But Americans haven’t given up on the chestnut there’s a movement today to bring back this iconic tree using a variety of ingenious approaches. Then, in the early 1900s, disaster struck: a deadly and seemingly unstoppable disease moved in and made the species functionally extinct. This nut-the American chestnut-was a staple in the diet and culture of Indigenous peoples, local wildlife, and colonial Americans.

Just a little over a hundred years ago, eastern forests were studded with what was called 'America's perfect tree:' 100-foot giants with straight-grained, rot-resistant wood, which filled the woods every fall with delicious, nutritious nuts.

Gastropod’s here with Coca-Cola’s real secret formula for success, and we didn’t even need to break into their vault to get it. So how did Coke transcend its dubious origins to become one of the world’s biggest companies, not to mention a globally recognized symbol of all things American? It’s a story that involves Sigmund Freud, US military assistance, international drug treaty loopholes, and a New Jersey facility that extracts and burns piles of cocaine (yes, really, cocaine!) just miles from Manhattan. In fact, the first Coca-Cola product was actually a knockoff of the Pope's favorite drink, a concoction featuring red wine and cocaine. Yet while a glimpse of a billboard or bottle might start you humming one of their catchy jingles, this legendary brand was actually created by a morphine-addicted, down-on-his-luck pharmacist desperate for a big break. Nearly two billion servings of Coke are sold a day, enough for one out of every four people on the planet. Coca-Cola's red and white logo is so iconic that supposedly nine out of every ten people on Earth know it on sight.

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