Ode to Cicadas

Sidedoor

Smithsonian Institution

Science, The Smithsonian, Tony Cohn, Art19, African American History And Culture, Exhibit, Dc, Exhibits, Pop Culture, Zoo, National Museum, National Zoo, Natural History, Air And Space, Smithsonian, Postal Museum, History Of The World, History, Sidedoor, Museum, Washington, Society & Culture, American History

4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 30 June 2021

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Every 17 years, the notorious Brood X cicadas crawl out of the earth by the billions to deafen Washington D.C. After nearly two decades underground, they spend their few short weeks in the sun singing, mating, and dying so the next generation can start anew. The cicadas' distinctive sound and strange life cycle have captivated our human ancestors for millennia, inspiring songs, art, royal attire and even some unique burial rituals.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Side Door, a podcast from the Smithsonian with support from PRX.
0:13.9	I'm Lizzie Peabody.
0:23.8	A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting on my front steps with my morning coffee, waiting
0:28.1	for my brain to wake up.
0:29.9	As I sat there, holding my mug, staring off into space, I noticed a twitch of movement
0:36.2	off to my right.
0:38.3	It was a bug, a big bug, about the size of my thumb with big red buggy eyes and large
0:44.3	folded wings.
0:46.0	And as soon as I saw it, I noticed another on the step below it, and another next to that
0:51.8	one, and another, and another, there were cicadas all around me.
1:00.5	The brood 10 cicadas arrived quietly, under cover of night.
1:06.2	But there is nothing quiet about what happened next.
1:09.7	I am inside my house right now.
1:12.2	Let's go on a little walk here, I'm opening my front door.
1:16.2	Oh yeah, this is the sound on my front porch.
1:24.5	DC this June is a hot, hot cicada club, where the music is loud and the cicadas are thirsty.
1:32.0	After 17 years underground, biting their time in the cool damp darkness, billions of bugs
1:38.8	are crawling up into the light, bustin' out of their shells, and taking to the skies.
1:44.5	They've waited since George W. Bush's presidency for their one shot to meet, and they only
1:49.6	have four weeks to do it.
1:53.1	And we're going to walk four houses up the street, to this one tree that cicadas really
1:57.9	seem to love a lot.
	...

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