Hey, okay, so after last week's two-parter on fear, I hope everyone's just feeling calm and strong and collected and most importantly, most importantly, ready to talk about trees.

Are you ready? Okay, here's the probably scenario. This is what I'm thinking is happening. You either fucking love trees, and that's why you're here, or you're like, good lord podcast dad, what is this long as episode about trees?

Even gonna cover. I'm gonna dive in, but only if it's full of infectious enthusiasm, and boy, howdy, you doubters, you don't know the half of it.

This episode will make you so pumped about trees, you're gonna be bummed about having skin and blood, you're me so jealous of bark and sap, and you'll have new scrabble words, and you'll start questioning if you should just string a hammock up in the backyard, and live outside, like a big ape squirrel.

But first, let's get some business out of the way. I'll speak fast. Okay, it's important business, like telling you you can be an oligite who proselytizes with an oligee shirt or pin or toats, if you wear toats at oligeesmurch.com. Thank you all for buying and wearing merch.

Patreon.com slash oligees is a portal through which you can also ensure that this podcast exists. Real talk, I have like 10 other jobs.

This one takes the most time and pays me definitely the least, but I love it the most, and patrons help cover costs of hiring an editor to make sure I can put them out every week, and I'm still mulling over whether to have advertising.

I'll be honest with you, because I know sometimes you don't want to hear ads, and I want you guys to be happy. You just want to hear about trees, maybe.

So I've turned down ads, and I just raise income through Patreon. And if you think that's dumb, feel free to tweet me about it, because I'm maybe I'm doing business wrong. I probably am. I'm going to read those tweets if you give me advice on that. Just like I read your reviews.

Ooh, what a segue. So rating and reviewing and making sure you're subscribed on iTunes, you can check right now, make sure you're subscribed. Keeps oligees just killing it in the science charts. We're still rubbing elbows at the top 25 or 30 science podcasts ever, which is the real thing. And also your reviews kind of brighten my Maclaudeus day is for real.

This week, this one just delighted me. Jude Kenny wrapped up a review by saying, boy, howdy, you may find yourself pulling off the road during your commute on a Tuesday to sit in the still of your car staring at the window while you pondering your life choices. Five stars.

Thank you for that. Now on to dendrology. Okay, this trees, you ready for trees. Okay, so dendro comes from ye old Greek meaning tree.

And if you're like that, why does that remind me of brain stuff? Well, that's because the dendrite is a part of a nerve cell that looks a lot like a tree. So dendra, there you go, trees. So you've got trees in the brain, you're going to have trees on the brain after this. I'll tell you that much. You're going to be pining for more arborist facts. Okay.

So the term dendrologist is a little funky. So technically it's anyone who studies trees, which this human being I interviewed has done. I have never met anyone with such a raw zeal or deep knowledge for an of trees. You will love him. He's been studying tree biology and dendrology since 2007. And he's currently a tree inspector for the city of Portland, Oregon. And he gives talks all over the world about trees.

He teaches sold out classes. I was like, so, yeah, so you're a dendrologist, right? And he demure at the title of dendrologist. I'm like, dude, this is like when I was goth. I didn't realize I was a goth until I look back at pictures. And I was like, oh, I was definitely a goth. You study trees, you're a damn dendrologist accepted. But he was like, we'll get to that.

I was headed to Seattle for a day to shoot this show called Innovation Nation. That's one of my other jobs. And I thought, I bet there's got to be tree people up here. There's so many trees. So I did a little Googling and I saw there was a sold out tree workshop. The day I was there led by this Portland based dude. And then I began very gingerly stalking him online to try to get in touch.

The only social media I could find was a Facebook account. And after following like a few leads, I emailed his bosses and then presto the next day I creepily invited him to hang out in my hotel room. I figured his bosses knew where he was. And I hoped he would not abuse his access to chainsaws. He did not. He was great. So we talked for literally two hours, which was very difficult to cut down. No tree pun intended.

About so many burning curiosity do trees feel pain? How do they talk to each other? What's up with crown shyness? Does he have a favorite tree? Will trees make you write your novel any faster? Does he get sad when he looks at wooden objects? What is tree porn? And are there any super sad stories about trees? Spoiler? Yes. And also great ones. Also, yes. So I'm going to go out on the lamb and say the great episode. So stick around for some.

Really wonderful tree facts. Well, yeah, lumber up. I swear to God. That's going to be the last tree pun. I please trust me for a person who is somewhat in denial about being a dendrologist. Casey clap.

I've done anything like this. Yay, that's going to be great. So this is your mic. You were you weren't the easiest person to to gently start online. Oh, that's fantastic. So I didn't know I could be found. Yes, you know anyone whatever look. I was like, I must talk trees with him. Oh my God. This is so flattering. Thank you. Okay. So I have a question. Yes, go ahead. Arborist versus dendrologist. Yes. What's the difference? So an arborist specifically focuses on tree

trees in the urban area. But most of the time in arborist is one who manages a tree in the urban area. So if they're going to cut a tree, remove a tree, plant trees, they're the ones who usually have something to do with it. But then a dendrologist is usually someone that's more on the research side of the world. And they're like, okay, we're going to study this plant. It's characteristics or this tree more specifically. It's characteristics and where it fits in with the rest of all the other trees in the world. So dendrologist basically work on the the back end of things classifying all the different trees into certain areas.

So can you call if you study and you love trees, can you call yourself a dendrologist? Yeah, I would say so. So Casey got his bachelor's of science in forest management with a focus on urban forestry. And then he went got a master's focusing on

...