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Dust bowl XXXIV....

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and action hello there loyal fans I'm legendary documentarian Jen Freeze [Jen talking to camera]

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you've heard of me right right? well you're in for a treat I'm here to

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introduce my latest documentary it's about the Dust Bowl so without further

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ado I'd like to present a world premiere clip for the most groundbreaking [Jen with a bucket of popcorn]

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documentary film of all time Steve I told you to do a drum roll... Jen

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Freezes Dust Bowl Steven you're fired... in the 1930s a natural phenomenon known as

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the Dust Bowl wreaked havoc across the United States essentially the Dust Bowl [Dust Bowl facts appear]

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was a system of intense dust storms that caused major damage and serious droughts

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throughout North America the Great Plains was hit the hardest but the

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storms reached coast to coast quite a whopper huh the Dust Bowl had several

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causes first the weather was bad just awful to make things worse local farming [Weather woman confused]

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practices had wreaked havoc on the local ecosphere the Great Plain is a dry

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region so farmers were supposed to use specialized techniques to preserve the [Farmer driving a tractor]

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soil long term they didn't instead the farmers dug up the land like mad men,

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planting as many crops as possible loosening the top layer of good soil

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which was precariously thin once that happened all it took was a little bit of

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wind to blow away the top layer entirely and then when a big wind came things got [Dust gusting around people]

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crazy apocalyptic even participants in a vastly inferior documentary described

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these storms with vivid language one survivor described the storms as unreal

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and evil another said that it made them feel like the end of the world was

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approaching sounds like being in a horror movie on top of that [People watching Saw 27 at the theater]

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countless farms were destroyed by the storm livelihoods destroyed in a moment

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also there were locust swarms of locusts for real sounds like one of the plagues

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God let loose on the Egyptians huh these factors made the Dust Bowl one of the [Egyptians running away by a pyramid]

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most significant ecological disasters in human history but that's not the only

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thing that was going bad at the same time the dust storms were tearing apart

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the Midwest the Great Depression was tearing holes in

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the rest of the country's pockets beginning in 1929 the Great Depression

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was an international financial meltdown it affected families across America and [People protesting the Great Depression]

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the world destroying their savings and job opportunities in one fell swoop so

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you can probably see the problem while thousands of families were being forced

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out of their homes in Oklahoma a financial crisis was killing their hope

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to make a decent wage elsewhere yeah tough spot despite the obvious

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historical significance of the Dust Bowl many ignored in favor of the flashier

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stuff like the Great Depression and the much more exciting world wars but now [Bombs exploding in cities]

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you are going to see the Dust Bowl like never before

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through the eyes of the Joad family the account of the Joad families escaped

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from the Dust Bowl can be found in The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

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published in 1939 the Joads are from the small town of Sallisaw Oklahoma right in

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the eye of the storm the novel uses vivid imagery to make us feel what it [Grapes of Wrath book opens]

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was like to experience the Dust Bowl in one bit we watch as the dust lifted up

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out of the fields and drove grey plumes into the air like sluggish smoke we see

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the sun get covered by clouds until all that is left is a dim red circle that

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gave a little light sounds like a vampire's paradise... another haunting

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description is how a walking man lifted a thin layer as high as his waist and a [Passage from book highlighted]

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wagon lifted the dust as high as the fence top and an automobile boiled a

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cloud behind it unlike the early imagery which focused on how frightening it was [Dust pluming through a field]

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to be inside one of these dust storms these images evoke what it must have

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felt like to leave them behind it would have been bittersweet because

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you'd leave your home behind too... All in all this imagery makes the Dust Bowl

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seem like an intense thing to experience we can learn even more about this by

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looking at the particular experiences of the Joad family when we meet him, Tom [Tom Joad appears in jail cell]

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Joad has just been released from prison only to find his family farm abandoned

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like completely abandoned he learned that his family like many others have

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had their crops destroyed by the unrelenting dust storm on top of that

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the family owes money to the bank which they obviously can't pay back [Joad family searching for money in their pockets]

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now because of this the family farm isn't just abandoned it's been

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repossessed by the bank...This happened to many families not only were their crops

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ruined but their finances too so they decide to leave town head west

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in an old jacked-up car obviously they hope to find jobs there which they don't [Joad family in a queue]

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that's because the great depression thing we were talking about of course

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it's influx of migrants from Oklahoma or Okies as they're called only makes it

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harder to find a job Tom eventually finds a good job picking fruit but later [Tom picks fruit from a tree]

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learns that he's only getting paid well because the orchards former workers are

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on strike, bummer.. truthfully the Joads aren't unique in this regard their

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experiences representative of the countless families whose lives who are

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affected by the Dust Bowl there are some really big lessons we can learn from the

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Joads experience in the Dust Bowl first it shows the importance of family the [Joad family come together]

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Joads are absolutely dedicated to one another through thick and thin that's

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the only way you're going to make it out of something as crazy as the Dust Bowl

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think about what the family risks their own safety to feed Tom when he's wanted

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for murder heartwarming see loyalty second the

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novel emphasizes the theme of poverty the Joads were never rich before the [Joad's finances on chart]

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Dust Bowl but now they're basically destitute to make things worse they're

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not just dealing with the Dust Bowl but also the Great Depression in fact they

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encounter as much poverty outside the Dust Bowl than they do within it for

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example most jobs they find don't even pay enough to buy food thankfully [Hand holding pennies]

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there's some good stuff that comes out of all this suffering we see men like

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Jim Casey dedicate themselves to helping out the poor worker just like we see the [Jim Casey and two men on strike]

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Joad family come together during their own struggles with poverty finally we

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learn the value of perseverance this one is kind of tied together with the other

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two the Joad family for example shows immense perseverance time and time again

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and of course the closing scene in which Rose of Sharon feeds a dying man her

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breast milk is an extreme example of this even in the harshest conditions, life

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finds a way... ultimately it's difficult to place ourselves in the shoes of those [Children playing]

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who experienced the Dust Bowl they're terribly dusty after all haha but

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seriously the Dust Bowl is a fascinating phenomenon to study one part

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ecological disaster one part forced migration add one dash

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of financial meltdown give it a whirl and voila you have yourself a Dust Bowl [Blender explodes]

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Bravo, Bravo that might have been the most moving thing I've ever witnessed we

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learned about the unique historical event that is the Dust Bowl one caused

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by both uncontrollable climate change and environmental exploitation boy that

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doesn't sound familiar at all we also investigated the particular case of the

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Joad family from The Grapes of Wrath which is an opportunity to learn about

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the causes and effect of the Dust Bowl and most importantly we must think about [Examples of reasons to care about the Dust Bowl event appear]

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the individuals who experience the Dust Bowl.. not kings and queens and

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presidents and all those bigwigs but people and now I must bid you adieu, I'm

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a busy award-winning filmmaker after all sorry one moment.... [Jen answers call]

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what are you going to do even geniuses have to get paid

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