How To Make 2,000 Year Old Seeds Sprout (Cool Weird Awesome 833)
Today in 2021, a very long wait was over. Researchers harvested three bunches of dates from trees that had sprouted from seeds over two thousand years old.
The Lincoln Memorial Has A Basement (Cool Weird Awesome 715)
For Abraham Lincoln's birthday, we look at one of the most timeless memorials to the 16th president - or at least its undercroft, which has been out of public view for a long time.
The Great Green Wall Is Regreening Parts of Africa’s Sahel (Cool Weird Awesome 559)
It's the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drough, so it's a good time to check in on the Great Green Wall, a multi-country project in and around Africa’s Sahel region to re-green areas that have turned to desert because of overuse, expanding desert and climate change. Plus: a retired couple in China's Gobi Desert have been running their own regreening project for nearly 20 years, planting tens of thousands of drought-resistant trees by themselves!
The Parachuting Beavers Of ‘48 (Cool Weird Awesome 514)
On this day in 1948, Idaho Fish and Game moved beavers to a new habitat in a very unusual way: they had the beavers parachute into the wilderness! We'll explain how they did it. Plus: a new map of New York City's most notable trees helps people find some unique green space even in the big city.
Tree friend
My tender hearted kindergartner is making sure the backyard trees won’t be weighed down by too much snow.
The Friendship Oak Is Over 500 Years Old And Still Going Strong (Cool Weird Awesome 284)
Today is Arbor Day, and so we’re going to talk about the Friendship Oak, a remarkable tree in Mississippi that just keeps on keeping on. Plus: we'll visit Joe Bagley, who has 1,400 house plants in his apartment and for whom it might be said that every day is Arbor Day.
How The Tree That Owns Itself Came To Own Itself (Cool Weird Awesome 145)
Today we pay a visit to Athens, Georgia, where you’ll find something unusual: The Tree That Owns Itself. Plus: a Japanese design company has created a 3D-printed bonsai, which you can prune once and looks the way you want forever... as long as you don't mind that it's not an actual tree.
Elizabeth Freeman Makes Herself A Free Woman (Cool Weird Awesome 111)
An enslaved woman in 18th century Massachusetts overheard all the talk about freedom and equality and decided it should be put to the test. On August 22, 1781, a court found the woman known as Mum Bett, later as Elizabeth Freeman, could not be the property of another human being and therefore was free and equal.
