We join Santore on a peyote hunt in the South Texas scrublands to try to understand how hes getting so many different kinds of people to geek out on plants. Joey Santore's path to becoming an unlikely YouTube star really is one of the most winding journeys you could imagine. Larsen: Off the clock, Joey began growing rare conifers from seed. If it gets people to hate coyotes a little less and not demonize them, I'm down with it. Explore. He hasn't looked back ever since. I try to always encourage people to download Wikipedia andiNaturalistonto their phones as a resource. His life as a guerrilla forester began when he noticed some of the public spaces the city was ignoring. And I, my friend's pilfered scooter. May 26, 2021 @ 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm. Santore: And then I realized, I didn't know anything about the country I lived in and it was a big ass country, so why not travel? Warning: The video above contains graphic language. I'm not trying to harass you. He hadn't cooled off by Monday. Will: Well, hopefully people will hear this and, you know, chase down this stuff. So he decided that he'd see the U.S. by hopping freight trains. Refreshingly Funny Ice Cream Man's Prank Video Is a Delicious Summer Treat. I've been breaking relatively unimpactful laws my whole life. You're ob-, obviously a NorPac. No, it's not like that. Outsides longstanding literary storytelling tradition comes to life inaudio with features that will both entertain and inform listeners. Trees that can hack it without pruning and summer watering. This is Plant Support. Look at that beautiful bastard, not flowering yet may not flower this year at all. Uh, where you get summer rain. Santore: Oh, what's going on here? So I found this astronomy textbook and then was reading it on a train once. You got those undulate leaf margins with the slightest hint of anthocyanin pigments produced in the red on a leaf margin right there. But he also had this aside at the time, that was like, I get it, yeah of course you had to pitch the psychedelic angle. His appeal is all about sounding nothing like the stereotypical botanist. Santore: I thought you was a gopher snake at first. You know, maybe not being seen for, for God knows how long. I believe you; I believe youre so tough., Guy with thick chicago accent helps coyote pup pic.twitter.com/RJB9sqkrxl. I impersonate these Chicago characters as a joke to make the subject material more interesting, he says. Today I'm here to answer your plant questions via Twitter. Like I just got really excited when I would read about this stuff. Im not going to fuck with you, he promises as he chases the pup, who eventually relents and sits in the grass. Just imagining the possibilities of like planting something that would get bigger or, you know, dwarf your lifetime and your physical size. I bet a bunch of illegal tree planting. Whether its oaks or Oaklanders, theres a lack of suitable habitat for many. Nother payote right there, doing that thing they do, just blendin' in with the gravels that have been deposited over the last, I don't know, 300,000 years by the, uh, meandering channel of the Rio Grand-ee. 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. It makes the nausea a little bit easier to deal with. Joey was interested in science and growing things from an early age: he recalls trips to the Field Museum and propagating elm trees in his backyard. Specifically, trees. We're, we're keeping it civil. 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. Okay. "I dont know, the whole thing kind of messes me up thinking about it because it was pretty sad she died that morning when I was due to bring her south to the wildlife rehab that was on my way back to Oakland., "It looked grossly malnourished. Just to get more voices into the fold to invite more people to care about this stuff, because any interest that they get is, is a good thing. Santore is turned on to the outdoors because hes turned off by everything else. Like I just got really excited when I would read about this stuff. It's this squat plant. 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. From Outside magazine, this is the Outside podcast. It was about 2 p.m. and hot out and coyotes, I rarely see them out during the day. It plays into some of the more gross elements of human nature. I think it's kind of risky. It's just, there's something so inherently beautiful about that. another adaptation to that, uh, aridity that, that dry climate. The main plus-side to any of this viral stuff is that maybe it'll encourage more people to look at the world like that. After Staley picked it up and gave it back to him, Bosa threw it down again. Joey Santore Oakland, California Favorite Activities I would just be going [to school] to learn this stuff rather than get that piece of paper and thats kind of the whole idea behind the Crime Pays But Botany Doesnt thing. What drew you to making videos about botany? According to Jesse Will, Joey's subscribers don't fit any kind of mold. And then, uh, of course these are a couple of mine as well. They planted a lot of these roses, which are dying and they planted a bunch of trees that are native to the Eastern U.S. Okay. Plants, Redwing boots, dogs. Joey had always liked railroads. Santore is an amateur, self-taught botanist who posts videos nearly every day to his YouTube channel Crime Pays But Botany Doesnt,which he describes as alow-brow, crass approach to plant ecology as muttered by a misanthropic Chicago Italian.. But it ends up just being a very minor part of the day, hunting down this peyote. I associate them with a place to like get away from people and, kind of open air playground. Tony Santoro is the online alias of West Oakland resident Joey Santore, whose YouTube channel Crime Pays but Botany Doesnt is a rebuff to conventional nature documentaries. 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. It was about 2 p.m. and hot out and coyotes, I rarely see them out during the day. Come along. Anyone who lives in Chicago knows that Tony Santoro is an actual person. Just imagining the possibilities of like planting something that would get bigger or, you know, dwarf your lifetime and your physical size. It's totally fascinating stuff, man. The tragedy here is we're destroying a lot of this as our population grows, so I guess that's where my misanthropy comes up. Sounds like a cool dude. And despite his cynical-seeming exterior, Joey finds beauty in all of this, too. I thought you was a gopher snake at first. it's still there. And so I realized that might happen, but it didnt really mess with me until the day after, he says. And when its fur was wet, I realized how skinny this thing was. And despite his cynical-seeming exterior, Joey finds beauty in all of this, too. S1E10 - Doing What You Love Without Making It Your Job, with Joey Santore The Joy of Challenge 374 subscribers Subscribe 1.6K Share 31K views 1 year ago Joey Santore, from "Crime Pays but. I found it hard to swallow. Total Photos Contributed: 339 [View all photos] or [See a list of all photos] or [View most recent photos] Collection: Private Theyre very unpredictableThis gentleman couldve easily been bit or scratched., She went on to say that he brought up some legitimate concerns in the video. Rainy winter is planting season, giving his seedlings months to take root. 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. It's just, there's something so inherently beautiful about that. It appears that he observed a potentially orphaned coyote pup in poor condition so he was trying to obtain this animal and then transfer it to a wildlife rehabilitator., But Monroe says that his approach presents some challenges. 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. The penalty, which came . All right. 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?. Things that were formerly bland to them become these organisms with their own evolutionary lineages. I associate them with a place to like get away from people and, kind of open air playground. She also warns that rehabilitating a lone coyote pup is a particularly complicated venture. But she was covered in fleas and ticks and mites and also had some nasal discharge. It was nothing personal, but I rejected them all unless we had mutual friends. interface language. Bosa removed and slammed his helmet on the ground while still on the field. So I said, fuck it, I'm just gonna be who I am. 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. Joey took matters into his own hands and began slowly replacing the non-native, water-sucking ornamentals the city installed with an assortment of plants he grew himself from seed. Journalist - SF Bay Area. Who is the man behind an accent more commonly associated with a Chicago firehouse than an open expanse of mountains and grassland? What he's talking about, if he's speaking directly to you. Usually, we just see his hands, which are covered in tattoos. 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. Santore has been throwing shade figuratively and literally in his adopted hometown since moving there in 2006. If you want to take a look at what I've been up to more seriously, check out my resume. The One Subscription to Fuel All Your Adventures. I am trying to find this guy to invite him to Santa Barbara. All Rights Reserved. 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. It was recently proposed for the Endangered Species list, and is only observed a few dozen times a year in a handful of locations near the Rio Grande. And I have no context for anything outside of it. Kind of a bummer! This episode was written and produced by me, Maren Larsen:, and edited by Michael Roberts. I believe Northern Pacific rattlesnake. But on Thursday, the Chicagoland native went viral when a profanity-laden clip of him comforting a sick coyote pup surfaced on Twitter, garnering upwards of 8 million views. And around that time I hired out with the railroad, where I got a locomotive license. But as he told Jesse Will while they traveled around South Texas, once he hit his teen years he tended to get into trouble. Released on 03/11/2022. Among Santores fans are plant geeks, outdoor enthusiasts, and cannabis growers who were worm-holed into Santores channel while looking up plant propagation. First he delved into various sciences and then focused, increasingly, on botany. He's on your level. JASON HENRY Theyre extremely opportunistic, theyre extremely intelligent animals, so they do whatever they need to do to seek resources. I have been driving freight trains for, I dunno, the past 15 years. Well, he's not pilfered. Special interests: Conifers of California, Conifers of Cupressaceae, California Native Cypresses, Arctostaphylos. Santore: 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. Being, uh, important members of the natural ecosystem, you know, you don't want to see them, uh, get, get smacked. Will: When you speak to them in person that accent gets dialed way back down. Guerrilla gardener Joey Santore has planted more than 300 trees, encouraging a new appreciation of our habitatand one another. Will: It looks like a weed. He's just borrowing. Were gonna need this kind of awareness of ourselves in the world to be able to deal with it., Video 1: Santoree Youtube ChannelVideo 2: Interview. One is that, at the department, we never recommend chasing or cornering or forcibly handling wildlife. Transcript. Everything I know (about nature and botany) I basically learned myself, he said. Milkweed is a favorite of many botanists because of its critical importance to the endangered monarch butterfly. 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. 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. I was out in the country and the nearest rehab center was, like, two hours away, and they weren't open the day I got it. Joey Santore @JoeySantore Recently finished filming our 1st piece for a show encouraging people to kill their lawns & replace with low-maintenance native - or at least non-invasive - gardens. 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. Shh, its ok. Im not gonna f with you. Okay. That's a Crotalus Organus NorPac. "I liked trees originally because they are so big. Larsen: But Joey doesn't see a weed. Drawings 2019 - 2021; 2010-18; 2005-09; 1995-2004; 1990-94; 1983-88 . Paintings. It starts with Joey on a rideshare e-scooter that a friend of his had hacked using some kind of computer chip he bought online. It was recently proposed for the Endangered Species list, and is only observed a few dozen times a year in a handful of locations near the Rio Grande. Aside from the hits, Santores long-form videos offer a panoramic botanical and geological breakdown of a location, explaining current topics like plant speciation and biogeography, alongside profane rants about climate change and the state of things in general. He has lots of tattoos and no college degree and is. And maybe you have a better likelihood of accepting. You got your coryphantha, you know, and it all just coming up in the dappled light, the understory of, of the thorn scrub, which of course is getting cleared away at an increasing rate to make room for the fucking Panda express uh, tumor of modern society. By Monday morning, the clip had 8 million views and hundreds of thousands retweets and likes. The whole thing is kind of sad. Maybe all this explains why his YouTube channel, Crime Pays But Botany Doesnt, has more than a quarter-million subscribers. And that's why he's lovingly bullying it out of the road, just like he did that rattlesnake. Santore works a day job driving diesel locomotives. I mean, I want to get more people excited about it cuz there's a lot of dark shit coming our way and you know, we're going to need this kind of awareness of ourselves and of the world to be able to deal with it. So maybe it'll be okay. Looking for Tony Santoro online? During an AFC wild-card . Larsen: Allow me to introduce you to Joey Santore. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Add to that the threat of invasive buffelgrass, which is fast outcompeting this important little weed. It's doing pretty good. It's everyone from dope growers to amateur science geeks to viewers who just stumbled onto his YouTube. He started growing rare conifers from seed. I'm not trying to harass you. I want to share themand [talk about] what a tragedy it is that people don't know this stuff is here. All right. Add to that the threat of invasive buffelgrass, which is fast outcompeting this important little weed. I like the ambiance of railroads. you're seeing people that comment and say things like this, guys, the reason why I got interested in plants. This is ground zero for a lot of environmental action because of the oil spill here in 1969. He has lots of tattoos and no college degree and is known for illegal tree-planting projects. It looks like a weed. 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.. This is what happens when you dont have any regulations in place to protect the people on the bottom, he says. Hes not afraid to mix the sacred, mundane, and lewd. Will: Uh, he has one that says plant milkweed or get fucked. All English Franais. These are animals that dont let you get close to them, but it was so sick I was able to get up close to it and I could see it was kind of scraggly and it was totally malnourished and underweight., After realizing that the coyote was covered in parasites, including ticks and fleas, Santore says that he decided to give it a bath. His appeal is all about sounding nothing like the stereotypical botanist. Okay. Joey: You know, and I kind of like seeing trees. But Ive had my rabies titer, if it makes you feel any better.. However, the downtime has allowed him to post more videos about botanizing the Bay Area. My work has appeared in newsprint, magazines, websites, and the missed connections section of Craigslist, where I write personalized notes to drivers who cut me off in traffic. He's squatting in carpenter jeans and dusty black oxfords, scanning each. We're, we're keeping it civil. But is now just kind of leftover. 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