaling one And that's the one that they continue exploiting Because everybody's like we're not doing any commercial whaling. We're just uh Uh, licensing issuing scientific whaling licenses to these commercial whaling outfits Now early, you said the united states still does with that. Is that just indigenous peoples? Yeah, okay. Yeah um And there was something I couldn't find out what happened, but I saw this like chart of whaling and from since 1986

Um, it's had an impact. Oh, yeah that convention that treaty had an impact because if you look at um overall total kills Um, or they call them catches It's declined just tremendously since then. It's just 31 000 Since the ban was put in place. Yeah, and then I saw for 19 for 2009 Around 800 and 900 killed for the world that year. Yeah compared to 46 000 in antartica alone Right, which is pretty crazy. The key is is whether that number can be kept down in pace with the

If that can outrun the decline of whale populations so that there aren't any extinction events, right before whaling just ceases or before the um the stocks can be um Stabilized right refurbished. Yeah, I think there's like a real definite like race against the clock thing that's going on right now with whale populations if I remember correctly when we did it must have been when we did the uh The uh swim with the whales podcast. Yeah, I think I remember something about the way they reproduce or Reproductive cycles really long. Oh, yeah, so they have a hard time Reestablishing it's not like they're having little whale pups every every year or two. Yeah, so that probably has something to do with that

And I think they stick around like with their parents too like they raise and nurse their young For a very long time as well. They're just like deadbeats in the basement couch waiting around Listen to pink Floyd You like pink Floyd? Oh, yes, I do. Okay. There's two. I do. Thanks, man. The doors in pink Floyd very nice So what does the future hold mr. Clark? well Not being a prognosticator myself. I don't feel comfortable predicting the future, but I don't know man. I was surprised by the um That that uh news report that you you gave me

Like that the sea shepherds were having like that kind of effect. I figured that they would be A nuisance not an effective Activist militant group. Yeah. Well, they mixed it up a couple years ago, too They rammed each other supposedly. Yeah, but I got the impression from this article that it was like All right, I'm on board your vessel and I can't really do anything and they're like, well, we can't do anything either and You know, it was like that that encounter was a um the A representation of just that like the ID what the IWC does with wailing. It's like there's nothing you can do really right no one's

Able to do anything that has a real impact, but apparently they figured it out So what happened was in 2010? They claimed the Japanese ship rammed The sea shepherd ship Sinking it and so the dudes from sea shepherd went aboard the wailing ship. Yeah, and that's when they just said we can't do anything So let's have a tickle fight pretty much. He was gonna make a citizen's arrest Come on. That's like one thing if you don't carry it out, you don't tell anybody you're going to do that Right, you know, like I'm gonna make a citizen's arrest. I was going to

You should just tackle them or something. I'll bet that that was all over discovery channel too. Yeah, probably so Um, so anything else? I don't have anything else other than to say uh You know if this is important to you pay attention Yeah, because There's always I think they met just last year about this again It's like an ongoing battle to keep these regulations in place. So yeah, how's that new year's resolution coming along? You know the one you made about paying off your pesky credit card debt and finally starting to save for retirement

Well, you're not alone if you haven't made progress yet Roughly four in five new year's resolutions fail within the first month or two But that doesn't have to be the case for you and your goals our podcast how to money can help That's right. We're two best buds who've been at it for more than five years now And we want to see you achieve your money goals and it's our goal to provide the information and encouragement You need to do it We keep the show fresh by answering list of questions interviewing experts and focusing on the relevant financial news that you need to know about Our show is chock full of the personal finance knowledge that you need with guidance three times a week

And we talk about debt payoff if let's say you've had a particularly spend thrift holiday season We also talk about building up your savings intelligent investing and growing your income no matter where you are on your financial journey How to money's got your back millions of listeners have trusted us to help them achieve their financial goals Ensure that your resolution turns into ongoing progress listen to how to money on the iHeart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts Ready set slay Squirrel friends the official RuPaul's drag race podcast is taking you behind the scenes of RuPaul's drag race season 15 on mtv With me Alec Moppa and my co-host Lonnie Love Alec and I will recap the latest episode the best and worst looks and we'll even be joined by some of your favorite queens along the way

One thing's for sure There is no shortage of queens this season Because we are witnessing the biggest cast in RuPaul's drag race Herstory and the stakes are higher than ever with the largest cast prize in drag race herstory So make no mistake the competition is going to rev up Watch season 15 of RuPaul's drag race every friday on mtv Then join us on the podcast right after the show to recap the episode deep brief on all the looks and more Listen to squirrel friends the official RuPaul's drag race podcast on the iHeart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts

Oh, i've got another one. Let's hear it Um, if you root for wales, you should check out the story of the Essex, which is inspired moby dick Um, it's the only known ship to have been sunk Apparently purposely purposefully by a whale ramming it. Wow a whale rammed it turned around Got speed and rammed it again and ended up sinking the Essex and sent like the 20 crew members on like this horrible journey Um, where they were adrift in the south pacific and they avoided islands that were close by because they were afraid of cannibals But in their attempt for south america, they began to starve and resort to cannibalism themselves. Wow. Yeah, the Essex That's an ironic twist, isn't it? I've never read moby dick. Do you believe that? I do. I have not read it either

So really? Yeah, I know. Wow. Well, we need to get that done. Okay. Let's go read moby dick right now. Chuck. Okay Um, while we read moby dick, you should learn more about whaling you could type that into the handy search bar at housestuffworks.com Which means it's time for listener mail Uh, josh, I'm going to call this a good organization in austin, texas, which we were just at. Yeah, we were And um, this is sent from patrick who is at our variety show that we threw. Yeah said a great show guys I was pleasantly surprised with the Quote on quote acting in the pilot by y'all and I look forward to tuning in later Quote on quote acting is accurate. Exactly

Uh, they uh, he's involved though with a new non-profit and I told him we would plug it um retreat RE lowercase capital t re e lowercase t see where we're going here t re e T retreat Okay, not t re a t. Okay Uh, they plant trees. Oh, okay. Um, they are a kaleidoscopic group of bicycle and tree enthusiasts with strong backs sharp minds

And big hearts. Wow who volunteer to replant communities Uh, the group formed in response to the Bastrop wildfires that took place during the summer of uh, ought 11 No, wait, you can't say ought 11. It's on the bulletin, isn't it? Yeah Um, just outside of austin texas during two days in january retreat Uh, america planted over 200 trees and put 80 miles on their bikes Um, they're heading back to Bastrop for another round of tree planting march 23rd through 25th, which Is right now So by the time this comes out, that'll be uh, be over. Yes

But you can still support them by going to facebook.com Slash retreat with two e's america. Uh, it's a brand new group. They're trying to spread the word So just a little awareness is what they're looking for And uh, they have some mandates here one is to plant as many donated trees As native trees as possible For homeowners affected by natural disasters To harness the spirit of volunteerism that exists in everyone Harness it and beat it with a stick

Number three in live in communities socially and economically in the aftermath of disasters. Number four Stimulate stewardship and invigorate a local desire to rehabilitate the damaged land Stimulate it with a stick. Number five spread proper tree planting in care techniques Stick number six foster appreciation for uh, an involvement in uh Aburra culture, how many uh

Lists of their how many demands do they have they have one more? Okay. Um, encourage the use of bicycles within the urban environment Finally we get the bicycles So patrick, uh, y'all are doing great work. Austin is one of our favorite places now to visit and retreat america You should support Go check them out. Nice, man. Or a bike person or a tree person. Nice. Or if you hate trees and you love your car then There's probably an organization for you Dude, we should also give a shout out to the contest winner who we met and hung out with. Yeah. Caleb. Uh, Caleb

Uh, did he sign and released his say his license? Oh, we'll just say Caleb w from dallas. Yeah, he came out he won the house the first facebook contest and He came out hung out with us. We went out for lunch. We took him on a tour of the office Took him out for a very nice lunch. Uh-huh That resulted in food poisoning for me I'm sorry to hear that and um, it was uh, it was very tasty, though Yeah, and he went to um, I followed up with him. He did go to the king's center after he left us Yeah, he's keen on that. Yeah, he went he'd been studying the life of martin luther king and was excited to go visit

We uh, Pulled him how to get there and he went and he went to the king's center and his uh, original House that he lived in. Yeah, it's like all in the same area and his church. I think as well. Yeah So, uh, yeah, he checked it all and he said it was really cool. That is very cool So, Caleb, we're glad you were here. You were a really nice dude. Yeah, you really were It really could have gone a different way and we were very fortunate that you were the winner. That's right So congratulations to you again. Um, let's see chuck Wailing stories. Do you think anybody has one? I doubt it. All right. Let's find out. Let's hear your wailing story

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