Today we’d like to introduce you to Joey Santore.
Thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, how did you get started?
I started studying botany while working as a brakeman/switchman on the railroad. I lived out West and frequently traveled through Northern California, Western Nevada, and Southern Oregon. I had gained an interest in botany and geology before being hired by the railroad and was going to school for it, but I dropped out to take the job. I was interested in learning about the “skin” of my land – plants and rocks comprise that skin. When I realized that deep time – vast, extended amounts of time marked by various chronological landmarks such as mass extinctions, the appearance of new evolutionary lineages, the convergence of continents, etc. – played a hand in shaping the world that we live in today, I became even more fixated on it all. It was mesmerizing stuff to learn about, and I was hooked.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Life is never a smooth road, except for rich kids, and even then, they often come out riddled with psychological flaws from being sheltered. Life knocks you around, but that’s what’s required for growing and learning. The lessons you remember are the ones that come from really having your ass ground up and spat out. Working for the railroad was a fun experience, but it also meant lots of long hours, a highly inconsistent work schedule (like going to work one day at 3 pm and the next at 3 am), and very little free time. Learning botany consisted of filtering through lots of information to answer my questions about the material and grasp concepts that were initially totally foreign to me, like natural selection. I often read textbooks and research papers at work, on company time, while we’d be stopped at a red signal waiting for another train to pass.
I appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I produce a YouTube channel and Social Media page dedicated to teaching people about the cool plants that grow in our world. It’s called Crime Pays But Botany Doesn’t. I inject it with humor and social commentary and enclose the plant information in between. I do this to educate people without letting them know they’re being taught something. It’s like getting a dog to take a pill by encasing it in a hot dog. Hide the educational content in a loud, chaotic mass of social commentary and sophomoric banter. I also hosted two seasons of a show called “Kill Your Lawn,” that’s about eradicating these boring, soul-sucking monocultures of non-native turf grass that so many of us unthinkingly prescribe to and nurture to replace it with landscapes full of native plants to restore habitat for native pollinators and incredible birds. I like changing how people think about and interpret the landscapes and life around them. I like broadening their perspective to make them more aware of things they were initially not. I’m also an artist and illustrator and have a book of some of my drawings, illustrations, and landscape pieces.
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
I just published the first issue of a small magazine debted to touring and documenting the filthiest taqueria bathrooms in the United States.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.crimepaysbutbotanydoesnt.com
Image Credits
Photos: me I had more to upload but the image uploader on the site wasn’t detecting them or providing a way to access the album they are in, eventhough they are simple jpegs.
