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Why do leaves change colors in the fall? · Stuff You Should Know

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to you stuff you should know from house stuff
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Speaker 1: a charitable organization engaging really important scientific research. That's right.
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Speaker 1: And you can go to mobro dot c O slash
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Speaker 1: Charles Bryant and that's my page, or just go to
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Speaker 1: the November site. Type in Charles Bryan in the search
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Speaker 1: bar and look for the picture of me. There's only
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Speaker 1: a couple of us out there. Chuck's wearing a red shirt,
1:00
Speaker 1: that's right. Yeah, um, so what is that again? That's
1:03
Speaker 1: mo bro dot CEO slash Charles Bryant. Yes, thank you
1:07
Speaker 1: in advance. Yeah, that's nice, Chuck. All right, let's get
1:09
Speaker 1: to it. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark.
1:13
Speaker 1: There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant in audio and video. Chuck,
1:17
Speaker 1: we're just hanging out doing some recording, uh, doing our thing.
1:22
Speaker 1: I guess this is episode number five million two. That's right. Yeah,
1:26
Speaker 1: before we get started, I wanted to point out Josh
1:28
Speaker 1: that on the way in, about twenty minutes ago, in
1:31
Speaker 1: a parking deck, I saw what was probably an eighty
1:34
Speaker 1: thou dollar Mercedes with a license plate that said Rush Fan.
1:38
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, have you seen that? Yeah. I'm trying to
1:41
Speaker 1: figure out. I've seen it many times. I'm trying to
1:43
Speaker 1: figure out are they talking about Rush I think so
1:46
Speaker 1: or Rush Limbaugh. Yeah. And the first time I saw
1:50
Speaker 1: I was like, all right, and I was like, oh,
1:53
Speaker 1: I wonder which one, geez now, doubting myself. And then
1:56
Speaker 1: that was Rushed the band, which I thought, well, obviously guy.
2:01
Speaker 1: First of all, it would have to be and um,
2:04
Speaker 1: it's obviously guy that's some sort of ceo here in
2:06
Speaker 1: the building. Because maybe his car was pretty sweet. Yes,
2:09
Speaker 1: but also consider this, it doesn't have a reserved spot. Yeah,
2:14
Speaker 1: that's true, Russia Limbaugh fan. I don't know if you
2:18
Speaker 1: would say Rush to people call him that, I would
2:20
Speaker 1: have put l M B H fan f N. Now
2:23
Speaker 1: people would definitely call him rush, all right. Yeah, he
2:26
Speaker 1: could also love that drug that used to be legal
2:30
Speaker 1: Rush that you'd buy it headshops in like the eighties.
2:33
Speaker 1: Maybe he just loves that. Yeah, he stocked up on it.
2:35
Speaker 1: What is that stuff? Isn't have no eradicated? Or did
2:38
Speaker 1: it convert into something that we like, like PCP, something
2:41
Speaker 1: we know by another name. I don't know, but and boy,
2:44
Speaker 1: we're segueing already, but this is a short one, so
2:46
Speaker 1: I guess it's all right. I did see an internet
2:48
Speaker 1: thing yesterday, um, where this artist took like every drug
2:52
Speaker 1: you could think of and drew a self portrait. It
2:54
Speaker 1: is pretty interesting, I gotta say, like from the the
2:58
Speaker 1: weird like fund psychedel like mushroom one too. Um, how
3:02
Speaker 1: which one was it that was just horrifying? It was
3:05
Speaker 1: just like fuzzy scribbling methamphetamines. No, that one was pretty
3:09
Speaker 1: scary too, But there was one that was just like weird.
3:14
Speaker 1: Oh it's probably rob now, but he did do that
3:17
Speaker 1: he drank. Yeah, you should do none of this, by
3:21
Speaker 1: the way, people, even if you are an artist. Yeah,
3:24
Speaker 1: you know who makes the best art clean non addicted
3:28
Speaker 1: human beings who get high on um? You know, a
3:32
Speaker 1: nice spring day, and they're not getting high during that
3:35
Speaker 1: spring day. They're getting high from the spring day. That's
3:38
Speaker 1: what I meant by that. Sure, let's talk about days.
3:40
Speaker 1: Let's talk about fall instead of spring. Yeah, that's autumn,
3:44
Speaker 1: you want. Autumn is my favorite season, Josh, same here,
3:48
Speaker 1: um as it is a lot of people because here
3:51
Speaker 1: in Atlanta, which is like living in the middle of
3:53
Speaker 1: a forest, um, an urban forest it is. It's like
3:56
Speaker 1: the most heavily wooded state in the Union. I understands
3:59
Speaker 1: what I hear. Well, this article here gives a lot
4:01
Speaker 1: of due to New England, which is no slouch obviously,
4:04
Speaker 1: but Georgia in the southeast man the Rocky are the Rockies.
4:08
Speaker 1: They moved over the Blue Ridge Mountains. Uh, just gorge
4:12
Speaker 1: smoky Smokey's like vibrant reds yellows. Orange is just like unbelievable.
4:18
Speaker 1: I saw an article I think it was on MSNB
4:21
Speaker 1: series A Today's Show article, um and it was like
4:25
Speaker 1: places other than Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine that are
4:29
Speaker 1: good for I hate this word leaf peeping. I thought
4:32
Speaker 1: that was made up and I had to look it
4:33
Speaker 1: up and it's not. Yeah, it's real. Yeah, It's the
4:36
Speaker 1: most disgustingly folksy word I've ever heard in my life.
4:39
Speaker 1: But that's what it's called. If you go and look
4:40
Speaker 1: at leaves as they change color, you're a leaf peeper. No,
4:43
Speaker 1: you're not. Uh, some people will call you that. I
4:47
Speaker 1: think you have to associate with that thing. Like you
4:49
Speaker 1: might have a T shirt that says that, like leaf
4:51
Speaker 1: peeper at work or leaf peepers do it with their
4:54
Speaker 1: eyes open, nice nice in the woods. Yeah. So yeah,
5:01
Speaker 1: if you are into that kind of thing, some people
5:03
Speaker 1: might call you a leaf peeper. Um, and you probably
5:06
Speaker 1: are a veteran of New Hampshire's Vermont and mains autumn.
5:12
Speaker 1: But like you're saying, the Smokies are nice, the the
5:15
Speaker 1: Appalachians are nice. Um. Out west apparently has some really
5:20
Speaker 1: good leaf peeping. Yeah, Um, Utah, I'm sure Utah, Colorado,
5:28
Speaker 1: and Arizona. Maybe in the right spots probably, Yeah, probably
5:32
Speaker 1: northern Arizona. As long as like the there you have
5:35
Speaker 1: some sort of maybe like an elm, a good maple
5:38
Speaker 1: out there, it's gonna be worth standing and gawking at
5:41
Speaker 1: for a certain period of time. Um. If you go
5:44
Speaker 1: a little further up in Idaho, you're gonna hit the
5:47
Speaker 1: Snake River. And if you hit the Snake River, you're
5:50
Speaker 1: probably going to run into a Native American of the
5:53
Speaker 1: Shoshoni tribe. This is like their central location, or it was,
5:57
Speaker 1: is their ancest street. The Shoshoni. If you ask them,
6:02
Speaker 1: especially if you ask them a few hundred years ago,
6:04
Speaker 1: I'm sure why the leaves turn color, say like red
6:09
Speaker 1: or yellow? They would tell you a little story about
6:11
Speaker 1: the Great Bear. Yeah you've heard this one, right, I have?
6:14
Speaker 1: Do you want to tell it? Well, apparently the lore
6:17
Speaker 1: says that, um, the color came from above and after
6:21
Speaker 1: they killed the great bear in the sky, which is why,
6:24
Speaker 1: you know, for a hunt for the pelt um, the
6:28
Speaker 1: blood splashed down and turn the leaves red. Yes, chuck,
6:32
Speaker 1: Which makes a lot of sense, except there's plenty of
6:35
Speaker 1: times when you see a tree that's turned bright yellow.
6:39
Speaker 1: What is that? What's to explain that? Shoshoni? Um, Well,
6:42
Speaker 1: they would say that it comes from the bear's fat
6:45
Speaker 1: splashing out of the pot when they are cooking it,
6:48
Speaker 1: which is thought a little gross, it is, but it's practical. Yeah. Um,
6:53
Speaker 1: So that's the that's one explanation for why leaves turned color.
6:57
Speaker 1: And after reading this article, I found that um science
7:02
Speaker 1: is a percent sure what's going on there. They have
7:04
Speaker 1: a pretty good idea, but they're not especially when it
7:08
Speaker 1: comes to turning red. You can't crawl inside of a leaf.
7:12
Speaker 1: You can't walk up to one and ask it right,
7:14
Speaker 1: Oh you're red? Yeah, like the walls of this room. Yeah,
7:19
Speaker 1: these walls talk back and they say disturbing things. But
7:23
Speaker 1: you're right. They don't know for sure, but they have
7:24
Speaker 1: some pretty good guesses. And it all starts with photosynthesis
7:28
Speaker 1: and chlorophyll. Yeah, do you do you remember photosynthesis? I
7:32
Speaker 1: looked it out to refresh myself. Yeah. That's one of
7:35
Speaker 1: the neat things because it's one of the very first
7:37
Speaker 1: science things you'll learn as a kid. Yeah like that.
7:39
Speaker 1: That word has been with me since I was a tyke. Yeah,
7:42
Speaker 1: chlorophyll photosynthesis and uh, go ahead, give the give the
7:45
Speaker 1: first grade version. Okay. Well, chlorophyll is a pigment and
7:50
Speaker 1: uh plants. It's green, and it's green because it reflects,
7:53
Speaker 1: or it absorbs red light and blue light and so
7:56
Speaker 1: the only light that's left is green and that's the
7:58
Speaker 1: light that we see. It doesn't absorb that. Yeah, so
8:01
Speaker 1: since it's a pigment, it can absorb light and do
8:03
Speaker 1: crazy things with it, and in the case of a plant,
8:06
Speaker 1: it converts the light energy in the chemical energy in
8:10
Speaker 1: the form of a dino scene triphosphate A t P.
8:14
Speaker 1: So what's just happened is it's captured light and taking
8:18
Speaker 1: that light and turn it into a chemical So it's
8:20
Speaker 1: stored energy, which is pretty cool. A little further down
8:23
Speaker 1: in the leaf, you take a little water, you got
8:26
Speaker 1: the A t P, combine it with some C O two,
8:30
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden you got glucose. And
8:32
Speaker 1: if you have glucose, what were you gonna say. I
8:34
Speaker 1: thought you were gonna say, a chicken pot pie. You
8:37
Speaker 1: have the beginnings of a good chicken pot pot Like,
8:39
Speaker 1: you can't make a chicken pot pie without a D
8:41
Speaker 1: t P. That's just the start. Um. So you have
8:46
Speaker 1: all this glucose and you're ready to make some chicken
8:48
Speaker 1: pot pie. Before you make that, the plant is going
8:52
Speaker 1: to use it to fuel cells. It's the it's what
8:55
Speaker 1: it it's it's food. It makes its own food, right,
8:58
Speaker 1: that's pretty neat in itself. That's autosynthesis. So photosynthesis um
9:03
Speaker 1: is carried out in the presence of lots of light,
9:06
Speaker 1: right and during the right kind of weather, when there's
9:10
Speaker 1: a lot of light. So um, summertime. Yes, summertime comes
9:15
Speaker 1: to an end though the days start to go a
9:18
Speaker 1: little shorter. That's right, it gets darker earlier. Ye air
9:21
Speaker 1: drives out of it. Yeah, and the plant says, you
9:23
Speaker 1: know what, I'm kind of dumb making my own sugars
9:26
Speaker 1: for a while. I'm gonna just live off my fat
9:29
Speaker 1: like a great bear in the sky. That's right, And
9:32
Speaker 1: so it stops thinking chlorophyll. Uh. Yeah, And chlorophyll is
9:35
Speaker 1: not the only thing going on in the leaf. Obviously
9:37
Speaker 1: you have your green, but there are also other pigments
9:40
Speaker 1: like a caroteen and xanthophill. Xantho means yellow and Greek.
9:45
Speaker 1: And that is what gives carrots and egg gilks their
9:49
Speaker 1: cover cover, their color, their cover. It's a cover color.
9:53
Speaker 1: Shell gives it the cover. Yeah, that's what gives it
9:56
Speaker 1: the color. And uh, they're always in leaves, and they
10:01
Speaker 1: also help absorb the sunlight. They're not the start the
10:04
Speaker 1: chlorophyll is um, but they do transfer chlorophyll for photosynthesis.
10:09
Speaker 1: They help. Yeah, and so the plant always has I
10:12
Speaker 1: guess caroteens and um, what is it? So, but it's
10:19
Speaker 1: it doesn't always produce chlorophyll. So when it stops producing chlorophyll,
10:22
Speaker 1: xanthe xanthophil and the caroteens go hey look at us. Huh,
10:28
Speaker 1: I think it's always chlorophyll, right, No, it's but it's
10:32
Speaker 1: always there at some point or is are there some
10:34
Speaker 1: leaves without chlorophill at all? Oh? Like, no, it depends
10:38
Speaker 1: on the time of the year that I thought, right, So,
10:40
Speaker 1: like the plan will stop producing chlorophyll and the caroteens
10:43
Speaker 1: and the xanthophill will take over. But yeah, I believe
10:46
Speaker 1: that there's always chlorophyll. Er every plant has an ability
10:49
Speaker 1: to make chlorophyll right for photosynthesis, I think so, because
10:52
Speaker 1: that's how it eats. Yeah. Yeah, So you've got the
10:55
Speaker 1: red or you've got the yellow, and you have the
10:57
Speaker 1: orange leaves explained bay Um, there's no chlorophyll any longer, right,
11:02
Speaker 1: and we should probably talk about that period of hybrid nation.
11:05
Speaker 1: What goes on. There's another step that goes on. Yeah,
11:07
Speaker 1: a couple of things happen. Um. The leaf is going
11:10
Speaker 1: to form a layer of separation. Um. Jennifer calls it
11:14
Speaker 1: cork like cells at the base of the leaf seals
11:17
Speaker 1: it all from the tree. It's like a little stopper,
11:19
Speaker 1: I guess, and then the tree stops producing the chlorophyll,
11:23
Speaker 1: and um, well that's pretty much it, Like, no more chlorophyll,
11:28
Speaker 1: we've got a barrier between the I guess, the end
11:30
Speaker 1: of the branch and the leaf. Yes, so the tree
11:32
Speaker 1: doesn't dry out when it loses all its leaves exactly. Uh.
11:36
Speaker 1: And here's where we get into the red. Where the
11:37
Speaker 1: red comes from something called pigment called anthocyanin, and that's
11:44
Speaker 1: a flavonoid, so the flavonoid family, and depending on the
11:48
Speaker 1: pH it can be responsible for reds, purples, and blues
11:53
Speaker 1: and all sorts. It's like what makes a plumb purple?
11:55
Speaker 1: For instance, they're great blue berries, blueberry blue. Uh. There's
12:00
Speaker 1: more than three hundred distinct anthough cyanons, and apparently they're
12:06
Speaker 1: really really good for you, like loaded with antioxidants. Yeah. Yeah,
12:11
Speaker 1: that's why, probably why blueberries are so good for you. Yeah,
12:14
Speaker 1: well exactly, it's a super food. But one of the
12:17
Speaker 1: things I found that said that it was it's one
12:19
Speaker 1: of some of the strongest physiological effects of any plant
12:22
Speaker 1: compound on the planet is found in the anto cyanin.
12:26
Speaker 1: It's pretty crazy. Well, they don't Um, not all plants
12:30
Speaker 1: produce antho cyanons. Not all plants that do produce antho
12:34
Speaker 1: cyanons produced it all the time. I try to get
12:37
Speaker 1: a list, oh yeah, of just trees. But I'm sure
12:40
Speaker 1: it's out there. I just couldn't find it. I would
12:42
Speaker 1: say a lace leave, Japanese maple, that will be at
12:44
Speaker 1: the top of the list. That was for having it. Uh,
12:48
Speaker 1: that's all I got. But so, I mean, if you
12:51
Speaker 1: if you are a leaf peeper or you're somebody who
12:54
Speaker 1: others might call a leaf paper, it's a terrible word.
12:58
Speaker 1: Any kind of peoper is just that. Yeah, because you
13:02
Speaker 1: know pep Yeah exactly. UM. If you if you are
13:08
Speaker 1: into looking at fall leaves, we'll say that. Um, then
13:11
Speaker 1: you probably know that some years there's really great reds,
13:14
Speaker 1: other years there's not. I felt like last year we
13:17
Speaker 1: didn't have that many. Yeah, it seems like I don't
13:19
Speaker 1: remember seeing red for a while now. Um. And science
13:23
Speaker 1: is not certain what's going on, but what they think
13:27
Speaker 1: happens is uh. Anthocyanins are created by a plant to
13:32
Speaker 1: recover sugar during times when it's um there's a period
13:38
Speaker 1: of stress that the plant's going through. So if you
13:41
Speaker 1: have a very wet summer into autumn, you're probably not
13:46
Speaker 1: gonna see any reds. You have a very dry um
13:49
Speaker 1: summer into autumn, you will usually see reds um. And
13:53
Speaker 1: the reason why is because apparently these the sugar stores
13:56
Speaker 1: in the leaves are just kind of dry, their dry
14:00
Speaker 1: it up, they've turned into sap. So the plant produces
14:02
Speaker 1: anthro syanons to going and recover it, to get it
14:04
Speaker 1: all loosened up so I can suck it back out
14:06
Speaker 1: into its trunk before those cork like cells cut it off. Yeah,
14:11
Speaker 1: it's sort of like there's a timetable and they know
14:13
Speaker 1: that they're gonna be cut off from that supply soon,
14:15
Speaker 1: so it just really tries hard there at the end
14:17
Speaker 1: to get every last bit out, every last bit. And
14:20
Speaker 1: the antho cyanons are a red pigment, so when it
14:22
Speaker 1: sends it into the leaves, that's what they think is
14:24
Speaker 1: going on. Um. They said that the best predictor that
14:28
Speaker 1: they found for um a nice brilliant red display in
14:32
Speaker 1: the autumn. As as summer turns into autumn, warm sunny days,
14:36
Speaker 1: so there's lots of sugar production going on, and then
14:39
Speaker 1: um cool nights that slows down the ability of the
14:44
Speaker 1: tree to suck the sugars that were produced that day
14:46
Speaker 1: out of the leaves. So there's a bunch stuck in
14:49
Speaker 1: there and dry to right. Yeah, that's kind of what
14:51
Speaker 1: we got going on now. Yeah, hopefully we'll see a
14:53
Speaker 1: lot of reds. I think my favorite the reds are nice.
14:56
Speaker 1: But I don't know what tree it is. But it's
14:58
Speaker 1: one particular tree that has those yellow like it just glows.
15:02
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, man, it's just like so yellow, it's blinding.
15:05
Speaker 1: It's a type of maple, is it. I think so,
15:07
Speaker 1: Like there's a couple. There's one that like really glows
15:09
Speaker 1: that's a maple, and then there's another that's um, maybe
15:13
Speaker 1: the oak. I can't remember seeing him. I feel like
15:15
Speaker 1: we talked about this. It was yeah, the time we
15:18
Speaker 1: went leaf peeping, we talked at length about this. That's right. Yeah,
15:23
Speaker 1: I forgot. We brought our little flaska of apple cider
15:26
Speaker 1: walk through the woods. It was a heck of a
15:29
Speaker 1: peeping trip, that's right. Um, So well, I guess that's
15:33
Speaker 1: pretty much the end of it. Science science has a
15:37
Speaker 1: has explained the yellow and the green, and the orange
15:41
Speaker 1: and the red. Pretty sure about the red, Pretty sure
15:43
Speaker 1: about the red. Yeah, they're not convinced. Um. Yeah, I
15:47
Speaker 1: wish I had something else to add, but I think
15:49
Speaker 1: this is just one of those that you know, this fall,
15:52
Speaker 1: you can tell your friends you see that tree, you
15:54
Speaker 1: know what's you know, it's red. Well that's what we're
15:56
Speaker 1: doing here. Yeah. Um oh. Also, if you are into
15:59
Speaker 1: um looking at leaves as they change color in the fall,
16:02
Speaker 1: if you're one of those people who doesn't there, well
16:05
Speaker 1: some people you know, like get in their car and
16:08
Speaker 1: drive places. Yeah, but who was just like shut the shades.
16:11
Speaker 1: I don't want to see that stuff. People who hate
16:13
Speaker 1: art rush fans, right, depending on the kind of rush
16:17
Speaker 1: they're talking about. If you are into that, though, there's
16:20
Speaker 1: a um an app. If you also are into smartphones
16:23
Speaker 1: and you own one, you can download a free app
16:26
Speaker 1: called a leaf Peeper. I'm not saying this, but it's
16:30
Speaker 1: a p E p r UM and it's free and
16:33
Speaker 1: it's like this color coded map of the United States
16:36
Speaker 1: by region area and it shows um where the leaves
16:40
Speaker 1: are green, um, turning, moderate, fading, and gone, so you
16:46
Speaker 1: can kind of track the leaves as they Yeah, it's
16:49
Speaker 1: pretty neat and you can take pictures and post it
16:52
Speaker 1: to your favorite social media site. Well, I think I
16:56
Speaker 1: was going to call for that anyway. I think if
16:57
Speaker 1: you live in a place, do you think rules the
17:00
Speaker 1: uh poster pictures on our Facebook page and um, I
17:05
Speaker 1: will do the same. We will do battle Georgia against
17:08
Speaker 1: the world because I think we have some of the best.
17:10
Speaker 1: You're gonna go do some leaf peeping, some pictures, keep
17:14
Speaker 1: it some leaves. It seems like something you should do,
17:17
Speaker 1: like wearing like shorts and hiking boots and nothing else.
17:22
Speaker 1: Your leaf peeping. Yeah, I mean Emily and I will
17:25
Speaker 1: usually try and tack one drive up in the mountains,
17:26
Speaker 1: you know, maybe pasties while you're leave. I can't wait
17:32
Speaker 1: for the video of this. Uh, let's see if you
17:38
Speaker 1: want to learn more about things like leaves changing color.
17:41
Speaker 1: I love stuff like that. I love earth science. Science,
17:46
Speaker 1: I think is what it is it Yeah. Um, you
17:49
Speaker 1: can type in earth science in the search bar how
17:52
Speaker 1: stuff works dot comment. It will bring up stuff like this. Um,
17:57
Speaker 1: and I said stuff like this, which means time for
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Speaker 1: listener mail. Uh. This is an oldie, but a goodie.
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Speaker 1: It's about sherpas. Wow, that is older and I think
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18:10
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Speaker 1: if you get our material from iTunes, you're only gonna
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Speaker 1: get them all, collect them all all right? So this
18:59
Speaker 1: is about sharp is And if you have not heard that,
19:01
Speaker 1: when it's an old one, you should go listen to it.
19:02
Speaker 1: Did you like that one? That was one of my
19:04
Speaker 1: least favorites? Like, all right, don't listen to it. Dust
19:07
Speaker 1: does not recommend guys. I recently listened to the Sherbet
19:11
Speaker 1: episode from a Ways Back and found that I had
19:13
Speaker 1: an interesting story regarding Sir Edmund Hillary's ascent I was
19:17
Speaker 1: born in Canada, but my mother and her family are
19:19
Speaker 1: all from New Zealand. My uncle Alan Sairs lives just
19:23
Speaker 1: north of Auckland currently and it's one of the most
19:26
Speaker 1: interesting people I know. Uh. He made his career in
19:29
Speaker 1: sports Photokgree primarily for horse racing. He got a start
19:32
Speaker 1: in the field thanks to Sir ed Um. This is
19:35
Speaker 1: the story as told to me by my uncle a
19:37
Speaker 1: little over ten years ago. When Hillary was training for
19:41
Speaker 1: his ascent, he could be seen from time to time
19:43
Speaker 1: hiking on the roadside, all decked out in his climbing
19:46
Speaker 1: gear in order to be well used, well used to
19:48
Speaker 1: the way, or well used. One day, my uncle, then
19:52
Speaker 1: in his mid thirties, passed him, stopped him and said,
19:55
Speaker 1: can I take your photo? H Sir ed Um, already
19:59
Speaker 1: well known locally, was happy to oblige. My uncle never
20:02
Speaker 1: distributed any of the prints. Well what was he wearing
20:06
Speaker 1: like a camusole or something? What? He didn't distribute the prints?
20:11
Speaker 1: Oh no, I don't think it was anything like that.
20:13
Speaker 1: So he just held onto him. But when word came
20:15
Speaker 1: back that Hillary had succeeded, and he sent my uncle
20:18
Speaker 1: rush to develop his many copies of the photo as
20:20
Speaker 1: he could. My uncle never distributed any of the prints.
20:23
Speaker 1: Huh weird. Yeah, But when the word came back that
20:26
Speaker 1: Hillary has succeeded in his assent, my uncle rushed to
20:29
Speaker 1: develop his many copies of the photo as he could.
20:31
Speaker 1: He stuffed them into envelopes addressed to many of the
20:33
Speaker 1: world's newspapers, along with a note asking for whatever uh
20:37
Speaker 1: recompense they felt the photo was worth. So that's a
20:41
Speaker 1: great business model to send pictures and say, hey, pay
20:44
Speaker 1: me a little something, right, Hey, Rupert Murdoch, let's use
20:47
Speaker 1: the honor system. Many papers ran the photo, though, uh
20:51
Speaker 1: and there were no photos, as there were no photos
20:53
Speaker 1: of the ascent available until after Hillary had descended and
20:57
Speaker 1: his own photos were developed. My uncle died here and penniless. Thankfully,
21:02
Speaker 1: the strategy worked for my uncle, and he became well
21:05
Speaker 1: known for sports photography in the nineteen fifties and sixties,
21:08
Speaker 1: initially um. He is now ninety seven years old and
21:12
Speaker 1: has no UH and in no way has slowed down.
21:15
Speaker 1: In fact, he has just finished a book on his
21:17
Speaker 1: career as a naval intelligence officer in w W two
21:20
Speaker 1: that is due to be published next year. He was
21:23
Speaker 1: also a successful track and field athlete in New Zealand
21:25
Speaker 1: winning its silver medal in ninety eight. This guy sounds
21:28
Speaker 1: pretty awesome in what are now the Commonwealth Games. Um, yeah,
21:33
Speaker 1: that's fantastic. We'll plug the book when it comes out. Yeah,
21:36
Speaker 1: for sure, send it. Um. I could not stop thinking
21:39
Speaker 1: about this story while listening to the podcast on sherpos.
21:42
Speaker 1: He also tried to track down to copy the photo,
21:44
Speaker 1: but have been unable to find it. Um best regards
21:47
Speaker 1: Anthony zeller Meyer. Well, thanks a lot, Anthony. Yeah, it's
21:51
Speaker 1: a grandaughter. Nine seven man, keep going seriously. Um wow,
21:56
Speaker 1: if you have a family member that you're very proud
21:59
Speaker 1: of for good reason, for like eight good reasons, we
22:02
Speaker 1: want to hear about that person. Also, don't forget Chuck's
22:05
Speaker 1: call out, like he's putting the SmackDown on your neck
22:09
Speaker 1: of the woods. Doesn't even have to be in the
22:11
Speaker 1: United States. Europe's got some great leave. Asia has some
22:14
Speaker 1: great leave. Basically, anything that's um above or below the tropics,
22:18
Speaker 1: you're probably gonna have some good leaf color. What falls
22:21
Speaker 1: like in Japan? Good? Nice? Yeah, it seems maples. Yeah
22:26
Speaker 1: over there they just call the maples. Uh, we want
22:30
Speaker 1: to see pictures of your your hometown trees showing their
22:33
Speaker 1: greatest colors. Right um you. Also, if you remember this
22:37
Speaker 1: show any tribe right in say hi. You can tweet
22:41
Speaker 1: to us at s y s K podcast. You can
22:43
Speaker 1: join us on Facebook dot com slash Stuff you Should Know,
22:45
Speaker 1: or you can send us an email to Stuff Podcast
22:49
Speaker 1: at Discovery dot com for more on this and thousands
22:58
Speaker 1: of other topics. Does it how stuff? We're dot com