This is an I-Heart podcast.

There's a vile sickness in Abbas town.

You must excise it.

Dig into the deep earth and cut it out.

From IHeart podcasts and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Manky,

this is Havoc Town. A new fiction podcast set in the Bridgewater Audio Universe, starring Jules State and Ray Wise.

Listen to Havoc Town on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Welcome to Brain Stuff, a production of IHeartRadio.

Hey, Brainstuff, Lauren Vogelbaum here.

The question, what does the biggest freshwater turtle in North America have to do with a

household cleaning implement?

The answer involves a well-worn bit of folk wisdom.

Legend has it that the alligator snapping turtle can split a wooden broomstick in half with a

single bite. These are big reptiles. They commonly reach about 175 pounds, that's 80 kilos,

and they have an impressive bite strength,

hence the name. Zoologist Peter Charles Howard Pritchard actually tested this claim for his

1989 book, The Alligator Snapping Turtle, Biology, and Conservation. When he pestered an alligator

snapper weighing near that no limit with a brand new broomstick,

it grabbed hold of the wood. The bite went deep but failed to break the broomstick. However,

as Pritchard tried to rest the stick free, the turtle finished the job, splitting the handle

between its jaws. It turns out that they have a bite force of about 1,000 pounds or 450 kilos,

which means that they can snap through bone. So probably avoid pestering these creatures.

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