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Oh hey, it's your podcast, step Dad, who smells like garlic, but is so happy you made it to this update because it's just such a comfy, cozy ketchup with an all time favorite guest. So Trees, Trees, Trees. If you have not yet listened to the full episode, you just be be backing up, kiddo, hit that first. I promise you there's an order. It makes sense. Also, since you made it here, I promised an update on the unnamed tree that I mentioned in the twenty eighteen interview, and
does it have a name. It's been two years and it doesn't. No, it does not have one. Nothing is sacred. I'm mad at everything. I'm really pissed on one hand that it is nameless, but also on the other hand, I'm kind of relieved and I feel calm in my heart that it is not named after Pepsi Max or like t Mobile, like tree Mobile. Oh God, just please
Earth swallow me. Okay, So more updates on the life and times and adventures of your favorite dendrologist, including whether or not he calls himself a dendrologist.
Casey Clapp, how are you Allie?
I'm just doing so great. How are you good?
It's so good to hear your voice.
You as well, although I've heard it one hundred thousand times.
Now, I feel like after I mean, I just was listening to dentrology this morning, so I feel like we just hung out this morning.
Wow, that sounds great. We get hang on the morning hand at night, I'm drinking a beer right now, so we're all on the same page.
Oh, it's so good to have you back. Are you like aware that your episode on tentrology is maybe a fan favorite of all of like two hundred episodes I've done.
No, I didn't realize it until like recently, and I'm like, this is so stunning to me. I'm so happy to be a part of this. Yeah.
No, Honestly, when people recommend episodes to each other, it's like, oh you gottah start with dentrology. That tree guy's amazing.
People love you, Oh man, I love them too. So you know, it's very neutralistic here.
Now it's winter right now, almost we're going into winter.
Yes, we're nearly at the solstice.
Yeah, we're almost there. What is now anything new about trees that you have perhaps learned in the last year and a half, anything that has recently kind of come into your world that you felt like you wanted to share. Any new tattoos?
Oh my god, I got so many more tattoos. I was actually thinking about that because I was like, oh my gosh, I've added to my armor. Reedom is what I call it.
Armor reedom.
It's good, Like that's how many trees. It's become more than just one. It's a collection.
Now, which ones do you have?
What'd you got?
Let's see, So I have a bristle cone pine tree tattooed on my chest and that takes up like a kind of like almost a quadrant. I got a Douglas fir cone with a bunch of little mushrooms that come out. Here's a this is a fun thing. I learned this. So there is a fungus and it's stroboformist true Lossadis, I believe is the scientific name. It doesn't have a common name. And it's a fungus that only colonizes and grows on the cones of the Douglas fir tree. That's it.
So quite specialized. Yeah, And I was like, oh, I really want to get fungus like a mushroom tattoo, but I don't want it to be like one of those kind of like almost kitchy mushrooms everyone like gets in and I was like, nah, it's got to be a little bit more original. So I found I found this like mushroom when I was just looking through the world, and it's on You can find it if you go out to you know, the forest, you'll see it right now.
And I was like, that's adorable. So I took it to my artist and he drew it up and he's like, oh, what do you think. I was like, it's perfect, let's do it. So I got these little mushrooms popping out of a little Douglas fur cone. And then I have an enlarged large cone that is like right on my other the top side of my wrist. And then the Carolina hemlock, the subalpine fur and I think that's it. I think those are only the new, the new tree related tattoos.
How do you pick by the way of all those species, like the bristle cone pine, for example, what was it about that tree that inspired you to get a massive chest piece?
Oh my god, have.
You seen those trees? Yeah, that's all you gotta do is go look at them and then all inspiration done.
So the bristle cone pine is that dense, gnarled ancient tree that one Don Curry cut down while doing research, only to find that that specimen was the oldest known living thing on planet Earth at the time until he killed it. So loops. But these western us conifers, they look kind of like if a lightning bolt was made out of driftwood. It's just gnarnar in every way.
I went down and saw them, it was just absolutely blown away. And I think that they are the most uniquely beautiful trees, you know, because you can see them and they look old, and you know, they're tiny trees comparatively, like you could fit an entire one of these trees inside of a medium sized sequoia, but it is, but
they're like literally twice as old. So there's just the I don't know, you can just I could stare at it the way someone can stare at water or stare at fire, you know, like it just kind of captivates you. So that's that was the inspiration. I was like, I got to get something like that tattooed, and I really want to take up this massive space that I have. So what am I going to do? And I gave
it to the artist who I work with. I was like, hey, man, I just this is kind of my idea, and he drew a couple of things up and he was he had his iPad and he was looking at it while he was tattooing me, and so it wasn't like a drawing that he put on me. He was kind of like, all right, this is kind of the idea. I'm gonna make it better as we do it. And he was actively like judging the tree that he was looking at and then putting it on me at the same time.
And I was like, this is excellent. I love this.
And when something is tattooed into your actual flesh, it really is a portable evergreen. It's a forever green.
Oh.
On the topic of life and winter, Casey shared some dendrological myths and lower.
I did some research on this with one of my friends, and it is actually such an interesting like Christianization a most of pagan holidays. And basically the idea is that there were there's always been sort of pagan holidays over the solstice. And the fun thing that I learned is that, and I don't know what exact tradition this is, if it was you know, galls or celts or something like that, but there was a holly king, and there was an oak king. The Oak King was the king over the summertime.
As soon as the winter solstice happens, when the days immediately start getting longer, the Oak King's power would kind of grow and he'd get more and more strength, and he'd kind of the power of the Holly King would kind of wane a little bit or wax. Which one which ones go away and which ones come? I think is waning, it's fading. So the holly king was waning
while the oak king was waxing. And then at the summer solstice, the oa king's at the height of its power and glory when you have the biggest oak trees and they have all their leaves and they're so divine in a lot of different cultures. And then as soon as the summer solstice and June twenty first comes around, then all of a sudden, its power starts fading, and
then the holly king starts coming back. And the holly is obviously evergreen, at least it was the one that they're talking about, the English holly or the sort of common holly over in Europe. That tree then started getting all the more power and the more power, and then all of a sudden, you know, you have that sort of power dynamic that comes and goes, and on the solstice they would bring in these ever green things as a celebration of everlasting life and that kind of thing.
So I just thought that was the most fascinating thing, where everyone like it was just this, you know, you were connected to the land, you were celebrating, you know, the turning of the day is getting longer, getting shorter, and then all of a sudden, you know, they took it, and as religions and cultures change, they kind of took that same idea and transformed it to a new tradition. As we look at it now, obviously the tradition's very much different than it was three thousand years ago. Mm hmm.
Now what about Arbor Day do you celebrate?
I love Arbor Day. One of my professors when I was at the University of Massachusetts, he would always he had a really thick Boston accent, and he was always like, I can't even do the accent. I was gonna try, and then I panicked.
And I stopped.
Maybe that'll come out some other time. He would always say, all right, it's the most holy day of the year, Arbor Day. Go outside, go plant the tree. Oh, and he's just he I thought that was the funniest thing because I had no idea what he was talking about. When he's like, hey, most holy day of the year's coming up, I'm like, what it's It's like, it's April. What are you talking about? Like a day?
Ah day?
Go to day? Yeah, go to the park planet a tree. All right, guy, he was just he was kicking the pants, that guy.
No, what about since we talked last you demurred when I called you adndrologist, saying that you were more of an arborist. Uh, do you feel like you are still more of an arborist than a dendrologist? Has your any thoughts changed?
Hmmm, I'm gonna say a little bit yes, And I think, honestly, I have to admit where once you said it, and you know, like someone starts calling you something, it's like, oh, oh, okh okay, yeah, I guess, I guess I am. I never I guess I never gave myself that title. But if everyone else will, I guess I'm just gonna live into it. I'm gonna I'm gonna take it.
Oh good, that makes me so so happy.
Well, thank you.
What about What are you looking forward to in twenty twenty one?
In twenty twenty one? Actually, I have a very specific thing that I'm looking forward to, and it's kind of a thing that I have to drop right now. I guess is that I am officially actually trying to make a podcast. And we're making a podcast, my friend Alex Crossen and I. It's gonna come out on the seventh of January, So right as twenty twenty one starts, Oh my gosh, what's it called. It's called completely arbitrary. Yeah, I'm so happy that you laughed at that, of course.
Okay, what's it about? What's the first EPI set about?
Okay, so the first episode is actually about the Douglas fir, I believe is what the first one is going to be. We have a couple that we have lined up, and so we just decided that we are going to make it about the Douglas fer and the whole scheme. When I pitched this to my friend Alex, I was like, Alex, Okay, so you don't know much about trees, and he's like, yeah, I know, you know a lot about trees. I'm like, ah,
you know, okay, I do. But so what if between you and I we just get together and we just kind of talk about trees and then we give them a rating. We review trees as if they were, you know, a material item that someone could be like, oh, oh, tell me about like what I'm gonna scroll down on the Amazon list of trees and then see all the different consumer reviews of it. That is basically what we're
gonna do. We're gonna introduce the tree I'm gonna talk about it and say a right, So here's the facts, just the facts, blah blah blah, and he's gonna look at me like the tree's green, it's got leaves, and that's about all I know.
Oh okay, y'all heard it here first, completely arbitrary. Get it okay. So it officially launches on January seventh, but I strongly begged Casey to put up an episode zero trailer so you can find it now and subscribe wherever you get podcasts. This is breaking news people. I am the TMZ of tree Gossip, but he is.
A just a delight to talk to you. We've been friends for just years, probably decades by this point. And at the end of it, we're gonna give a rating out of I think, what did we decide? Ten golden cones of honor? Okay, it came out just randomly when we're sitting there. And then afterwards, we're gonna take a question that someone gives us and we're gonna answer it. So if someone's like, hey, uh, what is a ectomycro rhizal fung guy, then we're gonna talk about that.
Mm hmm.
So that's the plan, and it's gonna be like thirty minutes. You know, you're on your bike, you're riding, uh, you're riding work, you're on the bus, you're driving on thirty minutes, listen to Casey and Alex talk about trees. Laugh a little bit, cry a little bit, you know, mostly because I probably am gonna rate some trees that people really like pretty pretty severely.
I was gonna say, there's gotta be trees on your ship list.
I don't know if you recall me talking about apple trees.
Oh yes, I remember.
Yeah, there are some shitless trees and they're they're gonna come out. We don't know when, you know, we got to pepper them in there, you know, every now and then and keep we want to keep the vibe high. So everyone's like, oh, this is a nice positive podcast, right, But then every now and then it's probably gonna be like, oh, we're gonna we're gonna be talking about the myrobian plum, Like, oh my god, don't even get me started.
Oh my god, you're gonna spill the tree on it.
Yeah, we're gonna yeah, it's it's gonna be it's gonna be pretty rough. Oh I'm so excited that comes out on the seventh, January seventh, So.
It's completely arbitrary or to completely.
Oh, it is completely arbitrary, trust me. But it's also called completely arbitrary, but specifically because we're we're doing this over the radio. It's a R B O R trairie.
I had a feeling. I had a feeling.
Yeah. As we were discussing, I was like, you know what, Alex, I don't think we should make a pun name. And then what do we make it a punny name?
So you have to have to is the podcast art just going to be a bunch of your tattoos?
You know, it might as well be.
But I think it's going to be a cone. We're just getting that figured out and solidifying that. We just got some of the artwork put in today, so we don't Yeah, so we got I think it's going to be a cone and then kind of a thing on top that says completely arbitrary, kind of arked over it.
So excited, Okay, really quick break to hear about sponsors of the show, and they make it possible for us to make a donation in Casey's name this week. It goes to eco Trust dot org, which is a Portland or a based nonprofit working with indigenous nations and private and public landowners to transition to climate smart management. And Eco Trust is firm in their beliefs that forests hold the greatest potential to mitigate the effects of global warming.
So you will hear about sponsors of the show that made that possible.
Now get value.
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Okay, Now, if you are looking to cultivate your own armory doom, who is a good gardener for that? Also? Do you want to shout out your tattoo artist?
Oh?
Yes, name John Heabrink I have with a blood root tattoo here in Portland Cool. He is such a delight, just one of the nicest people I've ever met, just an incredible artist.
Does he like trees more? Since working on you?
I did? You know? I wouldn't say more, but you know what I really dig And why I've I've kept going back to him now like several times, is that each time I give him a you know, a thing, like say hey, I want this, and then I'm very specific. I'm like, no, no, this is not a this is a fur cone, or this is a this kind of cone, or this is that kind of cone rather than a
pine cone. That's That's maybe that's a myth I should I should do is that everyone will always say, oh, that looks like, well, well I love that dug fur pine cone, and it's like, no, that's a that's a dug fur cone because it's not a pine you see, and it's It's one of those things where you know, you learn and then you like for thirty seconds start calling people out. Then you realize that you're trying to like, you know, stop a tide, and you're like, just let
it go. It's not that important. And so whenever I give things to him and I'm like, hey, Sean, I have this very specific thing with this very specific purpose, with these very specific like biological or you know whatever meanings, and he picks up on it and like finds it to a t and then knows it. So like I told him about this fungus and then he looked it up himself, so he was making sure that he was drawing it right. Then when he posted it on his social media, he like called out the fungus by the
scientific name and all these things. Was like, you're the best. So he takes it, you know, I guess personally, and then really gives it a good a good piece of art because he he knows exactly that I'm not looking for just like, oh, I want a pine cone, He's like, no, I'm getting a Carolina hemlock cone. It looks exactly like this. Don't just randomly look up hemlock cone or find some other random stuff.
But you know, you know, when something is on someone's body until they die, that's a lot of responsibility, right. I don't want to be like the no regrets tattoo of trees exactly.
Yeah, No, I agree, and I had to. I have to like think about that whenever I see other everyone else's head and I judge them, like not judging it, like is that good or bad? But I'm like, okay, I know that that's a ponderosa pine, but that's a hit. But those are not pine needles? What are those? So yeah, I've seen tattoos like oh okay, let me give you an example. Things that are in the lily family, lily aca. They are defined more or less now I'm gonna say
more by having things in parts of three. So every lily that you've ever seen or anything in the lily family will have three petals, three sepals, or six or nine or twelve. It's all these in multiples of three. These things come in three. And so I saw this and this was like some random book years and years ago where it was clearly a lily, like one of those big lily flowers that you can get from you know, half the stores when they're in bloom, and it only
had five petals. And I was like, uh, oh, someone didn't do their research.
And it's so when the more permanent, it is honestly the worst.
Exactly, Well, what my first tattoo. I don't know if I told you this. It's a backwards music note.
Oh man, buckle up, because you're about to love this guy even more.
Did I tell you this?
No? No? Oh my god. So my very first set too. I think I was a freshman in college and I was like, I want to go get a tattoo. It's gonna be gbu cool. I'm cool. And then I went I went to get it, and I was like, all right, I just want this music. And I think it's a I think it's a quarter note. It's a music note, one that comes up and then goes over and goes back down. So I put it on and I was looking in the mirror and I was like, oh man, no, it's backwards. So you know, we gotta flip that around.
And the tattoo doors like, oh yeah, cool, let's slop it around. So we flipped it around. We tattooed on me. I was super stoked, and I went over and I was showing my friends and all my friends were like, oh,
you got a tattoo, CAZy, Wow, that's great. And then a week later they couldn't bring themselves to tell me, and we're all like, you know, sitting around hanging out in one of my friend's apartments and they're like, hazy, your tattoos backwards and like all it wants is just kind of shouted it out and I was like what. And then for the first time, I actually instead of looking in the mirror, I looked down at my own chest and I was like, oh my god, it is backwards.
And that's been a thing my friend another friend friend was like, you know what, just get all your tattoos back now. Who cares? I No, No, I think if I had to correct it, it would it would get like three times as big because I have to get like the lines for the bar would have to be like big enough to cover the rest of the tattoo. So no, I just have a backwards music no tattooed on me.
No, it's a lesson just to leave well enough alone.
Exactly. But let me tell you, every time I look at it in the mirror, I'm like, that's a perfect music note. A.
You're like, I got a shipload of backwards cones.
But that note is exactly that is perfect. Yeah, it's exactly, It's exactly it. You know, it's a personal tattoo that's what I realized.
Well, the last question I wanted to ask for this refresh is what ology would you really want to hear about.
It would be something like I am so fascinated with the like how cities are designed and like what makes them work, what doesn't make them work? And obviously I work in a city, so I'm constantly like bombarded with this. But you have like the engineers who are trying to figure out how to make stormwater flow perfectly off the side of this curve down into this thing, and then there's other people who have to deal with like all right, well,
how where the street light's gonna go? And then they do all these individual things, but just the larger planning where everyone's like, Okay, we're gonna make this city really cool and here's how and here's why. That is something I find fascinating.
Oh that's a great one. That's an awesome one. I just recorded one with an urban rodentologist and we talked about sewer rats under Manhattan.
That he is terrifying. I heard a story where a guy fell into a like a vault under a Manhattan sidewalk and there were rats, like it was filled with rats, and I was like that is a literal nightmare. Oh my god, I hope that guy's okay. He couldn't even yeah, I think he did, yeah, but he couldn't scream. He was down there for like forty five minutes with rats all around him until they could pull him out because he was like eight feet down and he couldn't scream because a rat would run.
In his mouth.
And it's like, oh my god, I'm shaking right now, you know.
I will say that I did an episode with someone who studies like just gratitude and depression and what to do to get yourself kind of out of a funk, and smelling trees and like phinochemicals in general for like twenty minutes a day was said to make people a lot happier. And that might be the secret of your success or, like you might be why you're just like the coolest, jolliest person is because you're just in trees all the time.
Man, I hope that that's the case. You know what is funny about that there's a famous arborist like researcher, and his slogan was touch trees. Alex schi goes his name, and so all of his books, like you open it up on the very front they say touch trees because he's just like, go out and touch trees. Like people don't do that anymore. So maybe that should be my slogan from now and it's just smell trees. That's gonna do it.
That's great.
I checked today. You have nine thousand Instagram followers.
I just hit nine thousand, just like three days ago.
What did I tell you, dude? I was like, I tested you the day before it went up, and I was like, Casey, you get that Instagram up and You're like, I'm in the middle of the forest. I was like, can you get cell service? You put that up? Because trust me, people are going to want to learn about trees with you. You know, book agents, lit agents. How do they get in touch with you? Yeah, guess they DM you on your Instagram.
You've become my social media manager just by almost like slapping me in the head and you me like, Casey, just go do this, geez, get it done.
So ask charming and knowledgeable people gnarly questions because it'll change the way that you look at those limbs out the window. And plus, we're all going to die one day, so you might as well just appreciate things more and ask about them. And you can follow Casey on Instagram at Clap four Trees as well as his podcast. Both of those are going to be linked in the show notes his podcasting. It is completely arbitrary. You can already subscribe to the trailer and get the first episode when
it drops on January seventh. I think that we should all wear brown pants in a green sweater on January seventh and celebrate.
Who's with me?
No one? I'm doing it anyway. Okay, so we are at all jez on Instagram and Twitter. I'm at Ali Ward with one L on both, and you can be a patron at patreon dot com slash ologies. We have so many good episodes coming up. You can submit questions for Ologies Merch including masks, which I know you're already wearing, is available at ologiesmerch dot com. And thank you Shannon Felts and Bunny Dutch of the Comedy podcast You are
that for managing the merch. Thank you Aaron Talbert and Emily White, Caleb Patton, Noel Dilworth who all make the show possible with their very hard work, as well as assistant editor and full time hottie Jared Sleeper and Treevin Ray Morris aka Stephen, who hosts the per cast and ce Jurassic Right. Nick Thorburn wrote the theme music. And if you stick around to the end of the episode, you know I tell you a secret, and this one is that sometimes when walnuts go bad, they taste kind
of like if you ate paint. But I kind of like them that way because it reminds me of moving into a new place and having like fresh adventures and getting to put your stuff in cabinets and stuff. Anyway, I think this means that the walnuts are rancid. But I haven't died yet, so it's good. Fine, all right, see you back next week. We'll have full, brand new episodes all for twenty twenty one. Meanwhile, I'm just gonna be on the couch eating Stroup waffles and balling to
the new Pixar film. Also, COVID is still very much a thing. So let's all stay in for New Year, shall we? Yeah? Okay, great touch. Some trees have some bark, provide pack adermatology, homeology, r doo zoology, lithology, yea, zerinology, meteorology, feratology, ethology, seriology, seminology, please squab.
For trees get value.
You can't argue with at Tesco with their amazing club card prices. Serve up something special with our finest meal deal for two starring one main, two sides and dessert for only sixteen yeu row like succulent board, be approved Virus shined a strip loin steaks with peppercorn butter or delicious Virus Chicken Parmesana served with creamy potato gretam and our ma of rainbow root vegetables and enjoy Goozillionaire or Soldier Caramel cheesecake. Can't argue with that shop in store or online.
Tesco.
Every little helps available the most stores, Prices varying Express