4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 3 October 2025
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
In a cold muddy pond in Cape Cod, a group of self-proclaimed “old ladies” dives for garbage — and unexpectedly finds joy.
This is a story from The Optimist, The Washington Post’s section about the best of humanity. If you want more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter. If you love hearing these stories on “Post Reports,” please send us an email at [email protected]. You can reach Maggie Penman directly at [email protected].
Today’s show was produced by Maggie Penman. It was edited and mixed by Ted Muldoon. Thank you to Allison Klein.
Subscribe to The Washington Post here.
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | At Constellation, we bring the energy powering America's growing economy, every minute, every day. |
| 0:07.3 | As the nation's largest producer of clean and reliable American-made energy, Constellation is wherever you are. |
| 0:17.3 | We are really going to be zigzagging. |
| 0:20.2 | It's a fairly shallow plateau. We can get three of us, |
| 0:24.1 | you know, 10, 12 feet apart. Susan Bauer is holding court in a sandy parking lot across the street |
| 0:31.2 | from a pond on Cape Cod. The area's been cleaned up before, but we know that there's a |
| 0:36.6 | construction site of crap, and we have not |
| 0:39.4 | found that yet. So that's what we're really after. At 85 years old, she's tiny but strong. |
| 0:46.3 | She's standing up straight and absolutely brimming over with energy. As she talks, she shifts her |
| 0:52.5 | weight back and forth and gestures with her hands. |
| 0:55.6 | A group of women are standing around her, listening intently, wearing bathing suits or wetsuits, |
| 1:01.0 | some of them have life vests on, there's an air of anticipation. |
| 1:05.4 | And all of the women are between the ages of 65 and 85. |
| 1:09.6 | They all have bright orange hats or t-shirts on that say, |
| 1:14.4 | Olog. |
| 1:15.5 | It stands for Old Ladies Against Underwater Garbage. |
| 1:20.7 | So this is John's Pond in Mashby, |
| 1:23.6 | and we are going to an area where we have cleaned it up before, but we know that there's more stuff there. |
| 1:34.6 | From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post reports. |
| 1:39.3 | I'm Maggie Penman. It's Friday, October 3rd. |
| 1:42.9 | I'm a reporter for The Optimist, a section here at the post |
| 1:45.9 | where I write about the best of humanity, the things in the world that are going right. And today, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Washington Post, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Washington Post and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.