Chapter Six: Peppershire Farms

Isolated on a deserted island farm, the gang find themselves surrounded by deadly plants. When a torrential thunderstorm intensifies the situation, their only hope lies in a long-forgotten greenhouse... Featuring stories on the Machineel Tree, Gympie-Gympie Plant, United Fruit Company Banana Massacre

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:12):
Welcome back to Fort Fritz. I am your host, Fritz,
of course, as always, joined by co host Man Daddy Hi, Marie,
Nick spry Land Ho and Angela Illillow. So we are
at uh nowhere, I guess Land's end. Yeah, although I'm
thankful to be here and not dead in the water,

(00:35):
this kind of sucks.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
Well, I mean, I mean this sucks, but being dead
in the water as an actually dead in the water
probably sucks more.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
Where is here? Well, here is I don't know. It
looks like a small Okay, so there's a greenhouse over here,
but it just looks like a bunch of green growing crap. Really,
I guess we should look around for a little bit.
I honestly don't think Felix is going to be buried here.
I'll tell you that, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:00):
This is a really small island, guys.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
And why, you know, why would he be buried here?

Speaker 2 (01:04):
Islands are always kind of creepy because they're so secluded, usually,
and especially a small one like this, like that might
be owned by like Epstein or something.

Speaker 4 (01:13):
I don't really densely forested.

Speaker 3 (01:15):
But there's a gate. Look, then there's a sign. Okay,
let's think of that all right, hold on, let me
put on my reading glass.

Speaker 5 (01:20):
Guy always finds the coolest crap.

Speaker 6 (01:21):
Okay, there's a grim reaper on it, so that's a
good sign.

Speaker 5 (01:25):
Oh yeah, yeah, the thumbs up is he though it's
the grim Reaper.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
He does look pretty happy, all right.

Speaker 7 (01:32):
So the sign reads there is nothing on this island
worth dying for.

Speaker 3 (01:37):
Okay, don't go beyond this point.

Speaker 6 (01:40):
It's in all caps too.

Speaker 4 (01:41):
It's also in this reddish brown color that's.

Speaker 3 (01:44):
A little drippy.

Speaker 4 (01:46):
Looks concerned about it.

Speaker 5 (01:47):
Tastes like rust.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
I gotta be honest with you, though, that that sign
looks newer than the sign behind it, right behind pepper
Shire thumbs. I remember that it's written in cursive.

Speaker 3 (01:59):
It is very curio though.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
That's an old tign though. And yeah, wait, hold on,
ooh that fell apart when we grumbled pepper pepper shark.
We just heard about this, and that was the lab
assistant that Felix Fritz had a jealous boner for and
blew him up.

Speaker 3 (02:16):
Yeah, he exploded him.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
Yeah, he did not like him.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
He sploated him, but he gave him a farm, or
do you have the farm before he was sploated?

Speaker 1 (02:22):
You know, I've got a whole bunch of tape cassettes
I could play. I guess for you guys, Well, a
lot of them have peppers violent tirades. Actually, you guys
like to hear one, right?

Speaker 2 (02:35):
Ye?

Speaker 6 (02:35):
Sure, why not?

Speaker 1 (02:36):
Here's one.

Speaker 8 (02:37):
So I get a job as his home builder, and
due to my raft, biole shack near where the fort
currently sits. This is the early eighties, after the fall
of Lincoln savings and loans in the late nineteen eighties.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
I buy real estate cheap.

Speaker 8 (02:51):
This is when I realized that just because you can't
pay your mortgage and a crazy corrupt corporation owns that mortgage,
it ain't.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
No skin off my teeth.

Speaker 8 (02:59):
For Fritz was atally a couple of houses that I
string together.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
With some carpentry, and they looked like a big old fort.

Speaker 8 (03:05):
Then I hire mister Peppershier because I still hate him
and I want him to work for me. He does
work around the house, like he builds the underground tunnels
with my railway expertise.

Speaker 3 (03:13):
That's why we have to lands.

Speaker 8 (03:15):
If you have an underground tunnel that connects farms and
different municipalities, but they have to bring their produce to me.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
First, I eat like a king.

Speaker 8 (03:22):
Then I sell the produce at a great profit to
the nearby towns and city centers, and then he tuttled
down Reaganomics. Thank you very much, mister Ronald gets given
back to the landowners. Now that lasts for a little
bit of time, until, of course, I have to liquidate
those lands and tell them that they are no longer
welcome on their family's properties. That affects me none. During

(03:42):
this entire time, I had a bet with doctor Oh.
I bet him that I was the supreme master of
the dark arts, to which he kindly disagreed and said
that he was. And I said, how about this, I
will make mister Peppershire create a super monster, and I
would make him go crazy by suggesting that an ordinary
object was actually a curse talent, to which Doctor O said, well,
how about this. This is a thimble. It literally came

(04:03):
from my wife sewing kit. So I said, game on,
that's easy enough, and I won. Mister Peppershire went crazy
after creating the super beast Restrepham, who is Sawyer out
there still.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
Some concern but is a bet, I went, And that
means Doctor Oh.

Speaker 8 (04:18):
Then has to make sure that Peppershire explos himself in
a lab experiment going wrong, makes sure to do because
he sets a chemistry and way better than him. Doctor
O then excommunicated me from that day for it. I
think he had a strong affinity to mister Peppershire. He
didn't want to kill him, but he had two because
I kept reminding him that he lost the bet and
I won the bet. And then, uh, he really saw
the full potential of evil at me in that day
and I probably should have killed doctor Oh, but I'm

(04:40):
gonna do some more cocaine about it and shut my.

Speaker 1 (04:41):
Mouth, all right.

Speaker 4 (04:44):
A lot of backstory.

Speaker 1 (04:47):
Ustrepham is not some person but actually a beast. Yeah,
and it's still out there. Peppershire created him under duresstrep
them so there so or the bay is named after
the monster, and there's a monster somewhere out.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
There we know, we know there's at least and the
baby Folly Johnston. I mean, so now there's a rest
that's even bigger, So we have multiple.

Speaker 6 (05:14):
Is there a bay or a pond?

Speaker 1 (05:16):
I think it's a bay because it's called.

Speaker 4 (05:19):
But is there a pond?

Speaker 3 (05:21):
There might be I thought there was a pond.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
They did say underground tunnels coming from a farms. Yes, okay,
so maybe we have to find an underground tunnel.

Speaker 9 (05:32):
Maybe, but baby Folly knew exactly where we needed to be,
and that's why he was.

Speaker 5 (05:35):
Just trying to help us, or they were trying to
help us.

Speaker 1 (05:38):
Thank God for these.

Speaker 4 (05:41):
Sign and just forge for.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
We've always ignored the sign that says don't go here.
That's kind of our thing.

Speaker 1 (05:46):
How about this?

Speaker 5 (05:47):
How about this, just teas.

Speaker 9 (05:52):
If you get rid of the sign to pick up a.

Speaker 5 (05:57):
Careful I don't know did the blood wipe off?

Speaker 1 (06:01):
Can you try kicking the sun?

Speaker 5 (06:02):
I'm not touching that.

Speaker 4 (06:03):
No, why do we have to kick the sign down?

Speaker 2 (06:06):
Let's just go man, Daddy, I already licked the thing.
I'm not going to kick the thing. That's that's the
rule I have. If I lick it, I don't kick it.

Speaker 1 (06:12):
Angela's not gonna do anything I asked. I'm hungry. As
there's an orchard over here. O, guys, want to walk
over here at.

Speaker 3 (06:18):
The farms that that Felix was talking about on the teape.

Speaker 4 (06:21):
Just keep we'll see what's over there.

Speaker 1 (06:23):
Yeah, the supplied food. Right, Look at this tree. This
is a beautiful tree.

Speaker 3 (06:28):
It's big toe.

Speaker 5 (06:30):
Once you climb up and watch you go up out
there and get your food, because all your food comes
from trees. Will you give me a minute.

Speaker 1 (06:36):
I'm trying to look at where I can clean.

Speaker 5 (06:37):
I don't think feet you could. You could walk up
that thing, get on my shoulders and give you a boost.

Speaker 3 (06:42):
You guys, come on on one two three.

Speaker 1 (06:45):
Ready, one two three? I miscounted, Hold on again one two.

Speaker 3 (06:50):
On your three or my threat.

Speaker 7 (06:51):
It's gonna be one two three go one two three
go weapons on the go, we go go okay, ready,
one two three?

Speaker 3 (06:58):
No, stop down? How we're well?

Speaker 4 (07:00):
Fritz is gonna starve to death of the process.

Speaker 5 (07:03):
That's right here.

Speaker 6 (07:04):
No apple, No, that doesn't look like let me see that.
Let me and I wouldn't really even call this an orchard,
you guys.

Speaker 4 (07:12):
I don't know that two trees counts as the whole orchard.

Speaker 1 (07:15):
Oh there's two trees.

Speaker 10 (07:16):
It's not just that, it's that, it's like, it's it's
very marshy, swampy.

Speaker 5 (07:20):
Coast from Florida. Everything we go is marshy and swampy.

Speaker 4 (07:23):
Yeah, but do you really think that trees still grow
in Florida.

Speaker 10 (07:26):
There's mangroves around here. Have you guys ever heard of
the manchineal tree. Oh, my god, you guys, the mantineal tree.
The Latin name is Hippomaine mancinella, also known as the
tree of death. Oh so I would not eat anything
from that tree and drop it out, drop it out.

(07:48):
I'm reluctant to tell you to not eat something that
could kill you. So the manchioneal tree bears a fruit
that goes by many names as well, most commonly known
as the beech apple, which I know.

Speaker 6 (08:00):
Sounds so innocent, refreshing and delicious.

Speaker 7 (08:03):
Right, m beach like the sea side or is that
like beach like a beach tree?

Speaker 3 (08:08):
Good question?

Speaker 6 (08:09):
Does mean like the sea beach apple?

Speaker 10 (08:12):
Good question.

Speaker 6 (08:13):
The name manchinil does come from the Spanish word manzania,
which means.

Speaker 4 (08:19):
Little apple frits.

Speaker 6 (08:22):
You weren't wrong. These do look like apples.

Speaker 10 (08:25):
And the tree is named after something called little apple. However,
the leaves look like an apple tree. The fruit kind
of looks like an apple, but it's not manzanita. Actually, next,
that is correct, You got it. That little beach apple
is also known as a poison guava, which sounds bad,
but I think the worst is Manzania.

Speaker 3 (08:47):
De seris.

Speaker 6 (08:56):
Little apple of death.

Speaker 10 (08:57):
According to Nature's Poisons dot Calm, this tree is quote
proof that Mother Nature hates us.

Speaker 5 (09:05):
Like we need more proof. We live in Florida.

Speaker 10 (09:07):
Unfortunately for us, the mansion old tree grows in Florida.

Speaker 1 (09:11):
Oh that's awesome though.

Speaker 6 (09:13):
Yeah, I mean awesome in that here it is and it's.

Speaker 10 (09:16):
Neat to look out, but awesome that you can't eat
that because it's going to kill you.

Speaker 1 (09:20):
Angela, I gotta be honest with you. I always hear
that the coolest, most deadliest is in Australia. It's good
that Florida has one.

Speaker 5 (09:27):
Close to we like the Australia of the United States.
When you think about it.

Speaker 6 (09:30):
He's grown Florida.

Speaker 10 (09:31):
They are all They're found in central South America and
in the Caribbean. They are on beaches in brackish water
coastal areas among mangroves that I'm seeing here.

Speaker 6 (09:40):
So here we are.

Speaker 3 (09:42):
It makes sense now.

Speaker 6 (09:42):
They are good though, by the way, to reduce erosion.

Speaker 10 (09:46):
So.

Speaker 1 (09:49):
Important for that symbiotic relationship they.

Speaker 10 (09:53):
The most unfortunate thing about this is the all parts
of this tree contain strong toxins. Like exactly, it has
a milky white sap that's never good boorball that's plant derived,
organic compound, So it's just the skin irritant that comes
out of it rain drops. So if you're standing underneath

(10:16):
the tree and it's raining, it can just like bring
that foreball like on top of you and off of
the leaves and the bark, because the bark everything about it.

Speaker 6 (10:26):
If you burn, if you cut the.

Speaker 10 (10:28):
Tree open, like any of it, like any kind of
like dust in the air gets on you.

Speaker 6 (10:33):
It'll irritate your eyes.

Speaker 5 (10:35):
Bad.

Speaker 10 (10:35):
If you burn it, it'll irritate your eyes like any
touching of it, it'll cause your skin to blister.

Speaker 6 (10:42):
What and if you ingest it somehow, it can.

Speaker 10 (10:46):
Cause like severe gaster enteritis with like bleeding, shock, bacterial.

Speaker 1 (10:50):
Infection, andgic symptoms.

Speaker 6 (10:52):
Yeah, it can, like witch tree.

Speaker 4 (10:55):
This is very.

Speaker 6 (10:57):
Right exactly. And the thing is like it does look
like a fruit that you.

Speaker 10 (11:01):
Can eat, and it does taste sweet when you first
eat it.

Speaker 6 (11:04):
So at first people are.

Speaker 10 (11:05):
Like, oh, it's like okay, not bad. Interesting, doesn't taste
like an apple, but it's something sweet. But all of
a sudden you'll get this burning sensation like a tearing
and a tightness in your throat.

Speaker 7 (11:15):
Well, regular apples contain cyanide in the city.

Speaker 10 (11:18):
Yeah, exactly, and then it can worsen so you can
barely swallow. So if your throat starts to get really
swollen and you can just kind of feel like you
just have this huge lump in the back of your throat.
And just so you know, the plant is toxic to
like many birds, but there is one black spot of
guana that can eat it and live.

Speaker 1 (11:34):
Always on it, always like, well, it's got to be
right for a reason, just quickly before I go into
her written account.

Speaker 10 (11:43):
Historically Caribbean natives and other indigenous people of the area were.

Speaker 6 (11:47):
Known to use the poison.

Speaker 10 (11:49):
They would put it in the water supply, what use
that and so they would serve that to the enemies
and poison them that way. And also apparently Ponce de
Lion die because of a collusah worrior putting it on
an arrowhead and.

Speaker 2 (12:06):
He got poisoned as a floridian on you got hammered
that guy's name into your head in elementary school.

Speaker 5 (12:14):
It was square dancing, it was, but.

Speaker 1 (12:17):
We never learned exactly how he died or why, and
that's brutal as Yeah, that's true.

Speaker 4 (12:22):
I did not know how he died until just.

Speaker 10 (12:24):
I read that on many accounts that that was kind
of the assumed thing that happened to him.

Speaker 7 (12:28):
I thought he actually found the Fountain of youth. It
was still alive and you know, probably holding some sort
of municipal office somewhere.

Speaker 1 (12:34):
Villages right now, that's a that's a.

Speaker 6 (12:36):
Tough way to go, taken down by a beach apple.

Speaker 10 (12:39):
I read this on This person was mentioned on many
reports on this tree and this is called my most
unfortunate experience.

Speaker 5 (12:50):
What this sounds like a podcast, sounds like a smith song.

Speaker 6 (12:53):
Nicola Strickland.

Speaker 10 (12:54):
She was a radiologist and this is from eating a
machinal beach apple. I went on holiday, so you know,
she's prodish of some sort, with a non medical friend
to the Caribbean island of Tobago.

Speaker 6 (13:07):
On the first morning, we found one.

Speaker 10 (13:09):
Of those idyllic deserted beaches exactly as described in the
broch Shore, white sand, swaying palms, turquoise sea. While searching
for exotic shells and coral fragments, I saw some green
fruits among the scattered coconuts and mangoes lying on the beach.
They were round the size of a tangerine and had
apparently fallen from a large tree with a silvery bowl

(13:32):
and oblique based leaves. I love this girl, writes, I
rashly took a bite from this fruit and found it
pleasantly sweet.

Speaker 6 (13:40):
My friend also partook at my suggestion, so she takes
ownership of this.

Speaker 10 (13:45):
Moments later, we noticed this strange peppery feeling in our mouth,
with gradually progressed to a burning, tearing sensation and tightness
of the throat. The symptoms worsened over a couple of
hours until we could barely swallow salad because of the
excruciating pain and feeling of a huge, obstructing baryngeal lump. Sadly,

(14:07):
the pain was exacerbated.

Speaker 6 (14:09):
By most alcoholic beverages.

Speaker 5 (14:11):
Oh no, No, No.

Speaker 10 (14:13):
Live in our best Life, although mildly appeased by pinicolatas,
but more so by milk alone. So I think it
was more like the dairy I'm yeah yeah. Over the
next eight hours, our oral symptoms slowly began to subside,
but our cervical lymph nodes became very tender and easily palpable.

(14:33):
Recounting our experience to the locals elicited frank horror and incredulty.

Speaker 6 (14:39):
Such was the fruit's poisonous reputation.

Speaker 10 (14:42):
On reviewing the literature, it is clear that we had
sampled the fruit of the mancinio plants commonly known as
beech apple Epamin mansonilla. It occurs along coastal beaches of
the West Indies and Central America, where its dense thickets
are often cultivated to provide a windbreak that's good for
the erosion that the mantineal tree can cause severe medical problems.

(15:03):
The milky sap causes blistering ferns and inflammation when in
contact with the skin, mucous membranes, and conjunctivye your eyes ye.
Smoke from burning the wood may enjoy the eyes contact.
Dermatitis from the species is commonly observed in the Caribbean
and Central American coastland. Various studies on the active principles
on the mantineal tree have shown tig lane forbal esters.

Speaker 6 (15:26):
To be the likely caused severe reactions. Something about it
being absorbed.

Speaker 10 (15:31):
In our case, swallowing just a tiny amount of the
juice from the fruit had clearly resulted in oral and
esophageal ulceration and severe edema.

Speaker 6 (15:40):
Drainage of the toxin.

Speaker 10 (15:41):
To regional lymph nodes had presumably caused the subsequent circcle pain.
We found our experience frightening, and with the increasing availability
of package Caribbean holidays, we think that attention should be
drawn to the potentially serious hazard of this fruit. Perhaps
few adults, especially in medically qualified one, would be foolish
enough to try eating an unknown fruit found on a

(16:03):
foreign beach.

Speaker 5 (16:04):
Just what's that thing on the ground? Eat it?

Speaker 10 (16:07):
Darnism, But children would be likely to do so, especially
when they find it to smell and taste sweet, resembling
a ripe plum.

Speaker 1 (16:15):
Keep your distance, she goes my Yelp review zero stars, Karen,
But this is a relatively recent account.

Speaker 6 (16:22):
Yeah that was in two thousands.

Speaker 5 (16:25):
Oh wow.

Speaker 3 (16:25):
Yeah, here's the thing.

Speaker 2 (16:27):
I can guarantee you if you go on YouTube right now,
there's some guy that's like, I'm going to eat one
of these just to show its boosh and eats it
and you see him go through everything and then the
ends with him going.

Speaker 5 (16:38):
To the hospital. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (16:38):
Well, tide pod challenge all over it totally.

Speaker 6 (16:40):
And the thing is it's like it's not like it's
a mystery.

Speaker 10 (16:43):
We have to watch out for all over the place
in Key West, all along the coast in the Caribbean.
There are signs, as the sign that we are seeing
here that they have warning like don't touch these, don't
eat these, don't these are not apples.

Speaker 3 (16:58):
So what do you do?

Speaker 7 (16:58):
If you could they were like a treatment for this,
you can give you like an anti fruit venom.

Speaker 3 (17:03):
There's something like I.

Speaker 5 (17:04):
Don't know, it could be by a larger fruit.

Speaker 10 (17:07):
It doesn't really seem like there's any treatment for it.

Speaker 4 (17:10):
Just deal with it.

Speaker 1 (17:11):
You gotta ride that wave.

Speaker 4 (17:13):
Jesus have like an rop the apple.

Speaker 5 (17:17):
We tend to ignore these from his right to left hand.

Speaker 3 (17:21):
Don't catch it, put it down.

Speaker 1 (17:27):
The only way to make him stop is just to
to break You're just name the Fort France. Welcome back
to Fort Fritz. I am Fritz, joined as always by
co host Man Daddy, Nick Spry, Si, Marie Aunt Angela. Yo,

(17:48):
So I would like to play this tape.

Speaker 10 (17:51):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (17:52):
This is unmarked, so I don't even know what's on
this one.

Speaker 5 (17:54):
If you don't mind, I will never play unmarked.

Speaker 1 (17:56):
Parents walking through this farm here.

Speaker 5 (18:02):
The fuck.

Speaker 3 (18:03):
Oh is that a baseball game?

Speaker 10 (18:08):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (18:08):
Dodgers?

Speaker 2 (18:09):
Yeah, okay, Oh, come on, got something going on, a.

Speaker 4 (18:15):
Lot of beer drinking.

Speaker 5 (18:17):
Good for him? Oh, he went.

Speaker 6 (18:21):
Is he just watching?

Speaker 5 (18:23):
So the baseball thing is a generational thing, so we
know that.

Speaker 10 (18:26):
Now.

Speaker 1 (18:27):
Is he eating sunflower seeds? He swung?

Speaker 3 (18:30):
He swung? Yeah, he has to slower seeds?

Speaker 5 (18:33):
Annoying.

Speaker 1 (18:33):
Why would he record this?

Speaker 5 (18:35):
Why listening to it?

Speaker 1 (18:38):
That's a good point. Oh my god, yeah, that's a
good point. Let me pass forward a little bit.

Speaker 5 (18:47):
Oh yeah, okay, now passed out.

Speaker 6 (18:50):
How long was this game?

Speaker 2 (18:52):
Have you ever watched baseball? Probably twenty eight hours, especially.

Speaker 1 (18:56):
Back in the day. Okay, all right, kept it rolling.
Just recorded himself getting drunk and eating some flower seeds.

Speaker 2 (19:05):
Before I remember your past blogs. Meat, Yeah, baseball, beer
and sunflowers.

Speaker 1 (19:10):
And of course I've gotten drunk and eating some flower seeds.
Are you coming at me with no?

Speaker 2 (19:14):
I'm just saying I appreciate the generational appreciation of the game.

Speaker 10 (19:19):
Do you.

Speaker 1 (19:20):
He's saying apple doesn't fall far from the mccanniel.

Speaker 10 (19:23):
Well, you.

Speaker 1 (19:25):
Great segue. Because we are walking away from this mansion.
It kind of seems like this might have been a pathway.
I see signs. I can't read the signs. They seem
sun bleached, but yeah, some of them.

Speaker 4 (19:38):
Though, it looks like stepping stone.

Speaker 1 (19:40):
That's a happy sun there.

Speaker 3 (19:43):
The forest is getting much thicker, narrowing.

Speaker 1 (19:46):
The path.

Speaker 5 (19:48):
That's always coming closer to us.

Speaker 4 (19:51):
That was a branch whipped force is just small island.

Speaker 6 (19:56):
It's weird.

Speaker 1 (19:56):
Yes, it's now like single blowline. Guys, careful, I'm in
the got it.

Speaker 5 (20:02):
I'm the tall one. I got a duck under all
this crap.

Speaker 1 (20:05):
That's why you're in the front, thank you.

Speaker 2 (20:06):
Yeah, yeah, great, So everything hopefully smacks you right in
the face.

Speaker 3 (20:09):
You're like an icebreaker.

Speaker 5 (20:10):
Oh that's that's always been my golden life.

Speaker 1 (20:13):
I can't see anything. Does everyone hold on to the
person in front of you, and let's just keep going.

Speaker 5 (20:17):
Grab the back of my shirt.

Speaker 4 (20:18):
Hopefully we're going in the right direction here.

Speaker 2 (20:20):
Why are we even doing this? That doesn't make any sense.
I have no idea where.

Speaker 1 (20:26):
I'm sign that says do not do this. I'm kind
of thinking, for once in my life, maybe I should
have not We should should.

Speaker 2 (20:35):
Follow our fearless leader Fritz, because he's fearless and also
completely unaware of what's going on around him at any time?

Speaker 4 (20:42):
Also bringing up the rear right now.

Speaker 5 (20:44):
So I'm happy to go out. I don't know. I
just brushed up against something.

Speaker 8 (20:50):
That yeah, looks that looks real bad.

Speaker 1 (20:55):
Oh he's doing a curly moment.

Speaker 3 (21:03):
What is that? But no, curly? What happened?

Speaker 5 (21:06):
What happened? I just brushed up against.

Speaker 1 (21:09):
This planet that was right there? Plant looks really.

Speaker 4 (21:14):
Looking at the leaves.

Speaker 1 (21:15):
Let me, let's let me let me see your arm.

Speaker 3 (21:17):
You see your arm.

Speaker 1 (21:18):
Let's cut his arm off.

Speaker 3 (21:20):
No, let's way too quickly.

Speaker 1 (21:23):
Hold on, Fritz, do not cut off next bride with
all jew respect.

Speaker 3 (21:28):
No, I have not got one opportunity, not this.

Speaker 4 (21:31):
This guys, this is okay, and.

Speaker 3 (21:33):
It's mildly.

Speaker 1 (21:39):
Against that.

Speaker 5 (21:39):
What do we do?

Speaker 1 (21:40):
Because that's that's the plant?

Speaker 10 (21:47):
All right.

Speaker 9 (21:47):
So I'm gonna take some sap from this tree here,
and uh, look at one of those papaya.

Speaker 3 (21:54):
It's got like good ends of this is really good.

Speaker 6 (21:56):
Okay, Well let me it's a very needy, very meaty thing.

Speaker 4 (22:00):
Take some berries here, all right, give me your arm.
I'm just gonna mash all of this on. Just sit
still for a minute.

Speaker 9 (22:09):
I don't just sit still and we're gonna, we're gonna
scrape it off for just a minute.

Speaker 4 (22:12):
Yeah, the arm looks like a deep breas deep breas.

Speaker 7 (22:15):
Do you ever like take a vinyl glove or like
a doctor's rubber glove and like blow it up with
your like Howie Mandel style.

Speaker 3 (22:21):
That's what your arm looks like right now.

Speaker 2 (22:22):
But very descriptive and very helpful in this point, dying.

Speaker 3 (22:28):
It's an audio medium.

Speaker 11 (22:30):
I'm just gonna rip it off, just grin embarrass No,
the wax, what you.

Speaker 3 (22:47):
It's definitely it's the plating. It's getting smaller.

Speaker 9 (22:49):
It's getting smaller than right, guys, I'm a little concerned.
Have you heard of the gimpy gimpy plant?

Speaker 3 (22:56):
No, No, that's not stupid name.

Speaker 1 (23:02):
Maybe the first time he said gimpy, I was like
the second time, you're like, no.

Speaker 9 (23:06):
No, never in a chances are Mandadd's not enjoying himself
right now. No, by the way, you witch, we won't
talk about that right now, witchy, witchy. So the gimpy
gimpy or suicide plant what okay, is one of the
world's most venomous plants and causes the pain that is
unparallel to any other toxin. It could be found largely

(23:33):
across Australia. No surprise there. Everything in Australia is out
to kill you, and we are the Australia of the
United States, but also in spots of Papua New Guinea
and Indonesia. It is said to be named by gold
miners who first identified it in the town of Gimpi, Australia. Thus,

(23:54):
the gimpy Gippy is a straggly vine like shrub that
can grow between three and ten meters high and has
broad heart shaped leaves that's huge. It is rather unsuspecting
looking plant that would only be identified if you knew
exactly what to look for and where to look for it.

Speaker 3 (24:09):
It's like not camouflage because it's a tree.

Speaker 9 (24:12):
It kind of just looks like any other vine you
would find on any hiking trail, so it's a great yeah,
you know, like a plant. The difference is the entire plant,
including the leaves, stems, and even at small seed like fruit,
are covered in tiny hair like needles called trichromes. These
trichromes i'm bed in the skin with the slightest touch.

(24:32):
Each of these hairs are shaped like a hypodermic needle,
and each are loaded with toxins.

Speaker 1 (24:38):
Oh my god.

Speaker 9 (24:40):
It has even been discovered that there is a structural
weak point near the top of the trichomee which acts
as a preset fracture line. This means that it's ready
to break off and inject its toxin the moment it
comes in contact with the surface, that it can bet itself.

Speaker 3 (24:54):
Into a plant that's perforated with poison.

Speaker 5 (24:58):
For your convenience, It's just makes it easier.

Speaker 9 (25:01):
These needle like hairs are so fine and dense that
they are incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to fully remove.
Imp It has been found that these needles can stay
in a person's skin for up to a year or
more and will continue to release toxin when disturbed during
this time.

Speaker 1 (25:18):
I understand why it's suicide time release poison a free
time disturbed.

Speaker 9 (25:25):
I mean this could mean by touching the affected area,
contact with water, even just changes in temperature.

Speaker 1 (25:32):
Oh right, yeah.

Speaker 9 (25:35):
You can even be stung by dead leaves on the ground,
and it was found that decades old laboratory specimens could
still inflict the sting.

Speaker 4 (25:45):
The pain has been described as if.

Speaker 9 (25:47):
Being burnt by hot acid while also being oflectrocuted at
the same time. The moment you touch the plant, you
will feel severe burning and stinging that gets worse over
the next twenty to thirty minutes.

Speaker 5 (26:00):
Crazy.

Speaker 9 (26:02):
The height of the pain will last from several hours
to several days before beginning to subside.

Speaker 3 (26:08):
Sweet.

Speaker 9 (26:09):
The degree in which you suffer the wrath of this
plant's touch is based on how much of your skin
came in contact with it.

Speaker 4 (26:15):
The pain is so excruciating that.

Speaker 9 (26:17):
In large doses it can lead to dizziness, swelling of
lymph nodes, vomiting, madness, and even death.

Speaker 3 (26:25):
From the early eighties, Yeah no.

Speaker 2 (26:28):
You start playing madness, then you go into the death
metal band from Florida.

Speaker 9 (26:32):
Although most of the deaths attributed to this plant have
been from the suicide of victims who cannot deal with
the prolonged pain, as opposed to dying from the toxin itself,
that is wild.

Speaker 1 (26:43):
I never heard of that.

Speaker 9 (26:45):
There have been many horrifying accounts of people coming into
contact with this vicious plant. Less More, a scientific officer
with the Division of Wildlife and Ecology in Queensland suffered
from temporary blindness due to being slight in the face
with the plant while.

Speaker 4 (27:01):
Hiking through the bush.

Speaker 9 (27:04):
He said the reaction was so severe that his face
resembled mister potato head whoa. The swelling was so bad
that he had trouble breathing and he lost his sight.

Speaker 1 (27:13):
For several days.

Speaker 4 (27:14):
Does that mean he could take his eyes out.

Speaker 3 (27:17):
And I hope that he could move his features.

Speaker 4 (27:20):
That's just reached a new depth of horror. Cyril Bromley,
a serviceman during World War Two.

Speaker 1 (27:27):
These are all great names.

Speaker 9 (27:29):
Right fell into one of these plants during a training exercise.

Speaker 1 (27:33):
Oh Jesus.

Speaker 9 (27:34):
He ended up strapped to a hospital bed and described
as being mad as a cut snake.

Speaker 1 (27:40):
What's very Australia.

Speaker 3 (27:45):
Around it, I mean, wouldn't you.

Speaker 9 (27:47):
It is said that an officer serving in the same
area unknowingly used a gimpy gimpy leaf as toilet people.

Speaker 4 (27:59):
And then shot himself immediately.

Speaker 3 (28:07):
Leg of fire.

Speaker 9 (28:08):
Yes, there are early settler stories of people who cut
off their own limbs after coming in contact with the
gimpy gimpy, not knowing when the pain would cease. Sweet
and animal trigger warning. There are tales of horses that
have been stung by the plant that had to be

(28:28):
put down due to them being uncontrollably wild and violent.

Speaker 1 (28:32):
I was going to say so mammals, right, Horses of mammal,
any mammal, any mammal would be affected, including bats. And
if the neurotoxin is that potent, then a large horse
would react the exact same way.

Speaker 2 (28:47):
Yeah, and the chances are the horse, if it wasn't
being used by man, it woul probably no instinctively just
to avoid it.

Speaker 1 (28:54):
But horses are not native to Australgia though, right, No,
so they would have no clue, not in their DNA
to care either.

Speaker 4 (29:02):
This plant is such a dick that you can.

Speaker 5 (29:13):
I'm so glad that we know.

Speaker 10 (29:16):
God it.

Speaker 9 (29:17):
So this plant is such a dick that you do
not even have to touch the leaves to be affected.
The plant sheds its hairs irregularly, releasing them into the
air around it, So just being near one and breathing
these in can cause sneezing, running eyes, and nose itching, hives, nosebleeds,
and respiratory damage.

Speaker 5 (29:39):
Yeah, there's keeping poison everywhere.

Speaker 1 (29:40):
Probably over time, like cardiovascular Yeah.

Speaker 4 (29:44):
Oh yeah, it's terrible.

Speaker 9 (29:46):
Researchers that have studied it wear masks and gloves and
everything else, and they're actually told that they have to
limit their time with it and give like months in
between coming back.

Speaker 1 (29:55):
Into contact with it again.

Speaker 3 (29:57):
Let the other scientists play with it.

Speaker 1 (29:58):
You've had your five yes.

Speaker 9 (30:01):
Researchers have been studying the plant since the mid nineteenth century,
when European explorers first came in contact with it. Several
studies have been done for decades trying to figure out
the toxin contained in this plant, but nothing seemed to
come close to the pain elicited.

Speaker 4 (30:14):
From the gimpy gimpy.

Speaker 9 (30:16):
This gives me horrible visions of who and what they
were testing this on to a listen a pain response
from yeah. It took until the year twenty twenty for
scientists discover that the neurotoxic peptides of this plant were
unlike any other previously discovered, and they were named Gimpi tides.

Speaker 2 (30:37):
Can't get away from the Gimpi's.

Speaker 4 (30:42):
He making it sound cute.

Speaker 1 (30:43):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (30:44):
I just keep thinking of pulp fiction.

Speaker 1 (30:47):
I could see a viral TikTok Gimpi tide pod check challenge.

Speaker 5 (30:53):
I'm going to run into the tree and just roll around.
NIC's se what happens.

Speaker 9 (30:57):
It was found that this particular family of neurotoxin more
closely resembles the venom of spiders or cone snails that
it does your typical steaming nettle plant.

Speaker 3 (31:07):
Okay.

Speaker 9 (31:08):
Scientists believe that these gimpy tides interfere with the nerve
signals responsible for pain.

Speaker 4 (31:13):
If they can figure out how, it could.

Speaker 9 (31:15):
Mean a breakthrough in reverse engineering it as a potent
pain relief drug that would lack the addictive properties that
opioates have. As of right now, there is still no
known cure for the gimpy gimpy toxin. However, it is
recommended that the best course of action is to use
a wax of any kind to remove as many of
the needles from your skin as you can. Diluted hydrochloric

(31:38):
acid on the affected area can help temporarily neutralize some
of this thing.

Speaker 4 (31:42):
From there, it's just the waiting game.

Speaker 7 (31:44):
Oh so you're saying, all those people that use it
as toilet paper are getting a brasilient.

Speaker 1 (31:50):
Now they immediately kill.

Speaker 9 (31:53):
Take the most excruciating pain you can possibly imagine, and
times it by ten is how people just gribe this.

Speaker 1 (32:00):
I see man that's already pouring a natty light all
over his.

Speaker 2 (32:04):
I mean, I know I'm just gonna just put everything
on me, everything in me. I don't care. Just make
this stuff. Cut my arm off, put anything, Put medicine
inside me, make me move heroine.

Speaker 5 (32:16):
Cut my cut my arm, cut, cut my arm off.

Speaker 4 (32:28):
You got any drugs in that backpack of your man?
Is something stronger?

Speaker 3 (32:33):
Who's got pills?

Speaker 1 (32:35):
Will you just stop?

Speaker 4 (32:36):
Jesus, got an opiate in there?

Speaker 5 (32:38):
I know, I'll take a You got a woman?

Speaker 3 (32:46):
He is crushing it crushing? Where did you get a syringe?
Thrum here?

Speaker 5 (32:51):
Okay?

Speaker 10 (32:51):
What is that?

Speaker 3 (32:53):
Can you spit on the You don't even know what
that is? I don't Yeah, the the kids, kids at home.

Speaker 1 (33:02):
I do not recommend this, legil.

Speaker 3 (33:07):
Look what al one knows what's happening right now?

Speaker 10 (33:09):
Not him?

Speaker 5 (33:11):
Do that? Why?

Speaker 3 (33:13):
Why is this happening? He felt no pain? As a
weird You put that right over very big thing. It's
a dancing and the aristocrats?

Speaker 1 (33:25):
Okay, what was that?

Speaker 5 (33:29):
Just put in me?

Speaker 1 (33:30):
By the way, if it lasts more than four hours,
just call a doctor.

Speaker 5 (33:33):
Crazy. So I'm gonna have no pain, but a giant
boner say that?

Speaker 3 (33:38):
Jesus, what's he going to tell a doctor?

Speaker 5 (33:41):
Look at my giant boner I'm not in pain right there.
I just wanted to show it off.

Speaker 9 (33:49):
So the fact that there's a gimby gimbi here makes
me believe that we need to turn the round.

Speaker 3 (33:53):
They get the hell out of forward.

Speaker 1 (33:56):
They look like the elephant ears with the hypodermics.

Speaker 7 (33:58):
Here.

Speaker 4 (33:58):
Let's get out of here.

Speaker 3 (33:59):
We need to get him like a real doctor.

Speaker 1 (34:00):
We can't go for it.

Speaker 3 (34:01):
Let's moon walk out of here.

Speaker 5 (34:03):
Even in times of terror. This guy's got style. You
gotta give it the moon walk I did she do?

Speaker 1 (34:09):
Oh my gosh, she's so great.

Speaker 3 (34:11):
That's just we're doing it.

Speaker 1 (34:13):
Single pile, follow me here, all everyone grab on.

Speaker 5 (34:17):
Going back.

Speaker 3 (34:18):
We have to go back.

Speaker 5 (34:19):
We have to go back, all right.

Speaker 1 (34:21):
Maybe there's a footpath we didn't see. That's the only
thing I can imagine because I was distracting everyone with
my late uncle's cassette tapes.

Speaker 4 (34:29):
Does anybody see any pavement?

Speaker 9 (34:31):
Do we see anything?

Speaker 5 (34:32):
And don't tossably, don't touch anything, don't touch anything?

Speaker 1 (34:36):
All right, guys, I have a song actually I can
play I found the other day on a cassette tape
from Felix.

Speaker 5 (34:42):
Listen to this song, trunching music.

Speaker 1 (34:44):
I can't come, do you want to give me.

Speaker 10 (34:50):
That p P.

Speaker 1 (34:51):
That's Felix.

Speaker 12 (34:53):
Close up my sign, cut it back off and have
a chan where we rolled up Penn State forward for
I just keep.

Speaker 5 (35:04):
Walking, so I mean, this is traveling music. This is
traveling music.

Speaker 1 (35:08):
Right. I've heard him do it a thousand times and
I'm so sorry. Angela. All right, go alright, let's keep walking.

Speaker 4 (35:16):
You guys have heard this in my sleep.

Speaker 1 (35:18):
You guys are listening.

Speaker 8 (35:20):
We're gonna take a quick breakings full of bears and
chopping full of the skies where we shot the line.

Speaker 1 (35:26):
We went to bat with the thousand screaming trucks and
eleven long haired friends of Jesus and the shunk shoes
micro bus.

Speaker 2 (35:34):
Yeah, we have got the sad.

Speaker 1 (35:36):
Will have to come on there.

Speaker 12 (35:37):
Yeah, same for a sub brust excluse' gonna put that
micro bus on behind me.

Speaker 1 (35:40):
The side jockey, Yeah, he's holding dyning Mike hangs. All right,
you're listening in Fort Prince before the Jerry is a
shore the bear to draw the line, I could see
the bridge schools. I'm the players, but I didn't have
a dog gone down. I said, alright, I take hands.

(36:01):
That's your twenty all right, keep going, keep walking to
do He's out there.

Speaker 10 (36:06):
For sure.

Speaker 5 (36:07):
There's a lot of Tronchon makes a lot of.

Speaker 1 (36:10):
Hello, welcome back to I am your host, Fritz, of course,
my co host s. Daddy, Bye, Angela, so good, it's
long Wow Marie, Yeah, hellone, nixt Brye.

Speaker 3 (36:23):
That was a great song.

Speaker 1 (36:24):
Uh, now we're back at the entrance. I don't know
what the fu is going to go on.

Speaker 2 (36:27):
Now I know is that I don't like plants anymore.
You're a big tarian and plants are hurting me. They
make me want to cut my arm off. And all
you do is eat plants, and so I don't know
if I trust you.

Speaker 7 (36:41):
So so far, all signs point to us being, you know,
on this island. There's gotta be something that Felix wants
us to find on this island.

Speaker 3 (36:48):
Obviously.

Speaker 5 (36:48):
I don't even know if he has a plant.

Speaker 6 (36:49):
I think he's just All signs really pointed to us
being not on this island. But we can stayed here.

Speaker 4 (36:55):
Yeah, literal son, wy did do us going back to
the fort? Yeah, ilicitly told to us.

Speaker 6 (37:02):
But this is definitely very Felix, obviously, but.

Speaker 4 (37:05):
Baby Folly wanted us to be here. So that's where Shelly,
do we listening to just a little baby Folly.

Speaker 1 (37:13):
Doesn't know what's going on?

Speaker 4 (37:16):
How dare you?

Speaker 10 (37:16):
Wow?

Speaker 7 (37:17):
Okay, all right, so we're so we're out of the ticket,
out of the forest.

Speaker 1 (37:21):
That looks like a skin horizon. That looks like something
I could eat over hair that the yellow crescent fruit
over here?

Speaker 5 (37:31):
I think, oh whatever those are?

Speaker 1 (37:33):
Chow down on a plantain, beans, plantain.

Speaker 3 (37:37):
It kind of looks like a banana.

Speaker 1 (37:39):
I guess I don't want to eat a banana.

Speaker 5 (37:41):
Look at me in the eyes.

Speaker 1 (37:42):
How many of those do I have to eat?

Speaker 12 (37:44):
It?

Speaker 1 (37:45):
So you would?

Speaker 3 (37:45):
You would eat a raw planting, but you wouldn't eat
a banana.

Speaker 4 (37:48):
You would eat a pleasing apple, but you would not
eat a banana.

Speaker 1 (37:52):
Every time I order plantains, they're squishy, they're soft, they're delectable.
They have breas.

Speaker 3 (37:58):
How would you describe a bit?

Speaker 2 (38:00):
Wonder when I know that because you're at a restaurant
and they brought it to you and they were a
thank you.

Speaker 1 (38:07):
All right if it's a banana, No, don't stop.

Speaker 10 (38:14):
Off.

Speaker 5 (38:14):
You know.

Speaker 3 (38:16):
I'm gonna squeeze you tight. I'm gonna squeeze it tight
to my chest. Please let me squeeze chest.

Speaker 1 (38:23):
You have no idea how hungry your head against my chest?

Speaker 3 (38:26):
Looking to the sound, I don't hear your heart beat?
There it is. It's beating really fast. You know why,
because I'm breaking out.

Speaker 5 (38:34):
I'm freaking out, sound like you.

Speaker 3 (38:35):
There we go, I'm breaking out of turn. Guys, you
know anything about bananas?

Speaker 1 (38:40):
Do you know anything about little bit?

Speaker 10 (38:42):
No?

Speaker 1 (38:45):
Bananas?

Speaker 3 (38:45):
Okay, just nail on the head there, Marie. Nail on
the head. That's what I'm talking about, chiquita. Do you
guys have have you ever heard of the banana massacre?

Speaker 10 (38:56):
No?

Speaker 3 (38:58):
Yeah, so the banana. Let's let's talk about NNAs.

Speaker 1 (39:01):
Let's get bananas.

Speaker 2 (39:03):
Let me talk to you.

Speaker 1 (39:04):
I'm gonna grab ant to sit down.

Speaker 3 (39:07):
So bananas, bananas.

Speaker 7 (39:08):
There are literally over a thousand different varieties and species
of bananas.

Speaker 3 (39:14):
What oh what we think of today?

Speaker 7 (39:16):
The thing that you buy in the grocery store, that
crescent yellow you know fruit is The most well known
species is the Cavendish banana, which was named after William Cavendish,
the sixth Duke of Devonshire, who's gardener, Sir.

Speaker 3 (39:31):
Joseph Paxton cultivated and studied the.

Speaker 7 (39:34):
Quote winter herb and was recognized with a Metal of
Distinction at the eighteen thirty five Royal Horticultural Show.

Speaker 3 (39:41):
Was it like a banana?

Speaker 7 (39:43):
Yes, yes, so the the Cavendish came to be known
as the modern version of the banana. After the og
of the banana species, the gross Michelle u was, which
translates in French to the big mic Oh.

Speaker 1 (40:00):
Yeah, okay, not that bugly michelle.

Speaker 3 (40:03):
No no, no, no, not double l e just one
e wentow.

Speaker 7 (40:07):
Yeah, so the big mic It was devastated as a
species in Toto by the Panama disease in the nineteen fifties,
but onto Americans being horrible, horrible banana barons.

Speaker 1 (40:18):
Yeah, the banana.

Speaker 6 (40:21):
Let's lean into that, lean into the banana.

Speaker 3 (40:26):
I've said this multiple times this season.

Speaker 7 (40:28):
This is a huge story and I literally had to
cut out hours of history about this.

Speaker 3 (40:34):
It's crazy how the path of.

Speaker 7 (40:37):
The banana export business, or banana import business rather was
is so closely tied to the foreign policy of the
Americas in the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century.

Speaker 3 (40:49):
So by and large the most popular fruit in the world.

Speaker 7 (40:52):
It's consumption in the US alone amounts to about twenty
seven pounds or ninety bananas per person and over one
hundred bill bananas worldwide every year at.

Speaker 1 (41:05):
Banana out You.

Speaker 2 (41:06):
Go to any store anywhere in the world and there's
a huge pile of bananas.

Speaker 5 (41:11):
How are we able to make that many? Bananas?

Speaker 3 (41:14):
By far the most popular fruit in the world.

Speaker 7 (41:16):
And like I said, the banana that we know now
is not what was originally introduced to America in the
late nineteenth century around eighteen seventy eighteen seventy one.

Speaker 4 (41:26):
So was that more delicious?

Speaker 7 (41:29):
Yes, apparently it lasts longer, it has a better flavor,
a better texture.

Speaker 3 (41:33):
And in fact, I've heard I watched a lecture where
they were.

Speaker 7 (41:36):
Saying that when you have artificial banana flavoring, that is
from the gross Michelle banana, not the cavendish banana.

Speaker 2 (41:43):
That's what I was going to say that that's why
when you have banana candy or anything, it tastes totally
different than a normal banana, because it's the original banana
flavor that they were.

Speaker 3 (41:51):
Used to bananas so much more oppotent.

Speaker 7 (41:53):
Yeah, they come in all colors and all types of
sweetness and flavors. There's blue bananas, there's red bars.

Speaker 3 (41:58):
Yeah, it's crazy.

Speaker 4 (42:00):
It was a banana.

Speaker 7 (42:00):
Yeah, so now you know, this commonplace fruit, as we
all know, it has a penchant for tropical climates, didn't
really grow well in the United States, and it has
a very finite shelf life once harvested. So bananas were
a rare and exotic treat in the Americas until the
late nineteenth century. To put it s simply, a few

(42:21):
American importers found a profitable market for the fruit when
imported by boat, namely Lorenzo dow Baker. And this coincided
with an American railroad tycoon's nephew. His name is Minor, yes,
like a minor key, Minor Cooper Teeth, and he was
utilizing a newly constructed Costa Rican railroad that had thousands

(42:41):
of people die in order to build.

Speaker 3 (42:43):
But that was just for to Originally it was to.

Speaker 7 (42:47):
Export Costa Rica's main export coffee, but he realized that
after planting banana plantations along the side of the railroad
that it was much more profitable after this boom in
the Americas. So all this is happening currently in the
early eighteen seventies. So then for the next you know,
literally almost one hundred years and more, the US government

(43:12):
takes a strong hand in backing US corporations through military
tactics and diplomacy and the literal training and funding of
coupditas of governments in Central and South America.

Speaker 1 (43:24):
The era gerrilla warfare.

Speaker 10 (43:26):
No, it was.

Speaker 3 (43:28):
Because of bananas, right, that's good.

Speaker 7 (43:32):
But the era between eighteen ninety eight when the Spanish
American War started and nineteen thirty eight are called quote
the banana wars.

Speaker 10 (43:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (43:41):
Yeah. And this was a term that was coined by O. Henry,
the famed American author.

Speaker 1 (43:47):
Gift to the Magi.

Speaker 5 (43:49):
He's known for his twists.

Speaker 1 (43:50):
He's amazing.

Speaker 7 (43:51):
Yeah, great, great, So he coined So O Henry actually
coined the term banana republic.

Speaker 1 (43:57):
Yes, yes, grist storm.

Speaker 7 (43:58):
Yeah, as in record cards to the exploitation of Honduras
and Guatemala by these US fruit barons, these corporations, many
of which would be amalgamated under the umbrella of the
United Fruit Company what is now known as Chiquida. A
banana republic describes a quote politically and economically unstable country

(44:20):
with an economy dependent on the.

Speaker 3 (44:22):
Export of natural resources. That's terrible. Not a great name
to name your miteil clothing store.

Speaker 2 (44:29):
People, people and we still have current politicians using that
as an insult to America.

Speaker 5 (44:35):
Yeah, that's messed up.

Speaker 1 (44:38):
Central, South and Norfolk.

Speaker 7 (44:40):
So by the year nineteen twenty eight, the United Fruit
Company had already gained a notorious reputation in Central and
South America known as El Polpo or the Octopus. So
reaching and ubiquitous was its control in the Caribbean, it
had long entrenched company trench It had long entrenched company
policies of treating its workers to inhumane conditions and exploitative policies,

(45:05):
notably pitting workers of different races in bidding wars for
jobs so as to foment hatred towards the other labor
pools while ignoring the responsible party. United Fruit Company workers
were expected to labor ten hours a day, seven days
a week. For some workers, not even to be rewarded
with actual money, but instead for company bouchers, coupons that

(45:26):
were only redeemable at company.

Speaker 3 (45:28):
Owned general stores to the company, and many times the
goods in those stores were at exploitative markups.

Speaker 7 (45:38):
Of course, improper safety conditions and healthcare were abandoned and ignored,
and did not have to be legally adhered to, as
most workers were employed as subcontractors to avoid the natural protection.

Speaker 3 (45:50):
Of Colombian labor laws.

Speaker 7 (45:52):
Abuses born in systemic racism and classism abounded with the
disparity of the company towns built for the white employees
juxtapose to the barren and neglected shelters or barracks assembled
for indigenous workers and imported laborers of color. This all
dates back to the succession of Mexico from Spain and
subsequently the defection of the Big Five from Central America,

(46:13):
that is Honduras, Nicaragua, El Savador, Guatemala, and Costa Rica.
So just know that the US got in there real
early in the mid eighteen fifties. In fact, there's a
guy who's known. His name was William Walker. It's a
crazy story.

Speaker 3 (46:28):
Check it out.

Speaker 5 (46:29):
Will Walker.

Speaker 3 (46:29):
Yeah, I know that guy.

Speaker 7 (46:31):
He literally went around conquering No, this guy like recruited
fifty five soldiers and went and conquered countries quote unquote,
not in the name of the US. We got in
there quickly with diplomatic relations afterwards, after this guy had
been there. So skip ahead back to nineteen twenty eight
to Cienaga, Columbia.

Speaker 3 (46:48):
Workers have had enough.

Speaker 7 (46:49):
They decide to unize and strike until their nine demands
are met. These are extremely reasonable demands and most of
what we now considered to be basic human rights i e.
Bet are healthcare that are paid actual money, reducing the
work week to only six days, a pay raise, to
a stentard of living. There's some reports that workers were

(47:11):
making as little as one hundred pesos per month, and
that translates to today's American money to about eighteen dollars
a month a month month.

Speaker 2 (47:20):
The fact that one of their demands is can we
get actual money? That's amazing as good we actually.

Speaker 3 (47:25):
Yeah, that's it all right there.

Speaker 7 (47:27):
So but you have to think that these these companies,
in order to because bananas have such a short shelf life,
had to utilize and can. They controlled everything, the railroads,
the radio companies. There were even South American and Central
American countries that would load off duties of government to them,
such as.

Speaker 3 (47:45):
Running the post office. So they were like their own
mini country. They had fleets.

Speaker 7 (47:49):
They had a naval fleet called the Great White Fleet
of over ninety not warships, but you know, well.

Speaker 5 (47:57):
Well armed, well armed banana ships.

Speaker 4 (48:00):
Yes, there you go, banana canon.

Speaker 10 (48:03):
And it was.

Speaker 5 (48:05):
Those guys in Tampa.

Speaker 1 (48:06):
It was the Great White Fleet because of the white
logo of the company.

Speaker 7 (48:10):
Yes, so we all agree that these demands by these
workers are very reasonable. And this strike it started on
October sixth, nineteen twenty eight. This was the largest labor
strike in the history of Columbia until that point, with
over twenty five thousand workers participating at its apex. And
during the two month strike, workers began to feel months. Yeah,

(48:34):
two months, workers began to feel ownership over their destinies.
But meanwhile, communications in back channels on telegrams rather between
the United Fruit Company and US officials in Colombia and
the US Secretary of State at the time, Frank Kellogg
not the cereal.

Speaker 6 (48:52):
Yeah, very convenient.

Speaker 7 (48:53):
That would actually come up later in marketing schemes where
they would get backs to serial companies to encourage using
bananas on.

Speaker 3 (49:02):
Your cornflakes, et cetera, et cetera. So it would suggest that.

Speaker 7 (49:05):
These workers' actions stunk of communism with subversive tendencies. So
the US government put it the pressure on the Colombian
government to quash this red rebellion or the country would
suffer at the hands of the US, either through trade
sanctions or outright military force, which the US had already
established it was more than comfortable doing on several occasions.

Speaker 3 (49:28):
In the mid nineteenth century. Jesus damn it.

Speaker 7 (49:30):
And so about three hundred to seven hundred soldiers were
deployed and sent to Sienaga, about twenty ish miles outside
of Santa Marta. And this is under the command of
General Cortes Vargas, to confront the workers and their families.
And this happened on the eve of December fifth and
December sixth, nineteen twenty eight. Crowds of workers gathered after

(49:53):
Sunday Mass midnight mass with their wives and children at
the behest of the military to await a message from
their government what they thought would be a settling of
their demands with the governor of Magdalena. A decree of
the crowd's insubordination was issued just after bend to the
general who had his men established machine gun nests on

(50:14):
low lying rooftops of the town square.

Speaker 5 (50:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (50:18):
Literally, all of these people, over one thousand people gathered
in this square, and they had on four corners of
this town square machine gun nests set up.

Speaker 1 (50:26):
Workers.

Speaker 3 (50:26):
Yeah, women, children in the crowd is a families families.

Speaker 7 (50:30):
The crowd was given five minutes to disperse at one
thirty a m. And then following these short five minutes,
three bugle blasts aired and the machine guns opened fired
upon thee and it's in crowd.

Speaker 3 (50:45):
General Vargas would admit.

Speaker 7 (50:46):
To the deaths of forty seven people, but estimates had
the body count on this eye as over two thousand victims.

Speaker 4 (50:53):
What how did you choose forty seven?

Speaker 9 (50:58):
You know?

Speaker 7 (50:58):
The following days would also be fraught with violence as
the military would try to seek out and assassinate the
union organizers. Weeks after the massacre, a dispatch was sent
from the US Bogota Embassy to the Secretary of State
and it would read quote, I have the honor to
report that the Bogata representative of the United Fruit Company
told me yesterday that the total number of strikers killed

(51:20):
by the Colombian military exceeded one thousand. That was the
US What this was a dispatch from the US Embassy
in Bogota, Columbia.

Speaker 4 (51:29):
Can we talk about how you used the word I
have the pleasure of.

Speaker 5 (51:32):
Courting good news, y'all.

Speaker 7 (51:35):
But that was from the US embassy, Yes, it was
from the US EMBc and Bogatah to the Secretary of
State at the time.

Speaker 1 (51:40):
Wow, mister Kellogg.

Speaker 6 (51:42):
Unfortunately with the United Fruit Company the UFC.

Speaker 3 (51:45):
Yeah, unfortunately.

Speaker 7 (51:50):
This would not be the last stain on history left
by the greed of the banana barons. A coup d'eta
instigated by the US and Guatemalan in the nineteen fifties
would lead to a civil war and sumult with a
death toll of over two hundred thousand people.

Speaker 5 (52:04):
Jesus.

Speaker 7 (52:05):
Even as recently as June of this year, oh an
article published by the American Bar Association discusses how Jaqita
recently lost their appeal in a civil class action lawsuit
for wrongful death from workers' families that were killed by
a terrorist organization on the payroll of Chiquita and had

(52:27):
been since nineteen eighty nine.

Speaker 2 (52:30):
WHOA.

Speaker 7 (52:31):
Jikita even paid a twenty five million dollars settlement to
the US government, acknowledging funding and FTO a foreign terrorist organization.

Speaker 3 (52:40):
So, yeah, bananas are bananas. They're deadly. So my mom,
don't eat that banana, don't.

Speaker 2 (52:47):
I mean it just that is amazing that so many
people have had their entire lives upheaved or destroyed or
killed because.

Speaker 5 (52:53):
People need bananas.

Speaker 2 (52:55):
People need bananas, that we're going to kill your family,
We're going to destroy your land because people need banan Make.

Speaker 6 (53:00):
Sure we have so many bananas.

Speaker 3 (53:02):
We don't even know what to do with this.

Speaker 2 (53:04):
And like everyone has at least a three bananas on
their counter right now, and two of.

Speaker 5 (53:08):
Them are bad.

Speaker 1 (53:08):
I mean's like every day there there are union struggles
where people are trying to be represented in the appropriate way.
They're trying to make a living wage. And when you
have a government in cahoots with another covert organization i e.
The US kill those workers and their entire family and
then cover it up, that's evil.

Speaker 5 (53:29):
And so hey, I got some good news. We shot
a lot of them, you know.

Speaker 9 (53:33):
I mean, I am never going to eat a banana
without shame ever again.

Speaker 7 (53:36):
You want a little bit of trivia though, Actually, the disease,
the Panama disease that annihilated the gross Michelle crops back
in the fifties, it's happening again. So it has already
spread through Central America and South a margat and has
been seen in the United States as well. So the
cavendish banana may go the way of the gross, Michelle,
and we might have to find a new banana.

Speaker 4 (53:59):
I haven't suggested.

Speaker 6 (54:00):
I think we should make like a banana and split.

Speaker 5 (54:06):
That's topical.

Speaker 3 (54:08):
That's points.

Speaker 2 (54:09):
This is just a really annoying trip fund.

Speaker 1 (54:15):
This is a Florida. There's going to be a Florida.
You need to get run. Let's run.

Speaker 5 (54:23):
There's rain. But I mean it makes my arm better.

Speaker 4 (54:25):
But back towards the boat. Well, what happened?

Speaker 5 (54:28):
What's that?

Speaker 10 (54:30):
Well?

Speaker 3 (54:30):
I think like there's a greenhouse over there.

Speaker 5 (54:32):
What idea.

Speaker 2 (54:34):
Let's go into a greenhouse where they're they're growing all
the dangerous plants even though they've all been attacking me.
Let's go into the place where there like a dangerous
plant apartment. This should be great into rain.

Speaker 3 (54:44):
What else are you?

Speaker 6 (54:47):
I wanted to go in there?

Speaker 3 (54:48):
All right, let's go into the greenhouse fast such back trutch.

Speaker 5 (54:53):
Back back, fridge, fridge, fridge.

Speaker 1 (54:58):
I can't even see in front of me.

Speaker 9 (54:59):
This is like.

Speaker 10 (55:03):
Elbow.

Speaker 3 (55:04):
The lightning strike got the door open.

Speaker 10 (55:07):
We're in that.

Speaker 5 (55:10):
That felt like that's not like a good torrent right there.

Speaker 6 (55:13):
That was weirdly not a lot of plants in this greenhouse.

Speaker 5 (55:18):
I was hoping for weed. I was hoping for we
did he watch out.

Speaker 3 (55:25):
Behind you. Look it's like a pit, but it's not.

Speaker 2 (55:29):
It's a whole looks stairs, it's not just it's just
stairs in the middle of a freaking quote unquote greenhouse.

Speaker 3 (55:36):
It hasn't banister.

Speaker 5 (55:38):
Well, okay, at least that Lisa, my old ass, and
the hold lot of that.

Speaker 1 (55:41):
So, hey, guys, I'm gonna run outside and see where
this is because this looks like it's on the coast, right,
so that would be underwater.

Speaker 2 (55:51):
Si d outside outside, He's going to look for bananas.
He's looking for bananas in here.

Speaker 3 (55:58):
Lightning just struck right behind him. He's running back.

Speaker 1 (56:03):
This entire greenhouse looks like it's submerged underwater, which means
the plains of glass that we're seeing are actually leaning
into the earth. So this stairwell is going underneath the water,
surrounding another tunnel.

Speaker 2 (56:19):
So it's like it's like an underground aquarium or something
that because that sounds.

Speaker 9 (56:23):
To wait, wait, didn't the audio tape tell us something
about tunnels.

Speaker 5 (56:28):
There's been a ton of tunnels we've gone through. When
it comes to we literally just heard that.

Speaker 7 (56:34):
Yeah, but Felix hated pepper Shire and with good reason,
because this island is a dick.

Speaker 5 (56:39):
Right, Yeah, I agree.

Speaker 4 (56:40):
But he had a farm and there were tunnels. Yes,
we are in a farm and there's a tunnel.

Speaker 3 (56:46):
Train tunnels.

Speaker 2 (56:49):
There's been, there's been train tunnels. I want aquarium tunnels.
I want farm tunnels.

Speaker 5 (56:54):
Tunnels aren't good there.

Speaker 1 (56:55):
I can't even see him there, like there's no light.
You guys, we have to take a boat right now?
Are we going to go into the Okay?

Speaker 4 (57:02):
Well, how about you play one of his tapes.

Speaker 3 (57:04):
He find the one that.

Speaker 4 (57:05):
Find the one that talks about this.

Speaker 1 (57:07):
Let me find the breaker.

Speaker 2 (57:08):
Hold on, just keep on going down and you get
a lot of we got it. We've got a lot
of stairs, dark, scary front.

Speaker 1 (57:16):
It's called the Magic you can do to stock and
you just walk down.

Speaker 5 (57:22):
You kind of makes this guy, it's like the worst
podcast ever.

Speaker 3 (57:25):
Then, I don't know if this does to do with
that greenhouse.

Speaker 1 (57:29):
That's a pretty good one. Let's see all money loves money.
So this is a coin one. What you gotta do
is get a paper and a paper trick and then.

Speaker 8 (57:38):
Dangircle on top of wet cardboard drinking glass like molded
over and then wow, no more coin and disappeared.

Speaker 1 (57:46):
Where the coin is gonna say? I said, magic tricks
sound like a describing them.

Speaker 5 (57:53):
It takes away the magic of the magic trick.

Speaker 1 (57:55):
And all you gotta do is you play with them.

Speaker 4 (57:57):
See what's at the bottom.

Speaker 1 (57:58):
But we have already like walked on like thirty five
ftok at that it's sliding on top of man, I'm
so glad we were walking down and not walking up.

Speaker 5 (58:05):
It smells like hot old milk everyone.

Speaker 1 (58:08):
And you ask for a pencil. But what you really
do is it ties and thread to him, or you
tie it to a shirt button. If you don't have
a shirt.

Speaker 7 (58:14):
Button, I guess you're a look that's actually pretty smart.

Speaker 1 (58:17):
And center and looking for lights, which is well, no,
this is like.

Speaker 5 (58:23):
Out of rot.

Speaker 1 (58:24):
I think it's just something right here.

Speaker 5 (58:26):
And then.

Speaker 10 (58:27):
This is this one.

Speaker 7 (58:30):
Thing about it.

Speaker 6 (58:30):
Even the most farmer we're like this one.

Speaker 3 (58:33):
It's called a box of chocolates.

Speaker 4 (58:34):
You got to bite