All language subtitles for Atlas.of.Cursed.Places.S01E04.The.Curse.of.the.Bayou.720p.WEBRip.x264-CAFFEiNE.eng

Sam: You see this little guy?

That's a shrimp.
It's friendly right?

Not cute necessarily,
but harmless.

Just wait.

According to
author mike tidwell,

These tasty morsels reproduce
at an exponential rate,

Which means if 3
successive generations survive

To adulthood, the resulting
shrimp mass would be equal to

The volume of the sun.

Just a few more
generations survive,

And every inch of the known
universe is filled with shrimp,

A mass of crustaceans
expanding outward at

The speed of light.

If mike's math holds up,
the shrimp apocalypse would

Be upon us.

So what does all this have
to do with cursed places?

Well, the thing that
keeps events like the

Shrimp apocalypse
from happening is the
natural balance of things.

And in the louisiana swamps,

Things are
savagely out of whack.

Gary: The swamp is
really in trouble and

Everything is gonna die.

Sam: The land is
vanishing faster here than

Almost anywhere else on earth.

Man: It's hard to imagine
but all this was farmland.

Sam: 25 square miles disappear
every year into the ocean and

Some point to a curse
from 100 years ago.

A curse that would make
all the land wash away.

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Sam: Just outside
of new orleans,

There's a place
called manchac swamp and

Here in the bayou, there's
a story of a local priestess

Who cursed the land and
the people living on it.

Sam: Hey guys. Man: Hey sam.

Have a beer, my man.
Have a cold beer.

Sam: Alright, alright,
I'll take it, I'll take it.

Man: Sit down. Glad to have you.

Sam: So you guys
know why I'm here, right?

It's easy to read about a
legend on the internet and

Dismiss it as folklore.

As we search for the
intersection point between

Myth and science,
where do you start?

Well, you start with the myth.

Only a nerd would
start with the science.

Anybody got anything on
the curse of aunt julia?

Man: She practiced
a lot of magic.

Sam: Right.

Man: And she died
in September 29th, 1915,

Which just happened to
be when the big storm of 1915,

The hurricane hit.

When she died, she put a curse
on this place where the swamp

Would die and bring devastation
to all the people here.

Sam: So here's
how the story goes.

In the early 1900's
there wasn't much in the way

Of hospitals or
doctors around here.

So if you got sick, you
went to aunt julia brown and

She used folk medicine and
hoodoo magic to cure you.

For years, everything was great,

There were satisfied customers
all around and she helped

Anybody who needed it.

But something changed.
Julia's world view went dark.

And some say she cursed the
land with her dying breath.

Man: 30 years ago, the
swamp was so thick you

Couldn't walk through it.

Now, you can see for a
mile in any direction.

Sam: Do you guys feel like
the swamp is getting killed?

Woman: Choking to death.
Sam: It's choking to death?

Man: Yeah, it's deteriorating
at a rate we can never stop.

Sam: So you could say
aunt julia's curse kinda

Is coming true, huh?

Woman: I believe it. I do.

It's too much of a coincidence.

Man: No, well one
thing can be certain here,

Everything is getting worse.

It's not getting better.

Everything that she
predicted is now here.

Sam: I'm a sucker
for a good story.

Can I get another beer?
Anybody else want a beer?

And when I sit and
have one, or you know,

Two or I don't know, five beers
with a group of people,

I wanna believe
the stories I hear.

But still, the locals
from manchac swamp blame

Aunt julia's curse for
any number of strange

Tragedies and catastrophes.

Hurricanes, bridge collapses,
unexplained disappearances and

Rampant crime that's
lasted for 30 years.

That's a lot to credit to
just one person no matter

How nasty her curse.

So who was aunt julia brown and

Why would she have
cursed her homeland?

What made her so furious that
people still believe to this

Day that her rage
transcends the grave?

And where could she have
gotten this power from?

So tell me about julia brown.

Sam: Right.

Sam: Aunt julia was born into
slavery and this entire region

Was built on the
exploitation of enslaved labor,

Just like the white house.

But then, after the civil war,
slavery was abolished in 1865,

And julia managed
to get a plot of land,

Here in the
paradise of manchac swamp.

With the death of the
cotton plantation industry,

Turns out they can't turn a
profit without free labor,

A new business takes
center stage in louisiana.

The lumber boom.

Suddenly, everyone wants
cypress and these towns

Have an endless supply.

Money's flowing,
things are good.

But of course, that's
really only if you're white.

Aunt julia saw the destruction
of the natural world around

Her and virtually none
of the profit going to

Her or her community.

Meet the new boss.
Same as the old boss.

So, aunt julia didn't live
here specifically but this was

The kind of place
she would have lived.

Man: Right.

Sam: And this is what everybody
lived in at that time,

There's this little tin
roof and everything like that.

Man: Yeah.

Sam: So you had this world
you're building and then now

The loggers are
coming through and they're
tearing everything down.

Sam: Right.

The logging is actually
stealing the land right out

From under the people.

Man: Yeah.

Helen (over tape):
Aunt julia brown,
she's a hoodoo lady.

She's angry about the
way them loggers was
tearing up the swamp.

She'd be out on her porch,
playing her guitar.

I remember, she was
always singing the same words.

"one day I'm gonna die and
everything's gonna die with me."

This was a good place to live,
good place to be.

Until she cursed it.

Never been the same
after that old woman died.

Sam: This audio is recreated
from an interview conducted

With helen schlosser burg
who lived a few houses down

From aunt julia.

She recounts how aunt julia
cast a dark spell on the land

Before she died.

And the moment aunt julia was
being lowered into the ground,

The curse became real
for the people who lived
through that fateful night.

Helen (over tape):
She died end of September.

Only remember that 'cause it
was while they was putting her

In the ground that
the hurricane hit.

Sam: So this hurricane,
it came through as she

Was being buried, right?

Man: Yep.

Helen (over tape):
Lots of people from frenier
and napton and ruddock

Were all there for the funeral
and they found themselves in a

Real bad place when
the winds picked up and

The water started rising.

Sam: That's what makes her
curse feel so real is 'cause.

Sam: Whether you
believe in curses or not,

You gotta give aunt julia credit
for her impeccable timing.

Helen (over tape):
I remember the water rising.

I remember thinking,
"this is it. We're gonna die."

But the train was
blowing I's whistle at
the station in ruddock.

Sam: And the only people
that survived are the ones
who made it to the train?

Sam: Swimming in
pitch black water at
night is already a nightmare.

Add in huge waves, howling
winds and the screams of

Your friends and
neighbors echoing around you,

And that feels
like an act of god.

Now you start to
feel like you're cursed.

I can't imagine how scary
it would have been with the

Waters rising, it's the
middle of the night and

The train blew its whistle.

Sam: And if you
couldn't make it.

Sam: Swimming
through this in the dark.

Sam: You would definitely go,

"oh, that's a curse, that's
old auntie coming to get us."

Sam: She's been singing
that song her whole life.

Sam: Oh my god,
and here it comes.

Sam: You'd be like,
holy (bleep).

In the louisiana bayou.

And on the day of her funeral,
a hurricane obliterated the

Logging towns and most of
the people who lived there.

Since then, over
40 named storms have

Ravaged southern louisiana.

But the locals say that the
hurricane of 1915 was different,

Almost supernatural.

Not only in the timing but
in its unmatched destruction.

That hurricane gave
aunt julia's curse the

Gravitas to survive 100 years.

I'm meeting professor brian haus
at a hurricane simulation lab

In miami to see if
science and legend align.

The storm I'm interested in
is a hurricane in 1915 that hit

New orleans where,
you know, ostensibly
there's a curse around it.

Do you know anything about 1915?

Brian: Of course, 1915,
you know, no satellites.

They didn't have
nearly the information,

You had to rely on shipping.

It was known that a storm
was coming but they didn't

Appreciate how
strong it could be.

When it came into the gulf,

That's when they started
to realize, too late, really.

Sam: Yeah, I mean that
storm came ashore and wiped out

Three whole towns,
just wiped 'em off the map.

This is one of the
things you study here
is the loading, right?

Brian: We study the
loading on structures, yes.

Sam: Right, right.

Brian: This is the
biggest wind over water tank,

Where we have a controlled
wind field going over the water.

Sam: This indoor lab can
recreate the forces of a

Category five hurricane
with huge waves and

Winds over 215 miles an hour.

Since the hurricane of 1915 is
the event that solidified the

Locals' belief in the curse,
I wanna know exactly

What it was they experienced.

So we're gonna use a
simulation to find out if it

Was just the eerie
timing of the event,

Or was there something
else that made that particular

Hurricane feel supernatural.

We're ready.

Brian: Alright,
talk us through this.

Sam: Okay, alright,
so this is the mockup of

Aunt julia's house or
a typical kind of shack.

Brian: See a lot of, all
the waves are breaking.

Sam: Just for fun, or you know,

Not really fun, but
for the hell of it,

Pretend you're in this house.

It's 100 years ago and
you knew this woman,

Aunt julia, and
she's furious about her
swamp getting destroyed.

And you knew about her
song and about the curse

She said was coming.

And now on the
day of her funeral,

The most violent storm
in living memory destroys

Nearly everything in its path.

Would it turn you
into a believer?

Sam: This is the
perfect visualization of the

Destruction that storm
wrought 100 years ago.

But how does that
storm compare to the one

We all know about?

Brian: That storm had a
surge similar to katrina,

Up to like 20 feet.

Big waves would be
hitting building structures,

Everything,
delivering that load.

Sam: Both katrina and
the 1915 storm nailed the

Southern louisiana
coast and they both caused

Lake pontchartrain to flood.

But katrina hit
east of new orleans and

Surged closer to mississippi.

While the eye of julia's
storm hit manchac swamp and

New orleans more directly.

Brian: At this 1915
storm struck today,

The impacts would be
way worse because of the

Degradation of
louisiana's wetlands.

So a lot more of that area
is vulnerable to flooding.

So this would be a really
catastrophic event had the

1915 hurricane occurred now or.

Sam: Yeah, it's hard to think
of katrina as being worse but

It could have been a lot worse.

Brian: Could have been a
lot worse for new orleans,

That's for sure.

Sam: Right.

So looking at the power of
that wind and that storm and

In that tank, you sort
of begin to understand,

Particularly if, you know,
that hurricane blew up,

You know, the day you're putting
aunt julia in the ground.

You would definitely be feeling
like her curse was coming true.

Not to be ageist
but that was then,

And this is now, so does the
curse still somehow have teeth

Here in the 21st century?

Man: The same every time you
turn the news on, something bad.

Sam: For some
people in the bayou,

The curse permeates
all aspects of their life.

Man: It's got to the point
where you could be robbed or

Killed at any place,
at any time.

Sam: To some, crime
and a string of mysterious

Disappearances are just part
and parcel of aunt julia's doom.

Man: And then we've had
several people go off in the

Big swamp never to be seen.

Sam: Never to be seen again.

Man: Yeah.

Woman: Bones are being
found and things like that.

Sam: Right, alright.

So is this just local lore?

Or do the men and women who
deal with these issues every day

Have a more logical explanation?

Officer ervin reid.

Ervin: Yes sir.

Sam: I wanna say thanks
for having us out tonight.

Ervin: Thank
y'all for having me.

Sam: Yeah, what do you see most
of in terms of crime out here?

Ervin: Mostly murders
over the past six months.

Disappearances, kids
and women being taken.

Sam: But where
are they taken to?

Ervin: We're, their still
trying to figure it out now.

Sam: In the
new orleans metropolitan

Area there are 87 current
missing person cases.

That's over 30% higher
than the national average.

Where are we gonna go to?

Ervin: We'll be
going to old highway 51.

Sam: The swamps around
here have a reputation for

Swallowing things up,
never to be seen again.

Can we get in there,
do you think?

You guys want to try
to go in there or what?

Ervin: Watch your step.

Sam: This'd be a good
place to get rid of a body.

Sam: The swamp really
can swallow things up and

Make 'em disappear.

Ervin: Oh yeah.

Alright, given enough time,
what goes down must come up, so.

Sam: Have you ever heard of
the curse of aunt julia brown?

Ervin: Yes sir. I'm
pretty sure it exists in
some way, shape or form.

Sam: Mm-hm.

Sam: Yeah.

Yeah, so don't tell anybody, I
don't wanna put 'em on the spot.

But the truth is, when
the camera stopped rolling,

I cracked his hardest case and
then I sprained my hand from

All the high fives
down at the precinct.

But I am definitely clocking
the fact that a police officer

Claims to have seen
the effects of a curse.

But still, I feel like there
has to be another explanation,

One that maybe has some
grounding in science and data,

One that I'm hoping
to get from jeff asher,

An ex-cia analyst who studies
crime data for a living.

As us mass-holes say,
he's wicked smart.

Is there anything mysterious
about the high crime rate?

Jeff: Murder's the one stat
that you can't juke and so

It's the kind of statistic that
most people find more reliable.

And louisiana has led the
nation in murder rate for

30 straight years.

Sam: Wow.

Jeff: So this is
a bar chart race,

I don't know if you've ever
seen one of these before?

Sam: Yeah, yeah, yeah,
these are great.

Jeff: So these are the top
10 murder rates per year,

Each year since 1960.

You would expect variation
but it's depressingly stable.

Sam: For 60 years,
louisiana has ranked in the

Top 10 in murders
per capital in the us.

And for the last 30 years,
the new orleans area has had

One of the highest murder
rates in the entire country.

That all makes sense but
what's special about louisiana?

Jeff: There's not a lot.

Louisiana is generally
a poor state but not
the poorest in the nation.

Firearms are generally
easy to come by but not
the easiest in the country.

I'm trying to describe what's
happening but it's depressing

And it's mysterious.

Kinda like the
mississippi river,

It does what it wants to do
and there's not a lot that we

Can do to interrupt it.

At least in my opinion.

Sam: Right.

A curse can be the
language of those trying
to explain the unexplainable.

But while we might want
to blame a curse for the

Long-lasting scourge
of crime in the area,

The truth is there are
too many confounding
variables to be sure.

Still, there's an inherent
human need to have concrete

Explanations for
why things happen.

And when events
occur that are so odd,

Like a mysterious string of
deadly bridge collapses that

Keep happening in this tiny
area of southern louisiana,

Well, even I start to wonder.

Sam: In the louisiana bayou,
I've been talking to the

Locals and they
believe a healer,

A hoodoo practitioner
named aunt julia brown is

Responsible for a slew of
tragedies that have ravaged

Their community
since her death in 1915.

All the terrible things
happening in louisiana over

The past 100 years, from
hurricanes to the destruction

Of the swamp, is
because of aunt julia.

But my new best friends think
the curse goes even deeper.

Man: In '76, a barge hit
the bridge and took out

Two sections of
the bridge there.

Sam: Mm-hm.

Man: The causeway has been hit,

What, three, four
times and knocked
sections out of it alsos.

Sam: Right.

Taking a scientific approach
to a curse is hard but

I have to start somewhere.

So I'm looking for
statistical anomalies,

Things that stand out, things
that help me understand why a

Group of people might
believe they're cursed.

Man: Every ten years,
it was '64, '74, '84.

Sam: Right, pretty regular.

The murder and
crime data is one thing.

There's plausible
explanations for that.

But there's
another piece of data,

Something that
pops out of the noise.

There's an unseemly amount of
catastrophic ship strikes and

Bridge collapses in this region.

More than anywhere else
in the us.

Much more.

Sam: Keeps happening?

That's an understatement.

If you look at the
bridge collapses in the

Entire united states
because of ship collisions,

One in four
happens in this area.

That means an area that
takes up less than 1/2% of the

United states is responsible
for 25% of the bridge collapses

Caused by ship strikes.

Now strangely, the exact
same math works when computing

Williamsburg, brooklyn's
contribution to the

Man bun pandemic.

So that's an anomaly but is it
evidence of aunt julia's curse?

Or is there a more
logical explanation?

Chris: We're just
cruising on down the river,

We got about 40 miles to go.

We're headed down
into the main port

In the harbor of new orleans.

Sam: Yeah, great.

Yeah, how we do speed up? Here?

Chris: Alright john.

Sam: Full speed ahead.

Chris rieder is a
retired skipper who oversees a

Simulator that
trains ship captains to
navigate the local waterways.

How does he explain
the deadly tragedies
that keep happening here?

Chris: This is the
greater new orleans
twin bridges.

And this is where that
ship the bright field,

He lost his engine right here.

I was coming up the river
when he was coming down.

That's when he called,
he was about right here.

He said, "chris, I
just lost my engine."

Sam: Wow.

Chris: And we knew
where he was going.

It turned into the bridge.

It had 50 people on it
board and between myself and

Another tug boat, we managed
to rescue half of the crew.

(beeping)

Sam: I would not
make a good pilot, sorry.

So now you just give 'em a wave.

My bad.

Chris: Oh my word.
We are in deep doo-doo here.

Sam: I just work here, man,
you're the pilot.

Chris: Oh no,
you're bailing out.

Sam: No, you're the pilot.

Let's keep going
'cause I don't wanna see,

We'll leave this in our,
pretend it didn't happen.

We leave this
poor guy in the water,

Yeah, we'll just keep going and.

So, just let me
get this straight.

These waters are so
dangerous because?

Chris: Certain time of
year when the river's rising,

It picks up all of the
debris off the riverbanks.

Logs and trees.

When it gets bad,
it gets real bad.

Sam: Right.

Chris: It's mesmerizing, it's
an optically illusion so you

Gotta really get up,
shape yourself.

And when you get the lake
on a black night and you get

Driftwood stuck in your
propellers or your rudders.

Sam: Logs and
trees in the water?

Now what does that remind me of?

Man: They logged the cypress.

And there's a lot of
cypress logs that they left that

Are still just as solid today as
the day they cut 'em because

They've been in the mud.

Sam: So ships are ramming
into bridges in part because

They're dodging a
maze of floating trees.

So could it all come back
to the logging industry?

The same thing
that pissed aunt julia
off in the first place?

What happened here, man?

Sam: And it just makes a big
trail of. Smashing through.

Sam: Whether or not you
believe in aunt julia's curse,

Her vision of the future seems
to be shockingly accurate.

Know what they look like.

Man: It's a giant
rat with a long tail.

As soon as y'all see 'em,
y'all can start shooting.

Sam: If I told you that a
business tycoon of a certain

Famous hot sauce that goes
really well on eggs bought a

Bunch of giant
south american rodents to

Create a new fur
trade in louisiana,

Man: 1957 they
brought the nutrias from

South america to
avery islands where

They produce tabasco hot sauce.

Sam: Oh yeah?

And that invader has
single handedly destroyed

Tens of thousands
of acres of the bayou,

Would you believe me?

Man: Nutria is a rodent
that grows up to 26 pounds.

They're big, big rats.

Sam: Oh that was one
right in that grass.

Man: Boy, that's a big son of a.

Sam: Got him.
That was a good shot.

Man: That's what
we're after, boys.

That's good size nutria there.

Sam: That's my
idea of a nightmare.

Man: That animal eats a quarter
of its bodyweight each day.

You can look at the
teeth on these things.

They burrow the root out so
when the root's exposed and

Then obviously the mud's
exposed and that's when you

Get the erosion.

They'll completely take a
20 yard diameter island,

In a week it's under water.

Just completely.

Sam: In a week it's underwater?

Man: Absolutely.

Hard to imagine
but all this was farmland.

Sam: So they're just literally
sinking the bayou by themselves?

Man: Yep.

Sam: The damage
that's been done by these

Creatures is overwhelming.

And the residents
of southern louisiana
are fighting a hopeless,

Rear guard battle
against something like

20 million invaders.

So they've started
a bounty program.

Man: Let's go get some more.

Sam: $6 to any man,
woman or child who turns in

A nutria tail, dead or alive.

Man: In my bank, in my bank.

Man: Good job.

Sam: That's two big ones.

Man: Oh, good deal man.

Sam: Yeah, nice.

Man: Thanks for
saving the marsh.

Sam: Yeah, hey.
$12, dinner's on me.

Aunt julia said she was going
to take the swamp with her

When she died.

And between the devastating
logging and the insane

Destruction caused by the
rodents of unusual size,

It seems like aunt julia's
curse is coming true.

The swamp is disappearing.

This whole area used
to be full of cypress?

Gary: This was a
massive cypress swamp.

You can still see
some of the stumps.

Some of those stumps
are so big you could park a

Pickup truck on 'em, so they're
very similar to redwoods,

That's the closest
cousin to bald cypress
is the redwood tree.

Sam: Okay.

So tell me the
factors that are going into

The destruction of the bayou.

What's destroying the swamp?

Gary: Well, too much flooding,
not enough nutrients.

And one of the main constraints
for this whole ecosystem,

Hundreds of thousands of acres,

Is saltwater intrusion, that's
probably the number issue.

Sam: So you're
saying that salinity
is destroying the swamp?

Gary: Yeah and everything's
gonna die at some point.

No one believes me though, so.

Sam: Dr. Shaffer says that
millions of nutria rats eat

The saplings of the trees.

And the old logging canals have
destroyed the natural levies

Which allow salty ocean
water to run backwards up

Into the swamp,
killing the old trees.

So it's the perfect storm.

Gary: This is a great example.

.2 instead of 1.3.

So the soil we're seeing
an order of magnitude more

Salt in the water.

And that will
actually kill at tupelo,

It'll kill a maple.

And it would kill all the
other species in the swamp.

Sam: Okay.

Gary: The swamp is
really in trouble.

It's in big trouble.

Sam: Logging began the
destruction of the swamp but

The road to hell is paved
with good intentions and one

Terrible decision led to
an absolute catastrophe.

The army corps of engineers
started building walls along

The mississippi river in 1930.

It seemed like a
great idea at the time,

Stop the constant flooding,
the destruction.

The problem is, the river used
to bring 85 million tons of soil

And spread it over
the bayou each year.

It was an incredible act.

The earth healed its own scars,

Whatever the hurricanes
or logging channels or

Erosion washed away.

But we've locked the river up
and that soil now dumps out

Into deep water instead
of rebuilding the delta.

Combine that with rising sea
levels and 25 square miles of

Coastal louisiana falls
into the ocean every year.

But because the causation's
complex and multiple,

People throw up their
hands and cry "curse!"

But really, it all
comes back to one factor.

To us.

Gary: Cypress.
They live about 3,000 years.

Sam: Oh wow.

Gary: And unlike
other trees, a cypress does
not fall over in hurricanes.

It's got a massive root system.

It's only about this deep but
it goes for 200 feet in both

Directions and so it
forms a tapestry with
all the other trees.

Sam: Right, so
they interlock and they.

Gary: To blow one tree over you
gotta blow 100,000 trees over.

Sam: Right, so
it doesn't happen.

Gary: And so hurricane katrina,

We modeled a cypress swamp,
below new orleans, 12,000 acres,

Brought katrina back in,
flooding was reduced by 82%.

Sam: Right, just
the swamp there.

Gary: It would have completely
protected new orleans.

You know, if I had it my way,
we would plant at least

10 million cypress.

We can probably save two thirds
of coastal louisiana if, if

We're smart enough.

Sam: Look, I hate easy answers
because they're usually wrong.

Life is complicated
and nothing is simple.

That's on my coat of arms.

So I'd love to tell you
there's nothing to the curse

But everything aunt julia
said seems to be coming true.

So let's go a little
further down the rabbit hole,

Just in case.

Did aunt julia really
use hoodoo to unleash

100 years of pain and
destruction on the swamp?

Or did hoodoo
somehow give her the
ability to see into the future?

Ty: Ai, papa legba.

Sang a song and her neighbors
thought it was a curse.

She threatened to take all of
the land with her when she died.

So far, it seems
like it's coming true.

But was it a curse
or just a coincidence?

Or could it have been a
profound warning from someone

Who could sense that there
was trouble on the road ahead.

But how could she know?

And what is hoodoo anyway?

Ty: Just imagine being
on a cotton field or on a

Plantation and being
brutalized and your spouse and

Children being brutalized and
the idea that a god or a power

Or a spirit can
seek revenge in masse.

It was the one thing that
the enslaved african had

That gave them power.

Sam: Hoodoo originated in
west africa and adapted under

The chains of slavery.

Whispered on ships
and plantations.

It manifested in the desperate
desires of the powerless,

Stripped from their homes,
lives shattered,

Brought to a hell
they did not understand.

Hoodoo is also called root work,

Using the power of tree
roots to conjure spells,

To heal and even to curse.

So tell me about root work.

Ty: So at the root level of
what root work and hoodoo is,

It's about nature
and using nature,

Plants, mosses to heal and
then the supernatural aspects

Of it do carry from a ancient
west african perspective that

Trees carry spirit,
wood carries a spirit,

The ground that it
grows in carries a spirit.

Sam: Wow.

Ty: So it's more than
just healing, ingestion,

Using the botanical nature
of what these plants are.

But there's that spirit power.

Ty: Ai, papa legba. Ai.

Sam: The energy is infectious.

Whether someone
from the spirit world,

Or purely human in nature,
prince ty and his friends

Believe the power to connect
with the other realm was

Unlocked by the roots.

There's magic in the roots,
magic strong enough to unleash

A 100-year curse.

But it raises a question.

Is there any kind of
scientific explanation to the

Magic of the roots?

Demetra: The more
people look, the more we

Realize that plants
actually work like a community.

Research is showing that
the plant-fungal relationship

Is a symbiotic one.

So we know plants in an
ecosystem divert some of their

Resources to other species,
it's not just their own species.

Sam: So a plant from a totally
different species will help

Other struggling plants?

Demetra: Absolutely.
Sam: That's amazing.

And what kind of
things would it send?

Demetra: Nutrient,
so the fungal network

Could tap into
another root system

And distribute those
nutrients throughout.

Sam: Distribute the nutrients.

So it would be
interacting with these grasses.

Demetra: Mm-hm.

Sam: And communicating
with basically every plant.

Demetra: Right.
Sam: Anything with roots.

Demetra: And that's kind of
important because the system

Around here is pretty
much starved of nutrients.

Sam: Prince ty said,
"the trees carry a spirit."

Ty: Trees carry a spirit,
wood carries a spirit,

The ground that it
grows in carries a spirit.

Sam: Turns out cutting edge
science is basically saying

The same thing.

Dr. Demetra and other
scientists around the world

Are only beginning to
understand these fungal networks

Called mycorrhizae,
which allow trees to

Communicate through the roots.

In parts of british columbia,
this root network is literally

The difference
between life and death.

Young saplings in deeply
shaded areas of the forest

Don't get enough
sunlight to survive.

So other big trees,
often hundreds of feet away,

Pump sugar into their
roots and keep them alive.

If the cypress roots in
the swamp have this network,

Then the roots are,
in a way, magical,

Just like aunt julia said.

And it could be the key to
restoring balance and the

Swamp saving itself.

So there could be a massive
spiderweb network of fungi

That's spread out
from this tree.

Demetra: That's right.

Any of these plants could
potentially harbor mycorrhizae.

So really, what we wanna do
is take these back to the lab,

Take a look.

And if they're present, then
we know that they're out here,

Benefiting the ecosystem.

Sam: So if we can
find that fungus,

This tree will have a
much better chance?

Demetra: The only hope is
these little roots right here.

Sam: How far across the
swamp could it stretch?

Demetra: Potentially forever.

Sam: And that may
not be the only magic
hiding in these roots.

What are we hoping
to find in the roots?

Demetra: It's called a
dark septate endophyte
and they're enzymes.

There have been experiments
that have shown that you can

Convert plants that cannot
tolerate salt into plants that

Can tolerate salt.

Sam: Wow.

Demetra: Just by adding
endophytes or introducing

Endophytes to those plants.

Sam: And that's worked?

Demetra: That has worked, yes,
just by adding an endophyte

From a plant that
lives on the coast,

They were able to convert
rice plants into plants that

Are able to tolerate salt.

So we know it can be done.

Sam: Right.

Demetra: And our hope is that
that is one way to counteract

The stressors that
cypress are experiencing.

Sam: Although more
research is needed,

If the microscope shows
that endophytes have colonized

Inside the cypress roots,
these super tiny organisms

Could hold the key
to saving the wetlands.

Well, let's take a look.

Demetra: As you can see,
this is a long process.

Sam: We're gonna
figure it out right now, doc.

Demetra:
Sometimes, it's like, yeah,
finding a needle in a haystack.

Sam: No, sure. Demetra: Oh.

That's what you're looking for.

We've just taken root samples
from cypress trees in the

Nearby manchac swamp.

We're now back at her
lab looking for fungi,

Which would be evidence of
some sort of crazy magical

Symbiosis that allows trees to
communicate and share nutrients.

And this could be the swamp's
only chance of survival.

So what are you
looking for now, again?

Demetra: You wanna
find structures of
the mutualistic fungi.

For dark septate endophyte,

You're looking for
the microsclerocia.

They look like little
balls inside the cell.

Little dark balls.

Oh yeah.

That's what you're looking for.

If you look at
the thick strands.

Sam: Mm-hm.

Demetra: You'll see the
darker structure sort of near

The top of that root, yeah.

Sam: That ball there?

Demetra: Yeah, well, it
looks like balls have been

Stuffed into a cell.

Sam: Oh yeah.

Demetra: Those are
dark septate endophyte.

Sam: Wow.

Demetra: Those are so finely
branched that it's really easy

To absorb anything and
distribute those nutrients.

Sam: How does that happen?

Demetra: I wish I knew,
I wish I knew.

Sam: Is that, then
we'd be all set, right?

Demetra: It's a big question,
how do they do it?

Evolution works all
random and it's accidental.

If there's something out
there that happens to make that

Environment advantageous to it,

Then that'll perpetuate.

Sam: Right.

This successful lab test is
proof that the key to saving

Louisiana's bayou might lie in
the cypress roots themselves.

Demetra: We know that all of
the flooding and all of that

Destruction that happened with
hurricane katrina could have

Been avoided if that
swamp was still in place.

Sam: Right.

Demetra: The cypress trees also
are able to sequester carbon,

So if that tree is
pulling carbon out of the

Atmosphere and it's
burying it in its roots,

All of that carbon is
coming out of the air and

Not perpetuating the
cycle of um, climate change.

Sam: So the thing that
could save the world is
these roots, basically?

Demetra: Yes, cypress
can save the world.

Sam: Cypress can save the world.

Long before aunt julia
ever practiced her hoodoo,

Before even the
american slave trade,

The people in west africa
believed the roots held power

Beyond our understanding.

It's taken science
hundreds of years to
catch up and confirm that,

In a way, they were right.

Ty: There's a lot that's been
said about aunt julia's curse.

It said that she
cursed the swamp.

I don't necessarily
agree with that.

Sam: Oh really?

Ty: That could have been a
prediction to get across to

These people, live right,
get it together or all of this

Could be gone.

Sam: The interesting
part of it to me is a curse

Comes from transgression, right?

Like you've done
something to offend the gods,

You've done something wrong.

And all the ills that
are assailing louisiana,

All the things that are
destroying the wetlands,

Comes from things we've created,

Come from problems
that mankind has made,

You know, the land
is cursed, absolutely.

And it's a curse brought on by
the very thing aunt julia was

Railing against, you know?

You're destroying her forest,
you are destroying her land.

And it was all
gonna get washed away.

And that's
exactly what happened.

Ty: Papa legba, ai.

Sam: So the curse of aunt julia
wasn't a curse at all.

Maybe it was the wise words
of a woman whose connection to

The earth far exceeded any
understanding science could

Offer at the time.

The louisiana bayou is
in trouble but not because

Of magic, but because of
mankind's short sightedness

And the laws of
unintended consequences.

The accelerated effects of
the hurricanes are because

Of all of it: Logging, canals,
the vanishing swamp land,

Climate change and even the
invasive rodent that destroys

Everything in its path.

These are all man-made maladies.

We created imbalances in the
natural order and as for the

Possibility of a
shrimp apocalypse,

I got some good news.
Shrimp are delicious.

But in the
connectedness in our ecosystem

We can find balance.

There are hundreds of people
who are dedicated to restoring

Order in the bayou.

And maybe the best hope
of all is in the roots,

The very thing that
gave aunt julia her power.

It could ultimately be the
key to ending the curse.

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