This episode marks our sixth birthday, and it’s a particularly sweet episode, in which we visit a place known as the “chocolate roll capital of the world.” Plus: six whole years is a long time, especially for a podcast. But in other fields, it’s the blink of an eye. Take archaeology.

Ready to Roll (Arkansas Living)

After 98 Years, Archaeologists Found the Missing Torso of an Ancient Buddha Statue (Popular Mechanics)

This week we’re replaying some of our favorite agricultural episodes. In this episode from August 2020, a farmer in western New York finds something in his fields that he definitely hadn’t planted: a giant old safe. Plus: the British Antarctic Survey studies satellite images and spotted 11 new colonies of Emperor penguins.

What’s inside this mystery safe? Orleans Co. farmer says it should stay unknown (WHAM-TV)

Scientists Just Discovered 11 New Emperor Penguin Colonies. From Space (Popular Mechanics)

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This week we’re replaying some of our favorite agricultural episodes. In this episode from February 2020, dogs' amazing sniffing ability may be very useful for orchards as they try to head off a disease called citrus greening. Plus: police in New South Wales, Australia stop a man for using his cellphone while riding a horse.

Dog sleuths sniff out crop disease hitting citrus trees (KCRA)

Man riding horse stopped by police for using phone (Weekly Times Now)

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This week we’re replaying some of our favorite agricultural episodes. In this episode from June 2020, scientists at Washington State University are testing out a robotic system that might give us another way to pollinate as we try to help bees get their buzz back. Plus: researchers in Japan are testing out a pollination system using soap bubbles, like the ones kids like to create and pop.

Robotic crop pollination awarded $1 million grant (Washington State University)

Blowing bubbles: Soapy spheres pop pollen on fruit trees (BBC)

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This week we’re replaying some of our favorite agricultural episodes. In this episode from April 2019, a robotics firm in New Zealand is testing a robot that’s supposed to move through the rows of the apple orchard, spot ripe fruit, yank it from the tree with lasers and bring it back to the farmer. Plus: a strongman/YouTuber ordered literally everything on the menu at his local Taco Bell for a single meal.

Your Apples May Soon Be Picked By Laser-Shooting Robots (Wired)

Brian Shaw Devours Nearly Everything on The Taco Bell Menu (Muscle and Fitness)

This week we’re replaying some of our favorite agricultural episodes. In this episode from July 2020, in 1988, a whole bunch of people in Nebraska got together to lift a nine-ton barn, move it 110 feet uphill, and rotate it clockwise. Plus: Harrison McIntyre build a mechanical contraption to launch M&Ms at his face.

Nebraska family looks back on barn moving event (WOWT)

Guy Builds Machine That Shoots Chocolate into His Mouth on Command (Interesting Engineering)

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It's National Learn About Butterflies Day, so here’s the story of a guy who turned his backyard into a habitat for a rare type of butterfly, and it worked out pretty well. Plus: today is also National Save a Spider Day, and the community of Avoca, Iowa has saved a spider of a sort.

How one man repopulated a rare butterfly species in his backyard (Vox)

VOLKSWAGEN BEETLE SPIDER (Olio in Iowa)

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This month in 1962, one of the last appearances of a ship that would reappear from time to time off the western coast of North America, decades after it was abandoned. Plus: today in 1967, the state of Utah officially designated its state cooking pot.

Baychimo: The Adventures of the Ghost Ship of the Arctic (Manitoba Museum via Archive.org) 

STATE COOKING POT (Utah.gov)

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This month in 1863, the founding of a town that made history: Mitchelville was the first town in the United States to be governed by formerly enslaved people. Plus: it’s National Girl Scout Day, and a scout troop in Muskogee, Oklahoma gets the credit for the first ever sale of Girl Scout cookies in 1917.

This Island in South Carolina Has the First Self-governed Town of Formerly Enslaved People in the U.S. (Travel and Leisure)

Statue commemorates first cookie sale (Muskogee Phoenix)

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Women’s History Month is here, and in 1920 a group of women made history in Jackson, Wyoming, as one of the first-ever all-female town councils in the United States. Plus: for National Worship of Tools Day, a visit to the world's largest chainsaw.

Petticoat Rulers: 1920 All Women Jackson Town Council Inspires Women Today (Wyoming Public Media)

Big Gus is the world's largest chainsaw (Boing Boing)

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