Cicadapalooza
Sidedoor
Smithsonian Institution
4.6 • 2.3K Ratings
🗓️ 8 May 2024
⏱️ 33 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
The cicadas are back for some fun in the sun, and this time, they’re louder than ever! For the first time since 1803, Broods XIII and XIX will be emerging at the same time, covering the American South and Midwest with trillions of cicadas. As Smithsonian entomologist Floyd Shockley readies his nets for the biggest bug invasion in centuries, we look back at the emergence of Brood X in 2021, and explore how cicadas have captivated our human ancestors for millennia.
Guests:
Floyd Shockley, entomologist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History
Gao Hong, professional pipa player, composer, and educator
Jim Deutsch, curator at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
Jan Stuart, Melvin R. Seiden Curator of Chinese Art at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey there, side Dorbels. |
| 0:01.2 | I'm not sure if you know this, but people across America |
| 0:05.0 | are preparing for an event that nobody in our lifetime |
| 0:09.1 | has experienced. |
| 0:10.5 | You know, the Cacate Apocalypse, cicata gedden. |
| 0:14.0 | Floyd Shockley is an entomologist with the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History |
| 0:19.0 | and he's talking about the emergence of not one but two Cakeda broods this spring, although he prefers to call |
| 0:26.8 | this event Cakeda Palusa. |
| 0:28.8 | Seems a little bit more fun and really these guys are just coming out to party to make it like a music festival you know absolutely like it's |
| 0:37.1 | Coachella for cicadas over the next eight weeks Broads 13 and 19 will tunnel their way up out of the earth and start making |
| 0:47.4 | a racket. |
| 0:48.6 | The last time this happened was 1803. |
| 0:51.4 | Thomas Jefferson was president. |
| 0:53.3 | The emergence happened just before the Louisiana Purchase, |
| 0:57.3 | and the Louisiana Purchase, of course, |
| 0:59.2 | overlaps the area of the Great Southern Brood. So it does make me kind of wonder great southern brood. |
| 1:02.5 | So it does make me kind of wonder |
| 1:04.3 | would the US have bought the Louisiana purchase |
| 1:07.2 | if it had happened just a few months earlier |
| 1:09.0 | while the cicadas were all out and everywhere. |
| 1:11.1 | I don't know. |
| 1:11.9 | Floyd says trillions of cicadas will blanket the south and Midwest. |
... |
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