This is an iHeart Podcast. Hey, it's Bobby from the Bobby Bone Show. I had an incredible time at this year's iHeartRadio Music Festival and even got the chance to hang out with Diplo and Bailey Zimmerman while I was there. How did Ashes come together, Diplo? I pulled up real quick.
He was about to leave on tour. You're about to jump in your tour bus, and we had like three hours. It was really cool. He literally just like randomly showed up to my house. I'm like, oh, hey, Diplo, what are you doing?
He's like, I have a song that I want to show you. And I was like, okay. You can listen to the full episode out now wherever you get your podcast. And big shout out to my friends at Hyundai for making this possible. At a blast, cruising around the festival weekend in the all-new Palisade Hybrid.
SackSaw Fifth is your secret to fashion's most wanted deals at up to 70% off. On the hunt for designer steals that'll turn heads and leave a trail of envy, uncover Gucci, Valentino, Versace, Stuart Weitzman, and more, with new arrivals dropping weekly at prices too good to stay confidential. Luxe layers, statement booths, and tailored essentials from Sacksoft Fifth will put your wardrobe on the most wanted list. Head to saxofffit.com or SacksOffFit store near you for a style lineup you won't want to miss. This is Jana Kramer from Windown with Jana Kramer.
It's the end of summer, and as we are heading into fall, I've noticed the damage the summer sun has left on my skin. And I've been wanting to find a laser treatment to help revitalize my skin and help even out my skin tone. I was recently introduced to Ideal Image. Ideal Image is America's number one med spa.
So, from wrinkle relaxers to filler to medical-grade facials, Ideal Image has treatments designed for real results, helping you look and feel your best. I have spoken about my melasma for years, and after every summer, it is very visible. My sunspots, the melasma on my face. And I have had a consultation with Ideal Image and it could not have gone better. Not only do they know what they're talking about because they're the number one med spa in America, they were so great with helping me pick the right treatment for my skin.
And I have found through consultation that I'm going to do the clear and brilliant treatment that is the best option for what I want to achieve. The clear and brilliant treatment is a gentle laser that resurfaces the skin, smooths texture, shrinks pores, and boosts collagen. Clear and brilliant reverses sun damage, evens tone, smooths face fine lines. It's non-invasive and safe for all skin types, even the types like mine with melasma. Their licensed medical professionals make sure every treatment is safe, natural, and tailored to you.
I have my appointment booked and I am so excited to get my clear and brilliant treatment from Ideal Image. Refresh with September med spa offers. Custom Facebook. Facials, skin tightening, and more. Book your free consultation today and check out their fall specials at idealimage.com or call 1-800-BIDEAL.
That's one eight hundred B. ideal. This is Buzz Knight from Takin' a Walk. Lexis believes in the importance of standards. What are my standards?
I never want to be late. I always want to show up on time. For Lexus, the standard is simple. Experience amazing. Their benchmarks aren't stats or specs.
They're feelings. Exhilaration. Joy. That sense your car was designed just for you. Machines built to make you feel more human.
Because a car that doesn't make you feel something is a car that stops short of amazing. Experience amazing at your Lexus dealer. Hey, what's up? It's Marla Lopez. Back to schools.
An exciting time, but it can also be overwhelming and kids may feel isolated, a vulnerability that human traffickers can exploit. Human trafficking doesn't always look like what you expect. Everyday moments can become opportunities for someone with bad intentions, whether you're a parent, teacher, coach, or neighbor. Check in. Ask questions.
Stay connected. Blue Campaign is a national awareness initiative that provides resources to help recognize suspected instances of human trafficking. Learn the signs and how to report at dhs.gov/slash blue campaign. And we continue with our American stories. And our next story comes to us from a man.
simply known as the history guy. His videos are watched by hundreds of thousands of people of all ages over on YouTube. and the history guy is also heard as a regular contributor here at Our American Stories. If you think of the quintessential American fruit, It would probably be the apple. But apples are not our cheapest fruit.
Bananas are But why? Here's the history guy. with a story. of the banana. Here's an interesting trivia question.
Do you happen to know what item is most sold? At Walmart? I'll give you a hint. It's a berry that grows from an herb, or if you come from the United Kingdom, a herb. Here's another hint.
The herb is in the family Musicae, and the most popular version of this berry is called the Cavendish. And if you still don't know, does it help to know that it was among the first fruits to be domesticated by humans? That it is so historically important that empires have been built on it and governments overthrown because of it? and that comedians have made entire careers slipping on its peel.
Some scientists estimate that the banana was domesticated as early as 8000 BC. and there's written evidence that the cultivation of bananas had reached India by 6000 BC. Thus bananas were possibly domesticated at approximately the same time as rice and potatoes, predating the domestication of apples by millennia. The banana fruit is produced from the ovary of a single flower, in which the outer layer of the ovary wall develops into an edible fleshy portion. Thus, bananas are, by the botanical definition, A berry.
There are more than a thousand species of wild banana in Southeast Asia, China, and the Indian subcontinent, producing a staggering array of fruits. The Musa Velentina, for example, produces a bright pink fuzzy banana. And the Go Sung Hang species is so aromatic that its Chinese name literally translates as, you can smell it. from the next mountain. While bananas were likely first domesticated in Southeast Asia or probably New Guinea, Arab traders carried bananas back home and introduced the fruit to the Middle East in the 1st or 2nd millennium BC.
and then took the fruit to the east coast of Africa. The fruit was then traded across the continent, eventually being cultivated in Western Africa. In fact, there are two competing stories for the etymology of the word banana. One posit said it comes from the Arabic word bana for finger because early bananas would have been about the size of your finger. The other posits that the word was derived from a West African language.
In 327 BC, Alexander and his armies discovered the banana during one of their campaigns in India and introduced the delicious fruit to the Western world. particularly to Mediterranean countries. In the 6th century, the Portuguese discovered bananas on the Atlantic coast of Africa, and then they then cultivated the fruit on the Canary Islands, and from there it was introduced to the Americas by Spanish missionaries. Early cultivated bananas would not have been like what we buy at the supermarket today. Rather, wild bananas are full of seeds, hard enough to break your tooth, and would have been smashed and sieved to eat this off fruit.
Over time, farmers would have selected those bananas that had fewer seeds. But such bananas eventually would become so seedless that they could not be grown from seeds, and the plants had to be reproduced asexually. The banana-rich culture we have today, the average American eats 28.5 pounds of bananas each year. was the product of the 19th century. While bananas were being cultivated in plantations in the 15th and 16th centuries, those were red or green bananas that included a lot of starch and today would be called plantains.
For the most part they had to be cooked to be softened and eaten. In 1936, a farmer in Jamaica named Jean-François Peugeot discovered a banana plant on his plantation that, the result of random genetic mutation, was producing yellow bananas. The fruit was naturally sweet and soft enough to be eaten without cooking. This banana grew in tightly packed bunches and had a thick peel that resisted bruising. Facilitating Transport.
Hundreds of cultivars of this banana mutation have evolved to give the world one of the greatest food breakthroughs in history, supplying the world with the number one fruit grown to feed Earth's population. the modern yellow banana. The banana, originally called the Martinique banana, was so popular that the variety was cultivated all along the Caribbean coast in Central America. The type became known as the Grosse Michel or the Big Mike. And it was.
A game changer. Americans had seen bananas imported from Cuba early in the 19th century, but those were seen as merely a novelty. Likewise, bananas had been displayed in London in the 1600s, but again the fruit was little more than an oddity. Economic and dietary changes, combined with the characteristics of the Gross Michel, created a massive trade. Imports into the U.S.
gradually increased, especially with the end of the Civil War, but interest in imports really took off in the 1870s. In 1871, banana exports to the United States were valued at around $250,000. By the first year of the 20th century, the banana trade had exponentially ballooned to $6,400,000. Ten years later, it had effectively doubled again.
So many bananas were imported onto the docks at the tip of Lower Manhattan that the old slit piers became known as the Banana Docks. Fast, sometimes refrigerated boats built especially to carry bananas without spoiling were called banana boats. At one point, the United Fruit Company, now known as Chiquita Brands International, had the world's largest private fleet. The Big Mic facilitated the worldwide banana market and created the American and European love for the fruit. In 1904, a 23-year-old apprentice pharmacist at Tassel Pharmacy in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, named David Evans Strickler.
invented the Banana Base Triple Ice Cream Sunday. better known. is the Banana Split, one of America's most popular desserts. the banana in that split. was a big mic.
And then banana crisis. The Gros Michel had become a classic example of a mono crop. Big mics were grown from thousands of genetically identical plants. That allowed a specialization that facilitated mass production and distribution. better reveal the vulnerability.
If one tree was susceptible to a pest or blight, They all would be. That blight came in the form of Fusarium oxysporum, a fungus that caused the banana plant to rot with what is commonly called. Panama disease. The blight was first identified in the 1870s and the Gross Michel was particularly vulnerable to the blight. By the 1950s, it had spread all over the banana producing world.
As suddenly as it is risen, The banana market crashed.
Some claim that the decline of the Big Mike inspired the popular song, Yes, We Have No Bananas. First recorded in 1923, the song was the single best-selling piece of sheet music for many decades. The solution to the problem came from an unexpected source. Derbyshire, England. In eighteen thirty four the Duke of Devonshire received a shipment of bananas from the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius.
The Duke's friend and chief gardener, Sir Joseph Paxton, cultivated the bananas in the greenhouse at Chatworth House, the Duke's home in Derbyshire. Paxton named the variety Musa Kevandishi, named after the Duke. William Cavendish. The variety was then cultivated in the Canary Islands and commercially cultivated by 1904. But the Cavendish could not compete with the Big Mike, which had a better flavor and a thicker peel that made it easier to ship.
But the Cavendish turned out to have one great advantage. It was resistant. to Fusarium oxysporum. Because it was not as hardy, the Cavendish could not be as easily shipped in the natural cluster like the Gross Michel. The clusters had to be broken into bunches and then boxed, making the Cavendish more costly to ship.
Still, Cavendish bananas represent nearly half of the bananas produced in the world today and nearly all of the export market. If you buy a banana outside the tropics, it is almost certainly A Cavendish. The banana trade is so lucrative that it has driven more than a century of politics, especially in Central America and the Caribbean. American-based companies corrupted local governments in order to obtain exclusive production rights and ran huge swaths of Central American countries as virtual corporate nations. Economic exploitation gave rise to violent labor movements, which drew the United States government into a series of conflicts throughout the region.
Although the wars were not exclusively driven by the economic demands of the fruit companies, the series of conflicts became known. as the Banana Wars. In 1911, a private army financed by the Cayomel Fruit Company orchestrated a coup d'état in Honduras over a conflict with rival United Fruit Company for an exclusive contract for Honduran bananas. The unstable economies and governments caused by these interventions led American writer O. Henry to coin the term.
Banana Republic. Today, the banana is the world's fourth major food, behind rice, wheat, and milk. Americans alone eat more than 3 million tons of bananas each year, more than apples and oranges combined. But we all might again soon be singing Yes, We Have No Bananas, as the Cavendish is proving vulnerable to mutated strains. Panama disease.
Once again, the world's export bananas are tied to a single species, and that supply is under threat. The answer might come in the form of genetically modified Cavendishes, or even the return of the Big Mike, as scientists have been trying to breed a fungus-resistant version of the Big Mike ever since the first bike took hold in the 1900s. Or perhaps a new banana will rise to become king of the export market. And once again, we'll have to get used to. A new banana.
And a great job as always by Greg Hengler on the production. A special thanks to. this great storytelling about of all things. The banana. And by the way, you can hear the history guy.
On his own YouTube channel, the history guy. History deserves to be remembered. It's Walmart. Biggest selling item. Who knew?
28 and a half pounds each year is what each American consumes. Who knew that? And my goodness, I know I play my part. I'm way higher than 28.5 pounds each year. The story of the banana, the story of America's and the world's most popular fruit.
Here are our American stories. Hey, it's Bobby from the Bobby Bone Show. I had an incredible time at this year's iHeartRadio Music Festival and even got the chance to hang out with Diplo and Bailey Zimmerman while I was there. How did Ashes come together, Diplo? I pulled up real quick.
He was about to leave on tour. You're about to jump in your tour bus and we had like three hours. It was really cool. He literally just like randomly showed up to my house. I'm like, oh, hey, Diplo, what are you doing?
He's like, I have a song that I want to show you. And I was like, okay. You can listen to the full episode out now wherever you get your podcast. And big shout out to my friends at Hyundai for making this possible. Had a blast, cruising around the festival weekend in the all-new Palisade Hybrid.
Ah, come on, why is this taking so long? This thing is ancient. Still using yesterday's tech? Upgrade to the ThinkPad X1 Carbon. Ultra-light, ultra-powerful, and built for serious productivity with Intel Core ultra-processors, blazing speed, and AI-powered performance that keeps up with your business, not the other way around.
Whoa, this thing moves. Stop hitting snooze on new tech. Win the tech search at lenovo.com. Unlock AI experiences with the ThinkPad X1 Carbon powered by Intel Core Ultra Processors so you can work, create, and boost productivity all on one device. Zack Saw Fifth is your secret to fashion's most wanted deals at up to 70% off.
On the hunt for designer steals that'll turn heads and leave a trail of envy, uncover Gucci, Valentino, Versace, Stuart Weitzman, and more, with new arrivals dropping weekly at prices too good to stay confidential. Luxe layers, statement booths, and tailored essentials from Sacksoft Fifth will put your wardrobe on the most wanted list. Head to SaxOffFit.com or Sacks OffFit store near you for a style lineup you won't want to miss. Thursday night football is on and it's only on Prime Video. tonight.
It's a California showdown. Division rivals lock horns when the 49ers meet the Rams. What a great job. Coverage begins tonight at 7 p.m. Eastern with football's best party.
TNF Tonight, presented by Verizon. Not a Prime member, not a problem. Simply sign up for a 30-day free trial. 49ers, Rams, tonight at 7 p.m. Eastern, only on Prime Video.
Restrictions apply, see amazon.com slash Danabout Prime for details. Hey, what's up? It's Marla Lopez. Back to school. It's an exciting time, but it can also be overwhelming, and kids may feel isolated, a vulnerability that human traffickers can exploit.
Human trafficking doesn't always look like what you expect. Everyday moments can become opportunities for someone with bad intentions, whether you're a parent, teacher, coach, or neighbor. Check in. Ask questions. Stay connected.
Blue Campaign is a national awareness initiative that provides resources to help recognize suspected instances of human trafficking. Learn the signs and how to report at dhs.gov/slash blue campaign. This is an iHeart podcast.
