The U.S. Forest Service. Known for Forests. That's it. Nobody thinks much about it, so let's have some fun.

Let's find out why the U.S. Forest Service is secretly incredibly fascinating. Hey, hey, hey, there, folks, welcome to a whole new podcast episode. A podcast all about why being alive is more interesting than people think it is. My name is Alex Schmidt, and I'm not alone. Two returning guests this week. Dan Hopper is an incredible comedy writer. He's a managing editor at Rancor. He's written for the New Yorker

and for the Washington Post and many more fine publications. And then Chet Wilde is a stand-up comedian.

He's a podcaster all over, in particular on the unpopular opinion podcast network. And then

Chet is from the town of Tawanda, New York, which is near Buffalo, New York,

which made him a key guest in a Passion Project podcast of mine called One Way to Make an

emoji, about me making the Bison emoji, and so much more. Also, I've gathered all of our zip

codes and used internet resources like native-land.ca to acknowledge that I recorded this on the traditional

land of the Cataba, Ino, and Shikori peoples.

Acknowledge Dan recorded this on the traditional land of the Lanapi people.

Acknowledge chat recorded this on the traditional land of the Gabrielino Or Tongva

and Kich and Chumash and Fernandano Tadeviam people. I acknowledge chat recorded this on the traditional land of the Gabrielino Or Tongva and

Kich and Chumash and Fernandano Tadeviam peoples.

And acknowledge that in all of our locations, native people are very much still here.

That feels worth doing on each episode.

And today's episode is about the U.S. Forest Service, which is a patron chosen topic.

Thank you to Jared Halverson for the suggestion there. He and the people who voted for it

gave me a push. I probably never would have thought to do this topic without the suggestion

and the push, and I am so glad you did, because it turns out there's

an amazing show here about a massive chunk of the United States. One other thing, if you are

not a U.S. resident, I still think this show is very relevant to you, because American forestry

practices influence the rest of the world, and those American wildfires you

...