Stuff You Should Know - The Fascinating History of Dandelions

Episode Date: November 14, 2024

Dandelions are way more interesting than you think. Trust us and click play. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey guys, I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast, Post Run High, is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

As a kid, I really do remember having these dreams and visions, but you just don't know what is going to come for you. Alicia shares her wisdom on growth, gratitude, and the power of love. I forgive myself. It's okay. Have grace with yourself. You're trying your best, and you're going to figure out the rhythm of this thing. Alicia Keys, like you've never heard her before. Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's Puffball Chuck, and there's Blowball Jerry, and they like to call me Monk's Head, and there's Blowball Jerry, and they like to call me Monkshead, and this is stuff you should know. Did you get those references? Uh, sure. Yeah, okay, well, we should probably explain them

to everybody else, because they probably think it's an in-joke, but it's not at all. Number one, because we're about to share it with you. Number two, it's not really a joke. And number three, those are alternate names for dandelions. That's right, and we're gonna be exalting the dandelion. Probably say a lot of times how great we think it is. Yeah, sorry if you hate dandelions. Yeah, how it's unfairly maligned.

And we wanna thank Sarah Andrews from Idaho Idaho because Sarah is a listener who sent this in Nice Very nice. Thanks a lot Sarah every time I hear Idaho. I'm reminded of that silly t-shirt that said Idaho, Utah Do you remember that one I never saw that one What was that one? there's a company called like dangerous tShirts or something like that, and they had, like, man, they were killing it with the crazy t-shirts for a while in, like, the early 2000s.

Was that, like, instead of saying Coke, it would say, you know, poke? Or cocaine? Yeah, that kind of thing? Yeah, kind of. Sometimes more original than that, but yeah. They were coveted for a little bit among people who liked Incubus and stuff like that. I couldn't name an Incubus song, so that's not me. Okay, so let's get back to Dandelions.

I don't know how we ever get off track. It's kind of strange, but it happens from time to time, and it just happened, Chuck. So let's stop it from happening right now. Right. Because dandelions, as you will see, have had a long, rich history that we're going to talk about in depth as a medicinal plant, as an edible plant, as a wonderful pollinator, and it was recast as a villain, as a weed to get rid of. But you need only look at the history of the dandelion, the fact that it was recast as a villain, as a weed to get rid of, but you need only look at the history of the dandelion,

the fact that it was brought to North America by colonists to kind of underscore the fact that we wanted the dandelion here. Right, and it's important to say that they brought it here on purpose. I saw somebody point out, it didn't hitch a ride. It was like purposefully brought here. And the idea that dandelions suck is a really recent development, especially compared to how long people valued and prized dandelions. I just find that fascinating.

For sure. This thing is about 30 million years old, native in sort of Atlantic Europe all the way to Siberia. And in the Northern Hemisphere, you're going to know a dandelion because between March and October, you're going to see these beautiful yellow flowers. You'll see some what's called a rosette, which are these very short level ground stems that grow in a circular pattern. And then these little slender green hollow stalks, you know, two to 20 inches, but usually at least around here, the dandelions are, I don't know, like eight inches.

Yeah, that seems about right. That's my experience as well. Yeah. So one of the other really impressive things about the dandelion is if you look really closely at the flower, each individual petal has a little what becomes the part of the puff ball when the flower seeds. It already is attached and that thing is called the papus. And at the bottom of the papus is the seed. And the papus itself is like this parachute, essentially,

that keeps the seed aloft. And research into, I saw a papi, but I like papuses, as the plural. Ooh, I love papi. So it's found that they're actually phenomenal at keeping the seeds aloft. Like they create a kind of vortex that, until it was seen when they started testing pappy, was thought to be impossible. Yeah, and that vortex not only makes it travel up and out and away in such a way that if it was shaped any differently it wouldn't do that, but if that little thing lands on water, that same vortex is going to form a little air bubble around it and protect it.

Yeah. One of my prized possessions is this dandelion puffball encased in resin. And it's like the real deal. And I've never understood how it worked, but it turns out that if you actually take a dandelion puffball and actually not just put water in it but submerge it in water the puffball does not it doesn't collapse isn't that nuts it's amazing I think so too so that's just one of the many amazing things we're going to reveal today on stuff You Should Know. That... Did I wander into the wrong show? No.

Well, we should tell everybody it's 10 a.m. and we usually record at one, so... I'm a much different person at 10 a.m. You're a news anchor, apparently. Yep. So, I mentioned yellow. They're not always yellow. They can be orange, they can be white,

they can be kind of purpley peach. They open in the morning and close in the evening, which is giving them the name the shepherd's clock. And they do that to preserve pollen and keep that pollen safe for the next day, which also makes it, and this is one of my favorite words, a photo nasty. Oh, that's a great word. Yeah. The plants open and close with the setting and rising of the sun.

It's called photo nasty. I saw like a time lapse. I actually was in a video. It was just a series of photos of the dandelion flower opening and closing over the course of the day. I ran across a word from researching this that I'd never heard before that I absolutely love. Dandelions, like you said, are edible.

They're used in cooking, they're a culinary plant, which makes them a pot herb. One word, a pot herb. Isn't that awesome? What a great, homey little, like I just imagine, you know, hobbits using that word. Yeah, hobbits and my wife. Oh, does she call them pot herbs? You've heard that before?

Oh yeah, yeah, she's, I mean, I told her we were talking about dandelions today and she was just like, oh, are you going to talk about this, this, this, this, this, this? Right. She's like, oh, the famous pot herb? It's also another kind of clock. You know, I already mentioned the shepherd's clock because of opening and closing at the sunrise and sunset, but those little seed heads, they're called dandelion clocks, and

that is from the old, you know, you make a wish when you blow the dandelion and you scatter those seeds as sort of a long rich childhood tradition. But apparently the number of puffs it takes to empty that thing is what time it is. So it can, I haven't tested this out, I don't know if this is rock solid science, but that's sort of a thing. That's pretty neat. Yeah. And one other thing about those papases

and the seeds that are attached to them, there's a long standing, I guess, kind of urban legend, or maybe rural legend, that they can travel up to 100 kilometers, 62 miles. And that does not seem to be the case, even though you'll see that stat absolutely everywhere, including some legitimate places. But Kyle helped us with this, our British buddy, and he found that a 2003 study, which is the most recent you can find on this, is that just one in seven thousand Pappas's travels more than

one kilometer. So just leave a hundred kilometers out of the whole equation. Yeah, and Kyle told us that because he's from England, but for our North American listeners, we're talking 320 something feet, if it's 100 kilometers, and about three and a half feet for a meter. Yeah, and apparently 99 and a half percent of all Pappas' land just within 30 feet of the parent plant, which is also 10 meters.

So yes, if you ever hear that a Pappas can travel 100 kilometers, you can be like, that's wrong. What you just said is wrong. I think like one did and they framed that. Maybe that's the one you have in amber. Yeah. It's like that first dollar bill you make as a business. You put it into amber. Yeah. There's also a cool adaptation where after they flower, that little hollow stalk that the flower sits upon goes limp on the ground and is just sort of hiding there away from birds and stuff. And when they ripen up, they jump back up again and they're like, here we are.

That's pretty cool. I think so too. Do you want to take a break and come back and talk about where they got their name? Let's do it. Hey guys, I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast, Post Run High, is all about.

It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. You know that rush of endorphins you feel after a great workout? Well, that's when the real magic happens. So if you love hearing real, inspiring stories from the people you know, follow, and admire, join me every week for Post Run High. It's where we take the conversation beyond the run and get into the heart of it all. It's lighthearted, pretty crazy, and very fun. Listen to Post Run High

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast, and we're kicking off our second season digging into how Tech's elite has turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires. From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google search, better off-liners are unvarnished and at times unhinged look at the underbelly of tech from an industry veteran with nothing to lose. This season I'm going to be joined by everyone from Nobel-winning economists to the leading journalists in the field, and I'll be digging into why the products you love keep getting

worse and naming and shaming those responsible. Don't get me wrong, though. I love technology. I just hate the people in charge and want them to get back to building things that actually do things to help real people. I swear to God things can change if we're loud enough. So join me every week to understand what's happening in the tech industry and what could be done to make things better. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app app, Apple podcasts, or wherever else you get your podcasts. Check out betteroffline.com. On Thanksgiving Day, 1999, a five-year-old boy

floated alone in the ocean. He had lost his mother trying to reach Florida from Cuba. Looked like a little angel. I mean, he looked so fresh. And his name, Elian Gonzalez, will make headlines everywhere. Elian Gonzalez. Elian, Elian. Elian Gonzalez. Elian.

Elian. Elian Gonzalez. At the heart of the story is a young boy and the question of who he belongs with. His father in Cuba. Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home, and he wanted to take his son with him. Or his relatives in Cuba. Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him. Or his relatives in Miami.

Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. At the heart of it all is still this painful family separation. Something that as a Cuban, I know all too well. Listen to Chess Piece, the Elian Gonzalez story, as part of the MyCultura podcast network, available on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So, Chuck, Dandelion, I've never stopped and considered why it was called that, but it turns out that lion at the end is actually a giveaway for where the name came from.

It's French for lion's tooth, dent de lion. Pretty neat. I love that. The reason they call it that is it's a reference to the deeply serrated jagged leaves. I guess somebody was like, that looks like a lion's tooth. And they lived in France and that's where they got the name dandelion. Yeah, and it's also if you look at the botanical name, it really gives a good indication of what it was being used for back then.

The genus name is Teraxacum. And there are a couple of explanations here. I kind of like the second one. The first one is a Greek word for disorder, which is Ataxia. But it's also could have come from Arabic for bitter herb, which is Teraxagog. And then when you combine bitter herb with the species name, which is, how would you say that? Efficientally?

I don't know. Efficientally. That is a word for monastery storeroom. So a bitter herb in a monastery storeroom basically is telling you, hey, we used this plant in a very productive way. Yeah. The whole disorder thing is totally insensible if you ask me. Yeah, the whole disorder thing is totally insensible, if you ask me. Yeah, I agree.

So one of the other great things, so humans use dandelions, as we'll see in a lot of different ways and have for a very long time, but our animal friends love dandelions too. Those flowers, even though they look kind of flimsy, if you think about it, they're rich in nectar, packed with it.

So bees, butterflies, basically any kind of pollinators love dandelions. Like you said, the reason the stalk falls to the ground after flowering and as the seed heads are developing, that's because birds love the little dandelion seeds. And one of the other things that's important about them too is they basically flower and seed almost around the whole year, depending on where you live.

So at times where there's not a lot of food sources for birds and pollinators, the dandelion is there to kind of keep them going through the, say, late fall. Yeah, yeah, and I think it's one of the first guys to get going in the spring too, right? I believe so, yeah. So we're gonna get more in detail about how it's been eaten, but actually, let's save all that. Let's just tease it then and say it has long been eaten

and is now being eaten again due to the sort of foraging movement happening in the culinary world. That's a great tease. I think that kind of kicked off in COVID when people are like, well, I can't go to the store. What can I eat that's in my backyard? I'll try dandelions.

I've always wondered what they taste like. Bitter. So, yeah, nice. So I think we said probably a couple times that people have been using dandelions for all sorts of reasons, not just as pot herbs. For a long time, one of the earlier mentions we can find was in the Arabic world, a couple of physicians named Razi's and Avicenna both wrote about some of the properties of dandelions and dandelion roots back in the 10th and 11th centuries.

And most of what they were talking about was its use as a diuretic. And medicinally speaking, that's probably the most famous property that dandelions have, is they make you pee. And in fact, there's a couple of names that refer to that, depending on where you are, for dandelions that refer to the fact that they make you pee, right? Yeah, that's right. In France, they're called the, apparently more than they're called the dentilion, they're called the pissanlit, which means, you know, pee-pee in the night. And a folk name in England is

a pissaped. For the same reason. Yeah, and apparently it's all the potassium in there that's going to stimulate urination. And because of that, diuretics are used for a lot of things. And medicinally now and historically, if you want to work something through your system and pee it out, dandelions is a good way to make that happen Yeah, and very famously in the American Midwest. They're called peepee weeds. Oh That's that's totally made up I should say oh that's not true either. No, I just made it up Okay, I got you. I got you back for the what was the lateral gene transfer gospel group that you got me with?

Oh geez, I don't even remember now. It was that. But I've only gotten you once. The score is Josh 3000, Joe 1. Oh man. There was a 16th century book too. What was the name of that one? People call it Garden of Health because the full title of it is, containing the sundry rare and hidden virtues of all kinds of simples and plants together with the manner of how they are used and applied in medicine for the health of man's body against diverse diseases and

infirmities most common against men gathered by the long experience and industry of William Langham, practitioner of physics. That's the actual title of that book, which is why there's like, yeah, we're just going to call it Garden of Health. I mean, Garden of Health really says what that says. I know, he didn't need all that extra stuff. That's like the introduction, I think. He put the introduction in the title.

Yeah, that's a little, did it say the end at the end? Pretty much. This is from, like I said, the 16th century, and it talked a lot about, you know, all kinds of things they thought it could help back then, toothaches, fevers, depression, even baldness. But they also talked about growing it alongside other vegetables and herbs in the garden, and you dug up this kind of cool fact.

It's ethylene gas that they release. So if you actually grow dandelions or have dandelions growing near fruiting plants like tomatoes, they're gonna ripen faster. Yeah, isn't that neat? Super cool. Yeah, we're gonna cover a lot of actually pretty cool little benefits, I guess, that they provide. But let's keep going with the tradition

of using them medicinally, shall we? Sure. There's a guy named John Gerard who wrote a book in the 1630s, and he's like, hey, I want to contribute to this too. I've found that dandelion strengthens the weak stomach, which is important because actually, if you use the roots of a dandelion, it contains a lot of inulin, which is an important prebiotic for gut health.

So John Gerard wasn't just whistling Dixie. No, not at all. It turns out they have more vitamin A than spinach, more vitamin C than tomatoes. They've got a ton, we already mentioned potassium, but also a lot of calcium, a lot of iron. And then a lot of words that I can barely pronounce that you found that it's packed with, starting with flavonoids. That's the only one I had heard of. It has triterpenes, sesquiterpenes, phenolic acids, sterols, and coumarins, and they bestow things like antibacterial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, hepatoprotective, and anti-tumor properties.

And you dug up a lot of ways that they actually help health, right? Yeah, so I mean, we can talk all day about like the ways that people thought it would help you back in the 16th century. But people might poo poo something like that. But there have been modern studies. I'll just give you a few examples.

There was a study from 2015 in Canada that reported that dandelion extract can block ultraviolet UVB radiation when applied to the skin. It can also irritate the skin, so don't necessarily just take dandelions and start rubbing them all over yourself at the pool. There was a 2016 review of studies from a university in Denmark that suggests that dandelion extracts actually stimulates pancreatic cells to produce insulin

so it could potentially help control blood sugar. Right. And what about, there was one on the liver too, right? Yeah, I said it was hepatoprotective, which means it helps the liver, and actually it goes in and just kicks butt in your liver. It slows the progression of fibrosis, which is scarring of the liver. And the extract actually inactivates the cells that cause fibrosis in the liver.

And essentially your liver, as everybody knows, it can regenerate itself. Once the dandelion extract has gone in and stopped the fibrosis, the liver can heal. So it's incredibly helpful with protecting the liver from damage. I mean, that's nuts. It's almost like it was designed to do that for the liver. It's that effective. I do want to mention the cancer one,

because Emily had a very funny, very Emily line. There was a 2020... Man, why do I do want to mention the cancer one because Emily had a very funny, very Emily line. There was a 2020... Man, why do I do that lately? 2020-12, I did that on Tuesday too. You do that a lot, yeah. What is happening? I don't know. It's a study from the University of Windsor in Canada about dandelion root extract can induce apoptosis,

which is cell death in pancreatic and prostate cancer in test tube, in their cells in the test tubes, potentially preventing their spread. So this is something Emily knew and this morning she was like, yeah, it's so like modern American at the very least to take something that could actually help fight cancer and spray chemicals on it to kill it that cause cancer. And she stormed out of the room. Sometimes we have to learn the hard way, but it is reassuring that things seem to be coming full circle.

You know what I mean? Yeah, I feel like people are getting a little more eyes open to stuff like that. Yeah, they're getting on board the dandelion train. So one thing about those studies that you said, like, they're essentially confirming the dandelion train. So one thing about those studies that you said, like they're essentially confirming to our modern tastes what the Chinese knew all the way back in 659 CE,

people like Nicholas Culpepper knew in the 18th century, all these people wrote about this stuff and just how effective it was, and then now science is going in and saying these people were right and Here's how it is effective. I think that's pretty cool and in part because of that the dandelion is being rehabilitated But first I think we need to mention you said that it came by North America I piped up on purpose. I think more than once even. I was so excited about that. And it's possible it was actually on the Mayflower. It arrived that early.

And they think that because of plant migration, as we talked about before, the dandelion may have spread ahead of Europeans as they entered further and further into the North American continent. And so Native Americans that they encountered may have already been using dandelions in some of their medicines. Oh yeah, absolutely.

They were drinking it in tonics. They were boiling it with fatty meats, which sounds disgusting. It does. It really does, fatty meats. Unless you're talking about something like collards with like ham hocks or something. That sounds okay, but I in this case

I imagine a pot of boiling water with a skin of fat just bubbling at the top and some dandelion leaves floating around in it And we'll talk about you know more ways you can eat it But it's long been used in like cordials and beers like the dandelion root You can you know grind it up and use it as a coffee substitute, kind of like chicory. So people were using it for medicine. They were using it for old kinds of folk remedies and foods and things, largely because, again, it was everywhere. It grows in not very good soil. It's considered a perennial because they can live, well, because like you said, they're kind of growing year round,

but they can live for more than 10 years if you don't mess with them and kill them. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's pretty cool too. One of the other things I saw, there's a book called The Economical Housewife from the 1850s that it might be the first recipe for dandelion wine, and people still make that today,

and it's actually super easy. You just take some dandelion flowers, some water, eventually you add some sugar and some lemon, let it sit for a couple of weeks, strain it out, and then let it sit for another week and age, and you've got yourself some dandelion wine. And it sounds deliciously easy, or maybe easily delicious, one of the two.

But I'd love to try it. Have you ever had dandelion wine or dandelion beer or anything like that? No, not at all. I mean, it's definitely a thing. Ray Bradbury had a novel called Dandelion Wine from 1957, so it's something that's been enjoyed all over the world. In France, they use it sometimes.

They'll take the leaves and blanch them and spread them with bread and butter. Like it sounds like if there's not a Brooklyn restaurant serving dandelion toast at this point. Yeah. What is happening in our world? I don't know. It sounds like fairy toast like the Australians love, but with dandelion leaves instead. Yeah.

It's also just a salad, a salad green component. And like we said, it is very bitter, but it's used in all kinds of salads. Sometimes it's the only kind of leaf used in a salad. Sometimes it can be mixed in with other things. But in France, they have one called the Salade de Pissenlitz from that original name that's got bacon in it and dandelion leaves. It just sounds pretty good to me. Yeah, apparently that was a common dish during the Depression in America too because it was just cheap, you know? Yeah. And it sounds delicious too. I say we take a break and we come back

and talk about another surprising use of dandelion that I hadn't heard of until this, but you probably did because of Emily. No, I delighted her with that fact as well, so we'll be right back. -♪ MUSIC PLAYING Hey guys, I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going.

That's what my podcast, Post Run High, is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. You know that rush of endorphins you feel after a great workout? Well, that's when the real magic happens. So if you love hearing real, inspiring stories

from the people you know, follow, and admire, join me every week for Post Run High. It's where we take the conversation beyond the run and get into the heart of it all. It's lighthearted, pretty crazy, and very fun. Listen to Post Run High on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast, and we're kicking off our second season digging into how tech's elite has turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires. From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google search, Better Offline

is your unvarnished and at times unhinged look at the underbelly of tech from an industry veteran with nothing to lose. This season, I'm going to be joined by everyone from Nobel winning economists to the leading journalists in the field and I'll be digging into why the products you love keep getting worse and naming and shaming those responsible. Don't get me wrong though, I love technology, I just hate the people in charge and want them to get back to building things that actually do things to help real people. I swear to God things can change if we're loud enough.

So join me every week to understand what's happening in the tech industry and what could be done to make things better. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever else you get your podcasts. Check out betteroffline.com. On Thanksgiving Day 1999, a five-year-old boy floated alone in the ocean. He had lost his mother trying to reach Florida from Cuba. He looked like a little angel.

I mean, he looked so fresh. And his name, Elian Gonzalez, will make headlines everywhere. Elian Gonzalez. Elian Gonzalez. Elian Gonzalez. Elian Gonzalez. Elion, Elion, Elion Gonzalez. Elion, Elion, Elion Gonzalez. Elion, Elion, Elion Gonzalez. At the heart of the story is a young boy and the question of who he belongs with. His father in Cuba. Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him.

Or his relatives in Miami. Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. At the heart of it all is still this painful family separation. Something that as a Cuban, I know all too well. Listen to Chess Piece, the Elian Gonzalez story, as part of the My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right.

So, Josh said that he hadn't heard of this cool fact. I hadn't heard of it. Emily hadn't heard of it. And I think it may be the fact of the podcast, but dandelions are a source of natural rubber. Pretty cool. I would take issue with that. I think it has to do with the vortices over the papi

or the fact that they're pot herbs. All right, this one's good. It's up there. Maybe they're all tied for first. I don't know. But hey, that means we got a good topic if there are several competitors. Yeah. And so not just any dandelion produces rubber or latex that can be turned into rubber. A specific type of dandelion, they figured out the Kazakh dandelion, which is native to the Eurasian steppes. How'd you like that? It's also called the Russian dandelion here in the United States. That specific one puts out

enough latex that it gave rubber trees a run for their money during World War Two, which we've talked about many times. America and Britain were like, we need more rubber for the war effort, and the Japanese control essentially all of the rubber supply. We're at war with the Japanese, so we better come up with something else quick. Yeah, so they literally started screening like thousands and thousands of plants,

and I guess they were like, hey, if the rubber tree can grow rubber, there's gotta be something else out there. The Soviets are the ones who said try this Kazakh dandelion and because of shortages during the wars they said here here's a bunch of seeds and they sent a bunch of those Kazakh seeds the Soviet allies at the time in the 1940s. And ultimately we use some of it. Russians, Americans, and Germans did produce rubber from dandelions. It's very hardy.

It can be susceptible to disease, though, depending what kind of disease. But it also grows everywhere and serves as a pollinator, and it doesn't deforest things. So the big problem, though, and I know everyone's like, oh my God, is this the miracle we've all been hoping for with rubber? It just doesn't yield as much as the Russians said it did. And so it's not economically viable as long as the real rubber tree is around.

They released some paper that overstated how much rubber can be gotten from the dandelion because they wanted to sound like big shots. Yeah. So the reason why we didn't just keep going with dandelion rubber research in trying to figure out how to increase yields is because in the meantime people figured out we could make synthetic rubber from petroleum. It was almost as good as natural rubber. It certainly was a good enough substitute. And we could just make batch after batch after batch,

rather than have to try to yield it from dandelions. So that fell to the wayside. And then by the time World War II ended, we had access to natural rubber supplies from the Southeast, Southeast Asia, I should say. And so all that kind of put dandelion rubber on the back shelf. But in the, what, 80, almost 100 years, geez,

since World War II, I remember when that was like, just like that was firmly like 40 to 50 years in the past. And it just keeps getting further and further away. It's really awful. But we've kind of figured out in the interim that synthetic rubber, it's useful, but there's nothing that can match natural rubber for like grip, heat dissipation,

all sorts of other properties. So we're starting to go back to look at sources for natural rubber, including ones that are more sustainable than the rubber trees, which require you basically deforest and then plant the rubber trees to create a plantation. With dandelions, you don't have to do that stuff. No, you got a big field, you can have dandelions. And like I said, it grows in,

it doesn't have to be great soil. You can grow it hydroponically without soil at all. You can grow it in the air, which is aeroponically. It's pretty amazing. And I think it's one of those things where, like, anytime you have a monoculture plant like that, like the rubber tree, it makes people a little bit nervous besides the deforestation. Like if anything ever happened, like some kind of weird blight and the rubber trees were just, you know, not a candidate anymore, you got damned to lines kind of waiting on

deck with their bat. Right. So it's kind of surprising that it went from this really prized plant in so many ways to a hated weed, especially in Europe and the United States, and you hit upon why it became a hitted weed. You use the word monoculture and the largest monoculture here in the United States are people's lawns. And for part of the aesthetic of the lawn, you cannot have dandelions breaking up that perfect unbroken sea of green grass.

You got a dandelion popping up, the whole thing's ruined, basically. That's the way people think of dandelions and lawns these days, or have since about the 50s essentially. That beautiful yellow flower. Stomp it! Dig it up. But yeah, that's what happened and we've gone over this before but just sort of as a quick overview. This is the kind of thing that came over from England starting in the 17th century is when British aristocracy really

started to get into these perfect sort of croquet playing lawns, I guess is what you would call them. And then in America, it was post-World War II when suburbanization really took hold, lawnmowers really came into their own. Everyone was like, hey, we've got these great new chemicals that'll kill everything and make the grass grow really, really well. And it's just modern and tidy and good looking.

And that really kind of transformed the United States. You know, like keep up that lawn, make a perfect green lawn if you wanna keep your property value up everybody. Right, that's a big one. Kyle also dug up another reason too that once the Cold War rolled around, conformity was equated with safety. So if you weren't keeping your lawn trimmed like everybody else, what's going on with you? You're making me feel a little bit nervous because you're not conforming.

You must be a red spy hiding out in suburbia, basically, right? And I think that's a really important, kind of overlooked driver for things like perfectly manicured lawns and everybody having the same kind of thing. Yeah, and speaking of driver, the other, I don't think we've ever mentioned, contributor to this, was in the 1950s, golf started being televised. In 1957, you got

golf on television for the first time and people look at Augusta National and these golf courses that were beautifully manicured and aesthetically pleasing to the eye and they're like, hey, I need to get some of that in my front yard. Maybe I can practice chipping some balls around in my front yard. Also, if you're sitting there thinking like, wow, I really love hearing these guys talk in my front yard, maybe I can practice chipping some balls around in my front yard. Yeah. Also, if you're sitting there thinking like, wow, I really love hearing these guys talk about grass, but I'd love to hear them have a dispute over it, you should go listen to how our grass works episode.

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

For all the reasons that they're valuable, the pollinators and other kinds of plants, and that they can grow in marginal lands and basically everywhere, it makes them an enemy as a weed if you're trying to create a monoculture lawn, right? So they can regenerate from like a one-inch section of root, which means that if you cut a dandelion off at the, even below ground level, it's like good, you know, good try pal, but it just sprouts right back up.

You have to dig them up. And even after you dig them up, you might not get them. Because one of the things that I didn't know about dandelions is I knew they grew from a taproot. You have to get that taproot up or else it's just futile. But that taproot can grow depending on the age of the dandelion, over a dozen feet, meters, four meters, into the ground. Meter-ish.

Yeah, and that makes it really hard to get rid of. And so if you're like a groundskeeper for a golf course or something like that, you have to really keep up with the dandelions, because they'll spread really fast and they're really hard to get rid of once you do start trying to get rid of them Yeah for sure and I got a dude to say this last fact from Kyle because it goes back to the lawns But this really kind of drives at home of about how Not great a perfect green lawn is for our society

There was a study in 2005 residential lawns in the United States make up 2% of the land There was a study in 2005, residential lawns in the United States make up 2% of the land, but require more irrigation than any domestic agricultural crop. I've got one to piggyback on that. Let's hear it. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says that homeowners use up to 10 times more pesticides per acre than farmers use on their crops. So we're using this stuff, overusing it, and we're using it on stuff that's not productive land just to keep up with the Joneses

so they don't think we're communist spies. Yeah, you know, I walk Gibson in the mornings and there are, the only lawns that he ever like, rubs his face in are the most perfect green ones and I know that it's because they have recently been sprayed and he smells it and is trying to rub all in that stuff. And it drives me bonkers. Yeah, it's a, like, I would love to just let my lawn,

and you and me too, just go to like wildflowers, go to weeds, you know, just mow it. You keep it mowed, but at a higher height. But yeah, you just let this stuff grow. And we would be completely, we would stick out like a sore thumb from the rest of the neighborhood. So much so that our neighbors would be mad at us. That's how, that's how entrenched the idea of having a perfect lawn is still in the United

States, depending on where you live. Yeah, for sure. And like no one around there even does like permaculture and other options besides just letting it grow wild and crazy? No, it's nuts. So we definitely draw a line. So we're like, okay, we'll keep up with the lawn, but don't touch the shrubbery, the perennials,

the garden essentially, right? But people will hire the same company to like treat their lawn with chemicals to spray their bushes and spray their gardens with chemicals to kill off the bugs. And then they have to go in and try to recreate the stuff that the bugs are doing for free, the services they're providing,

because you've killed off the bugs. It's insane to me. So we definitely don't, we don't caught into that. Yeah, there was, speaking of bugs, there was a scientific review in 2019 that found that the global mass of insects is falling at a rate of about 2.5% per year. And dandelions is a high, high on the list of pollinators.

Caterpillars love munching on them, moths love munching on them, and all those bees and butterflies love doing their thing on them. So even, you know, I'm not trying to shame people, but let's say you do like your lawn and everything, even waiting in the spring, like longer to cut it, even cutting it higher,

letting the dandelions grow up a little bit before you start whacking them down. Even that minimal amount will help out a little bit. What's interesting is the nonchemical way I saw to treat your turf grass for dandelions is to let your grass grow longer than you have been, like cutting it at a higher mower height because as we talked about dandelion leaves are so low growing that the grass will shade out and out compete the dandelions. So if you really do want to get rid of dandelions but you don't want to use chemicals, that's a pretty good way to do it from what I've seen.

Yeah, totally. Some states have actual programs. There's one in Minnesota called Lawns to Legumes, which is a great title. They launched that in 2019, where they just basically incentivize people to say, get rid of that lawn, put in flowering plants, put in beds.

You can have a rebate if you have a pollinator-friendly, native wildflower scene at your house. Yeah, I didn't look up the amount, but I would guess at a minimum, the rebate is worth a million dollars. Right. That'd be my guess. You think so?

There's a couple other things that I found that dandelions, I don't know if you looked at it or not, that they kind of provide services to the plants growing around them, including grass. Because as we mentioned, those taproots, they grow really deep. And as they're growing deep, they're actually accessing nutrients that other plants around them, again, including grass, the roots of those plants can't reach because it's too deep. And it brings those nutrients up toward the surface, and as the dandelion dies off, the other plants get to eat those nutrients

that they otherwise wouldn't have had access to. And those same roots also aerate in loose and compacted dirt too, which makes it easier for the plants around the dandelions to grow. Amazing. Is there anything dandelions can't do? I don't know. to grow. Amazing. Is there anything dandelions can't do?

I don't know. I mean, they're not super fragrant. No, that's true. They're pretty much useless in that sense. But they can grant a child a wish. They sure can, man. They sure can. I remember doing that so many times.

I keep trying to do that with my dandelion puff head in resin and it's not working. I don't have anything else though. I'm kinda looking over the list here. I know we were kind of all over the place, but it's just sort of one of those episodes where it's like, well here's a list of 100 amazing things, and so sometimes those are a little tougher to organize. Yeah, but they can be pretty fun too.

I had fun at least, how about you? I did too. And that rubber thing, Are you kidding me? No. Since neither one of us has anything else about Dan DeLions, then we're going to call it quits on this episode, which means we've just activated Listener Mail. You know, no Listener Mail today because what we're going to do is something we haven't done in a while, is help support and bring some attention to a great cause. Our friends from the Cooperative for Education, aka COED, whose mission it is to break the

cycle of poverty in Guatemala through education. And we've been working with them for 15 years and we got a new thing coming up with them, right? Yes, we do. So first, let me just explain. Over $1.3 million in contributions have been made to COED thanks to our partnership with them at Stuff You Should Know for 15 years. That's really good if you ask me.

That's incredible. Which means that 160 kids have been given a huge leg up to escape poverty and break intergenerational poverty and create literally a new life for their entire family from that point on. That's right, you know we went down there I guess 15 years ago when they invited us very early on in Stuff You Should Know's um canon? Yeah. In our history and we went down to Guatemala and those shows we did some shows on that that trip and that visit where we get to actually hear Jerry speak which is pretty exciting.

And they're just great. We've been working with them ever since. And the fact that the Stuffy Snow Army has raised 1.3 million bucks for them over the past 15 years is going to be a real proud part of our legacy. But we have a call to action, right? Yes. So you can join.

We're starting a drive, essentially, right now. That's right. You can join the cooperative, which is a program of theirs for $20 a month, and you'll collectively sponsor a bunch of students in the Rise Youth Development Program, right? That's right. And so it's gonna get spread out,

you're gonna be helping a bunch of kids at once, so you can feel good like five times over with each monthly donation. And then in 2025, more than 1,100 students will be able to start school in rural Guatemala, which will be their biggest class ever. They need help to make that happen, which is why we're saying join the cooperative.

That's right. And as an incentive, if this is for you, if you set up your gift by Tuesday, December 3rd, then you are signed up for a chance to do a virtual hangout with Josh and I. We do this every year around the same time. It's always a lot of fun. We hang out with, I don't know,

six or eight people all over the country. And they get to just, you know, ask us questions and tell us that we're cool or dumb or whatever. It's your chance to really hand it to us if that's what you're after. Right. Yeah, hopefully don't do that, but sure, I mean, I guess if you've given to

COED, then you deserve to do whatever you want to. That's right. So just go to cooperativeforeducation.org. That's the word cooperative, F-O-R, education.org slash S-Y-S-K. And start giving now. A little bit goes a long way down there. Yes. And in the meantime, while you're looking up Cooperative for Education.org slash S-Y-S-K, you can also send us an email. Send it off to stuffpodcast at iHeartRadio.com.

[♪ music playing. V.O.] Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts, my heart radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. For so many people living with an autoimmune condition like myasthenia gravis or chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, the emotional toll can be as real as the physical symptoms. That's why in an all new season of Untold Stories, Life with a Severe Autoimmune Condition from Ruby Studio and Argenics,

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