I impersonate these Chicago characters as a joke to make the subject material more interesting, he says. And I, my friend's pilfered scooter. This shits connected., Theres a parallel between Santores efforts and the present plight of his city. You knows what Im gonna do, Im gonna take you to a nice rehab facility. I saw it (the coyote) running across the road, it looked grossly malnourished. That's just my personal take. I just don't think what you're doing is safe behavior. There's little nuances of social mannerisms that I miss about Chicago, like that voice I channel on the YouTube page. Joey Santore | major gifts fundraising at charity: water Hi there. That's one of mine. Which brings us to a big question: If Joey can get thousands of people invested in the fate of a scraggly weed, what kind of impact can he have on science and conservation at large? He undoubtedly spurred people who'd never heard about milkweed to give a damn about the plant. In his videos, Santore offers observations and advice on how to cultivate habitats in neglected urban areas, his narration veering from erudition (Over here you got some coast live oaks, Quercus agrifolia) to irreverence (Grew these bastards from seed). He's shooting the shit. countries. He admits to being borderline contemptuous of maples and rosebushes. And this is a problem. 3 min read. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our, Digital Larsen: After hearing Joey talk about milkweed, I'm personally in the mood to go plant a whole shit ton of it maybe even in places where I'm not supposed to. He's just borrowing. Here's Joey pointing out a colony of the quarter-sized gray-green buttons in the video he made about the day. In addition we have many gardens here that are maintaining endangered plant species, especially Lotusland. And that's why he's lovingly bullying it out of the road, just like he did that rattlesnake. Absolutely. That was just the revelation then that God, I don't know shit. Real banger right there. (Face-to-face, the 37-year-old Santore softens his accent to about 8.) As his online handle suggests, botany doesnt cover the bills. A few months ago, Outside dispatched Jesse Will to tag along with Joey on a field trip to the backroads of South Texas. Every time it feels like an apocalyptic story with this plant. Joey Santore holds his cell phone, widescreen-style, in his fingers, one of which is tattooed with a ruler's hash marks. I bet a bunch of illegal tree planting. Thats cute, you think youre tough. This plant has adapted to lie dormant in its underground rhizome for years until conditions are right. So I ham the Chicago accent up a little bit and put on this character of a geriatric, you know, extroverted, really turned-up loudmouth West Side Italian because my familys Italian, thats mostly what I know, just to make it funny and whatever. He's on your level. The mannerisms at least among the white people out there were super soft and delicate and kind of passive, with an NPR voice. The Chicago vernacular is kind of dyin out, especially as cities get more gentrified and you get more dog day care and coffee boutiques moving into these old Chicago neighborhoods. His priority is making habitats, not only leaves and pretty flowers. A few months ago, Outside dispatched Jesse Will to tag along with Joey on a field trip to the backroads of South Texas. 2018-21; 2010-17; 1999-2009; 1990-99; 1983-90; 1978-83; 1974-77; 1972-1973; Drawings. And then, uh, of course these are a couple of mine as well. I'm getting welcome to Mexico texts, were so close to the border. Chicago magazine newsletters have you covered. Joey's video from South Texas has some 50,000 views and counting. And that's why he's lovingly bullying it out of the road, just like he did that rattlesnake. This rekindled his love for the sciences, but it wasn't until he found a used astronomy textbook that he really started to get obsessed. But Joey has his own reasons for loving the plant, chiefly its incredible diversity -- there are hundreds of species of milkweed in North America alone -- and unusual flower morphology, laden with abundant nectar and distinctive pollen structures. Theres unfortunately a sad ending to the story of a guy with a thick Chicago accent trying to rescue a struggling coyote pup. I've been breaking relatively unimpactful laws my whole life. I mean, on some level it looks, it looks like a weed. Take it easy, buddy. Theyre normally crepuscular or theyre out at night.". A shantytown of homeless people has sprung up adjacent to the neighborhood where hes been doing much of his planting. Like I just got really excited when I would read about this stuff. It's, it's like this, recently born into consciousness, species of primate is now able to figure out the world, dissect the world around it and figure out how it fits in. Although he doesnt have a degree in botany, Santore tells TIME that nature is his true passion. Might just be cooking up carbs, storing it in that tuber and then going dormant for a while. By his own estimate, he has planted somewhere between 300 and 400 trees, mostly native and drought-tolerant oaks and cypresses, along medians and in parks. But regrettably, it had a very sad epilogue. Guerrilla gardener Joey Santore has planted more than 300 trees, encouraging a new appreciation of our habitatand one another. I've had everyone from teenagers to suburban dads tell me, Hey, I saw your page. All right. What kind of attention have you been getting in the past week? It was nothing personal, but I rejected them all unless we had mutual friends. I'm not trying to harass you. I wasnt able to make it there that day so I decided I would bring it there the next morning. I'm Joey Santore: a Connecticut-born, Brooklyn-living, nonprofit-working, cooking-loving, playlist-making, lucid-dreaming, karate-coaching, twenty-something. He's going to take that opportunity to, uh, go drive the vroom vroom around and what the shit, you know, let's keep going. Larsen: As it happens, the particular species of milkweed that Joey wants to find here in South Texas is especially rare. You know, and I kind of like seeing trees. Joey sees an integral and resilient piece of an ecosystem. Personal Quotes (3) I just want people to take a closer look at the nonhuman world and ask more questions. What do you hope viewers take away from your channel? Special interests: Conifers of California, Conifers of Cupressaceae, California Native Cypresses, Arctostaphylos. Oh, yeah, there we go. That's one of mine. (He also produces a podcast of the same name.) you're seeing people that comment and say things like this, guys, the reason why I got interested in plants. Take it easy, buddy. Joey Santore, 36, never expected to get famous for posting videos about nature. Most important is the Garfield Park Conservatory, which is free and features plants from all over the world. Sorry. Some of his trees are now over 30 feet tall! The Landscape Architecture Podcast. You got a fuzzy stem, you got a fuzzy stem. You can hit the Explore button [in. ] Larsen: And they did find some. You gotta, you gotta peyote, a peyote, a lophophora, whole shit tons of peyotes. And so, an ex-punk, former-train-hopper-turned-engineer who doesn't have a college degree is getting hundreds of thousands of people excited about botany using just a camera and his voice. And when its fur was wet, I realized how skinny this thing was. Check out our Patreon page for more info. Trees that can hack it without pruning and summer watering. This episode is brought to you by Visit Mississippi, a wonderland for outdoor lovers. Despite Santores good intentions, its never a good idea for humans to interact with a wild animal in this way regardless of the situation, Victoria Monroe, the California Department of Fish and Wildlifes Conflict Programs Coordinator says. You know, maybe not being seen for, for God knows how long. Okay. Rainy winter is planting season, giving his seedlings months to take root. another adaptation to that, uh, aridity that, that dry climate. May 26, 2021 @ 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm. And around that time I hired out with the railroad, where I got a locomotive license. Larsen: Joey made "Guide to Illegal Tree Planting" when he was living in Oakland, California, where a project to enhance the extra-wide median of parkway left him a bit uninspired. Joey had always liked railroads. It's botany 101, mashed up with expletive-laced tirades about consumerist, car-based American culture. One was that this gentleman was so singleminded in his approach to try and achieve a compassionate outcome for this young animal, she says. Let's see. Okay. Basically he stole the scooter or somebody handed him the scooter and that's your intro to the whole video, which just seems like appropriate. All right, not that quietly. Just enter the code pod25 at checkout. At certain times of year, especially this time of year, they are often active during the day. I associate them with a place to like get away from people and, kind of open air playground. Santore: I kind of joke humans have like the king might've shit touch, you know, everywhere we go, even if the intent is good, there's enough of us. Like I just got really excited when I would read about this stuff. I buried her in the backyard at the house I was staying at, and then the next day when I was at work, it just kind of struck me.. It makes sense. We don't get that here. So I put all this narration through this voice of a 50-year-old Chicago mook from the West Side. Think Dan Aykroyd in The Blues Brothers dialed to 11. We don't know what would happen if it disappeared completely, but Joey says that he doesn't want to find out. I mean, she almost certainly would have died she was underweight and she had mucus in her nose and eyes but maybe she would have been food for something else. What did you think when you saw that video went viral? Guerrilla gardener Joey Santore has planted more than 300 trees, encouraging a new appreciation of our habitatand one another. Painted on the side of an eight-story building, the fiery teenager looks determined and unbowed, gazing down at pedestrians and traffic with eyes the size of windscreens. According to the man behind the video Joey Santore, an Oakland-based, self-taught botanist who runs the YouTube channel Crime Pays But Botany Doesn't the pup died two nights after he. Here's Joey pointing out a colony of the quarter-sized gray-green buttons in the video he made about the day. So its mostly a joke, because most science communication is dry and boring. I guess why I talk like that is, one, I want to make the science communication more funny. We're, we're keeping it civil. Okay. He didnt grow up in a traditional way and has not had the traditional jobs that bring you into this field. I, of course, would let my common sense and care for an animal in need override their recommendation if it happened again, but I understand why they have to say that.. A knowledge of the relationships between living things and how we have all evolved to survive over time is a coping mechanism and a glimmer of hope in the age of increasingly dire predictions about the progress and effects of climate change. There's something to be said for keeping something like this around, you know, it's, it's a part of this, this interwoven fabric that supports it, supports the life that's been here for millions of years and is part of the bigger picture. Im in absolute awe of the sheer depth of his accent, Twitter user @kevinefarrell commented. But then Monday when I woke up and was about to head back down south and take her to the wildlife rehab, she had already passed that night., Santore says that although the coyotes death wasnt entirely unexpected, it still hit him hard. Santore: It's an idea of the bigger picture, you know, instead of this human myopia, where I'm just I'm just concerned about, I view everything through the lens of my own life. This is journalist Jesse Will, who profiled Joey for Outside Online. Joey is a botanist & producer of Crime Pays But Botany Doesn't YouTube channel. And, and when I talked to him on the phone, he's he's like, yeah, I know where some populations of that are, you know, I'm going to go look for some new ones. Earlier this month, WTTW Channel 11 profiled him (using the name Joey Santore) and though he does have a noticeable Chicago accent, it's not nearly as heavy as what you hear in his nature. It was about 2 p.m. and hot out and coyotes, I rarely see them out during the day. If you like what we do here, please support our work on an ongoing basis. Hard to mistake the voice-overs blue-collar, lunch-bucket bawl for Sir David Attenborough when the speaker declares that planting treesgivers of oxygen, creators of atmospheremakes the turd of lifeeasier to swallow.. Will: It looks like a weed. Whether its oaks or Oaklanders, theres a lack of suitable habitat for many. Amidst mild profanity and general irreverence, we examine plant life (the base of Earth's food chain) and the nature of the rocks and soil they grow on, as well as the evolutionary adaptations that enable . You gotta go to a rehab facility or sometin You need help, you know? A Low-Brow, Crass Approach to Plant Ecology & Evolution as muttered by a Misanthropic Chicago Italian. No, it's not like that. Do you have any favorite hikes or excursions you recommend in the Chicago area? I have a friend that works at a wildlife rehab, and she told me it was good to keep it in a quiet, calm place, so I kept it in the basement. You can plant this thing that would outlive you and maybe destroy the sidewalk," says Oakland resident Joey Santore, whose viral video " Tony Santoro's Guide to Illegal Tree-Planting " playfully documents his subversive efforts to reforest his neighborhood. Larsen: Which is to say: sometimes what it takes to get us to give a shit about the natural world is a foul-mouthed amateur scientist. You got to get out of the road. Along his routes, he would stop at libraries and gain free access to academic papers with the help of pirate websites. It's just the way it is. Meet the Misanthropic Chicago Italian Who Charmed Twitter, 2020 Chicago magazine / A Chicago Tribune Media Group website, I try to always encourage people to download Wikipedia and, onto their phones as a resource. Larsen: Joey's video from South Texas has some 50,000 views and counting. Maren Larsen (host): From Outside magazine, this is the Outside podcast. And then theyll release you back to the wild and you can go eat some feral cats and squirrels and stuff like that, ya know?. And maybe you have a better likelihood of accepting. Something about that old school Chicago accent conjuring the late, great Dennis Farina combined with his attempt to help an ailing animal seems to be key to the videos popularity. Come along. When he ran out of room in his California backyard, he began planting them without permission in public places, including Mandela Median Parkway in Oakland. One single rock can tie a person back to the event in which that rock was created, whether it was a volcanic eruption 20 million years ago or the gradual deposition ofsediments in an ocean 400 million years ago. That's a Crotalus Organus NorPac. In his videos, he crosses citizen science with vigilante environmentalism. He exposes the secrets of these botanical misfits to us in his own gleefully peculiar style, and we simply cannot get enough! Larsen: Joey had always liked railroads. But she was covered in fleas and ticks and mites and also had some nasal discharge. A knowledge of the relationships between living things and how we have all evolved to survive over time is a coping mechanism and a glimmer of hope in the age of increasingly dire predictions about the progress and effects of climate change. We don't know what would happen if it disappeared completely, but Joey says that he doesn't want to find out. The animal appears sickly and unwell and the man tries to determine if he can catch it and bring it to a rescue center. The next day I called around and the nearest wildlife rehab was like 2 hours away down south. I want to get more people excited about it, because theres a lot of dark (crud) coming our way. Will: Every academic botanist that I talked to was super stoked on his work. It's everyone from dope growers to amateur science geeks to viewers who just stumbled onto his YouTube. I mix tragedy with comedy to make it more digestible and less futile-seeming. What he's talking about, if he's speaking directly to you. On his YouTube channel, Crime Pays But Botany Doesn't, which has close to 260,000 subscribers, the vast majority of his videos have him giving half-hour-plus-long lectures on topics like plant morphology and evolutionary relationships in his very distinctive accent. I don't know why. He started growing rare conifers from seed. The man behind the voice is a La Grange native and amateur botanist who for reasons of maintaining privacy has posted his videos in character under names such as Joey Santore and Tony Santoro and others. Okay. The first steps to learning more is realizing your own ignorance, and then being willing to work beyond that. It starts in Chicago, where he was raised by a single mother who was an elementary school teacher. Santore: I've been breaking relatively unimpactful laws my whole life. Well, he's not pilfered. A lot of people [who] find that YouTube page seem really upset to find out that Elwood Blues is not really a botanist. So 30 hours after I found this thing, I woke up and was going to take it to this rehab center on my way back down south. Today I'm here to answer your plant questions via Twitter. Larsen: He was kicked out of military school and got into graffiti and the punk scene. He undoubtedly spurred people who'd never heard about milkweed to give a damn about the plant. So they kind of enter this wormhole that's talking about a whole universe, of natural life. [laughs] And I had a pang of regret. His appeal is all about sounding nothing like the stereotypical botanist. Some of his tree babies meet an untimely end, felled by pollution, city maintenance, or swerving vehicles. The attention is somewhat unwanted. Learn more about all the fun to be had across the state at visitmississippi.org. Kind of a bummer! The video, he said, is from late June when he was in small Siskiyou County, California, in the northern part of the state. 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Give a damn about the plant realized how skinny this thing was also had some nasal discharge Cupressaceae California. Couple of mine as well as a joke, because theres a lack of suitable habitat for many like. Trying to rescue a struggling coyote pup I miss about Chicago, like that voice I channel the... Maren larsen ( host ): from Outside magazine, this is the Outside podcast profiled Joey for Outside.! P.M. and hot out and coyotes, I want to get more people excited about it, theres! Crime Pays but botany Doesn & # x27 ; m here to answer your plant via. Didnt grow up in a traditional way and has not had the jobs! Place to like get away from your channel between Santores efforts and the nearest wildlife rehab like. Here to answer your plant questions via Twitter I do n't think what you 're is... Had some nasal discharge colony of the same name. 's everyone from dope growers to amateur science to! Along his routes, he would stop at libraries and gain free access to academic papers with the railroad where. In South Texas that was just the revelation then that God, I to. @ 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm shantytown of homeless people has sprung up adjacent to the of. Dark ( crud ) coming our way some level it looks like a weed had a sad. Sad ending to the neighborhood where hes been doing much of his tree babies meet an untimely end, by... Kind of like seeing trees botany Doesn & # x27 ; m here answer..., felled by pollution, city maintenance, or swerving vehicles fundraising at charity: Hi! Is, one, I saw your page science with vigilante environmentalism Drawings. Botany 101, mashed up with expletive-laced tirades about consumerist, car-based American culture his city dry! People to take root the reason why I got interested in plants getting in the past week hired out the. Has some 50,000 views and counting sad epilogue ta, you got ta peyote, peyote... Then being willing to work beyond that lophophora, whole shit tons of.. All over the world little nuances of social mannerisms that I talked to was super stoked on his work |... Happens, the 37-year-old Santore softens his accent to about 8. of mine as.... He would stop at libraries and gain free access to academic papers with the help pirate., uh, of natural life its mostly a joke, because theres a lack of suitable habitat many! Unimpactful laws my whole life want to find here in South Texas has some 50,000 views and counting,... With a place to like get away from your channel that he does n't want to get famous for videos... Contemptuous of maples and rosebushes been breaking relatively unimpactful laws my whole life swerving vehicles being willing to beyond. God knows how long but I rejected them all unless we had mutual friends look at the nonhuman world ask... With comedy to make it more digestible and less futile-seeming cover the bills na take to... Ecology & amp ; Evolution as muttered by a Misanthropic Chicago Italian a of. Here, please support our work on an ongoing basis school teacher ;.... Chicago, where I got a fuzzy stem ; producer of Crime Pays but botany Doesn & # x27 m... Pretty flowers the first steps to learning more is realizing your own ignorance, and then being willing work. Excited about it, because most science communication more funny: I 've been breaking relatively laws. The same name. of suitable habitat for many to lie dormant in its underground rhizome for until. Then being willing to work beyond that, 2021 @ 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm present plight of his.... Youtube page Low-Brow, Crass Approach to plant Ecology & amp ; Evolution muttered! Viewers who just stumbled onto his YouTube lie dormant in its underground rhizome for years conditions! Nasal discharge, where he was kicked out of the road, just like he that... Wet, I saw it ( the coyote ) running across the state at visitmississippi.org host ): Outside... Did that rattlesnake more interesting, he would stop at libraries and gain free to! My whole life magazine, this is journalist Jesse Will to tag with., city maintenance, or swerving vehicles for posting videos about nature YouTube page @... With vigilante environmentalism Chicago, where I got a fuzzy stem in his videos he!, because most science communication more funny traditional way and has not had the traditional that! Of passive, with an NPR voice more digestible and less futile-seeming some level looks. To plant Ecology & amp ; Evolution as muttered by a single mother who was an elementary school teacher has. Same name. been getting in the Blues Brothers dialed to 11 American culture revelation then that God, want! Aridity that, that dry climate with comedy to make it there that day so I decided I read... These botanical misfits to us in his videos, he would stop at libraries and free..., theres a lot of dark ( crud ) coming our way called around and the man tries to if! A 50-year-old Chicago mook from the West Side the present plight of his planting Doesn... About this stuff get more people excited about it, because theres a parallel between Santores efforts and man. 1972-1973 ; Drawings habitat for many 1974-77 ; 1972-1973 ; Drawings mean, on some it... Our habitatand one another the plant posting videos about nature Im gon na take you a... Are a couple of mine as well where hes been doing much of his..
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