[music playing] Hey, Craig.

Why are you holding a bunch of bananas?

Because Matt, there is a very good possibility that someday bananas will go extinct.

And it's all because of clones.

Oh, you're going to do this with a clone?

Is that the idea?

Yeah, I just thought it'd be easier.

We wear the same shoe size.

You're cool with it, right?

Oh, yeah.

Why wouldn't I be?

Being replaced by a clone is exactly what I'd be cool with, right?

Told you he'd be cool with it.

You're beautiful.

No, you're beautiful.

You're beautiful.

No you're-- OK, I'm beautiful.

[music playing] The world is filled with clones.

But by far the most popular clone could be sitting in your very home.

Because it's the banana.

Most likely every banana you've ever eaten was a clone.

Now there are many different varieties of bananas, but not all of them are clones and not all of them are threatened with extinction.

But arguably, the banana you're most familiar with, the Cavendish banana, could go extinct if we're not careful.

Now cloning might sound like something out of science fiction, but we've been doing it with bananas forever.

Shut up.

Sorry.

Every Cavendish banana is descended from the same banana plant.

That means all the bananas you see in the grocery store are genetically identical to each other.

The bananas we eat cannot reproduce on their own.

They are sterile.

The little black specks you see in the bananas are actually tiny, worthless seeds.

A regular sexually active banana is full of seeds, but the Cavendish is a mutant.

A tasty, tasty, mutant that's delicious with ice cream and hot fudge.

And we have to clone it to make more bananas.

It basically means we take a clipping of the plant, replant it, and an identical banana plant grows.

We don't only do this with bananas either.

We've been cloning navel oranges for almost 200 years, and all the apples we eat are clones too.

There are a bunch of different varieties of apples and oranges that we eat, but with a banana, it's only the Cavendish.

But that's not the only banana we've ever eaten.

In fact, we've only started eating the Cavendish in the last 60 years.

Gros Michel ghost clone, your on.

(GHOSTLY) Before that, the Gros Michel banana was the most popular banana.

These bananas looked pretty much the same as the bananas we eat today, maybe a little bigger and stubbier.

But the main difference was in the taste.

Gros Michel bananas were much sweeter.

The bananas we eat today are rather bland by comparison.

In fact, artificial banana flavoring is based on the Gros Michel, not the Cavendish.

That's why banana candy doesn't really taste like bananas, not anymore anyway.

(GHOSTLY) And they probably haven't updated the artificial flavoring of banana candy because the old flavor was better.

But what happened to Gros Michel?

If it was so great why did it disappear?

Well, part of the answer lies in the fact that the Gros Michel bananas were clones.

Every Gros Michel was genetically identical to each other.

That meant if one Gros Michel was susceptible to a disease, all of the bananas were and a single epidemic could wipe them all out.

(GHOSTLY)And that's exactly what happened.

CRAIG BENZINE: A fungus began attacking the root systems of Gros Michel banana plants.

It was sort of like a banana version of athlete's foot, but athlete's foot that killed.

It was called Panama disease, and there were no fungicides effective against the epidemic.

And since we cultivated all bananas by cloning them, they couldn't evolve a resistance to it.

The fungus spread to almost all of the Gros Michel banana plantations, devastating the entire banana industry and nearly wiping this strain of banana off the face of the planet.

Good bye.

Gros Michel bananas still exist, but they're very rare.

We tried to find some in Chicago, but we had no luck.

Since it's resistant to the fungus that destroyed the Gros Michel's, the Cavendish has taken its place on our grocery store shelves.

I didn't mean for that to rhyme.

But just because the Cavendish banana is resistant today, it doesn't mean a new strain of fungus won't come around and devastate these banana plants again.

If a new variety of Panama disease started attacking Cavendish bananas, there'd be nothing left to stop it.

And we'd lose all our bananas once again.

And as it turns out, that's happening.

A new strain of Panama disease has emerged and its attacking Cavendish bananas.

MATT WEBER: This has been happening for a few years now, but it was mostly isolated to Southeast Asia.

But the fungus has begun to spread to other parts of the world, appearing in Africa, the Middle East, and Australia.

CRAIG BENZINE: Most of the world's bananas come from Latin America, with Ecuador being the largest exporter.

The disease hasn't reached there yet, but there is no reason to think it won't, eventually.

So you might be thinking, what's the big deal?

So we lose a banana.

Aren't there hundreds of varieties of bananas?

Can't we just start growing another one?

Not really.

This time, there aren't really any suitable candidates to replace the Cavendish.

Many varieties would be difficult to grow on a scale necessary to meet demand if a Cavendish-sized hole suddenly opened up in the world banana market.

MATT WEBER: The banana industry is a multi-billion dollar global industry.

If it collapsed, the effects would be felt around the world.

CRAIG BENZINE: Since most bananas are grown by small time farmers in poorer countries, those whose livelihood depend on bananas will be feeling the brunt of the economic collapse.

MATT WEBER: Beyond that, the banana is an important source of nutrition for much of the world.

Nearly 400 million people depend on the banana for a significant fraction of their daily calorie intake.

CRAIG BENZINE: They aren't just snacks, they're vital to these people's diets.

If we lose the banana again, they'll be at serious risk of malnutrition.

Containment of the fungus is the number one priority at this time, but stopping its spread is very difficult.

It can be transported to other locations on shoes, clothes, and even storms.

And it only takes a small amount of dirt containing the fungus to infect an entire banana plantation.

CRAIG BENZINE: In 2012, the banana genome was mapped in its entirety, and now scientists are genetically modifying the banana to be resistant to Panama disease.

MATT WEBER: One technique is to insert fungus resistant genes from other bananas or even other plants into the Cavendish.

This has been demonstrated on plantains, a relative of the Cavendish, but it hasn't made it out of the greenhouse yet.

Along with introducing new genes to the Cavendish banana, overall genetic diversity will have to be fostered within the banana to ensure that it can evolve resistance on its own.

And this means having more than one banana that we can eat.

CRAIG BENZINE: For thousands of years, we've been selecting bananas based on their taste and texture.

In the jungles of Southeast Asia, our ancestors found mutant varieties of bananas that were seedless and therefore more palatable.

MATT WEBER: We didn't want to wait for that mutation to pop up in the gene pool again, so we cloned them.

And what we gained in taste and agricultural expediency came at the expense of genetic diversity, and now we're paying the price.

CRAIG BENZINE: But we can't just depend on one variety.

We need a diverse bunch of clones, which can sound contradictory, but we've already done it with lots of other fruits.

Like apples and oranges.

Despite being clones themselves, apples and oranges are cultivated in an assortment of colors and flavors, and we'll have to do the same thing with bananas.

(GHOSTLY)Heed my warning.

Don't make the same mistakes I did.

Remember the Gros Michel.

Remember me.

Who was that?

I have no idea.

Uh, I got to clean my shoes off.

Been standing in a dead Cavendish all video.

Hmm, that makes me hungry.

So do you think you could live without bananas?

And how can we save them, and are they even worth saving?

Let us know in the comments.

Oh, also, have you ever met a different variety of ghost banana?

Thank you for watching.

If you liked our show, consider clicking like.

And if you want to see more, considered clicking subscribe.

And special thanks to our Patreon supporters for helping us make the show.

You're beautiful.

Thanks.

[chuckle] Last week, we talked to a professional wrestler, [inaudible].

Here's what you had to say.

A number of you mentioned that you're not really interested in wrestling, and I was with you.

I was in the same boat.

But when I went there-- when you're actually there, it's really hard to not get into it.

Diogenes The Vlog agrees with me.

These people are doing flips and are constantly endangering their lives.

When you see my reactions in the video, those are genuine.

I was worried for their lives.

And I also got into the story.

It was really fun.

When you're there, it's impossible to not enjoy it, I think.

Joshuamacrow asked, what do they mean by pre-determined?

Do they just block it out like a play, or do they choose who will win right before the fight?

Well, the winner is pre-determined by whoever is running the show, kind of like a director of a play.

But [inaudible] and Bee Boy got together and sort of planned out their fight before the fight.

But even a pre-blocked out fight can change, depending on how the audience is reacting to it.

So there's a lot of improv involved.

And even some professional wrestlers can do an entire fight improvised.

David Anderson says yes to the shirt-tearing pile driver.

All right, let's do this.

Oh, you're going to do this huh?

[grunting] Yeah.

OK. Oh, yeah, you got it.

[grunts] Yeah.

[grunts] Yeah.

We got a half a shirt going on here.

Oh, yeah.

Woo.

All right.

Now-- oh, wow.

OK. Yeah.

Oh.

All right.

What's-- all right, yeah.

I don't know how to do a pile driver.

Next week, the final video in our Persistence playlist, I attempt to run a marathon.

Definitely not a pile driver, though.

Yeah, you're not gonna want to miss it.

He does it shirtless.

[music playing]