Green Thumb: Stories about gardening

The Story Collider

Story Collider, Inc.

Personal Journals, Society & Culture, Performing Arts, Arts, Science

4.4 • 818 Ratings

🗓️ 18 July 2025

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this week’s episode, we’re getting into the weeds—literally—with two stories about how gardens and green spaces can take root in our lives in unexpected ways.

Part 1: Feeling lonely after a move to New York City, Kofi Thomas finds connection, purpose, and community through a neighborhood garden.

Part 2: As he fights to stay sober, Michael Hudgins throws himself into an unusual form of therapy: pulling invasive plants from a city park.

Kofi Thomas is a NYC based comedian with a curiosity for the world. He is a first generation immigrant to parents from Dominica, (not the Dominican Republic). Observer, commentator and creator of the world around him. An accidental community activist.

Originally from Tifton, Georgia, Michael Hudgins has called Atlanta home for the last 15 years. Michael loves to write songs, watch documentaries and spend time with his wife and son. Professionally, Michael has recently found a calling working to protect and preserve local forests through invasive plant management.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	A science story, huh?
0:04.0	Is NYU a scientist?
0:06.0	I felt.
0:07.0	I was so...
0:08.0	And I just thought, well,
0:10.0	it was that golden moment.
0:12.0	Because science was on my side.
0:19.0	Hey, everyone, welcome to the Story Cliter, where true personal stories about science help us explore just how weird and wonderful it is to exist in this world and be a human.
0:32.4	I'm your host, Misha Gaieski, and today's episode is all about gardening.
0:37.1	If Martha Stewart is to be believed, gardening is the key to lifelong happiness.
0:42.2	And honestly, she might be on to something, because scientists have found that soil bacteria,
0:46.4	specifically, microbiacterium vacy, makes our brains release serotonin.
0:51.1	Who knew?
0:52.0	Okay, our first story today comes from comedian Kofi Thomas. This story was recorded
0:56.1	live at one of our home bases in New York City, QED Astoria, earlier this year. Here's Kofi.
1:10.5	I'm Kofi Thomas.
1:12.6	I am from Boston.
1:14.5	My parents are from a tiny island called Dominica.
1:17.5	I grew up in Boston in a real big Caribbean household.
1:20.6	I always had a lot of family and friends over.
1:23.0	So every time we'd get together,
1:24.4	there'd be like a really big pot on the stove of Palau,
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 2 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Story Collider, Inc., and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Story Collider, Inc. and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.