Things that were formerly bland to them become these organisms with their own evolutionary lineages. One was that this gentleman was so singleminded in his approach to try and achieve a compassionate outcome for this young animal, she says. We don't get that here. Joey is standing in the middle of a road in Central California, filming with his phone as he has a heart-to-heart with a very distressed looking Northern Pacific rattlesnake. Larsen: Milkweed is a favorite of many botanists because of its critical importance to the endangered monarch butterfly. The animal appears sickly and unwell and the man tries to determine if he can catch it and bring it to a rescue center. Grew these both from seed. Every academic botanist that I talked to was super stoked on his work. Midewin National Tall Grass Prairie is another excellent one, down by Joliet. 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? But Ive had my rabies titer, if it makes you feel any better.. Joey Santore, amateur botanist "Crime pays but Botany Doesn't" Podcast "It's all gonna be okay. 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. I got [the coyote pup] Saturday and I was going to take it Monday on my way back down south to Oakland because I was in northern California, he told TIME. In real life, his lilt isnt nearly so exaggerated. Outsides longstanding literary storytelling tradition comes to life inaudio with features that will both entertain and inform listeners. I associate them with a place to like get away from people and, kind of open air playground. Kind of a bummer! Larsen: This is journalist Jesse Will, who profiled Joey for Outside Online. Larsen: And so, an ex-punk, former-train-hopper-turned-engineer who doesn't have a college degree is getting hundreds of thousands of people excited about botany using just a camera and his voice. As with some content posted on Twitter, @eedrk did not create the video. (Face-to-face, the 37-year-old Santore softens his accent to about 8.) 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. I didn't realize botany could be so cool. First he delved into various sciences and then focused, increasingly, on botany. According to Jesse Will, Joey's subscribers don't fit any kind of mold. 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. I grew up hearin people talk like dat. "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. But then the next day, it kind of messed me up a little bit more. Riding the rails, he got an up-close tour of the geologic time scale exposed by railroad cuts: layers of rock dating back millennia. I want to learn how this stuff works. Makes the turd of, uh, uh, life in modern society easier through a swallow, helps it go down easier. And despite his cynical-seeming exterior, Joey finds beauty in all of this, too. And maybe they'll look at the plants in their backyard in a different way, or maybe they'll yank out some of those plants and replant something. Santore: The way my mind works, I just obsessed on fix that on something I probably got fucking add or some sort of neurological disorder, you know, that at one point served our species of evolutionary benefit. This shits connected., Theres a parallel between Santores efforts and the present plight of his city. Hes published 492 videos, and has over a quarter million subscribers. And so I realized that might happen, but it didnt really mess with me until the day after, he says. From Outside magazine, this is the Outside podcast. There's enough cat videos and cute videos with corny narratives. He hasn't looked back ever since. I remember reading about spectroscopy there and that was what really blew my mind was how you could take the light that's reflected off of a star or a planet and put it through a prism and then you'd get a spectral signature of whatever the atmosphere was composed of or whatever the star was composed of. But it's his voice that's the real star of the show. With Joey Santore. We don't know what would happen if it disappeared completely, but Joey says that he doesn't want to find out. Nowadays he films the trips he takes in search of some of the rarest plants on the planet. Joey travels around the world and takes you on plant walks, with colorful commentary. I was just in Sonora, Mexico, looking at plants. 2018-21; 2010-17; 1999-2009; 1990-99; 1983-90; 1978-83; 1974-77; 1972-1973; Drawings. And especially where we are now as a species with our understanding of science and the world and all this technology that we have. It's a real weird cross section of people that are watching this stuff, it's like people that are propagating weed and they got like maybe a little bit more interested in plants than just weed, you know, they want to know more about it. It was nothing personal, but I rejected them all unless we had mutual friends. We don't get that here. Today. 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. And then the YouTube account blew up, which is cool. His appeal is all about sounding nothing like the stereotypical botanist. But is now just kind of leftover. Oh, yeah, there we go. Even if it gets really ugly, it's still gonna be okay. Obviously the accents canned, he said. So they kind of enter this wormhole that's talking about a whole universe, of natural life. Joey Bosa was responsible for one of the more costly moments of the Los Angeles Chargers' collapse Saturday, taking a crucial 15-yard penalty after losing his temper on the sideline. It's botany 101, mashed up with expletive-laced tirades about consumerist, car-based American culture. He's on your level. You got a Tecate Cyprus, a Santa Cruz Cyprus, and a Guadalupe Cyprus. Well, he's not pilfered. 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. You see it get wiped out, you know, but then of course, you know, they're just hiding. Okay. Subscribe for free today! Looking back, she was really sick. You know, and I kind of like seeing trees. By Cirrus Wood Apr 27, 2020 West Oakland resident Joey Santore is often on the lookout for neglected medians or public spaces where he might secretly plant a tree. Although he doesnt have a degree in botany, Santore tells TIME that nature is his true passion. Bosa removed and slammed his helmet on the ground while still on the field. After hearing Joey talk about milkweed, I'm personally in the mood to go plant a whole shit ton of it maybe even in places where I'm not supposed to. Perhaps because the accent (and its attendant colloquialisms) has become such a rarity, when it does turn up in a piece of media, people notice which could be one of the reasons why the coyote video has generated so much attention. That's one of mine. Okay. And then, uh, of course these are a couple of mine as well. Larsen: In a move akin to an art thief becoming a museum security guard, train-hopping Joey Santore applied for a job with Union Pacific and was hired on as a brakeman. Get access to more than 30 brands, premium video, exclusive content, events, mapping, and more. Because what better way to understand the guy who created "Crime Pays But Botany Doesn't" than to join him on a hunt for a plant that's a schedule 1 controlled drug? 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. Larsen: Allow me to introduce you to Joey Santore. This blend of well-informed science, minor lawbreaking, and humorous rants about the ills of society is what draws people to Joey's YouTube channel, as well as his Instagram account, and his podcast. 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. This episode was written and produced by me, Maren Larsen:, and edited by Michael Roberts. Meanwhile, across the bay, Tony Santoros Guide to Illegal Tree-Planting debuted. I went out and bought some of these books that you recommended and I'm learning so much. That's what really makes it worth it gettingpeople excited about learning and the natural world, which is the antidote to all the ugliness and stress and anxiety of the human world. Take it easy, buddy. He's just borrowing. He's just borrowing. It's this squat plant. Will: It's a real weird cross section of people that are watching this stuff, it's like people that are propagating weed and they got like maybe a little bit more interested in plants than just weed, you know, they want to know more about it. Guy with a thick Chicago accent helps coyote pup, Newest rescued sea otter pups make their fuzzy debuts at Shedd, Photos: Baby animals from around the world, Terrier survives coyote attack caught on camera in Northfield, WTTW Channel 11 profiled him (using the name Joey Santore, I wrote about the Chicago accent and its near total disappearance from TV and film, Microsoft cuts 10,000 jobs, about 5% of global workforce, Seth Jones rallies Chicago Blackhawks past the Buffalo Sabres 4-3 in overtime to close out 4-3-0 homestand, Kevin Warren and Justin Fields, once divided in the Big Ten during the pandemic, are now united with the Chicago Bears, Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. Santore, who also goes by Joe Blowe and Tony Santoro online (none are his real name, for privacy reasons), grew up in La Grange and lived there until he went to college in California. 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. 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. Right. He was kicked out of military school and got into graffiti and the punk scene. I just want to create a more pleasant place to go, he says, and provide some sort of food or benefit to birds, bugs, and shit like that.. Will: But it ends up just being a very minor part of the day, hunting down this peyote. I want to get more people excited about it, because theres a lot of dark (crud) coming our way. I'm Joey. I guess why I talk like that is, one, I want to make the science communication more funny. After Staley picked it up and gave it back to him, Bosa threw it down again. Consider this your heads-up that there are going to be quite a few curse words in this episode. Joey Santore, 36, never expected to get famous for posting videos about nature. Santore was born in Chicago; his mother was an elementary school teacher and his father left on his first birthday. The Outside Podcast is made possible by our Outside+ members. Now based in Oakland, California, he was in Arizona on a botany trip when I reached him by email. If it gets people to hate coyotes a little less and not demonize them, I'm down with it. Santore is a self-taught botanist and former freight train driver in Oakland, California who believes the natural world can be a balm for modern anxieties caused by climate change and Capitalism. It's just, there's something so inherently beautiful about that. Santore: I thought you was a gopher snake at first. Which brings us to a big question: If Joey can get thousands of people invested in the fate of a scraggly weed, what kind of impact can he have on science and conservation at large? Larsen: But Joey's influence goes beyond just getting laypeople to care about the things growing in their neighborhoods. Got a tip? Larsen: Joey's video from South Texas has some 50,000 views and counting. Painted on the side of an eight-story building, the fiery teenager looks determined and unbowed, gazing down at pedestrians and traffic with eyes the size of windscreens. It looks like a weed. Just enter the code pod25 at checkout. He is an ex-punk and a former freight train engineer who has been self-taught in his field. They just hide. Many of those unauthorized trees now are more than 30 feet tall. Last fall, two very different approaches to addressing climate change unfolded in the Bay Area. While some scientists bristle at Joey's swearing or his abrasive politics, most professional plant lovers recognize that his approach is having an important impact. 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. And I have no context for anything outside of it. Santore: 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. This plant has adapted to lie dormant in its underground rhizome for years until conditions are right. He started growing rare conifers from seed. It's just the way it is. And that's why he's lovingly bullying it out of the road, just like he did that rattlesnake. But is now just kind of leftover. But Joey's influence goes beyond just getting laypeople to care about the things growing in their neighborhoods. It's doing pretty good. We're, we're keeping it civil. Suddenly I'm able to zoom out and see how the world around me works and how I fit into it and, and observe these relationships that different organisms have with each other. Theophrastus, a Greek philosopher who first studied with Plato and then became a disciple So I found this astronomy textbook and then was reading it on a train once. You like the fuzzy stem. Larsen: Joey had always liked railroads. Larsen: This video went viral when Joey posted it back in 2019, but venomous snakes are not his typical beat. It's botany 101, mashed up with expletive-laced tirades about consumerist, car-based American culture. And, uh, Joey Sentore is like mentioned, you know, in terms of this plant. If you want to take a look at what I've been up to more seriously, check out my resume. He would print out papers to read during downtime on the trains. And so, an ex-punk, former-train-hopper-turned-engineer who doesn't have a college degree is getting hundreds of thousands of people excited about botany using just a camera and his voice. We spoke to Santore about his complicated feelings on his newfound fame, how the natural world can be abalm for modern anxieties, and why he plays up his Chicago accent for the camera. I'm a writer and photographer living in downtown Berkeley, California. Come along. He's shooting the shit. Also, we're offering new members a 25% discount. Some of his trees are now over 30 feet tall! I think it's kind of risky. and he says that accent as a joke, like it just makes him laugh. countries. It's totally fascinating stuff, man. There's another one just coming up right in the middle of the road, it's a goddamned big prostrata. Specifically, trees. you're seeing people that comment and say things like this, guys, the reason why I got interested in plants. Sorry. The penalty, which came . And I, my friend's pilfered scooter. What drew you to making videos about botany? "Mailing out stickers. Joey Santore, based in Oakland, California, specializing in Cupressaceae, currently studying native California Cypresses. But if [the video] gets people to smile a little bit, that's cool. But then Monday when I woke up and was about to head back down south and take her to the wildlife rehab, she had already passed that night., Santore says that although the coyotes death wasnt entirely unexpected, it still hit him hard. You know, maybe not being seen for, for God knows how long. And maybe you have a better likelihood of accepting. It starts in Chicago, where he was raised by a single mother who was an elementary school teacher. The Thick Chicago Accent Guy Addresses the Sad Fate of the Coyote Pup From the Video. Well, hopefully people will hear this and, you know, chase down this stuff. I associate them with a place to like get away from people and, kind of open air playground. 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. I don't know, six or seven years give or take. So they kind of enter this wormhole that's talking about a whole universe, of natural life. Nothing major, but a shovel takes two arms. Santore: I'm getting welcome to Mexico texts, were so close to the border. In addition we have many gardens here that are maintaining endangered plant species, especially Lotusland. Larsen: But you also get the feeling that botany gave him a way to make sense of the world, and of humans' place within it. You can hit the Explore button [iniNaturalist] and see what grows around you and then just start learning plants by family and genus, which is how they're all grouped together. He has rather unexpectedly earned a bit of internet fame due to his passion for a far less adrenaline-inducing subject: plants. 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. Santore: It's an idea of the bigger picture, you know, instead of this human myopia, where I'm just I'm just concerned about, I view everything through the lens of my own life. Its a way for me to throw a couple jabs at the elements of society that kind of irk me.. To find enough real estate to survive, these prostrata often end up finding their home in the middle of the road. It was about 2 p.m. and hot out and coyotes, I rarely see them out during the day. I went to college and studied sociology and communication but dropped out to travel. "I liked trees originally because they are so big. And Jesse's with me. To see this whole thing being paraded around as a cute clickbait video kind of bummed me out. Transcript. Joey sees an integral and resilient piece of an ecosystem. "I'm stuffing envelopes proper now," he advised me from his house in West Oakland. It makes life a lot more interesting. So he decided that he'd see the U.S. by hopping freight trains. Learn to spot shallow conformity in social circles and don't waste your time on them, study plants and geology instead. Soon, he was in deep. Joey Santore, 36, never expected to get famous for posting videos about nature. Do you have any favorite hikes or excursions you recommend in the Chicago area? it's still there. Santore: Being, uh, important members of the natural ecosystem, you know, you don't want to see them, uh, get, get smacked. It's the oldest psychedelic substance known to man. You see it get wiped out, you know, but then of course, you know, they're just hiding. His videos may be popular with kids who are budding botanists. I was like, I feel like an ignoramus. It's everyone from dope growers to amateur science geeks to viewers who just stumbled onto his YouTube. All right. Okay. Asclepias prostrata is just one species, native to one relatively small ecosystem. Yesterday. You need help! Santore: 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. By Saturday morning, the clip more than 6 million views and hundreds of thousands retweets and likes. When I was a kid, a lot of my friends had dads like that. We don't know what would happen if it disappeared completely, but Joey says that he doesn't want to find out. 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. As for the thick Chicago accent which wasnt nearly as pronounced when TIME spoke to him on the phone Santore says that he uses it to try to get people invested in his nature videos. Beyond the tenderheartedness, what really made the video was Santore's thick, Bill Swerski-esque Chicago accent. 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. Okay. The way my mind works, I just obsessed on fix that on something I probably got fucking add or some sort of neurological disorder, you know, that at one point served our species of evolutionary benefit. Volo Bog near Crystal Lake is another great resource. Of course. It's just the way it is. I saw it (the coyote) running across the road, it looked grossly malnourished. Most important is the Garfield Park Conservatory, which is free and features plants from all over the world. No, it's not like that. But I also try to keep [the videos] lighthearted. (He also produces a podcast of the same name.) In the coyote video, which he said was taken in Siskiyou County, Calif., Santore can be seen following a pup that appears to be in poor condition through a field until it finally lies down and lets him pet and pick it up. I'm Joey Santore: a Connecticut-born, Brooklyn-living, nonprofit-working, cooking-loving, playlist-making, lucid-dreaming, karate-coaching, twenty-something. He has lots of tattoos and no college degree and is known for illegal tree-planting projects. Larsen: Off the clock, Joey began growing rare conifers from seed. 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. This is journalist Jesse Will, who profiled Joey for Outside Online. Whether its oaks or Oaklanders, theres a lack of suitable habitat for many. I have been driving freight trains for, I dunno, the past 15 years. As it happens, the particular species of milkweed that Joey wants to find here in South Texas is especially rare. The video captivated peoples hearts and went massively viral, with people applauding Santore for his commitment to trying to help the coyote and loving the thicker than normal Chicago accent that he puts on for his videos. I wasnt going to be able to make it there that day, so I figured I would take it Monday. 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. An ex-punk and former train engineer who is self-taught in the sciences, Joey Santore does not fit the mold of the stereotypical botanist. Cirrus Wood is a writer and photographer living in downtown Berkeley. 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. Total Photos Contributed: 339 [View all photos] or [See a list of all photos] or [View most recent photos] Collection: Private All English Franais. When it comes to wildlife rehabilitation for coyotes, its extremely challenging for coyote pups, she says. iNaturalist joeysantore Joey Santore Curator Joined: Nov 17, 2016 Last Active: Jan 14, 2023 iNaturalist I look at plants & rocks with an emphasis on edaphic endemism, biogeography, speciation and cool evolutionary histories (long lonely branches or broad radiations). That's just my personal take. Chicago magazine newsletters have you covered. Joseph Anthony Bosa ( / bos /; born July 11, 1995) is an American football outside linebacker for the Los Angeles Chargers of the National Football League (NFL). The man behind the voice is a La Grange native and amateur botanist who for reasons of maintaining privacy has posted his videos in character under names such as Joey Santore and Tony Santoro and others. You have to reach almost a critical mass, like a minimum number of coyote pups of similar age in a rehab situation to rear so that way theyre positioned for success when you release. So 30 hours after I found this thing, I woke up and was going to take it to this rehab center on my way back down south. We have constructed attractive Patreon tiers that allow you to be fully recognized for your regular contribution. By Saturday morning, the clip more than 6 million views and hundreds of thousands retweets and likes.