Hello kids, this is Risk, the show where people tell true stories they never thought they

dare to share.

I'm Kevin Allison, and every Thursday we release these special episodes where we look

back at content from our earlier years.

Sometimes single stories, sometimes whole episodes, keep in mind that years ago people might

have awarded things differently than they would today.

As always, the title of the whole series, Risk, is itself a content warning.

This week a story that Christine Gentry first shared on the podcast in August of 2014,

here's Christine now with a story we call Bamboo.

So I like to consider myself on the short list of good things to come out of Texas.

And I know that one of the last things you think about when you think of my home state is

Bamboo, but bear with me.

I grew up on the poor side of a very large suburb of Dallas, and across the street from

our house was this elementary school playground.

And one corner of this playground had been completely taken over by Bamboo Forest inexplicably.

It's like someone had brought home a Bamboo plant, thought it was real cute to like plant

it in their backyard, and because there are no pandas in Texas, the Bamboo proliferated

and just took over this entire corner of the playground, and the school had just let

it do that.

So to any like innocent bystander, they would look at this and be like, that's impenetrable.

I would never go in there.

It's like, I don't know if you've ever seen a Bamboo forest, but the stocks grow very close

...