Sep 22, 2026 · 43 min · 19 segments
You’re a critter in the forest, peacefully munching on a tree — until it’s chopped down, turned into a pallet, and you’re shipped across the ocean. What do you do? Sometimes, the answer is escape…
Andrew LiebholdGuestChris LooneyGuestDo you know the fate of the murder hornet? A twitching corpse on an airport tarmac, the lanternfly is a good example of our problem.
There's a map that shows its encroachment from a first sighting just over a decade ago in Pennsylvania.
It takes over across states, spreading outward like some kind of World War II propaganda video.
Now, over in California, I'd never heard of this bug, we don't have it yet, until our show's editor, Tracy Samuelson, shared.
My lanternfly story.
She and her partner wanted to expand to a slightly bigger apartment, and she found it, the one.
It had this, like, beautiful tree that was looming over.
I can picture our son learning to ride a scooter back here and running around and having picnics, and I could just imagine our little family spending time back there.
They move in, the child is born, the world blurs into the fog of new parenting, naps, bottles, crying, joy, exhaustion, diaper cream.
Tracy sits one early evening in the backyard with the swaddled lad gazing up at her favorite tree.
And you just see kind of blue sky and green leaves and the wind ruffling the leaves.
The bark of that tree is kind of crawling.
It was just covered in lanternflies, just, like, teeming in lanternflies.
Ugh.
Do you know the fate of the murder hornet? A twitching corpse on an airport tarmac, the lanternfly is a good example of our problem.
There's a map that shows its encroachment from a first sighting just over a decade ago in Pennsylvania.
It takes over across states, spreading outward like some kind of World War II propaganda video.
Now, over in California, I'd never heard of this bug, we don't have it yet, until our show's editor, Tracy Samuelson, shared.
My lanternfly story.
She and her partner wanted to expand to a slightly bigger apartment, and she found it, the one.
It had this, like, beautiful tree that was looming over.
I can picture our son learning to ride a scooter back here and running around and having picnics, and I could just imagine our little family spending time back there.
They move in, the child is born, the world blurs into the fog of new parenting, naps, bottles, crying, joy, exhaustion, diaper cream.
Tracy sits one early evening in the backyard with the swaddled lad gazing up at her favorite tree.
And you just see kind of blue sky and green leaves and the wind ruffling the leaves.
The bark of that tree is kind of crawling.
It was just covered in lanternflies, just, like, teeming in lanternflies.
Ugh.
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