- 2 days ago
This week’s episode will take us from Texas beaches where mysterious items keep washing ashore to a special phone installed in a St. Louis Public Park. Then, we’ll visit a cemetery-filled city on the West Coast before we end the show… in the shower. Or, more accurately, in a Minnesota radio studio listening in on a discussion about how often Americans actually take showers.
Special thanks to Mike Rogers’ Other Side of the News from KRLD 1080 in Dallas, and The Dave Glover Show out of KMOX in St. Louis, Own the Road with Kelli and Bob out of KRLD 1080 in Dallas and the Adam & Jordana Show out of WCCO News Talk in the Twin Cities.
Special thanks to Mike Rogers’ Other Side of the News from KRLD 1080 in Dallas, and The Dave Glover Show out of KMOX in St. Louis, Own the Road with Kelli and Bob out of KRLD 1080 in Dallas and the Adam & Jordana Show out of WCCO News Talk in the Twin Cities.
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NewsTranscript
00:03some places take you away some bring you together marathon does both marathon is
00:12florida's family key with something for everyone you'll find museums and wildlife refuges
00:19wide open beaches miles of warm clear water and the historic seven mile bridge
00:27for more about marathon visit flakeys.com slash marathon across armenia brown bears are suffering
00:36in silence locked in tiny cages outside restaurants factories and even bus depots
00:41many spend years pacing endlessly biting the bars desperate to escape international animal rescue is
00:47working to change that their mission is simple rescue every last captive bear so far they've
00:53saved 56 bears each one receives urgent veterinary care rehabilitation and whenever possible a return
00:59to the wild for those who traumatize or injured to survive alone they've created two purpose-built
01:04sanctuaries safe places where bears can finally feel grass beneath their feet forage naturally and
01:10recover in peace with your support they can fund life-saving rescue missions expert medical care
01:16and lifelong sanctuary for bears who have nowhere else to go search the great bear rescue online
01:21or follow international animal rescue on social media to find out more life can feel overwhelming but
01:27on my podcast from the heart with rachel brathen we're in it together every friday brings you a new
01:32story listen to from the heart with rachel brathen wherever you get your podcasts
01:39welcome to a weird news roundup presented by the something off the podcast we bring you strange tales
01:46out of odyssey stations from coast to coast i'm your roundup host lauren berry this week's episode
01:53will take us from texas beaches where mysterious items keep washing ashore to a special phone installed
02:01in a st louis public park then we'll visit a cemetery filled city on the west coast before we end
02:09the show
02:09in the shower or more accurately in a minnesota radio studio listening in on a discussion about just
02:18how often americans actually take showers our first story came to mike rogers out of krld 1080 in dallas
02:27he's the host of the something offbeat podcast and the mid-morning mic check on krld and more
02:35jace tennell of the heart research institute in corpus christi texas reached out to rogers about
02:42mysterious plastic piggy banks that keep washing up along the texas shoreline he's affectionately named
02:50these sea pigs rogers has a long-standing segment called other side of the news he interviewed now for
02:58that segment and here's a little bit of that talk well um i found um over 60 messages in a
03:06bottle
03:06i found a safe i found a prosthetic leg found three bowling balls um you know any kind of uh
03:15wait a minute weapon you can think of wait a minute how does a bowling ball wash ashore
03:22well that the first time i found one that was the first question i had is like how in the
03:27world does
03:28a bowling ball get up here and then so over the years i found three of them and apparently they're
03:33made out of this really dense resin and it floats god i never knew that that's amazing and and so
03:42now
03:43we come to the something that obviously would float and that is these these piggy banks tell me about
03:48that when when did you first notice these well um i guess about a year ago i started um noticing
03:56these
03:57little pigs washing in and they're made of plastic kind of thin plastic and some of them uh look like
04:04they've never been used before then some of them are broken open you know obviously people put money in
04:08them but it got me thinking it's like where are these coming from so in the research and looking into
04:14these piggy banks i found where they've been talking about these since the late 1990s over in florida
04:21they've been finding them up in galveston and the bahamas i mean really all over the place and people
04:29have all kinds of theories about them uh you know from hurricanes going over you know islands to uh
04:36containers falling overboard and kind of what i came up with is you know based on a lot of other
04:43debris
04:43that we find is is probably you know a little bit it's a combination of everything maybe there was
04:49a container that went over and maybe uh there's other countries that use that don't have you know
04:55trash pickup at their curb you know once a week and they just throw it you know maybe in the
04:59river
04:59or they throw it uh at their curb and it when it rains everything leads to the ocean and then
05:05ultimately
05:05you know washes ashore so i mean do have we been able to trace the origin of them do we
05:12know what
05:12country they came from well so there's several different types that we find the one that we find
05:19most often it's actually made in the dominican republic and so um you know i think that likely a lot
05:27of them that we find are coming from the caribbean around the dominican republic area what is the most
05:34likely theory as to how they got in the water to begin with do you think they just fell off
05:38a ship
05:40well i think you know there's some of these that we find that look brand new like the coin slot
05:46where
05:46you would actually put the money still has the tab in it and then there's no way to get the
05:51money out
05:51like there's no cork or anything like that so some of these really look brand new but they look like
05:56they've been in the ocean for a while others you can tell have been used because the only way to
06:01get
06:01the money out is to cut it open so some of these do have cuts in them so i think
06:05that it's probably
06:06a combination we've got the you know some of there might have been a container that busted open and
06:12thousands of them came out uh and then we've also got the issue with once people use it they just
06:18dispose of it and they don't dispose of it properly and it makes its way to the ocean and then
06:23ultimately
06:24through the ocean currents and back up on our beaches here and once they hit the beach they're pretty
06:28easy to spot aren't they well they're really bright colors and right now over this past month we've had
06:36a lot of sargasm seaweed washing it and you know it's a it's a brown looking color sea seaweed that's
06:43right on the beach and so whenever you have something bright like one of these pigs wash up
06:47it you can just spot it easily like from far away some places take you away some bring you together
06:55marathon does both marathon is florida's family key with something for everyone you'll find museums
07:04and wildlife refuges wide open beaches miles of warm clear water and the historic seven mile bridge
07:14for more about marathon visit flakeys.com slash marathon across armenia brown bears are suffering
07:24in silence locked in tiny cages outside restaurants factories and even bus depots many spend years
07:30pacing endlessly biting the bars desperate to escape international animal rescue is working to change
07:35that their mission is simple rescue every last captive bear so far they've saved 56 bears each one
07:42receives urgent veterinary care rehabilitation and whenever possible a return to the wild for those who
07:48traumatized or injured to survive alone they've created two purpose-built sanctuaries safe places
07:54where bears can finally feel grass beneath their feet forage naturally and recover in peace with your
08:00support they can fund life-saving rescue missions expert medical care and lifelong sanctuary for bears who
08:05have nowhere else to go search the great bear rescue online or follow international animal rescue on
08:11social media to find out more on my new podcast on par with maury povich we're getting down to the
08:17truth
08:18behind the names that you know and love unfiltered conversations with legends like leanne morgan
08:23kathy griffin ricky lake to find out when they feel the most on par we're breaking it down with don
08:29lemon aaron parnas lamani jones laughing it up with josh johnson dan soder many more you know the results
08:36are in great conversations are always on par so follow and listen to on par wherever you get your
08:42podcasts just like walking past and out of the blue piggy bank at the beach might make someone do a
08:49double take a stroll past the new wind phone tucked behind the veterans memorial amphitheater at
08:56jefferson barracks park in st louis missouri might make someone do a double take too like right now i bet
09:03you're wondering what a wind phone even is so it is a japanese concept it was created by otaru sasaki
09:12he's a master gardener in japan that's artist katie mckay who met dave glover of the dave glover show
09:19on odyssey station kmox in st louis when they were both hospice volunteers she's also the person who had
09:27the idea to bring the wind phone to st louis during a recent interview with glover she explained why
09:35sasaki created it in 2010 he lost his cousin uh and he you know like like us always silently struggle
09:43with our grief and just clawing at a way to get through it and he missed talking to him so
09:51he took a
09:52little disconnected rotary phone put it in his garden and started having conversations with his
09:56cousin um and he called it a wind phone in japanese it's kaze no denwa so it's the expression that
10:03your
10:04words are carried with the wind because you're not directly talking to that person but they're carried
10:09with the wind and so you have this wind phone and the following year there was a tsunami in japan
10:15that killed thousands of people hundreds i'm not sure the number uh killed a lot of people and he
10:21relocated his wind phone to a more public area so that the general public could come and use it
10:26and since then it has sort of i'm gonna say blown up but it's gained traction and there are wind
10:33phones all over the world there's a wind phone map i think there was a movie that had one in
10:37there
10:37somebody maybe wrote a book that had a wind phone in it i had never heard of it i'd never
10:41heard of
10:41this concept uh and i saw a video of a wind phone in joshua tree national park in california so
10:51it was
10:52a wooden desk with what i would call a desk phone like a desk rotary phone um and it had
10:57sort of an
10:58enclosure of glass windows wooden frame glass windows it was beautiful and it had a little notepad
11:03and stuff and i thought wow a chair uh that's amazing what is this so i looked it up i
11:09figured that out
11:09and i um like i said i'm always looking for ways to work through my grief particularly projects or
11:17volunteer things and i thought i can do that
11:23famous last words yeah that was not exactly it made it sound easy when i said it to myself i
11:28was
11:28all right i can do that uh and i i have a real love of telephones even though i don't
11:34like talking
11:34on the phone there's just something very i just think they're endearing and lovely and obviously
11:39they connect you to people uh and i just started thinking about it like is this something that i
11:44could i actually do this i spend a lot of time at jefferson barracks park if you haven't been you
11:49should visit it is a beautiful park not many i think it's slept on i also don't want it to
11:53blow up
11:54so just be gentle when you go um and i walked i just i spend a ton of time there
11:59and i thought
12:00man i know exactly a place where i would like to put this thing how do i start this so
12:05um i sent in
12:08september of last year i sent an email to the parks and rec department uh thinking i wouldn't hear
12:13anything i said i got this little project i don't know whatever i gave him some information
12:17and about a week later the uh manager of the park joe montgomery emailed me back he was like this
12:25sounds great let's meet up i've got a place i think i'd like to put it if someone walked by
12:29it
12:29would they think the phone they would think it was weird there's a payphone there and ultimately i
12:34landed on what i would call just a standard payphone that you would see outside of a grocery store or
12:39on
12:39the corner of a block it's got a black stand and a metal enclosure um that says phone on top
12:48and
12:48then the payphone would be in that enclosure uh and instead of a payphone i didn't want it to feel
12:53transactional or mechanical or cold i had an old kitchen what i would call a kitchen phone that hangs
13:01vertically on the wall yeah um and like an old rotary phone that i had had that um i wanted
13:08to use so
13:09yeah so if you walk up upon it you're gonna think that is a weird place for a payphone and
13:14then as
13:15you get closer to it you say that's really weird that's not a payphone at all it's got this rotary
13:19phone in it and then there's a plaque with the i wrote a haiku um as an homage to the
13:26creator and
13:27um i want i just wanted it to to not stand out but also to make people curious yeah i
13:33think it's
13:34i think it's great and um it sometimes it's easier than others to quote unquote connect with
13:44my mom right um i find myself talking to her and the next thing you know i'm thinking about donuts
13:49or what you know it to me this is something that sort of focuses you in it gives you a
13:54conduit you
13:56know in this moment i'm going to do this thing very then i'm going to walk away yes yes that's
14:02great
14:02i love it while the jefferson barracks park wind phone can help people connect with loved ones who
14:08have passed on there's also one town in california that celebrates its connection to the dead all the
14:15time we're heading there after the break on this weird news roundup presented by odyssey's something
14:22offbeat podcast thank you for listening to this special presentation of weird news from odyssey's
14:32something offbeat i learned how to drive in the cemeteries here oh that's a great place to learn
14:41how to drive i mean not a whole lot of traffic a whole lot of traffic nice easy streets that's
14:46owen
14:46malloy of malloy's tavern in the town of colma california learning to drive in a cemetery might
14:53seem a bit odd but not in colma you see this town was founded more than a century ago as
15:00a necropolis
15:01according to usa today that basically means that the whole town was an elaborate cemetery kelly and bob
15:10phillips of the krld 1080 show own the road with kelly and bob visited colma where they hung out with
15:18owen malloy and other residents who take pride in their town's reputation as a destination for the dead
15:27we used to play tag hide and go seek the cemeteries were like our big park you know it kind
15:33of is the
15:34park of colma it really is it's and it's a gorgeous one too and you never know who you're going
15:40to run
15:40into when you're up there joe dimaggio is buried right up the street here we always play tag around
15:46there just lots of lots of famous people are buried all around in the cemeteries here so how did all
15:52these cemeteries end up in colma well that started all the way back in the 1800s but a decision in
16:00nearby
16:01san francisco during the 1920s really set colma's cemetery city identity in stone here's dave fisicaro
16:11who spent many years on the colma city council to explain around the turn of the century san
16:17francisco decided the property was too valuable too valuable to have any more cemeteries there so
16:23they came out to colmo which was wide open at the time and they started purchasing property
16:28and i think the last cemetery temple was loyal hill and they exhumed i think 45 000 bodies and
16:35they're in a big burial site over at cypress lawn on the other side of the holy cross was a
16:40what was
16:41one of the first ones to get by the most property and they probably will have land for years to
16:45come
16:45this is the catholics the catholic cemetery yes and that voice you just heard belongs to helen
16:51fisicaro the current vice mayor of colma and we have an italian cemetery we have a greek cemetery
16:58we have three asian or chinese and japanese cemeteries the holy cross does have a filipino
17:03section that they just put in in the last few years yes how many graves at least a million and
17:08a half
17:08you've both been on the city council you're now vice mayor correct of of colma this city has fully
17:15embraced death well we don't consider it a negative thing you know we're the city of souls we protect
17:21the people that are buried here we don't want to happen to them what happened to them in san francisco
17:25when they moved the grave sites if you didn't have the money then they just put you in a mound
17:29which was very sad so sometimes you'll have folks come to our museum to try to track down
17:33their relative because they do have records there and each one of the cemeteries has records the italian
17:39cemetery in october has cinema in the cemetery yes a two-night event there to have a movie and then
17:45this past weekend cypress lawn had the ghost run i run a 5k run through the cemetery yes these are
17:52our
17:52parks these are what nice parks memorial park but they're our our kids grew up here so they would
17:57you know when we had a dog they would walk the dog or they'd go over in the grassy area
18:01and you know
18:01toss a baseball back and forth i took a greff scout troop when i had my girl scout troop i
18:06took them
18:06through the italian cemetery to show them the pictures on some of the gravestones of what the
18:10people wore in that era so the high button suits so it's a history list it is definitely a history
18:15that's
18:15right a lot of people have a negative connotation of death this town this community we embrace it in a
18:21positive manner you know because i believe in the spirit my parents are buried here his parents are
18:26buried here my grandparents are buried here we just we you know you you kind of talk to them
18:30indirectly and sometimes you get answers believe it or not you know maybe spiritually but you do get
18:35answers it's a positive thing yeah yeah you know they're at peace you know they're at rest to end
18:41today's journey we're headed east out of colma to the twin cities in minnesota but before we listen
18:47into this debate about showering i'm going to give you some context the harris poll released data that
18:54revealed the showering habits of americans thankfully close to 100 of the respondents said that they
19:01shower but just 61 said that they shower every day a similar percentage said that they like to shower in
19:10the morning here's adam carter and jordana green of the adam and jordana show out of odyssey station
19:18wcco news talk in the twin cities discussing their showering habits some of their listeners chimed in
19:25too via text and there are some strong opinions on the subject do you take a shower every day before
19:33work and i'm like who the hell does it and i say how could you possibly have the time to
19:40take a shower
19:41every day before work every day every stinking day absolutely i take a shower every day you don't
19:50take a shower every day no chance and never before work it's always later in the day oh my gosh
19:57so that's how do you wake up in the morning no i don't shower in the morning every day and
20:06yeah i think i'm okay well you think you're okay you let me know but adam does every single
20:12day talk about do you think the data centers are using the water i think adam carter is solely
20:17responsible it's quick for okay can i really i'm gonna i'm gonna say if you're a man and don't shower
20:26every day you've got a problem men stink do they of course they do they start stinking at about 15
20:34and
20:34they don't stop stinking until and ever and they don't stop stinking until ever okay so when you
20:41wake up are you feeling stinky or are you just no i need the shower it's just like part of
20:47the routine
20:47of getting up okay so this is really just about waking up and you wake up absolutely the cold water
20:54the warm water whatever it is kind of getting everything going yeah and you don't i would not
21:00have to there have been days where for whatever reason i did not shower and i do not feel the
21:05same
21:06i just feel dirty okay you feel dirty if you don't shower in the morning so you've had the experience
21:12where you got up you were late maybe you didn't shower and like it affects the whole day or sometimes
21:16like if it's late and like working out or go play some sport or something and it's late at night
21:22right
21:23before i go to bed i'll shower before i go to bed and then then i don't shower when i
21:29get up
21:29right still even though those mornings when i do that i just do not feel the same yes okay and
21:36this
21:36is this is a good question because i think people do often wonder about other people's personal hygiene
21:41and when you own a teenage boy or a teenage girl you have to teach them you know when they
21:47start getting
21:47ripe and their room stinks or their feet or their pits or whatever growing some hair in places they
21:53didn't have before correct you need to tell them you need to bathe more yes you need to clean yourself
21:57you need to use soap on these places but as adults we've learned that lesson and adam for you i
22:04feel
22:04like it's more ritual it's not really about you being a stinky teenager anymore trying to cover it with
22:09x body spray so it's more ritual for you right now i think if you asked a lot of women
22:14and of course
22:16there are women who have personal hygiene issues that maybe need to to bathe every day
22:22it is hard on the skin okay and certainly hard on the hair if you are shampooing or even getting
22:28it
22:29wet and stripping it of the oils every day so i think there are a lot of what i guess
22:33you could
22:33always use a shower cap but even the skin like there's a lot of wear and tear on the skin
22:38if you're
22:39showering every day i did i'm not aware of that i know because like i know jennifer
22:42mm-hmm like she won't wash her hair every day yeah i don't wash my hair every day either that's
22:47like i don't know how often she does yeah and then like i remember a couple years ago you mentioned
22:53that washing your hair every day is bad for you so i've skipped that a couple of years strips your
22:58hair of its natural oils they say oh right that's and even your skin i mean i know you put
23:04moisturizer
23:04on afterward or whatnot but no i don't um if i don't work out like if i'm not sweating then
23:13i
23:13definitely don't shower every day definitely days days have gone by where i don't is that gross i
23:20don't think so at all i think with the time that we're required to be here and at work and
23:26the other
23:26responsibilities we have in the morning to me i like it'd be nice to shower some mornings but i i
23:32don't
23:32like i don't have time for it i'm not setting my alarm even earlier than it is just to get
23:36up and
23:36shower uh by the way there's like a million texts i know i can't keep up to dave's point you
23:41guys work
23:42in studio for three hours you don't even sweat well that's not true there are times when i start
23:46sweating in studio like yesterday it was humid in here it was clammy yeah so you were schvitz i'm
23:51schvitz i schvitz a lot yeah i'm a common schvitzer someone says twice a week whether i need it or
23:57not and quit wasting the water there you go adam wasting water it's not ai it's adam who's
24:02responsible for the demise of humanity i'm not taking 20 minutes showers i'm less than five
24:07probably in there for three minutes at the most texture i shower every day yeah it's gross not to
24:13thank you someone says hey there live and work on a farm okay okay that's different so yes absolutely
24:19shower every day but if i had a job or i wasn't breaking a sweat every day absolutely not wash
24:24my
24:24face and hands and that would be it better for be a lot better for my skin and that's it
24:29i mean we're in
24:29the studio i do walk to work i don't know that i'm breaking a sweat but certainly if i do
24:34yoga yes
24:34i'm getting in the shower thank you so much for listening to this weird news roundup presented by
24:40odyssey's something offbeat podcast this episode was written and produced by me lauren berry special
24:49thanks to mike rogers other side of the news from krld 1080 in dallas the dave glover show out of
24:57kmox in
24:58st louis on the road with kelly and bob also out of krld 1080 and the adam and jordana show
25:06out of wcco
25:07news talk in the twin cities you can find these programs including the something offbeat podcast on the
25:15odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts
25:24some places take you away some bring you together marathon does both marathon is florida's family key
25:33with something for everyone you'll find museums and wildlife refuges wide open beaches miles of warm
25:42clear water and the historic seven mile bridge for more about marathon visit flakeys.com
25:50slash marathon across armenia brown bears are suffering in silence locked in tiny cages outside
25:58restaurants factories and even bus depots many spend years pacing endlessly biting the bars desperate to
26:05escape international animal rescue is working to change that their mission is simple rescue every last
26:10captive bear so far they've saved 56 bears each one receives urgent veterinary care rehabilitation
26:17and whenever possible a return to the wild for those who traumatized or injured to survive alone
26:22they've created two purpose-built sanctuaries safe places where bears can finally feel grass beneath
26:28their feet forage naturally and recover in peace with your support they can fund life-saving rescue
26:34missions expert medical care and lifelong sanctuary for bears who have nowhere else to go search the
26:39great bear rescue online or follow international animal rescue on social media to find out more
26:45do you have a dark curiosity follow and listen to heart starts pounding on the free odyssey app or
26:50wherever you get your podcasts
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