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Hey, Wowzer fans, Mindy here.
And before we start the show, I got to let you know that this November, with a special new episode featuring our friends at Circle Round and Terrestrials on Radiolab for Kids,
And don't miss when Elmo from Sesame Street stops by Wow in the World to make us all belly laugh on November 24th.
Oh, but that's not all, Reg.
On December 1st, we are sharing our 250th episode of Wow in the World with all of you.
We think this one is going to be music to your ears.
Literally.
Did I mention it's a musical?
And if you're a member of the World Organization of Wowzers...
Oh boy, do I have a surprise for you.
You can listen to our 250th episode early with me and other members from around the world on Saturday, November 22nd, at 7 pm.
Eastern.
That's right, we are throwing another listening party.
Join us as we dance along to our new songs.
React to the episode with other members in the chat and more.
Grownups.
If you want your wowzer to join this members-only listening party, you can sign up to become a member today at Tinkercastcom.
Slash wow.
Already a member?
Well, you can find the link and password to join the event when you sign in at Tinkercastcom.
Slash wow.
That's it.
It's going to be a November to remember.
But for now, let's get on with the show.
Woo!
Okay.
Snippity snip snip.
Glue, glue, glue.
Do, do, do, do.
Check the mirror.
Wow, these guys look amazing.
Oh, Guy Raz, I'm coming.
Run, run, run, run, run.
Good.
Oh, what in the... Guy Raz, Guy Raz, you fainted.
Guy Raz, Guy Raz, how many fingers am I holding up?
Rectangle.
Yep, you're fine.
Now let me just gently lift you up and help you shake off some of this grogginess.
Shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake.
Wow, what happened to you?
I just opened the door, you took one look at my face, and hit the ground.
Well, that's because you've got two gargantuan black furry caterpillars attacking your forehead, Mindy.
What?
They're right above your eyes.
Can't you see them?
Black furry caterpillars?
Um, here, smile really big so I can see my reflection in your teeth.
Oh, um, cheese.
Guy Raz, those aren't caterpillars.
Huh?
They're my new eyebrows.
Uh-huh.
Ugh, would you stop falling over in disbelief?
This is getting ridiculous.
What are the neighbors going to think?
Morning, Mindy.
Hey, it looks like you've got fuzzy caterpillars on your face.
Nobody asked you, Dennis.
Oh, Guy Ross, you're still on the ground.
Here, let me just gently peel you up.
Get you inside.
Easy does it.
Come on.
So what's with these new eyebrows, Mindy?
I mean, your old ones were just fine.
Wait, is that tar on your face?
Oh, yeah.
I took the hair clippings from my last haircut and attached them to my forehead's eyebrow area using a scoop of black tar from Dennis's driveway renovation and then mixed that with some brown sticky stuff that was leaking out of my refrigerator.
Looks good, right?
So, uh...
Why?
Well, it turns out that eyebrows are super important to us humans and in ways you might not expect.
See, I just read this amazing new scientific study in the Journal of Nature, Ecology, and Evolution.
Oh, I see.
You've got it right here.
Yeah.
So these evolutionary anthropologists from the University of York in the UK...
And also what they've looked like over hundreds of thousands of years.
Yeah, so basically they study the history of humans before we were.
You know humans the way we think of ourselves today.
Got it.
So anywho, one day these anthropologists were just sitting around wondering hey, what's up with eyebrows today?
You mean like modern eyebrow trends and braiding and waxing and threading microblading tattooing, tarring.
Okay.
First of all, the tarring idea I came up with myself.
And second of all, you sure do know a lot about eyebrow trends.
Well, I read a lot.
So, as I was saying, these anthropologists were wondering why we modern humans have movable eyebrows and smooth foreheads when our ancient hominin ancestors had these stiff, bony-looking ridges for eyebrows that basically just made them look mad all the time.
And by ancient hominin ancestors, you mean some of our earliest human relatives.
Oh yeah, and in this case I'm specifically talking about our ancient hominin relatives known as the Homo heidelbergensis.
Yes Homo heidelbergensis, our hominin cousins, who are believed to have lived somewhere between 200000 and
And 700,000 years ago.
And in many ways, they were a lot like us modern humans today.
You hear that, Guy Raz?
I just hatched an idea.
Uh-oh.
Why don't we hop in the old wow machine and head back in time to say I don't know, 400000 years ago?
Hmm, 400,000 years ago.
That would be...
That would be during the Middle Pleistocene era.
Yeah, we can just travel back in time and have a little family reunion.
That way we can see how much we have in common with these ancient relatives of ours and see for ourselves what's up with this evolving eyebrow situation.
Mindy, I don't... Come on!
Well, let me at least run home to get my Homo sapiens T-shirt.
So at the reunion, these hominin cousins of ours at least know which family I belong to.
Oh, you!
This is a potluck kind of thing.
Okay, let me just open the hatch here.
Okay, hop in, brother.
Mindy, I'm not your brother.
I'm your best friend.
Not at this reunion, Guy Raz.
Homo sapien speaking, you're basically my little bro.
Little bro?
Compared to these ancient relatives of ours, Guy Raz? gonna look like twinsies.
Okay, now hop inside the wow machine, Guy Raz.
We don't want to keep family waiting.
Are these ancient relatives even expecting us?
I mean, did we get an invitation to this reunion?
Yes, of course we did not get an invitation to this reunion, Guy Raz.
Where we're going, they don't even have language for that yet.
Oh, oh, right.
Now to punch in the We're looking at Europe, or was it Asia?
Or maybe Eastern or Southern Africa?
You don't know what continent we're going to?
Guy Raz, scientists don't even know for sure, so we're just gonna wildcard it, okay?
What?
400,000 years ago, and homo heidelbergensis family reunion, here we come!
You okay, little bro?
Mindy, once again, I'm not your little... Whoa.
Whoa.
Looks like we made it to the reunion.
Hey!
Hey!
Hey, guys!
Hi!
It's me, Cousin Mindy!
And this is my little brother, Guy Raz.
I'm not her little brother. both from the homo sapien side of the family.
I'm not her brother.
Anywho, I know it's been a while.
What, like 400,000 years at least?
Where has the time gone?
Well, I am just so glad we can make it to this little family reunion shindig here.
I don't know about you, but do you think we look alike?
Uh...
Mindy, does it seem a little unusual to you that these relatives of ours brought wooden spears to the family reunion?
What's so weird about that, Guy Raz?
You brought a quiche.
Well, that's what you bring to a party.
I don't think they're going to be hungry for quiche, Guy Raz.
Looks to me like they're filling up on that elephant they just hunted down.
Ugh.
Why do you think no one's talking to us, Guy Raz?
Well, Mindy, they're not even talking to each other.
They all kind of look different. busy and angry.
Yeah, look at these guys over here.
They're just building fires and shelters out of sticks and rocks.
Doesn't exactly feel like much of a reunion to me.
Hey, hey, cousins.
You know that home thingy you're building over there.
I think it would look really great with some little you know, Cape Cod windows and maybe a veranda.
You know, Guy Raz, besides the fact that they're eating elephants running around with spears and never heard of quiche.
If you dressed them up in our clothes, it would probably be kind of hard to tell them apart from ourselves.
Yeah, although their heads are a little bigger.
Speak for yourself.
But their brains are a little smaller.
And they do walk upright like we do, but I'm not sure they'd have enough grace to handle a ballet class.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!
But there does seem to be one pretty obvious difference between us and them, and that is Oh dude, that's a bathroom fan.
Okay, two obvious differences...
Look at their foreheads, Mindy.
Well, they do all look super angry.
Okay, yes, but why?
I... It's the eyebrows, Guy Raz.
This is what I read about in that study I was telling you about.
So it looks to me like they have these large, bony ridges over their eyes.
And they stick out so far, they almost look like a ledge on the bottom of their foreheads.
And speaking of foreheads, compared to ours, theirs almost look horizontal.
I mean, they slant way back instead of standing up smooth and vertical like ours.
So it does make me wonder Mindy, if these are our ancient cousins and we look alike in so many ways, then why don't we have those same protruding eyebrow ridges like they do?
Well, that's what these anthropologists wanted to find out.
Hey, hey, Mindy, I think they're looking at us.
No, I'm pretty sure they're eyeing your quiche, Guy Raz.
What?
Oh, hey, guys, feel free to take a slice.
I made it with free-range eggs from chickens raised in a lovely farmhouse with lots of natural light and Oh,
Ah...
Tie that other guy in the face with your quiche?
I spent all morning on that quiche.
Looks like someone needs to learn some basic human social skills.
Yeah, evolve already, guys.
Aw, give him a few hundred thousand years.
You know what, Guy Raz?
I think we've seen enough.
Yeah, I agree.
Maybe it's time to get out of here.
Let me just walk over there and ask them for my quiche pan back at least.
What?
No, we don't have time for that.
Guy Raz, get in the wall machine now.
Hey, that quiche pan is not a hat.
Hat.
Guy Raz.
Okay, okay.
All right.
Punching in the coordinates now.
Present day.
USA.
Here it is.
What?
Where did he come from, Mindy?
Help us!
Mindy, Mindy, there is an ancient human in our wow machine headed towards the present day.
Okay, everybody stay calm.
I've got everything out of control.
Mindy, you have to stop this thing right now or we...
Take him home with us.
Hey Roz, we've only moved forward like 300000 years, which means that we still have 100000 years to go before we make it back to the present day.
I'm telling you, Mindy, we need to stop this wow machine right this minute.
Here.
Now what?
Okay, pal, now we're just pulling over for a little...
Potty break, so go ahead and step outside.
Allow me to open the hatch for you, kind sir.
Whoa!
What a difference 300,000 years makes.
So, we're now only 100,000 years in the past?
Yeah.
Huh, so this must be the time when...
Our ancient ancestors were starting to create groups and to socialize in some of the ways that we would recognize today.
Yeah, and when you socialize with other people, being friendly can get you a lot further than being mean and aggressive and angry.
Which brings me back to the eyebrows.
Check out the brows on these hominin ancestors.
Yeah, that big eyebrow ridge we saw 300,000 years ago? seems to be getting smaller and less stiff.
And you know what?
They're looking less angry than our cousins that we were just visiting 300,000 years ago.
Or this guy.
Oh, yeah, you're still here.
Sorry, I don't think I caught your name earlier.
Bread Grok and a raw.
Bread?
Bread Grok and a raw.
Grok?
Bread Grok and a raw.
You know what?
I'm just going to call you Chandler for short.
How's that?
Chandler?
Yeah, so back in Chandler's day it's been presumed that meanness or aggression was necessary for survival.
Mostly because you know he and his pals didn't have the social tools like language and facial expressions to help them get along with each other properly, things that we do today.
Which brings us back to this ancient eyebrows study, Guy Raz.
So does this mean we're going to finally find out why we present-day humans don't have that giant eyebrow bone?
Well, it means we could be getting closer.
Come on, let's head back to the present day and I'll explain everything when we get there.
But what about Chandler?
Chandler?
Oh, Chandler can come too.
Well, are you sure that's a good idea?
Guy Raz, of I'm not sure that's a good idea.
Ready, Chandler?
I think that's an angry yes.
Punching in the coordinates.
Modern day.
USA.
Take two.
Here we go!
Phew.
Modern day.
Sweet modern day.
After you, Guy Ross.
Thank you.
After you, Chandler.
Chandler.
Good morning, Dennis.
Good morning, Mindy.
Mindy, your house is melting and now there's frosting all over my driveway.
It's brand new.
And the wind is picking up a turn.
You know what, Chandler?
Why don't you just introduce yourself to our neighbor, Dennis?
Oh, hello there.
My name is Dennis.
Oh, is that a spear?
I had a friend who had a spear just like that one.
He was in the military or something and he often had to carry a spear.
They're going to get along just fine.
You know you have quiche all over your face.
So, Mindy, back to those eyebrows.
Were those anthropologists ever able to figure out why ours look so different from Chandler's here?
Let's walk and talk, Guy Raz.
So these anthropologists did a few different experiments to try and understand the purpose of those crazy eyebrow ridges.
Oh, yeah?
Experiments like what?
First, they made a computer model of a famous Homo heidelbergensis skull named Cobwey 1.
It was discovered in Africa almost 100 years ago.
And then what?
Then they took this computer model and basically just started playing with it.
Playing with it?
Yeah.
They did things like shrink the eyebrow ridge to see if it made any difference to the way the skull eyes, cheeks and jaws would have been able to move or to function.
What did they find?
They found that the ridge didn't seem to have any structural purpose at all, meaning that it wasn't really a bone that these ancient humans even needed, at least not in the same way that we need bones to help hold up our bodies or help us move or walk.
So then, what did they do?
So then one of the anthropologists on this study, a guy named paul o'higgins, I heard about an experiment that was done by another anthropologist who, by the way, also happened to be a Bigfoot seeker and an eyebrow enthusiast, and his name was Grover Krantz.
Are you making this up, Mindy?
Not this time, Guy Raz.
So, what was the experiment?
Well, Grover Krantz had a fake eyebrow ridge made attached to his face over his existing eyebrows, stepped outside into a crowded place and basically said here I am, world.
You're telling me he tried to make himself look like an angry ancient homo heidelbergensis?
Hey, anything for science.
Anything for science?
So how did the world react?
Well, pretty much exactly how you'd expect.
He got a lot of strange looks.
People avoided walking past him on the street.
Basically, everyone just kind of quietly freaked out. out when they saw him.
And was that giant eyebrow ridge protecting his eyes from sweat and sun and his hair?
That's the thing, Guy Raz.
It really didn't do anything.
I mean, it didn't even work any better than his own existing eyebrows.
Huh.
So what does all of this mean?
Well, it got these researchers thinking that maybe, if the eyebrow ridge didn't have a structural purpose the way that bones normally do, Perhaps the loss of this ridge in us modern-day humans matters to our social structures instead.
You mean, like the way we use words and body language and other signals, like facial expressions, to communicate with other humans.
Bingo, Guy Raz.
And it all started about 100000 years ago, when our hominin ancestors began losing the ridges, but keeping the eyebrows.
It's also about the time when they started to develop new ways of socializing with each other.
You know Mindy, when you think about it, without these ridges in the way we're able to pull our eyebrows off.
Up if we're happy or surprised, or down if we're sad or angry.
Or maybe raise one eyebrow while lowering the other to show that we're skeptical.
I give you that signal quite often, Mindy.
I've noticed.
Oh.
Guy Raz, our modern eyebrows are able to say so much without having to say a word.
And our ability to understand these silent signals is part of what makes us uniquely human.
Pretty wow, huh?
Yeah.
So do we know this for sure?
I mean, do we know that humans lost the ridge to make room for more ways to communicate socially?
Well, since these anthropologists didn't have a wow machine to take them back in time, we still don't really know for sure.
I mean, it could be that humans started to communicate socially first and then the ridge started to disappear, allowing for a flatter, smoother and more communicative forehead.
Kind of a wow? what came first, the chicken or the egg situation.
Exact Doritos.
Well, speaking of eyebrows being able to communicate, I'm having a hard time telling what your new black tar and hair clipping eyebrows are trying to say.
Oh well, now that I know how important eyebrows are for us humans to be able to communicate socially, I just kind of wanted to make sure that my eyebrows could communicate as loud as my voice.
I think that's a mission accomplished, Mindy.
Oh, hey, look across the street.
I think Dennis' eyebrows are communicating something with Chandler.
What?
What's the matter?
Ow!
Hey!
Ow!
Use your words!
Ow!
Come on!
You're mumbling!
You're mumbling like a teenager!
Ow!
Chandler!
You know, Mindy, maybe it's about time we run old Chandler back home to 400,000 years ago.
Yeah, I guess it would be pretty awkward if he started to evolve past Dennis.
I can hear you, Mindy!
Love you, too!
Chandler, back to the wow machine.
Play date's over.
Ah, Chandler.
Wow in the World will be right back.
Grown-ups, this message is for you.
Hey, grown-ups.
It's Mindy and Guy Raz here from Wow in the World.
Mindy and I have some brand new Wow in the World toys out in the world just in time for the holidays.
Made for the kids who love science and for the ones who don't. yet.
From our 100 experiments that wow kit to the telescope and astronomy kit.
Our Wow in the World toys help your wowzer learn about their world through play.
Plus, you can hear exclusive audio content from me and Guy Raz to help your wowzer discover even more wows.
Grownups.
Give the gift of wow and wonder this holiday season with our latest Wow in the World toys designed with your curious wowzer in mind.
You can shop our Wow in the World toys at Tinkercast.com slash toys.
That's Tinkercast.com slash toys.
I'm Indian Guy Roz.
I'm Kate, and we're in Gulu, Uganda.
My wow in the world is that Murchison Falls is the powerfulest waterfall in the world, even though it's not that long.
DNA in a person's body, it can stretch from Pluto to the sun and back.
Isn't that amazing?
Bye, Mindy and Gyros.
I love your show.
You too, Reggie.
Hi, I'm Hayden.
I'm 10 years old, and I'm from Lucas Grove, Virginia.
My wow in the world is that humans share 98 of their DNA with chimpanzees, 70 of their DNA with slugs and 50 with bananas.
Bye.
Love your show.
And my wow in the world is that Saturn has 53 moons.
Hi, Mindy and Gairaz.
My name is Sean, and I'm from Houston, Texas.
My wow in the world is that a chameleon's tongue is two times the length of its own body.
Bye, Mindy and Gairaz.
I love your show.
Hi, Mindy and Gairaz.
My name is Asa, and I'm six years old.
San Diego, and my wow in the world is there's almost one million species that live in the sea.
Bye, Mindy and Guy Ross.
Love your show.
Hi, Guy Ross and Mindy.
I'm Ada.
I live in Cincinnati, Ohio, and I'm nine years old.
My wow in the world is that earthworms don't have lungs.
They breathe through their skin.
Bye, Guy Ross and Mindy.
I love your show.
Hi Mindy and Guy Ross, body is your femur bone.
Love your show.
End of messages.
Hey everyone.
Thank you so much for joining us this week on wow in the world and if you want to keep the conversation going, check out some of the questions we posted on this episode at our website, wowintheworldcom.
And grownups.
There you can find more details on how your kids can become part of the World Organization of Wowzers.
Lots of cool perks, exclusive t-shirts, autographed pictures of us and a bunch of other cool stuff wowintheworldcom.
Our show is produced by Jed Anderson.
Say hello, Jed.
Hello.
With help from Thomas Van Kalken, Chelsea Urson, and Jessica Bodie.
Meredith Halpern-Ranzer is the big boss.
Our theme song was composed and performed by The Pop-Ups.
You can find more of their awesome all-ages music at thepopups.com.
And parents and teachers.
If you want to send us an email, our address is hello at wowintheworldcom.
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Until next time, keep on wowing.
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