eli5: Why does wet earth (like right after rain) absorb more water then dry earth (like right after a drought)?

Question

Title. I saw a video showing it happening, but I don’t understand why.

In: 51

Answer 1

That video was misleading/exaggerated. There was pretty clearly some leakage from the bottom of the cups that were over the live grass, but a better ‘seal’ over the dry grass.

Not that the phenomena isn’t real, and others here have given good explanations, but it isn’t as profound a difference as that video portrayed.