It’s a “classic” American (and European) “tradition.” Every February 14th — otherwise known as (St.) Valentine’s Day — you sally up to your beloved with that most chivalrous of gifts — a bodacious bouquet of artificially-preserved and slowly-decaying cut flowers from somewhere thousands of miles (or kilometers) away. This past V-Day, we decided to ask a simple question… Why the ever-living fuck do we do this?! Seriously! It’s super weird, and apparently entangled with some core contemporary injustices. Hope y’all enjoy this show, as Kevin hosts Ana Huertas and Stephen Torrence (currently stationed in snowy Toronto) to dive into the Global Zombie Plant Gift Industry of Love®…

Audio

Recorded on February 14, 2016

Video

Watch on YouTube

Show Notes

• Valentine’s Day: Why Do We Celebrate It? (Hint: Naked Romans) | National Geographic
• Kenya’s Flower Industry | CNN
• The Global Cut Flower Industry: Europe vs. Africa | Prezi Presentation
• A Blooming Business | Documentary Film
• The Language of Flowers | Wikipedia

Extra Show Notes

Update: Chau (aka “Jacobo Jaime”) shared some lengthy criticism on this episode. We’ve included his full comments below and recommended further reading here.

On the Flower Industry

• Global Floral Industry | Wikipedia
• World Floriculture Map | Rabobank Report
• Columbia Floral Market | PMA

Books on Colonialism

• Discourse on Colonialism by Aimé Césaire, Joan Pinkham, Robin D.G. Kelley
• The Scramble for Africa by Thomas Pakenham
• The Colonizer and the Colonized by Albert Memmi, Jean-Paul Sartre (Introduction), Susan Gilson Miller (Afterword)
• King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa by Adam Hochschild

Books on Neocolonialism

• Colonialism and Neocolonialism by Jean-Paul Sartre
• Neo Colonialism: The Last Stage Of Imperialism by Kwame Nkrumah

More Books

• Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond
• Empires of Food: Feast, Famine, and the Rise and Fall of Civilization by Evan D.G. Fraser, Andrew Rimas

Post-Show Song

“Let’s Fall in Love” (Tank Girl Version) by Ella Fitzgerald