Listening to radio using grass stalks - GIF

[Frank S]

Is this an AM radio tower?

Apparently, this video has blown up the internet. Several Ham sites have commented about it quite a few utubers have reposted it. So far I have found no one who will verify, collaborate, or have duplicated it.,
It doesn't bother me that there would indeed be some form of sound being issued from the stem being held against the base of an AM radio tower, as anyone knows if you push enough wattage at AM radio frequencies there is leakage. Often enough to light up florescent tubes.
What bothers me is the implied audible clarity of real voices or music without some form of a receiver/ tuner and speakers.
Until I see real proof it actually works and can be replicated by others I say it is bunk.

[nova_robotics]

Until I see real proof it actually works and can be replicated by others I say it is bunk.

What gets me is they're holding the plants with their hands. High frequency skin effect may (somewhat) protect them, but it still seems insane. The video might be a fake, but I think there's a halfway decent chance it's real.

[bob_3000]

What gets me is they're holding the plants with their hands.

They were clearly wearing some medium weight rubber gloves.

[nova_robotics]

They were clearly wearing some medium weight rubber gloves.

Yeah but it's still capacitively coupled through their bodies to ground. You don't have to touch a conductor to become part of a circuit. It's how your cell phone screen works. That's why there are sparks where the plants touch the metal even though there's no ground wire running from the plants completing the circuit. There's no ground wire because the people ARE the ground wire. Probably also why they're visibly in pain a couple times. If it's real. I'm still not 100% convinced, but I'm leaning toward real.