July 23, 2013 • 29 mins
Being ravenous eaters of decaying flesh, vultures have long been shunned by humans. But because of their disgusting habits, vultures provide a much-needed service to the rest of the organisms on Earth, making them the unsung heroes of their ecosystems.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to you stuff you should know from house stuff
Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
Josh Clark. There's Charles W Chuck Bryant. We both look
like we're in some sort of fight club because our
hair is equally short. Things. Yeah, I got the summer
(00:21):
buzz cut. Let's see your finger nails. You keep him
trim while I chew the nails, you know. Yeah, I
got my trimp too. Okay. Is that one of the
rules of fight club. I didn't know that when I
was scratching. It wasn't a rule, it was it was
one of the reasons to keep your finger nails trimmed
in your hair cut. Yeah. Yeah, you know what I'm
gonna bring back. I saw Gangs of New York the
(00:42):
other day again, the fish hook when the guy fish
hooks the dude. That's a classic move in like old
school fighting. Yeah, Like you put your fisticuffs up and
then if you get ahold of a guy, you're gonna
give him the fish hook. You're bringing that back, huh.
I'm bringing back the tractice on me and I even
practiced on myself a little bit because I was like,
is that really an effective move and it hurts and yeah, yeah,
(01:04):
it hurts me right now, just trying to I'm gonna
bring back vertically striped pants. Okay, okay and official qu um, So,
how are you doing. It's been a little while. Uh No,
it's been what three or four days? In the magic
of podcast releases, we're right on schedule. Okay. I have
a story for you. It's tragic, but it's interesting and
(01:26):
it relates to what we're talking about, like any good
intro ship. So uh. In April April two, a woman
was she was hiking through the Pyrenees in France with
a couple of friends and she lost her footing and
she fell about three d to her death obviously, and um,
(01:50):
of course her friends were like, oh my god. They
probably said something like soccer blue or something like that,
and contacted the authorities, and the authorities got out there
pretty quick. Within forty five minutes, they located and reached
her dead body. But what they found was nothing but
her bones and her tattered clothing and shoes for five minutes.
(02:11):
Within forty five minutes, the local griffin vultures had picked
the woman clean. She went from being alive to forty
five minutes later being a skeleton, and as gruesome as
that is, it's actually a really good sign if you
are pulling for healthy vulture populations. Yeah, and you know
what that actually dispels a myth right off the bat
(02:34):
vultures actually prefer fresh meat. Yeah, they don't necessarily like
rotten flesh, but they will eat rotten flesh. But they
prefer fresh meat of a dead carcas though. Right now,
the reason why there were so many vultures, why they
were able to pick this woman clean, is because there's
a lot of griffin vultures in France. And the reason
(02:57):
there's a lot, and the reason that they're hungry is
because the French government says you can't shoot these vultures,
leave them alone. And also farmers burn your dead livestock.
So you have a bunch of vultures that are protected
from humans, which is their number one predator, who are
hungry because their food supplies being burned by said humans.
So when an unlucky humans slips and losers are footing
(03:20):
in the Pyrenees, the vultures pick dead body cleaning forty
five minutes. That's pretty quick. Now, follow me chuck over
to Nepal. The Himalayas very nice. Back in the mountains,
it is. Did you I got my magic carpet clean?
It is very nice. It smells like a new car.
I had a new car sent spread on it, a
coconut new car. Um. So in the Himalayas, you've got
(03:43):
two different groups of the Zoroasters and the Tibetan Buddhists. Yeah,
and they hate each other. They are into sky burials,
remember those, Okay, So you want to refresh everybody with
sky burialists. Yeah. Sky burial Uh. It's basically when you
you leave your loved one's body out in a field
(04:03):
for the vultures to pick clean. Right, And Zoroasters and
Buddhists both believe that you shouldn't just bury a dead body,
shouldn't crement a dead body of pollutes the earth. So
you give it to the vultures, which are kind of
these spiritual beings in both religions, and they poop in
that polluts the earth. The problem. The problem is is
there are so few vultures in the Himalayas these days
(04:26):
that they can't take care of the dead bodies that
they put out there. So the Zoroasters and Buddhists are
having to like ship them out of the country really,
so they're not even able to perform sky burials. No,
they do, but I mean it's not they're not fulfilled
because there's not enough vultures. The reason why there's not
enough fulters, we found out in two thousand six is
(04:48):
because of an non steroidal anti inflammatory drug called uh DI. Nice. Yeah,
and there are twenty three species total worldwide. Vulture on
every continent but Australia and Antarctica, which I was surprised
in Australia, man, that's like, I bet they would have
(05:09):
a ball out there, you know, vulture central. Yeah, it's
just wide open territory and dead bodies everywhere, especially if
Nick Cave has anything exactly and uh sadly fourteen of
those species are endangered or threatened at this point. Uh.
And the dike Lofak is a big culprit. It's um
ranchers used it too on their cattle and then the
(05:33):
vultures would eat and just like from one eating of
dead cows, would you know kill the vultures. Yeah, it
gave him a kidney failure. Yeah, And like the vultures
would be on their perches and just fall over dead,
and it wiped out three different species of vultures. Eastern
Old World vultures of the three species were just wiped out. Yeah,
(05:55):
I got ninety nine. Actually, Um, the good news is
is they ban it in two thousand six in India,
and in two thousand and twelve it actually the population
increased for the first time in many, many many years,
So they're slightly on the uptick in that area of
the world at least. But it was a huge like
(06:17):
mystery of what was going on, you know, what was
killing the vultures, And luckily for these vultures, their populations
were dwindling in India. Indians very much prize the vulture
as like a necessary creature to create, I guess, or
promote sanitary conditions in nature. Yeah. Well, I mean, if
(06:37):
if they're eating the sick animals, then the sick animal
bacteria isn't going to get into the ground and leach
into the water. And if there are no vultures around
there potentially could be like spikes and disease and things.
So they're actually really necessary, they really are. Not only
are there spikes and disease. Um, vultures kind of take
it for the team. The team being the rest of
(06:59):
the earth. They step in and they interseed. Like you said,
like if if there's a cow with some with antwers
or something, a vulture eats the carcass. But the vultures
digestive system is tuned to this acidity level that will
kill most, if not all, of whatever disease that cattle had,
and so it breaks the chain of infectious diseases. And
(07:21):
so you think of vultures is like these very dirty animals,
but they actually are performing this really specific and important
ecological service to the rest of the world. Yeah, and
we'll get to some more like vultures are clean facts
and which don't necessarily sound like like vultures are clean. Well,
we'll tell you we don't want to. Yeah, they're cleaner
(07:42):
than you think exactly. That's a good way to say.
And also you were saying like they if the vultures
aren't around, disease cannot break. Not only that there, the
service that they perform is so vital it is it's
a service to an extent, like they're basically nature's up crew,
and they do it by eating rotting flesh, and they
(08:04):
do it really quick like in sky burials before the
decimation of the um of the Eastern species, the Indian
species um. They could take care of a dead body
in like thirty minutes. Thirty minutes. There's no other species
that can do that, and so this service, it is
a service that they provide vultures in. It makes so
(08:28):
much sense evolutionarily speaking, that the Old World species, right
that are in the Eastern hemisphere and the New World
species that are in the Western hemisphere are not related.
They co evolved two of the same thing, evolved from
two different groups of animals. They're not related. So it's
(08:49):
almost like nature is like, yeah, this is never gonna
happen with these birds are never gonna spread, but we're
gonna need him over here, so let's just have everything
evolved into vultures. Vultus came up separately on two different
sizes of the world. That's how important. They are. Very important.
The Old World vultures which are Eastern Hemisphere, like we
just said, they're twelve species of those and they are
(09:14):
related to hawks and eagles. They they nest with sticks
and things like you might see a vulture nest like
sticking out on a log, sticking out from a cliff,
like it's a cartoon or something. That's how I imagine
it Western hemisphere of a here is where we have
the New World ones, very progressive vultures. They don't build
nest and they're just like, we're not into that because
(09:34):
we're we We like mid century modern digs and like
the California condor especially. Yeah, and you know the condor
is uh his rebounding to talk about in danger. They
dip to a low of twenty five and the nineteen
eighties and now as there are four hundred and five,
and they're pretty awesome. They're wingspans get to be like
(09:55):
nine ft across. Yeah, I think that it's not the
California condor, but gets one in Africa can get as
high as a leaven, as white as a lemon. That's
a big bird, man. Yeah, it's huge, Like the bird
could take you down. Yeah. And I think people don't
like vultures because hey, they feed on carrion and it's
sort of gross. People think another myth that they circle
dying animals, just waiting for them to die. It's not true.
(10:19):
But because they circle, and because like a California condor
can circle up to like fifteen thousand feet that's amazing
it is. But they smell these things, right, It depends
they have either really great site, really great smell, or both.
So in North America Turkey vultures have incredible sense of smell.
But there are New World species and they're unrelated to
(10:39):
Old World species, so it can go either way, but
typically to either their site or their smell. That's really
really great. Yeah. I like the ones that are that
look like they're wearing feather boas they are completely naked
on the neck and head and then just have the
big puffy black feathers around the neck. Well, let's talk
about that. Why Why are vultures featherless on the head? Uh?
(11:01):
Hygiene because they're sticking those heads and necks into carrying
and rotted flesh. And it's actually just you know, it's
a nature's way of saying, I don't want your your feathers,
your nice feathers to get covered with blood and guts,
so it's actually sanitary. Um. They don't sing either. That's
another reason vultures get a bad rap. There's no like
(11:23):
vulture song like other people do, like singing birds, you know,
Vulters grunt and hiss apparently are like the two sounds
they make, and that's not gonna get you very far
if you're covered, if you're bald, wearing a feather, boa
grunting and hissing, and you're covered in like blood and guts,
people aren't gonna be like, what a nice bird. Well, yeah,
it's not, and it's not just people to like. Apparently,
(11:43):
animals kind of vultures are like on the outskirts of
all organisms, Like they have no natural predators, um any predators.
Predators they do have are like egg hunting predate predators.
They don't go after the vulture, they go after the
eggs and the like. You will once in a while
in times of extreme famine and hardship find like a
(12:05):
big cat attacking a vulture, but for the most part,
everything just leaves vultures alone. Humans, bobcats, everybody just wants
vultures discuss to stay over there and eat your rotting, fleshy,
disgusting things. Yeah, and there they're considered birds of prey,
even though they rarely feed on live animals, even though
they will if they get hungry enough they will. Yeah,
(12:26):
they apparently in France, where you can't kill a vulture
and you have to burn your lives style attacking. Yeah,
they're taking away live animals, and that's specific to Old
world vultures. They have a grasping foot so they can
carry away things like babies. Like you said, a New
world vultures are more like chickens and they can run,
but they can't grasp. Yeah, and I don't even think
(12:48):
the ones with the grasping feet are like they're still
not meant to grasp that much, right, Like from what
I read the talents even on the ones that are
able to do so, it's not like an eagle or
or a barn owl or anything. They can like snatch
your cat off your back deck. Um, So no feathers
on the head or neck. It's sanitary. And believe it
(13:10):
or not, what's the other thing that makes them sanitary?
The urinate on themselves. What Yeah, it's they pee on
their own feet. Yeah, they pee on their feet and
legs and it kills bacteria. It keeps them cool like
our sweat does. Yeah, because that the digestive system that
has such a high acidity is transferred to their urine.
(13:30):
And when they pee on their feet, they're basically cleaning
off all of the nasty bacteria that got on their
feet from crawling around the inside of a zebra or something. Yeah,
I'm proud of you for saying urinate and urine. Uh
you know what a group of vultures is called? Uh?
I love those questions. It's always like, I know what
(13:52):
a crow, I know what a group of crows coming?
Everyone knows it. What is that a murder? I didn't
know everybody knew that. Apparently vulters have a lot of names.
They can be. A group is usually called a committee,
which they're like we said, they're a necessary service. So
that's a committee, a venue, or a volt. And then
(14:13):
when sounds familiar, the vaulted vultures, when they're in flight,
they're known as a kettle, which I thought was interesting.
And when they're feeding a group is known as a wake.
Thank you jump your Yeah probably so thank you for
going off in the woods and doing your thing. All right,
So I guess we should get to vulture vomit as
(14:34):
if we weren't grossed out enough by eating dead flesh
and in yourself. Yeah, because you're saying, like, they they
don't sing, they p on themselves. They they feed on
dead animals, eat your dead relative. They one other thing
that vultures are very much noted for is vomiting in
times of stress, and they're freaked out when they feel
(14:56):
like they're being preyed upon, when they're startled vull. Sure,
we'll throw up. It's called defensive vomiting. No, hold hold on,
hold on. I think now it's a good time for
a little message break, okay, and then we'll talk about
defensive vomiting. I promise, m hm. Back to vomit. Yeah.
(15:17):
When they when they throw up, they can get away
a lot quicker. Yeah, Like I just ate four pounds
of cat meat and I just puped it up so
I can fly out of here quickly, exactly. So that's one.
That's one reason that avian biologists think that they throw
up defensively. The other one is this it's a decoy.
It's a present to their predator, like don't eat me,
(15:40):
eat this. Yeah, And a lot of predators, more often
than not, we'll eat whatever they vomited back up because
it's not always like digested flesh. It can be something
like a big bite of meat that they just you know,
showed um very recently because that's how they feed their
little baby vulture. So it's it's regurgitation like many birds do.
(16:02):
So it may not be so different for an eagle
to swoop down and say like, hey, that cat meat
looks like it's just you just vomited it up and
you just ate it. So what's the big deal? Right,
And eagles actually do. Bald eagles specifically love to eat
vulture vomit, which is weird because think about this, like,
the bald eagle is a revered animal, but it's not bald.
(16:23):
The vulture is, and that it eats vulture vomit. Vultures
do the vomiting. Yeah, it's like turning everything just on
its head. You're anti American. Uh So the other cool
thing I guess you might say about vulture vomit is
it's actually a defense in that it's highly acidic. Like
(16:46):
we're talking pH levels between one and two, which is
more than gastric and hydrochloric acid in our own stomach
and more corrosive than acid rain. So like that's some
acidic vomit. Yeah, I mean it's more crosive than acid rain.
It's like, um, if you if you, I guess poured
acid rain on something, though, you'd be like, you're gonna
(17:07):
this will eventually do something to you. Maybe this is
this is if you're a statue, this is going to
harm you in thirty years. Well we're talking pH levels. Yeah,
I remember acid rain kills fish in the acid Rain
podcast we did so. Yeah. I guess if a fish
comes up and scares the vulture, it's in trouble. Or
if you bought a goldfish and you filled up your
(17:28):
little goldfish ball with acid rain, it might probably it's
not good, or vulture vomit, the fish is in trouble.
The point is it's highly acidic, and even more so
than other birds of preying and carnivorous birds. So like
the vultures kick it up a notch. So, and that's
that's how the vulture doesn't die from eating bacteria that
(17:51):
would probably kill other animals. So chuck. That's also there,
um there. Digestive juices are how they avoid getting sick
eating things that would like kill you or me. Yeah.
See that's a good point because I think people probably
wonder how can they eat all this like rancid disease
and bacteria rotted flesh. That's how the pH of their
(18:12):
stomach most things can't survive. Although they aren't perfect killing
microbe killing machines. You can't find traces of, say like
antrax spores in their stool after they eat infected meat.
But for the most part, the fact that vultures eat
things that may contain disease, have the ability to contain
(18:33):
that disease, and are naturally reviled by pretty much everything
else under the sun, and stay away from everything else.
They are really great at breaking the chain of infectious
disease in nature. Yeah, and endangered and threatened. So like
nice kind of vultures. I would encourage vultures. If you're listening,
(18:55):
learn a song or two. Wouldn't hurt you know, maybe, Yeah,
I'd like to teach the world to sing that melts
everybody's head. Yeah, any carpenter standard, oh for sure. Um.
And also it maybe like one Christmas song just with
the holidays. That's a great one. Uh. If you have
a problem with vultures, still hear me. Now, vultures, in
(19:19):
the absence of a healthy vulture population, there are still
lots of rotting carcasses, more than there would be if
the vultures were around. And where there's rotting carcasses, there's
feral dog packs. And where there's feral dog packs. There's rabies,
and dogs don't stay away from humans like vultures to.
They attack humans. Rat populations blow up to when vultures
(19:41):
aren't around, So leave the vultures alone. Good point. I
got one more little bit bit for you. Um, they're
actually using vultures now in forensic Science in the Journal
of Forensic Science International, they took a body out um,
researcher Kathleen Katherine Spradley of Texas State University, San Marcos. Oh,
(20:03):
they have a body farm. Member. Yep, go Boco the
cat Poco, the bobcat. Um. And I actually had to
look that one up. Yeah. Um, they have a body farm,
like you said, and they recently took a body dumped
it out there to see how long it would take
vultures to skeletonize it and distribute the remains. Because basically
(20:26):
their aim is to see how long it takes vultures
to discover a body, how long it takes the vultures
to skeletonize it, how far they will distribute the parts, Uh,
what they do and don't eat because essentially, when you
find a body in the woods, sometimes it can be
ravaged and you don't know like Why are there no
(20:47):
bite marks? Who ravaged this body? How long has this
body been here? Why are we finding body parts all
over the places? That's some kind of sick. Oh, that's
like tearing these bodies to pieces. So it's uh, it's
a forensics studdy and um. They got a video camera
triggered by motion and it took thirty seven days actually
to be triggered, and thirty a thirty strong wake of
(21:10):
American black vultures took care of the body in five hours,
and both of those results surprised, like how long it
took them to get there and how long it took
him to skeletonize it, because it's like way longer than usual.
Like we said, yeah, well three can take care of
a body in like thirty minutes, so thirty and five
(21:30):
hours it's not too bad. Yeah, they thought it was
a little long. Um. And then they got a spatial
pattern of the discarded body parts snapped it with the
GPS over fifteen weeks, and they're hoping that this pattern
like aids you know, forensics in the future. How far
has it gone? Do they say? No? They didn't say
pretty interesting though, Yeah, that's very interesting. Forensics vultures saving
(21:51):
people from being unfairly accused of being a grizzly serial killer. Exactly. Um. Also,
one last thing, if you are interest did and probably
are flushed with cash, you can go paragliding with vultures
in the Himalayas. There's a man who's trained vultures. So
you go flying on you know, a para sale. You
fly attached to a vulture. No, you fly attached to
(22:15):
the dude who trained the vultures in a ParaSail, and
the vultures like hang around. Yeah, they fly around you.
They said, it's like swimming with dolphins, but like five
thousand feet in the air, and they will eat buffalo
meat out of your hand, Like they land on your
arm and eat and then like fly around and they're
like thank you. One of them's name is Kevin the vulture.
Really well, they let you paraglide with buffalo meat dangling
(22:38):
from your ankles. Maybe probably man, this is I'd like
to do that. That's now on my bucket list on
the chucket list, the chucket list. Uh is that it? Okay,
there's everything about vultures that we can find everybody. We
hope you enjoyed it. And uh, let's say, if you
want to learn more about vultures, type vulture into the
(22:58):
search part. How stiff works out cam And since I
said that, it means it's time for a message break.
And how about some listener mail. Huh yeah, this one
is sort of long now that I'm looking at it.
But oh wait, wait before we do that, can I
plug somebody? Okay, so, um, we are not sure. I
(23:22):
don't think we did plug this guy before we're plugging
them again. Ok. Yeah, what's the hard exactly. Thomas Trask
was one of the finalists in our Halloween horror fiction
contests that we held last year, right, and we said,
anybody who made it in the Sweet sixteen, or actually
I think anybody who entered UM. If you want on
to publish anything, let us know and we will plug.
(23:42):
So Thomas Trask did just that. He wrote a book
called Prism. It's a sci fi fantasy UM and it's
on Amazon and you can buy it as paperback or kindle.
So it's Thomas Trask with Prism. And uh, it's probably
pretty sweet because he wrote one of my favorite UM stories,
Quantum Suicide of Alice Walker. Yeah, that was a good one.
(24:04):
It was mine. Bending I would strongly recommend anything. Trask
rights frankly. Okay, now, uh it's time for some listener.
Now how about that? Yeah, this is an oldie. It's
about tipping, but it's a pretty good tipping story. Uh
it's a bartender in Vancouver. Did you read this one? No? No,
it's just every time I go into a coffee place
now and I don't tip them, I'm like, I, do
(24:27):
you listen to the podcast? Um? All right, guys. I
was working for an upstale cocktail cocktail bar in downtown Vancouver.
Great relaxing, cool atmosphere. Three dudes walk in Friday nights
at the bar, and uh, we're part of the bachelor party.
Being a bartender, I'm pretty used to this, and I
realized there could be a lot of money made if
I take care of these guys. Uh. To confirm it,
(24:48):
one of the three guys did one of these numbers
where he says, we're gonna be here having fun this weekend.
We're gonna take care of you if you give us
some special attention. You know that guy? So I went
and put buffalo meat on my ankles. Uh. They ordered
cocktails and beers ordered in rounds. I made sure I
knew their orders, their names, and gave them new drinks
when they were getting low. Basically gave them really good attention.
(25:11):
Needless to say, it was great service. At the end
of the night, after all the shots and drinks, bill
was about eight hundred bucks. The very same guy he
told me I'd be taken care of, paid with this
credit card full, handed me a bill hold and inside
was a nickel five cents. Saturday night comes around nine pm,
same guys roll in. I thought about what happened the
(25:31):
night before and decided to be a good person, be
the better man, and greeted them by name and the smile,
brought out their usual drinks, acted like everything was normal,
even though I was being eaten alive inside. By the
time their bill came, it was even more than the
night before. Tonight another nickel, So that's ten cents on
sevent bucks. Sunday night rolls around. What do you know,
(25:51):
the philanthropist roll in still aggravated. I was firmed that
I would be the better person still and act like
it didn't affect me. Oh yeah, man, I would be
spitting and so many drinks. Even if it was despite them,
I was still gonna be nice drinks for shaking Beer's
report around eight hundred bucks. Again another nickel. Monday comes around.
The same guy comes in, UH on the day shift
(26:15):
and UH, thinking that they're starting early, asked if he
wanted there as usual. He said no, he was alone,
wouldn't be long. He sat down, pulled out an envelope,
put it on the bar. He told me really wanted
to give his friend a great bachelor party and had
heard great things about the bar. He'd never met someone
more professional and welcoming, even when they made nothing out
of it. He told me that he has gone to
a few bars and done this in the past, and Uh,
(26:37):
it got to the point at some places where they
wouldn't even serve them on the second night. Yet I
acted like nothing had ever happened. He really appreciated this,
thank me, and pointed at the envelope. Envelope so it
was for me, and walked out. Almost didn't want to
open it, but I'm thinking it would be another nickel.
Inside was two thousand dollars. I couldn't believe it. I
was ready to kill these people all weekend, and I
(26:58):
just made two grand for keeping my cool. And that
man was don cheatle or family man. I figured you
might find it interesting. And that is Brett from Vancouver.
He still has the nickels, And I say, good for
you too, grand Tip. And I also say, what a
jerk to put this guy through this as some sort
of like twisted test of how nice a bartender can be. Right,
(27:22):
he's really like using the the man social power dynamic
between customer and nothing funny about it or fun about it.
And you're really done this before and people have treated
me like a jerk according like yeah, and he's really
risking having things put in his drink too, Like I
just don't get it. So I would go walk in
and say on day one this two grand is yours
(27:43):
at the end of the weekend, if you take care
of us, yeah, like do the opposite, yeah, I mean
definitely yeah, or just tip like a normal person. Yeah
you can just do that and don't play games. Yeah
every time? All right, Yeah, that's a funch of things. Story.
That's a good's a good um. Good for you. What
was the name of Brett from Vancouver? Way to go Brett, um.
(28:05):
If you have a good story about how somebody mistreated
you and then treated you well in the end, but
you're not still sure if that made up for everything?
We want to hear that story. You can tweet to
us at s y s K podcast. You can join
us on Facebook dot com slash stuff you Should Know.
You can send us an email to Stuff Podcast at
Discovery dot com and check out our website. It's awesome.
(28:27):
It's called Stuff you Should Know dot com. For more
on this and thousands of other topics, is it how
stuff works dot com with over a hundred thousand titles
(28:47):
to choose from. Audible dot com, as a leading provider
of downloadable digital audio books and spoken word entertainment. Go
to audible podcast dot com slash no stuff k n
o W S t u f F to get a
free audio book download of your choice when you sign
up today.
Welcome to you stuff you should know from house stuff
Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
Josh Clark. There's Charles W Chuck Bryant. We both look
like we're in some sort of fight club because our
hair is equally short. Things. Yeah, I got the summer
(00:21):
buzz cut. Let's see your finger nails. You keep him
trim while I chew the nails, you know. Yeah, I
got my trimp too. Okay. Is that one of the
rules of fight club. I didn't know that when I
was scratching. It wasn't a rule, it was it was
one of the reasons to keep your finger nails trimmed
in your hair cut. Yeah. Yeah, you know what I'm
gonna bring back. I saw Gangs of New York the
(00:42):
other day again, the fish hook when the guy fish
hooks the dude. That's a classic move in like old
school fighting. Yeah, Like you put your fisticuffs up and
then if you get ahold of a guy, you're gonna
give him the fish hook. You're bringing that back, huh.
I'm bringing back the tractice on me and I even
practiced on myself a little bit because I was like,
is that really an effective move and it hurts and yeah, yeah,
(01:04):
it hurts me right now, just trying to I'm gonna
bring back vertically striped pants. Okay, okay and official qu um, So,
how are you doing. It's been a little while. Uh No,
it's been what three or four days? In the magic
of podcast releases, we're right on schedule. Okay. I have
a story for you. It's tragic, but it's interesting and
(01:26):
it relates to what we're talking about, like any good
intro ship. So uh. In April April two, a woman
was she was hiking through the Pyrenees in France with
a couple of friends and she lost her footing and
she fell about three d to her death obviously, and um,
(01:50):
of course her friends were like, oh my god. They
probably said something like soccer blue or something like that,
and contacted the authorities, and the authorities got out there
pretty quick. Within forty five minutes, they located and reached
her dead body. But what they found was nothing but
her bones and her tattered clothing and shoes for five minutes.
(02:11):
Within forty five minutes, the local griffin vultures had picked
the woman clean. She went from being alive to forty
five minutes later being a skeleton, and as gruesome as
that is, it's actually a really good sign if you
are pulling for healthy vulture populations. Yeah, and you know
what that actually dispels a myth right off the bat
(02:34):
vultures actually prefer fresh meat. Yeah, they don't necessarily like
rotten flesh, but they will eat rotten flesh. But they
prefer fresh meat of a dead carcas though. Right now,
the reason why there were so many vultures, why they
were able to pick this woman clean, is because there's
a lot of griffin vultures in France. And the reason
(02:57):
there's a lot, and the reason that they're hungry is
because the French government says you can't shoot these vultures,
leave them alone. And also farmers burn your dead livestock.
So you have a bunch of vultures that are protected
from humans, which is their number one predator, who are
hungry because their food supplies being burned by said humans.
So when an unlucky humans slips and losers are footing
(03:20):
in the Pyrenees, the vultures pick dead body cleaning forty
five minutes. That's pretty quick. Now, follow me chuck over
to Nepal. The Himalayas very nice. Back in the mountains,
it is. Did you I got my magic carpet clean?
It is very nice. It smells like a new car.
I had a new car sent spread on it, a
coconut new car. Um. So in the Himalayas, you've got
(03:43):
two different groups of the Zoroasters and the Tibetan Buddhists. Yeah,
and they hate each other. They are into sky burials,
remember those, Okay, So you want to refresh everybody with
sky burialists. Yeah. Sky burial Uh. It's basically when you
you leave your loved one's body out in a field
(04:03):
for the vultures to pick clean. Right, And Zoroasters and
Buddhists both believe that you shouldn't just bury a dead body,
shouldn't crement a dead body of pollutes the earth. So
you give it to the vultures, which are kind of
these spiritual beings in both religions, and they poop in
that polluts the earth. The problem. The problem is is
there are so few vultures in the Himalayas these days
(04:26):
that they can't take care of the dead bodies that
they put out there. So the Zoroasters and Buddhists are
having to like ship them out of the country really,
so they're not even able to perform sky burials. No,
they do, but I mean it's not they're not fulfilled
because there's not enough vultures. The reason why there's not
enough fulters, we found out in two thousand six is
(04:48):
because of an non steroidal anti inflammatory drug called uh DI. Nice. Yeah,
and there are twenty three species total worldwide. Vulture on
every continent but Australia and Antarctica, which I was surprised
in Australia, man, that's like, I bet they would have
(05:09):
a ball out there, you know, vulture central. Yeah, it's
just wide open territory and dead bodies everywhere, especially if
Nick Cave has anything exactly and uh sadly fourteen of
those species are endangered or threatened at this point. Uh.
And the dike Lofak is a big culprit. It's um
ranchers used it too on their cattle and then the
(05:33):
vultures would eat and just like from one eating of
dead cows, would you know kill the vultures. Yeah, it
gave him a kidney failure. Yeah, And like the vultures
would be on their perches and just fall over dead,
and it wiped out three different species of vultures. Eastern
Old World vultures of the three species were just wiped out. Yeah,
(05:55):
I got ninety nine. Actually, Um, the good news is
is they ban it in two thousand six in India,
and in two thousand and twelve it actually the population
increased for the first time in many, many many years,
So they're slightly on the uptick in that area of
the world at least. But it was a huge like
(06:17):
mystery of what was going on, you know, what was
killing the vultures, And luckily for these vultures, their populations
were dwindling in India. Indians very much prize the vulture
as like a necessary creature to create, I guess, or
promote sanitary conditions in nature. Yeah. Well, I mean, if
(06:37):
if they're eating the sick animals, then the sick animal
bacteria isn't going to get into the ground and leach
into the water. And if there are no vultures around
there potentially could be like spikes and disease and things.
So they're actually really necessary, they really are. Not only
are there spikes and disease. Um, vultures kind of take
it for the team. The team being the rest of
(06:59):
the earth. They step in and they interseed. Like you said,
like if if there's a cow with some with antwers
or something, a vulture eats the carcass. But the vultures
digestive system is tuned to this acidity level that will
kill most, if not all, of whatever disease that cattle had,
and so it breaks the chain of infectious diseases. And
(07:21):
so you think of vultures is like these very dirty animals,
but they actually are performing this really specific and important
ecological service to the rest of the world. Yeah, and
we'll get to some more like vultures are clean facts
and which don't necessarily sound like like vultures are clean. Well,
we'll tell you we don't want to. Yeah, they're cleaner
(07:42):
than you think exactly. That's a good way to say.
And also you were saying like they if the vultures
aren't around, disease cannot break. Not only that there, the
service that they perform is so vital it is it's
a service to an extent, like they're basically nature's up crew,
and they do it by eating rotting flesh, and they
(08:04):
do it really quick like in sky burials before the
decimation of the um of the Eastern species, the Indian
species um. They could take care of a dead body
in like thirty minutes. Thirty minutes. There's no other species
that can do that, and so this service, it is
a service that they provide vultures in. It makes so
(08:28):
much sense evolutionarily speaking, that the Old World species, right
that are in the Eastern hemisphere and the New World
species that are in the Western hemisphere are not related.
They co evolved two of the same thing, evolved from
two different groups of animals. They're not related. So it's
(08:49):
almost like nature is like, yeah, this is never gonna
happen with these birds are never gonna spread, but we're
gonna need him over here, so let's just have everything
evolved into vultures. Vultus came up separately on two different
sizes of the world. That's how important. They are. Very important.
The Old World vultures which are Eastern Hemisphere, like we
just said, they're twelve species of those and they are
(09:14):
related to hawks and eagles. They they nest with sticks
and things like you might see a vulture nest like
sticking out on a log, sticking out from a cliff,
like it's a cartoon or something. That's how I imagine
it Western hemisphere of a here is where we have
the New World ones, very progressive vultures. They don't build
nest and they're just like, we're not into that because
(09:34):
we're we We like mid century modern digs and like
the California condor especially. Yeah, and you know the condor
is uh his rebounding to talk about in danger. They
dip to a low of twenty five and the nineteen
eighties and now as there are four hundred and five,
and they're pretty awesome. They're wingspans get to be like
(09:55):
nine ft across. Yeah, I think that it's not the
California condor, but gets one in Africa can get as
high as a leaven, as white as a lemon. That's
a big bird, man. Yeah, it's huge, Like the bird
could take you down. Yeah. And I think people don't
like vultures because hey, they feed on carrion and it's
sort of gross. People think another myth that they circle
dying animals, just waiting for them to die. It's not true.
(10:19):
But because they circle, and because like a California condor
can circle up to like fifteen thousand feet that's amazing
it is. But they smell these things, right, It depends
they have either really great site, really great smell, or both.
So in North America Turkey vultures have incredible sense of smell.
But there are New World species and they're unrelated to
(10:39):
Old World species, so it can go either way, but
typically to either their site or their smell. That's really
really great. Yeah. I like the ones that are that
look like they're wearing feather boas they are completely naked
on the neck and head and then just have the
big puffy black feathers around the neck. Well, let's talk
about that. Why Why are vultures featherless on the head? Uh?
(11:01):
Hygiene because they're sticking those heads and necks into carrying
and rotted flesh. And it's actually just you know, it's
a nature's way of saying, I don't want your your feathers,
your nice feathers to get covered with blood and guts,
so it's actually sanitary. Um. They don't sing either. That's
another reason vultures get a bad rap. There's no like
(11:23):
vulture song like other people do, like singing birds, you know,
Vulters grunt and hiss apparently are like the two sounds
they make, and that's not gonna get you very far
if you're covered, if you're bald, wearing a feather, boa
grunting and hissing, and you're covered in like blood and guts,
people aren't gonna be like, what a nice bird. Well, yeah,
it's not, and it's not just people to like. Apparently,
(11:43):
animals kind of vultures are like on the outskirts of
all organisms, Like they have no natural predators, um any predators.
Predators they do have are like egg hunting predate predators.
They don't go after the vulture, they go after the
eggs and the like. You will once in a while
in times of extreme famine and hardship find like a
(12:05):
big cat attacking a vulture, but for the most part,
everything just leaves vultures alone. Humans, bobcats, everybody just wants
vultures discuss to stay over there and eat your rotting, fleshy,
disgusting things. Yeah, and there they're considered birds of prey,
even though they rarely feed on live animals, even though
they will if they get hungry enough they will. Yeah,
(12:26):
they apparently in France, where you can't kill a vulture
and you have to burn your lives style attacking. Yeah,
they're taking away live animals, and that's specific to Old
world vultures. They have a grasping foot so they can
carry away things like babies. Like you said, a New
world vultures are more like chickens and they can run,
but they can't grasp. Yeah, and I don't even think
(12:48):
the ones with the grasping feet are like they're still
not meant to grasp that much, right, Like from what
I read the talents even on the ones that are
able to do so, it's not like an eagle or
or a barn owl or anything. They can like snatch
your cat off your back deck. Um, So no feathers
on the head or neck. It's sanitary. And believe it
(13:10):
or not, what's the other thing that makes them sanitary?
The urinate on themselves. What Yeah, it's they pee on
their own feet. Yeah, they pee on their feet and
legs and it kills bacteria. It keeps them cool like
our sweat does. Yeah, because that the digestive system that
has such a high acidity is transferred to their urine.
(13:30):
And when they pee on their feet, they're basically cleaning
off all of the nasty bacteria that got on their
feet from crawling around the inside of a zebra or something. Yeah,
I'm proud of you for saying urinate and urine. Uh
you know what a group of vultures is called? Uh?
I love those questions. It's always like, I know what
(13:52):
a crow, I know what a group of crows coming?
Everyone knows it. What is that a murder? I didn't
know everybody knew that. Apparently vulters have a lot of names.
They can be. A group is usually called a committee,
which they're like we said, they're a necessary service. So
that's a committee, a venue, or a volt. And then
(14:13):
when sounds familiar, the vaulted vultures, when they're in flight,
they're known as a kettle, which I thought was interesting.
And when they're feeding a group is known as a wake.
Thank you jump your Yeah probably so thank you for
going off in the woods and doing your thing. All right,
So I guess we should get to vulture vomit as
(14:34):
if we weren't grossed out enough by eating dead flesh
and in yourself. Yeah, because you're saying, like, they they
don't sing, they p on themselves. They they feed on
dead animals, eat your dead relative. They one other thing
that vultures are very much noted for is vomiting in
times of stress, and they're freaked out when they feel
(14:56):
like they're being preyed upon, when they're startled vull. Sure,
we'll throw up. It's called defensive vomiting. No, hold hold on,
hold on. I think now it's a good time for
a little message break, okay, and then we'll talk about
defensive vomiting. I promise, m hm. Back to vomit. Yeah.
(15:17):
When they when they throw up, they can get away
a lot quicker. Yeah, Like I just ate four pounds
of cat meat and I just puped it up so
I can fly out of here quickly, exactly. So that's one.
That's one reason that avian biologists think that they throw
up defensively. The other one is this it's a decoy.
It's a present to their predator, like don't eat me,
(15:40):
eat this. Yeah, And a lot of predators, more often
than not, we'll eat whatever they vomited back up because
it's not always like digested flesh. It can be something
like a big bite of meat that they just you know,
showed um very recently because that's how they feed their
little baby vulture. So it's it's regurgitation like many birds do.
(16:02):
So it may not be so different for an eagle
to swoop down and say like, hey, that cat meat
looks like it's just you just vomited it up and
you just ate it. So what's the big deal? Right,
And eagles actually do. Bald eagles specifically love to eat
vulture vomit, which is weird because think about this, like,
the bald eagle is a revered animal, but it's not bald.
(16:23):
The vulture is, and that it eats vulture vomit. Vultures
do the vomiting. Yeah, it's like turning everything just on
its head. You're anti American. Uh So the other cool
thing I guess you might say about vulture vomit is
it's actually a defense in that it's highly acidic. Like
(16:46):
we're talking pH levels between one and two, which is
more than gastric and hydrochloric acid in our own stomach
and more corrosive than acid rain. So like that's some
acidic vomit. Yeah, I mean it's more crosive than acid rain.
It's like, um, if you if you, I guess poured
acid rain on something, though, you'd be like, you're gonna
(17:07):
this will eventually do something to you. Maybe this is
this is if you're a statue, this is going to
harm you in thirty years. Well we're talking pH levels. Yeah,
I remember acid rain kills fish in the acid Rain
podcast we did so. Yeah. I guess if a fish
comes up and scares the vulture, it's in trouble. Or
if you bought a goldfish and you filled up your
(17:28):
little goldfish ball with acid rain, it might probably it's
not good, or vulture vomit, the fish is in trouble.
The point is it's highly acidic, and even more so
than other birds of preying and carnivorous birds. So like
the vultures kick it up a notch. So, and that's
that's how the vulture doesn't die from eating bacteria that
(17:51):
would probably kill other animals. So chuck. That's also there,
um there. Digestive juices are how they avoid getting sick
eating things that would like kill you or me. Yeah.
See that's a good point because I think people probably
wonder how can they eat all this like rancid disease
and bacteria rotted flesh. That's how the pH of their
(18:12):
stomach most things can't survive. Although they aren't perfect killing
microbe killing machines. You can't find traces of, say like
antrax spores in their stool after they eat infected meat.
But for the most part, the fact that vultures eat
things that may contain disease, have the ability to contain
(18:33):
that disease, and are naturally reviled by pretty much everything
else under the sun, and stay away from everything else.
They are really great at breaking the chain of infectious
disease in nature. Yeah, and endangered and threatened. So like
nice kind of vultures. I would encourage vultures. If you're listening,
(18:55):
learn a song or two. Wouldn't hurt you know, maybe, Yeah,
I'd like to teach the world to sing that melts
everybody's head. Yeah, any carpenter standard, oh for sure. Um.
And also it maybe like one Christmas song just with
the holidays. That's a great one. Uh. If you have
a problem with vultures, still hear me. Now, vultures, in
(19:19):
the absence of a healthy vulture population, there are still
lots of rotting carcasses, more than there would be if
the vultures were around. And where there's rotting carcasses, there's
feral dog packs. And where there's feral dog packs. There's rabies,
and dogs don't stay away from humans like vultures to.
They attack humans. Rat populations blow up to when vultures
(19:41):
aren't around, So leave the vultures alone. Good point. I
got one more little bit bit for you. Um, they're
actually using vultures now in forensic Science in the Journal
of Forensic Science International, they took a body out um,
researcher Kathleen Katherine Spradley of Texas State University, San Marcos. Oh,
(20:03):
they have a body farm. Member. Yep, go Boco the
cat Poco, the bobcat. Um. And I actually had to
look that one up. Yeah. Um, they have a body farm,
like you said, and they recently took a body dumped
it out there to see how long it would take
vultures to skeletonize it and distribute the remains. Because basically
(20:26):
their aim is to see how long it takes vultures
to discover a body, how long it takes the vultures
to skeletonize it, how far they will distribute the parts, Uh,
what they do and don't eat because essentially, when you
find a body in the woods, sometimes it can be
ravaged and you don't know like Why are there no
(20:47):
bite marks? Who ravaged this body? How long has this
body been here? Why are we finding body parts all
over the places? That's some kind of sick. Oh, that's
like tearing these bodies to pieces. So it's uh, it's
a forensics studdy and um. They got a video camera
triggered by motion and it took thirty seven days actually
to be triggered, and thirty a thirty strong wake of
(21:10):
American black vultures took care of the body in five hours,
and both of those results surprised, like how long it
took them to get there and how long it took
him to skeletonize it, because it's like way longer than usual.
Like we said, yeah, well three can take care of
a body in like thirty minutes, so thirty and five
(21:30):
hours it's not too bad. Yeah, they thought it was
a little long. Um. And then they got a spatial
pattern of the discarded body parts snapped it with the
GPS over fifteen weeks, and they're hoping that this pattern
like aids you know, forensics in the future. How far
has it gone? Do they say? No? They didn't say
pretty interesting though, Yeah, that's very interesting. Forensics vultures saving
(21:51):
people from being unfairly accused of being a grizzly serial killer. Exactly. Um. Also,
one last thing, if you are interest did and probably
are flushed with cash, you can go paragliding with vultures
in the Himalayas. There's a man who's trained vultures. So
you go flying on you know, a para sale. You
fly attached to a vulture. No, you fly attached to
(22:15):
the dude who trained the vultures in a ParaSail, and
the vultures like hang around. Yeah, they fly around you.
They said, it's like swimming with dolphins, but like five
thousand feet in the air, and they will eat buffalo
meat out of your hand, Like they land on your
arm and eat and then like fly around and they're
like thank you. One of them's name is Kevin the vulture.
Really well, they let you paraglide with buffalo meat dangling
(22:38):
from your ankles. Maybe probably man, this is I'd like
to do that. That's now on my bucket list on
the chucket list, the chucket list. Uh is that it? Okay,
there's everything about vultures that we can find everybody. We
hope you enjoyed it. And uh, let's say, if you
want to learn more about vultures, type vulture into the
(22:58):
search part. How stiff works out cam And since I
said that, it means it's time for a message break.
And how about some listener mail. Huh yeah, this one
is sort of long now that I'm looking at it.
But oh wait, wait before we do that, can I
plug somebody? Okay, so, um, we are not sure. I
(23:22):
don't think we did plug this guy before we're plugging
them again. Ok. Yeah, what's the hard exactly. Thomas Trask
was one of the finalists in our Halloween horror fiction
contests that we held last year, right, and we said,
anybody who made it in the Sweet sixteen, or actually
I think anybody who entered UM. If you want on
to publish anything, let us know and we will plug.
(23:42):
So Thomas Trask did just that. He wrote a book
called Prism. It's a sci fi fantasy UM and it's
on Amazon and you can buy it as paperback or kindle.
So it's Thomas Trask with Prism. And uh, it's probably
pretty sweet because he wrote one of my favorite UM stories,
Quantum Suicide of Alice Walker. Yeah, that was a good one.
(24:04):
It was mine. Bending I would strongly recommend anything. Trask
rights frankly. Okay, now, uh it's time for some listener.
Now how about that? Yeah, this is an oldie. It's
about tipping, but it's a pretty good tipping story. Uh
it's a bartender in Vancouver. Did you read this one? No? No,
it's just every time I go into a coffee place
now and I don't tip them, I'm like, I, do
(24:27):
you listen to the podcast? Um? All right, guys. I
was working for an upstale cocktail cocktail bar in downtown Vancouver.
Great relaxing, cool atmosphere. Three dudes walk in Friday nights
at the bar, and uh, we're part of the bachelor party.
Being a bartender, I'm pretty used to this, and I
realized there could be a lot of money made if
I take care of these guys. Uh. To confirm it,
(24:48):
one of the three guys did one of these numbers
where he says, we're gonna be here having fun this weekend.
We're gonna take care of you if you give us
some special attention. You know that guy? So I went
and put buffalo meat on my ankles. Uh. They ordered
cocktails and beers ordered in rounds. I made sure I
knew their orders, their names, and gave them new drinks
when they were getting low. Basically gave them really good attention.
(25:11):
Needless to say, it was great service. At the end
of the night, after all the shots and drinks, bill
was about eight hundred bucks. The very same guy he
told me I'd be taken care of, paid with this
credit card full, handed me a bill hold and inside
was a nickel five cents. Saturday night comes around nine pm,
same guys roll in. I thought about what happened the
(25:31):
night before and decided to be a good person, be
the better man, and greeted them by name and the smile,
brought out their usual drinks, acted like everything was normal,
even though I was being eaten alive inside. By the
time their bill came, it was even more than the
night before. Tonight another nickel, So that's ten cents on
sevent bucks. Sunday night rolls around. What do you know,
(25:51):
the philanthropist roll in still aggravated. I was firmed that
I would be the better person still and act like
it didn't affect me. Oh yeah, man, I would be
spitting and so many drinks. Even if it was despite them,
I was still gonna be nice drinks for shaking Beer's
report around eight hundred bucks. Again another nickel. Monday comes around.
The same guy comes in, UH on the day shift
(26:15):
and UH, thinking that they're starting early, asked if he
wanted there as usual. He said no, he was alone,
wouldn't be long. He sat down, pulled out an envelope,
put it on the bar. He told me really wanted
to give his friend a great bachelor party and had
heard great things about the bar. He'd never met someone
more professional and welcoming, even when they made nothing out
of it. He told me that he has gone to
a few bars and done this in the past, and Uh,
(26:37):
it got to the point at some places where they
wouldn't even serve them on the second night. Yet I
acted like nothing had ever happened. He really appreciated this,
thank me, and pointed at the envelope. Envelope so it
was for me, and walked out. Almost didn't want to
open it, but I'm thinking it would be another nickel.
Inside was two thousand dollars. I couldn't believe it. I
was ready to kill these people all weekend, and I
(26:58):
just made two grand for keeping my cool. And that
man was don cheatle or family man. I figured you
might find it interesting. And that is Brett from Vancouver.
He still has the nickels, And I say, good for
you too, grand Tip. And I also say, what a
jerk to put this guy through this as some sort
of like twisted test of how nice a bartender can be. Right,
(27:22):
he's really like using the the man social power dynamic
between customer and nothing funny about it or fun about it.
And you're really done this before and people have treated
me like a jerk according like yeah, and he's really
risking having things put in his drink too, Like I
just don't get it. So I would go walk in
and say on day one this two grand is yours
(27:43):
at the end of the weekend, if you take care
of us, yeah, like do the opposite, yeah, I mean
definitely yeah, or just tip like a normal person. Yeah
you can just do that and don't play games. Yeah
every time? All right, Yeah, that's a funch of things. Story.
That's a good's a good um. Good for you. What
was the name of Brett from Vancouver? Way to go Brett, um.
(28:05):
If you have a good story about how somebody mistreated
you and then treated you well in the end, but
you're not still sure if that made up for everything?
We want to hear that story. You can tweet to
us at s y s K podcast. You can join
us on Facebook dot com slash stuff you Should Know.
You can send us an email to Stuff Podcast at
Discovery dot com and check out our website. It's awesome.
(28:27):
It's called Stuff you Should Know dot com. For more
on this and thousands of other topics, is it how
stuff works dot com with over a hundred thousand titles
(28:47):
to choose from. Audible dot com, as a leading provider
of downloadable digital audio books and spoken word entertainment. Go
to audible podcast dot com slash no stuff k n
o W S t u f F to get a
free audio book download of your choice when you sign
up today.
Stuff You Should Know News
Hosts And Creators
Chuck Bryant
Josh Clark
Show Links
AboutOrder Our BookStoreSYSK ArmyRSSPopular Podcasts
40s and Free Agents: NFL Draft Season
Daniel Jeremiah of Move the Sticks and Gregg Rosenthal of NFL Daily join forces to break down every team's needs this offseason.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.