February 17, 2026 • 33 mins
We honk at them in the street and shoo them away from our trash cans, but opossums are so much more than nocturnal nuisances. In today’s episode, Mango and Gabe get better acquainted with America’s only native marsupials, including the truth behind their famous talent for playing dead and their surprising connections to President Taft and Captain John Smith. Plus: A stirring ode to the opossum on Mango’s balcony and a tongue-in-cheek recipe for “planked possum.”
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:14):
You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope
and iHeartRadio. Guess what gave?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
What's that mango?
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Do you know that? And apossum and apossum are two
completely different animals.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
That didn't even sound like two different words.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
I know, I actually thought that as I said it,
But for a long time I thought it was the
same animal. It was just like a regional dialect difference.
Like depending on where you live, a groundhog is also
called a ground pig, or a marmot, or a woodchuck
or even a land.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Beaver land beaver. I don't know about some of those,
Like how much wood does a ground pig chuck? That
it doesn't have the same ring to it now?
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Yeah, you know, like trying to determine how much more
winter there is based on whether land beaver saw its
own shadow, right, Like, some words just work better than others,
even if it's the same animal. But back to possums
and opossums, it turns out they are different words with
different pronunciations, and they refer to two totally different animals.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Okay, And which one is it that keeps knocking over
my trash cans? Because you know, I want to address
them properly, you know, when I yell out the window
at them tonight.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Yeah, So that would be a possums. And those are
the ones that you and I are familiar with, right,
like those stumpy little mammals with grayish fur rat like
tails and pointy white faces that you sometimes see rooting
through your garbage. And apossums are native to the America's
and they actually got their name from Captain John Smith,
the English soldier who helped establish the Jamestown colony in Virginia.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Wow, so John Smith named the apossum. I don't think
that that was in my elementary.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
School history books mine either, But in sixteen oh eight,
Smith wrote the first known English description of the creature,
and he explained that the local tribes called it an apossum,
which was his own phonetic approximation of this Algonquin word
meaning white animal.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
And so what about possums, like, where do they live?
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Apparently they live in Australia, But surprise, surprise, their name
also ties back to European exploration. So more than a
century after John Smith encountered a possums in the forests
of Virginia, a totally different group of British explorers made
their way to Australia and also to New Guinea, and
one of them was this naturalist. His name was Sir
(02:42):
Joseph Banks, and during his travels he came across an
animal that resembled the descriptions of American apossums. You know,
it wasn't a perfect match, right, Like the ones in
Australia were smaller, they had less pointed snouts. They also
had big furry tales with no white on their faces.
So Banks just kind of adjusted the name just a
(03:02):
little bit, like ever so slightly and called them possums.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
That is so bizarre, Like, let's keep most of the name,
but we'll just we'll just tweak it a little bit
so that, you know, Will and Gabe and Mango can
clarify the differences between the animals on a podcast two
hundred and fifty years later.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
I know, it really is impressive and I feel honored
that Sir Joseph Banks teed it up for us to
educate the world two hundred and fifty years later. But
the strange thing is that they are in fact related,
Like you know, they are very distant branches of the
same family tree. That said Australian possums are actually much
more closely related to kangaroos than they are to a possums,
(03:41):
And on today's episode, we're actually shining a light purely
on a possums because these little neighbors of ours are
full of weird surprises and we found nine incredible facts
about them, so let's dive in. Hey, their podcast listeners,
(04:16):
welcome to part time genius. I am Monga's articular aka Mango,
and Will cannot be here today. We miss you will,
but stepping in to replace them is my good friend,
researcher for the show, writer for the show, all around
personality for the show gave Lucy a Hey gave Hi Mango.
And on the other side of that soundproof glass hanging
(04:38):
upside down from a pull up bar, that is our
friend and producer Dylan Fagan. And I should note that
Dylan hasn't actually done a pull up yet, so I'm
guessing this is some kind of tribute to the way
that apossums hang upside down from their tails, right GiB.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Yeah, they have those prehensile tails that let them hold
on to things, typically tree branches, not pull up bars.
But it's really only the baby apossums that hang from
their tails like that. Adult males can weigh up to
fourteen pounds, so you know, their little tails wouldn't support
them for very long. So come to think of it,
maybe they should be doing pull ups.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
That is so weird. I feel like we've been lied
to by balds cartanists.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Yeah no, sorry to disappoint. Adultapossums mostly use their tails
to stay balanced, to grip onto tree branches and carry
nesting materials. And while Australian possums also have big, fuzzy,
prehensile tails, they don't hang upside down at all, even
as babies.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
You think you know a guy, right, So, Gabe, where
do you want to start today?
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Why don't we talk about one fact that I sometimes forget,
which is that a possums are not rodents. Instead, they
belong to that special class of mammal where the female
carries and nurses her young in an external pouch on
her abdomen. You know who I'm talking about, marsupials.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
You know. I always felt like we were cheated as
kids because it felt like America didn't have its own
marsupial right, like they were all in Australia. Or whatever else.
But but like it is really cool that we actually
have one.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Yeah, I know, yeah, it feels like when you learn
about marsupials in grade school. Australia really does have the
monopoly on all the cool critters koalas, wombats, kangaroos, a
whole bunch of others I can't remember. And you know,
apossums are kind of this weird outlier because you know,
they aren't over there. They are actually more than one
hundred different species of them spread across South and Central America.
(06:33):
And they've been there for a long time too. Because
apossums are basically living fossils, they coexisted with the dinosaurs
and they've changed very little in all that time. I know, again,
you think you know a guy. But here in North
America we have a species of our own, and that's
the Virginia apossum.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
So why does North America have just one species.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Because so far that's the only species, the only marsupial
that has managed to north of Mexico on its own.
The Virginia possum is technically a tropical species, just like
its southern cousins, but for whatever reason, these little guys
have pushed further and further north over the last few centuries.
They were already well established in the southeastern US by
(07:17):
the seventeenth century, as John Smith showed, and today Virginia
possums are found as far north as New England, the
Upper Midwest, and even parts of Canada.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
So I love that tenacity, and it also feels very
on brand for America's marsupial.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
No, yeah, very much. They get around. And also Virginia
possums are scrappy and not very particular. They'll make a
den just about anywhere, in trees and burrows or even
in abandoned buildings, and they'll eat just about anything plants, insects,
kitchen trash. That adaptability is allowed the species, you know,
(07:54):
to go places where a marsupial really doesn't belong.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
I am curious, like, where don't they belong?
Speaker 2 (08:01):
I mean pretty much anywhere with harsh winters, right, because again,
these are tropical mammals. They really aren't built for cold
temperatures like raccoons or foxes. A possum fur is thin
and sparse, and their tails and ears are completely hairless,
which you know, we find kind of gross. You know,
if you ever see an apossum in the springtime with
a stumpy tail. Cut him some slack because he just
(08:23):
survived a rough winter and he has the frostbite scars
to prove it.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Well. Hopefully my next fact can drum up even more
goodwill for the Virginia apostlem because it's my absolute favorite.
Did you know that apossums have thirteen nipples?
Speaker 2 (08:38):
That is news to me?
Speaker 1 (08:41):
I should think you might be, Ah, you might know that.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
I'm not gonna admit it in public.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
But this is the one thing I like absolutely remember
from mental floss. And also I remember that all those
nipples are arranged in a circle.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Oh, that is so weird.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Why I do want to get to the why. But
they also have more teeth than any other land mammal
in North America, which is why those brilliant smiles of
theirs are, you know, so spectacular and also scary. They
have fifty teeth all stuffed into a really small mouth,
and that's eight more teeth than wolves actually have.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
But I'm going to move off teeth back to nipples.
How many animals have you heard of with an odd
number of nipples? Zero?
Speaker 2 (09:25):
But I'm sure it makes wearing a bikini trickier, right,
and where would you even keep a spare nipple? Like,
they're all just arranged in a circle, you said, even
the thirteenth.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
One, well, twelve are laid out in a circular pattern,
kind of like the numbers on a clock, and the
thirteenth is actually in the center, which is obviously a
very strange arrangement. But also the only reason the circle
arrangement works is because of that external pouch, you know,
the one that holds those infants all snugly in place
even when their mom is on the move. Basically, the
(09:57):
thirteen newborn apossums, which are only about the size of honeybees,
wedge into that pouch and latch on from all the directions.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
I mean, you gotta admire the efficiency, right.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Yeah, but it does have a downside. So unlike baby
placental mammals, which can move around independently between feedings, apossums
basically remain attached to their mothers for several weeks until
they're old enough to wean. So even though they have
litters of twenty or thirty Joey's at a time, and
I think it's cool that they're called Joey's as well,
(10:30):
the most that can ever survive? Are those lucky thirteen? Oh?
Speaker 2 (10:36):
That? I mean, that's that's pretty sad when you think
about it.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Yeah, it is sad. But to make up for it,
I'm going to give you a vocab gift, which is,
you know, how we show our love on the show.
Apparently a group of living, thriving young apossums is called
a passel.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
A passel of apossums. I like that. But since you
raise this, you know, very grim specter of apossum death,
I think now seems like a good time to talk
about the species knack for pretending to be dead. We've
all heard the expression playing possum, which refers to someone
feigning death in order to trick an opponent, and I
guess in this case it should actually be called playing apossum.
(11:12):
But here's the thing. Apossums aren't trying to deceive anybody
because they can't actually choose when they play dead. It's
a completely involuntary response called thanatosis or tonic immobility, and
it's basically their body's last ditch effort to avoid being eaten.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
I like that you're clearing up the fact that they're
actually very honest creatures and they're not going to trick anyone,
but work exactly because you know, you think a better
strategy would be to like just fight or race away,
you know, pretty much anything but going limp right.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Well, I mean it works in the apossum's case because
many of its natural predators, like hawks and snakes, prefer
to feed on live prey, and they tend to lose
interest when one of their targets, you know, suddenly keels
over with its tongue hanging out, and when dealing with
bread who don't mind a bit of scavenging, like foxes,
the apossum goes a step further to repel them. It
(12:06):
actually voids its bowels and excretes a foul smelling mucus
so that other animals will think it's gone rancid.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
I discuss that is so gross and so clever.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
I guess right, yeah, I mean, it's definitely an effective
defense system, you know, whether the apossum knows it or not.
But it's also kind of risky. For instance, an a
possum's catatonic state can last up to four hours, which is,
you know, more than enough time for a less picky
predator to find them. Not to mention there are lots
of unlucky ones that play dead in the middle of
(12:39):
the road, and the odds of them waking up before
a car comes along or slimmed to none. And that's
a big reason why Virginia apossums only live about two
years in the wild on average versus ten years in captivity.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Yeah. I mean, it is sad to think about, but
I bet a lot of people are mostly familiar with
the possums as roadkill, right, Dylan, Actually, before this episode,
pitch me on making a PTG bumper sticker that says
true patriots break for America's only native marsupial. I didn't
know what he was talking about before, but now I
(13:13):
feel like I would slap that sticker on my car
for sure.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Yeah, and that reminds me. Have you heard the old
Southern joke about planked possum aka possum treat? I mean,
I'm from Delaware, so no, Yeah, fair enough, So that's
a no.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
So this joke is basically, you know, plays on the
idea that a possum meat isn't that tasty to most people.
MU probably relate, And it's basically this long winded recipe
about how to roast an apossum on a wooden board.
So it goes through all these detailed steps like how
to make a special glaze and how to parboil this
like hyper specific yam from East Texas. You gotta get
(13:50):
that yam. And then the last step, you know, which
is also the punchline, is that you throw out the
apossum and eat the board instead.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Oh, the whole switch through. I got it. Whatever apossum's
lack and tastiness, they more than makeup for in other ways.
For instance, did you know that they have secret powers
of immunity or that one of them was pretty enough
to be issued an official pardon by a North Carolina governor.
We're going to be talking about both of those after
(14:21):
a quick break, so don't go anywhere.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Welcome back to Part Time Genius, where we're talking about
nine reasons why apossums are more awesome than you think.
We've got five facts left to go, But if you
dig the show so far, help us out and subscribe
on your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a
fellow animal lover. We also love hearing from you, so
let us know if you have a question or idea
(15:00):
like us to look into you can give us a
call at three oh two four oh five five nine
two five, email us at high Geniuses at gmail dot com,
or come find us on blue Sky and Instagram at
part time Genius.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
I mean, there are a million ways to get in touch,
so it feels like people have no excuses, right, I know, just.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Pick your favorite and uh yeah reach out all right
and I goo, let's go back to your teas. Before
the break, you said a possums have some crazy kind
of immunity. So what are we talking here? Diplomatic tribal?
Speaker 1 (15:31):
What do they got? So what I was talking about
actually is this incredible adaptive immunity that makes the possums
kind of unaffected by animal venom. There is a special
protein in their blood that completely neutralizes toxic components, and
it allows an a possum to survive a bite or
a sting that might otherwise kill an animal its size.
(15:53):
The trait is especially useful when squaring off against dangerous
snakes like copper heads and water moccasins, but it is
also handy for warding off the venomous stings of things
like honeybees or scorpions.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
That is a much cooler trick than like pretending to
be dead.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
And oozing goo.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Yeah, completely, But how did they become immune to venom
What was it? Because they were, you know, attacked all
the time by venomous snakes or something.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
I mean, that definitely is one theory, but researchers aren't
completely sure. Somethink that possums immunity is actually more about
offense than defense, and in that scenario, they would have
evolved immunity for the sake of expanding their diet. Right, So,
despite what you might think of possums, you know, they're scavengers,
but they also eat a lot of rattle snakes, honey bees, scorpions,
(16:40):
so it kind of makes sense.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Yeah, And I mean that definitely works in our favor too, right,
Like always nice to have fewer rattle snakes and scorpions
prowling around the neighborhood.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Yeah, And possums are a big help with things like
population control, not just with venomous species. They're also great
for like clearing out past like garden slugs or cockroaches ticks.
They help beautified landscape by eating things like rotten fruit.
They're essentially living vacuum cleaners for cities and suburbs and
they really will just hoover up just about anything.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Didn't you write a poem about or two in apossum
a few years back, like some kind of owed to
the apostlem, you remember, Yeah, it was for a show
I did called Humans Growing Stuff.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
And this was way back in COVID lockdown. It was
like three am in Brooklyn, and Lizzie and I heard
this weird shuffling outside and we were like, is that
a big cat or a person? There's a sound on
this little balcony that's above our bedroom, right, so so
like you could hear this like clomping around, and then
it sort of quietly, not so quietly, came down these
(17:44):
metal outdoor stairs, and so it kind of felt like
we were in this bad horror movie. And you know,
we'd both been startled and we didn't know what it was.
And it's three am, so I'm just kind of tracking
the sounds, and then I peeked out the window with
my light and I just saw this goofy looking like
pretty big possum with all these pointy chompers, and I
was definitely taken.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
Aback, I bet, but Mango, there's no getting away from it.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
The poem please, Yeah, so on the show, I presented
this with hand drums, sort of beat poetry style. I
think I called it poetry corner, but I just pulled
up the text of this. So this poem is called
quote an apology to the apossum in my garden who
made me shriek today loudly at three am in the morning,
(18:30):
And I'm gonna read it for you now. I'm sorry
that when I saw you, I screamed and showed you away.
But now that I know you feast on slugs, please
help yourself to the buffet.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Thank you, beautiful, beautiful, I'm gonna snap so dumb, does
your garden have a lot of slugs?
Speaker 1 (18:52):
I mean when it rains like it actually has so
many of them. I've never experienced anything like it. And
I also never assumed, like of all places will be
slug filled, but you end up with like beautiful birds
coming through as a result, and I guess also possums.
But before we move on, I want to mention one
other possum trait that we should all be grateful for,
(19:13):
and that is its low body temperature. So as marsupials,
the possums run a little bit cooler than other mammals.
So while the normal body temperature for a human ranges
between ninety seven and ninety nine degrees fahrenheit, and the
possums can be as low as ninety four degrees fahrenheit.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
And why is that something to be thankful for?
Speaker 1 (19:32):
Apparently, the difference of a few degrees makes it much
harder for an apossum to contract rabies, which you know,
it's kind of remarkable. The virus just can't survive for
that long and a body that cold, and that means
it's extremely unlikely that you'll ever cross paths with an
infected apossum. That said, if you do encounter a wild apossum,
you should still keep your distance. You know, they aren't
(19:54):
aggressive by nature, but they're safe than than sorry.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Yeah, yeah, a good reminder not to go out and
hug an apossum, no matter how cuddly they look, even
though you know you might want to. After I tell
you about the apossum's trademark display of affection, which is
something called slubbing. Have you heard of it?
Speaker 1 (20:13):
I mean, I try to keep up on all the
new apossum lego, but I've never heard of slubbing, So
tell me about it.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Well, The word itself is short for slobber rubbing, and
that pretty much tells you all you need to know.
Opossums will lick an object or sometimes a person that
they like, and then forcefully rub against it with their chin.
If you ever see this in action, it is gross
and funny and oddly charming. There are plenty of videos
(20:41):
out there, but keep in mind you will come across
titles like quote apossum can't stop slubbing his mom and
just you know, go ahead and click through. It's not
what you think.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
So I'm both grateful for the link and for the warning,
but I'm curious you said this was a show of affection.
Sounds more like it's marking territory.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
It's a bit of both, really wild. The possums might
slub to mark their territory and leave behind their scent
for potential mates, while the possums in captivity generally slub
their favorite toys or caregivers. In either case, slobber rubbing
is a way for a possums to claim something they
like as theirs, and when you think about it, the
behavior isn't that unusual. Cats do something very similar called bunting,
(21:26):
which is when they rub their faces on things to
claim ownership and express affection. The apossum version just involves
you know, way more saliva.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Well, speaking of ways to show affection, I want to
circle back to this other story. It teast earlier and
it's the one about the apossum who was pardoned by
a governor. So this story starts back in nineteen seventy
when a male apossum named Slowpoke won the Prettiest Possum
Award at the National Hollerin Contest in Spivey's Corner, North Carolina.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
What a sentence and prettiest possum I love that.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Yeah, well that's how the day starts. But the main
event that day was the second annual Field holler In Contest,
where local farmers competed to give the best yell or yodel.
But back to the prettiest possum. So slow Poke just
cruises to victory, right, just eases right in there, because
you know, slow Poke, he is unusual. He's got this
(22:22):
all white coat and it's impressive. He's got a fourteen
inch tail that is just too much to compete with. Right,
he is a butte and as a prize, he and
the other human contest winners get this private meet and
greet with North Carolina's governor, Bob Scott.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Feels like slow Poke, you know, probably would have preferred
a bag of crickets or something to a meet and greet,
But okay.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
You know, it also would have been a better idea
to give him crickets because Bob Scott was an unapologetic
possum eater. Now one of the other winners, the newly
crowned possum Queen, Margaret and Wilkes, happened to mention that
she had never tasted a possum. So the governor said
he would remedy that by hosting a banquet for her
at the executive mansion, with poor little slow Poke being
(23:08):
served as the main course.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
No, and everyone was okay with that, like serving up
the prettiest possum on a plate.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
No, not really so. For weeks after the plan had
come out, people wrote angry letters to their local newspapers
insisting that the Democratic governor call off his twisted dinner party.
And the backlash wasn't just from private citizens and employed.
The state Department of Conservation and Development also registered his disapproval, wrote, quote,
Slowpoke has been subjected to such inanimal like treatment as
(23:39):
being given a bath every other day in certified milk
and having his toenails polished. And I might add that
unless Governor Scott comes up with a substitute meal, I
fear our entire street will vote Republican in the next election. Wow. Anyway,
after more than a month of public pressure, the governor
finally holds this press event in Capitol Square. He announces
(23:59):
that slow Poke would not be eaten and would instead
receive a full, unconditional pardon.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
So let me get this straight. Slow Poke's crime was
winning a beauty contest, and he was pardoned from being
eaten by the governor.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Yeah. But Governor Scott was quick to double down after
the ceremony, telling reporters I shall not be thwarted in
my appetite from bossalom. I just want to let everyone know.
And then a few years later he followed through on
that by serving possum at a black Tide dinner. Wow,
but you will be happy to hear that slow Poke
did not wind up on the Governor's dinner table. He
(24:39):
got to live out the rest of his life in
peace and quiet at Raven Rock State Park. No One
painted his toenails ever again, and he died a free,
unroasted possum.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
All right, here's the slow poke, and you know, interestingly enough,
Governor Scott was not the only American politician to proudly
feast on possum meat. Multiple presidents were known to sample
the dish at one time or another, but the most
frequent offender in that regard was our old buddy William Taft,
who famously attended a possum and Tater's feast two months
(25:14):
before his inauguration. The event was hosted in early nineteen
oh nine by the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, and the
main course was requested by Taft himself. His choice of
possum was basically a nod and a plea to the
Southern States, which had voted overwhelmingly against him. It's unclear
how many new supporters he won that night, but if
(25:36):
nothing else, Taff seemed to enjoy the meal. According to
the Associated Press quote, after several helpings to the dish,
mister Taft received a message from a doctor sitting nearby
telling him to be careful, but he paid no attention
to the warning. Soon there was only a shattered wreck
remaining of the eighteen pound Billy possum that was toted
(25:57):
up to mister Taft's table.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
That is insane. Eighteen pounds is a lot of meat,
let alone possum meat. But uh, who named this possum Billy?
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Well, that's the thing. Billy Possum was a nickname for
William Taft. The hunting exploits of his predecessor, Teddy Roosevelt
had inspired the creation of the Teddy Bear, and in
the lead up to Taft's Possum Supper, a cartoonist named
Lewis Greg joke that Teddy bears would now be supplanted
by Billy possums as the nation's new favorite toy.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
That's amazing, and I always love when someone tries to
capitalize on someone else's more authentic trend. But I mean,
I feel like the Teddy Bear was named that because
Roosevelt supposedly like spared the life of a bear, but
in task case, he devours this eighteen pound namesake and
a fancy dinner party that is not endearing in the least.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Yeah, it's not the same thing, And that's sort of
the joke Greg was trying to make. Wouldn't it be ridiculous?
If kids started cuddling up with stuffed possums just because
the new An eight one. And you know, since the
cartoon was published just five days before the banquet, it
was still on everybody's mind that night, so much so
that Taft was actually presented with his very own Billy
(27:12):
possum stuffed animal after the meal. Again, it was meant
as a joke, but once word got out, there was
this mad dash among toy companies to capitalize on what
they assumed would be the hot new craze. So by
the end of the month, the newly formed Georgia Billy
Possum Company was cranking out thousands of stuffed to possums
(27:33):
in three different sizes, And by that summer, the German
toy company Stife, which had popularized the Teddy Bear, had
hopped on the bandwagon and released its own Billy possum.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
That's interesting that the company behind the Teddy Bear I
got on board. So did this whole thing take off?
Speaker 2 (27:50):
No sales were abysmal, and the whole thing was deemed
a failure by late July. Richard Stife, the nephew of
the company's founder, later admitted that they never actually had
faith in the product, saying, quote, I don't believe in
mixing toys and politics, but they kept at me to
make the Billy Possum, and then nobody wanted it. The
(28:12):
American youngster instinctively turns away from what is ugly or grotesque.
That was the trouble. It was too ugly an animal.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Yeah, well, I guess they never met Slopo, who was
obviously a supermodel of the species. From everything I've read about.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
It, that's right, prettiest possum. But don't feel too bad
for old Billy. He lived on throughout Taff's presidency and
songs and postcards, and because his toy was produced in
such low numbers, even one in rough shape is worth
thousands of dollars today. So even though he did not
prove a worthy successor to the Teddy Bear, he still
(28:51):
has his fans.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Well, I am one of them. And since this episode
is all about celebrating the misunderstood majesty of these little
underdogs or under possums, I want to close us out
by spotlighting a town that does exactly that each and
every New Year's Eve, and Gabe as a somewhat southern gentleman,
I mean Maryland, Tennessee, etcetera. Accounts as the South. Right. Sure,
(29:15):
I assume you're familiar with the annual possum drop that
takes place in Tallipalooza, Georgia. Right.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Oh, yeah, I highlighted on my year. Yeah no, no, no,
I've never heard of it.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
Is Well, first of all, it's really more of an
a possum lowering than a possum drop, and the animal
in question has actually been dead for decades.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
I don't think you're really selling this.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Maybe not, but it's definitely not as bad as it sounds.
So Tallapoosa was originally known as Possum Snout, and this
was because of its abundance of a possums. And now
the town celebrates that possum rich history every year by
lowering a taxidermy to possum named Spencer from the roof
of a local law office. And it is kind of
(30:00):
have a sweet take on the New Year's Eve ball drop, right,
And I guess the tradition started in the mid nineteen nineties.
This is when the town officials decided to create their
own New Year's Eve event, inspired by the town's old name. Now,
the organizers asked the town's residential taxidermists Bud and Jackie
Jones if they had mounted apossums that they could spare,
and not surprisingly, they did so. The couple had found
(30:22):
the poor little dead guy on the side of the
road many many years ago and had taken to calling
him Spencer in honor of Ralph Spencer, one of the
towns founding businessmen. Now, the inaugural Possum Drop was attended
by only about forty people, but it since expanded into
a city wide event. It has live music carnivalized. The
(30:43):
estimated crowd at last year's drop was well over thirteen
thousand people, which is more than four times the town's population.
People actually come from all over the country to watch
Spencer's yearly descent in his lighted countdown ball. I mean,
I think we should think about going next year. But
while Billy Possum didn't win over the people's hearts and minds,
(31:03):
Tallapoosa's stuffed apossum certainly has.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
I love that. And you know, twenty twenty six is
technically the year of the Horse, right according to the
Chinese zodiac. But after that story, I'm thinking we should
buck the system and declare it the year of the Apossum.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
What do you think you with me? Since you introduced
us to Billy Possum and the wonders of slubbing. I
am going to give you today's trophy.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
And look at that. You got it engraved and everything.
Gabe Lucy a Possum Queen twenty twenty six. This is
going right up on the mantle. Thank you, Mango.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Well, that is it for today's episode. We have a
question for you out there. If you want to hear
more of my ridiculous fact poetry like the Apossum poem,
send us an email, send us a fact you want
us to write about, or reach out on Blue Sky
or Instagram. We are at Part Time Genius. We'll be
back next week with another brand new episode in the
(32:01):
meantime from Will, Dylan, Gabe, Mary, and myself. Thank you
so much for listening. Part Time Genius is a production
(32:21):
of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. It is hosted by my good
pal Will Pearson, who I've known for almost three decades now.
That is insane to me. I'm the other co host,
Mangeshatikular aka Mango. Our producer is Mary Phillips Sandy. She's
actually a super producer. I'm going to fix that in post.
Our writer is Gabe Lucier, who I've also known for
(32:44):
like a decade at this point, maybe more. Dylan Fagan
is in the booth. He is always dressed up, always
cheering us on, and always ready to hit record and
then mix the show after he does a great job.
I also want to shout out the executive producers from
iHeart my Good Pals Katrina and Norvel and Ali Perry.
We have social media support from Calypso Rallis. If you
(33:06):
like our videos, that is all Calypso's handiwork for more
podcasts from Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or tune in wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
That's it from us here at Part Time Genius. Thank
you so much for listening.
You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope
and iHeartRadio. Guess what gave?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
What's that mango?
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Do you know that? And apossum and apossum are two
completely different animals.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
That didn't even sound like two different words.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
I know, I actually thought that as I said it,
But for a long time I thought it was the
same animal. It was just like a regional dialect difference.
Like depending on where you live, a groundhog is also
called a ground pig, or a marmot, or a woodchuck
or even a land.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Beaver land beaver. I don't know about some of those,
Like how much wood does a ground pig chuck? That
it doesn't have the same ring to it now?
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Yeah, you know, like trying to determine how much more
winter there is based on whether land beaver saw its
own shadow, right, Like, some words just work better than others,
even if it's the same animal. But back to possums
and opossums, it turns out they are different words with
different pronunciations, and they refer to two totally different animals.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Okay, And which one is it that keeps knocking over
my trash cans? Because you know, I want to address
them properly, you know, when I yell out the window
at them tonight.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Yeah, So that would be a possums. And those are
the ones that you and I are familiar with, right,
like those stumpy little mammals with grayish fur rat like
tails and pointy white faces that you sometimes see rooting
through your garbage. And apossums are native to the America's
and they actually got their name from Captain John Smith,
the English soldier who helped establish the Jamestown colony in Virginia.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Wow, so John Smith named the apossum. I don't think
that that was in my elementary.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
School history books mine either, But in sixteen oh eight,
Smith wrote the first known English description of the creature,
and he explained that the local tribes called it an apossum,
which was his own phonetic approximation of this Algonquin word
meaning white animal.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
And so what about possums, like, where do they live?
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Apparently they live in Australia, But surprise, surprise, their name
also ties back to European exploration. So more than a
century after John Smith encountered a possums in the forests
of Virginia, a totally different group of British explorers made
their way to Australia and also to New Guinea, and
one of them was this naturalist. His name was Sir
(02:42):
Joseph Banks, and during his travels he came across an
animal that resembled the descriptions of American apossums. You know,
it wasn't a perfect match, right, Like the ones in
Australia were smaller, they had less pointed snouts. They also
had big furry tales with no white on their faces.
So Banks just kind of adjusted the name just a
(03:02):
little bit, like ever so slightly and called them possums.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
That is so bizarre, Like, let's keep most of the name,
but we'll just we'll just tweak it a little bit
so that, you know, Will and Gabe and Mango can
clarify the differences between the animals on a podcast two
hundred and fifty years later.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
I know, it really is impressive and I feel honored
that Sir Joseph Banks teed it up for us to
educate the world two hundred and fifty years later. But
the strange thing is that they are in fact related,
Like you know, they are very distant branches of the
same family tree. That said Australian possums are actually much
more closely related to kangaroos than they are to a possums,
(03:41):
And on today's episode, we're actually shining a light purely
on a possums because these little neighbors of ours are
full of weird surprises and we found nine incredible facts
about them, so let's dive in. Hey, their podcast listeners,
(04:16):
welcome to part time genius. I am Monga's articular aka Mango,
and Will cannot be here today. We miss you will,
but stepping in to replace them is my good friend,
researcher for the show, writer for the show, all around
personality for the show gave Lucy a Hey gave Hi Mango.
And on the other side of that soundproof glass hanging
(04:38):
upside down from a pull up bar, that is our
friend and producer Dylan Fagan. And I should note that
Dylan hasn't actually done a pull up yet, so I'm
guessing this is some kind of tribute to the way
that apossums hang upside down from their tails, right GiB.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Yeah, they have those prehensile tails that let them hold
on to things, typically tree branches, not pull up bars.
But it's really only the baby apossums that hang from
their tails like that. Adult males can weigh up to
fourteen pounds, so you know, their little tails wouldn't support
them for very long. So come to think of it,
maybe they should be doing pull ups.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
That is so weird. I feel like we've been lied
to by balds cartanists.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Yeah no, sorry to disappoint. Adultapossums mostly use their tails
to stay balanced, to grip onto tree branches and carry
nesting materials. And while Australian possums also have big, fuzzy,
prehensile tails, they don't hang upside down at all, even
as babies.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
You think you know a guy, right, So, Gabe, where
do you want to start today?
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Why don't we talk about one fact that I sometimes forget,
which is that a possums are not rodents. Instead, they
belong to that special class of mammal where the female
carries and nurses her young in an external pouch on
her abdomen. You know who I'm talking about, marsupials.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
You know. I always felt like we were cheated as
kids because it felt like America didn't have its own
marsupial right, like they were all in Australia. Or whatever else.
But but like it is really cool that we actually
have one.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Yeah, I know, yeah, it feels like when you learn
about marsupials in grade school. Australia really does have the
monopoly on all the cool critters koalas, wombats, kangaroos, a
whole bunch of others I can't remember. And you know,
apossums are kind of this weird outlier because you know,
they aren't over there. They are actually more than one
hundred different species of them spread across South and Central America.
(06:33):
And they've been there for a long time too. Because
apossums are basically living fossils, they coexisted with the dinosaurs
and they've changed very little in all that time. I know, again,
you think you know a guy. But here in North
America we have a species of our own, and that's
the Virginia apossum.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
So why does North America have just one species.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Because so far that's the only species, the only marsupial
that has managed to north of Mexico on its own.
The Virginia possum is technically a tropical species, just like
its southern cousins, but for whatever reason, these little guys
have pushed further and further north over the last few centuries.
They were already well established in the southeastern US by
(07:17):
the seventeenth century, as John Smith showed, and today Virginia
possums are found as far north as New England, the
Upper Midwest, and even parts of Canada.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
So I love that tenacity, and it also feels very
on brand for America's marsupial.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
No, yeah, very much. They get around. And also Virginia
possums are scrappy and not very particular. They'll make a
den just about anywhere, in trees and burrows or even
in abandoned buildings, and they'll eat just about anything plants, insects,
kitchen trash. That adaptability is allowed the species, you know,
(07:54):
to go places where a marsupial really doesn't belong.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
I am curious, like, where don't they belong?
Speaker 2 (08:01):
I mean pretty much anywhere with harsh winters, right, because again,
these are tropical mammals. They really aren't built for cold
temperatures like raccoons or foxes. A possum fur is thin
and sparse, and their tails and ears are completely hairless,
which you know, we find kind of gross. You know,
if you ever see an apossum in the springtime with
a stumpy tail. Cut him some slack because he just
(08:23):
survived a rough winter and he has the frostbite scars
to prove it.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Well. Hopefully my next fact can drum up even more
goodwill for the Virginia apostlem because it's my absolute favorite.
Did you know that apossums have thirteen nipples?
Speaker 2 (08:38):
That is news to me?
Speaker 1 (08:41):
I should think you might be, Ah, you might know that.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
I'm not gonna admit it in public.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
But this is the one thing I like absolutely remember
from mental floss. And also I remember that all those
nipples are arranged in a circle.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Oh, that is so weird.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Why I do want to get to the why. But
they also have more teeth than any other land mammal
in North America, which is why those brilliant smiles of
theirs are, you know, so spectacular and also scary. They
have fifty teeth all stuffed into a really small mouth,
and that's eight more teeth than wolves actually have.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
But I'm going to move off teeth back to nipples.
How many animals have you heard of with an odd
number of nipples? Zero?
Speaker 2 (09:25):
But I'm sure it makes wearing a bikini trickier, right,
and where would you even keep a spare nipple? Like,
they're all just arranged in a circle, you said, even
the thirteenth.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
One, well, twelve are laid out in a circular pattern,
kind of like the numbers on a clock, and the
thirteenth is actually in the center, which is obviously a
very strange arrangement. But also the only reason the circle
arrangement works is because of that external pouch, you know,
the one that holds those infants all snugly in place
even when their mom is on the move. Basically, the
(09:57):
thirteen newborn apossums, which are only about the size of honeybees,
wedge into that pouch and latch on from all the directions.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
I mean, you gotta admire the efficiency, right.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Yeah, but it does have a downside. So unlike baby
placental mammals, which can move around independently between feedings, apossums
basically remain attached to their mothers for several weeks until
they're old enough to wean. So even though they have
litters of twenty or thirty Joey's at a time, and
I think it's cool that they're called Joey's as well,
(10:30):
the most that can ever survive? Are those lucky thirteen? Oh?
Speaker 2 (10:36):
That? I mean, that's that's pretty sad when you think
about it.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Yeah, it is sad. But to make up for it,
I'm going to give you a vocab gift, which is,
you know, how we show our love on the show.
Apparently a group of living, thriving young apossums is called
a passel.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
A passel of apossums. I like that. But since you
raise this, you know, very grim specter of apossum death,
I think now seems like a good time to talk
about the species knack for pretending to be dead. We've
all heard the expression playing possum, which refers to someone
feigning death in order to trick an opponent, and I
guess in this case it should actually be called playing apossum.
(11:12):
But here's the thing. Apossums aren't trying to deceive anybody
because they can't actually choose when they play dead. It's
a completely involuntary response called thanatosis or tonic immobility, and
it's basically their body's last ditch effort to avoid being eaten.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
I like that you're clearing up the fact that they're
actually very honest creatures and they're not going to trick anyone,
but work exactly because you know, you think a better
strategy would be to like just fight or race away,
you know, pretty much anything but going limp right.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Well, I mean it works in the apossum's case because
many of its natural predators, like hawks and snakes, prefer
to feed on live prey, and they tend to lose
interest when one of their targets, you know, suddenly keels
over with its tongue hanging out, and when dealing with
bread who don't mind a bit of scavenging, like foxes,
the apossum goes a step further to repel them. It
(12:06):
actually voids its bowels and excretes a foul smelling mucus
so that other animals will think it's gone rancid.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
I discuss that is so gross and so clever.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
I guess right, yeah, I mean, it's definitely an effective
defense system, you know, whether the apossum knows it or not.
But it's also kind of risky. For instance, an a
possum's catatonic state can last up to four hours, which is,
you know, more than enough time for a less picky
predator to find them. Not to mention there are lots
of unlucky ones that play dead in the middle of
(12:39):
the road, and the odds of them waking up before
a car comes along or slimmed to none. And that's
a big reason why Virginia apossums only live about two
years in the wild on average versus ten years in captivity.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Yeah. I mean, it is sad to think about, but
I bet a lot of people are mostly familiar with
the possums as roadkill, right, Dylan, Actually, before this episode,
pitch me on making a PTG bumper sticker that says
true patriots break for America's only native marsupial. I didn't
know what he was talking about before, but now I
(13:13):
feel like I would slap that sticker on my car
for sure.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Yeah, and that reminds me. Have you heard the old
Southern joke about planked possum aka possum treat? I mean,
I'm from Delaware, so no, Yeah, fair enough, So that's
a no.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
So this joke is basically, you know, plays on the
idea that a possum meat isn't that tasty to most people.
MU probably relate, And it's basically this long winded recipe
about how to roast an apossum on a wooden board.
So it goes through all these detailed steps like how
to make a special glaze and how to parboil this
like hyper specific yam from East Texas. You gotta get
(13:50):
that yam. And then the last step, you know, which
is also the punchline, is that you throw out the
apossum and eat the board instead.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Oh, the whole switch through. I got it. Whatever apossum's
lack and tastiness, they more than makeup for in other ways.
For instance, did you know that they have secret powers
of immunity or that one of them was pretty enough
to be issued an official pardon by a North Carolina governor.
We're going to be talking about both of those after
(14:21):
a quick break, so don't go anywhere.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Welcome back to Part Time Genius, where we're talking about
nine reasons why apossums are more awesome than you think.
We've got five facts left to go, But if you
dig the show so far, help us out and subscribe
on your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a
fellow animal lover. We also love hearing from you, so
let us know if you have a question or idea
(15:00):
like us to look into you can give us a
call at three oh two four oh five five nine
two five, email us at high Geniuses at gmail dot com,
or come find us on blue Sky and Instagram at
part time Genius.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
I mean, there are a million ways to get in touch,
so it feels like people have no excuses, right, I know, just.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Pick your favorite and uh yeah reach out all right
and I goo, let's go back to your teas. Before
the break, you said a possums have some crazy kind
of immunity. So what are we talking here? Diplomatic tribal?
Speaker 1 (15:31):
What do they got? So what I was talking about
actually is this incredible adaptive immunity that makes the possums
kind of unaffected by animal venom. There is a special
protein in their blood that completely neutralizes toxic components, and
it allows an a possum to survive a bite or
a sting that might otherwise kill an animal its size.
(15:53):
The trait is especially useful when squaring off against dangerous
snakes like copper heads and water moccasins, but it is
also handy for warding off the venomous stings of things
like honeybees or scorpions.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
That is a much cooler trick than like pretending to
be dead.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
And oozing goo.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Yeah, completely, But how did they become immune to venom
What was it? Because they were, you know, attacked all
the time by venomous snakes or something.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
I mean, that definitely is one theory, but researchers aren't
completely sure. Somethink that possums immunity is actually more about
offense than defense, and in that scenario, they would have
evolved immunity for the sake of expanding their diet. Right, So,
despite what you might think of possums, you know, they're scavengers,
but they also eat a lot of rattle snakes, honey bees, scorpions,
(16:40):
so it kind of makes sense.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Yeah, And I mean that definitely works in our favor too, right,
Like always nice to have fewer rattle snakes and scorpions
prowling around the neighborhood.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Yeah, And possums are a big help with things like
population control, not just with venomous species. They're also great
for like clearing out past like garden slugs or cockroaches ticks.
They help beautified landscape by eating things like rotten fruit.
They're essentially living vacuum cleaners for cities and suburbs and
they really will just hoover up just about anything.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Didn't you write a poem about or two in apossum
a few years back, like some kind of owed to
the apostlem, you remember, Yeah, it was for a show
I did called Humans Growing Stuff.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
And this was way back in COVID lockdown. It was
like three am in Brooklyn, and Lizzie and I heard
this weird shuffling outside and we were like, is that
a big cat or a person? There's a sound on
this little balcony that's above our bedroom, right, so so
like you could hear this like clomping around, and then
it sort of quietly, not so quietly, came down these
(17:44):
metal outdoor stairs, and so it kind of felt like
we were in this bad horror movie. And you know,
we'd both been startled and we didn't know what it was.
And it's three am, so I'm just kind of tracking
the sounds, and then I peeked out the window with
my light and I just saw this goofy looking like
pretty big possum with all these pointy chompers, and I
was definitely taken.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
Aback, I bet, but Mango, there's no getting away from it.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
The poem please, Yeah, so on the show, I presented
this with hand drums, sort of beat poetry style. I
think I called it poetry corner, but I just pulled
up the text of this. So this poem is called
quote an apology to the apossum in my garden who
made me shriek today loudly at three am in the morning,
(18:30):
And I'm gonna read it for you now. I'm sorry
that when I saw you, I screamed and showed you away.
But now that I know you feast on slugs, please
help yourself to the buffet.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Thank you, beautiful, beautiful, I'm gonna snap so dumb, does
your garden have a lot of slugs?
Speaker 1 (18:52):
I mean when it rains like it actually has so
many of them. I've never experienced anything like it. And
I also never assumed, like of all places will be
slug filled, but you end up with like beautiful birds
coming through as a result, and I guess also possums.
But before we move on, I want to mention one
other possum trait that we should all be grateful for,
(19:13):
and that is its low body temperature. So as marsupials,
the possums run a little bit cooler than other mammals.
So while the normal body temperature for a human ranges
between ninety seven and ninety nine degrees fahrenheit, and the
possums can be as low as ninety four degrees fahrenheit.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
And why is that something to be thankful for?
Speaker 1 (19:32):
Apparently, the difference of a few degrees makes it much
harder for an apossum to contract rabies, which you know,
it's kind of remarkable. The virus just can't survive for
that long and a body that cold, and that means
it's extremely unlikely that you'll ever cross paths with an
infected apossum. That said, if you do encounter a wild apossum,
you should still keep your distance. You know, they aren't
(19:54):
aggressive by nature, but they're safe than than sorry.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Yeah, yeah, a good reminder not to go out and
hug an apossum, no matter how cuddly they look, even
though you know you might want to. After I tell
you about the apossum's trademark display of affection, which is
something called slubbing. Have you heard of it?
Speaker 1 (20:13):
I mean, I try to keep up on all the
new apossum lego, but I've never heard of slubbing, So
tell me about it.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Well, The word itself is short for slobber rubbing, and
that pretty much tells you all you need to know.
Opossums will lick an object or sometimes a person that
they like, and then forcefully rub against it with their chin.
If you ever see this in action, it is gross
and funny and oddly charming. There are plenty of videos
(20:41):
out there, but keep in mind you will come across
titles like quote apossum can't stop slubbing his mom and
just you know, go ahead and click through. It's not
what you think.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
So I'm both grateful for the link and for the warning,
but I'm curious you said this was a show of affection.
Sounds more like it's marking territory.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
It's a bit of both, really wild. The possums might
slub to mark their territory and leave behind their scent
for potential mates, while the possums in captivity generally slub
their favorite toys or caregivers. In either case, slobber rubbing
is a way for a possums to claim something they
like as theirs, and when you think about it, the
behavior isn't that unusual. Cats do something very similar called bunting,
(21:26):
which is when they rub their faces on things to
claim ownership and express affection. The apossum version just involves
you know, way more saliva.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Well, speaking of ways to show affection, I want to
circle back to this other story. It teast earlier and
it's the one about the apossum who was pardoned by
a governor. So this story starts back in nineteen seventy
when a male apossum named Slowpoke won the Prettiest Possum
Award at the National Hollerin Contest in Spivey's Corner, North Carolina.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
What a sentence and prettiest possum I love that.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Yeah, well that's how the day starts. But the main
event that day was the second annual Field holler In Contest,
where local farmers competed to give the best yell or yodel.
But back to the prettiest possum. So slow Poke just
cruises to victory, right, just eases right in there, because
you know, slow Poke, he is unusual. He's got this
(22:22):
all white coat and it's impressive. He's got a fourteen
inch tail that is just too much to compete with. Right,
he is a butte and as a prize, he and
the other human contest winners get this private meet and
greet with North Carolina's governor, Bob Scott.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Feels like slow Poke, you know, probably would have preferred
a bag of crickets or something to a meet and greet,
But okay.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
You know, it also would have been a better idea
to give him crickets because Bob Scott was an unapologetic
possum eater. Now one of the other winners, the newly
crowned possum Queen, Margaret and Wilkes, happened to mention that
she had never tasted a possum. So the governor said
he would remedy that by hosting a banquet for her
at the executive mansion, with poor little slow Poke being
(23:08):
served as the main course.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
No, and everyone was okay with that, like serving up
the prettiest possum on a plate.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
No, not really so. For weeks after the plan had
come out, people wrote angry letters to their local newspapers
insisting that the Democratic governor call off his twisted dinner party.
And the backlash wasn't just from private citizens and employed.
The state Department of Conservation and Development also registered his disapproval, wrote, quote,
Slowpoke has been subjected to such inanimal like treatment as
(23:39):
being given a bath every other day in certified milk
and having his toenails polished. And I might add that
unless Governor Scott comes up with a substitute meal, I
fear our entire street will vote Republican in the next election. Wow. Anyway,
after more than a month of public pressure, the governor
finally holds this press event in Capitol Square. He announces
(23:59):
that slow Poke would not be eaten and would instead
receive a full, unconditional pardon.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
So let me get this straight. Slow Poke's crime was
winning a beauty contest, and he was pardoned from being
eaten by the governor.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Yeah. But Governor Scott was quick to double down after
the ceremony, telling reporters I shall not be thwarted in
my appetite from bossalom. I just want to let everyone know.
And then a few years later he followed through on
that by serving possum at a black Tide dinner. Wow,
but you will be happy to hear that slow Poke
did not wind up on the Governor's dinner table. He
(24:39):
got to live out the rest of his life in
peace and quiet at Raven Rock State Park. No One
painted his toenails ever again, and he died a free,
unroasted possum.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
All right, here's the slow poke, and you know, interestingly enough,
Governor Scott was not the only American politician to proudly
feast on possum meat. Multiple presidents were known to sample
the dish at one time or another, but the most
frequent offender in that regard was our old buddy William Taft,
who famously attended a possum and Tater's feast two months
(25:14):
before his inauguration. The event was hosted in early nineteen
oh nine by the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, and the
main course was requested by Taft himself. His choice of
possum was basically a nod and a plea to the
Southern States, which had voted overwhelmingly against him. It's unclear
how many new supporters he won that night, but if
(25:36):
nothing else, Taff seemed to enjoy the meal. According to
the Associated Press quote, after several helpings to the dish,
mister Taft received a message from a doctor sitting nearby
telling him to be careful, but he paid no attention
to the warning. Soon there was only a shattered wreck
remaining of the eighteen pound Billy possum that was toted
(25:57):
up to mister Taft's table.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
That is insane. Eighteen pounds is a lot of meat,
let alone possum meat. But uh, who named this possum Billy?
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Well, that's the thing. Billy Possum was a nickname for
William Taft. The hunting exploits of his predecessor, Teddy Roosevelt
had inspired the creation of the Teddy Bear, and in
the lead up to Taft's Possum Supper, a cartoonist named
Lewis Greg joke that Teddy bears would now be supplanted
by Billy possums as the nation's new favorite toy.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
That's amazing, and I always love when someone tries to
capitalize on someone else's more authentic trend. But I mean,
I feel like the Teddy Bear was named that because
Roosevelt supposedly like spared the life of a bear, but
in task case, he devours this eighteen pound namesake and
a fancy dinner party that is not endearing in the least.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Yeah, it's not the same thing, And that's sort of
the joke Greg was trying to make. Wouldn't it be ridiculous?
If kids started cuddling up with stuffed possums just because
the new An eight one. And you know, since the
cartoon was published just five days before the banquet, it
was still on everybody's mind that night, so much so
that Taft was actually presented with his very own Billy
(27:12):
possum stuffed animal after the meal. Again, it was meant
as a joke, but once word got out, there was
this mad dash among toy companies to capitalize on what
they assumed would be the hot new craze. So by
the end of the month, the newly formed Georgia Billy
Possum Company was cranking out thousands of stuffed to possums
(27:33):
in three different sizes, And by that summer, the German
toy company Stife, which had popularized the Teddy Bear, had
hopped on the bandwagon and released its own Billy possum.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
That's interesting that the company behind the Teddy Bear I
got on board. So did this whole thing take off?
Speaker 2 (27:50):
No sales were abysmal, and the whole thing was deemed
a failure by late July. Richard Stife, the nephew of
the company's founder, later admitted that they never actually had
faith in the product, saying, quote, I don't believe in
mixing toys and politics, but they kept at me to
make the Billy Possum, and then nobody wanted it. The
(28:12):
American youngster instinctively turns away from what is ugly or grotesque.
That was the trouble. It was too ugly an animal.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Yeah, well, I guess they never met Slopo, who was
obviously a supermodel of the species. From everything I've read about.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
It, that's right, prettiest possum. But don't feel too bad
for old Billy. He lived on throughout Taff's presidency and
songs and postcards, and because his toy was produced in
such low numbers, even one in rough shape is worth
thousands of dollars today. So even though he did not
prove a worthy successor to the Teddy Bear, he still
(28:51):
has his fans.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Well, I am one of them. And since this episode
is all about celebrating the misunderstood majesty of these little
underdogs or under possums, I want to close us out
by spotlighting a town that does exactly that each and
every New Year's Eve, and Gabe as a somewhat southern gentleman,
I mean Maryland, Tennessee, etcetera. Accounts as the South. Right. Sure,
(29:15):
I assume you're familiar with the annual possum drop that
takes place in Tallipalooza, Georgia. Right.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Oh, yeah, I highlighted on my year. Yeah no, no, no,
I've never heard of it.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
Is Well, first of all, it's really more of an
a possum lowering than a possum drop, and the animal
in question has actually been dead for decades.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
I don't think you're really selling this.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Maybe not, but it's definitely not as bad as it sounds.
So Tallapoosa was originally known as Possum Snout, and this
was because of its abundance of a possums. And now
the town celebrates that possum rich history every year by
lowering a taxidermy to possum named Spencer from the roof
of a local law office. And it is kind of
(30:00):
have a sweet take on the New Year's Eve ball drop, right,
And I guess the tradition started in the mid nineteen nineties.
This is when the town officials decided to create their
own New Year's Eve event, inspired by the town's old name. Now,
the organizers asked the town's residential taxidermists Bud and Jackie
Jones if they had mounted apossums that they could spare,
and not surprisingly, they did so. The couple had found
(30:22):
the poor little dead guy on the side of the
road many many years ago and had taken to calling
him Spencer in honor of Ralph Spencer, one of the
towns founding businessmen. Now, the inaugural Possum Drop was attended
by only about forty people, but it since expanded into
a city wide event. It has live music carnivalized. The
(30:43):
estimated crowd at last year's drop was well over thirteen
thousand people, which is more than four times the town's population.
People actually come from all over the country to watch
Spencer's yearly descent in his lighted countdown ball. I mean,
I think we should think about going next year. But
while Billy Possum didn't win over the people's hearts and minds,
(31:03):
Tallapoosa's stuffed apossum certainly has.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
I love that. And you know, twenty twenty six is
technically the year of the Horse, right according to the
Chinese zodiac. But after that story, I'm thinking we should
buck the system and declare it the year of the Apossum.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
What do you think you with me? Since you introduced
us to Billy Possum and the wonders of slubbing. I
am going to give you today's trophy.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
And look at that. You got it engraved and everything.
Gabe Lucy a Possum Queen twenty twenty six. This is
going right up on the mantle. Thank you, Mango.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Well, that is it for today's episode. We have a
question for you out there. If you want to hear
more of my ridiculous fact poetry like the Apossum poem,
send us an email, send us a fact you want
us to write about, or reach out on Blue Sky
or Instagram. We are at Part Time Genius. We'll be
back next week with another brand new episode in the
(32:01):
meantime from Will, Dylan, Gabe, Mary, and myself. Thank you
so much for listening. Part Time Genius is a production
(32:21):
of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. It is hosted by my good
pal Will Pearson, who I've known for almost three decades now.
That is insane to me. I'm the other co host,
Mangeshatikular aka Mango. Our producer is Mary Phillips Sandy. She's
actually a super producer. I'm going to fix that in post.
Our writer is Gabe Lucier, who I've also known for
(32:44):
like a decade at this point, maybe more. Dylan Fagan
is in the booth. He is always dressed up, always
cheering us on, and always ready to hit record and
then mix the show after he does a great job.
I also want to shout out the executive producers from
iHeart my Good Pals Katrina and Norvel and Ali Perry.
We have social media support from Calypso Rallis. If you
(33:06):
like our videos, that is all Calypso's handiwork for more
podcasts from Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or tune in wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
That's it from us here at Part Time Genius. Thank
you so much for listening.
Part-Time Genius News
Hosts And Creators
Will Pearson
Mangesh Hattikudur
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